Jordan Belfort’s Straight Line Strategy | Turn Every “No” Into a “Yes” (in 23 Minutes)

Without the ability to influence and persuade, you can't put yourself out there into the world. Great salespeople understand that it takes 3, 4, or 5 nos to actually get to the yes. Is every sale the same? Well, only if you're in control. See, once you take control of the encounter, once you learn how, you can now make every sale the same.

What's up, Believe Nation? It's Evan. My one word is believe, and I believe in you. I believe you have an amazing gift inside you that I want to see explode out onto the world. Now, I started the Mentor Me series to try to hang around people who've done a lot more than us, and hopefully by spending more time with them, some of their views, their mindsets, their beliefs, their way of thinking seeps into us to help us become the best version of ourselves. So today we're going to learn from one of the best, Jordan Belfort, the Wolf of Wall Street, and how to master the art of selling. Mentor me, Jordan.

Warren Buffett was doing a speech with Bill Gates about maybe 10 years ago, and he was asked by a college student, what can we do as students to make ourselves more valuable in the workplace? So you'd think Warren Buffett would say, learn how to pick stocks, learn how to— investments, you know, whatever he would say, right? Not what he says. He says, go out and take a course in sales and communication. Yeah, he did. Dale Carnegie changed his life. There you go. And that was the point. Because he took that. He says, I took Dale Carnegie, changed my— without that, you know what he'd be without that course? Yeah. He'd be the richest money manager in Omaha, Nebraska that no one ever heard of. Yeah, and he met his wife that way, the love of his life. Because without the ability to influence and persuade, you can't put yourself out there into the world and be known for what you really are. What sales really is, is the transfer of emotion. That's what's happening when you sell. You're transferring emotion. And the primary emotion that you're transferring is the emotion of certainty. In other words, watch this. You as a salesman, when you enter the encounter, you have to be absolutely certain that your product is the best, makes sense, it's going to give them the best benefits out there, the best value proposition and so forth, and you are in this state of absolute certainty. So imagine now we have a continuum of certainty, a line of certainty. So we have this line of certainty, and on one side of the equation we have what's called a 1, and the other side we have a 10. So a 10 represents a state of absolute Certainty, meaning your product is the best thing since sliced bread. It's going to give them exactly what they want benefit-wise. It's the best deal for the money. It's going to make them feel the whole thing, right? It is just absolutely awesome. That's a 10 on the certainty scale. It is great, the best thing since sliced bread. And on the other end of the spectrum, you have what's called a 1, right? Which is it's the worst piece of shit in the world, right? It's crap, right? Your product is terrible. It's not going to work. Okay, the benefits don't match up what they need. It's overpriced. I don't want to be near this piece of crap because I, I'll just feel stupid even buying it or even thinking about buying it. That's a 1, right? So here's the first thing you need to understand, that the moment you open up your mouth to speak as a salesperson, you start a sale. The question is this: where is the average prospect, the person you're trying to sell to, where are they on the certainty scale at the beginning? Anyone know? Where are they? Who the fuck knows? You must be in this state of absolute certainty, because what's happening is this: what you're doing when you're selling is everything that you say, everything that you do, every tonality you use, every gesture you make, every document you hand them, Every phrase that comes out of your mouth are all designed to do one simple thing: to essentially raise the prospect's level of certainty to as close to a 10 as possible. That's what you're doing. The words that you say, the presentation that you make, the tonalities that you use, any documents you hand, sales aids, whatever it might be, is all designed to take them from where they are on the certainty scale and move them to as close to where you are as possible. Essentially, you're transferring your white-hot certainty to someone who's at a cooler level, at a lower level of certainty. It's almost like this first law— I think it's actually the second law of thermodynamics in physics, right? If you study physics, energy always flows from hot to cold, not the other way around. So you need to be at this white-hot level of certainty It's exuding out of you every pore that you have, and we know what certainty feels like and sounds like. We intuitively know as salespeople, and our prospects know as well. We know when someone sounds certain and they have confidence and they're enthusiastic. We know what that looks like, feels like, and sounds like. Let's pretend this is like the water line in the ocean. Here's your water line. I'm the world's worst artist. And when you're on the phone with a client running a straight line pattern, and he's saying, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You're not like this. It's not going like that. What's happening is this. This is. This is the water line here, right? Water line, okay. This is essentially success. When he goes above the water line and you see it, he says yes. When he's saying no, he's below the waterline. What's happening is this as you're. You're getting closer and closer and closer and closer and right. So you don't see the result yet. The same way a guy who's working to build his business, he might not be making money yet, but he's making massive progress below the waterline. And all of a sudden that last pinch of certainty and the guy says yes and boom, you're above the water. The guy just said yes. No, he didn't. He was saying yes the whole time. He was getting close. Yes, yes, yes. Certain parts of certainty. He just wasn't there on all 3 10s, or he hadn't lowered his action threshold. So what happens is this: if this is the 3 10s, then lowering someone's action threshold would be what? You'd be essentially lowering the waterline. So you could actually increase his certainty or lower the waterline and make it easier for the guy to say yes. But let me tell you something: when you are running a straight line that's let's say minute 1 and minute 60, and he closes here at minute 40, you don't think you're making progress between 1 and 40? You're making massive progress. It's just below the waterline. This is why great salespeople understand that it takes 3, 4, or 5 nos to actually get to the yes. What no is, it's almost a euphemism for saying, What? No means I am not certain. That's all it means. When someone says, let me call you back, let me think about it, I want to talk to my wife, or just plain old no, it just means I am not certain. Every sale is the same. They're like, what? I got the looks, right? Those crazy looks. Every sale is not the same. I said, guys, every sale is the same. And then I said, watch. And this visual popped in my mind. I said, it's a straight line. And for the very first time, I drew this long thin line on the center of the board. It was even a longer board, like two boards, right? I said, this is your opens. I said, this is your close. I said, and every once in a while, back when you were selling penny stocks, you'd get one of these lay-down clients, we could call them, where everything that you say And everything that you do, the client's like saying yes, yes, yes, yes, from the very beginning all the way to the end. When you ask for the order for the first time, they say, "Yeah, great, how do I pay?" Right, that perfect lay-down sale. Now, I'm sure we all get them every once in a while. We get one of those people who seems to be almost pre-sold before they even enter your funnel. They're almost sold, right? You're just saying they agree with you the whole time, perfect lay-down sale. But that is the exception to the rule. Most of the time, so you want it— so a straight-line sale is the perfect lay-down sale where everything that you say and everything that you do, the client agrees, they're on board the whole way through, and when you ask for the order the first time, they laugh at all your jokes, the whole— you get it? A perfect sale. You ask for the order, they say, "Yes, great, how do I pay?" That's a perfect straight-line sale. But most of the time, that's not the way it goes. The typical client wants to go off the line. They have questions, they interrupt you, they have objections. So they try to take you offline, talk about the price of tea in fucking China, right? You want to keep them on the line. So what we have is these healthy boundaries above and below the line. When you're inside these boundaries, you are in control of the sale. These are the healthy boundaries above and below the line, because even with myself, very seldom— it's not that I have any more laid-down sales than anybody else. I have the same as anybody else, but There's these healthy boundaries. I don't let them spiral out of control, because you go off here, outside the boundaries, off to frickin' Pluto, right, or Uranus, not a good place to be, for most of us at least, right? I don't judge, okay? Pluto or Uranus, right? This is out of control, where you ask someone a question about, you know, a qualifying question, you're trying to gather intelligence, right? And they might start answering your question the right way, but next thing you know, they spiral off, they're talking about the price of tea in China, Okay, and most people, the problem that they have, most salespeople, is that when someone starts to spiral out and talk about nonsense, you'll jump right into their nightmare because you think the water's warm. Oh, let me get into rapport that way, just not and talk with them. And that's not rapport, because as soon as you do that, they realize they're in control of the sale. They will assume control of the sale. And once that happens, nothing good happens besides the fact that you're branded as a novice, not as an expert. I said, guys, let me tell you, when you're calling rich people, even poor people, No matter who you're calling, you got 4 seconds. That's all you have. You have 4 seconds to establish 3 crucial things or else you're done. You can't close anybody because they'll take control of the sale. And once they take control of the sale, it's like you're almost like an outmatched boxer covering up from all the blows. Like, imagine walking into the ring with Mike Tyson, right? And he's barraging, you're just covering up because he's in control, and you get knocked out eventually. That's what's happening to my guys. They're getting knocked out. They were losing control right out of the gate because they were not being perceived as these 3 things. Let me tell you exactly what they are. Number 1, in the first 4 seconds, you must be perceived as number 1, being sharp as a tack. That you're sharp and on the ball. Number 2, that you're enthusiastic as hell. Enthusiastic as hell. Enthusiasm must be good. And number 3, and most important of all, I'm an expert in my field. You're an expert in your field. You got 4 seconds to establish those 3 crucials or you're done. Because if you don't establish them, see, what they roll up to, what they chunk up to, is essentially that you're a person worth listening to. You're worth listening to. And even higher still, 'cause you can help them achieve their goals, help them get what they want. People don't listen to you to get what you want. They do it 'cause they wanna get what they want. Sharp as a tack, enthusiastic, meaning sharp, on the ball, right? Not a time waster. 2, enthusiastic. Now I'm not saying, some people will say, oh, come on, people, they see through that enthusiasm. No, they don't. I'm not talking about over the top, "Oh my God, my product!" That's bullshit. I'm talking about bottled enthusiasm. Below the surface, it could be a whisper, it's a certain way of talking, a certain way of carrying yourself where they could just tell that you are dead serious about what you have, you have confidence. It's a way of speaking. It's not yelling and it's not talking fast. I'm talking fast now because I have an hour, right, to get 8 hours of information, so I'm talking fast. If I was selling, I'd be speaking slowly, succinctly. And I'd have that bottled enthusiasm just below the surface in your gut. It's about to bubble over, but it never bubbles over because you're in control, because you're an expert. And when you have that way of speaking, and I'll explain how in a few minutes, it's infectious. People want to hear more. They're intoxicated by it. It transfers to someone else. It's an emotional feeling they get. And of course, an expert in your field. Number 3, well, listen, here's the bottom line. We have been conditioned since we're yay big to defer and respect experts and figures of authority. You know, "Don't buck authority," "Respect your elders." You know, when you were trained as a kid, you went to the doctor, right? And the doctor asked you questions, you didn't say, "Well, how old? What's your education?" You didn't ask him questions back. You saw his diploma on the wall, he had a white coat, he had a stethoscope, he was a doctor. Your parents explained, "This man has gone through special education, he's an expert in his field." He's here to heal you. He— you get it? He's a specialist. And you respected him and you didn't— you answered his question fully and honestly. Now, I'm sure you've all been probably later on in life when they tried to pull the old, let me get the nurse's assistant to ask you the questions. You're like, yeah, fuck you, I'll answer when the doc— you'll answer them, but maybe even one word. You're not going to be even nearly as forthright with the practitioner as the doctor himself. Why? Because you've been conditioned. And then, by the way, they might be just as competent, if not more. At taking notes and doing a certain, you know, that triage. But when that doctor walks in, whoo, he's a doctor. That's an expert in his field. If you don't establish these 3 things, you're fighting a massive uphill battle. Because now they are in control of the encounter, and good luck. See, is every sale the same? Well, only if you're in control. See, once you take control of the encounter, Once you learn how, you can now make every sale the same. Bandler did these experiments with people with matching and mirroring. And when you mirror somebody, you get into massive rapport with them. The less offensive way is not to mirror but to match. And that means don't— when they go sit down on a stool like this, okay, and they you know, cross their arms. You don't, like, as they're doing it, cross your arms. No, you wait a few seconds, jiggle around, then you cross your arms. Okay, if someone's sitting with their legs crossed, okay, then you wait a few seconds, then you cross your legs, and you settle into the same posture that the other person is. This is usually hugely powerful for gaining rapport in person. Don't underestimate this. It operates in a level you can't quite grasp. It's an unconscious level. Look at the opposite. Just understand, let's say you walk in someplace and someone's flailing their arms about and just out of— like, you're in a calm state and they're in an opposite state. They're all agitated. How do you feel about that person? Out of rapport, right? You're instantly, you know, you're standoffish, right? Well, just imagine the opposite of that. The polar opposite would be someone who moves just like you, someone who speaks just like you. Someone who vibrates at the precise level and frequency that you do. That's what matching and mirroring is all about. To get into them in their world, to enter at the same level, and to slowly move that level up or down depending on what part of the presentation or close you're at to create the appropriate emotion that allows them to make the right decision, which is to buy your product. That's body language. You're in an angry, pissed-off, negative, unresourceful state, you can't do anything well. You've had one of those days, for instance, where everything you're doing, you're like, I can't believe I said that, I can't believe I did that, I'm such a fool, right? You had that day? We've all had that day. Yeah. Next day, similar situation, you're like, wow, you know, that was me, I did a really great job, right? You were perfect. So one day you're brilliant, next day, same situation, you're brutal. That's not talent, that's not ability, that's the state that you're in. So the key to success is not just A, to have your vision, but to be able to manage the way you feel in the moment. Now, if you're a parent, what's the most resourceful state? Patience. If you're a businessman looking to make money on Wall Street, it's probably certainty. Or courage, because fear is the worst emotion of all. For being a trader on Wall Street. So every business has different states that you need to master. Now, in most businesses, in matters of wealth, there's 3 states that you need to master to be able to trigger at a moment's notice. And it's easy to do once you learn how, which is what I teach people, okay? And number 1 is certainty, to be certain about what you're doing. The second one is clarity, to be clear, not to be overwhelmed, which the opposite would be overwhelmed. And the third is courage, is to have a conviction, to know that you might not be right all the time, but you're going to not let fear stop you. Because if there's one distinction between the wealthy people of the world and the poor people of the world is that wealthy people act in the face of fear while poor people run away from it. Agreed.

Now I've got a special Jordan Belfort bonus sales tip for you, but before that, the question of the day today is: has this video motivated you to go out and want to sell more? Give me a yes or a no. Leave it down in the comments below. Thank you guys so much for watching. I believe in you. I hope you continue to believe in yourself and whatever your one word is. Much love. I'll see you soon.

You ended up at this firm, um, it was Oak— what was it? Oak Stratton or Oak— well, I still— I went to a firm called The Investor Center. Which is a penny stock firm. And that was where I was really first. I ever sold stock and I became the top broker the first day. I just broke all the records. Really? The first day you broke all the records? First day. Yeah. So you're a born— Do you think you're a born salesman? Yeah, for sure I am. And there are people out there who are born closers, born salesmen, far and few between. There are some. What that really means, though, what does it mean to be a born salesman? What it means is that You're actually running a strategy automatically inside. You're doing it. You're still following a script, but it comes natural automatically. So you— but you don't realize it, but you are following a certain protocol that gets you to the same outcome every time. So that's really what a born closer is. So for those people watching that are entrepreneurs, want to learn sales, what did you do in that first day that you basically became a top salesman? Like, was there— we're gonna talk more more about your whole sales straight-line formula, but first day you didn't have time to implement a whole script. What do you do that most people don't do? Is it your tonality? That's one of the things— body language, tonality, taking people through features, not just features but benefits. Like, what do you think you did that first day? Well, in fact, I see one of the interesting things you say, like, you'd have time to put together a script. In fact, I did. Oh, you did? Oh yeah, on day one. I took 3 hours to the right one. See, I would never— this is something interesting. If you had many years later, this is relevant, is that when I was tested by some psychologists about my ability to close, they put me through a whole battery of these weird tests. And one of them was a mock sale where I had to close someone in an investment type of situation. It was being filmed. Was it like, sell me this pen? They handed me up like sort of some information on the dairy industry, and I had to then convince someone to to open up an account at a firm to manage the money for the dairy industry, right? So they hand me about 10, 12 pages of information, right? And they said, take as much time as you want to study this, and let's see you close this guy, right? So I start reading it, I'm reading it, and I'm reading, right? I start writing down my thoughts. About 30 minutes later, they knock on the door. I'm like, yeah? Said, do you need more time? I said, yeah, just give me another 30 minutes. They said, okay, no problem. 30 minutes goes by, they come back. I said, just give me another 20 minutes. They said, no problem. "Take 20 more minutes." I said, "Give me 15 more minutes." Anyway, after about 2 hours, I said, "I'm ready." And I had wrote myself a really, really, not an exact script, but pretty close to a really killer script with how I would actually engineer the sale from start to finish. You were selling penny stocks? No, no, this I'm talking now is recent, many years back. Oh, recent, okay. But I wanna tell you this 'cause it's relevant. Now, this is in 19, this is like, I think 2010 this happened, with Psychologist being filmed. Oh, okay, this is the later time. I was talking to some guy who was an actor and he was supposed to be the CEO of a dairy company and I was supposed to close him. So we go through this whole thing and I introduce myself and we go through this back and forth, back and forth and they're filming the whole thing. And after about 15 minutes, the guy just, he's like, "Okay, fine, I'll open up an account." And he starts laughing his ass off. So I'm like, "What's so funny?" Psychologists come in, they say, "We told him under no circumstances should he say yes." Yet within 15 minutes he said yes. I don't get it. I said, well, you know, when I got the guy into a situation, did it make sense to say no? He said, well, here's the weird thing. We've tested 100 other people in sales, and no one ever spent more than 5 minutes reading the material. Huh. You spent 2 hours. So preparation, it's some simple fundamentals. Strategic. Well, part of the straight line is about strategic preparation, meaning that you don't— listen, my overriding concept is every sale's the same, right? Yes. And that would seem to be counterintuitive Yes. Because everyone has different needs, different belief systems, right? Different outcomes. But the truth is that every sale is the same. Yes. And I'll explain that a little bit later on in the interview. But it starts with your ability to essentially make an airtight case to someone. Yes. On both a logical and an emotional level, right? Yeah. About, you know, essentially why you're right to want them to do whatever you want them to do. Why does it make sense, right? Yes. And it's got to be an airtight case, and then you have to be able to to also accomplish other things as well. So there's two ways to go about that. One is to wing it, which you might be able to do if you're really, really great, or you can write it down, plan it out. I mean, the second one is where you really start to bring your averages up tremendously. So I'm a big believer in strategic preparation. Raise your standard. Apple, at the core, its core value is that we believe that people with passion can change the world for the better. Not one drop of my self-worth depends on your acceptance of me. I don't ever give up. I'd have to be dead or completely incapacitated.

Hey, Believe Nation, if you want to see my all-time favorite top 10 rules of success, I have a very special secret video for you. These are the individual clips that I have personally learned the most from and applied to my life and my business. Check the link in the description for details.