Grant Cardone

————- Sell or Be Sold ————-

Everybody in the world is required to sell – because the whole world depends upon it.    Even support workers lives are improved by the sales that others conduct.     Car dealers sell cars.  Realtors sell homes.   Ministers want you to give $.  Cops want you to stop buying drugs.   Surgeons sell patients on scary surgeries.  POTUS has to sell N. Korea to not nuke things.

• So treat everything as a sales transaction.
• Sales people make the world go around. The life-blood of the economy
• The true meritocracy of our society. Don’t need education or specialized training to earn a great living.
• There is no limit, no cap, not average income. It’s all based on the effort that you make, the commitment to the client/customer, and the willingness to forego instant gratification – at least in the short term.
  • And each customer and each effort makes you better and better regardless of your success on that sale.

Are you an amateur or a professional??   No matter what your profession is, to achieve and get a lot of life, you will need to be a professional salesman at some point.    And the better and more often you do it, the more likely you are to achieve massive success.

You must commit fully!   Your entire attention, energy, focus, and all waking hours should be devoted to sales!

• You must convince yourself in the morning. You must convince yourself at night.  Eliminate any other option.  Commit to learning everything.    Become a freak and a fanatic.  Don’t worry about the judgment of others.
• Hustle while the other relax or party.
• There are NO get rich quick schemes.
• The past doesn’t matter, focus on the future. Past decisions or failures don’t matter.
• This is your life, your commitment, your journey

The most important sale:  Selling yourself to go all in on selling!!   Sell yourself that selling is the key to the kingdom of riches.   Conviction is the key.

• You must be fully convinced on the quality and value of yourself and what you are selling.
• You must be sold that they are the best there is in the market. That you are delivering a quality value at a fair price.  You have the best product in the world, provided by the best company in the world, and sold by the best salesman in the world
• Every transaction must be a win-win for both parties.

The Price Myth:   It’s not the price that matters.   At least most of the time it doesn’t.

• The reason you didn’t get the sales is because you did not take care of the unspoken objection of the client.
• You didn’t buy everything you own because it’s the cheapest. You bought it because you were confident that this product has the most value given the current situation.
• You wouldn’t buy the cheapest house, if it’s in your least favorite neighborhood.
• The thing that is more important than the price itself, if properly diagnosing the needs of the client. It’s about differentiating yourself.

You are in The People Business.   Not the X business.    Of course, learn your product.   Though study people more.  Get to know your customers more.   And there is always money in the market.   Which is why top sales people have an abundance mentality.

The Magic of Agreement:  Always Always Always agree agree agree with the customer!!!!!

• If you want the customer to agree to buy your product, you must agree with HIM first. Give and you shall receive.
• Doesn’t mean they are always right and what they want isn’t always possible. Still agree
  • Agree that it would be great if you could, it’s just not possible. Agree that you wish also wish that it was possible to produce it the way they want.

Establishing Trust:  Do it!   Honestly and genuinely.  You must understand why they might have distrust for the proposal or the process.   Then attack that weakness like crazy.

• The distrust is the #1 reason why they want to add time to the sales process.

Give, Give, Give:  It’s not all about taking the money from the pockets of our clients.   Selling is about giving options and value that you believe will help them.    The more of this that you give, the more you will receive.

• Give more than what is expected of you every time.

Hard Sell: According to studies, on average, you will need to ask for the sale 5x per YES.

• So you need to be persistent and insistent
• But it’s not really a hard sell because you are sooo convinced that your product is the best there is. And they will enjoy all of the value.  And, if they don’t buy from you, it’s a lose-lose because you have what he needs and nobody else does.

Take Massive Action:   People usually underestimate the amount of effort it takes to get there.   Generally wrong by 10x.  See “The 10x Rule below”

• Trying to balance things will lead to mediocrity.
• When you look at the people you admire that have massive success worked like 18 hours a day on their business when making it huge.
• What good is stopping to smell the roses if you aren’t achieving your goals? Can’t pay for kids college or help sick parents?
• Take your estimate of the # of calls, posts, or efforts then multiple by 10. When you factor in preparation and execution.

Work your Power Base:  Your family, friends, people who you went to school with, gym, church.   People who know you.   Hopefully they know that you are a good person who will do them right.

Time:  You always have time.   Saying “I don’t have time” is a lie.   Everyone has 24 hours in a day.  So do you and the people who get a lot more done.   What are you spending your time on?

• TV time is first to go.
• Time is money. Time wasted will never go back.
• Give up leisure time to achieve your goals.

Attitude:   Having a great attitude is as important as a great product.   Clients are more likely to buy from – and seek out- sales people with a great attitude.

• Positive attitude and always agree with them.

The Biggest Sale of His Life:   His wife.  Grant’s raw belief on how great their life would be together, forever, was the key factor in getting the sale.

The Perfect Sales Process:

1. Greet: Politely and humbly.  Thank for time.
2. Determine Wants and Needs
   1. What are the needs and which is most important
   2. Why he needs it
   3. How to present it to him or her, and why they need THIS
3. Select Product and present and build value: Quick but effective manner.
4. Make Proposal: Always pitch.  Even if they don’t seem like they want to.
   1. With a positive attitude
5. Close transaction or buyer exits:

Success in Selling:  Success is your responsibility and your duty.   Must attack it with all of your might and all of your soul.    It’s something that must happen.  And that you will MAKE happen.   If you do not, you will not achieve your goals

Training Tips:   Practice, drill, and rehearse.   Practice, drill, and rehearse.  Must do it repeatedly to be Great.  Builds knowledge and confidence.

You must use social media.  Period.   Not optional.   You must build a social presence.   Make time.   Must do it in addition to your other sales efforts.   Why wouldn’t you do both?  It’s basically free.  Establishes you as an authority on the cheap.

• Solves the problem of obscurity

On Rejection:  It’s part of the process, not a problem.  Hating it is normal.   It’s necessary for success though.   People are just rejecting your proposal, not you.   Change your proposal.

On your environment:   You will end up being the average of the 5 people that you spend the most time around.  Be conscious of this.

————- The 10x Rule ————-

Nobody ever correctly anticipates how much effort it will take to get a business successful.

When people are not hitting goals, the first tendency is to blindly blame and criticize people.  Then it’s to adjust goals.   Hardly ever is the suggestion to radically increase effort.

Our enthusiasm and optimism gets us to underestimate the market forces against us.

Success is the result of relentless proper action persisted over time.

Someone else having success does not lessen the chance of me having success.   There is no shortage of success.

You will either live your life working to make your dream a reality, or someone else’s.

People who routinely employ “blame” will never be successful.  And further continue their role as slave to life and the game of success.

• You have to admit that you have some role in everything bad that happens to you.
• Your failure to have success is your fault. You are the generator of the energy that drives your success.   You are responsible for everything.
• Nothing happens to you, it happens because of you.

There are no shortcuts.   The more action you take, the higher % chance of making something happen.

When you look at the effort to hide the results, excuses, and adjustments to life – being unsuccessful is more work.   Retreating requires effort and hard work.

The key is to approach the task with unbelievable, persistent, massive action.   Though it will create new levels of problems.  New problems.   Better problems.

Don’t be afraid to get criticism.  That means you are doing something.  It’s a natural byproduct of enough customers.

Customer Acquisition is more important than customer service.   No acquisition, there is nobody to service.   Service should just be in the culture.

Commonalities of Successful People

1. Have a can-do attitude:
2. Believe that I will figure it out: I will find a way to handle any problem.   You don’t have to know everything.   Just have to be willing to figure it out.
3. They focus on opportunity
4. Love Challenges
5. Seek to Solve Problems: You solve problems by solving problems
6. Persist until successful:
7. Take Risk:
8. Be Unreasonable: You must be unreasonable to sell at a high level.   You must go above and beyond reason to stand out.   Only way to go to new levels.    Would we have space flight if it wasn’t for the unreasonable?
9. Be Dangerous: You will never hit 10x goals if you are not willing to far enough outside your comfort zone to be dangerous.
10. Create Wealth: Think of ways to make money, not focusing on ways to save it or cut corners.  Not on salaries and bonuses.
11. Readily take action.
12. Try to say Yes: It has more life and possibility in it.   You are already too good at No.
13. Habitually commit: once you decide to jump in you cannot change your mind mid-air.  Do whatever is necessary.
14. Go all of the way: Half measures avail us of nothing.
15. Focus on the now: There are only 2 times for the successful- Now and the future. Procrastination is the ultimate weakness.  Stop thinking, start doing.
16. Demonstrate Courage: Act in spite of fear.  Courage is only obtained by doing, particularly things that are scary.
17. Embrace Change: you can’t have improvement in the status quo.
18. Determine and take the right approach: The successful focus on hard work.  They don’t worry about how much work it is, they focus on the success.
19. Break Traditional Ideas: Find new and better ways to do things.
20. Be goal oriented:
21. Be on a Mission: not a job.   Motivation is an inside job – can’t come from the outside.  Can hear or read things, but don’t matter if you don’t apply them to your brain.
22. Be interested in results: Successful value results – period.
23. Have big goals and big dreams: Not realistic ones
24. Create your own reality: Great people come and create something that was never seen.
25. Commit first and figure out the details later:
26. Be interested in the group: The people around you are there to help you so make sure they are good.   And make sure that you are not being so self-serving that it kills your goose.
27. Be committed to learning: Avg CEO will read 60 books per year and attend 6 conferences.   Rich people see a $500 seminar and wonder how it will make them $1.0 mil.  Not how to get it for $300 or worry about the day off
28. Be Uncomfortable:
29. Reach Up in Relationships
30. Be disciplined: In every area of life.  Orderly prescribed conduct that gets someone what they want.

Exercise:

1. Name 5 traits and their counterpart
2. Which one of these are you best at now?
3. What do you need to really focus on? The one you are weakest at.

When you are in on something, be unreasonably all in, until the goal is achieved.

When do you start?   NOW!!!!!

How?

• Make a list of goals
• Then make a list of actions that will propel you toward those goals
  • Don’t overthink it. Don’t worry about knowing how.  Take action

3. Do not reduce your goals as you write them. Make them so exciting that you are super jacked excited
4. Do not get lost in detail on how to accomplish them. Don’t get derailed in details
5. What action can I take right now – today- to move me toward my goals?
6. Take whatever actions come up on your list regardless of your feelings.
7. Do not prematurely value the outcome of #4: Don’t get slowed down by “he won’t take my call” or “I don’t have the money for the apartments”
8. Go back each day and review the list.

You just need to get momentum going.  Need to get moving.  Like a board under the tire of a car in the mud.  Just to get moving.

Fear is an indicator that you are moving in the right direction.