 |
|||||||||||||
|
|||||||||||||
Tallaght Tales and the Don of Persuasion
Tallaght Tales and the Don of Persuasion - (John LaValle and the Irish institute of NLP November 2004)In seminars, I often refer to waiting in airports and travelling by plane as great examples of how time can run very slowly. However, on November 21st 2004 this was to prove not to be the case. To my delight it took a mere forty minutes to fly from Leeds to Dublin after the usual apprehension of wondering if my baggage would appear alongside me when I landed, I found myself chatting with an elderly Irish taxi driver who spoke with the soft Dublin accent that would become the trademark of many conversations in forthcoming days. “So you’re going to The Plaza in Tallaght?” he commented. (Unknown to me there are actually two Plaza hotels in Dublin and a fellow traveller on the seminar had been refused a taxi service on the assumption that it was “the other Plaza” which was deemed to be too far from the airport. He therefore had to embark on a lengthy journey by bus resulting in over an additional hours travel and costing almost as much as his flight from the UK!) Tallaght is an up and coming area in the south side of Dublin about half an hour from the airport. On arrival I quickly managed to locate Andy Austin and my business partner and co trainer Tina Taylor with Tranceforming NLP and we promptly set about the all important task of locating an evening meal. After an initial assessment of the hotel menu and the immediate areas we concluded that the best option was to travel to the famous Temple Bar area where the choices would extend beyond merely a take away Dominos Pizza or a pub dinner at Grumpys. As someone interested in language and wordplay, I wondered for a few moments what sort of person would choose to call a pub “Grumpys” and whether the pub would indeed prove to be congruent with its title over the door… The hotel called us a cab and within moments, we realised that we were in for a real treat as our driver began to regale us with stories of Dublin and how he was training to be a psychotherapist. He commented that he would most like to work in prison environments and he felt that many in such places could be greatly assisted by such help. He further noted that it would be nice to “be on the other side of the table for once” and continued to assure us that despite his passion for Guinness, his wild days were over and he was now focussed on completing his qualification, so he could take up his new chosen profession. He also told us about a unique pub some 30 minutes drive from the hotel high up in the mountains called “Johnney Foxes” which proved to have the most superb food and is an absolute must when you train with the Irish Institute of NLP. The Temple Bar area is a wonderful part of Dublin with many old style pubs and restaurants. The three of us noted our guide’s previous comments that we were to seek out the older traditional pubs as these would serve the best Guinness. All restaurants and pubs in Dublin are now non smoking venues to my amazement and this makes for an extremely pleasant evening. Many of the locals commented that this change had not greatly affected business, although many bedraggled smokers would be found braving the rain and sleet outside the public venues, like kids confined to having to smoke behind the bike sheds at school. The next day was the first day of the two-day Advanced Sales and persuasion seminar with Master NLP trainer John LaValle. I had met John back in 2000 when attending his Persuasion Engineering seminar in Florida and described him to a colleague as reminding me of a cross between Tony Soprano and a Warner Brother’s cartoon. John is an extraordinarily straight talking character and a real master of language in NLP. He also has the uncanny ability to respond to any e-mail I send him within minutes regardless of time zones and times of day. All my senses told me that the next two days would be a real treat. The day started with John talking about why people go into stores, but don’t buy and how a successful salesperson needs to be able to demonstrate that they understand the customer. He then proceeded to give the best example of pacing and leading I have ever seen in a seminar situation. John has a superb ability to simplify the subject matter to make it easily understandable for his audience, which was comprised of a wide selection of people who had varying degrees of NLP experience. He continued to emphasise the importance of listening to customers and obtaining full information from them to avoid miscommunication and made the crucial point that “your language runs your brain” and to “make sure that the activity is the focus of your attention, more than the person.” One of the many reasons for attending this seminar is that John proves a simple and powerful systemic approach to the art of selling, which would be invaluable for anyone involved in communication, ie anyone whatsoever! Having recently run a large number of corporate sales trainings I was surprised to discover just how many invaluable pieces of information I took from the first morning and agreed with my colleagues Tina Taylor and Andrew Austin from Southampton, that we both had our money’s worth by the lunchtime break on the very first day! At the start of the day John pointed out that many of the things we would hear during the seminar would, once pointed out ,seem blindingly obvious to us, and this indeed proved to be the case. When he commented “Ask the questions that get the information that is valuable to you” I began to discover an even greater appreciation of the importance of structuring language in a precise manner and to be able to differentiate between one direct question at a time, to elicit exactly whatever information is required. During the afternoon, we explored how to better target our questions and John gave us a formula that was worth the price of the seminar alone in its simplicity and effectiveness. As the day continued, I realised just how many companies simply did not have a systemic approach to sales and had not appreciated that “the main thrust of business is relationship maintenance.” Brian Colbert and Owen Fitzpatrick then demonstrated some excellent left / right brain exercises. Both of them have excellent stage presence and watching them together was like watching a well practiced band that had played together for many decades and knew intuitively exactly where they were during the stage set at any given time. I could see why they are regarded so highly in NLP training circles and made a mental note to check out their full seminar schedule. John LaValle (or Don LaValle as I began to think of him) is a master of language patterns and a living demonstration of how to communicate in a concise and clear manner. For the latter part of the day we explored matching our clients language to create greater rapport and to identify “the modal operators” or likes, wants and needs that power the flow of communication. The day concluded around 6.30 pm and we decided to frequent the legendary Johnnie Foxes and promptly ordered a taxi. When you travel to Dublin, this pub is an absolute must to visit and you will be able to see a spectacular view of the city at night as you travel up into the mountain regions. Johnnie Foxes is a wonderful old Irish pub full of memorabilia from days gone by, serving excellent food. I began to notice that at least one of my colleagues had already developed a taste for the local Guinness. Of course two out of the three of us were delighted that even out in the wilder parts of the countryside there was a strict no smoking policy, while our third member was banished to the winter elements. Day two of the seminar began with exploring the issue of price and cost. I made a mental note of John’s comment “What’s attached to the money?” Many sales people make the mistake of believing that the price is always the key factor in a client’s decision-making strategy to do business. After attending the Persuasion Engineering seminar in 2000 I had taken onboard John’s advise on pricing and had raised my own consultancy fees considerably, which resulted in attracting significantly more business. John talked about the many ways to ensure that the business relationship is constantly maintained. I made a mental note to make sure that I updated my client information and paid even greater attention to all those useful details that help in building greater rapport with customers. The next few exercises highlighted further how important it is to listen completely to customers and to gather relevant information. John explained the benefits of how to sequence information and the importance of differentiating between the clients likes, wants and needs. There were many amusing moments throughout the day, but the one I remember most vividly was when a delegate began a sentence with “We have learned….” And John replied “You got a mouse in your pocket?” As the day progressed we covered the rest of the systemic sales approach, objection inoculation and closing the sale. The day concluded with all three trainers presenting a triple induction. I would love to report back on this, but within minutes of hearing John’s unique voice coupled with the two Dublin tones, all I remember is coming back to conscious attention sometime later and feeling absolutely wonderful! NEWSFLASH: Learn about Secrets of Persuasion & The Art of Influence with John La Valle in June 2008 The following day, while waiting to take off on the plane at Dublin airport a message came over the tannoy “This is a message for the Ward party. You are on the wrong plane! This plane is not going to Paris, it is headed for Leeds” My mind drifted back to John’s comment about how easy it is to end up at the wrong location without paying full attention to what is in front of you…"
|
|
||||||||||||
site developed by ishiki
media |
|||||||||||||
