‘Sleight of Mouth’: 

handling all objections and criticisms from different angles

Using this ‘trick’ makes it easier to get others to say ‘yes’ or ‘see your side’ of the issue.

Based on NLP (neuro-linguistic programming) which is a very persuasive mind training system.

Let’s say you’ve come into work late several times and your boss calls you in and growls,

“You’re being late shows you don’t care about the job.”

There are 14 different responses you can use:

1. Reality strategy:
How do you know lateness and caring are the same thing?

2. Model of the world:
Some people believe caring is shown by quality of the job done and the results obtained.

3. Counter example:
Would you rather I be on time and be lazy while I was on the job?

4. Intent:
My intention is not to be late or uncaring but to give you the best quality time and highest productivity while I’m here

5. Redefine:
I wasn’t late, I was delayed in traffic

6. Chunking up:
Are you saying the most important aspect of my job is showing up on time?

7. Chunking down:
How specifically are lateness and not caring the same thing?

8. Metaphor or analogy:
If a surgeon is late for dinner because he is saving a life, does that mean he doesn’t care about his wife’s cooking?

9. Another outcome:
The real question isn’t whether I’m late or I’m caring. The real question is how much I’m producing for the company.

10. Consequence:
If I wasn’t late I wouldn’t have been able to close the sale while I was at a breakfast meeting.

11. Heirarchy of Criteria:
Isn’t it more important to focus on how much the person gives while on the job rather than punctuality?

12. Apply to self:
Gosh, I wish you’d cared enough about me to tell me this sooner.

13. Changing frame size:
Over time, you’ll see I brought in more business in a timely fashion for the company than all of the people who showed up to work on time.

14. Meta frame:
Lots of progressive companies are working with flex time for their high producers. I thought you were a forward thinking manager.

Now a word of caution here…your employer may not ‘hear’ what you’re saying and may think it just you being ‘flip’ or  ’lippy’.  Try to use the responses that will fit in with your position in the company.

The benefit of reading something like this is it can increase your  open-mindedness and allow you to see objections and questions as ‘open-ended’ meaning there is more than one way to complete the scenario.

For more on NLP (Neuro-Linguistic Programming)Listen to this free MP3