In this amplified episode, Ben Brown, Owner of 360 Sales Consulting, shares how he runs a sales consultancy that helps businesses become more efficient and top in sales in their industry by focusing on the right sales process.
You will discover:
– What the most important sale is (and when you should do it)
– Why Friday is your new Monday
– Who is the most important person on your sales call (here’s a hint: it’s not your prospect)
Episode Transcript
Scott Ritzheimer
Hello, hello and welcome. Welcome once again to the secrets of the high demand coach podcast, and I’m here with yet another high demand coach. It is the one and only, Ben Brown. Now, Ben is a sales expert. He’s an author. He’s the father of two young children, and he’s worked in sales for over 23 years, and now assists small businesses with low and low sales issues. Ben has the owner of 360 sales consulting, and when it comes to sales, he’s done it all. He can sell anything from stock brokerage style cold calling to car sales, gym memberships and medical devices. He’s gathered his 20 years of experience and distilled it into a 10 step process that’s a proven and tested sales methodology designed to help clients, acquire more customers and achieve more sales. And he is here with us today. Ben, you’ve got this 10 step process laid it all out in your books. Just fantastic. I want to dial in on a couple of key points that we’ve either either not had guests on the show talk about our four or some big problem areas that I’ve seen in my clients recently. And the first one literally jumped off the page at me. So I’m reading through your book, and step one was getting prepared right now. You can add a bunch of color to this here in a moment, but I just want to start off with a quote from the book, because it, for me, it stands in such stark contrast to, quite honestly, the way that I show up sometimes, but also to the way that so many of us show up each and every day. So let me read this real quick, and then I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. So all right, here it is, when you arrive at the office each day, do you feel refreshed and ready for anything that the world throws at you? Are you completely prepared, having identified your priorities and goals? Do you feel relaxed and at ease? If you’re like most people today, you rush out of the house without eating a good breakfast, you don’t exercise in the morning or at all. You almost never read a book and rarely have time for any meditation or other spiritual practice. If that is you, may agree with me that when you come to work, you aren’t entirely ready to take on the world. So so very true. I’m wondering, though, if you could tie this to Why did you start a sales book on this note>
Ben Brown
Sales is combative. You’re going against an opponent every day. When you’re in sales, you don’t have the benefit of coming in like luster. You don’t work in graphic department, where you’re just sitting in front of computer drawing, or technical part where you’re just solving problems. In sales, you’re doing interact interactions with other human beings to make them do things that they kind of want to do, and sometimes don’t want to do, and that takes a lot of force. What I teach people is that sales is simple, but it’s not easy. And the purpose of a sale is to get someone to move, to get somebody to do something, not talking at them. That’s marketing. And so main thing of that doing is being able to deal with that in the person’s emotions, because but people buy emotionally, so you have to be in a calm state to read the prospect as well, to figure out if you’re wasting time or you can or cannot help them. And that takes a certain type of mentality where you have to be calm in your your oneness, to understand and read that person. But if even not able to do that, you know, you’re wasting a lot of people’s time. And so what I used to do, people would come in on Monday, when I was in sales management, I would just read them. And I’m like, you know, where you guys been out last night? Oh, we went out last night. Sunday night. We you know, we got in late. And I’m like, Go home. Go home. You’re doing you’re doing us. No good here. This is a performance based occupation, right? So, you know, even football players playing 10 years get cut, right? Same thing in sales, you don’t have the benefit of just coming in lackluster.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, that’s so true. So, I mean, there’s so many things in there with so many parts of our life. I mean, from reading and becoming better, we make the point about practice in the book. If you could kind of say, Hey, what is that one first step that someone could take as early as tonight, as late as tomorrow morning? What should that first step be to coming in, ready to go for work tomorrow?
Ben Brown
For most people, if you’re dealing with sales, is, what are your first 10 leads that you’re gonna call, right? Yeah, I tell people, Friday is your Monday. You know, that way Monday is not Monday. Your week starts on Friday. You start prepping for for Monday on Friday, right? The benefit of it is, is that you have to get to the market quicker than anyone else. And you look at people that’s been in the stock market, they have a very intense type of personality. They know that every day the market is going on, every day around the world, whether you sleep or not, money is moving, whether you’re sleeping. Not, yeah. So your deal in sales is your tool, is the product or service that you have to go out and capture the market so you don’t have the benefit of coming not prepared, because somebody else is going to take that money if you don’t, if you want to look at it aggressively. But sales is about helping people, you know, and that’s why it never will go away. AI would never take that over. There’ll always be human reaction. Long as it’s that part, there will always be a salesperson, because that’s what’s needed. It would never go away. People just, I mean, you had copy, you have webinars, all these technical things are called tools, I bet you, when people said, Oh, well, you know the telephone happened? I guess there’d be no more door to door salesman, yeah, are they door to door salesman, yes, they are, right. Still today, computers coming more door to door salesman, they’ll still do it. You go out to the fairgrounds, they’re still doing seminars. I mean, all these people, conglomerates, right? Selling RVs, pools, boats. They still have those interaction with people, car dealerships, same thing. It hasn’t changed. It’s just the tools that you have. So one of the keys that I have in this got people get so caught up in the tools, they forget to deal with people, right? They’re worried about a website. They’re worried about what they logo looks like. They’re worried about how interactive it is. They’re worried about what, how many views I got on my Instagram. Doesn’t matter.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, so true. I want to get there in just a second, because, particularly in step four, you absolutely nail that. But I don’t want to skip over this Friday’s a new Monday, so because I found it’s such a powerful activity. How should we treat Fridays as a salesperson, or maybe not full time sales? We got a lot of entrepreneurs, a lot of founders, listening to this and and sales is is the core of what they do, but it’s not all of what they do. How can we better make use of Friday to really set ourselves up for success on Monday.
Ben Brown
Well, as you know, you’re dealing with humans, so, but you know, the main point of it is people mentality wise drop, and so making a cold call by three o’clock in the afternoon, unless you’re specifically in that market, is dead. People have already checked out. They are already worried about their kids where they’re going. Mindset, it’s a mental game. So that’s why, in the morning, time you make your calls, you you strategize or analyze at after lunch or some that point, but, but mainly between eight to 12 is your reach out period, and your best time for reach out, so you do the follow up and all that stuff in the afternoon. So strategizing that comes into play when you deal with managerial deals, when is the best? When is the when is the fire the hottest? So you could take advantage of that, because people, which you’ll find, Scott, they’re very good at being busy, but not productive.
Scott Ritzheimer
So true. That’s so true.
Ben Brown
They’re busy. I’m making all these calls, Yeah, but you’re not getting anybody because you’re making the calls at three o’clock in the afternoon, you know, yeah,
Scott Ritzheimer
And everyone’s done. So I want to step into step four the process, and in your 10 step process, it’s identifying emotional triggers. And you posed this question, and I’d love to pose it back to you, but why do people buy what we sell? What actually moves the needle? Is it the features? Is it that? What is it that actually makes someone make that leap?
Ben Brown
We go back to sales. Is simple, but it’s not easy. You understand the mindset. People buy based upon what they want, not what they need. Let me say that again, people buy based upon what they want, not what they need. So most of the time, when you’re talking to people, you’re talking to them like your mentality is talking what they need, not what they want. I want a new bathroom now. I needed a new bathroom. The drywall came down. Do you want a new bathroom? And why do you want it? The difference between a good and a great salesperson is number of questions that you ask. Wow. So people are not asking enough questions.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. And you lay out a couple of really great questions in the book, what would you say is your favorite for really identifying what those emotional triggers are for your potential customers?
Ben Brown
Step number five, if I could, would you?
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah.
Ben Brown
Real quick question to confirm that, and I’ll ask you, who’s more important, the customer or the salesperson. Scott?
Scott Ritzheimer
Customer
Ben Brown
No, not you have the solution. Your solution provider, the customer just either wants it or don’t want it. Your job is to get the if I give you the cure for cancer, you you’re the most important person in the world, not the people who have cancer. Your job is to get it to as many people as you possibly can. That’s the way you have to feel with your product or service. Yeah, I’m here to service as many people as I can. I’m on this planet X amount of days. It’s only so much I can and cannot do. I have to reach. As many people as I can with the product or service that I provide. I’m a very important person. My time is more valuable than the customers, because if I waste time with you, I can’t get it to someone else.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah, that’s so true, and so often we get that backwards. I know I’ve been guilty of that as well. And and tell us a little bit then, because I think this is a good opportunity to tie the two last points together. You said, Folks can be busy but not productive, right? Folks can approach a call, you know, not recognizing their importance and not valuing their time. What’s the mindset that someone should be getting themselves into before they set out on their calls in the morning.
Ben Brown
It’s a different thing for different people. That’s why you have to have a coach or actual manager to to maintain that because it’s very hard for you to judge yourself. And most salespeople don’t judge themselves. They judge the clients, and that’s why they tell you, they’ll they’ll be like, oh, this person is not qualified or not ready. Really, did you do everything that you needed to do? You find out most of the time the fault of the sale not being there is a salesperson, but they’ll never take accountability for it, right, right? They’ll tell you everything.
Scott Ritzheimer
So last point that I want to hit here was my favorite, actually, and it was the one that challenged me the most, because So Step 10 in the process, get testimonials and referrals. Yeah, and I love that this is just a part of the sales process, because for me, I’m so guilty of this being an afterthought, right? It’s like, Oh, shoot. Like, I need more testimonials for, you know, someone’s asking for them, or for the website, or or I need referrals. Who am I going to call next? And I’m I do this all the time. I don’t make it a part of my initial process, and so I’m always doing it reactively and behind it. So I’m sure you’ve seen that before. Yeah, when? Let me ask the first question, when is the best time to collect testimonials or referrals?
Ben Brown
Okay, when do you think the best time is?
Scott Ritzheimer
I’ve read your book, so I don’t want to cheat on it, but I’ll throw it out there to you. I would say, anyone listening? When do you think? Let me, let me tell you what I thought, which I believe is wrong. I think you’ll correct me on this. I have the mindset that my mental block on this. I’ll put it that way is someone has to use my service, right? Or someone has to use my product, someone’s got to be a client for a year before they’re ready to give a testimony or a referral. And I know that’s not the case, and I think you’ve got a much better answer, and I’d love to throw it back to you. So when’s the right time to get a testimony or a referral?
Ben Brown
I’ll give you an example, Amway Herbalife, oh, billion dollar companies are based just on referrals. Timeshares, same type of deal based on referrals. Travel is insurance based on referrals. The program within itself. When I work with companies, you can run an entire company just based on that step alone. Yeah, making money most people is an afterthought. They get to sale, boom. They move on to the next. They start off coal. You ask right after. Here’s the key component. You ask right after you got to sale, you don’t know a month later if they’re going to be happy with your product, but the most excited they are about it. When you go to a home show, you go out and you you get a say, for example, a salt and pepper electric shaker. You’re like, oh so excited. You know, I bought this thing. It’s like, $30 you get home, you try it, you’re like, a month later, you don’t even know you bought it. So the next sale is after you make the sale, the real sale is getting the testimony, referrals. I work with individuals, where we got to sale, we got two referrals. We sold the two referrals. The person who bought initially came back. Wanted a refund. We gave them the refund. Gave us a testimonial because it was easy. We didn’t argue with them, so we made double the amount of money and a testimonial with the same client, rather than just letting them go and then they come back and they want to renege. You got money. They made you double the amount of money. Yeah, hey, I’ll give you, give you a full refund. Can you give us a testimonial based on the service equality that we provided? No problem. You were great. It didn’t work out for me. They were very exceptional. People love the process and being customer service orientated, right? I own a limousine company 14 years. People still love the fact that I answer the phone. It’s like you’re a real person. This is a one person called me last week. This is not AI. I’m like, we’re not there yet. But the main thing is give people what they really want. You know your service provider, and so when I build a referral program in businesses, we’re generating only 20 to 40% over what they had just based on that, because they never done it.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah, yeah. So true. So Ben, as a question I like to ask all my guests, and it is this, what would you say is the biggest secret that you wish wasn’t a secret at all? What one thing you wish every salesperson, entrepreneur, every leader out there today listening knew?
Ben Brown
Sales is everywhere since you’re a child, when you asked to get picked up the first time, wanting a bottle that was a sale. So most people think that sales has to do with business. The purpose of a sale is to get someone to move. It doesn’t have to do with monetization. So it’s the same thing when you dealing with children, the same thing you do in business. You’re asking somebody to do something for you. So sales is simple, but I can teach a year in class for it when you break it down. But everything in business and also in life, is a sale. You married for 10 years, the wife finally comes up and says, I don’t want you anymore. The sales over, you stop selling. Something happened in the sale, right? So everything attributes to what you’re doing in the type of sales process that you’re doing. So you’re doing it all the time, and people talk about, I don’t like it. I don’t want to do it. I did it. I didn’t like it. You didn’t have the right people. You didn’t have the right mindset. So when I train people in the right mindset, they realize 30-40, days. And now I got what you’re trying to say, it’s everywhere. I’m like, yes, it’s everywhere. It’s like the matrix. Now you understand where it is, and so now you understand by doing that your life becomes better. You make more money. You’re able to because I teach people that sales is a different language, and once you understand that language, you already knew the words. You just was doing it in a different way. So it’s simpler than it is, but it takes work, and it’s not easy, and that’s why people quit, because they realize this, I don’t have the personal skills. I don’t want to put the work in. And so that’s why it takes a relationship for somebody to teach you on a one on one basis, because it’s a skill, just like you would welding, yes, a skill.
Scott Ritzheimer
Yeah. So true. So true. Ben, there’s folks listening to this and and, yes, it’s been a hit parade for them. They’re just it’s like, Yes, I need to do that. Yes, I need to do that. Yes. I need a coach. I need someone who can walk me through this process. Because ultimately, they want to boost their sales, they want to boost their revenue, they want to be a better salesperson. How can I get in touch with you find more out about the work that you do?
Ben Brown
Well, you have the book mastery art of closing a sale on Amazon by Benjamin Brown, and the website is 360salesconsulting, but I make it way more easier for people to reach out if they and it’s, it’s meetwithbenjamin.com you go on there and you just click and you can schedule a call to assess where you’re at in your sales. Because it’s, it has to be a teamwork type deal. It has to be has to work for both everybody, every party, to make it efficient, because I want to get what in the end, Scott?
Scott Ritzheimer
This is the customer and the sale and what else, and the referral and the testimonial.
Ben Brown
For the part of the sale is the testimonial and the referral. I love it.
Scott Ritzheimer
I love it. Ben, just awesome, awesome stuff for anyone listening, the book is fantastic. We just touched the surface of the surface. Highly encourage you to go check it out. Meet with Ben. Meetwithbenjamin.com we’ll get all that in the show notes. You can click on it there, and we’d love to see you get connected. Ben, thanks for being on the show honor, privilege having you here. For those of you watching and listening, you know your time and attention mean the world to us. I hope you got as much out of this conversation as I know I did.
Contact Ben Brown
Benjamin Brown is a sales expert, author, and father of two young children. He has worked in sales for over 23 years and assists small businesses with low and low sales issues. Benjamin is the owner of 360 Sales Consulting. When it comes to sales, he has done it all! He can sell anything from stock brokerage-style cold calling to car sales, gym memberships, and medical devices. He has gathered his 20 years of sales experience and distilled it into a 10-step process, a proven and tested sales methodology designed to help clients acquire customers and achieve more sales.
Want to learn more about Ben Brown’s work at 360 Sales Consulting? Check out his website at https://www.360salesconsulting.com/
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