WHEN IS “ENOUGH” ENOUGH OR NOT ENOUGH IN SALES?
THE CHUNK SIZE PEOPLE PATTERN™ – PART III
Now that you know what the Chunk Size People Pattern™ is all about, it will be helpful to know what types of questions to ask in order to identify whether a person is global or specific. First, let’s have a quick review. Remember that in communication, people will either show a preference for scope or for depth. We refer to those who prefer scope as global people and we refer to those who prefer depth as specific people.
Global people decidedly prefer to communicate the overview or the big picture. They chunk up which means that they go into less and less detail or inversely, consider greater scope and less depth. They don’t like details. Specific people, on the other hand, prefer to communicate all the small details no matter how minute. Furthermore, specific people often like to have the particulars or details presented to them in some kind of hierarchal order.
There are several questions that you can ask to determine whether a person is global or specific in his or her orientation. Here are just a few of the questions that you could ask someone to find out where they are coming from. It is helpful to frame the questions around a particular context. For example, you could frame the questions around a product you are selling or around a work project with which you would require assistance.
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“If you were going to work with me on this project, what would you like me to tell you?
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“What would you like to know about my product (service, program, etc.)?”
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“Would you like more information about ….?”
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“Would you like an overview of my product’s benefits or do you prefer specific information?”
The most important thing is to listen to how the person responds to you. LISTEN TO THE AMOUNT OF DETAIL OR LACK THEREOF THAT THE PERSON GIVES YOU in response to your question. There are some tell tale clues here. Specific people will often chunk down several levels in their response to you, giving more and more detail as they go along. They will answer with multiple layers of detail. Global people will be the total opposite in their response. They tell you what they want to know in a general way without asking for details. In fact, they will be quite uncomfortable with lots of detailed information about the product or project.
Also, when it is you who are speaking, be aware of whether the person seems bored by the amount of detail that you are providing, or whether the person asks you for more details. Obviously, the latter is a specific person and the former is a global person.
There are a few specifics I’d like to share with you about the linguistic approach used by each one. It is that specific people tend to use lots of proper nouns with extra modifiers because doing so hones in more specifically on the topic of discussion. This proclivity also manifests in their sentence structure which is more complex in nature than that of a global person. Global people will prefer to use simple sentences without the need for prepositional phrases. They also have a tendency to not use extra modifiers in their communication.
We are merely scratching the surface when it comes to the different facets of the Chunk Size People Pattern™. There is so much more that we can say about it and we could literally chunk down to another level. For now, however, remember once again, that the important thing to know is when enough is enough or not enough as the case may be; and tailor your communication accordingly.
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This is from Marilyne Woodsmall of www.TheScienceOfidiots.com . If you have not purchased the book, Personality Language yet, I highly recommend it.
Cheers,
Andrew “Easy” Anderson
Here is a link to Part 1 and Part 2 of the series.
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