Dark Art of Zen Sales (Rough Summary)

[Iron Sulfide]

the following was largely inspired by Rant, the new palanhuik book.

****it's important to note, if you don't have the habit of making this assumption, that these are
types, not facts. not everyone is "one type"- in fact, i would say most people aren't "one-type."
it's more common for someone to be PREDOMINANTLY one or another. just as it's more common
for someone to prefer one hand to another, but nigh total ambidextarity is also possible*****

basically, break people into three groups of learning style:

Auditory
Visual
Kinetic

there is a fourth group, but it's impractical for the most (olfactory 'taste/smell' learners.)

visual learners are the more common type. if you can illustrate it, you can communicate it.
these people respond well to image type propagation. a catchy display, a visual paradox,
something of that nature. common marketing techniques for this group are to use high-contrast
color pairings (red/green; red/blue; black/white; etc..), specific geometry (angles and curves),
flashing, pulsing, motion, etc... each type of learner gives "Tells" to which kind of learner
they are by their descriptive laguage. in the case of visual learners, there are ques like:

"look here."

"See what i'm talking about?"

etc...

for one-on-one propagation, smoothing communication can be achieved by subtley using "their language,"
and directing them with their own verbal ques.

the second largest group is the Auditory learners. these are music fans, and a jingle will appeal more easily.
tonality of voice and precise use of words are effective against these people. common techniques of marketing
include: bells, whistles, ultra-low/high frequencies, jingles, NLP/auto-suggestion, etc... the Tells of this particular
class are:

"Hear me out."

"Listen up."

"Sounds fishy."

etc...

the smallest feasible group is by far the kinetic learners: they learn hands on. it can be a tricky thing to pick up on,
especially with how touchy a lot of people are about personal space these days. people opf this type are impressed most
by working models of things, viable samling and the such- things of a material nature that are presented. hardest to sell to,
as they largely are people that are convinced by the product itself, making it more difficult to play on in direct situations
WITHOUT planning.

the tells are different, and a little more subtle:

"Dig?"

"i feel ya'."

"Let's touch bases later."

they also tend to gesticulate a lot.



Inconspicuously Discerning Learning Type:

easy. ask open-questions. Open Questions are such as they require more than a "yes-no" response.
it's natural for people to like talking about themselves, but a lot of them don't because they rarely perceive
the opportunity to do so.

closed-questions are useful in another sense: they're good for directing the conversation once you've opened them,
read their ques, and formulated some kind of approach based upn their learning style.

"do you like this color?" is a closed question.

"what brings you to this area?" is an open question.




the fourth group: Olfactory

i include taste and smell in the olfactory sense. these people aren't directly influenced by most
marketing tactic on this sensory circuit. but they are still effected by the other inclinations they
have.

specific scents can be brought up and used to help create a Mnemonic Device, but i'm not quite ready to present my idea on that.

[Iron Sulfide]

i forgot to note:

Repetition is key, but so is subtlety.

it's basically a Pavlovian response, and it's the same thing as the concept of "Branding."

for visual images, it's good to have them posted around places where they'll be seen, but not directly perceived, so that when they see it "for the first time" it seems so significant and mysteriously "right."

etc..

ummm...

Pacing.

this is an awesome tool. it's basically miming, or method acting. also yoinked from Rant.

basically:
observe and match the person's breath rate,
mimic their actions with an attention to their facial expressions and
body language.
when they do something, you do it, 15-30 seconds after them..you "pace them."

it seems absurd if you're unfamiliar with jane goodall or peter sellers or RAW, and if you've never practiced it,
it feels pretty damn absurd, as well. but with practice, you can do it without much effort, and it lends
a good amount of contextual insight into a person's inner mechanisms and state of mind.

i can't think of anything else atm, and i have to get to class.

[Cramulus]

This is all very good. I'm sure it'll be useful as we move forward.

[Kaienne]

Wow, this is all really great stuff. I especially liked the part about the different ways that different learning styles speak; I'm identified primarily as a kinetic learner, and I use those kinds of statements frequently, while the others, not so much.
The pacing is a really great key as well. Thank you.

[Triple Zero]

a question about pacing.

i read about it before, but i had the idea that it was about mirroring someone's body language immeditately, instead of with a 15-30 seconds delay, in order to make a switch of who's "leading" who, at some point (when you're good at it).

now there's two effects i can imagine pacing to have:

- on the paced. the subject will feel comfortable, or at least, "connected" in some way with the pacer, making them more suggestible or generally more "open". i would expect this effect to be more apparent if you apply the pacing immediately, to get "in sync".

- on the pacer. by mirroring the bodylanguage, you are partly getting "into" the emotions of the subject [if you take on a stance that belongs to a certain kind of emotion, you will start to feel this emotion. obvious example, dancing makes you happy or ecstatic], so you are better able to connect and get a feel for the subject, test how well you're doing so far, etc. i would expect this effect to be more apparent if you delay the pacing with 15-30 seconds.

i'm not an expert on these subjects, so don't hesitate to tell me if i'm way off.

[stromcrow]

I think the best way to learn pacing is observing it when you're doing it yourself. Make yourself aware that this phenomenon exists, by reading/thinking about it. Then, at times, you'll recognize you're doing it, for example when having a conversation with a friend. If you just try to imitate another persons moves, it might seem as you're making fun of them, which clearly isn't what you want.

When trying it on purpose the best way maybe is to make a specific move yourself (like leading your hand to your mouth: to smoke, to scratch you beard, to look like you're thinking and then see if the other person follows you.

[Iron Sulfide]

000- no, you're not way off.

the entire approach of pacing is supposed to be an intuitive process, for lack of a better term.

and subtle variations on the appraoch may yeild different insights, i haven't given it thought, or read
very extensively on the subject. i've only given it some testing at work. i knew there was something practical
to working directly with the public. bleech.

i'm also applying the same approach to my learning sleight of hand.  while learning sleight of hand- which in my position, means figuring it out on my own, and fine tuning the process- i'm also meta-learning a lot of
principals behind the Veil of Maya, or Magic- i.e. the elusive metaphor that  we call perception. (BiP, Reality Grid, Cultural Bias, What-Fucking-Ever (tm)

and so far, this is only the aspect that was inspired by rant (well, directly stolen from Rant, actually).

[Xooxe]

common techniques of marketing
include: bells, whistles, ultra-low/high frequencies, jingles, NLP/auto-suggestion, etc...

I don't get it. This thread is based on NLP so how can NLP be a technique within itself?

[Iron Sulfide]

NLP wasn't the correct term. i wrote that in a frenzy right before i dashed out the door.

i was hoping that the off-set of "/auto-suggestion" would clairify what i meant, but alas alas.

i intended to imply that they are especially susceptible to verbal suggestions, for example:

if i were trying to sell a costumer some expensive seafood while they were swimming through the aisles, and i
had smelt them out as predominantly audio-learning, i would lead them into asking me what i like,
solely for the use of the pun, "Me? i don't really like seafood, but i eat for the halibut."

groan. awful. i have actually used this on people. (i know i deserve death and much worse for this, but fuckit.)

the point being that these people tend to be more vulnerable to verbal descriptions, juxtaposed words, that aspect of linguistic programming.

of course, to be a semantic dick, you'd have to assume that NLP is comprised of NLP.

circular logic works because

[Iron Sulfide]

i forgot something important.

a specific working definition of "Magic:"

a method of altering or manipulating reality by processes which, when viewed directly, appear not to exist.

should cover sleight of hand to mass media, basically.