Leave It To The Future
Kenrick Cleveland
Future pacing is a bit of an advanced strategy in persuasion. It's not difficult to understand, but it is challenging to learn to do. It involves reminding your prospect or client about all the reasons they decided to buy your product or service and places reminders in the future, at which point triggers, which you've installed, can be fired off.
I do this every time I sell without thinking twice because it's such a powerful way to help your prospect or client lock in the decision no matter what outside influences say or regardless of the second thoughts they may have themselves.
Because this is a more advanced technique, I won't be going into it too deeply here, but giving you more of an overview and example of how this works. As a young man I used this to sell health spa memberships.
I had a customer come in one day, an eighteen year old, who wanted a membership. I didn't even have to sell him. He was ready to go.
After he signed the contract, I went through some future pacing and said, 'Imagine if someone tried to tell you that you that signing up with us was a bad decision and how stupid are you to pay for a membership, what would cause you to stay with the decision anyway?'
He said, 'I'm certain this is what I want. I've been wanting this a long time.'
I responded, 'Sure. Great. Suppose you began to doubt your decision. What would cause you to stick with it anyway?'
He replied, 'I know what I want. Nothing is going to make me doubt my decision.'
My phone rang later that day. It was the young man's mother. She said, 'You sold my son a gym membership today.'
I said, 'He came in and bought one, I didn't have to sell it to him.'
She said, 'Well, he may have wanted it, but I'd like you to cancel it. And please send me the notice that it has been canceled.'
I said, 'I'm sorry, ma'am. I can't do that. Your son is over the age of eighteen. I wouldn't have been able to sell it to him otherwise. He'll need to come in with the paper work within the 72 hour cancellation period and as the agreement says, we'll cancel it.'
'Okay, we'll be there tomorrow,' she said.
So in they come the next day together. His head was hanging low and he said, 'I need to cancel this, and I wanted to bring my mom in so she can see the club. Can I go work out today and show my mom through the club? And then I'll stop by on the way out and I'll cancel it?'
I said, 'Absolutely. Go right ahead.'
He went and worked out. And after he worked out, the kid ducked out the back and left his mom at the gym.
So she approached me and said, 'We need to get this canceled.'
I said, 'Sure. I'll be happy to take care of that for you. I'll need the contract.'
She said, 'I don't have it. He has it.'
'I have to follow the terms of the agreement. And I'm more than happy to cancel this membership, but I'm going to need that contract. So he has 72 hours, like I said, to come back in and we'll take care of that for you.'
The next day the kid comes in, brings the agreement and says, 'I'm supposed to give this to you, but before I do, can I just work out?'
I said, 'Sure. Go ahead.'
Again, he worked out, and again, he left without seeing me.
On the third, and final day, the mother dragged him in and yelled at him, 'Turn it over to him right now.' He hesitatingly handed it to me.
'Cancel it immediately,' she said.
I asked the guy, 'Do you want this contract canceled?'
'No,' he said. And an argument ensued. He was nearly ready to sever his relationship with his mother over the gym membership.
I realized at this point what had happened. This kid was unable to back out of the agreement because I had future paced his decision. I took the contract and canceled it immediately.
When you future pace something, you lock it into the mind of the person and I'm telling you right now that with the power of the strength of their own mind, you will have virtually locked them in.
Kenrick Cleveland teaches techniques to earn the business of affluent prospects using http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion. He runs public and private seminars and offers home study courses and coaching programs in http://www.maxpersuasion.com/ persuasion techniques.
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