If the whole process of the sale could be summed up in just one logical statement at closing, it might occasionally be practical for the salesman to apply reasoning with good effect to help him secure the decision.  But the four steps, first and second premise, argument, and conclusion, must be applied to every point that is made with reasoning.  Since the force of the conclusion is largely lost unless the major premise is an absolute truth recognized by everybody, there is danger of confusion, and no possibility of convincing the prospect by such methods.  Besides, a multitude of reasoning processes would be necessary to cover all the points presented by the salesman and all the objections raised by the prospect.  Moreover, as we have seen, the whole procedure of “a logical close” falls back upon itself unless everything the salesman hopes to prove was known and admitted to be true before he began to reason it out.

[Sidenote:  Favorable Decision Defined]

Favorable decision is the prospect’s mental conclusion that it is better to buy than not to buy; better to accept than to refuse. The process of securing decision is not complex; it is very simple.  As has been said, the salesman needs only to weigh before the mind’s eye of the prospect the favorable and unfavorable ideas of the proposal. Any weighing of two mental images always results in a judgment as to which is preferable, or that one course of action would be better than the other. The mind is never so exactly balanced between contrasting ideas that it does not tip at all either way.

[Sidenote:  Weighing Ideas of A Steak]

The skill of the salesman weighmaster, used legitimately before the mind’s eye of the prospect to tip the scales of decision to the favorable side, is illustrated in the story of a butcher who had been asked by a woman customer to weigh a steak for her.  He knew that the weighing process in her mind included more than the balancing of a certain number of pounds and ounces on the scale.  Against the reasons for her evident inclination to take the selected steak, she would weigh its cost, her personal ideas of its value, and other factors of the high cost of living.

[Sidenote:  Skillful Close of The Sale]

The butcher wished to bring her quickly to a favorable decision.  He wanted to make up the customer’s mind for her in such a conclusive way that she would be prevented from hesitating over the purchase.  As a weighman of pounds and ounces he only wanted to show the prospect that he was honest.  But in order to tip the buying scales in her mind he put into the balances, on the side opposite the cost of the steak, the heavier weight of buying inducements.  First he did the actual weighing of the steak; then he added on the “Yes” side of the scales of decision ideas of the excellence and desirability of the meat.  He followed immediately with a suggestion of action that would commit the prospect to buying.