Top Secrets of Marketing & Sales

How are you at selling remotely? Are you okay with the idea of selling less in person and selling more via phone, email, and text? And if not, what's that likely to do to your income? David: Hi and welcome to the podcast today cohost Chris Templeton and I will be talking about using phone, email, and text to replace in-person selling. Welcome Chris. Chris: Hi David. You know, to me, selling on the phone doesn't seem all that different from selling in person. And as a matter of fact, that's been my primary way of sales over the last, well almost 20 years. But I know not everybody agrees. How critical do you think remote selling is going to be going forward? David: I think it's going to be really critical going forward. I mean, obviously over the course of the past months, the world has demonstrated how if you want to sell something, and you can't do it remotely, you're going to have a lot of trouble. So yeah, going forward, I think it's going to be just as important if not more important. As restrictions continue to be lifted, a lot of people are going to be tempted to think, "okay, we're going to be able to move back to business as usual." And maybe we will and maybe we won't. We just don't know. But in the meantime, I know there are a lot of people who started working from home who said, "you know what? This isn't too bad!" And there are businesses who are looking at the expense of having an office and saying, "maybe I don't need that. Maybe we can do more simply by working at home." As things like that start to happen, a lot of people are going to be in the situation where they're going to have to start adapting. And even if they don't, if you're able to sell both in person and remotely on the phone or whatever, it just increases your horizons. It allows you to reach more people more quickly. It allows you to identify the targets you want to go after and be able to go after them without having to physically be in front of them. So I think regardless, it's just a good skill to have and now is the perfect time to make sure that you're developing and honing that skill. Chris: And I think it's really important to just say straight up, you know what? We may get back to business as usual someday. But I think that if what you're doing as a business person is pinning your hopes on that, you're going to be waiting a long time, number one. And number two, once you begin to practice with some of these online tools, having online meetings, it becomes not an issue at all. And I would encourage people to really think about what it is that they're telling themselves. If they think that this is a negative way to do business, look at your story about why and really think about, "gee, what if I were good at this? How would I feel about it then?" And I think that we've got to really bridge that gap in our own minds to begin with, don't you? David: I do. You mentioned the fact that you've done a lot of selling on the phone and online over a long period of time. I'm in exactly the same situation. So to that extent, because we both have that experience we're, to whatever extent, if not jaded then at least biased in our opinion because we know how well it can work. But I recognize that there are people listening to this podcast who are not in that situation. They've done face to face for the bulk of their lives and that's what they're used to, and they may have trouble adapting. The purpose of this podcast is to do two things. One is to say to people who have not sold successfully remotely, "Hey look, you can probably do this and we're happy to help you to try to figure out how to make that happen." And also for those who are good at it, to recognize that you possess a skill that is really necessary right no...

Recently, a long-time client asked me a question about penetrating large accounts. He was talking about how they're currently working with one location, trying to penetrate a second and then realizing that there are actually many more locations. So the question is "what's the best way to penetrate a large account?" Many of us sell to companies that have more than one person who can buy our products. Some of those people might be in the same department as our client. Some might be in different departments. Some might even be in different divisions, locations or related companies. In all of these cases, I'd like to make a recommendation that I would encourage you to follow with every contact you do business with. It's very simple and very powerful, and it's entirely based on internal referrals. Need Help with This? Schedule a Call Ask each of your existing contacts who they know 1.) in their own department, 2.) in other departments in their own location, then 3.) in other locations, who either buy or influence the buying decision. Then ask for an introduction to that person. When I say it like this, it sounds like you're asking too much, but don't worry, you can do it a little at a time. Of course, if you already know you're dealing with a business that has just one location, you can leave out the "other location" reference, but still ask about other people in their own department and other departments. Let me give you a simple example of how this works. Years ago, I was dealing with the marketing director at a local bank. It was a good account, and I was doing a decent volume of business with them. One afternoon, I was visiting my contact and noticed she essentially worked in a "cubicle farm." There were lots of other people in her department who appeared to be doing all sorts of different things. So I asked her, "who else in your department buys promotional products?" I got lucky. She mentioned the name of her manager and offered to introduce me to her. Of course, if she hadn't offered, I would have asked, but this made it much easier. On the way out, my contact introduced me to her manager, who was willing to take a few moments to talk with me. I'm sure this only happened because of the way we were introduced. It's not like she would have met with me if I had just shown up on her doorstep. During the conversation, I asked her, "who else in your department buys promotional products," and she told me about a third person who also did some buying. Theoretically, my initial contact could have told me about this person, but maybe she didn't know. In any event, this simple question tripled the number of people I was in touch with in just that department. I'm a slow learner, so when it occurred to me, weeks later, that this was just one department, I started asking my contacts who else they knew in other departments. This lead to some new contacts and additional business in the executive division. Since that experience, I made it a point to repeat that process with every contact I came in touch with. Who else in your department buys? Who do you know in other departments who buy? And, can you introduce me to them? Oh, it's also important you never assume you know the answer to this. I've been in small companies where I've asked the question and they laughed at me. "No, we're a small company. I'm the only buyer." I've been in other small companies where they've said, "oh yeah, Tricia buys too. Hey Tricia, come over here."

Each year I go to industry trade shows, and whether in-person or virtual, I find some people who have achieved extraordinary results since our last meeting, while others seem stuck and haven't moved at all. In nearly every case, I can trace the results back to one thing -- speed of implementation. Those who take quick action on new ideas succeed, while those who don't, languish. David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today, co-host Chris Templeton and I will be talking about how your speed of implementation accelerates your results. Welcome, Chris! Chris:                     Hi David! We all have ideas, don't we? Sometimes we take action on them and sometimes we don't, but speed of implementation is not just about taking action on our ideas.  It's about doing it quickly so we can get the results sooner, right? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call The Idea-Action-Result Cycle David:                   Yeah, exactly. We get an idea, we take action on it (or we don't take action on it) and we get a result. We get a result if we DO take action, we get a result if we don't take action. If you were to graph this, you could sort of do it as a cycle. It's a sort of a circle or an oval. The idea comes first. So the idea happens, say that's a light bulb, right? So we get this brilliant idea, we're exposed to a brilliant idea or just comes in the middle of the night, whatever it is. That's the idea. The next thing that needs to happen is we need to take action on that idea. So that's second, right? Once we take action or we don't take action, then the third thing that happens is we get a result. After that maybe we'll get another idea and the cycle will repeat. So while we can't always control the amount of time that it takes between the time we take action and the time we get a result; like if we do a sales pitch, we can't always control when we're actually going to get the sale. That's the action vs. the result.  We can often control the time between the idea that we get and the time that we take action on that idea. So that particular area in that cycle is where we need to focus our attention because it directly impacts the cycle time. The sooner we take action on an idea, the sooner we can find out what the result of that action is. Chris:                     I think it's a very salient point that regardless of whether you take action or not, there's a result and it's measurable, isn't it? David:                   Completely measurable. Yep. Chris:                     What do you think seems to keep people from implementing ideas the way they should? David:                   Well, a lot of it goes back to fear, which is something we talked about in a previous podcast. People are just scared of stuff and it paralyzes them into inaction. They just don't take action on it. They get an idea, I think it's a good idea, but I'm afraid to move forward on it. It could be that, it could be a matter of priorities. I want to do it, I know I need to do it, but I have these ten other things that are pressing right now. They might not be as important, but they seem like they need to get done, so it could be a matter of priorities. It could also just be a matter of business as usual. I'm used to doing things in a certain way and it's like, I like this idea, but I don't really know if I want to do it. I don't know if I have the time. I don't know if it's going to get me the results, so all of those things could potentially play into it. Chris:                     But if we're focused on speed,

Indecision is deadly to sales. People think they want to buy something, but they're not sure what.  Or they know what they want to buy, but they can't decide on the style or the color, or they may know the style and color, but they just can't seem to pull the trigger. So today let's talk about making it easier for people to make a buying decision. David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast!  Today co-host Chris Templeton and I will be talking about making it easier for prospects to make a buying decision. Welcome Chris! Chris:                     Hi David! You know, humans have been selling things for a long time, but getting that buying decision, I don't imagine it's gotten a whole lot easier over time, has it? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   No, it doesn't seem to have gotten any easier at all. I mean for people who have been in sales for any length of time, you think about how easy or difficult it was to get people to make a decision 20 years ago, versus how easy or difficult it is now. I would say there's an argument to be made that it's actually harder now, because there are more choices,  there are more options, there's more competition. So, in a lot of ways I think it probably is actually harder now to get a buying decision out of someone than it was previously. Chris:                     I absolutely agree with that. And I think you're right, it's about having so many choices, but I also think it's a good time in terms of personal service really being the thing that is such a nice differentiator for sales and now it's become so easy to buy something without even having to talk to somebody and being in a situation where you're able to provide that personal level of service really in my mind seems to be a good differentiator. David:                   It does.  It certainly helps with a certain type of buyer who actually wants and needs that relationship. Absolutely. Chris:                     And some people are just more indecisive than others, aren't they? David:                   Yeah, I think they are. And you know, you look at that situation, and you say, okay, there's some people that just can't seem to make a decision no matter what. And as a sales person we say, okay, well why is that the case? Why do people have trouble making these types of decisions? Or making any decision at all, and I think a lot of it for buyers tends to boil down to some level of fear. They're afraid of making the wrong choice, they're afraid of getting burned, they're afraid of getting ripped off. They don't want something bad to happen, they're afraid of making a wrong decision and having their boss get angry.  Whatever it is, but a lot of it really just in my mind at least boils down to fear that keeps people from taking action and moving forward and at some point, then it becomes like mental programming. I program myself to not make decisions to put off decisions to hem and haw and procrastinate and it's always harder when an indecisive person is tasked with making a decision. It's frustrating from a sales standpoint when the person who has been put in charge of making that decision refuses to do it, they refuse to essentially do their job. It's very frustrating and it's rampant. Chris:                     It really is. And I think about it, one of my approaches in sales has always been, I want to help you to make an informed decision that you feel really comfortable with. And I think we lose that. And having that approach with a prospect can really help in moving the sales along. When you look at it, how much of sales in this part of the process is about helping them to see the benefits of the produ...

There's a phrase that's been popularized in sales which says "buyers are liars." It refers to those who say they want one thing but end up buying another. I've never liked the phrase, and even though it's occasionally true, I believe there's another group that deserves the title much more in my opinion.  It's the non-buyers who are often the real liars! David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast! Today co-host Chris Templeton and I will debunk the notion that buyers are liars. Welcome back, Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know, it's likely that every salesperson has heard this phrase and even said at a time or two, especially when things weren't going well. So, what makes you think, David, that buyers aren't liars? David:                   Okay. They have to prove their veracity in this podcast! Chris:                     Are you a truth teller? David:                   Exactly, yeah. I think if they're buyers, then it means that they bought something from you.  So even if they weren't telling you the entire truth the whole time, you were at least able to get past it. So I think the fact that they bought something, the idea of saying that buyers are liars is rather insulting to the people who actually spend money with us. I'm far less concerned about saying that non-buyers are liars because in my experience in sales over the years, that really seems to be the case that people who don't buy from you, the people who string you along, waste your time and do all that sort of thing. They're the ones who are most often telling you things that just aren't true. So with buyers, you know you're able to get past it. So to me that means that most of the liars are the ones who are not doing that. Who are not buying. Chris:                     And from your standpoint, what do non-buyers tend to lie about the most? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   Well, there are a bunch of things and they're all familiar to anyone who's been in sales for any length of time. They say they're going to call you back and then they don't call you back. They say they want one particular thing and then they buy something completely different from someone else. They say they're the decision maker and they're not the decision maker. There are all kinds of things. They'll say they'll make a decision by a certain date and then they don't. What else?  They say they'll think about it. Anyone ever said that to you Chris? Chris:                     No, I've never had that said to me, and I've certainly never said it to any salesperson. David:                  Exactly, "I'll think about it." Right? And the reality is that even if we've said it ourselves, we'll think about it. Are we really going to think about it? What are we going to think about? And so, very often, even if we've done these things, we didn't mean to lie to somebody.  And maybe in our own heads we didn't think we were, but nine times out of 10 whenever we've done any of those things, we just weren't telling the truth. Chris:                     Right, right. And it's easy to go down that road without framing it up quite that way, isn't it? David:                   Yeah, and without thinking of it like that, really it's less about deliberately misleading somebody and more about thinking, "Oh, well, you know, I just need to toss this around in my head for a while." And in a lot of cases people convince themselves that they actually think it's true. It reminds me of that Seinfeld episode where George Costanza says, “Remember Jerry, it's not lying if you think it's true!”

Lead generation is a critical part of every business because without an adequate supply of leads, it's impossible to maintain a business. So where do the bulk of your new leads come from these days and where do your best leads come from? Online, offline, or both? David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast.  Today co-host Chris Templeton and I will be talking lead sourcing, meaning where your leads are coming from. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. Interesting point that you made in the introduction, which is that you may get the bulk of your leads from one source, but your best leads from somewhere else. And it does happen that way sometimes, doesn't it? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   Yeah, it actually happens that way quite a bit. And there's a very often a big difference between the quantity of leads that we get and the quality of leads that we get and they don't always go together. The places where we're getting the most leads might not be the best quality leads. I know a lot of times when I'm talking to salespeople and business owners and I ask them where their best leads come from, almost inevitably they say referrals. You know, referrals are their primary source of leads and while referrals are a great source of leads and very often a very high quality source of leads, they're not always the most prolific. In other words, you don't always get as many of them as you want. So recognizing that there's a difference between the bulk of the leads that are coming in and the quality of the leads and the fact that those are two different things can be helpful. Chris:                     How do we go about the process of balancing that quality/quantity equation of leads? David:                   Well, it starts with testing the quality of your leads with a consistent approach to the leads that you get. In other words, whenever we get a lead, we want to make sure that we're treating them exactly the same because if we get 10 different leads and we treat each of them differently, then we're not going to know if they closed because of the approach we took or if it was the lead itself. So we want to first start out by having a consistent approach to the leads we get in. If we get 10 leads in, we want to try to treat them as close as we possibly can to exactly the same way, then you can take a look at who closed and who didn't. And that will help you to determine which ones are good and which ones are bad. And at that point it's easier then, to start to work to get more good leads and you can also potentially work to improve the conversion on the bad leads or the ones that didn't convert. So, it's sort of a balance looking at quantity first and saying, “Okay, if I treat them all the same, which ones close?”, and then say, “All right, if they close, then that makes them by default good leads.”, and then looking at that and extrapolating from there, Chris:                     I think you bring up a really good point, which is not said specifically, but you know, if you ask most business people about where their leads come from, their best leads, they're going to say referrals. But I'm not convinced that all businesses are doing all that great a job of tracking leads. Are you? David:                   No, I'm not at all. And basically, it's because when I ask them, they'll tell you that.  They'll say that they know they need to do a better job of tracking their leads, but they just don't. I think most businesses do have a reasonable idea of where their leads are coming from and very often, they know that they wish there were more leads coming in. They might have, you know,

As social media has evolved, so have the ways that people are selling. From Facebook to Twitter, to LinkedIn, to whatever comes next, we all have to be on the lookout now for when social media conversations turn salesy and every conversation is suspect. David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today co-host Chris Templeton and I will be discussing the idea that as more and more poor quality sales-people turn to social media, nearly every conversation we have becomes suspect. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know it is a growing trend, isn't it? You post a question or a comment on social media. People essentially start spamming you as a result with pitches for their products, that sort of thing. Where do you draw the line between helpful content and a blatant sales pitch if you're on the delivery end of that type of thing? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   Yeah, it's a great question because as salespeople and as business owners, we know that we want to have conversations online that could potentially lead to a sale but we don't want to do it in a way that is just us being obviously self-promotional. So there is a fine line there, and I've really noticed this recently over the course of the past really month or two. Particularly even in the past few weeks I've become more and more aware of it. And as I have, I've just noticed it everywhere. It's like that thing where you buy a certain type and color of car and then all of a sudden you keep seeing that. I've been seeing this on social media all over the place lately. Someone will post a comment and in fact, a situation I had recently was I had asked a question on social media. I asked if people got their leads primarily online or offline and I had some people who came in and they said, “I get most of my leads online,” I got some people who said, “I get most of my leads offline.” And then I had somebody who just posted an ad for their place because they help get people leads online. So essentially they hijack the thread and they're sort of spamming people with a response. And I thought, it's so foolish and shortsighted to do that because if they had actually responded and said something like, "Well, you know, we used to get them online, but now we get them offline and we've developed a few strategies that have helped us to do that." Then they could at least start planting seeds without being obvious about - here's my link, go click and buy from me. And I think that's where people are getting a little more skeptical. Chris:                     One of the things that I always noticed, I was in web development for many years and the thing that I loved in web development was people that had bad web developers that would come to me, because of the bar was so low that really exceeding expectations was so easy. And I think that this is exactly the same thing where you've got somebody who doesn't have the presence of mind to say, hey, how can I help somebody to understand or have a different perspective on the question that's being asked? Like you asked and talk about solutions that work without it being a pitch and still make it clear that that's what you do, but it's more informational. And I think that this just creates this great platform to exceed people's expectations. But that's a great way to knock people's expectations about you down to pretty much the basement, don't you think? David:                   Yeah. And so much of it is just about being a decent human, you know, it seems so simple. It's like that book, Everything I Need to Know, I Learned in Kindergarten or something that was out had a long, long time ago.

Do prospects ghost you? We've all been through it. You have a great conversation with an excellent prospect. They say all the right things and respond to you perfectly. It sounds like an ideal match! The right product or service for the right prospect at the right time. We just need to iron out a few details to get things wrapped up, but then they stop taking your calls. They stop responding to email. They ignore your texts. So, what do you do when people ghost you? David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast today cohost Chris Templeton and I will be talking about what to do when prospects ghost you. Welcome Chris! Chris:                     Hi David. You know, salespeople have been dealing with prospects disappearing forever, and this term ghosting. I just heard about it recently and I wasn't quite sure what it was. It's apparently not the scary kind of ghosting, but it's really become popular as social media and texting have become more and more prevalent, hasn't it? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   Yeah, it really has, and I think there's an argument to be made that this type of ghosting can actually be more scary. If you're in sales, it's probably scarier to have this kind of ghosting than to have what's traditionally viewed as ghosting. Chris:                     That’s a great point. David:                   And everybody has experienced this, as you've said, it's been happening forever. But this term is kind of interesting and I think from what I've seen, it's developed recently as part of the social media culture where you're having a conversation with someone and then they don't respond.  And it's their turn to respond and they don't, and you send a text or you send a social media message and you don't hear anything back and they just basically disappear. So, while it's found its way into the personal culture, I think for anyone who's been involved in business or sales for a long time, they're totally familiar with the concept. They understand immediately and instinctively what it means. And of course, then the question is how do you make it go away? How do you keep it from happening? Which is what I'd like to talk about in this podcast. Did the Prospect Really Ghost You? Chris:                     Well and this goes back to that whole question that we've talked about of kind of our default definitions. And I think especially as salespeople, we have a tendency to go to the place of saying, “Oh my gosh, I've been ghosted.” When maybe I haven't even been ghosted. And so, when you look at it, how can you tell if someone's ghosting you or if they're just slow to respond and busy? David:                   Well, that happens a lot. There's a lot of times when people are just busy, they're tied up and they may not be intentionally ghosting you but you're not hearing back from them. And the only real answer to that is time is the final determinant of that. Time is the only thing that will tell you for sure whether they're ghosting you or whether they're just busy. If they're just busy at some point they will become less busy and you will likely hear from them again. But all of us in business have to determine sort of our threshold, our tolerance for pain. How long are we willing to endure a relationship that is completely one sided? If we're sending texts or if we're sending social media messages or if we're leaving voicemail messages for people, how long do we want that to go on? And there are some salespeople who will continue to pursue a prospect for months or for years.  And I don't know, I guess that could work. I think to me it strikes me as a bit desperate.

In this excerpt from a live Top Secrets teleconference, industry entrepreneur and business consultant David Blaise discusses your strategy for growing sales and profits...

Is your business invisible? Many businesses and professional practices struggle, not because they aren't good at their chosen profession, but because they're essentially invisible to their target market. They may be great at what they do, but they're not yet great at attracting, qualifying and converting enough high quality prospects into clients. So the problem isn't competence, it's entrepreneurial invisibility. David:                   Hi, and welcome to the podcast today co-host Chris Templeton, and I will be discussing the fact that many businesses are essentially invisible to their ideal target markets. Welcome, Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. Entrepreneurial invisibility. I have never heard it phrased that way, but it makes a whole a lot of sense. You know, in the movies invisibility is like this superpower, but it's not really an advantage in business, is it? David:                   Not so much. No. When you're suffering from entrepreneurial invisibility, it means that the people who could most and best take advantage of what you offer, just don't even know you're there. They don't even know you're alive. So in Harry Potter, if you've got an invisibility cloak, it's an advantage because you can sort of sneak around and find out what's going on and people don't know you're there. But if you're in a market and you've got an invisibility cloak on and people don't know you're there, it just means they're going to buy from someone else. Chris:                     But isn't it kind of an overstatement? I mean, most businesses really aren't that invisible are they? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   I don't think it's an overstatement at all. Actually, I have seen over the years that many businesses are invisible to the people who matter most to them. Now, if they've got a client base, then obviously they're not invisible to those people; but if there are people in their market who could conceivably buy from them who don't know who they are, don't know what they do, have never been approached, I've never heard about them, doesn't recognize their authority in the marketplace… Then yeah, they are essentially invisible to those people. Most businesses that I talk to, they feel like they want to be able to attract more clients, they want to be able to bring in new prospects, they want to be able to convert more of the people they're already talking to. And a lot of that frustration stems from the fact that people are not seeing them, they're not seeing them for what they are. They're not seeing them for what they can do. And once again, if they can't see you, you're invisible. Chris:                     Well then, the only solution is a website. Right, David? David:                   We’re going to go back to that?  Talking in the last three podcasts on how websites are not the cure for everything! Chris:                     Not the cure for everything!  So you know, what do you think it is that is so common? Cause it is common in business, isn't it? This invisibility and this, I want to say it's almost a resistance to doing the things that create the visibility that we all want as business owners. David:                   Yeah, well a lot of people just don't even really think about it. I mean they don't think about the fact that they are invisible to the people that they really need to be visible to. That's probably not perfect English, but you get the point. Chris:                     Yeah. David:                   There are a lot of people in their market who just don't know who they are,

I can't tell you how many times people have told me that they need to bring in more clients before they can invest in either the training or the marketing that would allow them to bring in more clients. And while it's easy to immediately recognize the flawed catch-22 logic of this situation, I can tell you that those struggling with customer acquisition right now are often blind to this fact and paralyzed into inaction. David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast. Today co-host Chris Templeton and I will be talking about the Catch 22 of Inaction. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David! You know when you talk about this Catch 22 of Inaction, you're not really talking about people being lazy or unmotivated, are you? I mean they could be working hard, putting in a ton of hours and sometimes all that action just does not create what they want in terms of sales. Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   And that's exactly what happens. And you're right, it's not about being lazy. It's not about being unmotivated and they could be working a lot. In fact, a lot of them are. They're doing a lot of things that maybe are not working the way that they'd like. So yeah, it's not necessarily inaction in the sense of not doing anything. It's inaction in the sense of the wrong action. They're taking the wrong action. So maybe we should call it the Catch 22 of Incorrect Action. Chris:                     Ooh, I like that. David:                   Maybe that would be a better description. But really what we're looking at is having conversations with people who are too afraid to move forward because they seem to be stuck with whatever it is that they're doing. Chris:                     So, talk about that. Talk a little bit about when a client says to you, “You know, I need to get clients for my business, but you know, I just can't afford to spend anything on training or advertising that would allow me to start attracting those people.” What do you say to them? David:                   I say, what are you talking about? No, I don't say that. That's what I think. That's my inner monologue. Chris:                     Are you kidding me? David:                   It's a catch 22 you can't see that? You don't see that? Seems so obvious, but it always seems obvious to us when we know. It's like if you were playing chess with Bobby Fischer or whoever the current chess champion of the world is, that person is going to immediately recognize things that you might not always see. And so many business people, they love what they're doing, they're great at what they're doing, but they're not necessarily great at attracting the customers who need what they sell. So, they don't quite know how to do that. And so, they're doing things, they're taking actions that they think are going to help, but that, in effect, don't help. So, what I actually tell them is I first try to point out the catch 22 and in a lot of cases that's not particularly effective. I say, “Well listen, in a sense you're saying it takes money to make money and I don't have any money, therefore I can't make money, but I'm in business anyway.” So you need to sort of see it for what it is. Some people do see it, and some convince themselves that they're completely powerless and they insist on waiting until things get better. And I've heard that from more people than you'd think, where it's like, well, I can't do anything right now. I just need to wait until things get better and things do not just normally get better, particularly when you're taking the same action. It's Einstein's definition of insanity,

The holidays are here! So, in this podcast we'll discuss how to make the very most of the holiday season in terms of planning, relaxing, networking, and strategizing. David:                   Hello, happy holidays and welcome to the podcast! Today co-host Chris Templeton and I will be discussing how to make the most of the holiday season. We've got a nice fire going, we've got some chestnuts roasting, a warm cup of holiday cheer. So, I'd say we are all set to get started. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. Thanks for having me. Nice to feel so warm all over, ready for the holidays! David:                   Nice, isn't it? Chris:                     So you are talking about the holidays and you're also talking about talking business. Don't our listeners deserve just a little break? David:                   Yes. And don't we deserve a little break? Chris:                     Absolutely. David:                   Yeah, we probably do, but I think if many of our listeners are like me and perhaps like you as well, we may be thinking business even when we're taking a break. Even when we're relaxing, sometimes things are going on in the back of our minds. And I think a lot of us, during the course of the holiday season, we do like to take some time to sort of relax, recuperate a bit, but then as that happens we get a bit of a break in the action, and in a lot of cases that's when some of our best ideas come to us, isn't it? Chris:                     It certainly is. I was writing as you were talking about back of the mind. So much happens back there, especially when we give it a break and when we kind of turn off the front end activity, doesn't it? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   Yeah, and that's why I really love this time of year because I think it's a great combination of that. Of course you're getting toward the end of one year, so you're able to think back in terms of what worked well and what didn't work as well. You're able to think forward in terms of what do I want to have happen next year and work toward that. You maybe get a little bit of time off, hopefully you do.  If you're able to take the weekend before and you're able to take the weekend after and you get a break during the week, it does provide some opportunity to just sort of relax a bit, think about stuff and figure out where we're going next. Chris:                     And I think it's just a really important point to just say to your listeners: You know what? It's okay to relax. It's okay to take some time off and let that behind the scenes brain of yours work and come up with some new ideas. Give yourself permission to let yourself go a little bit for the holidays, don't you think? David:                   Yes. Not only is it okay, I would argue that it's necessary because if you don't do that, then you never really get to that point of rest where your brain can come up with things that it's sort of free-styling in a way. When you're focused too much on work all the time, you're just putting out fires or you're thinking about what needs to come next, then you end up getting stuck. And so, it's nice just to be able to clear your head a little bit, enjoy yourself, relax, and allow some new ideas and new thoughts to pop into your head. Chris:                     So when you think about it, what do you think the best mix of relaxation versus thinking, planning and strategizing should be? David:                   Well, I imagine it's going to be different for everyone. Some people already relax more than others and some people tend not to relax more th...

Whenever I talk with the owner of a business or professional practice who is struggling to attract more clients, they inevitably tell me that they are either in the process of planning out a new website, or working with someone to build a new website, or updating or completely overhauling their existing website, and I am frequently forced to point out that a website alone is very unlikely to fix your business problems. David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast today co-host Chris Templeton and I will discuss why a website will probably not fix your business problems. Welcome back Chris. Chris:                     Thank you David. Nice to be here. A lot of professionals seem to put so much stock that their website is going to grow and scale their business. What makes you think that it's not going to solve their problems, David? David:                   Well, a website is usually an extension or a visual representation of the business, so if you're not making enough sales then your website is only going to continue or amplify whatever is happening.  It becomes a reflection of what you're doing off the website, which obviously already isn't working. So simply adding that to a website is not likely to change things, but it seems to be the Go-To thing. Everybody always is talking about this website like it's going to somehow revolutionize their business. Chris:                     And so, are you saying that if you don't have good sales that it's more than just the website or is it only the website? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   No, the issue is definitely not limited to websites. In fact, it sort of goes back to what we talked about in a previous podcast about marketing vehicles that we used, and how some people put their entire faith in the marketing vehicle. In this case, the website, and completely forget about the fact that it's not just the delivery mechanism, i.e. the website, that matters. It's, you know, what's the messaging that's going on there? What am I trying to accomplish? Have I created this sort of greased chute that we've also talked about in previous podcasts? It's designed to attract people, pull them in, gather information, turn them from total strangers into prospects by giving me their information so that we can then have a conversation with them or interact with them and eventually turn them into clients.  So people think that a website should automatically do that, but very often they're just not even built that way. They're not even designed that way. They're not well thought out, and they're certainly not designed to accomplish the kind of results that people often would like to get from a website. Chris:                     When you think about a website and the mistakes that professionals make, what do you think are the biggest mistakes they make in terms of their online presence and their websites? David:                   I think it starts with thinking that the website is going to be their entire solution. They think, okay, well once I have this website, everything's going to be wonderful. Now there are online businesses like Amazon, where the website is the business. I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about, for most people who are in business, if you have a business or a professional practice and you're using a website; if you don't recognize that it's a tool. It's not a substitute for a sales team. It's not a substitute for a marketing department. It's a tool, like a business card or a brochure or a catalog or a vending machine. It's a tool and many websites are designed like that.

In our Total Market Domination course, we identified Three Pillars to Creating Top of Mind Awareness with the very best prospects for the products and services you offer.  Today, we'll give you an overview of the 3 pillars so you can determine how well you're implementing them in your own business. David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast today co-host Chris Templeton and I will be discussing the Three Pillars to Creating Top of Mind Awareness. Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. You know in previous episodes we've talked about the importance of top of mind awareness and today we're going to talk about three major steps that'll help achieve it. So what are the three pillars? David:                   Okay, well, when we look at three pillars of creating top of mind awareness, it starts with positive, memorable, first contact. What's going to be that first impression they get of us? From there it moves to lightning fast follow-up, having interactions with people that actually move, that allows you to create a little bit of momentum and be able to accelerate things; and then the third pillar is intelligent repetition of contact. Something we've certainly talked about before, but it is critical when you're looking to create that level of top of mind awareness. Chris:                     Let's start with memorable first contact. What percentage of businesses do you think do this effectively? Need Help with This? Schedule a Call David:                   Not a large percentage, at least in my experience. I think it's something that is often overlooked. People don't normally think about it. A lot of people don't even think of it in those terms. Many people think in terms of cold calling or prospecting or whatever. The reason that I use the term first contact is because I really like to make the point that whatever it is that you're doing first in your interaction with a new prospect is really going to set the tone and so when you're thinking about it in terms of what is the first contact going to be, you can be a little more fussy about it. You can really think through, okay, what would be the ideal scenario of a meeting with someone?  Let's say you realized you're somehow going to end up meeting Bill Gates or somebody who has a lot of money and perhaps, an ability to spend money with you.  You would want that interaction to be good. And the reality of the situation is that if you're smart, you want that kind of thing to happen with every prospect you meet; so that they're impressed enough to want to do business with you, regardless of whether or not you end up wanting to do business with them.  You realize they're under-qualified, it's better if you get to say no than if they're saying no to you. Chris:                     Boy no kidding. And one of the things that I think that's important to talk about in regards to this positive, memorable first contact, is I don't think that a lot of businesses really think this through.  Like, what can I say? What can I do that's gonna make that memorable? And so, talk a little bit about what it is in your mind that businesses can do to be more memorable, especially on that first contact; which matters so much, doesn't it? David:                   It does. And when I say positive and memorable and one of the analogies used in the past, a note wrapped around a rock thrown through a window is first contact, but it's not positive and it is memorable. So you want to make sure that you're accomplishing both. It needs to be positive and it needs to be memorable. And so when we decide what that's going to be, you initially think of something like a cold call and just the words by itself almost ...

It's easy to get distracted in the blizzard of activities that we have going on all around us every single day. But unless those activities include a significant number of wins, you'll never achieve the goals you've set for yourself. And if you don't pay attention to your wins, it's easy to become discouraged. So, are you winning today? And if so, are you tracking those wins? David:                   Hi and welcome to the podcast! Today co-host Chris Templeton and I will be talking about your daily wins. Do you have any, do you know what they are, and are you tracking them? Welcome Chris. Chris:                     Hi David. Thanks for doing this. This is a really, really important subject. It seems to me that every business owner or salesperson must accomplish wins on a regular basis or they wouldn't be successful in what they do; but isn't a win different for everybody? And why do you say it's necessary to keep track of them? David:                   Okay, well, two questions there. Is it different for everyone? The answer there is yes. Certainly, depending on your job, a win could be something different. If I'm in accounts receivable than a win for me is collecting money, right? If I'm in sales than a win for me could be getting in front of a new prospect, finding a new market that I want to target, fine tuning my message to engage more people, initiating a new client outreach. There are lots of different things that could count as wins for me depending on my position within the organization, but from the standpoint of getting customers - as a business owner or as a salesperson, as any sort of professional who needs customers - then it's really about looking at those types of activities. Things like meeting a new prospect at a networking function, or reactivating a previous client who hasn't bought from you in a while, or getting a new prospect to close for the first time. So there are very specific things that during the course of the day are probably happening and if they're not, then you want to make sure that you start getting more of those types of things going on. Chris:                     A big piece of this is really taking the time to recognize where you're having successes because that really does fuel your performance as a salesperson, doesn't it? Schedule a Strategy Session Click Here David:                   Yes. And when you take the time to do it and getting through the second part of your question, why is it necessary to track them? It allows you to realize what's going on. So very often on a day to day basis, we are just dealing with, you know, the whole whirlwind of events that's going on and it's easy to lose sight of the fact that we are moving forward in some areas and there are some days where we're not, let's be frank about it. There are some days where we're not, we're just putting out fires and we're not really moving the needle on anything. But when we take the time to track the wins and to recognize, okay, I want to get at least let's say three wins going today, what are three things that I could count as a win? Today, I can say I recorded a podcast that’s going out to lots of people. For me, that's a win, right? I had a chance to talk to Chris today. That's a win, right? It's two wins in one activity, but you can look at the different things that you're involved in and say, okay, what worked? I mean this morning I had several conversations with a couple of prospective clients, so that's two or three wins, right? Because I had those conversations. So you look at the activities you're engaged in and you say, okay, which of them count as wins? And which of them sort of just count as time-wasters or placeholders because it's a lot easier sometimes t...