0
SPEAKER_00
In this episode of the Advanced Selling Podcast, we mentioned Snoop Dogg and Kevin Hart and their Olympic commentary that you got to go check out.
0
SPEAKER_00
Bill suffers an on-air breathing issue, but we handled it with no medical attention.
0
SPEAKER_00
And if the constant grind of making the quarter is wearing you out, this episode will be a breath of fresh air.
0
SPEAKER_00
We will teach you how to stop the vicious cycle of selling your soul just to make the quarter.
0
SPEAKER_00
Welcome back to the Advanced Selling Podcast, the longest running sales training podcast in podcast history.
0
SPEAKER_00
My name is Brian Neal.
0
SPEAKER_00
I m Bill Kask.
0
SPEAKER_00
We are glad that you re here.
0
SPEAKER_00
You hear us talk about it.
0
SPEAKER_00
Like Bill said, now you re going to hear other people talk about it.
0
SPEAKER_00
There s another reason to become an Advanced Selling Podcast insider.
0
SPEAKER_00
We re doing a series called The Best Sales Advice I Ever Got.
0
SPEAKER_00
This is just the first of some things we re going to do that are above and beyond for our insider group.
0
SPEAKER_00
So not only is it a fun
0
SPEAKER_00
and great, effective place to meet people and get great live coaching from me and Bill.
0
SPEAKER_00
But you also get to hear from other sales leaders in this episode.
0
SPEAKER_00
We re interviewing about 20-ish or so sales thought leaders, people that a lot of you have heard of, a lot of you follow, people Bill and I follow.
0
SPEAKER_00
And the only way you re going to get that is to become an insider.
0
SPEAKER_00
So go to advancedsellingpodcast.com and join us up.
0
SPEAKER_01
And we ll give you some snippets along the way here in the next couple of months.
0
SPEAKER_01
We ll be giving you some just 30-second snippets of some of the interviews that we re having.
0
SPEAKER_01
But already, they re proving to be great.
0
SPEAKER_01
In fact, what happens when you interview thought leaders, where you see them on video, and you hear them on podcasts, and you read what they ve written, these are mostly authors and big-time thinkers, is they re totally different when you are interviewing them.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, totally.
0
SPEAKER_01
And they are just so generous with their time.
0
SPEAKER_01
expertise and advice and counsel and they re funny a lot of funny funny people in this industry and so I ve been really Pleased about what we ve created so far.
0
SPEAKER_01
I think it s gonna be really helpful for insiders.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yes, absolutely
0
SPEAKER_00
So our topic today, it s the Olympics.
0
SPEAKER_00
They re almost over.
0
SPEAKER_00
So interesting, isn t it?
0
SPEAKER_00
Because you find yourself watching, I was watching men s field hockey the other night.
0
SPEAKER_00
Men s field hockey.
0
SPEAKER_00
I actually had an exchange student that lived with us when I was in high school my senior year, Rudolf Tholmann, that s his name.
0
SPEAKER_00
He s from Hanover, Germany.
0
SPEAKER_00
He was a field hockey player, never heard of it.
0
SPEAKER_00
You find yourself watching these interesting sports, don t you?
0
SPEAKER_00
Like ski shooting.
0
SPEAKER_00
Like the Winter Olympics, I love the biathlon, where they cross-country ski and shoot.
0
SPEAKER_00
That s fun.
0
SPEAKER_01
But very common for people who are in skiing to also be shooting, I think.
0
SPEAKER_01
That s what I would do.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, the other morning, Sunday morning, I was debating on whether to go work out or not.
0
SPEAKER_01
I got up a little bit late, and we had people coming over.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I m sitting there deciding.
0
SPEAKER_01
And all of a sudden, I get into equestrian, to the steeplechase.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I d never watched that before.
0
SPEAKER_01
And I think what I was really trying to do is avoid the workout.
0
SPEAKER_01
But I was a half hour into that.
0
SPEAKER_01
And these horses, they re just amazing, these creatures.
0
SPEAKER_01
They jump over.
0
SPEAKER_01
But then you have the horse that looks at the pylons and like, uh-uh, I m not going over.
0
SPEAKER_01
And they kind of crawl over.
0
SPEAKER_01
And you feel sorry.
0
SPEAKER_00
It s sad.
0
SPEAKER_00
Well, God, you know what?
0
SPEAKER_00
It s so funny, the Olympics.
0
SPEAKER_00
By the way, sidebar, if you have not watched Kevin Hart and Snoop Dogg do their commentary on NBC, it is the funniest.
0
SPEAKER_00
They were doing equestrian the other night, and I was gut laughing.
0
SPEAKER_00
I was on an airplane, actually, of Snoop commentating at his current.
0
SPEAKER_00
Oh, OK.
0
SPEAKER_00
They ve got them.
0
SPEAKER_00
It is so funny.
0
SPEAKER_00
Those two together are because Snoop s got Kevin Hart.
0
SPEAKER_00
He can t talk.
0
SPEAKER_00
He s laughing so hard.
0
SPEAKER_00
It is so entertaining.
0
SPEAKER_00
Oh, watch that.
0
SPEAKER_00
You need to go watch that.
0
SPEAKER_00
Watch them doing the equestrian.
0
SPEAKER_00
I don t know.
0
SPEAKER_00
I thought it was great.
0
SPEAKER_00
So we were kind of inspired.
0
SPEAKER_00
There s a lot of drama, a lot of human interest in the Olympics.
0
SPEAKER_00
And they re performers, right?
0
SPEAKER_00
They re performers in our sport, and they re trying to win, kind of like you all are as salespeople.
0
SPEAKER_00
And we thought, and then Simone Biles had her thing, and everybody s got their opinions about that.
0
SPEAKER_00
We re not going to talk about that specifically, but we are going to talk about,
0
SPEAKER_00
What are we doing to take care of ourselves?
0
SPEAKER_00
And how are we mentally managing ourselves in the profession of sports?
0
SPEAKER_00
In the profession of sports?
0
SPEAKER_00
In the profession of sales?
0
SPEAKER_00
Because we ve got pressure.
0
SPEAKER_00
It is a performance activity.
0
SPEAKER_01
Sales is a performance.
0
SPEAKER_01
You are asked to, and you want to perform at your peak level.
0
SPEAKER_01
And the question is, are we taking care of ourselves so that when we are called on in the moment to go perform, whether it s a phone call, or a prospect, or whatever it is, presentation, are we ready?
0
SPEAKER_01
Yep.
0
SPEAKER_01
Because that s the way the Olympian has to be, is ready.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
0
SPEAKER_01
And mentally and physically and all that.
0
SPEAKER_00
And Olympians spend most of their days getting ready for something that happens once every four years.
0
SPEAKER_00
And you think of the, we ve talked about practice to performance time and how interesting that is and how hard they train and get ready.
0
SPEAKER_00
And then there s a scoreboard.
0
SPEAKER_00
And then there s a medalist.
0
SPEAKER_00
And you stand on top of the podium, and you get a medal.
0
SPEAKER_00
You don t.
0
SPEAKER_00
And that s what it is.
0
SPEAKER_00
So we ve got this, too.
0
SPEAKER_00
You ve got your quarterly goals.
0
SPEAKER_00
You ve got your annual income goal.
0
SPEAKER_00
You ve got all those things.
0
SPEAKER_00
And at the end of the year, end of the quarter, end of the month, there s a podium.
0
SPEAKER_00
And you stand on it.
0
SPEAKER_00
You get a check.
0
SPEAKER_00
You don t.
0
SPEAKER_00
You re at the top of the leaderboard or the middle.
0
SPEAKER_00
There s a lot of similarities here.
0
SPEAKER_00
And we always talk about the achievement, and the growth, and the get, and the chase, and the go, and the win.
0
SPEAKER_00
We re going to talk about the other side of that today.
0
SPEAKER_00
And what are we doing to pause and reflect that is away from that, to just let space be for a minute?
0
SPEAKER_00
And this is obviously a big deal.
0
SPEAKER_00
You hear Michael Phelps talk about it with his mental health.
0
SPEAKER_00
And just giving ourselves a little grace and a little space, and maybe talk about what you as a sales professional can and or should be doing relative to that.
0
SPEAKER_01
I also heard, I can t pronounce his last name, the Milwaukee Bucks superstar Giannis, I ll just call him Giannis, and he was asked about, you know, Game 5 is coming up, and if you guys can win Game 5 and Game 6 is back in Milwaukee, and he s like, whoa, wait a minute.
0
SPEAKER_01
We are working on today.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah working on this moment.
0
SPEAKER_01
We are not look.
0
SPEAKER_01
I m not even looking forward to the next game I m in the moment here.
0
SPEAKER_01
We just lost her we just won and Because it s ego if I start to look at and pride if I start to look at what we can beat these guys in game six Yes, because then you start screwing up your head He said and yeah, I thought just the presence of mind and the self-awareness that he has to be in the moment Not be behind not be looking back and saying god.
0
SPEAKER_01
We should have won that game
0
SPEAKER_01
Yes, not looking ahead saying I think we can put these guys away be in the moment and don t worry about what tomorrow will bring because tomorrow will come Regardless you just have to be in the moment and every moment is a new moment to be in I thought that was really And it he plays like that too.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yeah plays like that.
0
SPEAKER_01
I think a final game He had like 37 points and 18 rebounds and he was just just brought him all the way to the end well, and that s a that s so interesting that you
0
SPEAKER_00
that you bring that up, because that is, I think, salespeople really struggle with that.
0
SPEAKER_00
They really struggle with being in the moment of what s in front of them.
0
SPEAKER_00
They re looking at that scoreboard.
0
SPEAKER_00
They re looking at their call metrics.
0
SPEAKER_00
They re looking at all their KPI dashboard things.
0
SPEAKER_00
And they re worried about what hasn t happened yet.
0
SPEAKER_00
I do it with my clients.
0
SPEAKER_00
Hey, how s the funnel look for the back half of the year?
0
SPEAKER_00
Oh, we re all guilty of playing into it.
0
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, totally.
0
SPEAKER_00
You look forward.
0
SPEAKER_00
And I think that s a great first lesson in this is the mechanism to bring yourself back.
0
SPEAKER_00
What I loved what Giannis did was he had some sort of physical and verbal stop point.
0
SPEAKER_00
He put a boundary up.
0
SPEAKER_00
It was like, no, no, no, no.
0
SPEAKER_00
We re not going to talk about.
0
SPEAKER_00
We re literally just going to worry about.
0
SPEAKER_00
what we re doing right now in this day.
0
SPEAKER_00
And then trust that if we do those things down the road, that we ll get the results that we want.
0
SPEAKER_00
So go ahead.
0
SPEAKER_00
I was going to ask you a question.
0
SPEAKER_00
I was just breathing.
0
SPEAKER_00
Go ahead.
0
SPEAKER_00
Can I breathe, for God s sakes?
0
SPEAKER_00
You can breathe.
0
SPEAKER_00
It was a, I have something to say.
0
SPEAKER_00
I know.
0
SPEAKER_00
I know.
0
SPEAKER_00
That was what it was.
0
SPEAKER_00
I m going to have to back away from the microphone when I breathe.
0
SPEAKER_00
Bill s going to take a moment to breathe.
0
SPEAKER_00
What s your question?
0
SPEAKER_00
Well, my question is do you think It s kind of a big societal question first, but bring it down to sales.
0
SPEAKER_00
Do you think we re addicted to achievement?
0
SPEAKER_00
Mm-hmm.
0
SPEAKER_00
Me too.
0
SPEAKER_00
Mm-hmm me too.
0
SPEAKER_01
I don t think it s an unhealthy addiction necessarily unless it unless it becomes out of hand it gets unhealthy But here I thought you were going a little bit somewhere else with this and I wrote down this word structure and
0
SPEAKER_01
You know, we ve heard a lot in the last year, 18 months, about all the structures around us that are kind of crumbling, like the structure of a face-to-face call in 2020 didn t exist.
0
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
0
SPEAKER_01
So we had to rethink our way around, well, if I can t make face-to-face calls, is it phone?
0
SPEAKER_01
Is it Zoom?
0
SPEAKER_01
Is it StreamYard?
0
SPEAKER_01
Whatever.
0
SPEAKER_01
The structure of the sales process to me has changed.
0
SPEAKER_01
It was, it used to be that the salesperson had a lot more control because they had information back 30, 40 years ago, they had information the prospect wanted now.
0
SPEAKER_01
Information is all over the web.
0
SPEAKER_01
Prospect really doesn t need you.
0
SPEAKER_01
And so by the time they reach out to you or you reach out to them, they might be halfway down their process.
0
SPEAKER_01
And so what s the structure of the sales interaction today?
0
SPEAKER_01
I think it s different.
0
SPEAKER_01
I think it s the same thing with
1
SPEAKER_00
with how we look at our own achievement.
1
SPEAKER_00
Are there structures that we ve bought into that don t help us get to that next level?
1
SPEAKER_00
Like, working hard to get to the next income level is not a good structure.
1
SPEAKER_00
And yet, that s where we immediately go.
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, if you re going to make twice as much, you re going to have to work twice as hard.
1
SPEAKER_00
And that s BS.
1
SPEAKER_00
But if we buy into that structure, then that s the only default mechanism we have is, well, I guess I just got to make more calls.
1
SPEAKER_01
And we do that.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I think the managers, you need to be listening to this too.
1
SPEAKER_01
Because I think the managers are the culprit here.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then also then the CEO, the visionary, and the private equity people, and all the investors.
1
SPEAKER_01
Because they turn this on, right?
1
SPEAKER_01
So it creates a culture.
1
SPEAKER_01
of achievement and growth that has to be done.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s like we have no space.
1
SPEAKER_01
And yet, at the same time, we re trying to juxtapose this about, oh, take care of yourself, and take care of your mental health, and be your own person, and whatever.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I think they conflict a lot for salespeople, especially, on both sides.
1
SPEAKER_01
Because there s a mental health side that you do take care of yourself.
1
SPEAKER_01
And at some point, you get help, and you take care of that side of your life, and you still have to perform.
1
SPEAKER_01
Unless you re doing a full-on tap out, then you ve got to go do something else.
1
SPEAKER_01
But most of us don t do the full-on tap out.
1
SPEAKER_01
So it s a real interesting kind of balance that we walk with these two things.
1
SPEAKER_01
Because I do believe that we have an addiction to this.
1
SPEAKER_01
My biggest pet peeve, and I bet you salespeople are going to go, I m so glad somebody said that.
1
SPEAKER_01
My biggest pet peeve in all of selling
1
SPEAKER_01
is the end of quarter push.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think it s the dumbest, most poorly planned, executed thing in all of sales.
1
SPEAKER_01
We do this quarterly push because we re trying to make it some number, usually for somebody else.
1
SPEAKER_01
I m serious.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then you re like, OK, what do we got?
1
SPEAKER_00
But when you talk to people about it,
1
SPEAKER_00
They, in one breath, they will say, oh, I know it s terrible.
1
SPEAKER_00
But so here, let me tell you about my quarter, my last week of the quarter, what I m going to do.
1
SPEAKER_00
They buy into it to the point where it s like cognitive dissonance.
1
SPEAKER_00
They cannot see it.
1
SPEAKER_00
And the harm that I think it does, I think it does harm to relationship, but I don t know, you know, I m not in a,
1
SPEAKER_00
in a company that does that.
1
SPEAKER_00
And most of my clients are not that, but I do know it exists.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_01
And I do think it does harm.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think people, their stress levels go through the roof.
1
SPEAKER_01
They re on the phone trying to get deals and contracts closed at 7 o clock on a Friday at the end of the quarter, whatever it is, and should be at dinner with their kids or their family or something like that.
1
SPEAKER_01
I just think it s crazy to think about that.
1
SPEAKER_01
The other thing I think it does, it perpetuates itself.
1
SPEAKER_01
Because then, what do you do when you re trying to close into the quarter, and you re on the phone until 2 AM Sunday morning, and you re tired?
1
SPEAKER_01
What do you do the first day of the new quarter?
1
SPEAKER_01
Nothing.
1
SPEAKER_01
You re too damn tired to do anything.
1
SPEAKER_01
That s right.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s too spiky.
1
SPEAKER_01
And so if you re a sales manager or leaders, we do this with the months too, right?
1
SPEAKER_01
Well, Bill had a tough month.
1
SPEAKER_01
Did he have a tough month?
1
SPEAKER_01
I mean, maybe, you know.
1
SPEAKER_00
Maybe he planted seeds for three months from now.
1
SPEAKER_01
Totally, for three months from now, yeah.
1
SPEAKER_01
Maybe he did 15 LinkedIn videos.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s going to feed him in the fourth quarter of this year and the first quarter of next year, just because his results in that moment.
1
SPEAKER_01
And then you have a contract that comes in the 28th, and then it doesn t come in or doesn t get signed.
1
SPEAKER_01
Then it comes in the second.
1
SPEAKER_01
That makes your bad month.
1
SPEAKER_01
So that was a bad month because you missed by three days.
1
SPEAKER_01
Now, I get we got to keep score, but I think we overdo it sometimes.
1
SPEAKER_01
I do, too.
1
SPEAKER_01
We need a much broader picture.
1
SPEAKER_00
So do you think that, because I can hear people s minds and brains working, well, it s easy for you guys to say, because you re not in a company like Oracle, where everything is based on a quarter end results, or IBM, or Microsoft, or wherever.
1
SPEAKER_00
Because all those companies have those kinds of pressures, I think.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_00
So what am I to do?
1
SPEAKER_00
What am I to do?
1
SPEAKER_00
And if I do that, what you re about ready to say, am I still going to make my numbers or are my sales going to go down into the tank and I m going to get fired?
1
SPEAKER_00
Of course, that s not the answer, but.
1
SPEAKER_01
What am I to do?
1
SPEAKER_01
Yeah, this is where, when I mentioned earlier, the managers and leadership, we perpetuate this.
1
SPEAKER_01
So if we re a manager or leader, we need to look at this and say, hey, is what Bill and Brian is talking about here, is that me?
1
SPEAKER_01
Is that healthy?
1
SPEAKER_01
Am I creating the best performance culture there is?
1
SPEAKER_01
Again, I see this on Sundays.
1
SPEAKER_01
There are some performance cultures that are screws tight, and the players are tight, and the culture s tight.
1
SPEAKER_01
And some of them are really loose.
1
SPEAKER_01
And there s no, to me, direct correlation between winning games and those two things, which tells me there s space to do whatever you want to do it.
1
SPEAKER_01
Now, if you want to be that person, thumbs down.
1
SPEAKER_01
But if you re not, rethink that.
1
SPEAKER_01
I think there s an assumption we have to be that way.
1
SPEAKER_01
Then on the salesperson, so you that are listening that are salespeople, this is really hard, and you can do it.
1
SPEAKER_01
You can live your own way within a bigger construct.
1
SPEAKER_01
So if you re in a culture that s that way, to Bill keeps talking about, do I buy into it?
1
SPEAKER_01
You don t have to buy into it.
1
SPEAKER_01
You can run your business your way.
1
SPEAKER_01
Now, over time, you re held to accountability.
1
SPEAKER_01
I m for that in the scoreboard.
1
SPEAKER_01
So you ve got to think if you re going to do it, air quotes, your way, it s got to work.
1
SPEAKER_01
You ve got to make sure it s working.
1
SPEAKER_01
But it can work over time, which means you can miss a quarter and make it up.
1
SPEAKER_01
To Bill s point, if you miss the deal on the 28th, but maybe you did these 15 LinkedIn videos that teed you up for later, or you organized this big event that s going to happen in October that s going to make a killer fourth quarter, you should get credit for that.
1
SPEAKER_00
So what you re saying then is that
1
SPEAKER_00
You can have your one eye toward the quarter, but as Gary Vee talks about a lot of times, you ve got to play the long game.
1
SPEAKER_00
And a quarter at a time is not the long game.
1
SPEAKER_00
So have one eye on the quarter, but have one eye on the longer game, which might even not be the next quarter.
1
SPEAKER_00
It might be a year or two or three out.
1
SPEAKER_00
And if I m shooting 15 videos a month or whatever the number is, and I m doing that every month, I know damn well those things will pay off for me ultimately some way.
1
SPEAKER_00
It may not be this quarter, probably won t be, but that s where you ve got to have double vision.
1
SPEAKER_00
One eye on the next quarter or next month and one eye on the future.
1
SPEAKER_00
And if your managers can t deal with that, if they say, no, we want both eyes on the quarter, you re always going to be into that.
1
SPEAKER_00
into that quarter by quarter circumstance where you re just panicked at the end.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes, you are.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you ve got to see the damage that does to your mentality, to your psyche, back to the mental health side of selling.
1
SPEAKER_01
And the energy, people just check out on that.
1
SPEAKER_01
The other thing, we haven t even gone there yet, this whole great resignation deal where people are leaving, they get tired of that grind.
1
SPEAKER_01
They get tired of that repeat.
1
SPEAKER_01
It s never good enough.
1
SPEAKER_01
There s never enough.
1
SPEAKER_01
Right?
1
SPEAKER_01
There s no rest period.
1
SPEAKER_00
What s a great resignation?
1
SPEAKER_01
The great resignation is the churning of employer-employee relationship.
1
SPEAKER_01
There are a lot of people like, hey, screw this.
1
SPEAKER_00
Well, think about back in the financial crisis of 08, 09.
1
SPEAKER_00
There was a lot of people after that who said, you know what?
1
SPEAKER_00
I m done with the whole working 60 hours a week.
1
SPEAKER_00
Yeah, right.
1
SPEAKER_00
And if you think that had an impact,
1
SPEAKER_00
If it didn t have an impact, look at 2020 and the impact that s going to have on people who say, you know what?
1
SPEAKER_00
I kind of like being at home.
1
SPEAKER_00
I kind of like being around my family.
1
SPEAKER_00
The company s asking me to move to New Mexico City or wherever.
1
SPEAKER_00
You know what?
1
SPEAKER_00
I m going to look for something else.
1
SPEAKER_00
And the beautiful thing is there s millions of jobs out there that are unfilled.
1
SPEAKER_00
And we re not recommending you leave what you re doing.
1
SPEAKER_00
You ve got to take care of yourself.
1
SPEAKER_00
You only have one life.
1
SPEAKER_00
At some point, you re going to expire.
1
SPEAKER_00
At some point, you re going to retire.
1
SPEAKER_00
You ve got to make sure the next 10, 15, 20, 30 years are spent with a company that really appreciates you and that you appreciate.
1
SPEAKER_01
Yes.
1
SPEAKER_01
And believe from this episode that you can do both.
1
SPEAKER_01
You can have those things.
1
SPEAKER_01
You can have balance.
1
SPEAKER_01
You can have freedom and space.
1
SPEAKER_01
And you can be a high-achieving sales production person.
1
SPEAKER_01
You can do both.
1
SPEAKER_01
If you re not in that state right now, that s where you listen to this and put a plan in place and say, how do I get to what Bill and Brian are talking about?
1
SPEAKER_00
Just be more mindful of it.
1
SPEAKER_00
Step one is just recognize when you re feeling out of sorts and when you re feeling unmotivated.
1
SPEAKER_00
Just be totally mindful.
1
SPEAKER_00
Be present in that moment.
1
SPEAKER_00
And the right answer will come to you.
1
SPEAKER_00
Always.
1
SPEAKER_00
It always does.
1
SPEAKER_01
Give it space.
1
SPEAKER_01
Okay, if you haven t already done so, go to advancedsellingpodcast.com, join the Insider Group.
1
SPEAKER_01
We ve got a cool thing, best sales advice I ever got.
1
SPEAKER_01
You re gonna hear from some of your famous, fun friends across the country, people that Bill and I follow, and love to see you there in the Insider Group, and thank you for listening.
1
SPEAKER_01
We ll see you next time.
1
SPEAKER_01
See ya, bye.