Silence is Golden

My second sales job or should I say the first one i produced results from, was where I know I applied one of these techniques which closed my first sales and earned me a £200 commission. I had started selling for a window company, and a moment occured, where I tried one of these tricks I had read. It was an incredible feeling knowing that that £200 came to me, because of how I said what I did.

The technique is a very simple one, and is used to pry an answer from a customer, when he is reluctant to speak. He is pondering over saying yes, and just needs a little push. Psychologically it puts as much pressure on as what would be exerted on a donut if an elephant sat on it.

The technique itself is simple. Once you have asked for the sale you simply "remain silent". The first person to break this silence is then the loser. Let me give you an example:

When asking for the sale, or what is known in the sales process as the closing question, you could just say; "Ok, so do you want to buy this? This is called a yes or no close, and invites your customer say both "Yes" and "No". A rather better approach, would be to give them what is called an "Alernative choice close", that way, you do not invite a "No" answer, either choice really invites your customer to say "Yes".

For example; "would you prefer this in red or black?" or, "Would you like to take it away with you now, or would you prefer to have it delivered?".

However your customer choses to answer your question, he will be approving in fact that he is buying your product.

The "Silence is Golden" technique, that I used this day, could follow a closing question like this:

Reluctant to commit themselves, customers go very quiet just before buying, and the quietness is often tense. All the facts add up,so they cannot really say no, but at the same time, they know you are a sales person, and they know your objective was to get a YES. At this point, there is just as much pressure on the sales person, he feels the customer knows he is putting pressure on, and he could start to feel guilty.

Very often here, the sales person starts to talk again, to soothe the atmosphere, and to reduce the tension in the room. The problem is, the moment the sales person starts to talk again, the customer is off the hook, and does not need to answer the question. The prospect then says; "I will think about it". Many sales are lost because of this.

The key to winning your commission, by making the sale, is;

" DO NOT SAY ANYTHING". Once you have asked a closing question, do not break the silence!

In my particular example, I had been to my customers house and measured up his windows, and worked out the price. But, being new to sales, I lacked the skils and couldn't close the sale, I quoted the price, and he simply said it was to much over his budget. Not being able to proceed, I returned home with my tail between my legs.

Later I suddenly had an inspiration, and I called him back;

"Hi John, its Kevin Paginton, I think I have found a solution that will enable you to get the windows you want, can I come around to see you this afternoon? "He agreed, and I met with him and his wife later that day.

What i had seen was pure simplicity in itself. The reason for him wanting the windows in the first place, was because his house was on a busy "A" road, and there was lots of noise and dust, yet his back windows looked out on to the tanquil country side.

Meeting with him, and after studying my closing technique, I presented my case, then went for the close with an either/or close and followed it up with the SILENCE IS GOLDEN rule;

"John, I know how much you wanted our windows becuase of the quality we demonstrated whch you liked, yet I felt I had let you down, especially if you had to settle for an inferior quality window just because you couldn't afford to have the complete house done in one go, and it was then that it suddenly occured to me-,"

"The solution is simple: Do it in stages, as and when you can afford it. I believe you can afford to put the new windows in the front of the house, which would immediatly overcome your main concern by alleiviating the noise and the dust from the road, giving you the comfort you wanted, then later, when you can afford it you can have the back of the house done."

"In all honesty, to have it all done professionally, you could try to get finance to get the whole house done, or without over commiting your self, you could at least get the front done now, enabling you to start experiencing the quietness and dust free atmosphere... " Wkat do you think would be a more practical approach John?"

The room suddenly went ghostly quiet. He sat with his wife just looking at the figures on the paper. An atmosphere arose where I wondered if I had done the wrong thing, thee atmosphere was intense, I felt I wanted to say something just to change the topic to get me out of this spot I had put myself in, yet I realised I had just asked a closing question, and as long as I remained quiet, he did not really have any way out of it.

I suddenly realised, a £200 commision was almost in my hand!

It was then, deep inside I heard Tom's voice whispering to me: "He who speaks first loses".

I was paranoid! Sitting quietly, I waited and sat it out.
"Do not say a word Kevin".

I will never forget that event for the rest of my life, as I have an extremely funny memory of the events:

The room went quiet for what seemed 3 minutes, yet in all reality it was probably 40 seconds, when all of a sudden their little sausage dog, stood up and walked towards me across the living room floor.  I knew I needed something to get me away from this pressure, yet whilst leaving them in it.  So being a animal lover, I reached out my hand and turned my attention to the dog, who was now by my feet, and with both hands, gently rubbed him behind both ears at the same time.

As I was gazing down at this little fellow, I felt John look towards his wife, who nodded, and then he spoke; "Ok lets do it".

"YES" I thought, "It worked", yet what I had not realised from being so tense, was that my hands had tightened their grip on this poor lttle dogs head, and without realising, I had lifted his front paws completely off of the floor, and planted a kiss right on top of his head!

I got my £200 commission, and that for just 2 hours work.

Salesmen are not born, I applied something I found in a book, and it worked.