Hey, 👋 Scott from The Sales Mastermind here.

Today’s edition only takes 3 minutes.

Selling is about helping buyers desire what you're selling. Then moving them from emotion to logic, and nothing does this better than a proprietary named system, process, or method.

Today we’ll cover:

• Storytime
• Why Naming Works
• Visuals
• Make it Real

Storytime

An agency I work with sells websites, local SEO, and lead-generation services to micro-trade businesses (think your local plumber, arborist, electrician, pool cleaner, etc.).

Recently, they hired a former plumber as the business's first non-founder seller. And it is working. Since the plumber-turned-seller joined, monthly revenue has doubled.

Therefore, we're raising the minimum requirements for clients. Previously, the buyer would be offered a $5,000 website, with a downgrade to a $2,400 "template site" if the price was too much of a barrier.

However, we've removed the downgrade. Now, the minimum upfront investment is $5,000 for Phase 1 (which is a website and a few extra fundamentals).

We reason that if the business can't Phase 1, they almost certainly can't afford the ongoing services of Phase 2.

As part of this change, our plumber-turned-seller is forced to qualify buyers OUT of the pipeline before going into detail about the system if they aren't ready, able, or willing to invest $5k. And he had some hesitations:

And that is where the beauty of naming your proprietary system, with phases and a rollout plan. Ultimately you stop talking about WHAT you do (ie websites) and start talking about the OUTCOME they get (Phase 1, Phase 2).

So I responded:

At no point in the script before qualifying for price do we mention the word website; therefore, the buyer doesn't know (during qualification) that the first deliverable is, ultimately, a website. Instead the buyer is buying into the method, the system, and the phases.

Why Naming Works

All purchases start with emotional buy-in; then the buyer needs to move to logic and proof to justify the purchase.

Emotions always come first; the bigger the deal, the more logic you need AFTER the emotional buy-in.

Naming the journey your buyer is about to take helps move them from emotion to logic faster. Once the journey has a name, the buyer can encapsulate their feelings, emotional investment, and all the words it takes to describe their outcome into a single entity - the name.

And because names are easier to explain, your buyers are also willing to pay a higher price.

For example, the smartphone market is divided between Android and Apple.

Visuals

Because naming the journey is about moving a buyer from emotion to logic, it's also vital to provide visuals and/or a Gantt chart. People trust what they see more than any other sense.

Buyers love Gantt charts that show everything that happens from the moment they sign the paperwork through to the journey's resolution.

By showing what happens in week 1 and week 2 (etc.), the dependencies moving between tasks, and how everything feeds into each other, Gantt charts accelerate buyers' transition from emotions to logic.

Full explanation of what a Gantt chart is here:

• ​Canva explanation​
• ​Atlassian explanation​

Make it Real

To create a name, I have a bunch of options below. You can also go to your LLM/AI of choice, explain what you do, and ask it to suggest 5-10 names that suit what you're selling.

Templates for naming and taglines are:

1. Plan Name: Stop [X pain] for [Y buyers], so [bad outcome] doesn't happen
2. Plan Name: Get [X outcome] in [Y days], or less
3. Plan Name: The definitive answer to [X Pain] so you can focus on [Y outcome] instead

Your formatting may be a little different, but play around with these ideas.

Some examples from products I have sold in the last two years are:

• EOFY - Close one unexpected deal before the financial year ends, without cold calling or spending a dollar on ads.
• 10 Days - Find, engage, and close at least 1 deal within 10 days or less.
• Sales Audit - For Founders and CEOs selling tech/saas products and know they could be doing better, know they have blind spots, but may not know exactly where to focus.

Reply with what you call your method, system, process, or the journey your clients go on while working with you and/or your visual.

I'll give you feedback and benchmark it.

Until next week,
Scott Cowley

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