PA: Yes … considering our marketing options at the time.
SP: What made you decide to buy from Solitar?
PA: (Eyes move up and left.) Well … as I said … Solitar looked good to us from our perspective at the time. We knew we could be comfortable with their overall price package and still get a foot in the market door with a moderately priced personal computer.
SP: Solitar components looked like they would fit the bill when you were just starting out with the ZX–12… . PA: That's right … Of course, that was before we'd established the marketing advantage we have now.. .. (Eyes move down and left, then shift to down and right.)
SP: (Picking up on kinesthetic accessing cue.) How did you feel about that?
PA: (Eyes remaining down and right.) Oh, I felt it was obviously the best move for the company at the time … so I approved that buying decision. (SP covertly anchors the decision point visually by lifting his eyebrow and making a hand gesture. SP now postulates that PA's buying strategy goes Ve→Vc→Aid→Ki→EXIT. That is, PA will look at SP's sales package proposal, construct an image of how SP's power semiconductors would fit into the ZX–12's competitive market situation, talk to himself about it, then get an internal feeling from his internal dialogue. SP then tests this postulate by asking about another buying experience.)
SP: The housing units that make the ZX–12 look so good — those are made by Zuniga aren't they?
PA: (Smiles.) Yes, they are. Our engineers designed them, and Zuniga manufactures them to our specifications. Zuniga's a good outfit.
SP: (Returns the smile.) They sure are. How did you decide to go with Zuniga?
PA: Well … (Smiles and shakes head) … as soon as we saw samples of the housing units they were making for Tricon portable TVs, I pictured how impressive the ZX–12 would look wrapped up in a package like that, and I just said to myself, "Zuniga's the right outfit to bring that off for us …" and I felt so strongly about that feature that I could hardly wait to get our engineering people working on design specs! (PA's eyes begin up and right, shift down and left, then down and right — confirmingng SP's postulate of PA's buying strategy. SP again anchors the decision point by lifting an eyebrow and making the same hand gesture as before.)
SP: (Opening his briefcase to begin his own presentation.) I'm sure that we can offer you an excellent price/quality package on power semiconductors for the ZX–12 power supply unit. (Lays out display material on PA's desk.) As you can see, these semiconductors outperform Solitar's. You might imagine how this component will lower your warranty repair and replacement costs and give you that extra edge on customer confidence, and you can say to yourself that the package is just right for ZX because … (lists features and benefits). It's a good solid feeling to know that with a more reliable power supply unit, using our semiconductors, you can push the ZX–12 marketing strategy to really build on what you've already accomplished. (As SP speaks, he paces the tonality and gestures that PA used while describing his strategy earlier and fires off anchors for the decision point by raising his eyebrow and gesturing with his hand.)
The salesperson has paced the buying strategy elicited from the customer in casual conversation. By packaging his presentation so that it paces the customer's natural decision making processes, it is much easier for the salesman to communicate the value of whatever product or service he is marketing. Because the presentation matches, step for step, the sequence that the customer naturally uses to gather, process and act on his experience, it is much more likely to fit the customer's needs, wants and expectations. Equally as important, it is much less likely to bring up objections or resistance. For those customers who have polarity steps in their strategy, though, objections will be an extremely important part of the pace. Salespersons should intuitively recognize this kind of strategy — where it is important that you actually try to discourage the customer from buying in order to make them want to buy. Some customers will also want to play devil's advocate and raise a number of objections before they are willing to buy.
If you make sure the person goes through each step and satisfies all of the tests within his strategy or TOTE for buying, the product will approach irresistability to the customer, regardless of what that product is.
This same procedure, of course, could be employed equally well by a sales executive attempting to convince the five members of the board of directors to buy a training package, organizational development package, or sales package, etc. The sales executive would want to gather information like "Have you bought a program like this before?" "Were you satisfied with it?" If not, "Did you think you were going to be?" "How did you make that decision?" As the group responds to these questions you will be able to gather information about how they make a decision as a group (in order to answer the questions they will make a decision about how they make decisions) and about how they make decisions individually. It is very helpful, when possible, to question each member of a group individually as well as observing the group function as a whole, because your presentation to each one is going to be different. Once you have identified the strategies of each person you mark out the portions of your overall presentation to him nonverbally through eye contact or by pacing his individual tonality, etc. (The amount of information you can gather on the strategies of the individuals and the group will depend on the amount of time you can spend and the degree of rapport you have with the group members.)
Consider the example of a woman sales executive, (S), who, by asking a few short questions and by observing the predicates and eye movements of the group members as they respond, determines that of the group of five (A,B,C,D and E) A and B have a decision point in their strategy that is primarily based on visual information; C has a decision point primarily based on auditory digital information; and D and E have decision points primarily based on internal kinesthetic information. S could structure her presentation as follows:
S: (Begins by marking out A and B by looking back and forth at them as she speaks, and by assuming the somewhat tense and nasal tonal qualities of A, and by gesturing unobtrusively toward each of them with her hands and fingers as she speaks.) I think that if you really look closely at the situation we've been discussing you will see that there is a clear need for this program … (S continues talking, using primarily visual predicates and descriptions, and also brings out visual aids and diagrams) … (S then changes her tonality to match the even tempoed and controlled voice of C, and shifts her eye contact to C) And I think it's very important to listen to what other people in this organization are saying. One of the first things that I had to ask myself was, "What does this situation have to say about where we are going as an organization?" … And I suddenly remembered what the president had once said about… (S continues talking, recoding what she has just essentially communicated to A & B substituting auditory predicates and examples.) … (S then begins to make eye contact with D and E and lowers her voice to match that of E) It's a great feeling to know that you've got a practical and solid program design (looks at D) and that you're able to stay in touch and flow with the feelings of the majority of your employees … (S continues, recoding what she has already said to A,B & C, substituting kinesthetic predicates and expressions.)