All Selling Aside With Alex Mandossian

One of my clients, Dr. Tim Zelko, was once an OB-Gyn and is now a cosmetic surgeon. He’s on a mission to help his clients in a completely different way than he once did. Now, while we’ve been working together, we noticed a trend with his conversion rates after the initial consultation. What was that trend? If he was the one having the conversation with the patient, then he could convert from a botox client to something more. If one of his staff had the conversation, conversions dropped.  The issue was that there was no determinant client avatar. His staff had no idea “who” they were speaking to and how to break through the roadblocks to a sale. I sat down with his office manager and we came together to develop a client avatar using the six key elements of avatar creation, and guess what, their sales have gone up significantly. Many people fail to create client avatars out of the fear of limiting their audience. Instead, think of creating your client avatar as an exercise in targeted marketing. If you market t

Leveraging the power of unquestionable proof is one of the key pieces to generating amazing sales. This was best represented through the story of Elisha Otis, the most influential elevator innovator in the world.  You see, the initial elevator was extremely unsafe. If a cable failed, everyone in the elevator car was plummet to their death… and cables failed often. People were so used to the problems of elevators that builders didn’t build overly tall buildings and in general, nobody used elevators. Elisha Otis found a way to create a braking system that stopped a plummeting elevator, even if there was no cable to support the car. He shouted to the world about his invention, but nobody took notice. Why? Because it was so ingrained in them not to believe that elevators could be safe. This all changed when Otis took his innovation to the Crystal Palace Exhibition. Otis practiced the most important part of the 4-part persuasion equation. Listen in as I share: What the 4-part persuasion equation is and who create

I am a morning glory. I love to wake up early and set the tone of my day by owning my morning. How about you? Do you have a morning ritual? Here’s the thing, morning rituals are imperative if you’re looking to achieve great success. Listen in to learn why. My morning is the exact same almost every day. I wake up, do my daily meditation, brush my teeth, wash my face, drink 160z of sparkling water with MCT oil and lime, and then I start writing copy. After I write copy for 30 minutes I do my morning workout, get a good jog in, and then walk my dog.  I do the same thing every morning so that I can set the tone of my day. When you wake up and start checking emails or messages you allow other people to dictate the tone and direction of your day. This is not a formula for creating an insanely successful career.  By practicing a daily ritual that feeds into the Manifestation Formula, you set the tone for your life. The three key insights for this episode, if you apply them, can be life-changing. Listen in as I share

The manifestation formula allowed Valerie, a massage therapist, to surpass her goal of making over one million dollars per year. As a massage therapist, it was hard for her to consider changing her business model. With a few tweaks and a change in mindset, she more than exceeded her goals. How? First, you have to know the three steps to the formula. You have to define your intention, or the what, and your purpose, the why. Once you have those things set, you need to change your strategy, the how.  Valerie had to shift her mindset from being a one to one service provider and think bigger. She had years of training and multiple massage disciplines under her belt. Why not teach others to do what she did?  The three key insights for this episode, if you apply them, can be life-changing. Listen in as I share: What the manifestation formula is in three simple, actionable steps. Why the manifestation formula works for beginners and veterans. How to apply the manifestation formula in your business every day. How co

Even the most well-planned out marketing campaigns fail if the message or audience is off. If you have the right message but the wrong audience, or the right audience and wrong message, then your marketing will fall flat. Learn how pre-framing your offer eliminates this issue.   When you pre-frame your offer, you’re letting your potential customers or clients pre-qualify themselves. There are several ways to do this, but when you use Dr. Robert Cialdini’s 7-tactics, you can turn a cold audience into a hot audience, even if they wouldn’t benefit from your offer.    By establishing trust upfront and letting your potential clients and customers know exactly what you’re offering or what your message is about, you create a loyal following. For instance, if your offer of premium beef lands on the lap of a premium vegan-only eater, but you’ve told them to “stop-reading” if they don’t like premium beef, you’ve created a sense of trust   Pre-framing your message is one of the most effective ways to reach your ideal cl

For many years I have implemented a morning routine to build my skills as a copywriter. Every single morning, I sit down for 33 minutes and 33 seconds, I have this set on a timer, and write out ads written by the great copywriters. I spend time studying the process and the words so that I can master copywriting.   Copywriting is one of the most learnable skills in business, but so many people don’t want to do it. On March 9th, 2003, my birthday, I was reading the Gary Halbert Letter. The letter starts off with some person asking Gary if they could become a great copywriter in 30 days. Gary says “yes,” and then goes on to explain how.   The moral of the story is that to become great at any skill, you have to immerse yourself in the skill. Whether you’re writing out great ads, immersing yourself in a new language, experiential immersion is the key to fluency.    Keep in mind that you don’t need to master a skill to use that skill. You simply need to be fluent in it. Listen in as I share these three key insights

It’s Saturday morning in November of 2017 and I’m in Scottsdale, AZ finally making the decision to join the Genius Network mastermind. You see, Joe Polish, the creator of the group, had been asking me to join since 2006 when he first established it. At the time I didn’t see the value in paying money to network with people I already knew. That all changed in 2017 and I share why. I was sitting at the Genius Network Big event and there was a panel of people hammering at my objections for joining the mastermind. This panel was made up of several mastermind members and they were sharing their stories on how the mastermind helped their businesses.  Now, none of the panelists were closers like me. After I joined the mastermind, I was put in charge of the breakfast panel close, but I altered it to make it more effective. Listen in as I share these three key insights about breakfast panel closes:  What the breakfast panel close is and when it is best utilized. Why the breakfast panel close enrolls mastermind members

A hermit was sitting near a stream when a young man approaches him. The young man asks the hermit to help him find enlightenment. What happens next is somewhat scary. The hermit, who was actually a master, grabbed the young man and forced his head underwater.  The young man struggled for a moment and then the hermit pulled him. Listen in as Alex shares the meaning behind the story and why you rarely want anything as much as you want air. However, when you go all-in on something, you’re essentially working toward something you want that is close in priority to the need for air.  The All-In Principle works because it helps leaders understand the importance of striving toward one goal and leading from behind. I share the story of “The Wall” from the book The All-In Principle to illustrate the difference between leading in front versus behind. Learn what makes a great leader out of a good one.  The All-In Principle is an important concept to master no matter what field or position you are in. While you can’t go

W. Clement Stone started life on the south side of Chicago, losing his father at the age of three, and hawking newspapers while his mother worked as a dressmaker. His was not an easy path. Early on he found innovative ways to hawk his newspapers. Rather than standing on street corners, he convinced local restaurants to let him sell to their patrons. Soon enough he had his on newsstand and when he was 16 he moved to Detroit to sell casualty insurance for his mother. While Stone was charismatic with charm for days, he knew that not all of his employees had his skills. So he began teaching them how to close without selling through using case studies.  He was a firm believer in helping others out of the gutter to reach their success as well. The most notable example is Og Mandino, but he was also responsible for Jack Canfield finding his place in the business world.  Stone learned at an early age that human beings do not like being sold to. We love to buy, but we do not love to be sold. Instead of selling, he sta

Have you ever been to a jewelry store and a salesperson approaches you with a stunning piece and one line about how it will make others see you? Usually, that one sentence makes you stop and think, oh yes, that’s exactly why I want this piece. If you have, then that salesperson used a tested selling sentence on you and you didn’t even know it.    What is a tested selling sentence? The concept was created by Elmer Wheeler, Mr. Sizzle. He was one of the greatest salespeople the world has ever seen and he did it by creating sentences with words specifically chosen to make buying easier. He created over 105,000 sentences in his time and tested them all to the point that only about 5,000 passed.     Listen in as Alex shares some of the sentences he created and how they were specifically designed to help the buyer take action. If you’d like to learn more about Wheeler’s sentences, check out his book Tested Sentences That Sell. He spent over a decade refining his technique and then put his research together to teach

I learned one of my most valuable business lessons at a time when I was at my lowest both personally and in my business. I was reminded of this lesson this past November while listening to Perry Belcher’s talk at the Genius Network BIG EVENT. He stated that 70% of your success in business is due to your team. Not your marketing, your operations, your production, or your cash flow, but the team that you surround yourself with. After listening to Perry’s talk, I was reminded of a time when I was going through a divorce, spiraling downhill emotionally, and then realized that my team members were stealing from me. You see at that time, I had a roster poisoned by “B” players, and had I known Perry prior to this, my roster would have been filled with only “A” players.  Perry’s talk summarized the 5 key questions you should ask your team members to recalibrate and make sure you’re on track. The boat only moves forward if all of the rowers are in tune, so you have to have a way to measure your synchronicity. The thre

We all have our places in the world. The places we go to do various activities such as live, work, and play. Ray Oldenburg, a sociologist who wrote about the 3rd place in the late 80s, revealed that we all have our 1st place, home and a 2nd place, work, but we need a 3rd place for our souls.    For many, the 3rd place is church or a rec center or another social area, but you can create this for your clients and customers. When creating the business model for Starbucks, Howard Schultz took great pains to make the coffee shop a 3rd place for millions. He was familiar with Oldenburg’s work and sought to create a place where people could relax, unwind, and meet for social gatherings.    When you’ve developed a course or consultancy, many ask, what next? What do they do once they’ve gone through the course or finished their round of consultations? How do they keep working with you and staying in your space? Creating a 3rd place is the best way to maintain a relationship and build a community.   The three key insig

Have you ever heard of the Domino Effect? Gary Keller and Jay Papasan discuss this effect in their book The ONE Thing. Linked to the Domino Effect is the 1st Domino Principle. On November 13th, 2009, in the Netherlands, 4,491,863 dominos were lined up and toppled down with just one flick of the finger. This made the Guinness Book of World Records for the greatest sequential domino fall in history. The first domino toppling into the next resulted in 94,000 joules of energy being expended over the course of the line, which equals 545 pushups by the average human. The effect that first domino had on the whole line of dominos was truly astounding. Over 25 years prior to this event, Lorne Whitehead wrote a piece in the American Journal of Physics that he’d discovered that a domino can topple dominos 50% larger than themselves.  Using Whitehead’s research, if the 1st domino is 1” in height, the 10th domino would be the size of a 6’ tall man. The 18th would be the height of the Leaning Tower of Pisa. The 23rd would

Many years ago, in northern Asia, a samurai approaches a monk to discern the difference between good and evil. The monk replies by stating that he will have nothing to do with the samurai, which enrages him. The monk’s response to the samurai’s behavior is enlightening.   The anger shown by the samurai is considered an evil. The samurai went so far as to pull out his sword and threaten the monk’s life. His anger was the epitome of evil in that moment. When the monk pacified the samurai with another response, the samurai apologized and revealed the core of good within.   Experience is not the best teacher, it is the ONLY teacher. Which is exactly what the samurai learned from the monk. The three key insights you’ll learn by considering the monk and the samurai are:    Why experiential selling is emotional, not logical, and how to demonstrate it Why the only way to sell the unfamiliar is to sell the familiar first Why stories and metaphors obliterate most common objections   Seeding through storytelling is th

Roy H. Williams, the Wizard of Ads, wrote a fantastic piece in his April 10, 2010 Monday Morning Memo. Listen in to learn how relevance and credibility come together to realize the creation of dynamite ads.  What is it that most ad copywriters lack? The ability to marry relevance and credibility to inspire the reader to make a purchase. Many times ad copywriters stray too far toward relevance and forget to strengthen their words with credibility. This same conundrum plays out in many social areas of our world today.  Relevance is emotion and credibility is truth. Truth without emotion, and vice versa, lead a reader to question why they’re considering their purchase. However, when you combine truth and relevance, the result is a no-brainer offer the reader cannot refuse.  The three key insights you’ll learn by considering the Wizard’s memo are:  What the 3 Inner Voice Questions prospects silently ask before buying. Why answering those 3 Inner Voice Questions can obliterate objections. How to structure your ne

We’re traveling back to the 1930s in New York City. At the time, the country is gripped by the Great Depression and many people lost everything they had ever had. One day, on a bench in central park, a printer was considering taking his own life. This printer was in dire straights because he was losing everything of importance to him. He was unhappy and had lost all hope so his wife was leaving him, his kids were angry with him, his business was floundering and his employees were halfway out the door. His vendors refused to continue doing business with him. He was truly at the end of his rope. So there he sits, on a park bench in Central Park, and an elderly gentleman sitting next to him remarks on how down he looks. The printer then tells the stranger the story of losing everything and the stranger does something unimaginable. He pulls out his checkbook and writes out a check for $1M. Learn how this check completely changes the path the printer was on and how he manages to change his circumstances completely

Imagine this, you’re flying over the largest desert on Earth, the Sahara, in a single prop plane, with just you and a pilot on your way to Marrakesh. Everything is going fine but then you hear the telltale sign of engine failure... putt… putt…. putt… Your pilot is a highly experienced individual and manages to land the plane in the sand and you both survive. However, you have a problem. You and your pilot have to get to Marrakesh before you run out of water.  In this case, what is the most important question you should be asking yourself? Should you be wondering where Marrakesh is? Or should you instead be more concerned with where you are right now? This parable illustrates the relationship between COI and ROI.  The cost of inaction or COI principle is where you should focus 80% of your time. Figure out your clients’ pain points and then show them how your product or service will save them from the pain of inaction. The three key insights for this episode are:  What is the COI principle and how is it differ

Do you know the story of the Buddha? He grew up in a family marked by wealth. He was a prince among men and knew no hardship. One day he left the palace to walk among the people in the village and he saw all the stages of life. He later met an ascetic who, though he had no true worldly possessions, had the greatest sense of contentment radiating off of him. Buddha began to wonder and ruminate on what it is that allows humans to feel true happiness. Obviously, true happiness was not gained by wealth alone. The ascetic was happy and content and had nothing to call his own. Buddha then developed the eightfold path as a way to navigate the journey to enlightenment.  The eightfold path is all about having the “right” tools at the “right” time. Learn how the eightfold path can help you better develop your sales conversations each and every day through these three key insights. Learn:  What the elements of the eightfold path are by definition. Why the eightfold path is important to ethical influence. How to underta

The late Dr. Stephen Covey wrote several very important books, most notably The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. This, however, is not my favorite of his books. My favorite is his book on how habits affect productivity called First Things First. Dr. Covey created the 4 Covey Quadrants to describe various tasks and actions and how prioritizing them makes a huge difference in your productivity levels. In my mind, there is no such thing as time management. You have no ability to manage time. It goes in one direction and everyone has the exact same number of minutes and hours in the day.  Time management should instead be called “action” management because you can control your actions and how you spend your given time each day. Are you living in a state of crisis in your business every day? Or have you taken the time to plan and prepare?  The three key insights for this episode are:  What the 4 Covey Quadrants are and why they are important. Why living into the Priority Principle can change your life forever

It’s 1972, at Allendale Elementary in Pasadena, California, and an 8-year-old Alex is participating in his Cub Scouts fundraiser. The goal was to sell as many boxes of chocolate chip cookies as possible because the scout with the top sales got to go to Disneyland with a friend. Alex’s friend Billy, a neighbor from down the street, was also in his troop and so they came together to create their first joint venture opportunity. If Billy sold the most boxes of cookies, he’d take Alex to Disneyland and vice versa. Billy proceeded to try door-to-door sales. He approached over 50 houses and only managed to sell five boxes of cookies. It was then that Alex realized the trip to Disneyland was up to him. He took a moment and thought about the best place to find people in the mindset to buy cookies, and realized selling door-to-door wasn’t going to cut it. Instead, he had his mom take him to a grocery store and positioned himself in front of the entrance.  He also crafted several different offers. He’d start by asking