Metaphors. That’s the secret.

Surprised? You shouldn’t be. Using metaphors appeals the your prospects or customers right brain. It helps them visualize, instantly relate, and connect the dots to what you are saying or recommending. And it’s memorable.

The process behind a recommendation that’s rephrased framed with a metaphor is actually simple.

First, ask yourself: What am I actually recommending?

Second, determine the problem your recommendation will solve.

Third, run through various possible metaphors, selecting the one that communicates most clearly and vividly what you’re urging.

For example, let’s say you are recommending that your team goes through some team building training to improve collaboration on projects. The problem to be solved is lack of communication, morale, and productivity. Here is a sample metaphor you could use:

“It will move us from a company of stray shooters to a team of marksmen.”

Here is another example. You are recommending someone replace their current software system with the one you are selling. The problem is the old system is too slow. An example of a metaphor you could use is:

“When we’re done, it will be like replacing a horse and buggy with a Porsche.”

How can you work on this? Just follow these steps each time:

Step 1 – List out a recommendation you’ve recently made to a client.

Step 2 - What problem does it solve ?

Step 3 -What metaphor can make that recommendation more vivid in your customer’s mind?

Resource: You learned how to construct metaphors in your Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) practitioner training. David Gordon’s book on Therapeutic Metaphors is a great place to start, and while not overtly so in the book itself, it’s just as practical for business applications as it is therapy.

If you want to model successful people people in business, why not model some of the most successful?

NLP is a field built on modeling successful people in their respected fields.

How do you model model people you may never get to meet, interview or observe in person? Read everything you can by them, watch their videos and presentations, (subscribe to their youtube channels, youtube them), follow them on twitter, become a fan of their facebook pages, read their books, and basically study them. NLP gives you the structure to model, not just by asking the person you are modeling questions, but asking yourself questions that lead you to the answers.

Robert Dilts did this masterfully when he modeled geniuses who have since passed, and then wrote the Strategies of Genius book series which included, Strategies of Genius, Volume One, and his other two volumes followed. His book Modeling With NLP is a useful resource on Modeling (although a little academic and dry), and David Gordon has a great book, and different perspective, on Modeling (comes with a DVD) called Expanding Your World.

Meet Inc. Magazine’s Top 17 “Entrepreneurs of the Decade.”

It’s hard to disagree with this list, all of these people have achieved extraordinary things. Why not you?

Check out the article and discover who these 17 people are by clicking here.