Straight Line Persuasion Review: 16 Things To Know Before You Buy Jordan Belfort’s Sales Course

1. THE COURSE: What is the Straight Line Persuasion Course?

In a nutshell, the Straight Line Persuasion course is Jordan Belfort’s masterclass on how to sell at the highest level.

He kicks off with a pretty big claim, telling us that once you’re done studying his material, you’ll be able to close anybody that’s closeable!

I don’t know about you, but that certainly got my attention. 

He also drops lines like “If you use the Straight Line the right way, you will get filthy rich!”

Again - a pretty big claim.

"OK Jordan...you have my attention!"

In essence, Jordan’s aim is to teach you the art for influence and persuasion.

He states that the people that get everything they want in life, are the ones that are influencers. 

He tells us that whether it’s influencing and persuading people to do business with you, or influencing and persuading your kids to do their homework, learning this skill set will dramatically improve your life if you can master it and then apply it the right way!

Sounds good to me...

2. COURSE CREATOR: Who is Jordan Belfort?

I’d say there’s a pretty good chance you know who Jordan Belfort is, especially after he was portrayed by Leonardo DiCaprio in the Hollywood film “The Wolf of Wall Street” back in 2013.

The movie covered a period of his life through the late 80’s and early 90’s where he was a Wall Street stockbroker, running his company Stratton Oakmont.

As the Martin Scorsese film depicts, this was a wild period of his life to say the least, and during this time he made millions of dollars selling IPOs and penny stocks that were nothing short of worthless.

In the end, he did jail time (22 months to be exact) after he was convicted for stock market manipulation, money laundering and securities fraud.

These days, he makes a living as a Sales Trainer, having taught his “cutting edge” (his words) Straight Line Persuasion process to thousands of students over the last decade.

3. COURSE OVERVIEW: What Does the Straight Line Persuasion Course Cover?

Here’s an overview of what the training videos cover.

All in all you're looking at 10 modules that make up over 8 hours of content. The content is recorded from a training seminar, in which Jordan was delivering his training to a live audience.

I gotta say I was surprised at first to find the videos were taken from one of his seminars. I was expecting a slicker production that was done in-front of a green screen, with fancy background graphics.

That said, it seemed to work, and I didn't think the production lacked anything at all.

4. LEGIT OR A SCAM: Is the Straight Line Persuasion Course the Real Deal?

Let’s cut to the chase...you’re here because you wanna know how Jordan’s course stacks up, right?

You want to know if it’s full of cheap fluff that you can find anywhere online for free, or if it’s the real deal?

Will it unlock the golden gates to riches for you, or will you be left spinning your wheels, looking for the next big thing?

Here's the deal...

I’m not gonna sit here and tell you that everyone that does this course is gonna get rich, cos that’s just not the case. 

Like anything, you’re gonna get back what you put into it. 

While the Straight Line Persuasion course may not be everyone’s cup of tea, I can tell you with complete certainty that if you study and apply the knowledge Jordan drops in this course, your persuasion and influence skills will literally go through the roof. 

Now that doesn’t mean you’re gonna get rich. To get rich, you’ll need something to apply your new found skills to (see what I'm doing at the end of the article).

In other words, you’ll need a product or service that you can influence and persuade people to buy (ethically of course). 

But the long and short of it is that if you apply yourself to what Jordan preaches in this course, you can only improve your ability to get your point of view across to pretty much anyone you want to.

PROS OF STRAIGHT LINE PERSUASION

5. CLOSING LINES: Transferring Certainty

Jordan serves up some killer closing lines throughout the course. He explains that at the highest level, selling is about the transfer of certainty. 

Your goal is to move the feeling of certainty from yourself, to the prospect, so that they too are certain in what you’re selling.

One of the best ways to do this is through delivering killer closing lines. The key is to deliver each one of these with the tonality that it’s “no big deal”.

Some of his best closing lines include:

“What’s the worst that can possibly happen?”

“If you do even half as well as the rest of my customers”

“Sound fair enough?”

He has a ton more that he shares in the training. 

Each one of these lines is designed to help you achieve your goal of transferring that certainty to the customer so that in their mind, buying your product is a logical decision.

All extremely powerful stuff!

6. FLASH CARDS: A Useful Tool

One of the best parts of the course for me was the flash cards, which act as a handy summary tool.

When you trawl through hours and hours of video content, it's useful to have a set of flash cards like these that you can refer to as a reminder.

I guess you could say it ties everything together in one place.

Even after going through the videos a few times, I still refer to the cards a number of times a week, just to remind me of the core principles of the course.

7. IT’S ALL IN THE SCRIPT: Are You a Gunslinger or a Scripted Pro?“

"Shame on you if you don’t have a script!”

Jordan is a huge advocate for following a script. In his eyes this is non negotiable.

The trick however, is to make it sound like you don’t have a script, and he shows you how to do this through using and mastering tonality.

He also explains that having a script that you have perfected and mastered, allows you to control the sale at all times, which is a critical aspect of the Straight Line process.

Most people that don’t have a script will end up dropping the benefits of whatever they are selling on top of each, right off the bat. 

Instead, what they should be doing is identifying if they are even pitching to the right people. If they aren’t then it doesn’t matter how good they are at sales, they will likely struggle to close.

Jordan explains that having a well thought out script allows you to keep your gunpowder dry.

In other words, you won’t fire off all your ammo (the benefits of what you’re selling) when you’re 5 miles away from the enemy. 

Instead, you’ll save your best stuff for when it matters - when you’re trying to close the prospect.

8. PAN FOR GOLD: Qualifying and Discarding 

What I found refreshing about Jordan's course was that unlike most sales courses that will teach you a million different ways to try and close the sale, Jordan teaches a different philosophy.

He stressed the point that you don’t want to be making presentations to people who don’t want, need or can afford your product.

Instead, he shows you how to qualify people out quickly and effectively.

It all comes down to not wasting their time or yours. Instead move on until you hit gold!

This differs from most sales courses because the technique that is usually taught is to try to keep the prospect on the phone as long as possible.

Most people pitch people that shouldn’t be pitched and then end up wondering why they are not closing.

Jordan teaches you how to ice them out early on.

9. MINDSET: Success is a Mental Game

I’m a huge believer that your mindset ultimately determines your success in life. 

It’s no surprise then that one of my favorite modules in the course was Module #5 ‘Inner Game’.

Jordan talks a lot about focusing on what you want in life, and acting as if you already have it.

Now for some of you that stuff might sound a little “airy fairy”, and cliched, but the truth is, it works, and I’m living proof.

Jordan mentions that the winners in life are the ones that get a vision in their mind, and then step into that vision and go for it.

I’ve found in my own life that almost all of the success I’ve had has come from the times when I’ve focused purely on what I want and then made an effort to move towards it. 

Needless to say, this really resonated with me.

He also points out that on the phone you can be whoever you want to be. You don’t have to be the same person you are in the real world - you can become anyone you want. 

Acting and becoming the person you want to be is all in the mind.

10. ACTION THRESHOLD: Learn to Tip the Scales

Another aspect of the course I loved was how Jordan articulates the Action Threshold.

He explains that this is one of the most important parts of influence and persuasion, because at the end of the day selling comes down to the ability to transfer certainty.

Think of it this way...when you walk up to a door you’ve never walked through before, do you need to stop and think about how the door works, or do you just walk through?

My guess is that you'll simply walk through...why....because of certainty.

You already know how to walk through a door, you've done it a million times already, right?

In other words, you're certain that by walking through the door, you'll achieve the result you want, so you don't even think about it.

Persuading someone to buy what you're selling is no different. You need to lower their action threshold, by creating logic and certainty. 

The way Jordan teaches you how to do this is to move the prospect up the Scale of Certainty, ideally to a 10 (absolute certainty).

One of the best ways to do this is to stack all of the pros of what you're selling on top of the negatives.

In other words, you're tipping the scale the way you want it, and creating powerful reason why the should trust you and be certain of your product.

Jordan explains that there is both Logical Certainty and Emotional Certainty.

LOGICAL CERTAINTY – is based primarily on the words you say.

EMOTIONAL CERTAINTY – is based on a gut feeling that something must be good.

The truth is that people don’t buy on logic; they buy on emotion, and then justify their decision with logic.

It's your job to create both these types of certainty in your prospect, by painting the picture of what you can offer them (future pacing), and then using powerful words to ensure that the benefits outweigh the negatives.

CONS OF STRAIGHT LINE PERSUASION

11. BIG CLAIMS: Jordan is a Salesman at the End of the Day

Don't get me wrong...despite his past, I'm a big fan of Jordan Belfort's and I loved the energy he brought to this training course. 

Ironically though, it was this energy that I sometimes had a hard time digesting, as some of the claims Jordan made throughout the course were a little unbelievable. 

Claims such as "You'll get filthy rich if you use the Straight Line Method correctly". 

Sure - maybe some people will...maybe I will...but it's a pretty big claim to collectively group everyone together by saying "YOU'LL"...

While I did find those types of comments motivational for about 5 seconds, I would then sit there thinking to myself "Man, this guy is a good Salesman", as I would realize that surely we can't all become "filthy rich"...can we?

So while I love the enthusiasm, I think Jordan could have eased up on these types of claims.

12. FALSE SUPERPOWERS: "Use Your Powers Ethically"

Throughout the course Jordan keeps reminding us that once we understand how to use the Straight Line Persuasion method, we'll have Superpowers that are very dangerous when used unethically. 

He continually reminds us to only use them for good, and not to manipulate anyone.

To me this just sounded like an old sales trick, to make what he was teaching us sound better than it really was.

He tries hard to make us think that once we complete the course we'll have Superpowers that should only be used for good, but I wasn't buying it...as much as I wanted to.

WHAT ELSE DO YOU NEED TO KNOW

13. REFUND: Can You Get Your Money Back?

So whenever I'm about to invest in a course like this, I always like to do some due diligence to find out what the refund policy is.

It's not that I'm shopping with a refund mentality, but I like to know what my options are.

When it comes to getting a refund for the Straight Line Persuasion course, the wording is a little vague.

Here's what it says...

The good news is that they do use the words "certain" and "considered" which means a refund is not totally off the cards. 

I'll be honest though...if you're looking for a refund, it doesn't look promising!

It looks like they may have offered refunds before January 2020, but it looks like they've changed their stance on that since then.

In my opinion though, I'd be surprised if you purchase this course and feel the need for a refund.

As I've said already, if you truly apply the skills that Jordan teaches you, it's highly likely that your sales will increase dramatically.

14. COST: How Much Does Straight Line Persuasion Cost?

At the time of writing, Jordan’s course cost $2,000.

Is that too much?

Honestly, I don’t think so, and here’s why…

I’m a huge believer that one of the biggest differences between successful people and unsuccessful people is that the successful people are happy to invest in themselves.

In other words, they will happily spend money on learning a new skill, if they know that skill will allow them to earn 100X their investment back in the long-run. 

They understand that by modelling successful people (someone that has already achieved what they want to), they will eventually be able to achieve a similar result.

As a successful entrepreneur making high 6 figures a year online, I can tell you that the biggest breakthroughs in my business have come when I’ve invested in myself and up-skilled myself in the process by taking a course that will allow me to earn more money.

So for me, the $2,000 seems like incredible value, as it will teach you a skill that can earn you money for the rest of your life. 

Of course, if you’re going to get the most out of Jordan’s course, you’ll need something to apply it to, be it a job or your own business.

I’ll show you how I’ve used his course to skyrocket my income at the end of this article, so keep reading to learn more...

15. SELL ME THIS PEN: Asking Questions is the Real Secret 

One of the biggest cliches in sales is the infamous “Sell me this pen” role play scenario. In-fact, you see Leonardo DiCaprio doing it when he plays Jordan in the Wolf of Wall Street movie.

Now when you ask the average person to “Sell me this pen”, you’ll probably find that they dive into telling you all the benefits of the pen, and why you should buy it. 

What they should really be doing though, is gathering intelligence...in other words, asking questions. 

The power behind this is that by asking questions to their potential buyer, they are able to identify their pain points and problems. 

This in turn allows them to solve these pain points and problems by providing the perfect solution to them.

In other words, they are getting the prospective customer to agree that they need what they are selling and then providing them the solution. 

This creates a logical response, because it’s pretty tricky to argue with someone when they are offering you a solution to the problem you have just told them about, right?

This is one of the big elements of the Straight Line method, and I find this technique an incredibly powerful tool when it comes to influencing and persuading.

CONCLUSION

16. HOW I USE THE STRAIGHT LINE PERSUASION SYSTEM

So now that I've broken down Jordan Belfort's Straight Line Persuasion course, the real question is, should you invest in it?

Honestly, that kinda depends if you have something that you can apply it to.

It's all good and well learning about a killer technique like the Straight Line Persuasion method, but nothing you learn will matter if you don’t use it in the real world!

Now if you’re in Sales, good for you - you probably have a product or service that you can apply Jordan’s knowledge bombs to.

But what if like me, you’re not?

Well the good news is that firstly you can apply Jordan’s teachings to almost any aspect of your life.

Jordan's a big believer that in life, selling is everything! His philosophy is that if you're not selling, you're failing.

Whether it’s talking your kids into going to be on time, or persuading someone to hire you, the skills you’ll learn in this course can be applied to almost every aspect of your life.

But what was really cool for me is that I was able to apply these skills to my local lead generation business, and see a dramatic increase in my monthly income as a result.

With my lead generation business, I’m basically generating leads for local business owners like plumbers, electricians, roofers, carpet cleaners etc.

The process is pretty simple. 

I build a website about a local service like carpet cleaning. When the site ranks in Google, I then stick a call tracking number on it.

Next I find a local carpet cleaning company that wants more leads and I then redirect the phone number on my site to them.

When someone searches Google for carpet cleaning and finds my site, they call the number and are redirected to the carpet cleaning company who takes the call. 

In return, the carpet cleaning company pays me for sending them the leads.

The best part is that they are more than happy to do so, because they are getting so much value from them. 

At the end of the day, they’re able to turn the leads into more customers, and which business owner doesn’t want more customers, right?

Using Jordan Belfort’s Straight Line Persuasion system, I’ve been able to negotiate some amazing agreements with business owners, always ensuring that both them and me are getting outstanding value out of the deal we set up.

That’s what I love about this business model.

I KNOW for a fact that by working with me, the business owner will be better off. At the end of the day I’m going to be sending them more customers and allow them to make more money.

The Straight Line Persuasion system has helped me articulate this to these business owners, so that they are able to see the big picture!

If you’re looking to build an online business that is scalable, affordable to start, and that adds insane value to the customers you serve, then I’d highly recommend getting into local lead generation.

I’m now making a solid $30K a month from all the leads I’m sending to local business owners.

Here’s more info on how it works...