Read time: 2 min, 53 secs

Quick guide:
• Never think about sales? See you next Thurs.
• Sell deals under $30k? Here’s a masterclass from Hormozi
• Sell deals over $30k?This is for you.

Hey there - it's Brian 👋

BIG week for TalentHQ.

This we’re working on a big partnership I’m excited about.

I’ll share the details in a few weeks.

So I’m negotiating this deal while tinkering with our internal sales process. This made me think:

If your sales process for big deals is the same as your small deals… You’ll lose.

There is a completely different process for selling $20k deals vs $200k deals.

Today’s issue is for you if you’re selling (or thinking about selling) products or services worth over $30k.

Let’s make your business an outlier: 👇

🧔🏻‍♂️ Brian’s nerdy side rant:
$30k is really where it starts. But it depends.

Example:

Transactional sale: If you sell a $2,500 / month Google ads service and the average customer stays for 12 months, that’s a $30k deal.

High-value sale: But if you sell a $30k service for one-month (e.g,. the Outlier Growth marketing strategy program), that’s also a $30k deal.

Same value deal. Completely different sales process.

Brian sold commercial jets? Who knew?

For two years I sold $300 - $500M deals. Crazy.

My bank would buy fleets of airplanes from Boeing/Airbus etc. Then, we’d lease the planes to American Airlines / Delta / United etc.

Here’s an example:
Say Delta wants to lease 10 Boeing 737s. Each 737 is worth $50M… FIFTY.

So that was a $500M deal that lasts for TWELVE years.

The aircraft lessor that won the sale was the team who could put the best deal together:
➟ Who pays for aircraft maintenance?
➟ Engine maintenance?
➟ Upgrades?
➟ Insurance?
➟ Where can’t they fly?
➟ How long? Monthly payments? Options at renewal?

etc etc etc

With this high stakes it’s less about who has the more suave sales guy and more about who can structure the better deal.

So back to the commercial partnership we’re working on

When I sell a transactional sale our framework is Alex Hormozi’s CLOSER framework.

This issue is about high-value / not transactional sales so I won’t get into it, but here’s a thread if you want to steal the CLOSER script:

For bigger deals, these will be longer sales cycles and it’s more about who can pull together the better deal (by deeply understanding prospects pain).

For this we use SPIN selling’s philosophy (by Neil Rackham).

Why listen to Neil?

Well he built the largest study on sales. He followed 35,000 sales calls over 12 years!

So here’s a few lessons from Neil on high-value sales:

1) Don’t use the sales hacks that work in transactional sales

Turns out: Those suave comebacks you memorized to sell $5,000 deals will actually LOSE you the deal in high-ticket.

“Closing techniques may increase the chances of making a sale with low-priced products. With larger sales comprised of expensive products or services, the chances of making a sale is reduced.”
- Neil Rackham

2) You don’t have to handle objections if you address the issues early on

Ask the right questions ahead of time. If you prepare well you won’t get objections

That’s one of the advantages of a longer sales cycle. You get to build trust over time and learn more about their pain.

“Skilled people receive fewer objections because they have learned objection prevention, not objection handling.”
- Neil Rackham

3) Your sales meeting is a LOSS if you don’t have the next meeting booked

Always always always have the next meeting booked.

You might leave a meeting feeling good, but you need forward motion in the deal process or it’s a dead deal.

If you’re working in high-value sales you NEED to read SPIN selling.

Here’s the link.

But Brian! I want a script!

Fine.

Look I use SPIN as a philosophy, not a framework. But if you want actual questions you can ask high-value prospects, reply to this email with “SPIN.”

I’ll send you the questions.

Okay I need to get back to structuring this deal.

See you next Thursday 👋

Brian
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P.S. If you want questions you can use for sales, reply “SPIN” and I’ll send over questions

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