Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

If you’re still feeling overwhelmed, it’s often just a good idea to take a moment and consider: What exactly is it that I’m struggling with at the moment? What are the specific things that make me feel overwhelmed? Then, what’s the one thing I really need to be doing right now and what’s the next step I can take toward making that happen? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be continuing our discussion on how to avoid feeling overwhelmed. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. It’s good to be back and I’m really glad we’re following up on this topic because after we recorded the last podcast, we kind of sat around and continued the discussion and thought, we need to share this with everybody as well. Before we were talking about self-awareness. But it really occurs to me that who you surround yourself with, especially on those days when you’re feeling overwhelmed, that’s going to be really important. David: Absolutely. And as you said, we started talking about it after the last podcast and the conversation got so good, I’m like, “we need to hit record and just keep going on this topic.” Because you raised a great point, particularly related to who we’re surrounding ourselves with. And very often when we are in that negative state that we had talked about in the previous episode, where we bring the wrong “us” to work, or the wrong us shows up to work, you know, the unmotivated, unfocused version of ourselves show up. When we do that, we limit the kind of people that we’re even going to be able to interact with. Because most other motivated, focused people don’t really want to be around that version of us. And so the more we bring that version of ourselves to work, the less likely we are going to be to get in front of other people who are going to help pull us out of whatever it is that we are stuck into. Jay: Yeah, and I think the exception to that, and I’ve experienced this, is if you have people who know you well enough and you’ve built trust with them and they are able to tell you and point out, you know, is everything okay? Because you kind of feel like you’re off your game a little bit today. You know, if you surround yourself with yes men, then you’re not going to get that. And if you surround yourself with people who are negative all the time, then they’re going to be bringing you down even on the good days. So being able to assess your team and hire appropriately is so critical, and I don’t think people really think about it in those terms. David: I agree completely. I also think that when people tend to give into those emotions, when they give into the overwhelm and they just basically withdraw and say, “no, I can’t do it, I’m out.” At that point, what are they leaving to themselves? I mean, they’re really leaving the opposite. And there are people who will unintentionally feed into that. If you say, ” I’m just overwhelmed. I don’t feel like doing this.” They’ll say, “well, that’s okay,” you know, “Hey, you don’t have to do it.” And maybe that’s true, and if it’s something that’s not good for you, you definitely shouldn’t do it. But if it’s something that you were committed to, that you really wanted to be able to accomplish, and you’re having an off day and you make a decision like that, in a lot of cases, there’s no going back on that. Jay: Yeah, you’re exactly right. And so in that point you need somebody to say, “look, this is really important. We plan this out. You got this.” You know, this is really important because if we can close this sale, then it’s going to propel us forward. If you can surround yourself, at least have one person on your team like that, what a game changer. But I think when we’re interviewing people, we’re thinking more about will they be able to accomplish a specific task, more than we’re saying, will they fit into our culture and will they be somebody who brings me down or brings me up and helps move the whole team forward? David: Yeah, and even in our personal lives, there are times and there are people in our personal lives where we may not be able to share exactly what we’re going through or what we’re dealing with. I mean, there are people who, if you tell them about something that’s bothering you , they’re either going to then tell you about 10 other things that they’re dealing with that are a lot worse, or they’re going to tell you that why what you’re dealing with isn’t that bad. Or they’re going to tell you that because of what you’re suffering with, now it’s going to make it worse for them because now they’re going

To stop feeling overwhelmed at work and get more done, consider which version of you is showing up. Some days the you that shows up is the focused, motivated, energized, action-taking you. And some days the you that shows up is the unfocused, unmotivated, lethargic, non-action-taking you. When we recognize this in advance, we can do a couple of things. One is to say, “okay, I don’t really like the me that showed up today. Can I get myself in gear? Take some sort of action? Can I get myself motivated? Or will I at least take the next step?” Will I take one small step in the direction of accomplishing what I’ve told myself and others that I intend to do? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the topic of how to avoid getting overwhelmed. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. It’s great to be here, and this is such an important topic, especially for the entrepreneur. There are so many different things going on. And oftentimes you have to be the front office, the back office, you have to fulfill the orders. I mean, there are just so many things, and keeping track of it can be very difficult. David: It can. Before we even really dive in too much, I just want to point out, first of all, we are not experts in the mental health field at all, right? So if you’re struggling with actual mental health issues, this is not the podcast to listen to. But if you’re in sales, marketing or business ownership, dealing with the day-to-day and occasionally feeling overwhelmed, that’s what we’ll be talking about. If you’re feeling a little overwhelmed or stressed in business, that will be the discussion at hand today. As you were saying, Jay, most of us have this situation at one point or another when you’re in business, particularly when you’re in sales. It’s easy to feel overwhelmed on some days. It’s like, “I don’t feel like making the calls,” or “I’m struggling with this or that.” And just that thought alone can stop some people in their tracks and cause them to not move forward. Jay: Yeah. I think first of all, it’s important to tell people it’s okay to feel overwhelmed. I mean, that’s the reality for most people. But if that feeling becomes a stress paralysis, like I’ve experienced, like there are so many things going on. I don’t know which one I should be focusing on, so I end up doing less instead of more. That can really be damaging to your business. David: It absolutely is. I find that in a lot of cases, the things that cause us to feel overwhelmed are when we focus on all the different things that we have to do or all the different things that have to be done. It’s the fact there are too many things coming at us at once. Sometimes it’s the habit of looking at everything, as opposed to looking at the one thing or the next thing that I can do, which would allow us to move forward. I’m sure that sounds very simplistic, and to some degree it is. But when we’re struggling with that, a lot of it really becomes about our focus. How tightly can we narrow our focus so we can actually concentrate on doing just one thing? What’s the one, tiny, next thing I can do to move forward so I don’t just give up? Jay: Yeah, and a lot of people I think, sometimes want to give up. But I think it’s really important to do some work in advance here. If you don’t have a list or a plan that talks about all of those things that need to be done and maybe prioritize them. If you don’t have that done, then it’s going to be very hard, like you said, to say, what is the one thing I should be doing right now? Because you haven’t taken the time to plan ahead and even know, so, then it becomes “the squeaky wheel gets the grease,” right? And sometimes that squeaky wheel is just the last thing that you should be doing. David: Yeah, that is exactly true, and it happens to probably all of us at one point or another where there are a lot of things to do, and as you said, whatever is making the most noise, whatever is rattling our cage at the moment gets done when in actuality, that might be something that either shouldn’t be done at all, or it should be something that should be prioritized or de-prioritized to move down farther on the list. I think it’s also important to understand that all of us have good days and bad days. And whenever we make life-altering decisions on bad days, it’s usually not a good outcome. So part of it also is just recognizing when we’re having the kind of days where we are feeling overwhelmed when we’re feeling like things are too much, and then maybe just sort of holding off on making big important decisions until we feel like we’re in better control of our thoughts and our direction and our focus. Jay:

When you need to get prospects to respond, it’s time to fix your follow-up strategy. Think in terms of what gets your attention, what gets you to respond? What makes you want to respond when someone else is reaching out to you? That can also be a great indicator of what you may want to be saying to the other person to try to get a response from them. Now, they might not respond to exactly the same things that you respond to. But it’s possible they will, and it’s not a bad place to start… David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarlane and I will be discussing why people don’t respond. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you so much David. This is something that frustrates me in the process when I’ve made a good faith effort, I’m expecting a response and I get crickets and it, you know, it’s one of the hardest things to deal with in sales because you got to constantly be remotivation yourself and when you’re not getting a response back, it’s hard to stay motivated. David: It is. And it’s hard to not take it personally sometimes. Even though it’s very rarely personal. It’s hardly ever personal. It’s almost never personal, but it’s still hard to get past that when it’s happening. Jay: Yeah, I I totally agree with you. And again, I think you just kind of have to have that framework that you know it’s going to happen. It’s not personal and you just got to get through those. But I also think that you have to ask yourself some questions and reassess what is our communication system? I’ve found that there are people who will respond via text, but they’re never going to respond via email or they will pick up their phone or they’ll never pick up their phone. So you’re kind of learning, and I keep track of these notes as I’m trying to reach out to people. And if I can get somebody via text, that’s the way I’m going. I just will stop sending that person emails. So, I think learning along the way about each person and their preferred mode of contact is very important. David: Yeah, that is a huge one. such a great point. And I know we’ve talked about this in previous podcasts. We normally talk about it in terms of marketing and sales, but it applies just as much to telephone calls because they’re marketing, they’re sales as well. But we’ve talked in the past about the MVPs of Marketing. What is the marketing message we want to communicate? Which combination of marketing vehicles are we going to use to communicate the message? And who are the people or prospects that we need to reach? And when people are not responding? Well, the P part of it is covered. The people that we’re talking to, the person who’s not responding, that’s the person that we’re talking about. So if they’re not responding, it is either the person themselves, they’re just not going to do it. But if they are still potentially going to be engaged with us, then the reason they’re not responding is usually either the message or the vehicle, like you pointed out. They’re not going to respond to an email, but they very likely will respond to a text. Cool. That’s easy. Okay. Now we’ll communicate via text. They won’t pick up the phone, they won’t return voicemails, but they will respond to text. Great. Once you get something like that nailed down, you’re back in the saddle again. as the old song went. But a lot of times people don’t even think of that because your preferred method of communication might be different than mine. And if mine is to pick up the phone and call you again and again and again and again, which it is not. But if it were, and if your method of communication is text, then you’re not going to respond to me. You’re probably going to get annoyed at what I’m doing and I’m going to be annoyed at the fact that you’re not responding to me. And it’s a simple disconnect that can actually be addressed very quickly. But if somebody is not responding to any of the different methods of communication that you’ve tried, and today there are a lot. If they don’t respond to you on the phone, you can send them a text, you can send them an email, you can message them on social media. You can send them something in the mail. There are lots of different things that you can do. If they’re not responding to any of it, then it’s very likely either the message that you’re communicating to them where they just want to have nothing to do with you, they don’t want to communicate with you at all, or it’s the person themselves, they’re just not going to do it. And for me, it’s very helpful to try to break those things down and when people don’t respond, it’s very discourteous in

I’ve seen situations like that where people are making excuses instead of sales. Somebody planned to sell something and was talking about it for a long time. But all the dominoes had to be lined up just right before they’d flick it. Flick one of them and get it going. And ultimately, nothing happened. Sometimes we have a great idea, but then it’s like, “oh, it seems like too much work” or “I don’t want to do it,” or “I’m scared,” or whatever the deal is. And unfortunately, you’re building bridges to nowhere when you do that. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing making excuses instead of sales. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David. Such a pleasure to be here. And I’m excited about this topic. And I’m just going to be brutally honest upfront. I’m guilty of this very thing. As I’ve been involved in sales and sometimes numbers would drop, and the first thing I’m saying is, “well, it’s this,” or, “well, it’s that.” And the truth is it, might be. And so I think it’s important to always go back and reassess what you are doing and have you changed something or has something changed in your system? David: Yeah, it’s very easy to do. It’s an easy trap to fall into. Because whoever really wants to say ” it’s my fault?” And yet, our behavior is one of the only things that we really, truly have control over to the extent that we can get control over it, right? We can’t control a lot of outside factors, but we can largely control what we do and what we promise to do, and then try to connect the dots between those two things. Jay: Yeah. I remember I was in a training and they pointed out that so often when a mistake happens or say sales have a problem, we’re looking for the person to blame. And so often it’s not a person, it’s a system. It’s something that needs to be tweaked. But it’s so easy to just pick somebody and say, you know, “you’re the problem, you solve it.” Maybe you’re the frontline salesperson, and so you need to fix it or there are going to be consequences. And oftentimes I think that’s the wrong approach. David: Yeah, I agree. And I think the reason that this topic even came up is I had an experience, fairly recently, where I was just sort of blindsided by someone’s ability to blame every single outside factor rather than just the fact that they essentially weren’t selling. And this is common in a lot of different businesses. It’s common in a lot of different sales industries. A lot of times, “well, it’s the leads.” And if you ever saw Glengarry Glen Ross, “it’s the leads.” And I remember when I was first watching that movie, I was like, oh, that’s brutal. You know, it’s probably not the leads. And then you find out, in that particular movie, yeah, it was the leads, because they were giving them bad leads. That’s really the exception, rather than the rule though. It’s the leads, it’s the market, it’s the product, it’s the supply chain. There have been a lot of really, potentially very good excuses, a lot of different things that people can blame for their lack of producing, but none of that empowers the salesperson. None of it empowers the person who is making those excuses to actually address the issues that potentially need to be addressed. In other words, if there’s a problem with the leads, what can that person do to track down better leads? If it’s the market, are there other markets they can approach? Or are there segments of the market that they could and should be approaching? If it’s the product, are they representing the right product? Is there another product they should be selling? So for every excuse, there is normally something that the salesperson can do to address some aspect of the problem that they’re citing as being the real issue. Jay: Yeah, I think it’s so important what you’re talking about. Because I’ve been in a situation recently where we did a Google ad campaign and man, the leads were just coming in. But then we looked at our close rate, and it was just miserable. And so we had to assess, is this the type of lead we want? Because we’re spinning our wheels here. And so we had to change keywords and go through a lot of thought processes and reassess. Because in that case, it was the leads. But I also think it’s important, especially in sales, to constantly be reassessing your own performance and what you’re going through. because we fall into traps, right? And also it’s hard, the grind can be hard. And so things that you know you should be doing, you’re not this time because it’s just hard.

When dealing with indecisive prospects, we each have to recognize our own tolerance for pain. How long am I willing to chase? How long am I willing to wait? What am I willing to sacrifice in terms of my own time and my own self-esteem? Right? And it’s different at different stages of life. I spent so much time in the past just trying to accommodate people who, ultimately, it wouldn’t have made sense to accommodate in the first place. And so for me, I recognize that it’s not always a good idea to just do that. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing indecisive prospects. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. Thank you so much. This is the bane of the existence of so many salespeople. You think you have somebody, they see the benefits, but they just can’t seem to make up their mind. And you know that you can help them. You know that if they would just do this, they would be on their way to a better place. But you just can’t get ’em over that finish line. It’s so frustrating. David: Yeah, Jay, you know, I was really struggling to decide if we should do a podcast on this topic. It was weighing on me and I’m thinking, should we do it? Should we not do it? And I went back and forth and I spent eight months, and then I decided, yeah, maybe we’ll do it. No. That approach it’s brutal and we’ve all dealt with it. The term wishy-washy comes to mind where they just can’t or won’t make a decision and it’s frustrating. But it’s also kind of unnecessary. Because when you’re dealing with someone who really is just not able to make a decision, it’s almost a disqualifier for me. And it very often becomes a disqualifier for me. Because if we’ve laid out our best-case scenario for why it makes sense to move forward with something we’re doing or not to move forward with something that we’re doing. If we do that and they still sort of go back and forth and they don’t know why or they can’t put their finger on it, then they’re probably not a good prospect. Because the problem with indecisive prospects is they go on to become indecisive clients. That means every time you want to sell something to them, they’re going to have to think about it or go away and meditate on it or whatever it is they’re going to have to do. Meanwhile, the clock is ticking for everybody. They’re not getting the result of whatever it is that they were thinking about buying from you. You’re spending a lot of time chasing them. They spend a lot of time either being chased or avoiding being chased or dodging you. So for me, it can become a disqualifier pretty quickly. Jay: Yeah, and I think you’ve actually kind of zeroed in on a larger recognition. Are we thinking about what type of customer this is going to be while we’re talking about them initially? Because it may not just be that they’re indecisive. We may through the conversation find out this client is going to be very hard to work with. They have a bazillion questions, or they seem so demanding or whatever. I think that kind of pre-assessment in the process can be very important. I also think with indecisive people, you know, you have to have your steps. Have I gone through every step of the process? Have I tried every skillset that I have in the book? If they’re still waffling back and forth, then you’re exactly right. Is this somebody that I want to be working with on a daily basis? Is it worth my time? And I think the answer is probably no. David: Yeah. Listen to what people tell you. If you’re having an interaction with someone who’s considering working with you, pay attention to what they say. If their story changes dramatically from day to day, that is a huge red flag. I had a situation recently where someone talked about how determined they were to grow their business. They wanted to get it to a certain point as quickly as possible, and the reasons that they were doing it were all very noble. They wanted to do it for their family and they wanted to reach this particular level of sales, and they wanted to do it sooner rather than later. And then two days later they decided they weren’t going to do it because they needed to do something with their house first. They needed to, you know, fix up their house before they could focus on this. And it’s like, okay, well that’s perfectly fine. Right? Everybody gets to choose their own priorities. And the person said, Hey, I’m not saying we’re not going to work together. I’m just saying that, you know, not right now. And my response was, well, you know, listen, as of the other day, your focus was on growing your business, doing very specific things to achieve a very specific result to benefit very specific people. And now your priority is to do somethin

When I say your competition isn’t that good, that most of your competition is average, what I mean is that a lot of them are not taking the time to learn the things that will allow them to do things better. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I say, your competition isn’t that good. Right, Jay? Jay: Yeah, absolutely. Do you even know who your competition is? Do you know what they offer? Do you know what people think of them compared to you? Maybe you don’t even know if your competition is that good. David: Exactly. And I hear, so many times, when I’m talking to salespeople, the idea that, there’s a lot of competition. Competition is very difficult. There’s a lot of online competition. There’s a lot of local competition. There’s a lot of price-cutting competition. There are all these different variations on competition. And that’s all true. But a lot of them really, honestly, just aren’t that good. And if you recognize right up front that most businesses are average, right? There’s an average in every business, in every industry, there’s an average. And some people are better than average. Some people are worse than average. There are a lot of average. So if you’re competing with the average or the less than average, then you should be able to do pretty well. If you’re a conscientious individual, if you’re reasonably good at what you do, if you study and practice your profession and you get reasonably good at it, you’ll be able to outperform a lot of them because to the extent that there are really exceptional competitors in your market, there are a lot less of those than there are the ones on the other side. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. I’ve always believed this, you know, you can get caught up in the muck. When I was in radio, I worked for a radio station that had a built in listenership because it was so ingrained in the community. And what that did is it made it so they didn’t have to work hard to get sales or to get numbers. Now you would think, oh man, that’s an amazing place to be. But what happened is, they started to get complacent, right? Everything was so easy, and then all of a sudden ratings started to shift and suddenly they realized, we don’t know how to sell. Because we’re so used to sitting at a desk and the phone is ringing. And we’re just taking orders. So you’re not a salesperson, you’re taking orders, right? And their competitors started to eat them alive because their competitors had to sell all the time, and they were very good at it. So sometimes you’re successful just in spite of yourself. And that may be what your competitors are in, what state they’re in. David: It really could be as simple as that and as difficult as that, in either situation. But, you know, the idea that the competition is excellent, or the competition is terrible, or the competition is average. In a sense, none of it really matters. Because this is life. This is the world that we’re in. These are the cards we’ve been dealt, right? So our competition is there. We’re there. The question is, how are we going to make sure that we are outperforming our competition in all the key areas of customer contact? I mean, if you were to boil it down and say, okay, let’s say my competition is very good. Let’s say you completely disagree with the premise of this podcast, that your competition isn’t that good, or that it’s average or whatever you say. “No, I’ve got a lot of competition.” Okay, then that’s your question. How do you outperform your competition in all key areas of customer contact? Some people may say, “well, I don’t know. What are the key areas of customer contact?” And if you’re asking yourself that kind of question, that indicates that there’s work to be done in your organization. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. And do you even know how the competition functions to be able to compare yourself? I mean, that’s got to be at least half the battle, right? David: Yeah, that’s part of the battle. Maybe it’s a third of the battle. Jay: Okay. David: I was gonna say a quarter, maybe it’s a quarter to a third of the battle. And the only reason I say that is I don’t think we should spend a ton of time overanalyzing our average competitors. I mean, if there’s a really, really good one, yeah, you can take a look at what they’re doing. But ultimately, sure, we all want to outperform our competitors. But what do we really want? We want to get to the point where we’re so good at what we do that it’s no longer about outperforming our competitors. Now it’s a matter of outperforming our past best, right? What’s the best we were able to do? When you’re leading in a market, when you rea

We get results from social media when we’re able to identify the result that we’re looking to get, and identify the messaging that we need to create to be able to get in front of these ideal prospects to have them raise their hands and express interest. When we do those things correctly, then you can get to the point where nearly everybody you talk to is actually qualified to do business with you. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss how to get results from social media. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. This is a big topic. Talk about opening a can of worms. It’s something everybody wants, and we talked, last podcast about learning online and what great resources there are. This is a place where there may be such an overload of information and different ideas that I don’t know if you’re going to find the answer online. I really don’t. David: You’ll find a lot of answers online. Yeah., Right? Whether or not it’s the answer you’re looking for, whether or not it’s the answer that solves your problem, that is the big question mark. But I feel like this topic is so important because everyone’s on social media. Everyone’s trying to figure out what to do and how to get results. And the reason that I believe the word results is so important is that it narrows your focus. It forces you to think in terms of, okay, what is the result I even want to get here? What am I trying to do? Because as we talked about in a previous podcast, you can go on social media and it’s nothing but distraction after distraction. And if you just turn it on and go in there without a really strong focus in terms of what you want to accomplish, what result you want to get, you’re not getting any sort of result, except you’re going to get pulled into other people’s experiences. So from my standpoint, the first thing we need to do is to identify what is the result that I would like to get from social media? And then you can look at how much time that I spend on there is actually allocated to getting that result. That’ll tell you a lot right off the bat. Jay: Yeah, and I think that there is a misguided focus that you need a large audience, right? Like if I can get up to 10, 000 followers or whatever, that’s not true. it could be better to have a thousand dedicated followers who are potential clients than having a hundred thousand people who may just clog up your pipeline and who really never are going to be your clients. David: Right. And if they’re not responding to what you do, if they’re not liking, if they’re not replying, then the algorithm says people aren’t interested in this. So you’re exactly right. If you just had the hundred people or so who are going to click today’s link on there. You’d be seeing everybody, everyone would be seeing your stuff. But of course it’s impossible to do that. So you’re exactly right. It’s about saying, all right, well, how can I get to more of the right kind of people who resonate with the material that I’m putting out? And I am not speaking as an authority on social media. Okay. I want to be really clear about this. I’m not coming to you and saying, oh yes, I’m the guy for social media. No, not saying that. However, what we have been able to do is to identify specific things that our clients have wanted to accomplish, and we’re very good at helping them accomplish it, once we decide exactly what those results are. Jay: Yeah, I’ll tell you where we’re at right now in our company. As you know, we offer Tax Services to a very specific group, so, I’ve told you in the past, we have spent two years identifying keywords for paid ads, and it’s been a constant process where we’re refining, I do the consultations, And so when I see that we’re getting consultations that are not in the strike zone, I go back to our keyword, you know, the person doing our Google ads, and we refine, and we refine, and refine. And I’ve told you, We’re to a place now, it’s kind of like our secret recipe, where we don’t get a consultation that is not in the strike zone anymore. We’ve been that focused. But it costs us a hundred dollars per consultation. That’s what we’re paying. And that’s a pretty steep fee. So obviously we’re like, okay, how do we get organic people to come to our website from social media, where they’ve seen something that we’re providing, and they’re clicking through and that doesn’t cost us anything, right? So that’s the goal, that’s the dream. But now we’re in another problem. We could probably get tons of people coming to our site. But now I don’t want everybody clicking on the schedule a consultation. Because I’d be back in

To improve business communication fast, consider this… If nothing that you convey in your communication, instills any sort of belief in the other person as to why they should take the action that you’re requesting, then it’s not at all likely they’re going to take that action. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the TBDs. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, it’s such a pleasure to be here with you again, David. We’re talking about communication here and I’ll be honest. Oftentimes we’ll discuss a podcast that we want to do, or you’ll send me the topics and I sit here and think, you know, I’ve never once thought about this type of thing. How to improve communication. I just kind of fall in the trap. You know, I talk to people, I send them emails. I’m guessing that that’s good communication, but I’ve not really thought about it, David. David: Yeah. I sort of introduced this topic backwards, I guess, at the top of this podcast. When I say we’re going to be talking about the TBDs, what we’re really talking about is improving our communication with the TBDs. And for those of you who are saying, “what are they talking about?” Allow me to elaborate. A lot of times when I’m working with clients, one of the things they’ll ask about is how to improve the results they’re getting with the communications they’re having with prospects. That could be anything from the messages they’re leaving on people’s voicemails. It could be not getting responses to emails. It could be the things they’re posting on social media, any form of outbound communication, whether it’s one-to-one or one-to-many. What you say in those communications is going to determine what happens. We touched on this a little bit in the previous episode. But if you want to really think about what is likely to get you the best results? I boil it down down for myself and my clients as what I refer to as the TBDs. Now, when people think of that abbreviation “to be determined,” that’s often what’s used there. That’s not what I’m thinking in terms of. When we want to communicate with other people and get a result, we should ask ourselves: “As a result of this communication, what do I want this person to think? What do I want them to believe, and what do I want them to do? Okay? If you structure your communication to address those three points, you’ll be far more likely to get the result you’re looking for. If I send somebody an email, and there’s nothing I want them to think, believe or do, there’s no reason to send that email. Jay: Mm-hmm. David: If I make a phone call, leave a voicemail message, or do anything to initiate contact with another human being, if there’s nothing in particular that I want them to think, believe, or do, then what’s the point of having the conversation? Now, if you’re calling a loved one, Okay. You know? Jay: Yeah. David: You want them to know that you love them. You want to know that they love you, all that sort of thing. But, in business in particular, in our communications, if we don’t have a reasonably good idea of what we want the other person to think, believe, or do, then there’s not a whole lot of reason to communicate. Jay: Yeah. That’s so powerful because how often or is the temptation I’m calling a client? Hey, just checking in, seeing how you’re doing give me a call back. It’s like, that’s the trap. I think so many of us fall into. I’m not thinking at that moment, what I want them to be thinking is, please call me back because you need me. But I sound kind of desperate and not like there’s a priority. There’s no urgency, there’s nothing really being conveyed. Right? David: Yes. And when we’re doing follow-up calls, when we’re doing check-in calls, and just even using those words in a voicemail message. There’s nothing really compelling for them to respond to there. Is there? Jay: Mm-hmm. David: If you’re saying to somebody, “Hey, I’m just checking in,” it’s like, “okay, well they’re just checking in. I’ve got nothing for ’em at this point. I guess I don’t need to respond to that.” But when you leave a message like that, We have things we want them to think, believe, and do. We want them to think, “oh, I’m going to get this message and I’m going to call this person back.” Ideally, we want them to believe that it would be in their best interest to pick up the phone and call us. We want them to do, we want them to pick up the phone and call us back, right? So it does kind of tie together, but when you’re conscious about it, It requires you to think differ

Your process for goal achievement is key. Because you’re doing a lot behind the scenes before anyone even knows that you’re alive. So we’re essentially moving from being invisible and working hard behind the scenes — to ideally, at some point, bursting on the scene and being recognized as a force in your marketplace. But none of that happens by accident and it doesn’t just come from setting goals. It requires having those processes in place. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing your process for goal achievement. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. Thank you. It’s always a pleasure to be with you. I’m going to be brutally honest here. I’m really good at setting goals. But I’m not very good at mapping out how I’m going to accomplish those goals. I think it’s good that I’ve taken that first step. And I kind of have a mental idea, but I never really go back and say, “yeah, I accomplished that thing.” So I think I’m missing some of the motivation to set more goals. That’s one of the key things about goals. Once you’ve checked ’em off, you should feel good about yourself and then do more goals. And I don’t know if I ever reached that point. David: Interesting. And I think a lot of people feel the same way. I know I’ve certainly had that situation over the years and still do to some extent. We talked about goals several weeks ago. I really wanted to get to the idea that it’s great to have the goal. But it’s like looking at the top of a ladder and saying, okay, that’s where I want to go. Or it’s like looking at the sky, that’s where I want to go. But ultimately, the goal isn’t what’s going to get you there. The goal may motivate you, but the goal is not going to get you there. Ultimately, it’s the process that’s going to get you there. Assuming you have a process. So if the goal is to generate a certain amount of revenue in your business, or have a certain amount of money in your personal bank account, or start a business, whatever your goal is, the next step is to say, okay, what are the specific steps? What are the combinations of tasks and projects that are going to be necessary to help me achieve that goal? Because the tasks, the individual things I have to do, and the projects, essentially the things that are composed of a bunch of tasks, are what’s going to get us there. And the combination of these things is essentially the process. If my goal is to generate a certain amount of sales revenue, and I’m not there yet. I generally want to start with a process that says, Okay, let’s take a look at exactly how much your existing clients are worth to you. What did they spend with you last year? And then, do I think they’ll spend more, less, or about the same this year? And generally, you’ll have a reasonable idea of that. Whether it’s going to be about the same, maybe a little more, maybe a little less. You won’t know for sure, but it’s a great place to start. Then you say, “Okay, if I can count on my existing customers for this level of revenue, and I want to get to that level, how do I fill that gap? Because if this is the goal and this is where I am now, then we have to look at the process that will get us there. What’s the combination of tasks and projects that will allow us to reach that revenue goal? When we focus on that, everything we do during any given day now leads toward the goal. As opposed to just having scattered focus, just doing a bunch of different things. Just thinking about our goal, but not exactly sure how we’ll get there. But when you start to think of it in terms of tasks, projects, and ultimately your process, that’s what’s really going to make the biggest difference. Jay: Yeah, I think if you don’t do that, it can be really demotivating, right? I think I’ve told you in the past, when I was in the restaurant business just starting out, I would have an area manager come into the store and we would set goals, and the first one is always what you’re talking about. How are you going to increase sales? And he would just increase our sales on the goal by ten percent, right from the previous year and never tell me what I can do to, you know, I’m new, “okay, how am I going to do that? What are the steps?” And it was just this arbitrary number that he came up with and never trained me or told me how I could accomplish those things. So then the follow up is like, “oh, you didn’t achieve your goal.” And I’m like, “well, you never told me how to achieve my goal,” right? David: Yeah, the what is very often easy, it’s in the how that we get into all the details. And that’s what’s missing with a

What does it mean to install a Market Domination Engine in your business? Is that a real thing? If so, what is it? What does it do? What does it consist of? And what does it allow you to do, that your competitors are likely to struggle with? Hi and welcome back, in today’s quick episode, we’ll talk about what it means to install a market domination engine in your business. But before we do, I want to address the elephant in the room. If even the idea of a “Market Domination Engine” sounds strange to you, or unrealistic, or if it sounds like a bunch of hype. It’s okay… Let’s start by defining what I mean by market domination. That doesn’t mean that everyone buys from you. It means that the people who could buy from you, know who you are, and know what you do, so they can make a thumbs up or thumbs down decision about whether or not they want to work with you. Think about Amazon. Everyone knows who they are. Some people love them, and some people don’t. It doesn’t matter. They dominate their market because the people who could buy from them know who they are, and know what they do, so they can make their own decision about whether or not they want to buy from them. And it’s exactly the same with you. The reason you likely struggle to get the clients you need is that they don’t know you’re alive. Or if they do know you’re alive, they don’t know exactly what you do, or why they should buy from you, or why you’re better than whoever they might be using now, or why you’re better than any or every other option available to them. Market Domination is about creating an environment in which your very best prospects know who you are and know what you do, so they can make a decision about whether or not they want to buy from you. But how do you create that environment? That’s where the market domination engine idea comes in. If that idea, the idea of a “Market Domination Engine” does sound strange, or unrealistic, or like a bunch of hype to you. it’s understandable. Becuase very few business owners have never seen a sales and marketing system that actually functions like an engine. They’re used to a patchwork of random activities. Doing some networking, waiting for referrals, making some phone calls, posting on social media, prospecting when they have the time, following up when they have the time (or when they remember they should have reached out to someone.) What is that? It’s not an engine. In an environment like that, the idea of a market domination engine sounds like fantasy or hype, because they’ve never seen their business run like an engine. That doesn’t mean it can’t. It just means it’s never been designed to run that way. The engine has not been installed. And by the engine, I mean the very specific components that create the consistent result they’re looking for. I’m going to keep this episode very short. Because this topic is likely to either make perfect sense to you, or it’s not going to make any sense at all. If you’ve ever gone from sales meeting to salesmeeting, from training to workshop, from podcast video to YouTube, from Facebook Group to Skool Community, from Google to AI, asking questions, taking notes, collecting ideas, gathering little bits and pieces here and there, and wondering how it all fits together… Then you may be ready to understand the value of installing a Market Domination engine in your business. It’s about replacing all the scattered bits and pieces you gather with proven systems and processes designed to get results. It’s about creating that environment where your ideal prospects know who you are and know what you do so well, that they can choose you over every other option. It’s about trading in your anonymity for recognition among the ideal clients you want to attract. Most business owners never experience what it feels like when everything is deliberately connected. When the hodgepodge makes way for clarity, and structure, and profit. Think about any system that works well. It’s made up of components, steps, and repeatable processes. So your outcomes are consistent. Your Market Domination Engine is exactly the same. So you can either convince yourself it doesn’t exist. OR you we can work together to install it in your business risk-free. That means if it doesn’t work for you. You get your money back and then some. If you’d like more details on that, go to TopSecrets.com/engine. That’s TopSecrets.com/engine. Once you see it in action, it stops feeling unrealistic and starts feeling obvious. Talk to you soon. Are You Ready to Install Your Own Market Domination Engine in Your Business? If so, click here. Or check out a few of the other ways we can help: Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional product sa

If our storytelling allows us to build trust, build credibility, and build a bond in sales, then we’re telling the right stories. If it’s just designed to be manipulative, then save your breath. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the power of storytelling in sales. Jay, tell me a story. Jay: Listen, I am a storyteller. I love to tell stories and I like to build when I tell stories, right? This is something that I use on a regular basis when I’m talking to people. And it’s not just telling a story. I think it’s putting people in a story and what character are they in that story? And I think most people want to be the hero in their own story, right? David: They do. Which gets to the whole idea of the hero’s journey, for anyone who follows that sort of story arc. The Hero’s Journey by Joseph Campbell. But it’s a book and it describes essentially the plot of most of the most popular movies of all time. Jay: Yeah, David: Right. Star Wars, Rocky, anything where you’ve got this person who is initially kind of beaten down and not winning. Then they come into contact with a mentor. They learn new things and have a confrontation and it might not go well. Then they learn some more things and then eventually they come out triumphant. There’s a whole arc. And you’re right, a lot of people want to be the hero, and the challenge as a salesperson is, in our storytelling, we can’t be the hero. Mm. Right. We need to make sure that the person we’re talking to is the hero and that we are the mentor or guide. We’re not Luke Skywalker. We have to be Yoda. We have to be the one who’s helping Luke to destroy the Death Star. Jay: Yeah. This is a really hard thing, I think for a lot of people. Because we want to go in and think we’re the hero, right? I’m coming into your business. I’m going to provide something that is going to save the day, and then I’m going to walk away and you’re going to praise me and you’re going to pay me. But that’s not what really is supposed to be happening, right? It’s that I have the tools and the resources that you need to be the hero. David: Yes, and it’s easy to forget that, particularly when we’re trying to read ourselves in as the hero to each story. But one of the things that I’ve noticed in sales is that many, if not most of the very best salespeople are also the best storytellers. You can say. “Hi, do you know what time it is?” And instead of getting the time, you will get a fantastic story that might weave the time into it. Jay: Mm. David: But you’re going off in all kinds of directions, and when they do it right, it’s captivating enough that you sit there and pay attention. Jay: Yeah. But you pointed out “when you do it right.” David: Yes. Jay: Right. so let’s talk about that a little bit. Let’s talk about your feedback on doing it right. David: Well, number one, as we already touched on, it can’t just be all about you. You can’t make the story about yourself. You need to make it about them, and a lot of that upfront comes from finding out about them, which means you’re asking more questions, then you’re answering, hopefully in the early stages. Jay: Yes David: Because customers always just want to know what it’s going to cost upfront, and you don’t generally want to lead off with that. So a lot of our storytelling will actually have to come from the conversations that ensue after we’ve gathered enough information. Jay: Yeah. David: To know what those stories need to be about. If we just go in and we meet somebody for the first time and we start telling them stories, that’s probably not ideal. We need to still initially do some sort of diagnostic upfront to find out what their interests are. Now, of course, a lot of salespeople, they do the whole thing about walking into the office, looking around, oh, I see a big buck hanging up there on the, Jay: mm-hmm. David: On the wall. The person’s a hunter. You start talking to them about hunting, that type of thing. And, it’s very obvious. It works in some situations to break the ice, so you can ask the person. Because the other thing about storytelling is it doesn’t just have to be you telling stories. If you can get the prospect to be telling stories to you, then they’ll be more likely to engage in a longer conversation because most people are more interested in hearing what they have to say versus what somebody else has to say. Jay: Yeah. David: So sometimes you can just let somebody talk for a long time and they feel like they had the best conversation, even though the salesman didn’t say anything at all. Jay: Yeah, I’ve had people like look at the pictures on the wall and stuff, and that c

Choosing worthy clients for your business means making decisions about whether or not a prospect deserves your time and attention, whether they’re worthy of follow up, and you are bound to make some mistakes in that process. When you do this, you have to recognize that some of that is going to come with the territory. You may make a wrong decision that will cost you some business down the line. So you have to weigh that against quality of life issues. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland, and I will be discussing choosing worthy clients. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you, David. It’s such a pleasure to be back on again. And once again, I love this topic. I feel like, personally in my experience, there is a tendency to believe that you have to take every client. And you know what? In some businesses that is true, you’re going to take every customer who comes through the door. In other cases, you can be more selective and it could make your life a lot easier. It can make your business a lot better. David: Yeah, that’s one of the reasons I thought this would be a really good topic, because I believe that in many businesses they don’t even consider the idea of worthy clients. I think that in many businesses we feel like, okay, we’re going to serve whoever we can serve. We want to take whoever comes through the door, and we just want to serve them to the best of our ability. And while that is noble, it’s not always great from your own standpoint, from your own business standpoint. And I wish this was something that I knew from the beginning, but it was not. As most things, we learn it the hard way and this is no exception. At some point along the way, the idea of pursuing worthy clients, choosing worthy clients, tracking down worthy clients just really started to appeal to me. When I started using that term with some of my clients, they were like, “wow, that never even occurred to me. And what do you mean by worthy?” Things like that. So we can dive into all of that in today’s podcast. Jay: Yeah. I think that there are some things that we hear over the years and they start to sink in. We just don’t ever challenge ’em in our mode of thinking. Like I think of the customer’s always, right. I’ve come to believe. No, no, that’s just not true. Do I want to do everything to satisfy the customer? Yes. Yes, I do. But there are customers who can never be satisfied or I can’t provide what they want. So, no, they’re not always right. I love that we have these discussions. Let’s start off with this word worthy. What in your mind is a worthy customer? David: Well, I think we have to decide that for ourselves, what we determine to be a worthy prospect or client for ourselves. And some of that can go back to what you talked about, in the customer’s always right or the customer’s not always right. But you can have a customer that is absolutely right about things and you can have a good relationship with them, but they may not still be a worthy client if they are taking up more time than they are costing. So if they’re not really focused on buying from you to the extent that you need them to in order to be worthy of your time and attention, it may be something as simple as that. And in those situations, I’m not suggesting, okay, well you’re just going to bag all these people. If you’ve got a relationship with someone and you like the relationship you have and you’re okay with it, then you can deem that prospect or client worthy. You can say, “all right, well, I like dealing with this person, therefore they are worthy of my time and attention.” But for me, I believe that’s where it starts. We each have to decide. Is this prospect or is this client worthy of my time and attention? Because obviously our time is the most important asset we have, and when we fail to recognize that, we can invest a lot of it, we can spend a lot of our time on prospects and clients who are not worthy of our time and attention. And it could go back to what they’re buying from us or not buying from us. It can also get down to personalities. If they’re rude, obnoxious, belligerent, then they’re unworthy in a lot of cases to do business with us. And I think sometimes as salespeople or as business owners, We don’t really look at it that way. We think, well, we have to be worthy. We have to grovel and try to get their approval and all that sort of thing. And I don’t really think it’s like that. I think it certainly has to be a two-way street. Because anyone that we decide to do business with also has to decide to do business with us. They have to decide if they think that we are worthy of working with them. But that’s their job. Our job is to determine if they are worthy of working with us. And to m

To leverage the law of attraction, you have to get beyond the book and the movie. If you’re feeling stuck in your business, ask yourself this. “Am I really clear on exactly what it is that I’m building here? And to the extent that it’s not coming together, how’s your vision? Are you very clear on what that means? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the truth about the Law of Attraction. Now, this applies to business, it applies to life. If you’re familiar with the movie and book The Secret, there’s been a lot of talk about this concept. The Law of Attraction. It basically says that we attract into our lives the people and circumstances we need, based on essentially the vibes that we’re putting out. Jay: Well, and I was just sitting here thinking, I must not be putting out very good vibes. David: I’m sure it’s not that. But… I think sometimes when people get into this mindset, they can get frustrated. Because if you think that all you have to do is really want it and it’s going to come to you, it’s not quite the whole story. And I think the movie and the book called The Secret probably caused some people some problems with this. Part of it is because a lot of that movie was based on a book called The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. If you read that book, you recognize that there’s a lot more to it than just trying to attract with your mind. I mean, you actually have to follow up. You have to do some things afterwards if you want to get the results you’re actually looking for. So I feel like what they did in the book and the movie was kind of a disservice to the law of attraction, which I think can be valid, if you follow up with it. Jay: Yeah, I’ve always kind of felt, talking about this, that it’s more about a change in mentality than it is that you’ll speak into the universe and the universe will grant you this wonderful thing out of the kindness of its heart. That because you’ve said these things, it’s just like setting a goal. Right? And so, when you hear things spoken, when your mind hears them, when you speak them with your mouth, it’s different than just thinking about them. And so, over time, I think it changes your behavior. That leads you to the thing that you, quote, spoke into the universe. David: Yeah, I believe that entirely as well. I think that when you are focused on a goal, when you’re focused on trying to using the law of attraction to accomplish something in your life… When your mind is going in that direction, it is a lot more likely to get you enthused about it, get you thinking about it more and get you taking action on it, which ultimately is what is going to lead to the success. Now one aspect of it that I think is really important, on the front end of that, is that you have enough belief in what it is that you want to accomplish, that you continue to look for the ways to make it happen. Because if you don’t believe you can do it, obviously you’re not going to do it. I think that’s pretty much a given. If you don’t think you can do something, if you don’t think you can accomplish something, then you will very likely not take the actions necessary to make it happen. That’s not about law of attraction, it’s about human nature and inevitability. So in those circumstances, it’s kind of a given that you won’t succeed. But if you’ve got the consummate belief in what it is that you want to do and what you’re pursuing, then in a lot of cases, it will allow you to start to see the things that will make it possible. So when people talk about attracting people and circumstances into your life, I believe there is truth to that. But I also think a lot of that might’ve been there to begin with. When you’re aware of it, you’re going to be more likely to see it. If you’re looking for something, you’re going to be more likely to find it. Then you’ll take action on it. And that’s when the law of attraction actually starts to pay off. Jay: Yeah, I really like that you’re building awareness. Because you’ve spoken these things and you’ve kind of made these mental goals. Whereas before, if you hadn’t taken the time to even assess what you want and talk to yourself about what you want, kind of make these mental goals, then when that person enters your life or that opportunity arises, you’re not going to see it for what it is. Because you haven’t planned ahead, you haven’t made a mental note that that’s specifically something that you wanted or needed. David: Right, you’re not tuned into it. And, you know, the mind has this particular activating system that many people are aware of. It’s the part of your brain that notic

To get off to a flying start in 2026, we can start by taking responsibility. Whenever we blame outside factors for things that go wrong, we immediately forget that there are things we can evaluate in ourselves to say, okay, well even if this is the case, even if this was just a terrible prospect, are there things that I could have done better and differently in this circumstance to create a better outcome? And almost inevitably, the answer is going to be yes. But in order for that to happen, we have to consider it. And we have to think, is this actually what I want to do? And if you do that, you’re just going to feel better about yourself. You’re going to feel better about your situation. Because you’re allowing yourself some level of control in the situation rather than simply delegating the failure to outside factors and assume you’re a victim and there’s nothing you can do about it. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how to hit the ground running in the new year. Happy New Year, and welcome back Jay! Jay: Thank you, David. It’s such a pleasure to be here. I think everybody has a desire, you know, at the beginning of the year, to say this year’s going to be different, you know, we’re going to make all these changes. It’s going to be fantastic. But do they really have a way to translate that into action? I picture myself hitting the ground, you know, it’s like the cartoon when they start to run, you know, their feet are moving, but they’re not moving quite yet. I think a lot of us are in that place. How do we get from spinning to actually moving forward? David: Yeah, it’s a great question. I know in the promotional products industry, we have trade shows that start at the beginning of the new year, the ASI Show in Orlando, the PPAI Expo in Las Vegas. And, There’s one in Fort Worth as well, an ASI show in Fort Worth. So we got three trade shows in the industry that are really designed to help people get off to a flying start. But as we look at today, you know, this first week of the new year, even aside from that, whether or not you’re attending a trade show, chances are you’re probably pretty reasonably fired up. Okay, here we go. It’s another new year. What are we going to do? This is exciting. And if we think about the types of prospects that we want to interact with this year, the types of clients that we would like to attract, the types of customers that we might want to let go this year, and really focus on building our businesses as proactively as possible. Building our client lists as proactively as possible can really help to improve our quality of life in a dramatic way. Jay: Yeah. I love that. in the restaurant business, there’s something called a theoretical food cost and an actual food cost. Theoretical is, what would things be like if you ran perfectly? If there was no waste, everything was perfect. And then actual is where you’re at. The goal is to constantly be trying to close that gap. So to me, I think about it in any business, what does your ideal look like? Your ideal client base, your ideal staff, your ideal sales? So if you can know what that is and then track a course to get to it, I think that’s a great way to feel progress. Because that’s what I tend to miss when I’m running a business is sometimes it’s just a daily grind. And I don’t feel like I made any progress today. And if you do that over and over again, it’s hard to continue to press forward. David: It really is. And I think a lot of that goes to the fact that very often we’re just tied up in the day. Whatever it is that’s going on in the day, we’re just facing whatever is happening to us moment by moment, day by day. And that can get very frustrating. I remember, I think it was Tony Robbins was talking in a seminar one time about the idea that in order to create our future, we need to envision it first. It’s like if you are going to build a house, you don’t just start nailing boards together, I think was the analogy he used. I thought it was a great one. You have to envision it first. You have to figure out, what do I want this thing to look like? Where is it going to be located? How many rooms are going to be in it? All that sort of thing. And at the beginning of a new year, it’s really nice to start thinking about what do I want my life to look like this year? Who do I want to be surrounded by? To interact with? Who do I no longer want to interact with? What types of customers do I want to work with? What types of customers have I decided I’m no longer really interested in pursuing anymore? Simple decisions like that can have an amazing impact on your life and your career. If you simply change the quality of the prospects that you’re targeting. If you go from i

If you’re not generating the level of sales you’re capable of in your business, the real cost of inadequate sales is a lot more than you think. And it’s not just the cost of the sales you’re missing out on. When you operate a business that consistently generates inadequate sales, revenue, and income, you’re effectively starving your business of the oxygen it needs to survive. Inadequate sales chokes a business, stifles its growth and can threaten its survival. So today, let’s take a look at some of the real costs of inadequate sales in your business. Generating significant sales in your business, or at the very least “adequate” sales is critical for many reasons. First and foremost is the financial stability necessary for survival. When you generate significant sales, it gives you the stability necessary to cover all your operational expenses, pay your vendors, pay your people, invest in growth, and make sure the business remains sustainable in the long term. Your sales growth directly impacts your overall business growth, which allows for reinvestment, product development, expansion into new markets, and hiring additional talent. It also gives you an edge that many competitors find hard to overcome. In previous podcasts, we discussed the concept of moving from Stealth Mode to Intimidation Mode, and this depends on your ability to attract, qualify and convert more clients than your competitors. Inadequate sales makes it nearly impossible to build infrastructure or even attract investors who could help you make it happen. When you’re generating adequate sales and stable revenue, you can build effective processes, improve productivity, and negotiate better terms with everyone from your suppliers and vendors, to your lenders and potential partners. It contributes to a stable work environment by giving you the ability to hire, motivate and retain the right people. And whether you’re a small business or even a solo entrepreneur with no desire to add a lot of people or build infrastructure, having adequate sales, along with the processes necessary to be able to generate them consistently, will ultimate determine how much your business is worth. …because no one wants to buy a business that’s unable to generate adequate sales and revenue. And most solo entrepreneurs don’t really want to run that kind of business themselves. So regardless of your growth plans, adequate sales are key. With all that said, some small business owners figure that even if they’re not generating adequate sales right now, it’s no big deal. They’ll figure it out eventually, or get around to it at some point. As a result, they can plod along for weeks, months or even years bringing in just enough revenue to make themselves either mildly comfortable or not quite uncomfortable enough to do what it takes to generate the sales they need to run a fun, exciting, sustainable business. And shouldn’t that be the goal? If it’s not fun, lucrative, or ideally both, then what’s the point? If you just want to earn a steady paycheck, you can do that with a regular job. So if you’re still with me, let’s take a look at just Three of the Real costs of inadequate sales: Real cost #1. Lost revenue. This is the obvious one. If you’re not generating adequate sales, then you are losing out on revenue every business day. Some people don’t think of money that they didn’t make as being lost. But isn’t it, though? If there are sales you could have made today, but you didn’t make them. Didn’t you lose out on that revenue? Especially if they ended up buying it from someone else? Sure, you may sell something else tomorrow, but that doesn’t make the sales you lost today any less real. Now if you think that mindset is too negative. If you believe in an abundance mindset and you feel like there’s plenty of business to go around for everyone. Then we’re on the same page. I totally agree. There is plenty of business to go around for those who are willing… to do what it takes… to bring it in. So if that’s you, congratulations. Keep up the great work. But if you’re not generating adequate sales, then it’s likely some changes are necessary. Real cost #2. Lost opportunity. Every sale you fail to make today, means there’s one less reorder, one less referral, one less happy customer, positive review, success story or testimonial in the pipeline. Inadequate sales are a pipeline killer. This results in opportunity and future sales that are either lost completely or delayed indefinitely. Life is full of opportunity. But it requires being present. You have to get in front of it. So when you’re generating inadequate sales, you are missing out on all the related opportunities you could have had. Real cost #3. Lost credibility. When you don’t care enough to do everything you can do every day to help as many potential clients as possible, it kills your credibility. What would you think of a doctor who could have helped someone today but who just didn’t. How about a lawyer who could ha

What is your first contact with a new prospect? Another good question to ask yourself is how does that first contact happen? And is it proactive on my part? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing your first contact with a new prospect. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, it’s good to be with you again. David. When you say first contact, I always think about Star Trek with their first contact with the aliens, and I feel like you’re kind of sitting there going, okay, are these going to be nice? Are they going to try and destroy the human race. You know, there’s a lot of trepidation with first contact and sometimes that first contact, how it goes, determines the whole rest of the relationship. David: That’s exactly where I stole the term from Jay. That is exactly where I stole the term from. And the way that came about is that I was talking to somebody about cold calling. This was years and years and years ago. Well, actually we were talking about prospecting and one of the things that this person mentioned to me was something related to cold calling. And I said, “okay, well, cold calling is one way that you can reach out to people.” I said, “think of it like it’s your first contact.” And literally it was because I saw that movie about first contact and I thought it’s such a great concept. The idea of whatever, meeting an alien species for the first time is one thing. But for salespeople, you’re exactly right. It’s the same thing. We’re walking into an unknown situation. We have absolutely no idea how the person is going to react and that. Doesn’t matter whether it’s on the phone as a cold call, whether it’s meeting someone at a networking event, whether it’s through social media. We have no idea what’s on the other end until we engage. Therefore, the whole idea, the whole concept of first contact, I think is really highly appropriate. It is the very first contact that we have with a prospect. If you understand that conceptually, it can really sort of open up your mind to the possibilities and to the opportunities. Because there are a lot of people who view whatever it is they do as first contact, as first contact. What I mean is if all they do is make cold calls, they view that as first contact. If all they ever have done to generate customers is through social media, that’s what they view as first contact. When you recognize, that’s just a method, that’s just one particular method of first contact, and you realize that there’s a whole other universe. To continue the space analogy here, there’s a whole other universe of options. It really allows you to test different things to figure out what’s going to work best for you. Jay: Yeah. And I love the idea that first contact, when I first thought of this, I was thinking that’s the first time that I meet them voice-to-voice or face-to-face. And in today’s world, that’s probably not going to be the first contact. In my business, the first contact is our website. That’s the first time that they’re going to see us. Now, in my business, I’m very fortunate that our three main competitors, their websites are awful, David, they are terrible. They are designed terribly. They’re hard to read. And all the time I get people saying, literally saying to me, “I chose you because I liked your website.” We’re somebody that offers this high level of expertise and you chose us just because we have a really good web designer. But that was the difference. Their first contact with us is positive, because we spend the time to get that right. David: Yeah, it’s a lot more than the web designer too, because you could have a beautiful design, but if the words on that design are not resonating with them, it’s not going to work. Which goes back to what we talked about before, the MVPs of marketing. The message on a website will definitely determine whether or not they will be interested in what you say. Now, the way we present that, meaning the design, that’s all part of the messaging component. But if the words don’t resonate, if the imaging doesn’t resonate, they’re not going anywhere. But you’re right! So many times, people don’t recognize that first contact is happening all the time. Even with things that you’re not even aware of. You go onto social media and you post something, whether it’s a picture of your dinner or a comment about politics or something business related, that could very well be their first contact with you. And if they hate it, they’re not going to be revisiting. Jay: Yeah, exactly. And that’s why companies out there can help clean up your mistakes if you mess up. You know, we say this all the time. Once it’s on the internet,

The trouble with targeting in business is that a lot of people don’t do it well. It reminds me of that line from one of the Godfather movies where Michael Corleone says something along the lines of, “if history has taught us nothing else, it’s that you can get to anybody.” Right? And that is now true in terms of advertising. You can get to anybody, but what is the cost? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I discuss the trouble with targeting. Welcome back Jay. Jay: Hey, David, once again, I’m excited to be here and I’m really excited to get your feedback on this, because when you first said we’re going to talk about the trouble with targeting, I kind of thought in my head, well, isn’t that what I’m supposed to be doing? Aren’t, aren’t I supposed to be targeting? David: Oh yeah. Yeah. We definitely have to target. We definitely need to target. I’m not saying there’s anything wrong with targeting. The trouble with targeting that I was thinking about is that a lot of people don’t do it, and a lot of the people who do do it maybe don’t do it as well as it can be done, and as a result, they don’t get the results they’re looking for. Some people think they’re targeting and they may be doing that, but if you’re not targeting to the point where it’s resulting in better quality prospects, better quality clients, and conversations that lead to sales, then you might need to hone in a little bit better in terms of your targeting efforts and your targeting approach. Jay: Yeah, so as I think about targeting, there’s a lot of work to be done upfront, right? If you’re going to target somebody, you’ve got to know who the target is. And that can take a lot of research on your own part. A lot of experimentation, a lot of looking at past contacts, how those contacts came into your funnel, and understand those things before shooting arrow in different directions. The odds that you’re going to hit anything that looks like a target are pretty slim. David: Exactly. And I think a lot of the reason for that is, many people think of the term targeting in terms of what you said, targeting’s like aiming at something. But it’s not just aiming at something, it’s having an idea in advance of what it is that you want to hit. And if we think in terms of some of the more common ways of targeting. Some people don’t even get this specific about it. But if you look at the different ways to target, I mean some people target geographically, I’m going to target everybody within a certain geographic area. If I’m a realtor and I’m working in a particular neighborhood… Great example of geographic targeting. Some people target by industry. If I’m selling B2B, I might target a particular group of people in a particular industry. I might target companies that deal with technical kind of things, or I might target education, or I might target finance, right? So that’s a different way to target, by industry. I can target by need if I’m selling something like whatever, insurance, and I’m targeting people who need insurance. Okay. They could be wherever they are. Now, it’s harder to do that when you target by need because so many people might need it and you might have to pare things down a little bit to be able to get to the people that you want. In the promotional products industry, where I do a lot of work, people can sell by program specialty. In other words, people who are looking for a specific result. If you’re selling to people who are looking to increase safety in the workplace, then you could potentially be selling them a safety campaign, a safety program. There are some people who target by product specialty. There are different companies who might be looking for a specific kind of product. There is a company that’s been in the promotional products industry for ages. You’ve probably received pens from them in the mail, and they’ve been doing that for years. There’s a cover letter. Very often the pen will have your company name on it, and they’ll send that to you in advance. And then there was just a sheet of paper and a place where you could say, all right, if I want 200 of these, I send a check, I mail it in. And that was an example of targeting by product. So you can have a very successful business that does just that, right? Targeting by a particular product. And then some combination thereof. I could target a particular niche, a particular group of people. I could target financial institutions within a certain geographic area, or I could target a certain type of industry with a specific need. So, industrial companies that need safety programs. So lots of different ways to slice it, but if you don’t think through your options, then

Particularly in the early stages, breaking through your 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. Identifying the Real Causes of a Sales Plateau 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. Breaking through can be a monumental task to get to the next level and they’re not sure how to do 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 a sales 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. There are thresholds 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. 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. Breaking through becomes a challenge. You May Not Know How You Got Here And so it’s really just a matter of getting stuck. It’s like, I feel like I’m stuck. I’m here, I need to be there 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 sales 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 sales 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 there. Right? So breaking through to level one won’t necessarily get me to level two. When Hard Work Doesn’t Result in Breaking Through 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. Something needs to change fundamentally in the business, in order to keep breaking through that sales plateau and get us to the 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 through that next sales plateau. Refusing to Delegate Can Lead to a Sales Plateau 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&#8217

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will continue our discussion about the AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales. This is part four in our series, and today we’ll be talking about learning, segmenting, and the Three Ds. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David. I really, really enjoyed this. I know I’ve said that in previous podcasts, but it’s true. After each one, I’ve gone into my own business and I’m like, okay, I got to apply this and apply that because these conversations are of such value. So I appreciate your time. I love this. And hopefully it’s been helpful to everybody else. David: I’m glad, I feel the same way, and I’m really looking at this almost like a mini-course. If people were to put together these four episodes and say, “How much of this stuff am I doing in my business?” You can probably implement some things very quickly that can probably help you get some great results. Jay: 100%. David: All right, so let’s do the quick review. And again, what we’re talking about here is we asked AI what will help you to multiply your business because that’s been a focus of our conversations recently. AI came back with some different responses, and then we’re talking about what AI says and how we’re able to help implement those things in business with our clients. And so let’s just recap. Number one was refine your target audience. Number two, develop a compelling value proposition. Number three, optimize your marketing channels. That was our first episode on that topic. In episode two, we covered points four, five, and six. Number four was enhance your customer experience. Number five, implement a referral program. And number six, leverage the power of content marketing. In episode three of this series, we hit utilize upselling and cross selling strategies, which was number seven. Analyze and optimize your sales funnel, which was number eight, and invest in customer relation management software, CRM, which was number nine. Now we’re going to be doing 10, 11, and 12. Eleven and 12 are really bonus because originally I asked it for 10 and then I realized that doesn’t break out well if you’re doing three in a podcast. So I went back to the AI and I said, give me two more. And it did. So we’ll be talking about numbers 11 and 12 in this podcast as well. So number 10 in the list of things that AI says will help you to multiply your sales is: 10: Continuous learning and adaptation. Stay updated with industry trends, attend relevant workshops or conferences, and be open to adapting your sales strategies to meet changing market demands. Well spoken AI! Continuous education. It’s a good call! Jay: It is, and some professions actually require it. But again, that continuous education is often on a service or a specialty or things like that. It’s not really on customer service or the technology or things like that. I feel like in that regard, so many of us are a hamster on a wheel. You know, we’re just trying to keep up with what today is giving us. We’re putting grease on the squeaky wheel and we don’t have time to really think about staying up on, you know, all the latest trends and those kind of things. David: Yeah. And a lot of people just don’t like continuing education, because they feel like so much of it is platitudes. It’s like, I already know this stuff. I already know it, right? But knowing what to do is very different than knowing how to do it. And that’s really what I’ve been trying to differentiate in this series of podcasts is that, yes, these are great statements. Continuous learning. That sounds great. But what are you learning? Are you learning things that you can implement immediately? Are you putting in place processes that will allow you to start getting results right away so you can gauge those results and then adapt, change, or tweak the process as you go to make sure that it’s working for you? So once again, we’re focusing on all the little details that make these general recommendations profitable. Jay: You know, I don’t know where I get it. I think I get it from my dad, but I am on a never ending quest to make things more efficient. I am always looking for the next software, the next device, the next system. I’ve done it since I was 15. My first job was in a burger barn at an amusement park. And I was watching how they put everything on the grill and what they would do is they’d cover the whole grill with burgers And then they would flip them all at the same time, and then they would pull them all off at the same time, and while they’re preparing them, the grill is sitting there empty. And so the line would move, and then it would stop, and I’m like, this is crazy. Put down two rows, wait a second, put down two, put down two

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will continue our discussion about the AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales. This is episode three in our series, and it’s about upselling, sales funnels, and your CRM. David: Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you, David. This has been fascinating for me as I look at what AI recommends. And even just apply some of those basics to my own business but also realizing that these are kind of general, and figuring out how to apply them to everybody’s individual circumstances is no easy feat. David: Exactly. And one of the things that I’ve really liked about this series is having the opportunity to talk about the “how” of a lot of this stuff, because as business owners, as salespeople, we’ve heard these recommendations forever. But the question is always, “well, how do you go about doing it?” And so what I’ve been trying to do in this series is to say, okay, here’s the general what you ought to do, but then there’s the, how do you go about doing it? And this is exactly what we help our clients with. So it’s been really fun for me to be able to go through these and say, okay, there are probably lots of ways to do these things, but this is how we do it. Because our goal is to simplify it for our clients. So you don’t have to say, Oh, well, should I do this? Should I do that? Should I do this? It’s like, okay. Implement this, gauge the results, see how it goes, report back, if we need to tweak it, if we need to do something different, we can, but you have an instant starting point, and that allows you to get actions taken, get results back quickly, and then be able to adapt as you go. Jay: Yeah, I love that, that you’re able to kind of cut through all of the noise out there because there’s so much noise, and help them identify for their individual situation what they need because they may have asked AI and we have some of those lists here and items from AI, but again, it’s just a starting point. David: Exactly. So let’s take a look at the things that we already discussed in the previous episodes. And once again, what we’re doing here is we asked AI, what are the things that will allow us to multiply our sales? It came back with number one, define your target audience. Number two, develop a compelling value proposition. Number three, optimize your marketing channels. We covered that in previous episodes. Number four was enhance your customer experience. Number five was implement a referral program. Number six was leverage and the power of content marketing. So now in this episode, we’re going to tackle numbers seven, eight, and nine, which is upselling, sales funnels, and your CRM. So let’s get to number seven. 7. Utilize upselling and cross selling strategies: Offer complementary products or services to increase the average transactional value and maximize customer value. What do you think? Jay: Yeah. I mean, it makes a lot of sense. I will tell you this was much easier to grasp in my mind when I was in the restaurant business, right? It’s like, you want fries with that? You know, let’s make it a value meal. Let’s make it a, you know, a combo, whatever. I will tell you, we’ve spent a lot of time in my current business identifying what are the other things, other products that we can offer that our customers will want, not things that we can shove down their throat, but what other things can we add that they may be looking for because they came to us? David: Yes, exactly. And I think people hear about upselling and cross selling and they’re like, Oh yeah, that sounds like a good idea. Most people are familiar with the restaurant, the McDonald’s example, “want fries with that.” So it makes sense, but it’s like, okay, how do I apply that to my business? And one of the ways that we help our clients do that is to identify, okay, well, what does this mean? What is upselling versus cross selling and all that sort of thing? And in a nutshell, the way that I view it, upselling is when you’re selling them a better version of the thing that they’re considering buying or a more expensive version of the thing that they’re considering buying. Cross selling is the idea of “want fries with that.” It’s okay. You’re already getting this. This goes with it. Would you like to do that as well? In the promotional products industry, where I do a lot of my work, cross selling is, “ah, you’re buying t shirts, want sweatshirts with that.” Or if you’re buying sweatshirts, want sweatpants with that, right? Want caps with that. Shirts and caps go together, that type of thing. So, It’s pretty simple when we boil it down, and it’s even better and it’s even easier when we turn it into a process so that e

Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be continuing our discussion on the AI approach to multiply your sales. This is part two in our series, and today we’ll be discussing service, referrals, and content marketing. David: Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you so much, David. I’m really enjoying this discussion about AI because I think we’ve already established there are some great tools and resources with AI, but it’s not exactly to the point where it needs to be. But more specifically, can it really speak to your individual situation? How do you pick through that and know what’s right for you? David: Exactly, and last week we were talking about the first three recommendations it made, which were define your target audience, develop a compelling value proposition, and optimize your marketing channels. This week, we’re going to be talking about its next set of recommendations. And it starts with number four on its list is: 4. Enhance Your Customer Experience. Focus on delivering exceptional customer service and creating a positive experience at every touch point to build loyalty and encourage repeat business. That sounds nice. Jay: It sounds fantastic. Again, just do that. You know, but how do you do that? I think I mentioned in the last podcast that so often people go into business not because they’re great at customer service, but because they have a great recipe, or they have a great product. And they don’t really think about how to offer that in a great way. I’m in the accounting field now, which kind of blows my mind and is a different conversation. But I find generally, David, that accountants don’t know how to give good customer service. And they kind of feel like they have a captured audience and so they don’t even try to give good customer service. David: And a lot of accountants also really struggle with marketing because they feel like it’s Jay: Yes, yes. David: Kind of, if not beneath them, they feel uncomfortable with it. They don’t want to come across as a salesperson. They’re very good at what they do and they’re less good at finding the people they need to do that sort of thing. And that’s why a lot of them, a lot of small business accountants struggle, because they’re great at accounting and not so great at the things that we’re talking about here that will actually allow them to service more customers. Jay: Yeah, you’re exactly right. Where I’ve come from, the retail side, the customer service side, that’s been my whole background. So, we’re kind of owning our little space in the marketplace, because we’re focusing on that up front, and people recognize a difference immediately. David: Yeah, exactly. So, one of the things we talked about in the previous podcast related to AI telling us how to multiply sales is that some of these recommendations come across as rather general. Okay, so enhance your customer experience is not really the kind of thing you would think of as “okay, this will allow me to multiply sales.” It’s a necessity. You have to have exceptional customer service in your business if you want to survive, let alone thrive, let alone multiply business. But it doesn’t seem to me to be a multiplier in and of itself. However, when we think about this idea, what can we do to make the experience better, what can we do to expedite the experience, make these things happen better and more consistently, that will allow us to get the velocity we need, in my opinion, to be able to then Multiply your sales. In other words, it’s not enough to just do a great job with customer service. We need to be able to do it with a cadence of accountability. We need to be able to do it in a way where it’s happening consistently. People are able to move through our process, get what they need, feel like they’ve been extremely well taken care of, and then we can move on to the next person. Jay: Yeah, when I hear enhance their customer experience, for some reason, I think of Disneyland, like better rides or better signage or, you know, things like that. It’s very ethereal, like, how do I apply that to my individual experience? I think a key here is that our attention span with TikTok and all of these things is so low. And so when somebody lands on your website or when they’ve picked up a phone to call you, if they’re not moving through that process fast enough, you’re going to lose them. And that’s just the reality of the world that we live in. David: Absolutely. And I think this general idea of enhancing your customer experience is good. And again, some of the words they use are delivering exceptional customer service and creating a positive experience at every touch point to build loyalty and encourage repeat business. So those are all great recommenda

Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales. This is the first in a multiple part series, and we’ll start off with targeting, communication, and reach. David: Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David, it’s great to be with you. I’m really excited about this series because I think a lot of people shy away from AI. Or they’re getting into it and they’re hearing a lot of the things that it can do, but they’re not sure how to approach it or even if it’s the right thing to do for their business. David: Yes. Agreed. The way this actually came about is that we’ve been talking for a while over the course of the past several weeks in particular about multiplying your sales. And some people really struggle with this concept. And I thought, well, what does AI have to say on the topic, and how does what AI says about it relate to what we do, and how we help our clients, and do these things line up? So I thought what I’d do is I’d take the answer to the question when we asked AI, “What are your best recommendations in terms of multiplying sales,” to see what AI says and then compare that with what we’re doing. And so the first three recommendations that it had were based on targeting, communication, and reach. Those are my words, not AI words in particular. But that’s pretty much what it broke down to, so I figured that’s what we’d start with. Jay: I love it. We’re going to do a podcast on AI, and we’ve asked AI what it thinks first, and now we’re going to psychoanalyze AI to see if it’s in line. David: Well, to see how it lines up. Because one of the things that I found interesting was that when I asked it about multiplying sales, it was coming back with responses that talked about increasing sales. And so I asked it specifically to come up with recommendations based on multiplying sales. And at first it seemed resistant to that. So it talked about growing sales and multiplying sales. But this is where it landed. So I figured we’d start with this. Now, I had asked it to prioritize these things. I’m not quite sure if it did. But this is what it came back with. So the very first recommendation that it had in terms of multiplying sales. I’ll tell you specifically what it said first and then we can discuss it. So the first thing that it recommended is it said: 1. Define Your Target Audience. Clearly identify your ideal customers and understand their needs, preferences, and pain points. So, that’s how it started. What do you think of that take? Jay: It sounds very, very traditional, very typical, common knowledge. The first thing that I learned in a sales class years ago, identifying your target audience. But I feel like that’s so basic, and when you talk about multiplying sales, I tend to think that’s more about taking the existing clientele and getting them to spend more. That’s what I think about. David: I tend to think that way as well, but I thought it’s a pretty good jumping off point because whether your target audience means your existing clients and the new clients that you want to go after, I think it makes a whole lot of sense to lead with, determining who it is that you’re going to be going after. I relate a lot of this to what we do in our Total Market Domination course. One of the very first things we do in our course is we have a three level system of targeting. So what AI is recommending here in sort of a general sense, in terms of defining your target market, is something that we really dive into pretty heavily with our clients. Because without that targeting up front, if you don’t know exactly who it is that you’re going after, who your ideal client is, the likelihood of bringing an ideal client through the door is Is generally slim to none. Jay: Yeah. And you know, we’ve talked a lot about this in the past that knowing who your target audience is, is so important because you may spend a lot of time spinning your wheels, going after a really large base of customers and getting leads for people who are not going to turn into customers. So you’re going to save time and money and effort if you can really hone that in. David: Yes, I completely agree. So I thought the first thing that it came back with is pretty good. A little general. It seemed to me to be the kind of thing that one might get at a Chamber of Commerce session on growing your sales, to find your target audience. Yes. Makes perfect sense. For me, with a lot of these, the devil is in the details, right? It’s going to be, well, how do we do these things? This is essentially the what to do, but it’s really the how to do it where the money comes from. So, the second thing that it recommended is to: 2. Develop a Compelling Value Proposition: Create a unique s

If you want to multiply money in your business, it means you have to figure out the very specific steps that you need to take in order to make that happen. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the topic, Can You Multiply Money? Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey David, of course you can. I have a tree in my backyard. Money grows on it and I just have to water it every year. What else do I need? David: Nice. No, that’s great. You got a money tree. You’re in great shape. When I think about the abilty to multiply money, I know that in the early stages of some of my businesses, and in the early stages of trying to figure out how to make them work, I was able to multiply money. But I was multiplying it by fractions, you know. So… If you multiply money by 0. 5, you now have half the money you started out with. So I think we’re all able to multiply money. But, ideally, we want to multiply by whole numbers. Jay: Yeah, I agree, but we also subtract money. I’m not sure what the terminology is. Bbut a lot of times in an attempt to multiply money, if you’re not careful, you’re actually losing money. David: Yeah. And you will have to invest. You’ll have to make investments up front. I think a lot of times people go into business, particularly small business owners, will go in with the idea of, “well, I’ll just bootstrap it.” And it’s certainly what I’ve done, I did that a number of times and when it works, it’s fantastic. And when it doesn’t, it’s disastrous. So as long as you recognize that going in, it’s all okay. But having that focus, what will it take to get this going? How much will it cost? How long will I have to work for nothing, if I bootstrap entirely? A lot of those questions come into play. Jay: Yeah, otherwise it’s kind of gambling. You know, starting a business is kind of a form of gambling, but the better the idea is, the more help you have along the way, the more financially stable you can be in the process, the more you increase the odds that your gamble will pay off. David: Yeah, and it really is a gamble in the truest sense of the word. Because you don’t know if it’s going to work. It might work and it might not. You may have a really good feel for it. You may have done it before and say, okay, I feel really good about this. I think this is really going to work, but it’s still a bet. You’re still guessing and betting that it’s going to work based on what you know. You think you can multiply money, but you can’t be sure until you try. I’ve never really been a gambler in terms of casinos and things like that, but I guess people who do that well and know how to do it, they can go into a situation and say, “okay, I have a pretty good feel for the fact that I’m going to make back a multiple of what I lay down on the table. And sometimes they’re right and sometimes they’re wrong. And it’s exactly the same in business. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. Only in business, you may put a lot of things on the line, your family’s future. You may quit your job. You really put yourself out there in many ways. I found success in making sure my family is supported with a day job and then I pursued other things on the side. Meanwhile, I had other family members who have said, “no, I’m going all in” and they put everything at risk. And that didn’t turn out so well, but you know, it depends on the individual and the idea, I think. David: Yeah, absolutely. And I know in the early stages I tried doing sort of a sideline thing for a while and I could never personally make that work. Jay: Yeah, yeah. David: Because it was hard for me when somebody else was paying me money to do a job, I didn’t feel like I could walk away to do my thing, so I was torn in that way. When I was working on my side project, I felt like I should either be working on the work that was paying me or when I was at real work, I felt like I should be working on my business. I remember quitting a job that I had because I knew I was going to start a business. And it was really like flying without a safety net. You know, the big trapeze with no safety net. Because I literally quit a job. It’s like, okay, I’m no longer going to get that money and hopefully it’ll work out. Eventually it did, but it wasn’t fast and it wasn’t a straight line and it took some real time and some real effort and a lot of scares. We talked about scares in our podcast at Halloween. It took a lot of that stuff in order to get to the point where eventually things started to work. And I don’t know many entrepreneurs who don’t go through some version of that. Jay: Oh, I totally agree. It’s a hallmark of entrepreneurship. Can you take that step into the darkness, right? Are you

I got a lot of great feedback from last week’s episode on how to create explosive growth in your business. So today I’d like to expand on that topic a bit and start laying out the steps to make it happen. If you’re serious about creating explosive growth in your business, let’s start by discussing where that sort of growth begins. It’s not in your marketing, not yet. It’s not in your sales scripts. That comes later. And it’s definitely not in whatever new shiny object comes flying across your screen as you scroll on social media. Instead, it starts between your ears. Here’s what I mean. If you look at the most successful printers and promotional product distributors, and really the leaders in almost any industry, a big difference in what sets them apart from their competitors isn’t luck. It’s their mindset, the way they think about their business, their clients, their messaging, and their results before they do anything to reach out to them. And while you probably already know that’s important, you also need to understand why having the right mindset doesn’t just make you feel better about your business. It’s not really about your feelings, it’s about your vision. Having the right mindset allows you to see better. It allows you to notice the people, the approaches and the opportunities that you might otherwise overlook. It allows you to recognize the profitable activities and patterns that other people don’t see. As a result, you stop looking at the typical average approaches that create average, mediocre results for everyone else, so you can trigger the explosive growth you’re looking for. This means thinking like a market dominator, not just like a participant. You already know that every business has a ceiling, but you might not know that most of these ceilings are self-imposed. They come from the beliefs and the actions of the participants. I hear from business owners all the time who swear they want to grow, but then the very next thing they tell me is the reason they believe they can’t do it. “I want to grow, but I don’t have enough time.” “I really need your help, but I can’t afford it right now.” “I’m serious about growing, but the people in my market are cheapskates.” The problem with that thinking is that you’re making excuses instead of making plans. Explosive growth requires you to blow through that ceiling by asking better questions. Like: “What if I do have the time, but up until now, I just haven’t been using it the right way?” “What if I stop wasting financial resources on things that don’t move the needle and start investing in the things that do?” “What if I adjust my approach to ignore the cheap skates and start targeting clients with money?” These are some of the simple mindset shifts that allow you to see how explosive growth is even possible. Of course, mindset alone won’t do it, but it does allow you to unlock the rest of the process of market domination. One of the biggest differences between struggling business owners, average performers and those who dominate their markets is how they evaluate their resources. Struggling owners think in terms of shortages: “I don’t have enough…” “I don’t have enough time, leads, ideas, help, resources…” But top performers who create explosive growth in their businesses, focus instead on leveraging everything they have. “How can I generate exceptional results from the time, leads, ideas, help, and whatever other resources I have?” It’s a simple shift that provides alternatives instead of focusing on excuses for why I can’t get the things I want. Everything we do with our Total Market Domination clients is built on leveraging their time and resources, so they can accomplish more in less time and multiply their results instead of settling for less. So as others complain about not having enough clients, you’ll be confidently attracting more of the ideal clients they can’t get, by improving your messaging, focusing your targeting, and perfecting your contact processes behind the scenes, in what I call stealth mode. It’s silent, but it’s deadly to your less informed competition. It’s also where all the foundations of explosive growth are built. In our last episode, we talked a bit about stealth mode and how it’s like watering those bamboo trees while there are no visible signs of life. It seems futile, but only to those who have no idea of what’s going on beneath the surface. Much of our industry is kind of primitive. Your competitors very likely engage in the same sort of dull marketing and outdated selling approaches that consistently create average or below average results for the majority of the industry. Instead of following

Want to create explosive growth in your business? If so, consider this: Why is it that some businesses take off like a rocket while others can languish for months or years without getting the traction they need to grow? Why do some businesses plateau at a certain level and struggle to break through, while others are able to grow consistently? In my experience, it boils down to three things we’ll discuss in this episode. Recently, I was reminded of a story about how Chinese bamboo trees grow very slowly underground, for years, completely unseen. The people who plant these trees water and fertilize the soil every day, even though there are no signs of life. Sounds tedious, right? Watering the same patch of dirt for years? I mean, that HAS to feel pretty unfulfilling at times. But the amazing part of the story is that roughly five years after planting — when the bamboo finally breaks the surface of the ground — it can grow up to 90 feet tall in just five weeks. That’s an example of how to create explosive growth! And while a typical bystander might see that and think, “wow, that grew really fast!” The people who actually do the work — those who plant, water, fertilize and cultivate these plants — know EXACTLY what it took to trigger that growth. I love this analogy because it tracks so closely to the work I’ve done with promotional product businesses over the past 20+ years. Some of the people I work with might start out feeling a bit like the bamboo gardener — tending, nurturing, and cultivating a business that seems like it might never break through the soil. In fact, some are stuck for more years than it takes for a bamboo tree to crack through the dirt and see the light of day. But the good news is that promo businesses AREN’T bamboo trees. They’re not subject to the same restrictive laws of nature. Instead, there are very specific steps we can take to prep the environment and TRIGGER explosive growth much faster. In fact, when I work with clients, we operate in two primary modes: First is Stealth Mode This is where we lay the groundwork that no one else sees. It’s what’s happening beneath the surface. In bamboo terms, it would be the equivalent of supercharging the seeds, soil, water, and fertilizer to create a better, stronger, faster-growing plant that is heartier and more resilient than the other plants. Second is Intimidation Mode I know that sounds obnoxious. But the simple fact is that when you initiate explosive growth in a business, people notice. Their prospects are excited to see something new and different. Their clients are excited to be associated with a winner, OUR clients are excited to have their businesses attracting the right people and growing the way they want… And their competitors? Well, they just get intimidated. It’s not the intention. But it’s often a side effect. So each month, we offer a small group of promotional product distributors the opportunity to work with us to plant the seeds. Our goal is to help you quickly: Lay the groundwork Plant the seeds and Trigger explosive growth And we do this using our proprietary, proven framework. It is NOT cheap, but it is EXTREMELY effective. So what does creating explosive growth actually look like in a promotional products business? Well, let’s start with what it doesn’t look like… It doesn’t look like 10 to 20% annual growth. I mean, think about it. If you start at $50,000 in sales your first year and settle for 10% annual growth, it would take you more than 32 years to hit $1,000,000 in sales. Even at 20% growth, it would take more than 17 years. So if you’re serious about growth — particularly in the early stages — 10% to 20% annual growth is not going to do it for you. Ask yourself this. Are your current year-over-year numbers getting you to where you want to be? And if so, are they getting you there fast enough? Usually, creating explosive growth requires at least doubling your revenue multiple times over. Growing from, say $50,000 to $100,000 to $250,000 to $500,000 to $1,000,000+. Of course, the larger you get, the harder it is to continue to double like that. But in that example, with year-over-year doubling, you can get from $50,000 to $1,000,000 in four years. If you can achieve those doubles in less time, you can get there even faster. Of course, not everyone in our industry is interested in achieving that sort of growth. And you don’t have to be. I know many people who are happy to generate whatever sales they can in the time they allocate to it. But that’s not who this particular message is for… Instead, this is for you if you WANT to achieve exceptional results but have been struggling to get there… It’s for you if you KNOW you are capable of reaching your goals, but you’ve been unable to blast through your current sales plateau… It’s for y

To turn focus into profit, consider this. Your focus determines the level of profit that you generate. Because the people you meet, the conversations you have, all of that flows from your focus. So when you focus on those activities, the likelihood of increasing your profit increases dramatically. David: Hi and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss How to Turn Focus into Profit. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: It’s great to be here. Thanks for having me, David. Focus. Focus is something we could all use a little bit more of probably in our day-to-day lives, but is that a rare skill in business today? In the people that you work with? David: That’s a great question. I think for some people it is problematic. I think that’s the nicest way to say it. If you lack that focus, then it’s going to be a lot more difficult to accomplish the things that you want. So if it is something that you’re already good at, then the question becomes, how do I best harness that? Can I turn focus into profit? And if it’s not something you’re good at, then the question becomes, how can I get at least good enough at it that I can function at the level at which I need to function? Kevin: I feel like my focus has changed over the years, and part of it is definitely technology. Because I’ve got a phone sitting next to me that might beep. Might be personal, might be business, could be anything. I could be working on a project and a client on Slack gets in touch with me. Then I get an email. And then there’s just so many channels of communication. I mean, do you find that technology has made it more difficult in some ways for people to focus, and to turn focus into profit? As opposed to maybe 10, 20 years ago? David: Yeah, and I mean, particularly when you look at things like social media, because social media is designed to disrupt your focus. Kevin: Right. David: Everything that comes in, whether it’s an email or a post on social media, it’s all designed to get your attention. So that’s why, particularly in the past 10 to 20 years, focus is so much more of an issue for people. Because as you said, there are lots of different things to focus on. The algorithms are specifically programmed to make you focus on their priorities rather than your own. That makes it challenging to turn focus into profit. So if you’re aware of that and if you recognize that you have to determine what your focus needs to be in order to accomplish your results, then it becomes more likely that you’ll take the necessary actions to do that. Kevin: Yeah, that’s a really good point. I mean, we’ve all been in situations where you go on social media for a business purpose and all of a sudden you’re watching videos of some knuckleheads playing slip and slide softball, which are kickball, which I’ve gotten watching, are those silly videos. You’re just like, before you know it, you’re like, oh my God, it’s been a half an hour. I just came on here to check out a client’s page real quick. David: Yeah. And again, they designed the system to do that. They built it in. That’s not a mistake. That is the purpose of the design. So when we recognize that only we can determine whether or not we will remain focused, then we take the responsibility on ourselves. We recognize Okay, it ‘s designed to do that. So if I recognize that and if I leave that open, and if I have notifications turned on to an app that is specifically designed to derail me from my focus, then yeah. I’m sort of getting what I’m putting out. Kevin: You’re in trouble. You’re in trouble. David: Yeah. Kevin: Yeah. so the topic today is about how to turn focus into profit. How does a lack of focus directly translate into lost revenue? David: Well, if you’re looking at what your highest value activities are and then you focus on those, you’re going to be a lot more likely to accomplish what you’re looking to accomplish than if you allow your focus to be distracted by other people’s priorities. I’ve heard an email inbox referred to as a storage place for other people’s priorities, and I think that’s very true, and it doesn’t just extend to the inbox anymore. It extends to pretty much everything. Other people’s priorities are going to be popping up and binging and making noises. It’s a lot like being in a casino environment where it’s not designed to allow you to really focus. Let alone turn focus into profit. It’s designed to have you be distracted and get excited and get those dopamine hits that come from replying to somebody’s thumbs up or whatever it is that comes through on social media. So I think if you look at identifying what your highest value priorities are and then focusing on those, it’s going to allow you to get more done.

The success of your business is always determined by the what, why, when & how. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? When are you doing it? And How? If you don’t have the desire to help your clients, if it’s all about you making money, or if it’s all about you accomplishing a personal result for yourself, and you don’t have enough care or consideration for the person you’re selling to, I think it’s going to be hard to be successful long term. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the what, why, when, and how of your business. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to see you, David. How you doing? David: Doing great, and you? Kevin: Good. Good. All right — so, what, why, when, how. Let’s start with the first one. Why is it critical to define your what before anything else in business? David: Well, the way I look at it is, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then why you’re doing it, when you’re doing it, and how you’re doing it are kind of irrelevant. Kevin: Doesn’t really matter. David: Right. You sort of— Kevin: Yup. David: Yeah, you kind of have to know what it is that you’re setting out to do. Whether you’re operating solo or with a team of people, identifying what you want to accomplish — in your business or in any specific area of your business — is always the first step. So, if the what is “getting clients,” then the question becomes: What is my procedure? What is my process going to be for getting clients? That’s the what. You identify that first. Once you’ve even thought about what you want to accomplish — or what you think you might want to accomplish, if you’re still in the ideation stage — the what is important. But the reason I go to the why next is because if you don’t have a strong why, you might not be committed enough to what has to be done. Over the years, I’ve noticed that people who have ideas but don’t have a really strong, compelling reason for doing them tend to struggle to get those things done. Kevin: So it can become a motivation issue to some degree? David: It certainly can, because if you’ve got strong reasons for wanting to do something — whether it’s to support your family, to create a growing enterprise, or to eventually sell the business and make a profit — that strong why will definitely impact your motivation. So I think that’s a big component. Without it, why does anyone really do anything? Kevin: I suppose you could technically start with the why, right? Because if you have a reason for doing something, you can then build the what around it. Or is that a bad way to go in your mind? David: Well, if you’re thinking in terms of starting a business, that would actually be the what. But I guess it’s possible to start with the why. For example, if my why is “I want to support my family and I’m not happy with what I’m doing now,” then I might arrive at a what like, “I want to start my own business,” or “I want to do A, B, or C to make that happen.” That hasn’t worked that way for me personally — but it could for someone else. If you’ve got a strong enough why, you can then start thinking about what needs to happen in order to achieve the things you have in mind. Kevin: When it comes to the when, why is it so important to define a timeline? David: Wow. Anyone who’s in sales probably has some strong thoughts about when. If you’ve ever spoken to a prospect who seems really excited and seems like a perfect fit for what you offer — and then they just keep dodging you or stop taking your calls — that’s a perfect example of someone who doesn’t have their when dialed in. In any conversation — with prospects, clients, or coworkers — we need to identify the when so everyone’s on the same page about the importance of the action and the likelihood of it happening. Because without a when, things just don’t happen. A lot of our work is with people in the promotional products and print industries. In those cases, people will call and ask for a price: “Can you give me a quote on 1,500 of this particular item, in this color,” and so on. If you just answer that question without knowing when they need it, you may be shooting yourself in the foot. What if you provide a quote that’s valid today, and then they wait six months and come back expecting the same price? It doesn’t make much sense to quote someone without knowing when they plan to move forward. That’s why I think the when aspect is so critical. Kevin: Let’s move on to the how. Obviously, that can change over time — how you’re going to implement things. Businesses evolve. How detailed does the how really need to be before taking action? David: It needs to be detailed enough that you know what your next action will be. We recently did an episode where we talked about the idea stage, the action stage, and the system stage. The how is really about the systems or processes you’re building. It’s about the actions — the how is about what you’re doing and whi

It’s important, no matter who you’re partnering with, from a business standpoint, from an employee standpoint, from a VA standpoint. Whoever you choose as your business partners and colleagues have to have the skills that you lack, if you want to be able to accomplish the things that you need to get done. David: Hi. Welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the topic of choosing business partners wisely. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: It’s good to be here. David. I’m excited to talk about this because this is always an interesting topic. David: Yeah. When we think of business partners, we tend to think of people that we’re actually going into business with. But there’s really sort of a wider group of people that could potentially fit the bill here. So I think it’s important to cover that as well. Kevin: The first one you spoke of, the actual business partner, business partner. I mean that can test a friendship. It can test a relationship, it tests all kinds of stuff. So in your experience, just from that side of things. What are the biggest mistakes that business people, entrepreneurs make when choosing a business partner? David: Well, I’ve made them over the years. My very first business partner was a guy that I worked with in another business. We decided we were going to start our own things. And so we just started out renting the same office space and splitting the rent on that sort of thing. Then we got involved in projects that required both of us working together. It didn’t work out well. I started from the standpoint of we got along well, we interacted well. But neither of us took the time to consider our strengths and what each of us would bring to the table. A lot of times when people start working with friends or family, they think, “well, I know this person really well. I trust them.” That’s a good start. But unless you have similar visions for what the business is going to be, how you’re going to get there, and who’s going to do what, you can really end up with a lot of problems if that part of it doesn’t work out. Kevin: Yeah. it can go downhill fast. It can definitely go downhill fast. So, in any business partnership, you know, you talked about the fact that there’s varying types of them. What qualities do you feel matter most in a potential partner and which maybe are overrated? David: Well, I would say, starting out, you need to look at: Are our core values basically aligned? Do we sort of view the world in a similar way? Are we viewing business in a similar way? Do we view the relationship with our potential customers and clients in a similar way? Because if there’s a disconnect there, then you’re going to have problems starting with the very first decision. So I think that compatibility is very important. Making sure that everybody wants to go in the same direction, right? If you’re in a rowboat, you want to make sure everybody’s pulling in the same direction. That’s extremely important. If you have complementary goals, essentially that’s going to be a very important aspect of it. I think also, what is the expertise? What are you good at? What are they good at? If it’s exactly the same things, you need to make sure it covers everything that has to be covered in a business. So, if I’m really good at generating ideas and you’re really good at implementing those ideas, then that’s going to work out well. If we’re both great at generating ideas, but neither of us are great at implementation, we’re going to struggle with that. And so you want to look at complementary skills. I think that is probably one of the most important aspects of it. You’ve got the same vision, but you have complementary skills. So that one or more of you are not doing things they hate, right? If you have to engage in a skill that you don’t like, or if your business partner does, then it’s not a good recipe. But if one of you is really good at idea generation, another one’s good at implementation. Another one’s good at the financial aspect. Another one’s good at the marketing aspect. Somebody’s good at sales. If you’ve got all those departments covered by people who are good at those things, and who like doing them, then you have a much better likelihood of success. Kevin: Are there any qualities, do you think people put too much emphasis on that they don’t really need to? That might be overrated. David: That’s a tough one. Like when I think of what they put emphasis on, I mean, it might just be the initial shared vision, the idea that they want to go into business together. Kevin: Mm-hmm. David: That’s kind of the easy part. You know, we talked about ideas in the last podcast, and I’ve said for a really long time now that million dollar ideas are a dim

We’ll basically help you to look at where you are now and where you’re looking to be in terms of getting something from ideas to actions and systems. Because without those three levels and without prioritizing it correctly, you can spend a lot of time, invest a lot of effort, and not get to the results you’re looking for. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the topic of ideas, actions, and systems. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to see you, David. Let’s dig right in. Why do so many businesses get stuck at the idea stage and fail to even move into action? David: It’s a great question. I think ideas in a lot of ways are kind of the easy part. We have a brainstorm, we’re like, this is brilliant, let’s do this. And then we have another one has this, brilliant, let’s do this. And here’s another one. This is brilliant. Let’s do this. And then the question becomes, okay, what are we actually going to do? I know this has happened to me over the years in my own business. It’s happened with a number of people that I’ve worked with over the years. You have a lot of ideas. And then the question becomes, what are we going to take action on? And then, which of the things that we take action on, will we systemize? Get into place so that we can take those actions consistently? So that’s really the purpose of our discussion today. Kevin: Yeah. how do you personally decide, which ideas are worth pursuing and which to ignore? Because I can find myself to be an idea guy a lot of times too. I’m like this, I got this, I got this. But sometimes it’s hard to prioritize what is actually a good plan. Then put it into action versus maybe we just skip that one. David: Yeah, it’s helpful if we start out with essentially a data dump of all the different things that we’re considering. Just write them all down. Then have internal conversations initially about which ones of these are going to be our priorities. What are we definitely going to lock in? Which ones will we save until later? And which ones are just kind of out there? We don’t really have to look at those at the moment. Kevin: It seemed like a good idea last night… David: I find that by, Kevin: before I was falling asleep. Not so good the next day. Yeah, . David: That happens a lot, doesn’t it? Kevin: Yep, it sure does. David: I have a digital recorder. I take it with me wherever I go and keep it next to the bed. When I get one of those brilliant ideas at night, I record it on there. Then you listen to it the next day and you’re like, that was horrible, what was I thinking? Kevin: What a terrible idea. I can’t even understand what I was saying. David: Yeah, exactly. But, I think it starts with that. It’s about gathering all those ideas, because some of them are going to be great. Some of ’em are going to be brilliant, some of ’em are gonna be terrible, but we don’t know it. Now, a lot of times, it’s a good idea to sort of evaluate them yourselves before you start sharing them with everyone else, so that you’re only talking to your people about the things that you’ve already kind of thought through and believe are the best ways to go, and ideally to prioritize those. And then do another round with your people and go through it and ask for their opinion on which things should be prioritized and which things should be deprioritized as it were, so that you can sort of work your way through and have everybody be on the same page as far as what we should be working on sooner rather than later. Kevin: I feel like a lot of times ideas can get just stuck in sort of a neutral. Do you have to put a sense of urgency into turning ideas into action? David: Well, I think you definitely have to prioritize it. So to say that, we give it a sense of urgency, I would say yes for the things that are most important. But again, there’s this discernment process that needs to happen on the ideas to determine do they need to be prioritized? Do they need to be implemented at all? And then once you’ve done that, I think it really helps for everybody to be on the same page so everyone knows what we’re doing and which one we’re doing first, and which one we’re doing second, and which one we’re doing third and so on. Kevin: How can a small business owner build systems to help their business without adding like an overwhelming complexity? I think that’s a hard balance, right? David: Well, complexity in my experience, comes about as a result of not doing these things. When you actually think it through, when you start with an idea and you decide, okay, this idea is going to be something that we’re going to work on. And then you think through the idea and you say, where are we going with it next? is this going to be something that we&

We’re going to interact with people who are not ideal clients. But salespeople have trouble when they’re afraid to disqualify a prospect. To say, okay, I’m no longer going to follow up with this person. I’ve always viewed it a little like the game musical chairs that you played as a kid? You have a certain number of people going around, and a certain number of chairs. When the music stops, everybody scrambles to get a chair. If you don’t have a chair, you’re out, right? I view prospecting that way in some respects. Where you have to, at some point, start to prune the list. You have to start to get rid of the people who are not likely to become clients. If you’re afraid to do that, you will continue to leave the same number of people and chairs. Jay: Yes. David: And if none of them are buying, it’s not going to work well. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing letting ideal clients know you’re alive. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, so good to be here, David. And I think this is, again, such an interesting topic. I find that I’m so caught up in the daily. I’m taking calls and the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And some of those ideal clients kind of go by the wayside sometimes. David: Yeah. A lot of times we don’t even know who they are until we first try to identify them. So, in a sense, the topic itself goes kind of deep. You can’t know they’re an ideal client until you know they’re alive. Then you have to let them know that you’re alive. Then you have to determine if they’re an ideal client. Jay: Yeah. David: So there are actually a few steps in this. Jay: Yeah, and I think that’s such an important thing to know. You need to have a system, like you always have, of identifying those ideal clients. It’s hard for me to really figure out if they’re ideal up front. But I’ll tell you one thing I can tell is when they’re not ideal. I was on the phone call with somebody yesterday. He’s going to become a client. But I regret the relationship I know I’m going to have with him, because he’s already so demanding. And I’m like, this guy’s not ideal, but he’s a customer. And so, how can I not sell him the product? David: Yeah, that’s a great question. And it’s harder for some than others, I think. You get to a certain point in your business or a certain point in your career or whatever and you weigh it. Well, I guess we all do that. We have to weigh it. How much of a pain is this person going to be? And what’s my tolerance for pain essentially, right? Jay: Yeah. Yeah. David: But you’re exactly right. You don’t really know that necessarily upfront. So a lot of times when we’re working with our clients, what we’ll do is start with the people they think are likely to be their ideal clients. And whether that means in a certain geographic area or in a particular industry or in a certain sized company, if they’re selling B2B, You can make some initial judgments based on who has been a good client for you in the past, and then say, okay, how can I get more people like that? And then when you’re introducing yourself to those people who meet those similar criteria, as you’re having those conversations, you can then start to make those determinations about whether or not they are an ideal client, or if they just sort of fall in that general ecosphere of people who could potentially be ideal clients, but maybe aren’t. Jay: Yeah, exactly. And not just finding new ideal clients, turning your existing ideal clients into more business. Because if they were ideal the first time, if you can keep that to be a generating ongoing revenue source and relationship… Man, I’d rather do that every day than deal with the other type of customer. David: Yeah, no question. And when you get to the topic we started out with, which is letting ideal clients know you’re alive, that does go for your ideal clients as well. The ones that have been buying From you for a long time, the ones that you already know are ideal. Sometimes it’s just about remaining in touch with them, staying in front of them, remaining top of mind with the people that you already know are your ideal clients. And that’s something that not everyone does. Sometimes the allure of future business is so strong that it pulls us away from the people that we know buy from us, trying to bring new people through the door. So there’s definitely a balance that comes with all that. Jay: Yeah, absolutely. So what would you say? I kind of have an idea in my mind. How would you describe in your business the ideal client? David: Well, of course, it’s different for everyone, but ideal clients, I think for most people, it’s going to be somebody that you do

When we talk about the idea of effective sales follow-up, what does that mean? It’s effective in terms of making sure that we’re on the same page with the person, making sure that our conversations are moving forward, making sure that their questions are being answered, and ultimately getting to a decision. Are we going forward with this? Are we not? And if so, when is that going to happen? David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing effective sales follow-up. How much is too much? Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Thank you, David. Such an important question. And again, something that I struggle with. You know, I have a customer management system, and it shows me I talked to them three days ago. And it comes up on my tasks and it says it’s time to talk to them. And I find every time I go through this emotional thing. Are they going to think I’m bugging them too soon? And a lot of times I’ll say, let’s give them three more days or let’s give them two more days because I guess I’m not ready to talk to them or I’m afraid I’ll be a bother. David: Yes, and you’re not alone. Because it’s pretty much impossible to know exactly how often to call any one given prospect, let alone all of them. It’s not like there’s one rule where you say you must call every other day or you must call every three days or every week or whatever your thing is. I mean, there are rules that have been put in place for salespeople to do that, and maybe it’s not a terrible thing, but a system like that pretty much guarantees that you’re going to be wrong as often as you’re right. And so, if you understand that going in, one of the things that I think it’s important to recognize is that people are going to sort of telegraph how annoying you’re being, or how often they want to be in touch, want to have you in touch. And if you ask them more directly, they’ll be a lot more inclined to give you an honest answer. If we make up our minds that we’re going to contact this person every so many days, and that person doesn’t want to hear from us that often, then obviously we’re setting ourselves up for failure. So a lot of times, if we can find out from the prospect roughly how often they would like for us to be in touch with them, and it’s easier to do with established clients, where you know them, they know you. With prospects, it’s not as easy. But in the early stages with a prospect, we need to be in touch more frequently in order to get to decisions about qualification levels. Are they actually qualified to buy from us? Do they have the need, the desire, the money, the budget, the willingness to spend, the interest? Do they have any of those things? And if we can’t determine that in the first conversation, we need to have a second conversation. But of course, their level of interest in that first conversation will also help us to determine, well, how much time should I give this person? And when I think about how much is too much, one of the things that I’ve seen a lot, and I saw it myself, in my own behaviors in the earlier stages of my sales career, and then in a lot of other people along the way, is that since we can’t know how much is too much, many of us in sales tend to err on the side of too little contact rather than too much. And we talked about being a pest in a previous podcast. I don’t want to be a pest. Therefore, I’m not going to pick up the phone and call. And the problem with that is that if we’re not in touch with them, when they’re ready to move forward, then someone else is going to get that business. So we have to find this balance of, yes, I don’t want to be a pest, but also I’m not going to abandon this person so that somebody else can get in there and get that business while I’ve been working to cultivate it over a long period of time. Jay: Yeah, and it could be that depending on what type of product, there’s a time limit as well. So if they don’t get their order in within three weeks, you’re not going to make their deadline. So that could affect how often that you’re going to talk to them. One of the things that I’ve found in my business is to just flat out, ask them to schedule a follow-up appointment. You know, we’ve just had a discussion. I’m going to send you the information. Would you mind if I reach out to you on Friday at this time? And I find that that works very well. I’ve got that relationship going. You know, we’re friends now after 20 minutes. And they’re more than happy to set a follow-up appointment. If you’re in a situation where you can do that, that’s ideal. Because once I lose that scheduled appointment, now we’re playing phone tag or text tag or something else. So that’s

If you want to create desire in sales, it has to be about them. Their wants, their needs. The things that they’re looking to accomplish from the relationship, because that’s where all their desire comes from. David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss creating desire with your communication in sales. Welcome back, Jay. Jay: Hey, David. It’s great to be here, as always. read this title and I’ve been thinking about it, but I’d love to hear your perspective up front. What do you mean creating desire with your communication? David: Well, I think if we’re In the business of conveying value and providing products and ultimately selling something to someone else, the only way that happens is if there is enough desire created in the other person to make them want to move forward. Without the desire to move forward, it’s never going to happen. It’s kind of a funny word, particularly in sales. We tend not to use words like desire a whole lot. We tend to think in terms of qualification and segmentation, and we keep it all very clinical. But without the component of wanting it, if the prospect or client does not want what we’re selling, then absolutely nothing is going to happen. And the only way that desire is either created or channeled is generally with our communication. Now, if we’re offering something that they already want, then the desire is already built in. But if not, if they don’t see all the benefits, if they don’t see what it can do for them, then they might not be feeling it enough yet to pull the trigger. And at that point, it becomes our job to say, all right what do I need to do in terms of my communication with this person to help either create some of that desire or ideally uncover the desire that’s already buried inside there? Jay: Mmm. That’s great. I think about my own sales process. One of the things we do in our company is we offer a free consultation, and that’s my job. I give the consultation. And there’s nothing I hate more than when somebody says free consultation, and what they really meant was free sales call, right? And so the minute you get them on the phone, they’re pitching you their product, and I don’t. I listen, I ask questions, I tell them about their circumstances, I tell them what steps they can take to make their life better. And I always start the call saying, “just so you know, this is not a sales call. My goal is to give you the information that you need.” It never fails. I’ve never had a call in my life, and I’ve done probably a thousand of these. At the end of the call, they say, “well, how much do you charge for these services? And I’d like to move forward with you.” I never, never tried to sell them on anything. And to me, if you can do it, you can’t do it with every situation. But to me, that’s just ideal. They’re asking me how much I charge. I’ve created that desire in them without one word that sounds like a sales pitch. David: Right. Because if you go immediately into sales mode, if you start out with that, if you lead with a sales pitch, it’s not going to create desire in anyone. Because a lot of the desire that we’re going to be able to uncover in our prospects is going to come from the answers we get to the questions that we ask them. And so, you know, the whole diagnostic approach to sales, just like the diagnostic approach in medicine. First, you have to examine the patient to find out where it hurts. Examine, and then diagnose, and then and only then can you prescribe, right? So you have to examine the patient, find out where it hurts, find out what their needs are, find out if they need what we have to offer. If they don’t have a need for what we have to offer, then yeah, there’s no need for a sales pitch, right? And once we’ve done that examination, then we make the diagnosis. Based on what you’ve told me, it sounds like you’re looking to accomplish this, and this, and this. Is that correct? And if it is, and then if we have something that can help them with that, then the prescription would be, this is how we can help you if that’s something that’s of interest to you. But you’re exactly right. That desire is not going to be created in the pitch portion of the presentation. Jay: Yeah, that’s right. And in fact, I hear from a lot of our potential customers. They’re like, “I talked to three of your competitors and all they wanted to do was sell me on product and they confused me even more.” In fact, I think their tactic is if I can confuse you enough, you’re going to feel like you have to use me ’cause there’s no way you could possibly understand what we’re talking about. Of course, I’m in the tax business, so it&#82

Last week’s discussion about The Zero Accountability Salesperson seemed to resonate with a lot of people. And the biggest questions I got were related to how to fix this. How can I help myself and/or my salespeople to be more conscious of the actions we need to take, and to take those actions on a consistent basis? Hi and welcome back. In our last episode, we touched on a lot of important points related to what I would call The Zero Accountability Salesperson Culture: Most businesses don’t deliberately create a zero accountability culture. It just happens when systems and processes are missing. When salespeople say things like, “It’s going great, I’m having a lot of good conversations. I’ve got a lot of people in the pipeline,” that tells you nothing. Without metrics, it’s just wasted words. Accountability is not punishment. It’s about providing clarity on what’s working, what’s not, and how to fix it. If you haven’t thoroughly reviewed that episode, I encourage you to go back and check it out now. But today, I’d like to give you a quick, bullet-pointed list on the things you can do right now to start creating a culture of accountability for yourself and your sales team. To get started: ✅ Start with one key metric. Don’t overwhelm your team. Begin by tracking a single activity, like the number of new targets acquired or prospects qualified in or out each week. In our Total Market Domination program, we have an Activity/Results Audit that our clients use to track the ten most important activities that lead to sales. But even starting out small will begin to create a sense of accountability for yourself and your people. ✅ Define what counts. Be clear about what “initiating contact” means in your organization. Making a phone call and not getting an answer doesn’t count if no contact is initiated. Real contact, conversations, and interactions count. The rest is meaningless. ✅ Add one metric at a time. As you start getting consistent application on the first key metric, introduce the next one that flows from there. What are steps you and your salespeople need to take to move a new prospect from total stranger to paying client? Those are the activities that need to be taken and tracked in your business. ✅ Create a cadence of accountability. Establish a weekly rhythm where salespeople report on the metrics you require. Make it consistent, like a drumbeat. Miss just one or two and the whole thing will be forgotten in no time. ✅ Build accountability into your systems. Use your CRM or even a simple shared Google Doc to capture and share activity. The easier it is to track, the less resistance you’ll face. ✅ Focus on metrics that matter. Don’t waste time with busywork stats that don’t impact sales outcomes. There are a lot of those, so be sure to measure only the activities that truly drive sales results. ✅ Link activity to outcomes. Help salespeople understand how improving even one single metric (like initiating new contacts) drives the next step (like getting those prospects qualified in our out as quickly as possible.) When you do this correctly, accountability feels more like a reward than a punishment. ✅ Frame accountability as support. Make sure your team understands this isn’t about a lack of trust. It’s about you helping them to systematically identify and eliminate the bottlenecks that keep them from selling up to their potential. ✅ Stay consistent. Don’t let reporting slide over time. The moment accountability becomes optional, the culture of zero accountability will come roaring back to life. ✅ Adapt for individuals. High performers might require less oversight, but everyone benefits from clarity. Make sure everyone in your organization knows that you’re there to help them thrive. This means customizing expectations of your team, without ever lowering standards. The best salespeople want to succeed, and they’ll be open to any of your efforts to help in that regard, as long as they don’t come across as controlling or manipulative. If you’re serious about creating a culture of accountability inside your organization, download a copy of our free Shift Report today at TopSecrets.com/shift. It will explain how you can connect the dots between the work you’re doing and the results you’re getting from that work. So if you ever feel like you’re actions aren’t producing the desired results or you’re not yet earning up to your potential, download a copy now at topsecrets.com/shift. Ready to Start Helping Yourself and the Zero Accountability Salesperson? If so, download this PDF. Then check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow: Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just starting out in promotional products sales, learn how we can help. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click her

The zero accountability salesperson is at a big disadvantage. Selling is all about being able to produce. And the only way you’re able to produce is if whoever is doing the selling has some level of accountability, whether it’s to themselves or to a sales manager, or to your spouse, whoever it is, right? If you get home from work, and you didn’t sell anything as a salesperson, you might get in more trouble at home than you got in at work. So accountability is always big. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the zero accountability sales person. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to see you. Zero accountability salesperson. What does that look like in a sales team? David: Salesperson? Salespeople? It’s not pretty, man. It is not pretty. And it’s nothing that anyone deliberately sets out to do. In most sales organizations, the problem is that the company itself does not have the systems and processes in place to allow their salespeople to become more accountable to anything. I mean, a lot of times salespeople are held accountable for sales. Are you hitting your numbers? Are you generating the sales that you need to generate? But if they’re not tracking other things, then they really have no idea what it is that’s going to get them to the numbers that they really need to reach. Kevin: So how does that lack of accountability affect the overall sales performance of the team? David: Well, it’s not good because it’s just erratic. It’s all over the place. You’ll have some salespeople who are very good and very consistent because that’s the way they’re wired, and you’ll have other salespeople who are all over the place. And the reason I thought this was a good topic to have, is that I was having a conversation with someone earlier today, someone who’s considering joining our Total Market Domination program, and she was talking about the fact that she’s got a number of salespeople in her organization, and she doesn’t feel like they’re all sort of on the same page. They’re not doing the same things. And when I started talking to her and asking her about what sort of accountability was in place, she was sad to admit that there wasn’t a whole lot of it. And what happens when you’re in this situation, as a business owner or as a sales manager, if you find that you’re having conversations with your salespeople and you’re saying to them, so what’s going on? How’s everything going? And they say, oh yeah, it’s going great. Having a lot of great conversations. Got a bunch of people on the fence or people I’m working, got a lot of leads I’m working and everything like that. That tells you nothing, right? It tells you nothing. It’s feel good talk, but it’s wasted words. Because until you are able to provide any sort of metrics, any sort of numbers, any sort of accountability that turns those comments into something real, you just don’t have anything that you can even help them with. Kevin: I think a lot of times salespeople have their methods. They love their methods. That’s their tried and true, understandably so. Is it hard to get sales teams on the same page when it comes to accountability when people want to kind of do it their own way? David: Well, it certainly can be, and if you’ve got a sales person who is a high performer, that person may just want to do it their own way, and they might not be open to a whole lot of conversation or a whole lot of interpretation Kevin: And you might not worry about it. David: Exactly. And that’s very true. And I’m not saying that you should have different standards for different people in the organization. I’m just talking about what actually happens in the world. And so when you’ve got salespeople who are very good at what they do, and they don’t need to provide you with some of the additional data that would allow you to help them figure out where things might be going wrong, then that’s a decision that you have to make. But I think it’s very important to have those procedures in place for the people who are not the superstars, who might not be generating everything they need to be generating. We hear the term culture a lot when it comes to businesses, sports teams, organizations, whatever. You know, zero accountability, it seems like it could be kind of a culture in a lot of companies. Culture is not easy to change. It’s not an easy thing to shift. How can a business owner or a sales manager try to shift the culture without alienating their teams? It’s a great question. The first thing I’ll say about culture is that there is no organization that defines itself as having a zero accountability sales team. They don’t talk in terms of we have zero accountability salespeople.

There’s always going to be a bottleneck in sales. There’s always going to be something that is not working as smoothly or as ideally as it could or should. And our job is to constantly identify, what is it now? What is it today? Now that I got this other thing fixed, what’s the new thing that’s slowing us down? David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss your biggest bottleneck to sales. Welcome back Kevin. Kevin: Great to see you, David. And this is definitely one that I think anybody can relate to no matter what business you’re in, but you’re talking about your biggest bottleneck to sales. Let’s not bury the lead. What is it? David: In every business there is generally, more than one bottleneck, but there’s one big one that is going to keep you from hitting the next bottleneck, or the one after that, or the one after that. And if you don’t tackle that first one correctly and get rid of it, then you never get to down the line. It’s like an assembly line. If you think about a factory that’s manufacturing something and there’s an assembly line, if there’s a problem at the first station in the assembly line, everything stops, right? Because you can’t move to step two until you’ve done step one. And so for most of us, when it comes to sales, there is a bottleneck. And it might not be at the very beginning. It might be towards the middle, or it might even be near the end. But until you identify what your biggest bottleneck is, you cannot apply the appropriate resources necessary –the time, the energy, and the focus –to blast that thing out of there, so that you can then move forward with everything you need to do. Kevin: All right, so you couldn’t just give me the one thing. That’s fine. Can you give me some of the more common bottlenecks that you see when it comes to sales? David: Well, sure. When you’re in a selling situation, what are the biggest bottlenecks you run into? Well, I’m having trouble reaching the person that I need to reach, right? They’re not responding to me. Or some people, toward the end of the sales process, they get right up until the point of closing and then they choke. So that’s an example of a bottleneck where if you don’t get that one nailed, you can go all the way through a sales process, then get to that point and then not be able to close the sale and everything is kind of wasted. So looking at the steps along the way, what are you going to look at? You’re going to look at the people that you’re interacting with, the conversations that you’re having with them, the timeframe that it takes you to get them from point to point. Because for a lot of people, that is a big one. Not being able to set a pace, set a tempo that allows you to be able to get to that sale sooner rather than later, that could be a big bottleneck for people. A lot of times we have an idea of how we would like the sales process to go. But if the client has a different idea, we’re going to have to follow what they’re going to be willing to go along with. So in those situations, if we say, alright, I’m going to try to do everything I can here to advance the process to get them to the next step. Maybe it’s just a matter of, in the promotional products industry, will they send me the art? They may have agreed to the sale, they may have agreed to the quantities, they may have agreed to the colors and the Pantone color matches and the tight registration. They’ve agreed to all that. And you can’t get them to send the art. That’s really frustrating. And it can be a bottleneck that holds up everything. And these bottlenecks that I’m referring to are the things that hold up everything that comes past it. So by simply taking some time to identify what are the biggest bottlenecks, because if you find in your business that it’s, “I can’t seem to get art from the client,” then you need to make sure you put a process in place that is designed to handle that. Ideally, it’s something that you’re going to be able to delegate to an administrative assistant, or perhaps delegate to technology to some extent, where it sends them reminder messages that they need this or that your administrative assistant can follow up and make the phone call, whatever it takes. Putting those procedures in place is the only thing that’s going to blow out those bottlenecks. And for most of us, there’s something that’s driving us crazy. There’s one thing that is frustrating us. For some it might be, okay, I’m having a problem getting my orders delivered. You may have a problem with the suppliers you’re dealing with. If that’s your biggest bottleneck, you got to fix that one, because each of these is a business killer. Kevin:

It’s one of those nuances that when you’re transforming the leverage points in your business, the prequalification follow up is different than the post qualification follow up, but they are both very important leverage points. David: Hi. Welcome back in today’s episode, cohost. Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss transforming the leverage points in your business. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Hey, David. Great to see you. I’m excited to find out what you mean by this. So can you just start by sort of talking about what you mean when you refer to leverage points in a business? David: Yeah. I think particularly for salespeople and business owners, there are certain specific leverage points that make a huge difference when you’re interacting with clients, and a lot of it starts with who you’re going after. You know, just the targeting aspect of it. And a lot of people will take anyone who can fog a mirror, you know, they’ll take anybody who stumbles in the door. And if you want to be a little more proactive about things, and if you want to really leverage that aspect of it, just the targeting part of it, that’s one of those small hinges that swings big doors. And so. When we look at leverage points, that’s a really good solid first one. Because you could spend time going after a certain group of people in a particular niche or a particular market location and get to a lot of the wrong people and waste an enormous amount of time just by doing that. So one of the things that we do with our clients is we look at, okay, what are the biggest leverage points that we can go after? Tackle those upfront so that our clients are able to get more done in less time and earn more money while they’re doing it. Kevin: Okay. So I’m guessing there’s multiple leverage points that you might refer to. How could a business owner identify where they need help? What leverage points are being underutilized or need to be transformed? David: A lot of it, you can figure it out based on what problems you’re having. If you are interacting with a lot of poor quality prospects or clients, that’s a pretty good indication that it has to do with your targeting. If you’re getting to the right people –in other words, if you’re getting to people who have the ability to spend a lot of money with you –and they’re not converting, then you have to look at it and say, okay, well what am I doing wrong? What am I saying to these people that is getting them not to buy? And a lot of times, salespeople go into sales situations and they’re just winging it. They’re just saying the things that they normally say, or they’re saying things that they think are likely to work. And if it works for you consistently, then that’s great. You’ve probably got something that works. But if you find that you’re interacting with a lot of the right people, but you’re not closing those sales or you’re not able to move the sales process forward fast enough. Like if it takes a lot longer to close your clients than it should, that’s an indication that it’s probably not related to the prospects at that point. It’s probably related to what you’re saying to them or the ways that you’re saying it to them. Kevin: Can you share an example of a leverage point that when improved can have a dramatic effect on sales? David: Yeah. Well, it’s really the things that we’re talking about and things that we’ve talked about in previous podcasts. If you think in terms of the MVPs that we’ve discussed in the past, the MVPs of marketing and sales, what’s the message that I’m communicating? If you’ve got an okay marketing message and you’re communicating it to a high value prospect, you could really be wasting an opportunity. If you are reaching those high quality prospects using a combination of marketing vehicles that they’re not happy with. If you just keep calling them on the phone and they don’t want to take phone calls, then again, you’re shooting yourself in the foot. It’s a big leverage point when you’re able to identify how they are willing to interact with you, and then gear your approach accordingly. And then of course, as we discussed first, the people. The people that you’re going after. Those three things are the first three that always leap to mind, because it’s probably the thing that we talk about most, but the reason we talk about it most is because there are so many important ways that you can mess things up if you don’t do it right. And of course there are more. Kevin: Mm-hmm. And so is it fair to say that leverage points need to be, it’s not something you can do quickly to change ’em. You kind of have to work on ’em over time to figure out where it works. Like to your point about how do

Here’s a quick message for printers and promo product distributors who would like to grow their businesses and dominate their markets starting in as little as 22 minutes a day. If you own a such a business, even if it’s a small one, that may sound impossible to you, but give me just 45 seconds and I’ll explain why it’s not. First, it never occurs to most business owners in our industry that they could dominate their market. For that reason, they never even try. Instead, they set small goals and often struggle to achieve even those. Second, even if it DOES occur to them, they don’t know how to do it. They don’t know the exact steps. They don’t know what to do. But with the right steps, they can start small, and grow and dominate from there. Third, 22 minutes a day. What’s up with that? Well, that’s the difference between doing nothing each day and doing something. Most business owners spend roughly zero minutes a day focused on market domination. So even a small amount of focus, like the sun through a magnifying glass, can make a huge difference. If you’d like to learn more, go to TopSecrets.com/22. That’s TopSecrets.com/22. Ready to Start Dominating Your Market Fast? If so, download this PDF. Then check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow: Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just starting out in promotional products sales, learn how we can help. Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here. 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. Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here. 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.

David: Hi, and welcome back to today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the lead quality matrix. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to be here. Excited to chat about this, because I don’t know what you’re talking about. Kevin: So what is this lead quality matrix and why is it important? David: Well, a lot of times in my work with clients, we’re talking about leads. “I need more leads” and “I got to get more leads,” everybody’s always talking about leads, which is very important. But as we’re getting these leads in the door, sometimes it’s a good idea to say, “okay, well who do I actually want to bring in?” Now, in our work with clients, we are very big on qualification. We want to make sure that the leads that we bring in are being qualified as quickly as possible. Because if they’re not qualified, we don’t really want to spend a whole lot of time interacting with them. So when we’re bringing new leads through the door, obviously we’re going to try to disqualify the not so great ones in the early stages. But also when we’re putting stuff out into the market, whether it’s a social media post or an email or we’re meeting somebody for the first time at a networking function, whatever it is, we want to try to get an idea of the quality of the lead as early in the process as possible. When I talk about the lead quality matrix, if you just sort of imagine a graph. And going across the bottom is Willingness to Communicate. Are they willing to communicate? And so the farther you go to the right, the more willing they are to communicate with you and then going up and down is money to spend. Do they have money to spend? If they have a lot of money to spend, that goes up. If they don’t, it’s at the bottom. So if you think of that as being the matrix. You start off in the lower left hand corner, you’ve got people who have no money to spend who are not communicative. That’s kind of easy, right? Kevin: Yeah. Those aren’t ideal. David: Right. We know what we’re doing with those people. We’re going to jettison them as soon as humanly possible. In the upper right, we have those who are highly communicative and who have money to spend. So what do we call those people? Like ideal clients, I would say, right, high quality leads. This is the sweet spot. This is where I want to be. This is what I’m looking for, right? Kevin: Right. David: So that’s kind of obvious. What’s less obvious, and in some ways more interesting is the other corners, right? If you look at some of the other corners and you say, okay here are a bunch of people who are extremely communicative. They’ll communicate all day, they’ll talk to you till they’re blue in the face, but they have no money to spend. Huge time wasters. Many people will go to networking functions and talk to people like this for hours on end, weeks at a time, because they never take the time to just do the simple math on it and say, okay, highly communicative, unable to spend. So that’s an interesting group of people. Then we have the other extreme, which is people who have a lot of money to spend, but they’re just not talking to you. So if they have a lot of money to spend, if it’s a big client, big company, very self-important, but they won’t return your phone calls, and they won’t talk to you… You decide how long you want to deal with that sort of thing. Kevin: Yeah. David: And those are just the four most extreme points. But it really is obvious when you look at it like that. Kevin: And we’ve all chased the white whale or whatever that has all the money and you’re wanting it so bad to get them as a client. Because you know it’ll be lucrative. But I don’t know. Those people tend to be very difficult to deal with too if you finally do land them. David: Well, yeah, particularly if they’re not communicative. I mean, we could do another grid, that has good people, bad people, right? It’s a similar kind of thing. Yeah. Because there will be people who are communicative, who have money to spend, who are just going to be rude and obnoxious, and then you can disqualify them afterwards. But at least you know that you had the ability to communicate with them. You either did or you didn’t. They had the money to spend, but they’re not going to spend it with you. And now I can move on. Kevin: How about the middle area? I feel like we’ve talked about the corners. You can kind of get a good feel for those corners. There’s a lot more gray area when you get towards the middle. How do you evaluate those people? David: Yeah, well. “Meh,” that’s how I evaluate them, right? I got some money to spend. I’ll talk to you when I feel like it, and I won’t when I won’t. Again,

When it comes to getting referrals proactively, that’s another thing people do as well. They think they have to wait until they have already sold something and the client is happy. And that’s not the case. I mean, when you’re talking about asking about referrals, you can do that at any stage, and at every stage, I mean, ask always, right? Why not? David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the topic of getting referrals proactively. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Great to be here, David. How you been? David: Been doing great. and you? Kevin: I can’t complain. I’m doing well. Yeah, this is a good one. This is a good topic because anybody in any business can get a lot from more referrals. So, why do so many businesses sit around, waiting for referrals, instead of actively generating them. David: I have no idea. Kevin: Oh, thanks for joining us.. David: No, I do have an idea. Because I think we’ve probably all done it at one point or other over the years. The reason that I really think it’s important to talk about referrals is so often, I mean, I’ve done presentations at trade shows all over the country and actually around the world. I mean like Australia and in Europe. I mean, I’ve done this with a lot of people, a lot of times over a lot of years, and very often when I talk to people and I ask them the biggest way that they grow their business, they tell me referrals. And when I hear that, I think, “okay, that’s great, but how much business are you leaving on the table?” Right? Because a lot of times they are doing exactly what you just described. They’re just sitting around waiting for those referrals to come in. Now, they don’t say that. They won’t tell you that. Right? What they’ll say is, yeah, referrals. They got a lot of business from referrals. And I’m like, that’s great. And when you get business as a result of referrals, just because you’re doing a good job and somebody hears about you, that is wonderful. But that is also extremely reactive. So that’s why we’re talking about, in this podcast, the idea of doing it proactively. Because when you add that component to your referral-getting, you can very likely double or triple the results that you’re getting as a result of just waiting around to see who shows up at your door. Kevin: Is it a mindset shift that needs to happen to get better at asking for referrals or feel more comfortable asking for referrals? David: It could very well be a mindset shift. It could be that it hasn’t even occurred to people, right? It’s like, okay, referrals are like a bonus. I get referrals. I’m happy when I get them, and I don’t think about them. But when you’re looking to grow proactively, you need to think in terms of all the different methods that you’re using to make that happen. So if I’m doing any sort of outreach, whether it’s social media, whether it’s on the phone, whether it’s emails, whatever it is that you’re doing. You say, okay, well how can I do more of this? And when it comes to referrals, a lot of times people say, oh, well, that’s when stuff comes in. But it’s like the old saying, I think it was Zig Ziglar who said, don’t wait for your ship to come in if you haven’t sent one out. I always love that quote. Kevin: Really good. David: And so, yeah. So if you’re looking to get referrals, what are you doing to make that happen? It’s just like anything else. Social media. If you post something on social media and somebody responds to you, you’ve initiated a conversation. You don’t have to wait for someone else to initiate a referral. You can do it more proactively. So yeah, I think a lot of times it doesn’t really occur to people that they can really get good at doing it proactively. I do think there is a discomfort level that comes with it sometimes. I’m like, yeah, I feel funny about it. I feel weird about it. Are they going to think I don’t have much business? All that sort of thing. So to your point, yeah, I think there is a bit of that going on as well. Kevin: I’ve taken sales classes, listened to salespeople over the years. Gurus, whatever. And I remember this one woman had this thing where she said, you should ask someone to give you one name of someone that you could reach out to. Then sit there like this with your head down and your pen in your hand and the paper in front of you, and wait for them to speak. And I remember thinking like I would be so uncomfortable on either side of that situation. Are there right and right and wrong ways to ask for referrals that will be effective? David: Well, there’s only really right and wrong for you, right? If I tell you, okay, “this is how you get referrals,” then, like what you just

Here’s why tariffs aren’t the problem. Because there’s always someone who’s buying. Sometimes it’s harder to find them. Sometimes it’s easier to find them. So if, as a result of tariffs or anything else, it’s going to be harder to find people, we understand that. But it doesn’t mean that business is over and it doesn’t mean that we can just sit and stew, because that just doesn’t work. David: Hi. Welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I’ll be discussing the fact that tariffs are not the problem. Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to to see you, David. How you been? David: Been doing great. Great to see you as well. Kevin: Yeah. We’re talking about a topic that is in the news a little bit these days. You introduced the topic as tariffs aren’t the problem. What do you mean by that? David: Yeah. I mean, if you’re watching the media, you would think they are, but… Kevin: Yeah, I would say so. David: What I mean by that, and I’m not saying they’re not a problem. What I’m saying is they’re not THE problem. Okay, difference in the title. Tariffs aren’t the problem. Okay? The reason this came up is I was having a conversation with someone in the promotional products industry who was talking about some of the issues that she was dealing with, and she mentioned the tariffs, and how the tariffs really had her very concerned. And I said, well, it’s understandable because it creates a level of uncertainty that people are generally not happy with. I said, Kevin: Sure. David: How many orders have you actually lost as a result of the tariffs? And she said, well, none. I’m like, okay. Well that’s a good start, right? If you haven’t lost any orders so far as a result of it, that’s a great way to start. And we just talked about the fact that everyone is dealing with this, everyone in the United States, anyone is dealing with this. And so, we’re on an even playing field with any competitors, right? Because any competitors that we have are likely dealing with this as well. When we focus on things that are not the problem, like the thing that’s actually keeping us from getting clients or getting reorders, or getting referrals, when we focus on those things, we’re going to be a lot more productive in terms of being able to accomplish more things in less time, without focusing on the things that are not the immediate problem for us. Kevin: I mean, are business owners using tariffs or other external factors as as an excuse, if maybe they’re having poor sales or things like that? David: Probably not consciously, I don’t think they’re consciously using it as an excuse. But it’s easy to see it happen. And it’s not just tariffs. Anytime anyone is concerned about the growth of their business, not being able to get enough new orders through the door, not able to get enough new customers through the door. Whenever they’re not doing that, they’re looking for reasons. And when you think of it logically, you’ll look at the reasons that are actually happening. Well, what are the reasons this is happening? But when there are any sort of scapegoats in the market, people are likely to look at them, or point to them, or express concerns about them. Very often the concerns are about the things that could happen, that might happen, that could potentially happen, as opposed to what is actually slowing them down right now? Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think, it’s dangerous to blame outside forces, like tariffs, instead of addressing in ternal issues. Because if you do that, you’re going to potentially either ignore or downplay maybe some internal issues that you might have within your company. Is that a fair assessment? David: Yeah, and it’s just not productive. When we’re having interactions with clients, and let’s say a client does raise the issue that they have concerns about pricing or they have concerns about how tariffs are going to impact their pricing and all that sort of thing. Obviously, you need to address those questions. But if you go into a client meeting or a client conversation, thinking in the back of your mind, “oh, I hope this doesn’t come up,” or “I’m really worried about this,” then you’re not focused on the things that are going to advance the dialogue, and get things moving forward. I think a lot of times it’s important for us to realize that we need to give them more important things to think about. Give them something else to think about other than the potential problems that they could run into as a result of doing business with you. We want to really help focus on the results they actually want. What are they trying to accomplish with this promotion? Because if the promotion itself is really not going to do a

It’s no fun when clients shop your ideas. If you ever came up with a brilliant idea for a promotion, only to have a prospect think it over, say they’d get back to you, but then ghost you and buy it from someone cheaper, you know the pain of being the unpaid consultant in the room. Being the brains behind a competitor’s sale is not ideal. You’re the one who did the work, thought it through, created the ideas, sourced the products, and made the recommendations only to have someone else place the order and cash the check. What’s up with that? Why are some ideas purchased immediately, while others are stolen, ghosted, shopped around, or just ignored completely? That’s what we’ll explore in today’s episode. If your best ideas keep ending up on someone else’s commission report, you may think you have a pricing problem. But it’s more likely you have a positioning problem. And it starts with the way you build out the experience of doing business with you. You’re Not Just Selling Products—You’re Selling a Process and an Experience You already know that prospects and clients can buy promotional products from ANY of a never-ending lineup of distributors, both online and off. That’s not what sets you apart. What sets you apart is the experience you create for them, from your First Contact through every other aspect of dealing with you and your organization. This includes: The clarity you bring to the project The confidence they feel in your guidance and The relief of not having to think through all the moving parts themselves Those are just a few of the differentiators, and none of them happen by accident. Instead, they’re the result of: The Messaging you use to position yourself as a valued resource, instead of just another product peddler. The marketing Vehicles you use to reach, impact and motivate recipients to get the desired response from them, and of course… The People you are proactively choosing to engage with. Not just anyone, but those who are less likely to shop and more likely to buy. If you don’t have those three pieces firmly dialed in: Your Messaging, your Vehicles, and your People, then the right experiences are far less likely to happen. Why the Experience You Create Beats Product Alone Every Time Let me ask you this. What does it feel like to work with you? Years ago, salespeople had a much easier time getting away with selling features and benefits. “Here are the features of what the product is, and here are the benefits of what the product does for you.” But in the information age, that doesn’t begin to cover it. A spec sheet can do it adequately. They don’t need you for that. So what are your best clients actually buying from you? More often than not, it goes way beyond features and benefits. It also goes way beyond branded merchandise. It’s: The confidence they get from the recommendations you make The trust they have in your ability to deliver what you promise The experience they have when interacting with you Ultimately, it’s the emotion they feel as you bring all that together for them, taking the stress off their plate and knowing you’ll make them look like a star to their target audience. It’s very difficult to shop that, because so few businesses deliver it consistently. But that’s what they’re buying from you. Clarity. Confidence, and Certainty. If your messaging doesn’t communicate that, then your value is invisible. Without that, you end up with people asking for ideas, shopping them around, and awarding the business to the lowest bidder. Not Every Prospect Wants or Needs Your Full Process, and That’s OK Of course, not every prospect needs a full consulting experience. Some just want a quote on a pen. Others want pricing on 50 business cards. Still others will just ask you to put together your best ideas and tell you they’ll get back to you. All of that comes with the territory. But you don’t have to play by those rules. Does everyone get full access to all your best ideas, insights and pricing right out of the gate? Or do you qualify them first? Do you have a procedure, in place, to reduce the likelihood that you’re dealing with an idea thief, a cheapskate, or a price shopper? Just as your clients get to choose you, you also have the right to choose which prospects get the benefit of your ideas, insights, and expertise. When your approach feels like it’s made for them—when it’s tied to their goals, objectives, and business challenges—they don’t want to shop it. Because the offer didn’t come from a product peddler, it came from an expert. Someone they trust. You! If you’re ready to make that shift in the mind of the buyer, from product seller to trusted resource, Go to TopSecrets.com/shift Download the free PDF, stop giving away your best ideas, and start getting paid for the results you create for your clients in the real world. If your Messaging doesn’t differentiate you… If your marketing Vehicles don’t reach, impact and motivate your ideal buyers… Or if the People you’re

Want to stop undercharging and get paid what you’re worth? In our last episode, we talked about the dangerous disconnect between effort and results. How being busy isn’t the same as being profitable, and why aligning your actions with your outcomes is the only sustainable way to grow. But what happens when you do align your actions… You do deliver real value… And you’re still not making what you feel you’re worth? That’s what we’re getting into today. It’s a big blind spot related to pricing and undercharging. So if you already know your work is worth more than what you’re charging for it, this episode could be the game-changer you didn’t even know you needed. The Hidden Problem: Undercharging Isn’t Just About Numbers Most business owners don’t consciously undercharge for their services. No one wakes up in the morning thinking, “How can I leave money on the table today?” But undercharging is not usually about neglect. It’s also not about generosity. More often than not, undercharging is related to fear. Fear of losing to lowball competitors. Fear of being seen as too expensive or greedy. Fear of not getting the order. It’s also about perception: Their own perception, and the market’s perception. Many people base their pricing on what they think their clients can afford… or what competitors are charging… or worse, what a particularly cheap prospect once told them they were worth. But consider this: Pricing isn’t just math. It’s strategy. If your price doesn’t reflect your expertise, your results, and the transformation you create for your clients, it’s not just undervaluing your work. It’s sending your market a message that says: “The work I do isn’t really worth all that much.” Your Pricing = Your Market Position In business, price signals value. So when you charge like a commodity, you get treated like a commodity. And when you price like a strategic partner, you tend to get treated like one. It’s not just about numbers, it’s about how your prospects and clients see you. Are you the kind of person they value and are grateful to work with? Or are you just someone they’re trying to squeeze for discounts? That gap often comes down to three things that many business owners tend to overlook: How they define their work. Who they present it to. What they allow themselves to charge for it. It’s not about buzzwords or branding jargon. It’s about clarity. Are you describing your work in a way that makes prospects lean in or glaze over? Are you putting it in front of people who already get the value—or those who need convincing? And are you pricing it in a way that honors the transformation you deliver… or just typical industry pricing? In a free market system, everyone gets to set their own pricing. We all get to decide. By saying this, I’m not suggesting you should overcharge for the products and services you offer. I’m just encouraging you to consider what your time, effort, and life energy are worth to you when calculating your prices. Clients Are Willing to Pay More When They Understand Why You already know that in every market, there are price-shoppers who always make their buying decisions based solely on price. They’ll get ten quotes. That means ten people will do all the work of pricing out the job, only to lose that order to the one person who is willing to work for the least amount of money. Are those the people you want to be basing your pricing on? Another important consideration is that in every market, there are always people who are willing to pay more. You just need to target them, know what to say to them, and be able to reach them effectively. That’s the essence of the monetization strategy that is missing from most businesses. So when you have it, and others don’t, you win. When providing a reason for your ideal clients to choose you, it can’t be the usual, “we do great work.” When I conducted live training sessions all over the country and asked audiences what set them apart from their competition, do you know what the top three answers always were? Think about your own answer for a moment. In a word, what is it that sets you apart? Is it your service? Is it your ideas? Is it your creativity? If so, you’ll discover that there are a lot of people saying exactly the same thing in your market right now. So how will you communicate the differences between you and every other option available to your prospects and clients? If you don’t know, then you will always be charging less than you could, and leaving money on the table. Do your ideal clients even know what’s at stake if they go cheap, or more importantly, what they can gain when they invest with you? The clients you really want, don’t just buy on price. So the sooner you adapt your approach to targeting them accurately, communicating with them correctly, and reaching them effectively, the sooner you can leave the low-ball clients to your low-ball competition. The Real Cost of Staying Undervalued Because when you underpric

Busy doesn’t equal profitable. We got a lot of great feedback from our last episode, in which we talked about how many business owners still cling to outdated methods that used to work, but don’t work anymore. We addressed the hard truth that more of the wrong activity won’t fix a broken approach. We looked at the reasons typical performers feel stuck, waiting things out, hoping for a turnaround that may never come… And we pointed out how smart, focused professionals adapt and move forward now, in a way that differentiates them from less-profitable, average businesses. Today, I’d like to pick up that conversation by talking about one of the biggest sources of frustration that I hear from business owners and salespeople across the board: Why am I working so hard and still not making enough money? If you’re grinding all day, doing “everything you’re supposed to do,” but still not seeing results, you’re not lazy, and you’re not crazy. But it’s likely you got caught in a trap that drains your time, energy, and income. I’m talking about… The Effort Trap: Busy ≠ Profitable At one time or another, we’ve probably all bought into the idea that if we just work harder, the results will come. More hours, calls, emails, and outreach. In some cases, it works. But not always. More effort does not automatically equal more income. Sometimes it just means more exhaustion. You can do all the things you think you need to do: chase leads, follow up, create quotes, juggle accounts and still feel stuck. Because it’s not always about how much you’re doing. It can also be about how well you do those things, and how well you communicate your value. Effort alone doesn’t create income. So it’s not just actions that create value in the eyes of your clients, and revenue for your business. Only aligned actions can do that. When that alignment is missing? You can work 24/7 doing everything you think you need to do, and still come up short in the money department. The Illusion of Progress: Mistaking Motion for Momentum And that leads into the second trap—the illusion of progress. This is where the to-do list becomes a badge of honor, and the packed calendar provides a false sense of security. It feels productive, but at the end of the month, you still might not have enough in the bank. Because movement alone is not progress. It’s like the rocking chair, or the hamster wheel. It may keep you moving, but it doesn’t get you anywhere. Same thing with being busy. It doesn’t guarantee forward momentum. And that can be extremely demoralizing. You’re checking all the boxes, showing up, doing the work… and you may still feel stuck in the same place. That’s where burnout sets in, doubts creep in, and even really good people can start to wonder whether all of it is worthwhile. Because even when you do great work, you still might not get paid based on your worth. Value vs. Revenue: When Great Work Goes Unrecognized Let’s say you’re someone who’s not just spinning your wheels. You’re producing results, making your clients happy, and solving real problems for them. If your income still isn’t where you feel it needs to be, it’s one of the most frustrating disconnects in business: Doing valuable work… but not being paid in proportion to that value. There’s a reason this happens. It’s because the market doesn’t reward effort. And it doesn’t always reward value. In fact, it’s more likely to reward perceived value and perceived results. Meaning, that If your clients don’t understand the value you provide, and the results you create for them, then your revenue can still fall short of your value. It’s not a reflection of your talent or the work you do. It’s a reflection of how your prospects and clients perceive that value. And much of that is about your communication. The Strategic Shift: Replace Hustle with Alignment That’s why the highest earners in our industry are not always the hardest workers. But they are very often the most intentional workers, and the most intentional communicators. They know what to do. They know what to stop doing. And they know how to make sure their actions and their communication supports their goals. This allows them to shift from constant activity to purpose and clarity. So if you’re stuck in the loop of overworking and under-earning, the solution is not to double down on your effort. It’s to trade in your hustle for alignment. If you’re still unclear on how to make that shift, go to TopSecrets.com/shift Download our free PDF that outlines how smart, focused business owners build better systems, attract more desirable and profitable clients, and create exceptional results. You don’t have to keep working harder for less. You don’t have to settle for feeling overextended and undercompensated. And you definitely don’t have to keep running on that hamster wheel hoping it will eventually break loose and take you somewhere. You just need a better system that aligns your time, value, and communication wi

Time for a shift in your business? There was a period of time when getting print and promotional product clients was a lot easier. People loved and appreciated your work. They answered and returned your phone calls. They placed orders proactively. Sometimes they even referred enough new clients that your customer base practically grew all by itself. Sounds like a fantasy! But does that still happen? It can. But nowadays? Not so much… Today, too many people in our industry are fighting against reality. They’re pounding away on activities that used to work, but don’t work anymore. Instead of changing their actions, they blame the prospects, or the marketing method, or the economy, or the tariffs. You’ll see them complaining in industry groups, saying things like “People aren’t answering their phones.” “Social media’s a waste of time.” “No one’s returning phone calls.” “Networking events are worthless.” “This economy stinks!” And while people may be experiencing those things, the people who are making money in our industry right now are not doing any of that. They know that all the whining, blame-shifting and scape-goating is not going to fix problems that are partially caused, at least, by taking wrong or ineffective actions that no longer work. So instead, they’re adapting their approach, refocusing their efforts, eliminating ineffective tactics, and engaging in the tested, proven, strategic methods that work right now. You know, the gap between where you are right now and where you want to be is not going to magically fill itself. And you can’t count on the actions that used to fill those gaps to continue to do so in the future. Because they won’t. They can’t. It is literally impossible. Of course, very few motivated people will sit around willingly and do nothing, as the things that used to work for them continue to lose their effectiveness. But very often, they just double down and try to do more of it with brute force effort. Putting in more time, more energy, making more calls, and overcoming more objections, while continuing to fall behind. It’s exhausting to watch, and it’s even more exhausting if you have to do it! So why doesn’t that work? Because taking ineffective actions more aggressively does not create the results you want. Yes, in business, particularly when you’re facing challenges, speed of implementation is critical. But that only works when you’re taking the right actions in the right order. Doing the wrong things faster won’t get you to your goal. It’s like speeding off in a racecar that’s going in the wrong direction. So while TYPICAL businesses try to fix the problem by running faster, working longer, pushing harder, and sacrificing more — to try to make the hamster wheel turn faster, and faster, and faster, while still getting them nowhere — smart, focused business owners are changing their approach to suit the times. You probably already know that if your business is struggling, and you don’t change your approach, your results cannot possibly change. It’s like Einstein’s definition of insanity, doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. And since so much has changed in such a short period of time, you can’t even expect the things that DID work well — even a few months ago — to work well now. So what do you do? Well, it’s likely that if you knew what changes to make — if you knew exactly what to do, and exactly how to fix it — you would have done it by now, right? Because, who wouldn’t? What I’m talking about today is not for the majority of typical business owners who are just going to sit it out, wait it out, or worse yet, whine it out on social media. It’s also not for average performers who take average actions to create average results. That’s going to happen by default. When things get tough, average sales inevitably decline. Those of us who have been through these cycles before? We know the drill. You can read all about it in the industry publications when it’s in danger of happening, when it starts to happen, as it’s happening, and after it happened. Then, at that point, the articles will turn to discussions about the recovery. “Here’s what average distributors are doing right now to get back to their average results!” But what if you could build it out, max it out, and scale it out now, instead of having to ride it out to the bottom, just so you can slug it out to get back to where you were before? If you’ve been in the industry for a while, it’s very likely that your work has gotten better. Your expertise has increased. You have clients who love you, because the results you create are exceptional. If that’s the case, then why settle for lower

Arguing with reality in business is a huge waste of time. If you’ve got clients who are in that head space where they’re sort of scared, they’re not quite sure what to do next. If you call them and you’re in that same head space, then you’re not helpful to them. But if you call them with some thoughts or ideas on how you can help them to accomplish the things they want to accomplish, now you have value, and they’re going to be happy to talk to you. They’re going to want to talk to you because they understand that you may have the solution to some of the problems they’re facing. David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I ask the question, are you stuck arguing with reality? Welcome back, Kevin. Kevin: Good to see you, David. Normally, I feel like I’m stuck arguing with virtual reality these days. With Chat GPT or the like. What are we talking about when you say “argue with reality?” David: We touched on this in a previous podcast, and it’s a quote that I heard from Byron Katie. She wrote a book called Loving What Is, and she had this quote in there where she said, “Whenever I argue with reality, I lose, but only 100% of the time.” And I loved that quote because it just seemed so completely true. Anytime we argue with whatever is actually happening, whatever’s going on in the world, whenever we argue with that reality, we lose. And if you go to social media, any social media platform, you will find millions of people, every day, arguing with reality. They’ll be talking about things they have no control over, that they wish weren’t the case. And you can waste so much life doing this, that I thought it would be good for us to have a conversation about it. Kevin: Well, we talked a little bit about controlling what you can control and accepting what you can’t control, so it kind of fits into the same category. And it feels like we tend to resist what’s happening, instead of adapting to it. Is that fair to say? David: Yeah. I think a lot of people do that, and not that we’re even doing it intentionally. A lot of times we don’t even consider this idea of what is reality versus what am I looking at on a day-to-day basis? We tend to go into experiences, whether it’s conversations with people, whether it’s posting something on social media or replying to someone on social media, doing any of these things, and we just feel like we’re having a conversation and we don’t necessarily take into consideration what are the things that are just real and true, that I might be arguing against, right? Kevin: Mm-hmm. David: So when people go online, particularly now, and they’re on there and they’re talking about tariffs and all the terrible things that are going to be happening to their business, I look at that and I’m like, okay, well, the tariffs, that’s true. The uncertainty in the market, that’s true. Everyone is dealing with that. But if I talk about that without looking for solutions, without looking for the ways to get around those problems, then why am I even doing it? Isn’t that not just wasting time, but wasting our lives and other people’s lives? Kevin: Mm-hmm. What other ways, you know, we mentioned tariffs, there’s plenty of big stuff out there that’s happening that affects the business world. But as far as, you know, just getting into the sales process, the business process, what other ways do you find that people argue with reality? David: Ghosting. Sales in general? Cold calling. I mean, every aspect of sales requires us to deal with different aspects of reality every single time. Right? “These people won’t call me back.” Okay. That may be a reality with those people. Another part of reality though, is that there are people who will call you back. There are prospects who are responsive. There are people who need to buy your products and services right now. All of those things are also true. And when you focus on all the things that cause you to not get business, you don’t focus on the things that can actually get you business. So you’re not just doing a terrible job with your own mental health, you’re also being counterproductive. Kevin: And there’s a pretty high cost to staying stuck in “this shouldn’t be happening” mode, right? David: Yes. I mean, I don’t even know if anyone’s attempted to calculate it. I don’t know that anybody’s even thought to calculate it. Because again, most times when people engage in this sort of behavior, it’s not like they’re thinking about it. It’s not like, “oh, I’m going to go talk about things I have absolutely no control over.” We don’t approach it like that. It’s like, “this is on my mind and I’l