Anchoring others for fun and profit

Chris Harrison - January 2008
©2007 PlanetNLP Ltd

NLP Anchoring is incredibly easy to understand and with a little practice can become almost automatic.

The idea is simple, get a client or customer into a specific mental state (the stronger and more distinct the better), and create an association to it so that the state can be re-accessed (activated) at will.

In this article we will be dealing with the more subtle form of anchoring that you can use within a sales environment, not the kind of anchoring often used with NLP clients where it is possible to build a state and keep accessing it, building a stronger and stronger state simply because the client is happy to go along with your instructions.

So, for a covert form of anchoring, there are four skills involved

Taking these one by one:

Access a powerful state

Firstly, it is important to decide what state is being anchored.

If you're trying to sell then you probably want your customer to be in a wanton buying state.

The simplest way to access a state is to get the customer to remember a time when they were in that state:

"Can you remember a time when you saw something, and you just had to have it?"

"Have you ever seen something, and just brought it immediately on impulse?"

These kind of questions force the customer to remember a time that matches the state, and to do that they must access the state.

Other powerful states you may want to access include frustration (about your competitors), clarity, and stubbornness (if they've come to see you with a friend who is trying to put them off).

Recognize when to set the anchor

The key is to watch the customer as they access their memories.

The best time to anchor the state is exactly as they access the state linked to the memory.

So watch their eyes and watch for any body movements.

If they suddenly drop their shoulders or become otherwise relaxed, or in some cases become more alert and excited, then this is the time to set the anchor.

Anchor the state as specifically as possible

Historically most people anchor with a touch.

The best places for touch anchors are those are parts of the body that are easy to re-access easily and can be touched without offending or upsetting the customer.

The elbow or the shoulder are good for this. Remember that areas with more nerve endings need to be anchored more accurately, and avoid areas that are likely to be touched often.

As well as touch, which can be difficult to use in a sales environment, there are many other ways to create anchors.

These include:

It is also useful to use multiple anchors together.

So people respond to anchors in specific representation systems differently.

If you touch their shoulder, raise your eyebrow, and say 'great' all at the same time you have anchored visually, auditory, and kinesthetically, which is very powerful.

Firing the anchor when required

If you're selling something and you've set an anchor for a very powerful buying state then there are specific times you may wish to fire the anchor.

The first time you show the customer the product you want them to buy, or the moment you bring the contract out to sign are the kind of moments when you should fire the anchor.

Like most NLP skills, the more you practice the better you will become. It's best to have a plan the first few times you use these techniques. Also it is useful to use the same anchors with all your customers as it will become almost second nature after a few practices.

Good Luck!