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If You Could Read My Mind, You Could Sell Me Anything. Here's How. by: Bill Lee-Emery If you could read my mind, you could sell me anything. Here's how. Wouldn't you like to be able to '˜read minds' in a selling situation? If you could it would surely give you an advantage when matching your product or service with the needs of your customer or client. And you can. To the trained professional, we all give clues to the inner workings of our mind by our day to day language and behaviour. The study of Neuro Linguistic Programing (NLP) reveals many of the secrets of '˜mind reading' mostly unknown to the general population but readily used by many professionals in marketing, selling, education, law and business. Today, with easy access to this information, any dedicated professional can upgrade their personal communication skills, and reap the rewards. Here is one example for you. To a large degree, we have learned to operate automatically and unconsciously in much of our buying patterns and internal mental strategies. Like a massive computer, we tend to repeat old patterns rather than reinventing the world every ten minutes. This saves us time and helps to keep us sane. These automatic and unconscious patterns have been labelled `Metaprograms' and are a fascinating revelation in the desire to understand ourselves and others. The purpose being that if you can understand yourself and others more intimately then you can express your views more clearly and be able to understand the `neurological dialect' of the person you are dealing with. Here's what I mean Just as a native of Glasgow in Scotland and a New Yorker may both speak English, put them together and they may as well speak Swahili as far as the other is concerned! Dialects are almost a language of their own. So too are 'neurological dialects'. When you learn to recognise the neurological dialect of your sales prospects, trainees, family members etc you can increase your ability to understand and be understood. Let me give you a simple example. Pick a simple daily activity such as making phone calls, writing reports, researching an issue, filing papers or creating proposals. Then ask yourself `Am I doing this to gain something or to avoid something?' Do you make phone calls to attract new clients and more business or to avoid losing their business? Are you writing the report because it will enhance your position or because you will be in trouble if you don't? The essence of the question is : are you moving towards something pleasurable (more business or greater job satisfaction) or moving away from pain (of losing business or because of fear of reprimand)? We consciously or unconsciously motivate ourselves either by moving towards pleasure or moving away from pain. It's the old carrot or the stick story. Everyone is different and the context will have an effect. If you know how people unconsciously motivate themselves you can perfectly match your product, services, request or demand in such a way that matches how they prefer to operate in the world. The benefit for you is greater ease in working with people, increased productivity and sales and a happier workforce. But if you don't, you could inadvertently assume that they are just like you and unknowingly violate their unconscious preference. Is your prospect buying something to enhance their pleasure or avoid pain? You could be offering them a carrot when they really need a stick! The key is : treat others in the way they like to be treated rather than the way you like to be treated. For more invaluable insights, stay tuned for more articles at http://www.altitudealliance.com/articles.htm ...otherwise you may miss out! About The Author Bill Lee-Emery is an Executive and Life Coach. He has been a corporate trainer and facilitator for over 20 years. Bill is author of 'Stop Procrastinating' and 'How to get out of your own way and play better golf!' You can get his newsletter, 'On Track' by visiting his web site http://www.altitudealliance.com You are welcome to reprint this article as long it remains unaltered and contains full attribution as follows: © by Bill Lee-Emery 2004 email:execoach@bigpond.net.au execoach@bigpond.net.au This article was posted on January '17
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