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

 “Frankly, on such a small sale like this, after I split my commission with the firm and the government, I can’t put puppy chow in my dog’s bowl.”

 “I’m obviously not getting rich here, but, again, this will serve as a benchmark for future business.”

Now, to be clear, even if you’re selling a product that doesn’t allow for a step-down, that doesn’t change the fact that this is the point on the Straight Line where many of your prospects will start to buy—especially the ones who have low action thresholds—as cracking the first three numbers of their buying combination is usually enough to close the deal.

On average, approximately 20 percent of the prospects who hit you with an initial objection will close right here, as a result of one simple loop. The rest of them, however, are going to require a bit more persuading, in the form of running additional loops that address one of the following three areas:

1Increasing their level of certainty for one or more of the Three Tens

2Lowering their action threshold

3Increasing their pain threshold

RUNNING YOUR SECOND AND THIRD LOOPS

Congratulations!

You have reached the point in the sale where you’re going to get to experience the distinct displeasure of objection hopping. For example, those prospects who had originally wanted to think about it will suddenly need to speak to their wives or their accountants, or they’ll ask you to send them some information or they’ll tell you that it’s a bad time of year.

Now, for the vast majority of salespeople, getting hit with even one objection is enough to send the sale plunging into a death spiral. However, when they get hit with a second objection—which, like the first one, is nothing more than a smoke screen for uncertainty—that’s when things start to get comical.

You see, when they get hit with the first objection, a typical salesperson will respond with a canned rebuttal—one specifically designed to overcome that objection—and then they’ll ask for the order again. Of course, the problem with that is, unbeknownst to the salesperson, they just gave an answer that was designed to overcome a real objection, not a smoke screen for uncertainty about one of the Three Tens. In consequence, the salesperson’s rebuttal won’t exert even the slightest bit of influence over the prospect.

So, what does the prospect do?

Do they come clean with their respective salesperson and say, “Listen, pal, you might as well know that these objections I’m hitting you with aren’t actually real; they’re just smoke screens for uncertainty. I just thought that it was more respectful to say, ‘Let me think about it,’ than to say, ‘I don’t trust you,’ which is what’s really holding me back. It’s nothing personal, by the way; it’s only that you and I just met, so it’s natural for me to feel this way.

“Besides, the truth is that I’m not 100 percent sure about your product, either. I mean, it sounds pretty good, but I definitely need to find out more before I buy.”

Obviously, it would be extremely productive if your prospect came clean like that. Then you could start focusing on what actually matters, which is raising their level of certainty for the Three Tens and, if necessary, lowering their action threshold and then adding on pain. Unfortunately, though, that’s not how things typically play out.

Instead of coming clean, the prospect takes the path of least resistance and switches to another objection, one that their salesperson hasn’t had the chance to refute yet.

So, what does the salesperson do?

Like a dog chasing his own tail, the salesperson goes back to the list of canned rebuttals and chooses the one that’s been designed to combat this new objection, and then repeats the process again—trying to sound as smooth and natural as possible—and then immediately transitions into asking for the order again.

Then the salesperson shuts up and waits for the prospect to answer—confident in the fact that, since they hit the nail right on the head with their latest rebuttal, the prospect should definitely say yes this time. But, of course, that’s not what ends up happening.

Since the prospect has just gotten an answer to another objection that they couldn’t care less about, they simply switch to yet another new objection, to which the salesperson then spits out yet another canned response, and on and on the death spiral goes.

You think I’m exaggerating?

Well, as unlikely as it seems, I’m not.