Habit 7—Using Tension as a Tool

Also known as “sale ends Saturday.”

We all roll our eyes at the television commercials that regularly scream, “Everything must go … going out of business … no reasonable offer refused … sales ends Saturday.” We know from experience that these people have a going out of business sale every week. We know that every week brings us the opportunity to experience “pricing never before offered”—and it leaves us flat. We all have a built-in BS detector.

What is being used here is tension as a sales tool, specifically, the concept of coercive power. At its most basic level coercive power is simply brute force—being the biggest, meanest SOB in the valley—and it can generate compliance. In sales, coercive power is embodied ...

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