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

You see, while this strategy is very easy to learn, it’s somewhat harder to understand. So let me break it down for you step by step—starting with a quick refresher from the previous chapter regarding my mother’s strategic use of tonality when she called my name.

If she said “Jordan!” in a stern, no-nonsense tone, then the additional words I heard were: “Get over here right now! What have you done!” And, conversely, if she said “Jor-dan!” in a singsong tone, then the additional words I heard were: “Where are you, my love? Come out, come out wherever you are!”

Now, this is just one basic example of how each individual tonality creates its own set of unspoken words that the listener hears in their conscious mind, and to which the listener then applies the appropriate meaning.

To that end, when you’re speaking to a prospect in a situation of influence, their brain is actually listening to two distinct things at once: first, they’re listening to the words you say and analyzing the meaning of each one, both individually and in the context of the overall sentence; and second, they’re listening to their own inner monologue, as it debates the pros and cons of the last few words you said, based on the meaning they applied to them.

For example, let’s say you cold-call a prospect named John Smith, and he picks up the phone and says hello, to which you reply, “Hi, my name is Bill Peterson, calling from the Acme Travel Company. I’m looking for Mr. John Smith. Is he home?”

Now, unless John Smith has been living under a rock for the last thirty years, there’s a 99.9 percent chance that he will strongly suspect that Bill Peterson is a salesman. Precisely what product he’s selling and where he got John’s number from John still doesn’t know, but that doesn’t change the fact that this person is a complete stranger, as opposed to someone John knows.

After all, a friend, or even a casual acquaintance, would never address him in such a formal manner, and such a person would likely also have recognized his voice over the phone. And when he combines that with the fact that virtually every time his phone rings, it turns out to be a telemarketer, John knows the deal within the first five seconds of the sales encounter.

So how does he respond?

Well, in many cases, your typical “John Smith” simply hangs up the phone, confident in the fact that he won’t be offending anyone he knows.

However, let’s say this particular “John Smith” has impeccable manners and doesn’t feel comfortable hanging up on someone, even if that someone is a pushy salesman, who’s had the audacity to cold-call him in the sanctuary of his home.

So, instead of hanging up, Mr. Smith says, in a slightly annoyed tone: “This is Mr. Smith. Can I help you?”—while his inner monologue says to his critical judgment center, in a thoroughly pissed off tone: “Shit, another damn salesman calling my house and interrupting my dinner! I gotta figure out a way to end this call, and then I’m going to put myself on the Do Not Call List.”

Now, obviously, this is not the sort of inner monologue that sets the stage for the salesman to have any reasonable chance of ultimately closing this deal. In fact, the reality is that the sale was over before it ever started. However, since all Bill Peterson heard was Mr. Smith’s outward response—which was, “Can I help you?”—he is completely in the dark to this, and he continues on confidently with the sale.

“Good evening,” he says. “I’m calling to let you know about an incredible opportunity in the . . . ,” and as the salesman drones on, explaining this incredible opportunity of his, Mr. Smith’s dialog is already on the attack.

“Incredible my ass!” says Mr. Smith’s inner monologue to Mr. Smith’s critical judgment center, in his prefrontal cortex. “This guy is so full of shit! If he was in front of me right now, I swear to God I’d ring his damn neck and—” Suddenly, Mr. Smith realizes that he’s being asked a question.

“. . . simple as that, Mr. Smith. I just need to ask you a couple of quick questions, so I don’t waste your time. Sound good?”

“Sorry, you caught me at a bad time,” Mr. Smith replies quickly. “I gotta go.”

“No problem,” Bill Peterson replies. “What’s a bet—”

Click!

And, just like that, the sale is over before it even started, another in a long list of “blown sales” that could have gone the exact opposite way, if the million Bill Petersons of the world were aware of what was happening with their prospect’s inner monologue and had been taught a simple, yet immensely powerful, strategy to counter it.

Ten Core Influencing Tonalities

Before I teach you the specifics of this strategy, there’s one crucial distinction that I need to go through first. It has to do with how born closers automatically apply the proper tonality to the words they say, as opposed to everyone else.