Stop right there.
Sorry, did I interrupt you?
If you’re still reading at line three, good for you! (And you might as well keep going.) This article presents a deep dive into and why it works so well as a sales technique. It explores where the idea comes from and how you can make it work to give your own sales pitches a boost.
What Is Pattern Interruption? How to Use Pattern Interruption
Human beings are creatures of habit. Our brains are quick to fall into patterns of behavior that we repeat over and over again. Most of the time, that’s fine. In fact, it can be useful.
That’s because patterns involve repetitive actions that can save us time and help us behave more efficiently. For example, do you have a mexico email list favorite meal you like to cook regularly? If so, you probably don’t have to think very much about how to prepare it. The muscle memory is there, and it’s an easy option.
Reducing the stress of making new decisions is How to Use a major factor in why we develop these behavioral patterns. However, this useful trait can misfire and cause trouble.
Many issues, from minor bad habits like nail-biting to more serious problems such as addiction, have their roots in this tendency toward establishing behavioral patterns. In the neurolinguistic programming (NLP) approach to behavioral psychology, therapists try to tackle problems by finding ways to disrupt these cycles of behavior.
This is what’s known as pattern interruption.
So what does all this have to do with sales? Is it even what will be key in customer service in the near future? relevant to cold calling? Let’s dive a little deeper.
Why Use in Sales?
Salespeople know that they have seconds to grab their prospect’s attention if they’re to have any chance of converting. That applies across the whole spectrum of the omnichannel customer experience, meaning cold calls, emails and any other method of reaching out to potential customers.
Attention Span Survey Image sourced from How to Use Pattern Interruption
What might seem like intransigence on the part of the person on the receiving end of the sales pitch is actually a behavioral pattern. It’s just like cooking the same meal regularly without a thought of trying something new. Most people’s default setting is to shut down a sales approach automatically.
So it’s vital to try to disrupt that and break through. And that’s where comes in. In NLP practice,techniques are generally divided into the following categories:
Blocking: If you think about it, blocking a pattern is the simplest way of interrupting it. When you notice a familiar pattern beginning, you simply step in and put a stop to it.
Redirection: This is where you interrupt a pattern by distracting the subject and making them think of something else. Parents of small children may recognize this one as the “look! A fluffy bunny! Let’s pet it together” crying shutdown technique.
Overload: When you’re overwhelmed by something,
it can make you forget your train of thought. If you’re working at your desk and you suddenly smell smoke, for example, all thoughts of closing that sale will stop until you’ve figured out whether you’re in danger.
Confusion: A classic interruption technique beloved of magicians and hypnotists everywhere. Say something utterly absurd, and the person you’re talking to will pay attention to you. Simply because the weirdness of what you said just wiped everything else from their mind.
Spinning out: A fairly subtle technique where you deliberately feed the end of the cycle back into the beginning so that it repeats and continues to loop kcrj around itself. NLP practitioners say this is useful because, essentially, the looping pattern becomes unstable after a while and collapses. This one might be a bit ambitious for a cold call though.
Techniques for Sellers
That’s all very well, but how does this translate into practice on the sales floor? What kind of concrete negotiation tactics can sales professionals use to actually close a sale? What if I spook a prospect and send them off searching how to block a phone number?
In other words, how do you actually pull off in this context?
Great question. Here are seven ideas for how to take the theory of and get it to work on a prospect.
1) Verbal Ambiguity
In his book Tricks of the Mind, the British illusionist Derren Brown recounts the tale of how he once got himself out of a dangerous situation using verbal ambiguity.
