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In this episode of the Advanced Selling Podcast, we get back together live in the same room, six feet away, of course.
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I pull back an 80s one hit wonder for all the 80s kids out there, and we talk about what not to do as all of us salespeople get released from COVID-19.
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Welcome back to the Advanced Selling Podcast, the longest running sales training podcast, Podcast History.
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I am one of your hosts, Bill Kasky.
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The other host, Brian Neal, over here.
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We are down in Brian s studio, recording studio today, and the state of Indiana in the US is back open a bit, and so we are able to get back together and
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I haven t seen Brian other than on camera for the last two months.
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It s nice.
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Good to be back, isn t it?
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It s good to be back.
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What is a bucca di Beppo?
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It s a restaurant, right?
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And I think it stands for, translates into Bruce s basement, someone told me.
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That s the basement of Bruce.
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And I wonder, so is this bucca di Brian?
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Or is Beppo the word?
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I don t know.
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Beppo has a better Italian ring to it.
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Brian di bucca.
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I don t know what it is.
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We had that the other night.
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When s the last time you went to bucca di Beppo?
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Four years ago.
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Years.
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You know what?
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It s good.
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I still like it.
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Chains get a raw rap.
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I always think like, I m going to go to Bucca di Beppo.
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That s where all the tourists go.
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It is freaking awesome.
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It s family style, isn t it?
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Good, yes.
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Isn t it still family style?
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So good.
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I think during the COVID, they did individual carry-on stuff.
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Yeah.
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So want to talk about Insider this week?
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Yeah, let s do it.
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Let s do it, Bree.
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So we launched a new program, as you know.
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We re just at or north of 50%.
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participants, members of that group.
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It s called ASP Insider.
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And it is your way to have Bill and me coach you personally in a small group setting.
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So we d encourage you all, if you ve not thought about that.
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Some of you have been on our Zoom calls and have seen how those things work.
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Insider is going to be similar to that and even better.
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So if you like those, go to the website, advancedlightingpodcast.com.
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Look for the banner heading that talks about Insider and join.
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And we priced it so you could bury it on your expense report.
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Right?
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It s $47 a month.
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You pay all up front.
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It s like $300 and some change, which gets it to like $38 a month.
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But if you can t do $50 a month, you ve got to do something different.
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But we re really, really excited, because the people in there are excited.
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We re excited.
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We get to interact with you live.
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We finally get a way to coach our tribe.
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We re really, really pumped about that.
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And I want to tip the hat to you, who used, I think you used the I, me thing correctly.
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You said, have Bill and me coach you.
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Oh, well.
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There we go.
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We re learning.
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You re having me coach you.
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Yeah, that s good.
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Very good.
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Congratulations.
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We had a near-tragic event at Chez Neal here.
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So we have a puppy, which I m now told is an adolescent dog, an Australian Labradoodle named Sydney, who s upstairs.
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See Australia Labradoodle?
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See what we did there?
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Sydney Rue is her name.
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And my wife, Stephanie, she loves to go for a drive, stick her head out the window like a lot of dogs do.
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We have a seatbelt for Sidney.
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So Steph put Sidney in the seatbelt and drove around our neighborhood.
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And our neighborhood is not the kind of neighborhood that has real fast streets.
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No.
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Yeah, it s pretty neighborhood-y.
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It s in the city, but it s sidewalk-ish.
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And you just tool around 30, 40 miles an hour.
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She was on the phone.
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Stephanie was on the phone talking to her mom.
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Sidney was in the passenger seat just riding along like a dog does.
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And Steph turned from 52nd Street onto New Jersey, talking to her mom, and looked over, and the dog was gone.
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Gone.
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Steph freaked out, of course.
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Whoa.
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Slams, jumps out, and goes, and Sydney is on the sidewalk, like, running away.
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And Steph didn t realize what happened.
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This little, they call it a carabiner?
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Is that what it s called?
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The hook thing?
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Uh-huh, yeah.
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There s a hook on her harness that goes to the seatbelt, had come undone or was, like, loose or something, and she flipped right out.
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Steph didn t even see her fall out, so.
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Is it possible she actually undid it?
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Well, that would be me.
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So now that I ve had a puppy for nine months, I m realizing I m not a dog guy, which I m going to catch all sorts of hell from our listeners.
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And when we first got it, people were telling me to be patient, and I haven t.
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It s hard.
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It s just not in my DNA.
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So if you were guessing, it would be me that would have air-conducted, accidentally left the carabiner open.
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Sidney s fine, by the way.
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Sidney s totally fine.
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When you think about what we ve all been through in the last couple months, it s kind of like we all have a carabiner on a seat belt.
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We re just trying to figure out a way around it.
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We re just hanging from the ceiling from one of those body suits.
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Quarantine the world.
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So Sydney s OK.
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Steph was really shaken up.
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I thought maybe the dog saw a puppy or something.
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Yeah, no.
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No.
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No, I wish it was that simple.
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Our dog, I really think our dog needs like anxiety medication.
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But now the dog knows she can get out.
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She also, we have a bunch of geese here in Indiana, baby geese, and they re very aggressive.
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We were on a walk yesterday and the goose chased the dog.
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Are you serious?
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And the dog was terrified as was Steph.
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Steph was walking her.
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So Steph and Sidney are taking off running, and the goose, and I m trying to kick the goose.
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The goose can fly.
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They can a lot faster.
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And they re meaner.
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Well, you ll probably have a story every week about that dog.
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Sounds like you ve got two already.
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All right.
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OK.
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So in honor of the ASP Insider Group, we are going to be talking this week, this Friday, about how to get back into the groove, how to relaunch your business.
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Brian and I thought it would be good to kind of go the reverse of that and talk about some of the mistakes that we are starting to hear people start to make.
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At least I am in my business.
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I m starting to hear people say, man, we got to get our goals, we got to get out there, we got to start working again.
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And so we ve come up with a couple of mistakes each that we don t want you to make.
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And these are mistakes that you may already know that you have made in the past and don t want to make.
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But I think it s useful to say, here s what you have to be careful of over the next 90 days.
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This is very, very important, too, because I know, Bill, we were talking on one of our Zoom calls about creating your personal position statement.
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And I use the example of the Indy 500 getting on the parade laps, getting up to speed.
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And Bill used the example of us.
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We re like thoroughbreds, like Kentucky Derby thoroughbreds who ve been forced out to pasture, and all we re built to do is run.
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And I really think of your analogy, like this, as a potential risk.
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Because everyone is like, literally can t wait to run.
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I just hung up with a connector friend of mine upstairs.
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And he s like, I cannot get a beer, a lunch, a breakfast fast enough.
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And so that is also a little backdrop for if you d really sit back and think on that before you kind of go guns a-blazing here.
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So we ve each got a couple, and I ll start if you re okay with that.
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I think one mistake that I ve started to hear people talk about, and they haven t used these words, but I ll use this idea of was thinking.
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And was thinking to me is,
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Let s get back to the way it was.
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I saw a poll the other day that had 60% of the people said, it ll be back to the way it was within six months, 60%.
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And then you hear experts say, it s never going back.
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So who knows?
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But I think we ve got to be cautious about that attitude of, let s just pick up where we left off.
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It s now May 15th or June or whenever it fully opens up.
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I think you ve got to be really careful about that.
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What do you think?
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You can t wear your shoes through a non-TSA pre-check at the airport anymore.
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Gotta take your shoes off.
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That s the example I use a lot.
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It is.
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You ve had to take your shoes off now for 18, 19 years.
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Go ahead.
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One guy.
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One guy?
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Yeah.
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One guy.
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What was his name?
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Rich?
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Shoe Bomber, I call him.
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Shoe Bomber.
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Wasn t his name Richard?
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Yeah, it was.
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Wasn t it?
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It was.
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Richard the Shoe Bomber?
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He was a British dude, but we don t hold that against the Brets.
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No, not at all.
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I m just calling out that.
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But that s true.
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So you take your shoes off now, and you always will.
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And my kids don t know any different.
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They take their shoes off.
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Now, little kids don t have to sometimes.
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But my teenagers, they take their shoes off, and that s what you do.
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You take your laptop out of your bag.
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So it s here to stay.
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So what do you think, though, of that whole not going back to the way?
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What s the one thing that you think will change forever?
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And we haven t rehearsed this, but what s the one thing that is like a forever change?
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I think we will always use remote selling in some way, shape, or form forever.
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The idea of us going only to physically cold call a place, physically then from that cold call get a meeting, to physically go in and do a proposal presentation, to physically closing, I think is gone.
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There will always be a technology element in there somewhere.
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Do you think that s because we have grown accustomed and we ve kind of oriented ourselves to tech?
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Or do you think it s because of fear of virus or catching or?
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I think on the customer side.
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So a lot of places have no solicitation signs up.
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And we know a lot of companies, some big ones, that use drop-in cold calling as one of their sales techniques.
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They literally physically show up to see people.
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I think that s out the door.
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No one s going to be allowed in places anymore like they were before.
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No solicitation is going to have a different meaning.
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And then the idea of seeing someone live, I think if there s any way to see someone remotely, people are going to choose that, because they ve recognized how much easier life is.
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I have.
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I drive around all my clients, and I love the face-to-face interaction.
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But I m going, man, this is a pretty good gig here, right?
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I mean, Zoom calls, and we can still get great work done.
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They have a great experience.
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I do, too.
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Creates so much efficiency in a day.
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Think about how much time we spend in our cars over the course of a year.
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I was just talking to a client the other day.
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I used to spend three hours in my car and he said, I don t have all the business I used to, but I m spending no time now and I m getting a lot done.
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So I think you re right.
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I think that ll, it ll come upon us because we saw the other side and we kind of liked it.
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Yes.
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I think we kind of liked it.
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I agree.
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So my first thing to avoid here, if you re really taking inventory, which we hope that you are, as you start to head back out and get stretched out and ready to run again, is fight off the urge for desperation and haste.
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Fight the urge for desperation and haste.
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Now, the good tribe of podcast listeners, I know you don t buy into desperation because you listen to Bill and I.
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for years, talk about the abundance of our marketplaces and how there s more than enough for all of us.
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And you re going to have energy put onto you, usually by your leaders and your sales managers, that are going to try to drive you to the desperation side of the fence.
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And I m strongly encouraging you to not do that.
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And they re going to drive the haste, too.
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Managers need to really watch their messaging right now, I think, to not send people out too soon, too fast, too heavy.
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to make up for the lost quarter.
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For sure, exactly.
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Yes.
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Yeah, I think that s true.
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So managers, those of you, because we have probably a third of our listeners are managers.
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I think you have to be conscious on both sides.
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I think it s a threading of the needle.
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You re not going to pull people back, but you ve got to be careful of the let s make up for lost time kind of thing.
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You know, there s a band called Was Not Was.
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No, I didn t know that.
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There s a trivia question for you.
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Now to my 80s kids.
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What famous one hit wonder pop song was performed by Was Not Was?
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And I think the guy s name is Don Was, he s a producer.
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It s the only song he ever did, yep.
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And everybody knows this song, it s the awfulest song ever written.
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And it comes with the dance.
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It s the 80s.
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Doug Drozen will know.
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Give me the first few notes.
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Everybody walk the...
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Tightrope?
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Dinosaur.
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Oh, gosh.
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Everybody, walk the dinosaur.
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That s my pop duo called Was Not Was.
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And I think it s Don Was.
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I ll have to fact check that.
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But isn t that an awful song?
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It s an awful song.
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Who s sitting there in the room going, hey, guys, come over here.
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Take a listen to this.
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Listen to this riff.
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Yeah.
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Now, lyrically, I mean, I was really challenged.
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I was like, what would we walk?
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Would we walk a dog?
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No.
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A concept?
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No.
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No, let s walk a dinosaur.
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Wow.
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Oh, my goodness.
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All right.
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What s your next one?
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OK, my next one is,
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I think we have to change our impression of what it means to qualify somebody.
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It used to be that, used to be, I sound like.
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Was.
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Was, was thinking.
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But we need to get into the idea of what does our filter look like?
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What is our filter that we re going to allow prospects to pass through?
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And I think it used to be fairly wide.
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It was a broad filter.
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You know what, you re breathing, you say you re interested, sure man, I ll come out and see you.
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And I think the tendency is going to want to broaden it even more because we need the business, we need the numbers.
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And so the tendency is to make that filter wide so that more people get through.
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But I think you ve got to watch that because you can end up spending a lot of time with people who don t have the money, don t have a commitment.
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They re overburdened.
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They have so much pain, so many problems, they don t know which one to fix first.
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So I think you ve got to be extra cautious about and try to narrow the filter.
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And to me, that is really about, do they have a problem that is worth solving, that you can solve directly?
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Do they have the money to spend on solving the problem?
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And can they make a decision or the commitment to spend the money to solve the problem and get to the other side and get to the vision?
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So I think we ve got to be even more vigilant
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Yeah, that s it.
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Hyper vigilant about who are our true prospects, and so that you avoid wasting time with people who just aren t going to pull the trigger.
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Yes.
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It s beautiful.
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Now, as often happens, Bill and I prepare beforehand, don t compare notes, and then we do.
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So I m going to take what you just said and go a little bit backward on it.
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Because I also wrote down failure to assess and qualify.
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I was actually thinking for deals that had already started back in the funnel.
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I think what you re talking about is kind of on a go forward basis, get really good at that.
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Similar warning, for the deals that were open, you re not picking up where you left off.
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No one is picking up where they left off.
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And I was, well, on the Zoom call.
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On the Zoom call.
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On the Zoom call.
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We re talking to Graham, right, from Canada, who had worked with once in the past.
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And you kind of felt the energy.
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Graham s this guy was, he had a deal that was kind of at the end, right about February, March, when all of a sudden everything went on lockdown.
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He was really close to getting the deal signed, he felt.
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Did all the things Bill talked about.
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Had good problem stuff.
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Had right level type person.
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And process was there.
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And then all of a sudden, it stops.
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And when we coached him, it was imperative that he not go back to where it s different now.
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Everything is different now.
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So when you re auditing your sales funnel, make sure that you re not going back on, oh, yeah, well, these guys wanted this.
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So we ll just call them and get it.
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And that s not how it is.
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You have to check in with how things are changed.
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And then do what Bill was talking about with be hypervigilant to assess.
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That s really good advice.
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It s almost like people have been in hibernation now for a period of time, and we think they re like a bear, they ll just wake up and carry on.
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And everything has changed in everyone s life, so we re not saying don t make the calls at all, we re saying that the first part of that call may be checking in to see where they are psychologically, mentally, physically, financially, and all that, before we say, okay, well let s reset.
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Because it s easy to go back and say, well Brian, I know we talked here a couple months ago, it s time to reset, so why don t we get together and talk?
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You can t go there directly.
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Reset is step two.
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Step one is figure out where the hell they are.
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Yes.
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Yep, absolutely.
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And we re going to talk about that on Friday at the Insider, some of the tactical side of that, what the language sounds like to do that.
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It s really, really, really important.
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And I find it s going to be hard for a lot of salespeople because they re ready to roll, including their bosses.
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SPEAKER_00
OK, so if you are interested, if you re the kind of person that wants to spend a little time every month working on yourself, your own skills to grow your business, we welcome you.
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SPEAKER_00
You can go to advancedsellingpodcast.com.
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SPEAKER_00
Click on the banner at the very, very tippy top.
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SPEAKER_00
It says, welcome to Insider.
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SPEAKER_00
FAQs, lots of stuff there.
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And we ll give you a little bit of background on the Insider.
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And we d love to see you in there.
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SPEAKER_00
And we ll see you next time.
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SPEAKER_00
Yep, see you.
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SPEAKER_00
Bye.