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Objections and Being Told 'NO'

We're gonna talk about resistance and what happens when we get that inevitable no, because it would be easy if we could just go through our sales presentation. We talked about the call method, which works in any sales environment, right? So whether you're an entrepreneur, whether you're an artist, whether you're a sales person, CEO, leader, the call method works in any sales methodology. Why? Because there's four things that we need to do in order to sell the way the customer buys. Number one, we need to connect, first. So before we sell, we need to connect through empathy, through wholehearted listening. We talked about seven methods to connect. We talked a little bit about prospecting. But if we don't connect first and build trust, the competency and the product doesn't matter. We talked about that we need to ask questions before we launch into a presentation, or we end up with a terrible syndrome called premature demonstration syndrome, which plagues many salespeople and entrepreneu...

rs alike. We also talked about after we ask questions, we need to listen, and really listen to the emotion behind the words. We talked about listening so hard it hurts. One of the best ways to realize how much we don't listen, said one of mentors, is just to realize how much we don't listen, because we really don't. And then finally, we need to link all of that information to our product or service. So somebody said yesterday the what's in it for me? How do we take all that information we learned in discovery and link it to our product or service to create urgency to buy now? So again, that's the yes. But unfortunately, as we go through our sales process, we also get a lot of no. I'm gonna share with you many many years ago, when I was in sales. This was 25 years ago, I was six. (class laughs) I remember sitting in the sales office, we were in Colorado, and then there was a 30 million dollar lottery. Now I don't know if you've ever done this, where you sort of imagine what would happen if you got that winning ticket. Well we were all talking about what we'd do if we won the lottery, and one of the girls, Lisa says oh, I would get a great apartment in New York. I would go shopping on the Upper East Side. I would entertain. And a guy, Mark looks, and he says oh no, not me. I'd start an outdoor company. I'd do tours in Nepal. And then everybody looks at me, and they said what would you do? I said I'd start a training company and teach people transformative techniques. And they all looked at me, and they said you're sick, really? I said yeah, really. And they said well, you don't have to win the lottery in order to do that. And that's when I realized really my why, what I wanted to do more than anything in the world. I would say one of the reasons that I'm so excited to teach a course on sales, and I mentioned it before, I don't think of sales as just closing a deal with a customer. I see sales as negotiation skills. I see sales as communication skills, and better people make better salespeople. So when we perfect the skills called sales, it really helps us in every aspect of our life, whether it's negotiating with your husband to take you to sushi instead of tacos, whether it's negotiating for a raise, whether it's trying to get a better seat on an airplane. Whatever it is, we all negotiate all the time. And that's why these skills are critical. And again, not just for sales, but for every aspect of our life. Now I will also tell you that when I started my company, it wasn't easy. Fortunately I'd done well enough in sales, I saved up a bunch of money, and I did everything I could to get out there and get in front of people. And eight, nine months later, my money was running out, and I was very nervous that I wouldn't be able to pursue my dream. I got my first client, it was all the way in Europe. So I went to Europe, and it was pretty horrible because I was sort of the second act, and somebody, I was like the backup band, right? And someone else came in, and he humiliated me. And I remember him saying oh, well I train here, and I train there, and oh, I always train right in Shari's backyard. And I made a decision right then that it wasn't good enough to have a great product. It wasn't good enough to feel confident. I needed to do something about actually getting customers. And I realized that so many times and so many people, and there's many artists out there, and we perfect our product. And we're fabulous photographers. We're fabulous real estate managers. We're fabulous at creating an amazing software. But when it comes to selling it, it's like the courage just isn't there, or the tenacity just isn't there. So I realized that I had to make calls, and I had to go out and find prospects. There's only two ways to increase your income in sales, right? More training, or more prospects. And I remember crying to my mother on the couch, and I said I am going to make 30 calls every single day. I don't care how scared I am, I'm not gonna let no bother me. You see in sales, no never means no. You've gotta go around, through, on top of. And I can promise you this, once we muster up the courage, once we change our mindset, it's a mindset thing, to the word no, you'll watch your sales flourish. I'm gonna give you some statistics. Anybody hear of J.K. Rowling? Do you know J.K. Rowling got rejected hundreds of times before she published Harry Potter? And it was from the request of her daughter, who said do it one more time. Penguin even rejected her. Decca Recording told the Beatles guitar music's out. Black's Dictionary said the definition of impossible before the 1960s is a flight to the moon. So what I'm telling you is today we're really gonna be talking about how do we muster up this courage? We talked about the balance between empathy and courage. And if you're watching this at home, there's a test that I encourage you to take. Many of you took it. How do we sort of balance the need for heartfelt connection with our customers, the empathy that we want to have, that today's customer demands that we have, how do we balance this connection with our customer with the courage to roll up our sleeves and ask for the money, to ask for what we're worth, to not cheapen our products and services. And that is probably the most difficult thing that a customer can do. Now if you're watching with this at home, go ahead and take the quiz, and see how much of a Suzy or a Tony you are. You might wanna do it at the first break. But if you go to Shari Levitin slash Creative Live, you can do that, and here's what we've found. What we've found is that people are either a little too much Suzy or a little too much Tony. And that's one of the big things we're going to be going through today. So today here's what you can expect. What you can expect is we're gonna talk about how to balance this empathy and courage. Then we're gonna look at neuroscience and decision making. How we sell is counterintuitive to how customers buy. I find a lot of salespeople go through sales practices that don't match up with how customers actually make decisions. We're gonna look at a magic formula that shows you the subconscious commitments that customers make when they buy. We're gonna talk about the need to foster collaboration. Today, we are in a reputation economy. People need to be part of the conversation. No one wants to listen to the conversation today, they wanna be part of the conversation. How do we collaborate with customers to come into a win win when we're writing a proposal? That's where deals go dead. We're gonna look at the real objections to purchasing. There's a difference between real objections and excuses, and I'm sure you've all experienced the we need to talk to the board, I need to talk to my wife, I need to talk to the dentist, I mean like they come out of the woodwork, right? How do you differentiate between an excuse and a real objection? And more importantly, how do we get to that real objection? How do we change the emotional state of the client? We're gonna talk about the role of emotions in decision making. Negotiation strategies that will help in any aspect of your life. And then lastly, we're gonna tackle our tendencies. We're gonna look at the four demons that hold us back from getting anything we want in life. And before we begin, we've got a beautiful audience here, so I would like to ask you what you do, what your struggle is, and what you'd like to get out of today, and we'd love to hear from those of you that are at home as well. So there are microphones in the corner, and it looks like Suzanne's gonna tell us what she would like to get out of this session today. What I'd like to really get out is the closing, after you've done your negotiations, you've done your proposal, and you're waiting for that closing, and like what you were saying earlier, sometimes it goes dark or it feels like it just drags on forever. So really how to wrap up that end, you know, getting that signature on the dotted line, wrapping up that package and making it a beautiful product, you know, beautiful outcome. So it's like, if I understand you correctly, everything goes really well. Yes. You connect, yes? Demonstrate. You do a great demonstration. Right. And then exactly what happens, Suzanne? They were usually blown away by what we can do with our data, specifically. And then it sometimes may feel overwhelming to them, so maybe that's part of the problem. But just discovering some real techniques on how to, you know, bring everybody to the table on the same, going the same direction and understanding that this closing is really gonna benefit the company. So making that happen. Awesome. So it's they know they should have it, they see all the benefits. Yes. But they're not willing to pull the trigger right now. Right. Something you spoke to yesterday, almost a no decision is safer than the smart decision. Yes. So getting over that hump would be really beneficial. Yeah, that is something that we are going to tackle today for sure. It's the status quo bias. Yes. And that's what goes on in the mind of the buyer, and as you'll see, there's neuroscience that shows we have a tendency to play it safe. We all do. Yes. We all have a tendency to play it safe in life. We're no different than our customers, okay? So great one, Suzanne, thank you so much. We were talking earlier, I would, I'd love to hear more about pricing your product or your service at a level that you should and sticking by it and not wavering, or not devaluing your work. Okay, and Katie, what do you do? I have a PR and marketing company. Okay, and do you feel right now that you charge enough for your services? I do not. So everyone here can get a deal. No, I'm just kidding. (class laughs) Katie, let me ask you, why don't you think you charge enough? What's going on inside you? I have no idea (laughs). It's a problem, so I'm ready to not do that anymore. Okay, how many other people feel that maybe they're not charging enough, if you're a freelancer, you're watching this at home, you're an artist, you're a photographer. I talk to artists and creatives all the time, and their work is amazing. And I always wonder, and we're gonna talk about this, why is it that some people are able to charge this much money, and other people this much, and the work's the same? You know, I was talking to the makeup artist, I had a makeup artist today, it was very lovely, and she was telling me that she took her prices, okay? So hopefully you'll hire this great makeup artist. She said I doubled it and added 20%, and my sales skyrocketed. Think about that for a minute, because there's a perception to price, right? Very good, yeah. My name's Lisa. I would like to figure out how to get parents, I work in education, to a neutral state. I know, having read your book, that fight or flight, and knowing from what you were saying yesterday, that emotions drive decision making, getting them to a place where they're receptive can be challenging, and then once we get them to that receptive place, back to that status quo that you were talking about, that Katie was talking about. Katie, right? Suzy, sorry, Suzanne was talking about that it's tough to get them to make a decision, even after we've kind of neutralized a little bit of their anxiety. So really trying to figure out what's the secret sauce there? How to get them to commit? What's the secret sauce to get them to make a decision, and I think that's pretty universal. I hear that from everybody. I always say anybody can sell anybody anything. It's getting them to do it today that's the tricky part. And if you're in a complex sale that's six to nine months, how do you shorten that sales cycle? How do you have your offer not go into this dreaded dead zone, right, where like everybody loves it, everybody's excited, and all the sudden what happened? Like they disappear, and I need to file a missing person's report, right? Like they were your best friend, right? And we've all had this happen. And they just sort of disappear, and the deal's dead. So yes, and that's where we're gonna have to look at the courage side of the equation. Out of curiosity, you probably took the test. How many of you were a Suzy that are in the audience? Can I see a show of hands? Raise them high. How many were a Tony? Okay, very interesting. So again, at home, we have a test for you to take to show whether you lead with too much empathy or too much courage. And really quickly, if you're a Suzy, which there's not a lot of you, but I bet watching we have quite a few Suzys, people that are artists. Suzy tends to build rapport, make friends, do great work, right? But when it comes to asking the difficult questions, very hard for a Suzy. So she can ask about kids, about activities, you know create a commonality, but when asking those difficult questions and unearthing objections, and then moving the sale forward, oh my goodness, and then charging what she's worth. That can be very difficult for a Suzy. Now Tony, on the other hand, you Tonys, Tonys are very confident. You know, Tonys walk into a room, and they like closing the sale. In fact, that's the most fun part for a Tony. But sometimes Tony gets so excited, that he doesn't have the patience to do that deep dive discovery and ask all the questions that he needs to ask. Sometimes at the end, Tony gets so excited that he just sort of goes for the close too early, and then when the customer doesn't buy, he goes ha, they weren't worth my time anyway. Right? They weren't worth it. Suzy drops the price. Tony figures I'm too good for them. So the question then today is how do we balance the two? How do we be what I call respectfully assertive? Because if we can learn how to balance empathy and competency, or empathy and courage, I call it heart and sell, that's when our sales go up. That's when our meetings go up. And that's when, in every situation in life, we start asking for what we want and deserve.