| The best salespeople first establish a
mood of trust and rapport by means of "hypnotic pacing" statements and
gestures that play back a customer' s observations, experience, or
behavior. Pacing is a kind of mirror-like matching, a way of suggesting: "I am
like you. We are in sync. You can trust me." The simplest form of pacing is "descriptive pacing", in which the seller formulates accurate, if banal, descriptions of the customer's experience. "It's been awfully hot these last few days, hasn't it? ... You said you were going to graduate in June." These statements serve the purpose of establishing agreement and developing an unconscious affinity between seller and customer. In clinical hypnosis, the hypnotist might make comparable pacing statements. "You are ham today to see me for hypnosis." "You told me over the phone about a problem that concerns you." Sales agents with only average success tend to jump immediately into their memorized sales pitches or to hit the customer with a barrage of questions. Neglecting to pace the customer, the mediocre sales agent creates no common ground on which to build trust. A second type of hypnotic pacing statement is the "objection pacing" comment. A customer objects or resists, and the sales agent agrees, matching his or her remarks to the remarks of the customer. A superior insurance agent might agree that "insurance is not the best investment out there", just as a clinical hypnotist might tell a difficult subject. "You are resisting going into trance. That's good. I encourage that." The customer, pushing against a wall, finds that the wall has disappeared. The agent, having confirmed the customer's objection, then leads the customer to a position that negates or undermines the objection. The insurance salesperson who agreed that "insurance is not the best investment out there" went on to tell his customer, "but it does have a few uses." He then described all the benefits of life insurance. Mediocre salespeople generally respond to resistance head-on, with arguments that presumably answer the customer's 0biection. This response often leads the customer to dig in his heels all the harder. The most powerful forms of pacing have more to do with how something is said than with what is said. The good salesperson has an ability to pace the language and thought of any customer. With hypnotic effect, the agent matches the voice tone, rhythm, volume, and speech rate of the customer. He matches the customer's posture, body language, and mood. He adopts the characteristic verbal language of the customer. If the customer is slightly depressed, the agent chares that feeling and acknowledges that he has been feeling "a little down" lately. Ill essence, the top sales producer becomes a sophisticated biofeedback mechanism, sharing and reflecting the customer's reality—even to the point of breathing in and out with the customer. |