This week’s Misfit Entrepreneur is Ari Galper. Ari is the world’s #1 authority on trust-based selling. He’s the best-selling author of “Unlock the Sales Game,” a must read by the way, and “The One Call Sale.” He’s been featured everywhere from Forbes to INC and CNN and is sought after by business owners, entrepreneurs, and major corporations like Citibank and GE to help them improve their sales organizations.
But the thing I am most excited for Air to share is the journey he took to become who he is. In some ways, it parallels my own journey with the Misfit Entrepreneur as we both have a very special why. Of course, we are going to talk all things sales and selling too.
www.UnlocktheGame.com for a copy of Ari’s book and other free resources.
Ari met his wife over 20 years ago. She was from Sydney, Australia. He came to meet her family and fell in love with the country. They lived in LA for a while and moved to Australia after the birth of their son. He was in professional sales in tech and other industries prior to going out on his own.
At the 6:30 mark, Ari tells the story of a major sale that would double the size of the tech company he was working. He did the demo and got awesome feedback. It went so well, he thought it was a done deal – until it wasn’t. This was where he learned how important it was to use trust-based selling to succeed.
- Somewhere along the way, it has become socially acceptable not to tell the truth to people who sell.
- Instead, we hear things like “sounds good,” “Send me information,” “Send me a proposal,” etc. without the buyer having any intention to buy at all.
Ari asked himself, “Why are people afraid to tell me the truth?”
- He realized that there is an invisible river of pressure that flows under every sales conversation, and you need to learn how to remove it, so you don’t play the sales game.
You must shift your mindset away from the goal of the sale and instead build deep trust with people where they feel vulnerable and comfortable enough to open up and tell you the truth.
You credit learning to be your son’s dad as a breakthrough for Trust-Based selling – what was the breakthrough?
- Toby has down syndrome which means he’s open and honest, kind, and a joy to be around.
- He has no hidden agenda with people.
- He is honest and open and doesn’t carry a shield.
- He lives in his authenticity and integrity.
- This is how it should be with a sale between the buyer and seller.
- We must detox from the old ways and behaviors of selling to a new way. A trust-based way.
So, what is it that companies and salespeople doing wrong in selling?
- Most people live in myths such as “sales is a numbers game”
- It’s not about that. It’s about at how deep you go in each conversation.
- The sale is not lost at the end of the process but lost at the beginning of the process.
- Most sales calls are over at “Hello.”
- The other myth is that sales rejection is part of the game when in fact, it is triggered by old habits and ways of thinking.
Define Trust-Based Selling…
The redefinition of selling as you know it.
- It’s not about making the sale for you. It’s not focusing on your goal but focusing on their goal.
- 100% authentic going deep underneath their problem to a level where they feel you truly get them.
- Trust-Based selling is making the process all about them and not you.
Take us through the process. How does an entrepreneur or salesperson get to the point where a prospect believes that they truly get them and understand them?
- Trust-Based language: Changing your words and language to show you are different.
- For example, always be diffusing pressure.
- Ari gives an example of a sales phone call at the 17 min mark and the moving forward conversation and how it should go. Instead of telling what they next steps are, ask “Where do you think we should go from here?”
- When you people feel you truly care about them and show it and back it up – it sets you apart.
Why is the sale lost at “hello?” And what do people need to do differently in the beginning?
- We have been conditioned to start the relationship at hello, to build rapport.
- Relationship building and trust-building are mutually exclusive.
- The mistake is made where salespeople try to get people to like and know them.
- Buyers don’t have to like you.
- Think of a doctor and patient. A doctor doesn’t have the luxury of being liked as much as they are responsible for diagnosing solving a problem with a patient whether the patient likes them or not.
- Build relationships after the sale – not before the sale, so it’s not fake at “hello.”
- Instead as entrepreneur or salesperson, you be the doctor. Peel back their issues and go to the place they don’t even know about and help understand the real challenge to solve.
At the 25 min mark, Ari gives examples of what to say on an initial call.
- It includes things like “asking for help” or asking if they “would be open” to a problem that you help clients solve.
How is unlocking the sales game comparable to the Japanese art of Aikido?
- Aikido is all about no resistance.
- You deflect and diverge energy in Aikido.
- When you sense pressure or tension in the sales process, you are conditioned to two responses – fight or flight.
- Instead, don’t try to fight resistance, but diffuse it and don’t go to “fight the battle.”
- Diffuse and re-engage.
- For example, if someone tells you that your “fees are too high,” the natural response is to fight the battle for them. Instead, say something like, “You are absolutely right, it can be perceived as high if you haven’t had a chance to actually the product or service to get the result you are looking for, to justify making this happen. Would you be open to looking at this from a different perspective to see how we can build a business case for this?”
- This is redirecting to a different path of thinking about things.
How does someone develop themselves to be able to practice Trust-Based Selling?
- It is about unlearning.
- People typically put on sales armor, get ready for battle, and react in the moment because we are not centering ourselves.
- People have a pattern of moving things forward and the minute that is broken, we freak out and get defensive, we over-educate, give stuff away – we lose ourselves and the ability to be the “doctor.”
- We must be 100% present in the other person’s world.
- It requires practice and coaching, a shift in mindset.
- Remove this phrase from your vocabulary – never ever again use the phrase “follow up.” Not in email or phone call, etc.
- The only profession in the world that uses that phrase is selling and sales.
- Stop being a “salesperson.”
- Get rid of the old language.
- Stop using “check in” or “touch base.” Instead use “I’m giving you call to see if you have any feedback from our last discussion or from our meeting.”
- Change you thinking and language and people will tell you the truth.
Talk to us about the “One Call Sale.” Explain your philosophy.
- It is Ari’s lifework in a book.
- It is a refined model that removes resistance at “hello.”
- It teaches you to be a “doctor” and have the right bedside manner to peel back the onion – like a therapist and patient.
- At the 37 min mark, Ari walks through some of the thought process.
- It is all about digging deeper and deeper below the iceberg.
- You job is not to move prospects forward, but to move them down the iceberg to where they say, “How can you help me?”
Final thoughts?
- Let go of the idea that your job is to educate prospects of and in your sales process. They don’t want work to do.
- They are not asking whether they want to buy a solution, but instead – is this person the one I can trust to solve my problem?
Best Quote: There is an invisible river of pressure that flows under every sales conversation, and you need to learn how to remove it, so you don’t play the sales game.
Ari's Misfit 3:
- Stop selling. Build trust instead.
- Be the doctor and diagnose problems.
- Be present with people in their world so you don’t slip out into your world.
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