Every sales professional has experienced it—a prospective buyer throws a brick wall of resistance up in front of you before you even open your mouth. What do you do when someone is that resistant to your sales message before you’ve even had a chance to relay it?
A possible solution comes from the noted hypnotherapist, Milton Erickson, who invented a form of hypnotic therapy called the “naturalistic approach.” Basically, it’s a form of hypnosis without inducing it. Erickson wouldn’t ask his patients to relax, close their eyes, or focus on a swinging watch. Instead, he’d simply talk to them. He would use whatever they said, or whatever he noticed about them, and weave it into a conversation.
According to The Wisdom of Milton H. Erickson by Ronald Havens, one definition of Erickson’s technique is to “Use whatever dominant beliefs, values, attitudes, emotions, or behaviors the patient presents in order to develop an experience that will initiate or facilitate therapeutic change.”
Consider using Erickson’s “no induction” process when you have to deal with prospects whom are resistant to your sales message. This heart-to-heart approach to sales and marketing will not only endear you to your resistant buyer, it might make all the difference to your bottom line.
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