Jordan Belfort's Straight Line Method

Jordan Belfort is a natural-born salesman who just gets it. He’s the guy who could sell ice to an Eskimo—and have them walk away thrilled with the deal.

His life story was so extraordinary that it inspired the the film The Wolf of Wall Street. Despite the controversies surrounding his past, Belfort’s innate talent for sales and his ability to teach others how to close deals remain undeniable.

The following is a summary of the Straight Line Sales Method, the sales system developed during his time running his former brokerage, Stratton Oakmont. The system has been refined and taught over decades to help others master the art of selling.

Straight Line Sales Method

The Straight Line Method is built on one core principle: every sale follows the same predictable path.

The easiest way to illustrate the Straight Line Method is to draw a line from the beginning of the sale (“The Open”) to the end of the sale (“The Close”).

The ultimate goal is for the salesperson to lead their prospect down the straight line without the prospect veering off course. This is done by the salesperson keeping control of the sales process.

This leads us into the first step of the Straight Line Sales Method:

Master the first Impression:

We have 4 seconds to make a positive first impression on the phone and only a quarter of a second while in person. If we leave someone with a bad first impression, it takes 8 subsequent positive impressions to change their minds.

There’s three main things that you can do to leave a positive first impression with your prospect.

1. Sound sharp as a tack: Demonstrate your problems solving skills and mental ability. No one wants to buy from an amateur.

2. Be enthusiastic as hell: Energy is contagious. You want to show that your product will have a positive impact on your prospect’s life.

3. Be an expert in your field: Experts demand instant respect and will make the prospect more comfortable discussing the problems they’re facing.

Build Rapport:

The next step in the Straight Line Method is to build rapport with your prospect. There’s a science to this as well.

You build rapport by understand the prospect and their current situation. You do this by asking questions. When you’re getting to know the prospect, you’re looking for their:

• Core and Secondary Needs

• What beliefs they have that might impact the sale

• Past experiences with similar products and those salespersons

• Their values and what’s important to them

• Their financial standards and how much they need to feel good

• Their pain points and what keeps them up at night

• Where they stand financially

Take note of how your prospect answers your questions. Whenever the prospect veers off course and starts talking about something off topic, actively listen to what they’re saying. When they’re finished, lead them back to the sale so they continue moving down the straight line.

Qualifying the Prospect:

As you’re building rapport with the prospect, you’ll get a feel for the sort of person they are based on how they’re answering your questions. Jordan Belfort recognized that there’s 3 main types of prospects:

1. Buyers in Heat: They’re ready and willing to act because of an immediate need (10-20% of prospects).

2. Buyers in Power: They’re aware of their needs but lack urgency to act (30-40% of prospects).

3. Lookie-Loos: They’re not genuinely interested in what you’re offering, but are very good at wasting your time.

The goal is to focus on the Buyers in Heat and Buyers in Power while moving on from the Lookie-Loos as fast as possible.

Straight Line Presentation

Once you’ve learned what you need to know about the prospect and separated the Buyers in Heat and Buyers in Power from the Lookie-Loos, you can dive into presenting your solution.

Your presentation is going to be unique to the product or service that you’re offering, but it needs to address the Three Tens:

• Product: The prospect needs to see the product as a perfect fit.

• You (the salesperson): The prospect must trust and connect with you.

• Company: The prospect needs to trust and believe in the company you work for.

The job of the presentation is to bring the prospect as close to 10 in each of these areas as possible so they are brought to a state of absolute certainty.

Your prospect should have both logical certainty (the product makes sense for them) and emotional certainty (the product feels good to own).

If the prospect isn’t certain in even one of these areas, you won’t make the close. You want to have them at least at a 7 on the Certainty Scale for all Three Tens.

Ask for the Close

You want to ask for the close early in the sales process. This is done purposely so that you can identify any objections from the prospect.

Objections are nothing more than smokescreens covering uncertainty in one of the Three Tens. Simply overcoming the objection isn’t enough. You have to identify which of the Three Tens the prospect is uncertain about (the product, the salesperson, or the company) and deal with those directly.

Handling Objections with Looping

Once you address the prospect’s objection, you automatically create a loop in the Straight Line method.

A loop is an opportunity for you to go back to the beginning of the sale and make a follow-up presentation of your product. The purpose of these loops is to increase the prospect’s level of certainty in the 3 Tens and push them further down the Straight Line.

Overcoming the Action & Pain Thresholds

A prospect can be ABSOLUTELY CERTAIN in the product, in the salesperson, and in the company but they can still hesitate to purchase from you.

This is because all prospects have different Action and Pain Thresholds.

Action Thresholds determine how easy it is for the prospect to make a move. Prospects with a low action threshold are easy to close. On the other hand, prospects with a high action threshold need extra effort to overcome their hesitation.

You can lower the Action Threshold with:

• Money back guarantees

• Reassurances (“I’ll be there with you every step of the way”),

• Reversing their Fears (“What’s the absolute worst that can happen?” versus “What’s the absolute best that can happen?”)

Conversely, you can also raise their Pain Threshold. This is done by highlighting the negative consequences of not taking action to create more urgency to buy.

Closing The Sale

You want to aim to close the sale within 2-3 asks. Every word and action you make should be focused moving the prospect towards absolute certainty and towards taking action. You should always be using your tonality and body language to reinforce your words and maintain control.

See You on the Next One,

— Oleg