Okay, I’m back. Now did you hear any empathy on the part of the salesman? Well no. Did you hear the prospect attempting to feel comfortable about the investment? To feel comfortable about the pending purchase? Well, what actually happened, this conversation went on for some time with no improvement. A senior manager of the company contacted this prospect, a star contact of this prospect, and a sale inevitably occurred. The star was able to establish empathy. This particular prospect – all he was looking for was comfort in making the investment and risking the money, and the selling star gave him that comfort. Naturally, he was confident, he was enthusiastic, and he established empathy. At that point, the star turned the sale back over to the salesman that we heard from at first, and I wish for you to hear the wrap-up on the sale. Now recall, we had the salesman that could not establish empathy. One of the senior manager’s called the fellow, established empathy, made him comfortable with the sale, which the prospect wanted anyway. He was the one making overtures to get comfortable. And then the sale was finalized by the fellow, who began the conversation, by the fellow who’s not the star. So let’s listen to just a few seconds of that. You will hear the salesman actually refer to the selling star. The fellow’s name was Brad. Okay. Let’s listen in for the conclusion of this sale. Here we go.
S = Seller P = Prospect
S: Yep, hey Gordon. Just talked to Brad and he’s going to have the CIM, the confidential information memorandum, sent to your house. I didn’t realize there was quite a bit of urgency here. There’s going to be a lot of checks hit the door Tuesday, so if we go over the paperwork Monday, it will get here Tuesday and we’re so close to being fully subscribed and we’ve confirmed on all the units now, but then the units have to be funded, and then we have to get paper and your check hold your position, so what he wants to do is he went down to accounting and got this, going to get the CIM delivered out to your house Saturday, and I’ll give you a call back. Is that fine with you?
P: Yep, that’s fine.
S: Okay. Good deal.
P: Okay, thanks.
Now we’re going to listen in on some real empathy. The next star we will listen in on is an expert at establishing empathy. The customer he is speaking with interestingly enough just drilled a dry hole with us, yet note the empathy, the length, the identification this star has with his customer. The majority of the sales that this star makes is a direct result of his skill in identifying with his customers. This is his strong suit, so be very aware of the empathy. The identification, the link between these two. Okay. Here we go. Listen carefully.
S = Seller P = Prospect
S: I know.
P: To have this first one like this go sour.
S: And the only one that we’ve had go sour.
P: Well, that’s the sad part. That’s really the sad part of it.
S: I just can’t believe it. I’ll tell you, it’s not often that I have clients that we have such a good rapport with, and then to have this happen to you, I feel bad. I’m not supposed to get involved emotionally, but I do feel bad. It’s just terrible.
P: Well, I know what you mean when you say that, but I thought, hell, it was basically the relationship, my enjoyment in talking with you and I thought jeez, this can’t be all bad, you know what I mean?
S: Yeah, I know.
P: Dog gone it, I really thought – well, let’s get on to something good. But as this thing progressed along and they were having – I’ve been reading those daily reports and one thing and another and they were pulling that drill back too many times, and having to clean it and all I’m thinking about in my estimation.
S: I think a lot of that was typical, but where I started wondering what was going on is when we hit the first zone and we had a streaming oil cut, and I have never in my life seen. And we’ve drilled a number of wells. I’ve been here for a couple of years now. I have never seen, that I can recall a streaming oil cut where it turned out that there wasn’t going to be enough production to make a good well. So I got real excited about it, but then it took – it seems to me it took several days before anything happened, so I was starting to get nervous too because I knew that the geological department was going to have their thinking caps on and were analyzing this thing, and they were worried about what they had, and so the information wasn’t coming out fast enough.
P: Okay. Since this happened, have they been able to evaluate it and turn around and look at some of these other projects and say, hey, maybe this one, we ought to take a second look at it before we drill it, or whatever.
S: Well, they have, and probably the thing that we’ve gained the most information from, and of course I’m not the geologist, so I don’t know there may be other reservations that they’ve had, but we did have, to my knowledge, a drill site scheduled directly north of the #6, and obviously that program will not be drilled on that lease site.
P: I am looking at this thing. There’s just so many of them. Dry holes it looks like to me.
S: There really are, and of course most of the dry holes were not the result of hitting a different kind of rock. It was a matter of not being centered properly. Not having 3-D seismic to show them where that reservoir was. Almost, I’d say, probably 90% –
P: You’re using 3-D, not 2-D.
S: No, it’s 3-D. That’s right.
P: Okay.
S: Did you read that article?
P: Yeah. I found it, now would you like that article –
S: I’ve always referred to it as they were literally finding oil by computer before ever drilling, and therefore saving an awful lot of the dry holes.
P: Yeah. What I noticed in looking at this map-like #4, #2, #5, basically their all in line.
S: Yeah they are.
P: #7 is up there in line with the –
S: Yep. They’re all in line and the reason for it –
P: What is the last recourse? Excuse me for interrupting.
S: No, go ahead.
P: I’m kind of curious. Before I lose my train of thought, you know, I’m older than you are and I turn around and I sometimes if I don’t get off what I’m thinking of at the time, I can’t go back to it because I already forgot it.
S: [laughs]
P: So I just want you to understand me on that deal.
S: I do.
P: Anyway. This a –
S: You wanted the last report on #7?
P: Yes.
S: Okay. I have not had an update since we spoke.
P: Okay. Since you talked to me.
S: Right. In fact it was interesting because that show report on finding the oil was not on an official drilling report, and that’s the first time that we’ve got a memo in between drilling reports that reported them finding the oil, so I do think that they’re pretty excited about this. So we’ll have an official drilling report today, and I’m going to assume that since that time, since this would have been yesterday afternoon sometime, they probably, very possibly, have gone all the way to total depth already. Gone through some other zones, so we should have a big fat drilling report later this afternoon on what it’s doing, and then they should begin logging right away.
P: Where are – all right, now we got – I see #7 on this deal. Where is so-called #8 going to be?
S: Okay. Do you see #3 in the center? In the green drill site directly south?
P: Yeah. Yep.
S: That’s it right there. Let me talk a little bit about why 7, 4, 2 and 5 are all in a row. They’re right on the edge of the Bay Martian salt dome, right on sort of on the edge of a, let’s say, an underground mountain. That thing runs directly in a line so every single one of those is right snubbed up against the edge of the salt dome. Okay?
P: Yes.
S: Salt dome is not as it appears as it would just be one big dome. It has several up and down –
P: More or less like a ridge.
S: Yeah. More like a ridge, so there’s several –
P: When we go down into the Smokey’s –
The empathy actually emanated from that conversation. Did you feel the linkup between the buyer and the selling star? That’s what you must achieve. Sincere approximation of the feelings and thoughts of the buyer. Even sometimes in a negative experience, this fellow, the buyer, was coming off a dry hole. He had lost his money, or actually converted it to a tax deduction, but the star seller was right with him and maintained the empathy. That fellow, that buyer, is a long-term client.
Now the next fellow we’re going to listen to – I’m going to add a little levity here – listen to how long this fellow speaks without taking a breath. Remember I told you; don’t let it turn into a lecture because you’ve lost all hope of establishing empathy. I think you’ll get the feel for what’s happening as you listen to this next excerpt. It’s amusing, and bless his heart, he was trying, but he did turn it into a lecture and, of course, sacrificed the sale. Okay, let’s give it a listen.
[Track 2]
S = Seller P = Prospect
S: …about that? You can’t dispute that, that’s a fact. Now what we take is we have enough information so that it is evaluated and we come up with approximately 1.2 million barrels of oil from a conservative estimation in regard to Terostat, a geographical evaluation. Now we take that and we put that with our survey and the three-dimensional survey shows exactly the four sands as you and I looked at it, shows those four major sands that have intense energy returns. The signals there. You can’t do any more than that except drill the oil well.
P: [laughs] Okay.
S: So I got you down for 1/2 a unit.
P: [laughs] Okay.
S: Right? Now give me your social security number.
P: I told you to call me tomorrow morning.
S: Well, I’ll call you tomorrow morning, but you want the 1/2 unit at least, right?
P: No, I’m not convinced.
S: Well what is it, what, well, convince now, what do you need to be convinced? If I haven’t convinced you, I don’t know what I can do except drill the oil well.
P: I don’t know. I uh, as I said, I’m 0 for 3, you know.
S: Okay. If you’re 0 for 3, you’ve got, what you’re going to have to do here, you’re going to have to separate yourself in regard to what has happened and what you see can happen here. There is no way, I know for a fact, there is no way in the information that was ever supplied to you in the wells that you drilled previously. Did you have the quality that you do. I know that.
P: Okay.
S: All right. Right there separates those oil wells from these oil wells. Not to mention the fact of the estimation in regard to the returns out here. Far, far, far different, geologically speaking and historically speaking also. I don’t know where all these other three oil wells were in regard to that, but I do know that I would bet my bottom dollar on it that there was no way that you had any type of reserves that were even close to what we’re talking about today, nor was the area ever described historically with the consistence and production as this has, nor did you have – you may have had oil wells out there in the area that showed the possibility of you making an oil well, but in fact, what we have, the layered cake of sands, where I know that on onshore, depending upon the geological area, you might have 1, 2, 3 different zones of interest, but it would be very hard to prove up in those particular areas, the consistency is what you have in offshore drilling. Now, you take that and then you put the three-dimensional survey with it, and I am putting a lot of credence into it, but you got to understand that Chevron USA put a lot of credence into it, and they’ve had a 93%/94% successful completion rate, so using this type of technology. You got to take Royal Dutch Shell, who spends over $300 million a year, you got Fs on who uses this. Chevron is the largest company that I know of that has the most information in regard to three-dimensional survey, and we have some lead ends or end roads in regard to that. That’s why we’re out here drilling this oil well, and we’re developing this offset acreage as they have developed theirs, and you’ll see what I believe is exactly a situation that’s liken to what has already happened historically, and as far as the evidence of production is concerned and declines, you can see what the oil wells have done out here and, as an example, you can see what 1-1/2 million barrels of oil will do over a 10-year period of time, are 1.2 million. That’s what you’ve got out here. We go and drill and test this oil well. You should see a completion call for it. That’s what you should see. We believe that’s what we will –
[laughs] Okay. In all fairness to that salesman, that was very early in his career with me. He did revisit the training. He did practice the exercises, and he did become a lot better. However, as I said, If you let it turn into a lecture, if you don’t learn to involve the prospect as you are selling, you’re going to lose the sale. Empathy is established from a common experience, and many times, that is simply the sale as it occurs and common experience is an important point here. It has to be common. You’re going to say some things and the prospect is going to say some things. Now, a note here. Remember we’re still working on the “how to say” as it relates to empathy, and moreover to our persona. We will work on the “what to say” in the planning and executing the sale aspect of this course, then you’ll know what to say and how to say it. Okay. I’m going to play for you one more excerpt of what empathy is. I want you to listen to empathy one more time so you can have a good feel for it. Okay. Let’s listen in.
S = Seller P = Prospect
S: I’m with Kinlaw Petroleum Companies here in Dallas, Texas. How are you?
P: No [laughs] I’m okay. I don’t very often get called by a petroleum company.
S: Well, the reason I’m giving you a call, we’re an 11-year oil and gas firm. We are best known for drilling offshore oil and gas wells in the Gulf of Mexico.
P: Is this an investment?
S: This is an investment with offshore drilling. Right.
P: Now, no, sorry. No, I have precious little capital. [laughs] And it isn’t going into offshore drilling.
S: Okay. So you have an aversion to risk at this point.
P: Well, I’m 58 years old. Okay? And I worked really hard, and still do, and I’m into the conservation of capital.
S: Okay. This investment is not for you.
P: I don’t think so, no. I do. I’m heavily invested in risk already anyway.
S: Is that right? What do you like to invest in?
P: Well, I have a modified year horizon and I’ve got about half the portfolio in bonds and about half in, oh, things such as General Electric and several power companies. A couple of Texas power companies by the way, which are not low risk. Texas Utilities, so, you know what they are. And you know their exposures, but it’s done over five years. It’s done and paid for.
S: Okay. What we’ve done here would be offshore –
P: [laughs] I’m not into limited partnerships either.
S: Okay. Well, we’re –
P: …a lot of that. I have a background of being around limited partnerships.
S: Well, we’re structured as a joint venture, and what that allows us to do is, even with a profitable well out here, and with the technology we’re using, 62 wells have been drilled using it. Fifty-six of them worked, so it’s a change of technology. Low is your risk. There probably not as risky as you believe, but the key to this is, a fella that invests $29,000, being a joint venture, can also have the possibility of a $100,000 to $150,000 return, significant, but also gets 100% active tax deduction with that $29,000. For some fellas, that’s a large investment.
P: Let me make sure couple – okay that appeals to a lot of people. Let me share with you, first of all I would not put $29 – I am spread out, what diversified. You with me? I probably have 25 issues. Okay? The $30,000 is too big a percentage to go into any one thing.
S: That’s what all these – when I speak with people on the phone –
P: Are you with me?
S: Oh yeah.
P: I don’t know if you agree with me, but I’m not asking you too. But that’s my approach, okay?
S: In fact, I wouldn’t suggest a fellow put more than 10% .
P: That right. I probably could put $30,000 into it at 10%, but I’m not going to. [laughs]
S: Well, that’s fine. Everybody has a different approach into it.
P: …idea that I do have, I’ve got some money, but there seems to be less than I want.
S: Okay. Well, that’s fine. We have less expensive programs and we darn sure will in the future, and that sounds like it might be something more in line for you. A lower risk program where there’s – but this definitely is not for you. I wouldn’t suggest for a minute – I can’t change your mind or make you write a check anyway.
P: No.
S: You’ve got to like what’s –
P: I gotta like what I see and I gotta –
S: You got to be comfortable with the risk aversion and –
P: And my margin in most of our funds are in IRAs, so my marginal tax rate is still 15%. So what am I doing? If I get 100% write-off. I mean, what does that add to?
S: You can carry it forward.
P: Well, yah, big deal. [laughs]
S: The reason that we drill the wells –
That was beautiful, and it’s a lesson. Don’t wait to establish empathy until you think the prospect is in a buyer posture. This was an initial contact. A cold call if you will. Even though the prospect was fortified behind the castle all and locked behind an iron door, the seller, the star seller was patient and he established empathy within the first 30 seconds of the conversation. The prospect began by saying no, no, no. The star seller yet stayed on his side and established empathy. Establishing empathy is a necessary element of your persona, whether the prospect is buying or not. Don’t wait to begin the establishment of empathy until you think the prospect is giving you buying signals.
Empathy will not always lead your prospect to buy; however, your prospect will buy more times than not if empathy is present. Empathy is an emotional and an intellectual connection with your buyer. You must be astute at eliciting important data from your buyer and instantly, but consciously processing it in order to stay a mental step ahead of your buyer. You need to feel that comes from the feedback.
Empathy naturally occurs among our species. With practice, you can create it. And as you create it, your sales prowess will increase enormously. Think quickly.
[Track 3]
Let’s talk more now about goal setting. Recall earlier in the program, I spoke of daily, easily attainable goals that will propel us to achieving our long term goals. Our dream. You must organize your efforts daily. We must have a vehicle to do that. And this simple goal setting mechanism is it. Look in your workbook under goal setting and follow along with me.
You know, or you have a great idea of the activities you must undertake to make yourself successful. If you’re not the boss, your company, its management or your immediate supervisor has assigned certain quotas or accounts or numbers of calls you must accomplish in a day or a week or a month. But let’s look at it realistically. Let’s look at it for you. You must analyze and determine what is necessary for you to do minute by minute, hour to hour, day to day, week by week to achieve your dreams. Your intellect and your emotions, sort of a heart in head combo.
We’ll tell you what you must do to achieve your dreams. Your long term goals. At my company, many years ago it was necessary to implement a rule. I demanded that every salesman make his first sales call precisely at 8:30 a.m. This policy was implemented because, even though we begin our business day at 8:30 sharp, I have observed many of the account executives, usually those that required the special individual training, they would arrive at the office at 8:30 a.m., eat several Danish or donuts, have a cup of coffee, secure the sports page of the daily newspaper or other casual reading material, sometimes as quickly as they could obtain after their first cup of coffee, and retire to the men’s room for their morning constitutional. [laughs] By the conclusion of this morning ritual, 9:30 a.m. had rolled around and an hour of business had been lost. More importantly, an hour of striving for our respective dreams and meeting our goals had been lost forever. As the requirement of the first call being made at 8:30 a.m. became a strict policy, the performance of the star sellers in the company did not change because they were adept at planning their days, hours and minutes to achieve goals commensurate with their goals for that period of time. The stars usually arrived early and would either review their goals for the day that they had predetermined, perhaps a day or to, or even several days before this particular business day, or they would spend the time before the business day began establishing goals for that day. In every business day, setting your goals each day is necessary.
Goals such as making contact with five qualified prospects or demonstrating your product 10 times, or developing five new business sources, or whatever sales activities bring you closer to your ultimate goals. Whatever sales activity gets you a little further down the road to that house on the hill. And, and there’s a big and here, you must review your performance relative to what you set out to accomplish for that day in order to accomplish this daily goal. Break the day down into components. Morning, afternoon, or hours, quarter hours, minutes, the stars, as well as those that I’ve had pleasure to work with in other fields that became stars to a person. They envisioned their long term goals and determined by simple mathematics what they had to do year-by-year, month-by-month down to day-by-day, hour-by-hour, and actually, finally, minute-by-minute to accomplish their dreams. So many of us believe that we can turn it on at any time. If we really must. This is a false feeling of security. It allows us to rationalize the donuts and the coffee during our available work time. Or to rationalize making just a few calls from the office to find the best price on a set of tires for our car, or rationalize dropping off our car for service during business hours when we could just as easily drop it by the shop during lunch or some other non-business time.
Throughout my experience, the men that left everything personal at the front door of the office, where it always waited faithfully as the truest family dog until the close of business are the stars. These champions always set long term goals based on their dreams and would work backwards. They would calculate yearly, monthly, daily, hourly, and minute-by-minute goals to achieve their long term goals. Interestingly, the stars who achieves their goals, always, and I repeat, always surpass their target income for each quarter. It may be necessary for you to qualify an interest at least five new prospects a day; however, the work required to actually speak to, and identify those prospects, may require hours and hours of that single day, and if you lose your focus, and you have personal things on our mind, or your goofing off trying to find the best prize on a set of tires, if you don’t leave your personal concerns at the front door where they will wait for you just like the dog, he’ll be there when you get there, and you can figure him out when you get out of the office, you won’t rise to the level of a star.
Along the same lines, we all have sales-related duties. Paperwork things that are usually less intense of an endeavor than direct seller. More administrative-type tasks that are required of us, and we must complete them, but they’re relatively easy as compared to the effort it takes to sell. Accomplish your paperwork things during non-sales hours. Stars plan to finish their paperwork after sales hours, so as not to interfere with sales time, which produces income for them. Simple huh?
All right. Let’s structure our goals to obtain our long term dreams. Write down your financial goals required to buy your dreams. Then using simple mathematics, determine the amount of money you must earn annually to buy those dreams. These annual, quarterly, monthly, weekly, daily, even minute-by-minute goals, will keep you close to your long term goals. Those of your dreams. Allow for such things as your company’s growth, promotions, tax effects and the like, then by simple mat, calculate what you must earn each year to ultimately realize your dreams. Your long-term goals. Now take the year we’re in. Calculate the annual earnings necessary for this year. Carefully determine a month-by-month schedule of what is required for you to accomplish this year’s financial goal.
Remember, we are discussing only money at this point, not what is required of you to earn it. As an example, your goal might be a million dollars cash in the bank in five years, thus, as an average after taxes, you must put $200,000 in the bank each year. In order to achieve this year’s goal of $200,000, what must we do every day of each month of this year to meet this year’s goal. Is it necessary, for instance, to make a sale every two days or once a week or perhaps demonstrate your product of five companies that might require typically three months to make the purchase. Because of their internal purchasing regime. It will average back to a certain month’s income for you. Whatever fits your specific circumstances.
Okay now break the month down into weeks. What must you do this week to meet your long term financial goals? What must you do during this week? What must you do today? Actually, what must you do during the next few hours and during the next few minutes. You see where we’re going with this? The most important aspect of establishing goals to actualize, and that is purchase your dreams, is what will you do today. What must you do this morning? Write it down and look at it several times before lunch. Now, what must you do this afternoon? Once again, write it down in the morning and revise it at lunch. Take a few minutes at lunch and compare your morning goals to your morning accomplishments. And if you’re slightly behind for the morning goals, kick your afternoon goals up somewhat. If you’re slightly ahead of your morning goals, retrench yourself in your afternoon goals. Do not lessen your afternoon goals. Do not let unimportant junk clutter your mind as you work to accomplish your daily, hourly and minute by minute goals. And do not believe you can make up for a bad morning or an unproductive morning or a morning that falls short of your goals with the afternoon. Do not believe you can make for a bad day today, tomorrow.
If you allow yourself, and I said allow yourself, to lose focus today thinking you will make it up tomorrow, you’re kidding yourself and you’re losing money. Review your performance often. Did you follow your plan? Did you excel? If you followed your plan, probably so. You probably exceeded your goals for the morning or the afternoon if you followed your plan. But if you did fall short of your goals, why? Why did you fall short? Be very honest with yourself. Did you allow menial tasks. Paperwork things to interfere with what you knew you should be accomplishing. Did you not leave the faithful dog with all of the problems and concerns at the front door to wait for you? Did you call home more than once or more than three times or more than five times to chat with the family? Or did you chat with a buddy across town? Even though about, perhaps a business matter, not anything that would make you money. Be honest with yourself in this evaluation. Nobody really cares except for you and those precious to you. Every day, review your performance. Review your performance at the end of the week also. With the same critical scrutiny. Did you excel? Did you go beyond your goals for the week? If you applied yourself and adhered to your weekly goals, you probably did. If you fell short, analyze why you fell short.
If you really gave it your best, if you followed your plan, if you followed your goals for reach day and each portion of the day as you have divided them. Each morning, literally each minute to minute, possibly it’s time to reexamine your persona. However, falling short is not likely if you follow these guidelines. Do not, as I say, believe that you can make up tomorrow for what you did not accomplish today because you were goofing off. However, you should feel great at the end of a day, at the end of a week, if your own critical self-scrutiny at the end of the day or the end of the week results in a rewarding, good feeling, a knowledge that you played the best game you could.
Make goal setting a part of your daily business life. A part of your sales life. If you’re not accustomed to setting goals for yourself, it may be a little uncomfortable at first, but it’s just a little uncomfortable. These daily, hourly and minute goals keep you focused and maintain your personal mental association with your long term goals, your dreams. Goal setting is designed to help you reach your dreams. No one is making you do this. And the sales benefits are enormous. As you become comfortable with daily goal setting and daily accomplishment of those goals, you will wonder how in the world you got along without it before.
Congratulations. We have completed our initial study of the star seller’s persona. You now have the knowledge and the means to become a star seller. Recall, star sellers make the sales. Sales don’t make the star sellers. Up until now, we have been studying the “hot to say.” Now we enter the transition of the course that begins the “how to – what to say.” By now you should understand the star seller’s persona. What it is and the three elements that comprise it. You should know how to develop and control each of those elements. If you don’t, go back and review the sections that you have uncertainties about. Some of us will get it right away. Right off the bat. Some overnight. The rest must put forth a little effort, but just a little effort. This is simple stuff. It’s an arrangement of knowledge that’s come together as you know over a long period of time. And there’s no question that it works. It’s proven. So do the work necessary. You have invested your time and your money and your energy into this course so far to change. To become better at selling.
If you merely listened to the tapes up to this point, you have acquired precious little known knowledge in this particular array, which has changed your way of thinking about sales. You will from now on change the way that you sell. However, those of you who listened and participated in the thought control exercises. In the role playing and the reversing the roles, as well as using your tape recorder for self-evaluation, those people, those of you who have begun to develop and control your confidence, your enthusiasm and your empathy. You people have changed forever. You have purposely become irreversibly more sales sophisticated. Having indulged in the requirements of this course, you will never gain approach a sale the way you did before. You listened to this course.
If you stop right now. You will always be a better salesperson than you were before. Not necessarily a star though. So don’t stop. Don’t stop practicing and revisiting the persona section. Don’t stop doing the exercises that you learned, and as you apply what you’ve learned during the first half of this course, as you continue the course as prescribed, you will rapidly improve and many of you to the level of a star.
Now we’re going to begin the, essentially second half of this course, and I said, it deals with the “how to – what to say.” And everything we’ve learned so far will be an integral part of developing the second half of this course. Okay. Let’s get to work. It’s simple, but it does take effort, so stick with me on this, okay?
[Track 4]
Now we begin planning and executing the sale. Think about that. We’re going to execute our plan. That’s not a foreign concept in any other business in the world except, perhaps, sales. We’re going to plan the sale. We’re going to plan to use our persona. And then we’re going to execute the sale. We’re going to plan our work and work our plan.
Now, in this part of the course, this separates the super sellers from the mediocre sales people. Figuratively speaking, the men from the boys. This section is principally common sense; however, a great man once said, common sense isn’t all that common. [laughs] First, I will play for you an excerpt from an actual sales tape of a fellow who did not execute the sales training, and I repeat, he did not. You’ve developed a perception to this point. Use your instincts with regard to the persona. As you listen to this fella, you tell me if he has a persona. If he’s ever practiced any of these exercises. We will actually listen to two excerpts. The second excerpt you can clearly hear the prospect and the prospect has a persona. Compare the persona of the prospect to the fellow trying to sell. As you listen to these upcoming excerpts, place yourself in the position of the prospect. Reverse the roles. Would you buy anything from this salesman? Or would anybody buy anything from this salesman. You be the judge. Let’s take a listen, and I’ll be right back. You’ll find this amusing.S = Seller P = Prospect
S: …get that low rate. At the rate we are at now. I’m saying, another half, that’s fine. You’ll be done. I’ll stick a fork in you, and you’re done. But you don’t want to miss – that’s a total of 51. We’re talking 5% of your net worth or less. Another 95 is for your retirement. That’s right. You may see 125, you don’t know. That’s probably our biggest problem. If we knew when we were going to die, this would be easy.
P: Yeah, I’ll say.
S: You could allocate so much a day. But that’s why you need a portion of something like this, say 5% or 10% of net worth because bread may be $5 a loaf in 10 years.
P: ???
S: That’s exactly right.
P: I don’t know if they can do that.
S: [laughs] You open a bakery at that point.
P: I appreciate the knowledge and all, but I don’t feel like I want to do it at this time. Maybe down the road, but –
S: They may have more risk down the road it is my concern.
P: Yeah. Maybe.
S: Right. Well, and I’ll bet they do. Because that’s why we’re laying this foundation of good high caliber, minimal risk projects. And those are the ones you want to take advantage of.
Okay, here comes the second excerpt. This is the excerpt with the prospect that has the persona. Listen carefully.
S = Seller P = Prospect
P: Yeah.
S: How are you?
P: Fine. Did she tell you I called?
S: Yes. I was in the middle of a conference call.
P: Well, I don’t know when it’s going to come in, but it’s going to come in between 2:00 and 4:00 from a friend of mine in Hong Kong.
S: Oh really?
P: Yeah, right, and that’s why I didn’t want to be on the phone between 2:00 and 4:00. [laughs]
S: Okay. I needed to call you. We got 8 minutes.
P: Right, yeah. I just got that number Friday, this morning. ??? offshore now.
S: That’s the highest preliminary estimates ever.
P: I looked at it. [laughs]
S: Well, that’s courtesy is though, you did get first right of refusal on any of these projects. What do you think?
P: [laughs] It doesn’t do me any good, but I’m about as far as I can go. [laughs] For a very short time.
S: I know. That’s just courtesy and it’s coming out.
P: Well I appreciate that. Very much, and I even, I think the guy was here, oh, I don’t know, about 10:00 or 10:30, something like that, and so I looked at most of the stuff. I’ve read the stuff about the well itself, most of it I’ve read before.
S: It’s significant. There is a blanket formation there.
P: Yeah, I can see.
S: And there’s, mother nature kind of sealed off on three sides of the faults and the dome on one side, about an 8 million barrel container, and we say we –
P: Yeah, I noticed that one. I noticed , it looked to me like, Chevron has something. If you go right up that line, I don’t know if it’s what I’m looking at. See I look at figure 2, they go directly, what am I talking about, north or something about it.
S: Figure 2 on the maps or?
P: Yeah, right. I see where it is and you go right up further from that. I see where #4 is, and where #2 is then you’re just down, down from that.
S: A better picture of the formation is in the Terostat this time. The reserve evaluation on page 4.
P: Yeah, right , yes. I just looked – yeah.
S: Okay. This is just one of the sands stage. To the north you see all the Chevrons, the CA3 and 8-7. Okay? Well, that’s just to the north. You can see that formation runs all down there to that salt dome. Well, there’s 14 successful wells right there.
P: [laughs]
S: Which is the bulk of that formation. Now, we have that little fault that separates our area. Well, there’s faults on three sides and then the dome, and on page 2 there’s original New Orleans Place, he shows as 8.7 million barrels, but only about 30% recovery factor. He’s taking into account that there’s no water driver that we’d have to maybe put a pump on it for once.
P: Yeah. I read that too. I’m beginning to look for little stuff. I read something about a – now I can’t find it, but I read it, but a –
S: And there’s just – he also says that may be unfounded if it is great.
P: Oh yeah. We water drive may necessitate additional energy, yeah, to produce a well protection right?
S: Right. And, of course, didn’t he turn right around and on the back page of this, upside potential – he says, well, for the strong water driver, recovery will be five times as much.
P: [laughs]
S: But there’s – you know there’s definitely nothing wrong with 2.7, I can tell you that.
P: No. [laughs] I can see that right off the bat.
S: That’s exactly right. I assume you got a portion of the test results on #2?
P: Pardon?
S: You received a portion –
P: That’s right, yes. I just did. It all happened yesterday, along with some nice pictures.
S: Yes. Joe took some photos while he was out there and thought he would pass those around. Help you to at least visualize what some of these actually look like.
P: That’s true, right. Actually, if I looked down on it, for some reason, I think of oil wells –
What did your instincts tell you? You can do better than that fellow won your worst day with the knowledge that you have from the course already can’t you? Recall, I said that most people have no plan beyond their first sentence as to what will happen during a sale. That’s a pretty good example of it. This fellow, unfortunately, never rose to the status of star seller and it came to my attention after he left the firm that he actually scoffed at the training. He never did develop the star seller’s persona. Your much further ahead than that fellow will ever be. Now, I will play an excerpt from a sales tape from a man who actively adhered to the training and continually planned his sales and executed his sales. He planned to use his persona. He maintained his persona. Now, let’s listen to this example, compare the difference for yourself, and I’ll be right back. But as you compare the difference, once again, use your instincts that you developed at this point relative to the knowledge that you have about persona. Okay. Let’s give a listen. Shhh.
S = Seller P = Prospect
P: How are you bud?
S: Good. Did you survive the dust?
P: [laughs] Yeah I sure did.
S: Really, I have some real good news for you in the packet I’ve shot out to you. Grab it, we’ll take a moment, and I’ll show you want we’re doing out here.
P: Hold on a second. I put that aside to read – here I got it right here. I have not even had an opportunity to look at it.
S: Really, that’s fine. I can save you some reading time. When you go back through and peruse it, it will make a lot more sense. Let’s do this. Before we open this up, I know you’ve never looked at an oil and gas project before, but keep in mind you can always his dry holes, you can always have marginal production. I mean, that’s certainly going to be out there, but having said it, open the folder up and I’ll show you why my fellas don’t believe that’s going to be the case. I’ll give you a feel for what our goals are.
P: Okay.
S: This, when you look at it, it’s a three-part folder. In the center section, if you’ll lift up that center section, there’s a memorandum dated August the 12th. Are you in the right hand pouch?
P: Yeah. I got August 17th.
S: No, no no. Go with me until you lift that – it doesn’t look like there’s anything there. Open that center section up one more time on the left. It’s going to fall right in your lap.
P: I got it.
S: Good. That’s the geological information. We’re going to look at some colored maps in just one second. Set that aside. Now let’s go back to where you were digging and just behind my cover letter is a conversion table. It’s a big financial spreadsheet showing the dollars and cents. Did you find it?
P: I got it.
S: Okay. Pull this out. Primarily, this is what you’re going to be interested in, Larry. This converts the barrels of oil into dollars and you’ll notice there’s a monthly income conversion on top and a total return conversion on the bottom. Now, remember, when we first chatted, I talked about the possibility of taking $29,000 and returning in excess of $150,000 off our production. Here’s how we’re doing that. This – when you break it down, you’ll see there’s columns at the top on positions. There’s a half unit, a full unit and two units on the right. Do you see that?
P: Yep.
S: Okay. I’m going to talk, just for examples sake, let’s look at the minimum $29,000 position.
P: Okay. That’s a 1/2 unit.
S: Right. You see the brackets to the right?
P: Yep.
S: Okay. It’s $12,500. That’s the principal risk capital if you were a fella that purchases a half – if we go out here and hit a dry hole, he gets a $12,500 tax write-off. All right. Now, if we get what we’re after, he puts another $16,500 into it to get the oil up, start selling it, making money off the investment, and ultimately we have a $29,000, full taxed advantage investment. And let’s talk about what it can do for us. You’ll see the production rates on the left hand side and barrels per day.
P: 750
S: Exactly. That’s – we shoot for 500 to 1,000, let’s look at 750 a day for an example, and you’ll see – step with me to the right. You see there’s a before point of conversion?
P: Yep.
S: Okay. That’s it. $2,100 a month are what my fellas are #1 we’ll be dealing – it was just prior to Hurricane Andrew, it was doing 750 a day. And we had to shut it down. I don’t know if you noticed the electricity in Southern Louisiana is slowly coming back up, but we’re ready to go. The production facility should be powered up this week, and we’ll be back online. But those fellow prior – well, two weeks ago, they were making $2,100 a month. And they do that till they get 95% of their investment dollar back. That’s when my company – anybody else who owns an interest in the place, then and only then do we allow ourselves and them to back in for their share of the profits. And we split it 50/50 with the partners. So, yet really when you look at it, it’s endorsement. We let them get 95% of their investment dollar back, then we back in for our share. It drops down to $1,000 a month and it should go on as long as the well does 750 a day for the life of it. Okay, now, look at the bottom.
P: Okay.
S: That’s the monthly cash flow, but you look at ultimate goals as far as recovery, a 3 million barrel well, that’ll make $150,000, and I’m going to show you several wells out here that one even doubled that amount. We have independent third party reserve vestments on the well I’m about to show you, it’s over $2 million, so let’s just shoot for $110,000 back as an ultimate goal. You see how that works?
P: Yep.
S: Okay. Now let’s take a look at the project. Keep that handy because you’ll want to see how these wells are working out. Look at the memorandum and let’s go two pages in to get to figure 2.
P: Okay. On the right hand column or the center stuff?
S: I’m at the first one dated August 12th. It says memorandum with a big Kinlaw energy partners on the top.
P: I’ve got it.
S: Okay. When you lift up, go to figure 2. This is our acreage map. Let’s turn it sideways so we can read it, but it’s – this will give you a feel for what we’ve done and it’s really – it’s a fantastic technology. I’m going to show you there’s a – up in the left hand bracket….
[Track 5]
Now that is the man you would buy from, wouldn’t you? That’s the man I would buy from, and I’ll tell you that’s the man most folks would buy from. As a matter of fact, many folks have bought from this fellow. How is he different than the first fellow we listened to? Well, he maintained his persona. He sounded confident. He was enthusiastic, and he established empathy. He was knowledgeable. He is the type of personality that you want to project to your buyers. He is one of the stars. He is one of the fellows that makes the big money year after year. And you can see why.
Now, lets you and I begin planning your sales as he does. As he was trained to do. In this section, we will apply our persona. Now keep that in mind literally. Actually, envision it. Keep it in your mind’s eye as you plan everything. Plan the delivery with the persona that you are developing. See yourself in your mind’s eye in detail during these sales presentations. We will also cover a number of less romantic, but important topics in this section. Topics that you must know the “how to” of. We’ll cover things such as product knowledge. You must know your products backwards and forwards, inside and out, and I will give you tips on how to gain more knowledge than you already have about your own product and how to use that knowledge. You must also know your competitor’s product. This is perhaps a bit more difficult. It takes a bit more effort, but it’s worth it in terms of dollars at the end of the day. Additionally, I will teach you the subtleties of qualifying your prospects. The tactics necessary to obtain the information required for you to make the sale. We will again utilize role playing and your own tape recordings for purposes of self-evaluation and improvement. This is excellent training and it can be exciting if you make it so. The tape recordings you will make, the role playing you and I will engage in as you’ve learned it in this course heretofore, absolutely, there’s nothing better that can be had in terms of sales training.
You will also learn how to develop a preferred prospect profile. Now I’m going to refer to it most of the time as a PPP. It is pertinent to this training that a properly developed PPP will be very important to your success in selling. You will learn what it is and how to use it. Upon learning what it is and how to use it, you will never sell again without it. We will also listen to expert cold calling. We will listen to excerpts of the sales tapes of the stars engaged in cold calling done by the stars themselves. You will learn how it’s done and you will be able to do it for yourself. You will learn how to develop new business readily. Then, in this section I will teach you how to plan and execute closing the sale as the stars do. We’ll also listen to excerpts from those tapes. You will be trained as to how to obtain the order and get the check. How to close the sale of your product. Upon finishing this section, planning and executing the sale, you will know well ahead of time what will occur during your next sale. Think about that. You’re going to know what you will say, what your prospect will say, and how the sale will in all probability result. You will know what you will say, how your prospect will respond, and how you will reply to his responses at any point in the sales process. I will not give you a script as to what you will say and what your prospect will say. I find such a method woefully ineffective, as dictated by other authors, and is rather amusing. However, I will train you so that you, yourself, will know what to say in the effect your words and your persona will have on the buyer. And you’ll know what your words and your persona will illicit from your prospect. You will know how to determine for yourself what your buyer will say and how you will reply. You’ll become very comfortable with that. Now pause here with me for just a moment. Let’s think of what I’ve just said.
If you know what’s going to be said in your next sale by you and the prospect, don’t you think you can increase your chances of executing the sale to where you get a check at the end of the presentation? I can’t tell you what exactly will happen, but I can get you very close with your effort. Follow me through this section and you will not be displeased.
In summary, the topics we’re going to work on are product knowledge, the competitive edge, your competition, applying your persona, qualifying, developing a PPP, generating leads, new business, cold calling and closing the sale. That’s about it. That’s what sales encompass.
We’ll begin with product knowledge. Obviously, as I have said, you must know your product. Learn everything you can about it. If possible, and it usually is, call the engineer who built it, or the designer who designed it, or the inventor who invented your product. You will find that they will talk your ear off about their creations. Their a wonderful source of information for many reasons. These fellows will help you determine all of the competitive edges of your product and make them razor sharp.
Now, as we go through this, catch the definitions the first time through. Listen up. A competitive edge is a reason for your prospect to buy. It is usually a feature that makes your product superior to that of your competitions. If you sell directly, such as a stock broker does for instance, selling a stock in a company that itself sells a product. Pick up the telephone and call the company and talk to the engineer or the salesman or the company’s president for that matter. These people will add vivid color to your presentation. As a stockbroker, your manager will come by, he’ll give you a block of stock with an analyst report and say you must clear this by the end of the month. For your purposes, this is inadequate. It’s simply not good enough. You may have a meeting and the analyst may tell you what the company does and what the stock is expected to do and why. Analysts who work for brokerage houses usually cover the wrong bases regarding sales. They give you P&E reports and stock value to market price, but they aren’t selling for a living and you are. Granted, that’s important information, but the people in the company who issued the stock, those are the fellows that can add the color, the vibrancy to your sales presentation. You will sell more of their stock with their help. Of additional importance and often overlooked, you must know all of the applications of your product. Currently in use and potentially for use. The engineers, designers and inventors and executives of the company producing the product which may be your own company, can be a wealth of information to help you determine, or just to tell you what those applications, present and future, are or could be. My selling stars are constantly in the geological department or petroleum engineering department talking to the experts. It’s such information that separates them as selling stars from the mediocre salesman. They go the extra yard, and so should you. This type of information opens up your market. It increases it. It expands your market.
The next topic is know your competition. This is very important. Obtain as much information as possible relative to your competition. Obtain annual reports on your competition, their product specifications, read industry trade journals regarding their product. You will find so much about your competition in these types of publications. It will, from time to time, make the difference as to whether or not you make a sale or lost a sale to your competitor. Know his product. Subscribe to and read, newsletters in your industry. If you can, attend your competitor’s product seminars. Know who their customers are. Keep up with your competition and what they’re doing. Your competitor’s product will have some competitive edge more appealing to buyers than yours, but that’s also always true in reverse. When you know your competition, you can speak more intelligently about the superior features of your product and your company. Let’s go to a little additional effort here, and it’s only a little additional effort. Spend a couple of evenings a week in the library researching, discovering information that will contribute to your next sale. It may be about your product or, more specifically, about your competitor’s product. It’s not that much to ask. It’s a little bit of effort. Do it. It will result in more dollars at the end of the day. You will know you have adequate knowledge of your competition when you know you can sell their product as well as you can sell your own. Knowledge is the answer. A word of caution: Never, ever, ever malign your competition. Comparisons are fine, but maligning – such a practice is unprofessional. You come across as a jerk, and it reduces your odds of making a sale. In fact, it should have reference be made to your competition by your prospect during the sale, the knowledge that you can exhibit about the positive aspects of your competitors’ product will stand you in good stead, and then show your prospect how your product, and in least one respect, is superior. Slamming the competition is simply immaturish???. There is an old saying in business that I’ve found to be very true. A good competitor will make you money. A lousy competitor will disappear.
A question for you. Who do you want to do business with? That’s right. Who do you want to do business with? Well, let’s develop a preferred prospect profile. A PPP is simply a set of data, a criteria, a list of things that describe the ideal prospect you want to do business with. Certainly there are a number of individuals or companies that you can do business with, but let’s define the ones you want to do business with. In developing the PPP, the primary element of the profile is who or what needs your product. Now, don’t let me down here, listen. It’s who or what needs your product, and can buy it within the time parameters that you set out. Do you wish to sell the companies or persons that can purchase immediately? Or can you be content with a multilevel purchase approval process that perhaps include a capital review? Many companies employ such a multilevel approval process and some products can only be sold through this process. Even so, look for the corporate features that fit your PPP. You must determine which companies you want to do business with. The need we speak of is normally synonymous with who you want to do business with. As an example, at my company, we want to do business with investors that have an annual income of over $200,000 and a net worth of a $1 million or more because generally an investor with a multi-hundred thousand dollar annual income needs tax deductions that can be applied against his earnings. Our drilling programs are specifically designed to fill that need. A major competitive edge for our product. Consequently, our Preferred Prospect Profile was constructed around need of our product, and when we combine that with the persons we want to do business with, once again, it turned out to be synonymous. Your PPP should also be constructed around the prospects you want to do business with and synonymously that need your product. It doesn’t matter if they know they need it or not. The importance of need is that you know they need it. To clarify once again by example, many of the investors that we do business with initially did not know of the tax deductions available with drilling for oil until we contacted them and made them aware of it. So as you develop your PPP, do not limit the profile to those companies, entities or persons that are presently using your type of product or your competitor’s product. Although those buyers who now use your type of product or your competitors, they fit squarely into the prospect profile because you know they need it and they already know they need it.
But how do you identify those entities? Those entities that need your product, whether they know it or not. Once again, a conversation with the engineers, inventors, or executives at the company that manufacture the products, or if you’re the producer at your own company, or the company who manufactures the product if your downstream somewhere, all those fellows. They’ll add color to what you have to offer your prospects. The knowledge they have will give you great ideas as to who fits your PPP. They might even give you specifics with respect to the companies that purchased your type of product or should be purchasing your product. You must also be imaginative and do some detective work.
The following are a few ideas that work and will give you additional ideas for new business, so pay attention. Information is big business these days. Virtually all types of information is available to you. Make a few calls to the companies that deal in buying and selling information. They will hook you up with one of their salespeople who will be eager to find the people and/or companies by name who will fit your PPP. A good place to start are the major credit bureau companies. They buy and sell far more information than that just related to credit. They have data on virtually every aspect of every company and most individuals in this country. As I say, one of their salespersons will be eager to try and sort this enormous database into the specific information that you need. If they cannot, or don’t have the specifics that you require, they will refer you to the smaller information firms that deal in specialized information. If you do some detective work. If you do some foot work, figuratively speaking, you will find the information that you need. Also, a few little known sources include association directories, a fabulous source of business leads. Every profession or trade organization in this country has some sort of association. The American Medical Association, the Association of Mechanical Engineers, the National Association of Professional Engineers, and so on and so forth. Included within these directories is a biography of each member. A paragraph including where you went to school, when he graduated, how he finished in his class, the position he occupies presently in his company, his responsibilities in the company, and what his company does in terms of manufacturing or services provided. Generally, a description of how that fellow fits into the corporate structure, as well as an indication of salary level. These directories give you home telephone numbers, they give you office telephone numbers that normally ring right at the fellow’s desk. Additionally, many industry directories detail specifically corporate information. The size of the company, the corporate profile, perhaps a history of the projects the company has completed over the last few years, and a summary of projects they plan for the future. New business maybe? Additionally, a great deal of the information can be found in industry newsletters, trade journals and trade publications. We’ve covered those before. They’re an abundant source of information. Subscribe to them. Read them. Look at them with a critical eye. Read them with your Sherlock Holmes magnifying glass. You will receive insight into not only new business for yourself, but what your competitors are doing. The companies that your competitors and yourself should be servicing. Read the industry publications. Looking for leads to new business. Make that your mission. Make telephone calls to companies and individuals you read about in these publications. Tell them you’re looking for new business. You may uncover a new account or get a referral. Work the information. Many times these calls will result in Bill referring you to Jim at another company, and Jim referring you to Charlie at a third company, and Charlie will buy something form you. All of these sources can be gold mines to generate new business.
Joe Kinlaw’s Superstar Sales Training Audio Book Disc 4 (Transcript) – https://www.therealmjtheterrible.com/joe-kinlaws-superstar-sales-training-audio-book-disc-4-transcript/
