Return of the Manipulation Kid

EDIT: This thread is a split from the original thread, "Recommendation: Persuasion Section".



"Let me give you a brief overview of ______, --in no particular order."

The word, "brief" registers in the minds of many with a double meaning. It has the effect of making people feel that they are getting a "briefing". It also softens the resistence of anyone encountering a "sales presentation." Using the phrase "brief overview" gives assurance that you will not take up much of their time while giving them pertinent information. Adding the tag, "...in no particular order is an effective oxymoron. It suggests what they are about to hear is not "canned".

The idiom , "I'll tell you what..." ?

A figure of speech that if you use in the beginning of a run-on sentence that is a statement, will create resistance. But if you use it run-on in the beginning of a question, you will increase your chances of getting both attention and an honest answer to your question. Example: "I'll tell you what -- is what we're talking about within the budget?" Again its oxymoronic, you're not telling--you're asking. But it is a speech pattern in our culture that can achieve cooperation.

How about purposely interrupting a person while he's talking to you?

It can be highly effective in building rapport and drawing a person in--so long as you're interrupting with something good about him. Works well over the phone. Not recommended when talking with a woman prospect.

In a selling situation with a man and wife--the woman lights a cigarette.

It means that they have decided to buy. And it's her decision to do so.

What percentage of positive response do you get from asking, "Can I show you where the smart money goes?"

Close to 100 percent. People don't want to be excluded from that stuff. They want to be included in a "imaginary" group of "wise" investors.

How do you handle a maven who is sitting in on the deal?

The maven, or resident expert, who sits in, if only to squelch a deal to make himself feel important, can be a real challenge, even though he is not the real decision maker. If you confront him, you stand to lose the sale. The key is to feed his self importance by placing more and more accountability on him. He'll yield and become your ally just to get the load off his shoulders. He doesn't want the responsibility if things go wrong. He'll swing your way and let you have full leadership.

-Gary Boye

Return of the Manipulation Kid

Here's a story. Could it be true?

Scenario: A young salesman in a big ticket store is being give a hard time by a very tough customer. The salesman is getting nowhere after 45 minutes. The customer and his wife decide to leave without buying. The sales manager sees it and walks into the situation and begins to ask the customer some questions in a friendly manner. The hard case starts his tough act with the manager. The manager interrupts him and says: "Will you cut it out. I'm trying to close a deal here for this kid!"


The customer reacts by apologizing, "Oh..sorry." The sale is closed within three minutes.

Could that happen? Did it? Why? Why not?

-Gary Boye

I'll take an affirmative position and say it happened because the sm who entered changed the dynamics, he cooled the hard case who really wanted to buy, in a sense made "the kid" a nonissue in hard cases mind who realized he was being a jerk and the sm was there in his best interest.

I don't know all the psychology - and it could also go the other way - but this time there was a sale. -MitchM

I'll go along Mitch's response. ;) -Jolly Roger

The story is true--exactly as it happened. The manager was actually the CEO of the company which was a chain of retail stores--but he never introduced himself to the customer--by name or title until after the sale was completed.

The story is instructive on three counts--actually four, but the fourth--a downside--is for another topic.

The manager's actions were not thought out. They were conditioned responses. But the drama that took place included three vital areas of "persuasive selling".

• What happened was a demonstration of "pacing". That's the ability to mirror the other person--almost to the point of taking on a similar persona. In this cases with "Will you cut it out", two hardnoses formed a quick common bond and entered a spirit of cooperation.
• The manager appealed to the prospect's better nature--in this case the natural willingness to help another person who needed help. The customer instantly was able to reframe his thinking towards the young salesman and see him as a young man who needed his help. Psychologists refer to a phenomena called "transference" which also may have been present in this situation. We would need more information about the customer to know if transference was present. My guess is that it was.
• The third factor, which encompassed the other two, was the manager's ability to "break the buying pattern". That may be a new concept for some people here, but the iluustration here is about as good as any treatise on the subject.

None of this was from a book. It happened. I was there. -Gary Boye

One heck of an instructive story, Gary.

What you described fills in what I was feeling about the situation without having the description in mind you gave. I can think of a similiar situation with my cousin - when I broke "the spell" and told him what I wanted him to do he did it - it was what he wanted all along but he was playing hard to get. Slightly different but what you call "pacing" happened.

I'd like to know more about breaking the buying pattern - something out of context changing all the dynamics, a surprise that rearranges things and hence a new pattern. Do specific things have to be in place - or done - for this to happen?

So Gary, were you one of the players in this skit-of-life or just there. -MitchM

It is a strategic principle that the selling process should always start in a conventional manner and that surprise should come later. The actual principle states that the extraordinary follows the ordinary. That would be consistent with the advanced selling concept of altering the buying pattern. -Gary Boye

If we were discussing the down side of that story which I mentioned, it would be more appropriate to address who was who. There's been some posts that inferred that people here wanted to talk about persuasion. It's fun to talk about and I've provided some real life examples and methods. Let's leave it at that.

But there are bigger factors in a selling career. -Gary Boye

Gary, since we are creatures of habit, something extraordinary or surprising coming first would be upsetting or discordant BUT after convention may alter the buying pattern . . . it's like that punch line you didn't expect producing pleasure? -MitchM

I'm scratching my head on this response, Gary, so I'll just say...Good dodge.:p Great story. If you had not said it really happened, I never would have believed it. -RainMaker

excellent stuff -klozerking