The old rules of assessing a customer’s personality traits no longer apply to most sales calls and presentations. Sales Linguistics is the new sales psychology for 2013. It considers how your customer’s mind creates and interprets language during the decision-making process.
In his new book, Heavy Hitter Sales Psychology: How to Penetrate the C-Level Executive Suite and Convince C-Level Executives to Buy, sales pro Steve W. Martin teaches salespeople how to win over senior executives using Sales Linguistics.
Most salespeople are skilled and experienced speakers. They believe that what they say to C-level executives during those critical make-or-break meetings will determine if they make the sale. But many sales executives often fail to consider the specific meaning of the words they're using. The words are part of who they are and represent their unique attitude, outlook, and perspective on life. What Sales Linguistics stresses is that language goes far beyond spoken words. In fact, most salespeople, whether they realize it or not, use a number of different “languages” in their communications with prospects. Martin breaks these down into the seven languages, which he says are at the core of Sales Linguistics:
- Word catalog language. The mind’s method for receiving and interpreting information based upon the three sensory channels—visual, auditory, and kinesthetic (feelings and a sense of the body).
- Internal dialogue language. The neverending stream of communication inside the mind that represents honest, unedited and deep feelings.
- Physical language. Also known as body language, the nonverbal communication that is constantly being emitted by the executive’s body posture.
- Intersecting activity language. Interests, hobbies and personal pursuits by which the executive displays his personality, beliefs and values.
- Technical specification language. The androgynous, nonpersonal, and technical communication that is based upon the nomenclature and technical terms of the executive’s industry. For example, the computer industry terms "RAM," "CPU" and "megabyte."
- Business operations language. The language that is specific to the daily running of the executive’s business and his role in the organization.
- C-level language. The most powerful trust-based language by which the executive explains his personal needs, desires, and plans along with the strategy by which he hopes to fulfill them.
Martin sums up by underscoring the goal of the C-Level sales call, saying, “In a C-level meeting, you want the executive to expose his internal dialogue to you. You want him to honestly explain what he is trying to accomplish and why he is doing it from a business and, more importantly, personal standpoint. You want him to tell you about his personal needs and career desires along with how he plans to fulfill them. You want him to speak the confidential C-level language with you.”
As a sales professional, it’s important to remember that non-verbal communication and “getting into a prospect's head” can be crucial in making a sale. One way to get there is with Sales Linguistics.
Image courtesy of stockimages /FreeDigitalPhotos.net
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