Death of a Salesman

“Billy Mays here, for Oxy-Clean.” Wow, we won’t hear those words again, unless his near clone of a son, Billy Mays Jr. does it. At the moment, unlikely.

Those of you in our Coaching Group have heard me laud Mays’ show, “Pitchmen”, regularly due to the background of how products were positioned, priced, and pitched. A fascinating introspection into the world of influence on a mass level, quite applicable on the individual level.

I’ve also encouraged you to pay attention to most any oft-repeated infomercial since it was a) Successful and b) Worthy of study for the ‘sales triggers’ and sequence of pitch to apply to your own business.

Billy Mays had a sixth sense about such things. Getting to ‘know’ him through the show allowed us to see past the tightly groomed beard and over-zealous voice affectations rising and falling under the blue starched shirt.

To him, and to those who do any craft well, their zeal is real, thus credible. We knew without any pretense, that he was there to ‘sell’ us something, something new, amazing, wonderful, and probably something we could live without.

Do I really need to Mighty-Putty a hose reel to the wall in 4 minutes flat? Didn’t matter, nor that this product (plain old two-part epoxy) wasn’t ‘new’ at all. When Billy Mays pitched it, “For the incredibly low price of just nineteen ninety-five… here’s how to order”, over 10 million orders poured in.

That’s $199,500,000 from a 1 minute commercial folks. Not too shabby for a product that had sleepily laid in bins at auto parts stores, hardware stores, general merchandise stores, grocery stores, and drug stores for nearly 20 years. And therein lies at least 1 part of the sales epoxy: the ability to ‘see’ the opportunity others miss.

These sales masters clearly don’t “need” a new product, only a new way to package or angle the product, re-aim it to a different audience, remove the mystery of its use, while maintaining the mystery of its miracle (very important). And the second part was the Mays’ epoxy – we’ll call it the hardener – is the beauty of the pitch.

There are 5 parts to a well-crafted pitch, as old as PT Barnum, as cutting-edge effective as the iPod, and as copyable as a slow dance. Here they are –

“The 5 Step Pitch of SuperStar Salespeople”

Anyone who says, “A pitch is a pitch,” may as well be talking about baseball, because neither is true. There is art, craft, timing, skill, indelibly linked to a single emotion of persuasion. If you’ll watch the infomercials closely, you’ll see they all start at the same place, which is precisely where you should start…

1. The problem. Be it weight loss, wrinkles, an overcrowded purse, no time to go to the gym, acne, flabby abs, halving meal time preparations, or by golly needing that darn hose reel to stay stuck on a brick wall, the “problem” is framed harshly.

No one cares about solving a minor problem, so the “old” method of trimming the dog’s toenails (which seemed fine only moments ago) will now cripple him and get you turned into the SPCA. Those “old” pants you used to fit in would be great if you didn’t have a rear end the size of Missouri. And that wrinkle on your forehead that TO YOU seemed small is actually making strangers on the street call hospice for you or have you carbon dated.

There’s no time in direct response for minimizing the issue, and actually there is no point. You either agree or you don’t, and are welcome to change the channel, unless of course…

2. The Proof convinces you. Whatever you “thought” or “suspected” is now confirmed. A dude in a lab coat with an unpronounceable last name tells you so. The Swedish Sleep Institute has confirmed it, NASA took that crap into outerspace, the 4 half-drunk neighbors think YOUR Magic Bullet Margaritas are the best, and Tony Horton – whose biceps actually won the Kentucky Derby – swears you’ll be able to bench press a building by Friday if you’ll just watch the DVD.

Billy Mays showed Magic Putty pull a Naval Carrier; Oxy Clean turned a vat of red dye clear; he erased stains, greened lawns, and uprooted weeds right before our eyes. What other proof does a person need?

Aside from my playfulness here (done to dramatize their universal existence) the preponderance of proof is what takes you from mental query to mental acceptance. This is the exact step they want you to be at, and as your mind enters this “what if” stage, out comes…

3. The Probe. These are deeper questions that ask your subconscious for a “yes”. Once asked for and gotten, you’re just millimeters from whipping out your Visa, but not yet. You must now ask yourself, “Could it be that I’ve gotten that out-of-shape?” or “Wouldn’t it be fun to scrapbook?” or “Can I get my vitality back?” and “Why do I pay the exterminator when that plug-in thingy will electrocute any bug that even considers coming to my house?” The probe appears to be an impartial judge, merely an internalizing of a fair question. This is the same thing you’d do presenting your prospects with your contracting offer.

“Why put up with that leak any longer? Why not be comfortable in your own home? Shouldn’t you lower your energy bill?” Get your prospects to probe and make their subconscious seek you as a solution. This bring us to…

4. The Presentation. Ta-da, here’s the solution. You asked, and here’s the answer that supports your very own conclusion! “I am sick of my partner wanting a ‘too firm’ mattress, so check it out – a SLEEP NUMBER BED!” Or “Man, I do need exercise, but don’t like the confines of the gym, so that Tryke thing is for me!” And “Yes, I hate hours of back-breaking labor or paying a detailer hundreds of dollars, so the ‘Miracle Wax’ is the answer!”

Each presentation is indeed the rabbit-out-of-the-hat syndrome. Your contracting offer must ‘answer’ or ‘solve’ the initial problem you handed your customer. I don’t care WHO handed it first, your job is to make it stink to the rooftops (at least) and present your solution as the fragrance from on-high.

This step also contains the price and the negating thereof, known as the guarantee. There must be an offsetting acceptance where the gain far outdistances the pain (price) and IF that is just hype, there’s always the fall-back (guarantee).

Your presentation is not separate from the price; price is a merely a trivialized component. The dollar amount is ONE element within a well-crafted presentation, minimized to nothingness. “Sure, you COULD throw all these hopelessly stained clothes away, or eliminate the stains and save hundreds!” Or “A private fitness coach is $200, $300, $400… but you get 28 sessions of P90X, each like a one-on-one private lesson, for just $90.”

The dollar amount is then dropped again in one of several ways. Payments are extended. The amount of product is doubled at the last second. The last payment may be dropped entirely. In any of these, the lingering pain of payment is dropped to a non-issue. But if a molecule of hesitancy remains…

The guarantee saves them. It is the safety net of perceived risk. The bolder the better. “We guarantee you’ll save 25% on this 16SEER system, or we’ll write you a check for the difference.” “We guarantee this water heater will be the last one you ever buy for this house, or we’ll give you a new one, all you pay for is minimal labor.”

Billy Mays’ presentation helped turn Oxy-Clean into a $300,000,000 soap. How? It was safer, faster, worked better, less harm to your clothes, less toxic than the competitive (bleach), worked ‘naturally’ (a great distrust over the unnatural in case you wondered), was cheaper (more loads due to concentration), and who could argue with what they saw?

Once you’re nodding, or salivating, the final frontier is upon us.

5. The Push. Also called the “Call to Action”. In this, a sense of urgency pervades. “Operators are standing by for your call, but you must order in the next 7 minutes to get all the bonuses mentioned.” I don’t need to elaborate here, we all know them, and they do work.

In contracting, you don’t use these enough. Inventories run low, and people HATE to wait, so why not use it? Price increases do happen, but few contractors use that as an incentive to act. Crews get busier in the summer, so a return to normal NON discounted pricing is expected. The Tax Credit rebate ends in 2010, but who knows when they could pull this program? We can schedule you in for Tuesday, but if you wait, it could be another 10 days. All of these are legitimate “pushes” to help make the decision, and to make it faster.

In fact, using the 5-step pitch can radically change your business. Too many contractors focus on “product” which you’ll notice was NOT one of the “P’s” covered. Why? Because no one wants a drill… we just want the hole. Focus on solving the problem, with convincing proof, and a credible presentation filled with price and pain minimizers. Then gently push toward the acceptance.

Billy Mays showed that sincerity coupled with a gift toward the dramatic, we all wanted cleaner clothes, better lawns, sharper knives, and better glue. And we’d buy any of it from someone we trust.

So relaying that homeowners want safer, more efficient, cleaner, and more comfortable homes shouldn’t be too hard. But wait! There’s more! Because since they trust you to help them make good decisions, it should make both of your lives easier.

Questions for you:

What problems do I solve for homeowners?
What 3rd part proof do I share with them to support the solution?
What probing questions do I WANT them to ask themselves?
Is my presentation convincing? What are the steps I take to convince. (If you answered ‘none’, you’re NOT convincing, you’re hoping.)
How to I incentivise action? How do I follow up to help?