Transcription
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So here we are, day number 10. You made it through this marathon. So a huge congratulations from me to you for making it this far. But what's more important is you need to give it to yourself. And what I mean by that is, pat yourself on the back, give yourself a congratulations, you know, stand like you're a champion. Whatever it is to make sure that you acknowledge yourself. Very, very important, because you're the one who did the work. You've gotten your advanced degree in influence and sales, and you did this through commitment, persistence, and most importantly, taking action. These, my friend, are the keys to the kingdom. And if you do nothing else, just your personal power will increase your sales in spades. Who you are right now is different from the person that you were when you started this program, perhaps 10 days ago. How you show up right now will influence people just by who you've become.
So, as we wrap this program up, Tony's going to walk you through a quick recap of the program to remind you of all that you've learned. And I'm curious, what is the value of this program to you? Financially, emotionally, spiritually? How has your life already changed as a result? And how have the lives of the people that are around you changed?
Now, before we leave, I want to make sure that you take a moment to reassociate to this. And you can do that by just taking a look back and going, "Gosh, look at how much I've learned." And you know, "How am I different?" And think of yourself as being a completely unique and different person. Then, what's going to happen? Tony's going to give you a couple of last distinctions that will not only help you sell a lot more, but enjoy the process, and also to ensure that people refer their friends and associates to you because of the emotional impact you've had on them.
So, let's do it. The last step, step number 10, entitled, "Make It Easy and Create a Future."
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When we started this course, we said we're going to work on mastery. That mastery required that you worked every single day consistently at something that you really absorbed yourself. That sometimes you'd be feeling like you're a little bit over your head, like there'd be a lot of material, like you'd be doing something new. And since it was brand new, you might be at that level called conscious competence, or maybe even worse, unconsciously incompetent. But if you kept on working at it, you could get good. I hope at this point you've had enough practice, or you've taken the time to create enough practice, that you feel really competent in the nine steps of selling. We only have one left, 10. And 10 is real simple. All we've got to do for the 10th step now is make it easy to buy and create a future. Because the truth at this point, you really have the sale. So now, what you've got to look at is something a little bit larger. How do I create a relationship with this person that will last through the years? That empowers them, empowers me, that's fun, that's friendly, and hopefully also that's profitable in the form of referrals or continued sales in the future. And a lot of people, when they get to this point in the sale, kick back and forget and stop. They rest on their laurels. I would say to you that right now is probably the most important part of the sales process. Because right now, you've got to make sure you tie the sales down so this person doesn't get buyer's remorse. You've got to also make sure that you build a future. Because you worked hard to get to this point, you spent a lot of time, a lot of energy, used a lot of psychology. And so now it's time to cash in on your efforts by creating a future.
So, let's first do a little bit of a review, if we could. Let's go through the 10 steps. And again, one more time, you'll remember that the sales process, as we've described it, has been broken down. And we broke it down initially. We're giving you an overview. We had to look at your beliefs and make sure the beliefs we're going to empower you. And then we taught you some ways to manage your state, knowing that state management is one of the most important keys to long-term success. You can know what to do, but if you don't have a big enough why to do it, you don't have the beliefs that support you, and you don't daily manage your state, nothing else matters. So make sure, make sure you review how important your reasons are, and you're taking a look at your goals daily and creating that daily results ritual we talked about early on in the program.
Then we said there are 10 steps to sales mastery, three phases of the process. And those three phases where we need to first make sure we get somebody so they're engaged, secondly, we need to unroll them, and then compel them to buy. We said that the process of engaging had five steps. It started here with step number one, remember way back then, preparing. We had our guy, didn't have very much muscle yet. He was still deciding what he was going to do. He was out there gathering information, he was getting information and make sure he was prepared by knowing all of his product's benefits, knowing who his customer was going to potentially be, and anticipating what are some of their deep needs, what are some of the things this person wants and needs most that I can help supply through my product or service. This person also had a book here on their prospects' needs, but also a book on their customers in terms of their competition, rather, and knowing what their competition was offering. They also had a book here on how to answer every objection, remembering that preparation means you anticipate all the possible objections that could come up and you rehearse over and over again till you can handle virtually any of them without any fear whatsoever. So that when somebody gives you an objection, you're ready to cash that objection into a closed sale. So we start out here with doing our homework, really knowing what we're doing, having an effective plan. That was step number one.
We then moved to step number two. Step number two was turn yourself on. We taught you how to put yourself in a peak state by measuring where are you right now on a scale from 1 to 10. Where are you? Are you at level 10? Are you level seven? And make sure that every single day before you get to be with a customer, you're at 10 or above. That when you're learning in this kind of environment, where are you? Did you keep yourself at at least level eight, seven at the very low level, so you could really get the most? You need to measure on an ongoing basis where you are. And we give you some ideas about how to do that consistently to manage your state by changing the questions you ask yourself and by changing the way you move your body. So that was step number two, prepare, turn yourself on.
Step number three, we said, "Hey, if you're all turned on, you're prepared, but you don't do anything, you've wasted your time." So we went to step three, make contact and get somebody's attention. We said that the key here was the more contacts you made, the more you would make, even if you weren't any good. The more you're going to make. And you know that in your gut. And you made a promise to make sure that during this program, you double the number of prospecting calls. Make sure that you're keeping that commitment at least for the 30-day period, so that you get a chance to practice and play and just develop the muscle of discipline. Because with that alone, with nothing else, you and I both know your sales will go up, if they haven't already, on a massive scale. And we also said that one of the ways to get people's attention is realize, yes, you are an interruption. You're absolutely an interruption in somebody's life until you get their interest or attention. So you need to do that. And we said the way you could get somebody's attention was to scream "Pigs!" And we talked about all the different ways to do that: to smile, to give them a compliment, to use a referral, to exhibit something, to ask questions, to use mystery, to do a poll where you found out some information about the company organization, give them gifts, startle them. So make sure that you remember some of these elements and do a little review for yourself. But again, making contact and getting their attention, getting something that would grab their attention right away.
Then we went to step number four. Step number four was connect and become their best friend. And we talked here about number one, really learning to care about a stranger, really getting yourself fully associated at a gut level where you could find things about the person you really, really like and care about. And where they would know right away that the person whose interest that you have in mind is a professional persuader is first, second, last, always the person whose interest your focus is on is the customer's, not your own. Your own come second. And that if you do that, you're going to have the power to influence. We wanted to create this connection. And we talked about that you need to approach people with empathy. We talked about giving sincere compliments. And the difference between flattery and compliments, if you'll remember, is if you just give a compliment, it's probably flattery. But if you give a compliment and you back it up, and you say, "The reason I say that is because this and this and that," and then you ask them a question like, "How do you do that?" Then what you do is you provide a way for someone to have a sincere compliment that really have a positive impact on them. He talked about building up our arsenal of powerful positive compliments and getting in the habit of complimenting everyone, complimenting people, third-party sharing with them the other compliments people have said about them in order to build people up. If you and I are people builders, then we never have to worry about our incomes, our ability to be successful salespeople. Because then what we're doing is we're not just selling a product, we're helping to make someone's life even, even greater. And I hope that that's what your goal is. And if you've come this far and really stayed committed, the answer is that probably is your goal. So we've gone through this process. And then we taught the prospect process, rather, of matching and mirroring so that people felt that connection right away. All this was part of connecting and becoming their best friend, step number four.
And then the final step of the engaging mode was the process of making sure that we created interest. We said that for somebody to be engaged, we had to make sure that before we started to give our presentation, before we asked any questions, we had to grab their interest. We had to get them to be all ears, where they were hungry to hear us, hungry to hear our presentation. And again, we said the best way to do that would be to use what we called a unit of interest, to make a big fat claim about something we have. We can come into your organization and we can increase your sales by 25% through the use of telemarketing. And the reason I say that is because, and we gave him a fact, because we've done that for several other companies. What that means to you is it means that you're going to be able to have the level of sales that you want. And that really means to you having the income that you really want. And the evidence I can show you is three companies we've worked with recently. But my purpose right now is just to get a few of your answers to some questions. Would that be okay with you? And the whole step here was to create interest and get permission to probe again, to state a big fat claim that will grab their attention, grab their interest, and back it up with some benefits, some things that would make them pay attention so that they would listen to your presentation.
At this point, you've gone through five of the 10 steps already, and you have now engaged that person. They're all ears, they're your friend, and you've made a real strong connection. Now, what you had to do is begin to enroll them, the second phase. And we went on here now to step six. And we said, "Okay, we've got permission. What we now need to do is we need to fly into their brain here, and we need to probe for problems and magnify the hurt." We remember that we found that what makes people do anything is one of two things. They either do it because they think that by doing this, they're going to get more pleasure. And that people have different words for the levels of pleasure they want, different words like freedom, like adventure, like security, like playfulness, like, um, breaking through. People have all kinds of different states that they call pleasurable. And that's part of what motivates people is their desire to get pleasure. We also found that the second thing that motivates people is their need to avoid pain. And we found out that for most people, the need to avoid pain is much stronger than the desire for pleasure. They may not like you motivating them that way, and you've got to be careful. But if you can show someone how buying means pleasure and not buying means pain, then you're going to be very successful. We said that you need to qualify them by learning "Noam." We had to find out what are their needs, what are their wants, what are their wounds? Do they have the authority to buy? And do they have the money? And you design some questions to do that. So you wanted to qualify them, you wanted to get an emotional blueprint so you know how to motivate them, you know what has leverage to change their behavior. And finally, we studied a little bit on their buying patterns, found out things like are they primarily motivated? Do they like to be motivated by possibility or by necessity? Do they get convinced by things by seeing them, or by hearing them, or by doing them, or by reading about it? And how many times does it take before they're convinced? Are they an automatic person, or are they kind of person that maybe, you know, you have to do it for six months to get their attention? And he began to learn some of those distinctions as well. The whole process here was to qualify somebody, to enroll them. We have to know who they are and what their needs are. And we went in here and we talked about playing the game of life, where if you're going to win the game, you've got to know who you're dealing with. You've got to know what their real needs are. And if you know what their needs are, meeting their needs are easy. If I ask you to buy a gift for your best friend, remember, you don't have any pressure. You know you can do that because you know who they are. This was the process of getting to know who they are and what their deepest needs really were. That's step six.
Step seven, you now know who you're dealing with, and you're doing the final area of enrolling. Step seven was create conviction, create conviction and test close. The purpose here was knowing that people are always weighing as they make decisions. That what we want to do is we want to give them tons of reasons to buy, their reasons to buy, not ours. And that the way we were going to do that is we wanted to get plenty of urban and lurbon, plenty of emotional reasons why they should buy now, and plenty of logical reasons to buy now. Because we know that people, if people don't have to buy now, they won't. If people don't feel like there's a reason to buy now, they will not buy now. They will put it off, they will procrastinate. So what we found is we need to find what we call units of conviction. What those were, if you recall, was taking a factor, a feature about your product, any little factor, feature, and then tying it up in a little bag with two other benefits, and with a commitment from them that that's something they really needed. Where we made a big fat or a little fat claim about our product or service. We said, "Hey, our computer system will increase your efficiency in your accounting department by 30% if you put it in." And the reason I say that is because, and you stated a fact, because what happens when we do this, it works. It's worked with two other companies. And what that'll mean to you is more free time and more flexibility in that department. And what that really means to you is savings of money, energy, and you'll be able to get the results you want. And so then we followed that up and said, "And the reason I can tell you that is we've done it with this other company." But my purpose right now is just to get your answers to a few questions. Is that okay? And then after you've done that, you'd say, "In your opinion, do you feel like these benefits are benefits you really want?" If they say yes, you now have a unit of conviction. And all you did is keep stacking reasons for them to buy until what happened was their drab, their dominant reasons to avoid buying, their fears became lighter and lighter, maybe even catapulted off as you went down and got them to the point where they would buy. The way you tested your progress was using one of your best friends, a name you will never forget, the test close. Create conviction and test close. Found out the difference between a test close and a normal closing question. A normal closing question is a call for them to make a decision. A test close is asking someone a question that is an opinion. And so you learned to ask various ones: "In your opinion, do you feel?" "What do you think so far?" "Does it make sense?" Things like, "Would you be willing to blank in order to get the benefit you want?" Things like, "If we were to eliminate this problem and we're able to give you the emotional needs you want, then you think you might want to go ahead?" The key words again here were things like, "In your opinion, do you feel?" You can take any hard close and make it a soft test close by doing that. And we said that the test close is your best friend. Because one, it's a barometer. It'll instantly tell you where you are in the process. It'll tell you whether the buyer is hot or cold. We said you want to always be test closing. You want to do it from the very beginning. You learned about opening test closes, progressive test closes, and trade-off test closes. And test closing will be something that you, you can never ask enough test closes, because you're always getting feedback and hopefully getting some commitments. It's the best friend you've got. And you learned to do that. Create conviction and test close. That was step number seven.
You now had somebody enrolled. What happened? You've made them, you made contact, you've gotten their attention. What else had happened? You connected at a heart-to-heart level, they really believed and trusted you. What else happened? You got their interest. You found out who they were on the enrolling stage, and you got some conviction. They feel justified, they feel logically justified and probably emotionally making the buy. Now you want to compel them. So we move on to step eight.
You make it real and you assume the sale. And we said the ways to make it real were a couple of ways. Number one way was to unleash a person's imagination. That anytime imagination and will come face to face, imagination is much more powerful. So that you would ask people questions like, "If you were already to buy this product, what are some of the benefits that you'd have throughout the years?" And what you want to do is make buying like heaven. That if they bought would mean all these pleasurable emotions: success, happiness, love, respect, security, whatever they want, the things they want most. And not buying, you wanted to make like hell. That the bottom line is that would mean losing out or missing out on opportunity or failure or having to continue to experience something they hate. That if you can make those distinctions and make that really real to the prospect, they're going to be compelled to buy. Because we all move away from what pain, and we all move towards pleasure. And we use both the carrot and the stick. It's amazing what happens, but it has to be real to them. We can't just tell them. So we talked about doing by asking questions. And we talked about selling three-dimensionally. You've got to make it real to somebody. You've got to make it a three-dimensional thing for them. And so we talked about how to make it real. And then as soon as you make it real, assume the sale. Pull out your notebook, get their address, and do an order blank close, or immediately go to the phone and make a phone call, or congratulate them, whatever the case may be. As soon as you see that you really met their needs and you've test closed, bam, you should assume the sale. You should not assume that the person is buying or ready to buy. You should assume that they have already bought. I'll make that distinction in a moment. I'll come back to that if I've hooked you with it. But this is Step number eight. Step number eight, make it real and assume the sale.
Then we said, what if you assume the sale and all of a sudden you get an objection? Great. Convert objections into commitments. Convert them into commitments. And we went through a 10-step process. He talked about as soon as they take that objection, what do we do? First step, we're going to ignore it. If they throw it again, then for some reason, we're going to ignore it. They may not mean it. They may be on automatic pilot. If they throw it again, they're real intense, we're going to listen. We're going to hear them. Because just by listening sincerely, they may just run out of steam. Third thing we're going to do, we're going to feed it back. If they keep throwing it, we'll just feed it back nicely. "Cost too much." And let them either explain more or talk themselves out of their own objection. Sometimes it'll feel foolish. If they still do it, what are we going to do? We're going to question it. How are we going to question it? We're going to use very specific language. We're going to say, "I know you have reasons for saying that. Do you mind if I ask what they are?" Yeah. "Well, what are they?" Once they tell you, now what do you want to do? You want to make sure you don't get caught up in answering objections that aren't real. So you want to make it a final objection. And the way you do that is you say, "Well, just suppose that we were able to meet that need, meet that objection, handle that situation. Let's say we met all those things. Then, in your opinion, do you feel like this would be something that would be good for you to go ahead with?" So you use what we call the "as if" frame. And again, what do we do? We turn around, we come right back, and we use a test close. When you've done those first five, the rest is easy. If the person says to you, "No, no, the bottom line is, even if you did that, I still wouldn't buy." You come back and you feed it back. You go down the slide and you feed it back. "You still wouldn't buy?" And they said, "Yeah, I still wouldn't buy." "I'm sure you have a reason for saying that." You might have asked, "What is it?" "Not at all. What is it?" He tells you. "Well, just suppose you're able to do that, then would you buy? Do you think it feels like buying?" "Well, yeah, then I would." "Great." And then you go on to the next step. And as you go on the next step, what you want to do is give him a buffer. You want to give them, you want to be on their side. "I agree with you. I respect you. I'm aligned with you." Remember these pictures in your head. I'm trying to trigger you to remember the entire course in a few minutes here. So let these pictures pop in your mind as you remember them. "I appreciate, and I respect, and I align with you." And then you say, "You, after you've aligned with them and you've made them comfortable, you say, 'You know, other people felt that way too, and they feel real comfortable.'" What do you do? You then turn and turn an objection into a question. You can't answer an objection, but you can certainly answer a question. And we said the way to do that is you go, "I agree with you. And..." and you go to the next step. And you say, "And that brings up a question. And the question is, in spite of your concern, can this still meet the needs that you really want? Isn't that really the question?" "Yeah." "Then all you have to do now is go to the next step, answer the objection, and you've got some friends to help you answer the objection." These two little guys on your, your shoulders, why Tom and Ed? What do you do? Person gives you an objection. You say, "Well, why are you giving that objection? I thought we already handled that." Or, "How could you say that when you just told me how badly you need this?" Or Tom speaks up and says, "Hey, the very objection you just gave me, that's the very reason why you should do it." He does a turnaround, or he does, oh, he outweighs it. He gives you more and more reasons to do it until you feel like, "God, that's more powerful." Or he minimizes it. You've got Ed over here, a little more conservative. He'll explain it or deny it for you. Once you've done that, and you've answered the objection, what you do? You tie it down and you do a trial close. You remember that the reason you want to do this is you want to say, "Now we've handled that, we've answered that question, haven't we?" Don't just assume it. Get them to commit that the question has been answered so they don't bring it up again later. And remember a test close. It's because you never, ever want to ask someone to buy until they're ready to buy. That way, you never risk being objected to. You never risk having them say no to the sale. You always ask, "In your opinion, do you feel?" So they're not objecting to the sale. You'll be able to see where they are. "In your opinion, do you feel like you'd want this for your wife and your kids, or just your wife, or all of you?" "Well, I think it probably do for all of us." "Great. You go to the final step, assume the sale." Assume the sale. And the way you assume the sale again is congratulate the prospect, do an order blank close, or any of the many closes that you practiced during your rehearsal. So we taught you 10 very, very simple and powerful steps to converting objections, boom, into commitments for buying.
What's the final step? Number 10. Number 10 is make it easy and create a future. Make it easy and create a future. What does that mean? Well, the way you make it easy is, number one, you never, ever attack the prospect. If they bring up another objection, never attack the prospect. You always handle objections in advance. See, by this point, the prospect doesn't want to object to you. You're their friend. You spent all this time with them, you've gotten to know them, you've met their needs, you've made it real for them, you've handled the objections they've got. They don't want to bring any more up. So you want to handle all those objections in advance. That makes it easy for them to buy. And there are lots of ways to do that. But one of the ways that you can make it easy is if right at the end, when the person you're assuming the sale on them, one way to do it is you've answered all these things and you say, "Is this kind of thing you think would be worthwhile?" And they say yes. One way might be to give them a gift at that moment and say, "By the way, on top of all the stuff, I know this is something you're going to love, but I want to give you one more thing." How powerful would it be at the very moment of the close to induce reciprocation and to give some more value, to give some more benefits to someone? Would that be a very valuable time to do it? You might want to take a look and make a note. What's a gift in terms of another option, another choice, an additional product, something I could give that's not expected right at the end there? Because if you're giving much more than you expect back, it's amazing what's happening. And also now they're dealing with that reciprocation. That also makes it very easy to buy. If they've already pretty much decided, then you gave them something else on top of it. Think about how easy it makes to buy if somebody does it that way.
How do you assume the sale? I'm going to give you six quick ways. Number one, the best way to assume the sale, one of the best ways, is do an order blank close. That is, as soon as you know that this person is doing this, and let me make one thing clear, assuming the sale means this: that you are letting the buyer know that they're buying, that they've already committed. They've committed to you a zillion times. The only purpose of assuming the sale and filling out an order blank is so that they now become consciously aware they've bought. That's your job at this point. So an order blank close is always useful. That is, the minute you know that you've met their needs, everything is done, you've done your test close, you know you've been there, you should immediately be able to break eye contact and do something, take some physical action. An order blank close is one of the most powerful. And you begin to ask questions in order to fill out the order blank. Because when you ask questions, recall, you instantly focus their mind. They can't think about two different things simultaneously in a focused way. So if you ask them questions, detailed questions, they have no way to focus on the objection because you're controlling their mind by asking questions. And by the way, this is totally in integrity because you've already spent all the time to qualify this person, you've really met their needs. The only stopping them now is a little bit of fear to kick over the edge. Your job is to break through that fear by taking control and making it happen. So an order blank close.
Another way to assume a sale is a minor close. Let's say you're having someone in, they're designing a logo for you. Well, a minor close might be to say something like, "Well, would you like us to design the envelopes to go with the logo as well?" Now, they may not have said they even want the logo yet. But if they say they want the envelopes, guess what? They have the envelopes and the logo. So you get them to make a more minor decision. The more it seems like no decision at all, the easier it is for people to make the sale. People need to be guided. You need to make it easy by assuming for them so they don't have to deal. Because people hate to make decisions. And all of a sudden their brain starts to freak out and saying, "But what if this happens?" And their imagination may get unleashed on the negative side. So you stay strong, continue to assume the sale. You're doing an order blank close and they go, "But what if I..." "I say I was going to buy." You smile and say something like, "Bob, you just told me all these other things you want, this and this and this, don't you?" And you offer him what he said he wanted most. "Well, of course." "Well, great. Then what's your other, what's your home address?" And you go right back into it. So you've got order blank close, you've got a minor close.
The other one you could use is just the simple alternate choice close, which we've talked so much about. And that's when you offer somebody one of two options, but either one they pick, and they bought. So they might say, "John, so do you want to do this now in blue or green?" "Would you like delivery on Saturday the 15th, or would you like it on Thursday the 13th?" "Uh, would you like me to deliver it personally, or is it okay if I bring some of my guys over and have them do it for us?" All of these are alternate choices where if they decide on either one, then they've made the sale. You've made it easy for them.
Fourth one, congratulate the prospect. Again, congratulate them. Not congratulate them for having a great product, congratulate them on a wise decision. Firm up right away the logical reasons for buying now. Immediately make them feel like they've done the wise thing. Don't thank them for the sale. Thanking them for the sale kind of presupposes they've given you something and you've earned this. You can thank them for their time and being able to spend time with them and get to know them. And don't thank them for the sale. You've earned it. Make them feel like they were wise, not like they were giving you something by doing the sale. If the job you've done has been done right, you're the giver, not the taker here. What you've done is given them much more than they expect, and you've received something excellent for it. And that's the process that we're talking about here.
Last couple would be use things like contrast to make it easy. If at the end you want to make it easy for somebody, you can use some contrast and say, "Gosh, I'm so glad you're getting on this now because, you know, in 30 days the price goes up by $1,500. So this is fabulous. You're doing this now." And you assume the sale. Give them an impending event or some contrast, something that they can see that, "Wow, by doing this thing now, it's going to be easier than if I hold off later on." Impending doom is always a useful metaphor to have somebody do something. Another one is this is the last one. If somebody knows something as the last one, many times that's going to push them over the edge. And that falls in the same category. I'd say the last key to really assuming the sale is make it fun. You know, on one of our promotional videos, what I do at the end of the tape as I say, "And now, the single most important thing that I can possibly say to you, the most important thing that I've learned in all of selling, the thing that every person I've met who earns a quarter of a million dollars or more does is..." And then we stop the tape. They might say, "That's pretty terrible." You know what it does? People are like on the edge of their seats. And then our guy gets up with a big smile and says, "I guess you'll have to go to the seminar to find out the answer to that." And people laugh. And when they laugh, if you get somebody laughing at the time of the close, you've made it easy. You've made it fun. Everybody wants a state change, and you'll make the process work.
So making it easy is the first step. Creating a future is the final step, and it's probably the most important step of it all. You'll have no trouble making it easy, especially after you have the level of relationship you now have with this person. How do you make sure you don't get buyer's remorse? That's pretty important. Well, if you've done all the other things we've talked about, you're not likely to get buyer's remorse because of the level of relationship you have and because you really qualified the person. But to be absolutely certain you don't get buyer's remorse, you must learn now to create a future for your product in the prospect's mind. What do I mean by that? You must learn to do something we call future pacing. What does future pacing mean? Future pacing means sometimes when you're here with a prospect, and you're in this casual environment, and you spend some time with them, and they get real excited about the product, they think of the product, and they feel all these good feelings. But then sometimes they go home. And when people go home, you've got to remember, people don't want to believe they bought for emotional reasons, for the most part, or for sentimental reasons. They want to immediately be able to justify it. Even ask people why they're getting married, many times, and they'll justify, "Well, you know, he's a great provider, and he's a great this," or "She's a great this way, she's great that way." It's amazing what people often do to justify. So many times people will go home, and somebody else in their life will begin to question whether or not they made an intelligent decision. They say, "Listen, that salesman got you all wrapped up," or "You know, I can't believe you did that. We have all these other priorities." And sometimes what happens is people lose their enthusiasm because they re-evaluate things and start to go, "Oh God, buying this meant pain. Buying this meant I got rejected by somebody who I really care about." Or they think I'm not so smart. And so then they fall out and they get this thing we call buyer's remorse. The best way to prevent that from happening is future pace. Which means make sure that once the buyer has made the decision to buy, and you've completed the transaction, you've done the paperwork, now what you want to do is put them into the future and have them describe to you how this product is going to benefit them for years to come. The way you do that is real simple. Let's say you just sold someone a, a large van, let's say. And you say, "Marilyn, I understand that you're real excited about this. Is this the right van? Do you really feel like..." "So, of course, I wouldn't have bought it if I wasn't." "This is great. Let me ask a question. A year from now, what will you be doing with this van that will really make it worthwhile, make you glad that you made this decision today?" A year into the future. And that person will have to stop and think. And as they think, they might say, "Well, well, you know, we'll be going to the mountains with the kids, and we'll be doing this, and we'll be doing that, and this and this." And he said, "Tell me more. What else?" And what you do is get them to link in their mind to your product specific benefits that won't only last in this moment, over the next couple weeks, but will last through time. So then when they go home and somebody says, "Oh, that salesman got you all pumped up." They go, "No, no, honey. Listen, a year from now, we'll still be using this. We'll be doing this. We'll be going to the mountains." And they'll be able to justify their purchase. Remember, people do things to avoid pain and gain pleasure. And people buy not to get their needs met, usually, but to get their wants met. And that what they also need besides wants is they need to be able to justify it. If someone has not bought, it's because they don't have a strong enough want, a strong enough desire, or strong enough hurt, or they don't have enough justification. You analyzed your own buying patterns in that way, didn't you? And in the future, if you want to convince yourself, say, "God, I need to create more want," or "I need to create more justification to kick myself over the edge." But that's the process. It's called future pacing. And if you will future pace clients every time, I repeat, every time, where before they leave your presence, you're certain, absolutely certain, that they've created a future, then you're going to find that this thing called buyer's remorse, it'll be a thing of the past, for the most part, in your career.
What's left? Well, if you want to create a future, uh, and not just have the person stick, you've got to now take this effort, this gem you've developed, called a relationship, where you've really met somebody's needs. You need to convert that into new business. You need to be able to leverage all your time and effort here through this person. And the way to do that, of course, is referrals. And I'll tell you the best way to do it. Number one, when you go to give somebody, ask for referrals, you must believe that they're going to give them to you. The biggest problem I think most people have is they don't have any conviction. They either don't ask for referrals, or they don't have any conviction about how important it is. What I'll tell people usually something very similar to, "You know, the only way I'm able to build my business is by people who are satisfied with me, who feel like I've done a good job, referring other people they care about. Let me ask you a question: Have I done a good job for you?" What I immediately do is I either find out I have or I haven't. Obviously, most time they say, "Well, gosh, you've done a great job." Say, "Well, could you do me a favor then in return?" What you're now inducing is what? Reciprocation. Remember, people will do more out of their need to reciprocate than they even will because they like you. So you're reminding them that you've done them a favor, but you're doing it elegantly. You say, "Could you give me the names of..." And I will always ask for more than I think I'll get. Let's say five people. And I'll describe what these people might be like. There are heads of companies in the particular area that may have a sales staff of this size. And I describe in detail so they have time to think. So I don't just say, "Can you give me five referrals?" And the person goes, "Well, call me later." No, I give them time to think. I said, "Could you give me the names of five people?" And then I describe in detail the kinds of people that I'm looking to be able to have a chance to work with. And I obviously tap into their need or desire to help this person. Say, "Because I'd like to assist them with some of the same possibilities." And, you know, "I'll deal with them with the same integrity I've dealt with you. I will make sure that I meet their real needs. And if I can't, I'm not going to waste any of their time. And I'll make sure that what'll happen is that what they want most, they'll really get out of our relationship. And I know you can trust me, can't you?" "Well, of course." "Great. So would you open your book right there, and then I'll guide them. Would you open your book there and could you give me at least five names?" And if you ask for for five, you're going to get no less than three. Once I've got them, I now want to leverage myself. And so I will enroll. And it's different for every industry. I'll enroll that person in helping me to get business. Now, some people do it by paying a fee, some people give them a bird-dogging fee, some people just say, "Would you please do me a favor? I know you're really busy. Could you do me a favor and just call two of those five right now for me and just tell them who I am so I can make a connection with them? Just take 60 seconds. I'd really appreciate it." Right then and there, if you can get them to pick up the phone and call two or three people, guess what? You're not going to be rushing out there making cold calls. You know the statistics show that one referral is worth at least 15 cold calls. So every time you go out and have a sale, you want to get some referrals. In fact, even if you don't get the sale, you want to get some referrals. Somebody tells me no, I want to get referrals from them too. Always be searching for referrals. That is how you take your business to another level. And if you can find a way to cause this person to really feel like they can support you, that they're indebted to you, like they can make a difference for you by helping you with a few friends, and you've got the level of relationship you should have by now, you should have no trouble being able to have more than enough appointments where you're able to spend three or four appointments.
A day eye to eye with customers who you're really trying to make a difference with. Well, you don't have to spend all your time making cold call appointments.
Lastly, how do you use the referrals? Well, sometimes I hear people get referrals, but they don't create a future. Because here's what they do: they take the referral, they don't get the person to follow through, they don't find out about the referral. Remember, step one we went through was get prepared. If somebody gives me a referral, my next question is, "What do you like about this person? What's great about this person?" I'm starting to prepare in my mind. How do you think they could use my product? And I'm immediately getting information so that when I call that person, I can share with them a compliment, a third-party compliment that somebody else gave me. I already have things that I'm going to like about them because I've already heard and they've got a reputation to live up to, right? I'm already doing my homework up front for my next sale while I'm still at this one. That's how you develop wealth instead of just going out and starting over to make another sale. You don't want to start over all the time. You want to build. Every time you make a sale, you want that sale to lead to multiple additional sales with even less effort and a lot more fun and a lot more joy and develop a network that works for you.
The way not to use a referral is to call that person up with little or no information and go, "Hi, this is Tony Robbins. I'm with Robbins Research and I know Mike Carpenter is a friend of yours and he told me to give you a call." That is the wrong way to use a referral. Why? They don't care who you are. What you have to do is first get their attention. What do you say? Person calls up, you call them up and they say, "Mr. Williams?" The person goes, "Yes." You go, "Mr. Paul Williams?" They say, "Go." "Yes." You go, "Mr. Williams, you don't know me, but we have a mutual friend, and that friend is..." and you tell him his name. "Dan Smith told me he's with Robbins Research. He told me about something about you that I thought was really incredible." And you immediately link them. He feels that you would have a tremendous benefit if I were to expose you to an idea that we have. By the way, my name is Tony Robbins, and I'm with Robbins Research. I don't tell him my name and my company up front. Now, that matters. I immediately grab his attention. "You don't know me, but we have a mutual friend." That's the proper way to use a referral.
Lastly, if you're going to create a future, you can't just get referrals. You want to build a lifelong relationship, hopefully, or at least a long-term relationship with this person. The best system that I have found that is simple that anyone can use so you have an ongoing relationship is to take the people that you have as customers or clients and to rate their level of importance in terms of contact. How often should you be in contact? A, B, or C. A customers, you're going to probably pay attention to constantly. They're people you're going to be on their tail and being visiting with them all the time. But you take these people and you put them into a file box, and what you do is you divide that file box into 13 weeks. Week one is letters A's and B's. Week two, C, D. Week three, E, F. What this does is every, you open your file, we're at week one, and you take all the people whose last names are A's and B's, and you send them a thank you note, a reminder note, a thinking of you note. What this guarantees is four times a year, every person you've ever met will get some kind of communication from you, and it's effortless. It's painless. You don't have to say, "God, when was the last time I talked to this person?" You know when it was. It's right there in your file, and you can put together some standard notes or letters, or you can set it up in more depth. We've got birthdays and every bit of detail as well. It all depends on how committed you are to making that contact and what level of contact that is. But I highly support you in creating a future that now the sale has only begun. What you want to do is have this lifelong relationship so they'll buy from you again. You get the enjoyment of the friendship you've created because every time you go out to make a sale, you have an opportunity to have a lifelong friend. I can remember one of the first people that I sold a product to for Jim Rohn. The guy is still one of my best friends. It was a cold call, and he's bought lots of product from me. But what's more fabulous for me is how long we've been friends, on the things that we've shared and the things we've known, and how we've watched each other grow. You have a unique opportunity. You and I have the ultimate business. We're in a place where if we care deeply enough, if we really are professional, if we find people's real needs and meet them, we get paid to make friends. We get to have lifelong friends and be paid to have them. Most people would give anything to have as many friends as you and I have. That's pretty incredible. So don't take it for granted. Make sure that your focus is on creating long-term relationships.
So I guess in closing, what I want to say to you is this: We've come on a long journey together, and we've dumped a lot on your brain. Did you have to have mastered it all overnight? The answer is absolutely no. Hey, what if all you did was master mirroring? What if all you did was get more prepared? What if all you did is put yourself in state before you went and called on people? How much of a difference would that make on your income and your sales? What if all you did was make more prospecting calls? What if all you did is get a little bit better at grabbing people's attention right away, making things happen? What if all you really did through this process was learn how to create units of conviction, where you were able to take facts and make them into something people felt real benefits from? What if all you did out of this entire program was realize that you don't want to just use the potential of pleasure, but also the need to avoid pain as part of your motivation, and to do it elegantly? What if all you did in this particular program was learn the 10 steps to handle any objection? What if all you did was change your philosophy and go from the place of being afraid of objections to embracing them, not fighting them, but aligning and redirecting? What if all you did was really learn to test close constantly and just ask people, "How's that feel to you? Does that make sense? If we were to do this and this and this, what do you think?" And by using test closes, you had a better barometer and you lost your fear of "no's" because you wanted to get them out early. And those "no's" didn't mean they didn't want the sale; it just meant they didn't feel good about a particular request or idea. What if all you did out of this program was get some good goals that motivated you to use more of the skills you knew before you met? What if all you did in this program was change a couple of beliefs that used to stop you and develop some beliefs that create you at a whole another level of success? What if all you did in this program was learn to manage your state? What if all you did in this program was discipline yourself to come back hour after hour and really learn something? What if all you did was learn why Tom and Ed and you had a new way to handle objections? What if all you did was learn defeats as a way of destroying disbelief? What if all you did was learn to pay attention to people's "urban" and "lurbon" and avoid their "drat"? What if all you did was explore your own mind a little bit? What if all you did was develop a greater sense of caring for your fellow human being, where selling for you wasn't just a process as a career, but where selling for you became something you were so proud of because you knew that selling required that you be a greater person than you used to be? Or you began to realize that these skills are not just for making more money, but for making a difference for the people you care about, and knowing that in your lifetime, you will have impact, that you will leave your mark, that your ideas and feelings and concepts will not die on your lips. What if all this did would sensitize you to what you already had before you started: the power to influence, the ability to shape destiny, and increase the quality of your life? If you got any of those things, or all you did was make some new decisions about the quality of your life and the level of excellence you want to commit to, then for me, this program has been a tremendous success. And for you, I hope this program has been a new start, a new level of possibility. I feel privileged to have had the time to spend with you, and I hope that someday you'll give me the privilege of a note or a contact or a direction to hear how this program has affected you. I hope for you that it has touched your heart and impacted your destiny. That's what my life's about, and I thank you for that privilege and that pleasure. Make sure if there's anything you remember, it's not to settle for anything less than you can be, because in the end, you'll never be happy by what you get, but you'll be very happy by the person you become. And you deserve to have it all. Make your life a masterpiece. I'll see you soon.
Wow, unbelievable. I hope you now can see and feel what I said at the beginning of this program, why this man has had such an incredible impact on my life and the people around me, and now you. It's been a great journey, and I know you've learned a lot. So, as we wrap up the program, we have one more assignment for you. And just like all of the other assignments, this assignment is designed to seal it into your nervous system so that it becomes automatic. But this one here will set the stakes in the ground and be the foundation of where you're going to go. And the assignment is simple, maybe not easy, but definitely simple. Here's how it goes: Look back, and I want you to find in your past. Is there a sales call that you need to do? Is there somebody that you need to influence? Is there a face-to-face that you need to do? Maybe even one that you tried in the past and failed at? Maybe one that you've been putting off because you didn't quite feel confident enough or have enough tools? Well, what I want you to do is go for that one and make it happen. That's it. Find that one that's special to you. Find that one. You know which one it is. And if you can't think of one, like if there's not one in your past because you might be saying, "You know what, I've done all of that," then the solution is easy. Go make a new one. Go find that challenge and make it happen. And make it mean something. Make it the big kahuna of all sales. Make it the one that when you look back on it, you tuck your thumbs in your belt and you go, "Yep, I did that." Make it be the foundation that when you go forward, you can go, "I'm building it on that one there." And don't stop until you make it happen. Have that kind of enthusiasm, that kind of drive that you've had to make it through this program. If you do this, or shall I say, as you do this, because I know you're going to do it, you'll be blown away by what's going to happen to you.
The last thing I want to say to you is this: From my heart to yours, from my soul to yours, I want to thank you so much for allowing me to be in your life and walk this part of your journey with you. And of course, the journey doesn't stop here. It goes on. It starts right here. And where you're going to go, it's going to be unbelievable. The people that you're going to influence, the people around you. Listen, you're not only going to influence them because of what you say, but who you are. Just like all great people, just being around you is going to affect people. And I commend you on that. I commend you for having the tenacity, the striven, the commitment, and all of those things. You made it. And that really sets you apart from the norm. So congratulations. And remember, life is exactly what you dare to make it. So dare to make your life magnificent. I'm Joseph, and I look forward to seeing you in the future.
Hey, before you go, I know I've said goodbye to you through this original program, but I want to give you my current goodbye. I just want to say thank you for participating in this program, for both having the desire to be a leader, someone who can really make that measurable difference, and sticking to this program and giving yourself the chance to start to absorb these principles. I also hope this will inspire you to lead at a different level, to expand your vision. Because every leader I've had the privilege of meeting is someone who was unreasonable, not unreasonable with other people, but reasonable in what they expect of themselves, the demands they make to master something and not just dabble in it. I mean, think of the great salesmen of the world. How about Nelson Mandela? Of all the people I've ever met in the world, he was one of the most impressive. Think about the sale he had to make, the leadership he had to provide. He had to persuade his fellow countrymen that after decades and decades of hate between so many whites and blacks in this country, "Hey, we can live in harmony together. We're about humanity." That's persuasion, and he did an amazing job, and his created the foundation for legacy. There will always be conflicts, but there'll also be leaders who can serve. How about a lady who gets on a bus and says, "No, I won't go to the back of the bus"? Rosa Parks, and creates a social revolution because she stands up for what's right. In the end, influence is not just about getting what you want; it's about serving. And I hope that that message has rung true in your heart and your soul during this program. Anyone you can serve can be lit up if your focus and intent is to make that difference, and if you practice the fundamentals of the power to influence. And I also hope I have the privilege to meet you personally. So hopefully, you'll come visit one of our live programs, or we'll bump into each other someday, and I'd love to hear how you've used this to make a difference in your life and the people, people that you really care about most. I also want to thank my dear friend Joseph McLendon for being my partner in this process. I hope his energy and his humor and craziness has added value to your life like it has for mine for 20 years. God bless and take good care of yourself. And most importantly, remember to live with passion.