Hopefully, you’ve tested out pacing a little bit. Now, let’s take it a step further and learn how to lead a buyer. Leading is, in essence, shifting the tone of the conversation. You want to start out by identifying yourself with the buyer initially. Otherwise, you won’t be able to lead. Why would you want to lead? Because enthusiasm is infectious, and you want the buyer to be enthusiastic about their project and about you working on their project. Unless the buyer is already in that state, you’ll have to do a little work to get them there.

How To Lead a Buyer

First, you want to identify the style of the buyer. If they’re speaking in short phrases with a monotone pitch, you don’t want to bounce into the conversation with Shakespearean monologues. Instead, just pace them for a couple minutes. Once you know what their style is like, become more involved in the conversation by asking more detailed conversations and adding in commentary. As the conversation progresses, slowly (and I mean slowly) increase the length of your sentences, make variations in the pitch of your voice, and establish a regular cadence in your speech pattern. Just bump each factor up one notch and see if the buyer follows you and becomes more excited. If the buyer follows you, keep working them up until you both can’t wait to get started! If you notice that the buyer isn’t following you after you bump up the enthusiasm a couple notches, go back down. You haven’t established a solid connection with them yet, and you need to go back to pacing for a while before you try again.

It’s important that this process feels natural. If you try to force it what-so-ever, you’ll fall on your face and make the buyer very uncomfortable with you. To make the progression natural, you need practice. It needs to become a basic communication skill to you, and you should do it without even thinking. Practice everywhere and on everyone. If you have friends or family who seem down, try to cheer them up in this way. Remember, though, that to lead, you first must establish a connection with the person you’re speaking to by meeting them on level ground. It’s a call and response method, so you need to start by speaking the same “language” as the person you’re trying to influence.

How It Can Be Integrated Into Your Daily Life

The benefits of being able to effectively lead a conversation are innumerable. For the freelancing situation specifically, you will gain the confidence of buyers quickly, and they will be happy to hire you over the other providers if you appear to be excited about the project and make them excited as well.

For everyone else that you interact with, you will find that they respond to you better and will seek you out. If you know how to motivate people and create an atmosphere of success and fun, they will flock to you. It’s a skill which helps you form connections with people who can help you. It will make you more popular in your social group. You can even get discounts and things for free at stores if you’re good enough. It’s happened to me a few times because I established a connection and improved the other person’s mood, and they reciprocated by offering me assistance to a greater degree than others.

Now, go out there and practice.

ShareThis

• The Psychology of Successful Freelancing
• How to Close a Deal
• Editing for Money IV
• Tapping In
• Independence Day