All Forum Posts by: John Martinez

I have scripts for the initial call (live answer), returning a call, regular follow up, follow (when prospect has disappeared or gone dark), etc. Go thtough my website midwestrev.com and I'll get them to you. 

John

Lance - I'm in Springfield and actually train wholesalers around the country. I'm not sure if there is a partnership opportunity here or not, but let's chat. John Martinez

You can look me up online. My company is Midwest Revenue Group

People Sell Their Properties When They have “Pain.”

Emotions are what drive people's buying behavior. These emotions can be positive like joy, hope, satisfaction and excitement or they can be negative like fear, doubt, anger and frustration. While we all enjoy experiencing positive emotions, they pale in comparison to the power of “pain” to bring about change. Behavioral studies show that about 65 to 70 percent of human motivation comes from avoiding negative consequences, while only 30 to 35 percent comes from seeking positive outcomes. Negative emotions, in particular, are often what drive people to seek solutions and buy your products and services.

For whatever reason, people are more motivated by the thought of losing something than by the thought of gaining something of equal value. For example, in one experiment, homeowners who were told how much money they could lose from the failure to insulate their home adequately were more likely to insulate their homes than those who were told how much they could save. Similarly, in another experiment, health researchers found that their efforts to get young women to check for breast cancer through self-examination were significantly more successful if they stated their case in terms of what the women stood to lose in terms of health benefits as opposed to what they could gain.

Not all of the emotions that drive a person to make a buying decision are truly painful. Sometimes, pain is simply a matter of perspective. For example, let's suppose you were in the market for a new flat screen TV. If you want something bad enough, not having it would be considered "pain" even though there is nothing truly painful about not being able to watch TV on a flat screen. This is what is referred to as the opportunity side of "pain."

For our purposes “pain” is defined as the gap between a prospect’s current situation and what they would like their situation to be. According to sales expert Michael Bosworth, “if the buyer has what we call pain – discomfort or dissatisfaction with the current situation – he will be motivated to seek a solution if he thinks a solution is possible.”

Jeff Thull of the Prime Resource Group explains it this way: “The process of buying goods and services is all about making a decision to change. People change when they feel dissatisfied, fearful, and/or pressured by their current problems. Pain causes people to change. Without pain a person is unlikely to change. Without change there is no sale.” Marketers often refer to this as the "FUD factor" – fear, uncertainty and doubt. FUD is what motivates most people to buy.

Some products do not lend themselves to a negative emotion, but the positive emotions are compelling enough to drive people to buy. For example, one of our clients was a company that sold publishing services to first-time authors. There weren't too many negative emotions surrounding the purchase of publishing services other than feeling a sense of lost opportunity to have spent so much time writing a book without seeing it through to being published. However, there were a host of positive emotions associated with why they wrote the book in the first place and what they were hoping to do with their book once it was published. Once the salespeople got these first-time authors to talking about all of the reasons why they wrote the book and to paint a picture of all the possibilities, a decision to not publish the book could be classified as "pain."

If you have a hard time with the word pain, think of it in these terms: pain is nothing more than a compelling, personal reason for someone to change how they do things or who they buy from that is driven by emotions. A customer's pain may be centered around solving a problem or it may be about helping that prospect capture an exciting opportunity. Regardless of what's at stake, pain is always personal and it is always emotional. If you don't sell to the pain, you won't sell at all...no matter how much business or common sense it makes. It doesn't matter whether you sell a product or a service, tangible or intangible, to consumers or businesses. In the end, we all sell the same thing – solutions to people’s pain. 

John Martinez

Midwest Revenue Group

Simply drive the area and call all the bandit signs (We buy ugly houses, we buy houses fast for cash, etc.) Within a day you will have anywhere from 4 to 10 wholesalers.

John Martinez

If the seller was content with the deal, then he would have taken it. Instead, he contacted you. That is a sign that something is lacking. It could be trust, and it could be dozens of other things other than money. When you determine what that missing piece is, you can put together a game plan.

It would sound something like this:

"I appreciate you thinking of me and giving me a call. I have to ask, you already have an offer on the table, why not just take it?"

The answer to that question will tell you where to focus.

Then you can ask, "What were you hoping I could do for you?"

There is no need to try to make assumptions or guess how you can win the deal. You have to ask these questions in a sincere and nurturing tone. The seller will tell you exactly how to sell him. Find his pain. What does he really want? It's not always money. He may not have another place to go, need help moving, be unable to move, have poor credit so finding another place and turning on utilities could be hard, if there are renters in the property that could be his pain, etc. Your goal needs to be to solve that pain. Simply ask him. It sounds simplistic, but in sales today we try too often to have a slick answer or trick close. Those traditional sales tactics no longer work. Be sincere and the seller will guide you.

John Martinez

Give the seller (or the buyer) the freedom to say “No.”

This is written from the perspective of an investor with the intent to get a great deal on a property. This sales strategy, rooted in psychological reactance, also holds true when selling. 

It may sound simplistic, but the secret to increasing sales rests in your ability to get sellers to tell you “no.” Great salespeople get their share of yes’s, but they also hear a lot of no’s. What they don’t accept are “maybes” or “think-it-overs.”

Maybes and think-it-overs waste your time. They cause you to follow up on deals that should have been removed from your pipeline. They give you false hope. They discourage you from dedicating more of your time and energy to prospecting and marketing. In short, they are poison to your wholesaling career. Eliminate think-it-overs and you’ll blow through deals faster than Usain Bolt in the 100-meter dash.

Traditionally, salespeople have always pushed their prospects to say yes. We’ve all heard the line “What’s it going to take for you to sell today." People love to buy and sell, but they hate to "be sold". In pushing for a yes, the old-school salesperson makes his prospects feel like they are "being sold", and they naturally resist.

Instead, tell your prospects up front that it is okay to say no and then push for a no (instead of a yes) whenever your prospects show ambivalence about selling to you. When it’s time to ask for their business, instead of pushing prospects to to sell using some outdated closing tactic or trick, tell them in advance that at the end of your meeting they will need to make a final decision. Obviously a decision to sell to you would be wonderful, but make sure they understand that a no is also acceptable. As you move through the sales process, seek agreement at the end of each step in the process and at the end of each sales call about whether you and your prospect should take the next step together. When you reach the end of the sales process, your prospects should already know that they will be expected to make a final decision.

If upon reaching the end of the sales process, your prospect is still uncertain whether to sell to you, don’t back down and accept a “think-it-over.” Explain that while you’d love to make a deal with them, if they aren’t comfortable saying “yes,” you’ll happily accept their “no” and close their file. Let them know that if they still need to think about it, after all you’ve discussed, you have to assume that, in their mind, it really isn’t a good fit. We call this “going for the no.”

You don’t want to sound arrogant and you don’t want to act tough. The wrong tone will sound like sour grapes. Be sincere and nurturing, but be firm. The best part of “going for no” is that your prospects will never feel threatened or manipulated into doing something they don’t want to do.

Now, before you sound the alarm, let me quell a few fears. I know that you don’t really want a “no” from your prospect. That’s the best part of “going for the no.” You rarely get it. When you “go for the no,” one of two things will happen. A prospect who isn’t really interested in selling will admit it’s over, thereby freeing up your time to spend with prospects that are truly interested. That’s not a bad thing. It saves you the time and aggravation of chasing a dead deal.

However, prospects that are interested but still aren’t convinced will not want you to go away. By “going for the no,” you will shake out the hidden concerns and obstacles preventing the sale. Once these concerns are out in the open, you can discuss them and give your prospect another opportunity to make a final decision.

“Going for the no” is designed to uncover the truth. When you push for a “yes,” you put pressure on your prospects. You encourage them to lie to you. Sometimes they lie to avoid hurting your feelings. Sometimes they lie in order to get rid of you. Sometimes they lie because they are afraid of you.

This fear is justified. Salespeople that sell to consumers in their homes have been taught that they shouldn’t leave until they get the sale. Sometimes the only way to get rid of a salesperson in these situations is to give in to the salesperson’s high pressure demands to buy. It’s the reason why most states have enacted legislation that gives a consumer three days after signing a contract to back out of a deal.

Don’t be afraid of “going for the no.” While most salespeople say they would like to hear the truth, in reality “they can’t handle the truth” when it means they aren’t going to win. Weak salespeople would rather hang on to a familiar prospect long after a deal is dead rather than pursue a stranger who might actually buy. Don’t let your fear of rejection or need for approval get in the way.

Successful salespeople are never afraid of a “no.” They have plenty of other deals in their pipeline to work on. They understand that for every deal that doesn’t close they are one step closer to reaching a deal that does. By getting rid of the deadwood in their pipeline they have more time to focus on opportunities that are likely to result in sales.

By the way, when you get a “no,” be sure to clarify whether it is a “no forever” or a “no for now.” Just because a prospect isn’t qualified today doesn’t mean they won’t be qualified in the future. Ask your prospect if they want to hear from you again. If they do, ask them what needs to change for it to make sense to revisit this issue with them at a later date and when it would be appropriate for you to follow up. Ask if they would like to stay on your mailing list, so you can continue to send relevant articles and information on the problems you’ve solved for other individuals like them. Just because they aren’t ready to sell today, doesn’t mean they won’t be ready to sell someday.

Thank you! This looks like an amazing resource.

For the last 15 years I have been training sales people to become top performers, building sales organizations, and helping real estate professionals close more deals, at higher margins, and in less time. 

Selling is harder today. Let’s face it, the world as we know it has changed. With technology progressing at lightning speed, today’s customers are inundated with information and choices. The internet has increased competition and forever changed the way customers buy. Customers try to commoditize everything you sell. You must find a way to differentiate yourself.

Many of the selling strategies that were effective just a decade ago no longer work today. In order to grow sales today, a business and its salespeople must do more than simply communicate the value of their products and services, they must add value. Today, customers expect customized solutions from your sales staff. Today, how you sell is more important than what you sell. Sales organizations must become more consultative or run the risk of becoming obsolete.

All successful organizations, from a one man shop to a multi-billion dollar corporation, are built around systems (accounting, operations, etc.).

To be successful, a company should also have an effective system for prospecting and sales. Without these systems it is virtually impossible to build an effective sales force and chart a path for continuous improvement. What I really do is provide the tools and training to implement powerful systems for prospecting, selling and managing sales effectively.

John