Sell Like Crazy

by Sabri Suby

  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?’

  After you’ve shone a light on their problem and then kicked their bruised

  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