Hard selling has had a bad reputation these days. Every sales trainer and newbie sales rep is standing tall, claiming hard selling is through. They will tell you that might have used to work in the 1970's, but today's prospect is smarter, your product is different, and so on.

But the truth is, hard selling is more important than ever. Most of the proponents of soft selling are those who never really sold. At best they were over paid order takers during the last boom cycle. When a prospect is chasing you down with a hand full of cash, it doesn't take any selling to get the order.

Now that the economy has gone from expansion to contraction, sales skills are once again needed. Especially how to close the deal.

To open with cold calling or leads, you need to use stealth. In all actuality, the fake enthusiastic sales pitch opening has never worked effectively... not in the 1950's, and especially not now. The only correct way to open a sales call is with a real conversation.

The famous Chinese axiom goes "dress like a pig to catch a lion."

This could literally be the definition of cold calling!

Just like pick up lines don't work when trying to ask a girl (or guy) on a date, cheesy openers don't work for getting sales. To open a conversation you need to start with an indirect question or observation. This gets the conversation started.

Once, you get the prospect to start talking, you need to become the detective. Gently probe for clues about their needs, wants, frustrations, embarrassments, failures, difficulties, etc. Some of these will be obvious, some you'll have to read between the lines, and others you will have to create (this ability is the sign of a master sales professional!)

When you have uncovered the real, emotional trigger, you then proceed to aggravate this pain to make sure it is the real one and then summarize it and see if they agree. If they do, you got the right hot button.

Next, you want to match only the benefits of your product or service that correspond directly with the emotional trigger you discovered in the previous step. Offer the solution you provide and frame it to them as:

"You have a problem. Lucky for you, I have the exact solution. It's a good thing we talked today."

Sounds cheesy? No way. When a doctor tells you she found a lump under your skin and she can remove it with a new procedure and reminds you how lucky you are that you went in that day... is that cheesy?

Didn't think so.

Now many sales professionals mistake hard selling for sleazy selling. This is because a real blockbuster sales close is transparent. Meaning, you never knew you were being sold anything. You came to the conclusion to buy by yourself.

Look at the master sales professionals out there. They are the billionaire investment bank brokers, the software entrepreneurs who get 8 figure contracts, the oil executives who get rights to entire gas fields in unstable countries.

Do you think they got to that position acting like a little mouse, asking politely if they could maybe do business one day? No way, they are the definition of hard sell closers.

That bad misconceptions you might have had came from those who were never good at selling. Usually they were selling you pyramid schemes, used cars, phone service, and other entry level sales positions.

The famous sales trainer J. Douglas Edwards used to say the only difference between a salesman and a con-artist was the product.

If you are selling a product you truly believe in to a prospect you know needs it, then it's your obligation to do everything in your power to close that sale... and yes, that means the hard close.

Hard selling simply means not stopping till you get the order. It's like the line from the old Sinatra song, "your persistence wore down my resistance."

The debate over hard selling versus soft selling will go on for a while. You might even go back and forth depending on the sales position you're at and how much you believe in your product, but always remember, your customer doesn't win unless they exchange their energy for their desires.


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In closing sales, which technique is more effective...

The hard sell or the soft sell?

The hard sell takes chutzpah.

The sales professional is determined their prospect absolutely needs their product and will get great benefit from it. The hard sale practitioner will go for the throat until the sale is made.

Some sales will be lost.

Others will be made.

The real question is whether the sales were made BECAUSE of the hard sell, or regardless of it?

For most of us in sales, we've seen miracle stories of a sales pro who took the most difficult prospect, overcame every possible objection, and saved the day with the sale no-one thought was possible.

We were mesmerized.

This guy (or gal) must have some special trick or technique. Obviously.

No one else would have been able to sell this difficult prospect.

But what about the opposite?

How many times have you seen (or maybe personally experienced) a WILLING buyer, cash in hand, turned off because of the hard sell.

You know who I'm talking about.

The one who would have bought regardless of the salesman. The one who just wanted someone to take his order. The one who was pre-sold before you ever met him.

But you couldn't resist. You pulled out all of your training. The questions. The "yes three times". Even worse... the canned closes. (Please tell me you didn't try the Benjamen Franklin close with the line down the middle)...

And what happen?

Your willing buyer turned around and walked out... WITHOUT buying!

Am I saying the hard sell doesn't work?

Of course not.

I've seen it work way too many times to discredit completely.

But from what I've gathered... it works only in certain situations... to an extent.

In my opinion, the hard sell works great when you have an indecisive buyer, with a pocket full of cash and no idea of what they want. We all saw this type of consumer during the run up of the bubble. "I just want to buy something" was their mantra and the hard sell worked beautifully on this type of prospect.

Fast forward to the current economy. That type of buyer is long gone. Their pocket full of money is GONE. The only one's buying right now (almost) are the prudent consumers. The one's who smell sleazy salesman from a mile away... which is also why they still have money to spend.

The old Wall Street adage still holds true today, "a fool and his money are soon separated." And as a sales professional, that means the fools are gone, or better stated: the easy money is gone.

Now you're dealing with prudent, intelligent, buyers who understand all their options. They know your competition. And worse of all (for us sales people)...

They have all the time in the world to make their buying decision.

Here's where soft selling comes in. You DON'T go for the throat. You provide value in the form of service, consistency, information, and dependability. If you are the best at what you do or sell, show your prospect with cold FACTS. Don't hype them, they can see right through you. Show them with proof, and lots of it.

Give them everything you possibly can in terms of value. If you charge 10% more than your competitors, give them at least 30% more value.

This is not an economy you want to focus on the quick buck.

Soft selling will get you through this slump and back on top by focusing on the CUSTOMER, not you. Your soft sell approach should incorporate value with consistency... the key to ALL success. Keep yourself on your prospect's doorstep day-in-day-out with useful information, service, and most importantly, a smile (as cheesy as that sounds, it's the best way to open ANY door)

Your prospect will appreciate your effort (and consistency because your competition isn't sticking around too long) and will reward you with their business.... over and over.

If you're currently using the hard sell and aren't getting the results you want, try the soft sell technique for closing sales. See if that doesn't improve your business in a short period of time.
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