The Most Influential Force in Selling

A successful businessman once asked a friend if his clients had trouble making up their minds. “Well, yes and no,” came the reply.

The fact that people usually waver in making decisions is nothing new. Yet the future of a salesperson depends upon his ability to influence prospects to make decisions in his favor. How can he convince them to buy and to buy from him immediately? The answer is the technique of positive intimidation.

Using any form of intimidation at all may seem like an uncomfortable idea at first. But the salesperson who only strives to be friendly and helpful to his clients often ends up with no sale. He can answer every question and demonstrate each feature of his product, but unless he subtly guides his prospects toward the goal of buying they may never reach it. This type of salesperson may work hard and spend hours at his job without getting anywhere.

The salesperson who hits upon the tactic of being firm and uses intimidation without its positive aspects can have just as much trouble making a deal. Since intimidation is basically negative, it can turn a customer off completely.

For example, one car salesperson’s high pressure approach was to tell prospective buyers that they should take advantage of his deal on a new car today because the trade-in value of their present car wouldn’t be any higher tomorrow.

Smart customers usually won’t fall for such an obvious ploy. If they do succumb, they frequently exercise their right to send the merchandise back within a few days.

Positive intimidation, however, disarms a client with friendliness and then uses firmness to strike a deal. This sales technique is based on the principle that people want to be thought of as intelligent and able to use good sense. They want to be spoken of highly and will respond positively to anyone who does so. A salesperson can cash in on this common psychological characteristic by convincing a prospect that he is being smart to buy what is being offered for sale.

In a typical sales situation you want the customer to: 1) listen to your ideas; 2) react positively to them; and 3) act immediately by buying your product.

For a salesperson to get a customer to listen to him, he must first pay attention to what a customer has to say. The prospect’s words will be clues to what he really wants and how the salesperson can most effectively meet his needs. The psychology behind positive intimidation is that customers don’t care how much a salesperson knows until they know how much he cares.

Now, how does a salesperson go about capturing the customer’s interest? He can use a positive intimidation statement like, “John, there are not many people who seem to understand this idea, but I can tell that you are open and smart enough to really grasp what I am talking about.” This boosts the customer’s ego and sets him up to respond positively.

Let’s look at some of the psychological elements in this sentence.

First, the salesperson has complimented his prospect by saying that he is one of the few people who can understand the idea being presented. Since everyone likes being told that he is a special individual, the prospect is positively intimidated into listening for more of the same kind of compliments. He will now pay careful attention because he wants to be told why he is so special.

Next, the customer has been told that he is intelligent. This additional piece of positive intimidation sets him up to listen to the sales story which will follow so he can show that he is open to what is being discussed. If he doesn’t, he is saying, in essence, that he is a klutz.

This is one of the most important points in this tactic, because it insures that he will continue to listen. If he doesn’t follow the subsequent sales story closely, he won’t know in which areas he is supposed to be well-informed.

Now, if the sales presentation is convincing enough and makes good sense to him, he will react positively by buying the salesperson’s product.

Let’s consider an illustration of this technique. Jim was a clever appliance salesperson who learned to ask his prospects questions about their needs and to listen intently to what they said. In this way, he could discover which model would best suit them.

Using positive intimidation, he would begin his sales pitch by saying, “Folks, very few people seem to know as much as you do about what you want. It is a pleasure to talk to you.” Then he would explain how the features of the appliance would best satisfy their particular needs. For his trial closing, he would say, “You are making an excellent choice to get this appliance today.”

Jim’s statements make his customers feel that they are intelligent and that they will be making a wise decision if they buy from him.

Once the friendly firmness of positive intimidation has been used to convince a client to buy, it can be taken one step further to turn a good deal into an even better one. A client who thinks he is smart to buy one product can be intimidated into buying a more expensive version.

For example, an organ salesperson named Ralph used a single, positive intimidation tactic over and over at closings to double and triple his commission checks. First, he would show a prospect a model costing a few hundred dollars above what they said they wanted because he had discovered that people will generally spring for just a little bit more.

He would then demonstrate that organ to its fullest extent, showing all the features and doing a top job of selling.

At this point, the prospect would generally decide he wanted this particular model. Ralph would take him over to the sales desk and have him sign a contract. After the deal was on paper, Ralph would put his positive intimidation technique to work. “Before you leave, I want to show you your next organ.” he would say.

This gimmick would inevitably spark the customer’s curiosity, and Ralph would show him an organ costing two or three times more than the one he had just bought. When the customer heard the richer sound of the more expensive organ, understood its features and saw its beautiful cabinet, about half the time he would reason, “Well, what’s the sense of buying a smaller one if this is going to be our next organ? Why don’t we just go ahead and buy it now?

The technique worked for Roger enough times that he began using it at the end of each sale. And selling a larger organ enough times helped double his income.

A few well placed phrases incorporating positive intimidation can help make or break a sale. But how can a salesperson decide which ones to use in a given situation? By using positive intimidation techniques on himself as well as his customers.

The first step in developing a positive intimidating attitude is to decide that it can be done. Then, a salesperson must set a goal that is realistically obtainable. The professional who reaches it by learning more about his field, practicing and exercising the art of salesmanship, plus developing a logical and well planned presentation, will be positively intimidated to set his sights higher and higher.

He will expect to make a sale when he talks to his prospects and they, in turn, will be positively intimidated into purchasing from him. Clients are drawn to salespeople who exude an attractive air of self-confidence in themselves and have a professional and businesslike method of operation.

When a salesperson has taken the time to listen to a prospect explain what he wants and then makes him feel that it is in his own best interest to buy today, or when he sets positive goals for himself and obtains them, he has begun to benefit from using the psychology of positive intimidation.