0
SPEAKER_01
Welcome everybody to the Advanced Selling Podcast.
0
SPEAKER_01
Hey, we got a crowd.
0
SPEAKER_01
If you haven t heard that, we got a crowd.
0
SPEAKER_02
We are the longest running sales training podcast in podcasting history.
0
SPEAKER_02
My name is Brian Neal.
0
SPEAKER_02
I m Bill Kasky.
0
SPEAKER_02
We ve been doing this for a long time and we are in front of a live studio audience.
0
SPEAKER_02
Welcome studio audience.
0
SPEAKER_02
Say hello again to our people.
0
SPEAKER_02
You have heard us talk before about bringing us in to do a podcast, and now there s proof that we actually do what we said we were going to do.
0
SPEAKER_02
The problem is we had to pay them to do it, so not really.
0
SPEAKER_02
We re really gracious.
0
SPEAKER_02
We ve got our hoster here with us.
0
SPEAKER_02
If you are interested in bringing us in, just shoot us an email.
0
SPEAKER_02
ListenerAdvancedSellingPodcast.com.
0
SPEAKER_02
Put in the subject line, come see us, and we ll come out to your company and do one of these live recording deals.
0
SPEAKER_02
Really fun, good content, a lot of fun.
0
SPEAKER_00
So this podcast is brought to you by Apex.
0
SPEAKER_00
Apex is our host today, and they re a national leader in benefits.
0
SPEAKER_00
You can find out more about Apex at apexbg.com.
0
SPEAKER_00
They work with companies with 100 employees and more, and bring a lot of new thinking into their clients about health care costs and employee wellness.
0
SPEAKER_00
John Goss, Scott Long, and the people at Apex, you can find out more at apexbg.com.
0
SPEAKER_00
And thank you for having us in today.
0
SPEAKER_02
Really, really great group.
0
SPEAKER_02
And we re live at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
0
SPEAKER_02
Now, not everyone knows that we live in Indianapolis.
0
SPEAKER_02
But those that do, and those people that have been to Indianapolis during this, what we call the month of May, know how big of a deal this is and how exciting of a time it is.
0
SPEAKER_02
And I m a huge race fan.
0
SPEAKER_02
I ve been coming forever.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think I went to my first race when I was nine.
0
SPEAKER_02
I actually crawled up a pine tree, because my dad was too cheap to buy tickets.
0
SPEAKER_02
So we would just go sit out in those old 70s lawn chairs.
0
SPEAKER_02
And I d have to climb up the tree to see any cars at all.
0
SPEAKER_02
I remember that back in- Out here on Georgetown?
0
SPEAKER_02
No, no, no, in the infield.
0
SPEAKER_02
Oh, in the infield.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
0
SPEAKER_00
You have to climb a pretty tall tree on Georgetown to be able to see over.
0
SPEAKER_00
There he is, 70 feet up.
0
SPEAKER_00
That s OK, son.
0
SPEAKER_00
You re good.
0
SPEAKER_02
I had a tree transplanted.
0
SPEAKER_02
But that was always fun.
0
SPEAKER_02
Just wait until my dad had 40 beers, passed out, and watched the race.
0
SPEAKER_02
Then he drove home, which is how you did it back in the 70s, right?
0
SPEAKER_02
That s what we did.
0
SPEAKER_00
Burn a mattress.
0
SPEAKER_02
Exactly.
0
SPEAKER_02
Well, it was always fun, too, to have him walk me through the old snake pit from back in the 70s, like where you saw things little kids shouldn t see.
0
SPEAKER_02
But as we re pulling in, I thought, this is an interesting little dynamic.
0
SPEAKER_02
So we ve got some really cool tickets.
0
SPEAKER_02
So you ve got the ticket on your lanyard today.
0
SPEAKER_02
And I noticed when you have really good tickets for an event and you re going past the security, you re extra proud to show it to them, aren t you?
0
SPEAKER_02
Everyone s holding up their ticket like, yeah, yeah, pagoda.
0
SPEAKER_02
I m going to the pagoda.
0
SPEAKER_02
You got general admission.
0
SPEAKER_02
You re kind of like, I m in the grass, man.
0
SPEAKER_02
I thought that was kind of an interesting thing.
0
SPEAKER_02
Really happy to be here.
0
SPEAKER_00
All right.
0
SPEAKER_00
So our task today is we re going to talk about old selling and new selling.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_00
Can you hear me okay?
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, I hear you just fine.
0
SPEAKER_00
Old selling and new selling.
0
SPEAKER_00
And the idea here is that selling has changed.
0
SPEAKER_00
Anybody in the room think that selling hasn t changed in the last 10, 15 years?
0
SPEAKER_00
I mean, it s really different.
0
SPEAKER_00
I don t know that it s harder.
0
SPEAKER_00
I just think it s different.
0
SPEAKER_00
It s very different.
0
SPEAKER_00
So we re going to each take two or three things that used to be, that aren t anymore, and things that we think should be to help you all generate more business, generate more customers.
0
SPEAKER_00
We had a chance to talk to a lot of the people in the room today before we started, and a lot of people in new business generation.
0
SPEAKER_00
There s a lot of new business developers here, and some of the things we re going to talk about here.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah, and as a listener and someone sitting in the audience, what we d ask you to do here, I think, is to do a bit of a back of the napkin analysis of where you are.
0
SPEAKER_02
Because if you put these things on a grid, you say, OK, the old way is on the left.
0
SPEAKER_02
The new way is on the right.
0
SPEAKER_02
If you plot yourself on that grid, it can be really telling.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s like a self-assessment.
0
SPEAKER_02
Like, oh, man, we re good at these two things.
0
SPEAKER_02
We re pretty modern.
0
SPEAKER_02
We re kind of behind the times over here.
0
SPEAKER_02
We also have to warn the people, we are actually sitting right next to the garage at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway next to Gasoline Alley.
0
SPEAKER_02
There may be a car that revs up, which would be a first for the Advanced Selling Podcast to have an IndyCar in the background.
0
SPEAKER_00
We ll probably just let that roll.
0
SPEAKER_02
Okay, you want to go first?
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, my first one is it feels to me like it used to be that the more enthusiastic you were, the more likely you were to make a sale.
0
SPEAKER_00
And the notion of be eager, be enthusiastic, be positive when you talk to your customer.
0
SPEAKER_00
And I don t know, I think you have to be positive when you think about your product and your value and your service, but I don t know that outward positivism and enthusiasm is all that it s cracked up to be.
0
SPEAKER_00
Because I think a lot of times, and we ve all been with salespeople who are trying to sell us things,
0
SPEAKER_00
And they re just a little too eager.
0
SPEAKER_00
You always wonder, God, are things that bad?
0
SPEAKER_00
Is there an extra margin on this account?
0
SPEAKER_00
Is this like flashback Friday?
0
SPEAKER_00
So I think that this enthusiasm thing has played out.
0
SPEAKER_00
I think you have to be enthusiastic for what you do, but I don t think you show it.
0
SPEAKER_02
Agree.
0
SPEAKER_02
The first person I ever had to fire as a sales manager, which was just horrific, was one of those guys, overly positive.
0
SPEAKER_02
You know who he is.
0
SPEAKER_02
He used to say, the day I fired him, I said, how you doing today?
0
SPEAKER_02
He goes, I m finer than a frog s hair split three ways.
0
SPEAKER_02
I m like, oh my god, this is going to be easy.
0
SPEAKER_02
So I don t know, maybe.
0
SPEAKER_02
But it s just like, it s too much.
0
SPEAKER_02
Like, calm down.
0
SPEAKER_00
I know him.
0
SPEAKER_00
I know him.
0
SPEAKER_02
You do know him.
0
SPEAKER_00
I m not going to say his name.
0
SPEAKER_00
I ll tell you after the show.
0
SPEAKER_00
Start with him.
0
SPEAKER_02
No, don t, don t, don t.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yeah.
0
SPEAKER_02
Okay, here s one of mine.
0
SPEAKER_02
And there s a debate going on about this right now, and it is outbound versus inbound.
0
SPEAKER_02
The old school thinking was outbound.
0
SPEAKER_02
So it s how many calls I can make a day, how many doors I can hit, and that sort of thing.
0
SPEAKER_02
Now the new thing is this inbound.
0
SPEAKER_02
So let s create content, do a podcast, LinkedIn, draw them in.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think both of those are wrong.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think it s inbound.
0
SPEAKER_02
I don t think it matters anymore.
0
SPEAKER_02
What matters is that you are out somewhere, that you re bound somewhere, that you re moving outward, right?
0
SPEAKER_02
You re inbound.
0
SPEAKER_02
And I think in the past, we had to choose one of those.
0
SPEAKER_02
And I think we need to do them both.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think you just need to be out and about.
0
SPEAKER_02
I had a training session just this morning.
0
SPEAKER_02
Two great stories, one of which were someone was this woman, cold calling works for her physically.
0
SPEAKER_02
She goes out.
0
SPEAKER_02
She s been doing it for 30 years.
0
SPEAKER_02
And she ran into a customer of hers that she had seven years ago that used to be her biggest customer, completely randomly, had no idea this guy was at this new company.
0
SPEAKER_02
And now they re talking about doing a deal together.
0
SPEAKER_02
completely like luck, but gave herself a chance to be, she was out, that s the main thing, just be out.
0
SPEAKER_02
So you re saying it s both.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s both.
0
SPEAKER_00
It s outbound.
0
SPEAKER_02
Yes, I think in the past it was inbound, then it s, or past it was outbound, then it s moved to inbound, I think it s anybound now.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think that s the new way to be.
0
SPEAKER_00
Okay, I have one here that I think it used to be, we used to focus, you remember back in the, do you remember the Fred Pryor seminars?
0
SPEAKER_00
Remember those things, you used to get those big mailings, and we used to go to the, they were like $37, then they always tried to sell you the other $5,000 worth of crap.
0
SPEAKER_00
But Fred Pryor, and they used to always do presentation skills.
0
SPEAKER_00
That was where a lot of the focus was is in presentation skills.
0
SPEAKER_00
How do you present yourself?
0
SPEAKER_00
How do you speak?
0
SPEAKER_00
How do you run through PowerPoints?
0
SPEAKER_00
And I think presentation skills became so, there was so much emphasis on it that I don t think we ever really focused on the pain finding skills.
0
SPEAKER_00
What s the,
0
SPEAKER_00
What s the current state of the customer that would cause them to want to do business with us?
0
SPEAKER_00
I think we were so anxious to get to the presentation because we thought it was such an important thing, and it really wasn t.
0
SPEAKER_00
And to me, that s the way it s changed is that I don t think you need all that great of a presentation if you ve really found the problem, you ve assessed it, you ve monetized it, you know that if they don t solve the problem, it s going to cost them $500,000 a year not to solve it.
0
SPEAKER_00
You don t have to be a very good presenter to make that sale.
0
SPEAKER_02
Now, one of the great things that happens on the podcast sometimes is we have the same thing written down, didn t compare notes.
0
SPEAKER_02
We did just about.
0
SPEAKER_02
See number two right there?
0
SPEAKER_02
Now, what I wrote is slightly a little addition thing to that.
0
SPEAKER_02
And that is, be a teacher, not a presenter.
0
SPEAKER_02
Also, so when it comes to your turn to say something,
0
SPEAKER_02
You need to be teaching and educating people versus presenting.
0
SPEAKER_02
So like our friends at Apex, health care in the US is a debacle.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s a mess.
0
SPEAKER_02
I need taught.
0
SPEAKER_02
I need educated.
0
SPEAKER_02
I don t need sold to or presented to.
0
SPEAKER_02
I need you to come with me.
0
SPEAKER_02
I need you to guide me, that sort of thing.
0
SPEAKER_02
So it s a good thing to put on a grid and say, OK, am I a teacher?
0
SPEAKER_02
How much am I a presenter?
0
SPEAKER_02
I m doing a lot of work with the Challenger sale right now, and the Challenger sale is short of some things, but one thing it s good at, it talks about teaching commercial insights that you need to know more than your customer knows about their business.
0
SPEAKER_02
I think that s really, really the way that new sales is going these days.
0
SPEAKER_02
It s good.
0
SPEAKER_02
Carry on.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, my third is this idea of what we re doing today.
0
SPEAKER_00
How many of you do, I m looking at the crowd here, how many of you do content marketing of any kind, whether it s blogging or LinkedIn or podcasting
1
SPEAKER_01
OK, half of you, it looks like half of you.
1
SPEAKER_00
A little like a popcorn.
1
SPEAKER_00
Everyone s going up all of a sudden.
1
SPEAKER_00
Like, I better raise my hand.
1
SPEAKER_00
Everybody else is like, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
But you know, 10, 15 years ago, it was really all about paid media.
1
SPEAKER_01
You d have to go buy a billboard.
1
SPEAKER_01
You d have to go do a radio ad.
1
SPEAKER_01
You d have to go produce some kind of a production.
1
SPEAKER_01
But now it s all owned media.
1
SPEAKER_01
You own the media.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I always say that every person in here needs to have a media platform of some kind.
1
SPEAKER_01
For us, it s podcasting.
1
SPEAKER_01
I also blog.
1
SPEAKER_01
Brian does a lot on LinkedIn.
1
SPEAKER_01
So sometimes you can have two or three platforms, but you need a media platform so you re not a hostage to, for example, if we went to WXNT, we actually had a show on WXNT.
1
SPEAKER_00
Are they still around?
1
SPEAKER_00
Are they still around?
1
SPEAKER_00
WXNT?
1
SPEAKER_00
We have one TV radio person in the room.
1
SPEAKER_00
WXNT still alive?
1
SPEAKER_00
Are they still there?
1
SPEAKER_01
I don t think nobody s ever heard of them.
1
SPEAKER_01
So that was the problem with our show.
1
SPEAKER_00
Certainly not a formidable competitor to Fox 59, that s for sure.
1
SPEAKER_01
So the point is that we had to pay them to be on.
1
SPEAKER_01
We paid them, I don t know, $30,000 a year to be on, and now we don t have to pay.
1
SPEAKER_01
So the point is that if you re owning your own media, it s a whole lot better than if it s paid.
1
SPEAKER_00
OK, my next one.
1
SPEAKER_00
My next one, you ve done some work on this, Bill, which I really like.
1
SPEAKER_00
In the old way, we hope that the customer chose us.
1
SPEAKER_00
In the new way, we get to choose the customer.
1
SPEAKER_00
And until you switch that mentality and stop running around praying to God that everyone chooses you, you ll keep showing up the old way.
1
SPEAKER_00
And I feel like that puts you at a disadvantage these days.
1
SPEAKER_00
The best salespeople that I work with are selective about who they work with and why they work with them.
1
SPEAKER_00
And they have a criteria.
1
SPEAKER_00
that people check boxes and say, yes, we want that, no, we don t.
1
SPEAKER_00
I had a client that shut down half of his business because it didn t fit anymore.
1
SPEAKER_00
He had to lay a bunch of people off.
1
SPEAKER_00
He built one of the greatest cultures businesses in our city, and he had to close half of it because he did the right thing, which was the customer wasn t right for him anymore.
1
SPEAKER_00
And he did that.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that took a lot of guts to do, but I think it s a way to do it.
1
SPEAKER_00
So a good thing to ask yourself if you re listening or in the room is to say, how often am I praying they choose me, and how often am I choosing them?
1
SPEAKER_00
And I d love for you to move the needle over to choosing them more.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s not an either or, it s a spectrum.
1
SPEAKER_01
So that s all I had.
1
SPEAKER_00
Oh, I have one more.
1
SPEAKER_00
Can I say one more?
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_00
Last one I have is price is a discussion.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s not a thing or a budget.
1
SPEAKER_00
So often we ve been trained in the past and you still hear clients and say this all the time.
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, if you talk budget, you talk budget.
1
SPEAKER_00
Budget s a limited thing.
1
SPEAKER_00
And buyers are so trained to not be honest with you when you ask them, when you use that word, I would just strike the word from your vocabulary.
1
SPEAKER_00
You don t say the word budget anymore.
1
SPEAKER_00
Because when you do that, it s limited, right?
1
SPEAKER_00
Instead, you use the word economics, and it s a discussion.
1
SPEAKER_00
So the money part is a discussion.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s something you work on together.
1
SPEAKER_00
It s not a thing, a budget number, or a finite element.
1
SPEAKER_00
I think that s a new way to do that.
1
SPEAKER_00
You discuss it through.
1
SPEAKER_01
In fact, I know that most of you have sales processes that you probably either go through yourself or have your sales people go through.
1
SPEAKER_01
Make sure that there s a portion of the sales process that deals exactly with what Brian s talking about here.
1
SPEAKER_01
Not budget, economics.
1
SPEAKER_01
Go back and change the, take the word budget out and put economics, and there s two legs to economics.
1
SPEAKER_01
What s one leg?
1
SPEAKER_01
Anybody?
1
SPEAKER_01
We re gonna do a little, here we are, we re engaging with the crowd.
1
SPEAKER_01
What s one part of the economics you need to know?
1
SPEAKER_01
that you wanna know, that s part and parcel of them buying something from you and paying you money for it.
1
SPEAKER_01
The cost of what?
1
SPEAKER_01
The cost of acquisition, the cost of what you do.
1
SPEAKER_01
If you re a service provider and you charge $300,000 to come in and do an assessment, then that s the cost of acquisition.
1
SPEAKER_01
But what s a more important cost?
1
SPEAKER_01
To the customer.
1
SPEAKER_01
The cost of?
1
SPEAKER_01
cost of the problem, the cost of the pain they re fixing by bringing you in.
1
SPEAKER_01
Never be a $300,000 solution trying to solve a $5,000 problem because it doesn t work.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s when you get price pushback and blowback.
1
SPEAKER_01
So make sure that part of your sales process, you have this economics or monetization, but there s two faces of that.
1
SPEAKER_01
What s the cost of your product and what s the cost if they don t fix their problem?
1
SPEAKER_01
You get those two things lined up and you re going to find that the cost of not fixing the problem is a hell of a lot more than the cost of your product.
1
SPEAKER_01
And opportunity costs.
1
SPEAKER_01
And opportunity costs, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
It could be a lot of those things.
1
SPEAKER_01
So, all right.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s it.
1
SPEAKER_01
Awesome job today.
1
SPEAKER_00
Take us out.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Great time.
1
SPEAKER_01
Thanks again to the people at Apex Benefits Group.
1
SPEAKER_01
You can find out more about them at apexbg.com.
1
SPEAKER_01
And the good folks at Apex, John, Scott.
1
SPEAKER_01
Scott s not with us today, but I know he s going to be listening in, so we want to do a shout out to him, too.
1
SPEAKER_01
Hi, Scott.
1
SPEAKER_01
Thanks to all the people who joined us here at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway today.
1
SPEAKER_01
Take your stuff out.
1
SPEAKER_01
Awesome.
1
SPEAKER_01
See you next time.
1
SPEAKER_01
Thank you.