[E239] Security, Safety & Sales, with Zack Knight (Part 4)

Jason: Welcome to the sales experience podcast. Welcome to part four of my conversation with Zack Knight. If you haven't check out the first three parts, they're amazing. He's amazing. So many lessons to be used by sales managers and sales leaders coming from a place of something completely not thought up in sales, which is police, military, security, consulting, all of those things. So many valuable lessons. So hopefully you check out those first three episodes. But here we go. Final part four. Enjoy. Zack: There's so many value ads you can bring into the situation about everything you're selling. You just have to have that empathy, that emotional intelligence to realize what's going to bring the most value of this item I'm selling to this specific client and customize it to what they're doing. And it really becomes a zero sum game where you're just like too easy. All right, here you go. We're done. Jason: That's it. Especially when you make it about them and what they need and the benefit to that individual. Instead of again, just reading off the brochure of all the benefits. Like here's a bigger phone with a bigger screen and a bigger hard drive, bigger memory, and it's going to hold more stuff. Like I already know that I knew that before I walked into the store. It's better because Zack: I said right? Jason: Yeah, exactly. So the third aspect of your life that I want to talk about what you do that involves selling, that's a challenging one is you had told me before about. Dealing with corporate initiatives, working with companies and doing the consulting with them, especially around diversity and inclusion and those kinds of initiatives. And what came about when we talked about that, you're like, yeah, that's sales. The company is having to sell those initiatives to their employees. Zack: Yeah, and I'm going to have a shameless plug for my own podcast because this is a lesson I directly learned from studying leadership more. And my podcast, Tactical Leadership focuses on how executive CEOs have helped build winning cultures in their business. And what I learned is I started interviewing more and more of these C level executives that have built great businesses. I'm talking the former CEO of John Maxwell, the former CEO of the Great American Cookie Company and Caribou Coffee, all the way up into Evan Carmichael is coming on. If anybody knows Evan Carmichael, he's a huge name in sales and leadership. There are so many different correlations where I had two different brands, I had two separate identities and you talked about your true authentic self. I was selling security on one side, then I was selling leadership on the other. And I would talk leadership or I'll talk security depending on my audience and depending on the clients. And what came of it is I realized I wasn't being authentic to myself. And the two go hand in hand because that's where the psychological safety and security came from. Where when I'm talking to these clients. The brand that sells coaching for leadership is called be a tactical leader and that aspect of things of how do you tactically lead through situations like we have right now in society by providing safety and security. And that could be physical safety and security, but could also be psychological safety and security. Where you don't have to worry about your boss or that management biting your head off because you have an idea, right? Or you don't have to worry about that boss that doesn't like you because of the color of your skin. And there's so many different factors where the military has really outlined this for me. The military is one of the largest organizations in the country with the most diverse. Employment, you're talking black, white, Asian, Hispanic, Indian. You're talking like literally every culture in the world is a part of the U S army from every socioeconomic background, rich, poor, middle class. And what I had to learn just to get a little bit more context on it. I got deployed in 2018 to Afghanistan. I received 35 soldiers two months before he went in a combat zone. And these are 35 soldiers. I've never met before. They don't know me. I don't know them. They completely different backgrounds for me. There are some 17 and 18 year olds. There were some 45, 50 year olds. And leading having to take 60 days and figure out leadership of how am I going to sell myself again? It goes back to emotional intelligence and selling yourself. How am I going to sell myself as a newer person in the military to all of these strangers and get them in a combat environment? For me to say two words and they react the true test of leadership is saying two words and they react under gunfire, right? And that's how I approached the deployment was how do I make sure the culture within our platoon is fantastic that I say two words and everybody reacts and everybody stays alive And transitioning that into the boardroom, if you can have that form of leadership within your organization, where you have that diversity, you have that cultural understanding, you have that economic background understanding, and you can provide that psychological safety for everybody, then you're not going to have issues that are currently happening across the country. You're not going to have those type of issues within your organization. And that just makes so many more people. More effective in everything they're doing. If they have that psychological safety, realizing that they're in a safe place, your productivity goes through the roof. And that includes from the janitor. That is cleaning your toilet all the way up to the C level executive. Everybody matters. Everybody has the same level of importance. And if that janitor greets that person coming in the door and talks about how great your environment and your culture in that organization is, that client that just walked through the door is going to be blown away because you now have a salesperson on the janitorial staff. If you can create that type of environment in your organization, there is literally no losing for that organization. I read a book recently called the infinite game by Simon Sinek is his most recent book. And it talks about having that infinite mindset of creating that long term legacy within your organization through that cultural work where leading that diverse background is just a huge piece of the puzzle. So everybody buys into what you're doing, that mission, that vision, those values, and now your organization just soars. From janitor to sales to C level, everybody is clicking on the same frequency and then you have just a winning organization as a whole. That was a really long answer. I'm sorry for rambling, but that was great. Truly passion coming out of me because I just love talking about diverse workplaces and how you can manage that culture to truly see success from so many different angles. Jason: Hey, it's Jason here. We'll be right back to the podcast, but first, are you ready to change the way you view your selling role and become a sales professional? Do you have a team that is hungry for new ways to improve and grow? If so, I have various coaching and consulting programs available that might be great tools to help you achieve your goals to learn more about the ways we can work together and to book your free sales power call, go to Jason cutter. com. Now let's get back to the episode. No, I think that's great. And I appreciate the long answer, especially because I was started with how do we sell diversity and inclusion to the employees? And then while you're talking, one of the things when you're talking about the janitor that popped into my head was the book by Ken Blanchard called Raving Fans. And now typically that's a sales book, so it's how do you create raving fans, and not just satisfied customers. Because satisfied customers Just means you set an expectation, you met that expectation, they got what they wanted, right? They ordered the burrito off the menu, they got a burrito, it was okay, and then they moved on with their life, right? And then there's raving fans, and when you're intentional about that, you're exceeding it, right? Not just okay, I'm gonna set the bar low and exceed it. I'm gonna set the bar high, and then I'm gonna crush that out of the park. Because I want you to be a raving fan of me and my company, my service, my product, whatever it is. And the right brands, the right salespeople, they do that instead of just a short, quick transactional sale, get it over with, move on. Hopefully you forget my number is so you don't call me back and complain about what I just sold you, but like more long term relationships. And then what you're talking about, which I love for anyone who is a leader in an organization. Is applying that raving fan principle to the employees where everyone is bought into that mission, the vision, the core values such that they just can't wait to share that with others. And then when you do that, you have this inclusion culture in the company because everyone's in this thing together. Zack: Yeah, and you think about a sales team is usually segregated as part of their own. Little environment, right? They're their own ecosystem. Jason: They're the seal team, right? In the military, right? There are their own little group. Yep. They're their own little strike team. They don't play well with others. They think they're better than everyone else. Zack: And they just, exactly, exactly. And when they're broken apart like that is such the wrong answer in my opinion, because if you have the HR person selling the business, the vision, you've sold them on every bit of what you're doing as an organization. And now you're wanting to hire that next awesome salesperson. That HR person is going to then. Sell that salesperson, that high performer on everything you're doing. So that internal focus on employees and culture and the dynamics of all these different backgrounds, if you can sell the community of your organization on that and what you're doing, you don't have to worry about having a high performing sales team because now you have a high performing sales organization where everybody is selling what you're doing because it's just that fantastic. Because it's my focus is all circles back to phenomenal leadership and selling yourself as a great leader. That means you have to be a great leader to sell yourself as a great leader. And emotional intelligence is really the core of everything. I talk about being a great tactical leader. That's selling yourself to your organization. Jason: And again, that's why I say all the time, and I know you do as well. Everything in life is sales, right? So same things you do as a top performing salesperson with customers and persuading them. Same thing as a leader is using those kind of skills with the right intent doing it for the right reasons because of course there's leaders who manipulate and have wrong intentions behind it and they can do that effectively for a little while, but that's not what it's about, right? Not at all. Zach, I love the conversation we had. Hopefully people enjoyed it as well. It's a fun journey. From police, to military, to security consultant, to business consultant, and all of that. So many valuable lessons. I love all of it. You mentioned a couple of things, but just for a recap, and I'll put these in the show notes. Where's the places for people to find the various aspects of your business and personal life that you have out there? Zack: I appreciate that for the security firm. You can find us across social media at night pro LLC. That's K N I G H T my last name. Then the website for that is night protection, LLC. com for my podcast, anything I do on leadership, all of that content. Is be a tactical leader. com or at be a tactical leader across every social media platform. If anybody wants to continue the conversation, especially from the law enforcement military perspective, because it's such a hot topic right now. I love having these conversations and explaining my viewpoint from, if you will, inside the construct. So I definitely encourage anybody to reach out. Let's continue the conversation. If you have any more in depth questions about how you want to hear and learn more about my perspective on things. I love it. Jason: And thank you for being here. And like I said, I'll have all of those links and everything in the show notes so people can find you if they didn't write it down. they can go into the show notes and get that there. And I just want to say, and I say this a lot, especially because the guests that I have on here, I appreciate them. And I feel like they're the same concept and same thought as me, but I truly appreciate what you're doing and all of those different aspects and trying to elevate everybody and do positive work. In this plus all the other ventures we didn't even talk about. So I just want to let you know, I appreciate that. And thank you for doing your part to make things better. Zack: Jason, I appreciate it, man. And I appreciate you letting me ramble about all this good stuff. Been a great conversation. Had a blast. I love it. We'll have to do it again to talk about your 12 other businesses that you have. Jason: And that's it for the sales experience podcast for today's episode. Again, make sure to check out cutter consulting group. com slash podcast to find the show notes, the transcript, all of Zach's links and everything else. That you need to find for the podcast. You can find anywhere, make sure to subscribe. And as always remember everything in life is sales and people remember the experience you gave them.