[FUNd]

*Under promise & Over Deliver*

Stop promising these guys grossing $40K a month that you can get him 6 figures just to get the app in (unless he has some heavy RE equity of course, right Zach?) knowing damn well you can't get close.

Be the hero and come in higher than quoted, and keep his respect rather than loosing it to me when I get him on the horn, properly educate him, and retain him for the long haul

That would require the rep to actually know the products and the UW guidelines. Many brokerages more worried about number of dials and "talk time", than actually training their reps to qualify a deal properly.

[Zach]

TIP #5

Utilize Tie-Downs

A tie-down, also commonly known as a "yes" question, is a short statement that requests a response from the client. They should be used after every logical point. They keep the customer involved in the presentation and invite them to ask any questions they may have. It prevents you from speaking over the client, rather than speaking with them. It also forces the client to be engaged with you, rather than zone out on their phone or computer while you're speaking.

For example:

This $50,000 loan will help you to purchase the new truck you are looking at, which in turn will allow you to generate the additional $10K of monthly income you mentioned. That is what you are looking for, correct? <---- Tie down

By utilizing tie downs you can keep a customer engaged. This engagement is key to keeping them from getting icy and cold (which happens when you keep TELLING, instead of SELLING). Always ask the customer if what you said makes sense or if it works for them.

Tie downs can also be used as small "trial closes" to gauge interest. Tie downs are indeed a sales tactic, but they have a legitimate purpose. Before anyone says "I don't use sales tactics, I am a true consultant!!!" ..... think about what I am saying here. I am saying to invite the customer back into the conversation. Any true consultant would do that frequently -- tie downs are a simple way to accomplish just that.

Here are several examples of tie downs that can be used on every call:

Would that help?
That makes sense, right?
Fair enough?
Do you see that being beneficial for you?
Is that what you want?
Does this sound like what you're looking for?
If I can secure that for you, would it benefit your business?

[Zach]

TIP #6

Push through initial resistance

Most prospects have a knee-jerk negative reaction to sales pitches. That's why new salespeople get flustered after getting "NOT INTERESTED" for 30 calls in a row.

The business owners we are targeting have learned through social conditioning that if they utilize certain sound-bites it will get them their desired reaction (the salesperson off the phone). It's similar to when a guy goes to talk to a beautiful girl in a public place -- in some cases he is instantly shot down, because she utilizes a sound bite that she, from her experience, knows will make the guy go away. Basic conditioning.

"NOT INTERESTED" before they even hear your offering is one of those sound bites.

The most effective way to push through initial resistance is to do just that: push through it. Don't get argumentative and fight with them. Just make a logical point or emotional connection and proceed like nothing happened.

Here's a few examples you can try to push through initial resistance (the key isn't the WORDS... it's the strategy of PUSHING through in a friendly, professional way):

I understand you get phone calls about financing all the time, Bob. I assure you that we aren't some boiler room trying to get something out of you. In fact, we are trying to introduce ourselves so that way when you DO need financing, we are available for you. Now, if you had an extra $50,000 for your business, what would you allocate that towards that you aren't doing right now?

I get it, Bob. You get bombarded with phone calls every day from all kinds of people making crazy offers. This isn't one of those calls. Now, if you had an additional $60,000 to refinance your current loan and lower your rate or payment, how would that impact your business?

Great, most of my BEST clients weren't interested at first, until they saw the value in what we offered and how we helped them grow their business. Let me ask you, how much money would give YOU that freedom to grow your own business?

Obviously each of these seem totally cheesy; and in fact, they are totally cheesy. That's not the point. The point is that you can say ANYTHING except "OK.... have a nice day then" and you increase your chance of converting that "NOT INTERESTED" into a potentially interested client. Even if you have a 5% chance of converting it, why not do that? Anything is better than accepting the "NO" and having a 0% chance of closing it.

[John Galt]

seconded.....

[aych86]

Find the merchants pain and zero in on it. Keep picking at the scab until he bleeds. Emotion is very powerful. Fear is very powerful. Use a conversational approach when trying to figure out what the merchant needs the cash for. Behind the number are a myriad of challenges, headaches, pain points and most of all DESIRES. If you can attach your product to their emotions, you have a much better chance of closing them when the approval comes back.

[funderdude15]

totally agree with you

[KTK]

MONSTER difference between under promise/over deliver, properly educating, and managing expectations VS. talking down, cutting him off, and verbally assaulting his hard earned business revenue by dismissing his wants because of his qualifications. lol

I do get what your saying tho. However, there are situations for both our cases to win the deal. A true salesman can sense it and execute the proper close ;-)

[John Galt]

seconded.

[John Galt]

You want a Rolls Royce? Why?....Because you can't have it. Classic take away.

[FUNd]

Great stuff. And all true. Why bother asking "how's your credit?" on a non-credit driven product? You'll find out later how the credit is - when you get the app in. You're supposed to be talking about what's in it for THEM to apply. Asking about their credit is more of a "What's in this for ME?" type question. Don't worry about wasting 10 minutes talking to a guy that may not be qualified.

Any conversation is good, and can be profitable. Have something to offer every client, even it its digital literature for $99.95 on the FCRA rules for cleaning up your credit. Who cares. Sell them something valuable and beneficial on every call.

[John Galt]

We all know it is really not "a non credit driven product"... if they had credit they wouldn't be here. The effect of credit is still inherent, each template or model differs but we all take it into consideration to some extent however minor. Sorry to say but if you're selling the FCRA stuff for whatever, the Corporate credit stuff is 1-3K plus a % of loans.

[jotucker1983]

When you are selling our type of product, in my opinion, as a broker you are much more a "match-maker" than a sales consultant. The actually art of "selling" is a very small part of the process, compared to that of being a very efficient and resourceful "match-maker".

Let me break this down further.

With our product, you aren't paid on selling anything, you are paid when you match a merchant that needs alternative funding at particular terms and with a particular risk profile, with a lender that funds merchants within that particular risk profile and at terms the merchant is looking for. So the bulk of your time shouldn't be spent "selling" or "convincing" a merchant on anything, the bulk of your time should be firstly on constructing your Funder Network, and the second portion on screening merchants who would be a "good fit" for one or two of your Funders.

- You should research merchants who are in situations of needing alternative funding for whatever reason such as maybe a UCC, a guy adding a location, etc. Then, you would be calling on those merchants, letting them know what you can do and telling them your cost for capital breakdowns, if they are OK with your short payback cycles and high cost, it's time for pre-qualification.

- You want to do serious pre-qualification on them from asking about their credit, tax liens, bankruptcies, landlord payments, cashflow situation, time in business, the whole nine yards so you can see if you even have a Funder that can potentially approve them. If the merchant refuses to do this, they aren't serious about needing capital and are wasting your time.

- So you get the pre-qualification done and let's say you have a Funder in your Network (or outside of it) that can approve them, now you are going to spend time chasing the merchant to get all of the required items and submit to said one or two Funders.

- Let's say one Funder approves and at the terms the merchant wants, then the next portion of your time will be chasing the merchant for closing items and answers to the Lender's questions during closing. Everything gets in eventually, the Lender funds, you are paid within 24 - 72 hours.

You can be the "best salesperson" in the world, in that, you can "talk" a merchant into sending you over an application. But that means absolutely nothing if the merchant's risk profile cannot be funded by one of your Funders, OR if the merchant isn't serious enough to send you the additional items and answer additional questions from Underwriting.

In my opinion, I think Brokers should try (to the best of their ability) to submit 10 apps to a funder and get 3 - 5 funded, than to submit 30 apps and fund 1.

[golf2014]

comparing madoff etc is not the same as salesman on mca. madoff scammed people into believing there investments were secure etc. cash adv is giving customers money. Before we go on about sales tactics etc..the lenders are as much to blame as anybody. funding a business for a 3rd or 4th position is horrid. ALso..how many lenders give contracts premature and resind offers. The mortgage crisis involved the fed govt because of Fdic.Mca isn't backed by us govt.

[John Galt]

Madoff was a fast talking salesman who cared little for his customers and was only interested in making money. Stacking has many similarities to someone with 10 credit cards. FDIC had nothing to do with the mortgage crisis, AIG did when they in effect reinsured the market with their rating when the tranches were monetized. Read "too big to fail". Any deal can fall through at the last minute. They are usually only conditional approvals.

[Zach]

Awesome post, John. Agree 100%.

[KTK]

..

[fundgorilla]

This is some good stuff, guys - no doubt! Let's raise the bar a bit by bringing in elements of mass market sales and Public Relations to introduce possibilities you've probably not considered, and rhetorical devices still uninvented. Reading this short primer will do you a world of good in a variety of areas, but if you look at this stuff from a salesman's perspective, I'm sure you'll agree that the potential exists to create a totally unique way of approaching the client - a bolt from the blue that is completely unique, and utterly compelling:

http://www.dailywritingtips.com/50-types-of-propaganda/

[AndyYSCISOdept]

Zach, I really like everything you said in your post, good work.

Hey guys,

I thought it would be fun to have a random daily sales tip thread. Anyone can feel free and post here with whatever tips they think are valuable, important, or even just funny.

Here's a few to start:

TIP #1:

Understand your client's needs, rather than just prequalifying and asking for an app. I see so many sales people run through the usual prequal questions:

What is your monthly revenue?
What is your average ledger balance?
What does your credit, roughly, look like?

And, to be sure, these are important questions, but what about the KEY selling questions, like:

After I deposit these funds into your account, how much revenue can you generate with my money?
Why is this loan important for your business?
What will be the long-term impact of this financing for you personally?

These types of questions make the client SELL YOU on why they need the loan. Important stuff.


TIP #2:

When is the best time to get an app? It's right after getting an app. In that moment you are more confident, self-assured, and more likely to have the necessary enthusiasm to entice a merchant to send their documents to you. Instead of running around the office bragging about that $100K deal you brought in, go make more calls! That state of mind is crucial to sales success. "Success breeds success"


TIP #3:

Don't hem and haw!!! No "UHHH" or "MMMMMM" on the phone! You are a sophisticated professional... act like it! If you don't know what to say, remain silent rather than make these strange, nervous noises.


TIP #4:

Record your phone calls! (legally, of course)

Listen to your pitch and take notes on what you did poorly. Also pat yourself on the back for what you did well. Write down key lines that you ad-libbed that worked. Make a list of smart things that you said... then, even if you aren't smart, at least you can sound like it!

[jotucker1983]

Ride Extreme,

I think you make some good points, but I wanted to add to the discussion between you and John Galt.

...I hear reps asking all the wrong questions which are only going to scare him off such as "How's your credit? Any tax liens? Any previous BK's?" Once they start hearing this they are going to think (especially if he's never done this before) "omg he's asking about my credit I'll never qualify. I'm not going to waste my time filling that thing out".

I agree, and maybe he shouldn't fill it out. If his FICO score is 480 where is he going to get approved at anyway? If he has tax liens outstanding with no payment plan on them and they are very large tax liens, he isn't going to get approved/funded anyway. So why even have him fill the application out?

It's not a waste of my time to send out an app in an email and get in his submission.

Actually it's a waste of everybody's time, your time, the merchant's time, the data entry team at your Funder's time, and the Underwriting Team at your Funder's time to go through these "procedures" with a merchant that doing pre-qualification on at the beginning will tell you he clearly doesn't qualify for anything.

this is another big mistake people are making. If a guy grosses 50K and he's asking for 200K, NEVER EVER tell him "There's no way you will qualify for that". Guess what. He's not going to send the app to you, because he's going to send it to me instead after I tell him "Ok great send me this this and that and I'll submit it for 200K". Then when I call him back to close him on 35K "Your credit score is 565 and you have a few negatives in your bank. they wanted to deny you but I talked them into an approval. I think you should jump on this and try to clean up your bank so next time around we can give you more".

Okay but that's a bait and switch. Why not just tell him that our industry approves based on 5% - 10% of your gross annual sales, so if you are doing $600,000 a year expect an approval of $30,000 - $60,000 for this product. So maybe you can get him $40,000 on an MCA and to raise the additional $160,000 maybe he also have outstanding commercial receivables? You can do some A/R factoring on the side. Then maybe he has some commercial equipment that's already paid off? Maybe you can also do a Sale-Leaseback on that equipment as well to further help raise the additional $160,000.

In our industry he is getting multiple calls every day and if one guy tells him he will never qualify for the 200K and another guy says he will submit his app and come as close as possible, he's going to send it to the guy who was more open rather than straight out telling him it's never gonna happen.

And this here is the problem as I outlined above. We aren't paid on application submissions. We are paid on fundings. It's a complete and utter waste of time for you to sit on the phone "convincing" guys to just "shoot you over an app" if the deal isn't pre-qualified to the point where you at least "think" you can fund it.

Unless you are getting paid on application submissions, this approach might do nothing but just clog up your Funder's pipeline with tons of apps and no approvals.

Some Funders might just cut you off altogether if it becomes a pattern.

[AndyYSCISOdept]

John I agree with you on your points about a waste of time. You would not believe (actually you probably would) the amount of straight "garbage" submissions I get that have been sent to me with all the wrong kind of expectations because the REp/Broker has promised the guy the moon in order to get the app in. Getting an app that way isn't only a waste of time, it starts to leave a bad taste in my teams mouth and my underwriters mouths and, because we are only human, we start taking everything that broker says or sends with the proverbial "grain of salt".

[John Galt]

Well put.

[Everest]

Nice Post!!!!!

[FUNd]

Businesses change sometimes by the quarter. A guy you can't get approved today, may be eligible for 100K in 3 or 4 months. Getting his application, getting the information, following up, and building rapport puts you first in line when he IS eligible down the road.

I believe in letting anyone and everyone apply. I have had so many merchants decline themselves in our initial conversation, convinced them to take 30 seconds, do the online application, and a week later they are thanking me profusely for saving or helping their business.

Get the app boys.

[jotucker1983]

Businesses change sometimes by the quarter. A guy you can't get approved today, may be eligible for 100K in 3 or 4 months. Getting his application, getting the information, following up, and building rapport puts you first in line when he IS eligible down the road.

I believe in letting anyone and everyone apply. I have had so many merchants decline themselves in our initial conversation, convinced them to take 30 seconds, do the online application, and a week later they are thanking me profusely for saving or helping their business.

Get the app boys.

I agree with this and I do this as well, I just don't take it the additional step further by having the guy fill out an application. After the pre-qualification is done, if I can't do anything with him right now because for example, he's stacked to high hell lol, then I setup a time in let's say 60 - 90 days to touch base to see where his status is.

I would touch base in 90 days, let's say the balances are down, everything else is still efficient, then I would go into the process of having him fill out the app and provide the last 3 - 6 months of statements.

John I agree with you on your points about a waste of time. You would not believe (actually you probably would) the amount of straight "garbage" submissions I get that have been sent to me with all the wrong kind of expectations because the REp/Broker has promised the guy the moon in order to get the app in. Getting an app that way isn't only a waste of time, it starts to leave a bad taste in my teams mouth and my underwriters mouths and, because we are only human, we start taking everything that broker says or sends with the proverbial "grain of salt".

Yeah, a lot of Brokers are just in "sales mode" and the "sales mode" is all about "closing". So to them, they "close" if they convince a merchant to send an application back. The only issue with this is that you aren't paid based on sending an application back, you are paid only when you fund something, that is unless you are somehow getting paid on app submissions.

[FUNd]

Don't submit the apps to your funders that aren't going to get approved. Pretty simple. Doesn't mean you shouldn't get the app in house.