It’s a fact that people are less likely to interact with salespeople because they feel some sort of unfamiliarity. That is why you as a person who sells need to establish some sense of familiarity or trust that will get them to accept or acknowledge what you have to offer. Telling us to put hands behind your back, Ken takes us into doing this by sharing a story on how he gave a person some pointers to successful business marketing, laying some fundamentals that will show us some trick or two on how to do it ourselves.
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Hands Behind Your Back
This episode is titled Hands Behind Your Back. Kerri and I were in Vegas and we’re at an event. We were mentoring a group. In our downtime, as we typically do, for those of you that know my wife, we go shopping or I should say Kerri goes buying and I tag along like a stray puppy dog. As we were in the crystal shop next to Aria, we walked in and Kerri immediately spots a store that has new bathing suits. Kerri saw the bathing suit from a distance and I could tell she liked it because I liked it too and it was blue. That’s her favorite color.
As we were going in, I know, “This is going to be fifteen to twenty minutes.” I looked around and they didn’t have a chair. They didn’t realize that husbands need a place to sit. I started standing at the door of the store facing out and I was looking at the other stores because I’m nosy. I like to see how signs are displayed and I’m curious by nature. Directly across from this store, there was a gal and she was standing dead center of the doorway. She had a piece of paper in her hand. It’s held out ahead of her chest, straightforward, 8×10 piece of paper and to every single person walking by, she’s saying something. I cannot tell what she was saying, but it’s got something to do with like, “Would you like a free coupon?” or “Would you like this gift?”
I’m not exaggerating, 30, 40 or 50 people walking by moved away from her physically. Even shifted the path they were walking in to get away from this person. She was going to go over all day long, over a hundred, over a thousand, no question. I couldn’t help it. I had to walk across and I said, “Can I ask you a question?” She was like, “Sure.” I said, “I’m a sales consultant in my day job. Would you like a few pointers on how to interact with people in a retail space?” She was like, “I’d love it, yes. They didn’t give us much training. I saw you watching me. I was embarrassed, but I’d love to know. What should I do?” I said, “Number one, you’re standing dead center in the middle of the doorway. It’s threatening and somewhat ominous. I don’t think you’re going to get much people walking in the store in general because you’re blocking the door.”
You’ve got to get people to start saying yes. Click To TweetShe was like, “They did tell us to stand in the door,” I said, “I understand, but I want you to try this. I want you to stand off to the side of the door and angle yourself on an inviting angle, so there’s even more room for people to come in in the doorway.” She looked at me funny. She was like, “Okay.” I said, “Number two, I want you to take that piece of paper and I want you to put it behind your back.” She was like, “Put it behind my back. Why?” I said, “Trust me, just put it behind your back,” and she put it behind her back. I said, “I want you to stand there, relaxed and I need you to understand this above all. When you ask someone a question, when they’re walking by, you cannot ask them any type of question that they can say no to. You don’t ever want to ask someone, ‘Would you like a sample?’ ‘No, thank you.’ ‘Would you like that?’ ‘No.’ You have to ask a question that you already either know the answer is yes to or you have to ask a question that’s somewhat open-ended like, ‘Are you from Illinois? Do you live in Las Vegas?’”
She goes, “What question would you use?” I said, “There’s no question. If I stood here looking, I know right now of a question that would get a yes out of everybody.” She was like, “What is it?” I said, “Let me ask you this one. When you came in here, was it cold out?” She said, “It was freezing this morning,” I said, “What I would do, because it’s somewhat chilly for a day in early May and we’re in the desert, in a low tone of voice, not with a fast-paced tone of voice, I would ask every person walking by, ‘I’m curious, is it starting to warm up outside?’” She goes, “Really?” I said, “Yes.” She goes, “Why?” I said, “I’d rather you try it and see what happens, but you’ve got to have your hands behind your back, hiding whatever it is that you’re displaying, so they’re not threatened.”
I said, “I don’t even want to tell you what to do next. You’re sharp enough to take it from there. Would you try this for me?” She goes, “Let me get this straight. You want me to stand off to the side, which goes against what my manager said.” I said, “Yes.” “I need to be on an angle so I’m inviting, with hands behind my back, which is strange, and I’m going to ask them, ‘I’m curious, is it starting to warm up outside?’” I said, “You got it perfect, but let me get back to my perch over there, 50 feet away. Have at it.”
I go across the hallway and she was looking at me. She let a few people go by because she was nervous, but then, all of a sudden, she says to this lady, “Just curious, is it starting to warm up outside?” The lady says, “Yes, finally.” The lady started walking right towards her and she started looking at me and I was like, “Don’t look at me, look at the lady.” Anyway, she quickly went back to the lady and she was like, “Great, it sounds good.” She remembered she had a piece of paper behind her, she was like, “Would you like a couple of coupons for our store?” The lady took the piece of paper, I was like, “Yes.”
Anyway, as you can probably imagine, I don’t even have to finish this. She had much better success with this fundamental. Let’s break this down and see how we can use this in your business, on your website, in your marketing materials, with your salespeople. The first question you’ve got to ask yourself, are you blocking home plate? Are you physically blocking the entry point? On a website, if you’ve got a shopping cart where you sell books, they’ve got to put the book in the cart. Number one, do you even have an inviting shopping cart? Is your shopping cart obnoxious? Do you have big red neon saying, “Buy now,” “Press here,” “Buy, buy, buy” or are you slightly standing on an angle and is your store somewhat inviting?
People have to become somewhat your friends before they take a step towards you. Click To TweetNumber two, are you off to the side and having an open door? Meaning is your website allowing people to come in? Is your pay-per-click campaigns or your Facebook ads inviting or are you obnoxious? Are you in people’s face with direct ads selling or are you inviting? The most important thing is this, when you first penetrate someone on Facebook, when you first penetrate someone to meet them in Google pay-per-click or with a search engine optimization campaign or through an email letter, are you asking questions that you already know the answer to or are you directly and immediately selling?
Are you always selling or are you adding value and asking soft open-ended questions as the opener to your funnel? I don’t want to go much deeper on this because you have the analogy. Everybody reading this is smart enough to take these nuggets. Are you blocking the home plate? Are you inviting? Are you asking open-ended questions or questions you already know the answer to because you’ve got to get people to start warming up. You’ve got to get people to start saying yes a little bit. They’ve got to become somewhat friends of you before they take a step towards you. I hope this helps. Take care.
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