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Bob: Welcome back to Velocity Selling TV. This is Bob Urichuck in Canada, I welcome Matthew Whyatt down in the Gold Coast of Australia. How are you today Matthew?
Matthew: I’m really well Bob, how are you?
Bob: Excellent. You know, in past episodes we’ve been talking about how to engage the buyer which involves a lot of questioning skills and techniques that we shared with people in the previous episode, and of course the opposite of talking is,
Matthew: well, it’s Listening.
Bob: Yes, and that’s our topic for today. So let me turn it over to you and give us a few techniques that could help sales people and their listening skills.
Matthew: Fantastic. Well Bob, one of the things I really love to do with sales teams is get them together and drop the magical scary word ‘scripts’. Everybody groans, ‘Ah, we’re all too good for that,’ ‘We’re all experienced sales people, we don’t want scripts’. But you know what, I’ve sold literally a couple hundred million dollars worth of product because I’ve actually had a good script to work from. Now I’m not saying it has to be word for word, it’s actually about practicing and dealing with the situations that customers might throw at us. So here’s the exercise: whether you’re….go ahead…
Bob: Now Matthew when you’re talking about ‘script’, you’re not talking about reading a script are you?
Matthew: Definitely not.
Bob: Good.
Matthew: We’re not the boiler room where you have to read every word, line by line.
Bob: It’s having a prepared mind.
Matthew: Yeah, exactly. So, how we actually do that, the exercise I run is: I’ll get together the sales team and if you’re just a sole trader get together with your wife or friend and get them to- you start asking questions that might reveal the customer’s needs, wants, and desires. But the next step is the important one. The next step is actually have the person you’re working with, or in the sales room, be three or four different types of customers. They could be the grumpy customer, they could be the agitator, they could be the stand-offish, not tell you anything type of guy or girl, or they of course could be the easy customer. A lot of scripts are written for the easy customer. So what we do is, we know all of the questions we’re going to ask, we hear the answers from the customers, and the next part is you, and your teams, or as a sole trader, work with your partner, come up with the answers or the ways, the questions to ask at that point. And just by practicing that a couple of times, you’ll be prepared for pretty much anything that could be thrown at you during a live sales environment. Look, I think listening is a huge chapter Bob, I’d love to really get into it, a lot more, maybe two or three episodes and really go into it.
Bob: What’s next?
Matthew: So, what’s next is I’d really love to talk about how to go a little bit deeper and set yourself above and beyond that previous sales person. If somebody is shopping around there’s much more you could do to stand out in the crowd and give your customer real value. So let’s talk about that next.
Bob: Excellent. Until the next episode, have yourself a great week.
Matthew: Bye now.

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Velocity Selling TV – Episode 54 – Objections Pt 2

Are you creating your own objections? Join Bob Urichuck and Matthew Whyatt again this week with Velocity Selling TV: Episode 54- Objections Part 2.

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Bob: Welcome back to Velocity Selling TV. My name is Bob Urichuck, founder of the Velocity Selling System, and today we have one of our certified Velocity Selling specialists on the line, and CEO of Velocity Selling, Matthew Whyatt down in the Gold Coast of Australia. Matthew, thank you for coming back for another week and this week I believe you wanted to share a little bit more on handling objections. So let me turn it over to you, part two.
Matthew: Thanks very much Bob. Actually, you know this reminds me of a story. I actually got a phone call from an ex-employee just a little while ago asking me about a business opportunity, you know, went through that and gave her some advice and at the end of that she said ‘Hey look, I just wanted to thank you for one of your sales meetings you ran a few years ago.’ This was literally, eight or nine years ago now, and I said, what made the impact? There of course, I asked her more information, and what she said is ‘the sales meeting was around objections’ and what I did was I actually went around the room and got every sales person to write down the show stopping objection- the thing that stopped them from actually making a sale. And then I said, ok let’s write them down, so we wrote them down and there was actually quite a variety of different objections. And I said to the guys, ‘Well, hang on, all the marketing is the same, the leads are distributed evenly, the scripts are the same, what’s different?’ And when we really got down to it, the macro level, at the high level when we can talk about a large data sample, we actually figured out that each individual sales people were actually getting particular objections that were stopping them from doing a deal. What was actually uncovered is the people who had money objections actually had money issues themselves. The people who actually had ‘Oh I don’t like this industry’ actually don’t love that industry. And so what that was actually doing was they were creating their own objections with their own mindset. And this sort of leads us back to the beginning of Velocity Selling where we talk about attitude towards your company.
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: and how to actually deal with those things. And if those things aren’t dealt with right at the beginning then that sort of stuff is going to germinate inside the person and come out through the objections that they get and the business that they actually miss out on. So that’s one thing that I actually wanted to ask the audience here is: Are you getting objections because of yourself?
Bob: And that goes back to…
Matthew: It might be a little bit more esoteric – something a little bit more to think about today. Take the next week to really understand the objections you’re getting and why you’re getting them. Is it really the money, the product, the timing, it’s got to happen next quarter, whatever it might be…
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: Or is it you?
Bob: Well what you’re asking people to do Matthew is to go back and take a look at your belief system. Remember? On a scale of zero to ten how do you rate your team? How do you rate your products and services you have to sell? How do you rate your organisation? And if you’re seven, eight, or nine, you’ve got to change your belief system, get to a ten. If you’re six or less, you’ve got to leave the organisation because you don’t believe. And that’s just going to cause you more stress. So yeah, the problem is, yeah that’s very good. Now Matthew, one other thing we’re going to do is, in about five or ten episodes from now, we’re going to be discussing the sales system of Velocity Selling and we’re going to get into how to set the parameters and for people who are getting the same objection, time and time and time again, we’re going to give you a technique on how to stop that right up front so you don’t waste any time, you don’t waste your time, you don’t waste the buyers time.
Matthew: Oh man,
Bob: But in the meantime….
Matthew: I’m really excited about this, I love this, it’s counterintuitive but it works. It’s just beautiful. I’m actually looking forward to talking about that, but I won’t get overexcited, we’ll finish up here shall we?
Bob: You got it, be patient. But what we could do in the meantime, we encourage all of our subscribers to visit velocityselling.com and you can sign up for a seven day free trial offer. There’s no obligation you could see the whole system and you can get a lot more in seven days than you can out of our few minute interviews. So, visit velocityselling.com take advantage of the free sales training that we provide there, it’s virtual, it’s excellent. And Matthew, I look forward to talking to you again next week. Have yourself a great week ahead.
Matthew: Fantastic Bob, bye for now.
Bob: Take care.

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Velocity Selling TV – Episode 53 – Objections Pt 1

In the latest episode of Velocity Selling TV, Bob Urichuck and Matthew Whyatt dive into one of the biggest obstacles for any salesperson: handling objections.

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Velocity Selling TV Episode 53: Objections: Part One
Bob: Welcome back to Velocity Selling TV. My name’s Bob Urichuck, founder of the Velocity Selling System, and on the line today we have Matthew Whyatt, our CEO, down in the Gold Coast. Matthew, are you all set to deal with how to handle objections?
Matthew: I certainly am. This is one of my favorites. I think I say this is one of my favorites a lot but I was actually seeing an article just a little while ago ‘The 32 Ways to Handle Objections’ or the ‘Objection Handling Handbook’ and you know what, what’s really interesting about following Velocity Selling System is, we really don’t get objections do we Bob?
Bob: Well not really because we’re not doing any of the talking and we’re not bringing anything into the picture that the buyer doesn’t want to hear because it’s not about us it’s about the buyer.
Matthew: That’s right. But of course, you know, we do have to talk about objections and so what we’re going to get into is when the customer- this is sort of a little bit like the wishy-washy words or the Let’s Pretend scenario when the customer wants to put us off. Objection may be time. And so I actually told one of my clients to get really clear what that time is. So we don’t have the budget for next quarter. That might be a real objection, that might be not a real objection so we need to figure that out. And so we need to give that client more space to talk. So, other than that you’re actually ready to go out ahead. So what I did was I had the client actually sign the contract, make a very small deposit, with work to commence next quarter. They didn’t have to put the money in. So what that was is I dealt with that objection by understanding- first of all, is it a real one? And then still providing them a solution so we didn’t have to come back and waste each other’s time.
Bob: Excellent. And that’s what it is, it’s really respecting their objection and of course questioning the objection but here’s the thing: when it comes to an objection who should be answering the objection. The sales rep or the buyer?
Matthew: It should be the buyer. They need to actually go ahead and come forward because you know what, we often say, I think you say it and now I say it, I can’t solve all the world’s problems with the hands up, sit back, I can’t solve the world’s problems. Tell me more about that. Or I can’t solve the world’s problems but I do know some things about selling or I do know some things about ____.
Bob: and if I feel I can’t help you it’s over. Yeah.
Matthew: and if I can’t help you, I’ll let you know. Is it ok if at the end of this conversation I say I can’t help you and we walk away friends?
Bob: Yeah. Now we’re getting the ground rules.
Matthew: the same thing.
Bob: Yeah, we’re moving forward into the ground rules which we’ll discuss in future episodes. But for now, that’s really good handling objections is to see clarity. Of course, if you do handle the objections for the buyer, you own the answer, not the buyer. That’s why it’s so important to always engage the buyer into handling the objections themselves so they own it. Well that’s excellent Matthew, I thank you for that.
Matthew: Well Bob sorry, I just wanted to add one more thing. A lot of the objection handling techniques that are being taught by old school sales trainers and the 32 Ways to Handle Objections actually puts you into an adversary role with the buyer.
Bob: Exactly.
Matthew: If you’re handling them. Imagine a client feeling good about being handled? Nobody wants to be handled.
Bob: yeah.
Matthew: and so this is why we need to pass the control, well pass the question back to the customer and have control.
Bob: That’s great.
Matthew: Because if you feel handled, you actually might still be forced into buying but you’re going to be a crappy client and you’re probably going to have that buyer’s remorse and not going to want to actually continue forward.
Bob: Yeah, it’s an old traditional technique, which yeah, we stay away from these things so that’s great. That’s excellent Matthew, do you have more to share on objections? Do you want to do another episode on this?
Matthew: I think we probably can.
Bob: Ok, let’s do another one next week. Have yourself a great week and thank you for today.
Matthew: Thanks Bob, bye for now.

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Veocity Selling TV – Episode 52 – Watch Out for Wishy Washy Words

As a salesperson, you have had the encounter with a sales prospect or a client where wishy-washy words come into the mix. Things like, ‘Maybe’, or ‘I’ll think about it’, or even ‘That’s interesting’. These are common words that will send any salesperson a confusing message.

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Bob: Welcome back to Velocity Selling TV. My name’s Bob Urichuck, founder of the Velocity Selling System, and today I have Matthew Whyatt, the CEO, down in the Gold Coast with us today. How are you this week Matthew?
Matthew: Very well Bob, how are you?
Bob: Excellent. Now Matthew, let me ask you a question: How many weeks are there in a year?
Matthew: 52.
Bob: There’s 52 weeks in a year and this is episode 52. That means we’ve been doing this for a year?
Matthew: Absolutely. It does look like that doesn’t it?
Bob: Congratulations!
Matthew: Well thank you Bob. If you go back to probably episode one I probably got more hair. So that’s they uh, same shirt,
Bob: Now you’re not pulling out your hair are you?
Matthew: Pardon?
Bob: You’re not pulling out your hair are you?
Matthew: I’m having to cut it off it’s the wonders of being a male in my family.
Bob: There you go. Anyways, Matthew let’s get on with it. I always found that in communications there’s always a good understanding but we came up with this phrase ‘How to Deal with Wishy-Washy Words.’ Why don’t you walk us through because you know yourself at Velocity Selling we have to have good clear communications and that’s what helps us shorten the sales cycle because it’s clear.
Matthew: Yeah.
Bob: And it’s not being offensive. It’s being polite, it’s being good, it’s being ready for it. So Matthew, how can people understand how to deal with wishy-washy words?
Matthew: Well look you know, throughout the sale process sales people are often, and business owners are often trying to interpret the customer’s wishy-washy words as a clear buying signal. And if you remember back we’ve wanted to see if we can get them to clarify their position. So an example of wishy-washy words, Maybe, I’ll get back to you, that’s interesting, and just those sort of filler words the client says that you as a salesperson might go, Oh, good they’re in. And so what we want to do is we want to go ahead and trigger something in us that reminds us and gives the customer more time to go ahead and speak. So for example, client says maybe, and so I’ll say: so what do you mean by that? And I’m not being disrespectful, I’m just getting them to clarify. I’ll get back to you- great, when would that be? So we want to get that clarity. I’m interested – how do you mean?
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: And all we’re doing is we’re remembering back to the 70/30 rule, we’re remembering back to the strip line, we’re remembering that we actually don’t have a commitment until we’ve got a commitment.
Bob: You got it.
Matthew: And I’ll think about it, I’ll talk to you next week is not a commitment.
Bob: Alright, so I’ll get back to you next week Matthew.
Matthew: Oh, thanks, I’m looking forward to that.
Bob: Yeah, now how are you going to deal with it?
Matthew: Of course, if this was a sales situation, I would say ‘When?’
Bob: You got it. And if I don’t hear from you then, is it ok if I follow up with you?
Matthew: It sure is.
Bob: And what is it you would like me to say? And that’s all part of what we’re talking about earlier with the Let’s Pretend technique so that’s excellent. These have been a number of great episodes here Matthew on questioning techniques, really good. And I think it’s also a good time for us to maybe to take a look at handling objections because as you know, at Velocity Selling we’re doing 70% of the listening, 30% asking questions which is 100% of our time, we’re not talking there’s no room to take objections. But should an objection come up, we’ll share with you in the next episode on how to handle it. Thanks for another great episode Matthew, looking forward to speaking with you the next week on handling objections.
Matthew: Thanks Bob, bye for now.

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Velocity Selling TV – Episode 51 – The Magic Wand Technique

As a salesperson, sometimes you just wish you had a magic wand to get your client or prospect to tell you what they really, truly want.

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Bob: Welcome back Matthew.
Matthew: Thanks Bob. How are you today?
Bob: Excellent. Going to be another great episode I’m sure.
Matthew: Absolutely.
Bob: I think last week we talked about you’re on page seven, I’m on page two, and what I’d like to discuss this week is a technique called the magic wand. How does the magic wand work? Would you share that with our audience?
Matthew: Sure. Well look, you know, this is a really cool way to actually move the sale forward. Let’s say you spend some time building rapport, twenty, twenty-five minutes building rapport, and you’re really in rapport with these people but you need, as a salesperson you’re not measured on how much rapport you build it’s actually how much you bill. It’s actually how much money you make. So how do we move that forward? Now one of the ways you could do this, this might apply to travel industry, where you’re trying to understand their needs, wants, and desires. Or even in real estate. Let’s say you’re a builder and they’ve got the budget and they’ve got the desire, but what do they really want? And so what you can actually do is you can say ‘Hey John, let’s go ahead and pretend that this pen is a magic wand. I’m just going to hand it to you. What are the top ten, fifteen, things that you want in a perfect world, that budget aside, fantasy in here, what do you really want?’
Bob: Yeah, where nothing is impossible. It’s a magic wand. It would work for anything.
Matthew: Exactly. And so whether it be their trip to South Africa to see a safari or whether it be a house with an amazing walk in robe, or a lawn, whatever their goal or dream and desire is.
Bob: Or a car.
Matthew: Or a car, that’s right.
Bob: Anything.
Matthew: And so of course after they spend some time they really out pour their heart into this, what they really want. They go into fantasy land, then you can take the pen back, and say ‘Ok, let’s get real, what are the two or three things that really are top of the list?’
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: And they do that and what that does is it actually gets them to really emotionally own what you’re actually going to be providing as a prescription or a solution to what they actually want. And so it’s really powerful. Now look, it doesn’t work in every situation, it might not work in a lot of B2B situations but this is just another technique because Velocity Selling we try to cover a lot of areas. But in real estate, or travel, other areas where people can really just take their mind off to their dreams. You can actually draw them out of them rather than just saying ‘Well, this particular house is nice’. Or ‘This particular holiday is a good one’.
Bob: That’s great Matthew. Excellent. So magic wand, let’s pretend, we’ve come up with a lot of different techniques to help people questioning things. I think there’s one other thing that people need to really learn, and we’ll do this in the next episode and that’s how to deal with wishy-washy words.
Matthew: Oh man, that’s a pain of mine. I’m looking forward to getting into that.
Bob: Well, we’ll talk to you next week about it. Thank you very much.
Matthew: Thanks Bob, bye-bye.

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Velocity Selling TV – Episode 50 – You’re on page 7, I’m on page 2

Join sales experts Matthew Whyatt and Bob Urichuck in this week’s episode of Velocity Selling TV as they dive into the sales technique, ‘You’re on page 7, I’m on page 2’.

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Bob: Hi Matthew down in the Gold Coast of Australia. This is Bob once again from Canada. How are things down there?
Matthew: Fantastic Bob, hot actually being summer it’s hot. We were just talking about how you spend three hours outside shoveling snow today so you couldn’t be more opposite could we?
Bob: Exactly, well your experiencing summer now with your kids are you not?
Matthew: Yeah absolutely. We’re in the pool seriously every day, couple of times a day. It’s fantastic.
Bob: And we’re talking here mid-winter, February, kinda thing, January-February period. So that’s great, we are the opposite because we’re at the coldest part of our year.
Matthew: Exactly.
Bob: Now Matthew, we talked about last week a lot of different techniques. That one was Let’s Pretend we get commitment from the client, get them to commit to follow up with us and getting permission to follow up with them. This week, let’s talk about a technique which we call ‘You’re on Page 7, I’m Page 2’.
Matthew: Well Bob look, that’s fantastic. I actually used this exact technique just a couple of weeks ago when I was addressing an informal group of people. We were talking about a networking group and I was asking if there were any questions, how could I help, and I was asking a few questions of course and I was questioning their questions, getting into it. And one lady jumped in and said ‘How much is it’? I said, that’s a great question, but you’re on page seven and I’m on page two. Let’s go ahead and let everybody understand everything before we move onto that. Is that ok? And she said, ‘Yeah,’. And that actually came up again. So the great thing is, what’s the commitment to this particular group? I said that’s a great question, but once again, you’re on page seven and I’m probably on page three now, let’s just keep moving forward and have everybody on the same page before we get to that. Is that fair?
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: It respected her comment, it shows that she knew it was coming up, so I wasn’t avoiding it. But what I was trying to do was provide everybody, to get everybody up to the same level, so they can all decide, make a quality and qualified decision about what we actually got to sell.
Bob: That’s excellent Matthew because let’s face it, sales people should be in control of the sales process. And a big part of it is, buyers will jump forward too quickly. It is your job to qualify the buyer not the buyers job to qualify you. So when they ask for price, yeah, you’re on page seven, I’m on page two. Or if they ask for other information, it’s the same sort of thing, you’ll get to it. But however, if they are insistent, reveal price. But what price would you reveal?
Matthew: Well that’s a great question Bob. You tell me.
Bob: The highest possible price available.
Matthew: Of course, of course.
Bob: Because it’s always going to be easier to come down than it will be to go up.
Matthew: Exactly.
Bob: Thanks for another great episode Matthew. We’ll look forward to seeing you next week.
Matthew: Thanks Bob, bye for now.

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Velocity Selling TV – Episode 49 – Let’s Pretend

This week in Velocity Selling TV, sales gurus Bob Urichuck and Matthew Whyatt share another crucial sales technique: Let’s Pretend.

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Velocity Selling Episode 49: Let’s Pretend- Sales Strategy

Bob: Welcome back Matthew to another episode. This week let’s talk about a strategy called ‘Let’s Pretend’.
Matthew: Bob, I actually really like this one because it really helps salespeople who have a demo kit or a brochure kit or a price list that the customer knows about or the buyer knows about. And one of the great challenges is, I’ve actually had it myself, is the person calls up and says ‘Hey, can you send me a brochure?’ and the salesperson tries to get involved, ‘no, no just send me the brochure’. They send the brochure, maybe they’ve got the email address or maybe the phone number and that’s about it and the sale falls flat. And I think every salesperson out there listening can relate to that. Now Bob, you had a really extreme example of one of those situations where you had a client in Singapore wasn’t it?
Bob: Yeah. Actually it was quite interesting they were in heavy equipment and their main sales strategy was to demo their product. So they would actually transport heavy equipment from Singapore up to Bangkok to do a demo. Never asking the question, what would happen next? And that’s what the Let’s Pretend technique is about is getting a commitment upfront before you do anything as to what the next step would be. Remember earlier we talked about, or I think it’s coming up, the four positive outcomes of a sales call?
Matthew: Yes.
Bob: This is one of the things that relate to. We haven’t talked about that yet I don’t think Matthew have we?
Matthew: I don’t think so.
Bob: Ok, that’s coming up in the next…
Matthew: Sorry, let’s explore that ‘Let’s Pretend’. So let’s say that a customer says ‘Hey, can you send me a brochure, let’s do a demo, whatever that particular step is the client thinks they need to take and often the clients, in their own mind are creating the process and the sales person needs to take back control. But let’s talk about ‘Let’s Pretend’ for the moment. And so the client says, can you do a demo for me, salespeople will dive into yes, I can and hoping they’re features and benefits, their dog and pony show will actually be selling.
Bob: Oh yeah.
Matthew: And all the client wants to do is use you as a human form of Google. Let’s just ask some questions, let’s get some questions answered. So how the salesperson might respond to that is, ‘I’m very happy to provide you a demonstration or send you a brochure. Let’s pretend you’ve actually finished the demonstration and are at that point, what happens next?
Bob: You got it.
Matthew: And so what that does is it moves the client past that point of ‘I want a demonstration’ or ‘I want to understand more about what they’re doing’. So I use this very often in my sales conversation, customers will say to me, ‘I’ll get back to you’ and so I actually had this exact situation happen just a couple of weeks ago- ‘I’ll get back to you’. Most salespeople say, ‘No problems, I’ll follow you up in a couple of days.’ And what that does is it makes a commitment to the customer.
Bob: Yes.
Matthew: What we try to do in Velocity Selling is…
Bob: No, I’m saying you’re right. We would do the opposite. It’s like when someone says ‘I’ll get back to you, my natural response is- when?
Matthew: Exactly. So I dress it up a little bit more and say ‘Great. When will you have a chance to think about it?’ ‘Oh, probably this week. ‘So when will it be reasonable for me to expect a call back?’ ‘uh, by Friday.’ And so what happens is they start making commitments to you. “So hey, Mr. Jones, if I don’t hear from you on Friday, do I have your permission to follow up with you on Monday?’ and they say yes. And what would you like me to say on that call? I’ve had some people use humor at that point, but what happened if you think about it, the client is making a commitment to you, I’ve got permission to follow up and not be a stalker and all those things sink in so actually are psychologically taking and holding control of the sale. And that’s what as a salesperson, you’re a professional, you’re the expert, the business owner needs you, needs your product, so by taking control, you’ll have control of the sales process and if they don’t follow up, I’m sorry, if they don’t call you back and you do happen to have to follow up on them, then there’s just a little twinge of guilt that they didn’t actually make the commitment and if there’s a little twinge of guilt, maybe they’ll be more inclined to buy.
Bob: Exactly and that’s really part of it is getting that commitment upfront and that’s such an important part. So Matthew, Let’s Pretend it’s the next episode. I think what we’ll do is get into another technique- you’re on page seven, I’m on page two.
Matthew: I actually used this in a presentation…
Bob: Next week Matthew.
Matthew: Last week.
Bob: Stop! Next week, we’ve got enough for this week.
Matthew: Fantastic.
Bob: I look forward to speaking with you next week Matt.
Matthew: Thanks Bob, bye for now.

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Velocity Selling TV – Episode 48 – Strip Line Questioning Technique

Questions are one of the most important part of a sales person’s job. End with a question is just another crucial technique you, as a salesperson or business owner needs to implement to ensure that all the other sales techniques we have been discussing, truly work.

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Bob: Good afternoon and welcome to Velocity Selling TV. My name’s Bob Urichuck founder of the Velocity Selling system and today, I’ve got Matthew Whyatt the CEO down in the Gold Coast of Australia. Matthew, how’s it going mate?
Matthew: Pretty good ‘eh? I think that’s how we’re supposed to say it.
Bob: There you go, now we’re even. Now Matthew, in our last episode we talked about asking questions and ending with a question, ending emails with a question, inviting replies, etc. We have another technique called strip lining. Why don’t you share with our viewers about what strip lining is all about.
Matthew: Well that Bob, actually reminds me, and I tell this story in my seminars about my kids fishing. And they always ask me, why do I catch more fish than they do and it’s sort of like new sales people versus old dogs and more professionals. The story goes, that my kids, when they’re out the back fishing, I live on the water, they’re out the back fishing the feel the tiniest little nibble and they rip the fishing line up.
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: and the fish goes away. Whereas me on the other hand, I feel a little nibble and I’ll just wait, give it a bit more slack, wait for that really strong pull, then boom, it’s come and I’ve got that fish.
Bob: That’s excellent.
Matthew: And for somebody that just feels that little nibble, and feels that real hard pull- and how does that relate to sales? Well it relates to sales because most sales people, most sales people I deal with will get the client to say one positive thing, even a half positive thing or give them some sort of ‘mmm, that’s interesting’,
Bob: A buying signal.
Matthew: And then they’ll go for a close, they’ll go for a throw. And what happens to the sale, much like the fish, the prospect is like ‘woah, hang on, I’m not sold yet, or I’m not interested, I’m not ready to buy yet.
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: And so what we do in Velocity Selling and what I teach my customers and of course what you have taught your customers for many years is to question their comment. For example, Oh that’s a really great feature Matthew, – rather than ‘Ah, how would you like to purchase?’ It’s “That’s interesting. How do you mean?’
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: Or, ‘I see you using that.’ Or anything like that actually gets them speaking again because if we can go back to how buyers buy, if you remember, that everything that you say as a salesperson, everything that the business owner says to the customer is colored with the fact that there’s a financial benefit for the sales person or the business owner to make that sale. So buyers inherently don’t really trust salespeople.
Bob: That’s right.
Matthew: So what you want to do is flip that around and have them speak more. If they’re speaking, now remember everything the buyer says is actually true and correct. So if they tell you how wonderful the product is, they reinforce how they are going to use it, they can see themselves using it, then they are going to be more engaged and then they’ll give that real strong tug, then you can reel them in calmly.
Bob: That’s excellent Matthew. That’s excellent. It’s the, in the olden days traditional sales used to teach trial closes and closes.
Matthew: That’s right.
Bob: And this strip lining, replaces the trial close, puts the owning back on the buyer and lets them sell you on why your services or your product you are offering is so great. Excellent tip Matthew. What are we going to discuss next week? You got to get, I think you have, another questioning technique you’d like to share.
Matthew: Ah, look Bob I’ve got actually quite a few. I think we’ll talk about a ‘Let’s Pretend’ so let’s move on to that one next week shall we?
Bob: ‘Let’s Pretend’ is next week. We’ll see you next week Matthew, thanks a lot for your time.
Matthew: Thanks Bob bye for now.

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Velocity Selling TV – Episode 47 – End with a Questions

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Bob: Welcome back to another episode of Velocity Selling TV, I’m Bob and I’m joined with Matt down in the Gold Coast Australia. Welcome back Matthew.
Matthew: Thanks Bob.
Bob: Matthew, we’ve talked about asking questions, engaging the buyer by asking questions and last week you mentioned you should never answer questions and you used the technique Respect, Repeat, Reverse. There’s another technique that people should be aware of because if you always respect, repeat, reverse, and never answer a question it can be dangerous. So how would we go about having a little mix in there? For example, besides the respect, repeat, reverse technique, how can I answer a question? You know, tell us a little about yourself? You know? So, go for it.
Matthew: Yeah, look, so that’s a great question Bob. So there’s another technique that we use and it’s simply giving them a little bit of information and then asking them for clarity about what they in particular want to learn. And so I guess it’s a version of Respect, Repeat, reverse, but of course you don’t want to get into a point where you’re just flicking it back to them and not actually respecting what they are asking.
Bob: It’s like an alternative.
Matthew: Go ahead, sorry, Bob.
Bob: No I was just saying it’s like an alternative
Matthew: Yes.
Bob: To respect, repeat, reverse. So you mix it up because if somebody says well, tell me a little about yourself, Well you could answer but what I suggest you do is you answer briefly and then you end that statement with a question. No why, and you brought this up, why should we end our statement with a question?
Matthew: Well, I like to answer and so do you and our students do; finish our sentence with a question to actually engage the buyer because this is actually about them and not about us. Our statements, our capabilities, it’s actually about them so we need to keep them talking because we talked about the 70/30 rule and when we talked about the 70/30 rule we actually talked about the sales person listening 70 percent of the time and asking questions 30, so that means that the buyer needs to be talking, 70 percent of the time. And so that’s how we need to get it back to them because it’s not about us, it’s about the buyer.
Bob: That’s an excellent way of pulling it all together and that’s an excellent episode. Let’s end it there and we’ll pick it up again next week. Have a great week ahead.
Matthew: Thanks Bob, bye for now.

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Velocity Selling TV – Episode 46 – Respect, Repeat, Reverse

Answering questions may seem like a vital part to being a salesperson, but that’s where you couldn’t be more wrong!

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Velocity Selling TV Episode 46: Respect, Repeat, Reverse

Bob: Welcome back to another week on Velocity Selling TV. Bob Urichuck, founder of Velocity Selling and I have on the line today, our CEO, Matthew Whyatt down in Australia. How’s it going mate?
Matthew: Very well Bob, how are you?
Bob: Fantastic Matthew. You know, we’ve been talking about the three competencies that people have to master, you mentioned buyer focused as one of the key ones, and that’s putting all the focus on the buyers. Then you talked about engaging the buyer. And of course, when you engage the buyer it’s- they’re getting to feel a position of control and they feel very comfortable, but you know, there’s a system we’ve got to follow and we’ll get into that shortly. But today I think, in our last episode, we promised we’d give a little more information on asking questions so, you know, we talked about asking questions to engage buyers, but let’s get into some types or techniques. What can we do? How can we improve our skills?
Matthew: So Bob, one of my challenges with sales people is they become information centers, where they become a human Google. The customer goes ahead and asks them questions and the sales people think they’re doing a good job by answering them and so-
Bob: Free consulting.
Matthew: That’s right, they move into free consulting. So they move themselves into this walking Google and so the customer’s asking questions, the sales person, after the call is going to say to the manager, ‘Oh I did really good job, they asked heaps of really great questions and I answered them all.’ And the manager at that time should be thinking ‘Oh God, there’s some warning signs there’. So, let me just explain how we do this. We actually use a technique called ‘Respect, Repeat, and Reverse’. Now how that looks in real terms is, for example, a digital marketing client of mine has these questions ‘What platform do you use?’ and he would say ‘WordPress or Dune or whatever the platform is. That’s actually not helping the customer, that’s not helping them, and it’s actually a bit of a dead- they might as well Google that. It’s not helping the whole process and the sales person is not being of more value. How they should be doing it is saying something along the lines of ‘We’ve got a few platforms available to us, is platform important to you?’
Bob: And why is it important to you? Exactly.
Matthew: And they say ‘Yes it is,’ and you’ve got to understand why it’s important.
Bob: That’s correct.
Matthew: And sometimes customers will ask a question simple because that’s their frame of reference. Now, as a sales person, you need to be the subject matter expert- in your field. Now, if a person knew everything about it, they wouldn’t need you to buy. They would literally Google it and go and buy it online. Salespeople need to add value these days and that’s The New Economy of Buyers. So it’s super important to understand why they’re asking the question, how that attaches to their business needs and the only way to do that is to Respect, Repeat, and Reverse. Because all you’re doing there is as I said, becoming human Google and that’s not helping them.
Bob: Exactly.
Matthew: One of the things I say to salespeople when I first meet them is ‘Ok, you need to stop answering questions.’
Bob: Yeah.
Matthew: And they immediately go ‘But my whole job is to answer questions,’
Bob: You got it.
Matthew: and you’ve actually got to reverse that around and have them asking questions.
Bob: You got it. Well Matthew, that’s excellent. We’re going to explore this a little further in the next episode. Thanks for taking the time again this week.
Matthew: Fantastic Bob, bye for now.

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