TSE 671: Three Things We Did to Grow a Business to $14 Million and # 35 on the INC 500 List

Looking to grow your company in seven figures? Who doesn’t? And oftentimes, it all boils down to learning the basics and practicing them over time.

Dustin Matthews is a speaker, an entrepreneur, and a phenomenal author. Today, he shares with us great insights into the strategies they did in helping grow a business to $14 million and how that business has gone on top of Inc 500.

Currently, he runs a company called Speaking Empire. They work with entrepreneurs, business owners, and sales professionals to deliver the message with the idea of “one to many.”

Dustin has also co-authored the book No BS Guide to Powerful Presentations: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Plan to Selling Anything with Webinars, Online Media, Speeches, and Seminars.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Dustin:

Strategies in improving customer acquisition:

1. Identify who the potential buyer is.

Find out where they’re hanging out. Go to where they hang out. You may not have an avatar yet but you somehow have a general sense of who can benefit from your product.

2. Figure out how you can get in front of them.

• Pay to be a sponsor to speak or show demonstration.
• Start building an email database.
• Do live events and invite them to come to your event and offer if you can come to theirs.
• Think about how you can build value for that person.
• Just be bold and go up to them and ask about the things they need help with.
• Really connect with them. Listen. How can you provide that value?

What If You Don’t Have a Marketing Department?

1. Research

Look people up on LinkedIn and figure out what they do. Try to connect with them and bond with them.

2. Build relationships.

Do something different to build the trust of your customers. Be creative.

How they grew their company to a $14 million making machine:

In the first year, they did $1 million. By their second year, they did $3 million. And in their third year they did $14 million. How did this take off?

1. Dial in the right sales message and find key relationships.

They started figuring out how to sell and market. Figure out a message that can get people into action. Relationships play a big part of it. Begin investing money into marketing to put fuel into fire. You already have the message dialed in so now it’s about how to reach more people.

2. Figure out how you can get in front of more people.

Do previews and demonstrations. Incentivize people with food or bonuses and gifts they’re interested in. Do demonstrations. It’s not the best at selling your message. But the fact is that you’ve got people in the room and so they would think you’re interesting.

3. You may have to be the marketer or you may have to create new products and new offers.

Be the marketer. Go to the people that have already bought from you or that you have a relationship with and make some sort of different offer (ex. product line, discount, referrals).

Invest in yourself.

Invest in going to networking events. Invest in yourself. Invest in education. You have to make yourself better and when you do, you can bring value to more people. Get as many skill sets as possible so you can be the most valuable in whatever situation you find yourself in.

Want to get recognized?

You have to apply for it. Go to INC500 Application.

Entrepreneur now has an award system too. You have to apply. You have to be in business for three years. And you have to show a certain amount of growth over those years.

Dustin’s Major Takeaway:

Invest in yourself and come with a student’s mindset. Even if you find yourself in an unfavorable situation, ask yourself what you need to learn here. It’s not always easy. But always think about what you’re supposed to learn from that situation. Come with a student’s mindset and drop the ego.

Episode Resources:

Speaking Empire

No BS Guide to Powerful Presentations: The Ultimate No Holds Barred Plan to Selling Anything with Webinars, Online Media, Speeches, and Seminars by Dustin Matthews and Dan Kennedy

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert Kiyosaki

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TSE 670: TSE Hustler’s League-“Creating Scarcity”

How do you increase urgency in your sales process without sounding too pushy? This and more in this episode of the TSE Hustler’s League.

Today, I’m sharing with you how you can recognize the power of scarcity. Regardless of what you’re selling, there’s an opportunity to implement scarcity.

Creating a Sense of Urgency

• The usual scenario is that we send a proposal. Then we get into this waiting game. But waiting doesn’t work.
• Don’t be afraid to ask bold questions. You can’t lose something that you don’t have.
• Don’t be afraid that your clients are going to be mad.
• Master the appropriate questions to get to the client’s root problem.

The Real Problem Is You

Many sellers have so many excuses as to why the deal didn’t go through (ex. the prospect doesn’t want to talk or they’re not ready to do anything right now). The problem is you.

The Power of Empathy

Think about them, what they need the most and how you can help them with that.

Creating Urgency through Scarcity

How much scarcity did you create in this deal? Scarcity means that when a person thinks it’s running out, they want it more. So when the item is perceived as being scarce, it’s subjective value increases.

In your sales process, find a way that you can create scarcity. Figure a way where your prospect needs to have it now. Find a way to create urgency early on in your sales process.

Episode Resources:

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 669: Sales From The Street-“Hustle Till It’s DONE”

Problem with increasing your rates?

I’m putting myself on the hot seat today as I discuss with you one major sales challenge that I faced and how I overcame it – in fact, raising my price to 130%!

It all comes down to perceived value and education.

Pricing: A Major Challenge

One of the major challenges I’ve had is pricing. I haven’t been making much off of this particular deal. And I learned quickly that I had to increase my rates.

The Perceived Value

So there was this event that I attended. I filled other roles. I provided education. These were not the things initially agreed upon. But because I did so much more than that, I was able to build that trust.

When the second opportunity came, they wanted me back and they wanted to pay me more. Why? Because I’ve initially built that value during that first event.

• Don’t just try to get the deal and have something checked off.
• Recognize the room for growth and the opportunity to build on value.
• Educate them and give them some tips and things they can do right away.
• Don’t be a mere deal-closer to get something on the books (which most sellers do).
• Turn deals into a problem-finding thing. Transition from being transactional into relationship-building.

Your Call-to Action:

Look for some of the challenges or holes in your client’s business. Find problems that you can help solve. Help them to realize some quick wins. When they see that, you’re going to sell more.

Take it from price to adding value!

Episode Resources:

Star Wars: Bloodline by Claudia Gray

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

Help us spread the word out by leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play or whatever platform you’re using.

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TSE 668: How To Stop Being Afraid of the Camera and Kick Butt at Video Marketing

If you’re still not convinced of leveraging video in your business, then you’ve got to listen to this episode. Videos are an often under-utilized tool by many sales professionals, not realizing the impact it could have in gaining your customer’s trust.

Remember, people do business with those they know, like, and trust.

Our guest today is George Thomas. He works for The Sales Lion, a consulting company for people in the marketing and sales space. George works with Marcus Sheridan, who also came here on the podcast where he spoke to us about the concept of how sales reps need to be smarketers. Essentially, you have to be both a sales rep and a marketer in today’s economy. And what best way to do that than by tapping into the power of videos.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with George: Why Videos?

• Research shows 70% of the buyer’s journey is done before somebody ever picks up the phone or visit your website. (This was done years ago so this number may probably have risen to 80-90% now)
• You have to meet the consumers where they’re at – YouTube, Facebook, your own website.
• When they call and fill that form, you want them to already know you and you want them to want to buy from you.
• Videos have taken over written content. Not because the new generation is lazy. But we value our time – we can learn more in a quick two-minute video than we could reading a 1,500-word blog article.
• Even for children, it’s about 95% videos for education and communication. So you probably have to be good at videos NOW so that you’re there when they arrive.

Why Are People Afraid of Doing Videos?

• We’re so used to looking at ourselves in the mirror that when we see ourselves in a video, it doesn’t look right. So subconsciously we think we look bad. But who cares? Who cares what you look like?
• If you get past yourself and realize nobody cares about that, what they care about is the words coming out of your mouth – the education you’re giving and the value you’re presenting. So get it out of your own head.
• Who knows, what you think is one of your biggest weaknesses may actually end up being one of your biggest strengths!

Your Step-by-Step Guide to Get Started with Videos:

1. Assessment

To get where you want to go, you have to know where you’re at. Go to the www.thesaleslion.com/assessment. It’s a free video assessment to help you know where you’re at in the process and which you should focus on.

2. Script

• Be prepared. The questions is whether to use a script or not?
• If you’re great at communication or you’re selling it everyday and you’ve got it memorized, you may not need a script.
• However, if you want to communicate in a way that most people can understand, do a simple script with some bullet points to know which direction you want to flow. Get some kind of a script template. Download one on www.thesaleslion.com/script.

3. Pre-production checklist.

Consider things like:

• Background
• Number of actors/salespersons
• Audio, Lights, and Setting

Check out a sample of the pre-production checklist at www.thesaleslion.com/checklist

Getting the Right Equipment:

1. Have good to great audio. Use the right type of mic.

2. Good lighting. Use some sort of light kit. You can really get a nice Savage Light Kit for $150-$180. Or just use natural light.

3. Get a good video camera. Get a camera that can shoot 1080p or higher, or a 4k.

The 4 Different Levels of Gear: Level 1: Get a $49 mic. Attach it to your cellphone. Put it on a little tripod. Shoot and go for it. Level 2: You still use your phone for the video. Use something like an app called FileMaker Pro that lets you shoot at 1080p or 4k. Throw in a road mic. Get a light kit that attaches to it. Level 3: The Prosumer – Use a video camera and a Manfrotto tripod. Level 4: Here, you’re spending on DSLR camera and Sennheiser microphones.

• Figure out what your budget fits into.
• Consider what’s the easiest for you to get started.
• People are very comfortable with their phone. Start with an iPhone or Android or the Gorilla Gear so you won’t be worried about all those technical terms. Now, you can focus on just being good in front of the camera..

What Type of Content to Produce: Create content about the questions you get asked most. Instead of emailing written content about this, you can just paste a link to your video on that where you answered the question. The Climate Selling:

• You assign your prospects to educate themselves.
• Assign the pieces of information they need to educate themselves on before they ever get there.
• This way, you get your time back.

How Video Transforms You

You gain trust in the quickest amount of time so the consumer will give you their attention.

George’s Major Takeaway:

Get Started with this Process. Just pull up your phone and start making a video. Do it as a response to somebody in your email. Use it as your email signature. Talk about who you are for about 30-45 seconds. Just be human. Be super-human, super valuable, and zero salesy. If you want more, research if a video workshop is right for your company or sales team. If so, go to www.thesaleslion.com/video.

Episode Resources:

Connect with George on Twitter @GeorgeBThomas and Facebook @Mr.GeorgeBThomas. Feel free to ask George some questions!

Maximum Influence by Kurt Mortensen

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

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Check out my past interview with Marcus Sheridan: TSE 078: WHY SALES PROFESSIONALS NEED INBOUND MARKETING AND TRANSPARENCY MORE THAN EVER BEFORE!

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TSE 667: Don’t Be So Pushy…Okay?

Ever heard of the term Cognitive Dissonance?

This is something I actually learned from Kurt Mortensen’s book, Maximum Influence, which I think is highly valuable and applicable to sales, specifically when we talk about asking for sales commitments. That’s why I’m sharing it with you.

What is Cognitive Dissonance?

This is a psychological discomfort that happens when somebody’s actions or decisions are not congruent with their values, belief, or past commitments.

People don’t like to be hypocrites. If they are, they figure out a way to justify it.

For example:

• Speeding (because you’re running late)
• Eating unhealthy (because you’re on vacation anyway or you ate a salad last week or it’s a Diet Coke)

We use these justifications so they become congruent with our ideas.

Study #1: The Handwash

Research done illustrates that 97% of females say they do while 92% of males say they wash their hands. After research, only 75% of females wash their hands while 58% of males did.

And once they came out, the researcher called them out for not washing their hands. And they had multiple reasons and justifications as to why they didn’t.

This proves scientifically that we don’t like to be told. So we create that dissonance.

We make justifications because we don’t like to be incongruent with our beliefs.

Study #2: The Thief

This another study was done at the beach where researchers acted as thieves. But nobody got up and stopped the person from taking the towel and radio.

The researchers did the same experiment. They had a different person leave their towel and their radio. But before they left, they spoke to a couple people around them asking them to watch their stuff for them. So when the “thief” came to take the radio and towel, everyone stopped them.

So what happened in this situation?

1. The person made a commitment.

When someone doesn’t have any connection to us as an individual, the likelihood of us caring for it wanes or doesn’t even exist. But when we make a commitment, verbal or written, our likelihood to fulfill that commitment increases significantly.

2. It goes with our beliefs. It goes with our core values. We’ve been assigned something. It’s our responsibility. So there’s that possessiveness aspect.

Do you practice the idea of cognitive dissonance?

• We don’t act on this though because sometimes we don’t know it.
• Do a simple ask rather than a big ask.
• The problem as sales professionals is sometimes we go straight for the big boys and ask for the money.
• We ask them to buy right on our first email. Instead, you should help them establish that belief by making a small commitment.
• Then encourage them into making a much bigger commitment.

Study #3: A 7AM-Sesh

Researchers asked graduate students to take part in a 7am-session on thinking process. The group was told the session began at 7am. Of all the students they told, only 25% agreed to participate in the group study.

In their second approach, they didn’t say anything about the time until the person had given consent first. They told the student what the study was about first and asked them if they were willing to participate. 56% of them said yes. They they were told about the time. And 95% of them showed up.

They made that commitment. They made that decision. So they were likely to show up.

Get Your Foot in the Door

When you’re able to help someone make a small decision, the likelihood of them making a bigger decision increases because they’ve already set that motion.

They already gave you the YES!

Don’t give them a big commitment. Give them something small. Get them to agree to a problem. Then get them to agree with something else like asking them to join a webinar or get your white paper.

Give them an easy way to justify it by giving them little commitments allowing them to make big decisions.

Episode Resources:

Maximum Influence by Kurt Mortensen

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 666: How To Gain Confidence To Pick Up The Phone as a Small Business Owner

As sellers, one of our greatest fears is picking up that darn phone. We don’t have the confidence to speak to our prospects because we either don’t know what to say to them or we’re scared of rejection. But in exchange of that fear, you’re missing out on leads. You can’t just let that happen anymore, especially as a small business owner.

Today’s guest is Craig Bainbridge and he shares with us insights into having that confidence to overcome your fears and to have meaningful conversations with your prospects. Craig is the owner of Diamond Sales Coaching, a company dedicated to help telesales professionals and individuals grow their sales and businesses through phone sales.

He created the program called The Three Pillars, that breaks down the three core skills required to make successful telephone sales calls.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Craig:

Having the right psychology:

Ensure the caller has the right psychology to successfully navigate themselves to even pick up the phone, let alone use it for sales purpose.

Overcoming Self-Doubt

Self-doubt comes from a fear of not doing something right or fear of doing something so well you might screw it up. Address this by understanding how your brain actually works.

1. Pay attention to what’s happening in the moment.

• In that moment of self-doubt, practice stopping what you’re doing and assess why you’re saying it to yourself.
• Trash-talking inside our heads is like self-hypnosis and it’s going to impact your actions on a daily basis.

2. Understand with clarity of what you’re trying to achieve.

Understanding what you’re trying to do makes your outcome more compelling.

3. Put in enough training and support to make those calls.

Strategies for a Successful Phone Call Sales:

1. Understand the driving force of the salesperson of doing phone sales in the first place.

• What percentage of importance do you put on the following – scripts, objections, product knowledge, or the agent’s mindset.
• Notice that the agent’s mindset is either overlooked or it’s got about 2-5% of attention.

2. Break targets down for them in realistic terms.

• Flip that aside to 70-75% or more based on personal development plans, ongoing coaching, understanding how happy the agent is going to make these cold calls for six hours or more.
• Realize what their mortgage is, their rent, travel cost, and all other expenses in their life outside of the office. Break it down. Get a figure.
• Then you can show them how they can break down their targets from monthly to weekly and to a daily basis so they can pay their bills and save money at the same time.

3. Take action.

If you want something, go and get it.

Craig’s Major Takeaway:

Take a breath. Step back. Take your time. Do things that motivate you – listening to good music or whatnot. Evaluate where you are now but be really honest with yourself. What are you right now in your business?

1. Have absolute clarity.

Get absolutely clear on where you want to be, where you want to get to. Draw an arc from where you are now over to where you want to be. All you have to figure out is if there’s a bridgeable gap, what needs to happen in between? What’s the step by step process.

2. When you achieve where you want to be, what would that do for you?

What would this do to your family? How will it change your life? How will it change your family’s life? What would you miss out on if you didn’t just go for it whether you succeeded or not? Never be that person who lives with the question in your head of “what if.”

Episode Resources:

To know more about Craig and what he does, visit Diamond Sales Coaching.

Maximum Influence by Kurt Mortensen

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 665: TSE Hustler’s League-“The Art of Asking Questions”

Today’s episode is taken from one of our sessions over at the TSE Hustler’s League, If you haven’t yet check out our two-tracked training happening this October where we will focus on building value and business development.

Asking Questions

Stop winging it! Ask meaningful questions.  A study that was done on the Journal for Applied Psychology suggests that the likelihood of voting increased if they’re asked the question. Questions generate that mindset for people to give answers when asked.

The Benefits of Asking Good Questions

• It helps you tailor your presentation.
• It shows that you’re listening and mindful of the buyer’s needs.
• It makes you seen as a consultant.

Your buyers’ brains are wired to answer questions whenever asked.

The Start-Stop Question:

The prospect jumps towards the end of your presentation even when you’re still in the middle of it and they ask about the cost, for example. Using this strategy, you start to answer the question. Then you stop to ask them a question.

Example:

• Client: How much is the system?
• You: Great question. It’s generally between…(stop here) But first, how many users will use the system?

The Reverse Question

This works by redirecting the person to where you want them to be by asking them a question in return.

Example:

• Client: What kinds of features does your system have?
• You: It depends. What kinds of features do you guys want to see?

Today’s Major Takeaway:

Take control of the meeting and the conversation. Don’t jump right into giving them the answers.

Episode Resources:

Maximum Influence by Kurt Mortensen

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 664: Sales From The Street-“Great Questions Are The Key”

Are you struggling with having business conversation with your clients? Let me help you deal with this today as I share with you what I did to overcome this.

A Personal Struggle

At some point, I was having trouble having business conversations with my clients. I would give them information and do a demo. Then I’d simply wait and follow up.

I was trying to close them in the demo. Why? Because I wasn’t building value in the conversation. I was simply trying to use the demo as a crutch.

The way to build value in the conversation is being able to have business conversation.

Strategies for Having Business Conversations with Your Clients:

1. Go deeper and deeper into your probing.

An example of this is Toyota’s questioning model where you ask the 5 why’s until you get to the root of the problem.

Ask more meaningful questions. Do role plays to practice.

2. The 3-Level Questions

In the book, The Science of Selling By David Hoffeld, he discussed the three levels of questioning.

Level 1: Surface-Level Questions

Never assume in sales. Don’t assume clients know their problem because they may not.

Level 2: Meaningful Questions

Don’t be afraid of asking a second question and think you’re going to irritate them. Don’t just jump into giving them a demo.

Level 3: Revealing the Actual Problem

Go even deeper and ask the client how they think your solution can change their business. Build your value around the idea of how this can impact their business.

3. Practice, practice, practice.
4. Join the TSE Hustler’s League

Episode Resources:

The Science of Selling By David Hoffeld

Maximum Influence by Kurt Mortensen

Leave a comment on our Facebook Group – The Sales Evangelizers

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

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What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 663: Persist: How To Beat The Things That Make Us Quit

Feeling down lately? Been getting rejection after rejection? Are you on the verge of giving up? Don’t give up just yet otherwise you could be missing out on greater opportunities to come.

Persistence is key.

Today’s guest is Dr. Clarence Lee, Jr. He is the author of Persist: How to Beat the Things that Make Us Quit. Clarence is a physician and entrepreneur. He has been practicing medicine for seven years now and has this great passion for transformation among individuals, helping them get what they want in life. Clarence is also a speaker and he does online courses and events on personal development.

Talk about persistence. Clarence actually applied to medical schools over 500 times.

He applied to every medical school for five years. So he got hundreds of rejections over a five-year period of time. He never gave up that he eventually became a flight surgeon.  

Entering the entrepreneurial world was just as challenging for him. But he didn’t give up either.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Clarence:

About the book Persist:

The book is broken down into the top ten excuses of why people quit and how you can beat them.

Some lessons from the book:

1. Separate failure from yourself and look at it as objectively as possible.

Objectify the outcome from you. You’re not the failure. They’re not rejecting you. Adjust your approach continuously to improve and increase your odds of getting what you want. It’s not you, it’s your strategy.

Most people have the mental capacity, but most people give up too early.

2. Overcoming your fears

People are scared. You might be good at sales but you’re getting paid to just show up. And you’re scared that if you move over to commission basis, you’re not going to earn as much.

Overcome this by keeping the vision in front of you. Identify that specific fear and write out the worst thing that can happen. Then you’ll see it’s comical that what you fear is actually going to happen.

Stick to your checklist. If there’s a process you have in place that has been proven to be successful, when disaster happens and you stray away from it, stick to that checklist.

3. Comfort

Sometimes we get too comfortable with our job and our life. Sometimes this can hold us back. Try to ask yourself if comfort is trying to hold you back.

4. Lack of Money

If you think the lack of resources is the reason you can’t solve the problem of the customer, try to figure out how you can add value with what you have right now. Take your knowledge and communicate that to your prospects to build value. Now you have something that you can monetize.

5. Don’t get married to your idea.

Try something else if your strategy isn’t working. You can test that in the market place and see it if you’re able to sell this or that.

How to Keep Trying Again:

1. Look at your past successes.

It can get tiring when you have a lot of failures in a row. Revisit past success to remind you of all the other things where you succeeded in your life. This is the way to build your confidence.

2. Beef up on your preparation.

When you lack motivation, how much preparation are you putting in to succeed? There has to be some prep time. The more you prepare to succeed, the more confidence you will have come game time or sales call. If you’ve had a series of no, go back to your preparation.

Clarence’s Major Takeaway:

1. Don’t be afraid to dream big. If you dream that vision that means you can do it.
2. Do not give up too early. That’s what differentiates the people that get it and those that didn’t.

Episode Resources:

Visit www.ClarenceLeeJr.com/persist and find out the bonuses you get from reading his book.

Maximum Influence by Kurt Mortensen

Grit by Angela Duckworth

The 10X Rule by Grant Cardone

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

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TSE 662: Don’t Insult Your Prospects

Building value with a prospect is a common challenge among many salespeople. And at the core of this is showing respect to your customers.

This week, I got the chance to speak at the Eastern Minority Supplier Development Council where I spoke about sales, specifically about how we can build value in every single conversation with our prospects.

Show Respect Especially When You’re Told No

In the aftermath of Hurricane Irma, a lot of trees fell down. Although it didn’t directly hit our area, the winds were so strong that our place got affected significantly. In our backyard, we had a mango tree that gave us good, sweet mangoes. Unfortunately, the tree, being too young, wasn’t able to withstand the hurricane. So it snapped!

At this time, people went around knocking on doors trying to sell their services like tree removal and yard services. Everyone was trying to hustle. And here are two intoxicated guys who asked if I needed some help with our mango tree.

I told one of them that he was clearly intoxicated and wasn’t prepared to have a meaningful business discussion with anyone. And he replied, “Good luck with that. That probably is going to take a long time.”

He just insulted my decision. There was no way he was going to persuade me obviously.

Here are key principles that I’ve learned from this experience that is totally applicable to sales:

1. Never burn a bridge.

In this case, the guy totally burned the bridge since there’s no way I’m going to refer him to anyone.

2. You don’t insult buyers.

There’s something about making your buyers feel good that will help you in the long run. Instead of insulting, do it in a more tactful and professional manner. Stop being a jerk.

3. It’s not only what you said but how you said it.

You also have to remember that it’s not just what you said but also the way you said it. One silly decision could greatly impact your business.

Episode Resources:

Join our online workshop this September 26 and learn the 5 Ways You Can Become a More Persuasive Seller Without Being a Jerk

Maximum Influence by Kurt Mortensen

The Three Value Conversations by Erik Peterson, et al.

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 661: How To Stay Motivated…Even When Things Are Going Bad

How can you stay motivated even when things are not going so well?

Today’s guest is Brian Biro, America’s Breakthrough Coach, and he shares with us why people actually are not overachievers and how you can stay motivated to keep you on top of your sales game.

Brian has been speaking for over 20 years. He has also authored a total of eleven books, including the bestseller, Beyond Success. His newest release is There Are No Overachievers: Seizing your windows of opportunities to do more than you thought possible.

A former swimming coach, Brian seeks to help people break through those fears, obstacles, habits, or doubts to help them get closer to their potential.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Brian:

Lessons from Brian’s coolest sales experience as the customer:

1. Sell a product you truly believe in and you’re enthusiastic about.
2. Bring fresh ideas to the table.
3. Be fully present.

“When you go from ego to we-go, that’s when you win.”

Everyone Is a Leader

Salespeople must recognize and see themselves as leaders. You are the point of contact. You’re at the most important moments right there with the customers. That’s the essence of the company.

You’re Not an Overachiever, There’s More In You than You’ve Ever Dreamed Possible!

• We all underachievers. We have no idea what God has given us. We have no idea of our potential.
• It’s just that our fears and obstacles, habits and doubts, start to cloud the essence of us being able to do the things we never dreamed of.
• When we get closer to our potential, it never goes away. You’ve risen to a different level so you’ll never go back.

Overcoming Your Limiting Beliefs

What you focus on is what you create. If you focus on the obstacle, you create the obstacle. If you focus on the fear, you create the fear.

People tend to focus more on what they don’t want than what they want. They focus more on worrying rather than on potential solutions and opportunities. People tend to focus more on the fear of the change instead of the opportunity of the change.

What are you focusing on?

Focus on what you want instead of what you don’t want.

1. Vision

• Shape the future. Set your vision.
• Again, what you focus on is what you create.
• Take more control of what you focus on. If something doesn’t go right, focus on the lesson and the next steps.

2. Don’t depend upon your memory to see.

• When you use your memory to see, you see what was, not what is.
• Understand that every person is different and they require different things. But you only see that when you don’t depend on your memory to see.

3. Energy

• Your customers won’t remember everything you said, but they will never forget your energy. It’s your energy that stays with them.
• Energy is a choice you cultivate. On a scale of 1-10, where have you been living your life?
• Change the way you move. The way we move is a habit. Change your habit and you’ll change your life.

4. Focus

Focus on your purpose. When you do something you love, your energy is unstoppable.

5. Presence

Give your full presence  – 100% of your mind, body, and spirit with that person and where they are now. When you’re fully present, you’re telling them that they’re significant, they matter, and they count.

6. Give credit, take responsibility.

Credit is something you give. Responsibility is something you take. Do that consistently with your team and they will want to run through fire with you.

7. Communication

The meaning of your communication is the response you get. If people don’t get what you’re trying to communicate, it’s not about them. Change you and find a different way to communicate.

Brian’s Major Takeaway:

Start to focus on controlling your contrallables – Focus, Energy, Presence. Focus on what you want to create. Seek to raise your energy level. Your sale rises as your energy rises. Be fully present when you’re talking with someone. Give them your full attention.

Episode Resources:

Connect with www.BrianBiro.com

Beyond Success

There Are No Overachievers: Seizing your windows of opportunities to do more than you thought possible.

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

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What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 660: TSE Hustler’s League-“The Reverse”

This is episode is part two of the discussion we had last week on Episode 655 where we talked about how you can create an experience for your customers, specifically around the idea of asking powerful questions.

Last week, I discussed how to do the start stop question. This week, I’m going to teach you how The Reverse actually works and how you too can use this strategy to help you create more powerful experience for your customers.

The Reverse

This involves answering the question with a question.

Example:

Customer asks: “What kinds of features does your system have?”

Then you answer this with:

“Well, it depends. What kinds of features do you want to see? “

Take control of the meeting.

One common mistake I see from sellers when they encounter a question like this is they immediately jump out and use everything.

You have to take control of the meeting. Take control of the conversation.

You can give them some answers but you still have to make sure you’re in control. Otherwise, the buyers want to take you every which way and it’s not going to work.

When the Price Question Comes Up

When this question comes up in the very beginning, you know they’re just trying to fish you out. So try to turn the question to them.

Sample answer: How much do you print everyday? (If you’re selling copiers)

Slow down. Get composure. You don’t have to answer all the questions right away.

Situations where you can use The Reverse:

• When people are trying to throw you off.
• When people are trying to dominate the conversation.

Going Beyond Surface-Level Questions:

The reason for asking questions is for you to be able to dig deeper into the issues of your customers.

Surface-level questions will only give you surface-level answers. This does not bring enough value. Go deeper down into the process.

This allows you to share something that they may not have considered. Help them recognize a problem other companies might have which they may not have thought about and which poses them to think.

Episode Resources:

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

Help us spread the word out by leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play or whatever platform you’re using.

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TSE 659: Sales From The Street-“Finding New Leads Made Easy”

Finding leads is one of the biggest hurdles many sellers go through. Trying to do outbound sales is so time-consuming!

But what if you had a software that can help you with prospecting? What if you had a tool can free your hours from doing cold-calling or scraping profiles on LinkedIn?

And I’ve found that in Found.ly.

It’s a tool that I’ve fallen head-over-heels in love with. This episode is not sponsored by them but as you know, I make sure I share with others whatever tactics, strategies, or tools that have worked for me.

How Is Your Prospecting Going?

It’s a common scenario that a company pays a sales rep and they usually have a very simple job – just to close deals. That would require you going out, hunting, networking, finding, prospecting, cold-calling, using social media or any type of media. But it’s hardly effective.

Having a Sales Assembly Line

Small businesses may not have enough resources to have a full sales assembly line where you have people doing specific roles doing prospecting, closing, customer success.

How You Can Use Found.ly in Your Sales Process:

1. Understand your ideal customer. You must know who you’re going after.

2. Put that into the profile be that Linked, Twitter, or Quora. Put your info inside the search criteria.

3. Found.ly hunts, pulls, and verifies email addresses for those individuals. They have a bunch of algorithm in the software that’s able to pull the data you need.

4. Now that you have say, 500 email addresses, you can set up an automated email sequence within Found.ly.

Benefits of Using Found.ly:

• It finds the email addresses for you.
• They verify the leads for you before you get a chance to go in and do all the digging.
• Now, you’re able to qualify your leads and do research then have a meaningful conversation with them.
• It kicks off the sequence for you so your emails are sent automatically.
• They have a mini CRM so you won’t have to cumber up your existing CRM. And only once qualified as an ideal customer, then you can convert them over.

With Found.ly, it saves you a huge amount of time, now you only have to focus on your one thing – closing. Your productivity increases. Your opportunity to close is going to be amazing!

Check out Found.ly and tell me what you think.

Episode Resources:

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

Help us spread the word out by leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play or whatever platform you’re using.

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TSE 658: Step-by-Step Instructions on Implementing a Sales Assembly Line

It’s not easy to sell… but having a process to follow will help streamline things for you.

Today, we talk about the idea of an assembly line for your sales process.

Donald is a New York tax attorney turned entrepreneur. He sold his first company which he created with his mom and did it out of bootstrapping.

He is the Co-Founder and CEO of CrossBorder Solutions, which he grew into one of the world’s largest tax software companies. Donald has also written a book, Assembly Required. It talks about this whole concept and how to implement it.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Donald:

The Traditional Sales Model

• The sales person goes out on the road, sets up appointments, does the presentation, builds a relationship, does the paperwork. Sometimes, he even takes care of the customer at the end of it.
• Mathematically, it’s almost impossible to scale this type of operation. It’s expensive and it’s ineffective.
• It’s works very nicely when working with early adopters in the beginning when you’re launching your product. But it’s not a scalable model.

The Power of Scaling

If you don’t scale your sales operation within the first four years and become the market leader, you’re going to fail. So one company in any market actually succeeds. Most companies fail because they’re not able to scale it.

The Sales Assembly Line

Assembly line is a tool used to mass-produce things. It has 3 principle concepts:

1. Specialization

You have people that have set roles over and over again. You don’t have people that play many roles.

In sales, you set up an SDR (sales development rep) whose role is only to set appointments. Have someone else specialize in doing research and another one doing the calling.

If you have a very skilled worker, don’t let them do anything else but their where their skills at. Let your account executives don’t do anything but close. And if they don’t close in three months, the client goes to an incubator professional who keeps them warm. Then send it back to the salesperson.

2. Best Practice

Determine what the best practices are through A/B testing. What is working in the sales environment? Then make sure every person along the line is doing the thing that works every time, repeatable, over and over again. Once you have a repeatable sales process, now you can scale.

3. Control

Don has built the sales assembly line software (available at www.assemblysales.com) which they use rather than a traditional CRM process. The key is to have multiple different people playing multiple singular roles along the line.

What about commission?

If you’re specializing, you can optimize the commission structure. By breaking up your roles, it allows you to target your commissions properly and keep more internally for the house.

Should the VP of Sales have control of everything?

• Don doesn’t think the VP of Sales should control the whole thing. Since they often lead not just with knowledge but they lead with their people.
• Instead, the marketing group controls the SDR and the callers. The VP of Sales controls the account executives. Then put customer success and upsells under VP of Customer Success.
• Nobody actually has control of the entire process.

Predicting Your Sales

Look at sales as a mathematical equation:

Number of demos x close rate x price = Your sales for any given quarter, month, or year

So if you have 100 demos and a close rate of 10% at $15,000 then that’s what you’re going to make on a monthly basis.

When you have enough impression, usually it stays the same. So you can predict what your sales is going to be on any given time period.

Donald’s Major Takeaway:

Don’t go door-to-door to sell. Use a web meeting software like WebEx or GoToMeeting to do your sales. It allows you to see enough client and do value. If done right, the close rate with a web meeting client is higher than with a door-to-door meeting. It’s much easier to build relationships over the web if done correctly.

Episode Resource:

Know more about Donald and if you’re interested in his assembly line software, visit www.assemblysales.com. Connect with him through email at donald.scherer@assemblysales.com.

Play Bigger by Al Ramadan, et al.

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Join the TSE Hustler’s League (Due to recent strike of Hurricane Irma, we’re pushing back our schedule to October 5, 2017.)

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 657: What Hurricane Irma Taught When It Comes to Sales

It’s hurricane season at this time of year and we are definitely not out of the woods yet. It’s something that happens from June to November. And currently we are at the height of the hurricane season.

Hurricane Harvey has recently hit Texas and following that, Hurricane Irma came to hit the whole of Florida. It actually affected almost anyone living in the state and it has also affected Georgia and Alabama.

And so, I want to share with you some things that I’ve experienced during the storm that we can all relate to how we do sales.

Things I Learned From Hurricane Irma:

You have to be prepared.

Different parts of the country encourages every household to have a 72-hour kit, where you have enough supplies that can take care of you for 72 hours (ex. flashlight, dry food, water, etc. 72 hours is the average time that it takes for emergency rescue units to get to you after the storm.

What if you didn’t have anything with you in these three days? It’s therefore important to have something that can keep you going post-storm. But a lot of people ignore this and the result is a mad dash to the store last-minute amidst scarce supply. So the supply chain isn’t there. For instance, water is such a huge demand that when you look down the aisles of the store, there were not water products at all. People were just getting everything.

Application to sales:

• You have to prepare and practice. Do role plays.
• Work on your questions.
• What are the common objections people are going to ask you?
• What are some of the difficulties you’ve encountered when working with other opportunities before?
• Where have you lost deals?
• Practice your pitch and body posture.
• Practice the fundamental basics. Just like the 72-hour kits, they’re just those basic stuff you might normally ignore. You have them but you don’t have them together.

Today’s Major Takeaway:

Take some time every single day to prepare. Perhaps spare 15 minutes in your late afternoon or anytime that it’s not peak hours in your business. And practice, practice, practice.

Go do role playing with your colleagues and find out the challenges they’re facing and vice versa. Then go over everything and bounce insights off each other.

The better you practice, the better you’re going to be when the time of need comes. And when it’s time to perform, we’re way better to perform in that situation.

Episode Resources:

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 656: You Need a Better Sales Process!

Sales process – this is something that new and struggling sellers have.

Today’s guest is Meir Ezra and he shares with us why you too need to have an effective sales process in place and how to actually do that. Meir runs different businesses around the globe. Back in Israel, he has taught companies how to become successful. Then he started in North America five years ago, teaching people how to really make it.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Meir:

Why many sellers don’t have a process:

• Not knowing why it works and why it doesn’t
• Not knowing when each step has been completed and when to go to the next step

How to get started in creating a process for your business:

• Each step has to have an exact end phenomena.
• Understand the end result.

What you should be looking for is the end result of each step and not the step. Understand what you really need to achieve in each step, then figure you what you need to do.

Meir’s 6-step sales process:

1. Contact the person.

End result: The person trusts you and is willing to talk to you.

One indicator that a person trusts you is when the person will initiate a subject without you probing.

2. Handle all possible antagonism.

The client may have had problems with salespeople before or with your company or a similar company or product. Find out what the person thinks about salespeople and the subject you’re handling.

3. Find the problem and agitate it.

Find out the person’s “ruin,” and once you’ve found the problem, make it bigger.

4. Make the person understand that you possess the solution for their problem.

Create the mystery. You don’t really tell a customer the in’s and out’s of your product in order to create mystery. And that mystery is your glue between you and the product.

5. Close the deal.

Present the agreement, sign, and pay.

6. Handle the resistance.

After the purchase, in 80% of the cases, there will be questions, resistance, disagreements, etc. So be ready to handle that resistance.

*The reason people don’t close is they skip one of the steps either by not completing them or by not doing them at all.

Measuring Each Step

You have to be able to measure each step.

For example:

• In contacting the person, there are a number of agreements you need to count. How many things did they agree with you on?
• When you find the ruin, measure if you have the ruin or not.

5 Steps in Handling Objections:

1. Acknowledge. Listen patiently and fully understand. Ask as many questions as you can.

2. Accentuate. Make it bigger.

3. Make the person right. When you do this, they have nothing else to push against.

4. Wait. The moment they have nothing to fight about, do nothing. Then wait for them to say something.

5. Restore the agreement. Tie it back into the real reason the client wants to buy and restore the agreement.

Meir’s Major Takeaway:

Do the sales sequence. Look at the end result of each of those steps. The salesperson that doesn’t close at least 90% of the qualified prospects is not a salesperson.

Episode Resources:

Connect with Meir through email at meir@meirezra.com.

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 655: TSE Hustler’s League-“Create & Experience”

Today’s snippet taken from one of our sessions over at the TSE Hustler’s League is all about creating an experience early in the sales process for your customers.

Asking Hard Questions

You have to be willing to ask hard questions. These may not be the easiest questions to ask but once you do, they’d give you the respect and the time. They will recognize you and you will be seen as a valued professional. You will be seen as a consultant.

• Write questions you can ask in each stage of the sales process.
• The more meaningful questions you have, the easier for you to share the proper insights your buyers need.

Why Questions Are So Powerful

Studies on the election showed that the likelihood of someone voting increases by 25% if they’re asked the question.

We have been conditioned since we were kids to answer questions. It’s a wired behavior that if you’re asked to do something, it enhances the probability it will get done.

The Benefits of Asking Good Questions

1. Meaningful conversations

It helps you tail your presentations and it shows you’re listening and being mindful of the buyer’s needs.

2. Brain stimulation

Your brain and the buyer’s brain are wired to answer questions whenever asked. When the questions are meaningful, this stimulate our mind. Then you start to think. Studies also show they get excited when presented with meaningful questions.

Question Strategies You Can Incorporate into Your Sales Process

1. The Start-Stop

Start to ask then stop to get clarification from them in the process.

2. The Reverse

Redirect the person to where you want them to be by asking them a question in return. This helps you get back on track but be sure to make it sound natural.

Episode Resources:

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

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TSE 654: Sales From The Street-“The First Few Seconds Suck”

It’s a common prospecting scenario where you pick up the phone and then a live person answers on the other end of the line. Now you find yourself stuttering, not knowing how to start the conversation or what to say.  Now, what? Cat got your tongue?

Or you may probably ramble through the conversation that it was bad enough to make you feel embarrassed and flustered. So you decide to move on to the next call. Seven calls after, you get to a voice mail.

You see, the first three seconds of your call can either make or break a deal.

Here is a simple outline to help guide you through your prospecting calls:

1. Define the purpose of your call.

Have an outline on your desk or something you put in front of your computer or whatever. First, recognize the purpose of the call.

2. Define the role of the person you’re reaching out to.

Put that role down and understand these roles. Understand the challenges of these individuals.

3. Grab the client’s attention and get the appointment.

• Verify if it’s the right person: Ask the client and verify who the person you’re talking to is. (ex. “Is this Mary?“)
• The purpose of this is that it gives you time to gather yourself together and to focus on the commission at hand – to grab attention and get an appointment.

4. Ask a business question focused around the unconsidered need.

The idea here is that you have knowledge about something they don’t know or you’ve been able to identify a challenge that they’re not even thinking about.

For example:

You: What are you doing to bring down your cost per lead?

Client: Our sales rep does that stuff.

You: One of our companies was spending close to $7 per lead and we were able to get them down to only 15 cents per lead. If I’m able to share this with you and show you how you can do this with your company, would you be interested in a conversation?

5. Practice.

Make sure you’re prepared. The better prepared you are, the better you’re going to perform. The better you perform, the money you’ll make.

Episode Resources:

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

The Three Value Conversations by Cheryl Geofrrion, Concrad Smith, et al.

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

What do you like about our podcast? Kindly leave us some rating and/or review on iTunes. This would mean so much to me.

Help us spread the word out by leaving us a rating or review on iTunes, Stitcher, or Google Play or whatever platform you’re using.

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TSE 653: Mastering The Art of Negotiation and Overcoming Objections

Many sellers are scared of getting objections. Worse, they don’t do something to overcome them. They think that getting through one sales call after another can make you get better at it. Well, you won’t!

Today, Jim Brown is going to teach you how you can overcome objections for you to be able to handle sales conversations with much confidence and have better chances at closing.

Jim Brown is a sales coach, a sales trainor, and a sales consultant. He has worked with many large organizations and has closed some significant-sized deals including that $1.2 million deal with Sears. He had almost every objection in the world that was thrown at him.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Jim:

Lessons from Jim’s coolest sales experience when he was a customer:

• Neutralize the things you know.
• As a seller, you can’t let what you’re selling become a commodity.

What is an Objection?

• It’s an excuse of why someone won’t or can’t buy something. But excuses are just reasons.

Why do sellers have a hard time overcoming objections?

• They don’t plan for them. People don’t prepare and think through what’s going to happen to them and they just start winging things.
• Most people have not been professionally trained to sell.
• Put some time and effort in your craft and you’ll get better at it.

Takeaways from Jim’s deal with Sears:

Jim was at that time selling SEO and online marketing services. He thought they had all in tact but it turned out they needed a lot of help.

1. Come prepared.

Jim spent ten hours preparing for a 30-minute meeting. He knew everything that was going to be said and what could be thrown at him.

2. Anticipate everything before it happens.

Jim asked for a whiteboard and projector, none was there. But he anticipated that so he came in with the entire PowerPoint, printed out, and bound for everybody who was going to be in the room.

3. Ask questions.

He started asking questions to get him to reveal the context in which he was going to make the decision.

4. The Power of Silence

When you’re in a high-dollar negotiation, once you speak and you’re the first person who throws out the number, the next person who talks loses. So they tapped into the power of silence. And the decision-maker then signed the deal.

No Time to Prepare?

• You just have to put in the work. Don’t just show up and expect to get better just by getting through your day.
• Spend hours role playing and understand how people are going to respond to certain questions.
• Practice your craft everyday to get better at it.
• You’ve got to put in the time.

How to practice overcoming objections:

1. Write things down.

• This forces your brain to think through all the other avenues that this could be approached.
• List down every single objection that the prospect could give you before and after selling.
• Spend time just writing out different responses to them. It’s different for every person. You don’t have to script out the response to everything but truly understand instead of just winging it.

2. Re-read it.

This allows you to re-evaluate and what work needs to be done.

3. Role-play.

Steps to Effective Negotiation:

1. Have a goal.

The first goal of a cold call is just to have a conversation. Have a goal at very single appointment, every touch point, every meeting that you have.

2. Prepare.

Think through every single scenario where your prospect may go and the things they may bring up.

3. Empathize with your buyer.

Imagine you were in their shoes and figure out the things you would be concerned about or you would try to accomplish if you were them. Understanding that situation allows you to have empathy of that buyer so your answers and responses can align with what they’re trying to accomplish.

4. Be okay with hearing and saying the word no.

This is very frustrating and a lot of sales reps are not comfortable with hearing and saying no. If you don’t have a walkaway point, you’re dead in the water. You’re going to get destroyed in the negotiation. Have a hard walkaway point. Know what your bottom line is but also know why that is your bottomline

5. Set the ground rules.

Create a mutual context throughout the entire playing. This is the best way to start the process to have an effective negotiation. Jim recommends this book on negotiation: Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz

6. Have a process for things.

Understand what would allow the prospect to go from one stage of the buying cycle to the next stage, how they need to get the deal done, and what that means. This way, you know where you are in the process.

Jim’s Major Takeaway:

You will never get anything in life that you don’t ask for so start asking. The absolute worst thing you can be told is no. You can’t lose anything that you never had. So if you get told no, so what? You didn’t have it to begin with.

Episode Resources:

Download Jim’s workbook to help you break down the individual goals you need to get to where you want to go. Get it at www.SalesTuners.com/roadmap for free.

Follow Jim on Twitter @Jim_Brown

Learn more about Jim on www.AskJBrown.com.

Never Split the Difference by Christopher Voss and Tahl Raz

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

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TSE 652: Stop Using The Demo as a Crutch (DaaC)

Are you relying solely on your demo thinking that is what’s going to close the deal? Well, you better stop it as early as now because it won’t get you anywhere. See, it’s not how many demos you get to present. It’s not a numbers game in this case. It’s about quality.

When I was working in the SaaS world, what I noticed all the time was that salespeople would focus on the demo. They would expect the demo to close the deal for them. I had that same mindset as well. That’s because I sucked at selling and didn’t have the capability to help persuade my clients to make the decision. But it didn’t work!

That is not how you sell. That is not the way to sell.

Too many sales reps are crutching on the demo. Way too many of them are just waiting for the demo and hoping it would close the deal that when the person sees the software, they’re going to instantly buy it.

What to do before doing any demonstration:

• Get to know the prospect.
• Check out their website. Find out what they do. Look at their products and services to get an idea.
• Understand their business model and how they make money.
• Understand their top 3-4 issues and why they would purchase your solution if they came to your website.

Things to consider during your first call:

1. Your first conversation is just to call them to set the appointment.
2. Go deeper into that business question.

In the book, The Science of Selling, David talks about the science of asking powerful questions and he recommends these three levels:

• 1st level: Surface-level answers like asking them for a review about some information you gave them. It’s just a basic follow-up question.
• 2nd level: What features did you and your team think were most important?
• 3rd level: Go down to the reason and the true root of the problem. (Ex. If you had that feature, how would that positively impact your role?)

3. Find out who else needs to be on the demonstration.

• The CEO is not the only person making the decision. There may be an office manager, a spouse, or a partner involved in the decision-making.
• Stop making assumptions. Make sure you get to the right people in the demonstration.
• If there are other key individuals in the decision-making process, find out what’s most important to them. You may need to do multiple calls.

4. Find out the budget.

Figure out their budget and their time frame.

Stop using Demo as a Crutch!

• Before giving any demo, have a meaningful discussion around the things I’ve mentioned above. Only then will your demos are more likely to close because you’re going to focus on things that matter the most and emphasize that.
• Today is the day you start your independence from just being dependent on the demo to close. You need to make that mental decision.
• If you’re a sales leader, train your seller to be a really good seller. Take time to train them, mold them, and teach them.

Episode Resources:

The Science of Selling by David Hoffeld

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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TSE 651: It’s Time to Transform Our Sales Training

There’s nothing wrong with traditional training models, but with a few tweaks, you can even go further!

Cynthia Barnes shares her insights into the current sales training system and why you need to transform the way we do sales training, women in particular. Cynthia is a keynote speaker and sales trainer, showing women sales professionals how to influence decision makers before they miss out on a big opportunity.

At Barnes Sales Institute, they focus on women-centric sales training. Cynthia is also the Founder of the National Association of Women Sales Professionals, also known as Women Who Sell,  a global organization that seeks to empower women sales professionals in male-dominated industries to give them the voice, to be heard, so they can stand up and be confident.

Here are the highlights of my conversation with Cynthia:

Lessons from Cynthia’s uncoolest sales experience when she was the customer:

• We want to sold by someone who is an expert because we want to know, “What do you know that we can’t google?”
• Figure out exactly why they need to buy from you.
• Your customers and prospects expect you to be the expert.

Traditional sales programs:

• They’re created 40 years ago for men, by men, and at a time when men made up the majority of the sales force.
• In 2017, women make up 49.8% of the salesforce yet the traditional sales programs have not evolved with the demographic change.
• One thing often overlooked in training is the verbiage that they give you in the sales training where they let you say this to affect this.
• But they don’t consider the women’s natural nuances and the ability to be patient and the way she interacts with people.
• Instead, use your own authentic verbiage to elicit the response you’re looking for rather than a canned response.

Importance of Women in a Salesforce

Women control over 51% of the wealth and influence over 71% of the household spending. So it makes sense to have women salespeople in your organization. The alpha male approach doesn’t work for everybody.

Does the gender of the seller have an effect on the buyer?

• Yes. In male-dominated industries, they’re not used to having women talking to them. So as a woman, you have to know everything frontwards and backwards.
• If you play in a certain field, you have to know that stuff because you need to be that expert. This will then allow you from a being a sales expert to a consultant.
• As a woman, you’re able to naturally develop that relationship as a friend. You’re able to develop that trust

Women as Natural Networkers and Relationship Builders

• Women have strong emotional intelligence, excellent listening skills.
• They’re natural networkers and they build strong relationships.
• Women especially shine when the sales cycle is slow enough to build up a strong relationship with the client.

How you can transform into a women-centric sales training:

1. Build upon a woman’s natural strengths of intuition, patience, and relationship-building.
2. Address their weaknesses. Women tend to not have as much confidence in the selling situation. Women like perfectionism. They like to play it safe and won’t really go for it.
3. Companies need to provide a safe environment where women can learn to take risks and make mistakes without the fear of being embarrassed or ridiculed.
4. Let them know it’s okay to take risks and make mistakes.
5. Role-play with them and ask them what is it you think you would say without giving them the answers. They may surprise you with the verbiage they would use.
6. Educate them on the desired outcome and what you want and how you would get there.

How to get access to women-centric sales training:

Connect with Cynthia on LinkedIn and she can give you access to a pilot program for online training they’re rolling out.

Cynthia’s Major Takeaways:

For females:

You are you and you are okay. Everything you do is great. You have to have that internal confidence. Your competence is going to fuel  your confidence. So become an expert in what you’re doing.

Surround yourself (or get a mentor) with women sales professionals making it happen. (Join the National Association of Women Sales Professionals at https://womenwhosell.co)

For male sales leaders:

Create that safe environment. Let your female sales employees know that you can help them. Be humble enough to say to women reps to let you know if you can’t get them to where you want them to go so you can bring in somebody who can.

Episode Resources:

Connect with Cynthia Barnes on LinkedIn or give her a call at 313-586-SELL.

Read Cynthia’s blogpost on Transforming Sales Training: The Case for Women-Centric Sales Training

The Experience Economy by Jason Pine II and James H. Gilmore

Join the TSE Hustler’s League.

Get a free audiobook download and a 30-day free trial at audibletrial.com/tse with over 180,000 titles to choose from for your iPhone, Android, Kindle or mp3 player.

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