This week Bruce is joined by Ben Gay III. He is a living legend in the sales and sales training world. He has over 46 years in professional sales experience. He has been the number 1 salesman for every organization he has ever worked with. At age 27 he was the president of what was the world’s largest direct sales company. He was personally trained by other sales legends such as Earl Nightengale, J. Douglas Edwards, Dr. Napoleon Hill and others. Ben now publishes “The Closers” series of books, audios, videos, newsletters and teleconference trainings. Bruce considers Ben’s work to be the best sales information he has ever seen. Ben and his wife GG live in Northern California.
During the last show, Bruce and Ben were talking about the concept of “Do you own one?” This question is used to determine whether or not a sales person truly finds their sales product useful. Ben’s father had a rule requiring Ben to own a property before Ben tried to sell property.
A vacuum cleaner salesman once approached Ben about buying a new vacuum cleaner. When Ben asked the salesman if he owned one, the salesman said, “Oh yes, my wife swears by it.” Ben then said, “Well let’s go down to your house and see it.” On their way to the car the salesman confessed that he did not own one. Ben told him, “Well you better own one, because it adds a lot to your believability. If you do not believe in your product, then quit and move on.”
Some of the best people in the wholesale real estate business are people who buy wholesales and flip for a small margin of profit. Those people completely understand the concept of wholesales, because they are willing to sell or own a house over and over again. These people understand the concept of owning what they sale. They see the value in their products, and it is hard to make a sale when you do not have faith in your sales product. Ben has many friends who dropped out of the sales business, because they were selling scams and they did not feel good about themselves.
Ben found The Closers book in a poorly written ad. The book showed up weeks after he paid for it, and it was in terrible condition. He almost threw it in the trash, but he decided to put it in his briefcase. Months later, he was on an airplane and decided to read it. After reading the book, he felt its information had value. He got off the plane, went to a payphone, and called the publishing company. When he told them that he had bought their book and was interested in further developing its content, they instantly knew who he was, because they had only sold 1 copy of it to a man who lived in Placerville, CA. Ben eventually bought the rights to the book, re-edited it, and turned it into a best seller
The Closers Part 1 gives you the psychology of sales, and it tells you how different potential buyers react in specific situations. It also tells you how to counter-respond to skeptical potential buyers.
Ben knows a sales person who does not consider a sales presentation to be over until the sale has been made, or the police have been called. Ben is not like this at all. Ben rarely asks buyers to make an order more than once.
The chapter on sales infiltration in The Closers Part 2 discusses how polite natured people can succeed in selling with a clear conscience. The answer to this issue is simple for Ben. You need to sell a quality product that is competitively priced, and spend your time talking to qualified people. You have to know how to talk to different people in different ways. You don’t want to use the word “dude” when talking to an elderly person, but you would want to use that with someone younger. The sales information chapter discusses the strategies of savvy sales people.
Bruce has bought multiple properties from one woman over the course of multiple years. This woman contacted Bruce again to buy her mother’s house. After Bruce estimated the home’s value, he told her the home was worth about $120,000, and that he could pay $96,000 for it. The woman asked Bruce if that price was enough for him to make a profit on. Bruce said, “Yes, but I can pay a little more if you carry back the paper, rather than have me write a check.” This made Bruce realize that they were on the same time. She trusted him, because she had sold properties to him before and he did not cheat her. You want to work with your buyers to solve their problems and make a profit at the same time.
Hal Holbrook has memorized 8 hours of Mark Twain material. He goes on stage and tells the same opening story every time. He then judges the audiences reaction to that opening story, which determines the next 2 hours of what they hear versus the 8 hours of material that he has memorized. Ben does the same thing. He begins by joking about his name, and paying attention to the response of his audience.
When Ben is selling a product, he has multiple scripts memorized for each sale. He can give you a scripted sales speech from The Closers, he can still give you the Holiday Magic 45 minute presentation, and he can take you through the 6 attempt sales script. What you hear from Ben during a sales presentation depends entirely on what he has heard you say. If you do not need to hear about certain details, then Ben skips those details.
Ben’s number is 1-800-248-3555. You can see his website at www.bfg3.com. If you sign up on his website, Ben will give you a free, no obligation, life time subscription to The Closers Update Newsletter.