Josh King Madrid, author of JETSET Life Hacks, is an internet celebrity, entrepreneur, neuromarketer, NLP coach and founder of NFT Magazine.
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Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is an approach to communication that can be applied in any sales and marketing strategy. As a certified NLP trainer, I have seen dozens of successful uses of NLP and personally closed millions of dollars in sales using these techniques.
NLP works in several ways, but one of the most important is building rapport between you and your prospect. In his book Unlimited Power: The New Science of Personal AchievementTony Robbins wrote that “Report is the ability to enter someone else’s world, make them feel like you understand them, that you have a strong bond in common.”
In 1983, the CIA approved including NLP in its Career Trainee Development Program. The aim of the instruction was to teach ‘building rapport’ after the results of an initial NLP workshop proved to be ‘extremely positive’.
What is NLP?
Several studies have attempted to determine how much communication is non-verbal. These studies have led to many different findings, but they all agree on one thing: nonverbal communication consists (download required) and is significant.
Non-verbal communication is the meaning expressed through bodily signals and facial expressions. Examples are:
• Frowning, indicating displeasure.
• Standing behind an obstacle when talking to a person, indicating that the speaker wants to create distance.
• Cross arms, indicate defensively, or perhaps hide something.
Human behavior and decisions are products of everyone’s neural programming, expressed both verbally and non-verbally. Human behavior is the sum total of one’s thoughts, feelings, experiences, and beliefs, which can be loosely referred to as one’s “program.”
When not using NLP, marketers and salespeople tend to change a person’s program instead of using it to get more conversions. Without NLP, salespeople can come across as the stereotypical “used car salesman” or “snake oil salesman” who tries to push a product down someone’s throat instead of understanding how that product can help the customer.
How to use NLP immediately to improve sales?
It is not necessary to go into the technical details of NLP such as “subjective and objective awareness” and “cognitive reframing” in order to successfully use NLP in marketing.
Feelings and emotions are the languages of the subconscious. Psychologists have repeatedly found that most of our decisions are based on emotions and justified by logic in retrospect. By using only the following three NLP techniques, it is possible to achieve immediate results in your sales by leveraging non-verbal communication, human emotional responses and the power of the subconscious.
1. Building a report with NLP mirroring
NLP Mirroring is the technique of subtly mimicking the behavior and body language (also known as non-verbal communication) of the person you are selling to. This triggers the client mirror neuronsultimately building rapport, because people unconsciously Like it people who remind them of themselves.
Recently, a client and I were discussing how to scale his personal brand over lunch. He suddenly got excited about a topic, jumped out of his chair and started projecting his voice. I immediately stood up, too, and raised my voice to match his, continuing our relationship.
This can feel uncomfortable for someone new to NLP, so start by subtly mimicking the behaviors and attitudes of your sales prospects. If they lean forward, you should also lean forward. If they sit back comfortably, do the same. You could also try using some of the same words they use.
As you practice NLP mirroring, it will start to feel more natural as the habit becomes ingrained.
2. Anchoring empowered states
Everyone has a song or smell that reminds them of something. NLP Anchoring is when you link a physical sensation to a specific emotional state. It is also defined as connecting an external state with an internal one. With the help of anchoring, it is possible to regain access to personal empowered states through external incentives.
Jordan Belfort – aka The Wolf of Wall Street –wrote on anchoring an empowered state through olfactory programming in his book The way of the wolf. Whenever he closed a sale, he pulled out an essential oil inhaler and smelled it, anchoring the emotional state he was in in that aroma. Later, when he needed a confidence boost, he sniffed the same inhaler, physically ‘reminding’ himself of that peak condition.
I personally tried this with an aromatherapy nose stick. Whenever I completed a major task or closed a sale and felt euphoric, I anchored this heightened emotional state with the smell of the stick. Then, just before going to a sales meeting, I sniffed the scent again. It immediately helped me feel confident and ready to strike a new deal.
3. Perceptual Positions
Perceptual positions are an NLP technique that allows the seller to understand the “reality” of the buyer or customer. This can be loosely defined as stepping into someone else’s shoes, seeing what they see and hearing what they hear. Unlike mirroring, where the goal is to activate the client’s mirror neurons, perceptual positioning activates your own mirror neurons to give you insight into another human being. Rather than being based on physical imitation, perceptual positions are an imaginative process, a reframing exercise where you view an interaction with a customer or prospect from three different perspectives: the first position (I), the second position (your customer or prospect) and the third position (an observer). This allows you to collect data from multiple perspectives, so you don’t get clouded by your own emotional biases, so you can steer the sales pitch in the right direction.
To take off
NLP is a huge subject that requires extensive study to fully understand it. But it’s possible to immediately improve sales by building rapport through NLP mirroring, anchoring your peak states, and taking your prospect’s perceptual positions to better understand them.
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