Oren Klaff Quotes

Money is never a prize; it’s a commodity, a means for getting things done. Money simply transfers economic value from place to place so that people are able to work together.

It doesn’t matter how well you argue, the way your points are crafted, or how elegant your flow and logic. If you do not have high status, you will not command the attention necessary to make your pitch heard. You will not persuade, and you will not easily get a deal done.

Frames are mental structures that shape the way we see the world and put relationships in context. The frame you put around a situation completely and totally controls its meaning.

As you share your story, there has to be some suspense to it because you are going to create intrigue in the telling of the story by telling only part of the story. That’s right, you break the analyst frame by capturing audience attention with a provocative story of something that happened to you, and then you keep their attention by not telling them how it ends until you are ready.

The two parts of the attention cocktail are novelty and tension, which in a pitch work together in a feedback loop for about 20 minutes until — no matter what you do or how hard you try — they get out of balance and then stop working altogether.

Our thought process exactly matches our evolution: First, survival. Then, social relationships. Finally, problem solving.

Here are some subtler examples of taking the power frame away. As soon as you come in contact with your target, look for the first opportunity to 1. Perpetrate a small denial, or 2. Act out some type of defiance. Examples You place a folder on the conference table that is labeled “Confidential — John Smith.” When the target reaches for the file, you grab it and say, “Uh-uh, not yet. You have to wait for this.” If you deal in creative work and you brought visuals, let the target sneak a peek and then, when you see him curiously looking, turn it over, take it away, and deliver a soft reprimand that says, not until I say you’re ready.

No pitch or message is going to get to the logic center of the other person’s brain without passing through the survival filters of the crocodile brain system first. And because of the way we evolved, those filters make pitching anything extremely difficult.

The alpha enjoys most of the attention in a social interaction, even when he’s not demanding it. And when he does demand it, the alpha captures the group’s attention immediately. When he makes a statement, it’s regarded as true, and the claims go unchallenged. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that the alpha in a group is trusted and followed without question.

You create novelty by violating the target’s expectations in a pleasing way.

If you have to explain your authority, power, position, leverage, and advantage, you do not hold the stronger frame.

To instigate a power frame collision, use a mildly shocking but not unfriendly act to cause it. Use defiance and light humor. This captures attention and elevates your status by creating something called “local star power.” (You will read about creating status and local star power in Chapter 3.)

Defiance and light humor are the keys to seizing power and frame control.

You know what decision you want the buyer to make, but the more you push in that direction, the more they dig in, slow down, and change the agenda. They want to make their own decision on their own timeline. Buyers buy how they want to buy, not how you want to sell.

When you are responding ineffectively to things the other person is saying and doing, that person owns the frame, and you are being frame-controlled.