When you are trying to persuade someone – for any matter – wouldn’t you like to be better at what you do? Like it or not, everyone is selling something. It could be your little girl wanting to stay up late, or it could be you negotiating a $5M deal. If you are a part of this game, have you thought about NLP for increasing your chances of getting a firm ‘YES’?
Though NLP may sound complicated to some, there are many basic yet effective NLP techniques that anyone can learn.
In the corporate world, for example, the firms that have used NLP techniques report their success through a significant increase in their profits, and sales. They simply get more people to say yes to them and buy their products and services by using both sophisticated and simple NLP techniques. Outside the business world, NLP also plays a key role in helping individuals and organizations to achieve their goals and improve their state in all areas of life.
What Is NLP anyway?
NLP can be used for personal development, phobias, and anxiety.
NLP uses imaginative, perceptual, sensational, behavioral, and communication techniques for enabling people to change their thoughts, feelings, and actions efficiently.
Not to be mistaken with the natural language processing computer science field that uses the same acronym, NLP focuses on changing people’s perception of life through visual, physical, and language patterns.
NLP was invented and introduced to the world by Richard Bandler and John Grinder, that believed it is possible to identify and capture the patterns of thoughts and behaviors of successful people in all areas of life, and to teach them to other individuals.
It is based on the idea that any person operates by internal “maps” of the world that they learn through sensory experiences — auditory, visual, kinesthetic (touch), gustatory(taste), and olfactory(smell) experiences.
NLP techniques are designed to detect and adjust unconscious biases, beliefs, and limitations of an individual’s internal map of the world.
NLP is operating through the conscious use of language patterns to generate changes in a person’s thoughts and behavior.
Benefits Of NLP
NLP is used as a method of personal development and goal setting, by harnessing the power of imagination for “teaching” the brain that a given goal can certainly be achieved.
Instructing the brain how things “should be”, and the brain obeys and gets the job done.
NLP tools and techniques have been used in therapy for psychological and psychiatric disorders, including phobias, depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder; along with “easier” cases of common stress relief treatments.
**P.S Why do we even have all this negativity?
So if you could effectively affect the way a person feels, thinks, and acts, would that improve your sales and persuasion efforts?
5 Basic NLP Sales Techniques
Though in the NLP domains there are truly lots and lots of techniques and approaches that you can learn and practice – and still not begin to cover all there is to know – using NLP doesn’t have to be complicated.
Not only that the following 5 techniques are not complex they are actually very simple and might even come naturally to some people, yet they are not less effective than any other method or ‘hack’.
1. Listening Actively
One of the top NLP sales techniques is to listen actively. Though it might sound so obvious, most people don’t do that at all! Many people simply understand the process of listening, but they are not aware that there are types of listening. Active listening refers to truly understanding what the other person is saying and collecting clues. What kind of clues? Clues for what?
When you are paying attention to the wording that a person uses and to their body language you can learn everything you need to know about them:
– What they want.
– What they love.
– What they hate.
– What they are excited about.
– What they really NEED.
For example, if you notice that the other person is feeling relaxed and at ease when they are speaking about their pet, you have earned a valuable piece of information, as you can direct the conversation to the pet or to pets in general when you are seeking for their trust and cooperation. When discussing pets, they are feeling relaxed and they will more likely feel the same way about what you have to say, if you’ll address it through the right ‘pet prism’.
Continue asking questions all the time, so you can collect more clues to what triggers their emotions in ways that can be useful for you. And as a by-product, they would feel valued and important because you are genuinely listening and paying attention to them. If you are actively listening then you are really halfway in.
2. Understanding Your Client
With active listening, another critical NLP sales technique can be referred to as understanding what your client wants. More importantly, how your client wants what they want. Here’s how this technique works. Whatever you are selling, it is possible that your client wants the very same product. E.g. it could be that they are more inclined towards better packaging, or a particular fragrance, or even cruelty-free ingredients. These small details or not only ‘cosmetic’ preferences, they are your signs and keys for unlocking the right door, instead of crashing into a door that leads to nowhere.
A common mistake in this phase is to try and put yourself in the shoes of the other person. Remember, it isn’t about your product, it isn’t about you, it’s about their world and how they see it. Even if it is counter-intuitive to you, understand what would make them feel happy or excited, understand what triggers them to take an action and make a decision.
3. Body Language
Amazingly, body language accounts for 55% of communication between people. This means that you have to be aware of your own body language and posture, and more importantly, be aware of those of the other person.
Without falling into long explanations, how can you use body language in your favor?
Can you tell if the person in front of you is feeling comfortable? Or are they sitting frozen, reflecting that they are trying to avoid you?
Are they leaning towards you and looking directly at you, showing that they are very interested in what you have to say? Or are their bodies and eyes are headed in an entirely other direction…?
By being aware of these acts and behaviors you can understand what do you need to do:
Are they frozen? Well let’s talk about something that will wake them up.
Are they leaning towards you? Great, it’s time to pitch the main idea.
And so on. Observe their body language, and be aware of what you are projecting as well.
4. Using The Right Words
Though non-verbal communication is a very important aspect of communication, the most trivial way of communicating messages and information between people is through words and dialogue. Are your words conveying what you want to happen, and what you have to offer to the other side? Make sure you maintain that. NLP can help you find some of the most impactful words that affect people’s brains and most importantly, emotions. Once you use the right words, it becomes easier for you to convince people to buy what you’re selling. This of course applies to selling a product, an idea, or anything else.
For example, when you are saying that you ‘try’, ‘should’, ‘could’, ‘would’…do something, they sound a lot less persuasive then when you say that you are ‘sure’, ‘certain’, ‘will’, ‘absolutely’…do something. Right?
Choose your wording based on the outcomes that you’d like to receive. If want to persuade the other side, choose the right words that will support that!
5. Optimistic Attitude
NLP is about breaking down your desired outcome into clear components, ones that you can always imagine that happened to you, and therefore ‘teach’ your mind and body that you have already achieved it – so they would get used to feel the ‘right’ way for you.
Again, without falling into long explanations, making your thoughts and imagination work for you is a a key element in NLP.
‘Whatever you’re focusing on, you’ll get more of’.
On the other hand, a negative attitude can have drastic effects on your selling practice. If you’re constantly thinking ‘they’re not gonna buy’ then you are ‘teaching’ your mind and body (remember that 55% of the communication is non-verbal?) that it’s not going to happen, and that is exactly what you are conveying to the other side.
This is why many NLP sales techniques emphasize on having an optimistic attitude. Pessimism is somewhat comforting because it’s something certain – you know exactly where you will be – but at the end of the day, people with a positive outlook are winning a lot more than pessimists. Believing that you can do it is the 1st step in achieving everything you want, and as much as it is a cliche it is true! Positivity will help you foster self-confidence and program your mind towards a more ‘you can’ approach that will eventually prove itself.
Once you get hold of that positive energy, it shows, and other people are more open to anything that you have to offer. It becomes easier to have faith in yourself and your selling pitch as you are gaining a powerful momentum. When you are positive about what you are selling, other people would be more likely to feel positive about it and want it as well. Give this technique a go. You will notice a great change in how far positivity can help you go.
Despite their simplicity, these are some of the most effective 5 NLP sales techniques. Not only are they the top ones but are also the most basic ones. Complicated sounds very attractive, but the basic and simpler procedures are usually getting most of the job done. you the farthest.
And of course, you can use NLP techniques in all areas of life, to really achieve anything that you can imagine.
Would you like to learn from the best?
