PDF Summary:Way of the Wolf, by Jordan Belfort

Way of the Wolf explains sales trainer Jordan Belfort’s Straight Line method of selling, which is designed to efficiently move a prospect from doubt to certainty about buying. It provides a conceptual framework plus a collection of principles, techniques, and psychology that he says anyone can use to sell anything in any industry.

Belfort is best known as The Wolf of Wall Street—the name of his first memoir and of a Scorcese movie depicting his high-flying life as a broker before pleading guilty in 1999 to securities fraud and money laundering. He served 22 months, then became a motivational speaker and sales trainer. Belfort rethought his ethics and refined his selling method, which he says will shorten sales cycles, dramatically increase closes, and lead to referrals and long-term customer relationships—all while bringing the seller success and wealth.

In our guide, we compare his method to other iconic sales programs like SPIN Selling and The Challenger Sale.

(continued)...

Techniques—Using Tone

After outlining his system, Belfort discusses tools and techniques to move a sales conversation through the four Straight Line steps (control, rapport, information gathering, presentation). The first tools are tone of voice and body language.

Tone and body language influence the client unconsciously; in contrast, words influence the conscious brain. The two brain functions work together in guiding decision-making. Remember, you need two levels of certainty for a sale: logical and emotional. They correspond with the brain’s conscious and unconscious sides respectively, and a seller must appeal to both to increase certainty.

You devote only 5-10% of your brainpower to conscious or logical thought, while the other 90+% works in your unconscious mind to keep your body systems operating and process environmental information. Your unconscious side records everything, creating a mental map that helps you form quick first impressions. Once you’ve formed an impression, you rationalize it (hence, the sales adage that people buy on emotion and justify with logic).

Belfort’s tips for using tone to connect emotionally include:

1) Sound like you care: Convey that you care by using a tone that’s both upbeat and sympathetic, so that the prospect feels as if you know him and have his best interests at heart.

2) Create a sense of mystery: When you introduce your product, create a sense of mystery and anticipation. Lower your voice to sound as though you’re letting the prospect in on a secret: “I have something amazing for you today...”

3) Create a sense of scarcity: Lowering your voice, tell the prospect in an urgent tone that he needs to act now. You can create a sense of scarcity with:

• Words: “We only have one of this model left!”
• Tone: Lower your voice and add intensity. Combine this tone with the above verbal statement to increase the prospect’s urgency to act.
• Information: Give the impression that the information you’re sharing is exclusive—no one else knows that there’s only one of this model left.

(Shortform note: Creating an urgency to “act now” due to scarcity is a common closing technique—it appears on numerous “top closing techniques” lists—but in B2B sales, many experts believe such tactics are ineffective.)

4) Seem eminently reasonable: Say something like, “Got a minute?” to start your pitch, or “How’s that sound?” to wrap it up, using inflection at the end of the sentence. These statements convey that you’re reasonable, and the client can work with you.

Appeal to Emotions

Salespeople typically focus on appealing to logic, but many experts echo Belfort’s advice to appeal to both sides of the brain, especially the unconscious: One author and trainer argues in the Harvard Business Review that, to close more sales, salespeople should put greater emphasis on appealing to emotion, given the lopsided role the unconscious mind plays in our decision-making.

One way to do so is to create an emotional connection to the product—for instance, by offering a test drive in a car, appealing to emotions by painting a picture, or using testimonials of happy people enjoying the product. Another way to connect is by telling a “story.” After connecting emotionally, help the customer validate the emotional decision with facts and logic. (For more on how to create an effective story or marketing message, see our guide to Building a StoryBrand.)

Techniques—Using Body Language

Body language works hand in hand with tone in subconsciously increasing a prospect’s certainty. It encompasses:

• Appearance (clothing, hair, jewelry, grooming, cologne, and so on)
• Facial expressions, eye contact, and gestures such as your handshake
• The way you move, including stance and positioning
• The way you use time and space

Appearance

The first thing people notice about you is your appearance, beginning with dress and grooming; you want to come across as professional and therefore credible.

Belfort recommends that salespeople (both men and women) wear suits, minimize cologne or perfume, and carry a leather briefcase to convey confidence, care, and quality. For men, he advises that any beard or mustache be close-cropped (unless facial hair is part of the culture) so you don’t come across as careless or sloppy; women should avoid distracting hairstyles or too much jewelry.

(Shortform note: Research shows that people who dress well are more confident, feel more powerful, and are more focused. In studies, people who dressed better made fewer mistakes did better at abstract thinking and negotiated better deals than those who dressed casually. Most important from a selling perspective, people perceive those who dress professionally as leaders and seek support from them more often.)

Eye Contact and Active Listening

Another key aspect of body language is eye contact. Make eye contact to show interest, but not to the point of seeming aggressive or dominating. Belfort contends you should make eye contact 72% of the time—if it’s less, people won’t trust you. (Shortform note: Some communication experts recommend the 50/70 rule: Maintain eye contact 50% of the time while speaking and 70% while listening.)

Eye contact is an important element of active listening. (Shortform note: Active listening is generally defined as giving your full attention to the speaker—so you can concentrate on, understand, respond, and remember what the speaker says. It also means showing that you’re listening through verbal cues and body language such as eye contact and nodding.)

Belfort, however, focuses on only the second part: creating the appearance of listening. He defines active listening as simply showing that you’re paying attention by using body language and tonality.

Stance and Positioning

The next key aspects of body language are how you use space and movement. First, be aware of others’ personal space and don’t violate it. Also pay attention to your stance and positioning.

Belfort contends that men and women prefer different stances, depending on whether they’re dealing with someone of the same or opposite sex. Two people of the same sex are more comfortable and relaxed when standing or sitting at an angle rather than directly in front of each other. For men in particular, facing each other directly promotes a sense of competition and conflict; the same is somewhat true for women.

In contrast, according to Belfort, a man selling to a woman should stand in front of her and keep his hands visible to her. Similarly, a woman seeking to influence a man should stand facing him.

(Shortform note: Belfort doesn’t address posture—however, in 12 Rules for Life, psychologist Jordan Peterson contends that your posture reflects your self-respect and affects others’ respect for you. If you stand straight with your shoulders back, people will treat you as capable, and you’ll act with greater confidence, both of which would be assets in sales.)

Techniques—Creating a Script

A script is useful for bringing together your appeals to both logical and emotional certainty in a perfect presentation that reduces your chances of sounding unprepared or saying the wrong thing. Befort offers these script-building tips:

1) Don’t overload the script: Don’t try to cram most of your product’s benefits into the early part of the script, or you’ll overwhelm the prospect and make her tune out. Hold some benefits in reserve for when the prospect raises objections.

2) Focus on the product’s benefits rather than its features: Features are generally characteristics or capabilities of a product, while benefits are ways the product will improve the user’s life. Prospects want to know the benefits, although salespeople often focus on the features. (Shortform note: A downside of focusing on features, according to the authors of The Challenger Sale and SPIN Selling, is that it increases the customer’s price sensitivity, encouraging price-based objections.)

How to Come up With Product Benefits

To come up with benefits, some marketing experts recommend that you consider your product’s features and ask “so what?” about each one until you arrive at the true benefit—for example:

• This washing machine handles bigger loads (feature). So what?

• You’ll get your laundry done faster. So what?

• You’ll have more time to de-stress or do things you enjoy (benefit).

Value selling is a similar idea: You sell from the perspective of what your product is worth to the customer. Focusing on value is also key in Challenger sales.

3) Build pauses into your script where you can engage the prospect in conversation—for example, after explaining a benefit, stop and ask, “Do you get what I’m saying?” Regular pauses keep the prospect’s attention and get them used to saying yes.

Additional Script-Writing Tips and Templates

The marketing firm HubSpot offers this script development plan:

• Identify the product or service

• Determine your target audience

• Determine your benefits

• Link the benefits to customer pain points

• Ask questions about the pain points

• Plan a close (a customer commitment you’ll get) for every sales interaction

HubSpot offers details on each step and sample scripts and templates for sales calls, emails, and voicemails. Some companies use sales script generator tools or apps.

Techniques—Handling Objections and Closing

When you ask for an order, you’ll get a definitive yes, definitive no, or maybe. The first two are easily addressed: Either process the order or say goodbye.

The third answer is more challenging because it means the prospect has objections to buying. Handle objections through looping, or backtracking to the problem and re-presenting your case each time he raises an objection, then moving forward with the sale again. Here’s how it works:

1. When you ask for an order the first time and get the first objection, deflect or sidestep it and backtrack to uncover the prospect’s underlying uncertainty.
2. Address the uncertainty by re-presenting your case logically and emotionally (looping).
3. When you’ve moved the client to a 10 in all three key areas, ask for the order again.
4. If the client raises another objection, this time acknowledge it rather than deflecting it. Use your acknowledgment statement as a segue for re-presenting your case logically and emotionally.
5. Ask for the sale again.
6. If the client raises yet another objection, focus this time on his action threshold (you’ve already raised his certainty level (twice), but he’s still not ready to buy, so you need to take a further step). Remember, the action threshold is the overall comfort level he must have for committing to a purchase.
7. Use a technique, such as offering a money-back guarantee or a grace period for canceling a contract, to lower his action threshold.
8. Ask for the order a third time. At this point, most people are likely to say yes.
9. However, if the prospect still isn’t ready to commit, lower his action threshold further by increasing his pain threshold (the point at which his discomfort with the problem will drive him to alleviate it by buying your product).
10. Now, transition to a final close.

(Shortform note: Other sales trainers credit Belfort with coming up with the looping idea, although some have developed variations, for example a seven-stage loop. For more on how Belfort’s looping strategy works, check out his free online training in The Basics of Looping.)

Methods Differ for Handling Objections

Sales trainers and methods advocate a variety of ways to handle objections. The conventional wisdom is that objections are a sign of customer interest and therefore should be welcomed. Sales training often focuses heavily on teaching techniques for handling objections in order to close successfully. Brian Tracy’s The Psychology of Selling is typical in this regard—for example, if a prospect says she’s “not interested” in your product, counter with social proof that other people like it.

Belfort, of course, argues that objections stem from a prospect’s uncertainty about the product, the seller, or the company; the seller should handle objections by deflecting the first ones, then increasing the prospect’s certainty through looping.

In contrast, the creators of the SPIN Selling sales method argue that the seller’s behavior often generates objections, which is why inexperienced salespeople get more objections than veterans. For example, focusing on product features typically prompts price objections.