Five Books That Will Make You More Sales

For a lot of people, selling feels uncomfortable. The pressure, the rejection, and the fear of sounding pushy can make even the best products hard to sell. But what if the problem isn't you? What if you've simply never been taught the skills that make sales feel natural, genuine, and effective?

• 0:00Speaker 00

  Small business owners, listen up. You started your business, but you can't do it alone. And that means you have to hire people to help. That's where Justworks comes in. Justworks is the payroll, benefits, and global hiring platform to unburden your brain from all the complicated small business stuff. They handle the things you can't afford to get wrong, so you don't have to worry. So you can focus on the parts of running a business that you enjoy, knowing everything else is running smoothly. You don't have to worry when it just works. Ever invest in something that seemed incredible at first, but didn't live up to the hype? For example, I really wanted to love the show Mad Men. I really tried to watch it and love it, but it just didn't do anything for me. As a marketer and business person, the show was a little bit of a disappointment.

• 0:45Speaker 00

  Marketers know that feeling. They optimize for the numbers that look great, like impressions. But then we don't see revenue. LinkedIn has a word for that: bullspend. Instead, you can get the highest ROAS of major ad networks with LinkedIn ads. Cut the bullspend, advertise on LinkedIn. Spend $250 and get a $250 credit. Go to LinkedIn.com/MBAShow. Terms apply. What if five books can help you make more sales without feeling pushy, scripted, or desperate? If you think sales is all about charisma, you're totally wrong. Sales is a multitude of skills working together to help your customers. And I get it, sales is intimidating. You've got to deal with rejection. You've got to handle customer concerns.

• 1:30Speaker 00

  You have to help your customer make a decision. I've read every book on sales and persuasion, and the five books I'm going to share with you today is all you need to be better at sales without being something you're not.

• 1:47Speaker 00

  Welcome back to the $100 MBA Show. I'm your host, Omar Zenhome, where I deliver practical business lessons three times a week, Monday, Wednesday, and Friday, to help you start, grow, and scale your business.

• 2:00Speaker 00

  Hey, if this show has helped you in any way, it would be amazing if you dropped us a quick review on whatever app you're using right now to listen to this podcast. It helps me and my team bring you new episodes every week. And more importantly, more entrepreneurs will be able to discover the podcast, so you can help someone else start their journey. Book number one is How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. This is the OG of business books. It was written in 1936, and it's probably one of the top two, three books that are recommended by entrepreneurs. And it's for good reason, because this book will rewire how you approach relationships. And this is so important in sales, because people don't buy unless they know, like, and trust you.

• 2:42Speaker 00

  Dale Carnegie's core idea in this book is that people want to feel important. And you can make them feel important so that they can start to like and trust you. I know that sounds like manipulation, but it's just human nature. It's better for you to understand that, so that you can be able to be more likable. Think back at when you bought something from somebody, where you were sold on a product or service, or a holiday, or whatever it might be. Oftentimes, you just buy because you feel comfortable. This person's being nice. This person's polite. This person is got a character about them that you really enjoy. You may not be paying attention to it, but the fact of the matter is, is that it's part of the reason why you're buying. You're buying because you enjoy this person's company, or you trust them at some level.

• 3:26Speaker 00

  So if you want other people to have those feelings about you, and you want people to buy more of your products and services, then you need to read this book. Some of the key takeaways I got from this book is people love hearing their name. So if you remember people's name when you meet them, and you repeat their name more than once, it's something happens in their brain where they're like, this person's all right. This person I can trust. This person knows me. Second takeaway is you want to listen more than you talk. And one of the ways to get you to listen, or get you to hear something from somebody and elicit an answer, is to ask questions. People love questions about themselves. So ask interesting questions about the person in front of you, or the person that you're on a webinar with, or the person that you're on a sales call with, or whatever it might be. By the way, if you're wondering, what questions should I ask?

• 4:10Speaker 00

  Don't worry, we've got a book in the list today that is going to tell you exactly what to say. And lastly, the third major point of this book is you want to let other people feel that the idea to buy was theirs. Not manipulation tactics, but you're helping them make a decision. Let me give you a real life example of the strategies of this book in action. Now, my dad didn't read this book, but my dad was one of the best salespeople I ever met. My dad wasn't a salesperson all his life. He was actually an engineer. He was an interior design engineer. And during the recession in the US in the 70s, he lost his job and had a hard time finding a job in his career. And he didn't want to just sit idly at home. So a friend of his said, hey, why don't you come into the car dealership where I work

• 4:53Speaker 00

  and just work part-time, or even full-time as a salesperson until you find a job? My dad took this sales car job, and he was surprised by how much he enjoyed sales and how good he was at it. He was the number one salesperson on the East Coast for about 10 years straight for the brand that he sold for. Now, one of the things my dad did when somebody came into the dealership was that he would ask them honestly, hey, why are you looking for a new car? What's wrong with your current car? Why don't you just keep your car that you have right now? The first thing the customer experienced was, this is refreshingly honest. Why is this person asking me, why don't I just keep my car? The other thing my dad did in this moment was he's asking questions, just like Dale

• 5:35Speaker 00

  Carnegie says, you've got to ask questions so people can talk about themselves and give you information. In that moment, they would share things like, I want a new car because I hate my current car's gas mileage. I hate the trunk size because I got a new dog and I want a hatchback. And I also love music and the radio stinks in my car. But understanding what the customer actually wants, what they value, why they're in the market for a new car, my dad would show them those features that are important to them in the car he was selling. He didn't show them every other feature that didn't matter to them. He didn't show them, you know, how the suspension worked, or the horsepower. They didn't mention those things. He really just focused on the things that they said, like gas mileage, a bigger trunk so that they can fit their dog, and the radio has to sound much better than his current car.

• 6:19Speaker 00

  So those are the things he demoed when he showed a car. Just these two strategies help him make more sales than any other salesman on the showroom floor. Why? Because, again, he's asking questions, he's refreshingly honest, he's lowering the anxiety and the pressure by saying, hey, you know, I don't see a reason why you should buy a car. What's wrong with your current car? And getting the customer to convince themselves that they need a new car. These days, you can get an answer from the internet, an influencer, or AI in seconds. But when it comes to legal matters for your business or your family, a quick answer is not the same as the right answer. With 25 years of experience, LegalZoom knows how to start you off right. When you need a legal hand, visit LegalZoom. Go to LegalZoom.com to get started.

• 7:04Speaker 00

  LegalZoom provides access to independent attorneys and its law firm, LZ Legal Services. LegalZoom is not a law firm and does not provide legal advice. The holidays are the season business owners get pulled in six directions. More calls, more requests, more chances for things to slip through the cracks. Hoping you catch it all isn't a plan. That's why today's episode is brought to you by QUO, spelt Q-U-O. The business phone built so you never miss a call or a customer. Ever have a lead call or text at 10:00 PM? QUO's AI agent handles both 24/7. It answers questions, gets to the details, and can text them a link to book an appointment. By morning, you've got the summary and can jump right in. And nobody should have to ask customers to repeat themselves.

• 7:47Speaker 00

  In QUO, every call, text, and voicemail lives in one thread, so anyone on the team can jump in already knowing the whole story. If you have a business where your customers call or text you, this is a no-brainer. You must have QUO. Money is on the line. Always say hello with QUO. Try QUO for free, plus get 20% off your first six months when you go to QUO.com/MBA. That's Q-U-O.com/MBA.

• 8:16Speaker 00

  Book number two, The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. This book was written in 2007, and I read this book first time in 2014. I picked this up because I was building a software company, Webinar Ninja. And after I made my first 50, 60, 100 sales, I thought to myself, I need to build a system so I can create sales consistently. This book is all about having a framework so you can understand what input you put into your business, which will allow you to get the output you want: more sales. This is actually making you think in systems. Like, if I know that every time I do this input, I get more sales as an output, that means that I need to continue to do those inputs. And the opposite is true.

• 8:59Speaker 00

  If something's not working, I've got to stop doing those inputs. You want to focus on identifying the levers that drive actual results. Then you want to improve steadily by iterating the actions you take in your business. This book allows you to think a little bit more strategically about your sales system. When I say sales system, I'm going to give you an example. Like with Webinar Ninja, our sales system had a lot to do with doing webinars. That's how we sold our product or service. So how did people get on our webinars? Well, we would give away free content. We would give away free guides, free templates, and they would sign up to our newsletter or sign up to our email list. Once they're on our email list, we'd invite them to a live webinar. And on the live webinar, we would demo our product and answer questions.

• 9:42Speaker 00

  From there, we would pitch the software, and people would sign up for a free trial. After 14 days, their credit card was on file, they would pass the trial, and they get charged for the plan that they chose. That was our sales system. Now, there are many different inputs we could make along that journey, so that we can improve sales, whether it's how they joined our email list, we have a higher quality lead, so that maybe our lead magnet, or the thing we gave for free, so that they can sign up to our newsletter, was more attractive to buyers. We also made sure that we changed the way we did our webinars. Maybe we changed the pitch on the webinar. Maybe we changed the offer. Maybe we tried trials that are 14 days, 30 days. All kinds of different levers we can pull, so that we can test to see what actually

• 10:26Speaker 00

  results in more sales in the long run. Another simple example of this, and I'll go back to my dad, where he was selling cars in a dealership. He asked the owner of the dealership, "Hey, can we try something new when it comes to test driving?" And he was like, "Okay, what is this new thing you want to try?" And he said, "I want to be able to give the car on an extended test drive over the weekend. We want to give the car to the customer that potentially wants to buy this car for maybe one day, two days over the weekend, so they bring it back on Monday." The owner of the dealership thought, "Okay, let's give this a try." They would just take a copy of their driver's license. They would sign a waiver that says, "Hey, we'll bring it back on Monday." And the car's insured, so they said, "Okay, let's give it a shot."

• 11:08Speaker 00

  And what they found is when people went on these extended test drives, 95% of the time, they bought the car. It increased the conversion rate tremendously. Why? Because when you drive a car for more than just 10 minutes on a test drive, you drive it for two days on the weekend. You go and do your groceries. You do all that kind of stuff. You start imagining yourself in that car day to day. You start imagining you already own the car. And my dad understood that people have a big fear of loss aversion, meaning that they actually have a stronger feeling of losing something than actually wanting something that they never had. So when they brought the car back on Monday, they're like, "I'll take it. It fits perfectly with my life." So as you can see, that was just one lever my dad was testing in the sales process,

• 11:53Speaker 00

  which is the test drive. And by extending the test drive, it allowed people to say, "Yep, I want to buy," increased the sales conversion, and therefore made more sales. So you need to understand or see your business or your sales system as a series of steps and a series of levers that you could pull so that you can test to see what actually makes a difference, what experiments will work to get you more sales. This book will help design that system for you. Have you ever said to yourself where you had to make a sale or you're making a sales pitch, whether it's on a call or in person or on a webinar, and you said to yourself, "I don't know what to say. What are the actual words I have to say to persuade somebody to buy my product or service?"

• 12:36Speaker 00

  Well, you're in luck because the next book tells you exactly what to say. That's literally the title of the book, "Exactly What to Say," by Phil M. Jones. I actually know Phil personally and met him in person when he launched this book in 2017. And I think it's one of the best books I've ever picked up when it comes to sales. And I'll tell you why. Because a series of phrases can make a big difference in your pitch. A lot of people think that words don't matter. Words make a big difference in the way people perceive you and perceive your products or services. This small, super practical book gives you specific phrases designed to get you an outcome, designed to get people on your side.

• 13:19Speaker 00

  If you're ever wondering how to say the right thing in the right time, this book is going to help you do exactly that. One of the best ways for me to show you how practical and helpful this book is, is to read you a part of the book. This is from chapter 2, "Open-Minded." And Phil argues that many people, most people, will perceive themselves as open-minded. They don't want to be perceived as closed-minded. So you could use that to your advantage. So he says, "You should start your ask for a sale or describing your product or service with this phrase. How open-minded are you?" It's an interesting phrase. For example, "How open-minded are you to losing 10 pounds in eight weeks?" The natural response of most people is, "I'm pretty open-minded," right?

• 14:04Speaker 00

  This gives you the door open for you to start talking about your fitness program in this example. So when I was selling my software, Webinar Ninja, I use this phrase all the time. I used to say, "How open-minded are you to leveraging the power of webinars to make more sales?" The response was like, "Very open-minded." "All right, let me tell you how you can do that." And I'll walk them through the steps and show them how the software would help them get more sales. Another set of magic words I absolutely love is, "I'm not sure if it's for you, but..." This causes people to be very curious. "What's not for me?" "Maybe it is for me." "Don't tell me it's not for me before I hear it." So it allows people to really listen. Like, "I'm not sure it's for you, but I have this new product that's going to help you do XYZ." And the whole time that they're listening to their pitch,

• 14:48Speaker 00

  they're trying to convince themselves that it is for them because they want to be somebody special, somebody that actually is utilizing some of the things that you're offering. And what I love about this book is that it's not overwhelming. There's only 23 magic phrases in this book, but it goes into detail how to use each of these phrases. The reason why I love this is because you don't need to memorize so many. And you could just refer to this book anytime you're about to get on a sales call or have a conversation or do a demo, and pick a few phrases that you want to utilize in your pitch. But this book, out of all the books I'm going to be sharing today, out of the five books, is one of those books that you have to implement. You have to use the actual phrases for it to work. You can't just read them and be like, "Oh, that's pretty clever," and then put it down. No, you actually have to put it into practice

• 15:32Speaker 00

  so that you can see some results. I found that it's actually hard to memorize all these phrases. It's good to just review them before you're about to do a sales call, like I mentioned, so that you can start to get the benefit and see the results for yourselves. It's funny because this book actually works hand in hand with the ultimate sales machine because this is one of the levers that you can pull, how you say the words you're going to say in your pitch. I hope you're enjoying today's episode. If so, I want you to hit subscribe on whatever app you're using. Why? Because we've got an upcoming episode I do not want you to miss. It's all about the five ways to make $5,000 in one week. If you want to make that first sale, if you want to make that first cash in hand where you feel like, "Wow, I'm making money

• 16:16Speaker 00

  with my own business, with my own venture," then you're going to love this episode. Five ways to make $5,000 in just one week. Hit subscribe so you don't miss it. Book number four is "The Go-Giver" by Bob Berg. Bob Berg, fantastic man. I know him personally. I met him a few times at conferences that we both spoke at. And this book teaches you to earn the sale before you make the pitch, to give extreme value to your customers before you ask for the sale. This book shares a fictional story about a struggling salesman that teaches you the easiest sale is often earned before you pitch to your customers by giving more value than they even expect so that you build confidence with them

• 17:00Speaker 00

  that you have their best interests in mind. This book challenges this idea of being an aggressive salesperson and says, "That actually doesn't work." What really does work is really giving people what they need, is actually helping them before you actually give them your product or service so they could see you as a trusted consultant rather than a salesperson. A lot of what this book teaches is going to help you not only improve your sales system, but it's also going to help you improve your product or offering itself, which is going to result in making it easier for you to sell. One of the examples that come to mind is Basecamp. Basecamp is our project management software that we use. Our team gets so much value from this software

• 17:43Speaker 00

  that we use to manage our whole business and projects and all the things that we do. The price is just so ridiculous compared to the value that we get. Like, if Basecamp decided to 10x its price, I would still be a customer, right? Basecamp, please don't do that. But if you did that, I would still be a customer. Can you say the same about your own product or service? If you 10x your price, would your customers still be happy to pay it? That means you are giving extreme value for what you're offering, and people feel like, "Wow, I'm getting so much from this. I feel like I will be a customer for life" because they're being so generous with their offering. You probably experience this in your day-to-day life. You experience this probably if you go to a restaurant that you love.

• 18:27Speaker 00

  I love a restaurant that goes above and beyond because it gives you something to talk about. It gets you talking to other people about your experience. So for example, if you go to a restaurant, they give you like a little dessert for free that you didn't even order. And you're like, "Oh, cool. This is nice." Or they give you a little limoncello at the end, or a nice little treat, or even a free appetizer in the beginning of the meal. It leaves an impression that this business, this institution, is not nickeling and diming you. They're not like stretching every dollar. They're actually going above and beyond, giving you something that you did not expect so that you can feel like, "Hey, this is a great experience." You can do this in your own business so that you're increasing the value and earning trust before you even ask for the sale. This is why when it comes to content marketing,

• 19:11Speaker 00

  I really believe that you should be giving your best information. People will trust you if you give them the honest information right up front in your free content. If you're a coach, or you're a creator, or a consultant of some sort, you sell courses, whatever it might be, people don't really buy information. They buy implementation. They buy accountability. That's what you're charging for, really. But the information, they can get anywhere. So you might as well give your best information to earn trust with your audience. Book number five is $100 million offers by Alex Hormozi. Alex Hormozi has written three books like of this style that looks like a textbook from grade school, but it's actually very impactful. I think this is his best book. And if you go on Amazon, you'll see literally hundreds of thousands of five star reviews

• 19:56Speaker 00

  and you'll see why it's so popular. But this book focuses on how to construct irresistible offers for your prospects. What he calls grand slam offers, where people feel stupid not to take your offer. Like it's a no brainer to buy what you're selling. This book is less about selling technique and more about making it easy for your customer to make a decision where you're addressing all the problems that your customer has in a particular area in your offer. So you make sure that when you're packaging, whether the product itself and the bonuses and the supplemental material, that you're addressing all the needs of the customer. So they have no reason not to buy.

• 20:38Speaker 00

  One of my favorite takeaways of this book is showing you how to increase the value and the likelihood of the outcome the buyer wants. So if the buyer wants a certain outcome, to lose weight, to get healthy, to increase your revenue, to write a piece of music, whatever you teach, whatever you offer, that's the outcome they want. Mow their lawn, whatever it is. How do you increase the value and the likelihood of that outcome being easy? You also want to reduce the time it takes for the outcome to come. So people pay for speed. You also want to reduce the effort. So people are not suffering through the process of getting that outcome. They also want to make sure it's convenient. You also want to make sure that the perceived risk of taking on this offer is lowered. So they're like, they're not going to like feel it's the end of the world if they say

• 21:22Speaker 00

  yes, there's a money back guarantee, some sort of return policy. There's different ingredients you can add to your offer to make it super simple for people to say yes. You may already have some of these ingredients in your offer, but you're not actually saying it in your marketing materials, in your sales materials. For example, a lot of ski holiday resorts that are on the mountain, meaning that there is no commute, like you walk 100 meters and the ski lift is there. They don't really talk about what the alternatives are. What if you were not skiing in and out? What are the headaches of a bus ride? The headaches of lugging your skis and your boots all the way back to your hotel or getting on that bus and you're just tired and you just want to go home and or go back to your

• 22:06Speaker 00

  hotel and you just want to relax or take a shower or whatever it might be. They're not highlighting the pains that they are already solving. So you need to make sure that whatever you're offering, you highlight it in your materials as well. Make sure that you're showing the things that they are getting that are not kind of obvious. Maybe obvious to you because you're the business owner, but as somebody who's shopping around for, in this example, where to stay for a ski holiday, you're going to show them that our place is ski in, ski out. It's one minute to the lift. You don't have to worry about carrying things. You don't have to worry about storing things. No bus, no stinky bus have to get on. They're like, all these things need to be highlighted so people can understand the value that you offer. To wrap up today's episode, here are my final thoughts when it comes to these five books.

• 22:50Speaker 00

  You don't need to read every book under the sun about sales. I find that these five books are going to get you to the promised land of making easy sales. I would say about 95% there. This helps you with the psychology of sales. It helps you with what to say. It helps you with creating your offers. It helps you understanding how to be a likable person. So people want to buy from you. Here are those books one more time so you can add them to your Amazon cart. How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. The Ultimate Sales Machine by Chet Holmes. Here it is, I'm pulling it out. Chet Holmes. Exactly What to Say by Phil M. Jones. The Go Giver by Bob Berg. And $100 million offers by Alex Hormozi. If you liked this episode, go ahead and watch a recent episode we published all about why

• 23:35Speaker 00

  doing the opposite of your competition really works. Just scroll back on whatever app you're using, whether it's Apple Podcasts, Spotify, YouTube, you name it, we're on it. If you found today's episode helpful and you want more practical business lessons to help start, grow and scale your business, subscribe to the podcast. All you gotta do is hit subscribe or follow on your favorite podcast app, the one that you're using right now. By hitting subscribe, you get our next episode automatically. It's absolutely free and it's a way for you to commit to growing your business. I'll check you in the next episode.

• 24:13Speaker 01

  Building a portfolio with Fidelity basket portfolios is kind of like making a sandwich. It's as simple as picking your stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics, and managing it as one big juicy investment.

• 24:30Speaker 01

  Now that's pretty good. Learn more at fidelity.com/baskets. Investing involves risk, including risk of loss. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, member SIPC.