Leverage NLP - Sell Without Wearing it on Your sleeve!

According to Neuro-linguistic programming (NLP), our mind cannot differentiate between what is imaginary and what is reality. If u keep telling your mind about something it tends to become your reality.

So, the most important rule that a salesman has to follow is that he should think that he has got the best product or service because if he will be clear in his mind, only then he will be able to convince others. So before convincing others he will have to convince himself. 

Clients hold a significant place in the selling process. So before interacting with the client the salesperson has to create certain objectives in his mind which are —

Creating Positive mind pictures - These are the pictures that bring in positivity. For example - visualise yourself succeeding.

Assume the sale - This means assuming that you have got the best product and you have the best deal .

Create an Anchor - Which means increasing the intensity of the emotions, realising that now you are not someone watching the screen but now your are an actor yourself .

Pacing and Leading - Pacing essentially means synchronising yourself with other person and Leading means you can lead them to the desired action.

Clients are the most important aspects of a sale .. They are the people to whom the salesman has to sell his product or service. Therefore, to make a powerful impact you can use A V K words

1. Auditory - Hear    
2. Visual - See.    
3. Kinesthetic - Feel

Distinct clients have different sense and one of them would be stronger than the others.

If the client says, “I would like to see what u have got” so the person will fall under the visual category.

If the client says, "please tell me what you have got” the person will be auditory

And if the Client says, “I feel like what you are saying is right” then he will be kinesthetic.

After determining the type of client you can easily build the rapport with the client and try to convince him or her. The most Important aspect of selling is that you try to notice and mirror your personality to that of the client because when the person notices the similar personality, he tends to trust more on the person.

Now there are certain techniques related to the closing of the sales which are as follows : -

Pre-supposition - Already presuming that the deal is done you start filling up the form and ask the client to sign in order to seal the deal. I am sure it will be a little embarrassing in the beginning but it is quite a powerful technique.

The ben Franklin close - Under this technique you tell the person about the pros and cons to help him Make a better decision. For example selling a gym membership and the membership is for INR5000 but the person wants to spend only INR4000 so u can put a sheet in front of him ; make 2 columns saying pros and cons of this membership and in the cons part your write INR1000 whereas in pros you can write all the benefits of the membership which will then force the customer to think that what all he can miss just because of INR1000

While selling you should never use negative words..I can give you a personal example of going to a handbag store to buy handbag for my daughter where the salesperson asked me, "If I wanted dull handbags" which actually did not make me feel good, in my view, he should have rather asked "if I wanted less brighter shades of the handbag".

In a nutshell, selling is basically convincing yourself to convince others, reframing the context and linking to customer needs. Levering NLP techniques, Persuasion & Influence plays a critical role.

Talent Multipliers - How the Best Leaders Make Everyone Smarter!

It was indeed a great opportunity to un-schackle mental cobwebs during the deliberation on Talent Multipliers: Driving Sustainable Culture Change, a roundtable discussion organized by People Matters in association with BTS, on 14th September at The Leela Ambience, Gurgaon. The level of engagement and enthusiasm was par excellence including insightful discussion and learning from peers from different organizations.

Madhusudan Reddy Managing Director, BTS India shared insights on Multipliers followed by engaging open discussion on the topic. The discussion on Multiplying and diminishing leaders, their impact on alignment, culture and business performance was amazing. 

The simulation exercise gave us a first hand view of our own multipliers and diminishers and also provided insights on how to identify diminishing leaders and develop them to become highly effective Multipliers.

I could relate to the deliberation during the round-table and it brought me back to reflect on my own 25 years of experience where I could clearly distinguish between Multipliers and Diminshers in my progressive career. Also reflecting on my own approach and its impact.

When I was reading the Foreward of the Book - Multipliers, written by Stephen R. Covey, below lines cought my immediate attention...

"How the best leaders make everyone smarter represents nothing less than the leadership paradigm necessary for accessing the intelligence and potential of people in organizations everywhere. It unearths and explains why some leaders create genius all round them while other leaders drain intelligence and capability from an organization"

I am motivated to go through the complete book and will share further learning, as appropriate.

Thanks People Matters & BTS team for this opportunity to learn, reflect and improve....