Ting Ting Guo Discovers Options as She Learns Communication Skills at
University of California, Santa Cruz

A Hybrid class of live classroom and streaming video, Influencing with Integrity, was taught during the winter quarter at UCSC. Above are instructors, Wylie Harter, Genie Z. Laborde and Alice Treutlein. Linda Burton, pictured at left, also assisted in teaching this class.

Here is a kaleidoscope of sales calls to illustrate the skills I’ll be presenting here. Different industries and quite different decision makers create the settings and the characters. Selling training has many similarities to selling insurance and investments because the product is intangible. You can’t see, hear, or touch it. Selling all products has certain dynamics that naturally occur, whatever the qualities of the individual products. These sales situations were quite different but I used the same or similar strategies in all of them. See if you can pick out the strategies I used.

Setting: IBM’s offices in upstate New York. It’s February and snow covers the ground.

The first sales call took place 16 years ago but it was so important to me that I can remember every detail. The client and decision maker was 6’6” and we were meeting in his office which has huge glass expanses overlooking the snow. Earlier he had sent a letter to each training department in his large corporation denouncing the discipline which is the core of my seminars and telling each manager to cancel any trainings based on this concept. I had to change his mind about the entire discipline before he’d buy my seminar. The discipline that underlies the skills we teach is so powerful that it has attracted people who misuse the skills. This executive had encountered some of these people and wanted nothing to do with it. He forgot skills are tools. The person decides how to use the hammer to kill or to build a house. It’s up to you.
      I recognized drawings on his wall, mentioned the artist by name, said I admired his work and that Doubleday had hired him to illustrate my first book years ago. The executive had warmed up during this exchange then turned grim again.
      His major sense was auditory. I am a visual/kinesthetic. We had nothing in common except our admiration for this artist. The snow outside seemed to have sneaked in and affected the temperature. His opening line felt icy as well.
      Once we were seated (our CEO, our potential IBM trainer and I) he said, “I phoned each of those employees who you said attended your public seminar. Some of them did not remember what you taught in the seminar.” Pretty icy. I simply looked at him. I said nothing.
      Some said they had not used the concepts you taught. They had not found they remembered to use them.” I looked away at this as I felt my disappointment seeping through my body. What’s to say? I remained silent.
      He continued, “And some of them said,” he paused, “the things you taught in the seminars changed their lives.” He looked gravely at me then the corners of his mouth turned up and he asked the stock inquiry, “How do your trainings differ from others?”   <more>

     This Influencing with Integrity seminar attracted participants from a wide variety of professions: two members of the board of the Dalai Lama Foundation, a former Louisiana State Trooper, The Human Resources Manager of Canesta, Inc., a manager the automotive industry, an herbal healer, a representative of Northwestern Mutual, a contractor the construction industry, a computer programmer, a university instructor, and an insurance executive. The mixture of professions made for lively discussions on the use of the influencing skills.

Genie Z. Laborde and other guests at the Appreciation Luncheon  held  by the staff of the Management Communication Program of the Stanford University Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto.

Melissa Monhan of Roche Pharmaceuticals is pictured as she makes an important point in the UCSC class.

One scholarship for tuition will be awarded in each of IDEA's Advanced Trainings in memory of KAY BEST, our former trainer and  unstinting supporter inside IBM for 18 years. Kay's memory is a source of inspiration for all of us who knew her.  Nobody else could ask, "Have you heard this one?"  with the unmitigated glee and expectation  that Kay Best brought to these words. 

To apply for this $2500.00 scholarship, send your resume to Steve @influence-integrity.com.