Notice that the objection is dealt with powerfully; yet there is no appeal that is aimed away from the prospect's mind. For this very reason his sympathy with the proposal is likely to be stimulated. Such salesmanship often has the effect of enlisting the heart of the other man after removing the objection of his mind.
Let us assume now that the prospect refuses to make the loan to you because he has been imposed upon before by some one he has backed. He may really want to lend you the money, but his heart has been so embittered by his previous experience that he turns a deaf ear to your proposition. His opposition is based chiefly on feeling. His heart, not his mind, is at the bottom of his refusal of your request for a loan. He would not be reached by the appeal that would be effective with the man in the first example. This second prospect should be addressed something like this:
"The experiences you have had hurt you, principally because they have made you lose faith in men. This, not the money involved, was your greatest loss. So long as you have only those experiences to think about, you will be unable to get back your former belief in human nature. You would like to recover it. You would be happy to feel that the men who abused your confidence were exceptions, and not the rule.
"If you will lend me ten thousand dollars, and I make good my promises to you, your new experience with me will go a long way toward restoring your lost faith in men. It is natural that you should feel embittered, but the taste in your mouth is unpleasant. Back me up. I will help you get rid of your bitterness, and will replace it with a glow of satisfaction. You cannot doubt that I will make good. You should not let your old prejudice stand in the way of the gratified feeling you will have when I prove to you that all men are not unworthy of trust. After I justify your confidence you will be happier for the rest of your life."
In the illustration the objection is dealt with emotionally; because its basis is feeling. No mental appeal is made. The salesmanship in this example is the direct converse of that in the previous illustration.
Usually, however, it is best to counteract objections by making appeals to both the heart and the mind of the objector. In most cases it is safe to assume that his mental opposition involves his feelings to some degree, and it rarely happens that an objection is so purely emotional that the mind of the prospect does not take part in it at all. So the rule of masterly salesmanship is to use neither the appeal to mentality nor the appeal to feeling exclusively, but rather to stress one or the other, while using both. If the objection appears to be based principally on opposition of mind, it is more important to reach into the prospect's mind with the answer than it is to draw out his heart; and vice versa.
If the thought behind the objection arises principally from feeling, it will nearly always be expressed in an emotive tone. By this pitch of the prospect's voice you can determine whether he is speaking chiefly from his heart or from his mind. Conversely, of course, the mental objection will be pitched in the high "head" tone. One of the most difficult features of dealing with opposition from the other man is uncertainty as to how much he means of what he says and does. It would be a mistake to take his resistance too seriously or too lightly. Therefore it will aid your salesmanship a great deal if you are able to discriminate between the mental and the emotional tones in which opposition is expressed. You can reply accordingly.
It is almost as important that you recognize the pitch of power when it reenforces the words of objection, and that on the other hand you note when the power tone is lacking. In the first case you will need to reply with considerable force, whether you appeal to the mind or the heart of the prospect. But when his objection is stated in a powerless tone, even though it may be accompanied by curtness or bluster, you need not waste much force on your answering appeal to his mentality or his emotions.
The mental tone, as we recall from previous study, is pitched higher than either the tone of feeling or the tone of power. The medium, heart tone is vibrant. It rings with sincerity. The power tone is deep, and most sonorous of the three. Keep your ears alert for these indications your prospect will give you unconsciously when he opposes your purpose. The discriminative reading of the tones of objections will greatly reduce the danger of "getting your wires crossed" when you reply.
If you have to deal with opposition expressed in the tone of power or with gestures of force, you will be safe in concluding that considerable feeling is behind the objection. Therefore it will be necessary for you to put both feeling and power into your answer. You should be careful, however, when you meet such resistance, not to make the impression that you are engaged in a contest of power with your prospect. Throughout the selling process avoid any suggestion that you are fighting back. Use the tone of force, not to indicate that your strength of purpose is greater than the strength of the resistance, but just to emphasize the basic soundness of your proposition. Thus you can suggest that you are sure of your ground, while you do not dispute the force and sincerity of the other man in making his objection.
Suppose, for example, you apply for a situation in a wealthy firm, and one of the partners turns you down most emphatically by saying that they can't afford to engage any new men at present. You realize the firm may be losing money temporarily, but you believe that your services in the capacity you have outlined will be valuable to the partners. You can come back firmly and not retreat an inch from your position. You need not antagonize by manifesting your determination to have the merits of your proposal given due consideration. You know your prospect feels pretty strongly on the matter of increasing his payroll while business is unprofitable, but you should make him recognize that you believe so thoroughly in your earning capacity that you feel you would justify him in disregarding the temporary depression, while he considers your service worth.
As we have noted previously, it is important to know, at the time an objection is put in your way, whether or not it is really meant. When deciding in your mind on the right answer to this problem, you will be helped very much if you size up not only the tone pitch of the objection, but also the units of tone employed by the prospect in his expression of opposition. If he refuses your application, but uses just one tone, you may be sure his negative is not strong. If you do not strengthen it to stubbornness by antagonizing him, but use tact to get rid of his resistance, you will not find it difficult to melt away the obstruction.
However, should the "No" be spoken in two or more tones, with increased stress at the end, your prospect certainly means his rejection to be final. His mind is fully made up for the time being. It would be poor salesmanship to butt your head against his fixed idea, just as it would be foolish to tackle a strong opponent when he stands most formidably braced to resist attack. But the two or three toned negative does not mean that the idea behind it is fixed in the prospect's mind forever. Any one is prone to change his mind, unless he is kept so busy supporting a position taken that he has no chance to alter his opinion.
Therefore leave alone at first the rock you encounter. Get behind the boulder by taking a roundabout path. Then quietly dig the support from under the negative idea. If you make no fuss while you are undermining the obstacle, it will be likely to topple over and roll from your path without your prospect's noticing that it has disappeared. If his interest is diverted from it, there is no reason why he should turn his mind back to a stubborn insistence on his objection. Should he be conscious that the rock of his earlier opposition has rolled away, he will probably think it lost its balance. He will not realize that you subtly undermined it and got rid of it by your skillful salesmanship.
A salesman of an encyclopedia met a prospect who refused to give favorable attention to him and his proposition.
"No sir-e-e!" declared this objector, shaking his head emphatically. "No more book agents can work me. The last slick one that tried to swindle me is in ja-a-il now, and I put him the-ere!"
He gloated in two or three tones.
"Good for you!" praised the undaunted salesman, who had come prepared for adamantine obstacles in his path. "If more book buyers would see that such rascals get what's coming to them, the rest of us salesmen, who represent square publishers squarely, would not have to prove so often that we are not crooks like some fellows who have happened to precede us in a territory. Please tell me the name of the man who swindled you. He might hit my publishers for a job after he gets out of jail, and I want to warn the boss against him. Sometimes those slick rascals pull the wool over our eyes, too. We are always on the lookout to avoid getting tangled up with them."
The salesman pulled out his note book and pencil. When the name was given, he wrote it down painstakingly. He asked the prospect to spell it for him; so that he would be sure to get it right. Then he thanked the man who had said he would have nothing more to do with book agents. Having "got around" the objector, the salesman proceeded with his selling talk on the encyclopedia, as if he had not been turned down flatly to begin with. In less than half an hour he had secured the signature of the prospect to a contract for the finest edition.
If this salesman had not been thoroughly prepared to meet the strongest kind of mental and emotional opposition, he could not have come back so quickly with the appropriate answer that undermined the obstacle. You should be likewise ready for the "tough customers" one hears about. Practice in anticipation various ways of handling every imaginable objection. Then, when you face an actual difficulty, you will either have on the tip of your tongue a solution of the problem, or your forethought will assist you to devise on the spur of the moment the way to work out the right answer. Again we observe the importance of full preparation, in assuring successful salesmanship.
No quality is more important to the salesman than resourcefulness. Its first requisite is knowledge, particularly advance knowledge of the points that are likely to come up in the course of the selling process. The second is a mind trained to act quickly and effectively in using its knowledge. If you have these two essentials of resourcefulness, no objection will ever catch you napping. It will do you no good to look up the right answer after you leave the prospect. Nothing can be more exasperatingly worthless than an idea of something you "might have said" but could not think of until too late. Have all your facts on tap. And be practiced in making use of them in every imaginable way. Rare indeed will be cases that you are not prepared to handle successfully.
I know a salesman who trained himself in resourcefulness by typing on about fifty cards all the objections to his goods or proposition that he could imagine. For ten or fifteen minutes every evening he played solitaire with these cards. He would shuffle them, held face down, and then deal off, face up, objection after objection. He never could tell which was coming next. In a few weeks he had trained himself to give an answer instantly to each objection, and to utilize it as a help instead of a hindrance in his selling. Thereafter opposition and criticism from prospects had no terrors for this salesman. He was able to get rid of objections so swiftly, surely, and completely that they never had time to grow formidable in the mind of the other man.
Only a little less important than resourcefulness in meeting objections, is adaptive originality in answering them. The "pat, new" reply is always very effective. But do not unduly stress the value of the factor of originality alone. It must be coupled with adaptation to the particular viewpoint of the other man. You must speak his language, if you would be sure of making him understand you perfectly.
For example, suppose you apply to a watch manufacturer for a position in his office. He seems inclined to question your dependability. You will make a hit with him if you quote a detail from one of his own ads and say, "I have a seventeen jewel movement," and then particularize that number of good points about yourself. Such a reference preceding a specification of your qualities would be adaptive originality. It would be an expression exactly fitted to the way this prospect thinks. So it would be more effective than an ordinary answer to the objection. Adaptive originality in disposing of objections is a manifestation of tact and diplomacy—the fine art of letting the other man down with a shock absorber instead of jolting him to your way of thinking.
When your prospect starts objecting, it is up to you to prevent him from wandering far afield. At the objections stage, as at every other step in the selling process, you should dominate the other man. Tactfully keep him concentrated on the subject and on your application. If he starts to grumble that some man he has engaged previously was "no good," you can smile and reply, "You would not give me credit for anybody else's fine work, and of course you do not blame me for what that fellow did."
You know what points are relevant to the subject you have come to discuss, and what are not. Discriminate, and make the prospect follow you. Restrict your treatment of his objections to points, means, and methods that will keep his ideas from switching onto side-tracks of thought. When he wanders away from the subject, do not ramble with him. Promptly and diplomatically run his mind back on the main line of your purpose. You are operating a through train to success. You must not be diverted into picking either daisies or thistles by the right of way while your salesmanship engine stands idle.
Tact and diplomacy include the qualities of patience and calmness. You cannot deal successfully with opposition if you are impatient or flustered. Patience understands the other man and avoids giving him offense; because it comprehends his way of thinking and is considerate of his right to his opinions. Calmness denotes a consciousness of strength. Hence it inspires admiration. Keep your patience open-eyed. See ahead. Do not chafe restlessly because the present moment is not propitious. A better chance for you is coming. Because of your vision have faith in your power to make it come. Whatever may happen, be self-possessed when you meet it. You can give no more impressive proof of your bigness. Your calmness will win the confidence of the other man. It will help in making the impression of courageous truth. Only an honest purpose can meet attack with quiet fearlessness.
The chief danger to the salesman at the objections stage is that he may lose control of the selling process. Be on your guard to prevent the other man from dominating you by his opposition. You have the advantage at the start. He cannot be so well prepared to make objections as you should be to dispose of them effectively. Keep the upper hand. If you have not antagonized his feelings, your prospect will admire you when he sees that he cannot dominate you and realizes that you will not let him have his own way. You will build up in him a favorable opinion of your manhood, intelligence, and power. He cannot help appreciating your art in handling him.
Dispose of each objection in such a way that you will get yourself wanted more and more as you remove or get around the obstacles encountered. The prospect's desire for your services should grow in proportion as you overcome his opposition. It is possible to use objections, or rather their answers, to strengthen your salesmanship so greatly that it will be easy to gain your object—- the job or the promotion you seek.
Therefore do not quail from the obstacles you meet. Recognize in each an opportunity to succeed in demonstrating your capability; a chance to increase the respect, confidence, and liking of your prospective employer. Remember, if there were no difficult, steep mountains to scale, the supreme heights of success could not be gained. So, with shining face, climb on and up undaunted!
After an applicant for a position seems to have the coveted opportunity almost in his grasp, he is sometimes unable to clinch the sale of his services. He does not get the job. His failure is none the less complete because he nearly succeeded. No race was ever won by a man who could not finish. However successful you may have been in the earlier stages of the selling process, if your services are finally declined by the prospective employer you have interviewed, your sales effort has ended in failure.
When one has made a fine presentation of his capability, and therefore feels confident of selling his services, it shocks and disheartens him to have his application rejected. "It takes the starch out of a man." He is apt to feel limp in courage when he turns his back on the lost chance to make good, and faces the necessity of starting the selling process all over again with another prospect. It is harder to lose a race in the shadow of the goal than to be disqualified before the start. The prospect who seems on the point of saying, "Yes," but finally shakes his head is the heart-breaker to the salesman.
Of course, as you have been reminded, even the best salesman cannot get all the orders he tries to secure. But he seldom fails to "close" a real prospect whom he has conducted successfully through the preliminary steps of a sale. Each advance he makes increases his confidence that he will get the order. The master salesman does not falter and fall down just before the finish. He is at the top of his strength as he nears the goal. All his training and practice have had but one ultimate object—a successfully completed sale. He knows that nothing else counts. He does not lose the ball on the one-yard line. He pushes it over for a touchdown. He cannot be held back when he gets that close to the goal posts. You must be like him if you would make the "almost sure" victory a certainty.
Perhaps the commonest cause of the failures that occur at the closing stage is the salesman's fear of bringing the selling process to a head. He is in doubt whether the prospect will say "Yes" or "No." His lack of courageous confidence makes him falter when he should bravely put his fortune to the test of decision. He does not "strike while the iron is hot," but hesitates until the prospect's desire cools. Many an applicant for a position has talked an employer into the idea of engaging his services, and then has gone right on talking until he changed the other man's mind. He is the worst of all failures. Though he has won the prize, he lets it slip through his fingers because he lacks the nerve to tighten his hold.
Doubt and timidity at the closing stage, after the earlier steps have been taken successfully, are paradoxes. Surely each preliminary advance the salesman makes should add to his confidence that he can complete the sale. His proved ability to handle objections and to overcome resistance should have developed all the courage he needs to finish the selling process. Closing requires less bravery and staunch faith than one must have when making his approach. Now he knows his man, and that this prospect's mind and heart can be favorably influenced by salesmanship. Is it not a contradiction of good sense to weaken at the finish instead of pressing the advantages already gained and crowning the previous work with ultimate success? Yet there are salesmen who seem so afraid of hearing a possible "No" that they dare not prompt an almost certain "Yes."
When you have presented to your prospective employer a thoroughly good case for yourself, do not slow down or stop the selling process. Especially avoid letting him take the reins. Thus far you have controlled the sale. Keep final developments in your own hands. Go ahead. Smile. Be and appear entirely at ease. Look the other man in the eye. Ask him, "When shall I start work?" Suggest that you believe he is favorable to your application. Even speak his decision for him, as though it were a matter-of-course. If the previous trend of the interview justifies you in assuming that he has almost made up his mind to employ you, pronounce his probable thought as if he had announced it as his final conclusion. He will not be likely to reverse the decision you have spoken for him. His mental inclination will be to follow your lead, and to accept as his own judgment what you have assumed to be settled in his mind.
A stubborn merchant made a dozen objections to hiring a new clerk. The young man cleared them all away, one after another, as soon as each was raised. But the employer leaned back obstinately in his chair and declared, "Just the same, I don't need any more clerks." This was but a repetition of an objection already disposed of. The applicant concluded, therefore, that he had his man cornered. The salesman smiled broadly at the indication of his success. He stood up and took off his overcoat.
"Well," he said, "you certainly need one less than you did, now that I'm ready to begin work. I understand why you have been putting me off. You wanted to test my stick-to-it-ive-ness. I'm sure I have convinced you on that point. You needn't worry about my staying on the job. Shall I report to the superintendent, or will you start me yourself?"
The merchant drew a deep breath; then emptied his lungs with a burst of astonishment mixed with relief. He could not help laughing.
"I meant to turn you down, but you say I've made up my mind to hire you. I didn't know it myself, but you're right. I believe you are the sort of clerk I always want."
Remember, when you face your prospect at the closing stage, the motive that brought you to him. You came with the intention of rendering him services from which he will profit. You want your capability to be a "good buy" for him. Your consciousness that your motive is right should give you strengthened faith in yourself and in the successful outcome of your salesmanship. It should fill you with the courage necessary to close the sale.
Neither hesitate nor flinch. Confidently prompt the decision in your favor. Believe that you have won and you will not be intimidated by fears of failure. Your prospect is unlikely to say "No" if you really expect to hear "Yes." Even if he speaks the negative, still believe in your own faith. I know a man who, a minute after his application was flatly rejected, won the position he wanted. Unrebuffed, he came back with, "Eventually, why not now?" His evident conviction that he was needed gained the victory when his chance seemed lost.
We all laugh at the young swain who courts a girl devotedly for months and uses every art he knows to sell her the idea that he would make her happy as his wife; but who turns pale, then red, and chokes whenever he has a chance to pop the question. Often the girl must go half way with prompting. When, thus encouraged, he finally stammers out his appeal for her decision, she accepts him so quickly that he feels foolish. Women are reputed to be better "closers" of such sales than men.
You smile at the comparison of courting with salesmanship. Yet the selling process is as effective in making good impressions of the sort of husband one might be as in impressing an employer with the idea that one's services in business would prove desirable.
The young man bent on marriage needs to prospect for the right girl, to secure an audience, to compel her attention, to regain it when diverted to other admirers, and to develop her curiosity about him into interest. He must size up her likes and dislikes; then adapt his salesmanship to her tastes, tactfully subordinating his own preferences to hers. If she is athletic, he will play tennis or go on tramps with her, however tired he feels after his work. If she is sentimental, he will take her canoeing and read poetry to her, though he may prefer detective yarns. Throughout his courtship he will do his utmost to stimulate in her a desire to have him as a life partner. Whatever objections she makes to him, he will get rid of or overcome.
Suppose he has taken all these preliminary selling steps successfully, and at last the time comes for pinning the girl down to a definite answer to the all-important question, is there any likelihood that it will be a refusal? Of course not! If his earlier salesmanship has been masterly, the reasons why she will be inclined to accept him in the end are of much greater weight and number than any causes for rejection that she may have thought of previously.
He should not fear to close the sale. He has been "going strong" until now; why should he weaken at the finish? The master salesman does not quaver then, or doubt his success. He asks his prospect's decision bravely and with confidence, or he assumes it as a matter of course and kisses the girl. His heart beats faster than usual, but he is not afraid of hearing "No."
You should feel the same way after leading your prospective employer successfully through the preliminary stages of the process of selling your services to him. Do not falter now. Promptly emphasize the idea that the weight, amount, and quality of your merits are fully worth the compensation previously discussed. If you are sure of that, if you have valued your services from his standpoint, and not just from your own, you will feel no doubts about the acceptance of your application. You will put your prospective employer through the process of decision as courageously and confidently as you first entered his presence.
Sometimes a prospect will be convinced, but will not express what is in his thoughts. Therefore it is not enough to bring about a favorable conclusion of mind. Until this has been pronounced or signified, it may easily be changed. Hence the effective process of decision includes both the mental action of judgment and its perceptible indication. Often a prospect who is thinking "Yes" will not say it until he is prompted by the salesman.
When a lawyer is trying a case, he endeavors to bring out the evidence in favor of his client and to make the jury see every point clearly. He shows also the fallacies and falsities of opposing testimony. But after all the evidence has been given, the case is not turned over immediately to the jury for decision. If that were done the lawyer would miss his best chance to influence the jurors to make up their minds in his favor. They are not so familiar as he with the facts and their significance. They would be apt to attach more importance to some details of testimony, and less to others, than the circumstances warrant. So, to assist the jurors in arriving at their verdict on the evidence, the lawyer sums up the case. He lays before their minds his views, and tries with all his power and art to convince them that his word pictures are true reproductions of the facts in their relation and proportion to all the circumstances surrounding the issue.
The object of the lawyer when he addresses the jury is to make the convincing impression that the testimony in favor of his client far outweighs the evidence on the other side. He adjures the twelve men before him to "weigh the evidence carefully." He declares the judge will instruct them that in a lawsuit the verdict should be given to the party who has a "preponderance" or greater weight of proof on his side. At this closing stage of the case the lawyer acts as a weighmaster. He wants to make the jurors feel that he has handled the scales fairly, that he has taken into consideration the evidence against him as well as the facts in his favor; and that the preponderance of weight is as he has shown it—so that they will accept his view and gave him the verdict. If he feels a sincere conviction that he is right in asking for a decision on his side, he makes his closing address with the ring of confidence. He looks the jurors in the eye and asks for the verdict in his favor as a matter of right. He does not beg, but claims what the weight of the evidence entitles him to receive.
The jury that will decide on your application when you apply for a position will usually consist of but one man, or will be composed of a committee or board of directors. Treat him or them as a jury. Remember that your capabilities and your deficiencies are on trial. Close your case with the same process the skillful lawyer uses when he sums up the evidence and weighs it before the minds of the jurors. Do what he does as a weighmaster. Avoid making any impression that you are not weighing your demerits fairly, though you minimize their importance; also miss no chance to impress the full weight of your qualifications. The essence of good salesmanship at this stage of the process is skillful, but honest weighing. That means using both sides of the scale, to convince the prospect that the balance tips in your favor. He will not believe in the correctness of the "Yes" weight unless you show the lesser weight of "No" in contrast. Then he cannot help seeing which is the heavier. Decision on the respective weights is only a process of perception.
Let us suppose the employer has asserted the objections that you are not sufficiently experienced to earn the salary you want, and that you don't know enough yet to fill the job. It would be poor salesmanship to try to convince him that you have had a good deal of experience. If you exaggerate the importance of the things you have learned, he almost surely will judge you to be an unfair weighman of yourself. So you should tacitly admit your inexperience and treat the value of experience lightly by reminding him that his business is unlike any other. Then bear down hard on your eagerness to learn his ways and to work for him. Thus you can make him perceive the two sides of the scale as you view them.
It is possible for you so to tip the balances in your favor, though previously the mind's eye of your prospective employer may have been seeing the greater weight on the unfavorable side. It is legitimate salesmanship to influence the decision of the other man in this way. Your weighing is entirely honest; though you sharply reverse the balances. Certainly you have the right to estimate the full worth of your services, to depreciate the significance of points against you, and to picture your desirability to the prospect as you see it, however that view may differ from his previous conception. If your picture of the respective weights is attractive and convincing, the other man will adopt it as his own and discard his former opinions about you. Not only will he accept the idea of your capabilities that you make him perceive; he also will see that your deficiencies are much less important than he had before considered them.
Beware of a mistake commonly made by applicants for positions who do not understand the art of successfully closing the sale of one's services. When they try to clinch the final decision, they just repeat strongly all their best points. They make no mention of their shortcomings. For dessert, in other words, they serve a hash of the best dishes of previous courses. Is it any wonder that such a close takes away any appetite the prospect may have had?
What would you think of a lawyer who had closed his case by simply reading to the jury all the testimony that had been given on his side, but who had made no reference to the opposing evidence? If you were a juror, would you vote for a verdict in favor of the side so summed up? Of course you would have heard the testimony of both parties to the case, but you would not feel that the lawyer who ignored the evidence against his client had helped you to arrive at the conclusion that he had the preponderance of proof on his side. On the contrary, you probably would be inclined to attach to the opposing evidence greater weight than the facts justified, and would discount whatever the lawyer claimed for his client. You, yourself, would act as weighmaster; and would give the other party to the suit the benefit of any doubt in your mind as to the contrasting weights of the testimony pro and con. The lawyer's failure to weigh all the evidence before your eyes would make the impression on you that his view of the case was unfair to his opponent. If you felt at all doubtful, you would be likely to vote against him in order to make sure that the other side received a square deal.
The jury that is to decide favorably or unfavorably on your application for a position will feel similarly inclined to reach a negative conclusion if in closing you omit the process of weighing the pros and cons, and emphasize only your strong points. It is good salesmanship to stress these at the finishing stage, but they should be pictured in contrast with lighter objections to your employment. In order to convince the prospect that the reasons for employing you outweigh the reasons for turning you down, you must show his mind both sides of the scale. If you fail to do this, his own imagination will do the weighing and is certain to bear down with prejudice on every point against you. It will also depreciate your view of the points in your favor. The other man will make sure that he is getting a square deal on the weights, since he will believe you, too, are looking out only for Number One.
The certain way to make your prospect perceive that the reasons for accepting your proposal are of greater weight than any causes for turning down your application is to do the weighing yourself. First be sure the heavier weight is on your side. When you fully believe that, use all the arts of salesmanship to make the other man see the balances as you view them. Then he can come to but one conclusion, that the "preponderance" is on your side. Just as soon as you make the respective weights clear to his perception, he will be convinced. He cannot deny what his own mind's eye has been made to see.
Therefore bringing about a favorable mental conclusion is not at all difficult. The judgment that your services would be desirable is no harder to gain than a decision that the weight of one side of a scale is greater than the other. Any one who looks at the balances sees at once which way they tip. The rub is not in getting the decision made but in getting it pronounced. The sale is not completed until the prospect has committed himself.
He feels that his mental processes are his own secret, which you cannot read; so he will not guard against the conclusion of his mind that you would be a desirable employee. But for some reason he may be unwilling to express his thoughts to you just then, however thoroughly he is convinced. He naturally prefers not to say "Yes" at once; so that he may change his mind if he wishes. You will endanger your chances of success if you let him put off action on his decision. To-morrow he is likely to see the weights in a different light and to imagine less on your side and more against you. Now is the time to close the sale, when he cannot help seeing things your way.
You know that sometimes a juror will be convinced in his own mind, yet cannot bring himself actually to vote according to his mental conclusion. Perhaps he is a "wobbler" by nature. So a girl may decide in her thoughts that a certain suitor would make a good husband, yet she may hesitate to accept him just because that step is final. These illustrations impress the importance of discriminating between the two stages of closing a sale. The success of the salesman is made certain only by his knowledge and skillful use, first of the art of vivid weighing, and second of the art of prompting the prospect to action on his perception of the difference in the balances. At the closing stage we have encountered again our old acquaintance, "the discriminative-restrictive process."
A friend of mine who has an advertising agency wanted to secure the business of a prominent manufacturer who was inclined to vacillation. The prospect was always timid about acting and had the reputation of a chronic procrastinator. My friend went ahead with the selling process in ordinary course until he had proved the desirability of his service and had shown that there was no really weighty reason why the contract should not be given to him. He knew he was entitled to the decision then, but he did not wait for the timid man to pronounce it. The advertising agent knew the characteristics of the prospect and had planned just how he would handle the finishing stage of the selling process so as to get the order promptly.
He held in reserve a closing method that a less skillful salesman probably would have used earlier in the sale instead of reserving it especially for the end. As soon as he had completed the weighing process my friend took from his pocket a sheet of copy he had prepared for a first advertisement along the line he had proposed. This had been worked out carefully in advance, just as if the order had already been given for the advertising service. My friend laid the sheet of copy before the prospect, who was taken completely by surprise.
"I knew you would want this service as soon as I explained it to you," said the salesman. "Therefore I prepared this ad for the first publication under the plan I have submitted, and which I am sure you approve. There is no question that you will get much better results from this copy than you have been receiving from the advertising you are doing now. Naturally you want to begin benefiting from my service as soon as possible. I'm all ready to deliver the goods. Just pencil your O.K. on the corner of this copy. I'll do the rest."
With a smile of confidence the salesman held out a soft lead pencil. The moment the other man involuntarily obeyed the suggestion by accepting the tendered pencil, he was started on the purely muscular process of pronouncing his approval of the proposition likewise tendered for his acceptance. The informality of the off-hand request that he "pencil his O.K." kept him from being scared off. He did not feel that he had yet committed himself fully. Probably, with characteristic timidity, he would have shied from signing a formal contract at that moment. But he hesitated only slightly before he scribbled his initials on the corner of the proposed ad. Then he handed the pencil back to the salesman. The advertising agent picked up the approved copy, and at once laid before the prospect a formal contract. Simultaneously he tendered his fountain pen. He had started the advertiser to writing his name, and did not let the process stop.
"Now just O.K. this, too," he directed, "and the whole matter will be settled to your complete satisfaction." Then, to prevent the procrastinator from backing up, the salesman reached for the telephone on the advertiser's desk. "With your permission, I'll call up the——magazine and reserve choice space for this ad. It won't cost any more and by getting in early we'll make the ad most effective."
My friend manifested complete confidence that the sale was closed. By continuing the process of affirming the decision, he prevented the prospect from backing up after making his pencilled O.K. Being thus committed informally, the usually vacillating advertiser could not well avoid using the pen put into his hand to sign the formal contract laid before him. Without speaking to him, the salesman pointed to the dotted line while he called the telephone number he wanted. The prospect wrote his name before he had time to stop the impulse that the advertising agent had started. The salesman had both induced the mental decision in his favor, and impelled its pronouncement. Really he first made up the prospect's mind for him, and then committed him to the decision so made without the other man's volition.
Only by performing both processes in right sequence at the closing stage can a sale be finished under the control of the salesman. If the favorable conclusion as to the respective weights of negative and affirmative is not first worked out before the mind's eye of the prospect, anything done to commit him to a decision will likely kill the salesman's chances for success. The prospect whose mind is not yet made up favorably, who does not clearly perceive that the preponderance is on the "Yes" side of the scale, will almost surely say "No" if his decision is prematurely impelled.
Hence it is important that the salesman discriminate between the two closing stages, and that he restrict his selling methods at each stage to the selling processes that are effective then. He must not get "the cart before the horse," as the ignorant or unskillful closer is apt to do. The poor closer does not understand the "discriminative-restrictive" process. He lacks comprehension of the distinction that should be drawn between the methods he previously has used and what is now required to finish the sale. Let us be sure we know how to discriminate; so that our work at the closing stage may be restricted to the processes that are required to assure success in taking the particular step necessary.