D. Feedback
It is always necessary to get feedback on how your communications are affecting the individual or group you are dealing with. One of the basic presuppositions of NLP is that the response you get from the person or group you are communicating with is the meaning of your communication, regardless of what you intend the meaning to be. That is, people may not interpret your communication in the way you intended; but it is up to you to observe what response your communication is eliciting from them and to respond appropriately — i.e., to vary your behavior until your intended meaning is conveyed to the other party. Feedback lets you know when and to what degree what you are doing is working; when to continue what you are doing and when to change your behavior. Your ability to make refined sensory distinctions will be an invaluable and time saving resource for you with this process.
4.421 NLP in Sales
In the area of effective sales work, we begin with the assumption that sales personnel are trained to qualify their customers. By qualifying their customers or clients, we mean that the sales representative is committed to offering their company's product or service only to clients who would actually benefit from such a product or service. To fail to match the product or service to each unique customer is to run the risk of buyer's remorse. Most new business is the result of word of mouth referrals by satisfied customers.
The tools we offer here are powerful enough to sell without qualifying clients. Thus the step of qualifying customers becomes even more important as a safeguard for both the customer/client and the business involved.
Let's consider an example of how NLP principles could be applied in the area of sales. Let us suppose that a salesperson from Superior Electronics (SP in the following dialogue) has previously laid the groundwork for a sales meeting with the purchasing agent (PA) for ZX Computer Corporation by thoroughly researching what kinds of computers ZX sells, how well they are performing and selling and by leaving a sample power semiconductor with ZX's Engineering Division to be tested and "qualified." That is, SP has accomplished his information gathering and knows his product meets ZX's performance specifications before he walks into the meeting.
SP: Good morning, Mr. Edwards. I'm George Smith with Superior Electronics.
PA: Oh yes, I remember talking to you on the phone. (After handshake, sits, leans back in chair, crosses left leg over right, points to chair beside his desk.)
SP: (Sits, mirrors PA's voice tonality and portions of his posture unobtrusively.) Mr. Kurtz in your Engineering Division tells me your ZX–12 personal computers are really moving along in sales.
PA: (Smiling.) We've picked up a big chunk of the market in the past two years. We're certainly pleased with the customer response the ZX–12 is getting.
SP: (Pacing PA's tonality and posture more strongly.) Are you satisfied with its power supply performance?
PA: Oh yes … We've used a lot of Solitar products in getting off the ground, but … (Looks down and right) we're interested in staying in contact with what's available in terms of quality and price.
SP: Your feeling is that you'd be interested in system components that would add to the sales momentum you've established for the ZX–12?
PA: Yes … That's right.
SP: (Tests establishment of rapport by shifting to slightly new posture. PA follows, indicating that rapport has been established. SP then begins to gather information about PA's buying strategy.) Do you think you made a good decision buying your initial components from Solitar?
PA: Yes … considering our marketing options at the time.
SP: What made you decide to buy from Solitar?
PA: (Eyes move up and left.) Well … as I said … Solitar looked good to us from our perspective at the time. We knew we could be comfortable with their overall price package and still get a foot in the market door with a moderately priced personal computer.
SP: Solitar components looked like they would fit the bill when you were just starting out with the ZX–12… . PA: That's right … Of course, that was before we'd established the marketing advantage we have now.. .. (Eyes move down and left, then shift to down and right.)
SP: (Picking up on kinesthetic accessing cue.) How did you feel about that?
PA: (Eyes remaining down and right.) Oh, I felt it was obviously the best move for the company at the time … so I approved that buying decision. (SP covertly anchors the decision point visually by lifting his eyebrow and making a hand gesture. SP now postulates that PA's buying strategy goes Ve→Vc→Aid→Ki→EXIT. That is, PA will look at SP's sales package proposal, construct an image of how SP's power semiconductors would fit into the ZX–12's competitive market situation, talk to himself about it, then get an internal feeling from his internal dialogue. SP then tests this postulate by asking about another buying experience.)
SP: The housing units that make the ZX–12 look so good — those are made by Zuniga aren't they?
PA: (Smiles.) Yes, they are. Our engineers designed them, and Zuniga manufactures them to our specifications. Zuniga's a good outfit.
SP: (Returns the smile.) They sure are. How did you decide to go with Zuniga?
PA: Well … (Smiles and shakes head) … as soon as we saw samples of the housing units they were making for Tricon portable TVs, I pictured how impressive the ZX–12 would look wrapped up in a package like that, and I just said to myself, "Zuniga's the right outfit to bring that off for us …" and I felt so strongly about that feature that I could hardly wait to get our engineering people working on design specs! (PA's eyes begin up and right, shift down and left, then down and right — confirmingng SP's postulate of PA's buying strategy. SP again anchors the decision point by lifting an eyebrow and making the same hand gesture as before.)
SP: (Opening his briefcase to begin his own presentation.) I'm sure that we can offer you an excellent price/quality package on power semiconductors for the ZX–12 power supply unit. (Lays out display material on PA's desk.) As you can see, these semiconductors outperform Solitar's. You might imagine how this component will lower your warranty repair and replacement costs and give you that extra edge on customer confidence, and you can say to yourself that the package is just right for ZX because … (lists features and benefits). It's a good solid feeling to know that with a more reliable power supply unit, using our semiconductors, you can push the ZX–12 marketing strategy to really build on what you've already accomplished. (As SP speaks, he paces the tonality and gestures that PA used while describing his strategy earlier and fires off anchors for the decision point by raising his eyebrow and gesturing with his hand.)
The salesperson has paced the buying strategy elicited from the customer in casual conversation. By packaging his presentation so that it paces the customer's natural decision making processes, it is much easier for the salesman to communicate the value of whatever product or service he is marketing. Because the presentation matches, step for step, the sequence that the customer naturally uses to gather, process and act on his experience, it is much more likely to fit the customer's needs, wants and expectations. Equally as important, it is much less likely to bring up objections or resistance. For those customers who have polarity steps in their strategy, though, objections will be an extremely important part of the pace. Salespersons should intuitively recognize this kind of strategy — where it is important that you actually try to discourage the customer from buying in order to make them want to buy. Some customers will also want to play devil's advocate and raise a number of objections before they are willing to buy.