internal representation system Archives

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Understanding how people think isn’t just a good sales technique, it also is a great relationship-building skill that helps in all areas of your life!

I’ve already talked about how Internal Representation Systems (IRS) work and how identifying them can help you communicate better on many levels. This post is focused on identifying the vocabulary clues that reveal the preferred Internal Representation System of the person you are talking to.

One of the objections I often hear about developing rapport is that it is tricky to focus on your prospect’s argument while simultaneously trying to subtly match and mirror aspects of their behaviour, another is that it is impossible to do this when you are talking on the phone since you can’t see the person you are talking to. The exciting thing about using a person’s vocabulary to establish rapport is that it is relatively easy to pick up their preferred Internal Representation System and you can use it in every social situation (except possibly at a noisy party).

What Are the Major Internal Representation Systems?

Visual:

The Visual person focuses on visual predicates that reflect their visual perception of the world around them. You’ll hear visual words like:

See;
Look;
Show;
Reveal;
Illuminate;
Foggy;
Imagine;
Picture;
View;
Dawn;

Auditory:

The Auditory person focuses on the sounds of words, ideas, and proposals. They use words like:

Hear;
Listen;
Tune in (or out);
Ring a bell;
Silence;
Resonate;
Question;
Make music;
Deaf;
Sound;

Kinaesthetic:

The Kinaesthetic person is concerned about sensations and movement. Their vocabulary includes words like:

Hard;
Catch on;
Tap into;
Feel;
Solid;
Grasp;Touch;
Throw out;
Unfeeling;
Make contact;

Auditory-Digital:

The Auditory-Digital person engages in a lot of self-talk and internal processing and the vocabulary they use reflects that internal dialogue, with words like:

Know;
Process;
Consider;
Decide;
Understand;
Experience;
Learn;
Motivate;
Change;
Perceive;

Obviously this is not an exhaustive list, and you will rarely hear predicates drawn from just one representational system in a conversation that is more than a few minutes long, but if you keep your ears open for the general trends you will know which key words to focus on in your response to a prospect or client and you will find that your close rate improves dramatically.

After all, good sales people are constantly improving their skills, and one of the most vital skills in any sales situation is developing rapport with the other person – otherwise you end up with a high return rate once your prospects have a chance to get away from your overpowering personality.

Before we close, I’d like to remind you that your preferred Internal Representation System is not fixed. It can shift over time and even from day to day, so this is a guide, not a box to place yourself or others into. During Confident Closing workshops we use a short diagnostic test to help participants identify their preferred Internal Representation System, but we stress the importance of expanding your vocabulary, and becoming more flexible in this area of communication.

Meta Description: The words you use make up less than 10% of your total communication, yet they are powerful tool in building rapport and understanding the things that matter to your people within minutes of starting a conversation with them.

Book your complimentary 30-minute Discovery Session with Chandell.

By popular demand we have turned many of our multi-day workshops into multi-week online courses with a live day to kick them off. Learn more at https://businessgrowth.mykajabi.com/masteryoursales

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Maybe you never make a buying decision on the basis of your personal response to the sales person. I’ve had people say that to me, “All my business decisions are purely logical – I don’t need any of that rapport stuff!”

And the next words out of the mouth are, “No, there’s just something about Jim that I don’t trust.”

I’m not prejudiced against any particular type of person, but a kinaesthetic person has some unique features that make them fantastically successful when dealing with other kinaesthetic people, and not so successful with other types. So let me tell you about Bob, the Photocopier man.

I was working at an Event Management Company selling $50k—$60k sponsorships and we had some really great marketing material – but we were printing the promotional brochures out on a bubble jet printer and I said, “Listen – this is not cost effective and it doesn’t look good. You spent all this money (about $20k) designing this marketing material, would you please let me get a proper printer?”

He told me to go ahead, signed off on the budget, and I called up a photocopier company and asked them to send someone out because we were ready to buy a unit. I’d had previous experience with this brand at another company and knew that they were really reliable, and produced great results, so the only reason that I asked them to send someone out is because there were two very similar models and I could not work out what was the difference between them.

So Bob was their representative and the morning he was coming in I had a bit of a crisis. Three of my sales staff were sick, we had a big sponsorship meeting prepared and I was having to divide different appointments between people, and shuffle things around to get everything done that day with three people missing.

When Bob walked in I said, “Bob, it’s so great to have you here, thanks for coming, I had a bit of a crisis this morning, as it turns out I don’t have an hour to spend with you, I could probably do 15 minutes. But it’s okay because I’ve already decided to go ahead, I’ve got the budget signed off, I just need you to tell me what’s the difference between this model and this one.”

And Bob launches into his sales spiel, “Oh yes, Chandell, thanks for having me. Our company started in 19…”

So he got through about three pages in his compendium and I said, “No, I’m sorry to interrupt but I don’t think you understand – I’m ready to buy, the boss has signed off on the budget. All I need is for you to tell me what’s the difference between this model and the model with the E, because we’re ready to buy.”

“Oh yes, and you know our toners are all recycled …” He just talked and talked and completely failed to listen.

After 45 minutes of their history and how they dispose of the cartridges and everything else, I’m about to kill him. There was no way I was going to buy this machine because when you buy a machine from them, the person that sells it to you is also your account manager, and I was not going to deal with Bob every time we had a problem with the machine. So I thanked him for his time and I sent him on his merry way, picked up the phone and I called their competitor.

Bob lost a sale that he already had because he didn’t listen, and he didn’t give me what I wanted. All he could see was what he had been taught, and how he wanted to be sold to.

Meta Description: The sad story of how lack of understanding of internal representation systems lost a deal.

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I was about 14 when I started selling Nutrimetics to my friends at school. They were polite and sort of interested but I didn’t get many sales during lunch hour. A couple of them thought their Mums might be interested and held parties at home – and that was when my business really took off. I won sales awards, medals, and you name, it … but I also learned an important lesson – it’s much easier to sell to people who are thirsting for a solution, than to people who are just showing polite interest.

I took that lesson to heart and it helped me in all my later sales experiences – whether I was actually selling products or services, or sharing ideas. Polite interest just wastes your time, and the other person’s time as well. If you’re in a social situation then you can move on to other topics of interest. If you are in a business situation then polite interest just wastes your time, and robs you of other opportunities.

Don’t Be Afraid of ‘No’! - It Might Even Be Your Best Friend

It is far better to spend your time talking to people who have the problem your service solves and the money to spend on your solution, rather than with people who are just being polite – because after all, business is about sales, not just interest. That’s why it is always good to elicit a ’no’ response sooner rather than later if the person you are talking to is really not a good candidate for your product.

So, I don’t want to make people’s decisions for them, and I really want to give them the information they need – but how do I open the door so they are willing to listen.

5-Steps Sales Process That Works.

Establish Rapport. The easiest way to do this is to match and mirror their behaviour, or identify their preferred internal representation system and use that to communicate with your prospect. Without rapport, it’s harder to elicit the information you need to determine whether you and the prospect are actually a good fit, and if you don’t seem to be getting anywhere in establishing try to work out why.
Ask Questions. You can use questions to continue to build rapport but you are really listening carefully so that you learn about your prospect’s problems and concerns. You’ll be asking questions throughout the interview so that you can discover what they value, and what their decision-making process is, and trying to uncover their objections so that you’ve answered them effectively before you come to the point of closing the deal. These questions will help your prospect feel that they were heard, and they will help you know whether the person is actually a real candidate for your product.
Establish Value and Need. Your questions will have shown you whether this person actually need your product or service. At this point you are making some decisions on their behalf. If you realise that you can’t add enough value to this particular business for it to be worthwhile that’s okay – you can tell the other person how you feel and end the conversation. You never want to go into a deal so hungry that you need to get it at any cost. If you can’t add enough value to make it worthwhile for the prospect then you’re better off walking away. If you do make a deal under those circumstances neither of you will be happy with the outcome.
Propose Solution. Hopefully you’ve taken all the time you need to ask questions and listen to their answers, because by the time you get to this fourth step in the sales process you should be ready to propose your tailored solution succinctly and clearly. Your prospect should be nodding agreement at this point and demonstrating that they can see the value you are offering to them specifically. As you outline your solution the prospect should feel confident that it will solve their specific problem, not just be the package you happen to have in your cart ready to unload on them.
Seal the Deal. This is the final step in the process – whether it involves signing a contract or a verbal agreement. If you’ve done your job well, the outcome won’t be a surprise to either party because your will be offering your prospect a custom solution that will truly fit their needs.

I’ve taught this 5-step Sales Process to hundreds of people in corporate sales trainings and through my Confident Closing Workshops [LINK HERE] and I usually receive this kind of feedback: “By the time I actually proposed a solution I had all the information I needed to offer a tailored solution using my prospect’s terminology. Their ‘yes’ was almost instant and price became a non-issue.”

This 5-Step Sales Process is one of the easiest ways to move your closing rate from average (or below average), so astronomical – and it also takes the sting out of rejection. Most of the time, you’ve already determined that this person is not a good fit before they get as far as saying ’no’.

Meta Description: How to move your sale closing rate from average to astronomical with a simple 5-step process that doesn’t rely on scripts or programming

#TuesdayTips

What Are the Major Internal Representation Systems?

#TuesdayTips

#TuesdayTips

Don’t Be Afraid of ‘No’! - It Might Even Be Your Best Friend

5-Steps Sales Process That Works.

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