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  Portfolio/Penguin

  An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC

  penguinrandomhouse.com

  Copyright © 2019 by Oren Klaff

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  ISBN 9780525533948 (hardcover)

  ISBN 9780525533955 (ebook)

  Some names and identifying characteristics have been changed to protect the privacy of the individuals involved.

  While the author has made every effort to provide accurate telephone numbers, internet addresses, and other contact information at the time of publication, neither the publisher nor the author assumes any responsibility for errors, or for changes that occur after publication. Further, the publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.

  Cover design: Henry James Nuhn

  Version_1

  For Mom. Your spirited writing style and irreverent storytelling are the DNA of this book.

  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Introduction

  CHAPTER 1

  Why You Need Inception

  CHAPTER 2

  The Dominance Hierarchy

  CHAPTER 3

  Creating Certainty

  CHAPTER 4

  Using Pre-Wired Ideas

  CHAPTER 5

  The Power of Plain Vanilla

  CHAPTER 6

  Leveraging Pessimism

  CHAPTER 7

  How to Be Compelling

  CHAPTER 8

  Flip the Script, Go Anywhere, Try Anything, and Put It All on the Line to Win an Impossible Deal

  Conclusion

  About the Author

  INTRODUCTION

  Here’s the big idea in 81 words:

  I don’t like being pressured into making a purchase. And I’m not alone. Over decades of being marketed, pitched, sold, and lied to, we’ve all grown resistant to sales persuasion. The moment we feel pressured to buy, we pull away. And if we’re told what to do or what to think, our defenses go up. In other words, buyers don’t put much trust in you and your ideas. However, everyone trusts their own ideas.

  Accordingly, today, products are bought, not sold.

  If you’re trying to make a deal in this environment, it’s never been harder. Buyers in your industry are skeptical of new products and services, and if you’re the person who has to sell to them, they’ll be skeptical of you as well. They fact-check everything you say, sometimes while you’re saying it. And buyers are always looking for a better deal, thinking they can somehow improve on your offer, no matter how good it is.

  Instead of pushing your idea on the buyer, it’s a better move to guide them to discover it on their own, so they believe it, trust it, and get excited about it. Then they’ll want to buy it and will feel good about the chance to work with you.

  This book is dedicated to showing you how to plant your idea in the mind of another so they will discover it, appreciate it, and fall in love with it on their own. But you cannot accomplish this with standard sales methods. Instead, you need to flip the script.

  * * *

  —

  I’M OREN KLAFF. Several years ago, I wrote a book called Pitch Anything, in which I taught readers a unique method to prepare and deliver a pitch that would wow buyers and investors every time. It was a method I’d developed for myself in the world of tech, but it proved to be incredibly useful for others as well. As word spread about the effectiveness of Pitch Anything, soon over a million people were using it in their everyday business, and before I knew it, I was getting calls from people at companies like Google, Amazon, and Bank of America telling me how useful they’d found my method.

  Next, companies from Germany, Italy, and Russia were calling. The result: I was being invited to help pitch large deals in far-flung parts of the world. I’d never imagined my ideas would travel so far from Silicon Valley.

  In the years since I wrote Pitch Anything, the marketplace has changed. Buyers have become more cold and digital, and so I have changed with them, creating new methods for closing deals. These new methods are what I’ve put in this book.

  Bluntly, here’s the problem: Enthusiastic sellers make an impressive pitch but then quickly switch over to “closing mode,” applying just the kind of unwanted pressure that blows up deals these days faster than you can say “Sign here.” Or aspiring sellers will make the world’s greatest pitch and then stop, unsure of what to do next, hoping the deal will come through all on its own.

  Both these approaches are the norm, and painful to watch. For that reason, I developed a revolutionary approach, a way to win every deal without spending a single moment selling or trying to close—a way to sell without selling at all. In other words, the buyer feels it’s his or her idea to work with you and makes the deal happen. You don’t apply pressure, try to overcome objections, or give chase.

  So here’s what I want you to understand right from the beginning of this book. Closing a deal without sales pressure is not a mystery. It’s not some superpower that certain people have and others don’t. Getting a deal done is a step-by-step process and it’s available to anybody who knows how to follow a few basic rules. Because once you know the rules, you never have to push someone to close; instead, you can make them feel like they came up with your idea themselves, which leads a deal to close naturally, as if it were always meant to happen. This ability to flip the script will help you in any situation and close any deal.

  In this book, I’m going to teach you those rules and show you the steps to persuade your prospects without pressuring them. First, I’ll introduce the idea of Inception—planting an idea in someone else’s brain. From there, I’ll show you how to use the Dominance Hierarchy and the rules of Certainty to turn the tables and put yourself in a position of strength, instead of the buyer holding all the cards. Next, I’ll demonstrate the power of a Pre-Wired Idea and how to make your deal feel Plain Vanilla, like it’s the most normal and obvious thing in the world—in other words, something your prospect’s mind can easily grasp. Then you’ll discover how to use the buyer’s natural Pessimism as a force in your favor, and how to be Compelling when it matters most. Finally, you’ll get to see how all these ideas work together as I describe in detail what can only be called “the deal of a lifetime.”

  To protect the confidentiality of my clients and more effectively illustrate how you can apply these ideas, I’ve changed many identifying details of people and companies involved and fictionalized some aspects of the stories. Nonetheless, every one of these examples is based on a real-life business deal in which I used these techniques effectively.

  For example, let me tell you about the time I tried to sell a $10 million software deal to one of the most powerful men in Russia.

  CHAPTER 1

  Why You Need Inception

  The truly rich in Russia are called oligarchs, a term that has come to mean control, power, and ruthlessness. And Viktor [last name redacted] definitely deserves the title. His luxurious office sits atop a high rise overlooking the Moscow River. Viktor sits behind a presidential desk, wearing a tourbillion watch that I recognize from a popular gear and gadgets website, list price $1 million. Every wall in this office is decorated with photos of oil rigs, factories, container ships,
and cargo planes he presumably owns; over his desk is a massive and oddly beautiful painting of an oil refinery with a caption engraved in brass, NOVOGROD #12. Viktor is heavyset, tall, and burly—in another life he might have been a rugby player. His smile isn’t a smile at all. The executives of all his companies fear him, and I fear him too.

  There are three things you need to know about doing deals with Russian oligarchs. Number one, they aren’t interested in losing money—ever, under any circumstances. Second, they don’t make emotional decisions; Russians are raised on a steady diet of math, physics, engineering, and electronics, and they analyze every decision ten different ways, then have a shot of vodka and analyze it one more time. Third, you simply cannot lose an oligarch’s money and say, “Yikes, sorry it didn’t work, but I tried really hard,” like you can in Silicon Valley. Instead, you need to do whatever it takes to get their money back.

  So, if there’s a World Championship of Dealmaking, this is it.

  Why would I ever leave my comfortable Los Angeles office to travel across the world to participate in this kind of stress-inducing meeting?

  MicroGenetics, the company I represented, needed to hire a dozen or more PhD mathematicians, but in the United States, these are a very rare and expensive commodity. Competent mathematicians easily command a million dollars per contract on the global exchange, and that was way over the company’s budget. In Russia, however, you can still find skilled but affordable mathematicians, but not without a powerful local sponsor. Viktor was a man who could wave his finger and get us whatever we wanted. Bottom line, my client needed both his money and his approval in order to navigate the layers of bureaucracy that come with any deal in Russia.

  This is how I found myself standing on the fifty-ninth floor of a tower in downtown Moscow, in an office that felt more like an exhibit at the Getty museum than a place of business. I was flanked on each side by translators and analysts, eager to get rid of me and keep Viktor on his precise daily schedule.

  My presentation was just getting underway, but I was already in serious trouble. At first, Viktor was listening to me with great interest, nodding his head in comprehension as I explained our genetic sequencing technology that we believed would save millions of lives and revolutionize health care. When I paused to take a quick breath, he jumped in to criticize my deal in perfect English: “Your software code has many syntax and computational errors.” But when I countered that point, describing a rock-solid contract we had with a major US tech firm, proving the technology worked, Viktor stared at me blankly, needing his translator to explain each word, even then looking distant and lost.

  Back and forth we went like this. Every question he shot at me was forceful and articulate and from the mind of a brilliant investor. Every answer I gave was met with a blank stare. Then Viktor would say, “Please you explain this more better,” and translators would step in for a long, drawn-out exchange that went nowhere.

  I had to explain our technology to him in the same way I might show my elderly neighbor how to send a text message. “Human genetic data is like millions of grains of sand,” I said, using a weird analogy I had just made up. Next I was using gestures that looked like hand puppets to help make this point.

  Viktor cut me off: “That makes no sense.”

  Oh god. He was right. It didn’t. Now my mouth was saying things my brain hadn’t approved of yet.

  I was losing control of this deal. But I had to keep moving forward. So I launched into the most exciting part of my pitch, explaining the revolutionary new features that set us apart in the world of genetic data.

  Just before I finished, Viktor turned away from me, ignoring what I was saying. With his back to me, he spoke in Russian to his team of advisers for a few minutes. I didn’t know if I was supposed to leave, wait quietly, or perform a magic trick.

  Finally, he turned back to me, a little surprised I was still there. His eyes narrowed in an unfriendly way; then, when I opened my mouth to say something, he smiled broadly, waving his hand to cut me off. “Yes, yes, we know all this,” he said, and looked at me as if I were a boring commercial you have to watch before the real show begins.

  Viktor had taken away all my usual control points. He was using his power and a supposed language barrier to put me into a low-status position. I was acting needy and anxious, and negotiating against myself. This was a dealmaker’s nightmare. I knew he was going to make an offer, because I was still in the room, but I also knew the terms of the deal would be horrendous.

  As this unfolded, I was watching myself fall back onto the classic sales approach, with its tired old script: First become likable and build rapport, then explain “features and benefits,” next do a trial close, and then fight like an alley cat to overcome all the objections the buyer has come up with.

  Russian oligarchs do not like being sold this way or argued with, especially by Americans. And Viktor is definitely no exception to this rule. He has a big mustache, which the President of Russia once suggested he shave off because it looked too “Soviet.” He said nyet to that request, and nyet to virtually every other demand put in front of him before and since. If I tried to overcome his objections and push a deal, he would never go along with it. I knew it. So if I wanted to walk out of that room with a check—on fair terms—it was going to have to be his idea to work with me.

  I took a deep breath. It was time to flip the script.

  I had been working on a completely novel way of telling other people about an idea or product so that they would come up with the idea to buy without my even having to ask. It’s called Inception, and it’s based on the latest research in neuroscience and behavioral economics. I’ve uncovered a way to plant an idea deep in another person’s subconscious so that they take ownership of it and propose it to me as if it were theirs.

  This approach is needed because traditional sales methods get you stuck in arguments and logical stand-offs—which is where I was headed with Viktor. Inception relies on a completely new set of tools: the Status Tip-Off, the Flash Roll, Pre-Wired Ideas, Plain Vanilla, being Compelling, and the Buyer’s Formula. I’ll show you all of these later.

  Back in Moscow, Viktor was moving fast and he wasn’t giving me a chance to use any of these advanced principles. I knew what I needed to say, but he would switch the conversation to Russian at the worst possible time, and I couldn’t get him to listen or understand me—he was just too good at the game. My time was about done and I’d gotten absolutely nowhere.

  Try to imagine this for a second. You’ve spent twenty-five minutes talking to your only prospect, and in that time you’ve been ignored, interrupted, misinterpreted, and told your state-of-the-art technology seems old and outdated. None of your persuasive points have found a home, and all the material you have left to deliver is no better than the stuff that’s already been rejected.

  The problem I was facing in that room is the same problem salespeople face in any industry: You know what decision you want the buyer to make, but the more you push in that direction, the more they dig in, slow down, and change the agenda. They want to make their own decision on their own timeline. Buyers buy how they want to buy, not how you want to sell.

  This is why today most things are bought; they aren’t sold.

  I realized that Viktor had pushed me to act like an amateur salesman and I was trying too hard to pitch him on the merits of the deal. I reminded myself to stop selling and instead establish myself as an expert, because a smart buyer like Viktor would never do a fair deal with an amateur.

  I was ready to create Inception but I was also nervous to try this new approach on such a powerful dealmaker. Hopefully Viktor couldn’t tell how anxious I was feeling, but then I realized it didn’t matter. Inception doesn’t involve feelings. I steadied myself and went back to work, focusing on elevating my status and proving my expertise.

  I delivered a Flash Roll—a sixty-second display of pure technical
mastery designed to alleviate any doubts about your authority on a subject. When Viktor turned to his translators for help, I was ready.

  “Viktor, I do not allow you to be confused about this,” I said. “You’re one of the best investors in the world. And I am offering a Plain Vanilla deal, nothin’ fancy at all. This is easy stuff. And we are almost out of time, so for the moment, you have to accept what I’m telling you at face value.”

  He nodded in acceptance, and I could tell I had impressed him. By flipping the script on him, I’d taken him by surprise. “Continue, please,” he said imperiously, as oligarchs generally do.

  Finally, I had the chance to reveal something called a Pre-Wired Idea that I knew would act like a back door to his mind. The moment you deliver a Pre-Wired Idea, buyers suddenly understand everything they need to know about what they should do next, without you having to explain it or sell it or even say anything at all.

  My time was nearly up. “Viktor, this deal is a great fit for your company,” I said. “But you already know that. So let’s figure out what we’re going to do together. Just tell me one of these two things. First, if you don’t want to work with me, just say, ‘Oren, I don’t want to do the deal.’ It’s OK—I allow you to say that to me, and we can easily part ways. Otherwise, the second option is for you to say, ‘Oren, I like you and I like the deal—let’s move ahead.’ Those are the choices; I just need to hear one. Either one is fine with me. Just tell me which it is.”

  Then I waited.

  It felt like a huge risk to say this, but it was no risk at all—because the alternative would be to ask for the sale, to which he would instantly reply, “Send us the information and we’ll think about it.” Translation: “Nyet.”