00:00:00 Rob: So in South Florida, every summer you’re told to trim your palm trees, trim your bushes, trees all around before hurricane season. If you don’t, those dead fronds are gonna become dangerous. That’ll turn into flying debris. But to me, here’s the interesting part. When you trim a palm tree, it doesn’t get weaker.

00:00:27 It gets stronger, it actually gets healthier, and it grows better. Sales are the exact same thing. Most people think they have to add more to get more. They think they need more leads, more events, more clients. But the truth is growth doesn’t come from adding. Growth comes when you release. Release the wrong clients, release the dead leads.

00:00:51 Release the Wasted Events. Release, release, release to get more sales. Let’s get started.

00:01:00 V/O: This is the Slow Pitch Podcast.

00:01:03 Rob: First off, I live in South Florida and every year we are faced with. Kind of this season of, boy, what’s gonna happen and we need to make sure that we’re ready. And so they tell you to go out and get your supplies and they tell you to go out and trim your trees and the leaves and the bushes and make sure everything’s just stays and tidy.

00:01:18 Right? And they do that because really what they do that for is so that when everybody goes and does that, they put it up by the street and then the truck comes by and picks it all up. Well, if everybody waits till the last second just before the storm hits, guess what? It stuff’s gonna go everywhere when the storm hits.

00:01:32 So they want everybody to do that early on so that there’s enough time for them to collect it there’s enough time to put it away. But really what I’ve noticed over the years is that when I trim all of our palm trees and our different trees and stuff that are in our yard, they grow stronger over time.

00:01:46 They interfere less with other trees. The grass below, starts to thrive more. They just have a better, long term, more beautiful look. It’s just a nice feeling when you see it throughout the summer and then you go into the winter and they’re re-going back into their, session of dormancy, if you will, or lower growth or slower growth.

00:02:05 And when they do that you just can enjoy it more, right. And then come back around to June again and it’s time to trim. So not long ago I noticed that’s something that I do every year. And you know, sometimes you have to hire people ’cause the trees are really, really tall and sometimes you don’t.

00:02:20 But what else in life do I do that with? I started to notice that, boy, I think about 10 years ago, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, whatever that 00:02:30 number is for you, but for me, all these years ago, I had friends that I used to hang out with and chat with, talk with, and over the years, those friends have changed.

00:02:40 What I started to realize is that, you know, that friend that I had, let’s say back in high school or back in college, or when I first got a job. Why did I let them go and why did I release them, so to speak? Right? Because sometimes the friends that you have may stop adding some value to you and if they start adding value or they, they kind of.

00:02:59 Go against what you want in terms of like, you know, I want to go in this direction, or I want to grow here. I wanna become a better business owner. I wanna become a better salesperson. But they sometimes just don’t let you do that. They kind of fight you. They make comments. They say things that you’re like, well, that’s not helpful.

00:03:15 I mean, that’s not very supportive. Why are you saying something like that and you don’t realize it? ’cause sometimes it’s just joking around and it feels like that. But the reality is maybe there’s some, there’s some limitations that they have in their own brain and they’re applying that, or they’re, or saying that out loud to you.

00:03:29 And you have to realize that’s. Not right. That’s not what I want. Just like in the tree world, in the hurricane season, you probably trim your friends every once in a while, don’t you? I mean, you still like ’em. I still like my old friends, they were fun. They were in, I had a good time, but my priorities just kind of shifted a little bit.

00:03:43 Right. And maybe their, their priorities weren’t the same to me. The outcome became, I got more time or more energy to focus on the things that I wanted to do and to work with and focus on things that the friends that I have now. I also started to think about the same thing with events and networking.

00:03:57 Obviously you can’t attend everything. There’s so many things going on. There’s so many different events you can go to, but how do you trim that strategically? And to me, I started looking at my calendar and I looked at things and said, okay, there’s 20 events going on in the next two months. How many of these do I really need to go to?

00:04:12 Well, let’s identify the ones that I really should go to. And then there was an event that was coming up this week that I looked at and I said, boy, I’d like to go there. That looks like a fun event. And I think that a lot of fun people will be there. And then I started to look at the people that were on the list.

00:04:23 Are they gonna get me connected to the people that I want to get connected to? Well, so far they haven’t. So maybe they’re not the right people that I should be networking with. So instead of going to that event, I decided I’m not gonna go to that event.

00:04:34 I’m gonna 00:04:35 spend that time that I would’ve been at that event, which is. You know, let’s say 90 minutes and I’m gonna start working on looking at the upcoming events, looking at that attendee list and figuring out who I wanna talk to, and then figuring out who at that event could introduce me and start to preemptively write out an email that will go to that person the day before the event and say, Hey, those, you’re gonna go to this event tomorrow.

00:04:56 I know this. A person is going to be attending, and I don’t know them, I’m hoping you may know them because it looks like you’re connected to them on LinkedIn or, or what have you. Would you be open to introducing me that activity? Those, those things, those actions that I’m doing,

00:05:10 return on my time investment. Then going to the other event that I would like to go to, which sounds fun, but it’s probably not gonna return the time investment. And so I would invite you to start to look at your events and do the same thing. The other thing I started to realize was that your pipeline contains the same type of issue or problem.

00:05:28 You have leads in there. I have leads in there that I’m looking at and I’m saying, boy, I’ve held onto this one for a while. I keep having conversations with them. But they don’t seem to be going anywhere. So it’s probably time to start looking at those. Let’s call through those. The ones that don’t really fit with what we would wanna do normally, but if business is slow, I would take it on, but they haven’t made a decision. It’s time to release those. I don’t need those. And at first, when I started doing that, I started putting all that action into my leads and saying, okay, let’s eliminate this.

00:05:55 Let’s eliminate that. My pipeline started to look empty, and I was a little worried and I became concerned and I thought, no, no, no. Every time I’ve done this before, what happens is that fresh, stronger, better leads refill the pipeline. So sometimes I try to test those ones that are out there that are like hanging out that I don’t think are gonna convert that I don’t really need.

00:06:15 I start to push them out and I just, it sounds like they’re not serious. I start sending them notes or calling them and leaving in voicemails and saying something along the lines of, it doesn’t sound like this isn’t gonna be something that you’re gonna be going forward with. And it’s okay, I completely understand.

00:06:27 I try to be as nurturing as I possibly can, and I say to them, it’s okay. And when their time comes, you will know when it’s time. You’ll call me back, I’m sure, and I know they’re probably not going to, but that’s okay. I’ve released them and every time I do that, I get new stuff that fills into my pipeline.

00:06:42 It also helps me clarify who the real opportunities are, who I really should be in front of, and that can generate more sales and more leads because I start to focus on those types of people and start to pursue those types of people, whether that’s through networking activities, requesting for connections, and those types of things.

00:07:00 A good example. I went through one of my existing clients and I had a meeting with them, did an evaluation and said, how am I doing? Went through this whole process that I’ve talked about in the previous episode, which I would highly recommend you listen to. And when I went through that, I actually ended up saying to them, you know, it sounds like there might be other departments that.

00:07:17 Would be helpful for me to talk to and that they might want an introduction because they do some of these types of activities that you’re doing, is there any way that you’d be interested in opening up that conversation? And lo and behold, three weeks later I get an introduction to this other department that I had never heard of, never worked with before, and it was a great introduction.

00:07:34 And guess what? We’re doing business now in that department as well. That’s how it works. And if it wasn’t for me trimming out my pipeline, getting rid of the clutter and refilling it, this new one is like a good, profitable project. That’s the difference between trimming and non trimming. If you’re ready to give your sales team the edge they need, drop me a line at Questions@TheSlowPitch.com.

00:07:54 I’d love to help you close more deals. And finally, let’s talk about your clients, the clients that you actually work with right now. Do you have a problem? Client? They pay. Lower than they should. They ask for more than they pay for. They drain on your brain, they drain on your time, and they drain too much of everything.

00:08:14 Your resources, they become difficult to deal with or there is somebody that you’re maybe not happy to deal with. That’s your first indication. It’s time to trim the palm leaves. It’s time to cut them loose, and it’s time to say, you know, I’ve done everything I can to help you and I wish I could help you some more.

00:08:31 But right now I’ve got a bunch of other things going on that it’s gonna prevent me from helping you. And at this point, I’m just gonna have to cut you free, like it’s, it’s very simple conversation, right? Release those types of people because that space will open up for better clients, just like the other client that I was just talking about.

00:08:45 The newer client will be better aligned. They will have a better fit for your process. There’ll be health, healthier profits, you’re gonna have a smoother relationship. Things are just gonna be better all the way around. These are the things that you need to look at. 2, 3, 4 times a year.

00:09:00 And in fact, when I think back to, I trimmed all of those palm trees in June, and guess what? It’s now August, September. They’ve already grown back.

00:09:08 And so think about that in terms of your sales pipeline, your client pipeline, all of that good stuff. Every three months you should be looking at. What do I need to trim today? And so if I were you, I would identify what areas first do you wanna trim? Do you wanna trim friends? Do you wanna trim clients?

00:09:24 Do you wanna trim your events that you’re going to do you wanna trim your leads? Pick the things that you need to trim. Set a review every two weeks to just look through that list and set a review once a quarter. To really go through and axe whatever you need to axe, right? Get rid of whatever you need to.

00:09:39 Here’s what I do. I use Todoist. I have a task that rotates every quarter, and it says, let’s look at the people that are in your pipeline that don’t belong there, and eliminate the bottom 20%. The ones that you don’t think are gonna make it. The ones that don’t provide the profits the one that don’t provide the satisfaction or the feeling of being able to help them.

00:09:59 It’s time to trim ’em. ’cause you’re gonna release those 20% and you’ll refill it with somebody that’s probably gonna fill it 80% more than what you’ve cut it with, right? So those are the things that you need to start to do and I would highly recommend using to-do us ’cause it’s a good, easy program to use.

00:10:13 It operates on Windows, Mac, it operates on your phone, it does all that. So I have a link below for that as well. Finally, let’s just finish it this way. If you’re trimming properly, just like in nature, things will regrow life. Regrows, everything. Regrows. So trim. Trim until it almost hurts. Once you’ve trimmed it, until it hurts, you will get to the point where you’re like, okay, now over time, you’re gonna trim a little less every time because you won’t have to.

00:10:39 You won’t let so many people into your pipeline, but trim till it hurts at first, and then let the things go through, and then in three months. Let’s trim again, but only trim what you need to trim, right? Remember, sometimes less is the only way to get more, and you have to release what’s holding you back.

00:10:54 Just like everything else, Slow Down and you’ll Close More.

00:10:59 V/O: Thank you for listening to the slow pitch. Do you have a question about sales? Call or text your question at (608) 798-SLOW. Slow. That’s (608) 708-7569. Or you can email them to Questions@TheSlowPitch.com. Slow Down and Close More.