SUBTEXTback with 'I know you're not interested in this particular software.
but I'll bet you are interested in cutting your billing time by
seventy percent!' How can anyone say no to that, and it gives
you the opening you need."
"What about the blunt refusal?" I asked him.
"I used to hate that," he told me, "but a saleswoman I worked
with taught me something about that. She said a straight refusal
makes you feel bad, but it works both ways. It makes the prospect
feel a bit ashamed and you can use that shame. She told me
how, and after that, when I couldn't get in, I'd take one of my
cards and write a message on the back, like, 'I'm sorry I interrupted
you at a bad time. I should have known you'd be busy. I'm very
anxious to tell you about a product that will save you ten thousand
dollars a year, and I'll be back tomorrow at such-and-such an
hour. I hope you can spare me a few minutes then.' You know,
it works. The prospect reads the card, feels a little ashamed about
that blunt refusal, and when you come back he or she is usually
more receptive."A QUESTION OF ENERGY
"A key quality of selling," this same salesman told me, "is to
put enthusiasm into the product. If you can project a subtext of
enthusiasm, you've come halfway to a sale." He, himself, was a
short, stocky man with a tremendous amount of energy. Giving
me a typical sample sales "pitch," he used visually charged and
exciting words to make the quality of the product come across.
Listening to him, I could almost see the system in action.
Another thing he stressed was the importance of the physical
subtext your approach sends out. "If I shuffled into the office,