Confidently 80/20 Filter Your Prospects to Create a 3-Day Weekend Lifestyle

Rob  00:08

Welcome back, everybody to The Slow Pitch. And today we have Wade Galt, who is going to join us today. And Wade, we are talking about 80/20 filtering your prospects basically create a three-day weekend lifestyle, how…. And is that is that even possible?

Wade Galt  00:26

Yeah. So first of all, there’s sort of two parts of the 80/20 filtering is very possible, very, gosh, necessary if you want to stay sane. And as far as the three-day weekend, the short version is you’ve made raises in money over your years, why not take raises and your paid time off. So, whether you’re an employee or an entrepreneur, it’s very doable if you work towards it.

Rob  00:46

I like it. Alright, well, let’s dig into that. Let’s get started.

V/O  00:51

You were listening to The Slow Pitch Podcast, a podcast about selling less and closing more.

Rob  00:59

All right, so you say we can basically have a three-day weekend by at 80/20-ing our leads? So, first of all, tell me a little bit about what you’re talking about here. What do you do? How do you, you know, give me a little bit of background here. What so everybody kind of knows who you are what you do.

Wade Galt  01:16

My background, I’m 35 plus years in and out of the multi-line insurance agency world, dad’s a State Farm agent, I grew up in that world worked for that company. And for the last 20 plus years, I’ve consulted State Farm agents, their team members, other insurance agency owners and team members around the United States on how to grow their business, everything from recruiting, compensating their team members, I have a small software company that helps compensate their team members, incentivizing team members, sales process, multi-line sales process, everything from just acquisition to cross selling, or as they call in their field, multi lining, and then also helping people get more results in less time. So, they can have a four day work week, three day work week type of lifestyle, whatever it is that you like. And basically, each of those pieces in and of itself is its own conversation, but you can put them together. And when it comes to 80/20-ing, your prospects, it really is just about seeing a lot of it’s very similar to if you’ve read or familiar with Perry Marshall’s book 80/20 Sales and Marketing… phenomenal book. And it really is about seeing who really wants to be responsive and that stuff, I read his book, but I had already seen that and other mentors have told me, you know, told me the same or a similar message in different ways. Now he does so brilliantly the way he communicates it. But just the idea of looking at who’s really interested in you, not looking to persuade people, it’s almost the exact opposite of what we were taught, we’re taught in the 80s. So, the 80s was look like you’re perfect, push hard, persist, persist. Hey, Rob, are we going to talk today, we’re going to talk tomorrow, and all these different things. And usually, it’s in a voice like that. And most people have gotten tired of that they’ve gotten tired of the push to pressure. A lot of the best employees or sales professionals that are good account managers, or people who are good, who retain clients and keep clients don’t like that, because it feels icky. It feels pushy, it feels manipulative. And so, you can still say to your clients, look, here’s what we do, here’s how we help. And if you’re interested, great. And usually at least 20, 30, 40% of the people are at least going to give you a shot to talk to them. And then you can go deeper and then see who actually buys from there. And then the other ones, depending on your business model, it might be that they’re just interested in sort of your base level offering or, and they’re not interested in advanced level offering. But it doesn’t have to be a push, it doesn’t have to be a grind. And the more you push, it’s actually your your, in the long run, it hurts you. Yeah. And so that also works. Similarly, with a three-day weekend lifestyle in the sense of the better you get at it, the more results you get, in less time, if you can keep your expenses the same or similar to keep it really simple. Well, then you can get more results in less time, there’s more to the 3-day week, we can piece as well. But at the end of the day, it’s really just saying, okay, I can keep my expenses chill, I don’t have to increase my expenses every time I make more money. And I can work with the people who really want to work with me best and I can up my game professionally within a field and be that person they really want to talk to.

Rob  03:55

Yep, so I’m hearing you say there’s a couple pieces that are kind of inherent in what you’re saying to me. One is, is you’re only paying attention to those prospects or those people that you know, are interested in you and your service. So, you’re basically saying you’re firing prospects before they know they’re a prospect. Sometimes you’re just getting rid of those that don’t matter. You’re saying these are not people that should be in my pipeline?

Wade Galt  04:21

Yeah. So, it depends on your model. So again, I’m used to the insurance agency model and so what you have in a lot of insurance companies is clients will buy the auto insurance and the homeowner’s insurance because they have to by law, so that’s that’s coming in the door. And then some of these companies will also sell life insurance, health insurance, disability insurance, so that’s their sort of their cross sell. Well, a certain percentage of the clients say look, I don’t I’m not interested in your other stuff. I just came here for the auto in part because I have to either I don’t believe insurance. I don’t believe you the person my brother-in-law sells insurance, whatever it is, and a lot of people in that profession are still trying to convince to try to persuade somebody you hear this the same overcoming objections, which Here’s the craziest friggin thing I’ve ever heard in my life. Yeah. Now, I believe in clarifying objections. Is that an obstacle? An objection, I say, hey, Rob, you want to come into the office, you say, Wait, you know what I really do want to come in my schedule is tight, but I’d be happy to meet you on Zoom. Okay, that wasn’t an obstacle, or she’d been what is an objection? That was an obstacle. And I clarified that. And sometimes you can anticipate, say, hey, I could help you this way or that way. But this whole thing of Rob saying, you know, I do not like green eggs and ham, I don’t like them, Sam I am. And he said, well, I’m just gonna keep pounding on you until you say yes, that’s no longer viable because of social media. Because now people get the reputation, oh, gosh, now you want to talk to this person, this person just going to hammer you, they’re not in it for you. They’re in it for them. It’s all about them, their goals, their this their that. That’s not the 80/20 Rule at play. It depends. So, in that model, I don’t fire that group that says I only want auto insurance. But I’m in home insurance. And I’m happy I don’t want your second level offering. So sometimes it’s you have different levels of offerings. And then sometimes it is just that sense of you reach out to certain people, you make things available, even what you and I are doing with the podcast or any sort of media, we’re of course looking to see who’s interested. But as you and I both know, sales is so much of a disqualification game, we want to find out who’s not interested so that we don’t waste our time and energy. Because if we can invest our time with the people that really are interested, that’s well worth it. It’s not personal, it’s not getting upset. It’s not why I thought you liked me. And it’s not even well, you have a lot of money, therefore you want to buy for me, Bill Gates has a lot of money. Not everybody can sell him something. He might not be interested. But there are people that say I like what you do, I vibe with what you do, I find it interesting, I’m at least willing to listen, those are the people who want to invest our time. And now with technology, part of our funnel becomes our efficient, can we make that filtering process? Can we have a questionnaire? Can we have a strategy session with personas yet? Yes, or No? Can we have other pre-educational information where we get them to see this is what I’m about. So, if they’ve seen a few of my videos, and they show up with me, it’s not a surprise there already, chances are, if they’re showing up, they’re at least pretty open to buy, or they’re ready to buy. And they’re just wondering which one I’m going to help them with, as opposed to, you know, spending so much time in the most painful and costly part of the sales process, which is trying to persuade somebody.

Rob  07:06

Yeah. And that’s what I’ve noticed is a lot of people spend a lot of time too much time in the whole beginning of the conversation, working them through to try to get them to get to the next step and trying to work on, you know, finding out more information and then getting more and more steps more steps, when in reality, they should be realizing this person is not going anywhere. They’re they’re, they’re pushing back on you because they’re just not interested. And so why are you carrying on saying, well, let’s keep talking about this product or this service. Right? Your philosophy is, and I have the same philosophy. And that is my job is to disqualify you as quickly as I can. That sounds rude. But it’s not. It’s actually saving them time. They don’t want to talk to you any more than you want to waste your time. So, they’re already saying, listen, here’s a great example, I had a magazine, call my business and say we would like to have you guys, we have an ad space in our magazine. We’d like you to buy blah, blah, blah, okay, very quick conversation, the beginning. And I said I, you know, my, my business doesn’t really do much from a lead source, whenever we’ve done a print type of thing, or whenever we’ve done a magazine like you’re describing, and they went on, like, I kid you not, I did not. I interrupt them on purpose for five minutes telling me all the information about their author magazine, where it’s going, why we would be a good fit, blah, blah, blah, all these other things. And there’s pictures and we can do QR codes, or we can do links and we can and if it did, oh, by the way, we have digital versions. So, you can and I we got done with all that. And I said, I heard you I listened to you. I heard everything you said. And I really appreciate you telling me all that. I don’t think it’s a good fit because of this, this and this. And she goes okay, but did you know about and she went answer another a couple minutes. And finally, I said I don’t think you’re listening. I’ve told you twice. I I’m not interested. Why are you continuing to waste your time on somebody like me? And she goes, Oh, I’m so sorry. And I go I’m just telling you this because I know a bad sales call when I hear when you shouldn’t be continuing on. I know there’s a difference between when you’re cold calling. Somebody’s going to tell you no, automatically I get that. But after I’ve listened to you for five minutes, I know what you’re asking me for and I know what you’re selling. Why are you continuing on for more after that? And I tell you again, and she’s like, okay, all right. I appreciate that. And listen, I had no problem she I tried to save face a little bit with her like it didn’t want to make her feel bad. But I did want her to understand. You’re taking the time that’s unnecessary when you could be calling somebody and finding out Yeah, you know what I’ve been X been looking for exactly that because I’m a B2C kind of a business, right? I’m not a B2C business. I’m a B2B business. I don’t need that kind of thing. Right. It’s amazing. And I think that’s what you’re kind of describing but at 80/20-ing, you’re identifying as quickly and as early as possible, what’s a good fit? What’s less of a good fit? Right is that that’s kind of what you’re trying to do.

Wade Galt  10:06

Absolutely, so to your example, somebody might be go on and on. And you know, it might be selling steak and you’re a vegan, let’s say it’s like, there’s certain things that are just saying, like, they’re not going to change. And I think what a lot of people mistake in the process is the understand, Okay, gotta work hard, understood, hard work is very often not always required, at least to start something or at some point, hard work. So hard works in the equation somewhere, not always the entire equation. But here’s the thing, you and I both know, there’s kind of almost two different ways to approach it. One is to say, I’m gonna make five sales calls, because I need to sell five products. And I’m going to just beat up the five people I talked to, or I’m going to send five postcards, or send five email, whatever it is five possibilities, where I’m going to send 100, knowing that chances are I said, 180, something percent of them just not even close. But then 20%, maybe I can get in a conversation and have that, you know, and then the funnel kind of goes from there. And just sort of a basic funnel. Now, that’s even that sort of funnel one on one, when you say, Kim, I’m starting kind of cold. Now, when you start slit, let’s say you have a business, and you have 100 prospects that have bought, let’s say, level one products, you know, I know this concept of a tripwire in business, so you know, some initial product, it’s a low dollar product, if you’re an author, it’s a book, if you’re, you know, it’s a loss leader, it’s whatever it might be, yeah, and so you’re looking to see who’s gonna, who’s gonna go to perhaps to that next level. So, first of all, you’re already dealing with, let’s say, somebody who’s bought something from you, okay, so already, you’re, you’re, they’re way more qualified than nobody, you know, random person. So, let’s say of those 100 people, 20 of them decide that they’re willing to do whatever your process is your strategy session, your call, and they’re willing to fill out. And this is huge, at least for me some sort of questionnaire about what is going on with them. Because if I’m going to give you a strategy session, and if I’m going to say, look, I’m willing to invest in what you want to call it, a free call free consultation, whatever it is, but if I’m going to give you anywhere from 30 minutes to an hour of my time, preferably 30 minutes, unless you’re really well referred by a really good lead, how is it that I can tell you, you don’t rob, I’m going to give you 30 minutes, my time for nothing. But once we’re done, see, I’m a coach, and I’m going to charge you $500 an hour, $1,000, what, what happened to that third, verse 30 minutes, it’s like the two bags, the second leg is half of what’s wrong with the second egg. And so you say, Oh, hold on. So, I’m not going to give you my 30 minutes in that initial consultation. But if you’ll fill out this information, so that I can actually provide value for me, I can jump right in and start coaching, let’s just in that example of consulting, but I can help you right away. And what I’m going to do in this half hour, for example, is I’m going to help give you an idea of the game plan, I’ll give you the game plan, because not everyone’s going to implement it, I’ll give you the idea and ideas as we know are ideas are a dime a dozen dime a dozen. So, I’m gonna but I’m going to give you here’s how we’re going to do it. And then at the end, you can decide a if you like the plan or the idea. And B if you like it, well, there’s a good chance you’re gonna probably want to do it with me. But if you won’t fill out that questionnaire, I will meet with you. Yeah. So even in the like, I use Calendly. I use acuity and my questions, there’s a certain number of questions you have to answer before you can even schedule the appointment. And if you won’t, I just won’t meet with you. Why? Because if you want to fill out those questions, what are the chances you’re going to buy from me? So that’s one example of a very simple automated filter. Now what Calendly and acuity are both about 15 bucks a month. And that’s just one simple example where I’m not trying to sell you, I know there’s seven and a half to 8 billion people on the planet. And I know in my iPhone in the US, I know there’s 300 Something knowing there’s at least 200 something million buyers, and somebody wants my stuff, if I’ve done even any decent amount of research and certainly if I’m going to feel that somebody else’s in so now becomes Okay, somebody wants my stuff or what perspective they want one, well, Johnny wants insurance from somebody who’s from his own culture. Suzy wants somebody that has the same accent as her. Eddie wants somebody who went to the same college as him, okay, I went to the same colleges, any guess what, just what, now this is easier. And everybody’s got their own sort of way they slice well, and somebody will say, I just want somebody that’s going to help me, but overall, trying to persuade somebody try. Once you feel like you’re trying like you’re fighting people call this leaning in, like you’re leaning into try to pull them, you’ve lost all your power. So even any deal that you make is not going to be on your terms. Yeah. And you’re going to be overselling yourself. Or if you’re a coach, you’re gonna promise too many sessions, you’re going to over promise, and then you’re gonna have all this and then you collect the money. And that’s even the worst thing now you’ve collected the money on things that are bad deals for you, or you’re gonna lose money, or at least be paid really low. And you’re saying, and then we get mad at the client, because how dare they hold me to what I you know, I said, well, he’ll I’ll lower the price. And so again, yeah, I want to find that person who already sees me. It says yeah, why did you or why insurance, your current insurance background, you believe in the long game, you believe in the sort of the farming approach to making sales happen as opposed to the we’re going to make something happen in 30 seconds. Yeah. Okay, then maybe that’s somebody I can work with.

Rob  14:45

Yep. And to me, there’s a lot to be said about somebody who gets that piece and knows when it’s time to continue the conversation. And it here’s the other balance that you have to have, you know, just knowing our conversations that we’ve already had the balance is you have to make it feel like it’s their idea to continue to move forward. Because by allowing them to make that decision to move forward with you, if you kind of keep that in mind, they are keeping you moving forward without you having to pull them along, if you have to pull them along, you’re exactly what with a with a Calendly. You know, if they don’t fill out the questions, or you have a question, or that you have to do, it’s simple steps that they have to take. Because if they’re not willing to come, I hate to use the word comply. But if they’re not willing to take the steps necessary to even engage in a conversation with you in the beginning, they don’t feel like you’re equal, right. And so, after you start working together, they’re gonna treat you like a vendor, rather than an equal or somebody that they’re on even footing with, or whatever you want to call it. They’re looking at you and say, just take care of dance, monkey dance, and that’s not what you are, right? You’re, you’re the kind of person that’s, hey, I’m here to, I’m here to help you any way I can, I will get you everything I can out of this. Here’s my rate, whatever it is, but you’re going to do that, but you’re not going to dance for them, you’re going to be a partner together, we’re moving step by step together to the next step, whatever that might be. And that that, to me is the difference between really good and we’ve and I on the show, we’ve talked about this before, that’s the difference between a really good salesperson is somebody that listens, somebody that allows the buyer to make a decision, that this is a good decision for them, that continues to walk together hand in hand. So, to speak to the next step. That’s when you know, you have a good buyer, that’s when you have you have a good salesperson as well. Those two works together well, when it comes to the sale. It’s the people that try to push or pull on either side. There’s somebody’s trying to have a power struggle there. And that doesn’t work that somebody’s going to lose in that case. And in a lot of times, that’s where salespeople end up dropping their price, right? That is that where you’ve run into that where you start having that power struggle, and you start to having to feel like feel like yeah, whether or not you do.

Wade Galt  16:57

Well, a couple of things. So, number one, and I dating analogies, I think works so well with sales, if you’re the person and you’re trying to get somebody to love you. And they really ultimately don’t love you know, like I like you, you’re nice, I’ll hang out with you. And I’ll literally go out with you and I have a nice time with you. But I’m not interested, I’m not interested, I’m not romantically interested. And I’ll hang out well, if you get the message and say, Okay, well, then great, then let’s just hang out, no problem. But if you’re constantly trying to sell well, you should fall in love with me, that’s a very sad path. As far as business, I’ve done it before we discount my pricing, maybe that’s the obstacle and the truth is if you’ve helped somebody see what it’s costing them, and this is an Everybody’s got their own way of wording things. And again, I I’ve been around sales and coaching a lot the back in the 80s, we talked a lot about buying buy into me as me getting you to agree with something that that benefits me and might or might not benefit you. Because otherwise why would you have to buy in if it’s really awesome. You don’t need to buy, and you just need to write Yes. And so to your point, I really truthfully, if you’re not interested, I want to know as quickly as possible, because I’m already wasting my time. So, the quicker I can find that out. So, I don’t even have this sense of how quickly can this happen? Or will it happen is here’s what I do. And so, I’m going to work on my presentation. So I think this way to use an example if I’m going to there’s an ad came out recently with slash the guitarist from Guns and Roses, and he’s auditioning for this, like high school band and like you’re in it’s like, well, of course because he’s slashing Guns and Roses, when you’re so over prepared, or I think it was a Steve Martin said, you know, so you’re so good. They Can’t Ignore You, you just know that like, that’s how you break in a hole, and you just have to be so good. They can’t ignore you, when you’re like that. The business comes to you. And then also, when you’ve worked from those 100 people, and you found those 20 people up top to work with you, you don’t have to go to another 100 people, you get those 20 people do a phenomenal job. And then you get them and help them so much that they want to send you their friends. And in fact, if you have to ask for the referral, that reminds me the Prince song, the if you have to ask you can’t afford it. If you’re if you have to ask for the referral. It’s not always a great sign though if you say hey, just so you know, I have availability. But again, it’s a very casual thing. The difference when the guys like Suzy, when you go out with me are really reluctant. If you can’t go out today, I’ll go out tomorrow or the next day versus Hey, Susie, I’m going to the wherever it is I’m going to this concert that if you’d like to go have a ticket, you’re welcome to join me and Susie says no and you’re still interested, well Susie, and then I could just leave it there and the confidence is okay, I’m gonna let that lie and I’ll come back now either versus that fear or even just that over preparation or under preparation where you don’t know your product. And the client just senses this kind of nervous vibe and all they know they don’t know what it is but they’re like, Okay, I’m out. Yeah, and, you know, sales is kind of an unforgiving process. But if you’re listening again, it’s less cruel to find out earlier that you’re screwed up and say oh yes than 30 minutes

Rob  19:49

And you’re less invested like you have less time invested. So, if you find out early, if you find out in 10 minutes that this is not going to be a fit and you call it they’re like thankful for because they know it’s not a fit, you’ll be thankful because you’re like, I can work on something else. Like, I don’t know how many times I’ve done that where I’ve like, I think this person is going to be a good fit. We start talking, we get into it, and all of a sudden, it’s, this is not going well. And I just asked the question, I get the feeling this is not a good fit for you. I mean, maybe we should just partway is, you know, just sounds like it’s not going to be a fit at all. And they’re like, yeah, it’s I don’t think so. Okay, or it’s no, no, no, no, I’m sorry, if I’ve made you feel that way. That’s not at all. I’m actually interested in what you’re now I know, I have somebody actually interested, right? Because they’ve actually started to engage back with me.

Wade Galt  20:37

So yeah, so it’s, to me, it’s a lot of the difference between, let’s say, even sales and marketing, if your marketing is strong, if your branding, your communications, the messaging you have think of the iPhone, their branding is so strong, their marketing is so strong, that when they just say we’ve got a new version coming out, people literally camp out to get the product. Well, the people at the iPhone store, they’re not selling iPhones, they’re order taking. And that’s not a criticism, that’s not a knock to say that they’re doing something wrong. It’s just… say that the marketing is so strong, that the sales doesn’t have to be that powerful. If you must really dig in deep and hard sell when you didn’t do the preparation. It’s like a baseball player that’s trying to you know, to save a game as a pitcher in the ninth inning, you’re down five runs, there’s not I don’t care how you can’t really save that versus if you’ve laid the foundation well, and you’ve set stuff up again, people will give you hints. And again, you want to see those hints? Because even if the hint is I’m not sure. To your point, you can say, hey, is this a good? And I’ll just say even more open? Is this still a good time for you? And I don’t even see you look distracted or this that because then sometimes they’ll feel like, is it still good time for you? Oh, no, you know, and like you read my mind. Well, of course, it’s all over your face. I just was willing to acknowledge it. But again, this is where you again, go back to the basics of a filter. If they won’t fill out the questionnaire, if you won’t fill out the questionnaire for your doctor, your dentist, they won’t even see you. Yeah. And so what I want to be able to do as a professional is I want to have my branding, my LinkedIn, my podcast, my marketing, my YouTube, whatever it is all that I’m doing such a… it’s such a level that when people meet with me, and this is what I do that usually, no matter what it is that they’re coming to me for, they’re either referred to me by an existing client who’s awesome. They’ve come in from my YouTube channel, or from my podcast, somehow, they already know something about me, I and I’m not against cold calling or out. But I don’t do outgoing marketing. Yeah, I don’t have to guess I just don’t do it. I’ve tried to I sip, I stink at it. So, I’m not against it. If I was great at it, I do it. But so, when the person comes in, I’ll just say, hey, you know what the best way I can help you and make the best use of your time and provide value for you whether you decide to visit me or not. So, I’m gonna give you a half hour of my time, tell me what’s going on your business, I’ll tell you what you need to do, if that’s within my area of expertise. And then when you’re done, you can then decide what to do that information. But if you won’t fill out that questionnaire, you can’t even schedule it. I’m not gonna say If you won’t do it, I won’t schedule it. So, I’m not looking for confrontation. But it’s when people will ask sometimes, I’ll say, Look, you don’t give me the information on your situation, you now put me into the position of a pitch man. And now I’ve got 30 minutes to just beat you up and pitch you and get you to buy my stuff. And as somebody who also has a software business, the last thing in the world, if you think having a coaching client that didn’t want to be there is bad. Try a software client. And then it’s tech support. They don’t understand and they’re ticked off. And why doesn’t it do this? I thought I had this feature. No, I don’t I genuinely with all of my heart. I don’t want you if you’re not a fit. Yeah. And the clients that value me at a certain level, not everybody values me at this level 10 15% of the people maybe 5%. Right, I’m willing to look to find those because those will pay five to 10 times more. Yep. Because there is a fit once you can then identify and work on who are those people going now in some way at least lightly connected to your lifestyle, then it becomes as I started making more money, and I stopped investing my time and things that aren’t making money, can I keep my expenses, good enough or tight enough where let’s say I was making $80,000 a year, in five days a week, let’s say I’m working for a company and working for myself really doesn’t matter. Now most companies are at least open to the idea. So, I have some making $80,000 my expenses are I’m living well and putting away money, I’m all good. And let’s say I figure out how to get to 100,000. Now I’ve got a couple choices. I could say okay, I’m gonna continue to work five days keeping the math real simple, and make 100,000 Or I could say, You know what, not changing my expenses, I’m gonna talk to my boss, or I’m gonna if I’m an entrepreneur, I’m just, I’m only gonna work four days. Because now when those four days, I’m going to make my 80 instead of five days 100 And sometimes you can, it’s not always that linear or that exact so sometimes I can still make 90 in those four days. And once I locked in my four days now I can then scale even once Okay, now in four days, can I get to 120 150 to one or whatever it might be, but most of us are still always going to that next highest level of income when 20 To 30 to 50,000 ago, we could have just for a moment pause just a moment all the stuff we’re buying are all the all these extra just long term commitments as opposed to you know, if I take a big trip even if it’s 20,000, but it’s a one-time trip, I’m not committed to it and being able to then say okay, well to whatever level you want, there’s no right or wrong answer this, but that you have the freedom to do what you want with your family, your friends, your travel your life.

Rob  25:07

I’m going to stop this conversation right now, if you’re finding value in any one of our episodes, we want you to share it with somebody else. Just tell somebody, hey, go listen to these guys, this has been good. Second, give us a review, tell us what you think. And the third thing, hit that subscribe button so that you always get updated. Every time we release an episode. We’d really appreciate it. Now back to the show.

Rob  25:28

The other question that I would have then is when you’re at 2018, that process and you’re going through that, that does that then translate as well from the prospecting activities. So, I look at my activities, my activities usually are some networking, some online stuff that I have to make sure that I kind of keep in contact with maybe it’s an email marketing blast. Maybe it’s, you know, whatever it is, maybe it’s podcast, whatever it is, once I go through all of that, do I look at it? Am I supposed to be looking at that? And I know, I know what I would say is the answer. But do you look at this and say, these are the activities, whatever those are that work for you. You just mentioned earlier, a cold calling is not something you enjoy doing. But if that’s somebody’s stuff that they do to bring in new business, and they measure that, do you 80/20 that as well,

Wade Galt  26:13

I… So that’s where it gets interesting, because philosophically or mathematically or logically, it makes sense that it’s always if you add 20, that the numbers are going to hold the numbers don’t always hold number one, right? There are a few reasons. One, because sometimes the quality of the lead goes down, you find a lot of lead companies that if you if you give them carte blanche and your credit card, they’ll give you everything I got, and maybe they only have a certain number of quality leads. And that doesn’t make them bad. You said you wanted x number of leads, it’s your job, you got it. Yeah, figure out what’s working, what’s not working. Sometimes. Also, if you’re intermittent with them, if you turn them on, turn off, turn them on, turn off, they’ll usually give you better leads. And in addition to that, we’re humans. So just because I work. And this is a key part of the three-day weekend content, just because I put in four good days of work doesn’t mean my fifth is going to be equal. I’m not I’m incorrect human. And so, everything from rest to relaxation, to am I fulfilled, am I enjoying this to even the balance of, well, if I’m getting three days, a weekend, Friday, Saturday, Sunday, do whatever the heck I want, all of a sudden, Monday through Thursday doesn’t have to be my one stop shop to fulfill me to make money and be fulfilling and be enjoyable and be productive. I mean, we’ve kind of put a lot of pressure on work to be everything. And I’ve still not found that it’s everything. For me. It’s a lot of things. It’s wonderful things, but it isn’t always everything. And so, what I try to look at, as opposed to making it purely mathematic, because again, humans aren’t purely mathematical. Again, in large, large numbers, usually a lot of that stuff holds. But what I find is, I want to continue to look for how can I be of more value to this person, not just how can I be more service? Because that’s sort of generic? And even how can I create more value? What does that mean? What’s that next biggest challenge this person has? And how is it costing them so give you a very simple example in my business. So, when I first started out, I was first doing coaching, I just doing sales coaching, just outright literally training people, here’s how you sell. And that was one of the two or three things I was doing okay, at one of my clients is like 20 plus years ago, says Wade, you know, we have this software, it’s not really helping us much do you have anything that would help keep the compensation opportunity in front of my team members, help them see it all the time, and help them realize that there’s more money coming if they had this next level, and that next level. So, I built that out, and the last 20 plus years, that’s been anywhere from 50 to 90% of my income. And now I run that company in about literally four hours a week. And it’s just around 50% of my income. Because the fundamental holes, it passes the Google toothbrush test, you use it on a regular basis. And so, in that case, I’m grateful that for whatever reason, at that moment, I was open to listen, rather than say, no, no, no, you don’t understand I’m a sales coach. And here’s what I do. They want to just something that would and it doesn’t fix everything. But for most people who aren’t producing it leads to a 10 to 15% increase, and then it also lead to stability of results, which in sales is a pretty big deal. So just being able to do that was one piece, but then I’d say okay, now. So that’s that sort of first level issue will this the second level issue at a higher level, because the software you can only charge so much more back then it was a few 100 bucks now, let’s say 1000 bucks a year. But the bigger issue is, well, what if I have a team member that’s not working out for me? Well, team member not working out for me. Let’s say they make I don’t know, $4,000 base salary month, they’re costing me at least five to 6000 a month. So, every month I don’t get this right. It’s costing me 6000 bucks in total cost of the chair, all that stuff. And you say well, how quickly can I figure out it’s the wrong person? Okay, if I can shorten that time, that reduces my loss. How, how much better can I recruit? So now you’re talking, we’re talking a $40,000, $50,000, $60,000 issue as opposed to a sales increase of 10. So, if you find that next issue, then the next person says I’m willing to do this other person says I’ll DIY it, no problem. Nothing wrong with that. But there’s usually a part of the group that says, well, if you helped me fix this, I’m not looking to be a recruiter. I’m looking to continue doing what I do and focus and get world class at that. I don’t cut my lawn. It’s not because I’m better than that. I used to cut a lot. I know how to cut a lot On. But that’s not the best use of my time and talents at this particular stage of my life. And so, as you do that there are certain clients, and this is the brilliance of Perry Marshalls book 80/20, sales and marketing. As he says, in general, if you have about 100 clients, and they’re paying you for a solution, so in my case, let’s say as a software and it’s funny, I read this from him after this was actually happening my business. So, his book had been written. And what he said was true is what was going on my business. He said, let’s say you have about 100 clients, and I have more than that. But just to keep the numbers simple. I had about 100 clients paying $1,000 a year for this software. So, $100,000, recurring revenue business, great stuff, he says, Look, about 20% of those clients want a four times solution. It doesn’t mean they want to pay $4,000 for the same software, but they want another solution that’s at a higher level. It’s deeper, it’s better, it’s faster, it’s more guaranteed. Have you wanted to look at that. So, they want that. And by the way, you’re not selling to them, if they don’t sell it to you, if you don’t buy it assume if you don’t, they don’t buy it from you. They’re buying it somewhere else. Yep, they almost have they almost have a, you know, a hole in their pocket. And then so you take that when she says Wait, so then 20 People times four times 4,000. That’s $80,000 More of income. And then he says, and then that 20, take 20% of that. That’s four people. They want a $16,000 solution. Yeah, it’s another $64,000. And then 20% of that, which technically, if you started 125, it’d be 1.8, but rounded to one wants a $64,000-ish dollar solution. And he has a calculator helps you do the exact Yeah, yeah, long story short, that’s just the natural piece. And so that’s the other part of the ad 20 of realizing that if all you’re doing is staying at that first level, you’re missing out. And he makes an important point in that book that if you go from 100, and you say, well, does that mean? If I have 100 People paying 1000? Does that mean? Do I reverse those numbers? That it’s accurate? In the large number? He says no, because there’s not infinite number of people on the planet. But usually, it’s actually more accurate, the higher up you go. And so, the more value you create, the more you help them with just in essence, bigger problems than that’s, that’s more likely. So, you go more from generic solution to done with you to done for you, that sort of stuff.

Rob  32:05

Yeah. And I think, you know, knowing that that’s kind of the natural progression of how people, you have different tiers of people, you know, one of the things that sometimes you’ll run into is like, well, which person am I speaking to today? Sometimes you have to figure out the person that you’re having a meeting with. Are they on this tear? Or are they on the next year? And so, on several occasions, I’ve given them listen, we do a couple of different options. And based on what you’re describing in your scenario, we could do this, which is level one, we can also do level two, which is this much, which is more. And then, and I don’t I don’t think you’d ever need level three, which is significantly more than you wouldn’t say significantly more. But you what, you know what it is, when they see the numbers, it’s more like away a lot. You know, but you know, this, this could be, but you know, I don’t think that’s what you would need. And on more than one occasion, somebody has said, actually, that’s exactly what we’re looking for. And I would have never found that out by without asking those questions. But knowing that that tear level does exist with any group of people, is very powerful. And I think he did a great job with, you know, showing that statistically in the book. But more importantly, if you start to apply everything in life that way, and you start looking at it and saying, well, how do I identify those that are at the higher tier and how to identify those that are at the mid-tier? And how do I know that this person is at the lower tier? Every one of those individuals at any level? is totally fine by me. I don’t it doesn’t matter which one you want to buy? It really does it right. It’s like, to me, it’s income. It’s helping us helping you. We’re all happy. And whatever level that is, is totally fine with me.

Wade Galt  33:44

Yeah, and this is where for me, sometimes questionnaires can help vision-based questions Can something even as simple as you reached out to me, Dan or Susie referred you to me? What was it that they said that I do that you’re hoping I can help you with? Yep, another way. There’s a gentleman by the name of Dan Sullivan, he owns a company called the Strategic Coach. And he has a question called the R factor question. And the question is really simple. If you and I were talking three years from today, or could be a different period of time, what would need to have happened for you to feel happy with your progress. So, you didn’t have to ask them, they’re saying it, we want the conversation, the more the work gets done in their head, that’s better because they feel comfortable with that, then it’s not a manipulation, it’s, they can actually communicate their needs. And then you can decide is it you know, fit or not, I don’t want him to do what they’re asking for how much it cost, right. And so, but when the person says, Well, I want to make sure my team members are motivated, I want to make sure I do a better job by recruiting severely these two teams aren’t working out, and I’m working too many hours. I’d love to talk with and it doesn’t always work out exactly like that. But they’ll vary. If you know your market, when you’ve listened to them and you know, their three to five top issues. Usually, they’re gonna say them to you before you even have to. Yeah, and one of the things that he points out and this is another filter, this are factored questions, brilliant stuff. He says, look, if they won’t answer the R factor question, they won’t tell you you’re done. That’s it. Yeah. Because if they won’t share that with you, it’s no different than the client who says, you know, gosh, one of the worst clients you can have as a coach is the person who won’t read your $10 book but wants to invest in your $10,000 hour coaching program. Yeah. And it sounds like we know, wait, I want the $10,000. No, you don’t, because that person isn’t willing to read 100–150-page book, a three hour audio book, but they’re gonna do 50, 60, 80 hours of work? Some of the worst clients because I just painted my credit card for $10,000. You got to make this happen, Rob, dude, it’s not magic. I can show you how to do these things. Yeah, if I had a magic bullet, I’d be like, just don’t have all day compounding money all day long. Exactly. Yeah, yeah. So, there’s something involved. As I tell people, I said, look, if I had magic brownies, to get your team members to sell more, I’d give them my magic brownies, or at least some to sadly, I have no magic brownies. So, it’s software. And it’s coaching. And it’s work and not a result of that. If it’s not working with the wrong people, then it might be recruiting help you find the right people. So, it’s still there still process, but I’ve just got it to three or four options. And they don’t necessarily have to be tiered. But usually by their nature, they’re different level issues. You know, 10% increase in production is different than a team member who just absolutely in the wrong role, and just costing me money and wasting space and eating up my other team member’s time. Yeah. And then from a quality-of-life standpoint, me working 60 hours a week while I have a family at home, and my kids are, you know, both under five, as opposed to me having the ability to invest time with them. You start going into your some I call it irrational or trans rational where you say, look, it really is priceless. Like, I’ll pay the $10,000 Yeah, I have no desire, where to lead you. My desire is to find out where do you want to go? No different than if one of my children says, you know, I’d like to be an athlete. And I say okay, which sport they say yes, I’m really into this great. Now I want to invest in all the camps and the coaches versus me saying we know you should be a bla bla bla player, because I was a bla bla bla player, and I’m gonna put all this money, and you’re really just, you know, it’s not just blown in the wind, you’re peeing in the wind, you really get on you. It’s messy. It’s sticky. It’s just Yes, it’s just not good. Don’t do it. Don’t do it. Sorry, I’m sorry, those who did the analogy, but, and yet, if you want to be in anything for the long run, where you make better profits, where you ever repeat clients that you don’t have to keep hustling, and selling and grinding, and you get older, and you don’t hustle as much because hunting, being a hunter, and a hustler, that is a young person’s game. That’s the other part of the 80/20 is a long-term approach, which show lends itself to more time off, not need to hustle anymore, and all that stuff, as opposed to trying to constantly be hustling. And then also understanding that your job might or might not be your vocation, or your life purpose or your walk.

Rob  37:34

Yeah, as we wrap up, one of the things I would like to ask you, that is I’m new to sales, how do I get myself a three day weekend all the time, and still be able to do my job and get the money that I need? Like, what’s my first step or two that I should be doing to get myself closer to that

Wade Galt  37:52

If you’re an employee, the short version is you have to get the results first, prove it to your boss, and then negotiate it if you’re an entrepreneur, and that this almost a disclaimer, how the sequence, if you will, if you’re an entrepreneur, you just kind of start doing it. Yeah. But here’s a couple things that that happen. Number one, you’ll always lose. If you fight math, keep your expenses on the lower side bootstrapped, don’t go dropping $2,500, $5,000, $10,000 on a coaching program. So, if you can keep your expenses reasonable and understand that, okay, if it’s the case that my weekends off is more important to me that that Friday off is more important to me than being on the site level, I’m making a lot of money, but I hate my job. So, darn it, I’m gonna enjoy the heck out of my weekend weekends, blow my money, and be stuck in this rat race forever. So, part of its very fundamentally sound financial peace. And then from a business operations piece, find your five to 10 best clients and say, look, here’s, I’d like your help. You’re one of my best clients. And I’m looking to number one, find more people like you, but that’s kind of not a new thing. But number two, I want to find out what are other ways that perhaps I could help you that are maybe bigger challenges for you, or people, you know, like you that I can serve you with? It’s not just about being linear, because if you stay linear, then no, you can’t get Yeah, you’ll never get the right results in four days. You just can’t, unless you I mean, now, that will put us where you usually can trim off about 10% to 20% of distraction of bullish activity, obsessive activity, podcast sells, we still need to refresh our stats a couple times, things like that. But the biggest thing is you have to have something exciting to do on that Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Because if you don’t, yep, you’re just gonna show up on Friday and say, Well, I didn’t plan anything. I have two choices. I can pick my nose or go to work. And if those are the two options, well then picking your nose is not that good of an adequate option. Go to work. Yeah, and the last piece as far as every Friday forever, you’re going to have situations where there’s a there’s a conference you want to go to in a weekend, I have that freedom I’m able to be present with our kids, our kids are 16 and 13. Being able to be present for them is really huge. And for some people it might not be a three-day weekend. It might be wait I want to work the days that my kids are in school I want if summer off or whatever it might be. That was my other question. We’ve all possessions is perfect.

Rob  40:01

Yeah, I was gonna ask you, because you’d make your extra day off a Wednesday. What’s wrong with that? Nothing wrong.

Wade Galt  40:07

Nothing wrong with that I like I like three days in a row. Because what I get when I take three days off is I pretty much and maybe I’m maybe I’m just getting older. I forget what I do that one extra day. I’ve been able to Thursday night know that. Okay, I’m done. So, a lot of it for me is the three days in a row works and Fridays are, there’s more going on on Friday socially than there is on Mondays. So, some people like to Monday off because they just really hate Mondays. But usually there’s more fun stuff going on Fridays or Thursday night. So, I prefer that’s for every weekend.

Rob  40:37

All right. So you know, I think one of the other questions I should ask. And as we get to the end here, if someone has been listening and they wanted to get a hold of you, what’s the easiest way they could reach out to you?

Wade Galt  40:47

Sure. If you’re even remotely interested in the three-day weekend type lifestyle, go to ThreeDayWeekendEntrepreneur.com or ThreeDayWeekendClub.com. Either one, if you’re an entrepreneur, the entrepreneur has the podcast a little more detailed stuff, if you’re an employee, the club, and that can help you get a sense of… there is free resources on each of them to help you get started in making the most of your life outside of work in the time outside of work and money outside of work, and then start moving towards that. And then if you other stuff, you could just look me up WadeGalt.com.

Rob  41:16

Great. Okay, so Wade, I appreciate you coming on, I think we talked a lot about how to kind of fine tune a sales process a little bit in terms of how you look at prospects leads, however, you want to call them, how you work through the beginning stages, how you can maximize that time, so that you’re actually being more productive and kind of weed out essentially, the ones that don’t belong there and get you in front of the right people that you know, are going to do something, we got to this point where we talked about, you know, what tiers they belong in, and how to kind of bring them from one tier to another, how to use your extra time and getting yourself to like a three day weekend, if you wanted to on a more regular basis. And you don’t have to do this every day. I know somebody one time who their whole thing was my goal is to have a three-day weekend every weekend. And then there was somebody else that I knew that said, I tried to get three-day weekends, but I know that sometimes it just doesn’t work out. And that’s okay. I just enjoy the three-day weekend. And that’s okay, you know, whatever way you want to do it is fine. I’ve long been an advocate of if you’re good at sales, you shouldn’t have to work 50, 60, 70 hours every week, you should be able to work 30, 40 hours easy, get what you need out of those time. And, and still have time left over. And I feel like, secretly, I don’t want to tell everybody, but good salespeople probably only need two, three hours a day to work and the rest of the time, they’re probably just messing around, okay, maybe not messing around, but they’re doing the work that is behind the scenes, you don’t see that they know what it’s gonna bring them to work later. So, they’re planting seeds, they’re doing all those things, a lot of times, it’s a little less visual and more like behind the scenes kind of stuff, usually. But a good salesperson doesn’t need a ton of time, if they’re really good at it, they kind of work their way through, identify who’s a good lead, who’s not a good lead, and keeps working through each one as they go. So…

Wade Galt  43:01

I just wanna put a stamp on what you just said there. If you’re if you’re working more than about 40 hours in a field that there are people that are doing it less, then you’re not hustling, you’re not glamorous, you’re just not yet skilled enough yet to do it in less hours. Because there’s a certain point in sales where anything that’s administered, it’s purely administrative, you eventually reach a point where you make enough money where you hire that out. And then you also realize that there’s so much research that’s been done that shows that most people, five, six hours tops, as far as are you really dialed in productivity. So, you wouldn’t tell a world class athlete the day before the Super Bowl to go hustle and grind and do a two day workout. He’d say get your rest. Yeah. So, you know, we work in intelligence and knowledge type economy very often. So yeah, don’t don’t wear the extra hustle is a badge of honor. Where it is a I wouldn’t say a badge of shame. That’s a really strong, but a badge if I’m not there yet. Because why wouldn’t why wouldn’t you make the money and have the three-day weekend? Yes, no, or something better?

Rob  44:04

Yep. So yeah, if you if you have the badge of, you know, you’re working so many hours, you’re, you’re missing the point here, you really the goal is you should be selling and being efficient with it, that you’re having the lifestyle that you want. And that’s the whole idea, right? And I guess if you’re an entrepreneur, easier to do, versus because in a sense, you’re going to spend more time on your other hats that you’re going to put on for the rest of your job as an entrepreneur. But if you’re working for somebody else, you can have a pretty good life. I’ve seen some people that work, you know, four or five hours in a day, every day, and then they’re done. And they’ve hit their quota every day because they know how to do it. And that’s totally fine. If they wanted it more money. They could just work out a couple extra hours every day and all of a sudden they’ve got more money. That’s it’s like I always tell people, it’s funny. Sometimes if you’re really good at sales, it’s like you’re printing money and it’s doesn’t not seem fair, but that’s really you know, hey, I need a few extra bucks this weekend. I’m gonna sell something and that’s what that’s if you’re good. that you can do that. And I think that’s the key takeaway I think today is, you know, get yourself to a point where you can work less and get more from your week by doing that.

Rob  45:09

Absolutely. Wade, thank you again for coming on. I appreciate it. If there’s anything else that you don’t have to say, I think we should just cut it here. What do you think?

Wade Galt  45:18

Sounds good. Thanks so much for having me.

Rob  45:20

Alright, thanks Wade. Until next time, Slow Down and Close More because when you do that, you will actually make more money.

V/O  45:31

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’s (608) 708-7569. Or you can email them to Questions@TheSlowPitch.com Slow Down and Close More.

Rob  46:21

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.