"Always Be Closing". - Glengarry Glen Ross
Sales are a part of everything you do.
No matter if it’s a product, service, idea, or even yourself… you’re always selling something.
Trying to get a girl’s attention? Gotta sell yourself.
Trying to convince somebody to eat where you wanna eat? Gotta sell the experience of the restaurant.
Whether you love him or hate him, Grant Cardone has a really good book on this concept called Sell Or Be Sold.
(That links to Amazon. It’s not an affiliate link BTW).
Selling doesn’t have to be complicated or scary.
99.99% of the time - it does NOT look like that scene from Wolf Of Wall Street:
I know, I know, I know...
We all love that scene.
I mean, c'mon, it's fantastic.
Below is Jordan Belfort’s true explanation behind the “sell me this pen” scene:
Selling anything comes down to understanding the other side.
We’re gonna call that other side or party you’re selling to a “prospect”.
If you’re ignorant of what the prospect actually wants and needs, you’ll never sell your “thing”.
The process of selling something is full of a bunch of steps.
Although there may be a few of them, they go in a particular order which makes it a repeatable process.
Selling is the process of showing somebody the gain vs the gap.
The gap is the distance between where they are and where they want to be.
The gain is everything they’ll get in their life when they buy your “thing”.
Again - it does NOT matter what you’re actually selling.
All you’re ever actually selling is a transformation.
You’re selling the transformation of 1 of 2 things to the prospect:
- You’re selling the transformation AWAY from pain
- You’re selling the transformation TOWARDS pleasure
Does the prospect truly care about the transformation?
Yes - to some degree.
The transformation that they truly want is…
STATUS.
In some way or another, they want to go from a lower status to a higher status.
Getting away from pain or rushing towards pleasure is our way of increasing status - internally and externally.
It’s engrained into our human DNA and it's naive to believe that we don’t all want some version of higher status in our life.
First - you gotta get to know the prospect and see if they’re even in the market to buy your thing.
Ask them questions.
Through these questions, you’ll find out where their current level of awareness is.
They’ll be at 1 of 5 levels of awareness, as defined by Eugene Schwartz (one of the best salesmen in history).
Unaware: unaware of a problem they have
Problem Aware: aware that they have a problem but not sure what is causing it or how to solve it
Solution Aware: aware that a solution exists, but are unaware of your solution
Product Aware: aware of your solution, but haven’t tried it
Most Aware: aware of your solution and are ready to act on it
After you find out what level of awareness they’re at, you really start the sales process.
You’ve probably heard the saying “benefits tell, stories sell.”
That’s the truth.
Through your questions and research of the prospect, you now understand them.
Second - You can now tailor a story of how your “new thing” will be the vehicle of transformation for the prospect - either away from pain or toward pleasure.
When telling the story, you’ll use the 8 buying emotions to elicit the urgent need for change:
- Anger
- Pain
- Fear
- Guilt
- Shame
- Passion
- Joy
- Love
Always remember that humans make emotional decisions.
We buy with emotions every single time.
THEN… we justify with logic.
Three - You offer them something irresistible.
After you’ve probed your prospect with questions to find their awareness and tell them emotional stories to elicit a response, now we tie logic and emotion together with an offer.
Crafting an irresistible offer is only possible after the first two steps.
Why?
Because you now have all the information you need to make it specifically irresistible to THAT prospect.
(This is assuming you’re doing this all morally and are able to fulfill your promises. Don’t be sleezy. Don’t take advantage of people. Don’t be an asshole.)
When it comes to the actual tactical strategies of crafting an irresistible offer as a business, that’s where I’ll let the master tell you what to do.
“Sales is a transference of conviction (belief). The bridge of that is trust.” - Alex Hormozi
You should DEFINITELY check out his book, $100 Million Offers. (Also not an affiliate link).
This is a 30,000-foot view of the sales process.
Like any craft, there are plenty of nuances and tactics to 10X your results.
One of the main things to remember is that through the words (the copy) we use, we make the prospect UNDERSTAND what transformation we can give them.
However, through persuasion (questions, stories, emotions, etc), we make the prospect feel UNDERSTOOD.
That’s the difference between struggling to make a sale and easily locking it in.
Actually selling like a human because you’re talking to another human.
Selling is simple.
Be a friend and don’t be an asshole.
Ride the lightning,
Luke Bockenstette
How To Go From Feeling Broke, Anxious, and Over-Worked To Earning As Much As Dentists, Doctors, Or Even Lawyers... By Writing Simple 3rd-Grade Level Emails For Just 90 Minutes Per Day
* No degree or experience required