4 Talk the same language as your customer
Alan Stewart on Aug 05 2007
How to recognize what modality your client favours:
The Components of Communication gives you certain clues or cues on how to recognize people’s preferred representation systems (Visual, Auditory, Kinesthetic, and Auditory Digital).
There are certain word cues, tonality cues and physiological cues.
Word Cues
The word cues are made up of predicates.
If I were to say, “Do you see what I mean?” The word ‘see’ is a predicate for a Visual Representation.
If I said, “That doesn’t sound right to me.” The word ‘sound’ is an Auditory Representation.
If someone stated “I don’t feel good about this.” They would be representing things Kinesthetically.
When something “doesn’t make sense” the word ‘sense’ is an Auditory Digital Predicate indicating that the person is processing information through self-talk or internal dialogue.
When communicating, people may inadvertently mismatch each other’s predicates and ‘take things out of process’. My favourite example of this is how my wife, Deborah, and I used to relate to each other before we were aware of our
preferred modalities.
In many contexts, Deborah is visually inclined, whilst I am more auditory. Now sometimes Deborah and I would have our…discussions…or debates (read: arguments) to which Deborah would say, “Look! You’re just not willing to see my
point of view. I can’t make things clear to you. You’re not willing to look at what I’m trying to show you.” To which I would respond with, “Now, listen. That doesn’t sound right to me. I’m not hearing it. It just doesn’t ring a bell at all!”
At this stage, were we like each other? Were we in rapport? No, we were talking two entirely different languages, and becoming frustrated by our lack of effective communication.
Download a list of some common Predicates and Predicate Phrases to improve your telephone sales skills. Please take the time to add your own to the list. I cannot encourage you enough to build your awareness of the word cues. You’ll start to see things completely differently as you hear things in new ways. The words will seem to jump out at you as you enhance your ability to understand others.