Have you ever seen the movie “The Wolf of Wall Street”?
In the final scene of the movie, Leo DiCaprio is acting as Jordan Belfort, and he says this
famous line: “Sell me this pen!”
Everyone responds in similar ways, by trying to list the features of such a product.
The average person would be like:
“This pen is great, it has a high-quality ink that dries quickly, the color is stylish
and we’re selling it for just $5”
Wrong!
If you want to know why this method of selling does NOT work, stay with us as we teach you
all the basics of selling, so that you can sell literally anything to anyone.
Let’s get started.
Understand why people buy Here’s Michael, he’s a young entrepreneur
and he just created a new product.
The product is a wooden cube, decorated with a few shapes here and there.
Now, this cube doesn’t really look that good and doesn’t even have any real purpose.
It’s just a cube.
But it’s actually pretty expensive, this piece of wood cost $150.
Michael will have a really hard time selling this cube.
He can promote it as the best wooden cube ever, spend thousands in marketing strategy,
and still not sell it to anyone.
He could hire the best salesman in the world, and he would still just sell a few.
But why is that?
Why do people not want to pay $150 for a piece of cube?
Well, the answer is pretty obvious.
The cube is simply extremely overpriced since it doesn’t really serve any purpose.
It’s a useless and expensive object that would not improve anyone’s life.
And that’s why nobody’s buying it: it doesn’t solve any problem.
So, if you want to sell something, you must make sure that the product or service actually
solves a problem.
You should be able to link the problem to the prospect’s life.
The more troubled and annoyed someone is by a problem, the more he or she will be willing
to pay to solve it.
So, we have a problem, and we also have a pain point.
The pain point is the pain that is caused by the prospect’s problem, the problem you’re
trying to solve.
You have to identify OR even create that pain point in order to get them to want to buy.
Everything we do, we do it for two reasons: 1.
To avoid pain.
2.
To gain pleasure.
For example, if you’re thirsty and go drink a glass of water, why have you done that?
To avoid the pain of being thirsty.
Now, here’s a thing you should always remember: avoiding pain is MUCH more motivating than
gaining pleasure, and that’s what I advise you to use when selling.
Identify their pain point Now that you know what a pain point is, you
need to know how to find it.
Even if the problem might be the same, the pain might be slightly different from person
to person.
Let’s make a quick example.
If you’re a broker and you’re looking for people to invest, what’s the problem
of the people you’ll speak to on the phone?
Not having money!
And what’s the pain point?
Well to find that out you need to go deeper.
For example, a pain point related to not having money might be not being able to go on wonderful
vacations with the family.
Another pain point could be not paying off debt.
If you know what the pain point is, you can leverage that to your advantage.
I will explain how later in this video.
The more you know about the problem and pain of your prospect, the better you’ll sell.
They want to feel understood, and you can’t make them feel that way if they don’t resonate
with you!
The easiest way to identify their problem is to actually ask!
But not something like “What’s your problem?”, that’s a weird, inappropriate question.
In the example of the broker, here’s what he could ask:
“So, Rick, I know you’ve been having trouble raising money lately, is that true?”
Let’s pretend Rick says “yes”, and that he’s looking to make more money.
The next logical question is WHY.
“I hear you, Rick.
Let me ask you this question, why is making more money important to you?”
And Rick will give away his pain point.
Another strategy you can use is to understand the life of the prospect.
So, instead of this last question, the broker could ask
“I hear you, Rick.
Let me ask you this question, do you have a family?”
This way he will understand if Rick has a family, and if he does, he probably wants
to provide a better life to them by making more money.
As I said, the more important a problem is in your prospect’s life, the more he or
she’ll be willing to pay to solve it, and this brings me to the next point.
Amplify their pain As soon as you identify their pain point,
you can amplify it to raise your chances of selling successfully.
The more amplified the pain is, the more you’ll be able to sell at a higher price since your
prospect wants to solve that problem ASAP.
There are many ways to do this.
Here are two.
1.
Use storytelling.
While closing you could tell a short, relatable story from your past (or invented on the spot)
that will make the prospect understand that if he doesn’t do something about the problem,
things will only get worse.
The classic storytelling is a story of a client that didn’t want to buy at first, and then
something bad happened (a consequence of not buying that product).
People want to avoid pain.
2.
Ask more strategic, clever questions Here’s a question the broker could ask to
Rick, assuming he’s got a family and that he really loves it:
“Rick, I know you love your family.
Would providing more for them and giving them more opportunity be of your interest?”
The answer to that question is “yes”, obviously, and this puts you in a position
of control, all while amplifying the problem.
This takes me to the next point.
Don’t disagree with your prospect Unless strategically necessary, you should
never disagree with your prospect.
He or she must think that he or she is always right and that they’re in control of the
conversation.
Words like “but” have to be eliminated from your vocabulary.
These kinds of words that allude to any kind of disagreement or confrontation, could really
ruin your closing.
Even if the prospect is clearly and obviously in the wrong, you still have to not confront
them, so how can you not be a liar and still sell?
Don’t voice your opinion on your client’s beliefs.
Just let it go.
People love to buy but nobody wants to be sold
A skilled salesman is able to make the person think that the decision of making a purchase
is entirely theirs.
This means that when talking about your product, you don’t have to present it as a “product”
but as a “solution” or “strategy” or “secret method”.
Whenever you allude to price, purchase, and similar things you are risking it because
people don’t like feeling like they are being sold.
They want to feel good about themselves and think that the decision of purchasing the
product or service was not influenced by anyone.
You obviously have to talk about these things when actually closing the deal, but that’s
a final phase, so don’t mix the two.
Features vs problem solvers What should you list first?
Features or the aspects of the product that solves a problem?
The answer is always the same.
The problem is the number one priority, so you shouldn’t tell people how good a pen
is, you should tell them how it’s very durable and will never let you down in front of your
professional colleagues at meetings.
So you do have to focus on emotions, and that’s what really sells: the ability to touch people.
Next time you watch a commercial, look for the aspects of it that go into details of
the emotions that you would associate with the product.
Have you ever seen a soda ad with people not smiling while drinking it?
It’s because they want you to associate the soda with positive feelings, something
like “if you get this soda, you’ll be happy.
Have a script If you are or you are trying to become a professional
salesman, you MUST have a script.
You might even use it if you’re just selling other things.
A script is not something you should literally read word by word when closing, that would
make you sound like a robot or like you do that all day long.
The script is more of a guide, a strategy, that you can use to close better.
In the script, you should include the questions you should ask to understand their problem
and identify their pain point, and replies to the most common objection.
Here are some examples that you could include in your script.
Let’s pretend the client says that he’s got no time right now.
What do you say?
Try this one out:
“I understand you are very busy, I am too since I’ve been in business for years.
You know, what we really are proud of is that we don’t waste our clients’ time with
useless practices and systems.
What we do is aimed to bring results in a very short period of time.
We can use this “product” to solve this “problem” and take your whole life to
a new level!”
Can you see how this is better than just “please stay with me and I’ll give you good stuff”?
Understand that people don’t trust you Have you ever received a call from a call
center trying to sell you some promotions?
Yeah, we all did.
The first excuse we make to them is “I don’t have time”, and often it isn’t even true.
You are just saying that because you don’t want to be rude and because you don’t trust
who’s on the other side of the phone.
You have to gain their trust, not just with good promises, but also with proof that what
you’re saying is true.
Storytelling also works for this one, but I would personally not make stuff up at this
point because it could all go against you later.
Stay true to yourself and your business always!
That’s it!
Now you know how to sell literally anything to anyone.
In summary, today you learned that in order to sell things, you must understand why people
want to buy in the first place.
Then, you have to identify and amplify the pain that is caused by the problem you are
trying to solve.
You also learned that you shouldn’t disagree with your prospect, as they’re pretty arrogant!
People love to buy but not to be sold.
You should focus on problem solvers, not features, and finally, you can have a script if you
want to maximize your closing potential.
If you learned something from this video, don’t forget to leave a like and share this
video with someone that would be interested.
Subscribe now to know more about this topic, and about success, entrepreneurship, and more.
Thank you for watching this video!
And I will see you in the next one.