Belief Ladder: Mental Model for Sales

• The belief ladder is a mental model used in sales to understand and address a prospect's beliefs before pitching a product.
• Successfully addressing these beliefs leads to the prospect closing themselves.
• Overcoming objections involves skillful questioning to address pain, doubt, cost, desire, money, support, and trust.
• Building these seven beliefs can also break down limiting beliefs that are holding the prospect back.

Mental Model

• Mental models explain thought processes.
• The belief ladder allows understanding of how to help someone move from their current situation to their desired situation.
• This involves eliminating objections before the close.

Seven Buying Beliefs

• Prospects need to have these beliefs to buy.
• Objections can be traced back to these seven beliefs.
• Pain
• Doubt
• Cost
• Desire
• Money
• Support
• Trust
• Aim to build these beliefs through skilled questions before pitching.
• This avoids the need to convince the prospect.

Beta Frame

• Chasing prospects creates a beta frame.
• Position yourself as the bridge between the prospect's current and desired situation, making you the "prize."
• Avoid applying external pressure or having to convince prospects.

Flexibility on the Call

• Understanding the seven beliefs provides flexibility.
• Helps navigate the call without getting lost.
• It is better to master the script before improvising.

Pain

• A prospect must believe they have a problem preventing them from getting what they want.
• No problem, no sale.
• Business is about solving problems.
• Start by finding the problem and digging into its roots.
• Pain is the gap between the current and desired situation.
• If a problem isn't identified, the prospect won't see you as a trusted authority or see the value in investing in a solution.

Doubt

• A prospect must believe they can't fix the problem on their own or that it would waste resources.
• Position your offer as the bridge to their desired state.
• The buying pocket is where the prospect believes transformation is possible only with your help.
• Create doubt if they believe they can DIY by questioning their past attempts and the potential costs of not getting it right.
• Avoid overcompensating by digging for doubt when it is already present.

Cost

• A prospect must believe that doing nothing is more painful than the investment.
• Current and future pain of doing nothing must outweigh the pain of time and money to take action.
• Determining the cost eliminates time objections and creates urgency.
• Close the gap between the level of perceived pain and the action threshold to motivate the prospect to buy.

Desire

• A prospect must believe solving the problem will produce a better future situation.
• Know what they want, why they want it, and assign a number to make it tangible.
• Determine how getting what they want will impact other areas of their life to widen the gap.

Money

• A prospect must believe they have the resources and willingness to solve the problem.
• Lack of willingness indicates insufficient cost.
• Lack of resources is a condition, not an objection.
• Determine if the money issue is a smokescreen.
• If the other six beliefs are addressed first, there will be less buying resistance.

Support

• A prospect must believe people around them will support them in fixing the problem.
• Address potential objections from life or business partners by ensuring beliefs are aligned.
• It is sometimes better to ask for forgiveness rather than permission.

Trust

• A prospect must see your solution as clearly different, unique, and superior to similar methods.
• This eliminates the "I've been burned before" objection.
• Ensure the tie-down of both emotional and logical reasons for them to buy.
• Position your pitch away from what didn't work before.
• Prospects must buy into your method of achieving success before buying the product.
• The method is the pitch.