TSE_224_1
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00:00:33.000 | [Laughs]
00:00:34.000 | That was my horrible attempt at a turkey noise.
00:00:37.000 | Happy Thanksgiving.
00:00:38.000 | Welcome to this episode of Sales from the Street.
00:00:41.000 | [Music]
00:00:45.000 | Hey, hey everyone.
00:00:46.000 | Welcome to another great episode of the Sales Evangelist podcast.
00:00:48.000 | I'm your host, Donald Kelly, the Sales Evangelist,
00:00:52.000 | and I'm so excited for another great episode.
00:00:54.000 | I'm so excited to be here with you today.
00:00:56.000 | And on this episode of Sales from the Street,
00:00:59.000 | I have a great guest.
00:01:00.000 | His name is Joshua Sheets.
00:01:01.000 | Joshua Sheets is also the host of the Radical Personal Finance podcast.
00:01:07.000 | Joshua served as a sales professional in the personal finance space,
00:01:11.000 | and he's done very well over the years with that.
00:01:13.000 | Now he has his own organization, Radical Personal Finance.
00:01:16.000 | You can check it out and get connected with him.
00:01:18.000 | We have some more information on him.
00:01:19.000 | But before we dive into the episode and get connected with Josh,
00:01:22.000 | you know I have to give some shout outs.
00:01:23.000 | And this week I want to give a shout out to Kevin.
00:01:25.000 | Kevin Dean, thank you so much for connecting with me on Twitter.
00:01:28.000 | Also want to give a big shout out to Lizbeth Winter.
00:01:30.000 | Thank you so much for connecting with me, Lizbeth. I appreciate it.
00:01:32.000 | Also want to give a big shout out to John Kopke.
00:01:35.000 | John, thank you so much for connecting with me. Appreciate it.
00:01:37.000 | And keep having success out there in the world of social selling.
00:01:40.000 | And if you'd like to connect with me, you can go ahead and find me on LinkedIn,
00:01:43.000 | Donald C. Kelly.
00:01:44.000 | You can find me on Twitter, Donald C. Kelly.
00:01:46.000 | You can also find me on Instagram, Donald C. Kelly.
00:01:49.000 | Get some motivation, check up on me, see how I'm doing.
00:01:51.000 | You can also find me as well on Facebook. The Sales Evangelist is our Facebook page.
00:01:56.000 | Go ahead and check that out and like the page.
00:01:58.000 | Would love to get you over there, see what's going on.
00:02:01.000 | And you can go ahead and check out The Sales Evangelizers.
00:02:04.000 | This is our private Facebook group.
00:02:05.000 | Shh, don't go tell anybody about it.
00:02:08.000 | It's a private community designed for folks just like you and me,
00:02:11.000 | listeners to The Sales Evangelist podcast,
00:02:13.000 | friends who are in sales, entrepreneurs,
00:02:15.000 | people who want to be with like-minded sellers.
00:02:17.000 | You can go ahead and check it out.
00:02:18.000 | Again, The Sales Evangelizers, that's on Facebook.
00:02:21.000 | It's a private Facebook group.
00:02:22.000 | Shh.
00:02:23.000 | And if you want to take your training a little bit further,
00:02:25.000 | you can go ahead and check out TSC Hustlers League,
00:02:27.000 | the salesevangelist.com/hustlers, the salesevangelist.com/hustlers.
00:02:33.000 | And this is a great new project that we're doing,
00:02:37.000 | and you can check it out and learn more about it.
00:02:39.000 | Again, go to the salesevangelist.com/hustlers.
00:02:43.000 | Now, we have a great episode straight ahead.
00:02:45.000 | So let's go ahead and dive into the discussion with Joshua Sheets.
00:02:48.000 | Take it away.
00:02:49.000 | Welcome to the show, Josh.
00:02:54.000 | Dude, I'm glad to be here.
00:02:56.000 | You know, I am so excited to have you.
00:02:58.000 | You're going to lay it on me today with some good knowledge.
00:03:00.000 | I know it. I know it.
00:03:02.000 | And Josh, as you know, this episode is called Sales from the Street.
00:03:06.000 | And what I like to do with these episodes is bring guests on,
00:03:08.000 | folks who are out there hustling just like you and me,
00:03:10.000 | share, you know, real life experience,
00:03:12.000 | some of the challenges that they had,
00:03:14.000 | and how they overcame those challenges and results they saw
00:03:17.000 | from the solution they implemented.
00:03:19.000 | But before we dive into that,
00:03:20.000 | I want you to tell us a little bit more about what you're doing with Radical Finance.
00:03:24.000 | Yeah, so now I host a podcast called Radical Personal Finance.
00:03:27.000 | So I'm selling in a very different format now,
00:03:30.000 | kind of like you selling ideas in a public format.
00:03:33.000 | I came from a six-year career in life insurance and investment sales,
00:03:38.000 | working with a company called Northwestern Mutual.
00:03:41.000 | I had previously been working for a large corporation in an analyst position,
00:03:45.000 | and I was sick and tired of the income that I was earning.
00:03:48.000 | I got a 5% pay raise, and I thought to myself,
00:03:51.000 | "5%? I deserve a 55% pay raise."
00:03:54.000 | Not a, actually, it was an 8%.
00:03:57.000 | Anyway, I wanted a much bigger pay raise than I was given.
00:04:00.000 | And so when I, at that time, I realized I needed to go into
00:04:04.000 | a more financially lucrative profession.
00:04:07.000 | And so to become a highly compensated employee,
00:04:09.000 | I decided that the best path was to go into an area
00:04:13.000 | where my income was driven by my results.
00:04:16.000 | So I chose sales, and I wanted to learn to be a professional salesperson.
00:04:19.000 | I always enjoyed the topic of finance,
00:04:22.000 | so I chose a financial company called Northwestern Mutual.
00:04:25.000 | I chose them primarily simply because when I was researching it,
00:04:29.000 | they were known to have one of the better sales training programs.
00:04:32.000 | And I figured, "Well, I'll go do it for three years,
00:04:34.000 | and if nothing else, I'll learn to be a salesperson."
00:04:36.000 | And those are strategies and tools I can take with me for the rest of my life.
00:04:39.000 | Found those spending six years there, really enjoyed it,
00:04:42.000 | and then launched out of there to start my business now
00:04:45.000 | called Radical Personal Finance, where I host a daily,
00:04:48.000 | in-depth, personal financial planning podcast
00:04:50.000 | where I teach people to become financially independent
00:04:53.000 | in about 10 years or less.
00:04:54.000 | - That is awesome. That is great, and I love it.
00:04:56.000 | And I think that's something that, obviously,
00:04:58.000 | if anyone out there listening who are in the sales world
00:05:00.000 | can definitely connect with you on that,
00:05:02.000 | because if they're making the money now,
00:05:05.000 | they listen to the show, or they're making the income,
00:05:08.000 | they need to learn how to manage that money.
00:05:10.000 | So, highly recommend that you check out.
00:05:12.000 | And we'll put all this stuff in the show notes as well,
00:05:13.000 | so they can check out your podcast.
00:05:14.000 | But let's talk about some of the challenges you faced
00:05:16.000 | when you first came into sales.
00:05:18.000 | What are some of those things that you, the initial challenge,
00:05:20.000 | like one of the most difficult things that you came upon?
00:05:23.000 | - Most difficult thing was that when I started,
00:05:25.000 | I was 23 years old, and I was scared of everything that moved.
00:05:28.000 | (laughing)
00:05:30.000 | And when you put a 23-year-old who's scared of his own shadow
00:05:33.000 | into the world of sales, you have to learn some things.
00:05:38.000 | I remember the first day I had to make phone calls.
00:05:40.000 | In our business, we worked on what we called
00:05:42.000 | a referred lead prospecting system.
00:05:44.000 | So, I would call, the way I started my business,
00:05:47.000 | I called everyone I knew, I asked them for an appointment
00:05:49.000 | to share with them what I was doing,
00:05:51.000 | and I would maybe be able to be of service to them,
00:05:54.000 | but also ask for referrals to other people.
00:05:56.000 | And I remember just walking around the phone
00:05:58.000 | the very first day of training for about 45 minutes
00:06:01.000 | before I had the guts to pick up the phone and call somebody.
00:06:04.000 | And that was a consistent theme over the years,
00:06:07.000 | that I had to learn how to overcome
00:06:09.000 | all of those deep-held fears of other people.
00:06:13.000 | And the biggest challenge for me was really getting referrals.
00:06:18.000 | In a referred lead prospecting system,
00:06:20.000 | the way that it worked is I would work with somebody,
00:06:22.000 | and then I would ask each and every time
00:06:24.000 | for them to introduce me to other people.
00:06:26.000 | And we talked about the sales from the street episode.
00:06:29.000 | I would say that for me, one of the major transformations
00:06:33.000 | occurred when I had a client where I stopped selling
00:06:38.000 | and started listening.
00:06:39.000 | The way financial sales works is you'd have to do
00:06:41.000 | some amount of listening, but then after you do
00:06:44.000 | some listening, then you gotta start selling,
00:06:46.000 | 'cause you gotta place your product,
00:06:47.000 | whether it's an insurance policy,
00:06:49.000 | whether it's an investment product,
00:06:50.000 | you've gotta actually follow through
00:06:52.000 | and start making the presentation.
00:06:53.000 | And that's right, and that's fine.
00:06:54.000 | But there was sometimes a challenge with regard
00:06:56.000 | to financial topics of when's the right time
00:07:00.000 | to make the transition.
00:07:01.000 | Early in my career, I learned from other people,
00:07:03.000 | and I would do a little bit of listening
00:07:04.000 | and then start talking.
00:07:05.000 | And as I progressed year after year,
00:07:07.000 | I just started spending more and more time listening
00:07:09.000 | and less and less time talking.
00:07:11.000 | And it culminated with a scenario where somebody
00:07:14.000 | that was introduced to me came into my office,
00:07:16.000 | and says, "Josh, we wanna talk to you."
00:07:18.000 | And they came into my office, and I sat down,
00:07:21.000 | and I just spent an hour listening to them.
00:07:23.000 | I didn't sell them anything.
00:07:24.000 | I didn't actually place a single financial product
00:07:27.000 | with them in that hour, nor did I even talk about it.
00:07:30.000 | But I spent an hour listening to them talk
00:07:32.000 | about their goals and what they were trying to accomplish.
00:07:34.000 | What happened was they left my office,
00:07:36.000 | they sold their house, and they put a plan in place
00:07:39.000 | to pay off their student loan debt.
00:07:40.000 | But the really remarkable thing to me
00:07:43.000 | was a few weeks later, they invited me and my wife
00:07:46.000 | to their child's birthday party.
00:07:48.000 | And at that birthday party, when I walked in,
00:07:50.000 | they basically made a massive announcement to the room.
00:07:53.000 | "Hey, everybody, this is Joshua Sheets.
00:07:55.000 | He's our financial advisor."
00:07:57.000 | And my hosts practically walked me around the room
00:08:00.000 | and said to each and every person,
00:08:02.000 | "This is Joshua, he is awesome.
00:08:03.000 | You should talk to him.
00:08:04.000 | This is Joshua, he is awesome.
00:08:05.000 | You should talk to him."
00:08:07.000 | And what that resulted in was a major transformation
00:08:10.000 | for me where I realized that I had gone from
00:08:14.000 | it being difficult to get referrals from people
00:08:18.000 | to this specific client walking me around the room
00:08:21.000 | and telling everybody that they should meet with me.
00:08:24.000 | And it caused me to continue the track I was on
00:08:27.000 | of approaching the business in a very different way
00:08:30.000 | where I went in with fewer and fewer plans
00:08:34.000 | and just spent more time listening.
00:08:36.000 | And from then on, it basically solved
00:08:38.000 | the referral problem for me where I didn't have
00:08:40.000 | to work very hard to get referrals,
00:08:42.000 | but because I had been able to genuinely,
00:08:45.000 | authentically create such a feeling of being heard
00:08:48.000 | and listened, created such goodwill in my clients
00:08:51.000 | that they wanted everybody to work with me.
00:08:53.000 | It was a real epiphany for me in my sales career.
00:08:57.000 | - That is great.
00:08:58.000 | I love the fact that you mentioned there
00:09:00.000 | that you listened a lot.
00:09:01.000 | And I like the fact how this client,
00:09:04.000 | because you listened, in his mind,
00:09:06.000 | he probably felt like you gave him so much,
00:09:08.000 | so many great advice that day,
00:09:10.000 | but all you did was really sit back
00:09:12.000 | and he kind of almost educated himself in a sense,
00:09:15.000 | but built such a great relationship.
00:09:17.000 | And I feel that's a lot of place,
00:09:18.000 | that's an area a lot of salespeople,
00:09:20.000 | especially those who are new,
00:09:21.000 | have a difficult time with
00:09:22.000 | because you're taught these training things.
00:09:25.000 | You learn about your great product or your service
00:09:28.000 | and you want to tell everybody about it
00:09:29.000 | because you know it's going to help them.
00:09:31.000 | But it's kind of like an oxymoron.
00:09:32.000 | Sometimes you need to talk less.
00:09:34.000 | - When I was brand new in training,
00:09:36.000 | we used a form in the financial business
00:09:38.000 | called a fact-finding form.
00:09:39.000 | And it was basically about a 16-page questionnaire
00:09:41.000 | and had all the questions written on it
00:09:43.000 | that you were supposed to ask your prospective client.
00:09:45.000 | And somebody told me in training,
00:09:46.000 | "You can be an idiot,
00:09:47.000 | "but if you just ask people these questions,
00:09:49.000 | "you'll open cases and you'll close business."
00:09:51.000 | So I took them literally in the beginning
00:09:53.000 | and I just went out and I asked people all the questions.
00:09:56.000 | On that questionnaire,
00:09:57.000 | the final stage of the questions that I learned
00:10:00.000 | in the last couple of steps
00:10:03.000 | was about setting up for the referral prospecting.
00:10:07.000 | And it was called confirming the appointment basically
00:10:09.000 | and then setting it up to ask for referrals.
00:10:11.000 | And one of the questions that I would always ask is,
00:10:14.000 | "How did you feel about the process today?"
00:10:16.000 | And remember, I didn't know a thing.
00:10:17.000 | I was just asking, asking, asking, asking.
00:10:19.000 | (laughing)
00:10:20.000 | But I would get to the end of the form
00:10:21.000 | and before, at this stage, before I knew anything,
00:10:24.000 | I would just ask, ask, ask,
00:10:25.000 | and they would be like, "Man, this has been awesome.
00:10:27.000 | "You really seem like you know what you're talking about."
00:10:29.000 | (laughing)
00:10:30.000 | And here I was, quaking in my boots at 23 years old
00:10:32.000 | and they're telling me,
00:10:33.000 | "Joshua, you really seem like you know
00:10:34.000 | "what you're talking about."
00:10:35.000 | Inside I'm saying, "I didn't say a thing.
00:10:36.000 | "All I did was ask the questions
00:10:38.000 | "that are printed on the paper."
00:10:39.000 | But I learned if you listen well enough,
00:10:42.000 | people will think that you know what you're talking about
00:10:45.000 | because of the way that you made them feel.
00:10:47.000 | And then I was able to, at that time,
00:10:49.000 | take the form back to my office,
00:10:52.000 | find out the answers, prepare the recommendations,
00:10:54.000 | and come back and provide something helpful.
00:10:56.000 | But the more we listen in sales,
00:10:58.000 | the better the results.
00:10:59.000 | And it's probably really hard to press that too far.
00:11:03.000 | - You know, and the thing about it too
00:11:05.000 | is the fact that you had the questions written out.
00:11:08.000 | Because, and by the way, that's how I look so good,
00:11:10.000 | because I just ask people questions on a podcast
00:11:12.000 | and they think I know stuff.
00:11:13.000 | (laughing)
00:11:15.000 | But the thing I like about it too
00:11:17.000 | is the fact that you had the questions written down.
00:11:19.000 | And it never ceases to amaze me.
00:11:21.000 | People who do really well in sales,
00:11:23.000 | they focus on the details, little things like that.
00:11:26.000 | Instead of winging it and saying,
00:11:27.000 | "Oh, I got these questions in my mind."
00:11:29.000 | You have them written out, you have them known.
00:11:31.000 | And I mean, over time, sure,
00:11:32.000 | you can get those to become a part of you
00:11:34.000 | and second nature,
00:11:35.000 | but there's a power in taking details,
00:11:38.000 | writing out the question,
00:11:39.000 | the most important questions, crucial questions.
00:11:41.000 | And in a situation like this,
00:11:42.000 | you come back like a genius.
00:11:44.000 | - I used to train new reps,
00:11:45.000 | and I firmly believe this.
00:11:47.000 | When you're in a sales capacity
00:11:49.000 | where every day you're in front of prospects and clients,
00:11:51.000 | there should be nothing coming out of your mouth, really,
00:11:53.000 | that's not memorized, that's not scripted,
00:11:56.000 | and that's not prepared.
00:11:57.000 | Now, there are situations
00:11:58.000 | where you'll be asked a new question
00:12:00.000 | or you'll work on an angle.
00:12:01.000 | But then after the appointment,
00:12:02.000 | you go back and you ask,
00:12:03.000 | "Did I do that very well?"
00:12:05.000 | And if you start to do that,
00:12:06.000 | what happens is you stop worrying
00:12:08.000 | about what you're gonna say
00:12:09.000 | and you start focusing on how you say it.
00:12:11.000 | And that's how you really, really engage people
00:12:14.000 | is by not thinking about what you're gonna say,
00:12:16.000 | but by thinking about how they're feeling
00:12:18.000 | and how they are responding to what you're saying.
00:12:21.000 | If you're thinking about your lines,
00:12:22.000 | the next thing that you're gonna say,
00:12:24.000 | you can't think about how the other person is responding.
00:12:26.000 | But if you know what you're gonna say,
00:12:28.000 | then you can focus on how you're delivering it
00:12:30.000 | and you can focus on really engaging.
00:12:32.000 | So one thing that I learned a lot,
00:12:35.000 | and I just see so few salespeople do,
00:12:38.000 | is everything should be scripted.
00:12:40.000 | Everything should be practiced, practiced, practiced,
00:12:42.000 | practiced, practiced.
00:12:43.000 | In the early years,
00:12:44.000 | I would sit down with other reps
00:12:45.000 | and we would sit down on Saturday morning
00:12:47.000 | and I'd film myself delivering my approach language,
00:12:49.000 | delivering my phoning scripts.
00:12:51.000 | I'd record the phone calls
00:12:52.000 | and I'd go back and listen to them
00:12:53.000 | and ask myself,
00:12:54.000 | "Would I take an appointment from me?"
00:12:55.000 | And when you focus so much on internalizing the words,
00:13:00.000 | then you can forget about the words
00:13:03.000 | and you can really dig into the delivery
00:13:05.000 | and it makes all the difference in the world.
00:13:07.000 | Dude, was it tough watching yourself
00:13:09.000 | or listening to yourself the first couple times?
00:13:11.000 | Oh, I hate it.
00:13:13.000 | But I also learned everybody hates it.
00:13:15.000 | We all hate it.
00:13:16.000 | And it's so valuable.
00:13:18.000 | I recorded tons of calls
00:13:19.000 | that I never wanted to listen to.
00:13:21.000 | But even just recording,
00:13:22.000 | even if I didn't listen to them,
00:13:24.000 | it still made me pay attention.
00:13:26.000 | And then what also would help
00:13:27.000 | is I would listen to other reps
00:13:29.000 | and I would focus on the things I learned well
00:13:31.000 | and the other reps.
00:13:32.000 | And I learned,
00:13:33.000 | I don't know,
00:13:34.000 | a little bit of advice to your listeners.
00:13:36.000 | If you're working with other salespeople,
00:13:38.000 | listen to what all the other salespeople are doing
00:13:40.000 | and do the exact opposite.
00:13:42.000 | (laughing)
00:13:43.000 | And it sounds weird.
00:13:45.000 | I'm not sure how much you go into things
00:13:47.000 | like phoning technique and all of that.
00:13:49.000 | But the instant somebody calls you,
00:13:50.000 | you can know that they're a salesperson.
00:13:53.000 | And since all of my initial introductory appointments
00:13:55.000 | were set on the phone,
00:13:56.000 | in financial sales,
00:13:57.000 | you have to learn how to be very good on the phone
00:13:59.000 | right off the bat.
00:14:00.000 | And all you need to do to learn
00:14:01.000 | to be very good on the phone
00:14:03.000 | is listen to everyone's around you
00:14:04.000 | and then record yourself
00:14:05.000 | and do the exact opposite.
00:14:07.000 | So I never, for example,
00:14:09.000 | started with, "Hi, Donald,"
00:14:10.000 | or anything like that.
00:14:11.000 | I would always,
00:14:12.000 | if I were calling you for an appointment,
00:14:14.000 | I would basically,
00:14:15.000 | my coworkers made fun of me,
00:14:16.000 | I would basically yell at you like,
00:14:17.000 | "Don, hey, this is Joshua Sheets."
00:14:21.000 | And I would go on with the little script.
00:14:23.000 | But those little cues,
00:14:24.000 | you only pick them up in learning about them.
00:14:26.000 | Even one little thing I learned by listening
00:14:29.000 | and also studying and learning from other people
00:14:31.000 | was that little hesitation.
00:14:33.000 | So when I would say my name,
00:14:35.000 | I would say, "This is Joshua Sheets,"
00:14:37.000 | and I would pause a moment.
00:14:38.000 | What that little tiny pause does
00:14:41.000 | is it makes your brain,
00:14:43.000 | when I call you,
00:14:44.000 | and you don't know who I am,
00:14:45.000 | you just pick up the phone,
00:14:46.000 | it makes you immediately start searching
00:14:47.000 | and say, "Joshua, Joshua, Joshua,
00:14:48.000 | who's Joshua, who's Joshua?
00:14:49.000 | Oh, Joshua Sheets."
00:14:50.000 | And it makes me sound like I know you.
00:14:52.000 | And in financial sales,
00:14:53.000 | you've got to break that first couple of seconds
00:14:56.000 | to give yourself just about, you know,
00:14:58.000 | a minute or two on the phone
00:14:59.000 | to be able to share why you're calling,
00:15:01.000 | who introduced you,
00:15:02.000 | what your perspective is.
00:15:04.000 | And all those little things can only be done
00:15:06.000 | when you know your script's cold
00:15:08.000 | and you don't have to worry about what you're going to say.
00:15:10.000 | - Oh, man, dude, you hit home
00:15:11.000 | with some of this good stuff, man.
00:15:12.000 | I've done a couple episodes recently,
00:15:14.000 | had guests speak about the idea of scripts.
00:15:16.000 | Some people hate it.
00:15:17.000 | I hated it, Josh.
00:15:18.000 | But, you know, the more that I did them,
00:15:20.000 | the more I saw improvement.
00:15:22.000 | And I did some acting in high school,
00:15:24.000 | theater stuff,
00:15:25.000 | and you saw the benefit
00:15:26.000 | of getting the script, memorizing the script,
00:15:28.000 | and then being able to live and mold that script.
00:15:31.000 | And there was a big difference.
00:15:33.000 | The big difference between being a robot
00:15:35.000 | and having a script that guides you.
00:15:37.000 | - If you know the script,
00:15:38.000 | it allows you to adjust it.
00:15:40.000 | So I used to teach phoning,
00:15:42.000 | and I'm just focusing on that
00:15:43.000 | 'cause it's one of the--
00:15:44.000 | - Sure, yeah.
00:15:45.000 | - If you can't phone,
00:15:46.000 | you have no ability to get in front
00:15:47.000 | of a client for fact-finding.
00:15:49.000 | You have no ability to put together a solution.
00:15:51.000 | You have no ability to do your presentation.
00:15:53.000 | It all starts on the phone.
00:15:54.000 | And something is simple with phoning
00:15:56.000 | is having a script and knowing where
00:15:58.000 | you're going to lead people.
00:16:00.000 | So what I always did is I was always
00:16:03.000 | trying to call based upon a referred lead prospect.
00:16:06.000 | And so simple thing like my script
00:16:08.000 | was very carefully honed
00:16:10.000 | to get responses little by little over time
00:16:14.000 | so that the prospective client
00:16:17.000 | was willing to answer me.
00:16:18.000 | So example would be like, you know,
00:16:20.000 | my initial phoning language.
00:16:21.000 | "Don, this is Joshua Sheets,
00:16:23.000 | "Joshua Sheets calling.
00:16:24.000 | "Hey, I'm a friend of Joe Smith's.
00:16:26.000 | "Did Joe give you a call
00:16:28.000 | "and let you know I was be calling
00:16:29.000 | "or am I calling you out of the blue?"
00:16:30.000 | And that initial line that I developed
00:16:32.000 | was really, really useful
00:16:33.000 | because you would always respond,
00:16:35.000 | "Oh, no, he didn't."
00:16:36.000 | And then I would again defuse the situation,
00:16:38.000 | make it sound a little more casual.
00:16:39.000 | I would do a big, "Oh, come on,
00:16:41.000 | "I gotta get on Joe.
00:16:42.000 | "He promised me he was gonna call you
00:16:43.000 | "'cause I always told him to call,
00:16:44.000 | "but they never call.
00:16:45.000 | "Everyone's busy, so I'll get on Joe for that."
00:16:48.000 | And then I would go in
00:16:49.000 | and all through the script,
00:16:51.000 | I would have an alternative choice response,
00:16:54.000 | but instead of it sounding
00:16:55.000 | like the traditional stilted 1982,
00:16:58.000 | "Are you available on Tuesday at 10 a.m.
00:17:00.000 | "or Thursday at 2 p.m. thing?"
00:17:02.000 | The alternative choice can be much more elegant.
00:17:04.000 | So my alternative choice was,
00:17:06.000 | "Okay, do you have a moment?"
00:17:07.000 | So I would, first alternative choice,
00:17:09.000 | "Did Joe tell you that I was gonna be calling
00:17:11.000 | "or am I calling you out of the blue?"
00:17:12.000 | "Oh, you got me out of the blue."
00:17:13.000 | "Bummer, okay, I'll get on Joe for that.
00:17:15.000 | "All right, real quick, I'll be super, super quick.
00:17:17.000 | "Do you have a quick second to speak
00:17:18.000 | "or did I get you to bad time?"
00:17:19.000 | And so for me, I always needed to ask that question
00:17:22.000 | because I needed about two or three minutes on the phone
00:17:24.000 | to set up why I was calling,
00:17:26.000 | who I was calling from,
00:17:27.000 | and those kinds of things.
00:17:28.000 | And if somebody's standing,
00:17:29.000 | people answer their cell phones now
00:17:30.000 | when they're standing in front of a board meeting.
00:17:32.000 | And there is no chance in the world
00:17:34.000 | that I'm gonna set up an appointment
00:17:35.000 | with somebody standing in front of a board meeting.
00:17:37.000 | So it's an alternative choice.
00:17:39.000 | Then I would go into about a 30-second thing
00:17:40.000 | of here's who I am, here's who I work for,
00:17:42.000 | here's the type of work I do,
00:17:43.000 | here's why I'm calling,
00:17:44.000 | here's what Joe said about you and why I'm calling,
00:17:46.000 | and then go into just some simple alternative choice
00:17:49.000 | of I'm gonna be down in your area on Tuesday.
00:17:51.000 | Is it all right for me to swing by Tuesday
00:17:54.000 | or is there another time that's better for you?
00:17:56.000 | Or are you a daytime guy or an evening guy?
00:17:58.000 | Or are you a morning guy or an afternoon guy?
00:18:00.000 | Or whatever the situation is, and try to do that.
00:18:03.000 | So you can take, with practice and with scripting,
00:18:05.000 | you can take the time-tested, honored approaches
00:18:09.000 | from professional selling,
00:18:10.000 | things that have been developed and tested,
00:18:12.000 | and you can hone them a little bit
00:18:13.000 | and make them more elegant for the day.
00:18:15.000 | Make them more elegant for today's world.
00:18:17.000 | - Oh man, dude, you hit home on all this stuff.
00:18:19.000 | Man, I love it.
00:18:20.000 | I love it.
00:18:21.000 | If there's one thing you would like someone listening
00:18:23.000 | to this, new to sales or seasoned sales,
00:18:25.000 | there's one piece that you want them to walk away with.
00:18:28.000 | What's that one piece of advice, Josh?
00:18:30.000 | - If you do good work, that will speak broader
00:18:34.000 | than any tactic or technique.
00:18:36.000 | If you are a person worth referring,
00:18:39.000 | you won't need any tricks or gimmicks.
00:18:42.000 | Good technique is important for good salespeople.
00:18:44.000 | You should be a professional.
00:18:45.000 | So you should do good work,
00:18:48.000 | and you should have great technique.
00:18:50.000 | But don't ever try to fool people with great technique
00:18:52.000 | when you do really bad work.
00:18:54.000 | So focus, if you've got to focus,
00:18:55.000 | spend most of your time focused on being a person
00:18:58.000 | who's worth referring,
00:18:59.000 | being a person who's worth buying from,
00:19:01.000 | being an expert in your industry.
00:19:03.000 | Spend the vast majority of your time on that,
00:19:05.000 | and a little bit of your time focusing on technique.
00:19:07.000 | We've just done this whole thing here on technique.
00:19:09.000 | But to be a true professional,
00:19:11.000 | spend a lot of time on being a person
00:19:13.000 | worth doing business with.
00:19:15.000 | And then also, don't forget about technique.
00:19:17.000 | And that will rocket your sales into the stratosphere.
00:19:20.000 | - Love it, love it, man.
00:19:21.000 | If folks want to get in touch with you,
00:19:23.000 | what's the best way for them to connect with you?
00:19:24.000 | - Best way is to listen to the show,
00:19:26.000 | and to do that, just search on your phone
00:19:28.000 | for Radical Personal Finance right in the App Store,
00:19:30.000 | and you'll find our free app.
00:19:31.000 | So just search the App Store on your phone,
00:19:33.000 | Radical Personal Finance,
00:19:34.000 | and download the free app,
00:19:35.000 | and you can listen to every past episode of the show.
00:19:37.000 | We're on 260 episodes now.
00:19:40.000 | There's a lot of content there
00:19:41.000 | around financial independence.
00:19:42.000 | And that's the best way to get in touch with me.
00:19:44.000 | - Great, man.
00:19:45.000 | And again, I second that you check Josh,
00:19:47.000 | check out Josh's podcast.
00:19:48.000 | You can learn a lot of great information.
00:19:50.000 | He put a lot of great detail into each episode.
00:19:52.000 | And it's just, you'll walk away
00:19:54.000 | feeling like you just came out of a college class.
00:19:56.000 | So, highly recommend it.
00:19:57.000 | Thanks so much for coming on the show, Josh.
00:19:59.000 | - Thanks, dude.
00:20:00.000 | (upbeat music)
00:20:03.000 | - Mm, mm, mm.
00:20:05.000 | Josh gave us a lot of great information there.
00:20:06.000 | You can go ahead and connect with Josh.
00:20:08.000 | Just go back to our website,
00:20:09.000 | thesalesevangelist.com/episode224.
00:20:14.000 | Again, thesalesevangelist.com/episode224.
00:20:17.000 | You can get all the information with Josh,
00:20:19.000 | get connected with him,
00:20:20.000 | or you can just go ahead and search on your phone right now.
00:20:23.000 | If you're not driving,
00:20:24.000 | and look up the Radical Personal Finance,
00:20:26.000 | you can get connected with Josh.
00:20:27.000 | Again, if you're making money in sales,
00:20:29.000 | or you're making money, whatever you're doing,
00:20:31.000 | you're gonna wanna learn to control that money.
00:20:32.000 | So, check out Josh's podcast.
00:20:34.000 | Highly encourage it.
00:20:35.000 | Now, Josh gave us a great deal of information today.
00:20:38.000 | A lot of them are simple things
00:20:39.000 | that you could implement and apply.
00:20:41.000 | I highly encourage you to examine your sales performance
00:20:44.000 | and see if these things can be incorporated
00:20:46.000 | in how you're selling.
00:20:47.000 | You have to apply to see a difference.
00:20:49.000 | Again, you have to apply to see a difference.
00:20:51.000 | We're coming up on the end of the year.
00:20:53.000 | We wanna hit our goals.
00:20:54.000 | We wanna hit our targets.
00:20:56.000 | If you wanna accomplish goals
00:20:57.000 | you've never accomplished before,
00:20:59.000 | you're gonna have to do some things
00:21:00.000 | you've never done before,
00:21:01.000 | or done effectively before.
00:21:03.000 | So, you gotta apply it.
00:21:04.000 | I want you to be successful.
00:21:05.000 | I want you to be happy.
00:21:06.000 | Hope you enjoy.
00:21:07.000 | Hope you enjoy a wonderful Thanksgiving
00:21:09.000 | with your family members
00:21:10.000 | and that you have a great day tomorrow.
00:21:12.000 | We can always be grateful for something in our lives
00:21:15.000 | and I'm grateful for the fact that I have you here
00:21:18.000 | as someone who listens to the show
00:21:20.000 | and someone who continues to share the show
00:21:22.000 | and someone who is finding benefits.
00:21:25.000 | So, I'm grateful for you.
00:21:26.000 | Thank you so much for all you do.
00:21:27.000 | Enjoy your Thanksgiving.
00:21:28.000 | Again, I want you to be happy.
00:21:30.000 | I want you to be successful.
00:21:31.000 | Most importantly, I want you to go out
00:21:34.000 | and do big things.
00:21:36.000 | (upbeat music)
00:21:42.000 | (upbeat music)
00:21:47.000 | - Are you ready to make your next
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