Hello and welcome. This may or may not be your first course or self-help tape. The others normally have music in this spot however we’ve saved the space for the good stuff. As you place this tape in your tape player you and I will enter into a business relationship and, as in any business relationship, we each assume responsibilities and we each have expectations of benefits from the relationship. Initially I’ve benefited financially. However, I have an additional expectation of my own personal gratification in your success.
A little bit about my background. I’m Joe Kinlaw. I’m here today to honor your expectations. I’ve enjoyed 18 years of direct sales and sales training experience. I will not offer you anything that I am not positive works in the sales circumstance. It has worked for me for years and it will work for you. I will teach you the techniques and methodologies to make you more money than you’ve ever made before. I will teach you the skills that will improve and enrich your business life. I built a multi-million dollar family of companies from an initial investment of less than $10,000 and through an evolutionary process of natural selection, if you will, with respect to sales training and sales techniques and sales procedures I developed a sales system, this sales training system that I utilize in my companies and have for many years.
This course can change your career and it can change your life to the extent that you want it to and I realize that’s a very bold statement but I’m speaking from experience. I have earned millions of dollars in my sales career using this very system. I believe it important to point out the uniqueness of this course. It contains the successful difference. This course is different; it’s entirely different than anything else on the market. It is the most effective sales training course that you can spend your money on bar none, period, and that’s no brag; it’s fact.
A little history as to why I put this program together and how it’s different. I was encouraged to undertake this project by a very close friend and business associate who had undergone this training regime, the training that I developed. It improved his life immeasurably. He went on to open his own business. He’s now the president and CEO of his own sales firm in the real estate industry. He encouraged me, actually he hounded me to put together this for others, for the average sales person out there, for the average person for that matter who wants to excel, who wants to enjoy a better life.
Well in our conversation with my friend the first thing I thought was, gosh the market’s flooded with this sort of thing. There are self-help tapes and self-help books and how to sell and how to fix your marriage and how to lose weight and virtually everything else. My quest in researching all of the other projects that are available out there, all of the other courses and tapes and books, I really wanted to know, I had to know if anyone else understood the most effective and efficient way to sell. My conclusion was no. Consequently I undertook this project.
The reason I believe in it is because the first thing I did was to go out and I purchased all of the self-help tapes, all of the sales-related books and courses, everything on the market I could get my hands on. I read them all, I listened to them all, I followed their procedures and each one frankly had something very positive about it, each one had something good going for it. But it was obvious, it was painfully obvious that those books and courses and tapes were lacking and I believe they were lacking for lack of actual experience of the authors. Courses, tapes and books that I read and listened to and experienced, they were based on interviews, good interviews; they were based on theory, good theory; they were based on academia; some were based on conjecture and abstract principles.
Moreover though, and most importantly, I had no proof. I had no proof that they worked. They didn’t work for me. And I did not find as I experienced all of these, and I spent a great deal of time with them all, I could not be positive that any of these books or courses or tapes were based on actual experience of the authors. I wasn’t convinced that they worked and none of them, none of them included the principles and methods that I have to offer, the principles and methods that actually made me a millionaire and millionaires of many of those that I’ve trained.
Included in the materials for this course, as a matter of fact on the cover of this course, you will see proof of the effectiveness of my system. I included W-2s for the last several years to prove to you the effectiveness of this course, of my system. My income has reached multiple seven figures annually. I earned it through applying this sales system that I’m now teaching you. So when I speak you can literally take it to the bank that I know what I’m talking about.
This course is also very different for many other reasons and I emphasize the difference in this course that we’re now undertaking and the others, not to malign my competition, but to give you the benefit of successful actual experience. That’s the reason I put this course together, that’s the reason it’s on tape and that’s the reason you’re listening to it because it’s different, because it contains the successful difference. It has the successful difference contained in it.
The other follows out there tell you how you should be or what you should do but they don’t tell you how to be or how to do. As an example the others authors out there, when speaking with respect to sales, they all tell us be confident during a sale; you must be confident. Well no kidding. And then they go on to something else. Well okay. What does that mean? What is confidence? And if you don’t have mastery of confidence how do you gain mastery? In fact how do you develop confidence at all if you’re not a confident person and then how do you use it in a sale, perhaps the most important thing? I will teach you all of these things.
Also very importantly, and very differently than the other programs out there, during this course you will hear actual tape recordings of sales conversations between my selling stars and their clients and prospects. You will listen to recorded sales conversations recorded by the super sellers themselves, by the selling stars implementing this very system covering the entire spectrum of sales from cold calling right up to the buyer writing the check for the purchase. You will hear what multi-million-dollar salesmen sound like in an actual sales circumstance.
Haven’t you ever wondered what do these big shots really sound like? What do these big shots think and what do they say to make the sale? Why are they so successful? You will learn what they think and what they say and what brings about their success. You will hear actually tape recordings of sales, what multi-million dollar salesmen say. It will also provide a window into what they think. You will learn for yourself what they think, not only how they think.
Another important differentiation: many of the other authors out there say, “Well you must think like this during a sale” but they don’t know how to tell you how to think like this. I’m going to give you the “how to think” during a sale. You will listen to these super sellers actually at work in circumstances selling. You will hear what they say, you will know what they think and once again you will know why they succeed. You will learn for yourself how these people implement this sales system that you are about to learn. You will understand what makes them and can make you a superstar.
In fact, most of this course will involve how and what to think as the superstars do. You will actually be privy to the conversations of the stars that earn six figure incomes. This is real; the fellows who earn $500,000, $600,000, $700,000 a year or more. Even a few fellows you will listen to that earn over a million dollars a year every year. I will present these people to you, some of them broke, some of them financially destitute when they came to my company. They went through the training, they applied that which was taught to them and many of them rose to six figure incomes their first year.
You will also hear their personal stories. You will hear how they changed their lives, how they learned to earn more money than they ever dreamt of. You will hear a number of real-life experiences which will give you insight into this sales system. All of these fellows realized their dreams to some degree. Some of them rose through the ranks to top management. Some of them, many actually, went on to head their own companies. They gained the respect and admiration of their peers, their subordinates and their superiors. They enjoy the finer things in life as a result. They have financial security. They own beautiful homes, they take first-class vacations and their children attend the best private schools. They have the peace of mind that goes along with financial security.
I think it’s important to give you further background with respect to how this system developed. It developed at the Kinlaw companies through selling joint venture participations in high-risk, tax advantaged oil and gas participations, in terms of sales to investors of such participations, the largest in the world. Our sales are considered to be the toughest type of sales in the sales world by those on the outside. To the average salesperson, to those who have never experienced this training or applied this training I’m sure that the concept of calling people on the telephone and selling them a $25,000 to a $200,000 participation in a high-risk oil drilling deal would seem impossible but we enjoy success all day, every day. Annual sales revenue in the scores of millions is not uncommon.
Now imagine for you if I can teach you the same techniques, the same sales methods, the same how to sell we practice at my companies I would dare say whatever you’re selling would be easier by comparison. This is a complete sales system. It works. It works for any product and with your resolve and with your dedication to learning the system and applying the system it will bring you riches. Again, and at the risk of being redundant, only those methods and procedures and techniques that survive the natural selection process in a sophisticated sales organization are presented in this course. And not only did they survive, they thrived proving successful time after time, day after day, year after year.
You will learn those here. I’m not going to teach you anything that doesn’t work for sure. It must have worked for me or I will not present it to you and it’s fun. I’ll make a point of that here. There’s nothing difficult about this course. It’s fun. The exercises, the homework if you will, the mental preparation that will be required of you you will enjoy. It’s not an arduous process; quite the contrary it’s a ball. And when you put it into practice and when you see the changes it makes in your life and in your career and in your peace of mind you will agree with me. I will teach you how to be a star seller. I have taught many. I will take tremendous gratification in your success.
Let’s discuss what I have to offer you. Let’s summarize the course. First you will learn what a super salesperson is and then you will learn how to become one. As you become a super salesperson at that point, and only then, will I teach you how to sell step-by-step. Sales don’t make a super salesperson; a super salesperson makes sales. So you’re going to become a super salesperson first, then I will teach you how to sell. I will also introduce you to the very important concept of persona which incidentally is an outward personality and the elements that make up a star seller’s persona.
Then we will take that persona and instruct you as to how to use it step-by-step to sell. You will learn how to motivate yourself and how to maintain that motivation. You will learn proper and effective goal setting including structuring your day right down to each minute. You will learn also how to role play and reverse the roles, two very fabulous techniques. You will learn how to use your tape recorder to evaluate and perfect your performance. Additionally you will learn expert cold calling from the experts and finally closing the sale from the experts.
Naturally the important phrase in all of this is the “how to.” I’ve said many times in this introduction the other authors say you should; I will teach you how. It will take concentration on your part, it will take commitment on your part and it will take your effort although as I’ve said there’s nothing hard in this course. If there is anything at all hard it’s just a little hard. However there’s nothing in here that will do the work for you either. There are no magic words that are going to mesmerize your buyer into purchasing from you. There’s nothing mystical or top secret. This is a very simple, complete sales system that has proven effective over a long period of time. It was developed over that 18 years I’ve been talking about. Trial and error, methods, sales techniques and sales procedures that are effective were kept and cultivated; the rest were thrown away.
Obviously I have said some very strong things in this introduction and I will prove them to you, I will live up to what I say but you must do your part. You must learn the system and you must apply the system. And notably the system actually evolved in a sequence and now is designed in a sequence and it’s an important point. You may listen to the tapes as many times as you wish from beginning to end, just about everybody does. They get the series and they listen to them all the way through. But when you sit down in earnest to learn it and to begin using it, to begin changing, learn one section of the course at a time and as we understand and participate in that section we’ll move on to the next.
I’ll be right with you the whole time. It is important that we go from A to B not A to C. Take each part in sequence as it comes. Also, we’re going to observe certain principles with each other and with the world. We’re going to be fair. We’re going to be fair with each other; we’re going to be fair with our customers and our comrades. We’re going to moral in the sales world and we’re going to be ethical. Those principles in the sales arena will stand us in good stead for the long term. Work hard, apply the system and it’ll work for you.
Now a comment and please don’t take this to be condescending. This is with all due respect to your present position in life, your abilities and your success to this point but it is a warning. I’m compelled to tell you about the three things, the three reasons that this course might not work for you and they’re the same three reasons that someone coming to the Kinlaw companies would not benefit from the training regime that they experience. And here again, once again, I’m speaking from experience. There’s no conjecture here or anywhere else in the course.
The first reason you might not succeed at mastering this course, the first reason you might not master the simple and fun procedures that are involved, well you might not be smart enough, plain and simple. But that’s actually a rarity. I’ve only run across a few people in my entire career that were not smart enough to learn and apply this simple system.
The second reason you might not succeed is lack of “want to” and “want to” is my phrase for “deep motivation.” “Want to” is something that gnaws at you. You really must have a deep desire for a better life. You must want and desire the admiration of your peers. You must want the peace of mind that financial security brings. You must want the respect and admiration of your customers. I can’t make you “want to”. I will motivate you. I will relate a number of motivational stories during this course, fascinating ones, all very true and all very uplifting. However that type of motivation is always transient. The “want to” I speak of must be something that comes from your heart, from your gut. It makes you want to succeed in life.
The third and final reason this course might not work for you, that this course might not change your life, that this course might not increase your income is the “it’s too simple” attitude. And once again I emphasize the simplicity of the course right up front. You will agree with me it’s simple as we begin the nuts and bolts. Don’t believe however that because of the degree of simplicity this system was designed for someone oh not quite as smart as you or not quite as experienced as you are or gosh I’ve listened to this thing from front to back, I’ve heard all the excerpts from the sales tapes, I can do that, I can emulate those sales people. It’s not necessary for me to go through these mental exercises, to do this homework.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard that last excuse and it’s a killer. Don’t fool yourself. Indulge the process, indulge the system, do as you’re asked, do as the training requires and you will be successful. You bought this course to change, to become more successful. That’s why you paid the top dollar for the top training is because you want to be on top. The fellows I spoke of earlier that make the big money, they didn’t get on top just by going through the system and hoping the system would magically take care of them. They have to apply it. They work hard for what they achieve. I will tell you and, more importantly, they will tell you that no amount of work without this training, the training they received, and without their application of this training would have brought them the same financial security that they realize with the training.
This is the exact training that my superstars and those in other fields that I have trained utilize and benefit from every day. The mental exercises we will experience…and they’re fun, they’re derived from the behavioral sciences, they’re proven. Behavioral scientists have been successfully using these techniques for purposes other than sales for years and years very effectively. The balance of the training actually evolved through direct experience. I look very forward to this. I’m very proud of it and I hope you will join me at the end of this course in saying that this is the best sales training that you’ve ever experienced and the best thing you’ve ever spent your money on and you will be glad that you did.
Now before we begin the actual training I will close this introduction with a true story of my first experience in the sales world. It’s a humorous one. This story illustrates the importance of learning the how to of selling, in other words the difference between success and failure.
[Track 2]
When was your first sales experience? Mine was in junior high school. I saw a very good friend who was displaying all the trappings of success which was consistent with a well-to-do 16-year-old kid. He was driving a new car, sporting the latest in fashion and had the eye of practically every girl in the school. I approached him about his new-found fortune and I inquired as to how he attained it. I was somewhat apprehensive as to the answer I might receive because, after all, this was the 60s. However, rather indignantly he looked down his nose at me and he said, “Why, sales of course.” It turned out that he was selling Fuller Brush products door-to-door.
Well through my continued insistence he introduced me to his area manager. After all I wanted these things too. After a one-hour training session and about a 15-minute pep talk I was now a full-fledged Fuller Brush salesman. The area manager identified my territory for me on a city map. It was the neighborhood nearby my home and he sent me on my way to sell Fuller Brush products. I embarked on my new career with visions of sugar plums dancing in my head. As I began I went door-to-door in the evening, daydreaming about my shiny new car that I would buy and how impressed my girlfriends would be and my peers when I drove to school for the first time. That was the purpose of this job, to earn enough money to buy a new car.
I knocked on the first door. “Who is it?” a voice replied from the other side unopened. Well, in a naïve, young, energetic voice I responded, “Fuller Brush.” [Laughs] Well the voice from the other side responded, “We don’t need any brushes, go away!” This was quite different than I expected but I pressed on. I rang the doorbell at the next house. Again from behind an unopened door a lady’s voice resounded, “Who is it?” I replied in what I thought to be a more manly voice, “Fuller Brush.” She said, “Go away, we’re eating dinner!” The third and fourth houses were very much the same.
However at the fifth house a lady weighing considerably more than I, sporting hair rollers and a hair net, dressed in a floor-length cotton robe imprinted with small pink flowers all supported by well-worn flat cotton slippers actually opened the door, at least to the extent that the sliding chain lock would allow. She peered through the approximate four inches of space between the door and the door facing and said, “What do you want?” while I shaking with my biggest smile stated, “Fuller Brush.” She clenched her teeth and she said, “Young man, can’t you see that my porch light is not on?” and with that slammed the door squarely in my face.
I had just been formally and unceremoniously rejected for the first time in my business career, a business career with a term of less than an hour at this point but this incident brought on a deluge of feelings with which I was most unfamiliar and most uncomfortable. I was dejected, discouraged then suddenly disillusioned. I went out and I sat on the curb under a dim street light and I took stock. This sales job wasn’t easy and I thought it would be. As a matter of fact at least to this point it was hurtful. Everyone I approached not only had not purchased anything, they wouldn’t even look at what I had to sell and they were downright rude.
I was dejected, disillusioned and discouraged and I did not believe that sales were for me. I reflected on my friend’s success in selling these products and what my manager had said during his pep talk, you know the usual sorts of things that uplift a young fellow before he goes out to sell and really I’d only just begun, that was only five houses. So I picked myself up, dusted myself off and regained my positive attitude. I boldly approached the next door, the sixth door. 61 doors later [laughs] I again sat on the curb dejected, discouraged and disillusioned once again. I now believed that I could not sell the product or the product itself did not sell or this whole thing had been a fluke for my friend or perhaps he was a natural salesman.
As I made my way home the shiny new car I had daydreamed about at the beginning of the evening was now far out of reach, even more so than it was before I began this sales job. As I arrived home I called my friend and I related my first experience to him. I was seeking something from him to re-encourage me, to make me feel better, to tell me that perhaps I was doing it incorrectly and he could help me. Well that wasn’t the case. He told me that no one said it would be easy and that he had a great evening selling over a thousand dollars worth of Fuller Brush products.
With that I hung up the phone and concluded that sales was not for me. I called my manager to tender my resignation. Much to my surprise the manager told me that he was expecting my call and he knew what I was going to say. He told me it was his practice to allow his new salesmen to be beaten up on the fields of sales, on the battlefields of business. That always resulted in their becoming trainable he said. I reluctantly agreed to meet him the next evening at the same houses where I’d been rejected just hours before. Tomorrow evening he was going to show me how to sell these products. The “how to” is the important phrase here.
My manager arrived at the prescribed time, parking and emerging from a brand new Cadillac. I was also impressed that he was wearing a tie. We shook hands and he said, “Buck up young man. We’re about to learn how to make some money. Why don’t we start right here?” Well “right here” was directly in front of house number five, the same house that the rotund lady had slammed the door in my face just 24 hours ago as rudely as can be done. As we walked up to the porch steps my heart skipped a beat when I noticed the porch light was off. I said nothing.
My manager was standing in front of me and I was comfortable with that. He knocked on the door and, just as the night before, the door lurched open with a sudden halt as it reached the link to the sliding chain lock. The next thing that happened amazed me. As the lady peered over the chain my manager said, “Free gift from Fuller Brush” before she had a chance to speak. With that he produced a 39-cent potato brush used to wash potatoes prior to cooking. The lady said, “Oh okay.” She closed the door, removed the chain, opened it wide and said, “Please come in, have a seat.”
We all sat on the sofa in the den. My manager quickly and cleverly evaluated her needs. He spoke to her in a warm and inviting voice inquiring as to her occupation, that of her husband, the number of family members in the home, their ages, upcoming birthdays and anniversaries of friends and other relatives outside the home, other customers. During this very casual and friendly conversation my manager was doing his job; he was gaining intelligence for the impending sale and man the sale did come. In 40 minutes flat he took the lady page by page through a colorful photo catalog and he sold her $57 worth of shoe, tooth, hair, nail, cleaning and clothing brushes.
He wrote out the order ticket, asked for a check and promised delivery within six weeks. She gladly tendered the check and pleasantly bid him “good evening.” I was very impressed that when he asked for the check he didn’t hesitate. That was part of the process. She expected to pay for the products and he expected to be paid even though delivery was sometime in the future. As I say, she handed him the check and very pleasantly said, “Goodnight.” I was ecstatic! My manager had shown me “how to” sell these particular products. We went door-to-door for several hours that night with dozens of magic potato brushes. The doors magically opened wide and when the prospects heard “free gift” I witnessed my manager make sale after sale after sale after sale.
With this new knowledge now at my command I believed I had found a gold mine and for that period in my life I was correct. For the next several months I was the top salesman in the entire city for the company. I bought that shiny new car and I very much enjoyed driving it. But driving the car was not nearly as gratifying as being accomplished at selling, being number one in the company. The contentment that I experienced even as a very young man was very comforting indeed. I knew from that point forward, or I thought from that point forward, I could sell anything.
I relate this true story to you for one reason: to illustrate there exists a “how to” for every product, indeed all products. I’m not suggesting a free gift is the answer to star selling. It’s simply one example that worked for this product. It might not necessarily be the same for heavy machinery as it is for Fuller Brush products but some of the principles are very similar if not identical. Before the manager in the story showed me how to sell Fuller Brushes my performance was abysmal. I was constantly and rudely rejected, became discouraged to the extent that I believed that the sales profession was to embrace only those who couldn’t get a real job.
Huh, man was I wrong! Sales professionals make the world go around. All good CEOs and corporate chairmen are sales pros. They themselves sell their ideas, they sell their strategies and plans and most of all they sell their products to us. Every business on our planet involves sales. Whether it’s Joe Bob’s Automotive Body Repair or a Fortune 50 company, those that excel make a conscious effort to sell once again their ideas, their plans, their strategies, themselves and most of all their products. Whether it’s toothbrushes or satellites, gold or gravel you show me a company, any company, without sales and I will show you a bankrupt company.
The course that we’re about to embark on together will teach you proven effective methods for developing the “how to” not only for a product but for any product. You can sell anything. This course will teach you the how to develop your own “how to’s.” I guarantee if you learn this course you will become a selling star as well as a more content and wealthier individual. Let’s get to work.
[Track 3]
Now finally we begin the training to make you a star seller. Now remember, we’re going to make you a star seller first and then use that to sell. Our objective in this section on self-preparation is to build your persona and recall, the persona is the outward personality. We wish to build your persona into that of a polished, confident, enthusiastic, empathetic individual. In other words, the ideal personality you wish you to project.
The techniques we are about to undertake may sound like something out of a psychology class. However, this is exactly the training that made my super sellers at my company. Stick with me through this section because it works for everyone who tries it. In military terms, if you will, it would be considered a large part of the basic training required at my companies and it’s required in this training.
In developing a super persona your imagination and your preparation are necessary. You have to work with me on this. We must not only plan the mechanics of selling when we’ve accomplished the persona, we must plan who we will be during the sale and that’s what we’re doing now. The vast majority of people in sales walk into a sales situation with no plan beyond their first sentence. They don’t know what will occur during the sales process much less who they will be during the sales process; they just hope for the best. As I said in the introduction sales don’t make a star seller. It’s the star seller who makes the sales.
You and I will now begin making you a star. The self-preparation, planning who we will be during the sale, is the most important type of the many types of preparation we’ll be discussing throughout this course. Make a mental note of this now. Our sales persona consists of three elements: enthusiasm, confidence and empathy all of equal importance. We will work on each element in sequence.
Here in Texas we have a saying for preparing and I will probably use it a lot as we go through here, “we’re gettin’ ready.” We get ready to go to dinner, we get ready to go to dinner, we get ready to buy a house and we get ready to go to work. Developing a star persona is, simply put, self preparation or gettin’ ready to be the person we wish to be in order to sell, the person that’s the most effective. A great deal of this gettin’ ready involves exercising thought control to place one’s self in a proper state of mind, a proper state of emotion to sell, actually consciously controlling our thoughts to maximize our performance. We will literally think ourselves to success.
First, what is a star seller? He or she is continually successful at selling, earns a lot of money and their buyers along with the rest of us perceive them to be enthusiastic, confident and empathetic. But what makes those guys or gals so good at selling? Some of those guys make several hundred thousand or several million dollars a year. Are they smarter than the rest of us? Do they have a secret potato brush? Are they luckier? No. They don’t have a potato brush and luck is for lottery winners. And if the truth be known many of them actually are not particularly bright.
The answer as to why the big producers are where they are is they think. They make a conscious effort to think certain thoughts which I will teach you prior to and during the sales process; not complicated or highly intellectual thoughts by any means, certainly not anything that could be misconstrued as brilliant. Merely simple statements to themselves in their mind’s voice and pictures, visualizations in their mind’s eye that drives them to glory.
Let’s first review the characteristics of a star seller and then learn a few simple techniques for developing and using those characteristics. Every great salesman has a certain persona. We all have a persona for that matter but a super seller has a specific persona. The concept of persona, to give you some background if you don’t already know, was developed by a psychologist, a fellow named Dr. Carl Jung. In Jungian terms we all have an outward personality, a personality that we project. That’s the person that we want people to believe we are.
Now beneath the persona we all have problems and insecurities and imperfections but those have no place in the sales arena. The first component of a super salesman’s persona is enthusiasm. If you’re basically an enthusiastic person this will come more easily to you. If being enthusiastic however is not your strong suit you may have to apply yourself more vigorously.
Regardless of your personal level of enthusiasm and irrespective of your familiarity with the subject matter, pay attention. Now stay with me on this. Super salesmen are enthusiastic and it’s not the type of enthusiasm that could be displayed by a four-month-old puppy that’s all tongue and feet but the mature enthusiasm that we all develop and we gain control of and then we exercise during a sale because we have learned how to develop and maintain it.
Enthusiasm in sales is the fuel, it’s the energy that compels us to do the best we can every time we engage in any aspect of the sales process. It’s an intellectual and an emotional state that is strictly fun; it’s a fun state of being. It drives us from day, from prospect to prospect. Enthusiasm is always a positive intellectual and emotional state of existence. Enthusiasm is exclusively reaching for the brass ring. Enthusiasm actually compels us to believe that the next prospect will buy even though the last ten did not. It allows us to use our imagination to develop our own how to’s, to devise new approaches and different presentations.
Well this all sounds great doesn’t it? So how do we develop this enthusiasm and then what do we do with it? Well the neat thing is we all have some degree of enthusiasm in us, it’s within us all. However we must all develop control over it. We must develop the ability to call on our enthusiasm when we must. We will learn how to engage it or just bring it to the surface to enjoy feeling it. Now that’s the tricky part, gaining control.
The first step in developing control over our enthusiasm is to practice a simple and pleasurable thought control exercise from the behavioral sciences. Again all of the thought control methods and techniques that we will utilize from time to time, that I will teach you, they come from the behavioral sciences. These methods have been effectively employed by behaviorists for decades for purposes other than sales.
Our purpose is to clarify our goals by developing our enthusiasm and then engage our enthusiasm in order to actualize our goals. To borrow a phrase from the old Bob Newhart Show, Bob Hartley, the psychologist in the sitcom, would have his patients get in touch with one thing or another. Well we’re going to allow ourselves time to get in touch with our enthusiasm, an integral part of our sales persona. Buyers buy from people with champion personas. That’s what we will build here in very short order.
This is our first thought control exercise in the development of the star seller’s persona. Now for this exercise allow yourself 30 minutes a day to daydream. Schedule 30 minutes of quiet time every day. This time is for you. Don’t feel guilty about it. Many of us take time out for personal pleasures and the work’s in the back of our head and the assignments that we must accomplish and the sales that we have to get through. Don’t allow that to happen.
This is 30 minutes a day only and it’s time for you; don’t feel guilty about it. It will prove to be the most bountifully productive time you spend during the day. Plan everything else around it. Schedule 30 minutes in a place you can be physically comfortable, free from distraction: no telephones ringing, no pagers, no email or voicemail, certainly no radio or TV, no interruptions of any kind if at all possible; preferably a place where you can recline and close the blinds or curtain, dim the lights, loosen your tie and kick back. Close your eyes. Be as comfortable as you physically can.
Now imagine and mentally picture those things you wish to accomplish in the long term. Material things at this point are perfectly acceptable. For instance, if at some point you wish to own a very large home on a manicured seven-acre lawn daydream about it. See yourself in this movie of your mind. Place yourself in the daydream, see yourself there. Stand in the doorway of this magnificent home or sit in the study. See yourself roaming the grounds. Or rather if you wish to be a cash millionaire or assuming you are a cash millionaire and you want to multiply that, imagine an increase in your holdings and how it would make you feel. If on the other hand your dream is to own a summer home at the beach or a ski cabin in the mountains, imagine those things.
See yourself enjoying those things. Allow yourself to enjoy this exercise. This is your goal structuring time. It’s only 30 minutes out of the day and it’s for you. Be selfish about it. Enjoy it. Your thing may be recognition by your peers or superiors or subordinates at the office. If this is the case, place yourself, envision yourself on a stage with an audience full of these people and imagine you’re receiving the Number 1 Sales Award for the year or for the next two years or for the next five years for that matter. Actually envision yourself on the stage. Feel the weight of the plaque you are receiving. Hear yourself delivering your acceptance speech.
If otherwise providing your family and your children the finer things in life, giving your children the wonders of the world, if that’s what excites you, if that’s your ultimate goal picture that during this period of time and picture it in detail in your mind’s eye. See your children attending the finest colleges. Imagine their dress as they occupy the campus of your preferred Ivy League school or picture them traveling Europe. See them on the French Riviera or strolling the Champs-Élysées. Picture in great detail in your mind’s eye. Be sure to see your children, see their faces, your family in your mind’s eye in the setting of your goal.
Now listen up! Here’s where the control part comes in. Please pay attention. Do not allow negative thoughts to enter this daydream. If a thought such as, “Oh I will never be able to accomplish these things, why torture myself? The rich get richer and I don’t” if such negative things attempt to come into your mind, such garbage thoughts, push them out and the way you do this effectively is to envision your daydreams, your goals in great detail. You can block the negative thoughts by thinking of your goals in detail.
For instance, assuming our first example, if your goal is to own the large sprawling home picture the detail of that home with yourself standing on the porch or in the doorway or wherever you want to be. Picture it in detail, picture the home, the color of the shutters around the windows, the pattern of the Spanish marble on the floor, the shape of the swimming pool, the number of the tiers in the lawn, you get the point. The more detail you incorporate in your goal structure, the finer the detail, the more it will be ingrained in your subconscious as a goal and the negative thoughts, the garbage thoughts as I call them, will be eliminated before they begin.
And a comment on garbage thoughts. Whatever you want to do you can accomplish. I’m an excellent example of that and so are the people that I’ve trained heretofore. This simple exercise will increase your ability to focus, to control your thoughts and actualize your goals. The richest men I have known who earn their riches from sales have all had apprehensions before, during and sometimes after a big sale. It was their ability to a man to stay focused, to maintain their enthusiasm that made them effective. So for now allow yourself, convince yourself, believe that you will sell your way to achieving your goals, your dreams. If you can dream it, you can do it. That’s from the great Walt Disney. He said, “Remember, this whole thing started with a mouse.”
Continue this exercise for a full 30 minutes every day. Perhaps set a timer or an alarm to alert you when time’s expired so you need not be concerned with the passage of time during your 30 minutes. Do not let your mind wander from picturing in detail your dreams and thereby structuring your goals. This is a concentration technique. Remember, the more foreboding a garbage thought that attempts to enter your mind the more positive detail you must include in your mind’s eye to prevent it.
Practice this exercise correctly and it’s an easy thing to do. It’s actually fun. And sometime during that 30 minutes you will feel an increase of inner strength, an inner warmth of physical and emotional comfort, a secure sense that you will make it happen, that you will realize your dreams and your goals. Perhaps this feeling will be slight or fleeting at this early point in the training. However its duration will increase as you continue to practice this exercise on a daily basis.
You will acquire a belief nevertheless that your daydream, your goals can and will be realized whether you experience the inner strength and comfort for 30 seconds or the full 30 minutes. You have at least for a short time called up and controlled your enthusiasm by thinking certain thoughts. You have taken control of how you feel. You have used your intellect to control your emotions. Repeat this exercise daily even on weekends. It has a compounding, a cumulative effect. I don’t recommend participating in this exercise at bedtime. It has a tendency to keep you awake.
This particular combination of daydream and goals are long term. Now keep that in mind. You can shift them, you can change your goals, you can modify your goals at any time you wish. These are your goals, your daydreams. Enjoy them. They will be your future. After indulging in this exercise once a day for just a few days you will know, you will be positive you can make your dreams and goals a reality. By executing this simple exercise we have gotten in touch with our enthusiasm. That’s what you’re feeling. And as we continue to practice this exercise we will become more and more adept at engaging and utilizing our enthusiasm.
Each and every time we begin a sales process we are going to call up this enthusiasm. We will convey this intellectual and emotional state of enthusiasm to each and every prospect that we meet or that we speak to on the telephone. We must project this enthusiasm. The subtle inner excitement that participating in this daily dream goal-setting exercise will emanate from you as you conduct your business [sic]. We will convey this intellectual and emotional state to each prospect we come in contact with. It will be part of our persona. Remember the persona? That’s what we’re working on. Of course you will not walk around automatically exuding [laughs] enthusiasm all day. You must re-engage it from time to time.
Now unlike oh Superman and his frequent preparatory visits to the phone booth, it’s not practical nor is it effective to go to a quiet place for 30 minutes before each sale although you can quickly scan your long-term dream goals as though you have painted a masterpiece picture and you’re taking a quick look at it. As you go through the day all you need do for an enthusiasm boost, particularly before a scheduled sales presentation, is close your eyes for five seconds and look at your masterpiece in your mind’s eye. Many of my most successful star sellers close their eyes and view their mind’s creation before each and every scheduled sales presentation.
An additional technique to stimulate your enthusiasm is to remind you during the day of your own goals. Surround yourself in your workplace with magazines, photos, catalogs, articles, anything and everything that could remind you of long-term goals. My star sellers’ offices were adorned with everything from photos of their infant children to actual architectural plans of their ultimate dream homes. Obviously it’s a grand leap from where we sit today to accomplishing the goals we have predetermined in our daydreaming.
Later in the course during planning and executing the sale we will endeavor to establish the goals on a daily basis, aspirations that we can accomplish immediately from day-to-day, actually from hour-to-hour. These goals will be designed so that they are simple enough and or small enough so that we can easily achieve them yet important enough so that they will be gratifying, leading us to the realization of our ultimate goals which we practice on a daily basis during this exercise.
As simple as it may sound this exercise works for everyone who practices it. It has a subliminal effect I believe. As you practice this exercise you are impelled to clarify what you want out of life and how much you really want it. Your subconscious and your conscious self will be continually aroused. You will be inspired to specifically direct your actions to achieve your ideal life and this inspiration is your enthusiasm. I practice it daily and have done so for many years and so do the stars that I’ve trained. I love the effect it has on my enthusiasm. Try it for yourself. Practice it. Use it. It’s a fun thing to do and it’ll make a significant change.
As a matter of fact let’s listen to some people who have changed. Let’s listen in on a few actual sales conversations recorded by the super sellers themselves and a couple recorded by salesmen that are not quite of the caliber of a superstar. These sales conversations will all be in reference to an investment in oil drilling. The content and the technical aspects of the conversations are unimportant to you. Presently we are working on the how to say not the what to say, that will come later. We will listen to a few different styles of enthusiasm.
The first star seller we will listen in on comes to me as a personal trainer. When I met him he was literally sweating out a living. He joined the firm and strictly adhered to the training. He rose to be the top salesman in the company. He earned mid-six figures his first year with the firm, bought his family a beautiful new home and invested his money wisely. To his credit he worked hard and continually practiced this training and his enthusiasm evolved. He’s one of the rare cases in which enthusiasm almost by itself brought about his success. As you will hear as we listen to this actual sales tape he is not particularly an eloquent speaker nor is he a polished fellow but he is wonderfully enthusiastic. Let’s take a listen. Shhhh.
[Track 4]
Seller: Okay. Look before we even open up the package you might recall when we first spoke I told you it was a minimum position of $23,000 and based on our success very possible returns back to a fella $70,000 to over $100,000 and give him a full active write off against his active income. You recall that?
Prospect: Uh-huh.
Seller: Also bear in mind it’s oil and gas. We might come out here and drill a dry hole. Okay if we were to do that you’d lose your investment funds to a full tax deduction also. However we don’t believe that’s gonna happen. We are now six out of seven in the Gulf of Mexico and the reason for us even to be out here utilizing this 3-D seismic, Chevron has drilled 54 wells of which 50 of the wells have been successful for those fellas.
Prospect: Good.
Seller: Okay. That’s great. As you open up the package you’ll see on the right-hand side…
Prospect: Uh-huh.
Seller: …you’ll see right behind…did you take a look at it before?
Prospect: Yes.
Seller: Did you see it? Okay. What we’re looking for in the right-hand side Leroy you’ll see a conversion table.
Prospect: Yes.
Seller: Okay. Go ahead and pull that out and put that aside, we’ll get back to that in a moment. Right behind the conversion table you’ll find what’s called a “terra stat letter.”
Prospect: Right.
Seller: Okay go ahead and pull that out. And what this is, this is a…we hire a third party engineering expert to come out here and do a reserve evaluation even before we drill the wells. Okay so go ahead and put that aside.
Prospect: Okay.
Seller: Now in the left-hand side of the folder you’re gonna find a memorandum with the maps attached to it. That’s the heart of the project.
Prospect: Yes.
Seller: Okay. That’s again why we’re out here and we’ll get back to that in a moment. That’s very important to us. So put that aside and for now grab your conversion table.
Prospect: Okay.
Seller: Now this is an example of how it works. What it does it converts barrels of oil into dollars and cents. Look over to the left-hand side of that top table, you’ll see where it says production rate.
Prospect: Uh-huh.
Seller: Right below you’ll see where it says production rate you’ll see where it says barrels per day.
Prospect: Right.
Seller: Now Leroy our goal out here is to put these wells in-between 200 and 1,000 barrels of oil per day, that’s our goal. To give you an example our offshore number one is in production, it’s been averaging in the last seven days between 900 and 1,000 barrels of oil per day okay. Look at it conservatively, look at 750 barrels per day. That will get it done. Look over for a fella who has a full unit position in the project, we’ll keep the numbers nice and round. Okay one unit position, a well even averages 750 barrels of oil per day what that means back to a fella is $3,000 a month. Do you see that? Okay. Now the way we’re structured in the Gulf is very standard okay. A fella will receive $3,000 a month until he just about has his full investment capital back to him and at that point that’s when we’re gonna back in and split the profits with you 50-50. We do not share in any of the profits or the sales from oil and gas until you just about have your capital back, all our partners okay. At that point you’re looking at after conversion. You see that?
Prospect: Uh-huh.
Seller: Of course at that point you’re in the profit stage at this point. And even looking at that point you’re still looking at over $1,500 a month back to you, it’s about a 40% annual rate of return. However you’re gonna deduct that $46,000 investment against your active income 100%. Does that make sense to you?
Prospect: Uh-huh.
Seller: Okay more importantly Leroy, drop down and you’ll see where it says total return conversion table. Look over to the left-hand side, you’ll see where it says cumulative production and look at 2 million barrels and I’m gonna say that’s a conservative figure. Two million barrels we have exceeded…Mr. Mark Mills, that’s the fellow with the Terra Stat letter, his reserve evaluation, we have exceeded his letter all in our six successful wells. We have found in-between 2.2 and 6 million barrels. We have exceeded his reserve evaluation in all six projects that we drilled out here, the successful wells. Two million barrels, that will get it done. If we can recover that conservatively you’re still looking at…a fella’s looking at over $150,000 back to him on a $46,000 tax deduction. Okay, do you see how that works?
Prospect: Uh-huh.
Seller: Okay go ahead put that aside and I’ll show you why we believe we can do this. Grab your memorandum with the maps attached to it.
Prospect: Okay.
Seller: Okay and if you turn right into the back or to the front, Figure 1.
Prospect: Okay.
Seller: You’ll see that’s our prospect location. We’re drilling about 2, 2.5 miles off the coast of New Orleans.
Prospect: Right.
Seller: Now real important to us, look over to the left-hand side, you’re gonna see our drill site in the green rectangle.
Prospect: Mm-hm.
Seller: Now real important to us Leroy, our basis for drilling wells out here is we’re drilling in-between and next to non-productive wells that were drilled back in the 50s, 60s and 70s. You see that circle with a slash through it…[fades out].
Did you hear the enthusiasm? I love listening to these actual tape recordings of sales. This man remember he’s the one who came in, made six figures, mid-six figures his first year. He is enthusiastic about life, he’s enthusiastic about his career, he is continually training to improve. A note here: enthusiasm is not always a happy shiny emotion or intellectual state necessarily. The fella you just listened to developed his enthusiasm to the extent that in his mind he never spoke to a prospect that wasn’t actually a buyer.
Now let’s listen in on a different style. The next fella we’re going to listen to I’m very proud to call my friend. This man is one of the brightest, most intelligent, energetic confident, empathetic and enthusiastic people I have ever had the pleasure to work with. Now I realize that’s a cascade of accolade. This man proved to be a real life rags-to-riches story. He was a corporate engineer with a big firm and due to a takeover he was laid off. And then immediately thereafter he experienced a series of negative events in his life, personal tragedies over which he had no control and he found himself at the bottom. He was without income, he was without a place to live.
When I hired him these facts were unbeknownst to me. However I was very impressed that he was always the first one at the office and the last one to leave. I knew this man was a go-getter. I knew he really anted this to work for him. I could recognize that he had the real want to, the burning deep desire, the want to for a better life. Those things were all true. But another reason, once again that was unbeknownst to me at the time, as to why he was the first to arrive at the office and always the last to leave was because of his reduced financial condition. He was without a car or even bus money and he was too proud to let any of his peers see him walking to or from work.
This great man told me much later that he vowed on everything precious to him that he would never be broke again. He worked hard and easily mastered the training and he eventually rose to the rank of Senior Vice President of the Kinlaw companies. He was number three as a selling star in the company time after time after time, year after year. Let’s listen to this style of enthusiasm. This is someone that you would wish to emulate.
Seller: So here’s what we have. We opened it up on a 20/60 force which is the size of a pencil and it’s screaming out 758 barrels of oil per day, it had 3% water of the total which is probably drilling fluids and a quarter of a million cubic feet of natural gas. So Joe…and you’re getting a memo out today or it went out yesterday stating that we’re gonna start our production levels at about 700 barrels a day which is excellent and at this point, get this, they opened it up George at the level that we were…at the depth we were supposed to be at you know laws of physics, you can only have one maximum you can reach at that point right? Okay they opened it up and it greatly exceeds that. So Joe Kinlaw poses the question to our engineers you know why is that happening and they’ve come back and said well, take a look at the seismic. We were being very conservative with what we thought was a break at this point and just doing reserve estimates on it believing you know that was the total extent of the reservoir. If you’ll look it actually looks like the bright spots are connected and come down to this much larger basin and being that you know like we couldn’t retrieve the uh…remember the core samples, we were believing that was good permeability out of it, as I’m sure Dave spoke to you on it, that we are up here what looks to be at one level and pressures you know that we should have expected to get out of that reservoir instead it looks that we’ve got good permeability possibly connected into this much greater, larger reservoir basin at the bottom than we ever expected to get. And when they calculated the depth at that point it was identical to our initial pressure readings. So that is very good news. Uh you know we still at this point you gotta get long-term production, can’t guarantee what kind of you know future production what all…that it’s really necessarily gonna greatly enhance what we expected but Dave Senor said with the rates and pressures, with this information, we should go higher with the reserve estimate than originally expected. And so that is significant, it’s very good news for you, we have certainly reached if not exceeded our goals at this point and it’s just you know we’re very enthused about it for you. It is dynamite news. Congratulations!…[fades out].
That was a beautiful example of the proper level of enthusiasm, the speech cadence, the voice intonation and I guarantee you that man was consciously thinking about what he was saying and the very next thing he was going to say during the next split-second and how he would say it.
Now there’s a spectrum of enthusiasm that runs of course from low to high. This next fellow pushes the high side. I’m not suggesting that you do not use this method of enthusiasm but certainly not at a constant ebb. This next fellow allowed himself to become carried away. This is a fine line between enthusiastic assertiveness and aggression and we never want to be aggressive. Now let’s listen to this fellow and you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. I believe that there’s a place in every sales conversation for this level of enthusiasm but one must not maintain it for too long because as I said it can become annoying and aggressive and you lose the chance for the sale. Okay let’s listen in on this fellow.
Seller: …invest in stock in Texaco with your broker etc. They don’t call you because you’re a nice guy.
Prospect: They don’t call me at all. I run my own sales.
Seller: Well still people…you don’t invest money because you’re a nice guy. You invest it to make money. And that’s…
Prospect: No I analyze each company and I decide what the risk reward is and then I make the investment and that’s what I’m doing right now. I haven’t analyzed this…
Seller: That’s fine. Analyze it ’til whatever…as long as you need okay.
Prospect: Okay.
Seller: I already told you take all the time you need but the bottom line is if you read everything and it checks out which I know it is, I know it is! There is no logical way that you as an investor, if you’ve got the money okay you can use the tax deductions but more importantly you can handle the profits on a well of…of…a 500-barrel-a-day well will return you $1,400 a month!
Prospect: Yeah that’s…
Seller: Now if you can handle that kind of a monthly income which…can you?
Prospect: I’d love it.
Seller: Okay then that’s what I’m saying. I know that if we get a successful well and make 500 barrels a day that’s what’s gonna happen. And secondarily you’re gonna also at that time still reap the rewards of the tax deduction. So?
Prospect: Okay you’re confident. I’m just not that confident…
Seller: I understand that but that’s what I’m trying to get across to you okay? I understand you’re not that confident but if you come on board okay you’ve got $51,000, whatever, then fine don’t take a unit out. Jump out here, take a shot because it’s only $12,000 up front to drill intent and find the oil. If I go out here and do everything that I say I’m gonna do and make you money the first time out then you can come back and spend money with me. Then you can say hey these guys make money ’cause the bottom line in oil and gas…I mean the best investors that I’ve got, my wealthier clients tell me over, over, over and over again oil and gas is very simple. You gotta go out there and drill it and find it. If you get a well that does 500 barrels a day you’re gonna make X number of dollars. If it does 1,000 you got the…if it’s a dry hole that’s fine you go out…[fades out].
Well obviously that fellow [laughs] was over the top. He was sincere but he stopped consciously thinking about the proper level of enthusiasm. He obviously was not considering the impact of his enthusiasm on the buyer that he was speaking to and unfortunately some parts of it came across as very probably obnoxious. We do not want to do that. So consider that that’s the top of the spectrum, it’s pushing the envelope between the line of assertiveness and aggressiveness. Don’t get quite that close to the line and never continue that type of enthusiasm for a prolonged period of time. As I said, it becomes aggressive and obnoxious.
Now let’s listen to one last excerpt from the other end of the spectrum, from the low end. You will actually sell more if you emulated the fellow that we just listened to rather than the fellow that we’re just going to listen to. Enthusiasm is a very important part of the sale. You combine that with confidence and empathy and you will have the selling persona that will make you a fortune but the proper balance among those elements is necessary and it’s really just common sense. Okay now let’s listen to someone that I do not want you to emulate, that has nothing to offer you except to show you how not to do it. Okay let’s listen in on this fellow. Shhh.
Seller: …showed it to you, it was over towards Templear[14:21???] Bay.
Prospect: Yeah.
Seller: It was out of our normal block…
Prospect: Right.
Seller: …that we went to. Well you know as I’ve always told people somewhere in the career we’re gonna have to drill one out here. At least we got it behind us and out of our way.
Prospect: Oh yeah. That number seven was looking pretty good to me.
Seller: Yeah. It looks very good.
Prospect: Yeah.
Seller: I’d have to say uh it’s back over you know towards uh where we found everything else and the number eight…in fact you’ll get a…as a matter of courtesy you’ll get first preemptive rights on number eight whether y’all decide to do it or not. It’s in-between the one and the three in that same trend.
Prospect: I see, yeah.
Seller: It looks really good. The upside potential could be pretty great because it…there’s a small fault that the geologists don’t think it’s a trapping fault. So if it’s…if they’re correct the upside potential could be close to 3 million barrels. However, for our reserve calculations, we said okay if it is a trapping fault you know what can we expect out of it and they estimate about 2 million barrels.
Prospect: Yeah.
Seller: But it’s right in that same trend, it kinda looks like a beach between one and three.
Prospect: Yeah.
Seller: It’s real easy to see the productive zones, it’s got a lot of well control. That’s one of the big key elements of course…
Prospect: Sure.
Seller: …for a lot of these wells, at least the ones that you’re on…
Prospect: Yeah.
Seller: …is the well control that we have so. Once you get it you know take a look see at it, see what you think. If y’all want to do a half unit it’s certainly there for you.
Prospect: Okay. Well, appreciate that.
Seller: All right. I just wanted to mainly let you know that number one will be back on line next week.
Prospect: All right. Sounds great.
Seller: All right, I’ll talk to you later.
Prospect: Bye.
Seller: Bye-bye.
Okay that’s an example of a lack of enthusiasm. I selected a particularly short excerpt because I didn’t want you to be asleep when I returned. Obviously enthusiasm is something you must work at as is confidence and as is empathy. Enthusiasm is an inner force. It’s based on your desires and your wants. If you haven’t any desires and wants, and that’s hard to imagine, then you won’t have any enthusiasm. The more clearly you see what you really want, your goals, the more clearly you see the path to attainment of what you really want.
Practice your goal clarification exercises daily. Take that 30 minutes and use it. It will make a significant change and you will enjoy it. Keep enthusiasm strictly a fun intellectual and emotional state. Revisit this segment of the tape as many times as you need to get it down. And when you’re selling be cognizant of how your sales enthusiasm is perceived by your buyer. One of my most dear advisors told me that sales enthusiasm very simply put is being in a great mood with a business attitude. Begin the exercise today! Don’t wait! Begin developing and controlling your enthusiasm even if you’re an enthusiastic person. Work on your enthusiasm. It takes work yet it’s very simple.
Now we’re going to combine enthusiasm with our next element of the persona, that of confidence. The confidence section you will very much enjoy also. We’re going to move to confidence now but in the interim or as we move to confidence begin practicing, begin developing and controlling your enthusiasm. It’ll make a big change. Okay let’s go to confidence.
Joe Kinlaw’s Superstar Sales Training Audio Book Disc 2 (Transcript) – https://www.therealmjtheterrible.com/joe-kinlaws-superstar-sales-training-audio-book-disc-2-transcript/
