The capacity of the human brain is staggering. It works faster than the fastest super computer and at any one time generates enough electricity to power a small city. But what sets the human mind apart from other species is our capacity to imagine.
Ask yourself this question – what were the 5 most important skills you learned in all of high school? Which classes were they in?
Now…
Close your eyes and picture yourself at your favourite holiday destination. Is it in the mountains for a ski trip, in the bush camping or on a beach in the sun? What does it smell like? What does it feel like? Who is with you? What will you eat?
Take a moment and do it now (you’ll be happy that you did)…
Which one was easier?
The second one, right? This is because of the way our brain interprets, stores and recalls information. To more and lesser degrees our mind makes pictures and anchors experiences to them. Knowing this, we can tailor our approach to goal-oriented conversation and dramatically improve our interpersonal skills.
We do this by “painting pictures” in our customers’ minds.
A great way to script this in to a sales conversation might go something like this:
“So John, imagine we work together for the next six months. Six months from now when you picture success, what does it look like? What’s different at work? In your personal time?”
In another post, we talk about reading eye access cues (neurolinguistic programming tool) and what your eyes tell someone about what you’re thinking. When your picture is successfully being painted in your customer’s mind, they will usually go to the “Visual Create” direction as they “see” this image of a future that hasn’t happened yet.
The more your customers can see themselves in the world you paint for them, the easier it is for their defences to drop and for them to make a logical and informed decision.
Bonus tips:
- Use a combination of Visual, Auditory and Kinesthetic words in your descriptions which will engage every type of customer preference
- Visual phrases: “when you PICTURE success”, “what does it LOOK like”, “where do you SEE your self in six months”, “I want you to be CRYSTAL CLEAR about…”
- Auditory phrases: “how does that SOUND?” “does that RING A BELL?”, “so we can SILENCE any critics”, “I’m all EARS…”
- Kinesthetic phrases: “I really FEEL like we’re getting somewhere,” “so that we can GRASP that concept,” “so that we can TAP INTO the market needs…”
For a full list of neuro linguistic programming tools, go to Neuro Linguistic Programming Predicates
Be colourful and sense-centric in your descriptions and notice when your customer to takes over.
The Million Dollar Sales Pitch – Sales Masterclass
