"knock knock"
"who's there?"
"salesman"
"salesman who?"
"salesman who's here to sell you a totally useless item!"

Okay so you might not be persuaded to open the door by that, but you might still open the door and see if that item is totally useless or not. I mean who's he to decide that it's a totally useless item? You must investigate it yourself. Or maybe you didn't even ask who was at the door - maybe it's just me who still bothers to ask before opening the door to some stranger...
But the point is, you're suddenly standing infront of someone you've probably never seen before who has a big smile on their face and either a paper or some sort of box in their hands. For the sake of simplicity, let's call this person Bob.
So when you open the door they smile (they want to put you at ease), and say, "Hi, how are you doing today?" (they're taking control of the conversation).
Suddenly Bob realizes that you're holding a spatula and wearing an apron. He says, "I see you're doing some cooking today! Getting a head start on the holiday cooking now aren't we?" Notice that he didn't say Christmas cooking because the 'politically correct' term for the Christmas break is apprently 'the winter holidays.' After all, if it turns out that you don't celebrate Christmas, and he had said Christmas cooking instead it might turn out to be an awkward situation...and no salesman wants an awkward situation when they're trying to sell you something totally useless right?
Next, Bob relates your little cooking story to the splendid set of knives he's going to try to sell you. "Well I have just the thing here for you that will impress all of your guests and make cutting steak much much easier this season." So momentarily you forget the cake in the oven and think "Hey if it's going to impress AND function it might be worth it! I'm already spending a ridiculous amount on that new foot massager I might as well look into this..." Already, Bob has reeled you in. He has offered you a 'deal' and you didn't even know it. He cut straight to the point because Bob knows very well that nobody like bullshit around holiday times - that will come later when the bills start to show up.
So, let's review what Bob has done to get from being the salesman who's here to sell you a completely useless item to that charming young man trying to get me to buy a lovely set of 69 steak knives. Bob started out with the end in mind - to get you to buy the set. Then he set about doing this by indirectly forging a false relationship with you. He commented on your spatula and your apron and suddenly you're laughing away as if you've been buddies all along (assuming ofcourse that you didn't just burn dinner and that you're in a good mood. Then he got straight to the problem - you can never be too impressive at dinner and that steak is hard to cut. He didn't really put it that way but that's what he did. Then he suggessted a solution to your problem - his amazing knife set is here to personally save your entire life! If you had gone along with your "Let's see what he's talking about" thought, then you probably would have at least waited to see all of the features and maybe even got to try them out before you eventually either shut him out with a nice "I'm good thanks" or "I'll take it all!" In the latter case, it would have been Bob's charisma and competence that would have won you over.
Those two qualities as well as being able to adapt and bring in the situation around him to his benefit have just gotten him a sale - and a pretty good one too! A 69 piece steak knife set doesn't come cheap!
These were the qualities that Dr. Sévigny talked about in his lecture last Tuesday November 28th.
However, I was slightly surprised that we didn't discuss the issue of car salesmen...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=URkx5YLRekg
maybe this will compensate :)

May all your salesmen this holiday season be nice and charming and have good timing!