What if every "NO" cost you $100?

by leojq2
18 replies
Author Tim Ferris recently did an interview with Bryan Johnson, founder of Braintree, an American company that helps online businesses process credit card payments by providing a merchant account, payment gateway, recurring billing and credit card storage. (Thank you Wikipedia)

http://t.co/zVBMRAoEOy

Around the 21 minute mark Bryan revealed how he became the #1 salesperson in a credit card processing company he worked for before starting Braintree.

He realized his industry had a bad reputation very quickly and came up with the best "hook" I've ever heard...

My product had ZERO differentiation.

It was exactly the same as 500 other providers who walked in the door every day...so I would say...

"If you'll give me three minutes of your time I will give you $100 if you don't say yes to using my service"...

I would open my pitch book and walk them through the industry... here are the providers, here's what they do...here's how they do it, here's what I do, I'm the same as everyone else except with me you get honesty, transparency and great customer support.

So I became this company's #1 salesperson and broke all their sales records following this really simple formula of selling honesty and transparency in a broken industry.

***

Via Twitter Bryan told me he never had to fork over the $100 and that $100 seemed to work best vs other dollar amounts,

In any case, if you're going to do any thinking today, why not think about how your sales approach would be different if you had to pay $100 for any rejections.

Scary for sure but as author Sally Hogshead says, "different is better than better" and a hook like this will solidify you as "different" in your industry.
#$100 #cost #rejection #sales
  • Profile picture of the author eccj
    If every no cost me a hundred dollars I'd be broke.
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Originally Posted by eccj View Post

      If every no cost me a hundred dollars I'd be broke.
      Every "No" didn't cost $100. It was an offer, designed to guarantee presentations. Almost nobody is going to take the money.

      Years ago, the legendary life insurance salesman Ben Feldman would hand a receptionist $500, and tell her to give it to the CEO for 5 minutes of his time. I don't think anyone kept the money, but it sure gets attention.


      But, lets pretend that every "No" prospect actually kept the $100. (An impossible scenario)

      You did three presentations, and got one sale. And you kept that average. Every sale would cost you $200 in "marketing cost". I'd pay that all day long.

      This is personal selling, not over the phone.
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      • Profile picture of the author eccj
        Originally Posted by Claude Whitacre View Post

        Every "No" didn't cost $100. It was an offer, designed to guarantee presentations. Almost nobody is going to take the money.

        Years ago, the legendary life insurance salesman Ben Feldman would hand a receptionist $500, and tell her to give it to the CEO for 5 minutes of his time. I don't think anyone kept the money, but it sure gets attention.


        But, lets pretend that every "No" prospect actually kept the $100. (An impossible scenario)

        You did three presentations, and got one sale. And you kept that average. Every sale would cost you $200 in "marketing cost". I'd pay that all day long.

        This is personal selling, not over the phone.
        Yeah you are right.

        I know a guy in a different state who used to offer a $100 gift card in a mailer if a couple set down with him for an appointment. He had a very tough secretary that kicked out the people who appeared to be broke. He made good money doing it but the insurance commissioners started coming down on that stuff. You can still offer a dinner though.

        In my state we are not suppose to offer anything above $10 of hard value for an appointment or presentation but you can buy a person dinner once. Because I learned these rules when I got my license, I never seriously considered giving away something of hard value like money. I can perform thousands of dollars worth of services though and I did before, usually for nothing in the end ( this was before I read Sandler's book).

        One thing is for sure, if you go around offering money you better know how to close.
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        • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
          Originally Posted by eccj View Post

          Yeah you are right.

          I know a guy in a different state who used to offer a $100 gift card in a mailer if a couple set down with him for an appointment. He had a very tough secretary that kicked out the people who appeared to be broke. He made good money doing it but the insurance commissioners started coming down on that stuff. You can still offer a dinner though.

          In my state we are not suppose to offer anything above $10 of hard value for an appointment or presentation but you can buy a person dinner once. Because I learned these rules when I got my license, I never seriously considered giving away something of hard value like money. I can perform thousands of dollars worth of services though and I did before, usually for nothing in the end ( this was before I read Sandler's book).

          One thing is for sure, if you go around offering money you better know how to close.
          Most of the gift cards, and gifts don't cost anywhere near their face value. Offering $100 isn't costly, because almost nobody will keep the $100. The exception to that is if you are talking to poor people...and they need the $100.

          I used to offer a free portable TV. It had a retail price of $99, and cost me $28.

          And yeah, I qualified strongly. I had to dis-qualify most of the callers.......because most people aren't really a prospect.

          When I would offer a case of soda (I think it cost us $6 a case of 24 cans), even if they weren't qualified, I'd just leave them the soda, and run to my next appointment. Even wasting most of the gifts, it only cost me about $25 for a sale. That's how you have to figure these costs...how much is it costing you per sale.
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        • Profile picture of the author DABK
          I did a site for an insurance office once. He was offering to save them up to $600+ on car insurance, another large enough amount on home insurance. And a small gift, a few dollars. All they had to do was come into his office and talk to someone about their insurance needs and mention the gift (tracking internet leads).

          16.3% of site visitors from his areas (he got some from China and Paraguay, which, of course, we discounted) ended up buying insurance from him. The site didn't get much traffic, but it was constant over many months.

          A year later, we parted ways, and in that year, people said they found him on the internet, they mentioned the exact number they could save, but never mentioned the card.

          Just saying, if you make the right offer to the right people and you deliver them service/products that pleases them, they don't seem inclined to ask for more. Unless it's cake.

          I once helped a baker with his marketing, everyone wanted the free slice. Even people who heard about the offer for the first time while waiting in line.

          Originally Posted by eccj View Post

          Yeah you are right.

          I know a guy in a different state who used to offer a $100 gift card in a mailer if a couple set down with him for an appointment. He had a very tough secretary that kicked out the people who appeared to be broke. He made good money doing it but the insurance commissioners started coming down on that stuff. You can still offer a dinner though.

          In my state we are not suppose to offer anything above $10 of hard value for an appointment or presentation but you can buy a person dinner once. Because I learned these rules when I got my license, I never seriously considered giving away something of hard value like money. I can perform thousands of dollars worth of services though and I did before, usually for nothing in the end ( this was before I read Sandler's book).

          One thing is for sure, if you go around offering money you better know how to close.
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  • Profile picture of the author Ron Lafuddy
    I was in that business (credit card processing) back in the 1980's.
    I was also the number one salesperson in the company. (Regionally)

    I'll tell you how I did it.

    I found an industry that desperately wanted to be able to accept
    credit card payments from their customers.

    No bank would touch them.

    I helped them get what they wanted.

    The moral...if there is one: look for those who WANT what you are
    offering. It makes things easier and you won't have to bribe them.
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  • Profile picture of the author jimbo42
    I think that is a great idea, and yes I would have trouble keeping the money even if I did tell him 'no'
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  • Profile picture of the author Rus Sells
    what if every no earned you 100 dollars
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  • Profile picture of the author animal44
    Strikes me that you're selling to the wrong people if you have to bribe them to buy... :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author DABK
      This thread is not about bribing them to buy; it's about guaranteeing you're not wasting their time.

      Originally Posted by animal44 View Post

      Strikes me that you're selling to the wrong people if you have to bribe them to buy... :-)
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    • Profile picture of the author Claude Whitacre
      Originally Posted by animal44 View Post

      Strikes me that you're selling to the wrong people if you have to bribe them to buy... :-)
      No, it's about bribing them to talk to you, and prospect selection. It's also a positioning statement, although I never used it that way.
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    • Profile picture of the author DaveTheSinister
      Originally Posted by animal44 View Post

      Strikes me that you're selling to the wrong people if you have to bribe them to buy... :-)
      Lol, nobody really wants to be sold to. Salesmen are not really looked at as the greatest community amongst the bunch. This industry in all its forms (online/offline/etc) requires a different type of perception.

      You see bribery, I see the purchasing of a prospects time.

      Maybe you should try and start to think of ways to start thinking outside the box a little. A big concept that is often forgotten, "Its not what you think, but the people who you are selling to, think."

      Hope this helps
      D
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  • Profile picture of the author leojq2
    One of my readers shared this...

    I have worked in accounting and finance most of my career. As you can imagine, being the CFO I got pitched for all kinds of 'commoditized' services all the time. Three different times, three different sales people offered the pitch you just stated, "If you don't sign up with us after hearing about what we can do for you and how great we are, we will give you $100 (one case $250). Merchant Services was one of the three.

    I explained to each vendor that we were happy with our current solution but if you still want to show me how you can beat them, then have at it. They all proceeded. Our incumbent providers were all superior in the most important metrics to us and we declined in all three instances. Two of the three paid immediately on the spot, third one had a bunch of bells and whistles to comply with which I sent in to their offices and never got paid. Guess who I spoke poorly of to all associates I knew in the future? My take away: If you are going to offer a premium, bold meeting getting statement, you better back it up or it will do more harm than good.

    But your point is well made. I did listen to them. They did not have superior products or services so it wound up costing them, but again they did get to meet with a decision maker. I probably would have not meet with any of the three as we did not have an need at the time. So in that sense it is a great idea. But you better have the best horse in the race.....

    Thanks for sharing the story.
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    • Profile picture of the author Jeff Schuman
      I didn't take it as a bribe either. Just a way to get them to talk to you as Claude says, but it does take confidence in yourself to make that kind of an offer.
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    • Profile picture of the author umc
      Originally Posted by JMB Marketing Group View Post

      leojq2

      Your information IS NOT UNIQUE CONTENT! You just copied and pasted it!

      Point in Case: I received an email from an offline marketer with the same subject matter addressed to me the other day saying the exact same thing:

      Dear .....

      Tim Ferris recently did an interview with Bryan Johnson, founder
      of Braintree, an American company that helps online businesses
      process credit card payments by providing a merchant account,
      payment gateway, recurring billing and credit card storage.
      (Thank you Wikipedia)

      Around the 21 minute mark Bryan revealed how he became the #1
      salesperson in a credit card processing company he worked for
      before starting Braintree.

      He realized his industry had a bad reputation very quickly and came
      up with the best "hook" I've ever heard...

      My product had ZERO differentiation.

      It was exactly the same as 500 other providers who walked
      in the door every day...so I would say...

      "If you'll give me three minutes of your time I will give you
      $100 if you don't say yes to using my service"...

      I would open my pitch book and walk them through the
      industry... here are the providers, here's what they do...
      here's how they do it, here's what I do, I'm the same as
      everyone else except with me you get honesty, transparency
      and great customer support.

      So I became this company's #1 salesperson and broke all
      their sales records following this really simple formula of
      selling honesty and transparency in a broken industry.

      ***

      Via Twitter Bryan told me he never had to fork over the $100 and that
      $100 seemed to work best vs other dollar amounts,

      Now if you don't "sell" anything you're now trying to figure out
      how this idea could apply to you. (or you should be)

      Like it or not, improving your finances will involve "selling" something.

      It might be as simple as selling yourself to a new employer
      but it's all still sales.

      If a "NO" or rejection cost you $100 you can
      be sure your offer would be something only
      an idiot would say NO to.

      An employee on an interview might say...

      "I will work for FREE for a month or I will refund
      all you've paid me if you aren't happy after X days."

      Those personal injury attorney's who do all that
      advertising might say..."if we don't take your
      case we'll pay you $100".

      You get the idea.


      In any case, if you're going to do any thinking today, why not think
      about making amazing offers for your products or services even
      if those services are for a traditional job.


      Scary for sure but as author Sally Hogshead says, "different is better
      than better" and a hook like this will solidify you as "different" in your
      industry.

      And speaking of $100, today I'm recommending a new program
      from Sean Mize called "The Complete $100K Info-Entrepreneurs
      Step By Step Formula"


      It's less than $10.

      From the salesletter...


      Are you trying to build an info business but you are stuck?

      Are you struggling to get your first 1000 followers or "tribe members"?

      Are you struggling to make that first $1000 online?

      Do you want to change the world with one great idea, but you just don't know how to
      get started, how to create the platform and the initial traffic, emails, and products?

      If so, you need a world-changing idea, then you need a traffic platform where people
      can come to you and get to know you, then you need an email campaign, then you find
      out what they need and either promote affiliate programs that meet those needs, or,
      better yet, over time, create your own products.

      That's the formula.
      ***

      He covers how to implement the formula on your own and he walks
      his talk so if building an info biz appeals to you, check this out!

      Two of my readers, independent of each other, pointed me to
      Todd Herman and his "90 Day Year" concept. If you currently
      run a business, I suggest you check this out today.

      Make it a great day and thanks for reading!

      Leo

      P.S. I'd love to hear how you plan to implement the
      idea Bryan Johnson used to become his companies
      #1 salesperson.


      Note: Some of the products I mention are done with affiliate links,
      for which I receive compensation if you make a purchase. In some cases,
      I may have received a review copy. In no case do those situations either
      cause you to pay extra for a product purchase or cause me to give a
      favorable review or recommendation of a product that I think fails to
      deliver on its promises.

      -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

      JMB

      P.S. What you posted is "copyright infringement" which is not tolerated here, nor anywhere on the net!
      ^^^^^^^^^^^^

      Well, at least the OP shared something for us to talk about. You not only duplicated what he shared, but you managed to throw in an ad like a shill for someone else's program. That's kinda weak.
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  • Profile picture of the author aduttonater
    I would have to change my game plan. Depending on how many sales you want to land, and that should be alot. If you cannot convert and lose that much per person, you will be bankrupt by the end of the month. Focus on ways to land customers without having to dish out money. If you have to dish out money, dish out as little as possible. Remember. Low cost advertisement pays off big in the long run.
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