Ben Feldman sold $1,800,000,000 of Insurance Policies from 1942 to his death in 1993.

He would literally mesmerize people, and say things they couldn’t say no too.   I’m going to show you some of those secrets here.

I pulled them out of his out of print book going for “$54.98 to $259.79” on Amazon.

Although Feldman didn’t name them, Robert Dilts and Richard Bandler certainly did.

How Ben Feldman Approached People

A bad life insurance salesman calls up and says something like this: ““Hi I’d like to talk with you about life insurance do you have 30 minutes?”.

And the poor guy on the other end of this amateur pitch pukes a little bit and quickly tries to shoo the guy away.

Here’s how Feldman approached the call.

Mr. Jones, I have money for sale.  At a discount.   You’ll need that someday to pay your taxes.  May I present an idea that has been very valuable to a lot of people?

Robert Dilts would recognize this as a “Redefine” sleight of mouth pattern.   Ben redefined insurance as selling money at a discount, and eliminated that objection.

Feldman was renowned for selling high ticket insurance and often ran into the objection “This costs way too much”

He dealt with this using this consequence Sleight of Mouth pattern:

If you can’t put away 3% now, how are you going to find 100% later.

What he meant here was when the person buying insurance died, the creditors would come knocking looking for estate taxes.   And the cash won’t be there.

Anyhow.

When you get good at Sleight of Mouth, you can start weaving persuasive messages as easily as you type.   How do you get good?  Start with my email program here.

Sleight of Mouth Email Course

There are three major objections to sales.

Remove them early in your copy and your response rates climb.

Here’s how to use Sleight of Mouth patterns to do it.   Using these patterns to shatter a belief is like shattering a window.   Sometimes it takes one blow, sometimes it take 3 or 4.   I stick to three in copy.

Let’s shatter some objections!

Let’s sell an accounting service today.

Objection #1:  It’s too expensive.

Apply to self:  Paying 20% of your income in taxes is expensive.

Analogy:  Paying my fee instead is like going from 20% tax rate to a 1% tax rate.

Consequence pattern:   Without my help you’ll pay $128,000 more in taxes than you should, my fee is $6,000.  What is more expensive?

Objection #2: I have to think it over.

Hierarchy of Criteria:  What’s more important to you…getting  back money the government took from you, or thinking about how to get it back?

Counter example:   I had client tell me just the other day, that each day I worked with him saved him $500 a day.   Do you want to get that money now or after you think it over?

Objection #3: I have to discuss it with my spouse / business partner.

Redefine: You are going to show them how you are going to save $500 a day, is that going to take much discussion?

Change Frame Size: Every time your spouse asks why you didn’t discuss it with me, it would be nice to remind her of today when you made a decision that paid for your son’s college tuition.

Summary:   You should assume these objections are in the back of your prospects head.   Attack them early in your sales copy and you will remove barriers to buying and make more sales.

There is a fourth little known objection most copywriters fail to address.   This is especially true when you’re selling an information product.   It’s a huge anchor stopping people from buying, and its a rigid belief requiring surgical word smithing to dislodge.   I discuss it in my Free Sleight of Mouth email course.  Sign up for it here.

Sleight of Mouth Email Course

Today I’m going to show you how to make your claims…twice as believable while mesmerizing people, and I’m going to show you a great way to start a love letter.

Ready?

First a preamble.

Everyone’s brain is as unique as a finger print.   They have built up in their heads a belief system and model of the world which all input gets filtered through.

Like a prism distorts light beams.  This “map of the world” distorts reality.  (Almost all human conflict comes down to not understanding people have different maps)

This is why logical arguments almost never persuade anyone, because the logic gets distorted and twisted by a persons “map” of the world.

If you want to slip suggestions past people’s maps, you have to something my mother did when I needed to take some foul tasting medicine.  You stuff it inside something I liked (like hot dog or a big spoonful of Jello).

One way to do this is a technique called pacing and leading.

A pace is when you say something that is verifiable in your readers (or customers) model of the world.   A lead is when you suggest something you want them to believe.    The more you pace, the more powerful the lead becomes.

Here’s an example, let’s see if we can help sell some Chiropractic services. (The paces are underlined and the lead is bolded)

This is a pace, pace, pace, pace, lead.

Back pain slows you down.  Back pain sufferers can’t stand for long periods of time.  Bending over sends sharp pains up their spines and feelings of frustration because the pain keeps them from playing with their kids.  And a good chiropractor can stop this.

Let’s try a financial advisor appointment fetching letter:

You can get good paces by paying attention to the big news going on.   The news has a huge effect on people’s models of the world (Which is why you shouldn’t pay attention to it).

Another bank fails in the United States.  The stock market is stagnant and people’s savings aren’t growing as fast as they want.  Because of this meeting with a knowledgeable financial planner is more important than ever.

I’m wondering if you are starting to realize just how more powerful claims are, if you pace first.

Ok, let’s get to the…

Love Letter

The goal of this letter should be to make your partner feel loved.  Sometimes they don’t believe, a simple “I love your more than anything”.     So let’s use our pacing first to make the “I love you” twice as powerful.

Dear Zelda,

We’ve been together for 7 months now.    I am not perfect.  You know I tend to leave my clothes hanging around, and I tend to leave my dishes sitting out.   You handle my minor video game addiction like a champ, and you cheer me on when I’m playing my friends.  And you should know “I love you more than anything”….

Simple stuff…Super powerful.

A simple pace, pace then lead isn’t going to do a full selling job for you.

It is just another brick in the road leading your prospect from a state of not wanting your service to a state of wanting it.    Good paces require research into the person you are writing to.   Something most copywriters do not do.

In summary:

Take a look at the major claims you are making in your web pages, sales letters and emails.  Try and soften the blow by pacing first.  It makes arguments very compelling, and will boost your sales.

Peace.

P.S.

If you’re thinking of hiring a copywriter then you should give me a shout by following this link.   Talk to Ian about a copywriting project.

Let’s get things straight:

If you present well,  and demonstrate such a high value then price should not come.   But sometimes…people get to the end and they say, I just think it’s too expensive.

So, we’ll go back to our handy friend Sleight of Mouth and silently kill the objection.

Here’s how.

You’re customer says “The house is too expensive”

You pace (never tell people they are wrong, you’ll snap rapport and lose the power of influence).

“You’re right, this house has a lot of value”. – This is a simple redefine of expensive means high value.

“The additional monthly cost to your mortgage is $127.   Which is almost the price of a Starbucks coffee each day” – this is a change of frame size where they can see the costs each day are less.

“What’s more important to you, saving the price of a Starbucks latte each day or having a home with the backyard overlooking the ocean and mountains like you’ve always wanted”  – this is a hierarchy of criteria and I assume ocean and mountains is an important criteria.

When you use Sleight of Mouth it can take 1 pattern or 3, never usually more than 4.   The more you stack the more the objection disappears.

It works like magic and will lubricate social friction for the rest of your life.   If you’d like to get good at it, real fast then you should read about my Sleight of Mouth course here.

Did you know Alzheimer’s victims (even ones in the later stages of the disease)have a remarkable ability to remember songs… even when they can’t remember the names of their kids.

It’s true.

And, the reason why can help glue people to your sales message and help you sell like free money.

A mistake everyone makes in their elevator pitch!

Listen:  Has someone ever asked you what you do and you go on to say:

“I am a lawyer”

“I am a real estate agent who helps people buy their dream home”

“I am copywriter”

“I am a recently graduated engineer….”

Have you?

Well…you are a certified hypnotherapist because the moment you say that people zone out and say too themselves “I don’t need it” and move on.

Test this yourself.  Next time you’re talking with someone you give that answer to…if they start saying a lot of “Uh huh…uh huh…yep”.

That’s code for I’m dreaming of a beer and my couch, and your words aren’t even going in my ear.  (You should shut up at this point and get them talking).

So how do you make your message stick?

How do you give your message the impact of a Mike Tyson uppercut?

Here’s the truth.

You see.   The reason Alzheimers patients can remember songs, is because the songs stir up emotion.

And your elevator speech, marketing communications and sales pitches (in fact all good writing) has to stir the emotions.

First tip:   Never say “I am”.   It’s flaccid, weak and should be reserved for soul less government bureaucrats.

Second: Use hard numbers wherever you can.   We’re trained by the media to look for specifics.

Let me give you some examples:

“I am a divorce lawyer” can become “I negotiate for battered women and on average hand them $86,000 a year income for life and full custody of their kids”

“I am a wedding DJ” can become “I lead 500 people on to a dance floor and keep them there for 4 hours.”

“I am a business coach” can become “I speed up retirement for business owners on average 8 years and help them sell their businesses for 567% of their annual revenue.”

“I am a real estate agent” can become “I take people who are renting, and turn their monthly rent payments into a mortgage payment for a home 10 times the size of their apartment.”

Think of that opening sentence as a knife wound.   You want people squirming and uncomfortable.   That discomfort will glue them to you.  And make them want to BUY from you.

Anyhow that’s it for now.   One more before you go.

Here’s one of my pitches for my Vancouver Copywriting business:  I create an extra $50,000 a month in sales for small business by making Google their best salesman.

Peace.

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