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Welcome, everybody, to the Advanced Selling Podcast, the longest-running sales training podcast in podcast history.
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My name is Brian Neal.
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I m Bill Kasky.
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We re here every week.
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Glad that you re here.
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Happy Monday, gang, as we roll through the end of summer.
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A couple things to highlight before September.
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September s a great, you know, it s back to school, get back into the learning mode.
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You as a sales professional should go back to school, too, which is why I think you should be part of our Insider Program.
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So go to advancedsellingpodcast.com slash insider, join them.
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and Bill will have a thoughtful, useful, wonderful topic for you.
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The first, do we know for September?
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September is recession proofing your territory.
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It s, we ve talked a little bit about it, but we re going to go all in on that.
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Last month, we talked about how to handle resistance in the market.
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And it was some great discussion.
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A lot of people really got a lot out of that.
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So if you do want to join, you get access to all back programs of which I think August was really, really good on resistance.
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There you go.
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So just go right away.
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Go join the insider program.
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It d be worth every dime.
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I ve had a couple of emails from our conversation that we had here a few weeks ago about terms that we don t like, like unpacking.
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Oh, yeah, yeah.
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Oh, yes.
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Yeah, good.
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And I actually had a conversation with Tony.
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You know who Tony is.
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I do know Tony.
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He said he was driving down the roads laughing at that episode when we talked about that.
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And then I realized that with the whole search raid, whatever you want to call it, on Trump, there was a lot of boxes.
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And so CNN on their lower third, everything was unpacked.
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Have the boxes been unpacked?
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Has the situation been unpacked?
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Has the search warrant been unpacked?
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So there was literally unpacking, but then there was the figuratively unpacked.
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So I got plenty of that.
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Which brings me to story.
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See what you think of this.
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And my wife is a pruner.
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She loves to prune trees.
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I m not, even though I m 6 5 , I m not, that doesn t really appeal to me.
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I should be the pruner in the family.
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She s 5 8 , I m 6 5 .
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But she just loves the idea of getting rid of those little branches that are kind of all over the place.
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And so we were on our patio the other day and it s a deck and it sits up high and there s a tree, there s a tree right next to it.
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It had a bunch of branches and limbs up top that really needed to be pruned.
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It looked stupid.
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And so, she goes, I m going to prune this.
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And so, I was doing some other work.
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I do work around the house, but just not pruning.
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So, she was pruning, and she called me back.
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I ve never really used a pruner before.
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I mean, I kind of know the idea.
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I don t know if you re familiar.
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It s got a string on it, and then you put the branch, and then you pull the string, and it chops off, and it s very effective.
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So, she goes, hey, there s like four or five things up here at the very top.
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I can t reach them.
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So, okay.
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And so there was two that I couldn t get.
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They were just too far.
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I just could not get them.
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And so I had to find a branch and put it right in the thing.
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And so there was two that I couldn t get.
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They were just too far.
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I just could not get them.
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And so I had to find a branch and put it right in the thing.
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And I said, I can t get these.
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And she perturbedly says, OK, give it to me.
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And I m like, well, how is she going to get them?
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She goes up, gets on the ladder, unbuckles the pruner, extends it like four feet because it s got an extension arm on it.
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Unbeknownst to me, I never knew about this extension arm.
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The pruner extension.
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Yeah, and so she got it with it.
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Why did you not tell me when I was up on the ladder?
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Hey, you know, I did.
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I m not, I don t have any experience with said pruner.
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I mean, give it to me.
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Anytime someone says, give it to me, you know, what s coming.
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There s something you didn t notice about this.
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You let me have it.
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Give it to me.
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Give it to me.
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You know exactly what s coming.
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Like, okay.
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Like what, what did I miss?
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Oh God.
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It sounds like it might ve been on purpose.
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I m just saying, I love Jane.
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She s great.
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That sounds a little on purpose.
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That s what I m thinking, but it just sounds a little too.
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She doesn t listen to the podcast.
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Oh, that s hilarious.
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But, uh, but somebody does who will tell her.
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So anyway, for sure.
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Um, but then the, the retort was, well, if you would prune more, here we go.
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You wouldn t know that there s an extension.
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Okay.
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I was right there, man.
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I was like five inches from that little branch.
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All you needed to do is say, Hey, just extend that.
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Go ahead.
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Give it to me.
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Give it to me.
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Let me have it.
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It s so great.
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Every human on the earth has heard that.
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Oh, for sure.
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Give it to me.
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Here, let me see it.
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Well, no, no, I can t give it to me like that.
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It s so funny, isn t it?
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Everybody knows what s coming.
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The best part is they give it to me and then they can t do it.
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You can t do it either.
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I get so pissed when I do that.
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It s like opening a can.
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Give it to me and then they can t open it.
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After 19 people loosen it up.
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Give it to me.
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All right, our topic, we re going to talk about sales culture today.
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Specifically, I know we ve got a mixed audience here where we have some sales leaders that listen to the podcast, and we have some sales teams that listen to the podcast.
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And what we want you to do today, we re just going to riff on culture a little bit, some things that Bill and I have seen in cultures.
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And ask yourself the question, how am I contributing to my sales team s culture?
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And I think a lot of sales leaders intentionally try to create culture.
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sometimes too hard.
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They try to contrive culture.
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Salespeople think that culture happens to them, that they don t have a voice or a role in it.
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And I think Bill and I will have some differing opinions on those things.
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And so the takeaway from today might be just, yeah, how can I positively affect my sales culture?
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And hopefully you hear a couple of things that are new to you.
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So Brian, in your work that you do, uh, in your referring NFL business, you are around a lot of teams, especially in the, in the preseason where you re actually spending a lot of time, I assume with teams and going, you know, exhibition games and stuff like that.
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Do you see,
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Teams and you don t to name them, but do you see teams that you just you just walk in and you sniff a good culture versus teams or Maybe you used to but now they ve all really bought into the culture thing.
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And so there s not that much difference Yeah, and I am gonna say I m not trying to stay neutral well I kind of am but it s I don t need to the culture of the NFL in general in practice is a growth oriented culture
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And I tend to hang out with the linemen, and they call them position rooms.
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So there s the O-line room, there s the linebackers room, there s the tight end room, and then these little sub teams within the team.
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So I spend most of my time with the linemen.
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Team to team, year to year, nine years in, across the board, the culture is that group of people are all there to see all the people in the group succeed.
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No question about it.
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Even though, you might argue, well, someone that s maybe a younger player is trying to take the older player s job.
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And they are.
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Both players know that.
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They still go past that though.
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And there s this really cool air of support and help and coaching from veterans to rookies, to things like that.
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And also from veterans to veterans.
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And if I take that and put it in the sales team world, I don t see that as much in the sales team.
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I don t see idea sharing.
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I don t see veterans helping rookies as much as I do in football, if that makes sense.
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No, it s a it s a lone wolf kind of profession still because of how we re incentivized and paid and measured.
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Yeah, I still think it s a loan.
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Yeah, you know,
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I don t know how this fits.
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I just had a friend of mine passed away.
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He was a great guy.
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He has a large nursery landscape services business.
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And one of his guys came up to me at the funeral.
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And I hadn t seen him for years since I worked.
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I hadn t worked with the company for a long time.
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And we were talking a little bit.
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And I said, you know, he really thought a lot of you.
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And he really, and he did.
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He admired this guy who worked for him and basically said, look, if we didn t have this dude, we wouldn t be half the size.
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It was really a, but you know, he had never told him that.
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And so I got this email the other day from this gentleman who said, you know, sometimes we work with people for decades and we never hear that.
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And I think that s a guy thing probably more.
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I think women tend to, hopefully this doesn t sound politically incorrect the other way, but I think guys are a little on guard for, do we call each other up sometime and just say, hey, Brian, you know what?
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And I don t do this enough.
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I m not lecturing anybody here, but say, look, I really enjoy our relationship and our company, and I wouldn t be.
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I wouldn t be half the man I am.
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Whatever you say, we just don t say that enough.
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And to me, that s part of culture.
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That s part of the ability to tell someone honestly, I m really glad you re on this team.
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I m glad that you brought in a record amount of revenue last year, because that s conditional.
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It s unconditional.
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I m really glad you re on this team.
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You add a lot to the role, and I just appreciate working with you.
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When do we do that?
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And then somebody either dies or leaves,
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probably more likely they leave and they never leave for the reason they say they left.
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They leave because they weren t appreciated or they didn t feel recognized.
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Yes.
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A lot of times.
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Gosh, what a great story.
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Completely.
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And you ask yourself how I saw a communication coach.
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I don t know this guy s name.
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He s an Australian dude, but he was talking about ways to say thank you or to be appreciative.
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And I think to your point, this goes straight into culture.
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is people do it without or with a lack of specificity.
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So they ll walk around all day like, hey, thanks a bunch.
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Hey, appreciate your help on that.
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He s like, work on being more specific.
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So an interest, right?
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So I d say, hey, I wanted to say that information that you pulled, that I know was a grind to put together for this proposal for this thing, made all the difference in the world.
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That work was, see?
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And people are like, who doesn t like that?
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And you talk about culture.
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Like calling out your peers who may have helped you on a deal or something very specific completely creates this culture of wanting to help and support.
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Even if it is, and I go back to my football example, that is the most competitive and it s, you know, it s all dudes playing for right now.
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They re 350 pounds.
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They make millions of dollars.
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They beat the hell out of each other and they can still maintain that supportive culture.
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So even though it is a lone wolf and even though you re, you re trying to be the number one person, you can do that.
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And I think it s karmic that way.
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I think I think the guys who do the number one alone, you get there because people are pushing you and forcing you and yeah, and you re not fit.
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You re not afraid of the next person.
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You know, I mean, the Drew Bledsoe, Tom Brady thinks an interesting story when Drew Bledsoe got hurt.
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And Tom was the backup and just, you know, and all of a sudden he comes in, you know, and it was hard for Drew, but at the same time, it s like, yeah, I mean, the guy, you know, look at him, you know, he can t argue with the performance.
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Exactly.
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And we re looking at him and we re looking at him.
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Yeah, so what are some things that you think that we can do as sales professionals, as we wrap this episode up talking about culture, to improve?
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Forget about waiting until somebody else says, hey, we re going to work on our culture.
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It s time.
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Today is the day that you start working on it.
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And if we all do, guess what?
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We don t need no freaking manager working on it.
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We re doing it ourselves.
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Yes.
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What do we do?
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I had a, uh, now former client, someone who was in one of our classes who wasn t having a great experience, which I totally get said something that just really wrong with me.
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Uh, and he said in our classes, and we put people in a breakout room.
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So he s a veteran guys with some rookie type salespeople.
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He said, he s always, he said, he ll, he feels like he s kind of teaching the class sometimes, but here s what he said.
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Quote, he said, I feel like I m giving more than I m getting.
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I ve never heard a pro at on the NFL field ever say I feel like I m giving more than I m getting.
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I ve never thought that that I m giving.
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Are you saying that he was he was looking at it as a negative?
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Yes.
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Okay.
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And you re the NFL don t they don t look at that as a negative.
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No, it s the opposite.
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If I can be in a room and teach someone and mentor, or I ll always learn if I let myself learn, kind of a callback to last episode.
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So if you re looking to impact culture, a to-do is to spread some love around.
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And with that, you ll learn some things too.
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Not a know-it-all sense, but like, hey, team, here s something.
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I ve used this subject line in this email.
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for the last week.
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And my response rate is take it you guys use it to see that like, like people like no, no, I m not gonna give that to my sales team because you know, that s their deal.
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And I want to be number one.
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I m like, don t do that.
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Share it.
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Give it away.
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So that s so fun.
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Oh my gosh, that s so true.
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That s so true.
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I had a client the other day who they re in a business where they re in the account development, account management space, and they ve got all these nationally known people who are on TV, who are
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who are subject leaders, thought leaders.
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And they feel there s this big gap between the expertise that this person who s on MSNBC and Fox all the time and them.
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And I said, well, you ve got to then reach out.
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I said, these people are accessible.
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Do you write?
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Yeah, they are.
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We ll reach out and say, hey, Robert, how did you do that?
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When you got asked that question, you answered it just superbly.
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How did you do that?
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I want to learn from people.
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You ve got so much talent inside your company.
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And that s part of culture, making it a learning culture.
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So if you re a salesperson and one of your colleagues or a manager does something that you say, god, they re good at that.
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Take them out to dinner.
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Go say, how in the hell you do that?
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I m taking notes, brother.
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I m recording it, and I m taking notes.
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I want to get inside that little pea brain of yours.
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I want to understand exactly how you do it.
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We don t do that.
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And it s like, well, wait a minute.
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Couldn t you 5X your business if you took the best of the 10 people that you were around and started to understand how they got better, instead of just saying, well, that s them.
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They re not going to tell me.
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I mean, I m just a lowly.
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No, they will.
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Because again, part of contribution.
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Absolutely.
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So my first sales job was in 1991.
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And what is this, 22?
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So what is that, 31 years ago?
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I haven t been new for 31 years.
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How great for me to sit with a brand new salesperson and go, so what s going on in your mind?
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Talked about how you thinking about this, what, you know, and learn from that freshness net newness.
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Well, I thought about this or I ve, you know, I m trying to figure out how to do my personal brand.
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Like, ah, I didn t think about that.
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That s interesting.
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Um, you know, just to go back to that, this is so fresh and to take, you have to take yourself back there.
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You can t say, well, I m not, I m going to learn from someone s been in sales for three months.
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I m like, are you kidding me?
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especially the technology gaps and how they do stuff and organize.
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I mean, so that s how it is.
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Yeah.
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What was the saying?
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I think it was either Lazu or Buddha.
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Always be a beginner.
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Oh, I don t know.
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Maybe Tim Ferriss or Brian Holiday.
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Always be a beginner.
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And even the
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you know, even the pro golfers, they go back to the basics, you know, kind of that gentleman, this is a football basic.
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And the further away we get from our origins, I think the more we lose touch with what are the basic skills, really almost everything we do requires basic fundamental skills.
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Yes.
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Yes.
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And
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Then we get away from those and we try clever, fancy things, and then those don t work.
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And they say, well, you know, I guess that s just.
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But if we don t have the basic skills mastered, it becomes hard to learn the intermediate and advanced skills because we don t have that foundation built.
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That s which is a whole nother topic we can talk about.
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We have a we get, you know, Google rankings, whatever.
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So so our business points here, we ve got really good Google rankings, what a bunch of fives, maybe a couple of fours, maybe whatever.
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We got one guy with a one because you don t want me to give you a review.
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I m like, yeah, we do.
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He gave us a one.
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And his biggest thing with this is basic.
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This is fundamental.
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I m like, you couldn t have said anything more complimentary than this is basic because NFL teams, the linemen, every practice do the most basic fundamental stuff that my kids do in high school, every practice.
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And a 10 year veteran does them every time.
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And then the veterans, I was amazed they stayed after practice and did this like basic drill, just like punching a bag over and over every time.
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Guys in all pro makes $30 million a year.
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back to basics.
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Yeah.
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All right.
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All right.
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Good job today.
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Hit us up on LinkedIn.
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SPEAKER_01
If you re not a member of the group or if you are, talk to us, talk to us, talk to us, talk to us.
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SPEAKER_01
See you next time.
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SPEAKER_01
Cheers.
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SPEAKER_01
Bye.