When faced with a choice of either doing something new, or something that has been tested and proven, people almost always chooses the latter. Why make it hard for yourself? Observe those who have succeeded and use their closing techniques to raise your chances in the game. In this episode, Alex Mandossian gives it to you straight. He provides strategies in closing that he, and many other successful entrepreneurs, have used over the years. Alex takes it up a notch by providing detailed examples for every technique he has to offer.

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Listen to the Podcast Here:

Seventeen Tested Closing Techniques

In this episode number 47. You’ll learn three key insights which are critical to making you a highly-skilled ethical influencer. You’re going to discover how to close more sales from the moment your lips start moving in your presentation.

Number two, you’ll learn how to close sales presentations with seamless commitments from your prospects. Who become clients or customers, patients, members, students, whatever you call them. I like to call them buyers.

Number three, you’ll learn how to become more relational in your sales presentation versus transactional. Becoming a relational closer is much better and feels much better than a transactional closer. With transactional closers I feel like I got to take a bath after shaking that person’s hand, because I have been sold but it’s been a transaction not a relationship.

This episode could have a significant impact on how you can quickly and easily win the hearts of others. It’s all about relationships. If English is your second language and over 50% of my readers do read from outside of North America. I hope you decide to read this and all the other All Selling Aside episodes. Not once, not twice but three times. After all, this is a public service from my heart to yours.

It is my legacy I’m leaving for my children because it’s over 25 years of sales and marketing know-how, delivered in about 25-minute chunks. If you read each episode three times, you’ll find that nothing empowers your literacy and even fluency in another language as much as the art of ethical Influence. Hold your hat and let’s get started.

Ultimate Internet Bootcamp Origins

In 2010, at the lunch break at Guerrilla Business School in Los Angeles, California on Century Boulevard at the Los Angeles Westin Hotel, my good friend T. Harv Eker approached me and that moment I will always remember. We’re eating lunch and some of the other speakers at the event were at the table. He was ignoring them. He was speaking to me.

He indicated that he had a new idea for internet marketing newbies. Peak Potentials which was his company at the time had done a lot of polling and surveys about what other types of training they wanted.

There was the Enlightened Warrior training. There was Wizard Training. There was a Guerilla Business School World’s Greatest Marketing Seminar and many other trainings that T. Harv Eker put together.

He’s a genius curriculum developer. He didn’t have one about the internet and he had indicated that he trusted me more than anyone else. Not that I was the most successful. He had trusted my teaching ability more than anyone else in the world of internet marketing.

Many people know how to do things but teaching it is twice as difficult in my opinion, to take complicated things and making them simple. He asked me a simple question during the lunch break at the table. He said, “Alex, what I want to do is have a five-day event and I don’t know what it’s called.

Maybe we’ll call it the Ultimate Internet Boot Camp or something, but I want to have a five-day event where people start from scratch. Everyone is connected to the internet. By the end of day five, they’ve made money. They’ve monetized. A blank slate. No website, nothing. Everyone starts at the same place and they end by making money. Do you think it’s possible?”

Remember, these are the days before the iCloud or the cloud. This is a time when you couldn’t have 300 people hooked up to the internet via Wi-Fi. It would suffocate the system; it would clog the system and people couldn’t get on.

I didn’t think it was a possibility and I said, “Harv, it’s impossible to do that. These people don’t even know how to research Google. How are you going to get them to monetize and build a website from scratch without any kind of programming or HTML know-how? It’s impossible.”

[bctt tweet=”Many people know how to do things but teaching it is twice as difficult. ” username=”AlexMandossian”]

He said, “Do you want to partner with me and do it?” I said, “Yes.” He said, “Yes?” I said, “I do because the difficult can be done immediately, but the impossible takes a little longer.” I learned that from the American Military and I’ve loved that saying ever since.

The Ultimate Internet Boot Camp was born, which led to UIBC. That’s the acronym 2.0, which led to the Ultimate Membership Site Seminar or UMSS 2.0. After about $25 million and a few thousand people getting coached at $500 a month. Over 25 events all over the world on six continents, we made a huge impact and then we finally retired in 2012, two years later. In those two and a half years, we made a big impact.

One thing I learned from Harv more than anything else, is that closing a sale starts with seeding. What I already knew is, seeding through storytelling is selling. If there’s an objection, tell a story and that objection will no longer be an objection.

People don’t question a story, but they will question a claim, a benefit, or a feature of an offer or a program. Closing doesn’t start fifteen minutes before your presentation is about to end. Most people do that, where their content and the close are seamed.

They have a seam and that’s why it feels uncomfortable for people to do it. They’re selling now and you can tell that their energy changes. I start closing from the first 300 seconds, as the first five minutes by seeding and storytelling. You start closing not at the end. It’s not an event. It’s a process.

Overview Of The Seventeen Closes That Work And The ABCs Of Sales

In this episode, I’m going to teach you seventeen closes that have worked. They’re proven and tested and these aren’t the only closes. There are probably hundreds of them, but these are seventeen I have utilized and I’m going to name them one by one and describe them.

Here’s an overview and I’ll go over each one and describe them for you. 1) The takeaway close. 2) The summary close. 3) The objection close. 4) The Benjamin Franklin close. 5) The doorknob close. 6) The concern close. 7) The regrets close. 8) The assessment close. 9) The empathy close. 10) The assumption close. 11) The contract close. 12) 100% alignment close. 13) The what if close. That’s an easy one. I recommend that you start with that.

14) The Artisan close. 15) The price versus cost close. 16) The COI versus ROI close. COI stands for Cost Of Inaction. That’s a term I coined. ROI stands for Return on Investment. Finally, 17) The puppy dog close. Also known as, try it before you buy it.

With closing and with getting a sale, it involves creating enough tension so a decision is made. After all, when you have water at the boiling point, it’s the difference between 211 and 212 degrees where you go from boiling water to steam.

With boiling water, you can boil an egg. With steam you can propel a locomotive or a rocket ship. There’s power with steam. The context that you’re looking for is creating a new language which creates a new community, which creates a new mentor, in you or new role model.

Those are the three things that create a movement. They do have a dark side. They do create cults. When a cult leader is closing, that person is creating a new language, community, and mentor or role model in him or her and the people who are leaders.

If you look at a great twelve-step program, let’s take Alcoholics Anonymous, which I’ve done a lot of voluntary work for. The new language is their language in the big book. They have many other books as well that speaks the new language. If you have a training the new language is probably a glossary of terms.

When you’re selling, there’s a new language that you’re introducing. You have to define what those terms are. People don’t get sales speak many times. That new language, if spoken in a community, let’s say, a twelve-step community. You have a new community which are the meetings that recovering addicts and alcoholics go to.

 

You don’t have to be an addict or in recovery to enjoy this because you can have a movement in your own business by doing these three things. If it assists an addict to stop using and stop drinking, then it’s good enough for your people.

What happens is, there is a concept called recidivism, which means backsliding. After about 28 to 30 days, if you’re coaching someone they will backslide, they’ll start losing interest. They’ll stop being interested. It takes about 28 days for most concrete to dry.

My dad is a civil engineer. That’s what he told me. It takes about 28 days for someone to lose interest. You need a new language. You need a new community for that language to be spoken, let’s say Facebook group. A new mentor could be their mentor or coach like we have with our Guerrilla Business Online program.

If you want more info on Guerilla Business Online, simply go to MarketingOnline.com/gbo. We even have a certification program where we can certify you as a GBO coach and send you clients.

Let’s start by giving you an overview and description of the seventeen closes I gave you. These are not exhaustive but they’re seventeen that you can utilize. If there was an eleventh commandment, there are ten commandments, it would probably speak to the secret of financial freedom. Who doesn’t want that? Everyone wants that. That would be in business and in life.

The eleventh commandment would be, “Thou shall not stop closing.” The ABCs in most sales training is this, Always Be Closing. I’m going to tell you right here and this is my opinion, “This is wrong. Always be closing is wrong.”

Closing is not a single moment in time, as most people think. There is no “the close.” Closing is a process. It’s not a transaction, it’s a relationship. It is an ongoing process. It’s not a moment in time. If you treat it like a moment in time, then people will look at you as a salesperson. If you treat it as a relational process, they’ll treat you as a friend.

People buy from people who they know, like and trust. People buy from friends. When you are known as a closer, it’s about getting orders by having a meaningful dialogue. Not a monologue, as most salespeople engage in but a dialogue, going to ways.

When you have a dialogue with your prospect, it makes the buying decision seamless. Notice I said, “Buying decision and not selling opportunity.” It’s a buying decision. People buy, you can’t sell. As Jeffrey Gitomer says, and I’ve said this many times in many of the episodes of All Selling Aside, “People hate to be sold, but they love to buy.” Isn’t that true?

What you want is the buying decision to be seamless to have no seam and invisible to the observer. Whether someone is watching you or to the prospect. Maybe it could be the prospect’s spouse, or child or business partner. It is seamless.

[bctt tweet=”Closing is not a single moment in time. There is no, “the close.” Closing is a process. It’s not a transaction; it’s a relationship.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

You’re doing it in the process of solving their problem and even finding problems versus just having a solution to the problem. If your prospects think and feel they are connected with you. If they know, like, trust and respect you, they will buy.

ABC is not Always Be Closing, in my opinion. I don’t know anyone who agrees with me, but I’m going to tell you what I believe is true after 25 years of sales and marketing know-how and teaching some of the best digital marketing salespeople in the world who are now my teachers. ABC stands for Always Be Connecting, not closing.

Closing is a transaction. Connecting is a process. Always be connecting. Do it ethically and authentically. The great closers are not problem solvers, that’s reactive. They are problem finders.

Problem finders are proactive. They anticipate. There’s power in anticipation. They are not transactional by pimping the product or service. They are relational, and relationship means they’re pampering their prospects to engender lifelong commitments.

I want people forever. I want people to come to me for Digital Marketing Training forever. Not just once, I want all of their business. I don’t want them to be confused by going to other thought leaders.

Even though they may be telling the truth and they’re very good, some are more skilled than I. It causes confusion, when you have more than one leader teaching you something. Be a pamper not a pimp. If that’s strong language, get over it.

You look like a pimp, male or female, it doesn’t matter to me, child or adult. If you are selling and closing, always be connecting. It’s not about one commitment you’re looking for. It’s about a sequence of a lifetime of commitments. As such, the tension to get the yes, the tension is still required to catalyze or to create the sale.

#1 Takeaway Close

Here are the seventeen tested closes explained. Number one, the takeaway close. Here’s an example of a takeaway close, I’m speaking to the prospect and I’m the salesperson. “Mr. Prospect, you’ve indicated on a scale of one to ten that you’re at a level ten, motivated to have your problem solved. If in the 600 seconds, that’s ten minutes, we can’t get aligned on how you can solve your problem with us then we, as a company are not a good fit for you.”

Those words are a sentence of taking something away because they’ve already indicated they want to be with us. I’ve combined an assessment with a takeaway close by taking something away.

This may not be for you if what I’m about to tell you is not a good fit. Rather than begging, you have a position of firmness and strength by taking it away. That’s number one, the takeaway close.

#2 Summary Close

Number two, the summary close. “Miss Prospect, during the time we’ve spent together. You said your three biggest challenges are, 1) Finding the right talent. 2) You need faster sales conversions. 3) Scaling your business. That’s what our executive summary will provide and show you how to handle all three of those. Is it okay if I give you a summary so that you can finally make a decision?” That’s the summary.

They’ve told you what they’re looking for. They look for better talent, better conversions and scaling ideas and you’re providing them a summary in order for them to have what they want.

 

#3 Objection Close

Number three, the objection close. “Mr. Prospect, what’s the number one reason why you believe you can’t move forward with us?” Think about how powerful that is. You’re asking them for the number one reason or roadblock why they can’t move forward and they’re shocked. They’re waiting for you to convince them.

#4 Benjamin Franklin Close

Number four, the Benjamin Franklin close. “Miss Prospect, now that you’ve indicated all the reasons why you feel it makes sense to move forward as well as the reasons why you feel it doesn’t make sense for your company. Let’s compare both lists, the pros and the cons, and then make a decision together. Is that okay?”

Benjamin Franklin is one of the founding fathers of the United States. What he’d used to do is he used to draw a vertical line down the center of a piece of paper. On the left side, it would be all the reasons why something should move forward, whatever task or idea.

On the other side would be all the reasons why something should not move forward. Logically and from very transparent visibility and point of view, he would look at, are there more pros than cons? Are there more advantages than disadvantages?

By getting that out on a piece of paper, he could look at it physically. You know writing is the doing part of thinking, as one of my friends says. As a result, he would make a decision and that is called The Ben Franklin close.

#5 Doorknob Close

Number five, the doorknob close. What happens is, you’re about to leave because you feel that you’re at an impasse. You’ve been road blocked. You don’t think the deal is going to happen and you still have one more thing up your sleeve. You already know this so it’s ethical, it’s moral.

You go to the doorknob and you’re about to twist it and leave and go out the door and you say, “Mr. Prospect, wait. Before I go, I overlooked one critical element that makes this decision a no-brainer for your organization. Is it okay if I come back and share it with you now? Do you have time to do that?” If they say, “Yes,’’ you’ve opened up a new dialogue of meaningful conversation.

#6 Concern Close

Tested close number six, the concern close. “Miss Prospect, I’m concerned that you won’t have the adequate time and resources to achieve the success we both know you’re capable of and truly deserve. You’re missing these critical elements. Shall we discuss them now?” Do you see how that’s an opening?

These are all dialogues. They could be improved. They’re not the best but I wrote them out so that they wouldn’t be world-class and at the same time they’re not poorly written. There’s something that you can articulate to make selling fun. That’s the concern close. If you show concern, it’s genuine, and it is ethically moral like you actually believe in it, then you’re pampering the sale versus pimping.

#7 Regret Close

Number seven, the regret close. “There’s an interesting research document that was conducted by hospice workers, Miss Prospect. These folks work with senior citizens who know that they just have a few days to live.

The two biggest regrets, that these seniors have, according to hospice workers is, 1) They regret all the terrible things they did over their lifetime and wish they could take them back. 2) They regret the great things they could have done but didn’t have the courage to do so.

I would hate for this second regret to be something you think about in the future. Can we dive a little deeper into why our services are a good fit for you? If not, then there won’t be a regret. What do you say?”

#8 Assessment Close

Number eight, the assessment close. You heard this before, it’s one of my favorites. It’s so easy. You’ve asked them a question, and here it is. “Mr. Prospect, on a scale of one to ten how committed, inspired or motivated are you to make a positive and permanent change in your business? One means not at all and ten means 100% committed.”

[bctt tweet=”Writing is the doing part of thinking.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

This is very important. If they give you an eight then what you can ask is, “Why didn’t you rate it lower?” That way they can defend their score. One of my mentors taught me that. They may be expecting, “What would make it a ten?” as a second question as Jack Canfield has taught me over the years.

Dan Pink taught me that in one of his books and then they would defend their score then you say, “What would make it a ten?” They would tell you. You say, “Can we pretend like it’s a ten?” If they say, “Yes,” you say, “Great, then can I show you what making a permanent change with us looks like?” There’s your entry. It’s a great close, the assessment close.

#9 Empathy Close

Number nine, The Empathy close. “Miss Prospect, I know how that feels. I hear you. I know that other clients of mine have felt the same way. I’ve even felt the same way until they found and I even found a faster and better way through the mentoring program.

Everyone needs a mentoring program. I don’t know if we’re the right program for you, but Benjamin Graham mentored Warren Buffett. Aristotle mentored Alexander the Great. Plato mentored Aristotle. Socrates mentored Plato.

Great thought leaders in history have had great mentors. Let’s take a deeper look into how you can feel better about getting mentored by someone who knows the ground you’re about to plow.”

#10 Assumption Close

Number ten, The Assumption close. “Mr. Prospect, is it fair for me to assume that if time and money is not an issue for you or your organization that you’re ready to get started? If that’s a bad assumption, what am I missing? What aside from time and money is preventing you from moving forward?”

That’s a great assumption, “Is it fair for me to assume.” I learned that from Tony Robbins over 25 years ago. It’s a great way to start a sentence.

#11 Contract Close

Number eleven, the Contract close. This one’s simple. “Miss Prospect, once you okay the paperwork, we can begin our pre-training. Is that accurate?” That’s it, you’re not only assuming but you have a contract or DocuSign. Document is many of my vendors have sent me, and you’re closing on the contract or the agreement.

#12 Alignment Close

Number twelve, the Tested close called the Alignment close. “Mr. Prospect, based on what you’ve told me so far, what’s the single most important thing? What’s the reason why that?” Put in what they told you. Maybe they said, “Saving money.” Maybe they said, “One-on-one coaching.” Maybe they said, “Scaling my business.”

Let’s say, scaling my business. “Based on what you told me so far. What’s the most important thing to you about why scaling your business can take us closer into working with you? Are there any other reasons that would bring us into alignment besides scaling your business? If so, what is most important to you about scaling your business that we could handle?” That’s the Alignment close, getting in alignment.

#13 What If?

Number thirteen, the What if? One of my favorite ones because it brings up a bigger brighter future. “Miss Prospect, what if the one thing that prevented you from moving forward was no longer true but used to be. What would that look like?”

 

You could say, “What would happen if you didn’t move forward?” “Something terrible.” “Nothing.” “What could happen if you did move forward?” “Something wonderful. A bigger brighter future on your own terms.” That’s the What if?

What if you had a bigger brighter future, what would it look like? What would happen if you didn’t move forward? What could happen if you did move forward? What if something was no longer true, but used to be such as your zero limits about your mindset?

My good friend, Dr. Joe Vitale, I’ve known over 25 years. We have a mentoring program that’s very inexpensive. It’s $5,000 to $15,000 that lasts six months to over fifteen months depending on what level you come in for one-on-one mentoring and you get access to us as well.

If you want to take a look at it go to MarketingOnline.com/zlm. Z stands for Zero, L stands for Limits and M stands for Mastery. That’s the way I begin my video that I took in Gold Coast Australia. I didn’t think it was possible for me to own property in Australia, which is over 8,000 miles away from where I live in California, United States.

It just happens I have some rental property there. That investment property yields a good return and I get to stay there two weeks out of the year which I do. You’ll see a video of me starting with the What if close.

Remember, always be connecting. You don’t always have to be closing, but always be connecting. I’m connecting so that when Dr. Joe sends me traffic to that page, people are more aware of who I am, and then they go to a webinar which is 90 minutes. They go into an intake; they schedule a discovery session and we find out if they’re a good fit. It’s a $5,000 to $15,000 decision if you want to explore that process.

Do you notice that I’m closing you? Do you notice we’re having a conversation here? It’s seamless. Don’t think I’m not aware of it. I’m showing and demonstrating what I’m doing as I’m going through these closes whether you decide to move forward or not.

If you’re saying, “I know what you’re doing.” Yes, you do. You are smart. That’s why you’re reading. I’m not being demeaning in any way. You are smart and I’m telling on myself and that’s another close. You can make it number eighteen, the Telling on Yourself close.

#14 Artisan Close

Number fourteen, the Artisan close. An artisan is an expert. Whether you’re making artisan bread or you’re an artisan with art. “Miss Prospect, if you have any unexpressed doubts about moving forward, is it okay if I share the type of client services you’ll learn to expect from us if we decided to move forward?

Here are the new skills and tools that you will have as a result of working with us. Here’s what you can expect from us and the frequency and the ongoing support you can expect from us.” If you have a coaching program or you have a service, tell them as an artisan, what they can expect. What kind of schedule of frequency they can expect as a private, as a group? What is it?

#15 Price Versus Cos

Number fifteen, the Price versus Cost close. “Mr. Prospect, is what’s stopping you from moving forward a matter of price or cost?” Some of the great closers in history, Zig Ziglar comes to mind. They would say that when they ask this question the prospect would say, “What’s the difference between price and cost?”

If they don’t say it, then you can say after the uncomfortable silence which I love, its glorious. You say, “You might wonder what the difference is between price and cost.” They would say, “Yes.’’ If they say, “No,” then don’t continue.

If they say, “Yes,” you continue and you say, “Price is a one-time investment. You pay once and you invest once and that’s it. All you need to do is say yes whereas cost is ongoing. It’s an ongoing expense as a result of saying no or not saying yes because not making a decision is a decision. There was a cost of inaction.

[bctt tweet=”You don’t always have to be closing, but always be connecting.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

Do you want it as a one-time price or do you want an ongoing cost by not moving forward with me or someone else that does what I do? We’ve already identified that you have a problem and there is a solution for the problem. If you believe we can solve it for you faster, better and easier, then let’s move forward, shall we?” You can see how easy these dialogues can be once you practice. It’s a skillset.

#16 COI Versus ROI Trial Close And Closing Technique

Number sixteen, the COI versus ROI trial close and closing technique. This is what I made up because I coined the term COI which stands for Cost of Inaction. Here’s the scenario, I want you to picture this. The prospect is at an event and they’re sitting across from me and they’ve said yes to a $100,000 mentoring done-for-you program for a year.

I’ve done this no less than two dozen times in the past few years. That’s a lot of $100,000 clients. I don’t think anyone else has done as many as I have. At least on a one-on-one basis with entrepreneurs. These are not corporate clients. These are entrepreneurs and many of them make less than $100,000 a year.

Imagine the amount of trust they have in me in pampering them. They know I’m not pimping. We’ve spoken, they know about my reputation. They probably got a referral and there’s also a $30,000 program as well which I’ve had many dozen who’d come in. I still have $100,000 and $30,000 clients, but I don’t take as many. Usually, without exception and if they don’t say it, I’ll volunteer it.

The script goes like this. “Mr. Prospect, you’re probably wondering for $100,000 what your guarantee is. What’s the guarantee? What’s the return on investment that you’re going to get? I’m so happy that I’m getting to express this to you before you say yes or no. You may change your mind after you hear what I’m about to say.”

By the way, that’s a combination Take Away close. “If you were wondering what the guarantee is for your $100,000 that you’re going to spend with me, here it is. You will never see the $100,000 again.” Case closed thanks for playing.

I look at them and if they don’t laugh, I know that they will never be a prospect. I’ll say, “You’re probably wondering why I said that. ROI is up to you, it’s not up to me. Return on Investment is if you do the work. I can lay the groundwork, but you’ve got to get that vehicle moving.

I can lay down the tracks, but you’ve got to provide the fuel for the locomotive to be running on those tracks. I can build the road, but you’ve got to put fuel in the car and press on the accelerator and steer the steering wheel.

I can guarantee a cost of inaction. Here’s what you will lose by not making a decision. You can call it the cost of indecision as well. There’s a cost to it. The price is $100,000 and you pay it once. The cost of inaction is.”

I list all the cost, not having a legacy, not making the first six figures they’ve ever made in their life, the possibility of it. I say, “ROI is up to you, there is no guarantee. If you’re doing it for the guarantee you can keep your $100,000,” which is also a takeaway.

I can’t think of one time I’ve given that close that someone has not said yes, which means they have said yes. Use that up. There’s no way you can guarantee an ROI, don’t ever fall into that trap. If they don’t do the work, then they’re not going to get the job done. COI, Cost of Inaction is much more powerful than ROI, Return on Investment.

#17 Puppy Dog Close

Finally, number seventeen, the Puppy Dog close. This is common. It comes from the concept of having a puppy and you go to a pet shop and they say, “Take the puppy home and see what happens.” Clean up the dog poop, it’s not a poopless dog, like seedless watermelon. Take the dog home and have your kids play with it. When that happens, the game is over.

I’ve gotten close with my Corgi, Maddie in Manhattan. My then wife Amy said, “What are you doing?” Maddie came home and she was so cute and we had her for many years. My then in-laws continued to have her until her final days. She lived a long life, but the puppy dog close is where it’s a try before you buy.

 

Here’s the way this writes, “Miss Prospect, the least risky way to move forward is why don’t you give it a test drive? Take it home, then let’s make certain it’s right for you. Let the family check it out. Try it before you buy it.”

The Tesla company run by Elon Musk has what’s called a test drive. One out of three people who test drive a Tesla buy it. Three out of 100 who don’t test drive a Tesla buy it. What odds do you want? One out of three, 30%? Three out of 100, 3%?

Tesla’s go for test drives and the test drive they go for is called the launch. It’s where you press the accelerator all the way down to the floor and then you’re launched 0 to 60 miles an hour in less than two seconds. That’s why Tesla is successful and they have world-class customer service.

Those are seventeen closes. I welcome you to go back and read. It’s a new language. With the new language you build a new community like you’re in at All Selling Aside. Hopefully you’ll allow me to be your new coach or mentor from a distance.

If you want on a one-on-one basis, it will put you back $30,000 to $100,000. All you need to do is find out more about that at MarketingOnline.com/intake. This episode was about twice as long as all the others because there were seventeen tested closes. Rather than holding content back, I wanted to give you the closes.

Alexism: Delayed Gratification

The Alexism is the two-word definition of entrepreneurial success, delayed gratification. If you want to be successful as an entrepreneur, there’s a two-word definition “delayed gratification.”

It’s the difference between being a child and being an adult. Children want things instantly and they only do the things that they want to do. If you have kids, you know this to be true. As adults we’re asking them to do things they don’t want to do and they hate to do it.

As adults, we do things we don’t want to do all the time, like vacuuming, cleaning up after our kids and making money for our family. Waking up early in the morning and taking a child to soccer practice, mixed martial arts practice or ballet practice. We work for our families and that’s the difference between an adult and a child.

A child wants instant gratification and an adult wants delayed gratification. They want instant but they get delayed. That’s what selling is all about, delayed gratification. It’s not pimping, it’s pampering. It’s not transaction, it is relationship so that you have a seamless commitment. The closing and the connecting is done the moment your lips start moving like it did with this episode.

I’ll finish with a metaphor and analogy I use on stage and I have over 750,000 students over the past 25 years on six different continents. If a few penguins in Antarctica spoke English, I could have a few students down there but so far no one from Antarctica. I’m hoping maybe if you’re from Antarctica you can come up and I can say, “I’m teaching on seven continents now.”

The analogy I utilized is the difference between bamboo and eucalyptus. The bamboo plant is from the grass family, it’s not a tree. It’s the fastest growing plant on Earth, so the scientists say. Bamboo goes deep first. It builds a rooted foundation is relational to the Earth.

It takes about three, five, ten in some cases fifteen years before the first shoot of a bamboo sprouts up. The moment it sees the Sun or it sees the light of day, it grows at about four inches to six inches per week. That’s a relational plant because deeper the foundation, the taller the building.

If you look at the New York City skyline, the tallest buildings have deep foundations. Bamboo is the same thing. If you have bamboo in your backyard, they grow fast once they have seen the light of day. Once you plant these shoots, they take forever to grow and they take over your garden underneath. You have to have a net system.

[bctt tweet=”You want to be successful as an entrepreneur? There’s a two-word definition: delayed gratification.” username=”AlexMandossian”]

My good friend, Jack Canfield has bamboo in his backyard and it took over his pool and his backyard until the gardeners had to dig some holes and put some netting there so that it wouldn’t keep growing. Bamboo is powerful and that’s the way I want you to sell. Be like bamboo. Be relational.

Eucalyptus is known in Australia. The roots are shallow, and there’s an unrooted interaction happening. There’s no rooted interaction, no foundation. It’s transactional. It’s like, “I’m going to grow fast and I’m going to grow tall.”

Eucalyptus trees grow tall. They’re strong trees. The trunks are strong, but I look at eucalyptus as transaction. When they grow, and there’s a strong wind like there was a strong Santa Ana winds in the Pasadena area in California. It’s where I went to elementary school at Allendale Elementary in Pasadena, and I was bussed to school.

You may have heard this from a previous episode. I would love the eucalyptus tree. They would be falling on the streets and the buses couldn’t get around them and there was no school that day. We couldn’t get to school thanks to the wind and the eucalyptus tree having a shallow root.

Don’t build your business as if it were a eucalyptus tree. Growing tall quickly is very impressive. “Thunder maybe loud and impressive but it’s lightning that does the work.” That’s what Mark Twain said, also known as Sam Clemens. Mark Twain was his pen name.

Be like bamboo, not like eucalyptus. Be a pamperer, not a pimp. Be a relationship creator not, a transactioner. Being relationship-based is pampering. Pampering the sale is not even selling. It’s dialoguing, it’s having meaningful conversations while the latter transaction is pimping the sale, which do you prefer? Do you want to be a pamperer or a pimp?

You can still create tension being a pamperer. I’m using strong language so you move away from pimping and move towards pampering. A review about the insights you and I both discovered in this 47th episode of All Selling Aside. It is the longest episode you will read.

The first thing you learned is how to close more sales when your lips start moving is about seeding. Hopefully seeding through storytelling, which is the tagline of this episode and every episode of All Selling Aside.

It’s the tagline to the entire podcast, “Seeding through storytelling is the new selling.” Seeding means planting seeds and that means having conversations, it’s always about connecting. Those are the ABCs. ABC, Always Be Connecting.

Number two, you learned how to close with seamless commitments that you would get from these tested closes. You can use one or a combination of many. You’re developing a relationship, not a transaction.

You may not want the sale in the first interaction. You don’t lose the sale forever if you don’t get it in the first interaction as many sales trainers teach you. You start the relationship. You just may want a commitment, “When can we meet next?” If they say, “Never,” you don’t have a commitment, you move on. If they say, “Let’s meet next week,” then you’re moving closer to the sale. You don’t have to close it. You need a commitment at the end.

Number three, how to be more relational as a pamperer. Be like bamboo versus transactional which is pimping like eucalyptus. Nothing against Aziz or eucalyptus trees, but I prefer bamboo over eucalyptus. Although I like looking at both. Remember, these insights will only work for you if you work them.

Please make sure you execute what you’ve learned in this All Selling Aside episode because if you do, your future could be bigger. It could be brighter and it could be created on your own terms. Imagine, you’re not as good as you think you are, you’re better.

Speaking of reviews, I want you to go to AllSellingAside.com/itunes. Go there, if you haven’t gone there before and type in your biggest takeaway, or a-ha moment that you got from this episode.

You do that in the review section. It’s not very intuitive, Apple can do better. If you do that and you haven’t done it before, then once you give a review which will mean much to me, iTunes will ask you to rate the episode. I do hope I’ve earned five stars from you. Will you do that for me? If you haven’t, please.

It will get the show up in the rankings and more people will get to see it. It’s a public surface, it’s free. It’s 25 years of sales and marketing know-how. I’ve made all the mistakes that I can think of and that’s why I don’t want you to make them. I plowed the ground before you and this is no cost to you.

Go ahead, declare your one big takeaway in the iTunes reviews section. Don’t give a review of the podcast. Give me a takeaway from this episode. It’s lot more specific. The address is AllSellingAside.com/itunes and that will take you directly to the iTunes section whether on your smartphone, laptop or desktop.

It will take three minutes out of your day. What you declare could provide you a lifetime of learning. When you declare something, it’s public and when you affirm something like an affirmation, is usually private.

Before I tell you about the final gift, if you’ve already given me a review, thank you. I do appreciate you for that. I read them all. I want you to write your biggest a-ha moment, your biggest takeaway, your “pack your bag” moment, whatever you want to call it. Write it in an index card and hold that index card with another pile that you add to for All Selling Aside. Please do that.

One final gift for this 47th episode of All Selling Aside is complimentary access to my video eCourse that will teach you how to identify your market, how to create your message, and how to capitalize on the most lucrative media sources that connects your message to your market that are available to you right now.

If you go to MarketingOnlineMentor.com, you will sidestep the $197 tuition that everyone else has to pay. If you’ve already paid $197 and you’re reading this, I will rebate and give you back that $197 because I don’t want you to miss out on that money. Use it as working capital. If you haven’t paid it, you don’t have to because you’re reading and you’ve stayed with me this long.

Go to MarketingOnlineMentor.com and do what it takes to understand about the shift that’s happening in the digital marketing place, digital marketing economy, identifying your market, creating your message and capitalizing on your media.

I hope and I want our paths to cross again next episode for All Selling Aside. This is the show dedicated to making ethical influence within your reach so that you can achieve and even exceed your sales potential. Selling can be fun if you know what to say, when to say it and how to say it.

Please do whatever it takes to join me next episode because our topic is The Millionaire With Cold Feet. You’re going to love it. It’s a great story. I encourage you to invite a friend, bring a study buddy, your spouse, your ex-spouse, your kids. I don’t care but bring someone you can study with. I can’t wait for you to connect with me then it will be super fun. I want you to join us with your study buddy. I hope our paths cross again.

Important Links:

• Harv Eker
• MarketingOnline.com/gbo
• MarketingOnline.com/intake
• MarketingOnline.com/zlm
• previous episode
• AllSellingAside.com/itunes
• MarketingOnlineMentor.com