Mike Andes presents a concise sales framework using a 2×2 continuum: X-axis from complex (left) to simple (right) and Y-axis from pressured (bottom) to relaxed (top). He names the four quadrants: Fear (complex + pressured), Closer (simple + pressured), Jargon (complex + relaxed), and No Brainer (simple + relaxed). He shows a numeric scoring method where sellers self-rate on each axis (percentages) and multiply to estimate how often they operate in each quadrant. He then introduces a fifth aspirational state — Magnetic — where leads come inbound, buyers are pre-disposed to purchase, and no selling pressure or jargon is needed. The talk emphasizes moving toward simplicity and relaxation (top-right) and ultimately magnetizing leads.
Hey everyone, today I'm going to share with you a framework that's really helped me when it comes to sales. Look on the screen here. On the left hand side you can have a very complex way of selling and this is usually very algorithmic. It had a lot of numbers. You go through a whole bunch of different options for customers. On the far right side you can see simplicity. All right, so this is usually going to have less options. You're not going to have a catalog of a million different variations of what you can do for the customer. It's going to be really, really simple. On the top, we have a very relaxed way of selling and this is just a matter of educating the customer, seeing what's best for them and, and giving the information they need to be able to make a buying decision. On the bottom, you have a very pressured way of selling. And this is going to come in the form of really trying to like use sales tactics and like pressure them to close and all the rest of it. I want to look through and see exactly what we can do to actually measure where we fall at on this continuum. We really obviously are trying to go to the top right hand quadrant. We are relaxed and we're selling simply. But let's go ahead and name these different quadrants and then we're actually going to give a score of terms of where you on this quadrant. So I would call this box number one down in the bottom left hand. I'm going to name it number one Fear. So this is going to be where you're selling to customer in a pressured way and it's super complex. And so really the only way to get them to buy is you got to make them afraid. So you put pressure on them to make a decision. You give fear in order to pressure them and then you make it very complex and you tell them that, hey, there's a lot of moving parts here and they there's 500 different options and you just need to trust me. Last contractor, he was horrible. You're using fear to be able to sell. In that case, the second quadrant here in the bottom right hand corner is what I call the closer. And the reason this is called the closer is because you're using pressure. But now it's simple, right? At least now you only have a couple things to purchase for the customer. There's not a whole bunch of different options. It's not confusing. It doesn't take two weeks to create the massive drawing for them. And all these different options and long, long terms and conditions and all this Other garbage. It's super simple, but you are using pressure to get the sales done. Nothing against this, especially when you're young and scrappy. Like being a closer is not a bad thing. And that's get the sale. You're going to use pressure tactics, you're going to use scarcity, you're going to use different forms and ways of making sure they get to a conclusion and you get over objections. You're usually go to their house and knock on their door. Following up relentlessly with text messages, phone calls, emails, going to their house in person, whatever it is, you're the closer. Third is I call jargon. Okay? And this is where it's going to be extremely complex, but it's relaxed. It's like, hey, I'm going to talk all sorts of big words. This is a lot of times where in our industry and home services we can use all sorts of big words to get along with the customer. And we almost kind of just try to wow them into accepting and we're not pressuring them, but we are using a lot of different terminology that they don't understand. They don't understand the types of plants or the types of pavers or the certain brand name or the cut height. They don't really care. You're overly complexifying the process and therefore using a lot of industry knowledge and you create jargon and make things overly complex. The fourth place that we can sell from is what's called the no brainer. Okay? Because at this point it's simple, it's relaxed, the customer, when they're sold, it's like, oh, this makes total sense, it's simple and this person's really nice and they're just selling. To me, this is a no brainer. This is the right contractor for me. This is the right business for me to move forward with. It's an absolute no brainer. I feel comfortable and I can actually understand what they're talking about when it comes to sales. And so we can actually put on a continuum here exactly where you're personally at. So let me switch over to blue and we're going to look at what you can do is actually do scale yourself from 1 to 100 in terms of where, how do you sell. And you might say, well, I kind of sell a little bit more of a pressured feel or I might have a little bit more complexity or et cetera. So let's first off look at, okay, from a complexity and simplicity standpoint, where do you kind of range? Let's just assume that you kind of like hey, well actually on this continuum, I'm looking at this continuum from complex on the left hand side to simplicity. I'm probably like 70% complex, 30% simple. So. Right, so a little bit, I'm a little bit pushing toward the complex side. Okay, great. Now let's look at the Y axis out of this continuum of pressured to relaxed. So at the bottom being very, very pressured, high pressure versus very relaxed and really calm with the customer not trying to push them hard, just educating them, giving them information. Where are we at in this continuum? We could say, let's just say for the sake of numbers, it's 50%. 50%. Well now what you can do is actually come up with a number for every single one of these quadrants. So if you just multiply 50% times 70%, we get 35% and then again this quadrant we have 50%, we have 70%. 35% over here we do 30 by 50. 15 as you can actually see, kind of where you lay on this continuum. That is we, we are definitely tending to over complexify things. We, we're making things too complicated. 35% over here, 35% here. Only 15% of the time we actually in the no brainer phase where we're closing the deal, the customer feels relaxed. We've sold to them. Well, we've informed them, we've given them all the options. It's very simple, it's very clear to them. Now I actually feel there's another spot, a fifth spot we want to be. And this is what I call magnetic. And this is where customers are actually clamoring to come and do business with you. They're actually begging you, like asking, please, I want to come and become a customer. I don't even care about the price. Just put me on the schedule. And this person is the one that is usually referred from other people. They have heard really good things about you. And you don't really have to even sell. There's definitely no need to do any sort of fear tactics or close them. You don't have to use any jargon. They're coming to you. And you actually become a magnet for new leads because they hear about how good work you've done, they hear about the kind of quality, the type of person that you are. They trust you a hundred percent because online, other customers, your reviews point to the fact that you are a trustworthy person. And they don't even need to worry about the other four quadrants. They're coming to you. And that's the way to really sell is magnetize the leads. Some people call this inbound marketing or like, let's get the leads to come to us and like become the magnet. All I care about is that I don't do any selling. I don't have to worry about jargon or fear and closing them or even trying to convince them to the point where they make the decision. It's a no brainer. I want them coming to me wanting to become a customer. That's the easiest sell. So hopefully this is helpful and you can ask yourself like, can I simplify my sales process? Can I relax the customer by reducing options? Can I relax the customer by not using fancy words and big terms and conditions and make them relaxed by doing this? If you can move towards the top right hand corner, I promise you you'll make more sales. And ultimately, if you can get into that beautiful fifth zone of being magnetic. Now you get this engine of leads coming to you instead of you having to go out and hunt for them, search for them, close them, scrape leads. They're coming to you now and that's a beautiful place to be.
