Sell Like a Therapist: The Anti Wolf Of Wall Street Method

0:28Zach Thompson. Or the sales therapy book. Right, anyway, we're not here to talk about size because size doesn't matter, although that is a thick book. Sales is therapy, available in all good food shops at the minute. Iceland, Whole Foods, and Waitrose. You'll find it in the frozen chicken aisle. I want to talk to you. I want to flick through some of the chapters in this next series of Trench Tips, and where better to start than Chapter 1? All right, well, let's talk. Let me ask you the question. so that chapter one is all about being a therapist and not a salesperson. So what is wrong with a salesperson?

1:07Nothing wrong with a salesperson. Nothing wrong. Contrary to popular belief, maybe addiction. Okay. Maybe, no, let's just be serious for once. Okay. Traditional selling would say put lots of pressure on, smash and grab. Discount, discount, discount. Discount, discount, discount. Money by any means necessary, persuade, blah, blah, blah. probably a bit of manipulation there as well. Yeah, we love manipulation. That's probably what we think about typical salespeople. And because of that, we came up with an idea that's a very simple idea, but it just means, why don't you just not be like that? Why don't you not be like that?

1:43I like that. And what I like more about these trench tips is we don't edit them, it's raw. So when the thought comes in the brain, we say it and then we regret it later, and you'll come for us in the comments. the idea that we had I remember you texted me this idea three years ago saying I've got this idea for a talk of sales is therapy and it's this idea that if you was to walk into a therapist office they wouldn't lie you down on the shares long shares long on the shares lounge they wouldn't say like okay brilliant let me just run you through look at all these certificates let me run you through all the things I've done I've got case study here from Jeff he had PTSD d i've got sarah who has an eating disorder all of those different things he's not going to run you think it's funny i wasn't laughing i wasn't laughing anyway they wouldn't do that what they would do is they would say why are you here how can i help you what do you want to talk about so we're trying to push this therapeutic way of selling rather than the pressurous sales kind of pressurous a word I think it might be pressurized you were looking for so before this you said you were going to do something you haven't done it yet I'm just wondering when that starts do you know what a build up is yeah but this is a bit come on the soup's burning Michelle can you go to the page then please I don't need the page you don't need the page I wrote it off the cuff what I've got here Zach is and this is going to be a real test for you now to see how well you get it to the word I'm going to tell you something that a traditional salesperson is going to say and then you're going to tell me what the therapeutic person is going to say.

3:22All right. Test me. Hi, I'm John. I'm calling from XYZ Solutions. We help companies like yours improve their sales performance by 35%. Do you have five minutes? What, you want me to give you the therapist? What would the therapist say? Therapist would honor the space, would not want to put too much pressure on and say, look, I'll be very upfront. It's actually a sales call. Do you want to hang up on me now or let me have 30 seconds? Completely up to you. Really good. Really good. If it was a percentage match on what's in the book, it would be 0%. But really good. I like that. Maybe we'll have to re-edit the book.

3:58It's 100%. 100%. Problem exploration. So the traditional salesperson might say, our research shows that most companies in your industry will struggle with lead generation. Is that something you're facing too? Big question. Interesting. So the full thing here would be we're normally invited in by people who are suffering from X, Y, or Z problem. But obviously this might be the part where you tell me everything's perfect and none of those problems apply. Very nice. Problem exploration. Tick, tick, tick. After prospect mentioned issues with sales forecasting. So what they do typically, the typical traditional salesperson would run in and go, that's exactly what our system fixes.

4:40Our AI-powered forecasting tool has 95 % accuracy and integrates with your CRM. Let me show you how it works.

4:51This is how the therapist would deal with it. The therapist would say, forecasting. That's one of those things that looks a little bit different for everyone. You couldn't give me an example of what that looks like for you, could you? Great. Day-to-day, what is going on? We love an example. You want more or do you want me to stop? Do you want to do the next bit or do you want me to do it? Obviously, I'm the one who wrote it, but it's up to you. what do you mean i'm the one that sorry do you know what that says yeah i know what it says right let's see if you see how good you are then okay we'll just go to that first page and just remember how nice it was with you right this is about going deeper okay you don't know much about we've just had it we've just done an interview with a sex therapist and i've learned a lot she said you were bad at it what interviewing or anyway other clients who've implemented our solution have seen a 40 improvement in forecasting accuracy here's a case study from company x that shows that would be an example of traditional selling so what would the therapist say there instead okay you're talking about accuracy when you tell me accuracy what does that look like what do you mean close right go on no and it's good close and close yeah it's close Can I give you the next one?

6:03Please When the prospect explains impact When the prospect explains impact So they're telling you their impact Exactly, that's why you need our solution We can fix all those problems with our comprehensive platform Okay Well I guess this might be a weird question But I guess on a personal level How do you know that's a problem? Beautiful, really good Can you talk about that one quickly? Personal impact is one impact that's available. Business impact is another impact that is available. Nice. When the prospect shares their current approach, your current approach is outdated. Let me tell you why our system is much better.

6:45Okay. Current approach. So it feels like there's probably a reason why you're doing things in this particular way. Tremendous. It's not right though. But it's in the right. Yeah. Everything's a remix. Everything's a remix. These are all pointers, aren't they? It's in the same style as. Yeah? Proposing next steps. I'd like to schedule a demo with your team next week. I can show you the features and how they'll solve your problem. Two paths. One would be, what would you like to do next? Second one would be, I'm a sucker for a next step. Typically, at this point, we'd sit down, we'd run through it.

7:23Is there any reason you wouldn't want to do that? You want to test me on the last three? I'd love to. and actually you were really respectful to me so i'm going to be less respectful handling hesitation uh i understand your hesitation but you can't afford to keep losing revenue with inaccurate forecasts what if i offer you 10 off if you sign up this month nice so the therapist would say well i might be in paranoia but i'm sensing a little bit of of hesitation i could be wrong what do you think it's giving you reason to pause did you read this wrong because that was word for word that was really good uh when budget comes up everybody knows what a budget is our solution pays for itself within six months the roi is amazing and we offer flexible payment terms nice um there's many different ways to skin a cat isn't there um maybe if i was empathizing i would say i bet budget is quite tight i mean i'm you're not the owner i'm hearing that from i suppose when it comes to making those decisions and those next steps what would make doing something That's a total no-brainer.

8:28Love that. No-brainer. Very good. Last one, closing the conversation. So can I go ahead and schedule that demo for next Thursday? I'm sure once you see it in action, you'll be ready to move forward.

8:40Something like, would it be a complete waste of time to sit down and look at this further? Yeah, exactly. Nailed it. So really what we're trying to do, and I always think with these kind of things, context is key. Yeah. and where you can gain clarity based on some of the things I've said, going deeper is always going to be your best friend. Any parting words on how to sell like a therapist? I think, remember the goal is, can I get someone to think deeply about the problem you solve? When they think deeply, they will attach an emotion. When they attach an emotion, there will be action. Deep thought, emotion, action.

9:18Sales is therapy. Out everywhere now. Get it on Amazon. See you soon, kids. Thank you.