It is true that there are men who "wear the livery of heaven in which to serve the devil," and who practice self-hypnotization upon themselves until they get to actually believe that they are advocating an honest proposition in place of the "fake" they are proposing. And many of these "confidence-men" and "green-goods men" throw themselves so earnestly into their acting that they persuade their victims by reason of their earnestness. We remember Bulwer's tale of the French beggar whose tears wrought havoc upon the hearts of his susceptible victims. "How are you able to weep at will?" he was asked. "I think of my poor father who is dead," he answered. Bulwer adds: "The union of sentiment with the ability of swindling made that Frenchman a most fascinating creature!" But every genuine thing must have its counterfeit—the existence of the latter only serves to prove the former. The success of the "J. Rufus Wallingford's" of real life, are more than equaled by their final downfall. No man can continue to prostitute his talents and be happy, or even ultimately successful. The Law of Compensation is in full operation. No, we're not preaching—just indulging in a little philosophy, that's all!
Let us now proceed to the stage of the Salesman's Closing, and the prospect's Decision and Action.
CHAPTER X
THE CLOSING
The "Closing" is a stage of the sale that is an object of dread to the majority of salesmen. In fact some salesmen content themselves with leading the prospect to the point bordering on Decision and Action, and then lose heart, leave the prospect, and later bring around the sales manager or special "closer" for the concern. They can lead the horse to the trough, but they cannot make him drink. While it is true that the stage of Closing is a delicate one, and involving as it does some practical psychological strategy, nevertheless we are of the opinion that many salesmen are victims of their own adverse auto-suggestions in this matter—they make a boogaboo of the thing which is often found to be but lath and plaster instead of solid iron and granite. Many a salesman is defeated in his Closing by his own fears rather than by the prospect. This stage of the sale is one in which the Salesman should draw on his reserve store of enthusiasm and energy—for he needs it in order to carry the day. As Holman once wrote: "General Grant said that in almost every battle, after hours of fighting, there came a critical moment in which both parties were tired out, and the side that braced up at that moment and pounded hard would win. This is probably so in selling. A good salesman knows that critical moment, and pounds."
The main cause of the failure to bring the prospect to a favorable Decision—the first of the two final stages of the Closing—is that the Salesman has not done his best work in the preliminary stages of the Demonstration. He has not demonstrated the proposition properly, or has not awakened the Imagination and Inclination of the prospect to a sufficient extent. Many salesmen slight the preliminary process of the Demonstration in their anxiety to reach the Closing—but this is a great mistake, for no structure is stronger than its foundation. The Closing should follow as a logical and legitimate conclusion of the preceding stages. It should be like the result of a mathematical problem which has been carefully worked out. Of course it is impossible for any one Salesman to "sell them all," from the very nature of things—but the average man could sell a larger percentage of prospects if he would strengthen himself along the preliminary stages leading up to the Closing, and to the final steps of the latter.
The gist of the whole matter of the failure of a prospect to make a favorable Decision is this: He hasn't been convinced! Why? If you can answer this question, you have the key to the problem. You haven't reached the man's desire. Why? If you can get him to "want" the thing, the decision is a mere matter of final settling down to choice. You may have said to the man, "This is a good thing—you ought to have it," over and over again—but have you actually made him see that it was a good thing and that he ought to have it? It is one thing to tell a man these things, and another to reproduce your own beliefs in his mind.
The changing of the talk from that affecting Deliberation on the part of the prospect, to that influencing his Decision, is a delicate matter. There is a "psychological moment" for the change which some men seem to perceive intuitively, while others have to learn it by hard experience. It is the critical balancing point between "enough" and "too much" talk.
On the one hand, the Salesman must beware of a premature Closing, and on the other he must avoid "unselling" a man after he has made the psychological sale. Some men are inclined toward one of these faults—and some to the other. The ideal Salesman has found the nice point of balance between the two.