In my book, “Sales According to Paul,” I outline a method that millions have used to share the gospel of Jesus Christ called, “the Romans Road.” The reason that so many have used the Romans Road is because it is concise way of sharing the gospel message using Scripture as reference. Here is an outline of the four verses usually used.</P
Romans 3:23 “For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.”
Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”
Romans 5:8 “But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.”
Romans 10:9 “that if you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.”
In this article I’m going to focus on the use of Romans 3:23 in the context of the Romans Road, and why I believe it is so effective.
What is a State Change
Before we can answer that question, I think it is important to define what I mean when I say, “State,” as in “State-of-mind.”
State [steyt}: the condition of a person or thing, as with respect to circumstances or attributes:
Imagine for a second being on an airplane while two kids are screaming, throwing things, and running wild up and down the aisle. You think to yourself, “where is their mother?” Finally, the gentleman two rows up from you turns to a woman and asks her to control her children, please. You, and everyone seated near you, erupted into applause if but only in your own mind. Then you overhear her response.
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I just lost my husband, and we are on the way to claim his remains of the military base. I’m just a little distracted.”
How fast did your state of mind change? Everyone instantly went from cheering that our fellow passenger scolded the mother for letting her children run wild to deeply remorseful of the thoughts they just had and for being so insensitive. It happened in an instant. This is called the state change. Anytime anyone needs to decide, he or she needs first to have a state change.
Creating a Buying State In Your Customer
There is one thing that drives every sale. That one thing is curiosity. If I’m on the phone talking to a prospect about coaching services, the one thing I should not do is try to sell coaching services. All I’m trying to do on the phone is create enough curiosity to get the prospect to show up to a meeting. Curiosity is a powerful motivator. It means that some part of the person’s imagination has been activated.
The problem with most salespeople is that they confuse genuine curiosity with a buying state. Curiosity may be the kindling that fuels the fire that is the buying state, but kindling can be doused easily. Our first job in sales, way before presenting a product, is creating a buying state with our customers. I outline three steps in my book to make this happen. One is the most important
They must admit they have a problem
Millions have used Bill Wilson’s twelve-step program to recover from addiction. The first step is admitting one has a problem over which he is powerless. The reason that this is step one is that otherwise, humans tend to think we can solve problems ourselves. The greater the cost of the solution, the more intense the feeling is to resist it.
There is an old expression and sales that, “if your customer says it is the truth, if you say it is a lie.” Having your customer admit that she has a problem creates a buying state. When I used to sell my coaching services, the first question I asked the person who showed up to a meeting was, “SO, what brings you in?”
I’d usually get a response of something like, “What do you mean? You invited me.”
I would say something like, “You’re right. I get that. But you wouldn’t have driven all the way across town and taken an hour to meet with me if you weren’t experiencing some sort of problem that you hope I can help you solve.”
I would not continue with my presentation until the potential client expressed a problem of some sort. Almost all of them will vaguely express a problem. When they do, and the buying state is kindled, your job is to fan the flame into action.
I will elaborate on how to do this more in future blog posts, or you can buy or download my book on Amazon.com to learn more details.
