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 his pain points, his areas of need, the consequences he’s facing if he doesn’t use our serve, how he makes decisions and his motivation strategies. For our next appointment, I’ll know exactly what I need to present and focus on.

NLP teaches you how to listen with fresh ears, to hear sentence structure and pay attention to sequence – not just what they are saying (content).

But let’s simply this.

If prospects are interested in buying your product or service, they will usually tell you what it will take to close them. All you have to do is get them talking about their needs, shut up and listen, and then explain how your product or service fills their need.

How many times have you read this? Yet, it’s been my experience most salespeople don’t do this because they don’t have any good questions prepared and they don’t shut up.  Salespeople get too anxious and excited to share their product and service that they jump into the presentation.

What (good) questions are you asking your client prospects to get them to talk? What’s your ratio of listening to talking? What could you do to improve this?

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 service or product in the world.

If a prospect is quick to shut you down and says something at the very beginning such as, “Thanks for calling, but I’m not interested,” or “We’re not really looking for something like that right now,” you shouldn’t take it seriously. Your prospect doesn’t know enough to truly judge how good your product or service can be for his or her company. It’s a knee-jerk response, a robotic response to any sales offer.

Confidently come back with these words, “That’s all right. Most people in your industry felt the same way when I first called them. But now they’ve become our best customers, and they recommend us to friends.”

When your prospect hears these words, they will immediately stop what they are doing and start paying attention.  He or she will almost invariably say, “Oh really? What is it then?”

*Adapted from Sales Trainer Brian Tracy, The Psychology of Selling

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 Progamming (NLP) many years ago, particularly when applying it to selling.

Your objective in using language is to put your product or service in their future and their objections in their past. Closely pay attention to how the customer is speaking of your product or service.  When you detect how specifically they are speaking, you can shift your words and lead them to follow you in language and in mind.

Is your customer speaking of your product or service in conditional terms? Are they saying such things like, “I would like to own this product,” presupposing there is some limiting condition present that is stopping him or her? Are they speaking phrases that indicate they are buying (in the present)? An example is “What we’re wanting is..” Are they using past tense phrases such as “Well, we were thinking about buying this…” indicating they may not be buying today?  A possible response to this may be, “So you’re now thinking about buying this…, do you mind if I ask you a question?

Why end the sentence with asking if you can ask a question? Because it distracts them from realizing what you just did – acknowledged what they said but rephrased into the present tense. But instead of focusing on that, their mind will go to answering the question you asked about asking a question.

In a future post I’ll write about how to make your customer see their decision to buy with you, something that’s already been done and already in their past (in their mind).

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 a light on what is right in life instead of what is wrong?  How do people “feel” when they are around you? What impression do you create? What impression do you leave?

Richard Bandler stresses that NLP is nothing more than an attitude that has left in it’s trail some great techniques that have been developed as a result. This attitude of curiosity stems from the desire to understand people, how they ‘work’ (perfectly) and how to improve lives.

If our lives as practitioners of NLP is to improve those around us, than it’s worth modeling people like Tom Rath.

You can do this from reading his book “How Full is Your Bucket.” I could write a long review but it doesn’t need it. It’s an easy to read book, to the point, and if you practice the principles your interactions with others (including your customers) will improve. He’s also the author of Strengths Finder 2.0 and several other books. Here a video to give you a taste of his book.

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 those who excel in their fields do so.”

Read the full article here

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 if they buy sooner than later? What are the consequences if they wait until later?

2. They are scared of making a bad decision.

3. They normally make decisions over a certain period of time.

4. They normally make decisions after hearing about it or seeing the offer a certain amount of times.

5. They need to feel they have some sort of proof.

6. Loss of options.

7. They are reactive people, rather than proactive.

8. They don’t believe you.

Creating urgency is tricky in sales. But there are ways to create urgency using various NLP language patterns tailored to how your buyer buys. Perhaps future or past posts will reveal these strategies.

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 art and science to it when used on purpose.

Whenever we are communicating, we use presuppositions that assume something is already true; every sentence we speak in our everyday life has a presupposition in it. In most cases, we tend not to consciously recognize what we have presupposed, and instead concentrate on what is directly stated. Thus, presuppositions are unconsciously accepted as being true and the listener will act as if they were true.

Naturally, that’s the powerful part.

Think of it like this. Every sentence you speak contains a noun and a verb, so, with each sentence you speak you actually presuppose that something exists (noun) in the past, present or future.  You also presuppose that some action did or did not take place, is or is not taking place, or will or will not take place.

Great salespeople know how to use this to their advantage.

Some of my favorite “presuppositional” categories are:

Cognitive qualifiers: “Surprisingly, interestingly, amazingly, fortunately, luckily, happily, curiously, uniquely, naturally, obviously, etc.”  Everything that follows this word is assumed true as the focus is on the word (the cognitive qualifier) that starts the sentence assuming it so.  For more info on Cognitive Qualifiers – click here.

Presuppositions that shift space (in the mind of your prospects): “Along side of that, stacked on top of that, in addition to that, adding to that, instead of that, in front of that, inside of that, outside of that, behind that, underneath that, between that, above all that, etc.”

Presuppositions that shift time (in the mind of your customers): “look back on, in the future, right now, before, once, look ahead, finally, after, long awaited, everlasting, accelerate, presently, yet, carry through, then, when, now, etc.”

Presuppositional words that say something is factual, actual, or the truth: “actually, genuinely, unquestionably, surely, certainly, proven, obviously, self evident, valid, absolute, clearly, surely, naturally, etc.”

Presuppositional words of power: Realize, aware, notice, discover, uncover.

Future posts will have some examples of these, but this should get you thinking and more importantly, creating.

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 is also a good indication of someone talking to themselves.

NLP teaches us to track eye movements and calibrate the responses. Once you’ve calibrated their eye movements (don’t just rely on the “eye movement chart”) you can then adapt your language to pace their thinking.

Examples of what you might say include:

“Well, when you say to yourself…”

“When you tell yourself…”

“What do you tell yourself when…”

“What if you told yourself…”

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 their “thoughts” get in their way.

Luckily, Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) has taught us some specific ways to use our brain.  That doesn’t mean we always “use” what we know.

Most people do not use their brains deliberately – if you stop and think about it. Instead your responses are automatic. If you have a sales presentation that ended up bad, do you walk away and find yourself re-living the experience? Five hours later and you are still in the same state, re-living it over and over. Beating yourself up over it, mentally. “If only I would have…” “I should have said this…” “I didn’t ask the right questions…” “This damn economy!” Whatever.

I invite students to listen to the voice inside their head. Notice the tonality, the volume (how loud are you talking to yourself!?), the pitch and rhythm. And then notice how you feel when you speak to yourself this way.

I had a salesperson say to me last week, “It’s hard to figure out what I did or what to do differently after I’ve done a bad presentation.” I responded, “No kidding. How could you expect to with all that you have going on inside you head afterwards. There is not room for resourcefulness when you are drowning everything else out.” Literally.

Once you understand, deliberately, how you are thinking, you can begin to do it differently.

It takes a conscious, deliberate effort to think of someone that has said something to you that was particularly pleasing. Then to take those sub-modalities and talk to yourself in that way, with the same critical ‘content.’ Noticing how differently you are able to respond to the same critical words is your test. If you aren’t getting the change of state you desire, change more sub-modalities until you get the results you are after. Perhaps you hear the critical voice in the voice of someone that makes you feel great when they talk to you. Why not?

But is this only for dealing with your “self-talk” after you have a sales call go bad?

No.

It’s for before you have a sales call go good.

So before you sell, “use your brain for a change.” (In the words of RB).

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 matters to your customers? Answer: Not what you are selling.

What matters to them is what your product or service will do for them. That’s it. What’s in it for them.

Does it matter how long your company has been in business? No. Unless you can tie it to a reason that is compelling enough for them to benefit from the company longevity (or brevity).

Does it matter if you are bigger or smaller (or more or less experienced) than your competitor? No. Unless you you can wrap it around how it impacts them in a way that contributes to why they’d buy your product.

In sales we sometimes mistake our primary role for presenting, packaging, and telling our story. This is only because we forgot to remember it’s about asking questions, the right questions to figure out which benefit is most important to your prospect.

The next time you are in front of your customer, remember to say something similar to: “One of the things my customers have found is really helpful in prioritizing what’s most important is to ask you to complete the following sentence regarding this product/service.” “All I really care about is _______________________.”

Another way to say it: “Let me ask you one more questions to help prioritize your needs. In terms of why you are buying this product/service, how would you complete this sentence: “All I really care about is _________________________.”

Your customers will thank you for it. And  you’ll know what to focus your presentation on.

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 observe poor salespeople, they tend to have repetitive patterns in how they sell, and little flexibility to adapt to how someone buys. They tend to sell how they buy, therefore selling to those people who buy (and think) the most like them.

Seth Godin Gets It. In a recent blog entry on his popular (and worth reading daily) blog, he adds additional insight that can help you in your marketing as well as your selling. He states, “The challenge doesn’t lie in getting them to know what you know. It won’t help. The challenge lies in helping them see your idea through their lens, not yours.”

He’s dead on. Read the rest of his post here (in fact, if you want to be a better marketer – read his blog daily). I also recommend reading all of Seth Godin’s books.

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 observing (and making meaning from) his environment, his behaviors, his capabilities, his beliefs, and his personal mission (identity).  What state is he in? What is unique (or consistent with other top achievers) in his physiology?

So the big question is, what patterns stand out in this short 8 minute presentation and what can we learn from it?

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 of expertise and competency on the subject.

Of course anyone can read a few books on NLP and then call themselves “practitioners” and even a “NLP trainer.” Why not?  Here is the shocker: Some of these people may actually be better NLP Trainers than those who have gone through many weeks, even months of NLP training with a certifying organization.

How could that be so? Because the real test of NLP is application in the real world. Using it to better your life and those around you and getting results.

In my case, I studied with Steve Andreas and his training team at NLP Comprehensive 15 years ago, and to this day there is much of what I learned during that training that has impacted my life and career.

I have since studied with NLP Co-Founder Richard Bandler and John LaValle and feel strongly they have the best set of standards for measuring a person’s competence in NLP and I’m confident they wouldn’t recommend someone who didn’t have skills. I also learned a great deal from Rex Steven Sikes, a master trainer and now performing mentalist. They provided the more advanced foundation for my NLP learning experience. Their certifying organization and one I recommend is the Society of NLP.

The rest came in applying NLP in the real world. In my case, in business and life.

But none of that training would matter if I didn’t use it. I’ve witnessed (too) many people who have studied NLP, attended all the training’s and yet still don’t advance in their skills or application of NLP to business and life.

As a business practitioner of NLP and Trainer, I’ve been training managers and salespeople each year how to improve using NLP methodology. From this comes a new attitude, new approach, and new techniques they apply to growing their business. This application of NLP has also kept if fresh for me. It’s helped me grow as a trainer and expand my knowledge base of NLP.

I believe there are MANY different levels of NLP Trainers out there (despite how much training or how many years of courses they’ve attended).  I’ve met some trainers (and watched NLP trainers on video) who claim they are “experts” on NLP but they bore the socks off of you in 5 minutes because they don’t know how to manage their own state.

I’ve met others who are passionate about what they are teaching, and have demonstrable knowledge of NLP in the words they use, and the state they are in when you are with them.

My recommendation is to train with a trainer who makes you feel good. A trainer who appears motivated and can motivate you. A good indication of their ability to be effective training you, is to take a look at how they’ve advanced their life (personally and professionally) using NLP – if they can do it, you can learn (model) it from them.

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, once, anytime now, now, finally, presently, elapse, accelerate, and the list goes on.

Example: “After you see the results, you’ll look back feeling even more confidence then you did when when the decision was made.

What type of language shifts submodalities and uses presuppositions of SPACE?

in front of, along side of, in place of, above, aside from, in addition to, below, increase, instead of, disappear from, between, closer, behind, bring forward, against, beside, bigger, blow over, across, in back of, bring together, add more, inside of, and the list goes on.

Example: What if you could see along side of every problem is a solution, in fact many solutions?

Resource Book: An Insiders Guide to Sub Modalities

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 easiest art.

The process is simple and like many NLP patterns, are never only what they seem. There is alway more to it.

There’s really only one question to ask, but for variety you can create as many different versions of this question as possible.

So what’s the question?

Question to elicit values:  “What’s important to you about ________?”  or “What’s important to you in a ____________?”

When they answer, you can laterally chunk by asking “What else is important?” This will give you additional values.

You can also chunk down by asking, “What’s important to you about that?”

Another way to say it is, “What would that do for you?” or “What would you get out of that?”

This line of questioning will help you dig deeper, particularly when their answers are big chunks.

If the word chunks is grossing you out, chances are you haven’t studied a lot of NLP yet. Chunking refers to the level of detail (big chunks, little chunks).

I also like to end with the question, “Is there anything I’ve missed?” Customers will answer this, particularly when there has been something on their mind they haven’t got to tell you yet. This is when it’s unveiled.

On a future video, I’ll give examples of how this line of questioning sounds – because tone is everything in maintaining the rapport.