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The Conversion Code is a new blueprint for marketers and salespeople that shows you how to capture and convert Internet leads into closed sales at the highest rate possible. Using my exact “code” outlined in this book, you will immediately get more website traffic and more Internet leads, but, most importantly, close more sales.
During the last decade, I worked inside sales jobs and have called more than ten thousand Internet leads. I even worked for two different billionaires: Dan Gilbert and Lou Pearlman. Gilbert is most notably the owner of Quicken Loans and the Cleveland Cavaliers, while Pearlman sadly/impressively made household names of Britney Spears, *NSync, and the Backstreet Boys. I've got a decent three-point shot and I love to sing in the shower, but they didn't hire me for those skills. Instead, I was an elite-level inside salesperson for their ten-figure organizations.
At Quicken Loans for Gilbert, I sold mortgages (when interest rates were over 7 percent and the housing market was crashing). At Fashion Rock, for Pearlman, I sold “event vacations” in Orlando, where talent agents were (sort of) looking for the next big thing. Like a pre-American Idol, American Idol.
At both companies, I sold over the phone from a cubicle (dialing for dollars Boiler Room–style), calling people who had requested more information online (or through a radio or TV ad). I was given a name, a number, and a phone. My job was to call the leads and close them, that day, including getting their credit card number. For the loans, I also had to get a contract signed and get the lead to give me their Social Security number over the phone within the first five minutes of the call.
In The Conversion Code I will teach you exactly what, when, and how to say things over the phone to people so that day in and day out you convince them to buy from you. In fact, the sales script in Section Three of this book works so well and is so easy for you to duplicate that it should almost be illegal (spoiler alert: some of what I learned at Lou Perlman's company actually was).
You will indeed feel like what you are learning in this book gives you an unfair advantage. It does. I often stop as I am teaching the “code” to remind myself that while it does feel amazing to be so good at inside sales that you can quite literally sell anyone anything, you also need a Spider-Man mentality: With great power comes great responsibility.
Taking what I learned doing inside sales (the legal and ethical parts) for Gilbert and Pearlman, I landed an outside sales job that included selling from the stage as a keynote speaker for Move Inc. Move is a publicly traded company now owned by NewsCorp (Rupert Murdoch's Fox News/Wall Street Journal empire) and is nearly a billion-dollar market cap company. To start, I drove to two offices each day throughout the state of Florida and sold CRM, websites, and other online marketing solutions to real estate agents. I had to leave the office with a signed contract or the sale went to the inside sales team and I didn't get the commission. I also spoke at national trade shows and conferences, again having to close that day or not getting a commission. Using my “code,” I won Move's Presidents Club Award in my first year, outselling their most seasoned reps, even though I had no experience in outside sales OR selling software.
It was during my time at Move when I started video blogging and using Facebook for business purposes under a brand I co-founded for them (with an amazing guy named Steve Pacinelli) called Tech Savvy Agent. Within no time we were getting 100,000+ page views per month and generating tens of thousands of Likes and Leads. Basically, I had only been a salesperson my entire life until I started Tech Savvy Agent. Now, I was a marketer too. And the leads I was generating were quality and they were closing
Next, I was hired to be a sales coach and public speaker for the inside and outside sales teams at DotLoop, a transaction management and electronic signature company. My official job title was actually “Chief Paper Killer.” As I taught DotLoop's sales team “The Conversion Code” you could see the lightbulbs going off. They left every sales coaching session lusting to get back on the phones. They would show up telling me they “just needed help closing” and they would leave telling me that my “code” was their “best sales coaching ever” and an immediate “game changer.” During my third year with the company, DotLoop was acquired for $108 million by Zillow Group. Not quite another billion dollar experience, but a nine-figure exit is not too shabby.
Today, I am a partner at my own company—Curaytor. Curaytor specializes in helping small business owners with lead generation and lead conversion through our simple software and proven strategies. We combine ideas and innovation with execution for small business owners who are too busy to do everything themselves. Each and every month we generate tens of thousands of Internet leads, turning many of them into closed sales. Simply put, we do “The Conversion Code” that you will learn in this book for them (minus calling their leads, for that we give them the script that is in Section Three).
Here are a few testimonials from our clients at Curaytor:
“Before using Curaytor I was at about $200k (in income). Looks like my next 12 months may be in the $600–$750k range.”
“In the 1st 6 months of 2015 we bypassed our 2014 Total Sales!”
“I have doubled my business”
“Business increased by over 100% in 12 months”
“2015 will be our best year ever”
“Best investment I've made in my 14 years…Hands down.”
“My business is up 52% since we partnered with Curaytor and we are looking at growing another 50% next year!”
Using “The Conversion Code,” for ourselves Curaytor passed $5,000,000 in annual recurring revenue in less than three years (and we are growing like a weed). To ensure the success of my first start-up, I even personally got back on the phone and sold the first couple million in recurring revenue myself, using the exact strategies and scripts that are in this book.
The only difference between doing inside sales for yourself and doing it for someone else is that you need (a) something awesome to sell that you own and (b) qualified leads to sell it to. So in the first two sections of The Conversion Code, I will teach you exactly how we generate great Internet leads (at a low cost per click, lead, and acquisition) and how we use technology, people, and marketing automation to turn those leads into an endless supply of quality appointments for our sales team.
With that being said, I truly believe marketing automation is greatly overrated and is being used too frequently as a crutch. Technology and software have become an excuse not to do the real work of picking up the phone and talking to people about what you sell and whether it is right for them. If you want to make more money by closing online leads, you have to pick up the damn phone. If you have more usernames and passwords than customers you are doing it wrong.
The idea of a “cart” or “e-commerce” is a myth for most. Sure, we may buy things from Amazon or Zappos without ever speaking to a sales rep, but if YOU actually think that YOU can simply get leads from the Internet to buy stuff from YOU (that actually costs more than a few dollars) without ever calling them, YOU are wrong. Bottom line? Most companies need to pick up the phone to close a lead and are so focused on working smarter, not harder, that they are tripping over nickels to pick up pennies. Never forget that conversations create closings.
I feel really blessed that I learned how to sell before I learned how to market. I learned how to convert leads before I learned how to generate them. So when I became a marketer, I saw a big responsibility in my new role. My approach to marketing came from my work in the inside sales cubicle, knowing from first-hand experience how difficult it can be to dial for dollars every single day. How could I approach marketing wanting to get bad leads just so that I could point to vanity metrics that don't even matter? I know my sales script works, and I respect a salesperson's time because I am one, so when I teach you how to generate leads be rest assured that my goals are quantity AND quality.
Marketing can do a much better job of sending purchase-ready leads to sales. In fact, if most marketers actually had to call the leads they're generating, they'd want to quit their job or fire themselves. It's one thing to get someone to “Like,” “Follow,” or subscribe by email—it's another to get their time. And it's a whole other thing to get someone's credit card number.
Due to the recent digital revolution I will even go as far as to proclaim that every lead is now an Internet lead. We're all online, every day all day. The world is changing, and your strategies need to change along with it. We look at Facebook on our phones more than we look at each other in the face. Regardless of whether they submit their information through the web form on your website or not, every human is now conditioned to look online before making a purchase. And thanks to our social media addiction you can now generate demand, not just fulfill it.
If you are in sales or marketing and your job doesn't involve Internet leads, then I have some bad news for you: You're really missing out and leaving tons of money on the table. I have good news for you, too: You picked up this book. Whether you're in marketing or sales, whether you're a seasoned sales rep or new to social media marketing, The Conversion Code is your guide to getting an ROI, ASAP.
The Conversion Code is the new formula for being a great marketer and salesperson in the Internet era. It's a proven step-by-step blueprint to increasing leads and sales, immediately. Today's customers are savvy, and they have more options than ever before. Capturing their attention and turning it into revenue requires a whole new approach. The Conversion Code provides clear guidance for conquering the new paradigm shift toward online lead generation and inside sales.
Traditional sales and marketing advice is becoming less and less relevant. This book addresses the importance of purposeful Internet lead generation and conversion, instead of passive lead generation and conversion. You'll actually learn how to generate demand instead of just fulfilling it.
People used to sit through two-minute commercials and couldn't fast-forward them. Now our attention is everywhere…which means it's nowhere for long. In fact, a recent study by Silverpop says you have eight seconds to capture someone's attention online before they move on to the next thing.1
Like any code, The Conversion Code has multiple steps. There is insanely valuable information in each, but I want to give YOU the help YOU need most, right now. I am keenly aware that many salespeople do NOT have to generate their own leads OR even set their own appointments. They simply work for a company (like Quicken Loans or Curaytor) that does that for them. I am also aware that most marketers never make sales calls (sad, but true). So think of this as a choose-your-own-adventure book and ask yourself the following questions before you get started.
Do you need to generate more leads now? Is your problem that you just don't have enough people to talk to about what you sell? Start with Section One.
After you read and do what you learn in Section One, you'll have a consistent flow of quality Internet leads.
I know it might seem impossible to have new leads in your inbox each and every day, but I can tell you from my experience that it's not. In fact it's fairly easy if you know exactly what to do.
Do you already have Internet leads, but need help turning them into sales appointments? Section Two is where you should start. Using specific tools and tactics, I will teach you how to create appointments with Internet leads so that you are pitching to new (and old) prospects every single day.
Do you already have plenty of leads to call right now and you just need to know what to say to close them? You're going to want to start with Section Three, which covers exactly what to say to get leads to buy from you.
Inside each section is an easy-to-follow blueprint for improving your business right now. The fundamentals of sales and marketing have changed. Have you? I'm going to share with you what the new pillars of sales and marketing really are.
One of my first sales coaches was a telemarketing genius who taught me more about inside sales than any one person has. He would give a powerful 15- to 20-minute lesson on selling each morning before we started pounding the phones, calling leads. It was actually the only time he ever spoke to us.…
I remember he loved to say, “Most of you will learn more than you will ever earn while you work here.” Boy, was he right (even though I also earned a lot while there). There was one sketch in particular that he drew that perfectly conveys what you will learn, and then do day after day, because you read this book. It is a very simple drawing, yet it is branded into my brain, and I recommend that you engrave it into yours as well. I think about it with every marketing campaign I craft and on every sales call I make. It's shown in Figure I.1.
Figure I.1
He used the graph to explain why enthusiasm and timing matter so much when you are selling over the phone. He said the “iasm” from enthusiasm stood for I Am Sold Myself (see Figure I.2).
Figure I.2
Your job on the phone when talking to leads is actually very simple: to be so enthusiastic about the product you sell that you get them over that buying line. Then and only then can you close them. The same drawing also applies nicely to marketing. It's just that you have to get them more excited than the “cost” of them giving you their contact information. Then and only then can you capture them.
Exactly what, when, and how to say things to actually make this happen are all covered in this book and a critical part of my “code.”
I was sad to learn after I left Fashion Rock that my sales coach had actually been arrested nine years earlier on federal bank fraud charges for his involvement in a telemarketing operation. He had actually developed a script that was too good, because it crossed several ethical lines and contained bold-faced lies.
If Lou Pearlman's company was a “black hat” sales organization, Quicken Loans was where I learned “white hat” selling. Quicken Loans taught me more in five weeks of sales training than any university could have in four years.
Another a-ha! moment worth sharing about inside sales (before we get into the X's and O's of lead generation and conversion) came courtesy of Dan Gilbert during my new hire orientation in Michigan. He spoke about Albert Mehrabian's 7-38-55 Percent Rule and the science behind how humans communicate. Gilbert explained that how people communicate actually breaks down into only three buckets (see Figure I.3).
Figure I.3 How Humans Communicate
The first and most significant impact on human communication is actually body language. Bad news, he said. When you are selling over the phone to an Internet lead, body language is gone.
The next is tone. This is where I shine. I am a wordsmith, but I'm also from the south and I talk slow. I sound super trustworthy over the phone, but also smart. Honest, but sharp. Educated, but not “better than you.” It is very difficult to teach people how to improve their tone, but let me make it very clear upfront that the words in the script that you will learn in this book work a lot better if your tone is great. In fact, if you add tone and body language (everything but the actual words you say), it is 93 percent of how humans communicate.
This is why you hear quips like “motion creates emotion” and why you often see inside sales reps standing and selling (or throwing a football to one another) as they talk to a lead. It gets their blood pumping, makes the long days of dialing for dollars a little more bearable, but most importantly, it improves their tone! I sold more vacations in one day than most of the salespeople alongside me sold in a week. I wrote more loans in my first week at Quicken Loans than most of their seasoned bankers wrote in an entire month. I can assure you that my words and looks were not why people were buying. I barely knew what I was talking about (“fake it 'til you make it” comes to mind) and they couldn't see me. My success out of the gate was simply my enthusiastic tone, plus the company providing me with a proven script and solid leads.
Having worked with some extremely talented people during my career, I noticed that the BEST inside salespeople have the following trait: They have a very positive mental attitude. In fact, they have a “black Lab mind-set”—they are happy to see every lead (thanks to Estately CEO Galen Ward for sharing that great analogy with me). The best inside sales reps also work hard and put in effort, daily. Plus, they are constantly sharpening their axe and looking for more knowledge about how they can get even better at sales and closing people.
If you're a business, what do you need to thrive in today's Internet era? The same things that you needed a decade ago and you will still need a decade from now. You need leads, appointments, and sales. In this book, I'll teach you how to get all three.
Because every lead is now an Internet lead, demand for marketing automation and inside sales is way up. Inside sales is growing like crazy because the Internet is growing like crazy. Being good at traditional marketing and belly-to-belly sales does not make you good at Internet marketing and inside sales.
Most of the advice and books about marketing and sales were conceived in the pre-social media, pre-mobile era by people who have never had to call even one Internet lead. I'm a fan of legendary sales trainers like Zig Ziglar and Brian Tracy, but they never had to call 10,000+ Internet leads and close them to feed their kids. These are new trends that require a new approach, a new script, and a new coach. Unless you have actually called hundreds of Internet leads a week, for years, you simply can't teach what is in this book.
What you say, how you say it, and when you say it matter a lot. There has been infinitely more innovation in the marketing world than in the sales world. What you say on a call with an Internet lead is as complex and scientific as the marketing automation campaigns marketers build and launch using HubSpot or Infusionsoft. In Section Three of this book you will learn a new proven script that I crafted specifically for web leads.
The Conversion Code is packed with the science of sales and marketing. I'm going to teach you many concepts, formulas, and technical elements that will improve your business. But if you ever feel overwhelmed, I want you to stay focused on the fundamentals. I call them The Conversion Code Creeds, and there is one for each section of the book. Write them down, print them out, and hang them in your cubicle.
The Conversion Code will resharpen your marketing and sales axe for the new, modern Internet-driven era and help you consistently crush your quota. Enjoy!