Persuade and Influence Your Prospects with 5 Powerful Language Patterns

Wouldn’t you just love it if every prospect you ever faced said “yes” to everything you ever said? Unfortunately, it’s not a perfect world, and more often than not, you have to work a little harder at convincing potential clients to agree with you and to close deals. Fortunately, it is possible to make prospects more amenable to your propositions by incorporating five powerful language patterns into your sales strategy. These patterns combine the power of persuasion and influence, enabling you to sell more effectively to even the most resistant prospects and clients, whether in a one-on-one or group setting. One of these patterns was even used to great effect by Barack Obama and Steve Jobs. Imagine being able to win your clients over using the self-same tools!

Win Them Over With the Milton Model

The language patterns that follow are based on the work of renowned hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson, who had a long and distinguished career working with people placed in trances, and using cleverly structured sentences. Dr Erickson used these sentences, which were full of ambiguous meanings, to help his patients discover the solutions to their problems themselves, by using resources they already had. The NLP Milton Model is a linguistics framework that has been proven to help many telemarketers, sales professionals and business owners achieve a manifold increase in their sales income. The framework works on the basic presupposition that the language we use is just one filter that affects our perception of the world. By understanding how this filter works, we can use it to capture and hold other people’s attention, and direct it towards a conclusion that we want them to make. These conclusions include getting your prospects excited about making buying decisions, bypassing objections or even changing people’s beliefs. This is why the Milton Model is one of the most successful sales strategies you can use.

Here are the five powerful language patterns you can use to lead and influence your clients with ease and elegance

1. The Double Bind Using this language pattern involves limiting your clients’ options by giving them two choices to pick from, either of which will still lead to your desired outcome. For instance, a Double Bind commonly used by many sales professionals is, “Would you like to meet on Tuesday morning or Thursday afternoon?” In his efforts to win the hearts of voters about a decade ago, Barack Obama employed a high-level Double Bind by saying, “Do we participate in the politics of hope, or do we participate in the politics of cynicism?” To find out more about how the former US President and Steve Jobs used the Double Bind, check out the video below:
2. Presupposition With this language pattern, we generally make an assumption about something and suggest that it is true, even if it may not actually be true. For instance, you may direct your prospect towards making a buying decision after your sale presentation by saying, “Now that you’ve seen the benefits of using our product, I’m sure you’ll want to seriously consider making this wise investment now.” The power of presuppositions lies in their ability to get your message across with minimal judgment.
3. The Tag Question Using a tag question usually involves including a question after a statement with the intention of displacing resistance. An example of a tag question is, “I’m sure you want to retire before you reach the age of 60, don’t you?” This pattern is especially useful when applied in situations where someone responds to a request by doing the opposite.
4. Comparative Deletion This is one of the most popular tools used by advertisers to put their brand or products in a favourable light. This pattern makes a comparison between a product being advertised and an unspecified alternative. An example of comparative deletion would be, “XYZ tastes better.”
5. The Conversational Postulate This is one of the most effective tools you can use to influence someone’s decision-making process. It’s a great way to pace a pitch or a presentation and lead a prospect to a desired outcome, which has been employed by some of the world’s top sales performers. In using the Conversational Postulate, you phrase any questions you plan to ask your prospect such that they may only be answered with a “Yes” or a “No”. This tool is powerful because numerous studies have shown that people are more likely to answer “Yes” after five to seven consecutive “Yesses”. Using this pattern consistently throughout a presentation can help you to lead your prospect towards closing the deal. When used with caution and discretion, these five tools can take your ability to influence and persuade your prospects and clients to the next level. With regular practise, you should be able to get outstanding results in no time.

Let a Sales Coach Show You How

Knowing the five powerful language patterns is one thing; knowing how and when to use them is quite another. To help you make sure that you are using the patterns in the best way possible, and that the patterns are aligned with your sales strategy plan, a sales coach can be your guide. Your sales coach can give you pointers for working the patterns into your presentations, and take you through possible scenarios where using the patterns will come naturally and won’t come off as forced or contrived. The use of these Milton Model patterns can be included on your list of sales strategies, and before long, are bound to make it to your list of sales techniques that work. Coupled with strategic sales training that will show you how you can use storytelling and walk you through the use of a consultative selling framework, these language patterns have the potential to revolutionise your sales career.

Get in touch with us at Jacky Lim to find out how you can boost your confidence, win the hearts of your prospects, achieve your personal and business goals, and raise your overall sales game today.