Universal Truth #8: Most salespeople incorrectly assume that they can create a sense of urgency by threatening scarcity or appealing to greed. But if people don’t want what you’re selling, they won’t care if there are only two left or what else you’re throwing in. (Anyone want a stagecoach? It’s on sale today only! And I’ll throw in some horseshoes for free!) In this chapter, I’ll discuss ways to engage customers with stories and build urgency by demonstrating how your product connects to precisely what motivates them.
Decades ago, when operators still manned elevators all around New York City, a small crowd hovered outside the entrance to the 181st subway station, jockeying for space on Bruce Renfroe’s elevator to the tracks below.1 At first, Bruce’s elevator seemed like any other in Manhattan. It was stinking of grease, with gum-covered floors and a claustrophobic, coffinesque feeling of confinement. But Bruce took that airless box and made his ride an experience for his “customers” to look forward to.
One day, Bruce pinned up a magazine picture of dishes because he liked the pattern. It got a fair amount of attention, and shortly after, a customer brought in a picture of a thoroughbred horse. Others followed suit until the elevator walls were practically wallpapered with bright pictures of everything from golf clubs to cruise ships to guitars. Bruce brought in a vase of fresh flowers and placed them in the corner. He loved the cool sound of jazz music, so he hooked up his cassette player to a tiny speaker and began to broadcast Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington, smooth and mellow.
Only one thing was missing. He placed a bin in the rear corner and dropped a couple of cans of tomato soup in it. “What’s that for?” asked a passenger.
“It’s for those in need,” replied Bruce, smiling.
Passengers added Cheerios, noodles, and canned beans. Bruce collected up to a thousand pounds of food every month.
You can imagine what happened next. There came a rainy afternoon when Bruce arrived for the late shift and discovered his elevator had been stripped. Not a single picture or plant—and worse, no bin for the needy. A bigwig from City Hall had heard about Bruce’s elevator: All those decorations were against regulations. When the passengers rushed from the train to his elevator, they were dismayed. “Where’s all of the stuff?”
Bruce explained about the city policy, and when he opened the doors a few passengers got off, but most stayed right where they were. “Bruce, take us back down with you, so we can talk to the head honcho.”
They stepped out of the elevator and surrounded the president of the New York City Transit Authority, telling him that riding in Bruce’s elevator was the highlight of their day. They didn’t want to see a thing change. The president gave in. By the end of the shift, everything was right back where it belonged.
What was happening in that three-minute elevator ride? How was Bruce able to shift these people’s entire day in just three minutes? Whatever it was, it made busy New Yorkers take time out of their day to defend a relative stranger, to care deeply about something that—for everyone else in the city—was of zero consequence. New Yorkers are notorious for avoiding personal interaction. They bury their heads in newspapers, drown out voices with ear buds, and snarl at anyone who dares to make eye contact. (As a comedian once joked, “In the New York subways, making eye contact is giving the other person permission to kill you.”)
Does that sound like any of your customers lately? So what’s the formula from moving someone from suspicion and disengagement to warmth, receptivity, and engagement? In other words, what can we learn from Bruce?
Bruce fulfilled a basic human need; he brought a sense of community to disconnected strangers. He showed how you could create a lot with a little. But I believe he did something much more vital. In an instant, he shifted the emotional state of his passengers. He created an emotional experience that made them feel good and caused them to take an immediate action. You can learn to do exactly the same thing.
Why is affecting the emotional state of the customer so important? Because emotions cause people to act. A sales presentation that generates a deep, memorable, emotional experience—coupled with a product that fulfills your customers’ wants and needs—results in a phenomenon I call emotional urgency.
If you’ve been in sales for longer than a minute, you have probably been taught to create urgency in one of the following ways:
Let me ask you a question. Despite your best efforts at creating urgency, are you still hearing replies like “I need to think about it,” “We need to check our budget,” or “The timing just isn’t right”?
If you’re like most salespeople I talk to, the answer is “yes.”
I’ve got news for you. No one cares if there’s only two left or the price goes up next week if they don’t want or need what you are selling in the first place. You can’t hijack your customers’ minds and force your incentives upon them.
You can’t create urgency without a prospect’s permission. But people will give you permission if they are emotionally committed to what you are selling. When you align what you’re selling with what they’re feeling, they will open their hearts and their wallets.
Emotional urgency influences human behavior. Understand how to create it and you will win bigger deals, create more profound relationships, and build deeper trust.
At this point, you’ve built trust in the warm-up phase, made your agenda clear, and performed an in-depth Third-Level discovery. If you’ve done this correctly, you haven’t begun to sell or solve anything yet. What you have done is gathered the information you need to create a compelling emotional sales experience that leads to an action today.
Now you’ve reached the product presentation phase of your sales process, the time for putting all of that information to good use. I’ve seen countless salespeople ask poignant discovery questions only to deliver a generic sales presentation. At this point, your customers want to know one thing: What’s in it for me (WIFM)? They want to know you can fulfill their desires and solve their problems. But before you can link their needs with your offer and make a compelling case for your product, you must confirm that you got the information right.
In other words, no matter what you’re selling, or whom you’re selling to, you must complete each of these three steps in order to build that vital sense of emotional urgency.
If you’ve ever been rock climbing, you’re familiar with these commands:
“On belay!”
“Climbing!”
“Climb on!”
These are the life-and-death verbal signals used by rock climbers to confirm that both parties understand where they are, where they’re headed, and that it’s time to move forward. Many fatal accidents have resulted from a break in this feedback loop.
Creating a feedback loop is essential for salespeople, too. Why? Although simple facts—like the spelling of a name—are easy to check and correct, it’s much trickier to listen and articulate back how your customer feels.
Salespeople often assume they’ve discovered the accurate information, but they miss or misinterpret critical facts. And we all know what happens when we assume.
Recently, I spoke to an old friend who had lost her husband to cancer four years earlier. She told me she’d been spending a lot of time with Bob, her accountant, and that he didn’t think she should live alone any more.
I excitedly confirmed back to her, “So there’s a spark between you and Bob, huh?”
“Oh no,” she laughed. “He’s my son’s age. He thinks I need to move into a senior living facility!”
It’s a good thing I used a confirmation statement, or I’d be planning a wedding! How often do you project your thoughts, ideas, hopes, and fears onto your customers? It probably happens more often than you think.
Depending on your sales process, you can either launch into a confirmation statement directly after your discovery or at the beginning of a follow-up meeting. Information confirmation is, simply, the act of repeating back the information you heard and getting confirmation that what you heard is, in fact, what the customer meant.
This step ensures that you get the whole truth. In longer sales cycles, it allows you to control the agenda and prevent changes from having an impact on your sales process.
According to Ken Ferry, founder of the Korn Ferry Institute,
This kind of listening is difficult to master, in part because it is at odds with today’s frenetically-multitasking, information-overloaded, distraction-driven world but, perhaps more importantly, because it runs counter to the way our brains have evolved to function. Our listening brain is wired to do exactly what active listening discourages: evaluate input, predict outcomes, make judgments, and perform triage, all on a moment-to-moment basis.2
Recently, I made the costly and embarrassing error of omitting this step.
David, the VP of sales and decision-maker at his company, had sought me out to create a custom online curriculum for his inside sales department team. David was excited. After three separate meetings (including an in-depth discovery) we met for the fourth time, intent on discussing the project’s scope and financial terms.
When I sat down for the meeting, two new people sat down: the new curriculum designer, as well as David’s new boss. After a few niceties, David’s boss looked at me and asked, “So, what are you trying to sell us?”
I was taken aback. I wasn’t prepared to tout my bio and qualifications. After all, David had clearly been trying to sell me. He was trying to get me to fit him into my overly booked schedule—or so I had thought. Had I either started the meeting with a verbal confirmation statement or, better yet, delivered a written agenda confirming the status of the discussions, I would have had a much better shot at moving the initiative forward.
1. Repeat back the first-level information you uncovered in the discovery.
Repeat back names, dates, trigger events, and places, and you will increase trust in the process. With consumers, focus more on personal information, like family and activities. For businesses, shift your attention to current suppliers, chains of command, and roles and responsibilities within the company.
Susan, a leadership consultant for a large firm in the Colorado area, has mastered information confirmation. After meeting the CEO of one of the fastest-growing medical outsourcing companies for the third time and performing several in-depth discoveries, she confirmed the first-level information to the CEO this way:
Let me see if I understand this correctly: You just started your company On Site Medical two years ago, in May. In fact, OSM just celebrated its two-year anniversary at La Mademoiselle restaurant last week. You’ve experienced phenomenal growth—from five employees to more than 500—and you’re the premier provider of on-site medical care in the state.
Your goal is to expand your services to Phoenix and California. You have a new executive, Warner, whom you just hired as vice president of sales and marketing—so that’s been extremely helpful. However, he’s still a little bit green and has a lot to learn. Do I have that right so far?
2. Repeat the customer’s Third-Level information.
Repeating back the facts is a start. Next, you want to repeat back the customer’s deeper Third-Level information. Confirm how the facts make the customer feel, and how those feelings might cause them to act:
You feel absolutely passionate about the work you’ve done as an internist for the last 15 years, but you feel there’s been a real decline in the medical care available to the public, specifically, the care available to workers. Providing services on-site infinitely changes the health care experience. This goal consumes you and is on your heart and soul.
Phew! How could the CEO resist? The consultant has just listened and repeated back what’s in the CEO’s heart and soul, what drives her, and what makes her life worth living. Talk about creating a sense of urgency to buy! As they say on the infomercials, however, “But wait! There’s more!” And here it is: The key step missed by most salespeople.
3. Repeat back the problem.
I realize the word “problem” can be confusing, so let me clarify. A problem is not an objection; it is the actual challenge your customer currently faces that your product will solve. Repeating back the customer’s problem and the implications of that problem gives you implicit permission to solve it:
With all of your success has come increased growth, which, while exciting, is creating leadership challenges. Currently your new executive team does not have clear roles, responsibilities, and systems of accountability. Obviously, this isn’t your fault, but you do need to address it if you want to continue your aggressive growth plans. In fact, your plans for the new year call for 35-percent top line growth.
Without a cohesive structure, this could have a serious impact on your profits as well as your brand. You’ve spoken to other consultants, but you didn’t feel chemistry with them or feel that they took the time to really understand your organization’s needs.
After each of these steps, you want to make certain you’re gaining agreement. Look for signs like:
4. Gain agreement.
Now that you’ve done the heavy lifting, ask your customer to confirm the information that you’ve repeated. While doing so, propose your solution. That solution should hit their dominant buying motive (DBM), solve their problems, and overcome their objections. It might go something like:
So, what you would be looking for in a consultant is someone who shares your passion for health and wellness, someone who knows your industry, someone who will take the time and energy to get to know each of your executive team members on a personal level, and someone who has the ability to create a cohesive structure and strategy to help you facilitate your growth, now and into the future. Is that about right or did I leave anything out?
You know you’ve performed a rock solid confirmation statement when the customer exclaims, “Wow, you really listened!” or “You’ve got it, but there’s one more thing I’d like to add. . . .”
Watch out for:
Honing your confirmation skills makes a big difference in your performance. Once I got my confirmation statement down pat, I was amazed at how much more efficient my sales process became.
Mark was in trouble. His leads were awful; in fact, his customer base seemed to have dried up completely. As a franchisee of a direct furniture sales and refurbishment business, he remembered the days when it seemed like everyone was in renovation mode. He used to meet plenty of qualified customers at home shows—all of them excited about the idea of remodeling and ready to spend.
These days, most of his prospects were qualified only by their income. Not many of them actually wanted to buy.
“Since the recession,” Mark lamented, “fewer consumers are remodeling. They have zero interest in refurbishing their homes. Closing percentages have plummeted to 10 percent.”
“Refurbishing probably isn’t a priority for them yet,” I said, and then I asked Mark a simple question: “Do you agree that only 10 percent of the people in your area wake up in the morning thinking about refurbishing their homes?”
“That’s probably about right,” said Mark.
“That’s why you’re only closing 10 percent,” I said. Then I asked him, “So what do 90 or 100 percent of the people in any area wake up thinking about, wanting, needing?”
Mark was silent.
“What do you want more of in your life?” I asked.
Mark thought a moment. “Less time working,” he said. “And, of course, more time with my children, but they’ve gone to college and rarely visit.”
I proposed a solution. “If you invested in a new family room, complete with a big-screen TV—perhaps an outdoor BBQ, a hydrotherapy spa, overstuffed sofa, and fun room—might they come home for Christmas instead of staying at the dorm?” I went on, “Our neighbors down the street, the Conways, invested in a game room, horseshoe pit, and outdoor bar stocked to the gills! Now, instead of going to their friends’ houses over college break, the kids can’t wait to invite their friends over to visit at their cool parents’ house.”
I think I got him with the overstuffed sofa.
Weeks later, when I spoke to Mark, he told me about a couple who came in to browse. After a few minutes of asking the right questions, he found out that their daughter was getting married and moving into a new townhome with a dated kitchen. Within 30 minutes, the couple was signing paperwork for a furniture package for her wedding gift.
After we taught these Third-Level selling techniques to Mark’s entire team, overall closing percentages increased by more than 35 percent. The next year of sales was far better than projected, allowing them to capture the market share they had been losing.
Too many salespeople think of themselves as simply order takers. If the customer isn’t actively shopping for their product, rather than linking their priorities to their product, they give up and skip to another prospect. Top sellers, on the other hand, have learned to uncover the customer’s hidden emotional (or business) needs, solve their problems, and link their product to that solution.
When you do this, you expand your market share to anyone and everyone seeking the benefits you’re selling. You also get them to want to buy right now.
As you begin to ask the right questions and listen wholeheartedly, you create emotional urgency and your sales will increase dramatically. With practice, you will become better and better at asking the right questions, digging out what matters most to people, and prioritizing the customers’ needs.
You’re probably wondering, though, “What do I do with that information?” As Abraham Lincoln once said, “The man who doesn’t read good books has no advantage over the man who can’t read them.” If you don’t use the information you’ve discovered, you’ll have no advantage over the salesperson that never uncovered the information in the first place!
What it all comes down to is this:
Here’s the basic formula:
Let’s take a closer look at defining features, advantages, and benefits.
If you’re selling new homes, a feature might be the home’s recreation center. Its benefit is that it will help the homeowner stay healthy and fit. Here’s how the linking part of your presentation might sound. Start with some point-of-reference based on what you already discussed:
Point of reference: Earlier, you were telling me that one of your priorities is wellness and working out.
Feature and advantage: The nice thing about our development is that, unlike any other facility on this side of town, we have a 45,000-foot gym and spa.
Benefit: So you can maintain your regime of daily workouts without having to even get in your car!
Confirmation question: How does that sound?
The confirmation question will yield either agreement or an objection. As I’ve noted elsewhere, it’s better to get an objection now rather than later.
Here’s an example of how someone selling learning software might approach this step:
Point of reference: Earlier you were telling me you didn’t have any systems of accountability to make certain your reps were retaining training concepts.
Feature and advantage: The benefit of our learning software is that we have leveraged some of the most sophisticated testing, monitoring, and reporting systems in the industry.
Benefit: You can test your sales reps’ competency in everything from product knowledge to closing skills and determine which reps need additional training. By using this system of accountability, many of our clients increase production by more than 35 percent.
Confirmation question:
Is that about right?
Anything else you’d like to add?
Do I have a good understanding of how you feel?
1. Link like a mountaineer.
Focus on your product’s select features, advantages, and benefits that will be the most meaningful to the customer in front of you. Think of limiting benefits like packing for a mountaineering adventure. My family loves to go rock climbing and hiking. We’ve learned that, on an overnight journey, you must be sensible about what you pack. Everything you bring, you have to carry. Unnecessary items add weight. (If you saw the movie Wild you know exactly what I mean!) Excessive linking also adds weight and trips up your customer’s buying process. Spotlight the three or four features and benefits that are most relevant.
Remember: Too much information results in indecision.
2. Don’t use exact phrasing.
You don’t have to regurgitate the formula exactly. In fact, if you do, it’ll come across as cheesy. Remember: The purpose of the linking formula is to trigger your brain to link customer needs with product benefits. Vary the words without losing the impact.
3. Get commitments.
Top salespeople gain commitment throughout their entire sales presentation. Although the linking formula ensures you’re uncovering the WIFM, following it up with a commitment question increases urgency. Ask questions like:
Asking these two questions will ensure, number one, that you really understand the buyers’ needs, but more importantly, that your deal really addresses those needs. In a competitive situation, that second part tells you where you stand.
Depending on your product, you may ask other targeted questions about financing, timing, or decision-makers. Ask with confidence—get out on the skinny branches.
Many years ago, as my colleague Marta and I sat down to a large Christmas Eve buffet brunch, a couple of seniors—they had to be over 90 years old—marched in wearing red Santa hats with bells ringing in the tips. They were adorable. They sat down next to us, each of them with ear-to-ear grins. I couldn’t help myself, so I leaned over and asked, “What’s the secret to a happy marriage?”
The husband leaned toward me and said, “You know, I first met Helen out of the Navy. You may not know it now”—sitting taller—“but I was a handsome fellow back then. Helen kept pestering me to get married. I kept telling her, ‘I need to think about it.’
“That’s when she said, ‘You’ll never know how good it can be until you do it. Why not think about it while we’re married?’
“And so I did. 67 years later, I’m still thinking about it!” They both giggled. They giggled their way through their ham, eggs, and cheesecake—happy and in love, all those years later.
Our brains love stories, but our hearts cherish them even more. For years, I told this story to couples who, at the moment of truth, just couldn’t make a decision. It almost always pushed them over the edge.
New research confirms that hearing the right stories at the right time cause the brain to release oxytocin, the neurochemical responsible for empathy. Oxytocin, dubbed the “Moral Molecule,” by neuroeconomist Paul Zak, makes people more trustworthy, generous, charitable, and compassionate!3 Researchers experimented on customers in a sales environment, having them ingest oxytocin through their nasal cavity to see if they would become more trusting and empathetic. (I figure if you can get a complete stranger to sniff an unknown chemical, he probably trusts you already!)
Even if your prospect is interested in the facts of your offering, he won’t be inspired to act without his emotions leading the charge. Your customer may think your solution is right in his head, but he’ll only take action when it feels right in his heart.
Since the advent of social media, the way we promote our products and services has changed dramatically. We’re living in a world of “I’ll have what you’re having.” The thinking is that because you like it and I like you, it must be good for me. If you and I are virtual friends, you are 27 percent more likely to find credibility in a product recommended by me than by a pop-up, TV ad, billboard, or centerfold. In addition to creating an emotional experience, stories that involve other customers using and benefiting from your product add credibility to your offering.4
One of our clients, Jack, uses stories and anecdotes to describe almost every feature, advantage, and benefit of his product: “American Express found that 25 percent of their sales reps found this feature useful” or “JP Morgan agrees that there are great advantages to this kind of service.” You get the picture, and so will your customers.
Many salespeople share how others have used their product, but they fail to think about why they’re telling the story or how it will benefit the customer and the sales process. Before telling any story, ask yourself these questions:
The best stories are authentic and compelling. Whether you’re selling solar power, copiers, software, vacations, or consulting by the hour, follow these five rules of a good third-party story:
1. The story must serve a purpose.
Quite simply, ask yourself, “Why am I telling this story? What impact do I want it to have on my audience?” A story must serve one of the following purposes:
Stories help you connect emotionally with your customer and link what’s important to them with your product. Remember, logic causes us to think, emotions cause us to act. Advertisers employ this concept masterfully.
2. The story must be based on truth.
Only when you share examples of real people and real experiences will your stories resonate as authentic. According to expert speaking coach and Stanford lecturer, Lee Eisler, it’s important when telling a story that you relive it as you tell it.5 Put yourself in the moment that the event occurred. When I tried this, it made a big impact on the power of my stories. I realized I had been telling some of my stories for so long that they seemed to lack authenticity.
But what happens when you have the opposite problem? How do you get stories if you’re new to a company or new to sales? Believe me; I know how frustrating being the new kid on the block can be.
When I first started in sales, I didn’t know what I didn’t know and I didn’t have a vault of stories like others did. Then one day, I overheard Mark’s story. It was fantastic. It made the customers tear up every time he told it. So I asked him, “Mark, do you mind if I tell your story and simply say, ‘One of our sales reps, Mark, has a customer and . . .’ ”?
He was delighted.
I asked every single sales rep the same exact question. I wrote down their stories in a little black book and categorized them.
Column A: Stories that hit a direct buying motive (DBM).
Column B: Stories that solved a problem.
Column C: Stories that overcame an objection.
Column D: Stories that create credibility.
I wrote them down. I refined every word. I learned that the words I chose had a great impact on how they landed with the customers emotionally. For example, when I described food, it was much more appealing to talk about the chocolate soufflé with the hot molten caramel filling than to say good food. This strategy had a huge payoff for me.
Thanks to modern technology, it’s much easier to create a story vault. You can digitize your stories, including pictures of your customers, to create a story bank. You should have 30 to 40 great third-party stories. Categorize them, practice, and if they’re not yours, tell them with as much passion as you can muster.
3. The story must be relevant.
Don’t tell your CEO customer from New York City that he reminds you of Bernie Hansen, a farmer from Nebraska. Stories only resonate with customers if they can hear them and think, “Me too! I’m just like so and so—obviously I would have the same good experience.”
4. The story shouldn’t be about you.
Look, you’re supposed to use and love your product. You’re selling it. Effective stories are endorsements from other customers who’ve received emotional or financial value from your product.
5. The story must be specific. Have you ever noticed that the more specific a story or claim is, the more credible it sounds?
Just as specific praise for accomplishment is more effective than a generalization, stories with specifics are more powerful. Attorneys, advertisers, and top salespeople know that specificity engenders believability. For example, which testimonial seems more credible?
“Our power dialer is the best in the world for creating customer contacts.”
Or:
“By using qualified leads upfront and calling more selectively, the power dialer we sell typically increases conversion rate by more than 35 percent.”
Use names, dates, and places whenever possible. There’s a line about journalists worth repeating: The good ones don’t just report that there was dog in the street. They get the name of the dog. The more specific, the more believable the story will be. The more believable, the more it will emotionally resonate with your customer.
Quote percentage increases and decreases: “32.5 percent” is a much more credible number than “more than 50 percent.” Get the exact numbers and use them to build credibility into your stories.
Stories aren’t just a list of events and happenings, they take on the meaning that we give them, and they humanize and unite us. Stories help us understand the world around us. Events in and of themselves don’t have meaning; rather, they take on the meaning we give them. Make your stories credible, authentic, compelling, and heartfelt, and you’ll not only sell more, you’ll have a better time doing it.