Are You Setting Expectations The "Right" Way?

So I want to talk about something simple in today's video. And it's based on a book I've recently been reading, which I'd highly recommend to anyone who's trying to master communication or improve their sales conversations.?

The book is called The Expectation Effect: How Your Mindset Can Change Your World by David Robinson. I was listening to the audiobook, and I found, there's a lot of detail in this book. So full disclaimer, the book may be a little dry at times, but the information is completely fascinating. And it's the science associated with expectations and how your expectations can transform your world.?

And I don't want to get all fluffy and contextually, like a secret, self-help related to you in the context of this. What I want to talk to you about is, you have to be asking yourself with every conversation, what are my expectations??

And to be honest, I literally took that note, and I've actually got it as a post-it that I put at the bottom of my camera. So it's sitting on the bottom of my camera right now. And as I'm recording this, I'm asking myself, “What are my expectations?”

The reason why I'm asking myself, that question is it gets me to reset and reframe what my expectations are, it gets me to get clear on what my expectations are.?

And you might be like, well, then why the hell does this matter? Why should I care about what my expectations are? It’s because clarity and clarity on your expectations can help you further to connect authentically with people.

As we may get on a sales call where we've been chasing somebody for a while, and we feel frustrated with them. Or we feel frustrated with the chase and the challenge of getting a hold of this person who initially scheduled an appointment with us. But for whatever isn't. Life happened. And now you kind of feel frustrated when the dial phone is ringing. And then you make a connection with them. And you've got this expectation in your head that this person may be a challenge, maybe you got to chase them, you got to pursue them.

So get that straight, you've got this frameset, you've got this mindset, you've got this picture in your head that this person is going to be a challenge. And based on the science of the expectation effect. It literally goes on to show you how exactly your expectation informs your reality. And therefore you create a conversation where it's challenging.?

You create a conversation of disconnection now on authenticity because get this - if it's going to be challenging because you've said it's challenging. Well, you're not going to connect with someone, where if you actually set the frame setting the expectation of “I'm going to enjoy the conversation with this person”, “I'm really going to be able to connect authentically with this person”, totally changes the frame, totally changes the context and the expectations.

I'm super excited about this call. Because this person's like kind of just wants to give me their money, that they're actually going to ask me several times to “how do I get started?”

You can actually frame the reality of the expectations you experience and one of the things I say to people, what's really interesting when you analyze the objections people face different sales reps, some reps, face price objections, some face time objections, some don't really face any objections. And it's because of the conversation they have, how their conversation is structured, and the delivery of their conversation. And that's what makes it really, really interesting.?

Because what they based on how you say things, you've been the results of your conversation significantly more. There's a significant change there. And that's one of the powers of the Behavioral Sales platform is that we help you analyze conversations to work out what's going on.?

Was my authenticity here? Where was my interest? Was I bored in this part of the conversation? And was that communicating from a frustrating experience? Was I communicating in a distracting form? And I was reacting to the emotion of a text message I got on my phone, for example. And it's that resonance that then comes through in your conversation. And this is why if you multitask why you have conversations with people specifically for sales. You were doing yourself a disservice if you're checking your emails and if you're on social media.?

You're really doing yourself a disservice. Because that distraction can be felt in your communication. If you want the people you're communicating to be captivated and focused, it means you have to be captivated and focused. And that's really, really important to be aware of. Because when you go into any conversation, you should ask yourself, what are my expectations? And do I have to reset them? Because this will help you get clear with a lot of things.?

You might have expectations that today is going to be tough. Well, what do you think you just created? You may have expectations that today is going to be amazing and super profitable. Well, you've now created a day, which is going to be amazing, and super profitable.?

So you want to be very, very clear in how you're setting the expectations. And there's a lot of science that goes to support this. There's medical science, research science, and there's a lot of research associated with framing. We all know how you can frame the context. And you can reframe the context to always learn from something.?

One of the things you do want to be aware of, with every positive there is a negative, which is a sign that is fundamental. So you need to understand both sides of the equation, but you don't want to sit in the negative. When a lot of sales reps are talking about building the pain, they kind of dive too much in and create a painful conversation. And they don't give any positive experience or positive hope. Because remember, the happiness sandwich comes in here. We only remember the start of something and the end of something. And that's why you really want to be aware of the context of tracking and analyzing conversations.?

So start asking yourself with every conversation you have, “what are my expectations?” And if you want to get any ticket to an advanced level, you might want to ask yourself, “is that the expectation I really want to have?”

I'm Ben Bressington, the founder of Behavior Sales. I'm super excited to hear your comments. Post your ideas below and I can't wait to see what you do with this question “What are my expectations?

Have a great day!