Missed us last Friday? Join us on Facebook Live or Zoom this Friday at noon CST to talk to us during the show! 30-second commercials, elevator pitches, elevator speeches, whatever you call them. Knowing what to say in a very short period of time to let somebody know what you do, how you help, and why they should stay interested isn't easy. Does it make sense to lead with features and benefits, or should you be a little vaguer? As we discuss this conundrum, our different DISC personalities show how differently we view the answer, and that there isn't just one way. It can vary depending on the situation, industry, the environment of where you are at the time, and DISC personality, from both sides. To find out what your DISC personality is and how it affects your communication and selling style, email us at DISC@SalesThrowdown.com for information on taking an assessment. ✅ To join us on Zoom, sign up for our emails here: http://links.salesthrowdown.com/LLB ✅ 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
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Let's get ready to Throwdown!
Alright everybody, Live at Lunch. Welcome to the show. Today is Friday, it is the 15th, we are halfway through May, which is a little bit astounding, right? Because mine. Yeah. I'm not anywhere close to my goals as far as like revenue and what I thought I was going to be.
Who the F is? I mean
Clint.
Oh, I should have seen that coming.
Come on. You, you asked, I tell.
Man good to be in construction. That's why I got this hat on, man. This is Plan B right here. Plan B.
Is that
There's, There's plenty of Alberto's here. I can tell you that.
Clint, I may need job bro. I may need a job. You have to hire me. I'm not sure what I, hold on. Here's what I think I'm qualified for. I could be a foreman.
No, you couldn't.
Alright, supervisors, something like that. You know, you motivate the troops.
Alright, so last week we
Got about, I got about 10 too many of those.
I think every business does.
Alright real quick on topic last week we were not able to do the Facebook Live we are this week. So if you're watching on Facebook Live, leave a comment, say hello, we're here. Luke is here actually in the Zoom with us. If you'd rather be in the Zoom with us then get on the email list. It's around there. asked me for it. You can have the details of questions, please put them in there. The topic this week is how do you talk about what you do? What kind of statements do you make, what is your 30 second commercial look like? Because what I realized for myself this week was that sometimes I talk about my the things that I do for people in a very feature and benefit type of way. And if you don't see a feature or benefit in CRM or process or anything else, it makes it really easy for you to make a snap judgment. Oh, I don't need to spend more time with John. And we all know this right? You know, you got to hook the prospect so that when they actually want to have a conversation with you, and how do you talk about what you do? So I'm curious, do you guys find yourself doing that same thing? Like, like, do you get too into like, the features and benefits of what you do? So that way, it's easy for people to tell you no?
Yeah, I mean, I tend to be a little too short, probably most of the time the other way. Or it's like, I'm in construction, right? And it's like, Okay, well, you know, there's a million avenues of that. So I kind of gotta go the other way where I got to be a little more concise about the, the actual aspects of what I do. So that, you know, one of the things out of that is that sometimes you leave it so vague, you end up telling people everything you don't do, right. So it's like oh, so you must do that. No, I don't do that. Oh, you must do this. Now I don't do that, either. So you don't want to be that guy either. Right? Yeah. Well, so features and benefit. But yeah, I think features and benefits at this point, you know, if they have the time and they're interested, and their body language and tonality reads Good, keep going. I don't think that there's a line until you see them pull back. Right?
Well, very specifically, right. You know, when I was talking about what I do with new people, I talked about CRM and sales process and everything else. And what I found was it was just like, super easy to say, Oh, yeah, no, I'm not interested in that, or I hate CRM. So I don't need this kind of thing. Whereas if I scale it back a little bit, and I just kind of focus around these are the pains right, which are, you know, things that we've all been trained on and stuff like this as part of my 30 second commercial and what I do, or or your 30 second commercial is also your elevator speech, right? Like this is kind of how you introduce yourself to new people and everything else. If you're not familiar with the term, the 30 second commercial, but this is what you say to networking groups. This is what you say whenever Someone asks you what you do and things like that. And the goal of that is to talk about the people that you help now, not what you do, because most people don't actually care what you do they want to care about, like, do what do the things that you do actually help others. And I was getting way too bogged down in the correctness of like sales process and CRM and stuff like that. So what I've done is now I just kind of talked about like, Hey, I work with super small companies, when it's just like a very small team of five or less, and you're struggling with sales and marketing. And that is like, Oh, well, how do you do that? Great question. You know, I'm curious, you know, what kind of experience do you have in this? Because I'm not giving out as much information so they can't make the mental decision around. Okay. I don't need to spend time with John. So that's kind of the thing that I've been thinking about, right. Because we know that sometimes we we answer a question the wrong way. And it allows the prospect to make a mental decision, even if they don't communicate that with us. That's what I was doing. Yeah.
So the only thing I caution people there is, is don't get too tied around doing a right or wrong, right? They asked you a question, answer the fucking question, right? Because if you get too worried about it, you're gonna sound like a computer, you're gonna sound repetitious and it's just not going to end well, right? So I say if they ask you a question, what do you do? Answer the question. I do mechanical construction, what do you do? Right? And you engage instead of leaving an open ended statement, and And whatever you do, don't don't fill silence, right. Don't just talk to talk. If they ask you a question answer if they're interested. They'll ask you another one. Right. I agree.
I think it's really important to simplify, you know, not to be overthinking which probably a C is going to really do. And what something that I did initially maybe I probably do still is, I'm thinking about connecting because I just love that and So I don't do enough where your work Clint is indicating. And I feel like you're saying as well, John, that you're just throwing up on them all your features and benefits. I, it takes me too long to get to that. So I think what Clint said is really important. Just simplify, you know, let them talk. Don't just throw up on them, basically.
Yeah, I mean, you know, for Nan, depending on your audience, right is out of Nan, I would expect to hear this answer. I Oh, I have the best job in the world. Let me tell you about it. Right. And that's probably you know, I've kind of I've heard her say things like that before. So I expect that answer out of her, you're probably not going to get that out of me. They're both Right. Right. And, and you really got to know the person that asked the question, and it's really important that in a few short words, you sum up who you're talking to, because if it is a C, it's a super high C. He may not be social enough to ask the questions that need to be talked about, right. So you got to really gauge who you're talking to.
Exactly. Well, if you make it like a conversation and Clint, you hit it when somebody says what do you do? a, you know, healthcare, what do you do? Whenever they engage you back then you say yeah, I work with a lot of people in your industry or Yeah, I've got some point of reference. Do you know you know, start trying to connect some dots that brings you closer together and and find where that commonality is.
Dr. Daniel, can I get interrupt you real quick? So, are you...
You can call me Al, actually.
Um, do you need to turn off the light bulbs? Is that the reason you need the sun protection because the sun protection is kind of getting a little weird. Looking at you. She wants
She wants you to lose the hat.
Well, then I'm just gonna keep it going. Let's keep weird alive.
Next week, we're all gonna have those hats.
You should have told him it looked good.
But what for me? Right? The thing that I that I realized was that I was caught up in my own wit right, I thought I was describing what I did in a way that was really intellectually interesting and everything else like this without. And this is crazy, because I know how much everybody hates CRMs like, just like off the cuff, right? So why am I leading with that? Right? Because if you don't see value in a CRM, you're not gonna have a conversation with me. But if we can talk about I can help you with sales of, you know, creating a process that's repeatable and scaling it and everything else like that. That promotes like, interest. Oh, I want to learn more or less.
Yeah, and, you know, John, even hearing you say that, even to me, it strikes me hard, right is because like, I don't maybe I don't need your help. And why would you say that? Exactly. So, so be careful there too. I can help you do this. Yeah, you say you can maybe it can't, don't don't insult me like that, you know, so. So caution yourself on that. So that's why I say man, knowing your audience. It's huge because you say that Doc and and Nan or a guy like yourself, it's huge.
No, I, I'm with you, Clint because I'm running into, you know, with our clinics. You know, now there's a scramble people are back into knocking on our doors and calling on us and the proverbial battle is everybody over promises and under delivers. Yeah. They just literally do.
That solutions provider guy that knocks on your door and says I've got the solution for getting out of COVID. Yeah, right. Because if you did, you'd be a gazillionaire. And you're not, you're knocking on my door.
Well, so, you know, the my goal is not to be the guy who comes across as like that. Hey, I have your answer. Because we all know that that is, you know, not super,
No, I know you don't. I just
That's the thing, right? Because when you show up to a D, you're in. I'm curious, Clint, like, do you think that that is a D trait this whole thing about like, if you tell me something, if it's the best, I'm not going to believe you ever do you think that's a you thing.
There's there's no doubt It's well, it's a personal one. It's definitely you know, my personality flair, but it's also the struggles that we're all in, right? We'll hear the speech every day I get 100 emails of, if you buy this program, you will come out of COVID-19 you know, I get this stuff right and you get so sick of hearing it. The last thing I want to do is finally have a human interaction with the sales guy and him telling me he's got all my answer. So I think it's a little bit of the economical struggle as well, just not personality. I think everybody's gonna, you know, Doc said that, hey, that bothers you. So, you know, it's not just personality.
Something that I've heard twice now, sometimes people you know, when people ask me to proofread a response or a letter they're sending out and they the very first statement, is I and, and the other night, I was watching the news, and the same thing happened where they were interviewing this lady about something and the first thing out of her mouth was I and I think that is problematic. So when You are in front of your client, especially Initially, I think, take you out of it. You know, I think that people until they want to connect with you, they don't want to hear about you. So I think you know, I think that across the board with sales with life, I think it's like really ridiculous how we self focus so much and other people aren't interested until you've won them over at some level. So I think it's really important to take that eye out of our vocabulary and our writing or, you know, just i think that i don't know if I went off subject a little bit, but I think I heard both of you say AI and how it's not good. So I'm just I'm just reiterating that is I think it's really important.
There's no you know, it's a good point, Nan. I agree with you there. I I I agree. Yeah.
We are.
Yeah, there you go. That doesn't exist in my book. John. You know, don't go into your your type of business right that a little bit different than the rest of us. I got a phone call the other day of a guy wanting to sell some CRM tools. Also some construction management all kind of blends together. But one of the things that he said that caught my eye and I actually wrote it down, and I don't do that very often. But what he said was interesting, he said, you know, have you ever thought about outsourcing some of your work? That was the first thing he said, I said, I, you know, we do a little bit, right. So what kind of what kind of stuff do you do? So I keep his one statement, right? It just took a and if I just said, No, we do it all in house. He had a million ways to go with that, that opening statement. And if I said, Yeah, he's got another million ways, right? So little things like that. Really opened the door for a guy like me to be interested in what you're saying. And we probably had an hour long conversation. So you know, that doesn't happen very often for me, but if he just said I do sales CRM. I don't on the phone. Right? Yeah. Even though I might have needed his service. And so you know, how do you how do you do this? How do you guys do this is very, you really got to put some focus on it but don't get so caught up in it. you stumble over your feet all the time.
Clint, look, you said that he said you wanted to
Say that again.
Will you repeat what you wanted to write down? That he's Oh, he
Oh, Yeah, I don't remember, you know, we answered I answered the phone. And we talked for just a second introductions. And then he said, Do you ever outsource any of your any of your work inside your own offices and said yeah, we outsource some stuff? No. So what kind of stuff are you talking about? And then he went into a well we do you know, construction management software, and I said, Oh, okay, so if he just started with that I'd have been done right here and but now I'm a little softened up and, and, and I'm all ears, right? So just just things like that. Those little one line statements man. They make A big difference, especially people like me,
they make a huge difference, right? Because you, and I think I think that you said something in there. That's really important, right? If you had responded, no, the guy would have had additional questions to ask to try to see if like, this is still like a valid opportunity. So if you're, if you're because a lot of people are taught not to ask closed ended questions, I don't think the closed ended questions are bad, right? Because everyone's put so much importance on open ended questions. Right. So the second question is more important anyway. Right. Hey, you know, have you thought about changing this? Yeah. Okay. Why haven't you? Like that second question is like way, way more impactful than.. You guys all?
Yes, go ahead. Al.
But everybody just hit on a real important thing. Ask a question. Right? Don't tell them something. Ask them something. Ask them. You know, and it's, you know, germane to the conversation to sales, but if if you approach wanting to know about them, versus versus telling them about you, I think it's just an approach, I think it opens more doors. And you don't have to go to guns to try to avoid the no. Because, you know, you'll get there or you won't. And the more they engage you after that initial questioning, you know, I think that leads down the road to more profits and more business deals.
Yeah. I agree. Yeah.
So did you buy the software?
I mean, I'm we're looking into, believe it or not, this isn't like a you know,
we'll talk about it offline. But yeah. Oh, wait a second. That was a cold call was a cold call. And why was it worked against the D? Yeah, he got to have a conversation. Okay, so all these marketing guys who were running around telling everybody that cold calling doesn't work. Maybe they just don't know how to do it correctly, or maybe they're just trying to sell you something.
So so the only catch there is is that he may get let down, I may string him out for a month trying to do a whole bunch of free consulting for me. So that's on him. sorry. But that's, I mean, that's my goal, to be honest with you.
Well that, so the only difference between your goal and everybody else's goal is you're aware of it. Right? Because Because like everybody else wants a little bit of free knowledge or free value, and then it's up to the salesperson to figure out like, or the marketing team, what that value actually looks like. What do you got, Al?
But I but I think if you're good and you know, people sometimes want to tap into that free knowledge, draw that line in the sand with what you'll give up. And then and I have constant conversations about this. I'm like, Do not tell them what the process is. Particularly when working with another group. They're learning how to interface with us so they can take some money off the table. Our value is our process, and the little trinkets that make other people's processes fall apart. Is there other people like us out there? But at the end of the day, if we start showing you dollars and cents in your account, and there's some revenue share there it is because we've navigated the insurance arena, we've navigated the delivery process, there's certain aspects that make us better at what we do. So if Clint can string the guy along, good for Clint, bad for the for the sales guy. But at a certain point, you got to give some value, but shut that down, and then start making them pay for the value that that they see.
So let's dig into this a little bit more, because I'm curious. Right, so so this was a cold call. And Clint answered, and there was a good first question, and so then Clint got to have a whole conversation. What else did the guy do well, in the call, Clint, if you if anything comes to mind.
You know, one of the interesting things is that the ready he had gotten my information, which I'm usually pretty reluctant to give up because of just stupid emails I'm going to give for the next nine months. But he said, Hey, if he Got a you know why, while you're on the call, if you got ten minutes, I can share my screen with you. And I can just kind of walk you through some of the stuff that we're talking about. And then you build a list of questions around what I'm talking about, and we'll get back to you. And, and it was interesting because, you know, and maybe it could have just been that I had five minutes to spare, you know, when when sometimes I don't I just, you know, shut them down. But the other the other part of that is that I'm actually interested because, you know, the few things that he said made sense. Now, I've been promised all the same stuff, you know, 10 or 12 times in the past with different software's and it never pans out. I never I never get to the point of actually wanting to pull the trigger on something. It was just his approach that kind of that really stuck out but he did he ended up sharing the screen with me right then and there. which is which is huge, right? I mean, it's already he's, he's, he's fast tracked, three or four, you know, usually really tough. Things to navigate. He's really gotten, you know, from introduction to, you know, building a little rapport he's gotten, he flew through that. And it was all just asking a few questions. So, you know, that's it goes back to that same in my mind what he did. And I've heard it my whole life is, you know, as best you can, be interested and not interesting. And he did exactly that. Right.
So, so, I'm curious. You said something in there very specifically that that I that I find interesting, right. So he said, you know, let me show you this thing real quick. We can do a screen share, and then you can write down any questions you want. We'll answer those questions and then figure out if this is this is a fit. Do you like that approach? Or are you not going to send the guy Any questions?
Yeah, cuz one of the things I don't want to do is waste any more time than I have to on this call. I'm, you know, I'm already it's half off my head ready to hang up anyway, right. So when, you know, dealing with me, maybe it's just me personally or the in general John, you know, no offense to you, but the way you just repeated what he said is not what he said at all in the tonality.
Oh yeah, no, I'm aware.
you know, yeah, in what he said was, Hey, man, let me just share my screen with you real quick. And he stopped talking. And I had the decision to make. right he left it on me to to move the conversation forward, which was pretty slick, right? So I ended up saying, you know what, you know, you're right, just here's my email and send me a link real quick. But he had everything at the ready, right? If there was any pause of Hey, tomorrow, let's let's do this zoom call. I'm out, man. I don't want to I don't know what's going on. Yeah, you know, so that you know, what I'm saying is like he was he's dealing with a direct person that likes to be dealt with directly and he did exactly that. And and maybe that doesn't work for everybody. And maybe he picked up on something I said, right off the bat that put him put me in that category that he dealt with me that way, but do you think, kudos to him.
Yeah. Do you think this guy was also a D?
No, no, no. If anything very, very C. Very C/S. Okay,
Take away. The second takeaway from that, then is preparation make sure you know exactly what might happen in your conversation.
Yeah. Because, you know, to be honest with you, I didn't even know what the name of his company was until I got his email.
Right, there was no need because I don't care. Exactly. Right. And, you know, you can tell that in a thing like that, like he's ready, right? I mean, he's done that before. Okay, you know, let me just share my screen with you real quick. Show you what this looks like. Waits for the answer.
It was a What do you have to lose mentality? It was it was kind of that approach. Well, why not? Why wouldn't you just want to look at this and you treat me that way, yeah.
45 minute webinar and all of this stuff that a lot of other people want to do, which is then kind of shoving their process over your process. And you know what, got what got me on a cold email, actually. This week, which which I thought was pretty slicker, or maybe as a couple of weeks ago now, it's all like one big blur. Was it was they said, Hey, want to reach out yada yada, yada. And then at the end, at the very last thing almost in the PS like but right before a signature he goes, Hey, this might not be on your radar and that's okay. But we're reaching out because frankly, you've been on our radar. And interesting, man, I responded so quick. So quickly to that email because like that, that frankly, in there really kind of took it out of the realm of like, Hey, this is templated it probably still is. But to me it was that nice little like stroke of my ego, right? Oh, I've been on someone's radar. I want to talk to people who have me on the radar. Let's do that. That's pretty slick, right?
Yeah. You know, at least at least in stuff like that John, I at least respond to instead of delete. So I may just say hey, I know I don't have time for this. I don't want a product, but at least you get the no, right, versus an open ended email. So so that shit does work. Yeah.
Awesome. What else has been going on for you guys this week?
Anything you know, it kind of going back to that conversation min ago, I actually had a 45 Minute Webinar right before this that I got up and just left out of. I mean, just, this is going nowhere, right? You showed me the same thing 52 times. And you know, some of the other guys in the room are completely interested in their asking questions. And it's just like I I'm done sorry. And I just got up and left because I got other shit to do you know, you've wasted far too much of my time. You had 45 minutes you didn't get to the point in 30, you're not going to do in 45 and we're not going to go on for an hour and a half. And eventually, you know exactly what they did is what I expected as I was walking out hey, maybe we should set up another one. Like you did one 45 minute one. You got me in on the second one. And now you want to do a third one and look man, if you can't sell your product overline on you know, this much I I'm just not interested. So you know, going back to that same point, be careful about dragging shit out. Get to the point. Let them ask the questions.
And another thing is that is that if you're going to make an agreement around time, right, you need to you need to honor that agreement, right? Because the prospect is never going to show up and be like, Okay, cool. I have an hour, what do you want to discuss? Right? So that's on us as salespeople who have these conversations all the time to kind of set a frame around time and get an agreement, because everybody's bought a car, right? And everyone always thinks it's gonna be like a really quick endeavor, you're gonna be in and out, and then it never is. And, you know, you're gonna wish that you brought a sandwich to the party like Al did today. So
That's why Carl Sewell is so important, because while you're there, he takes care of you, feed your dinner, he entertains you, he takes care of you because he knows the process. Right. That's why he's got 500 dealerships and makes a gazillion dollars, and writes books.
Yeah, but so if we're going to make an agreement, right, because it sucks to show up and they're like, Okay, cool. Yeah, forgot you're coming. You got five minutes, you know, why don't you show me what you have like, like, that sucks, right? And I've done that plenty of times. I'm sure everybody else has as well. But if you're gonna make an agreement around Hey, you know does it make sense for us to talk to the next our next hour and a half or whatever, I'm gonna uphold that agreement so much because, you know, I've asked for a little bit of trust, you know. Hey, can we trust that we're going to get something done in the next X amount of time? And that's on me to kind of frame that out the right way, because I have way more these conversations than they do. But if you're gonna make an agreement, you absolutely have to, like honor the agreement, you know, even if that means like, rushing maybe parts or aspects of it that you didn't really want to, but you can also just kind of, you know, reinforce the expectations like hey, you know, we're here for 45 minutes let's let's make sure we cover everything we need to.
Yeah and and something to think about there to guys know, when you say 45 minutes, you need to under everybody in the room needs to understand whether the 45 minutes is for you or it's for me, right? Because maybe I have another sales call I need to get to and I'm not going to break another agreement because you want to drag it on. But maybe you're open the rest of the day. And this is your only call that day. And and it's nice to share that with him right. Hey, We agreed to 45 minutes, this 45 minutes is for you. I'm open to handle them whenever you need me to do today, right? So if it does go past 45 minutes, nobody's hurting except you. And that's on you to make that call. So
Do you think that's a good frame, though for like sales conversations?
I do it all the time. Hmm. I walk into the conference meetings with customers all the time, and we've set a 45 minute window or an hour as and the very first thing I say is, Hey, I know you got to set an hour for this meeting. And I fully plan on giving you the full hour but if you need more time, I don't have anything till around two o'clock. So if you guys want to grab lunch after this or or you want to extend this meeting, and we don't get it done in that time, we'll you know, we'll revisit this, but I always do that.
But because a lot a lot of
a lot of those meetings run run over an hour, sometimes they take two hours. Sometimes you have such good bonding and rapport you didn't get anything done in the first hour. So you know, just be careful what you set your limits to and you know, I think honouring your business agreements, like John says, hugely important to make sure there's a you know, and another option, option B.
Well, very specifically about the frame that you talked about a moment ago, like, hey, look, I want to make this your time, right? So when he, this isn't about me, this is about you guys. I'm sure you guys have lots of questions. You know, let's work through that. I mean, do you go that in depth with the frame? So you just kind of hop in there and go, okay.
Yeah, I roll with it. Man. I'm here for you. I know you want to talk about this project? Let's talk about it. When you want to talk about and I'll say this, like that way. What do you want to talk about?
Does that change whenever it's not like a bid invitation? Right? Like, like, let's say that there's someone on your prospecting list who you were, like dying to work with, like, how do you approach it that way? Is it any different?
It's No not really. I mean, it's, it's more about hey, you know, I, we've always wanted to do business with you guys. And we'd love to talk about it if you're open to it. And I know you'll have some questions for me, so you know, shoot.
What about for Nan and A? This has kind of been the Clint and John show. It's on it's not intentional.
It's all good. It's all good. I guess in a lot of my sales are in when you threw out the topic 30 minute commercial or 30 second commercial, 30 minute commercial. Yeah. The a lot of my business is relationship driven, meaning somebody knows somebody and I think Nan would attest to this. So we've either been in close proximity, we've got some, you know, some common, you know, friends or colleagues. So when we sit down, it can go a lot of different ways. Sometimes it can be real brief, and the guy says, hey, yeah, that sounds good. Let's get that started. And you're like, Okay, easy, or some of them dig in a little bit more, having a few more questions. Yeah, maybe it's a bid maybe it's not or, hey, we're already using somebody you know, thanks for the call. It's all over the board. But it is usually not a cold call. Because that's gotten so I mean, we just fall into the category of everybody else at that point, it's knocking on their door. And they've got 100 of those a day on some of these high end surgeons, and even some of my colleagues, you know, they got a bunch of other guys that do stuff like we do. But if you have a softer approach, or like, hey, Clint, um let me ask you a question. Have you ever thought about, you know, doing over-reads for the, you know, for your x rays? Or who do you use for your your over-reads? Yeah, and you can stumble through this stuff, because, you know, and then, you know, they, they say, Well, tell me a little bit more about it, or can we get back to it? I mean, it's just such a casual conversation up to the point where you say, Does it make sense that we move this up the next you know, rung, and and build a contract? Do some business together? Yeah. I mean, yeah. Yeah, you don't have to polish you have to say the words.
I agree. I think you can stumble through the more personal relationship is more, you know, bonding and rapport that you've built that way. easier this conversation goes because, you know, I've been told on first meetings by colleagues that are in the same room with me, you know, we might be in there for an hour and a half just total bullshit, you know, with customers and, and, and I've actually had my own people say, well, let's get down to business real quick. And I'm like, Man, you don't know a good thing when you when you see it, you know, you gotta let that ride. And if we got to come back tomorrow, we come back tomorrow, man, don't stop that process. Because once you do that, and you've run out of shit to talk about the only thing left to talk about's business and you're on such a personal level that it's, it's such an easy conversation.
And you're at such a sweet spot if you're able to do that, because everybody is not able to get in there and just do a personal conversation.
Now don't get me wrong. I have customers just like John where you can't talk about personal life. So so there's that too and that's okay, because I'm gonna have the same conversation based around data and facts but I came You know, I'm coming prepared or Coming around, you know, I don't know the answer to that question. So the thing is, is one of the one of the things that a lot of people miss on cold calls and, you know, and returning phone calls from customers, no is a fact. If you don't know it, no is a fact as well. You don't have to have all the data, right? So John asked me a question about my CRM. Hey, how do you guys do this? I don't know, man. And just shut Shut up. Right? Because that's a fact. I just gave John the fact that I don't know. So, you know, little, little things like that, right is don't just talk to talk.
Let's check Facebook real quick. Do we have any questions or insights?
Actually, just now.
We just got a question one second.
I think people also have a tendency to practice false pleasantries instead of very calmly and confidently asking direct questions you want answered, and using your own personality and shine during that convo.
100% Who said that?
Hayden.
Dude, Hayden's killing it here recently because I, that's part of my struggle, right because I don't want to go down that path of, you know, pleasantries and everything. Like let's just get straight to business right but it's not about me, right. So mentally I make myself do it but the whole time I feel like it's forced almost to the point to where if I'm talking to someone, even if I'm talking to Clint, right, and it's like, not on the show, and he was like, well, John, the minute he says, John, I like snap to attention of like, okay, What's he trying to do here? Like, my, my, my guard is so up all the time. Like, it's it's probably not healthy. But, you know, it's little things like that. So then whenever I try to employ it, I feel very disingenuous. Do you have something else? Yeah, from Luke, Luke.
Do you think that when that person says, let's get down to business when you're BS-ing, does it kill the mood a little with the people you're selling to?
You'll hear that. Yeah. I don't really understand it when I say that again. So When when someone in the room goes to Okay, cool. Let's get down to business. Do you think it kills the mood a little bit?
Oh, yeah. It depends on who you're talking to. Because if it's a super I and a super, you know, guy that doesn't want to talk about business ever Yeah, absolutely. It's gonna kill them. But it's a necessity. That's why you're there. Don't forget that.
So how do you okay? So how do you split that difference though, because a second ago, you've got like, you'll you'll, you'll hang out and bonding and report for a whole day and then come back tomorrow. Like,
I'll hang out there for five days if the audience allows it, but I will eventually. You know, and what I like to do what I love to do is in a conference room, do bonding and rapport on a personal level and do business on the golf course. That's my, that's my ultimate goal, to be honest with you. Because on a golf course, it's like, Hey, man, why wouldn't we do business together? Look at all the fun we're having. Why wouldn't we do it but to be honest with you, that's a true statement for me because if if I can have fun with this guy in a conference room, and I can go golfing with them and we can do business and he's a quality person. I want to do business with that guy. Right? I just do so. I mean,
Really matters. It is not not important. It really matters.
makes more sense for for you specifically Clint because the deals you work on are so big, and they have such a such an impact on revenue.
Like, man, if I sold toilet paper to you, I would want to be your friend. You know what I mean? Like, I'd want to have something to talk about other than dropping off a box of toilet paper every month. You know, I'd want to know a little bit of something. So, you know,
I'm with that person, even if it's via computer I mean, you are spending time with that person. You don't want to spend time with people that you think are jerks or whateer.
Don't get me wrong. I'll do business with jerks. Money screen. I'll do I'll do business all day long with jerks. I just want to enjoy it as much as I do with people that I connect with.
Yep. Okay, so we got some more but hold on. Hold on real quick Al, there we go.
Hayden said, no good client ever woke up saying, Man, I hope I find a vendor rep that's got a great personality and is a lot of fun. And he says, ultimately, they want results, solutions. They want them in a timely and applicable manner. That's what gets you in the door. I think the relationship and personality is what keeps clients on board and competitors from getting in the door.
Yeah, I have to I have to disagree a little bit. Because I think I see it the other way around.
I do too.
Because Because I'm in an industry that is completely relationship driven, and that my competitor may suck, right? And I may have all the solutions, I may be 10 times better, but because they've been doing business for 20 years, they're gonna keep on doing it, whether they suck or don't. And I've got to get past that. And sometimes the old traditional way of making friends and the businesses the way I gotta go, I'm not saying it's the way to go all the time.
If you're solely going off a product, you better have a unique product and I bet there's not very many products out there that other people aren't repping. You know, if we're selling a screw for the OR, there's a million screws out there, they do not want to deal with in the OR or in their office, a, a rep that they're not amenable, you know, it has to be a pleasant experience outside of the product.
Well, and I think you you build your rapport, like Clint was talking, we've all been discussing, and then you show your utility when they sign on the dotted line. At that point, what you're going to not only lose is an account and a friendship if he can't deliver on some of this stuff. Right? And you you then work that friendship or that relationship to whatever degree it's it's going through the business process. You keep your personality, nothing changes about you. Nothing changes about Al, whether you're my patient, whether you're on the table, whether you're the doctor, one of my colleagues, this you know this hat is what you get. Every time.
Every time?
every time from now on.
So I, I hope this isn't redundant. I maybe told the story before, but whenever I was selling pharmaceuticals, I remember very clearly, I'm selling a comparable product to a group of physician group. And they wrote a note to me and handed it to me one day and said, Give this to the front desk and I look at it and it says, Nan can come in here whenever she wants, and her competitor can never come in here. And and I said, I know thank you said thank you. And I knew the reason because you have to know what who you're dealing with and what they want to deal with. And if they don't want to deal with the BS that a lot of people throw out there or just the obnoxious just continuous, selling, selling, selling, you know, you need to identify That if done,
Nan Nan has more open door policies from 20 years ago than any other rep I've ever seen.
And the other thing is being cognitive of what the person you're with, you know, like, I love this story again, I'm sure I've told it 100 times when I was like, oh, man, this Coke is fantastic. Well, it wasn't Coke, because I don't drink Coke. But it was something it was a beverage and I was like, it's so good. And Clint was like, well, I'll never drink that. And I was like, Oh, man.
Because what you said was, it's the best ever. Yes.
Yes. That's Clint's trigger.
And I love that I learned that from Clint because I will. I don't know if I've ever said that's the best unless I'm talking about price. I'm not gonna say that's the best from now on because I went, Oh, that people don't want to hear that. You know, they don't. They get decision, not you.
We have some more from Facebook and then I have a point to make I think. Okay,
He said my message may have been slightly misunderstood kind of hard to communicate through text. But he says, I guess that that makes us unique because we do have a unique model that my competitors don't.
Sure, yeah, yeah, definitely, definitely. Hayden, what you said is not wrong, just to reiterate that. Every business is a little bit different. So how you deal with your customers and how they want to be treated is, you know, some people are completely results driven. Right? I would assume that a guy like John is completely results driven. He wants to know that when I call you're there, and you provide the absolute best product that I pay for. A lot of people in my business and I'm sure Alan Dan's business are, you know, you the more rapport you have with a person, the more friendly you are the more leeway you give, because your competitor might be there. And he might make one mistake and there's no relationship and they're dead to him. They're gone forever. So relationship does buy you a little credit. I think in the end In the bank.
Yeah. And not that you ever want to ask for it, but it will also buy you forgiveness. Absolutely. And, and because of unforeseen circumstances, you know, things don't always work out. Once you have that bonding and rapport, now I caution you have to own it, you have to be up front that's on us, we're going to correct it, but you get the opportunity to correct your mistakes more times than not. Whereas if you're that dick, guess what, you just got canned and you might not it might not have been within your control.
Because you because you don't want to be the customer that everybody talks about. Well, he's a he's a freaking douchebag but his products awesome because you're one mistake away from being destroyed.
Yeah. And something to go back to to something that Nan talked about earlier right. Like the value is not in the thing that you deliver, right like no one needs another screw. Right very specifically for about a million of them exactly, Nanette and Al's industry, they want to know the other stuff like, Hey, are you gonna be on time? Right? Can we depend on you if it goes sideways, right? Like, what does your network look like and everything else. And Al does an amazing job of showing up and having all that knowledge and you know, for lack of a better term swagger, right? whenever he's in the OR and stuff like that, I mean, it's a pretty, you know, I know, everything. That's not necessary, but you know,
And I know, we sound like we're stroking each other, so I apologize. But really, Al has the best rapport, I mean, he is amazing in the OR. Doctors, and surgeons wanna talk to him? Because he knows when to shut up. He knows when to talk. And when he does talk, he knows what he's talking about. You know, I think that's really it's that's kind of to what Clint was talking about. You know, don't talk if you're just gonna Bumble or you don't sincerely care about them in relationships. You know, you don't, don't don't don't be fake. I mean, only go as far as you really feel, and only give as much knowledge as you really have, you can learn, you can ask questions later. But don't try to go in there and act like you're all smart. But
Part of that part of that is, is is matching and mirroring, right? And if they're upset, you need to be upset, or you need to say, F, I got this Hold on one second, let's do this. Right. So so whenever you're engaged in that process with them whenever you hit a hurdle, because they're on the other side of that they're with you trying to get over that hurdle. They want to see this work. And don't give them a reason to feel like you're not the answer.
Yeah, yeah. That's a good point. Great. So going back to something that Nanette and Al and even kind of talk about right. There's so much competition, right? There are so many companies or so many products, so many services. It's ridiculous. When I worked for Al there was a brand new doctor, right brand new surgeon just out of school hadn't even opened his shop. Yeah, right. But he had like a banner. So went knocked on the door, they're like, Hey, he's hired a biz dev person, you got to talk to them and everything else, call that person. And she goes, you know, many people I have talked to who do the same thing that you do? And I said, No, how many and she goes at least 30. And we're not even open and seeing patients yet. I mean, that's, that's what you're dealing with here. Right? So not every industry is that, you know, all over it, you know, but there is competition out there. Right? And like, what do you do that's different from the other people in your industry that you can talk about easily, right? It's not It's not the software itself. It's, you know, the pain that it fixes, right? Because pain is a bigger motivator than features and benefits. So then, the way that I've been thinking about it for myself is like, marketing is what you're putting out there on paper, right in your emails and your social media and everything else like this. And that's okay to be kind of marketing ish, right features of benefits, you know, get people interested, but the minute you're engaged in a conversation, it has to shift to Like, okay, what's important to you? Right? Like, are you dealing with any of these things? And I think you have to really separate those two different functions, right? marketing is about hype and buy something later buy something later, because it's the best, it's the best. But when you're in that conversation, like that's about right now, so like, Help Help them undercut or help them uncover their pains, right? Help them uncover why they would want to change and why they don't like the guy, but do it in a way so that way you're not, you know, putting down a competitor because that doesn't really help you in the long run, either.
I agree. You know, going back to kind of our original talking to that, that topic of that 30 secibd commercial. One of the things that you're going to hear in this industry or just in sales in general, is that elevator pitch, right? You got two floors to make this elevator pitch and I and I absolutely hate the concept. I always have right because you can't sell yourself and in two floors on an elevator, what you can do is buy some time. You know, you can make an introduction you can buy some things, you know, and that's what you guys are talking about that 30 second portion. That's what that's always kind of geared to is if you got, that's always the scenario, if you got stuck in an elevator with a future customer, how would you, you know, by the time he gets off on his floor? And my answer always is, get off on the floor with them and keep talking. I don't know, I don't need 30 seconds, right? I need a way to keep talking. So, you know, going back to all of this stuff is being concise. You know, introduce, introduce yourself, hey, I'm Clint, I'm, you know, I'm a mechanical contractor, you know, what do you do? Hey, I'm a general contractor. Great. Do you have a card? Can I call you tomorrow? That might be your whole pitch, right? That might be the only thing that you get in there. And that and that one elevator dig,
like, you know,
but but if we flip that though, right, if if you're the GC in the elevator, and some guy gets on there, and he was like, Well, I do this kind of construction. You know, can I can I have your card and give you a call tomorrow. Do you say yes?
Yeah, usually or if I don't want to, I just tell them no, right? Look, if the guy walks away from me and he is a huge dick, I don't want to do business with him anyway.
Sure, exactly. So what So what makes the difference between the yes and the No? Is that the product? Is that the person? Is it just how you feel about the person at the time?
Look, I think when you're stuck in an elevator when it's already awkward, because nobody just hops on? Hey, how's it going? What's going on buddy? And, you know, gives you a slap on the butt like you're in baseball practice or something. Al does. I mean, he probably does anything. But just so you know, he probably breaks down a lot more barriers than most because he does that. Right? Because he because he is approachable. I try to I try to do that as much as possible. When I get in. I try to talk to everybody whether I'm on a plane or elevator because you just never know who's who. But, but I also try not to sit there and you know, sell my business to every person on the street because probably 99% of those people I'm not going to do business with right so you know, just That's what I'm saying. Just be be concise. You know, when they You know, what do you do? I am a mechanical contractor. And if they're interested at that point, and they are a general contractor or an engineer that want to do business with you, the first thing out of their mouth is Oh, what kind of mechanical contracting? And I can go in as deep as I want, right? But if they're not interested conversations over and who cares? Don't worry. I've been in so many conferences where in the elevator, I looked over to the left and right, and I see lanyards hanging from guys as suits that are all in my business, right? How do I sell to those four people? How do I do that? You know what I've done a lot. Just you know, I don't know. It's maybe worked one out of 6000. But I've walked in there and just handed everybody a card and stuck it in their little lanyard and just got off and never said, never said a word. You know, and, but I didn't have a chance, right? I'm just trying to up the odds. I'm just trying to get my name out there. So don't put so much focus on it, you stumble.
And don't be afraid to try right. And then and then then turn around. I mean, nobody's gonna bitch slap yo The whole thing, right? I mean, all they can do is like you, like Quinn said, turn away and walk off. And they're sort of a dick, right, you know, like, no one you do, right? I mean, exactly. Nobody's gonna physically choke you out for trying to sell them something. They're just not gonna do it. Right, and they're gonna close the door, and they're gonna get off the elevator and they're gonna walk this way you're gonna walk that way. That's about as odd as it gets.
Yeah. My thing is, if you're at a conference in that scenario, and you're trying to sell the people in the elevator, yeah. I mean, it's a last ditch effort.
You got to figure out like, what the next logical step is and how much friction you're, you're creating for it, right? Because there's way less friction of like, Oh, hey, you know, what do you do? Well, I do this and this and this. Oh, I'd like to hear more about that company cup of coffee. Yeah, it's not it's not a whole lot of friction there. But if it's like, oh, hey, you do this, oh, you're probably one of my target clients. You probably need a CRM and a sales process and everything is like this. And, you know, I'm gonna hop on to like an hour and a half. webinar and I can show you what I do.
Nobody want How about we just go to the bar?
Hey, you have the same odds of doing that speech as I do stick in business cards of people.
That's about the same rate of return, I would say. Yeah. All right. Do we have anything else on Facebook and comments?
Hayden says I intentionally start convos on elevators, because I'm highly amused when people are. Blows my mind everyone acts so weird.
Yeah, I agree with that man. Speaking my language. Yeah,
Well, he also said relationships have to start somewhere. Why not make a bold first impression? lol, you know?
Yeah,
yeah, I agree. I agree with all of that. Nobody had anything. Yeah, nothing ventured, nothing gained.
Yeah, nobody looks up to anybody who didn't like take action. Right, which is something that I've been thinking about internally about for myself because I hold myself back from taking action because I want it to be perfect before I show it to anybody. Right. And the thing is, is you know, to this point, right, like, I'm okay experimenting on a sales call and butchering it and then telling everybody about it, which is kind of what we talked about on one of these fairly recently. But like, it's weird because when I take it outside of a sales idea, because I'm not okay with experimenting outside of selling it, I get caught in these like analysis by paralysis loops, right? Whereas in selling I'm okay jacking up a conversation and you know, trying to learn from or something like that. So I'm trying to get more of that into like, the other aspects of my life because, you know, I feel that I'm probably holding myself back because it's got to be perfect. So
Yeah, who cares? The only thing perfect is this.
That hat is legit. Can you show that to me? So that way I can wear it next week and we'll just rotate it around.
Sir, no, sir. I don't need your big melon head stretching it out.
It's all hair, it squishes down.
It's on Hold on, man. I'm all about my brothers and sisters. But hats are different and it's a one and done right there. Right Clint?
That's right. Don't touch my hat. Don't
Don't, yeah, leave as it is. I've got to jump. Are we about to wind down here?
Yeah. I think that that's a pretty good pretty good ending spot. Al, do you have anything, any nuggets or anything for I's for people in health care?
No, just be yourself. You got nothing to lose the environment is right because people, the sky's falling. figure out a way to get your product out there in front of people knock on some doors, make some phone calls, develop some relationships. So yes, it's all a guy.
Awesome, Nannette, you have anything, for S's or healthcare? Anything else?
Well, I just want to suggest that everyone see further than their present circumstances.
Oh, that's appropriately deep and profound. Good for you. Awesome. Clint.
I've talked enough.
You you have more than made up for your for your solemn attitude last week. So let's say you just want to go play golf. So awesome. For me, I mean, just just look at the stuff that you're holding in your head and figure out if it's actually serving you or it's holding you back. Like, I mean, you shouldn't hold anything so sacred that you can't at least like kind of hold it and look at it and figure out, do I need to? Would it change of mind benefit me here? Right? I think we get too rigid and structured, the older we get, and I think it does more harm than good, especially as a C who tends to overthink everything so you know, awesome. So if you've been watching this on Facebook Live Thank you very much. There was a lot of hellos and you know, salutations and stuff like that in the thread, please bring your questions bring other people who have questions about sales or communication because this goes further than just, you know, trying to get deals done. Like this is how you communicate with the people in your life inside of your business and everything else like this. So if you know somebody else in selling, please share this with them. If you want to take the assessment, email us DISC@salesthrowdown.com, we'll get you hooked up and we will see Everybody next week. Thanks. So Melissa, who's off here who's handling some of the moderation and making sure that we get your questions, and we'll see everybody next week.
Thank you. Bye Cheers.