Logical levels – chunking up and down – is something I learned on my first NLP course. I still remember going head-to-head with a woman who had about as much flexibility to think bigger than small as I had with being patient. Needless to say, we avoided each other as much as possible that week.

Simply put, logical levels is about the amount of detail used when communicating. Listen to conversations around you and you will often hear someone being seemingly vague, while the other person is getting into lots and lots of detail. By being flexible with the ‘other persons’ way of communicating, you can become more in tune with your communication. Neither one is right or wrong, but if you want to become a better communicator and be understood, it’s worthwhile reading more about  NLP chunking.

I got a slap in the face this week from my friend Daryll Scott that reminded me of the importance of logical levels when pitching a service offering as we discussed a small new proposition I have for SEO services in Basingstoke.

Far too many businesses pitch themselves based on criteria that is not right for the audience, blurb that’s not engaging and doesn’t lead to sales.

Take the SEO thing I’m doing. Do people really want SEO or are they just interested in getting new business through the door? Or is it something else? I know there is a fascination with Google rankings for keywords and web ‘hits’.

Being so damn clever and good at what I do I know that these are the wrong things to focus on, but, who am I too question what they want? Not until I have them tied to a chair in a meeting room so they can’t get away as I dish out the news that they’re barking up the wrong tree.

A common problem in B2B sales is confusion, which makes the proposition harder. Yes, you can pitch your brand accordingly but that takes time. You need to be able to hit the sweet spot of the person that currently has a problem. I need to work out what those problems are and set up the relevant sales messages to be attractive enough to ‘talk more’.

What problems do you rclients have? Does your sales message match those problems or are you still talking about features and benefits like we’re told to?

And, is your sales offering pitched at the right logical level for them to take notice?