You’re broke and you need this sale…

You need the commission.  You need the money.  You’ve got bills to pay — they’re already late.  You need the cash — yesterday.

And so you bring your A-game.  Your hustle.  You give your pitch everything you’ve got.

You know it’s not your prospect’s problem that you need money.

But you know that they have the solution.  If they’ll give you the order, you’ll be able to cover your bills and all will be good again.

Here’s why what I’ve just described is a death-trap when you’re selling…

Whether or not you actually admit to your prospect that you NEED to close this sale, they will know.

Here’s what the research says…

— 55% of your communication is in your body language…

— 38% of your communication is in your tone…

— And a mere 7% is in the words you say…

Which means: your prospect can smell your desperation.

Because even though 7% of your communication is that lie that you’re not desperate, 93% of what you’re saying (nonverbally) is screaming “I NEED THIS!”

And with all due respect to Mr. Ziglar, it’s actually desperate salespeople who have skinny kids.

Put a drop of blood in the water, and sharks will come.  Put a drop of desperation in your mindset, and your prospects will leave.

That’s how nature works.

You have to kill your desperation, or it will kill your sale…

Let’s say you’re pitching copywriting services.  You want the sale.  You need the sale.  You need to get this project, or else.

The natural tendency is to bow down to client demands…

— Can I start yesterday?  Sure!

— Can I also do these 15 other pieces of copy alongside the main project?  Okay!

— And will I take 40% off the price because of the possibility of future work?  Anything for you, client-with-cash.

That is absolutely the WORST thing you can do.

In fact, you’re much better off telling them they have to wait a month (or more), pay for every additional piece of copy (and every round of revision after the second), and to hold completely firm to your premium prices.

And — to threaten to walk at the very hint of balking…

Desperate salespeople see the check as the prize — they should see their offer as the prize…

Here’s some serious power dynamics stuff, that is applied in both ethical and unethical ways every day of the week…

I’ll speak about it in cold, clinical terms — but it doesn’t have to be cold or clinical, and in fact, it shouldn’t be…  IF what you’re offering is legitimately good for the other person, doing what I’m about to tell you is actually in their best interest (and that’s the only situation in which you should apply this).

When a transaction takes place between two people, there’s almost always a power play that happens.  One person is seen as having the power.  The other is seen as being deferential to that power, and serving it.

For most people, it’s subconscious.  It’s in that 93% of communication — back and forth — that doesn’t come out in words.

I’m the powerful one here, and you aren’t.  OR, I recognize and yield to your power in this situation.

And this is important.  In our society, all sorts of things convey power.  Many of them convey lifetime power, not just situational power.  (And NOTE: I’m trying to speak to the truth here, not telling you that this is right or wrong from a moral perspective.)  So, for example, men generally have more power than women.  Majority races have more power than minorities.  Wealth conveys power and status.  And so on.

But there’s also situational power.  In many situations, other power symbols are inherited, but can be overruled.

In modern America, a white man making a million dollars a year has nearly every type of social power over a black woman making $45k per year.  But when she’s a cop and she’s just been handed the arrest warrant for a crime he committed, suddenly the situational power has shifted dramatically.

But you don’t have to wait on this kind of externally-conveyed power-shift for you to take power in a selling situation.

Here’s how to take power in a selling situation…

Back to selling copywriting services — which is a good example because it’s personally relevant to so many of my readers.

If I’m selling copywriting services and I can make your business $1 million or more from a single campaign, our global power doesn’t matter that much.

You want the results of the campaign.  I want the fee (and royalties) from the campaign.

Both of us actually get something out of it.

And by choosing what to focus on, the situational power can shift dramatically.

If I focus on what I get, you have the power.  If I focus on what you get, I have the power.

It’s about what you make into the “prize” of the transaction.

Again, if the check you’re going to write me is the biggest prize I see in the deal, I’m giving you the power to choose whether or not to bestow that prize on me.

On the other hand, if my campaign and the results it can generate are the prize, I can choose whether or not I’m going to give that prize to you, or another client I may see as a better fit.

Whoever is in control of the prize has more power in a selling situation…

But it’s not just because they get to decide to give it.

No, it’s one step deeper than that.

Whoever controls the prize can decide NOT to give it.  They can take it away.

And the only reason they would decide to do that is because they are decidedly NOT desperate.

If you control the prize and you take it away, you’re decidedly secure in who you are and what you offer, and your control of the situation.

That is instant power.

Even if you feel desperate and in need of a situation on the outside, this is how you fix it and close the deal.

You make yourself the prize.  You dictate the conditions of the selling situation.  You pull away when they expect you to chase them.

Adopt this mindset, and practice it, and you’ll be able to sell nearly anything desirable to the people who would benefit from it.

Yours for bigger breakthroughs,

Roy Furr