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Detail question on one of the recommendations in the article: wouldn't "are you busy?" be more effective than "do you have a second?" Working from the hypothes

by kqr 2y ago

Detail question on one of the recommendations in the article: wouldn't "are you busy?" be more effective than "do you have a second?" Working from the hypothesis that people generally don't have seconds they are willing to give away to anyone who calls, but they are busy to varying degrees.

kungito 2y ago
From what I read he doesn't ask whether someone is busy but only acknowledges they know they are busy and moves on with the pitch
moribvndvs 2y ago
I dunno. “Are you busy?” sounds open ended and is a bit presumptive (I don’t know you, what business is it of yours?). Do you have a second seems more casual and nonchalant without being particularly rude while succinctly indicating you aren’t asking for lengthy or in depth attention. You’re playing on a natural tendency many people have for simple charity, and then once you’re in… well, lots of us have felt trapped in unwanted situations because of a fear of being rude, right?
allenu 2y ago
I suspect the latter question works better because it's softer and doesn't give as much of an out as the former. We're all busy. It's much easier to answer in the affirmative and if anything, highlighting the busy nature of your day makes it easier to say "leave me alone", but the latter is harder to answer no to, at least socially. A second or two, surely you can spare that. He's not asking for much! (Obviously, it's figuratively "a second" and more like a few minutes, but at least there's some daylight for the caller to squeeze their foot in the door.) A lot sales pitches really prey on people's general desire not to be rude to another human being, so choosing the right phrasing to make the mark feel bad for breaking a social convention if they say no is by design.
Tectosage 2y ago
The pitch was designed to elicit a 'Yes' response at every turn (the idea being that the prospective client would be conditioned to saying 'Yes' over and over and be more amenable to the final hammer swing of 'send me x dollars for y shares'). Most pitches were directed at the kind of business owners and execs who end up on lead services like Dun & Bradstreet, but sometimes also targeted individuals at their homes; in either case, the prospect is either running a business or just arrived home from work and is tending to kids/dinner/chores/etc. Ask someone in either scenario if they're busy and the default answer is yes; they're always busy. But ask them if they have a second, and they're more likely to say yes. Everyone has a second, even if they're busy, and the very wording of the question implies this will be a brief and laconic interaction that won't interrupt their day. Busy is a negative primer, have a second is a positive one. The article contains a few rebuttal snippets, but the full "straight line" pitch had rebuttals for every step of the interaction and every possible response from a prospect. They called it the "straight line" because the idea was that at all moments of the conversation, you are constantly guiding the prospect along a straight line to the desired conclusion (a sale), and any diversion from this straight line in the form of customer protest/question/disinterest needs to be quickly and somewhat aggressively countered with a rebuttal and then followed with a slick line that elicits a return to the previous direction. Since I'm already rambling, I'll add another detail that isn't in the article; Belfort didn't come up with this pitch himself, it was developed originally at Lehman Brothers (one of the leading firms) and was used in some form at all of the big wirehouse brokerages (eg, the original Merrill Lynch "thundering herd" or LF Rothschild, where Belfort learned it). Belfort's "innovation" was not the script, it was taking the script out of the hands of elite white-shoe brokers (who sold legitimate stocks to clients) and teaching it to unscrupulous boiler room scammers (who made their money by tricking prospects into buying penny stocks that Stratton Oakmont then dumped).
- lupire 2y ago
  The white shoes were also unscrupulous; they just weren't outright frauds
- kqr 2y ago
  I was under the impression that this "yes momentum" thing didn't really work because people get defensive when you make them say yes to things. And also everyone knows when someone asks for a second they are really asking for much more. On the other hand, if someone readily admits to being busy (and thus cannot listen well to you), it's better for both of you that you call again some other time.
wasteduniverse 2y ago
[dead]

by kqr 2y ago

kungito 2y ago

From what I read he doesn't ask whether someone is busy but only acknowledges they know they are busy and moves on with the pitch

moribvndvs 2y ago

I dunno. “Are you busy?” sounds open ended and is a bit presumptive (I don’t know you, what business is it of yours?). Do you have a second seems more casual and nonchalant without being particularly rude while succinctly indicating you aren’t asking for lengthy or in depth attention. You’re playing on a natural tendency many people have for simple charity, and then once you’re in… well, lots of us have felt trapped in unwanted situations because of a fear of being rude, right?

allenu 2y ago

I suspect the latter question works better because it's softer and doesn't give as much of an out as the former. We're all busy. It's much easier to answer in the affirmative and if anything, highlighting the busy nature of your day makes it easier to say "leave me alone", but the latter is harder to answer no to, at least socially. A second or two, surely you can spare that. He's not asking for much! (Obviously, it's figuratively "a second" and more like a few minutes, but at least there's some daylight for the caller to squeeze their foot in the door.) A lot sales pitches really prey on people's general desire not to be rude to another human being, so choosing the right phrasing to make the mark feel bad for breaking a social convention if they say no is by design.

Tectosage 2y ago

The pitch was designed to elicit a 'Yes' response at every turn (the idea being that the prospective client would be conditioned to saying 'Yes' over and over and be more amenable to the final hammer swing of 'send me x dollars for y shares'). Most pitches were directed at the kind of business owners and execs who end up on lead services like Dun & Bradstreet, but sometimes also targeted individuals at their homes; in either case, the prospect is either running a business or just arrived home from work and is tending to kids/dinner/chores/etc. Ask someone in either scenario if they're busy and the default answer is yes; they're always busy. But ask them if they have a second, and they're more likely to say yes. Everyone has a second, even if they're busy, and the very wording of the question implies this will be a brief and laconic interaction that won't interrupt their day. Busy is a negative primer, have a second is a positive one. The article contains a few rebuttal snippets, but the full "straight line" pitch had rebuttals for every step of the interaction and every possible response from a prospect. They called it the "straight line" because the idea was that at all moments of the conversation, you are constantly guiding the prospect along a straight line to the desired conclusion (a sale), and any diversion from this straight line in the form of customer protest/question/disinterest needs to be quickly and somewhat aggressively countered with a rebuttal and then followed with a slick line that elicits a return to the previous direction. Since I'm already rambling, I'll add another detail that isn't in the article; Belfort didn't come up with this pitch himself, it was developed originally at Lehman Brothers (one of the leading firms) and was used in some form at all of the big wirehouse brokerages (eg, the original Merrill Lynch "thundering herd" or LF Rothschild, where Belfort learned it). Belfort's "innovation" was not the script, it was taking the script out of the hands of elite white-shoe brokers (who sold legitimate stocks to clients) and teaching it to unscrupulous boiler room scammers (who made their money by tricking prospects into buying penny stocks that Stratton Oakmont then dumped).

lupire 2y ago
The white shoes were also unscrupulous; they just weren't outright frauds
kqr 2y ago
I was under the impression that this "yes momentum" thing didn't really work because people get defensive when you make them say yes to things. And also everyone knows when someone asks for a second they are really asking for much more. On the other hand, if someone readily admits to being busy (and thus cannot listen well to you), it's better for both of you that you call again some other time.

wasteduniverse 2y ago

[dead]