Selling with NLP - Anglia Business Magazine Interview - David Key
We’ve all heard that it’s tough out there at the moment and successful businesses are always looking for new ways to improve their business performance. This is especially true in the selling department. In fact, it is probably more important than ever to have a highly skilled and flexible sales force, capable of dealing with the actual psychology of people selling and knowing what this means.
With this in mind, Anglia Business magazine posed a few questions to David Key, managing director and head of research and development at Ware-based NLP training academy, Auspicium Ltd.
Why learn about NLP?
Well, even with basic NLP skills you’ll find yourself achieving improvements in your communication, rapport building and goal setting, which have a proven and positive effect on business performance, including your bottom line.
Only last year, a young sales person on a four-day NLP business diploma with Auspicium discovered he was irritating a potential client with his direct authoritarian approach. He actually received a telephone call during the course from his client ending their business relationship. After he pleaded for a second chance and after learning some powerful NLP skills, he met the client one more time and secured a £12 million construction project with 22 per cent gross profit.
I wonder how much revenue sales people lose because they don’t get on with the client? If it’s a lot, then how many sales people get told by the client that the reason they didn’t buy your stuff was because they didn’t like, trust or feel comfortable with you? The answer is probably none.
By the way, if that’s never happened to you, brilliant, keep doing what you’re doing. And if this does apply to you that’s fine too because there is no such thing as failure, this is what I’d call feedback.
Remember though, if you don’t change your approach with difficult clients then you’ll keep getting the same results. Think about doing something different.
So, getting good at rapport (which has behavioural structure that includes using your physiology a certain way, voice tonality and specific words) along with a range of other NLP soft skills could make that all-important difference to you and your clients. If our young sales person hadn’t changed his approach he would have lost £12 million to a competitor. Ouch!
What if you don’t get client rapport?
I believe people buy from people who are like themselves, which is why I know the NLP skills we teach are extremely effective in helping people build much better relationships.
If you don’t get unconscious rapport with prospective or existing clients then you probably spend whole sales discussions, meetings or presentations having to deal with resistance. Have you ever tried to take a 1000lb stallion to water who didn’t want to go?
Also, I feel customers don’t care how much you know until they know how much you care. Do you care about your customers, I mean really care? I know plenty of sales people who don’t care about buyer remorse. If that happens, say goodbye recommendation and hello to Chinese whispers starting with “don’t touch that company with a barge pole”.
How else can NLP skills be used?
With NLP you can learn skills for dealing with people who perceive the world differently from you, which will help improve relations with peers, bosses, customers, new prospects and across cultural divides in multinational companies. Many leaders and consultants in businesses have turned to the innovative aspects of NLP for inspiration in organisational development, teambuilding and strategic planning and leadership skills.
Briefly, what is NLP?
Neuro-linguistic programming is a powerful body of information about how the human mind works built up since the 1970s and continuing to evolve through new research. At the heart of NLP is a range of methods offered for understanding how people think, behave and change. NLP training provides the skills to define and achieve your goals and a heightened awareness of your five senses, allowing you to remain flexible, on track and maintain rapport with those around you.
Recommend five things to increase your chances of success
1. Have an outcome for everything you do
2. Have the sensory acuity to notice if you are on track with your outcome
3. Have the flexibility to change your approach if you’re not on track
4. Have rapport with yourself and others when useful (which is most of the time)
5. Have the awareness to manage your emotional state when things aren’t going your way
In one sentence, what should we remember when selling?
Resistance in a client is a sign that there is a lack of rapport with the client and more likely with yourself. You may be wise to consider changing your approach, but keep going.
Published in May/June 2009 Edition of Anglia Business Magazine.
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