Have you ever thought why certain people achieve success in every aspect of their life while others are constantly struggling? Have you ever wondered while there are so many self-help, self-development, motivational and business courses but very few people who study them actually achieve success and manage to transform their knowledge from just theoretical to practical? Do you know what are the most important skills in life?
With this article, I am starting a series of posts where I will share my experiences in business and life. I will write about people that inspired me and strategies that I use to get to where I am. Over the years, I have read numerous books about the power of the mind, productivity, motivation and business strategies. While it was interesting and useful to read all of them, there is only a very few that provided me with tools that really improved my life and that I keep using on a daily basis.
While there are many skills that we need to master throughout our lives in order to achieve success, I think persuasion is one of the most important ones. Many think that is only applicable to sales, but it doesn?t matter what you do, regardless whether it is business or personal life. If you can?t persuade people to be on your side, you won?t be able to get that far in life on your own.
In this post, I would like to share my experience with Jordan Belfort?s Straight Line Persuasion System that I recently came across, began to study and apply in my everyday life.
Who is Jordan Belfort?
Jordan Belfort, The Real Wolf of Wall Street
Probably most of you have seen (or at least heard about) The Wolf of Wall Street movie with Leonardo DiCaprio, right? And many of you know that this movie is based on the true story about US brokerage firm Stratton Oakmont and its founder, Jordan Belfort. As you know from the movie, Jordan was arrested for the violation of securities laws and spent 2 years in prison. While I am in no way supporting what Jordan did while he was running brokerage business, I really admire how he changed his life and managed to come out of this whole situation. In prison, Jordan wrote a book Wolf of Wall Street which shortly was followed by a movie that became a great success. Jordan Belfort also became a motivational speaker and sales trainer and what he is teaching is a so-called Straight Line Persuasion System, a system that he was teaching his guys at the brokerage firm and that turned all every one of them into millionaires. Jordan is a natural born closer and was so successful in training other people that he decided to put this into good use. Jordan Belfort admits that the Straight Line Persuasion System is so powerful that it can be easily used to manipulate people and trick them into decisions that are not in their best interest. And this is where things went wrong for him in the past? He had powerful tools but low standards, he got greedy and things went out of control. The rest we know from the movie. So this is why he recreated his life and now puts so much empathise now on the ethical aspect of things.
As the famous saying in the Spiderman movie goes? ?With great power come great responsibility?, and Jordan Belfort urges everyone to use the power of the Straight Line Persuasion System ethically and with high standards.
What is the Straight Line Persuasion System?
Before I came across Jordan Belfort?s Straight LIne System I was searching for a training course to improve my sales skills to take my life to a new level. I was considering Grant Cardone and his Cardone University, but then I came across Jordan Belfort and was hooked. First, I signed up for the 7-day Free Trial of Weekly Intensive Training program where Jordan not only deconstructs and deep-dives on each aspect of the Straight Line System but also produces short-daily videos that are called Daily Motivations. Shortly after, I signed up for a full Straight Line Persuasion System training course and got so excited that now I am writing this review so other people can learn about it as well. I also want to encourage you to take action so you can get from theoretical knowledge to the practical implementation of these skills in your daily lives.
The idea behind Jordan Belfort?s Straight Line Persuasion System is very simple. Sale (or most of the acts of persuasion for that matter) is the process where you need to get from point A to point B and the fastest route from point A to point B is the Straight Line. While every sale might look different to you depending on what product you are selling, the market and client-base that you are targeting or the sales cycle, in a nut-shell every sale is the same. Each sale is the process and once you know and master this process, you can get from A to B more effectively using the shortest route, a Straight Line!
Straight Line System allows you to close anyone who is closable and now I have no doubts about that.
Inner Game and Outer Game
If you read any self-development books or listened to any motivational courses, the idea behind each of them is that in order to achieve success in our outer world (or daily lives) we need to create a certain mental state and who we want to become in our minds first. And many motivational coaches stop at that point. They will tell you that you need to think positive, that you need to visualise the desired outcome and that once it is done, we can get everything we want. But unfortunatelly, many people who only focus on that inner game are still struggling to achieve desired outcomes in real life.
On the other side, there is a large number of professional coaches who are teaching sales and persuasion techniques to help us to achieve success in our daily lives. And again, many people who study and apply those techniques in their daily lives feel like they are still missing something.
What I really like about Jordan Belfort and the Straight Line Persuasion System is that he is addressing both aspects that are required to achieve success ? and it is the Inner Game of Wealth and Outer Game of Sales. First, we need to be in the right state of mind and create success in our Inner World. But only that is not enough. We also need to have the right system in place, the methodology to get from where we are to where we want to be. And we need to take massive action. And that is what Straight Line Persuasion System teaches us.
Key Principles of Straight Line Persuasion System
As I mentioned earlier, according to Jordan Belfort every sale is the same and there are main principles that need to be followed. Now, I would like to go through the Key Principles that Jordan Belfort is teaching in his course.
The Straight Line Persuasion System is designed to align the key forces necessary for success in any sales environment: the elements of the inner game of sales as well as the specific strategies and techniques necessary to effectively prospect, maximize lead sources, and close sales at the highest level.
The key to effective persuasion is to look at it as a goal-oriented sale rather than random ?let?s see where this conversation takes us? approach.
Know your Why or Have a Clear Vision for Your Life
In order to achieve success, we need to have the right motivation. If we only focus on money and material aspect of things, that can motivate us only that far. Our world is a negative place and throughout our lives, we face many obstacles. Have you ever wondered, why some people manage to get through all the hurdles of their lives and still achieve tremendous success while others simply give up after a couple of tries and lower their expectations? What is that inner power, that strength that keeps some of us going no matter what?
Jordan Belfort, Inner Game of Wealth
That Inner Strenght comes from knowing our Why. If we have a clear Vision for our life, if we know not only what we want to achieve but also know why we are doing what we are doing, that gives us that Super Power to get through the life.
I strongly encourage you to read the book by Simon Sinek ?Know Your Why?. It is super inspirational and massively helped me.
Once you know you Why and have a clear Vision for your Life, you will have the strength and inner power to achieve anything you want.
Three Things in 4 Seconds
We all know that the first Impression is important. Our minds are wired in such a way, that we get an impression of someone in the first 4 seconds and after that our minds are more or less fixed. Of course, it is always possible to change that first impression but that is also extremely difficult to do. So the first thing we need to do is make a positive impression in the first 4 seconds. So how we can do that?
- Be Sharp as a Tack
- Be Enthusiastic as Hell
- Be the Force to be Reckoned With, be the Figure of Authority
People like to deal with successful people. If we are trying to persuade someone to deal with us, they need to feel that they are dealing with an expert in their field. You must look good and radiate confidence.
Enthusiasm is contagious and if we are really excited about something, if every cell of our body believes in what we are doing, the other person will get this feeling too.
From an early age, we have been taught to listen to authority. Our teachers, police or industry experts have a certain power and we unconsciously listen to them. That is why it is so important to be perceived as a Force to be Reckoned with. In the Straight Line Persuasion System, Jordan Belfort teaches us how to achieve that through words, body language and tonality.
The 3 Tenets of the Straight Line System
In every sale or act of persuasion, there are 3 key elements that need to be achieved
- We must control the sale and stay within boundaries of the Straight LIne System. That means that we need to follow the process (or Script) and not get distracted with meaningless conversations.
- We must establish an instant, massive report. People want to deal with people they like and establishing strong report is pivotal in this process.
- We must use that report to gather intelligence. If we are selling a product, service or just trying to get someone on our side, we need to qualify them through intelligence gathering. Does the prospect really need our product or service, or share our values? Does the person have money to buy from us? And it is important to remember that we should not be using the power of Straight Line Persuasion System to manipulate someone into the purchase of the product or service that he or she does not really need to cannot afford.
The Formula for Rapport
This is actually one of the most interesting parts of the Straight Line Persuasion System that makes it stand out among the vast majority of other sales courses. I have been running businesses and working in sales (in one way or another) for more than 15 years and many things that you learn about sales are aimed to help you to establish the rapport with the prospect. Many books and techniques teach you what you need to say (i.e. the language) and also about the importance of the body language. But I have never come across anyone who covered the Art of Tonality in such detail.
While actual words and body language are important, I never realised how important the tonality is. Same words said with different tonalities can mean different things and that is the tonality that we feel at the subconscious level. By mastering the art of tonality, we can learn the main tonal patterns such as scarcity, ?reasonable man? tone, absolute certainty, presupposing tone and many others. After completing the Straight LIne System course I actually now think that tonality is one of the most underestimated elements in the skill of persuasion.
I am sure you will find it extremely useful to understand how tonality impact our communications and Jordan Belfort is the best teacher for that.
The 5 Elements of Straight Line Persuasion System
At its core, the Straight Line Persuasion System is very simple and there are five core elements that need to be achieved.
In order for someone to make a positive decision, they need to feel complete emotional and logical certainty about that decision. We won?t do something that just feels right but does not make sense logically, At the same time, if our mind tells that something is right but our gut feeling tells us otherwise, the positive decision is highly unlikely. That is why Jordan Belfort puts so much emphasis on the following elements of the Straight LIne System.
In order to persuade someone to make a decision, we need to get them to an absolute certainty (on a scale from 0 to 10 we need to get them to 10) in the following:
- They MUST love your product.
- They like and trust you as a person and know that you CARE
- They TRUST your company
Only when you get to 10 on these 3 scales, at the same point of time, you will be able to effectively persuade someone and close the sale.
In addition to that, each of us has it?s own
- Action Threshold
- Pain Threshold
For some people, it is very easy to make a decision but for others, it can be very hard. You all know someone who is tough as nails when it comes to making a final call and that person will always have doubts. That is what action threshold is about. When we are trying to influence someone, we need to lower their action threshold so the person understands that it is not hard to make a decision.
In the meantime, the pain threshold is the level of pain someone might experience from not having a product or solution that you are offering. Again, every one of us was in such a situation. If we really need something and this is urgent, we will go to the first place and get that thing. We don?t need to be convinced, we will just get things done because we really need it.
In the Straight Line Persuasion System, Jordan Belford also goes into the most detail of looping and handling objections, the importance of script, framing yourself for success and other things that are important.
Straight Line Persuasion System ? Conclusion
As a conclusion, there are a couple of main things I would like to mention and the rest you can just see for yourself.
I have spent in 15 years in business and selling was a big part of everything I did. I believe that if we want to evolve and improve, we have to learn new things all the time. Even if something looks quite obvious, repetition is a great thing and it only helps to cement the knowledge and skills that we already have. However, you can always learn something new and look at things from a different perspective.
When it comes to Jordan Belfort?s Straight Line Persuasion System, I have to say that I discovered quite of few new tricks (especially about tonality) that helped me in my life and business a lot. I think Jordan is a great motivational coach too, but the most important that he supplements his motivational speeches with tools and techniques that you can learn and apply in real everyday life.
For me, the beauty of the Straight Line Persuasion System is that is actually a methodology, a step by step guide that you can use in any aspect of your life. It is not an abstract collection of techniques but a goal-oriented system that helps you to get from A to B in the shortest distance. I think this is what makes it stand out from many other sales training that I took over the years. And complementing it with clear Vision for your future, and knowing your Why, makes it even more powerful.
As one of the Jordan power phrases says: ?Please don?t confuse my enthusiasm for pressure?. As you can probably see, I am quite excited about Straight Line Persuasion System and the reason for that is that I have been studying it and applied in my life. I see the positive results and want to share this experience with everyone who is looking to achieve success in business and in life, and improve persuasion skills.
If you are interested to check out Jordan Belfort Weekly Intensive Training Course please check out this link.
You can get 7-day free trial and see for yourself. And believe me, the only problem you?ll have is that you did not join 6 months ago!
If you are interested to explore the full range of Straight LIne Persuasion course, please check here.
Visit Augmentum Strategies for more reviews of the Ultimate Power Tools and Performance Strategies.
