SFR 32: "Selling Isn't Telling..."

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VERY surprised about what I learned while wandering the booths at Affiliate Summit West...

What's going on everyone? This is Steve Larsen and you are listening to Sales Funnel Radio.

Welcomes to Sales Funnel Radio, where you'll learn marketing strategies to grow your online business using today's best internet sales funnels. Now, here's your host, Steve Larsen.

A few days ago, I was talking to Russell and I was like, "Dude, my first, not the interviews, but just the podcast, at the very beginning of this podcast, I'm not a huge fan of them."

I hadn't really found my voice yet, hadn't really found the way I speak and my style yet.

I was like, "Dude, I might just delete some of them." He looked at me real fast and goes, "No." He's like, "You cannot delete those." I was like, "Why?" He goes, "Because it's part of your journey man. You even told me around podcast number 60 on marketing your car. That one, that's when it started changing for me.

I was like, "Oh yeah, that makes sense. That makes sense."

Anyway, those of you guys who have stuck with me this far, you've listened to a few of those podcasts in the beginning. I'm really loving getting more interaction from you guys. It's been a lot of fun to speak with a lot of you guys, and talk with a lot of guys.

I just launched, actually, talking about cool little things just going on right now, little updates. It's been awhile since I've done a podcast, but I just launched called funnelfeast.com. It's a picture of a sales funnel, or just a normal funnel. It's got a fork and a knife trough it, and then just a big bite taken out of the side of the funnel.

Basically I get enough of you guys asking me, "Hey, how do you build this? How did you build this? How do you build this?" I thought I might as well start streaming live when I'm building a sales funnel. Now I don't always make it through, but I try to show just the hardcore building parts.

Lot of little tips and tricks, and hacks that I use, stuff like that...

It's been cool to watch. I mean I think I had like 300 of you on the first one, and this next one has blown up like crazy. I just did Jeff Walker's product launch funnel, and went through and built those pages.

Of course get to share the funnel out to you guys. Just trying to provide value. Hopefully you guys like that. Anyway, hopefully I can see a few of you guys on there later.

Been a little bit busy though. I was gone for about five days, and Russel had me over at Vegas. I was at the Affiliate Summit West Conference, and I'm not really a Vegas guy. I don't really care about gambling. I think it's dumb.

We studied the little formulas in college about what actually gambling is, the actual math formulas behind it. I was like, this is the dumbest thing on the planet.

Why would I ever gamble? I'd rather see if a funnel works and lose money that way than on gambling, but to each is own.

I just look around like, "Dude, I don't care about this." Everyone's like, "Oh, you're going to Vegas. Woo hoo." I'm like, "Well, you guys are going to think I'm weird, but I don't mind just staying in my hotel room just working." I guess that goes to show I'm a little bit of a workaholic.

Hey, I thought I would share with you guys some of the lessons I learned while I was at ASW, the Affiliate Summit West. There's thousands of people. These are all the affiliates, the hardcore affiliates on the internet.

Like I said, thousands of people, tons of vendors. I don't know, there were probably 70 vendors. Lots and lots of companies go there.

They set up a booth and everyone walks around. There's big high level speakers speaking, so obviously Russell spoke while he was there. Really fascinating to walk around and start talking to people.

We had really interesting people come to the booth. Some people who have used click funnels and love it, and then people who hadn't heard of it at all. That was the two different categories. There's no middle ground, it was like, I have click funnels and I love it. It's amazing. The other category was like, I don't even know what you guys do.

Well, it's only two years old so not shocked there...

It was really fascinating. Some of the people that came by, just so self-righteous. Some of them, they're like, "This is what I do, and I'm so professional." You're like, "Oh man. Your customers don't love you. I can already tell you because you're being too professional.

I can see that from the outside right now. I don't want to do business with you." Why? Because it makes me think that I have to be all professional and polished 100% of the time just to use your guys service. I thought that was a really powerful lesson there.

The other thing that I thought was interesting was, I was walking around, I'd walk up and I'd start talking to people, and it was fascinating, we all talked about it. The rest of us, the Click Funnels staff that was there, we talked about it all together.

It's incredible to me how hard it is for people to explain what they do...

I mean, I was walking around these different companies ... I can't even remember the name of ... Maybe I shouldn't say names on it, but it was company after company after company. I don't know if they had just hired some people who'd never heard of their company before, and they were just trying to fill booths, space and get people there from their company and represent and wear their swag, or if they just truly ... It was a common thread.

I was walking around, it was extremely loud because there's so many people there. If you're talking face to face you feel like you're yelling, so you're basically yelling for the full eight hours every day.

That was cool for sure, but I was like, "Hey what do you do?" People would sit back and they'd be like, "We, what I," and there'd be all these little false starts. I was "You really don't know your spot in the business system, the business ecosystem. You don't know what you do. You don't know what value you're actually providing to people."

I was thinking, how should we do this for Click Funnels or even for my own self. How would I say this? How would I pitch what I do to companies? It put a theme for the remainder of the event in my mind.

I'd walk around, and I started asking a question. When people walk up, they'd be like "Hey, how's it going? My name's so and so." I'd go, "What's up? My name is Steve." I'd immediately ask them, "Hey, what do you sell?" I didn't want to say, "We are this, and we provide this," and you start talking about yourself immediately, that's garbage.

No one ever wants to hear about that...

When I did that in door-to-door sales, I did door-to-door sales for two summers, and I'd go out, if I start talking about myself immediately they'd be like, "Okay, why are you knocking on my door, telling me that? You're interrupting my space to tell me about you?" I'm just thinking about what you ... Does this make sense?

I'm just trying to tell you guys, as you go through, make sure you understand what you do and be able to sum it up. The easiest way to get to a point ... I don't care if you don't build funnels.

I don't care if, whatever it is that you do, go find somebody ... My mom still calls it funnel clicks. She has no idea what I do still, which is fine, but as soon as I can go explain to her, and I can explain to certain people around me what I do clearly, and have them get that a-ha moment, like, "Oh I get it."

I got to get them to have the a-ha, very quickly...

Russell calls it the epiphany bridge I think. You got to get people to say that quickly. They'll be like, "Oh, oh I get it." There's a great book called Pitch Anything. I can't remember the name of the author, but the author says in there that, there's really several different brains in our head.

The first brain that you got to get through, he calls it the croc brain. This is the ancient part of our brains. The part of the brains where, as soon as something pops up we go, "Oh crap. That's something new. Can I eat it? Can I mate with it? Will it hurt me? Should I join with my tribe with it?" It's those internal instincts that you make, judgements right off the bat without even trying.

Internal human instincts...

When you go up and you start talking to somebody you got to get your message past those people, past the croc brain as he calls it. Get it past the crock brain. Get the message past ... Almost like a gatekeeper. I did tele-marking, phone sales for awhile too. I did all sorts of sales before I started doing sales funnel, which is why I think I took to it kind of quickly.

I did that on purpose actually. It was kind of cool...

Anyway, as a telemarketer we would call the first person, whoever answered the phone, so they'd call and I was selling for a company called IvanX... I don't even think they're around anymore either. That was years ago. They'd answer the phone and be like, "Hey what's up? I'm looking for Kevin." They'd be like, "What?" They'd be able to say to the receptionist.

If they answered the phone and I was like, "Hello I'm calling from IvanX. We'd like to talk to you about a special offer today." They wouldn't even say anything. They'd just hang straight up...

We'd have to do things that would get us past the gatekeeper, into the business owner's office. Get that phone ringing. Get past the gatekeeper. We can think about that gatekeeper, think about that first person as the croc brain.

There's things that you've got to do to get past your market, and get your message past the croc brain. So many people I've seen, they'll jump out and they'll go, "Hey, what do you sell?" "I sell this, and they're marking solutions that will help you reach your clients better, so that you can better automate your message and receive a better ROI. Keep people inside your funnel and ultimately lead them down the path of success."

You're like "Oh, nobody talks like that." Nobody talks like that. Talk normal. "Hey, what do you do?" I would just ask people that. "Cool, what do you sell?" They'd be like, "All right," and it'd immediately get them talking. Some really good books out there that say whoever talks the most is the one who's going to end up buying something, because they talk themselves into right? I walked up, and I said, "Hey, what's up? I'm Steve. What do you sell?"

They'd say, "Hey, well I don't sell anything right now." It's not my job to just start barfing all over them. It's my job to start asking questions and be like, "Cool. What do you sell?" Or "What are you selling right now? What's the hottest thing on your plate?" I never answer that with an actual statement.

It's got to be a question...

Start applying what I'm saying right now, apply it to sales funnels, apply it to your marketing. Think about a squeeze page that pops up and it says, the front page pops up and it says, "We are a global enterprise running a marketing," It's like, man you can't do that crap. It's got to be really specific, and it's got to them plugging into ... Who, I think it's, is it Frank Kern or I can't remember, but he says ... Or Dan Kennedy, I can't remember, but he says the whole job of the marketing is to join the conversation that is already happening inside of your prospects head.

People would come up, and the easiest way to do that is just start asking a few questions. That's why quizzes at the beginning of funnels work so well.

Regardless of what they answer, it doesn't matter...

You're just trying to get them involved in the conversations. I love quizzes. There was a few podcast episodes I did that was about quizzes and how to use them effectively. I think I added a template in there for you guys, along with some of the most high-converting quiz funnels out there. I toss those findings in that. I think I did. If I didn't, please somebody, let me know, and I'll toss them next time. I'm pretty sure I did.

Anyway, I know this is kind of roundabout, but there's a huge point to this. People had no idea how to speak and talk about what they do. People would walk up and go, "Hey, what do you guys do?" They'd be asking us, they'd be standing at the Click Funnels booth.

I'd be like, "Hey, what's up? My name's Steve. You know what, what do you sell?" That's how I would answer that. If they ask me a question, I'd just ask one right back. I'd be like, "Well, right now I'm selling," I don't know, it could be anything. "Right now I'm selling dating software." There was lot of people who were doing that there. I'd say, "Cool. How are you guys currently getting your clients?" That's what I would ask them next.

I don't just jump right in and say, "Oh, you're selling something? Well we are clearly, we are clearly the answer for you." No one wants to hear that because they know you're just blowing smoke up their butt. There's a lot of options out there.

You got to play the game...

Play the game...

Sales is a game, business is a game...

That's how I look at it, and it makes it even more fun than it already is. I would say to them, "Cool, what do you sell?" Eventually I would say a statement like this, "You know, people in your industry are typically using our software to make auto-webinars." That's when they'd go, "Oh, interesting."

As soon as they did that I knew that I had them for the next five minutes. I was like, "Who's your top competitors?" I'm literally funnel hacking them, funnel hacking their top competitors with them. They just don't know that that's what I'm doing. They'd be like, "Well, our top competitors are getting all their clients like this." I'd be like, "Cool. I mean, are you doing that?" "No." I'd be like, "Why? Let me show you. Here you go."

That's when I would stand side by side with them. I'm not squaring up with them, I'm not directly facing them. I step to the side and I stand side by side with them. There's a great book called, The Definitive Book of Body Language. Absolutely fantastic.

I used it like crazy during door-to-door sales...

You'll see in there, I mean you never square up personally with somebody unless you're going to fight them. If you're talking to a loved one, you don't square up with them. You stand on the side of them, side by side.

I would stand side by side and pull up a computer, and be like, "Well here. Tell me the URL." I'd focus the attention on the tool. They'd start going through and they'd say, "Hey, well go to such and such dot com," and say, "Cool." Then I'd pull up a black click funnels page on the other side and I'd say "Hey, let's start going through this. If these guys are doing so well, my guess is that you're probably not going to want to just go make up something online. You probably want to model what they've done. Is that probably right?"

They'd go, "Yeah."

I'm just leading them down the path of funnel hacking...

Anyway, guys I don't want to keep ranting, but I think you get the point. Know how to speak about your stuff. There's several people I've ask, "Hey, well what are you selling?" They'd be like, "I sell everything?" "You sell everything? Okay. Well who's your market?" They'd be like, "I sell to everyone."

What?...

They were dead serious. That happened several times. That's the reason I'm making this podcast. Is this a natural, is this a regularly occurring phenomena. If you're selling everything to anyone, that means you're selling nothing to nobody. There's a reason why you're coming to me, and it looks like you've been wearing the same clothes for 10 days.

I'm not trying to be mean, but you guys know what I'm saying, right?

There's a few other people who have been talking to me on Facebook, saying the exact same thing. They'll be like, "Hey, what do you sell?" "I sell such and such." "Who do you sell it to?" "I sell it everyone. I sell it to anybody." That right now, I'm telling you right ... I don't even need to see your funnel. Your response right there just kiboshed your sales, destroyed them. By me seriously just tweaking your front end message, I know I'm going to make this convert because you have a great product. That guy over there is making a butt load of money, so why aren't you?

Oh, because you think you're selling to everybody...

It's like, "No, that's not true." I don't try to sell click funnels, or the funnels that you guys see the free funnels. I'm not trying to sell that crap to everybody. It's only certain people I know who are going to look at that and go, "Oh, cool," or people I know that I will be able to educate and put them through a big multi-day sequence that will train them how to do this stuff.

I just finished a cool one, by the way on real estate. We'll see how that one goes. You guys will see my post about it.

Anyway, long rant there, but know how to talk about your stuff, and know that when you're selling it, it's more about you just answering questions, or asking questions I mean.

Ask, ask, ask. Just ask tons of questions to people...

Eventually they'll look at your stuff, and go "Okay, so what do you do?" That's how you know you've been successful with it. If I have to tell somebody, "Oh, you know Click Funnels is only $100 a month. The top tier one for all the cool ninja stuff is $300 a month."

If I have to say that, and they didn't ask me, that means I failed. That's what the rule was on door-to-door.

When I was doing door-to-door sales, I'd go spot to spot to spot, the blazing heat, and it's pest control, so it's got to be hot. The bugs are there, we're in the right spot. Anyway, I go knock on the door and I'd be like, "Hey, we're in the neighborhood. My boss sent me over here." I'd just act like I don't care. "My boss sent me over here and honestly we got time for one more. I'm supposed to find somebody.

I can give it to you for like 60% off if you want me to do it right now. Otherwise, I'll just go to the next person." They'd be like, "How much is it?"

As soon as they'd ask that, I'd be like, I would never answer it. I would never answer directly. I would say, "You know what? It depends actually." You don't want to go just straight to the end. You want to lead them down a conversation. You want to show them how it's logical that they should buy right now. Take the emotion and use it to your advantage.

People think sales are dirty, but this is how sales work. You have all done that. None of you biologically, but closing, everyone thinks they're being logical during closing. That's the whole ...

Anyway I'm getting way into sales tactics...

Gosh guys, use the same things inside of your sales funnels. These are not ... If you think you're having a conversation with somebody throughout the entire funnel, that means you're doing the funnel right. If you are sitting there and you're like, you're being a little coropratey on them, your conversions are going to suck. Unless, actually I can't even think of an unless.

Every time I've ever sold anything high ticket, or even low ticket, that's always been the case. Everyone wants to be dealt with as a human being not as a corporate. No one falls in love with corporations.

Anyways guys, I'm ranting right now, but I hope you get the point of the lessons I was trying to say here. Know what you sell and how to talk about it. Know that when you sell ... The easiest crash course sales course I can give to you right now is that you should not be talking more than the other person.

Just ask them a lot of questions, and start to show them how it gets in there. When they ask you how much, and when they start to ask selling questions like, "Well does it work with this?" Those are cues. That's them saying, "Okay, I'm starting to see how this could work for me. I'm starting to see how this could work for me. Let me start seeing if it really can though. XYZ," and they start asking ... Anyways, you guys get it.

Hey, if you guys want to, I'm going to continue to build a few sales funnels online. Typically, I've been doing it Saturday mornings at like eight or nine in the morning, mountain standard time. I'm going to go ahead.

Just watch the Sales Funnel Broker Facebook page, or even my personal Facebook page. I'll keep posting the links out there. You can check out funnelfeast.com. I got the replays of some of the previous ones, and when I can, when I'm allowed to, I'll drop in the share funnel link for you guys, so you can just download them straight into your account.

Also, you can jump on the email list if you want to. It's just so I can let you know when the next episode is up, or that I'm going live. Anyways guys, hey, thanks so much.

Get out there and crush it!

Be the best spokesperson about your stuff by not speaking about it a lot. All right guys, I'll talk to you later. Bye.

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