Indecision comes with a high price. I think most of us in business try to make the best decisions possible, but really it becomes a matter of saying, “okay, do I have all the information I need?” And if I do, then make the decision. Say yes, say no, but make the decision.

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I are back with a talk on the high price of indecision. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Thank you so much. It’s such a pleasure to be here. And I think this is something that we all suffer with, especially in a new business, just knowing what you should do.

What are your priorities? How can you tell that? Paralysis by analysis is very common.

David: Yeah, no question. And I think some people are more wired to be decisive while others are more wired to be indecisive.

If you’re decisive, dealing with indecisive people is extremely frustrating.

And if you’re indecisive, dealing with decisive people can feel a little intimidating. So it’s a challenge.

Jay: Yeah. And I think sometimes you need both. I mean, if you’re sitting around waiting to make a decision. You could miss the perfect opportunity, right? But if you move too fast, you’re probably not going to be prepared for that situation.

So we got to find balance in the force here. How do we do that?

David: Great question. Yeah. I think missed opportunities is definitely the first thing we tend to think of when it comes to indecision. But if we’re trying to find balance in the force, then that would also mean talking about, well, should decisive people do anything differently?

And my guess is that’s kind of a quick one. My guess would be to say, all right, if you think you’re too decisive, then maybe you need to take a step back, aand consider things a little more. But in business, wow, it’s much more detrimental in most cases, in my opinion, to be indecisive. And there’s a great quote from Tom Watson that says:

“Solve it. Solve it quickly, solve it right or wrong. If you solve it wrong, it will come back and slap you in the face, and then you can solve it right. Lying dead in the water and doing nothing is a comfortable alternative because it is without risk, but it is an absolutely fatal way to manage a business.”

So there are lots of schools of thought on this. The bottom line for most of us is that you’re better off making a decision, because if it’s the wrong decision, you’ll find out sooner, and then you can change it and make a better decision.

If it’s the right decision, then you’re already past the point where you would have been if you were still putting it off.

Jay: Yeah, I think part of this though is to be decisive, but to be informed in your decisiveness.

If you don’t have good tracking of what’s going on, like, we were decisive before, and this is how we learned, and we tracked it, and so next time we can move faster because we have some knowledge, we have some key performance indicators, those things are going to help our decisions go faster, and we’re going to be more confident in those decisions.

Because for me, sometimes when I feel like we’ve acted too soon, I’m not at my best. I’m hesitant because I’m hoping it’s going to work, but I’m not sure that there’s anything backing it up.

David: Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I think you also sort of raised an interesting point, which is the difference between informed decisions and uninformed decisions, right? I don’t think decisiveness means just making up your mind without having all the facts.

I’m saying basically, if you’ve got all the facts and you’re failing to decide, that to me is indecisiveness. If you’ve got all the facts and then you ARE deciding, that to me is decisiveness.

But I completely agree with you. If you don’t have all the information then it’s too soon to make a decision. But in sales situations, a lot of times salespeople struggle because the people they’re talking with don’t have all the information.

They don’t want to take the time to even gather all the information and they decide “no” before they have enough information to even make that sort of decision.

That’s frustrating from a sales standpoint. So for us as salespeople, it’s incumbent on us to let them know, “Hey, listen, are you sure you want to make this decision based on the limited information you have?”

And if they do, then, maybe they’re not the ideal prospects for us.

Jay: Yeah, I do a lot of sales now. I’m the front man for our company and I’m learning all of these things, especially a lot of things I’ve learned from the podcast that we do. And a lot of times when a customer has said something to me, I hear something in my head, “you know, you really should do this now.”

And then I’m like, “Oh, do I want to chase the customer away? Is this the right moment?” You know, they say something to me and it’s a moment to say, “no, this is why our services deal with exactly what you’re saying,” and to be very decisive in my response. That’s going to make me look more confident and more knowledgeable to the potential client.

The other way around, if I’m hesitant, it’s like, “does this guy really know what he’s talking about?”

David: Yeah, exactly. And I think when we have a better idea of the facts than our client or a prospective client does, we owe it to them to say, “Hey, listen, here’s what I think you might be missing.”

Ultimately it’s going to be their decision anyway. But I do think that we have a responsibility to point out, “Hey, look, yeah, you can do this three months from now. You can do this six months from now. You can do this next year, but what’s happening in the meantime?”

And it’s particularly frustrating. I had a situation recently where I was talking to someone who is in a situation where they need to grow their sales.

They were lacking the money they needed to make a decision that they wanted to make, and they decided instead that they were going to spend their money on something that was not going to produce any ROI for them for the foreseeable future. They felt like they had to get their ducks in a row before they could make the decision to do the thing that would allow them to generate the money that would allow them to pay somebody else maybe to get their ducks in a row, you know what I mean?

It’s frustrating, but these conversations are necessary. And when we’re dealing with indecisive people, I don’t think the goal is to bully them or try to convince or cajole them into making a decision that is not in their best interest.

But if we can see clearly that it IS in their best interest, and we don’t convey that to them, we allow them to go do something that is very likely going to be detrimental to them, then that’s on us.

Jay: Yeah, and I think a lot of that comes down to believing in your product. If you really think your product is going to help them, then you can be decisive in what you tell them. You can honestly say, look, you really need to do this now because it’s going to help you get closer to your goals.

In my case, I can say, if you don’t do this now, you’re going to guarantee to lose money because I deal with taxes. And you’re close to guaranteeing you’re going to hear from Uncle Sam soon because of how you’re doing it.

I’m not hyping it up. I’m not lying. Those are absolute truths. And as you said, I am doing them a disservice if I don’t let them know those things. So in those things, I’m very decisive.

David: Yeah, and I think most of us in business try to make the best decisions possible, but really it becomes a matter of saying, okay, do I have all the information I need? And if I do, then make the decision. Say yes, say no, but make the decision.

There are some people who want to sleep on it and then they wake up the next morning and they had a good night’s sleep, but they’re nowhere closer to a decision because they haven’t actually said to myself, okay, I’m going to think about what I heard. I’m going to make the call and I’m going to announce it tomorrow. Right?

Because then everybody’s on the same page. I understand where you are. You understand where I am. If we’re moving forward, great. If we’re not moving forward, at least we both know it. There are a lot of indecisive people who can convince themselves that they’re going to do something in the near future or the not too distant future.

And they really had no chance of doing it because they’re just not set up to do it.

Jay: Yeah. And this is something I struggle with. They’re on the phone. I’ve got them excited. They’re telling them they need it. And they’re like, okay, when we get off the phone, I’ll sign up. And then I can’t tell you how many of those I’ve lost because I got them psyched up and the minute they got off the phone.

Let’s say they were a hundred at excitement. When they hang up the phone, they’re now at 95. A couple of hours pass, now they’re here. And then oftentimes they’re like, okay, I wonder if I can find a cheaper price. And it all comes from the fact that I couldn’t close them when they were at the highest point.

And the reason I couldn’t do that is I wasn’t decisive. I wasn’t confident to just say those words. And those words are the hardest to me, okay? Let’s get you signed up right now. Here’s how you do it. That’s the final step I’m still working on.

David: Yeah. And I think we don’t want to be in a position where we’re trying to push them. You have to do it now. You have to do it now.

Because the honest truth is they don’t have to do it now. But if it’s to their advantage to do it now, then they really should. Why put it off? Why put it off for a week or a month or a year, if they can start getting the benefits right away.

Jay: Yeah, absolutely. Any other things they can do to get over paralysis by analysis?

David: Well, some of it is just recognizing it, recognizing that, okay, I really just need to get more decisive about things. I need to practice, really.

If you’re struggling with decisiveness, make a pact with yourself, decide that you’re going to start making decisions.

So it could be something small. If you’re talking to your wife or your husband and you’re saying, where do you want to go for dinner tonight? And they don’t know, and you don’t know, and nobody knows. Pick a place, you know, just pick a place and say, okay, how about we go here, see what happens.

Jay: Yeah, except with your wife, you pick a place and then they’re like, No, not there, even though they told you let’s go anywhere.

David: Yeah, but at least you made a decision, even if it was overruled.

Jay: Yeah, here’s what we try and do, and this has been probably the most helpful for me. is fortunately we have a system that records calls.

So after calls, once a week, my partner goes in and he listens to these calls and he doesn’t listen to be critical. He listens to find better ways and he has listened and given me incredible feedback about how I do these calls.

So having somebody else who has knowledge of the company who, it could be a boss, it could be a co worker, maybe co workers listen to each other.

And if you can give constructive feedback to each other, I’ll tell you what, Dave, that has helped me out more than anything.

David: Yeah. And having the list of bullet points of the primary advantages to them doing it, the disadvantages to them not doing it, that’s going to go a long way as well.

Jay: Yeah. All right.

How do people find out more?

David: I’m starting to sound like Robert Kennedy Jr. on this. Sorry. My voice is a little fried.. Go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with our team, and let’s see what we can do to get you from here to there with the least amount of delay, the least amount of indecision, and the least amount of procrastination.

If it turns out that we end up working together, that’s awesome. If we don’t, that’s okay too, but at least we’ll both know.

Jay: All right. Fantastic. Thank you so much for your time today.

David: Thank you, Jay.

Need to Be More Decisive or Make Better Decisions in Your Business?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

Particularly in the early stages, breaking through a sales plateau may just mean doing more of what you’re doing. But generally, at some point, we hit a plateau that is created by the fact that we can’t run any faster. We can’t do any more by ourselves.

So we either need to implement new procedures and new processes, we need to get some help, or something needs to change fundamentally in the business in order to get us to that next level.

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, cohost Jay McFarland, and I will be discussing the idea of breaking through your sales plateau. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: It’s so good to be here again with you David, and as always, I’m very excited about this topic. I know businesses that hit these thresholds. It can be a monumental task to get to the next level and they’re not sure how to do it. Is it, is it marketing? Is it adding new products? I think that’s what a lot of them try to do. They’re like, well, let’s add 10 more products to the lineup and then we’ll do it. And oftentimes that can just make the situation worse and not better.

David: Yeah, it’s true. Most businesses, I think it’s safe to say, at some point run into some sort of plateau. They hit a level of sales and they can’t get past it. I believe in small businesses this is particularly true, where you’re just working and pushing and you’re trying to get to that next benchmark. And you just can’t reach it.

And there are thresholds, I believe in small business, getting to your first hundred thousand in gross sales and then your first 250, and then you hit 500 and then a million and then 2 million and going from there.

And in the early stages, you can generally do pretty well, like to get from a hundred thousand to 250 is often easier than it is to get from a million to 2 million.

But most of us, at some point, will encounter some sort of sales plateau. You get there, you see it, you’re targeting it, you’re working toward it and you just can’t seem to hit it.

And so it’s really just a matter of getting stuck. It’s like, I feel like I’m stuck and I’m here and I need to be here and I’m not sure what to do next.

Jay: Yeah. And I wonder how much of it is that they’re not really sure how they got to the first plateau. I mean, they may think that they know,

David: That’s true.

Jay: But it could be something completely different. And this could go back to something we talked about in a previous podcast: following up with your customers.

Find out why they purchased, how they feel about their purchase. Are they returning customers? Are they not returning customers? So if you didn’t understand why they bought in the first place and how they felt about that purchase, it’s going to be hard breaking through that next plateau.

David: It is, absolutely. And the biggest hangup that I see for most people is not knowing, “what do I do next?”

And as you indicated, people get to a certain point in some cases, they’re not sure how they did it. What’s that referred to as? Unconscious competence?

Jay: Mm-hmm,

David: Where I’m doing things and it’s working, but I’m not even sure of what I’ve done. So I haven’t gotten around to building a system around it to put that into place so I can replicate it.

But there’s also the idea that what gets me to here will not necessarily get me to here. Right? So what gets me to level one won’t necessarily get me to level two.

That’s not always the case, particularly in the early stages, you can do more of what you’re doing to get to a higher level. But generally, at some point, we hit a sales plateau that is created by the fact that we can’t run any faster. We can’t do any more by ourselves.

So we either need to implement new procedures and new processes. Or we need to get some help. Or something needs to change fundamentally in the business, in order to get us to that next level.

Jay: Yeah, something that can be very hard for people, delegation, right? Letting go of your baby, right?

David: Yeah.

Jay: That you worked so hard on. And now you’re going to trust some new employee with some new aspect. It’s not easy to hand those things over. But often, if you’re not willing to do it, you’re not going to grow.

David: That’s true. And some people don’t want to. Some people are like, okay, look, I don’t want to have employees. I’m comfortable with the way things are. And if they are, then that’s fine. If they want to get to another level of sales though, then it’s really going to be a lot more about processes.

If you’re determined not to get additional help, at least in terms of human resources, then you’re going to have to figure things out in terms of either technological resources or being able to do more of what you need to do so that you can get to the levels you want to reach.

So in looking at getting stuck, at hitting a sales plateau that you can’t reach, one of the first things I would suggest is that we ask ourselves, okay, what’s causing this? Am I just not able to get enough customers?

In other words, could I handle more business, but I either don’t know how to do it, or I’m not successful in doing what I know?

Or I’m doing what I know and it’s not working? Because if that’s the issue, if it’s just a matter of getting more clients, there are very specific things that we can do to make that happen.

On the other hand, if we’ve got a lot of clients and we feel like we can’t keep up with the clients we have, then that is certainly going to prevent us from getting to the next level. Unless we can either leverage things so we can get more from the clients we have without having to add more or we figure out how to get some help, depending on our willingness to want to do that.

Jay: Yeah. And, an important one, can we take our existing clientele and get them to come back? We’ve talked about this before, right. You know,

David: mm-hmm.

Jay: It’s going to be easier to get an existing customer to repurchase if they were satisfied and if that’s your type of product. Some products are one and done, and that’s just the way it is.

But if you can have a product where they’re like, I like this, I need more of this. I want to come back for this… having systems to remind them to come back, drip, programs and those types of things, to get them to be a return customer. That could be the biggest source of your income. And you’re not spending extra money to acquire new customers.

David: Exactly. And when we get to a point where we know we want to be somewhere, and we’re not quite there, identifying what that biggest bottleneck is, is one of the most important things.

There’s a big distinction between the idea of potential, where I could potentially be, and what’s keeping me from getting there. And a lot of people focus on the idea of adding more potential.

Well, maybe if I add this or I add this, or I add this, I add all these different things for the potential of getting to where I want to be. And instead, to get past that, what they really should be looking at is “what is the bottleneck?”

What is the single biggest contributor to the fact that I’m not there yet? What is the one primary thing that is preventing me from getting past that?

Is it the people? Is it the customers I’m interacting with? There are a lot of businesses who, if they want to reach their sales levels, they’re going to have to jettison some customers who are not spending as much money with them.

A lot of times, low-dollar, low-profit clients who take up a lot of time, who are very demanding, can take up valuable time that could be spent with people who understand and appreciate better, the value that you bring to the table.

So if it is a situation where you don’t want to add staff, then you’re going to have to be extremely selective, going back to another point we raised in a previous podcast, about the people that you bring in the door to begin with. The prospects and clients that you choose to interact with.

Jay: Yeah, and in that case, you’re going to have to have a system to identify what type of customer they are, classify them and then figure out is this the type of customer that we want?

If it is, then you’re going to want to target them and focus more on them. If it’s not, then you’re going to kind of want to let them slowly disappear so that you can focus on the ones that you want.

David: Yeah. And I think for a lot of us, if you’ve been in business for any length of time, you have a favorite customer or two. And so a really easy exercise you can do is take a look at those customers and say, okay, what do they have in common?

What is it that I like about them? Is it their attitude? Is it the way they communicate? I mean, communication is huge.

One of the very first things that will tell you if you’ve got a problem client is their unwillingness to communicate. If they’re not communicating the way that you need to have them communicate in order to fulfill an order or get the work done, that is a relationship that’s really in trouble.

And, in hindsight, every time I’ve had, in business, a relationship that didn’t work out, it almost invariably came down to a problem with communication. Where the person that I was trying to help was not willing to communicate enough to allow me to do that. And in today’s society, in today’s economy, we refer to the term “ghosting,” where you’re trying to reach somebody and they’re not getting back to you.

And that’s a bad sign. When people do that to you consistently, you need to ask yourself, okay, is this the type of client that I really want to continue to interact with on an ongoing basis? Or am I better served to find clients who are open, and willing to engage, and responsive, so that we can do the things that we’re setting out to do together?

Jay: Yeah, I love that. And also the customer who is responsive to your suggestions and ideas. I love the question when there’s been an issue, “what can I do to make it right?” I just love this question. Right? Let them decide. But we all know that there are customers who, no matter what you do, they just want to be mad. They just want to be angry. They just want to vent. And they’ve already decided they’re not going to use you. You have to be able to know at some point where you’re like, okay, I’ve offered three or four solutions. They’re not biting on any of them. They just want to continue to rail on me.

I mean, at that point, you just have to cut bait and run. Because you just don’t have the time in your day to deal with those type of people.

David: Yeah. I mean, you have to do the best you can. If there’s something that you did wrong, you need to do your very best to make it right. Do what you feel is appropriate.

And if that’s still not good enough, and if you’re not able to do whatever it is, they’re suggesting. Yeah. Then you’re going to have to figure out a way to wrap that up as amicably as possible.

But also recognize that you can do as great a job as you possibly could for a person. And for whatever reason, if they’re not happy, they can still go online and tell a hundred people about you.

Jay: That’s true.

David: Right?

Jay: That’s true.

David: So there’s this balance, particularly now, where you want to do your very best for the clients that you’re working with. You want to make sure that they’re satisfied as much as you possibly can satisfy them. But as you indicated, there are people who are just not going to be satisfied no matter what you do.

And in those situations, sometimes you just have to cut your losses and take your lumps. And very often people will recognize when they hear people like that complaining, that “oh, okay. I think this is kind of what they do.”

And as long as you’re not doing that with many people. I mean, if that happens once or twice, and you’ve got people over the course of a career where you’ve had a situation like that, that’s not going to cause a problem.

Now, if a lot of people are reacting to you like that, then you got to really start looking at what you’re doing, what you’re putting out there and how you’re responding to them.

Jay: Yeah, asking yourself those difficult questions. But you know, we’re talking about sales plateaus and overcoming sales plateaus. You mentioned, I mean the ideal is to have a customer review system where people can see all these five-star reviews.

I am amazed at how much I use those, even though I know that a lot of them, I don’t know how true they are, but it has still become part of my life to look at those reviews.

And if there are negative reviews right off the top, I’m moving on to the next person. They’ve lost me instantly. So that’s an important part of this process.

David: Yeah, absolutely. I know when I’m online, I definitely look at the reviews and I try to make sure there are enough of them.

Jay: Mm-hmm

David: If there are three of them and they’ve got all five stars, I could be skeptical. If they have hundreds of reviews or thousands of reviews, and they’re all five stars, I’m more inclined to believe it.

Now that might be able to be done with bots, I don’t know. But I tend to have more confidence when there are actual comments there that look legit. And when there are enough of them.

One of the things that we have on our website is what I call our Wall of Fame, which is clients that we’ve worked with, that we’ve helped to grow their sales and profits. And they’re at TopSecrets.com/results.

If you go to that page, there are dozens or more. There are videos. There are audios. There’s text. All the people who have recently commented on experiences they’ve had so that when somebody’s considering doing business with us, I can say, Hey, listen, take a look at our Wall of Fame. I would love to see you on here. Right?

So they can look at it from two standpoints. Not just, these are people who have been helped by this company, but also, wow, I think I’d like to be on there too. I’d like to be on the Wall of Fame. I’d like to be another happy customer, getting the kind of results that these other people are getting.

And that also goes to the idea of community-building and interacting with people the way that we need to interact with them, to create the results we’re looking for. So from the standpoint of breaking through your sales plateau, it’s sort of all of the above.

It’s about saying there are things that are preventing me from getting from here to there.

It could be the quality of customers I’m interacting with. It could be the quantity of customers I’m interacting with. It could be my own internal structures, systems, staffing.

So identifying certainly the top one, but the top two or three primary obstacles, and then systematically tackling those, is really what’s going to get you there.

Jay: Yeah, I love that. But having an awareness of it. Talking about it. Discussing about it, you know, in your company and identifying those things. And, that’s what you’ll help them do as you workshop this through the week.

David: Exactly. In the Inner Circle this week, we’ll be discussing how do we start breaking through our sales plateau?

And in situations like this, it’s great to be able to interact with somebody who has a very specific situation, where they’ve been stuck at a certain point for a long time. And within a matter of a couple of questions, we can very often help them to pinpoint the area where they’re stuck so that they can apply some focus on that and start to get the results that they’re looking for.

So if you’re not already a member, be sure to go to TopSecrets.com/ic. If you’re already a member, just log into the Inner Circle website and we will see you inside.

Jay: Well, I love that. Real actionable advice that can make a difference, right away.

David: Exactly.

Jay: All right, David, it’s been such a pleasure. Thank you.

David: Thank you, Jay.

Need to Start Breaking Through a Sales Plateau?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

From a sales mindset connection standpoint, market domination starts with the idea that it’s possible. And if you’re not sure that it’s possible, ask yourself this, your very best clients. When they think about who to go to for the products and services you offer, who do they think about?

Obviously, if they’re your very best clients, it’s you. They’re thinking about you. So you’ve already achieved a level of mindset or market domination with your very best clients. That demonstrates that it can be done. So then it’s a matter of saying, okay, well, how can we do this with other people?

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Bianca Istvan and I will be discussing the topic of the sales mindset connection. Welcome Bianca.

Bianca: Thank you so much, David. Very happy to be here with you. And I’m just curious, what do you say to people who think mindset is woo-woo?

David: Yeah, there are a lot of people who feel that way. To some extent, I’ve been one of them. And in fact, Bianca is our newest addition to our team here at Top Secrets. She and I actually met in a clubhouse group years ago, and we were talking about the idea of mindset there.

And I said, well, I’m not really all that much into mindset. Most of my training is about the specifics of what to do. And Bianca said to me, well, I don’t think so. Everything you talk about is pretty much mindset related. And I didn’t realize it at the time, but it really kind of opened my eyes to the fact that, yeah, a lot of what we do, even though it’s not geared to be about mindset, is about mindset.

So the whole woo-woo thing really kind of touches a nerve with me because I felt that way in the past. It’s like, oh, mindset, well, no, you just need to do the stuff. But the reality of the situation is that if you don’t have the right mindset, if you’re not willing to take the necessary actions, then you’re not going to be able to get there.

So it seems to me there’s always a mindset element that has to be there, whether or not you really want to think about it.

Bianca: That’s so true. And you know, for me, it’s great to see that. I mean, you have this ability to connect with people on another level and that’s, you know, congrats to you for having this mindset. Fantastic.

David: Well, thanks. And so do you. And that’s actually how we started communicating was in this clubhouse group and so when we connected again recently, I just thought it would be so great to have you on our team because I know that that’s an important aspect of what you do and your communication with people has been great.

So I’m really glad we’ve been able to put this together. But for most salespeople, it seems to me that mindset may be in the back of their mind. They may be thinking about it, but for the most part, they’re probably just thinking, How do I make this next sale? How do I make this next contact? And so while I don’t think you have to spend a ton of time thinking about mindset every day, just recognize that if you don’t at least have it going on somewhere in the back of your mind, you’re probably not going to do the work you have to do in order to get it started.

Bianca: Yeah, that’s so right. And I know you talk a lot about the first contact and what that means, but please tell me, you know, why do you think the mindset is so important when having the first contact with your potential client?

David: Well, first contact is difficult for a lot of people, and a lot of people think of first contact as just being cold calls. And that’s one example of first contact. And in those situations, mindset is really hard for some people. J just the idea of the fear of picking up the phone is an issue for people, which is all a mindset thing.

If they can’t get past that, if they can’t Overcome the mental blocks that are involved in having to pick up the phone and initiate contact with a stranger, then it’s definitely going to impact them. But it doesn’t just mean for cold calls. Some people feel the same way about a social media post. I’m posting something, I’m kind of afraid to put it out there, I’m a little nervous about it.

And until you get to the point where you can get your mindset working for you, you’re not going to be successful with it. It reminds me of that quote from William Shakespeare, who said, Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt. And what that means to me is that if we’re afraid to do things, we’re not going to take the actions, and then it’s impossible to get the results because you’re not taking the actions.

Bianca: Wow. With that, I have another question. I think that’s important for people to hear as well. Like what are the mindset aspects of the Total Market Domination program? So what’s the secret?

David: That’s a fun one. Total Market Domination, because some people hear that title and they’re like, that sounds crazy. That sounds like too much. It’s over the top or whatever. But there is definitely a mindset associated with market domination. For some people, it is crazy. It’s like, oh, market domination, I want to take over the world.

That’s not what we’re talking about when we refer to market domination. What we’re talking about is creating an environment in which your very best prospects for the products and services you offer, Know who you are and know what you do so that they can make a thumbs up or thumbs down decision about whether or not they want to do business with you.

That’s it. Because if they have the ability to do that, then you at least have a shot at the business. And to me, market domination doesn’t mean that you get all the business because no one gets all the business. But what it does mean is that they know enough about you that they at least know that you do what you do so they can potentially choose you.

If they don’t know that, if you haven’t created that awareness, then you can’t dominate anything. And in every market, there are winners and losers. There are leaders and followers. And the leaders are those who are creating that awareness among the people in their market who need to be able to buy from them.

And the followers are those who are just watching what everybody else does and then trying to take action on that.

So from a mindset standpoint, market domination for me starts with the idea that It’s possible. And if you’re not sure that it’s possible, ask yourself this, your very best clients. When they think about who to go to for the products and services you offer, who do they think about?

Obviously, if they’re your very best clients, it’s you. They’re thinking about you. So you’ve already achieved a level of mindset or market domination with your very best clients. That demonstrates that it can be done. So then it’s a matter of saying, okay, well, how can we do this with other people? How can we do this with total strangers?

Or how can we do this with people who may have heard of us before, but who have never really taken on action on anything that we did?

Bianca: Wow, I’m actually goosebumped, you know, and hearing your answer because it’s so important when you work with someone, especially, you know, to connect with them just beyond of the professional level and to work with the mindset as well.

And what’s the best way for people to reach out to us? I think that would be my last question.

David: Yeah, well, best way to go is to go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with us, and let’s figure out exactly where you are in terms of being able to accomplish the things that you want to accomplish.

Some of it may be mindset, which we can certainly address, but a lot of it may be the specific actions that you’re either taking or not taking that need to create that awareness among the people that you’re looking to reach. So if you’re looking for help, TopSecrets.com/call, and we look forward to talking with you.

Bianca: Likewise. Thank you so much.

David: Thank you, Bianca.

Ready to Adjust Your Mindset to Improve Your Sales?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

Staying in touch with prospects is required, and creating value in your communication is certainly something that will keep you from being a pest in sales. Because if what you’re saying to them is going to help them to accomplish a result, they’ll be a lot more likely to pay attention to it.

But ultimately it’s required. You can’t just skip it.


David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Bianca Istvan and I will be discussing the topic of staying in touch without being a pest. Welcome back, Bianca.

Bianca: Thanks so much, David. And wow, such a topic. Please tell us, why is it so critical to stay in touch?

David: Well, I think for anyone who is in sales, you recognize that you’re probably not going to sell something in one call.

You’re going to need to have multiple points of outreach, multiple contacts with a prospect or client before you’re going to be able to make that first sale, let alone the second or third or fourth. So staying in touch is obviously a critical part. of the process, being able to reach out to them on an ongoing basis without coming across as annoying or without coming across as what most people would describe in sales as a pest.

I think this is something that more salespeople tend to think of than prospects or clients. I mean, unless you’re really annoying, right? In which case they may think you’re a pest. What I’ve heard from a lot of salespeople is this exact thing. How do I Remain in touch with the people that I need to be in touch with without being a pest.

And so again, I think that’s why this topic is such an important one.

Bianca: Now that’s, that’s absolutely so right. And that leads me to my next question, like what do you think people mean when talking about being a pest?

David: I think the concern is what’s going on in their head, what they’re thinking about.

If I’m a salesperson and I’m going into any interaction with another human being with the idea that I want them to buy something. If that’s my motivation, then it’s likely I may be thinking in the back of my mind, oh, I hope I’m not being a pest about this, But, If you can make it about the person that you’re interacting with, then it’s totally different because now you’re not just there to sell them a product. You’re there to try to help them with whatever it is that they’re trying to do. So if you’re selling custom imprinted promotional products, you’re not just selling them something that has their logo on it, you’re selling them awareness or you’re selling them more sales in their business, or you’re selling them the idea of being in front of more people.

So when you think of it in terms of what it actually delivers for them, it makes it a lot better for you.

Bianca: Well, that’s so true. And yes, absolutely right. But what about, you know, because this is a sensitive topic as well. And what if you’re afraid to make those calls? What if you’re afraid to send that first message or you just think you can do it?

David: That goes back to mindset, which I know we’ve talked about in previous podcasts as well. But I think if you’re in sales, you recognize that you have to do it, right? There’s no alternative. You have to be able to reach out. Now, it doesn’t have to be a phone call. It doesn’t have to be a networking event. It doesn’t have to be an ad on social media. It can be lots of different things. So I think if you recognize that there are different things that you can do, and you can find out something that is more comfortable for you, that will certainly help.

If you also think about the concept that we’ve talked about in the past about creating value in your communication, that is certainly something that will keep you from being a pest, because if what you’re saying to them is going to help them to accomplish a result. They’re going to be a lot more likely to pay attention to it, but ultimately it’s required.

You can’t just skip it. So I think it’s a matter of asking yourself, what do I have to do? And how do I have to present myself in a way that is going to allow me to feel good about what it is that I’m saying to this person?

Bianca: Wow. And at the end of the day, it’s all related to the mindset. Love it. And please tell us, David, what’s the best way for people to reach out to us?

David: Well, the best way to go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with us to find out. Okay. If you need to be able to reach out to people on an ongoing basis, and you’re either not comfortable doing it, or you’d like to maybe automate some of that, or you’d like to be able to do it in different ways so that you’re not coming across like a pest, we would be happy to have that discussion with you.

Happy to help, to see if we can help you to accomplish more. So TopSecrets.com/call.

Bianca: You heard that. Thank you so much.

David: Thank you, Bianca.

Need to Be in Touch with More Prospects & Clients Without Being a Pest?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

There are steps involved with making prospects and clients comfortable with you. You can’t go from, “I have no idea who you are,” to “I’m completely comfortable with you and I trust you implicitly” without steps. It just doesn’t happen.

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Bianca Istvan and I will be discussing the topic of making prospects and clients comfortable with you. Welcome back, Bianca.

Bianca: Thank you so much, David.

Definitely one of my favorite topics. And please tell us, what does it take to make prospects comfortable with us?

David: Yeah, that’s sort of a magic key, isn’t it? What does it take? Well, I think it takes desire, certainly starts with the desire to want to do it, because a lot of times we’re just so focused on selling what it is that we want to sell that we don’t really think about that too much.

We just think in terms of introducing ourselves and letting them know what we do and hoping that they’re going to want to buy it. But so much of that, can never really happen until and unless we get to the point where they’re comfortable enough to even want to hear what it is that we have to offer.

Bianca: Well, that’s absolutely great. And yeah, I definitely agree with you. So who do we need to do this with?

David: Pretty much everyone, pretty much every prospect, every client we ever interact with, we need to create a level of comfort.

In some of my early training, I talked about sort of four levels, if you picture a target with archery practice it’s a series of rings and outside the rings, there’s this area outside the target. That I think of as total obscurity. They don’t know who you are. They don’t know what you do.

They have no idea why they should do business with you at all. So that’s sort of outside the target. And then the first level inside the target is recognition. They recognize that you’re alive. They recognize that you’re taking in air on the planet, but they don’t know exactly what you do or how you do it, or if they should use you at all.

They just recognize you. Okay, I recognize you. So you move from obscurity to recognition. That’s sort of the first step. And then after they recognize you, then you can start to move to comfort. Because until I even know who you are, there’s no way I’m going to feel comfortable with you. So there’s that next level.

So you move from obscurity to recognition, and then recognition to comfort. And then from Comfort, you can eventually, if you do your job well and consistently, you can get to loyalty, right? We didn’t even talk about loyalty in the topic today, but ultimately that’s kind of the goal.

And Comfort is one of the steps we need to get through in order to get to any sort of level of customer loyalty. But when we talk about making prospects and clients feel comfortable with us, it really is a process.

And in our total market domination training, we talk about different methods of interaction. In other words, we have entry level awareness.

So entry level awareness is designed to make someone aware of the fact that we exist and we do what we do. From there, we can then move on to that comfort level awareness, which is designed to expand the relationship a little more.

Okay, I know who you are, I know what you do, and now I feel comfortable enough with you to place that first time order with you.

And then once that happens, if I deliver well and consistently, and then you order again, and I deliver well and consistently, then eventually that can lead to loyalty. But I think a lot of it goes to recognizing that there are steps involved here. You can’t go from, I have no idea who you are, to I’m completely comfortable with you and I trust you implicitly.

It just doesn’t happen.

Bianca: Wow. And that’s a great answer, but I know for some people it may be like a lot. So how do we really do it?

David: How do we create that level of comfort?

Bianca: Yes.

David: A lot of it comes from our interactions and asking ourselves, how can we create value in our communications with people? If all we’re talking about is what we do and how we do it and why people should buy from us, we’re going to lose them.

It’s like, you’ve lost me at hello. So creating that level of comfort is about finding out about them, finding out what they need, what they like, what they’re looking to accomplish, and then not even trying to sell them anything until we’ve determined that they have some sort of a need. I That gets into a whole qualification procedure and things like that, which is the subject of another podcast.

But that level of comfort, it requires interaction, requires having conversations with people that let them know that you’re a human being and you’re there to help. And if you can help them, you will. And if you can’t help them, you’ll let them know that too. So that if they feel like your only purpose for interacting with them is to sell them something, you’re not going to create that level of comfort.

Bianca: And this is so true. So thanks again, David . But you know, what about people who just feel like they can’t do it? Like people who actually struggle with this.

David: If you’re struggling to interact with people in a way that allows them to be comfortable and allows you to be comfortable, You want to start by asking yourself, why is that the case?

Am I not confident enough in the products and services that I’m offering? Am I not confident enough in my knowledge about those products and services? Am I not confident or comfortable enough in the questions that I’m asking people to try to get to the heart of what it is that they really need and what they’re looking to accomplish?

Normally. It’s about your relationship with the other person. One of the first live training sessions that I ever did, it was at an ASI show in Las Vegas, a lot of years ago, and I was doing the full day new distributor training for that show. And I got up there and I was so excited to be able to present the topic that I just went at it, And it was basically six hours.

It was four 90 minute sessions that took place over the period of the day from nine to noon, and then from like one till four, whatever it was. And at the end of the presentation, somebody came up to me and they said, wow, I really enjoyed that presentation, but weren’t you nervous when you were doing that?

And I wasn’t nervous. And the reason I wasn’t nervous is because it was all about them. I wasn’t thinking about, Oh, am I going to say the wrong thing? Or, Oh, what if this happens? Or what if that happens? I was thinking, I wish that someone would have told me this when I was starting out in the business.

And so I think if you’re able to keep it about them and not yourself, you’re going to make them a lot more comfortable.

Bianca: Wow. Thank you so much for providing so much value, David. And what would you recommend for the next steps?

David: Well, for your next steps, if you’re just looking to allow people to feel more comfortable with you, ask yourself, what do I need to be doing better and differently to focus on my prospects, focus on them to try to find out what they need and how you can help them.

And be honest enough to be able to say to them, if you can’t help them, let them know that so they don’t feel like you’re just in it for the money. So, so much of that is really about creating relationships, which is probably another subject for another podcast, but it has to start with that. The only way that you create comfort with people is being open enough and being honest enough with them to let them know that if you can help them, you want to do that.

And if you can’t. that’s okay too.

Bianca: Well, thank you so much, David. And one more question for you. What’s the best way for people to reach out to us?

David: Well, you can go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with us to find out, if you’re in a situation where you need to be able to bring new customers through the door like clockwork.

And if you’re not comfortable or confident enough to be able to do that, we can certainly walk you through a series of questions to try to figure out If what we have to offer is of value to you, and once again, if it is, we’ll be happy to tell you that. If it’s not, we’ll tell you that too, because we’re not trying to bang a square peg into a round hole here.

If what we can do for you will allow you to achieve the results you’re looking for, we’d be happy to do it. So once again, it’s TopSecrets.com/call.

Bianca: Thank you so much, David.

David: Thank you, Bianca.

Ready to Make Prospects and Clients Comfortable with You?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

Once you outperform your competitors in terms of the way that you do things, the way that you make your presentations, the way that you interact with your clients, the way that you follow up and service them — when you’re already outperforming your other competitors in that area, then the only thing you can really do is focus on how can I outperform my previous performance?

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Bianca Istvan and I will be discussing the topic of outperforming your top competitor. Welcome back, Bianca.

Bianca: Thanks so much, David. So happy to be here with you. And what are we talking about? And what does that mean to outperform your top competitor?

David: Yeah, great question. For a lot of people, we kind of feel like we need to do it. We want to do it, but we’re not quite sure how or what or even who they are. So, what it means to me is that we are doing a better job at the things that need to be done to be able to deliver a positive result for our clients.

So outperforming a top competitor means that we’re doing it better. We’re doing it differently. And we’re able to convey that to people in a way where they understand it. They understand that there’s a difference between the way that we deliver things and the way that other people deliver things.

Bianca: Wow, that’s absolutely fantastic. And, you know, thanks for bringing so much awareness because yeah, it’s a lot of confusion around this topic. And you mentioned something about who our competitor is. So how do you even determine who that is?

David: For a lot of people, when you’re out there in the market and you’re talking to people about buying your products and services, they’ll say, Oh, well, I deal with this person or I deal with that person.

So that’s a good way to find out who your top competitors are. Because if you keep hearing the same names over and over again, that’s a pretty good indication that they’re a top competitor.

Also, very often when we’re starting out in a market, we may be aware of sort of the big dog in the market, the person who is already recognized as a leader.

So, you may just know when you’re going in the person who does the most advertising or who seems to be the best known in the marketplace. That’s also a good way to determine, okay, this might be one of my top competitors.

Ultimately, we need to decide who we see as our top competitors. But that’s really just the starting point. Because I think that people make a big mistake when they focus on outperforming other people as their top competitors versus getting to the point where they ultimately have to outperform themselves, right?

So I think ultimately we want to get to a point where we are our own top competitor that we’re trying to outperform.

Because once you’ve outperformed your other competitors in terms of the way that you do things, the way that you make your presentations, the way that you interact with your clients, the way that you follow up and service them.

When you’re already outperforming your other competitors in that area, then the only thing you can really do is focus on how can I outperform my previous performance?

Bianca: Wow, that’s absolutely a great answer. And I heard there a lot of hows. So how do you really outperform your top competitor?

David: Well, a lot of it has to do with determining what is it that we’re saying to people.

How are we saying it? How often are we saying it? So it really boils down to a lot of our interactions with our clients. How often we’re communicating with them, the very specific things that we’re saying. The way that we’re performing.

Are we able to deliver what they’re looking for in a timely manner? Can we provide better quality products than our competitors? So a lot of it is really looking at the specifics of the job itself that needs to get done, and the way that we do those things.

So, I think when most people think in terms of outperforming their top competitor, they might think in terms of, I want to be able to make more money than they do, or I want to be able to have more clients than they do.

And while that’s true, the how of it is really what’s most important. It comes from the things that you’re going to be doing with them in order to create the better results so that they go to you instead of to your competitor.

Bianca: Wow, that’s such great information. And I think people just listening to this podcast are going to have more awareness of how to deal with this topic because, it’s definitely not an easy one. And I think it’s important to talk about what if you’re not convinced you can do it. And I know you talk a lot about this, so please, tell us something.

David: Well, we touched on mindset in a previous podcast. So some of it does come down to that. If you think that you can’t outperform your competitors, you have to ask yourself, what am I doing then that even makes me deserve the business, right?

To some extent, you have to feel that you can outperform your competitors. You have to feel like you’re offering your customers something that your competitors don’t offer them, because without something like that, it’s going to be very difficult to differentiate you from your competitors.

So if you’re looking at that situation saying, well, what if I don’t feel like I can do it, then look at the specific things you’re doing and ask yourself, what can I do better and differently to be able to make that happen?

So again, it’s kind of a mindset issue, but ultimately it’s going to boil down to performance.

Bianca: That’s why you’re an expert of mindset. And I really hope people are taking notes on this because it’s such valuable information. So I have to take advantage of this moment and to ask you one more question. What’s one of the next, what’s one of the steps to outperform, David?

David: Okay. Well, when you think in terms of your first step, your next step, I would start by looking at what is your initial contact with the prospects and clients you’re dealing with?

Am I meeting them at a networking function? Am I calling them on the phone? Am I sending them a message through social media? Because that’s going to set the tone for the relationship.

So if you want to start out by outperforming your competitors, ask yourself, how are they experiencing me to begin with? Because if I pick up the phone and I call you and I say, Hey, Bianca, I’m Dave, I sell stuff, you want to buy something?

That’s going to have a completely different experience, going to create a completely different event in your mind in terms of what that relationship is likely to be.

Whereas if I can create value in our communication, which is actually something we’ll talk about in a future podcast, that’s going to go a long way to outperform your competition.

Because so many of our competitors are just focused on making the sale that when you differentiate yourself by creating value, establishing those relationships, and just doing everything that needs to be done better and differently, then it becomes a lot easier to outperform.

Bianca: Wow, thanks so much for sharing this with us because this is absolutely a gold mine. So thank you. And I have one more question for you before I let you go. What is the best way for people to reach out to us?

David: Best way to do it is to go to TopSecrets. com slash call, schedule a call to find out, okay, if you’re in a situation where you need to perform better, you need to maybe get business that you’re not getting because someone else in your market is getting it.

Let’s have a conversation. We can walk you through a process to find out where the potential bottlenecks are and how we can help. If we can help you, we’ll let you know that. If we can’t help, we’ll let you know that too. So just go to TopSecrets. com slash call. We’d love to have that conversation.

Bianca: Thank you so much, David.

David: Thank you, Bianca.

Ready to Outperform Your Competitors?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

Brute force selling usually comes about when someone feels like they have to sell their product or service, regardless of the needs, wants, or desires of their prospect. The alternative is better understanding, relationship building, and effective qualification.

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, cohost Jay McFarland, and I will be discussing the idea of brute force selling. Welcome, Jay.

Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David. I know we’ve talked about a lot of different issues, you know, generating leads and those types of things. I’m very anxious to talk about this brute force. When I hear it, as a customer, I’m like “brute for selling? What exactly do you mean here?” Because I might want to run away from it.

The Case Against Brute Force Selling

David: Yeah, well, I’m not really here today to advocate for brute force selling, okay? So, definitely not my first choice, but it seems to me like there are so many people, so many industries that tend to engage in it, that I thought we should probably have the discussion.

Jay: Yeah. I mean, nothing could be worse than chasing potential clients away. I think there’s a fine line between brute force and still trying to help customers understand the importance of your products and using good sales techniques. It’s really a fine line. Isn’t it?

David: It is. There’s definitely a balance. And I think there’s a big difference between persistence and brute force selling. But to get to the core of it. I think one of the biggest problems that a lot of small business owners and salespeople have today is that they think in terms of selling.

I have to sell this product, or I have to sell this idea. I have to sell this concept. I have to sell this customer. “I have to sell,” being the main thing.

When you’re approaching someone for the first time with the idea of, “I have to sell,” it’s easy to slip into the wrong gear about trying to push what you have onto them before you’ve even identified, whether they have a need desire, money, budget, willingness to spend, any of those things.

When I think in terms of brute force selling, to me, it’s often about people who have gotten into sales. They’ve been given maybe a lead sheet or in the old days, it was a phone book by their manager who said, “Go make sales. Knock yourself out.”

And when you don’t know how to do that well, then trying to sort of push or bully or cajole people into buying from you becomes the default.

So when the focus is just on sales as the first, middle, and end of the process, it’s kind of a lose/lose for both the salesperson and the prospect. Also for the company. So it’s a lose all the way around.

Effective Qualification is the Key

If we can train salespeople on the idea of first determining need, identifying whether or not this person is a good candidate for what we’re selling. I mean, we’re really just talking about qualifying. And a lot of salespeople and even a lot of sales managers fail to make the distinction between qualification and selling.

When we’re qualifying somebody, we’re not trying to convince or persuade them to buy our stuff. We’re trying to find out if our stuff even makes sense for them.

And what I’ve seen over the years is that there are a lot of salespeople who waste enormous amounts of time pushing and trying to sell to people who have absolutely no capability even to buy what it is that they’re selling.

Without taking that step back and saying, okay, let’s do a little qualification first. Let’s find out what this person is dealing with, and what sort of help they need. And if I can even help them, if you do that first, then you can find out pretty quickly if somebody is a good prospect for you or not.

And if they’re not, then rather than trying to push them into buying something that they don’t want or can’t afford you can thank them for their time. And you can actually move on and get in front of somebody who has a much better likelihood of doing business with you.

Jay: Yeah. So you’re not wasting your time. I love this idea. I also think that qualifying them in advance will help you with the sales process because you’re going to be able to identify pain points.

You’re going to build a relationship with them while you’re trying to qualify them. And so that can help you potentially close the sale later on. If you just dive in and try and close instantly, you’re probably lessening the chances that you’re going to accomplish that goal.

David: No question. And I think there’s also in a lot of businesses, the element of preparation. Laying the groundwork ahead of time. Marketing. Creating an environment in which the people you’re approaching may be aware of you even before you meet them. Right?

A good example is this podcast. If somebody’s watching this podcast, if they’ve been watching it for any length of time, they feel like they have a reasonably good idea of you and me and kind of how we are and the way that we approach things. So that if they were to have a conversation with us, it would be pretty consistent because they know what to expect.

If they’ve never talked to either of us, and I’m just all of a sudden calling them on the phone, calling that same person. “Hi, I’m Dave. I help people grow their sales and profits.”

Who are you? Right? It’s just it’s not ideal from a positioning standpoint.

And so a lot of brute force selling can be avoided when we are able to create that environment first. Sort of tenderizing the prospect. It’s not a great analogy, but setting the stage ahead of time so that when we actually interact with them, we can qualify them quickly, and find out if we have a fit. And if we do, then we can get to the selling.

Jay: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, I’ve always believed that it’s about relationships first.

People will be much more comfortable. They’ll be much more receptive to hearing from you. and I think, you know, even if that relationship is just them watching the two of us via a podcast for weeks at a time, they start to feel like, you know each other and

David: Right.

Jay: So that’s a great segue into the process. If you are cold calling, going through that process of interviewing them will build a relationship. If you show interest in them. If you find out what their actual needs are. Find out what experiences they’ve had in the past with purchasing products and those types of things.

David: Yeah. One of the other advantages that it has is that it allows them to feel more connected. It allows them to feel more like it’s their idea.

I was talking about our podcast, but for everybody who’s watching this, a good question to ask yourself is “what am I doing to get myself out in front of people so that they can have an idea of who I am and what I’m all about and how I can potentially help?”

It could be something like this. It could be a podcast, or it could just be an individual video. It could be audio. It could be a post on social media. What are you doing to communicate with the people who have the best likelihood of buying from you right now?

Because they’re out there. And if you don’t know them and more importantly, if they don’t know you, then there is zero likelihood they’re going to be able to buy anything from you.

Jay: And I also think part of this is creating a picture of what that ideal customer is. Because how many businesses really know what their ideal is? If you don’t know, then you can’t pre-qualify to that specific area, right? You’re just shooting in the dark, basically.

David: You are. And sometimes what can happen is when you’re putting out sort of the marketing or the preparatory material, like what we’re talking about here, some people will see it and they’ll go, “wow, that sounds like that’s for me.”

But then when you actually get into a conversation with them, you find out, okay, maybe it’s not a great fit. But you’re able to do that in a way that is so much more natural and organic.

It’s a good conversation to have because you’ll ask them questions. They’ll tell you about what they’re looking to accomplish. If you can help them with it, you will. If you can’t help them, you say, well, I can’t really help with that, but I could refer you to someone. Or here’s what I recommend you do.

And then at that point, you still have a relationship. Might not be a business relationship in terms of selling to them. But it’s a good, solid relationship that somebody will say, “Hey, you know what? These people were really helpful. I think it’s worthwhile to have a conversation with them.”

So as a result, you can get referral business. And they could potentially put you in touch with somebody who actually needs what you’re selling and is able to pay for it.

Jay: Yeah, absolutely. several years ago I attended a week-long sales training and the whole week they wouldn’t let us sell our own products. We all became light bulb salespeople. And they didn’t tell us anything about these light bulbs, because they wanted us to focus on the skills of selling instead of falling back on just talking about our products.

And that’s where I think people get caught up. They think that if they just tell you enough about their product and they keep talking about their product, eventually you’ll come around.

And I thought it was very interesting when people started to struggle, they started to make up things about these light bulbs, because they rely on these things so much.

It’s much more about the relationship and how you speak to them and how you learn about their needs than your product is I think.

David: Yeah, I agree with that a hundred percent. When we are focused on product, when we operate a product-focused business versus a client or customer-focused business, we’re already behind the eight ball. We’re already in a situation where other people are going to perform better.

Because you’re right. In a sense, the information about the light bulbs is far less important than the ability to establish rapport with somebody, and find out if they need light bulbs. I mean, we live in a part of Pennsylvania where there are a lot of Amish people. They don’t like having electricity in some areas, right? So they’re not going to buy light bulbs.

And if I’m focused on brute force selling and I want to sell these light bulbs to these Amish people, it’s not going to work out well. And so understanding the relationship and that really it’s a perfect analogy for qualification, establishing a relationship, determining need. And when you do all that stuff, then brute force selling in effect goes away because there’s no point in trying to sell something to someone that they absolutely can’t use.

And when you have these conversations and when you establish those relationships, you don’t even want to do that anymore. It’s not about, oh, I just want to get this person to buy. It’s about, oh, okay, we have a fit or we don’t have a fit.

If we have a fit, we work together. If we don’t, we don’t. But there are so many people out there who will want to work with us if we give ’em a chance. But we can’t get to them if we’re trying to brute force, sell the people who have no interest.

Jay: Yeah. And I also love the idea of helping the customer come to an understanding that they need your product, instead of trying to force them into that understanding. Right?

It’s a hard thing to do, especially if you’re commission-only, I mean, this is your livelihood and you feel like, you know, I got to get to this and I got to get through to this customer.

But if you can take your time and help them see the importance of what you’re offering, they feel like they came to that conclusion on their own. Now you’re talking about the ability to close people much more efficiently, I think.

David: I think in terms of speed, if you’re talking about trying to make the sale more quickly, then the approach we’re talking about will work much better. Because you’re going to qualify first, which means you’ll find out if they’re not a good prospect for you. And if they’re not, you can eliminate the rest of that process and spend more time in front of the people who are going to be a lot more likely to buy from you.

So I don’t think it’s a one or the other situation where okay if they don’t need it, I have to push harder.

No, if they don’t need it, you want to get yourself in front of someone who does, and then that will save you and them a lot of time and heartache.

Jay: Yeah, and the other thing that I’ve seen happen is like, I’ll call up someplace, and I’m ready to buy. And you don’t have to sell me on it. But they don’t take the time to find that out. Right?

So now they’re going to send me through the same process they’re sending everybody through. So again, we’re getting back to the qualification process.

You may not need to spend time educating them on the product. They might be ready to go. Figure that out and capture that sale as quickly as possible. Or take the time to send them through the whole sales funnel.

David: Yeah. And you know, there are salespeople who look at the price of something and they assume, because they feel a certain way about it that everyone else does. And they tend to want to justify the price where the other person might be thinking, yeah,, that’s fine. It’s not a problem. And so it’s very important for us to get over ourselves in some ways.

And not impose our way of thinking on the other person. Find out what’s in their minds. How can we help them? And then follow through on doing that.

Jay: Yeah, and price is so interesting because you know, some people might think it’s too much. Other people might think it’s a great bargain. And sometimes if you charge more for the product, they actually think it’s a better product for them, even though it’s the same product at a higher price.

So gauging their response to that is, I think, so important.

David: Yeah, it is. And just the idea of analyzing what you’re doing, examining what you’re doing, asking yourself, “am I engaging in the type of selling that’s uncomfortable?” Where it’s uncomfortable for me, I’m trying to get you to buy and you’re trying not to buy. That adversarial relationship just doesn’t work nearly as well as when you’re able to find out what they need, provide the service and work with the people who want to work with you and that you want to work with. Everything just gets a hundred times easier.

Jay: Yeah, you mentioned adversarial, I think one of the great ways to make it not feel adversarial is just through asking questions. Ask them if they understand. Ask them if they have any questions. Even saying “here’s our pricing packages. Would you like me to walk you through them?” Instead of saying,

David: mm-hmm

Jay: “let me show you” or “here’s our pricing.” You know, helping them feel that they’re guiding the whole sales process, I find has been a great way to get rid of that feeling of it being adversarial.

David: Absolutely. And a lot of what we’re going to be discussing this week in the Inner Circle is related to this topic of brute force selling. Avoiding it, trying to figure out what we can do to grease the chute so to speak, prepare things in advance so that it’s a better experience.

If you’re an Inner Circle member, be sure to join us inside the portal. If you’re not, you can check us out at topsecrets.com/ic for Inner Circle. Join us for a month. Join us forever. It’s up to you. But if you’re looking to create the types of relationships with the type of people that you actually want to interact with, I think it’s a great place for you to start.

Jay: Yeah, absolutely. David, I love that you’re sharing this information. I think you’re going to help people increase their sales, build better relationships with their customers and get rid of that adversarial feeling. So thank you so much for joining us today.

David: Thank you, Jay.

Ready to Grow Your Sales & Profits?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

Just the idea of initiating first contact versus cold calling is a lot more exciting. It’s a lot less intimidating in most cases. I started using that phrase after I saw an old Star Trek movie where they referred to first contact as being your first contact with an alien species. And I just thought, wow, that has a lot of correlations with sales. Where you’re approaching somebody and you really don’t know what you’re getting into. Strange new worlds and all that sort of thing….

David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of initiating first contact with a new prospect. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: I’m so glad to be here, David, and I’m excited to talk about this issue because to me, personally, this is one of the hardest things to do.

I’m fine once that first contact has been made. I feel like I’m really good at building relationships and closing.

David: Mm-hmm.

Jay: But I’m terrified about making that first contact and I’m not really sure how to do it. So I find myself shooting in the dark all the time trying to figure it out.

David: Yeah, well, you’re certainly not alone.

I’ve certainly felt that way myself, and nearly everybody I’ve ever met in sales has had issues with it. And we talked about this in a previous podcast. We were talking about cold calling and the idea that cold calling is really just one form of first contact. And so the reason I thought it would be good to have a discussion on the topic of First Contact itself is to first of all, recognize that, yeah, it’s more than just cold calling.

There are lots of different aspects to it. And if you realize that, then you also realize that you can get comfortable with first contact, generally by engaging in a first contact method that is more comfortable for you. So if cold calling is not your primary thing, you have other alternatives and that should maybe give you a little bit of hope.

Jay: Yeah, that does give me hope and I think the key is to know what the possibilities are. Because like I said, sometimes I’m like, okay, my only option is to cold call, and that’s not working. So really understanding what are the other options available.

And the other thing I found is, lately I’m better at cold calling because you force yourself to do it enough and you can build a skill and you can get over the hump at least I’m finding that.

David: Yeah, absolutely. And when you are good at cold calling, and there are a lot of people who are very good at it, there are a lot of people who actually really like it. They don’t even struggle with the call reluctance and that sort of thing, but for those who do struggle with it, I think just discussing this idea of first contact is going to be helpful.

And if we think about why first contact is really so important, in my mind at least, it’s because it really helps to set the stage for the entire relationship. Whatever it is that they’re going to learn about us or think about us down the road, it’s all going to come from what that first contact is.

If it’s a great experience, they’re going to have good feelings about us. If it’s less than a great experience, then they’re not going to feel as great about it. Since it sets the tone, it’s really important that people become comfortable with it, or at least come up with a form of first contact that they can be reasonably comfortable with.

Jay: Yeah. It’s such a great line of thinking.

I hadn’t really thought about it that, that first moment, maybe the first five minutes,

David: Right.

Jay: That could determine the whole lifespan of the relationship. How they view you. How they respond to your sales pitch. Everything. It’s kind of like we do it in life. First impressions, we know, are everything. Right?

David: Exactly. And now there are so many different forms of first contact. For somebody you’ve never met, their first contact with you could be something they saw that you posted on social media. They may be scrolling on Facebook and they come across something that you posted, and that’s their first contact with you.

You may not even realize this stuff is happening. But when you recognize that it could be happening, and it very likely is happening, then you can start to really think through the communications that you’re engaged in, and how you want to utilize them so that you can create a good, solid first contact, even when you don’t even know for sure that that’s what you’re doing.

Jay: Mm, it’s really great. I think that you can do this on social media now. I always thought of first contact as a phone call, but what if first contact is, they’re watching that video I posted on YouTube. Or they’re watching this podcast that we’re doing right now. They form a friendship with you or an appreciation for you and your information long before you’ve ever talked. And so now you’re way ahead of the game once you have that first contact.

David: No question. And you’ve heard the old adage, it’s not what you know, it’s who you know. And my take on that has always been, no, it’s not what you know. It’s not even who you know, It’s who knows you.

Because depending on those different forms of first contact, people can know you before you ever get to know them. In exactly the example you just gave, if somebody sees this video, if they’re watching it on Facebook, or they see it on YouTube, We’ll have to put it up on YouTube. I don’t usually put ’em up there, but yeah, good point.

We’ll have to put it up there on YouTube, but that could be their first contact with us. It would not be our first contact with them, however. So when we get to that point, they’re already going to feel like they know us. We’ve already got the advantage, because they feel like they know who we are.

And if you think about music artists, the people who got rich selling records didn’t get rich because they knew a lot of people. It’s because of the people who knew them, right? You buy an album, whoever your artist is. That person doesn’t know who you are, but you know who they are and that’s what works.

And it’s exactly the same thing in sales. So if we think in terms of first contact, instead of just cold calling, then it could mean networking. It could mean getting referrals. It could mean a post on social media, could mean a video on social media. Could be an audio, could be a podcast, could be advertising, direct mail, in-person canvasing, trade shows, attending or exhibiting at a trade show. It could be self promotional items.

There are lots of different methods that we can use to initiate that first contact, to set the stage, get people comfortable with us, and then when we do eventually either pick up the phone or drop them an email or send them an instant message. They’re much more comfortable and confident with us than if we were to simply start out with that cold call.

Jay: Yeah, I think that’s so important. But it’s also important if you are trying all those methods that it’s really important to track what’s working and to figure out, what kind of percentage am I getting here?

We talk a lot about cost per acquisition, right? I think following that information so that you don’t spin your wheels in areas that they may feel like you’re doing well because you’re talking to a lot of people. But those aren’t turning into customers. So having that good system, I think, has got to be part of honing your first contact skills.

David: Yes, exactly. And another thing that you can look at is, what is a good follow up to that? So in a cold call situation, we’re calling somebody on the phone. We’re trying to establish rapport, we’re trying to qualify them in or out, to determine whether or not they can use the products and services we offer.

And at that point there’s either going to be a second call, there’s going to be an additional follow up, or we’re going to essentially qualify them out, disqualify them so that we don’t have to follow up with them.

If your first contact is something like a social media post and someone comments on that, well, now you’ve actually had an interaction.

You put something out, they they send something back to you. It’s a little bit like ping pong or tennis. You hit something across the net. Are they going to hit it back? And if they hit it back, now you’re actually in a conversation.

So if your first contact is a video or a post on social media, somebody likes or responds to it, you could then, perhaps, direct message them back and continue that conversation, which could lead to qualification and eventually having that person become a client.

And it seems a lot less threatening in a lot of ways. It’s also a lot more professional in a sense. Because you have the authority advantage. They’re looking to you as the authority because they saw whatever it was that you posted. They’re either liking it or asking a question about it.

And so then at that point, for you to respond back, it’s more like it’s their idea. Which is beautiful because technically, it’s not really their idea. You put something out there to begin with, right? But they’re responding to it. So then at that point, they’re engaging with you. It feels more like their idea, and they’re just a lot more likely to continue to engage with you when it has that sort of really organic feel.

Jay: Yeah, I agree with you, but I’ve also had the experience where I’ve watched a YouTube video. I comment on something, and I never hear back because they’re not watching their comments. They’re not using it that way.

David: Right.

Jay: Responsiveness is such a critical part of this. If somebody’s reaching out to you, you’ve got to have a way to get back to them immediately, because otherwise they’re off to the next person. Just that fast.

David: Absolutely. And I think a lot of people, myself included at times, probably don’t really think of it that way. If somebody is commenting on a YouTube video that I posted four years ago, I might not see that right away.

And if it’s not part of your plan, if it’s not part of your strategy for initiating contact and creating conversation with people, then it’s very easy for that type of thing to sort of slip off your radar and not be aware that it’s even happening.

Jay: Yeah, I’ve got a system right now that is working really well. Because we provide valuable content online and then, if they want to talk to us, we offer a free consultation. And they use a Calendarly link, and it appears on my calendar. When I talk to them initially, it’s like they know me because they’ve watched these videos. So we already have this relationship that the whole, “how are you,” all that stuff, we skip right past it and we get right to that business.

Because that relationship was formed and it’s just because I posted good content.

To me, the technology of today, if you can tap into it and use it that way, it’s fun and it’s exciting because I get to wake up every day and my calendar’s already full with calls. I just love that so much.

David: Yeah, and I think just the idea of first contact versus cold call is a lot more exciting. It’s a lot less intimidating in most cases. And I started using that phrase after I saw a science fiction movie. It was an old Star Trek movie where they referred to first contact as being your first contact with an alien species.

Jay: Mm-hmm.

David: And I just thought, wow, that has a lot of correlations with sales. Where you’re approaching somebody and you really don’t know what you’re getting into. Strange new worlds and all that sort of thing. And I thought, for me it was a great analogy. It’s our first contact with this prospect and what’s that going to be like and how can we make it count?

How can we make it positive and memorable? Not just memorable, right? Because you could create a really terrible first impression that would be really memorable, but not good.

Sometimes when I’m doing live trainings, I talk about the fact that first contact could be a note, wrapped around a rock, thrown through a window, right?

That will definitely be memorable. But it will not be positive. And so when we can make that first contact both positive and memorable, then people can really start to make some strides.

And then, if we really look at having our follow up connect right where that first contact left off and build from that relationship, it becomes a conversation. It feels a lot more organic and you can make a lot more sales that way.

Jay: Yeah, so true. And I do want to go back. You mentioned something that I really, I don’t want to skip over, and that is helping them understand, making them feel like it’s their idea. I think this is so important with sales. The minute they feel like you are a salesman and they’re somebody you’re trying to sell, that becomes adversarial. Or it has a possibility to do so.

So if you can help them come along on that process and avoid that adversarial nature. And I think you do it in a lot of ways just by asking questions, instead of telling them things.

Just ask them questions. Get to know them. Get to know their needs. Then help them to that conclusion that they might want to talk to you about this. I think it’s easier, right? It’s a lot less rejection. And I think you’re going to get a much higher close rate that way.

David: Absolutely, and I think for anyone who’s watching this, if you’re trying to think, “okay, well how do I apply this? How can I do something with this?” What I would encourage you to do is just jot down the different types of first contact that you think you would actually enjoy doing and that you’d be happy to engage in.

Is it cold calling? If not, is it networking? Going to different networking function s and meeting people in person. Is it referrals? You know, getting referrals, but not just waiting for them to show up.

Can you put something together that would be designed to get yourself referrals proactively where people you know are providing it to you because you’re initiating contact with them. So that you’re not just waiting for them to stumble through the door.

If it is social media, if you look at the fact that when you post something on social media, other people can see it. You can post it as public or you can post it just so that your friends can see it. If you post something on social media that you want to be a good, solid first contact with you, then it should be really decent quality content.

You should make it public. Maybe some people will come along, see it, interact with it, and that can start a conversation.

If it’s advertising, what can I do to put out advertising that will make a great first impression that will actually get people to respond? Because if you’re just putting stuff out and they don’t respond, then you don’t know who they are and it’s wasted money.

Jay: That’s right. It is wasted money for sure. And one other thing that should be considered. If you’re going through all these motions and you’re still not getting a response, maybe you have a product problem. Maybe you don’t have something that people want. Maybe you need to tweak your offering or something like that. It’ s not always on your sales system. It could be on what you’re actually offering.

David: Exactly, and if they don’t even know what your product does or how it helps, it may be a matter of conveying the solution that they’re looking for. Because you may be providing a solution they don’t even recognize they need it.

I do a lot of work in the promotional products industry and promotional products salespeople are talking about the products. Well, if a client doesn’t understand that that product can get them new leads, can open doors, can introduce them to people, can create all sorts of benefits that they’re not even aware of, they’re not going to want to buy it.

And that’s where I think if we’re able to lead with a solution, find out, “do they need the solution,” and then, if you can connect the dots between the solution you offer and the products that you’re selling, they’re going to be a lot more likely to buy it than if you say, “Hey, you want to buy a shirt with your logo on it?”

Jay: Yeah. Such powerful information. How do people find out more, David?

David: You can go to TopSecrets.com/call, schedule a call with myself or my team, and we can just sort of talk things through. Try to find out where you are, where you’re looking to be, where you’re struggling. If you need to bring more clients through the door and you need help with your first contact, that’s all part of what we do in our Total Market Domination course.

So if you go to TopSecrets.com/call, we’d be happy to have a conversation.

Jay: Unless your first contact is with aliens that’s a little bit different story.

David: That’d make a fun conversation too. I’d like to hear about that. .

Jay: Yeah, absolutely.

Ready to Grow Your Sales & Profits?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help our clients to grow:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.

Most marketing messages and business communications are bland, directionless, and dull as dishwater. They lack a clear marketing voice.

If you’re sending out emails that don’t get a response or leaving voicemail messages that are largely ignored, take a look at what you’re putting out. I can virtually guarantee it’s missing one or more of the Five Elements of a Compelling Marketing Voice.

If you’ve ever wondered what’s missing from your marketing — what causes it to be ignored rather than acted upon, It may very well be one of the 5 things we’re about to discuss.

First is a clear target: Knowing exactly who you’re reaching out to and why.

Every communication you put out should be written as if it’s to one person, even if it’s going out to dozens, hundreds or even thousands of people.

Think of one particular prospect or client you know well. Pick someone you communicate with most authentically, who could be representative of this group, and then write as if you’re writing to that person. Go back over it before you send it, of course, and make sure it applies to the entire group, but if you write as if you’re writing to just one person, it will be far more effective.

This leads right into the second thing which may be missing, which is “you” centered communication.

Have a look at the messages you’re putting out — the emails and texts you’re sending. Listen to yourself as you’re leaving a voicemail message and see how many of your sentences start with or contain the the word “I” vs. the word “you.”

“Hi, I was just calling because I’d like to set up a time to get together and go over some ideas I had for you.”

You may not realize it, but that simple sentence had 3 I’s before it ever got to a “you.”

That ratio, 3:1, is completely off. Whenever possible, your communication should lead with them, be centered around them, and refer to them… a lot. That means using the word “you,” more than “I” or “me.”

A third thing that might be missing is good, old fashioned, conversational English. Many marketers and salespeople, for some reason, slip into formal “corporate speak” the moment they start writing a letter or email.

Dear Mr. Phillips, pursuant to our conversation of Thursday, March 1st, I herewith enclose a detailed proposal incorporating my primary, secondary and tertiary suggestions, recommendations and guidance for your impending client promotion of April 15th.

That’s one side of the coin. The other is those who are too informal. If you’ve ever received an email with no punctuation, no sentence structure or capitalization — either all lower case or even worse, all upper case (which is seen by most as shouting) — you know what I’m talking about.

In both cases, the solution is the same: conversational English. While some clients prefer a more formal approach and some a less formal approach, you can always adapt your conversational English to their preferences without taking it to either of the two extremes we just discussed.

Fourth is a personality or point of view. Each of us is unique, so whenever possible, it’s good to convey the most positive aspects of our personality in our communication. This further humanizes our message and creates a better bond with the person who’s receiving it.

The Fifth element which may be missing is interest or passion. How can you make what you’re saying as interesting as possible to the recipient?

Are you excited or passionate about your ability to help your client?

If so, be sure to allow some of that excitement to show through in your choice of words in a written communication and your tone of voice in spoken communication.

This element is very compatible with the previous points, because when you infuse interest or passion, conveying your own personality, into a “you” centered communication, in conversational English to a clear target, it makes all of your communication more clear, compelling and authentically your own.

Ready to Put the 5 Elements of a Compelling Marketing Voice to Work for You?

If so, go to TopSecrets.com/call or check out some of the other ways we can help:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

In today’s episode in our professional profile series, David Blaise and Bianca Istvan discuss business growth strategies designed to improve results, including sequencing your communication with Carlos Mestas, CEO of Thrivebox, which specializes in helping entrepreneurs establish business credit to access funding solutions, Alan Watts, known as the Love Engineer, who offers dating and relationship coaching services, and Paul Loubao, owner of PCL Housing Commerce, who focuses on investments, sales, and education in the real estate industry.

After sharing what’s working well and what’s creating challenges, the focus turned to the importance of sequencing communication as part of your sales and marketing strategies.

Reaching and impacting potential clients has evolved over the years, making it necessary to engage with prospects differently than before, using the communication channels they prefer.

Some of the topics discussed include:

• The effectiveness of marketing strategies in connecting with the right clientele
• The importance of a multi-faceted approach, utilizing social media, face-to-face, and online networking to engage with clients
• The difficulty of gaining trust with new prospects
• Changing the mindset of people who may have previously been burned in other transactions

We also discussed adaptation, trust-building, and proactive engagement as pivotal factors when navigating the challenges of business growth.

Ready to Communicate More Effectively and Improve Your Sales Results?

If so, go to TopSecrets.com/call or check out some of the other ways we can help:

1. Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
2. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
3. Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
4. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
5. Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

Most people I know in business want to get results. But how do you get your desired results fast? They’re always thinking about new things, focusing on new ideas, determined to get the results they’re looking for, and sometimes it takes a lot longer than they’d like. When you consider the business people you know, it’s likely that some of them might have achieved amazing results since you last spoke with them, while others seem stuck or unable to move forward. In each of these situations, their results probably have a lot less to do with their goals, mindset, plans, or ever their determination than you might think. Instead, it’s largely about their speed of implementation. How quickly are they making things happen? Speed of implementation is about how quickly we can iterate, reiterate, try things, fail and then try more things so we can get to the actions that work. How fast can you get from an idea to an action to a result that can be measured? The faster we do these things, the faster we find out what works and what doesn’t. In a previous podcast, we talked about the three primary stages of this. Starting with the idea, moving to the action which then generates the result. Each time we generate a new idea, we either go through that process to take an action and get a result, or we kill it off in the idea stage. We fail to take action on it, and then our results are determined by the actions we didn’t take. The FTDs. The things we failed to do. Of course our speed of implementation applies to our activities, but it’s also dependent on outside factors, like the response of others. In sales, we can provide someone with a quote today, but we can’t control when or even if they’ll respond. But even in these cases, we’re far better off doing our part now, rather than later, because we’re getting the wheels of action in motion. And the sooner we take action on our ideas, the sooner we see the results of that action, so we can determine our next steps. Also, when I talk about speed of implementation, I’m not talking about rushing through things. Instead, I’m just talking about tightening up the time between the idea and the action. Reducing the gaps between ideas and implementation. And even with this, we have to be careful. I’m not suggesting we should be impulsive and just act on every idea that pops into our heads. Of course, we need time to evaluate those ideas, determine which are worthy of action and which aren’t, and prioritize them, so we’re acting on what we believe are the best ideas first. But very often, this can happen a lot faster than we think. We each have a certain tempo, a speed at which we do things. I grew up on the east coast of the United States. We have a bit of a reputation for speaking fast and acting fast. When I’m excited about an idea, I tend to speak even faster. It’s not always an advantage. So once again, I’m not suggesting we rush through things. We still need to take time to listen, think, and deliberate. But once we’ve made that decision to move forward on something, our speed of implementation will be a huge determining factor in our results. Sometimes procrastination plays a role, sometimes it’s fear, or dread, or indecision, and each of these things can significantly delay the amount of time it takes to get to the things we want. Have you ever put off doing something for a week or a month that literally ended up taking maybe 45 minutes to an hour to complete? Sometimes we spend more time dreading something than it takes to complete it. Of course, just taking action doesn’t mean we’ll get the desired result. But if we don’t, we’ll know that sooner, so we can evaluate our options and take a different action. When we start to get good at this – at reducing the time between our ideas and our action – we can literally get results from four, five, or even ten or more different actions,