Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success

The Strattonites nodded in unison. The room was so quiet you could have heard a pin drop. The air felt electric.

“Good,” I replied quickly. “Now, as a salesperson, every once in a while, we get one of those perfect, lay-down sales, where the prospect seems to be almost pre-sold before we even open up our mouths.” As I continued to speak, I began drawing tiny arrows on the center of the line, starting just after the left X, and then moving down the line, to just before the X on the right. “It’s one of those sales where everything you say, and everything you do, and every case you make about why the prospect should buy from you, he keeps on saying, yes, yes, yes, without giving you even a single objection, right up to the moment where you ask him for the order, and he agrees to close. That’s what I mean by a perfect straight-line sale.

“Who’s ever had one of those perfect, lay-down sales, where the client seemed to be almost pre-sold from the start? You all have, right?” I raised my right hand, prompting them to do the same.

All twelve hands quickly shot up.

“Of course you have,” I said confidently. “The problem is that those sales are far and few between. Typically, what happens is that your prospect keeps trying to take you off the straight line and take control of the conversation.” I drew a series of thin arrows, pointing upward and downward (↑↓), away from the straight line, to illustrate that point.

“So, basically, you want to keep the prospect on the straight line, moving forward towards the close, and he keeps trying to take you off the straight line, and spiral off to Pluto”—I wrote the word “Pluto” near the top of the whiteboard—“or down here, to Your-anus”—I wrote the word “Your-anus” near the bottom of the whiteboard—“which is not a very good place to be, at least for most of you.” I threw my hands in the air and shrugged, as if to say, “To each his own!”

“So what we have are these healthy boundaries, above and below the line—one here and one here,” I continued, drawing two dotted lines that were parallel to the straight line, one of them six inches above it, and the other six inches below it.

“When you’re inside the boundaries, you’re in control of the sale, and moving forward towards the close. When you’re outside the boundaries, the client is in control and you’re spiraling off to Pluto, or down here, to Your-anus, where you’re talking about the price of tea in China or politics in America or some other irrelevant topic that’s not germane to the sale.

“And, by the way, I hear you guys doing this shit all the time when I walk around the room, and it drives me fucking crazy!” I shook my head gravely. “Seriously—ninety percent of the time you guys are off in freaking Pluto, talking about some nonsense that has nothing to do with the stock market.” I closed my eyes tightly and gave my head a few quick shakes back and forth, as if to say, “Some things just completely defy logic!” Then I said, “Anyway, I know what you guys are thinking—that the more time you spend bullshitting with these people, the more rapport you end up building.

“Well, I’ve got a news flash for you,” I continued sarcastically. “You’re wrong. People see through that shit in two seconds flat, especially rich people, who are constantly on guard for that. To them, it’s actually repulsive, not attractive, which is the opposite of what building rapport is all about.” I shrugged. “Anyway, it doesn’t really matter, because you guys are done with that shit, now. It’s over.

“I’m going to teach you guys how to take control of the sale tonight, the way I do it, and how I taught Danny to do it; and that means you’re going to stay inside these boundaries, here and here. This is where you’re in control Boom, boom!” I banged my right knuckle on two spots inside the boundaries, one above the line and one below, and I marked each spot with the initials IC.

“And here and here: this is where you’re out of control.” And I banged my right knuckle on two spots outside of the boundaries, one above the top dotted line and one below the bottom dotted line, and then I marked each space with the initials OC.

“In control, out of control,” I repeated, tapping the respective initials.