Meghan called. She was a high school senior, my daughter’s friend and highschool classmate. She had a summer job selling for the CutCo Knife Company, and wanted to make a presentation to us in our home.
I said, “Yes,” although my wife was uncomfortable that she might have to say, “No,” to Meghan. So she arranged to be out of the house when Meghan arrived.
On the appointed evening, Meghan carried her hefty sales case through the front door and set up on the dining room table. While she was unpacking her wares, she asked me if I would please get her a glass of water. I did, and when I returned to the dining room and sat down, she asked me to get the knives we currently used and bring them in.
I went back to the kitchen and returned with the knives. When she was all set up, she asked me, “How would you describe your current knives?”
“Old, dull and inadequate,” I said.
“Why do you say that?” she asked. I described how hard it was to keep them sharp, how some of the blades were so old they were worn thin, and how some of the blades wobbled in their handles.
She pulled a length of rope from her case, and asked me to cut it with my sharpest knife.
“My sharpest? That’s not saying much,” I said, taking my grandfathers old carving knife that was probably a good 70 years old. It had a hardwood handle.
Meghan held the rope down on a cutting board that she pulled from her bag. “Count the movements back and forth,” she said.
I began to saw. It took fourteen saws.
“Now hold it down for me,” she said. She picked up one of her new knives from a wooden block. I grabbed one of the lengths and held it down. “You’re stronger than I am, but count the saws it takes me with this knife,” she said.
It took her four.
“Let me try that,” I teased her, as if she had done something slick. I took the knife from her while she held the rope down on the cutting board. Expecting it to be difficult, I pressed hard with the new knife and sawed through the rope in two strokes.
I was impressed.
Meghan asked me to bring my best pair of kitchen scissors to the table. They were also old, and could not make a dent on the rope. She got out her CutCo scissors, and not only cut through the rope with ease, she also cut a penny in half.
I was pretty much sold. She gave me information about the steel and the handles. She showed me the different sets I could buy. My wife came home and I called her in to the dining room. She sat down reluctantly, and I asked Meghan to do the rope trick. She had my wife count the strokes, etc. etc. and I saw my wife change from skeptic to true believer in a matter of seconds.
“Do the scissor trick,” I said. Meghan cut the rope and the penny. I saw Sharon’s eyes wander over to the full set of kitchen knives displayed on the table in a butcher block case.
We ended up buying all the kitchen knives and a set of 12 steak knives. They remain in their butcher block on the kitchen counter seven years later.
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Selling by telling is what most of us do. But selling by doing is more powerful because it’s active and experiential. You could say that conversation is also experiential (in that we experience it) but words are more likely to get caught in the filters of the mind and not reach the muscles.
I know of one law firm that goes to major corporations who are shopping for a new legal advisor, and begins by saying, “We can do the March of a Thousand Slides, or we can have a discussion about your issues so you can get a feel for what it’s like to work with us.”
More often than not, the clients look at each other and choose to have the discussion.
An active audience is more likely to be moved than a passive. Hitler knew this, unfortunately, and had his followers do their “Sieg heils,” throughout his speeches.
Meghan was trained by a very successful company. She got me to do things—bring water, bring knives. She got me to say things, “Old, dull and inadequate.” She had me cut rope, and compare the old with the new. It was sensational—literally sensational—in that it gave me a sensation, like driving a new car after you’ve been driving your old one for 10 years.
Plus, she was Meghan, my daughter’s friend, and the daughter of my friend Merrill. She was in a strong position to win my business.
According to Robert Cialdini and others, there are at least 25 proven Principles of Persuasion. Meghan may have invoked 7 in her brief visit to our dining room.
What can we as business speakers, and as sales professionals, learn from this exchange? Stay tuned for more.