Sales Training for SupraComputer and Home School
Training Library:
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Goals, Rules and Principles – Download a PDF
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High School Graduates who will study STEM subjects at University – Download a PDF
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Homeschool Focus – Download a PDF
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Psychology of Sales – Download a PDF
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Jorge’s Sales Process – Download a PDF
Sales Training – Goals, Rules and Principles
Goals:
- To become a trusted source of information and advice and not perceived to be a “salesman”.
- To persuade the Prospect to take a specific action that will further the sales process. I call this an “Action Close” and try to achieve it in any call.
- To understand and be sure that the Prospect will receive the benefits the Prospect desires from whatever the Prospect buys from us.
- Be sure the Prospect has no false expectations from his/her purchase.
- Ultimately, Make the Sale IF it is in the Prospect’s best interests.
Rules and Principles
Rule #1. Tell the Prospect the Whole Truth, Never Lie or Deceive or Omit relevant information.
This is the way you are an Educator and Advisor and Confidant, and not a typical “salesman”. This is a critical “secret” to success.
This also insures you will not have unhappy or dissatisfied customers. All you really want are customers who are thrilled and happy. Of course, this implies we must always work very hard to be sure the “product” we are selling the customer is really good and continually improving.
The sales process is just the beginning of the “customer experience”.
Repeat customers who tell others about you is the ultimate goal.
Rule #2. Lead the Prospect through a “learning process” by asking a series of questions interspersed with relevant facts. DO NOT take time for meaningless “jokes” or platitudes. None of “How are you today?” stuff.
This rule is critical. IF you just start giving the prospect a lot of information the prospect will probably not absorb or process the information and will soon just want to “escape” the conversation.
Worse yet, if you are wasting the prospect’s time with a bunch of meaningless banter this will annoy the prospect, rightly so.
Remember the Prospect has a lot of other things on his or her mind and probably resents the interruption. So you must ask a meaningful question relevant to the prospect’s interest FIRST THING.
When you ask a relevant question this will cause the prospect to concentrate on your conversation and lead the prospect down a fruitful path of discovery.
Furthermore, this will give you the feedback to learn the things you need to know about the prospect to understand just what the Prospect should do.
Indeed, I try to never sell a Prospect something until I am convinced that it will deliver the benefits the Prospect desires and will benefit from.
Rule #3. Eliminate Non-Prospects ASAP. Don’t waste your time.
Simply ask a Prospect about a series of Benefits s/he could obtain.
IF the Prospect does not resonate with any of them, you might ask the Prospect if s/he knows anyone who would, but otherwise thank them for their time and quit the conversation. Your time is valuable! It’s all you really have.
Rule #4. Establish Rapport with the Prospect.
If the Prospect is friendly you be friendly. If the prospect is belligerent be belligerent back, but with Humor. BTW, this is the most FUN.
Mirror the prospect’s speech pattern. Slow if the prospect is slow. Fast if fast. Use language that fits the prospect’s language patterns, e.g. if prospect uses slang match it, fancy words if prospect uses it. Just try to match it.
Remember, you are trying to educate the prospect with a series of questions and sharing of relevant facts.
DO NOT talk about yourself, or even your product, until you have identified a Benefit that resonates with the Prospect.
Rule#5. Get the Prospect to take an appropriate action by understanding the benefits of this action. I call this and Action Close. Then Quit the conversation.
Most sales are the result of an “Education Process” whereby the Prospect understands the benefits s/he desires will be achieved.
For example, for the SupraComputer you will probably need to get the Prospect to watch a video or two, or attend a Webinar, or read the message on a Webpage before you can then get back to the Prospect and Close the sale. This will evolve with experimentation and learning as time goes on.
Once a Prospect is educated on the Benefits it is a matter of deciding which product will best serve the Prospects needs. You must be fully aware of the advantages and disadvantages of the various products for a given Prospect and lead the Prospect via a series of questions to make the proper selection.
I always try to understand the Prospect’s situation and desires and needs before making a recommendation and closing the sale.
Indeed, I refuse to sell a Prospect a product if I believe it will not be the right thing for the Prospect. A dissatisfied customer is much worse than no customer.
Sometimes I use a Negative Close approach. If I believe the prospect understands the benefits, then I make the prospect convince me the product will benefit the prospect. This can be tricky, but very effective. It also makes the sale “stick”.
Rule #6. It’s a Game. Have fun and use humor. If a Prospect is giving you a hard time, push back with some humor.
Many times a Prospect who doesn’t know you will give you a difficult time. Just give them a difficult time back, WITH HUMOR. This is a good way to get a Rapport going with a prospect.
For example, today Jorge asked a principal if he would like to help any of his graduates who were going to study STEM subjects at university this fall. The principal’s response was, “No, we have already screwed them”
How could you respond to this?
I suggested you might say with humor in your voice something like, “Great, an honest educator. Would you like for us to help you unscrew a few of them?”
Now you never know what his response would be, but probably negative.
Then I might say, with humor in my voice, “Is your Superintendent and School Board proud of your screwing your students?” or “Do the student’s and their parents know you have successfully screwed them?”
or “Has anyone written a story in your local newspaper praising your screwing of your students?”
Etc. You get the idea. Humor. Meet objections with questions and humor.
Rule #7. Remember it’s a “Numbers Game”. You should measure your ultimate success by (Sales Dollars)/Hour. Monitor this Ratio monthly. As you get better this Ratio will improve.
At any point in time only a small percentage of Prospects are ready to buy. So you will have to have sales conversations with many prospects to get one customer at any point in time.
Fortunately, email and telephone are very inexpensive today. So your time is the “expensive” factor.
Unfortunately, people resent unsolicited emails and telephone calls. We all do. That is why you must use stimulating relevant questions immediately.
Do not spend much time introducing yourself. And, don’t talk about your product at the beginning of a cold call. What to do?
Ask a relevant question. That answer will lead to other relevant questions.
If you get push back, use Humor. Treat this as a Game.
Think of Poker for example. You will lose many hands for each hand you win. And, you will only rarely win a big hand.
Suppose you send out 100 emails and then follow them all up with a phone call.
90 calls might just be good voice messages reminding them you have sent them an email they might find very valuable for their recent graduates who might study STEM subjects at university. And, you are ready to discuss this with them. Invite them to call you for more info and to save time. Give them something to be curious about in your voice mail and next time they’ll take your call.
10 calls might result in a conversation. 3 calls might result in a successful Action Close, e.g. agreeing to tell some students about your News Release.
This might ultimately result in two sales. Success!
So far, I have been discussing the call to the school. This is just designed to get a message to student prospects who might buy one of our products.
The goal is an Action Close whereby the school person will pass on information to recent graduates who might study STEM subjects.
I would ask them to send their students to
https://stemmathmadeeasy.org/ai/ or https://stemmathmadeeasy.org/newsroom/
You need to create a set of questions you will ask your Prospects.
You will need to create a set of responses and questions to various responses you get from your Prospects. You need to do this to make them your own and to fully remember and understand them. Then they will flow automatically to you as you make calls. Of course, you can ask your Coach or someone else how s/he might respond to a specific response you get and then you’ll be ready next time.
You need to do this, and then refine and add to them as time goes on.
Every time you have a call that doesn’t go well, just think about it and ask yourself how you could have responded better.
IF you do this than after 100 calls you will begin to get pretty good.
Measure your success in now many calls you are making and conversations you are having.
Count all of your “No’s” or “Failures” as accomplishments. You are learning from them. And, you are getting to your Yes’s and Successes.
It’s a Numbers Game. In the beginning you will probably struggle to bat .100. As time goes on you will improve to .200. Maybe eventually you will reach superstar status and bat .300.
Even at .300 you are “failing” 70% of the time.
You can earn a living at .100 and a great living at .200.
Most new salesmen give up at .030 and never even reach .100. It will probably take you a few hundred calls to reach .100.
As Chet Holmes says, “Success requires Pigheaded Determination and Discipline”.
IF you have identified a good Prospect, you may have to call and email him or her ten times before you have success. BUT, it is your responsibility to do so for the Benefit of the Prospect.
You can even tell the Prospect that. Good answer if the Prospect asks you why you are so persistent and keep “bugging him (or her)”
“The reason I am so persistent is I am confident you will thank me someday for the great Benefits you will enjoy and appreciate.”
You can say that confidently IF you have asked the right questions and know the Prospect will Benefit from one of our products.
Sales Training – High School Graduates who will study STEM subjects at University
STEM Math is a Great Math Barrier for many STEM Students.
Functions are the basic building block of most STEM Models.
Calculus, Differential and Integral, is the tool used to analyze and understand Functions.
Differential Equations are the tool used to analyze a STEM process and must be solved to discover the Function needed for that process.
Solving Differential Equations and applying Calculus using the classical manual tools is quite difficult to learn and difficult to apply. Many potential STEM majors find the Math too difficult and abandon STEM studies. Many high school students abandon any idea of studying STEM subjects because of this Math Barrier. Most high school math still emphasizes the classical manual tools!
Modern Intelligent Machine Tools ELIMINATE this Great Math Barrier by solving Differential Equations and analyzing Functions automatically and much better than virtually any human can. One such tool is Wolfram Alpha. FREE.
A student can learn to use Wolfram Alpha 100X easier than learning and mastering the classical manual tools. It is like using a Scientific Calculator to do arithmetic calculations compared to pen and pencil manual algorithms.
Triad Math offers a variety of tools and information ranging from FREE to $997 that will propel and STEM student to success.
Free, $19, $27, $37, $97, $179, $997 are prices of seven such products.
IF a student already knows Calculus and Differential Equations then s/he will want to use a SupraComputer, $179 with Coupon Code, or $27/Month RTO (Rent to Own for 12 Months).
First the STEM Student should visit: http://supracomputer.org/benefits/ and learn all about the SupraComputer.
Then visit: http://supracomputer.org/level-up/ and
Take the STEM Math Challenge.
This will be very “educational” and let the student know what s/he is in for when they study a STEM subject. This is FREE and should be very worthwhile and valuable for any STEM student.
Finally, visit: http://supracomputer.org/stem-math-society/ to see all of the possibilities.
If a student is weak in the concepts of Calculus or Differential Equations s/he will probably want to join the Stem Math Society. For only $19/Month the student can learn all the concepts of Calculus and Differential Equations PLUS how to use the amazing 21st Century Tool Wolfram Alpha to solve any STEM Math problem.
BEST OFFER: Wolfram Alpha works best on a SupraComputer and the student can join the STEM Math Society and RTO a SupraComputer for only $37/Month.
Try it for one month. Learn a lot of Calculus and Differential Equations and also see how powerful and valuable the SupraComputer is. For only $37 an ambitious hard working student can learn a tremendous amount. Most students will want to retain the SupraComputer and continue to use it throughout their career. However, it can also be the best $37 s/he ever spends.
For a student who can afford it and wants the very quickest and easiest way to master Wolfram Alpha, the Level-Up Online workshop for $997 is the way to go.
For a student who is willing to help other students learn all about these things Fellowships are available. Contact us for details and to apply for a Fellowship.
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There are many ways to contact and communicate with STEM students. If you are talking to someone who wants a quick overview of this to share with others you might want to direct them to: http://stemmathmadeeasy.org/ai/ and watch the videos.
Also, just go to the Newsroom and read the Press Releases there for a quick overview. http://stemmathmadeeasy.org/newsroom/
Educate yourself first. Then educate STEM students or anyone interested in STEM students. Be prepared to answer questions.
You may have prospects call me if you can’t answer their questions.
http://craighane.com/ has all my contact info. We can use Go To Meeting together if you wish. Great with a group of prospects.
I believe that if you get efficient at identifying STEM students and educating them you will be able to earn a high hourly compensation.
Be sure to give them your Coupon Code to collect your commission.
SUPRA!
Sales Training – Homeschool Focus
What we have to sell is described at: https://homeschoolertoday.com/
You will need to fully understand all of the Benefits for Homeschoolers when you actually talk to a prospect, i.e., a home school parent.
But, that only comes after you identify and have a conversation with a prospect.
Then, the first thing we offer them is a Plethora of Free Resources in Math Resources Den: https://12345math.com/ you need to study this and understand all that we offer them here. This should help anyone improve their math education for their student.
BUT, First things first.
FIRST, we have to locate prospects.
So, let’s go to a community and do a Market Research Survey.
- How many homeschool families in the community?
- How many students and their age distribution?
- Is there a local organization or group?
- Who are the leaders?
- What else do we need to know? You suggest ideas for us all.
Call a local library or other organization and ask who might be able to give us the answers to these questions.
You represent Stem Math Made Easy, a 501(c)(3) Non-Profit Organization.
Our mission is to help home school families do a better job for their students.
We will start by offering our Free Math Resources Den.
Then, we will discuss various “products” available to home school parents.
There is a special new 21st Century Product – The SupraComputer.
Describe its many Benefits.
When talking to a prospect determine which specific Benefits the prospect would like to have.
Once you determine this you may offer them a Money Back No Risk Guarantee
The can join the Rent to Own Plan and enjoy the benefits they desire for 30 days. Then if they don’t want to keep it they can return it and we will refund them their first month’s rent.
We ONLY make this Money Back Guarantee offer after they have identified at least one benefit they think would be worth it to them and agree to give it a fair try and evaluation.
NEVER offer a money back guarantee until the prospect has identified a benefit the prospect wants and believes would be worth the money.
I make a prospect tell me which benefits they want before I make such an offer.
I also make them commit to using it and enjoying the benefit before I sell it to them.
Of course, anyone can RTO it without any guarantee if they want to. But to get the guarantee, which I personally give them, they must agree to use it and give it a fair evaluation in the 30 days. Otherwise, I can’t give them the guarantee.
I often ask them to go to the SC website and be sure they understand the things it will do for them, i.e. the benefits they can have. But, people are lazy and often won’t do this. So, I give them a benefit sheet and go down it until they identify one they want. I do this verbally if on phone. Follow up with email and the benefit sheet attached or included in the email. Ask them for a response email. Maybe we can use a survey form. Ask Debbie.
IF you just offer a money back guarantee without doing this, the prospect will just get the SC and ignore it and then send it back without trying it.
So to summarize:
First, you have to do some cold calls just to get the identity of some homeschooler. This is why you just tell someone you are doing market research on the homeschool situation in their community. And, you have some valuable free resources if they will just answer your questions about the homeschool situation in their community.
Second, once you talk to an actual prospect, i.e. homeschool parent, you give them the free resource, and then educate them on the SC and the Family Plan or the combination. This can happen in a conversation, or a go to meeting with a group, or with a series of emails once you have a relationship established.
Remember you “sell” by educating the prospects by asking them a series of questions so you can learn their situation and “sell yourself” that it will be good deal for them; BTW. I will not sell something to someone unless I believe it will be of value to them and they will benefit from it.
Basically you must find out some benefits they desire and what it will be worth it to them.
Also, remember that if you have 30 prospects, there will probably be 1 to 3 early adopters who will then influence the others. Then over time you will get some of the others to buy. Some people will buy only after they get a recommendation from someone they trust. Some are late adopters. Some will never buy for personal reasons. So ultimately you may sell 20 of the prospects over a long period of time.
But, remember our customers will probably be with us for a long period of time.
If you make a RTO sale it might only bring in $27 but over time it is $324.
Sales is a numbers game. Remember there are many communities and over one million home school families.
Outline of the Sales process.
Educate
Give valuable free stuff
Create a relationship and build trust.
Sell valuable stuff
Have a long term relationship and sell more stuff.
This will get faster as more and more people buy and the word spreads.
Hope this helps.
Remember it’s a numbers game. Success only follows consistent effort.
“Pigheaded Determination and Discipline,” as Chet Holmes says.
A similar process is what we must use for STEM students as well. Think about it and prepare your sales process plan.
Sales Training – Psychology of Sales
Mastery of any complex skill like a sport, art, game, math, or sales requires an extensive learning process and a proper psychological perspective to succeed.
There is no “one size fits all” solution to my knowledge. What I will share in this message are some things that have helped me become pretty good at the sales skill.
I consider a sales process as education and persuasion processes. Both of these require certain techniques and principles that I am discussing in other sales training messages.
Mastery of these processes requires study and practice and usually takes a long time for adequate mastery and a never ending potential for improvement.
The first thing you need to understand is that learning and mastery is an exponential process. 80% of your mastery will come in the last 20% of the time you invest in the learning and practicing the process. This is quite counter intuitive and that is why so many people give up early in the process.
Suppose you have to achieve a Level A mastery to be successful and that it will take you ten months to do so. Suppose that after one month you are only 1% of A there. Linear thinking would imply it will take you 100 months to achieve mastery. Ugh. Toooo long. Let’s give up.
Wrong! Mastery will go something like this on a scale of 1 to 10 where
1 is No Mastery and 10 is Total Mastery.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 # Months
1, 1.25, 1.6, 2, 2.4, 3, 3.8, 4.8, 6, 7.5, 9.3, 10 Mastery Scale
After 3 months you have only achieved 20% Mastery which is not enough to make a living. 8 Months 60% Mastery A decent modest living. But, after 10 months 93% Mastery and a very good living. Note I compounded at the rate of 1.25 for ten months. This is arbitrary and will vary from person to person and skill to skill. But, it seems to always be exponential in nature.
Many people give up the acquisition of a complex skill after a few months of slow exponential growth because they don’t realize the exponential nature of the achievement of mastery. I have experienced this several times in my life with several different Skills.
Just study the biography of any successful person and you will discover s/he followed such an exponential learning curve. This applies to just about any complex skill. Beginners often seem to be irrationally obsessive in their dedication to learning the process.
For example, I learned more Math in the last two years of graduate school than I had learned in my first 25 years of learning math. Only then did I.U. give me a Ph.D. Many of my classmates gave up after two or three years of graduate school because it seemed hopeless to them that they could achieve adequate mastery. Only 10% of my classmates earned a Ph.D. And, they were just as smart as me. They just got discouraged and gave up.
SALES Process
You will have to work very hard and probably see meager results for the first several weeks or even months of appropriate learning and practice.
How do you maintain your “will power” to proceed against the perceived lack of progress or success?
This is especially a problem if you compare yourself to someone else who is further along the learning and mastery curve! So, don’t make that “mistake”.
Here’s what I have done in the fields I have achieved some reasonable mastery in.
I measure and grade my efforts, not my results. Efforts will be quite great compared to results in the early days of mastering a skill. But, Efforts are required to achieve mastery and then achieve Results.
So, you are making sales calls. Most of them are not resulting in sales or even Action Closes.
One reason is you aren’t doing them very well. Obviously. What to do?
Keep score!
After each call I give it a ranking on a scale of 1 to 10, 1 is horrible and 10 is great. I write this down on a spreadsheet. Most calls will be low in the beginning.
Then I analyze and evaluate the call and try to figure out what I could have done to make it better. I ask my coach or fellow salespersons if I can’t figure it out.
Then if I figure out what I could have done better I give myself a rank on that too. If it was a 2 call, maybe I figure out something that would have made it better and give myself a 3 for that. If I couldn’t figure out anything then just a 0. If I get what I think is a great idea or insight I give it a 7.
OK.
Now what?
At the end of the day I add up all my rankings from all my calls and analysis and see what my total score is.
Say I made 50 calls and had an average rank of 2 and an average rank of 3 for the analysis, then I would score my day’s activities as 250, 100 for call success and 150 for analysis and learning. 100 + 150 = 250
Compare that to previous days and the running average of previous days. This number will vary up and down but will trend up over time.
My goal is to get to say 50 calls with an average of 6 for the call and 1 for the analysis or total of 300 + 50 = 350 to at least be adequately successful.
My ultimate goal (unattainable) will be 50 calls at a rank of 10 for a score of 500 + 0 = 500. No analysis necessary.
When I reach say 450 I will be doing quite well. 490 Great!!
Now, the whole idea behind this is to keep my psychology positive. To keep myself pumped up and feeling good and well motivated.
We tend to stay pumped up when we get a little dopamine release or boost. That is why games are so addictive once we get reasonably good at them. Each little success is a dopamine boost. I’m told Facebook has a similar effect, Twitter too. Is that why some people are so addicted to their social media?
Each time I make a call and score a total of 5 or 6 in the beginning, I get a little dopamine boost, i.e. “Success”. Makes me feel good.
At the end of the day if I was within one standard deviation of my running average I had a good day whether it was above of below my running average.
If my current running average is 300 and one standard deviation is say 50, then if I score anywhere from 250 to 350 I had a good day. There will always be days below and above the running average. That’s basic statistics. DO NOT feel good if you are at say 340 one day and feel bad if you are at 270 the next day. This is just normal volatility. This is basic Statistical Process Control wisdom. Feel equally good for the 270 and 340 days.
Try to keep your personal life under control. You will not do well if you are sleep deprived or hung over or under the influence of drugs or are sick or mad at someone. You might be able to plow through an occasional day, but not day after day.
Some folks do better on a fixed schedule or routine. Certainly, you have to put in the effort and achieve the numbers to be successful. Usually, the greatest athletes are those who practice the most. Ditto, salespersons.
My Ultimate Motivation
I can only sell something I really believe in. I must believe that my product will be of great benefit to the customer, and that I am doing him or her a big favor by selling it to them.
That is why I emphasize asking questions to discover which Benefits will be desired and valued by the customer. It educates both you and the prospect.
If by chance a prospect is rude to me I just consider it his or her loss and don’t let it bother me. I know my intentions were to help him or her via education to improve their life.
Money is an important extrinsic motivator, i.e. motivates if you don’t have enough, but does not motivate once you have an adequate supply. Sort of like oxygen which may be the most powerful extrinsic motivator I know of.
However, an intrinsic motivator is one that gives you personal pleasure and satisfaction independent of any extrinsic motivator like monetary considerations.
I am intrinsically motivated to help people improve their lives. That is why I engage in my Triad Math activities. Money is necessary to pay the bills and develop and sell the products. But the deep satisfaction is in helping people.
I hope that becomes your intrinsic motivation too. I feel like a great salesperson is like a great preacher. Really believes in his or her mission.
Extrinsic motivators such as making money aren’t lasting and do not usually lead to great success. I doubt if Jeff Bezos or Elon Musk work like fanatics for more money. They are intrinsically motivated to achieve their missions.
The greatest salespersons are not perceived to be salespersons.
They are perceived to be educators and advisors and confidants.
Why?
They are.
They want to help you improve your life more than they want to make money.
If you don’t believe in whatever you are selling, quit immediately and find something else to sell.
A good salesperson will never want for anything material and will enjoy great personal satisfaction that comes from helping other people.
Sales Training – Jorge’s Sales Process
Step 1 – Market Research: Retrieve as much information as you can on a potential customer(s) (email, phone #, address).
Step 2 – Create a Message: Whether through phone or email, you have to create a message that it captivates the attention of the reader/listener.
Step 3 – Contact: After you create a captivating message, it’s time to send that message or make that call.
Step 4 – Debrief: If you left a voicemail, made a sale, or didn’t make a sale it’s important to debrief how it went to tie up loose ends before continuing to contact others.
Step 5 – Follow-up: IF a sale was made, you would try and stay in touch with that person for a short amount of time to make sure he(s) are satisfied and to get any feedback possible. If not, you have to think of another message to send that will again captivate the reader’s attention.
Step 6 – CRM: At the end of the day (or in between calls) it’s important you update the CRM and write the actions (if any) you’re going to take with those potential customers.