https://downloads.bbc.co.uk/rmhttp/fileon4/PAJ_2707_PG13_Mental_Health_Profiteers.pdf
This is a frightening report. A sales script to remove doubts on how much money
"Karen wasn’t buying. It felt as if the woman on the phone was following a script – well, she was right.
And I’ve got one of their scripts here - the company accidentally emailed it to another parent. It’s 22 pages long and details, line by line, what to say to close a sale. My producer Mike’s here to play the part of the salesman. [MUSIC] So, it recommends something like:
MIKE: If your life goes on like this now, how do you envision his or her life will be, and yours? (This is your leverage for later, when they have objections.) DEITH: The next step is to:
MIKE: Create doubt - this needs to be strong - in their ability to find a solution. Make sure they have nowhere to go. Poke holes in anything they’ve tried.
DEITH: But if you meet resistance over the cost:
MIKE: If you’re going to make a decision purely on money, you’ll be stuck where you are forever.
DEITH: Sam and Martin Robins say they don’t use sales scripts anymore, but I had a call with one of their salespeople a couple of weeks ago which seemed to hit some of the same notes as the script we were sent. I said I was Sharon, that I had a 14- year-old, Lizzie, who had anxiety, and counselling - CBT - hadn’t really helped. EXTRACT FROM PHONE CALL SALESPERSON: Hello Sharon, it’s [beep] here from Anxiety Recovery. DEITH: Have a listen, and see whether anything he says sounds familiar. - 9 - READER: Establish the pain behind their problem. SALESPERSON: No, I get it, I get it. You know, you need to go to work to earn the money, but at the same time you can’t leave her unsafe at home, so you risk obviously your boss getting annoyed and maybe you losing the job. READER: Create doubt - this needs to be strong. SALESPERSON: With the CBT, well, you tell me, Sharon. If this carries on the way it is with the meds and the CBT, what’s going to happen? This is an investment where you, folk have to find it somehow - over time if need be - and the payback is yes, in cost financially, because it does cost you not getting it resolved in terms of losing your job maybe. READER: Poke holes in anything they’ve tried. DEITH: Yeah, I want the old Lizzie back, but it’s just scary, isn’t it? SALESPERSON: Yeah, it is, but what are your options if you go the other route? READER: Make sure they have nowhere to go.
SALESPERSON: If you need us to, Sam, because of the amount of success she’s had, she’s actually managed to get a credit company on board and she can apply for a credit or loan on behalf of clients if they need it.
DEITH: Sam and Martin Robins aren’t selling second hand cars here, they’re selling vulnerable parents a child anxiety programme. Sam’s calling herself an anxiety recovery practitioner based on one certificate. Most of her mentors don’t have any medical qualifications at all, and she’s asking parents to fork out up to £5,000. The Robins paid £9,000 to a marketing company which coached them in how to use Facebook to grow - 10 - DEITH cont: their business. Sam’s webinar and the phone calls followed its sales template. It paid off - as Sam wrote in this review for the marketing programme: READER: As I type this today, April 2021, a year later, we turned over a hundred grand last month. If you have the drive, then this is the vehicle. I still wonder if I will wake and it’s been a dream!