As a salesperson, you’re trying to diagnose someone’s issue and then, if what
you’re selling can help them, you make them an irresistible offer – an offer
they can’t refuse.
If you can’t help them, shoot them straight and let them know that what
you’ve got isn’t a great fit and won’t help them solve their issue.
Not only is it the right thing to do, but it also creates goodwill in your market
if prospects understand you’re not simply quick to make a sale, but are
genuinely trying to help them solve their problems.
The word will get out and you will be rewarded for this approach.
To add to this, by doing the diagnosis before you start talking about ‘what
you got’, the words that come out of your mouth will be more powerful –
because they’ll be tailored to the symptoms and issues your prospect has just
told you they’re experiencing.
Practical Application
First, let’s walk through a scenario where you’ve had a prospect respond to
your Godfather Offer and reach out to schedule a time to speak with you.
In order for them to take you up on your offer, you want to make it
compulsory that they fill out a short survey before doing so. Nothing too
intrusive, but it should give you more insights into the problem they’re trying
to solve, where they are in their journey to solve it, and where they want to
go (their goals).
This survey and application process gives you critical information to
determine whether you can help this person and if you are a good fit for what
they’re trying to achieve. It also changes the psychology of the sale, as they
are reaching out to you and asking for your help.
So they’ve filled in your survey and answered your questions, and they’ve
qualified themselves to you, jumping through hoops to speak with you.
Therefore, there’s never, ever, ever any cold-calling, or any ‘typical’ sales
calls involved.
The conversion process needs to be more about eliminating the stuff they
have done or are currently doing that isn’t working, rather than about the
features, bells, and whistles of what they’re going to get from doing business
with you.
Don’t go into great detail about your service/program/training: that’s what
your prospect is buying. Your objective is to give them an idea of how their
life could be better by working with you.
For most of us, it’s very tempting to talk about our services, our coaching, or
our expertise, but the problem is this only translates into you talking more
about you than about solving their problems. And they didn’t book in this call
to hear about how great you are. They booked the call because they have a
problem they are motivated to solve. They couldn’t care less about you.
Everyone’s favourite person is themselves, and their motivation to schedule a
call, like it or not, is completely self-serving.
Finding Your Prospect’s ‘Why?’
It’s incredibly important that you find the real reason they booked in this call
with you.
What is their ‘Why?’
You pick up their call and ask:
‘Hello, Mike. Please tell me your biggest motivation for taking the time out
of your busy day and scheduling this call with me.’
Or the short version:
‘Hello, Mike. How may I help you?’
And then you shut up and listen. If you get the real reason and not some fluff
like, ‘I just wanted to see what you have to offer’, then great. If not, you’ll
need to dig deeper.
Once you get their true deepest desire, dig even deeper by asking opened
ended questions:
‘Okay, can you tell me more about that? What do you mean? What
exactly are you referring to when you say _________?’
‘Why do you believe you’re experiencing this?’
‘Okay, so why is _________ important to you?’
‘Why are you serious about _________ right now?’
‘What have you done previously to try and fix this?’
‘How long has this been going on?’
‘What has prompted you to look at this now?’
‘What isn’t working, and why do you think it isn’t?’
‘Why do you feel you haven’t achieved this yet?’
knee (some of them may not have known how big their problem was until
you highlighted and agitated it), they’re now primed for you to help them
solve their burning problem.
They have a ‘bleeding neck’, meaning they have an immediate problem for
which they need a solution, and they’re ready to go to the hospital in just
about any vehicle you can provide.
Where Do They Want To Go?
Get your prospect to tell you about where they want to go and their desired
outcome. Then find out their ‘why’, and get them to picture exactly what life
will be like after they get there.
One way we do this is by saying:
‘Mike, if we were having this conversation twelve months from today and
you were looking back at the past twelve months, what would have needed to
happen for you to be happy with your results?’
I learned that question, by the way, from a book called The Dan Sullivan
Question. Here are some variations:
‘Mike, what are you looking to achieve in the next 12 months? What
would that do for you?’
‘Where do you want to be?’
‘What do you want to achieve?’
‘What revenue do you want your business to be doing?’
‘What would that do for your lifestyle?’
‘How much do you want to weigh?’ (If you’re selling a weight loss
programme)
‘How much money do you want to be making?’ (Financial advice)
‘What would you like your relationship with your spouse look
like?‘(Relationship advice)
Get an answer to these questions, let them tell you exactly all the things
they’re trying to achieve, and get some specifics before moving forward with
the call.
More questions (and remember, you’re going to listen and pay attention to
the answers!):
‘I understand – and what is your motivation for achieving X?’
‘How would these change things for your business/life if you achieved
X?’
‘Okay, so when you make more money/lose more weight/connect on a
deeper level with your spouse/have more time... what difference is
that going to make in your life? What’s the reason you want to do
this?’
It’s important you get a temperature check on exactly what they want to
achieve and why. Then help them to paint a vivid picture of what this exactly
would feel like.
The Admission
This is where you get your prospect to express everything they’ve been doing
so far. How they’ve struggled. All their frustrations. Get all their challenges
out. What has worked. What hasn’t. And why.
Get them to admit that everything they’ve tried simply isn’t working, and
they need a proven system and roadmap from someone who’s done it with
success. Get them to admit they’ve had enough of doing it by themselve
s and
want help.
‘Why is this important for you to figure out and get it working?’
‘Okay, on a scale of one to ten – one being not really important and
ten being extremely important – how important is this for you to do?’
‘What does it mean if it doesn’t get done... what does that
represent/what does that look like?’
‘Okay, so what you’re telling me is what you’re currently doing is not
working, right? And it sounds like it’s time to finally do something
about it?’
Remember this: If it’s not important to them, then politely end the call. If
they don’t have a burning desire to solve this problem, it doesn’t matter what
you’re offering or what you’re charging, they won’t buy.
Delivering Value
After you’ve established the burning problem they’re trying to solve, this is
the part of the call where you transition into the value you promised up front
in your Godfather Offer.
Once we’ve asked all our questions and got all their answers, we simply help
them formulate a plan based on their answers. Genius, I know.
Once we find out where they are and where they want to be, and we’ve gone
through all these questions, and got all the stuff we can get from them, all the
‘raw materials’ so to speak, we now build them a bridge to get there in the
form of a plan.
‘Ok Mike, I can definitely help with that. Would you like me to show
you a little of how we could do that and what would be involved?’
This is an incredibly important part of the call and is where all sales pitches
generally fall short. You want to prove to your prospect that you can help
them by actually helping them. Not simply agitating a problem, or telling
them what you do and how much you charge.
You might be thinking, why would we want to help them solve some of their
burning problem now, instead of straight up selling them our solution? Well,
because scepticism is so rampant, people are so dubious and so untrusting in
what people say they can do for them. They want to see it!
And rightfully so. The internet is plagued with ‘experts’ selling them pixie
dust, unicorns, fairy tales, silver bullets, and magic pills to achieve their
desired outcome overnight. There are legions of novices who quickly slap on
the guru cap and try to sell their untested and unproven solutions. Ignore this
and you’ll fight a losing battle. You must be neither in the dark nor in denial
as to what you’re up against.
A way to kill this scepticism is to prove to them that you can help them by
actually helping them.
Remember, no one likes to be sold, but everyone likes to buy. You want to
get your prospects excited by solving a part of their problem on the call, or at
least making it very clear you can help them solve it and leave them begging
for more.
It’s like when you go to a fancy restaurant, and the waiter brings you a
delicious hors d’oeuvre – you know, one of those little appetisers or small
starter dishes. You eat it, it’s incredibly tasty, and then your digestive juices
start going crazy and you order half the menu!
It’s the same principle here. You want to leave your prospect starving for the
main course, which is your core offer.
Ultimately, you want to leave your prospects better than when you found
them. Meaning, regardless of whether or not they choose to buy, you want to
deliver massive value and create goodwill.
Remember, your prospects have likely been told everything you’re telling
them before, but they’ve never achieved the results they wanted. By
following this process and delivering value you prove that you are different
from everybody else by giving them some value in advance.
How you do this: Splinter off a tiny part of your offering and deliver it then
and there on the call. Hash out a problem and then demonstrate how you
could help them solve that.
EXAMPLE: If you’re a PR consultant, you could show them a site like
HARO (Help A Reporter Out) that helps them connect with hundreds of
journalists who are actively looking for experts and businesses to feature and
weigh in on articles. Also, let them know there is a lot that goes into
managing this and how to get the best traction.
EXAMPLE: You might be a digital marketing consultant. If so, you could
show them how much search traffic certain keywords are getting on Google,
or where their competitors are getting traffic from, and for how much, using
sites like SEMrush or SimilarWeb.
EXAMPLE: If you’re a financial planner, you could show them how to offset
their income tax by setting up a family trust. Or use a credit check
service/software on the call to see if they could get a better mortgage rate on
their home.
Get creative and think about unique ways you could deliver value and show
them live on the call that you can help them by actually helping them. This
strategy is almost like magic, and makes people buy with as little resistance
as possible.
Getting The Commitment
Once you’ve delivered your value piece it’s now time to gain commitment.
IMPORTANT: If you’ve identified on the call that the prospect is not a good
fit, politely let them know; and even if they want to buy, do not sell to them.
It will simply cause you more headaches in the long run and will drain you.
Additionally, you can’t build a business based off working with clients who
aren’t a great fit.
If they are a great fit, this is where you gain commitment and segue into your
offering:
‘Ok, Mike, how did you enjoy that?’
‘Does that sound like the type of help you’re looking for? Would you
like to know more of the specifics?’
‘Ok, Mike, it looks you would be a great fit for my program or
service. Do you want to hear how that works?’
The Prescription
This section of the conversation is to simply tell them what you’ve got to
offer and what your program can help them achieve. Tailor this to the specific
problems they told you they were having earlier in the call and position it as
exactly what they need – because it is!
Notice this is the first time in the call that you start talking about what you
have to offer. Nowhere at any point during our conversation have we told this
person what to do. Instead, now we’re going to start prescribing solutions to
help them on their way to their desired outcome.
We’ll say something like this:
‘Based on what you’ve told me, it sounds like this would be a great fit
to help get you [thing they want] and [other thing they want]’.
Now simply list out everything they will be getting in your services or
program.
You may have to write out this section of your script because everybody’s
service and offer is different. Write it out, read it aloud, and ensure it rolls off
the tongue; and then practice saying it over and over again to get the delivery
perfect. This is crucial.
This overview should be no more than two minutes long. Don’t waffle on
and on, and w
ork yourself into a frenzy where you are just rattling off every
bell and whistle your service includes.
Be prepared and get used to delivering this overview and applying it
specifically to each prospect’s pains, fears, hopes, dreams, and desires to
make the prospect feel your offering is exactly the answer they’ve been
looking for. Use the same words they use to describe their problems and
goals.
Provide the features and then finish with how these translate into benefits for
them. Do not harp on about all the technical bells and whistles of your
offering. Instead, focus on how it will help them solve the issue or problem
they’re looking to solve. Focus on the end result, not the process.
EXAMPLE: You’ll have predictability in your business, more time, more
money, less stress, greater freedom, increased security.
EXAMPLE: You’ll have more energy, feel great, and be able to fit into that
old pair of jeans you love.
The Close
Based on the prospect’s tone and involvement in the call, you should have a
good read if they’re ‘cold’, ‘warm’, or ‘hot’. However, we still want to do a
temperature check and test close by asking the following:
‘Mike, I want you to understand this is not for everybody. It does take
time and commitment from yourself, and requires that you actually do
the work and take action. With that said, why are you serious about
solving/achieving___________right now?’
‘Before I move forward, Mike, to the financial investment, I’d like to
first know something from you. After hearing about what is available,
the benefits you’ll receive, and how this is going to get you closer to
achieving your goals, and getting you the help that you’re looking for,
do you have any other questions or concerns that I haven’t covered?’
‘Okay, you’re clear and comfortable with everything thus far, and you
know how everything works? Okay, great’.
‘Other than money, is there any other reason that it wouldn’t make
sense to go ahead and get started today?’
‘Okay, if the money makes sense, then we can get you set up and
reaching your goals immediately!’
‘Ok Mike, based on what we’ve discussed, why do you feel you
would be a good candidate for this program?’
This question is powerful. It turns the tables and gets the prospect to start
selling themselves on why they would be a good fit for you and why they feel