le you to get him to act favorably without delay
or further evasion.

[Sidenote: Entertainment In Court Room Out of Place]

Some salesmen make the mistake of mixing _entertainment_ with the
closing process. Earlier in the sale you may be able to secure excellent
results by entertaining the prospect with clean jokes and good stories.
But the close is the stage at which he arrives at his mental conclusion
as to the "preponderance" of the evidence. _Jests and light conversation
are out of place when the judge is performing his functions in the
courtroom of the mind._ An amusing remark or a witty quip at this
juncture would suggest that the scales of decision in the salesman's own
mind were somewhat unbalanced. Your attitude when you are weighing "Yes"
and "No" before the prospect should be _pleasant_, but _quiet_ and
_serious, as is becoming to a convincing weighman_.

When you work to secure a favorable decision, you are weighing evidence
with the purpose of impelling the prospect to take your judgment or to
weigh the evidence just as you do. It is necessary all through the
process that he be made to feel you realize you are aiding in the
performance of a _judicial_ function. He must have complete confidence
in your intention and ability to handle the scales honestly and with
serious pains to determine what is the right judgment about your
proposition. Your levity at the closing stage would lessen the effect of
honest, serious, painstaking weighing of the images for buying in
contrast with the images against buying. So get the funny stories out of
your system before you come to the decision step of the sale, or else
keep them bottled up inside you and don't pull the cork until you are
safely at the celebration stage.

[Sidenote: Tones and Acts When Weighing]

Do not forget when closing to add _force_ to your words by _tones and
gestures that emphasize ideas of the contrast in weights_ between the
two sides of the scale. By your light tone you can indicate the
triviality of objections to your proposition. With the heavier tone of
power you can suggest the great weight of the favorable ideas. If you
use _broad gestures of your whole hand and full arm_, you can seem to
pile a large heap of points on your side of the scale. Conversely you
can indicate the smallness of objections by moving _your fingers only_,
as if you were picking up a tiny object. Demolish unfavorable points
with a strong gesture of negation, as by swe