Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success

 Be enthusiastic right from the start.

 Always speak in the familiar. For example, you wouldn’t say, “Hi, is Mr. Jones there?” You would say, “Hi, is John there?”

 Introduce yourself and your company in the first couple of sentences, and then restate the name of your company a second time within the first couple of sentences.

 Use power words, like “dramatically,” “explosive,” “fastest growing,” “most well respected.” Power words go a very long way to capturing someone’s attention and establishing yourself as an expert.

 Use your justifiers (I went through these in Chapter 10).

 Ask for permission to begin the qualification process.

Your next pattern is going to allow you to smoothly transition into the intelligence-gathering phase, and it will include asking your prospect for permission to ask questions, as well as all the questions you intend on asking your prospect, laid out in exactly the right order, with notations attached that indicate which tonality will be applied in order to ensure that you get the most comprehensive response. And, of course, at the same time, you’ll make it a point to be actively listening to each of your prospect’s responses, to ensure that you are building massive rapport on both a conscious and unconscious level.

Here are some sample big picture questions that can be used in virtually any industry:

What do you like or dislike about your current supplier?

Typically, a prospect will have a current source or be using a similar product already, and you aren’t the first person to try to sell them a new product of this nature. This is a very powerful question.

What is your biggest headache with your business?

You have to be very careful with your tonality here, as this is your first direct attempt at identifying your prospect’s pain. For example, if you flippantly say, “So, John, what’s your biggest headache with this? Come on, tell me!” it says that you don’t give a shit. The proper tonality here should convey sincerity, concern, and a desire to help resolve John’s pain; and when he starts talking about it, you want to amplify that pain by asking the following questions:

“How long has this been going on?” “Do you see this getting better or worse?” “How do you see yourself in two years?” “How has it affected your health or your family?”

In essence, you want to make sure that you make your prospect talk about their pain. These types of questions will have a powerful impact on opening the prospect’s mind to receiving information, which they will now measure against their pain.

What would be your ideal program if you could design it?

Now, this question works extremely well in some industries and doesn’t apply to others. The key here is to use a logic-based tonality, as if you were a scientist talking, versus a tonality of empathy.

Of all the factors that we have just spoken about, what is the most important to you?

You definitely want to find out your prospect’s highest need, as this is the one that you’ll typically have to fill to push the prospect over the top.

Have I asked about everything that’s important to you?

Your customer will think more of you, not less of you, if you ask this, so long as you have done a professional job up to that point. You could also say, “Is there anything that I have missed? Is there any way that I can tailor this solution for you?”

This takes us to the end of your introduction—where you’ll transition into the main body of your sales presentation—so let’s do a quick recap of the various language patterns:

1When you introduce yourself, remember to speak in the familiar and to always sound upbeat and enthusiastic.