persuasion article No30

Persuasion article No30

Sales and Elementary School

This is persuasion article No30 from the YourSalesSuccess eZine.

Hi,

I've said this before but language (verbal and non-verbal) is just about all you have to work with as a salesperson.

As Napoleon said, " We rule men with words".

Likewise I'm sure you've heard the expression,
"The pen is mightier than the sword. "

So, if language is so important in our quest to influence people how much attention did you pay to your English grammar lessons in your pre high school years?

You see verb tenses (or as one NLP trainer likes to call them "verb relaxes", because there's no point getting tense over verbs) are a very powerful tool we can use to influence people.

Bear with me.
Persuasion article No30

Please follow my directions below and do the mental exercises I'm suggesting.

When we think of events, we naturally order them in a time sequence.
Time distinctions are expressed primarily by verb form.

To determine how you represent verb forms internally, take any simple behaviour and notice how your internal experience (e.g. pictures in your head) shifts when the same content shifts position in time via the three simple verb forms below.

'I talked to her. "' (past)
'I talk to her. " (present)
'I will talk to her. (future)

The experience is different, isn't it?

Now try these three:

"I was talking to her."
"I am talking to her. '"
"I will be talking to her."

How does adding "...ing" make a difference to your internal experience.
Many find the "..ing" ending adds the experience of movement to internal images.

(There are other verb forms we could talk about but it would take too long to cover it in this eZine.)
Persuasion article No30

How do you use this in sales?

Well, when a prospect brings up an objection it is very useful to move that objection into the past. Then focus your prospect on the future and successfully using your product. Finally, when they have a good feeling about using your product bring that feeling back into NOW.
Persuasion article No30

Let me give you an example.

Prospect says,
"Your product is too expensive."
(Bet you've never heard that before?)

Your response,

"Wow, let me get this right, you have thought our product was too expensive.
(moving objection into the past and hinting that the person could think differently)

Amazing, I haven't heard that for a long time.
When I've spoken to clients who had thought our product was too expensive it usually turned out that the buyer hadn't considered X & Y & Z.

Just suppose, you used our product and you noticed improvement in your business in the areas of X, Y & Z.
(Moving prospect's thoughts into the future and having successfully used your product or service).
That would be a good result for you business, wouldn't it?
(Associate them to the good feelings.)

And, as you think about those positive outcomes now, how differently are you feeling about using our product?"
(Moving positive future feeling to now and also suggesting they'll be feeling differently in the present.)
Persuasion article No30

Remember, I've said in past issues, sales is about getting your prospect to imagine using your product enough times in their head and feeling good about it so that they actually go out and do it in real life.
That's what I've done in the example above.
Persuasion article No30

I can imagine that when you first read the above it seemed a bit weird.
Having had that thought was natural.
Now, imagine some future sales call you have planned.
Picture yourself in the prospects office, hear their voice and feel what it's like when they raise an objection to your offer.
Then, notice yourself skilfully moving that objection into the past.
Neat wasn't it?
Now move them to a future time when they imagine successfully using your product or service.
The expression on their face has changed, hasn't it.
How do you feel about that, now.
How likely are you to pay more attention to verb tenses in all your verbal exchanges in the future?

Go ahead, move back to your primary school training about verb tenses and use them to further Your Sales Success.

Here's to YourSalesSuccess.
Persuasion article No30

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