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From the notebook

Jordan Belfort Sales Technique

Eleven steps on one straight line.

This page is my notes on Jordan Belfort’s approach to selling. Yes, the Wolf of Wall Street one. He went to prison for fraud, and nothing here excuses that. But the structure he teaches is solid, and it works just as well when what you’re selling is good.

His big idea is the straight line. Every sale has an open and a close, and your job is to keep the conversation moving from one to the other without wandering off. The eleven words on this page are how you stay on it.

Dale P. Deacon · Posted 30 October 2026 · 5 min read

Handwritten notebook page: Jordan Belfort Sales Technique. Eleven bullet points from Rapport to Service and Follow Up, with notes beside the first eight.
The page. The last three never got their notes.

TL;DR

The straight line

  1. RapportPersonal relationship building
  2. ProspectingWhat is your biggest problem?
  3. TonalityDelivery of the message
  4. LeadingPlan + Confidence
  5. IntelligencePreparation
  6. QualifyingNeeds → Solution
  7. ClosingStack the benefits
  8. ObjectionsAddress potential hang-ups
  9. Looping(blank on the page)
  10. Referral(blank on the page)
  11. Service + Follow Up(blank on the page)

Open at the top, close at the bottom. Anything that pulls you off the line, you steer back.

Rapport

People buy from people they like and trust, so the first job is to be someone they like and trust. Find something you genuinely have in common and talk about it like a person, not a pitch.

Belfort says you have about four seconds to come across as sharp, enthusiastic and an expert. That first impression does most of the work here.

Prospecting

The whole step fits in one question, and I wrote it down word for word:

What is your biggest problem?

Then you shut up and listen. Their answer tells you whether they’re worth your time, and it hands you everything you’ll need later in qualifying and closing.

Tonality

Delivery of the message. How you say it matters as much as what you say. Take the question from step two and move the stress around:

  • What is your biggest problem?Not the industry’s. Yours.
  • What is your biggest problem?Skip the small stuff.
  • What is your biggest problem?I’m here to fix something, not chat.

Same words, three different questions. Pick the one you mean before you open your mouth.

Leading

Plan and confidence. You decide where the conversation goes, and you go there like you’ve done it a hundred times. If you sound unsure about the next step, they won’t take it.

You walk in front. They follow because you clearly know the way.

Intelligence

Preparation. The confidence from step four has to come from somewhere, and this is where. Before the call:

  • Know who they are and what their business does.
  • Know your product better than anyone they’ll talk to this week.
  • Guess the questions they’ll ask, and have the answers ready.
  • Know where you want the conversation to end up.

Qualifying

This is where you join their problem to your product. Take what they told you in prospecting, and show how what you’re selling solves it, one need at a time.

If you can’t draw that arrow for a need, don’t pretend you can. Not every prospect is a fit, and it’s fine to find that out here.

Closing

Stack the benefits. Don’t lean on one big reason. Lay them down one at a time, each a little heavier than the last, until saying no feels like it needs more effort than saying yes.

  1. It solves the problem you told me about
  2. It saves you time
  3. It’s already worked for people like you
  4. Yes

Objections

Address potential hang-ups. The first close almost never lands. You’ll usually hear one of these:

  • “Let me think about it.”
  • “It’s a bit expensive.”
  • “Send me some info.”
  • “I need to check with my partner.”

Most of the time these aren’t real reasons. They’re a polite way of saying “I’m not sure yet.” Which is exactly what the next step is for.

Looping

The page goes blank from here, so this is from memory. Looping is how you handle the objection. Don’t argue with it. Acknowledge it, go back up the line, and sell again with a bit more certainty than last time.

Belfort says a buyer needs to be certain of three things before they say yes. He scores them out of ten:

The product
10
You
10
Your company
10

Each loop is a chance to push one of those up a notch. Find the one that’s low, work on that, then close again.

Referral, Service + Follow Up

The last two are also blank, but they don’t need much. Once they’ve said yes, ask who else they know with the same problem. Then look after them properly and keep checking in.

A happy client is your rapport for the next sale already done. Someone they trust has vouched for you before you’ve said a word, which puts you back at the top of the line with a head start.