Selling is So Easy It's Hard by Dr. Gary S. Goodman

Author:Dr. Gary S. Goodman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: G&D Media
Published: 2019-03-13T16:00:00+00:00

Tip 40: Style-Shift: Sell in and out of Your Comfort Zone

Some of the world’s greatest philosophers have concluded that a major source of human misery comes from resisting what is.

It’s foggy outside, and you hate fog. You start ranting about the weather, which you can’t control, apart from going indoors. You transform an unpleasant state of affairs into an “awful” one.

Same thing happens when we rant about certain kinds of prospects. Fence-sitters are my favorites to disparage. They can’t make up their minds. We spend inordinate amounts of time and energy on them.

“Why can’t they be like most and simply say yes or no?” we wonder.

The fact is that there are 50–80 percent of prospects that you won’t be able to close. That is, you won’t close them with your current selling style. This isn’t awful, providing that the 20 percent or more that you are capable of closing supply you with enough compensation for your efforts.

Even if that’s true, wouldn’t it be nice to garner at least a few more customers?

The way that’s going to happen is by style-shifting.

Let’s go back to those fence-sitters that I find so frustrating. My favorite buyers make fast decisions; we know this. And my presentations are designed to elicit quick approvals.

What can I do with the fence-sitters? Two things come to mind.

I can ease off the throttle, calm down, and give them lots of room to ruminate. See them as cattle that even under the best of conditions aren’t going to be transformed into racehorses.

I’m reminded of Jane Goodall’s research on chimpanzees. She very gradually ingratiated herself. At first, she sat down in a remote location and gave the group a chance to smell her from afar and to acclimate to her presence. Then, gradually, she repositioned herself closer and closer. Finally, she got to a point where they accepted her as just a funny-looking chimpanzee.

Yup, becoming one of them—that’s the price you pay sometimes to get a fence-sitter to budge and to buy.

The second approach is to become even more directive, to make the buying decision for them. For this purpose, I like to use two closes. The assumptive checkback close sounds like this:

“So let’s start on the eleventh, and I’m sure you’ll be pleased, OK?”

I’m making the decision, am I not? I suggested we start, I selected the date, I assured the prospect all would go well, and crucially, I tied it down with an “OK?”

Imagine the prospect counters with, “The eleventh won’t work.”

“OK, then we’ll make it the twelfth.”

That is the power-assumptive close. I don’t check it back with an OK. I make the decision all by myself.

What’s a fence-sitter to do?

Surely (I know: don’t call you “Shirley”), there will be some that will resist. “I still need to think it over,” they might offer.

“Well, I appreciate that, but we need to reserve the date now. Otherwise you’ll be faced with paying double or missing out entirely, and you don’t want that, do you?”

Here I’m closing based on urgency and scarcity.

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