eague like, ‘I love collecting stamps’, I’m sure you can think of a comeback line like, ‘My Mum does too’ – which keeps your ball still in play.

If you don’t know how to answer a question, just answer it with a question. Let’s say your client says, ‘How much money can I make with this product?’ if I didn’t have a real answer I’d say is, ‘Well how much money do you think you

Hot Buttons

When selling, I look for key motivations in the prospect – I call them ‘hot buttons’. You’ve got to use what the person understands and if you can do that the whole way through your sales presentation, you’re selling the whole way through instead of waiting for a gap in the conversation in which to close. For example, I might ask about hobbies and people often say fishing and golf, which enables me to use analogies around fishing and golf during the rest of my sales presentation. For example – let’s say the customer likes golf – I might say, ‘That’s as good as hitting a hole-in-one!’ And because they understand the imagery they go, ‘Yes, it’s a bit like that’. ‘You know how it feels when you hit a perfect drive down the middle of the fairway and it goes exactly where you want?’ And they’re going to say yes, because they’ve felt it on the golf course. So use basic analogies that the prospect understands.

A good sales person can lead a conversation to wherever they want through questions. Maybe even tell them a little bit about yourself if you feel that’s what it’s going to take. Although people love talking about themselves, they also like to swap confidences – when they give you one, you’ve got to give one back. For example:

‘I’ve just broken up with my girlfriend’ invites you to say, ‘Terrible isn’t it, I know the feeling’. Or, ‘I got booked last week’ invites, ‘Yes, I copped a $120 fine too’. Or, ‘I love Hip Hop music’ invites, ‘Great isn’t it!’ If its right out of your league like, ‘I love collecting stamps’, I’m sure you can think of a comeback line like, ‘My Mum does too’ – which keeps your ball still in play.

If you don’t know how to answer a question, just answer it with a question. Let’s say your client says, ‘How much money can I make with this product?’ if I didn’t have a real answer I’d say is, ‘Well how much money do you think you c

y fishing and golf, which enables me to use analogies around fishing and golf during the rest of my sales presentation. For example – let’s say the customer likes golf – I might say, ‘That’s as good as hitting a hole-in-one!’ And because they understand the imagery they go, ‘Yes, it’s a bit like that’. ‘You know how it feels when you hit a perfect drive down the middle of the fairway and it goes exactly where you want?’ And they’re going to say yes, because they’ve felt it on the golf course. So use basic analogies that the prospect understands.

A good sales person can lead a conversation to wherever they want through questions. Maybe even tell them a little bit about yourself if you feel that’s what it’s going to take. Although people love talking about themselves, they also like to swap confidences – when they give you one, you’ve got to give one back. For example:

‘I’ve just broken up with my girlfriend’ invites you to say, ‘Terrible isn’t it, I know the feeling’. Or, ‘I got booked last week’ invites, ‘Yes, I copped a $120 fine too’. Or, ‘I love Hip Hop music’ invites, ‘Great isn’t it!’ If its right out of your league like, ‘I love collecting stamps’, I’m sure you can think of a comeback line like, ‘My Mum does too’ – which keeps your ball still in play.

If you don’t know how to answer a question, just answer it with a question. Let’s say your client says, ‘How much money can I make with this product?’ if I didn’t have a real answer I’d say is, ‘Well how much money do you think you

ay and it goes exactly where you want?’ And they’re going to say yes, because they’ve felt it on the golf course. So use basic analogies that the prospect understands.

A good sales person can lead a conversation to wherever they want through questions. Maybe even tell them a little bit about yourself if you feel that’s what it’s going to take. Although people love talking about themselves, they also like to swap confidences – when they give you one, you’ve got to give one back. For example:

‘I’ve just broken up with my girlfriend’ invites you to say, ‘Terrible isn’t it, I know the feeling’. Or, ‘I got booked last week’ invites, ‘Yes, I copped a $120 fine too’. Or, ‘I love Hip Hop music’ invites, ‘Great isn’t it!’ If its right out of your league like, ‘I love collecting stamps’, I’m sure you can think of a comeback line like, ‘My Mum does too’ – which keeps your ball still in play.

If you don’t know how to answer a question, just answer it with a question. Let’s say your client says, ‘How much money can I make with this product?’ if I didn’t have a real answer I’d say is, ‘Well how much money do you think you

out themselves, they also like to swap confidences – when they give you one, you’ve got to give one back. For example:

‘I’ve just broken up with my girlfriend’ invites you to say, ‘Terrible isn’t it, I know the feeling’. Or, ‘I got booked last week’ invites, ‘Yes, I copped a $120 fine too’. Or, ‘I love Hip Hop music’ invites, ‘Great isn’t it!’ If its right out of your league like, ‘I love collecting stamps’, I’m sure you can think of a comeback line like, ‘My Mum does too’ – which keeps your ball still in play.

If you don’t know how to answer a question, just answer it with a question. Let’s say your client says, ‘How much money can I make with this product?’ if I didn’t have a real answer I’d say is, ‘Well how much money do you think you

eague like, ‘I love collecting stamps’, I’m sure you can think of a comeback line like, ‘My Mum does too’ – which keeps your ball still in play.

If you don’t know how to answer a question, just answer it with a question. Let’s say your client says, ‘How much money can I make with this product?’ if I didn’t have a real answer I’d say is, ‘Well how much money do you think you can make with it?’ So answering questions with questions is a great technique to keep you in the game until you think of something better.

The longer you spend swapping confidences and interests, the greater the probability of you making that sale. In fact, each successful response increases your chances of closing by another 4%. That’s basically how it is.

I assume all your products are worthy, so it is never going to be a question of selling dud products, so that you can confidently ‘back’ everything on the premises. Therefore, no matter what the customer wants that’s what you should sell them – don’t try to change their minds.

The customer is always right. Changing the customers’ minds is sales-suicide and people miss out on money simply by not adapting to the customer’s requirements. Sell people what they want, not what you think might be good for them. For example, if they like Ukulele Music from Hawaii – the Top 20 is not a consideration. If they are anti-technology Luddites, don’t try to sell them something more complicated. If they like beige don’t try to change their minds, stay with whatever they like and you’ll stay on course.

The Bookplate is a second hand bookshop in Hornsby Sydney. It was run by two partners, Dave and Chris. Dave was literary-minded and would often try to persuade customers into buying ‘good’ books, which wasn’t what they necessarily wanted – they wanted pulp fiction. Frustrated, Dave sold out to Chris who listens to his customers and encourages them in t