Passle's Rainmaker 2018 event saw excellent speakers come together to discuss business development and how to attract, engage and retain high performers in sales, marketing & business development functions.

I'm writing this after hearing from Emma Dutton of Applied Influence Group. Pressure and influence go hand in hand for Rainmakers and are areas that Emma Dutton is uniquely qualified to discuss. Emma gained her experience in influence from some of the most high-stress military environments in the world. Over five tours of Afghanistan, Emma was placed in leadership and governance roles, leading teams that collected time sensitive life-saving information from friendlies and unfriendlies.

Below are a few insights I took away from Emma's presentation on influence. These insights relate directly to marketers and salespeople alike.

Listen for the real moments

Your audience will be telling you what they care about. We rarely get insights into the powerful emotions our audience has. Only by listening out for those rare moments of true emotion can you begin to see beneath the surface of someone's actions and see their driving motivations.

Stereotypes are useful to a point

Knowing some basic details about a person can help you form some base understanding of why they act the way they do. Gender, age, religion, culture, height, weight, dress sense are all useful but your assumptions come with bias and prejudice to be aware of.

People see the world through filters

Everybody has a set of preconceived notions, biases and cultural lenses through which they judge the world. Understanding a persons filters helps you to understand why they act a certain way and how to frame your actions for the best outcome.  As Emma's slide below - people are like icebergs and we need to dive underwater to properly see them.

AIG has a unique perspective on influence. Born in the high-stress environments of military conflicts, their process is highly practical and useful for everyone, regardless of position or objective.

I thoroughly enjoyed Emma's presentation and highly recommend everyone check out AIG's Passle powered blog - they write some fantastic insights.