Salespeople are a superstitious lot. They are in a business that relies mostly on personal interaction, regardless of the product being represented. Liken their thinking to that of the baseball power-hitter who has a streak going and won’t change anything (even his underwear) for fear of breaking the magic spell.  Salespeople are prone to adopt and adhere to many similar superstitions to prolong a selling streak or to try to understand the magical rules of their game, selling. Interestingly enough, many of these old saws have some basis in fact.

 

Sales trainees are taught that a prospect will utter “no” seven times before they say “yes.” To counteract this proclivity, sales trainees are told to ask questions to which the positive answer is “no.” They should then begin to ask questions where the positive response is “yes.” In this mode they can begin to ask the closing questions and, hopefully, get a positive response, “yes.” The number seven may not be the magic number, but the basis of this old saw is true. Most people respond negatively at first to a strong pitch on nearly anything. They do this to have time to think about the proposal and make a proper judgment.

 

Salesmen are also taught that when they ask a closing question they should remain silent until the prospect responds, regardless of how long that takes. They envision the sales situation as a game and the first one who speaks after the pause is the loser. If the salesman breaks the silence, there is no sale, if the client responds, then the sale is ordained. This adage does seem to be true. Many an over-eager salesperson has been unable to handle a few moments of silence and blurted out something to try and support their closing question, only to lose the sale. I sat one time for at least three minutes of silence (it seemed like an hour) before the prospect smiled and nodded in agreement and began to answer the closing question in a positive manner.

 

Another old adage is that when handling a complaint, the complainant should be allowed to talk uninterrupted by any rebuttal, until they ran out of things to say. The salesperson should only nod occasionally in acknowledgement of what was being said and not offer any defense to the complaint. If allowed to vent their spleen, the complainant would begin to feel badly about abusing the salesperson and would soon begin to justify the mistake that caused their complaint and ultimately they would apologize for complaining. If handled properly, most complaints will follow this pattern pretty closely.

 

Old timey in-the-home pitchmen always carried an elaborate writing instrument (a fountain pen in the really olden times). Their contention was that when people have a nice new writing instrument in their hand they want to try it out . . . and what is the first thing that people write when trying a new pen? Their signature, of course! The trick was to get the pen into the prospect’s hand. One ploy was to hold up the contract in front of the prospective customer and go over it, point by point, all the while holding the pen at the top of the clipboard the contract was fastened to. When near the end, the salesman would release his grip on the pen and let it roll down the contract as if he accidentally dropped it, the prospect’s reaction would be grab the pen and voila, the pen was in the prospect’s hand, ready to be used. Hokey as it may seem, this ploy has been successfully demonstrated again and again by old-timers.

 

Old sales adages, like old-wives-tales, are usually based upon years of observations and an attempt to understand and label their craft, selling or running a household, in easily understood terms.