Welcome to the 0 Percent Family - It's time to build wealth.
This training is mandatory for each and every one of our sales team members to go through. It is designed to help break your limiting beliefs and structure your life to generate consistent income.
Training Bible:
- Complete the sales training bible
- Listen to successful call recordings
- Attend your first team meeting
- Get added to calendly and complete your first call!
- Set up and bookmark these:
- Slack
- Notion
- Zoom
- Loom
- Calendly
- Google Calendar
- Close
- Plecto
- Docusign
- Your Script
- Your Pitch Deck
- Your Invoicing Sheet
- Payfunnels
- Your goals
- Your KPI's
- Timecamp
Company Intro:
- Go through the training step by step. Don’t skip anything. Be disciplined.
- Go through each section at least 7 times to fully master it. (Einstein said it takes 7 repetitions to really learn anything)
- Move quickly, but don’t cut corners. The speed at which you get through each task will determine the speed at which you will earn.
- Expect resistance. Being rich is hard. It takes years of discipline. If you are struggling, then keep pushing through the steps and don’t complain.
- Take advantage of the opportunity you have in front of you. There are millions of people who would kill to be where you are (alive, competent, healthy, seeking growth). Don’t take it for granted and make the most out of it.
- Forget about what you learned in the past. Unless your teacher is making at least $5m per year profit, then don’t listen. The stuff we are teaching comes from successful people.
- Commitment
- Be impeccable with your word and do the things you say you’re going to do with 100% effort.
- Take Initiative
- Find the problem, be the solution. Do not just talk about problems. Be proactive in creating long-term solutions
- Think & Act Long-Term
- Make sacrifices today for a better tomorrow. We do not take short cuts and always think long-term with the implementation of solutions
- Be an Action Taker
- Do more, speak less. Action is the only thing that creates real results.
- Do Whatever It Takes
- Be Relentless with your solutions and efforts to make this company a stronger one.
- Raise Your Standards
- Get 1% Better Everyday. If you aren't holding yourself to a higher standard every single day you are going backwards.
- Massive Thinker
- 10x your Goals - don't put limits on yourself or the company. We are all capable of more.
- Communication
- Having radical transparency, being open and honest in every situation.
- Be available to work and put forth the commitment to your set number of weekly hours
- Do not exceed working hours or log overtime without permission - Hours will be listed in your personal task list
- Ensure you always keep up to date with and complete your main daily & weekly responsibilities
- These are in your personal task list in notion - if your responsibilities or role changes, keep it updated
- A requirement to bring upon 1 improvement for every team meeting
- On meetings, you will explain the improvement you found and what you have done to implement a solution
- We are all required to have an INCREDIBLE level of customer service - never put off helping a client of ours, they are priority #1
- This means making sure every client in any of our businesses feels personally taken care of when communicating with you
- Must have open and honest communication
- This includes stuff like the time you're spending on tasks, stuff you are working on, and anything else you may need assistance with
- If you find a problem and need help fixing it, you must come to management with SOLUTIONS to the problems before bringing up the problem
- Have an attitude of "If I see it, I fix it" ... we want to create a culture of problem-solving
- If you have downtime here are your options: First look for the next thing you could improve, organize, or automate. Second, you ask management for more tasks. Third, if there is none you help other team members with a task they have. Last, of all, you can choose to learn a new skill or software that we use that would help the business.
- Be EFFICIENT with your time and with ours as a team - the more you bring value the more we can look to promote people
- You are required to provide open and honest weekly feedback about your responsibilities, your productivity, & your accountability for all tasks that were assigned to you
- The reason for this feedback is so that we can help you where you need it, teach you new skills, and develop you as a person
- Open communication between all team members - sounds simple but it means a lot
- Important for asking for help from others, helping people in their personal lives, recognizing if someone is feeling unhappy or unfulfilled, and anything else a team member may need to feel appreciated and cared for
- No negativity, blaming, complaining, or bad energy - we will all strive to not let outside circumstances control how we act
- We all take full ownership of what we do, how we act, and our overall performance
- The list of sales team rules will remain on our team page for everyone to see and refer back to
- Check in with it once a month and make sure you don't miss any updates or changes (you will always be notified of changes as well)
- Jeff, Tyler, and Clay have scaled 0 Percent to become a multi-million dollar company in under 2 years.
- Jeff has an extensive background in finance through working at the largest bank in the US. Along with being a great coach and leader, he is also a master of branding and marketing. As shown by how he bootstrapped and started the company driven off solely organic leads until around the first million in sales. He has a unique ability to create products people desperately need, operates a cryptocurrency hedge fund in his spare time, and is the king of taking massive action.
- Tyler has been on both sides of a copious amount of real estate deals from being the fastest-growing loan officer in Columbus to personally investing and syndicating tons of real estate projects. He leads our team in developing the credit repair machine which has benefited thousands of people already and is also an ultramarathon runner who continues to push the boundaries in both business and mindset.
- Clay graduated from the Fisher School of Business with a Finance Degree being named the top 1% of his class for leadership, achievement, and academics. He has extensive knowledge of the sales process after having generated over 6 million dollars in net new business at Oracle his first year out of college. He has developed many management and leadership skills from experiences playing football at Ohio State, Competing on American Ninja Warrior, and joining Tyler on his insane ultramarathons.
Environment
- Throw out all of your shit clothes, remove any clutter and throw out anything you haven't touched in 3 months.
- If you have a shit car, sell it.
- If you must drive, buy something you enjoy and keep it clean
- Stop taking public transit.
- Clean your living space and keep it spotless (or hire someone to).
- If you have a shit roommate, move.
- If the people you hang out with regularly aren't successful or doing the things you want to be a part of, find a new group or spend more time alone.
- If you have a negative partner, break up with them.
- If you have a negative family, distance yourself and let them learn from you through your actions and how you've changed. You can't help anyone change from staying in the same circumstances
- Flood your environment with positivity. Listen to motivational or inspirational audiobooks or videos.
- Create a quiet, inspirational, uncluttered workspace / grind station. I suggest a standing desk if possible, good lighting, and whatever pictures or posters keep your mind in the right space.
Equipment and Tools
- Buy some nice clothes or wear anything that makes you feel most confident and ready.
- Get the fastest internet and ethernet connection in your area - google fiber seems to be best.
- If you have a shit computer, go buy the fastest one, here.
- Buy blue-blocker glasses if you stare at a screen all day here. You can turn night mode on your phone as well.
- Buy a good sounding headphone set, AirPods, Jabra headset, or something to make professional calls with.
- Install Grammarly. Never make a spelling or grammar mistake with customers.
Health & Fitness
- Buy a Whoop band to track all of your fitness, health, sleep, and recovery. Get 30 days free and a discount here.
- Join our company team, code: COMM-FDFBA5
- Workout consistently at least 3+ times per week
- Buy a chin up bar for home, here.
- You can see one of my workout routines to reference or use here.
- Get a haircut that costs more than $30.
- Drink water like it's your job.
- If you drink alcohol, stop.
- If you do any drugs, stop.
- Stop watching any T.V. and all mainstream news sources (& anything negative, distracting, or misinformative)
- If you eat unhealthy processed foods, fried foods, or anything with a lot of additives, stop.
- Put a massive priority on purchasing quality foods for your body to run on. Whole foods, fruits, vegetables, things that are natural, living, and fresh.
- If you're sick or have chronic pain or illness try fasting and changing diet. A lot stems from food and gut health.
- Rule of thumb: if whatever you eat takes more than 3 hours to digest then it's not efficient energy-wise for your body.
- Plan out 1 perfect day of eating, keep it simple, and eat that same routine every day so there is no guesswork, buy enough groceries to last you the week. Switch it up on weekends if you want.
- If you have a shit bed, go buy a new mattress or get a foam mattress, here.
- Get blackout blinds
- Sleep in a pitch-black, 68-degree temp room, avoid having your phone or other distractions in this room.
Other Habits To Instill:
- Pick up a meditation practice to perform every morning before you start the day
- I highly recommend this course: Sadhguru, Sam Harris's App Waking Up, or another simple app like Headspace if you need it.
- Write down your tasks for tomorrow before you go to bed. PLAN THE DAY. Then write what you're grateful for right when you wake up.
- Set Inexcusable FOCUSED work blocks throughout the day. 2-4 hour blocks.
- Read at least 2 pages of a book every night and listen to audiobooks (specifically on your current skill set which is sales. This will stimulate new ideas to become an expert in your craft).
- Quit giving a shit about the opinions of other people.
- Only listen to those who are in a place you would like to be in.
- If you say you are going to do something, do it. Keeping promises to yourself builds self-confidence.
- Stretching in the morning.
- Try some quick breath work to amp you up in the morning.
- Pay your taxes. (As smart as possible)
- Download Tiller Money and track all of your financials, here.
- Delete Instagram. (unless posting, don't be a consumer)
- Exclude any video games, NetFlix, YouTube (unless educational), from your weekdays completely.
- Don’t ever duck a customer’s email.
- Realize that compounding interest is the most powerful law and that it applies to EVERY action you take, not just in money.
- Get shit done daily.
- Consistent - Does The Work Every Day (Compound Effect)
- Disciplined - Tracks Religiously
- Involved in your own success - Self-Motivated (Always Improving)
- Effort - Shows Up & Does Their Best
- Solutions Oriented - Doesn't Waste Other People's Time With Problems They Can Google
You are all now a commission based salesperson
- Your earning potential is unlimited. The skills you learn during this period of your life will provide support, protection, and the ability to earn money at ANY company moving forward.
- Commission-based sales take real work and real commitment. There is a reason why most entrepreneurs and people fail at life; it’s because they can’t go out and get what they want. As a commission-based salesperson, you are a professional “getter of what you want.” This means you can generate a result out of thin air, start to finish.
- Getting what you want can be difficult. The money is made where the pain is (on your end and on theirs). This is not a regular JOB. You are in charge of your own income. If you want to go work a 9-5 for a capped income in a cold office like a sheep then by all means leave this role.
- On the other hand, if you push yourself, learn and adapt quickly, and take CONSISTENT imperfect action, you will be able to print money, live an empowered life, help who you want to help, and be remembered by your family and circle as being a valuable and useful asset.
- We are helping 100,000 people achieve financial independence. Financial independence is when their passive income sources exceed their expenses.
- Why are we so special?
- We specialize in teaching people how to become financially literate for a lifetime. We do what the education system has failed to do. We teach what the banks and people of power want to keep private. We educate our clients so that they actually have the tools to feed themselves for a lifetime and in any economy.
- We take people through 3 steps: Credit, Income, and Wealth. We show them how to repair, fix, and optimize their personal credit situations so that they can get funding for new business ventures, save money over the longterm, and utilize other peoples money to protect and grow their own. We then teach them sound business principles and share investment opportunities like real estate or partnerships with our internal services. Lastly, we share the tried and true principles of how to manage and grow your wealth longterm. We strip away the BS and teach people in 6 weeks how to change their entire financial future.
- Who do we help?
- We help the extremely-motivated, educated, business owners, entrepreneurs, or 9-5ers seeking to change their situation. They are hustlers in the real estate arena, eCommerce space, internet businesses, trucking, consulting, financial space, or looking to start a new stream of income. Our customers are mostly men, however, we have had a handful of women come through with a lot of success. Our customer likes to take risks, is looking to change their situation, and desires to be extremely wealthy and able to provide for others. They are willing to put in the work to get what they want. They are willing to pay for secrets. They want to take advantage of the systems that have been using THEM for too long. They would like this to be a quick process but are typically suspicious of if they themselves can achieve the same results they see others accomplish. They sometimes lack confidence and overcompensate by pretending they know it all when they do not. They don’t like the typical route, they don't like average, they don't like banks and institutions. They are always looking for opportunity. They like listening to financial books, podcasts, and news. They are not afraid to spend their money as they see most purchases as investments. They are emotional and typically buy on emotions and energy. They are disciplined. They have struggles in the past financially due to lack of education. They have invested in themselves before and are on the right path continuing to do so. They likely experienced some sort of trauma earlier in life that triggered a defense mechanism that made them obsessed with protecting themselves and family members. They believe money and financial security will be the answer to 99% of their problems. They are eager and willing to make change and we are here to give them the vehicle to do so.
Here is the link to all of our testimonial videos for each product, these can be used for outreach, social proof, etc.
Our website full of testimonials: https://www.0percent.com/category/testimonials/
Our google drive folder for testimonials: https://drive.google.com/drive/u/0/folders/1LCLEs6UBM4OB4x5vd-ix8jvAPd391eUA
Also here is a video montage of testimonials from a handful of our clients:
- Types of Content
- Our Content
- You can re-post our content: https://www.0percent.com/blog/
- You can see Jeff, Tyler, & Clays Posts on IG:
- https://www.instagram.com/jeffsekinger/
- https://www.instagram.com/tylerbossetti
- https://www.instagram.com/clayrat/
- 3rd Party Content
- Find articles that you think our customers would enjoy reading. Make sure they are useful. Don’t post crap.
- Your Own Content!
- Take a point from our training and craft a short iPhone video or screen share video. No one does this! If you do this, you will stand out and take your prospecting to the next level. Take 3 minutes to learn something, and then go regurgitate in an easier format it online - you will be of value then.
- Frequency
- Post content to your LinkedIn, Youtube, Facebook, and IG Audience 1-2 times per day.
- Keep touch point frequency high. Always comment back to people.
Setting Up Your Systems:
- You will have an email created for you using our primary domain. It will be firstname.lastname@0percent.com. This will be used for setting up ALL other accounts and software throughout our company. (Invites will appear in your email)
- You will receive access to the google drive shared folder. This is our STORAGE hub for any large files, videos, documents, or anything related to our team and business. If you need to store call recordings, testimonials, or anything of that nature this is the spot.
- Notion is our company's brain. It is a reflection of our values, our teams, our systems & processes, and can quite literally do almost anything. This is where you will go to see and create tracking systems, task lists, and processes for your teams, etc.
- Slack is our internal communications system. You should never need to email a member of our team - simply use slack. Download the native app and the mobile app Make intro post! “Hi I’m FIRSTNAME and I’m excited to make money!”.
- Close is our CRM - This is where you will handle all outbound communications with clients, do prospecting, and keep track of all sales-related activities.
- Calendly is what we use as a calendar scheduling tool to book times without conflict for our sales calls with prospects.
- Zoom is what we use for all of our team meetings, Ring Central is what we use for our sales calls.
- ACCEPT ALL INVITES TO THESE TOOLS INSIDE YOUR EMAIL
- We use Slack for all communication. Download the native app and the mobile app. Don’t email people in the organization unless it’s customer related or admin related, use Slack.
- Make intro post!
- “Hi I’m FIRSTNAME and I’m excited to make money!” Or something of the sort
- Please check your 0 Percent email to get access to Slack.
- Loom is how you can create and send personalized video messages to our prospects or clients who have booked calls! These are EXTREMELY crucial to your success if done correctly and utilized on a CONSISTENT basis. The response rates to a customized and genuine video are typically 5-10 times higher than any other method.
- How to record calls WITHIN close: https://help.close.com/docs/calling-from-closeio#section-call-recordings
- We use Calendly to schedule all appointments and meetings. This tool is a life saver and time saver. In most circumstances, you will be using Calendly to book.
- Accept Calendly invitation
- Management will create your calendly account and send an invitation email to your company email.
- 30 -minute Slot
- Use this for follow ups with clients if needed
- 45 -minute Slot
- The 45 - minute slot is used for conducting full strategy sessions for FIA. We've bounced between both as the optimal time to close an FIA client or partner so use your discretion. Booking 45 minutes on your calendar and having a no-show means that 45-minute slot is eaten, whereas 30 minutes could create a smaller window for that to happen, but less time on the call itself. Do whichever you're most comfortable with.
- Most reps tend to do 45 minutes if they are conducting FIA calls for the consulting team.
- Create a 45 -minute strategy session-booking slot
- If FIA call, redirect thank you page to https://info.0percent.com/fia-confirmation-page
- Settings
- 1 hour text reminders to the prospect and 1 email confirmation
- 15 minutes buffer after the meetings for FIA is helpful (ONLY needed for this call type)
- Cancelations
- If someone isn’t a fit and they’ve book a time on your calendar, make sure to cancel them ASAP. This frees up time for a more money-making call.
- Cancelation policy: If you do not plan on showing up to the call, please cancel the appointment well in advance. We have a dedicated team waiting to speak with you and by not showing up and taking the spot of someone else. Thank you!
WARNING: Stay around 100 connection requests per day. 50-80 is a sweet spot. Once connection request invites reach 2-weeks old or you are nearing 2,000 total connections sent that are pending - REMOVE and CANCEL the pending invites so your account stays under the 2,000 max connection request limit. LinkedIn will put you in LinkedIn time-out if you seem like too much of a bot.
Setting up your profile
Before beginning any outreach strategy, make sure your profile is optimized.
This is called positioning and is usually the biggest factor for conversions, other than the messages themselves.
💡 Improvements to your positioning can literally multiply your downstream conversions to conversations, calls, and sales.
The reason why positioning is so important is that, when connections see you as an authority in whatever solution you offer, they are more likely to want to engage with you, including discuss their specific business challenges.
When you lack positioning, you're just another LinkedIn player who is trying to get sales, and only those who are completely desperate for help, or fairly new to LinkedIn, are likely to give you the time of day.
Profile optimization is not exactly the same as positioning, it's more of how you make your profile reflect your positioning.
There are many things you can do, but start by focusing on these key areas:
- Make sure your profile photo is professional, and shows a close-up of your face, preferable head-on, looking into the camera, and either smiling or showing understated authority. Don't wear sunglasses. When your eyes and face are clear, this increases trust.
- Choose a cover photo that shows understated authority. Social proof is best, such as you speaking in front of an audience or group. Barring that, it should be professional, and not too "salesy" or like a billboard. Avoid a lot of links and text, although including your brand logo is fine.
- Your headline is the single most valuable copy on your profile! It's so important, that I'll elaborate on it further below in it's own section. You'll probably spend more time creatively here than almost any other copy.
- Other than the headline, your summary is extremely important copy, especially the first few lines that appear "above the fold," and your summary should quickly draw prospective buyers into your personal brand and story. I'll also elaborate further below.
- Make sure your position summary for any current and past positions concisely reflects what you do for the business, how and why.
- To increase social proof and trust, be sure to give and receive recent recommendations from clients, partners, collaborators, and employers.
- Be sure to disable the sidebar section where LinkedIn shows similar profiles to your own, so leads won't jump off your profile. You can disable this in settings.
As mentioned, your profile headline is the single most important copy real-estate on your profile, other than your name and photo.
The reason is, wherever LinkedIn users find you on the platform, they will see part, or all, of your headline, before any other content.
To see what I mean, browse the platform and notice what other people's headlines say, and which ones stand out more.
You have a limited number of characters for your headline, so use them wisely, and use them all!
Here are some example headlines, based on the unique selling proposition (USP) model:
- Helping Real Estate Investors Buy Property at 0% Interest, Create More Passive Income And Achieve Financial Independence
- Helping Entrepreneurs Leverage OPM at 0% To Smash Through 6-Figure+ Monthly Revenue And Create Multiple Income Streams
The formula for the above headline is as follows:
Helping target audience achieve goal via strategy so they can experience desired outcome.
Just like any text copy, the more powerful and specific the language used, the more it will resonate with the target audience.
- There are 3 ways to get in conversation with people on LinkedIn: one is to send a connection request to a new person. The second is to follow up with a person who has accepted your connection request. The third is if you have the paid 'sales navigator' tool you can send a set number of messages per month to people who you aren't yet connected with
- Most of the conversations you will be starting is from sending a connection request with a small message attached to it Dave's note: I have not seen any significant difference in acceptance rates when connecting with or without a message, therefore I usually connect without a message to increase my results.
- Once a person accepts the connection request, they will likely not respond to your initial connection message. Now is a great time to send a follow-up message and try to get in conversation or set up a call
- Send as PERSONAL of a message as you can, on LinkedIn people hate automated solicitations
- Try to express interest in the person you are connecting with and always try to lead with value
- Try making organic posts on LinkedIn as often as you can and commenting on your connection requests activity...this will increase the chances of them responding to your messages
Work Processes:
Jocko Willink - Extreme ownership: Watch This Video You should read extreme ownership by Jocko Willink as well (life tip)
- Accept CRM Invitation
- Management will be sending you an invitation to the CRM. Just accept this. Don’t mess around with it until you have gone through all CRM training.
- Make sure emails are attached (locked and loaded).
- Make sure email signature is there (template is in the email set up portion of our training)
- Watch this training 3 times and post it on your wall.
- Marking things properly in the CRM.
- If you are weak with the CRM, you will be a weak rep.
- You want to be hyper-disciplined when it comes to marking opps and lead statuses in the CRM. The better you get in the CRM, the better the salesperson you will be. Think of it like a video game.
- Learning how to make smart views
- Learn how to make your own smartviews learning the logic.
- Get familiar with building your custom lists and storing them as smart views.
Lead Status
- Outbound Prospect
- Someone who has not yet expressed interest - they are cold as ice and haven’t done a positive reply.
- Potential
- Potential are people who have expressed interest by either downloading something on the website or replying to a cold email/LinkedIn message. Potentials can have discos booked, demos booked, demo no shows, demo completed not closed, etc..
- Qualified
- Qualified: (1) Budget / Money, (2) Authority, (3) Need, (4) Timeline
- Qualifieds can have discos booked, demos booked, demo no shows, demo completed not closed, etc..
- Bad Fit
- These people are not qualified: Either No money, No problem, No Authority. Should be canceled off calendar.
- Bad Data - Delete these people
- These are people who express some kind of interest but gave us incorrect contact information.
- Customer
- A prospect who has transacted with us.
Opportunities
- Discovery Booked
- They have a booked discovery call.
- Discovery No Show
- They did not show up for their discovery call OR they have canceled their call.
- Discovery Completed
- They have completed their discovery call, if still potential or qualified they need to be booked into a strategy session.
- Strategy Session Booked
- They have a call scheduled in the calendar.
- Strategy Session No Show
- They did not show up for their call OR they have canceled their call OR Rescheduled.
- Strategy Session Completed - Not Closed
- They completed their call and were pitched, but did not close. These are your hottest leads. The 14 Day Rule.
- Strategy Session Won
- You have taken payment and they have signed a contract.
- Strategy Session Won - Partial Deposit
- They have paid either a refundable or non-refundable deposit that secures their offer for a set amount of time.
- Strategy Session Lost
- The lead has clearly stated they will not be moving forward with us.
Custom Fields
- Lead Owner
- Who is working this lead, this is incredibly important for the CRM, can cost you money.
- Submitted Application
- If this is empty they have not submitted an application or been vetted by a rep (via discovery call or emails), if you have spoken to them and manually submit an application for them then enter in: Yes. This is very important because this affects the smart views! It's how we can tell if they are qualified or not.
- What makes them “working” in these company smart views?
- Everything is based on time interacted. You have a certain amount of time to engage and stay engaged w/ prospect/leads. If you do not it becomes a free-for-all.
- Can I create my own Smart Lists?
- Yes, we recommend it.
- Make sure it’s yours so it isn’t cluttered. You can create an exact daily workflow for touching your leads daily. See how to do this below
- https://help.close.com/docs/creating-smart-views
- Duplicates do happen, if you find a duplicate then delete the oldest one (if there is no owner) or delete whichever doesn’t have an owner.
- Using common sense, keeping things clean, and opportunity status.
- Make sure each prospect only has one opportunity at a time (UNLESS IT IS A WON OPP THAT NEEDS MULTIPLE FOR REVENUE REPORTING).
Smart Views
Extra Resources if needed: (don't have to go through them now)
- Have your calls and your schedules planned out the night before. PLAN WHAT YOU WILL WORK ON FOR NO-SHOW SLOTS & FOR DEDICATED WORK BLOCKS
- Wake Up, Crush Morning Routine, Crush any other non 0 Percent related jobs or life requirements
- Do 1 hour (minimum) of FOCUSED WORK (to solve a problem you've been having)
- Ensure all pre-call information or follow-ups are taken care of
- Set time aside to follow up with any and all red zone leads (if you have none - send out 1-3 loom videos to new prospects or old clients asking for referrals)
- Check-in on your goals (just a brief look)... and review Plecto (make sure ALL data tracking is correct and up to date for the day)
- Attend Any Meetings & bring something to the table of value
- Take any and all sales calls or follow-ups and close them
- Put in your End of Day Reports
- Learn one new thing that might help you in life
- Write down what is and what isn't working and constantly iterate and improve (evening journal)
- Back to planning the next day ^
Sales Training:
Too often, when we pitch an idea, product, or project, we instinctively try to appeal to our target’s higher reasoning powers, using logic, facts, numbers, and elegantly-crafted arguments. Unfortunately, our audience is listening to our message through a much more primitive system, one that is based on threat avoidance, novelty seeking, and emotional responses.
Resolving this disconnect is the key to crafting successful pitches.
The Three Levels of the Human Brain
As the human brain developed over millions of years, it evolved from a relatively primitive organ into one that operates with greater complexity.
- The crocodile brain (“croc brain”) was the first part to develop and is therefore the most primitive. It is focused on survival: fight-or-flight response and emotions. It has been fine-tuned by millions of years of evolution to be hyper-aware of danger, and it does not have a lot of reasoning power.
- The mid-brain was the second type of brain to develop. It assigns meaning to things and figures out social situations: how people are related to one another, for example.
- The neocortex was the third and final step in the evolution of the brain. It deals with complex issues and is capable of high-level reasoning.
- First, given the limited focus and capacity of the croc brain, up to 90 percent of your message is discarded before it’s passed on up to the midbrain and then on to the neocortex. The crocodile brain just doesn’t process details well, and it only passes along big, obvious chunks of concrete data.
- Second, unless your message is presented in such a way that the crocodile brain views it to be new and exciting – it is going to be ignored.
- Third, if your pitch is complicated – if it contains abstract language and lacks visual cues – then it is perceived as a threat. Not a threat in the sense that the the person listening to your pitch fears he is going to be attacked, but a threat because without cues and context, the croc brain concludes that your pitch has the potential to absorb massive amounts of brainpower to comprehend. And that is a major threat because there just isn’t enough brain power to handle survival needs, the problems of day-‐to-‐day life, and existing work problems plus whatever unclear thing you are asking it to do. Presented with this kind of situation, a circuit breaker in your brain is tripped. The result? A neurotoxin gets attached to the potentially threatening message (your pitch). This is like a FedEx tracking number, which, in turn, routes your message to the amygdala for processing – and destruction.
Croc Brain Procedure:
- Boring or Old: Ignore it.
- Dangerous or Threatening: Fight/run
- Complicated: Radically summarize (Invariably causing a lot to be lost in the process) and pass it in severely truncated form.
Controlling the Frame Is the Key to Selling Your Idea
The first step in managing the primitive instincts of your target’s croc brain is understanding “frames” and mastering “frame control.”
Frames are mental structures that shape how we see the world. They are our particular, specific perspective on the world, and they regulate how people interact with one another: Are you the one in control? Are you the “prize” in this relationship? Who’s paying attention to whom? Frames are controlled by the croc brain and are shaped by very basic desires: power, authority, strength, knowledge, and status.
In any business or social interaction, two frames will meet and compete for dominance. The person with the winning frame will set the tone and agenda of the meeting. The losers will play by his/her rules, acknowledging her authority, respecting her opinions, and accepting her decisions with minimal push-back. To successfully sell your pitch, you must win this “frame collision” and establish your frame as the dominant one.
Mastering the power of frames is the most important thing you’ll learn regarding pitching. Without this skill, you might find yourself resorting to typical sales techniques like fast talking, spin selling, and trial closing, which are rarely successful.
Sales techniques like this were created for people who have lost frame control and are trying to win business from a subordinate position. Because they are typically ineffective, they are dependent on the “law of large numbers”: you might expect to make just 2 sales out of every 100 attempts. Worse, they have a reputation as being annoying and signal to your customer that you are desperate, activating her croc brain to filter you out.
Own The Frame, Win The Game:
- Everyone uses frames whether they realize it or not.
- Every social encounter brings different frames together.
- Frames do not coexist in the same time and place for long.
- They crash into each other, and one or the other gains control.
- Only one frame survives. The others break and are absorbed. Stronger frames always absorb weaker frames.
- The winning frame governs the social interaction. It is said to have frame control
When you are responding ineffectively to things the other person is saying and doing, that person owns the frame, and you are being frame-controlled.
If you have to explain your authority, power, position, leverage, and advantage, you do not hold the stronger frame.
There are three common frames you will encounter as you move through the business world, and each has its own set of techniques to counter it. These are:
The Power Frame
A person using a “power frame” is accustomed to being in control of the room. They are often arrogant, controlling, and dismissive. You can counter a power frame, and transfer their power to you, with a “power frame disrupter”: a small act of defiance or a denial that lets your target know you are not playing by their rules.
Find an opportunity to deny your target of something or to defy them in some small way. For example, if you’ve brought visuals, and you catch them sneaking a peek, take them away and say playfully, “Not until I say so.”
A power frame disrupter tells her croc brain that you are in charge, not them. The key to doing this successfully is to use humor. If you don’t, your defiance comes across as arrogant and will put them off.
The Analyst Frame
A person with an “analyst frame” views the world through cold cognitions: problem solving, rational thinking, analysis. However, you need your target to see your pitch with hot cognitions—desire, excitement, emotion—to excite her croc brain.
An analyst frame can kill your pitch by getting mired in details, derailing its momentum, and freezing excitement for it. You want to keep her focus on the bigger picture, which will emotionally connect your target to your concept. To do this:
- Separate your pitch’s numbers and technical details from the rest of your materials.
- Answer questions about specific financials competently but briefly, and pivot back to the larger vision.
The Time Frame
The “time frame” is a time constraint thrown at you by your target. It is a way for her to assert her dominance by setting the rules and forcing you to work within her restrictions. Our croc brains are highly attuned to rule-setting: The person who sets the rules is the one in control.
The mistake most people make when they see their audience becoming fatigued is to talk faster, to try to force their way through the rest of the pitch. Instead of imparting more valuable information faster, however, they only succeed in helping the audience retain less of their message.
Don’t confirm your target’s dominance by acquiescing to her time constraints. When faced with a time frame, counter with a time-frame disrupter. For example, your target may tell you that she only has 15 minutes to meet with you. Counter with an even tighter time frame: Tell her you only have 14 minutes. Be lighthearted about it. But mean it.
Another Example For Time Constraints
- CUSTOMER: “Hi, yes, um, well, I only have about 10 minutes to meet with you, but come on in.”
- SALESPERSON: “I really appreciate your time. Thanks for fitting me into your busy schedule.” This is a common dialogue and form of business etiquette—and it is exactly the wrong thing to do. You are reinforcing your target’s power over you and confirming your target’s higher status. You are essentially handing your target your frame and saying, “Here, please, crush my frame, control me, and waste my time.”
When you encounter a time frame like this, quickly break it with a stronger prize frame of your own. Qualify your target on the spot.
- YOU: “No. I don’t work like that. There’s no sense in rescheduling unless we like each other and trust each other. I need to know, are you good to work with, can you keep appointments, and stick to a schedule?”
- YOUR TARGET: “Okay, you’re right about that. Yeah, sure I can. Let’s do this now. I have 30 minutes. That’s no problem. Come on in.” You have just broken your target’s time frame, established that your time is important, and he is now giving you focused attention instead of treating your visit like an annoyance
The Intrigue Frame
When the target agreed to the meeting with you, what he or she really was saying was, “This is a puzzle I am interested in solving.” No one takes a meeting to hear about something they already know and understand. It’s a fundamental concept driving every single presentation—it’s the hook that allows you as the presenter to grab and hold attention by subconsciously saying, “I have a solution to one of your problems. I know something that you don’t.” This is why people agree to take meetings and to hear a pitch.
At the start of the meeting, you have the audience’s attention. It’s a rare moment, but not for the reason you may think. Audience members are, with full concentration and at the most basic and primal level, trying to figure out the answer to this question: “How similar is your idea to something I already know about or to a problem I have already solved?” If audience members discover that the answer is close to what they had earlier guessed, they will mentally check out on you. They will experience a quick ping of self-satisfaction at the moment of realization, just before they mentally check out.
As your pitch moves along, at any time, some or all members of your audience will solve the puzzle, see the solution, and get the whole story. Then they check out. This is why you see presenters lose more and more of the audience as time goes on—those who solve the puzzle drop out.
We generalize by saying, “Oh, they lost interest.” But what really happened is that they learned enough about our idea to feel secure that they understand it—and there is nothing more to be gained by continuing to pay attention. They determined that there was no more value to be had by engaging with us on any level.
Sometimes they may not lose interest but your meeting still gets lost in analysis mode, despite your efforts. You can direct your target back into her croc brain by grabbing their attention with a suspense-filled story. Our brains can’t function in analysis mode and narrative mode at the same time, so hijacking her croc brain with a story overrides her neocortex. Go to each meeting ready with a personal story to pull out if your meeting gets stuck in analysis or they check out.
- It should be brief and related to your pitch.
- You must be the protagonist or center of the story
- It must have tension and serious consequences (risk, danger, uncertainty)
- There should be time pressure—a clock is ticking somewhere, and there are ominous consequences if action is not taken quickly.
- It should demonstrate your skills in action and have a human element. People naturally gravitate to and understand stories about humans better than they do about numbers.
For example, your intrigue story may sound something like this: “I was working on a $15 million deal where it was my job to come up with $8 million of it. At the last minute, one of my investors disappeared, and the bank wouldn’t wire her money, putting the whole $15 million in jeopardy. I couldn’t find her anywhere but I managed to track down her husband. I explained the situation and asked him for a signature—as her husband, his would do—but he told me he’d separated from his wife six years ago and would rather cut off his finger than help her out. As soon as I heard that, I jumped on a plane and headed to his town.”
The most important element to using an intrigue frame is to leave your story unresolved. Stop at a tension-filled spot. Redirect your audience back to your pitch, and finish your story later in your presentation. Leaving your target in suspense keeps her attention sharp and tells her croc brain that you are in control.
The Prize Frame
A prize frame is a frame you can adopt at any time to counter any oppositional frame you run into. This technique positions you as a reward to be pursued, thereby activating your target’s desire instincts in her croc brain.
In a prize frame, you make your target feel as if she is trying to win you over, rather than the reverse.
- Don’t act overly grateful to be meeting with your target.
- Never appear needy, of either her business or her social approval.
- Be willing to walk out of the meeting if your standards are not met.
- Make your target justify himself/herself to you: Ask them to explain her track record, or ask them why you should consider partnering with them.
The Basics:
- If you are trying to win your target’s respect, attention, and money, he becomes the prize.
- When your target is trying to win your attention and respect, you are the prize. (This, of course, is what you want)
Prizing is the sum of the actions you take to get to your target to understand that he is a commodity and you are the prize. Successful prizing results in your target chasing you, asking to be involved in your deal.
Money is never a prize; it’s a commodity, a means for getting things done. Money simply transfers economic value from place to place so that people are able to work together. Don't chase this - it should be chasing the opportunity to work with you.
Avoiding the Mistakes
- Make the buyer qualify himself back to you. Do this by asking such questions as, “Why do I want to do business with you?”
- Protect your status. Don’t let the buyer change the agenda, the meeting time, or who will attend. Withdraw if the buyer wants to force this kind of change.
Remember, small acts of defiance and denial, combined with humor, are extremely powerful in maintaining your frame control and in reinforcing your high status.
The key, as always, is to use humor when prizing yourself. Be lighthearted, not arrogant.
Objections can be generally classified into four types:
1. Price/Risk
Price, cost, budget, or ROI concerns all fall into this category. Price objections are
often really about risk. If the sales representative has justified the cost by building
value during the interaction, the customer will be less worried.
2. Quality of Service
If the customer is concerned about the quality of your products or services – e.g.,
they express doubts about product quality, the training of your personnel, speed
or responsiveness of service, or compatibility – these are examples of quality of
service concerns.
3. Trust/Relationship
The customer might be concerned with the legitimacy or credibility of you or your
company. (This indicates that a good relationship has not been established
between the salesperson and the client.)
4. Stall
Customers sometimes attempt to stall their decision. The closer the sale is to
closing, the more pressure the customer feels, and if there is any remaining
conflict or anxiety (or no sense of urgency) they may try to stall
Reframing has four parts:
1. Question to understand the customer’s reasoning and determine his
emotional state: “Why do you feel the price is too high? Can you help me
understand your concern there”
2. Minimize by reframing the objection using closed questions to get him back
on track: “So you are saying you’re concerned about ROI. Are you looking at
the impact on your overall costs?”
3. Compare risks and benefits previously agreed to, or provide evidence or
missing information: “We’re offering a custom solution that will help you better
meet your customer’s needs and eliminate downtime, which will have a
tremendous positive impact on your bottom line.”
4. Question his acceptance using closed questions: “Do you feel that this
custom solution will help you achieve financial independence? Will that be of
- Buyer panic is actually a positive sign that the process is moving forward.
- Once the customer is convinced of the value you are offering and has agreed that it is worth the risk, you have successfully handled the objection and can move toward a purchasing decision.
- Always check to make sure they have no other issues with their objection before moving forward.
- DON'T BE NEEDY. You need to hold the frame and qualify them after they spend time hammering you with objections. Handle them and then reframe, don't sit and constantly justify yourself.
- Silence
- Echo
- Ask?
- Respond
- Check
SEARCH METHOD EXAMPLE
Client: “That is a lot of money”....
You: Silence.....
You: Echo - “That is a lot of money. You are not the first person to tell us that....but I’m curious, why do you feel the price is that high? Could you help me fully understand your concern there”
Ask? - REFRAME THEIR OBJECTION: “So what you are really saying is you’re concerned about ROI. Are you looking at the impact on your overall costs?” CLOSED QUESTIONS.
Respond - Handle the objection and logically walk them through the ROI component on how this is going to benefit them. “ROI loop”
Check - Do you understand the value we provide for that price now? Are you able to move forward now? (Closed questions)
- Basically "I need to think about it"
- Preparedness before the call
- The information you need, you have, you aren't ready to make a decision
- More time doesn't mean getting more information, the best way to get more information is to speak with me on this call today and we have covered everything we need to on this call
- How long do you need to make a decision?
- From our discussion today: is this the right product for you? Can you afford it? Am I the type of person you want to do business with?
- Check on their available credit - harp on using OPM and classifying it as a business expense. You are taking on GOOD DEBT
- If you have no money you have to take risk - that's how life works
- Well isn't this why you came on the call to begin with
- What is your plan to make that money? That's what we are on the phone for is to teach you how to make more money
- Why are we on the phone today then?
- What are you priorities right now?
- When is going to be the right time? What would it take to get you to a decision today?
- Take a deposit if needed*
- Case studies & testimonials
- Walk them through the simplicity and how funding works
- Why wouldn't it?
- Is there anything you are not sharing with me that would make it not work for you? because based on our conversation - you seem like an ideal fit
- If your wife was here with you right now what would she say?
- What's she doing right now?
- Who makes the decisions around here (just a joke)
- HANDLE THIS BEFORE THE CALL - best way - ask at start of the call
- Throw a deposit down
- How much do you think this thing costs?
- Gives the ability to explain why we cost more or less than other people and drive value
- Price/can I finance the program with my funding I receive, basically "I dont have the money"
- quick note: You have 30 days after the statement date passes on your card in order to get funding (before it'll re-report to bureaus)
- I need to speak with my business partner/spouse (I need to think about it crowd)
- What are the minimum payments on the biz credit/transfer fees (how to plan for this)
- Honorable mention: The whole program doesn't completely align with the client goals, for example growing and scaling is the most important (edited)
- Why am I paying 10k plus to join an MLM
- Why would I give you 100k to invest in real estate if the returns are not guaranteed
- Im willing to sign up if i can use the proceeds from my first investment in the real estate fund
- It’s not the right time