when I think about making something
happen in the world selling something
getting a donation getting voted for
whatever the transaction is I always
break down that world into sales and
marketing and I think that I spend a lot
of time these days in the marketing
funnel and really helping a lot of my
digital startups and my friends in
digital marketing oh thank you so much
good reaction to the darkness Jets
jersey that makes me super happy I’m
trying to convince a lot of people go
from sales to understand the value of
marketing but I’ll tell you right now
through and through when I when I pass
away and they opened me up I am a
Salesman through and through and I’ve
been my whole life
pickups to the salespeople so coming to
a sales conference is a lot of fun for
me and I think there should be more of
them in our space because I think the
issue with a lot of my marketing friends
and people is it’s very up in the clouds
and it doesn’t really end up creating
the thing that I think we’re all you
know tied to which is the transaction
what is the KPI like what are we
actually trying to do I’m gonna give you
a little background of where I came from
for the people in here that don’t know
my story because I think it matters and
then I want to talk about what I would
do if I was in this audience I think
what I try to do as a salesman is I try
to reverse-engineer I try to figure out
while on stage who the audience is I try
to figure out what Simon and Seth have
and Arianna and Frederick have already
said because I know their spiels really
fucking well and and I’m trying to think
about what can I say that’s different
that is gonna actually bring value and
the truth is and I know those four very
well Fredrik I think is a a purebred
salesman but I really do think that I
was born very lucky and then I think my
parents are very opposite and I think I
feel very in kinship with my marketing
and with my sales and so that’s what I
want to focus on because I think a lot
of people here could make a lot more
money if they eliminated two things one
laziness to be very frank and
and to idealistic points of view of how
they’ve made their money in the past I
think one of the biggest concerns I have
sitting here in a world where I’m hungry
to get one to two people three people to
get a lot of value out of this talk is
the way you made your money before is my
enemy the way you’ve been successful
yesterday is my enemy
it is stunning if you understood what
runs through my head every morning on
how little I think anybody should give a
fuck about anything I achieved yesterday
back you’re really only as good as your
last at-bat and the thing that I’m most
passionate about and I think many of you
guys and gals can agree with me on this
is the landscape of sales and all of
communication in our society has had a
fundamental shift over the last decade
because of technology and there’s just a
lot of people that are doing things that
are not bringing them real value for
their actions my my religion in sales is
attention before I even think about how
to sell you my SAS product cuz it’s
better than the one that you’re using or
my wine or why you should use
vaynermedia and my agency or new pair of
sneakers or whatever you’re selling in
this room mid market enterprise small
startup the one thing that connects us
is the end person’s attention and this
is what I want to focus on at first my
career of being obsessed around
attention started when I was six and I’m
not kidding this is an interesting story
I was born in the Soviet Union I came
here as a kid my dad eventually got a
job as a stock boy in a liquor store in
New Jersey I originally lived in Queens
then I grew up in Edison New Jersey in
Edison when I was six and seven years
old I tricked
manipulated sold I sold I sold my
friends on the idea of standing behind a
lemonade stand all day and so when I was
six years old I had a six lemonade stand
franchise in Edison New Jersey how many
of you remember big wheels those little
bikes guys remember I still ride my big
wheels at the end of the day every
summer and pick up my cash like I was
little Tony Soprano or something so I
was a Salesman early on but it’s funny
it wasn’t the reason my friends were
behind the register selling the lemonade
and I was and it wasn’t because I was
fancy it wasn’t because I didn’t want to
do the work it’s because and this is me
now realizing this years later it was
because I was obsessed with attention
while my homies stood behind the
lemonade stands I walked up and down the
streets by the way for a lot of the
youngsters in here this was the 80s when
kids just went outside and did random
shit so I would walk I would I would
walk up and down the streets and
literally this sounds sick I am I would
sit at the cross-sections of streets
tinguely Lane in New Jersey Inman Avenue
in New Jersey I would sit there and I
would watch people I would sit in for an
hour I’m seven six seven eight years old
I would sit there for hours and I would
watch cars drive away and I would try to
see if I could see their faces and I
could figure out which three or pull to
put the lemonade stand sign on because
that would be the better one because
they would see it and buy lemonade at
early it was intuitive to me at such a
ridiculous age that the number one asset
was the attention and then what I had to
say is what mattered that the creative
that the product that the copy’
was the variable that the thing I said
on the other side of the phone was the
variable but before I could say it no
matter how good my game was did I
actually have their attention or was I
speaking to somebody that wasn’t paying
attention I believe that the far
majority of this room
become disconnected with the reality of
the end consumers attention that we have
taken for granted whether through
laziness not being compensated for it or
whatever other variable you are not
being good at what you do I don’t know I
believe that the market of sales has
lost its way it just I think it’s the
speed of attention shift in today’s
society I went on to have a very big
baseball card business when I was 12 and
13 when I was 12 13 I was selling
baseball cards in the malls of New
Jersey and I was making two to three
thousand dollars a weekend as a baseball
card salesman I don’t know about you
guys but when you have four when you’re
14 and you have $30,000 in cash under
your bed and you’re not selling weed
you’re a good fucking salesman so that
was good by the way I plan on buying the
New York Jets which I think projected by
the time I’m ready is gonna cost me
between five and eight billion dollars
and I’m convinced that when I was 13 and
had $30,000 of cash it will be the
richest I’ve ever been and just couldn’t
even begin to think about spending that
kind of money when I was 14 my dad
ruined my life dragged me into the
liquor store paid me two bucks an hour
to bag ice he now owned his own store in
Springfield New Jersey and I went from
like being my own entrepreneur and doing
my thing to working in this store called
shoppers discount liquors that I hated
because I bagged ice for 15 hours a day
and walked home at 30 bucks
that was a bad those two or three years
were the dark ages of my professional
career when I was 16 17 I was allowed
upstairs I realized people collected
wine that was interesting to me because
I was into collecting and I embarked on
my career my career took an interesting
turn because I discovered the Internet
and in 1997 I launched one of the first
e-commerce wine businesses in America
called winelibrary.com I grew my dad’s
business from a three to a sixty million
dollar business in five years I did it
through sales and marketing
I did it in two ways one I wasn’t out
marketing everybody by buying Google
AdWords by doing EEMA how many people
here do email marketing raise your hands
in 1997 I had a 200 thousand person
email database selling wine that had
91.3% open rates right yeah
now it wasn’t cuz I was such a hero like
that same list now I was like 31.3 it’s
because nobody was doing it and the
thing that I want to talk to you about
is the stunning excuses that my salesman
friends make up for not doing snapchat
or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or
LinkedIn content I love my sales friends
or like I do LinkedIn I’m like no no you
don’t do LinkedIn you sit there and you
fucking try to connect people and you’re
a fucking spam bot you motherfucker not
a Salesman fuck anyway sorry truth truth
like I do LinkedIn sales no you don´t
you just click buttons and you hope and
pray and you ctrl copy and paste the
same fucking message to every person
because you’re fucking lazy so anyway
real estate when there’s a new vacation
destination or a new town or Hudson
Yards is being built right here the
people that buy first if they’re right
when you don’t get the beachfront
property by waiting for years for what’s
the value of it I am NOT I believe that
a purebred salesperson is never crippled
if her or his actions are not fruitful I
believe a purebred salesperson
understands that that’s part of the game
that that’s part of the hustle that
there’s so much upside by doing a new
tactic even if you hit it once out of
every nine times the overall ROI of all
those hours becomes a net positive score
and that is why I think I’ve been
successful because my career in sales
has been predicated of not being
crippled by overworking to learn
something new
period it is it is insanity and let me
use that word aggressively it is
insanity for you to disrespect all the
social media platforms today and what
they can mean for sales for you you have
to understand if one person execute
transactions through it then you can too
the problem is it’s hard the problem is
it takes time the problem is there’s a
lot of easier ways to do it today but
those things go away anybody here that’s
been doing email sales for 15 years
knows what I’m about to say which was 10
and 15 years ago it worked better right
it worked better because we play in one
game my friends all of us you’re trying
to reach that person on the other end we
play in b2b arbitrage of attention
it’s just supply and demand how many
people by show of hands is actually
interesting let’s run with this let’s
establish that lying is the devil and I
have no interest in your head nods I
want full fucking hands okay here we go
how many people here now in 2016
actually actually hate it when another
person another human being calls them
raise your hand raise it high I want
people look around look around raise it
higher just real high please these are
human beings our fellow human beings who
actually hate when another human being
calls them let me tell you why and then
let me tell you why it’s important for
this conversation
the reason they hate it
is because time has become the number
one asset to every person in this room
the emerging pillar in our society
besides the health and wellness of our
family and money the number one emerging
pillar of value to everybody in this
room and everybody in this conference
and everybody outside is time and
calling somebody when they weren’t
expecting it has now become stealing
ones time because we have the
alternative of when that person calls
you can say just text me just email me I
will call you back on my time it is my
belief that when I audit the sales
ecosystem and all the startups I’m
involved with and all the businesses I’m
involved with that salespeople steal
their clients time for their best and
interests instead of reverse engineering
the value of that person’s time it is in
our best vested interest to send that
email it is in our best vested interest
to make that phone call
we are not reverse engineering the fact
that these people have become busy now
another thing that’s extremely
fascinating for me being in this room is
I grew up in B to C my whole life right
only seven years ago when I started
vaynermedia did I go into the b2b world
just for the people that don’t know here
I have a 650 person social digital
agency that have grown in last four
years from a three to a 100 million
dollar business in sales not fucking
valuation and by the way that’s another
conversation for another fucking day
and I think the thing that will be
interesting to a lot of people here is
I’ve done that mainly on not selling
like we don’t really do RFPs I’m not
interested in selling somebody who I
would tell you my number like if
somebody said what’s your most religious
sales tactic it is not to try to sell to
somebody who’s unsellable I think one of
the most fascinating things that I
bought it when I look at the sales
ecosystem is how much people take time
trying to convert somebody who’s
unconverted all yes your product might
be eight thousand times better but if
that bosses boss is best friend homeys
with the alternative legacy software you
fucking lost and then I watch people
think that they’re gonna convert it on
merit there’s no fuckin merit there’s
just human beings making human decisions
and I think we need to get a lot less
romantic about that and start being much
more practical about the ecosystem let
me tell you another way that I’ve grown
that business that I think as instead of
pontificating and cursing up here let me
give you a direct tactic that I think a
lot of you guys can use a couple of
books ago because I decided to write
those kind of things I wrote a book
called the Thank You economy it’s super
interesting to me it’s the notion of if
you provide so much upfront value to an
individual can you actually guilt them
into buying shit especially if all your
actions are predicated on not expecting
them to buy it that’s the big part when
the energy of your tactics is to convert
you will lose when your energy is to
disproportionally bring value and let
the chips fall where they may
you will win it will change your
behavior it will change the energy of
the execution let me give you a story
vaynermedia there was a certain CMO that
I really wanted to get to because I
wanted their business right I don’t like
doing rfp’s because it’s a crapshoot
and we’re not very good at them right
and I have the fortune nature of having
a brand so a lot of business comes to me
but this one wasn’t and I wanted it so I
decided to follow and this is my number
one number one tactic for every person
this room that I am positive that if you
actually put in the work and do it that
you will email me and this is really the
reason I’m giving this is because I want
you to email me in four months and be
like hey bran I saw you in New York at
the sales machine conference I figured a
little bit ridiculous but I did this
thing and it actually worked
cool thanks that’s it that’s what I want
and here’s the tactic
how many people here are in b2b sales
raise your hand awesome coming from B to
C and now being in b2b and being part of
companies like bunny medium percolated
and wildfire that we’ve had successful
exits in and watching the landscape of
sales in that environment I’ve done very
well most might be to be investments I
am stunned how much easier it is to be a
b2b salesman than a b2c salesman you
literally know the name of the fucking
person you’re selling to this is a big
deal this is a big deal because by
knowing the name in 2016 you have the
opportunity to use big data in your
advantage on a micro level to create the
world that you want let me explain I
found the CMO that I wanted on Twitter
some of the people that you’re trying to
get to won’t be on Twitter they may be
on LinkedIn they may be on Facebook they
may be on Instagram but the fun part is
60 to 70 percent of your prospects are
on one of these platforms and putting
out data publicly on what they like and
what they’re into I follow this
individual and I noticed that he was a
humongous st. Louis Cardinals baseball
fan this is what my plan went into
action
I started watching everything he was
tweeting about ironically I would you
know I’m like a cobra in the grass I’ll
tell you the number one thing that I
think really separates good salespeople
from bad salespeople is patience I’m
patient as fuck right so I was staying
in the grass just waiting
collecting content being patient really
mapping what he’s into paying attention
ironically it coincided with my fantasy
baseball league right so I’m in my
fantasy baseball Draft
I’ve got the team I want I’ve got a
couple of empty slots on the reserve
thing I’m like you know what I’m gonna
I’m gonna draft this up-and-coming
rookie Cardinals player for many other
reasons than just winning my fantasy
baseball team so I draft the guy anybody
any Cardinals fans in here any couple
maybe two or three I drafted a guy by
name of kolten Wong infielder for the
st. Louis Cardinals before he was even
in Major League Baseball and so then I
wait and I wait for kolten Wong to get
up to the major leagues and I wait for
kolten Wong to do something good and
then I see what I needed to him tweeting
about kolten Wong which allowed me to
jump into that tween say hey I have
kolten Wong on my fantasy team isn’t he
awesome and he replied yeah he’s awesome
that’s it patience remember don’t close
on the first date all right so we
interact a little bit more about the
Cardinals they’re making their playoff
run and somewhere about three weeks
later he tweets me back and says hey I
see that you’re a CEO of a digital
agency we’re thinking about you know
maybe changing up our roster a little
bit is this something we could talk
about with Shore fucking Ken
I want to give you real data here less
than an hour of work being patient
spread off of probably about four months
I was able to convert that strategy into
a three point six million dollar paying
client write sales sales but sales not
that look like here’s a blank email that
I’m gonna blast everybody is obsessed
with scalability everybody is obsessed
with scalability and all the action in
sales is scaling the unscalable I
believe that sales even in today’s
environment is still a very face-to-face
game right I think a lot of us agree
with that I think the biggest disconnect
from the people that just heard that in
this room that have done that their
whole lives that were like yeah hell
yeah is that they don’t realize that
technology is now the scaleable gateway
drug to the human interactions I sell
I’m going to Cleveland right now after
this there’s a basketball game I want to
see and I’m gonna sell on that plane on
the way there because I’m using
technology Twitter Facebook LinkedIn and
these platforms as a gateway drug to
create an interpersonal relationship
there are people I know very well that
I’ve spent very little time with in real
life but I do that through those
channels and then when we see each other
there’s a total different feeling I have
for these three individuals these are
people I could never even have a
relationship with without this
technology these are people that I
haven’t met more than once I feel
enormous kinship towards them and the
dude with the jet Jersey because
because I’ve put in this sales work why
do you go golfing with a client why do
you eat a fucking steak with a client
why didn’t go to networking events you
do it to create context at scale you do
it to create context the absolute closer
and the enabler and the jabbing and the
flirter and the essence of energy is
context right if you know that girls you
know boyfriend if you know their
interest in the cardinal’s you have a
leg up on the competition it’s why you
spent time with your clients and the
decision makers and the influencers of
the decision makers because you are
building context what technology today
does and these five or six platforms
that are the current state of social
media do all at the fingertip of your
phone when you’re going to take a piss
we’re flying a Cleveland or whenever you
want ultimately scalable you can do it
anytime
6 p.m. 1 a.m. whenever you want however
you roll you get up early you get up
late you can hustle in these platforms
and create context and the fact of the
matter is in almost nobody does it
nobody does it because they lack
patience they should do you know how
many of you in this room have a point of
view on what Facebook or LinkedIn or
Twitter can do for your business and
you’ve never used the fucking product
it’s real thanks for that one clap I
liked it
and so we live in 2016 in a world where
the majority of you when you live like a
normal human being and don’t put on your
sales outfit for the day would never
convert on the actions that you take as
a salesperson during the work day the
amount of you that delete every fucking
email that you get that is a bulk email
the amount of you that will never answer
that phone the amount of you that would
net who here is super fired up to go
home and go through their direct mail
carefully and so I’m fascinated by the
disconnect of who you are as a human
being and how you act when it’s in your
vested financial interest for another
human being to act the way you want
because it’s more convenient for you
that is the arbitrage and that will
always be the arbitrage forever so many
of you have done business because of
word-of-mouth right how many people here
have landed more business because of
word-of-mouth from a prior transaction
raise your hands if you didn’t raise
your hand you just don’t fucking
understand or you’re lazy and that’s
fucking interesting too
when I think about social media all I
think about it as is as the plumbing of
word-of-mouth in our society I’m
fascinated by how much business I do
with somebody after I actually sell them
and what I do with them to create that
word-of-mouth versus what I did to get
them in the first place the enormous
amount of energy that we all deploy as
salespeople to get the business versus
what we do with that business even if
it’s handed off to an account person if
you were that point of reference your
ability to stay in that ecosystem and
bring value is incredible and again I
implore you to understand the value of
public data let me give you a b2c
scenario but you can deploy this in your
old-world wine library before Thank You
economy I wanted an example for my
keynotes about how I was doing the Thank
You economy so it was very passionate
about having somebody buy something on
wine library that was inexpensive and
then overwhelming them with a gift
based on their big data I love sports so
no question this is another sports story
guy buys a case of Pinot Grigio for a
hundred eleven dollars we made 17 bucks
and profit on the case
we had to find people with unusual names
because we had to find them on Twitter
and this was still 2011 so finally we
found one they were having a tough time
finding people on Twitter that were
buying wine for the first time I wanted
a first time customer guy buys a case of
Pinot Grigio in Chicago we made 11 bucks
they find him he has an unusual name
like Vaynerchuk you know we find him
it’s definitely him and we look and we
find his Twitter his whole Twitter
stream is about Jay Cutler the
quarterback of the Chicago Bears just
tons of Jay Cutler I love you Jay Cutler
there’s another great I tell the Thank
You Department which is something we
have at Wine Library which is not
customer service its offense customer
services defense but thank you
Department kicks in and we go and buy
him a $350 Jersey signed by Jay Cutler
and we send it in roi negative on that
transaction I think we can all agree
and so now I’m pumped we finally found
somebody we sent it I’m you know my
keynotes are coming up I’m gonna have a
great case studies gonna buy a lot of
wine he’s gonna do something it’s gonna
be unbelievable I can’t wait to tell all
of you three weeks go by motherfucker
didn’t get back to us so I’m like what
the fuck
I’m grateful asshole
so nothing I’m like calling four times
today I’m like you sure like I know it’s
in spam like get the IT department I’m
like this is impossible nothing I’m
boarding a plane to Orlando I get a
phone call Gary like yeah they’re like
we got something I’m like finally I’m
like what did he do better look okay
better they’re like listen to this I’m
like okay we just got an order from
Plano Texas I’m like okay for $6,000
worth of red burgundy I’m like great now
that’s great but wait to hear the note
in the order like cool dear Wine Library
first of all what a great red burgundy
selection you have make sure you don’t
ship this it’s hot here hold it for a
while
ship it when it’s cooler next PS you
sent my friend John a Bears Jersey the
other day when he bought some wine from
you PSS I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan
[Applause]
for very little money
and for a solid amount of effort you
could go home from this conference and
go through your entire rolodex of
everybody that you sold something to in
the last year go on social media look at
their data and do something that shows
effort let me tell you what’s not effort
the at scale handwritten note that
wasn’t handwritten it was just a tactic
to fake effort what about actual effort
what about actually sending me something
about the Jets or root beer or Lionel
Richie because it’s very easy to figure
out I like those three things what
people are under estimating is the
word-of-mouth ecosystem that we actually
live in because this thing has changed
our behavior I don’t know if you’ve
noticed but we now have all defaulted
into this amazing notion that we should
tell the world everything about
everything always about all everything
it’s what we do for some reason
everybody needs to know our two cents on
the game last night on where the world’s
going this is what we do we share now
you may not like it it’s the reality of
the marketplace and one thing that
people share more than anything is when
they are caught off guard or that they
can feel that somebody gave them more
effort than the market my belief is that
the greatest version of a person in the
world is a purebred salesperson let me
tell you why my definition
one man’s definition of a purebred
salesperson is one that is obsessed with
providing more value to the other person
than they ask for in return when you
make that mental shift and more
importantly when your actions start
speaking that things start to massively
unlock I have built both by very large
businesses on one backbone which is I
want to know what this person’s gonna
say at my funeral
I have no interest in selling in
something I don’t believe I know for a
fact that there is a staggering
percentage of people here as they become
educated in the market they sell in that
they actually do not believe that their
product is the best I could not function
in that environment I’m not judging you
we all have our different paths and
different things loans mortgages respect
not trying to go there but I would tell
you that when you fully believe in what
you sell through and through it gets a
hell of a lot easier when you actually
give a fuck about the other person more
than you it gets triple easy it gets
triple easy my friends and so I implore
all of you to understand that we are
living through a marketplace now where
our consumers have more information than
ever you’re not going to win a deal on
inefficiency of information of our
consumer and so I implore you to start
producing two things one leading with
the heart and reverse engineering what
your end consumer whether they bought
from you or their your prospect what
makes them tick above and beyond being
the decision maker of your fucking
product and number two start thinking
about the people you’ve sold to after
you’ve sold to them and understand what
they can mean to your business by you
actually caring about them as well
because they’re still valuable to you
even though you hooked up got it
happen in the world selling something
getting a donation getting voted for
whatever the transaction is I always
break down that world into sales and
marketing and I think that I spend a lot
of time these days in the marketing
funnel and really helping a lot of my
digital startups and my friends in
digital marketing oh thank you so much
good reaction to the darkness Jets
jersey that makes me super happy I’m
trying to convince a lot of people go
from sales to understand the value of
marketing but I’ll tell you right now
through and through when I when I pass
away and they opened me up I am a
Salesman through and through and I’ve
been my whole life
pickups to the salespeople so coming to
a sales conference is a lot of fun for
me and I think there should be more of
them in our space because I think the
issue with a lot of my marketing friends
and people is it’s very up in the clouds
and it doesn’t really end up creating
the thing that I think we’re all you
know tied to which is the transaction
what is the KPI like what are we
actually trying to do I’m gonna give you
a little background of where I came from
for the people in here that don’t know
my story because I think it matters and
then I want to talk about what I would
do if I was in this audience I think
what I try to do as a salesman is I try
to reverse-engineer I try to figure out
while on stage who the audience is I try
to figure out what Simon and Seth have
and Arianna and Frederick have already
said because I know their spiels really
fucking well and and I’m trying to think
about what can I say that’s different
that is gonna actually bring value and
the truth is and I know those four very
well Fredrik I think is a a purebred
salesman but I really do think that I
was born very lucky and then I think my
parents are very opposite and I think I
feel very in kinship with my marketing
and with my sales and so that’s what I
want to focus on because I think a lot
of people here could make a lot more
money if they eliminated two things one
laziness to be very frank and
and to idealistic points of view of how
they’ve made their money in the past I
think one of the biggest concerns I have
sitting here in a world where I’m hungry
to get one to two people three people to
get a lot of value out of this talk is
the way you made your money before is my
enemy the way you’ve been successful
yesterday is my enemy
it is stunning if you understood what
runs through my head every morning on
how little I think anybody should give a
fuck about anything I achieved yesterday
back you’re really only as good as your
last at-bat and the thing that I’m most
passionate about and I think many of you
guys and gals can agree with me on this
is the landscape of sales and all of
communication in our society has had a
fundamental shift over the last decade
because of technology and there’s just a
lot of people that are doing things that
are not bringing them real value for
their actions my my religion in sales is
attention before I even think about how
to sell you my SAS product cuz it’s
better than the one that you’re using or
my wine or why you should use
vaynermedia and my agency or new pair of
sneakers or whatever you’re selling in
this room mid market enterprise small
startup the one thing that connects us
is the end person’s attention and this
is what I want to focus on at first my
career of being obsessed around
attention started when I was six and I’m
not kidding this is an interesting story
I was born in the Soviet Union I came
here as a kid my dad eventually got a
job as a stock boy in a liquor store in
New Jersey I originally lived in Queens
then I grew up in Edison New Jersey in
Edison when I was six and seven years
old I tricked
manipulated sold I sold I sold my
friends on the idea of standing behind a
lemonade stand all day and so when I was
six years old I had a six lemonade stand
franchise in Edison New Jersey how many
of you remember big wheels those little
bikes guys remember I still ride my big
wheels at the end of the day every
summer and pick up my cash like I was
little Tony Soprano or something so I
was a Salesman early on but it’s funny
it wasn’t the reason my friends were
behind the register selling the lemonade
and I was and it wasn’t because I was
fancy it wasn’t because I didn’t want to
do the work it’s because and this is me
now realizing this years later it was
because I was obsessed with attention
while my homies stood behind the
lemonade stands I walked up and down the
streets by the way for a lot of the
youngsters in here this was the 80s when
kids just went outside and did random
shit so I would walk I would I would
walk up and down the streets and
literally this sounds sick I am I would
sit at the cross-sections of streets
tinguely Lane in New Jersey Inman Avenue
in New Jersey I would sit there and I
would watch people I would sit in for an
hour I’m seven six seven eight years old
I would sit there for hours and I would
watch cars drive away and I would try to
see if I could see their faces and I
could figure out which three or pull to
put the lemonade stand sign on because
that would be the better one because
they would see it and buy lemonade at
early it was intuitive to me at such a
ridiculous age that the number one asset
was the attention and then what I had to
say is what mattered that the creative
that the product that the copy’
was the variable that the thing I said
on the other side of the phone was the
variable but before I could say it no
matter how good my game was did I
actually have their attention or was I
speaking to somebody that wasn’t paying
attention I believe that the far
majority of this room
become disconnected with the reality of
the end consumers attention that we have
taken for granted whether through
laziness not being compensated for it or
whatever other variable you are not
being good at what you do I don’t know I
believe that the market of sales has
lost its way it just I think it’s the
speed of attention shift in today’s
society I went on to have a very big
baseball card business when I was 12 and
13 when I was 12 13 I was selling
baseball cards in the malls of New
Jersey and I was making two to three
thousand dollars a weekend as a baseball
card salesman I don’t know about you
guys but when you have four when you’re
14 and you have $30,000 in cash under
your bed and you’re not selling weed
you’re a good fucking salesman so that
was good by the way I plan on buying the
New York Jets which I think projected by
the time I’m ready is gonna cost me
between five and eight billion dollars
and I’m convinced that when I was 13 and
had $30,000 of cash it will be the
richest I’ve ever been and just couldn’t
even begin to think about spending that
kind of money when I was 14 my dad
ruined my life dragged me into the
liquor store paid me two bucks an hour
to bag ice he now owned his own store in
Springfield New Jersey and I went from
like being my own entrepreneur and doing
my thing to working in this store called
shoppers discount liquors that I hated
because I bagged ice for 15 hours a day
and walked home at 30 bucks
that was a bad those two or three years
were the dark ages of my professional
career when I was 16 17 I was allowed
upstairs I realized people collected
wine that was interesting to me because
I was into collecting and I embarked on
my career my career took an interesting
turn because I discovered the Internet
and in 1997 I launched one of the first
e-commerce wine businesses in America
called winelibrary.com I grew my dad’s
business from a three to a sixty million
dollar business in five years I did it
through sales and marketing
I did it in two ways one I wasn’t out
marketing everybody by buying Google
AdWords by doing EEMA how many people
here do email marketing raise your hands
in 1997 I had a 200 thousand person
email database selling wine that had
91.3% open rates right yeah
now it wasn’t cuz I was such a hero like
that same list now I was like 31.3 it’s
because nobody was doing it and the
thing that I want to talk to you about
is the stunning excuses that my salesman
friends make up for not doing snapchat
or Facebook or Twitter or Instagram or
LinkedIn content I love my sales friends
or like I do LinkedIn I’m like no no you
don’t do LinkedIn you sit there and you
fucking try to connect people and you’re
a fucking spam bot you motherfucker not
a Salesman fuck anyway sorry truth truth
like I do LinkedIn sales no you don´t
you just click buttons and you hope and
pray and you ctrl copy and paste the
same fucking message to every person
because you’re fucking lazy so anyway
real estate when there’s a new vacation
destination or a new town or Hudson
Yards is being built right here the
people that buy first if they’re right
when you don’t get the beachfront
property by waiting for years for what’s
the value of it I am NOT I believe that
a purebred salesperson is never crippled
if her or his actions are not fruitful I
believe a purebred salesperson
understands that that’s part of the game
that that’s part of the hustle that
there’s so much upside by doing a new
tactic even if you hit it once out of
every nine times the overall ROI of all
those hours becomes a net positive score
and that is why I think I’ve been
successful because my career in sales
has been predicated of not being
crippled by overworking to learn
something new
period it is it is insanity and let me
use that word aggressively it is
insanity for you to disrespect all the
social media platforms today and what
they can mean for sales for you you have
to understand if one person execute
transactions through it then you can too
the problem is it’s hard the problem is
it takes time the problem is there’s a
lot of easier ways to do it today but
those things go away anybody here that’s
been doing email sales for 15 years
knows what I’m about to say which was 10
and 15 years ago it worked better right
it worked better because we play in one
game my friends all of us you’re trying
to reach that person on the other end we
play in b2b arbitrage of attention
it’s just supply and demand how many
people by show of hands is actually
interesting let’s run with this let’s
establish that lying is the devil and I
have no interest in your head nods I
want full fucking hands okay here we go
how many people here now in 2016
actually actually hate it when another
person another human being calls them
raise your hand raise it high I want
people look around look around raise it
higher just real high please these are
human beings our fellow human beings who
actually hate when another human being
calls them let me tell you why and then
let me tell you why it’s important for
this conversation
the reason they hate it
is because time has become the number
one asset to every person in this room
the emerging pillar in our society
besides the health and wellness of our
family and money the number one emerging
pillar of value to everybody in this
room and everybody in this conference
and everybody outside is time and
calling somebody when they weren’t
expecting it has now become stealing
ones time because we have the
alternative of when that person calls
you can say just text me just email me I
will call you back on my time it is my
belief that when I audit the sales
ecosystem and all the startups I’m
involved with and all the businesses I’m
involved with that salespeople steal
their clients time for their best and
interests instead of reverse engineering
the value of that person’s time it is in
our best vested interest to send that
email it is in our best vested interest
to make that phone call
we are not reverse engineering the fact
that these people have become busy now
another thing that’s extremely
fascinating for me being in this room is
I grew up in B to C my whole life right
only seven years ago when I started
vaynermedia did I go into the b2b world
just for the people that don’t know here
I have a 650 person social digital
agency that have grown in last four
years from a three to a 100 million
dollar business in sales not fucking
valuation and by the way that’s another
conversation for another fucking day
and I think the thing that will be
interesting to a lot of people here is
I’ve done that mainly on not selling
like we don’t really do RFPs I’m not
interested in selling somebody who I
would tell you my number like if
somebody said what’s your most religious
sales tactic it is not to try to sell to
somebody who’s unsellable I think one of
the most fascinating things that I
bought it when I look at the sales
ecosystem is how much people take time
trying to convert somebody who’s
unconverted all yes your product might
be eight thousand times better but if
that bosses boss is best friend homeys
with the alternative legacy software you
fucking lost and then I watch people
think that they’re gonna convert it on
merit there’s no fuckin merit there’s
just human beings making human decisions
and I think we need to get a lot less
romantic about that and start being much
more practical about the ecosystem let
me tell you another way that I’ve grown
that business that I think as instead of
pontificating and cursing up here let me
give you a direct tactic that I think a
lot of you guys can use a couple of
books ago because I decided to write
those kind of things I wrote a book
called the Thank You economy it’s super
interesting to me it’s the notion of if
you provide so much upfront value to an
individual can you actually guilt them
into buying shit especially if all your
actions are predicated on not expecting
them to buy it that’s the big part when
the energy of your tactics is to convert
you will lose when your energy is to
disproportionally bring value and let
the chips fall where they may
you will win it will change your
behavior it will change the energy of
the execution let me give you a story
vaynermedia there was a certain CMO that
I really wanted to get to because I
wanted their business right I don’t like
doing rfp’s because it’s a crapshoot
and we’re not very good at them right
and I have the fortune nature of having
a brand so a lot of business comes to me
but this one wasn’t and I wanted it so I
decided to follow and this is my number
one number one tactic for every person
this room that I am positive that if you
actually put in the work and do it that
you will email me and this is really the
reason I’m giving this is because I want
you to email me in four months and be
like hey bran I saw you in New York at
the sales machine conference I figured a
little bit ridiculous but I did this
thing and it actually worked
cool thanks that’s it that’s what I want
and here’s the tactic
how many people here are in b2b sales
raise your hand awesome coming from B to
C and now being in b2b and being part of
companies like bunny medium percolated
and wildfire that we’ve had successful
exits in and watching the landscape of
sales in that environment I’ve done very
well most might be to be investments I
am stunned how much easier it is to be a
b2b salesman than a b2c salesman you
literally know the name of the fucking
person you’re selling to this is a big
deal this is a big deal because by
knowing the name in 2016 you have the
opportunity to use big data in your
advantage on a micro level to create the
world that you want let me explain I
found the CMO that I wanted on Twitter
some of the people that you’re trying to
get to won’t be on Twitter they may be
on LinkedIn they may be on Facebook they
may be on Instagram but the fun part is
60 to 70 percent of your prospects are
on one of these platforms and putting
out data publicly on what they like and
what they’re into I follow this
individual and I noticed that he was a
humongous st. Louis Cardinals baseball
fan this is what my plan went into
action
I started watching everything he was
tweeting about ironically I would you
know I’m like a cobra in the grass I’ll
tell you the number one thing that I
think really separates good salespeople
from bad salespeople is patience I’m
patient as fuck right so I was staying
in the grass just waiting
collecting content being patient really
mapping what he’s into paying attention
ironically it coincided with my fantasy
baseball league right so I’m in my
fantasy baseball Draft
I’ve got the team I want I’ve got a
couple of empty slots on the reserve
thing I’m like you know what I’m gonna
I’m gonna draft this up-and-coming
rookie Cardinals player for many other
reasons than just winning my fantasy
baseball team so I draft the guy anybody
any Cardinals fans in here any couple
maybe two or three I drafted a guy by
name of kolten Wong infielder for the
st. Louis Cardinals before he was even
in Major League Baseball and so then I
wait and I wait for kolten Wong to get
up to the major leagues and I wait for
kolten Wong to do something good and
then I see what I needed to him tweeting
about kolten Wong which allowed me to
jump into that tween say hey I have
kolten Wong on my fantasy team isn’t he
awesome and he replied yeah he’s awesome
that’s it patience remember don’t close
on the first date all right so we
interact a little bit more about the
Cardinals they’re making their playoff
run and somewhere about three weeks
later he tweets me back and says hey I
see that you’re a CEO of a digital
agency we’re thinking about you know
maybe changing up our roster a little
bit is this something we could talk
about with Shore fucking Ken
I want to give you real data here less
than an hour of work being patient
spread off of probably about four months
I was able to convert that strategy into
a three point six million dollar paying
client write sales sales but sales not
that look like here’s a blank email that
I’m gonna blast everybody is obsessed
with scalability everybody is obsessed
with scalability and all the action in
sales is scaling the unscalable I
believe that sales even in today’s
environment is still a very face-to-face
game right I think a lot of us agree
with that I think the biggest disconnect
from the people that just heard that in
this room that have done that their
whole lives that were like yeah hell
yeah is that they don’t realize that
technology is now the scaleable gateway
drug to the human interactions I sell
I’m going to Cleveland right now after
this there’s a basketball game I want to
see and I’m gonna sell on that plane on
the way there because I’m using
technology Twitter Facebook LinkedIn and
these platforms as a gateway drug to
create an interpersonal relationship
there are people I know very well that
I’ve spent very little time with in real
life but I do that through those
channels and then when we see each other
there’s a total different feeling I have
for these three individuals these are
people I could never even have a
relationship with without this
technology these are people that I
haven’t met more than once I feel
enormous kinship towards them and the
dude with the jet Jersey because
because I’ve put in this sales work why
do you go golfing with a client why do
you eat a fucking steak with a client
why didn’t go to networking events you
do it to create context at scale you do
it to create context the absolute closer
and the enabler and the jabbing and the
flirter and the essence of energy is
context right if you know that girls you
know boyfriend if you know their
interest in the cardinal’s you have a
leg up on the competition it’s why you
spent time with your clients and the
decision makers and the influencers of
the decision makers because you are
building context what technology today
does and these five or six platforms
that are the current state of social
media do all at the fingertip of your
phone when you’re going to take a piss
we’re flying a Cleveland or whenever you
want ultimately scalable you can do it
anytime
6 p.m. 1 a.m. whenever you want however
you roll you get up early you get up
late you can hustle in these platforms
and create context and the fact of the
matter is in almost nobody does it
nobody does it because they lack
patience they should do you know how
many of you in this room have a point of
view on what Facebook or LinkedIn or
Twitter can do for your business and
you’ve never used the fucking product
it’s real thanks for that one clap I
liked it
and so we live in 2016 in a world where
the majority of you when you live like a
normal human being and don’t put on your
sales outfit for the day would never
convert on the actions that you take as
a salesperson during the work day the
amount of you that delete every fucking
email that you get that is a bulk email
the amount of you that will never answer
that phone the amount of you that would
net who here is super fired up to go
home and go through their direct mail
carefully and so I’m fascinated by the
disconnect of who you are as a human
being and how you act when it’s in your
vested financial interest for another
human being to act the way you want
because it’s more convenient for you
that is the arbitrage and that will
always be the arbitrage forever so many
of you have done business because of
word-of-mouth right how many people here
have landed more business because of
word-of-mouth from a prior transaction
raise your hands if you didn’t raise
your hand you just don’t fucking
understand or you’re lazy and that’s
fucking interesting too
when I think about social media all I
think about it as is as the plumbing of
word-of-mouth in our society I’m
fascinated by how much business I do
with somebody after I actually sell them
and what I do with them to create that
word-of-mouth versus what I did to get
them in the first place the enormous
amount of energy that we all deploy as
salespeople to get the business versus
what we do with that business even if
it’s handed off to an account person if
you were that point of reference your
ability to stay in that ecosystem and
bring value is incredible and again I
implore you to understand the value of
public data let me give you a b2c
scenario but you can deploy this in your
old-world wine library before Thank You
economy I wanted an example for my
keynotes about how I was doing the Thank
You economy so it was very passionate
about having somebody buy something on
wine library that was inexpensive and
then overwhelming them with a gift
based on their big data I love sports so
no question this is another sports story
guy buys a case of Pinot Grigio for a
hundred eleven dollars we made 17 bucks
and profit on the case
we had to find people with unusual names
because we had to find them on Twitter
and this was still 2011 so finally we
found one they were having a tough time
finding people on Twitter that were
buying wine for the first time I wanted
a first time customer guy buys a case of
Pinot Grigio in Chicago we made 11 bucks
they find him he has an unusual name
like Vaynerchuk you know we find him
it’s definitely him and we look and we
find his Twitter his whole Twitter
stream is about Jay Cutler the
quarterback of the Chicago Bears just
tons of Jay Cutler I love you Jay Cutler
there’s another great I tell the Thank
You Department which is something we
have at Wine Library which is not
customer service its offense customer
services defense but thank you
Department kicks in and we go and buy
him a $350 Jersey signed by Jay Cutler
and we send it in roi negative on that
transaction I think we can all agree
and so now I’m pumped we finally found
somebody we sent it I’m you know my
keynotes are coming up I’m gonna have a
great case studies gonna buy a lot of
wine he’s gonna do something it’s gonna
be unbelievable I can’t wait to tell all
of you three weeks go by motherfucker
didn’t get back to us so I’m like what
the fuck
I’m grateful asshole
so nothing I’m like calling four times
today I’m like you sure like I know it’s
in spam like get the IT department I’m
like this is impossible nothing I’m
boarding a plane to Orlando I get a
phone call Gary like yeah they’re like
we got something I’m like finally I’m
like what did he do better look okay
better they’re like listen to this I’m
like okay we just got an order from
Plano Texas I’m like okay for $6,000
worth of red burgundy I’m like great now
that’s great but wait to hear the note
in the order like cool dear Wine Library
first of all what a great red burgundy
selection you have make sure you don’t
ship this it’s hot here hold it for a
while
ship it when it’s cooler next PS you
sent my friend John a Bears Jersey the
other day when he bought some wine from
you PSS I’m a huge Bruce Springsteen fan
[Applause]
for very little money
and for a solid amount of effort you
could go home from this conference and
go through your entire rolodex of
everybody that you sold something to in
the last year go on social media look at
their data and do something that shows
effort let me tell you what’s not effort
the at scale handwritten note that
wasn’t handwritten it was just a tactic
to fake effort what about actual effort
what about actually sending me something
about the Jets or root beer or Lionel
Richie because it’s very easy to figure
out I like those three things what
people are under estimating is the
word-of-mouth ecosystem that we actually
live in because this thing has changed
our behavior I don’t know if you’ve
noticed but we now have all defaulted
into this amazing notion that we should
tell the world everything about
everything always about all everything
it’s what we do for some reason
everybody needs to know our two cents on
the game last night on where the world’s
going this is what we do we share now
you may not like it it’s the reality of
the marketplace and one thing that
people share more than anything is when
they are caught off guard or that they
can feel that somebody gave them more
effort than the market my belief is that
the greatest version of a person in the
world is a purebred salesperson let me
tell you why my definition
one man’s definition of a purebred
salesperson is one that is obsessed with
providing more value to the other person
than they ask for in return when you
make that mental shift and more
importantly when your actions start
speaking that things start to massively
unlock I have built both by very large
businesses on one backbone which is I
want to know what this person’s gonna
say at my funeral
I have no interest in selling in
something I don’t believe I know for a
fact that there is a staggering
percentage of people here as they become
educated in the market they sell in that
they actually do not believe that their
product is the best I could not function
in that environment I’m not judging you
we all have our different paths and
different things loans mortgages respect
not trying to go there but I would tell
you that when you fully believe in what
you sell through and through it gets a
hell of a lot easier when you actually
give a fuck about the other person more
than you it gets triple easy it gets
triple easy my friends and so I implore
all of you to understand that we are
living through a marketplace now where
our consumers have more information than
ever you’re not going to win a deal on
inefficiency of information of our
consumer and so I implore you to start
producing two things one leading with
the heart and reverse engineering what
your end consumer whether they bought
from you or their your prospect what
makes them tick above and beyond being
the decision maker of your fucking
product and number two start thinking
about the people you’ve sold to after
you’ve sold to them and understand what
they can mean to your business by you
actually caring about them as well
because they’re still valuable to you
even though you hooked up got it
Please follow and like us: