The Ten Rules of Effective Language

No matter just how many properties you evaluate, how many buyers and sellers you meet or what the economy is doing, there are specific words and phrases that can help you motivate and convince. We are turning to an expert in the field of language to give you the rules for successful negotiation: Dr. Frank Luntz, language architect and public opinion guru for a number of political and corporate candidates. Named “the hottest pollster in America” by the Boston Globe and who has a "special expertise" according to the New York Times, he has engineered some of the most potent political surveys and focus groups in the last decade. Dr. Luntz believes it is not enough to be correct or reasonable or even brilliant. The key is to take the imaginative leap of “stuffing yourself right into your listeners’ shoes to know what they are thinking and feeling…” We call this the first step in the process of “Problem Solving.”

Choosing the most effective words to motivate and convince in your negotiations is a never-ending study and Dr. Luntz’s Ten Rules of Effective Language* is a good place to start. Let’s take his Ten Rules and see how they might apply to your negotiating techniques for the sale of a piece of property.

Rule One: Simplify: Use small words. Most Americans won’t reach for the dictionary; they’ll just let your real meaning sail over their heads. Or worse, they’ll misunderstand you.

Rule Two: Brevity: Use short sentences. Mark Twain wrote, “I didn’t have time to write a short letter, so I wrote a long one instead.” When it comes to effective negotiation, small beats large, short beats long, and plain beats complex. Sometimes a visual beats them all.

Rule Three: Credibility: “The words you use become you – and you become the words you use.” Credibility is established very simply: tell people what you mean and then mean what you say.

Rule Four: Consistency: Consistency matters. Repetition, repetition, repetition. Good language is like the Energizer Bunny®. It keeps going, and going and going…
Finding a good message and then sticking with it takes extraordinary discipline, but it pays off. Remember, you may be tired of saying the same thing to many different prospects, but many of them will be hearing the talking points you have developed for the first time. It all needs to sound fresh and vital each time you say it.

Rule Five: Strive for Novelty. People are easily bored. From a business prospective, you should tell your prospects something that gives them a brand-new take on an old idea. Then, in accordance with our Rule Four, tell them again and again. Try for the “Wow, I never thought of it that way before” reaction.

Here is a simple test to determine whether or not your message is meeting this rule. If it generates an “I didn’t know that” response, you have succeeded.

Rule Six: Sound and Texture Matter. When making a sales pitch yet once again, a string of words that have the same first letter, sound or syllabic cadence is most memorable. The first five of these rules do just that because they all end with the same sound: simplicity, brevity, credibility, consistency, and novelty. The rhythm of the language is in itself musical, and this enhances the reception of your message.

Another converse approach is to butcher the English language. Do this carefully else you offend your opposing party: You gotta’ act today!

Rule Seven: Speak Aspirationally. Personalize and humanize your message to trigger an emotional remembrance. Warren Beatty wisely once said that people will forget what you say, but they will never forget how you made them feel. That’s humanization. If your prospect can relate your language to his own life experiences, that’s personalization.

Aspirational language doesn’t sell a piece of land as a mere lot where you might build your home. Instead it sells you—what you will be when you live there: successful, gifted, savvy, powerful. This is not about raising false expectations; that would diminish credibility. It’s about encouraging the recipient to want something better—and then delivering it. It’s about improving self-worth by being able to live in such an outstanding community. More than that, aspirational language taps into people’s idealized self-image, showing people a picture of the other, better life they wish they had, the life that feels just out of reach right now, but that your property may finally help them grasp.

Appeal to Americans’ most idealistic conception of themselves using reminders, what President Lincoln called “the better angels” of their nature. Psychologically they are akin to the parent who tells his child, “You can do it. I have faith in you,” challenging us to rise to the occasion and be our better selves.

Rule Eight: Visualize. Paint a vivid picture. People will simply not buy a car if they cannot see themselves in it. Similarly, people are more receptive to owning a piece of property if they can see themselves owning it.

One word automatically triggers the process of visualization by its mere mention, simply because it has over 300 million unique, individual, personal manifestations to match the 300 million Americans. That word is imagine. Whether it is the car – or home of your dreams, it allows individuals to picture whatever personal vision is in their hearts and minds.

Rule Nine: Ask a Question. A statement, when put in the form of a rhetorical question, can have much greater impact than a plain assertion. Why? Because when you assert, whether in politics, business or making a presentation regarding the benefits of owning a piece of property, the reaction of the listener (prospect) depends to some degree on his or her opinion of the speaker (negotiator). But making the same statement in the form of a rhetorical question makes the reaction personal, and a personalized communication is the best communication.

People have been proven to react best to language and messages that were participatory—allowing the receiver to interact with the message and the messenger. Rhetorical questions require responses and responses by definition are interactive.

Rule Ten: Provide Context and Relevance. Saving the best—and most important—to last is what this is all about. You have to give people the why of a message before you tell them the therefore and the so that.

This is sometimes called framing. In any case you cannot establish value and relevance without it. The order in which you present information determines context, and it can be as important as the substance of the information itself. The so that of a message is your solution, but solutions are meaningless unless and until they are attached to an identifiable problem. Property ownerships must respond to a felt need on the part of the prospect. In other words, it’s problem solving.

While context is only half the framing effort, the other half—relevance—is critical. The target prospect must see personal meaning and value in your words. Until you know what drives a prospect’s decision-making process, any attempt to influence is really just a shot in the dark. How do you find this out? By questions and observation. Once you have established this, your presentation can be specifically tailored to the prospect’s decision-making processes.

Imagination is the most important factor in guaranteeing relevance. Shed your own perspective and try to put yourself in your prospect’s position, seeing the world through his eyes.

Also, don’t get so caught up in your own insider’s perspective that you lose sight of what the prospect really cares about. Hassle-free technology is a lot more important to a lot more people than the chip in Dell’s laptop computer.

These are the ten rules of effective communication, all summarized in these single words: simplicity, brevity, credibility, consistency, novelty, sound, aspiration, visualization, questioning and context.

Three powerful words that work are “Talk to me.” Used with each of the ten rules, it gives you answers so you become the one who closes that sale where others have failed. That is the mark of the true problem solver, the Creative Real Estater.

Jaclyn Kessler, Editor Creative Real Estate

*Inspired by Dr. Frank Luntz’s Words that Work: It’s Not What You Say; It’s What People Hear, copyright 2007 Hyperion, 77 West 66th Street, New York, 10023.