The Yes Set
Melissa wrote in and said, “I love your Selling System, but I’m having trouble with the Yes Set. You said establishing a Yes Set is extremely important in any Sales Strategies. Can you write more on the Yes Set and give more examples?”
The Yes Set
I wrote a lot about the Yes Set in a previous article, but here I’ll cover it in detail. The Yes Set is extremely important! It is just a process of asking question’s that are guaranteed to get the other person to respond with a yes.
I wrote Sales Scripts for many major corporations over the years. My research has shown that by utilizing the Yes Set in sales scripts, we were able to double our sales.
Psychology researchers have found that if you get a person to answer affirmatively to topics that relate, 7 to 8 time’s, you are almost guaranteed to get another yes! Why is that?
Why the Yes Set Works
We all have a conscious and unconscious mind. The conscious mind is bad at making decisions. The unconscious mind can make very complicated decisions in a second.
The Conscious Mind
Research has shown that the conscious mind can only process 5 to 9 idea’s at one time. If you are trying to get a point across to someone and they are trying to make a conscious decision they will soon become confused. When a person becomes confused they are inclined to just say No!
Everyone decides to agree with an idea for numerous reason’s. If they will only buy something if 5 specific needs are met and they can only process 5 topics at a time, it would be extremely hard to sell to them.
Let me use selling a TV as an example. These are the reason’s I would buy a TV:
- Need to be 100% sure it won’t easily break
- Need to be sure it won’t fall over on my daughter
- Need to be sure it will look nice for at least 10 years
- Need to be sure the picture is nicer than my current TV
- Need to be sure it can connect to the internet
If a sales person is trying to sell to my conscious mind and they talk about the:
- Sound System
- Remote Control
- Blu-ray Player
- Menu System
- Color
Am I going to buy this TV? Nope! So, you have to sell to the unconscious with the Yes Set!
The Unconscious Mind
People use their unconscious mind to make instant decisions. When a deer runs in front of your car, your unconscious keeps you from crashing. How does it do that? Your unconscious makes decisions based on rules and past experiences.
One of the rules that strongly governs the unconscious mind is the consistency principle. This principle states that a person will strive to remain consistent with their past decisions and statements. People that don’t are considered mentally ill! More on the consistency principle can be found here How People Make Decisions.
The Yes Set gets people to agree with you by:
- Accessing the unconscious mind, by placing them in a trance by asking simple question’s
- Making them believe they are answering consistent to their past responses
- Asking them question’s that will definitely return a yes response
- Gradually asking question’s that are less probable
Using The Yes Set to Sell
Using the Yes Set in sales just requires you to get the person to agree to a few simple question’s:
- How are you doing today, pretty good?
- Can you please sit down there?
- Is the temperature in the room comfortable?
- I see your looking at ( product you sell )?
- Are you comfortable?
Then you need the client to list the need’s the product or service must provide. Now ask repetitively if there are any other requirement’s.
After you have all of the need’s, get the client to prioritize those need’s. Which is most important? Which is second most important? Which is least?
To use the TV sale as an example, the sales man would then sell me by stating:
- Your daughter’s safety is most important right? (Yes)
- This mounting bracket will keep it out of her reach won’t it? (Yes)
- You also don’t want to worry about the set breaking right? (Yes)
- We guarantee it for 5 years against any damage. We could extend that to 10, like you asked right? (Yes)
- Etc……
If you get all the need’s qualified and the customer answers affirmatively that this product meets those need’s they will buy.
Question’s Guaranteed to Get a Positive Response
Some people have trouble thinking of question’s to ask that will get a positive response. Here are a few more that won’t fail you:
- Repeat back what they said to you
- Make a statement everyone agrees is true ( The weathers beautiful today, isn’t it? )
- Make a statement like, “better safe than sorry, right?”
- Give them a compliment they’ll agree with
- Reference a past experience everyone has had ( You remember what high school was like right? )
Start asking them question’s that are softened. You can easily do this by attaching the words:
- Perhaps
- Maybe
- Possibly
- Might
It’s hard to disagree with these word’s. They also will help the person to start imagining the good qualities about your product.
Establish a Yes Set without Questions
Some people have a problem getting people to agree with them, or they don’t know what question’s to ask. When you ask a question, do you notice how your tonality goes up at the end of the question?
If you use that upward tonality with any statement, the mind will see it as a question. When this tonality use is combined with a yes head shake you can guarantee a positive response. Just be careful to not look like a bobble head!
What if You Get a NO?
Many people freeze up if their Yes Set is broken with a no response. Don’t worry about it. All you need to do is jump back to a previous statement the customer agreed with.
If you get a no, that means you are just moving to fast to close the customer. You now know you need to move slower toward the close. Think of all customer interactions as feed back instead of an argument.
The Yes Set and Dating
This can also be applied to dating. Most men get so obsessed with getting a kiss they don’t move slowly toward it. You can slowly build physical interaction’s as well:
- When you meet shake hands and touch the elbow briefly
- When you agree with them lightly touch the forearm or shoulder
- When you are crossing the street, reach out and hold their hand
- When you agree again lightly touch the leg
- When you admire their ear ring, lightly touch the cheek
- Etc…
Force Someone into Trance
Some people won’t allow you to easily get them into a yes set. They will constantly be hitting you with question’s and interrupting you. One way to get them out of this mode, is to hit them with some Indirect Hypnosis.
One of the easiest ways to throw someone into trance is to make a statement that is hard to process. You can do this by:
Using homonym’s – word’s that sound alike, in the same sentence i.e.:
- Realize, Real Eyes, Real Lies
- Brake, Break
- Principal, Principle
- Their, They’re, There
- Stationary, Stationery
- Desert, Dessert
- Prey, Pray
Using Double Negatives also force people into trance. It’s best to use a double negative as you are looking or walking away from someone. i.e.. “Don’t not think about…”
Using overly complicated references can also throw someone into trance. i.e.. “My aunt told me his friend knows it’s time to relax when she sits in front of the tv.”
These are more complicated technique’s and if you have any question’s leave them below.
That’s All Folk’s
I hope you enjoyed learning more about the Yes Set. It is an extremely effective way to persuade people and it dramatically improves communication overall.
Here to Serve
Think Tank
4 Responses to “The Yes Set”
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Can you give an example of how you could throw someone into a trance to get them to say yes to almost anything? I’ve heard of magicians using this technique for getting people to straight up hand them their wallets and keys, but only noticing a few feet later.
It seems like if you can get someone into some type of auto-pilot mode… is this possible?
Yes this is completely possible. I assume you are referring to the Derren Brown wallet video. It is actually very simple. You have to mirror and match them while getting them to agree to progressively more convoluted ideas. Then change your position and see if they change along with you. If they do they are in a trance and will say yes to pretty much anything.
Now they won’t do anything harmful to themselves or others this quick, but this is the basis of brain washing which can lead people to do most anything. True brain washing is only possible by getting the person to believe that they must act in a certain way to remain consistent with their previous actions.
I have tons of articles on the consistency principle, nlp, sales, etc. If I haven’t covered something just ask and I’ll make another tutorial. The only thing I think I haven’t covered to completion is persuasive story telling, but I have done a good bit on it.
Glad to help
Love all of your work I am reading, watching, observing, attending anything to do with Motivation, sales techniques and methodologies. I have taken a lot of your advice and will try to implement it in my line of work I know there will be challenges but I believe if you follow the Yes Set will give you a fighting chance.I have even watched Glengarry Glen Ross, Thanks for sharing your inspirational work.
Kind Regards
Tyrone
Thanks Tyrone. I wouldn’t watch Glengarry Glen Ross to much though. It’s terribly depressing. I found it is extremely easy to sell if you just find products that you love. If you love your product, that will show in your presentations. The greatest salesman ever named Joe Girard believed GM made the greatest automobiles. When he no longer believed that to be true he stopped selling GM vehicles.
Now can you sell something that you don’t think is the best? Yes and I’ve done it. I did it by believing that the client wasn’t just buying the product, but also the best service guy ever being me. I figured that any inadequacies my product had, I more than made up for it with better service.
When you sell the best though you won’t have to take up more of your time providing service.
Either way if you follow the techniques I lay out here you’ll dramatically increase sales. I have tested all of this for over 15 years. I’m happy to be of help to you.