Clients love to set you up and get you to “do some groundwork” first before deciding on moving forward with you. They want to see a proposed strategy or outline first of the work you’ll do for them, or maybe have you “just do a preliminary plan” first.

Don’t fall for this trap. You’ll wind up doing work you should be getting paid for.

Instead, use the little used “Let’s Pretend” strategy, often taught by students of Sandler training.

Here’s an example of a prospect requesting you do some “groundwork” first:

Prospect: “I’m really impressed with what I’ve heard so far. I’d like to see a preliminary plan and strategy for the next six months, along with some costs and timeline for completion.”

Do not simply agree to this! Instead, play “Let’s Pretend.”

You: I’d be happy to work on a preliminary plan. Let’s pretend for a moment that when I come back with our preliminary plan, you are completely comfortable with our approach, the estimated costs are within your budget, and the completion dates meet your deadlines. What would happen at that point?”

In a matter of seconds you’ve done all the “groundwork” and the “preliminary plan” form them, at least virtually.  If the prospect isn’t wiling to make a committment to an action, you probably shouldn’t committ to doing the work. Unless you are charging for it.

Getting paid for your efforts isn’t something new.  It should be part of your strategy.

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).

I’ve gotten some feedback from those coming to my NLP blog to “learn NLP” and they question why every post isn’t directly about “Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP).”

I want to invite you to explore how every post is. Well almost every.

NLP isn’t about learning NLP. It’s about the modeling of excellence, the attitude of curiosity and discovery that comes from that and hopefully techniques that can stem from what you learn. This is why I refer books, videos to watch or people to model from time to time; so you can put your NLP to good use and model excellence. Then, hopefully, you can replicate it and help others create it for themselves.

Business strategist (and bestselling author) Tom Peters has written a new book called “The Little Big Things.” It’s a book on pursuing excellence, but it’s really a compilation of what Tom has learned (or picked up as useful) over the years as it relates to what excellence means in terms of concept, principles and corresponding behaviors.

If improving and excellence is important to you (or your company), please get in your car, drive to the bookstore and buy it. Don’t wait to order it online. I’m advising this and I’m not even finished reading all of it -- it’s a BIG book. On not so little things.

It’s easy to read, but will take up the ink of two highlighters and a pen that you’ll use to mark it up with notes and ideas it gives you.

Here’s a video to give you a sample of the attitude (and important things) in the book. Tom shares how implementing a strategy to “Be Extraordinary” is a whole lot better than a “ho-hum” strategy, which is actually worse than awful.

Visit Tom Peters at www.tompeters.com and read all of his books -- It’s been a (VERY) smart business decision for me (and countless others) over the years.

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

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.

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.

I’ve written about dealing with resistance on this blog a few times  (see part 1 and part 2 posts).  I have a class I teach on the subject so there is a lot more that we could discuss to clarify this important part of selling.

However, while it’s simple to think of inoculating objections as “overcoming them before they come up” and reframing the meaning, it’s not the only way to approach it.

Inoculating objections is more about installing an attitude into your customer’s mind as a pre-frame to your presentation. What attitude do you want your customer to have? What thoughts do you want them to think? What do you want them thinking about?

Do you want them open minded? Do you want them interested? The good news is you can control how someone is thinking. You have tremendous influence over what your prospects are thinking about.

For example – take a moment and think of your first car you owned. What color was it? Do you have many memories that help you remember that first car?  If you are thinking of your first car, or visualized what it looked like in your mind, or if you thought of other memories you have that were related to that first car – I directed and influenced your thinking.  So again, what do you want your customers to think about? Also, remember to use 3rd party referencing.

How do you plant the open-mindedness seeds?

“Mr. Smith, you may be unlike some of our other clients, who are facing budget constraints for 2010. A recent client of ours made it clear that their budget wouldn’t allow for reallocation of funds to purchase what we offer unless it made perfect sense. And it wouldn’t make sense for them, of course, unless what we could do for them could increase sales. Luckily, they were open minded, and it ended up working our for them in the end.”

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).

I remember going through school watching the “in-crowd” making fun of those who preferred to study than go out and play.

There still seem to be people who think they will be able to achieve all they desire by staying the same and refusing to change.

I ran across an old friend a long while back and he said, “yep, I’m the same as I was in high school.” And I thought, “how sad.” Tragic maybe.

I encourage everyone to never stop learning and growing. I certainly have a long way to go myself in this pursuit of excellence, personally and professionally.

I want to be better every day. By wanting that, I’m making a conscious decision to try new things, learn new things maybe even get rid of some old habits, attitudes and actions that have actually held me back.

NLP gives us the tools to change our state in an instant by changing our own sub-modalities, how we represent our reality inside our minds. It’s not that we didn’t have these abilities or “tools” before NLP, but it’s made us more aware of how to consciously change our own minds and maybe help others along the way.

Being excellent is a choice. So is being mediocre.

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.

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.

I often get asked, “How do I master my NLP skills?”

Answer: “One bite at a time.”

Sharpening your sensory experience, paying attention to all the non-verbals you may not have been consciously aware of before, mastering your state, establishing rapport on multiple levels, using the meta-model, listening to sensory predicates signaling representational systems, identifying metaprograms, eliciting strategy, using sleight of mouth patterns, carefully using your advanced language patterns and the milton-model, and everything else that NLP gives you as a model of excellence (which would take much longer than a blog post to mention)…takes time.

And practice.

The best way to learn it is one bite at a time. With that said and at the same time, much of what you learn in NLP can’t be singled out and be useful. Too much of it works together with something else.

You can’t drive a car by “just paying attention to the steering wheel”, you have to pay attention to other things simultaneously such as your gas pedal, the road in front of you, cars around you, etc. But there are other things you learn to pay attention once you get better at mastering the fundamentals of driving a car – you start to notice the radio station, the weather, your passengers and perhaps engage even in conversation, the speedometer, your fuel gauge, and everything else that completes your driving experience. Most, if not all, becomes very second nature with experience and application.

That is where unconscious competence begins. You learned how to master driving a car, so you can also learn how to master your NLP skills.

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.

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.

NLP was originally co-founded by Richard Bandler and John Grinder. While many years ago their partnership split and went different ways, they both still continue to train others in NLP. I’ve trained with Richard Bandler and highly recommend him and his partner John LaValle. His style is much different than Grinder’s as you will hear, see and feel in these videos responses.

NLP Co-Founder John Grinder answers the question, “What is NLP?”

NLP Co-Founder Richard Bandler answers the question, “What is NLP?”