When Alex attended Guerilla Business Intensive in Brazil last 2016, he was shocked to know that most Brazilians think they live in a third world country even though Brazil is the eighth nation in the world in Gross Development Product (GDP) and first in natural resources.
Alex dug deeper and found how so much unmet potential is wasted. He reflects upon this as he ties it up to the three whys of ethical influence any entrepreneur must set up in any sales presentation to further show their potential. Alex challenges everyone to ask these questions and make sure to answer them for candidates or prospects.
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The 3 WHYs of “Ethical Influence”
The year was 2016. The place was São Paulo, Brazil in front of 850 crazy, outrageously, influential and enthusiastic Brazilians. I was there for the first time for what’s called Guerrilla Business Intensive. It’s a three-day intensive that starts at 8:00 AM and goes up until about 10:00 to 10:30 each evening.
What was interesting on this particular day, it was day two, is I was making a mention that Brazil is the eighth largest sovereign nation in GDP, Gross Domestic Product. It’s the eighth in the world. There are seven others in front of it. The United States, China, Japan are all ahead of Brazil. What’s interesting is Brazil is first in natural resources. Eighth in gross domestic product, but first in natural resources.
What I was expressing to all the Brazilian students there, many of them entrepreneurs, some of them employed full-time, some part-time trying to startup an entrepreneurial business in digital marketing or in the services such as coaching and consulting. I expressed to them that Brazil is a testament of unmet potential. The key to any nation, such as the United States starting back from our founding fathers and framers, is it’s all about entrepreneurship.
It started on farms and it eventually went into services here in the United States. In Brazil, they have enthusiasm. They have influential outlooks of what could happen in their lives and they’re so carnival like-minded, meaning they’re super enthusiastic.
If you’ve ever been to Brazil, you know exactly what I’m talking about. Not just in Rio de Janeiro, but in São Paulo and other major cities. Brazil is a testimony of unmet potential. First and natural resources, yet eighth in GDP.
I asked everyone in the audience and remember they’re over 850 of them. My words in English are being simultaneously translated into Portuguese. Half the group spoke English and the majority those nearly 900 people didn’t have English as a primary language, but they understood this concept.
When I asked them, “Raise your hand if you believe that Brazil is a first world nation,” like the US and many countries in Europe like Germany, Italy, France and Canada, maybe 20% of the hands went up. I said, “That’s interesting. Raise your hand if you believe Brazil is a third world nation.” The majority of the hands went up.
In fact, I even saw some people raised their hands twice. They believe it was both first world and third world. This is a problem because if they believe that they live in a third world nation, then that gives them mental constraints to never meet their potential. At least that’s what I believe. I asked them, “Who’s passionate in the audience?” All the hands went up. I said, “Who’s committed in the audience?” All their hands went up as well.
I said, “My friends, passion does not produce commitment. Commitment produces passion.” My good friend, colleague and mentor, T. Harv Eker, taught me that first you need the wood, that’s commitment, then you get the fire, that’s passion. I know passionate people who are unhappy. I know passionate people who don’t meet their potential. I know passionate people who are even suicidal. They’re passionately suicidal and it’s not funny.
I have yet to meet 100% committed person who takes a 100% responsibility, which is the first success principle in my good friend Jack Canfield’s book, The Success Principles. I’ve never met anyone who’s fully committed who does not fulfill their passion. Passion does not produce commitment. Commitment produces passion. That’s something I learned from one of my mentors, Roy H. Williams of Wizard Academy.
The reason why this story is so important is that to meet your potential and exceed it, you need to have some templates to make your life easier when you’re presenting ethical influence strategies or opportunities to someone else, or in this case, someone’s many other people. I planned on doing that on day three.
I go back year after year because it was so successful in year one. I want to share with you the three-part formula that has worked for me for over a decade. It’s so easy to do. It’s even easier to teach and it starts with why like Simon Sinek’s great book Start With Why. He has that TEDx speech that has been downloaded more than any TEDx speech ever.
Here are the three Whys. If you can make this your template to ethically influence others, a set up of three why questions and you can enroll clients like crazy. Before you even begin your sales presentation or enrollment presentation, if you don’t like the word sales, I won’t begrudge you if you don’t.
When you’re ethically influencing someone else, which is what this show is about, ask yourself these three questions. Make sure you can answer them for your candidate, prospect or your qualified lead whom you’re speaking to.
Why This?
Question one is, “Why this?” In other words, why this offer? Why this presentation? Why this? It means whatever it is that you’re offering that other person, you better be clear on why you’re doing it. You want to know why they’re receiving it.
Why Me?
Question two is, “Why me?” Why am I uniquely qualified to offer this to you? Why me is why are you listening to me? Why did you get here? That’s why you basically, but why me is that other question. You better make sure that you’ve earned the right to deliver whatever it is that you are offering.
[bctt tweet=”Passion does not produce commitment. Commitment produces passion.” username=””]
The third question is, “Why now?” Why now is about urgency. Why is now the right time? Not next week, not next month. Those are the three questions. The most important oversight is question number three. Why this? People can do. Why me? That’s easy, but why now?
Why Now?
I have found that many of my students, even students and clients who have paid me $100,000 or $30,000 or over $12,000 in my high-end client and premium client funnel marketing systems that I teach. I found that they fall apart at why now, which is urgency.
If I could put words to those three questions in any presentation, then “why this?” is relevancy. Why is this relevant to your prospect right now? “Why me?” is credibility. Why am I uniquely credible or why have I earned the right and why are they credible that they’re going to follow through?
Finally, “why now?” That’s the Achilles heel. That’s the third question. That’s about urgency. Why is now the perfect time to get started? Why this? Relevancy. Why me? Credibility. Why now? Urgency. Make those three questions and terms your three allies to everyone you ever ethically influence.
The Alexism for this episode is this. You are not as good as you think you are. You’re better. I say this on stage after teaching my students for three days. In some cases, five days in parts of Asia and Europe, because I have five-day events called Guerrilla Business Intensive. I’ll say, “My friends, you are not as good as you think you are.” I pause. You can hear a pin drop.
I look at them and I say, “You’re better.” After I’ve said that enough times, when I say, “Remember, you are not as good as you think you are.” They respond without me saying anything. They say, “We’re better,” then they give each other high fives. Some people hug each other, some people do handshakes. There are three types of people in the audience. Some shake hands, some give high fives and some hug. The Brazilians hug.
It’s important to remember this very simple three-step outline, especially for platform selling. When it came time for me to make money at this event, because for three days and I’m teaching, then on day three before lunch, I’m making my offer. Sometimes the offer is $2,000, $5,000 and sometimes even more. I always begin with, “Why this? Why me? Why now?” before I even continue to describe the offer because I hate to be rejected.
One of the promises of All Selling Aside is if you follow these patterns that you learn episode after episode, there will be no rejection because you won’t make the offer unless you have a highly qualified and highly responsive candidate in front of you.
Start with Why: How Great Leaders Inspire Everyone to Take Action
Some people call them prospects, which I do. Some people call them leads. I think that’s inhuman. I liked to call them candidates because they’re candidates for something. If they don’t want your primary offer, then you can do what’s called down selling them.
You know what upselling is, they get more. Down-selling them is something less valuable. My good friend and client, Joe Vitale, I have known him over 25 years. We have a program called Zero Limits Mastery. For some, it’s a one-year program at $15,000. For others, it’s a nine-month program for $12,000, a six-month program for $7,000 and the $5,000 offer is somewhere between three to six months.
For many, that’s a lot of money, but when I’m doing a discovery session and I’m on Zoom and I’m watching someone respond to questions, they complete an intake or an application. It’s designed so that I know where they are now, where they want to go, what their future self looks like. I want them to anticipate resistance in the future because it’s naturally going to happen. It’s a part of growth. When you work out, what makes you stronger? Resistance.
I go through this process. Why this? Why is Zero Limits Mastery ideal for you? I ask them if time and money were not an issue, which of these four options would you choose? That’s a very good question. That’s called a trial close, which I’ve talked about in other episodes.
Remember, seeding through storytelling is the new selling and that’s what I do episode after episode. That’s why I hope you share this episode with your friends and colleagues, maybe your boss, if you have one or other people on your sales team. When you tell stories, that can dismantle and eviscerate objections in advance. When you make your offer, those objections will come up because they’ve been handled.
Let’s do our review. Here’s a quick review about the specific insights you and I have rediscovered in this episode. There are only three why’s you need to set up any sales presentation. Why this? Why me? Why now?
Why now is the Achilles heel to every talk, every email, every book offer, every ethical influence exchange. Remember, why this is about relevancy. Why is this relevant to the candidate? Why me is credibility. Why are you uniquely credible or have earned the right to make the offer? Why now is urgency. Those are the three principles. In review, relevancy, credibility, and urgency. Remember, these principles can only work for you if you work them.
Speaking of reviews, before we end this, I want you to go to AllSellingAside.com/iTunes and type in your biggest takeaway or a-ha moment you’ve experienced during this episode. If you’ve already done this, then I want you to write it on an index card and hold on to it, so that you can review it at the end of the year. You can also do this in the review section of iTunes. When you do it, iTunes will ask you to rate this episode. I do hope that I’ve earned the right for you to give me five stars.
[bctt tweet=”Make sure that you’ve earned the right to deliver whatever it is that you are offering.” username=””]
Go ahead, declare your one big takeaway in the iTunes review section by visiting AllSellingAside.com/iTunes. It will take three minutes out of your day, but what you declare to the public could provide you a lifetime of learning. It will mean much to me.
I have one final gift to you in honor of this episode of All Selling Aside. That’s a complimentary digital copy of my eBook that’s titled Alexisms: Useful Lessons from a Recovering Serial Entrepreneur. You can instantly download it at AlexismsBook.com. There’s an Alexism I offer you every single episode and there are 140 of them in the book. I think you’ll enjoy them. There’s even a place for you to take notes and borrow and steal some of the ones I’ve come up with.
That does it. I hope our paths cross again for All Selling Aside. This is dedicated to you and to making ethical influence within your reach so that you can achieve and even exceed your sales potential.
Do whatever it takes to be here because our topic will be how to transform ice into steam. That’s the five-part conversion process I teach. I encourage you to invite a friend or bring a study buddy because it’s more fun to learn together. I can’t wait to connect with you then and I can’t wait to teach you in the next episode. All good wishes.
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