I attended a short presentation this week about sales. It was given by a guy called Neilson Kite who wrote a book about Neuro-Linguistic Programming.
One of the things he talked about was the importance of using the right words. Kite shared his experience of the power of words when selling seminars.
A couple of examples:
- A course about finance saw a 50% increase in attendance when the name of the seminar changed from “Raising finance for growth” to “The snakes and ladders of corporate finance”.
- A letter sent out to Head Teachers in the Merseyside area inviting them to attend a seminar called “Management for Head Teachers” received only three replies. The same letter was then sent out again with another header on the top of the letter. It read “I rule, I rule, I will improve my school”. This time THIRTY-THREE head teachers replied. It was the same letter; only the title had changed.
It may not surprise some of us but apparently the idea that the words you choose will influence others’ actions is still a shocker!
We regularly use split testing on wikijob to improve our performance. It’s surprising what can make a difference. The right headline can increase sales by 50%; getting it right is part art and part science.
Ha I love those examples of name changes, it seems that when the name is fun/funky we expect the material will be more entertaining too.
Will keep this in mind when naming E-Club events!
P.S. I remember a high school teacher saying that the three magic words were free, sex, and win… is that still the case?
We were talking about catchy names for essays, and he concluded that the ultimate title would be Win Free Sex! Hmmm not sure the Business School would approve that one…
Reminds me of a book I read many years ago about writing direct mail letters, in which a list of so called Magic and Tragic words were given, for you to include or avoid in your mailings. Many were common sense, but I recall some of the Magic words included words like ‘discover, proven, healthy, natural, secret’ and so on. Interesting to see many of the same principles still hold true.
I like it…words convey ideas and the ability to master a language conveys on us the ability to influence our fellow man..Agreed there are obviously a whole host of other intermediary steps involved but without this critical first step all else is mere posturing. 🙂
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