FOURTEEN

Practice the Power of Suggestion

People are greatly influenced by the power of the suggestive elements in their environment. Nowhere is this more important than in the selling process. By clearly identifying the suggestive elements that you can control, and then by employing them consistently in every sales conversation, you can have a more consistent and positive influence on the buying behavior of the prospect.

There are certain things that you can do as a salesperson that can have a strong subconscious and suggestive impact on the behavior of your prospect. Remember the rule, “Everything counts!” Everything that you do in the sales conversation either helps or hurts. Everything you do or say in the presence of the customer either moves you closer to a sale or moves you further away. Everything counts.

Personality Is Important

The first suggestive element is your personality and how you relate to the customer. When you are positive, warm, friendly, and demonstrate a cheerful attitude, you have a positive suggestive influence on the customer. The customer is more open to listen to you and to be persuaded by you.

The depth of your belief in the goodness of your product or service, and in your company, also has a powerful, positive suggestive influence. When you combine a belief in the goodness of your product with a clear desire to help to improve the life or work of your customer, the customer is greatly influenced and persuaded, especially at an unconscious level.

Your Voice Is Vital

Speaking clearly is a strong suggestive influence. People who speak up and raise their volume on the last words of each sentence have a far greater impact than people whose voices drop.

When you speak with clarity and confidence, it sounds like your product or service is of greater value and is superior to that represented by someone who speaks in a softer tone. Make sure that your diction and elocution are crisp and clear.

How You Appear

Your visual impact on the customer is extremely important. Fully 95 percent of the first impression you make will be determined by your clothes. Human beings are intensely visual. Experts say that they make their first conclusion about you within four seconds of seeing you for the first time.

Be sure that you are attractively groomed and well dressed when you meet with a prospect. You don’t have to be handsome or beautiful. Average-looking salespeople are more successful than handsome or beautiful salespeople who may cause the prospect to be distracted in some way.

Dress for Success

But the rule is that you must “dress for success.” You must look your best. You must be properly groomed and attractively attired. You must look like a successful person working for a successful company, selling a successful product. Even people who are not particularly well dressed or physically fit themselves like to deal with people who are.

When I was a young salesman, poorly dressed and ignorant of the impact of my appearance on my prospects, I was taken aside by a senior salesman. He asked me if I would like a little advice or input on my appearance. Fortunately, I had no ego problems. I told him I was open to any advice he could give me that would help me to be more successful.

He sat down with me and gave me a tutorial on proper business dress. To this day, I still remember him “schooling me.” From then on, I acquired matching shirts and ties, wore polished shoes, and groomed more correctly for my audience. In a very short period of time, I noticed that people treated me with greater respect, listened to me with greater intensity, and bought my product in larger quantities. It was a real eye-opener for me.

The First Impression

People make their first impression of you in four seconds and then finalize their impressions of you within thirty seconds. After that, they engage in what psychologists call “confirmation bias.” They look for reasons to justify their first impressions. If you don’t make a good impression with your appearance in the first thirty seconds, you will be swimming upstream and find yourself struggling to get the attention and respect of the customer. This is especially true if you are dealing with successful people. They are more critical and judgmental than almost anyone else.

Put Your Product in Its Best Light

The fourth element in your suggestive toolbox is your product. Make sure that you display your product in its very best light. Be sure that all of your sales materials are clean, neat, and attractive. Your prospect assumes that the quality of your sales materials is a direct extension of the quality of the product that you’re offering. Make sure that they look first-class.

In real estate there is a booming market for people who excel in what is called “home staging.” A professional comes into a home that is for sale and recommends furniture removal or replacement, updates to carpets and counter-tops, and ideas to unclutter and make an entire home look beautiful and attractive to live in. This visual impression has an enormous impact on how appealing the home is, how much the purchaser will pay for the home, and how quickly the home sells.

Remember, in terms of the power of suggestion, everything that the customer sees, hears, or feels has an impact on the customer’s final decision to buy your product or not. Everything counts.

ACTION EXERCISES

1. Resolve today that you are going to groom, dress, and present yourself as if you were the most successful and highest-paid person in your industry. How would you dress differently from the way you do right now?

2. Organize your sales presentation and sales materials so that they are clean, neat, attractive, and increase the buying desire of the customer.