By presenting debt and credit solutions to people, help as many people as possible and solve all their debt and credit problems so they can secure true financial freedom.
SALES FLOW FOR BEST RESULTS:
Greeting - Introduce yourself be sure to respect and value the person and their time:
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Positive intention while try to reach a person is everything.
Connect - Establish a connection/trust with the person:
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Listen closely to what they say and find a topic they might be interested in having a personal conversation about.
Qualify (Pitch) - Access their unique situation:
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Ask appropriate questions before designing their program and making financial and situational recommendations.
Recommendations (Main Pitch) - Make recommendations and present the program to the customer based on the information obtained from question asked:
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Pitch to them the benefits to the program and the unique selling points when you go with our company.
Disclose Risks and Explain Fees (Pitch) - Make sure they understand what they are signing up for:
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Share with them the risks involved with this program. Counter each risk with the benefit to our program.
Signup (Close) - Create a compelling reason for them to signup today.
GREETING - TIPS ON GREETING A PERSON:
Think positive thoughts while dialing. Visualize a good situation you’ve recently been a part, post a picture you can glance at while you’re introducing yourself. Your intention is very important when you first make connect with a person. It is about 90% of whether a person gives you a chance to continue. This is even more important with customers in the Debt Negotiation business because of what their typically going through at the time in life.
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“How’s your day going…“Do you have a moment I’m responding to a form you filled out on [website] “Tell me a little about your situation and I can give you some option or at a minimum direct you with information and some advice to hopefully help you with your situation”
If you don’t get in contact with the person leave the following message: “Hello this is (sales rep name) calling from (Company Name). I'm calling in response to you recently filling out a form on (web site name) an affiliate site of ours. This is a courtesy call to let you know I'm sending you a brief overview of our program so you can have a better understanding of how it works and more importantly, how it can benefit you!
Then send an email: In the subject line “box”, “header” it’ll read, "Are you still interested in reducing your debts?” The email will come from (sales rep name)@ebinexinc.com. That way they know it’s not spam. Briefly what we do is: o Could cut your total debt by up to half (optional) o Could Immediately cut your monthly payments by up to 50% o And lastly we custom design a program that could get you out of debt within 12 - 48 month! Give me a call if I can help! or I would really like to help you and look forward to hearing from you so we can discuss your situation further!”
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Then send them the email and attached overview in Appendix C. You can modify the message, email and overview to fit your personality better but if you keep the same main points we have proven that this message / voicemail combination works.
CONNECT - TIPS TO CONNECT/ESTABLISH TRUST WITH A PERSON:
This is the most important part of the sales in the Debt Negotiation business. Remember your potential clients are being asked to trust you with their sensitive financial information and often times are feeling very angry, upset, vulnerable and/or insecure. A large number will find it hard to trust you if you don’t open to them first with personal experiences and stories as their talking.
Make it personal. Share personal stories of people you know. Share personal stories of your own situation of credit or debt situations you have been in. Example: o “Yes, I have been through a card that was past due and they raised my interest rates to 32% and my minimum payment doubled.” Acknowledge what the person is saying. Example: o “That’s awful,” “I know,” “That makes you feel like your doing something wrong doesn’t it,” etc.
Offer them something free or information that may not be a part of our program that can help them with a current situation:
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“It sounds like your best option would be to declare bankruptcy.” “Here’s what I think you should do…Keep one of the cards off the program and keep it about $1000 from its maximum so you can handle another emergency like that if it comes up again.”
QUALIFY - QUESTIONS TO ASK BEFORE MAKING RECOMMENDATIONS
Fill out the Financial Profile – Appendix A Fill out all the information in Appendix B Hardship – “Tell me how you go yourself in this situation” Document all of what they say typical hardships are: Divorce, Medical problem, death, Decrease in income, Increase in expenses, etc.
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These are good qualifying questions if you are only interested in qualifying if someone is going to 9 times out of 10 qualify: 1. “Do you currently have at least $5K or more in debt?” Yes / No 2. “Do you have at least 2 or more creditors not including your house or car debt?” Yes / No 3. “Can you afford to pay at least $200 each month towards eliminating your debt?” Yes / No 4. “Why are you seeking help with your debt?” · Expenses increased · Decrease in income · Divorce · Serious illness · Death in family · Loss of employment · Can’t make payments · Make payments, but no progress · Harassing creditor phone calls
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“What’s more important, to get out of debt as quickly as possible or pay less monthly to ease your cash-flow situation?”
RECOMMENDATIONS (MAIN PITCH):
Overview Pitch: “To give you a quick overview; we first qualify you for the program. If our board of review qualifies you, we enroll you into the Debt Settlement Program. At enrollment, we help you set up a bank account in your name at Global Client Solutions, where you will be making monthly payments into this account. Instead of making your monthly minimums to your creditors, which usually only cover interest and fees anyway, you make one monthly payment into your settlement account – which, in most cases is significantly lower than your old monthly minimums. The funds are actually automatically set up to transfer from your existing checking account into your new settlement account. When enough money is saved we make an offer to a creditor to settle an account. We do not make payments with the creditors unless we absolutely have to. Once funds accumulate, our negotiators will then approach your creditors one at a time and negotiate settlements, typically saving you between 10% and 70%. The average with our fees to about 45% of the amount you owe on each account. We are able to qualify you for these settlements due to our scale, relationships, and knowledge of the creditors’ own processes. . If the client is happy with the settlement and agrees to the terms, we complete the agreement with the creditor and payments are made to settle the account at the reduced amount. Then over the 12 – 48 months we continue
this process until all accounts have been settled. Once the account is paid, the creditor will report to the credit bureaus that the accounts are settled, and that there is now a zero debt balance remaining with them so that at completion of our program if everything goes well you are totally out of debt. . How does that sound?” Key points that can be used in the pitch:
25 year experience and Industry Expert Consultant – “One of our owners and the person who runs our Debt and Credit Consultants in Client Services, Creditor Services, and Debt Negotiation is an expert in this industry. She has 25 years of experience in the collections and debt negotiation industries. She has consulted for many companies in this industry and trained the staff of a large number of people in this industry.” Change Phone and Address, Email to EFS contact info – “Within a day or two of you signing up we change your address and phone numbers on all your cards and creditors to our contact address and phone number. Very few companies do this because it is a lot of extra work to field all these calls, emails and letters. But we want to help you as much as possible and take as much burden off you as possible.” Immediate Orientation / Information Consultation – “We do an orientation consultation within a day or two of signing up. In this we walk you through what to expect, educate you on key points to know and give you an opportunity to ask any questions you may have. I don’t know of any other companies that do this. Almost all the other companies out there that we know of don’t do this until you make your first payment. We have the philosophy that helping you and putting your mind at ease about your situation is our number one priority.” 24/7 feedback with account access, creditor status, etc. – “At all times 24hours, 7 days a week you can access your account online to see all our interactions with your creditors, check your progress on the program, and see your savings. Again this is your account we just manage it for you, but can’t do anything with the savings without your permission.” Flexibility to change payments while on program – “We want you to finish the program and be 100% out of debt so we are flexible if you miss payments and don’t kick you out of the program. We work with you to make any adjustments we need to empower you to get back on the savings regiment as quickly as possible. Some companies kick you out of the program if you miss a payment or two. We do everything in our power to help you get back on track.” Flexibility to change draft dates while on program – “We are flexible on the savings draft dates and they can be any day of the month that works best for you. We can even change these dates if you ever need us to.” Expert Advice and Information while on the program – “Though-out the course of the program you have complete access to our highly trained staff in our Client Services, Creditor Services, and Debt Negotiation. Think of them as your personal Debt and Credit Consultants. Jerri Simpson who manages and trains all of these people has over 25 years of industry expertise in Collections and Debt Negotiations. She is highly sought after as an industry expert so you are in the best hands in the industry with us. In all circumstances we do everything we can to help a client even if it’s not a part of our normal services. We truly care about you and helping you anyway we can.”
Using your information system or Debt Manager fill in the notes (DM – “Notes” page), document the hardship (DM – “Prequal” page) and fill in the creditors (DM – “Creditors” page). Then you can use the calculation page (DM – “Plan” page) to discuss with the potential client the recommended plan. At this time you can use your own industry knowledge to offer any other ideas to help remedy their situation. For example: We can’t tell you what to do or give legal advice but we can tell you what we would do and from our 25 years of experience what we would recommend:
Student Loan - “If you are having problems making student loan payments you can request a deferment.” Payday/Cash Call Loans – “If you have any trouble with pay-day loans that are not in collections (because we can’t take them) I can hook you up with an affiliate company we work with for these situations.”
Keep a card for emergencies – “What I would do if in that situation is to keep a card off the program and keep it about $1000 below its maximum. Put all your other cards on the program.” Mortgage or Refinance Loan – “Let me tell you what I’ll do when your finished with the program call me back and I’ll hook you up with our Mortgage broker and we’ll do our best to get a loan for a house”
Using your information system look over the Agreement to make sure it was generated correctly.
DISCLOSE RISKS AND EXPLAIN FEES
Make sure they understand the following points “Ok, now I need to explain a few things because I want you to know what to expect while on this program…”
Explain Fees – “The first three payments come to us and then for the duration of the program a portion of the monthly payment will come to us for maintenance, negotiation, consulting and servicing of your account. Those fees are ______ monthly starting in month 4 and continuing monthly until you finish the program. No guarantees we can stop all creditors from calling – “Although within a day or two of you signing up we will change your address and phone numbers on all your cards and creditors to our contact address and phone number, we can’t guarantee that a creditor or collector won’t get through and call you. However if one does happen to get through we will handle it. We will walk you through this process in Orientation. Very few companies do this because it is a lot of extra work to field all these calls, emails and letters. But we want to help you as much as possible and take as much burden off you as possible. However, if you really want the calls to stop immediately, change your phone number.” No guarantees all accounts will settle – “There are no guarantees that all your accounts will settle, but what I can tell you with all our experience we developed a model and an average that equates to about 45% settlement including our fees. Some accounts may not settle some will settle for 70% and others may settle for 10%. But what I can tell you is that we have some of the best negotiators in the business.” (Remember as I mentioned earlier) Jerri Simpson who runs our client services, creditor services and negotiation has 25 experience in the industry and has trained many of the companies in this industry.” Possibility to be sued -”It is possible that you could get a lawsuit filed against you. As you probably are aware, any one can sue anyone for any reason at any time, you don’t even need an attorney so we have to disclose this is a possibility. However, our experience has shown that working with us does decrease your chances that this will ever result in anything more than a filing. We hope to find and equitable solution with your creditor. We have found that in most cases our excellent lines of communication can often handle most of these situations. As I mentioned earlier we keep an excellent line of communication with your creditors. As we stay in constant communication with you. Sometimes this alone can hold them off from filing a lawsuit. Lastly I want to make the point that very few of our clients get sued; but if this does happen we will work with you through the whole process so you’re not totally on your own, but we can not give you legal advise. Affect your credit score - “I have to let you know that your credit will be impacted in the short-term. The good news is that each time you pay an account through our program it gets reported as a zero balance and your credit score should improve. The next one gets paid off and boom it goes up again. etc” Optional – “Then once your out of debt we can offer some suggestions to help you start improving your score from there.” “Many people buy houses, cars etc when they graduate from our program we have seen as high as a 711 credit score when graduating the program. Optional if more detail is need: “You should be able to obtain secured credit such as a mortgage or a car loan due to your excellent debt to income ratio. The settlements could cause a higher interest rate than you would be able to get if you had a perfect rating. Recent surveys in the mortgage industry have shown that lenders heavily weight the debt to income ratio when trying to approve loans. This will also be found to be true when applying for a car loan or lease. Many applicants for secured loans are being turned down even with a good payment history because they carry large amounts of unsecured debt. For this reason, most of our clients will be more qualified for home or car loans after completing our program than they are before starting, even if they used to have a perfect payment history. At the end of this program when you have paid off all your debt you’ll be in a much better position credit-wise. You will no
longer owe anybody any money and your debt to income ratio will be completely flipped around. You will no longer be a risk and people will want to work this you.”
Not enough to settle – “The faster you put money in the account the faster you can finish the program and unlike a loan there are no pre-payment penalties. This is important that you do this anytime you can. On the contrary if you miss a bunch of payments we won’t have enough funds in your account to negotiate with your creditors.” Tax Liability – “Any amount over $600. that you save on a debt could be considered income by the IRS. Your could get a Form 1099-C from the creditor and you must file this with your income tax return as income. However, most of our clients are technically insolvent (meaning assets < liabilities). If this is the case, you can file a Form 982 with your tax return and exclude the discharged debt from your income. If you get a 1099-C from a creditor you can download Form 982 on www.irs.gov Since we are not licensed accountants I can’t technically tell you whether you will or won’t be liable.”
FACTS ABOUT ALTERNATIVES CONSUMER CREDIT COUNSELING:
“They have a 95% drop-off rate. About 95% of all people who go on a CCCS program don’t finish it and end up worst off with their credit scores and are equal to or more in debt from when they started the program. Another thing is CCCS’ show up on your credit report that you are on their program. There is no indication on your credit report that you are on a Debt Negotiation program.”
DEBT CONSOLIDATION LOANS
This is a good technique to use if a person says they are looking for a consolidation loan. “We can possibly help you with that, but I have to ask you a few questions. Are you a home owner, do you have any collateral or assets…?” Yes I have Collateral - “As a general rule I very rarely recommend swapping unsecured debt for secured because if you get in trouble again you can potentially lose your house or car” No I don’t have Collateral - “With no collateral a consolidation loan doesn't really exist. No one lends without collateral unless you have high income and a great credit score. A few loans often misunderstood as non-collateral loans are (1) Pay Day loans (10%-15% weekly), (2) Student Loan Consolidation, (3) Business or Personal lines of credit secured when good credit and a high income is proven. That's really it.”
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BANKRUPTCY
“Well bankruptcy is certainly an option. However, keep in mind that the notice of bankruptcy would stay on your credit report for up to 10 years, and up to 20 years in public records. Your ability to obtain future employment and licenses may also be impacted. I can also tell you that the bankruptcy process requires being probed by the court and is generally an unpleasant experience. With EFS Debt Settlement Program, you will not experience this traumatic damage to your credit, and could be debt free in 2-4 years and ready to improve your credit. Also with the new laws it's no longer as easy as it used to be. Now that the new bankruptcy law is in effect, the landscape has changed for those who are considering bankruptcy. All debtors will have to get credit counseling before they can file a bankruptcy case -- and additional counseling on budgeting and debt management before their debts can be wiped out. Some filers with higher incomes won't be allowed to use Chapter 7, but will instead have to repay at least some of their debt under Chapter 13. Before you can file for bankruptcy under either Chapter 7 or Chapter 13, you must complete credit counseling with an agency approved by the United States Trustee's office. (To find an approved agency in your area, go to the Trustee's website, www.usdoj.gov/ust, and click "Credit Counseling and Debtor Education.") The purpose of this counseling is to give you an idea of whether you really need to file for bankruptcy or whether an informal repayment plan would get you back on your economic feet. Counseling is
required even if it's obvious that a repayment plan isn't feasible or you are facing debts that you find unfair and don't want to pay. Once your bankruptcy case is over, you'll have to attend another counseling session, this time to learn personal financial management. Only after you submit proof to the court that you fulfilled this requirement can you get a bankruptcy discharge wiping out your debts.”
MISS CONCEPTIONS ABOUT OUR PROGRAM: THIS IS NOT ONLY FOR PEOPLE THAT ARE BEHIND OR ALREADY IN COLLECTIONS:
“Somewhere between 80% -90% that start the program are current, but have realized that they need help or that they want to make a big change in how they are living. And although we can’t tell you to stop paying your creditors and sign up for our program most people are glad when they graduate from our program and have all their debts handled and for the first time have the flexibility and choice to buy that house or car they have always wanted. “
SIGNUP (CLOSE) - COMPELLING REASON FOR SIGNING UP IMMEDIATELY/TODAY
Offer an exchange of help if they help you out with a problem they are having if they get the contract back to you today. If you say this or something similar with conviction it will work…“Our management and the board of review take this very serious and they will only let special circumstances get approved if you get that back to me right away.” Relief of Creditor Call / Have Piece of Mind – “Board of review to approve you if you make it in before they meet quicker you will have your orientation and the quicker we will be able to change your address and phone numbers on the accounts to ours. Thereby, relieving you of a lot of the annoying phone calls.” Explain how much you care about them – “You know you will feel better the moment you signup for the program. You’ll breathe a sigh of relief the moment you get back that agreement to me.” Explain to them how much you respect them and the fact that ultimately this is their choice. It’s their choice if they want to take the first step to making their life different. “Let do this today, don’t wait” If you can’t get them to signup today -
CAUTION – THINGS THAT WILL STOP A SALE FROM CLOSING:
The wife has to talk to the husband, boyfriend/girlfriend or other before signing the contract. Solution: Set an appointment to speak with all parties involved in making the decision or ask to speak with that person. Call me next week I need to do … before I can make a decision. Solution: Ask as many questions that you can think of to try to find out what he is avoiding or what his objections to doing the program are. He may not feel comfortable at first to share what they are, but with spending a little more time with him you may uncover the real objection or the thing he is avoiding. If you have not disclosed everything in the contract and something in it is surprising to the potential client.
TIPS TO CLOSING THE SALE
Get some commitment from the potential client before you get off the phone. If you can’t signup the potential client to commit to a time to send the contract back. Then, get a smaller commitment. o Set an appointment to the next time to talk o Have him gather his/her bills / credit card statement o Have him get his/her credit report o Have him talk to his/her significant other o Have him jot down his monthly take home income / expenses o If he has not received an overview yet email it to him, if possible set an appointment of when next to talk to him
SALES CLOSE CHECK LIST
Verified Address, City, State, Zip Verified Hardship Verify all Creditors meet the acceptance standards Financial Profile has been completed and customer can afford the monthly payment Client is in approved state All Disclosure and Fees have been explained The Agreement is signed and faxed back
TIPS TO MEETING SALES GOALS
The longer the contract is out the less likely it is to be returned. The longer a person is on the program statistically the less likely they are to finish the program. A pipeline of contracts out on average will result in about 50% of signups.
APPENDIX A INCOME / EXPENSE PROFILE
Client’s Name: ________________________________________ Spouse’s Name: _______________________________________ Combined Household Net Income: Other Income (Including Alimony or Child Support) TOTAL INCOME: $_____________ $_____________ $_____________
COST OF LIVING/INCOMING BILLS Food (Home, Work, School, Etc.): Household Items: Clothing: Laundry Dry Cleaning: Utilities (Electric, Gas, Water, Trash, Etc.): Telephone (Cell, Pager, Internet): Auto Gas and Maintenance: Auto Insurance: Auto Loans/Lease Education (Tuition, School Supplies): Home Owner’s / Renters Insurance: Life Insurance: Medical Care (insurance, Doctors, Prescriptions, Dentist): Entertainment: Children’s Activities: Child Care / Child Support / Alimony: Cable TV / Satellite: Personal Care (Hair Cut, Nails, Vitamins, Etc.): Gift / Contributions / Donations: Mortgage 1st and or 2nd / Rent (Include Trailer Space): Student Loans / Back Taxes: Misc. Other: TOTAL: $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________ $_____________
APPENDIX B CLIENT PRE-QUALIFICATION FORM
Date: ____________
Source:_______________
DC:___________
Client Name: __________________ Co-Client Name: _____________ Primary Phone: _________________ Alt. Phone: _________________ E-mail Address: ___________________________________________ 1. State of Residence: ________________ 2. UNSECURED Debt: $_________________ # of Cards: ________ 3. Current on payments?: Y N How far behind? _____________
4. Unsecured creditors: __________________________, __________________________, ___________________________, __________________________, ___________________________, __________________________, ___________________________ Balance Transfers / Cash Advances last 12 months? Y N Amount/Date of each BT & CA: ___________________________________________________ _______________________________________________________ 6. Recent luxury purchases: _________________________________ 7. Own home: Y 8. Client is: N If OWN, approx. equity: $________________ Single Joint Accounts? Y N
Married
9. Can you afford to pay at least $200 each month towards eliminating your debt? Y N 10. Bank accounts w/ unsecured creditors? ______________________ 11. Hardship explanation: ____________________________________ _________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________ Notes: _____________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________ ___________________________________________________________
APPENDIX C EMAIL / OVERVIEW COMBINATION
Voicemail Script:
Email: From: (sales rep name)@ Sent: Subject: Are you still interested in reducing your debts? (free info attached) Please contact me if I can help with your debt situation or if you just need the best option to eliminate your outstanding debt by 50% going forward. I’ve included a brief summary of what we do in the above attachment. I can be reached between the hours of 8am – 6pm (west coast time). All the best,