Love Zig Ziglar. In my early 20’s I had a ton of his stuff on cassette and would regularly drive around and listen to him, Brian Tracy and anyone else I could get my hands on.

One piece of sales advice that he talks about in his book, “Secrets of Closing the Sale” has always stuck with me. For whatever reason it just made sense to me. It’s one of the lessons he learned as he and his wife (The Redhead) were buying their first home in Dallas.

When they began looking they had agreed on their top price. They then agreed that if the PERFECT home came along they could go $20,000 higher. That was truly their MAX price. No more.

Well, seems the Redhead found one she liked. Actually, she LOVED it. It was perfect. Had everything they would ever need. One problem. . .it was $18,000 higher than their MAX price. The extra $20k they talked about only if they found the PERFECT house? Yeah, $18,000 higher than that. Now, keep in mind, this is 1968. That $20k and then the extra $18k was significant.

Here’s the key though. Salespeople listen up. The Redhead loved this house. She needed to make the sale to Zig on why they needed this house. However, the sale she needed to make was only $18,000. They had already agreed on their top price AND they had already agreed if the house was perfect (and they both thought it was) that they would go $20k more. She didn’t have to sell that. The only SALE that had to take place was the $18k they hadn’t agreed on. Zig explains it like this:

If you are in real estate and the prospect tells you he can go one hundred and forty thousand dollars for a house, then as a practical matter you have just gotten an order for $140,000. Your “selling” takes place only in the sense that you have to “sell” the prospect on a particular house in a particular location and then you have to “sell” the owner on accepting your buyer’s offer, which is almost always lower than the asking price.

Your major selling takes place when you find what the buyer wants and needs, but at a price tag of $170,000 instead of the $140,000 which your prospect says is his maximum price. If you clearly understand that you need to make a $30,000 sale and not a $170,000 sale, your task will be much easier. Actually, your prospect “bought” $140,000, and you had little or nothing to do with it. His “needs” made the purchase from you or someone else mandatory.

The same thinking needs to be applied to any product on the market. If your prospect wants to invest X dollars but his needs come to X-”plus” dollars, then your real sale is the amount beyond what the prospect had already committed, in his own mind, to invest.

Think about it. If I’m in the market for a $15,000 car and I go and buy a $15,000 car. No sale was made. I simply went and picked out what I wanted in my price range. Now, if I buy an $18,000 car then a $3,000 sale was made.

It goes beyond money by the way. I just met with a guy who needs to get some things accomplished at work. The folks he works with are already committed to do certain things. Those things are given. The sale he has to make is anything over and above what they’ve already committed to do.

So, let the selling begin!

Hey salespeople, what are some of your favorite sales tips?

By Zig Ziglar / Published by Berkley Publishing Group / Copyright © 1984 by Zig Ziglar