What is your Representational System Preference?

A major discovery of Neuro Linguistic Programming or NLP is that most people will process information (or their world) mainly through one or more primary senses.  These senses are visual (seeing), auditory (hearing), kinesthetic (feelings), and auditory digital (self-talk).

You have probably heard people use common phrases such as “I see what you mean”, “I hear what you are saying”, “I catch on’’ and “That makes sense to me”. These are insights into how a person’s mind is working and how they make sense of their world through their major (primary) representational system.

Why is it important to understand a person’s primary representational system? If you understand someone’s primary representational system then you can speak to them in such a way that gives them meaning and enables you to gain rapport with their unconscious mind. As discussed in a previous Blog, rapport is important so you build a relationship based on trust, harmony and understanding. Rapport is very important for all communication such as business, sales and education.

There are a number of key words used by each representational system. People who are visual will use words such as see, look, show, dawn, illuminate, imagine, clear, foggy, focused, hazy, picture or crystal. Another distinction is that visual people will memorise by seeing pictures, less distracted by noise and have difficulty at times remembering and are bored by long verbal instructions. If they are buying from you, then they will be interested in the way the product looks.

Those who have a preference for the auditory system will use words including hear, listen, sounds, make music, tune in/out, be all ears, rings a bell, resonate, deaf, question or hearing. These people are easily distracted by noise and will repeat things back to you and learn by listening. Auditory people love to listen to music and talk on the telephone.

People with a kinesthetic preference will use such words as feel, touch, grasp, catch on, tap into, make contact, throw out, turn around, unfeeling, concrete, get a handle on, solid or scrape. These people can talk slowly, respond to physical rewards and touching and will memorise by doing or walking through something. People who are kinesthetic and are interested in buying from you will want the product to feel right to them or will have a gut feeling that it is the correct thing to do.

People who are auditory digital use common words as sense, experience, understand, logical, process, decide, motivate, consider, change, perceive, insensitive, distinct, conceive or know. People using this as their primary representational system will spend a fair amount of time talking to themselves. They will memorise by steps and procedures and will want to know that any product they are purchasing makes sense.

With these representational systems we are always a combination of the four, however there is one which is our major or primary system by which we understand the world and make sense of our own environment. By understanding other people’s primary representational system you can then speak in their language to build rapport and gain trust and harmony in the relationship. This can apply to any relationship whether as a partner, parent, child, teacher, student, in business, in sales or in any everyday life.