Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

Many businesses can start out and plod along for years without making any serious inroads in their marketing. But those who want to grow more quickly, need to take a different approach. For years, I've been training my clients on a strategy I'd like to share with you today. It's about moving from stealth mode to intimidation mode. David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton and I will be talking about moving from stealth mode to intimidation mode. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know, this sounds like two drastically different things. So what do you mean by stealth mode? And what do you mean by intimidation mode? David:                   I hope this topic isn't too intimidating for people, Chris. Chris:                     I'm intimidated, but in a good way, David. David:                   OK, good. One of the things that I've noticed that most of my businesses had in common, is that when I started them, I was essentially operating in stealth mode. It was very quiet. It was very low key. It was a lot of planning. Trying to decide, who are we going to go after? Who are we going to target? How are we going to approach them? What are we going to say? How are we going to say it? So all of that stuff is happening behind the scenes. So that's what I refer to as stealth mode. Stealth mode is when people are not even really aware that you're there, the market, doesn't know yet, prospects and clients don't know yet. In stealth mode, you're still figuring it out. Now in the early stages of stealth mode, you're reaching out, sort of behind the scenes. You're getting to people in the market who could potentially buy from you, and you're communicating with them. You're getting them qualified, as we talked about in previous episodes. You're finding out who's ready to buy now? Who has specific dates in mind? Who's generally receptive? Who's disqualified? Who's unresponsive? You can do that very quietly. And your competitors don't even really know, necessarily, that you're there. And in several businesses that I had, I was able to operate in a market, very quietly, for a very long time before people actually had an idea (particularly competitors) had an idea that I was there. And the way that they found out that I was there is that they would approach a prospect or client. and that person would say, "no, I'm doing business with this company." And they were like, "Hmm, that's weird. I've never heard of it." Chris:                     Who? What? Who? David:                   Yeah, exactly. And then there get to be more and more people who are aware. And then eventually what happens is you switch to intimidation mode. And when I say that, I'm not trying to be obnoxious here. And the goal isn't actually to intimidate people in a harmful sense of the word. It's to create an environment in the market where your competitors are going to be looking at you and going, "wow, it's going to be hard to compete with that. I don't even know how to compete with that." That's what tends to intimidate competitors is when they just have absolutely no idea how they can compete with what you're doing. And so moving from stealth mode to intimidation mode is about finding out, in stealth mode, all the things that work, which aspects of the market you want to approach, fine tuning, honing the right things to say so that you can bring prospects and clients through the door like clockwork. Once you've got that nailed down, then you can start promoting aggressively, and you can bring more clients in. And other people look at that, and they're like, "I don't know how this person is doing it." That's essentially the nutshell version. Chris:                     And you know, the thing that just occurs to me is, the word that keeps coming into my head is listening.

A lot of sales training focuses on the idea of maintaining control of the sales process: Directing attention, leading the conversation, deferring questions about price until the end. Essentially it's about getting clients to go along with your agenda rather than following their own. Is that realistic? David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton and I will be talking about the idea of maintaining control of the sales process. Welcome back, Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. I can't think of a single sales person who wouldn't want to completely control every sales situation. Is it at all realistic to think that we could do that? David:                   No, not at all. Chris:                     Okay. Good podcasts. David:                   Yeah. Chris:                     Moving on. David:                   Great chatting with you. No, it's not realistic to think that you can completely control every sales situation. Should we try to maintain control of each selling situation? Absolutely, we should. And can we do better if we do provide some sort of structure? Yes. So I think it's realistic to recognize that if we don't at least try to provide a structure, a framework, something that will allow people to get from the beginning of the sales process to the end, that they probably won't end up buying something. And a lot of time and effort and energy and thought has been put into the idea of what happens when a client follows a sales person's agenda, versus what happens when a salesperson follows a potential client's agenda. Because if somebody walks into a selling situation with the idea of, "I don't want to spend any money" and they're taking control of the situation, then the salesperson is ultimately buying that idea. And so many times over the years, you've probably heard the adage that somebody is always buying something. Either the salesperson is selling the person on the idea of the thing they're selling, or the potential buyer is selling the salesperson on why they're not buying. And somebody has to accept that. But there's always a sale being made. If you're going to be the salesperson, if you're going to be the person who is leading the conversation, then yeah, you definitely want to be able to increase the likelihood of having a successful outcome. Chris:                     So what are some of the components that are involved in discussions that help you to retain more control of the sales process? David:                   Well, a lot of it depends upon the people that you're interacting with. So I'm not going to pretend that there's some sort of magic formula that you can follow and have it work. Early on in my sales career, I took various sales trainings, and many of them talked about different structures that you want to have in place. And you want to start with step one and then move to step two and then move to step three. And you want to make sure that when you complete step one, you close the door on that. You're not going back and now you're going to step two. And as you listen to that sort of thing, you go, "wow, that sounds amazing." But then what you find out is that in practice, you cannot control that, right? You could think that you had the pricing stuff all nailed down, that you put a nice bow on it and you moved on and now you're onto the next thing. But the fact of the matter is that if the prospect then says, "okay, but I'm not sure about this," you're going backwards, right? Chris:                     Yeah. David:                    It's not like you can completely control that. So I'm not a big fan of creating rules in selling that are completely unenforceable. I don't like the idea of saying this is what has to happen when it's out of your control. So I look at,

It would be great if we were able to close every prospect we ever targeted, but that's just ridiculously unrealistic. So how many prospects should we have in our pipeline? And how many do you have in there right now? David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton, and I will be talking about the prospects in your pipeline. Should you have more? Could you have less? Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know, many business owners and sales people think in terms of growing their customer base. But the number of prospects in their pipeline is a key element of that, isn't it? David:                   Yes, absolutely. And it's very often overlooked. It's one of these things like we were talking about in the previous podcast, things that people know -- business owners know, salespeople know -- but we don't always practice. The idea that we have to have a nice solid sales pipeline. You have to put enough in the front of the pipe, so you can have some coming out the back of the pipe? Or some people use the analogy of a funnel. If you don't have enough going into the top of the funnel, you're not going to have anything coming out the bottom. So yes, having a really solid pipeline is absolutely key. If you think of like an oil pipeline or something like that, if you have great gaps in the pipeline, if you just have great pockets of air, that is not going to accomplish the goal. And it's the same thing with customers with prospects. If you've got a nice, solid pipeline of customers in place or prospects in place, then the likelihood that some of them are going to close is pretty great. And you will very likely have the type of customer base that you can grow and the type of business that you can actually live in. But if you've got tremendous gaps in between your prospects in your pipeline, then the likelihood of success is greatly diminished. Before we started this podcast, we were talking about this topic, how many people do you have in your pipeline? And I responded with "both of them." You know, and for some people, that's where they are. They might have a few people, they have a handful of people in their pipeline. And they're just crazy about the idea of when is one of these people going to close? And they fail to take into consideration that if you had twice as many people in the pipeline, then your closing ratio could be cut in half and you'd still make a sale. Chris:                     And the other thing is the whole time, if I've got a full pipeline, if I've got 20 or 30 potential people that I'm working on over time, or a hundred, whatever the case may be, depending. David:                   Or a thousand, yeah. Chris:                     Depending on where I am in that, I love the funnel analogy. At the top, it's probably somebody who may be receptive at some point, or is even a lead that you haven't talked to. But having that pipeline loaded with potential clients, I think is one of the greatest ways to reduce stress in your business. Especially if you're a sales person. Would you agree with that? David:                   Yeah. It reduces stress and it increases the likelihood of success. And it positions you to be able to generate the sales that you want to generate. You know, one of the things I've always struggled with, with the idea of either a pipeline or a funnel is that if you have a pipeline, if you have a funnel, you put something one end, it all comes out the other end. In a sales funnel or a pipeline it doesn't really work that way. Some of them are not going to make it all the way through. So it's like these things have these various escape valves going off in one direction or other, and the ones who aren't going to make it get siphoned off. But the ultimate visual, I guess, is that you put a bunch of them into the top and the ones t...

Everyone knows it's generally easier selling more to your existing clients than it is to sell to new customers. Still, many salespeople and business owners focus a lot of attention on getting new clients. But what are some of the best ways to earn more from your existing customer list? David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton, and I will discuss earning more from your existing customer base. Hi Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know, it does seem like many people focus a lot more on attracting new business than to selling to their existing customers. Why do you think that's the case, David? David:                   Good question. I think a lot of it may have to do with just the idea of new customers. It's a lot more fun, a lot more sexy. People tend to gravitate toward that. Where the idea of selling to existing customers may seem a little bland compared to that. It could be some of that. It could be old habits dying hard. If you had a sales manager that you reported to, very often, you would be flogged for not bringing new customers through the door. So it could have something to do with that. The focus of the sales management or ownership, if the goal was to bring new people through. But I think a lot of it is just the idea that once we've conquered a particular account, once we've gotten that order, the tendency is to move on to the next one is to find the next customer, the next customer, the next order and that sort of thing. And sometimes we forget that it's been a while since we've gotten that order from the previous customer, and maybe it's just time to go back. Chris:                     It just seems to me like a major disconnect that selling to existing customers is something that just doesn't get near the attention that it should. And we all know, we all know that it's the easiest sale. The most rewarding sale is the repeat sale, isn't it? David:                   Yeah. And everybody can quote that. Everybody knows it, intellectually. We all know it. Probably anyone who's been in sales for any length of time knows that every business owner probably knows it. And yet it's just not practiced. Chris:                     When you think about it, how costly do you think it is for people who fail to maximize that value of their customer base? David:                   I think it's extremely costly. If you're not doing it, there's no question that you're missing out on revenue that you could otherwise have. In fact, one of the things that I focus on with my clients, whenever I take on a new client, if we're working one-on-one, or even if we're working in a small group, one of the first things that we'll do is to address that. Because if you want to grow your sales and profits, the way that I look at it is your existing customer base is going to account for some sort of percentage of that. So very often what I'll do is I'll say, okay, let's say I'm talking to somebody and they're doing half a million in sales and they want to get it to three quarters of a million in sales. One of the first questions that I'll ask them is what do you think you'll do with your existing customer base over the course of the next year? In other words, if you did half a million dollars with them last year, what's it going to be this year? Is it going to be 550? Is it going to be 450? Is it going to be 250? Right? Are a lot of them going to have gone away? What's that going to be? And a lot of times it's just spit-balling. You're just sort of trying to figure out roughly what might be. But very often people will have a good idea of that. So they'll say, okay, well I did half a million with them last year. Maybe I'll do 525 or maybe I'll do 550 with them, depending on a couple of different things. And then I'll say, okay, well,

Most value-based businesses hate the idea of price-cutters -- those who go into a market, offering a low price (often for an inferior product,) while pretending it's all the same. But price-cutters have always existed and there's always been a market for them. So what place do price-cutters really fill in the current economy? David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast today. Cohost Chris Templeton, and I will be talking about the value and worthiness of price-cutters in business. Welcome back, Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know, one of the things that seems to frustrate salespeople more than anything else are price-cutters. Some people complain about them. Some people buy from them and some do both. They complain about their competitors who cut prices, but then they buy from the price-cutters who sell to them. What is up with that? David:                   Good question. What is up with that? I think there are people who sometimes get lost in whatever's going on. We touched on this in a previous podcast, but particularly when things are challenging in business, the idea of price-cutting, the idea of going for the lowest cost alternative can be appealing. And there are a lot of people who I think have made really difficult, tough, and just flat out wrong decisions about moving things forward in their business, by simply cutting price, by going with lower cost alternatives, that aren't nearly as good hoping that they're going to be as good. And it just doesn't usually happen like that. Chris:                     You know, when I got together with my wife, she was buying, for herself, Ferragamo shoes, which were, even 30 years ago, $200, $300. And she wanted me to buy those high end shoes. And I was like, "Oh honey, this is not a good idea, not a good use of money." And then she said, "no, you're buying a nice pair of shoes." And three or four resoles later, they are so comfortable, and such a pleasure to wear, we somehow in the process of price-cutting, give up on the idea of the full value of what we're buying. Don't you think? David:                   Yeah, I think a lot of people do. And I mean that's, to some extent, an extreme example, not completely extreme, but there are some people who are always going to go for the highest quality product. And that's great. I remember Dan Kennedy, marketing guy, was talking about this one time. And he was saying that in every market, there are people who will always stay at the top hotel, the Ritz Carlton of whatever that particular city is. Regardless of what city they're going to,.they're always going to stay at the most expensive hotel. Similarly, there are people who will always stay at the lowest cost alternative. They'll always stay at the Motel Six or whatever the lowest cost alternative is in a market. And of course the bulk of people fall somewhere in between. Chris:                     Right. David:                   And then the question becomes -- and this is what I thought was brilliant about his comment -- who do you want to build hotels for? Chris:                     (Laughs) Wait, wait, let me think about this one for a minute, David:                   Right? Yeah. Who do you want to build hotels for? And I thought about that in my own business so many times over the years. "Who do you want to build this for?" And for me, the types of clients that I love, the types of clients that I really enjoy working with are smart. They're focused. They think. They're willing to engage in conversations. They don't just accept the lowest common denominator as an alternative. They're willing to engage. They're willing to invest in themselves and their businesses, growing things. And those are the types of people that I build my businesses to accommodate. So when there are people who come along and they ...

David:                   In our last podcast, we talked about how adversity reveals a client's true colors. This week. I'd like to take it a step further and explore the idea of how to reboot your customer base. With everything that's happened in business over the past few months, it may be the perfect time to do it. Hi and welcome to the podcast today. Cohost Chris Templeton, and I will be talking about the pros and cons of rebooting your existing business. Welcome back, Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know, to some, the idea of rebooting their client base may sound really scary, but I suspect that deep down inside, it's something that appeals to nearly every business owner, as well as their salespeople. So let's start with this. What do you mean by rebooting your client base? David:                   Good question. Well, I think of it in terms of rebooting your computer. If you have Windows, we've had Windows for years, Microsoft Windows, you're probably familiar with rebooting. You get the blue screen of death sometimes, and you try to reboot your computer. And what happens when we reboot or restart the computer, is that it clears out everything that's in there and it starts over again and pulls everything up. Then everything is fresh and new and hopefully not all messed up. I think that is a perfect analogy for our client bases sometimes. Over the years, they can accumulate just a lot of things that will slow us down. A lot of clients who are no longer a good fit, a lot of people who may be too demanding, where the amount of time that we invest in the relationships is no longer worth the amount of revenue that we're able to generate from those accounts. And so, sometimes we need to look at it and say, "okay, what would a reboot of my business look like?" If I were to walk in the door tomorrow morning and walk into a business that is a lot better than the one that I'm operating today or working in today, what would that look like? How would the day start differently? Who would I be interacting with? Who would I no longer be interacting with? That's what I think of in terms of a reboot. Chris:                     And, you know, I think one of the things to really think about as part of that discussion is why. Why do you want to do this? Not as a challenge to doing it, but as a "let's get into," as we talked about in the last podcast, "let's get you into solution oriented mode." And when you know why you want to do this, and my sense of that is it's really about what I want, like you said, my day to look like, what I want my business to feel like. "Start with the why" as Simon Sinek says. So when you look at it, why do you think this is an important thing to do? David:                   Well, first and foremost, from a proactivity standpoint, designing the business, designing the life that you actually want to have, I think. The idea of rebooting your business, I think it's very important to do it from that standpoint. From a quality of life standpoint, I think that's big. That's probably number one. If I were to boil it down. In business, we very often spend more time with our prospects, clients and coworkers than we get to spend with our friends and family and loved ones. And so for that reason, I think we need to be very conscious of the fact that every time we choose to do business with a particular prospect or a particular client, that we're going to be interacting with this person. And if it's a good fit and if we're able to help them, and if they understand and appreciate everything we can do for them, it's going to be a great relationship and we're going to get along fine. If that fit is not there in the beginning, or if it was there, but now it's no longer there, then, when we do that reboot, we're going to be able to eliminate those relationships that are holding us back and holding them back.

Many business owners and salespeople have struggled with the effects of stay at home orders, mandated company closures and social distancing requirements. Some have been able to thrive, finding levels of creativity and resilience they never knew existed, while others have retreated, becoming entitled, fearful, or even hostile. It really shows how adversity can reveal a client's true colors. David:                    Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton and I will be talking about how adversity can affect clients. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi, David. Boy, is this true. You know, I imagine everyone in business has seen it in action. Some prospects and clients are doing everything they can to move things forward, while others are withdrawing, becoming moody and demanding. It's almost like they become different people. Isn't it? David:                    Yeah, it's really shocking in some cases. People that you might think you knew, people who you thought were one way and you find out they're kind of not that way. It really does point out that people react differently to adversity. And let me just say, it's completely understandable when people are dealing with really tough issues in their business and their lives, it's going to have an effect. There's no way that you can get around it. But I think as business people, we have to be able to recognize this, identify it as early on in the cycle as possible and determine, decide, is this person, is this prospect still someone that we would like to interact with in our business? Chris:                     So, David, what do you think accounts for the primary difference in these people's responses? David:                    If I had to put my finger on it, Chris, I'd probably take it back to one primary thing. And that is fear. How frightened is this person? How scared are they about what's going on? How scared are they about their ability to be able to handle it, to be able to deal with it, to be able to process whatever issues they're having to process and to be able to move forward from it? I've had conversations with people who have been on both sides of the fence... separately. I have people who, some are on one side of the fence, who are really focused and they know what they're doing, and they're really geared up and they're moving forward. And I've talked to people on the other side of the fence, who are just feeling defeated and frightened and not inclined to want to take action. And in those situations, the biggest difference that I see is the level of fear. The people who have the knowledge that they're going to be able to make it, that they're going to be able to pull things out, those people seem to be doing just fine. The ones who seem to be struggling the most are the ones who are not quite convinced of that. They don't know what to do next, exactly. They feel like their business is really struggling and they're not quite sure what to do to change it. So I would say in addition to the fear, it's also the not knowing how to handle it, not knowing how to address the fear and make the changes they probably need to make in order to keep things going in the direction they really want to go. Chris:                     I think that another way to look at this is that some people are in problem-orientation mode, and some people are in solution-orientation mode. And when you're in problem-orientation, we keep telling these stories where we just pile it on and then there's this and that. And how are we ever going to get this done? And you can just kind of feel the angst building and building and building. And then there's the solution side. People who have a perspective that says "times are tough, got to monitor, got to adjust." But they focus on moving toward the solution. And when you're in problem-orientation mode, it is really,

While many businesses are now getting back to work, it's not always smooth sailing. Some industries are returning more slowly than others, which leave many business owners and salespeople wondering what they can do to get their business back in gear. David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton and I will be talking about getting your business back in gear. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know, it seems like many people thought that business would just automatically bounce back and return to normal. As soon as these restrictions were lifted. That's not a given, is it? David:                   No, it's turning out it's really not a given, particularly in the early stages. You know, we just thought this thing would probably come and go fairly quickly and then it didn't. And then the longer it went, I think the more difficult it got for people, but yeah, as different states come back at different levels, it's really been a bit of a challenge. And so I think the idea of it happening by itself or happening automatically is probably not really the way that things are going. And so yeah, we have to see what we can do more proactively to get things going again. Chris:                     So when you think about getting a business going again, where do you think that business owners and sales people should start? David:                   Well, I think I'd start with looking at your existing customer base and asking yourself, okay, how many of these people are ready to move forward? How many of them are in a position to move forward? Because obviously it's always easier to sell to your existing client base than it is to sell, to, or find new people. So we definitely want to start there. Just going back to them, trying to find out where they are, how they're doing, what they're thinking and all that sort of thing. So finding out from them also how well things are bouncing back or not bouncing back. And a lot of industries are responding in different ways. Certainly the food industry -- restaurants have really struggled with a lot of what's going on. I know hair salons here in Pennsylvania are still closed as of the time that we're recording this. I'm sporting sort of a seventies, early eighties "do" at the moment because... Chris:                     Oh, but you look great, David. David:                   Yeah, I do. It's fantastic. Just this sort of a Bee-Gees look. Vintage BeeGees. But anyway, some of those types of industries are going to remain affected until things get back to normal. But even then, it's not a given that people are just going to automatically start spending again. So I think we need to look at "what is our existing customer base doing? How are they dealing with it? What can we do to help them to take action and move things forward?" And also just look at what are we doing? What are we doing in our own businesses to remind people that this is not forever. And we need to take as many actions as we can to help our customers to move things forward. Chris:                     One of the things, I think we've talked about this in a previous podcast, is the whole idea of doing a check in with my client base. All of them. I mean, why not call everyone and just say, "Hey, I'm calling to see how you're doing." I mean, just that as a starting point, and if you've got a prospect that you've been working with, I think it's fair to say, "Hey, also want to check in and see how you're doing. Where are you with what we've been talking about? Obviously a lot of things have changed and I just want to make sure that we're on the same page moving forward." Does that seem like a good way to start from your standpoint? David:                   Yes, absolutely. And we did discuss that in previous podcasts.

Social distancing has caused many people to feel isolated. This likely applies as much to you as it does to your clients. Helping clients is key. So what can we do to allow our prospects and clients to feel less alone and create more of a connection? David:                  Hi, and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton and I will be talking about helping your clients to feel less isolated and creating solid connections. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know, the ability to create connections, especially now, is so important. We've discussed how to use technology in previous podcasts, but there's a psychological component to this. So what are some of the things we can do to help our clients and ourselves, David? David:                   Well, that's a great question. And we had touched a lot on fear in the previous podcast and how do you overcome feelings of fear? And I think it's possible a lot of this also applies to feelings of isolation and feeling like we're all in it by ourselves, we're in it alone. And the fact of the matter is that we're really not. And so a lot of it starts with, I believe, recognizing that fact. That essentially if everybody's in the same boat, then we're about as far from alone as we could possibly be. Everybody's pretty much in the same situation. Now, if you're where you are in California and I'm where I am in Pennsylvania, if you and I are not connecting, then sure, we're going to feel a lot more isolated than we will feel if we're having a conversation like this one, where it's as if we're together and we're able to have a conversation and we are able to feel more connected because we're be able to have those conversations. David:                   So I think a lot of it starts with that, recognizing that we are far from alone. We're all in this together. And I think adapting that mindset is really important for everyone right now to recognize, yeah, we may not always agree with everyone else, but we are certainly all in this together and the clearer we can get about that, and the more we can understand that the common goals remain the same: to have better lives, to be able to continue to move our lives and our businesses forward. And then, you know, how can we help ourselves to do it and how can we help those around us to do it? If we recognize that everybody's in the same boat, then maybe we can all start paddling the same direction and feel less isolated about it. Chris:                     And I think the thing that you said that really resonates with me, and I, I think it's easier to walk right by is this is about as much for ourselves as it is for clients or for prospects. If we're trying to build relationships with our clients and prospects right now doing that is as good for you as it is for anybody else. You know what I mean? David:                   Yeah, no question. And it's like what we talked about before, you have to be able to do some of this stuff for yourself before you're going to be able to get good at helping other people. It's like what they talk about when you're about to take off in a plane, you gotta put your mask on before you try to help someone else. And it's the same exact advice here, you know, how can we allow ourselves to feel less isolated and more connected? And the way that we do that is essentially going to be by establishing connections. Just saying things like, who do I want to be connected with right now? Who would I like to be able to interact with right now? And then just reaching out and making it happen. And this applies as much or perhaps even more and our social lives as it does in business. But I think the two are very much related. Chris:                     Absolutely. And you know, we talked off air about having Zoom meetings with our friends that I've, I've had,

The COVID-19 crisis caused many business owners to experience things for the very first time. Customers ordered to stay home. Businesses deemed nonessential and ordered to close. Many personal liberties curtailed. All of this has created a lot of fear. So what can we do to help clients overcome the fear and see past it? David: Hi and welcome to the podcast today. Cohost Chris Templeton, and I will be talking about seeing past the fear and helping our clients to do the same. Welcome back, Chris. Chris: Hi David, with everything that's been happening, wall to wall news coverage of every detail. There has certainly been a lot of fear in the market and rightfully so. I know that our topic today is about seeing past it, but don't you think a little fear is actually helpful? David: Well, I think it can be, particularly for some people. Some people are really motivated by fear. And so for those who are motivated by fear, I think that it can be helpful in encouraging them to do the things that we're being told we need to do. But I think it's a fine line. And sometimes the danger is that when there is too much fear, not enough fact, or too much fear, not enough critical thinking, that we all tend to start to devolve mentally. We tend maybe not to be able to think as clearly or think straight. So I think, yes, a little fear can be helpful to some people, but overall, I don't know. I just feel as if most of us are better at making intelligent, thoughtful decisions critically than we are from a basis of fear. Chris: It's a really, really good point. And I think a lot of people don't even realize that they're falling into it occasionally. And with what's going on now, every detail on the news, it's certainly easy to go down that road. And all of a sudden we start to behave in a way, make decisions in a way that are based on that underlying fear without even recognizing it. A balanced perspective sure does make a big difference, don't you think? David: Yeah, I think balance is very important. I had this thought the other day about the words to the National Anthem, "the land of the free and the home of the brave." And I think it can be challenging for some people to think in terms of the land of the free, when you're required to stay home. And the home of the brave, when everything they're telling you on television is designed to potentially make you fearful. And so, it's finding the balance and recognizing that there are facts, and we need to be able to look at the facts and just think in terms of "how can we keep things moving forward?" How can we do it for ourselves to be able to think critically analyze situations intelligently and help our clients to do the same? Chris: Well, and I think from that standpoint, it is about perspective. It is saying to yourselves, into your coworkers and your family and friends, "we are going to get through this." We don't know exactly what it's going to look like, but we know that we've been through it as a planet, in what, 1918 with the Spanish flu? And we do come back from these things. And even that, just as a starting point, in trying to bring more perspective and balance to what I'm thinking, has to be a great step in the right direction, don't you think? David: Yeah, absolutely. And the better we get at doing that, the better off we're going to be. But right now, I mean, when I look at what's going on with our clients and with different people that I've talked to in business, a lot of the fear that I see people dealing with is the unknown. That seems to be the biggest thing. And it reminds me of childhood fears. The reason that children are afraid of the dark, is not because it's dark. It's because they don't know what's going on. It's because they can't see what's happening. And as a result, it's really the fear of the unknown. And that's a lot of what we've been dealing with ...

Over the course of our recent podcast series, we've been discussing pandemic and post pandemic selling skills. We've discussed things like Facebook, social media, LinkedIn, YouTube, video, teleconferencing, and today we're going to be discussing generating leads online. Are you doing it? Do you know how to do it? Do you have the tools you need to do it? We'll hit all of that in today's podcast. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today, cohost Chris Templeton and I are back, and we're going to be talking about generating leads online. Welcome back, Chris. Chris: Thank you David. Nice to be here. You know, when we talk about generating leads online, that can mean a whole lot of things to a whole lot of different people. Talk about what your definition is of that process. David: Okay. Well, as you indicated, it can happen a lot of different ways. You could post something on Facebook that someone sees and they reply to it and they say, "Ooh, that sounds great. I'd like to be a customer!" Of course that never happens. Chris: But they may say, "ah, you know, I'm willing to take a look." David: Exactly. So it could be that, but I'd like to get a little more specific on this, because as we move to these different methods of interacting with people and communicating with people, I think it's important to understand that online lead generation can mean more than just somebody finds you online and then you connect offline and you end up establishing a relationship. Online lead generation can actually be a situation where you put something out to the marketplace. It could be some sort of lure, some sort of lead magnet, that is designed to get their attention and to sort of pull them into your orbit. You then would need to have the technology in place to be able to capture that lead. In many cases that would be through some sort of opt-in form, and then you want to be able to nurture that communication, which often involves autoresponders or ongoing communication. And so this starts to sound very technical (and obviously we're not going to get into all the details in a podcast.) But this is exactly the type of stuff that we work with our existing clients on to help them to be able to increase their online presence, actually be able to generate leads online and to be able to replicate themselves -- to be able to automate some of the process -- so they don't have to physically be doing all of the work themselves. And I think as we look at the whole topic of this conversation -- sort of doing things in a post pandemic world -- we want to look at how we can better leverage ourselves, how we can better utilize technology to sort of clone ourselves so that we don't have to be all places at all times. We can actually utilize the technology to create an environment in which it appears that that's the case, where we can be hyper-responsive without actually having to do all the work ourselves. Chris: And you know, one of the things that I think a lot of people kind of default to when they think about this is, "Oh, it's going to be sales thing after another," this automated followup type of thing, and that simply, from my perspective, and I think yours, should not be the case, should it David? These autoresponders should be something that are of value, that show who I am, help to figure out fit, that sort of thing. David: Yes. Just as in every business communication that we ever have. Chris: What? David: It should all be geared like that. We had talked in a previous podcast about sort of the 80/20 aspect of that, making sure that roughly 80% of what you're saying to a client is just solid value and perhaps using the other 20% or so to sell. Maybe it's even 85/15 or 90/10. But it's about establishing those relationships. It's about nurturing those relationships and helping our clients to get the r...

In our recent podcast series, we've been discussing pandemic and post pandemic selling skills. How many of these do you have working in your business right now? David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In the last couple of podcast episodes, Chris and I were talking about prospecting using social media that led to discussions about Facebook and LinkedIn and video, and I guess we're just going to sort of pick up where we left off. Welcome back Chris. Chris: Hi David. Thanks for having me back and I am really pleased to talk about something that I've been doing for almost 20 years now, which is online meetings. You know, we talk about the idea of using video. Well, one of the things that I've been doing for almost 20 years is online meetings. I've had meetings with agencies between -- I'm in Napa and New York, back in the day, and I have online meetings now almost every day and frankly that's how we do this, isn't it? David: It is. We're having one right now, in fact. Chris: Yes we are. Although we're not looking in each other's eyes. Because we're not using video, and that is certainly not a requirement. But let's talk about, as a starting point, how well this has worked. You know, we're on our 36th podcast right now together. David: Right. Chris: And we never looked at each other in the eye have we? David: We've never met. No. Chris: And that's probably best that you're not seeing me. But no, I'm kidding. But it's amazing to me how quickly our relationship, in terms of being able to go back and forth, and really do this in a way that I think is compelling happened almost immediately, didn't it? David: It did. Yeah. From the very first episode. And that's the type of thing that can and should happen, ideally, in every meeting. In every online meeting between a prospect and a client, the whole purpose of being able to utilize online video or video conferencing is to be able to establish relationships and be able to foster those relationships in a meaningful way. So, yeah, absolutely. In our last podcast, we were talking about video, using it as a one-to-many marketing medium. So we can put together a video, get it in front of a lot of people, and be impacting a lot of people all at once. But what we're talking about now, with video conferencing or even audio conferencing, as we're doing right now, it's just to be able to have a meaningful conversation with another person to be able to advance the sales dialogue and move things forward. Chris: And I think it's so critical that people understand that the level of scripting that you and I have in these conversations is almost none. There's a beginning, and maybe a few points to cover, and then a wrap up, but the rest of it is all genuine conversation. And so one of the things I think is really important for the audience to consider is "how can I have a conversation with somebody that will help me to bring out the best of myself?" And what I find is that I've done hundreds of radio interviews over the years, and I can count three or 400 interviews I've done. Gotta be less than 10 that I've been like, "how am I going to get through this?" I'm always shocked, number one, at how good people are at doing it and number two, how surprised they are that they're able to be that articulate. David: Yeah. You and I both have radio backgrounds. I worked in radio from the time I was 15, so when you were talking about not seeing each other face to face, the old adage of "I've got a face built for radio" immediately leaps to mind. But it's a very comfortable medium and I think that's why podcasts have been so popular. Because you can listen to a conversation between two people talking about a topic of interest and it makes perfect sense. Now when we adapt this to selling in today's environment,

In our last podcast, we began a discussion on pandemic and post pandemic selling skills because the skills that got you to this point will probably not be enough to keep you moving forward. Do you have what it takes to survive and thrive in the new environment? Let's find out. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast today cohost Chris Templeton and I are back to continue our discussion on pandemic and post pandemic selling skills. Welcome back, Chris. Chris: Hi David. You know in our last podcast we were going to talk about all kinds of skills that have to be developed in order to succeed in this new selling environment. David: Right. Chris: We didn't get as far as we thought we were going to and we kind of left off on Facebook groups and the type of content that we can put up. Let's talk about some other things that we can do in regards to social media. David: Okay. We started talking about Facebook groups and Facebook personal profiles and Facebook pages, but obviously there are other social media sources as well. LinkedIn is always thought of as being a good source for business. You want to discuss that one next? Chris: Sure. Let's talk about LinkedIn. David: Okay. If you've been in business for a long time, you probably have some sort of LinkedIn account or presence. If not, you should definitely look into getting one. LinkedIn is one social media environment in which it's okay to be in business, be in sales. Sometimes with some of the more personal social media platforms like Facebook, that can be frowned upon. But in LinkedIn people sort of expect the fact that you're in business and that you might say things related to business. Now that doesn't mean that you can just go on there and turn it into a 24 hour pitch fast, right? David: You can't just go on there and say, "buy my stuff" all the time because you will alienate just as many people on LinkedIn as you would on any other platform. Chris: You don't think that'll work? David: You can try it if you want to. See how that works out. Chris: Yeah, you try it and let us know how it goes. David: Yeah, send us an email. But you can get on there and exchange ideas. You can initiate conversations that are more business related. You can connect with people. Because on LinkedIn it's more about connections. Whereas on Facebook it's about friends, quote unquote. So you're friending people on Facebook, but you're connecting with people on LinkedIn. So people expect that there's going to be a business component to the discussion on there. So that's helpful. The flip side is that since it's all business, people do get pitched a lot, and so the way that we approach people on LinkedIn is going to have to be thought through and not just "winging it" the way that a lot of people do. Chris: And I don't know if you want to go with 80/20 or some different split, but you know, like you said, if all you're doing is pushing your sales messages, you're not going to be very effective in generating connections and interest. And so, can we do 80% that is informational, maybe half of that tied to your specific products, but not as, you know, "Hey, buy my product" and then can you do things like we're doing right now, which is how do we help people in these difficult times? And almost everybody in business has the ability to tie this to what's going on with the pandemic, that sort of thing, don't you think? David: Yeah, absolutely. And I think one of the primary changes in focus has been, and this is something we've talked about in previous podcasts as well, is that right now with everything that's going on, sales is far less about w...

Business today is different, and those who have not adopted pandemic and post-pandemic selling skills are running into a lot of trouble. Some people are determined to wait it out. And while I'd like to think that we can all just return to business as usual when the pandemic is over, I am far from convinced that will be the case. For that reason, I believe the skills that we learn and implement now will be critical to our selling efforts going forward. David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today cohost Chris Templeton and I will be discussing pandemic and post-pandemic selling skills. Welcome Chris. Chris: Hi David. We are living in some interesting times, aren't we? If you had told me at the beginning of this year that we'd be doing a podcast on selling skills for a pandemic, I probably would have said, "David, you're losing it." But here we are. So what are some of the skills that you have in mind? David: Well, it really is crazy. You know, just the idea that for so long, so many salespeople have traditionally counted on in person networking referrals, canvassing, drop-ins, other methods that have historically been done in person. And now a lot of that stuff has been taken away. And I think a lot of people are viewing it like, okay, well I can't wait till we get back to that, and maybe we will and I'm hoping we will. I'm hoping that all those things that were previously available will be available to us again. But if they're not, then the skills that hopefully we've been learning over the course of the past several weeks and months, will come in handy on the other side. And the way that I'm viewing this is that if we can sort of layer in additional skills that will help us to be able to continue to get customers, regardless of whether or not we can be in front of them, we're going to be in much better shape than people who are simply waiting for things to get back to normal. Because the truth of the matter is, we may get back to "normal" in a couple of weeks or a month or so and then we could potentially have it all taken away again. If they decide, okay, well we've got to do social distancing again, then all of that's gone. And I think it will be very difficult for people if they're banking on the fact that things are going to go back to normal. If they don't and they don't develop those skills, I think they're going to be in some real trouble. So essentially what I'm talking about are alternatives to face to face prospecting and figuring out the types of things that we can do, regardless of whether or not we're able to get in front of people. Chris: It is a big order, isn't it, David? The good news is there's so many things that help us with prospecting that doesn't have to be face to face, but still I think having the attitude of "I need to make changes now based on how this could come and go... David: Right. Chris: ...is really the most important thing, isn't it? David: I think so. And so when I look at, okay, what are some of the skills that we need to develop (or hopefully that we have developed,) a lot of them really go to things that people have been doing online for quite some time now, and a lot of things that internet marketers have done to get business, right. And I think I've been fortunate in my sales career, I was never too married to the whole idea of having to be face to face, to sell to someone. I was always comfortable with the idea of being able to sell to someone on the phone. I was always comfortable with different aspects of being able to communicate, whether it's through email or whatever and through social media or messaging and all these different types of things. So for me it hasn't been disastrous in terms of being able to continue moving forward, but for people who have really only ever done face to face selling, this has been really challenging.

It's a crazy time, but let's explore the real problem. In my work helping business owners and salespeople to grow sales and profits, I've recently been hearing things like: * "I'm afraid of losing business" * "I'm afraid my clients won't buy" * "I'm afraid that prospects won't be receptive to me" * "I'm afraid I'll have trouble paying my bills," or * "I'm afraid I'll go broke!" So people are afraid of a lot of things right now. But that's not the real problem. The REAL problem is not what could happen. The real problem is when you don't know what to do to fix it! With all the craziness happening right now related to the Coronavirus scare, a lot of business owners and salespeople are feeling a sense of panic. But as I just mentioned, the real problem is not the things that are happening, or might happen. The real problem is when they don't know what to do to fix it. Think about it. Occasionally we all lose business, people cancel orders, a client doesn't buy or a group of prospects are not receptive. That happens all the time, it happens every day in business, regardless of what's going on in the economy. When it happens in the ordinary course of business, it's frustrating, but we shake it off and continue to move forward. We may be annoyed, but we're usually not terrified. It's because we know what to do... continue to move forward. The difference right now, is that MORE people are cancelling orders, losing business, not buying and not being receptive. So the problem is real. But unlike normal times, the response... the "what to do about it" isn't as obvious. Do we pretend it's not happening and engage in business as usual? Do we put on a happy face and pretend everything is great? Do we avoid marketing ourselves, because we're afraid of being seen as insensitive for trying to conduct business during a difficult time? Do we attempt to profiteer and gouge the market when people are desperate? Or do we lay low, hunker down and just wait for it to all blow over? I'm not sure how you're currently answering these questions, but my answers, in order are no, no, no, no and no. Situations like this require a smarter, more focused approach. Prospecting right now is less about "what can I sell you," and more about "how can I help?" Right now, I'm working with our Inner Circle, SmartEQP and Total Market Domination clients to help them 1.) Stay healthy and well, 2.) Minimize short term disruption to their business and 3.) Position themselves as the market leader, right now, while many of their competitors are too afraid to move. I believe this is absolutely critical if you want your business to survive, thrive and be seen as the leader, the "go-to" person, both short term and long-term as things improve. So if you're already a client, log into our our web portal, hop onto our clients-only Facebook group, participate in our Mastermind and Discussion Groups and let's get to it! If you're not a client, but if you're also not content with the idea of waiting around to see how things play out, then go to topsecrets.com/economy and get instant access to my free training Ten Action Steps to Grow Your Promotional Products Sales Regardless of the Economy. That's topsecrets.com/economy. Or give us a call, toll-free at 1-800-494-2721 Extension 108. We're around, we're alive, (we're socially distancing and we're working virtually,) but you can still talk to us, and we will absolutely do everything we can to help you moving again. Ready to Grow Your Sales & Profits? If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional pr...