How to Sell Without Being Salesy—Sell Like Crazy

Summary

This video offers a fresh approach to sales, emphasizing service over manipulation. Sponsored by Google Ads smart campaigns, it outlines a five-step process for effective advertising and lead generation. The script challenges traditional sales tactics, advocating for a client-centered method that involves asking insightful questions, active listening, empathizing with clients' challenges, and summarizing to ensure understanding. It introduces a conditional hypothetical close technique to guide clients towards decisions gently, making sales feel less transactional and more about solving real problems.

Takeaways

• 📢 Sponsored Content: The video is sponsored by Google Ads smart campaigns, which are designed to simplify ad campaign management for businesses.
• 🚀 Easy Setup: Google Ads smart campaigns are user-friendly, utilizing automated technology to manage and improve ad performance, saving time and effort.
• 🎯 Define Goals: The first step in using smart campaigns is to define clear objectives, such as generating phone calls, clicks, or driving traffic.
• 🌐 Geographic Targeting: Businesses can select specific geographic locations and use keyword themes to target their ads effectively.
• 💬 Create Message: Crafting a compelling message is a crucial step in the ad campaign process, aimed at engaging potential customers.
• 💰 Budget Management: Setting a budget is an essential part of the campaign setup, allowing businesses to control their ad spending.
• 🔍 Pay-Per-Click: Businesses only pay for the ads when users click on them, ensuring cost-effective advertising.
• 📚 Redefining Sales: The script challenges traditional sales methods, advocating for a more service-oriented approach that values genuine rapport and understanding of the client's needs.
• 🤝 Serve, Ask, Listen, Empathize, Summarize: The core principles of the new sales approach are to serve the client's needs, ask insightful questions, listen actively, empathize with their challenges, and summarize the discussion to ensure understanding.
• 🔑 Curiosity-Driven Questions: Asking 'what' questions opens discussions and uncovers deeper issues, as opposed to 'how' or 'why' questions which may be biased or accusatory.
• 👂 Active Listening: Listening is emphasized as a competitive advantage, with techniques such as taking notes and mirroring to show engagement and understanding.
• 🌟 Empathy and Labeling: Understanding and acknowledging the client's emotions is key to building trust and rapport, using phrases like 'it sounds like' to validate their feelings.
• 🔄 Conditional Hypothetical Close: A sales technique that involves framing decisions as conditional and hypothetical to reduce the perceived risk for the client, facilitating a smoother decision-making process.

Q & A

What is the main topic of the video?

The main topic of the video is teaching a new approach to sales that is effective and considerate during challenging times, as well as introducing Google Ads smart campaigns as a tool for businesses.

Why might someone find the word 'sales' unpleasant?

Some people find the word 'sales' unpleasant due to past negative experiences with pushy salespeople or manipulative, high-pressure sales techniques.

What is the purpose of Google Ads smart campaigns as mentioned in the video?

Google Ads smart campaigns are designed to help businesses, especially small to medium-sized ones, reach potential customers and generate leads by using Google's automated technology to manage ads easily and efficiently.

What are the five steps to set up a Google Ads smart campaign according to the video?

The five steps are: 1) Define a goal, 2) Decide where to advertise, 3) Create your message, 4) Set your budget, and 5) Go live.

How does the video redefine the concept of selling?

The video redefines selling as a process of serving, asking, listening, empathizing, and summarizing, rather than pitching, presenting, convincing, or manipulating.

What is the mindset shift recommended for sales according to the video?

The recommended mindset shift for sales is to focus on serving others with generosity and selflessness, acting in the best interest of the clients without expectations.

Why is asking questions an important part of the sales process as described in the video?

Asking questions is important because it helps to surface the real challenges, allows the client to think and feel in control, and enables the salesperson to gather crucial information and understand the client's deeper motivations.

What is the 'advice monster' mentioned in the video, and why should it be silenced?

The 'advice monster' is the innate desire to give advice and prove one's knowledge or experience. It should be silenced because the sales process should be about understanding the client's needs through questions, not imposing solutions.

How does the video suggest using listening as a competitive advantage in sales?

The video suggests using active listening techniques such as taking notes, giving affirmations, and mirroring the client's words to show that the salesperson is paying attention and values what the client is saying.

What is the purpose of summarizing in the sales process as outlined in the video?

Summarizing serves to demonstrate understanding and attentiveness, allowing the salesperson to confirm or clarify the client's needs and concerns, and to ensure that both parties are on the same page before proceeding.

What is the 'conditional hypothetical close' technique mentioned in the video, and how is it used?

The 'conditional hypothetical close' is a technique where the salesperson frames potential decisions with 'if-then' scenarios to make the decision-making process less daunting for the client, allowing for small commitments that can lead to a larger agreement.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Introduction to Smart Campaigns and Sales Techniques

The video begins with an introduction to a new approach to sales, emphasizing the importance of adapting to challenging times. It highlights the difficulty of acquiring new clients and expanding customer bases, introducing Google Ads Smart Campaigns as a solution. These campaigns are easy to set up and manage, using Google's automated technology to handle ads, saving time and resources. The video outlines the five steps to set up a Smart Campaign: defining a goal, choosing where to advertise, creating a message, setting a budget, and launching the campaign. The focus is on reaching more customers and generating leads, especially for small to medium-sized businesses. The video then transitions into a discussion on redefining sales, moving away from traditional, pushy techniques to a more service-oriented approach.

05:01

🤝 The Art of Genuine Sales: Serve, Ask, Listen, Empathize, Summarize

This section delves into a new perspective on sales, focusing on serving the client rather than merely making a sale. The video emphasizes the importance of asking questions to uncover the real challenges faced by the client, which is more effective than providing unsolicited advice. It suggests using open-ended questions starting with 'what' to encourage discussion and surface deeper issues. Listening actively is stressed, with tips on how to show the client that you are engaged, such as nodding and taking notes. Empathizing with the client's pain is crucial, helping them feel understood and valued. The video provides examples of how to label emotions and reflect on the client's feelings. Finally, summarizing the conversation is key to demonstrating understanding and preparing for the next steps in the sales process.

10:02

🔐 Closing the Deal with Conditional Hypothetical Close

The final part of the video script discusses the critical aspect of closing a sale. It introduces the concept of a conditional hypothetical close, which involves framing decisions as a series of smaller, less intimidating commitments. This method helps clients feel more comfortable with the decision-making process by reducing the perceived risk. The video provides a detailed example of how to use 'if-then' statements to guide the client towards a decision. It emphasizes the importance of confirming understanding and gaining the client's agreement through hypothetical scenarios before moving to real commitments. The video concludes with a summary of the sales framework: serve, ask, listen, empathize, and summarize, and recommends further reading for those interested in deepening their sales skills.

Keywords

💡Sales

Sales, in the context of this video, is reframed from a negative connotation to a positive one. It's not about high-pressure tactics or manipulation; rather, it's about serving the customer's needs genuinely. The video emphasizes that sales should be about helping prospects make informed decisions by addressing their challenges and not simply convincing them to buy a product or service.

💡Google Ads Smart Campaigns

Google Ads Smart Campaigns are an automated advertising solution that simplifies the process of running ad campaigns for businesses. The script highlights how this tool can help businesses get more clients and close more deals by reaching a wider audience with minimal setup and management effort, which is particularly useful during challenging times.

💡Qualified Leads

Qualified leads refer to potential customers who have demonstrated interest in a product or service and have the potential to become clients. The video script discusses the difficulty of acquiring such leads and positions Google Ads Smart Campaigns as a solution to this problem.

💡Serving

Serving, in the script, is a core concept of the new sales approach. It implies a mindset shift where the salesperson focuses on giving value and helping others without expecting anything in return. This is exemplified by acting in the best interest of the customer, similar to a fiduciary managing someone else's money.

💡Asking

Asking is emphasized as a crucial part of the sales process. The script advises against giving unsolicited advice and instead encourages asking questions to uncover the real problems and needs of the client. This approach allows the salesperson to gather information and understand the client's situation more deeply.

💡Listening

Listening is portrayed as a competitive advantage in sales. The video script suggests that by actively listening and taking notes, salespeople can signal to clients that their concerns are being heard and valued. This full-value listening approach helps in building rapport and trust.

💡Empathy

Empathy is the ability to understand and share the feelings of the client. In the script, it is mentioned as a critical skill for salespeople to connect with their clients on a deeper level. By empathizing, salespeople can label the client's emotions and help them feel understood and supported.

💡Summarizing

Summarizing is the act of playing back what has been discussed during the sales conversation. The script explains that summarizing helps to demonstrate understanding and ensures that the salesperson has correctly interpreted the client's needs and concerns.

💡Advice Monster

The 'Advice Monster' is a metaphor used in the script to describe the natural tendency to give unsolicited advice. The video encourages salespeople to silence this 'monster' by asking questions instead, which allows the client to think and arrive at their own conclusions.

💡Conditional Hypothetical Close

A conditional hypothetical close is a sales technique mentioned in the script where the salesperson uses 'if-then' scenarios to gently guide the client towards making a decision. This method reduces the perceived risk for the client and helps in transitioning from a hypothetical discussion to a real commitment.

💡Socratic Selling

Socratic selling is a method of sales that involves asking questions to lead the client to discover the solution on their own. The script references this technique as a way to build genuine rapport and increase the success rate of sales calls, especially during challenging times.

Highlights

Introduction of a new sales approach during challenging times.

Sponsorship by Google Ads smart campaigns for the video.

The difficulty of getting qualified leads and expanding customer base.

Advantages of using Google's automated technology for ad management.

Five steps to set up a smart campaign: defining goals, deciding ad locations, creating messages, setting budgets, and going live.

The pay-per-click model of Google Ads where you only pay when people click on your ads.

Sales redefined as serving, asking, listening, empathizing, and summarizing.

The misconception of sales as manipulation and the need to reframe it.

The importance of serving in the spirit of generosity without expectations.

Asking questions to surface real problems and motivations, rather than giving advice.

The power of 'what' questions in uncovering client needs and challenges.

Listening as a competitive advantage and the technique of full value listening.

Empathizing with the client's pain and labeling the emotion to build rapport.

The effectiveness of summarizing to demonstrate understanding and gather confirmation from the client.

The conditional hypothetical close technique to facilitate decision-making without pressure.

The importance of gaining small commitments before moving to larger decisions.

Book recommendations for deeper understanding of sales and communication techniques.

Conclusion emphasizing the redefined approach to sales as a genuine and meaningful process.

Transcripts

what's up everybody in this video I'm

gonna teach you a new way to sell how to

get more clients close more deals and do

in a way that isn't going to come across

as tone-deaf during these challenging

times now before I dive in I just want

to let you know this portion of the

video is sponsored by Google Ads smart

campaigns what's the most difficult part

of running any business well getting

qualified leads and expanding your

customer base one effective way to do

this is to run ads but it can be

difficult to set up not anymore

if you ever thought about running an ad

campaign but we're intimidated by how to

set it up smart campaigns might be the

perfect solution for you it's super easy

to set up because it uses Google's

automated technology to manage your ads

for you it's constantly learning and

improving performance best of all it

saves time it's easy to set up manage

and to report by using Google Ad smart

campaigns you'll be able to reach more

customers and get real results so that

you can stay focused on running your

business what are the steps here's how

it works in five steps one define a goal

this could be to get phone calls clicks

on your site or to drive traffic to your

business to decide where to advertise

you can select any geographic location

and use keyword themes 3 create your

message four set your budget and then

just go live that's it those are the

five steps the best part you only pay

when people click on your ads you can

also quickly sign up for Google Ads

through the app smart campaigns are a

great way to get your business back

online especially after a challenging

time sign up or manage your Google Ad

smart campaigns today Google Ad smart

campaigns is a helpful tool for small to

medium-sized businesses just like yours

designed to help you reach potential

customers and generate leads once a

prospect has reached out I'm gonna show

you a new way to approach the sales call

that will help you to build genuine and

meaningful rapport

surface the real challenges and increase

your success rate especially during

these challenging times thanks again to

Google Ad smart campaigns for sponsoring

this portion of the video let's jump in

sailes

it's a dirty word for some of you you

might even be having a visceral almost

allergic reaction to that word and it's

justifiably so most of our experiences

with salespeople are unpleasant you ever

regret answering the phone when a pushy

telemarketer just all let you politely

in the call you've had that experience

before I have to that leaves a bad taste

in your mouth

well how about the door-to-door sales

person trying to get you to sign a

petition that you know nothing about

well yeah sales has a bad rap we don't

have great examples of great sales

experiences because it's often

perpetuated by people who actually use

manipulative high-pressure techniques

who will stop at nothing to get this out

if this has been your experience and

exposure to what it means to sell then

it's probably not much of a leap to

assume you avoid selling at all cause so

here's the rub you know you need to sale

for the sake of your business but you

don't want to feel slimy afterwards and

if you've ever tried it before without

much luck I want to give you a different

way of approaching sales first forget

everything you think you know about

sales we have to do a little mental

flossing cleanse the palate if you will

so what does it really mean to sell well

it's not what you think selling is not

pitching it's not presenting it's not

convincing and it's not a form of

manipulation the goal of sales is to

inspire the prospect to make a decision

not to tell them what to do you do this

by helping them to think through their

challenges you don't tell you ask so

let's find a more accurate generous and

effective way to generate new business

make more money and do it in a way that

is in alignment with your values and

beliefs

I want to reframe what it even means to

sell so let's look at it this way sales

means to serve ask listen

empathize and to summarize that's it

remember these five words serve ask

listen

empathize and summarize now I'm going to

dive in a little deeper so you can

understand what I'm talking about

so first is to serve this is a whole

mindset shift you have to prepare

yourself to think about sales in a whole

different way it's not about what you

get but what you give and it's about how

you show up to

helped others without expectations and

you do this by acting in the best

interest of others and it's done in the

spirit of generosity and you have to be

selfless another way of thinking about

this is to act like a fiduciary that

you're taking care of somebody else's

money in business and you have their

best interests at heart

next ask don't give advice in Michael

Bungay Stanier errs book the coaching

habit he talks about silencing the

advice monster and the advice monster

lives in all of us because it desires to

prove that we know something that we

have experienced that we can be of

service and help it's the exact opposite

of what you want to do you want to ask

questions because thinking is difficult

the client arrives with an unclear idea

of what the real problem is only by

asking questions can you surface the

real problem asking helps the clients to

think you can probe dig surface

investigate and you want to do this

through the lens of curiosity questions

are like magical Keys they open the door

to the mind of the client and when you

ask questions you give deference the

other person when you ask questions they

feel important they're in control and

they have the power asking allows you to

gather information to gain the inside

track you are able to get information

that other people didn't get because

they were afraid to ask or they weren't

curious for long enough because

ultimately what you want to do is to

find the right problem to solve and

oftentimes the first problem that you

hear is not the correct problem asking

allows you to surface deeper motivations

and to gain clarity here's the thing not

all questions are created equally so

some more advice from Michael Bungay

Stanier is the best questions start with

what what opens the discussion what

remains neutral what is unbiased how

questions focus on tactics and

unfortunately we're rushing to find the

answer how do we do this how might we

solve this why questions sound

accusatory if the tone isn't correct so

be careful if using why questions here

are some examples of questions that you

can ask what's on your mind what would

be a big win

you what's getting in your way of

accomplishing this what's the real

challenge for you I love this question

because it supposes that there's an

unreal or a fake challenge and

oftentimes it's a smokescreen that

somebody will present to you as the real

problem what keeps you up at night

around this what is open for reimagining

who else needs to be part of this

discussion and what else

Ellis for listening you want to listen

more and you want to talk less when the

client is transmitting a signal to but

not getting any kind of recognition from

you they're doing what pilots know it's

called transmitting blind where they

lose the radio signal one way that you

can signal to the client that you're

listening is to give them little

affirmations a simple nod saying yes

right mm-hmm will do the trick you don't

need to to say any more than that

because listening is your competitive

advantage and do what Kevin daily calls

full value listening what that means is

that everything the client says matters

and how do you signal to the other

person that what they say matters you

take notes yes like a reporter you take

notes this is preferred over maintaining

eye contact which many communication

professionals tell you to do if you're

maintaining eye contact with the client

they're probably wondering what are you

paying attention to and is this coming

through clearly another technique of

listening is to mirror where you repeat

the last few words the client says so if

they say we would love to have an

amazing website you would repeat back so

an amazing website an amazing website

you would just repeat the last few words

so e is for empathize this is a critical

skill to have to understand the client's

pain they need to know you know what

they're feeling and what you do is you

help them to relive it

you concentrate on the feeling not the

solution you can even ask some questions

like how does it make them feel to not

have a solution for this and to help

them to relive that moment FBI

negotiator Chris vos calls this labeling

the emotion so here's an example you

could start the phrase with it sounds

like so it sounds like you're frustrated

about the lack

Transparency with your last vendor or

here's another one it sounds like not

having a solution is costing your

company hundreds of thousands in lost

sales here's another one it sounds like

cashflow is an issue right now is that

the problem and finally it sounds like

you're upset that the last company told

you one thing and did something else

entirely the last s is to summarize to

play back what you heard here's an

opportunity for you to demonstrate that

you understand that you've been

listening intently you want to put

everything together and you want to play

back their major points don't be afraid

of playing back what your heart people

generally avoid this because they're

scared that they weren't paying careful

enough attention and by saying what

they've heard they're only confirming

what their clients have suspected but

before I talk about that I want to tell

you there's a difference between you a

human being and a tape recorder a tape

recorder records everything can playback

everything but understands nothing this

is your opportunity to show that you

understand and by asking the client did

I get this right you're gonna get

confirmation or you gonna get

clarification both are important so

here's one way to do it if I understand

you correctly here's what I gathered and

you would point out here's one thing I

heard here's the second thing I heard

here's the third thing that I heard and

then you want to follow it up with is

that correct by asking they're gonna

give you one of two responses yes you

nailed it you've got everything or no

let me give you some additional

information both are quite powerful and

just to be sure ask is there anything

else you might gain an extra kernel a

little nugget of information

congratulations that's the entire

framework now let's go in for the close

okay so here's the most critical part

you've done the great job of asking the

questions staying in the pocket

silencing the advice monster listening

with great empathy you're labeling the

pain and you've played back everything

and you've gotten confirmation from the

client you cannot stop here we got to

learn how to close so here's how you do

it you use this thing called a

conditional hypothetical close and the

reason why you do this is because

decisions are scary because part of

decisions is deciding and the route

or the decide side means to kill it

means to eliminate possibility and why

clients are afraid to make a decision is

because they're thinking am I paying too

much is this the correct solution are

you the right partner to work with so

you want to make it easier to make a

decision by framing it with questions

you're gently walking them through by

making little tiny decisions small

commitments this is the beautiful part

so right here at the end you want to

just use the if-then conditional

hypothetical close and I'll show you

what that means so here's how I would

say something like this from what I'm

hearing if a vendor could ensure

delivery of a website that increased

conversion rates from two to four

percent which would increase profit by

four hundred thousand dollars this year

and then you'd consider this a homerun

and they would say yes that's correct

and then you're gonna follow up if we

submit a proposal for sixty five

thousand dollars by the end of business

day then you're ready to move forward

next week is that correct yes so now

you've gotten to commitments and it

doesn't feel dangerous to make this big

decision it's still hypothetical

but you're moving from the hypothetical

to the real in a very gentle and easy

way so just a reminder if is safe it's

hypothetical

it requires low commitment let's

summarize

sales means to serve to ask to listen to

empathize and to summarize to serve

means to do it in the spirit of

generosity to truly want to help

somebody else other than you it's about

their goals and not yours and we do this

by asking lots of questions asking

questions allows us to find the real

problem it makes the other person feel

like they're in control and they have

the power asking questions

allows us to truly understand what the

clients are going through and the way

that we do this is through listening by

listening by taking notes and then

empathizing labeling the pain and then

to summarize what you've learned this is

it serve ask listen

empathize and to summarize and here are

some books and resources for you if you

want to dig deeper I highly recommend

these three books Socratic selling

written by Kevin daily never split the

difference by Chris Foss and coaching

habit by Michael Bungay Stanier

that's it for me I hope you learned

something I hope this was helpful and I

will see you in the future