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In my country neurolinguistic programming (NLP) has become very popular in sales departments. Therefore, I wonder if there are any experiments which examine the contribution of NLP to the sales process. I was especially curious when I heard that Bander sued Grinder.
Section "Scientific Evaluation" in the Wikipedia article on NLP sums up current research nicely:
None of the claimed effects have been validated.
Scientists consider NLP a pseudoscience with aggressive marketing and a name and jargon that deludes people seeking help by "[giving] the impression of scientific respectability" (quoted from that section).
Here are a number of references for you:
The article "The effect of neurolinguistic programming on organisational and individual performance: a case study" (Thompson et al. 2002), is primarily a case study of the effect of NLP training on managers and workers of the hospitality industry.
The article "Neuro-linguistic programming and learning theory: a response" (Tosey and Mathison, 2003), looks at the research in NLP as a whole.
This article, though a bit dated (1984), "NLP techniques for salespeople" (Stanley, 1984), looks at the NLP techniques of salespeople and the ideas are revisiting in "NLP revisited: nonverbal communications and signals of trustworthiness" (Wood, 2006).
Whether NLP can help or harm a business is discussed in "Can NLP help or harm your business?" (Yemm, 2006).
Hope this helps.
