The Salesman.com Podcast

In this episode of The Salesman Podcast, Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett talks about how buyer’s emotions and feelings are formed in the brain, regardless if it’s positive such as happiness, or negative, such as remorse. We cover some sales training nonsense on the topic of influence and Lisa debunks a few more sales myths in this episode. You'll learn: Sponsored by: Free SalesCode assessment Learn your strengths and weaknesses in an instant. Taken by over 10,000+ of your competitors. Don't get left behind. Take the free assessment Featured on this episode: Host - Will Barron Founder of Salesman.org Guest - Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett Researcher of Psychiatry & Psychology Resources: LisaFeldmanBarrett.com Book: Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain Book: How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain Lisa on LinkedIn Transcript Will Barron: Can we go up on today's episode of the Salesman Podcast?   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Your brain makes emotions, emotions don't happen to you. They are made by your brain for particular situations that you're in. Your brain is always regulating your body. And your body is always sending information back to your brain. And you feel that information from the tug of your lungs, expanding, the rush of your blood through your veins, the feeding of your heart.   Will Barron: Hello, my name is Will Barron and I'm the host of the Salesman Podcast. The world's most downloaded B2B sales show. On today's episode, amazing episode, we have Dr. Lisa, she's the author of How Emotions Are Made. And that's exactly what we're diving into in today's show. We're diving into how the buyer emotions are made in their brain, whether it's happiness, whether it's buys malls, whatever it is. We also dive into how to influence over people's emotions and we call that some of the nonsense that sales trainers have been talking about influencing other people and their emotions over the decades. Lisa dives into that and the book's a whole tonne of it. Everything that we talk about, and this episode is available at the show notes at salesman.org. And with that said, let's jump right into it.   Can Humans Control Their Emotions? · [01:52]   Will Barron: And we're going to talk some science, we're going to talk emotions, and we're going to hopefully be able to discuss where, well I'm going to call buying emotions come from. So that might be happiness. If you buy the right product, it could be the fear of missing out, if there's an offer a deal in place, it could be unfortunately regrets or buyer's remorse. I want to dive into where all these come from, then hopefully how we can help buyers have better buying experiences moving forward. So before the obvious question of where the heck do buying emotions come from? I want to tee things up with asking you, are we in control of our emotions? Because sometimes it seems like I can choose to be happy. I can choose to change my state of mind, but sometimes emotions come in crushing it and hits us like a car crash, I guess, a car wreck. So are we in control of the emotions that we feel?   “Your brain makes emotions, emotions don't happen to you. They are made by your brain for particular situations that you're in. Your brain is automatically constructing emotions out of a set of ingredients. And you have control over seeding your brain with those ingredients to make emotions more automatic in an effortless way, but control in the moment as in stopping feeling one thing and in order to cultivate a different feeling is extremely hard I would say.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman ·  [02:17]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Well, that's a really hard question actually. That could be answered in many different ways. I guess the answer would be, yes, you are more in control than maybe you think you are, but that control looks very different than what you think it does. So your brain makes emotions, emotions don't happen to you. They are made by your brain for particular situations that you're in, your brain is automatically constructing emotions out of a set of ingredients. And you have control overseeding your brain with those ingredients to make emotions more automatically in an effortless way, but control in the moment as in stopping feeling one thing and in order to cultivate a different feeling is extremely hard I would say. If you're very physically worked up, you can change the meaning of that worked up feeling and therefore change the emotion, but calming your body down is actually extremely hard to do for anybody.   Do We All Have The Capacity to Feel The Same Emotions? · [04:10]    Will Barron: Sure, you've touched on something here that I wanted to come to the end of the show or later on the show, but we'll address it now. These feelings that we feel, does everyone feel the same feeling? And then from societal, I guess, norms put a label on it, of I feel butterflies. And so I feel nervous, excited versus other people might feel butterflies and have a different association with that feeling so they feel a different emotion. What I'm asking is all emotions ubiquitous, and we all feel the same. They can be categorised, or do we add a layer on top of emotions that changes what they actually feel towards personally?   “So your brain is always regulating your body and your body is always sending information back to your brain. And you feel that information from the tug of your lungs expanding, the rush of your blood through your veins, the beating of your heart.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [04:21]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So your brain is always regulating your body and your body is always sending information back to your brain. And you feel that information from the tug of your lungs expanding, the rush of your blood through your veins, the beating of your heart. You experience those sensations. As simple feelings of affect, feeling worked up, feeling calm, feeling pleasant, feeling unpleasant, those aren't emotions, they're simple feelings of mood or what scientists call affect. They're always with you every waking moment of your life. Your brain's job in part is to link the sensations from your body and these affective feelings to the words going on around you in the world in order to give them meaning so that your brain knows what to do next. And so it's more than just labelling. What your brain is always doing is categorising sensations to give them meaning a way to think about it as like this, your brain is trapped in a dark silent box called your skull.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: It's receiving sense data from the world like changes in light, changes in sound, pressure, changes in chemicals. It doesn't know what the causes are of these changes. It only receives the outcomes of those causes, so when there's a flash of light or a loud bang, say a loud bang, what is it? Is it someone slamming a door? Is it a car backfiring? Is it thunder? Is it a gunshot? Depending on what caused that bang your brain would do different things to keep you alive and well. But your brain doesn't know what caused the sound. It only know it's receiving the outcome of some change, but it doesn't know what the change is. Similarly, when your brain receives sense data from your body and there's a tug in your chest, is it hum, anxiety? Is it heartburn from having eaten too much? Is it the beginnings of a heart attack?   “This is what philosophers call a reverse inference problem. You get the answers, but you don't know the question. You have to figure out what caused these changes. And so that's what your brain is always doing. It's asking itself. “The last time I was in a situation like this, where I had these internal sensations and this feeling, what caused it? What did I do about it?” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  · [06:50]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: What is it? Your brain doesn't know what it is. It's only receiving the outcome of some cause. This is what philosophers call a reverse inference problem. You get the answers, but you don't know the question. You have to figure out what caused these changes. And so that's what your brain is always doing. It's asking itself. “The last time I was in a situation like this, where I had these internal sensations and this feeling, what caused it? What did I do about it?” It's asking what is similar to the present moment in my past and things which are similar in some way are a category.   “Happiness for you is not the same thing each time you feel it or regret each time you feel it is not the same thing because your brain is constructing each moment on the fly in a particular situation. So, in some situations, when you're happy, you smile, in some situations when you're happy you cry, in some situations when you're happy you might you pound fists with someone. You do different things, your body does different things.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  · [07:43]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So your brain is basically forming categories to guide your action and create your extended emotional experience out of the sense data. So the question you're asking me, does everyone in the world feel the same thing? The answer is no, but happiness for you is not the same thing each time you feel it or regret each time you feel it is not the same thing because your brain is constructing each moment on the fly in a particular situation. So in some situations, when you're happy, you smile, in some situations when you're happy you cry, in some situations when you're happy you might you pound fists with someone, you do different things, your body does different things. You feel different things. When you're happy, depending on the situation that you're in. So it's not the same, even for you from moment to moment.   The Brain’s Unconscious Reactions to Different Types of Emotions  · [08:38]   Will Barron: This is fascinating because we've never ponded on the idea before. And just you bringing that back to me adds different frames of references of what emotions are, which is amazing. And how much of this then is conscious versus subconscious or unconscious in this?   “Everything that you experience right now, your brain is able to use in the future to help construct another experience. So in a sense, we're always cultivating our past as a way of controlling our future.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  · [09:18]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Mostly unconscious. So your brain is all of this meaning-making is occurring under the hood really automatically. In fact, it takes me much longer to describe it to you than it actually takes for it to occur. So when you asked me before, how controllable are your emotions? Well, the meaning making part is easier to control if you think about control over the long-term, meaning everything that you experience right now, your brain is able to use in the future to help construct another experience. So in a sense, we're always cultivating our past as a way of controlling our future. So the best way to control your emotions is to give your brain a good, flexible set of options that it can use to construct your emotions with. And then your brain will be very flexible in how it does this on the fly with very little effort from you.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So can you think of it a little bit like exercising, you invest a lot of energy and then you replenish that energy because it's a really good investment in having a healthy brain in the future. And similarly, you can construct new experiences for yourself, cultivate new situations, curate new feelings. And that is effortful. But what it does is it's an investment in having a flexible brain that will control your emotions in a way that's more tailored to the situation.   Chemical and Neural Activities in The Brain and How They Affect How We React to Emotions  · [10:39]   Will Barron: What is or I'll put this a different way. How much of this is brain activity and feedback from the body versus a chemical a cascade in the brain where once it starts literal chemical reactions are happening. And so it's difficult to put a stop to it in that moment.   “There's a whole system in your brain of neurons. Their only job is to control other neurons. That's what we call attention. You experience attention from a subjective perspective. “Am I looking at this thing? Am I concentrating on this thing?” But attention from a neurons perspective is anything which makes it fire more or less.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [11:30]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Well, here's the thing, all chemical, all neural activity in the brain is both chemical and electrical. Neurons communicate by chemicals. I mean, if you didn't have those chemicals, the neurons could not possibly talk to each other. There's a whole system in your brain of neurons. Their only job is to control other neurons. That's what we call attention. You experience attention from a subjective perspective. “Am I looking at this thing? Am I concentrating on this thing?” But attention from a neurons perspective is anything which makes it fire more or less. So you put a stop to the firing of some neurons by other neurons basically. And it's always possible to turn the dial up or turn the dial down on an assembly of neurons, it's just that your body takes longer to adjust to the neural signals.    “You have these moments where you know nothing is wrong, but you're still worked up anyways. And you really would really, really like that worked up feeling to go away. But it won't it's because your body is just slower to listen to those signals from your brain.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  · [12:00]   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So it can feel like, you have these moments where you know nothing is wrong, but you're still worked up anyways. And you really would really, really like that worked up feeling to go away. But it won't it's because your body is just slower to listen to those signals from your brain.   How Salespeople Can Make Their Customers Happier By Helping Regulate Their Nevours Systems  · [12:40]    Will Barron: Amazing. Okay. So that's the baseline there. How do we, and we can very quickly move into the world of manipulation I'm not interested in that. I'm more interested in creating a better buying experiences. And I'm sure some of this works better in person than it does over a Skype call or over a phone call. But is there anything we can do as salespeople, as business leaders to make our customers happier, where we engage with them over the perhaps obvious stuff like, perhaps I'm assuming this is the case, but smiling seems to be somewhat contagious. And that hopefully affects the emotions of the people that are engaged with. Is there anything like that, that we can do to I guess, get people to mirror our own emotions?   “When people smile for the purpose of trying to get me to smile, really what I want to do is give them the finger. Honestly, I don't like being manipulated that way. And I don't think people like being manipulated actually.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  · [13:20]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Yeah. So I have to tell you that the more I learn about this, the more I think that smiling is… One day I'm going to write a book called the tyranny of happiness, I think. When people smile for the purpose of trying to get me to smile, really what I want to do is give them the finger. Honestly, I don't like being manipulated that way. And I don't think people like being manipulated actually. So here's what I would say.    “The best thing for a human nervous system is another human. The worst thing for a human nervous system is also another human. So if you want to make your customers more comfortable and able to engage in the kind of thoughtful weighing of pros and cons, so that they'll be satisfied with a purchase that they make, your job is to help regulate their nervous systems.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  · [13:45]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: We are social animals. We regulate each other's nervous systems, in a way you could think about the best thing for a human nervous system is another human. The worst thing for a human nervous system is also another human. So if you want to make your customers more comfortable and able to engage in the kind of thoughtful weighing of pros and cons, so that they'll be satisfied with a purchase that they make, your job is to help regulate their nervous systems.    “The way I describe this is body budgeting. Your brain is running a budget for your body. It's not budgeting money, it's budgeting salt and glucose and water and oxygen, and all the things your body needs to run.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  · [14:17]   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: The way I describe this is body budgeting. Your brain is running a budget for your body. It's not budgeting money, it's budgeting salt and glucose and water and oxygen, and all the things your body needs to run. And we make deposits into that body budget by sleeping and eating, and we make withdrawals.    “When you're giving a client a lot of information and they have to process that information and make a decision, that is expensive, metabolically speaking, and you can make that process more expensive or less expensive for them, depending on how responsive you are to them.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  · [14:47]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: The two biggest most expensive things your brain can do is move your body like when you're walking or getting out of bed in the morning or exercising and learning. So when you're giving a client a lot information and they have to process that information and make a decision, that is expensive, metabolically speaking, and you can make that process more expensive or less expensive for them, depending on how responsive you are to them. We can make metaphorical deposits and withdrawals in other people's body budgets. So rather than smiling, I would suggest, first of all, breathing at a good, slow pace because we mirror each other's breathing patterns.   “The one way to calm your body down is to breathe in a very paced way. And actually, Navy SEALs use this in order to calm themselves down.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [16:30]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So if you and I were actually in a room together and we liked each other and we trusted each other, our physiological signals would would synchronise. If you're really worked up, I would become really worked up, if you're really calm and you're breathing at a really good pace, then I would become calmer and pretty that a good pace. We're not aware of doing these things, but it's very, very possible to influence people that way. So, for example, when I was training to be a therapist, a million years ago in another life one of the things I learned to do was breathe at a pace of about six to eight seconds, because the one way to calm your body down is to breathe in a very paced way.   “If you want to have a successful selling episode, whatever that means to you, you probably want to do it in a way that leaves your client or customer feeling not happy but comfortable, comfortable, which means that you reflect back what they say, you pace your own breathing. So they pace their breathing, and you basically make it a less metabolically taxing event.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman  ·  [16:48]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: And actually Navy SEALs use this in order to calm themselves down. It's really the only way that we know of that you can lower your heart rate, bring your body back down into a more comfortable range. So what I would suggest is if you want to have a successful selling episode, whatever that means to you, you probably want to do it in a way that leaves the person, leaves your client or customer feeling not happy but comfortable, comfortable, which means that you reflect back what they say, you pace your own breathing. So they pace their breathing, and you basically make it a less metabolically taxing event.   Will Barron: So you'll have experiences, I'm sure, but you may not be consciously aware of all the training that's gone in the past with sales training. So perhaps 10 years ago, we would talk not way, I wasn't involved in this. This is one of the reason I started the podcast, how people like yourself on to actually unwrap the science behind some of this. But last sales training was about mirroring the person that you're engaging with and all these weird tricks and hacks and kind of things. Then he went to more of a discussion. I want to get your thoughts on this in a second on things like discussing newer neurons, but it would be a non-scientist talking about mirror neurons, trying to use anecdotes and metaphors to describe some of that. They don't know what they're talking about.   Lisa’s Shares Her Thoughts on the Effectiveness of Mirroring Other People’s Body Language · [18:20]    Will Barron: So this is why this is really interesting to me to talk about the actual science of why perhaps some of this may work, may not work. What are your thoughts on the likes of the African seal, the effectiveness of mirroring body language, things like this, and are mirror neurons relevant to any of this whatsoever?   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Mirror neurons don't exist. There's nothing in your brain called a mirror neuron. There are neurons in your brain that do what mirror neurons are supposed to do, but they are in many, many, many parts of your brain. There's nothing special. So what I'm trying to say is the function is there, but there are no special neurons that perform this function. Okay? Your brain has the capacity to change the firing of its own neurons. If I ask you to imagine a McIntosh apple of the sort that you eat, so in your mind's eye, can you imagine a red apple that you would eat? And can you imagine picking that apple up, fighting into the apple, hearing the crunch of the apple, maybe tasting maybe it's some tart with a little sweetness. Can you imagine that in your mind's eye?   Will Barron: I can, and it's probably happening what you're trying to be capping of. I'm slightly salivating as you describe it.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Yeah. Why do you think you're salivating? Because your brain has changed the firing of your neurons. Your brain is changing. If we had your head in a brain scanner, we would see that portions of the visual system in your brain would be very active even though there actually is no apple. Just by merely saying the word apple, this conjures an image in your head, your brain upon hearing me talk about the crunch and the taste, is actually changing the firing of neurons without the apple there to actually make you salivate, to prepare, to digest the apple when you eat it. Your brain is basically what we would call simulating. This is what scientists called simulating. It's a fancy word for a bunch of things we do every day, but this is actually how it's exactly the same process that your brain undergoes when it's making sense of information from body in the world.   “So when you see someone smile or you see the raise of an eyebrow, or you see someone move, what your brain is doing is simulating to prepare to deal with that person's action.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [20:49]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So when you see someone smile or you see the raise of an eyebrow, or you see someone move, what your brain is doing is simulating to prepare to deal with that person's action. That's what so-called motor neurons do. But every neuron in your brain, you can think of acting in that way. It's not something specific to the neurons that are in that little spot. And I guess the thing to say is this, that it is true that if you stick two people in a room who don't know each other, but through the course of conversation, they trust each other, they like each other.   “That kind of mirroring if you actually deliberately try to do it, people notice and they think it's weird.” – Lisa Feldman · [22:02]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: It's true that they will spontaneously mirror each other's actions. Let's say, well, you put your hand up to your face. I might put my hand up to flick my hair and then let's say, I flicked my hair, I flick my hair and I look to the right. You might also slightly turn your body to the right. I mean, people don't mirror in an exact way, but there is probabilistically speaking some… But that kind of mirroring if you actually deliberately try to do it, people notice and they think it's weird.   Will Barron: Of course, it's super weird, isn't it?   “When you lose someone that you love, when that person leaves you, you break up or they die, you feel like you've lost a part of yourself because you have, you've lost someone who was tending to your body budget, and now you have to do it on your own.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [23:03]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Of course it's really weird. But however, I can assure you that when you're trying to calm someone down and help them, we'll put it this way. I worked out with a coach for 15 years. Monday, Wednesday, Friday morning. Okay. I am much more efficient in my workout when he's there, than when he isn't there. It's not just because he's telling me what to do. I'm actually stronger when he's there and I can do more when he's there. And it's because he's providing body budgeting support for me in a way that I'm not consciously tracking. When you lose someone that you love, when that person leaves you, you break up or they die. You feel like you've lost a part of yourself because you have, you've lost someone who was tending to your body budget, and now you have to do it on your own.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: And it feels painful because it is, it's harder. The kind of mirroring that you want to do with someone you don't know very well would be more like staying calm, modulating your voice, modulate your breathing. And that will make it easier for them to do the same if they get worked up and you follow them, that just leads to a cycle of everybody getting worked up as opposed to taking a step back and taking a deep breath.   “If you keep your nervous system calm, you're basically providing support for the other person's nervous system.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [24:40]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: With little kids like with babies, actually, even with my daughter, sometimes I don't depend on mirroring. I get her to come to me. I give her a hug and I actually breathe slowly. And I get her to pace my breathing, which when she was a baby, all I needed to do was put her on my chest and breathe. And she would calm down just by my breathing. Now that she's 22, I can just say to her, “Do you want to hug?” And then we stand there and we breathe together for a minute. And then she feels she's calmer. And then you can't obviously you can't do that with a customer. But what you can do is if you keep your nervous system calm, you're basically providing support for the other person's nervous system.   How to Leverage The Power of Storytelling to Influence Your Customer’s Emotions · [24:58]   Will Barron: Okay. The weird manipulative used car sales techniques of the past are a no go which is approved, that message is approved on this podcast. Is there novel way to perhaps influence a person's emotional state, which you just did to me. Should we be using perhaps stories and storytelling to do that?   “Stories, convince people. So what you're trying to do is get someone to be immersed in a narrative that you've created, and that immersion must involve simulation.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [25:28]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Yes. Storytelling that allows simulation. That allows the person to… I mean, if you notice in both books, I've written, I use stories. I could throw data up on a screen, but that's not going to convince anybody except maybe another scientist. And even then I would say stories, convince people. So what you're trying to do is get someone to be immersed in a narrative that you've created, and that immersion must involve simulation. A person won't feel part of the story unless they're simulating it in the way that I just showed you with the apple.   Will Barron: Because I guess we've also then got to be careful not to be telling stories where we're getting someone to simulate. For example, a lot of sales training is based around this idea of making the buyer feel loads of pain, and then giving them a solution. Now, my experience, having experimented with all kinds of different sales techniques training and all this is, if you make someone feel really bad, they feel really bad. And then you've got to try and shift their emotions from one place to another. It's far easier to go into a conversation, being upbeat perhaps storytell and use positive case studies, as opposed to, again, this might be considered more manipulative of this is the worst thing that's going to happen. This and this as this and this. And I find that that leads to then buyer's remorse as opposed to a happy customer on the other end of it.   Things Salespeople Should Avoid Doing to Prevent Customers From Getting Into a Negative Emotional States · [26:44]   Will Barron: So is there anything that we've definitely spoken about so far least there's anything that we should avoid doing to stop people getting into a bad emotional state, as opposed to what we've talked about so far is trying to get people into a good one.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Yeah, well, I think there were a couple of things, well that come to mind and I'm going to talk to you as a scientist, but I'm also going to talk to you as a consumer. I'm a kind of person who has relationships with the people that I buy things from. And I'm very loyal actually. So I will always go back to the same shop, even if something's a little more expensive there. Not like exceedingly expensive more, but just even if it's a little more, I'll go back to that place because I know that person is going to help me in the long run. If I trust that person, I'm much more likely to buy from that person, I'm much more likely to take a risk that I normally wouldn't take with a purchase and so on. I think you have to understand what your goal is, what your goal is as a salesperson. Is your goal to make a sale in that moment?   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Is that the goal or is the goal to build a relationship with a customer where you will make sales over time to that person? I'm sure sometimes it's one and sometimes it's the other, but you have to think about what is your goal? Is it a short-term goal or a long-term goal? That's the first thing that will help you. And the second thing is, remember that your brain, the brain of a person, your brain, my brain everybody's brain is guessing what negative feelings mean. Those negative feelings aren't emotions. When your body budget is flush, you feel good, when your body budget is taxed, you're running a deficit because maybe you're thinking really hard or you're physically taxed in some way. What is stress? Stress is just your brain preparing for a big metabolic outlay. That's it? Cortisol is not a stress hormone.   “Your brain doesn't know what the negative feeling is about. It has to guess. That customer can guess it's you. So you have to be really careful when you create a negative feeling in someone because they might attribute the cause to you as opposed to the scenario that you created.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [29:02]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: It's a hormone that gets glucose into your bloodstream because your brain is predicting. You have a big metabolic outlay that can mean dragging your ass out of bed in the morning. That can mean going to the gym, or it can mean just learning something new and having to reason your way through a complicated purchase. Your brain doesn't know what the negative feeling is about. It has to guess. That customer can guess it's you. So you have to be really careful when you create a negative feeling in someone because they might attribute the cause to you as opposed to the scenario that you created. But let's say you want someone to simulate negative consequences in order to avoid them. I would do that by inviting them to do it with you to say, if you really think that this is an important thing to, you say, “Can we do a thought experiment?”   “And one of the reasons why we have so much trouble staying in the present is that our brains are very, very good at mental time travel.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [30:29]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: I want us to imagine this kind of a future let's imagine these things happen. So you're basically inviting them to take a little imaginary journey with you. This is something that human brains do exceedingly well, we can simulate into the future, simulate into the past. That's called memory. So imagination memory are both based in exactly the same computation, which is this simulation, ability to conjure experience independent of our immediate circumstances. And one of the reasons why we have so much trouble staying in the present is that our brains are very, very good at mental time travel.   “You want to create the context for the person to come to that realisation themselves, that yours is the best solution. If you try to just tell them that, they might believe you, but they might not. The thing is if they come to it themselves, they will be more satisfied with the purchase afterwards.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [31:00]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: So you can invite your customer to do mental time travel with you, and you can invite them, if you present, let's just say for myself, if somebody presented their product to me as the only solution to a problematic outcome, I probably wouldn't believe them because there's always more than one. You want to create the context for the person to come to that realisation themselves, that yours is the best solution. If you try to just tell them that, they might believe you, but they might not. The thing is if they come to it themselves, they will be more satisfied with the purchase afterwards.   Why Consuming Glucose Tablets Before a Meeting Cannot Change The Outcomes of a Negotiation · [31:19]   Will Barron: Perfect. Right. I've got two slightly more ridiculous questions that I'm intrigued to know the answers of Lisa. And then we'll wrap up the show with these number one, it seems like this could be actually studied. I doubt it's ever been studied. But with this idea of the metabolic deficit and the brain requiring so much energy to process thoughts and say, we're going into a big negotiations, lots of learning and guessing and putting together numbers perhaps. Again, this is not practical, but I think it's interesting to ponder on, perhaps. Could you give someone a glucose tablet or something like that before in negotiation? And would that change the outcome of a negotiation if we did it like 200, 500 times?   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Well, people have done those experiments and the answer is no. And the reason why is that circulating glucose in your blood, we don't know exactly what that does to the glucose levels in your brain. And that's actually really what's important. What's important is how your brain is metabolising as much as what your body is doing. So I would say if you want to be effective, the best thing that you can do, let's say you want to be effective tomorrow. Like today, you and I, I knew we were having this conversation today, and I don't really know that much about sales from a technical standpoint. I know about sales as a consumer. So I need to be sharp for this conversation. So the best thing that I could do is get a good night's sleep last night, just what I did.   The Power of Proper Sleep, Hydration, Healthy Eating Habits, and Exercise In Preparing For Negotiation Meetings · [33:18]    Will Barron: Just about to ask you, perhaps a better way, a best that would be if someone had a power nap before a meeting, or we did a 9:00 AM meetings versus 10:00 PM meetings after some pizza margaritas, which would be probably more effective. So that's common sense right. Although I guess common sense, isn't always used as commonly as what it should be.   “If you want to be in control, as in control, as your nervous system will possibly allow, you have to make sure your body budget is solvent. And if you're running a deficit and you say, drink coffee, what you're doing is borrowing energy from tomorrow that you will spend today. And at some point, we all need to do that at times.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [33:44]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: True, but I would say, get enough sleep, be well-hydrated. Again, it sounds really crazy, but when people ask me, “What can I do to control my emotions, what's the best thing that I can do.” I'm like, “Get enough sleep, keep yourself hydrated, eat healthily and exercise.” I know I sound like a mother and I'm a mother. But I'm speaking to you as a neuroscientist. If you want to be in control, as in control, as your nervous system will possibly allow, you have to make sure your body budget is solvent. And if you're running a deficit and you say, drink coffee, what are you doing when you drink coffee? And I say this as a committed coffee lover and tea lover. I actually don't drink coffee anymore, but tea, I still drink.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: But I love caffeine as much as the next person, but when you drink caffeine as you might be doing right now, well, as you pick up that cup. What you're doing is borrowing energy from tomorrow that you will spend today. And at some point, we all need to do that at times. But at some point, you, the deficit will catch up with you and you will feel really unpleasant to the point of feeling distressed and maybe even getting sick. So the point is just having a glucose tablet is not really going to help you, but being hydrated, getting enough sleep, eating healthfully, those things actually will in the long run on average, be better for you.   Caffeine Consumption and How It’s Affecting Your Brain and Body Performance · [34:57]    Will Barron: Love it. It's funny you mentioned this. I actually did a podcast about caffeine consumption a few months ago, because it's almost a stereotype that business people, leaders, salespeople drink a lot of caffeine to try and stay on their game and stay focused. And so we did a whole show on the science of it, and how is blocking different things. And does what you describe. And I guess in a layman's term of is Robin tomorrow for today. So I've [inaudible 00:35:21] on caffeine in literary months now, and makes that initial kind of a weak period of headaches after the fact of giving it up, which was alarming to me, that it physically had an effect on my brain.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Yeah, do you know why you have those headaches? You had those headaches when your brain is controlling your body. It's controlling your body by prediction, not by reactions. So when I talked to you about the apple and you start to salivate it's because your brain was preparing you, it was predicting there would be an apple, and it was preparing you to digest it. When you drink water and what your thirst is quenched by water, you take a drink and you drink a glass of water. You have no more thirst. Actually it takes 20 minutes for the osmolarity of your blood to change for water, to get to your brain. So for 20 minutes, you're not thirsty, but yet the information hasn't made it to your brain yet that you're hydrated. How come you stopped feeling thirsty? It's because your brain predicted the consequences of drinking water, because it's had gazillions of opportunities to learn that.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: And similarly your brain is really always, always predicting. So if you have coffee every morning at the same time, your brain knows it's can predict, because you've had this coffee every day at the same time. Coffee has chemicals in it that will constrict the blood vessels in your brain, actually everywhere. So your brain in anticipation, dilates the blood vessels just before you're about to drink the coffee. But if you don't have the coffee to keep the blood vessels stable, they stay dilated and you have a headache.   How Emotions are Made, Both In People and in Animals · [37:40]    Will Barron: Love it. I love it. The show is now powered by colour malty. Not quite as interesting or as nice. I quite like the routine of making a nice cup of coffee in the morning. That ritual is important to me. But I'm conscious of time at least, I've got one final question for you. It's on topic of emotions, but it's completely off topic with sales. It's a selfish question. We've just caught a golden retriever puppy. Now he looks like he's happy when he hangs out with me. What I want to ask you though, is, am I projecting an emotion that perhaps a dog does feel? Does it feel onto it? Because I see his tail wagging as is his face almost jumps up at the sides.   Will Barron: And I know that there is kind of a science that shows that dogs, animals that have eyebrows that move in ways that humans can recognise. I've done better. We've been socialisation for humans as we kind of I was also a domesticated wolves over the years. So my question is Lisa, when my puppy comes over and when he's not biting me at all moments, when he's just chilling, is he happy? Or am I projecting these kind of feelings or thoughts that humans have onto this animal? That's perhaps it doesn't have a consciousness.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Yeah. I talk about this in my book, How Emotions Are Made and it's, I think a widely misunderstood chapter. So here's the thing. You don't recognise anything in anybody. Your brain is guessing. When I raise my eyebrows or I widen my eyes or I frown, or I scowl, your brain is guessing what that means. You're not recognising emotions in me. So 30% of the time when people are angry they scowl, which means 70% of the time when they're angry, they're doing something else with their face. They might be concentrating. You might've just told them about Joe, they might have gasp. There are all kinds of reasons why people scowl. So when you're angry, you scowl 30% of the time. But sometimes when you're angry, you cry, sometimes you frown, sometimes you smile. You might even laugh when you're angry.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: And then you also scowled at other times. So your brain is guessing. It's guessing what a movement means in a particular situation. And then it's checking on its guesses to make sure that you're right. So your brain is predicting, “What I'm going to do next?” And if you predicted well, then you probably means you guessed well. Same thing with your dog. Same thing with your dog. But I will say about the dog though, is that the dog's brain is not the same as a human brain. The dog has these simple feelings of affect. The dog can feel calm. It can feel worked up. The dog can feel pleasant. It can feel unpleasant. I have a puppy too. I got it. I mean, one of the first things we did, like everybody else that we know of actually during COVID was we got a puppy.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: We thought we were being so clever. Everyone else thought they were being clever, too clever and unique. And we were very similar to everybody else. So we got this puppy and this puppy is she's very affectionate. Does she love me? She's attached to me because I regulate her body budget and she regulates mine. So she will come and lay on my feet. She likes to be close to me. I also know she is attached to me because I feed her. I feed her and she feels, and I make her comfortable. I pet her. So I am the source of body budgeting for her. And she is the source of body budgeting for me. That's also true for your puppy. We experience that with each other as love. But the difference is that I have a concept for love and you have concept for love and all the humans in your life have a concept for love so they can feel love because they can take those simple feelings and transform them into something more. Your dog's brain can't do that.   Will Barron: You're sure because that's really disappointing, Lisa. It's depressing me.   “Does happiness exist in a dog is an unanswerable question. The question is, do you experience your dog being happy? And the answer is yes. And if you ask the question, does your dog experience happiness the way you experience happiness, the answer is no.” – Lisa Feldman · [41:52]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: No, no, it's not disappointing. The point is that if you make emotions, then the question of does X have an emotion? Let me say it differently. Does happiness exist in a dog is an unanswerable question. The question is, do you experience your dog is happy? And the answer is yes. And if you ask the question, does your dog experience happiness the way you experience happiness, the answer is no.   Will Barron: Because he's a dog.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Yeah, because he's a dog. But he's attached to you. He can feel pleasant in your company, he can feel unpleasant, he can feel worked up, he can feel calm. And his brain is trying to predict what you're going to do. And mainly his whole job in life is to right, arrange things so that you'll feed him or maybe take him on a walk.   Will Barron: Love it, love it. I thought that was a slightly off topic question, but you're right. Probably 80% of the audience has recently got a puppy. So maybe it's more relevant than what I thought it would be.   “When you are interacting with a customer, you are not reading that person's emotions, you are guessing, your brain is guessing. And it's probably a good idea to be humble about the quality of your guesses. Even someone who feels like they are excellent at reading people, their brain is just guessing and you can be wrong.” – Dr. Lisa Feldman · [42:50]    Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Well, here's the point though, to get back to the sales. When you are interacting with a customer, you are not reading that person's emotions, you are guessing, your brain is guessing. And it's probably a good idea to be humble about the quality of your guesses. Even someone who feels like they are excellent at reading people, their brain is just guessing and you can be wrong.   Parting Thoughts: Lisa’s Books and How to Reach Out to Her · [43:11]   Will Barron: Love it. Okay. We'll wrap up the show with that Lisa. I really appreciate your time and your insights on this. With that tell us about, well, we've covered one of the books, tell us about both of them and where we can find out more about you as well.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Okay. You can find out more about me at my public website, lisafeldmanbarrett.com as much just my name.com. There are two books that you can find out about on that website. The first is How Emotions Are Made: The Secret Life of the Brain. Which is available worldwide. The second book is just new in the U.S. and we're coming out in the UK in March called Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain. So ow Emotions Are Made is a pretty standard popular science book. It's about 300 pages long. It explains a lot about how emotions work, how you can control your emotions, some about how your brain works more generally.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: Seven and a Half Lessons About the Brain is a little book of essays. It's really written for people who don't think of themselves as that interested in science. But what it does is in seven and a half little essays, it communicates some really cool ideas and facts about how brains work. So you can talk to your friends and, or maybe your customers and kind of wow them with some cool neuroscience tidbits. But it also invites you to think about what kind of a person you are or want to be given that you have this kind of brain that you have. It's a very quick read may husband calls it the first neuroscience beach read.   Will Barron: Love it. Well, I'll link to both books at your website, everything else that we talked about in this episode of the show over to salesman.org. I will give myself a quick plug, which not done for a while. Regularness will note, I host a novel podcast called Excited Science, where we try and get people excited about science. So maybe we can chat on there in the future Lisa. I've not plugged that on this show for a while, so I'll plug it right there. And with that Lisa, I want to thank you again for your time, your insights on this. Absolutely fascinating. You've cleared up a bunch of old sales training nonsense as well. I think that's really valuable for the audience and I want to thank you again for joining me on the Salesman Podcast.   Dr. Lisa Feldman Barrett: My pleasure, thank you.

Here you are—another year gone by. And you almost, aaaaaalmost hit your sales goal this time! Just like last year. And the year before that. And the year before that… But this year is going to be different. Maybe it’s the world rapidly changing around you. Or maybe it’s you getting another year older. But this year, it’s time to get serious about setting sales goals and adapting your sales process. And I’ve got just the framework to help. In just eight steps, you can map out where you want to be next year, strategize the steps you need to take to get there, narrow down which goals are a good fit, and more. Ready to go? Let’s hit it. Setting Sales Goals: Why It Works Why should you be setting your own sales goals? And just as importantly, why should you start setting your goals strategically so that you don’t give up on them four months into the year? As it turns out, setting sales goals is one of the easiest low-investment, high-return wins sales reps can make. Here’s why setting your own sales targets is such a game-changer. A) A Clear Path to Success First and foremost, setting sales goals gives you a clear, indisputable path towards achieving massive professional success. We can all agree that if you don’t know where you’re heading, it’s going to be a real pain to get there. And setting well-defined goals lets you plan out your path to success milestone by milestone. What’s more, when you continually improve upon those goals (e.g., “I’m going to close 5% more deals than last year”), you’re creating the impetus you need to keep moving forward. And that means less career stagnation and consistent forward progression. Having a clear path to success is also valuable for sales managers and sales teams too. When you can effectively communicate your sales cycle and where the sales revenue is going to come from, management will get off your back and allow you to get on with your job. B) It Lets You Plan Ahead Setting sales metrics (that are reasonable, mind you) also gives you a better indication of what lies ahead. If, say, you need to close on 12 accounts this quarter, that means you need to aim for four accounts per month. If you’ve only closed two in the first month, that means you’ll have to work extra hard to close five in the other two months. Setting annual sales goals based on numbers rather than more a subjective sales goal like “improving customer lifetime value” enables you to directly track progress too. Added to that, your goals also help identify your busy seasons, your lulls, and when you should focus on other goals like filling your pipeline, streamlining your processes, or even taking a vacation. C) Feel More Fulfilled at Work Last (but certainly not least), setting and achieving your sales objectives boosts your confidence, teaches you self-management, and increases your proficiency on the job. All these perks allow for faster upward mobility which often leads to greater satisfaction. Don’t forget—achieving sales goals is often directly connected to bonuses and raises. And as we all know, compensation has a huge effect on overall job satisfaction. The Setting Sales Goals Framework Now that we’re agreed on why setting sales goals is so important, let’s jump into the how of it all. How do you set sales objectives? Is there a sales goals template you can use? What do I need to do to set me up for success this year? I developed The Setting Sales Goals Framework to answer these questions (and more). With this framework, you can evaluate your priorities, identify areas of improvement, establish impactful goals, and set yourself up for your best year yet. Plus, it’s made up of just eight simple steps. What Did I Achieve Last Year? What Were My Biggest Disappointments Last Year? What Did I Learn Last Year? How Do I Limit Myself & How Can I Stop? What Roles Do I Play in My Life? Which One of These Roles Is My Major Focus for Next Year? What Are My Goals for Each Role? What Are My Top 3 Goals for Next Year? 1. What Did I Achieve Last Year? The process starts with an act hated with a passion by some and absolutely adored by others—bragging. If you achieved something this year, you can do the same this year too. What were your finest moments over the past 12 months? When did you feel unabashedly proud? Or when did you receive praise from a supervisor, coworker, friend, or partner? Start with your professional accomplishments like if you hit your revenue targets and sales activities. But don’t stop there. Reach into your family and social life too. Here are a few questions to get your accomplishment juices flowing. Did you hit your sales target? Did you get closer than you have done in the past? Did you move house? Did you decorate or repair your current home? Did you start a new sales job or get a promotion? How much money did you earn in the last year? Did you pay off a debt? Did you get married? Have a child? Did you get through a rough family patch? Did you finally start to get fit? Are you exercising more than the previous year? Did you start to treat yourself to more enjoyable things? Did you read more books? See more friends? Celebrate Your Accomplishments You should force yourself to celebrate the wins no matter how small they seem. There are two reasons for this. First, you’re essentially rewiring your brain to associate completing goals with good feelings. When we skip the celebration phase of the productivity cycle, our brains get wired to associate completing a task with simply starting the next one. There’s no reward here. And that’s going to make it harder to stay motivated and care about actually achieving your goal. Added to that, this stage of the framework helps you balance your perception of yourself. You’re pulling up the celebrations that have been forgotten and weighing them against the losses in the next step. The cool thing is that often when people go through this part of the worksheet, they find that they are doing far better than they thought they were. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: Start a wins journal. Any time you get a compliment, a slap on the back, a “Great work!” or any other indication that you accomplished something important, write it down. Doing so helps you identify wins more easily and makes this first step much easier. “One of my favorite things that I recommend to my clients is to create a journal. Call it your wins journal. So every time you have a win, small, medium, or large, write it down. Like, “Woohoo, celebrate! Today I talked with John DOE at Google, and he's always super excited about bringing our stuff into his company.” Write that down. So when you do get caught in these anxious moments, go back to your wins journal, like, “Oh yeah, that happened. That was real.” Remind yourself that you are good at what you do. You are enough, you've got this. – Interview with Michele Molitor, Coach, Hypnotist, & Imposter Syndrome Expert 2. What Were My Biggest Disappointments Last Year?  Next up is the opposite of the last step. When did you feel like your abilities fell short of your expectations? When did you not stack up? And when did you miss the mark? Writing out your disappointments shouldn’t be all doom and gloom. There is actually a lot of value in documenting your disappointments. For instance, it can be quite cathartic. I personally have always felt a great weight lifted from my shoulders every time I write down what went wrong rather than trying to pretend it didn’t happen. Did you fail to hit your stretch goal? Did you make less sales calls than you planned? Did your last monthly sales goal right down the crapper? Most people are more comfortable with their failures than their successes, and so they tend to keep them around, like cozy old friends. But when we hold onto our disappointments and don’t celebrate our wins, our self-perception becomes unbalanced. Instead, you need to accept that your failures are a reflection of who you were a year ago. They are not reflective of what you’re capable of right now or what you’re going to be capable of six months from now. Think of it as a garden. Pointing out our disappointments is like weeding the soil we’ve planted our seeds of achievement in, giving them the environment they need to grow. Document Your Disappointments Too Just as you started a wins journal in the last step, it’s important you document your disappointments as well. Here are some questions ask yourself to get you thinking about any downsides of the past 12 months. You didn’t hit your sales target, or you didn’t get the bonus you wanted Your debt got bigger rather than smaller You didn’t find that man or woman you wanted to bring into your life Your dreams didn’t come through Expectations were not fulfilled You lost someone close to you Your clothes are fitting a little tighter, but you’ve not gained any muscle You were hoping to go on an awesome holiday away, but things didn’t work out You wanted more time to yourself, but it didn’t happen Write them down throughout the year and come back to them once it’s time to set new goals. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: Be honest with yourself. Nothing good comes from sugarcoating the past. If you lie to yourself about your disappointments, you’re preventing yourself from avoiding those disappointments in the future and becoming a better, more successful sales rep. “What I teach people is, just change one word around, from the prospect to I. How could I have made them believe that they were ready to buy? How could I have made them understand the price was right? How could I have made sure that they had everybody there? If you can change that one word and put the onus on yourself, you're going to learn from your failures, and those failures are going to start to diminish.” – Interview with Harvey J. Eisenstadt, Trainer, Speaker, Mentor, & Author 3. What Did I Learn Last Year?  Now is the time when you put the two previous steps together. You achieved some spectacular wins. You ran into some unexpected disappointments. So, what did you learn from each? What was the secret to your successes? What worked and what didn’t? And why were you able to achieve what you did and what caused you to fail when you did? Take the time to move through both your wins and disappointments journals and find the lessons in each. And then, ask yourself these questions about those lessons: What would’ve worked better? What was the lesson I should have learned? Have I actually learned this lesson yet? Is there any evidence to prove that I learned it? What is the evidence? Answering these questions gives you an opportunity to take on bigger challenges. If something failed last year, your answers to these questions give you an opportunity to learn what you can do differently next time to increase your chance of success. Asking the REAL Questions Struggling to find the lessons? Ask yourself these questions to tickle your brain a bit. What do I need to change in the way I operate to have success faster? Do I need more discipline? Have I been honest with myself and others? Am I taking care of myself as well as I need to be? Do I face problems head-on, or do I put my head in the sand? Do I let other people support me, or do I avoid getting feedback and help? Do I support other people as much as I should? Do I need to be more proactive in chasing my goals? Do I need to say no more often and focus on what really matters? As you learn from previous mistakes, you reduce the chances that failure happens again. And you also increase the chances of good events happening. When you do that, you are changing the climate that you’re growing your seeds of success in. You’re increasing the amount of sunshine and rain. And you’re reducing the frost and pests killing your plants. You’re cultivating success in your life. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: It’s vital that you learn to find a lesson in EVERY failure. That’s why it’s so important to jot down your disappointments over the past year. And that’s why this step is so important for setting sales goals that lead you to professional success.  “I don't care if you're buying something or selling something. The easiest thing to do is give up and walk away. But if you can keep learning a lesson, asking why, wondering why, go back to your team, regroup with them and decide how to be bigger and better and stronger together; it's a formality that the byproduct is success.” – Interview with Derek Daly, Author & Motor Racing Legend 4. How Do I Limit Myself & How Can I Stop? We are often our own worst enemy. And in many cases, the things that are holding us back the most are things we do to ourselves. This crucial step of The Setting Sales Goals Framework is meant to help you identify where these self-imposed roadblocks are. Because once you do, only then can you overcome them. Ask yourself these four questions to uncover your own limiting beliefs and behaviors. How Do I Limit Myself? You may come up with tons of different reasons here. And I want you to make note of every single one of them. For instance, you may think: I don’t plan and think ahead I’m lazy I believe what other people say about me I don’t stand up for myself when my customers push me around I don’t follow through on what I say I’m going to do I spend more than I make I don’t ask for what I want Write them all down here. What Has It Cost Me to Do So? Next, analyze what each of those limits is costing you. This step of the process immediately throws everything into perspective. And as a result, you’ll soon be able to identify that 20% of the issues once removed will give you 80% of all the benefits. In What Ways Have I Benefited from Limiting Myself? What are the upsides of limiting yourself? Don’t be fooled here. There are always perks to limiting ourselves. If there weren’t, we wouldn’t be doing it in the first place. Some of the benefits you come up with may be: Living an easier life Avoiding having too much expected of you Living in ignorance and not having to face up to your issues Increasing the chance that people approve of you Having something to blame everything that goes wrong on Having the excuse that you could “do better if you really tried” when things do go wrong If I Knew How, Would I Be Willing to Stop Limiting Myself? The final step is to ask yourself, “Am I willing to stop limiting myself in these ways?” I don’t want you to worry about whether you think you’re going to be able to stop limiting yourself. Instead, ask yourself – “If I knew how, would I be willing to stop limiting myself in this area?” If the answer is yes, then this should be a goal of yours moving forward. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: Adopt an abundance mindset. An abundance mindset lets you see the vast potential in the world rather than being held down by scarcity and fear. And that means you can set better, more ambitious sales goals for yourself.  “We have abundance on this planet. The only limitations that are set, are set ourselves in what we believe we're able to achieve in a world full of abundance. Literally when you open your mind to that understanding, then why wouldn't you want to go out there and get every single thing you can. Because you know everything you could ever want and more is right here in one place. And it's nothing new. It's just a matter of you getting your hands on as much of it as possible.” – Interview with Ryan Stewman, Sales Coach & Business Consultant 5. What Roles Do I Play In My Life? Next up, it’s time to define your roles. And not just your roles at work. But all of your roles in life. Answering the question of “what roles do I play in my life?” allows you to get an overall view of all the aspects and responsibilities in your life. And doing so sets you up to identify which roles you want to focus on in the year ahead. There are three benefits to identifying your roles. 1: It Provides Direction Identifying your various roles lets you see how you’re being pulled in different directions. For instance, I think of my roles as a salesperson, entrepreneur, Brazilian jujitsu competitor, partner to my girlfriend, and a member of the Baron family. Spending a lot of time at the gym, training, and competing in Brazilian jujitsu can be fulfilling. But the reality is that it’s pulling me away from my financial goals as a salesperson. As you can see here, some goals in certain roles may work in tandem while others will pull away from each other. 2. It Generates Balance On the flip-side of that, if I spent all of my time in the role of salesperson and entrepreneur, what would be the point? Sure, I love selling, sure I love building the business. But they are just a vehicle to affording to do everything else I want to do in my life, which includes being a great partner and family member. It is very easy to spend too much time and attention on one area of your life and not enough time where it really matters. 3. It Gives Role Dichotomy You can hold multiple roles in your life. And you can act differently within those roles. This is called role dichotomy. For instance, I can’t take the aggressive version of me from a Brazilian jujitsu competition onto a sales call. If I do, I won’t close any deals. But I can dial back that part of me and tap into my emotional intelligence and calmness when I’m in my sales role. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: You can’t just have one role. No one is just a salesperson, a parent, or a partner. We all play different roles in our lives. So be sure you’re really digging deep to find which ones you play.  “We can't be workaholics, no extreme is good. So we want to be able to relax, recharge, have fun. Therefore, finding time to be inspired and do things you love has again, positive domino knock-on effects to the rest of your life as does having lots of energy because your health is good, having healthy relationships at home and in your family.” – Interview with Matt Anderson, Author, Coach, & Speaker 6. Which One of These Roles Is My Major Focus For Next Year?  Now it’s time to pick out which of your roles you’d like to focus on. Of course, I would like you to prioritize your sales career as your main focus over the next 12 months. But the reality is you may have other things that are more pressing right now. And that’s fine. As long as your sales role is at least second on your list of priorities, you’re still going to be able to crush your sales target. In fact, if you are for example, massively obese, fixing the role of being healthy and being there for your family will also have a massive effect on your sales performance too as you lose weight and get in shape. If you’re having a hard time figuring out which role to choose, ask yourself these questions: If you could put one problem behind you, once and for all, what would it be? Which role does that relate to? In which role do I want to not just make progress, but get to the end game of? Which role has the biggest impact on my overall happiness right now? Which aspect of my life is the biggest drain on my energy and willingness to take risks? Which role does this fall under? Understand the Zigzag Trap So, why do you need to focus things down at all? Can’t you just work on achieving all your goals at once? The answer here is no. Remember the old saying, “If you don’t make sacrifices to achieve your goals, then your goals themselves become the sacrifice.” Imagine that you have two major roles in your life, and each one of these roles is an island with lots of treasure on it. You start off the year, right in between the two islands treading water. Now, you can only swim in one direction or the other, towards one island or the other one. What most people do is zigzag between the two islands for decades on end and never make any real progress toward achievement in either role. But the most focused and successful individuals understand this trap. So they swim over to one island, collect the treasure, and then swim back to the other island and collect the treasure there as well. When you’re focused on one main role at a time, you become far more efficient in your goal achievement. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: The multitasking myth applies to larger goals, not just daily work. There’s been plenty of research that the most successful people don’t multitask. Instead, they focus on a single objective. Apply that same logic to your goals.  “It's basically been proven that multitasking is a myth. So stop it. Do one thing at a time. And I think that it's very useful to have a practice where you figure out, okay, what do I need to get done today, what are the most important priorities, and then just do them one at a time.” – Interview with Scott Ingram, Founder of Sales Success Media 7. What Are My Goals for Each Role?  This is where things start to get serious. Now we’re going to put together goals for each role. What do you want to accomplish as a sales rep that you couldn’t last year? How would you like to improve your family life? What do you need to do to feel more in control of what you’re accomplishing socially? Try to come up with five to ten goals for each role. And ask yourself the following questions about each goal along the way to make sure it’s the right goal for you. If I accept this challenge, will I make sure it happens? Am I hoping I will achieve this, or is it actually possible to achieve it? Is the goal specific and measurable? Does this goal match my values? Are you willing to be responsible for achieving this goal no matter what? That last question is incredibly important. Because if you’re not willing to do whatever you need to achieve the goal, you’re not going to be responsible for achieving it. And as a result, it will never happen. For all of your goals, no matter what the role, you must feel motivated to give it your best shot. Otherwise, just scribble it out and replace it with a few more potential ones. SMART Sales Goals Defined It’s essential that your goals are as specific as possible. And setting SMART sales goals is the best way to ensure your goals meet those requirements. So be sure your goals are SMART: Specific – What exactly does achieving your goal look like? Measurable – What are the quantifiable metrics you need to meet or fulfill? Achievable – Is this even possible (be honest)? Relevant – Is it even important compared to my role and my other goals? Time-Bound – When exactly does it need to be achieved by? Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: When choosing goals, listen to your heart. Cheesy as all hell, I know. But when you choose goals that are connected to your emotions, you’re 10X more likely to have the motivation you need to follow through.  “This is why goal setting isn't very effective for most people, it doesn't get us to change action, it's our emotion that gets to change action.” – Interview with Matt Anderson, Author, Coach, & Speaker 8. What Are My Top Goals for Next Year?  Finally, it’s time to narrow down your goals. At this point in the framework, I typically have about 20 or 30 goals total, spread out across my different roles. But then I have to pick out the top five I think are going to be the most impactful. One reason we narrow things down here is that you just can’t focus on achieving 20 to 30 goals at a time. Remember the zigzag trap? When you split your attention among so many goals, you’re setting yourself up to not achieve any of them. But another reason we’re narrowing things down is there are often going to be larger goals that cancel out the small ones. For instance, if I want to build up an emergency fund, buy a new car, start investing, and earn a million dollars next year, the million dollars goal will make the other three irrelevant. See how that works? The 3-Part Test So, how do you narrow your goals down? Well, there’s a handy little three-part test I like to use that does wonders. When evaluating your goals, think: Do your goals fit your major role focus? Do they all (in one way or another) support that role? Do they fit with each other? Or are they pulling you in opposite directions? If so, you’re never going to be able to achieve both. Does each of your roles have a goal? Frontloading one or two roles with all your goals is a surefire path to burnout. But spreading your goals across roles will keep you focused. After you’ve narrowed down your goals into four or five, you’ve done all the hard work! Now, it’s up to you to stick with them. Setting Sales Goals Pro Tip: Focus on getting maximum benefit. What you’re looking for are goals that have an unequal upside. That means you can put a 60% effort into it and get out a 95% benefit. They’re the “easier” wins.  “For people who want to achieve extraordinary results right now, it's actually not about working longer hours. It's actually about being clear on what are the 20% priorities or activities that if I focus on those things, that drives 80% of my results. How do I start investing my time throughout the day instead of spending it.” – Interview with Geoff Woods, Co-Founder & President of ProduKtive Wrapping Up Setting sales goals is one of the most important sales success skills. In relatively little time and for not much effort, you can implement the eight steps in The Setting Sales Goals Framework to plan out strategic, effective goals for the whole year. All you need to do is: What Did I Achieve Last Year? What Were My Biggest Disappointments Last Year? What Did I Learn Last Year? How Do I Limit Myself & How Can I Stop? What Roles Do I Play in My Life? Which One of These Roles Is My Major Focus for Next Year? What Are My Goals for Each Role? What Are My Top 3 Goals for Next Year? Running through this process alone will make an incredible difference in your life. You’re going to feel more motivated, focused, and driven to succeed. And best of all, you’ll have a clear, achievable path to success, both personally and professionally. So now that you know how to set them, your first goal is simple… just get started.

In the minds of many reps, competitor buyers are off-limits for prospecting. After all, why waste time with a buyer that’s already entrenched with someone offering a similar product? But as it turns out, competitor buyers are some of the best prospects you can target. They’re more qualified, they’re budget-ready, and they’ve already got a buying process in place for your product. That being said, these leads can be harder to win over, too. They’re more loyal, resistant to change, and they take a bit more convincing on why your product is superior. So, how do you sell to competitor buyers successfully? This guide dives into how to sell against a competitor to bring on their existing clients. Inside, we take a look at a proven four-step framework. And we also investigate why these leads can be so lucrative in the first place (and how they can skyrocket your commissions in no time). Why Sell Into Competitor Accounts? Before we get into how to sell against a competitor, let’s look at why you should consider selling to their buyers in the first place. At first glance, the prospect of selling to your competition’s buyers can seem like a failed cause. Existing customers are loyal. They’re already familiar with your competitor’s products. And they’re resistant to change (the “don’t fix what ain’t broke” mindset). That all adds up to harder sells, wasted time, and fruitless effort… right? But as it turns out, there are plenty of benefits of selling to your competition’s buyers. And once you’ve developed a system for converting them that actually works, you can start to reap those benefits. Potential Benefits (When You Do It Right) So, why go after your competitor’s buyers at all? Below are a few of the biggest benefits of making the leap. They’ve Already Demonstrated Product Interest – One of the hardest parts of bringing new customers on is demonstrating how your solution addresses their pain points. It’s why retaining repeat customers is 5X more valuable compared to finding new buyers, according to Invesp. Existing customers already see the need. And so do your competitor’s buyers. As a result, you don’t have to spend days and weeks explaining your product’s value—they already understand it because they’re already working with a similar product. The Budget Is Settled – In addition to already demonstrating product interest, a competitor’s buyers have already allocated the space in their budget. When there’s already space in the budget, you don’t have to work as hard to justify spending extra. Instead, you can simply swap out your expenses with those of your competitors (if they’re comparable, of course). Their Buying Process Is in Place – Last but not least, your competitor’s buyers know how this all works. They’ve done it before. The approvals, the training, the onboarding, the ongoing support—they get it. And they’re far less likely to be turned off by how extensive the buying process may be. For you, that means an easier sale and less feet dragging along the way. Why It Can Be So Difficult to Pull Off The perks are clear—your competitor’s buyers are more qualified, more price-friendly, and more efficient than bringing on new clients. What’s not to love about that? But there are also some downsides to going this route too. Namely, converting these buyers can be a tough sell. At least in some cases. Here’s why. Loyalty – If a buyer has stuck with a brand for years, you may have trouble overcoming loyalty. Loyalty is a powerful purchasing motivator. InMoment found 77% of consumers say they’ve held relationships with specific brands for 10 years or more. And 61% go out of their way to buy from them. That can make it especially difficult to bring loyal customers over to your side. Lack of Differentiation – Piggybacking on the last point, a buyer isn’t going to make a shift unless there’s an especially compelling reason to do so. How do you address needs better than the competitor? Are you faster? More feature-rich? Do you provide more value for less investment? If you can’t demonstrate why you’re better or even if you’re better, you’ll have little luck in closing a deal. Change Hesitancy – Finally, individuals are change-averse. But businesses and organizations are even more resistant to rocking the boat. Change is scary. And there’s risk involved in working with a new vendor. It’s up to you to show how partnering with your business addresses those risks and provides more potential benefit than the potential detriment of signing on. The Competitive Takeover Framework Now that we understand both the perks and difficulties of acquiring this type of buyer, let’s look at how to sell against competition. How do you convince a loyal customer to come on board when they’re already loyal to another company? The trick is to address unfulfilled needs, establish some buy-in, overcome objections, and drive urgency. The best way I’ve found to do just that is by following what I call The Competitive Takeover Framework. This framework is composed of four simple steps: Find the Gap Get Agreement Eliminate Self Doubt Answer “Why Now?” And when implemented effectively, it will persuade even the staunchest potential buyers to do business with you. 1. Find the Gap The first and arguably most important step to master if you’re wondering how to sell against lower priced competition is finding and exploiting “the gap.” To explain, the only reason a potential buyer would switch away from their current vendor to you is because they have an unmet need. Maybe that need is a specific feature. Maybe it’s more advanced technical support. The list of potential needs is limitless. But in the end, those unmet needs typically translate into hassle for the buyer. And if you can reduce that hassle, you’ve just found the most powerful change motivator of all. That is the gap. The gap occurs between the end of the competition’s sales cycle and the end of your sales cycle. You can think of these ends as the status quos after implementing each solution. Take a look at the graph below for a better idea of what the gap looks like. See how the gap is defined by where the buyer is now versus where they could be after implementing your solution? The goal is to identify how your product can alleviate the buyer's pain points in a way their current solution cannot. With the gap, you’re building a solid foundation that you can use to demonstrate how the buyer’s life stands to benefit from switching. And it’s the logical reasoning you need to convince them to make the change. A Few Notes on the Gap As you’re identifying and leveraging your buyer’s gap, there are a few things you need to remember. The bigger the gap is, the easier it’s going to be to convert the account. Essentially, a bigger gap means you have more value to offer. And if that gap is small, the risks of changing vendors to your company might outweigh the benefits. The process of navigating the value gap is slower but less painful than implementing the original solution. Once this process of change has happened, the next value gap is between the second sales cycle status quo and then the third. As you go further along (i.e., third to fourth, fourth to fifth), the value gap tends to shrink. Therefore, converting an account that has been converted many times over is tougher than converting an account that has only been sold into once. Gap Building Questions Now that you know what the gap is, let’s talk about how to identify it with your buyer. There are two questions you should ask during this stage: What pain points are you experiencing with your current solution? Are those pain points actually important to you? Let’s get more in-depth with each. With the first question, you are getting your buyer to both acknowledge that there are unaddressed pain points and coaxing them to let you know what those unmet pain points are. In the real world, that might look something like this: Seller – “I’m curious, when you tried to increase the number of sales that your team is making (remove pain) by using in-person sales training (benefits of a product), how did it go?” Buyer – “It worked well at first, but then quickly everybody went back to their old ways, and revenue stagnated again.” After that question, we’re going to further qualify that this is a gap we can sell into by asking a downplay question. The question might look like this: “Perhaps everyone selling as they always have (pain point just uncovered) isn’t that important to you because you’re hitting all your targets already (reason it might not be important)?” This question is invaluable at uncovering information. If the buyer fights back and tells us that this pain point really is an issue for them, then we know we’ve found the gap. If, on the other hand, the buyer agrees with you that the pain point isn’t that big of a deal, they’re probably not worried about it, and so it’s going to be difficult to close a sale with them. Pro Tip: After identifying the buyer’s unmet pain points in the first question, don’t jump right in explaining why your solution is superior. Doing so undermines the decisions the buyer made in the past. And that can lead to reactive discussions where they’re feeling defensive—not a very sales-receptive position.  2. Get Agreement Having highlighted the gap, it’s time for a simple—yet essential—step for getting buy-in from your prospect. And it all hinges on a very peculiar human quality. See, once you get a single “yes” out of an individual, all the “yes” responses that follow are easier to earn. The pill gets a little less jagged and easier to swallow each time. That’s why you must get the buyer to verbally agree that the gap you’ve uncovered is truly worth the risk and the pain of change. If they say no, then they’ve just disqualified themselves as a potential buyer, taking a lot of extra work off your plate. If they say yes, then they’re a good candidate and worth trying to convert them into a buyer. So the question is, how do we get the buyer to verbally agree to make a change? There are four steps in particular here: The “What” Question The “Confirmation” Question The “Reversal” Question Get Agreement Step 1: The “What” Question This question is designed to defy the buyer’s expectations that they’re about to get hit with some manipulative sales pitch. Instead of being pushy and off-putting, we’re going to probe a little bit deeper into their needs. This question may look something like this: In regard to (the pain), what would you like to see happen with it? It’s a simple question. But it's open-ended enough to bring to light some very serious pain points and solutions that you may not have uncovered otherwise. Step 2: The “Confirmation” Question Next up, we’re going to ask a question that confirms you’ve heard the buyer correctly about their pain points and desired solutions. Something like this: What I’m hearing you say that you want is (repeat what they said). Have I got that right? There’s quite a bit of subtlety in this question. On the one hand, you’re confirming that what you’re hearing is what the buyer wants, not what you’ve already pitched. This gives the buyer more agency and connects their wants to your product implicitly. Beyond that, you’re also demonstrating to the buyer that you are invested in their needs and that you’re listening—fantastic for building rapport. Step 3: The “Reversal” Question Here in particular, the buyer will begin dreading what they think is ahead—the pitch. That unbearable time when talking to a rep where they feel they’re being manipulated, cheated, and coerced into a sale. But what you’re going to do here is play off those expectations by asking the opposite of what they’re thinking. You’re going to ask them what they want. That might look like this: So, it seems like there are some issues here. What would you like me to do? With a big enough gap, your potential buyer will be enthusiastic about working with you and ask to engage in the next steps (send us a proposal, schedule a demo, etc.). Step 4: Get Agreement Finally, you need to seal the deal by getting a verbal agreement to work together from the buyer. This commitment helps lock the buyer into partnering up. And it also does wonders for preventing them from bailing out further down the line. This question might look like this in practice: If I can solve (the pain), will you move from (competitor) to us? Simple as that! 3. Eliminate Self-Doubt At this stage of the framework, you’ve already identified the value gap and gotten the buyer to commit to signing on if you can solve their current pains. Sounds like that should be the end of things, right? What else is left? As it turns out, logic alone isn’t enough to get buyers on board. Because buyers are humans. And humans are guided by emotions and social pressures. That means when there’s a risk of looking stupid, a buyer is going to be far less likely to sign on with you. For instance, if a buyer signs on with your competitor only to switch to another vendor, they’re going to feel embarrassed in front of their colleagues. That’s why it’s up to you to give the buyer all the tools they need to look like the hero of the story. There are two main ways to do that—give them customer stories and focus on the upside. The Value of Customer Stories Since humans are so innately social, it’s easy to understand why customer stories can have such a huge impact on how your buyer feels about signing on with you. The opinions of others are highly influential on our own courses of action. And when you feed your potential buyer with customer success stories, it can do wonders in eliminating self-doubt. Focus on customer stories where the case in question involves a buyer similar to your target prospect. The more similar they are, the more likely it’ll resonate with your target. On top of that, these customer stories have the dual effect of showing buyers that other people are in fact making big changes. And those changes have paid off big in the long run. Focus on the Upside To even further eliminate self-doubt, you can ask a series of rhetorical questions that get prospects to understand the value of making the change. What I call “would it be worth it” questions are fantastic for helping buyers focus on the upsides. These questions might look something like this: “If we move forward with the deal, get your team trained, and all it did was increase their performance by 10%, would it be worth it?” “If we replace the competitor’s camera equipment and all it did was eliminate all the breakdowns and lost time you’re currently facing, would it be worth it?” Again, the questions here are mostly rhetorical. But along the way you’ll also be uncovering underlying desires of the buyer that may not have been out in the open before. 4. Answer “Why Now?” Having identified the gap, gotten agreement, and eliminated self-doubt, it’s time to compel action. In a perfect world, buyers would act immediately. After all, the sooner you implement, the sooner you can start seeing the benefits. But we don’t live in a perfect world, unfortunately. And many buyers put off a purchase decision as much as they can. Maybe it’s next week, maybe next month, or maybe next quarter. But with each passing day, the odds of them pulling out of a deal grow higher and higher. That’s why it’s vital you get your buyer to act now. And that’s where trigger events come in. A trigger event is an event that gets people thinking about doing things a bit differently. It could be a superior product launch from a competitor. Or a CTO with institutional knowledge leaving the company. Or it could be a CRM breakdown that obliterates years of customer data. No matter what the trigger event is, it’s bound to spur rapid change. And they’re great leverage for inspiring your competitor’s buyers to switch to your product. You’ll know you’re in the right place at the right time when a trigger event is happening because you’ll hear your buyers say: “It's ironic you have reached out to me right now. I have a concern about one of your competitors.” “I'm delighted you called. We're looking at making a change. Can we speak next week?” There are a few different types of trigger events that you can take advantage of. Trigger Event 1: Bad Experiences A bad user experience is likely to cause dissatisfaction. And when that happens, the buyer’s emotions will be running high. That’s the perfect time to convert an account, and buyers will be much more receptive to your pitch afterward. Trigger Event 2: Internal Changes An internal change within the buyer's organization is another type of trigger event. It could be a change in talent, moving locations, shifting priorities, or anything else that makes the previous status quo now unmanageable. This trigger event usually follows after a change in personnel or location. But it can also happen when there is a change in priorities in the organization from the top down too. For instance, a computer company may decide overnight to stop producing hardware and only focus on software. This would be a great trigger event to exploit. Trigger Event 3: Catastrophe A catastrophic trigger event could be any of the other two trigger events, but this one is held in its own category because it immediately displaces your competition. In fact, it can displace the buyer making purchases of any kind. One of the best recent examples of a catastrophe trigger event is COVID-19 in 2020. Overnight, buyers stopped buying certain products and services altogether. What’s more, these were products and services that were thought to be absolutely indispensable. These events might happen only once every decade within large organizations, and so if you’re trying to convert an account and a catastrophic event hits, it's like winning the lottery. Artificial Trigger Events If your market doesn’t have any trigger events right now, you can (and should) create an artificial trigger event. While you can’t (and shouldn’t) try ousting CTOs, tainting competitor buyer experiences, or causing global catastrophes, you can offer a time-sensitive discount or benefit. Think 5% off, free technical support for a week, or even professional training to sweeten the pot. But again, make sure it’s time-sensitive as otherwise the buyer won’t feel compelled to act. Wrapping Up Some salespeople don’t bother with going after their competitor’s accounts. They think their buyers are too entrenched in their current solution. And trying to bring them over is a waste of time and effort. But buyers from the competition are actually some of the best leads you can get. They’re qualified, budget-ready, and efficient implementors. The only trick is you have to understand how to convince them your solution is the way to go. The Competitive Takeover Framework is the absolute best method for persuading your competition’s buyers that you’re the superior solution to their problems. Just follow the four simple steps: Find the Gap Get Agreement Eliminate Self Doubt Answer “Why Now?” That’s all it takes. When you implement this framework into your processes, you’ll be amazed how quickly you’re converting buyers loyal to your competitor into excited new clients for your business. And most importantly, you’ll be bringing on more qualified, ready-to-buy, and knowledgeable clients—letting you focus on closing more sales than ever.

Tom Pisello is the current Chief Evangelist for sales enablement at Mediafly. On this episode of the Salesman Podcast, Tom uses data-backed evidence to explain “Do Nothing Deals” and how salespeople can break the status quo to close more of these deals. You'll learn: Sponsored by: Free SalesCode assessment Learn your strengths and weaknesses in an instant. Taken by over 10,000+ of your competitors. Don't get left behind. Take the free assessment Featured on this episode: Host - Will Barron Founder of Salesman.org Guest - Tom Pisello Chief Evangelist, Mediafly Resources: Evolved Selling by Tom Pisello EvolvedSelling.com The Transparency Sale by Todd Caponi Virtual Selling by The RAIN Group The Evolvers Podcast Transcript Will Barron: This episode of the show is brought to you from the salesmen.org HubSpot studio. Coming up on today's episode of the Salesman Podcast.   Tom Pisello: Yeah, buyers are looking to make a choice or an improvement in their environment, and a do nothing deal happens when they decide to stick with their status quo. Maybe the investment that's required is so high compared to the change and the benefits they can get, the outcomes they can get, that it's not worthwhile. But one of the important things is that people move away from pain emotionally much more than being attracted to gain.   Will Barron: Hello, sales nation. My name Will Barron, I'm the host of the Salesman Podcast, the world's most downloaded B2B sales show. On today's episode, we have an absolute legend, really enjoyed this conversation, we have Tom Pisello. He is the author of the book Evolved Selling, which you can find on Amazon and everywhere else as well. On today's episode, we're getting into what to do with “do-nothing deals.” So what do nothing deals are, how to break through the status quo and get some more of these closed. And Tom comes at this with tonnes of research and data. And so there's tonnes to go out with this episode, so let's jump right into it. Tom, welcome to the Salesman Podcast.   Tom Pisello: Pleasure to be here, Will. Thank you so much for inviting me.   What are “Do Nothing Deals”? · [01:38]   Will Barron: You're more than welcome. I'm glad to have you on. On today's episode, we're going to get into what to do when we have do nothing deals. Now, to set things up, Tom, before I throw my thoughts into the picture here, what is a do nothing deal? Let's clarify this before we suss out how to deal with the situation.   “Buyers are looking to make a choice or an improvement in their environment. And a do nothing deal happens when they decide to stick with their status quo.” – Tom Pisello · [01:41]   Tom Pisello: Yeah, buyers are looking to make a choice or an improvement in their environment. And a do nothing deal happens when they decide to stick with their status quo, or their business as usual, and really the whole buying decision process that they've been through, all those meetings, all the committees, all the getting it together. All that time and effort from the buyer perspective is all thrown away, obviously your sales time with them is thrown away too, and they decide not to go with you, not to go with a competitor, but just stick with business as usual. Maybe relying on that legacy solution or the broke business processes that they're using today. And so, unfortunately we see too many pipeline opportunities ending with do nothing or as Gartner calls it, no decision.   How to Handle ‘No Deal’ Sales Scenarios · [02:42]   Will Barron: We are clearly biassed here on this podcast. Yourself and I, many companies, many roles within the sales space, and myself, all I do is help sales professionals close more deals, earn more commissions, and crush it in their sales jobs. Are there times when a no deal or a no decision is the appropriate decision for the buyer?   “I think there are times as sellers that we need to be ready to sometimes say, “You know what, no decision or do nothing might be the most appropriate.” – Tom Pisello  · [03:38]   Tom Pisello: You know, there could be times where maybe their problem is not that big of a problem. Maybe the legacy solutions and business processes maybe aren't that broke. Maybe the investment that's required is so high compared to the change and the benefits they can get, the outcomes they can get, that it's not worthwhile, or sometimes the organisation just isn't ready for change. And so those are three just quick ones, where it is appropriate. That may be your advice to the customers is, “Look you might not be ready for this.” And I've given that advice to certain customers or, “What you're doing now, you could get some benefit from what I'm providing, but maybe not all of the benefits to overcome all the work and effort and risk of change.” So I think there are times as sellers that we need to be ready to sometimes say, “You know what, no decision or do nothing might be the most appropriate.”   Examining External Market Forces and a Salesperson’s Ability to Influence “No Deal Scenarios · [04:38]   Will Barron: For sure, because where I want to go with this, is it a sales person's responsibility to never have a no deal? Is it in our control or are there other kind of market forces that dictate some of this?   Tom Pisello: Yeah, there definitely are these external market forces. And you know what, identifying a company that is going to end up at no decision or do nothing, as quickly as possible, should be one of the missions we have, right? Which is understand that the outcomes are going to be significant, that the company has the investment that they're ready to make, that they're ready to implement a change and be successful. Many of us now are selling subscription services. So our selling doesn't end with that. Firstly, we have to make sure they're going to be successful and going to achieve those outcomes. So if you're able to identify that a company maybe has one of these three issues, perhaps that's better, you don't waste as much time on them, and maybe you can advise them not to waste their time as well on a decision cycle that might end badly.   Logical and Emotional Responses to Proposed Change · [05:13]    Will Barron: For sure. It's somewhat common sense, we want to qualify some of this out, but why I find it difficult to do this practically when I'm selling our training to the enterprise, as opposed to individuals, I get into a lot of conversations where the buyer is stuck in the status quo. They've always done things one way, and now with COVID, they'd been given a big kick in the arse to do all the cliche stuff of digital transformation, remote selling, all these kinds of things. So now there's a bit less status quo in the marketplace from my perspective. But where I find it difficult to qualify is when logically they should move forward, but emotionally they get stuck. Do you have any thoughts on how to suss out when we are in the qualification process whether we want to invest our time into this buyer, whether we can suss out whether logically we know that they want to work with us, but whether emotionally they are ever going to come round.   Tom Pisello: Yeah, there are a lot of organisations that are stuck, stuck in the mud kind of organisations. And I don't think there's a precise science for understanding whether those companies will move or not. If the company is willing to recognise that they are broken and that it is costing them a lot of money to stick the status quo, I think that that's one way where you can get them to maybe know that they're going to move. I think the other is that you have to think about the outcomes and the value, not just from an organisational or a company standpoint, but from a personal standpoint. So personally, does your stakeholder have the motivation to change? Are they feeling enough pain every day from what's going on, and are they willing to put their job on the line, or perhaps their reputation on the line, by being the champion behind your solution? And what is the business value benefits that they're going to ultimately get is important, but sometimes the personal benefits that they may be able to achieve by doing this is something that you want to amplify to understand whether emotionally they're connected with the solution or not.   Why Change Only Happens When the Pain of Staying the Same is Greater Than the Pain of Change · [06:52]    Will Barron: I know it's difficult because we're talking very in broad terms here, but are there any qualifying questions we could ask? One that comes to mind could be as I'm jotting down notes from our conversation here Tom, could we ask a question along the lines of, “Do you believe that there could be a better solution?”, just to see if there's a willingness to have someone put the solution in front of them and to move forward with it. Is there anything else we can ask question-wise?   “People move away from pain emotionally, much more than being attracted to gain.” – Tom Pisello · [07:58]   Tom Pisello: You can, Will. One of the big things with emotion though, is that you can ask questions about the benefits that they may be able to get out of it on a personal basis, an organisational basis, or a business basis. Personal are the things that impact them every day: recognition, raises, respect from the organisation. Business is the cost savings, the productivity improvements, process improvements, risk avoidance, and then revenue growth. And then on an organisational basis, how does this impact the ultimate end user and the customer and improving the experience of all those that are involved. So those are the three dimensions that we measure on, but one of the important things is that people move away from pain emotionally, much more than being attracted to gain. So the only change I would make, Will, in your question is focus on, “Does the person you're talking to, do they have a good perspective on the personal pain they're experiencing today and is that extreme enough for them to move?”   Tom Pisello: And then on the organisation side and the business side, similarly. Rather than say, “Oh, do you believe you're going to be able to get these benefits out?” Say, “How bad is it? How bad do you think it is today? And what is that costing you perhaps by sticking where you're at?” And so if you're able to get them to clearly understand, and to be able to articulate back to you in a more amplified way, the pains that they're experiencing, that's when I find that you've made that emotional connection and that they're ready and they're primed. And you have to do that, not just for your champion, but all the other dozen or so other flippant stakeholders that we have in every deal now to make sure that everyone understands the pain that's involved. And too quickly as sellers, I think we understand our solution and we understand maybe the benefits that it can deliver. And I think too often, we jump to that rather than really spending time to make sure that the customer and all of the stakeholders really understand how much the affliction is costing them and how painful it is and making sure everyone is aligned on that before we jump to the solution and the ultimate benefits that get delivered.   Why Most Customers Want Their Pains Fixed Rather Than Their Pleasures Enhanced · [09:33]   Will Barron: It's interesting you talk about pain versus pleasure. We're actually going through, and this is marketing. The audience will appreciate this though. We're going through a massive change of our marketing over at salesman.org and our training product and the things that we offer at the moment. Cause we did a poll, and I think it's about three-and-a-half-thousand people replied to the poll, and now, polls are not ideal way to measure intent and different things, but the data is what it is. And we asked people essentially what they wanted from sales training. “What do you want to achieve by doing this?” I thought the answer would be, earn more money, more prestige, easier life. But the response was all negative. People were suffering, they talk about a lack of motivation, even the way that they framed up the answers.   Will Barron: It wasn't, “We want more motivation.” It was, “I don't want to have this lack of motivation anymore. I want that pain to be removed.” What was another one? But that was the top one by a mile. Salespeople in our audience, for whatever reason, are massively unmotivated at the moment. Another one was complexity. People wanted things to be simpler, which is why we're pushing everything towards this selling made simple branding that we're doing now. And I'm really focusing on adding fundamentals and frameworks as opposed to more higher level conversations and topics like that. And it was really interesting to me that it was all, “How can I remove these negatives?”, as opposed to, “How can I earn bigger commissions?”, which was my assumption going into this. Does that surprise you?   “Connecting to a pain is so much easier than trying to convince someone of a gain.” – Tom Pisello · [11:06]   Tom Pisello: It doesn't surprise me. And I'll talk psychologically about where we're at with a couple of those things. But the good news for you, Will, is that you're connecting to a pain, which is much easier than trying to convince someone of a ain. So you should be leveraging that if you're able to solve that pain problem, because they're recognising they do have this pain and they want the motivation. They're suffering from a lack of motivation. You're in a great spot. So anytime we can get our buyers or customers to really connect with them on the pain side, we know that we're solving something that's worth solving and worth it for the client to invest in. And that's a good thing. Let's talk a little bit about simplification and why that is coming up. And I think this goes a lot to the no decision drivers, the do nothing drivers, that Gartner found.   “40% of buying journeys right now are ending in no decision.” – Tom Pisello · [11:51]   Tom Pisello: So first of all, when we look at the problem, 94% of buyers have participated in a cancelled buying cycle over these past two years. And with COVID, although you indicate that things like transformation and some of these projects, you can't stick with status quo, we're actually seeing more of an issue of change rather than less. And you wouldn't think that because the motivation is there to change, but there's a couple of factors, and 40% of buying journeys right now are ending in no decision. So what's changed and what's driving that? Well, there were three issues that Gartner came up with. One was, why are decisions ending with do nothing? Changes in priorities. So 49% indicated that that's the number one issue. So what's happening in organisation is, and what's happening as a seller, you're going in, and underneath the buyer, all of these things are changing, and things are in a lot of flux right now.   Tom Pisello: So you start off selling towards one challenge that the buyer's having. And before, you know it, two weeks in, a month in, their priorities have been shaken up because their management and executives are having to move so quickly. And so we're facing this quicksand of changing priorities, and what you have to do with that, well, you really have to make sure you align with priorities and that you revisit those priorities. Like in subsequent calls, “Here's my understanding of the challenges we're addressing. Have any of these changed?” As new people come on, making sure you're gathering and making sure that everyone involved is aligned, and then making sure you're asking that question to the buyer that says, “Hey, I know these are your priorities.” As we go up the chain to the other decision makers, like, what is the top level strategic priority we're tying to? Because if you're not aligned to that top strategic priority, even if it's a good business case for the solution and there's good justification behind it, it can sometimes be, “Well, that's not a priority for us now. We're only focusing on the top three priorities.”   Tom Pisello: The second priority was perceived business and or technical risks, 45% indicated that. Here's where simplification and things like transparency and facilitation all come into play. Three absolutely critical factors right now. So what has happened to us during this crisis, Will, is that we're under a lot of stress and strain. Personal life, working from home. If you're a seller, one of the pieces of feedback I think you're getting on lack of motivation is, I can't be shaking hands with people. I can't be having dinner with them. We've got a lot of extroverts in this marketplace, and they are being forced to be introverts and selling through a 13-inch monitor, which isn't good for anyone. But there's a lot of change and tumult, whether that be health related, environmental related, personal related, working from home related, job related.   “When you go in and you start presenting a solution, if it isn't really simple, and if you are not incredibly trustworthy from the word go, and you're not making it easy to understand, easy to buy, and completely transparent and trustworthy, you're not going to get that sale.” Tom Pisello · [15:00]   Tom Pisello: They are a tonne of stresses strains on all of our buyers, personal lives, and business lives. Amygdala overload, is what it's called. And so when you go in and you start presenting a solution, if it isn't really simple, and if you are not incredibly trustworthy from the word go, and you're not making it easy to understand, easy to buy, and completely transparent and trustworthy, you're not going to get that sale because the fight, flight, or freeze mechanism within the amygdala complex in the primitive brain is already on overload. It's already overstimulated from everything that's going on around each one of our buyers. And when we present a solution, if it is a stack of all of these different options, and it's really hard, there's a lot of options to assemble these things in a multiple, they're going to go and shut down on you and basically go into possum mode.   Tom Pisello: They might not run. They might not fight, but they'll go into freeze, which is just as common a response as fight or flight, even though everyone calls it, fight or flight. So you have to keep it simple. As they're going through the buying process, if you make it too complex and you don't streamline the steps, and if you don't proactively anticipate what they might run into, they can freeze through that process as well. And so you have to facilitate that and trust. There used to be a time where you would have to emotionally stoke buyers to change from status quo. Well, think about going in with the challenger-like approach today, which is a very popular approach. And I love the challenger guys. I've had a chance to interview many of the original creators and stakeholders, whether it be for my book or my podcast.   “Before, 50% of decision making might've been emotional, 25% was logic was, and 25% was trust. We've now shifted to where most of the buying decisions now, 50% is based on trust.” – Tony Pisello · [17:01]   Tom Pisello: And the amazing thing with all of the challenger is, it works. When you go in and you want to shake up the status quo, you use these techniques of delivering insights and education. But when everyone is on Amygdala overload, you have to temper that. Whereas before 50% of decision making might've been emotional, and 25% of logic was, and 25% was trust, we've now shifted to where most of the buying decisions now, 50%, is based on trust. Why? Because there's not a lot we can hang onto out there. When the world is changing underneath us, we want people we can trust, we want companies we can trust, and the key there is to be transparent. You can't do everything. You can't be everything for everybody. Embrace your flaws. Do what you say you're going to do. Make sure you got plenty of proof points at every step to back up what it is that you're saying, whether those be real-world examples, using their solution or your solution to solve their particular problem. So use case demos, pilot programmes, plenty of success stories, good references, all things like that to build up that trust because that's now 50% of the buying decision. And if you're not able to gain that trust, you could have shaken up the status quo and logically convinced them, but you're not going to get them to make that decision.   Tom Pisello: And then, Will, there's one more, I know I'm going on for a while here.   Will Barron: I'm sat here in silence, just writing notes to come at you with a thousand questions in a second because I don't want to inter- I've done it now, but I didn't want to interrupt your flow.   “The buyer doesn't know how to justify your solution” – Tom Pisello · [19:01]   Tom Pisello: Yeah, no, no, no. So there is one third issue that I think is also important in this overcoming and addressing the no decision, and that's budget issues and constraints, 44%. Shoot, that shouldn't be any surprise to anyone, right? Even companies that are investing a lot in digital transformation and are spending money because their business models may have been disrupted, they're still being spendthrift. Frugal-nomics is what I call it. And it is really in full effect right now. So how are you going to get that project approved by the COVID committee? How are you going to get through the CF no? Well, you've got to have financial justification, and you can't leave that to chance. The buyer doesn't know how to justify your solution in. You have to give them and work with them to co-create that business case to then take up to the executive. So align, simplify, facilitate, transparency, and trust, and justification are five ways to kind of address this no decision.   How the Best Salespeople Tackle “No Decision” Scenarios and Adress the Gap in Buyer Expectation · [19:25]   Will Barron: Tom, have good salespeople been doing everything that you just described regardless for maybe not decades, but for years now? Is this nothing new? Are some listeners now going to listen to this and go, “I'm doing all that and everything's going fine.”?   There's over a 40% gap between what buyers expect you as a seller to deliver.” – Tom Pisello · [20:17]   Tom Pisello: Yeah. Well, if everything's going fine, that's good. Have they been doing it? I think to varying degrees. If you ask the buyers how well they've been doing it, I think you'll see a decided gap. What we call the engagement gap. Sellers are doing some of these elements, but they haven't evolved as quickly or elevated as quickly as buyers want them to. And there's a lot of great research from the Rain Group, Dave Shaby and the team over there, that point to this, and that there's over a 40% gap between what buyers expect you as a seller to deliver. Much of that research was across these exact dimensions. And where the sellers are perceived to be. So if we're doing it, the majority of sellers are not being rewarded for it, one way or another. So what are some of the things that came up in that research?   Why Buyers Believe Salespeople are Not Listening to Them in The Virtual Selling Space · [20:41]   Tom Pisello: Well, one of the big ones was listening, right? Buyers don't think that we're listening to them. Well, why is that? Well in a virtual meeting, what's happening is, Will, as you're talking to me or as I'm talking to you, your head is down, you're taking notes, right? And so all of a sudden the buyer's perceiving, because now we're in a new medium, that you're not listening to them. That's about one of several of these factors that to me again are these fundamental selling principles like, of course you've got to align, of course you've got to simplify your solution, of course you've got to facilitate. Of course you have to listen, but because it's a new medium, with virtual meetings and Zooms, because it is an environment where buyers have been spoiled by consumerization and they expect things to be ultra simple and ultra facilitated. “If we just did the things we did two or three years ago in the exact same way we did them, we're falling down on the declining value side and seller’s expectations are elevating that much more.” – Tom Pisello · [21:40] Tom Pisello: And because they're under more pressure and there's more stakeholders about, so there's all of these factors that are adding up to be where if we just did the things we did two or three years ago in the exact same way we did them, we're falling down on the declining value side and sellers' expectations are elevating that much more. So I think we have to just work on having this growth mindset and across each of these dimensions really look and say, “Am I aligning the way that buyers expect me to align?” “Is my solution really as simple as I think it is?” Or, “Am I over-complicating it?”   Tom Pisello: We implemented jumpstart services to make it be where there's like, “Here, it's all bundled. You get 50 users, it's a quick pilot. You can bail out at any time, so there's a money-back guarantee, and in completeness, you've got 30, 60, 90 days to try it out, and we do all the work for you. So there's no risk.” It's those kinds of things that make it a simple decision so that they don't maybe have to go through that long process, or worry about which pieces they're going to put together and then how much each piece is going to cost and all the risk involved in that.   Tom Pisello: So you have to rethink each one of these really important elements to say, “Am I delivering it in a way where I've elevated it to buyers expectations?” For example, justification. If you're just going to do a back of the napkin calculation with no proof points, no research, is that going to be enough? Or you're going to do a deep dive in a spreadsheet that no one can understand. Is that the way to deliver it in this professional new-century selling model that we're in?   “With this new consumerized buyer, there's a whole set of new capabilities that are going to elevate those sellers that are looking to up their game and looking to grow and evolve.” – Tom Pisello · [26:36]   Tom Pisello: And I think the answer to a lot of these, if you're really introspective, is no. These are all blocking and tackling elements, but you've got to do them in a different, better way now that we're Zooming in our sailing, now that we're all-virtual, all-digital. With this new consumerized buyer, there's a whole set of new capabilities that are going to elevate those sellers that hopefully are the ones that listened to you and I, that are looking to up their game and looking to grow and evolve.   “I think salespeople too often will take what marketing gives to them or take what the sales managers give to them and just regurgitate it and assume it works.” – Will Barron · [24:03]   Will Barron: I'm going to ask you a question in a second of, do you have any books, resources, other than your own, that you'd recommend for salespeople who want to learn to simplify and to create the value propositions and things of this nature, because that's a skill in its own right, and I think salespeople too often will take what marketing give to them, take what the sales managers give to them, and just regurgitate it and assume it works. But before we get to that, I've got one anecdote on this. So we did a new webinar the other day. I'm pretty open with the webinar statistics. Typically about 10% of people on a webinar, when there's hundreds of people on, that will sign up to our training product at the end of it. It's how I can sit there, answer questions, and essentially sell at scale.   Will Barron: Now we changed our offer within the webinar, and it's interesting, and this is why I bring it up, because we added trust to it. And I'll explain what the offer is in a second, dead simple, the value proposition. We added trust to it. I'm just going through some of our notes here from this episode. Made it simpler, covered some budget issues. And we changed essentially the premise of the training that we offer to individuals to use the value proposition of, “Close more deals in the next 28 days, or we'll give you your money back.” Just dead simple. No complexity. If you sign up, if you do the training and you run through it, and you're not closing more deals, then money back, just instant. And the number of people who signed up in that webinar, it was insane. You could see in the chat, and I'm answering questions. We have our assistant in the studio with me, as we're doing these webinars, throwing questions in my direction.   Will Barron: People were genuinely more excited than our previous offer, which is the same product, a very similar offer, but we just word this slightly differently. The guarantee has always been there, we just put it front and centre. And there's enterprise. We closed a couple of larger clients from that as well, multiple seat deals, as opposed to just individuals. And it was just from doing, as you've outlined here, Tom, of understanding that people's priorities are back and forth and all over the place at the moment. So obviously our offer just hit the right priority at the right time. Understanding that there's the business or technology risks, the whole premise of our product. I don't want to talk about it too much. I don't want to plug it on the show. But the whole premise of the product is dead simple. It just works. Everything's a framework. Everything's outlined for you. You can't really go wrong with it. And the trust elements and the budget element of it as well.   Tom Lists Down Books that Simplify The Value Creation Process and Influence Consumer Psychology · [26:13]    Will Barron: So it just seemed to work perfectly. Now, this is a skill, simplifying things I've worked really, really hard on in the past 12 months. I've read tonnes of really crap books on it. I'm reading loads of content on learning design and how to teach at the moment to kind of separate myself from other trainers and content creators. I really want stuff to stick, as opposed to you're just sharing five ways to cold call someone and crappy content like that. But I've not found a solution for myself, so I'm intrigued get it from yourself. Tom, are there any books, resources; is it just experience? How do we learn to simplify in business and create value propositions where we do a lot of what we're describing here upfront so that the buyer can tell us whether we're on the right tracks or not?   Tom Pisello: Yeah. I think there's a couple of books that you can use as a reference. First of all, Evolve Selling, which is my book. I will send you a link that I'm happy for you to share with your listeners, a free ebook, a copy of the full book, but just e-access only. And would love for you to share that with folks. And that goes through the way to use neuroscience and Aristotle and storytelling to really connect with buyers on emotion, logic, and trust. What Aristotle used to call pathos, logos, and ethos, goes through some of the Socratic questioning we mentioned. So it's a really good primer to kind of go the next step if you like the content we talked about on that. But two other really important books from other authors that I'd like to recommend. One deals completely with trust and the importance with trust nowaday, and a great interview as well.   Tom Pisello: Todd Caponi with a book called The Transparency Sale. Absolutely love this book, took many elements away from it, even though I'm schooled at trust, and Aristotle, and the neuroscience behind it. He had some really great practical advice and techniques to apply to negotiating and other elements. “Embrace your flawsomeness,” is something that he talks about, and I definitely borrowed it for this. And then another one where I mentioned the research is a book that you wouldn't think is that good, called Virtual Selling. And why I say you wouldn't think it's good is like, “Man, it's opportunistic that these guys have a book called Virtual Selling, when virtual selling is all we're doing, right?” However, the book is fantastic, and it's by the Rain Group.   Tom Pisello: Dave Shaby, a couple of other folks from the Rain Group came together and created the book called Virtual Selling. And it goes well beyond a simple guide of what you would think. But you really have to rethink some of these key capabilities that you've learned to implement, like listening skills. You have to really reimagine them in this world of virtual selling, and they go through the science behind it, as well as so many practical tips that I think would help, whether it be in the value of communication piece or the listening piece discovery, whatever it may be. I think that is another book that I highly recommend. Virtual Selling from Shaby and the rest of the group over at the Rain Group.   Tom Explains Why Salespeople Should Present Solutions Quickly and Guarantee Value During Virtual Selling · [29:15]   Will Barron: Awesome stuff. We've had Todd on the show, and we've had the Rain Group on the show, so I'll link to those episodes in the show notes of this episode. And I will link to the books in the show notes of this episode over at salesman.org as well. With that, Tom, so we were covering a lot of, it's not common- It's common sense, but it's not commonly done, which is an issue, right? Let's flip this on its head slightly. We'll wrap up the show with this, Tom. What's the one most counter-intuitive thing that salespeople should doing right now that their perhaps not doing? Is there anything that, clearly you're up to date with all the research on this, is there anything that you think, “Oh, I'd have never thought of that,” but in hindsight makes total sense that salespeople should be doing that the perhaps not doing right now?   Tom Pisello: Yeah. Here's the one thing that I think trip up a lot of folks nowadays. When customers get on these virtual calls, they're wanting to see solutions very quickly because they've done a lot of research on their own. And so they're calling up and they're scheduling demos. They're asking for demos. They don't want long presentations. They don't want a lot of questions. And so I think what's tripping up a lot of salespeople is, they hear that and they go into a hundred percent demo mode. Now, if a customer is asking for something, you kind of have to deliver it. But you have to pivot your demos from a big show and tell of everything that you can do. And why does it have to be everything you do because you don't know what they want, right? You haven't done a lot of discovery cause they're wanting a demo right away, and they're not giving you that time.   Tom Pisello: You almost have to change it to be interactive, a very interactive discovery. So you're doing your discovery, and you're doing a lot of your challenge analysis, and probing, and dyscratic questions you need to ask as part of show and tell. So it's a little bit of give and take that you have to do nowadays that I think trip up a lot of sellers.   Tom Pisello: The other thing I find is that buyers are coming in saying, “Here's the drug that I want you to prescribe to me,” as if they went to a doctor and said that same thing. And a good doctor will say, “Okay, I can definitely write that script. And here's what it does.” So if they spend a little bit of time acknowledging that what the buyer said and listening to them, that that's what they want. But then they take a few steps back somewhere in that process, and they say, “Well, I really want to make sure this is right for you. Can we spend a little bit of time talking about your ailments? Do you think maybe we could run this health check on you?” So you have to get out of this mode of just delivering exactly what they want to know that there's probably a misdiagnosis, a mis-framing, a better solution that might be in play, and certainly positioning that you need to do to be different, other than this show up and throw up kind of demo environment that I see a lot of sellers unfortunately fall into.   How Zoom Whiteboards Make Virtual Demos So Much Better · [32:10]   Will Barron: Most demos, they suck, they're terrible. I'm consulting with a SAAS organisation now. I won't say who they are because they might not like me showing what's going on behind the scenes, but the audience will know exactly who it is cause it's one of our big partners. And one thing that I'm getting a couple of the sales teams to do right now and experiment with is on the Zoom demos, Zoom has a whiteboard built into it, at the beginning of the demo, ask the buyer or the potential customer, what they want to be shown. And frame it up as, “Hey, this is customised for you. I don't want to waste your time. I want this to be totally seamless.” Then writing out on the whiteboard, whether they're the using a pen or they're just typing it on there, the two or three main things that the buyer wants to see from the demo itself.   Will Barron: And then asking why a few times, “Why is this important to you? What's this going to change?” Go through the ,usual sales questions and then framing it up and doing almost a micro close at that point of, “Hey, if I can show you these three or four things, do you think this is something that you would like to move forward with? Would it make sense to move forward with this?” And the demos went from, I don't have real data on this, so I don't want to- We've got real data, I don't have the numbers in front of me. But the demo time has shrunk massively from 40-odd minute demos to some just four, five minute demos because buyers are coming in, as you'd said, that buyers are so much further down the buying cycle, they've done all this research.   Will Barron: They probably watch tonnes of videos, especially on this product that I'm consulting on now, they've watched loads of YouTube content on it already, cause they're killing it on YouTube. They know the jist, they've just got a few things. And when you start to point out those few small things to them and get them to assert themselves, “Hey, if you show me these things, does it make sense to move forward with this?”, they're having incredible results just on the back of that, just from using a bit of strategy and a whiteboard, which we might have used 30 years ago in the conference room when we walked in and did these in person.   Tom Pisello: Yeah. We wouldn't think of not using that whiteboard or using a some of the, “Here's what we understand about you,” kind of agreement. But a lot of times I just see that being thrown away or for the demos you do that. And it's just almost like perfunctory, and you go and still do the same old demos that you do before. But I found the better alignment you can have to what they're trying to solve and the better kind of diagnostics that you can do while you're doing that. Show them certainly what they want, but then make sure you're thinking about companies like you, here's the two other things that they like to see that we've got that you might not have been thinking about. So make sure you're still differentiating yourself with that. I think that's where it really wins because not only are you listening, doing exactly what the buyer wants, but then also adding value to it. And then ultimately, how do you tie all of that back to outcomes, so you can do the justification, another really important element, I think maybe to consider adding to that SAAS customer.   Tom Talks About his Book, Podcast, and the Best Way to Reach Him · [35:04]   Will Barron: For sure. Perfect. Well with that, Tom, we'll wrap up there, mate. With that, tell us about the book, where we can find it. And I'll share the link that you're going to share with us in the show notes. Tells us about the podcast and anything else you want to plug on the show mate.   Tom Pisello: Yeah, it's real easy. Evolved Selling, as in Darwin evolved. Evolvedselling.com is where you can find all of the writing and research. You can find tools, interactive tools, so you can assess where you're at in your journey. You can also listen to the podcast and see some great blog and research articles and get a copy of the book Evolved Selling, which is also available on Amazon. And I will definitely share that link so that folks can download a free version for themselves.   Will Barron: Perfect. I'll just redirect it. We'll do salesman.org/evolve, and then that'll go to your link. That'll make it easy. Cool. All right. With that, Tom, I want to thank you for your insights today. I really enjoyed the conversation. It's good to have- and I'll throw this at you because this is important for the audience as well. It's good to have someone on who knows all this numbers, data, is up-to-date with the research without being prompted by me. It's a real pleasure mate. So just to kind of give yourself a pat on the back for that, I really do appreciate it. The audience do, as well. And with that, Tom, I want to thank you again for joining us on the Salesman Podcast.   Tom Pisello: Thank you, Will.

Sales is hard. You know it. Your family knows it. And (if you’re lucky) your employer knows it too. And despite the high potential earnings a successful sales career rakes in, the profession isn’t growing as much as other jobs. For many, it all has to do with rejection. Rejection is, of course, a given in this industry. And some reps take it more personally than others. But then there are the standouts. You know the type—they get rejected just like everyone else, sure, but they’re always quick to bounce back. They’re confident and self-assured, but never cocky. And when they speak to prospects, they’ve got this natural magnetism. This ability to instantly ease skepticism and let buyers know, “Hey, you can trust me on this.” What’s the secret? Self-esteem. And with a bit of work, you can cultivate a healthier sense of self-worth by following just a few proven techniques. In this guide, we’re covering how to improve self-esteem using The Increasing Self-Esteem Framework. Inside, we examine three core pillars to promoting self-confidence while looking at 12 proven techniques you can start using today. We’ll also take a closer look at the best benefits of upping your self-worth on the job. Let’s dive in. What Is Self Esteem? Pride, confidence, self-assurance, dignity—there are many words to describe self-esteem. But what does it all mean? Simply put, self-esteem is your general sense of self-worth. It’s how much you value your thoughts, emotions, and actions. And it’s influenced by beliefs about yourself as well as the beliefs you think other people hold about you. Your self-esteem doesn’t just affect your you-focused feelings though. That opinion you hold about your own value permeates through and influences so much more in your life. Self-confidence, whether low or high, affects: How you interact and connect with others. Risks you’re willing to take. Goals you’re driven to make. Motivation and ambition. Decision making. Physical and mental health. And much, much more. Ultimately, your self-confidence affects nearly everything in your life because self-esteem is directly connected to how you move through the world. Having poor self esteem and living your live via a series of negative beliefs can make the challenging and difficult situations that you'll find in a sales role much tougher than they need to be. Self Esteem Stats Low self-esteem and a lack of confidence can be devastating professionally. Here are just a few stats to prove it. Nearly 4 out of 5 women (79%) and more than 3 out of 5 men (62%) experience a lack of confidence in the workplace. (ResumeLab) Low self-esteem workers are 3X as likely to experience high stress on the job and professional burnout. (Do Low Self Esteem by Johnson et al.) Individuals with high self-esteem from blue-collar families earn $7,000 more per year than their less confident peers. In white-collar classes, high self-esteem professionals earn a whopping $28,000 more than their low-confidence peers. (Self-Esteem & Earnings by Francesco Drago) Nearly all employees think confidence is important for a successful job search (99%), believe they perform better on the job when confident (98%), and feel happier at work when they’re more confident (94%). (Indeed) Why Is Self Esteem Important for Salespeople Specifically? Now, self-esteem is integral for a healthy personal life and a successful professional one. That much is clear, and dare I say obvious. But why is it so critical for salespeople in particular? And why is knowing how to improve self-esteem a real game-changer for career-minded reps looking to grow? Well, it turns out there are three reasons in particular: It makes you rejection proof Buyers want to spend time with winners Your confidence rubs off on prospects More positive relationships with customers and colleagues Reduction in negative habits A) Self-Confidence Makes You Rejection-Proof In the world of sales, you’re bound to get rejected at some point. That’s just the nature of the business. And in reality, your product isn’t going to be a fit for 9 out of 10 prospects you talk to. But what defines an effective sales rep isn’t so much how many times they get rejected. Instead, it’s how they respond to that rejection. Do they lose motivation because of a “no”? Do they lose faith in their proven processes? And do they see that negative response as a judgment on their own abilities and worth as a sales professional? Or… Do they let that rejection roll off their back? Do they continue to power through each day? And do they tell themselves, “Hey, it’s just business”? A healthy amount of self-confidence makes it easier to recover from rejection and get back on the horse. And given how sales and rejection go hand-in-hand, getting this benefit alone is worth a small fortune in this business. “If you look at it from the point of where do you get the confidence and the motivation to go out there and to be successful, you have to address the individual's fear of being rejected and failing. And that is a constant. No matter the technology, no matter the age.” – Interview with Samuel D. Osborne, Educator & Author B) Buyers Want to Spend Time With Winners There’s no point in denying it—confidence closes deals. And I don’t mean the overly confident reps. The ones that wear diamond-encrusted watchbands, are quick to name-drop and tell you all about their wins, and promise their product will change your entire life (hint: it won’t). Instead, buyers are attracted to reps that know what they’re talking about, that are clearly and undeniably smart, savvy, and successful. They want to know that when they listen to you, their business is bound to grow. And they want to be better off because of your relationship. Do you know how you communicate that feeling? You guessed it—by demonstrating self-confidence. C) Your Confidence Rubs Off on Prospects Trust is obstacle #1 for sales reps. And as you’ve probably already figured out, buyers are often inherently skeptical of any sales professional or pitch, no matter how good it is. In fact, a study from HubSpot found that just 3% of people consider salespeople to be trustworthy, beating out only stockbrokers, politicians, care salespeople, and lobbyists. But when you know how to improve your self-esteem and speak confidently about the product you’re selling, you build trust. You go from being a simple scammer, a snake oil salesman, to an expert your buyers can turn to for valuable information and services. And the more your buyers trust what you have to say, the more likely they’ll be to close a deal with you. Simple as that. The Increasing Self Esteem Framework Now that we’ve covered why growing your self-esteem is so important (especially in sales), let’s dive into the meat of it all—how to be more confident. There are tons of books, seminars, and courses on the topic. And if you get lucky, you might find one that works for you. However, the truth of the matter is that growing your self-esteem is hard. For many of us, self-defeating behaviors are ingrained into every thought and emotion we have. They’ve probably even been that way since early childhood. But when you put in the consistent and concerted effort, you can learn to be more self-confident on the job. You just need to know how to do it. That’s why I created The Increasing Self-Esteem Framework, built specifically for sales reps. This 3-step framework (and 12 proven practices) is simple. Just: Increase Your Self Trust Increase Action Taking Increase Flexibility 1) Increase Your Self Trust At the core of the framework is boosting your self-trust. Self-Trust: Having the mindset that whatever comes your way, you will be able to handle it. Someone with a high degree of self-trust feels safe in relying on their own mental, emotional, and physical abilities to tackle life’s difficulties. If you can’t trust yourself, others won’t trust you either. And when you lack self-trust, you often feel conflicted—your wants and needs pull you in one direction, and your self-doubt pulls you in the other. Until you can trust your abilities, you’re always going to feel unsure. A lack of self-trust often doesn’t happen all at once. Instead, it’s a slow degradation caused by consistent self-denial. Maybe your truth was made wrong by family, friends, or society as a whole. Or maybe you’ve just gotten so used to going against what your heart told you because it was more convenient than to listen. 5 Self-Trust Boosting Practices No matter where your lack of self-trust comes from, there are ways to fix it. And the five self-trust boosting practices below are a fantastic start. As with anything to do with relationship building (regardless of whether that relationship is with us or with others), boosting trust should be seen as a war of attrition as opposed to a war of annihilation. In other words, do as many of these practices as often as possible, and let them grow with time. There is no one-size-fits-all, immediately actionable silver bullet that will help you build a bone-deep sense of self-trust overnight. Do your best to be compassionate and patient with yourself as you cultivate your self-trust. This process will take time. But trust me—it will be worth it. 1. Spend Time With Yourself Just like any relationship would struggle to thrive if the people in it didn’t have any quality time together, so too must you spend quality time with yourself. Make time to reconnect with yourself—your thoughts, your feelings, your desires—on a regular basis. If your schedule is so tightly packed that you don’t have any moments of quiet and solitude, then your self-trust has likely suffered. Do you go to bed with a racing mind? Thoughts shooting at you from every angle, begging for your attention? Then you might be overdue for some quality ‘me-time.’ The better acquainted you are with yourself, the more you’ll start to recognize yourself as an individual with true value. 2. Make a Self-Like List While your life’s choices shouldn’t be led by external validation, we all crave validation of some kind. And one form of validation that we often underutilize our own validation. That’s why making a list of things you like about yourself can be so powerful. Take out a piece of paper (yes, it has to be something you can physically write on) and get started. Write out at least fifty things. Anything goes—from past experiences and accomplishments to personal qualities, aspects of your relationships, and unique abilities. It’s challenging to believe that others like us for who we are if we don’t first like ourselves for who we are. So grab the bull by the horns and give yourself the validation that you may, at times, be seeking from others. 3. Take More Risks One of the best ways we can build self-trust is by regularly challenging ourselves. Regardless of whether or not we succeed in accomplishing the task, just the mere act of giving ourselves the challenge grows our self-esteem and self-trust. Doing so sends the message that we are someone who is worthy enough to be challenged with difficult things in the first place. Ask out that attractive person you have a crush on. Initiate that difficult conversation with someone who you have been meaning to clear the air with. Go after that job you want. Push yourself in your physical exercise goals. Move forward in your life and claim what you want. All of these types of actions build self-trust. You merely have to be willing to accept the challenge and do your best in the face of it. 4. Reward Yourself When you deprive yourself of rewards, your brain gets hard-wired to not give you the motivation you need to accomplish your goals. That’s why it’s so important to regularly reward yourself for your accomplishments. Whether you’re rewarding yourself for one of your goals being achieved or you’re just gifting yourself a reward because you’re a badass who deserves nice things every once in a while, rewarding yourself is a necessary habit to get into. 5. Mark Down Your Achievements So often our wins (both big and small) get lost in the hustle and bustle of daily life. And so often we forget about everything we’ve accomplished over the past week, month, year, decade. The more we forget about what we’ve achieved, the less we remember our abilities in the face of adversity. And the less we trust ourselves to overcome new challenges. That’s why since 2013, I’ve kept a running list of my monthly wins. From professional goals like becoming a best-selling author on Amazon to personal ones like learning how to do a backflip on flat ground, this ever-evolving list is a powerful self-trust booster. If I’m ever doubting my abilities, I just thumb through these accomplishments and my self-trust is restored. That’s why I recommend keeping an achievement list for every single one of my students. And it’s why you should start building yours today. “One of my favorite things that I recommend to my clients is to create a journal. Call it your wins journal. So every time you have a win, small, medium, or large, write it down. Like, “Woohoo, celebrate! Today I talked with John DOE at Google, and he's always super excited about bringing our stuff into his company.” Write that down. So when you do get caught in these anxious moments, go back to your wins journal, like, “Oh yeah, that happened. That was real. Reminding yourself that you are good at what you do. You are enough, you've got this.” – Interview with Michele Molitor, Coach, Hypnotherapist, & Imposter Syndrome Expert 2) Increase Action Taking One of the core influencers of a healthy self-esteem is your ability to take action. When you take action, you’re taking control. You’re pushing closer to achieving your goals. You’re influencing the world around you. And you’re building up more and more confidence with each new win. But taking action doesn’t come naturally. After all, we as humans tend to favor the path of least resistance. What’s going to be easiest for me? As a result, this skill takes a bit of work to develop. But once you do develop it, you’ll feel more confident in your abilities. And you’ll know that with some elbow grease and consistent pushing, you can build the life you want. So, let’s take a look at a few ways to turn yourself into an action-taker. Fear Is Normal (So Use It) Most people think that to be brave is to not feel fear. That bravery is simply not feeling afraid, to be fearless. This is not true. In reality, being brave is to feel fear…and act anyway. It is to act in spite of fear. Taking action when there’s no fear doesn’t require any bravery. In circumstances like these, it isn’t hard to take action. Instead, it’s rather easy. After all, what’s holding you back if not fear? So, if you’re wondering how to take more action in life, the first thing you need to understand is that it’s okay to be afraid. When you start to feel your heart flutter, your mind fogs up, and your palms begin to sweat, don’t panic. Instead, recognize this as an opportunity to become braver. And remember that fear is normal. It just depends on what you do with that fear—act on it or succumb to it. Exercise Your Daily Courage Courage is like a muscle. If you stop using and training it, it atrophies. Just like a bicep, quad, or calf. Now, this doesn’t happen overnight, mind you. But as time passes, it becomes more and more obvious you’ve lost your courage. And by the time you’ve realized what’s happening, you now find yourself succumbing to self-doubt in situations you would have breezed through years ago. To maintain (and increase) your courage muscle mass, you need to use it. You need to train it every week. And if you make it a habit of avoiding stressful situations, you’re going to become less and less courageous. Your courage muscle is going to atrophy. Your comfort zone is going to shrink. And in the end, you’ll be unable to take action in even the most minor stressful situations. On the other hand, if you keep training your courage muscle on a daily basis, you’re not only going to maintain it. You’re also going to reinforce it (especially if you make sure to increase the difficulty of your training by increasing the level of required bravery to take action). Focus on the Consequences of Not Taking Action Like a lot of people, you probably focus way too much on the negative consequences of your taking action. When it’s time to act, you start to invent all sorts of stories in your head on the premise that you’re going to fail. Not only does this lead you to focus on destructive thoughts which are going to make you feel less able to succeed. But it also keeps you from taking action by making you afraid—more afraid than you were at the beginning. You’re so afraid of the consequences that you might suffer by taking action that you don’t make a move at all. And that means you miss out on the benefits of acting. Now, if you want to focus on negative consequences, there’s a better way… Instead, start focusing on the negative consequences of NOT taking action rather than on the negative consequences of taking action: The regrets of having done nothing The shame The disappointment in yourself and your abilities By focusing on what you’re going to feel if you DON’T take action, you’re going to feel a strong and compelling urge to make your move. Build Your Self-Image We tend to live up to the identities we create for ourselves. The self-proclaimed strategists ponder their moves before striking. The person who introduces themselves as an avid swimmer sticks to their daily laps. And the entrepreneur who can’t talk enough about their businesses will risk it all to see them succeed. We become what we see ourselves as. And when you see yourself as an action taker, you tend to start instinctively responding to situations as one. This will become natural the more you act in response to challenges. But you can get started by shifting your own perception of yourself from a problem avoider to an action taker. Start seeing challenges as opportunities. And if you find yourself thinking about ways to get out of difficult situations, tell yourself, “That’s not what I do now. I take action!” The more you do it, the easier it gets. “Success isn't about working harder, because people go, ‘I’ve got to work harder.’ It's not about that. It's about doing the consistent action on a daily basis.” – Interview with Marx Acosta-Rubio, Business & Lifestyle Strategist 3) Increase Flexibility “If you want to make God laugh, tell him about your plans.” – Woody Allen Life is unpredictable. And more often than not, a plan (no matter how perfect) will fall apart when the time comes to execute. Everyone makes mistakes. And your environment is constantly changing, especially in sales. But when you can increase your ability to be flexible to the inevitable issues that will crop up in life, you reduce your chances of being affected by them. And in fact, you can even benefit from those issues if you’re particularly clever with your pivoting. Whether it’s starting a new job, taking a new class, or getting married, being cognitively flexible helps us to grow and get along better with others. The Biological Basis of Inflexibility An area of the brain called the anterior cingulate gyrus (ACG) tends to be overactive in people who have difficulty with cognitive flexibility. Located in the front part of the brain, the ACG is involved with shifting attention. When the ACG works well, it allows us to focus on something, let go, and then shift to focus on something else. However, when it’s overactive, there is a tendency for people to get stuck. This is what happens when we become cognitively inflexible—we start down one path mentally and then refuse to change direction. The good news is that there are some simple strategies you can incorporate into your life to help you become more flexible and adjust more easily to change. 3 Techniques for Becoming More Cognitively Flexible So, how can you improve self-esteem by boosting cognitive flexibility? Below are three techniques in particular that’ll help you get better at going with the flow and adapting to tricky situations. 1. Practice “Thought Stopping” An important part of gaining control over your repetitive thoughts is to become mindful of them when they occur—and then practice the simple technique of thought stopping. To pull this off, try envisioning a red stop sign when you identify any destructive thoughts. And imagine saying to yourself: STOP! The more you practice this, the more you’ll start feeling control over these thoughts. You can also use a more physical approach by putting a rubber band on your wrist and snapping it when you catch yourself in a loop of negative thinking. No matter which technique works best for you, the important thing is stopping those thoughts dead in their tracks. Before they can do any more damage. “The more mentally fit you are, the faster you are able to actually go from what's a very natural human response to challenge and stress, and be able to shift out of it and get to a positive, more clear, calm, laser-focused, discerning perspective on everything.” – Interview with Adam McGraw, CRO at Positive Intelligence Inc. 2. Document Your Options & Solutions One of the best methods I’ve found for dealing with negative thoughts and boosting flexibility is writing things down. When thoughts are floating around in our heads, they’re abstract. They’re like shapeless, undefined blobs. But when we put them down on paper, they become concrete. And that helps us look at them more rationally, decide if they’re valid, and choose whether or not to act on them. Try writing down: The thought that’s stuck in your head. What you can do to help offset the thought. Things you have no control over with regard to the thought. When everything’s all down on paper, you’ll likely be surprised at how different things look compared to when it was just in your head. 3. Think Before a Knee-Jerk “No” Some people have the tendency to say “no” automatically—even before thinking about what was asked of them. This can be especially problematic in relationships. It is limiting and unnecessary to always dismiss ideas or deny your partner his or her requests. It’s a nasty habit that, when gone unchecked, can easily leech over to your professional life and sabotage working relationships (and career prospects). To help with this, before responding to a question, take a deep breath. Hold it for three seconds and then take five seconds to exhale. And while you do so, actually consider what the best way to respond would be. Sometimes a quick break from automatic responses is enough to drive serious change and promote more cognitive flexibility in life. Wrapping Up In my experience, there are three things that determine your success in sales. First, having a product or service you truly believe in. Second, focusing on providing value, not just making a sale. And third, having the self-esteem to sell confidently, competently, and consistently. With a healthy self-confidence, you’ll be able to push through rejection, attract more buyers, and build trust quicker than ever. And if you know how to improve self-esteem using The Increasing Self-Esteem Framework, becoming a confident sales rep is a snap. Just work on: Increasing Your Self Trust Increasing Action Taking Increasing Flexibility Changing your views on yourself and the world around you doesn’t happen overnight. But if you put in the work to use the techniques in this framework as much as you can, you’ll find yourself becoming more confident every day. And a year from now, you’ll look back with amazement at how far you’ve come.

You just can’t compare regular job interviews to sales job interviews. Because in sales, it’s way harder to get a measure on your skills from just one conversation. So if you want to nail that interview, you’ve got to show up READY to demonstrate what you can do. Here’s how. Why Sales Interviews Are Different Why are sales interviews different? What makes it so tough for… Employers to find sales professionals who are actually worth hiring and… Sales professionals to prove they’ve got the right stuff? It all comes down to this—sales skills are damn tough to verify. On the one hand, if you don’t have a verified background in the business, employers can’t look at your experience to see if you’re any good. And if you’re a veteran, who knows if your CV is true to life? Sure, employers can call your old bosses. But most companies are scared of saying anything negative in referrals these days. They might even be legally barred from it. 3 Steps to Demonstrating Your Skills Because you’re an unknown either way, you need to demonstrate your skills in the interview itself. And there are three fool-proof ways to do that. Number one… 1. A 30/60/90 Day Plan Three core benefits here: It shows you’re serious and you’re capable of self-management. It creates a clear focus for your first 90 days on the job, which should lead to greater productivity. And it ensures your goals are properly aligned with the organization. This plan doesn’t have to be super complicated. But it does have to be strategic. And it does have to show you’ve put lots of thought into what it’ll take for you to be successful. For each section, you need to include 3 to 5 goals, each followed by two essential statements… To complete this goal, I will – Then outline the steps you’ll need to take to achieve the goal. And two I will have success if – Pointing out the metrics you’ll measure to determine if you’ve succeeded with that goal. Don’t worry, this is all easier than it sounds. And if you want to learn more about how to create your 30/60/90 day plan, I’ve created a whole video on the topic that we’ve linked to at the end of this guide. For now, let’s move on to the next way to nail your interview… 2. Handling Objections Like a Pro If the hiring manager knows what they’re doing, they’ll put you under a little pressure over something to see how you handle it. Maybe they’ll ask about a gap in your work history. The point here is to see how you respond to pushback. Because as any rep knows, there are always going to be buyer objections. What matters is how you solve those objections. That’s where the Objection Handling Framework comes in… 1. Listen to the Issue Step 1, listen to the issue. This one might be the most important. Because before you can solve any objection, you need to be sure you understand it. So shut up and listen. 2. Repeat It Back Step 2, repeat it back. This will show the hiring manager that you’ve truly heard what they said and aren’t just regurgitating some pre-planned answer. 3. Solve the Issue Solve the issue. If it’s a work history gap, clearly explain the gap—maybe you were focusing on building your skills, earning a new degree, or looking for the RIGHT job. No matter what your answer is, be sure it hits the key points the hiring manager asked about. 4. Confirm It’s Solved And finally, confirm it’s solved. Otherwise, your response was all for nothing. Now, there’s a lot more to objection handling than we’ve covered here. So be sure to check out the full video on the subject that we’ve linked to at the end of this guide. 3. Killing It With Closing Closing is one of the most important sales skills you can have. If you don’t know how to ask for the sale, you’ll never get it, simple as that. So now it’s time to show the hiring manager you’ve got what it takes to close. How? By closing on the job. Use the Closing Framework here… 1. “Does it make sense to…” One, ask the magic question, “Does it make sense to connect on Monday if I’m a good fit?” This question is great because it shows you’re interested, you’re assertive, and you know what it takes to close. But beyond that, it also identifies any issues holding the hiring manager back. For example, if they say no, you can follow up with step #2… 2. “What do we need to move forward?” “What do we need to move forward?” At this stage, you can clearly identify any roadblocks or outstanding questions that are holding you back from securing the job. Need more clarification on work history gaps? No problem, let’s talk about it. Still unclear about what my responsibilities were at my last employer? Let’s dive into it. With this system, you’re showing you’re a closer. And you’re showing you’re ready to tackle any obstacles head-on. And that’s exactly what a hiring manager wants to see.

Like it or not, experts agree there’s a recession looming on the horizon. And the sales professionals that know how to tweak their strategy accordingly are the ones that will survive, even thrive over the next few years. Here’s how to do it. Today we’re talking about concepts covered in the amazing sales book The Challenger Sale by Matthew Dixon and Brent Adamson of the business advisory firm CEB. The Last Recession The last recession of 2008 and 2009. If you were working in the industry at the time, you probably remember how hard it was on sales professionals. Clients jumped ship, prospects were unresponsive and had a death grip on their budgets. And old tried and true strategies just didn’t bring in the same results. And yet, some reps were still able to succeed despite it all. Dixon and Adamson’s business advisory firm CEB surveyed thousands of sales reps from around the world during this period. And they found that those who did succeed had one thing in common… They pushed customers to think and act differently. Building relationships still mattered of course. But what was even more impactful was a rep’s ability to challenge the customer, push back, and take control of the sales conversation. And if you want in on that same success during a recession, here’s what you need to do… The 6-Step Push Back Method It all starts with the 6-Step Push Back Method. With a recession, times are tight. Everything is tight. And more than ever buyers want new ways to solve problems, not easy ways to get rid of their cash. For you, that means you’ll have to push a little harder when you know you can help a prospect in a way that’s different to what they want right now. You have a unique perspective on the customer’s business and communication ability. So it’s up to you to push back and teach prospects about the issue they’re facing. Your solution might not be the solution they’re looking for. But with a bit of education, they’ll realize it’s the solution they actually need. Okay, so how do you push back and teach? 1. The Warm-Up Step one is The Warm-Up. This is where you present your assessment of the key issues facing the customer. And you’ll use past clients and other prospects you’ve been working with as inspiration here. Let them know what you’ve seen with other similar companies. And then, wait for their reaction. 2. Reframing After that we move to reframing. This is where you’ll offer a unique insight about their problem that connects it to a bigger, more substantial problem or opportunity. For instance, a prospect may be looking for a project management tool since their accounting department can never hit deadlines. But if you’re selling an accounting automation program, you might reframe the problem as a software problem, not a time management problem. 3. Rational Drowning Step three is rational drowning. This is where you present the data that builds the case for why your prospect should consider your reframing. How much have other companies you’ve worked with increased their efficiency with your product? The goal is to make the prospect uncomfortable with their current approach and more open to a new one. 4. Emotional Impact Next is emotional impact. This step is about connecting the prospect’s emotions with the problem. Storytelling is a fantastic way to do just that. And in the Selling Made Simple Academy, we’ve got a whole framework dedicated specifically to storytelling. We’ve even done a video on the technique  which you can find at the end of this guide. After you’ve connected emotionally, it’s time to show them… 5. A New Way A new way. Talk about the capabilities your customer needs in order to solve this new, reframed problem. Here we’re selling them on the new solution. They have to accept that before we can move on to selling… 6. Your Solution Your solution. This is the final step. And it’s where you’re demonstrating that your solution is the right solution. If you’ve succeeded in each of the five steps up until this point, this final one should be a breeze. So there you have it, the 6-step push back method for selling in a recession. Now there’s one other thing you can do to maximize your selling success during a recession. And that’s… Taking Control Everyone’s priorities are bound to be scattered during this time. And that means nobody will commit to anything because they’re going to feel like it’s one disaster after another hitting their company. If you don’t learn how to take control of the sales process and guide them through it, you’ll be forgotten about for the next latest issue that needs solving. For example, say your prospect brings up the all-too-common issue of price. “Times are tough, budgets are tight. Can you offer a 10% discount?” We’ve all heard it before. But during a recession, you’re going to hear it a lot more. Now one way to deal with this situation is to give in to the conversation. Indulge them, talk to the manager, and see if a discount will work on your end. But what The Challenger Sale’s research found is that the type of rep that thrives during a recession is the one that stands firm when the customer pushes back. Rather than letting the customer guide the conversation into discount territory, they shift. They refocus the conversation on the value of the offering, not the price. When you take control of the conversation, you are in a better position to teach prospects about the problem, educate them on the value of your product, and eventually close the sale. So stand firm, no matter how tempted you may be to give in! Summary No one likes a recession. But with a bit of tweaking to your strategy, you can come out unscathed and perhaps even better off than you were before!

As your quarterly deadline creeps ever closer, you begin to have a terrible revelation—you just aren’t going to make it. Not this time. But… why? You haven’t changed a single thing about your sales process. Your cadences are as tight as ever. And your schedule’s already jampacked with cold calling and cold emailing. So, what are you doing wrong? These days, many B2B salespeople find themselves falling behind due to a lack of “social selling”—incorporating relationship building into the sales process. And today, a staggering majority of social selling happens in one place: LinkedIn. This guide shows you how to effectively incorporate LinkedIn lead generation into your routine. Inside you’ll learn the three-part framework you need to use LinkedIn’s potential to its fullest. And with it, you can build a steady and robust pipeline of quality, qualified leads. Best of all, once you get going, the system practically runs itself. Now let’s jump in. The What & Why of LinkedIn If you’re a professional, well, anything then you probably know what LinkedIn is—a social media platform with a twist. Unlike other platforms, the focus is on business. You won’t find piano cats, baby pictures, or “Charlie bit me” videos here. Instead, it’s all about connecting with other professionals, learning business-related tips for success, and growing your career. And as a well-informed salesperson, you can use LinkedIn as a powerful source of leads. As author and sales professional Marcus Sheridan put it in our interview: “As a salesperson, a sales professional, go all-in on LinkedIn. I've watched salespeople's careers and therefore wallets and bank accounts explode because of the way they use LinkedIn.” But why? What makes LinkedIn lead gen so powerful? There are four reasons in particular: It’s huge It’s trusted It’s scalable It “builds trust at scale” Let’s take a closer look at what I mean by each. It’s Huge On the one hand, LinkedIn is a mammoth social media platform. And it’s bigger than most people expect. Sure, sure. Facebook and Instagram and the like are bigger. But LinkedIn still has nearly 800 million members across the globe. Plus, there are millions of businesses with public profiles. Beyond that, the wealth of information you can glean from these profiles is huge too. Past positions and experiences, shared professional connections, branding elements—the list goes on. The benefit here is that there are plenty of opportunities for B2B salespeople on the platform. For example, the enterprising salesperson can use LinkedIn to: Learn about new businesses that have recently entered their industry. Research competitors and their content marketing strategies. Become better acquainted with potential leads. Discover talking points you can use during sales meetings. Ultimately, LinkedIn is big and growing. And the info on it is massive. The Numbers Wondering just how huge LinkedIn is? Check out some of the stats below to get a better idea. LinkedIn has nearly 800 million members in 200 countries and regions worldwide (LinkedIn). LinkedIn has 33 offices, is available in 24 languages, and has 16,000 employees (LinkedIn) More than 57 million companies are listed on LinkedIn, as well as 120,000 schools (LinkedIn). Seventy-seven job applications are submitted via LinkedIn every single second (LinkedIn). It’s Trusted It’s one thing to have access to a massive database of users. It’s another entirely when those users truly trust the content they find on that platform. A lot of that trust comes from the professional aspect of LinkedIn. These are businesspeople interacting with each other—not shiesty scam artists trying to rope new members into their multilevel marketing “opportunity.” It’s also a trusted source of information. Most of the content here is being put out by real professionals with real experience in what they’re talking about. And with that lowered trust barrier, it’s a fantastic place for B2B marketers to engage in content marketing and social marketing. The Numbers B2B marketers and businesses love LinkedIn. And here are some numbers to prove it. An astounding 94% of B2B content marketing happens on LinkedIn (Road Warrior Creative). LinkedIn ranks highest in digital trust among all social media platforms (eMarketer). There are more than 10,000 B2B software Product Pages on LinkedIn (LinkedIn). 96% of B2B content marketers use LinkedIn for organic social marketing (Content Marketing Institute). It’s Scalable It’s true—LinkedIn lead generation can be a slow and frustrating process if you don’t know what you’re doing. And if you aren’t putting in the consistent, strategic work, you’re bound to be frustrated. But when done correctly, it becomes an impressive source of quality leads that rival (and exceed) cold calling and cold emailing. Best of all, once you get going, you don’t have to go out looking for leads—they’ll end up coming to you. The more authority you build, the more likely buyers will be to search you out. To want to work with you. The Numbers Conversations on LinkedIn and the amount of content available are all seeing a sharp increase. And for you, that means more opportunities to provide rich insights, demonstrate your authority, and connect with buyers. Below are just a few stats to show how much LinkedIn is poised to grow for B2B marketing. Content creation on LinkedIn increased by an impressive 60% in 2020 (LinkedIn). LinkedIn saw a 0% year-over-year increase in content creation from March 2019 to March 2020 (LinkedIn). Live streams on LinkedIn increased by 437% in 2020 (LinkedIn). It “Builds Trust at Scale” Piggybacking off that last point, as you scale your LinkedIn B2B lead generation, you’re also making it easier to close sales with the leads that do contact you. Let me explain. One of the biggest hurdles salespeople have to overcome is building trust with buyers. You need to establish rapport. You’ve got to prove your worth. And you need to show that you’re there to help, not just sell to them. When you encounter a cold lead, you accomplish all that through conversations. Conversations that take time. But when you engage in a thorough LinkedIn lead generation strategy (like the framework in this guide), you’re creating content that does most of that hard work for you. Plus, that content—if it’s high quality, of course—will also attract industry decision-makers to you. And that means less time spent on all that lead qualification work. The Numbers Business is getting done on LinkedIn. That’s because there are so many potential leads and buyers using the platform. And here are just a few stats to prove it. There are 65 million decision-makers on LinkedIn (LinkedIn) and 61 million “senior-level influencers on LinkedIn (LinkedIn). 4 out of 5 LinkedIn members drive business decisions (LinkedIn). About 1 out of 3 B2B decision makers use LinkedIn to research products and solutions before making a purchase decision (Hootsuite). The LinkedIn Lead Generation Framework (“The Flywheel”) Alright, alright. LinkedIn’s great for professional B2B salespeople like you. But how the hell do you use it to generate leads? Enter The LinkedIn Lead Generation Framework (a.k.a. “The Flywheel”). This framework is designed to help you connect with buyers while building relationships at scale. With it, you can boost your authority, automatically qualify leads, and build a bustling new pipeline of potential buyers. There are just three steps to the framework: Insights Authority Outreach The best thing about this framework is once you get going, the momentum of your work actually keeps the whole system moving on its own (that’s where the “flywheel” part comes in). More on that in a bit. Let’s dive a bit deeper into each of these steps. 1. Insights (Spread Your Knowledge) If you want to start generating leads on LinkedIn, you need to be regularly posting market insights. There’s no way around it. This is the first step in pushing the LinkedIn algorithmic flywheel to favor you on the platform. Imagine your success on LinkedIn as a big, heavy flywheel that’s at a standstill. At first you post an insight, and nobody cares. Nobody likes, nobody comments. You might even think it’s a little embarrassing. But you post again, and you get one like. Then again and a few more. Eventually, LinkedIn’s algorithm sees the traction, and it shares your content with more people as they perceive you as an authority. And that gets this big heavy flywheel spinning even faster. The cool thing? Once the flywheel is spinning, it has its own momentum. You can take a week off, and it’s barely slowed down, and the sales leads keep coming in. But to be clear, it does take time and effort to get that big block of heavy metal spinning in the first place. So be prepared! Now, how do you get those insights that are actually worth sharing? There are two types in particular that your audience will find valuable: Personal Insights Company Insights Personal Insights These are insights that you’ve uncovered about your product, buyer, or marketplace. Sharing personal insights is a fantastic way to demonstrate your authority and engage with your audience. After all, you know way more about your product than your buyers ever will. So take the time to collect and share the insights you’ve picked up over the years. A few questions you can ask yourself to start coming up with ideas include: What common sales objections do you face each day? What have you seen change in the marketplace in the last 12 months? What are your buyer’s biggest fears? If your buyers could change one thing about their job, what would it be? What do your buyers need to know but not want to hear? Use these questions as jumping-off points for finding the best insights to share. Company Insights Personal insights take a bit of deep thinking and reflection on your part. When it comes to company insights on the other hand, things are actually quite a bit easier. Because instead of picking your own brain, you’re just picking the brains of others. All you have to do to find a great company insight is shoot a quick email over to your sales manager and marketing manager asking them the following questions: What do you know about the market that you’re selling into that is unusual or counterintuitive? What do you know about buyers that buyers don’t even know about themselves? What shift is happening in the marketplace within the next 6 months that buyers haven’t realized yet? What positions your product differently from everything else on the market? That’s it! Their answers are sure to give you a few nuggets of invaluable insight you can share with your audience. Sharing Your Insights Now that you’ve got your insights in mind, it’s time to actually send them out into the world. LinkedIn provides a couple of different ways you can share your insights, including: Text posts Video posts Image posts Articles Lives There are other options too (like polls, stories, celebrations, etc.). But frankly, I’ve found them to be a bit gimmicky without bringing any more value to the table. So best to stick with the methods above that are proven to work. And don’t forget to be consistent with your posting! The more consistently and frequently you’re putting up posts with real value, the faster your flywheel will spin. 2. Authority (Prove Your Knowledge) The next step to the LinkedIn Lead Generation Framework is boosting your authority. People want to spend their valuable time learning from experts, not nobodies. Experts have the answers they’re looking for. And they’re the ones that can be trusted. When you spend just a few minutes a day building your authority on LinkedIn, you’re signaling to the algorithm that your insights are worth sharing. They’re the ones your network is going to be interested in. And consequently, the algorithm is going to be more likely to show your content to others. So, how do you boost your authority? Build Your LinkedIn Profile Engage With the Platform Build Your LinkedIn Profile This is an essential step that unfortunately gets overlooked. You need to actually create a great and complete profile if you want to start growing your authority. There are plenty of steps you can take to beef up your LinkedIn profile. I’ve actually done several podcasts on the subject alone. Author and social selling expert Daniel Disney pointed out in our interview that there are two things in particular you need to tackle first: “The first two things [visitors] will look at 99% of the time are your profile photo and your LinkedIn banner. And what you want to try and do is plant some seeds.” Use a clear, high-quality photo and background that gives visitors an idea of what it is you help buyers do. A few other steps you can take to build a robust profile are: Get plenty of skill endorsements from other professionals. Take skill assessments. Start gathering glowing testimonials. List your services. Develop a personal brand and keep it consistent across your profile. Engage With the Platform Next up, you should spend about 15 minutes a day engaging with the platform by commenting on content from other experts. But a simple “Great post!” on everything that comes through your feed just won’t do. You’ve got to be strategic by knowing where to comment and what to comment. Where to Comment – Look for posts that have a high comment count (better visibility) that are in your industry. You’ll also want to only comment on posts that you understand and are valuable. And finally, if your buyers are asking questions, you need to be the one to answer with an insightful comment. What to Comment – Don’t every comment without reading the full post. You’ll sound like an idiot. And always add to the conversation (“good job!” doesn’t mean a thing). You’ll also want to continue the conversation by asking more questions. Finally, use the “@” sign before the original poster's name in your comment. That’ll make sure it doesn’t get lost in their sea of notifications. 3. Outreach (Leverage Your Knowledge) If you’ve been regularly posting valuable insights and engaging with the platform consistently each day, your flywheel should already be spinning and sending your content out to the masses. Ideally, this will end up with leads reaching out to you. But you don’t want to leave your fate entirely in the hands of the algorithm, do you? That’s why you need to engage in a bit of outreach to make the most of your LinkedIn lead generation efforts. There are two ways to start bringing in leads on your own. Warm Outreach Cold Outreach Warm Outreach Warm outreach is when you leverage your relationship with a prospective buyer to get them onto a phone call with you. To be clear, these are contacts you’ve already had a conversation with. They may be familiar with what you’re selling. Or maybe you’ve just chatted with them over LinkedIn a handful of times. They might have even worked with a current client of yours. The important element here is they know you. And they likely already have some degree of trust in you. As a result, the process is surprisingly simple. If you get into a conversation in the comments of one of your buyer’s posts, message them directly and ask if they would like to set up a 10-minute call to discuss things further. If a buyer keeps liking your content, message them to see if there’s value in setting up a consulting call where you can help them in real-time. There’s nothing to it! Cold Outreach Cold outreach is a little trickier. Prospects won’t know who you are. They won’t know what you’re selling. And they sure as hell won’t trust you right off the bat. So, how do you win them over? There are three rules to follow here: Be Genuine –People hate it when they’re being placated. And yes, they can tell. Even on LinkedIn. Instead, read up about your buyer. Find something you’re actually interested in (other than closing a deal) to connect over. And be who you really are in each interaction. Personalize – Generic cookie-cutter messages don’t work. And they can actually be quite annoying. Your messaging needs to be clearly personalized to the buyer. Otherwise, they probably won’t even read it (trust me, I’ve ignored messages myself because of this). Share Insights – Never ask without giving first. LinkedIn has unlimited great content. You need to proactively give the buyer a reason to want to engage with you before you’ve built a relationship with them. You can share your own content or pass on an interesting article you’ve found from another expert. How Long Does It Take? This is a tough one to answer because in the end, everything depends on you. The more value you offer and the more you engage with the platform, the faster you’ll see your flywheel spinning on its own. But if you put off posting for a month or two while only sharing low-value articles and unoriginal thoughts, it’s going to take a lot longer to get moving. That being said, I have personally witnessed salespeople use this method to grow their LinkedIn followers by hundreds (or even 1,000s) in a matter of months. Generating enough momentum to start having buyers reach out to you may take a bit longer. But even still, if you stick with the framework, you’ll have a healthy pool of prospects you can quickly and easily connect with to start the sales process. LinkedIn Lead Generation Software: Should You Use It? This can be a toss-up. For some businesses and industries, automating your LinkedIn lead generation messaging makes sense. Especially since HubSpot estimates automating your social media efforts can save on average more than 6 hours per week. That being said, there are some parts of your LinkedIn sales cadences where automation can actually hurt your numbers. Most conversations, for example, should not be automated. Most outreach messages should not be automated. And most human-to-human interactions (in the digital space) should not be automated. Why? Daniel Disney summed it up nicely in our recent interview: “When it comes to either adding people or even messaging, if you’re automating or getting a bot to do that, people see through it, they see through it straight away, and you’re going to decrease the amount of accepted connections you get certainly decrease the replies you get.”  Bots are great for some things. But they aren’t that great at parsing through the colloquialisms, intricacies, and complexities of human conversation. Worst of all, using outreach automation tools on LinkedIn (i.e., tools that sound out hundreds of connection requests a day automatically, etc.) can get your account banned. Final word—just not worth it. But one thing bots are good at is automating admin tasks. Tasks like: Content scheduling Update scheduling Interaction analytics Recommended LinkedIn Lead Generation Software Now, if you decide to automate your LinkedIn lead generation efforts, stick with content scheduling software only. There are a few solutions I recommend to get you started. Below you’ll find the best of the best, along with a short description of what you can do with each. LinkedIn Sales Navigator – Sales nav is almost a standard requirement for sales professionals who are sending personalized messages to key decision makers on the platform. See who is visiting yout profile, send InMail and make sure you're in front of the right audience for a couple of bucks a month. Hootsuite – A go-to choice for post automation, Hootsuite provides plenty of features you’ll likely love. Users can schedule posts ahead of time, tweak wording across social media platforms, let Hootsuite choose the best posting times, and much more. Buffer – Another great option for post automation, Buffer offers a cleaner user experience at the expense of all the bells and whistles of Hootsuite. It’s also better for smaller teams as opposed to organizations. It’s also a bit cheaper too. HubSpot – We all know HubSpot. This feature-rich customer relationship management (CRM) software lets you track and analyze engagement with your prospects. But it also comes with a handy post-scheduling functionality too. What’s not to love with this thing? Wrapping Up LinkedIn B2B lead generation can end up being a goldmine for bringing qualified and eager buyers into your pipeline. This business-based social network is professional, highly trusted, and only poised to grow as more business gets done online. The only trick is, you have to approach your LinkedIn lead generation with a strategic eye if you want qualified leads. Spamming content is a timewaster. Inauthenticity is a turnoff. And in a world of bots, bluffs, and bullshit artists, only those who offer true value to prospects are going to truly succeed here. With my LinkedIn Lead Generation Framework (“The Flywheel”), you can start consistently revving up your presence on this powerful platform. It just takes consistency, genuineness, and a bit of elbow grease. It's the easiest and most effective of all the lead generation strategies on the platform because it leads into what the platform is already encouraging you to do. And best of all, once that flywheel starts moving, the sky’s the limit for your LinkedIn lead generation—and your earning potential.

When’s the last time your life changed because of a single picture? Well I can tell you I started closing bigger deals, closing them more often, and earning way more commission—all because of this one graph *show on screen*. And today, I’m showing you how it can change your life too. One of the biggest issues we as humans have is understanding time. Don’t get me wrong here—we’ve gotten really good at thinking ahead, learning from the past, and evaluating cause and effect. Hell, it’s why we humans are so damn good at surviving and expanding. But even still, we have a hard time connecting the actions we take today with the results we see way in the future. Today / Future And this can be especially problematic for actions that snowball. That have effects that grow over time. And unfortunately, that disconnect is at the heart of why most salespeople fail to achieve real success. That’s why today we’re talking about the graph that helped me shift out of that path to failure and into my success today. 1. The Graph As you can see, this graph is all about… Memory, Effect, & Time Can you see memory, results, and how the two change over time. Once you perform an action, be it cold prospecting or starting to create content, it’s fresh in your brain. And as time moves on, it drifts out of your consciousness. You forget about it. But the effect of that action actually increases over time. The problem here is that since memory fades, we tend to forget what caused the effects we’re seeing. We forget that we are where we are today precisely because of the actions we took 6 months, 5 years, and even 10 years ago. So for example, we get immediate mouth pleasure after eating fast food. The greasy burger. The salty fries. The refreshing soft drink. It’s delicious stuff! And we understand that. But what we struggle to comprehend is that eating that fast food every day eventually makes us fat. We find excuses to hit the drive-through during the week. We tell ourselves, “Oh, we’ve had a rough day, one cheat meal couldn’t hurt.” But all the while, we’re failing to see that these little “cheats” add up to a larger pattern. And before we know it, we’re 10lbs overweight wondering, “what happened?” Tying It To Sales To tie it back to sales, we’re skipping our prospecting. We’re telling ourselves, “Oh I’ll build up my social selling content later.” And all the while, we’re continually chipping away at the potential success our future holds. What we need to be doing is doing the things now that will improve our lives in 6 months from now. The longer term you can think, act, and stay on track, the more successful you’ll be. An Example I’ve got an example for you. Sam the salesman starts investing starting at 30. He puts a thousand bucks in every few months whenever he’s got some extra dough. And on the down months, he doesn’t contribute a cent. At the ripe old age of 65, he’s looking at a somewhat decent retirement fund. On the other hand, there’s Seth the salesman. He starts putting money in at 30 too. And he puts money into all the same investments as Sam. But instead of doing it sporadically, he contributes the same percentage of his earnings every single month. And thanks to compounding interest, those investments pay off. By retirement age, he’s looking at multimillions—far more than Sam. The key, then, is consistency. It’s developing a plan and sticking with it. And the more you can maintain that consistency, the better the results. Now, it’s important to realize that it isn’t just direct consequences that play a role either. There’s also… 2. Second Order Consequences Second order consequences to consider. These are the snowball effects. The consequences that lead to more consequences. For example, let’s say you buy a big TV rather than investing the cash. No big deal right? Sure you miss out on more investment income later on. But what’s the big deal. Well, there’s also the second order consequences to consider. With that giant TV in your living room, you guilt yourself into using the big slab of glass on the wall. I mean, you paid good money for it after all. So you end up getting sucked into stupid shows and spending hour after hour on bad reality TV and cooking competitions. When instead, you could have been reading those self-improvement books you always said you’d get to. The Snowball Continues But we’re not done yet. Eventually you start getting into the third order consequences. At some point, that bad television starts to get boring and you need more excitement. So you buy an Xbox to go alongside the TV. And even more of your time is sucked up and taken away from investing in your future. As you can see, on a five-year scale, the divergence of buying the TV vs not buying the TV is massive. And a single choice today can lead to a multitude of consequences down the line. 3. Putting It Into Action Putting it all into action. What does this mean for you today? Well let me take a second to turn things around and tell you how this realization changed me. As soon as I understood all this, the long-term cause and effect of it all, my life changed in an instant. The success I’m having with Salesman.org now—training thousands of salespeople, creating a 7-figure business, all of it—came about from work I did 3 years ago. And just as importantly, the hard work I’m putting in right now, today, will set the foundation for my success 5 years from now. What Does That Mean For You? The boring, pain-staking grind of cold prospecting you do today is what leads you to crushing your quota 4 months from now. And the cash from those commissions is going to give you freedom. The freedom you need to take your life in a completely different direction than if you didn’t hit your numbers. It may not feel like the grind you’re going through now has any real effect. And in all likelihood, it won’t today. It probably won’t even tomorrow. But over time, the effect of what you do today grows and grows. And five years from now, the choice between saying “yes” or “no” to today’s hard work will be life-changing. You’ve just got to stick with it. Stay consistent. And start thinking long-term. Because that’s the foundation for success.  

A few times in life, we come upon a single concept that radically changes the way we interact with the world. And in sales, there’s one concept in particular that’ll change the way you sell forever—The Law of Averages. This concept has taken more average salespeople to top 1% than any other. It might be the most important video that I’ve ever produced. Now, a lot of reps are under the impression that sales is an art. Getting a feel for body language, spotting subtle cues, shifting and re-shifting conversations with prospects. But where a lot of reps get things wrong is forgetting the logic side of things. Following your cadences, hitting that cold call quota, sticking to a plan through thick and thin—that’s the other side of the equation. And if you neglect your numbers, your art is never going to be enough to propel you to real sales success. A) Sales Is a Numbers Game Sales is a numbers game. We’ve heard it all before. And there’s a lot of truth to it. Because when you boil it all down, sales comes down to this: You do a number of activities. Those activities can have an effectiveness on a scale of 1-10. And depending on that effectiveness, they lead to a revenue number at the end of the quarter, and you get paid a commission. It’s as simple as that. And the more you do an activity, the higher those final numbers—that revenue and that commission—will be. More cold calls per day results in more leads. More leads turn into more sales calls. And more sales calls lead to closed deals. Voila, numbers! Now you can tweak that activity. Or you can choose to engage in a different one altogether. But when you get down to the nitty-gritty, the more numbers you put in, the more you get out. B) The Law of Averages The Law of Averages come in? The Law of Averages states that over a long enough period of time, a particular outcome or event will occur at a frequency that’s similar to its probability. Confused? Don’t be. Let’s break it down. Let’s say you’ve got a cold calling success rate of about 2%. And over the course of one day, you make 20 calls with zero success. Right now your success rate is… that’s right, zero percent. Now, over time, your actual rate is going to get closer and closer to the real rate of effectiveness, 2%. So on day two, you make 20 more calls and one is a winner! That brings your rate up to 2.5%. The next day, zero winners again, bringing you down to 1.7%. And the day after that, zero again, putting you at 1.25%. But after the next 20 calls, you bring in a client, which jumps your success rate to 2%—the real effectiveness of the activity. See how on the short-term, the effectiveness jumps around and doesn’t match the true effectiveness of your cold calling? But in the long-term, over the course of five days, it comes out to be 2%. And on an even longer timeline, that activity is going to hover around that same percent effectiveness. Okay, so what does this tell us? Basically if you engage in an activity with some level of effectiveness for long enough, you’re guaranteed some form of success. If your cold emails only have a success rate of 0.001%, you’re bound to hit a winner at some point. As long as you keep trying. Now, you’ve got three ways to make the Law of Averages work for you. First, you can put in more reps. You can send out more emails, make more cold calls, send more outreach messages. But there are only so many hours in the day. Do different stuff. Social selling for example if you’ve never experimented with that. The problem here is that you might have a 0% success rate and so it was a complete waste of time. The better way of using this law to your advantage is by moving the average in your favor. By pushing up your success rate and doing the same stuff, but better. C) Move the Average In Your Favor There are three strategies you can take to get the numbers on your side. Number one is to… 1. Only Spend Time With Qualified Clients SO MUCH time is wasted on unqualified prospects that require tons of work but rarely lead to a closed deal. So, how do you get better at qualifying prospects? You follow the Diagnosis Framework. Whenever you hop on a discovery call, use this eight-step framework to find out if they’re the right buyer for you. Pain – Is your prospect’s problem actually a problem? If it isn’t, they aren’t going to be motivated to solve it. And they’re wasting your time. Time – Does the buyer need a solution this month, this quarter, this year? Be sure your timelines match up. The more urgent the need, the less feet dragging you’ll run into later. Fit – Is your solution actually right for the prospect’s problem? Be honest, will it really help? Return – How much will the buyer have to change to accommodate your solution and start getting a solid value return from their investment? Is it worth the hassle? Process – Are they willing to adapt to your processes? If not, best to cut them loose. Budget – Are the prospect’s financials in a good place to afford your solution? Champion – Who else is behind this decision? Is someone influencing whether the deal gets made or not? And if there is, why aren’t you talking to them instead? Agreement – It’s up to you to get your buyer’s verbal commitment on the call. And using the “If we can solve X, will you commit to Y?” structure is the absolute best way to get that commitment. 2. Move More Prospects Into Your Funnel The more prospects you have coming into your funnel, the more chance you have of closing some of them. The Cold Email Framework is a great way to improve your cold outreach. It follow four steps. Lets run through a example and put them into practice – It’s to the point. It’s unassuming. And it’s damn effective too. Alright so the third way of making the Law of Averages work for you is by… 3. Have More Targeted Messaging More targeted messaging means higher response rates. And that, of course, is going to bump up the Law of Averages in your favor. So, how do you have more targeted messaging? By using the Value Proposition Framework. Find Your Value – What do your products offer? How do they help? You can figure this out by first listing out all your available products and then writing down the perk producers (benefits additions) and strain reducers (hassle subtractions) each offers. Find Your Ideal Buyer – This one might take a bit more digging, but it’s well worth it. You start by listing out your buyer jobs. What are their responsibilities? What are their functional, social, and emotional jobs? And then list out the perks and strains of each. Perks being the benefits your buyers want to see from your product, and strains being what annoys a buyer before, during, and after they’re trying to get a job done. Find the Fit – Finding the fit. “Fit” is how well your product values line up with what the buyer needs. The better it aligns, the more successful your value proposition will be. All you need to do here is determine which jobs, strains, and perks the strain reducers and perk producers of your products address. Match them up and you can move on to… Create Your Value Statement – A value statement should be clear, to the point, and touch on the most important points from the previous three steps. Here’s a template you can use to craft yours. Verify the Value – Does this value statement resonate with your audience? Did changing your value proposition increase or decrease buyer response rates? What’s important here is that you keep on testing and refining your value proposition as you go. When you truly understand the Law of Averages, it’ll entirely change the way you do sales. And if you know how to bend this law to your advantage, you can close more deals, earn higher commissions, and achieve more success than you ever thought possible.