Oren Klaff's video: A Killer Movie Scene That Shows You How To Close Any Deal

- Sometimes you find a movie scene so full of good ideas, it's worth watching over and over and over, like this one. This is the pivotal scene from "The Big Short," where Jared Vennett closes a $50 million sale even though he does almost everything wrong: he's rude, he's in your face, he says things like, "I smell money." That's crazy, right? I hope you never tell a prospect, "I smell money." Jared manages to do very few things well, but he does three things that close the deal, $50 million sold. I'll break down Jared's best three strategies for you right now. In the movie, Jared is offering the buyers a 20X return on their money. 20X, it's a huge win for everyone, but it seems too good to be true. This makes the buyers uncertain. They argue about his reputation, and they definitely don't like his attitude. But what's the one thing they love about his deal? He knows his numbers. This is where Jared really starts to show genius. The numbers just roll off his lips when he says, "I've seen some deals that are 65% AAA-rated; they're actually full of 95% subprime shit with FICO's below 550." Those are cold, hard numbers. What are the numbers that matter in your industry? Do you know them cold? If you have strong metrics, make sure to bring this up early and be specific. Here's Jared again, nailing the numbers down. These B and BB-level bonds went from risky to complete dogshit. I'm talking rock-bottom FICO scores, no income verification, adjustable rates, dogshit. Default rates are up from 1% to 4%. If they rise to 8%, and they will, a lot of these BBBs are going to zero. Those are numbers, numbers, numbers. Notice, he never says something that doesn't have a number in it. And most importantly, if you watch the Jared-pitch scene carefully, he doesn't pitch alone, he brings a team. - That's my quant your what? - Your what? - My quantitative, my Math specialist, look at him. You notice anything different about him? Look at his face. - That's pretty racist. - Look at his eyes. I'll give you a hint. His name's Yang. He won a national math competition in China. He doesn't even speak English. Yeah, I'm sure of the math. - You need a good pitch team with good chemistry that knows how to pitch together. A team is much more trustworthy than one senior person who does all the talking. Oh, I get it, you probably think you have a team. So you think, "Hey Oren, this is nothing new. Where'd they do all this?" Well, let's just double check that you're doing it correctly. First, make sure you never bring team members to the meeting who say nothing or have no clear expertise. The single purpose of a pitch meeting is to close deals. It's not to train interns. Use your team to amplify your expertise in a pitch; not dilute it. How to work like a team to close any deal? Here it is. You have the biggest challenge as the presenter. You're the first presenter, right? In the room or the Zoom, whatever, because it's generally cold prior to the start of the pitch, everyone's cold. This means the buyers have not fully devoted their attention to you and they can still be easily distracted. You'll have to inject the necessary energy into the audience, in the room, in order to bring the presentation to life. Your job is to establish the big idea. You'll describe what's changing, and how the buyers current problems will get worse because of the change that's happening in the market. Why the change matters; that's you. And within minutes, you'll need to spark their interest, show new ideas, fresh insights, set the frame. The second person on your team, he'll do something completely different. He'll add new dimensions to the presentation by talking about important projects you've completed, the specific situations and problems that the buyer can relate to. The second speaker on your team knows your big wins, and he puts those wins in context for the buyer. So the buyer knows the details of what you do, the hard problems you solve, and how you do it. Now, the buyer thinks, "Hell, if they could do that exact same thing for me, my problems are solved." There's a third person on your team. And that person is the high-credibility expert. He talks in numbers, math, and jargon. He's not a pitch guy, he doesn't even know what a story is, and he doesn't think in terms of big ideas, but the buyers believe every word he says because he's focused, he's data-driven, and he's matter-of-fact.