read it here before you continue!)
Now that you have discovered which ingredients will enhance your flavor, you are ready to turn water into lemonade. Whether you’re with a customer, making a new friend, on a date or networking with colleagues, here are the six benefits that you will receive when you offer flavored answers to fruitless questions.
YOUR ANSWER WILL…show someone that you care. This is undoubtedly the most important virtue of communication. The openness and honesty of your flavored answer will show someone that you value the conversation, and therefore, them as a person.
YOUR ANSWER WILL …make a good first impression. We spend so much time on our appearance, dress and behaviors that we often overlook the importance of the first five seconds. This is the amount of time during which people decide if they like you or not.
YOUR ANSWER WILL …build trust. Self-disclosure – the act of making yourself manifest – is reciprocal commensurate with the amount of information you reveal. So, whether you’re at a sales meeting, on a date or joining a club, give part of yourself to the other person immediately. They will do the same, and as a result you will feel like you’ve known each other for years!
YOUR ANSWER WILL …remind people that talking to you was worth it. Have you ever left a conversation with someone and said, ‘Boy…I’m sure glad I talked to him!’? Now, what if everyone starting saying that about you?
YOUR ANSWER WILL …trigger someone’s psychological need to be included. I don’t care how much of a rush, how bad of a day or how tired people are – they need be included and engage with each other.
YOUR ANSWER WILL …magnetize people to you. How could anyone hear the words “Everything is beautiful” and not be completely drawn to the person who said it?
Make ‘Em Tingle
Every time someone asks a fruitless question like “How are you?” “What’s up?” or “How’s business?” they expect to hear you say “fine.” They expect to have their level of conversational depth reciprocated. In other words, they expect water.
But you’re not going to give them water, are you?
Negative. You are going to turn water into lemonade by offering a flavored answer to a fruitless question. You are going to give a surprising, honest, appealing, memorable and fun answer that personifies your attitude so they can walk away from your conversation feeling that special tingle.
LET ME ASK YA THIS…
Who’s got the best “flavored answer” you’ve ever heard?
