Ep 290 - Replay - Overcoming Logical & Neutral Buyers

We're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver consistent, premium level service. Joseph, how are you doing today?

Joseph, I am feeling amazing. Today we had a great RSS and I'm just letting that energy carry me throughout the rest of the day.

Joseph. Yeah, man, rss you guys for those that don't know is our Q&A. We run daily with our clients just before this, and you might be wondering how are these guys always full of ideas to talk about? That's one of our dirty little secrets is we're already warmed up. We've already been talking it out live with our clients. They get to phone in with anything that's been troubling them and today we had some great, great activity in there, excuse me, and great topics. You want to introduce Roy's topic today?

Joseph. Yeah, I would absolutely love that. Roy came to us today and he was explaining a scenario that he's like I don't know what happened on this call. He's like I just don't know what happened, and he was describing it as the wife was approaching him as if she had all these YouTube ideas and she had watched theory videos and she had watched installation clips, and the husband is giving him nothing, no emotional engagement, not even like, like, not negatives, completely neutral, and he's finding that like he just could not get them out of this loop and was trying to figure out why it was happening as he was describing it, though I recognize that this is something known as competitive selling, where what they're actually doing is they're specifically blocking an objective selection before it even happens. They're designing it in a way so they can force to not make a decision Ever have been in that situation before Clay.

Joseph. Yeah, man, it's crazy and it's crazy to even think about. And it was amazing to see Roy come in and really be puzzled by it, because it's how we all feel when we encounter it unexpectedly we're just like it's like being hit by a truck and you get up and you're just like where did that come from? What just happened? Why does this happen?

So the thing is is that everyone we've already established people by two ways. They either buy logically or they buy emotion, and obviously the goal is to get someone out of logic brain into emotion brain. The problem is is that there are people who have been burned before and or there are other demographics, like you know, your engineer types, or those who feel that they want to stay in logic. But when someone has been burned before, they will do every possible effort to protect themselves from ever feeling like they felt before. And we wouldn't that make sense. Clay, Like if you got put your hand on a stove, you wouldn't do the same thing twice.

Yeah, yeah, totally, and I always, I always reference this because a lot of people crap on like anxiety and some of the feelings we really feel hyper sensitive about these days. But I think it's really because there is a lack of threats and our fight or flight is so organic, it's so innate and being human right If we thought back thousands of years ago. Bob goes in the cave, gets eaten by a saber tooth. I'm not going in that frickin cave.

That saved my life.

That's the reason we're here right, Exactly.

One of your ancestors, you know, thousands and thousands of years ago, was in a situation where they were the smart one who didn't get eaten and all those instinctual biological programings. They're still present in today, but the threat isn't the same. So in the customer's mind your sales pitch is the threat and their fight, flight or freeze response is being triggered super hard. So in my particular call there was a lot that was going on. The first thing I want to call to attention of is the wife who was constantly trying to approach, saying that she had seen YouTube videos and installation videos and had even gone so far as to ask him what kind of shovel he was going to use when he was digging a trench.

Sounds crazy. Right Did he put that?

much salt into a shovel. It's crazy, right, but it's also not what she's doing, is she's trying to communicate? Hey, I'm an informed buyer, I know what I'm talking about, so don't try to pull nothing. That's the subconscious of what's being communicated. She's trying to say I know what we need to do, so don't think that I don't know. Don't you try to pull nothing?

Don't think that I don't know what kind of shovel digs a trench.

Mm-hmm. Yeah, it's like, ooh, all right, cool. But you know what? The husband was doing? Something completely different.

He was being what's known as a neutral buyer. A neutral buyer is one of the hardest things that you can overcome, because if you're negative, I'll deal with negativity, and we can convert that. Take the negativity and transition it into the why they're being negative. Or if they're positive, we like that too. Why do you like these choices? What do you like about this? Why did you call us? You can get them to keep being positive, but neutral is very hard, because neutral gives you nothing. Nothing. You get from a neutral person Blue steel. So, yeah, it was very intentional. Now it went even further, because he was saying that they were intentionally positioning themselves to his left and his right, but in opposition of him, so that he wasn't facing. He wasn't side by side. He was facing them, and every time he would try to reposition himself, they would reposition themselves as well. Now, clay, can I ask and this is probably something you know but if I were to say that being seated at the kitchen table had a particular benefit, would you believe that? Oh, yeah, yeah definitely.

That's where friends and family sit right. You don't invite strangers to that table.

And would you believe? Would you believe if I told me that this particular client also wouldn't let him come in the house, but instead, when they did the presentation, it had to entirely be outside?

by the service. It's crazy. What is that saying Without saying anything? Where does that say?

That's saying this is where you sit, here's the equipment that you're gonna work on. You take care of that, but inside the home, this is for trusted family and friends. Now the funny thing was is he actually got the job. He pushed through all these individual things. He was able to follow the process and understand what needed to be done to overcome it, and I give him amazing credit for pulling it off. Do you mind if I sprinkle some little value to tell people how they could do the same?

Yeah, definitely.

Awesome. So a couple of different things you can do. When you take that first call and the customer saying something like I know this, I know that I've watched this, I've re-enact the product research, you can simply ask and say first thank you, clay. Thank you for taking the time to make my job easier. I'm sure you being so informed was for a particular reason. If you don't mind me asking, are you looking to be physically involved in the installation of this?

No.

So would you blame me if I were able to take full control over this, so I can give you a better solution, as well as being able to give you a full and rock solid warranty throughout the entire thing, since we're responsible for it?

And just to break out a character for a second. You guys, I fully feel like I want to add resistance right now and be a dick, but it's really unnatural and it makes you come off like a dick with the way that Joseph just presented that. I would have to be some sort of excuse, my language stone cold bitch to be like yeah or no. I actually want control, but I want you to do what I say.

Yeah, and they'll be there. They exist. I'm not saying that they don't, but the thing is is that when you can position yourself, as I'm here to serve you at the highest level. I want to thank you for taking the time of doing research. I'm sure you did research to make sure you have a better solution, but would you blame me for wanting to take full control over this so that you don't have to stress about that? Would I be wrong to offer you and your family that level of service?

No.

It comes really hard to be like and now I want it my way.

There's also an unspoken conflict there, because we called you to come here and offer at least your professional opinion.

At the very least, you know, my knowledge is worth something.

If I say that I want control, it defeats that very action which brings down my integrity, which is a personal conflict, and people will have trouble going with that. It won't make much sense.

The second thing is, when someone is being neutral, they'll often position themselves away from you. So what Roy was finding was that the customer was on his left in front of him and on his right in front of him, and they were facing each other. So the thing is is that whenever you guys walk to the kitchen table, you've always been told to have the husband and wife, or partners, whoever it is sit side by side and you look at the problem together. The reason this is so important is I'm going to use a visual example, if you don't mind. Imagine you're standing and you draw a line directly in front of you and the customer is on the other end of that line.

Now you become the problem that they are working together to overcome, because you're the representation of what they're trying to solve. Your goal has to always be to be physically side by side with them, looking in the same direction with them. That way, when you give them a problem, you together are a unit. You're a team looking to solve the problem together. So what the issue with this scenario was is the husband and the wife are facing each other. They weren't even focused on the problem together. They were in opposition of it. So Roy was struggling to bring that connection and ended up constantly having to circle with them until eventually he could be on their same side and look at the problem together. But eventually, once they stayed there, they stayed there.

Yeah, to me, like I'm no certified counselor, psychologist, therapist, but we tend to understand people at a fairly high level. I would like to like to say, and when I see that I'm seeing a classic example of fear where someone got their hand bit we talked about this a little bit before, but full circle back, this is classic mailman gets bit, except there's two of them and they each have a different recollection of that experience and so they're not even agreed. All they know is that this contractor coming to their house made them super uncomfortable and exposed some division between them, even on those feelings around it. That's my bet, and I would put $1,000 on that.

I'd match your $1,000 bet right there. I really would, because you're right. And that's why our process is so effective, because what it does is during there we actually have a competitor investigation part where we go through and we're opening the panel and we can ask so have you ever had to use a professional intervention before? Have you ever used a friend or family member? Have you ever used a handyman? You want to learn what their previous experience was, because if you've had someone that you like and you trust or that you've consistently worked with, why am I here? What's happened to make that relationship not happen anymore? If you have someone you like, trust and respect, do you really need to bid it out to see if he's being honest with you? If you trust them, he's being honest with you. So that's my statement there. We always have to make sure that we're looping back together to say you're right, they're having different experiences. You can't break down and understand what's causing them to have that reaction. You yourself won't be able to overcome it.

Yep, and to add a nugget of that from our program, specifically in our eight commitment design, there is a moment where we're breaking through that line that Joseph mentioned earlier and walking towards the panel together.

And there's a specific line of questions that we insert there. And moving towards that panel where he just described when we're now on a team looking at the problem together 100%. That's the effort. But again in this story it kept them outside at bay. They definitely drew that line in the sand and said, look, we are not interested in being heard again. Isn't it weird how that's what's really communicated really has very little to do with the words. We say Mm-hmm, but in the moment totally disarming as, as the electrician, very difficult situation. So proud to Roy for getting through that one and making such a tough sale.

Yeah, it was a. It was a really big and a pretty impressive accomplishment at the end of the day Because, if nothing else, that shows a lot of personal perseverance as well. Like so many of us are so ego based in our presentation because we put our hearts right there, we're gonna put it on the platter and say I'm gonna give you my best service, I'm gonna do this because I love doing this. I mean, you're gonna put yourself out there, but when a client like this, my chits on you and says no, I don't want this, it hurts. It really, really hurts.

And that's what ends up happening when your technicians are in the field and they're getting emotionally hurt. That's why they're not giving presentations, that's why they're not giving multiple options, because they don't want to be hurt either. So your customer is no different than you emotionally or mentally. We just have to start seeing them as the same, and once they see him as the same, it becomes us and not they. And and peace. Selling from a place of us and we is almost always better than selling from a place of they. Review, make sense totally.

Yeah, all right, we got to come up with some all-star action here. Actually, regular action and an all-star action. How can people begin to put some of this stuff to work for them today? Make sure they don't get sucked into the logical trap and get stuck there.

So I would like to say the first thing you can possibly do, right? No, I'm speaking to the everyone, because there's something every single human being who's in this trade or industry can do I Want you to stop doing verbal quotes. Just stop it immediately. The reason being is that if you don't have, you have a verbal quote, you never get to step out of the line of the problem because you become the embodiment of the problem. You need to have something physical to hand or show the customer that says this is the problem, and you and I will look at this problem together, shoulder to shoulder. So the first action just completely cut out any verbal quoting. It has to stop, and it has to stop today. Love it all our actions a little different. The all-star action is not only that, but I want to teach you something that you can learn that will tell you whether the client is really interested in your presentation or not. Would you be cool if I touched on that? Oh yeah, hit it All right.

The all-star action is this Now that you've made a physical presentation, it's in your hand, but there's an iPad or a paper, or even on your phone, for all I care, as long as it's a physical embodiment of something.

You're going to hand it to your client after you've presented it. How your client grabs it is also a way of showing their level of interest. So this is what I want you to do as an all-star when you hand your presentation to the client, I want you to notice if they've grabbed it with two hands, whether they grabbed it with one hand or whether they grabbed it and put it back down on the table. The reason being is, if someone grabs a presentation with two hands, it means they are emotionally engaged in it and they are looking to solve it. If someone grabs it with one hand, they're interested, they want to solve the problem, but there is an objection that is top of mind. If they take it and they put it down, it means that they are emotionally disconnected from it and strictly in logical brain. So the all-star action is to take those steps and recognize what is happening in your client's psyche. That way you can approach and solve it in a way that's actual and it's gonna work long term. Nick Tons.

Oh yeah, man Love it. I want to add something here, guys, just quick, before we finish up. As you know and as we keep saying, what gets measured, gets managed, and that doesn't just go for saying, okay, this is how it went and leaving it alone. That stuff needs to be recorded In our program. We literally give away a post-diagnostic that you can use you should use, even if it's just a notepad, guys. Everyone should have a sales journal to go through and just highlight okay, how did the process go? Did I follow all my steps? Did I follow all of server-soup, electrical steps? Whoever's process you're using, that makes no difference to us. What matters is that you measure that thing so you can manage it and make adjustments where it counts. And this is one of those places where we would have made those notes, or Roy would have made those notes and said, wow, I really encountered some logical things today. And take a step back, have a thinking time on that, reflect on the data you have and make the necessary adjustments so that you can overcome that every time in the future, or at least as often as possible. Hopefully, 80% conversion, right.

So, guys, take these actions please. You taking action is what drives this success? Success is just good math, where you show the work, the action's the work. Guys, we have to do it. Join us in our community live. If you're watching this now in the community live, hello, hello. Feel free to let us know what you thought, whether you're watching live or the replay, or catch the podcast for Electripreneur Secrets. We're here to help you master sales, simplify pricing and deliver premium level service. We'll see you again tomorrow.