Way of the Wolf: Straight Line Selling: Master the Art of Persuasion, Influence, and Success

by Jordan Belfort

In other words, each objection creates the opportunity to loop; and each loop results in a further increase to a prospect’s level of certainty; and as each loop is completed, the prospects find themselves that much...

the prospect has made it crystal clear to you through their words, their tonality, and, if you’re in person, their body language that they are absolutely certain about all of the Three Tens; yet, for some inexplicable reason, they are still not buying.

There’s actually a very logical reason for this, and it has to do with an invisible force that holds sway over every sales encounter—dictating how far down the line a salesperson has to take any particular prospect before they finally say yes; or, put another way, at what collective level of certainty does any particular prospect need to be at before he or she says yes?

You see, at the end of the day, not all prospects are created equal. There are some who are very tough to sell to; others who are very easy to sell to; and still others who are right in the middle, being neither tough nor easy. When you dig beneath the surface, it turns out that what separates all these potential buyers from one another is the sum of the individual beliefs they have about buying, about making decisions in general, and about trusting other people, especially those who are trying to sell them things. Together, the sum of all these beliefs, and all the experiences that have contributed to...

We call this level of certainty a person’s action threshold, and it comprises the fourth core element of the Straight Line System. By way of definition, we refer to people who are very easy to sell to as having a low action threshold; and we refer to people...

a prospect’s action threshold is malleable; it is not set in stone.

However, when you’re out in the field, you’re going to find some extraordinarily tough customers. I’m talking about prospects who still won’t buy from you, even after you’ve raised their level of certainty as much as humanly possible, and then lowered their action threshold and asked for the order again. So, for these ultra-tough nuts to crack, we now turn to the fifth core element of the Straight Line System: the pain threshold.

You see, at the end of the day, pain is the most powerful motivator of all—causing human beings to quickly move away from whatever they believe is the source of their pain,

In essence, pain creates urgency, which makes it the perfect vehicle for clos...

To that end it’s absolutely crucial that you take the time to uncover precisely what your prospect’s pain is and where it comes from. Once I have that information, I can then position my product as a remedy for their pain, and then verbally paint a picture for them of the future—show...

THE FIVE CORE ELEMENTS OF THE STRAIGHT LINE SYSTEM 1 The prospect must love your product. 2 The prospect must trust and connect with you. 3 The prospect must trust and connect with your company. 4 Lower the action threshold. 5 Raise the pain threshold.

And here’s what we know about the “safe” of the human brain, when it comes to making a buying decision: there are only five numbers in the combination; that’s it!

In that regard, I guess it’s fair to say that this book is basically a universal safecracker’s manual for the human mind.

During a phone call with a prospect,

you have four seconds to make an impression.

whether in person or over the phone, there are three things that you need to establish in those first four seconds of an encounter, if you want to be perceived in just the right way: 1 Sharp as a tack 2 Enthusiastic as hell 3 An expert in your field

Experts have a certain way of talking that literally commands respect. They say things like “Listen, Bill, you need to trust me on this. I’ve been doing this for fifteen years, and I know exactly what you need.”

Novices, on the other hand, tend to speak in far less definite terms, and their limited grasp on the deeper nuances of their product and their particular industry becomes more and more apparent as they move a prospect farther down the Straight Line and enter the looping phase, and are forced to “free-form”—meaning, they run out of scripted material and are forced to make things up on the fly in an effort to push their prospect’s level of certainty above their action threshold so they’ll buy.

First, you’re sharp as a tack.

You must come across as someone who’s totally on the ball, a born problem-solver who is definitely worth listening to because you can help them achieve their goals.

You can accomplish this by demonstrating mental speed and agility, fast decision-making, and a unique pace of delivery that immediately impresses the prospect and builds trust.

However, to achieve lasting success, you must actually become an “expert in your field,” so that you do, indeed, know what you’re talking about. In other words, you can’t just talk the talk; you also have to walk the walk.

2 Second, you’re enthusiastic as hell. This sends a subliminal message to your prospect, telling them that you must have something great to offer. You must sound upbeat, enthusiastic, and full of energy, and be a positive influence in their lives.

3 Third, you’re an expert in your field—an authority figure and a force to be reckoned with.

using technical industry lingo that I’ve taken the time to simplify—allowing the prospect to easily grasp what appear to be very complex statements.

Remember, the biggest misconception among new salespeople is that they feel like they have to wait a certain amount of time until they can brand themselves as an expert. That’s a load of crap! You need to be “acting as if” from the very start, while you educate yourself as fast possible,

someone who’s as sharp as you and enthusiastic as you, and who’s achieved your level of expertise, is going to: 1 Get to the point quickly 2 Not waste the prospect’s time 3 Have a solution to their problem 4 Be an asset to them over the long-term

If you’re perceived the right way—that you’re sharp as a tack, enthusiastic as hell, and an expert in your field—then the prospect will defer to you and let you take control of the sale.

While that might be what pops into your mind when I say, “take control of the sale,” I assure you that this is not what I’m talking about. I mean, think about it for a second: don’t you utterly despise being on the receiving end of a salesperson who goes on and on without ever letting you speak? It makes me want to run out the door!

That’s why the Straight Line System is as much about becoming an expert listener as an expert talker.

your tone of voice. Specifically, how you say what you say has a profound impact on how it’s perceived and, for that matter, how you are perceived; and not just during those all-important first four seconds, but throughout the entire conversation as well.

In terms of percentages, tonality and body language comprise approximately 90 percent of our overall communication, split evenly down the middle, with each modality having approximately a 45 percent impact, depending on which study you buy into (and there are more of them than you can count). The remaining 10 percent of communication is comprised of our words—meaning, the actual words we say as we verbally communicate.

of the twenty-nine tonalities that a human being uses to communicate, only ten of them are core-influencing tonalities—meaning that we use them over and over again as we go about influencing and persuading. Likewise, the Straight Line System has been able to consolidate the infinite number of gestures and postures and facial expressions that comprise our body language into ten core principles.

You want to lower your voice, and then raise your voice; you want to speed up, and then slow down; you want to make a declarative statement, and then turn it into a question; you want to group certain words together, and then say others in staccato-like beats.

For instance, let’s go back to the whisper, but we’ll add a little oomph to it. Now, we have what’s called a power whisper, which comes from deep in your gut.

It’s like you’re saying to the prospect, “Listen, pal, this particular point is really important, and it’s something I really, really believe in, so you need to pay very close attention to it.”

I’m talking about something called bottled enthusiasm, which sits just below the surface and literally bubbles over as you speak. It’s about enunciating your words with absolute clarity and stressing your consonants so that your words have intensity to them. It’s like you’re talking with your fists clenched, and there’s an active volcano inside you ready to erupt at any second—but of course it doesn’t, because you’re an expert who’s in total control.

That sort of bottled enthusiasm makes a massive impact on someone emotionally, and it’s one of the earmarks of sounding like an expert.

Now, in terms of how to start using this in the real world, you’ll find that with just a little bit of practice, you’ll be applying the right tonality and body language unconsciously—meaning, automatically—whenever you find yourself in a situation of influence. But, until then, you need to be extra vigilant about consciously applying the right tonality and body language to every word and every turn of phrase. This will ensure that your prospect stays firmly in your magnetic zone and doesn’t tune out.

Before we move on to the next chapter, I want to go through some key nuances regarding the relationship between the conscious mind and the unconscious mind—specifically, how they work hand in hand with one another to guide all your prospect’s decisions, especially during those crucial opening seconds, when your ability to bypass their conscious mind and speak directly to their unconscious mind will dictate whether you succeed or fail at taking control of the sale, and then again at the end of the sale, when your ability to speak to both minds at once will allow you to push past the action threshold

this three-step process of generalization, map-making, and the creation of patterns is what allows you to move through an unfamiliar environment without having to treat everything you see as if it were the first time you’ve seen it.

In fact, from your conscious mind’s perspective, these snap judgments and instant decisions are based on gut feelings, and it will act in accordance with them until they’re proven wrong.

When the sales encounter is over the phone, we’ll use our ten core tonalities to move our prospect emotionally,

while our words will continue to move them logically.

However, as foolproof as this formula is, your success is still going to be contingent on your ability to trigger a key emotional state within yourself as you’re about to enter the sales encounter, and then maintain that state to the very end. We refer to this process as state management, and it’s one of the most important elements in achieving success.

powerful visualization technique that I taught the Strattonites called future pacing. In short, future pacing entails running an imaginary movie through your mind where you get to see yourself in the future having already achieved a certain outcome. The result is that you get to experience the positive feelings associated with a future achievement right now, as opposed to having to wait until a few years from now, when you actually achieve it.

also made them run the positive movie right there in their seats, allowing them to see themselves in the future already being rich and living the Life.

the technical term for this is state management.

In essence, when you’re managing your emotional state, you’re temporarily blocking out any troubling thoughts or emotions that might normally make you feel negative—

When you’re in an empowered state—like “certainty,” for instance—then you’re able to access your internal resources, which then sets you up for massive success. Conversely, when you’re in a disempowered state, you’re blocked from accessing your internal resources, and you’ve set yourself up for massive failure.