SOCIAL PROOF - THE MOST POWERFUL PERSUASION TACTIC

by Zeke Camusio

Social proof is showing your potential clients that other people think that what you want them to do is smart. When you say something, what you say is obviously biased. But, if someone else is saying it, it's much more credible.

Although this is extremely powerful, very few business owners actually use social proof. My goal here is to show you the different kinds of social proof and how you can use them to skyrocket your sales.

Testimonials

This one is a classic. However, most testimonials out there are really bad. This is my formula for getting killer testimonials every time:

1. Find the most common objections your potential clients have. If you have salespeople, have them write down all the reasons why people don't buy ("too expensive", "what if it doesn't work?", "a friend of mine tried that and his ear came off", whatever)

2. Send your happiest clients guiding questions (not "what do you think about us?" but "how did our customer service handled your complaint? Were they fast? Did they solve your problem? How?")

3. The idea is to tie testimonials to the main objections. If one of the main objections of your prospects is your high price, include a few testimonials from clients that address the issue of why you're more expensive than your competition. Remember the "loaded" questions: "what did you think of our price before making the purchase? How do you feel about hiring us? Were we worth the extra $50?"

A few extra tips on getting killer testimonials:

* Don't ever make them up. Your customers are smarter than you think, you can get in trouble and you won't feel very proud about yourself.

* Consider "third-party testimonials". This is when someone other than the product user gives the testimonial. This works very well in B2C markets. An example: "Since my husband started using StopSnoring Pro I sleep a lot better and he wakes up full of energy."

* Try to get VIDEO testimonials if you can. They're extremely powerful! The second best kind of testimonials is the audio/photo testimonial. Regular "text" testimonials are OK, just make sure they're not signed by "C.M., New York"; include real names and cities/company names/websites.

Celebrity Endorsements

If you're a small business owner, chances are you can't afford to pay a celebrity to endorse your product. So, here's a way you can do it for free: just mention what celebrities do and say. Some examples:

* "Oprah and Larry King talk about the law of attraction and believe in it" (your reader thinks: "I admire Larry and Oprah; if they believe in this, this might be a good thing".

* "This tuxedo is the same style Pierce Brosnan wore to the Oscar Awards last year"

You get the idea, right? The good news is that the celebrities don't need to be talking about YOUR specific product. If Oprah says she eats 4 eggs each morning and you sell eggs, profit from that, even if Oprah doesn't buy the eggs from you.

Expert Reviews

Again, you don't need an expert to review YOUR product. If you sell a weight loss supplement that contains Vitamin X and the Mayo Clinic and WebMD.com said that Vitamin X has been successfully used for years to lose weight, use that in your copy!

Find the authorities in your industry and borrow their credibility by quoting them.

As Seen On...

Once again, if CBS features a news on a special kind of massage technique that you happen to offer, add an "As Seen On" badge to your site. (Note: talk to your lawyer before doing this; make sure you're not breaking any law. Most of the time, if you give credit when credit is due, it'll be fine.)

Case Studies

Case studies are very powerful because you're not just showing what other people are saying; you're showing actual results. Show before and after photos, charts, screenshots or present your evidence in the best way possible.

If you say something, it might be true. If someone else says it, it's likely to be true. If you SHOW EVIDENCE, it IS true.

Read more about Zeke Camusio at:

http://www.TheOutsourcingCompany.com/blog

MOTIVATED BUYERS

By Hank Trisler

The greatest waste of time in a salesperson's life is the non-motivated buyer. Motivated buyers are those who badly need or want to buy what it is you're selling. They buy quickly, decisively and with an absolute minimum of haggling. The more motivated they are, the quicker and more decisive they become. Non-motivated buyers can't decide, always want to see another house or another model and generally suck up a lot of time.

Since all we really have to sell is our time, we want to segregate the motivated from the non-motivated and spend as much time as possible with the former and as little time as necessary with the latter. Here's the problem: Few buyers come into our lives with signs around their necks that read: "I'm Really Motivated."

That being the case, we need some identifying actions to help us know who is really motivated and who is just shopping. I'm going to use a few real estate examples here, as this is a field in which determining motivation is absolutely essential to one's survival. We'll have to extrapolate to other industries.

MOTIVATION HURTS. People are always asking how they can get motivated and I wonder why. Motivation is when you don't like the position you're in and badly want to change it. Motivation isn't something that one person does to another, but something that occurs internally. Getting motivated is not something I want to do to myself on purpose, but it happens to me without any conscious action on my part. I don't want to hurt on purpose. The more motivated I am, the more extreme are the actions I will take to get satisfied, or unmotivated. When I get the itch, I'll do whatever it takes to get it scratched.

MOTIVATED BUYERS ARE IN THE MARKET CONSTANTLY. If you really hurt, you work hard to make the hurt go away. If you have a buyer who is sitting in a motel with a wife, two kids and a cocker spaniel, you can bet he's going to do his damnedest to get out of there. If he's not looking at homes with you, he's looking with your competition, or calling Owners For Sale, or driving around town shooting For Sale signs.

My son, Howard, once got the hots for a Sport-Utility vehicle for reasons still obscure to me. He haunted automobile dealers, stroked salespeople, drove everything he could get his hands on, scoured the newspapers, surfed the Internet and generally drove everyone around him nuts. He really wanted a new truck. If worked that diligently at his business, he'd be a millionaire by now.

MOTIVATION IS SHORT TERM. Managers all over the world have told me, "I don't want my people to go to one of those ‘Motivational Seminars.' They get all pumped up, run out in the parking lot and can't find their cars. Motivation doesn't last." That's true, but neither does a bath.

We can't continue in a state of hurt forever, so we will find ways to scratch the itch, or make the itch go away. It all happens in the unconscious mind. My informal studies tell me that motivation can be kept at a peak for maybe a week, tops. If that highly motivated homebuyer you have can't find what he wants in a week, he'll rent a house or do something else to make the hurt go away. People just lose the fever.

After about a week of looking at trucks, Howard decided a new one was just beyond his reach, so he decided to slick up his old car and drive it for a bit more. It happens to our buyers all the time.

MOTIVATED BUYERS ARE DISLOYAL. Buyer who really hurt don't care who makes the hurt go away, they just want it gone. If you deal with the truly motivated, prepare yourself for the fact that you may lose them to other salespeople. It wasn't anything you did wrong, it's just that the other guy was there with a solution at the right time. In the long run, however, you'll make a lot more money dealing with motivated buyers than with loyal buyers.

Here's the key: If a buyer is truly motivated, he'll love you if you let him know that you're going to make the hurt go away. Call him early every morning and tell him what you're going to be doing for him that day. "Hi, Al, three new homes came on the market today and I'm going right out to see if any of them might be right for you. Where will you be if I need to reach you?" "Good morning, Frances. I don't have the answer to that software problem yet, but I'm going to be working on it this morning and hope to have an answer for you by early afternoon. I'll call you as soon as I have it." "Hey, Howard, I have a lead on a truck over in the valley and I'm going to see if we can get it for you. Don't go anywhere. I may need to get hold of you."

If your buyer is still motivated, he'll appreciate what you're doing on his behalf and may express his gratitude by holding still until you can solve his problem. After all, if he's convinced that you're working hard for him, he doesn't need to work so hard for himself.

If his motivation has changed, he'll tell you. "Hey, pal, you don't need to bust your pick for me. We just signed a six-month lease, so we'd have more time to find just the right house." Don't be depressed. It was nothing you did. He just found a way to scratch his itch before you did. Motivation can return as quickly and unpredictably as it left. Tell him you'll keep looking for just the right home and put him in your contact manager for a call in two weeks. If you continue to call him every morning, you'll annoy him because he's lost his motivation. Worse yet, you'll be wasting your time with an unmotivated buyer.

Will you lose the occasional deal because someone got motivated in between your bi-weekly calls? Of course, especially if you haven't really sold him on the value of having you as his salesperson. If you have, he may well call you when the motivation returns, but even if he doesn't you'll make more money by focusing on finding a new, more motivated buyer. Buyers who lack motivation will waste your time and drive you to distraction.

MOTIVATED BUYERS

By Hank Trisler

The greatest waste of time in a salesperson's life is the non-motivated buyer. Motivated buyers are those who badly need or want to buy what it is you're selling. They buy quickly, decisively and with an absolute minimum of haggling. The more motivated they are, the quicker and more decisive they become. Non-motivated buyers can't decide, always want to see another house or another model and generally suck up a lot of time. You think maybe the guy in the picture is a motivated truck buyer?

Since all we really have to sell is our time, we want to segregate the motivated from the non-motivated and spend as much time as possible with the former and as little time as necessary with the latter. Here's the problem: Few buyers come into our lives with signs around that read: "I'm Really Motivated."

That being the case, we need some identifying actions to help us know who is really motivated and who is just shopping. I'm going to use a few real estate examples here, as this is a field in which determining motivation is absolutely essential to one's survival. We'll have to extrapolate to other industries.

MOTIVATION HURTS. People are always asking how they can get motivated and I wonder why. Motivation is when you don't like the position you're in and badly want to change it. Motivation isn't something that one person does to another, but something that occurs internally. Getting motivated is not something I want to do to myself on purpose, but it happens to me without any conscious action on my part. I don't want to hurt on purpose. The more motivated I am, the more extreme are the actions I will take to get satisfied, or unmotivated. When I get the itch, I'll do whatever it takes to get it scratched.

MOTIVATED BUYERS ARE IN THE MARKET CONSTANTLY. If you really hurt, you work hard to make the hurt go away. If you have a buyer who is sitting in a motel with a wife, two kids and a cocker spaniel, you can bet he's going to do his damnedest to get out of there. If he's not looking at homes with you, he's looking with your competition, or calling Owners For Sale, or driving around town shooting For Sale signs.

My son, Howard, recently got the hots for a new car for reasons still obscure to me. He haunted automobile dealers, stroked salespeople, drove everything he could get his hands on, scoured the newspapers, surfed the Internet and generally drove everyone around him nuts. He really wanted a new car. If he worked that diligently at his business, he'd be a millionaire by now.

MOTIVATION IS SHORT TERM. Managers all over the world have told me, "I don't want my people to go to one of those ‘Motivational Seminars.' They get all pumped up, run out in the parking lot and can't find their cars. Motivation doesn't last." That's true, but neither does a bath.

We can't continue in a state of hurt forever, so we will find ways to scratch the itch, or make the itch go away. It all happens in the unconscious mind. My informal studies tell me that motivation can be kept at a peak for maybe a week, tops. If that highly motivated homebuyer you have can't find what he wants in a week, he'll rent a house or do something else to make the hurt go away. People just lose the fever.

After about a week of looking at cars, Howard decided a new one was just beyond his reach, so he decided to slick up his old car and drive it for a bit more. It happens to our buyers all the time.

MOTIVATED BUYERS ARE DISLOYAL. Buyer who really hurt don't care who makes the hurt go away, they just want it gone. If you deal with the truly motivated, prepare yourself for the fact that you may lose them to other salespeople. It wasn't anything you did wrong, it's just that the other guy was there with a solution at the right time. In the long run, however, you'll make a lot more money dealing with motivated buyers than with loyal buyers.

Here's the key: If a buyer is truly motivated, he'll love you if you let him know that you're going to make the hurt go away. Call him early every morning and tell him what you're going to be doing for him that day. "Hi, Al, three new homes came on the market today and I'm going right out to see if any of them might be right for you. Where will you be if I need to reach you?" "Good morning, Frances. I don't have the answer to that software problem yet, but I'm going to be working on it this morning and hope to have an answer for you by early afternoon. I'll call you as soon as I have it." "Hey, Howard, I have a lead on a car over in the valley and I'm going to see if we can get it for you. Don't go anywhere. I may need to get hold of you."

If your buyer is still motivated, he'll appreciate what you're doing on his behalf and may express his gratitude by holding still until you can solve his problem. After all, if he's convinced that you're working hard for him, he doesn't need to work so hard for himself.

If his motivation has changed, he'll tell you. "Hey, pal, you don't need to bust your pick for me. We just signed a six-month lease, so we'd have more time to find just the right house." Don't be depressed. It was nothing you did. He just found a way to scratch his itch before you did. Motivation can return as quickly and unpredictably as it left. Tell him you'll keep looking for just the right home and put him in your contact manager for a call in two weeks. If you continue to call him every morning, you'll annoy hell out of him because he's lost his motivation. Worse yet, you'll be wasting your time with an unmotivated buyer.

Will you lose the occasional deal because someone got motivated in between your bi-weekly calls? Of course, especially if you haven't really sold him on the value of having you as his salesperson. If you have, he may well call you when the motivation returns, but even if he doesn't you'll make more money by focusing on finding a new, more motivated buyer. Buyers who lack motivation will waste your time and drive you to distraction.

How do you qualify for motivation, or do you?

TEN COMMON ENEMIES (9)

By Hank Trisler

Because our egos tell us we have excellent memories which will be more than adequate to recall important items when we need them,

WE FAIL TO TAKE NOTES AND KEEP RECORDS OF THOSE NOTES

An old Arab proverb states that "The strongest memory is weaker than the palest ink." If we do not write down what the customer says is important to him, we will talk to him about what we think should be important to him. This is the sort of unwelcome influence our egos exercise over us.

"Won't my customers be put off by my taking notes?" you might well ask. Quite the contrary. The customer will be gratified that we are making notes, because we not only look like we’re listening, we are proving we’re listening. As we've discussed before, people don't listen to one another anymore. By listening and making notes, you set yourself above your competition.

Remember that people treat us the way we have trained them to treat us. If you don't like the treatment, change the training. You might want to say something like this to a customer you're meeting for the first time, "You're going to be telling me some very important things and I want to be sure I don't forget any. You don't mind if I make some notes, do you?"

In over fifty years of selling, I have yet to have someone say, "Yes, I mind. Don't you write anything I say down." Are you kidding? People are delighted to have you make notes. It makes them feel important and aware that you know they are important. After they get used to it, they'll tell you if you miss something. "Hey, I just said something important. Write that down." You have non-verbally transformed your self from a pitching sales critter to an assistant buyer. You're on the customer's team.

Yet another benefit comes when we ask for a commitment. All we need say is: "Let’s review what you told me is important to you," and pull out our notes and summarize them. "Looks like all we need to do to get you where you want to be is your signature right here. Press hard, the fourth copy’s yours."

Only by taking notes can we be sure we're talking only about things important to our customers. Only by keeping records of those notes can we instantly get back up to speed when the customer returns for that precious repeat business.

What do you think about note-taking? Is it too mechanical for you? Tell me what you think.

TEN COMMON ENEMIES (8)

By Hank Trisler

A major enemy of any salesperson is:

A LACK OF WELL DEFINED GOALS AND OBJECTIVES

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will take you there.

If you don’t know where you’re going, how will you know when you’ve arrived?

So much has already been promulgated about the necessity of writing down your annual goals that it would be a waste of your time and mine to further discuss it here. What has not been overly discussed is a method of assuring you will never again lose on a sales call.

The old folks used to say, "Have a good positive attitude and go out there just knowing they’re going to buy." The problem with this is that most people don’t buy. Sales is a business of hearing lots of "nos," until you hear a "yes." Your unconscious mind is not so easy to con and will know that you’re going to fail more than you succeed. If you try to delude yourself that you will make every sale, you’ll soon become disillusioned and depressed.

To battle this, I bring you a concept known as "The retention of a positive mental attitude through the assumption of a negative result." We realize that we will not make all our sales, so our expectations are congruent with reality. We build in additional opportunities for success in every sale.

Many top sales professionals make a list of objectives for each call, descending in order of importance. They might look like this:

• Sell a particular product/service (or home, or car, or policy, etc.) Yes, write down what you want to sell on the appointment. I've had wonderful sales interviews which ended with no order because I got so busy selling I forgot to ask for the order. Will I always get the deal? Not in the real world, so my fall-back position is:

• Sell another product/service.O.K., you don't want to buy what I want to sell you, how 'bout buying something else? Long as I'm in the neighborhood, you might as well buy something. Oh, can't find a way to buy anything at all? Well, let's
  

• Get another appointment. Let me get some more information, or answers to problems, or whatever and let's get together again at a specific date and time? Oh, you don't think you want to make an appointment today? (Does this sound like any customers you've ever had?)
  

• Get permission to drop by again.I'll just pop in when I'm next in town. Oh, you'd rather I just mail my picture?
  

• Get permission to call on the telephone. Surely they'll let you call them back. But not all of them will. We're not dead yet.
  

• Get more information about the customer’s needs.We're going to switch this over from a sales interview to a fact-finding session. Any time we're getting information about the customer is time well-spent.

• Fish for a referral.Even if she doesn't want to buy today, she may well know of someone else who would be a better prospect. She might just fink them out to get rid of you.
  

• Make a friend. If all else fails, be sure you left with a better relationship than you had going in.
  

Rather than facing a win or a loss on every call, we now can win on nearly every call. Sometimes big and sometimes smaller, but always a win. If you know you will never again lose on a sales call, doesn't that make going out there a bit easier? You're welcome.

Let me know what you do to be sure you stay on track.

TEN COMMON ENEMIES (7)

By Hank Trisler

We've been unable to correctly determine the customer's attitude, so we end up

NOT ASKING FOR THE ORDER

Because we don’t know what’s on the customer’s mind, we don’t really know when it’s time to ask for a commitment. When is the right time to ask for commitment? When she’s ready to buy. When the customer’s attitude is one of acceptance.

FEAR

When we don’t know what’s on the customer’s mind, we have no idea what her attitude is. We don't know how she’ll react when we ask for a commitment or know what to do if she says "no." The result is fear. Fear of uncertainty. Fear of not knowing what to do. Fear of being out of control. Fear is paralyzing and many salespeople fail to ask for commitment simply because of that fear. If we don’t ask, she can’t say "no," but she can hardly say "yes," either.

Conversely, if we have done our job up to this point, we'll know what her attitude is and we'll ask for a commitment when her attitude is one of acceptance. No fear involved there.

But what if we're wrong? What if her attitude is NOT once of acceptance? Then it must be one of Objection, in which case we harmonize with the objection as previously set forth. If it isn't Acceptance or Objection, it must be Indifference, in which case we probe for areas of need, or dissatisfaction with the status quo. Again, no fear. Whichever way she moves, we move right with her. It isn't combat, it's a dance.

Please let me know your thoughts on this and if you think it will work in your world.

TEN COMMON ENEMIES (6)

By Hank Trisler

Because we have been busily chatting along about things in which the customer has no interest, we:

INCORRECTLY EVALUATE THE CUSTOMER'S ATTITUDE

There are only three attitudes a customer can have and he can only have one of these attitudes at any time. They are:

Objection

Indifference

Acceptance

Objection is when there is a clear and specific obstacle to buying. Examples: "You’re price is too high." "Your delivery is too slow." "I don’t like that color."

The first time you hear an objection, ignore it. That's right, just shut up and look at her. She may think she said something stupid and never say it again. In the absence of support (discussion) from you, 80% of the objections you currently face will simply go away and never be heard from again.

If the objection comes up again, we'd better find a way to deal with it, not try to get a commitment. We need to harmonize with the objection by rephrasing it to be sure we clearly understand it and then dispatching it. How? Hell, I don’t know. I don’t even know what the objection is, but you probably know because you’ve heard it before. Just deal with it. Sheesh.

Indifference is often indicated by statements like: "I want to think it over." "I need to shop a little more." "I have to ask my Uncle John." We deal with indifference by probing for additional needs, or discomfort with the status quo. We need to keep asking questions until we find some "hot buttons" to push.
Indifference is certainly no time to ask for a commitment.

Acceptance is the only attitude that lends itself to a commitment on the part of its holder. If you’ve been listening and watching, you’ll know when your customer’s attitude is one of acceptance. If you haven’t been listening and watching, you’re in trouble. Not BIG trouble, however. If you ask for a commitment when the customer holds an attitude other than acceptance, he’ll tell you. If it wasn’t acceptance, it must be objection or indifference, in which case we know what to do.

If you know how to accurately determine the customer's attitude and then know how to appropriately respond to that attitude, you're well on the way to a sale. And without pressure, argument or manipulation.

How do you determine a customer's attitude?

TEN COMMON ENEMIES (5)

By Hank Trisler

So, our ego causes us to talk too much, which keeps us so busy we listen poorly and because of this, we assume we know what's on the customer's mind. Follow the chain so far? Oh, good. Since we have no accurate idea what's on the customer's mind, we:

TALK ABOUT THINGS THAT DON'T INTEREST THE CUSTOMER.

We talk to her about benefits that should be important to her, because they are important to us. We tell her about durability and she wants to know about color selection. We tell him about insulation "R" ratings, when he wants to know about the community pool. We bore our customers to distraction talking about things in which they have no interest, and then we call them "flakes" when they don’t buy from us. Curious.

A few years ago, I decided I should own a Mercedes-Benz Roadster. Now, you've read their ads. You know why people buy a Mercedes-Benz. It has good brakes. It has ventilated disc brakes on all four wheels. They have a system whereby you can cut the brake line to any one of those wheels, and the other three will still stop really well. That's important, because that happens a lot.

A Mercedes-Bent has four-wheel independent suspension. This means if you’re bored on a rainy weekend, you can take that car out on a wet airstrip and slalom it around those red cones, like they do on TV, and you won't knock any down.

A Mercedes-Benz benefits from high quality construction standards and state-of-the-art aerodynamic design. When you drive a Mercedes-Benz in the rain, the airflow blows all the water off the side glass and the body panels, so you can just look out to the side and see really clear. And the Benz isn’t through with that waste water yet. That water is channeled through little tunnels and grooves and gutters to the rear of the car where that waste water is used to scrub the taillights. That's why you buy a Mercedes-Benz. Must be so; that’s what they say in their ads.

BULL! A Mercedes-Benz is an ego rub, pure and simple. You buy a Mercedes Benz so you can have little motors in the doors roll up your windows (you can’t hand-crank, might hurt yourself; break a nail, or something), turn on the automatic air and ten-speaker Blast-O-Matic stereo, and say to yourself, “I wonder what the poor folks are doing.” You buy a Mercedes-Bent to help you feel good about yourself. That isn't what you tell your friends, but that's why you really buy it.

I was an extra-motivated buyer. I had the “hardly waits.” See, I had been driving a Porsche, but it got all short. Got stuck in the side of a Cadillac. The guy at the body shop said he’d have to have my car for up to a month. I said, “I can’t be de-horsed for a month, I’ve got to have wheels.”

He said, “Go on down to Avis. They’ll rent you a car.” So I did, but Avis was all out of cars. They rented me a Dodge. You ever drive a Dodge? Nobody ought to have to drive a Dodge. It was a monkey-vomit green 4-door Polara sedan, a slag heap on wheels. I didn't get an owner's manual, so I couldn't even figure out where to put the corn in that hog.

I took it up to its top end, about 35, and went right down to Smythe European, which seemed like a good idea, as Smythe is where they sold Mercedes Benz in San Jose, which is where I live. I walked right in through the front door, just like a real customer, was greeted by a salesman. I could tell he was a salesman, because he said, “Hep ya?”

I said, “Yeah. I've been thinking about buying a new Mercedes-Benz Roadster.”

He said, “Great. What can I tell you about them?”

I said, “Well, I dunno. How fast do they go?”

He said, “Why is that important? You can only drive 65 anyhow.”

Well, now, maybe he could only drive 65, but I can go like a bat out of hell and have tickets to prove it. I don't know how it is where you are, but in California you don't just get on assigned risk automatically; you've got to earn it. I did what you'd probably have done. I took a brochure and went home to study. I didn't want to flunk any more tests.

In reading that brochure, I found that a Mercedes-Benz has K-Jetronic Fuel Injection. WOW! That must be fast. They wouldn't dare call it K-Jetronic unless it was fast. There’s truth in advertising and what all. I could just see those little, black German hoses squirting raw fuel into the cylinders, little explosions going off, flame pouring out the back. Driving the birds out of the trees. I just had to get some K-Jetronic fuel injection.

I went down again the next day and went through the side door. I didn't want to meet that first guy again. Another fellow glided up. This one wore gold chains and running shoes, but he must have had the same sales training, as he said, “Hep ya?”

I said, “Yeah. I've been thinking about a Benz Roadster. The brochure said it has K-Jetronic Fuel Injection.”

He said, “Yes sir, you can drive this baby at 17,000 feet above sea level all day long. She'll never miss a lick.”

Well now, the last time I checked, San Jose was about 250 feet above sea level. I said, “I don't do a whole lot of that.”

Undaunted, he riposted, “Well then, you'll be delighted to know about the fuel economy. This little beauty will give you 16 miles to the gallon around town, on regular gas. It'll burn anything you can pump through a pipe.”

I don’t know if you’ve priced a Mercedes Benz lately, but where I live they run over $100,000. That’s 100K, 100 grand, 100 LARGE. If I was going to spend 100 large on a Benz Roadster, I sure didn't care about gas mileage. I wanted it to suck some gas. I don't know much about cars, but I do know this, as I’ve owned a few—the more gas they use, the faster they go. I wanted something with a five gallon toilet up under the hood. I could flush with my foot and WHOOOOSH!!! And regular gas? Not likely. I wanted my car to burn nitro.

I said, “I really don't care about gas mileage all that much.”

He said, “Haven't you heard about the energy crisis?” (Well, yeah, I’d heard about it. It was in all the papers.) He went on, “It's your patriotic duty to help us conserve our dwindling petroleum supply. Don't be fuelish.” Then he took a little American flag out of his pocket and waved it at me.

What he didn't know was that he was dealing with an educated man. I took physics in high school. They told us about a guy named Helmholtz and the First Law of Thermodynamics. There is as much energy available on the face of the earth today as there was a million years ago. You burn up oil and you get heat and smog. It doesn't go away, it just changes form and converts to energy and mass. Therefore, I conclude, there is no energy crisis. We have scads of energy. We have solar, wind, wave, tidal action, geothermal, hydroelectric, hydrogen, yes, even nukes. We are just a little light on oil at the moment. Even the most casual student of history understands that oil is but a passing fad. We didn't even use oil until 1900. In 1890, the first oil well on the North American continent was drilled in Pennsylvania. Prior to that time, we used whale oil. A funny thing happened. The whales got offended, and the price went up. We only use petroleum today because the price of whale oil is too high.

That's the way it works in a free-market society. As supply dwindles, price increases. When the price gets high enough, alternative energy sources become attractive. Therefore, the solution to freeing ourselves from dependence on imported oil must be crystal clear to any educated person. Use up that oil as fast as we can, and I want to do my part.

Now this may sound ridiculous to you—it sure did to him—but bear in mind whose money was going into that Mercedes-Benz. I took another brochure and left. Went home to study some more.

I kept going back to that dealership. I really wanted to buy a Benz, but those guys thought it more important to educate me than to sell me. One guy bounced up and down on the open door of that beauty to show me how well it was built. They must teach 'em that at Mercedes-Benz school. If anyone ever did that to my car, I'd punch out their lights. Another fellow showed me how the ashtray was mounted on ball bearings.

They showed me a video clip depicting what would happen to me in a grinding head-on collision. You'll be happy to know that if you run a Mercedes-Benz head-on into a Peterbuilt, the engine won't come straight back and catch you in the chest. The engine is goes down and tears off your legs.

On my sixth visit to that dealership, Bill Smythe, the dealer came out of the back room, where dealers hide, and said, “You've been hanging around here a lot lately.”

I said, “Yeah, I've been trying to justify why I ought to give you what you want for one of those roadsters. They're a lot of money, you know.”

He said, “Yeah, they do cost a lot of money, don't they?

Something very different was happening than on my previous visits. This guy was agreeing with me. The average salesperson would have interpreted my statement as a “price objection” and because he had been to a seminar, would have felt compelled to overcome it. The average salesperson might have said, “What do you mean a lot of money? This is fine German craftsmanship. They use thick steel. I want you to look, my friend, at the fit and finish on this automobile. This seam between that hood and the front fender is of uniform width all the way down.” And he'd have taken a little ball bearing out of his pocket (I’ve actually seen them do this) and rolled it down the seam to show me it was uniform. BULL! If that car would go fast enough, you could have chucked a bowling ball down that seam and I wouldn't have cared.

Bill Smythe didn't do any of that “salesman stuff.” I had made a true statement (anybody that doesn't think a Mercedes-Benz is a lot of money has some letters missing from his sign), and he agreed with it. He didn't argue and therefore, gave me nothing to fight. He left me in a position of thinking, “Yeah, well now what will we talk about?” In all my visits, this was the first person not to tell me what a fool I was for wanting what I wanted. I liked him already.

He inquired, “Why do you think you'd want a Mercedes Benz anyhow?” (Not a bad question.)

I said, “Well, I'm told they're fast.”

He grinned, “DAMN, are they fast.”

I yelled, “Oh, good! How fast are they?

He said, “I can't tell you that. We don't conduct top speed tests, but they go like a scalded dog.”

I said, “It says 160 miles per hour on the speedometer. Will it go that fast?

He said, “Not with me in it, it won't, pal.”

“How fast have you had yours up to?”

He said, “I can't tell you that. I have a position to maintain in the community and I’m not a scofflaw.”

“I’ll never tell anybody, cross my heart and hope to die.”

“Well, I really shouldn’t tell you,” he said, but since you promise… It was a couple-three weeks ago and I'd been to a dealers' meeting in San Francisco. It was three o'clock in the morning, and I was coming home alone on Freeway 280. Big full moon, top down, wind blowing through what hair I've got left. You know that long, straight stretch out back of Palo Alto, by Sand Hill Road?”

I breathed, “Oh yeah. I know that stretch.”

He went on, “Well, I came under the Sand Hill overpass and looked down that long stretch toward Alpine Road. There were no headlights or taillights, and I thought, 'What the hell, let's see what mamma will do.' I just wrapped my toes around the radiator and hung on. Now I don't know how fast that car'll run, 'cause I ran out of guts before it ran out of go, but at the end of that stretch I was showing 135 miles an hour. I grinned so big I still have bugs in my teeth.”

I whispered, “A hundred thirty-five miles an hour? Really? Oh, that's good.”

He said, “If you were to own a Mercedes-Benz, what color do you think you'd want?”

I said, “I don't really care. My wife picks the color. I've always been partial to silver, but color's not really important to me. My little Porsche is silver, but I don’t care.”

“You drive a Porsche?” He asked.

“Well, yeah, but it’s in the body shop.”

“How are you getting around now?”

I inclined my head toward the green Dodge leaning against the building.

“Oh no,” he said. “That’s horrible. You need a car right now, don’t you?” He increased my urgency.

He said, “And you say your Porsche is silver. I can see you're a man of impeccable taste. There seems to be something inherently right about silver German cars. Italian cars ought to be red. British cars ought to be British Racing Green, but German cars should be silver.”

I said, “Damn straight.”

He continued, “In fact, remember when Mercedes was involved in factory-sponsored racing? They had leather-helmeted road-warriors like Stirling Moss and Juan Fangio and Rudi Carriciola driving those big old pavement-ripping 300SLRs. Ah, those cars were silver.”

I cried, “Yes, they were SILVER.”

Dropping the pitch of his voice, he murmured, “Now I'm not a believer in fate, but you're not gonna believe what just happened. Just yesterday, the drive-away truck dropped off, in my back lot, a silver Mercedes Benz roadster. It has that trick folding hard top, and…you aren’t allergic to leather, are you?

I fairly shouted, “Oh heavens, no. Look, I've got shoes on and everything. I love leather.”

He said, “Oh, that's a relief. I know you've been reading all the brochures, and you know the standard upholstery is vinyl. Now, it's good vinyl, the best available. Has holes poked in it to keep down sweating and all. It's plenty good enough for most people, but just based on the off chance that I might encounter a particularly discriminating individual, such as yourself, I took the liberty of ordering this one with top-grain Austrian cowhide upholstery. Would you like to see that car?”

He could probably tell, as I had drool all over my lapel. I was slicker than a seal.

As we have previously discussed, the finest sales presentations I have ever seen are non-verbal, where few, if any, words are passed. Bill Smythe was master. He went over to a board and got the keys to that roadster. Together we went to the back lot, where that lovely piece of work regally reposed. It had been sitting all day in 90 degree heat. You know what new cars smell like when they've been left sitting in the sun? Another example of government hype. The government tells you that that smell is nitrosamines—it comes out of the upholstery and the spare tire as they cure—and is supposed to be bad for you. The government made Schlitz take all the nitrosamines out of their beer. Nitrosamines, in sufficient doses, can kill you. That's the way I want to go.

He snuggled up close to that car, put the key in the door, and opened it about two inches. He hung his nose over the edge of the door glass and sniffed delicately—just stood there for about a month. I danced behind him, balanced on tippy toes, trying to avoid physical contact, which I felt would be rude. I wanted to get in that car so badly my teeth itched.

He pulled the door fully open and, with abroad and gracious sweep of his arm, indicated that my entrance to the sacred interior would be completely acceptable. I jammed my head and shoulders into that magnificent Teutonic cocoon and, flaring my nostrils, hyperventilated on nitrosamines. I'm so glad that car was new. Had it been used, I'd have sucked the entire contents of the ashtray right up my nose.

He said, “Sixteen prime Austrian steers gave their lives for your comfort.”

It took him less than a half hour to separate me from the full purchase price of that car. Oh, I didn’t pay sticker. I used to be in the car business and I don’t pay sticker. I paid sticker plus $1,500 to get special wheels to go with those leather seats. Did he need 75 closes? Certainly not. He said, “Press hard, the fourth copy's yours.” I hesitated and looked at him for reassurance. Was I really doing the right thing? He comforted me, “You like it. You want it. You can afford it. Buy it.” I did.

Guess what never came up again. Price. Price is only important when someone doesn't want something bad enough. I was terrified to mention price. If he had thought I couldn't afford it, he might not have let me have it, and I'd have given him right of first refusal on my first-born.

THE SUPPORT CONCEPT

Bill Smythe employed one of the cornerstones of effective selling:

Support those statements made by the customer which take us closer to our sales goal.

Withhold support from those statements made by the customer which take us away from our sales goal.

The Bill probed me to find areas of need, or dissatisfaction with my present status. When I said I wanted a fast car, he agreed with me and told me his car was fast. He stroked my ego and let me know it was O.K. to want what I wanted, and he was going to help me get it.

When I brought up a problem, price as an example, he withheld support. He didn't argue, he just flowed with me. I said, “They sure cost a lot of money.”

He said, “Yeah, they do cost a lot of money, don't they?”

There's nothing for me to fight with in that statement, He's obviously on my side. Had he tried to tell me why I was wrong and why the car was worth the money, I would have had to defend my position. In so doing, I'd have sold myself more solidly on the fact that price was a problem. As it was, the question of price never came up again.

Tell me how talking ONLY about that which interests the customer has helped you in selling.