Weigh Both Pros and Cons Before Jury
The jury that is to decide favorably or unfavorably on your application for a position will feel similarly inclined to reach a negative conclusion if in closing you omit the process of weighing the pros and cons, and emphasize only your strong points. It is good salesmanship to stress these at the finishing stage, but they should be pictured in contrast with lighter objections to your employment. In order to convince the prospect that the reasons for employing you outweigh the reasons for turning you down, you must show his mind both sides of the scale. If you fail to do this, his own imagination will do the weighing and is certain to bear down with prejudice on every point against you. It will also depreciate your view of the points in your favor. The other man will make sure that he is getting a square deal on the weights, since he will believe you, too, are looking out only for Number One.
To Make Certain Do The Weighing Yourself
The certain way to make your prospect perceive that the reasons for accepting your proposal are of greater weight than any causes for turning down your application is to do the weighing yourself. First be sure the heavier weight is on your side. When you fully believe that, use all the arts of salesmanship to make the other man see the balances as you view them. Then he can come to but one conclusion, that the "preponderance" is on your side. Just as soon as you make the respective weights clear to his perception, he will be convinced. He cannot deny what his own mind's eye has been made to see.
Get Prospect Committed
Therefore bringing about a favorable mental conclusion is not at all difficult. The judgment that your services would be desirable is no harder to gain than a decision that the weight of one side of a scale is greater than the other. Any one who looks at the balances sees at once which way they tip. The rub is not in getting the decision made but in getting it pronounced. The sale is not completed until the prospect has committed himself.
Now is the Acceptance Time
He feels that his mental processes are his own secret, which you cannot read; so he will not guard against the conclusion of his mind that you would be a desirable employee. But for some reason he may be unwilling to express his thoughts to you just then, however thoroughly he is convinced. He naturally prefers not to say "Yes" at once; so that he may change his mind if he wishes. You will endanger your chances of success if you let him put off action on his decision. To-morrow he is likely to see the weights in a different light and to imagine less on your side and more against you. Now is the time to close the sale, when he cannot help seeing things your way.
Two Stages Of Closing
You know that sometimes a juror will be convinced in his own mind, yet cannot bring himself actually to vote according to his mental conclusion. Perhaps he is a "wobbler" by nature. So a girl may decide in her thoughts that a certain suitor would make a good husband, yet she may hesitate to accept him just because that step is final. These illustrations impress the importance of discriminating between the two stages of closing a sale. The success of the salesman is made certain only by his knowledge and skillful use, first of the art of vivid weighing, and second of the art of prompting the prospect to action on his perception of the difference in the balances. At the closing stage we have encountered again our old acquaintance, "the discriminative-restrictive process."