If you love old school manipulative selling techniques (you know the ones, those that have given salespeople a reputation on par with thieves, ambulance chasers, and snakes), you’ll love The One Minute Closer: Time-Tested, No-Fail Strategies for Clinching Every Sale (Business Plus: 2008), by James W Pickens and Joseph L Matheny.
Seldom do I post a review of a book that I don’t find to be at least somewhat helpful, but The One Minute Closer is so bad, so destructive to the selling profession, and such a waste of money, that I believe I would be doing a disservice not letting readers know why they should avoid wasting their money and their time on this dreadful piece of trash.
According to the authors, The One Minute Closer is designed to relate the wisdom of over 50 ‘master closers’ from around the world that will teach salespeople the closing techniques that will turn them into master closers also.
In fact, what Pickens and Matheny have done is write a small book on how to be as unethical in sales as possible. This is a master course in deception, manipulation, lying, and impersonating sincerity. Despite the author’s claims, it is doubtful that many of the supposed ‘master closes’ presented would do anything more than alienate prospects at best and get you thrown out on your ear at worse.
The One Minute Closer is chock-full of wisdom such as
- “when the master closer asks his customer to purchase, he will intentionally lower his head slightly and get a few degrees below the eye level of his customer. Then as the customer considers his response, the closer will slowly bring his head up, almost unnoticeably, so his eyes are on the same level as the customer’s. Then, right at the exact second when the customer starts to make a sound, the closer will move his eye level up a few degrees above the customer’s eye level. At that point, he will keep his head and eyes steady. This very slight head and eye movement is magic. What it does to the customer is surprising. The customer, completely unaware of what the closer is doing, will automatically raise his head and eyes to meet the closer’s. This upward physical movement actually encourages the customer to give a positive response. This secret closing technique works, but the master closer has to be very subtle and deliberate in his movement. There can’t be any sudden movement that might alert the customer.”
- The “one dollar vs. one-hundred dollar close. In this close when your customer says they can’t make a decision, take out a one dollar bill and a one-hundred dollar bill and ask which one the customer would like to have. Of course, they’ll say the one-hundred dollar bill. You then say to your customer, “Mr Customer, don’t ever tell me again that you can’t make a decision, because you just did.”
- The “what would Jesus do” close. You use this close when your customer “is a Sunday go to meeting” type (throughout the book this level of respect for customers is demonstrated). You acknowledge that you know he is a fine Christian and state that you understand that he wants to be like Jesus, just as every good Christian does. You then tell the customer that you’ll give him your product or service free if he can show you anywhere in the Bible where Jesus said, “let me first ask my friend,” or “let me first ask my accountant,” or “I have to think about it.” You point out that Jesus never had to hesitate to make a decision on his own. According to the authors, after delivering this close, “The customer is stunned. The master closer has made such a strong and truthful point, the customer doesn’t know what to say.”
The above is just a small taste of the book’s BS. Sometimes when reading the book it is difficult to tell whether the authors are serious or are having a good laugh at how gullible some salespeople might be. If it weren’t so serious, this book would be hilarious.
This isn’t to say, however, that the book doesn’t have a small bit of useful information. It does. It’s just that the majority of the useful information is so basic and so intuitively obvious that it would be classified as common knowledge, such as ‘treat evey customer like a millionaire’ and ‘it’s difficult to dislike people who like you.’
Whatever you do, save your money, don’t buy this one.
Wow. Sounds epically bad. In fact it sounds like one of those books about pick-up lines that never fail or something!
Comment by Dave Sohigian — May 11, 2009 @ 7:19 am |
Wow! Love the review. I have not read the book and because of the title, I never would have. An associate suggested that this sounds about as helpful as a book titled “30 Second Listening.”
Comment by Jeff Garrison — May 11, 2009 @ 9:31 am |
Thanks for posting this. I despise this old manipulative approach to selling… though it gives some entertaining material for blogging about:
http://iloveclosing.com/2009/05/11/dictionary-of-sales-bull/
Sales as an industry desperately needs a makeover to catch up with its hip peers in marketing.
Keep in touch
TC
Comment by The Closer — May 11, 2009 @ 2:38 pm |
[...] their money and their time on this dreadful piece of trash.” You can catch the entire post here – I am off to buy the book and discover just how bad it [...]
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Thanks for saving me. I had this book in my “cart” for about as long as the title indicates. I removed it when I really thought about the title. How can you ethically close in a minute?! Your blog entry just reinforced my original gut feeling.
Comment by Jacki — May 27, 2009 @ 11:49 am |
Jacki,
I’m glad that I’ve helped save at least one person some money. There are so many great books on the market–unfortunately, there are even more terrible one and this one is about as bad as they get.
Paul
Comment by Paul McCord — May 27, 2009 @ 12:19 pm |
I thought the book was great. You guys who think you’re so sophisticated that you wouldn’t stoop so low as to use these closes are a hoot. I have a family to feed and by God I’ll use whatever works and let the buyer beware. Get off your high horse and get real. If I have to shame someone in order to get paid, I’ll do it. My job isn’t to be nice its to sell and some of the things that get the job done may not be to pretty but they work.
Comment by Art Martin — December 10, 2009 @ 6:27 pm |
Art Martin: It’s guys like you and James Pickens that have given salespeople a reputation as slimballs, because that’ what you are. Go back to screwing people with your broken down used cars, overpriced cancer insurance, diet suppliments that kill people, or whatever trash you ’sell’ or better yet, go get a real job and quit screwing with our profession.
Comment by David — December 30, 2009 @ 12:43 pm |