Tag: sense of urgency

If you’ve done any sales conversations at all, you know that the number-one objection that prospects present as a reason not to buy your product or service is money.

You get to that point in the sales conversation, and they say, “I don’t have the money,” “Our funds are allocated elsewhere,” or “We’ve got medical bills or tuition or too much debt.”

No matter how they phrase it, the solution for banishing that problem forever from your sales process is the same.

Don’t Buy Into Their Lie
The first key to dealing with any kind of objection that prospects present is to discern the real ones from the excuses.

The real objections are challenges, so you deal with them as such. Excuses are lies or beliefs in a false reality.

“I don’t have the money” is a lie.

How do you deal with this lie?

Well, first, you have to apply Pillar 1 and influence yourself.

You have to accept that money is never the problem. The problem is always urgency.

For instance, imagine a homeless drug addict, somebody who is really down and out. That person is a lost soul, trapped inside a reality that the addiction has created.

Have you ever heard of addicts who can’t get the money to buy their next fix?

No, because they always find a way.

Now, don’t get into the judgment of how they do it. That doesn’t matter. The point is that they do. And that homeless addict’s reality is much more dire than any prospect’s you’re going to be talking to.

They come up with the money, because the urgency is so great. They’ll do anything to get the money for their next fix.

So, when prospects tell you that they don’t have the money, remember that drug addict, and don’t buy into that excuse.

Instead, work on your prospects’ sense of urgency, because the urgency isn’t great enough for them to do what they need to do to get the money.

Whether that’s negotiating with their spouse to reallocate savings or getting a loan or raising their rates.

If you deal with their objection from a money place, you’re dealing with it from their reality.

And you will never influence them from their reality, because their reality says that they can’t get out of that reality.

So how do you influence them?

Remember Clarity?
You bring them clarity, which, in turn, will create urgency.

So when you encounter the money objection, ask your prospects this question:

“What’s going to happen if this problem doesn’t change?” and have them see what the exact outcome will be.

Whether that’s facing the health consequences of diabetes, or poverty as an elder, or the loneliness of remaining single if they don’t want to.

Remember, part of the problem is that they’ve pushed this negative scenario into some nebulous future, where they don’t have to deal with it.

By bringing it to the present, they will face it.

And that clarity will bring them the urgency to change the outcome.

They’ll realize that they don’t want to tolerate their problem one minute longer, and, all of a sudden, they’ll find a way to get the money for the solution they need.

And, if they really are your ideal client, the solution they need is yours.

Your goal during discovery sales conversations is to bring prospective clients to clarity about their situation, so that they can face it and feel the urgency to change.

You accomplish that by asking them four main questions.

Last time, I shared the first two: “What are you looking to accomplish?” and “What is the biggest problem in your business right now?”

Here are the other two questions:

Question 3
With the third question, you’re assessing their awareness while helping them get clear. You ask, “Why do you think you have that problem?”

Again, don’t argue with them or challenge their perception.

You’re not trying to show how wrong they are or how smart you are.

You want to draw the clarity out of them, which isn’t going to happen if you’re making them feel defensive.

You can tell them what’s wrong with their business until you’re blue in the face. But until they see it for themselves, there’s no sale.

So even if you think they’re wrong, listen to what they’re saying.

The Art of Listening
In order to listen, you have to be out of your own head.

If you have a clatter of mental noise, if you’re thinking, Is this person going to buy? or What do I say next? you’re only listening to yourself.

You want to listen to them, but even more than that, you want to really hear them. Remember, we listen with our ears, but we hear with our emotions.

If you can hear what your prospective client is saying with your own feelings, and then give that empathy back to them in the form of the fourth question, you will influence them every single time.

Question 4
When you ask the fourth question with empathy, your prospects will feel permission from you to be authentic, and to tell you the truth.

At the same time, you want to convey a tone of authority, so that they feel confident in you as well.
So energetically, you lean in, and with that compassionate yet authoritative tone, you ask:

“How badly do you want this to change?”

If you’re compassionate and they’re authentic, the question will elicit emotion. There may be tears. There may be anger. There may be excitement.

And you will know instantly if the person is ready to make the change. If they are ready to buy.

Don’t respond by, then, going into a lot of detail about your product or service. People are not buying based on what your product or service contains.

They’re buying the outcome that they finally feel is possible for them.

If you start going into the details, you’re going to destroy that urgency to change that you’ve been building over the entire conversation.

Like sticking a pin into a balloon, the urgency is gone, and you’ve lost the sale.

What you want to do is stay present with them and solidify the commitment. Begin the relationship that will enrich both of your lives.

I absolutely love sales. It totally lifts my spirit, because it is the first step to change in a person’s life.

Without the sale, nothing happens.

The prospects just sit in their prison cells, never realizing that the life they want is attainable, if they’d just shift their perspective and reach outside their bars.

Fortunately, they have you.

Clarity Brings Urgency
When you’re successful during a discovery conversation with a prospective client, you’ve brought them to clarity about their situation, which, in turn, gives them the urgency to change.

Let me say that again, with clarity comes the urgency to change.

Part of the reason that people stay stuck is they’ve pushed their problem so far into the future that they can’t see it. One day, they’ll make enough money to take vacations. One day.

The problem is, “one day” will never come. Your prospects will stay stuck until they finally realize that there is only now.

If they want to increase their income, if they want the life of their dreams, now is the time to act.

To help guide them to that clarity, which, again, they have to realize for themselves, you want to ask them four simple questions. Here are the first two:

Question 1
The first question you ask during the discovery conversation with a prospect is some version of “What are you looking to accomplish?” It’s plain, simple and direct.

You do want to tailor that question to your specific business, product or service. For example, if you’re a financial planner, it makes sense to ask, “How much money do you want to make?”

Regardless of the wording you choose, after you ask the question, be quiet. Just listen, and they will tell you what you need to know about them.

Question 2
Next, you want to ask, “What is the biggest problem in your business (or life) right now?”

With this question, you’re finding out what they want and need, but, more important, they’re beginning to get clear about their problem.

After you ask the question, again, don’t say a word. Let them tell you what they think their problem is.

If you think that they’re incorrect about the nature of their problem, don’t tell them that or argue with them, because that does no good.

In fact, almost everyone’s answers to one or more of these questions will be wrong. That doesn’t matter.

What matters is that they’re starting to get clear in their minds that they have a problem, and they’re bringing that problem from some nebulous future into the present, where they can finally face it.

Look at it this way, if you have to tell them what their problem is, they haven’t accepted it yet in their mind.

And if they haven’t accepted it yet, if they’re saying, “I want to think about it” they still have unanswered questions. And, if that’s the case, there’s no way they’re moving forward.

In order to bring them to clarity and urgency and clinch the sale, you need to ask them two more questions. You’ll find those here next time.

Mastering the art of influence can enable you to close sales at a ratio of 80-100% in 15 minutes ~ provided you are talking to your ideal client.

Remember, your ideal client is not just a personification of your target market. These are people who already want or need your product or service, and they’re demonstrating an urgency to change by actively seeking a solution.

So the key to attracting your ideal client, as I said last time, is to determine exactly where they are demonstrating the need for what you do, both on- and offline.

Easy, right?

It actually is. And if you did the exercise in the last article, you should have a long list.

Ignorance or Fear
If you don’t have a long list and you’re not finding your ideal clients, there are really only two reasons. The first is ignorance: you don’t know how to find them. We solved that problem in the last article.

The other reason is fear, which can mask as ignorance. So, if you’re not finding your ideal clients, you have to ask yourself if you’re afraid to do so.

Listen, if that’s true for you, I get it. I’ve been there, and everybody I’ve worked with has been there as well.

All you have to do is make a little shift in your mind, and my job is to help you do that. If you want help with this, just schedule an appointment with my team.

Easy to Find
Because the truth is, your ideal clients are easy to find ~ especially in the Internet age.

When I first started, all I had was a magazine with a list of 100 top sellers. That’s it. A list of names and the states they lived in. I didn’t even know what cities they were in.

But I had the urgency to push past my own fear, so I called information for all the phone numbers that went with those names. And then I called everyone in that state with that name until I found the right person.

You can imagine, for a common name like Smith or Jones, that could take 50 phone calls. I would literally ask, “Are you the John Smith that was just listed in such and such magazine?” If they said no, I kept going until I found the right person.
When I finally reached that person, you know what I said? “I just called 50 John Smiths to find you. That’s how important this call is.”

With just that one list, I filled an entire seminar.

If I can do that, you can find your ideal clients and fill your workshops and classes or work with them one on one.

So what are you waiting for?

If you haven’t already done so, brainstorm about where your ideal clients are meeting on- and offline, and come up with your list. And then meet me back here for Pillar 4.

When people talk about their “ideal client,” they sometimes focus on attributes and demographics.

While identifying those qualities can be helpful, you’ll be much more successful if you define your “ideal client” this way:

Ideal clients are people who already have the urgency to change. You don’t have to convince them that they have a problem. They know it.

You also don’t have to twist their arms to get them to spend money to fix their problem. They’re already doing that too.

Their Urgency to Change
They’re buying books and going to conferences, seminars, and workshops. They’re actively seeking information and guidance in order to change.

An even more powerful indicator of their urgency is if they’re willing to travel. The farther they get from their house to look for help, the more money they’re spending to fix their problem. Not to mention the impact of travel itself: the affect on loved ones left behind, the logistics involved in packing, arranging for housesitting, child- or petcare, the disruption of their work.

When people are willing to travel, they are serious about change.

And those people are your ideal clients.

Your ideal clients are not the people who say, “I would go to that event if it were in my city or town. I just can’t fly across the country.”

Those people are stuck in their own reality. They do not have the urgency to change. And they are not your ideal clients.

It Starts with You
The only question you have to ask yourself is which stance do you take? Will you look for help beyond your hometown? Or, do you feel that travel is just too difficult, too expensive. If so, you are not influencing yourself.

Remember, part of influencing yourself is being willing to stretch and gain knowledge at the level where you want to be. If you’re trying to gain knowledge at your existing level, you’ll never advance.

And, as I’ve said repeatedly, if you can’t influence yourself, you don’t have a prayer of influencing others.

Where Are They?
The key to attracting your ideal clients with that urgency to change is to determine exactly where they are demonstrating the want and need for what you do, both online and offline.

Online: For instance, what online groups do they belong to? Who do they follow? On the Internet, you can learn all kinds of things about people just by looking at what they’re posting, what they like and don’t like, where they’re spending their money, etc.

Now, eventually, you want to build your business so that you have systems to draw people to you. And that’s something we can help you with. But if you don’t have those systems in place yet, you can certainly start with public information.

Offline: What conferences, conventions, and seminars do they attend? What self-help groups do they belong to? Where do they gather?

Sit down and start brainstorming and you should come up with a good-sized list.

If you don’t come up with a list of possibilities, you have to ask yourself another question:

Are you the one with the urgency problem?

I’ll pick it up here next time.

Hi Richard!

The truth in your situation is that you just don’t want it bad enough. You are content to stay where you are, and there’s nothing really that’s creating a sense of urgency for you.

In these instances YOU have to create the sense of urgency.

Let me explain…

Until your burning desire is greater than your need for comfort, nothing will change. Growth is uncomfortable. Without the discomfort, we don’t grow. And if you’re not growing, it’s going to be nearly impossible to help someone else grow.

Ask yourself what in your life is keeping you comfortable?

• Is it a job you show up to every day?
• Is it your savings account?
• Is it your safe group of people around you?
• What specifically do you fall back on as that safety net?

In order for you to move past this, you have to identify that safety net and burn it.

Then you have to fall deeply, madly and 100% in love with this desire you have to help people.

You see, the juice of life lies beyond your comfort zone…

As we grow and expand, we can then enrich the lives of others.