The Psychology of Selling - Brian Tracy  ## Metadata - Author: **Brian Tracy** - Full Title: The Psychology of Selling - Category: #books ## Highlights - *The imagination is literally the workshop wherein are fashioned all plans created by man.* ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvv4pxrc2ex486g1qjp5zcmw)) - The person who hired me couldn’t sell. But he told me that sales is a “numbers game.” He said that all I had to do was talk to enough people, and eventually I would find someone who would buy. We call this the “mud against the wall” method of selling. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvv4sjjdewk120ds3gyw0c56)) - Instead of using a “speech” or clever one-liners to get attention or to overcome resistance, he asked a series of logical questions, from general to specific, that were ideally suited to a genuine prospect. At the end of this series of questions, it had become perfectly clear to the prospect that he could use and benefit from our product. The final question was simply to close the sale. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvv53pqk3wmq9cfb0pdmgksz)) - The health of the business community in any city, state, or nation is the key determinant of the quality of life and standard of living of the people in that geographical area. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvvc3v8tm7a206db0jt4a9c8)) - Next I learned about *audio learning*. It changed my life. I began to listen, hour after hour, to audio programs as I walked from office to office. I listened to them in the morning; I listened to them in the evening. I rehearsed and practiced the best sentences and phrases from the best salespeople until I could recite them in my sleep. And my sales went up and up. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvv57tebqm0v5atah27b6mhp)) - Here is a great rule: “If you do what other successful people do, over and over again, nothing in the world can stop you from eventually getting the same results that they do. And if you don’t, nothing can help you.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvv5gwjc6yqtvac7rxp6sxge)) - Seventy-four percent of self-made millionaires in America are entrepreneurs, people who start and build their own businesses ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvvcwrh0e2z0sqmh0wmk8tj1)) - And among entrepreneurs, the single most important skill for success is the ability to sell ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvvcxbswxhs0b8acr6mxq1ap)) - Five percent of self-made millionaires in America are salespeople who have worked for other companies all their lives ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvvcyeh225fm5dv57v1aakmb)) - In selling, you only have to be a *little bit* better and different in each of the key result areas of selling for it to accumulate into an extraordinary difference in income. A small increment of skill or ability, just 3 or 4 percent, can give you the winning edge. It can put you in the top 20 percent, and then the top 10 percent. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvz43mrdrm46m3k89z5h2efq)) - It is what goes on inside the *mind* of the salesperson that makes all the difference ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvz4erhjq9c76ngrkrvg58e9)) - If you want to know how tall a building is going to be, you look at how deep they dig the foundation for that building. The deeper the foundation, the taller the building. In the same way, the deeper *your* foundation of knowledge and skill, the greater the life that you will be able to build ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvz4gd1pkv47y0a0h9yqxxh2)) - The average salesperson uses only a small percentage of his potential for effectiveness in selling. It is estimated that the average person in general never uses more than about 10 percent of his potential. What this means is that each person has at least 90 percent or more potential left untapped. It is when you learn how to unlock this additional 90 percent of your own potential that you move yourself into the income categories of the highest earners ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hvz4nd5cktcht19x35s0jcev)) - 1. Decide today to become a totally confident, high-self-esteem salesperson; say over and over to yourself, “I like myself!” 2. Visualize yourself continually as the very best in your business; the person you “see” is the person you will “be.” 3. Resolve in advance that, no matter what happens, you will never give up; failure is not an option. 4. Refuse to take rejection personally; accept it as a normal and natural part of selling, very much like the weather. 5. Follow the leaders in your field; pattern yourself after the highest-paid and most successful people. Find out what they are doing, and then do the same things until you get the same results. 6. Make a decision today to join the top 20 percent of people in your business; remember that no one is smarter than you, and no one is better than you. Anything that anyone else has done, within reason, you can do as well. 7. Take action on every new idea that you think can help you in any way. Give it a try. The more things you try, the more likely it is that you will eventually triumph. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw0ghmmxgqa9hjrsg3j7x9q8)) - We advance on our journey only when we face our goal, only when we are confident and believe we are going to win out. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw0gp24yrcb4yk20t123d7xx)) - If I’ve got correct goals, and I keep pursuing them the best way I know how, everything else falls into line. If I do the right thing, I know I’m going to succeed ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw0gpw3vzcrdfqc0cdgj24tf)) - Top salespeople are intensely goal oriented. In every study, the quality of *goal orientation* seems to be associated with high levels of success and achievement ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw0gqfsx6a8fbaz5zf8x7jg2)) - It is essential for your success that you decide exactly how much you intend to earn each year ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw0gttfdjrb8zhhwhe0nw904)) - If you are not absolutely clear about your earnings target, your sales activities will be unfocused. You will be like a person trying to shoot at a target in the fog. Even if you are the finest marksman in the world, you are not going to hit a target you can’t see. You have to know exactly what you’re aiming at ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw0gxpmja7gw9mf92kkbvg8z)) - Top salespeople in every field know exactly what they are going to earn each year and each part of each year. If you ask them, they can tell you within a dollar what they are aiming at every single day ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw33csg7sk5jy1c138m8kmqh)) - Put Them in Writing To be effective, your goals must be in writing. Sometimes people are reluctant to write their goals down on paper. They say, “What if I don’t make it?” You don’t need to worry. The very act of writing your goals down increases your likelihood of achieving them by 1,000 percent—ten times—and usually far faster then you expected. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw33d2xqvf7bsjmxbjqzkyge)) - Your Annual Sales Goal The second part of goal setting is for you to ask yourself, “How much am I going to have to sell this year to achieve my personal income goal?” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw33be6yccrc4wbs0h2jcfn3)) - Monthly and Weekly Goals Once you have decided your annual income and sales goals, break them down *by month*. How much will you have to earn and sell each month to achieve your annual goals? Once you have your annual sales and income goals and your monthly sales and income goals, break them down to *weekly* sales and income goals. How much will you have to sell each week in order to achieve your long-term goals ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw33956knhy6ehd600e4z6a6)) - Daily Sales Goals Finally, determine how much you have to *sell* each day to earn the amount you want to *earn* each day. Let us say that your annual income goal is $50,000. If you divide $50,000 by 12, you get approximately $4,200 per month. If you divide $50,000 by 50, the number of weeks that you work in an average year, it comes out to $1,000 per week. Now you have definite, specific targets to aim at ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw338zf932xr4v9h5ca62pza)) - The final step in setting sales goals is for you to determine the specific *activities* in which you must engage to achieve your desired sales level. How many *calls* will you have to make to get how many *appointments* with prospects? How many presentations and callbacks will you have to generate to achieve a specific level of sales? ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw33862a0gtzcwyrhk0tmp8q)) - Make it a game with yourself to make your ten prospecting calls before noon each day ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw33ehe5s6x40w017z0d8j90)) - As previously stated, the average person uses only 10 percent of his potential. By programming your subconscious mind with clear goals, you gain access to the 90 percent of your potential that lies beneath the surface, deep in your subconscious mind ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4nbjpcgp4mcpkygnnff0ef)) - Imagine that you could *double* your income in the next two or three years. If you did, what are some of the things you would change in your life? Make a list of all the things that you would *be, have,* or *do* if you were earning vastly more money than you are earning today. The longer this list, the greater your level of motivation and determination. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4njt8k3z9kt9c597zq6b37)) - If you have only one or two reasons for achieving your financial goals, you will be easily discouraged by setbacks and difficulties. If you have ten or fifteen reasons for being successful, you will be more motivated and determined. But if you have fifty or one hundred reasons for increasing your sales and your income, you will become virtually unstoppable ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4nkwnmb71mx8nth0wfrcx4)) - Here is an exercise for you. Get a spiral notebook and write down 100 goals that you would like to accomplish in the years ahead. Make a list of everything that you would like to have in your life and everything that you would like to do. Imagine that everything you write on this list is going to come to you at exactly the right time and in exactly the right way ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4nrqes1nap7v3rhakz2gpw)) - In my work with more than 500,000 salespeople throughout the United States and in twenty-five countries, I have found that the commitment to goal setting has been the number one reason for the success of the top people ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4ny34kk4vkyfp2d2h8p1gq)) - When used with goal setting, *visualization* is perhaps the most powerful skill that you can develop. There is no more powerful way to program your subconscious mind than to create a clear mental picture of the person you want to be and the goals you want to accomplish. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4p08edwqk2syd6verge11j)) - The power of visualization is the most awesome power possessed by human beings. It is said that all improvement in your life begins with an improvement in your mental pictures. When you visualize, see yourself as calm, confident, and powerful. Envision yourself as successful and influential. Picture yourself as capable and competent in every part of selling. See yourself as absolutely excellent in prospecting, presenting, and closing sales. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4p1fqx9qwrtywgs1pkm7x7)) - Picture especially the prospect signing the sales order or writing out the check. You will be amazed at how often your visualization will turn into reality when you are with the customer. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4p47cr1m3f0b8khvw3apdx)) - Your subconscious mind is activated both by pictures and by strong affirmative statements. Each time you say something strongly to yourself, your subconscious mind accepts these words as a command. It then goes to work to bring that command into your reality. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4p4pcka5debfbzg7stx0m5)) - The very best all-purpose affirmation is “I like myself ! I like myself ! I like myself !” As I have already shown, each time you say “I like myself !” you raise your self-esteem, improve your overall self-concept, and perform more effectively in whatever you are doing, especially in sales. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw4p52465gvr7kxrwz7c6tv7)) - Say to yourself, “I feel happy. I feel healthy. I feel terrific!” Repeat this over and over again as you go through your day. Every time you repeat these words, you will feel happier and more confident. Then *see* yourself as if you felt this way. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw862hhxcfxev17tfs5srjzp)) - His secret? He was using affirmations and visualization *every day*. He said, “Every morning when I get into my car, I repeat to myself, ‘I’m the best! I’m the best! I’m the best.’ “I then say, ‘I’m the best salesman in this company. I’m the best salesman in this industry. I’m the best salesman in the business.’ “Before every sales call, I sit in my car and pump myself up by repeating these affirmations, ‘I’m the best in this company. I’m the best in this industry. I’m the best in this country.’” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw869knq0ff144kz25cmkrjx)) - Many salespeople are what we call “Columbus salespeople.” When Columbus set off seeking a route to India, he didn’t know where he was *going*. When he arrived in the Americas, he didn’t know where he *was*. And when he got back to Spain, he didn’t know where he had *been*. Many salespeople are like this. They set off in the morning with only a vague idea of where they are going. When they arrive at the customer’s home or place of business, they say the first thing that falls out of their mouths. And when they arrive back at the office, they are not sure where they have been or what happened. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwatc9gg9f113v4ctf3g02e8)) - Top salespeople are different. They think through their sales calls in advance. They go over what they are going to say mentally before they get face-to-face with the prospect. They practice “mental rehearsal,” a peak-performance technique used by all top athletes, including sales athletes. They prepare mentally for the upcoming meeting. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwatdbb61nj2j40ad2svdh3r)) - 1. Think big! Set an income goal for yourself for the next year that is 25 to 50 percent more than you have ever earned before. 2. Determine how much of your product or service you will have to sell over the next year to achieve your ideal income. 3. Break your income and sales goals down by month, week, and day; determine the activities you will have to engage in each day to earn the money you have decided that you desire. 4. Plan every day in advance; determine exactly the number of prospects you will have to call, the number of people you will have to see, and the number of sales you will have to make. 5. Set big, exciting goals for your family and your personal life; make a list of fifty to one hundred things that you want to buy and do with the extra money you are going to earn. 6. Make a written plan to achieve each of your goals, and work on your plans every day. 7. Determine the price you will have to pay, in terms of additional work and sacrifice, to achieve your most desired goals, and then begin paying that price ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw25ypkhsyg2azxm70j1yh0q)) - You cannot teach a man anything; you can only help him discover it within himself ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw260fz7b2wyew5xpevk3s54)) - People value *freedom* above almost all other benefits of our society. When they have money available, they have a certain degree of freedom. They have choices and options. They can do a variety of different things. This desire for freedom is a major reason people hesitate to part with their money, for any reason. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwdf3vhswc4eqxbypyy9bz2y)) - 1. Make a list of the needs that customers have that can be met by your product; organize this list in order of importance to the customer. Build your prospecting and selling around these needs. 2. Conduct regular market research among your satisfied customers; find out what benefit your product offered that caused them to buy from you rather than someone else. 3. Determine the most important benefit your business customers are seeking, and then develop a way to explain that benefit in every sales conversation. 4. Identify the most significant gains or losses that your prospects could experience from using or not using what you are selling; emphasize them repeatedly. 5. Dress for success; buy and read a book on proper business dress, and then follow it so that you look like a complete professional when you visit a customer. 6. Develop a series of open-ended questions that you can use to control the sales conversation and uncover the true needs of the prospect; keep the light on him by asking and listening. 7. Position yourself as a friend, an advisor, and a teacher in every customer contact; focus on helping and teaching rather than selling. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw26132hxqzaj58a82sat5g1)) - A man to carry on a successful business must have imagination. He must see things in a vision, a dream of the whole thing ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw261pz4n0e98h2pzkkmbhpx)) - 1. You are a genius; resolve today that you will use your inborn creativity to solve any problem, overcome any obstacle, and achieve any goal you can set for yourself. 2. Write your most important goal at the top of a page in the form of a question; write out twenty (20) answers to that question and then take action on at least one of them; do this every day. 3. Identify your areas of excellence and superiority in your product or service; what makes what you sell better than any competitive alternative? 4. Determine why your customers buy from you rather than from someone else. Which prospects can most benefit from what you do best? 5. Where are your very best concentrations of prospective customers? Decide how you are going to spend more time with them. 6. Differentiate your products or services in a meaningful way; find out why people buy your product, and then show them why your product is the best choice, all things considered. 7. Get written testimonial letters from your satisfied customers, highlight the best sentences, and then place them in plastic pages in a three-ring binder. Show these letters to every prospect. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2625n59fwkznndtxx2x3jz)) - Far and away, the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw262d413ah3n27rtn1ts3qg)) - When a man has done his best, has given his all, and in the process supplied the needs of his family and his society, that man has made a habit of succeeding. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw262j8aa1r6yersgq06k7rv)) - 1. Determine exactly the number of prospects you must call each day and each week to achieve your sales and income goals. 2. Spend 80 percent of your time prospecting until you have so many people to see that you do not have time to call anyone else. 3. Write out your script for telephone prospecting, memorize it, and practice it continually until it sounds natural and relaxed. 4. Ignore initial sales resistance when you prospect; focus on the result or benefit of what you sell, and refer to other happy customers who already use it. 5. Keep the initiative; nail down the exact date and time of your first appointment with the prospect. 6. Refuse to talk about your product or service, or the price, on the phone; focus single-mindedly on getting a face-to-face meeting, nothing more. 7. Prepare thoroughly for every sales meeting; do your homework, on the Internet if possible, so you look and sound like an absolute professional when you meet the prospect for the first time. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2631mq0fp9cj8jwmqx008j)) - Meticulous planning will enable everything a man does to appear spontaneous ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2636cq087pg8b8ge8pjyff)) - Whatever we plant in our subconscious mind and nourish with repetition and emotion will one day become a reality. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw263c73c6m3rbsgb8pqcxb7)) - 1. Everything counts! Take complete control of every factor that your prospect sees, hears, feels, and does; plan in advance. 2. Visualize yourself as a “doctor of selling,” as a world-class professional, thoroughly knowledgeable, with an excellent product or service. 3. Dress for success; pattern your dress after the most successful and highest-paid people in your business. Look like the kind of person that a customer can confidently take advice from. 4. Be courteous with everyone you meet, from the receptionist through to the secretary and customer; always be positive and cheerful. 5. Practice mental rehearsal before every sales call; imagine yourself as calm, controlled, optimistic, and completely relaxed; the way you see yourself is the way you’ll be. 6. Do everything possible to avoid noise or distractions of any kind when you are talking to a prospect; have him move if necessary so he can concentrate on you and your product. 7. Walk erect, chin up; shake hands firmly and confidently; carry yourself as if you are the best in your field. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2640a0w0a00f646q0y34w0)) - By visualizing your goals, you can get your subconscious mind to work toward making those subconscious pictures come true. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2643ppr5x88zzn5e2cg3n9)) - Any fact is not as important as our attitude toward it, for that determines our success or failure. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw264axv087864qs5jrkpdyr)) - 1. Plan every sales presentation in advance; design it so that it moves from the general to the particular, from the known to the unknown, starting with your most attractive benefit. 2. Ask trial closing questions throughout; invite feedback and responses after every feature or benefit. 3. Take the time to determine the buyer personality style of the prospect you are talking to; make note of the questions he/she asks; these are good indicators. 4. Practice flexibility with your prospects and customers; speed up or slow down, be general or specific, so that you can sell to more diverse people. 5. Create emotional mental pictures of how happy your prospect will be while owning and using your product or service. 6. Design each part of your presentation to show, tell, and ask questions about each feature and benefit you present; keep the prospect involved and active. 7. Become an excellent listener; ask good questions, listen without interrupting, pause before replying, and feed it back in your own words to prove that you fully understand the prospect’s situation. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw264zmd1rw44q1j8ynq0237)) - The only certain means of success is to render more and better service than is expected of you, no matter what your task may be. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2652y2swm5w9pg5qhtjma0)) - Be true to the best you know. This is your high ideal. If you do your best, you cannot do more. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2658ctbtcrqr982f2vj2x2)) - 1. Make a decision today to become one of the very best salespeople in your industry; pay any price, make any sacrifice, and never quit until you make it. 2. Dedicate yourself to lifelong learning; read, listen to audio programs, and attend seminars; your life only gets better when you get better. 3. Manage your time well; plan carefully in advance and resolve to make every minute count. 4. Do what you love to do; throw your whole heart into your work, and never stop getting better. 5. Resolve in advance that you are going to be a big success in life, and that you are never going to quit until you achieve your most important goals. 6. Sit down immediately and make a list of ten goals you would like to achieve in the next twelve months; select the most important goal on that list and work on it every day. 7. Work all the time you work; live at full throttle; start early, work harder, and stay later. Pay the price of success in full, in advance. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2661fzwtg868w522mh2w1k)) - Nature cannot be tricked or cheated. She will give up to you the object of your struggles only after you have paid her price. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw2664yxpkww3hpqbvy4cv48)) - CLARIFICATION. You learn how to develop absolute clarity about who you really are and what you really want in each of seven key areas of life. You determine your values, vision, mission, purpose, and goals for yourself, your family, and your work. SIMPLIFICATION. You learn how to dramatically simplify your life, getting rid of all the little tasks and activities that contribute little to the achievement of your real goals of high income, excellent family relationships, superb health and fitness, and financial independence. You learn how to streamline, delegate, outsource, minimize, and eliminate all those activities that are of little value. MAXIMIZATION. You learn how to get the very most out of yourself by implementing the best time and personal management tools and techniques. You learn how to get more done in less time, how to increase your income rapidly, and how to have even more time for your personal life. MULTIPLICATION. You learn how to leverage your special strengths to accomplish vastly more than you could by relying on your own efforts and resources. You learn how to use other people’s money, other people’s efforts, other people’s ideas, and other people’s customers and contacts to increase your personal productivity and earn more money. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hw267rsafzktsmxg1tnvk022)) ## New highlights added April 29, 2024 at 5:03 AM - 1. Listen Attentively First, listen attentively, without interruptions. Listen without any attempt to leap in and share your own ideas. Face the prospect directly. Lean forward. Nod, smile, and agree. Be an active listener rather than a passive listener. Focus on the mouth and eyes of the prospect when he is speaking. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkvdjd7dsvx5n3a92bgh8te)) - Imagine that your eyes are sun lamps and you want to give your prospect’s face a tan. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkvec64jn19r9e75k1qcfhp)) - 2. Pause Before Replying Second, pause before replying or continuing. When the prospect finishes speaking, pause and wait for *three to five seconds* before you answer. Even if the prospect has asked you a question to which you know the answer, you must still discipline yourself to pause for a few moments. There are *three* benefits to pausing. First, when you pause, you convey to the prospect that you are *carefully considering* what he just said. This tells him that you value him and his words. What he has said is too important for you to respond too quickly. As a result, you raise his self-esteem and self-respect. You make him feel better about himself, and by extension, better about you. The second benefit of pausing is that it allows you to *hear the prospect* at a deeper level of mind. It’s almost as though words soak into your mind as water soaks into the soil. When you allow silence after the prospect’s words, you actually understand what he or she really meant, much more than you would if you replied immediately. The third benefit of pausing before replying is that you avoid the *risk of interrupting* the prospect if he is just reorganizing his thoughts and preparing to begin speaking again. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkveqtfafprmzgt42x8y7at)) - 3. Question for Clarification Third, question for clarification. Never assume that you know what the prospect really meant by what he just said. Instead, pause and then ask the question, *“How do you mean?”* This is one of the great, all-purpose questions for sales success. No matter what the prospect says or no matter what his objection, you can always follow it up with “How do you mean?” “It costs too much.” How do you mean? “We can’t afford it.” How do you mean? “We are happy with our existing supplier.” How do you mean? “We don’t have it in the budget.” How do you mean? Each time you ask the question, “How do you mean?” the prospect will *expand* on what he just said. He will give you more detail. And each elaboration increases the likelihood that he will tell you what you need to know to help him make a buying decision. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkvf9g334ysjb2z4rpsjvjz)) - Questions Equal Control ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkvfq5a8k1qcp457772pzdj)) - 4. Paraphrase It in Your Own Words Feed back what the prospect just said in your own words. Paraphrase the prospect’s comments or questions. This is known as the “acid test” of listening. When you can feed back what a customer says, you prove to the customer that you were *really* paying attention. You were not just like one of those toy dogs in the back of a car window with its head nodding up and down. You were really listening. Only after you have listened attentively, paused before replying, questioned for clarification, and fed it back in your own words are you in a position to comment intelligently or to make a sales presentation. Listening builds trust, and the very best way to get an opportunity to listen is to control the conversation with questions. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkvfxtc45qcnh1tynea6wsj)) - 5. Use Open-Ended Questions Earlier we covered the use of open-ended questions. These are questions that cannot be answered with yes or no. Whenever you ask a question beginning with the pronouns or adverbs *who, why, where, when, how, what,* and *which*, you encourage the prospect to talk and give you more information that can help you to make the sale. ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkvg2r9ntc5wn5np20zsj0w)) - ***Closed-Ended Questions*** Use *closed-ended* questions to bring a conversation to a conclusion. These are questions that can *only* be answered with yes or a no. Closed-ended questions always begin with verbs, such as *are, is,* and *do*. “Are you ready to make a decision today? Is this what you are looking for? Do you want to get started right away?” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkvgm3hgdbfgmhxmjdzk16p)) ## New highlights added April 29, 2024 at 6:03 AM - You reduce initial sales resistance by saying, “Mr. Prospect, thank you very much for your time. Please relax; I’m not here to sell you anything right now. That’s not the purpose of my visit.” ([View Highlight](https://read.readwise.io/read/01hwkzrymyyqx1xht3a00kpnjx))