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Posted: 09-17-2024 09:50 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

Investing in yourself isn't always easy. It is a matter of finding the time to make these investments in ourselves and to say, "okay, if I can't go to a cabin for a week, what can I do? When can I do this?"David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarlane and I will be discussing investing in yourself. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey David. It's so good to be here. I feel like lately we've been going after things that I really struggle with. We talked about controlling your internal monologue. Now we're talking about investing in [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'s really easy for me to invest in other people. That is very easy. But taking time to invest in myself... when I need something, I will go and find it and I'll learn how to do it. But being proactive about it. I'm reactive, just about in every way.David: Interesting. So when you think in terms of investing in yourself, you mean investing what? Time, money?Jay: All of it. you know, investing in myself when it comes to just taking time to learn new things, or I think investing in yourself can be just reading on a regular basis, or instead of watching social media, be listening to productive podcasts, or, taking a walk, those kind of things.We talked in the last podcast, controlling your internal monologue. Those are all things that require proactivity and honestly, I don't know if it's pride or stubbornness or whatever else. I'm like, oh, I'm good. You know, I'm good.David: That's interesting because we are actually on completely opposite ends of the spectrum on this one normally we're agreeing with each other not that we're disagreeing here, but I am at totally the other end of the spectrum.I'm constantly reading stuff. I'm constantly investing in programs and audios and videos and courses. I can't tell you, and I'd be embarrassed if I could tell you, how much I spend on that type of thing. Just because, I don't know if that is like a FOMO element of mine, where I'm afraid I'm going to miss something, but I'm conscious of it to the point where I recognize that you don't want to invest in everything, right?There's looking at investments that are designed to help you with right where you are now. If you need help getting over a particular challenge, that's where I find the investments most worthwhile.And then there are investments that sort of just in case learning. I'm learning this skill just in case. I'm going to learn how to do whatever, something related to social media that may or may not help. Or that sounds like the catchy thing of the day.Because when you're online, you will hear all kinds of people talking about all kinds of different things that are the solution to your problem.And one person is going to tell you that it's Instagram. And another person is going to tell you that it's Facebook ads. And somebody else is going to tell you that it's organic. And somebody else is going to tell you that it's something completely different than those things.Everybody's got a solution. And it reminds me of the old adage that when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail, right?So depending on who you're listening to, who you're paying attention to, you may end up investing in things that are not actually designed to get you from where you are now to where you want to be.Jay: Yeah. And I guess I have to clarify a little bit of what I've said. If it's something I need or want, I'm a dog with a bone. For me it's the difference of, do I learn how to do exactly what I want, or do I go to college and learn all of these broad subject matters, and then focus.I think both are important, and I'm never the broad subject matter guy, right? I mean, Over the course of my lifetime, I've learned how to make video games and released over 100 apps. I got into talk radio. I started several businesses. I have training courses. So, I certainly invest in myself, but unlike you, you're kind of like,

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Posted: 09-24-2024 11:54 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

David: When we talk about learning from failure, it doesn't just have to be our failures. We can learn from the failures of others.Jay: Oh yeah.David: We can learn from the failures of our friends, our family, our parents, our children. We can learn from any type of failure that we meet along the way. And when we do that, when we learn from other people's failures, we are saving ourselves a lot more aggravation.David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing learning from failure. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, David. Once again, it's a pleasure to be here. This one, again, another important topic. I think we have a tendency, when we have failure, to not want to try that again, as opposed to saying I don't know who said it, but fail forward. Right?So like it or not, we're a result of our failures, and we're probably going to fail more than we win. So defining what we do in failure, I think, is very important.David: Yeah, I think this particular topic for myself, I know, has been absolutely critical in every aspect of my development from the time I was a child.When I was in grade school and I wasn't always the most motivated student because I wasn't interested in some of the topics, I would not do well in certain areas. And that wasn't great. I mean, what I should have learned from that is do a better job of it, anyway,I didn't learn that at the time. And maybe that's why I'm an entrepreneur today, because I think a lot of entrepreneurs start out the same [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'s like you're on a path. There are specific things that just really interest you that you can focus on diligently. And there are other things that you can't.But also just an example, I know throughout my own life, you're going to be able to learn something from everyone you meet, whether it's positive or negative. So you might as well take advantage of that.And if you recognize that you can pick up on these things fairly early on in most relationships and decide to learn from them, everything gets a whole lot easier.Jay: Yeah, yeah, I totally agree with you. Once again, I think all the podcasts we've been doing recently self awareness. So important. Personal inventories, so [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] you even recognize the failure? Are you deliberate about what your response is going to be? And if so, I think you can turn it around and make it a positive. If not, I think it's just by nature going to become a negative.David: Yeah, and whenever we're going through something in business that we would categorize as a failure, and that varies widely in business, as you know, to a complete business failure, I mean, that's something you'll learn from for a really long time, when that [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] can be small things, it can be large things, but if we look at each of those things as an experience, there is very likely a lot that we can learn from that.What was it that caused this problem to begin with? I know in business for myself, most likely cause of issues and ultimate failure has always been, In some way related to communication.We weren't communicating properly with the other people, or they weren't communicating properly with us, or they weren't communicating honestly with us, or however it worked out.But a lot of it, for me, boils down to communication failures. And when you're aware of the areas where these failures likely happen, you can then pay closer attention going forward so that you don't repeat those types of things.Jay: Yeah, I grew up kind of in the retail industry and, when a failure happens, you have managers who want to just find the closest person and, yell at them and blame them.But then you have others and I've learned that usually it's not like you said, a person problem. It's a systems [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] is it your communication that's bad? What is it? And if you can fix it, is it your training? You didn't train, you know, whatever it is,

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Posted: 09-10-2024 09:09 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

Your internal monologue is critical. The worst thing we can do is delegating our internal monologue to someone else. Let alone someone we might not know, like, or trust.David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing your internal monologue. What's going on in there, Jay?Jay: Hey, David. I'm not sure what's rattling around up here, but I think this is an important topic. I think that often we are a result of what we allow to rattle around in our brains.And if we're not aware of it, if we're not conscious of it, then that can kind of define who we are and what we do each day.David: Yeah, it really does. And I've read a lot about this topic over the years. I've listened to a lot of podcasts on the topic. Of course, we all live this on a day to day basis. I remember reading in one of Michael Singer's books, he wrote a book called The Untethered Soul and he was talking about your internal roommate and how basically you've got all these thoughts going on in your head and half the time you don't know where they're coming from and what they're saying to you.And a lot of times we tend to interpret what's going on in our heads as us. We think that's us dictating that stuff. And he says, no, it's basically, our brain generating thoughts, but it's not really. necessarily [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] when something goes through our minds and we're like, what on earth made me think that? It's just your brain. Don't take it personally.Jay: Yeah, it is random, right? I mean, your mind's gonna just be all over the place. And until you kind of do an inventory of what you're thinking, And I don't know that we're necessarily talking about affirmations.I think that some people are like, look in the mirror and say these things to yourself.I don't know if we need to go that far, but certainly be aware of what you're thinking and take control of it. Because you are what you think.David: Yeah, and taking control of it starts with just being aware of it. Recognizing the different things that go flashing through your brain on any given day and how that then impacts our actions.Because in business, if we're not aware of that, if we just sort of go along, thinking we're on autopilot and just doing things as they come up and not paying attention to what's going on in there, we can find ourselves either distracted, or maybe doing the wrong things, or taking the wrong actions, or responding inappropriately.Lots of different things can go wrong if we're not aware of what's going on in our own brains.Jay: Yeah, for me it's a matter of demotivating myself. My brain is very good at identifying the reasons not to do something. I don't know why that is, But I think that I'm not alone, right? So, I have something that I want to do today or that I've scheduled today, and my mind will just tick off the reasons why I can't do it, why I shouldn't do it, why I should be doing something else, why I should be doom scrolling on TikTok instead.And I don't know why that is, but I feel like my brain always defaults to the here's why you shouldn't do it mode.David: Yeah, and it's good you're recognizing that. I remember I was listening to a podcast, the Life Coach School podcast with Brooke Castillo, and she was talking about the fact that our brain generates sentence [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] it might just be a few words that go by in your brain and you internalize it. It might be that you're looking at a project and you know that you need to be working on it. And you might get a sentence fragment like, "I don't feel like it," or "I don't feel like doing that."And if you have the kind of job where you can determine what you do and what you don't do, that can significantly impact your actions.But when you recognize these little sentence fragments going through your brain and you identify it, you can then choose how to sort of [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] if you catch yourself saying,

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Posted: 09-03-2024 08:35 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

For me, in identifying and attracting ideal clients, I need people who have the motivation, who have the desire, who have the discipline, and just the willingness to move forward. People who are decisive enough to be able to say, yes, I want to do this. Let's move forward on it. Because the people who just take forever to make up their minds and who don't respond to calls and all that type of thing? Been there, done that, no longer my ideal situation, or even close.David: Hi and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be dealing with the topic of attracting ideal clients. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey David, thank you so much. Another great discussion here. If we could all only deal with ideal clients. I think that would be ideal. See what I did there?David: I think so too.I love the idea of ideal clients. I love the concept of it. And in nearly everything that I do with our clients, I try to keep that the focus. It's not about bringing anyone in who can fog a mirror. It's not about bringing anyone in with a pulse. It's about saying, okay, how do I put together a situation, an environment in which all the very best prospects for my products and services know who I am and know what I do so that they can make a thumbs up or thumbs down decision about whether or not they want to work with me.And along the way, can I identify whether this person is my ideal client or something very close to it?Jay: Yeah. And part of that process is learning to exclude, right? Not include, but learning to exclude. I think sometimes we, especially when we're first starting out, we think I want to cast the widest net possible.And you know, I've learned just the opposite. I want to be as finite as I can be in who I'm trying to attract.David: Exactly, because it determines everything. It determines what you're going to say to people, how aggressively you're going to pursue them, how hard you're going to work for them, when and if they decide to do business with you and you decide to do business with them.I think sometimes, in these podcasts, we say things like this, and it probably alienates a segment of the market who feels like, "Oh, no, you have to really do more things for customers, and the customer's always right," and all that type of thing. And I'm not saying that that type of thinking is wrong. I'm just saying that that type of thinking creates a different result.And if your goal is to attract clients, any clients, then yeah, that can work. But if your goal is to attract ideal clients, the right clients, people who fit with the way that you do business, people who are going to respect you, respect your time, be willing to honor their investments, be willing to reply back to you when you need a response, then.The rules become different.Jay: Yeah. I've stepped away a long time ago from the customer is always right. I think that in certain industries, like maybe retail, that's more applicable. But so often, I'm like, I can't help you or , this has come to a point where neither of us are being satisfied, so we need to kind of cut [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] you talked about in the last podcast, being direct and learning how to identify when you should be direct, you're going to help them and you're going to help yourself.David: Absolutely. And if you want to do this, if you want to attract the type of clients that resonate best with you and that you resonate with and that are going to result in long term great experiences, the first thing we have to do in that situation is to clearly identify or define what an ideal client means to us.And I know for me, their ability and willingness to communicate is really high. And that's one of the things that we also talked about in a recent podcast.Jay: Yeah, absolutely. And I think that this is one of those things that warrants more of your time than so many other things that you think may be important.

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Posted: 08-27-2024 08:00 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

When we think about prospects who can't or won't say no, and we think about people who tend not to respond to us, prospects who don't reply back after they've gotten all the information, it's basically two pieces of the same puzzle.*When we run into these situations, our goal needs to be driving them to the no, if we can't drive them to the yes.*Because the maybes, as we know, the maybes will kill us all the time.David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing prospects who can't or won't say no. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, David. Great to be with you again. You know, there's so much to cover about how to deal with prospects. You really have to be thinking in depth about, who are these clients who can't or won't say no?Do you even recognize that? Because that's going to affect how you spend your time. Will you be working with them? Are they worth the time? Things like that.David: Yeah. And it ties back exactly to our last podcast where we were talking about prospects who don't respond to you.We're actually talking about clients who don't respond to you. And then we got carried away with clients. We said, okay, we'll talk about prospects in the next episode. And this really ties together nicely because in many cases, the people who can't or won't say no to us are the very same people who end up going radio silent and just ghosting us.When we're trying to get a sale closed.Jay: Yeah, and I think it's, again, we need to track and keep records. We need to be able to know, like, I have a system where I get a reminder. Hey you know, it's my CRM. The last time I spoke with a potential client, I made a note. Remind me about this client in five days, if you're running through a lot of potential prospects, you're not going to remember your last [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'re not going to remember, are they one of these clients that we're talking about? So tracking and, searching for this particular concept, are they saying no? Can they say no? A very important part of the process.David: Yeah, and that's where I think the notes that we keep for ourselves inside our CRMs or wherever we document that stuff are so important, because if we're just saying follow up, follow up, follow up in our notes, that tells us [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] a lot of times it's really good in our next set of notes to say, spoke with Joe yesterday, he indicated he'd have a decision by such and such a date, so that when you contact him on that day, you say, hey, listen, when we last spoke, you said you have a decision today at 1230. What are you thinking? Right.And you can move forward from there. But when we talk about people who can't or won't say no, I think this is where I've had several epiphanies along the way, because I think in sales, our desire is always to get them to say yes. But, in reality, sometimes we are better off getting them to say no. Because these non decisions are just killers.And sometimes people, they just can't bring themselves to say they don't want to do it. Whether it's fear of missing out, or they don't want to hurt our feelings. I don't know what it is, but I know that whenever I run into it, I find it extremely frustrating, because I'm a pretty direct communicator.If you and I are having a conversation, I will tell you exactly what I think. I mean, I won't be rude about it. I won't be obnoxious, in most cases, right? But I'll be very direct because I feel like I owe that to every person I talk to.If we're talking about working together, I want to make sure that people are extremely clear on what we'll be able to do and what we won't be able to do. And we can't do anything until we get to that agreement.I mean, I say this all the time, whenever two parties to an agreement want to put something together, they'll figure out a way to do it. If one of them doesn't, they won't. And very often the one who doesn't is the prospect.

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Posted: 08-13-2024 12:17 PM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

Knowing vs. Doing in sales is all about implementation. Implementation connects the knowledge you have to the results that you're going to get. And without that key element being implemented again and again and again, you're never going to get to the results, the sales, the possibility that you have in your entire career.David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing knowing versus doing in sales. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, David. I love this topic because I think so many of us are just doing what we think we should do, but we're like, squeaky wheel gets the grease. And so, are we really focusing and fine tuning and honing our sales.David: Right. And doing what we know.Jay: Yeah.David: Because a lot of us can get trapped in input, rather than output. And I know I am guilty of this myself because I am a chronic learner. I am always reading books and studying stuff, watching videos, learning from courses, I spend a whole lot of money educating myself every year.What's the newest, the latest, the greatest, the things that I should be paying attention to? And sometimes when we get too focused on input, we don't engage in the output necessary to get the results we're looking for.Jay: Yeah, I'm exactly the same. Like I have all this technology. I'm always trying to hone my systems, but like we hear garbage in, garbage out, right?I spend so much time on that, maybe I should be spending time on actually closing sales, meeting with clients, you know, those types of things.David: Yeah, and keeping track of what we're doing, keeping track of our output, I think is really important, and a lot of us lose sight of this. I've actually created tools in my training programs that allow people to start to capture that.Because when you boil it down, the things that we need to be doing on an ongoing basis involve bringing new prospects through the door, getting them qualified in or out as quickly as possible. Engaging in presentations with the people who are worthy of presentations, making offers, closing sales, all those things are key.And a lot of that is just about engaging in conversations with people. So simply by tracking what we're actually doing on a day to day or week to week basis, we can have a crystal clear idea of where things are going wrong in our business.But if we just sort of think in the back of our mind, "Oh, well, yeah, I know that, or I'm doing all that," we can really be misleading ourselves more often than we think.Jay: Yeah, absolutely. And when you talk about tracking, I'm looking for the perfect software to track or things like that. And often a notebook, you know, start simple and work your way up. A spreadsheet, something and just reviewing your daily activities can be a very powerful thing.David: Yeah, whatever you'll actually use is your best contact management system, whether that's a full blown CRM software system, or whether you're just good at being able to keep track of your appointments and notes on a calendar or in some sort of notebook. As long as you have it all in one place and you know what's next, that's huge.Knowing what's next for each prospect and client. When do I have to reach out to them and what am I going to be reaching out to them about?If I know that somebody has an event coming up in November and I need to be in touch with them by early October, I want to make sure that I've got a note for early October that says, be in touch with this client, early October, about their event mid [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] that when I reach out to them, I'm not just calling and saying, "I'm just calling to check in" or "how's everything going?"No, I'm calling, "Hey, listen, I wanted to give you a call. We were talking about this event you have coming up in mid November, wanted to see where we are with that," so that we're able to continue the conversation where the last one left off,

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Posted: 08-20-2024 08:52 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

When dealing with unresponsive clients and prospects, we have to make sure that we're doing everything on our end to be as responsive as possible. If somebody takes a week to get back to me, that doesn't mean I'm going to take a week to get back to them. Because if I start to fall into the trap that they've laid out, then that's not good for anybody.David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing unresponsive clients and prospects. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, David. Once again, great topic here. I think all of us are guilty -- anyone who's involved in sales -- of thinking, this client is going to turn into something, but really, if we looked at it, should we be spending time on somebody else instead of trying to push people through who are not ready or not able to do so.David: Yeah. And I think, as you said, everyone in sales deals with this, and that's when you're dealing with prospects, right? That's when you're dealing with people who have not yet spent money with you. This is even harder for some people when you're dealing with clients, people who have spent money with you and who are not getting back to you with the information that you need in order to do the job that they paid you to do.Jay: Yeah, I actually have a client right now that is driving me crazy, because we're in the tax business and they were like "we need to get this done because we have an extension." And so at some moments they're like pressing me like this is so important. And then they'll ghost me for like three or four [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] right now I'm in the ghost period. I've emailed them, I've called them and I'm like, where did they go? And I just know like tomorrow they're going to be, "Hey, we need to get this done." It's driving me crazy, David.David: Yeah. And again, you are not alone. I think everyone in business deals with this, and every time it happens, we're like, why is this happening? I don't get it.And that's why I think it's important for us to take the time and sort of examine this and try to determine, okay, what are the reasons behind it?If it's a client, why are they not getting back to me with the information? So in a situation that you just described, maybe they don't have access to it as quickly as they thought.Obviously, they're just probably distracted with other things. They're working on other projects. They know it needs to be done, but they're not able to do it as quickly as they'd like.Every excuse in the book, some of them valid, some of them not. But when we are tasked with getting things done on somebody else's behalf, and then they refuse to live up to their side of the bargain. That's when we start to run into trouble.Jay: Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the things that I'm guilty of as we talk about this, is feeling like if I put any pressure on the client, it's going to like affect our relationship or something like [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] I treat people with kid gloves. And I really kind of find out, no, if I'm, I don't know if stern is the right word, but at least,David: Maybe firm?Jay: Yeah, firm maybe is a better term.David:* Yeah, because I think there is a difference between stern and firm. Firm is basically like...Jay: They sound the same.David: Yeah, exactly. Listen, I'm trying to help you here and I need this in order to move forward.And in most businesses, when you're interacting with someone, particularly in a service business, it comes up a lot. So the rapport obviously is key. We have to be able to have the rapport with people to be able to say, "listen, this is what I need. Otherwise I can't move forward on it," and have them be able to come back and say, "yes, listen, I understand. I'll get this taken care of for you."But it doesn't always flow like that. And that's why I think if we start to look at what are the reasons for it, we may be able to have better ammunition in terms of dealing with ...

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Posted: 08-06-2024 08:21 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

A lot of people just think broadly in terms of expanding their market, without asking themselves a really important question, which is why? Why do you need to expand your market? Am I not doing things well enough in my existing market that I haven't been able to mine that as effectively as I could?David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing Expanding Your Market. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, thank you, David. Once again, I'm excited for this conversation. I know we always kind of learn from each other. We're in a process in our business where we're trying to expand from the inside, from our current customer [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] right now we have a great Google Ads program, but we don't have an organic program, right? So that's one area that we're looking at right now. How do we get those organic leads? So we're right in this process right now.David: That's really interesting because there are so many different ways we can talk about expanding.I mean, the first thing you mentioned, just expanding inside your own customer or prospect base, right? You could just look at your Excel spreadsheet of all these people say, how can I expand within the people on this sheet, right? Or you could be talking, like you mentioned about an ad [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] can we expand this ad campaign to reach more of the high quality prospects that I need to reach in order to have those conversations, in order to do business together. So yeah, lots of different ways to do it. I think the appeal of a topic like expanding your market is that a lot of people tend to want to do it.I want to have more customers. I want to have more clients. Not quite sure where that's going to come from. That's sort of the generic thought, I think, for a lot of people. I want more customers. How am I going to do that?And a lot of it boils down to this. minute stuff that we're talking about, identifying who these people are, how we're going to reach out to them, and how we're going to get them on board with us.Jay: Yeah. And I think that's something that a lot of people fall prey to, and I catch myself sometimes as well, is thinking that movement is doing something, right? I'm busy. I'm writing a check. We're doing something and we're just moving. But ultimately, are you getting results and are you monitoring those results and fine tuning them?If not, you're kind of wasting your time.David: Yeah. Confusing movement with progress and they're two different things. You don't even realize you're doing it, but you're like, Oh, I should really do this, I should really do that.And we've also talked about the fact, in previous podcasts, that many business owners suffer from entrepreneurial ADD. Where you're working on one thing and then the whole squirrel, squirrel, squirrel! and we're doing that. And now we're off on something else.I think a lot of us have to reel ourselves back in when it comes to that, because there are so many different ways to expand your [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] many different ways to get in front of different groups of people, and so many different things we can say to those people. And there are too many variables. And I think when you're looking to expand your market, you can't be changing all of the [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] can't say, okay, now I'm going to go after a totally different group of people with a totally different message and promote a totally different product or aspect of my product, right?Or a different approach to describing my product, because you will have absolutely no idea at that point of what's working and what's not. I mean, in some cases we can do some minor tweaking of maybe one of those variables.If we've got a sales presentation that has worked historically for us, for a long time, then it makes perfect sense to test out that presentation in front of a different group of people who have never heard it.

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Posted: 07-23-2024 08:04 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

I mean, you have a podcast called Building Trust in Sales, you say, "yeah, be trustworthy." That's pretty obvious. But it's also necessary. It's necessary to be that, and to be able to convey that, and just to be authentic with it.David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing building trust in sales. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, David, it's such a pleasure to be with you. Sales is a huge part of our business model, trusting that system. And, a lot of times it's like crossing our fingers that it will work.I think a lot of people would like to have a little bit more surety than that.David: Yeah. And trust is absolutely critical to the whole experience. If they don't trust you, there's no way they're going to buy from you. Now, there are some people who are untrustworthy and people should not buy from them, right?So if you're untrustworthy, this is not a podcast about how to appear trustworthy. I'm assuming that everybody who's paying attention to this is coming from a place of honesty and fact of being about who we are. Because trust is going to be built on that.The trust is going to be built on the conversations that we're having, how those conversations are taking place.Are we being candid? Do people feel like we are providing them with honest answers to questions? And sometimes in sales, that can be hard for people.There's a balance between wanting to put our best foot forward in sales, and being completely truthful and honest. And I feel that when we're weighing that balance, being completely truthful and honest is absolutely the way to go.Because if you start sugarcoating things, and if you start exaggerating your abilities, and that sort of thing, that's going to end up badly. And so I think in order to build trust, it has to start with ourselves. Are we trustworthy? And if we are, then how do we convey that to the people we're interacting with?Jay: Yeah, I totally agree. And one of the things that, you know, looking at it from a consumer that really bothers me, and we've talked about this in other podcasts, is where I'm on a website, which is often the storefront now, and they're offering me a free quote or something like that and I go through the whole process, and at the end it says enter your email and we'll send you the free quote, and I'm like You freaking lied to me, right?And the last thing I'm going to do after that is reach out to you or give you my email address.David: Yeah, I think if people are clear about what's going to happen up front, that's usually better. I've been in situations like that myself. Now, if I see that somebody's asking questions and I start going through that series of questions, I'm kind of expecting it at the end.But, There are a lot of sites like that, where it'll start out and it'll just ask for your zip code, right? If you're trying to find a professional in a particular area, you enter your zip code, and then they ask what you're looking for, and when you're looking for it, and how soon, and, all that sort of thing, and they do exactly the same [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] get there and then they want your information, and then some of these sites will pass it on to a hundred different people, and now instead of finding the one solution, now you've got a hundred people annoying [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] me, that's a business model problem. Which creates a trust problem because now, we don't trust anybody who's asking us for any [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] a lot of times the worst players in the market set the tone, set the stage for what we have to go through. And when you're having an honest conversation with someone, talking to them about working with them, they're viewing us through the lens of someone who is not trustworthy. And then we all have to jump through additional hoops just to get back to zero, essentially.Jay: I love this point, but I also think there's another way to look at it,

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Posted: 07-30-2024 08:09 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

When you're able to deliver what you say you're going to deliver, that will start to motivate buyers to want to do business with you. And particularly for repeat orders. Because the first time they're buying from you, they don't really know exactly what you can do. They're basing it on what you're telling them, the conversations you're having.But then after they have that first experience with you, and they know what you're like, and they've liked that experience, then they are going to be motivated to buy again. Because at that point, they know those things. And it's not just based on what you're saying.David: Hello and welcome back. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing what motivates buyers. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Yeah. Hey, it's good to be here, David. I kind of think, why would you need to know or have a discussion about what motivates buyers?I think it's because we assume everybody's like us. And that assumption, can be completely wrongheaded, right?David: Yeah. I know Tony Robbins, in some of his material, talked about the fact that he's not motivational. His goal isn't to motivate people. And I thought that was a really interesting takeaway because you look at somebody like Tony Robbins and you're like, well, that's what he does.He's motivational. He motivates people. But his goal is to educate people and to encourage people and nurture them and provide services that are going to help them in their lives. Like the rest of us, most of us in business, that's what we're supposed to do. We're supposed to provide products and services that help our [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] when we talk about motivating a customer, there are a couple of different aspects to it, because one aspect of it is motivating them to buy, right?Once they have all the information, sometimes it's difficult to get people off the fence. So there's that aspect of motivation, but even in the earlier stages, what will motivate a customer to want to even have a conversation with you?What will motivate a customer to even go to your website to investigate what you have to offer? So my feeling is that motivation, at lots of different levels, is pretty much critical in business and in sales.Jay: Yeah, I agree. And also a recognition that people are different, right? I remember walking into one of my program director's offices and he had a cardboard cutout and it was divided up and all the things that he felt the listeners wanted and I looked at it and this was not based on research.This was just, you know, what he felt. And I looked at it and I'm like, I don't think that's accurate at all. It's nice that you have this cardboard cutout, but I think you need to put a little bit more thought into it.David: Yeah, that's a great point. And a lot of us go into every situation with our own preconceived notions about situations.And so it's the same thing in sales. If we think that a customer is looking for X, Y, and Z, then that's all we're going to be talking about. But that's why I think the whole consultative aspect of selling is so important.Asking questions, diagnosing, finding out what the actual need is. And when it comes to motivation, you're going to be a lot more likely to motivate people based on what they want than what you think they want.Jay: Yeah, I think about people who create the product from the product side instead of from the customer side, right? And we just assume I like it, right? See it on Shark Tank all the time, right? These people are just so invested and they mortgage their homes and they do all these things and they don't have any sales, but they're just so convinced that this product is going to be something that everyone will love and they're shocked to find out that nobody does.David: Yeah. It's like the old adage, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. He was like, look at this. This is the greatest thing in the world. Like,

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Posted: 07-16-2024 08:00 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

What do we want the overall customer experience to be like? How do we want this person to be welcomed if they happen to walk into our business? Because we want that experience to be consistent.That's another important aspect of this. The businesses that really consider their customer experience want to make sure that it is absolutely consistent.David: Hello and welcome back in today's podcast. Co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing crafting the customer experience. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David. And I feel like here once again I'm going to learn something from our discussion because I don't think a lot about crafting the experience.*For me, it's like, Hey, we had a sales call. Now you're a client and we'll just fake it until we make it, I guess.David: Right. And that is certainly a way to do it. It's certainly valid. I believe it's probably what many businesses do, perhaps most. The thing that actually got me thinking about this was a trip that I took to Disney World a number of years ago.And I thought about how every aspect of the experience is crafted. It is thought out in advance. It's planned. It's choreographed. There is very little, ideally, that happens there by accident. And at the time, I thought, "wow, as a business, if we were able to craft a similar sort of experience for our customers, what would that look like?"I've done presentations on this topic over the years. It's something that a lot of businesses tend not to think about, but when I raise the issue with them, they seem to feel that it's pretty appealing and interesting.Jay: Yeah, absolutely. It's funny you bring up Disney World or amusement parks. I remember being a little kid and going to an amusement park, and I thought even the staff members were installed as part of the experience.I was amazed when I realized they actually went home after work. And then I ended up working at that very same amusement park on the backside, you know, where all the employees walk? It's so disappointing!David: It's got to be.Jay: Yeah, absolutely, and I think this is one of those topics where we're not talking about, boom, one day you've got the customer experience defined. I think this is a process.*It's going to be very different from when you first open your doors, so to speak, because it is something that you should always be fine tuning, correct?David: Yeah, and we can't even fine tune it if we're not thinking about it. If we basically show up for work every day and do what we do, then we're doing what we do. We're not considering what the customer experience is.If you just take the title of this podcast to heart and say, "okay, what if I did want to craft the customer experience? What would that look like?" What happens if somebody calls our business on the phone, what happens?Is it a person who answers? Is it an auto attendant? If so, what does that auto attendant say? Is it encouraging to help people get where they need to go? Is it discouraging? Is it likely to put them off? Something as simple as that, that's one aspect of the customer experience.This is what happens when someone calls us on the phone. This is what happens if someone visits our physical location. This is what happens when I meet someone on a Zoom call or in an in-person situation.Every single aspect of the experience, if it is considered, if it's even thought about, is likely to be a whole lot better than if we're just winging it.Jay: Yeah, such a great point. And I think one of the problems, David, is self-awareness. I think about this in sports. Like when all my daughters played sports and there were players and parents of players who didn't really understand their individual skill set and they thought they were much better than they were.Because of that, they didn't ever progress because they thought they had reached whatever marker that needed to be. They're kind of prideful about it.

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Posted: 07-02-2024 08:22 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

Everybody has to make those determinations about their business when making sales and building brands. How am I going to do it? Is it going to be about me? Is it going to be about the customer? And how do I convey that in terms of my company name, my logo, my brand, and any slogans or taglines that you use, in order to communicate all that.David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing making sales and building brands. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Thank you so much, David. And again, just a great topic. I don't know if everybody feels like they're a brand. Like, I'm a company, I offer a service, but am I a brand?When I think of brands, I think of like Kellogg's or Tesla or things like that. I don't know if I think about my own business that way.David: Yeah. And a lot of small businesses don't. But even though they don't, very often, if they don't know what to do from a marketing and sales standpoint, they will copy the big brands because that's what they're [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'re watching TV, you see a commercial for Kellogg's or you see a commercial for McDonald's or some retail brand and you say, "Oh, okay, that's what I need to do. I just need to get my name out there." Right? When I think of branding, particularly for small business, that's what I think of. Somebody who's like, "Oh, I just have to get my name out there."And when you've spent as much money on marketing as Kellogg's has, or as McDonald's has, or any of the big companies have, they already know what those companies are all about. They already know what they do. So they can just basically say, come in and buy from us. And they're like, okay, I already know what it's all about.For small businesses to do that, to just put out the name of their company and expect people to want to wander in, it just doesn't happen. And that's why I think this topic, you know, the idea of making sales and building brands, I could have said making sales versus building brands, because I think sometimes people view it as two different things, but ideally we have to do both.And even if it's not a matter of seeing yourself as a brand right now, once You're established enough in your market where people recognize who you are and what you do. That's sort of building a brand in their minds. So that when they hear the name of your business, they associate it with certain things, related to what you do and how you do it.When you think about Tesla or Elon Musk, you have a very good feel for sort of what he's all about and how he tends to approach things. So to me, that's an established brand. When small businesses want to establish a brand, they can spend a lot of money doing it, which is why they kind of have to be making sales along the way and focused on that first.Jay: Yeah, great point. You know, in those big companies, they have the big dollars to have focus groups and all of those things. Talking about the very beginning of your branding, again, I think we're coming up with another podcast topic here, though. People who just throw together their logos or their slogans, It drives me crazy because it's like the first impression when they meet you in public.David: Yeah, and again, with small businesses in particular, sometimes we can be too cute for our own good, too creative, quote unquote, for our own good. We think that something that appeals to us is going to appeal to everyone else.Personally, I think that the simpler we keep it, the more direct we keep it, the more sense it makes. Now Nike spent so much money establishing what that swoosh means that they can put a swoosh up on the screen and people go, Oh, maybe I'll go buy some shoes, right? We can't do that. And so. Unless you have that level of funding, unless you have access to that much money that you can teach people what your logo means, then you have to be a lot more clear and direct about your communication, your logos,

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Posted: 07-09-2024 07:21 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

Over the years, I have met some exceptional performers who still struggle to get enough [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'s not a function of who they are as people. It's also not a reflection of their work. It's not even a mindset issue. It's about the fact that being exceptionally good at what you do, and being able to get enough customers or clients are two completely different skill sets.I can't tell you how many business owners I've talked to over the years who are exceptional at what they do, but they can't get enough customers. I've met:    Chefs who make amazing food, but can't get enough people into their restaurants to keep the lights on.    Real estate agents who know their markets in and out, they're great with people, can handle all the details, but can't get enough clients to pay their bills.    Artists who have amazing skills, but who never mastered the art of customer acquisition, so their actual art remains largely unseen.    Printers who have taken out loans to invest enormous amounts of money in equipment that just sits there, because they don't know how to get enough of the customers and clients they need to feed the machines.Recently, I heard from a life coach, whose story really touched me, because she knows she could really help people, but she's struggling to get the clients she [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'s what she said,"I am a good coach but there are no clients for me. I feel profoundly sad for not being financially independent. I am a good person, I do personal growth, I am a really good coach and yet I can not pay the bills and have a lovely and happy life. Why does it have to be so hard?"In each of these situations, the most important thing to recognize is that there is a huge difference between being exceptionally good at the technical aspects of a job -- like cooking, selling homes, creating art, printing stationary or coaching people who need help -- and being able to get enough of the customers or clients who need those products and services.They are two completely different skill sets.There are many exceptional writers in the world, but as Robert Kiyosaki, the author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad once said, "On the top of my books it's written *Best-Selling Author* & not *Best-Writing Author*".Two different [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] today I'd like to share with you, what I shared with this coach. And it applies to any business that is great at what they do, but that struggles to get enough of the customers or clients it needs to thrive.If you're great at what you do, then you're halfway there, but this is not a mindset issue. It is a focus [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] if you want to make the money you need to make, then 100% of your focus and learning now need to be on 3 things. It’s what I call the MVPs of Marketing & Salesâ,,¢.If you’ve heard this from me before, but you’re not yet earning what you think you’re worth, then please, listen [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] sports, MVP stands for Most Valuable Player. In Marketing and Sales, MVP stands for Message, Vehicles and People.Specifically:    What is the marketing (M)essage you need to convey about your product or service?    Which combination of marketing (V)ehicles will you use to communicate your message?    And Who are the (P)eople or prospects you need to reach?This begins with having a crystal-clear idea of exactly WHO you want to benefit from what you do. Those are your People.When you know who your people are, then you have to consider exactly what you'll need to SAY to engage those people. To invite them in. To take advantage of everything you have to offer. That's your Message.Finally, you need to determine HOW you'll reach them, in other words, what combination of marketing Vehicles will you use to reach them? This means things like social media posts and comments, direct messaging, phone calls, email, direct mail, networking, door knocking, broadcast ads, billboards, there are thousands of options when it comes to marketing vehicles.

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Posted: 06-25-2024 07:47 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

When we think in terms of creating persuasive communication, it's really important to consider the flow. What is the flow of the communication? In what order are you asking these questions and having these conversations? Are you leading with the pitch? Because if you're leading with the sales pitch, then that's not going to work well at all. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing creating persuasive communication. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Thanks, David. You mean all communication is not good communication? I just thought sending out emails and random texts, that's the way to go.David: Yeah, random communication is often different than persuasive communication.I guess sometimes it can line up, but the stars have to all be in alignment for that to happen.Jay: Yeah, I see this. I get emails saying, Hey, just following up. And I'm like, Oh, you know, I don't know that that's really how you want to approach a potential customer. There's no energy, there's no urgency, there's nothing persuasive about [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] kind of feels meh. And, I recognize that now cause I'm in that business, right?David: Exactly. And I think if we start from the premise that different prospects have different needs, that's a really good way to start. Because I think a lot of salespeople tend to think in terms of persuasive communication, meaning saying things that will get them to buy from you.And that's only the case if and when we've determined that we have a good fit with the person that we're talking to, right? Persuasive communication doesn't just mean getting them to buy. It's about seeing if they buy into what it is that we do, seeing if we've got enough of a fit to have it make sense.What I think in terms of persuasive communication, it's the kind of thing that's going to get people engaged. It's going to pull them into the conversation rather than repel them from the conversation. So while the term persuasive sort of implies that we're trying to persuade them to do something, that is true, but it's not just about [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'s not just about trying to get someone to do something. It's about seeing if what we're talking about to begin with even makes sense.Jay: Yeah, and I think we talked about that a lot in our last episode, getting to know that customer so that you can build loyalty. How do you expect to send out persuasive communication if you haven't taken the time to get to know them?And for example, I'm in the tax business, which is hard for me to say, I can't believe that happened. But my communication is very different right now in the summer than it is in March, right? In March, there's a built in urgency, and so it's a lot easier to communicate to them what they need. This time of year, very different.David: Right, and the things that you need to persuade them of now are different than the things you have to persuade them of in January, February, March, right? Because what you need to persuade them of now is perhaps thinking in advance about what they're going to need to do rather than trying to cram it in at the last [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] that's going to change the languaging. If you think in terms of who do you need to appeal to, that's going to be happening throughout the year. What type of prospect am I looking to bring in the door, and how can I help that person to make a decision based on what we're doing as opposed to what someone else is doing?You know, what are they likely to want? And we can't always know that. We can assume, okay, well, I think they're going to want to pay less taxes. That's probably a reasonable assumption. And for some people, for most of them, that's probably going to be the case, but there might be some sort of extenuating circumstance that plays into that as well.And if you're not touching on that, if you haven't taken the time to understand what it is they're actually looking for,

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Posted: 06-11-2024 08:29 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

With strategic networking, you can make some initial decisions about who you think you'd like to target. Then it's a matter of saying, "okay, where do these people congregate?" Identifying exactly where they are. Are they online? Are they offline? Most likely they're doing both. But if they are online, where's the best place to find them? And a lot of times, particularly with social media, we just end up interacting with whoever we happen to be connected with. But if that part of it isn't strategic, if we're not connected with the people that we could actually potentially do business with, then we're wasting our ammunition.David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the power of strategic networking. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David. I'm really glad we're talking about this because I think, you know, sometimes I think I'm great at networking, but there's not really any plan. There's not really any, like even down to storing information and how I'm going to follow up on it. I would not use the strategic word in what I'm doing.David: Okay. And I think you're not alone. I know that I have struggled with exactly the same thing. And even when we were thinking in terms of topics for today's podcast, The Power of Strategic Networking. What does it even mean? Right? What does strategic networking even mean? And the way that I'm looking at it is basically that strategic networking means, not just anyone, right?You're not just looking for anyone who can fog a mirror. You're looking for the people who are going to be best suited to you and what you have to offer.I think a lot of us tend to stumble into networking situations, whether it's with a chamber of commerce or BNI group or online in different situations, we're online, we're interacting with people.We consider it networking. But is it networking or is it just schmoozing? Is it just interacting with other people, or is it designed to get a positive result from a business standpoint? So I think if we start with that, the idea of strategic networking being that we're doing it for a specific result, which is to meet and interact with the type of people that we can ultimately do business with, then it becomes a whole different thing than just talking to people.Jay: Yeah. Again, this is so important because we're always talking about maximizing your time, focusing on the things that only you should be doing. And if you're just out there collecting business cards and now you have to follow up on each one of those. individuals, you're going to be spinning your wheels a lot and that's going to cost you money and time in the short term and long term.David: Yeah, especially if you're not quite sure what to do with those business cards. In other words, if you're just thinking, okay, I'm going to meet people, collect business cards, gather information, and then follow up with them. It's too generic. I mean, what does that even mean in terms of follow up? What does that even mean?And so for our clients, one of the things that we stress a lot is the idea of getting them qualified in or out as quickly as possible.I know so many salespeople who have engaged in networking that was you meet someone, you exchange business cards, and then you keep contacting them. You try to schedule an appointment to meet with them, to try to find out what they need and all that sort of thing without ever bothering to try to find out whether or not they're even a decent prospect for the products and services you offer.And it can be a huge waste of time if, in fact, they are not.Jay: Yeah, absolutely. We talk about time wasting and I think that even applies to thinking about it before you go into a situation where you want to employ marketing. Like in my particular use case, just walking into a room full of business owners doesn't cut it because I have a very niche product.

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Posted: 06-18-2024 07:14 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

When I think in terms of turning leads into loyal customers, what is that first contact? And I know we've talked about that in a number of podcasts. And then from there, what is the desired path that we want them to take with us, that we want to take with them, right? Without some sort of basic path to get from here to there, the likelihood of making that happen is pretty much slim to none.David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing turning leads into loyal customers. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, thank you, David. Such a great topic again. I love our conversations cause I learn so much and I feel like there's a tendency to say, okay, I got the lead. I closed them. Now I'm going to move on to the next lead.And I think we would save ourselves a lot of time and money, if we were able to turn that customer into a returning loyal customer.David: Yeah, absolutely. And you raised a great point because I was thinking in terms of just new leads that come in, turning them into loyal customers.But I think what you pointed out is probably even more important, that we already got someone and we've already turned them into a customer. And now how do we make that customer more loyal to us?I know in a lot of presentations that I've done over the years, I've talked about these sort of different layers of recognition in terms of what do people think about us? And I've often drawn it out like a target for archery practice. And outside the target is the area where it's total obscurity. They have absolutely no idea who we are or why they should do business with us. And at the center of the target, it's complete customer loyalty.And you don't get from, "I don't know who you are," to "I'm completely loyal to you" in one step. It's got to happen in a series of actions. So what you're talking about there, you make that first sale. That doesn't even happen very often in the first contact. A lot of times it requires intelligent repetition of contact to even get to that.We go from obscurity. I don't know who you are, to recognition, I recognize you, but I'm not sure if I love you yet, right? I don't know enough about you. To comfort, and then once we get to comfort, once they're comfortable enough with us to place that first time order, like what you were talking about, then they're going to see how we do.And if we did well, they might give us another chance and come back again. And if we do well on that second one, they might come back and give us a third chance. And then As long as that continues to play out, that's going to lead to that level of loyalty, but it sure isn't likely to happen in one conversation or one transaction.Jay: Yeah, absolutely. But I kind of like where you started off, too, before we dive into that a little bit more. And that is thinking about making the loyal customer out of the lead . Where do you start? Because a lot of people are like, I can't make them loyal until they've purchased a product. That's not true, is it?David: Well, I think if you recognize that when I attract a lead into my organization or when I'm even just trying to attract a lead into my organization, the goal is to turn that person into a loyal, longtime customer or [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] when you start with that perspective, you become a lot more discerning about even the people that you're approaching. You have more skin in the game, because it's not just about, "hey, can I make a sale to pay my bills for today?" It's about, "do I want this person as a loyal customer?"And this goes back to a lot of what we've talked about in previous episodes about qualification and that sort of thing.But if we start out with the idea that we want to turn our leads into loyal customers, I think it positions us better, because it makes it more relational and less transactional.Makes it more about creating the kind of relationship that will result in a loyal cus...

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Posted: 06-04-2024 08:00 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

There are a lot of people who aren't quite sure where they are with the whole business growth thing vs. just maintenance. Some people are content where they are. And if you're okay with just maintaining, then none of this applies to you. Right?You're not required to grow your business if that's not where you're going. But there are so many people that I talk to that really want to do it. They want it to grow. They want it to be more than it is.They want to be able to create better lives for themselves, for their employees, for their families, for everybody they impact. And they know they can't do it without growing. And when they use maintenance as an excuse, that's a tough one to overcome.David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing business growth versus just maintenance. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey David, once again, it is a pleasure to be here. And it's so funny, oftentimes we choose these topics and I'm like, "man, I am right in the middle of that!" So, again, I'm excited to discuss this with you.David: Yeah, I think the reason that I wanted to talk about it, this came to mind fairly recently because I've had so many conversations with people, business owners primarily, small business owners for the most part, some sales managers, who say, "listen, I really need to grow this business. I need to grow my sales. I need to grow my profits. I need to make that happen now. This is a priority for me."And then we talk about some of the incentives and we talk about some of the things that they're going to need to do. we talk about some of the steps they'll need to follow and nearly all of it is designed to save them time, save them money, generate more revenue, just make everything a whole lot easier and a whole lot better.And one of the things that I find extremely frustrating is when I'm talking to someone like that, who then says, well, I really don't feel like I have time to implement this because I have so much that I'm dealing with on a daily basis, maintaining the business, essentially.I'm busy doing this and I'm busy doing that. And I'm doing all these different things that are allowing me to stay just underwater, a little bit, where my nose is just barely peeking up and down above the water, but I don't have time to do the things that are going to get me out of the water and make sure that things are still functioning the way that they need to [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] in most cases, I believe that growth is the solution to maintenance, but it doesn't work the other way around.Jay: Yeah. What is it? Winning gets rid of all the stink or, you know, whatever. Winning is the best deodorant. That's what it is. Winning is the best deodorant.David: That's true.Jay: Yeah, you know, it's funny, this last year, I'm kind of reliving everything that you're talking about, because of our seasonality, we have times where we have to be all growth, all the time, we have this influx of customers. We can't be worried about maintenance at that moment, but then all of a sudden, it practically dies instantly, so now we're asking the question, "How do we maintain our current base?"Because we want them to be back and so what maintenance things do we need to do? But not only that, what about the people who we talk to who might be interested in the future? Can we reach out to them on a regular basis?So now that we've died down, we're talking about drip programs, we're talking about newsletters to our existing [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] we're kind of in this process between maintaining, we still want to grow during this time so we can pay our bills. But we're really kind of in this mode where we're trying to do both, but a certain part of the year we can't do one. We just don't have time.David: Right. Yeah, it's hard to grow when the business is just coming in. And in seasonal businesses like yours, that's particularly true.

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Posted: 05-28-2024 08:00 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

There are so many situations where inadequate product knowledge, damaged reputation, and inefficient or poorly executed sales processes come from having untrained salespeople.David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the incredible cost of untrained salespeople. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, it's such a pleasure to be here, David. Sometimes I think I'm that guy. I'm the untrained salesperson. So, this will be very informative to me, I hope.David: Okay. Well, you know, there's a difference between being untrained and untrainable. So, as long as you're trainable, that's a really big plus.Jay: OK, I feel a little better.David: No, I'm sure you're trainable, but untrained salespeople can really cause a great deal of harm to themselves, to their companies, to their prospects, to the businesses they're associated [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] is really kind of epidemic and It's largely unnecessary. A lot of it comes from, particularly in small businesses an employers desire to delegate it quickly, to get it off their [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ], "okay, I'm not doing this as well as I'd like. I better hire somebody else to do it." And they're hoping that that person is going to know how to do it.And if you don't have protocols in place, like we talked about in our previous podcast, then of course that just makes it that much more difficult. But the biggest problems that people are likely to run into, the obvious ones are lost sales opportunities, right?Cause I'm talking to somebody who could potentially buy, but I'm saying all the wrong things and I'm not positioning the company well, and I'm not finding the right needs that the people are actually looking for, and I'm saying the wrong things, there's no way that sales is going to [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'s a bad reflection on the salesperson and the company, and the prospect will walk away thinking that that company is not good at what they do because the salesperson did not do a good enough job of explaining what they [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ], it creates a complete disconnect between what the business might be capable of and what the world is likely to think they're capable of. So that's a killer.Poor communication is another one that when you have a salesperson who is not trained on what they need to ask, what they need to find out from the prospect, how they need to address those questions and issues, that defines poor communication, because they're just going to say whatever comes to their mind or they're going to say, "well, I have to find out, let you know."Now there are situations in pretty much any sales scenario where that might be the case, where you don't have every single bit of information that they might need to know. So there will be situations where you might have to find something out.But if it's happening more than a couple of times at any particular sales presentation, you might want to look at the process that you're using to make that happen.The training that you have or have not received. Actually, this really does dovetail pretty well in our previous conversation about protocols. So if you're seeing this podcast and you didn't see that one, go back and watch that one as well because these things really tie together.Jay: Yeah, a couple of things come to mind.And the first is, how do you know you have an untrained salesperson? If they are not where you're at, if they're doing outside sales and they're sitting in somebody else's office, how do you know what they're saying and how they're interacting?That can be very difficult. The second thing is if they're on the phone making those calls, how do you assess their situation there?Like I said earlier, we have a system that records all phone calls coming in and out. So that's one way that we have to listen back to calls and give feedback. So maybe you have to go on those sales calls and listen. Maybe you have to have a hidden microphone,

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Posted: 05-21-2024 08:00 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

A lot of the people that I work with now are exceptional at what they do, but they may struggle to get other people in their organization to be able to do it, because they haven't codified the success protocols that would allow them to say, "okay, this is how we perform this task. This is how we do this. This is how we do that." And when they start doing that, they're just amazed at how far their people can come so quickly.David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing your protocols for success. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Hey, it's such a pleasure to be here with you again. This may be a situation where I want to sit back and listen to you a little bit because I know you have a lot of experience and coming up with these protocols and things like [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] I'm just going to say hit me and I'll see if I can learn something here.David: Okay. Well, when I talk about protocols for success, we talk a lot about systems and processes and the work that we do with our clients. And if you want to be able to create consistent results in your business, you need to have these things in place.Protocols is another term for it. But the reason I like the word protocols is that it sort of establishes the fact that these things aren't optional. This is what we're doing. This is how we're doing it in this organization. And when you approach it like that, everything gets a lot easier because you don't have to make a hundred different decisions [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'s like, I know what the process is. I simply need to follow it. If you're veering from it, you know it. If you're on it, you know it. And so does everybody else. People who don't like accountability will not like that. But people who do like accountability will know, Hey, listen, I followed this procedure to the letter and this didn't work.And then you can talk to the person that you're working with to have them explain, okay, well maybe this protocol needs to be changed or [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]'s almost like a baseline. Most people need to start with some sort of baseline protocol that they're going to say, okay, this is how we do this.This is how we perform this particular task. And then you have a number of people do it and they follow the protocol or they don't. If they follow it and they get a comparable or consistent result, great. That's a good protocol. If five different people try it and they get five different results and they all follow the protocol, you have a problem with your [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] need to clarify, you need to identify, okay, what are the problems with each of these steps? And I need to tweak that so that when I hand it to five different people, they can all get a similar result. That's the nutshell version.Jay: Hmm. You know, this is something that's so critical. I think a lot of managers miss this point.Managers are afraid to hold people to the protocol or hold them accountable, and they don't realize that this actually robs your staff from feelings of success. Because if you don't have a baseline, and the baseline is basically when they fall before it, it's not a matter of getting mad at them, it's a matter of saying, okay, what was wrong with the protocol first?And if the protocol is good, then we probably have a training issue, right? So that's underneath the expected line. But above the line means that they met the line or they did better. That's the only way you're going to feel success. If there is no line, I promise you, your employees will never feel like, man, we did it.Because you never put a baseline on it. So that's, to me, how you consistently make people happy. And that's why I like the word protocol over accountability, because accountability always sounds negative to people.David: Yeah. I mean, accountability is basically, did you follow the protocol or not? The protocol is the list of steps saying this is how we accomplish this task.

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Posted: 05-14-2024 08:00 AM -[You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ]

Indecision comes with a high price. I think most of us in business try to make the best decisions possible, but really it becomes a matter of saying, "okay, do I have all the information I need?" And if I do, then make the decision. Say yes, say no, but make the decision.David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I are back with a talk on the high price of indecision. Welcome back, Jay.Jay: Thank you so much. It's such a pleasure to be here. And I think this is something that we all suffer with, especially in a new business, just knowing what you should do.What are your priorities? How can you tell that? Paralysis by analysis is very common.David: Yeah, no question. And I think some people are more wired to be decisive while others are more wired to be indecisive. If you're decisive, dealing with indecisive people is extremely frustrating.And if you're indecisive, dealing with decisive people can feel a little intimidating. So it's a challenge.Jay: Yeah. And I think sometimes you need both. I mean, if you're sitting around waiting to make a decision. You could miss the perfect opportunity, right? But if you move too fast, you're probably not going to be prepared for that [You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login ] we got to find balance in the force here. How do we do that?David: Great question. Yeah. I think missed opportunities is definitely the first thing we tend to think of when it comes to indecision. But if we're trying to find balance in the force, then that would also mean talking about, well, should decisive people do anything differently?And my guess is that's kind of a quick one. My guess would be to say, all right, if you think you're too decisive, then maybe you need to take a step back, aand consider things a little more. But in business, wow, it's much more detrimental in most cases, in my opinion, to be indecisive. And there's a great quote from Tom Watson that says:"Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right. Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business."So there are lots of schools of thought on this. The bottom line for most of us is that you're better off making a decision, because if it's the wrong decision, you'll find out sooner, and then you can change it and make a better decision. If it's the right decision, then you're already past the point where you would have been if you were still putting it off.Jay: Yeah, I think part of this though is to be decisive, but to be informed in your decisiveness. If you don't have good tracking of what's going on, like, we were decisive before, and this is how we learned, and we tracked it, and so next time we can move faster because we have some knowledge, we have some key performance indicators, those things are going to help our decisions go faster, and we're going to be more confident in those decisions. Because for me, sometimes when I feel like we've acted too soon, I'm not at my best. I'm hesitant because I'm hoping it's going to work, but I'm not sure that there's anything backing it up.David: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think you also sort of raised an interesting point, which is the difference between informed decisions and uninformed decisions, right? I don't think decisiveness means just making up your mind without having all the facts.I'm saying basically, if you've got all the facts and you're failing to decide, that to me is indecisiveness. If you've got all the facts and then you ARE deciding, that to me is decisiveness.But I completely agree with you. If you don't have all the information then it's too soon to make a decision. But in sales situations, a lot of times salespeople struggle because the people they're talking with don't have...

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