Leave 'Em Smiling

by Graham Denton

Leave 'Em Smiling Never underestimate the power of a smile. In making this case in Secrets of Closing the Sale, Zig Ziglar identifies humor as a "tension breaker," and he cites a number of examples to prove his point. One of the best is his recommendation for responding to a prospect who has given you that ancient stall "I'd like some time to think this over." Look at him, smile, and thrust your arm out in front of you, exposing your wristwatch. Then say dramatically, "Go!" Ziglar admits that you should use this technique "with discretion," but claims that in the right situation it's a real rapport-booster.

Another example relates to a common objection-the prospect's uncertainty about being able to use or understand the product. Ziglar encountered this objection on numerous occasions when he was selling a food processing machine for the Saladmaster Corporation. As impressed as many viewers were with the machine's slice-and-dice capabilities, there were always a few who were concerned about chopping off their fingers. Instead of dismissing this fear, Ziglar turned it around.

"If you want to cut your hand with the machine," he would tell his audience, "it's very simple." Then he would demonstrate placing a finger between the hopper and the blade and explain that, if you crank the handle with your finger in this position, "the red comes out right over here!" Of course, he concluded, "if you don't want to cut your hand, keep it out of the machine! Any questions?" Seldom were there any further questions, and the technique worked much better than any amount of somber warnings. A third example concerns a hotel booking situation that, in spite of its rarity, remains a traveling salesperson's least welcome nightmare: The hotel that you booked weeks before has lost your reservation (or it never got booked, or properly confirmed, in the first place) and there are no other rooms; the place is fully booked. Ziglar's recommendation in this situation is the "Presidential Close"-a gimmicky but humorous plea for special consideration.

Instead of whining or berating the desk clerk for inefficiency, do the following. First, ask the clerk if he considers himself an honest person. When he says Yes, ask a second question: "If the President of the United States were to walk in that door right now without a reservation, tell me the truth: Would you be able to find a room for him?"

Unless the clerk has heard this one before, the probable answer to this question is going to be Yes. When you hear it, say enthusiastically: "That's great! Because I know for a fact that the President is not going to walk through that door. (He's in Washington, or Denver, or Burma-pick a likely other venue.) So you can give me his room!"

Yes, it sounds hokey. But it can work. Ziglar claims to have gotten rooms in two cities this way, once during a Greenville, South Carolina, convention week when hotels had been officially filled for several months. One of his friends, moreover, used the technique and was told that the current president could not be accommodated, but that, come to think of it, a former one could be. "We do have the Gerald and Betty Ford Suite," the clerk explained, "and they are not going to be using it, so it's available to you." Service with a smile-because of a smile.