Don't use this stupid sales tactic

A while back, I read an article by a sales expert (I don’t recall the author) who suggested that sales people could close more deals by using the “Yes, no, yes, yes, yes” tactic.

He suggested that sales people ask their prospects a series of questions that would be answered with: “Yes, no, yes, yes, yes.”

He felt that it was important that a prospect say “no” early in the sales process because everyone who is tasked with a buying decision feels compelled to say no at least once. The last question was a closing question and because the prospect was now used to saying yes, he or she would automatically say yes when asked to make a buying decision.

“What a load of crap,” I thought.

Flash forward to a recent negotiating skills workshop I was conducting and a participant admitted to being trained on this tactic.

He said, “…and we spent a lot of time role-playing this tactic during the training.”