What Makes A Great Salesperson? And What Makes a Good Salesperson? (How are they different?)

Rob  00:08

Welcome back, everybody to The Slow Pitch. And today I see Lane over there. How you doing today, Lane?

Lane  00:12

Fantastic. Rob, how are you?

Rob  00:14

I’m glad to hear that today we have a guest of once again when I really appreciate it. Alex, Alex Oliveira, how are you doing?

Alex  00:22

I’m doing fantastic as well, I’m gonna choose the same word.

Rob  00:25

All right, good. Glad everybody’s doing well. So today, we are going to try to differentiate between what it is to be a good salesperson, and an awesome salesperson. So being good is fine. But if you really want to be able to get some good sales are some tips out of this episode that I think will help. So let’s, let’s get started.

V/O  00:44

This is The Slow Pitch Podcast.

Rob  00:48

So Alex, before we get too far into this, tell us a little bit about kind of high level what you do during your day job. You know, obviously you don’t podcast all day long. So what do you do for your day job here?

Alex  01:00

Oh, yeah, I mean, time management is number one. So a lot of planning, you know, over the years, last decade or so, unlike my first 10 years, as an entrepreneur, business owner, I was just all over the place. You know, over the last decade, it’s been a lot of time planning, and strategizing. And depending on people, so that whole talent development over the years has been like key, because I can see when I have really great people in different areas of the business, things just run as you know, Rob, I mean, we, my wife, and I, we homeschool for kids, and we’d like to travel an RV and do the podcast, I like to do a lot of different hobbies that have nothing to do with making a dime, right? They’re just some are hobbies, some are giving back to the community. And so but but to do that, I have to have a business that runs well, and a sales team that is closing deals, and then we have to make sure that the product is delivering what is that product that I’ve been working on over the last 12 years really lead generation. That’s it, you know, we look for companies that have sales teams and need leads. And so we can talk about all that. But that’s what we do basically help companies generate more leads.

Rob  02:06

Yeah. So, you know, when we talked a while back, you know, we talked about a couple of different things. But what stuck out to me in our conversation was, what is it? What does it take to be a really good salesperson? And you know, you have salespeople that work for you? What are the things that you’re looking for in terms of traits when you’re trying to find somebody new, but also that they should have if they don’t have a what do you know? How do you how do you get there? So what are the sales traits that you see that are really important?

Alex  02:33

For me? Number one is communication. When I say communication, I mean everything verbal, written, all of that is so important. Because if you’re a poor communicator, you know, I mean, listen, we know I’ve met salespeople who have great numbers, and I would say they’re terrible communicator, because they talk over and above the customer. And that might work for some customers, but it’s not going to work for all the customers. So being a great communicator is very important. Knowing when to commit to a conversation with a client or your team is super important. So I will go with communication first.

Rob  03:06

Yeah. So and communication being that is it really just communicating about your product service, and really just being able to talk about your product and service really well? Or is it something else?

Alex  03:17

No, I mean, it goes beyond that really trying to understand the customer’s needs. Right. So that’s psyche. And so my salespeople, they have marketing chops, they have to understand what marketing does. They don’t overlook things like reviews. And I’ve met salespeople are like, well, I don’t do that. I don’t I don’t do social media, I do reviews, I don’t do it. Well, you don’t but the customers do. So why are you not there, you have to be a part of that process. And that is communication. You know, I’ve talked to salespeople who are like, look, I don’t do LinkedIn. And it’s like, well, our prospects our customers do. So if a customer is wanting to communicate with you on LinkedIn, that’s not my favorite play place to be either. But that’s where you gotta go, you have to understand that but yeah, communication goes above and beyond that. And then when I when I talked about marketing, is understanding all the that marketing is doing the communication they have with the customer above, like at the top of the funnel when they’re coming in, and painting that whole journey. So that conversation happens with everyone in the same room, including, and definitely not, not at all limited to but the customer care team. So customer experience, customer care, customer service, those three for me, those three people, and sometimes they’re just one person, depending on the company. It’s super important. And they are sort of three different strategies that touch the customer at different moments throughout that journey. But you have to communicate it.

Rob  04:37

Yeah, Elaine, you must have a question. You look like you’re you’re

Lane  04:40

I was just thinking through some real life examples. And you mentioned salespeople that over top clients, I hear it all the time and it drives me batty. I wouldn’t want to be talked over so it boggles my mind that someone thinks it’s effective.

Alex  04:53

Well, Lane, I can give you an example from yesterday and not even 24 hours ago. So you’re not supposed to solicit here and Our neighborhood as is the case for most great neighborhoods, but this guy who’s selling solar came up to the door, around six o’clock when almost middle of dinner, we’re busy knocks on the door, and he’s got the company shirt and goes right into the pitch pop up. And it’s like, dude, nice time out, you didn’t even just, you assume because I don’t have solar panels that I want your stupid solar, like, I don’t want, I don’t want your panels. And actually, even if I wanted panels, and like, for some crazy reason, if I had just been shopping, and in my like last moments of making that decision, you’re definitely not going to be that person. Because everything about his entire pitch for three minutes. And then I said, I just because he wouldn’t stop talking. And so three minutes trying to be nice, but three minutes into it. I’m giving him the motion, like time out, because I couldn’t say anything, didn’t ask for my name. Then ask if I was the homeowner didn’t I mean like, everything that was he just wanted to tell me the value proposition, which was, well, you’re going to save and you’re going to do this and FBl prices are going up. So you’re playing off of fear, which I don’t care because I don’t function that way. Men, everything that is wrong. And I said timeout. I don’t need anything that you’re above. So no, no, you’re not listening. First of all, this is not how I do business. So thank you, you have a good evening. And that’s it. Like

Lane  06:13

I had the same happened with with pest control a week or two ago and that the guy jumped into it. He immediately just wanted to know who I use for service. So he could badmouth them. It just wouldn’t take no, no for an answer. I just had to slam the door in his face. Go away. I’m done. So

Rob  06:25

the question I have is where did where do individuals like this? Where do they get the idea that this is a good idea? Like yeah, for my listen, I we can sit here and talk about that all day. But we’re, we’re who’s training these people? Or is this even training?

Alex  06:39

No, it is training. Yeah. And I remember going back to like, when I was in college, I worked as a stockbroker trainee, and then I got my series seven. And everything that I was taught was like crazy, I would never use those tactics today, I also worked for a filtration company, which you’re selling these like four or $5,000, home filtration systems. And this was like a two hour pitch, and it was exactly this way. And they wanted us to go out and door, you know, knock on door door, and we did that. But the way the sales managers taught us was, I mean, not only so outdated, but so about the company and what we could do for you, what we we meet, we’ll look at our product and in building rapport was, you know, hey, mirror their body, and you do that like the stupidest things that yes, you’re going to do. But you’re not asking the other questions that are pertinent to even build that sort of trust and relationship like a great salesperson does. But overall, I think nowadays, period, door to door just cannot work. We live in a crazy world, the fact that people are training people to go knock on people’s door and be like, Hey, I have some crap to sell you… Nuts!

Rob  06:50

Yeah. And door to door can work. I feel like in a B to B situation B to C, not exactly the best scenario, I think exactly what you described, b2c, it’s got to be you’ve got to market you got to do all the things, you got to get into their house that way, but to walk up to somebody’s house and start blabbing about why it doesn’t make sense to me, but But b2b If I’m going into a business, and I walk in, yeah, that’s the solicitation sign sometimes look says, you know, sales, sales, sales, people look at it, like this is a challenge. Like, can I get in, you know, that’s, that’s their goal. That’s their objective. But if I look at it, and I say, alright, I get into this business, and I want to start talking to somebody, it’s not about sales, my job when I walk in, is to talk to and find out some information and who the owner is. So what they’re like, and what would you do if you were me? And how do I talk to this person, because you know what, the person at the front desk while they’re not the not the one that’s going to make everything happen, they will get you in and steer you in the right direction, especially if they’re nice to if you’re nice to them, right. But if you’re not nice, and you try to just sell them and pitch them. Forget you’re never getting anywhere, right?

Alex  08:56

Absolutely. And it reminds me of what we used to do when I had a not a virtual office today, all our employees, everybody’s virtual, but we used to have an office in Deerfield and in Boca for like seven years, and people used to walk in, and I used to tell the person at the front. So you tell this person, they come back on Friday, because usually Fridays was a chill day, come back on Friday at lunchtime. And then what we’re gonna do is have that person pitch us, we’re gonna give them five minutes, whatever, they’re selling us printers, whatever, you know, they’re gonna have five minutes on the hot seat, stand up right there with like, 10 of us right here. And you go ahead and pitch us and we’re gonna just throw questions at you. And let’s see if you’re ready for this. And it was, it was a lot of fun. It was a lot of fun like that. But but you know, and that’s fine. I agree with you, but to to just walk in and assume that you can cannibalize someone’s time. Even in b2b. You’re right, Rob, if you’re gonna do it, the approach has to be like, have that conversation, find out who the decision makers are, what they’re using whatnot, but then again, it could blow up in your face. I know people who would just say like, now I will never do business with that company. Again, just to fact that they try to eliminate the marketing process, right? The branding process like, what why should I spend money on marketing? And I am a member of associations, and I have a sales team out there. I’m doing everything that a good company does. And I have to spend money on that. Yeah, not you. You just get to walk in. No, no, no, thank you.

Rob  10:20

Yeah. But you know what, most people don’t have that attitude. You’re you’re right in what you’re saying. But a lot of business owners don’t necessarily have that attitude of saying, you know, I’m only going to do it because somebody’s done the right the right things. So people actually have gotten jobs, because they’ve walked in, asked a couple of questions that, you know, there’s probably not even for you. But you know, I got to sto in, I’m gonna say hello, and see how things are going. And maybe maybe there maybe we have a conversation that we don’t and then that may lead into something. I’ve had that conversation, I’ve had that work for me. Does it work every time? Absolutely not. It’s just, it’s like, nobody wants to be interrupted. And usually the number one thing I always tried to start out with is, I know I’m interrupting you, and I’m so sorry. And sometimes I bring food with me, because I’ve never been turned away when I had food. I’ve never, I don’t know what it is. It’s amazing. So bringing food is one of my one of my suggestions would be, bring some snacks bring it, especially if it’s a client that you want to get, at some point, say, Listen, I brought some food. I just, I know I’m interrupting. And this is my way of saying I’m sorry for interrupting. Any chance I could spend five minutes just asking a couple of questions, because I want to find out if this is even makes sense to even have any more conversation? Because it probably doesn’t. And it’s when you start acting like it’s not they start to go? Well, I don’t know, maybe let’s talk about what give me I’ll give you five minutes, because five minutes is not too big of a deal sometimes, right? But…

Alex  11:37

It’s a shot in the dark. I mean, like if you think from a marketing strategy perspective, it is like that everything that you would never do in a marketing strategy. Why? In marketing, especially today, right, guys, we have all this data, all these data points. I actually read an article yesterday in a marketing website that is very trusted. And the company I think the name of the company is Informatica or something like that they did a study and found that like the top brands are pulling in get this over 1,000 different data sources, not not data points, not data points. They may have they may have each source may have 50, 100, 200, 1500 points of data on Rob’s life, everything that he’s ever bought and done in his life. No, no 1000 Plus data sources. Okay, what does that tell you? That tells you that you as a salesperson, you as a as a business owner should never send up. So if you’re going to send your people out and only in b2b, and I think we both we all agree that is b2b acceptable? Not b2c? Please, if you guys are listening to this, do not send your people who sell? Yeah, okay, so b2c b2b, let’s do it. But if you’re going to do that, tell these people to get online first and read the information. So they can at least eliminate the 10 doors that they should have never knocked on, and then at least be a little bit more targeted, because the information is there. Why is someone just getting dropped off into a business park and just going to every door every door and leaving a business card, that’s just crazy.

Rob  13:12

So I think your point is spot on in that the difference between good and a great salesperson, a good one would do that, they would show up at a business park and started going door to door, a great salesperson says here’s a list of businesses that are in that park before they even leave their office, they do the research, who should I be talking to who do I know that could do an introduction, and maybe set up four or five different appointments of people that they already know, would be open to having that conversation, and even maybe reaching out ahead of time, so it’s not quite as cold? Hey, I’m gonna be stopping by I know, I’m going to be a little bit of interruption. But would you mind, I’m just gonna be talking to somebody next door, because you have some sort of connection to somebody already there. But there’s nothing wrong with planning a little bit of head and getting the information that you need to head itself is that they’ve got 1000 different data sources. That’s incredible. But just as simple as LinkedIn, and who they know and who you know. And when you walk in and say, you know, I’m looking for John, is he here by chance I listened, it’s gonna be a total that he doesn’t even know who I am. So I’m just going to tell you that up front, I did bring brownies. So there’s that brownie, I don’t know. But you know what I mean? So so that kind of thing. And you might end up with somebody who says, Hey, let’s talk or let you I’ll give you a couple minutes. No worries that I think you’re dead on Well, that’s difference between a good and a great salesperson is one little element right? What other what other ways from a you know, I think when we you and I spoke before we talked about business development versus being just a salesperson, a salesperson is one thing, business development is slightly different. So can you help me understand what your logic was behind it?

Alex  14:44

Yeah, sure. I mean, I think you know, one of the positions that we’re seeing titles change and many companies at the at the top of their whether it’s the marketing, the VP of marketing or VP of sales, you’re getting these chief growth officers, the Chief Revenue Officer officers. And the reason you’re doing this is because they’re trying to prep the leaders. So and I’m specifically talking not not the not the whole sales team, but at least the sales leader, if it’s a sales manager or VP of sales, get them to think more about sales as business development, because that is the future, right? Everybody has everything at their like, right in their hands, like the information. So if someone comes to pitch you on something new takes you like five minutes to understand what they’re selling, like, do I even really need you to tell me this information, Mr. sales guy, even like a real realtor, I mean, we can make an argument that, you know, we don’t really need Realtors anymore. But that’s not gonna be very popular with all my realtor, friends and clients. But I see that there’s a need, because I buy and sell properties. I don’t want to spend time doing that. Okay, so there’s a need for them. But there are easier ways to do it. And I think that the business development person is that person between the management, management, marketing and sales, there’s, there’s somewhere in between there, but they’re always thinking long term. They’re not only thinking about long term play, and revenue, they understand business models. Now, this is to me has always been an annoyance about sales training, and salespeople in general, they failed to teach them the different business models, the different nuances in each industry, and how how people actually make money. So someone comes to sell you a b2b product, but actually doesn’t understand how you actually turn a profit. So you start selling you on the software, and you’re going, Okay, so I’m going to ask you some questions. You might not know anything about my my business. And you should write, because if you’re trying to sell me a solution for it, let’s say ERP, or CMS, or any of CRMs, any software you need to understand about my industry and not just like surface level, a little bit deeper. And then of course, go beyond that. Look at the competitive research. If you’re selling me something, especially in b2b, and I’m asking you a few questions that might lead me to believe that you don’t know anything about my top competitors, but you’re trying to sell me a solution. What, and I see this, the salespeople make these mistakes. But in business development, the really good business development people that I see there, they always have profitability at like right here. And they understand that it’s not just a transaction, it’s beyond that they try to understand customer service, the customer journey. So I do believe that that is the future, it’ll have to be that way you’re going to have to teach people to be more well rounded. And, and some of these old tactics are tired, and they’re not going to work anymore, you know?

Rob  17:41

Yeah, yeah. And I think the the comment about being proactive and learning the industry or knowing the industry, there are a lot of people that think they know enough to get by. But when you start drilling them with extra questions that you know, that they don’t know enough. So I think, I think the difference between good and great, there’s another one right there, which is, you know, the industry or you don’t know the industry and you you know where you don’t, where you’re where you’re lacking information, and you know where to go get the information, and then go do that so that you have what you need. Before you get into that inner conversation. I would also suggest that anybody who is out there and doing sales, and you’re about to embark on trying to get into an industry that you don’t know enough about, you should set your first meeting up with a person or a client or potential client who you don’t care if you get or not, they could be somewhere far away, make a phone call, set up the meeting, practice, ask them 100 questions about their industry as much as you can about what they’re doing. So that they understand you’re learning you’re learning what’s weird is you might end up getting the job. But more importantly, you’ll learn a lot of information. And after that meeting, when you go to your next meeting, you will be armed with enough information to start knowing the right questions to ask, are you even playing with us? Because I’ve heard this as a problem? Are you having a problem with this? Because I’ve heard this as a problem. And so you know, you can start to speak and ask questions intelligently. So it’s a weird, it’s a weird way of doing or getting there. Obviously, if you know somebody in the industry, and you want to just drill them and have an interview with them, not selling them just learning from them, that’s even better. But I’ve even had it where I’ve said, Okay, I need to do this, I need to sell this product or service. And because I don’t know this industry very well or how to do that. I just set up a meeting with somebody in another state in another area that I would never serve as anyway, and started asking them some questions. And I started to learn a lot a lot more than I thought it would. It was, it was a little bit weird, but it does happen. So are there any other nuances that pop out to you? So for example, I know you had a story about you went to

Alex  19:40

Vacation, vacation Yeah, vacation rental, timeshare type of situation.

Rob  19:46

Yeah, tell me a little bit about that experience. And obviously we don’t want to name names here, but let’s let’s talk about it and what did you experience it was really good and what was really bad. All right,

Alex  19:57

So I’m gonna refer to her as Jody because that was not the main person’s name. No that look, this is a huge company, you know, and they have a great business, their product is amazing. Top notch, okay, five star resort, so they understand hospitality. I don’t have to tell them how to do it. It’s great. Everything is great the product, there’s nothing wrong with the product. And nothing is actually wrong with the marketing the way they the outreach happen every step of the way. every touchpoint on the run up to the actual vacation was like, Okay, here’s your texts, here’s your this, your that Oh, wow, you’re like, This is amazing. They get it, you get there, you check in okay, they get it. Second day, you’re going to do a presentation. So for us, we’re looking for a resort that has a bunch of RV parks, that we can go stay at without guessing. Is this a good one? Or is this one and like deliverance? Like that would not be good? Yeah. Right. Because that that happens. Trust me. We’ve stayed at some places that you’re like, kids, you can’t get out. We’re gonna stay in here. I’m gonna stay with a shotgun and like, keep on the lookout. Okay, never stop here again. But, but no, I mean, so everything was great Rob and lane but where it started going south was the day of the presentation, they said it was gonna be a two hour presentation we had done I’m sure presentations before we get it. All right, you’re gonna try to sell me on something that I don’t want. And that’s okay. Because that’s their gig. I, by the way, does take a step back. I so appreciate the way they generate leads in that industry. Because it’s unconventional. And it works, right. They have partnerships with retailers and all sorts of like other companies, and they’re generating 1000s of leads 1000s of leads. And they’re feeding it to their salespeople who then work with marketing to like, say, just come and listen to us. And I think that’s amazing, because they are truly giving you one, two, three, thousand dollar four-day vacation for nothing, basically. So they’re taking a chance, right, but they’re getting you down. They’re hoping like now that you’re here, we’re gonna hook you which they don’t you could you could read all the research on timeshare, you know, at any given point, they’re closing 5, 10, 15%. So but it makes enough sense for them to give away the other 90% of the vacations right again. But where I started going wrong was the day of the presentation. We sat down, they’re doing their their spiel, and we’re listening. We’re asking some questions, but they wanted to talk first and give us the value why, why why, why why it was all about why and and here’s the mistake that they make. And I think a lot of salespeople do this actually, the guy last night made this mistake with solar. What gives you the impression when you’re selling me b2b or b2c Without the prospect telling you that their top thing that they’re worried about is return on investment? Yeah. Because Because that’s that that was like his pitch yesterday was all about the return. I don’t care about the return investment. I’m going to keep living here. So what you’re telling me makes no sense. And the same thing with the vacation rental, it was sort of half your base and half like okay, well, if you vacation, normal, you never get that money back. But if you vacation with us, you put all this money here, and then you get the money back, except that there’s that aha moment where you go really, what’s the what’s the sell rate, like right now, today? How many owners that started 10 years ago, 20 years ago? How many of them sold today, like I’m saying they called you today? And they said, hey, I want to sell my $40,000 timeshare. And it was crickets. Right? Good rebuttal for them? Well, because I already know it. It’s incredible.

Rob  20:31

You came prepared with that question?

Alex  22:59

Well, you’re stuck in a money pit now. Right? And then their best rebuttal was But Alex, don’t worry about that. You’re building a legacy. You’re gonna give it to your family. Again. What gave you the idea that I want to give my family a vacation? And if you say not for your family, they go, Well, you can gift it to a friend. Oh, yeah, cuz people just go around gifting each other vacations. I’ve never been gifted. No, Rob. I like you, Rob. But I’m never gonna give you and Jenn a vacation for free.

Rob  23:52

I’m sorry. Yeah, I’ve always expected Lane to just give me an but no, never

Lane  23:56

gift. I had the same expectation of Rob. I

Alex  24:00

See no vacation. So again, these are the things that they think that they can you know, in the short term fool people with and I just don’t I don’t see it. And I wasn’t the only guy you’re looking around and people. This is just so so outdated. But here’s the rub for me. We came with an RV. They said Okay, great. Here’s all the different places that you can use this RV in these different parks. But then they didn’t ask me the in depth questions that would actually tell me that you care. Like what’s the size of your RV? Who’s the main like, who made it? What’s the model? Do you have a slide out? Do you have a toy trailer? Because as I was talking to you, Rob that world it’s like boating and motorcycles like no, there’s a lot of nuances. It goes back to what I said about being business development, understanding the nuances and then asking and talking it through. And honestly if you don’t know enough about it, say wow, okay, well tell me about it. Like, is there bunk beds for the kids is there this is there that like why do you go to one park versus another? Do you guys look for lakes to canoe? You None of that, which gave me the impression that you don’t care.

Rob  25:04

Yep, that is number one. To me the one thing that differentiates a very good salesperson, and a and a just an average one, average one talks, talks, talks, but never asks any questions, never says, hey, you know, what do you do now with this? Or why do you do it that way or just under better understand any of those, none of that happens with those average or poor salespeople. And the ones that ask the questions are the ones that will always get the job or at least continue down the path to get closer to getting the job, if you will. Right. So to me, that’s, that’s the difference for a lot of salespeople who are good versus not so good, if you will.

Alex  25:42

Yeah. What do you guys find that I think it’s like typical, in any event, if you’re in a room where there’s no salespeople, there’s so there’s no sales, no business development, you’re just in this community event. And you’re networking. So they’re the, you know, the motive is I want to connect with people that I trust, okay. But even in those settings, where no one is trying to transact or rip some money off of each other’s pockets right there, even in those settings. You see, to your point, Rob, people who come to you Hi, my name is Alex. daht, daht, daht…Oh, yeah, by the way, I’ll see you later. Next.

Rob  26:19

Yep. Oh, never breathe, and just keep talking.

Alex  26:22

Wait, what? So okay, so you don’t care about me. And I mean, I usually look at my watch after about, like, 60 seconds, I’m out, I bought, you’re not asking me about me. Goodbye. Next. And that’s what I would say to my salespeople, it’s like, it’s not about you. It’s not about our company. It’s about solving their problem if we could solve their problem. And the way you do that, as a salesperson or business development is you get them talking not as a trick or an aha, you get them talking so that they can tell you more about their needs. And you get to know about them, right? Like even with a law firm law firm, I’ll tell you, we have law firm clients, and those are tough clients, you get into a room where there’s like, 10 partners and their CTO. And it’s, you know, it’s a it’s a tough room, because lawyers, they know how to compel you and Oh, yeah. Why don’t we just go in there? Well, yes, to your point, Rob, we bring food always bring, always. And usually you have the like, you know, two, three really skeptical guys, like I hate you, because I want to eat some of that. And we usually, like bring really good stuff, too. But it’s just, it’s just a way to say like, Look, man, this doesn’t have to be all stuffy. So let’s just have a conversation, we typically do a little bit different than other lead gen shops, instead of like trying to understand the competitive analysis and what we saw on their performance. We just tried to do like some mock sort of situations with their with their people and just say, like, look, let’s look at your clients right now. Like if we’re talking to a law firm, so paint a picture for us, like when they come on, and they’re on boarded every step of the way to an AI oh, by the time we’re done with that exercise, we start to go, what parts? Do you think that is really good or bad needs improvement? Well, they start to scratch your head and go, Oh, actually, we don’t really know. Okay, well, could we talk to some of these people? And I’ll often say, are their clients right now that we could call right now in real time and have a conversation? They’ll go what? Okay, yeah, no, okay. Put her on speaker, let’s have a conversation. And ask your customer, your patient if we’re doing healthcare. What like, what do they like? What did they not like? You’re gonna be surprised. Yes, you will. And right there on the spot. We’re showing them like this had nothing to do with our company, selling lead gen services. It just has to do with like, here’s how we can help you improve. And even if you choose to not do business with us, I didn’t sell you anything. I didn’t tell you anything. And it just leads to Hey, man, I get that you really care about helping us and you showed us today with food and and strategy?

Rob  28:52

Yes, of course. Yeah. What I love about that the whole, that whole thing is you hit on several different things that Lane and I’ve talked about, we’ve talked about networking, and how to do that the correct way and how to do that the wrong way. We’ve talked about how to ask the right questions. And we’ve talked about how to get a review and do a review so that you can get a renewal in your contract. And all that fits exactly into what that is. And so we’ll put some links in there. For those of you listening if you haven’t listened to those before, but it reinforces some of the stuff that we just talked about before. Alex says the same thing. That’s what’s amazing to me is when you know that there’s good people that understand how people buy you’ll hear the same message every time if you’re new in sales. Listen, listen, listen to all of what’s being said here because this is really good stuff. Lane, do you another question?

Lane  29:35

No question, but I kind of reinforce what we’ve spoke about is you know, similar to your vacation experience, I went through one of those to the the main sales guy I spoke with he started out asking he wanted to get to know us. He asked all sorts of personal questions. We probably spent spent an hour just chatting and then it was okay. Well let’s go take a look. And we knew going into it we weren’t going to buy but he He was so good that he almost had us doing well. Maybe we think about it. But at the end of the day when we said no, he got his boss who applied a little bit of pressure. And we said no. And then they, you know, he got the director, and that guy was a former Army drill sergeant. And he came in his purpose was to shame you into signing and…

Alex  30:19

He just screwed it up. Right?

Lane  30:21

He screwed it up. totally screwed it up.

Rob  30:23

We’re there for the taking. Yeah, yeah. Wow.

Lane  30:26

I mean, we, you know, certainly wouldn’t have bought just but they had the first guy had a so close to going, wow. Yeah, that’s sounds like a hell of a deal.

Rob  30:34

Yeah. Wow. That’s crazy. And that’s how subtle it is to, to me, sales is so subtle in that one wrong move, you’re done. Great example, I had somebody that was telling me one day they went into an office and they started talking to somebody, and they started moving stuff on that person’s desk. What they didn’t catch was that that person who they were speaking with was not only the personality that is like very organized and wants to stay organized, but also doesn’t like people touching them or their stuff. And so as soon as that happened, they didn’t realize it. I knew when just listening to them, tell me the story. I’m like, you just you messed it up right there, you didn’t mess it up. When you said anything else, that was the moment you left me or you totally missed it, it was so subtle, he didn’t even see it. And that’s the subtleness of sales, you have to watch everything that you do, to make sure that it matches mirrors and is within expectations of that person. And then Excel exceeds what they’re looking for in other areas, but it’s really about the listening side and making sure that you’re not doing the things that you shouldn’t be doing.

Alex  31:31

Which by the way, we know we’ve all taken sales training, it’s a word that rarely comes up as empathy. Yeah, yeah. It’s just, it’s like, this is like fufu emotional stuff like No, no, you need to care about that. Whether you have a a woman or a disabled person, what like, there are so many different levels of complexities in that sale, especially if you have multiple decision makers, you know, and then also, I think, sometimes not respecting the data for different industries and like, like the, the sales cycle, so in in the auto business, as much as 50% depending on what research you look at, as much as 50% of new car shoppers, only new car shoppers, don’t buy a car until like 90 days from the date they started shopping for it right so like off the off the bat right there. If you’re telling your salespeople to like annoy the hell out of this person, we’re going to call it Lind lead nurturing, but yeah, they’re they’re not ready for like three months nurturing at all, you’re not in there. You’re pissing me off, you know. And by the way, I’m sure you guys get these on LinkedIn, on your website, on text, like people who are like, this was my last and final Shut up. But I never even asked you. First of all, let’s let’s start with the fact that I didn’t ask you ever to email me. And now I’ve actually reported you to the FTC. So Screw you. Okay, I’ve blocked you. I blacklisted you. Just because you’re being a total jerk thinking that that that kind of attitude like, this is the third and final? Well, you’re damn right. You’re not going to sell me anything. And then so if you were to ask me the questions, like I do with our business development people is to really ask like, Look, if we’re working with a medical group, typically, if they’re doing a lead gen campaign, or doing some what we’re doing some web development, whatever the case is, that they need those projects, because in that industry, it takes so long for them to be ready to make these decisions. They’re busy. I mean, you have to get that out of them upfront, and then just give them the space and lead nurturing for us with them and may look very different than lead nurturing to a local insurance agent who needs leads, who’s like, I actually need leads, like yesterday, and I have the time or a realtor, I have the time a doctor or a lawyer. They’re like, yes, I want to hire you guys. I’m not ready. Listen to what they’re saying. They’re not ready. Don’t clump them in the same place as all your other clients and then get pissed off like, Oh, they’re, they’re horrible at communication. No, no, you’re not listening to them.

Rob  34:03

Well, not only that, sometimes, like, if you if you don’t set expectations with them a little bit like, Listen, if you’re not ready, please tell me don’t worry about hurting my feelings. Because you’re not gonna hurt my feelings. It’s totally okay. Because maybe it’s maybe it’ll be ready in six months, maybe it’ll be ready in a year, maybe you’ll never be ready for us. Maybe Maybe we never will never be a good fit. It doesn’t matter to me, it’s totally fine. I just want to have that conversation. Once we have that conversation. If it works, it works. If it doesn’t, it does. And you stop applying that pressure because that pressure is on you and the pressure is on them and nobody likes pressure. I don’t care who you are. The only people that seem to do well with pressure that do really well with pressure are some of those quarterbacks that have seen throw footballs and they do it but that’s those are the only people that like pressure because they can perform underneath that but but most salespeople don’t need that the more pressure you apply to yourself, the worse you become, actually, and we’ve talked about that too. Alex, I listened we’ve we’ve gone through a bunch of different things to me. I feel like there’s A whole bunch of things that we we mentioned that are really good salespeople would do. And really poor salespeople would do, hopefully that differentiates for people that are listening. Here’s what I should be doing here. Or if you’re thinking, Yeah, I know, but this is what I’m being told to do. I need to apply pressure to somebody or I need to call them every day until they cave, just know that you’re doing yourself a disservice. That’s we’re trying to help people be better, and not suggest that you do things the wrong way. So yeah, go ahead.

Alex  35:27

Yeah. And I want to leave your your listeners with something that I think is really important. And I think this is so relevant, because Rob, I know you and Jenn’s businesses all video. And that is that in the age of social media, and of course, tick tock and videos and all of this, for those out there who are business people, young salespeople starting out, please do your research. Because the truth is, if I went on YouTube, right now, the three of us went on YouTube, I’m going to guarantee you that 99% of the results that we get on YouTube, when we’re researching, let’s say how to do sales, 99% is going to be garbage, I’ll say a straight up. And I played this example yesterday, I’m doing a whole series on on how to keep kids safe online. And I was doing this class, and I gave them the example of like, okay, so you give your teenager free for all on YouTube, which you shouldn’t do. But okay, let’s go ahead and do that. Don’t set any parental controls. Okay. Let’s say which this is real. We did this yesterday, live, you type in how to one of the suggested queries that’s going to come up? I think it’s like number seven, at any given point of the days how to kiss a girl.

Rob  36:36

Yeah, that’s top one of the top ones,

Alex  36:38

Okay, how to kiss a girl, the other top 100 results are horrible. They’re sexist. They’re just everything that is wrong with society. Today, I have a daughter, I have three sons. But so that’s what they’re seeing. And then on top of that, actually, above that, because we all know, Google’s gotta have an ad for everything. Google is selling an ad from this guy who was a complete moron, running a like three minute video about his course on on what to do with women, when they say no, and bla bla bla bla bla bla bla. So why am I telling that story? I know, that’s more relevant to kids. But the thing is that if you’re looking for information, obviously, if you’re listening to the podcast, you’re here because you want to, you know, gain more skills, you got to be really selective on YouTube or anywhere else you go, because the truth is not and I’m not trying to say like were the three of us here are like some sort of like, you know, special above that no, but the information that we give comes from real experience, not a year, not 10 years, like 20 years, and then some but most people not as a matter of fact, one of the apps that I looked at yesterday that they were advertising on that one ad on YouTube is an app from a developer in Bangladesh. Yeah, but that’s the app your kid is going to download based on the video that he saw with the How to so just be careful what you’re searching, not all content is equal.

Rob  37:54

That is very true. Very true. I know Lane tries to sell me weird content sometimes. And I just I don’t understand where he’s coming from with that. You know,

Alex  38:02

you’re the reason that that query is up at the top.

Lane  38:05

You got it.

Rob  38:07

He searches that every day at two o’clock so that’s why it’s number seven at two o’clock All right, maybe

Lane  38:16

It’s because I know you search it at one o’clock

Alex  38:20

I only search it when my wife goes to bed.

Rob  38:25

All right, there we go. All right. So we should probably get back on track. Alex, I really listened. First of all, I appreciate you coming in and doing this with us. I really appreciate that. Your experience and the stuff that you’ve gone through obviously fits in with stuff that we’ve experienced, and we all know what that’s like and so your knowledge is really helpful. I think it would be helpful for people who are listening who said hey, I like what Alex said. And I would like to talk to Alex if I could what’s a good way to get ahold of you or what’s the best way to find you?

Alex  38:57

Okay not don’t come knock on my door that’s number one.

Rob  39:00

Well that’s probably not a good idea Yeah, sell solar panel stuff right so that

Alex  39:08

But if you bring me food that’s a different story. He told you a food works every time I give you that presentation No, I mean best place to goes to the Dadpreneur.co website these days just for you know, for those listening here that are like sales, not really marketing. I say look, send people to your website. Don’t send them to your LinkedIn to your social media. Tell people to go to your website. So come to my website. I have nothing to sell at that Dadpreneur.co by the way. Now if you’re looking for services at Prediq we definitely do but the best way to connect with me and get a lot of free cool stuff courses, ebooks and all that stuff is in Dadpreneur.co website.

Rob  39:44

Yep, perfect. And we’ll put links in the show notes. So if you have an interest click that you can find a way to connect with Alex and you’ll get more information. You know, it’s always a pleasure speaking with you. We don’t catch up often enough, Alex and I really appreciate you spending the time with us. I just want to say Thank you for joining us. And thank you for the information because it always is good something here. You’re very welcome.

Alex  40:05

And I’m gonna give these people the ABC, the ABC of sales. You know what it is? It’s in my book. Always Be Caring.

Rob  40:13

There we go. There you go. Yep, there we go. Yeah, we’re gonna start to use that is that trademark.

Alex  40:21

The book is copy written. So I even got the certificate.

Rob  40:25

So that’s good. That covers it. All right. All right. Good deal. All right, Alex, thanks for joining us. We’ll see you next time. Until next time, everybody. Don’t forget to slow down and you’ll close more. Thanks, guys.

V/O  40:37

Thank you for listening to The Slow Pitch. Do you have a question about sales? Call or text your question at (608) 708-SLOW. That (608) 708-7569. Or you can email them to Questions@TheSlowPitch.com. Slowed Down and Close More.

Rob  41:27

Thanks, as always, for listening today. If you’d like this podcast, please subscribe and leave us a review. We really appreciate it. Follow us on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook at The Slow Pitch. We were mixed today as always by Johnny Polakis. And we were produced by High Gravity Studios. Music credits and other notes are in the show notes section on TheSlowPitch.com, and we’ll be back with another episode soon.