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Part 2: 12 Persuasive Selling Ideas and Techniques

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Let’s continue with 6 more tips for persuasive selling. Let’s start with addressing the response we have to the word “no”.

  1. No is not bad. Ask why and don’t take it personally.

Every salesperson has heard the word “no” before. Once, at a seminar, I was told to go out during lunch and ask strangers to tell me no 15 times before I returned. 20 years earlier I would have been extremely intimidated by this activity. However, after working in offices for 20 years I’ve been told no more times than I can remember.

No has turned out to be an intriguing mystery. It lets me know that there are objections that I was not aware of and that there is information that my prospect needs to hear. Now when I hear the word no, I get a rush of excitement to find out what is going on in that person’s life. Growing accustomed to being told no means creating a behavioral response to identify the reason for the no–the objections behind it. When you develop an instant response of curiosity, rather than offense or frustration, you will be less likely to leave a sale “on the table”. Instead use your persuasive selling techniques to understand and resolve the objection or ask for a referral.

  1. Ask open ended questions.

I learned the importance of open ended questions as a young entrepreneur. An open ended question is any question that cannot be answered by a yes or no. It reveals what your customer’s interest level is. It can help you determine how to build a relationship with that person. You can ask open ended questions both verbally and in written format. I reviewed a few of the hundreds of daily marketing emails I receive and the ones that get my attention have sales questions in them such as:

  • Where would you go if you could afford more than 1 vacation per year?
  • What would you do if you could find a way to save 30% or more on your taxes each year?
  • What would your life be like if you could earn money while you sleep?
  • Describe what your perfect business would look like?

These questions are life changing, visualization inspiring, and practical. They lead to other questions that help your customer go on a mental journey. I suggest writing down many open ended questions and practicing one each day. This will add excitement to your business and help your customers open up to the possibilities and products you offer them.

  1. Ask for the sale a second time.

If you uncover an objection and address it by giving examples of how your product or service addresses the issue, you should ask for the sale a second time. I find that asking for a sale, not only from new customers but existing customers as well, is very profitable. You might feel more confident in asking again if you use different words. Mary Rosenbaum in an article for Fox Business said, “Target repeat customers—people you know by name and have regular interactions with. If you provide services, ask clients who are extremely satisfied with your work and can point directly to how you fulfilled their needs… Before you make the ask, reconfirm with them the value you provide. Let them know you are looking for clients and customers like them that stand to benefit from your services. Be specific with what type of clients you are seeking” (2011).

  1. Use a well thought out speech with an offer.

A speech might give someone a reason to investigate your network marketing or party plan business. Make sure to let them know at the beginning that they will hear an offer from you to join your business. Here are some common topics and reasons people are interested in home based businesses.

¥ Tax write-offs for internet access, travel, cell phone bills, and technology products.

¥ Freedom from commuting, car wear-and-tear, and expensive business clothing.

¥ Low cost business startup.

¥ Getting product (virtually) for free by earning commissions or points toward your personal purchases.

¥ No limit on commissioned earnings.

¥ No employees to hire, team focused residual earnings.

These are interesting topics to a majority of people but you can create ones that also tie into the emotional reason people want to start a home based business. Here are some examples:

¥ How I created a business that put my kids through college in just 2 hours a day.

¥ How to find a job that requires you to vacation 4 times a year.

¥ Creating a six-figure income from my phone.

¥ Ways to earn money while you sleep.

¥ How to pay less in taxes and get more time with your grandkids.

  1. Repurpose your speech on a webinar or conference call.

You persuade to a lot of people at once by giving a speech. Use persuasive words to get more people to go to the back of the room with a sense of urgency. The technique is called NLP or neurolinguistic programming. It has transformed throughout the last 20 years but the basics are still the same. It involves finding the right words that help your customers visualize the outcome of purchasing and using your product and service. The technique is used to guide the participants through a series of questions and answers as well as non-verbal signals to help them want to take the next step. While sharing one NPL technique Rintu Basu said, “[Here] is a short video clip of me demonstrating some spatial anchoring type thing that is an easy to use, highly adaptable persuasion pattern that you can use” (The NLP Company, 2014). He then showed this video:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No0r52EhaFQ

  1. Secure a commitment early on in the relationship.

You have seen someone ask for a sale at the register. What if you could ask someone in the start of your relationship to commit to a purchase if you have the solution to their problem? It happened to me in a workshop I was a part of. The speaker spent a few minutes relating stories to us and then he mentioned the key problem that his company solved. He asked us to commit that if we had this problem we would let him tell us how to solve it. It sounds simple enough but it is quite sophisticated. The speaker knew the offer we had been given in order to attend and the name of the workshop was surrounding a specific type of problem. He did the logical thing and asked if we would let him solve our problem. In essence, he asked if he could sell to us. He told us that we would hear an offer from him at the end of the presentation.

If you need practice asking for a sale on an irresistible offer you may want to hire a coach like Lisa Sasevich. Lisa has built a business based on helping entrepreneurs identify how to ask for the purchase in a sophisticated way. Her coaching classes show you how to craft your talk so that by the end of your pitch people know you are going to make your offer. Knowing ahead of time makes the offer more attractive to them and helps them say yes. After having many wellknown speakers ask how to fix the last 15 minutes of their talks, Lisa said, “I don’t even have to look at their tape to give them the most crucial advice. If they think the close only happens in the last 15 minutes, then that’s where they’ve gone wrong.”

In conclusion, remember that it only takes one client for you to begin to get a complete return on investment of time in crafting your persuasive selling technique. If you follow the steps and do the work, you will have a life-transforming experience.

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