How to Build a Sales Message Around Four Buying Conditions
Get the prospect to acknowledge the problem, define the desired outcome, understand the gap, and establish urgency before you sell.
By Nick Verge · Article published October 27, 2026
Full transcript
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Original video: how to sell anything to anyone (kinda sorta)
how to sell anything to anyone for morons why hello there today I'm going to show you how to sell anything to anyone kind of sort of the the wisdom in this video isn't like you're just going to learn some dark magical art where you can just walk up to people and sell them something against their will no not at all in other words it's not like you're going to start seeing grandmas on the news saying yes I was at the grocery store and some young man who said he's from Atlanta said that I should try his
BNB mentorship and I don't know why but I said I think that's a great idea he promised me we're going to run up a bag whatever that means that's definitely not going to happen but what I am going to show you is the boxes that need to be checked in order to actually properly sell something if you can't check these boxes guess what you can't sell what you're trying to sell so that's what we're going to focus on today so let's go ahead let's get started let's talk about how to make some [ __ ] money step one get them to admit the problem first things first we need to
get people to actually agree that they have a problem because here's the thing a problem is only a problem if you agree and accept that it's a problem it's like if I tell you you're fat and you're like no I'm not I'm just big bones the conversation ends there unless I have an open heart-to-heart discussion with you about why your addiction to dough based products is making you look like dough and even then if you completely reject everything I say there's no moving forward it would be almost impossible to get you to whip out your credit card right then and there and buy my product which is going to make you not look like the Pillsbury d boy is the problem real
of course it's real but you have achieved drum roll please denial ah the worst customers in the [ __ ] world those in denial people that are in denial you know what they suck at whipping out their credit card and making a [ __ ] decision to buy if someone can't accept the they of a problem they're not ready to buy it's as simple as that now here's the thing there's only so many problems that people can have if you really stop and think about it there are only a specific set of problems now what that number is nobody knows but it's a tremendously big
number a very large number a great big number a number so big you've never even heard of it it's in the millions and billions and trillions and jillions and and while the number of total problems is massive certain problems are more valuable than other problems and a smart business's focus is to solve a valuable problem for people unless you do only fans and your business model is to fall victim to what the gnostics called yava beo which is basically the
entity whose whole purpose is to distract everyone from the true God that is a spirit that dwelt inside of Jesus Christ but even though Our Father who art in heav doesn't approve of sing or women selling pictures of their coochie for $25 a prop only fans does still solve a problem it solves the problem of male loneliness and the inability to simply just be [ __ ] alone and not need to talk to a woman to feel special or good about yourself I mean for goodness gracious guys unfortunately these chumps they love swiping their credit card because it solves their main problem they need to be distracted by something but let's not focus too long on simps and whes let's focus on good business principles that help us make great amounts of money without selling
our soul to demonic off-road entities that are the combination of a lion and a snake a good business focuses on solving a specific ethical and valuable problem and as a result people give them money that's how capitalism works but in Soviet Russia you know solve problem problems solve you it's important that if you want to make as much money as [ __ ] possible that you pick the right problems a valuable problem pays you more than a problem that is not all that valuable see if you're picking little small [ __ ] problems guess what you're going to get paid small little [ __ ] sums of money well you want to get paid
like the big boys over here you want to make some [ __ ] money huh you want to be something kid huh you want to do something you want to do something with your life or you got to solve some big boy [ __ ] problems you know but the problem is even if you find a very valuable problem to Sol you need to find people who actually admit to having those problems so just how do we go get someone to admit that they have a problem it's so simple you just explain their problems better than they could ever possibly explain it themselves when they're able to see it that uh you just
explain their deepest existential crisis uh maybe it's even just a mild annoyance at the lack of a self-cleaning toaster uh but when you're able to describe that sticky problem that they're in uh with more clarity and poetic depth then their inner monologue could ever ever muster uh something very mag magical happens they get a very large boner wait wait a minute no one second wrong script oh here we go something magical happens
their eyes widen their pupils dilate like they've just stared in the abyss and the abyss Whispers back that'll be $1 1999 plus shipping and handling and we do offer claa payment plans because you see when you articulate someone's problem better than their own subconscious ever could they don't just think you know the problem they think you know them personally which brings us to step two holy [ __ ] we're not even done with step one yet okay step two the desired situation we need to figure out exactly what does this person want in their life see if someone doesn't know what they want it doesn't really make
sense to sell them something right think about it if we're trying to sell people something and they don't even know what they want well how does it make any [ __ ] sense for us to S them something let's go back to our grandma and the grocery store example that we started off this video with so you can better understand this concept picture this you need to close Granny on your Airbnb Arbitrage offer and Granny stops midar push and says oh you know I have all this money left over and I don't know what to do with it and I really need to invest it somewhere problem identified
sales process initiated and you being the sharp closer that you are you say oh Grandma so you problem is that you don't know how to invest your money that's right admission of problem accepted so naturally you ask well Grandma what exactly is it that you want though what are you trying to do and she says well I'd like to be would actually do something that doesn't require anything for me at all and for some reason I've switched accents several times but anyways I don't want to have to do
anything whatsoever I can't even leave the house let alone walk around and collect rent from my Airbnb properties because I broke my back years ago so I want a way to grow my money without me having to do anything Sunny no look bucko if you proceed to sell her your Airbnb Arbitrage accelerator program through whatever level of deception that you want to use guess what a slimy piece of [ __ ] because that's not what she said she wanted but you still whipped out that CLA payment plan like a goddamn demon before heading off to your reservation at novakov in Miami with all your closer buddies oh you sonit of a
[ __ ] well let's say that's not what happens grandma says hey you know what I've got a problem problem deducted and then she goes I need to invest some money but I don't know how admission of problem accepted and then you say okay Grandma lady well what is it that you want and then she says well you know what I really want to get something really say because I think tax benefit are pretty [ __ ] great desired situation detected desire situation accepted we have officially completed step two we are halfway there to closing the [ __ ] out of this Grandma we make it
look easy let's move on to step number three which is the gap oh yeah the Gap I'm not talking about the story where every 39-year-old woman buys a pair of jeans that inexplicably transforms her lower half into a giant gadunka baduna I'm talking about the gap between that sad miserable state where your customer Cur lives in that Heavenly fantasy land that they want to reach but it's really just because they believe that it's going to help fill their hearts but spoiler alert this is just the Eternal trap of Sam Sara you know the endless cycle of suffering when people chase
after feeding moments of Happiness thinking this is the thing that's finally going to make them complete but instead they end up right back where they started Bor dissatisfied and now $29.99 plus shipping and handling Bor consumerism is just Sam SAR and a snazzy tarile it's people buying things they don't need with money they don't have they ESS people they don't even like only to feel empty again a we later when the dopamine Fades and they realize their Himalayan salt lamp didn't actually fix their marriage the billions of consumers and by extension your job as a salesperson is to use the NeverEnding cycle of samsara to your advantage don't promise to end samsara
oh no that would be terrible for business instead offer a little relief a momentary pause of fleeting escape from the endless grind of existence and the customer poor soul that they are buys into it almost every single [ __ ] time your pitch isn't just a bridge across their problem Gap it's a damn Mirage in the middle of their consumer samsar desert oh you're thirsty here we have this refreshing life-changing solution sure the water tastes great until it doesn't and then they're back chasing the next thing ready to swipe that [ __ ] credit card again but let's not focus on Hindu philosophy
those [ __ ] are poor and we're capitalist so that Gap is where the money is made kiddos this is the moment that you got to let that old [ __ ] know hey Grandma you're right here flailing around in the shallow end of your own personal septic dank of confusion and you want to be way over here sipping my ties in a Hammet while your rental properties pay for your life support right and she's going to say oh my goodness yes and that's exactly when you tell her well Grandma what do you think is holding you back ladies and gentlemen we are now looking for her to admit her
Gap now she's going to say one of two things either one she's going to say she doesn't have a gap and in that case you need to call that lying [ __ ] out right to her [ __ ] face but in the case that she does actually admit the gap for instance says I think what's holding me back is that I just don't know the steps Deary I mean I'm old I have no clue how to actually invest in real estate I mean even though May being be Arbitrage maybe perhaps there going to be something a little bit legal in Breaking lease terms
but that's not really here nor there I'm just a little stupid and Confused old woman Gap detected admission of Gap accepted your job is not to just show them the Gap but to whip out a metaphorical measure and let them Marvel at just how gabing their hole is oh oh wait oh that sounded really weird scratch that let's just say you're there to highlight the Grand Canyon of [ __ ] they need to leap over because if they don't see how massive this Gap is if they don't see how fraking inconvenient it is to cross this Gap your potential buyer will think they can just hop skip and a step across their
problems and if that were the case why on Earth would they pay your sorry ass to help them they didn't know that the journey from I have a problem to I'm living the dream involves them dragging their metaphorical balls through a thousand miles of glass ooh ow no they don't want that you know what they do want though sex no really look okay guys breaking character here for a moment I've produced over $40 million for my clients selling everything from Amazon FBA coaching programs to face moisturizer for older women that are aging faster than spoiled milk and you
know what the real promised land is that everyone is trying to get to sex Respect power happiness fulfillment connection understanding we package these things up into physical products and digital products and services and [ __ ] whatnot but the real gap for everyone is that they don't know how to get what they want or they just can't do it themselves otherwise they would have it and the thing is they're looking for those different things sex Respect power happiness fulfillment connection understanding to the form of different products they may know how to do what
they need to do but even then the question is why haven't they done it yet probably because they understand the how but they don't understand the what and usually what we say is the one in other words if you're stuck on the how but don't know the what you're just stuck at an intellectual circle jerk with the six voices in your head anyways where the hell are we step three oh yeah any look now that they can see the gap between where they are and where they want to go guess who's conveniently holding the solution like a Girl Scout outside of a weed dispensary holding a box of thin Ms that's right you once you've got the Gap
established recognized and fully spelled out we move on to step four urgency let's say you ask this grandma from this long overdrawn out example that we've been using this entire video hey Grandma when were you thinking of getting started in real estate and grandma says I don't think that it's the right time cuz my husband just died yesterday O Okay well first off rip grandpa but here's the thing at at this point you know Grandma has no urgency none zip zil NADA because let's face it Grandma's got
other things on her mind like funeral arrangements and the weird casserole her neighbor chero keeps dropping off and figuring out who gets Grandpa's strange interest in World War II memorabilia you can probably guess which country Grandpa like to collect hint it's not the good guys okay Grandpa you know always reading those books of yours anyways when someone has no urgency guess what you can't close them they'll politely nod thank you for your time then they're going to go right back to wasting everyone's [ __ ] time including their
own and that's a true fact right there there's no fire underneath their feet there's no clock ticking some people love living their life like a passive [ __ ] no oh crap I got to act now or I'm going to miss out without urgency they're just passengers on the procrastination train barely toward a station called Neverland but let's flip the script What If instead grandma says I've been waiting to do this since I was 40 years old but my husband I son of a [ __ ] I'm so glad that he died he's been stopping me from doing real estate for years SP my time to shine and while I
build my only fans business and grow my arbitr real estate portfolio and just like that Bing Bang Boom we've checked all the boxes we now have permission to sell grma some [ __ ] so we're going to say grandma you know what why don't you just go ahead and get started by signing right here on this contract with 30 stipulation to take us up on our money back guarantee and uh would we wanted to use Clara or after pay to finance your $9,800 deposit to get started and also could you please hurry up because I have reservations at Nova COV at 7:00 p.m.
and I really don't want to be late and just like that Grandma's a [ __ ] customer so if you think about it admission to a real problem a desired situation a gap and urgency are all we need to be able to properly sell something to someone if they have those four things guess what you can pretty much sell anything to anyone kind of sort of so if you want to sell more products and more things all you need to do is really get better at those four areas the better you are able to explain people's problems the better you're able to understand their desired situations the better you are at showing them the Grand Canyon size of [ __ ] [ __ ]
between their sad sorry existence in the sunlit Holy Land of their dreams and the better you are making them feel like the clock is taking faster than the plot twist in a Christopher noan movie the better you are at selling anything to anyone so go forth now you magnificent bastards sell with Integrity with Flare and with the same kind of Reckless enthusiasm that make even Grandma proud of your hustle and when you're done when you've closed your deals and made it rain clar installments don't forget to order that wag you steak and raise a glass to the art the science the absolute beauty of selling because at
the end of the day you didn't just sell a product you sold a dream you sold a transformation that's right ladies and gentlemen America is built on sales America is built on the sales people who actually sell products regardless of how sky and slimy and some of them you know are kind of [ __ ] [ __ ] boys but whatever regardless of all that you my dear capitals Cowboy you got paid that's the game you played it well maybe save me a seat at novakov and I'll see you there sometime until next time keep closing keep dreaming and remember
everything's negotiable except for the fact that Jesus Christ is the Son of God toodles
You cannot walk up to absolutely anyone and sell them absolutely anything against their will. This isn’t a dark magical art. When I talk about selling anything to anyone, there’s a very important “kind of, sort of” attached to it.
What you can do is understand the boxes that have to be checked for a sale to make sense. If you can’t check them, being more enthusiastic about your pitch isn’t going to fix the problem.
There are four: admission of a real problem, a desired situation, a gap, and urgency. I want you to get better at establishing each one.
Start your sales message with a problem the buyer recognizes
A problem only becomes a buying problem when the person accepts that it is a problem.
If I tell somebody they need to lose weight and they respond, “I’m not fat; I’m just big-boned,” we haven’t established anything. I might believe the problem is obvious. They’re rejecting it. Unless we can have an honest conversation about that, it’s going to be very difficult to sell them something intended to solve it.
People in denial are not ready to buy. You need more than a diagnosis that exists in your head.
Also, choose the problem carefully. A business gets paid for solving problems, but some problems are worth more than others. If you choose small, low-value problems, expect smaller sums of money. A good business focuses on a specific, ethical, valuable problem that people care enough about to pay to solve.
There are countless things people want relief from. Even a business like OnlyFans addresses a problem: loneliness and the desire for distraction or attention. That doesn’t mean every problem-solving business is one I want to build. Be deliberate about the problem you choose and the business you create around it.
Explain the problem better than the prospect can
How do you get somebody to acknowledge the problem? Describe it more clearly than they can describe it themselves.
That might mean articulating a deep frustration. It might mean explaining a much smaller annoyance, like wishing a toaster would clean itself. The scale changes, but the principle stays the same.
When you express somebody’s situation with more clarity than their own internal monologue, they don’t just think you understand a category of problem. They feel that you understand them personally.
That is a very different starting point from charging into a pitch about your product. You’ve given them a reason to listen because you can name what they’re experiencing.
Make sure you have agreement before you move on. The fact that you can describe a problem eloquently does not mean the person has admitted to having it.
Establish the outcome they actually want
The next question is what the person wants instead.
Let’s use an exaggerated example. You sell an Airbnb arbitrage program, and you meet a grandmother at the grocery store. She says she has money she doesn’t know how to invest.
Great. You’ve identified a potential problem. But you still need to ask what she wants.
Suppose she says, “I want my money to grow without having to do anything. I have a bad back, I can barely leave the house, and I don’t want to manage properties.”
If you proceed to sell her an active Airbnb business through deception, you’re being a slimy salesperson. Your offer doesn’t match what she just told you. Having a payment plan ready does not change that.
In a different version of the conversation, she says she actually wants to get into real estate and likes the tax benefits. Now we have a different desired situation and a different conversation to have.
You have to listen to the answer. Don’t substitute the outcome you want to sell for the outcome the person says they want.
Show the gap between the two situations
Once you know where somebody is and where they want to go, find what is keeping them apart.
Ask, “What do you think is holding you back?”
In the real estate example, the answer might be, “I don’t know the steps. I don’t know how to do this.” Now we have a gap the person recognizes.
Your job is to make that gap clear. If the prospect thinks the journey is a quick hop, skip, and jump that they can make alone, why would they pay you for help?
Explain the difficulty and inconvenience involved in crossing from the current situation to the desired one. They need to understand what they’re missing and why that missing piece matters.
This is also where you have to get beneath the surface of the product. I’ve produced over $40 million for clients selling everything from Amazon FBA coaching to face moisturizer. Those products look very different. The deeper destinations people are pursuing often look much more similar: sex, respect, power, happiness, fulfillment, connection, and understanding.
We package those desires into products and services. The customer is looking for a way to reach something they want and either doesn’t know how or cannot do it alone.
Sometimes a person says they already know how. Then the useful question is why they haven’t done it. Knowing a process intellectually and actually getting the result are different situations. Don’t confuse familiarity with having crossed the gap.
Find out whether the person has urgency
A recognized problem and an appealing outcome still don’t tell you whether someone is ready to act now.
Ask when they were thinking of getting started.
Back to our grandmother. If her husband died yesterday and she’s trying to arrange a funeral, investing in real estate probably isn’t the immediate priority. You can have agreement on the other pieces and still have no urgency.
Now imagine a different answer: she’s wanted to do this for years, she finally has the opportunity, and she’s ready to get moving. That changes the conversation completely.
Without urgency, a person can nod politely, thank you, and go back to doing nothing about the problem. There is no fire underneath their feet. You need to understand why acting matters now rather than assuming interest automatically means readiness.
Bring the four conditions together before the close
Here is the sequence I want you to see:
- The person admits to a real problem.
- They can explain the situation they want instead.
- They recognize what prevents them from getting there.
- They have a reason to act.
Those conditions give your offer a place in the conversation. Your solution connects to an acknowledged gap between an undesirable situation and a desired one, at a time when the person wants to do something about it.
If your sales message is struggling, look at which condition is weak. Are you describing a problem the audience dismisses? Are you selling the wrong outcome? Have you failed to explain why they need help? Are they interested but in no hurry?
Get better at explaining problems, understanding desired situations, showing the gap, and establishing urgency. That is the practical work behind becoming better at selling. Close with integrity and enthusiasm, but first make sure you have something that actually fits the person in front of you.