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“Every system is perfectly designed to get the results it gets.”

~ Donald Berwick

Why You Have the Sales Results You Do

Read that quotation again… slowly.

You may not like the message, but the truth is that the results you are getting are directly related to the sales system you are implementing.

In my NLP Master Practitioner Certification courses, I teach a powerful tool known as strategy elicitation. I introduce this by talking about the strategies / habits / systems people implement in daily life without recognising them. Almost everyone has a particular way of doing things ranging from the way you dry yourself after bathing, or get into bed, to the way you design complex electrical systems or plan a trip into space.

Whether you recognise it or not, you have a sales system. The question you need to ask is: “Does my sales system deliver the results I want?”

What to Do If You Don’t Like Those Results

Some of my clients, especially corporate sales managers who delegate their team development to me, respond to the question with, “You’ve got to be kidding! Of course not!” or words to that effect.

Other clients are more nuanced, “Not always” or “There are some gaps.” Or even: “I’m getting good results – better than my competitors – but I know I can do more!”

That’s why they’re talking to me… Their existing sales system isn’t delivering what they really want.

When we dig deeper it’s obvious that either their system is ‘random sales acts’ or they have some aspects of their system that are either sub-optimal or destructive.

Once you are aware that your system is letting you down to some degree, you will see things you can change. Try this exercise:

1. Document your existing processes for:

  • Identifying prospects
  • Piquing their interest
  • Making contact
  • Nurturing the sale
  • Closing the sale
  • On-boarding clients
  • Seeking referrals and recommendations
  • Following up lost opportunities
  • Seeking the next sale

2. Analyse these processes and find the gaps;
3. Fill the gaps.

You’ll be surprised at how effectively following this process to the letter transforms your results and shifts them closer to the results you want. You may also be shocked by what you learn about yourself and your team.

This is not a process for the faint-hearted or those who do not like facing unpleasant realities. It is a process for those who want to accelerate both the value and the volume of their sales.

Is Your Sales System Future-Proof?

If there’s one thing this pandemic has taught sales teams, it’s that you need to build systems for both nurturing existing prospects and finding new ones. It has also exposed massive holes in many businesses’ sales systems.

When the economy was riding high, sales and leads flowed almost effortlessly – as tensions have risen, the atmosphere has changed… And so have the stakes.

If your sales pipeline is overly dependent either on existing business or new leads and you don’t have an effective system that balances the two extremes (and many individual sales people do not) then you are at the mercy of the economy and other outside factors.

Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact

This is my flagship program that helps you build the sales systems you need to close sales and fill your pipeline both now and in the future.

There are two facets of this: a small group program for individual business owners or small teams to attend where we work to master the principles and gather the tools required to create effective systems for each area of your sales process. The end result is a sales system that works for you and delivers the outcomes you are looking for.

Alternatively, I offer an in-house version for sales teams where the focus is specifically on analysing and refining your existing sales systems and building cohesive sales teams that deliver extraordinary results.

“As sure as the spring will follow the winter, prosperity and economic growth will follow recession.”

~ Bo Bennett

When Money Flows Up Hill...

Since recovering from the GFC, world economies were on a steady upward curve. By early 2020, unemployment had hit record lows in most of the western world and it was pretty much a job seeker’s dream.

Venture Capital along with both personal or business credit were readily available and small businesses of many kinds were able to establish themselves and build respectable incomes with little or no marketing and very little risk.

That all changed with the global pandemic.

First it was hospitality and travel, then retail, workplaces, schools and almost everything else was either closed or forced online. Suddenly, many businesses were forced to reconsider their economic viability and re-evaluate their strategy, pricing, product offerings and (especially) their marketing and sales strategies.

Just like most other areas of life, a challenging economy is uncomfortable because it asks us to change with no certainty of success. That’s why it’s important to remember that these things go in cycles… and beyond the short term stress are exciting opportunities even if you can’t yet see them.

Responding to Challenge and Change

Our response to economic contraction is very similar to any other form of change – except that we often have very little choice about whether to face it or not. Understanding what is happening and how to respond can speed the (usually) painful process of loss, acceptance, and renewal.

If you look at the following diagram you will see that once we fall into the chasm, we often have to make several attempts before we can climb out on the other side breathless, bruised, strengthened, and with a sense of justified pride.

Some of your peers are still standing fearfully on the edge of the cliff, miserable yet unwilling to jump and trust themselves to overcome the challenge, others were pushed off the cliff and now dangle helplessly with no idea what to do next.

You, however, had the courage and initiative to make your way out on the other side and your horizons are wider than ever before. While you look around and start to make your way forward you call back encouragement and advice to the others and give them a vision to strive for and even pointing them to the handholds on the wall of the chasm.

Universal Model Of Change 1030x796

The Universal Model of change

What Does it Take to Set Yourself up for Success in Any Economy

There are three essential areas that you need to consider (and revisit regularly) if you want to look at your life with any lasting sense of satisfaction:

  1. The kind of person you are and want to become;
  2. The things you want to have; and
  3. The achievements you want to attain and the legacy you want to leave behind.

Your specific answers to these will differ depending on your personal goals and values, but there are a few universal success markers including:

  • Specific goals and dreams in all three areas of your life;
  • Willingness to do the work it will take to achieve these goals;
  • Openness to change and growth in order to learn new skills and do new things;
  • Awareness of your fixed principles and boundaries and a willingness to enforce them even if they seem to stand in the way of your goals;
  • Accurate thinking about each situation and the barriers and opportunities it presents;
  • Consistent readiness to find people and organisations who need your skills, services, and products and to promote yourself to them;
  • Systems for every aspect of your business;
  • Confidence in your ability to figure things out.

If you consistently act in accordance with these markers, then you will be set up to succeed no matter what is going on around you.

The Magic of Selling Without Resistance in Any Economy

When the economy is expanding it is relatively easy to sell. When confidence is shaky and the economy is contracting it is essential to have systems for every aspect of your business sales and customer service areas so that you can attract and nurture a steady stream of qualified prospects.

Building and strengthening these systems is the focus of the Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact which is both a public and an in-house training course. The course takes place online and is a combination of personal exercises, recorded prestudy sessions, and weekly live interactive discussions which wrestle with both the theory and application taught.

If you are struggling to fill your pipeline or realise that qualified prospects are escaping through the cracks in your business then this program may be just what you need either for yourself, or for your sales team.

Visit https://bit.ly/CC-90days to learn more.

“Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.”

~ Seth Godin

The Key to Sales is Not Building a Better Mousetrap, but Presenting a Bigger Mouse

Lest us start by summarising the baseline assumptions on which effective long term sales careers are based:

  • Your goal is not ‘a sale today at any cost’ but to enter into a potential long term relationship that serves both the business and the customer;
  • You believe that the product or service you are selling has value to the right customer;
  • It is not your responsibility to decide whether the prospect can afford to buy, but to present the argument for doing so;

That said, in a booming economy making sales is relatively easy whereas a tight economy demands more imagination, vision, and skill… but also present more opportunity as well as other businesses recognise their own need to work smarter.

When a business owner or buyer is staring disaster in the face they are willing to spend almost any amount of money on an effective solution. You may assume that the person you are talking to is acutely aware of the problems they are facing and don’t need to be reminded, but hurrying through the process of painting the picture of the problem they are facing and its implications will slow down (or derail) the sale.

Determining Need

A master salesperson knows better than to try and sell ice to Eskimos. Selling a prospective customer a solution that won’t really address their urgent problems but will absorb resources that ought to be invested elsewhere is bad practice.

Amateurs (and the truly desperate) show up at a business with a product and do their best to sell that item even when they realise that it’s not meeting a pressing need. Of course, it’s the buyers decision in the end, but if you can see that your solution is not the most effective answer, then you’ll win trust and respect by pointing that out.

How do you determine your prospect’s need?

By asking appropriate questions that probe their motivations and also address associated problems that your prospect may not realise are linked to their most visible need.

Motivating Hunger

My book Confident Closing: Sales secrets that grew a business by 400% in six months and how they can work for you! was originally titled “Feeding Salt to Horses”. The premise behind that title was that while you can lead a horse to water, but not make it drink, if you feed him salt he will drink willingly.

As a sales person you face a similar problem: you can’t make a prospect buy, but if you mix emotional triggers in with your reasons and keep the vision of their ‘giant mouse’ front and centre they will buy willingly. Not only will they buy willingly, they’ll also feel a sense of relief as they sign the contract.

Creating Urgency

Have you ever talked to a prospect and truly known that they have a pressing need for your product or service – but then seen them dither about actually saying “Yes”.

I used to see this before I refined my tools for setting up the sale properly. It’s one of the most depressing feelings that has nothing to do with wanting to close the sale and everything to do with wanting my prospects to get the results they desire and need. If you see that your prospect has a genuine need for your product, then it’s your responsibility to create that level of urgency by identifying the negative consequences of not taking immediate action.

Disarming Resistance

It is so much easier to make decisions when you are:

  • Acutely aware of your current pain – and the potential danger you face if you don’t address the problem;
  • Emotionally attracted to an alternative future where the problem is solved and the pain has vanished;
  • Logically satisfied that this is an excellent solution provided by a trustworthy partner;
  • Impressed by the dangers of doing nothing and letting the problem slide; and
  • Faced with an urgent deadline.

At this point you have three choices:

  1. Live with the problem;
  2. Find an alternative solution and evaluate it;
  3. Take the solution you’ve been offered.

However, IF you have built your sales presentation and customer experience carefully, THEN you will already have created trust and respect in your prospect to such an extent that they really only have a single option: to place their trust in your solution and take action.

Discover The Magic of Selling Without Resistance in Any Economy

My live webinar The Magic of Selling Without Resistance in Any Economy demonstrates the principles of setting up this kind of sale. It’s especially important to understand this process when you are facing an uncertain economy.

Visit: https://bit.ly/sales-magic to learn more and register for the next session.

“The greatest discovery of our generation is that human beings can alter their lives by altering their attitudes of mind. As you think, so shall you be.”

~ William James

Are You REALLY Getting Closer to the Life of Your Dreams?

Time is one of the most powerful creative forces… And one of the most powerful destructive forces. It all depends how you use it.

I could dive deep into the philosophy of growth and decay… But I want to focus on the change you can control so I’ll just say it briefly:

“Every day, you are either moving closer to your dreams or further away. It all depends on the direction in which you are heading. Time can increase the effect of your choice, but you control the direction.”

If you are letting the days slide by without taking deliberate actions – both large and small – to move in the direction you choose then time is not your friend. You know it’s true. You can see it reflected in your:

  • Fitness
  • Weight
  • Education
  • Career or Business
  • Income
  • Wealth
  • House (maintenance and cleanliness)…

You get the idea. If you just let any of these areas go, they usually decline.

The same is true when it comes to building the life of your dreams: it won’t happen without discipline and direction.

Do You Even Know What You Want?

I was talking to a friend the other day about this. Ellie is a successful VP who is earning a great salary, has lots of perks, plenty of room to move up the ladder, a partner who adores her…

BUT when she looks at her life she says to herself, “Is this all there is?”

I asked her what she really wanted and she shrugged and said, “I don’t know. I just know that what I have isn’t enough. You’re probably going to say that I ought to be grateful for having so much and stop complaining… Or write in a gratitude journal or something, Chandell. Please don’t.”

Now that’s a problem!

We’ll come back to Ellie later, but first I want to tell you about Seth. Seth had truly made himself a success. He was the first person in his family to go to university (his father was in and out of prison while he grew up) and he completed his Law degree with high honours. He quickly rose up in his top tier law firm  and he was on the fast track to partnership (a long-term goal of his).

One day he looked around at all he had made for himself: career, relationship, wealth, opportunity, hobbies, respect… And said, “Is this all there is?”

And… one of Seth’s hobbies is hiking. Not just anywhere, but hiking in the mountains where the distant view is always more alluring than the near view.

Seth applied that understanding to set a next goal for himself – not an ultimate goal, but a next goal. He could have said to himself, “I’ve arrived and it’s not all it cracked up to be.” But he didn’t. Instead he took control of his future and the attitudes of his mind.

You Don’t Need to Stay Where You Are!

Wherever you are today and however you feel about that, you don’t need to spend the rest of your life in that place (and I’m using ‘place’ to cover mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual options). You can change and you really don’t need anyone to help you (although a mentor or coach is often a tremendous benefit.

You don’t even need to relocate physically to create momentum and direction in your life. You just need to make that mental switch from a ‘victim’ (with a long list of reasons why), to a ‘victor’ with a short list of things to do and an even shorter list of attitudes to cultivate!

It’s NOT (Just) About Gratitude!

Don’t get me wrong – I’m not against gratitude journals and I think about things I’m grateful for every day and usually write them down. Gratitude won’t help you reach for the stars, though. It’s more likely to keep you earthbound unless you are careful because energy flows where attention goes and if you focus too much on being grateful for what you have, you won’t take the next step.

As Ellie and I continued our conversation she realised that she simply wasn’t all that interested in the next step on the corporate ladder. It wasn’t that she couldn’t do it, it was just that the higher she climbed the less she was involved in the parts of her work she loved.

By the time we finished that conversation she knew what she wanted… And she had a plan to get it… And her enthusiasm and vigour were back in full force.

Externally, nothing changed for Ellie. The change in her attitude has already started to bear fruit.

What About You?

Ellie went through a process called a H.O.W.T.O. Session with me. It’s a 90-minute paid session that brings clarity and helps you focus on what you really want so that you can make the decisions you need to make. In that short time, she was able to articulate and recognise what was really bothering her and do something about it.

If that sound like something you need you can book a session using the button below.

Book Your H.O.W.T.O Session

“Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill is one of the most influential books of the twentieth century. Hill inspired millions of people to step out of the misery or constraint of their existing circumstances and create a future full of unimaginable success, yet at one point he had to sell his typewriter to pay his bills and was rescued by a friend. Why?”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

It’s Not What You Know, It’s What You Do!

I work with many business owners and sales people who have invested heavily in their education and personal development and who have a deep knowledge of their subject, yet who are not seeing the results they anticipated. In fact, that’s why most of them come to me… they realise that they need accountability and coaching so that they can effectively implement the theory they already know.

One of the things that makes working with people so endlessly fascinating is our different strengths and preferences. I love ideas… and the thing that I love most about them is the possibilities they present for testing in real life.

When I first discovered the power of Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) I was fascinated by the theory because of the possibilities of its application in everyday life outside the training room. My response was to practice each technique in every possible situation and to master them all. It wasn’t until I went to my NLP Master Practitioner Certification that I realised how many people who had learned these same techniques had tucked them aside in the ‘knowledge’ part of their brain rather than using them.

The problem with this approach is that your unused knowledge is as effective as ignorance in creating desirable outcomes – that is to say, if you have knowledge but don’t apply it, you might just as well have conserved the time, energy, and money you spent acquiring it.

The Positive Power of Ideas

Ideas are the lifeblood of your personal growth and success. Just as you need to have blood constantly pumping through your body oxygenating and detoxifying your cells, you need a steady flow of ideas to oxygenate and detoxify your business and career so that you remain engaged and flexible.

There’s an old saying: “If your output exceeds your intake then your upkeep will be your downfall,” that applies to many areas of life. It’s certainly true when it comes to the flow of ideas into your professional life. I’m a big fan of developing habits and routines to take the pressure off your willpower but you also need to mix in some new ideas to keep things fresh.

It’s important for every professional to keep learning and growing and to tap into ideas outside your own specialty because that will make you even more effective.

The Persistent Power of Implementation

If ideas are the lifeblood of health and growth, comprehensive implementation and action are the secret of success. Napoleon Hill was a very gifted man whose teaching has revolutionised many lives and who taught the importance of acting as well as thinking. At one stage he was not only highly respected, but also extremely wealthy… Then he lost everything and was rescued from destitution by once of his own students. In an interview later in life he made the following comment, “I defined 17 principles of success and taught others the principle of saving, but I forgot to apply it rigorously myself. In the end omitting to practice just one of these principles cost me everything.”

I’ve worked with business owners who were doing many things right, yet not seeing the success they anticipated. It turned out that the one or two minor things they ignored were their downfall. When they implemented just one or two missing elements consistently everything changed.

If you’ve ever been tempted to say, “I know that already!” when you talked to someone about your problems in life or business, then you’re in good company… It’s what the majority of average people say (and how they act).

BUT… I’d like to challenge you: Are you doing everything you know? Most people aren’t. Successful people are those who recognise that they need help with implementation and find a coach or mentor who will ask the difficult questions and provide the impetus to implement consistently, persistently, and effectively not just in the areas they are naturally drawn to, but across every area of business and life.

Confident Conversion: 90 days to More Cash, More Clients, More Impact

Specially designed for business owners and sales professionals who want to increase their professional standing and impact as well as their income and profitability this course covers the essential foundations that you need to implement effectively and provides accountability and useful tools so you can achieve this easily and effortlessly.

“The root cause of all our problems is our unconscious mind, and the beliefs and behaviours that we store there.  The real problem here is that they are unconscious so it’s very hard to pinpoint them and change them.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

The Root Cause of Your Discontent

“I’ve been passed over again!” Samantha’s voice was shaking with anger and frustration. “It doesn’t matter how good my results are, this *** idiot won’t let me move ahead… she’s just like my last manager!”

Samantha is an effervescent extrovert – she is so bubbly that she scares some people. As a high-performing sales professional, this is great because it doesn’t matter how many rejections she gets, she’s always ready to get up and go again. However, she scares off some prospects and her managers sometimes mistake her enthusiasm for naivety and that was holding back her career. This was the fourth time she had been passed over by a manager because of her vivacity and charm and she was desperate for a solution.

During our coaching sessions she quickly realised that while she was genuinely effervescent, she amped it up unconsciously because, as a child she had always been praised for that characteristic. Once she became aware of that, it didn’t take long before she learned how to read and respond to other people better and find more effective ways of communicating with them appropriately.

Because she was truly interested in finding solutions to people’s problems, she quickly learned how to read her prospects better over the phone or in person and to tone down her effervescence when needed and close more sales. Incidentally, that was the last time she was passed over for a promotion.

The Resourcefulness Within You

“You don’t know what you don’t know,” and until you can see a problem it’s very difficult to find effective solutions.

Samantha honestly never realised that her bubbly personality was a learned response to praise.  She didn’t change her personality as much as allow the other side which had always been hidden to shine through. Using some Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) skills for building rapport and strengthening relationships she learned to read other people better and find ways of making them comfortable.

She was excited about the fact that she was able to close nearly twice the number of sales, but she was far more excited by the fact that she was able to build a closer relationship with both her sister and her own son – both of whom were introverts. They’d always got on fairly well, but now they were actually enjoying being together.

Each of us has a unique personality and gifts and we naturally lean more towards people who are similar to ourselves. That’s fine, but it can also be limiting… especially in a business context… UNLESS we deliberately cultivate the skills we need to communicate and work effectively with people who are quite different to us and have their own special contribution to make.

If you find yourself encountering similar situations repeatedly, it’s important to define what is creating them. Often, you have unconscious habits and thought patterns that are triggering other people’s reactions… habits and thought patterns that you have the power to change once you are aware of them. If left untended, these become roadblocks to progress and satisfaction.

Changing Direction and Creating Momentum

I firmly believe that each of us have all the resources we need to make a success of both our business and our personal lives – it’s just that sometimes we get caught up in ways of thinking and behaving that mess us up over and over again.

In a way, we hate to hear this because we like to think that our problems are unique and that’s why we can’t move past them, but if you think about it differently, this reality is quite comforting: – If others have found a tool that helps them change, then I can too.  I don’t need to stay ‘stuck’ in my problem!

The root cause of all our problems lies in our unconscious mind, and the beliefs and behaviours that we store there.  Since they are unconscious, it’s very hard to pinpoint and change them.  When I attended my first Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) training I’d been seeing a psychologist to help with depression for months and going over the same pile of misery every week.  Yet, just 7 short days of training completely transformed my outlook, and I’ve seen the same thing happen over and over again in others.

The key is that while Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP) doesn’t teach that your past isn’t important, it does teach that you are not bound by your past and it delivers the tools you need to release the chains that are holding you to your old ways.  It is almost like magic!

Getting Unstuck

For Samantha, the key was our H.O.W.T.O. Session and some subsequent Time Line Therapy® work which showed her the root cause of her behaviour and then set her free to develop the flexibility of communication she needed to move forward. Other people have found similar freedom by discovering the unconscious beliefs and behaviours that keep them trapped in a business cycle of feast and famine, or in a life of poverty, a career or relationship that is stifling their dreams or some kind of addiction or co-dependency. However, while awareness is foundational for transformation, freeing yourself from the emotional traps you set for yourself and accessing the inner resources you need to move forward are also crucial.

If you’d like help with this book a H.O.W.T.O. Session now. You’ll be amazed at how different you feel when you free yourself from the baggage you’ve been unconsciously accumulating for years!

Book Your H.O.W.T.O. Session

“In most Sales Teams there is a predominance of either hunters or farmers. This usually reflects the preference of the Sales Manager and is one cause of poor sales results.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

What Do Hunters and Farmers Have to Do With Sales Anyway?

There are two primary types of sales people:

Hunters:

As the term suggests, these people love to talk to new prospects and close sales. They are fantastic at conjuring sales almost out of thin air. Metaphorically speaking, they’re the ‘find and kill’ sales people. They are happy to cold call total strangers, move quickly into a compelling sales pitch, and often walk away with a sale or definite appointment. However, they’re not so good at nurturing relationships over time and turning following up prospects who are not ready to buy.

Farmers:

In contrast to the hunters, farmer-type sales people prefer to talk to people who have expressed interest. They often stretch out the sales cycle and their sales results may be lower. Their approach to sales is more ‘tend and harvest’. Farmer-types find cold calling repellant and, not surprisingly, they rarely get around to doing it. On the other hand, they are endlessly patient and persevering when it comes to following up prospects, staying in touch until they are ready to buy.

However, the exciting thing is that anyone can learn to be a hybrid by studying the opposite mode of sales and you can also build a power team that incorporates both styles.

What Difference Does it Make to my Business?

Both hunters and farmers can be stellar sales people who accelerate your business’s profitability and growth. In fact, high-performing sales teams need a balance of the two types for best results. However, teams frequently lean toward one type or the other because sales managers usually prefer to hire people with the same sales style as themselves.

Here’s the problem: some qualified prospects are ready to buy and make decisions quickly, others are not yet ready to buy either because the timing isn’t right, or because they like to make decisions slowly. Both types of buyers are qualified, but their timelines are different.

If you put a farmer-type sales person in front of prepared and decisive buyers, they may get frustrated while waiting for the contract to appear and give up. If you put a hunter-type in front of a buyer who needs time to think things over, the buyer may feel pressured and simply tune out.

Swap out your sales people and match them with the buyer-types and your outcomes will be quite different.

Do You Know Whether Your Sales Team is Made up of Hunters or Farmers?

Identifying the sales style of your current sales team members is an important first step in transforming your results. The second step is helping each person to grow their sales skills and awareness.

I’ve noticed that some sales people hold the ‘my way is the highway’ attitude. Their thinking goes as follows: “because in the past I have delivered stellar sales using my approach and outperformed other team members this is the best way of selling our product.”

The problem is, this attitude works until it doesn’t…

  • A shift in the economy;
  • A change in personnel (in your company, or your clients’);
  • Developments in technology;

…Or any other transformation can put a damper on sales.

In NLP we say that the person with the most flexibility controls the system. The application of this principle to sales would say:

The person with the most flexible sales repertoire controls business growth and the short-term future of the company.

The exciting thing about this is that sales strategies, and the communication and rapport strategies that underly them can be learned and developed IF your team members are willing to grow.

Knowledge is Power

Understanding the characteristic sales styles of people on your sales team is crucial for growth and prosperity. As a sales manager, knowing your own preferences is also important so that you can balance out your natural prejudices when you hire new people.

You also need to recognise whether your key people are open to developing new skills in the opposite area or, at least, appreciating their own weaknesses. It’s fine to have specialist hunters and farmers as long as they’re prepared to say, “This prospect would be better suited to your sales style than mine.” This way, your business can reap the benefits of both approaches and close more sales.

In-House Sales Training & Assessment

Would you like some expert help evaluating and empowering your sales team so that you can improve results, increase morale, and extend the skills of every member of your team?

Sometimes an objective and skilled outsider can see potential, problems, and solutions and provide a perspective that no one inside the organisation can match.

If you’re interested, email support@lifepuzzle.com.au to ask about our In-House Sales Training & Assessment program and we’ll send your our questionnaire and schedule a call.

“An idea is a feat of association, and the height of it is a good metaphor.”

~Robert Frost

What are Metaphors in NLP?

To avoid confusion, let’s start with a common definition of metaphor that you probably encountered in your high school literature class:

“A metaphor is a figure of speech that describes an object or action in a way that isn’t literally true, but helps explain an idea or make a comparison.”

Your teacher probably went on to demonstrate this with examples of famous metaphors – mostly pithily stated and highly memorable phrases. This is good as far as it goes, but NLP draws on a far older form of metaphor in which example and teaching are embedded in stories that shaped how people were to think about:

  • Friendship;
  • Citizenship;
  • Marriage;
  • Love;
  • Riches;
  • Fame;
  • Adversity;
  • Opposition;
  • Etc.

If you want to see how metaphor works in this way, think about the ancient texts that were used to teach children how to live and grow and respond to their world even more than as tools of literacy. You’re thinking of Homer, Vergil, the Bible, Confucius, the Koran, even Harry Potter and Lord of the Rings, and the oral traditions that permeate many pre-literate societies.

This is metaphor… a powerful tool for shaping hearts, minds, and behaviours.

How Metaphors Inspire and Support Change

Metaphors are stories that capture the imagination and harness the will.

In some cultures, stories are forbidden… unless they are part of the received tradition. This is an acknowledgement of the transformative power of story because this response is based on fear, and people fear power, not impotence.

Fiction is not frivolous. It is dangerous when it comes to inspiring change. It’s why news broadcasters and politicians zoom in on stories rather than statements to communicate their message. It’s also a very powerful agent of deep-seated behavioural change that authorities know they should censor and handle with great care because most stories have unintended consequences.

Taking Willpower out of the Transformation Equation

Most of us can remember stories that we were told as children. Some of us were also banned from reading or hearing certain books or stories because well-meaning adults (rightly) feared that we would be subconsciously influenced by them.

But what about the possibility that we could strategically use stories as metaphors that guided us down a chosen path, tools that would carry us forward when our courage or will-power flagged? That is how NLP teaches us to use metaphors for ourselves and for those whom we are coaching or working with.

Like any powerful tool, metaphors have potential to do harm as well as good which is why it’s important to think them through carefully and examine them from many angles before presenting them to a client.

Building or Choosing Metaphors

The principles of building or selecting a metaphor that will help you or your client achieve the desired outcome is fairly straightforward:

  1. Identify the sequence of behaviour or events that you would like to change;
  2. Consider the individual’s consistent behaviours and sequence them carefully;
  3. Identify the desired new outcomes and choices;
  4. Anchor the past and future behaviours in the client’s model of the world and establish clear connections between the client’s situation and the story;
  5. Establish new resources in the client’s mind that will help them engage with the story and create their own identification and momentum;
  6. Resolve the metaphor with some degree of ambiguity and use appropriate verbal cues to ensure continued openness.
  7. Test your metaphor to ensure that there are no hidden pitfalls that could create undesirable outcomes.

When you have mapped out steps 1-3, often you will find an existing metaphor that fits your purpose and only requires some slight additions and tweaks. Once you discover the power of metaphors, you will find more ways of crafting and using them in your own life, as well as for others.

Are You a Candidate for NLP Mastery Academy?

Have you always wanted to dive more deeply into the powerful applications of the NLP techniques and teachings for everyday life than your certification course or books enabled.

The biggest challenge that most students of NLP face isn’t learning what the techniques are. It’s discovering how to use them to empower themselves and others at work, at home, and at school to increase energy and enhance their performance, relationships, and results.

We have developed a ground-breaking course that meets fortnightly to learn and practice NLP  techniques and explore their application so hat we will see the positive effects in all areas of life.

If you’re interested in learning more about this course, email support@lifepuzzle.com.au Use this subject: “Please tell me more about the NLP Mastery Academy” and tell us about your goals and NLP background in the email.

“Ideas confer power, and power causes change.”

~ Chandell Labbozzetta

Do You Believe That a Solution Exists Even if You Can’t See One?

Emily was immersed in her problems and believed that the only possible to solution was to endure her situation (with no end in sight) or take her own life. She was so convinced that this was true that it never even occurred to her to speak to anyone about any of the things that were going on at home or at work.

Her manager had invited me to run an in-house NLP course for his executive and sales team and during one of the exercises her state of mind was revealed. We were talking about finding solutions to problems and the ways in which people respond when they lose hope in the possibility of a solution. I noticed that Emily, who had been engaged throughout the course, was suddenly hyper-attentive as I taught about using linguistic techniques to explore new approaches to familiar problems and as we moved into an exercise I kept a close ear on her group.

The exercise they were doing involved an observer, a practitioner, and a subject who presented a problem. Emily started out as the observer, then went on to display a great deal of skill as the practitioner, before taking her turn as the subject. The problem she shared with the group was clearly a genuine problem, but equally clearly only the teensiest glimpse of the underlying issue.

At the end of the exercise, she asked if we could talk privately.

As she told me, “I suddenly realised when I heard you teach this topic that I was trapped in my own thinking. When I used the technique you taught on Sam and then experienced it myself, I wondered if I was missing something about my situation and I started to believe that there must be a solution to my problem that I hadn’t thought of yet.”

Realising that a constructive and creative  solution must exist gave Emily the hope she needed to look at her situation differently.

You Cannot Solve a Problem with the Level of Thinking that Created It

If we look at history… The history of nations, science, civilisation, economics, social, fashion… it’s easy to see that everything runs along pretty much unchanged and then suddenly something comes from outside and the thinking and solutions leap forward into a new state of normal.

It’s easier to see when we look back than when we are bang smack in the centre of a crisis which is why history is such a potent teacher.

At this very moment, we are caught up in a storm of crises that threaten us with potential drastic consequences. As long as we rely on the kind of thinking that created them we will be stuck in a cycle of one-step-forward-two-steps-back consequences so we need to look outside the traditional approaches.

This takes courage. It takes openness to change and to the possibility that we might need to think quite differently in many areas of life. Often, this doesn’t happen until people are truly desperate… Or until they come into contact with people who have already developed a different approach and ‘jumped out of the box’.

Finding Effective Solutions

The main reason why truly successful people in all areas of life hire coaches is so they can access a different level of thinking and solution-finding.

“You don’t know what you don’t know.” – and ignorance will always limit our progress, our possibilities, and (often) our dreams. We cannot see our own blind spots and so we constantly need to be exposed to people who will challenge our

  • Thinking & mindset;
  • Habits & behaviour;
  • Goals & dreams;
  • As well as the underlying assumptions.

Your current way of thinking has brought you to this place of awareness that there is something more… a problem to be solved. You need outside help to help you find and implement the solution.

That help can come from:

  • Books and media
  • Courses
  • Peers
  • Mentors
  • Coaches

Your choice will be influenced by the urgency of your need for a solution, your other commitments, and your resources. Any of the above solutions can be effective, the principle goal is to open yourself to *new approaches and new ways of thinking that are outside of your current ones.

 *“NEW” here, does not necessarily refer to temporal recency. It is new-to-you-thinking. Some of the most transformative out-of-the-box thinking is based on ancient wisdom.

NLP Mastery Academy

On June 15th 2020 we’re starting our first online NLP Mastery Academy group intended to empower students to dive more deeply into the powerful applications of the NLP techniques and teachings for everyday life.

The biggest challenge that most students of NLP face isn’t learning what the techniques are. It’s discovering how to use them to empower themselves and others at work, at home, and at school to increase energy and enhance their performance, relationships, and results. As we meet fortnightly to learn or refresh our knowledge about the techniques and explore their uses we know that we will see the positive effects in all areas of life.

If you’re interested in learning more about this course, email support@lifepuzzle.com.au Use this subject: “Please tell me more about the NLP Mastery Academy” and tell us about your goals and NLP background in the email.

For every complex problem there is an answer that is clear, simple, and wrong.”

~H.L. Mencken

The Danger of Agreeable People

I like spending time with people who share my perspectives on life, success, and various other key topics… And I bet you do too!

There is nothing wrong with listening to and learning from people with whom you are philosophically aligned. There is a problem, however, if those are the only people’s views you ever hear because when everyone is saying the same thing, you don’t even question the underlying assumptions. Not only do you miss opportunities to stay ahead of the wave, you also miss important insights into the strengths, weaknesses and sales opportunities in front of you.

Please note: I’m not talking about the type of people who simply stir up controversy for the sake of argument, but those who have a different perspective and view.

Influence AND Independence

It’s part of human nature to spend most of our time listening to the same people (usually ones we agree with, sometimes people who make us angry).

BUT… It’s also dangerous because when we listen to someone we give them influence over us. As the proverb says, “If all you have is a hammer, then every problem is a nail.” It’s not a particularly effective strategy for a carpenter, it’s a disaster for a business owner.

We all have our preferred mentors, experts we follow, strategies we adhere to… And that’s essential. However, it’s also important for each of us to make sure we protect ourselves against the dangers inherent in our own selected echo chamber by exposing ourselves to other opinions and perspectives so that we can see past our unspoken assumptions.

The difference may not be reflected in our behaviour or strategy. It is definitely reflected in our confidence and results.

How is This Possible?

Strategically, it’s important to have clarity and perseverance.

That’s why it’s important to have a guiding influencer (or pool of influencers) who share your strategy. If you don’t you’ll end up zig-zagging all over the place or (even worse) ending up in the classic ‘two-steps forward, one-step back’ situation because you’ll lack any real compass.

Tactically and philosophically you need to be listening to people from outside your echo chamber. It doesn’t matter whether you agree with them or not, listening to their position with an open mind will shine a spotlight on your prejudices and clarify your response… You may even learn something new that will set you on a unique path.

When I realise that everyone in most of the groups I’m in is talking approvingly (or even reverently) about the same people, ideas, and books I start to feel uncomfortable because the natural end-result is another set of identical approaches. Then, I know it’s time to pay attention to ‘those idiots on the other side’… That person or group who has a substantial following that my people think is unbelievably stupid.

There is always someone like that… Pick any context: politics, climate change, covid-19 response, crime and punishment – or any other topic because most people like to operate in a binary world for simplicity’s sake. The reality is that ‘the other side’ also has a philosophical and rational base (with which you disagree) and some potential solutions (which you might be able to use).

The very worst outcome is that you end up with more reasons to confidently promote your own solution.

Where Do New Ideas Come From?

New ideas rarely materialise from thin air.

New ideas never come when you copy your competitors or models.

New ideas DO come when you look outside your industry and see how other people solve similar problems.

For example:

  • McDonald’s drive through windows was borrowed from US banks;
  • Agile project management in IT was borrowed from Toyota;
  • Lean manufacturing principles in almost every industry came from Toyota and Honda;
  • Ad Words and PPC advertising came from direct response mail-order;
  • Online shopping malls came from mail order catalogues;
  • Time Share Seminars came from the Insurance industry…

All of these borrowings created new opportunities outside the industry that conceived them and multiplied profits and sales. None of them happened when people just looked around their own echo chamber.

But I Don’t Like Arguing...

You don’t need to argue with anyone. All you need to do is to set aside your prejudices and preferences and listen. The more effectively you’ll do this the more you’ll be open to new ideas either for delivering your existing product or selling it.

I’ve lost count of the number of ideas and selling points this approach has brought my way over the years, but one of my clients applied a technique that she learned from her hairdresser to her accounting practice and increased the average annual client value by over 23%.

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