Selling The ROI, Not The Price: FRIDAY FIRE #7
Host: Isaac Mashman · November 13, 2020 · Episode 43 · 22 minutes
Transcribed from the episode audio and edited to read cleanly: names and terms corrected, grammar fixed, filler words and false starts removed, punctuation added. Words in [brackets] could not be made out with certainty. Wording can differ slightly from what was said; the episode itself is the record.
You're listening to Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman. This is a Friday Fire episode and I'm your host, Isaac Mashman. What is going on? I hope that you're having a fantastic week. This is going to be the episode to close out this week, leading you into the weekend and building up a little bit of momentum for when everybody else is slowing down. So today's episode is going to be on a topic that I have not publicly talked about to anybody really at any time on any social media platform, and that is sales. See guys, the one thing about Chase the Vision with Isaac Mashman, this podcast and what I'm pursuing, is I'm not going to be talking about one specific subject, but at the same time, I'm not going to be trying to sell you on a whole bunch of business related subjects as well.
My specialty, what I am working in, is personal branding. I'm not focusing on sales. I'm not focusing on a lot of the internet marketing, SMMA, that kind of thing. I'm not going to teach you about dropshipping or Shopify, none of that. Or at least I'm not going to sell you on it. I might talk about certain things at certain points, but only the things that I have knowledge on. I'm not about to share knowledge on a topic that I have no experience in or that I have no knowledge about. But sales is one of those things that I'm going to be discussing as kind of an introduction towards what is to come in future episodes. In episode 42, I discussed the 1% mindset. I discussed more of the mindset aspect of things.
But the issue with having a mindset discussion and a discussion on how you should think or how you should act is it can be taken and perceived as motivational, motivational only. That's not what I'm trying to be perceived as. I do not want to be known as another internet guru, online marketer, motivational speaker, none of that. I know that. You guys should probably all know that too, if you've listened to any of my episodes, because I've expressed that. But in order for me to ensure that I'm being perceived in the right way, I have to discuss things that show that I'm credible. I'm somebody who you should listen to, somebody who is worth listening to, somebody who can actually help you get results in life. So I'm not going to be selling you.
I'm going to be talking about sales. Before I discuss the thing that I want to talk about and the actual technique that I'm going to be discussing, I want to remind you of the favor that I ask at the beginning of every episode or nearly every episode. That is to share this podcast with a friend. I'm not running advertisements. I'm not going to be talking your ear off. If I ever promote a product or service, it's going to be my own. That's it. I'm not going to cut you short and talk about a dropshipped Chinese Alibaba product. I'm not going to be telling you about the latest, greatest widget tool that, I don't know, Tai Lopez dropped. Nah, nah, nah. You guys are worth more, and I value my brand way too much to waste your time.
So share this with a friend if you get value from it. This episode is going to be valuable to any of you, even if you're not involved with sales. You could be a musician, you could be a rapper, you could be a model, regardless, this is going to be beneficial to you. I don't want to single anybody out, excuse me, simply because I know that there's value to be learned in every single topic and every single subject known to man, quite literally. You can learn just as much from a homeless person as you could from a rich person, believe it or not. But today, let's go ahead and break down the topic. That is, how to get across your price point to a prospect.
I know that if any of you have ever tried to close somebody, whether that's a $20 product or a $500 service or a $2,500 contract, a lot of times you're going to be hit with objections. They're going to tell you that the product is too expensive, that they don't have enough money, or that they need to discuss it with their spouse or significant other. They're going to ask you a ton of questions. They're going to want to learn your credibility. They're going to want to learn why they should even buy your product. Can you be trusted or are you some snake oil salesman? They're going to be just questioning and telling you all the things and all the reasons why they cannot purchase or work with you.
Your job as the salesman is to understand if that person truly needs your product or service and if they would get benefit from it.
If the answer to those two things is yes, they can use or benefit from your product and service and they need it, then your job is to close the person. Now if they don't need what you have and what you offer, then you have that ethical responsibility to retract yourself and be like, you know what, they're not going to get benefit from what I have to offer. So I'm going to back away from the sale, excuse me. But if it is a case where that person needs what you have, you need to have the mentality of, okay, hey, it's kind of like a life or death situation here.
Like, this person absolutely needs what I have. I need to go ahead and convince them to buy the products, and not convince them in, like, a needy way of, like, I need you to buy this because I'm broke or because my bills are behind. You don't need to approach the prospect in a sense of I need you, but you need what I have.
Then you can work around their objections. The one objection that I'm going to be covering is the price point objection of, I do not have enough money, or that's a little bit more than I was expecting to pay. I'm not going to be talking about how to identify if the prospect is in need of your service. I'm not going to be talking about all the hundreds of different subjects that pertain to sales because it's a very intensive process. If I'm going to be honest with you, I would suggest you go check out Jordan Belfort's sales school. He just launched a new podcast. It's like five, 10, 15 minute episodes.
He covers a lot of different sales techniques. It's a fantastic podcast. I can't even believe that I'm promoting it, but I believe in him and what he has going on that much, to promote another person's podcast on my own podcast. Go listen to him because I'm not going to be super deep and detailed into sales. But the one thing that I've used, the one tactic that I've used that has helped me close a bunch of different clients on a multitude of occasions, at different price points, is focusing on the return on investment.
Let's say you're talking to somebody, and I'll use an example that is very not internet marketing related, not personal branding related, because I could focus on that. But let's go and talk about somebody who is going to be mowing lawns. Let's say you're approaching somebody and you're offering a lawn service. You're talking to this person and let's say they have an average sized house, you go up, you knock on the door, you talk to that person, you establish a little bit of rapport, a little bit of a relationship. You're like, hey, I noticed your grass was super long and that there's weeds and [erosion], all this other stuff, like, I could tell your yard needs a little bit of maintenance and cleanup.
That person's going to either tell you, hey, I'm not interested at all, or they're going to be like, yeah, I was actually looking for a lawn guy, my last lawn guy quit.
It's been a couple months and I need my lawn cut. Okay, so that person is a buyer, a potential buyer, somebody who meets your qualifications of, hey, they actually need what you have to offer. Then the next thing that you're going to need to do is understand what their budget is, and then you're going to need to understand what you can even offer them. You need to have an understanding of what you can offer before going into the sale, because that will give you the advantage of knowing if you can upsell the person or what you can offer that they might not even know about. You will know what you can offer the person, even if they do not know that they are in need of it yet.
So for example, in this example, you can go into this knowing that you can lay down mulch, and they might not even be thinking about mulch, but you have the ability to upsell because you know what you offer. That's the same exact thing that applies in online sales or really any other sales, you know what you can offer, you can upsell the person, and you can maintain the leverage. So you're talking to this person, and you're like, yeah, I noticed that your yard is bad, and so, hey, I am able to take care of this for you and be your number one gardener. You can rely on me to handle all of your gardening needs. I can cut the grass, I can do that on a monthly basis, I can do that on a bi-weekly basis.
They're like, okay, yeah, sure. Then you're discussing prices. You're like, okay, well, it's going to be $150 front and back. That'll cover two cuts every single month. I'll go ahead and lay down the mulch and I'll get a couple other things for you. I'll trim up the palmetto trees and the palm trees, and I'll get the yard looking really, really nice. They're like, $150, that's a little steep. The last gardener, I was only paying $100, that's $50 extra, and you know, that's just too much for me right now. You're like, okay, I completely understand that my price might be a little bit higher than the last gardener that you had. But I also want to remind you that I am going to be someone who you can rely on.
I want to be the number one gardener for you. The last gardener is nowhere to be found. That's why the yard, I'm not saying this in a mean way, but that's why the yard is looking a little down right now, because he was not reliable. Let's say the name is Sally. You're talking to an older woman, her name is Sally. You're like, Sally, you can trust me. I've done hundreds of different lawn cuts. I can show you videos, I can show you pictures. You can trust me and you can find me [online]. I literally have a Better Business Bureau page. Like, I'm reputable and I can guarantee and ensure that I'm going to be giving you the best possible service. Like, still, it's $50 more, [she's] going to be like, okay, it is a little bit more expensive.
Aside from being someone who you can trust and being on time every single two weeks on Tuesday at 5 p.m., I'm going to make sure that I use the highest quality mulch. I'm going to pull every single weed down out of that garden. I'm going to lay down the, I don't know what the name is for this specific example, but I'm going to lay down the sheet that goes underneath the mulch to make sure that the weeds do not get through. I'm going to go ahead and run over your yard with something that's going to make the grass grow super bright and vibrant and green.
I'll check the sprinkler system in your yard. Rest assured, Sally, that by the time I am done with your yard, on the first time I cut it and manage it and trim it and make it look nice, that is going to be the nicest your yard has ever looked.
If it is not, you can go ahead and fire me and I'll give you all the money back. But I am so confident in what I have to offer and I know how I can make your yard look that [good]. Hey, it is literally, let's get started now. You're going to be wondering why you didn't call me months ago about doing your yard service. You're going to question why you even worked with the other gardener to begin with. I don't like undercutting my competitors. How does that sound? You're going to have a conversation with her and you're going to express what you are able to offer and then you're going to close her.
She's going to be like, you know what? Let's go ahead and do it. We'll go ahead and try it for one month and if I feel comfortable and if I'm happy and satisfied with your work, we'll go ahead and talk about long-term.
You're going to be like, great, Sally, what's a good time for you? I can get out here literally in the next week and have everything done and then you're going to be blown away. Then you're going to schedule a time and bam, you're going to show up. You just closed your client on a long-term relationship, and now it's up to you to make sure that you are delivering on your promises and that you are delivering on the thing that you said you could do. That's one thing about sales. It's easy to promise something, but it's another thing to actually follow through and be a man of your word and be somebody who follows through on your promises.
But in this scenario, and in this example, you had a higher than normal price point. She was not expecting to pay that much, but you were also able to show and remind her and help her visualize the return on investment that she would have.
Then you were also able to express a couple of different things that you could offer her that she did not even know she needed. In the future, you could give her a couple of maybe complimentary things, like trimming the palmettos or laying down the mulch. But in the future, you could talk to her and you could be like, hey, the base package is $150 a month, but if you want me to manage this to X, Y, and Z, like you want me to continue doing the palmettos every three months, I can go and do that for an extra 30 bucks, 30 bucks quarterly. You could talk and communicate with her and then upsell her for more things in the future within ethical reasoning.
Like, I'm not saying that just because Sally's a grandma that you should overprice and you should overcharge her, because then you're just being a douche.
What I am saying is have awareness of what you can offer and the return on investment that your client or your prospect will be receiving.
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I'll talk to these people and I'll be like, yes, I'm not the cheapest service out on the block right now. But that's for a reason. That's because I pay attention to detail. Right now, your personal brand is not where it should be.
Your personal brand is lacking. You say that you want to be the next Drake. You say that you want to be well known. You want to be an A-list celebrity. You say that you want to build this business and have a brand to where everybody knows who you are. You are the go-to person for your specific product in your business. Yet I don't know you. Yet, if you Google your name, nobody can find you. I cannot understand what you are even offering through your page. So, Jim, yes, my prices might not be super cheap, but if I am able to work with you to where you are taken seriously and to where people are actually able to understand what you do, what you offer, and understand why they should follow you, to where you are the go-to individual, you're meaning to tell me that my prices are too high for getting you the results that you deeply desire and these results that you have always wanted?
Jim, that is not too expensive. You cannot put a price on your vision. I'm here to help you, guide you, save time, and deliver an experience and results that you would not be able to get anywhere else. I know what I'm able to do. This is where in the conversation I would also present to them some of the results that I've been able to achieve for my clients and that I've been able to personally achieve. I'll talk to them. So, Jim, I went ahead and Googled your name and nothing pops up. The only thing I see is a LinkedIn profile. I see a Twitter page that isn't even you.
I don't find your business. I don't see any of that. If I'm a prospect and I'm wanting to buy the product or the kind of service that you're offering right now and I go to search up your reputation and you have none, I'm not going to work with you.
I'm not going to buy from you. But, Jim, a couple years ago, when I first got started with building up my brand, you'd search up Isaac Mashman. Nothing popped up on Google. The only thing that popped up was an Ancestry.com page, and it was about someone who had the last name Mashman and they were in the 1800s. Fast forward a couple years from then, I take up eight plus pages of Google. My company Mashman Ventures takes up three, four. It's growing every single day. I'm on Crunchbase.
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I was able to get a knowledge panel literally with zero dollars of press releases. I'm not saying any of this to brag. I'm not saying any of this to try to impress you, but to impress upon you what I can do for you, Jim. My goal is to save you money because everybody else online is going to try to suck away your money and charge you a thousand dollars for a feature on Yahoo Finance. I'm doing this organically and I want to help you get results. So, Jim, does this make sense to you?
Then he's going to be like, you know what, man, you take the no bullshit approach and you know, that's what I need. It does make a lot of sense. Then I'll say, Jim, okay, well, I want to help you and I'm ready to get started with you literally in the next couple of days, in the next week. Like, I can get a call scheduled tomorrow. You just let me know. But on a scale of one to 10, with one being, I am not ready, I'm just not interested in you whatsoever, then 10 being, Isaac, I am ready to get started right now and I want to have a strong personal brand, where do you lie? Are you a one or are you a 10? Where on that spectrum? Isaac, I'm honestly like an eight or nine.
Perfect, Jim. I can work with eights or nines. Now the question is, are you ready to get started? Then bam, sale closed. This method of focusing on the return on investment is applicable to a real world example of gardening and of trying to be a landscaper, it's applicable when it comes to being someone who offers a service. It's applicable to every other field, even a product. You could go ahead and talk to somebody about Rolls-Royce. You don't have people going out and trying to sell a Rolls-Royce. Like, you have Rolls-Royce dealerships and those type of clients are going to be looking for specific features. They're going to be looking for quality.
If you go into a Rolls-Royce dealership, they're going to be focusing on what you are going to be getting, the return on investment is going to be the stars in the ceiling or in the roof of the car that no other car has.
You're going to be having something that is unique. You're going to be having something that gives you features and quality that you cannot find elsewhere. It's applicable when it comes to something simple like a microphone. I'm recording on a microphone right now. If I'm going to be buying a microphone on Amazon, I'm going to be looking for specific products. Looking for reviews. But what you don't realize is when you are viewing these things, you are subconsciously sifting through all of these different product features and opinions of other people, and the page that you are viewing is selling you. It is forcing these things down your throat visually, of why you should go with this product versus their competitor.
It's the return on investment that is important. Don't get so concerned about the objection, but rather focus more so on the end result, which is having a long-term relationship with a fantastic client, getting money in your pocket, and offering a good service with a good price point that is going to deliver on the promises that you make. That is how you close more clients. That is how you look and be perceived as a professional, but you have to have everything that you offer down to a tee. You have to come across as confident. You have to come across as somebody who knows their shit because if you don't, they're going to be able to tell that you are an amateur.
You should not be perceived as an amateur, especially if you are taking business and you are taking your hustle as a full time gig. That's the reason why some people are able to get job interviews and other people aren't. They're confident in themselves. All things in life [are] sales. You're dating a woman right now, you had to sell her on why she should date you. If you are going for a job interview, you have to sell yourself as to why that company should hire you. If you are going and, I don't know, let's say you're a contestant for a talk show or for a specific giveaway, you have to convince that person as to why they should choose you over every other contestant. Every little thing is sales. Every little thing is sales and negotiations.
If you are able to master it, you're going to be able to master your finances. You are going to be able to master your relationships, your friendships, and you are going to be getting the results that you truly want. Study it, learn it, observe it, understand it, and the rest is going to be history, guys. So if you got any ounce of value, like I asked at the beginning of this podcast, go ahead and share this with a friend. If you are somebody who has a lot of friends in your network, who are in business and who are in sales, share this episode especially with them because there are a lot of people who don't know how to sell.
It's pretty bad when you get on a call with somebody and they're trying to sell you and you're walking through the sales process for them.
That's happened to me a couple of times. I'm like, okay, well, let's go ahead and schedule the follow up call. You as the prospect are not supposed to be scheduling follow up calls. The salesperson is the person supposed to be scheduling follow up calls. Guys, man, it's sad. Be taken as a professional, not as a hobbyist. That's all I'm going to say. Until next time, much love and always remember to chase after your vision. I'm Isaac Mashman. Make sure to follow me on all social media, at Isaac Mashman. You can go to my newly designed website, isaacmashman.com. By the way, if you are interested in learning a little bit more about what I can do for personal branding, you already know my price point. You already know some of what I can do for you, but message me, let's have a conversation.
I'm more than willing to work something out. Let me know. Much love.