I recently hosted a live workshop with Jerimiah Lancaster, who is a founding partner with me of hubermethod.com, our new sales coaching business. Hundreds of people joined as we discussed sales, how to close, how to gain trust, and our six step sales method. If you have any questions or want to learn more you can reach out to Jerimiah at hubermethod.com.
Raising capital for my first self-storage deal was a classic sales experience. I was reaching out to everybody in my network, sitting down at kitchen tables, and trying to convince people to trust me with their money. I learned that the old school pushy sales techniques didn’t work for me–if I spent half an hour hyping up the deal, the asset class, and promised a great fortune it wouldn’t resonate.
I had to develop a mindset shift. I needed to show potential investors that I mean business and that I can be trusted. I talked about the risk in the market, that we’re exposed to interest rate risk, and talked about the deal horizon and worst case scenarios. As I talked about the negatives, people became more trusting and responsive. Trust is the number one thing people care about when they’re investing their money, so establishing that was key.
Fast forward to today, that shift in sales approach has helped me raise over $40M that I’ve bought over $100M of real estate with. People are used to being sold, they’re being sold something every day. But they’re caught off guard when you’re honest with them and show them that you can be trusted.
Jeremiah and I have developed a system to boost sales for any entrepreneur, and the first three steps have been key to me ever since I raised capital at kitchen tables for that first deal.
- Operate from a point of leverage: Don’t carry a mindset of desperation. If you don’t make this sale, you’re going to be okay. One sale won’t ruin a quarter or your business. Every call that I get on, I tell myself that I don’t need the sale, and that helps me generate respect from investor.
- Establish credibility: You need to show that you’re an expert. People don’t want to brag about themselves, but you need to hype up the size of your business, the size of your team, and the success you’ve had. Land your pitch on what you’re doing and why. You need to do this in the earliest minutes of your call.
- Talk about the negatives: Many entrepreneurs overpromise on what they deliver, which sets themselves up for stress when it comes time to deliver and generates needy customers. Be honest and transparent.
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