Use This Secret Sales Weapon to Double Your Close Rate and Commission

Would you like to double your sales commission?

Would you like to increase your close rate with prospects? What would your world be like if prospects came to you and tried to win you over instead of vice versa? It sounds wonderful, doesn’t it?

But what if what I was telling you wasn’t hypothetical? What if it’s true and a potential reality for you?

Let’s break down what you can start doing and how to make those hypothetical questions a reality to make more money.

Framing

Before I tell you about the secret weapon, you have to understand the concept of framing.

Oren Klaff breaks down the pitching process in his book Pitch Anything.

It’s less of a sales book and more about negotiating. However, Oren speaks of a secret weapon that can be used in any interaction regarding power, persuasion, and influence.

Klaff introduces the concept of “frames.” In his words:

“Imagine for a moment that there is some kind of powerful energy field that surrounds all of us, silently transmitting from the depths of our subconscious. This invisible defense shield is genetically designed to protect our conscious minds from sudden intrusion by ideas and perspectives that are not our own.

When that energy field is overwhelmed, however, it collapses. Our mental defenses fail, and we become subject to another person’s ideas, desires, and commands. That person can impose his will.

No one really knows whether there are human energy fields or not, but perhaps this is the best way to think about the mental structures that shape the way we see the world, which I call frames.”

Our frames are our point of view, our perspective. When we look at the world through our frame, everything we encounter is interpreted by our brains in ways consistent with our intelligence, values, and ethics.

Yet, as we look at the world through our frames (perspective), our brains process what our senses perceive and react with a series of questions–usually fear-based questions like:

Is it dangerous? Am I safe? Is this situation threatening?

This voice in your head is your “croc brain” at work–detecting frames, protecting us from threats, and using dominance or aggression to deflect attacking ideas and information.

This next concept is critical to understand in sales and business.

Klaff continues,

“Whenever two or more people come together to communicate in a business setting, their frames square off and then come into contact, but not in a cooperative or friendly manner.

Frames are extremely competitive–remember, they are rooted in our survival instincts–and they seek to sustain dominance.

When frames come together, the first thing they do is collide. And this isn’t a friendly competition–it’s a death match. Frames don’t merge. They don’t blend. And they don’t intermingle.

They collide, and the stronger frame absorbs the weaker.

Only one frame will dominate after the exchange, and the other frames will be subordinate to the winner.

This is what happens below the surface of every business meeting you attend, every sales call you make, and every person-to-person business communication you have.”

What Oren is saying is frames battle for dominance. Knowing this, if you have a stronger frame and your frame wins, you will enjoy the benefits of frame control.

Those benefits include your prospects receiving your ideas, following you, acting on them, and closing the deal. This means more money and more commission for you.

If you own the “frame,” you win the game.

The Secret Weapon: The Prize Frame

Oren Klaff breaks down the different frames in his book, and you should get it and study it for all walks of life since framing is one of the most important lessons you could ever learn.

However, for sales, there’s one frame that you constantly want to occupy: The Prize Frame.

Here is a quick example of how the prize frame works:

Someone who pretty much always has the prize frame is the President of the United States of America. Whoever they are and whatever room they enter, people are bowing down and running to shake their hands. They are eager to please and impress the most powerful man on earth.

However, if the President gets sick and needs medical attention, the doctor has the prize frame. Why? Because the doctor knows they have what the President needs: the solution.

The doctor isn’t needy, “trying” to sell the President on what they have and what they offer. No, the doctor asks questions to see if or how they can help the President.

The doctor also knows that this patient (the President) isn’t the only sick person in the world. There will be plenty of others. The doctor knows they’ll be fine. But the President needs help.

Hint: Whoever asks the questions controls the conversation; hence, they have the stronger frame.

If you’re on a sales call, you don’t want to tell the prospect “all you do” and “what your product can do for them.” Telling isn’t selling. That’s what everyone does and one of the reasons they suck at sales. That’s desperate. It’s needy. And it’s the opposite of the prize frame.

Instead, you want to ask the prospect questions where they are proving themselves to you and convincing themselves–with their own words–that what you have to offer is the solution.

But asking questions isn’t enough. What you ask and how it’s delivered solidifies the prize frame in the interaction.

How to Implement the Prize Frame

You now know the importance of framing and the type of frame you want to embody.

And you know that whoever asks the questions has control of the conversation.

But how do we grab the prize frame and keep it in a sales exchange?

Too many sales professionals are pushy. They’re needy and talk way too much. When you push, you get pushback. You want to pull them to you. You accomplish this by having the prize frame.

There are two primary ways to have the prize frame:

A. Talk less. You only want to speak about 20% of the conversation in a sales interaction. Let your prospect do the majority of the talking. Silence is uncomfortable for most people. The one who can maintain silence, only speaking when necessary, holds the power.

And a brilliant to speak less and get your prospect talking is the next tactic.

B. Ask questions. But not just any questions like, “What’s your favorite color?” Rather, you want to ask qualifying questions–especially at the start of the conversation.

To solidify the prize frame, you make the buyer qualify themselves to you.

An example question: “Can you tell me more about yourself? I’m particular about who I work with.”

You've issued a challenge at their croc brain level. The challenge is: Why do I want to do business with you?

This tactic is a powerful and unspoken expression of your high status, not needy, frame dominance. It forces your audience to qualify and sell themselves to you as to why you should do business with them.

Does that sound unbelievable to you? It isn’t. When you rotate the circle of social power 180 degrees, it changes everything. It’s tactical reverse psychology.

Your prospect thinks they’re in control, and you’re there to “sell them.” They believe since they have the money, they have the power. They expect it because that’s what most people in sales do. “Try” to sell and “try” to win the prospect over.

But someone with the prize frame doesn’t work that way. They are detached and enter the interaction to see if or how this particular prospect is worth doing business with.

Having the prize frame reverses the position of power in a sales interaction from the prospect’s hands to yours. And this will force them (the prospect) to prove themselves to you.

The BMM Takeaway

In sales, you want to embody the prize frame.

Prize-frame selling isn’t needy, desperate, or attached to a commission. It’s the total opposite.

When someone has the prize frame, they are in control because they automatically possess the stronger frame. They ask qualifying questions, getting the prospect to sell themselves and prove themselves worthy of doing business with them. And, of course, they talk less.

And ultimately, you know the prize frame is who are what you are as a sales professional.

The prospect came to you and your business. Why are they there? What made them want to book a call? What brought them into your store? What problem do they have, and what solution are they seeking?

They believe your product or service might solve their problem, so you’re communicating with them now.

Your job is to find out the “why” they possess and then accurately asses–in a detached manner–if your product or service can help solve their problems.

And if you do it while maintaining the prize frame? Then, your prospects will want to prove themselves to you and will become your new customers.

Own the “frame,” and you win the game. The prize frame is how you win.