Kerry Johnson - Sales Magic: Revolutionary New Techniques That Will Double Your Sales in 21 Days

Sales Magic

Also by Kerry Johnson

New Mindset, New Results

Why Smart People Make Dumb Mistakes With Their Money

Willpower

Mastering Self-Confidence with NLP

Phone Sales

Trust-Based Selling

How to Read Your Clients Mind

Peak Performance

Sales Magic

Revolutionary New Techniques That Will Double Your Sales in 21 Days

Kerry Johnson, MBA, Ph.D.

Published 2020 by Gildan Media LLC

aka G&D Media

www.GandDmedia.com

SALES MAGIC. Copyright 2020 by Kerry Johnson. All rights reserved.

No part of this book may be used, reproduced or transmitted in any manner whatsoever, by any means (electronic, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. No liability is assumed with respect to the use of the information contained within. Although every precaution has been taken, the author and publisher assume no liability for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein.

FIRST EDITION 2020

Front Cover design by David Rheinhardt of Pyrographx

Interior design by Meghan Day Healey of Story Horse, LLC

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request

ISBN: 978-1-7225-0176-1

eISBN: 978-1-7225-2273-5

10987654321

To my wife Merita

A constant source of support and love

Contents

Introduction

The Magic of Trust

J ohn Milam, an insurance and financial services salesman from Knoxville, Tennessee, was waiting patiently in the reception area of a manufacturing company. He had an appointment with the company owner, to whom he hoped to sell a million dollars worth of life insurance and make a fifty-thousand dollar commission. But his client was thirty minutes late. All John could do was wait.

Finally, Johns prospective client appeared, hurriedly making his way to his own office. Seeing John in the reception area, the client walked over to him. His arms were crossedhe was obviously not in the mood to buy. Uh, John, I I cant see you this morning. I Im too busy, he told him, trying to brush him off.

John stood up, crossing his own arms. Would you like to reschedule this? he asked his client. The client seemed to soften. How long will this take if I see you right now? he asked. John smiled. Ten minutesunless you ask me any questions.

Well, if thats all itll take. Ill talk to you right now, rather than postpone this, the company owner told him, indicating by the look on his face that John shouldnt expect anything more from him. Ten minutes later, however, John emerged from the clients office, having closed the sale.

What was Johns secret? What did he say or do in those short but profitable minutes to convince his client to buy his product? What was it about the way John reacted to his client that got him ten minutes of the mans time in the first place?

As you read this book, you will discover that Johns secret is both simple and profound. In the late 1970s, after two years of playing professional tennisand realizing I wasnt about to win WimbledonI decided to pursue my two interests, sales and human behavior, working as a stockbroker and studying for a Ph.D. in psychology. My studies led me to an exciting new area of research being done at the University of California at Santa Cruz. Called Neuro-Linguistic Programming (NLP), this field of psychology examines the different ways people think and communicate with one another. It also isolates ways to model excellence.

The founders of NLP, Richard Bandler and John Grinder, studied the working methods of therapists who were very successful with their clients. Though all the therapists worked differently, there was one thing they had in common: They were very good at gaining their clients trust. If trust is present in the relationship between client and therapist, the work of therapy succeeds. Trust motivates. Trust helps a client work through problems more completely.

Until recently, no one seemed to know exactly why trust developed in some therapeutic relationships and not in others. Bandler and Grinder gave us a very interesting answer to that question: We all have different ideas of realityways in which we perceive the worldand we can only really trust people who look at the world the way we do. If we feel understood, we give people our trust and open up to them more easily.

The more I studied the research, the more I began to wonder whether it could be applied to the sales situation as well. After all, what is sales but making money through communication? Were the million-dollar sales producersthose lucky few men and women who made over a million dollars in commissions every yearable to communicate trust to their clients in some magical, unconscious way? If the average salesperson studied their methods, could he or she do everything the super-sellers could do?

In 1980, I formed my own company, International Productivity Systems, and began studying these super-sellers in earnest. What they did really seemed magic: getting their clients to buy without appearing to try very hard. But when I asked them how they did it, they had no idea, shrugging their shoulders and saying it was the result of twenty or thirty years of sales experience. Then I began to apply the dynamics uncovered by NLP as I watched how they dealt with their clients. The magic became commonplace, and I could see clearly what was happening and why. It is this magic I want to share with you in my book.

If you master the techniques described on the following pages, I guarantee you will gain three things:

1. You are going to discover more about your prospective clients in live minutes than you previously could in two weeks.

2. You will learn to predict how your clients will buy.

3. You will learn how to let your clients sell to themselves.

Sales Magic presents an entirely new system of selling, based on trust. The first section will teach you to become a detective of human behavior. You will learn that people have different modes of thinking and how those modes affect their decisions to buy. You will learn what your clients really mean when they talk with you, and how you can use this information to communicate with them more effectively. And you will learn how to gain their trust by presenting your product in those modes.

In the second section, you will learn specific selling techniques that you can apply in all situations. You will learn how to reinforce the trust you have gained and communicate with your clients on deeper, ever more subtle, levels. Using both verbal and physical techniques, you will learn how to pace your sales meetings. And using your knowledge of buying behavior, you will be able to guide your clients to make decisions they otherwise might be afraid to make.

I now make my living writing books on sales and management psychology and giving seminars and presentations to companies all over the world. Since that first year as a stockbroker when I received 149 rejections out of every 150 calls, I have increased my earnings significantly by mastering the techniques based on NLP principles.