In 2010, Christopher Nolan introduced us to Inception.

It took me a few times to watch the movie to understand the movie’s underlying theme. Still, when I realized what it was, it changed my perspective on most things in my life.

The Portable Automated Somnacin IntraVenous (PASIV) device essentially allowed two connected people to share the same dream with the goal of Dom Cobb (Dicaprio’s character) stealing corporate secrets. While the movie is fictional, scientists report reports using electrical stimulation to help participants achieve a state of “lucid dreaming” and potentially obtain the same outcome. Why does this matter, and why do we care?

Call coaching software was first introduced to sales leaders around 2014. It allowed sales representatives and sales leaders the ability to share experiences from sales calls that ultimately needed improvement.

Four years after Inception came out, sales leaders gained the ability to share or replay back moments in time with Conversational Intelligence software.  

Why Should We Care About Inception as an Idea?

In sales, the best sales representatives are masters at planting ideas in their prospect’s minds and making them think they are their own. Some might call this persuasion; others might call it manipulation and maybe controlling. Usually, the adjective used has a strong correlation to an individual’s experience with sales representatives in the past.

Either way, one might look at it. In life, persuasion is a superpower, and it encompasses every aspect of one’s life. After watching the movie for the fourth or fifth time, I realized that the PASIV device could be used for planting ideas in the minds of an individual.

Because they are so buried in the subconscious mind that individuals believe that those ideas are their own. Unfortunately (fortunately!), we are quite a few years away from having our own PASIV devices. We will have to develop a different way of planting ideas into our prospect’s minds that they think are their own. 

When sales leaders try to leverage conversational intelligence software and call coaching software, they try to enter the “place and time” of that call—going back and trying to gain insight into what happened.

The problem is, it is after the fact. The ability to persuade or influence an outcome has already been lost. 

That is where real-time call coaching software comes in. 

The Subconscious Mind is like a Giant Memory Bank

Stored in the subconscious mind are all your beliefs, memories, and life experiences. Now, while sales representatives can’t have access to someone’s dreams, knowing what steps to take to access their subconscious mind is absolutely doable.

For anyone in a sales or support role, accessing the subconscious mind is critical.

This is from where their most influential thoughts and ideas come. The subconscious mind stores one’s life experiences; it is safe to reason that those experiences impact how we behave, act and make all decisions in our lives. There are three steps one must take to tap into another individual’s subconscious mind:

1.  Find the hidden nugget of information. Traditionally, sales leaders use Call Coaching software to retroactively go back and make sure that their sales representatives ask the right questions from their scripts, actively listening between thoughts and ideas being communicated. However, what usually happens is that during that exercise, it is quickly realized key questions were forgotten that had to be asked in order for the nugget to be found. Simple things like asking what their plans are for the weekend open up valuable information about what they like to do, which could shed light on their personality type. 
2.  Paint the picture together. Once we have asked the right questions, leveraging real-time call coaching software, the next step is to frame the ideas in the particular language of the person with which you are speaking. Seeking to understand before being understood is a key component here and ultimately helps a sales representative continue to talk in a way that makes the prospect feel comfortable and accepting.
3.  Inception. This is the hardest part. A fundamental flaw of the human species is the fact we have an ego and want to showcase our intellect and talents. Our subconscious recognizes what the prospect wants, but we have to fight the urge to come right out and say it as sales representatives. We have to ask leading questions and talk around the outskirts of the idea; we were tossing hints, dropping stories. The idea is that by dropping enough hints or asking enough questions, the prospect’s subconscious mind will begin to link pleasurable past experiences with the one currently playing out. Then they are prompted to take action. 

Persuasion can be your superpower

It turns out we don’t need fancy machines, electrical stimulation, or anything else to become a master persuader. The key really can be broken down into two parts:

• Be good at listening.
• Be good at asking questions. 

Sometimes, these things take time.

That is why we built Abstrakt, a real-time call coaching software that automatically provides reps with the right questions to ask to help them lead their prospect’s subconscious mind to the desired action!