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Brick No157: Do Not Touch The Porcupine Test Close
By Matt Weston, Thursday 25 August Flowered up Oh I could change the way I write, sure. According to two unhappy readers, recent columns have been (a) "flowered up with little stories", and (b) "more [about] storytelling than actual selling techniques." And yes, I've "lost the plot", and really must "get back to basics, Matt." Let's deal with (a) first. It's fair comment. I've always "flowered up" my fuzzy logic with lots of stories and examples. But if that's a mistake, it's a deliberate mistake. Stories work. Whatever it is you're trying to explain - be it in a column, advert, email, phone call or speech - stories and examples help you make your point. If mine don't, it's because I tell them badly. Or because you happen to have an aversion to Australian dentists, (Brick No125); The KLF, (No147); Russian dolls, (No98); Hollywood drug addicts, (No149); and bottles of Mr Muscle, (No80). Do Not Touch The Porcupine Test Close As for (b), the critics are right again. I rarely give over any word count to "actual selling techniques" - by that I mean the kind of techniques you get in, say, a Tom Hopkins book. Like so: How to use the inverted tie-down; Repetition is the Mother of learning; The Basic Oral Close; The Puppydog Close; The Ben Franklin Balance Sheet Close; oh, and The Porcupine Test Close. But again, it's deliberate. Salesmanship is overrated. I'm not trying to be polemic, but reciting sales and closing techniques won't help you make more sales. If you really want to make more sales, you should study buying techniques, not selling techniques. Not how expert sellers say they sell, but how canny buyers buy. If you'll let me use a story, I'll explain. Later this year, we plan to put our flat on the market. And that means we need to hire, i.e. "buy", an estate agent to do whatever it is they do for their between X and Y percent commission. The difficulty with this process is that the way most estate agents try to get hired is by over-quoting the asking price. Then they use sales techniques to convince you your home is worth more on the market than it really is. Taking three quotes and hiring the agent who gives you the middle quote isn't canny "buying". (It doesn't tell you anything about whether the agent will shift your home. In fact, you should probably get an even number of quotes, to stop yourself doing this.) No, if you're canny, you hire your estate agent on the basis of how often they hit their asking price. You deliberately fade out the sales patter, the power closes and the inverted tie-downs. You ask how often they keep their promise. Or you figure out the answer yourself - 2 GBP To Learn What The Joneses' House Cost If you're the estate agent you have two choices: (1) Learn more sales techniques to sidestep the question. (Tom Hopkins would suggest that you "change base".) (2) Learn from buying, i.e. hiring, techniques. Help canny buyers buy. Don't force people to figure out for themselves how often you hit your asking price. Instead, do the legwork for them. Every month, make it someone's job to produce a spreadsheet. Ask them to detail exactly what percentage of your properties sold at asking price or above. Do the same with the properties put on the market by your competitors. And show the full set of figures whenever you're asked to value a property. If you're terrible at your job, and never hit an asking price, you've still got one choice - the first one. If you drum up on those sales techniques, you might sway the odd naive vendor. But buyers are getting cannier. Sales techniques haven't really changed since the Eighties. But buying techniques change all the time. What this means is that more and more people are finding it easy to recognise and fade out the noise of sales techniques. And we're near the start of the cycle. As buyers get cannier and cannier, those businesses that are able to adopt choice (2) will do so. My bet is that a chasm will open up between companies that reapply Eighties sales techniques and those that figure out ways to help canny buyers buy. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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