everyone welcome to another google
hangout super excited to be here with
you again today we’re going to be
talking about sales presentation tips
for entrepreneurs and I’ve got my friend
Dave Curlin back again dave is a expert
in sales and marketing he’s been in the
inducting the sales and marketing Hall
of Fame bestselling author has a popular
blog and has some of the best sales
assessment tools out there on the market
if you want to understand your own
abilities as a salesperson or the people
on your team and where they’re missing
and where they can get better Dave
welcome back thanks Evan it’s great to
be back congratulations on a great blue
jays summer of 2015 yes thank you i’m
rocking the blue jay hat because
tomorrow ah Dave loves the Boston Red
Sox he’s got a whole bunch of stuff in
his office at a Red Sox and I’m a Jays
fan and tomorrow they play each other
for our home opener so super excited uh
you know I true for the Red Sox when
their songs are not you know I’m an
Elise guy but Jays first go for it um so
cool so we’re talking about sales
presentation tips we got a bunch of
watching library asking questions before
can I dive into that what do you see as
kind of the biggest mistakes that
entrepreneurs make when they’re making
sales presentations and how can people
kind of overcome that what’s your high
level advice sir that’s the biggest
mistake that entrepreneurs make it isn’t
their fault but they’re excited about
their product in their service and I
can’t wait to tell people about it tell
folks why it’s so great why it’s special
and why they should buy it and that’s
the stuff that bores people most
importantly it doesn’t differentiate
them from anybody else doing the same
thing and what would they really have to
do to get better and to improve is to
stop talking about their stuff and start
asking about the people that they’re
talking to what’s important to them what
are they trying to solve what’s going on
in their world one of their issues and
see if they can build a case where they
can position their product their service
as a solution
to the issues they uncover the question
and then when we’re talking about sales
presentations how would you kind of
differentiate between a face-to-face
meeting versus intro phone call versus
what’s on your website vs I you know
maybe you get invited to speak at a
conference what are some of the
different tools are texting you can use
from a sales point of view you know does
that’s a great question and in 30 years
nobody’s ever asked me that question oh
there you go and definitely it’s my next
blog article but I love it quickly if
you’re speaking at a conference then
you’re the subject matter expert and you
need to free can be the subject matter
expert and the stuff that resonates best
our case histories stories it shouldn’t
be a product presentation it’s got to be
a story about somebody like the people
in the audience who had problems similar
to your audience’s problems and how you
were able to help them solve their
problem you never do a product
presentation at a conference the first
call that should be to introduce
yourself and to see if they have even
one issue that you might be able to help
with and that first call would just be
to schedule a meeting a product
presentation a demo now even there
everybody’s rushing to do a demo and
when you rush to demo you never get a
chance to do a needs analysis you never
get a chance to do discovery you never
ever chance to ask those great questions
so the best you can hope for is that
your generic demo raises some interest
but it’s not what you need to build the
case and to get somebody qualified so
you can close them but what most
entrepreneurs do is following the demo
if they’re interested they put a
proposal together and then they can’t
understand why the business didn’t close
so if you’re going to do a demo get
enough information first so that at
least worst-case the demo can be
customized to them so you can say
something like you know when we first
talked you told me that you were having
this problem let me show you how we can
help you with that problem and instead
of a linear demo or a linear
presentation we
somebody how it works you showpiece male
how certain features of your product
your service solve problems so those are
the the nuanced differences between
those approaches hope that is cool yeah
um great so we’re going to get some
questions you guys watching live in love
question sir you’re going to ask in the
chat there I first up was harsh
harsimran who’s writing in to ask for
your opinions on good marketing and
sales books or blogs and people to
follow well you got you got Dave you got
an award-winning blog you got some
best-selling books that you can talk a
little bit about and then I guess who
else do you recommend connecting with
sure um so my blog is understanding the
Salesforce and you can find that at
o.m.g hub com OMG like oh my god of hu
be calm there’s more than 1,400 articles
on sales and sales leadership and
anything you can imagine you’ll find
there my best-selling book baseline
selling how to become a sales superstar
by using everything that Evan and I know
about baseball that then that really
covers everything that you need to know
about selling and I also like the
hubspot blog the hubspot sales blog
specifically tends to be really good and
you know the other the other sales books
out there there’s never been a fan sales
book written but they all tend to be a
little more niched than my book you know
this one’s about closing and this one’s
about prospecting and this one’s about
asking questions so read whatever you
can watch whatever videos you can read
all the blogs and in the end you’ll
probably still need some help applying
it all to your business but it’s a good
starting point cool um yeah Dave’s got a
great blog I included in the description
initially I just had curling Association
calm which is his assessment tools and
everything but I also added the blog
there too so you can check out both in
the description afterwards thanks um
i also like gary vaynerchuk stuff
especially if you’re doing like social
media he’s got a good it’s not a law it
was video-based i like video stuff too
I’m sorry has that add that to the list
is there any youtubers that you follow
Dave I don’t have enough time to follow
a lot of people I am and I’m not trying
to brag but I am so busy and and both
companies are just so busy it’s it’s all
I can do to just turn out my own content
I you know but it’s important too
because I think a lot of people are only
consumers and at some point you gotta
produce right to right like if you’re an
entrepreneur you gotta or your sales
person you know you gotta get out there
and yes the motivation is important and
yes you wanna read the blogs and inspire
yourself and learn some tool but yet you
gotta go and out you create to a nut
with its new position that you’re
sitting in you’re familiar with all of
the good stuff that’s out there you know
you see it coming into heaven Carmichael
calm you’ve got some prominent authors
who contribute blog posts you’ve got
some prominent authors who are linking
up to their YouTube channels so you’re
in a good position to recommend some of
those good content sites too and I’m
sure if they’re following you they they
know what they are yeah why not share
some of this up here I try to take a
look at some that I actually consuming
read to and end eh it is not a lot and
yeah I can see my own stuff like that
probably noticed the same thing there is
a ton of content but a lot of it is
recycled and regurgitated or out-of-date
or one person’s opinion that’s so out of
tune with current reality you know
linkedin is given everybody a platform
linkedin makes everybody a blogger and a
writer that that’s nice that everybody’s
got a voice but it’s not necessarily a
good thing in terms of being able to
distinguish the good stuff from the not
so good stuff now you’re still gotta
sell your produce quality just because
the technology is there you see I gotta
create something good um sean is talking
about passion I
no something that’s important to you and
finding sales people with passion be an
entrepreneur passion finding his passion
and and be able to turn a business
around it advice or finding your passion
well passions tough um for for most
people in my experience I’ve found that
they know what the passion is already
it’s already something they’re living
and they’re dreaming and they’re
thinking about it and it’s it’s probably
something that you’re already doing um
you could probably sit down in a quiet
room with a notebook and a pen and close
your eyes and and see if you can capture
one of those quickly passing thoughts or
dreams that are so elusive to get hold
of my mind tend to happen just in
between being awake and fallen asleep
and I try to capture those little pieces
because those those tell me more about
what I want or what I need to do then my
waking thoughts but wow how is that hard
have you ever tried doing that Evan uh I
like the visual there I like to sit in
back and the book and you know I think I
think as you know I think as
entrepreneurs it’s easy to get bored of
stuff too and we want to move on we want
to try new things as part of it maybe in
our DNA like we we don’t like just
sitting in the box and sometimes we
create a box for ourselves and then we
want to break free of our own box I I
think if I think if you haven’t found
your passion yet you need to explore to
you need to try different things and see
what see you know don’t settle until
something makes you come alive like you
try something and like that was I want
to go back and do it again I can’t get
enough of that and and then turn it into
the topic of presentation tapes sales
for entrepreneurs like if you are not
passionate of what you’re selling forget
about it yeah it’s like I’m a serial
entrepreneur but my last two businesses
30 years and 25 years so unlike most
serial entrepreneurs i’m only running
two concurrent businesses and I’m not
jumping from business i did a business
idea and flipping it um I’ve stayed with
it because the passion has stayed I
still love
I’m doing it and it’s certainly not my
expertise how to turn a passion into a
business uh I have expertise in being
able to turn a business into a sales
machine you know and how to help people
create the sales machine and keep the
revenue coming in but I’m probably not
the best guy to ask about the what
should I do and so how do you take that
so if I mean I’m an entrepreneur I’m try
to bring on a sales team right and maybe
I’m using that you know your sales
assessing tools and I’m learning how to
do that how do I pull out because I want
to hire passionate salespeople right not
just people who have the skills to do it
but like who like what I’m selling what
do you recommend for that for finding
them or hiring them or you know how do I
weed them out in the process look at the
people and you would you rather have
somebody who’s passionate and try to
train the skills or the other way around
passionate and train for skills because
skills can be taught DNA can so we break
selling down into the will to sell
that’s desire which is as close to we
can come to passion and commitment and
motivation and then their sales DNA you
know what we’re hardwired for in terms
of strengths that could support selling
skills and strategies and tactics and
then the then the competencies
themselves which you know are things
like the ability to hunt and qualify and
sell consultative lee and clothes and
posture and build relationships and use
social selling tools and you CRM and use
a sales process and when you put all
that stuff together it’s 21 sales core
competencies so if I were looking for
passion I would look to the sales
candidate assessment that we have and
the first thing I would look at would be
the score for desire but there’s one
finding that’s even more important than
desire and that’s commitment I was I was
on a call yesterday and the client said
how can somebody score ninety-three
percent on desire and ten percent on
commitment
that’s a good question how can you want
something that badly in this case sales
success yet only have ten percent
commitment and this is the story that I
shared with them when my son was ten
four years ago all his friends were
starting to get iphones and he was
hounding us for an iphone mom dad I
gotta have an iphone now you don’t
really have yeah I gotta have one you
how foolish I look being the only kid in
the class without an iphone I’ve gotta
have what I’ll do anything so desire
gotta have one and commitment I’ll do
anything so we told him what anything
was anything meant picking his dirty
clothes up off the floor going to bed at
bedtime waking up at six thirty in the
morning so we get him the school on time
and doing his homework well so his words
for commitment were not the same as his
actions for commitment as badly as he
wanted that iphone let’s say
ninety-three percent on the desire scale
the commitment wasn’t there to pick up
the clothes and go to bed on time and do
the homework when he was supposed to
wake up in the morning something akin to
ten percent on the commitment scale and
today selling is so much more difficult
than it was even ten years ago because
it’s harder to reach decision makers and
it’s harder to stand out from all the
noise and it’s harder to get people to
spend money and it’s harder to sell
value and if you’re not the one company
that has the lowest price you have to
sell value so with selling and there’s a
lot more rejection and sales cycles are
taking longer and win rates are going
down so to deal with all that commitment
is the most important element in
successful selling entrepreneurs hmmm
sorry for the long story but no it’s
interesting and then to the like
commitment you’ll be committed to some
things but not other things or you’re
testing it that more like this is all
about selling so you know if it’s an
entrepreneur and we’re looking at an
entrepreneur who’s going to sell or
sales candidate who’s going to sell
for an entrepreneur yeah we want to know
all about those 21 sales for
competencies but if the desire and the
commitment aren’t both there that’s a
that’s a deal-breaker before we even
meet cool I like it um selves am writing
in Evan and Dave we’re focused on
selling media video content how do we
present ourselves and instead us apart
from as a premium model so trying to
sell media video content as a premium
model I’m trying to stand out in their
presentations what do you recommend
that’s a that’s a great question because
there’s a lot of video media content
providers out there you know we use
Wistia and YouTube’s in that business
too and you know one question I would
have is whether they’re trying to sell
it online you know sell it do marketing
or whether they’re trying to do
corporate sales if it’s a premium
product that’s right for corporate sales
but you need to show how you can help
companies develop their media and use
their media and build their business
through media as opposed to just being a
provider and a host like everybody else
so that might be where the value is
because there’s plenty of media tools
there’s plenty of video making tools is
cut plenty of content providing tools
but what can you do differently that
would justify the premium price and are
you willing to go and sell at the
companies who you know might have people
who are thinking well yeah all these
tools are out there but I don’t know
what to do with it I don’t know how to
use them I don’t know how to make
something really good or make it stand
up or make it stand out share it the
right way so tools are great but unless
your little on the techy side unless
you’re Evan and you know how to utilize
and leverage the tools and build a
business from these tools companies need
help with this stuff I like I just
noticed a shirt is that new you see kind
of stood up there I was like I see the
curling on there is that does that need
a shirt not a new shirt but it’s
probably the first time I’ve had it on
for one of our hangouts I like it I like
the
Thanks I’m yeah and I think also
understand what really like I’ve never
done this before um let’s see if I can
give you a tour of my my office museum
there we go I saw the jersey I’ve seen
the Jersey before yeah my whole office
is filled with memorabilia that’s about
as far as I can go with with that Ted
Williams custom Ted Williams piece Ted
Williams he’d know he’s from Boston you
know they was from Boston you know it me
what yeah so what so to answer the
question to from my point of view I be
looking at when you find out the thing
that you’re different I’m making that
front and center because if I’m
comparing you compared to 10 of the guys
who all everybody looks the same that
but then I know you’re the one who’s
focused on this and then if that is
important to me and I value that then
you’re gonna be the default guy or girl
that I go to fact that or if you just
look like everybody else then did you
gonna beat you down on price right then
it’s all gonna be about price right our
next questions about price who woulda
thunk there you go prakash’s writing in
uh what do you do in the price of the
product is different than that the price
the customer wants to pay isn’t it
usually I went home I would hope that
the price is more than the then the
price the customer wants to pay and I
hope it’s more than what your competitor
is charging because even if you don’t
know how to differentiate at least your
price differentiates and now your
customer is they’re not looking for you
to defend your price and they’re not
necessarily looking for you to lower
your price but they’ve been given a
signal that maybe you’ve got something
that your competitors don’t have so this
gives you an opportunity to ask some
questions so if they say something like
well how come you’re so much more
expensive than your competition you can
say well which competition are you
familiar with and they say well we know
about XYZ and you say well why aren’t
you buying from XYZ then and they’ll say
because they’re we don’t
like this we don’t like them we don’t
like it it doesn’t have this thing that
we need tell me more about that and how
important is that and if you had that
what would you be able to do then and is
it worth an extra nine dollars a month
or is it worth an extra ten thousand
dollars or is it worth an extra fifty
thousand dollars depending on what
you’re selling in order to have that and
and that’s the short version of how you
sell value right and what I love about
the approach that Dave just took and
just did it naturally was instead of
just trying to justify your price and
convince them that you’re better he’s
asking questions to understand well who
you comparing us to and why do you why
did you not buy from them and what are
your needs right and so that gives you
the ammunition the tools as well as the
rapport building to be able to convince
them that you’re the better person it
becomes very conversational rather than
and this is a huge misconception about
selling sales people naturally go to
their list of bullets um this is why our
price is the way it is this is why ours
is better this is how ours is different
and when there’s a little bit of
resistance and you go to logic to
justify why you are the way you are or
why your product is the way it is you
think you’re helping but your prospect
thinks here comes the hard sell right mo
sales people don’t get that it’s all
about being able to recognize the level
of resistance that you’re up against
when when you can get resistance down to
here you can sell them anything but when
resistance comes up it doesn’t matter
what you have you won’t sell a thing
your number one job is to keep the
resistance down and you don’t do that by
explaining things away with logic and
features and benefits that raises
resistance and then so when you’re kind
of sales assessment tools is that
something that you screened for we were
just or not you then train we we measure
all of that we have here like I
mentioned is 21 sales core competencies
that we measure each salesperson in so
that tells us whether they’re doing it
today and the sales DNA tells us whether
they have the ability to do it but in
the end usually have to train for it
because most salespeople are not able to
do this naturally so it’s not it’s not a
deal breaker something that they could
learn at the right tools if they
understand that is funded right Sean was
saying great advice on the desire
commitment ranchi went on so that was
good um cool maybe time for one more no
guns is writing in to ask about no guns
no no guns no girls they got a political
statement into you good there you go no
guns I’m tips for for vloggers to sell
themselves tips for bloggers well
bloggers well I mean it’s maybe not that
different than bloggers but vloggers
like video bloggers yeah um you said it
already it’s got to be about the quality
of the content so whether you’re writing
an article or putting out a video the
first ten seconds you’ve got to be able
to reach out and grab your reader or
your viewer by the neck and and hold
them and if you can get their attention
then you’ll have a subscriber and you’ll
have a follower but if you’re writing
boring they’re not coming back and
they’re not going to talk about it
either yeah you got my attention with
that I woke up I felt my neck being
squeezed there that the firt the first
if you go to Broadway shows or
off-broadway shows um you get to see how
they were able to do that in show
business it’s all about that first
couple of minutes they work some magic
I’ve got things coming in all over the
place my phone’s wearing in my watch is
raining in my desk phones ringing up on
Broadway and in some really well done
movies in that first minute they get you
and the key then is can they can they
hold your attention through the rest of
the production and we have to do that
when we sell we have to do that when we
write and we have to do that when we
produce videos we have to do that on
your live show and if we don’t grab
in the first minute there they’re gonna
go do something else and if if we keep
them to the end they’re gonna come back
and they’re gonna tell somebody and
that’s how you grow an audience you have
time for one more Dave sure okay what do
I have to do well I Rooney shrewd in a
question and other people are saying you
have to answer our nation’s questions so
the popular question alright last
question we’re going to be demoing a
tech product in the near future I know
you touched on demoing a product but how
can you go into can you go into a little
more detail on how to dem more product
is there anything we must do is there
anything we should definitely avoid you
must ask questions before you demo it
like what do you want to see what are
the issues you’re trying to solve who
are the user is going to be what are
they frustrated with what would the
business value be from this and it’s
hard without knowing whether it’s a tech
product or a machine but I’m assuming
it’s some kind of an online demo they
said it’s a tech product okay alright so
what are you using now what do you like
about it what are you frustrated with
and what’s most important and if you’ve
got a little of that information then
you’ll know what to touch on and what to
stay away from so like I said earlier
you don’t do a linear demo you don’t do
a beginning to end you don’t do a
demonstration of every screen and of
every feature and you don’t walk them
through it you say you mentioned that
the current product you have uh doesn’t
do this and you need this because let me
show you how we’re able to do that piece
um I was just looking at a payroll
product last week and they asked me they
did this right of course it was a client
so they’d know to do this right they
said what most frustrates you about your
current payroll service and I said that
I have to do it through email and that I
don’t have the ability to just log on to
the portal enter it and be done with it
and they said let us show you how you
can do that with ours what else
frustrates you and I mentioned a couple
other things and they said let us show
you how we can do that for you and I’m
sold instantly you can do in
five minutes what it might otherwise be
difficult to do in an hour if you simply
focus on the solutions to the
frustrations instead of trying to show
everything that you have and as excited
as you are about everything that you
have nobody cares except you I love it
there you go you guys got your answer
okay demanding in the comment to that
rate uh Dave thank you so much for
spending time with us I know you’re
super busy your multiple phones and
watches going crazy I’ve included the
link to Dave’s both of his websites to
find the sales assessment tools as well
as his blog and go check out any final
message debut want to leave everybody
with ya go Blue Jays or whatever team
you root for it’s all about the baseball
I love it so I thank you Dave thank you
guys for watching have a great rest of
the week and we’ll see you soon by evan
bye everybody
hangout super excited to be here with
you again today we’re going to be
talking about sales presentation tips
for entrepreneurs and I’ve got my friend
Dave Curlin back again dave is a expert
in sales and marketing he’s been in the
inducting the sales and marketing Hall
of Fame bestselling author has a popular
blog and has some of the best sales
assessment tools out there on the market
if you want to understand your own
abilities as a salesperson or the people
on your team and where they’re missing
and where they can get better Dave
welcome back thanks Evan it’s great to
be back congratulations on a great blue
jays summer of 2015 yes thank you i’m
rocking the blue jay hat because
tomorrow ah Dave loves the Boston Red
Sox he’s got a whole bunch of stuff in
his office at a Red Sox and I’m a Jays
fan and tomorrow they play each other
for our home opener so super excited uh
you know I true for the Red Sox when
their songs are not you know I’m an
Elise guy but Jays first go for it um so
cool so we’re talking about sales
presentation tips we got a bunch of
watching library asking questions before
can I dive into that what do you see as
kind of the biggest mistakes that
entrepreneurs make when they’re making
sales presentations and how can people
kind of overcome that what’s your high
level advice sir that’s the biggest
mistake that entrepreneurs make it isn’t
their fault but they’re excited about
their product in their service and I
can’t wait to tell people about it tell
folks why it’s so great why it’s special
and why they should buy it and that’s
the stuff that bores people most
importantly it doesn’t differentiate
them from anybody else doing the same
thing and what would they really have to
do to get better and to improve is to
stop talking about their stuff and start
asking about the people that they’re
talking to what’s important to them what
are they trying to solve what’s going on
in their world one of their issues and
see if they can build a case where they
can position their product their service
as a solution
to the issues they uncover the question
and then when we’re talking about sales
presentations how would you kind of
differentiate between a face-to-face
meeting versus intro phone call versus
what’s on your website vs I you know
maybe you get invited to speak at a
conference what are some of the
different tools are texting you can use
from a sales point of view you know does
that’s a great question and in 30 years
nobody’s ever asked me that question oh
there you go and definitely it’s my next
blog article but I love it quickly if
you’re speaking at a conference then
you’re the subject matter expert and you
need to free can be the subject matter
expert and the stuff that resonates best
our case histories stories it shouldn’t
be a product presentation it’s got to be
a story about somebody like the people
in the audience who had problems similar
to your audience’s problems and how you
were able to help them solve their
problem you never do a product
presentation at a conference the first
call that should be to introduce
yourself and to see if they have even
one issue that you might be able to help
with and that first call would just be
to schedule a meeting a product
presentation a demo now even there
everybody’s rushing to do a demo and
when you rush to demo you never get a
chance to do a needs analysis you never
get a chance to do discovery you never
ever chance to ask those great questions
so the best you can hope for is that
your generic demo raises some interest
but it’s not what you need to build the
case and to get somebody qualified so
you can close them but what most
entrepreneurs do is following the demo
if they’re interested they put a
proposal together and then they can’t
understand why the business didn’t close
so if you’re going to do a demo get
enough information first so that at
least worst-case the demo can be
customized to them so you can say
something like you know when we first
talked you told me that you were having
this problem let me show you how we can
help you with that problem and instead
of a linear demo or a linear
presentation we
somebody how it works you showpiece male
how certain features of your product
your service solve problems so those are
the the nuanced differences between
those approaches hope that is cool yeah
um great so we’re going to get some
questions you guys watching live in love
question sir you’re going to ask in the
chat there I first up was harsh
harsimran who’s writing in to ask for
your opinions on good marketing and
sales books or blogs and people to
follow well you got you got Dave you got
an award-winning blog you got some
best-selling books that you can talk a
little bit about and then I guess who
else do you recommend connecting with
sure um so my blog is understanding the
Salesforce and you can find that at
o.m.g hub com OMG like oh my god of hu
be calm there’s more than 1,400 articles
on sales and sales leadership and
anything you can imagine you’ll find
there my best-selling book baseline
selling how to become a sales superstar
by using everything that Evan and I know
about baseball that then that really
covers everything that you need to know
about selling and I also like the
hubspot blog the hubspot sales blog
specifically tends to be really good and
you know the other the other sales books
out there there’s never been a fan sales
book written but they all tend to be a
little more niched than my book you know
this one’s about closing and this one’s
about prospecting and this one’s about
asking questions so read whatever you
can watch whatever videos you can read
all the blogs and in the end you’ll
probably still need some help applying
it all to your business but it’s a good
starting point cool um yeah Dave’s got a
great blog I included in the description
initially I just had curling Association
calm which is his assessment tools and
everything but I also added the blog
there too so you can check out both in
the description afterwards thanks um
i also like gary vaynerchuk stuff
especially if you’re doing like social
media he’s got a good it’s not a law it
was video-based i like video stuff too
I’m sorry has that add that to the list
is there any youtubers that you follow
Dave I don’t have enough time to follow
a lot of people I am and I’m not trying
to brag but I am so busy and and both
companies are just so busy it’s it’s all
I can do to just turn out my own content
I you know but it’s important too
because I think a lot of people are only
consumers and at some point you gotta
produce right to right like if you’re an
entrepreneur you gotta or your sales
person you know you gotta get out there
and yes the motivation is important and
yes you wanna read the blogs and inspire
yourself and learn some tool but yet you
gotta go and out you create to a nut
with its new position that you’re
sitting in you’re familiar with all of
the good stuff that’s out there you know
you see it coming into heaven Carmichael
calm you’ve got some prominent authors
who contribute blog posts you’ve got
some prominent authors who are linking
up to their YouTube channels so you’re
in a good position to recommend some of
those good content sites too and I’m
sure if they’re following you they they
know what they are yeah why not share
some of this up here I try to take a
look at some that I actually consuming
read to and end eh it is not a lot and
yeah I can see my own stuff like that
probably noticed the same thing there is
a ton of content but a lot of it is
recycled and regurgitated or out-of-date
or one person’s opinion that’s so out of
tune with current reality you know
linkedin is given everybody a platform
linkedin makes everybody a blogger and a
writer that that’s nice that everybody’s
got a voice but it’s not necessarily a
good thing in terms of being able to
distinguish the good stuff from the not
so good stuff now you’re still gotta
sell your produce quality just because
the technology is there you see I gotta
create something good um sean is talking
about passion I
no something that’s important to you and
finding sales people with passion be an
entrepreneur passion finding his passion
and and be able to turn a business
around it advice or finding your passion
well passions tough um for for most
people in my experience I’ve found that
they know what the passion is already
it’s already something they’re living
and they’re dreaming and they’re
thinking about it and it’s it’s probably
something that you’re already doing um
you could probably sit down in a quiet
room with a notebook and a pen and close
your eyes and and see if you can capture
one of those quickly passing thoughts or
dreams that are so elusive to get hold
of my mind tend to happen just in
between being awake and fallen asleep
and I try to capture those little pieces
because those those tell me more about
what I want or what I need to do then my
waking thoughts but wow how is that hard
have you ever tried doing that Evan uh I
like the visual there I like to sit in
back and the book and you know I think I
think as you know I think as
entrepreneurs it’s easy to get bored of
stuff too and we want to move on we want
to try new things as part of it maybe in
our DNA like we we don’t like just
sitting in the box and sometimes we
create a box for ourselves and then we
want to break free of our own box I I
think if I think if you haven’t found
your passion yet you need to explore to
you need to try different things and see
what see you know don’t settle until
something makes you come alive like you
try something and like that was I want
to go back and do it again I can’t get
enough of that and and then turn it into
the topic of presentation tapes sales
for entrepreneurs like if you are not
passionate of what you’re selling forget
about it yeah it’s like I’m a serial
entrepreneur but my last two businesses
30 years and 25 years so unlike most
serial entrepreneurs i’m only running
two concurrent businesses and I’m not
jumping from business i did a business
idea and flipping it um I’ve stayed with
it because the passion has stayed I
still love
I’m doing it and it’s certainly not my
expertise how to turn a passion into a
business uh I have expertise in being
able to turn a business into a sales
machine you know and how to help people
create the sales machine and keep the
revenue coming in but I’m probably not
the best guy to ask about the what
should I do and so how do you take that
so if I mean I’m an entrepreneur I’m try
to bring on a sales team right and maybe
I’m using that you know your sales
assessing tools and I’m learning how to
do that how do I pull out because I want
to hire passionate salespeople right not
just people who have the skills to do it
but like who like what I’m selling what
do you recommend for that for finding
them or hiring them or you know how do I
weed them out in the process look at the
people and you would you rather have
somebody who’s passionate and try to
train the skills or the other way around
passionate and train for skills because
skills can be taught DNA can so we break
selling down into the will to sell
that’s desire which is as close to we
can come to passion and commitment and
motivation and then their sales DNA you
know what we’re hardwired for in terms
of strengths that could support selling
skills and strategies and tactics and
then the then the competencies
themselves which you know are things
like the ability to hunt and qualify and
sell consultative lee and clothes and
posture and build relationships and use
social selling tools and you CRM and use
a sales process and when you put all
that stuff together it’s 21 sales core
competencies so if I were looking for
passion I would look to the sales
candidate assessment that we have and
the first thing I would look at would be
the score for desire but there’s one
finding that’s even more important than
desire and that’s commitment I was I was
on a call yesterday and the client said
how can somebody score ninety-three
percent on desire and ten percent on
commitment
that’s a good question how can you want
something that badly in this case sales
success yet only have ten percent
commitment and this is the story that I
shared with them when my son was ten
four years ago all his friends were
starting to get iphones and he was
hounding us for an iphone mom dad I
gotta have an iphone now you don’t
really have yeah I gotta have one you
how foolish I look being the only kid in
the class without an iphone I’ve gotta
have what I’ll do anything so desire
gotta have one and commitment I’ll do
anything so we told him what anything
was anything meant picking his dirty
clothes up off the floor going to bed at
bedtime waking up at six thirty in the
morning so we get him the school on time
and doing his homework well so his words
for commitment were not the same as his
actions for commitment as badly as he
wanted that iphone let’s say
ninety-three percent on the desire scale
the commitment wasn’t there to pick up
the clothes and go to bed on time and do
the homework when he was supposed to
wake up in the morning something akin to
ten percent on the commitment scale and
today selling is so much more difficult
than it was even ten years ago because
it’s harder to reach decision makers and
it’s harder to stand out from all the
noise and it’s harder to get people to
spend money and it’s harder to sell
value and if you’re not the one company
that has the lowest price you have to
sell value so with selling and there’s a
lot more rejection and sales cycles are
taking longer and win rates are going
down so to deal with all that commitment
is the most important element in
successful selling entrepreneurs hmmm
sorry for the long story but no it’s
interesting and then to the like
commitment you’ll be committed to some
things but not other things or you’re
testing it that more like this is all
about selling so you know if it’s an
entrepreneur and we’re looking at an
entrepreneur who’s going to sell or
sales candidate who’s going to sell
for an entrepreneur yeah we want to know
all about those 21 sales for
competencies but if the desire and the
commitment aren’t both there that’s a
that’s a deal-breaker before we even
meet cool I like it um selves am writing
in Evan and Dave we’re focused on
selling media video content how do we
present ourselves and instead us apart
from as a premium model so trying to
sell media video content as a premium
model I’m trying to stand out in their
presentations what do you recommend
that’s a that’s a great question because
there’s a lot of video media content
providers out there you know we use
Wistia and YouTube’s in that business
too and you know one question I would
have is whether they’re trying to sell
it online you know sell it do marketing
or whether they’re trying to do
corporate sales if it’s a premium
product that’s right for corporate sales
but you need to show how you can help
companies develop their media and use
their media and build their business
through media as opposed to just being a
provider and a host like everybody else
so that might be where the value is
because there’s plenty of media tools
there’s plenty of video making tools is
cut plenty of content providing tools
but what can you do differently that
would justify the premium price and are
you willing to go and sell at the
companies who you know might have people
who are thinking well yeah all these
tools are out there but I don’t know
what to do with it I don’t know how to
use them I don’t know how to make
something really good or make it stand
up or make it stand out share it the
right way so tools are great but unless
your little on the techy side unless
you’re Evan and you know how to utilize
and leverage the tools and build a
business from these tools companies need
help with this stuff I like I just
noticed a shirt is that new you see kind
of stood up there I was like I see the
curling on there is that does that need
a shirt not a new shirt but it’s
probably the first time I’ve had it on
for one of our hangouts I like it I like
the
Thanks I’m yeah and I think also
understand what really like I’ve never
done this before um let’s see if I can
give you a tour of my my office museum
there we go I saw the jersey I’ve seen
the Jersey before yeah my whole office
is filled with memorabilia that’s about
as far as I can go with with that Ted
Williams custom Ted Williams piece Ted
Williams he’d know he’s from Boston you
know they was from Boston you know it me
what yeah so what so to answer the
question to from my point of view I be
looking at when you find out the thing
that you’re different I’m making that
front and center because if I’m
comparing you compared to 10 of the guys
who all everybody looks the same that
but then I know you’re the one who’s
focused on this and then if that is
important to me and I value that then
you’re gonna be the default guy or girl
that I go to fact that or if you just
look like everybody else then did you
gonna beat you down on price right then
it’s all gonna be about price right our
next questions about price who woulda
thunk there you go prakash’s writing in
uh what do you do in the price of the
product is different than that the price
the customer wants to pay isn’t it
usually I went home I would hope that
the price is more than the then the
price the customer wants to pay and I
hope it’s more than what your competitor
is charging because even if you don’t
know how to differentiate at least your
price differentiates and now your
customer is they’re not looking for you
to defend your price and they’re not
necessarily looking for you to lower
your price but they’ve been given a
signal that maybe you’ve got something
that your competitors don’t have so this
gives you an opportunity to ask some
questions so if they say something like
well how come you’re so much more
expensive than your competition you can
say well which competition are you
familiar with and they say well we know
about XYZ and you say well why aren’t
you buying from XYZ then and they’ll say
because they’re we don’t
like this we don’t like them we don’t
like it it doesn’t have this thing that
we need tell me more about that and how
important is that and if you had that
what would you be able to do then and is
it worth an extra nine dollars a month
or is it worth an extra ten thousand
dollars or is it worth an extra fifty
thousand dollars depending on what
you’re selling in order to have that and
and that’s the short version of how you
sell value right and what I love about
the approach that Dave just took and
just did it naturally was instead of
just trying to justify your price and
convince them that you’re better he’s
asking questions to understand well who
you comparing us to and why do you why
did you not buy from them and what are
your needs right and so that gives you
the ammunition the tools as well as the
rapport building to be able to convince
them that you’re the better person it
becomes very conversational rather than
and this is a huge misconception about
selling sales people naturally go to
their list of bullets um this is why our
price is the way it is this is why ours
is better this is how ours is different
and when there’s a little bit of
resistance and you go to logic to
justify why you are the way you are or
why your product is the way it is you
think you’re helping but your prospect
thinks here comes the hard sell right mo
sales people don’t get that it’s all
about being able to recognize the level
of resistance that you’re up against
when when you can get resistance down to
here you can sell them anything but when
resistance comes up it doesn’t matter
what you have you won’t sell a thing
your number one job is to keep the
resistance down and you don’t do that by
explaining things away with logic and
features and benefits that raises
resistance and then so when you’re kind
of sales assessment tools is that
something that you screened for we were
just or not you then train we we measure
all of that we have here like I
mentioned is 21 sales core competencies
that we measure each salesperson in so
that tells us whether they’re doing it
today and the sales DNA tells us whether
they have the ability to do it but in
the end usually have to train for it
because most salespeople are not able to
do this naturally so it’s not it’s not a
deal breaker something that they could
learn at the right tools if they
understand that is funded right Sean was
saying great advice on the desire
commitment ranchi went on so that was
good um cool maybe time for one more no
guns is writing in to ask about no guns
no no guns no girls they got a political
statement into you good there you go no
guns I’m tips for for vloggers to sell
themselves tips for bloggers well
bloggers well I mean it’s maybe not that
different than bloggers but vloggers
like video bloggers yeah um you said it
already it’s got to be about the quality
of the content so whether you’re writing
an article or putting out a video the
first ten seconds you’ve got to be able
to reach out and grab your reader or
your viewer by the neck and and hold
them and if you can get their attention
then you’ll have a subscriber and you’ll
have a follower but if you’re writing
boring they’re not coming back and
they’re not going to talk about it
either yeah you got my attention with
that I woke up I felt my neck being
squeezed there that the firt the first
if you go to Broadway shows or
off-broadway shows um you get to see how
they were able to do that in show
business it’s all about that first
couple of minutes they work some magic
I’ve got things coming in all over the
place my phone’s wearing in my watch is
raining in my desk phones ringing up on
Broadway and in some really well done
movies in that first minute they get you
and the key then is can they can they
hold your attention through the rest of
the production and we have to do that
when we sell we have to do that when we
write and we have to do that when we
produce videos we have to do that on
your live show and if we don’t grab
in the first minute there they’re gonna
go do something else and if if we keep
them to the end they’re gonna come back
and they’re gonna tell somebody and
that’s how you grow an audience you have
time for one more Dave sure okay what do
I have to do well I Rooney shrewd in a
question and other people are saying you
have to answer our nation’s questions so
the popular question alright last
question we’re going to be demoing a
tech product in the near future I know
you touched on demoing a product but how
can you go into can you go into a little
more detail on how to dem more product
is there anything we must do is there
anything we should definitely avoid you
must ask questions before you demo it
like what do you want to see what are
the issues you’re trying to solve who
are the user is going to be what are
they frustrated with what would the
business value be from this and it’s
hard without knowing whether it’s a tech
product or a machine but I’m assuming
it’s some kind of an online demo they
said it’s a tech product okay alright so
what are you using now what do you like
about it what are you frustrated with
and what’s most important and if you’ve
got a little of that information then
you’ll know what to touch on and what to
stay away from so like I said earlier
you don’t do a linear demo you don’t do
a beginning to end you don’t do a
demonstration of every screen and of
every feature and you don’t walk them
through it you say you mentioned that
the current product you have uh doesn’t
do this and you need this because let me
show you how we’re able to do that piece
um I was just looking at a payroll
product last week and they asked me they
did this right of course it was a client
so they’d know to do this right they
said what most frustrates you about your
current payroll service and I said that
I have to do it through email and that I
don’t have the ability to just log on to
the portal enter it and be done with it
and they said let us show you how you
can do that with ours what else
frustrates you and I mentioned a couple
other things and they said let us show
you how we can do that for you and I’m
sold instantly you can do in
five minutes what it might otherwise be
difficult to do in an hour if you simply
focus on the solutions to the
frustrations instead of trying to show
everything that you have and as excited
as you are about everything that you
have nobody cares except you I love it
there you go you guys got your answer
okay demanding in the comment to that
rate uh Dave thank you so much for
spending time with us I know you’re
super busy your multiple phones and
watches going crazy I’ve included the
link to Dave’s both of his websites to
find the sales assessment tools as well
as his blog and go check out any final
message debut want to leave everybody
with ya go Blue Jays or whatever team
you root for it’s all about the baseball
I love it so I thank you Dave thank you
guys for watching have a great rest of
the week and we’ll see you soon by evan
bye everybody
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