November 13, 2023 • 32 mins
Elijah sits down with Trevor, a Sales veteran, on Let's Start a Podcast.
How do I make money with my podcast? Sponsorship, selling services, memberships are all popular answers to your monetization woes. To achieve such financial success, you need to know your audience really well.
Trevor, a Sales Veteran with InfuseMedia, shares secrets on how to garner real-time audience feedback, truly understand your customer base, and why sales people get a 'bad rep.'
The secret sauce to being able to obtain what's more important than money: real-time customer feedback and customer insights.
Get social with Trevor on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trevorjvw/
Learn more about Infuse Media: https://infusemedia.com/
Check out Let's Start a Podcast at yourpodcastsidekick.com for a tasty summary, in blog form, written by the host, Elijah.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Tis I, Lord Podcast. Are you yearning to equip yourself with the confidence to record?
(00:07):
Elijah, the skilled podcast professional, is preparing himself for a tale of tools and skill that only a mighty podcaster may employ in one's podcast journey.
Elijah, I do believe that we shall teach our weary wanderer the confidence that they strive to achieve. Shall we start a podcast?
We shall. It's settled. Let's start a podcast.
(00:31):
Get the giggles out. There we go. Hey, Trevor, let's start a podcast, shall we?
Okay. Sounds perfect. Can't wait.
So, you're a salesman because you like to talk a lot and you think you're pretty. Is that true?
Well, you know, some would say, but you know what? I'm of a certain age where I can't rely on my good looks anymore.
You have charm?
I've got to talk a lot.
(00:52):
That's good. And the hat, the brand, the things going on, the fancy. What kind of chair is that behind you? That's does that. Is it comfortable?
Yes. This is a secret lab chair, secret lab gamer chair.
Oh, yeah. So you're balling. You're doing okay.
I'm balling. That's nice.
Yeah, man. And then I stuck us some beads on it. So 80s vintage beads.
(01:15):
So nobody really knows what you actually do then. You do sales and you're not used car salesman. So you're okay on most people's books.
But demand, Jen, is this this thing that just, I don't know, maybe it's a LinkedIn title. Who knows? Maybe you're a guru.
Yeah, I could be. Maybe. Maybe I'm a guru and I just don't know it.
You create demand for things that nobody wants. Is that how it works?
(01:38):
Well, today, because the SESA SESA occur, right? It's a success. SESA says says apocalypse or whatever.
Right. There's these things where the SAS world is really struggling right now. Right. I mean.
And so when you say nobody wants, yeah, kind of like kind of particularly in B2B, right?
Because business because businesses are are now cutting pennies, right?
(02:03):
They're they're watching their pennies, right? They're they're trying to figure out what to buy.
And there's a lot of a lot of a lot of software out there that isn't very good. Right.
And they got away with it because they had a lot of money at the burn and then that money dried up.
Yeah. And now they've it's a come to Jesus moment for a lot of companies. So it's complicated and tricky.
(02:28):
Do you do your own thing as an entrepreneur, a salespreneur, if you will, or do you work for somebody who has some clout and some cool shit?
Well, I've been working for a company called Infuse Media for six years, just passed my six year anniversary with them.
And so I am the I have a VP title. But for the most part, what that basically translates to is just a recognition of seniority in the organization.
(02:57):
OK, so I'm still an individual contributor, which means that I have my own book of accounts and I, you know,
I do my best to create conversations with them around in and around various challenges when it comes to creating awareness of their brand,
differentiation of their brand, distribution of their content and a flow of people who are expressing degrees of interest in in that content in various ways.
(03:28):
So I kind of I kind of sit here between infused media's really big engine.
Right. Has this engine that is able to kind of slice and dice and decide who to market to and and and the companies need to get their message to a certain person.
Cool. And negotiate those contracts, set them up, make sure they get fulfilled and do that day in and day out.
(03:56):
The lead gen guys are OK, but it's the demand gen guys with the cute bots. Am I right?
Yeah, you can say that. Now, the difference between lead gen and demand gen, particularly in the world that I live in, is nuanced and subtle.
OK, so these terms kind of the the lab and flow in terms of their relative.
(04:18):
So lead gen is be a subset of the man gen. Right. So there's there's this idea that you want to you want somebody,
a customer or a set of customers to be interested in your stuff. Right. So that'd be like the demand you create that somehow you you put a message into the market that that creates some some enthusiasm.
(04:39):
Right. Or demand. Right. Like I demand to have this solution in my life. Right.
You have to have it to it. Coconut smile. You know, whatever. Right. So Coke's out here doing it with their pictures of beautiful people happily drinking Coca Cola, squenching their thirst.
Right. So you manufacture these things. We get polar bears up here with Diet Coke for some reason.
There you go. OK. So polar bears drinking Diet Coke for whatever reason.
(05:02):
Maybe that that makes people want to pretend they're polar bears or something. They identify with that somehow. OK, so it's really cold. You know, that's yeah. Yeah.
So any case. So lead gen is a part of that. So at some point when they say, gosh, I really got to have that thing.
OK, great. Well, who who are you? What's your name? What's your number? How do we get hold of you? How do we talk? Sure.
(05:24):
And so lead gen sort of fits in there now where it gets a little confusing is when you just do lead gen to people who maybe they weren't that interested.
Or maybe the demand really wasn't there or they saw something, but they forgot about it and care that much.
And then you treat that like they're dying of thirst in the Sahara and they want like 17 gallons of Coca-Cola. Right. Or they're up on a polar melting burg and they're only going to they can only live if they get this big bowl of soda.
(05:54):
Right. No, it's not that. OK. And that's where things get a little dicey and we have to spend a lot of time educating the market about, OK, look, are we doing demand gen?
We're doing lead gen, lead capture, demand capture. What are we doing here? And how does the tactic that I happen to have fit into this in this larger context?
It's that easy. Where where did the appointment setters that I see advertised on the gram fit into lead and demand?
(06:21):
Is that in between somewhere? Is that just in their own league where we're not going to talk about them?
Yeah. So you got appointment setters and so the appointment setter can be outsourced. Right. That's a thing.
And then maybe that's what you're talking about or seeing. But in the industry that I'm in, in the speed of the tech world, you've got the SDR, the BDR, the sales development representative or the business development representative.
(06:45):
And this role, these are the heroes of the organizations. OK, I am on record of that multiple times. Everywhere I can saying, like, look, these the people who fill these roles bring more grit, more persistence, more enthusiasm for the brands that they represent.
(07:06):
Then really anybody in the organization and yet their jobs are ridiculously hard because they're not. They're oftentimes going in cold, right.
They're oftentimes trying to create, generate demand right on the fly with a phone and are you know, or with a LinkedIn post or a DM or email.
(07:31):
Right. They're trying to do these things and it's stinking hard. It's stinking hard in a in an economy that isn't loving software solutions right now.
That model really is pervasive in the B2B tech world where you've got complicated business solutions being sold.
So that's kind of the appointment center. We can get out there a little bit on the on the fringe of some other things that are maybe would require appointments. But that's that's that's in our in the world that I live in and LinkedIn.
(08:04):
There's a lot of SDRs that are working really hard. And, you know, take time to talk to them because they're oftentimes they're awesome. They're just the greatest.
People have all these stories to share and a lot of times they're a bit unpolished, which is perfect. A little more human, a little more real. Just get the grid out and maybe brush their teeth.
(08:25):
Maybe they didn't because they're too busy hustling. Who knows? Yeah, too busy hustling. Now I did. I did take time yesterday the day before cameras there to go to brush your teeth. I came across.
I know because I was so I'm so taken aback by an ad for a sales job that was sort of like a combination of a of an SDR slash something.
(08:50):
I don't even know what it was because there was no mention of of of actually selling in the ad, the job ad. Right.
It was as you will do these things. This is what your typical week will look like. And it was like, OK, you had to set up all these cold email cadences. You had to fall.
You had to have to talk to 50 to 100 people a week. You had to do five or 10 demos. You had to.
(09:13):
It was a whole it was a litany of all these and you had to report to your manager and you had to like all this crazy stuff.
And the level of activity that that job had reflected to this person, whoever this person was, was totally disconnected from what the job is.
(09:34):
Hello. The job is to sell the stuff. Yeah. Right. Get the deal.
And this job ad was like, no, you will prospect until you die. Right. You will you will go and do this move, do this process to emotion to such a degree that there will be no none of you left that actually sell.
And if somebody does it, yeah, gosh, I really like to buy that. That that that unleashes a cascade of of activity that that a sales rep has to do in order to see that deal through to make sure that it actually happens.
(10:07):
So I was just blown away like that. I couldn't even deal with it. I had to I had to post about it was kind of a negative Nellie thing. But anyway, it almost sounds like they're pitching for a food sampler Costco.
Like you have to give samples to so many people and run out of food. Yeah. Hey, you want to know something great about Costco? I read this like the secret secret tip.
(10:29):
The secret tip of Costco is that there's no limit. Well, maybe it's not a secret tip, but it's one of my favorites anyway, is that there's no limit to the amount of samples you can eat.
Mind blown. How do I not sooner? I don't know. But it's awesome. So like when they give those little Lindor chocolates or something. So, you know, even there's a right though, something really good.
(10:51):
You can just stand there and you can literally just eat as many as you want. That is a Costco back door to gluttony morality wise, though.
How many seconds should you wait before you pick up another Lent? Is there no answer? Is it just whatever feels good at the time? Just keep going like this.
(11:12):
I think just stuff it. You only live once. It's Costco. Right. Oh man, man. Costco. Just hit it. Hit that chocolate, baby. Just hit it.
So if you had too much chocolate, you started a podcast and you want to do everything backwards. What are you going to do to monetize stuff and sell and do all the stuff when nobody wants to buy anything?
(11:36):
Do you have any ideas to get started or do you just do other LinkedIn live shows like the early or what do you do? Yeah. So, OK.
One day I thought the going live looked like fun. OK, it is right. The end. Right. That's it.
So I thought, OK, I'm just going to do that. I was going to try it and see what happens. See if I totally just follow my face. Right. Because at this point, what do I have to lose?
(12:03):
Right. Seriously, what do I have to lose? The only thing you lose is an audience. You're already handsome. You love to talk. I love to talk.
So I thought, let's just do this thing. And so we made up a show. Me and Stephen Ng and Julie Mori and then Red Stavestrom and Mandy O'Neill.
And then it just kind of grew from there. That was a year ago. A year ago, August 20th, 2022.
(12:28):
Happy birthday. I think. Hey, happy birthday to my live streaming career. Right. Yeah.
So, yeah. So did that. And then basically I just said to myself, you know what? I just dig it. Yeah. I'm just going to do it because I dig it. It's fun.
And I think that it is a there's a skill in the live streaming, executing a decent live stream. Yeah. Some of them suck.
(13:01):
And it takes, some of them really do. Like they're just awful. And I just look at it like, what?
And I run the other direction because I'm like, look, you can see here, you know, I got the flames, right? I got the flames going. I got the hat, right? I got the beads. I'm set, man. I get the lighting is pretty good.
I think I'm not listening to my own audio, but you don't seem to be saying what you can hear me. I can hear you not stuttering or cutting out or anything.
(13:27):
You don't sound like an old woman who's had cigars for 40 years. So I think you're okay. No, right. So, so yeah. So you invest in these things.
So there's like little things that you can invest in to make this experience, I think for a, for a, for a viewer. Yeah. Not awful. So at least like a, like a baseline.
(13:48):
I got to work up the flames. This, this, this is rookie amateur hour in the background. I'm sorry.
Well, you've got the guitar. That's a good start. You could light, you could put a little LED behind that or something. Light that up. It's right.
It's in the mail. They tell me the lights in the mail. Okay. Look at that. That's my favorite thing is that that is a real thing. Is it, it's not coming out of your butt. It's, it's on the wall.
(14:09):
No, it's not fake. It's not fake. Look at the shadow. It's not a green screen or nothing. This is the nose from grit and hustle.
Pasted that on that. Did you paint it? Or is it a sticker? Are we allowed to say?
I, I took it to a sign shop and they made it just like that.
Yeah. Well, it took them a while. Sure. And then the other side, I got different colors. I could flip it around, but I decided I liked the green.
(14:31):
You know how I get the, you know how I get that sweet color. I shine green LED lights up onto it.
Another investment. So I've got green LEDs, LEDs on the floor.
And yeah, so that's how we do it. And then you deal with little things like, like, okay, how do you not get reflection in your glasses? It's, it's not bad.
It's a little, you can see a little bit, but it's, it's not awful. You know, and then I figured out, guess what? If you have a hat with a, with a dark, if you were, if you're a hat guy and you have a dark brim,
(15:03):
It totally cast shadow. So I found a hat that had a gray. Yeah. Gray brim. I just put it up a bit. Makes me look bald though. See, and you got, you got a gold brim on yours, right?
So it's a little thing, right? So now you don't have shadow on your face, but he's important. Here, here we'll just put the hand up to get rid of that. The glimmer of excellence.
(15:24):
You got a little, you got a little, you got a little harshness there on the right side. It could be worse, you know, telling stories about the past. I don't know.
Yeah. You could do that. You could do that. So you're just doing this thing for fun, not trying to make any cash out of it. Just doing it for vehicles.
It's a, it's a skill. Yeah. Right. A marketable skill, I think. Okay. So that's why you're VP. You've got this all figured out.
(15:49):
Well, you know, I think it's, it's a thing, you know, it's saying like, where's the market go? Where's the, where is, where was the market, particularly in, you know, demand generation, right?
I think it's, you know, it's been in eBooks. It's been in, you know, white papers and things. That's fine. That's all good. But as we look at where we have been in the accessibility of the information that's out there via large language models, AI, right?
(16:16):
Oh, I said that. Okay. Well, how do we improve on that? How do we talk about that? Right. Well, it's, it's this wet live webinar sort of format. It's the ability to say, I can see stuff, right? I can execute this, this model.
And we can get information dispensed faster with, with less at lower cost and into market. And we can get feedback on that, on those ideas instantly with comments and with, you know, by judging from, from, you know, from viewer analytics and seeing like, what do actual people say?
(16:57):
And then going back and talking to them, right? Cause I have like last night I had 32 people on the early who made comments. Okay. And I have all their names, all their names. Right. And I can go back and talk to each one of them and say, Hey, you said this was on your mind when you said that.
Right. Now let's, now let's superimpose that into B2B tech, right? Let's say I'm talking about some kind of solution. I'll say I get five people who made comments. I go back to those people and say, Hey, so you commented, this is what you said.
(17:26):
What was on your mind about that? Right. Now we create a conversation that's natural and authentic. It's organic. And, and it's, and they were actually there, right? They can't deny it. There's a comment. You know, there it is.
I see your name. Hello. Yeah. Yes. Hello. I see you. Right. It's all transparent stuff. So, you know, that's, that's what I'm seeing. That's what I saw. That's what I like. That's what gets me excited. And so there's this whole way of, of, of communicating in a business context is
(17:55):
has my attention in a big way. And I want to be able to do it competently. So I just practice all the time. That's what you see with the early. It's just me having fun practicing, trying not to say, um, too much. I deviated into that hardcore last night. Totally forgot. It was, it was bad at the end.
I still have to watch. I'm sorry. More than 10 minutes.
You were there for a minute, at least I saw you made a couple comments.
(18:16):
I was trying to get everybody excited and get in. At least I'm going to try when I'm off the train from work, I'm going to get in there to get the excitement. And if I got to go, I'll watch it later. I'll apologize with bribes later. It's fine.
No worries, man. No worries. You're just missing out, right? It's you, you are the one who's missing out because we were all having fun. Right. We were having fun in the moment.
And even though I'm not in the moment, I'm a little nearsighted because I'm always talking about the cash to monetize and you're going, no, this is all about the people, the market research and the natural conversations. People don't even realize.
(18:48):
There, I don't want to say this because I don't want to spoil it for the early fans, but they're becoming part of the market research, the customer base that you can identify with and learn from for your B2B sales.
And I do constantly, I do constantly learn new stuff. You know, all con. I mean like this, you throw something down, right? So last night I threw down the top 10 crazy feature, featured glitches, whatever you want, the hazardous hazards of LinkedIn.
(19:21):
Right. Okay. I made all of those up. Literally. I mean, well, maybe not all of them. There was a couple of them. I mean, two or three of them that were given to me by some friends, right. They were suggested and I kind of tried to integrate them.
But, but I just made them up. There's no authority. There's no research. It's just me and my personal experience and me just saying like, this is the 10th, right. And I kind of went through them. They were fine. And had some laughs.
(19:44):
But you know, you, you step back from that and you put it out there. You said, here you go. Here's our top 10 wackadoos.
And, and then people say you're nuts, man. That's not it. I don't get that. You're crazy. Right. Oh, okay. Well, why? What do you, what do you think? You know, and this is how you do that. Right. How do you, how do you, how do you create a connection?
(20:08):
Digitally.
In real time.
Unless you're open to, to people saying you're full of it. I mean, they won't tell you you're full of it unless you give them a chance to do, you actually say something.
So the magic about you is that you're half crazy. You're Zanian out there and you love to talk all the time. And then that's the facade to really get people in and thinking about the why and answering just random blah.
(20:33):
The verbal diarrhea comes out and you're like, yes, give it to me so I can do research and sell things to people that need it. Well, or find out what they want for Pete's sake, you know, and it isn't even that. It's like, I hate to say sell things to people.
It's like, solve the problems that they have. You know, can I, can I get in, can I get in the way of a problem that you have and, and then, and then help to solve it, you know, with a solution that I actually get paid to do or something else.
(21:00):
Can I refer somebody? Can I, can I help you understand a problem better so that you can articulate to find that solution? You know, is there an idea? Whatever. That's really where I get excited.
I don't want to be a niche police here, but it's a bit of a connector. You're connecting them with a problem. You have a solution here. You didn't know I had this. I'm going to talk about it if you want it. Cool. If not, see you later.
(21:22):
You know, that's, yeah, I mean, you know, that's totally, totally fine. And I think a paid seller, you know, has to be creative, right? Cause, cause really, you know, truly like, you know, I said I had assigned accounts and I do. Right.
So there's really only a very, very small subset of, of people who, you know, where my employer needs me to, you know, be kind of a little more assertive, if you will, innovative in regard to those conversations, like really, really diving in and saying, okay, what do I know about this?
(21:57):
This person or this account or where they work or the chat or the challenges they have. So it isn't casual in that way. Right. I have to intentionally go in and try to figure it out and then, and then think about solutions, you know, without sort of holding back, if you will.
Whereas with between you and me, right. I'm going to be like, Hey, you know what? Your, your, your lighting is, is not that good. I, you know, I could, you need to put a light behind your, your, your guitar. Okay. Great.
(22:28):
I got an led that I picked up from Amazon here and it's blah, blah, blah. And I could send you the link and okay, great. I solved the problem because I got this $18 led. That was no big deal. And I love it.
It works. See the difference there. It's still some problems, but, and if it's an affiliate link, I don't care because I'm not paying anymore. It could be, it could be an affiliate link. I could just be, that's, that's not your thing.
(22:50):
Or you can just be a nice guy that that could be a problem. I think maybe some sales guys are nice. Yeah, sure. Some, some are, some are, although I have learned pretty, I'm pretty sure that if you say the word sales in your LinkedIn posts, it gets suppressed.
Pretty sure about that. Pretty sure that wasn't in the, it could just be, it could just be me. Yeah. I don't know. My, my content is not, it's not on fire right now. That's for sure.
(23:18):
Sometimes I feel I get the obnoxious label on social media. I'm like, you've had too many videos successful. And we got a knocker ego down because you shouldn't be able to get away this easy in life. You've just been casted as the problem child.
And this isn't for us. So who knows? Hey, I dig your, your, your, your sort of, you know, you do kind of have like a, what is your, like, how did, how can I articulate your, the brand that stands out to me about Elijah? So it's like this, you're like this.
(23:51):
Okay. I like it. Well, I think it's pretty congruent with kind of what you just said. So it's, it's you're like push against this sort of corporate force guy with a bit of an ID GAF, right? It's that there's that model, right? There's sort of some of that in there.
(24:13):
Yeah, that's fair. And yet, and that laughing about it at the same time, right? So it's not like, it's not like a malicious push. There's not like an angry push. It's more like a, like a funny push, but still with pushy.
So your hands up in the air and whatever. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. It's like, so it's, that's, that's, that's how you come across. Is it just passive aggressive? Is that really what it is? No, no, it's not like that. It's not passive. There's no passivity in it.
(24:42):
It's very, it's, it's, it's aggressive, but not, but not mean. It's aggressive, but still sort of funny. Is that why people call me lack of Polish? I guess maybe that's why, because my hair is all over and I just don't come with this corporate image. I'm just here to have a good time.
I missed the, the, the, the, the other hat, the Russian hat. Yeah. Yeah. The one from the, like the Montreal Olympics in 87 or something. Yeah. That was really warm to, to even if it's like 80 degrees here, I'll bring it back.
(25:15):
I love, I love that. I mean, I missed that. Nobody wears them. I got some quirky guy that likes to be Ron Birkendy. Jacob, his name random guy who's social guru wizard is better word. And he just all over the place. He's out there.
He's playing with guitars or talking about some bathroom humor. And then one time it's I bipolar. Sorry. And it's like, where are you going? I don't know. I'm just here. Yeah. So yeah, it was here.
(25:41):
It's just a dude. He's got to be secretly finding out so much about people and they have to have their, he's letting the people's guard down huge, right? He's letting them in. They're letting him in not in a weird way, but you know, professional setting.
And he's got to be learning so much about people. Yeah. I like Jacob. I know exactly who you're talking about. And he's, he is a, he's a real guy out here. You know? Yeah. I totally dig it.
(26:06):
And he disappeared for awhile and came back and yeah, no, he's, he's just nice to know that we don't have to appear like we know what we're doing. We can be just ourselves and land and whatever happens. It's all good.
A hundred percent, man. Just don't even know. Just make it up. Did you make up your first sale? Is that how that works? And when before six years started, when you're doing your first sales gig, do you even remember?
(26:28):
Or one that didn't go is, is planned because everybody's starting out sometime, right? They want to learn from the VP of demand. Yeah.
Yeah, no, it's, it's, um, we're not going there. Are we? Did I hit a sense? You make, okay. In, in, in professional set sales, any sales, let's say any sales, you make mistakes constantly.
(26:51):
All right. Really? It's oh, endlessly. Um, I have, I do have some rules to live by. Okay. The top 10, one of which, uh, well, I could go there, I suppose. But the one that comes to mind, the one that comes to mind is, and I see this occasionally on LinkedIn.
Um, it's, it's asking your buyer to do something for you so that you can hit some sort of a, of a revenue goal or a SPF goal or a, some sort of a bonus. Okay. And this is pretty common in a lot of, you know, a lot of companies, a lot of sellers get a lot of pressure at the end of the quarter, end of the month.
(27:39):
Right. That where they've got to, they've got to get a deal in. And a lot of times they'll ask, they'll say, Hey, you know, can you, can you push this contract through so that I can hit my number? Never do that.
Never.
Makes it about themselves though.
It makes it about themselves. It, it takes all your, all your authority away as a seller. It, it undermines the entire process. It, it puts the buyer in this weird position to feel like they've like they're personally kind of helping you. And it's just completely wrong.
(28:19):
And I have had it backfire on me more than a few times. I've been, I've been trying to sell stuff for 25 years. Right. So it's, I've been around, I've done a few deals and anytime I've done it, like kind of experimented with it.
And man, it sucks it that every single time the outcome is no deal. And even more prominent lately is get ghosted. Like they don't, they don't just don't do the deal. They just bail out. They're gone.
(28:51):
And that's the worst thing. I mean, so if you, if you're in a hurry and you needed to get a deal done, make it worth the while to the buyer, give them something, you know, say like, Hey, look, we're, you know, let's, let's do a deal. I'll cut the price by whatever, or I'll throw in this or I'll, you know, make it worth your while or something.
You know, I don't know, whatever's at your disposal, but don't just ask it as a favor. That's I'll go down to flames on that one. If anybody wants to go out in the back and fight about it. Cause it's, it is bad advice to, to ask for favors.
(29:25):
It's anything I think that rule applies. Don't force it. Just, just let it happen. But it's so hard not to when you're trying to feed your family and you get this idea dollars stuck in your head like, Oh, I can do it three days. Let's go.
It's not worth it. There is that. There is that it's I didn't say, don't ask. I just said, don't ask them to do it because you, cause they're doing you a favor. Make it worth their while. Yeah. Come up with something, you know, come up with something to, to, you know, juice it a little bit.
(29:56):
And, and I think, you know, people come back to me and say, never discount, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Fine. Let it slip. And there's, there's, there's also people who are say like, well, you should never be in that position. They speak from this moral high ground area. You shouldn't.
You should have built your pipeline, you know, six months ago to, so that you're okay. Those guys never actually sold anything or they, or if they did their whatever, every seller is going to want to push a little bit farther at the end of every quarter. Come on.
(30:25):
Yeah. Everybody likes a goal. Yeah. You know, you're there or you're not. And if you're not, okay, well then you're six months ago, you were busy doing something else or you didn't plan or you something went off rails. Who knows? Stuff happens. Yeah.
So, so you find yourself in a spot. You're trying to hit a number. Just don't ask your, your prospects and do you a favor. Don't do it. I don't work.
(30:47):
Can you do me a favor and remind me of the website to go to for your company? Would that be okay?
All right. I work for infused media, uh, infused media.com. Uh, just like it sounds.
And Trevor, your name is all over LinkedIn, like the early show. And if people forget,
I'm just a lover, right? Just, just trying to love people and lift their, lift their spirits with, with joy and kindness. And sometimes a little bit of pushback, but never in a mean way. Sometimes just trying to, trying to get them to think a little bit. But,
(31:18):
we can get old and crusty. It's not our fault. Just, Hey, yeah. If you get me before coffee and you're going to come in my DMS and try and sell me something because it's the end of the quarter, I'm not going to be nice.
Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't have to be right. You don't have to be, if you're the buyer, you don't have to be nice. You just, you know, tell them to shove off, whatever. I mean, pitch slapping is no good. Don't do it.
(31:39):
That's a bad deal. So we learned a lot about the side of the sales guy with the cute butt and what not to do if you're trying to, trying to sell things on the podcast side or whatever you're doing, small business. So you taught us a lot of stuff and sweetened the deal.
I talked a lot at least.
Yeah. That's all. That's what you do. I'm surprised you don't have your own enterprise of the, this should be a talk show. You have a little monologue. You have like a Jay Leno set or you're like, I don't know, pick your favorite, whoever.
(32:10):
And then someday we're getting there. Maybe 2024. We'll see. Yeah. Have a, have a puppet or comedian that always talks smack or something. I don't know. It's going to be a big deal. It's going to happen. I can feel it.
It's what the sky's the limit. So we're only limited by our imagination, right? Yeah. All about it. Let's, let's have some fun.
I'll leave all the credentials for you. So people can find you show notes, description, all that. Don't worry. Cause some people forget things and that's okay. Okay. I'll never forget this episode with you, Trevor. This is nice.
(32:42):
Awesome. Awesome. Me neither, man. Me neither. I never forget it. It's perfect.
Let's start a podcast.
Tis I, Lord Podcast. Are you yearning to equip yourself with the confidence to record?
(00:07):
Elijah, the skilled podcast professional, is preparing himself for a tale of tools and skill that only a mighty podcaster may employ in one's podcast journey.
Elijah, I do believe that we shall teach our weary wanderer the confidence that they strive to achieve. Shall we start a podcast?
We shall. It's settled. Let's start a podcast.
(00:31):
Get the giggles out. There we go. Hey, Trevor, let's start a podcast, shall we?
Okay. Sounds perfect. Can't wait.
So, you're a salesman because you like to talk a lot and you think you're pretty. Is that true?
Well, you know, some would say, but you know what? I'm of a certain age where I can't rely on my good looks anymore.
You have charm?
I've got to talk a lot.
(00:52):
That's good. And the hat, the brand, the things going on, the fancy. What kind of chair is that behind you? That's does that. Is it comfortable?
Yes. This is a secret lab chair, secret lab gamer chair.
Oh, yeah. So you're balling. You're doing okay.
I'm balling. That's nice.
Yeah, man. And then I stuck us some beads on it. So 80s vintage beads.
(01:15):
So nobody really knows what you actually do then. You do sales and you're not used car salesman. So you're okay on most people's books.
But demand, Jen, is this this thing that just, I don't know, maybe it's a LinkedIn title. Who knows? Maybe you're a guru.
Yeah, I could be. Maybe. Maybe I'm a guru and I just don't know it.
You create demand for things that nobody wants. Is that how it works?
(01:38):
Well, today, because the SESA SESA occur, right? It's a success. SESA says says apocalypse or whatever.
Right. There's these things where the SAS world is really struggling right now. Right. I mean.
And so when you say nobody wants, yeah, kind of like kind of particularly in B2B, right?
Because business because businesses are are now cutting pennies, right?
(02:03):
They're they're watching their pennies, right? They're they're trying to figure out what to buy.
And there's a lot of a lot of a lot of software out there that isn't very good. Right.
And they got away with it because they had a lot of money at the burn and then that money dried up.
Yeah. And now they've it's a come to Jesus moment for a lot of companies. So it's complicated and tricky.
(02:28):
Do you do your own thing as an entrepreneur, a salespreneur, if you will, or do you work for somebody who has some clout and some cool shit?
Well, I've been working for a company called Infuse Media for six years, just passed my six year anniversary with them.
And so I am the I have a VP title. But for the most part, what that basically translates to is just a recognition of seniority in the organization.
(02:57):
OK, so I'm still an individual contributor, which means that I have my own book of accounts and I, you know,
I do my best to create conversations with them around in and around various challenges when it comes to creating awareness of their brand,
differentiation of their brand, distribution of their content and a flow of people who are expressing degrees of interest in in that content in various ways.
(03:28):
So I kind of I kind of sit here between infused media's really big engine.
Right. Has this engine that is able to kind of slice and dice and decide who to market to and and and the companies need to get their message to a certain person.
Cool. And negotiate those contracts, set them up, make sure they get fulfilled and do that day in and day out.
(03:56):
The lead gen guys are OK, but it's the demand gen guys with the cute bots. Am I right?
Yeah, you can say that. Now, the difference between lead gen and demand gen, particularly in the world that I live in, is nuanced and subtle.
OK, so these terms kind of the the lab and flow in terms of their relative.
(04:18):
So lead gen is be a subset of the man gen. Right. So there's there's this idea that you want to you want somebody,
a customer or a set of customers to be interested in your stuff. Right. So that'd be like the demand you create that somehow you you put a message into the market that that creates some some enthusiasm.
(04:39):
Right. Or demand. Right. Like I demand to have this solution in my life. Right.
You have to have it to it. Coconut smile. You know, whatever. Right. So Coke's out here doing it with their pictures of beautiful people happily drinking Coca Cola, squenching their thirst.
Right. So you manufacture these things. We get polar bears up here with Diet Coke for some reason.
There you go. OK. So polar bears drinking Diet Coke for whatever reason.
(05:02):
Maybe that that makes people want to pretend they're polar bears or something. They identify with that somehow. OK, so it's really cold. You know, that's yeah. Yeah.
So any case. So lead gen is a part of that. So at some point when they say, gosh, I really got to have that thing.
OK, great. Well, who who are you? What's your name? What's your number? How do we get hold of you? How do we talk? Sure.
(05:24):
And so lead gen sort of fits in there now where it gets a little confusing is when you just do lead gen to people who maybe they weren't that interested.
Or maybe the demand really wasn't there or they saw something, but they forgot about it and care that much.
And then you treat that like they're dying of thirst in the Sahara and they want like 17 gallons of Coca-Cola. Right. Or they're up on a polar melting burg and they're only going to they can only live if they get this big bowl of soda.
(05:54):
Right. No, it's not that. OK. And that's where things get a little dicey and we have to spend a lot of time educating the market about, OK, look, are we doing demand gen?
We're doing lead gen, lead capture, demand capture. What are we doing here? And how does the tactic that I happen to have fit into this in this larger context?
It's that easy. Where where did the appointment setters that I see advertised on the gram fit into lead and demand?
(06:21):
Is that in between somewhere? Is that just in their own league where we're not going to talk about them?
Yeah. So you got appointment setters and so the appointment setter can be outsourced. Right. That's a thing.
And then maybe that's what you're talking about or seeing. But in the industry that I'm in, in the speed of the tech world, you've got the SDR, the BDR, the sales development representative or the business development representative.
(06:45):
And this role, these are the heroes of the organizations. OK, I am on record of that multiple times. Everywhere I can saying, like, look, these the people who fill these roles bring more grit, more persistence, more enthusiasm for the brands that they represent.
(07:06):
Then really anybody in the organization and yet their jobs are ridiculously hard because they're not. They're oftentimes going in cold, right.
They're oftentimes trying to create, generate demand right on the fly with a phone and are you know, or with a LinkedIn post or a DM or email.
(07:31):
Right. They're trying to do these things and it's stinking hard. It's stinking hard in a in an economy that isn't loving software solutions right now.
That model really is pervasive in the B2B tech world where you've got complicated business solutions being sold.
So that's kind of the appointment center. We can get out there a little bit on the on the fringe of some other things that are maybe would require appointments. But that's that's that's in our in the world that I live in and LinkedIn.
(08:04):
There's a lot of SDRs that are working really hard. And, you know, take time to talk to them because they're oftentimes they're awesome. They're just the greatest.
People have all these stories to share and a lot of times they're a bit unpolished, which is perfect. A little more human, a little more real. Just get the grid out and maybe brush their teeth.
(08:25):
Maybe they didn't because they're too busy hustling. Who knows? Yeah, too busy hustling. Now I did. I did take time yesterday the day before cameras there to go to brush your teeth. I came across.
I know because I was so I'm so taken aback by an ad for a sales job that was sort of like a combination of a of an SDR slash something.
(08:50):
I don't even know what it was because there was no mention of of of actually selling in the ad, the job ad. Right.
It was as you will do these things. This is what your typical week will look like. And it was like, OK, you had to set up all these cold email cadences. You had to fall.
You had to have to talk to 50 to 100 people a week. You had to do five or 10 demos. You had to.
(09:13):
It was a whole it was a litany of all these and you had to report to your manager and you had to like all this crazy stuff.
And the level of activity that that job had reflected to this person, whoever this person was, was totally disconnected from what the job is.
(09:34):
Hello. The job is to sell the stuff. Yeah. Right. Get the deal.
And this job ad was like, no, you will prospect until you die. Right. You will you will go and do this move, do this process to emotion to such a degree that there will be no none of you left that actually sell.
And if somebody does it, yeah, gosh, I really like to buy that. That that that unleashes a cascade of of activity that that a sales rep has to do in order to see that deal through to make sure that it actually happens.
(10:07):
So I was just blown away like that. I couldn't even deal with it. I had to I had to post about it was kind of a negative Nellie thing. But anyway, it almost sounds like they're pitching for a food sampler Costco.
Like you have to give samples to so many people and run out of food. Yeah. Hey, you want to know something great about Costco? I read this like the secret secret tip.
(10:29):
The secret tip of Costco is that there's no limit. Well, maybe it's not a secret tip, but it's one of my favorites anyway, is that there's no limit to the amount of samples you can eat.
Mind blown. How do I not sooner? I don't know. But it's awesome. So like when they give those little Lindor chocolates or something. So, you know, even there's a right though, something really good.
(10:51):
You can just stand there and you can literally just eat as many as you want. That is a Costco back door to gluttony morality wise, though.
How many seconds should you wait before you pick up another Lent? Is there no answer? Is it just whatever feels good at the time? Just keep going like this.
(11:12):
I think just stuff it. You only live once. It's Costco. Right. Oh man, man. Costco. Just hit it. Hit that chocolate, baby. Just hit it.
So if you had too much chocolate, you started a podcast and you want to do everything backwards. What are you going to do to monetize stuff and sell and do all the stuff when nobody wants to buy anything?
(11:36):
Do you have any ideas to get started or do you just do other LinkedIn live shows like the early or what do you do? Yeah. So, OK.
One day I thought the going live looked like fun. OK, it is right. The end. Right. That's it.
So I thought, OK, I'm just going to do that. I was going to try it and see what happens. See if I totally just follow my face. Right. Because at this point, what do I have to lose?
(12:03):
Right. Seriously, what do I have to lose? The only thing you lose is an audience. You're already handsome. You love to talk. I love to talk.
So I thought, let's just do this thing. And so we made up a show. Me and Stephen Ng and Julie Mori and then Red Stavestrom and Mandy O'Neill.
And then it just kind of grew from there. That was a year ago. A year ago, August 20th, 2022.
(12:28):
Happy birthday. I think. Hey, happy birthday to my live streaming career. Right. Yeah.
So, yeah. So did that. And then basically I just said to myself, you know what? I just dig it. Yeah. I'm just going to do it because I dig it. It's fun.
And I think that it is a there's a skill in the live streaming, executing a decent live stream. Yeah. Some of them suck.
(13:01):
And it takes, some of them really do. Like they're just awful. And I just look at it like, what?
And I run the other direction because I'm like, look, you can see here, you know, I got the flames, right? I got the flames going. I got the hat, right? I got the beads. I'm set, man. I get the lighting is pretty good.
I think I'm not listening to my own audio, but you don't seem to be saying what you can hear me. I can hear you not stuttering or cutting out or anything.
(13:27):
You don't sound like an old woman who's had cigars for 40 years. So I think you're okay. No, right. So, so yeah. So you invest in these things.
So there's like little things that you can invest in to make this experience, I think for a, for a, for a viewer. Yeah. Not awful. So at least like a, like a baseline.
(13:48):
I got to work up the flames. This, this, this is rookie amateur hour in the background. I'm sorry.
Well, you've got the guitar. That's a good start. You could light, you could put a little LED behind that or something. Light that up. It's right.
It's in the mail. They tell me the lights in the mail. Okay. Look at that. That's my favorite thing is that that is a real thing. Is it, it's not coming out of your butt. It's, it's on the wall.
(14:09):
No, it's not fake. It's not fake. Look at the shadow. It's not a green screen or nothing. This is the nose from grit and hustle.
Pasted that on that. Did you paint it? Or is it a sticker? Are we allowed to say?
I, I took it to a sign shop and they made it just like that.
Yeah. Well, it took them a while. Sure. And then the other side, I got different colors. I could flip it around, but I decided I liked the green.
(14:31):
You know how I get the, you know how I get that sweet color. I shine green LED lights up onto it.
Another investment. So I've got green LEDs, LEDs on the floor.
And yeah, so that's how we do it. And then you deal with little things like, like, okay, how do you not get reflection in your glasses? It's, it's not bad.
It's a little, you can see a little bit, but it's, it's not awful. You know, and then I figured out, guess what? If you have a hat with a, with a dark, if you were, if you're a hat guy and you have a dark brim,
(15:03):
It totally cast shadow. So I found a hat that had a gray. Yeah. Gray brim. I just put it up a bit. Makes me look bald though. See, and you got, you got a gold brim on yours, right?
So it's a little thing, right? So now you don't have shadow on your face, but he's important. Here, here we'll just put the hand up to get rid of that. The glimmer of excellence.
(15:24):
You got a little, you got a little, you got a little harshness there on the right side. It could be worse, you know, telling stories about the past. I don't know.
Yeah. You could do that. You could do that. So you're just doing this thing for fun, not trying to make any cash out of it. Just doing it for vehicles.
It's a, it's a skill. Yeah. Right. A marketable skill, I think. Okay. So that's why you're VP. You've got this all figured out.
(15:49):
Well, you know, I think it's, it's a thing, you know, it's saying like, where's the market go? Where's the, where is, where was the market, particularly in, you know, demand generation, right?
I think it's, you know, it's been in eBooks. It's been in, you know, white papers and things. That's fine. That's all good. But as we look at where we have been in the accessibility of the information that's out there via large language models, AI, right?
(16:16):
Oh, I said that. Okay. Well, how do we improve on that? How do we talk about that? Right. Well, it's, it's this wet live webinar sort of format. It's the ability to say, I can see stuff, right? I can execute this, this model.
And we can get information dispensed faster with, with less at lower cost and into market. And we can get feedback on that, on those ideas instantly with comments and with, you know, by judging from, from, you know, from viewer analytics and seeing like, what do actual people say?
(16:57):
And then going back and talking to them, right? Cause I have like last night I had 32 people on the early who made comments. Okay. And I have all their names, all their names. Right. And I can go back and talk to each one of them and say, Hey, you said this was on your mind when you said that.
Right. Now let's, now let's superimpose that into B2B tech, right? Let's say I'm talking about some kind of solution. I'll say I get five people who made comments. I go back to those people and say, Hey, so you commented, this is what you said.
(17:26):
What was on your mind about that? Right. Now we create a conversation that's natural and authentic. It's organic. And, and it's, and they were actually there, right? They can't deny it. There's a comment. You know, there it is.
I see your name. Hello. Yeah. Yes. Hello. I see you. Right. It's all transparent stuff. So, you know, that's, that's what I'm seeing. That's what I saw. That's what I like. That's what gets me excited. And so there's this whole way of, of, of communicating in a business context is
(17:55):
has my attention in a big way. And I want to be able to do it competently. So I just practice all the time. That's what you see with the early. It's just me having fun practicing, trying not to say, um, too much. I deviated into that hardcore last night. Totally forgot. It was, it was bad at the end.
I still have to watch. I'm sorry. More than 10 minutes.
You were there for a minute, at least I saw you made a couple comments.
(18:16):
I was trying to get everybody excited and get in. At least I'm going to try when I'm off the train from work, I'm going to get in there to get the excitement. And if I got to go, I'll watch it later. I'll apologize with bribes later. It's fine.
No worries, man. No worries. You're just missing out, right? It's you, you are the one who's missing out because we were all having fun. Right. We were having fun in the moment.
And even though I'm not in the moment, I'm a little nearsighted because I'm always talking about the cash to monetize and you're going, no, this is all about the people, the market research and the natural conversations. People don't even realize.
(18:48):
There, I don't want to say this because I don't want to spoil it for the early fans, but they're becoming part of the market research, the customer base that you can identify with and learn from for your B2B sales.
And I do constantly, I do constantly learn new stuff. You know, all con. I mean like this, you throw something down, right? So last night I threw down the top 10 crazy feature, featured glitches, whatever you want, the hazardous hazards of LinkedIn.
(19:21):
Right. Okay. I made all of those up. Literally. I mean, well, maybe not all of them. There was a couple of them. I mean, two or three of them that were given to me by some friends, right. They were suggested and I kind of tried to integrate them.
But, but I just made them up. There's no authority. There's no research. It's just me and my personal experience and me just saying like, this is the 10th, right. And I kind of went through them. They were fine. And had some laughs.
(19:44):
But you know, you, you step back from that and you put it out there. You said, here you go. Here's our top 10 wackadoos.
And, and then people say you're nuts, man. That's not it. I don't get that. You're crazy. Right. Oh, okay. Well, why? What do you, what do you think? You know, and this is how you do that. Right. How do you, how do you, how do you create a connection?
(20:08):
Digitally.
In real time.
Unless you're open to, to people saying you're full of it. I mean, they won't tell you you're full of it unless you give them a chance to do, you actually say something.
So the magic about you is that you're half crazy. You're Zanian out there and you love to talk all the time. And then that's the facade to really get people in and thinking about the why and answering just random blah.
(20:33):
The verbal diarrhea comes out and you're like, yes, give it to me so I can do research and sell things to people that need it. Well, or find out what they want for Pete's sake, you know, and it isn't even that. It's like, I hate to say sell things to people.
It's like, solve the problems that they have. You know, can I, can I get in, can I get in the way of a problem that you have and, and then, and then help to solve it, you know, with a solution that I actually get paid to do or something else.
(21:00):
Can I refer somebody? Can I, can I help you understand a problem better so that you can articulate to find that solution? You know, is there an idea? Whatever. That's really where I get excited.
I don't want to be a niche police here, but it's a bit of a connector. You're connecting them with a problem. You have a solution here. You didn't know I had this. I'm going to talk about it if you want it. Cool. If not, see you later.
(21:22):
You know, that's, yeah, I mean, you know, that's totally, totally fine. And I think a paid seller, you know, has to be creative, right? Cause, cause really, you know, truly like, you know, I said I had assigned accounts and I do. Right.
So there's really only a very, very small subset of, of people who, you know, where my employer needs me to, you know, be kind of a little more assertive, if you will, innovative in regard to those conversations, like really, really diving in and saying, okay, what do I know about this?
(21:57):
This person or this account or where they work or the chat or the challenges they have. So it isn't casual in that way. Right. I have to intentionally go in and try to figure it out and then, and then think about solutions, you know, without sort of holding back, if you will.
Whereas with between you and me, right. I'm going to be like, Hey, you know what? Your, your, your lighting is, is not that good. I, you know, I could, you need to put a light behind your, your, your guitar. Okay. Great.
(22:28):
I got an led that I picked up from Amazon here and it's blah, blah, blah. And I could send you the link and okay, great. I solved the problem because I got this $18 led. That was no big deal. And I love it.
It works. See the difference there. It's still some problems, but, and if it's an affiliate link, I don't care because I'm not paying anymore. It could be, it could be an affiliate link. I could just be, that's, that's not your thing.
(22:50):
Or you can just be a nice guy that that could be a problem. I think maybe some sales guys are nice. Yeah, sure. Some, some are, some are, although I have learned pretty, I'm pretty sure that if you say the word sales in your LinkedIn posts, it gets suppressed.
Pretty sure about that. Pretty sure that wasn't in the, it could just be, it could just be me. Yeah. I don't know. My, my content is not, it's not on fire right now. That's for sure.
(23:18):
Sometimes I feel I get the obnoxious label on social media. I'm like, you've had too many videos successful. And we got a knocker ego down because you shouldn't be able to get away this easy in life. You've just been casted as the problem child.
And this isn't for us. So who knows? Hey, I dig your, your, your, your sort of, you know, you do kind of have like a, what is your, like, how did, how can I articulate your, the brand that stands out to me about Elijah? So it's like this, you're like this.
(23:51):
Okay. I like it. Well, I think it's pretty congruent with kind of what you just said. So it's, it's you're like push against this sort of corporate force guy with a bit of an ID GAF, right? It's that there's that model, right? There's sort of some of that in there.
(24:13):
Yeah, that's fair. And yet, and that laughing about it at the same time, right? So it's not like, it's not like a malicious push. There's not like an angry push. It's more like a, like a funny push, but still with pushy.
So your hands up in the air and whatever. I don't know. Yeah, yeah. It's like, so it's, that's, that's, that's how you come across. Is it just passive aggressive? Is that really what it is? No, no, it's not like that. It's not passive. There's no passivity in it.
(24:42):
It's very, it's, it's, it's aggressive, but not, but not mean. It's aggressive, but still sort of funny. Is that why people call me lack of Polish? I guess maybe that's why, because my hair is all over and I just don't come with this corporate image. I'm just here to have a good time.
I missed the, the, the, the, the other hat, the Russian hat. Yeah. Yeah. The one from the, like the Montreal Olympics in 87 or something. Yeah. That was really warm to, to even if it's like 80 degrees here, I'll bring it back.
(25:15):
I love, I love that. I mean, I missed that. Nobody wears them. I got some quirky guy that likes to be Ron Birkendy. Jacob, his name random guy who's social guru wizard is better word. And he just all over the place. He's out there.
He's playing with guitars or talking about some bathroom humor. And then one time it's I bipolar. Sorry. And it's like, where are you going? I don't know. I'm just here. Yeah. So yeah, it was here.
(25:41):
It's just a dude. He's got to be secretly finding out so much about people and they have to have their, he's letting the people's guard down huge, right? He's letting them in. They're letting him in not in a weird way, but you know, professional setting.
And he's got to be learning so much about people. Yeah. I like Jacob. I know exactly who you're talking about. And he's, he is a, he's a real guy out here. You know? Yeah. I totally dig it.
(26:06):
And he disappeared for awhile and came back and yeah, no, he's, he's just nice to know that we don't have to appear like we know what we're doing. We can be just ourselves and land and whatever happens. It's all good.
A hundred percent, man. Just don't even know. Just make it up. Did you make up your first sale? Is that how that works? And when before six years started, when you're doing your first sales gig, do you even remember?
(26:28):
Or one that didn't go is, is planned because everybody's starting out sometime, right? They want to learn from the VP of demand. Yeah.
Yeah, no, it's, it's, um, we're not going there. Are we? Did I hit a sense? You make, okay. In, in, in professional set sales, any sales, let's say any sales, you make mistakes constantly.
(26:51):
All right. Really? It's oh, endlessly. Um, I have, I do have some rules to live by. Okay. The top 10, one of which, uh, well, I could go there, I suppose. But the one that comes to mind, the one that comes to mind is, and I see this occasionally on LinkedIn.
Um, it's, it's asking your buyer to do something for you so that you can hit some sort of a, of a revenue goal or a SPF goal or a, some sort of a bonus. Okay. And this is pretty common in a lot of, you know, a lot of companies, a lot of sellers get a lot of pressure at the end of the quarter, end of the month.
(27:39):
Right. That where they've got to, they've got to get a deal in. And a lot of times they'll ask, they'll say, Hey, you know, can you, can you push this contract through so that I can hit my number? Never do that.
Never.
Makes it about themselves though.
It makes it about themselves. It, it takes all your, all your authority away as a seller. It, it undermines the entire process. It, it puts the buyer in this weird position to feel like they've like they're personally kind of helping you. And it's just completely wrong.
(28:19):
And I have had it backfire on me more than a few times. I've been, I've been trying to sell stuff for 25 years. Right. So it's, I've been around, I've done a few deals and anytime I've done it, like kind of experimented with it.
And man, it sucks it that every single time the outcome is no deal. And even more prominent lately is get ghosted. Like they don't, they don't just don't do the deal. They just bail out. They're gone.
(28:51):
And that's the worst thing. I mean, so if you, if you're in a hurry and you needed to get a deal done, make it worth the while to the buyer, give them something, you know, say like, Hey, look, we're, you know, let's, let's do a deal. I'll cut the price by whatever, or I'll throw in this or I'll, you know, make it worth your while or something.
You know, I don't know, whatever's at your disposal, but don't just ask it as a favor. That's I'll go down to flames on that one. If anybody wants to go out in the back and fight about it. Cause it's, it is bad advice to, to ask for favors.
(29:25):
It's anything I think that rule applies. Don't force it. Just, just let it happen. But it's so hard not to when you're trying to feed your family and you get this idea dollars stuck in your head like, Oh, I can do it three days. Let's go.
It's not worth it. There is that. There is that it's I didn't say, don't ask. I just said, don't ask them to do it because you, cause they're doing you a favor. Make it worth their while. Yeah. Come up with something, you know, come up with something to, to, you know, juice it a little bit.
(29:56):
And, and I think, you know, people come back to me and say, never discount, blah, blah, blah. Okay. Fine. Let it slip. And there's, there's, there's also people who are say like, well, you should never be in that position. They speak from this moral high ground area. You shouldn't.
You should have built your pipeline, you know, six months ago to, so that you're okay. Those guys never actually sold anything or they, or if they did their whatever, every seller is going to want to push a little bit farther at the end of every quarter. Come on.
(30:25):
Yeah. Everybody likes a goal. Yeah. You know, you're there or you're not. And if you're not, okay, well then you're six months ago, you were busy doing something else or you didn't plan or you something went off rails. Who knows? Stuff happens. Yeah.
So, so you find yourself in a spot. You're trying to hit a number. Just don't ask your, your prospects and do you a favor. Don't do it. I don't work.
(30:47):
Can you do me a favor and remind me of the website to go to for your company? Would that be okay?
All right. I work for infused media, uh, infused media.com. Uh, just like it sounds.
And Trevor, your name is all over LinkedIn, like the early show. And if people forget,
I'm just a lover, right? Just, just trying to love people and lift their, lift their spirits with, with joy and kindness. And sometimes a little bit of pushback, but never in a mean way. Sometimes just trying to, trying to get them to think a little bit. But,
(31:18):
we can get old and crusty. It's not our fault. Just, Hey, yeah. If you get me before coffee and you're going to come in my DMS and try and sell me something because it's the end of the quarter, I'm not going to be nice.
Sorry. Yeah. Yeah. And you don't have to be right. You don't have to be, if you're the buyer, you don't have to be nice. You just, you know, tell them to shove off, whatever. I mean, pitch slapping is no good. Don't do it.
(31:39):
That's a bad deal. So we learned a lot about the side of the sales guy with the cute butt and what not to do if you're trying to, trying to sell things on the podcast side or whatever you're doing, small business. So you taught us a lot of stuff and sweetened the deal.
I talked a lot at least.
Yeah. That's all. That's what you do. I'm surprised you don't have your own enterprise of the, this should be a talk show. You have a little monologue. You have like a Jay Leno set or you're like, I don't know, pick your favorite, whoever.
(32:10):
And then someday we're getting there. Maybe 2024. We'll see. Yeah. Have a, have a puppet or comedian that always talks smack or something. I don't know. It's going to be a big deal. It's going to happen. I can feel it.
It's what the sky's the limit. So we're only limited by our imagination, right? Yeah. All about it. Let's, let's have some fun.
I'll leave all the credentials for you. So people can find you show notes, description, all that. Don't worry. Cause some people forget things and that's okay. Okay. I'll never forget this episode with you, Trevor. This is nice.
(32:42):
Awesome. Awesome. Me neither, man. Me neither. I never forget it. It's perfect.
Let's start a podcast.
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