5 Persuasion Tactics for One to One Selling

I'd like you to watch this short video clip from the movie Boiler Room.

It's about a bunch of young manipulative sales guys who sell phony stocks and leave their naive clients broke.

The stock brokers in this movie are sleazy, but the persuasion tactics demonstrated are effective and can be used honestly and ethically to make a lot more sales.

Warning: The first 2 minutes of this video features lots of profanity. If you are easily offended, or have children around, you should not watch this video.

Click the play u button to watch this 4 minute video

Note: This video is really two clips mashed together. Pay attention to the second scene (starting at 2:03) where the broker (Vin Diesel) is pitching a wealthy doctor on a hot stock. The first scene with Ben Affleck is entertaining, but there is less to be learned from it.

Here are some of the key sales tactics the broker used to persuade his prospect:

Tactic 1 - Position Power

The broker identified himself as "Chris Marlin". The name of the brokerage firm is JT Marlin, and he said that JT Marlin was his father. This immediately conferred an aura of credibility with the prospect.

Tactic 2 - Social Proof

People feel compelled to act as their peers do. The broker says that the stock is hot and lots of people are driving up the price. He demonstrates this by "opening his door" so the prospect can hear the activity on his "trading floor".

Tactic 3 - Takeaways

Instead of pursuing the prospect, the broker takes the sale away from the prospect twice:

• "Honestly Doc I don't have the time, this stock is blowing up right now."
• "I can't walk you through this right now, I am sorry."

Tactic 4 - Silence

After stirring the prospect's desires and doing two takeaways, the broker shuts up and waits for the client to make the next move.

Tactic 5 - Scarcity

By telling the prospect that the stock was selling like crazy, the broker sets the prospect up to believe that time is short and he better decide now, or the opportunity to get rich on the stock will be gone forever.

My Challenge To You

You can - and should - use all five of these tactics in your selling.

The challenge I make to you is to come up with powerful, truthful ways to use these persuasion tactics to significantly increase your sales power.

Some things, like artificial scarcity and obviously inflated titles, savvy prospects will see right through. But real scarcity and position power can be created with a little creative help from your management.

Also, you obviously shouldn't fake the sound of a live trading floor, but you certainly can get testimonials and customer cases studies to use as Social Proof.

As for silence, well you already know if you need to shutup more.

And takeaways I am not sure if you are ready for...