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Live Training and Coaching Session

The NEW Game…How to Master Selling Yourself, Your

Products and Services in the NEW World Economy

With Special Guest Mitch Axelrod

By John Assaraf

© 2011 Praxis Now, LLC. All rights reserved. Published by Praxis Now, LLC.

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Produced in the United States of America.

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DIRECTIONS:

Write down the new understandings you gain from this interview.

Include thoughts, realizations, and concepts you will use to enhance your business/life.

Record specific actions you will take as a result of this new knowledge.

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Ideas

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Training & Coaching Session

Quote #1

“The power

and the control

shifted from

the seller to the

buyer. And

that was an

irreversible

change.”

JA Hey friends, this is John Assaraf and it’s great to have you see me again, or me see you again. I wish I could see all of you. I’ve got to imagine what you all look like sitting at home or at your office. With me is my special guest and friend, Mitch Axelrod, and no matter where you’re listening and watching in from, welcome to another great session that I believe is really going to help you understand, ya know, what you need to do to position yourself, your company, your product or services, to sell them better in today’s new world and new economy. Now Mitch has been a dear friend for many years and he’s one of the leading authorities on the new game of selling. And whether you have a job, and are an employee, or whether you have a company and you have employees, really makes the difference because every moment of every day, you’re selling yourself or you’re not. And one of the keys to understand is what are some of the shift that has happened, ya know, in our society, in our world today that changes dynamic of your relationship and how you’re perceived and whether people buy you as an individual, or buy you and your products or services.

And so with this session today, you should have your workbook already, and it’s obviously about the new game; how to masterly sell yourself, your products, your services in the new world economy. And what we’re going to do is I’m going to ask Mitch some questions on your behalf that I think you’re really going to want to know the answer. What we’re not going to do is go through every page of the manual. We set this up so you can go through the manual on your own. We’re going to invest time going deeper into some of the concepts that I believe you must understand – not need to understand – must understand in order for you to either grow your business, if you have one, or start a business and grow it, and more importantly, really learn the art of selling yourself better, because after all, selling is a relationship between you and others – your products and services, and others. And the better you do that, the more income you’re going to make, the more friends you’re going to have, the more you’ll be able to really live the lifestyle of your dreams. So Mitch welcome thanks buddy.

MA My pleasure John. I really love being here with ya.

JA Thanks. And so Mitch if we can get into, right away. Say hi to everybody. We’ve got people from, I know from Europe, from Australia, from Asia, from Canada, from the United States, from all over the world.

MA Wonderful.

JA So it’s great, great to have you here. So, when we think about, ya know, the new game of selling. I’m going to first ask you, what’s the old game?

MA That’s a great question. The old game was all about persuasion, it was about influence, it was about convincing somebody to part with their money and your job really as the seller was to essentially get the money out of their pocket and put your product on the table. And it was really a confrontational game. It was more of a competitive game. So if you look at all the sales training, pretty much most of it that was done pre-2000, it was still stuck in the 1970s and 1980s, kind of the old used car salesman approach. And so a real shift happened; probably around 2000, with the advent of the Internet. What changed really was that the, this is a seismic shift in the new game. The power and the control shifted from the seller to the buyer. And that was an irreversible change. And so if you really want to contrast the old game versus the new game, the major fundamental premise; I talk

Copyright 2011 Praxis Now, LLC. All rights reserved.

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2

about this in my book, is caveat venditor, which is let the seller beware. And that was, that’s very different than the old game, which was caveat emptor; let the buyer beware. Well, ya know, there was a guy who had his guitar broken by American Airlines. He asked them to fix the guitar, replace the guitar. Well they stonewalled him for days and then weeks. And he decided he, what was I to do? So he wrote a song. And that song was about how American Airlines broke his guitar.

“We don’t

teach people to

overcome

objections; we

teach people

how to never

get an

objection

because if you

focus on what

people want,

they rarely

object to

getting what

they want.”

JA Ouch.

MA Two million views later, American Airlines finally relented said Uncle! Ya know, we’ve got to do something here okay. That could never have happened in the old game of selling. The old game of selling; the sellers had control of the marketplace, they had control of the information, they had control of what you learned and what you knew. Now, 90% of all buying decisions start with an on-line search. So one of the real distinctions of the new game, which is really important for all of us to integrate, is that the seller today – we, you, me – anyone sells a product or service.

JA Everybody who’s watching right now, yeah.

MA Everybody – we run the risk of being obsolete. Why? Because we don’t get into the game, in many cases, until the buyer has already decided what they’re going to buy, and in some cases, from whom. And so major distinction, but the whole playing field shifted when the Internet came along and gave every individual the same power to information, research, wisdom as the sellers had, and that completely shifted the game. So it went from a game that was competitive, often confrontational, which is why so many people hate to sell and they hate to be sold to. Because their experience in selling has kind of come from the old game of, ya know, people trying to force you or persuade you or overcome the objections, or all of these tricks and techniques, and yet the new game is completely different. We’re going to talk more of the key distinctions.

JA Absolutely.

MA So, the, the seismic shift is that the playing field now belongs to the buyer. And, and we have control; we’ve never had that kind of influence or control before. So when you look at the old game, people who are still stuck in that old game, they’re still trying to use some of the old game techniques. Ya know, handling objections, overcoming objections. We don’t teach people to overcome objections; we teach people how to never get an objection because if you focus on what people want, they rarely object to getting what they want. They often object to getting what they don’t want. So the major distinction is the seismic shift in the playing field and now the buyer owns that that turf, so the speak, and every seller is trying to figure out, how do I get through to the buyer with all this noise and all the information, and now my message has to be that much more precise, that much more pinpointed and even that much more effective to get through all the noise and, and what not that’s out there. So, I’d say that’s the major shift in the old game versus the new game.

JA I think you’d all agree, just think for a moment, ya know, right now, you’re watching this, ya know, on your computer. The game has shifted of how we learn, how we disseminate information, and I totally agree with Mitch. It’s a game that shifted from the power of being the seller to the power to being in the buyer’s hand because they have access to the information they need immediately with a, with a push of a couple of buttons. The other thing that I love that you said is, when you


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focus on the wants of the buyers, focus on the wants of the buyers, then you’re fulfilling what they want, and that’s a matter of, do you have great value? Do you offer dynamic value at a fair price in the marketplace?

“You see

people now

giving away

literally their

best stuff with

the idea that if

you give you

my best stuff,

you’ll trust me

enough to

recognize that

there’s depth

behind that.”

MA Yeah, yeah. And that’s a great point because dynamic value is always defined by the buyer. And we as sellers, we’re kind of always scrambling around to figure out what’s the magic words we can use to create that dynamic value, that people are going to swarm all over. And so even that part of the equation has shifted radically, so you’re seeing companies now doing something that never happens. Well we actually pioneered this 20 years ago. I call it giving away the “what” and charging for the “how,” right.

JA Giving away the “what” and charging for the “how?”

MA Giving away the “what” and charging for the “how.” Right.

JA And that, by the way, if any of you that have a book or are wanting to write a book. The only purpose of a book is to get paid to teach what’s in the book. It’s not to make money off the book, it’s to get paid to teach in more depth what’s in the book. So for any of you that, ya know, have a book, think about that.

MA Yeah and that’s a really important distinction too because, here’s another old game versus new game distinction. The old game we were very protective of our information. People would never let it go, ya know, if I give away too much, what if they can do it on their own? Well the new game is completely opposite that. You see people now giving away literally their best stuff with the idea that if you give you my best stuff, you’ll trust me enough to recognize that there’s depth behind that. So here’s another stuff that relates to what you were just saying.

JA But hold on, before you go there. For the people who are watching and saying, I’m a jeweler, I’m an engineer, I’m a doctor, a marketer, ya know, I can understand some of the information product you can give it away, but how does that relate to somebody who’s wanting to start a business or somebody who has a business that, ya know, has got a product they have to sell? Let’s touch on that because a lot of the people that are watching are, ya know, one, two, three, five, ten person businesses, or they don’t even have a business, ya know, they’re working for somebody else.

MA Well I’d say that you could also reverse the formula. You could give away the how and sell the what. So look at your product or service and look at what your real payoff is. If your payoff is the what, okay, so let’s say you’re selling a software system – that’s the what, so you can’t give away the software.

JA Right.

MA Well you can give away the how, you can give away the manual to how to run the software all right? So if your payoff, if your product is actually the “what,” then look to give away the “how.” If your product is the “how,” then give away the “what.” Now here’s an interesting thing. Some people are actually giving away the “what” and the “how” because they have a third choice. So if I give you what to do, and I show you how to do it, you may say, but can you do it for me? And now all of a sudden you have a third piece which is the “done for you.” So whatever your product or service may be, think about what you can give away that can build the trust so that that person on the other side says, you’re the trusted voice I want to hear in my ear. Every time I think about your product or service, I want to be the


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trusted voice in that person’s ear. So you can give away the “what” and charge for the “how.” You can give away the “how” and charge for the “what.” You can give away the “what” and the “how” and then charge just to do it for people. Now if your product or service is such that you can’t give away the “what,” the “how” or the actual “done for you,” then create some sort of an information piece that shows people how to be a better buyer. That’s really what the distinction is today.

“But if you

always become

the second

advisor to

them, then if

something goes

wrong with

their existing

relationships,

they’ll come to

you for a

second

opinion.”

JA So whether you’re a massage therapist, whether you’re a plumber, whether you’re an engineer or doctor or dentist – whatever, you can give people the manual, is what I’m hearing, of here are the things to look for when choosing somebody in my profession, somebody in my business, somebody who wants to buy jewelry, a diamond, gold, whatever the case – is that what I’m hearing?

MA That’s exactly right.

JA Brilliant piece right there everybody.

MA And here’s the great thing about this – you set the standard. So what we did 20 years ago in the insurance industry, we completely changed the insurance industry from the old guard of selling as a transaction to becoming the trusted advisor. And how did we do it? The three-part formula. Number one, add real value in advance, not perceived value. I can’t take perceived value to bank. I can’t eat food with perceived value. I never bought into that notion that you want to build up perceived value because there really is no real value in perceived value. So, first add real value in advance. So we thought, what is real value? Well, we used to have the insurance companies send out letter, literally letters with performance of mutual fund. If you own one of these mutual funds, here’s how it performed. If you don’t own one of these mutual funds, you might want to consider that. Well, guess what? That gives me a reason to call you and have a conversation. Did you get my information? Did you get the mutual fund list? Do you actually have one of these mutual funds? Where does yours rank? So it creates conversation. So step one is add real value. Step two is when you add real value, you become a trusted voice.

People will say, I like what John has to say, he’s giving me information that makes me a better buyer – not just dumping information, but information that makes me really a better buyer so that when I choose your product or service, I feel as though, you’re the guy who’s giving me the best advice. Now I may not buy from you, but I will always have a good feeling, and even if I don’t buy from you, I may recommend you because you’ve given me such good value.

JA You said something to me several years ago that I’ve never forgotten. He and I were talking and he said to me, he says, what you always want to be is the person they come to for a second opinion.

MA Yeah.

JA Remember that? See because a lot of people have a slot in their mind for, whether it’s a dentist, or again, whatever business you might be in or even the job that you have. But if you always become the second advisor to them, then if something goes wrong with their existing relationships, they’ll come to you for a second opinion. And I love that positioning, and that applies to everybody who’s watching right now, with your, whatever your product is, your service is, or your, your business you’re thinking of getting into – even the job that you have – is how do you make sure that people know you for your product or service by being an advisor for that information in that category? Is that still accurate?


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MA I got to tell you, that one distinction transformed my business 25 years ago. I had on my business card – I was using the moniker of “the sales doctor.” Actually it was someone else’s so we stopped, but, I had four words on my business card. And my business card got more business than anybody and those four words were, “Want a second opinion?” And so sales doctor, want a second opinion? Like very clear what I did. And so we’ve got hundreds of thousands of people now that we’ve trained using second opinion marketing as their primary marketing. Now there’s something in our culture, I don’t know why, but something in our culture that says the second opinion sometimes carries more weight than the first opinion. So if you get a first opinion and you say, I’m going to go for a second opinion; medical problem, a health issue, a business decision, a car – you go for a second opinion it either validates the first one, in which case you say, okay I got a good first opinion. Or, it invalidates and conflicts, in which case you say, okay now I have an important decision to make. Which of those two do I put more trust and faith? And there’s something about offering a second opinion that lowers people’s guard.

“And so I

would

recommend, no

matter what

your product or

service is, it

doesn’t make a

difference –

offer a second

opinion, and

this is a great

way to steal

clients and

customers from

other people.”

And so I would recommend, no matter what your product or service is, it doesn’t make a difference – offer a second opinion, and this is a great way to steal clients and customers from other people. Because people get complacent, they get lazy. I get lazy sometimes, let’s face it, its human nature. So there’s people out there that are dying, they’re waiting for somebody to come along and service them. And so if you offer a second opinion just as kind of a matter of course in your business, you’re going to be astounded at how people respond to you, and more importantly, you’re going to get all kinds of people inquiring because they’re wondering, did I really make a good choice? So you position yourself. It’s really a no-lose situation. I’m really glad you brought it up.

JA No, I, I love that. If you think about, ya know, would you call or ask for a second opinion? I want to shift for just a moment. You bring up some thoughts. When I learned how to sell I was 19 years old and the first thing that I learned about selling is that selling is not doing something to somebody, it’s learning how to do something for somebody. And I learned how to sell real estate, and so I was looking to serve people. And really to go and give an amazing value, an amazing service, and in hopes that I would be able to take care of their wants and needs, and that they would refer people to me, and in my third year of real estate, I worked mostly referrals from the people that I helped in the first two or three years. And that was because I had an idea in my mind of serving people and a lot of people, what I’ve found, think about selling. You’re thinking of selling as being something that’s slimy, something I’m not comfortable doing, something that, that I really don’t really want to do that thing. And the truth is, when you do selling professionally and you always come at it from your heart, of giving and serving, then you’re actually doing something for somebody and we all love to help.

And guess what people feel? People can tell, ya know, when you’re trying to sell them for your gain. They can also tell when you’re helping them, serving them for their gain. And since we live on, ya know, a spiritual plane of understanding which we feel the emotions, then I think that we have to reframe what selling is. And I want to make sure that we address the people that are in jobs right now and people that have employees. How do you sell yourself, okay? Is a matter of wanting to move ahead. I don’t want to make any mistake about it. Ya know when I learned how to sell, I wanted to sell because I wanted to make a lot of money, but I thought of by helping a lot of people, I will make a lot of money. Now some people think by helping a lot of, make a lot of money, it’ll help a lot of people. And so how do you talk about and help people really frame selling for their companies or individually, in a way that will really get them excited about selling?

MA Well that’s a really important distinction because really the distinction of the old game and new game, is the old game of selling was about selling in that old way.


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The new game of selling is all about service. So we have a mantra; serve, deliver and serve some more. All right? If you serve, deliver and serve some more.

“We’ve

conditioned

people to stay

inside the box,

inside the

cubicle and

inside their job

description.”

JA Serve, deliver and serve some more.

MA You will never go wrong.

JA I like that one.

MA So let’s talk a little bit about the employee. Let’s start with the employee. Here’s again, a distinction of the old game. The old game was about you get promoted. So people worked for companies and they sat back passively, many, because they were waiting for somebody to tap them on the shoulder and say, John it’s your turn now. We’re going to promote you. You’ve been here long enough, ya know, you’ve got seniority. And everybody’s all excited because somebody tapped him on the shoulder and said, okay it’s time for a promotion all right? And so the old game was about you wait until somebody gives you permission to be promoted. The new game, everybody promotes themselves.

JA Elaborate.

MA Well, think about it. How often does your boss come in and pat you on the back and say, what a great job you did. How often do you go into your boss and remind him or her of the work that you’ve done, of the value that you’ve contributed? We’ve actually created very passive work force. This is part of the challenge that we’re facing now as we’ve gone global. We’ve conditioned people to stay inside the box, inside the cubicle and inside their job description. I think that’s the worst thing a company can do, is actually create a job description that boxes people in. So, first thing I would say to an employee is, don’t be timid. Make a list of all the contributions that you’ve made to your company. If it’s five, it’s 25, if it’s 125 – make a list of all the things that you’ve done for your company. Identify them top three, top five. And then ask your boss to have a conversation. You just want to check in and see, are you measuring up? Are you exceeding expectations? Are you falling short of expectations?

JA So you take the initiative.

MA You take the initiative. Well, because all promotions in the new game is self-promotion. So even if you work for somebody, you can’t sit back and wait for them to decide or acknowledge or recognize your work. They may have five or ten or 20 people that they’re responsible for. So first thing I’d say is get really clear about the contribution that you’re making. Second thing I would say is start thinking in terms of how do I actually contribute to the top line revenue and bottom line profit of my company? And again, another huge new game distinction. In the old game, employees were never permitted or encouraged to think outside the box, right?

JA Right

MA Stay in your cubicle, stay inside your job description. The net result of that is we have a lot of people who are dissatisfied with their work primarily because they’re not releasing all the talent that they have. They’re not contributing.

JA They’re not fulfilled.


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“If there’s one

distinction I

would say

that’s really

encompassing

the entire new

game of selling

and the new

game of

business, it’s

advocating for

the other

person and

allowing that

other person to

advocate for

you.”

MA They’re not fulfilled. So if I were a boss, now switching hats for a second. I would go to every one of my employees and I would say, no more box. Actually in the new game we talk about there’s no inside or outside the box. You throw the box away. And you throw the box away. You also throw the job description box away, right? Now you have a set of tasks you do. But ask your employee, how would you contribute, what one change would you make to our business if you could? If you were President for a day and I let you sit in that seat, what would be the single one thing you would do to contribute to top line revenue or bottom line profit or save money or make money? And ask every one of your employees that question, you will change the environment – even if you get lousy recommendations, it doesn’t matter. Just by engaging people and giving them a chance to contribute, they’re going to feel better about their work. And right now, job satisfaction is probably at an all time low.

JA Absolutely.

MA So.

JA Stress is at an all-time high. Job satisfaction all-time low. Profits are at an all-time low, so everything’s declining. Actually one of my new books that I’m writing is all around the psychological impact of people being suppressed and depressed and stressed out, and how that’s affecting their lack of desire, confidence and certainty to actually do their best.

MA Yeah and companies are oblivious to this. It seems everybody’s so afraid to lose their job, they’re afraid that they might make waves or they’re afraid they might shake things up. And really what we need is we need to shake things up right now. We need to liberate and release the amazing talent that’s within our workforce. And we’ve got to throw that box away and say, let’s all come together as a team. Ya know, one of the huge distinctions I wanted to refer to about how you actually contribute more and this is the essence of selling in the new game, is you switch seats with the other person. So the old game was about maximizing profits for the seller, maximizing the deal for the buyer. And everybody went at each other. You shoot high. I shoot high and then we come down and we compromise, right? That was the negotiating strategy forever. I say throw that out. The new negotiating strategy is highest and best for all – highest and best for all. So how do you achieve highest and best for all? You switch seats. So if I’m a seller, I ask if it’s okay if I sit in your seat, the buyer’s seat, and I want to advocate for you the buyer, all right.

Would you be willing as a buyer to switch seats and sit in my seller’s seat so while I advocate for you, you can understand and see the world through my eyes. So maybe you’ll actually advocate for me. Then when we switch back, guess what? I know your highest and best. You know my highest and best. We don’t have to compromise. We shoot for the highest and best, and if we don’t hit it, at least we know what the target is. This one little metaphorical shift can transform a whole organization. We’ve seen it to the tune of, ya know, billions of dollars already. So, switch seats with the person you’re talking to. Get into their position, advocate for them, and there’s very few people I know of who will not feel good about somebody else advocating on their behalf. If there’s one distinction I would say that’s really encompassing the entire new game of selling and the new game of business, it’s advocating for the other person and allowing that other person to advocate for you. And if we could do that, everything would change – business would change, politics would change, relationships would change. Just think of how many conflicts we have in relationships with people simply because we don’t switch seats and say, oh my God, I can’t believe it, I’m seeing things through your eyes. So, this is so important, I can’t emphasize it enough.


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8

“Yeah, in fact,

I would say

that the subtitle

of a new game

of business is

the rise of

enlightened

free

enterprise.”

JA It’s interesting that the misjudgments [inaudible]. I recently had an interaction with an individual who’s a wonderful, wonderful person who provides us great services to our company and we were negotiating, ya know, for a better deal, on something that he was offering us. And I sent him an email and I said, hey, can you do it for, ya know, a little bit less of a price. And he came back and says, listen, ya know, I’m a startup, ya know I’ve got overhead, I’m giving you a great price. And he gave me a whole bunch of reasons as to why it’s important for his company to get that revenue. And I sat back for one second. I sent him an email back, said, you know what? Thank you so much for letting me see your point of view. I totally didn’t look at it from your lens, and now that you’ve shared with me some of your needs for the money, I’m good with it, let’s go ahead with the deal. And so, I mean it just happened in the last two weeks. So that’s a really, really good example.

This happens to be true everybody as well, not just in selling, but in your communication with your children, with your significant other, with your employees, with your boss, with people on the other side of your world who may be emailing you, is when you could learn the art and the skill of putting yourself in their shoes and seeing the world, the situation from their vantage point, you have done yourself and them a huge service of communication, empathy and compassion. And there’s some new studies around compassion communication that’s going to come out next year that’ll blow you away how people respond to compassion and honest communication. And that’s one of the new rules of selling is compassionate communication and authenticity.

MA Yeah, in fact, I would say that the subtitle of a new game of business is the rise of enlightened free enterprise.

JA One more time.

MA The rise of enlightened free enterprise.

JA And so what is enlightened free enterprise?

MA It’s compassion it’s consciousness and it’s collaboration. Those are the three huge distinctions.

JA So, compassion.

MA Compassion; people feeling that you really care and that if you’re not, ya know, it’s funny you mention authenticity. I wrote an article called “Inauthentic Authenticity.” Because it seems like now authenticity has become the new marketing packet, ya know, it’s like okay, now let’s be vulnerable and let’s be authentic, ya know? And you can kind of see through that inauthentic authenticity. I’m not talking about authenticity as a marketing tactic.

JA Right.

MA I’m talking about authenticity as…

JA Pretending to be authentic.

MA Right, pretending to be authentic, but really being authentic. And being authentic means that you do have compassion for the person on the other side because they


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9

“So if you can

embrace that

the new game

is a

collaborative

game, you can

see every single

person, even

your stiffness

and staunchest

competition, as

potential

collaborators.”

have a challenge, a problem or an opportunity that they’re reaching out to you to say, help me, ya know, we want to achieve something, we want to go somewhere. So, first thing is compassion. Second thing is consciousness, all right. The new game is a very conscious game. In the old game people didn’t really care who they bought from, as long as they got the best deal.

JA Right.

MA And the sellers didn’t have much allegiance to the buyers. Well, now all of a sudden, you’re hearing about consciousness, enlightenment. These are words that ten years ago…

JA Mindfulness.

MA Mindful-, you couldn’t - spirituality in business?

JA Right.

MA You couldn’t even put those two words together. I’ve been in business 33 years. It’s only the last five years that companies are saying you actually can talk about spirituality in business? Yes, because every person who works there is a spiritual being. They’re not just a slave to the company, they’re not just an assembly line person. So, consciousness. Now third thing is collaboration. This is a real hard distinction because we were weaned in a competitive world, all right. Our world is very competitive.

JA Right.

MA Our country’s competitive, and people tend to gravitate some people into sales because sales is a good place for you to exert your competitive juices. Well the person who’s competitive today could do very well, but probably won’t in the long run, because people will get tired of that constant conflict and feeling as though they’re at the effect of somebody. So if you really want to be a game-changer (those words again) collaborate. I’ve collaborated with my competition for 25 years. I never see competition out there. I don’t know what my competitor’s doing. When I first taught sales training, there was a whole section on sales training on your competition. Know your competition, ya know, position yourself against your competition. You know what? I have no idea what my competition does because I don’t have any competitors. I have collaborators and then there’s other people out there that do similar things. So I don’t worry so much about that and that’s a shift in thinking. So if you can embrace that the new game is a collaborative game, you can see every single person, even your stiffness and staunchest competition, as potential collaborators.

And just think about this from a practical point of view, most marketing produces, at most, 10% to 20% of real targeted leads that are candidates for your products or service. What do you do with the other 80% to 90% of the people that inquire, but are not really appropriate? I used to send them to other service providers. I’d pick up the phone and say, John, I’ve got somebody here not suitable for me, could be suitable for you, do you mind if I introduce you? And John’s sitting there thinking, yeah. And the client is sitting there thinking, I’ve never seen that happen before. We used to do this routinely. So again, that old competition model is kind of dying out and the collaborative model now where you see people joint venturing that used to be competitors. Hey, IB, not IBM, Microsoft has had an Apple division for years and most people don’t think Microsoft has an Apple division? Of course they


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do. They want to know what Apple’s doing. Now they may not collaborate with Apple, but they have a whole Apple division of people that just work on understanding what Apple is doing.

“So my point

of this is, if you

become

conscious,

compassionate

and

collaborative –

people will

flock to you

because there’s

so few people

today in

business, in

life, who are

conscious,

compassionate

and

collaborative.”

JA Yeah, but that’s competitive intelligence.

MA That is competitive intelligence, but it’s indicative, smart…

JA But it’s competitive intelligence.

MA No question. It’s indicative though of the shift in the game where, ya know, 20 years ago, you could never ever announce something like that. So my point of this is, if you become conscious, compassionate and collaborative – people will flock to you because there’s so few people today in business, in life, who are conscious, compassionate and collaborative. So those are the three real distinctions of what makes the rise of enlightened free enterprise a movement that’s literally unstoppable.

JA Okay so I love it. Let me ask you all a question. Do you agree with what Mitch is talking about? Ya know, compassion, love, collaboration, do you agree that that’s the new wave that affecting you right now wherever you are in the world? And do you believe that that’s the new model for everyone to aspire toward? If you can write down your comments maybe right now, Mike over here who’s sitting here and dialoguing with you on-line can let me know. We also want to take some questions right now. So we’ve been at this for about 30 minutes, and so what I want to do is just go to the audience and take some questions. I’m going to take some frequent breaks every 15, 20 minutes. So if you’ve got a question and you happen to be on our bridge, our telephone bridge, just press “1” and Rafaella will be able to help you. If, on the other hand, you want to ask a question on-line right now because you’re watching and you’re on the computer in the membership area, then let Mike know what your question is. And we’ll choose one or two questions for Mitch right now or myself.

What I can share with you is that every day you’re selling, and it makes no difference if you are going to work or you’re at home or you have a business – every day you’re selling. And the more you really study and refine your selling ability, okay, the more income you’re going to make, the better job you’re going to have, the happier you’re going to be with the reward of driving in more revenues and making more income from your career or business. And there’s two critical factors for every single business. They’re what I call oxygen factors. One is marketing, which is driving leads into your business and we’ll have some discussions on that another time. The other time is selling, and selling can be either done on-line or off-line, in person or not. And those two skills, above probably anything else, are responsible for how well you’re going to do financially. Unless of course if you’re an inventor, but even if you’re an inventor and you invent a product, somebody’s going to have to sell it. But for the most part, your ability to sell yourself, your product or your services will determine the income that you’re going to make. Mike, what kind of responses are we getting from people right now? Is Mitch on the money? Mike’s probably got a poll right now.

M 100% in agreement.

MA Wow, the survey says.

JA 100% in agreement. The survey says, 100% in agreement.


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“Ya know, I

like to be sold

by a

professional

sales person

who knows

what I want

and what I

need, but I hate

to be sold and

pressured,

okay, if there’s

somebody

trying to

benefit

themselves.”

MA Ka-ching.

JA Now, here’s one other question I want to ask you and it’s just a yes or no question. Do you love to buy? Do you love to buy things? Yes or no? Do you love to buy things? Just type in your answers right now, get a little audience participation. What do you think the percentages are going to be? You love to buy things?

MA Oh yeah of course. I think everybody loves.

JA For those of you who don’t love to buy, my wife will put up two or three extra yeses just for you, all right? So Mike what’s the responses? Do you love to buy?

M All right, give us a second here.

JA Okay I’ve got one more question for you, and you know I like to have fun during these. I mean I’ve even called them interviews. I really want them to be lessons and training and coaching for you on how to position yourself, your products or service. So, do you love to buy things? Whether it’s food, clothing, trips, gifts for friends – do you love to buy?

M 94% love to buy.

MA Wow.

JA 94% love to buy and then 6% don’t love to buy. Now here’s one last question. Mike, can we get this poll up? Do you love being sold to? Do you love being sold to? When you know somebody’s trying to sell you something, do you love being sold to, all right.

MA I ask this question of every audience. It’s great that you ask these questions.

JA Well good. I want you guys – I want to make some points here because, ya know, I’ve made a lot of money by having an attitude about selling and that attitude about selling helps me generate, ya know, a lot of wonderful clients around the world and happy customers. And so how many of you love to be sold? Mike?

M It’s a little bit of a moving target, as we have a group still entering.

JA Okay.

M But we’ve got 32% say they liked to be sold.

MA Wow.

M 58% say they do not like to be sold.

JA Okay, and maybe I should have reframed that. Ya know, I like to be sold by a professional sales person who knows what I want and what I need, but I hate to be sold and pressured, okay, if there’s somebody trying to benefit themselves. And I think the old, let me go to Mitch for this for just a moment. I think the old used car salesman, okay, and there are professional used car salespeople. So if there’s


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anybody out there watching us who’s a used car salesperson I hope that you are just a professional, amazing, loving, caring, compassionate, collaborative salesperson. But the old, ya know, used car salesperson was selling you something that you may not need or want and trying to strong arm you and convince you into buying something.

“We show

people how to

bring people

present so

they’re actually

hearing what

you’re offering

in the present

moment, not

colored by their

bad past

experience.”

MA Right.

JA I believe, with the Internet, and with what you’ve talked about, those days are gone, and those people may make a quick buck here or there, but there’s no longevity in that. Agree?

MA Totally agree. And ya know it’s interesting that statistic, the number, the percentage of people, 32% I think Mike said, way higher than almost any audience I’ve polled and I’ve done 3,500 talks so I know the numbers, and usually at 10% or less of people like to be sold to. Because when you think about being sold to, right now, think about the last encounter you’ve had with somebody who was trying to sell you something. And was it a positive encounter? Was it something that left you feeling wow, I want to go back for more? Or was that experience one of those, I don’t want to ever experience that again? And because the old game put so many bad experiences in our head that we’re actually not responding in the present to opportunities that are presented to us because we’re blocking out and we’re being thrust back into the past. So we’re not responding to the offer presented, we’re reacting from bad past experience. The seller doesn’t know it, the buyer doesn’t know it because it’s unconscious – game over. The game is over before it even starts. You’re taking people back. You’re the stimulus, I’m the response.

Every single word, every facial expression, every body language movement conveys something that either brings people back to a bad past experience in which case game over, or you can bring them present where they’re actually hearing what you’re saying in the present. One of the mottos we teach is actually the stimulus response model. We show people how to bring people present so they’re actually hearing what you’re offering in the present moment, not colored by their bad past experience. So if you think about 32% of your audience actually likes to be sold to – that’s way above 90% of the audiences I’ve ever talked to, so obviously you guys are hip out there. You know the distinction between a professional offering you something versus somebody who’s slick and just trying to kind of, ya know, slip one under the radar.

JA So for those of you 32%, I want to share with you a new product and service that I’ve got coming out in the next week. No, I’m just kidding. I want to share a story with you. I was just in New York with my wife, Maria, and we were shopping and having some fun and we walked into this one store. As soon as I walked in the store, we already had a bag of some stuff that she bought at another store. And as soon as I walked in the door, I held the door open for my wife, I saw from the corner of my eye, this person walking, walking, walking towards me, going hi, can I help you, is there anything you’d like? And as soon as he did that, I said, no thank you, we’re just looking. Two stores down I was at a men’s clothing store and I was looking for some stuff, a man walked over to us and said, hi, my name is Frank, if there’s any questions about anything that you need in the store, I’d be more than happy to serve you, just ask, I’ll be right over there. And he starts to walk away, and I said, oh excuse me, and I had two separate experiences where one was trying to come at me like I was – here’s a shopper, I’m going to make some sales and make some commission. And the other one who probably thought the same thing, just offered me some help by saying, it’s kind of like, if you need a second opinion, he said, my name is Frank, ya know, if there’s any questions I can answer for you about anything in the store, I’d be more than happy to help you. Changed


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“Listen with

your ears, your

eyes and your

heart and you

really connect

with people

and try to

understand

what it is that

they’re going

through.”

my entire stimulus to be and I ended up buying probably $1,500.00 worth of stuff from him. And so totally, totally a different position and so there’s a killer lesson for each one of you. How you do what you’re doing at work, at home, or in your business, selling what you do, you’re positioning is critical, critical. You’re, you’re going to say the stimulus response.

MA Well and it’s a beautiful example of, and the distinction is, ya know, this is common sense. A lot of selling is common sense and the new game of selling is very much common sense. Why people resonate with it and get results with it is because you don’t have to learn a new language and you don’t have to be somebody you’re not. And if you really think about it, if you were in a social situation, that guy would never walk up to you that way, right?

JA Right.

MA He would come, he would introduce himself, he would get comfortable with you, you’d get comfortable. So if you start thinking differently from selling as selling and being in your own head, ya know, one of the biggest challenges we have in training salespeople is salespeople are always in their head. They’re always thinking, what do I have to say next? Well if you’re thinking what you have to say next, you can’t possibly be listening to the most important thing, which is what the other person is sharing with you. So we teach people not only how to communicate better, we actually teach people how to listen. We teach them not only how to listen with their ears, how to listen with their eyes, how to listen with their heart. Listen with your ears, your eyes and your heart and you really connect with people and try to understand what it is that they’re going through. And this takes some compassion. It takes some empathy, and it takes a whole lot of patience because we as sellers, we want to be talking about our stuff, ya know, all the time. And I found that if you can follow the 80/20 rule; 80% of the time you listen, 20% of the time you talk. If you just follow that rule and make it a rule. I’m not big on rules, but that’s one rule I follow, you can almost never go wrong.

Because if you balance an hour appointment, you say 80% of the time I’m going to listen. That means for 45 minutes plus you’re going to be listening, that means you’ve got to get really good at asking targeting questions. You’ve got to get really good at listening not just for what’s said, but what’s not said. And our culture does not teach us how to listen. We learn how to talk. We learn how to speak. We learn how to convey our message, but we don’t learn really, to listen to the cues that people are giving us to say, I want it, I want it. I have one of our certified coaches called me the other day and she said, Mitch, I presented the rejection proof networking. We have a little model called rejection proof networking. We can show you how to eliminate rejection in 15 minutes for the rest of your life guaranteed – 100% of the time it works.

JA That’s a good USP – unique selling proposition.

MA Yeah and it does work. So she’s presenting and all of a sudden, the woman says, I want that, right. And so I said, Cheryl, what did you do? She said, I don’t know, I turned around and walked away. And I said, why did you walk away, she just said she wanted it? She said, I didn’t know what to say. I said, here’s what you say from now on. If anybody ever says to you, I want it. You just say, how would you like me to deliver it? And that’s all you have to say. And this is partly because people are not tuned in to listening for when other people say, I want something. She literally walked away from a sale that the person expressed overtly, I want what you have. And she didn’t know how to basically convey to commitment. And that’s somebody who’s already been trained. So you realize how hard it is to unravel some of the habits and the past experiences we’ve had. So that stimulus


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response model becomes critical. So here’s how you bring people present. First of all you say to then, John, are you with me right now, can we have conversation in the present without any of your bad past experiences impacting your listening right now? And if a person says, I don’t think so. Then you have a choice. You can keep on knowing that the person is really listening through a past lens, or you can say, you know what John, why don’t we do this. When you feel it’s the right time where we can have a conversation in the present where you’re not thinking about that bad past experience, I’d be delighted to come back, when would be a good time for us to do that?

“The new

game of selling

is about three

green lights,

and if we can

walk arm in

arm through

three green

lights; we

actually show

you how to

walk through

those green

lights, we get to

the promise

land.”

JA That’s a great skill to have at home.

MA It’s a great sk-, I’ve raised my son for ten years as a single parent, and boy that was the hardest selling job I ever had to do was to get my son to clean up his room. I always talk about, ya know, I’m a pretty good trainer, but I could never get him to clean up his room. But I realized at some point that what he wanted; he didn’t want me to tell him what to do. He wanted me to listen to what he thought was a good thing to do. And so it took years, but I finally recognized that I need to give him the space to be present without telling him the things he should have done in the past and, ya know, bringing up the past. And I actually learned to be very good at this by raising my son, and it had such an incredible effect on my business because now I am so tuned in to people. If they’re in the past, I can’t have a conversation with you in the present because you’re not hearing what I’m saying. You’re filtering it through that, oh, that won’t work, and that won’t work and that guy told me this. You’re better off to break, move on, and nine times out of ten that person will say to you, okay, I will be present with you all right, and now you can engage in a conversation. So that’s one thing you can do to bring people present so they’re hearing what you’re saying now.

JA And you could use that with a boss, you can use that with a customer, you can use that with anybody.

MA Anybody. You can use this, this is a life skill. This is not a selling skill. This is a life skill. This is a communication skill. This is a compassion skill. This is saying, I sense you’re not with me. And so my philosophy of business is that we want to walk arm in arm through a series of green lights. That’s the whole game we teach. The new game of selling is about three green lights, and if we can walk arm in arm through three green lights; we actually show you how to walk through those green lights, we get to the promise land. Well if a light turns red, and this is what happens in Manhattan right. You’re sitting on a corner in Manhattan, the lights green you run, you go across. Light turns red you stop. Well people from New York don’t stop, they go right across the street on a red light, doesn’t matter. Well people from out of town are like, what are you nuts? That’s in the perfect analogy of when we get stuck in a business connection where the light turns red, the person is stopped. We don’t know they’re stopped. We think the light is green. We rush across the street and little by little we realize they’re back there at the red light and we’re out of alignment. And once you’re out of alignment, you will never get agreement and you will never get commit. And those are the three magic words that I teach people. You get alignment, you get agreement, you get commitment and that’s where you go to the promise land. Those are the magic words.

JA Alignment, agreement and commitment.

MA Alignment, agreement and commitment.


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JA So alignment, agreement and commitment will get you to your promised land. So whether you’re an employee, whether you’re at home, whether it’s with your children, your spouse, significant other, or your customers or your suppliers – alignment, agreement and commitment. So follow that three-step process, okay. I love that. I want you to finish what you’ve got to say and I’ve got to go, not that I have to go, but I’m sure there’s a lot of people that have some questions for us and about 13 minutes ago I said we’re going to ask some questions.

“Don’t let your

past reaction or

your past

experience

cause you to

automatically

react because

then you’re out

of alignment.

In that decision

gap, take

responsibility –

the ability to

respond to

whatever life

throws at you.”

MA Okay, right.

JA But I’m just so into this because it’s such great stuff that I went overboard, okay.

MA Okay, so here’s the other half of the stimulus response, all right. If you find yourself reacting. We all have buttons. My son knows how to push my buttons. He’s become a master button-pusher, all right. Now he doesn’t do it purposely, but ya know, parents and children, you’ve got two boys, you know the deal right? They just know how to push your buttons, so here’s how you never let people push your buttons again. Between stimulus, whatever that is, and response, there’s a gap. I call it the decision gap, all right. Even if you have to count one Mississippi, two Mississippi and you just have to stop. Don’t let your past reaction or your past experience cause you to automatically react because then you’re out of alignment. In that decision gap, take responsibility – the ability to respond to whatever life throws at you.

JA That’s good.

MA Right. That’s responsibility. It’s controlling that decision gap. If you control that decision gap you will never react from the past, you will respond in the present, even if you have to take a deep breath, like count, whatever you have to do. That’s how you become non-reactive. I’ve got to tell you. This goes far beyond selling. This has caused people to overcome stress, illness – because a lot of our stress and that illness is from that fright or flight, ya know. A bad situation; the bear is coming, I gotta run. The salesperson is coming. What do we all do when we see a salesperson coming? It’s like no thank you, no thank you. So you don’t want to be that person. So here’s the lesson. You, 100% of the time, you are the stimulus. How can you change your stimulus, you, so that other people respond to you in the present and they don’t react to you in the past? If you answer that question, we can help you answer that question, if you answer that question, your life will change radically and you won’t even notice it. It’ll just start to happen. People will connect with you. They’ll be present with you. You’ll be present with them. Your relationships will improve. It has a spillover effect into every aspect of life.

JA I hope you all really got that; that, ya know, between the stimulus, whatever’s happening in your outside world, whatever somebody says or does or doesn’t say or doesn’t do, and your reaction – what do you call that gap?

MA The decision gap.

JA The decision gap. You have a choice of how to respond or not respond, and what you need is just to take a second or two, and that’ll allow your automatic responses, your reptilian brain to kick in, and all of the neurological stuff that’s going on there it’ll want you to lunge forward and stress yourself out. You learn that one lesson; this whole call, this whole year of training has been worth it for you. Ya know, that is something that I believe has helped me in my life. No matter what has happened around me, the ability to just wait, respond, versus react has been invaluable. With that said, what questions do you have for Mitch? Again,


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“I believe the

two single

most, the three

single most

important

questions to

answer in

marketing –

what you do,

and it’s not

what you sell -

and we’ll talk

more about

that - why you

do it.”

sorry for taking a little bit longer, but this is so exciting. It’s great stuff. I want to give you lots of content, and I want you to interact now. So, let’s take five or six minutes of questions. For those of you who don’t want to listen to questions, you need a one-function break. Just one-function break. Go do that now. But I suggest you listen to the questions. Michael, do we have any questions that are coming in on your screen, my friend?

M Yes we do. I got one from Karen Bukhart.

JA Hi Karen.

M Do we concentrate on building partnerships or collaborating with each other when it comes to tending our business? I heard we should partner up and collaborate the line.

JA Okay, so Mitch why don’t you take that first.

MA Well, ya know, there’s no one answer that fits all. I think that’s really part of the whole new game of selling. Is that there’s no answer that works for everybody, all right. But I’ll give you a generic answer. I feel that partnering is the new game of business really, when you think about it. Because whoever it is that you serve, somebody already has access to that audience. Now, you can market. We can talk a little bit about one of the things we talked about is identifying what you do and who you’re looking for. I believe the two single most, the three single most important questions to answer in marketing – what you do, and it’s not what you sell - And we’ll talk more about that - Why you do it? All right, not your 30 minute story, which is commonplace, but a 30 second to one minute why you do it. Because people want to know, why do you do what you do. But here’s the critical thing, and not one in a hundred businesses can answer this question with clarity – who are you looking for?

JA Who’s your target audience, your specific ideal client profile?

MA Yes, who are you looking for? If I walked up to you and say, who are you looking for? If you could identify that person that you’re looking for; whether you use the Avatar approach. Ya know, here’s Joe from T Caucus New Jersey or whatever.

JA Or Sydney Australia?

MA Or whatever. Or you use a descriptive phrase, or you use some sort of an example to be crystal clear about who you’re looking for. Now just think about this and this is actually how you get rid of rejection for the rest of your life, all right. You ready? You tell people here’s what I do, here’s why I do it, here’s who I’m looking for – who do you know, where should I go?

JA Here’s what I do.

MA Here’s why I do it.

JA Here’s why I do it.

MA Here’s who I’m looking for.


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JA Here’s who I’m looking for.

“I want to

partner with

people who are

as thrilled to

work with me

as I am to work

with them.”

MA Who do you know? Where should I go?

JA Who do you know? Where should I go? So this should be a song, Mitch and I.

MA This is it.

JA Here’s what I do.

MA Here’s why I do it.

JA Here’s…

MA Who I’m looking for.

JA Who I’m looking for.

MA Who do you know?

JA Who do you know?

MA Where should I go?

JA Where should I go?

MA There’s your own…

JA There’s your ole song of the day.

MA There it is. Rejection proof networking in a nutshell. So, my answer to the question is, partner with people who; here’s how I judge whether I want to partner with somebody. It sounds silly. I want to partner with people who are as thrilled to work with me as I am to work with them. And if you can be thrilled to work with me as I am to work with you, we can’t miss. On the other hand, if you’re working with somebody who isn’t so thrilled to be working with you or they’re just looking for a transaction, or they’re just looking for you to promote to your list, you can do that, but that has no longevity to it.

JA Right.

MA Ya know, that’s a transaction, and there’s nothing wrong with that. People have gotten very wealthy and done very well on a transaction. So I would say, look for people who have already got as customers, your ideal clients, and one of the things I told a friend of mine years ago; I’m actually writing a book with this title next year called, “Doink.”

JA Doink?


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MA Doink. I, my philosophy is very simple. Walk up to the center of your target, the bulls-eye and go doink with the arrow, instead of shooting at a target from a half a mile away with a blindfold on and that target is moving. So who is your doink? Who are you really best suited to serve? So here’s a question you can find out the answer.

“Here’s the

problem with

USP. We

create it. We

write it. We

produce it. We

message it. We

put it out there.

But we don’t

know if our

language really

connects with

what people

are buying.”

JA Great question. Defining your ideal client profile.

MA So here’s a question, and we actually, and this is the first of five questions or service that we teach people how to get referrals, testimonials and endorsements. Not one in a hundred companies ask this question, and I’m astounded by it. Why did you buy from us? Why did you buy from me? You think about that one question, that one question can transform your business. Here’s why. You think you know why people buy from you. I think I know. I surmise. I guess. I estimate. I theorize. But I really don’t know until I ask a sample of my best customers, why did you buy from us? We did this 20 years ago, changed my business. I’m sitting with a corporate executive. I said you’ve got consultants coming in and out of here all day long. Why did you pick me? He said you’re the only guy who was ever brought in here who talks about marketing, sales and service as one holistic process, and up until you came in, we never talked about how we attract them, convert them and keep them all together. I said, are you telling me I’m the only guy who ever talked about how to attract, convert and keep customers? He said, yeah. I said, dinner’s on me.

JA Wow.

MA That guy gave me my USA.

JA Unique selling…

MA Unique service advantage.

JA Unique service advantage. See I’ve never heard that before. Unique service advantage.

MA We’re all familiar with USP, right.

JA Write it down.

MA Everybody knows USP, unique selling proposition, right? Here’s the problem with USP. We create it. We write it. We produce it. We message it. We put it out there. But we don’t know if our language really connects with what people are buying. So how do you create your USA, your unique service advantage? Very simple. You ask everyone you serve, how, why did you buy from us? You write the answers down and you collate the answers, and now you’re going to have essentially the essence of your unique selling advantage, and then you can use these four powerful words that you cannot use until you ask this question. Our customers tell us. When somebody says to me, why should I buy from you?

JA Our customers tell us.

MA I don’t say. I say, my customers tell me. And then all of a sudden I have incorporated social proof with authority, with consensus. I’ve incorporated three of


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Robert Cialdini’s influence principles, but I’ve done them as a sleuth as opposed to somebody who’s trying to smuggle people, all right. So ask people, why did you buy from me?

“The corollary

question that

people ever ask

that could be

one of the most

powerful

questions, is

why did you

not buy from

us?”

JA Or why did you hire me?

MA Why did you hire me?

JA What is it that I do that is working for you?

MA Exactly. And then, collate those answers, all right. And what’s going to happen is you’re going to now shift your USP because your USP is going to reflect your USA, which is more accurate, right? And so people are going to resonate because the language you’re using is no longer seller language, it’s buyer language. And this will completely transform your business. There’s just no way around it.

JA So I know you guys have got a lot of questions for Mitch, but I have a question for you. Why did you buy from me or my company? And I’m being serious. Can you do me a favor, right now, I’m going to take his advantage right now. One of the things you’re going to learn about me, is when I hear of a good idea, I act upon it now. So, why did you, everybody who’s watching, why did you buy from me, or from our company? If you could do me a favor, just type in that answer, that would be greatly appreciated because you’ll give me and us, my USA, all right? So type that in first and then I’ve got several questions that I’m going to ask Mitch as well that I want to make sure that I get to. And so, Mike are people typing in why they bought from me or from us?

M Yes.

JA Type in why did you buy from me, or my company, either one? That’s a great, great help. While you do that, keep your ear open to me. One other thing I want to piggyback on what Mitch said earlier. I heard this many, many years ago that really helped me again, and that is you listen with your ears. Oh I’m sorry. You hear with your ears, but you listen with your emotion. And when you can train yourself to be present, as Mitch suggested. Be right here, uninterrupted, unobstructed with other stuff, you will transform your relationship with individuals, and that’s whether it’s on camera like this, whether it’s on the telephone, or any communication you have with somebody. When they know your emotions are right there, the relationship, the bonding, the attraction factors, the neural resonance, scientifically proven neural resonance occurs and you’ll create a bone of trust a million times faster than just hearing while you’re paying attention to other stuff. So listen with your emotions. And while you type in the answer to that, I’ve got a question over here. There’s two questions I’ve got to ask you. One of them is, why is selling the most underdeveloped skill that is important to winning the game, whether you’re an employee, a business owner or somebody who wants to start their own business?

MA Okay, I’m going to answer that, but I want to, can I just come back to the question. I want to give you something really cool.

JA Yeah.

MA All right, two things, on the question why did you buy from us, all right? The corollary question that people ever ask that could be one of the most powerful


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questions, is why did you not buy from us? Very few people ask why did you not buy from us because we’re afraid of the answer, right. So I wanted to hitchhike off of that question. From now on, anybody who doesn’t buy from you, stay very present, stay very centered, be okay and just, I’m curious as to what caused you not to buy. Very often that will reveal the one thing that’s in the way. Now here’s the last thing I’ll make a point and then we’ll move on. Imagine going to your competitors asking them the question, just curious, why did you buy from John? You can find out so much about your prospects who are currently buying from other people just by asking people why did you buy from that other company out there? Or why did you not buy from that other company out there? And so I just wanted to punctuate that because the reverse question of why did you not buy is almost as important as asking people why did you buy, all right.

“Fish eat when

they’re hungry,

not when you

drop the line.

And sometimes

you are talking

to people who

are not hungry,

you just think

they’re hungry

because you

wanted

somebody to sit

there while you

made your

presentation.”

That’s a really important point because enough people won’t be buying; somebody won’t be buying from you, so you really want to know what it is. Is it something that you did that you can correct, or is it just they were not ready? And that’s going to be a theme we’re going to talk about is the huge distinction that we really must understand is that fish eat when they’re hungry, not when you drop the line. Fish eat when they’re hungry, not when you drop the line. And sometimes you are talking to people who are not hungry, you just think they’re hungry because you wanted somebody to sit there while you made your presentation. So I wanted to bring that up because it’s almost as important to ask a question, why did you not buy from us, as it is to ask a question, why did you buy from us?

JA And that’s harder to do if you’re a store owner or if you’re a solo professional and you’re doing transactional type of work, right?

MA Right, but still worth it. No matter what the question.

JA Well I think the thinking that you have to have is why’d you buy, what didn’t you buy, why are you buying from our competition? So from a business person’s perspective, or an employee’s perspective, ya know, part of what I want to teach each one of you is a different way of thinking about yourself, your strategies and tactics and the implementation of different strategies and tactics in your life and business, and listening to us talk and go back and forth, hopefully it will trigger some ideas for you. You know a lot of times, ya know, one of the things that Mitch said before, you listen for the stuff that’s being said, but you also listen for the stuff that’s not being said. So how can what we’re teaching you today, what you’re learning today, help you, all right? What do they teach me here that I could use over here, at home, at work, with my employees, with my boss, with my co-workers, etc. That’s the way my brain works. How do I take these little nuggets and use them in different places.

MA Right.

JA So back to the…

MA Now the question.

JA Ya know what? Before Mitch answers the question, Mike do we have another question for Mitch? I keep wanting to extrapolate all the information out of him, but I know you do as well. So I just get excited, sorry, I get excited for you.

M From Bob Heff. I’d like to know why Mitch believes the sales game is changing in this way, and what is provoking that change?


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“And the other

thing is that

people are sick

and tired of

being taken

advantage of.

They’re tired of

being sold

things that they

don’t want.”

JA So what’s changed. Why is this, ya know, why do you believe the game is changing in this way and what’s provoking that change?

MA Well it’s actually not a belief, it’s an observation, and it’s experience. If you’re a buyer or you’re a seller and you’re in the marketplace, you don’t really have to go too far to kind of experience what’s happening out there. So I put my buyer’s hat on and I go into the marketplace to buy and I experience what’s happening. Then I put my seller’s cap on and I observe what’s happening. So I’m more a reporter observing the transitions and the trends. When I first wrote the book, “The New Game of Business,” back in 2003, I identified ten game-changing trends that were affecting the business world, all right. I could say I predicted that, but I wouldn’t be so arrogant to say that. I was observing that. And every single one of them came true. Why? Not because of my impressions, but because I’m an observer of what’s happening. So I would say it’s probably less a belief than it is an observation. The other half of that question was…

JA What’s provoking it?

MA Oh, what’s provoking it is…

JA See I’m listening with my emotions.

MA Good, good point. What’s provoking it? Well first of all, what we talked about earlier is the complete shift of the playing field where the buyer now has the choice to buy anything from jellybeans to jet planes on-line with no middle person and 90% of buying decisions start on-line so the salesperson doesn’t even get in the game until who knows when. All right. And the other thing is that people are sick and tired of being taken advantage of. They’re tired of being sold things that they don’t want. I mean we can go into a values conversation here about what’s happening in our country that’s reflective of these bad sales practices. Look at the financial services industry. Look at the mortgage industry. Look at the college loan industry. Every one of those three industries has been affected by bad “salesmanship.” People selling things to unknowing buyers that the buyers did not really have good information and the sellers took advantage of that. So now buyers are saying, we’ve had enough, all right. We’re not going to let you dominate the game anymore. We’re going to move the game in the direction we want to play, and now sellers are scrambling around and saying, well what do we do to respond to this and a lot of sellers are actually reacting, they’re not responding.

JA A lot of businesses are going out of business because they’re afraid to join the new revolution, right? The new way of doing things and a lot of people just don’t want to do that.

MA Well and here’s the big shift. We talked about sellers being obsolete. Trust has shifted from the seller, which where the trust was in the past. You had all the information, you would advise me, you would give me – the trust has shifted from the seller to the peers, the peeps and Yelp, okay. So where do you go for your information? You check your peers, you check your peeps and you go to Yelp, and you do that, you put trust in your peers more than you put trust in the seller. So guess what? We as sellers, we now have competitors that are peers, peeps and Yelp, and we can’t compete with them because we have a vested interest. So we’ve got to completely shift our thinking, our doing and our being to adapt to this new game.

JA And for those of you from around the world that don’t know what Yelp is.


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“It’s not just in

cyberspace, but

everything you

do and say

today

someone’s

either got a

video of,

photograph,

you’ve written

about it,

they’ve written

about it,

somebody’s

commented,

and so your life

and my life is

different today

than it ever

was before

because we’re

an open book.”

MA Yelp is…go ahead.

JA It’s like a directory. It’s like an on-line place where people can go and leave comments on your plumbing business, on your dentistry business, on your restaurant, on, ya know, so every area in the world has got these consumer-driven sites that you can check up on people that are promising you and selling you things so that you can saw, do they get five stars, three stars, two stars?

MA Right.

JA Is it a waste of time? Are they liars, stealers, cheaters? And this goes, the same thing happens, ya know, one of my sons, ya know, gets on-line every once in a while and using negative language patterns. How’s that for reframing what he’s doing on-line? And I tell him, I said, what you don’t realize is when you go to university, they can research all of that because once you put it out there, it’s there. It’s not just in cyberspace, but everything you do and say today someone’s either got a video of, photograph, you’ve written about it, they’ve written about it, somebody’s commented, and so your life and my life is different today than it ever was before because we’re an open book.

MA Yeah.

JA And somebody can do research on you, your product, your service, your company, your happy clients, your unhappy clients. And so the transparency factor is out there, and so I totally agree with you. So, what’s another question? And Rafaella do you have any questions from anybody who may be on our maestroconference bridge that we always give you an option of being on as well?

R Yes, I actually, I have two questions.

JA So let’s take two questions from you Rafaella. Who’s it from and tell us where they’re from.

R Okay great. Sure. The first question from Priscilla. So, Priscilla, can you hear us okay? Priscilla?

JA She has to unmute herself and that’d be great if she mutes her audio on her computer as well Priscilla.

R Okay, let’s go back to Priscilla. We’ll give her some time to mute her audio. There’s a question from Antiqua. So one. Hi Antiqua, can you hear us okay?

A I can thank you.

R Great. What is your question for John?

JA Hi Antiqua. Antique, before you begin, just want to thank you for doing an amazing job, ya know, always communicating with us and I’m so happy for your progress and successes, so way to go.

A John, I’m just, I’m really blown away. Like my subconscious totally needed this and I knew it. So I’m stoked. So thank you, my pleasure. So I love collaborating and


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“There’s

nothing more

valuable than

for us to be

clear about

what we want

and what we’re

looking for.”

it’s one of my favorite things to do and team people up to collaborate, although that’s not my business model. So my question is, how much, how, like how much collaboration is too much when opportunities come and come and come in? Like where do you find the medium of, wow, there’s so many people doing so many amazing things. Do you understand my question?

JA I think I understand your question. I’ll ask Mitch if he does. If not, then we can have some clarifying questions. I’ve got an answer that I’m going to go to in a minute, but I’m going to let our guest, Mitch, go first.

A Okay thank you.

MA Well, first off, clarity is a really important part of this whole conversation. There’s nothing more valuable than for us to be clear about what we want and what we’re looking for. And so, because today you’re getting bombarded with all these offers and opportunities, it gets overwhelming. And so part of this challenge is who is really a good person or company for me to collaborate? Well before you can answer that question, you want to get some clarity around what is your outcome, what results are you looking for, who is it that you’re targeting? And then to find those collaborators that not only have those people as their audience, but who have the ethos; that spiritual as well as practical mindset, motivation and then the method, so that when you do collaborate with them, you’re kind of in a collaborative mindset. And so the most important thing is to kind of sift through all of these opportunities and actually let most of them go. Because if you take too many opportunities, you’re going to be on overwhelm, overload and you’re going to shut down.

So, first thing come from the inside out, not the outside in. And when you come from the inside out, you have a better send of what you’re looking for. Who would be an ideal candidate for you, maybe again, doing that description of, who would be my ideal collaborator? Put two or three or four descriptive phrases of what that person or company would look like and then you go searching for those opportunities, rather than be reactive every single time a new email comes in that says, buy this $2,000.00 package or $900.00 package, this is the answer to your problem. I’ve seen people spend $30,000.00, $40,000.00, $50,000.00 on information – none of which had any relevance to what they really wanted. So I think if you get some clarity around that and then narrow down your choices, it’s going to be easier to pick those collaborators.

JA Let me take a back on that, Antiqua, and that is to develop what our advisor and one of my friends, Bob Norton, teaches us, is develop a skills matrix. And a skills matrix takes a look at the vision for what you want to achieve; what are the strategies that you’re going need to implement to achieve that vision, who is going to manage those strategies and who’s going to execute it and manage those people? And so when you take a look at a skills matrix, then you take a look at, ya know, who in my company can create the vision or has the vision, who has the skillset to develop the strategy, who’s going to manage the workers or me that has to implement that strategy. And once you put together a skills matrix on a chart for the different areas in your company that are needed in order to achieve your big vision, then you can determine what or who you need to collaborate with. And so you put the names in this matrix of who’s going to do what, and wherever you see a hole, or wherever you see that you’re working too much on stuff that either you shouldn’t be doing or don’t know how to do – you collaborate with other people who can get that hole in the matrix filled. And that’s how we choose who we need to do this with, and the reason it’s so fresh in my mind is we have a meeting every month for a whole day just on strategy. And yesterday we filled in again our strategy or our matrix to see what holes are we going to have for the next four months of the


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“So, we’re

either going to

hire the people,

we’re going to

barter with the

people, we’re

going to defer

payment with

the people or

collaborate

with the people

and partner

with them, and

that’s how we

make those

decisions.

That’s the way

I want you to

as well.”

year of people that we need to hire. We identified four new holes, okay, in our skills matrix. So, we’re either going to hire the people, we’re going to barter with the people, we’re going to defer payment with the people or collaborate with the people and partner with them, and that’s how we make those decisions. That’s the way I want you to as well. Does that make sense?

A Yeah, thank you.

MA Now, just one more thing. In your handout, we’ve given you one of our worksheet models. It’s called “Six Steps to Target your Market.” This is a down and dirty target marketing strategy worksheet. I would recommend that you take a few minutes, this is just a simple process, it’s not complicated, don’t make it more complicated than it needs to be. If you spend some time identifying those six and answering those six questions, essentially who am I suited to serve, where are they, how do I reach them, what are they looking for, why would they buy from me and when will they be ready? You go through that little process, I promise you that will help you to get clear on those three questions we said earlier, here’s what I do, here’s why I do it and here’s who I’m looking for? You put those two together, and all of a sudden clarity will just emerge out of that process. So you’ve actually got some worksheets to help you do that in your handout that we’ve given for the new game conversation that we’re having today.

JA Awesome. That’s page number 6.

A Excellent.

JA Thank you Antiqua.

MA Thank you Antiqua.

JA All right, let’s see if Priscilla’s back on. Rafaella, can we get Priscilla on?

R Sure, let me go ahead and try her.

JA C’mon Priscilla. Thank you as well Priscilla for being a great member and community, ya know, collaborator.

R Hi Priscilla, what is your question for John?

JA All right Priscilla, we’re having a challenging time with Priscilla. Rafaella if you can maybe see if you can get her on?

R Okay.

JA We’ll take another couple questions from Mike and then I’m going to go back to a couple of my questions. I’m chomping at the bit.

R Okay sounds great.

JA Mike?


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“You can’t

force people to

buy and part

with their

money. The

idea is for you

to create a

value

proposition so

that the money

is worth less

than what

they’re going

to exchange.”

M Yes, this is from Elena Rubenoff.

JA Hi Elena.

MA Hi Elena.

M I have heard people say that they will hold onto the money at this time, and that means fish they’re not going to eat. Can we still sell now with this attitude that’s shared by many. Is the market large enough? How can we still achieve success if fish don’t want to eat?

MA Excellent question. My experience, and I’m not a fisherman, all right. My only experience with fishing was in April on Long Island Sound, it felt like winter in the Antarctic. So here’s the thing. You can’t force people to buy and part with their money. The idea is for you to create a value proposition so that the money is worth less than what they’re going to exchange. Interesting distinction, old game, new game.

JA Repeat that one more time.

MA Okay.

JA So…

MA So basically, everybody has money. Everybody has money. So it’s not about they don’t have money, of course, obviously not everybody has disposable money. It depends on what you’re selling. But here’s the thing. People are looking to part with their money. They’re always looking to use their money for something that gives them a better value exchange than the money itself. So what it is that you’re offering that would encourage people to exchange what they want to hold onto right now, which is money, or something better than the money? Because we all spend money. We make money. We spend money. So for people to say that they’re not spending money, that’s really a signal that you misaligned with them, that you’re not in alignment with them because you’re thinking too much about what you want to sell. Maybe you’re not thinking enough or talking to them enough about what they want to buy. And this is what John eluded to earlier. Most of us, it’s always a good time to sell. It’s never a bad time to sell. Here’s the question. Is it a good time to buy? And that relates to meeting people where they are in the buying cycle.

One of the most important models that we actually teach and we have a course coming up to really help people understand this is - the buying cycle. Most of us are in the selling cycle. We’re thinking about, what are we going to sell this month to make our quota, to make our money? People don’t line up with your selling cycle. They don’t care you have a quota. They don’t care about your commissions. They don’t even care if you have to make a living, most of the time. So here’s the shift. Find the hungry fish who are ready to buy now, and already searching for what you have to offer. And then sit down with them and meet them where they are in the buying cycle, and I’m going to give you one question that’s going to change your life, for the rest of your life. Ready? Here’s the question. Are you ready or are you just getting there? I would ask that question to every single person I’m talking to because with one question you can find out is a person really ready to buy now? In which case you can present what you have, or are they just getting ready? And people who are getting ready, who are not yet ready, they’re swimming around, but they’re not ready to bite what bait you have on your


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26

hook. So one question you can go back to your entire pipeline of process and you can separate them out by reading, getting ready. Now, imagine if you had a pipeline, a universe of nothing but ready buyers. Would you ever talk to getting ready buyers? No. So our entire new game of selling is designed to put you in front of ready buyers. Because if you’re in front of people who are ready, chances are much greater that you’re going to sell something, even if you’re bumbling and bumbling. So, very important distinction, is that person ready? And are you meeting them where they are, or are you kind of stuck in your selling cycle? And yes, and here’s the last distinction I want to make on this which is really huge. For 31-1/2 years of my 33 years in business, I pretty much had the mantra that nobody buys what they need anymore, they buy what they want, because people have what they need, right? And that really was the buying model forever because most of us had our bare essentials and what we needed, so when we were looking to buy something, we went out and bought what we wanted. Past year-and-a-half, two years, actually probably since 2008, 2009, completely shifted. And now all of a sudden, except for a small group of people who are affluent, who are always buying what they want, people are now starting to ask a different question. Not, do I want it? Do I need it? And so if you’re selling a “want” item to a “need” market, you’re misaligned with your market.

“And now all

of a sudden,

except for a

small group of

people who are

affluent, who

are always

buying what

they want,

people are now

starting to ask

a different

question. Not,

do I want it?

Do I need it?”

JA One more time. You’re selling a “want” item to a “need” market.

MA To a “need” market, you’re misaligned with your market. You’ve got to find another market. If you’re selling a “need” item to a “want” market, you’re misaligned with your market. So decide first of all, is what you can sell, do people need it? And if they need it, then you want to approach a need market, and you approach that need market with a whole different conversation than if what you sell is a “want” item and people really don’t need it and they don’t have to part with their money, there’s got to be a really good reason that they’re going to part with their money.

JA And what if they need it and want it, then good for you.

MA Good for you, if you have it, and especially if you have a “need” and “want” product. So yes.

JA I got it.

MA Exactly. So, think about that. Do people really want what you have? Do they need what you have? Do they gotta have what you have? And where are you in that relationship? And then start to shift your conversation, not so much of how do I get people to spend their money with me? But how do I create a value proposition that the exchange is so far greater that people would have to be absolutely nuts or just simply not ready. And there are some people who are never ready, ya know, they’re getting ready and they’re getting ready. And for 30 years they’re getting ready. I bet there’s, I know I’ve been getting ready for some things for 30 years, and I’m just not ready yet, right. So the critical thing is, identify if they’re ready or getting ready, and then shift your value proposition so that the money they exchange for what you give them is just a small drop in the bucket compared to what they get.

JA I want to add two points to this dialogue and that is this: Number one is if you’re thinking that people are holding onto their money, they’re saving their money and they’re not out there buying. From a neurological perspective you are priming your brain to find just those people. Now, what you’re doing is when you say that and you believe that, you’re actually creating the lens by which your eyes see through and the lens by which you experience your external world. So let’s say the market


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27

“Focus on

finding the fish

that are hungry

that want to eat

right now, and

those who

don’t want to

eat right now,

what you want

to do is keep

them in your

school.”

has slowed down. And it has in some parts of the world, no question about that. There are still people who need what you have or want what you have, and your job is to prime your brain to find only them; to dialogue in ways that attract them, to vibrate in ways that attract them, to communicate in ways that attract the ones who need or want what you have. That’s critical. That way you create the neural resonance for you. That’s one. Number two, another critical point, is the logical brain, okay, doesn’t send a signal to the emotional limbic brain. It’s the emotional brain that sends a signal to the logical brain to make a decision to buy. So you always, always - let me rephrase that – always want to focus on the emotion, the benefit of the benefit, that people are going to have by hiring you, promoting you, buying your product, buying your service, being around you. It’s the emotional need that we have that we want met and have an absolute inherent biological need to have. And so, get out of your own head. Stop listening to the news, the market, your friends. Stop it. It’s going to waste valuable brain power.

Focus on finding the fish that are hungry that want to eat right now, and those who don’t want to eat right now, what you want to do is keep them in your school. Ha, ha, ha. How’s that for being a little funny? Keep them in your school and nurture them until they’re ready to eat. Keep them occupied, okay, while they’re searching, okay, if they’re not ready to buy yet. Are you ready to buy or are you getting ready to buy? Great questions. The ones who are getting ready to buy, keep them in your nurturing here, so that when they become ready to buy, it happens in an instant, you’re the one that’s in front of them and they’ve built the rapport and the trust with you to buy, all right. And so, keep that in mind, and that goes for everyone – whether it’s you’re looking for a job in a specific company, whether you want to get promoted, you want to start a business. This stuff is invaluable.

MA And I want to, I just want to hitchhike off that too. There’s a part of our model we call tuning fork marketing. If you think about striking a tuning fork, everything within that vibrational field resonates with that tuning fork. Everything outside of that vibrational field doesn’t even know the tuning fork exists, ya know. It’s the old, whatever channel or station you’re listening to on the radio, you dial in that station. Well, people are dialing in you, and you’re dialing in people. So coming back to our talk a few minutes ago about why it’s so important to get crystal clear about what you do, why you do it, who you’re looking for and work that from the inside out and you start resonating at that pitch. And the people who resonate with that pitch can’t help but be attracted to that. And so part of this is, don’t fall in love with your product and service – fall in love with serving people. We get very attracted and attached to our products and services, and because selling has always been a mental game, a logical game, we’ve not been taught how to connect with people in that emotional sphere. And a big part of the new game of selling takes all the logic out of it and the thing that we’re looking for, a phrase I coined years ago. This one phrase caused company to go from $47 million to $80 million in 90 days and then $500 million in sales they sold to a bank for $163 million, all right. One thing transformed their company. I call it, the “E” link.

JA “E” link?

MA “E”, “E” for emotion link. What is that emotional link that connects people right in here, that they’re going to buy. And here’s how the process goes. It starts here. I want it. I want it. I want it. I want the Porsche. I want the Porsche. I want the Porsche. I want it. I want it. I gotta have it. I gotta have it. I gotta have it! I starts in here as an emotional desire, and by the time we get up to our head, guess what? We figured out every logical reason why we should want that Porsche and why we should get that Porsche. But it doesn’t start here, it starts here. And so if you can enter the game here instead of here, people will connect with you, even if you don’t make the sale. They will feel like you were one of the most trusted voices they’ve ever heard. And even if your product or service is not appropriate


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“So you’ve got

to discover the

emotional

trigger that’s

going to cause

somebody to

want to

promote you,

hire you, buy

your product or

service –

emotional then

logic.”

for them, they might refer you to…I’ve gotten so much business from people who never bought. To this day I still got people calling me, so-and-so recommended you. He didn’t even buy from you, but he so loved the way you treated him, I have to talk to you. It happens all the time. So, get that emotional link. Connect with people here and you can’t connect with people here if you’re stuck.

JA There’s an old saying that people buy emotionally and justify logically. Buy emotionally and justify logically. So you’ve got to discover the emotional trigger that’s going to cause somebody to want to promote you, hire you, buy your product or service – emotional then logic. Mike, a couple more questions? How many questions do we have there? Lots or?

M We’ve got another one, a real good one. There’s a couple that you already covered.

JA Okay.

M But this one I think is one.

JA And then I’m getting back to some questions I have here.

MA Absolutely.

M This is from Daniella Gonzalez.

JA Hi Daniella. I’m actually. Hi Danni, I’m looking forward to seeing you in Australia and great, great, great consulting session that we did that you won because you were so active in our community, and for some reason, you chose me to help you. So it was great connecting with you Danni. What question do you have for me or Mitch?

M Mitch, how would suggest getting alignment agreement and commitment when dealing with large groups of people at once, rather than just selling one-to-one?

JA Great question.

MA Oh that is such a great question, and it is the most difficult thing. If you’re selling to a group because there’s no arrow that you can shoot down the center of the bulls-eye.

JA Da-doink.

MA That will catch the group, ya know, the doink.

JA Ha, ha, ha.

MA So let me give you a quick description of the three distinctions, all right. Alignment is exactly what it sounds like. It’s rapport. It’s meeting people where they are and then feeling as though you are actually aligned. And I will actually ask people, do you feel like we’re aligned? And so trust is critical, all right. Rapport is critical. And if you’re talking about selling to a group versus presenting to a group, I’m not sure exactly what the distinction here is, but let’s assume you’re presenting to a


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“Very often

you want to try

to identify in

that group who

is the quiet

leader and who

is the not so

quiet leader.

And then you

want to

actually try to

get alignment

with those

individuals.”

group all right. So the first thing is you want to be in alignment. You want to create rapport. And there’s no one right way to answer this, but I would say two things. One is, in every group there’s a quiet leader who sits back and doesn’t say very much. Then there’s always kind of a verbose outgoing leader in a group, all right. Very often you want to try to identify in that group who is the quiet leader and who is the not so quiet leader. And then you want to actually try to get alignment with those individuals. So you can talk to the whole group, but the best way to do it is to try to find out, if you can do this in advance before your meeting, it’s even better. So who are the key players in that room who ultimately, everybody in the room is going to turn to and say, ya know, John what should we do? That’s the first thing and alignment is really around just connecting with people in a way that they feel like they trust you, all right. Agreement. This is critical. And by the way, these are three green lights. And you don’t move to the next green light unless you get a green light on alignment.

So many of the situations that we’re in right now, we could go back to our prospects, if you want to call them that, and get realigned, and if you do that, you’ll find that people will start to open up and tell you what they agree to. So second step is agreeing. Agreement is getting on the table, all of the things that they want – the outcomes, the results, the benefits – what it is that they’re looking for. And I would actually say to somebody, all right, let’s list everything that you’re looking to get. What are your results? Are we in agreement that this is important to you? Yes. Are we in agreement that this is important to you? Ah, not so important. Let’s move it off the list. So, step two is getting agreement around all of the outcomes and decisions that they’re going to make. And then step three is commitment. And this is the hardest jump to make because we’re so anxious to get people to agree with us that we think that if we just get them to agree with us that we can actually go and get commitment, but that’s not always true. Sometimes people will agree with you, but they’re not ready yet to make a commitment.

So commitment – here’s the distinction. Commitment is about an action that the buyer is willing to take to move themselves towards the agreement that they’ve made, all right. So here’s a distinction. If you do all the work, if you create proposals, if you create sheets, if you do all kinds of work thinking that if you do the work, they’re going to appreciate that, you’re actually creating work for yourself that you may not have to do because they may not be committed. The key in commitment is not your commitment to do the work, it’s their commitment to take an action, a committed action that moves them towards what it is they want. So if you go back to that group now and you say okay, I’m going to get in alignment, get in rapport, get in trust. I’m going to get all the agreements out, and I use a flip chart. I’m a flip chart kind of guy.

To go to the link we have here on the page where we’re giving away some of our best secrets, you’ll see that I’m an old school guy with a new game twist. And then once you get agreement, your job is to test, where are you on the commitment scale? Are you ready to make the commitment or are you getting ready? And if they’re getting ready, here’s the question. What will take you from getting ready to commit to actually being ready to commit, all right? And that one piece of information is the single most important piece of information that you can get to go from agreement to commitment. If you don’t have that, you’re going wind up trying all the objection handlers because you’re going to be throwing stuff out there that people are simply not committed to and they haven’t agreed to. So whether you do it in a group, you do it in a small group, you do it one-on-one, those are some of the critical distinctions of the alignment, agreement or commitment, and what I call the three magic words.

JA Love it. Danni, let me share some stuff that I wrote down here is, number one, you’ve got to know their desired outcome as a group, and as Mitch said, who are


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“I always look

at, is the

communication

communicating

to the four

different brain

types, and if

the answer’s

yes, then your

sales

percentages

are going to go

through the

roof.”

the leaders that are going to make those decisions? Number two, you have to build a rapport and relate to their problem. You’ve got to know what the problem is that they having collectively that you can potentially solve. The other thing that works really well is, really point out what is the cost of keeping the problem over the next week, month, six months, year, five years, ten years. You’ve got to exacerbate the problem and not from a nasty perspective, but from a helping them feel the pain of keeping that monkey and that problem. And then you’ve got to push it, okay, in a gentle way. And then what you’ve got to do is solve it. And you’ve got to understand, something that Mitch touched upon earlier, is what is the buyer’s decision-making process, okay? Whenever we’re dealing in sales, I always think of four different brains that we’re working with. You’ve got your left brain analytical people who want to gather lots of information to analyze. You’ve also got the left brain structural brain and these are not your real brain, these are metaphorically speaking, that wants a lot of information, but they want it laid out.

What’s step one? What’s step two? What’s step three? What’s step four? Then you’ve got the conceptual brain that thinks about the concept that you’re teaching and whether they resonate with that. And then you’ve got the fourth type of decision-making brain, that’s the social brain and they want to see proof – who else is doing this? Who else have you served? Who else has bought, ya know, your solution that’s happy with it? And so always think in those terms, regardless of whether it’s communication with somebody, a job, an employer or selling something. I always look at, is the communication communicating to the four different brain types, and if the answer’s yes, then your sales percentages are going to go through the roof.

MA Now, we happen to give you a shortcut, all right. In your handout, we’ve got it covered. In your handout, you’re going to see a formula. This is a formula I’ve been using for 25 years. I call it the RAMM. It’s killer. So you can use this to qualify people in five minutes or less, and identify at the end of the formula where are they are in the buying cycle. I have had people use this formula; literally make a half-a-million dollar sale doing nothing more than using this formula over a cup of coffee or at lunch. So if you really want to understand people and get out of your head and immediately engage people in conversation about what matters to them. Go to the RAMM formula and start with yourself. Use the worksheet. Photocopy the worksheet for yourself. Go through this formula by yourself and for yourself. You’re actually going to see it if you click on the link that we’ve given you to where you can go to our site where we have some great training for free actually. One of the models I teach is how to use the RAMM formula. And I tell you what – this model has just made me a fortune.

It’s taken me out of my own head and enabled me quickly to get alignment and agreement with people, and then after five minutes I know is a person really ready to make a change, or are they just getting ready? And if I know that in five minutes, my goodness, can you imagine how that would transform your life and your business? And oh, by the way, this is a great navigational tool. This is your navigational formula for you to stay on track to where you’re going. Ya know, one of our friends has a subtitle to his book, “How to get from where you are to where you want to be.” Actually, that was a phrase I invented 30 years ago. When I was in financial planning, my first job, my first business, people would ask me, Mitch what do you do? And I didn’t want to say I sold life insurance. It’s like the quickest way to empty out a run, you say, I sell life insurance and I’m darn proud of it, ya know. So I said, I’m in the transportation business. I help people get from point “A” to point “B” financially. Where would you like to go? Now, you know how I got that? I got that from being a student of marketing. I went into research that in the early 19th, 20th century, the 1900’s, the railroads thought they were in the railroad business. And when trucks came along and airplanes came along, the railroads didn’t realize they were in the transportation business. And all these other


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“The other

thing is that

because selling

has had such a

bad taste to it,

and most of us

have had a bad

experience, we

don’t, in any

way, shape or

form, want to

think of

ourselves or be

identified as

salespeople.”

mediums of transportation ate their lunch. Why? Because they didn’t recognize what business they were really in. They were in love with their product and service. They didn’t realize they were in the transportation business. So from the very first word out of my mouth, and we’ve got hundreds of thousands of people using this now. Somebody says, what do you do? I say I’m in the transportation business. I help you get from point “A” to point “B.” In this context, we help you attract, convert and keep more customers, more top line revenue and bottom line profit, with zero expense. Where would you like to go?

JA Where would you like to go today?

MA Okay, you’re in the transportation business. If the people you’re talking to don’t want to go from someplace to someplace else, why would they want to use your vehicle? Your vehicle is just a vehicle. It’s not the destination. So what I say to you is, don’t focus on your vehicle of transportation, focus on their destination. How do you focus on their destination? Use the RAMM formula.

JA Page number four in your manual – the RAMM formula. And as Mitch mentioned before, if you want to find out more about Mitch and his company, we’ve made it easy for you. We’ve got a link for you on this page. So take a look, we’ve got lots of great videos. You’ve seen some of them in the community. It’s prepping you further. The discussion we’ve had with Mitch. What I want to do, which I always do is try not to reiterate a lot of stuff you’ve already seen or heard until you really like the individual, then you can go deeper, which what I highly recommend you do. Mitch has shared some pearls with me today and in the past and it’s helped me just change my selling game drastically. Now I’m getting back to my questions. So Mitch, why is selling one of the most underdeveloped skills to win the new game, whether you’re an employee, new business owner, or a big employer?

MA Well the first thing is that, ya know, you’re answering the question is most of us don’t like to be sold to, and most of us don’t think about the idea that we’re a salesperson. We don’t, we like the idea that we’re technically proficient at our technical skills. So if you’re a physician, you want to be good at being a doctor. If you’re a consultant, you want to be a good consultant. Whatever it is that your technical expertise is, we have a tendency and bias in our world that we want to become really proficient at delivering our technical service. But we don’t think much about who are we actually going to deliver it to, and what are the skills necessary to attract the kinds of people that really would like our service. So that’s the first thing and most of us really don’t like to be sold to so we don’t want to think of ourselves as salespeople. The other thing is, the education in sales training has been woefully inadequate. Many of the models, many of the training programs out there are still in the old game. People don’t resonate with it, particularly women. I’ve trained a quarter of a million women. Women play the new game more naturally than men because it’s a collaborative game. We’ve been steep in competition. Actually interesting, the word “competition” comes from I think the Latin.

JA To rise above.

MA Right. To rise above together. It’s actually to compete together, right? To make each other better, but that’s not the interpretation. The other thing is that because selling has had such a bad taste to it, and most of us have had a bad experience, we don’t, in any way, shape or form, want to think of ourselves or be identified as salespeople. So, I say reframe the game, and forget the word “selling,” even though that’s what it is. But if you really think about how important sales are to your company, think about this. Sales has to do triple duty. It has to pay for the marketing investment you’ve made to attract people. It has to generate a profit in


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the sale itself and then it needs to have money left over to service people on the back end. So, no sales, no profit, no job. And so in today’s world, every single employee, not only do we want to encourage them, we want to teach them some of the fundamental skills of how to serve people, which is really the new game of selling is a service game, so that when you’re in a company as an employee, you’re not just thinking about your past work, you’re thinking about how does my past work actually contribute to the customers that we’re serving? And owners would be smart to have meetings with their people, even people who are stuck in a cubicle somewhere doing very methodical task work, and show them how their work contributes to the top line revenue of the company, the bottom line profit, and why your work is so important. Because your work contributes to us being of service to the people that pay our salary. So part of it is reframing. Part of it is getting okay with the whole notion of selling is not a bad thing. It’s something like you say, you do for and with people, not something you do to people. And then begin to get yourself trained in professional mastery. I look selling as life and business skills. Everything I’ve learned in selling, everything I teach in selling has the ability to transfer to every aspect of your life; whether it’s personal, professional, family, relationships or whatever it may be. So get out there and start looking at other ways than you’ve been taught in the past, most of which are antiquated and outdated.

“Everything

I’ve learned in

selling,

everything I

teach in selling

has the ability

to transfer to

every aspect of

your life;

whether it’s

personal,

professional,

family,

relationships

or whatever it

may be.”

JA I love that. Ya know, I’ve been around the selling and marketing for a long, long time and the way Mitch just presented, ya know, you’ve got to sell to cover your marketing costs, you make a profit and to service your customers. And one of the things that I’ve always done is I’ve never been the cheapest, ya know, person with products or services. But I believe that we deliver some of the best service to our clients and customers, and we make them pay a little bit more, but the value that we can give them is ten times more than just about anybody else because we account for taking care of them after they’ve made a purchase with us. And our referrals are just amazing, the amount of clients that we have that refer their friends and family to us. And that’s what we want to cultivate and build. And so I’ve been in a position before, and I’m sure everybody who’s listening and watching has, where you’ve had a choice to buy something at a lesser price, but you’ve actually chosen the more expensive price because of the service you’re going to get. And whether it’s for a pair of shoes or a blouse at a different store, you’re going to get a different level of service, you’re willing to invest more in that experience.

MA Yeah.

JA And so, I love that.

MA And let me just, let me hitchhike real quick off of that.

JA You gotta hitchhike quickly, you’ve got one more important question here.

MA Okay, I also want to make mention about how you price yourself. Because you just, you just brought up something really important.

JA How do you price your product or your services?

MA Right and it would be a great idea for you to incorporate this triple model, all right. Because in the past, people didn’t care about meaning and relevance and transformation and experience, right? Well Starbucks, Nordstrom changed all that. You want an experience. You want, you’re in the transformation business, as well as the transportation business. And so the natural tendency that we might have, again, reaction from the past is, lower our price, right? If you lower your price to a


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point where you can’t pay for your marketing investment, you don’t generate a profit, and there’s nothing left over to serve people, you will be out of business and the people who love you will be missing you because they want you to stay in business.

“One of the

ways that we

help companies

grow radically

and

dramatically is

we go right

into their

service

department,

and we say,

imagine if you

could turn

service from an

expense

department

into a profit

center?”

JA Absolutely.

MA What we don’t often realize because we’re so wrapped up in our own game is we’re in the service business, people who we serve want us to stay in business. They want us to be around to serve them for years to come. So it would be a great idea to explain your pricing, not defend it, and not backtrack, but say hey, here’s why we are more expensive because we understand that we need to leave money left over to give you a phenomenal service experience and that requires us to have some profit from our sales so that we invest back into our relationship with you so that we keep you coming back, we keep you happy and you send other people our way. That’s why we’re priced as we’re priced. And I tell you what? If you have that conversation with people, not only will you not believe what’s coming out of your mouth, but you will not believe what comes out of their mouth because people really focus on the service. They don’t focus so much on the price, as we do as sellers.

JA Mitch, I mean that is so right. Ya know, people, ya know, people aren’t always looking for the cheapest option, and people will pay for services. As I mentioned before, I was just in New York and the restaurants were packed with people spending amounts of money that I couldn’t’ believe they were spending. I was going, “what recession?” And the people were buying things. There was always somebody buying. I’ve got one last question. We’re going to hopefully get one or two more Q&A’s and that’s around you analyzing the five key leverage points every business has to have to boost sales, revenues and profits. Can we talk about those quickly? We’ve got about five minutes.

MA Okay.

JA And then five minutes to wrap up.

MA Okay.

JA Get your questions ready by the way. I’m probably going to take two questions.

MA Okay, so here are the critical five leverage points. First the trap, all right. That’s typically known as marketing. That’s an investment. The second one is to qualify people. I call this the grand canyon of lost opportunity because most businesses they spend a fortune to attract people, but they’re woefully inept at separating the ready buyers from the getting ready buyers. We look at, how do you qualify people and how could you do that more efficiently? I recommend the RAMM formula, beautiful way to do it. Third is convert. Converting browsers into buyers. This is where the rubber meets the road. This is where you take the investment of marketing, the expense of qualifying and you convert that into income, and that’s it.

And so every company – mine, probably yours – I have yet to meet a company that doesn’t have fertile grounds in being able to convert more of the browsers into buyers. That’s the third leverage point. The fourth leverage point is how you keep customers, and how you keep customers, which is typically known as service. This is such a huge opportunity. And let me give you a critical distinction. One of the ways that we help companies grow radically and dramatically is we go right into


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their service department, and we say, imagine if you could turn service from an expense department into a profit center? Now imagine this, marketing expense, service expense, sales income. Most companies have one income center surrounded by two bookend expense departments. What if you turn service into a profit center? Now you’ve got two profit centers; sales and service – one expense department; marketing. We’ve helped companies…

“Almost every

company that’s

been in

business for

any length of

time, they’ve

got past

customers,

dormant

customers,

inactive

customers – a

gold mine.”

JA And market could be profitable too.

MA …and here’s what happens.

JA That’s the way it should be, yeah.

MA If you serve from first contact, you will actually lower your marketing expense. We have companies getting 80%, 90% of their new business from referrals. Imagine the equation and the profitability jump that you could have if you turn customer service from expense department into a profit center. And that’s what we look to do because that’s one of the greatest leverage points in every company. And then the fifth area is what I call, multiple your ROI, multiple your ROI. One of our special reports is how you can increase customer profit 300% to 900%. I know it sounds off the charts ridiculous, but the truth is, you can. Quick example, somebody buys $100.00 product. Let’s say it cost you $50.00 to get that business. You invested $50.00, you made $50.00, your return on investment is 100%. Let’s say you go back to them, now they buy $200.00 product, second product, but it only cost you $25.00 to get that second $200.00 product.

You’ve invested $25.00, you’ve made $175.00, your return on that second investment is radical. Most companies they attract them, they qualify them, they convert them and then they go do the whole process all over again. You’re redoing the most expensive part of a business over and over and over. There’s amazing opportunity on the service end and on the multiplication end, and within that, there’s also a sixth area I call reactivation. Almost every company that’s been in business for any length of time, they’ve got past customers, dormant customers, inactive customers – a gold mine. And we use a content marketing strategy and go back to those people and say, hey, we apologize, we haven’t been in touch with you – our bad. Let’s reengage and reengage with content – serve, serve, serve, deliver, serve some more. You could reactivate people and have new business coming out. So attract, qualify, convert, keep, multiply and that sixth one which falls kind of into the multiply is to reactivate customers. And that’s what we look for in a company.

JA Love it, love it, love it. Listen, we’ve been at this for a couple of hours almost, and I could do this for days with Mitch. Every time I’m with him my head’s just swelling about, ya know, what can I do? What can we do in our company? I know my team’s listening. I hope they have notes because I’ve got a few notes here that we’re going to implement just from today’s session. I hope you’re enjoying this as much as I have. And I want you to understand one thing. If you really haven’t had a lot of sales experience, it’s just time. It’s really investing in the specialty knowledge that comes by learning from people like Mitch, myself and other people that we’ll bring to you, and that’s the whole idea of being coached and mentored by us, by people who’ve already done it. And by being in the community, you get a chance to interact with other brilliant people from around the world. And so I hope you’re really enjoying this, ya know, coaching and training session. I’ll bring you some stuff, and Mitch and our other guests will as well. Ya know, each and every month you’re going to get new stuff, new content, new material and probably in ways that you’ve never heard about it before. That’s one of the things I look for all the time is what’s unique? What’s different? What’s on the bleeding edge that’s


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going to differentiate us and the company and help you as well. And so I hope you’re getting that right now. Let’s take two questions right now. It’s about five minutes before the top of the 4:00 hour here in sunny San Diego where we’re having a heat wave the last couple days. To all of my Australian friends and clients, I’ll be in Australia coming up in a couple weeks. I can’t wait to see you all. I’m doing the “Cloning of Success” program in Australia. And so Mike or Rafaella, if you’ve got a question. Priscilla’s back on and she can talk. I’d love to hear from Priscilla. Let’s go to Mike and Rafaella, if you can let us know if you’re available, that’ll be great. So Mike?

“A purchaser

who’s looking

on-line is

trying to solve

a problem,

okay. Most

people are

looking for

research, for

information to

solve a problem

that they have,

an emotional

need that they

have.”

M From Martha.

JA Martha Afran?

M Yes, Martha Afran.

JA Martha from Australia, hi there Martha, nice to have you on. Thanks for your participation as well all the time.

M How do these strategies apply on-line [inaudible]. I’m using email to connect with people and [inaudible] and also how does it connect with on-line telemarketing?

MA My answer would be there’s no distinction, there’s no different, other than maybe methodology and tools. But the message should be same. The distinction, do you want to maintain? Your unique service advantage. I believe every company should spend time getting their unique service advantage. Who you, what you do, why you’re doing it, who you’re looking for? All of what we talked about today can easily be modified or actually just verbatim on-line. Now obviously you’ve got a different medium so you want to adjust the medium. On the other hand, the strategies, the tactics, the mindset, everything else you can really adapt to an on-line presence no different than you will an off-line presence. And here’s what I’ve discovered, again by observation. Even though 90% of all buying decisions start on-line today with some sort of a search. At some point in time, they actually want to talk to a human being. And so it’s kind of like at 2:00 in the morning, it’s too late to make a friend if you need a friend. That’s a Harvey Mackay-ism, I love it. You want to be their friend before the 2:00 in the morning hour strikes, so how can you befriend them? How can you get in alignment with them? How can you get in agreement with them? And how can you move them toward commitment just using the tools and the modality of an on-line approach.

JA I’m going to piggyback on Mitch and we do a lot of selling on-line and Martha, and everybody else who’s listening. A purchaser who’s looking on-line is trying to solve a problem, okay. Most people are looking for research, for information to solve a problem that they have, an emotional need that they have. And so the first thing you’ve got to do no matter what is you’ve got to develop the rapport with them that they’re at the right place, and so, they need to know immediately within a few seconds that there’s potential that my website, okay, or the landing page that they’ve come to is a potential resolution to my problem or what I’m there for. That’s number one. And you do that through story-telling, through building rapport, through identifying with their problem the emotional need. You use social proof, clients that have already used your product, your program or service through written testimony or through video testimonials, through authentic communication, and then you get them to take that next step. If they’re ready to buy, you have to have the process laid out so it’s easy for them to buy. If they’re not ready to buy, you’ve got to have a process by which to capture at least their first name and email so you can at least send them something that’ll help them in the decision-making


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process. And then once you do that, you create a process called “dripping,” which means every day or every third day, or every fifth day, you keep sending them information that’s relevant, pertinent, honest with integrity about the product or service you have that can help them, and you create the sales process. And so depending on the decision-making process, you determine whether you can sell in one day, in one hour, in one week or five weeks, depending on your product or service. And the price point will determine how fast you can do that, but everything Mitch talked about can be done on-line. I bought a car on-line with never speaking to anybody at the dealership. People buy jets on-line as well. So there’s a psychological process to go through. Any of you that are interested in really understanding selling and persuading, I want you to pick up two books, including Mitch’s book, “The New Game of Business,” was your first one, you’ve got some other stuff coming up. But there’s a gentleman by the name of Robert Cialdini that Mitch suggested earlier. He’s got two excellent books. One is called “Influence,” and it’s all about persuasion. And another book is called, “Yes,” just Y-E-S and it’s 50 scientifically-proven ways to persuade people to take action. Two amazing, excellent books. I think…

“And so

depending on

the decision-

making

process, you

determine

whether you

can sell in one

day, in one

hour, in one

week or five

weeks,

depending on

your product or

service. And

the price point

will determine

how fast you

can do that, but

everything

Mitch talked

about can be

done on-line.”

MA And actually what I want to say is, I actually interviewed Robert Cialdini and we’re going to post that interview as part of our course that we’re doing, so you want to hear an unbelievable interview, this guy is off the chart. So I just want to bring that up. We had a great interview with him on his book, yes.

JA Robert is amazing and I’m being told that I’m at the top of the hour. So a question for you, you’ve made an investment in your time today, and I value that tremendously, more than anything else. Was you investment today worth it? Did you pick up at least one or two concepts, principles, nuggets, strategies that you can “up” your game in the new world, the new game of selling? If you did, let us know and just type it in right now so that we can keep track of your responses. We love your feedback. We love interacting with you, and more importantly, what I love is for you to get it, ya know, to get the knowledge and to get the inspiration and desire to take action so that you achieve your results. Everything that I do is about helping you achieve more in your life, in your business, so that you can give more, feel like you are just on top of the world, and most importantly, feel like you’re just an incredible member of this amazing society and amazing species called human. Mitch, thank you so much. Everybody, ya know, dear friend. I hope you understand, ya know, why I brought him on, and take a look at, ya know, the link to his site, pick up whatever he’s got. He’s got amazing material. He’s got some killer free stuff. Sign up for his newsletters and just, ya know, be in his circle of influence because he’ll just keep giving you pearls of knowledge and wisdom as well. On behalf of my entire team, at Praxis Now, I want to thank you all for being amazing clients and for more importantly, being amazing you, so have an amazing day. If you’re in certain parts of the world, you’re probably just waking up right now, so bye everybody thank you so much. Have an amazing week!


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