If the salesman is full of ambition and determination, if he is full of health and energy and if he realizes the importance of his merchandise to the customer he will immediately be enthused over the customer having the goods; and he can then awaken the desire for possession on the part of the customer.
Once the salesman gets the customer determined to get the good if it is possible for him to by them, the time for the close has come. Even if the customer is not visibly affected by the sincerity of your sales-talk and the demonstration you have make of your merchandise, if you have gone through the steps of the sale in the proper manner, you have surely induced the corresponding states in the customer’s mind, and you can make the sale.
The customer may not have the initiative to say, “Where is your order book? I want to give you an order.” That is the salesman’s business – but the customer will buy when you make it easy for him to do so – he will follow the line of least resistance.
Your success as a salesman will be limited if you expect the customer to make the decisive step. In nine cases out of ten – no, in more than ninety cases out of a hundred – if the salesman did not take the initiative and induce the customer to buy, there would be no sale.
The customer, even though he has a desire for your goods, will seldom deliberately tell you so in a direct statement; he lets you do most of the work. He expects you to sell him, or let him buy; but he does so in many cases simply through force of habit.
If you do not ask him to buy, he may think that you are simply demonstrating your merchandise for pleasure and not for profit and will reserve his order for another salesman whom he finds it difficult to avoid giving and order. Once you get the belief and desire, get action and make the sale….
If you have an article that he must buy now, or not at all, you have a double chance of selling him. If you have an article that he can buy at any time, you ought to to convey a negative suggestion that he can get it later.
Make the customer think that he must buy your goods now. He ought to sign now. You are with him now to sell him. You want to sell him now because he needs to use your goods from now on, or because he ought not miss the opportunity of making the profit that you can assure him now.
You may not get that customer if you do not close him immediately. He ought to be induced to buy at once, inasmuch as you now have his desire fully developed.
©The National Salesmen’s Training Association 1922
Managing IA's 