A beat-up old calculator lives on my desk. It's nothing flashy, just your basic ten-function Texas Instruments calculator. But, every sale I've ever made has at some point flashed across that eight-digit display.

4-Speed Selling is like that trusty TI: easy and reliable, delivering predictable results every time.

Sales is a conversation between people--or is it?

Sales is, a manager once told me, a conversation between two people. I've discovered sales is a series of conversations. Whether you're selling radio time or freight trains, four conversations stand between you and conversion. Knowing which one you're in will guide you to a successful sale.

Epiphanies like this don't trumpet their arrival. They land in snow-flake quiet moments of ah-ha. This one landed on me one day while driving back to my cubicle, clutching paperwork, the ink of my client's signature still damp. It was a sale that happened without using any of the techniques I'd studied and practiced. I'd simply had a series of conversations culminating in a sale. I discovered a different way to sell: 4-Speed alignment-based selling.

The 4-Speed Selling conversations:

• 1st: Align Is there double qualification? That is, does the client qualify for you and you for them? More time is wasted by failing to make sure the client is going somewhere you can take them.
• 2nd: Uncover What does the client wants to make happen? The road ends abruptly at some point if you can't answer this one succinctly and to the client's satisfaction.
• 3rd: Proffer How are you at telling stories? Some call it the pitch. I prefer to call this the Playback. It's when you playback the client's movie with a happy ending.
• 4th: Convert What are the lingering concerns? This is where Four Speed shines. If you're still there, the client has already bought it. You're just helping them justify it on their own terms.

Each of the four has a language, a polarizing charge. Each also provides clutching moments to shift to the next. I'll explain how each works in more detail as we move along.

4-Speed Selling's beginnings

Deconstructing one sale forever changed of how I sell and laid the foundation of 4-Speed Selling. I don't overcome objections, or use any patterned closes. Instead of an Always-Be-Closing assault, my clients and I create an aligned conversation; discovery leads to discussion, until finally, with concerns satisfied, we activate new projects.

No point arguing with results

It worked so well that first time, I did it again and it worked again. So, I did it more, and more, and more-all the way to top billing status month after month; a million-dollar year, two, and three million dollar years selling radio spots. Over the past 20 years, 4-Speed Selling proved itself every bit as dependable and predictable as my trusty TI-1795.