When I first started selling as a personal trainer, I was horrible. I had no idea what I was doing, and I found myself just word vomiting on people.
I would spout tons of information on my prospects, and I would overwhelm them with all the benefits and features of my services. I remember watching their eyes glaze over, and thinking “Well I’m just too smart for them.”
Yeah, I was not.
But it was one fateful day that changed my whole outlook on selling. The day that my mentor Jim Franco punched me with the truth – I was an order taker, not a salesperson.
He told me I was no different than a waiter. I didn’t sell him the 6 month training program he signed up for, he already had the intention to sign up. I took his order.
It really hit me when he asked me what percentage of people I close, and I couldn’t even give him that number. I guessed about out of ten people, I was closing 3 or 4.
So this is what he taught me: ⅓ of the people will buy no matter what, ⅓ of the people are undecided and can be sold if you have the right skills, and the last ⅓ are people who aren’t gonna buy, but a closer can convert some of those people into paying clients.
Sales Is About Persuasion
Whether you realize it or not, you’re constantly selling. You’re selling yourself, you’re selling an idea, you’re even selling your child to go brush their teeth.
When I was a personal trainer, there was one time where I was sitting with a prospect selling her on why she needed to join my 12 month program.
I had her fill out a Par-Q (physical activity readiness questionnaire), and one of the questions was “On a scale of 1-10, how serious are you about achieving your results?”
And she put down a 6. So I asked her, “What’s stopping you from becoming a 10?” And she said it was either going to be this program, or get a lap band.
I knew that what got her out of shape was her bad eating habits and lack of exercise, and the only way to fix that is by going through my program and developing healthy habits.
If I didn’t do my job and sell her on my program, she would get a lap band. A medical procedure that acts as a temporary fix. In fact, most people gain the weight right back because they never learned healthy eating and exercise habits.
You have an obligation to sell your product or service to people in your industry who need your help.
They’re frustrated, they’re exhausted, they’re out of shape, and they’re just looking for answers.
And if you can’t sell them, someone else will.
And when that happens, the other service they’re giving their money to is probably going to be a waste of money.
Why? Simply because it’s not your service. It’s not providing the value that your service has.
And if you’re confident in your product and believe it’s what people need to change their lives, then you better not let your prospects spend their money anywhere else.
How to Break Through Objections
Anything I sell, I’m looking at how can I get you to buy it.
Hell, if I have to reach into your wallet and get your credit card to do it, then so be it!
“But Bedros, aren’t you just forcing someone to buy from you?” Listen, if someone is about to jump off a cliff, wouldn’t you try to stop them?
If I have someone who’s thinking of making a stupid buying decision with someone who’s not me, where I can add more value and certainty to their life, then it’s my obligation to extract money from them in exchange for service and value.
Once you learn that you have an obligation to sell, you can move to the consultive selling process, which is getting on the phone with someone, agitating the problems they have, and be the solution.
Everyone’s got problems in their life. Maybe their problem is they’re not disciplined to working out, or they have poor eating habits. So they dump that problem on you, the seller.
In my case, let’s say I have a personal trainer who has a product or service they want to sell, so they come to me looking to learn how to become a better closer.
I’m gonna stir the pot a little bit and agitate their problems.
I’m gonna ask “What is it costing you every time you don’t sell enough of your products or services? How much more of an advantage is your competition gaining?”
We’re gonna open the kimono a bit, stir the pot, and then I’m gonna say “You know what, what if instead of dealing with objections every time, the person can make a decision right then and there?”
You’ll often find when you’re selling to someone, they’ll have objections for why they can’t make a decision right away. They gotta check their finances. They gotta think about it. They gotta go talk to their spouse.
So here’s what I do when I get them on a call. I tell them “Listen, I don’t care if you say yes or no at the end of this call. But do I have your commitment to give me a definitive answer whether you’re going to commit to the program or not?”
When I say that, I’ve eliminated those objections. And, if I do my job right, I will have identified their problems, stirred the pot, and will be so fired up when I give them the solution that they have to say yes.
And every single time, I get the answer I want to hear.
You gotta agitate those problems, and find out how that problem is affecting their life. Then, you come in on your white horse with the solution that’s going to make their life better.
Become a Professional Listener
Like I mentioned earlier, I used to have a case of word vomit. I would talk myself right into a “no”, when what I really should have been doing was letting my prospect talk themselves into the “yes”.
What happens is, your prospect talks themselves into the sale rather than you accidentally talking them out of it.
You wanna become a professional listener, and ask people 4 or 5 questions to get them to open up and talk themselves into the sale. Once you have their commitment, you have the sale.
People always ask me “I don’t know why I just keep talking around and around in circles?”
And I always tell them, “It’s because you’re afraid to ask for the sale!”
If you don’t have confidence in your product or service, and truly believe it’s the best option for people to solve their problems, then you’re always gonna have diarrhea of the mouth.
You’re gonna keep talking in circles, never get anywhere, and lose the sale because you don’t believe in your product.
Dramatic Demonstration of Proof
The last time I was truly sold was when I was at Guitar Center, and I wanted to buy a simple wooden cajon.
The sales guy pointed me to an electrical cajon. I was taken aback, since this one was different from what I intended to buy, but I let him show me. He started drumming on it and man, it had built in accompaniment, cymbals and snares that you could hear when you drummed certain spots.
I went from looking to buy a $110 cajon, to walking out with a $400 electric cajon, only because he decided to sell me through demonstration.
Believe how great your product is, show people how great it is, and present it with conviction. That, friends, is how you close sales.
Committed to your success,
Bedros