When listening intently to customers – and we all know that listening rather than talking is the secret of successful selling – you may sometimes notice that they have a preferred base of language. Often this is rooted in three of the senses: visual (seeing), auditory (hearing) and kinesthetic (feeling/action/touch). You may have often heard ‘visual people’ say “I see what you mean” or “that looks good to me” or “I’ll watch out for that”.

‘Auditory people’ may often say “I hear what you’re saying” or “That name rings a bell’ or “I’ll listen out for that”. ‘Kinesthetic people’ may often say such things as “Let’s touch on a few things” or “I feel that will work” or “Let’s explore that a bit more”. All very interesting but why does this matter to us in a selling situation?

Once we, as sales professionals, are aware of and sensitive to the customers preferred base, if we mirror this preference in our communication or presentations then the customer is more likely to ‘buy in’ to what we say. Put simply, by building rapport with the customer in this way we are more likely to make the sale.

For example, a salesman mirroring a ‘visual’ customer may say “I see how that may be an issue for you, let’s look at how we might solve it for you”

A salesman mirroring a ‘kinesthetic’ customer may say “How does that feel to you?”

Is there something in this that you could listen out for in your next customer visit? That is, assuming, you are an ‘auditory’ person!

I hope so.