Dan Lok

7 Costly Mistakes In Your Sales Process

December 28, 2019 by Dan Lok

In a business, your sales process is one of the key structures that determines your revenue growth. It’s a proven series of repeatable steps from start to finish, outlining the closing of a deal.

Unfortunately, many business owners don’t have a proven sales process. In fact, ⅔ salespeople don’t follow a proven sales process when doing business. They use spur of the moment strategies to try to close deals, which never works well.

If you don’t plan for success, you’ll never achieve it. Companies that have a proven sales process outperform those that don’t, and having a proven sales process will help in closing more deals and securing more customers. If your sales aren’t doing so well and you’re looking to change things up, here are 7 Costly Mistakes to avoid in your sales process.

1. You Use Old Traditional Methods

The old methods of doing sales involve talking to a prospect, telling them the benefits of your product and then following up with them if they aren’t ready to buy. If you’ve ever tried this approach, you would soon discover it doesn’t work very well.

As time goes on everything evolves. Your old proven sales process may have worked before, but in today’s time it is now obsolete and replaced by newer strategies and methods. Customers can smell a salesman from a mile away, and if they feel they are being sold to, will quickly back off and go somewhere else.

Your prospects are getting smarter every year, as they encounter more and more salespeople every single day. They’ve been exposed to dozens of different marketing and sales techniques, and know them well. If you’re trying the same old tricks to get them to buy, they’ll know it immediately.

“The customer is not a moron. She’s your wife.” – David Ogilvy

The customer is not a moron. She's your wife. Share on X

2. You Have Salespeople, Not Closers

There are two kinds of people in sales: Salespeople and closers.

Salespeople are concerned only with getting the sale. To salespeople, they only succeed when the customer buys. And in order to make that happen, they’ll use every trick in the book.

However, your customer has been sold to so many times they know exactly what you are doing. If you try to use aggressive selling tactics or push them into buying something they aren’t ready to buy, you’ve just lost a potential customer.

Closers are like salespeople, except they don’t try to sell anything. Instead of doing what every other salesperson in the market does, the closer simply does two things: Ask questions and listens.

By asking deep questions and listening carefully, a closer is able to lead the conversation and the prospect to a close. Closers are in no rush to make a sale, and understand that if a prospect isn’t ready to buy now, they might do so in a few weeks. By not trying to push a sale, they leave an opportunity open for future business.

3. Unsure Of Your Desired Customer

Do you know what your optimal customer is like? Their needs, desires, objections, fears and worries?

Your desired customer is the type of customer you are targeting. In today’s world, people are bombarded 24/7 with advertisements, marketing tactics and commercials. Especially with the rise of technology and social media sites like Facebook, they see an ad every single day.

If your ad does not cater to their demographic specifically, it will be ignored. A banner targeting ‘pet owners’ will perform much worse than a banner that specifically targets ‘cat lovers’. Get very specific on who your customer is, and know them inside and out. That way, you’ll be able to handle any objections they have before they even open their mouth.

4. Your Leads Are Cold, Not Warm

Cold leads are every salesperson’s nightmare. Picking up the phone to dial a number to someone who’s never heard of you is going to frustrate both you and the person you are calling.

Warm leads on the other hand, are people who have already shown interest in your product or service. These people are much more likely to be more receptive towards your advances, as they are expecting it. Research shows that cold leads only have a 1-3% success rate. With warm leads, this number jumps up to 40%.

Instead of calling a stranger and interrupting their day, have them contact you instead. Remember that if you are calling them, you are a salesperson. But if they are calling you, you are the authority figure.

5. Neediness

If you are too eager to close a sale, your prospect can smell it. Neediness is one of the biggest turn offs to a prospect in business. It implies that you are desperate to make the sale, and will influence you to use pushy tactics in order to do so.

Neediness comes from not knowing your own value. During a prospect interaction, you want to be qualifying the prospect, not the other way around. You should be trying to find out if they can afford your services and if they’d be a good fit to work with. If all you think about is closing the sale, you might just get it – and end up with a difficult client.

When it comes to closing deals, have the mindset that it’s okay to walk away. You don’t have to close every single person you meet.

Have the mindset to walk away from a deal. It's okay to say no to a bad fit. Share on X

6. Spending Too Much Time On Trivial Tasks

You make money when you close. And to close a deal, you need to use that time to be selling. The problem is that most sales teams are spending too much time on tasks other than selling.

Things like data entry, sending emails and making phone calls (especially cold calls), take up valuable time. Instead of wasting time on these trivial tasks, delegate the task or better – automate it. Invest in software that automates these tasks, freeing up your time to sell and generate revenue. The amount of time saved that can be used to interact with prospects and build relationships far outweighs the investment required. Leverage time as your most important asset, as money can always be made back.

7. No Commitment And Poor Closing Ability

“I need some time to think about it.”

“Okay sure, when you’ve thought about it please get back to me.”

How many times has a prospect said this?

99% of the time when a prospect says they want to think about it they are saying no. They just don’t want to hurt your feelings, and instead say they need some time.

Think about it like this: If I offered you a million dollars right now, what would you say? Most likely you would respond with HELL YES! Could you imagine someone saying “I’ll think about your offer”? It makes no sense. If your prospect is truly interested in what you have to offer, there should be no hesitation. If they are hesitating, either you as a salesperson are not selling the product well enough or the prospect is not interested.

In fact, poor closing ability is one of the biggest reasons why sales are lost. 12% of salespeople are excellent, 23% are good, 38% are average, and 27% are poor. Every sale that is lost amounts to thousands in lost revenue a month, hundreds of thousands a year, and millions over a prolonged duration. Your proven sales process may bring results, but if your salespeople don’t know how to close, it is useless.

In the rare situation that a prospect truly needs time to discuss it with a business partner, you can ask them if it’s okay to follow up in a few days time. Set the date and time, to let them know you are expecting them to make their decision by then. By making your prospect give you a commitment, they are much more likely to follow through instead of wasting your time.

The One Thing Business Owners Lack In Their Sales Process

Business owners focus too much on their sales process. If they aren’t making enough revenue, they look to bring in more leads. If prospects aren’t willing to buy, they offer incentives like discounts and special deals. Some even go so far as to completely redo their entire sales process from start to end.

They focus all their time on these things, but forget the most important rule of sales. In sales it’s all about closing. Instead of trying to bring in more leads, increase your closing ratio. The more deals you close, the more revenue you bring in. The more revenue there is, the faster your business can grow. And the more your business grows, the more freedom you have to expand on things and try out new strategies.

Most business owners don’t realize it’s their sales teams ability to close that affects the sales process. They think the process needs to be changed, when in reality it’s all about the salesperson. Your sales team should be closing a majority of the deals they do – if they aren’t they need help.

Be a High Ticket Closer, Not A Salesperson

If you are unsatisfied with your sales team’s closing ratio, focus on being a closer instead of acting as a salesperson.

A closer does not sell. Instead, they lead the conversation in a way to get the prospect to close themselves. They do this by doing 4 things:

1) They find out your needs

They do this by asking questions and finding out what you’re looking for. This is known as pre-qualifying, to see if you and your prospect would be a good fit.

2 They find out your problems

The second thing closers do, is identify problems. For example, if you are selling B2B lead generation services, you want to find out how their leads are currently doing. Are they bringing in enough leads? Do they need warmer leads? Are they targeting the right people? Closers find out their problems so they know what to focus on.

3) They paint a picture

Once you find out their needs and problems, you paint a picture. “Could you see how X service could help you bring in more leads?” “How would warm leads help you with your closing ratio?” By painting a picture for them to imagine, you are allowing them to visualize the outcome of what would happen if they were to work with you, leading them closer to where you want them to be.

4) They close the deal

You know their needs. You’ve identified their problems. And you’ve shown them how your product or service can help.

If your prospect is truly interested, at this point they should already be ready to buy. There’s only one thing left to do: Close the deal. This is done by asking them one simple question.

And this question, is one that many inexperienced salespeople mess up – resulting in the entire conversation going nowhere. That’s why over the years, I’ve put together something called ‘The Perfect Closing Script’, that outlines the entire sales process and what to say from beginning to end. Forget old school sales techniques, hard selling and proving to the prospect why you are the best choice. The Perfect Closing Script turns the tables and makes the prospect do the talking – they give you the answers to their own questions. If you want to know more about the Perfect Closing Script, click here to learn more now.

The Competitive Advantages Of A High Ticket Business System

December 27, 2019 by Dan Lok

One of the most profitable and effective business models is a high ticket business system.

The problem is that most business owners believe that low ticket is the way to go. They don’t understand how high ticket business systems work. When they run into the inevitable obstacles that hinder business growth, only then do they realize they made the wrong decision.

The Biggest Problem With Low Ticket Business Systems

Low ticket business systems focus on high volume and low prices. This is the most common type of system used in business and is driven by price. Low ticket business systems cater to the ‘discount’ shoppers, that value price over quality and features.

Image credit: ZDL / Shutterstock.com

The problem is that this kind of system is very saturated. Because their target audience caters to people who are most concerned with price, businesses use this motivation to steal customers from their competitors by pricing their products lower. This is why you sometimes see price wars between two businesses that sell similar products – constantly offering sales, discounts and BUY ONE GET ONE FREE special offers, because they are forced to do so in order to stay relevant to what everyone else is offering.

Low ticket business systems often have a lot of competition and many even go on to fail. The last one left standing is the business that can afford to price their products lower than everyone else, and must constantly be on the lookout for any competitors looking to offer their products at an even cheaper price.

Low ticket business systems win by pricing themselves cheaper than everyone else. Share on X

An In-Depth Look At High Ticket Business Systems

Low ticket business systems focus on high volume and low prices, whereas high ticket business systems do the exact opposite. Instead of having price wars every month with their competitors, high ticket business systems focus on branding, positioning, quality and expanding their following.

Image credit: joyfull / Shutterstock.com

High ticket business systems sacrifice volume for higher prices. While high ticket business systems may sell less products, their higher costs make up for the difference in volume and allow them to stay relevant to their competitors. Their target audience leans towards more affluent and wealthy customers, who are less concerned with getting the best deal and more concerned with quality and wearing something that is reputable and famous.

Low vs. High Ticket – Who Wins?

At a glance it may seem that low and high ticket are equally matched. One systems sells more volume at lower prices, and the other at low volume and high prices. The differences in revenue should be roughly equal.

However, when you compare a low ticket to a high ticket business system, the difference is shocking. Take Walmart for example – they use a low ticket business system and can be found all over the world, focusing on delivering the lowest price possible to their consumers. Their net worth: $514.405 billion.

Compare this to a company like Apple which uses a high ticket business system. Their branding and focus on producing innovative, top of the line products has made them famous international. Many of their products are over $500 and their net worth: $1 trillion.

Apple uses a high ticket business system, and has a net worth almost double of that of Walmart. This is because there is more going on behind the scenes than just price, sales and revenue.

Why I Believe In High Ticket Business Systems

I personally believe Apple has a much greater net worth than Walmart due to their business system.

The major benefit of having a high ticket business system is that you are able to sell less volume. In order for Walmart to generate $1,000 in revenue, they would need to sell $10 worth of items 100 times. For Apple, they simply need to sell one iPhone 11 to generate that same kind of revenue.

High ticket business systems require less sales to be made but generate the same revenue as a low ticket business system. Share on X

The other benefit of a high ticket business system, is that you are not influenced by the competition. As I mentioned earlier, low ticket business systems are constantly at war with one another when it comes to price. They are constantly forced to lower their prices and offer discounts, to cater to their audience and beat the competition.

However, high ticket business systems do not have to worry about price. Customers expect to pay those prices in order to obtain quality. A few dollars worth of discounts from a rival technology company, will not influence anyone in an Apple store line up to give up their spot on the launch day of the newest iPhone.

The Long Term Benefits Of A High Ticket Business System

Starting a business with a high ticket business system allows you to position yourself on a better level. High ticket systems allows you to maintain your prices or increase them without customer backlash as economic times change.

High ticket items rely on less volume of sales and more on what item is being bought. By doing so, they can reduce overhead expenses. That is why you see jewelry stores with small shops still operating even after many years. Their focus on selling high ticket items means they don’t need a large store size in order to operate. Whereas low ticket systems like a grocery store requires much more space.

The ability to be flexible with your price, expenses, target audience, and business location is invaluable in business. You are not restricted by any external factors, and have the freedom to run your business the way you want.

HTC Platinum – The Closing Methodology For High Ticket Items

Because high ticket items target a different kind of customer, a different approach when it comes to sales is required. Where aggressive and pushy sales tactics would be involved when it comes to selling low ticket items, influence and persuasion is used with high ticket items.

The key to selling high ticket items, is being able to lead the customer to a close. Most often the customer is already ready to buy, and is simply looking for reassurance about their decision. They need someone who knows how to ask deep questions, reinforce their desires, and lead them to the sale. The kind of personality and mindset necessary to succeed in high ticket sales is a high ticket closer.

HTC Platinum teaches entrepreneurs how to become high ticket closers and master the B2B sales processes. Applicants also learn inbound and outbound techniques, advanced business acumen, and connects them to the highest caliber coaches that will raise their performance in both life and business. What they develop is the same skill sets that the “elite” learn to become high performers. They receive a holistic, synergistic, and foundational training to become a well-rounded person, leader, salesperson, business owner and closer.

High Ticket Closing Is Only For The Elite

However, not everyone is cut out to be a high ticket closer. Just as some businesses opt to use a low ticket business system because there is a lower barrier to entry, high ticket closing is reserved for people who are able to tolerate a higher degree of failure.

The true nature of life is that only a few people will become successful. Only those that are absolutely committed to achieving success in their life and business, and are willing to do anything it takes to get there will make it happen. If you are someone who does not invest in themselves but buys luxury items without hesitation, believes that you should succeed because you “paid” for it, or does not have the resolve to endure failure, high ticket closing is not a good fit.

However, if you are someone who knows success is a result of hard work, who knows the value of investing in their own skills and has an unshakable drive to make your dream lifestyle a reality, you just might be able to become a high ticket closer. For those that are looking to use their newfound skills to secure deals and business agreements to set themselves up for life, HTC Platinum provides a community of high performers who can help you get there.

Become A High Ticket Closer Today

A high ticket business system focuses on low volume and higher priced items. They cater to more affluent and wealthy customers, and have much more leeway when it comes to doing business. By focusing on quality over quantity, businesses can use superior positioning and branding to maintain their prices even during times of economic change without lowering the values that govern their business.

If you are interested in learning how to become a high ticket closer, to learn how the high ticket sales process works and how you can transform your life into that of a high ticker closer that uses their skills and status to become successful, click here to watch the video.

How To Reduce Customer Churn and Get More People To Care About Your Business

December 25, 2019 by Dan Lok

Customer churn is one of the biggest influences that causes businesses to stagger in growth or outright go bankrupt.

Without customers a business cannot survive. And the problem is that more and more business owners are focusing on their bottom life instead of an old age saying that is true even to this day:

The customer is king.

What Causes Customer Churn?

Customer churn occurs when a business does not value their customers. This is a common problem among businesses that have employees. The owner may do everything in their power to ensure customer satisfaction, but their employees may not feel the same way.

They may hate their job or be overwhelmed by stress and project their emotions onto the customer. As a result, customer service and overall experience goes down, making customers feel unappreciated and motivated to go somewhere else. Overtime, through repeated negative experiences the customer becomes fed up. And when the time comes that they are presented with an experience that treats them much better, they will happily accept it as their new go to service provider.

Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or product. Instead, they stay loyal with companies due to the experience they receive. If you cannot keep up with their increasing demands, your customers will leave you.

Customers no longer base their loyalty on price or product - they base it on the experience they receive Share on X

Understanding Your Customers

In order to avoid customer churn and retention issues, the simplest and most effective way is to place yourself in your customer’s shoes. The interesting part is, you are already doing it.

When you visit shops, stores, and are provided with customer service, how do you feel? You and your customer are both human beings – and the experiences you have with the employees you interact with tell you how other customers feel as well. The same goes for your business – to identify and solve inconsistencies that are causing customers to go somewhere else, go through the process yourself.

Have your own employees serve you. Take note of the entire experience – how do they make you feel? Do you feel rushed and ignored? Are they attentive to your needs? Do they go above and beyond to ensure your satisfaction?

The easiest way to know what the customer wants, is to go through it yourself. After all, you are a customer as well, and how you feel is a good indicator of how your customer will feel as well.

The simplest way to know how the customer feels is to go through it yourself. Share on X

Making Customers Feel Like Royalty

Your customers are the lifeline of your business. They provide you with revenue, repeated business year after year, and either recommend you to their friends and family, or inform them to stay away. Taking care of your customers should be the most important priority if you want to avoid customer churn.

In Japan, they take this concept of customer satisfaction extremely seriously. They have a saying called Okyakusama wa kamisamadesu – which translates to “The Customer is God”. Forget being treated like royalty – the Japanese take it to a whole new level, literally worshipping their customers as someone they cannot bear to live without. Which in business is very true, because without them you would have no business.

Understanding your customers is the first step to making them feel like royalty (or omni-potent beings). Every human being has a desire to be understood and accepted, and if you are able to demonstrate that kind of care and compassion for your customers, they will feel exhilarated from the amount of attention being provided to them.

When your customers feel you understand and care for them – something that your competitors may slack out on, you’ll gain their trust and loyalty. That results in more and more business overtime, to allow your business to grow and thrive.

How High Ticket Closers Create Genuine Customer Loyalty

To create the same kind of customer service that makes customers revere you as their dream service provider, think of every interaction in your business process as an opportunity. In sales, this is known as being a high ticket closer.

The difference between a salesperson and a high ticket closer, is in their approach. A salesperson is concerned with closing the deal, and getting the customer to buy something. They may use pushy or aggressive sales tactics to get this result, and in the process make the customer feel turned off and unwilling to return. This increases customer churn.

A high ticket closer however, is in no rush to get the sale. They focus more on customer interaction and building a solid connection with them, because they are aware that genuine customer relationships pay off much more in the long term. A high ticket closer asks questions to understand the customer on a deep level, and uses that mutual understanding to make the customer trust and like them. High ticket closers know that a customer that knows, likes and trusts them, is much more likely to buy than someone who doesn’t.

The 3 Long Term Benefits Of High Ticket Closing

Because customers buy from people they know, like and trust, being that kind of person has many long term benefits.

The first way is that they are more likely to buy from you over everyone else, which increases your sales and revenue.

The second way is that loyal customers are going to keep coming back to you year after year, because of how you make them feel. They are going to recommend their friends and family to do business with you, because of the excellent service you provide. This compounds on itself, bringing you more and more business overtime and growing your base of loyal customers.

The third way is that you will never have to sell again. There is no customer churn, because your customers are loyal and like you – they already want to do business with you. When the time comes that you have a new product or service to offer, you already have a list of customers who are willing to buy from you. You don’t need to spend time doing cold calls, using hard sell sales tactics or even trying to persuade them into doing anything – they are already interested in what you have to offer and willing to buy.

Customers buy from people they know, like, and trust. Share on X

Why High Ticket Closing Is Not For Everyone

Unfortunately, this way of doing business is not cut out for everyone. As high ticket closing is more focused on creating relationships, using influence to close deals and developing genuine customer loyalty, there is a bit more work involved.

In order to be someone that people know, like and trust, you need to develop the kind of skills that make people flock to you. This means taking the time to improve your communication abilities such as speaking, storytelling and listening in order to establish trust at the highest level. In the world of business, this is known as personal development.

Personal development is a lifelong process that never ends. Humans are capable of much more than they think they can do, which is why most people fall short of their abilities. They think that investing in themselves to become the best version of themselves takes too much time, and would much rather settle to be a mediocre version of who they truly are. Some examples of this are are people saying things like:

“I was born this way.”

“I’m too old to learn anything new.”

“That takes too much time. I’d rather enjoy life”

“I’m lazy”

As a result, many people live below their means and never truly realize their fullest potential. They never discover what they could become, and instead opt to make excuses to make up for their shortcomings.

Why Successful People Never Stop

The opposite kind of person, is someone who never stops. These kind of people never give up, who take every single day as an opportunity to improve their life, skills, abilities and mindset in order to become the best version they possibly are.

They have the mindset that anything is possible as long as they are willing to put in the work to make it happen – and often do. As Steve Jobs said, “The people who think they are crazy enough to change the world, are often the ones who do.”

They don’t make excuses for their shortcomings, and instead find ways to overcome them. Instead, they turn their weaknesses into strengths, and use them to enhance their life, business and relationships. As a result, they are able to experience everything life has to offer.

That is the mentality of a high ticket closer – someone who never stops trying to make themselves better in any way possible. They are constantly learning new skills, trying new things, and getting out of their comfort zone. They understand that it is the only way to develop the skills and habits that make other people gravitate towards them. As a result, people find themselves naturally drawn to these kind of people, without knowing why. Often the reason is because of all the work this person does behind the scenes, to get them to where they are.

HTC Platinum – A Long Term Business Strategy

That is why our newest program, HTC Platinum reflects this. In order to accommodate for the philosophies that create highly successful individuals that are able to build trust and loyalty with people, HTC Platinum embodies these principles into it’s training’s.

Applicants are taken through a rigorous 7 week program that teaches them the fundamentals of business acumen, B2B sales, inbound and outbound sales techniques and closing ultra high ticket deals. They receive a holistic, synergistic, and foundational training to become a well-rounded person, leader, salesperson, business owner and closer, with an additional 4 weeks of valuable B2B content afterwards.

Inside our community, members are given special access to trainings that help them develop their leadership skills, personal coaching at the highest caliber, as well as group classes to hold themselves accountable to ensure success. Additional resources include productivity sheets and goal and progress tracking to ensure every member is performing at their peak level, to turn them into the type of people who possess the skills and abilities to secure deals and business agreements that set themselves up for life – such as celebrities and public figures.

Bonuses also include priority access to the “Discord Batline” – an exclusive communication platform that allows them to connect with the internal members on Team Dan Lok.

Implement High Ticket Closing In Your Business

High ticket closers use their skills and abilities to create trust and loyalty with customers. They reduce customer churn and make customers more likely to do business with them year after year. Customers also recommend them to their friends and family – resulting in more repeat business over the years. This increases customer retention, and increases their overall experience to influence them to choose you over the competition.

If you are ready to implement high ticket closing into your business, relationships and life, click here to watch the video now.

How Influencers Are Using Negative Attention To Create The Bandwagon Effect, And Why It Works

December 21, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

Social media influencers have a lot of tricks up their sleeves when it comes to getting more followers, more engagement, more likes, more shares, and more exposure. Figuring out a way to create the bandwagon effect is one of the ways rising influencers gain momentum – but is this a good way to grow your following? Before we get into that, let’s talk about what the bandwagon effect is.

Whenever you do something simply because “everyone else is doing it,” you are shamelessly riding the bandwagon.

The bandwagon effect is a psychological phenomenon characterized by the increase in the probability that an individual will adopt certain beliefs or follow certain trends, simply due to the fact that a large number of other people are doing it.

People will ride the bandwagon in order to follow the crowd. The thing is, they’ll do this even if the crowd’s beliefs oppose their own true beliefs.

When you see that an influencer’s post got a lot of retweets on Twitter, you’ll be more likely to retweet their post. If you notice that most people are cheering for a particular team at a sports event, you’ll be more likely to cheer on that particular team. This is often called “hopping on the bandwagon” or, “jumping on the bandwagon”.

The Bandwagon Effect Requires Social Proof

Without social proof, the bandwagon effect won’t be easily achieved. But what exactly is social proof?

Social proof is based on the concept that human beings tend to follow the actions of the masses, or follow the crowd. We tend to rely on social cues – or social proof – to make our decisions. And, we tend to conform to whatever the majority is doing or thinking.

We tend to rely on social cues to make our decisions, which is why social proof is so important for influencers and brands. Share on X

When deciding what to buy, what to think, and how to act, do you rely too heavily on social cues? Do you look to see how others are reacting, before deciding how you are going to react? Have you noticed a strong desire to conform to whatever seems to be the popular choice or the socially acceptable decision? If so, you’re one of the millions of bandwagoners who make the bandwagon effect work.

When people see social proof that there are a large number of people doing something, or an influential person is doing something, they’re more likely to hop on the bandwagon and join in. Some people call this ‘following the crowd’, others call this the ‘herd mentality’, and others call this ‘riding the bandwagon.’

Examples of Social Proof at Work

If an influencer already has 1 million followers, you’re more likely to want to follow them, right? And if an influencer’s product already has thousands of online reviews, you’ll be more likely to buy it, correct? Similarly, we’re more likely to buy a book on Amazon that has lots of reviews from the public, or has been endorsed by a celebrity. Statistically, 91% of 18-34-year-olds trust online social proof reviews as much as recommendations from someone close to them. We also tend to trust endorsements from public figures.

When you choose to buy a product because a popular social media influencer or a celebrity has endorsed it, that is social proof at work. Similarly, when you choose to sign up for an influencer’s master class because you see that 10,000 people have already signed up, that too is social proof working its magic.

Social proof is also at play when you decide to wait for a table to eat at a busy restaurant, instead of eating at the restaurant next door with plenty of empty tables available. But what if that empty restaurant actually served better food? Why is it that instead of finding out, we’re more likely to follow the crowd?

Relying On Social Proof Indicates Low Self-Esteem and a Desire to Fit In

Your innate desire to fit in with the rest of the crowd affects your purchasing decisions. Your desire to fit in also affects your decision to adopt a particular belief or take a particular action.

Why do so many people refer to how others are reacting, before deciding how to react themselves? The answer could have a lot to do with low self-esteem.

When someone is motivated to fit in with the rest of the crowd, or hesitant to decide their own reaction independent of the reaction of others, does that indicate low self-confidence?

What if your actual desire was the opposite of what the majority of people were doing? Or, what if you thought the decision the masses were making was actually a pretty stupid decision? Would you adopt the herd mentality, and base the validity of that decision on the number of people doing it? We have already established that doing something simply because everyone else is doing it, is the epitome of riding the bandwagon.

In fact, wouldn’t you agree that not doing something that everyone else is doing, requires a high level of self-confidence? To intentionally be the odd one out – to be okay with not fitting in – that, to me, is admirable.

Using Negative Attention to Your Advantage

You’ve probably heard the expression, “All press is good press”, and “There’s no such thing as bad publicity”, right? But is bad press ever really a good thing?

Some influencers think negative attention can be a good thing, and later in this article I’m going to reveal my true thoughts on the matter. But first, let’s discuss whether or not there’s any truth to the concept that “All press is good press”. Is negative attention ever advantageous for influencers?

When you ‘hop on the bandwagon’ by bad-mouthing a public figure on social media, because everyone else is bad-mouthing that public figure, you’re just giving them more exposure and promoting their brand. When a YouTube video goes viral, it’s generally considered a good thing, even if it went viral because people were making fun of it or shaming it.

Influencers are Leveraging ‘Outrage Culture’ and Using ‘Outrage Marketing’ to Get Attention

Outrage culture, also known as call-out culture, is a form of public shaming, popular among millennial social media users. In today’s outrage culture, it’s completely normal for social media users to identify social media posts that are offensive, repost them, and “call out” whoever originally posted it to publicly shame them.

Stirring up controversy is something many influencers do intentionally, to gain exposure in the media, and leverage outrage culture. Some influencers are hoping that what they post will result in a Twitterstorm of absolute outrage. If that’s what it takes to stand out and be noticed, they’re willing to do it, and it becomes part of their influencer marketing strategy.

Stirring up controversy is something many influencers do intentionally, to leverage outrage culture and gain exposure in the media. Share on X

Sheer outrage can be a driving force, and people are inclined to share negative stories and spread the negative virality.

Ryan Holiday, former Director of Marketing for American Apparel said, “What some marketers have realised is that with polarising products and campaigns, they can use the outrage – real or sincere – of their opponents to hijack the media and get attention.”

The question is, is this form of outrage marketing ethical? And let’s say you don’t care about ethics, then let me ask you a different question. It may have worked once or twice, but is this marketing tactic sustainable?

It’s my belief that when outrage marketing becomes more widely understood, people will stop falling for it. It’s therefore certainly not a sustainable marketing tactic. It’s also not typically an ethical one.

You might be wondering why outrage culture has become a thing. The truth is, getting outraged over minor controversy online is a welcome distraction from people’s real problems. It’s also an easier and less thought-provoking outlet for people’s outrage, as compared to getting outraged over real problems such as war, poverty, or violence.

The Masses Project Negative Emotions Onto Social Media Influencers

People project negative emotions onto social media influencers because they function from a lower state of being. They are generally angry, sad, moody or depressed in their own lives, and outrage culture provides them with an outlet to get angry.

Many people tend to be focused on the media’s negative stories, and influencer marketing campaigns take advantage of this knowledge. Like I said earlier, people are inclined to share negative stories and spread negative virality – especially if they themselves are in a bad mood.

Rather than work on improving their own lives, many people would rather call out worse offenders than themselves. This distracts them from their own issues.

Famous Examples of Influencers Who Used Negative Attention to Create a Bandwagon Effect

In recent years, one of the most famous examples of an influencer who used negative attention to her advantage, was Nicole Arbour and her viral video, “Dear Fat People”.

People weren’t really talking about the Canadian comedian Nicole Arbour until she released her YouTube video, “Dear Fat People” which today has amassed over 14 million views on YouTube.

Does it surprise you that it was all a marketing scheme? In an interview with Cosmopolitan, Arbour admitted that “Dear Fat People” was a pre-planned marketing scheme, and that the highly controversial video changed her life financially, as she predicted it would. The short “Dear Fat People” video. She also boasted about film and TV offers that came after that video’s release. “Dear Fat People” launched Arbour’s career, all because of the negative attention it amassed.

Logan Paul is another controversial YouTuber and influencer who has over 20 million subscribers on YouTube.

In late 2017, Paul posted a video which showed a dead body in Japan’s “Suicide Forest,” which spurred outrage online. Paul was accused of making light of suicide. Paul later posted an apology video which garnered over 56 million views, and his following only continued to increase.

Was it all an elaborate marketing scheme? And if so, did it work? As a result of the offensive video, YouTube removed Logan Paul from the Google Preferred program. This of course had a negative effect on his ad revenue.

Paul, however, continued to gain more and more exposure, and make more and more money, despite all of this backlash. People kept buying his online merchandise and kept engaging with him online. This year, he was announced by Business Insider as being one of the world’s highest-paid YouTube stars.

Logan Paul Says His Haters React Exactly How He Wants Them to React

What does Logan Paul have to say about this? “I bank on the naivety of old people and millennials, to perpetuate my brand, make me go viral and keep me relevant,” Paul recently told his podcast, ImPaulsive, later explaining that he has earned hundreds of thousands of dollars, “Because of the haters.”

Of his often outraged haters, Paul said it’s unlikely they’ll catch on that it’s all a marketing scheme, and even if they do, his followers are still reacting exactly how he wants them to react.

Of his haters, Paul said on his podcast, “I’m so confident that they will never, ever catch on – and if they do, their desire to do the bandwagon-type action and bandwagon tweets trumps their ability to go, ‘You know, if I don’t like Logan Paul, the most effective way for me to show my disdain is to be indifferent and not talk about it.’”

What would happen if people showed their disdain for Logan Paul by not talking about him? The bandwagon effect wouldn’t take place, and Logan Paul wouldn’t achieve his desired result.

People Jump Off The Bandwagon Just As Fast As They Jumped On

Influencers who think using the bandwagon effect is good for their online presence need to figure out a more sustainable way to gain media exposure.

People hop off the bandwagon just as fast as they hopped on. Influencers need a more sustainable marketing strategy than the bandwagon effect. Share on X

If you’re a social media influencer considering this marketing tactic, you might be wondering: Why is the bandwagon effect unsustainable? Firstly, it’s because people will jump off the bandwagon just as fast as they jumped on. There’s another bandwagon ready to pick them up that has nothing to do with your brand, and the cycle continues.

In The End, Negative Marketing Hurts Your Brand

In the long run, negative attention hurts your brand more than it helps it. Negative attention is good for brand exposure, but it’s not good for brand image.

Using negative attention and the bandwagon effect might work once or twice. You might get noticed and gain exposure. But if you keep doing it, your brand’s reputation probably won’t be able to uphold itself.

Many consumers view negative marketing as manipulative. You don’t want your brand to appear to be unethical or manipulative, do you?

Negative Marketing is Not Financially Sustainable

Are you a rising influencer, looking to grow your following and monetize your social media platforms? I have millions of followers on social media, and over 2 million subscribers on YouTube. I didn’t gain those followers through negative marketing. Curious how I did it?

Influencers or entrepreneurs can build their communities through a more ethical and sustainable way than through negative marketing or the bandwagon effect. Enroll in my 12-Week Intensive High-Ticket Influencer Program. Do you want to grow a loyal following, and learn how to build a real business around your brand? If so, my program will provide you with the tools required to do so.

How To Use The Process Of High Ticket Closing In Your Business

December 17, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

High ticket closing is the one skill that an executive, entrepreneur or business owner unquestionably needs if they want to take the success of their business to the next level. The process of high ticket closing, once mastered, can dramatically increase your business revenue, while improving customer relationships and client retention.

Are you confident in what you have to offer? Do you believe that your business is built for success, and that you’re meant for greatness?

Greatness may be coursing through your veins, but it’s unlikely you’ll reach your full potential without mastering the process of high-ticket closing.

Greatness may be coursing through your veins, but it’s unlikely you’ll reach your full potential without mastering the process of high-ticket closing. Share on X

You can be the best in the business at what you do, but if you don’t know how to close, your career might come to a standstill. Regardless of your expertise or your capabilities, without proper training on closing high-ticket clients, you’ll be limited in how far you can go.

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk once said, “I think it’s very important to have a feedback loop, where you’re constantly thinking about what you’ve done and how you could be doing it better.”

What could you be doing better? For many people, closing is a skill they could definitely benefit from getting better at. Truthfully, however, few people can become great at closing without proper training.

Acquire This Skill and Be Set For Life

Closing is an art, and unfortunately, many people still use old school sales techniques that no longer work. There’s a huge difference between selling and closing. What’s the difference between a salesperson and a closer? For starters, a closer can ‘wow’ their prospect and intrigue them, but a salesperson tends to push prospects away.

A closer leans back and exudes confidence, while a salesperson leans forward and exudes desperation. Once you master the process of high ticket closing, you will find that each sale comes more naturally, and the sales experience becomes more enjoyable for both you and the prospect.

Setting Your Business on a Growth Trajectory

Growth is likely one of the core values of your business. Your business’s future growth potential, however, relies on your ability to close. In fact, if you are running a growth-driven business, you should be motivated to develop advanced closing skills. Why? Because high ticket closing is more than just a beneficial skill. High-ticket closing is a powerful weapon that holds the potential to make your competition obsolete.

Part of your business strategy should be mastering the art of closing. Why? Because scaling your business requires the implementation of and mastery of certain processes. High ticket closing is one of those fundamental processes.

The value of each customer you acquire goes up when you start selling your offer at high-ticket prices. Share on X

What happens if you have competitors who offer a product or service that is just as good as yours, or better than yours, but they fall short when it comes to closing? They’ll likely lose the customer to you, especially if you know how to close.

The value of each customer you acquire goes up when you start selling your offer at high-ticket prices.

Many business owners also fall short by pricing their product or service too low, because they’re not confident they could close the offer at a premium price. There are clients out there, however, who are willing to pay double or triple what you’re currently charging – especially if your offer can solve their problem or meet their unique needs.

What Are You Looking For in a Client?

You probably spend a lot of time ensuring that you’re meeting the needs of your clients. You check off boxes that indicate that you’re what your prospective clients are looking for. But what about you? What are you looking for in a client?

Chances are, your ideal client is high-ticket client who is willing to pay top dollar for your services. High-ticket clients give you the gift of time. When you start closing upscale clients who pay premium prices without even blinking at the price tag, you end up making more money working less.

In addition to clients who have money, you also want clients who have a need for your product or service, and trust you to fulfill that need.

When you start thinking about what you’re looking for in a client, you’ll realize how important mastering the process of high ticket closing is. You see, the type of client you’re looking for, is the type of client everyone is looking for. So you’re not the only one trying to close them. You could, however, gain the competitive advantage required to be the one who succeeds in closing them.

Master the Process of High Ticket Closing

The world’s highest-paid, all-star athletes commit to peak performance and hire the highest-caliber coaches to maintain their elite status. Business all-stars must prepare the same way.

It won’t be easy to master the process of high ticket closing. If it was easy, everyone would be closing high-ticket offers instead of slumming it by cold-calling unqualified prospects or charging low prices to get the sale.

Statistically, it takes around 18 dials to connect with a buyer, and only 23.9% of sales emails are opened. As a trained closer, however, you can rise above statistics. You’ll be seen as an anomaly; an exception to the rule.

You should expect that learning the secrets of high ticket closing will be challenging, expensive, and will require resilience. Not everyone will have what it takes, but the ones that do will master the art of closing and gain an esoteric advantage over their competition.

How a High Closing Ratio Can Change Your Life

When you become a master at the process of high ticket closing, you can expect a high closing ratio to be one of your claims to fame. A high closing ratio doesn’t just mean you’ll make more money. It also means you’ll no longer be exhausted or drained. You’ll have more energy, more free time, and more confidence.

A high closing ratio will be transformative for you, because you’ll no longer feel overworked and underpaid. Share on X

A high closing ratio will be transformative for you, because you’ll no longer feel overworked and underpaid. You’ll finally be making a real income by working smarter, not harder. The hard work is in the preparation. Learning the process of high ticket closing is part of that preparation.

Are You Ready For a Personal and Professional Transformation?

If you understand that success requires training, hard work and preparation, you might be ready to join my exclusive mentorship program. Members of HTC Platinum will go through a personal and professional transformation. Applicants that are accepted will receive high-caliber business coaching, exclusive mentorship, a master’s closing script, and live roleplay practice sessions with expert feedback. What you’ll learn as a member of HTC Platinum could transform your professional life, and arm you with advanced business acumen that changes your career.

As far as your personal life goes, members of this elite community report coming out of it with dramatically increased self-confidence and self-motivation.

You won’t apply for my exclusive program unless you want success badly enough. If you want to gain the esoteric wisdom of high-ticket closing and set yourself up for success, reserve your spot in HTC Platinum today.

10 Common Mistakes That Business Owners Make When Scaling

December 8, 2019 by Dan Lok Leave a Comment

There are many common mistakes that small business owners can make when their business starts growing.

Because when things are looking good, business is taking off and the revenue is coming in steadily every month, you’re going to be tempted to start expanding.

But if you’ve never scaled a business before you may be wondering just what you need to take into consideration, or you’ll risk finding out the hard way when everything begins to crumble.

If you’re a small business owner and you’re ready to start scaling, here’s 10 Common Mistakes Business Owners make, and how you can avoid them.

1. Not planning ahead

Most people – not just business owners, fail to plan in life. They take things as they come, and live in the moment.

In business, this is one of the quickest ways to go bankrupt and one of the greatest mistakes business owners make. Things around you are constantly changing, events around the world impact how business will go and it’s your responsibility as the captain to steer your ship in the right direction.

You need to constantly be planning ahead, looking out for anything that is a potential danger to your business. Are there rumors that a recession is about to hit? Is the President making some poor choices that may impact the cost of your goods? These are all factors you need to put into consideration, so you can anticipate and ready yourself for the approaching storm that may be coming.

2. No Goals, No Commitment

You cannot hit a target you cannot see. And when you’re aiming in the dark and firing wildly, you are going to miss your target 99% of the time.

Without a clear goal in mind, you will not have the motivation to continuously improve your business. You will drift along, taking things as they come and hoping for the best. And eventually, your business will fail because you aren’t putting in the time, energy and focus into helping it grow.

Set clear goals and commit to making them happen. Be very specific with your goals, instead of promising something that is generalized. Don’t say “I will improve next month’s revenue”, say “I will increase sales by at least 200% next quarter”.

Be specific and know where you want to go. You’ll have a much clearer image in mind of how to get there.

3. Ignoring technology

Technology is rapidly growing and changing, making things that were almost impossible before a reality today. As a business owner, if you are not making use of technology in your business, you are falling behind.

Tasks like data entry, generating leads and posting updates on your website are all things that can be done with technology. Technology is a useful tool that can save you countless hours on trivial tasks, giving you the time and freedom to handle what’s important in your business.

For business owners that are stubborn and refuse to learn how to leverage technology, my advice to them is to adapt and get with the times, before your competition uses it to run you out of business. Don’t have an old school, traditional mindset – one of the deadliest mistakes business owners make.

4. Not investing in marketing

You’re doing well already, why would you need to spend money on marketing?

That’s the mindset of most business owners who are already successful. But what they fail to realize is that they won’t be successful forever.

If you aren’t bringing in new business, you are going to slowly lag behind the competition. Your competitors are always looking for new ways to get more market share and take away your customers. If you aren’t finding ways to make your customers choose you over everyone else, pretty soon you’ll find them doing exactly that.

Don’t make the same mistake business owners make – thinking they’re ahead when they’re not.

5.‘One Man Business Army’ Syndrome

“I’ve gotten this far all by myself, why would I need anyone else?!”

This is especially true with business owners who have had to endure a lot of tough times. For them, they believe they can handle everything by themselves, because that’s how they got to where they currently are. There’s no need to hire people or create a team – they’ll only add more expenses onto the business.

There is an African proverb:
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together”.

In business, having a team that you can delegate tasks to is extremely advantageous. Instead of handling everything yourself, you can delegate tasks to your team, which allows you to handle the more important aspects of your business, such as seeking partnerships and negotiating deals.

That’s why you see billion dollar companies like Google and Microsoft with staff from all around the world. They understand that in order to build something great, you need a great team behind you to make it happen.

6. Not Knowing Your Worth

Are you undercutting yourself and you don’t know it? Do you panic when your competition lowers their prices, and you feel inclined to do the same to stay relevant?

When you don’t know your worth, you are going to get pushed around. For example, let’s say you sell soap, and your competitor is having a 20% discount. If a customer walks into your store and complains that your prices are too expensive compared to the competition, someone who doesn’t know their worth will be inclined to match the price.

However, if you have something that you know is valuable, you won’t be afraid to stand your ground. You know your soap is made with organic ingredients that don’t irritate skin the way your competitors does. You also know that there’s no other soap store in the city that offers what you do. And if your customer doesn’t see the value in being able to shower without an itching marathon afterward, that’s on them for not knowing the value of a product.

7. Not Researching Your Market

How well do you know your market? Are you catering to young adults, or are you catering to 18 year old high school graduates, who are looking to enter college but are unsure what path to pursue?

If you aren’t researching your market, you are simply targeting a general demographic. With more and more ads being shown today on social media and popular web browsing sites like Youtube, if your offer does not stand out from the rest, your product will be ignored along with the other countless distractions your customers encounter every single day.

Get very specific with who you are targeting, and know your market inside and out. When you know them that well, you will know how to cater your product perfectly to their desires.

8. Spending Way Too Much Money

Your business is doing well and you’ve got a bit of extra cash at the end of every month. Having that money just sit around doing nothing doesn’t help… so you make a few purchases to help with your future scaling: New software, doubling your ad spend, automated sliding doors, bathroom sensors and even a newly designed company logo.

But when next month’s projected revenue is much less than what you thought it’d be, now all of a sudden you find yourself in debt, surrounded by unnecessary expensive purchases that you now realize you bought too early.

Spending too much money too quickly on unnecessary things can turn your business profits into additional business expenses that have no use or reason for being there as you are not in a position to utilize them yet. If you find yourself tempted to spend money on additional features for your business, ask yourself if it’s going to be used immediately to grow your business, or if you can wait a bit longer before it is needed.

9. Spending Way Too Little Money

Spending too little money can also be a problem.

For example, if business picks up, customers are pouring in but you only have two employees on the floor, you are going to have a problem. Your staff are going to be overwhelmed and overworked, and your customers are going to get agitated at the long wait times and lack of customer service.

In this scenario, the mistake this business owner is making is being hesitant on hiring additional employees. By hiring extra employees, you can process customer requests faster, allowing more of them to be serviced and as a result increase the amount of sales that are made.

You should always be looking for ways to invest money into your business to help it thrive and grow even faster. Just make sure it’s a smart investment.

10. Having a bad team

A bad team is worse than no team. If you are not carefully selecting who you’re bringing on board, you could be closer to failure than you know it. Having a bad team harms your business reputation, and destroys it from the inside out.

If you are going to bring people on board, you need to think about what this person is like. Find out their mindset, their goals, beliefs, their ethics, morals and if they align with yours and the business.

For example I know in many companies when they hire salespeople, they look only at how much revenue their sales team can generate for them. They don’t look at things such as their integrity, or morals. What ends up happening is that the salespeople are able to bring in more revenue as expected, but subsequent quarters their sales go down.

This is because the salespeople are not properly trained, and resort to pushy sales tactics to get the sale. Instead of building a long term relationship with the customer, they go for “one time buys” that make customers lose trust in the company and go somewhere else.

For business owners looking to increase their sales by hiring more salespeople, my advice to them is to make sure you know what kind of salesperson you are bringing onto your team. Learn from the deadly mistakes business owners make, when all they care about is increasing sales.

Summary

When it comes to scaling, there are many mistakes business owners make. Some mistakes have clear implications of what can occur, while others’ mistakes can be hidden and unseen until it’s too late.

For business owners looking for the most effective way to scale, my belief is that they should increase their sales. The more sales they can make, the more revenue is produced and as a result the faster they can scale.

High ticket closing is a skill that allows business owners to scale much more effectively. The ability to connect with people and make them trust you, allows for many more deals to be closed and establishes a relationship with them for potential long term business.

High Ticket Closing Is Not For Everyone

However, while high ticket closing can be very beneficial to any business owner in any industry, it is not for everyone.

People who do not invest in themselves, who believe that success is paid for and not earned, or gives up easily under pressure is not fit for high ticket closing. Like any skill, high ticket closing must be practiced and mastered for it’s full potential to be seen. If you are someone who would eagerly spend a large amount of money on a new car, but hesitate to spend the same amount on improving your business skills, it may not be for you.

But if you are someone who is willing to do whatever it takes to become successful, that understands hard work eventually pays off in great sums in life and business, then you might be a good fit for our newest high ticket closing program – HTC Platinum.

HTC Platinum provides the same type of community and training that develops great leaders and high performers – the same kind of people that use their newfound skills and influence to become celebrities and secure contracts and prestigious business agreements to set themselves up for life. If you’re ready to get access to business coaching and high-ticket closing to help your business scale at the highest caliber, apply here today.