America’s 95 million fund investors will also get a lot from reading this book. It will trigger a spooky sense that you’re in the crosshairs of a broker after they read this new book! Why? Because this is a powerful training manual designed to turn a salesman into a pit bull who won’t take “no” for an answer. Brokers are trained to be nice and smile, convinced that your “no” is just a signal to get more aggressive. The fact is, experts Jim Benson and Paul Karasik have the perfect playbook to help brokers run circles around an unsuspecting sales prospect. So you’ve been warned.

Ooops, better take that back. “Prospect” is actually a bad word to these guys: “There are no professional prospects; there are only professional sales people” helping investors, according to the authors. And they state in no uncertain terms that the number one key to success for the professional sales person is: “Take control of the sale!” Another v;ear example of Wall Street’s core objective: get psychological “control” over the American investor and their money.

Moreover, the broker knows full well his income depends on getting control of your assets. Then he’s in command, playing a one-sided game, the “prospect” at a huge disadvantage. Then all a broker has to do is train like an NFL fullback, make sure he plays the game armed with the right playbook, stay on the attack, be aggressively, keep a positive mental attitude, believe they can’t lose, and never take “no” for an answer. Do that and the brokers winds up the MVP, the most valuable player in the game … and a successful broker to boot!

Game strategy: Psychological tricks stack odds in broker’s favor

Seriously, the “prospects” really don’t stand a chance, they’re outgunned. Benson and Karasik cover all the bases for them: “There are only professional sales people” in this game. Therefore the absolute rule number one for sales success in this system is that “it’s up to you to take control of the selling process, and guide the prospect through the sale to its conclusion.” Take control! In fact, the authors go to great pains to warn sales trainees that “if you give up control, by letting your prospect dominate the sales presentation, you are letting an amateur take over.” Yes, “amateur,” that‘s their code name for us investors.

Erasing memories and reprogramming the investor’s brain

When I first heard about The 22 Keys to Sales Success I had just reviewed a couple of Dalbar studies, one on investor response to the fund industry after the scandals, and the other on market timing. Dalbar says most investors really are naïve and vulnerable, predisposed to clever sales pitch. Dalbar’s conclusions about the skill-set of the average investor confirms the power of the Benson-Karasik approach. Thanks to the relentless advertising hype by the financial services industry after the industry’s caught in crooked activities, the brains of investors are “reprogrammed” and their memories rapidly and magically disappear, leaving them without and critical thinking capacity, vulnerable and defensiveness. For example, the Dalbar studies concluded that:

No memory of the bad guys.
A year later three out of four investors could not name a single one of the dozens of fund companies involved in the 2000-2004 fund industry scandals, even though those dozens of law-breakers were in the news daily for years.
No effect on changing investor’s investment decisions.
Five out of six investors did not change their investment strategies as a result of the scandals.
No memory of losses and low returns.
And even though market timers were making less than inflation the past 20 years, and losing more than three percent annually after costs and taxes, they were in denial and unaware of how bad their losses were.

In short, investors don’t stand much of a chance against well-prepared aggressive brokers and salespersons because most investors are oblivious of their own vulnerabilities. And aggressive sales psychology will always beat hard facts. The Benson and Karasik strategy helps create successful brokers because their approach is solidly grounded in psychology, and they know that psychology is far more important than memorizing the hard facts about the financial products they’re selling. A good line of bull is more important than information. For example, the most common trait shared by all sales people is a strong ego coupled with a need to be in control, and of course, a strong desire to make buckets of money!

And yet, paradoxically, a successful broker has to cool their aggressive nature, even to the point of letting their prospect feel that they are in control! The 22 Keys warn that you should never lose sight of the “prospect’s mindset … most people spend the better part of each day thinking about themselves.” In every single sales meeting, remember this above all: “Every single prospect is preoccupied with two Big Questions: What’s in it for me? And do I trust this person?” So how should the successful salesperson handle these two questions?

Answer: Both of these questions need emotional as well as logical answers. And assuming you’ve mastered the facts, the biggest potential deal busters are the emotional ones. So ironically, to be an effective broker, you have to mask your own ego’s need to control the situation, while actually staying very much in control of the sale—become a master manipulator.

Four fears that’ll sabotage a sale

In order to master the psychology here, a broker must be totally aware of the four fears that haunt every investor during every sales presentation. Indeed, the broker must anticipate them or they will sabotage the sale. The prospect’s four fears that will sabotage any deal are:

First—fear of making the wrong decision
Too many bad decisions in the past have made many prospects gun-shy. Every broker has to master psychology and educate his prospects, teach them how to make the right decisions, boost their ego and convince them they’re a winner.
Second—fear of change
Change breeds enormous fear and anxieties. Brokers deal with these by leading a prospect step-by-step through the simple process of making a decision, so they feel totally comfortable.
Third—fear of giving up control
A prospect will often do everything possible, often unconsciously, to keep control of the process in their hands. The authors say that the best way to handle this is to constantly ask for your prospect’s permission and agreement at each step while leading them on. You stay in control—but make them feel they are.
Fourth—fear of losing self-esteem
Brokers know the prospect is not an expert in finance. That’s a given. But they have to remember that the prospect has a huge emotional attachment or “investment” to their money. Never let them feel they have any inadequacies, although they have many. Do this by convincing them that they’ll “always do the right thing,” say Benson and Karasik. “Sell the right product to the right person at the right time” and “always communicate in a way that makes your prospects feel good about themselves.”

Remember, these “four fears can ruin a sale by creating undisclosed mistrust and lack of confidence” in the salesperson and the transaction. Watch out. Hesitations are clear signs that the investor’s psychological fears are taking over again. An effective broker has to be aware of them at all times—if he wants to close the sale. Whether you’re a broker or prospect, whether you’re playing offensive and defensive, if you want to win the investing game, remember, it really is first and foremost, a psych-ops mind game.

FirstPubDate: Oct’04