If you’re in sales, and someone told you to only utilise about 15% of the communication channels into your prospect’s mind, would you listen to them?

The answer is of course NO!  You would think that was foolish advice.  Ignore 85% of the access to your prospect’s thoughts and emotions and just focus on the 15% and hope for the best.

Well, that is exactly what so many people in marketing and sales are doing.

A couple of weeks ago we ran a poll and we asked people how they prefer to receive complex concepts – have it told to them, have it written out for them, or have it visually shown to them.

No surprises I’m sure, but 85% of all respondents said “visually shown to them”.

So how come we rely so heavily on written and spoken sales copy and scripts?

One of the most powerful sales techniques is “product in action”.  You let the prospect see the product working – for example, test driving a new car.  The problem is, when you sell a complex service – like coaching or consultancy, it is hard to let the prospect see the product in action.

That’s why we build and use visual models around the service.  The model acts as a blueprint for the brain and lets the prospect “see” the service before they buy it.

So, think about how you can move away from a reliance on words and use visual models to turn your service into a product in action.