Transcription
When you ask questions to your prospects, do you notice that they give you vague, generalized, surface-level answers, and they never emotionally open up? There's a major reason why. And today, I'm going to show you why, and then what to actually change so they actually want to open up to you, they actually trust you, and they want to tell you what's really going on, because that's where the sale is made.
As you know, come over here to the whiteboard. I'm going to show you a few cool things. All right, the biggest reason, just so you're aware, that your prospect is surface-level with you is because you don't understand yet how to use your tone, okay, your tonality, to trigger certain emotional drivers in their brain that cause them to trust you and actually open up emotionally.
So, there's five types of tone that you will need to learn if you want to acquire this skill, and I'm going to show you these real quick. The first one is a confused tone. Now, a lot of people say, "Jeremy, a confused tone? You have to show them that you're an expert." I totally agree with you, but in certain contexts, there's a reason why you want to act confused. Let me show you that.
Okay, let's say a prospect tells you some type of problem or emotional pain they're going through. They're like, "Oh my gosh, this issue has caused us so much stress." Now, what do I want to do? Do I want to just go on to the next surface-level question on my script, or do I want to clarify what they mean by that, probe off that to get them to relive their pain? Probably want to relive their pain, right? Because what is the number one emotional driver in a human being that causes them to want to change? It's pain, or the fear of future pain.
So, if we can't help them relive their pain, or start to feel what the future pain will look like if they don't do anything about solving their problems, well, unfortunately for you, your prospects don't feel any need to change. And if they don't feel any need to change, there is no sale. It's actually the number one reason why you get a lot of objections. That our clients who are in your industry, they just don't get those same issues, same objections. So I'm going to show you how to do this. All right.
So, a confused tone. So let's say they're, "Oh, you know, I've got a lot of tension here with XYZ." "Hold on, John. How, how do you mean by tension? I'm not understanding. What did you mean when you said?" Now, did you see my face? Facial expression. My facial expression is, I would say, the remote control to how your tone comes across to the prospect. Okay? This is a very important concept that you might not have learned in sales that I'm going to show you here.
So, your facial expression, write this down, is the remote control to how your tonality comes across to the prospect. So, if I want to have a confused tone, I can't sit here like this: "How do you mean by?" You try it right now. Try to have a confused tone and keep your face dead silent, dead still like this. You can't do that. In fact, where did you know, a lot of people ask me, "Where did you learn tonality?" Well, I never learned it from sales trainers as a salesperson because unfortunately, nobody really knows how to do it themselves in the sales training. I had to go hire acting instructors that would teach me how to use my facial expressions. You know, some of the biggest Hollywood actors in the world that get paid tens of millions of dollars, they are trained in this because they're trained on how to use your facial expressions to communicate different, uh, what would I say, tones that trigger emotional drivers in their audience's mind that keep them engaged in the movie. You probably don't even know they're doing that, but it's one thing that you really learn in acting.
All right, so your facial expression, how you come across, your facial expression communicates to the prospect why you're asking the question in the first place. So, always write this down: Your tone is how the prospect interprets the intention behind everything you say and every question you ask. So, if I ask that in a confused tone: "Hold on, I'm not understanding. How did you mean by?" Or, "Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. You're, you're losing me here. I'm not understanding. What did you mean when you said?" See, that's a confused tone. And that confused tone and that confused facial expression triggers their brain to say, "They don't..." Even though they're saying it in their mind, triggers their brain to basically say, "Oh, he's confused. I need to clarify that better." And when they clarify that better, they open up more. They go below the surface. See why we would use a confused tone in those type of contexts?
Or if I'm door-to-door, if I'm knocking on the door, let's say if I'm selling solar or alarms or pest control or anything, right? Knock on the door. "Roofing? Yeah. Are you guys the, um, are you the property owners here?" "Yeah, yeah." "What's going on?" I'm automatically triggering curiosity based on a confused tone in that context. Now, you don't want to use a confused tone if you're like, "Oh, yeah, our product, you know," like you're going to be an expert in that. But okay, I'm going to show you what I mean by that.
Okay, now the second tone you have to really acquire is a curious tone. Now, what type of questions would you ask in a curious tone? There are more like situation questions or connection questions to really find out what their real situation is. Let's say if I sold for a marketing agency: "Can you, John, maybe walk me through what you guys are doing now to generate new leads and clients so I understand?" That's a curious tone. Their brain automatically implies that you're asking that question because you're genuinely curious. But if I said, "What do you do now to generate new leads and clients, John, just so I understand?" Well, now you sound like a scripted robot because your facial expression, you don't know how to use it to imply a different tone.
Now, the third type of tone you really have to master is what's called a challenging tone. Now, can I ask a challenging tone at the very end or very beginning of a conversation with a prospect when I have zero trust and zero credibility? More than likely not, because they're going to get defensive, right? Let's say if I'm three-quarters of the way into a conversation, it doesn't matter if it's B2C, you know, business to consumer, or business to business, more complex sell environment, it's all the same. Let's say I'm halfway, three-quarters of the way in that conversation, I've built a gap from where they are to where they want to be. I can ask what's called a consequence question. N.Q. consequence question to pull that, like, basically get them to defend themselves on why they want to make a change. I'll give you a generic version: "What happens if you don't do anything about this and the situation gets even worse?" See, that's a challenging tone.
Now, I communicated that my voice changed based on my facial expression. Watch my face again: "What happens if you don't do anything about this? What happens if you keep getting these low-quality leads and your salespeople keep leaving?" If I sold for a marketing agency. See, I could do that for any industry. Challenging tone.
Now, the fourth tone you have to really acquire. This is one of the most important ones. If you can learn this alone, you will sell a lot more than you are now. Okay, so I want to have, I want to learn how to have a concern tone, a tone that shows more empathy. So I might lean in after they tell me a problem or something and how it's impacting them, and I might lean in and say, "What's that doing to you? What's holding you back from moving forward?" So that you can see that's a concern tone. I lower my voice into more of a soft concern tone.
Now, the prospect interprets that my question is implying that I'm concerned for them, genuinely concerned for them. And when a prospect feels that you are really concerned for them, they start to what? They start to trust you. And people buy from people who they trust can get them the best results. People who they trust understand their unique situation the most. Not just who they like. You love Grandma, but you're not necessarily going to buy off Grandma if there's another company that you trust is going to get you a much better result. Right? You love Grandma, you know, she might be selling some Tupperware, but you're buying your Tupperware from Amazon. You don't necessarily like Jeff Bezos, maybe you do, but you trust Amazon to get you a better result. That's why you buy from them instead of Grandma. I love you, Grandma. Okay, I'm just joking.
All right, so you want to have that concern tone. All right. And then you also want to have a playful tone or a sarcastic tone. It's the C.C.C.P. tones, right? So, playful tone. So, where would you use a playful tone? Let's say the prospect, uh, gets on with you virtually. You have an inbound lead. You're meeting on Zoom, and they immediately say, "Hey, how you doing today?" What would most salespeople say? "Oh, I'm doing great. You know, just working hard." And that's okay. It doesn't really hurt you, but it doesn't really help you to say that.
So, I want to be playful to get them to kind of chuckle a little bit, to get them to open up. So, if they say, "Hey, how you doing today?" "Oh, you know, just hanging out, being the boring guy. What about you? What are you doing? I'm sure you're not boring." "Oh, just, you know, hanging out, just trying to stay out of trouble. What about you? Getting in trouble?" "Oh, gosh, I'm sure you're not getting any trouble." See, opens them up emotionally. I have to use a playful tone to do that because what would happen if I did this? "Hey, how you doing today, Jeremy?" "Oh, you know, just hanging out, being the boring guy." "Oh, wow, he is really boring. That's really awkward, right?" "Oh, just hanging out, being the boring guy. What about you?" See, playful tone.
All right, now remember, how do I communicate the right tone? I have to start with my facial expressions. "What's really holding you back from moving forward?" Concern tone. See what I just did there?
Okay, couple other things that's causing you to sound scripted in the prospect's mind and causing them to stay surface-level with you: verbal pacing. I want you to write this down. Now, if you, uh, by the way, if you want to start learning more of this type of thing that I'm showing you here, you're welcome to subscribe. This channel. Can I give you one piece of advice though? If you subscribe, don't share it with people in your company that you are competing with, or don't share it with a friend who might work for a competing company. You probably don't want them to learn what I show you here on this YouTube channel because of why? Well, now they're going to get better, and they might take clients from you. So, if you're going to share this YouTube channel with anybody, share it with friends who are in a different industry, who sell something different than you, because who cares? You want them to do well. You just don't want to share it with somebody in your company where they know what you know. Okay? You want the advantage.
All right, so you're welcome to subscribe if you'd like. All right, verbal pacing. Let's talk about that real quick. I get a drink here. Now, verbal pacing is where you pace out a question that causes the prospect to think deeper about what you're asking, causes them to internalize. One of the biggest reasons why your prospects stay surface-level with you, give you vague, generalized, surface-level answers. You ask them a question like, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, it's pretty good." And you're like, you're like, "Oh, okay." And then you go to the next question. And then at the end, what type of objection do they give you? "I want to think it over. I want to talk to my spouse. I want to keep looking around. I don't make rash decisions." Or, you know, um, "I need to talk with the board," if you sold B2B, or "I need to talk to my department head, see what they think," right? You can eliminate most of those by simply getting them to emotionally open up. That's where the sale is made.
So, let me give you a few examples. These are called N.Q. Now, N.Q. stands for Neural Emotional Persuasion Questioning. Okay? This is an example of a problem awareness question. Now, I'm going to give you a few industry-specific examples, and I'm going to show you the wrong way to do it that most salespeople do, and then I'm going to show you the right way.
Let's say if you sold in the life insurance industry, or final expense, mortgage protection, health insurance. That's actually the largest industry we train out of 161. Now, train tens of thousands in this space. 161 industries, number one right here. All right. Now, most salespeople ask their questions too fast. And when you ask questions too fast, guess what? Your prospect has no time to internalize what you say, so they just give you a knee-jerk, quick, surface-level answer. You walk into a car dealership or a furniture store, and the salesperson says, "Hey, welcome to the store. How can I help you?" "Just looking." Because they ask that so fast, it causes you to give a knee-jerk answer in return.
So, instead, let's say if you're selling furniture or a car dealership, they walk in. Instead of saying it that fast: "Hey, welcome into the store today. Are you guys out just kind of looking around?" Feedback. The objection. That's another training. "Yeah, yeah, yeah, we're looking." "Ah, okay. Do you know what you're, do you know what you're possibly looking for?" Confused tone causes them to want to clarify. They don't even know it triggers their brain to clarify because they feel like, "I'm confused about something." Okay, confused tone works.
Now, here's what most salespeople do at this question. Watch how fast I go: "I mean, you already have this work policy. What's causing you to feel like it's not enough, though?" "Well, I'm not saying it's not enough. I just kind of want to look around." "You already have this work policy. What's caused you to feel like it's not enough, though?" See, I don't give the prospect any time to internalize that question.
Now, let me show you how to slow it down. "I mean, you already have this 100K work policy. I mean, what's, what's caused you to feel like that's not enough, though?" Did you feel the difference in how that question came across? Did you hear my tone? It was more of a, what? More of a concerned tone. Okay, a tone that shows more empathy.
Now, watch. See where these little periods are? These are verbal pauses. Verbal pauses. You're verbal pacing out the question. "I mean, you already have this 100K work policy. I mean, what's, what's caused you to feel like that's not enough, though?" Let's say if you sold cars. I could literally show you this for every industry, your industry included. "I mean, you already have the Toyota. I mean, that's a, that's a fairly decent car. I mean, what's, what's caused you to feel like you might want something newer?" "Well, the reason why is..." See, and they start to expand.
All right, let me give you another example. Let's say if you're a real estate agent. Okay, real estate agents, commercial, could be residential. Maybe you're an investor who calls, you know, distressed properties. That's the second largest we train, uh, second largest industry we train out of 161. The real estate, uh, uh, term. "I mean, your home is, I mean, gosh, it's really beautiful. I mean, what's, what's caused you to feel like you might want to sell it?" See, concerned tone. Okay. "Well, I mean, it's really beautiful, but the reason why we're wanting to sell it is..." And they start to expand their pain.
All right. "I mean, your home is really beautiful." Pause. "What's caused you to feel..." Verbal pause. "...like you might want to sell it?" Okay, that causes the prospect to internalize and think deeper about the question I just asked. Are you with me so far? Okay, let's keep going here. I'm going to show you a few other things here.
All right, now verbal pausing is something that's extremely important to you if you want to sell a lot more than you are now and get your prospects to emotionally open up. Two really, really good people you should always look at for verbal pausing. And I don't get into politics. I got friends that are Democrats, friends that are Republicans. I'm more in the middle, like the independent. I don't, I just, we train salespeople out of Sales Warrior. But one really good president that was a great communicator and was really good at verbal pausing, uh, was President Obama. And when he spoke, he would say, he would say something like a sentence, and he'd stop for about two seconds, and then he would keep talking. Or he would stop two seconds and then ask a question. And you'd hear the audience is like, just, just let their guard, just like, so engaged, so internalizing every word he's saying, just, they don't, they're just right there in that conversation.
Another really good person that does that is Tony Robbins. If you ever seen Tony Robbins live on YouTube, you're going to notice he's out in the crowd. He'll talk, he'll pause a couple of seconds, then he'll talk more. Or he'll, like, in a question, we'll kind of slow it down, verbal pace it out, pause a couple seconds, and then ask the rest of the question. And you notice the audience is like, "Oh my gosh," like crying. It's because he's triggering different emotional drivers in the brain to cause that, simply by verbal pauses and verbal pacing it out.
So, let's say here's what an average rep would do. Okay? You, you might have been taught this. "Let me ask you something. What do you do now for your..." And you just go right into it. "Let me ask you something." And then you just force your question down their throat. Well, the problem is, is your prospect, a lot of them, unless they're lay-downs, feels like you're just barreling them through. You're just like running them over with your question.
Now, what does the top 1% earner do? How do they verbal pause? Look at the verbal pauses right here. I'm going to show you this. "Can I, can I ask you something?" "Can I, can I ask you something?" "Sure." "What's going on? Might be important, right?" I'm asking it in a curious tone. "Can I, can I ask you something?" "Uh, sure, Jeremy. What do you have in mind?" Now they're engaged, right? Rather than like, "Let me ask you something. What do you use now?" "Can I, can I ask you something?" "Sure, Jeremy. Go ahead." And now they're going to internalize that next question very deep.
Now, you want to start acquiring more of these skills because what I showed you today on this training is very basic compared to what our clients learn who are in your industry and dare I say might be making two, three, five times what you're making, and they're selling the same thing. You're welcome to subscribe to this channel. And you go to our free Facebook group, Sales Revolution.pro. There'll be a link here, there, about 100,000 some salespeople in there. And we go live in that thing, I don't know, maybe two, three times a week. We don't even charge you for it. It's on us. We'll give you some golden nuggets, some, what I call nibbles. So, you're welcome to subscribe to the channel. Don't share it with your competition. I promise you, you don't want them to know these things. And you're welcome to go to one of our free Facebook groups, Sales Revolution.pro. Hope that helped you today. Enjoy.