Can NLP really be found in sales and business?
I get asked this question a whole lot, and usually by individuals who have had a slight experience of neuro-linguistic programming. Usually, their experience has been around a coaching or therapeutic context, and so making the connections between that and a sales meeting can often be described as a challenge.
If you're not sure what NLP is, i'd like to give you a short description. In accordance with Wikipedia, "NLP is definitely an method of communication, personal development, and psychotherapy produced by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in California, United States in the 1970s."Since its original inception, it has been progressed into a series of tools and techniques that therapists may use to help their clients overcome issues such as for example phobias, fears and negative habits.
However, it was originally designed through modelling. Modelling is the method of identifying a skill someone does extremely well, and then breaking it down into it's constituent parts so that someone else might be able to replicate exactly the same process.
When we apply this to business, there are a lot of skills and behaviours that successful people undertake, so wouldn't it be good if we're able to understand what they do and teach it to others? That is one of many main areas that NLP pays to in business.
As an example, how can it be that some salespeople are simply able to obtain on with any client? They appear to be able to generate rapport out of nothing and within a few minutes have the prospect sharing information that a lot of salespeople never even get close to finding out. Is there a procedure or strategy they use every time they meet someone new that, if we're able to understand better, we might be able to use a number of the elements ourselves?
Or think about the executive who always has people thinking about her presentations? She manages to captivate everyone when presenting even the absolute most boring of topics, and when she gives people a call to action, they get fully up and go!
Or think about the HR executive that knows in the initial short while whether someone is going to be suited to employment role? Why do they ask such strange questions? What is it they are searching for in interviews that is not seen on the resume or CV?
They're just a couple of examples of how NLP can be useful in business.
NLP for salespeople can teach concepts such as for example rapport, communication patterns for improved questioning and how to know someone's motivation that will be helpful when closing.
NLP for executives can teach presentation tactics, conflict resolution and higher level communication that is essential when working with the vision of an organisation.
NLP for HR can teach about different personality profile types, just how to ask questions that may uncover motivations and also just how to conduct difficult conversations should things go wrong.
In the event that you are going to study NLP and want to use it in a small business context, here are a few tips to check out for.
- Is it a business-specific training course? Usually, business NLP courses will adapt the exercises to be more desirable in the workplace, rather than be completely therapeutic in nature.
- Does the trainer have business experience? Often the trainer will have no business or sales experience and will simply be trying to use exactly the same techniques from regular NLP which regularly doesn't work.
- Just how much experience do they have? is largely unregulated, despite a progressive qualifications ladder. However, some NLP trainers do have more experience than others, that may certainly help.
NLP can certainly be applied to business, and in particular, salespeople can learn so many communication techniques that will assist them inside their role. Buy a book, attend a class or watch a movie and start using NLP in sales and business today.
