Persuasion #6: The Beautiful Flowering Cherry Tree of Life

So we’re at step six of the Persuasion Framework.

#6: Condition the new thought/emotion/decision/action.

I remember a story in a sales course by, I think, Brian Tracy. It talked about a real estate broker showing a couple a house. The husband was not terribly impressed, and the wife neutral, but then she looked out the back window at a beautiful flowering cherry tree in the back yard. She was thrilled.

And that was it. From then on, no matter what room they were in, whenever possible the salesman would point out that from this room, or through THAT window, you could see the “beautiful flowering cherry tree.”

The wife was delighted, the husband yielded, and the house was sold.

What happened? Well once you find something that the person you are trying to persuade wants, for their own reasons, you continually show them how buying your product, following your advice, using your service will give them the thing they want. From an NLP perspective, you “anchor” pleasure to the action you want. If you are REALLY smart, you’ll also anchor PAIN to NOT taking the action you want.

See how important ethics are here? Once you understand how people are really wired up, you had better have a clear vision of who and what YOU are, or you can seriously exploit that knowledge, rather than using it to uplift and heal.