Supremely Successful Selling: Discovering the Magic Ingredient

Chapter 12

Amazing What You Can Do When You Don't Know What You Can't Do

YOU HAVE TAKEN the important first step. You sent the letter to set up the visit.

Next, you made the phone call. You established the date. In some ways, it really wasn't as difficult as you thought it would be—even though the phone call didn't follow your script exactly. It never does.

You're now 85 percent on your way to making the sale. I remind you that it's harder to get the visit than it is to make the sale. That's one of the important truths of selling.

Then, faster than you expected, the day arrives and you're in the home or office of your buyer. It's what Vladimir Nabokov called, “moments of happiness, of rapture, when your soul is laid bare.”

The first order of business, of course, is to establish a rapport and common ground. You need to get to know your buyer. This is not a time for social chitchat. The main thing is to keep the main thing the main thing.

You probe. You ask questions. You find out as much as you can about the needs and desires of the buyer. The archer strikes the target—partly by pulling, partly by letting go.

There's no magic to how long this should take. Take whatever time is necessary. Just be sure that small talk doesn't dominate your session and steal from your clear mission. Your objective is to make the sale.

During the innerview, you learn everything possible about the buyer. You get inside his mind and the deepest reaches of his heart.

No matter how winsome you are, your ...