The Only 3 Things To Say When Closing Sales Ep 276

In this episode, the host discusses effective sales techniques, emphasizing the distinction between teaching and coaching in sales. He argues that educating potential clients is futile until they're ready to buy; instead, salespeople should ask questions, restate to show understanding, and use short stories to illustrate points. The host, having learned from his own experience with his company, Gym Launch, and insights from Taki Moore, stresses that breaking a prospect's beliefs is more valuable than offering tactical advice. By genuinely caring and understanding the client's needs, a salesperson can guide them to the realization that they need the service being offered, leading to a natural and successful close. The host also encourages listeners to spread the word about the podcast to help more entrepreneurs.

• In closing deals, the speaker emphasizes coaching over teaching as clients are more receptive post-purchase.
• Teaching is seen as ineffective during the sales process because clients are not likely to listen or act on the information until they have made a purchase.
• Coaching involves guiding the client to their own conclusions through strategic questioning rather than directly instructing or providing information.

"If you're trying to close a deal, you want to educate the person, but the reality is that's not, they're not going to listen to you until they buy." "And so there's no actual point in, quote, teaching. But you do want to coach."

The quotes underscore the distinction between educating a potential client (teaching) and guiding them through the decision-making process (coaching). The speaker suggests that coaching is more effective for closing sales because it aligns with the client's readiness to engage.

• The speaker identifies three key types of statements in the sales process: questions, restatements, and avoiding declarative statements.
• Questions should be leading and help the client conclude that they should work with the salesperson.
• Restatements show that the salesperson is listening and understands the client's issues.
• Declarative statements of fact are avoided because they can be perceived as teaching rather than facilitating the client's own realization.

"So if you don't know what types of questions for us, I prefer question based frameworks for more complex sales." "The second type of thing is a restatement, which means after they say something, you say it back to them, which means that you understand and you are listening."

The speaker advocates for a question-based framework to engage clients in a way that leads them to their own conclusions. Restatements are used to confirm understanding and maintain a client-centered dialogue.

• The speaker stresses the importance of altering a client's beliefs to prompt action.
• Presentations that attempt to teach are ineffective if they do not address the client's underlying beliefs.
• Sales should focus on breaking down existing beliefs and building trust in the salesperson's ability to solve the client's problems.

"But the thing is, person has to have their beliefs broken in order to take action." "They will only execute if they have their beliefs broken and believe you can help them and then that they can trust what you are saying."

These quotes highlight the psychological aspect of sales, which involves changing the client's beliefs as a precursor to action. The speaker reflects on their own experience, realizing that simply providing information is not sufficient for a successful sale.

• The speaker shares a personal anecdote from the early days of their business, Jim launch, to illustrate the learning curve in sales strategy.
• The speaker initially focused on correcting clients' mistakes rather than guiding them to solutions, which did not result in successful sales.
• This experience taught the speaker the importance of the right approach in sales conversations.

"This was so hard for me to learn because in the very beginning, when I started Jim launch, I just wanted to go in and get on the phone with, no, no, your pricing is all wrong. You got to do this, you got to do this, you got to do this. And they were just like, take lots of notes and then end up getting off the call, not buy."

The quote reflects a learning process in which the speaker realized that their approach to sales was not conducive to closing deals. It underscores the importance of strategic communication and understanding the psychology of the buyer.

• Taki Moore's insight: Breaking beliefs is beneficial for everyone, while tactical advice helps only a minority.
• Questioning beliefs provides value to a wider audience compared to offering tactical advice.
• Tactical advice may not be utilized by those who are most likely to buy from you.
• The speaker realized the importance of focusing on questioning beliefs rather than giving tactical advice to truly help people.

"Taki Moore, a good friend of mine. He said everyone gets benefits from breaking beliefs. Only 10% of people get benefits from tactics."

This quote emphasizes the idea that challenging and changing beliefs is universally beneficial, whereas tactical advice only appeals to a small portion of people.

"You actually are providing more value on the call by questioning their beliefs because you're actually servicing 100% of the people providing value compared to trying to give tactical advice that only one out of ten people may or may not use."

The speaker is acknowledging the greater value in questioning beliefs over providing tactical advice, as it serves a larger portion of the audience.

"And likely the people who will use it are not buying from you. So either way, you're not benefiting your business and you're also not benefiting theirs."

This quote highlights the inefficiency of tactical advice for business purposes, as it is not used by potential buyers, thus not benefiting either party's business.

• Closing deals involves asking serious questions to understand the client's situation and struggles.
• The process includes summarizing the client's issues and confirming their understanding.
• The pitch is not about excessive talking but about sharing a story that illustrates the client's potential experience.
• Russell Brunson's concept of "techno babble" is mentioned as something to avoid; it's more about relating to the client's goals and fears.

"So at that point, you'd enter, quote the pitch, right? Which is where you're going to explain how the services work."

This quote introduces the transition from understanding the client's needs to explaining how the service or program can address those needs.

"And so if I were trying to know, I'll just use Jim launch as a simple example."

The speaker is setting up an example to illustrate how to effectively communicate the value of a service by tying it to the client's desire for freedom and self-sufficiency.

"You're never actually going to be free until you learn this, which means you have to confront this either today, tomorrow, or ten years from now. But you're going to have to do it. Does that sound fair to you? Does that make sense?"

This quote is part of a story that aims to break the client's belief by linking the necessity of learning a skill to their ultimate goal of freedom, making it a fair and logical step.

"And so here what I'm doing is I'm telling a story to break a belief. I'm not saying, let me show you how we're going to teach you how to market instead. I'm saying we have to at least come to an agreement that you need to learn this skill."

The speaker explains the strategy of using a story to challenge a belief instead of directly teaching a skill, which helps in gaining agreement on the necessity of learning.

• Stories and analogies are prepackaged tools used to illustrate points and break beliefs.
• The speaker uses the analogy of teaching a man to fish to emphasize the importance of learning skills for sustainability.
• For weight loss, the speaker would focus on the three essentials: fitness, nutrition, and accountability.
• Motivation is addressed by comparing the enjoyment of working out to watching TV, aiming to shift preferences toward healthier activities.

"And if they didn't understand it, then it would be like, well, this is the difference between giving a fish and teaching a man to fish right now. You need to learn how to fish for yourself in order for this business to be sustainable for you."

This quote uses the classic analogy of teaching to fish versus just giving a fish to drive home the importance of learning skills for long-term business sustainability.

"Why haven't you been working out so far? I don't know how. Fair enough. Is it also because you're not motivated to do it? Yes. What's something that you like doing? I like watching tv. Cool. What if, what if working out was something that you could look forward to as much as, or more than watching tv?"

The speaker uses a conversational approach to uncover the underlying issues of motivation and preference, suggesting a shift in perspective to make working out more appealing than watching TV.

• Emphasizing the necessity of adopting a new lifestyle, particularly in the context of working out or changing eating habits.
• The speaker disregards the specifics of exercise programs or diet plans during the initial conversation.
• The focus is on agreeing to a fundamental change rather than the intricacies of the change itself.
• The speaker uses the analogy of preferring working out over watching television to illustrate the need for a lifestyle change.

"out, but learn to like working out more than watching television. And if we can accomplish that, then we're going to solve this problem for good."

This quote highlights the speaker's philosophy that enjoying healthy activities over less beneficial ones is key to long-term success in lifestyle changes. The speaker believes that the preference shift is more crucial than the details of the activities themselves.

"Notice I told them they're going to have to work out. I did not talk about the exercise selection. We're going to do the programming, how we're going to ramp up their volume, their underlating periodization, the fancy exercise, like none of that stuff we talked about, because it doesn't matter."

The speaker explains that the specifics of the workout program are secondary to the commitment to working out itself. This underscores the importance of the decision to adopt a healthier lifestyle over the particulars of how it is achieved.

• The speaker stresses the importance of audience engagement and avoiding monotonous presentations.
• The use of "gong recordings" is mentioned as a tool to analyze talk time and engagement levels.
• The speaker suggests that engagement drops when salespeople focus too much on technical aspects without considering the listener's interest.

"Whenever you have a monotone, you can see it in gong recordings. If you don't record this, you can see talk time, you can see where engagement goes down. And invariably it's when a salesman gets to this point of the pitch and then they talk for five minutes straight, no one cares."

This quote highlights the negative impact of monotonous speaking and overemphasis on technical details on audience engagement. The speaker suggests using tools to monitor engagement and adjust accordingly.

• The speaker emphasizes the importance of genuinely caring about the client in order to effectively coach and sell.
• Sales scripts are described as tools to structure a conversation that should naturally occur between a caring individual and someone they can help.
• The ultimate goal in sales, according to the speaker, is to guide the client to the realization that they need the service or product being offered.

"And the best way for someone to feel understood is for you to actually give a shit. If you actually give a shit, you will know what questions to ask, in what order, because those are the questions that you would naturally ask."

The speaker believes that genuine concern for the client is the foundation for understanding and effectively communicating with them. This care leads to asking the right questions and better assisting the client.

"The reason scripts were even invented is to mimic or structure a conversation between somebody who cares and someone that they can help."

This quote explains the purpose of sales scripts as a framework for a caring conversation aimed at helping the client. It reinforces the idea that caring is central to successful sales and coaching interactions.

• The speaker requests support from the audience in the form of ratings, reviews, and sharing the podcast.
• The speaker does not run ads or sell products through the podcast, making audience support crucial for its growth and impact.
• The appeal for support is framed as a way to help entrepreneurs and create a positive ripple effect.

"Real quick, guys, you guys already know that I don't run any ads on this and I don't sell anything. And so the only ask that I can ever have of you guys is that you help me spread the word so we can help more entrepreneurs make more money, feed their families, make better products, and have better experiences for their employees and customers."

This quote is a direct appeal to the audience to support the podcast, emphasizing the altruistic goal of helping entrepreneurs and improving lives. The speaker's request for support is based on the desire to have a broader positive impact rather than personal gain.

• Acknowledging that change, especially in eating habits, is an iterative process.
• The speaker discusses finding a balance between enjoying food and achieving weight loss goals.
• The conversation avoids specifics about meal plans, focusing instead on the broader concept of sustainable change.

"Fundamentally, you're going to change the way you eat because what you got, like, why you are here is because of something you are currently doing."

This quote underscores the principle that current habits are responsible for the present situation and that fundamental changes are necessary for improvement.

"Okay, well, then can we agree that all we have to do is just simply figure out the foods that you will like, and that's an iterative process for us and we'll walk through it, but the end goal is that you will like this more than you're currently eating, and as a result of that, we'll stick with it."

The speaker emphasizes the importance of enjoying the new eating habits as a key factor for long-term adherence and success. The iterative process mentioned is about finding what works best for the individual rather than prescribing a one-size-fits-all solution.

• Approach sales with the mindset of helping rather than focusing on closing percentages and numbers.
• Engage in active listening by asking questions, restating what the potential client says, and ensuring they know you understand their needs.
• Only pitch your service or product when you are confident the client is ready to say yes.
• The sales process should be similar to a marriage proposal, where there's a high likelihood of acceptance.
• Avoid pitching too early; instead, focus on uncovering the client's core issue through conversation.

And if you can approach it like that, you stop having your ego tied up in your closing percentages and your numbers, and instead you start helping people on the phone and by extension you will sell more deals, all right?

This quote emphasizes the importance of shifting focus from personal sales metrics to genuinely helping the client, which inadvertently leads to more sales.

Lawyers do not ask questions they do not already know the answers to. No guy. Most guys don't propose to someone without already know the person's going to say yes. The take rate on proposals is very high.

The speaker compares the sales process to a lawyer's strategy and a marriage proposal to illustrate the importance of certainty in the outcome before making a pitch.

• The sales process should involve a conversational loop where the salesperson asks questions, restates to clarify understanding, and allows the client to lead to the pitch naturally.
• Salespeople should aim to retake control of the conversation if the client is commanding it, as this is not conducive to closing a deal.
• Experienced salespeople can often predict the outcome of a sales call within the first few minutes based on the client's responses and the flow of the conversation.
• Challenging questions can help shift a client's perspective and open them up to the possibility of working with you.

And so from this, the three things that you should be using when you are closing is you should be asking questions. You should be restating what they said, and then once you've exhausted these pieces where it becomes obvious that you need to move on the sale, only at that point they'll say, well, how do I work with you?

This quote outlines the three key actions in the closing phase of a sales call: asking questions, restating for clarification, and waiting for the client to express interest in moving forward.

And the only way to do that is to ask questions that are challenging. One of the things I have my team say is closers ask hard questions.

The speaker advises that asking challenging questions can help change the client's mindset, which is crucial for progressing the sale.

• Before pitching, ensure the client is already convinced about the possibility of success with your service or product.
• Simplify your sales script to focus on questions and clarification rather than lengthy explanations.
• The goal is to lead the client to naturally ask how they can work with you or how your program works.

And so understanding that before you get into your pitch, the person must already be sold on working with you is one of the biggest things I can give you right now.

This quote highlights the importance of the client being mentally prepared and convinced to work with you before you present your pitch.

So if your script has too many paragraphs and too much explanation and all of that stuff, then it's off. It just needs to be questions and restating for clarification that you are hearing what they're saying and asking the next natural question that will lead logically to them working with you.

The speaker advises on the necessity of a streamlined script focusing on interactive dialogue rather than a monologue filled with explanations.