He would literally mesmerize people, and say things they couldn’t say no too.   I’m going to show you some of those secrets here.

I pulled them out of his out of print book going for “$54.98 to $259.79” on Amazon.

Although Feldman didn’t name them, Robert Dilts and Richard Bandler certainly did.

How Ben Feldman Approached People

A bad life insurance salesman calls up and says something like this: ““Hi I’d like to talk with you about life insurance do you have 30 minutes?”.

And the poor guy on the other end of this amateur pitch pukes a little bit and quickly tries to shoo the guy away.

Here’s how Feldman approached the call.

Mr. Jones, I have money for sale.  At a discount.   You’ll need that someday to pay your taxes.  May I present an idea that has been very valuable to a lot of people?

Robert Dilts would recognize this as a “Redefine” sleight of mouth pattern.   Ben redefined insurance as selling money at a discount, and eliminated that objection.

Feldman was renowned for selling high ticket insurance and often ran into the objection “This costs way too much”

He dealt with this using this consequence Sleight of Mouth pattern:

If you can’t put away 3% now, how are you going to find 100% later.

What he meant here was when the person buying insurance died, the creditors would come knocking looking for estate taxes.   And the cash won’t be there.

Anyhow.

When you get good at Sleight of Mouth, you can start weaving persuasive messages as easily as you type.   How do you get good?  Start with my email program here.

Sleight of Mouth Email Course

Remove them early in your copy and your response rates climb.

Here’s how to use Sleight of Mouth patterns to do it.   Using these patterns to shatter a belief is like shattering a window.   Sometimes it takes one blow, sometimes it take 3 or 4.   I stick to three in copy.

Let’s shatter some objections!

Let’s sell an accounting service today.

Objection #1:  It’s too expensive.

Apply to self:  Paying 20% of your income in taxes is expensive.

Analogy:  Paying my fee instead is like going from 20% tax rate to a 1% tax rate.

Consequence pattern:   Without my help you’ll pay $128,000 more in taxes than you should, my fee is $6,000.  What is more expensive?

Objection #2: I have to think it over.

Hierarchy of Criteria:  What’s more important to you…getting  back money the government took from you, or thinking about how to get it back?

Counter example:   I had client tell me just the other day, that each day I worked with him saved him $500 a day.   Do you want to get that money now or after you think it over?

Objection #3: I have to discuss it with my spouse / business partner.

Redefine: You are going to show them how you are going to save $500 a day, is that going to take much discussion?

Change Frame Size: Every time your spouse asks why you didn’t discuss it with me, it would be nice to remind her of today when you made a decision that paid for your son’s college tuition.

Summary:   You should assume these objections are in the back of your prospects head.   Attack them early in your sales copy and you will remove barriers to buying and make more sales.

There is a fourth little known objection most copywriters fail to address.   This is especially true when you’re selling an information product.   It’s a huge anchor stopping people from buying, and its a rigid belief requiring surgical word smithing to dislodge.   I discuss it in my Free Sleight of Mouth email course.  Sign up for it here.

Sleight of Mouth Email Course

Ready?

First a preamble.

Everyone’s brain is as unique as a finger print.   They have built up in their heads a belief system and model of the world which all input gets filtered through.

Like a prism distorts light beams.  This “map of the world” distorts reality.  (Almost all human conflict comes down to not understanding people have different maps)

This is why logical arguments almost never persuade anyone, because the logic gets distorted and twisted by a persons “map” of the world.

If you want to slip suggestions past people’s maps, you have to something my mother did when I needed to take some foul tasting medicine.  You stuff it inside something I liked (like hot dog or a big spoonful of Jello).

One way to do this is a technique called pacing and leading.

A pace is when you say something that is verifiable in your readers (or customers) model of the world.   A lead is when you suggest something you want them to believe.    The more you pace, the more powerful the lead becomes.

Here’s an example, let’s see if we can help sell some Chiropractic services. (The paces are underlined and the lead is bolded)

This is a pace, pace, pace, pace, lead.

Back pain slows you down.  Back pain sufferers can’t stand for long periods of time.  Bending over sends sharp pains up their spines and feelings of frustration because the pain keeps them from playing with their kids.  And a good chiropractor can stop this.

Let’s try a financial advisor appointment fetching letter:

You can get good paces by paying attention to the big news going on.   The news has a huge effect on people’s models of the world (Which is why you shouldn’t pay attention to it).

Another bank fails in the United States.  The stock market is stagnant and people’s savings aren’t growing as fast as they want.  Because of this meeting with a knowledgeable financial planner is more important than ever.

I’m wondering if you are starting to realize just how more powerful claims are, if you pace first.

Ok, let’s get to the…

Love Letter

The goal of this letter should be to make your partner feel loved.  Sometimes they don’t believe, a simple “I love your more than anything”.     So let’s use our pacing first to make the “I love you” twice as powerful.

Dear Zelda,

We’ve been together for 7 months now.    I am not perfect.  You know I tend to leave my clothes hanging around, and I tend to leave my dishes sitting out.   You handle my minor video game addiction like a champ, and you cheer me on when I’m playing my friends.  And you should know “I love you more than anything”….

Simple stuff…Super powerful.

A simple pace, pace then lead isn’t going to do a full selling job for you.

It is just another brick in the road leading your prospect from a state of not wanting your service to a state of wanting it.    Good paces require research into the person you are writing to.   Something most copywriters do not do.

In summary:

Take a look at the major claims you are making in your web pages, sales letters and emails.  Try and soften the blow by pacing first.  It makes arguments very compelling, and will boost your sales.

Peace.

P.S.

If you’re thinking of hiring a copywriter then you should give me a shout by following this link.   Talk to Ian about a copywriting project.

If you present well,  and demonstrate such a high value then price should not come.   But sometimes…people get to the end and they say, I just think it’s too expensive.

So, we’ll go back to our handy friend Sleight of Mouth and silently kill the objection.

Here’s how.

You’re customer says “The house is too expensive”

You pace (never tell people they are wrong, you’ll snap rapport and lose the power of influence).

“You’re right, this house has a lot of value”. – This is a simple redefine of expensive means high value.

“The additional monthly cost to your mortgage is $127.   Which is almost the price of a Starbucks coffee each day” – this is a change of frame size where they can see the costs each day are less.

“What’s more important to you, saving the price of a Starbucks latte each day or having a home with the backyard overlooking the ocean and mountains like you’ve always wanted”  – this is a hierarchy of criteria and I assume ocean and mountains is an important criteria.

When you use Sleight of Mouth it can take 1 pattern or 3, never usually more than 4.   The more you stack the more the objection disappears.

It works like magic and will lubricate social friction for the rest of your life.   If you’d like to get good at it, real fast then you should read about my Sleight of Mouth course here.

Knowing how to engineer those “A-Ha” moments with the written word can spawn information product evangelists.

You can change perceptions of entire industries.

You can simply make someone feel good about themselves and want to change their life.

I’d like to reveal some of those secrets in this article.

Because we are working with beliefs we will be using Sleight of Mouth patterns.

A good example of how we can use Sleight of Mouth to add value to an information product is with hypnosis sessions.

Before hypnosis can be truly effective, the person has to believe hypnosis works and that they can be hypnotized.

A common belief is “I can’t be hypnotized because my mind is too strong”.

Well a good pattern to run in the instruction manual can be.

“A common question that comes up is I can’t be hypnotized because my mind is too strong.  This is perfectly valid.

You have to ask if your mind is strong enough to let yourself be hypnotized?

Hypnosis is a state of incredible relaxation and focus which requires a strong mind to go into.

And isn’t it more important to be someone who likes change and become stronger than appearing strong minded?”

I ran three patterns in that sentence.   Each one like a tiny proton torpedo snaking its way into the death stars exhaust port.

First I paced their experience (For rapport).   Then I did an apply to self pattern.  (see if you can find it).   Then a redefine on hypnosis.   Then I used a hierarchy of criteria to show them a belief more important than being strong minded was being violated.

Cool huh?  This would open up a lot more people to the idea of hypnosis and make the program more effective.

Anyhow, let’s sum things up.

Learn how to use sleight of mouth patterns when you come up against stubborn beliefs of your audience.   You’ll literally change the wiring in their brains and they’ll come away with an expanded mind, and you’ll be soldering a tough to break bond with your reader.

If you like this lesson you’ll want to see what I have in my email course.  In it I reveal a hidden objection to buying almost no one seems to talk about.

I heard about this objection in a Gary Halbert copywriting seminar but didn’t hear how to overcome it.   It’s the perfect job for Sleight of Mouth, and if you remove objections you increase sales.   Sign up for the course here.

Take care,

Ian

Here’s a cool way to do it, using Sleight of Mouth.

Remember: Sleight of Mouth is a language tool used to shift beliefs.

One belief a good salesman (or copywriter) should install in their prospects is this:

I want to buy this because it’s an incredible value.

I remember watching a movie once where a man was running in the woods, and he ran into a zombie.The camera zoomed into the zombies face.

You felt bad for the man, but weren’t too worried. After all its just one zombie.

But the camera slowly zoomed out.

When it got far enough out you were able to see two more zombies.
And it kept going. There were 10 zombies. Until it zoomed out so far it looked like a bird was looking down on the scene and there were thousands of zombies.

As you changed the size of “frame” the danger increased.

Using Sleight of Mouth you can change the size of the frame and increase desire for your product.

Here’s an example for a new computer.

The X10 computer comes with an ultra quiet fan. Leave your computer running at night without waking up to noise.

Music will sound purer without the background noise of a cheap fan.

Think better because you can work in absolute 100% silence.

Turn the computer on to kill some time without waking your spouse.

This is an example of changing the frame size of what someone pictures themselves using the product for. The more of those frame expansions I stacked, the more gas I toss on the flame of desire.

Neat huh?

There is much more to learn. If you found this useful, check out this tight, easy to read email series on Sleight of Mouth copywriting.
Drive fast and take chances.

Ian

Imagine knowing the power of those words will ripple for thousands of years to come, physically altering peoples neural networks and installing behaviours in future generations.

This is what the bible did.

Words have power.   Beliefs are the puppet strings on human behaviour, and words can change beliefs.

There’s a catch though.   Beliefs are never altered through logical argument.  In fact, arguing with someone’s belief systems causes people to dig in like a tick and defend their ideas…no matter how absurd.

Changing beliefs using language is a little known but super powerful skill.

You can install the belief in people to hate another race.

You can install the belief in people to love another race.

You can install the belief in people that it’s important not to steal.

This is where Sleight of Mouth comes into play.   Robert Dilts is credited with categorizing and naming special patterns influential writers and leaders (Including Jesus, Albert Einstein, Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King) use to change the world.

How To Stop A Murder

A few weeks ago, I saw a wise man stop a murder.

A mob of homeless people were ready to tear apart another homeless person for stealing a bag of cans from them.

A few pedestrians told them to stop.  They shouted arguments that bounced off the mob like a laser off a mirror.

“Don’t do it you’ll go to jail!”

“It won’t make things better!”

“You can guys can work this out without violence”

Nothing worked.

But up approached a wise man and he said “Let the man who has never stolen before, swing first”.

This kind of stunned the crowd.   They stopped and thought about it, and realized they too had stolen before.

The man used a Sleight of Mouth pattern on the crowd to instantly diffuse their belief they wanted to kill this man for stealing.

Do you recognize this story?  Jesus did the same thing to a mob of people who wanted to stone a woman to death for adultery.

Rather than scold or show them the errors in their ways he simply said (I’m not a bible scholar this is a loose translation) “Let he who is without sin, cast the first stone”.    This stopped a murder.

Sleight of mouth patterns are space age verbal weapons that persuade people without them realizing they are being persuaded.

Finding good courses on how to learn to use these patterns is not that hard.   Learning how to use them in print is a journey I’ve been on for the past year.   And I’ve poured my research into an email course, available to anyone who wants to learn more.

To sign up simply head to this page and read about the Sleight of mouth copy course. The sign up box is on the page.  Cheers.