In my continuous quest for learning I’ve read some very interesting books this year. One of them is “Words That Change Minds” by Shelle Rose Charvet. I heard Shelle speak at a conference in October 2019, so when her book was recommended I decided to give it a go. I’ve always loved playing with words, using them in marketing content to influence, persuade and encourage people to buy my services and those of my clients. So can words change minds? What are these words and how can you put them to the best use for your business?

The section of Shelle’s book that I found the most useful is where she talks about Motivation Patterns – words and phrases that can be used to motivate someone else to take action. She’s identified a number of levels at which you can motivate other people, and we all have different preferences for how we’re motivated. When promoting your services, you’ll need to get an idea of how your prospects are motivated, so you can use the most appropriate words, to help steer them in the direction of your services. Here’s my outline of the different levels:

1. Level – this is about what will get your prospects going and what will make them think. Do they take initiative or wait before acting? Your prospects can be divided into two types:

a. Proactive people – they take action and are motivated by doing, they like to get on with it and prefer short, concise sentences. Phrases to use include do it, jump to it, get it done, don’t wait, just do it and now.

b. Reactive people – they use words like ‘try’, think about what they want to do and wait a little longer before acting. Use words such as understand, think about, wait, analyze, consider, might, could and would.

2. Criteria – what words or phrases cause a physical and emotional response in your prospects? What are their ‘hot buttons’? You can find out by asking questions like “What do you want in your business?” and “What’s important to you?” Find out what matters to your potential clients and the words that cause a reaction in order to influence them. Then talk about what matters and use those ‘hot buttons’ in your marketing.

3. Direction – are your prospects motivated by carrots or sticks? What will trigger them to actually take action? Do they want to move towards their objective or away from their problem? Ask a potential client “Why is that (their Criteria) important to you?” and listen to how they answer:

a. Towards people – help them to focus on their goals. They’re motivated to have, get and achieve. They’re excited and energised by achieving their outcomes, so tell them, in your marketing, how your service can help them to achieve their goals. Use words like attain, obtain, have, get, include and achieve.

b. Away from people – they notice what should be avoided and are triggered by the problem to be solved. They’re motivated by threats and deadlines that encourage them to take action. Words such as avoid, prevent, eliminate, solve and get rid of are useful with these people.

At this point it’s also worth thinking about whether your service is an ‘away from’ service or a ‘towards’ service. For example, house insurance and car breakdown cover are both ‘away from’ services – they help keep you away from the expense of replacing stolen possessions and being stranded on the motorway. Examples of ‘towards’ services are marketing advice that can lead you towards new clients. When you know which your service is, you can design your marketing messages around the appropriate characteristics.

One extra point here – ‘away from’ marketing language can be used to grab the attention of your prospect – focus on the pain they would like to move away from. Then use ‘towards’ language to pull them towards your solution.

4. Source – where do your potential clients find their motivation? External sources or from their internal standards and beliefs? Where are their judgments and decisions made – inside the body or outside it?

a. Internal – these prospects find motivation from inside themselves. You can spot them because they sometimes have difficulty accepting the opinions of others or outside direction. They might not like your solution or your ideas at first. They like gathering information to process against their standards, so give them all the information they need and then let them decide whether or not to buy from you. Ask them: “It’s up to you; what do you think?”

b. External – these people like the opinions of others, needing direction and feedback in order to be motivated. They prefer having others make decisions for them. They also need to know who else has bought your service, so build your credibility through your marketing. External prospects will ask you for your advice when they’re thinking about buying from you. Say to them: “You’ll get these results; so-and-so thinks …”

Online buying patterns are interesting. Internal buyers like to do plenty of research into what they want to buy before buying; external buyers like to read reviews from other people before they buy. Do you cover both in your online marketing?

5. Reason – how do your potential clients reason? By looking for different options, or by following procedures? You can find out which way people are motivated by asking them questions like “Why did you set up your business?”

a. Options – these people are motivated by opportunities and possibilities to do something in a different way. They like to create procedures, but they’re not good at following them. They love to bend and break the rules! Ask them why they set up their business and they’ll tell you why.

b. Procedures – these prospects like to follow step-by-step processes. Ask them why they started their business and they’ll tell you how they did it.

Getting someone in options mode to make a decision can be hard, as they don’t like the idea of missing out or making the wrong decision. Give them alternatives, but not too many. They want to know why they should buy from you.

When someone is ready to buy from you, they usually switch to procedures mode. Ask them if they’re ready to take the next step. If they’re not ready, they’ll show you that they’re still in options mode, by asking what else you can do for them. They might ask you for more time.

You can sell to procedures people by getting them started on the process. “First I’ll send you a copy of my book for you to read.”

6. Decision Factors – to change or not to change? How do your potential clients change and with what frequency? This is helpful in establishing when they might switch supplier and buy from you instead of a current one.

a. Sameness – some people want everything to stay the same, only making major change every 15-25 years! They will talk about things being ‘identical’ and unchanged.

b. Sameness with exceptions – some people like things to stay mostly the same. They will accept change if it’s not too drastic, preferring gradual evolution. They can cope with change every 5-7 years and will use phrases including more/less and better/worse.

c. Difference – some people love change! They resist stable situations and actively look for change every 1-2 years. When they talk, they describe differences, using words such as new, different and transformed.

d. Difference and sameness with exceptions – these people like better and new; they will take a totally different approach to improvements and they like gradual change.

When someone has the sameness pattern, show how your service will give them something they know will look and sound reliable.

Sameness with exception prospects want improvements. Show how your service is better than your competitors, or better than what they have now. Show them how you can make their lives easier.

Difference prospects want something totally new and different from everyone else. ”You’ll be the only person doing this,” will encourage them to buy.

How Can You Use Words to Change Minds?

There’s a lot to take in here, so I suggest that you start at number one and work your way gradually through the levels, playing with the words you use in your marketing. Don’t change everything at once – try out something different and see what sort of impact it has. Remember to keep asking questions of your potential clients and listen carefully to their answers – both in the words they use and the way in which they say them.

If you’d like to delve more deeply into using words to change minds, I have a spare copy of Shelle’s book – contact me if you’d like it.