On one occasion, speaking with the Commercial Subdirector of the metropolitan area of a telecommunications company about the drops and falls in the performance of the sellers, he told me that one of the causes of these drops is personal ignorance of what the seller already knows or has been able to do in the past, so that, on many occasions, one as a coach must help them "recover those practices and help them resume the basics of sales."
In my own experience, I find the modeling paradigm that underpins NLP as a way to do it: to help the salesperson, not only to recover their performance levels, but to send them to new dimensions of capacity and power, and with it, eliminate negative moods that are built from a distorted evaluation of reality.
Conceptual framework
The process that is presented in this document arises from the concept of modeling personal excellence, and in particular, from the realization of successful sales practices. To do this, we start from one of the basic statements that supported the work of Milton Erickson, which the founders of PNL later take up: "Everyone already has the necessary resources to solve their problems, what you have to do is create access to these resources". Next I will present the case of an insurance saleswoman, who was looking to increase her sales in the life branch, but she said she did not know how. In 3 sessions, the resources needed to take action and achieve your goals were identified. Although they were designed in abundance, it is not the purpose of this document,detail the set of life insurance sales practices that emerged from this process. The purpose is only to present an intervention alternative that helps sellers to recover their experience to achieve their objectives, modify their status and identify business opportunities ALREADY present in their practice.
The interview
1st part: the description of the situation of the seller:
| Saleswoman | -Ramón, I want to start selling life insurance. I am doing well in the sale of other types of insurance but I want to start selling life insurance. Last year I sold some, but I was flabbergasted and I want to pick up the pace again, but I feel like I'm very bad at selling life insurance, that I can't. How do i do it? |
| Ramon | -How much life insurance did you sell last year? |
| Saleswoman | -I sold 7 life insurance. |
| Ramon | -Very good. What were the average premiums for the 7 insurances you sold? |
| Saleswoman | -The average amount of the insurance was between $ 20,000.00 and $ 25,000.00 each. |
Comments to the 1st part:
It is worth noting some aspects of the previous dialogue:
- That she had ALREADY sold the product that she wanted to sell 7 times and with outstanding premiums. If he had already done it once, the practices he carried out could be perfectly modeled to adapt structurally to this new domain of practices what is the sale of a new product. What the interpretation «I feel that I am very bad at selling life insurance, that I I can »produced in her paralysis, blindness and memory loss, which is rescued by putting light on her experience. That the state of mind in which she was at the time of starting the interview was negative.
| Ramon | -OKAY. Now, tell me, how did you manage to sell the 7 life insurance policies that you sold last year and that brought you approximately $ 7,000 in income? |
| Saleswoman | -Oh I do not know. I don't remember, I think it was luck, I don't know, but it's the least of it, I really don't feel capable of selling, that's why I'm here, so you can tell me how I'm going to do it, since in a few months I want to go to See my daughter in Germany and I don't have any wool and I know that selling life insurance can help me, but I don't know where to start or who to talk to. |
| Ramon | -Very good. So (I insist) tell me how you sold those insurance, please. |
| Saleswoman | -Oh, I don't remember. (She deems it unnecessary to explore those experiences, so she puts up some resistance). But have… How many did I tell you I sold? 7, right? (There is a change in her status at this time.) |
| Ramon | -If 7, how did you sell them? Let's start with the first one. Who did you sell the first one to? When it was? |
| Saleswoman | - (Sighs) I sold the first one to Francisco… ah !, but that was luck, it was very easy. |
| Ramon | -I don't know what luck is. In order to understand you well and help you as you expect, I ask you to share the details of the way in which you sold the insurance to Francisco… |
| Saleswoman | -Look, (sighs again, changes his body posture, his condition is different) he is a client of mine, he has contracted other insurance with me, so I spoke to him, he received me, I explained what it was about, he asked me about the price, he I said that X gave me an advance and the rest he gave me when I brought him the policy. (His face expresses that he just dropped a twenty). In fact, it has already renewed its 2nd year. |
| Ramon | -Tell me something, to the rest, that is, to the other six, where did you get them from? |
| Saleswoman | -From… my… portfolio… (The twenty that fell a moment ago is confirmed: all your opportunities to sell the insurance you want to sell arise exclusively from your portfolio and the twenty helps you realize that you DO have prospects to talk to). |
| Ramon | -How many clients do you have in your portfolio? |
| Saleswoman | -Like 120. |
| Ramon | -How 120. And how many have you called to sell the insurance? |
| Saleswoman | -Nothing more to the 7 to whom I have sold. |
| Ramon | -How would it go if you spoke to 120? What would happen? |
The interview continues:
| Saleswoman | - (Sudden change of state again, sighs, his face reddens, he straightens up in his chair) No, I don't know, I would have solved my problem. (Sighs again) I thought I had to prospect new clients to sell what I want to sell. In fact I have a database that they just gave me but I didn't want to start until I came to see you, but now that you tell me that… well I know what I'm going to do… |
| Ramon | -At the 7 that you sold, did you ask them for references? |
| Saleswoman | -Yes, but I have not spoken |
| Ramon | -By? |
| Saleswoman | - ???? |
| Ramon | -Now, you have 120 clients, you spoke to 7, you have 113 left. How did you choose these 7 from your portfolio? |
| Saleswoman | -I don't know, they “jumped” me |
| Ramon | -And were they the only names that "jumped" at you? |
| Saleswoman | -No, of course not. (At that point he begins to write in his notebook until he finishes a list of 10 names). No, I already know who to talk to. (sighs again) |
| Ramon | -And you know what you are going to tell them, don't you? |
| Saleswoman | -Not… |
| Ramon | -Well, the same thing you told the others, although I can guess that you adapted your communication according to the particular style of each client, or was it not? |
| Saleswoman | -Yes, (he is left thinking) if I told each one different things but at the same time almost the same. (Sighs). |
| Ramon | -OK, tell me what you told each of them on the phone? |
Comments on the Modeling of Excellence Practices
She went into a detailed description of the calls she had made. Later, we did together an analysis of each of the interviews and the sales practices that he had carried out when he closed those 7 sales. This analysis allowed us to discover the successful practices that she had done and that had worked for her, where she had been excellent. I am going to end this dialogue with the final part of one of the interviews that has to do with recovering your ideal state of mind.
| Ramon | -Finally, I want to ask you something. Do you remember the mood you had when you made these calls and interviews with these prospects? |
| Saleswoman | -Yes, of ambition. (And little by little it connects in that state). |
| Ramon | -Where did you feel it the most? |
| Saleswoman | -Hm., In the arms… as soon as I remember, I feel it again. |
| Ramon | -Siiiiiiiii? (I anchor the state aurally) |
| Saleswoman | -Son yes. |
| Ramon | -OK, so, very good (we both sigh) let's review again the strategy that we have designed so that you achieve your sales goals and go to Germany to see your daughter… |
|
End of the intervention |
Results of this Seller
He was with me for 3 sessions only. Once a week. Within a month she called to tell me that she had 4 policies sold and had 10 interviews scheduled with other prospects. After six months she went to Germany to see her daughter. She was there for a month. When she came back she spoke to me in a negative state asking me how she started again and I asked her the same question again, with the same tone, «¿-OK. Now, tell me, how did you manage to sell the life insurance you sold last year that allowed you to go to Germany to see your daughter? " She laughed, she told me she already knew what to do, she laughed again. Two years later, the agent who recommended her to me told me that she was very well and that she had gone every 6 months to see her daughter in Germany, she had bought a car and had lost weight.
Process
The procedure followed contains five simultaneous domains of practices:
- The Agent Situation Powerful Principles of the Sales Domain Basic NLP Skills:
rapport
modeling
calibration state
design
- The principles of:
NLP modeling
"back to basics" present in the sales domain
- Bill O'Hanlon's brief therapy model
Steps
- Identify the objective of the person. (I want to increase my sale of such product or service…) Define current situation regarding the stated objective (It is done, it is not done and the state of mind regarding the degree of achievement of the objective) Identify the previous successful experience (s), if you have already done it previously Extract, through detailed accounts, the practices of those successful experiences Identify, if you are doing these practices at present or not to achieve the stated objective If you do not do them, prescribe the practices that on another occasion they were successful she already described. If you do, carefully explore how you are doing them and look for differences from when you were successful. It is essential to find the exceptions.As soon as you master AND get results from the practice of this new domain,cause the quantum leap.
Other key elements in the procedure:
- Design of States applying the Metamodel: It is essential to calibrate the state of the salesperson to facilitate the transition from a state of resignation to one of ambition. The person changes their state of mind as the previous successful experience recovers. This, as I demonstrated, is done with questions, not speeches. The salesperson, as she answers, her attention shifts focus, shifts from her domain of concern and moves to her previous experience to solve her current situation. This in itself is enough to change their status and move from one of resignation to one of ambition. Establishment and maintenance of rapport in order to identify the most important domain of action for the seller.Rapport from our vision means "… aligning ourselves with the fundamental structure…" that seeks a new "… structural coupling…". In other words, the person has to reinvent their domain of practices to be able to engage and achieve the sale of a new product that was not previously present for them. The economics of coaching interventions, especially those for the design of new practices, are accompanied by changes in status. If the metamodel is used rigorously, moods will change. The economy of the intervention orients towards the use of EVERYTHING that happens in the intervention where the goal, using the best of our abilities, is that NOTHING is wasted, including the states of the seller.This in order to take advantage of them in subsequent interventions and accelerate the intervention process. The counselor's intention: In this particular case, where I tuned in, by intuition, was in search of previous successful experience. The background from which I communicated with her included the practice domain called Brief Therapy.
Summary of successful practices modeled on your own experience
- Analyze your portfolio of 120 clients to identify the sales opportunities of the new product. Write down the ones that your intuition dictates. Connect with their state of mind of their successful experiences. Dialogue with them as you spoke with the previous 7. Close the sale of the same way.Ask for references.
Notes, sources and resources
- See Haley (1980) or Zeig (1985) Premiums: amount paid by the client for life insurance Amounts in Mexican pesos Here he refers to the support he receives from his own intuition to guide him in this new goal that has been set. The subject of intuition deserves separate treatment since it is fundamental in the successful performance of salespeople. See O'Hanlon and Weiner-Davis (1990). The application of the metamodel (McMaster and Grinder, 1980) is fundamental in the process of modifying states through the recovery of the experience prior to modeling. For another admirable example, see Perls (1969) See Winograd and Flores (1985) and Erickson (1967, 1973, 1980) In preparation, article how to dissolve interpretations that prevent sellers from achieving promised results, open new sales opportunities and produce new moods,especially that of ambition, applying the metamodel See O´Hanlon 1989 and 1999.
