“The Powerful ‘Choice of Two’ Close” – Tony Pearl

For Today’s Tip, you’re going to learn a really simple yet powerful strategy for influencing people.

Used correctly, this ‘secret strategy’ will help you set more appointments, get faster decisions out of people, and avoid a ton of frustration & headaches…while keeping things moving in your life and business.

Ready? Let’s Go…

If you’ve ever done anything in sales, you’ll probably recognize this technique. It’s called the “Choice of Two” close.

You can use this in just about any situation where you need someone to make a decision for everyone’s benefit.

It Basically Works Like This:

You simply give your prospect a choice of two options to choose from for making a decision.

For example, let’s say that you’re ready to make an appointment to go meet a seller at the house they’re selling…

Most people usually like to ask something like “When can we meet?”

But if you do that, there’s no telling what kind of reply you’ll get.

They might just say something like, “Oooohhhh… I don’t know… when’s good for you?” or “Maybe next month.”

And that’s just very, very WEAK!!

A MUCH better way to handle it would be like this:
“Mr. Seller, let’s go ahead & set up a time when I can come out to the house, meet with you, take a look around, and get things worked out between us so that I can buy your house! Now, today is Monday…I can either come out later today, or would tomorrow be better for you?”

Do you see how professional, authoritative, and still respectful that is?

You’re taking charge of the situation, yet still helping them to feel like it’s their decision to make! From a psychological standpoint, this is HUGE.

The next part of this is to continue doing it until you have something definite nailed down.

Continuing this example, let’s say the prospect replied with “Tomorrow would be fine.”

Then you would say, “Great! Now, would your prefer to meet in the morning or the afternoon?”

They say, “Afternoon sounds better.”

You say, “No problem. I have either 2:00 or 5:00. Which fits your schedule?”

They say, “I think 5:00 is good.”

You say, “Perfect! I’ll be there by 5:00 tomorrow afternoon, ok?”

They say, “Ok!”

And you have an appointment set.

As I mentioned, this is very simple…yet powerful.

Another beautiful aspect of this technique is that it establishes YOU as the authority, and that raises your status in the interaction.

It’s important to know is that in sales, status is everything! If you have low status, you’re not going to sell anything. You’re just not going to have any success at all, because people will be looking down on you – sometimes with pity. If you’re coming across as begging or supplicating in any way, you’re done before you’ve even begun!

So, you’ve got to be the professional. You’ve got to take control of the situation and guide people through the process… Even when you don’t really know what you’re doing. Yes, you may have to “fake it ’till you make it” for a little while!

But guess what? The more you do that, the more something truly interesting happens…

Your confidence will grow. You’ll feel better about yourself. And more people will treat you with the respect you deserve.

So, it won’t be long before you don’t have to ‘fake it’ anymore!

Sound Good?

Excellent! Let’s continue with another example…

Imagine that you’re talking with a seller about which way you can do business – either rent with a lease purchase or buy with owner financing.
They’ve been going on a while about this or that, and you feel like they’re just about to give up because they’re so confused.

So, you can ask them a choice of two close question, such as this…
“Mr. Seller, let me ask you something. Would you rather I rent your house out from you or just buy it?”

Many times, they’ll come back with, “Well, I’d rather just sell it!”

So, you’d reply with, “Great, because I’d rather buy it!” Then you continue the discussion based on buying with owner financing, and go from there.

Another Powerful Benefit

Here’s another powerful reason why this works so well:

The more you give them a simple choice of two to choose from, they’ll be so focused on making a choice, they’ll totally lose sight of the fact that they don’t have to choose either one of them in the first place! They’ll often fail to realize that one of their choices is to not do business at all…because that choice is not on the menu!

Want An Example Of How To Use This In Your Personal Life?

Let’s say you want to take your spouse, child, or even a friend out for dinner. Most people might ask something like, “What do you feel like eating for dinner tonight?” How often does someone actually come back with a prepared response because they already know what they want? VERY rarely, right?

So, then what happens? They’ll say, “I don’t know. What do you want?” And away we go…and not in a good way!

So rather than do that, why not just take control of the situation by asking this ‘choice of two’ instead: “Hey, would you like Chinese or Italian for dinner tonight?”

Your dinner companion will usually either pick one of those or possibly propose something different…which is fine, because you avoided the dance of indecision.

Best of all, you won’t go hungry. 🙂

More Examples of WHEN To Use This Strategy

Here’s a few more examples of when you can offer a choice of two options:

• Making Appointments (Ex: Earlier in the week or later in the week?)
• Making Offers (Ex: Close now or later?)
• Choosing Which Method to Use (Ex: Lease Purchase or Owner Financing?)
• Getting Your Kids to Do Their Chores (Good luck!)
• Helping a Buyer Reach a Decision on What to Do (Ex. Keep throwing your money away on rent or rent to OWN?)
• Asking a Potential Private Lender if They Would Prefer Interest Accruing or Monthly Payments
• Anytime You Name Options and Need a Decision (This one or that one?)
• Making ANY Decision Where There’s Only a Handful of Options Remaining

As you can see, the “Either…or” concept or language pattern is such a great and simple strategy to use for so many things. You’re only truly limited by your imagination.

So, this concludes Today’s Tip! What did you think about this? Can you see yourself using this simple strategy for both business and your personal life?Can you see how this will help you avoid indecision on the part of other people, and help keep things moving forward a lot easier?

I can tell you from personal experience that this WORKS. Not only that, but it’s FUN!

So now it’s YOUR turn. Give this a go & let me know your success.

Last Tip: Practice and USE this EVERY DAY, and you’ll be an extremely effective (and pleasant) persuader & influencer!

In closing, let me ask you a question: Since you ARE going to use this strategy, would you rather start practicing TODAY… or would TOMORROW be better for you?

Until Next Time,
Tony Pearl