Why can't verbal tricks work in written language!

I've been working on an article for a publication about the psychology of selling. It's been very interesting. I'm amazed at all the ways psychology plays a part in the sales process, and in communication in general. And even more amazed at the ways we can manipulate (which is not necessarily a bad thing) language to be more effective communicators.

For example, all people experience the world through their senses, and most people are more oriented toward one sense than another. In the US most people are either auditory based or visually based. By listening to people speak you can actually determine which one they are and then when you communicate with them you can choose your words so that you're more likely to make a connection with that person and get your message heard.

For instance, a person who is auditory will say things like "I hear what you're saying," or "That sounds good to me." And a person who is visual might say "Let's see what we can do," or "That looks good to me."

There are relatively few feeling (or kinesthetic) people in the US. But they would say things like "I sense this is going to work out," "This feels right to me," or "That's a real weight off my shoulders."

So once you identified which sense a person most identifies with you can use "their" language to communicate more effectively with them. So if you want to get a visually oriented person to really understand what you're telling them, you should say "I'm going to paint you a picture." for an auditory person, you'd say "I'm going to tell you something."

All these phrases are tricks of the sales trade and can increase a salesperson's success. As I've been writing the article, I've been thinking how great would it be if there were similar tricks for written language. But unfortunately, as far as I know, there aren't. Because there's no way to pinpoint who your readers are, and the truth is your readers are most likely going to be all types.

However, what a writer can do is make their characters one or the other and have them talk consistently in that manner. If you change it up so that one character is visual and another auditory, each character is going to connect with some of your readers.

The character that uses a lot of visual language will resonate with your visually oriented readers. And the character that speaks in auditory words will resonate with your auditory oriented readers. And throw in a kinesthetic character, so that the few feeling oriented readers will have someone to connect with as well.