Part 1. She Psychology of Closing. Chapter 2. She Household Executive Sales Lady. How much should we invest? We moved to Dallas in 1968 and I immediately started teaching a class in sales and motivation from 9 in the morning until 9 in the evening, Monday through Saturday. I was as busy as I've ever been in my life.
But it was also house buying time because we obviously couldn't live in a motel. She redhead and I talked about a house in considerable detail until we finally arrived at a reasonable figure we would be willing to invest in a home. I know the figure was reasonable because she assured me it was reasonable.
Personally, I felt the price bore a striking resemblance to the foreign aid bill for the world. After we'd arrived at the exact amount we were going to invest in a home, she said, honey. Suppose we find the dream house. I mean, exactly like we want.
How much more can we invest? That brought on a lot more talk. So we talked and we talked and we talked and finally arrived at a figure of an additional $20,000, which in that day would build an additional 2,000 square feet of quality construction. So house hunting that redhead went, and I mean she really looked at two houses. When she walked into that second one, that ended all her house hunting.
She had found what she wanted. How much does it cost? That night when I got back to the motel room, there she sat on the edge of the king-size bed.
Even though she was just sitting there, the bed was vibrating. I've never seen her so excited. She jumped up and said, Honey, I have found our dream home. It's absolutely gorgeous. For beautiful bedrooms on a big lot, plenty of room in the backyard for you to build that arrow-shaped swimming pool you've been talking about, walk-in closets in- every room and four bathrooms.
Interrupting her to squeeze in a question, I said, sweetheart, hold the phone. How much does that house cost? Sugar baby. Honey, you'll have to see it to believe it, but you're going to love it because the den is monstrous and it has exposed beams and a cathedral ceiling.
She garage is so big we will have room for the two cars and all our tools. Best of all, honey. Shere's an 11 by 11 foot spot for you to build that little office where you can do the writing you've been talking about.
And honey, the master bedroom is so big we're going to have to get a writing vacuum cleaner. I'll tell you, that is Samoom House. Zig, interrupting her again, sweetheart, how much does that house cost? She told me. It was $18,000 more than the maximum, which was already $20,000 more than we had any business investing.
Zig, sweetheart. Shere is no way we can buy a house like that. Sugar baby. Well, honey, I know that, but don't worry about it. You know we don't know a thing about real estate in Dallas, so I invited the builder to take us to the property after your class tomorrow night, so we can both look at it and get a benchmark on real estate in this area.
Don't let the prospect fool you when we pulled into the driveway the next evening, I knew I had a problem. When we walked in the front door, I knew I was in bad trouble. She house was beautiful and was laid out precisely as I would have laid it out had I been an architect.
I instantly wanted that house, badly, but what we want and what we can get are sometimes worlds apart. When I fully realized the situation I was in, as a protective measure I started to treat my redhead and the builder the same way your prospects have been treating you all of your sales career and will continue to treat you as long as you're in the world of selling. Even though I was interested, even excited about that house. I acted as if I had no interest whatsoever. She reason is simple.
I was scared to death that between her and that builder they were going to get me to do something I already wanted to do, was afraid I was going to do, and knew I had no business doing. I'm talking about buying a house that I was absolutely convinced was more expensive than we could handle. To protect myself from myself, I acted as if I had no interest.
She snooker, close there is a lot of difference between a prospect saying, I'm not interested, instead, and I really am interested but don't feel I can get it right now and therefore don't want to watch a presentation at this particular moment. Many times the prospect is in identically the same position I was in as I approached the front door of the house that the redhead was excited about. Now I would never accuse my redhead of secretly taking drama lessons, but based on what happened next, I strongly suspect that she had. As we stepped up to the front door, She turned around and made huge sweeping motions with her arms and declared the yard perfect for the future construction of the circular driveway I had always wanted. As we walked inside, there was a nice chandelier in the entrance hall of the home.
She redhead didn't say a word, but she did come to a dead stop. It couldn't have been for more than a minute. more than a second.
She turned slightly sideways, looked up, grinned, and walked on. That's all she needed to do. Message delivered, message received.
She ownership, close as we walked into the den, with mounting enthusiasm, she said, look at the size of this den, honey, and aren't those exposed beams gorgeous? Without waiting for an answer, she continued, and just look at your fireplace with all those bookshelves around it for your books. All of a sudden, everything gets to be mine. That's good psychology.
I can just see you watching the cowboys whip up on somebody on Sunday afternoon out of one eye while watching your fire out of the other one. Without pausing for breath, she said, look back here as she took off in a dead run back to the master bedroom. Just look at the size of it, honey. Shere's plenty of room for the king-size bed, and we could put our two chairs and table over here.
It's perfect for us because you know how we like to get up in the morning and have our coffee and- quiet time together. And honey, just look in your closet. Why? Even as messy as you are, there's plenty of room for everything.
Barely pausing for a breath, she said, look out here, as she opened the back door and pointed to the big backyard. Plenty of room for your arrow-shaped swimming pool. We can put the point of the arrow in the direction of the garage, and the diving board on the other end will still be 10 feet from the neighbor's lot. As she stepped off the distance in the direction of the garage, She opened the door and said, Just look, plenty of room for the two cars, and here's that 11. Buy 11-foot space for you to build your office you've planned for so long. As we moved back into the house, she said, Look at this bedroom.
Sure will be gone from home in a couple of years, and we'll have that guest bedroom we've always wanted. When the tour was finally over, she squeezed my hand, looked me in the eye, and asked, How do you feel about it, honey? She embarrassment close question, what could I say?
Obviously, I couldn't say, I don't like it, because that would not have been true. So I said, sweetheart, I like it. Shere's no question about it.
It's a beautiful home, but you know perfectly good, and while we can't afford a house like this. Did this discourage her or dampen her enthusiasm? Not in the least. She looked at me, and with a twinkle in those beautiful, loving eyes, she said, honey, I know that. But I just wanted you to see something really nice.
Pause. Now we'll go look at something cheap. Now come on, you don't really think she would try to embarrass me into buying a beautiful home, do you?
Not much else was said about the house that evening. We went back to the motel and to bed. I got up the next morning and was in the bathroom brushing my teeth. I know you'll agree that when you've got a mouthful of toothbrush, you're handicapped, at least from a talking point of view. When she walked in and said, How long are we going to live in Dallas?
W or MW or MW or MM or years, I replied, toothbrush still in mouth. She couldn't understand my garbled reply, so she asked again, how long? This time I removed my toothbrush and replied, a hundred years. I'm 40. Two.
I'm going to live to be 142, so that leaves a hundred. Sugar baby. No, I mean really.
Zig. I do. Two.
She's closing in on me. Sugar baby, honey, do you think we'll be here 30 years? Zig, I'll guarantee it. I love Dallas.
It's centrally located for my travels. I hate to move. We'll be here at least 30 years. But why do you ask about 30 years? Sugar baby, honey, if we live here just 30 years, how much does that $18,000 figure out per year?
She forgets or ignores the original price of the house. She forgets about the $20,000 too much I felt our original commitment to a house had been. She forgets about the interest, insurance, and taxes.
Zig, $18,000 for 30 years would be $600 per year. Sugar baby, how much is that a month? Zig, that would be $50 a month.
Sugar baby, how much is that a day? Zig, now come on sweetheart, your arithmetic is just as good as mine. It comes to about a dollar and 70 cents a day, but why do you ask all these questions? Sugar baby, honey, could I ask you one more question?
Somehow I sensed as she stood there, all five feet, one and a half inches of her, with a twinkle in her eye and a look out, honey, grin on her face, that I was in the process of being had. But there was nothing I could do about it. Zig, why?
Sure. Sugar baby, honey. Would you give another dollar and 70 cents a day to have a happy wife, instead of just a wife? Guess where we live?
She story demonstrates a lot of points, techniques, and psychology. First, I knew what that redhead was doing to me, but there was nothing I could do about it short of being obnoxious. Like the vast majority of the people you will be dealing with in a sales situation, I wasn't about to treat that redhead in any such way.
Really good technique, in the hands of a good person, you can't be one kind of person and another kind of salesperson, is almost irresistible. Translate to your situation that 1902 You Close I tell this story, which is a true story, because I want you to do a lot of things. First, I want you to translate this story to your specific situation. I call the procedure the redhead used on me the 1902 Close, because in 1902 a man named Frederick She described this close in his book. She redhead had learned that close by sitting in on some of my sales training classes.
When she heard that 1902 Close, she took it and applied it directly to her own situation and need. Don't hear everything the second lesson in the story is the fact that for some weird reason the redhead developed a hearing problem which I had never noticed before. I kept saying, too much money, can't afford it, not interested, can't afford it, not interested.
To this day, I don't think she heard a word I said. She had already decided she wanted that house and she wasn't going to listen to any negative talk about not getting it. I believe most salespeople need to be a little hard of hearing when the prospect says they're not interested.
Think about it this way. When the prospect says, too high or not interested, they are merely saying or implying that they are not going to give you their big stack of money for your little stack of benefits. In those cases, be like my redhead and become a little hard of hearing. Another factor which parallels this line of thinking is the fact that not once did that redhead become defensive, argumentative, or antagonistic.
All the way through the presentation, she was lovingly and enthusiastically optimistic that she was going to make the sale. She never argued when I kept talking about money, and that's good, because arguments often create antagonisms, and it's difficult to antagonize and positively influence at the same time. She Affordable Close Number 3. My redhead is an optimist and knows that I am also an optimist.
She was confident I could make a bigger payment by getting another speaking engagement or making another sale. You too, need to be optimistic that your prospect can handle the purchase. It is an absolute fact that the salesman's expectancy has a direct bearing on the prospect's decision in many, many cases.
Expect a sale on every interview. More on this later. Number 4. She asked me a lot of questions, and those questions led me to the obvious decision that not only could we get the house, but we should get it. You can sell more by asking than telling. That's the Socratic, after Socrates, method, and it's used by doctors, lawyers, accountants, counselors, ministers, detectives, and successful people from all walks of life.
Her objective was clear number five. She redhead clearly understood that she needed to make an $18,000 sale. Before she went house hunting, she had already sold the price we could pay. She had even sold the idea of going an additional $20,000.
As a super sales lady, she knew there was zero need to discuss what had already been decided. If you are in real estate and the prospect tells you they can go $200,000 for a house, then as a practical matter, you have just gotten an order for $200,000. Your selling takes place only in the sense that you have to sell the prospect on a particular house in a particular location, and then you have to sell the owner on accepting your buyer's offer, which is almost always lower than the asking price. Your major selling takes place when you find what the buyer wants and needs, but at a price tag of $250,000 instead of the $200,000 which your prospect says is their maximum price.
If you clearly understand that you need to make a $50,000 sale and not a $250,000 sale, your task will be much easier. Actually, your prospect bought $200,000 and you had little or nothing to do with it. Sheir needs made the purchase from you or someone else mandatory. She same thinking needs to be applied to any product on the market. If your prospect wants to invest X dollars, but their needs come to X plus dollars, then your real sale is the amount beyond what the prospect had already committed in their own mind to invest as i say the redhead had a sales job now of selling just the eighteen thousand dollars she knew that if we talked about the eighteen thousand dollar plus the twenty thousand dollar plus the original price plus the taxes and and interest, I would get financial indigestion.
With this in mind, she took the extra amount, the $18,000, and broke it into such small units that it wouldn't even require a financial Pepto-Bismol. She late sales trainer Jay, Douglas Edwards, called this the reduction to the ridiculous. She redhead had worked with our budget long enough to know that regardless of how often you're paid or how you're paid, you spend money on a daily basis in order to live. She simply broke it down on a per day basis, using figures she knew I could understand and felt confident I could handle.
She did not let the why we should buy serve as a stumbling block to the how we could buy it. Point. Break the price down into small amounts so your prospects can afford it. Make it easy for them to buy.
Know something about your prospects number six. You cannot get to know all of your prospects as well as the redhead new hers, but you should get as much advanced information as is humanly possible. She also knew a great deal about what I wanted.
She knew, for example, that as a child one day in a fit of anger I had said I was going to build a swimming pool, a big one. Learn as much as you can about your prospect and capitalize on that information. Learn how to use voice inflections, which we will thoroughly cover throughout Secrets.
Break the price into small segments. Optimistically sell and be hard of hearing. Ask questions to identify the problem and lead the prospect to the decision.
Find out what they need to solve their problem and show them how they can solve their problem with your product. Three things the house didn't have the seventh lesson in the sales story is this. When we moved from Columbia, South Carolina to Dallas, one of the things I shared with the redhead was the fact that when we bought our next house, she could make most of the choices as far as style, location, materials, and the little extras, which would personalize our home.
However, I did want to have three things in that house and she could have everything else. First of all, I wanted that arrow-shaped swimming pool which I've mentioned already. Second, I wanted a small office so I could write the book I had been talking about but doing nothing about.
And third, I wanted a circle drive. When we bought our house it had a lot of beautiful features, but there were three things the house did not have. Now, my reading friend, you know what three things were missing. However, She sales lady, that redhead, carefully pointed out where we could build a swimming pool, exactly where the office was going to be built, and the exact path for the circle drive. This truly is a major point.
Many times a prospect will ask you for something very specific. Now if you have exactly what they want, then you should fill that bill. But please remember that many people do not know what they want because they do not know what is available. In short, if you cannot fill the bill exactly, do not assume they are so adamant they would not even consider anything else.
From time to time, all of us have gone shopping for a specific item, couldn't find it, and ended up buying something else which we really enjoy much more. Just because the house did not contain those items I wanted did not eliminate the house as a good one to buy. She redhead simply pointed out that we could add those things later and we could build them exactly like we wanted them, and not how some builder might have built them.
This really translates into using your imagination to help the prospect get what they want. Remember, you can have everything in life you want if you will just help enough other people get what they want.