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Are you always busy? And yet... your business just isn't growing.
Be honest. It's okay if you’re experiencing this.
Warren Buffet once said, "The one easy way to become worth 50% more than you are now—at least—is to hone your communication skills."
Here's the thing. Communication is like water for your business. You need it to thrive. It's the number one skill that continues to open so many doors for so many people.
Mastering the art of communication gives you the power to ignite your ideas, be confident in charging premium prices, turn objections into opportunities, and Captivate on Command.
When you know the right words to say to your clients, you can tame negative thought patterns and create opportunities to excel in your business.
Communication is what separates the amateurs from the pros. But, times are changing. The most skilled communicators know they will always thrive in the face of uncertainty.
“The only things holding you back from running the business of your dreams are your beliefs, your habits, and your skill set.”
In this episode, I'm joined by Vanessa Cabrera, an online marketing consultant, social media marketing strategist, dynamic speaker, and NLP-certified coach. Vanessa travels across the country, educating passionate entrepreneurs on how to take their business to the next level. And, she can do the same thing for you.
For those of you who don't know, not only do I host Lights, Camera, Live, and Digital Confetti, but I'm also an NLP trainer, which is how I met Vanessa. She was one of our recent graduates in March 2021.
We'll talk about how to apply NLP to your business. You'll discover why it's essential to speak your client's language, how to close with confidence using NLP, and how to eliminate limiting beliefs to achieve your goals that much faster.
What is NLP?
NLP stands for neuro-linguistic programming.
But what does that really mean?
Let's break it down.
Neuro is all about understanding how your mind works. In NLP, you take the external events that have happened in your life and learn how your brain distorts, deletes, and generalizes what happened.
When an event happens to you, your brain highlights certain aspects of that event. Your brain gives you a picture that you will continue to visualize throughout your life. You'll remember certain things and feel certain things about the event. There may even be a smell or taste associated.
NLP is all about taking these events that happen in our lives, and how we define and code them. We all have different labels for what we think success is. My definition of success is probably very different from your definition of success.
And here's where linguistics comes into play — how do we use our language?
We know that our thoughts become our words and our words become our actions. So, when you listen very closely to your clients, they'll give you hints on their beliefs, their values, and what they need.
Finally, we have programming, which is really understanding what you do at an unconscious level. When we get up in the morning and brush our teeth, we do it unconsciously. We don't try to remember what side we brush first. It's an automated program that we run.
When it comes to business, we have strategies that we unconsciously run when we talk about pricing. And if you don’t know how to consciously use verbal and non-verbal cues when pitching, it can impact how you negotiate and resolve conflict.
Some people may run at the first sign of conflict, but others understand that conflict means an underlying need isn't being met. And so, communication is needed. These people learn to ask their clients, "What do you need from me to fully communicate what it is that you need to know?"
In Vanessa's case, she had never heard of NLP before we met at MDMC. We became friends and interviewed each other on both of our shows, and she decided to do some research into NLP.
The difference between entrepreneurs that are successful and those that struggle with every step of the way in building their business is that, the successful entrepreneurs see the value in investing in themselves. You may have heard that knowledge is power. What we teach at Captivate on Command is that knowledge is potential. When you apply what you learn, that’s where you become powerful.
For Vanessa, she knew that when she was building her business, she wanted to invest in programs that would benefit both her and her business. That why in 2020, she enrolled in our NLP Practitioner Certification program.
As everyone shifted to online spaces in 2020, Vanessa and her clients all had an incredible year and killer results. But, she knew they could get even better results. So, she began to ask herself what she could have done and said differently. How could she have better trained her clients to reach bigger goals?
NLP is all about honing in on how you communicate, and understanding that everyone processes information differently. The best way she can describe becoming NLP-certified is that now, she is awake.
Looking back at her past client emails and past client consulting sessions, Vanessa now understands what she could have done differently. NLP has opened her eyes to a new world, and it's been a complete game-changer for her business. Even her clients felt she was different and more connected after her training.
“Success always leaves clues in the way that you communicate.”
How to use NLP in your business
People are motivated by different things, and people communicate very differently. I'm a visual communicator, which is one of the reasons why I enjoy livestreaming. I can show my audience what I'm talking about by screensharing and offer step-by-step training to help grow their business.
But, you may have clients who are auditory learners. They hang onto every word you say, and you need to allow them to clearly listen and tune in to what you're saying. There are also kinesthetic clients, who need time to warm up to your ideas and get comfortable with making changes.
When you understand your client's communication style, that’s the difference that makes the difference.
Learning how to decipher your client's communication style gives you the combination lock to get through to them. It's about understanding what information your clients need to make a decision. Some people just want the bullet points. Others prefer to have a detailed outline of what your onboarding process is like.
NLP goes beyond the tools that make a big difference in your entire life and your relationships. And, the bottom line is learning how to communicate better.
Not only does NLP help you grow your business, but it makes all the difference in personal and professional relationships. After going through training, you begin to realize how much information you're deleting, distorting, and generalizing.
Using NLP to close with confidence
After unlocking the combination lock for your clients and understanding their communication styles, you can use NLP to close with confidence.
Sales is a skill that every entrepreneur and business owner needs to master. The best pitch team don’t learn how to overcome objections over night, they train for it.
In the past, Vanessa worked with a sales coach and learned the power of sales scripts, and yet, closing clients always had different results.
By adding NLP to her communication toolkit, closing clients is an entirely new experience. Instead of going in with the mindset of "closing," Vanessa is creating strategic partnerships with her clients.
Building rapport with prospects is so much easier because she’s able to pick up on her client’s pain points and communication style. Getting on a phone call with a potential client is no longer a struggle because she knows exactly what the client wants. They're unconsciously sharing their decision-making strategy with Vanessa so she can give them the information they need to proceed.
What most business owners don’t realize is that some people are impulse buyers, and others need more time or more information before taking action. You can have a client that loops through her decision-making strategy as many as three or more times before she’s ready to purchase your program or lock in your services.
The biggest mistake I see people make when pitching is interrupting the client’s strategy. You have to state your price and wait. You have to let your client run their decision-making strategy.
If the client gives you an objection, turn that into an opportunity. Find out what additional information your client needs to justify investing in you.
Not knowing when to be quiet during a pitch is one of the biggest mistakes most entrepreneurs make. The second is then internalizing that if they don't close the sale right away, there's something wrong with them. Because it's not about you, it's about the client’s decision-making strategy.
“Remember that perception is projection. If you find that you’re always getting clients who “need to think about it,” turn it around and ask yourself where in your business you’re doing the same thing.”
How to eliminate limiting beliefs
Limiting beliefs are thoughts that we internalize and believe to be absolute truth. Often, they have a negative impact on our lives and may even stop us from moving forward.
While it was clear to Vanessa how she could use NLP in her consulting and programs, she had to figure out how to market it and introduce it to her audience. Finally, she stopped overthinking it. She just put it out there and documented her life on her social platforms.
Vanessa posted on social media that she was a certified NLP Practitioner, and if people were interested, they could reach out. It wasn't a direct sales post; it was just a post. And she saw a flood of direct messages coming in with questions.
Many of her clients come to her for marketing strategies and social media strategies to land clients of their own. But soon, Vanessa began to offer NLP coaching to her clients.
Instead of focusing on a limiting belief of, "I can only help clients with marketing and social media," Vanessa understood that NLP gave her the tools to help her client reach their goals faster.
At Captivate on Command, we have a saying, “You are in charge of your mind, and therefore your results.”
If you think about a red car, you're going to see a red car. If you think of opportunities, you're going to see opportunities.
An NLP coach encourages clients to transform limiting self-beliefs and move out of their comfort zones.
As a successful entrepreneur herself, Vanessa understands the importance of focus and clarity. That’s what she’s helping her clients do.
So many of our clients come to us because they're out of rapport with their own unconscious mind; they don't even know what it is that they want.
Bruce Lee once said, “We have more faith in what we imitate than what we originate.” Rather than creating goals that align with their values, clients look externally for answers to their most unsettling questions.
“We have more faith in what we imitate than what we originate.”
Stepping outside your comfort zone and investing in yourself
The bottom line is that you need to step outside your comfort zone and invest in yourself.
Many clients want to get to a certain point in their business, but they don't want to change. They're stuck in their comfort zone. For Vanessa, she figures out "where" her clients want to go in their business before she even starts to dive into strategy. Because if her client doesn't know what they want, how can she help them?
If you've never invested in yourself, how can you expect your clients to invest in you?
No one will invest in you at the level you're asking if you haven't invested in yourself first. If you want someone to invest $10k into your program, but you haven't done that for yourself, you don't know what's at risk.
For Vanessa, NLP changed everything about her business, and she doubled her prices without hesitation. The difference is that she now has a new set of tools to get to the root problem.
Are you ready to learn more about NLP training?
If you want to ignite your ideas, be brilliant in the boardroom, and Captivate on Command, then enroll in our upcoming NLP Practitioner training.
It's a full seven-day intensive training to help you take your business to the next level. When you sign up, you also get me as your master coach to guide you along the way with monthly one-on-one coaching sessions.
Remember, you have to learn to invest in yourself in order to have people invest in you.
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