Third, this skillful salesman prompted _the immediate committal of his customer to a favorable decision_. He impelled her to this affirmative action by suggesting, "Would you like to have a little extra suet wrapped up with it?" He put a question that was _easy_ for the prospect to answer with "Yes." Once she accepted the suet offered free, she tacitly accepted the steak at the price stated. _It is skillful salesmanship to make it easy for the buyer to say "Yes" or to imply the favorable decision indirectly_. The butcher might have been answered with "No" if he had asked, "Will you take this steak?" But he himself nodded when he made the proposal that he wrap up the extra suet. The woman was thus impelled to nod with him. The sale was closed, artistically, in a few seconds.

When you plan how you will close a sale of true ideas of your best capability, _work out in advance a similar weighing process, followed at once by an indirect prompting of acceptance of the decision you suggest_. Shape and re-shape your intended "close" in your mind until it includes the three effects the butcher produced.

[Sidenote: Put a "Kick" Into the Close]

Put a "kick" into your stimulation of desire at the closing stage.

_Paint the points in your favor brightly and glowingly, though in true colors. Conversely paint all objections to your employment unattractively._

Suppose you are applying for a secretarial position. It would be good "painting" to close something like this:

"I am going to learn to do things _your_ way. You would not want a man in the position who was _experienced_; because he would do things some one else's way, not yours. My inexperience really means I am adaptable to your methods. I'd become exactly the sort of secretary _you_ want.

For instance, how do you prefer to have your mail brought to you--just as it is opened, or with previous correspondence and notations attached?"

Such an alternative question, _answered either way_, leads the prospect through the stage of favorable decision and implies his committal to acceptance of the services offered. It can be followed by the direct proposal, "All, right, I'll bring your mail that way." _Such a close is practically sure to succeed_.

[Sidenote: Using the Negative Positively]

A man who was not at all prepossessing applied to me one day for a job.

He conducted the sale of himself very skillfully, but I meant to put him off. It was our dull season, and his looks didn't make a hit with me anyway. However, he realized there was a good deal on the negative side of the scale, and he weighed his disqualifications honestly; though he depreciated the importance of his unprepossessing appearance. Then, in contrast to the negative side, he showed me very weighty and attractive reasons for employing him. He started by grinning good-humoredly.

"I'm not a prize beauty," he remarked. "But the other day I was reading about Abraham Lincoln, and the book made me feel encouraged about myself. I don't believe I'm any homelier or any more awkward than he was. I don't expect to be a parlor salesman, anyhow, or to rely on my good looks to get orders. I plan to succeed by work. I'm going to be on the job early and late and every minute between. I'll believe in what I'm selling--down to the very bottom of my heart. I'll make anybody see I'm in dead earnest. I look honest, and I am. I'll be square with customers and with you. I guess that out in the field a reputation for always being willing to help, and for telling the truth straight, will count more than anything else. I know I'm inexperienced, but that's a fault I can cure mighty soon." He grinned again. "I'll start right away to get the greenness off, if you'll tell me where to hang up my hat."

His good nature warmed me into smiling with him. I could not help feeling inclined to try this man. I decided to give him his chance at once. He started my impulse to accept his services, and I p.r.o.nounced the decision in his favor that he prompted. Of course he made good. That was a foregone conclusion. He had mastered the selling process, and was an especially fine closer. He succeeded in getting more than his quota of orders the first year. Selling never seemed to be hard work for him.

[Sidenote: Two Ways To Prompt p.r.o.nouncement]

The p.r.o.nouncement of the prospect's decision can be prompted, his favorable action can be brought about, in _two ways_. First, as we have seen, _the salesman can suggest, directly or indirectly, the action he wants the other man to take_. Second, _the salesman himself can do something_ that the prospect will be impelled to _imitate_.

[Sidenote: Impelling Imitation Of Action]

For example, when you apply for a position, and have completed the process of weighing the points in your favor in contrast with the less weighty reasons for not employing you, lean forward slightly in an att.i.tude of easy expectancy. _The prospect's mind will be inclined to imitate your physical act_. He will lean toward acceptance of your services. Your act will tend to bring you together. Your magnetism will draw his.

Or you might extend your hand. He will have an impulse to reach out his in turn. It is natural for a man to take a hand that is courteously offered. The moment after you reach toward the prospect say, "Let's shake hands on it." Once his fingers start moving toward yours in imitation of your action, it will be easy for him to commit himself.

[Sidenote: Five Essentials Of Good Close]

Now let us review the essentials of good salesmanship in closing, which we have been a.n.a.lyzing. We can summarize under five divisions the entire process of completing a sale most effectively and with the practical a.s.surance of success.

First, _the salesman must have definite, certain knowledge that the mind of the prospect has reached the closing stage_; that it is time to _end_ the "testimony" and to _begin_ weighing the evidence. If the salesman has kept control of the selling process throughout all the preceding stages, he will know when the selling point is reached, _for he will be there himself_, with the prospect he has "safely conducted" thus far.

Second, at this "right time" it is necessary to _change former sales tactics promptly_, and to _start contrasting_ the affirmative and negative ideas that have previously been brought out.

Third, the salesman should weigh these contrasting ideas so _vividly_ that the mind's eye of the prospect will _see_ the scales and _perceive_ the greater weight on the "Yes" side, _as the salesman pictures it_.

Fourth, it is important that the salesman _color_ the affirmative ideas very _alluringly_, and increase the contrast by painting _unattractively_ everything on the negative side of the scale; so that "No," besides appearing much _lighter_ than "Yes," will seem _uninviting_.

Fifth, the selling process should be brought to a climax by the salesman's _suggestion_ or _imitation_ of some _act_ designed to _commit_ the prospect to _acceptance_ in an _easy_ way.

[Sidenote: Unbalancing The Process]

Nothing so _unbalances_ the process of securing a favorable decision and its p.r.o.nouncement as any indication of fear, doubt, or hesitancy in the att.i.tude of the salesman. Therefore, even though you may be uncertain as to the outcome of your selling efforts, _do not show it_. Long before you came to the decision point, you pa.s.sed the worst dangers on the road to the end of the sale. Surely your courage should be _strongest_ at the closing stage.

[Sidenote: Light Dissipates Fear and Doubt]

Fear usually arises from something _unknown_; it is due only to _darkness_. Since you _know_ now just what closing involves, and _light_ has been shed on the problems of getting the prospect's "Yes," your fears and doubts should be dissipated. _You should not hesitate to end the sale you have controlled successfully throughout previous stages_.

Our a.n.a.lysis has revealed that closing is no more difficult than winning attention to your proposition in the first place. As a result, your present att.i.tude toward closing is _positive_. Your courage and self-confidence have been built up. You realize just _how_ success in finishing a well-conducted sale can be made practically _sure_.

[Sidenote: Negatives Must be Avoided]

Certain _negative_ att.i.tudes at the closing stage should be avoided.

Especially do not throw into the scales of decision any little pleas for _personal favor_, with the hope that in so doing you will increase the weight on the "Yes" side. Such tactics almost invariably tend to tip the balance _un_favorably. A plea of this sort is equivalent to an admission that the ideas you have presented _for_ buying do not _themselves_ outweigh the prospect's images _against_ buying. You suggest to him that you are trying to push the balance down on your side by putting your finger on it, by "weighing in your hand," as unfair butchers sometimes do with a chicken they hold on the scales by the legs.

[Sidenote: "As a Personal Favor to Me"]

The prospect will instantly perceive your action. _His mind, acting on the principle of the gyroscope, will resist by greater opposition any push of the personal plea_. If you ask a decision as a personal favor, your prospect will lose confidence in the true weight of the ideas on your side that you have already registered in his mind. You are much more likely to hurt than to help your chances for success by making a personal plea. Even if it should prove effective, what you get that way would be alms given to a beggar, and not the earned prize of good salesmanship. _Never buy success at the cost of self-respect_. To be a successful _beggar_ is nothing to feel proud of.

[Sidenote: "Treating" At Close]

Do not attempt to "_treat"_ your prospect by flattering him at the closing stage. Such "treating" is a tacit admission that your goods of sale, your best qualifications, have not sufficient merit to sell at their intrinsic value. Or you practically confess that you are not good enough salesman to win out with just your goods and your ability to sell yourself for what you claim to be worth. _Flattery is a call for help_.

It is like the bad salesmanship of trying to buy an order with cigars or a dinner. Never "treat" at the closing stage, for to do so is to admit _weakness_ when you should be your _strongest_.

[Sidenote: "No" Seldom Is Final]

Of course you should not take a first or second "No" as a _final_ answer. Even if the prospect indicates that he is inclined to decide against you, _continue confidently to heap images in favor of buying on the "Yes" side of the scale until you have used all the honest weight you have to put in the balance_. He will not respect you as a salesman if you quit at his first "No." _It is up to you to tip the scales of decision your way_. Remember that you should not bring the other man to the judgment point _until after you have aroused and intensified his desire to a very great degree_. If you have made him want you at all, you will disappoint him if you then fail to put enough weight on the "Yes" side of the scale to win his decision to employ you.

When you receive a "No," understand it to mean, "No, that is not yet enough ideas for buying your services." Keep right on putting weight into the "Yes" side of the balance until it tips your way. _Do not consider any "No" final until you have run out of both contrasting weight and attractive colors; so that you cannot change the scales_.

[Sidenote: Stick it Out Here and Now]

If it is possible for you to "stick," don't be put off when you come to the closing stage. _All the weighing you do at the present time will be valueless lost effort unless you complete the selling process here and now_. When your prospect tries to put you off, he tacitly admits your weights are right. Otherwise he would say "No" and be done with you.

You really have won his mental decision. A continuance of skillful salesmanship will enable you to get him to act favorably without delay or further evasion.

[Sidenote: Entertainment In Court Room Out of Place]

Some salesmen make the mistake of mixing _entertainment_ with the closing process. Earlier in the sale you may be able to secure excellent results by entertaining the prospect with clean jokes and good stories.

But the close is the stage at which he arrives at his mental conclusion as to the "preponderance" of the evidence. _Jests and light conversation are out of place when the judge is performing his functions in the courtroom of the mind._ An amusing remark or a witty quip at this juncture would suggest that the scales of decision in the salesman's own mind were somewhat unbalanced. Your att.i.tude when you are weighing "Yes"

and "No" before the prospect should be _pleasant_, but _quiet_ and _serious, as is becoming to a convincing weighman_.

When you work to secure a favorable decision, you are weighing evidence with the purpose of impelling the prospect to take your judgment or to weigh the evidence just as you do. It is necessary all through the process that he be made to feel you realize you are aiding in the performance of a _judicial_ function. He must have complete confidence in your intention and ability to handle the scales honestly and with serious pains to determine what is the right judgment about your proposition. Your levity at the closing stage would lessen the effect of honest, serious, painstaking weighing of the images for buying in contrast with the images against buying. So get the funny stories out of your system before you come to the decision step of the sale, or else keep them bottled up inside you and don't pull the cork until you are safely at the celebration stage.

[Sidenote: Tones and Acts When Weighing]

Do not forget when closing to add _force_ to your words by _tones and gestures that emphasize ideas of the contrast in weights_ between the two sides of the scale. By your light tone you can indicate the triviality of objections to your proposition. With the heavier tone of power you can suggest the great weight of the favorable ideas. If you use _broad gestures of your whole hand and full arm_, you can seem to pile a large heap of points on your side of the scale. Conversely you can indicate the smallness of objections by moving _your fingers only_, as if you were picking up a tiny object. Demolish unfavorable points with a strong gesture of negation, as by sweeping your arm horizontally.

Give life to the ideas on the favorable side of the scale by accompanying your words with up and down gestures that signify vitality.

[Sidenote: Do Not Show That Closing Is Hard Work]

Your physical condition or outward appearance will help or harm your chances for success at the closing stage. You should not manifest the least indication that you are under a strain of anxiety as to the outcome, or that you lack the strength to control the completion of the selling process. Why should you not have a feeling of ease when you reach the close? _If your bearing suggests your self-confidence, it will give the other man confidence in your capabilities._ When a salesman has to "sweat blood" to finish a sale, he indicates that it is usually mighty hard work for him to get what he wants. This impression suggests to the other man that there must be something wrong with the proposition or it wouldn't take so much effort of the salesman to put it across.