We're living in uncertain times right now. We don't really know what the near future holds for any of us in any industry. So how is that going to affect your sales? Some of you might be in industries that aren't heavily affected by COVID-19. But as the uncertainty grows and the fear spreads, almost everybody will probably be feeling it in some way. While this is especially relevant right now, knowing how to continue (and maybe even thrive) in sales during a crisis, whether it's global or more personal, will help you be prepared for the unknown. This week, we talk about how COVID-19 is affecting us and what we're doing about it. Or what we're planning on doing, because again, it's all a little shaky right now. But we're in this together. If you don't know how you're going to handle it or how you might be affected, reach out. Either email us or leave a comment. Maybe we can all help each other through this. And please, stay safe and wash your hands. If you'd like more information about DISC assessments, email us at assessment@salesthrowdown.com. ✅ Sign up for our emails: https://www.salesthrowdown.com/ ✅ Connect with us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Salesthrowdown ✅ Check us out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/salesthrowdown/ ✅ And keep up with us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/SalesThrowdown
Let's get ready to Throwdown.
Okay. Awesome. So we're rolling right? Okay, cool. So today we're here to talk about things. We can talk about the day. Yeah, let's do. Let's pull back the curtain a little bit. It is March 13. Friday the 13th. Friday the 13th. Fuck my life. We're in here recording. It's 9:45 at night, we've had a couple of drinks and we're going to talk about the corona virus.
Yeah, this is what we did on a Friday.
What's it actually called, it the corona virus. COVID-19. There we go.
You mean to tell me my favorite beers got a virus.
Can I clarify for probably everyone knows this, but so many people have said, so it's a 19th, there was an 18? No, it's 2019 is when it originated. That's that's the reason for the 19, so many people
It's nice to have facts on the podcast.
I didn't even know that, to be honest with you. I really didn't.
Oh, what are we supposed to be shocked. I'm like, Oh my God.
You're just a chiropractor, you're not a real doctor.
You're kind of you're kind of you're kind of just below a dentist. Oh now we both got Corona.
Both of you guys burning Corona. Okay,
So that was another thing. Did anyone listen or watch the um, what is it, the address today? Dr. Dr.?
He's also a chiropractor.
I'm pretty I'm pretty surprised by how much I know about this, but I know everything about this.
I can adjust your spine like no one else. I've got the best hands when it comes to this stuff.
So when I was gonna say with everyone was, you know, the reporters like, You shook their hand. You are shaking. You are a bad example. And I was just like, Really? Are we just digging? We're just looking for something.
Yes.
Ankle bumped everybody on staff.
Yes, that's where you're supposed to greet people now.
You're supposed to like kick each other's heels right? heard that it was the elbow. Well, the elbow got to risk down to the end.
Gotta lean in on the elbow. you lean back on that ankle.
Exactly. You get away from each other and then you sneeze right in the face with a virus. It's a heavy virus. It dies quick, right? It's like a heavy slug to a guy like you man. You just can't interject.
Tell a couple million people in China that
ya know now, there's obviously their population density is a little bit different than ours.
And they eat fucking bats. Well,
Don't be xenophobic. Do not go there.
Okay, so let's talk about it. Right, because we have been in a lot since like, 2000 I guess? 11 right. We've been in a pretty long period of like economic growth right. And it wasn't that hard to sell. Probably since 2016. We're not going there.
wow. You can see we're divided crew anybody listening to this live, let me know Let me talk about 2007 and who is in office there let's not the haves and have nots as 2008 we bailed out Wall Street but we decided Lehman was gonna die but you know.
Basically what Dr. Daniel...
Was gonna get all the profits? Why? Because Paulson was the you know, who's that? Yeah, exactly. Young Young Buck like, you doesn't know, yeah.
Sorry. I was too busy fighting wars.
Alright. COVID-19.
Yes. And earlier we we did make a point about every is it every two years that we identified, there was a virus. So it's not like
Oh, the Christian right-wing. Wait, I'm just saying. Don't disrespect yourself with that kind of nonsense.
I'm just making a statement that is a fact.
Okay, Did everybody hear that?
Go to our leader and
And the S becomes a D.
So, we came up with this topic because I've actually lost a couple clients because of this, right? They work with, you know, dropshippers and people that are getting their product directly from China. And since no one is fulfilling on that stuff and manufacturing in China is essentially kind of gone. They can't pay them and they can't pay me. And we thought it was kind of a cool thing to talk about, because we don't really know what's going to happen. You know, like, I mean, there's there's people on both sides that say, Oh, this is all just like media spin, and then everyone else is kind of Doomsday preppers and then
Definitely a level of uncertainty, right? Yeah. Is this gonna be a hiccup that we quickly recover from and becomes a windfall for everybody that can manipulate the spine or the spine market but the I tried to do that anyway.
The Yeah, the stock market is big business just taking guppies up and down. I mean, that crossed my mind. I mean, if we've seen the stock market plummet, I think there's I think that that is going to happen just because it's natural. That what's gonna happen when it then when it goes in the tank like it has right you stop trading people can take advantage of that. Just going to happen whether
Well you have guys called market bankers and they own the book of business. And if all of us were sitting here, we would talk about what we could do to stimulate the market, right? So we could trade stocks, and we could get guppies to chase us into pushing the market or holding the market up, right? Just so that we could offload to the new guys coming in all this, you know, 401 k stock. These are market makers. So you got to understand the dynamic. And I guess that goes back to understanding sales. You You have to swim in that fish tank and you got to own the good and the bad, because it's great. It's easy to be a hero when everything's going 45 degrees across the scale. And it's all profit, like you just alluded budgets are huge. Everybody's making more money along the way, incrementally. What do you do when crisis hits and you're in sales? That's got to be sort of scary for some people out there.
Yeah, I mean, I think of all of us You were the you were, you were working in the same field whenever the whenever the housing bubble was going on.
I made more money. Money those years then because of stimulus, basically, and then healthcare stimulus helps.
Interesting. You know, I know a lot of other entrepreneurs, you know, in the digital space and in tech specifically, you know, it's not the same playing field as it was in 2000, even even 12. Right. So, a lot of these people have never heard.
So I mean, defined a little more, but what you say it's not the same playing field.
So, it's easier than ever to spin up a business, right, you know, Shopify, for like, e-commerce. For sure. Yeah. Okay. So there's 1000 marketing consultants who can't actually market very well or, or generate leads, but they're out there, you know, calling themselves this and for, you know, I guess since about 2012, right. Everything has been good. Everything's been taken up, you know, budgets have been there, you know, it's, it's not really hard to sell. So I think that what we're gonna see, potentially, I'm not here trying to say that it's all going to be terrible or good because I really don't know. But I think you're gonna see some people who are stalling you and holding out, right? Because there's already people that I know who were who are getting paused on deals because they're like, Hey, we want to see what's gonna happen with with this whole thing.
I mean, I get hit with that in construction just on election years. Well, we got a trifecta going on. yeah, let alone a crisis on election. Sure. I'll tell you for me in construction, it's the holdup is going to be the city governments. When the when the city governments, they hope they kind of hold the keys to us getting things started. So you have to put your permitting through the city. Them approve it for us to start like you can do all the deals you want before that. And if they hold, they can hold it up for years. And they know Yeah, so what happens when the city says, For example, Houston this week, shuts down everything the Houston rodeo, it's done. You know, that's a huge event. There's people from all over the world coming in concerts there. Everything shows up by Southwest. Yeah. And that's just what Yeah, one example right so they shut that But that was ordained not by the rodeo by the city. Right? The city says no, we don't want to hold this. You know, we don't want to be the event that spreads this across the country slowly. They don't want the liability. But what happens when they tell their workers? They don't come into the office anymore? Mm hmm. How? How far back does that paperwork, backlog? Start? You know, how long does it build up? And then they come back, let's just say it's a week, right? Yeah. A week of not doing anything. How long does it take you to catch back up? And in my business, my lead times are already a year, sometimes. Eight months, 18 months? I'm telling you one week with no city employees, push them permits through. I may be looking at no sales the rest of the year.
That's crazy. How how's it gonna affect you? I mean, have you thought that far down the road? Are you just kind of contemplating what does that really mean? So it's all new. So I get it if you're not already.
I mean, literally, yesterday was a Thursday right. So that
It was me as I can be. Yeah. You're right.
Yeah, yeah, yes, it is Friday the 13th yesterday had to be Thursday.
So just yesterday is like the first time I started seeing safety from our safety departments, emails come out, don't do this. This is how you avoid it the best, you know, the best way you can. So I'm starting to see those emails, but then in 24 hours now today, it's like, I'm prepping my guys, to make sure they have access from home, make sure you take your laptops overnight. You know, we've we've got, you know, like for my team, I've, we've got them rented screens out from our IT department to take, they've already taken them home, so that they have the same setup at work that you know, they do at home. So I'm preparing for it on that front, but it's not going to do any good if everybody that you know that I that I send bids to or do business with or also at home. And we can't go on jobs and we can't go do these things. Right. A lot of it. It is cool that we're in 2020 and we can do a lot of this stuff on FaceTime and from our firm our office, but constructions, you know construction, you gotta eventually get it
You gotta weld something up. Yeah, you got a wreck something right
Actually, it's there. Right. So it's a little scary for me and I'm just I think I can prep for it a little bit, but I can't prep for other
Well it's the uncertainty? Right. So what do you do? I mean, you know, I mean.
Well, so there's a lot of companies out there that normally are paid, but they're like, allowing people to have free access to their stuff, you know, Zoom for like teleconferencing, they're they're giving that away for free, Slack Microsoft for teams, you know, so you can chat and you can look at but that's non revenue producing, how do you make money? I get that right. It's not it's, it's non revenue producing, but you know, these companies were trying to like reach out and like help like, people work remotely, which I think is really really awesome. The I think that the things that you're going to have to do if it you know, kind of stays bad for a little bit. I think you got to prospect more right and adjust your, your selling cycles.
Well, I think you hit on something I think you have to use other means of communication. Other than face to face encounters, right. So, and I think that social distancing, you have to do sales distancing, right? Or distance sales. But I think you're a fool if you're not reaching out to all your clients joining their struggle to get through this as part of their, you know, somebody who's calling on it.
That's a really good point. I mean, communication. And at this point is, you know, if one company is taking it to the max, maybe one of your clients, their company is ahead of the game, and they're taking it to the max and they're just saying, Hey, we're forecasting that it's going to take three months, and we're just going to shut down for three months. You got to know that and you got to know that they that you know that they know you know that right.
So that that that brings up another point. If you're not out there talking to your existing customers first would be my opinion, your best account and engaging them on what the coronavirus means to them and understanding how much they either think this is a problem. Or don't think because remember salespeople you solve problems today. So let's focus in on what do our accounts and what not what we think right. You know, it's not about us. It's what are our accounts thinking about the coronavirus? How are they viewing this impact on their industry? And I think that's a direct question that you could literally pick up the phone and call anybody that you're doing business with. Because I know I did it in the clinical sense. I reached out to colleagues, constituents, competitors, how do you think this is gonna affect us in healthcare? What happens if somebody walks in and they quarantine my office? Right, and my revenue stream goes now? And what you know, all these processes and procedures
Well, I think I think that that comes back to just like managing your book or you know, in managing your relationships and managing your territory, right. And and here's the deal, you've got a great opportunity to call up everybody's
This can be amazing on the other side, it's gonna hurt now.
Yeah, and when you call these people and you're like, hey, like, you know, what's going on with you guys? Like Like, how are you guys viewing this? So you guys set up for success? What can I do to help? You're separating yourself from everyone else who's just like thinking about themselves and not reaching out to them.
But let me let me caution you do not make your accounts feel bad because they're unprepared about this. Support their position. Hmm.
How would that happen?
I think it's easy to get engaged in a conversation where you start throwing stuff into the equation that makes the other person go Wow, I didn't think about that or I wasn't prepared about that. This is a point where you listen to the people that you're, you know, you're calling on and you you want to understand not tell them what you think the coronavirus, you know, don't get too salesy about the coronavirus or how Don't Don't be the Trump guy this is gonna be great. Well, we'll get through this no, no, no.
Or the other, I think the other is is
And don't be a Doomsday either.
Right, where everything is falling apart. Oh my gosh, we're doomed.
I think you sit as a counselor and you say, you know, I'm more flexible. Maybe then my my accounts are you how did you listen, listen first, and figure out because you're either going to come off as a flake by being overly concerned about it, and They're not concerned. So you got to mirror what you get from the other side, which is your account as to how they feel about this. I think that's the best approach personally,
Do you think that the mirroring makes sense if it if it goes against, like what you fully believe?
Well John, do you think it makes sense?
Well, I don't know. Right? Because I,
well, I'm not sure either. Because
I totally do not think
He's hooked, I haven't got him in yet.
No, you don't know me. And yet, my walls are always up. I think it's, I think it's a bit of a tightrope walk, right? Because, you know, you're gonna have strong opinions on one side or the other, right? Because that's just kind of how things work. Right? You know, we're pretty polarized and pushed to the edges. Right. So you either think it's a big deal, and you're talking to someone and they're like, Oh, yeah, we're not sweating at all. But what do you do if you don't know?
Well, yeah, right. I can tell you. So yesterday, I was in one of my big accounts, and I go in and two of the girls were just Oh, My gosh, can you believe if I would have mirrored, it would have escalated the whole drama of the moment.
Okay, but you're not talking to the decision maker you're talking about the staff. I'm talking about upper management.
In this account, it does not matter. Because
I think there's some there's a little bit hold on sorry.
Finish your thought so so how do you handle that when they were getting all ramped up.
I just, I kind of felt like a mother I was like, you know, when your child's going oh my gosh, and like having a panic attack you don't go You're right. Yes, this is horrible. I think that's crazy to do that. I was like, now now what do you know what's concerning you, you know just kind of get them to express what they're feeling and then go does that what you really think is going on, you know, kind of work it through with them is kind of like a little counselor.
Clint, how's it working for you?
I'm sorry, I blanked out.
Clint's head dropped down, I thought it was about to doze off there.
That's not true.
Okay, Clint. So how would you handle this?
Well, let me tell you. So that there's a little, a little bit of concern. There's like, you don't also want to be the person that if they had a staff meeting after you walked out to where it's like, well, you know, Clint came over today. And you don't want to be that right. So you gotta be careful
That's what I was talking about.
Or like, Nan, oh, Nan was over here today. And she was telling me all this stuff, because you're, you're now you're that person. Exactly.
And that's what I was in.
Doc was saying
Nan said, I didn't even have to wash my hands anymore. Exactly.
Nan's in the healthcare field. You know, you don't want that label. The other side of it, too, is I want to go back to probably something in John's world here of the forecasting, right? Because you're a heavy forecaster, you're heavy data log guy. The caution
No one's got data on this, like at all.
You're right. So you're to be careful what you forecast right? Because it's unrealistic. It's a pipe dream. It could be you know, let's just say for me This month in March, and this may sound like a heavy burden to sum or maybe not depending on who's listening. I, I have 7 million forecasts in sales this month. And that's a pretty, humble brag, but no, it's because but that's not that. No, that was my forecast for this month because of verbal commitments. Oh, okay. All right. So that's my realistic goal. I do have some concern with that 7 million pushing a couple months right. But the problem is that every month after this month, I also have a nut to cover 2,000,000, 2.5 million. So if I push that and I say okay, let's just push this off till April because of the coronavirus now in April if it all does release now I gotta sell 9 million and then if I push it past that now I got said 11 and a half million you're getting out of your realistic you just really see they can't ramp up even cover that way without you say you didn't do the work they did you set realistic goals for a 12 month span and it was 2 million and now you got to sell nine. Yeah, yeah. You can't do that right? Your answer. So my, my answers, you stick to the game plan that you set forth, right? Because this is unforeseen stuff that you cannot measure. Yeah, because you have no idea so, so don't push. Don't just say Oh, like give up on March don't use it as a crutch. That's what I'm saying.
But but have a plan okay and be astute the guys you can't just go to sleep or vacation because it's just not good hunting out.
So to that point, I think you said something, you know, reaching out to your customers, it's hugely important. First step first is talk to your leadership and your company you need as a salesperson, whether you're a sales manager, or you need to have a conversation with your sales team or to your leadership, your company. This has to be a topic of conversation to say, guys, I projected 7 million in sales this month. This is something that's unforeseen. I think we'll hit this but just in case we don't want our What's our backup plan, are we lowering the expectations for the overall year? Right so that in March, April, May, I don't have to sell 11 million. I mean, can we live with five? Right? Is that realistic?
So basically what you're saying is communicate, you've gotta communicate.
Let me back up and so you think that the quota system is is gonna be really that good because I'm talking about real dollars and cents here not only to the company but to you. Do you have the wherewithal to to stay in the game and not make money for the next six months?
That's, that's my point, right. Right. And that has to be a realistic conversation before you even do any other project. How do you do that? How do you feed your family pay your bill because because you know that number you absolutely know how you should you know what your Yeah, absolutely. You should you know, what your overhead nut is to cover your payroll, right. That's step one. You should always cover that first. What is that number right not not profits, not surviving. Not all that stuff is what do you have today that you have to cover on a weekly basis and payroll,
but I can tell you from my standpoint, I have to decide how long I can advance money for endeavors that are non revenue producing sure sitting on on our heels or I got an employee this quarantine because I mean we're in frontline clinical. You know you laugh about the chiropractor but we also do Family Care along with musculoskeletal care. nugget. There's the key. Nobody likes low back pain. It's a gold mine. Anyway. So cold coughing flu, was a goldmine. Yeah, exactly because we have one coronavirus walk in and now we got to figure out what the CDC wants to hear, how severe they are blah blah, do that whole workup and then begin to quarantine. You know, what do you do when there's no money? Let me just put it to you that way.
So I don't know that I have an answer for that. But But I have another point to make.
It's savings is called loans. It's called credit. What's your value to people that can either institutionalize your pain which is meaning float alone, and you know, Trump whenever he spoke to small business administration, advancing loans, we've already started looking into that. The minute you hear something if you're sitting on your ass, you're late. If you're, if you're sitting on your ass for 30 seconds when you hear something, no, it's the dude breaking into your damn house. That's what's happening right now. We've got somebody kicking in our front door. It's called the coronavirus. You better straighten your shit up, you better tie it down, protect your kids, protect your wife, protect your family, protect yourself. And I only say that because that could be the extreme that we go to.
Aand I will. And I'm going to throw this out there because I'm going through it right now. I'm just and this was right before this all kicked off. And last couple months. I just had started the process of upping all my short term disability, right Am I my life insurance coverage? That's that was before this really kicked off now. It's so important. And unfortunately I'm still in like the approval stage of getting all that bumped up. Yeah. So but the point of it is is that these are those, these are the reasons that you do that. Right as an employee of any business right is that if this If you were to get corona and be quarantined into your own home, this is that shit that you don't understand why you pay seven bucks a week into an account that you think you'll never use this, these are the times and I'm not trying to sell insurance here. I'm just saying that this is the preparations all your professional and personal life that you should be doing.
Yeah, I think I think that all these sales leaders who were just looking at results only, you know, they don't have KPIs, they don't have processes or anything else like this, and they're just going on. Well, this is what my guys normally do. So this is what I can expect. Now, I think that those guys are going to be in some some terrible spots, right? Because a lot of companies are telling people like work from home, right? So we're going to see how much the sales leaders actually trust their salespeople, right to like actually go out and do their things and all these guys who don't have a process and don't have KPIs and are just winging it, and they're gonna struggle, it's gonna be horrible.
And to that point, you know, I told my whole team this morning like, be prepared to not be here, because we can absolutely 2020 we can absolutely do everything that we do here and bring But that raises up a whole nother question, right is if you can do that, right. Why are we in a brick and mortar? You know, so there's Oh, that's a whole nother that's like this.
Yeah, that's my because I love the remote movement, you know, and there's there's a ton of tech companies and they do it really, really well. But a lot of them will let everyone else be remote except for the sales team, you know, because they want to like overmanage. They don't believe because they don't believe that we there's no trust because it's it's it's a results only environment, right? There's no there's no activity councils or KPIs or anything else like that. So it's just like, I hope you're working.
So I'm gonna eat my words here a little bit on the sales team of I always talk about salaries, right, I believe that you should pay a guy for what he's worth and, and then Commission on top of a base salary. I think that that's, you know, that's a deal in this situation. And this, you're very fortunate if you're 100% commission based sales team, if you're a manager of that, right, because this is I mean, not to say
This is a windfall for you. Nothing sold, nothing paid.
But it helps it
Sitting on my big ass bank account.
But all the shit that you're talking about, like how she got to float the bill, I got to pay all these people. Hey, if your results based, right, this is, this is a touchy subject.
Right? But how does it feel? Because then I don't have the ranks?
Yeah, he's he's not I don't have that I'm just saying that this is the one time that I I'm gonna eat my words a little bit.
Okay if you're the CEO of a company and your sales team is on is on commission only then then you're not sweating this as bad as someone who's got a sales team of ten, and everyone's got.
Why not? Because if you're really successful, you want those guys to stay around. And they may take jobs in Kroger's or Walmart, or there's
So many people don't view it the same way that we view it, which is why we're here. Right? I mean, I mean, think about, think about how many people you know, specifically who don't trust their salespeople, right? And they kind of have that mentality of like, if I'm not on these guys, if I'm not all over them, they're not gonna like do anything at all. And it's like, why don't you hire those people in the first place? Right? If there's that little trust, why are you, Why Why are they on the payroll at all?
Well it amazes me that anybody's,
What?
That is my biggest leadership weakness. What is? I believe I believe everybody that's hired to do a job is professional, you're here to do that job. And when you don't do it, and I'm Mind blown, right? I'm shocked when I when somebody comes to me like, hey, why didn't your guy do this? And I'm like, Well, I should I don't know. And I have to go check in on that like, hey, why didn't you get this done? You know, and then the excuses flow I'm I'm that's my biggest leadership weakness, because I feel that everybody that's in this office, you know, I'm surrounded by is a professional as I am, right. So I don't have.
And I've made that mistake to where I try to hold people to a standard that I said that they would have never set for themselves. And I'm like, and so yeah, I get I'm a little disappointed. I'm like, how did I go so wrong? I mean, I do blame myself.
And that's where I was. And I say this a lot. That's where I always go back to you know, the Marine Corps influenced my brain a lot in the situations like everybody I'm surrounded is is professional. What they do, so that guy covers that corner.
They've gone through the same process you had along with you so you understand it,
but you're kind of in a unique situation inside,
right? Because Sure, but you know, but the point of it is, is that any, any? I've always taken that to the professional level as well, outside of the military into my professional life. I've taken that towards like, I trust that guy has that building corner locked down because I'm on the other corner. I don't have to watch my back because that guy's there.
Is that a you thing? Was that a D thing? Because I know,
I think it's a military mindset.
Yeah. Because I don't think that D's inherently have that much trust for like,
It's the other way. Yeah, right. I feel that I have to sit in the middle of the corners, because I don't trust anybody on the corners. Yeah, that's a deep that's a very inherently D trade, I believe. Yeah. For me, I have been watched a little bit on the on the military brain of I don't have to worry about that shit. So doctors stole all of Nan's wine,
water, water.
Well, depends on what you
whether you're taking the eucharist or not? Whether it's water or wine right
Who is this man.
Isn't that the representation? And so,
And so, okay, so so to that point very specifically right question for both of you guys, right? Because I'm a very process guy, right? If I do something more than once, I will go make notes about like how I do it. So that way if later on whenever I go to, like, grow my team, when I bring someone else on, I can be like, here's the treasure trove here, the keys of the castle, go do it. And that's just how I think but I know that that's not part and parcel of being a D or an I. So when when somebody's
Not as formally known as formally, surely, right, if I walk down this road and I make a left I make a right and seven elevens right there, whatever convenience store probably stepped in it there. Then I didn't write it down, but I know the pathway so I'm like, okay, you just do this.
But, but here's the, the, in my opinion where that gets you into trouble, right is your it's not documented anywhere. Okay, so
But if I go up here, and I make the list of Are we there's a roadblock right? Yeah, that's what I'm saying is where? My neurology right,
your memory bank, but it's not in their memory bank.
Right. Okay, but my kids didn't know how they drank out of sippy cups right off, right? Yeah. And then they saw me drinking out of an Open Cup and they're like, No, I want to do that. And then I made them hold it with two hands. My kids are in their 20s now 19 and 21 sometimes, they have TCU sippy cups. I mean, see what I'm saying, emulation, they see you do it.
Monkeys do this all the time. Yeah, they see because
I agree. I agree with that in certain realms. But I think in other realms.
Why don't you why, Nannette, why do you and I walk in to the same sales call then. Sometimes we learn from each other know how to do it
Usually he learns from me.
There's no doubt about that.
Okay, so to make sure we clarify that.
Keep on believing.
I think if it's not clearly lineated and written down, I mean, it's SOP's in the military, right? Like,
okay, but I don't feel that I need SOP's.
but why are you read it once and then you see, hold on because how many times have you had a chief go? Really? This is the real life. It's like book versus street life, right? It healthcare, you go to school for however long to get your license. The reality of healthcare is a lot different than anatomy and physiology all the more reason document your processes and how you do what you do, but sometimes it has a certain intuitive finesse that's not not teachable.
See, that's a problem.
For you, not for me, well, like surfing. It's like flying a kite.
It's like problem for you. But it's a major problem for every person you hire who you expect to have those skills from watching you.
Wait a second, if you're flying a kite, it's about keeping the kite in the air. I'm not sure how you're doing yours and what's your stick stuff looks like But hey, both our kites are up there flying, now mine's kicking the shit out of yours, like you're going down.
I mean, there's a little bit of both that I agree with, right? Because I want somebody to tell me, there's point B, you're at point A, I need you to get to point B. And then if you tell me Okay, along the way, you're gonna run to this and you're gonna do this. And I'm like, okay, you lost me it, you know, point a, a point one Shut the fuck up, all get to be right. Yeah, but to your point, to train somebody else to get to be based on what I've done. The documentation is very important, right in order. And I get that, because what this happens a lot, right, a senior salesperson on your team can do something for 20 years, and absolutely destroy Yeah, they crush it, crush it, right. You bring in a junior sales guy and you say, I want you to do that. I want you to watch them and I want you to do what that guy does. And what do they do? They freakin fail because they don't have what he has.
Exactly. Yeah. So they don't have the 20 years of experience of having all those conversations, right. And it it's the martial arts equation, right? So you can be really good Ready to doing martial arts and not be able to teach anybody anything.
But I want, I want to keep going on this because I want to tell you where your process also fails by too much documentation, because that person has to find his own fucking way the same way the first guy did. If he tries to follow the script, they're not the same person.
No, I, I agree with that. Right, which is why with everybody that I work with, it's not I don't give them scripts to go say, right? Because I don't think that that's helpful, right? I think the scripts do more harm than good in most cases.
So some my point to that you
but outside of that, you talked about documenting a process and sticking to that, right. And I think there's where the nuance comes right there. There's the the art and science, you're talking about the science and we're talking about the art.
Well, I always say is that well, and to that point, is I always talk about the 30,000 foot view versus the color of the furniture in the house, right?
So well. Okay, but here's the deal, right? If you hire someone to be a salesperson, right, and they go out, and they do it their own way, and they're failing, and and then they come back and they're like, Hey, I'm starting Yeah, sure, right. At that point, it's on you to, like, help that person out.
Most people struggle because of fear or greed, right? Not so much over a particular process. They're just afraid to go do it right. Or they're too egotistical and to green, and they just don't have the nuances to get around some finesse points. Correct.
I agree. I agree with that. I don't know if that to your point, if that's what you're getting at. I do agree with that. That you know, it's there's a lot of personality that plays in this.
Absolutely. So when you're when you're the leader, right when you're when you're the sales leader, the owner, the founder, you know that the head of the sales team or whatever else, and you want someone to do something a certain way? Yeah, right. Because a lot of people have that mentality right? I want you to do it my way Just watch me and then go do it. And then when they don't do it that way and you're gonna be mad at them that's on you. Yeah, that's on you for not giving them the right tools, the right the right inspiration to to do
I was gonna say that's Well, that's bad leadership. Absolutely. But but also to that point, like Gotta give my guys and even myself, right, kind of a boilerplate language contract language of Yeah, which is what I would call the 30,000 foot view, right? I need you to get from A to B and then B to C, the the in between the down and dirty, you know, language of how you get there from A to B, that's on you to figure out right. And when you if you're not there, to your point, like if you're not getting there as quick as I thought you could, we probably need to have some conversations along the way. But as a good leader, you need to draw that information of why you're not there. What can I do to help you there's, that's very different than giving them a roadmap.
But you just left the masses who sit here and they're either tormented or encouraged by this leadership, either lack or adequacy.
Well they have to become an inner leader for yourself. All right. So if you don't have that, above you, you got to you got to dig down deep and either get the hell out and go find it or go take that
guy's job or you got to go take the guys. Yeah, I agree with ya. Take the guys Or get another company to work for, you know, don't ruin yourself over a bad situation. And there gonna be some bad situations because you're gonna have some guys who are your managers that are financially stressed, and maybe you're tied down tight and you're thinking my business is solid, I'm going to do all the right things. But the infrastructure above you starts to fall apart. What do you do then?
Well, and I'll tell you this, I think General Patton had people that would follow him into combat any day of the week, and they were badass soldiers. But there was also bad soldiers that wouldn't follow him anywhere, right? They were both very good at their job. But they chose a leader that fit them. Right. And that's a big portion of it, too, is that it's not always just because you have a great leader, that you're just going to naturally follow that guy. It doesn't work for everybody. We talked about, you know, DISC up here all the time. Those personalities don't match and it happens in employee to leadership and leadership to employee all the time. Sure. So you can't draw a roadmap. For every situation. You can draw a template to follow Yeah. Different.
Okay, guys, I want to throw this out here because I know this is a very current topic. We're going to visit this over a couple different episodes as the sun wines in our own lives and in your lives as well. So this won't be the last that you guys ever hear about the corona about this because I think it's a great life example, we probably get the, this will probably be the only time in my life other than 9/11 because I came through that as well. These are very similar events, right? Because I remember literally showing up to my clinic black and white TV in there and everybody's like, oh, my goodness, right. And we, no airfare for three days. And I mean, that was minuscule to what potentially this could be. Yeah. And like I said, I've made more money coming out of that because of obviously stimulus. And you know, I'm I sit more left than I do any any other position on the gamut. And and the government came in, you know, under Clinton's administration, right, and we put some, some government things into Wait, wait, no. It was Bush. It was Bush, my apologies. 9/11 was Bush. Yeah. And literally we had, you know, everything that we needed in my arena. And it ended up you know, we made it through.
Excuse me no coronavirus,
I was gonna say no, he does not have the coronavirus or we don't think he does.
I figure I've already had it three times and got through it. Well, cuz I'm a bad mother f-er.
This pains me to see this to say this, but like I think if, if anything, it's going to help me. Right because I think as people struggle to sell, they're going to be looking for, you know, help and process and you know, and things like that. So,
so that's a good point. But how do you get there? How do you have that conversation? Right? What do you mean because I think there's some bluntness that I would have as a D and I think you probably would do. So for example, you reach out on a cold call right. How is the coronavirus affecting your sales and do you have data Tracking because there's no better time than right now to have that information. I don't even talk about data tracking on my but someone else is because no one sees any value in it, but they might now, and that's to my point is that this might be the time where those direct things that wouldn't have worked a week ago, will work now.
And I actually have a caveat to that as well. Because if they're not documented on what really the what good looked like, right, getting back there can be kind of difficult. Oh, for sure.
Right. And that's, and that's the thing, right? Like, this is really the thing that we haven't talked about is that a lot of salespeople, there's, there's a stigma of like the sales guy does brings in any work you can possibly can because he just wants to make some money or whatever. And what I have found is that working with teams, it's like that's not true. They're not trying to just screw over the people that are on the fulfillment side of the house. It's just that there's a lack of clarity there, right. And that's most of what I'm doing right is I'm trying to help people, like hone in give them kind of templates and things like this so that way they can go sell better and a little bit easier to replicate. I'm not Saying that I sat down and I'm like, this is your script. And this is how you have to say it because I hate scripts, right? I'm not going to read a script. I don't think it helps, right? Because, you know, there's little things that you're going to miss when you're just reading off a piece of paper, right, you know, tonality and things like that. So I don't, I don't talk about data on the front end, right, I talk about, you know, reducing gaps and getting people using the same language and bringing in high quality, like prospects and not selling at a discount and these kinds of things.
So that hit on another thing, and if you can find somebody in stress, right, and offer them a plan back to normalcy, right? So be looking at how you normalize your accounts that may be in disarray, and build your own internal game plan to stabilize any way that you can through your product, your line of service, your context, your understanding of the business that you're in, and be a leader in returning to normal if this really gets out of whack. Right. And what does that look like? And how do you get there? Yeah, I mean this is a thinking man's game, don't think that sales isn't. Because this is when you put your thinking cap on, because this is gonna I'm gonna I've had three phone calls and every one or two guys that make more money than me and have bigger operations on like, how are you gonna monetize the coronavirus in healthcare?
You make masks. Well, right the government has already said that they'll be out for the next 18 months any mask anybody can I'm not in a position to do that. So next would be
exactly what I'm what I'm saying is that doesn't stop me from thinking about when your life gives you eliminates and I've texted this three or four times to my providers when life gives you eliminate or lemons you make lemonade and I even texted we made some badass lemonade because we started offering b 12 shots I was gonna say on a walk in basis to boost people's immunity. We gave them 45 of them yesterday, right? And we'll give a we can't get enough b 12 in our
coin. I was gonna say to that Your lemons right now is that you have clinics. Yeah, you have a brick and mortar clinic to get tested if that goes that route. Yeah. So or somebody that you can talk to, if you call us, we're not gonna ignore you. But you know, what's funny is along the same line, I'm in construction, but I also have a big brick and mortar training facility, you know, square foot wise, that if you needed a facility, maybe that's my sale for the month to cover my nut, you know, so, like, that's way outside the box, but it's you have
You have to start thinking outside the box. But you have to know you have to understand how to get back to normal as well. Right? Because after 911, there was a lot of disarray, and it took a minute not like it. This could be a far worse situation, or long term long term, but we had to struggle to get back to normalcy. How do you how do you get back to flying and then you had the National Guard and all the things that were different, but still the same. We'll go through that transition guys. Don't bury your head in the sand. Put your thinking cap on. start digging into What's going on in your industry? So
here's here's my thought and construction and all you construction people out there. I guess you can have this nugget.
That's what we're here for. Begrudgingly. What a dick.
As long as you're not in my market. What a dick.
So you know what I've been that would have given it to you for free.
I'm giving it to you for free.
I've been thinking very good man
is how how do I convey to my customers? How do I in construction? How do we basically quarantine a jobsite on a daily basis? What can I do on the way in and on the way out? that protects the job site while we still work? Right? Is that gonna cost me an extra 10 grand on the job or maybe 20 or 30 grand on a $5 million job. I'm taking that risk to cordon off the area to let nobody in or out put a gate guard there. Let me throw you a nugget look at the semiconductor business right electronic parts because they have to be ultra clean. And I mean, not to generalize, so no, not the exact cuz I know you've been in healthcare bill and stuff like that. I would say take some of the nuggets, you know from that. Maybe don't take it to that level. I mean, I've literally showering
blowing blowers
negative? We've done we've done so on both sides of medical field just even hospitals right? operating construction in an operating floor. Right. Yeah, you know surgery is going down on the other end of the hall and we're doing construction, right yeah, that there is a quarantine of construction that you do, right? And on the same side of like the micro processing and the data centers and stuff like that jumps and I go through the air showers and I get static discharge. Right so that's what I'm saying though is how do I bring that to my job sites? That's not as great right?
So there's where your brain needs to be is where your brain wants to be guys out there.
Conveying that to your customer now to say Don't let this scare you because I have a plan. Hmm, guess what, guys? If you go with the plan, you might be the only one with a plan you're
or even if it doesn't come to that. How does your account gonna feel when you You were the only person who called them and said, Hey, this crossed my mind. Have you guys thought about this? They might help you. Oh, God, you're just you're in it, you're part of the solution. It is. Cuz fear. If you can quell fear, even to just pat somebody on the arm and goes, I we'll talk about let's figure this out
and hold on real quick. You don't even need a solution. Just call and be like, be like, Hey, how are you guys doing? Are you guys worried about this, how are you doing?
Yeah, I agree. And, you know, I was just if, you know, because I come from farming world in my head. You know, I was thinking farming right? Because grain shipments don't because you're scared of spreading that all over the world. Right? Yeah. Meat Market is
They're highly sensitive to disease and destruction.
So how do you, how do you document you know, for a farmer like in Middle America, you don't do paperwork. You're not a paper person, right? You're a farmer man. I get up every morning I dig ditches I I harvest corn, I put it in grain bins, I ship it out, right. How do you document now or how to get help to document that say everybody that's touched this product of mine has been tested. There's no contact with any, here's my documentation to prove it by my corn over their corn. They don't have that I do. It's a preemptive strike, right? That may just be the winning ticket, right? So there's like to this point, that's where your brain just constantly needs to be in this.
And, you know, one of the things I ran into today, or yesterday, we had to reorder some script pads and stuff supplies and I called up the copy place and they said, Well, you know, call ahead, we had to change some stuff. So wouldn't like a reorder so I needed to take them examples and be physically there to explain adding a provider and so forth. And they said, we'll call ahead of time because our lobbies closed. And at first I thought they must be doing some construction or something and I've got to walk around do something different. No, it was the coronavirus. So they're only they come meet you at the door. And I guess if you look sweaty and tired, you know. Yeah, yeah. And hold on. I'll even give you this because we've even spoken this. Having kind of the sacrificial lamb On this out there testing people for fever, right with just a little scanner and in they know they get a 14 day vacation to stay home, pick somebody in the bell curve that's right in the middle, that's not going to suffer as much. But these are all things that should at least be kind of marinating. Maybe they apply, maybe they don't. But you're in this business and you're not leaving during this crisis. Why not start thinking about solutions in your own world? Yeah.
Yeah. I mean, that's, that's very to the point. I think
And I think that shows value in your industry that shows good community value that shows that you care about your customers, you care about your well being Mm hmm. Don't sit on your hands.
Yeah, do not sit at home.
That is to me is as leadership one on one. I think that to think that way. That's leadership one on one right? is how do we get everybody through this as a team and we get there successfully.
You are a socialist. Come join the team brother. I have about to be bitchslapped over here. Probably sort of deserve it.
All right, do we got a Throwdown on this? I think we did. Yeah, I mean, let's go.
Clinton side part Bigelow, team D, team D, what you got?
Did you notice I'm working it back to the center.
Is it gradually moving back?
He's wearing a hat cowboy, a badass cowboy hat earlier, man, you need to be able to figure out how to put the headphones on the cowboy hat. Yeah.
By the sun, he's
Tombstone. Johnny Tyler. Team D construction. Where're you going with that shotgun.
So, you know, I think I think we've said that many times is being proactive, right, and just coming up with solutions that I think that your competitors in this might be thrown out for all of us right here. But, you know, being proactive and doing something, just something might be the winning ticket, because other people that you know are recluse and they go back into their car and they say what we're just going to fail and I'm gonna, I'm gonna sit here and watch the sunset, those people will absolutely fail because they haven't even tried. So, if you're gonna fail, at least try, at least do something. That's my that's my nugget.
Al, team I, or healthcare, whichever?
Well, team I and healthcare and just in general be part of your community and the crack, the quack is coming out, um, be part of your community, be part of your sales group, be part of your sales team, and be astute in that, you know, this is weighing heavy on other people. It may be weighing heavy on yourself, figure out how you're going to personally get engaged in the process of getting back to normal. And if we have to stay abnormal for an extended period of time. What does that mean and how is that gonna affect you? And how are you going to overcome it not how is it gonna affect you? How are you going to come out the other side as well, as well as you can.
Okay, Nannette?
It's pretty close to what Al just said, I just think it's really important to not look at this and just think the sky is falling everything is horrible. I think that it's complete hyperbole. Think beyond yourself at this point and look how you can help someone else I think people always win. When you think beyond yourself, try to think of a way to help others.
For team C, I think this is going to sound a little bit like a broken record, but there's a lot of technology out there. So you know, if you're, if you're in biz dev, right and you're having a bunch of coffees a bunch of networking and stuff, you can do that via Zoom and Skype and do that from your home. I've had a digital coffee on my calendar link forever right so like, if someone is not here local, but they want to get to know me awesome bulk time on this thing and we'll do it via Zoom. Right so that way I can, you know, have relationships with with people even if they're not in my immediate area now. I'm not going to coffee shops. right to go sit down with, you know, pretty much anybody these days, right? Because it's like, Cool, let's do it via Zoom, or Skype or something else along those lines. And then, you know, how are you going to adapt? You know, there's so much technology out there, right? And then the other thing is, like, know what it takes for you to get to business, like know your KPIs, and no, you know, the behaviors you have to do to get to business and manage those and see what kind of different results you're getting and then adjust as necessary, right? I mean, a lot of your territory planning is about adjusting, right? trying something, if it doesn't work, just and then if you got to throw it out, because it's not productive at all that you do. But that doesn't happen whenever you're just throwing it and winging it, right? Have a process, know what you're doing, use technology as possible. And you know, just stay safe. And I'll make I made a really good point, right? Call your clients and talk to them. Right. This is a golden opportunity for you to reach out to everybody we're working with and having a three minute conversation and you're going to set yourself so far apart from everybody else who they're working with. Talking to or something along those lines. So it's all I got. Cool, awesome.
Cool. So stay safe wash your hands, you know, bump elbows, kick heels, you know
Just fucking wave.
Funny nobody's there you know that is Yeah, that's appropriate. Peace sign, hang loose.
Jazz hands! Alright guys. Yeah if if you've been listening and you're not following us on social media please do Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, everything is at Sales Throwdown if you if you don't know where you are, right you probably do if you've been listening to us for a little bit, but some people kind of ride the line between two different lines and you should know which one of these things is stronger because that's what you're going to revert to when you're under pressure and under stress. If you haven't taken one of these assessments and you want one please reach out to us assessments@salesthrowdown.com, we'll get you hooked up. We can't have them on the website due to some limitations of our of our agreement, but You know, just reach out. We're not going to high pressure you obviously if if it's a no, that's fine. If you know someone else in sales and they're struggling with this or if they're not sure how they're going to handle coronavirus, please share this with them along with all the other ones.
Yeah, call us with your questions. We'll try to figure it out for you.
Leave a review, we read every one of them. They're super important to us. And
yeah, if you're, if you're if you're if you think you're on hashtag team D, and you think you're higher D, I'd be more than happy to compare DISC assessments.
Oh, that'd be fun. Everybody can be the biggest, and we're gonna have a little competition.
Anybody who's like higher of a D than you is not listening to this podcast becaue they
First of all, it's impossible because I'm 99.8.
It will wait a second. And the point two didn't register.
He is actually the president, right?
Yeah, he's not only the president, he's also a client.
Now. He's lucky if he's within three points of view.
Oh, awesome, everybody. Stay safe. Keep going protected. selves and just keep looking forward and we'll see you guys next time.