How to Speak Powerfully, Persuasively, and Sell More

How to speak to sell even more. If you're in sales, you're likely a nerd like I am about psychology and communication. And you're probably looking for inside secrets to be a stronger communicator. Connect more deeply with your prospects, be able to persuade or influence people to take action. And, well, you're in the right place. Because what I'm going to teach you right now in this short video is what I wish I knew when I got started in roofing sales. I've had this video on my list for years. And what you're going to learn is so simple that you're going to be able to apply this on the very next door that you knock or the very next sales appointment that you run. And my guess is that you're going to observe a palpable difference in how your prospects receive you when you speak. And the result is more sales. I know it's a tall claim, but stick with me all the way till the end because I'm going to lay out the philosophy, I'm going to show you some tools and, and then I'm going to give you a practice so you can start using this in your sales life. And my guess, and I mean this, and it was a tall claim, my guess is that you never sell the same again. I'll prove it to you. My name is Adam Bensman. Welcome or welcome back. I help great roofing companies make an even bigger impact together. And I hope that our time here together helps you speak even more clearly to sell even more. Now let's get started. Roofing sales is personal development in disguise and the reward for growth is life changing. I hope my content helps you create a richer life and bank account. All right. What we're about to break into is a concept that has been studied at length. By the way, it has been studied in presidential campaigns. If you want to learn more about this, you can read the book Win bigly by Scott Adams. It has been studied in the sales world by massive corporations like billion dollar plus companies like Agora Financial. You might be wondering, well, Adam, what are you talking about? Well, what I'm talking about is the grade level in which we communicate. Now, I know that may sound confusing, but hear me out. You know how they grade books? Like a children's book is up to this age, right? And then you're in high school or college and then there's more advanced books. And sometimes when you read, it's really easy. You're like skimming through everything and the visuals are in your mind and it's so, it's just easy to understand. Yet other books that are really great, like this one by Cal Newport called Deep Work, which by the way, really great book, but this is dense. This book was way harder for me to read because there's big words and it's complex ideas and topics and you know, it was still really good, but it just, it took more work. And sometimes I don't want to work. I just want things easy. And you know who else wants things easy? Your customers. Your customers are the ones that want things easy. So what we're about to cover is techniques that you can use to kiss k I s s Keep it simple, stupid. Because one of the biggest mistakes that roofing salespeople make, and this is equally as common, by the way, from the rookie to the person that's been in it for decades, is we take all this technical jargon and knowledge that we've acquired over the years, like about Xactimate, which you didn't even know what it was to get into roofing or shingle terms in technology or installation practices or insurance language that was literally like it's its own jargon from a world that no one else but us understands. But once we learn this, some of us feel empowered to showcase our expertise to our potential homeowners by using these big words and saying, look, I'm going to wow and razzle dazzle my homeowners, showing them how much I know and showcase my technical expertise. They're going to look at me as this intellectual and highly influential expert that they should hire. But really what's happening is you're blasting them in the face with a hose of information that they don't understand. And when you confuse someone, you lose the sale. By the way, if you're a note taker, write that down. When you confuse, you lose. So what we are about to do is learn how to unconfuse your language by keeping it simple. I want to turn your attention to this screen right here. My screen. I've got hemingwayapp.com pulled up. This is a powerful tool that I can plug a transcript into or, I don't know, type something out. And what you're going to see here is a readability score. Now, what I've written Here is a 10th grade reading level. And this might be a common way for you to overcome an objection where someone maybe at the door says, you know, our insurance company is just paying for some repairs. By the way, what the concept I'm teaching you, if you sell retail, it applies the same. Let Me begin. I understand your insurance company is only paying for repairs to your roof. Insurance adjusters don't have the technical roofing knowledge that our team has. We have helped homeowners get their roofs fully replaced by identifying issues that were overlooked. See, the repairs on your east facing slope can't be done based on how the valley of your roof is installed. Okay. And this is just the beginning of a way that some people with technical know how may communicate. And you'll notice it's at a 10th grade reading level. And now for some of you, you'd say, well, if it was me, I could understand it. But you have to remember your customers are not you. So before I share with you the after of how I've edited this, I want to cover some concepts. There's an organization out there that it's called Agora Financial, and I read this study about seven years ago. They did a split test. And a split test means that they did one sales letter versus another. So they were virtually identical. Same headline, same content. The only difference was that one was written at an eighth grade level, which is two grades easier to read than this, and the other was written a fifth grade reading level. I want to ask you which letter produced more sales, the eighth grade letter or the fifth grade letter? Now, you might have guessed because I've kind of planted the seed of where this is going. And you said, you know, the fifth grade letter produced more sales. Well, how much more sales? Now, if my memory's right, it was about two times the the sales from an eighth grade to a fifth grade reading level. Not a big difference, eighth to fifth. But you might be thinking to yourself, adam, are you implying that people are stupid? And the answer is no, not at all. Remember before when I talked about how some books are easier to read and others aren't? Like, I'll give you an example. Many people have read my book in a few hours. Why? Because I wrote it in a way that is easy to read. Why? Because easy is fun and easy is easy to understand. Sometimes dense books are really good, but they're not as fun to read or as easy to read. So when we speak in a way that is easy to understand, people retain the information. They remember it, they follow along and it makes sense to them. So it is much easier for you to carry influence and persuasion. So what I have done is I've taken this exact concept of this rebuttal to someone saying, hey, my insurance company is paying for some repairs, and I have simplified it to a second grade reading level, which you can see right here and I'm going to read it to you. So they wrote you an estimate for a repair. Hey, good news is that they have committed to get the repairs done. We may be able to help communicate the need to replace the whole thing. You don't want a patchwork quilt up there, do you? Do you have any objection if I take a look? Can you feel the difference? There's no technical jargon. There's no technical knowledge. And by the way, this information for me, if you go back into older videos you're going to watch as my videos have progressed, I communicate in even simpler terms. I'm going to give you a little peek behind the curtains as well. For those who receive my weekly emails about these new video announcements and those go exclusively to people who are inside my free training center. You can join that by the way, to understand what I'm talking about by clicking the link in the description or going to adamsfreestuff.com I recently added a free digital copy of my book in there. You can read it. There's no cost. What you'll find is that when I email each week I write every single email in Hemingway app. I shoot for a grade level of 2 to 5th grade. I average between 2 and 3rd grade, very rarely going to 5th grade. What I found as a result of doing that is a higher level of engagement. Why? Not because you're stupid, but because when you read an email like this, it's easy to understand, it's easy to follow, and the art of learning how to communicate your language simply is a craft that takes years to practice. But you can start right now and I'm going to give you a few tools to do that. First, I want you to practice speaking simply. Tip number two Remove industry jargon. Now, there might be a time and a place if you have to communicate a technical piece with a homeowner, but as much as you can, don't include technical jargon. Tip number three Pretend that you're communicating your message to a fifth grader. Again, this isn't saying that the people you speak with are stupid, while what you're doing is just making it easy to understand. And if you want to learn even more about this technique, I recommend you pick up a copy of Scott Adams book. It's called Winn Bigley and the subtitle is Persuasion In a World Where Facts Don't Matter Scott Adams broke down Trump's historical campaign and it was mind blowing. When he won, he broke down How Donald Trump Communicates and why everybody remembered the very simple messages that he had, like make America great again and the little sound bites that he continued to repeat. Because quite frankly, love him or hate him, Donald Trump is a master of communication and persuasion. He chooses his words wisely, and it worked for him to win the presidency. And this practice can work for you to win more customers. I hope this technique helps you communicate more simply so you can close more deals. You see what I mean when I said you may not sell the same way ever again? If you want to keep nerding out on sales communication with me, then jump into this very next video and I'm going to teach you my very favorite closing technique. I'll see you in the next one.