Before considering the methods of selling that are most effective, it will be well to get rid of a mistaken idea that is all too common.



A great many people regard reasoning power, or the force of pure logic, as an important selling tool.

There are sales representatives who attempt to "argue" prospects into buying. Unthinking sales executives sometimes instruct their representatives to employ certain "selling arguments."

The methods and language of the debater have no place in the sales techniques used by a truly artistic sales representative or sales manager.

One debater never convinces the other. At best, debaters only defeat an antagonist.

In a skillfully finished sale, however, there should be neither victor nor vanquished.

The selling process is not a battle of minds.

There is no room in the sales process for any spirit of antagonism by a sales representative. When thinking about your best capabilities that you have to sell, do not emphasize the value of logic and reasoning. If you use them at all in selling yourself, you would be wise to disguise their character.

Never suggest that you are debating or arguing your qualifications with prospective buyers about your (or your companies) mental or physical capacity for service. You cannot browbeat your way into opportunities to succeed.

Most employers buy the expected services from sales reps to satisfy their own desires for particular capabilities. Few will buy against their wishes. You cannot make someone buy from you.

In order to sell your qualifications for success, you first must make the other person want the benefits you offer. Usually both the mind and heart must be stimulated to produce the desired results.

The most skillful salesperson does not use the words, tones and actions of argument. In preference to cold reasoning and logic, a good salesperson employs the art of mental suggestion and emotional persuasion.

Suggestion is especially effective in producing DESIRE.

A suggested idea is unlikely to provoke antagonism or resistance. A suggestion has power because it has ready access to the mind. Usually a suggestion gains access to the consciousness of a person without this individual even realizing it.

This is why suggestion via subliminal motivation techniques is so effective.

When people become conscious of an idea that you have suggested, they likely will treat the suggestion as one of their own ideas and not as an intruder. Naturally, they are less inclined to oppose a desire prompted by their own thoughts. If this person felt the idea had been planted in her subconscious, her resistance level would accelerate considerably.

All of us know the great power of suggestion. However, too few people use words, tones and movements to make use of the influence of suggestion. Suggestion is always more powerful than stating the idea directly.

Probably no tool of salesmanship will be of more help in assuring your success than a fully developed facility in the use of suggestion.

Suggestion is the skillful process of getting your ideas into the unsuspecting minds of others.

Have you incorporated the art of mental suggestion and emotional persuasion into your sales tools repertoire?