All Selling Aside With Alex Mandossian

Which comes first, the story or the statement? When you’re trying to implement ethical influence into your sales process, the best way to start is with a story. I’m not sure if you’ve noticed but that is exactly how I start each and every one of my episodes.   First, what is the difference between a story and statement? A story is a narrative intended to engage, amuse, or instruct listeners or viewers. Statements are written or spoken expressions intended to persuade listeners or viewers.    In my opinion, stories need to come first because they are designed to engage the heart before bringing in the head. Sales are not made with the head. They are made when you manage to entangle the heart with the head.    Stories also help you to stay top of mind in people’s memories and there are so many that help to put various situations into perspective.   Listen to learn the three key insights:    What ethical influence has to do with stories and statements.  Why ethical influence relies more on stories than statemen

When you’re looking to sell your products or services, it’s not the head of your customer that you’re trying to win. Instead, you’re trying to win their hearts. What’s the best way to do this? By telling a story that has your client or customer demanding to work with you.    Dale Carnegie came from humble means but he was driven to be and do more. He completed high school and went on to college, but in that time he learned all about the art of selling. He’d always been an influential speaker and he realized that it was his ability to speak that helped him become an in demand salesperson.   He went on to create an entire school to help others learn the power of oration and he built out a magic selling formula that hinged on one particular skill. The one skill that all successful business people have.    Listen to learn the three key insights:    What the Dale Carnegie Formula is and where it came from. Why the Dale Carnegie Formula wins hearts like magic. How the Dale Carnegie Formula can be structured in 3 s

Would you say your net worth affects your self-worth? For many, this is a true statement. Not because money is everything, but because when you make more money your mind believes you are worth more. Why does this matter?    Back in 2003 I had just come off of making my first million dollars online. It was during this time that I would take a limo to and from the airport when I was leaving on business trips. The limo driver was a friend of mine and I enjoyed my time on the trips, but the trips cost about $6,000 per year.    My bookkeeper at the time, Denise McIntyre let me know that she wasn’t comfortable with those rides so she said if I could monetize them, I could keep them. I created a Limo Consulting hour where I would do coaching calls on my rides to and from the airport.    Guess what. I had a waiting list that went on for weeks. Learn why the cost of those Limo Consultations was actually not equal to my actual worth and why knowing yours is so important. The three key insights we’ll review are:    Wha

Selling through collaboration rather than confrontation is a key skill that most successful salespeople cultivate to their advantage. One of the greatest salesmen in history used this same skill to sell the hope of Christianity to the Greeks. Who was this amazing salesman?    Saul of Tarsus was a tentmaker and a Jew who was staunchly against the movement of Christianity. In fact, he likely was responsible for the deaths of several people. It wasn’t until he was traveling to Damascus that he had a vision that changed his life and thus he became Paul the Apostle. His letters make up the vast majority of the New Testament and represent a great lesson in sales for all to learn. You see Paul started off his sale of hope to the Greeks by first granting them his respect and commenting on their altar to the Unknown Deity.    He then paints a picture of who the Unknown Deity is and why He is the greatest of all. By the end of his speech they were enthralled by the dramatism of his story and the vivid experience he cre

When you create a movement you create a community of members who are highly engaged with you and amongst themselves. Creating a movement is significantly more lucrative than finding a market because of that engagement. I’m sharing everything you need to know about the elements of a movement, why they outperform markets, and how you can monetize them.    I didn’t truly realize the significance of creating a movement until the end of 2008. We were in the middle of the Great Recession and I had just finished selling over 800 spots in my Teleseminar Secrets program. The only issue was that the majority of those sales came from affiliates which have a higher refund rate.    My goal was to hold on to as many of those students as possible, so I created a Facebook page for them to go to and interact with each other. This was pre-Facebook groups so I did what I could to maximize the use of the platform. Engagement was higher than ever amongst my students and I ended up only having to give about 30 refunds. Which is am

Despite being completely down and out after a failed business venture that was financed by my family, my love of learning was the key to my healing. I was depressed and felt like a complete failure, but I knew that I could learn and overcome. The teaching of Nightingale-Conant became my lifeline.   What I realized was that my teaching in school never taught me HOW to learn which is important. I was never taught to read the summary first and actually read the table of comments so that I could solidify concepts before digging into the actual learning.   The way that I have found has worked best for me is accelerated learning. Listen in as I share what this method is and how you can implement it today to start learning every day. Your three key insights are:    What accelerated learning is by definition… and who it’s ideal for. Why accelerated learning is the fastest, easiest way to change your life.  How accelerated learning is activated quickly and easily - step-by-step.    If you’re not learning you’re not

In 2006 I ran the first of many Teleseminar Secrets Challenges. Those challenges changed the lives of thousands of people but more importantly we created a movement of people making money through making connections. The old 3M sequence was market, message, and media but that model no longer works. You’re not looking to identify or create a market any longer. No, in this day and age you have to create a movement. You have to engage and connect people so that they feel as if they are part of a community working toward a goal.   Which is why the new 3M sequence looks something like this: Movement, monetization, and media. Without creating or inspiring movement, you are setting your business up to fail.    Listen in to review these three key insights:    What the old 3M sequence is and how the new 3M makes it obsolete. Why creating your movement makes it the most important of the 3Ms. How to launch your own marketing movement, step-by-step.    So if you were to create your own movement, how would it be structur

It’s the year 2012 and I’m in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia after a 5-Day Guerilla Business Intensive event. During this event, like so many others, I noticed the difference between people who took action and changed their lives and those who stayed safe. What I was contemplating however was what the distinction was between them.    Did one person simply believe that they could and the other that they could not? Was one hardwired to be successful and the other not? I didn’t believe that, but what I did discover was that we all have both the “I can” and the “I can’t” mindset within us. The difference between the person who was successful and the other who was not was that the successful person listened to their “I can” mindset.   Which means that the “I can” and “I can’t” mindset does not define two people instead each person has both mindsets within them. That is when I realized that we are responsible for changing our mindset.   The three key insights for this episode are:    What the differences and distinctions

  The term mentor is grossly misused in this day and age and I’m here to tell you why. Now, as I have grown in entrepreneurship and business, I have had many people that I consider mentors come into my life. It wasn’t until I heard Roy H. Williams’ definition however, that I realized the number was smaller than I thought.    You see a mentor is a person who is invested in your life and your work, in depth, over a period of time. They are not flighty people who are invested episodically. Instead, this is a person that you speak with constantly. This person hears all of your thoughts, ideas, struggles, and more and helps you to move through and past them.    The mentor-mentee relationship is one of the most important you will ever have in your life. Which is why it is so important that you choose a mentor well. Listen in to learn the seven steps to identifying and approaching your future mentor. Your three key insights are:    What the definition of a mentor is and where it originates from. Why the principle o

For many people in the world, not just entrepreneurs, but human beings in general, there is a constant need to be more productive… but what does that mean? Better yet, why do we work so hard to be productive, but not necessarily effective?    Peter Drucker defined efficiency as doing things right but effectiveness as doing the right things. Dan Sullivan defines productivity as doing as many things as possible in as little time as possible but priority as doing the right things at the right time.    Both of these definitions are the baseline of the 5 P’s. You see when you’re working through productivity, efficiency, and effectiveness, many times you’re in a mode of switch-tasking. Instead, to get the most out of your time, you should monotask. You should work through each P, one at a time, until the assembly line is done and then switch to the next line. Listen in to learn what the 5-Ps are, the order in which you should do them, and why you should use them to become more effective in your personal and profes

The rise and fall of nations, racism, and even genocide can be explained by a misdiagnosis of progress. This is also called the progress fallacy and it is one of the riskiest assumptions that you can make in life and business.    Rather than thinking of progress as a noun, think of it as a verb. You are progressing along your path in entrepreneurship which means that for every failure you are doubling your success rate because you now know what NOT to do.    Here is the thing, in almost any given scenario, event A did not necessarily cause event B to happen. Think about it, you download a new software and sometime later your computer crashes. Was event A the root cause of event B? Not necessarily right?    This same concept can be carried throughout all levels of life and business.   Listen in to learn about the root cause and why finding that root is the most important thing you can do. Your three key insights are:    What the root cause of misdiagnosing your progress really is. Why progress misdiagnosis ca

What does accountability mean to you? For the ancient Romans it was the process of being accounted for so that the senators could vote for important laws. For your business, it means being held accountable to making change.  The accountability partner program power is having your clients be accountable to each other. Here’s the thing, are you more likely to keep a promise to yourself or to others? If you’re like most humans, you’re going to keep your promises to others more frequently.  So when you incorporate the APP into your programs you’re putting the role of accountability partner onto peers in the program. Then you build in consequences to not attending those meetings. Nobody wants to be kicked out of a program right?  Listen in to learn more about how you can start implementing in your programs. Your three key insights are:  What APP Power means and the evolution of accountability. Why any APP is critical to espousing engagement for any tribe.  How the APP works via step-by-step basis and the 5 key qu

Einstein was one of the most brilliant scientists of his day. His work on the Theory of Relativity changed the path of atomic research and opened up an entirely new way to view space and time. But did he get it right? The Theory of Relativity is based on a fairly simple contact, but is it really a theory or is it a relationship. Essentially our experience is relative to the world around us. A car moving a 65 MPH is only doing so relative to the car next to it or the pedestrian on the sidewalk.  Time moves only as fast as our perception. Think about it. When you’re bored out of your skull, time moves like molasses. If you’re having a great time, it seems that time moves faster than the speed of light.  How does this apply to sales? Your relationships and metrics are only capped by who you seek to compare yourself to. If that’s the case, should you even indulge in comparison Listen in to learn:  What Einstein’s Relativity Theory has to do with influence.  Why Einstein’s Relativity Theory was in error: “Light

Have you ever watched Olympic archery? Picture the target and the rings as they get smaller and smaller toward the bullseye. The best archers know that aiming for the bullseye is the goal, but as long as they consistently hit the target they will win.  The same applies in marketing. Your bullseye client is the ideal of the ideal. They are the client that your messaging should always be speaking to when you shoot the arrow of marketing. However, if you miss and you hit one of the rings, you’re actually expanding your reach.  Why? Because as long as you’ve landed on the target, your message has been heard.  Ready to learn more? Listen in to learn:  What your “bullseye client” is compared to “target market.” Why “bullseye client” marketing expands your reach and visibility. How to attract more “bullseye clients” with your messaging.    In This Episode:  [02:24] - Learn how to sell by obliterating objections.  [04:27] - Alex shares the three key insights you’ll learn in this episode. [06:15] - How Olympic level

Last week I shared with you the sequence for selling to each buyer persona. This week I want to dive a little deeper and explain the persona selling formula. The sequence of selling still remains vital, but the personas themselves need to be further defined.   The four personas derive from Hippocrates and his four humours. They are competitive, spontaneous, humanistic, and methodical. These same four personas speak to what makes a hit TV show, a best-selling book, or an Oscar-worthy movie. We each identify best with one of the four personas and as such want to see ourselves in the things we read and watch. If we don’t, then we’re less engaged. This is why you need to represent each of the four personas in every piece of copy and every presentation.    Our personas are really just preferences, but they heavily impact our buying decisions. So listen in to learn:    What the persona selling formula is and where it came from. Why the persona selling formula results in max impact with minimum resistance. How the

In February of 2018, I was on stage at Guerrilla Business Intensive testing the “persona” theory from the stage. I was testing out the theory of sequencing to see how it would impact my sales. Before we get too deep into this, just know that I saw an insane increase in units sold. So what is sequencing? First you need to understand the concept of personas. Most people fall into one of four buyer personas. People either want to know what you’re selling, why it works, who else has it, and how it works. These aren’t learning styles, they are the personas we assume as we process products and services we are considering for purchase. Each persona processes their purchases either from a competitive standpoint, spontaneous, humanistic, or methodical.  This means that during any presentation, you are selling to four different types of people. It’s the order in which you sell them that will be the most impactful to your success.  This order is what I call sequencing. You need to have a system for sales, but when you a

Imagine a fish swimming upstream. There are several fish in the world that do this, the most easily recognized would be salmon. Imagine how hard they work fighting the current to get to their desired location.  This is what happens when you upsell. You’re fighting against gravity working to pull people up your offer ladder. Instead you could be down-selling. Present your highest tiered offer first and then slowly but surely step people down and show them what happens as the price points fall away.  I’ve worked very closely with Jack Canfield, the author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, and during one of our last recessions he needed to re-evaluate his business model. Now Jack is not a natural salesman. He is a teacher. Getting him into the habit of making the offer was difficult, but it was made much easier by down-selling rather than upselling. I’m sharing the step by step process you should use to downsell and why it is so much more effective than upselling. You’ll learn:  What “down-selling” is defined comp

Have you ever had someone start a story by presenting several scenarios and leaving them open ended. For instance, have you ever told your kids to grab their shoes and coat and get in the car… you have a surprise for them. What was their reaction?    If they started breathlessly asking you about the surprise and you had their complete and utter attention, then you successfully opened a loop. Once you get the kids in the car, you’ll either drag out the surprise or you’ll close the loop and give up the ghost.  This same principle applies in sales. When you’re speaking with someone about your product or service, you open loops to keep them hanging onto your every word. As you go through your spiel, you start closing loops, one by one. By the time you get to the end, your prospect is either ready to buy or they’re ready to say no. This is called the open loop principle. You weave a story opening and closing loops in just such a way to keep your potential client intrigued and excited about what you’re offering th

The concept of H2H or human to human selling was introduced to me at the Traffic and Conversion Summit in 2017. Ryan Deiss, a former mentee turned mentor, was speaking on the power of understanding the humanity of business.  When you’re selling anything, you’re selling an emotion. When something goes wrong, it’s due to a human failing. When a sale goes right, it’s because of a human connection. So many times we get caught up in whether a company is primarily B2B, B2C, etc… and we forget that all sales are human to human interactions. Would you rather purchase a high-end product or service from a machine or from a human who has been in your shoes and understands the solution?  Never forget that caring is the competitive advantage of the 21st century. In an ever more disconnected world, showing your followers, customers, and clients that you care is imperative. Listen in as I share: Why your business model is not about B2B, B2C, B2G… it’s H2H. Why living into H2H business modality accelerates your profits.  Wh

Most people, including me, think that increasing business is a complex, giant burden of thousands of possible tactics that one can try. Thankfully, Jay Abraham has taught me how to take the complex and make it simple.  There are three keys to growing your business, and as long as they are used in the right sequence, growth is inevitable. Now the three keys are increasing new client transactions, increasing transaction price, and increasing transaction frequency. But these keys are out of order. Of the three keys, which do you think is the most expensive tactic? Generating new leads and nurturing new clients of course. This is why, when you are looking to grow, you should first focus on increasing your prices, then your sales frequency, and lastly focus on new clients.  A flawed execution with a brilliant strategy will always win the day. Listen in as I share: What the 3 keys are to unlocking the doors to accelerated biz growth Why sequencing which keys to use 1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc leads to failure or success Ho