How do you sell to someone who already has all the answers?
There I stood, in the middle of the courtroom, before a village judge, without an attorney, cross-examining a local police officer on the stand, explaining to the court that, according to how the New York State Vehicle and Traffic Law regarding red signals was written, I hadn’t, by definition, run a red light.
After which the judge picked up his book, in true “kangaroo court” style, and threw it right at me with a resounding “GUILTY!”. And, yes, it was a direct hit, hard enough to jolt me awake from this daydream I had wandered into reading this actual section of Vehicle and Traffic law while studying the official books, trying to beat the ticket I had been issued just days before in a trial that would happen a few weeks hence.
Listen to the audio version of this article here:
Yet still, I imagined this worst-case scenario. And I’m happy I did.
Little did I know that this daydream would become an important lesson in sales, one which I would use to succeed in selling after I went to court for real and argued my case at trial, with no attempts to plea bargain as I’d done for any other citation I’d received in the past, having felt powerless to do otherwise.
This time, and for once, YOURS TRULY had the power!
I later ended up winning that case as I detail in full in a few of my written and spoken works. It’s quite a story of how I actually proved my case, was awarded the judge’s ruling in my favor, and how I defeated “kangaroo court” by proving it not to exist in the first place (at least at the traffic court level).
All by myself. All while gaining a keen understanding of the difference between successful and unsuccessful selling.
While you’ll have to read or listen to some of my training materials for the full story (it’s a really good one actually, worth chasing down and checking out), I will tell you all about the outcome and why I was able to not only win, but revolutionize what it takes to get people to agree with what you’re selling.
And it all has to do with an answer to this one question:
How do you sell to a person who has all the answers?
Well, here’s that very answer…
Attorneys don’t argue (contrary to their calling it that). They SELL!
You can’t argue someone into buying who has his mind made up on the subject any more than you can prove innocence to a judge who has already made up his mind that you’re guilty.
I’ve often used the phrase “kangaroo court” (I think a college friend of mine first taught me what that meant) when referring to courts I’ve had to appear in, claiming (if only to myself) that there are no winners and the judges already have their decision made before hearing your argument.
I later realized this wasn’t so, especially after my big win against a police officer who had ticketed me for allegedly running a red light in his two-stop-light village, and that this is a concept forwarded by people who didn’t know how to argue their case and lost.
But why they lost was because they argued. They didn’t know how to sell.
And selling is what it takes to win.
Losing in a court situation like that is tantamount to sales failure when you’re “selling” to someone who believes they have all the answers! In kangaroo court (and you can look it up in the dictionary) the judge already has all the answers before he even hears your case, the decision made before any due process is even begun, let alone carried out.
Knowing this gave me all the power.
For, now I know that people who “have all the answers already” hold the power to keep you from closing the deal, being supremely disinterested in buying from you.
How I knew I could convince the judge and win the case…
Admittedly, I didn’t go into this situation with any more than resentment of having been pulled over and ticketed, a determined, if cocky spirit to argue my rightness and the fact that I felt I was a good enough writer to have prior passed a final exam in a college subject I never even studied.
I had already won big in college English Literature when I hadn’t done any of the work all semester and aced the final, securing a high mark (and complimentary comments by the professor) by writing a comparative essay based upon two works I hadn’t read but whose class discussions I was able to recall in vague detail.
But then the daydream.
I really played out, in my head, the entire scenario and saw myself losing, even despite the deep conviction of my ability AND EVIDENTIAL, CONCLUSIVE PROOF I was in the right.
Primarily, the law was not on my side and the whole “innocent until proven guilty” thing, while a nice idea on aged parchment penned by our forefathers, has no apparent place in traffic court.
I knew that I was up against people who were on the side of the law and that the majority of those who entered the court for trial had broken the law and were only trying to convince the court otherwise.
Who could blame them for leaning toward a “kangaroo” system? Have you heard some of the lame arguments people give?
So, I knew going in that I couldn’t just walk in there with my claims. I needed to understand true persuasion, (i.e. selling). And this was the first phase of my victory!
How I knew I could win ultimately came down to the fact that the law was written in such a way that, if I could just get the agreement of officer and judge alike on the actual facts of the incident, it would become inarguably clear to them that I was innocent and charges should be dropped.
And, as you’ll find out when you read or listen to the full story at some point, I did end up winning that case in a landslide victory, a moment of triumph that seemed trivial at the time, but which provided me with a valuable lesson in selling I’ve been taking to the bank ever since!
I am so grateful for having allegedly run that light in front of an observant cop!
The Secret Courtroom Tactic That Will Win the Sale EVERY TIME!
Why the heck is this a secret?
Regardless of why, this is one secret I’m definitely not keeping. I’ve been blabbing about it to clients, colleagues and associates, (anyone who will listen really), ever since discovering it because it’s so ridiculously simple.
What did I do in court?
I started with the end result I wanted with the judge and worked backward.
That’s it. That’s the secret.
I know… It doesn’t sound like much of anything!
But it’s EVERYTHING a well-closed sale is made of and will serve anyone well who can master it.
While I’ll spare you the details and particulars of how I did it, I will tell you that this is as easy to mess up as it is to accomplish, simply because it’s a matter of getting this one detail very right:
WHAT IS THE ACTUAL END RESULT NEEDED TO ACHIEVE?
See, it wasn’t just that I needed to convince the judge that I was right, something most would likely assume going in. You have to examine the end result and check it to make sure it plays out the way you want things to turn out.
From this, I found out I just needed to convince this judge that the facts of the case happened the way I said, corroborated by an agreeing police officer. Once that was done, when the actual law was re-read by the judge, there would be no question of my innocence.
And there wasn’t as it turned out. I received a verdict of NOT GUITY!
And that may be one of the best sales I’ve ever made or at least a sale that’s become the model of every sale I’ve made since!
Again, I highly recommend you hear the entire story. It’s quite an accomplishment, especially for a 26-year-old, but also represents quite a sales playbook technique like no other!
So, how DO you sell answers to people who don’t have questions without having to go through a courtroom trial?
It’s easy.
That doesn’t mean it won’t take work, but it’s simple and easy to master.
You just need to understand that people already have their minds made up about things before you even approach them, and you will need to find out something about that if you’re ever going to get them asking you the questions they don’t yet know to ask, ones which conclusively demonstrate their genuine interest.
By working backward from the end result you desire, you can figure out the steps you’ll need to take with someone. This is what most of the works I have released on the subject cover in great detail.
In this case, by gaining an understanding of what they already think they know on the subject, you’ll discover exactly why they aren’t wondering about it.
And THAT is something you can use.
If you then can make them curious about some things they didn’t already know, you can get them to ask YOU questions about it and start showing interest. And you’ll have them right where you need them, in a secure place with you as the source of the answer, before they can ever search Google or whatever “sources” they use to satisfy their curiosity.
If you can get them into question mode, you can elevate their interest to look at your product or service as an answer.
That’s not what we call an “easy sale” but what we simply call a “sale”… period.
If a sale seems difficult, it’s not a sale. It’s a sale or it’s not.
So, you’ll be happy to know sales are easy!
And there is how sales are made, even to people who already have all the answers!
Any questions?
For further study, I recommend my short, 1-hour introductory lecture and transcript on the subject “Stop Pitching and Make Way More Sales” which you can pick up in my bookstore here.
Comments are closed.