The Sales Mindset That Makes People Buy (Without Pressure or Tricks)

the best salespeople that I've ever met in my life. They don't have to manipulate people. They don't convince

manipulate people. They don't convince people. They don't chase deals. And in

people. They don't chase deals. And in

fact, in many cases, when it's not the right fit, they're willing to walk away and stop wasting their time. And I've

seen tons of videos on the internet about psychology tips or these eight dark psychology tips make me, you know, sell anything. Today, I want to cut

sell anything. Today, I want to cut through the noise. I don't make a lot of mindset videos. I'm not a big like

mindset videos. I'm not a big like mindset guy. much more about the

mindset guy. much more about the tactics. But I will say in today's

tactics. But I will say in today's video, we're probably going to go deeper than I ever have when it comes to the proper mindset of selling. Because if

you guys follow this channel, we have literally the most tech sales advice on the planet on this channel. You guys

know I'm big about the tactics. I'm big

about the actual strategy, less so about the grind it out, the mindset, all of this different stuff. But it is important and I think it's something where the more you do it, the more you're around people who are extremely

good at this, the more you understand it. And so hopefully this video helps.

it. And so hopefully this video helps.

Today I've got seven major points today.

And the first one, which is by far the most important, is that you do not need any one deal at all. You can never show that. And that's also why I'm very big

that. And that's also why I'm very big on tactics on this channel because if you're approaching your territory the right way, if you are prospecting the right way, you should almost in an ideal

world never be in a position where one single deal makes or breaks your entire year. But aside from the tactics

year. But aside from the tactics involved, I don't want to go deep down that road. There's tons of videos on

that road. There's tons of videos on this channel about that. I think the way you portray yourself when you are truly indifferent to the outcome really comes across with your customers. And I would say especially as you go to bigger and

bigger customers where you're selling to organizations with 50,000, 100,000 plus people. There's a very big difference, I

people. There's a very big difference, I might add, between a lack of urgency and a lack of caring about the outcome. You

can be very urgent. You can do and run your deal with a high amount of speed, velocity, and meeting your prospect where they're at. But at the same time, if you ever come across like you need

this more than your competitors, one of two things will happen, which is you're going to lose the deal. They're going to be offput by it. They're going to feel like they're being sold to, or two, you're going to get beat down so much on

price because it's so clear that you need this deal that it's not going to be worth your time anyway. And I've seen that time and time again. When a

prospect can feel that you really need this deal and you're anxious to get it done, it signals to them that they probably could ask for a discount and or even worse, and one of the points we're going to get to in this video is if you

start giving them concessions or the first time they ask for a discount, you give it to them. Then they ask for a free trial before they buy, you give it to them. Then they ask for an extra

to them. Then they ask for an extra license during the free trial and you give it to them. It's just a cascading failure and it just really compounds very quickly. And if there's nothing

very quickly. And if there's nothing else you get from that point, I encourage you watching other videos. But

learning how to detach from the outcome, learning how to portray yourself in a consistent way is a huge huge thing when it comes to selling consistently, selling huge deals, etc., etc. And as we

move to the second point, I just want to clarify that any single one of these out of context is going to look like weird.

So when I tell you in my second point that it's very powerful when you're able to tell a prospect no, that doesn't mean okay you have to tell a prospect no.

You've got to mimic top performers.

You've got to learn from people who have actually done this at a high level very successfully. But my second point being

successfully. But my second point being when you can tell a prospect no, and I'll give you several examples, it's very powerful as opposed to just giving them everything they ask for. In my

vertical of tech sales, we sell highly technical products. It's very common

technical products. It's very common that an engineer wants to get, as one example of many, a free trial to start trying the product. And I'm not even opposed to that. However, I've seen this time and time again. If you're in tech

sales, you know this as well. The second

you give someone, especially if they're like an individual contributor, so they're not a manager, they're not a director, they're not a VP, they don't have any budget, they're not actually going to approve this deal. If they just come in and say, "Hey, can I have a free

trial?" And you're like, "Sure."

trial?" And you're like, "Sure."

99.99999% of times that deal will go nowhere. You

have no connection to why this is even important for the business. You're

giving that engineer a tool that they just want to play with to look busy or try something that really has no actual impact on the business. And they'll sit there and they'll tell you, "Yeah, if I get a free trial, I can go to my manager

or I can do XYZ." And I would say the most common way to actually have some strength and some leverage in a deal is to be willing to tell them no.

specifically. I can't give you one right now because what I want to avoid is wasting both of our time. I've seen

several cases where I give someone a free trial, they try it for two months, they spend two months of their time they could have been doing other projects, and then we finally get introduced to that manager and it's not even relevant

to them or not even worth pursuing. So,

I'm happy to give you a trial, but to do that, what I would love is an introduction to your manager. even if

they can come to one meeting to see what we're going to test in this free trial, then we can be in a position where I'm happy to give you a free trial. Again,

there are so many examples here of ways you can tell people no. And the

underlying theme is obviously just being honest. I'm not trying to do like some

honest. I'm not trying to do like some power move. I think the end result is

power move. I think the end result is that gives me a lot of leverage. The end

result is that that looks like a power dynamic I'm trying to do on my customer or prospect. But the reality is is when

or prospect. But the reality is is when done the right way, it helps them respect your sales cycle and it actually helps everyone not waste their time, which is beneficial for both you and the prospect you're selling to. This isn't

just like a one-off like you control the power, you mess with them. And closely

tied into this with my third point, you got to pick your spots here, especially in tech sales, but being willing to challenge someone's perspective and actively tell them that you think they're wrong and here's why is also a

very powerful thing when done correctly.

And again, like anything, I've seen this done extremely well and I've definitely seen this done extremely poorly. If

you're trying to argue with someone and all you're bringing up is that you're the latest and greatest. You're talking

about some feature that, well, that's great, but everyone who uses my SQL tells us that this feature is the real differentiator. That's We can

differentiator. That's We can see right through that. It just feels like you're just copy pasting like some marketing spiel that you were told to say. But there's been several different

say. But there's been several different times when I think back on my experience and some of the biggest upsells that I've ever had, particularly around support, where I've been willing to challenge the CTO of a fast growing

company that had raised tens of millions of dollars and was worth almost a billion dollars. They were arguing and

billion dollars. They were arguing and trying to negotiate on price or even acting like they didn't need our support. And the reality was is

support. And the reality was is throughout our entire deal cycle, I had uncovered that they had tried to hire two engineers to fix this problem over the course of two years, they had, if

you look at average salaries for that kind of engineer in that region of the US, that was clearly something they spent over a4 million a year on and they had made zero progress on it. So when I

put in front of them a $50 to $100,000 support package and they're giving me kickback saying they're just going to hire an engineer, I had to go to him and basically say, "Hey, with all due respect, go right ahead. From what

you've told me, you've tried that two different times and it's failed, and here we are not only offering you support, but we are the creators of the tool that you already use. So, these are truly the most qualified support and

engineering staff in the entire world that you can hire, and you're going to do it less than the money that you've already spent and completely wasted over the last 2 years. Now, obviously, I dressed it up a little bit nicer than

that, but my point being is when you can have that point blank of a conversation and deliver that kind of message with composure, I'm not manipulating. I'm not

trying to convince them. I'm very

strategically and very methodically laying out the facts that we have uncovered over the entire life cycle of a deal. That is hopefully a more nuanced

a deal. That is hopefully a more nuanced example of when it is appropriate to challenge your prospect if they're trying to do something just to negotiate with you and or they don't understand the full context of the situation. So

again, as we keep rolling down this list, I just want to call out any single one of these out of context. If you hear me and you think, "Oh yeah, I got to tell my prospect no." And you just do that because that that feels like a

little power thing, it's going to fall completely on its face. But when you're aware of all of these things and you look for the right opportunity with the right context, that is where it is extremely powerful and where I would say

80 plus percent of reps don't even get to themselves. And as we roll into this

to themselves. And as we roll into this fourth point, I just want to mention higher levels.com is truly the largest tech sales education and media company in the world. So if you look in the description, there's tons of different

lessons. We coach and train reps at

lessons. We coach and train reps at literally every level of a tech sales career. So, if you're breaking in,

career. So, if you're breaking in, you're an SDR currently, or you're an account executive looking for detailed training that quite literally every single major tech company's reps use, you're welcome to check that out in the

description. The fourth major point is

description. The fourth major point is something I've mentioned a little bit already, but I want to elaborate on this point further, and it is not giving a customer something when they want it all

the time and or right away. Earlier, I

already gave an example of not giving a customer a free trial. But there's

things if you've never been in a closing role or you're still early on in your sales career, if you have not experienced what it's like to give someone a pricing concession the first time they ask, I guarantee you what

happens, whether it's pricing, whether it's other topics, when you give someone the first time they ask exactly what they want. What that signals to them is,

they want. What that signals to them is, "Oh man, I should have asked for more."

So if a customer comes to me, I've put a proposal in front of them, it's $100,000, and they say, "Hey, we can only move forward if it's 20%." and I go, "Okay, let's do it." They're not

actually happy with that outcome because that was way too easy. And again, you've got to find the perfect way to do this.

There's no exact science and a lot of this is situationally dependent. But

let's go down this metaphor a little bit further. An example of trying to get a

further. An example of trying to get a pricing discount. There's a very common

pricing discount. There's a very common framework that is you never give something away without getting something in return. So, if someone comes to me

in return. So, if someone comes to me and says, "Hey, we can't move forward unless we get 20% off." Some of the things that I'm thinking about include, hey, well, if that's the case, I can only get that approved if you promise me

you're going to sign by the end of the day today. That's one example of many.

day today. That's one example of many.

Or you could flat out say, hey, I'll be honest with you, that's going to be extremely difficult to justify. Where's

that coming from? Another example might be, hey, you know, for 20% off, that's really only something we consider if someone commits to a multi-year deal.

So, right now, I know we're looking at $100,000 for one year. What we could do if we were to take off 20% if this is something that you would entertain, I could potentially get approved for an

agreement where it's $80,000 per year if you commit to two years, which would be $160,000 total. The broader point being,

$160,000 total. The broader point being, these are just simple examples. I'm

riffing off the cuff, but you never give something away the first time they ask.

And you never give something away, period, without getting something in return. So, they want that free trial.

return. So, they want that free trial.

That's great. What I need to do is just even if it's one meeting, meet the person who would ultimately sign off on this purchase if we move forward because I don't want to waste your time and spend two months on this. I don't want

to waste my time and then get to the point where we put it in front of them and it wasn't going to get approved in the first place. Oh, you want a pricing discount? That's great. I guess the only

discount? That's great. I guess the only challenge there is I've already told you that's kind of our bottom line pricing.

So really for me to decrease the price any further, we'd need to add a year.

We'd need to add support to this. we

would need to add another product line.

These are simple examples of things that you do. And it's not even to say that

you do. And it's not even to say that maybe at the end of the day you wouldn't go down and discount 20%. But if they actually get to the point now that you've actually kicked back on that,

you've provided some resistance. Let's

say that's a week of back and forth and you finally negotiate, you do finally agree to give them 20% off. Well, now

they feel like they actually got a real discount. Even though in many cases

discount. Even though in many cases maybe that's a number or 10 or 20% discount, that's something you might have been already able to provide, but by you acting like that's something you

couldn't do, it's created a win-win situation where they really feel like they got something out of negotiating with you and you protected your downside. You didn't give them 20% off

downside. You didn't give them 20% off and then they come back next Friday and say, "Uh, we need another 10% or we can't do it." My next point is one that again is very situationally dependent, but it's something you should really

just be aware of. I am all for and I think one of the things that made me very strong as a rep, especially early in my career, is that I was very thorough, responsive, and really detailed when a customer asks me

something, whether it's via email or maybe they called me or whatever it may be. But especially as I got to bigger

be. But especially as I got to bigger and bigger deals when I'm selling to enterprise customers that have 50 to 100,000 plus employees especially making myself too available is also a major

turnoff for a prospect who every single time they call, every single time they email, they get a response from you, you seem so eager to talk to them. Every

time they reach out, that really signals and sets the stage for down the line when we talk final numbers, when we talk proposals pricing signature they really get a sense going into that that

they can negotiate with you because your willingness to be available shows that you need this more than them. And again,

if you are in tech sales, you know, there's definitely a sweet spot here.

It's so hard sometimes to build rapport with very technical people. They hate

salespeople in general. They don't want to talk to them. So if as an example you meet someone they ask you a question and you respond detailed thoroughly quickly etc and they respond very positively to

that for that individual I think it can be very valuable to keep that cadence to keep that responsiveness but I've seen so many scenarios where that also gets used against you where the first month of a deal you were super responsive

every time they emailed you always emailed back within the hour you always returned their calls whatever it may be well now fast forward 3 to four to 5 to 6 months down the line They know because of the precedent that you set that

anytime they reach out, you're going to respond right away. And because of that, that almost subconsciously removes the urgency from their side to really keep going forward with the deal. But again,

there is absolutely two sides of the coin here. I've seen reps that are super

coin here. I've seen reps that are super lazy, not responsive, and they lose deals because anytime they respond, it takes like 2 days at a time to even get a response. In fact, one of the biggest

a response. In fact, one of the biggest deals I closed when I was early on in my career. No disrespect to Oracle, but we

career. No disrespect to Oracle, but we beat Oracle because someone submitted a contact us form on our website. I

responded within 15 minutes, we had already had two calls over the course of 2 days. And literally on day three, when

2 days. And literally on day three, when we were about to have our third meeting, Oracle responded to his request that he submitted on the website 2 and 1/2 days later. So again, all respect to Oracle,

later. So again, all respect to Oracle, but that's just an example of where it can work for you. But also at the same time, when you're getting to more complex deals, when you're getting to deals that take 6, 9, 12 plus months,

you've got to find that balance of being available, but also respecting your own time and ensuring that prospects don't think that they can take advantage of you being someone who's organized and on top of your Two major points here

as we start to wrap up, and these are going to be some of the most valuable.

And again, I think with all of the context we've now talked about to this point in the video, these make even more sense. My sixth major point is

sense. My sixth major point is overexlaining things particularly in critical moments like delivering pricing or talking about you know how you compare to your competitor whatever it

may be. These are points where you often

may be. These are points where you often immediately lose value. You immediately

lose status when you're talking to someone if you're overexplaining. Like

anything I've mentioned in this video, there are certain times and situations throughout the course of a deal where as an example, if I give pricing, it maybe makes sense to explain a little bit more

or in some cases withhold pricing until I have more information. But let's say in one example of many, I have a prospect and this happens all the time.

They come on the call, they think that, hey, you know, this is going to cost like $100,000 plus dollars. They want to know pricing. They're being a hard ass

know pricing. They're being a hard ass with me and they're saying, hey, look, I I don't I don't want to answer any of your questions. I just want to know how

your questions. I just want to know how much this costs. There's a couple different routes I can go, but typically I'm never overexlaining myself and I'm willing to walk away to the points I've mentioned earlier. So, like I said in

mentioned earlier. So, like I said in this very common example, I hop on a call and within 5 minutes I've asked two questions and then the prospect goes, "Hey, listen. I I really don't want to

"Hey, listen. I I really don't want to answer your questions before we go any further. I want to know pricing." I

further. I want to know pricing." I

might even give them an estimate and say, "Okay, hey, that's totally fair, John. Um, just to give you perspective,

John. Um, just to give you perspective, like I know nothing about your environment right now, so it's really hard for me to even say like if you could give me anything in terms of like sounds like there's a 100 people on your

team, would this be a 100 licenses? I'll

get like one piece of information at which point I'll say, hey, you know, a really conservative estimate that could absolutely change. I mean, we're

absolutely change. I mean, we're probably looking somewhere on the order of $150,000 here. It's really going to depend on a lot of things, but is that even, you know, in line with what your expectations were? And my point being is

expectations were? And my point being is I could sit there and I could say, "Oh, well, it depends on a variety of factors and we have things like support and also it doesn't take into account these different things." Honestly, if

different things." Honestly, if someone's coming in and just giving you some like that, like right away, they know nothing about you. They

clearly don't respect your time. They

don't respect your sales process, I'll give them a number. And if they react negatively to that, it's like, "Hey, all good. If 150k is out of your budget and

good. If 150k is out of your budget and this is call one, let's just cut our losses." There's several examples about

losses." There's several examples about not overexlaining, not talking too much.

Certainly, you know, and we have tons of tactics on this channel, by the way, so feel free to check out all the other videos we have. First and foremost, in an ideal world, you're asking way more questions, you're listening way more than you're talking. But when it comes

to these critical moments like delivering price or dealing with a difficult customer, at the end of the day, like if you give them a price or you give them a fact and they try to sit there and like really beat you down and

really get you talking and trying to overexlain and defend yourself, at some point just walk away. Like the only thing that's going to happen is you're going to talk more and it's just going to get worse and worse. I've rarely seen

a situation where a prospect is coming in hot and heavy trying to get you to explain things. How could it cost this

explain things. How could it cost this much? What do you mean you can't do

much? What do you mean you can't do this? all of these different things. In

this? all of these different things. In

many cases, the more you talk, just the worse it gets. And so, that leads really nicely to my last point. And again, I think all of these characteristics combined, it's not just that you watch this video and you get it right away.

Hopefully, it helps. Hopefully, it puts you in the right mindset. But over time, the more you consider this, the more you implement these things into your sales process and workflow, it becomes super powerful. I think there is nothing more

powerful. I think there is nothing more powerful, especially in tech sales, than being willing to qualify someone out and walk away. And there's so many examples

walk away. And there's so many examples of this. I'll try and give you a few

of this. I'll try and give you a few just as a a single data point of reference. But when I'm selling to small

reference. But when I'm selling to small customers, it's very common that understandably, small businesses are very budget conscious. They want to beat you up on price. You put a $30,000 number in front of them and they're

like, "Oh my gosh, I could only do this if it's like $7,500."

And that's just crazy. I'm not going to discount like 70% just to match what you need because you can't do that. Again,

this goes to the tactics that are on several other videos in this channel. If

you have a lot of pipeline, if you have a lot of companies that are interested in you, you're not going to get too caught up on one deal that cost $7,500.

But I also think and I've seen this change so many reps lives in our AEY program at higher levels.com. When you

are willing in this one example, I'll give you a couple others, but if someone comes in, you have a good conversation, you've been talking to them for 2 or 3 months, and you say, "Hey, it's $50,000." And they go, "Oh, Eric, what

$50,000." And they go, "Oh, Eric, what are you talking about? It's the the most I could do is $12,000." I'll be like, "Well, honestly, based on our conversations, right, that we've had for the last 3 to four months, you've told

me this is a million-doll problem for the company, you've already spent $100,000 trying to fix it and gone nowhere, and this is $50,000. So, should

we just cut our losses and move on?" And

when you're actually willing to qualify someone out, when you're actually willing to tell them to their face to please respectfully stop wasting your time, I've seen in so many cases where quite frankly, I I will be honest,

sometimes that kills the deal. But guess

what, guys? That's good because you're wasting time with someone who is never going to pay you $50,000 anyway. And

also in the future, if these problems become bigger, I have so many examples throughout my career of where the first two or three months I had good conversations. They looked at the price,

conversations. They looked at the price, same exact routine. Eric, I could never pay that much. It's like, okay. And sure

enough, 6 months later, 9 months later, the problem has only gotten worse that they were trying to solve. they come

back and now they're willing to pay full price and or more if our prices went up.

And as one last example I'll leave you with, if you are a rep that is closing business right now and you sell multiple products, one thing that has worked really well for me, again pending the right situation, it's not like I want to

sell smaller deals. It's not like I want to kick myself out of certain deals, but I've had situations where I've been responsible for selling three to five to seven products at any given time. the

first proposal we put in front of them or maybe even the first offering had let's say five products all bundled in one. The more we talk with them or maybe

one. The more we talk with them or maybe even before I get to that point, I'm willing to say, hey, in most cases, I would encourage you to get all five of these. However, what I'll tell you is I

these. However, what I'll tell you is I think if we added this fourth or fifth product, it would be a bit premature.

And realistically, you wouldn't even be able to get to that point where you're using that successfully until month 8 or 12 of this purchase anyway. So I think if I were to advise you that I'd

actually focus on these three products specifically and then from there if we do have early traction and grow we can then grow into all of these products and it will make a lot more sense. So

hopefully that gives you a sense of differing degrees of qualifying out.

It's not just to say hey qualify them out and kick them out of here so they stop wasting your time. I actually think when you can build rapport by qualifying out maybe instead of you know getting someone to commit $750,000

while I would love that. please. There's

some times where you actually build a lot more rapport by saying, "Hey, this is where we're going. This $750,000

figure, we'll probably get there in year two, but I think year one, let's go ahead and get these three things. It's

$250,000 and we can build our way there." So again, there's no silver

there." So again, there's no silver bullet. There's no one tactic. There's

bullet. There's no one tactic. There's

no one thing that you have to do or one psychology hack that is bulletproof, perfect all the time. But hopefully

those seven major points give you a real sense for what highle reps are doing at some of the best tech companies in the world. And a lot of this again is this

world. And a lot of this again is this video can hopefully give you the right framework. It can give you the right

framework. It can give you the right direction. But if you hear this video

direction. But if you hear this video and you just go, "Oh, Eric told me to say no to a prospect, so I'm going to try that tomorrow." I guarantee you it will look terrible in execution because it's not a holistic approach. It's not

relevant to the context in the exact situation that you're in. So I hope that helps a ton. We make tons of videos on the tactics, the mindset, everything you need to be successful in tech sales on this channel. And we coach literally

this channel. And we coach literally 9,000 plus reps at the best tech companies in the world at higher levels.com if you want to check out the training that we do have there. And I

still monitor these comments myself to this day. So if you guys have any

this day. So if you guys have any questions below, feel free to fire away.

But I hope you got a lot out of that and we will see you guys in the next video.

Thanks.