When most people think of NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming) they either think you are speaking a foreign technical language or, they think of Tony Robbins (who popularized a version of it). Few people realize that it is a state of the art communication model that has been around for decades. Even fewer people realize the actual “NLP techniques” that make up this sophisticated communication model. I would also bet that most people don’t even realize that it is being used every day before their eyes in both the media and in politics.
What if you could learn and apply just 15 of the 30 techniques that you learn at the Practitioner NLP Level in your communications with clients and loved ones? What if you learned how to transform your relationships with your clients with just a few simple strategies and techniques from NLP to create lasting behavioral change and repeat business because they know, like and trust you on a deeper level? Would that benefit your coaching business?
You will find it even easier to charge what you are worth and to enroll clients in premium programs when you notice what you hadn’t noticed before in your coaching. Many people have felt like a weight was lifted off their psyche that allowed them to make breakthroughs in their life through NLP techniques in coaching.
There are a number of NLP technical words that have become popularized in the media. Many people have heard of “anchoring”, “the 5 Step Sales Process”, rapport, matching and mirroring. Tony Robbins and others have helped these terms to become more mainstream but they have barely scratched the surface from a deep behavioral change point of view.
Many coaches today practice goal setting, selective listening, and feedback with their clients and taking them out of their comfort zone. In fact, you could build an entire mainstream coaching business on taking people out of their “comfort zone” and bringing them to a place where they feel supported. Many of us call this “holding space” for clients in terms of personal growth and transformation. There are both uncomfortable moments and “breakthrough” moments where we “hold the space” for the client. Oftentimes this feels like a miracle since the client is being listened to and is also receiving carefully tailored feedback from their coach. But what if the change doesn’t last? Or what if they encounter deeper challenges along the way that the coaching did not address?
Here is where NLP coaching excels and allows you to go deeper on an “unconscious level” than you’re able to do “consciously.” How does NLP do this you may ask. The techniques allow deep and “lasting” behavioral change to happen because many of the root causes are being eliminated that have created the blockages in the first place. The NLP coaching is allowing the brain to re-wire itself for success at both a conscious and unconscious level by bypassing the “critical factor” or “analytical mind” in the subject. When you as coach learn how to use and apply these techniques you become more successful and your clients will refer you and continue on with your programs.
The amazing part of this to see the success of your clients. Many coaches will coach at the level that they are attaining in life. So you cannot coach a client to become a millionaire if you are not even able to earn 6 figures. With NLP coaching you learn why that is happening and are able to be where you want to be and still coach people to earn more money than you. You will be clearing up your own blockages as you continue to become more successful with clients. You will fine-tune your own brain for success and understand the difference between subjective coaching (where you listen at the conscious level and offer feedback designed to make the client feel that they are having a breakthrough) and NLP coaching where you trip the wires that have been keeping the client believing this is the breakthrough when there is something deeper going on that hasn’t even been discovered through regular coaching.
So let’s look at a couple of the techniques in NLP coaching that have been popularized (actually watered down) and see how they are designed to go deeper than regular coaching. Let’s look at anchoring, matching and mirroring and “the 5 Step Sales process”. In anchoring, you may have heard mainstream practitioners talk about “anchoring states’ in people. Anchoring in the technical sense consists of many different types of ‘anchors” and it is important to know the difference between them all in order to offer your coaching client the most appropriate anchor for what they are coming to you for.
What is anchoring? Anchoring is an NLP term used to describe the method of capturing a peak moment of a feeling or sensation in the client where a tactile reinforcement by the coach enforces the peak moment of that state. A “state” or feeling has a beginning, a middle or “peak moment” and an ending. The idea is to catch the “state” at its peak and reinforce that in the client by touch. There are resource anchors, collapsing anchors, chaining anchors, and regular anchoring to name a few. It is very important to know the difference in these technical variations in order to serve your client at your best.
NLP is actually the “study of excellence” and is a series of techniques designed to support your client on both a conscious and a very deep unconscious level. As you are learning NLP techniques (coming from a place of high integrity and ethics), you are becoming excellent at what you do and are better able to serve your client.
Now let’s look at matching and mirroring. This became very popular in sales and the self-help field as a way of establishing rapport with a client. In mirroring you are “mirroring” your client’s body language and in “matching” your client’s body language you are using the exact body language of your client without “mirroring.” In mirroring as you face the client, for example, you are using the opposite arm or opposite leg as the client to reflect back to them a mirror image. In matching you are using the same arm and leg for example as the client in your own body.
If you simply choose to mirror or match your clients in order to establish rapport without knowledge of the subtle cues, you will be missing volumes of information that the client is giving you (both consciously and unconsciously) that actually might stop you from having a rapport. So with knowledge of NLP techniques of subtle cues, you can learn to establish more effective rapport with your client as a result of congruency in your own being and by “tuning in” more effectively to your client.
Let’s explore the “5 Step Sales Process” as it pertains to NLP. The 5 steps at first glance are :
- Establish Rapport
- Ask Questions
- Find a Need
- Link the Value or Need to Your Product or Service
- Close (ask for the order)
If you were either coaching a client or teaching the “5 Step Sales Process” you will find that many people are familiar with the 5 steps and feel that they already know it. Especially if they are in sales. But if you apply NLP techniques to the actual process you will find that you are able to tune in even deeper to the needs of the client. Whether you are applying to them or teaching them how to do it, you will be able to more effectively link value to the product or service in a more meaningful way. Also if you are applying the 5 Step Sales Process and no “need’ is determined what do you then?
The deeper exploration of the 5 Step Sales Process reveals that an awareness of your client at both the conscious and the unconscious level will go very far to create success. Asking the right questions will give you more information about how your client processes the question than you can imagine. Finding the true need can be elusive and is why knowledge of NLP subtle cues is valuable in the discovery of this need. Linking the value involves getting agreement at the unconscious level. It is much easier to get it at the conscious level but when you are able to get it at the unconscious level, you have a much more solid agreement here.
So as you can see there is a lot more here than meets the eye in NLP coaching. In our 2 day workshop, you will learn 15 techniques from NLP coaching that will give you more freedom as a coach and allow you to serve your client in a deeper more meaningful way. Of course, many of your client exchanges may not acquire as much depth, so you will learn how to calibrate the level of depth that you apply with each client so that you are truly understanding and helping them. You create more value for your client and they will treasure you for this. Click the link below for workshop details!
