The Sales Podcast With Wes Schaeffer, The Sales Whisperer®

Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... In the same way we get a lot of power from splitting tiny atoms in the form of nuclear energy, you can unleash great power in your life with tiny changes Your habits shape your identity The four steps to building better habits Make it obvious Make it attractive Make it easy Make it satisfying ...the aggregation of marginal gains." ~Dave Brailsford, Performance Director of the British Cycling team Massive success does not always require massive action Over time, a tiny improvement can make a huge difference Habit improvements compound like money compounds with interest Be patient Be disciplined Don't slide back into your old routines and habits On a flight from L.A. to NYC, if the plane is 3.5 degrees off course, it will miss NYC by 225 miles and land in D.C. Success is the product of daily habits Be more concerned with your trajectory than your results Your outcomes are lagging indicators of your efforts, your habits You get what you repeat Good habits make time your ally Positive and negative compounding habits Productivity vs. stress Knowledge vs. negative thinking Relationships vs. rage Breakthrough moments come after long, focused periods of invisible work Bamboo Cancer Business wins The Plateau of Latent Potential Change can take years...before it happens all at once Mastery requires patience People call you an overnight success The Valley of Disappointment The results of our efforts are often delayed All big things come from small beginnings Breaking a bad habit is like uprooting a powerful oak tree Building a good habit is like nurturing a delicate rose one day at a time Forget about goals, focus on systems Goals define the results you want, systems are the steps you take to get those results The only way to win is to get better every day Bill Walsh, Super Bowl-winning coach of the 49s said, "The score takes care of itself." Goals are good for setting direction, systems are best for making progress Winners and losers have the same goals Goal setting suffers from survivorship bias Achieving a goal is only a momentary change You must address the cause, not just the symptom You need better systems With the proper input, the output will take care of itself Goals restrict your happiness Goals create an "either-or" conflict A systems-first mentality is the antidote Goals are at odds with long-term progress It's a yo-yo effect We want to do more than win the game. Systems help us to continue playing the game. You do not rise to the level of your goals. You fall to the level of your systems Focus on 1% improvement Make small, easy-to-implement changes Why is it so easy to repeat bad habits and so hard to form good ones? We try to change the wrong thing We try to change in the wrong way Three layers of behavior change Outcome (Get) Processes (Do) Identity (Believe) Most of the time we work from the outside in We need to work from the inside out, i.e., from the identity to the process to the outcome Shift the focus from what you want to achieve to who you want to become "Want a cigarette?" "No, I'm trying to quit." "Want a cigarette?" "No, I'm not a smoker." Behavior that is incongruent with the self will not last The ultimate form of intrinsic motivation is when a habit becomes part of your identity Take pride in yourself and you'll be motivated to maintain the habits True behavior change is identity change Improvements are only temporary until they become part of who you are Become a reader Become a runner Become a musician Get out of your cognitive slumber "I'm terrible with directions." "I'm not a morning person." "I'm horrible at remembering names." You create your own reality of negativity Identity conflict is your main barrier to positive change You are self-sabotaging because of your negative identity Progress requires unlearning So how do you form your identity? Your beliefs are learned and then conditioned through experience In other words, your habits embody your identity The word identity is derived from the Latin words essential, which means being, and identidem, which means repeatedly So your identity is literally your "repeated beingness." The more evidence you have for a belief, i.e., "I'm terrible with names," the more strongly you will believe it. The process of building habits is the process of becoming yourself Fortunately, meaningful change does not require radical change If a change is meaningful, it is big! To change who you are, change what you do. Trust yourself. Learn to trust yourself by doing small habits repeatedly that bring about the small results you're seeking You don't have to be perfect. You don't need a unanimous vote to become a new you. Just give yourself new evidence of your new self to create your new identity Who do you want to be? What do you want to stand for? What are you principles and value? Who do you wish to become? Maybe you have some big goals. Write those down then work backward to figure out what you need to do to get there. "I want to write a book (outcome-based). Who is the type of person who writes books? Someone who is consistent, disciplined, and reliable. Okay. I am a consistent, reliable, disciplined person (identity-based)." This is a feedback loop. It's a two-way street Focus on becoming the right type of person you need to be and the outcome will take care of itself Know who you want to be. Habits help you become that someone. Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Order the book by James Clear, "Atomic Habits: Tiny Changes, Remarkable Results. An Easy & Proven Way to Build Good Habits & Break Bad Ones' by James Clear

Professional Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... The Spirit of Selling: Using Universal Laws For Sales Success The boomerang law Money is earned, it's not made You earn commissions from services rendered Get in the good spirit of selling What you put out into the world comes back to you   Related episodes and posts Be a Go-Giver with Bob Burg I Have 7 Children By Choice His mentor was great. He was a football player and they spoke about the competition like they were the nemesis. They were competing and comparing, thus they were dealing from the realm of you have to go out there and "eat their lunch." That was a stressful process Reframe the internal perception that "I am going to win because I am adding value." Great salespeople show great empathy Walk a mile in the shoes of your prospects Assess if what you have will assist with their transformation Know what you are selling Understand and believe in what you're selling Know the value that you bring Get the prospect to move from logic to feelings so they will open up and move them from focusing on 'what is' to 'what could be.'" Everyone has the money, but do they have the desire to sacrifice their money and time to buy what you're selling People come from logic and keep you at arm's length until they trust you and let you into their heart A lot of prospects think they can't get what they want We are too negative with ourselves School beats our creativity and imagination out of us Get your prospects to imagine their potential No desire, no sale." Accomplish, fix, or avoid things How big is their desire (pain)? Is the problem bigger than they thought they had? What are their motivations? Are they in pain? Universal laws hit at the heart. They are not logical, but they apply in any and all environments." Less stress is better Your boss is your personal trainer Do you judge money or expect it? "Money is the root of all evil." "Most people with lots of money are devious." Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Visit "The Spirit of Selling: Using Universal Laws For Sales Success"

Entrepreneurial Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... Founder of Verse.io Got into real estate after trying to become a movie producer His uncle was in real estate 2008 real estate crash crashed his dreams Got into a boutique real estate brokerage firm in San Diego and fell in love with the industry Always had an entrepreneurial spirit Had a team of agents Tried to feed his agents leads Learned how bad his agents were at following up with leads All agents were terrible at following up with leads   Related episodes and posts Chris Orlob is using AI to qualify your leads Use Qurious AI for your team to grow sales He and his brother started "My Agent Finder" Raised some money Grew to a nationwide market in 2015 Agents loved his leads He was great at qualifying and disqualifying leads, but they were a small portion of the leads their clients were getting Time kills deals." Clients started asking him to qualify their leads  Expanded into more industries Humans are humans Follow up is key This is an internet leads problem He used to meet leads by having them walk into his office! "Location! Location! Location!" He would shake their hands, look them in the eyes, and confirm they were good leads. Chris Orlob created Gong.io and AI to help you grow your sales. Leads now come in day and night, with all levels of interest, with fake info Time kills deals Use humans + AI to supercharge your lead flow 72% of homebuyers will work with the first agent they meet." Buyers aren't typically looking for an agent. They are less loyal. 40% of his leads were for homeowners looking to list their homes. There are 10-20x the number of real estate leads, but the same number of homes are being sold You must filter out your leads and disqualify them quickly The majority of leads are disqualified." With the right mix of humans plus AI you can get really good at lead qualification and lead disqualification Don't replace humans, make your salespeople more efficient You need to make 6-8 touches to follow up with a lead Convert inbound leads to qualified opportunities Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Visit Verse to book a demo on how to convert more leads faster

Communication Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... Native New Yorker Learned patience and how to work with a culture that is not motivated by money in Costa Rica How to motivate people Grew a call center to 600 employees Looked at quality of life Gave unlimited vacation time Helped him relax and calm down, which was healthier He had to be within two bus stops for his workers, so location was key Take the 1,000-call AI challenge to make more sales with outbound calling." People today are looking at quality of life as well now in the post-COVID world People understand their worth now He is paying his people better Create a better culture to offset lower salary if you can't match your competitors Chris Orlob discusses using AI to close more sales on The Sales Podcast #233 Working in the B2C world to return calls to leads and transfer to a sales rep Calls are so rare post-COVID, so making calls can be more effective today Multi-media, multi-step follow-up is key He's creating a contact-solution vs. a call-center-solution He has a conversational AI product Personalized greetings Tied to your CRM, i.e., tokenization Does a TO—turnover—quickly when the system doesn't know how to answer People want to be more direct and get to the point faster The AI has to listen We don't listen to learn, we listen to reply Listen to understand Your AI can keep you Conversational Consistent Compliant Cost-effective You need 10-agents at least to benefit from his software It's an all-in solution He's the gas of the fire, not the spark It's a model that has to be trained by humans Get your sales cycle dialed in before you bring in AI Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Take the 1,000-call challenge at Vocodia 

Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... Made a pivot in life from being a CPA after six years Be curious about your prospects Be interested in helping your clients Ask great questions Lean in The client will get the feeling that you are sincere and will be easier to work with  The hard part is connecting for the first conversation Bring insights Be an expert Help the prospect first Outsmart and Outmaneuver Your Competition To Grow Sales Legal matter management systems Competitive space Be curious and committed to helping your clients to gain their trust and business." Well known in the space, especially New Zealand and Australia He's the first VP of Global Sales He started with guerilla marketing at the beginning Created their own community, Inview, that they host with over 2,000 members Traditional sales methodologies are not working, i.e., cold calling, cold email, trying to get a blind meeting, or set up a demo Digital marketing is working for them Targeted posts and campaigns Targeted emails Provide tools and industry insight that addresses the key challenges of their prospects Make it easy to be contacted after you pique their interest Cast that wide net Lead scoring is key A sales professional knows it takes multiple touches to reach the best prospects He'll target all of the top people at his target accounts They do placement ads, associations, organic posts, etc. They test and measure They have fun at their trade shows (Legal Tech is now Legal Week) They wear T-shirts, give away cool things Optimistic vibe from attendees Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Visit his site at LawVu

Entrepreneurial Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... He used to focus on the money Now he focuses on how many people he can help Now he makes more money Self-employed since 1997 Was a media buyer back then  We present good information and let people make a decision." In 2005 he launched his first online business Came out the other end tired and woke up and just decided to sell his business His advisor told him to hold on for another six months because the market was turning around in his opinion He put together some SOPs and sold in 2010, took a year off, and joined the Quiet Light Brokerage then (a team of two) Last year they did $250 million in transactions Grown 55% a year on average the last four years They represent the sellers They don't "sell." Considers himself an educator When you're desperate you can't give it away He was a typical entrepreneur He ran his business and got sick of it and wanted to move onto the next venture, but he wasn't prepared for it Most entrepreneurs don't have accounting in place Most entrepreneurs don't have accrual accounting He didn't outsource his accounting Outsource your e-commerce accounting Set a goal to sell and reverse engineer your business You need to know your exit goal in dollars to know if it's a pipedream or a reality Buyers are looking for four things Risk Is it a single-channel vs. multi-channel? Is it a young business? Buy a bigger business with more history Growth  Transferability Documentation Gets 300-400 leads a month The valuation call is free Buying with an SBA loan is fantastic But SBA loans are tough for online businesses since they might be too young or they co-mingled their finances You need to qualify as a business and a buyer for an SBA loan E-Commerce Lending in Florida is a great SBA broker/lender His median transaction size was $1.8 million and 90% were all-cash SBA deals are usually more stable and more likely to close, but they take longer It's emotional It's hard to find a buy-side broker He has to help the buyer as much as the seller He creates a detailed P&L He asks all of the tough questions upfront There are lots of reasons to sell a business Entrepreneurs get shiny-object syndrome and want to move on In the vast majority of businesses, the bulk of the money is made when the business is sold, i.e., when Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos "sold" by going public Most people don't take a lot of money out in the early years In 2021, about 30% of buyers were FBA Aggregators—Fulfilled By Amazon This is new in the last five years, Thrace.io is the biggest The other 70% are private equity firms (20%) and smaller entities buying for themselves (50%) "Acquisition Entrepreneurship" - "Buy Then Build" You should like what you're doing There will be tough periods so it helps to have a passion Training and Transition period Hold back 20% to keep the seller around 2013 he closed 23 transactions that were sold by what he'd call kids today We're in a different world now People know what an online business is today Transaction size has grown 10-fold 3.7 offers per listing But it's not as crazy as real estate Younger businesses are growing quickly This is not a passive investment You're buying a job Most transactions are done remotely, without meeting in person He does best when he focuses on one thing His one thing is M&A, so he doesn't mess with crypto See Cryptocurrency-Related Posts J. Hunter: Crypto Gaming Nik Bahtia: Layered Money author Erik Voorhees: Bitcoin Explained He has never had his entire team of 15 in one place He has never met his business partner's spouse in the decade they've been partners The book is a playbook for the seller If you're buying an online business, get his book and, "Buy Then Build: How Acquisition Entrepreneurs Outsmart the Startup Game" Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Get a free download of "The EXITPreneur's Playbook" Get his book, "The EXITPreneur's Playbook: How to Sell Your Online Business for Top Dollar by Reverse Engineering Your Pathway to Success"

Entrepreneurial Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... Play crypto games like Pegaxy The power of decentralization and "DeFi" or decentralized financing IDO (Initial DEX Offering) is similar to an IPO (Initial Public Offering) ICO (Initial Coin Offering) is similar to a TGE (Token Generation Event) Nik Bhatia discusses, “Layered Money: From Gold and Dollars To Bitcoin and Central Bank Digital Currencies” Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Check out the Crypto Gaming Team Get his book, "Zero to Hero Crypto Guide: The Only Resource You'll Need To Understand: Cryptocurrency, Decentralized Finance, Crypto Gaming & The Metaverse"

Entrepreneurial Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... How do you define a win? "I made a sale!" "I closed this guy!" Top salespeople define winning as "I made a difference for the customer." Spend more time in diagnosis to become great Acute listening Ask better questions Stop winging it Lather, rinse, repeat  Rory Vaden Turned Failure Into Sales Success Retired about 18 months ago from the business he founded Can we replicate sales systems? Interviewed 30 sales experts in 20 different industries Real estate, RV sales, insurance sales It's only creative if it sells." People reject the idea of sales because they have been offended or experienced the stereotypical salesperson He's a college flunk-out You need to get comfortable in sales and marketing as an entrepreneur Focus on the long-term potential of your clients to earn referrals and repeat business Know the lifetime value of a customer $5 is the average sale of a Taco Bell customer, but they'll spend $11,000 over their lifetime Most of the people interviewed said this was not their default approach Guys are usually more aggressive and wanting to "win" the sale so they have to grow out of that a bit to be more of a servant Never stop learning Stew Hansen was a top Dodge dealer in the country and they had dinner and he had just turned down a buyout offer and he was the first one in the morning session taking notes Being successful only means you were right once I'd rather wear out than rust out." Hearse driver in New Orleans and said, "Work is like my vitamin." "Halftime" by Bob Bufford, move from success to significance Master negotiation. Your job is to determine who has the power, then act like you have none. Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Get his book, "Servant Selling Book"

Sales Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... Work effectively, remotely How to organize, build culture, communicate Those with remote staff are handling the Coronavirus better than many "traditional" companies You don't have to see your people to know they are working "How do I delegate work?" Have high expectations Hold yourself accountable to constantly improve." She tells her team to shut down and take time off If you hire adults you trust with a great skillset who are motivated, you get results Work is still measured and output is calculated Burnout is real when you work from home Tricia is an extroverted people-person, High D personality She had her doubts about working from home You do have to retrain your brain Create your in-home schedule Create culture and even fun despite being remote They have a Monday morning team Zoom call You need a new skillset to lead people remotely You need more patience You don't need everything now Get a good webcam so you can see one another See them frequently and schedule it You need to meet them on video calls at least weekly Turn your notifications off Decide how to spend your time so you're not at the mercy of the world They meet in person quarterly Be thorough in your metrics Track your KPIs Be an open and transparent leader Links Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Visit Belay Solutions Get "The BELAY Guide to Working From Home

Entrepreneurial Tips you'll learn today on The Sales Podcast... Musicians can be "artsy fartsy" but he became a player with an entrepreneurial mindset Wanted to travel the world after his parents split up He'd love to travel with others and tour but he needed a band He was a drummer at the time but knew he needed to write some songs so he borrowed a guitar, taught himself, and got after it When he was 8 he wanted to be an author His bands did well quickly because he approached it as a business His CD was on the desk of Gene Simmons and he was looking for Canadian bands since his wife is Canadian (Shannon Tweed) He needed a creative outlet but he also needed to pay the rent He stopped everything to take care of his dad who had stage four cancer Not performing currently Data over beta (intuition)." A lot of artists feel guilty charging for their work People feel unworthy of money They allow limiting beliefs to set in You need to approach this with a "whole brain," i.e., creative and logical Why do celebrities do drugs and salespeople need hugs?   Artists will self-sabotage to do what they want instead of what their fans want In 2021, with five mouths to feed, he has felt pressure and stress from having to provide for them He has to go create the cash and he loves the challenge The story is the challenge He was writing his book with a thumb on his iPhone while holding a sleeping, puking, farting baby Be resilient and disciplined to impact others This is what drives him No bad things can happen anymore in my life. You must hone your skills It takes practice and dedication When you fold, it doesn't mean you're weak, it might just mean you haven't honed your skill or found your groove or your recipe or your mentor He's a recovering perfectionist Quick and dirty, all the way Make offers every single day Build up your list Build up your asset Promote someone else's if you don't have your own Give them an irresistible offer Peter Cetera and Cher Protect the core product/offering while also testing new ideas They must all feed into/complement one another Innovation is different than inventing Keep fun in it People want results, not another course You have to piss people off Lukewarm is bad for business From six strings to six figures Sales Growth Tools Mentioned In The Sales Podcast Get his book, "Hobby Boss: Turn Your Passion Into Profits"