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At the highest level, sales is the transference of emotion. And the emotion that you're primarily transferring is the emotion of certainty. The certainty about what?
Certainty about yourself, that you're a salesperson they can trust, they can connect with you, they want to do business with you. Certainty about the company that you work for, that they'll stand behind any guarantee they have, any customer service issues, any product problems. Right?
And then certainty about the product itself, that the product makes sense. Now, let's look at something really, really interesting here. What did I just say?
I said sales is the transference of certainty, right? Your prospects enter at a relatively low level of certainty. So, imagine this if you will.
Imagine a continuum of certainty. And on one side of the equation, you have a one, that represents a state of absolute uncertainty. Someone's uncertain.
They hate the idea, they're uncertain about it. And a 10 represents absolute certainty, right? Where they love the idea, they're sure of it, it's the best thing in the world, right?
When your prospect enters the sales encounter, in this case, when you pick up that phone or that Zoom call, right? The question is is where is your prospect, where are they on the scale of certainty about your insurance product? Where are they?
Are they in a one? Are they in a five? Are they in a 10?
The answer is who knows. And how could you know? You don't know where someone is because they all come in with what?
Preconceived notions, experiences, things they've heard. So, you don't know where they are, but you do know this. You know that they're somewhere.
They're somewhere on this scale of 1 to 10 because they come from planet Earth. As soon as they hear, "Oh, it's insurance. " then in that instant, everything they ever heard about insurance, every prejudice they have, every preconceived notion, everything all puts them in one spot in their brain, lands them right there at some point on the continuum.
Now, in some industries, right? For example, like insurance, overall, people tend to be more favorably inclined for it. We all think insurance is a good thing.
So, they probably go a bit higher, closer to be a five or six or seven. Versus if you were selling something like timeshare rentals, right? Vacation rentals.
Well, I'm not saying they're good or bad, but we've heard things many people that say they I don't know. I've heard of friends got burnt before or they've heard something bad. So, they tend to start off at a lower level, maybe a three or four.
You get that? Based on what they've heard, what they think, right? But either way, it doesn't matter because that's your job as a salesman now is to take them from wherever they are on this continuum, whether it's a three, four, five, whatever they are, and you are going to say things to them.
You are going to explain things to them. You're going to show them certain things, and your goal is to make them more certain, to move them up this continuum, to go from whatever they were, to get them to as close as possible to a 10 on the certainty scale. That's your job as a salesperson.
You want to take them from where they are and move them up the certainty scale to as close to as 10 as possible. And another point here, very important is, so if they are somewhere on this scale between maybe a three, four, five, six, seven, right? Where are you?
Well, you better be at an absolute 10. And the reason you're at a 10, you're absolutely certain your product is the best. Why?
Cuz you know everything about it. You're educated about it. You know all its benefits.
You know how how awesome it is, how it provides with the right coverage, how it's the best plan out there. So, you enter the equation, you enter this encounter at a 10. That's why that ability to manage your state, now we go back to state management.
You enter, you trigger this peak state of certainty. You have to enter this call, this Zoom call, you're in your heart feeling absolutely certain. And every cell of your body, every matter something when you speak is exuding absolute certainty.
It flows out of you. And the certainty that you feel inside, you then explain that to someone else, and you move them up to become as certain as you, so they want to buy. Make sense?
In other words, you are transferring your knowledge, you're transferring the the that you have. That's what your sales presentation is about, and that certainty moves them up the continuum, and your goal is to get them to as close to a 10 as possible and ask for the order in just the right way. In other words, think about it.
If someone's at a one on the certainty scale, and you were to say to them, "Hey, what do you think about this insurance policy? " What would a one sound like? I'll tell you what it would sound like.
"This is the biggest piece of [ __ ] and policy in the world. I would never, ever, ever buy this policy. The coverage sucks.
The company's probably going to go bankrupt. It's stupid. I don't need this coverage uh and even the thought of this coverage is stupidity on stupidity.
I never would buy that. " That's a one, right? And then if someone was at a 10 on the certainty scale for your policy, they'd say, "Oh my god, that insurance is the absolute best.
The coverage is perfect. It makes me sleep better at night. The pricing is really fair.
I love the company. It makes me feel such a What a great fabulous, fabulous insurance product. Yes, this one's a perfect fit for my needs.
" That's a 10. So, let me ask you a question. Where do you want them to be?
Where do you want your prospect to be on this certainty scale when you ask for the order? What's going to give you the best shot of closing them? Obviously, the closer they are to a 10 on the certainty scale, the better shot you have of closing them.
Make sense? Of course, it does. That's what you're doing.
That's why I say when you're selling, you're transferring certainty. You're saying things. You're explaining things.
You're showing your prospect things that are essentially raising up their level of certainty to get them to as close to a 10 as possible. So when they're thinking it, they're like, "Yep, I love it. Makes sense.
It's great. " So they want to buy it. Make sense, right?
Great. So let's say you do that. Let's say you give this amazing sales presentation, and by the time you're done doing that, based on everything you've said, everything you've done, everything you showed the prospect, by the time you're done, they are now at an absolute 10 on the certainty scale, and they're damn sure of it.
They think your policy is the absolute best. Here's my question. If they're feeling that, they think your policy is the absolute best, and you ask them for the order to buy, will they buy from you?
Yes or no? Now, I've asked this question, you're probably saying, "Yeah, of course they'll buy, right? " I've asked this question in thousands of rooms across the world, seminar rooms, training rooms, both big and small, and invariably, when I ask this question, I say, "Will they buy?
" Everyone's like, "Yes, of course they will. " But the answer is that's not true. The answer is not yes, and the answer is not no.
The answer is maybe. As in maybe they will, and maybe they won't. Cuz let me ask you another question.
What if in the process of making this prospect so certain, the way you said something, the way you went about doing things, something about the way you made your presentation, could be anything, could be the way you looked, could be your tonality, could be the words, that something about what you did made them not trust you, and made them not like you. Will they buy from you if they don't trust you or like you? One or the other or both?
The answer is, of course they won't. People don't buy from people who they don't trust, and they very seldom buy from those they don't like unless they're really desperate. But, we don't buy from people we don't trust.
So, it's not enough to get someone to an absolute 10 on the certainty scale for the product. They also have to be very high on that certainty scale when it comes to you, the salesperson. They have to trust and connect with you.
You can't get someone certain about the product and do it in a way that pisses them off and makes them hate you and mistrust you cuz they're not going to buy from you. In fact, if they love the product so much and they don't trust you, what will they do? They will simply go to someone else who offers basically the same exact product, and they'll buy from them.
That's what will happen. We don't buy from people who we don't trust. So, that's your second 10.
They must trust and connect with you. So, what would a one sound like? If someone's at a one on the trust scale connect for you?
If you I say, "What do you think of that salesperson? " They are the biggest snake in the grass. I don't trust them as far as I can throw them.
I think they're full of [ __ ] I would never do business with that I hate that. That's a one, right? You don't want that, right?
And then, what would a 10 sound like? Oh my god, they are the greatest salesperson. I consider them a friend and advisor.
I trust them. They really do the right thing. They never overcharge me.
They always take the time to explain things to me fully and make me feel comfortable. They really care about me. They care about my family and I'm I kind of feel like we have this great similarity.
We see things the same way. That's what a 10 sounds like. So again, where do you want them when you ask for the order?
Well, if they're at a one then I'll buy. You want them at a 10. So now you have these first two 10s.
Number one, you want to get into a 10 where they absolutely, positively love your product. Number two, you have to get them to a 10 about you, the sales person. They trust and connect with you.
And the way you do that is you say things, you do certain things and we'll get to that later, okay? And hopefully we won't run out of time here, but I want to give you as much as I can until we're done, right? So that second 10 is you.
So let's say that you do that effectively. Let's say that you make this great sales pitch and by the time you're done, they're at an absolute 10 about the insurance product. They love the product.
And number two, they're at a 10 about you. They trust and connect with you. Question, will they buy from you now?
Yes or no? Now again, when I ask this question all over the world in seminar rooms both big and small, invariably everyone says, "Yeah, well now they'll buy. " And of course I say, "Ah, not so fast.
" See, the answer once again is not yes and it's not no. Once again, the answer is maybe. And that maybe is what if in the process of this whole thing, if you completely left out the fact that well, what's the company like that stands behind this product?
How about the company you work for? What if you didn't address that at all? Maybe they walked in and heard heard things about the company.
So they're at a very low level of certainty about the company. They don't trust the company. They don't connect with the company.
They don't think the company's going to stand behind the product. Watch what would happen. A Here's what a one would sound like for the company.
Oh my god, those that company, they are the biggest scamsters in the world. They don't even pay on their insurance policies. I know people that took out insurance.
Yeah, they loved the salesman and the product sounded great, but they wouldn't pay. They don't ever answer their phone. The customer service is terrible.
I heard they're going to go out of business soon. I heard they're under investigation. That's a one.
Now, obviously, if someone is thinking that about your company, guess what? They're not going to buy. No matter how much they like you.
Who's the company? What customer service do they give? What's their reputation?
Are they a corporate citizen? That's a one. A 10 would be, what do you think of that company?
Oh my god, they That company is the absolute best. Not only do they pay their policies on time, but like if you call them, you have a problem, they'll fix anything. They're the nicest people.
They're great corporate. They're generous. They give to charity.
I mean, what a wonderful company. I love them so It's just the best company to do business with. That's a 10.
What you're doing here, when you sell, when you persuade, what is happening is you are saying things from the first word out of your mouth till the very moment you actually close the sale, everything you say, everything you do, every tonality you use, every body language thing you portray to someone, every single thing is designed to slowly but surely move them down this straight line. That's the straight line from the open to the close, and you're building this massive certainty for the three 10s, as we call them. The three 10s.
Number one, first 10, they must love the product. Number two, they must trust and connect with you. Number three, they must trust and connect with the company that stands behind the product.
What you're looking to do as you move someone down the straight line from the open to close is you're looking to corral, to put together in one moment a 10 10 10 in a single moment in time and ask for the order.
