If you are like more than half the population out there, you are over-weight. One in three is obese in this country; two out of three is seriously over-weight. This means that if you are slim and in shape, then you are the exception! Well, that has changed in the last 30 years. Now, virtually everybody is over-weight. What do you do about it? The first thing you need to do is take responsibility for the way you are living your life. Your health is at risk and you generally avoid doing the things you really like to do because you are over-weight. So take more responsibility for now deciding to do something about it and start anew!
Summary Close
A summary close takes place after everything is all said and done, and you think you’ve reached agreement; it’s always helpful to summarize to the person your understanding of the agreement. If you do that, it actually puts a bow on it. The summary close is extraordinarily valuable even when you are just making an appointment. So, if you are talking with someone on the phone, and you know you are going to meet them next Tuesday at nine, just before you hang up say, “Well, once again, to confirm, I’m going to see you at your offices, on Tuesday at nine.” It is remarkable how a summary close can help people feel like you now have confirmation on everything and sometimes they say yes, and they want to buy something more.
Component Close
Often when you are talking to someone trying to persuade them to do something, you are going to have subjects meandering all over the place and you need to keep track. What is helpful is simply say, “Let me interrupt you for a moment and tell you what I think I understand so far.” If you do that, you keep the relationship on track, the conversation makes sense, and you summarized what you understood in components. When you do that, the person actually is relieved, because you are managing the conversation. So a component close is dividing up the conversation into bits by saying “let me tell you what I think I understand so far and see if I’m right.” When you do that the person is going to feel relieved and you are going to stay on track.
Closing the Deal
Lots of people have trouble with the notion of closing because it creates all kinds of fear of rejection. You can calm down your fear of rejection by remembering that closing starts at the beginning. Remember the open-ended questions and use them a lot. When you ask open-ended questions, the person is going to come to conclusions sooner and you get them signed up to buy. Remember questions like this, “How would you like to proceed? What’s the next step? How would you like a proposal? How many would you like? When do you want to start?” If you remember those kinds of questions, you are going to get much less anxiety and you’re much more likely to close the deal sooner.
Logical Sequencing of Questions
If you are logical, this will appeal to you and it will particularly work if the person to whom you are talking is also logical. You will want to remember your algebra. If you remember algebra, you remember something like this: If A is true and if B is true then C must also be true. If you remember it that way, then you can create questions in that sequence and get somebody to conclude that it is a good idea to buy. Sir, would you agree that this is important. Yes. Would you also agree that that is important? Yes. Well, then clearly this product would be good because it would serve your needs. Oh, I see what you are talking about. If you think about it that way and position those questions, with practice you are going to get much better sales and much better results.
A Leading Question
A leading question is a question that answers “Yes” all the time, and you start it with “certainly” or “of course.” When you do this, think about what is obvious. It is curious that when you point out the obvious, people actually get relived and they are much more interested in buying or they feel very good about the value. You might say something like this, “Certainly you are going to want to get the best return on this investment” or “Of course you’ll want this to come in on time and on budget.” If you remember, pointing out the obvious, open with “certainly” or “of course,” the person actually likes it and they feel much better. So, it might work something like this, “Certainly you are going want to read this blog on a regular basis.”
The Two-Option or Three-Option Move
The two-option or three-option move–this is an open-ended question, so you always want to start it with the word “Which.” For example, if I want to meet with you next week, I would ask, “Which day is better for you, Monday or Tuesday?” Remember to put your preferred option last. Or, a three-option move is where you give three options and put the preferred option last. So I would ask, “Which day is better to meet you next week, Monday, Tuesday, or Wednesday?” Remember, the preferred option is last. You can ask two or three options. Make sure you open with the question, “Which?” So, ask the two-option or three-option move, put the “which” in front and it will sound something like this, “Which is better for you, buying one CD, two CD’s or the entire series?”
Tie Downs
Tie downs are very under-utilized skills that allow people to feel good about their judgment or their taste. They are close-ended questions that are a form of “that is true, isn’t it?” Or “that is true, yes.” What you want to do is
Open-Ended Questions
If you want to sell somebody something, if you want them to sign-up, you want them to conclude quickly that it is a good idea. You want to create a condition in which people actually want to buy. You can increase that likelihood by asking open-ended questions. Open-ended questions are questions that start with: what, where, how, who, which, when. Remember them… what, where, how, who, which, when. If you can get into the habit of asking questions like that, you are much more likely to get people to sign up. If you are like most people, unconsciously, you are going to ask close-ended questions and you are going to get “no” too often. So remember, what, where, how, who, which, when and you will get much better results when you want to persuade anyone to do anything. What are your thoughts?
Close-Ended Questions
When you ask people a close-ended question you are likely to get a “yes” or a “no” answer. The key is to position the question so that you get a “yes” most of the time. It’s called getting the person in the direction of “yes.” If you think through how you want to ask the question, and you think that you want to get a “yes,” then you want to position your question accordingly. More than half the time, if you fail to be careful, you are going to get a “no” answer, and the more “no’s” creates more resistance. So if you want to persuade anyone to do anything, think through how you ask the question. Ask the question so that you are more than likely to get a “yes.” For example, “Does that make sense? Well, of course that makes sense!” That’s the way it works.