Occasionally you may find yourself trapped by an overenthusiastic salesperson. But, because you have studied NLP you’ve realised that they’re doing the best they can and you don’t want to be impolite or hurt their feelings. Using Erickson’s language patterns in combination with humor can help diffuse tension and make the interaction with pushy salespeople more relaxed and enjoyable.
I was confronted by a door to door salesperson. They came back not once but twice. I invited them in and ended up selling them my car.
Be mindful that humor is very subjective, everyone is different
Here are some examples of how you can use these techniques:
- Reframe the situation: Use humor to reframe the situation in a way that makes it less threatening. For example, you could say, “Well, I’m not in the market for a new car right now, but I’ll keep you in mind for when I’m ready to trade in my spaceship.”
- Agree and redirect: Agree with the salesperson on something that is not related to the sales pitch. For example, you could say, “I completely agree that the weather has been really nice lately, but I’m not interested in purchasing a car at this time.”
- Use embedded commands: Embedded commands are suggestions that are hidden within a sentence. For example, you could say, “I appreciate your offer, but I’m just not ready to make a decision today.” The embedded command in this statement is “not ready to make a decision.”
- Use humor to distract: You can use humor to distract the salesperson from their sales pitch. For example, you could say, “I’m not interested in buying a car right now, but I am interested in learning how to levitate. Do you have any tips?” or say sheepishly “I understand that you have a quota to meet, but I’m not interested right now. Can we still be friends?” Humor can be a powerful tool to distract someone and change the subject. For example, you could say something like, “I’m sorry, I can’t think about buying anything right now. I’m too busy trying to remember the lyrics to that song from the 90s.”
By using these techniques, you can redirect pushy salespeople in a way that is non-confrontational and can even put them at ease. They’re probably feeling just as awkward and pressured as you are . Just remember to be polite and respectful, even if you’re not interested in what they’re selling.