Why does someone refer you to his or her dentist? To help the dentist? Maybe, but more likely they refer you because convincing others to go to the same dentist supports the rightness of their own decision. Everyone wants to know they’re doing the right thing, and the other-purchase phenomenon supports their actions and gives them the reassurance that what they did earlier was correct. Find one woman walking down Rodeo Drive in Beverly Hills, carrying just one shopping bag. You probably can’t. They’ll all be laden with multiple bags. Case closed!
Another example of this is a customer who walks into a travel agency with the idea of taking a cruise. He spends four hours with the travel agent looking at all of the cruise line brochures while trying to figure out which package will best suit his needs. Should I go take a cruise to Europe, Mexico, Alaska, or the Caribbean? Should I take a five-day cruise or a two-week cruise? What is the best cruise line and who has the best ships? Once the customer decides on a destination and purchases the perfect cruise vacation, the climate is right for the travel agent to step in and offer additional products. There are accommodation upgrades from an inside deck cabin to an ocean-view suite, the island tour excursion package, travel insurance, airfare upgrades, and on and on. Because the customer has taken the plunge and bought the first item, he’s going to want to be right about his first decision, making him available to purchase additional products and services in order to support that initial decision.
I was raising money for my church and working on a prospect who had been very resistant to make any contribution. When I finally got him to agree to make a donation, I congratulated him. As I watched him write the check, I looked at him and said, “You know you’re going to do more than that before you die. Your heart’s in the right place. You’re a generous man. Why don’t you just do the rest now.” He looked at me and said, “You’re right.” He tore up the first check and wrote me another for twenty times the amount that he’d initially decided on!
If you’ve ever seen someone at a restaurant complain about the price of a steak, and then turn around and order a bottle of wine that’s twice the cost of the meal, you know what I’m talking about. Or how about the person who whines about paying ten bucks for a movie ticket and then spends another twenty on popcorn, soda, and candy? Have you ever heard a guy complain about how high his car payment is? This is the same guy who later customized the car with 22-inch wheels, a custom paint job, and a stereo system that you can hear from three blocks away! Of course, he had to charge it to his credit card at 18 percent, and the payments on the wheels, paint, and audio amount to more than the payments on the car. Yay for the second money! Learn this one and your life will change forever!
THE MORE THEY SPEND, THE BETTER THEY FEEL
Your prospect, regardless of what he says, always wants more, not less. Believe it or not, people love to spend money, and the more money they spend, the more they enjoy spending it and the more they will enjoy their decision. Show me one person who has ever come in under his or her budget when buying a home, car, furniture, equipment, clothes, a vacation—anything. That person doesn’t exist. Consumers want to take home lots of things, not just one thing. They want to brag to their friends and neighbors that they spent the most money and bought the most expensive thing. People love showing off. If they didn’t, there’d be no market for sports cars and designer clothing. Anyone can buy a leather purse that will last just as long as a designer handbag, but people know that the designer brand cost ten times more because of the label and insignia. This is America, a nation of consumers and one-uppers. Good or bad, we like to buy and we like to be seen buying. Therefore, the second purchase reinforces that the first purchase was the right decision.
Second money is easier to get than the first money. People will tell you, “Don’t get greedy; don’t complicate the close, just finish it or you might blow the deal with your attempts to get the second money.” Nonsense. That kind of thinking is for the little, mediocre salespeople of the world, not for you! Second money is for those who want to take their game and their income to the next level and want to do it in half the time.
You’ll spend 90 percent of your time eating the main course and 10 percent eating the dessert. Get the first sale wrapped up and then focus on the second sale—it’s the dessert.
This is a monster technique that works like magic. All a salesperson has to do to unlock the door of second money is get over his own fear of blowing the deal by asking for it!