How To Have An Amazing Personality And Sell Like A Pro

You know what holds so many entrepreneurs back? They’re bad at sales. If you suck at sales you’ll always be loosing. Today I’m talking with Chris Smith, Author of The Conversion Code, about 7 ways you can increase your sales. Chris is also an Inc. 500 Entrepreneur and Cofounder of Curaytor, a coaching company that helps companies make more sales. So let’s get into this. Tai: What is the number one thing, Chris, that people need to know to be better at sales? Something advanced. Let's start with something that people haven't heard before. Chris: Sure, something that people haven't heard before is the way you pitch. A lot of people, when they pitch, they actually talk about the features of their product. So they pitch feature, feature, feature, feature, will you buy? When professional’s pitch, it's more of a feature, a benefit, and a tie down. Tai: So just to be clear, lets say your selling a car right? Let’s say you’re a dealership and you’re selling a Lamborghini to a 25 year old. A feature of this car is the 700 HP engine, it’s a part of the car. A benefit is if you’re driving a Lamborghini, you’re going to turn some heads, it’s a really loud car, and if you’re driving down the street, people are going to notice you. Chris: Exactly. Then finally is the Tiedown. The tie down is do people look at you now when you pull up to the club in the car you currently own? Tai: So you tie it into their current situation? Is that what you mean by the tiedown? Chris: Absolutely. You've gotta get them to literally say they agree with the point that you made. Feature, benefit, tiedown, is here's what it is. Here's what it does for you. Do you agree? Tai: so it's actually them consciously saying, "I agree with this." Chris: Absolutely. Hey, we're gonna put your home on Zillow. I know she's a real estate agent. We're gonna put your home on Zillow. That's the feature. The benefit is there's 120 million unique visitors a month, and that the homes on Zillow sell faster and for more money. You don't want to take a long time to sell your home, do you? Tai: Right. So, a tiedown getting them to admit their current situation sucks, or could be better. Chris: Yeah. It depends on the feature you're pitching, right? So, it could be that, but it could just be getting them to agree they like what they heard. Like with the Lamborghini, “So, you're going to have 700 horsepower. It's gonna get the heads turning. Won't that be a nice feeling?” So it doesn't have to beat up their current situation. I just want them to shake their head or say “absolutely” before I move to the next feature. Tai: So, let's talk about that for a second. What power do you put to the concept of tearing down their current situation? Like what if I said to them, "Listen, dude. When you're rolling up in your current Mazda Miata, women go, 'What a loser.'" I mean, I wouldn't actually say that, but if I was a used car salesman” Chris: No, see there's times when you cross-segment a tie-down with fear. There are definitely times. The way I say it in my book is that sometimes bruises work better than bells and whistles Tai: Okay. So when do you know whether to bring fear in versus reward and being positive when you're doing sales? Do you balance it? Chris: Well I would've been gathering a lot of information prior to pitching. So I would’ve been digging deep and learning their situation and figuring out what they're into, what they're afraid of. I kinda jumped to the pitch, and I think that's what most people screw up on. They don't realize there are a lot of things leading up to when you start the pitch. Your job is to get people more emotionally excited than the cost during the time you have their attention. And so much of what get’s their attention is your tone. It's not as much about what you say as how you say it. So you combine a great tone with a great pitch, and that's when the magic happens. ======= Once you know how to combine a great tone with a great pitch, you're going to need to know some advanced tips and tricks. I've put together a free business plan to help mentor you. [View the free business plan.]( ======= Tai: Okay, so, Tip number two. This is one thing I've found with phone sales especially. If your pitch sound too rehearsed you sound too scripted, too automated, too formal, it turns people off from you. They feel uncomfortable, you know? The genuine approach works so much better than any other sales tactic. My number one tip, you gave your number one. My number one is sound like you're having coffee with them and you've known them for 10 years. So I think that that is of the utmost important with sales. What did you do to create a genuine environment when you were selling? Chris: Well, it was very easy for me, Tai, I'm from a place called Polk County. I mean, the acronym, people make fun of us is that it's "People Of Little Knowledge". I talk slow. I have a southern drawl. You know, you're absolutely right. All the top salespeople at the billion-dollar companies I worked for talked slow, they didn't talk fast. You want to sound friendly and smart and nice. Tai: Well and that goes back to tone too, like you mentioned. Ok so on to Number Three. In your book you talked about how much more of a response when you call people within five minutes. If somebody submits a lead online, on your website, and you contact them, like, three minutes later versus two hours later, it's like 100 times better, right? Chris: Yeah, it's 100x between minute five and minute 30, so we say speed kills, right? Time destroys all things. You know, the marketing team worked really hard to get that person to fill out that form. So when it happens, you've gotta jump on it. You've gotta go all in. And the difference is 100x minute five to minute 30, but worse than that, Tai, is the companies that actually follow up with every lead they get, the median response time is almost four hours. Tai: Exactly. So being speedy with your follow up is important. Chris: Absolutely. Tai: So Seven Steps, we’re on Number 4. If you are an entrepreneur listening to this, or if you're thinking about eventually owning a company, how do you go about hiring people to sell under you? Because one of the best ways to create automated income is to not be the only salesperson selling whatever you want to sell. How do you compensate sales people? Chris: Well, the secret I've learned is that you have to make sure that your top sales rep makes more than the CEO. So, if I'm the number one salesperson at Curaytor, my comp plan has to be better than the CEO's salary. Tai: Yeah. So let me ask you this. Would it be outrageous for a salesperson working for a company, if you were building a new company or advising a company, what would be an ideal range for a salesman to make? Your top salesman. Chris: One of my friends built a trucking company. He sold it for, I think at least two to four hundred million dollar. He said he had 500 sale guys, and his top guy was making $600,000 a year, and he said he had a lot of guys making five to six hundred. And I'll just go back to one of the great financial advisors of all time, a mentor of Warren Buffett. His name was Benjamin Graham. He wrote the book “The Intelligent Investor”. He basically pioneered modern investing theory. He said "It's almost impossible to overpay a good person.” He also said “Even one penny spent an undeserving person is a penny wasted.” Tai: And just to be clear, most of that is off of commission? Chris: Exactly. The financial motivation has to be good enough to keep the best around. Tai: That's one thing I like about commissions. You don't have to fire people. They just slowly disappear on their own. Now, let's go to the next step five. The fifth secret to being better at sales, both yourself and a team, is use the right tools and technology. What sort of tools do you recommend? Chris: Sure. So, we're using a technology called Chorus.ai, and it's basically artificial intelligence that analyzes the calls our guys make. And you can actually jump to the conversation by keyword. And so if we wanted to listen to our rep explain commission, explain competition, explain how the company got started, we can go right to that little call clip. But what we learned was that our top guys, the guys making a couple hundred grand, were talking less than 70% of the call, and the new guys were talking like 90% of the time. That’s like a monologue, not a dialog. Tai: Yeah, so let me clarify that. The customer is only speaking 10% of the time when they're talking to a bad salesperson. You need to triple that. You need the customer to talk 30% of the time minimum. So, if you get a salesperson that's dominating the phone, they're doing something wrong. Chris: Absolutely, but there's a technique I use in phone sales called gaining control. And the idea is that I want to dominate the conversation. Who's in charge? Somebody's gotta take the lead on a call. So, when we get on the phone with an internet lead, we'll say, "Hey, do me a favor. "Grab a pen and paper. "I want you to write down a couple things about our company "that we don't publish on the internet. "Let me know when you're ready." And by telling them to do that over the phone, and we can kind of hear the paper rustling, we know we've got a legit lead, and we started the conversation in charge. Tai: Right. Kind of impose your will on them a little bit. Chris: It's called pattern interrupt. Before we get into this, let me just do something that lets everybody know who's gonna be in charge here. Do something that get’s them involved in the conversation. Tai: Any other tech tips? Chris: I know how many people get email-only leads, which is frustrating. 'Cause if you don't have a number, how do you follow up? So I want people to try this. I want people to try to Google my name. Chris Smith. And I want you to see what pops up, and then I want you to Google my email address, chris@curaytor.com, and see what pops up. When you search an email address, Tai, it's like a fingerprint, man. And then you get their LinkedIn. Then you get their Twitter. Then you see places they're featured in. So we do something we call a pre-call stalk. Tai: Right. As long as you don't sound too stalker-ish. Chris: Yeah, I like to use LinkedIn more than Facebook. Tai: Ok so we’re on number 7? If this was your last day on earth and you had to leave one paragraph or less, three, four sentences, for your kids or for the world, of the ultimate manifesto of sales. What would your manifesto of sales be? Chris: Sure. The first part of the manifesto is that you have to have a dog mindset. You have to have the most excited, positive mental attitude on the planet. In sales, you deal with so much rejection that it starts with having a positive mental attitude and enthusiasm. My coach at Lou Pearlman's company, billionaire, discovered NSYNC, Backstreet, and Britney Spears. He went in and he said, "Guys, you don't even need to know what to say. What you need is enthusiasm. And if you look at that word and you draw a bracket around I-A-S-M," He said, "That, actually, is an acronym for I Am Sold Myself." So if you don't have that black lab, dog mindset and that enthusiasm every day, you're not gonna be legendary in sales. I would also say my manifesto, not just for sales but for understanding people, would be humans are not logical. So be able to understand the vibes, and react to the mood of your situation. Sales is a vibe game. Tai: And I'm gonna add this as the bonus point. Thick skin. If you are weak-willed, if you get butt-hurt, if you take everything personally, you're done. I don't care. You could've listened to all Chris's seven points, all the powerful things in this episode, you ain't gonna do jack shit because people self destruct. They try all the techniques Chris is talking about, they talk what I've talked about, and then one person's like, "Nah, I don't like you. Bye." and then you find them on the floor of the office crying. You're like, "What are you doing?" and the "Soy say “Somebody said no." I'm like, "Welcome to planet earth, man." Chris: Definitely Tai: So, Chris. Thank you for being here Conversion Code by Chris Smith. It's a USA Today, Amazon, and Audible bestseller. This is an amazing book. I'm not being paid to say this. I actually reached out to him first. Chris: Well, I appreciate it. Well I hope you guys found these sales tip’s helpful, let me know what you think! These are things that you should practice everyday, and even if you’re not in sales, you should be able to sell your personality, and so many of these tips carry over to day to day life. So much of what makes a good sales person is their personality, and trust me it doesn’t all come naturally. You can find Chris at his company website, curaytor.com, or email him at chris@curaytor.com Stay Strong, Tai P.S. If you're ready to dive deeper into the world of sales and marketing, I'm giving away a free business plan so you can start your own business, with little money or experience. I'm not going to leave it up for free much longer so don't procrastinate. [Yes! 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