[E118] Straight Talk with Danny Creed – Part 2 of 4

Jason: Hello and welcome back to the sales experience podcast. My name is Jason Cutter. I’m so glad that you’re here. In part two of my conversation with Danny creed, picking up where we left off talking about sales, talking about the sales process, what it takes to be successful, you know, mentors learning all of that. We cover here in part two and so make sure you check that out. Of course, like I keep mentioning, if you want to find Danny’s links before he mentions them at the end, go to cutterconsultinggroup.com/podcast, find the episode. You’ll see all his links, his bio. Reach out to him. Also reach out to me. You can find the transcript there. Now enjoy part two

Jason: But work ethic as far as learning and putting in the time and studying on your own and becoming a professional and treating it like a profession. Right? Like a doctor doesn’t just show up and then put in the hours like they’re studying and all of these extracurricular things. Then that’s how I know when somebody has it or not is when I say like, you know, what are you reading or what kind of stuff are you watching? What are you listening to? And if they’re not, right, if it’s all about game of Thrones versus you know, something that developed them and it’s going to be a struggle.

Danny: Well, you know, it’s an interesting point bring up because I kind of went through this personally, but I believe as a sales professional, that, that I can be on the same level as any doctor or a lawyer, psychiatrist one on one, if I’m willing to learn by mistakes if I couldn’t finish college. My father died young, I had to take care of my family. And if you go around the corner here in the next room is my library room and I have almost 2000 business books in there. You know, every time I needed to learn something or needed to learn, get better at negotiation or learn different tactics or something, I bought the books I bought. I’ve got a lot of, just because I have them over here in this corner in my office, I have a whole stack of cassettes. For those of you who are younger, you know, look it up in the dictionary.

Danny: You know, Wikipedia, it’s a little plastic bag. Anyway, we got those. We borrowed them, we rented them. We, we saved up our money. But we learned in, it’s all what you’re willing to do. It’s all what you’re willing to give up. You know, when I talk about work ethics, I’ll be a little controversial again. But I believe that if you’re in sales, you don’t have hours. No. I mean, and you should, every great salesperson I’ve ever seen has had goals much bigger than what I was given, by the company. And we knew that I was very successful when I was working in radio. I spent a number of years selling radio time and working in marketing and people couldn’t figure out what my secret sauce was. Well, it was just, I figured out that I had about a 40-30 mile drive every morning and every night and I figured out while everyone else was heading home. I was heading home, but I knew that there was a business out there. I can stop that on my way, on my way home and my way to work in the morning. So at the end of the week, I made 10 more sales calls than any other rep in the market. That’s it. And I remember I were in the Midwest and I made a sales call regularly on a farm implement dealer that the only time he was the decision makers there was five o’clock in the morning. So I sat in a snowstorm with a box of donuts waiting for him to come in. But I sold him every month for years, you know, because I was the only guy that would show up. And do that, you know, but it comes back to are you doing it for a paycheck? Are you doing it? Be a salesperson? Because you know the elements of sales, again, I mentioned the foundational recipe.

Danny: One of those is metrics. You know, one of them is time management. In fact, I take it past time management, but it’s really more about priority management. Yes, that totally. It’s not about managing the time anymore. It’s not about getting everything done. It’s about being able to understand what priorities you have and manage the timing about getting those done. And in sales, that’s everything. Are you taking two hours to go play pinball someplace and then griping you? You know, you don’t have enough customers? Well, I’m pretty deaf ears when it comes as you know, junk like that, you know? So priority management and goals, you know, I want to go, don’t even get me started on goals. I did a workshop this afternoon. It’s just incredible to me. How many people, literally they say 70% of our society has no goals. 28% says they haven’t, but they aren’t written.

Danny: 2% has in our society has goals and it’s some incredible number. So U S a did they report, this is like 96% of all wealth is held in that 2% that has written goals. And I guarantee you they’re salespeople, the world revolves around that and you don’t want something else that makes me mad. You know something else that makes me mad is when people go thumb their nose at salespeople. Yeah. Well, you know, I’m not a salesperson, you know, so I, Oh baloney. Look, if you’ve ever asked a girl out on a date or vice versa, if you’ve ever tried to get a raise from your boss, if you’ve negotiated with your kids, you’re selling something. You know, and so the foundational rules of selling, everybody needs to learn. I tell young entrepreneurs, I travel all over the world talking to them, they say, well, what do I need to do to be successful in sales? I go, well, first of all, take a sales course. Do something, read some books. But you’ve got to agree of entrepreneurship. You’ve got to understand you’ve got the learn to sell. You have to. So will you agree with that?

Jason: I do. And that’s why like at the end of my end of every episode I say, you know, everything in life is sales and you know, it’s foundational. Like you said, everything, parenting. Even when you were a kid or a teenager trying to get something from your parents, it was sales and it was you versus them. And it’s interesting because if we want to be super honest, anybody listening to this as an adult, look at your life and look at what you have in your life or the results you get from the people in your life. And that is pretty much all the feedback. If you take the time to be honest and open with how you come across and your persuasion style and your sales style in life will tell you, right? Do you have a relationship where the person doesn’t want to do stuff with you or they do or kids or work?

Jason: Do your boss not listen to you? If you’re a manager to your people, not listen to you, like whatever that looks like. That’s feedback on your selling skills. And uh, I think it’s interesting to you, you said that sales, you know, people don’t want to identify themselves with sales. And that’s because the downside is a lot of bad intending people get into sales and they’ve ruined the sales connotation where people are embarrassed to be called a sales person, right? That’s why they’re account executives and business development reps instead of “I’m a salesperson.” And that’s, you know, one of the fundamental things for my podcast and as well as like the consulting and coaching I do, is to shift that and help people, help all the salespeople in the world change that, you know, mindset in the eyes of consumers where ultimately in my goal is somebody could walk into a store or phone in and you know, with the goal of potentially buying something and be excited because they’re met by somebody who they know A.)is going to make some money from the sale, but B.) is going to help them and that’s going to be the priority versus, you know, just the straight commission because that’s what happens.

Jason: Right? You know, if you walk into a car lot, you know why that person’s happy, excited  has run up to your car, we’ll get you whatever you want because they’re gonna make money off of you. And then that’s when the battle ensues in most people’s mind. Cause it’s us versus them. And that’s what messes it up for a lot of people who are in sales and they repel it. Right? Like those entrepreneurs you’re talking about, I’m not a salesperson, I’m a tech person, or I’m an entrepreneur. It’s like, Oh, you’re a salesperson. Just do it. Right. That’s all.

Danny: Yeah. Yeah. And you’ll be broke. Say I created a great, I keep product. Yup. But no one bought it. Well did you go sell it?

Jason: And I see those people and I’ve talked to those people all the time where they’ve got this great idea, but they don’t know how to sell it. They don’t want to sell it. They don’t like the idea of sales this day and age. You know, we’re recording this in 2019. A lot of people I come across, they just want to throw their product online and hope that the internet sells it for them without any phone calls, without any conversation, with some level of product, maybe most, you know, consumers still need some help.

Danny: Still has to be. So, and there’s two foundational things I’d like to mention with the time we have. One of those is I think is really important, is that I believe that the lost art and worldwide business, let alone the art of selling the lost art, is the art of listening. I’m telling you, it’s, you know, with cell phones, computers, all the things that we have available to us, the bottom line simply is that people don’t want to be told anything. And many people are still being trained to sell by coming in and say, let me tell you all the reasons you ought to buy. And I’m telling you, I’ve been with people observing and I’ve seen him kicked out of the office. Cause the client or prospect will say, well, you should have known that. I mean you’re telling me why I should buy and you’ve never asked me any questions.

Danny: You are, you ought to know the basics of what I need and so we ought to get to it. Which was the second thing is so learn how to listen and if you can then shut up and guess what the prospect’s going to tell you how to sell them because it happens so little. I’m convinced that no matter what the personality profile, that if you actually act like you’re actually serious about listening to their needs, from their point of view, they’re going to give you a sale. In fact, I get to the point where I say, look, don’t sell anything to anybody but let a whole bunch of people buy something from you. And the way you do that is listen. And the second thing is just understanding. You know folks that’s listening to this look, they get nervous. They come in and they talk about the ballgame. They talk about the weather and everything else. I had an old mentor back in the 70s who taught me this lesson and he said, “look, I know why you’re here.” I go, “why am I here?” He goes “to sell me something, so get to it.” Look, they know why you’re there. If they let you out the door, they know you’re there to sell them.

Jason: Yeah, but you’ve got to do your you, but you’ve got to check the box on building rapport, right? Isn’t that what you’re supposed to do? Walk in. You see their trophy fish. If you’re doing like business to business and you see their fishermen and then you talk about fishing, right? Is that what shows to do

Danny: years ago it just not working anymore because of the cell phone and all the, the access we have, you know, I saw a young salesman go in, but he wasn’t so young, but he waited until a prospect, crusty old guy and he goes, you know, thank you for our appointment today. Uh, you know, before we get started, tell me a little about your business. This guy knows you can leave. What do you mean I can leave? He goes, you should’ve checked that last night. You could have checked press releases, my website and all that stuff. You should know that. We shouldn’t have to talk about that. So now we’re back to listening. We’re back to understanding. They know why you’re there. So get to it, you know, try to learn something about them so you don’t tell you ask, you know, and you’re always going to be better off. You’re always gonna be better off.

Jason: Yeah, I completely agree. You know, if you can, right, let’s say you’re outbounding or showing up for an appointment with somebody, then do your research and know about them. Even if it’s business to consumer. I’ve spent a lot of time business to consumer and I will learn a lot of stuff about somebody if it’s, you know, longer sales cycle appointment-based versus you know, an inbound direct mail call and I’ve got one shot that’s a little bit different. But literally consumer business learn something. If you’re going into it, if they’re calling you, that’s a different approach and they’re asking you for the business. You’ve got to handle that. But yeah, I completely agree. If there’s two things I ever want anybody in sales or life to listen is one or here is one is ask questions and come from a place of curiosity where you’re asking questions to understand the other person and then actually listen when they’re talking, instead of thinking about, you’re going to say next thinking about what you’re going to respond with thinking about your strategy and actually listen for what’s said and what’s not said and then, but with all of the intention of actually helping the other person get to a better situation or feel heard or feel cared about whatever you’re selling and it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, you could be selling cars and ask questions.

Jason: Listen, make the person feel like you’re helping them and their situation. Like that’s what I say all the time. Like I’ve never sold a product only services but if I were to sell like cars cause I’m like kind of a car guy is it would be really easy for me cause I’d ask questions, I figured out what they want, figuring out what they need, point them in one direction. Here’s the one car you said based on what you want and you know, do you want it in red or blue? Really that’s it. Instead of monologuing and high pressure and all of that crap,

Danny: You know, you know, I’ll tell you something, I really believe in that. I think I can sell anything cause because I know how to sell. I can go anywhere and learn size, shape and color doesn’t matter, but it doesn’t matter. I can sell car, I can sell any product put in front of me because I’m going to ask questions and I, but I know how to sell and I can bring experts in. I can ask lots of questions like, you know, now the foundation, like you said, the hard part is where people will hire somebody who’s really product-oriented and say, well, we’ll teach them how to sell. Nope, it doesn’t work that way. I, I had a triple bypass heart surgery a few years ago and I always use the example, you know, if you know you’re going to have to have surgery, you want a guy that says I’m the best doctor in all the country.

Danny: I’ll be taking care of you really well or you want a guy who goes, well, I’m pretty good at this and I have YouTube up. You know, I’m still learning. Yeah, I want the pro. There’s not even a question because he’s been through it. He understands what’s going on and sometimes that perception is created by asking questions, by not coming in. And I’ll just share a line that I use all the time, but it’s very powerful and it’s in one of my upcoming books. But it’s a term that you get into this. And when I’m asking you say, can we sit down and talk a little bit, you know, and let’s find out together if it makes sense that we should work together because I’m not right for everyone. So can I ask you three questions to see if it makes sense that we should work together or not? And I’m telling you, I’ve had big tough guys when I say I’m not right for everyone, they turn around and go, “what do you mean you’re not right for me?” And then I, you know, it’s just like, okay, that’s dialogue, man.

Jason: That’s it for this second segment of the four-part mini-series with Danny and I, I hope you’re enjoying this as much as we did when we were recording it, and, uh, we’ll see you next time on part three for the sales experience podcast.