I was on a sales appointment today that lasted just over an hour.  I spoke for less than 10 minutes of it.
I asked a few questions, commented on a couple of things, and asked more questions.
The prospect answered the questions, elaborated on the answers and talked, and talked and talked. During this talking I uncovered [...]

When you call a prospect for the first time, keep in mind you are typically interrupting him or her from something they are doing that they consider to be more important than anything you are about to say.
Everyone is busy.
For this reason, you should almost always expect some sales resistance, if you have the best [...]

Each and every one of us has a systematic way to encode our sense of time in our respective minds. When you utilize the subtle yet powerful aspects of language, you can shift your customer’s perceptions and guide them in your persuasion.
This is perhaps one of the most fun concepts I learned while studying Neuro-Linguistic [...]

All of us have a metaphorical bucket representing how we feel from moment to moment. But how do we keep that bucket full and keep ourselves brimming with positive energy that not only improves our own lives but the lives of others around us?
Are you using what you’ve learned in your NLP training to shine [...]

I read an interesting article today that answers the question, “What inspires people to take NLP training?”
Here is a paragraph from it, and it’s an article worth reading:
“For a start, NLP training provides an in depth understanding of NLP itself. Neuro-linguistic programming (or NLP) is essentially the study of excellence and understanding how and why [...]

These are 8 reasons that I’ve found to be true when observing why people put salespeople off during the sales process. It’s of course, not an absolute list.
So here they are, the top 8 reasons why prospects put you off:
1. You didn’t sell on the value of moving forward quickly. What’s the benefit to them [...]

NLP is full of fancy jargon, and you need a glossary of terms when attending a NLP Practitioner Training just to make sense of it all. “Presuppositions” are no exception, even though most think they know what it means.
Presuppositions are simply the linguistic equivalent of what most people call assumptions. But with a little more [...]

It’s easy to tell when your prospect or customer is talking to themselves because they will often lean their head to one side, nestling it on their hand or fist. Some call this the “telephone position” because the posture often resembles talking on the phone. Looking down to the left or right while doing this [...]

Each Friday I conduct two sales training classes, a basic “fast track” class followed by a more advanced “sales mastery” class on behalf of The Performance Group, a sales development company in Des Moines, IA.
What I’ve learned most, recently, is that salespeople have become really skilled at getting in their own way. Or perhaps letting [...]

Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) arms us with the language tools to develop our skills at making our products and services (sound, feel or look) interesting. Unfortunately, it’s easy to get caught up in what do I say versus what do I ask so I can learn what they want most out of what I’m selling.
What [...]

NLP gives us the tools to understand people differently. The premise of Perceptual Positions is to develop the flexibility to consider a situation or customer interface from the perspective of self (1st position), another person involved (2nd position) or from a neutral, objective, detached point of view (3rd position; like “a fly on the wall”).
When I [...]

This is a great video of Jeff Bezos (Founder of Amazon.com) discussing what he values as important in business chunking it up as “Everything he knows.” This list, as he says is short, includes 1) obsess over customers, 2) invent, 3) think long term, and 4) it’s always day one.
Practice your NLP modeling skills by [...]

There really isn’t just one governing body with a universal list of established competencies that one has to demonstrate in order to “earn certification” in NLP. There are several certifying organizations and they all have their own criteria for “NLP” certification.
This means there are many different levels of “NLP Practitioners” out there claiming different levels [...]

Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) gives us amazing linguistic ingredients for crafting our language with purpose in front of each customer we approach.
What type of language shifts submodalities and uses presuppositions of TIME?
from now on, then, when, while, endless, everlasting, prolong, past, yet, stop, still, in the meantime, in the future, long waiting, look back, before, after, [...]

NLP places a lot of emphasis on values. Although the process of eliciting values is relatively simple, it does require some verbal dexterity to do it well, with rapport and grace.
When you are trying to uncover and reach people at deeper levels, rapport is required and maintaining rapport during “tough questions” is sometimes not the [...]