Certain Success Part 31

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.

[Sidenote: Weigh Both Pros and Cons Before Jury]

_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.

[Sidenote: To Make Certain Do The Weighing Yourself]

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.

[Sidenote: Get Prospect Committed]

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 _p.r.o.nounced_. The sale is not completed until the prospect has _committed_ himself.

[Sidenote: Now is the Acceptance Time]

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_.

[Sidenote: Two Stages Of Closing]

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 ill.u.s.trations 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."

[Sidenote: Closing a Procrastinator]

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 ent.i.tled to the decision then, but he did not wait for the timid man to p.r.o.nounce 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.

[Sidenote: The Clincher Held in Reserve]

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 advertis.e.m.e.nt 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."

[Sidenote: From Pencil To Pen]

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 p.r.o.nouncing 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 s.p.a.ce for this ad. It won't cost any more and by getting in early we'll make the ad most effective."

[Sidenote: Decide For, Then Commit The Prospect]

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 _p.r.o.nouncement_. 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.

[Sidenote: Both Processes In Right Sequence]

_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.

[Sidenote: Discriminate And Restrict]

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 a.s.sure success in taking the particular step necessary.

[Sidenote: New Process Necessary To Close]

Throughout the series of selling steps that precede the closing stage, the continuing purpose of the salesman is to make the prospect _see_ the proposal in the true light, as the salesman himself views it. When the selling process draws to a conclusion, the purpose of the salesman changes. Now he wants the prospect to _decide_ and then _act upon_ what has been shown to his mind's eye. If the salesman is to control the close, he must do something _new_ to prompt decision and to actuate its p.r.o.nouncement.

The unskillful closer, instead of changing his previous sales tactics, nearly always devotes his final efforts to making the prospect _see more clearly_ the pictures already laid before his mind. He tries to impress the prospect with a _re-hash of perception_, by emphasizing more strongly than before the favorable points brought out clearly at earlier stages. Of course it is important that at the close of the sale the prospect have all these points in view, but it is not good salesmanship to emphasize only the appeal to his _perceptive_ faculties. The guest who has had a good dinner does not need to be told just afterward what he has eaten, or reminded of the courses by having them brought in again.

[Sidenote: Logic and Reason Won't Win]

As it is a mistake to serve at the close of a sale only a re-hash of favorable points; so is it bad salesmanship to rely on a dessert of "logic and reason" for the finishing touch. _Logic and reason provoke antagonism. They are ineffective in bringing about either a favorable conclusion of mind or action on such a decision._

If you have presented your capabilities fully to a prospective employer, do not wind up by marshalling reasons why he should engage you. Avoid the use of the "major premise, minor premise, argument, and logical conclusion." _You cannot debate yourself into a job_, for the judge is made antagonistic by your method, which puts him on the defensive. It is human nature to resist a decision that logic tries to force. No man arrives at his conclusions of mind by putting himself through a reasoning process. A normal person does not need to reason about things he knows. _He knows without reasoning._ He attempts to use logic only when he is _uncertain_ what to think. If logic is used by the salesman to convince the other man, it will be ineffective because it is an unnatural means that the prospect almost never employs to convince himself, and of which he is suspicious.

[Sidenote: Why Reasoning is Futile]

A major premise is but an a.s.sumption unless it is already known. If it is known, why should it be proved? Since the correctness of the conclusion depends entirely upon the validity of the premise, it is evidently absurd to attempt to prove a truth from the basis of an admitted a.s.sumption. The reasoning process that starts from a truth already known, and arrives at a truth that must similarly have been known, is utterly useless and a waste of time. Hence, _if you use the reasoning process you will either fail to convince your prospect by starting from a premise that he does not know, or you will irritate and unfavorably impress him by seeming to reflect on his intelligence when you prove to him something he already knows_. That is the wrong way to bring your man to a "Yes" decision.

If the whole process of the sale could be summed up in just one logical statement at closing, it might occasionally be practical for the salesman to apply reasoning with good effect to help him secure the decision. But the four steps, first and second premise, argument, and conclusion, must be applied to every point that is made with reasoning.

Since the force of the conclusion is largely lost unless the major premise is an absolute truth recognized by everybody, there is danger of confusion, and no possibility of convincing the prospect by such methods. Besides, a mult.i.tude of reasoning processes would be necessary to cover all the points presented by the salesman and all the objections raised by the prospect. Moreover, as we have seen, the whole procedure of "a logical close" falls back upon itself unless everything the salesman hopes to prove was known and admitted to be true before he began to reason it out.

[Sidenote: Favorable Decision Defined]

_Favorable decision is the prospect's mental conclusion that it is better to buy than not to buy; better to accept than to refuse._ The process of securing decision is not complex; it is very simple. As has been said, the salesman needs only to weigh before the mind's eye of the prospect the favorable and unfavorable ideas of the proposal. _Any weighing of two mental images always results in a judgment as to which is preferable, or that one course of action would be better than the other._ The mind is never so exactly balanced between contrasting ideas that it does not tip at all either way.

[Sidenote: Weighing Ideas of A Steak]

The skill of the salesman weighmaster, used legitimately before the mind's eye of the prospect to tip the scales of decision to the favorable side, is ill.u.s.trated in the story of a butcher who had been asked by a woman customer to weigh a steak for her. He knew that the weighing process _in her mind_ included more than the balancing of a certain number of pounds and ounces on the scale. Against the reasons for her evident inclination to take the selected steak, she would weigh its cost, her personal ideas of its value, and other factors of the high cost of living.

[Sidenote: Skillful Close of The Sale]

The butcher wished to bring her quickly to a favorable decision. He wanted to make up the customer's mind for her in such a conclusive way that she would be prevented from hesitating over the purchase. As a weighman of pounds and ounces he only wanted to show the prospect that he was honest. But in order to tip _the buying scales in her mind_ he put into the balances, on the side opposite the cost of the steak, the heavier weight of buying inducements. First he did the actual weighing of the steak; then he added on the "Yes" side of the scales of decision _ideas of the excellence and desirability of the meat_. He followed immediately with a _suggestion of action that would commit the prospect to buying_.

"Two pounds and five ounces, ma'am! Only a dollar and forty-three cents.

It's the very choicest part of the loin. You couldn't get a cut any tenderer than that, or with less bone. Would you like to have a little extra suet wrapped up with it?"

[Sidenote: Three Effects Produced]

The butcher thus combined in his close _three effects_. He brought about _judgment of the prospect's intellect_, plus _increased desire_ for the goods, plus the _impulse to carry the desire into action_.

First, by emphasizing, "Two pounds and five ounces!" in a _heavy_ tone, and by depreciating the cost, "Only a dollar and forty-three cents,"

spoken _lightly_, he implied that the _value_ of the steak far outweighed the _price_. Thus judgment of the prospect's intellect was effected.

Second, to stimulate increased desire for the steak, the butcher skillfully put on the favorable side of the scales of decision the weight of _a suggestion of excellence_. He said temptingly, "It's the very choicest part of the loin." At this point he also employed _contrast_, to make the prospect's desire stronger still. "You couldn't get a cut any tenderer than this, or with less bone."