“I always say you can win or lose a sale. You can win or lose a sale in the first minute.”
This is the opening hook of Jeremy Miner, a sales professional who once made nearly $3 million in commissions over six years.
Today, along with Cole Gordon, the two run sales training and recruiting companies that generate more than $100 million in annual revenue. But Miner didn’t start out as a born salesman. He started as a psychology student.
In a recent podcast, Miner and Gordon broke down the psychology of selling. Rather than relying on aggressive tactics or scripts, Miner approaches sales from a human behavioral perspective. To truly master sales, he says, you need to understand how to change a prospect’s belief system and help them develop a new identity.
This approach is divided into what we call Miner 4 levels of persuasion. If you want to stop losing deals and start closing at the highest level, you need to get past level one and master all four.
Here’s how they work.
Level 1: Features and Benefits (99% of Salespeople Stop Here)
If you’ve ever had a major sales job, you’ve been taught to sell on features and benefits. “Here’s what the product does and how it can help you.”
Although this is not wrong, it is the lowest level of persuasion. According to Miner, 99% of sellers stay here. Selling on features and benefits creates zero emotional connection. This makes the prospect feel attracted to them, which naturally raises their defenses. If you want to make a big profit from sales, you need to go beyond explaining what your product does.
Level 2: Behavior
The next step involves shifting the conversation to the prospect’s actions and behaviors. You don’t just sell a product; You make them see what behavior is required to achieve the desired result.
For example, if you’re selling business consulting to an entrepreneur making $5,000 a month, you’re not just offering your consulting package. Instead you ask: “What steps do you need to take right here, today, to become a $50,000 a month entrepreneur?”
Key to Level 2: Tonality It’s all too easy to sound judgmental or say “bro” when you object to a prospect’s behavior. If a prospect feels judged, they immediately put on their mask and shut down.
The secret, Miner says, is a tone of sincere sympathy. Your tone should convey “moral authority,” meaning that the prospect knows you are genuinely concerned about the consequences they face. don’t do it change their behavior.
Stage 3: Belief Systems
To reach level 3, you must learn to listen actively. Miner says, “Listen to what the prospect says, not what it says. Often those are two different things.”
If a prospect says, “I’d like to make at least $50,000 a month,” Miner catches the word. “at least.” This word reveals limited faith. If you want to close the prospect, they are focused on getting the minimum benefit from life, you will not get enough value.
Instead of ignoring it, the master salesman politely calls out to him: “Have you ever thought about what you usually get if we focus on the bare minimum in life? You don’t strike me as someone who wants the bare minimum in life. So what do you really want?”
This forces the prospect to unmask. Once they realize you’re actually listening and challenging their limiting beliefs, they’ll drop the facade. Once the mask is removed, trust is built and the sale is almost always won.
Level 4: Identification
Sigmund Freud theorized that people act based on who they are. It is the highest factor of human behavior and the highest level of persuasion.
Level 4 is changing the prospect’s personality so that buying your product matches who they want to be. For example, if a prospect has a history of hiring bad marketing agencies, they will naturally be hesitant to hire yours. They have a narrative in their head that marketing agencies are a waste of money.
To close them, you need to change the meaning of the past failure and associate it with a positive identity. Miner does this effortlessly: “Wow, I mean, you’re a never-give-up person…your husband is lucky to have a provider as forward-thinking and never-give-up as you.”
No prospect can argue with them there is leaver By affirming this positive identity, the prospect buys the confidence to take action to remain that forward-thinking, resilient person.
The ultimate secret: avoid objection
When you master these four levels of persuasion, you’ll stop dealing with end-of-call objections like: “I’ll have to think it over” or “I need to talk to my husband.” As Miner points out, the brain is wired for survival, not development. When faced with a new, unknown decision (such as spending money on a high-ticket service), the brain looks for external validation to keep you “safe” down the road.
But when you use psychology to guide the prospect in their behavior, break down their limiting beliefs, and step into a new, empowered self, the objections disappear. You don’t “shut them down” – you help them overcome their story so they can finally get what they want.
For more sales and success tips, follow me on Instagram @iamjoelbrown.
