For this tip let’s touch on a subject that can really help to secure the deal or clinch that sale. In fact it is a subject that can be used in a hundred and one sales/recruitment situations. Let us expand that thought for a second. Just about every conversation you have with someone has some sort of sales content. Even if you are in a pub with a friend, you are still trying to sell them your point of view, aren’t you?

Anyway, I digress. Let us get back to the commercial sales situation: selling an opportunity to a candidate or selling your service to a client to name but two. I’m talking to you about anchoring. Anchoring is the setting off of a trigger in either yourself or another to elicit a certain emotion. Have you ever caught the whiff of a certain perfume or aftershave that reminded you of your first girlfriend or boyfriend? That is an anchor. Heard a piece of music that always reminds you of a certain moment in time and starts you reminiscing? That is an anchor.

You can, therefore, with some forethought implant an anchor in someone and set it off at will. If you have ever watched a stage or TV hypnotist put someone out with the word ‘sleep’ or a click of the fingers or by touching their arm or shoulder, then that is a different emotion but it is also anchoring at its most powerful. To keep it simple, to start with I will concentrate on purely anchoring a client. If you then want to learn more on how to use it yourself, for example, prior to a big presentation, before you pick up the phone or for some other reasons, then get in touch with me and I will give you some more.

One of the most effective ways of bringing a client to the point of sale is to use anchoring. Anchoring is defined as eliciting memories in people using verbal or physical triggers. Put simply, with anchoring you use certain gestures or words or both so that your client associates them with a pleasurable emotion then at a critical point you bring back that emotion with a particular word or gesture that you used in your anchor. Anchoring is also good for motivation and for making yourself very persuasive. Effective use with clients will render them very receptive to you and will remind them of what is positive about your service. The best time to create an anchor is when rapport is at its peak. You can use key words or phrases, smile, point your finger, raise your eyebrows or snap your fingers and later you can bring them back to that high rapport instantly by using that verbal or non-verbal cue when the time is right.

A simple example is as follows: a man walks into a clothes shop and starts looking at suits. The salesperson walks up and engages him in conversation, walking over to where the right size of suits are situated the salesperson asks ‘what colour are you looking for?’ ‘Navy blue’ the reply. ‘Single or double-breasted?’ ‘Double’ and then the salesperson lightly touches the customer on their arm and says ‘You will look really good in that blue and especially with that double-breast’. After trying on a few suits the salesperson picks a moment when a particular suit fits well and can see the customer really looking at himself in the mirror, checking for the fit and the look. At that moment the salesperson walks up and lightly touches him in the same place on his arm and says ‘you look really good in that one’. End result – sale.

Why not try to think of ways that anchoring can work for you, either in a business or social environment. It does not have to be physically touching the other person if you are a bit unsure - the salesperson could have snapped their fingers and said the same words and later snapped them again and said similar words.

If you are interested and want to know more, get in touch.

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