My Old Mother Once Said
Another very powerful technique, which I know works from having applied it myself, is called "My Old Mother Once Said", this also I believe was one of Tom Hopkins. It is used when you are waiting for him to approve a straight "Yes" responce, as shown in my example is for a quoted price.
When I first heard of this technique, I had thought there is no-way I could use this, yet in the heat of an intense silent moment, I knew I had no choice, so I just jumped in.
It was in 1986, I had recently emigratted to Australia, and was working for Avery Scales as an industrial sales engineer. The company I was visiting wanted a large platform scale that they could drive a forklift truck with its load on to. I had already visited oce, gone away and priced the job, and was now returning with a quotation. I had presented the case to him, yet found I had somehow missed my opportunity to ask an eithere/or close, and instead was going for an yes/no close,on the quoted price. The pressure because of this, was extremely strong, and I had to break the ice, just in case it was too much for him and he said "NO".
The power of this close lies in adding humour to the process, and is designed to take the pressure away from the "Silence is Golden" rule, yet at the same time suggesting the answer "YES". Once you have asked for the sale, and you have remained silent, the pressure could be too much to bear, so this is an occasion and the only one that I know of, where you are permitted to break that silence, yet in doing so, you are removing the pressure while adding a humourous question which is still asking the same question.
There is only one real responce to this question, which is YES, yet at the same time, in saying yes, your customer is also saying YES to the sale, so, the moment he has said YES, you MUST immediatly reach out your hand to shake his and say "well done", or "congratulations" or some postive statement of the same kind, to seal in both your minds that the YES he said was not just to the question, but also to the sale.
Also, when you ask the question, you should getly smile and nod your head in a leading way for him to follow, you must draw the YES out of him, this really is quite easy, the moment you ask the question, smile, and gently nod the word "YES" until he says it. It sounded something like this:
Kevin: Then Simon, from what you are saying, I think this is exactly what you want, would you not agree?
(20 seconds of silence)
Kevin: Ha, my Old Mother Once said Silence Means Consent, "Was she right?"
"Hmm ?"
Simon: Hmm yeah"
Kevin : "Congratulations, OK, Well if you would like to get me that order number, I will arrange for manufacture to start immedialy so you lose no more time.
(sound of phone being pressed)
Simon: Hi JJenny? could you get me an order number please.
My sales career was still pretty new to me at this time, and although I was starting to learn these techniques, I was also missing a lot of sales. unfortunatly, mu marriage broke up whilst working for Avery Scales, and I was having a tough job bringing my results up to the 14% quota required, whilst experiencing family problems.
Many sales jobs are commission only yet this one had a retainer, company car and a commission as well, so it was the kind of job where if you are not making the company money, then you must be costing them and therefore a liability to be removed. During my first month, I reached 8%, and during my second 11%, so I knew I was getting better, yet not good enough fast enough. They finally dismissed me.
By this point, I knew sales was fun, you could really earn what you were worth, and I was convinced that if I stuck it out and learnt the skills, then I would at some point or another have the ability to earn more than I could in any other profession. Therefore, I decided to stay in the sales feild and looked around for another position.
My recent Diagnosis of havng Multiple Schlorosis means I may not finish re-writing this book
Therfore see this link where to view it...
http://godsofthor.com/2.html