The Language and Behaviour Profile

Mastering The Language Of Influence - Profiling Motivation

• How can you ensure your recruitment process works every time?
• How do you know what's really important to someone you want to do business with?
• How do you trigger someone's motivation to want to talk to you?
• How do you know someone else's reasons for buying a product or service?
• How do you buy a product or service, what motivates you to make the decision?
• How do you build instant relationships and avoid uneasy interactions?
• How do you communicate with the most challenging people you manage?

The answer to all of these questions is to customise your language in ways that 'trigger' the other person's motivation, tapping into what counts for them.

People (that's us by the way!) reveal unconscious motivation patterns in the everyday language they use. It's all there in natural everyday conversation.

Motivation touches every aspect of our lives day to day and we don't even recognise it, how we buy, sell, work, play, communicate and so on.

So --- what would it be like to be able understand your own and other people's motivations and apply that to:

• Building relationships that work; Communicating successfully with anyone.
• Selling; Shortening the sales cycle and guaranteeing customer satisfaction.
• Marketing; Designing powerful marketing and advertising campaigns
• Recruitment; Employing only people who are motivated to perform in specific scenarios.
• Negotiating; Dramatically improving results in negotiation.
• Training; Adapting training and education programmes that satisfy every need.
• Developing self-awareness; Increasing knowledge of self and therefore acknowledging personal motivations.
• Making career decisions; Simplifying career counselling and professional coaching.
• Building teams; Creating high performance teams by managing people's strengths instead of suffering from their weaknesses.

The above information forms the basis of a unique tool for personality profiling. A third generation application of years of research and development in the field of motivation and influence that enables people understand and play to their innate talents. This also forms the foundation for a two-part training programme for people who want to know more about influence and how to be influential.

The Language and Behaviour Profile

Applying the LAB Profile - How can the information be used?

Recruitment

Getting the 'right' person in the 'right' job by asking the 'right' questions and listening for the 'right' responses.

Advertising; Selecting the right person

• Using specific motivational language to underpin the wording of advertisements. This attracts only the 'right' motivation traits attributed to top performers, in a specific role, so that only the most desirable candidates apply.
• Identifying key patterns and eliminating irrelevant ones to develop a tool for mass recruitment that can be used as a multiple-choice questionnaire on line. Where only key patterns are used the process can be 'short-circuited' to eliminate those with contrary patterns ensuring that only the best people get through to assessment and interview.

*Staff turnover has been significantly reduced as a result of the 'right' motivation traits being applied to the recruitment process.

Developing Teams to Work Together

Even where a team are working well, understanding motivation differences will enable more cohesion and tolerance.

• Characterising the team's joint motivation and 'test' how appropriate it is to the overall outcome.
• Giving pointers to understand strengths and weaknesses compared to the tasks that need to be accomplished.
• Maximising the strengths of a team, making the opposite motivations work instead of letting them get in the way.
• Determining what to do when differing motivations are a source of conflict.

*People with a preference for flexibility will be at odds with people who prefer structured working and visa versa. Both give valuable input to the process - understanding how, enables appreciation of 'difference'.

Sales

Sales people typically use their own motivations to sell and consequently may 'mismatch' their customer's motivation strategy.

• Understanding the tried and tested motivation 'strategy' that a person uses to buy in a specific context enables you to respond to that strategy in 'language' that appeals to the customer.

For example:

• After listening to the customers needs, adapt your questions to their criteria to elicit valuable information about what has to be in place for the customer to be happy enough to buy from you.
• Presenting your product or service by matching the customer's criteria to appeal what to is important to them.
• Successful selling has to have a structure, so someone without structure to their approach and who is attracted offering 'unlimited possibilities' in their conversation will not do well.
• Someone who is not able to initiate action alone will not do well where 'cold calling' is necessary since picking up the telephone to someone they don't know may never happen.
• Prospecting for business or selling in a random environment i.e. the street, requires a person who tales action alone, without this they may always be 'waiting' for the 'right' conditions.

Coaching and Career Counselling

Helping clients to know their strengths and weaknesses and apply that knowledge to their career choices.

• Companies reveal their motivations in the language they use in their promotional materiel and web sites. Applicants can therefore be advised whether they have a match or not. Alternatively they can be advised how to apply themselves to matching a prospective employers' patterns during interview and selection.
• Understanding of motivation drivers helps to identify advertisements that contain compatible information.
• Giving someone rich feedback about their inner motivations enables them to focus on the challenges, in the context of a professional role, that can often be addressed by training or coaching. Therein is an opportunity to overcome obstacles or reassess aspirations with a view to changing direction in order to play to their strengths.

*People who understand their inner motivations for the first time often realise why they have been dissatisfied in a job role, sometimes for long periods.

Marketing and Advertising

Identifying the patterns that guide market trends and responding to increase customer awareness.

• Identifying and targeting commercials and advertisements to the motivations of the audience through the use of effective influencing language (understanding 'how' those people are motivated to buy and using 'their' patterns to promote products and services).

*As stated in 'sales' people will usually revert to their tried and tested strategy for buying. Tapping into those 'buying strategies' will enable a company to identify 'how' their customers usually decide to make a purchase i.e. what has to be there for them to make a commitment? Campaigns can then be designed to 'hit the mark' more often.

Corporate Culture Diagnosis and Change

The culture of an organisation can be determined by talking to the people who work there.

• Explaining the LAB Profile patterns to employees enables them to understand where their company 'fits' in motivation terms. Is their organisation needing a flexible operation to do well or is structure and procedures the way forward? Are they target driven or problem solvers? Do they embrace change or avoid it?
• Is the motivation of the company matched to the motivation of their buying public and suppliers?
• Do they attract the 'right' employees to match their culture?

Measuring Change

• Doing a 'before' corporate culture diagnosis with a random group of people in a company establishes the present position. A post change diagnosis can be conducted six months to a year after the changes have taken place to identify the effect of the changes

*The LAB Profile can be used quickly, efficiently and with a high degree of accuracy to elicit information that can be deployed to measure any intervention. Negotiating

One of the keys to successful negotiation is to understand what your counter-parts motivation patterns are in relation to your own.

The profile can be used to understand the communication style you can expect from the other parties. This understanding will enable you to present your case in ways that the others will understand and find appealing.

Certain groups or sectors will have identifiable cultures that can be understood in LAB Profile terms. For example someone negotiating on behalf of an employee group might be:

• Reactive (responding to perceived requirements)
• Away From (problem oriented)
• Internal (basing their information on their internal standards)
• Procedures (must follow the procedures)
• Sameness, (must be the 'same' treatment for everyone, fairness)
• Consistent (tomorrow is another day, keep reviewing)

*Negotiating with someone who has the 'Consistent' pattern will mean that rapport, and credibility will have to be established at each separate meeting, whether on the phone, writing or in person.