Almost 40 years ago,
Tom Hopkins taught us to sell anything in his book,
How to Master the Art of Selling.
At the time, it was a groundbreaking book,
and it was incredibly-well received,
selling millions and millions of copies.
The challenge that I see
is that most salespeople are still using
a lot of those same outdated techniques
that were relevant 40 years ago.
The art of selling anything has changed dramatically.
In fact, most of what you would have learned
in Tom Hopkins' book is barely even relevant today.
In this video, I'm gonna show you
how to master the art of selling anything in today's world.
Check it out.
Number one, stop trying to sell anything.
This romantic idea of the salesperson
who is so great that they can literally
sell anything to anyone is ludicrous.
If you are a great salesperson,
the first thing that you want to do
is make sure that what you're selling is, in fact,
both desirable and needed by your ideal client,
and that your ideal client has money
that they can invest in your solution.
So, before we go any further,
think about that right now.
Is what you're selling right now,
is it desirable and necessary to an ideal client
who would be willing to invest in it?
If not, it's time to switch gears or switch organizations
to make sure that what you're selling fits that criteria.
So, for the rest of the video,
we're going to assume that that's the case.
I'm gonna walk you through a framework
to ensure that you can sell your offering
to that ideal client.
Number two, challenges.
It's time to focus on the challenges your prospects have.
For years and years, we were taught by gurus
like Tom Hopkins that our prospects should have interest.
This is simply an old-school way of looking at sales.
Focusing on interest is actually focusing on your offering,
not on the prospect, right?
What's most critical is to understand the challenges
that our prospects are facing within the domain
of what you're offering can actually solve.
That means starting your interactions by
understanding what are their most critical challenges
from their perspective?
You can start that conversation by
suggesting a couple of common challenges
that you're seeing in the marketplace right now.
This is both going to show that you have some expertise,
but it's also going to engage them
in a conversation around their challenges.
Number three, upside.
Just understanding what's holding them back is great,
but you also need to understand the value
of solving those challenges, because if you don't,
you're likely to cause your prospect
to really not see the value in what you're selling.
This means asking a question like,
"If you were able to solve the challenges
"that we've discussed,
"what would that mean in increased revenue
"or profit to the organization?"
We want to be sure to have them
actually do the math themselves, not you.
I see salespeople all the time who tell the prospect
what the increase in revenue will be,
but you don't wanna give them the number.
They should be able to do that math themselves.
It can be very simple,
but it makes it so much more powerful.
Number four, personal.
What's in it for them?
One of my mentors used to say
that behind every corporate objective
is a personal objective.
If you don't understand what's in it for the prospect
to solve their challenges,
then you're missing out on a key piece of information.
This is critical.
Just because a challenge is costing the organization,
we shouldn't then assume that it's personally important
to our prospect.
We need to be fully certain that these challenges
are affecting your prospect in a personal way,
in order for them to really have the motivation
to make an investment in your solution.
Number five, budget.
Get money on the table before showing your solution.
Salespeople are always reticent
to talk about money with prospects,
and most of us have been taught this since childhood,
that it's rude to talk about money.
But in sales, if we don't talk about money
before presenting our solution,
we're doing one of two things.
We're either ruining the sale
by blowing the prospect out of the water
with a price that they can't afford,
or, we're going to leave significant money on the table
by giving a price that is a lot less
than what the prospect was actually willing to invest.
So, be sure to talk about money
before you present your solution.
Number six, authority.
Determine who is part of this decision.
This last piece of our sales process requires
that we understand the decision-making process.
We never want to assume that the person
that we're talking to
is the exclusive decision-maker for this opportunity.
Even if you're talking to the CEO of an organization,
they still often need to run something by
some subordinates, or a board, or maybe the chairman.
We need to understand what that decision-making process is
before we present the solution.
So, a simple question, like,
"Linda, what's your typical decision-making process
"for a project like this?"
That's going to give you tremendous insight
into the prospect's actual authority.
So, there is how to master the art
of selling anything in today's world.
I wanna hear from you.
Which of these ideas did you find most useful?
Be sure to share below in the comments section
to get involved in the conversation.
And if you enjoyed this video,
then I have this awesome free e-book
on 25 tips to crush your sales goal.
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Until next week.