[Zach]

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!

[Joe Dough]

Good stuff

[Chambo]

Office Tip # 1 - 100

Join me and my team or Die like my other competitors

Join or Die.jpg

[Lenders.Marketing]

Very cool and helpful thread Zach.

What I hear from our clients works best is simply being genuine.

Take an interest in how their business works. Find out what separates them from their competition. Find out if there are high or low periods like the holidays. Find out what their biggest obstacles are.

Once you truly understand their needs then you can find the financial instrument that will best serve them.

[fundgorilla]

My number one tip, seriously, is to go get an english grammar textbook and memorize the damn thing. Nothing has helped me more in business than being able to communicate clearly and effectively, without resorting to the buzzwords and rhetorical devices that my prospects have already heard twenty times today.

I would take on a room of callers single handedly, and I'm currently outgunning five people with that approach.

[Zach]

My number one tip, seriously, is to go get an english grammar textbook and memorize the damn thing. Nothing has helped me more in business than being able to communicate clearly and effectively, without resorting to the buzzwords and rhetorical devices that my prospects have already heard twenty times today.

I would take on a room of callers single handedly, and I'm currently outgunning five people with that approach.

+1

[John Galt]

But seriously, shouldn't the people selling financial instruments already have good grammar? For those that don't, they'll get eaten soon enough and spit out. If anything, it's good because the poor schmuck that got 6 calls today and is avoiding his creditors breathes a sigh of relief when he actually gets somebody intelligent. Makes our job easier.

[AndyYSCISOdept]

My number one tip, seriously, is to go get an english grammar textbook and memorize the damn thing. Nothing has helped me more in business than being able to communicate clearly and effectively, without resorting to the buzzwords and rhetorical devices that my prospects have already heard twenty times today.

I would take on a room of callers single handedly, and I'm currently outgunning five people with that approach.

I am being completely genuine when I say, "That is the single greatest piece of advice in the history of Daily Funder."

[PC Cooper]

I am being completely genuine when I say, "That is the single greatest piece of advice in the history of Daily Funder."

I agree. Nothing sells better than intelligence. Even if it's all a facade based on the use of polysyllabic words and unique and rare synonym's, a merchant who perceives you as equal or of higher intelligence to their own self perceived intelligence is already halfway there. Nothing kills a deal faster than some troglodyte wrighting lik this.i cant stand wehn they dont know what the purpos of a comma or an aprostrophe or propoer spacing or when to end a sentence or that spel chek exists.........There should be an equivalent to Mensa, but for schmucks.

[Worldwide Capital]

That's True!!!!

[Zach]

TIP #12:

Use your metrics to improve efficiency

"I get so many apps, how come I'm not getting approvals? It must be bad luck."
"Ugh I got 10 approvals this month and nothing funded!!!"
"I leave 100 voice mails every day and never get any calls back!"

Sound familiar in your office?

Wouldn't having some way of measuring each stage of the sale, and improving your effectiveness at each stage be valuable for your team?

In case you aren't a sales or marketing guru, there is a simple answer to this: key performance indicators.



Key Performance Indicators (KPI's for short) explain your conversion rates from each stage of the sale. It shows you what percentage of clients move towards the next stage. This is what we typically refer to as the "sales funnel."

Here's a brief example:

250 phone calls = 1 application
10 applications = 6 approvals
6 approvals = 4 docs out
4 docs out = 3 docs in
3 docs in = 2 funded

But Zach, what is the value of understanding this? Shouldn't I be making more calls and trying to fund deals, rather than crunching numbers? I'm not some frickin' accountant over here, man.

WRONG.

Here's an example to prove the true value of KPI's:

Picture you have two salespeople that are struggling. You want to help them, so you've finally taken the time to measure their KPI's and identify their "sticking points" (an area where the salesperson needs improvement).


Salesperson A's KPI's are as follows:

100 calls = 1 app
10 apps = 6 approvals
6 approvals = 5 docs out
5 docs out = 1 docs in
1 docs in = 0 funded

Salesperson B's KPI's are as follows:

300 calls = 1 app
10 apps = 2 approvals
2 approvals = 2 docs out
2 docs out = 2 docs in
2 docs in = 2 funded



Salesperson A has some notable achievements here. They are above-average at prospecting, garnering 1 application per 100 phone calls. If they do 150 calls daily, they will get roughly 7 apps per week at this rate. Excellent call-to-app ratio.

Where salesperson A fails is in their closing abilities. Salesperson A gets tons of approvals, but couldn't close their own front door.

The clear solution here is for them to keep up their powerful prospecting, but learn how to convert their approvals to funded.

Salesperson B is also strong in some ways. Their prospecting is poor, however their closing rate is out-of-the-park.

If salesperson B learned how to prospect from salesperson A but maintained their closing ratios, they would be a phenomenal asset to your team.

If salesperson A learned how to close from salesperson B but maintained their high prospecting ratios, they would also be a superb rep.




Long story short, learn your rep's metrics, and help them get over their sticking points.

[Michael I]

zach good post
#4 i will recommend having someone else listen to it so they can critique your pitch on what they hear wrong

[John Galt]

Should also query BK, NSfs, Collateral, previous default, Liens. I think that's more important than wasting his or my time.

[Zach]

Should also query BK, NSfs, Collateral, previous default, Liens. I think that's more important than wasting his or my time.

Absolutely -- prequalification is incredibly important, and I hope I didn't appear to downplay the value of it. What I meant with my tip #1 was that AFTER the prequal stage (which should be immediate) there needs to be a probing phase that most newer salespeople either skip or don't place much emphasis on.

[ridextreme]

Should also query BK, NSfs, Collateral, previous default, Liens. I think that's more important than wasting his or my time.

I really disagree with this unless you know the guy is desparate then I would ask him if he has a lot of NSF's but 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".

Just keep is simple "Are you in a BK that has not been discharged yet? Any big tax liens?"

I'm going to find this all out anyway. It's not a waste of my time to send out an app in an email and get in his submission.

*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

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".

Another big one is listening to the customer. There are so many people in this industry who have giant egos and will cut the customer off and say "You're not gonna qualify for 300K you only gross 100 a month!" while they are taking down to them as if they're the dumb one. Guess what. The salesperson is the only dumb one here.

[John Galt]

But you're not gonna get the 35k if hes in BK, default etc.....and you wasted your time, his time and the underwriters time because you took an app. And the underwriter thinks, here comes another piece of garbage from this salesman. You don't have to just sell MCAs, listen to the customer...maybe there's something else you can help him with. Credit remediation, factoring, collateralized loans, payroll financing etc.....Know your customer. Why lie to him and tell him, yeah you'll get 200K, educate him. Make him a long term guy instead of a shark tank guy. He's got a low score otherwise he wouldn't be where he is, you can raise his score over the long term and keep him as a client, or be some boiler room salesman that has huge turnover and doesn't understand this is probably not a long term market. This is a business payday advance, they'll always be a market but it will probably be eventually regulated much more. Enjoy the bubble while it lasts. You got what sale?, he's rejected. You think he'll want to do business with you ever again? You lied...or misrepresented or gave him an idea he might get approval, you think he'll trust you? I think the most important question is have you ever defaulted on an MCA? Do you have alot of NSFs? First question after opening, cause they're not going anywhere. There are markets open for BKs and liens but the former is almost impassable. As someone in this market since 85, I still have renewals for years until they got smart, increase their paydex and leave the mafia loans. And for those that say ...hey the MCA market is only 15 years old, I call BS as Transmedia and IGT pioneered this (they didn't call them MCAs) in 85 at 1.50.

[ridextreme]

But you're not gonna get the 35k if hes in BK, default etc.....and you wasted your time, his time and the underwriters time because you took an app. And the underwriter thinks, here comes another piece of garbage from this salesman. You don't have to just sell MCAs, listen to the customer...maybe there's something else you can help him with. Credit remediation, factoring, collateralized loans, payroll financing etc.....Know your customer. Why lie to him and tell him, yeah you'll get 200K, educate him.

I never lied to him about getting 200K. If you re-read my post, if he is requesting 200K and grosses 50K, I would never say "Your never gonna get that you only qualify for about 25". I say "Ok great here's what I need and I will submit it into underwriting". I never said he will and I never said he won't get 200K.

Also, if he's in a BK or has a judgment from an advance company he won't even be submitted. Not that I haven't funded anyone while in an active BK.

[John Galt]

I read your post, it is a lie by inference (not an insult to you). I would rather outline what the possibilities are, rather than give him false hope. I would rather tell him it is unlikely that he will qualify for that much, but we can start him with something and build from there. I let him know I'm not some guy in a boiler room blue skying him and this is the reality of this industry.

[John Galt]

If we don't clean up this market ourselves...a regulator will. I won't go on a rant of the miami boiler rooms etc. because ADMIN will delete (yet again) my posts. But if you want to be here in 5 years, our act has to be cleaned up. This is the same as the mortgage refinance game, the S&L games, Enron, Equity Funding, US Financial and more recently Madoff etc. It will get caught. It always does. While legal now, no one likes us and we will become a target because we use unsophisticated kids to sell,who don't disclose and we use boiler room tactics. Try explaining that to a jury later and see what happens.

[John Galt]

There's an app called tapecall, free and legal (or sort of legal) fo mart cells.

[John Galt]

smart*

[TheShitzuofMCA]

What works for me is honesty, there are alot of bull****ters. Not saying every once in a while you need to bend the truth but some merchant are straight lied to. I think being on top of your deals not letting too much time pass the merchant starts to think about the interest or fees (worse lose it to another offer). Being on top of it doesnt mean being pushy/aggressive, with money either they want it or they dont. Ive seen where being proactive really works on the application for example, filling out the application while your asking the merchant questions. When your done all they have to do is sign it, this is much easier and they will ususally sign once its all filled out for them. Best Regards...

[FUNd]

Control the conversation. People that reach out are looking for guidance and advice, not just money. Money grows on trees. Take a class, read, learn about the industry you are going after. Know how they get paid and what common industry specific hurdles are.

Don't try and be all things to all people, you can't. Pick a state and an industry, and be the big fish in your pond. When a merchant asks what you do, don't be the guy who says, "We do everything! And we have 500 loan programs!". That's not what people want to hear. The rep who truly understands a merchants business will win the deal every time, even at a higher factor in many cases.

[John Galt]

I like to tell people this is a better deal than Shark tank, where someone invests in the unknown company and even after the principal is paid off, the shark owns a piece of that company forever. It might be extortionate, but it is how angels work as well as JVs. Stock Brokerages/investment bankers do the same...sell some of the the stock so the owners get what they need and the shareholders own their share of the stock forever and it perpetuates to the next stockholder. It is capitalism at it's best and that's how people get the american dream, if they don't have their own funds. I liken the stacking issues to owning many credit cards, though an easy way to go down the drain too.

[KTK]

*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