In my previous post, The Gate Keeper You Will Never Meet, I discussed how to identify a prospect’s/customer’s perceptual mode (thinking pattern) and I focused the discussion on the four modes primarily used for decision-making. Now I am going to discuss how to appeal to each of them so that your sales message is more readily accepted by your prospect/customer creating a more compelling sales message with greater impact.
Let me ask you a question.
If I ask you to remember your last vacation, what comes to mind first?
Is it a picture of where you were? Is it the feeling you had? Was it the sounds of where you were or someone talking to you? Or did you immediately start talking to yourself or repeat the question I just asked you? What came to mind first?
This is your internal representation system. It is how you internally represent information that comes to you, and your experiences. You either internally represent it as pictures, sounds, feelings, smells, taste, or self-talk. Do you talk to yourself? Of course you do! Everyone does. It is part of the internal representation process used to make sense of things.
As discussed in my previous post, everyone internally represents data and events in only one of these six ways. Either as pictures, sounds, feelings, taste, smell, or self-talk. This is how we are hardwired, our neurology.
The four primary modes used for decision-making are visual, auditory, kinesthetic, and auditory digital. Now I want to discuss how to appeal to each one of those four perceptual modes. You do this with the predicates or words you use to describe your product’s attributes and value.
Gatekeeper 1: For prospects/customers that are predominantly visual, use visual predicates in your statements. For example:
- Let me show you the . . .
- This data gives you a picture of . . .
- What looks interesting to you?
- This graph demonstrates its . . .
- Have I given you a clear picture for what our product can do for you to start using it today?
Gatekeeper 2: For prospects/customers that are predominantly auditory, use auditory predicates in your statements. For example:
- Let me tell you about . . .
- This data states . . .
- What sounds interesting to you?
- This graph tells you its . . .
- Have I said enough of what our product can do for you to start using it today?
Gatekeeper 3: For prospects/customers that are predominantly kinesthetic, use kinesthetic predicates in your statements. For example:
- Let me walk you through the . . .
- This data gives you a feel for . . .
- Are you now comfortable with . . .
- This graph gives you a grasp of its . . .
- Have I given you a good enough handle on how our product performs for you to start using it today?
Gatekeeper 4: For prospects/customers that are predominantly auditory digital, use auditory digital predicates in your statements. For example:
- What you want is the . . .
- This data gives you a sense for . . .
- What seems interesting to you?
- This graph lets you know . . .
- Do you think there is enough information for you to start using our product today?
Further, everyone has a dominant perceptual mode or a dominant mental process for ensuring understanding and acceptance of information they receive. You will need to identify their dominant perceptual mode and then appeal to it at least five times during your sales discussion for increased understanding and acceptance of your message for greater impact.
If a brief conversation about how to improve your sales team’s effectiveness would be valuable please call J.P. Thompson at (888) 821-6656 or drop me a line at jpt@ascenticg.com
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