Note: This post presupposes you have some foundational knowledge of NLP and anchoring. If you do not know anything about anchoring you can get a good introduction to it through Introducing NLP: Psychological Skills for Understanding and Influencing People or Frogs into Princes: Neuro Linguistic Programming.

If you ever run into skeptical prospects when selling, there is a simple (once learned and practiced) methodology you can use to take them from doubt to certainty.

First, you may already be aware you can anchor states with your physiology, visually, or tonally.  I’ve discovered that it’s most effective to chain states in all ways possible.  One of the reasons for chaining states is because often times it’s too big of a jump to shift someone’s experience from a present problem state to the desired state.

For example, the standard swish pattern is in essence chaining two states, from “this” to “that.”  With some people this is simply too big of a jump.  Chaining states gradually from one sate to another, and then to another, etc., and then finally to the desired state, may be exactly what the person you are talking to (or the group you are training) need in order to shift smoothly and ecologically from the present to the desired state.

It’s IMPORTANT to use a separate anchor for each state, and when you have all the states in the chain cleanly anchored, fire off the chain and notice if they progress/follow through the states leading to the desired state.

HERE IS AN EXAMPLE of how I use this when ever I meet with prospective clients.

I met with the managing director of a prospective client.  I was there to ‘discuss the possibility’ of a contract to train an 8 person customer service team.  (But you’ll notice…that this doesn’t matter.  Even in business, you can sometimes leave content out!)

She immediately explained to me how she is “*unsure* about contracting outsource trainers.”  I anchored this “uncertainty” visually with a face expression and a mirrored physiology.
 
I simply asked, “What does it take for that uncertainty to start to change into ‘interested’?”  Her physiology shifted and she stated, “Well, if I start to feel a bit more confident that the person we outsource to is capable of helping us develop and understands what direction we want our people heading in.”  I quickly anchored this “interested” state, again visually, the different physiology, and I rephrased what she said in a matched tonality as well.  Please notice that I also said “that uncertainty”, not “this uncertainty”, hoping to start dissociating her from “that” as quickly as possible.

Then I asked, “When you decided on the last outside company you contracted with, and it ended up being a good decision, what in the world did they do that made you feel absolutely confident in their services?”  Again her physiology shifted (although just slightly), and she said, “Well, I don’t really know, with everyone it’s a bit different.” (as she looked down and to the right, looked up and smiled *confidently*).  I anchored this confidence state as well.

I then paced her authority while asking, “as the person in charge of finding the best possible person, how do you know exactly when you are absolutely certain that someone “like me” is the right person to contract with?”  She quickly answered by stating, “I guess that just comes from years of experience and trusting my intuition.”  Ahhh…the final state in my chain.  I anchored this as well.

As detailed as I’m outlining this, this only took 3 minutes of our conversation.  I made it very conversational and I just acted interested.  And I was. I know that people like to talk, so I gave her the chance and I simply paid attention to what she was offering me nonverbally.

At this point I have several anchored states:

#1:  Uncertainty/doubt
#2:  Interest
#3:  Confidence
#4:  Absolute certainty
 
AFTER giving her what she asked for, by explaining what I teach, how I teach it, and ‘proving my competence’, and pacing her (fairly simple) strategy for making good decisions, I ended my presentation by firing off the chain, utilizing my anchors and pacing the sequence verbally by saying, “And I realize that you meet with several people who you are unsure about (fire state #1), and sometimes it can take awhile to realize that the person you are thinking about is at least capable of providing what you are looking for (fire state #2).  And since you need to *feel confident* (fire state #3) about the person you are deciding on (I point to myself), I would hope that right before you hire me that you do so knowing for sure (fire state #4) that I can provide the service you expect from an outsourced trainer.

She closed the meeting by agreeing on the fee and 2 days worth of training and asked, “Nice meeting you Joe, please send me your contract proposal with the agreed upon fee and I will have it signed and get a copy sent back to you.”

Some people may “chain states’ differently, so test and do what works best for you and your style.  No one way is the right way, except the way that is right and words for you.

Happy selling!

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