Summary: The Brain Audit by Sean D’Souza
Summary: The Brain Audit by Sean D’Souza

Summary: The Brain Audit by Sean D’Souza

The Brain is a Conveyor Belt

Imagine you landed at the airport. You’ve just landed and waiting for your bags to come out on the conveyor belt. You have 7 red bags in total.

So, when do you leave the airport?

Of course, you leave when you have all 7 red bags. No matter how late or tired you are, you wouldn’t leave without your bags.

Identifying 7 Red Bags

  1. The Problem
  2. The Solution
  3. The Target Audience
  4. The Main Objections
  5. The Case Study
  6. The Risk Reversal
  7. The Unique Selling Point (USP)

Bag 1 – Problem

  1. Customers hesitate to buy not because they don’t want to, because you haven’t got the bags off their conveyor belt.
  2. We’re naturally attracted to problems. People are more interested in watching a building burn down than a building being constructed. A police car draws more attention than traffic passing by.
  3. Problems have a definite edge over solutions:
    • Solution based: Get fit for the summer in just 8 weeks.
    • Problem based: Aren’t you determined to get rid of those unwanted fats? Here’s how you can get fit for the summer in just 8 weeks.
    • Solution based: Attract clients like magic.
    • Problem based: Are some potential clients slipping through your net? Here’s how you can attract them like magic.
  4. Always consider people egos. Put yourself in their shoes.
    • Not so good: Are you struggling with leadership?
    • Much better: Can your leadership take your company to even greater heights? Find out what makes great leaders.

Bag 2 – Solution

  1. Don’t put your solution before the problem. Doing so will greatly reduce the pulling power of communication.
  2. Solutions are pain relievers. They assure the customer there’s a light at the end of the tunnel.
  3. Audit your communications rigorously for solutions popping up first.

Bag 3 – Target Audience

  1. If you choose everyone, you could end up alienating everyone. However, when you niche down, you attract the prospective customer immediately.
    • Broad: Women’s clothes
    • Narrow: Pregnant women’s clothes
  2. You can find your target audience by
    • Isolating your biggest customers (e.g. you might be getting most of your business from advertising agencies. Therefore, your target audience should be the agencies)
  3. Yes, you can certainly have more than one target audience. IN fact, it’s recommended.
    • The brain audit sells to initials as well as businesses and workshops.
  4. Be a monomaniac. Concentrate on one audience and speak to them. They’ll perk their ears up and listen.

Bag 1 + Bag 2 + Bag 3 = Trigger

  1. Combination of Problem + Solution + Target Audience causes the brain to ask the questions:
    • Aim for response like ‘What do you mean by that? Or How do you do that?’
  2. If people go huh, you’re either
    • Speaking to wrong target audience or
    • Your message isn’t strong enough.
  3. Keep testing till they produce an interest consistently.
  4. Risk is also why people don’t buy. If you can get Ya But… out of the way, you can easily go ahead with the sale.

Trigger then Explanation

  • Explanation links attraction to the sale. The role of the explanation is to make sure you really paint the complete picture. This must bring the problem and solution in all its glory.

Bag 4 – Objections

  1. It’s no use pretending objections don’t exist or that the customer won’t bring it up. Your best bet is to bring up the objection and destroy it. If you don’t know the objection, just ask for it.
  2. Counter the objection with “Feel, Felt, Found” system.
    • I know how you feel.
    • This is what our customers felt.
    • And this is what they found…
  3. Price is not the only objection. There’re a whole lot of factors that are far more important than the price. It’s your job to discover them.

Bag 5 – Case Study (Testimony)

  1. A testimonial reduces risk.
  2. Construct testimonies with a good dose of initial skepticism.
  3. Sprinkle all dimensions in your testimony. Some customers care delivery, some reliability, some friendliness.
  4. Keep asking for testimonies. It doesn’t matter if you have 109 testimonies. The 110th might just be a real winner. Collect testimonies like stamps. Then put up the best one.
  5. It’s easier to be fluent in speech than on paper. Use a recorder to capture the moment and the tone. If audio is impossible, use email.
  6. The questions to uncover:
    • What did you like most about our product / service?
    • What were your perceptions before we started?
    • How has that perception changed?
    • What are 3 biggest benefits?
    • Would you recommend our product / service?
    • Is there anything else you’d like to add?

Bag 6 – Risk Reversal

  1. If you don’t take the risk (of offering risk reversal), why should your customers take the risk and buy from you?
  2. A money-back guarantee is only one of many ways. Ask yourself what problem you solve for the customer.
  3. The biggest reason why business don’t’ offer risk reversal is because
    • They haven’t thought about it or
    • They’re too scared they’ll get exploited
  4. However, statistics disprove this again and again. By reversing the risk, companies grow in leaps and bounds, often by 200% – 300% and more. What’s more, they rarely, if ever, even hit a 5% return rate.

Bag 7 – USP

  1. To find your USP
    • What unique problem do you solve and how can you back up your claim?
    • Has your potential USP been taken by your competitors? If so, go back to the beginning and ask yourself again.
  2. USP is what makes you different from all your competition. USP reasons why your customer should use you and not someone else.
  3. Volvo’s USP is safety. Subway’s USP is less than 6 grams of fat.