Ideosensory Trance
We have studied four types of suggestions. Now let’s consider a type of trance state known as ideosensory trance.
People interpret the events in their world a bit differently than everyone else interprets the events in their own world.. Still, even though everyone is unique in their interpretations, three primary modes of interpretation are consistently used - visual, audible and kinesthetic.
Sales superstars are masters at instilling ideosensory trance states within their customers. This means bringing their prospects to the point of experiencing other worlds of sights, sounds, feelings, smells and tastes.
For example, you got tied up at the office and are heading home an hour and a half later than you had promised your spouse. You didn’t call. And as you head homeward in your car, you imagine the scene as you enter your home and face your spouse. There’s angry - you can see it on their face. You can hear the edge in their voice and you can feel the tension in the air.
And it’s all in your mind. You were in an ideosensory trance.
Master salespersons create ideosensory trance in their clients. They use multi-sensory words to describe the features and benefits of their product or service in order to get the client highly, emotionally involved.
“This house is you, Steve. I mean, imagine pulling up in the driveway and seeing Mary and the kids waving from the porch. You tell yourself you’re glad to be home and you run and give everyone a hug. It feels good to be home. And as you step in the door, you know your home. You smell the coffee and the aroma of dinner. Life is great.”
Negative ideosensory is also a very powerful persuasion tool. The premise is people will do more to avoid pain than they will to gain pleasure. People usually join health spas - not because they want to look good - but rather so they won’t look bad.
People will often submit an offer NOW, today, not so much because they are convinced that this is the home for them, but rather because this home might not be available tomorrow because of the demand. Their actions, then, were caused by a need to avoid a potential loss.
Amnesia
Amnesia is a pretty common hypnotic phenomenon and easy to produce in your customers. The best use would be to trigger this “forgetfulness” in relation to the presentation or advertising of the competition.
For example, let’s say that you are the third agents in line to make a listing presentation. The sellers haven’t decided they even want to list, they are simply gathering information - they are getting a little bit from everyone so they can decide whether or not to even use realty service.
Let’s prompt them to “forget” the competition. It’s really easy. You want to use words like “forget”, “impossible to remember”, “not important,” “too boring to be of consequence,” and “hard to keep track of.”
“Other agents in this business try to overload you with so many details about their companies like how big they are and how good they are and it is impossible to remember much of anything about their service. However, it will be easy for you to remember exactly what we will do together to market your home.”
In most cases, that is all it takes. Especially if you are working with a customer that is not detail oriented.
Hypernesia
The opposite of amnesia is hypernesia - referring to the enhancement of memory and recall.
Hypernesia is extremely useful when you want a specific issue or event to “come back to mind” later. In fact, you have probably used a form of hypernesia on yourself from time to time in an effort to remember something. Harry Lorriane of The Memory Book fame extolled the virtues of using association techniques, that is, linked a sound or an image to another for purposes of inducing hypernesia or increased memory recall.
The first rule to induce this technique is to tell your clients or customers that they will, indeed, remember whatever it is that you want them to remember.
You left a showing and are heading back into the office with your buyers. It was a good house, within their price range, and they seemed to like it. You want to increase this sense of “liking” - you can accomplish it through producing hypernesia -
“John and Mary, you won’t be able to forget that marble entrance way. You may be driving home tonight from the office and out of the blue - you see the admiring looks of your friends as you greet them at the door. And, as you lie awake in bed tonight, right before you drift off to sleep - you will imagine the sound of your footsteps against the marble and feel the warmth and security of it all. Yeah, you won’t be able to forget that marble. It was too nice. Umm, hmmm.”
Now, I realize you might be thinking that this wouldn’t be a natural thing to say. My question is this: Why not?
If I perceived John and Mary were really impressed with that entrance way, I would have acknowledged it then and know I am simply acknowledging it again. You could almost appear to be talking to yourself and still pull this off.
Another really powerful application of hypernesia is to use it to sell against your competition. For instance, you have given your opinion (based on a TMA/CMA, of course) as to price. The sellers have a fit and indicate that John Doe agent quoted them $8,000 more than you did. It’s obvious to you that John Doe was attempting to “buy” the listing.
Anyway, after you fully explain the realities of the market and all that you can simply state…
“Now I don’t think you will ever be able to forget that you were quoted over $8,000 above what the market would bear. That’s a lot of money and would have completely priced you out of the market. Absolutely unfair and unrealistic. You will always be grateful for taking a second look at this.”
Without directly addressing the competition, you can always get the same effect by telling a third person story that has the same “content” without ever naming a competitor - simply stating that such and such took place and this person “will remember that nightmare forever. His home stood on the market for 5 months and nobody, nobody, ever placed an offer on it. $8,000 was just too much for the market to bear. It even scared agents away.”
Revivication
Have you ever noticed the change of state people go into when they enter an elevator? How about when they hear their favorite sound or begin to relate a story they are particularly passionate about?
This process or state is called revivication. It is the process of reliving some earlier experienced moment in time.
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The reason revivication is so powerful is it can be used by the professional communicator to take another person back into virtually any emotional state or emotion that they have ever experienced.
Then, you can use that same state or emotion to further your cause, that is, if you can elicit an emotional state of extreme joy and pleasure - your prospect will carry those same emotions of joy and pleasure with them into the home or conversation or wherever.
The “instant replay” technique uses a process of revivication.
Example:
“Mary, let me ask you: Do you remember what it was like when you got your very first apartment?”
“Sure do. I was really exciting, you know, being out on my own and stuff. And it was really great not having to answer to anyone.”
“Do you remember anything else about it? What it felt like?”
“It was almost incredible. I could hardly sleep it was so exciting. Oh sure, it was a little scary, you know, but it was great. It really was.”
“Great!. That was a really exciting time. And I’m sure you are going to have that same feeling of incredible excitement when you make an offer for this new home. The is better than your first apartment!”
Now think about it.
Mary’s face is glowing as she relives her memories of her first apartment. She is literally beaming with excitement. She is literally reliving and re-experiencing all of the same emotions that she experienced that day. Now, subtly, we relate TODAY with those experiences and emotions making it very, very hard if not impossible to be critical or in any way negative about the situation.
Powerful, powerful stuff.
I used to call revivication the yo-yo technique because you would dip into a previous experience and jump back into today’s presentation. Back into the past, forward to the present. Back into the past, forward into the present.
Pretty soon, almost without fail, the customer would be “stuck” in the remembered state and the sale is shortly forthcoming.
Negative revivication is just what the name implies - it is recalling a sense or emotion that they used to have but which is lacking today but which they would really like to get back.
Negative revivication could be used to eliminate procrastination if you could somehow get your client to relive a past loss suffered due to procrastinating in the past and bring that sense of loss into the present in order to motivate the person to action now versus accepting the possibility of experiencing those negative emotions again.
Four steps to mastering conversational hypnosis
- Get and maintain the customer’s attention - Clinical hypnotists use swinging watches and crystals and twirling discs. These are the instruments of their trade, the device they use to hold their patient’s focus and attention. In the sales arena, we would be considered very, very weird if we asked our clients to “stare deeply into my eyes” or “following the watch with your eyes as it swings back and forth, back and forth.” To gain attention - use events, emotions, words, mannerisms and beliefs.
- Pace - Present ideas that are absolutely, 100% impossible for the client to disagree with.
- Increase the desire to respond and take action - I like to call this stoking the fire. We elicit a need or a problem then we do whatever is necessary to increase the sense of urgency to eliminate this problem. See, we’ve added fuel to the fire of their discomfort. We’ve stoked the fire.
- Guide your client into taking action.
If you formulate all of your presentations these steps in mind, be it a letter, an ad or your actual face-to-face conversations - you will find yourself hearing more and more “yeses” to your suggested actions.
Right now, let’s look at pacing a bit more closely.
Pacing for Profits
Pacing is mirroring. That’s it. So, you already know this stuff. The only thing I want to say in addition to what you already know is that pacing (or mirroring) is the most effective way of getting two or more people in harmony with one another. Harmony = rapport.
One of the easiest verbal methods to pace is to simply begin all of your conversations with some undeniably truthful statements that you can see within your immediate surroundings. For instance: “Mary, I noticed you have a “for
“I noticed you were looking out the window as we pulled up on this sunny afternoon.”
If you notice a client glancing at his watch: “I see that you are pressed for time.”
Use undeniably truthful statements which pace belief and reality. This gets the prospects into a very agreeable and relaxed state of mind.
Another truism you might want to remember is: The more people agree, the more likely the will continue to agree. Pacing begins this “agreement” mode. You can strengthen it by using a series of “yes set” questions. Tom Hopkins used this approached.
You remember Tom Hopkins, don’t you?
He was a very popular speaker and trainer for a number of years, wasn’t he?
And wouldn’t you agree that using “yes set” questions is relatively easy?
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Pepper your presentations with a number of “Yes sets” and you will see a dramatic improvement in your results.
Repetition of words is another subtly powerful hypnotic technique. Repetition serves to focus, focus, focus one’s attention on whatever is being communicated.
“Your taxes are going up and up and up, year after year after year, and as long as your renting you are throwing good money right down the drain. Right down the drain. What you need is a counter-strategy. What you need is to own your own home.”
“This how has an incredible, incredible, incredible view. And the price below, way below market. It is an incredible, incredible deal.”
Use words that end in -ly - Obviously, sincerely, certainly, apparently, and clearly.
These are called vague ambiguities meaning they don’t have any reference points. With a reference, the client must “fill in” the blanks with their detail. Use of these words are great in conjunction with revivication techniques.
You can elicit a strong emotion and then indicate “that it is obviously clear how closely this house matches their needs. Clearly the landscaping is exactly what they were looking for.”
Use words that end in -er - Comparative words like closer, bigger, better, cheaper, cleaner, greater, fancier, and lighter are hypnotic words.
Happy Selling!
Brandon Patrick
Dean of Students
Real Estate Toolbox University