September 15, 2025 • 53 mins
Unlock the secrets of high-level sales strategy with Misty Lynch and revenue growth expert Doug C. Brown. In this episode, Doug shares mindsets and tactics that power top 1% sales performers and offers actionable insights for anyone looking to level up their business approach.
Where to find Doug C. Brown
Website: ceosalesstrategies.com
Where to find Misty
Websites:
- Doug’s unconventional path from nuclear medicine to top sales strategist
- Why a sales mindset is crucial for entrepreneurs and professionals alike
- The importance of follow-up, and how automated tools can boost your results
- How to get in the right rooms (even if you don’t have access yet)
- Key habits and mindsets that distinguish top 1% salespeople from the rest
Where to find Doug C. Brown
Website: ceosalesstrategies.com
Where to find Misty
Websites:
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to the Demus Defying Money podcast, where each week
you will hear unforgettable conversations with expert guests about success, money, business,
and small steps you can take to elevate your life
and wealth. Now here's your host, Misty Lynch.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, everybody, thank you so much for joining us for
this episode of Demist Defying Money.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm joined today by Doug C. Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
He's the CEO of CEO Sales Strategies and he's a
revenue and sales profit growth expert, so I'm excited to
have him here. He's he's up in New Hampshire and
he's talking with us today about how to you know,
how to approach the mindset around sales. I know this
is something that a lot of people, a lot of
(00:45):
entrepreneurs or a lot of people even working in corporate,
when it comes to selling themselves or getting their ideas
across or their points acrossing meetings, tend to have some
aversion to feeling salesy or feeling too pushy.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
And I think that he comes at this from.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Such a good angle about how this can be a
high level of service and how us learning how to
sell and talk about what we can do and how
we can help people is so important to not only
get over our own fears and our own mindset, but
to really embrace it and learn how to get better
at it.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So thank you so much Doug for joining me today.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Oh Misty, thanks so much for having me here. I'm
very grateful.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
This episode of Demystifying Money with Misty Lynch is proudly
sponsored by Soundview Financial Advisors. Visit www dot Soundview financial
advisors dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So you've had quite a career. So you've worked with.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Lots of different You've worked for companies from into It
Enterprise around to car Procter, Gamble, a lot of big names.
But tell me a little bit more about your journey
from where you started out, which.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I found was studying nuclear medicine. Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, and carry to what you're doing today.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
So I started working at the age of three, actually
in New Grateful at Massachusetts. My father had a industrial
machinery repair company, so we repair big industrial equipment things
like that. I was sweeping floors at three years old.
I was making twenty five cents a week. I loved it.
(02:16):
It was awesome. I got to hang out with the adults.
They brought me to the bar for the lunch in
the afternoon, propped me up on the barstool and they
talked and I had my Coca Cola. I think we
called them Roy Rogers back then, the drink. I loved it.
I heard my mother didn't care for them bringing me
to the bar, but I'm not really sure. All my
(02:36):
brothers went through the same thing, and we started selling
around the age of five or six. They were actually
grooming us, and you know, that's where I learned to sell, really,
But you know, all of that along my life, I
was always trying businesses. I always had side businesses. And
then the reason I got a degree in nuclear medicine
(03:00):
was because, well, in my family, even though they were entrepreneurial,
it was back then especially it was like you've got
to get a college degree, Like that's just it's like breathing.
You have to There were two things. One you got
to go in the military, and two you got to
get a college degree. Okay, So I kind of combined
the both of them and said, well, I'll go in
(03:21):
the military because they'll actually pay for college. So and
I did, and then I ended up not really knowing
what I wanted to do. So I got my first
degree in business and music, and then the second degree.
I'm like, I got to do something because I never
really thought of selling for a living, which is crazy
(03:42):
because all the way through high school, all the way
through college, I was selling, but I never really thought
about it as selling. In college, I was selling music
equipment to a lot of the bands that are you know,
were super popular during that day, like Arrowsmith and the
Boston and Jake Giles Band and all that. But I
(04:03):
never really thought about it as selling because to me,
you know, selling is just conveyance of information between people
to solve a problem and gaining a goal. Right. But
I decided, you know what, I need a real skill.
So I decided I'll go in the medical field. And
I ended up in the nuclear US and as one
(04:26):
of my next degrees. And you know, because again in
the hospital, you're communicating with people and you're talking with people,
and you know, so to me, that was selling, and
so I just continued the path.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Wow, that's an interesting one, and I think it's it's
it's funny because I think a lot of us that
are around parents that own businesses and stuff, we all
kind of exposed to business at a much younger age
in a different, completely different way. So that's kind of
funny that they were taking you out and showing you
around and having you sweep the floors and make your
make your quarner.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
But it is kind it is.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Interesting because I do feel like there's a lot of
families and I'm not sure if it's shifting now that
do you know, have put a lot of pressure on
getting a college degree, getting in you know, all of that,
and so I think that you know, we'll it will
see if that starts to shift.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
You know, I'm seeing you know, the costs and things
like that, but I.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Know that that that was basically was the path to success.
But I do feel like there might be new paths
to success for people these days that maybe isn't just
a guarantee once you get that college degree. So it's
it's definitely good to look at all those other skills
and the things that you're curious about and interested in
and things like that as you start to you know,
decide where you want to go, you know, from from here,
(05:39):
as you know, as you're entering adulthood for those for
those people listening, so you founded or built over thirty
five businesses and help generate more than nine hundred and
sixty million in sales for your clients. What lessons from
that experience has like fundamentally changed or shaped your sales
philosophy today?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Well, you know that the it's an interesting question. So
most of the successful businesses, no matter what they are,
are focused on the focus of business. The rules are
very simple until you add people. Once you add people,
(06:20):
it gets a little more complex. But it's money in,
money out equals something. And the companies that grow the
most are consistently focused on money coming in and minimizing
the money going out, and therefore they're a higher profitability
at the end. Really, I mean, that's where it comes
(06:40):
down to. I think what's shaped my whole mindset around
this process is I've had the privilege of learning from
really great successful people through doing it. And so if
people are interested in really understanding, get around somebody who's
(07:00):
been there, done it, work with them. You know. Kiyosaki
had a rule that he wrote in his book Rich Dad,
Poor Dad. You know, work to learn, and I think
that's one thing that I've I've done throughout my whole life,
my whole career, is I work to learn. I make money,
don't get me wrong, but I always like, you know,
(07:24):
I mean we were talking about just you know, prior
to this call. I mean, I had lunch yesterday with
the founder of Deloitte. What a what a wealth of information,
super nice guy. Right, So you learn things every single time.
And and for me, I always try to get in
the room where I feel like I'm the dumbest you know,
(07:47):
in the in the room, or not stupid, but just
you know, I don't understand what they understand. Because when
you talk with people who've been there, done it, and
you hear the same recurring theme over and over and over,
doesn't take somebody with high end intelligence to go, wow,
eight people said the same thing, Let's implement that. And
That's what I've been doing. I've been modeling people my
(08:08):
whole life through the process, and I will continue to
do that until the end day.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
What are your tips for people who maybe aren't naturally
invited into those rooms. You know, maybe there's some you know,
women business owners listening, Maybe there's something like where maybe
those rooms have been somewhat exclusive, or maybe that's not
something that's in there, you know, maybe right in their
you know, neighbor or right in their you know network
at this time. Any tips for those people who really
(08:33):
do want to learn from some of the top minds, Like,
are there any you know, what are your.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Suggestions for that?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Say somebody is like, I just don't know how to
get you know, these invitations or or find these people,
but they are curious about maybe branching out and learning
more than the people that maybe are in their network
are really talking about today.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. The uh become the
Girl Scout cookie salesperson. I don't know about you, mister,
or anybody listening to this, but when a little kid
knocks on my door and they're selling girls Got cookies
or they're selling raffle to the you know, the school
(09:13):
trip or whatever, I can't say no. I just right.
And I think in part because I believe that was
me when I was a little kid, I would you know,
I sold my way to cookies to go to summer camp. Right,
And so take a lesson from them. They don't have
(09:37):
fear knocking on your door. They go out and they
ask and you people would be surprised that how many
people will want to help them if they just call
and ask. I have done this. I've called owners of
companies and I've just been like, listen, I'm trying to
figure out a problem. I looked you up. I figure
(10:00):
you're the person who might be able to help me.
Could I have five minutes of your time just to
ask a couple of questions, you know, because I revere
where you are in life and I'm aspiring to get there.
And if we just follow that methodology, most of the
time they will say yes. That establishes a foothold. You know.
(10:22):
I call this the Karen Fitzgerald principle because Karen was
a girl that was like the prettiest girl in school.
All the guys were afraid to ask her to go
to the dance, and I was one of them that
was afraid. And one day, Karen, if you're listening, I'm
sorry I never asked you. Mary Allen came up to
(10:43):
me and she said, what is the matter with you?
And I said, what do you mean? She's like, why
aren't you asking Karen to the dance? And I said,
I don't think she'll go with me. And she said,
she's been talking about you for two weeks. I'm tired
of hearin about you. Go ask her. I said, well,
I will go ask her. She goes, no, you can't.
JP Yasselnian asked her and she said yes to him.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Oh man, Well I do think that that is something.
But I will say with the Girl Scouts, they have
something of value.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
They got cookies.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Like, what are you trying to say I didn't have
any value.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I'm just trying to say, like asking somebody saying, yeah,
can I have five minutes of your time? Like I
I do see why some people might be a well,
maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they are afraid that they're going
to hear a no. But also a lot of these
experts are busy. A lot of these people are kind
of unattainable. So is there a benefit to have something
(11:38):
like a way in or an idea or something to present?
But or is it really just asking to have a
lot of coffees with a lot of different people who
might be where.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
You want to go.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Well, you're speaking about value exchange, right, The girl Scout
comes up has cookies, you know, somebody's like, oh, sugar,
you know whatever? Right?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I like that.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Yeah, that's called value exchange, which has to happen in
any sale. But there's a business return on investment and
a personal return on investment. Now, think about it. If
you search someone out and you say, listen, I've been
researching you. I find you at this level in life
very you know, accomplished a high regarded individual. That's also
(12:24):
value exchange. So the value exchange could be the personal
return on their investment, which is I feel good about
helping another individual. I feel good about being revered. I'm
in higher or repute. Right, So you don't have to
come in with like, oh geez, what am I going
to do in this huge value exchange? Right? And here's
(12:48):
the thing that I will tell you about. I think
almost any high level CEO business owner I've worked with,
they started where you are. Most of them, you know.
I mean, yeah, some families like you know, if you're
blowing into the Kennedy family or whatever locally, you know
you're going to have some ability to open doors. But
(13:11):
for most of these people, they have started and most
of them started out as salespeople, and so they understand
what you're doing, and that value exchange doesn't have to
be like, oh jezus, I'm talking to you know, the
CEO of HubSpot, How am I going to make HubSpot
grow or how am I going to do this or whatever.
(13:34):
It could be some very small value exchange that they
deem as value.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
That's the key, Okay, And yeah, no, I think that
that's definitely something to consider. I know there's lots of
ways to connect with people differently now on social media.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I think we've all seen the high first name.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I'm really impressed with your background and your media media.
So I think that having a genuine trying to make
a genuine can with somebody can be, You're right, as
easy as just being honest and really not having to
have a hook.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Do you know how Tony Robbins Many people know Tony
Robin Right, I was fortunate enough to work with Tony
for seven years. Right. I met Tony Robbins. I was
walking through a hotel one day in Arizona. Was a
builtmore hotel and I looked over and Tony Robbins was
(14:30):
sitting in the courtyard with some other person. And I
walked up to Tony and I said, I'm mister Robbins,
I'm Doug Brown. I just i'd love to tell you
a story about how your content changed my life. And
he looked at me and he said Hi, dignice to
meet you. This is my friend. I didn't even know
he was here from high school. We're just talking, having
(14:52):
a glass of water. Sit down, and we did. And
I sat with Tony for about fifteen minutes and the
three of us guys were acting like guys. And actually
Tony punched me in the shoulder during the time. We
were laughing so much. And he's a big man. I
hid him that and at the end he said, you
(15:14):
know that, why don't you come to one of my
events as a guest. And I did. And what I
did was he said, call my assistant. I did. She said,
here's all your tickets and I sent her a huge
bouquet of flowers saying thank you. When I got at
the event. Five thousand people at this event. At the
(15:35):
end of the event, people wanted to get up and
take pictures with Tony. I was just standing in the audience.
Tony looked out from the stage and over the microphone,
he goes, you. He points to me, he goes, I
know what you did. He's like, come down here, and
I did, and I walked down. He got off mic
and he said, I know what you did. I said,
what do you mean, Tony, you don't send okay of
(15:55):
flowers to your assistant, valuing her on an everyday basis amazing.
That's how I met Tony Robbins. So the point being
is I didn't know him. I just walked up to him.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
So Karen taught you a lesson.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Karen taught me a big lesson. Very good.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So you talk about selling at the top one percent level,
So I'm thinking, like certain things like you just described,
like those things that you that you do, what what
do you say like distinguishes that that top one percent level?
And how can somebody, you know, how can other people
start to learn how to how to perform at that
level when it comes to sales.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Well, so top one percent. The difference between the top
one percent and those who are not in the top
one percent is really leverage.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Leverage is the key. So a top one percent earner
will think like this, how do I get five things
to happen out of this one thing I'm going to do?
So if I'm going to make a call, and I
ask people this all time, what do you want to
make when you you know, when you make a sales call,
what do you want? They all say, I want to
make a sale, And I say, well, what if you
don't make the sale? Well, I hang up. A one
(17:10):
percent earner will think, I want a referral, I want
an endorsement, I want a testimonial. I would like to have,
you know, an internal external refer I would like to
build rapport. I'd like to build a relationship. You know,
they're thinking multiple outcomes out of one thing, so that
when they sell something, they're also thinking, how do I
(17:31):
increase the transactional value, extend the buying frequency, get them
to buy again. How do I how do I get
referrals out of this process? You know, how do I
get media exposure from this large company? Right? I mean immediately,
and I say, hey, I had lunch with the founder
of Deloitte. I'm elevated in positioning for those who know Deloitte, right,
(17:55):
so you know, and I've got pictures to prove it,
and I can put those on my social med and
so you know, all of these things. This is how
a one percent earner thinks. They don't just think linear
or transactional. They're thinking exponential and lifetime relationship, lifetime value.
Other than that, the process is very similar, you know,
(18:17):
between those who are making one percent in those who
are not. The other thing that the one percent earner
will do that others will not is they will challenge
their own mindset on a regular basis to keep going
up the chain of value. So here's what I've learned
talking to you know CEOs of whatever you name the company, like,
(18:40):
you know one eight hundred gut junk. You know, Brian Scuodemore,
nice guy, super nice guy. You know talking to Brian
or talking to a local business owner or a friend,
they're all people, and we've got to bring it down
on the human level. Yes, at his level, he's got
(19:01):
to be quicker and think about certain things, but when
it really comes down to it, he's a person. We're
not selling the titles. We're selling the individuals selling to people,
and people all want the same things. Genuine you know, connection, caring,
you know, end results, et cetera, et cetera. Some of
us are more intolerant than others, and that's fine, that's
(19:22):
a different personality trait. But the reality is, if we
think about selling as we're helping someone to solve a
problem that they may have, or helping someone to gain
a goal that they may have and we're the opportunity
channel to have them, you know, arrive at that conclusion.
(19:43):
It's it's not a big challenge at that point, but
we got to keep challenging in our mind to keep
going up the ladder.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I think the way you mentioned the outcome, you know,
where as somebody was thinking the outcome, the positive outcome
is a sale, and if you don't get a sale,
then that's going to seem like maybe a lot of
different you know, a lot of failure, and it might
be discouraging.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And so I think the.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Way you phrase it as having maybe a connection, maybe
a referral, maybe all of these things, it could make
all of these interactions feel more successful naturally if there's
just more ways for it to go well for you.
And I do think that that is something as far
as mindset is concerned. It's important to feel that you
know your work matters, or that it wasn't a waste
(20:26):
of time, or you didn't fail, or you're just making
progress as you go. So I think that is an
interesting way to start to shift all of those conversations
you have, even if the end result isn't the the
you know, signing on the dog line or swiping your
card and things like that.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
So that's that's really important. And another thing that you
talk about is the follow up process.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I do think that this is something where a
lot of people maybe you know, maybe they expect that
instant gratificate, maybe they're maybe they're not following up, maybe
they're forgetting that.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
People are just busy sometimes, and so how do you.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Help people with that follow up part of sales, which
is super super important when it comes to you know,
actually growing your business and growing your wealth.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Well, I built an automated tool for it, right, So
I built a SaaS product for this. You know, it's
called the bit No and most Americans can't say the name,
but the name is a Slavic term for me that
means you matter.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Okay, So.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
The reason I built it is because I lost one
hundred and twenty five thousand dollars sale due to a
lack of follow up. So, you know, follow up super important.
It is the glue that holds relationships together. I mean,
you're much younger than I am, Misty. You know, I
just had my forty fifth anniversary of my high school reunion,
(21:50):
which is crazy when I think about it, but you know,
over the years, some people have stayed in touch with
the other you know, I mean out of the class
of three hundred and something. And you know, there's like
one hundred, one hundred and ten people on the Facebook
group now, right, not because they passed away, but just
because people don't keep in touch with one another. And
even out of that one hundred and ten, there's probably
(22:12):
only a half dozen that people can stay in touch with, right.
But if you think about just that example, if we
stayed in touch with every single person we went to
high school with, I mean the ones we liked and
the ones we wanted to be around, what great things
have they gone and done in their lives that if
we were part of that relationship process, could we have
(22:33):
actually had some success through their success as well. Yeah,
that's the power of follow up really when it comes
down to it. You know, I have a company called NASCAR, right,
so they have a location up in loud in New Hampshire. Right.
I followed up with them for two years before they
(22:54):
actually said come on in, kid and let's talk. So
the challenge for most people with follow up is they
give up on the follow up or they have they
really have nothing to follow up with So what we
created was a personalized, meaningful and relevant follow up system
that will create the content or prompt you to do
it or do the do it for you right. And
(23:17):
the reason behind that is because it's really really hard
to follow up with a bunch of people because there's
so much going on. We just deprioritize it. But the
reality is when people follow up. I've tracked this over
the years, they will get a bump between five and
twenty percent in their sales revenue if they just follow
up with people.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I believe that that definitely makes sense. I think a
lot of times we're very focused on new and the
next thing.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
But and it's that that fear is of hearing the
final no, which I would much rather hear than continue
to chase something around or like just leave it out
in the ether to like not know.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Like I'll tell people, I'll be like, if you make
a decision, like, please let me know either like and
sometimes they do you know, And I think, like that's
it's just that follow up piece though, automating it or
having it be content driven and a process rather than just.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
When do I bug this person? Am I going to
bother them? Am I did I talk to them too recently.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's just there's so many questions that I think people
don't have a good system.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Well they don't because they're not taught. And then so
you know, if I'm bugging them or I'm bothering them,
et cetera, et cetera. Were No, we don't. No one
wants it. Well, maybe a few people in the on
the earth, but most people don't want to feel like
I'm intruding on this other person. Right, I'm treading on
this other person. Here's the thing about follow up. As
long as it's value laden for them, going back to
(24:47):
the same concept, right, as long as it's value Leyden,
it's personalized, it's meaningful, it's relevant to them. They're not
going to be upset that you send them a piece
of follow up or you call them with a piece
of relevant information. And you know, here's the power in
this process. So I actually, right after we're done here,
(25:08):
I have a call with someone that last December, I
followed up with them and I was in the area
and we went out to dinner and we talked and
I gave them an idea and they implemented the idea
and it was working for them. But they're running into
some challenges with this process. So we've been in touch
(25:29):
since last December, so now it is it eight months later, right.
They reached out to me last night. Hey, Doug, I
would like to talk with you about hiring you to
help us with our company. So this is an eight
month process. But all we've been doing is being friendly
back and forth, exchanging some value back. We do this
(25:49):
with our friends naturally. I mean, you know, mister, I
have two daughters, so you know, when one of their
friends has a breakup with their boyfriend, my goodness, it
seems like the end of the world's coming together. But
all the gals get together and they bring her out
for wherever, you know, and do whatever you galts do
(26:09):
in that regard, right, But they're bonding, and I'm sure
they're boy bashing and or man bashing or whatever in
the process, which is fine, you know, to get her
to feel better. What if we we don't have to
man bash a woman bashing. That's not what I'm saying.
But what if we did the same type of concept
differently with our clients. We actually cared enough about them
(26:31):
that we actually care about who they are as a
human being. What's going on in their life in addition
to us trying to sell something to them, I've built
relationships on that premise alone, where the business doesn't come today,
but the business will come later on because I'm being
a genuine human being in care. And there's something called
the law of averages for people who don't like know,
(26:54):
out of a hundred times you pitch something, no matter
what it is, I don't you want to go to
the movies, not use specifically, but the people listening. You
pitch the movie and your friends will go I don't
think I want to see a Spider Man or Iron
Man or whatever. Right I think I would. You know,
that's a no, that's a pushup. But you don't throw
(27:14):
yourself down on the front lawn and you know, pitch
a fit. You're just like, all right, we'll find a
different movie. It's the same thing in selling. Out of
a hundred times you ask, a certain percentage will say yes,
a percentage will say no. Some will say not right now.
And that's where you need to follow up with people.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah now. And I think that a lot of times
people instead of hearing that no and moving on and
asking or following up, they think I need to change
everything I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I need to reinvent. I need to burn it all
to the ground. It's not working.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Instead of thinking that naturally there's going to be some
people who are not buying what you're selling at that.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Time, well, yeah, I mean, if you're getting a hundred
out of one hundred consistently, yeah, it's time.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
To and there's a problem.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
But if you're not asking a hundred people, or you're
you know, you're immediately like afraid to ask any people,
and you're thinking people are just going to arrive and
find me and show up at my door, I think
that that's you know, that's where maybe getting used to
hearing now or being more comfortable with rejection can be very,
very valuable for people.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
I've never heard an instance or read about an instance
where somebody was tossed out a window because the buyer.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Said no, yeah, no, those things don't have I think
that's what our brain imagines, but it's definitely.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Not not true.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
I read something you said recently about sales conversations failing
in the first five minutes versus the end. Can you
talk a little bit about why that happens and what
people should think about when they're connecting with new people
and trying to make sure that it's successful.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
So I just want to put the question in context.
It is it failing in the first five minutes because
we're not saying or doing the right thing, Or is
it failing because I? Or is it fail I want
to fail in the first five minutes to get out
of that meeting if it's not the right one, because
I come from both concepts. So that's why I wanted
to I'm not sure what you read.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, so say that it's we do. We're not the
ones that want to end the meeting. We want the
meeting to go well, we want that and then yeah,
and it seems like that isn't you know, it's not
the it's not the end of it.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
It's it's right away.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
So what are some ways that those those sales conversations
should begin and how should we make sure that they're
more efficient?
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Okay, thank you? So Number one, make sure you do
your research before you go to the meeting. Know something
about this person, the company, whatever you're what do you're selling.
It doesn't matter if you're not selling if you're selling B.
Two C. Let's say you're selling life insurance. Or you're
selling a solar or whatever. Know something about the person,
(29:52):
the area you're in, have something common to be able
to talk about, because if you walk in blind, you
could break report quickly. The first thing is always the connection.
So many people forget about this. What's a connection. It's
if you've ever walked into a restaurant and you looked
(30:13):
across and you look at people, and you immediately start
looking at people and oh wow, that one person catches
your eye. That's a connection. Well, when we're going into
a physical meeting, of virtual meeting, whatever it might be,
people are summing up us, how we dress, how we look,
(30:34):
how our hair looks. In my case, always the same, right,
those of you watching video will get that joke. So
it's you know, it's it's one of those things that
we people don't think about. Connection is super important. Once
you're into that connection phase, the next step is you
want to start setting building a little bit of a
(30:56):
port and setting an agenda. So this is something that
people miss all the time. So rapport is not this
fifteen minute conversation. It's a thirty second something to you've connected,
but now you want to build that connection into a
deeper understanding or where somebody at least likes you or
(31:18):
trusts you, you know, and then from there, quantify the
time frame and set an agenda. Hey, I know, we
had thirty minutes for this based on this. Is this
still good for you? Here's what I had to talk about.
Is there anything that you would like to add to
this agenda? If you just set that form in that frame,
(31:42):
most of the time it'll go great, okay, because you're
getting into agreement on the agenda. And this is where
a lot of people I find mister blow it. They'll
walk in, Hi, you know, I'm you know, blah blah blah,
I see you know, nice fish on the wall, blah
blah blah whatever. You know. I'm sure you know you're
(32:03):
a Patriots fan. I see whatever, right, And they're like, no, no,
that was a gift given to me by one of
my you know friends. He's a Tampa Bay buccaneer, and
he's just breaking my stones because of Brady, you know,
and boom, you're out of rapport right there.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
So it's one of those things that really needs to
be thought through and planned out. And if we just
do the front end and there's something meaningful to talk about. Well,
then great, the conversation will go great. Now if there's
not something meaningful to talk about, that's where I want
to get out of that room quicker than they want
(32:41):
me to be in that room.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Right, so, because why waste an hour of your time
when when you know in five or seven minutes this
is never going to go.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I think that's something that I hear too sometimes in
the networking groups and I'm in and people I talk to,
particularly sometimes with women, they feel like they're making all
these great connections with people and they're getting to know
them and they're friendly, but they're not feeling like they're
making a sale. But there might be a mismuch between
what that agenda was and what the you know, what
they were trying to accomplish, versus feeling like, oh, that
(33:13):
was a nice conversation and that's that's the way, you know,
the other person walks away from it without really thinking
about doing business with that person or what that person
was even initially wanting to talk with them about. Yeah, well,
there as far as how people who maybe if they
just want to if they're leading with making a friend
or being friendly or really genuinely can make those warm
(33:33):
connections very quickly, how they can start to actually incorporate
some of that, you know, the sales and the business
end of it to it.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Yeah. So firstly, there's a difference between making a friend
being friendly and crossing the friendly line. And what I
mean by that is we still have to maintain the
professionalism of why we're in this relationship, and the moment
we cross over that line, we actually drop rapport in
most cases. So you know, like a person like yourself,
(34:06):
you know, I'm listening to who you are, your vocal tone,
your speech patterns right, and you're a person who likes
to if I read this correctly, who likes to get
right to it and understand what's going on, Like you're like,
give it to me right away. I want to know
the information type person rights. And so you know, if
(34:30):
I'm droning on and on about Tom Brady and the
Patriots and the you know, the change of the mayor
in Boston as a positive thing and this and that,
eventually you're going to start either looking at your watch
physically or you're going to internally be looking at your
watch going get me out of here. Right. I'm actually moving,
(34:54):
I'm repelling us by doing that. So one of the
things that people can do is once they set the
agenda is attentively listen to is the person you know,
are they using words that are let's say, methodically based.
You know, hey, you know, well, you know our Excel
reports here, you know, our spreadsheets, our data points, our
(35:18):
this are that. And we as the person, if we
want to stay and rapport with that person, we've got
to be able to shift our internal self from you know,
the high directive that a lot of people are, or
the influencer personality where they just want to talk and entertain,
into that methodical thought yeah, or into the quick decision
(35:40):
making thought that you have for example.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I think that's important, that listening part, because I do
think a lot of times you might assume, you know,
sometimes people will assume that I want to talk about
my kids a lot.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I don't. I love them. I will talk about them,
but like.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
That's usually not why I enter a meeting or and
I think that that is something that I've noticed with
different clients too. Some love talking about performance. They like
talking about the actual investments that we have. What do
they consist of? What's happening in the markets and other
people just want us to just talk about all the
(36:14):
things that are on their mind. And I think it
is important to kind of read that quickly and adapt
and know not everybody is going to want an agenda
handed to them, and other people might be like, where's
the agenda.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Where's it? Where's the info?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
So well, language controls conversation, and conversation controls discussion. Discussion
controls our outcome right, and so a lot of people
are like when they feel lost in that process, their
mind immediately goes, oh, oh my god, I'm out.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You know.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
It's like it's like I don't know, they're out to
sea on a boat, being flopped around on the boat,
right and in a heavy seat. And there are ways
to pull that conversation back. So if somebody's talking and
talking and talking and talking like that, it's like, you know, jeez, Jane,
that's super interesting. Let me just I just want to
(37:06):
reframe what I heard. I heard ABC. Is that right? Yes,
that's right? Okay, good, I got it. So we wanted
to discuss XYZ and you're pulling back the discussion. So
a lot many times people just don't have the communication
tools or the mindset around that. They think, well, if
(37:26):
I interrupt Jane, I'm going to be rude and I'm
going to write. And why do we do that? Well,
because usually we grew up in a household where that
principle was valued or we were punished for doing that,
and so we carry these childhood habitual behaviors through into
our adulthood. And they may have served us to stay
(37:48):
safe when we were a child, but they're beating us
down when we're an adult for the ability to move
forward in what we're thinking of doing. So what do
we do We naturally go out that hurts. I can't
sell them out.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, that's so interesting, And I think a lot of
times we don't think about that about like all the
things that have kind of shaped us as far as
our upbringing and how we were you know, like I
had an engineer father who if it was a yes
or no answer and you gave more than one word,
he'd be like, I don't need the details.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Get to the point. So sometimes I feel like, yes,
I must listen.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I must make sure that I'm taking everything in and
making sure that I'm communicating that back because sometimes.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
I'll just be like, yep, got it. Well, and that's
very different.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Than I think what most people expect when they're working
with women in business.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
But see, you and I would get along fine on
that because we're both in that capacity, right. But I'm
also the entertainer influencer type personality which can can tread
on that. So it's you know, but that's your template
of love that you grew up with, you know, your dad,
and you bonded on those points. Sometimes you may not
have liked it, or you may have liked it or
(38:59):
what ever, but you we adapt to try just keep
serving that template of love throughout our lives and and
if it's serving, great, continue to do it. But if
it's not serving, we have we must step back and go. Okay,
there are different types of personalities and people out there
who like to communicate on different levels. You know, there's
(39:21):
a I'll give me an example. There's a great book
called The Love Languages, right familiar, yep, okay, great. When
I was first starting to date my wife, she brought
that book to me and she said, read this, I'm
that one.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
That's awesome. I respect her for that.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Movie you're saying, like, like you can do this, we'll
they take out the trash all you want, but like,
I like gifts, I like this.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
She likes verbal acknowledgment and acceptance. Right, So she's you know,
to this day, we've been together eleven years to this day,
she'll she'll walk by me and she go, do you
like me? Little cutt eyes about in her eyes? Right?
And I'd be like always, yeah, how many times would
you like to hear that? Today? She goes as many
as you want to tell me? Rights. It's so we
(40:12):
all have our needs that need to be filled and fulfilled.
And when we're communicating with other people, the challenge for
most people when they're selling is they're so focused on
the agenda and making the sale that they're forgetting about
the personal ROI in the sale. How does this person
want to feel through this process? What do they want
(40:33):
personally through this process? And when we miss that, we
miss the sale a lot of times.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
That's definitely important to remember.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
And you mentioned entertaining and influencing as part of your
how has you know? And I think a lot of
times when we think about sales and we think about
traditional sales training, it's from the nineteen seventies, it's quite
a bit.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
How has it changed?
Speaker 2 (40:56):
With social media and how many people you can connect
with with your content and things like that, where sales
is also kind of part influencing and entertaining, but it's
it has a different you know, a different scale and
a different amount of people that we can reach. How
have you embraced that and you know use that to
build your business and the businesses that other people have.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
Yeah, that's a you know, it's super important. People who
want to sell today, you've got to be out in
the public square there. It's not a choice anymore because
social media has you know, I mean it's it's interesting
to me. I'll walk through the airport sometimes and I'll
see people like kids, they'll rush to somebody like, oh
my goodness, that person is you know, been on TikTok
(41:37):
or been on this or whatever, right, And I'm like,
I don't know this person, right, but this contingency of
people know this person.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
So like if you type in Doug cy Brown revenue growth,
I'll be everywhere, right, Just type in dougsy Brown revenue
growth or revenue or whatever. That is purposeful. So and
the reason behind that is because as a CEO of
a major company, might direct somebody to look me up
and they might do it themselves. And if they don't
see me out there, well then I'm lowered in status
(42:11):
because it's easy enough to do. Now do you have
to be a social media mogul, you know, you know,
influencer out there? Not to a degree, you know, I mean,
no hate mail please, But a lot of those people
aren't making a lot of money, you know, outside of
what that is.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
And I think that's true. I think it is difficult,
more difficult.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
And also some people don't don't understand that they might
get paid in products but not money different.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
That you know. Yeah, yeah, I have some friends that
are that are in that capacity and that's what's happening. So,
you know, but you early on in life, you hired
an advertising agency to create branding for you. There was
no internet. Well the internet existed for the military, but
not publicly. And so so now we can create our
(43:01):
own public brand. And so here's the thing too, Make
no mistake, folks, if you're going out and you're going
to sell to somebody, they're going to likely look up
who you are. Now if you have a picture of you,
you know, at spring break, you know, over the balcony
(43:22):
and your friends are holding your hair and they've got
a video and everybody thinks that's like fun at the moment,
that's not going to go well for some people in
the context of business. So be careful about what you
put out there. But at the same time, you can
put things out there that are you know, fun and
influential and you know, we I play with a lot
(43:43):
of that stuff. So and I do that because I
like to joke and have fun and so that's part
of my personality of who I am. You don't have
to give that up. But it is super important to
be out there. And you don't have to be out
there and spend you know, because zillions of dollars doing it.
Just put quality information out there around what your expertise is,
(44:07):
you know, and you'll be more than okay in that regard.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah, I think that's that's important.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
A lot of people do see, you know, people with
you know, hundreds of thousands of followers, millions of followers, and.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Think they have to get there.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
But I think you can have a small a smaller following.
But you know, if it's engaged in the content's good.
You can be personal. But like you said, not super work.
I mean it has to be there has to still
be like a mindfulness I think about, you know, the
content that you're putting out there and what exists out there.
But I think that is a way to reach more
people that maybe you would not have been able to
reach in the past geographically or.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
You know, just organically through your own networks.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
So I think it's something we all have to embrace too.
I just don't think there's much of a way around it.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Not anymore, yeah, any more. I mean it's it's the
way of the world. And you know, when I grew up,
it's made me think of a funny story. So my
my youngest daughter, when she was we got I got
he our first phone was an iPhone for and we're
driving down the highway. She's playing with the phone and
she's zipping through the thing where I'm like, how do
(45:11):
you turn this thing on and push the button right?
Because and she looked at me. She said, Dad, when
did you get your first cell phone? And I said,
let me think, And she said, and what type was it?
And I said, oh, well, I was twenty eight years old. Yeah,
and I and I didn't even get the phone out
(45:34):
of my mouth. And she looked at me like, I
was a dinosaur from you know, some prehistoric time and
I said, and honey, it was a dollar a minute.
She's like, what are you talking about? And I said,
and it had no data whatsoever, and it was this big.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
You know, and yeah, you could call me phone.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Now it's you know, we don't even think about it.
It's like, oh my gosh, where's my phone. I didn't
put my where's my phone? It's not my pocket, right.
So the point being is it's accessible to the world
now in its mainstay. It's like, you know, air conditioning.
We don't think about times where people didn't have air conditioning, right,
So it's just the way it is. So we've got
(46:17):
to play on that level. It does not mean, though,
that you have to be on social media every five
minutes and all that stuff. You know. I have a
friend who has a list of forty five hundred people
between LinkedIn and a personal contact list, and he nets
five hundred grand a year off that forty five hundred people. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
No, I think that there's lots of stories like that
where if it's a very engaged audience, warm on people
who want to listen, you know, and they're interested, if
you have a new product or a new service or
something that you don't need that you know, you don't
need to spend too much time building that volume up
or buying.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Followers or buying leans.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
I feel like that is so much better spent working
on the actual in.
Speaker 4 (46:57):
Our newsletter actually has the highest engagement out of any thing. Right,
So we're writing a newsletter, you know, weekly, and that
has the higher engagement out of anything. And I mean,
I've got social media followers. I got well over two
million social media followers, and you know, the newsletter engagement
is higher than that. So it doesn't mean that I'm
(47:19):
you know, oh poor me, I've got only two million
plus people. But the point being is that you know,
I've intentionally worked on this thing too misty over the years,
so it does take a bit of time. And that's
I think that's a great point to make for people.
If you're here today, it's going to usually take you
two to three times longer than you figure to get
(47:41):
where you're going to go, and it's going to cost
you more money than you figure to get there. But
if you put your nose in that direction and take
one step a day every day toward that goal, you
will get there, and when you get there, you look
back and you go, oh, okay, well that was I
could have got there a little faster if I had
done this or that. That's why you talk to these
people that we were talking about in the beginning. But
(48:03):
it's you know, it's it's you will get there. It's
just most people quit, right, you know, and right.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
I think most people expectable I have to go viral
or I have to have something happen where it's most
likely the people who are successful just kept working.
Speaker 4 (48:19):
I had a friend he sold his company, built it
to one hundred million dollars. They sold it for I
guess twenty one point two x ebita.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
Okay, very few people know who he is on social media,
like you know he's he was just not there. It
was in the aero space business. Right. So you know,
you don't have to be Tony Robbins or Oprah Winfrey
or you know, you know, Joe Rogan or whoever to
(48:52):
be able to be an influencer. And the reality is
if you can influence people positively and you change people's
life through what you do, you already have a success.
You know, money will follow that if you just keep doing.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
It absolutely, So I want to value your time because
I know you have another meeting coming up. But what
is one practical change that our listeners can make in
their selling approach this week?
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Today?
Speaker 2 (49:18):
You know the next call, they have to move them
closer to that one percent.
Speaker 4 (49:25):
So this is going to sound a little weird, but
practice improv, okay. So there's a high correlation between top
one percent earners and improvisation. So go to an improv
class and you know, practice it and you'd be surprised
(49:46):
how quick your mind comes up because a lot of
times people when they get in a situation, somebody throws
in an objection, for example. And I wrote a whole
book on this called when when you know selling, how
to How to gain profitability from resolving objections? So so
short read easy to do. But when you get an injection,
(50:09):
for example, what most people's first reaction is is, oh, okay,
I got to overcome this, right, And I teach them
improv skills through this process, like no relax, breathe, get curious, right,
and you can do this quickly in our minds. But
improv trains us to do these type of things and
(50:30):
it's fun. You might feel a little silly while you're
doing it, but it's fun and at least fun to me.
So I would join an improv class and that would
start the process of them thinking.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
I think that's a great tip. I've heard that before
I've done.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
You know, when I was in corporate, we did have
one session where we had, like I think it was
one comedy group in Boston I think came and was
teaching us some like improv where we had to create
a story.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
And this is I was working in a compliance role.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
We were the no team for most of the time,
and we had to say yes and everything and kind
of connect things and it was very interesting. Like you said,
it's practice. But like those people who can quickly say oh,
i'd like get curious instead of getting defensive or pushy,
like that is such an interesting way because maybe you
just didn't understand each other and maybe there was something
(51:16):
there that you can continue to connect on.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
So I think that's I like that tip.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
I think that's a fun one, and I think it's
useful really with communicating with family anyone. Really, Yes, yeah, yeah,
you fight that initial instinct. Doug, Thank you so much
for coming on the show today. How can people find
you if they want to maybe get on your newsletter
or you know, find a copy of your book and
start to learn more from you about these sales strategies.
Speaker 4 (51:40):
So they can reach out to me directly a Doug
at CEO Sales Strategies dot Com. Sales Strategies is plural
dot com. LinkedIn's Doug Brown one two three, if they
want the book when when sellingbook dot com and just
you know, let me know what you're looking for. You know,
we we occasionally run free classes on things like this,
(52:04):
so if they want to just jump on and join
the free class. Likely in most cases we don't even
make offers at the end. It's just free education to
you know. Again, this is me building the public square right.
When I do that, then people tend to follow other things.
So you know, just reach out and let us know
what you like. I do have two people watch my emails,
(52:26):
so if they respond to you first, they will tell
me what's going on. And yeah, that's pretty much it.
I also have a podcast called the CEO Sales Strategies Podcast.
If they want to listen to more content and they
just want to know more about me, type in Doug
CEE Brown Revenue growth and you'll you'll find me everywhere awesome.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Thank you so much for coming on and everyone, thank
you for listening. I think this is so important, especially
if you are in business learning. How to sell learning
different ways to the follow up tool I think is
super interesting.
Speaker 3 (52:54):
I think a lot of people are going to be
interested in that.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
And you know the moves you're making in the tech
in the AI space, I think it's it's really important.
I think it's going to help a lot of people
get more of their valuable products and services out there
in the hands of people that need them. So thank
you so much Doug for joining And if you'd like
to get a copy of my book or listen to
more episodes of the podcast, please head over to Misty
Lynch dot com.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
I would love to connect with you and hear how.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
You've got it this episode and see if there's any
other topics you'd love to hear us cover.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
Thank you so much and we'll talk again next week.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Thank you for joining us on another insightful episode of
Demonstifying Money.
Speaker 3 (53:26):
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave
a review. Stay tuned for more engaging conversations on our
next episode and remember knowledge is the key to financial empowerment.
Welcome to the Demus Defying Money podcast, where each week
you will hear unforgettable conversations with expert guests about success, money, business,
and small steps you can take to elevate your life
and wealth. Now here's your host, Misty Lynch.
Speaker 2 (00:18):
Hey, everybody, thank you so much for joining us for
this episode of Demist Defying Money.
Speaker 3 (00:22):
I'm joined today by Doug C. Brown.
Speaker 2 (00:24):
He's the CEO of CEO Sales Strategies and he's a
revenue and sales profit growth expert, so I'm excited to
have him here. He's he's up in New Hampshire and
he's talking with us today about how to you know,
how to approach the mindset around sales. I know this
is something that a lot of people, a lot of
(00:45):
entrepreneurs or a lot of people even working in corporate,
when it comes to selling themselves or getting their ideas
across or their points acrossing meetings, tend to have some
aversion to feeling salesy or feeling too pushy.
Speaker 3 (00:56):
And I think that he comes at this from.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Such a good angle about how this can be a
high level of service and how us learning how to
sell and talk about what we can do and how
we can help people is so important to not only
get over our own fears and our own mindset, but
to really embrace it and learn how to get better
at it.
Speaker 3 (01:15):
So thank you so much Doug for joining me today.
Speaker 4 (01:17):
Oh Misty, thanks so much for having me here. I'm
very grateful.
Speaker 5 (01:20):
This episode of Demystifying Money with Misty Lynch is proudly
sponsored by Soundview Financial Advisors. Visit www dot Soundview financial
advisors dot com.
Speaker 3 (01:33):
So you've had quite a career. So you've worked with.
Speaker 2 (01:36):
Lots of different You've worked for companies from into It
Enterprise around to car Procter, Gamble, a lot of big names.
But tell me a little bit more about your journey
from where you started out, which.
Speaker 3 (01:47):
I found was studying nuclear medicine. Is that correct?
Speaker 4 (01:51):
Yeah?
Speaker 3 (01:51):
Yeah, and carry to what you're doing today.
Speaker 4 (01:55):
So I started working at the age of three, actually
in New Grateful at Massachusetts. My father had a industrial
machinery repair company, so we repair big industrial equipment things
like that. I was sweeping floors at three years old.
I was making twenty five cents a week. I loved it.
(02:16):
It was awesome. I got to hang out with the adults.
They brought me to the bar for the lunch in
the afternoon, propped me up on the barstool and they
talked and I had my Coca Cola. I think we
called them Roy Rogers back then, the drink. I loved it.
I heard my mother didn't care for them bringing me
to the bar, but I'm not really sure. All my
(02:36):
brothers went through the same thing, and we started selling
around the age of five or six. They were actually
grooming us, and you know, that's where I learned to sell, really,
But you know, all of that along my life, I
was always trying businesses. I always had side businesses. And
then the reason I got a degree in nuclear medicine
(03:00):
was because, well, in my family, even though they were entrepreneurial,
it was back then especially it was like you've got
to get a college degree, Like that's just it's like breathing.
You have to There were two things. One you got
to go in the military, and two you got to
get a college degree. Okay, So I kind of combined
the both of them and said, well, I'll go in
(03:21):
the military because they'll actually pay for college. So and
I did, and then I ended up not really knowing
what I wanted to do. So I got my first
degree in business and music, and then the second degree.
I'm like, I got to do something because I never
really thought of selling for a living, which is crazy
(03:42):
because all the way through high school, all the way
through college, I was selling, but I never really thought
about it as selling. In college, I was selling music
equipment to a lot of the bands that are you know,
were super popular during that day, like Arrowsmith and the
Boston and Jake Giles Band and all that. But I
(04:03):
never really thought about it as selling because to me,
you know, selling is just conveyance of information between people
to solve a problem and gaining a goal. Right. But
I decided, you know what, I need a real skill.
So I decided I'll go in the medical field. And
I ended up in the nuclear US and as one
(04:26):
of my next degrees. And you know, because again in
the hospital, you're communicating with people and you're talking with people,
and you know, so to me, that was selling, and
so I just continued the path.
Speaker 2 (04:38):
Wow, that's an interesting one, and I think it's it's
it's funny because I think a lot of us that
are around parents that own businesses and stuff, we all
kind of exposed to business at a much younger age
in a different, completely different way. So that's kind of
funny that they were taking you out and showing you
around and having you sweep the floors and make your
make your quarner.
Speaker 3 (04:58):
But it is kind it is.
Speaker 2 (05:00):
Interesting because I do feel like there's a lot of
families and I'm not sure if it's shifting now that
do you know, have put a lot of pressure on
getting a college degree, getting in you know, all of that,
and so I think that you know, we'll it will
see if that starts to shift.
Speaker 3 (05:14):
You know, I'm seeing you know, the costs and things
like that, but I.
Speaker 2 (05:17):
Know that that that was basically was the path to success.
But I do feel like there might be new paths
to success for people these days that maybe isn't just
a guarantee once you get that college degree. So it's
it's definitely good to look at all those other skills
and the things that you're curious about and interested in
and things like that as you start to you know,
decide where you want to go, you know, from from here,
(05:39):
as you know, as you're entering adulthood for those for
those people listening, so you founded or built over thirty
five businesses and help generate more than nine hundred and
sixty million in sales for your clients. What lessons from
that experience has like fundamentally changed or shaped your sales
philosophy today?
Speaker 4 (05:58):
Well, you know that the it's an interesting question. So
most of the successful businesses, no matter what they are,
are focused on the focus of business. The rules are
very simple until you add people. Once you add people,
(06:20):
it gets a little more complex. But it's money in,
money out equals something. And the companies that grow the
most are consistently focused on money coming in and minimizing
the money going out, and therefore they're a higher profitability
at the end. Really, I mean, that's where it comes
(06:40):
down to. I think what's shaped my whole mindset around
this process is I've had the privilege of learning from
really great successful people through doing it. And so if
people are interested in really understanding, get around somebody who's
(07:00):
been there, done it, work with them. You know. Kiyosaki
had a rule that he wrote in his book Rich Dad,
Poor Dad. You know, work to learn, and I think
that's one thing that I've I've done throughout my whole life,
my whole career, is I work to learn. I make money,
don't get me wrong, but I always like, you know,
(07:24):
I mean we were talking about just you know, prior
to this call. I mean, I had lunch yesterday with
the founder of Deloitte. What a what a wealth of information,
super nice guy. Right, So you learn things every single time.
And and for me, I always try to get in
the room where I feel like I'm the dumbest you know,
(07:47):
in the in the room, or not stupid, but just
you know, I don't understand what they understand. Because when
you talk with people who've been there, done it, and
you hear the same recurring theme over and over and over,
doesn't take somebody with high end intelligence to go, wow,
eight people said the same thing, Let's implement that. And
That's what I've been doing. I've been modeling people my
(08:08):
whole life through the process, and I will continue to
do that until the end day.
Speaker 2 (08:13):
What are your tips for people who maybe aren't naturally
invited into those rooms. You know, maybe there's some you know,
women business owners listening, Maybe there's something like where maybe
those rooms have been somewhat exclusive, or maybe that's not
something that's in there, you know, maybe right in their
you know, neighbor or right in their you know network
at this time. Any tips for those people who really
(08:33):
do want to learn from some of the top minds, Like,
are there any you know, what are your.
Speaker 3 (08:38):
Suggestions for that?
Speaker 2 (08:39):
Say somebody is like, I just don't know how to
get you know, these invitations or or find these people,
but they are curious about maybe branching out and learning
more than the people that maybe are in their network
are really talking about today.
Speaker 4 (08:52):
Yeah, yeah, it's a great question. The uh become the
Girl Scout cookie salesperson. I don't know about you, mister,
or anybody listening to this, but when a little kid
knocks on my door and they're selling girls Got cookies
or they're selling raffle to the you know, the school
(09:13):
trip or whatever, I can't say no. I just right.
And I think in part because I believe that was
me when I was a little kid, I would you know,
I sold my way to cookies to go to summer camp. Right,
And so take a lesson from them. They don't have
(09:37):
fear knocking on your door. They go out and they
ask and you people would be surprised that how many
people will want to help them if they just call
and ask. I have done this. I've called owners of
companies and I've just been like, listen, I'm trying to
figure out a problem. I looked you up. I figure
(10:00):
you're the person who might be able to help me.
Could I have five minutes of your time just to
ask a couple of questions, you know, because I revere
where you are in life and I'm aspiring to get there.
And if we just follow that methodology, most of the
time they will say yes. That establishes a foothold. You know.
(10:22):
I call this the Karen Fitzgerald principle because Karen was
a girl that was like the prettiest girl in school.
All the guys were afraid to ask her to go
to the dance, and I was one of them that
was afraid. And one day, Karen, if you're listening, I'm
sorry I never asked you. Mary Allen came up to
(10:43):
me and she said, what is the matter with you?
And I said, what do you mean? She's like, why
aren't you asking Karen to the dance? And I said,
I don't think she'll go with me. And she said,
she's been talking about you for two weeks. I'm tired
of hearin about you. Go ask her. I said, well,
I will go ask her. She goes, no, you can't.
JP Yasselnian asked her and she said yes to him.
Speaker 2 (11:04):
Oh man, Well I do think that that is something.
But I will say with the Girl Scouts, they have
something of value.
Speaker 3 (11:12):
They got cookies.
Speaker 4 (11:14):
Like, what are you trying to say I didn't have
any value.
Speaker 2 (11:16):
I'm just trying to say, like asking somebody saying, yeah,
can I have five minutes of your time? Like I
I do see why some people might be a well,
maybe they wouldn't. Maybe they are afraid that they're going
to hear a no. But also a lot of these
experts are busy. A lot of these people are kind
of unattainable. So is there a benefit to have something
(11:38):
like a way in or an idea or something to present?
But or is it really just asking to have a
lot of coffees with a lot of different people who
might be where.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
You want to go.
Speaker 4 (11:48):
Well, you're speaking about value exchange, right, The girl Scout
comes up has cookies, you know, somebody's like, oh, sugar,
you know whatever? Right?
Speaker 3 (11:57):
I like that.
Speaker 4 (11:57):
Yeah, that's called value exchange, which has to happen in
any sale. But there's a business return on investment and
a personal return on investment. Now, think about it. If
you search someone out and you say, listen, I've been
researching you. I find you at this level in life
very you know, accomplished a high regarded individual. That's also
(12:24):
value exchange. So the value exchange could be the personal
return on their investment, which is I feel good about
helping another individual. I feel good about being revered. I'm
in higher or repute. Right, So you don't have to
come in with like, oh geez, what am I going
to do in this huge value exchange? Right? And here's
(12:48):
the thing that I will tell you about. I think
almost any high level CEO business owner I've worked with,
they started where you are. Most of them, you know.
I mean, yeah, some families like you know, if you're
blowing into the Kennedy family or whatever locally, you know
you're going to have some ability to open doors. But
(13:11):
for most of these people, they have started and most
of them started out as salespeople, and so they understand
what you're doing, and that value exchange doesn't have to
be like, oh jezus, I'm talking to you know, the
CEO of HubSpot, How am I going to make HubSpot
grow or how am I going to do this or whatever.
(13:34):
It could be some very small value exchange that they
deem as value.
Speaker 2 (13:40):
That's the key, Okay, And yeah, no, I think that
that's definitely something to consider. I know there's lots of
ways to connect with people differently now on social media.
Speaker 3 (13:50):
I think we've all seen the high first name.
Speaker 2 (13:53):
I'm really impressed with your background and your media media.
So I think that having a genuine trying to make
a genuine can with somebody can be, You're right, as
easy as just being honest and really not having to
have a hook.
Speaker 4 (14:08):
Do you know how Tony Robbins Many people know Tony
Robin Right, I was fortunate enough to work with Tony
for seven years. Right. I met Tony Robbins. I was
walking through a hotel one day in Arizona. Was a
builtmore hotel and I looked over and Tony Robbins was
(14:30):
sitting in the courtyard with some other person. And I
walked up to Tony and I said, I'm mister Robbins,
I'm Doug Brown. I just i'd love to tell you
a story about how your content changed my life. And
he looked at me and he said Hi, dignice to
meet you. This is my friend. I didn't even know
he was here from high school. We're just talking, having
(14:52):
a glass of water. Sit down, and we did. And
I sat with Tony for about fifteen minutes and the
three of us guys were acting like guys. And actually
Tony punched me in the shoulder during the time. We
were laughing so much. And he's a big man. I
hid him that and at the end he said, you
(15:14):
know that, why don't you come to one of my
events as a guest. And I did. And what I
did was he said, call my assistant. I did. She said,
here's all your tickets and I sent her a huge
bouquet of flowers saying thank you. When I got at
the event. Five thousand people at this event. At the
(15:35):
end of the event, people wanted to get up and
take pictures with Tony. I was just standing in the audience.
Tony looked out from the stage and over the microphone,
he goes, you. He points to me, he goes, I
know what you did. He's like, come down here, and
I did, and I walked down. He got off mic
and he said, I know what you did. I said,
what do you mean, Tony, you don't send okay of
(15:55):
flowers to your assistant, valuing her on an everyday basis amazing.
That's how I met Tony Robbins. So the point being
is I didn't know him. I just walked up to him.
Speaker 3 (16:07):
So Karen taught you a lesson.
Speaker 4 (16:09):
Karen taught me a big lesson. Very good.
Speaker 2 (16:13):
So you talk about selling at the top one percent level,
So I'm thinking, like certain things like you just described,
like those things that you that you do, what what
do you say like distinguishes that that top one percent level?
And how can somebody, you know, how can other people
start to learn how to how to perform at that
level when it comes to sales.
Speaker 4 (16:36):
Well, so top one percent. The difference between the top
one percent and those who are not in the top
one percent is really leverage.
Speaker 3 (16:45):
Okay.
Speaker 4 (16:46):
Leverage is the key. So a top one percent earner
will think like this, how do I get five things
to happen out of this one thing I'm going to do?
So if I'm going to make a call, and I
ask people this all time, what do you want to
make when you you know, when you make a sales call,
what do you want? They all say, I want to
make a sale, And I say, well, what if you
don't make the sale? Well, I hang up. A one
(17:10):
percent earner will think, I want a referral, I want
an endorsement, I want a testimonial. I would like to have,
you know, an internal external refer I would like to
build rapport. I'd like to build a relationship. You know,
they're thinking multiple outcomes out of one thing, so that
when they sell something, they're also thinking, how do I
(17:31):
increase the transactional value, extend the buying frequency, get them
to buy again. How do I how do I get
referrals out of this process? You know, how do I
get media exposure from this large company? Right? I mean immediately,
and I say, hey, I had lunch with the founder
of Deloitte. I'm elevated in positioning for those who know Deloitte, right,
(17:55):
so you know, and I've got pictures to prove it,
and I can put those on my social med and
so you know, all of these things. This is how
a one percent earner thinks. They don't just think linear
or transactional. They're thinking exponential and lifetime relationship, lifetime value.
Other than that, the process is very similar, you know,
(18:17):
between those who are making one percent in those who
are not. The other thing that the one percent earner
will do that others will not is they will challenge
their own mindset on a regular basis to keep going
up the chain of value. So here's what I've learned
talking to you know CEOs of whatever you name the company, like,
(18:40):
you know one eight hundred gut junk. You know, Brian Scuodemore,
nice guy, super nice guy. You know talking to Brian
or talking to a local business owner or a friend,
they're all people, and we've got to bring it down
on the human level. Yes, at his level, he's got
(19:01):
to be quicker and think about certain things, but when
it really comes down to it, he's a person. We're
not selling the titles. We're selling the individuals selling to people,
and people all want the same things. Genuine you know, connection, caring,
you know, end results, et cetera, et cetera. Some of
us are more intolerant than others, and that's fine, that's
(19:22):
a different personality trait. But the reality is, if we
think about selling as we're helping someone to solve a
problem that they may have, or helping someone to gain
a goal that they may have and we're the opportunity
channel to have them, you know, arrive at that conclusion.
(19:43):
It's it's not a big challenge at that point, but
we got to keep challenging in our mind to keep
going up the ladder.
Speaker 2 (19:50):
I think the way you mentioned the outcome, you know,
where as somebody was thinking the outcome, the positive outcome
is a sale, and if you don't get a sale,
then that's going to seem like maybe a lot of
different you know, a lot of failure, and it might
be discouraging.
Speaker 3 (20:04):
And so I think the.
Speaker 2 (20:05):
Way you phrase it as having maybe a connection, maybe
a referral, maybe all of these things, it could make
all of these interactions feel more successful naturally if there's
just more ways for it to go well for you.
And I do think that that is something as far
as mindset is concerned. It's important to feel that you
know your work matters, or that it wasn't a waste
(20:26):
of time, or you didn't fail, or you're just making
progress as you go. So I think that is an
interesting way to start to shift all of those conversations
you have, even if the end result isn't the the
you know, signing on the dog line or swiping your
card and things like that.
Speaker 3 (20:40):
So that's that's really important. And another thing that you
talk about is the follow up process.
Speaker 2 (20:45):
And I do think that this is something where a
lot of people maybe you know, maybe they expect that
instant gratificate, maybe they're maybe they're not following up, maybe
they're forgetting that.
Speaker 3 (20:56):
People are just busy sometimes, and so how do you.
Speaker 2 (20:59):
Help people with that follow up part of sales, which
is super super important when it comes to you know,
actually growing your business and growing your wealth.
Speaker 4 (21:10):
Well, I built an automated tool for it, right, So
I built a SaaS product for this. You know, it's
called the bit No and most Americans can't say the name,
but the name is a Slavic term for me that
means you matter.
Speaker 3 (21:25):
Okay, So.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
The reason I built it is because I lost one
hundred and twenty five thousand dollars sale due to a
lack of follow up. So, you know, follow up super important.
It is the glue that holds relationships together. I mean,
you're much younger than I am, Misty. You know, I
just had my forty fifth anniversary of my high school reunion,
(21:50):
which is crazy when I think about it, but you know,
over the years, some people have stayed in touch with
the other you know, I mean out of the class
of three hundred and something. And you know, there's like
one hundred, one hundred and ten people on the Facebook
group now, right, not because they passed away, but just
because people don't keep in touch with one another. And
even out of that one hundred and ten, there's probably
(22:12):
only a half dozen that people can stay in touch with, right.
But if you think about just that example, if we
stayed in touch with every single person we went to
high school with, I mean the ones we liked and
the ones we wanted to be around, what great things
have they gone and done in their lives that if
we were part of that relationship process, could we have
(22:33):
actually had some success through their success as well. Yeah,
that's the power of follow up really when it comes
down to it. You know, I have a company called NASCAR, right,
so they have a location up in loud in New Hampshire. Right.
I followed up with them for two years before they
(22:54):
actually said come on in, kid and let's talk. So
the challenge for most people with follow up is they
give up on the follow up or they have they
really have nothing to follow up with So what we
created was a personalized, meaningful and relevant follow up system
that will create the content or prompt you to do
it or do the do it for you right. And
(23:17):
the reason behind that is because it's really really hard
to follow up with a bunch of people because there's
so much going on. We just deprioritize it. But the
reality is when people follow up. I've tracked this over
the years, they will get a bump between five and
twenty percent in their sales revenue if they just follow
up with people.
Speaker 2 (23:38):
I believe that that definitely makes sense. I think a
lot of times we're very focused on new and the
next thing.
Speaker 3 (23:47):
But and it's that that fear is of hearing the
final no, which I would much rather hear than continue
to chase something around or like just leave it out
in the ether to like not know.
Speaker 2 (23:59):
Like I'll tell people, I'll be like, if you make
a decision, like, please let me know either like and
sometimes they do you know, And I think, like that's
it's just that follow up piece though, automating it or
having it be content driven and a process rather than just.
Speaker 3 (24:16):
When do I bug this person? Am I going to
bother them? Am I did I talk to them too recently.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
It's just there's so many questions that I think people
don't have a good system.
Speaker 4 (24:25):
Well they don't because they're not taught. And then so
you know, if I'm bugging them or I'm bothering them,
et cetera, et cetera. Were No, we don't. No one
wants it. Well, maybe a few people in the on
the earth, but most people don't want to feel like
I'm intruding on this other person. Right, I'm treading on
this other person. Here's the thing about follow up. As
long as it's value laden for them, going back to
(24:47):
the same concept, right, as long as it's value Leyden,
it's personalized, it's meaningful, it's relevant to them. They're not
going to be upset that you send them a piece
of follow up or you call them with a piece
of relevant information. And you know, here's the power in
this process. So I actually, right after we're done here,
(25:08):
I have a call with someone that last December, I
followed up with them and I was in the area
and we went out to dinner and we talked and
I gave them an idea and they implemented the idea
and it was working for them. But they're running into
some challenges with this process. So we've been in touch
(25:29):
since last December, so now it is it eight months later, right.
They reached out to me last night. Hey, Doug, I
would like to talk with you about hiring you to
help us with our company. So this is an eight
month process. But all we've been doing is being friendly
back and forth, exchanging some value back. We do this
(25:49):
with our friends naturally. I mean, you know, mister, I
have two daughters, so you know, when one of their
friends has a breakup with their boyfriend, my goodness, it
seems like the end of the world's coming together. But
all the gals get together and they bring her out
for wherever, you know, and do whatever you galts do
(26:09):
in that regard, right, But they're bonding, and I'm sure
they're boy bashing and or man bashing or whatever in
the process, which is fine, you know, to get her
to feel better. What if we we don't have to
man bash a woman bashing. That's not what I'm saying.
But what if we did the same type of concept
differently with our clients. We actually cared enough about them
(26:31):
that we actually care about who they are as a
human being. What's going on in their life in addition
to us trying to sell something to them, I've built
relationships on that premise alone, where the business doesn't come today,
but the business will come later on because I'm being
a genuine human being in care. And there's something called
the law of averages for people who don't like know,
(26:54):
out of a hundred times you pitch something, no matter
what it is, I don't you want to go to
the movies, not use specifically, but the people listening. You
pitch the movie and your friends will go I don't
think I want to see a Spider Man or Iron
Man or whatever. Right I think I would. You know,
that's a no, that's a pushup. But you don't throw
(27:14):
yourself down on the front lawn and you know, pitch
a fit. You're just like, all right, we'll find a
different movie. It's the same thing in selling. Out of
a hundred times you ask, a certain percentage will say yes,
a percentage will say no. Some will say not right now.
And that's where you need to follow up with people.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah now. And I think that a lot of times
people instead of hearing that no and moving on and
asking or following up, they think I need to change
everything I'm doing.
Speaker 3 (27:43):
I need to reinvent. I need to burn it all
to the ground. It's not working.
Speaker 2 (27:46):
Instead of thinking that naturally there's going to be some
people who are not buying what you're selling at that.
Speaker 4 (27:51):
Time, well, yeah, I mean, if you're getting a hundred
out of one hundred consistently, yeah, it's time.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
To and there's a problem.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
But if you're not asking a hundred people, or you're
you know, you're immediately like afraid to ask any people,
and you're thinking people are just going to arrive and
find me and show up at my door, I think
that that's you know, that's where maybe getting used to
hearing now or being more comfortable with rejection can be very,
very valuable for people.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
I've never heard an instance or read about an instance
where somebody was tossed out a window because the buyer.
Speaker 2 (28:24):
Said no, yeah, no, those things don't have I think
that's what our brain imagines, but it's definitely.
Speaker 3 (28:29):
Not not true.
Speaker 2 (28:31):
I read something you said recently about sales conversations failing
in the first five minutes versus the end. Can you
talk a little bit about why that happens and what
people should think about when they're connecting with new people
and trying to make sure that it's successful.
Speaker 4 (28:49):
So I just want to put the question in context.
It is it failing in the first five minutes because
we're not saying or doing the right thing, Or is
it failing because I? Or is it fail I want
to fail in the first five minutes to get out
of that meeting if it's not the right one, because
I come from both concepts. So that's why I wanted
to I'm not sure what you read.
Speaker 2 (29:10):
Yeah, so say that it's we do. We're not the
ones that want to end the meeting. We want the
meeting to go well, we want that and then yeah,
and it seems like that isn't you know, it's not
the it's not the end of it.
Speaker 3 (29:22):
It's it's right away.
Speaker 2 (29:23):
So what are some ways that those those sales conversations
should begin and how should we make sure that they're
more efficient?
Speaker 4 (29:30):
Okay, thank you? So Number one, make sure you do
your research before you go to the meeting. Know something
about this person, the company, whatever you're what do you're selling.
It doesn't matter if you're not selling if you're selling B.
Two C. Let's say you're selling life insurance. Or you're
selling a solar or whatever. Know something about the person,
(29:52):
the area you're in, have something common to be able
to talk about, because if you walk in blind, you
could break report quickly. The first thing is always the connection.
So many people forget about this. What's a connection. It's
if you've ever walked into a restaurant and you looked
(30:13):
across and you look at people, and you immediately start
looking at people and oh wow, that one person catches
your eye. That's a connection. Well, when we're going into
a physical meeting, of virtual meeting, whatever it might be,
people are summing up us, how we dress, how we look,
(30:34):
how our hair looks. In my case, always the same, right,
those of you watching video will get that joke. So
it's you know, it's it's one of those things that
we people don't think about. Connection is super important. Once
you're into that connection phase, the next step is you
want to start setting building a little bit of a
(30:56):
port and setting an agenda. So this is something that
people miss all the time. So rapport is not this
fifteen minute conversation. It's a thirty second something to you've connected,
but now you want to build that connection into a
deeper understanding or where somebody at least likes you or
(31:18):
trusts you, you know, and then from there, quantify the
time frame and set an agenda. Hey, I know, we
had thirty minutes for this based on this. Is this
still good for you? Here's what I had to talk about.
Is there anything that you would like to add to
this agenda? If you just set that form in that frame,
(31:42):
most of the time it'll go great, okay, because you're
getting into agreement on the agenda. And this is where
a lot of people I find mister blow it. They'll
walk in, Hi, you know, I'm you know, blah blah blah,
I see you know, nice fish on the wall, blah
blah blah whatever. You know. I'm sure you know you're
(32:03):
a Patriots fan. I see whatever, right, And they're like, no, no,
that was a gift given to me by one of
my you know friends. He's a Tampa Bay buccaneer, and
he's just breaking my stones because of Brady, you know,
and boom, you're out of rapport right there.
Speaker 2 (32:19):
You know.
Speaker 4 (32:20):
So it's one of those things that really needs to
be thought through and planned out. And if we just
do the front end and there's something meaningful to talk about. Well,
then great, the conversation will go great. Now if there's
not something meaningful to talk about, that's where I want
to get out of that room quicker than they want
(32:41):
me to be in that room.
Speaker 3 (32:42):
Yeah.
Speaker 4 (32:42):
Right, so, because why waste an hour of your time
when when you know in five or seven minutes this
is never going to go.
Speaker 3 (32:52):
Yeah.
Speaker 2 (32:52):
I think that's something that I hear too sometimes in
the networking groups and I'm in and people I talk to,
particularly sometimes with women, they feel like they're making all
these great connections with people and they're getting to know
them and they're friendly, but they're not feeling like they're
making a sale. But there might be a mismuch between
what that agenda was and what the you know, what
they were trying to accomplish, versus feeling like, oh, that
(33:13):
was a nice conversation and that's that's the way, you know,
the other person walks away from it without really thinking
about doing business with that person or what that person
was even initially wanting to talk with them about. Yeah, well,
there as far as how people who maybe if they
just want to if they're leading with making a friend
or being friendly or really genuinely can make those warm
(33:33):
connections very quickly, how they can start to actually incorporate
some of that, you know, the sales and the business
end of it to it.
Speaker 4 (33:41):
Yeah. So firstly, there's a difference between making a friend
being friendly and crossing the friendly line. And what I
mean by that is we still have to maintain the
professionalism of why we're in this relationship, and the moment
we cross over that line, we actually drop rapport in
most cases. So you know, like a person like yourself,
(34:06):
you know, I'm listening to who you are, your vocal tone,
your speech patterns right, and you're a person who likes
to if I read this correctly, who likes to get
right to it and understand what's going on, Like you're like,
give it to me right away. I want to know
the information type person rights. And so you know, if
(34:30):
I'm droning on and on about Tom Brady and the
Patriots and the you know, the change of the mayor
in Boston as a positive thing and this and that,
eventually you're going to start either looking at your watch
physically or you're going to internally be looking at your
watch going get me out of here. Right. I'm actually moving,
(34:54):
I'm repelling us by doing that. So one of the
things that people can do is once they set the
agenda is attentively listen to is the person you know,
are they using words that are let's say, methodically based.
You know, hey, you know, well, you know our Excel
reports here, you know, our spreadsheets, our data points, our
(35:18):
this are that. And we as the person, if we
want to stay and rapport with that person, we've got
to be able to shift our internal self from you know,
the high directive that a lot of people are, or
the influencer personality where they just want to talk and entertain,
into that methodical thought yeah, or into the quick decision
(35:40):
making thought that you have for example.
Speaker 2 (35:43):
I think that's important, that listening part, because I do
think a lot of times you might assume, you know,
sometimes people will assume that I want to talk about
my kids a lot.
Speaker 3 (35:50):
I don't. I love them. I will talk about them,
but like.
Speaker 2 (35:53):
That's usually not why I enter a meeting or and
I think that that is something that I've noticed with
different clients too. Some love talking about performance. They like
talking about the actual investments that we have. What do
they consist of? What's happening in the markets and other
people just want us to just talk about all the
(36:14):
things that are on their mind. And I think it
is important to kind of read that quickly and adapt
and know not everybody is going to want an agenda
handed to them, and other people might be like, where's
the agenda.
Speaker 3 (36:26):
Where's it? Where's the info?
Speaker 4 (36:28):
So well, language controls conversation, and conversation controls discussion. Discussion
controls our outcome right, and so a lot of people
are like when they feel lost in that process, their
mind immediately goes, oh, oh my god, I'm out.
Speaker 2 (36:44):
You know.
Speaker 4 (36:45):
It's like it's like I don't know, they're out to
sea on a boat, being flopped around on the boat,
right and in a heavy seat. And there are ways
to pull that conversation back. So if somebody's talking and
talking and talking and talking like that, it's like, you know, jeez, Jane,
that's super interesting. Let me just I just want to
(37:06):
reframe what I heard. I heard ABC. Is that right? Yes,
that's right? Okay, good, I got it. So we wanted
to discuss XYZ and you're pulling back the discussion. So
a lot many times people just don't have the communication
tools or the mindset around that. They think, well, if
(37:26):
I interrupt Jane, I'm going to be rude and I'm
going to write. And why do we do that? Well,
because usually we grew up in a household where that
principle was valued or we were punished for doing that,
and so we carry these childhood habitual behaviors through into
our adulthood. And they may have served us to stay
(37:48):
safe when we were a child, but they're beating us
down when we're an adult for the ability to move
forward in what we're thinking of doing. So what do
we do We naturally go out that hurts. I can't
sell them out.
Speaker 2 (38:02):
Yeah, that's so interesting, And I think a lot of
times we don't think about that about like all the
things that have kind of shaped us as far as
our upbringing and how we were you know, like I
had an engineer father who if it was a yes
or no answer and you gave more than one word,
he'd be like, I don't need the details.
Speaker 3 (38:20):
Get to the point. So sometimes I feel like, yes,
I must listen.
Speaker 2 (38:24):
I must make sure that I'm taking everything in and
making sure that I'm communicating that back because sometimes.
Speaker 3 (38:29):
I'll just be like, yep, got it. Well, and that's
very different.
Speaker 2 (38:34):
Than I think what most people expect when they're working
with women in business.
Speaker 4 (38:38):
But see, you and I would get along fine on
that because we're both in that capacity, right. But I'm
also the entertainer influencer type personality which can can tread
on that. So it's you know, but that's your template
of love that you grew up with, you know, your dad,
and you bonded on those points. Sometimes you may not
have liked it, or you may have liked it or
(38:59):
what ever, but you we adapt to try just keep
serving that template of love throughout our lives and and
if it's serving, great, continue to do it. But if
it's not serving, we have we must step back and go. Okay,
there are different types of personalities and people out there
who like to communicate on different levels. You know, there's
(39:21):
a I'll give me an example. There's a great book
called The Love Languages, right familiar, yep, okay, great. When
I was first starting to date my wife, she brought
that book to me and she said, read this, I'm
that one.
Speaker 3 (39:37):
That's awesome. I respect her for that.
Speaker 2 (39:41):
Movie you're saying, like, like you can do this, we'll
they take out the trash all you want, but like,
I like gifts, I like this.
Speaker 4 (39:48):
She likes verbal acknowledgment and acceptance. Right, So she's you know,
to this day, we've been together eleven years to this day,
she'll she'll walk by me and she go, do you
like me? Little cutt eyes about in her eyes? Right?
And I'd be like always, yeah, how many times would
you like to hear that? Today? She goes as many
as you want to tell me? Rights. It's so we
(40:12):
all have our needs that need to be filled and fulfilled.
And when we're communicating with other people, the challenge for
most people when they're selling is they're so focused on
the agenda and making the sale that they're forgetting about
the personal ROI in the sale. How does this person
want to feel through this process? What do they want
(40:33):
personally through this process? And when we miss that, we
miss the sale a lot of times.
Speaker 3 (40:40):
That's definitely important to remember.
Speaker 2 (40:42):
And you mentioned entertaining and influencing as part of your
how has you know? And I think a lot of
times when we think about sales and we think about
traditional sales training, it's from the nineteen seventies, it's quite
a bit.
Speaker 3 (40:55):
How has it changed?
Speaker 2 (40:56):
With social media and how many people you can connect
with with your content and things like that, where sales
is also kind of part influencing and entertaining, but it's
it has a different you know, a different scale and
a different amount of people that we can reach. How
have you embraced that and you know use that to
build your business and the businesses that other people have.
Speaker 4 (41:16):
Yeah, that's a you know, it's super important. People who
want to sell today, you've got to be out in
the public square there. It's not a choice anymore because
social media has you know, I mean it's it's interesting
to me. I'll walk through the airport sometimes and I'll
see people like kids, they'll rush to somebody like, oh
my goodness, that person is you know, been on TikTok
(41:37):
or been on this or whatever, right, And I'm like,
I don't know this person, right, but this contingency of
people know this person.
Speaker 2 (41:45):
Yes.
Speaker 4 (41:47):
So like if you type in Doug cy Brown revenue growth,
I'll be everywhere, right, Just type in dougsy Brown revenue
growth or revenue or whatever. That is purposeful. So and
the reason behind that is because as a CEO of
a major company, might direct somebody to look me up
and they might do it themselves. And if they don't
see me out there, well then I'm lowered in status
(42:11):
because it's easy enough to do. Now do you have
to be a social media mogul, you know, you know,
influencer out there? Not to a degree, you know, I mean,
no hate mail please, But a lot of those people
aren't making a lot of money, you know, outside of
what that is.
Speaker 3 (42:29):
And I think that's true. I think it is difficult,
more difficult.
Speaker 2 (42:32):
And also some people don't don't understand that they might
get paid in products but not money different.
Speaker 4 (42:39):
That you know. Yeah, yeah, I have some friends that
are that are in that capacity and that's what's happening. So,
you know, but you early on in life, you hired
an advertising agency to create branding for you. There was
no internet. Well the internet existed for the military, but
not publicly. And so so now we can create our
(43:01):
own public brand. And so here's the thing too, Make
no mistake, folks, if you're going out and you're going
to sell to somebody, they're going to likely look up
who you are. Now if you have a picture of you,
you know, at spring break, you know, over the balcony
(43:22):
and your friends are holding your hair and they've got
a video and everybody thinks that's like fun at the moment,
that's not going to go well for some people in
the context of business. So be careful about what you
put out there. But at the same time, you can
put things out there that are you know, fun and
influential and you know, we I play with a lot
(43:43):
of that stuff. So and I do that because I
like to joke and have fun and so that's part
of my personality of who I am. You don't have
to give that up. But it is super important to
be out there. And you don't have to be out
there and spend you know, because zillions of dollars doing it.
Just put quality information out there around what your expertise is,
(44:07):
you know, and you'll be more than okay in that regard.
Speaker 3 (44:11):
Yeah, I think that's that's important.
Speaker 2 (44:12):
A lot of people do see, you know, people with
you know, hundreds of thousands of followers, millions of followers, and.
Speaker 3 (44:18):
Think they have to get there.
Speaker 2 (44:18):
But I think you can have a small a smaller following.
But you know, if it's engaged in the content's good.
You can be personal. But like you said, not super work.
I mean it has to be there has to still
be like a mindfulness I think about, you know, the
content that you're putting out there and what exists out there.
But I think that is a way to reach more
people that maybe you would not have been able to
reach in the past geographically or.
Speaker 3 (44:42):
You know, just organically through your own networks.
Speaker 2 (44:44):
So I think it's something we all have to embrace too.
I just don't think there's much of a way around it.
Speaker 4 (44:50):
Not anymore, yeah, any more. I mean it's it's the
way of the world. And you know, when I grew up,
it's made me think of a funny story. So my
my youngest daughter, when she was we got I got
he our first phone was an iPhone for and we're
driving down the highway. She's playing with the phone and
she's zipping through the thing where I'm like, how do
(45:11):
you turn this thing on and push the button right?
Because and she looked at me. She said, Dad, when
did you get your first cell phone? And I said,
let me think, And she said, and what type was it?
And I said, oh, well, I was twenty eight years old. Yeah,
and I and I didn't even get the phone out
(45:34):
of my mouth. And she looked at me like, I
was a dinosaur from you know, some prehistoric time and
I said, and honey, it was a dollar a minute.
She's like, what are you talking about? And I said,
and it had no data whatsoever, and it was this big.
Speaker 3 (45:48):
You know, and yeah, you could call me phone.
Speaker 4 (45:54):
Now it's you know, we don't even think about it.
It's like, oh my gosh, where's my phone. I didn't
put my where's my phone? It's not my pocket, right.
So the point being is it's accessible to the world
now in its mainstay. It's like, you know, air conditioning.
We don't think about times where people didn't have air conditioning, right,
So it's just the way it is. So we've got
(46:17):
to play on that level. It does not mean, though,
that you have to be on social media every five
minutes and all that stuff. You know. I have a
friend who has a list of forty five hundred people
between LinkedIn and a personal contact list, and he nets
five hundred grand a year off that forty five hundred people. Yeah.
Speaker 2 (46:34):
No, I think that there's lots of stories like that
where if it's a very engaged audience, warm on people
who want to listen, you know, and they're interested, if
you have a new product or a new service or
something that you don't need that you know, you don't
need to spend too much time building that volume up
or buying.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Followers or buying leans.
Speaker 2 (46:52):
I feel like that is so much better spent working
on the actual in.
Speaker 4 (46:57):
Our newsletter actually has the highest engagement out of any thing. Right,
So we're writing a newsletter, you know, weekly, and that
has the higher engagement out of anything. And I mean,
I've got social media followers. I got well over two
million social media followers, and you know, the newsletter engagement
is higher than that. So it doesn't mean that I'm
(47:19):
you know, oh poor me, I've got only two million
plus people. But the point being is that you know,
I've intentionally worked on this thing too misty over the years,
so it does take a bit of time. And that's
I think that's a great point to make for people.
If you're here today, it's going to usually take you
two to three times longer than you figure to get
(47:41):
where you're going to go, and it's going to cost
you more money than you figure to get there. But
if you put your nose in that direction and take
one step a day every day toward that goal, you
will get there, and when you get there, you look
back and you go, oh, okay, well that was I
could have got there a little faster if I had
done this or that. That's why you talk to these
people that we were talking about in the beginning. But
(48:03):
it's you know, it's it's you will get there. It's
just most people quit, right, you know, and right.
Speaker 2 (48:09):
I think most people expectable I have to go viral
or I have to have something happen where it's most
likely the people who are successful just kept working.
Speaker 4 (48:19):
I had a friend he sold his company, built it
to one hundred million dollars. They sold it for I
guess twenty one point two x ebita.
Speaker 3 (48:29):
Wow.
Speaker 4 (48:29):
Okay, very few people know who he is on social media,
like you know he's he was just not there. It
was in the aero space business. Right. So you know,
you don't have to be Tony Robbins or Oprah Winfrey
or you know, you know, Joe Rogan or whoever to
(48:52):
be able to be an influencer. And the reality is
if you can influence people positively and you change people's
life through what you do, you already have a success.
You know, money will follow that if you just keep doing.
Speaker 2 (49:06):
It absolutely, So I want to value your time because
I know you have another meeting coming up. But what
is one practical change that our listeners can make in
their selling approach this week?
Speaker 3 (49:17):
Today?
Speaker 2 (49:18):
You know the next call, they have to move them
closer to that one percent.
Speaker 4 (49:25):
So this is going to sound a little weird, but
practice improv, okay. So there's a high correlation between top
one percent earners and improvisation. So go to an improv
class and you know, practice it and you'd be surprised
(49:46):
how quick your mind comes up because a lot of
times people when they get in a situation, somebody throws
in an objection, for example. And I wrote a whole
book on this called when when you know selling, how
to How to gain profitability from resolving objections? So so
short read easy to do. But when you get an injection,
(50:09):
for example, what most people's first reaction is is, oh, okay,
I got to overcome this, right, And I teach them
improv skills through this process, like no relax, breathe, get curious, right,
and you can do this quickly in our minds. But
improv trains us to do these type of things and
(50:30):
it's fun. You might feel a little silly while you're
doing it, but it's fun and at least fun to me.
So I would join an improv class and that would
start the process of them thinking.
Speaker 3 (50:41):
I think that's a great tip. I've heard that before
I've done.
Speaker 2 (50:44):
You know, when I was in corporate, we did have
one session where we had, like I think it was
one comedy group in Boston I think came and was
teaching us some like improv where we had to create
a story.
Speaker 3 (50:53):
And this is I was working in a compliance role.
Speaker 2 (50:55):
We were the no team for most of the time,
and we had to say yes and everything and kind
of connect things and it was very interesting. Like you said,
it's practice. But like those people who can quickly say oh,
i'd like get curious instead of getting defensive or pushy,
like that is such an interesting way because maybe you
just didn't understand each other and maybe there was something
(51:16):
there that you can continue to connect on.
Speaker 3 (51:18):
So I think that's I like that tip.
Speaker 2 (51:20):
I think that's a fun one, and I think it's
useful really with communicating with family anyone. Really, Yes, yeah, yeah,
you fight that initial instinct. Doug, Thank you so much
for coming on the show today. How can people find
you if they want to maybe get on your newsletter
or you know, find a copy of your book and
start to learn more from you about these sales strategies.
Speaker 4 (51:40):
So they can reach out to me directly a Doug
at CEO Sales Strategies dot Com. Sales Strategies is plural
dot com. LinkedIn's Doug Brown one two three, if they
want the book when when sellingbook dot com and just
you know, let me know what you're looking for. You know,
we we occasionally run free classes on things like this,
(52:04):
so if they want to just jump on and join
the free class. Likely in most cases we don't even
make offers at the end. It's just free education to
you know. Again, this is me building the public square right.
When I do that, then people tend to follow other things.
So you know, just reach out and let us know
what you like. I do have two people watch my emails,
(52:26):
so if they respond to you first, they will tell
me what's going on. And yeah, that's pretty much it.
I also have a podcast called the CEO Sales Strategies Podcast.
If they want to listen to more content and they
just want to know more about me, type in Doug
CEE Brown Revenue growth and you'll you'll find me everywhere awesome.
Speaker 2 (52:43):
Thank you so much for coming on and everyone, thank
you for listening. I think this is so important, especially
if you are in business learning. How to sell learning
different ways to the follow up tool I think is
super interesting.
Speaker 3 (52:54):
I think a lot of people are going to be
interested in that.
Speaker 2 (52:56):
And you know the moves you're making in the tech
in the AI space, I think it's it's really important.
I think it's going to help a lot of people
get more of their valuable products and services out there
in the hands of people that need them. So thank
you so much Doug for joining And if you'd like
to get a copy of my book or listen to
more episodes of the podcast, please head over to Misty
Lynch dot com.
Speaker 3 (53:14):
I would love to connect with you and hear how.
Speaker 2 (53:15):
You've got it this episode and see if there's any
other topics you'd love to hear us cover.
Speaker 3 (53:20):
Thank you so much and we'll talk again next week.
Speaker 2 (53:22):
Thank you for joining us on another insightful episode of
Demonstifying Money.
Speaker 3 (53:26):
If you enjoyed this episode, please subscribe, rate, and leave
a review. Stay tuned for more engaging conversations on our
next episode and remember knowledge is the key to financial empowerment.
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