3 Rules For Selling To Rich People (Make A TON of Money)

0:28Good sleep is everything. They're broke. They apologize for their price. And above all else, they stress over the price. But in reality, the cheapest option is the one rich buyers are the most afraid of. Rich people hear the word cheap or affordable. They think lawsuit, a bad hire, a compromise. So today you're going to learn how high net worth buyers actually decide. There are four currencies they protect with their lives and the exact playbook I'm going to give you that I'd run if I were selling a really expensive thing tomorrow. And you're going to also get the one follow-up line that works every single time.

1:01I'm Cody Sanchez. This is the Big Deal Podcast. Let's make some money.

1:07So if you know me, you know I've started, bought, and sold more businesses than I can count, which I don't like say to be fancy. I think in some ways entrepreneurship is a trauma response, but it does mean that I've sat on both sides of the table more times than I'd like to admit. And there is one sentence that will change the way you make money forever. Broke people buy for price. Rich people buy for risk mitigation. I want you to really soak that in for a second. A broke buyer is going to ask you something like this. They're going to say, can I afford this? A rich buyer asks, will this fix my problem?

1:42Or is this valuable enough for me? Those are not the same question and they don't have the same answer. At Contrary and Thinking, we have a business called Boardroom where we help business owners grow and scale their business. Let me tell you what our boardroom members don't actually care about. The price tag for boardroom. Why? Because they know price doesn't matter. If you're running a business that makes hundreds of thousands, millions, tens of millions of dollars a year, something that costs you five figures doesn't actually matter. What does matter? Your time and the outcome. If you have a business right now that makes a million dollars and I can help you double your business, you're going to sign up so fast for that you can't even imagine.

2:19And so I was actually listening the other day to one of our advisors who have helped thousands of business owners scale to their next eight figures. And I was sort of chuckling because this advisor was saying, well, I think that this business owner just needs a lower cost for this and then they can come in. And you've probably heard this in your business, too. And I said, let's talk to him. So we got on the phone. And what happened, do you think? I said to the business owner, so are you worried that you won't be able to afford what the cost is? What do you think the business owner said? No, of course not.

2:55I go, I'm worried that I won't actually get what I want out of this and it's just another thing sucking up my time. Every single question about price dies in the light. Because the truth is, they don't trust you, not that they don't want to pay that price. And that's for almost everything. And let me tell you what I mean by this. Like Bain and Harvard Business Review, they actually studied this in their B2B report. And it turns out business buyers don't only value the obvious functional stuff like cost reduction, but they massively value reduced risk, expertise, responsiveness, lower anxiety, even more.

3:32So a rich buyer isn't really buying your product or service. They're buying their peace of mind, right? They're buying a story. They're buying the belief that this turns them into somebody else. They're buying a belief that this will decrease their pain. They're buying a belief that this might actually be the thing that will make them X outcome. That could be anything. Could be relief, control, maybe the quiet certainty that they'll never have to think about this problem again. So that means if your pitches were affordable, you're actually, you're pressing the wrong wound entirely. The wound that they need a bandaid for wasn't price.

4:08It might be friction. So once you stop selling for price, you have to know what you're actually selling. And I think a lot of people go, well, if you don't want it at$20, do you want it at$10? What about$5? What about$3? No, they just don't want the thing. There's so many options in the world. Their most valuable commodity is time. Wealthy buyers protect four currencies above almost everything else. Time, risk, reputation, and control. Let's break down time. It's the obvious one. So most people have money. What they don't have is another Wednesday to waste on a vendor who needs six calls to understand the assignment.

4:41Who wants more sales phone calls? Lord knows I don't. You don't either. Risk is the hidden one, and it's the one most salespeople completely miss. Successful people are surrounded by other people pitching them, advising them, managing their money, asking for more money. And so every time they say yes, it's exposure. So every new vendor is a possible weak link with their name attached to it. Now thank you. reputation, that's kind of the quiet one. Because the higher somebody climbs, the more their decisions get watched inside a small, expensive room. So their spouse sees their call, their partners see it, their investors see it.

5:18Who are they by associating with you? This is why the luxury brands do so well. You know, I was in Paris last week on some noxious sentence to say, but I was, and we bought a nice watch. And where did I go to buy the watch? My husband and I kind of achieved this goal we wanted to achieve. So we like to buy a little milestone that we eventually want to hand off to the next generation. And so we like vintage. So I try to buy vintage stuff when I can. So we go to a watchmaker. Now, if you're making an expensive watch person, you know, purchase something that's five, six figures, you're going to really care where you buy from, aren't you?

5:49Why? Well, there's fakes everywhere. You could get fakes just about anywhere. So how do you decide which one to go to? Well, reputation really matters then, doesn't it? It's actually not price at all because you would pay a couple hundred bucks, a couple thousand more bucks on a really expensive purchase if you knew it wasn't fake, wouldn't you? What would really suck is to spend five figures on something and find out it was fake. So these watchmakers end up doing a lot to make sure that they have a reputation so sterling it's the same quality as those watches. And control is actually a really big one.

6:24So the whole reason they got here, they're rich, is that they make decisions. If you take away their sense of control and you stop being a vendor, then you actually start being a threat. You're trying to box them into something they don't like to be boxed in. So you got to stop asking, how do I make this more economical? And instead start asking, how do I make this feel safer, faster, more reputation proof, and like a such a fuck yes that there is no reason they would say no to you? because here's the thing like a premium buyer never lies awake thinking can i save a couple grand i know that's hard to say too because in this world you're like a couple grand would be nice but i'm just telling you how rich people think a really rich person lies awake thinking is this going to give me a headache later is this actually going to fix what i am struggling with so if you remove that fear you've just increased your price without doing anything else The principle here is, I think, this.

7:23And it's probably where I see most salespeople screw up. And what I tell you about this is, you know, we have just in contrarian thinking, we have a sales team of what's called 20 people. In contrarian thinking, our portfolio companies, we have salespeople across the companies to the tune of thousands. And here's where people mess it up. And I have seen it more than you can imagine. They walk into a room with a successful person. and immediately what do they do? They try to prove them wrong. Do you want to be right or do you want to win the sale? If you go in and you say your marketing's broken, your operations are a mess, you might be right.

8:02That's probably true. But it's still a terrible opening because people have egos and successful people have big egos. And with much love, if you're selling to a rich person and you're not rich, they probably got a thing or two on you. They know more than you do. probably about most things except your product. I'm not trying to insult anybody here. I was like really young selling to rich people when I was super broke. I worked at Goldman Sachs, one of the biggest companies in the world, and I sold not million dollar products, not 10 million dollar products. I sold a hundred million dollar products.

8:34And let me tell you what, if little Cody Sanchez went into, you know, one of the biggest pension funds in the world and started telling them how shitty their portfolio management was, and that I got this for them, Cody is taking home a goose egg. I'm not closing anything in business. And so if you are running with ego, you're going to lose in sales. It can be a big driver for success in the short term, especially with unsophisticated buyers. But you have to attack it before you have actually earned the trust and the buyer stops evaluating your solution and starts defending their identity. You need to be an ally, not an attacker.

9:08And I'll tell you what, there's that old saying, you get more flies with honey than vinegar. I can almost promise you telling people they're smart, right, already know this stuff, and then you drop the need for them is going to have you close more business. And this might sound something like this. So let's say you're trying to sell this coffee cup and you're trying to sell this coffee cup to a manager of a business. He's more successful than you are. You're an individual contributor salesperson. This is a manager of a business, probably has more direct reports, probably makes more money. And you go, oh my God, look at the coffee cups you have here.

9:42This is a mess. Is this how you guys present yourself in front of clients? That is literally how most salespeople do it. They tell them all the things that are wrong with what they're currently doing. And they think that this fear idea is going to work. But instead, what should you do if they have a coffee cup in front of them? You should say, that's incredible. Oh my gosh, look at your suit. I can tell like you guys care about quality. I walked into this office. It's stunning. Look at this view behind me. Like, I love the design. Did you pick this? What happened here? Compliment, compliment, compliment.

10:08What are you going to do? They're going to start telling you things. Yes, yes, I did. Yes, I have good taste. Yes, I do believe in this. And then when you say, listen, as a person with really good taste, who cares a lot about how customers view you, I think you're going to love this because you do care about that, right? What are you doing right there? And they go, yes. Now you've gotten your first yes from them. Okay. So we've now already moved them. Your first yes is always the hardest. We've got to move them to the second yes. So you're going, yes, I do care about that. And I go, okay, great.

10:36Well, every time you actually get in front of somebody and kind of have that beat up mug, man, it doesn't look like you. Like you have the suit, you have the whole outfit, but like, I don't know that this fits, right? This probably isn't your brand, is it? And what are they going to say? Well, you've already just gotten them to say yes. You've already told them that they've got taste. And now you're saying, is this really how you want to represent yourself? And they're going to look at it and probably agree with you. And so psychologists call this motivated reasoning. We process information to protect what we already believe about ourselves, not to neutrally update when the facts show up.

11:14So you don't open with, you're doing this wrong. You open with, you've clearly built something that works. That's why this gap has to be closed. Because you have this taste, you have this atrocious coffee club, let's bring it in the middle. You're not pointing out the scuffs on their car. You're pointing out how beautiful their car will be once the last scuff is gone. because they use your cleaning service. So here's an acronym for you. Ego. Earn gap outcome. Earn means you name what they're genuinely done right. So like, don't lie. Compliment something that is real. You know, that nail color is amazing.

11:52Your business is so incredible. I can't believe you've done this. Gap means you show them the specific constraint that exists because they succeeded. Like you've already done so well. So we just add this to it, not despite it. And outcome means you tie your fix to the standard they already want to live up to. So in practice, it's the difference between your team is bad and you need to replace all of them and I'm the best recruiter and I'm going to do it, to instead, don't you need more winners on your team that are at the same level as you are? You have some incredible people, it seems like, here, but would you want more people who are at your level?

12:25That's actually the same diagnosis, right? But only one of them is going to get you hired and it's not the one where you tell them their team is bad. And that reframe kind of makes all the difference. And that's why. Because the idea is you want to recontextualize a decision from being a headache to actually look at this opportunity. And this thesis is exactly why I built that growth boardroom I was talking to you guys about. Like if you own a real business with a team and real growth problems, the last thing you want is to be making huge decisions around hiring, firing, pricing, expansion all alone.

12:56So my belief was I need other people outside of my business giving me opinions. I want experts, analysts, peers. So it's a room for owners who are done making high stakes calls in isolation. If you're an owner looking for the next lever to unlock your growth, you can apply at contrarianthinking.co slash growth boardroom. This is where the practical and the tactical and the applicable all come together, which brings us, I think, to the single biggest tell of an amateur, which is adjectives. Amateurs describe themselves like, we're the best. We're high quality. We really care. That actually says nothing.

13:32What does that even mean? It sounds like every other seller and somebody you've probably rejected a million times before. Premium sellers, they actually don't describe. They diagnose. The diagnosis sounds like, hey, you've got three locations, but every scheduling decision still runs through one manager, which is maybe why your labor costs moves before you have a chance to deal with it. And you're like pausing, you know, your growth for those three locations is so impressive. I imagine you're having a hard time keeping up with scheduling because you've grown so fast. Now you're showing them something true about their own world.

14:08And that is a completely different kind of authority. So there's a study sort of famously by Daniel Kahneman, where people anchor hard on the first number they're handed, even when that number is arbitrary. So in sales, everyone fights over this. It's called the price anchor. But the real anchor gets set earlier when you frame the problem. This is called prime in. So let the buyer decide the conversation is about this is expensive and you'll spend the rest of it defending the price. If you instead frame it as this decision protects your time, your risk and your reputation, well now price has to compete against consequence.

14:45And that's what this whole discovery process is actually for. We're not small talking. Nobody has time for that, especially rich people. Talk fast, move fast, make the money, get out of their way. Don't ask them, how was their weekend? Or, oh, this thing's so incredible. Or tell me about, you know, what are you doing this afternoon? No, no, no, no. Forget all of that. Instead, I want you to do this framework. Four questions that do most of the work for you. One is, what is the problem already costing you? In hours, maybe churn, missed sales. Two, who else feels this pain? Maybe it's the CEO's spouse because they're not home because they're working too much.

15:23Maybe it's the CFO because the numbers are always wrong. Or the partner. They're all quietly in the room whether they admit it or not, and you're bringing them in with you. Three, what have you already tried? Because a real buyer always has scar tissue. And we say that tourists don't. So they've probably tried another solution. They've been burned by somebody. They're still trying to solve the problem, but you want to get away from that. Four, what would make this a clean win 90 days from now? And I like to say it as, what would make this the best decision you've made this year? This is great because it actually forces them to tell you what success looks like in their own words.

16:02So your offer just becomes the bridge to it and you parrot it back to them. Now, obviously we do this not being manipulative. We do this being real. So if I'm going to buy a professional service from you, like let's say I'm going to buy painting for my house and you say, hey, I've come here, you know, I've specced at your house, we can do this job, but tell me what would make this decision a no-brainer for you, the best decision that you've made in 90 days from now? And they're going to have to think about it. At first they might say, well, the job's done, you're on time, on budget. it. And you might say, that's amazing.

16:38But like anything else, we like to make our things really magical for people. And they're like, well, you know, that my daughter, when she comes home into her new room, she loves it. Oh, great. Like what would love it look like? Well, you know, maybe there's like something sort of magical or unique in the painting or it's set up by Tuesday. It has to be by Tuesday because that's when she gets home from school. Right. Now you have a chance to do what's called a magical moment. Now you can be like, OK, your daughter loves purple. We're paint in her room purple? Do you have decorations that go with that?

17:05Should we add a little purple teddy bear on top of the bed for her that's brand new? Should we, hey, do you want to like give her a little bit of extra paint and a canvas and she can draw like a little painting alongside of it? You know, do you want a fun before and after of it? We have a photographer here that can do it. This is the key to all sales is turn it into something where they can visualize what their life looks like when they said yes to you afterwards. And it's a beautiful visual. There's a broke person reflex that quietly kills your deals. And that is called selling from your own wallet.

17:40It's also called wallet share. So you look at the price through your own bank account. And then all of us, this isn't just like you, all of us, me too, panic on the buyer's behalf. And you start discounting before they've even objected to anything. You know, I know it's expensive or we've got a cheaper package if that helps. Stop it. You're projecting your financial reality onto someone who doesn't even live in it. You know,$20 ,000 might feel huge to you. To the buyer, they're like, oh, that's like one week of payroll leakage that you'll fix for me. You know, your job isn't to decide what they can afford.

18:17Not your job. Your job is to make the value clear enough that they can decide whether it matters. Show them the outcome, not the price. The wrong way to do this, I saw it actually hysterically on a partnership meeting that one of my writers have. Creatives, I love you dearly. You're terrible at this. I was too when I first started. We don't like to price ourselves well. It feels weird and then you're selling out to the man and you're not creative anymore and all the things. And so we're on a call with one of our sponsors and we want them to do more with our newsletter. And one of my main newsletter writers starts off the call you guys.

18:51And he's a brilliant guy. He's really good. He's a great writer. And he's like, well, I know this is super last minute, so you probably won't be able to do it anyway. But and then and then proceeds to pitch. That's the intro. And I remember sitting on there like, what are we doing? What are we doing? And so I cut him off. And I'm like, what he's meaning to say is that this is amazing. You have a super last minute opportunity to do this. Nobody else will have it. We can get this into promotion for you in one week. That's probably the fastest turnaround you've ever gotten promotion. So I'm sure you're going to do it because you'd be crazy not to get this in right before this big thing that you have, right?

19:28Hey, both those things are true. I didn't lie. He didn't lie. But there's a right and a wrong way to do it. And I remember when I asked him afterwards, I was like, what was the deal with that? That was the single worst pitch I've ever heard in my entire life. And he was like, well, I didn't want him to respect me less. I go do you think that made him respect you more That's the problem with when we sell ourselves short is we think somehow being weak being non-committal And not getting what we want Makes us respectful It's like kind of a twisted thing. I don't know what they did to us in early grade school, but that's why i'm a blend I think Premium buyers don't punish confidence.

20:08You guys they actually punish your uncertainty If your voice shrinks when your price comes up, they hear, ooh, they don't even believe in that. If you discount in the first three seconds of silence, they start wondering, what's the real price? Is anybody else buying this thing? So say the number and then shut up. The silence after a price is not meant to be filled. It is part of the deal, baby. Give the price. Don't inflect. Put a period on the end of it. Shut your fucking mouth. The framework here that I want you to take home is, now, not every rich buyer is the same animal. And treating them like they are is gonna cost you.

20:46So I think there's lots of types, but mainly three. The optimizer got rich or stayed rich by negotiating everything. We've all seen them, right? They like to win. They need to feel like they didn't just accept the first number. If you've got an optimizer on your hands, give yourself room to move, but you're never going to slash the price like you're clearing mattresses on a holiday weekend. We're not gonna do that. You're going to give the concession a name and a reason. I can reduce scope. So the things I'm going to offer, I can move the payment timing, aka do payment terms. I can prioritize your first location.

21:19So do one aspect of it. But you're not going to just give them right away, but you are going to give them something because that makes them feel like they're winning. And I have a dear friend who's a multi, multi, multi-millionaire whose name is Earn randomly. Shout out Earn. And he gets off on negotiating. The man will spend a million bucks, but he'll be like, I got that fucking hot dog and coffee, didn't you see? And I'll be like, yes, you did. It's the most expensive one I've ever gotten in my life, but you got it. Now, the second type is the delegator. They're opposite. They don't want to negotiate.

21:51They want the problem gone. Drag a delegator through 17 options and you're creating work, which is the one thing they're paying you to avoid. For them, the close is speed and certainty. I'm a delegator. Here's the recommendation. Here's why. Here's what I wouldn't do. Here's the next step. Ready, go. The third type that you have to be really careful for is the time waster. And the time waster actually never makes a fast decision. We often call these rational buyers. And there's nothing wrong with the rational buyer. But if you try to speed them up too much, they will never close. You're going to actually have to meet a rational buyer.

22:32This is so not normal. and I wish somebody had taught me this earlier, the rational buyer can only be met with emotional responses. Isn't that crazy? You'd think it's like, give them the data, give them the research. No, no, no. That just like, imagine it's like feeding a calculator more numbers. What does the calculator keep doing? It's like, oh, I'm gonna kind of think about this more. I'm gonna keep rationalizing it. When instead, what do you need to do? You need to get them out of their rational brain, not allow them to waste more time sort of calculating and you need to get them into their emotional brain.

23:01Forget the numbers, forget the calculations. what does your life look like after we execute this? What does your life look like if you never make this decision? What happens if you keep this problem forever in a month, a year from now? The optimizer wants a smart little win. The delegator wants a clean handoff. The rationalizer actually wants you to be the one to get them emotional. The principle. When a wealthy buyer goes quiet, most salespeople assume rejection. Usually they're just busy guys. Their inbox, if you saw my inbox, it's a war zone. Their assistant triaging 10 fires. Half their job is just like, don't let anybody talk to the boss.