would perhaps come back with, “No, sir – it is a GOOD reason – at least to me.” Twist your words in such a manner that they bring out “Yes” answers. “I’d like to help you build your butter -and- egg business, and you want to do that, don’t you?” says our Bickley salesman to his tough prospect, who must say “Yes” to this approach. “Have you changed your mind about carrying our butter and eggs?” gets a ready “No.” No man changes his mind - or wants you to feel he does. Times When You Want A “No” Few hotel proprietors want to hear “No” from their guests, yet often they realize that the only way they can improve their service is to find out the things that upset a guest. While developing selling language for Hotels Statler to help improve their service and further refin e their contacts with guests, we hit upon this question to get a “Yes” response: “I am sure everything is satisfactory with your stay?” This positive attitude caused many guests to say “Yes,” because it was a leading question; and it was much better, we thought, than, “Is everything satisfactory?” which would open the way for some people to complain. But we quickly learned that the sentence “high - pressured” many guests into saying that everything was satisfactory; they would carry their grievances in their minds and on another trip would stay in a competitor’s hotel. It was important to find the annoyances that creep into any hotel, no matter how carefully it is run. A dropping water faucet, a noisy electric clock, a rattling window – all can be corrected so that they stop annoying the guest and preserve his patronage. Therefore we constructed the following sentence and tested it. The sentence permitted the guest to offer a complaint if there was one or to say that everything was fine. The sentence was: “Do you like this room, sir?” (“Do you like the dinner, sir? and so on.) It is a simple sentence. Perhaps that is why it is working so successfully. We tried the sentence, “Is the room satisfactory, sir?” but the word “satisfactory” proved difficult for the bellmen to say, believe it or not! This incident, of course, indicates there are exceptions to the rule of getting people to say “Yes,” for often you really appreciate a sincere “No.” On the whole, however, if you want to get along better with people, especially those you are selling or those you have friendly social arguments with, always bear in mind:
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