Flip the Script

No one likes being pressured into making a purchase. Over decades of being marketed, pitched, sold (and lied) to, we've all grown resistant to sales persuasion. The moment we feel pressured to buy, we pull away. And if we're told what to think, our defenses go up. These days, it's just not enough to make a great pitch. That's why Oren Klaff says it's time to throw out the old playbook on persuasion.

Instead, in Flip the Script, he devises a new approach based on a simple insight: everyone trusts their own ideas. Instead of pushing your idea on your buyer, if you can guide them to discover it on their own, they will believe it, trust it, and get excited about it. Then they'll buy in and feel good about the chance to work with you. Klaff breaks down this insight into a series of actionable steps, for instance:

- Achieve Status Alignment: Make sure that your potential buyer or investor recognizes you as a peer on the dominance hierarchy by using a status tip-off, a strategically placed remark that identifies you as an insider who can relate to your client's concerns.
- Close the Certainty Gap: Allay your buyer's fears about going into business with you by delivering a flash roll, a practiced display of technical mastery that proves your expertise in the domain.
- Present Your Idea as Plain Vanilla: You can go overboard trying to present your product as a cutting-edge, first-of-its-kind solution. The more you emphasize the familiar, reliable elements of your product, showing that it's just "plan vanilla", the easier you make it for your buyer to say yes.

Packed with examples and stories of the long-shot, often hilarious deals that Klaff has pulled off over the years, from training a team of motorcycle parts salesmen in the freezing reaches of North Dakota, to selling investors on a Chinese marketplace in Hawaii, Flip the Script is the most entertaining, informative masterclass in dealmaking you'll find anywhere.

Is there anything worse than a high-pressure salesperson pushing you to say "yes" (then sign on the dotted line) before you're ready?

If there's one lesson Oren Klaff has learned over decades of pitching, presenting, and closing long-shot, high-stakes deals, it's that people are sick of being marketed and sold to. Most of all, they hate being told what to think. The more you push them, the more they resist.

What people love, however, is coming up with a great idea on their own, even if it's the idea you were guiding them to have all along. Often, the only way to get someone to sign is to make them feel like they're smarter than you.

That's why Oren is throwing out the old playbook on persuasion. Instead, he'll show you a new approach that works on this simple insight: Everyone trusts their own ideas. If, rather than pushing your idea on your buyer, you can guide them to discover it on their own, they'll believe it, trust it, and get excited about it. Then they'll buy in and feel good about the chance to work with you.

That might sound easier said than done, but Oren has taught thousands of people how to do it with a series of simple steps that anyone can follow in any situation.

And as you'll see in this book, Oren has been in a lot of different situations.

He'll show you how he got a billionaire to take him seriously, how he got a venture capital firm to cough up capital, and how he made a skeptical Swiss banker see him as an expert in banking. He'll even show you how to become so compelling that buyers are even more attracted to you than to your product.

These days, it's not enough to make a great pitch.

To get attention, create trust, and close the deal, you need to flip the script.