What if the secret to winning more business wasn't to go after the sale harder, but was in fact to do the opposite? As business leaders, entrepreneurs or sales professionals we need to make sales, but we also know that NO ONE likes to be sold to. 

My guest this week is Allan Langer and his book How to Sell More By Selling Less offers a fantastic framework for changing the sales dynamic, eliminating pressure and making the whole sales process, faster, easier and a lot more profitable. 

If you want a step by step system for sales without the crunch factor, this is for you. 

00:00:11:18 - 00:00:28:26
Warick: Welcome to the marketers club podcast. The show all about helping you work smarter earn more and accelerate your success. And now here's your host Paul McCarthy.

00:00:30:11 - 00:01:41:17
Paul: Welcome to Episode 29 of the Marketers Club podcast I am your host Paul McCarthy and I'm here to help you market your talent so you can earn what you're worth and ultimately make more of a difference in the world. Great to have you company again for another episode of the podcast. And this week we're going to be having a conversation about selling now for a lot of people's sales is one of those terms those ideas that really sends people into a bit of a frenzy. They get really uptight nervous a lot of people don't see themselves as salespeople and that is one of the tension points that they feel right away. So whether you are a gun at winning business or whether you find it really intimidating to be involved in the sales process. This week's podcast is going to be a must listen for you. Now my guest this week is Allan Langer and has written a fantastic book called How to sell more by selling less. Now this title really appealed to me as somebody who's been teaching people how to do no pressure selling from past 15 years I really believe that there's no need to be pushy manipulative or really crunching people into making buying decisions none of us want to be sold to that way so why would we want to practice that on any of our prospective customers.

00:01:41:19 - 00:02:42:24
Paul: So this is really about knowing how to be of service to people really to come with a service mindset rather than a sales mindset. And Allan talks about that right off the bat that it's really about changing the attitude in which we go into a sale scenario and he's got lots of great strategies and tips that he shares throughout this episode with you to help you make the sales process a whole lot less stressful and a lot more successful for you just by changing some of your mindset. Now I've always been a proponent that you know selling can be broken into two simple components convincing selling or discovery selling and most people drop into this convincing mode that is they want to try and talk you into doing business with them. But I'm sure your experience like mine is that when people try and do that you just start to shut down. So this is about helping them discover that you are the right choice for them. Allan shares some great strategies about how to do that with ease. So I do want to keep you waiting any long I want to dive into my conversation with Allan Langer.

00:02:43:10 - 00:02:49:05
Paul: So Allan Langer welcome to the Marketers Club Podcast. Great to have you on the program.

00:02:49:07 - 00:02:51:23
Allan: Thank you Paul. Pleasure to be here.

00:02:51:25 - 00:03:18:16
Paul: Now you've written a fantastic book and I think one thing about great books is that they are practical and you've definitely nailed this with a really practical guide the Seven Secrets to selling more by selling less. So I love the title it intrigued me straight away. So tell me a little bit I mean I guess just for us to understand what brought you to write this book Why why was it time to write a book like this.

00:03:18:18 - 00:04:30:02
Allan: That's a great question I get that question a lot. So for me everyone has a happy place. Everyone has a or they should at least find what makes their heart sing. And for me it's always been writing. I've always been a writer at heart but I sort of got away from that when I got into sales You know 25 years ago I still did writing on the side I still did short stories and everything but you know writing for me I kind of lost just lost the love of it because I wasn't doing it. And after having for my standards are pretty lousy 2017 personally professionally I just was not feeling great. This is how the book came to life. So I had the book in my head it was sitting in my head for at least three or four years and I went into this brand new coffee shop one morning and I had been going over the same coffee shop for years but I decided to go to a different one and I walked in and on the counter she had this wooden box and in the box was a bunch of cards and they were called cue cards and I pulled one of the cards out and it had a big black cue on it. And you flip it over and it had like this Trump sentence like you know who did you compliment today or when was the last time you did something nice up like that.

00:04:30:18 - 00:05:43:19
Allan: So out of the cards and it was probably about three hundred of them in there. The one I pulled out said What would you like your legacy to be and that really punched me in the stomach because I knew I wasn't doing what I was really loving I loved sales but there was something missing and it was writing and I literally sat down at the table with my cup of coffee and I called my boss back then at Andersen Windows and I told him I was taking every morning off for the entire year. This was January 3rd of 2018 and he fell off his chair. What do you mean you're taking every morning off. Because we would run appointment's 10:00 every single morning and he's sick. That's 30 percent less appointments. And I said I know I need to do this. And basically I started writing my book that day and I finished it may 31st five months later and that's how my book started and everything changed from that point. It took seven months from there for design and editing and Things was published in January of 2019 so almost a year ago today. And everything's changed. You know my speaking career is taking off my training career I've now out of the day to day sales and it's just been a great great experience for me.

00:05:44:16 - 00:06:36:06
Paul: Well it's amazing and how the universe sometimes talks to us and I for one am so glad that punch in the guts and and gave us the gift of this book. So that's fantastic I so I mean we have a large entrepreneurial audience that listened to this program. So selling is clearly a big part of business success but it's also something that bamboozled a lot of people it frightens a lot of people and there's a lot of myths and so forth about selling. So I'm keen to talk to you about your seven secrets because the the idea I mean one that jumped out to me was the first conversation that you have about sort of making the switch. And we the real service mindset rather than a selling mindset so can we start there. Talk to me a little bit about the Western mindset the why we need to approach selling.

00:06:36:09 - 00:08:03:03
Allan: I became the number one salesman at Andersen Windows because I started doing things that I didn't realize I was doing. And the first thing I was doing was I wasn't following their sales process. I wasn't following their sales pitch. Once I sat down and tried to figure out all right what am I doing differently. That's what I came up with the Seven Secrets. And the first thing is making this switch. And what I mean by that is changing your mindset if you ask any sales person you put you put a thousand salespeople in the room and say what is the reason why you're in sales nine hundred ninety nine. Well I will say to make money I'm here to make money. I'm in sales and unless they're selling like a health product that they really believe in or something like that but the majority they're selling money that should not be the reason to be in sales. If you're walking up to an appointment or you're walking up to a customer and you're ready to talk about your product the last thing you should be thinking about is selling the product. You should be thinking about helping the customer. So when I say make the switch right before you go into that sales appointment change your mindset from I'm not here to sell this customer I'm here to help this customer. And it's amazing how much more you will sell by actually not trying to sell because if you go in there saying oh my god I got to hit my numbers this month I got to make this sale today because I'm way behind. You're never gonna do it. If you go in with the only thing on your mind is how can I help you Mr. Customer. I'm here to help you forget about the sale if you will genuinely help them. The culmination of that at the end of the conversation should be a sale because you're helping them.

00:08:03:05 - 00:08:25:13
Paul: I love that man. Nobody wants to be pushed or forced. No one enjoys manipulation or trickery and these sorts of things we want genuine conversations but to to sell without pressure means that you have to first find a genuine need and that means genuinely wanting to serve the customers I love the idea of just being there to serve them. Because if they've got the name then the sale will take care of itself.

00:08:26:22 - 00:09:04:15
Allan: 100% not a percent and I'm on Linkedin all the time and there's so many like sales groups on LinkedIn and I see these these silly mems that are out and this one group that's on there drives me crazy because every meme that they sent out that they send out they post is literally about hitting your target hitting your goals you know reaching you know the sales manager carrying you across the finish line. It's all about making money. None of them mems none of the posts. Talk about how can I help the customer. And and the people that are liking those posts and like all this is great are the sales people that are closing 25 percent and are frustrated with sales.

00:09:04:22 - 00:10:16:19
Paul: It's funny we're we're in the midst of our summer And as I'm speaking to you it's in the high 40s for us. I would be you know 100 degrees for you over there. It's it's a hot day. Sort of while here. And as reminder of my wife remind me only that that day we had an air conditioning guy who service their air conditioning. Years ago some years ago and when he came he started sending with these sort of a joke which was really kind of sexist off putting joke and my wife actually was so she was offended by say she complained to sit them that don't send me things like that again. And ever since he's been sending a Christmas card every year we've never responded to anything. It's just you know like it's just going through the motions. I mean you talked about abandoning a sales script being more intuitive being with the customer. And I think that's when we really got to do it really in tune not just doing things that don't actually connect that step a through Allan some of the other case secrets because obviously we get that mindset we get that service mindset right. What other things do we need to think about in terms of secrets to being better at our sales craft.

00:10:16:21 - 00:11:43:29
Allan: Well a secret one goes Segway is right and the secret two which is which I call it that helping percentage. And one of the terms I've always stated as a salesperson was the term close. You know it's very common say what your closing percentage you know how many customers did you close this week or you'll read in my book sales meetings to me or are some of the more just archaic forms of of meeting because you're sitting there for the most part you're sitting there with a group of people who are basically talking about the customers like their prey and that they conquered the customer that they took them down and they talk about how they closed them and how they use this tactic and that tactic. If you're focusing on the word close you're also focusing on the money and the selling. So the companies I train I one of the first things I train them to do is to change their their vocabulary instead of calling what's your closing percentage this month. Well what's your helping percentage. If you have actually helped a customer and they purchase something from you you didn't close them you helped them and it's great when when I get business owners text me or call me two or three weeks after I've given them some training and they say it's amazing. I get text all the time and and my guys are not no longer saying I close Mrs. Johnson today I helped Mrs. Johnson just makes everybody in the company feel better and it makes you feel better as a person. And it makes the customer feel better.

00:11:44:01 - 00:12:17:21
Paul: Oh I love that. I love that idea. I mean I was the same I absolutely hated term closing it took that it as gaining commitment because we weren't at least gaining a commitment to move to the next phase. Next step it's it's about opening a relationship not closing one so I love that idea of a helping percentage. You've talked a lot also about things like body language in terms of what we're doing when we're in that. So talk to me a little bit about the the body language angle of of what we need to be mindful of them what works well as a sales professional.

00:12:17:23 - 00:13:34:14
Allan: So it was it was in all the research I was doing in my book because I did I tried to back up I did back up everything that I do in the home or when I'm in front of a customer with scientific proof and studies. One of the things I discovered was body language even though there's so many articles and books about body language and actual sales training it's hardly ever talked about. Again it goes back to these are the tactics you need to to do to sell to close the customer. This is how you handle objections. This is how you do this is how you do that. No one ever says watch the customers feet watch their torso see what their eyes are doing see how their head is tilted. All of these small tools are huge in understanding if what you're saying is getting through to the customer if they're liking you if they're receiving you. And then on the flip side what is your body telling them. So I went through an entire I spent an entire chapter trying to pick out ten or twelve really important things to look for for a salesperson to understand what the customer is doingand for the prospect is doing in front of them if they just do that and memorize those things and practice them. They'll be so far ahead of the regular salesperson. It's not even funny. It's simply because it's not trained.

00:13:34:16 - 00:13:55:23
Paul: One of the cases we practice these things to the point where they don't become an intuitive part of who we are. We don't have to think about them anymore. We're just you there in the moment because you do want to get to that. They unconscious competence around these things where you're not physically having to think I'm supposed to be moving on what is that telling me you want to be in the moment with them so it does take practice to get yourself there.

00:13:56:08 - 00:14:42:23
Allan: Right, and one of the things when I give I've given quite a few talks now just on body language alone and one of the things that always surprises people and it surprised me when I first discovered it is when you ask people what do you think is the number one easiest part of the body to read in body language. Everyone always answers the face that go it's the face you go you can tell what everyone in the face is actually the least accurate because you can manipulate your face pretty easily. The feet in the legs are actually the most accurate your feet and your legs cannot be controlled by your conscious brain because it's so far away from your your body that your thought process that they will their direction their tenceds how their tenceds how they're crossed is all subconscious it comes from your limbic brain and it will tell you more what the person is feeling than the face will ever do.

00:14:43:09 - 00:15:04:09
Paul: Wow. Let's just I one and I think it's right there in that that's called right there. I love it that you and I are both fans of Donald Miller the story brand and you talk about your book about the power of stories. So how do stories work in relation to our ability to sell.

00:15:04:11 - 00:16:33:06
Allan: So it's actually since I've written the book the concept of telling stories and selling has kind of become a little bit of a hip thing to talk about on social media you see a lot of it unlinked and stuff brought up what I'm not seeing is people are saying yeah you stories to sell but they're not really saying how to do it. And the concept I use is a couple of different things but my biggest thing is use your story in the context of your product and what I mean by that is in the greatest example is a baseball as a baseball until you know Mickey Mantle hits over the center field fence you know in a world series game or for you guys I guess it's it's rugby or football whatever your national sport is. Forgive me I don't know. But the baseball now becomes valuable because it has a story no longer a baseball. So let's say you sell a copy machine the company needs copying machines and they have three companies in and they all tell the same thing are a copy machine does a thousand pages a minute and that Staples and color and blah blah blah where you're going to go with everyone sounds exactly the same. Well how about you tell a story about the copy machine. How about you say that. Oh yeah. You know we sold this copy machine to Joe's Garage down the street and one day his daughter needed 1000 flyers for her you know girl scout cookies. And he saved the day with this copy machine. Now all of a sudden that copy machine has context to a story and it becomes humanised and nine times out of 10 they'll buy that copy machine because simply you told the story even though it's exactly the same with the other copy machine.

00:16:33:10 - 00:16:46:02
Paul: Yeah. What's going to stand out in the mind isn't it it's going to literally help to jump out and memorable for people they're going to be able to recall that story over the features and benefits of the machine.

00:16:46:12 - 00:17:22:17
Allan: Right, And if you and if you just tell stories during your process about even if it's not about your product it's about a customer that you help. But it's a funny story that's in relation to what you're talking about. You're just you're just more memorable like you said you're just you stand out more you're not just the robotic salesman trying to sell them something you're kind of a genuine guy. And as soon as you start to say you know once upon a time when you start that first sentence of a story everybody perks up. It's human nature you perk up stories of being told since since people could talk and there's a reason for it is because every human mind is built to listen to a story.

00:17:22:19 - 00:18:13:27
Paul: Well one of the areas I was keen to sort of dive into is a little bit of detail was your whole conversation around pricing because I think pricing is a big issue. I think that there's a lot of fear about disguising prices and getting that on the table with people how they manage that. I think a lot of people burn a lot of time in sales meetings where they do the whole sort of dog and pony show show everything but they never actually discuss the price. I go away they produce proposals and send it back and then create the sticker shock for people because that's the first on the set price. And they don't get the sale sign. There's a lot of time wasted because people don't know how to manage the pricing and I think it's a fascinating conversation. So can you walk us through. I guess some of the pricing principles things that we need to think about in terms of being able to to manage the pricing process.

00:18:13:29 - 00:19:39:13
Allan: It's really another completely neglected part of selling for the most part with the exception of retail retail the retail environment spends a lot of time on pricing because they're showing the price from the get go and then you get into the psychology of the numbers and things like that. But from a from a selling standpoint you're 100 percent right. Everybody is anxious about the price and if you're anxious about the price as the salesperson imagine what the customer is and imagine what the customer's feeling they're feeling that anxiety and then the reason that is happening is because I mean there's a lot of reasons it's happening but most of the time they don't know they have no idea what the price is going in there that you're telling them that you know for example you know you're selling that copy machine and they are waiting for that monthly lease price or they're waiting for that overall price on that copy machine after an hour of having a conversation and that anxiety is just going up and up and up. One of my biggest things is that in the pricing catalog the pricing chapter is to build the price with the customer. So the customer owns the price. And what I mean by that is a great example. So when I was selling windows and doors we had this wonderful software program that built the entry doors. It was on the laptop. And what most of the reps did They've completely missed the whole concept of it. When you pick the door when you started designing your door the price showed up in the bottom right hand corner so you picked a steel door with half glass and hardware. And it showed five thousand dollars whatever it showed.

00:19:39:15 - 00:20:48:19
Allan: Now the customer for me I would let the customer get on the laptop and actually designed the door. They were hitting the keys they were they were pressing with a touch screen they were pressing the touch screen they were picking their colors they were picking their glass and as they were doing that the price was going up and down so they could see exactly what was happening to the price as they designed the door. So guess what when they got to the end and they hit save they already bought the door because they designed it. The reps that sat there and had the laptop facing them and said OK man what would you like red. OK. He clicked red and oh do you want this hardware. And there's stills behind the table they have no idea what the prices didn't buy the door because they were shocked at the price. And there's so many studies on this that when you go on an e-commerce Web site and they did a study with I think it was sweatshirts they had these sweatshirts on the e-commerce Web site and they had a group of people choose the sweatshirts with the mouse. They clicked on the mouse and they bought the sweatshirt that was the average of thirty five dollars. They actually then had the same amount of people do a touch screen and the shirts that they purchase were twenty five dollars more simply because they were touching the screen so they went to owning the price they were owning the product physically.

00:20:48:23 - 00:21:13:01
Allan: And it just there's no shock anymore. There's no there's no price shock. There's no anxiety because they know it. So so the chapter's called My advice show the price. If you're in a situation if you're a small business owner and you can sit down and let the customer build the price with your guidance rather than you build the price and then show it. I guarantee you your sales will probably go up 30 or 40 percent because the customers owning that price.

00:21:13:06 - 00:21:39:10
Paul: It just makes sense that when people are involved in the process and I think that's at any level when we talk about it from a leadership point of view when we get our employees engaged in sort of creating the vision the mission. The mean people are engaging and I feel a sense of ownership over it and it makes perfect sense that if the customer is involved in the sales design process that the thing that I finish with is there is I created it. It's sort of...

00:21:39:20 - 00:22:30:23
Allan: Right, so I mean I hate to keep going back to the copy machine example but it's a great example. If you sit there and and have a program where they start picking the options on the copy machine and the prices moving up and down and then the other guy comes in and just says Tell me what you want and here's the price. They're not buying that when they're buying one that they design themselves and it could be the same price or could even be more but they designed it. So they own it. Yeah. So if you're in a situation where where let's say the customer is designing the price but there's still a lot of other options or you're gonna show them three different options you should get your pricing to three option the copy machine better copy machine great copy machine things like that you should You should You should come up with through prices because what you ultimately want the customer to be thinking is not whether or not they are going to buy with you it's what option are they going to buy from you.

00:22:30:25 - 00:24:20:28
Allan: It's a completely different purchase mindset because you want them to say which one am I going to choose now. Now they're buying rather than am I going to buy. And here's a great little tip for this and I love this story. So there was a movie theater that sold popcorn and the popcorn prices there was a small popcorn for three dollars and a large popcorn for 7.50 about 90 percent of the popcorn sales were small. And the manager was wondering how do I get people to buy the large popcorn it's a bigger profit margin for me and it's a better deal for the customer. But no one's buying it. How do I do that. So he said I'm going to add a third price. I'm going to add a medium. So you would immediately think OK. Three Dollars is gonna make the medium five and then the large 7.50. No he made the medium 6.50. So now when you're looking at the board you see small three dollars medium 6.50 large 7.50. Yes what. Now that large popcorn looks like a hell of a deal because it's compared to the 6.50 price. No one's even looking at the three dollar price anymore. I can go from medium to large for just the dollar. I'm going to do that and then ninety six percent of his popcorn sales from that point on were large and his profit margin doubled. So if you can set up your pricing where you where you want that customer to go to the better product because it's better for them and you set it up where it seems like a no brainer and they feel really good about purchasing it then you're gonna do really well. You don't want your you don't want to be the company that just has the you know the the cheapest product or you know the economy company if you do more than that. That's that's you. That's your thing but you're not going to be using this. But if you genuinely believe in your product you believe it helps people and help them helps their lives. You need them to. You need to get them to there to the best product that you have. And you need to use how the human brain works to do that.

00:24:21:08 - 00:25:25:00
Paul: So we talk about it as the good better best strategy. So doing that a good buddy of mine who was at a conference and he came back and he shared with me they did a test with good better best and they took the same triplicate idea. All they did was reverse the order in which it was showed to the customers. So that always showed best a bit of good and making that sketch just making that switch they saw an 11 percent increase in the take up of of the best option by changing the order of the sequence in which they were delivering the information. So that was interesting to me as well so I said just deliver the higher price as the starting point which I think comes back to another point you make about this which I'd love to touch on if we can. Is this idea of anchoring a price with people first. This idea of getting getting a price point so tell us a little bit about how we can get something like that that sort of price juxtaposition in the mind of our prospects.

00:25:25:02 - 00:26:54:10
Allan: So the human mind works where they're going. It's always in a comparison mode and retail good retail companies do this all the time. And the great example is how do you sell a twenty five hundred dollar watch where you put it next week ten thousand dollar watch. This is another way to use that that triplicate if you actually want to get something sold that's less you compared to something that's very expensive and you're more apt to go to the you know you're more apt to spend that 20 500 all the watch because you think it's a good deal anchoring is that is the concept of putting a price in someone's head that they can compare the actual price to. So an example I used when I was selling windows an average price for a window for me when I was selling was about fifteen hundred dollars a window so no one knew that. Everyone you know people always thought windows are 500 hundred dollars. They're not. They were about fifteen hundred dollars. But if I showed that at the end most of the time they were shocked. So during casual conversation I would ask them Do you think windows are three thousand dollars more or less and one hundred percent of the time like well I hope it's less than three thousand and I would laugh and we would get a chuckle out of it. But now the three thousand is anchored in their brain just as a casual number. Then when you got to the end and that window was fifteen hundred dollars it felt comfortable to them. And that's what you want to do. You know the window is going to help them improve their lives. You just don't want them to be shocked by the price. So you anchore a number in their brain. And when the actual price comes up they feel a lot more comfortable about it.

00:26:54:12 - 00:27:36:17
Paul: I mean we've all encountered customers that are not even in the ballpark of what the real price is going to be. They think they're going to get something for a thousand dollars that's going to cost 10,000. It's like well no one can deliver that and it's not that I want the bargan. But if it's not available just sort of wrapping up on a couple of these other ideas. What about the social proof element because that's another element that you talking about the power of social proof. As a marketer I'm always talking to clients about the ability to get other people to testify to your skills and abilities what you have been able to do. So how do we use social proof. Well when we're when we're selling. Yeah.

00:27:36:19 - 00:28:09:25
Allan: So social proof doesn't mean you know Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn social proof means make a making a customer feel comfortable because they're in the same group of other people that have purchased the product and there is a lot of different ways to do that and that's in the chapter. The obvious one is testimonials. But here's the thing about testimonials I've seen so many companies go in. I've been with reps and they'll show testimonials on the product generic testimonials on a Web site from you know from San Diego California and they live in Chicago.

00:28:09:27 - 00:29:31:12
Allan: There is no connection with that person in California to the person in Chicago. You have to have your testimonials. And again this is not rocket science but you have to have your testimonials have a connection with the customer. So every time I train a rep I'm like OK before you go in that house you need to find 10 customers within a three mile radius or as close as you can and then you talk about those customers because now when you say hey Mr. Smith three blocks away Joe you know Joey boombox bought these windows. He's going to feel a lot more comfortable because he has a connection because that guy lives so close. So you have to have your testimonials have a connection usually geographically to the customer but also physically or or ways that have gone through experiences. If you're selling a kitchen for example and someone bought the same cabinets Hey I had a great couple that put these cabinets in. They love them. They get so many compliments for these cabinets. Now you're kind of telling a little bit of a story and you're putting that person into a group where someone else did it. It's like walking down the street and people are looking up. What do you do. You look up you see it all the time now on an online e-commerce site. When you're searching for something on that site you'll see a bubble that pop and I'll say you know Peter Smith just bought this you know this this book or whatever it was. That's the retail environment using social proof to make you feel more comfortable purchasing.

00:29:31:14 - 00:29:37:02
Paul: Why does that ping in our brain. Why does that help us make our buying decisions so much easier do you think?

00:29:37:21 - 00:31:18:23
Allan: It's a psychological thing that was proven by Dr. Cellini. He's the author of influence and persuasion. It's a wonderful book. I highly recommend it. And he did so many studies on this and the human brain likes to feel comfortable. They like to survive and thrive and survival means being in a pack where packed animals that that's our inherent nature. So when we feel comfortable with another group of people we are more likely to do with that group of people is doing than not. In his book he talks about a study they did in a hotel where you know you go into a hotel now and it has a sign that says you know leave your towels on the floor if you want us to take them hang them back on the rack if you want to help us recycle. He did a really cool thing was he. He tested three different signs and he said just what I said if you help us recycle leave your towels. And there was like no 10 percent compliance rate. People help you you know they wanted to help the environment. Then he said OK the sign said Forty five percent of people in this hotel recycle their towels. Can you please join them. And then the the compliance went way up to about 50 percent of people in that hotel room. And then he took it a step further and he said the majority of people in this hotel room this particular hotel room recycle their towels. Can you join them in the compliance rate went up to almost 80 percent. And so think about that. It's like you walk in. You have no relation to. I'm going to help the environment. That's just something you feel like doing. All right these people stayed in the hotel room in the hotel. They did it while they actually stayed in this room. I better comply like everyone else did. It's just human nature.

00:31:19:03 - 00:31:20:10
Paul: I want it to be the odd one out.

00:31:20:29 - 00:31:50:21
Allan: Absolutely. Absolutely. So if you can do that with your products and with your customers they're going to feel more comfortable with you and they're going to feel more comfortable buying. That's what you want you want at the end to them feel like they made a really good decision and they're happy with decision. It eliminates cancellations it eliminates buyer's remorse because everything you did is not only psychological but you're using it you're using the human brain in the way where they're going to feel comfortable with the product that they just purchased.

00:31:50:29 - 00:32:39:07
Paul: So I want to wrap up talking about I guess the selling and it's a reality for a lot of people who will be listening this program and now a reality for you in the work that you do that they don't sell a product they sell them they sell their service they selling it themselves. So in your transition from being you know a top class you know the the the gun salesman in selling a product for another company to being a person who is a speaker author and selling your own consulting services. And for those people that are doing similar what are the things or is there any strategy type or idea that you've experienced and saying that is any different to the selling of a product to when you're selling a service.

00:32:39:09 - 00:34:29:02
Allan: I think the one thing that people need to understand with a product but specifically with a with a service or when you're selling yourself everyone that that sells something for the most part thinks that they're the hero. They think that they are going to save the day and help the customer. That's the wrong way to think about it. You actually need the customer is actually the hero the product of the service is the guide to get them to the point where they're happy after they bought your product. I always tell people you know when I do some talks I point to the people the crowd and like what do you sell and they'll say I sell kitchen utensils and I say no you don't. What do you sell I sell cotton machines I'm like No you don't. Everyone looks at me. I'm like No you sell a way to cut your meat. You sell a way to make your boss happy by copying all the while the meeting minutes you'd never sell a product you sell the feeling the customer has after buying the product. You want to guide that customer. So instead of saying hey I'm going to help you I'm going to be the one to save you. You sit down and say I'm going to come up with a way for you to create a bigger audience. More customers are going to help you do that I'm going to guide you there and and you're gonna do this. You know it's not me saving the day you're gonna be able to do this when I'm gone and you kind of just empower them and they're gonna feel much more comfortable with you because you're really guiding them rather than saying I'm the hero and here's all my stuff and listen to me. Once I learned that that came from Donald Miller You're the guide and not the hero in anything you sell and even what you do with your business you'll be amazed on how how customers will respond to you better because they realize that you're coming up with a solution to help them. What you're guiding them there rather than just being the hero and saving the day. They're really the hero.

00:34:29:04 - 00:35:05:15
Paul: Well I think it's a it's a great place to wrap up. I mean you've been a brilliant guide for us today sharing some some fantastic wisdom and you've taken it a step further and put together a brilliant book so practical and one that I'd really encourage everyone to get sites that the Seven Secrets of selling more by selling let's. Allan if people want to reach out they want to connect. We want to learn more from you. Apart from being able to go and grab the book which I can get on Amazon or wherever they sell great books but what's the best way for people if I want to reach out and learn more from you. How can they get in contact.

00:35:05:29 - 00:35:43:08
Allan: So the first thing I'd like to say is thank you for having me on. I enjoyed this very much and I'll have it. I have a free gift for some of your listeners. So the first two people that email me mentioning your podcast will. I will mail them a free book so they'll buy two free books I can send out so so and they can find my email they can contact me through my Website which is www.allanger.com So it's A L L A N G E R .com You can buy my book there it'll take you to Amazon you can send me a message. And again the first two that send me message mentioning this podcast I'll send your free book.

00:35:43:24 - 00:36:05:27
Paul: That's very generous. Thank you very much. We appreciate that. And thank you mate. Thanks for the gift of the book. Thanks for making the time to chat to me today. It's been a pleasure. It's one of the absolute joys of recording a podcast is the uh the education I get along the way as well so it's always enriching for me so lovely to spend a little bit of time with you. Thanks for everyone for joining me.

00:36:05:29 - 00:36:07:05
Allan: My pleasure Paul. Anytime.

00:36:07:08 - 00:37:31:27
Paul: So I hope you enjoyed that conversation with Alan Langer and that you are now with a whole bunch of great simple strategies to help you improve your sales conversion. Turning more prospects into customers with greater ease. Allan shared some great ideas but it's really going to start with a change of mindset understanding that we are there to be of service rather than going for the throat for the sale. Straight out of the gate and of course making the decision making process easier by providing people with three options so that they've got choice rather than just a decision about whether they work with you or not. These simple strategies I've seen works so well for so many business owners and Alan has really laid out a very practical simple book that shows you how to do some of the fundamentals of selling with much greater ease and put your focus in the right place. Now you might have noticed along the way that Alan had a few coughs and splutters he wasn't feeling 100 percent now of course. We recorded this long before there was any word or mention of a thing called a coronavirus and of course the world has been besieged with this and it seems to be absolutely taking up everybody's attention and if you're in Melbourne as I am then you will have experienced the toilet paper fiasco where the shelves have been cleared of all toilet paper as people panic and start stocking up on all sorts of things.

00:37:31:29 - 00:38:49:18
Paul: So I hope that this recording finds you safe and well and that you and your family are all in good health and I will to avoid getting ill but perhaps maybe for us all to not panic quite so much and that we will be okay and get through this together. I think that was another important point that Alan made right out of the gate that was beyond the message about sales and that was the journey into writing his book. It was a reality check for him that he was doing something that he was good at in terms of sales but he was missing out on doing the thing that he was called to do which was to write to educate and to really teach people some of this stuff and that's what he feels called to do and he's doing a great job of it now. And I think that this is part of the messaging for us to take as well that we've got to make sure that we are aligned with what we're truly passionate about doing because I tell you once you are aligned with what your feeling is your purpose. Selling it becomes a whole lot easier as well. So thank you again to everyone who has been reviewing the show. That really means a lot to me. I really appreciate you taking the time to leave a review or taking the time to leave your comments that really helps the show so if you haven't done that.

00:38:49:24 - 00:39:33:28
Paul: I look forward to receiving your review if you can take a moment to do that and to everyone who has. Thank you so much and thanks for continuing to share the show out with people we are gathering more and more listeners with every episode which is absolutely awesome and we hope that you are enjoying uh receiving the program as much as I am putting them together for you. So I want to wish you all the very very best of luck with your businesses. But much more importantly with your lives and I wish you great health and prosperity moving forward and take care out there try and keep away from catching you any uh any bugs and flus and be well and I look forward to joining you again for another episode of the Markerters Club Podcast next week. Until then take care bye for now.