Created in the 1970s by Richard Bandler and linguist John Grinder, and more recently developed to encompass more and more diverse areas; NLP – which stands for ‘Neuro Linguistic Programming’ – is a fairly new quasi-psychological movement that combines basic cognitive psychology, linguistics, body language and more to provide some useful insights into our thought processes (and some not so useful insights too). It has recently found a lot of supporters in business, sales and management fields and a fair bit of scepticism from professional psychologists who question the scientific method behind it. This isn’t helped by many NLP practitioners who make it out to be something it’s not, creating an almost cult-like impression of it. One DVD I saw that was handed out freely at a management course someone I knew went on, tried to link NLP to a quantum theory of the universe with branching realities… very strange, and not to be mistaken for real NLP which actually at its fundamental routes has a fair bit of useful advice (though not more useful than a fuller understanding of real psychological models would entail).

The main concept behind NLP is that we ‘encode’ things in our brain using various methods depending on the nature of the data and the individual. It then uses this concept to make it a useful tool for self programming and for communicating an idea across to others in a form they’ll understand and react to favourably. Many of the techniques involve using language and gestures to understand the cognitive processes behind a person’s outward actions and then using this knowledge to build a ‘rapport’ with that individual. This is known broadly in NLP as ‘modelling’ – where the practitioner takes on the clients gestures, patterns, beliefs etc etc to make themselves more likeable, agreeable and persuasive.

For example, in NLP people are described as having ‘representational systems’ (the systems of encoding) that they prefer over others and that their language can betray which of these they prefer to use. So if you were to have a visual representational system you might say ‘I see’ or ‘see hear’. Meanwhile someone with an auditory system might say ‘I hear you’ or ‘listen to me’. Someone with a kinaesthetic type might say ‘I feel you’ and ‘let me put it this way’. Then, in order to build a more effective rapport, the NLP practitioner will tailor their sails pitch or their behaviour to suit this system. So if you’re trying to sell a book to someone with a visual system you say ‘the language the author uses is a sight to behold!’ whereas for someone with an auditory system you might say ‘it sounds like a fantastic read, or so I hear…’. In other circles, this is called mind-rape…

Modelling goes far deeper than this however and there are many other tells in a client’s language or actions that can be useful from a persuasive point of view. For example, the ‘Meta Model’ is a model in NLP that describes the underlying assumptions or errors in a client’s language that might give you an insight into that person’s thought processes. Here the practitioner responds to the structure of the sentence rather than its intended meaning or content. For example if someone were to say ‘everyone loves it!’ you’d say ‘everyone?’ or ‘define ‘loves’’. It can get pretty irritating but it teaches you to think about what people say in a very different way, including what you yourself think. It’s surprising how much you can learn about someone if you deconstruct their sentences. Personally I also find it very useful for winning arguments, where rather than respond to the challenge you pick holes in the way that challenge has been issued and the shaky foundations upon which it is based. From a sales perspective this can help you answer criticisms or claims from rivals.

You can also find the inner workings of people’s thoughts from their gestures and their facial expressions. For example, when describing a room or an action a client may gesture in a certain way giving you insight into the shape or position of an object. For instance, I once caught myself describing a cupboard and inadvertently looking left and holding my hand at the height of that cupboard. Now freak people out by saying ‘is that a very low cupboard, on the left of the door?’ or sell them stuff by saying ‘sounds like you need a lamp for a low cupboard. Similarly you can notice people’s ‘accessing cues’ which describes them giving away clues when they’re visualising something or recalling something. Allegedly we look up and left or right when we process visual imagery, ‘mid range’ left and right for sound, or down and left and right for sound. However there is little evidence to support this theory. Lie detectors often use a similar method based on the belief that we look one way for memories and another way for fabrication. Again though there is no concrete evidence that this is so.

As well as taking on board all these subtle clues as to the client’s thinking process, you can also use their gestures in another way by ‘mirroring’ the target in order to build up more of a rapport. This is often taught in dating guides and generally be quite a powerful technique so long as it is used subtly (if you notice someone is purposefully copying you it comes across as annoying, ass kissing and a bit weird). So subtly move your feet to reflect how your client is sitting and cross your hands in a similar way.

This is only really a taster, but gives you some idea as to the key principles and techniques in NLP that are used for sales pitches and other business transactions where we’re encouraged to persuade a client, or even someone in our personal lives.

Mack LeMouse

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