Anaphora, What is it Good For?

Anaphora is a tool that sales profession should use when making their pitch to a prospect. Anaphora is not euphoria towards people named Anna; it roughly means “carrying back” in Greek.

Anaphora is a language device that consists of repeating the same sequences of a word at the beginning of neighboring statements. Epiphora, on the other hand, is ending your statements with the same sequence of words. What you might have heard it called in the world of sales is simply repetition, and that is what we are talking about. Learning this skill will help you to start closing the sale. 

"As good Sales professionals you will need to understand
the message that you want to send"
Photo by: Amoro



Let’s start off with an example of Anaphora in use to help clear up what we are talking about. This following quote is from Sir. Winston Churchill.



“We shall fight them on the beaches, we shall fight them on the landing grounds, we shall fight them in the fields and streets; we shall never surrender.”

In this example “We shall fight them on” is the anaphora, you can see how he repeats this phrase three times in this simple sentence, and it has quite a bit of power does not it? If you were to listen to this, you would understand the message abundantly clear, England will fight the Nazis on, and on and they will never give up. So how does this get you to closing a sale?

As talented sales professionals, you will need to understand the message that you want to send about your product. Use repetition in your pitch to send the right message. If your pitch is that your product is of higher quality, you would want to construct a sentence that looks something like this.

“We have quality design we have quality fabricator we have quality service, and that is why you should buy from XYZ Inc.”

The message you have given the prospect is that you have a quality product, and that is demonstrated through repetition. Some other key points to remember when using repetition in your sales pitch, so not to derail you closing a sale:

1) Determine the key word or phrase that you want to repeat; I would not use more than two in a single pitch.

2) The key word should be the single most valuable thing you want the prospect to remember about your product.

3) Ensure that your anaphora or epiphora flows within the pitch you are giving, make it fit naturally, if it does not, you are wasting your time.

4) Finally it would be beneficial if your vocal pitch, tone, and speed stay consistent and have a more positive impact if the mirror that of your prospect.