No, this isn’t the start of a new joke.
But for a moment, just imagine you see the following image splashed across the front page of your local paper…
In the middle of a chaotic meeting room, a frightened mass of people with fear and surprise in their eyes.
On the fringe of the crowd, near the outer wall is a burly man, forearms covered in tattoos, his face strained and red. He has just thrown one of the office chairs through a window, spraying glass across the lawn outside.
If you had to form an opinion of this man, what would it be – positive or negative?
Now imagine the same scene, but the image shows a wider perspective, this time revealing the entire room.
You still see the man throwing a chair through the window, but on the other side of the room there’s smoke and fire coming in through an open door.
Do you now feel differently about this man?
Same guy, same action, different context.
In NLP this is what we call “reframing”.
Reframing changes the specific context in which you perceive a given piece of information, which changes the resulting meaning of the information.
In this case, it determines whether this man is labeled as a “hostile bully” or a “decisive hero”.
This concept applies just as well to your marketing such as your pricing, offers, and product/service features.
To minimize resistance from your customers and prospects, use reframes your messaging to get more desirable results.
For example, don’t just say, “We only sell chicken wings, that’s it.”
Instead, frame it first with something like, “You can probably agree that being the best at anything comes ONLY from years of tireless dedication and study of a single subject. That’s why we don’t serve burgers, fries, or turkey clubs. If we did, we couldn’t serve the best chicken wings in the country… which we do.”
Leaving your customers alone to decide what something should mean is a very dangerous proposition.
Do them (and yourself) a favor by using reframing to make both of you look like heroes.
Cheers to your success!
Philipp
P.S. While I use NLP techniques daily, I’ve never never considered teaching them as a course in the past. But if there’s enough of a demand I’ll put a special training together. If you’d be interested in learning more about how to better apply reframing and other NLP skills like anchoring, presuppositions, pattern interrupts, and rapport to your marketing, COMMENT BELOW and let me know.
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