The Jedi mind trick
Written by Jamie May
It’s called the Jedi mind trick because it is so effective in negotiation. When I was taught this I was asked to promise not to use it on family and friends because you can manipulate people with it when you learn it.
When facing an objection use the acronym W.I.O.C. or Welcome, Isolate, Overcome, Close.
To understand how this works you must understand that people can lie up to a thousand times a day. This is not necessarily to be malicious, it may be being polite, for example ‘yes, your tie looks great’.
So, if you understand that the first objection in a sale is often a polite ‘social lie’. They are telling you no to be polite. These social lies make so many sales people give up. But it’s not even the real reason. So we need to get past the social lie and speak to the real person about the real problem.
First we Welcome the objection. “Look I understand that you need to talk to your wife before you can buy these jeans”.
Second we Isolate the social lie, we get it out of the conversation “Let’s assume that your wife says she likes the jeans and put that aside a minute, is there any other reasons you wouldn’t buy the jeans?’
Third we Overcome, that means now we can uncover the real objections, the real reason they wont buy and handle the actual objections. It’s nearly a truism that the first objection is nearly always a lie. Get used to it, they are doing it to be polite. So now the prospect may say ‘I prefer boot cut jeans’, or ‘I always buy Levi’s’ or whatever else there may be. And you can handle the actual objections
Finally because we have overcome the actual objections and Close, we can ask for the sale. “As you’ve said you are happy to try our brand of jeans and there’s no other reason you wont buy, great, cash or card’.
In the words of Master Yoda:
‘Understand your fear I do’ (welcome the objection)
‘Let go of your hatred’ (Isolate the lie objection)
‘This is the product you are searching for’ (Overcome the true objections)
‘Contract, shall I prepare’ (Close)
