“Kettling” and getting them to say yes.

As those of you who follow my Instagram (@BrokenSalespeople) know, I have just finished listening to Russell Brunson’s Expert Secrets . It is an amazing book, and I loved 99.99% of it. There was only one small section I kinda disagreed with, and it was the section on trial closes.

In it, Russell talked about how he tries to get people to keep saying “yes” during his webinars. That is not quite what you are really looking for. Getting them to say yes, over and over again, is problematic.

With all the protests going on, I became familiar with the term “Kettling”. This is when police try to keep protesters confined to a limited area. The protesters end up surrounded on all sides by police officers in close proximity. This sounds like a great tactic on its surface, but it leads to drawbacks. People do not like feeling trapped. When that happens, you often see protests go out of control.

When people feel trapped, they tend to have an adrenaline response of fight, flight, or freeze. On average, 4% of people have a “fight” response. When that happens, all the police respond in force. When that many police respond with force, more protesters see violence as the only option. Things always tend to escalate accordingly.

The problem with asking “yes” questions over and over is that people feel trapped. They feel kettled. When that happens, people will often either have a Fight (Say no or be overly objectionable), Flight (Run away from the deal) or Freeze (Say I will think about it) response.

Everyone who thinks they know sales knows the “get them saying ‘yes’ early” technique. The problem is when people notice it, they clam up. Their Spider Sense goes into overdrive and they sense that something is off about what you are offering them.

Rather than seeking a “yes”, simply seek agreement. You can seek agreement in both positive or negative directions. Try things like this.

• Do you really have the time for that?

• Is that any way to live?

• Do you like having to ______ every time?

Chris Voss, former lead FBI hostage negotiator and author of Never Split the Difference, is a big proponent of this method. He has worked on this for years, and discovered that by giving the hostage taker the option to say “no” it alleviated a great deal of pressure on the situation.

You need look no further than politics. One of the most common tactics to build consensus is getting people to agree on what they DON’T WANT. Try watching the conventions and look for “no” questions. How many times do you hear phrases like “Can America really afford to have Biden/Trump and his Leftist/Fascist policies?” during any given speech. Say what you will about either candidate, but you do not get a presidential nomination without extremely above average persuasion techniques.

If you are afraid of hearing “no”, people will sense it. Embrace any answer that builds common ground. It will make your customer much more comfortable and result in more sales.