(follows on from “Lessons From The Greatest Salesman In The World (PART1) - published on this blog.

Right, where were we?

Oh yes, we had just finished talking about the structure that Popeil uses to hook in customers, which shows great parrallels with modern day selling.  Here is it again: 

1. An attention grabbing headline – hook
2. A structured argument that builds to several crescendos in say half an hour – evidence
3. Heavy on demonstrations – more evidence
4. Even heavier on testimonials or proof – even more evidence
5. The turn (the close)
6. The mop-up (the close for those who haven’t been closed)
7. Repeat cycle

Most of those don’t need explaining.  But I’m going to focus on the two steps that I find most fascinating – steps 5-6.

Step 5 – the Turn

This is where you ask the crowd for money.  In modern day parlance, it’s the close. 

The audience knows the close is coming, just like your client knows the close is coming. 

To quote from Gladwell:  “(the turn is) the perilous, crucial moment where he goes from entertainer to businessman.  The pitchman must make you applaud and take out your money.” 

Is that an insight into closing, or what?! 

When you close business, here is what the modern sales practitioner really ought to do:

Ensure you keep the rapport moving, the relationship moving forward, but don’t forget to ask for the money.  The customer should be smiling and agreeing that this is the absolute best use of their money.

Here’s what I got from this:  It’s not the close that counts as we know it.  It’s not the closing questions, or objection handling.  It’s how well likeability and closing techniques merge.

In other words,  it’s how comfortable you are, and how comfortable the customer is, that is the difference between success, or another sale that got away.

In our sales skills training we focus on loads of behavioural based practice, making sure that sales people move from rapport to close with a high degree of comfort.

Eventually, asking for the money becomes as easy as asking for the time. 

 But a lot more fun.

Step 6 – The Mop Up

For those who haven’t bought the first time around, infomercials will often go around again, with a summarised highlights package.  This is for the people who still might buy, but aren’t as quick on the buzzer.  In the Innovation Adoption Curve, they are the probably the early or late majority.   

Again, what a great lesson for the modern day salesperson – particularly those who give up at the first objection. 

Customers might be in to you, but not quite enough to dig deep.  So, give them a persuasive, summarised version of events up to this point. 

Ensure you load it with reasons, or benefits to buy. 

But wait, there’s more…

(…in my next blog in a week or so!)