NLP uses language to influence the mind. Developed by Richard Bandler and John Grinder in the 1970s, Neuro Linguistic Programming can have a big impact on your readers or audience. Here are some of the ways our skilled writers apply NLP techniques to speeches and writing:
Mining Modality
Exploiting modality preference is an important technique for any writer. Humans have three main modality preferences: the visual (seeing), the auditory (hearing) and the kinaesthetic (feeling). Writing falls flat when it does not use one or more of these modalities. In addition, different readers have different modality preferences dependant on age, gender and socio-economic status. For example, younger readers tend to be more visual than older readers.
Telling a Tale
Turning a basic letter or resume into an exciting story exposes the reader’s subconscious to emotion, symbol and metaphor. Embedding messages in a dynamic narrative structure is one of the best ways to convey information and influence your reader.
Homophones
Homophones, words that sound or look the same, are one of the key ways to influence your reader or listener. Well-chosen homophones like ‘by now’ and ‘buy now’ reinforce key messages in your reader’s subconscious.
Emotional Massage
Charities invariably make use of emotions in order to sell their message. This is because linking bare facts to powerful emotions is a good way to stir your readers into action. For example, saying ‘Feed a starving family of four!’ is far more effective than saying, ‘Give us $40 a month for twelve months’. All speeches benefit from timely injections of emotion.
Pattern Interrupts
Breaking the flow in unexpected places temporarily unhinges the reader’s or listener’s expectations, exposing them to your message. Dropping a joke or amusing anecdote into a resume, letter or speech is one of the most effective ‘pattern interrupts’.
Social Proof
Humans are social animals who instinctively compare themselves to others. This is why describing products in terms of the social success they confer on their purchasers is such a popular sales technique. Similarly, demonstrating your ‘social proof’ in an application, letter or resume makes your reader instinctively want ‘a piece of the action’.