This week, I thought I’d share a story with some powerful language patterns for persuasion that came in super useful during my travels.
Has anyone ever told you, “No”, when you wanted the answer to be, “Yes”? Wouldn’t it be wonderful to have great skills to persuade them otherwise?
As a Dubliner, I adore celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in the Sunshine State, not least because the Americans love their Irish roots and know well how to celebrate with the best of them. So, when we found some emerald rhinestone baseball caps, we were super excited by the USA/Irish fusion not to mention how great they’d look with our Bandler baseball jackets. Alas, it wasn’t meant to be…
…because the emerald rhinestones kept popping off the hats, rendering them unwearable. Needless to say, I had to take them back! And that’s when the NLP Persuasive Language Patterns really came into play…
The shop manager was adamant there would be, “No refund”!
I asked her to, “Please, try to help me to understand why.” [Suggestion: She’ll fail. She’s only trying!]
The shop manager explained:
“The Returns Policy won’t let me [deletion/negative command]. You don’t have a receipt [mind read]; the tags are off [true] and the hats are covered in glue where you’ve tried to repair them [true again].”
My response:
“Who says the policy won’t let you? How won’t it let you? [Lack of Referential Index/NLP Meta Model]
Before I could finish what, I was saying, the store manager phoned her regional manager who confirmed, “NO REFUND!”
My response, said with a curiously assertive tone:
“You do give receipts, don’t you?
And this is the receipt I was given, isn’t it?
So, I do have a receipt, don’t I? [3xTag Question/Yes Set]
And I’m wondering on what grounds [artfully vague] the policy supports you to take responsibility [embedded command] for the faulty goods [presupposition].
I’m happy for you exchange the goods [embedded command] or you can give me a credit note or refund my card [embedded commands and a double bind].
As manager, you are authorised to do that, aren’t you? [Tag question]
Store manager response:
She nodded and said, “I can’t possibly give you a credit note. Please let me refund your card.”
My response, “Thank you…”
Not least to my own NLP mentors, Dr Richard Bandler and John La Valle who teach their sales model known as “Persuasion Engineering” superbly well.
NLP Powers of Persuasion originate in the Milton Model, a wonderful set of hypnotic language patterns that you can learn easily as and when you decide to become a Licensed Practitioner of NLP. The are super useful in sales, in the classroom, at home or even when flirting (as Dr Bandler would say)!
So, was it the Luck of the Irish or NLP Powers of Persuasion that enabled my success in securing a fair outcome when returning the faulty goods? As a romantic Dubliner, there’s a part of me that wants to believe it’s both and that would be “Blarney”, as the Irish say 😊.
As you can see from the photo, we ditched the rhinestone baseball caps and sang, “I’m a rhinestone [St. Paddy’s Day] cowboy, instead 😉.
To join our next NLP Intro Day Workshop here in Bournemouth with Shine NLP By the Sea, click here
Here’s to shining bright in the week ahead.