Pattern interrupt

Hi,

In the last two teleseminars before the launch of Mass Control 2.0 Frank Kern was talking about a pattern interrupt. Actually, “pattern interrupt” means just exactly that, interruption in the pattern of a prospect expectations. This is really a Neuro-Linguistic Programming pattern, but as such it’s also useful as a sales or conversion pattern. So, here it is…

For your Internet profits!
--Ely

Summary:

Pattern interrupt is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming pattern helping to open mind of the partner in a conversation. In sales it’s essence is to break the expectations of the prospect by unexpected behavior and only then proceed with the message, which will be accepted more readily.

Name of the pattern:

Pattern interrupt

When to use this pattern:

Sparingly when you want to increase credibility of your message (naturally, to boost the sales and conversions).

How to use this pattern:

First, you should understand what the prospect expects, when he comes to your sales messages, let it be product page, long sales letter, video…

Then, do something different, unexpected. Keep them guessing what’s up and what will come next. If you’ve seen a movie “Chicago”, you can remember expression “razzle-dazzle” than. That’s what pattern interrupt is.

Two caveats to keep in mind are:

• If some type of unexpected behavior is used too often, it becomes a new expected pattern. For example, it’s not normally expected that a seller would say, “Here it is, the price is X, take it or leave it.” Inexperienced customers fall for that, but once you spent in this world a couple decades, it becomes just another expected behavior of a seller, and quite annoying one. So, don’t do what everybody else is doing. And don’t repeat the same trick to often.
• Your unexpected behavior has to be interesting and raise curiosity, or you risk losing a prospect long before you’ll have a chance to get to the message.

Attribution:

Pattern interrupt is a Neuro-Linguistic Programming pattern, hence it, probably, should be attributed to by Richard Bandler or John Grinder.

Related patterns:

None.

Related anti-patterns:

None.

Comments and details:

Pay close attention to the caveats: don’t use what has already become a new pattern and don’t act so weird that a right prospect loses his interest. It’s ok if a wrong prospect loses his interest, that’d be good for your sales funnel leading to less noise and less returns, but your RIGHT prospect should be engaged. As always, it’s much easier if you have a very good picture of who your right prospect is.

Overall, NLP, when used properly, is very useful in sales. It may be a good idea to learn some of it, I myself certainly do so. There are a lot of trainings available on Internet or in class all around the world, so unless you managed somehow to get yourself banned on Google, you’ll find tons of them. As a shortcut, I’d recommend you go and get a free eBook "The Top 10 Secrets of Ethically Outrageous Influence". It’s a bonus for subscribing to their mini-course with the same name. You’ll have to give your email address, but I did so, and never got any spam, so it’s safe. Mini-course is good, and the eBook is even better. And I admit, their products are kind of overpriced, so if you’d like to go more extensive, go with something like Adam Khoo’s "Master Your Mind, Design Your Destiny" – it’s much more materials and much cheaper ($20 last time I checked as compared to average £99 of Salad’s stuff)