Conclusion Archives - understand-culture

No Fear of the Closing Question

The sales trainer Martin Limbeck teaches what he calls hardselling. His book Das neue Hardselling has the subtitle Verkaufen heißt verkaufen – So kommen Sie zum Abschluss, selling means selling: this is how you get to the close. Its seventh edition appeared in 2023.

In 2015 his column in the financial magazine cash. ran under the headline Keine Angst vor der Abschlussfrage, no fear of the closing question. In his view, more deals are missed than closed. Der Durchschnittsverkäufer möchte auf keinen Fall ein „Nein“ von seinem potenziellen Kunden hören. The average salesperson does not want to hear a no from a potential customer at any price.

Limbeck urges salespeople to ask for the close because he sees them put the question off for fear of a no.

Psychological Pressure to Buy

German competition law long recognized the idea of a psychologischer Kaufzwang, a psychological compulsion to buy. A seller acted unfairly when gifts or the sales situation made customers believe that they had to buy something so as not to look ungrateful. The Chamber of Industry and Commerce in Frankfurt names an example: a prize draw for which the customer must enter the shop and ask a salesperson or the cashier for an entry card.

The idea has since lost ground. In 2017 the Higher Regional Court in Frankfurt held that psychological pressure to buy makes a sales practice unlawful allenfalls in besonders gelagerten Ausnahmefällen, at most in exceptional cases with special circumstances.

Advice That Sells Nothing

Each of Germany’s 16 states has a Verbraucherzentrale, a consumer advice center. Together they run about 200 local advice offices. They describe themselves as unabhängige, überwiegend öffentlich finanzierte, gemeinnützige Organisationen, independent, mainly publicly funded, non-profit organizations.

In its annual report for 2010, the center in Baden-Württemberg called its advice anbieterunabhängig, independent of any provider. One case in the report is a couple of doctors from Tübingen who came for advice on financing. They wanted to be advised independently. Die beiden möchten sich unabhängig beraten lassen.

The Vocabulary of Selling

jemandem etwas aufschwatzen
To chatter something onto someone. Duden: to talk someone into buying or accepting something. One of its examples is a magazine subscription bought at the front door from a sales representative.

jemandem etwas andrehen
To turn something onto someone. Duden: to talk someone into buying something, often something inferior or unnecessary. Its example is a vacuum cleaner.

der Klinkenputzer
The door-handle polisher. In its first meaning in Duden: a man who offers something for sale at the front door.

die Drückerkolonne
A gang of pushers. Duden defines a Drücker as a man who goes from door to door to sell something, especially magazine subscriptions. A Drückerkolonne is a crew of them. In 1998 the taz called the trade die organisierte Verantwortungslosigkeit, organized irresponsibility.

Es besteht kein Zwang, etwas zu kaufen.
There is no obligation to buy anything. Duden uses this sentence as its example for the word Zwang, compulsion.

Find the Ending Yourself

Bertolt Brecht wrote Der gute Mensch von Sezuan, The Good Person of Szechwan, between 1938 and 1941. It premiered at the Schauspielhaus in Zurich on 4 February 1943. The play ends with an epilogue spoken to the audience. Wir stehen selbst enttäuscht und sehn betroffen / Den Vorhang zu und alle Fragen offen. We stand here disappointed ourselves and see, dismayed, the curtain closed and all the questions open.

The only way out, the epilogue says, would be for the audience to think at once about how a good person can be helped to a good end. Verehrtes Publikum, los, such dir selbst den Schluß! Dear audience, go on, find the ending yourself!

The Spectator Must Decide

In his notes of 1930 on the opera Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny, Bertolt Brecht set two forms of theater side by side in a table. In the dramatic form, the spectator is drawn into the action. In the epic form, er wird ihr gegenübergesetzt, he is set opposite it.

The epic form macht ihn zum Betrachter, makes him an observer. Where the dramatic form gives him experiences, the epic form vermittelt ihm Kenntnisse, gives him knowledge. Where the dramatic form allows him feelings, the epic form erzwingt von ihm Entscheidungen, forces decisions from him.

No Sales Calls Without a Yes

In Germany, a company may call a consumer for advertising only if the consumer has agreed in advance. The rule is Section 7 of the Act Against Unfair Competition. The Federal Network Agency explains it on its website. Jeder, der Sie zu Werbezwecken anrufen möchte, muss zuvor Ihre ausdrückliche Einwilligung einholen. Anyone who wants to call you for advertising must first obtain your express consent. The company must record the consent at once and in detail, and it must show the record to the agency on request. Fines can reach 300,000 euros. A consumer does not have to say no to such a call. Without an earlier yes, the call is already unlawful.

One Notices the Intention

In the second act of Goethe’s play Torquato Tasso, the poet Tasso speaks to the princess about her friend Leonore Sanvitale. Leonore can seem very charming, he says, but he could seldom be fully open with her. Und wenn sie auch / Die Absicht hat, den Freunden wohl zu tun, / So fühlt man Absicht, und man ist verstimmt. And even when she means to do her friends good, one feels the intention, and one is put out. The line became a common German saying in a shorter form. Man merkt die Absicht und ist verstimmt. One notices the intention and is annoyed. Germans use it when friendliness seems to serve a purpose.

The Vocabulary of Taking People Along

die Leute mitnehmen
To take people along. A decision is explained until people understand it and support it.

jemanden da abholen, wo er steht
To pick someone up where he stands. To start from what the other person knows and thinks.

an einem Strang ziehen
To pull on the same rope.

jemandem Rückendeckung geben
To cover someone’s back. To support him openly.

Akzeptanz schaffen
To create acceptance.

Einvernehmen herstellen
To establish agreement.

Diagnosis Without Prescription

Germany’s Council of Economic Experts, the Sachverständigenrat, was created by a law of 14 August 1963. Its task is to present the overall economic situation and its foreseeable development. The bill first foresaw a general ban on recommendations. Parliament softened it before the law passed, so the council may not recommend specific economic or social policy measures. Its job is diagnosis, and the choice of measures is left to politics. In 1978 the trade union journal Gewerkschaftliche Monatshefte accused the council of violating its legal mandate, and critics still say it regularly ignores the ban.