September 9, 2025 • 27 mins
Mike O'Kelly breaks down the three key elements that separate great sales professionals from the rest: taking massive action, continuously learning new skills, and building repeatable processes.
• Taking massive action means going beyond basic activity to create productivity
• Most sales happen between the 5th and 12th touch point, but many salespeople give up too soon
• Prospects receive dozens of pitches daily, making persistence and quality outreach essential
• Shift from demanding prospect time to providing valuable insights that move them from unaware to aware
• Successful sales professionals position themselves as go-to experts in their field
• Growth never happens in your comfort zone - constantly learn new skills and adapt to market changes
• Building repeatable processes is crucial for scaling success and preventing the "spinning plates" syndrome
• The P3 sales method creates a framework where buyers view you as a consultant, not just a vendor
• Most sales failures stem from process breakdowns, not ability issues
I do a free 30-minute consult if you want to learn more about where you are in your career and how to elevate your sales performance. Reach out to me at mike@survivingoutsidesales.com or connect with me on LinkedIn and shoot me a DM. The link will be in the show notes - book a time for a free 30-minute call to see where you are, where you're headed, and get a territory audit.
To connect with the show: Subscribe, Download & Share!
Would appreciate a 5-Star Rating if deserved on Spotify & Apple Podcasts!!!
Connect with Mike:
Mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
LinkedIn: Mike O'Kelly | LinkedIn
Click to join: Surviving Outside Sales Page on LinkedIn
______________________________________________________________________
If you are in outside sales and have had any of the following:
- New to Outside Sales
- New to an industry, new product, new territory - any type of change
- Experienced, but have lacked training and business development
- Seasoned but feel like you have hit your ceiling and need a reboot
If any of those descriptions sound like you or someone you know,
If you want to have a conversation about:
- Scheduling a strategy call for your next move
- Help building your business or territory
Reach out to me:
Schedule a FREE consultation
or https://www.linkedin.com/in/mike-o-kelly-44ba352b/
mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The Surviving Outside Sales Podcast, hosted by Mike
O'Kelley, presented by SalesBuilder Academy, the goal is to
survive and thrive all phases ofoutside sales, whether you're
getting in, dominating orgetting out.
Surviving Outside Sales now onwith the show.
Welcome to the SurvivingOutside Sales Podcast.
(00:36):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelley.
Today's topic, I think, is veryapropos with a lot of the
conversations I've been havingrecently with sales
professionals and with mystudents.
So today I'm breaking down thethree keys to be great in sales
and there's a lot of keys, butthere's three I want to focus on
today, all right, and I'm goingto run through these real quick
and then I'm going to kind oftake a little deeper dive.
So number one is you have totake action as a sales
(00:57):
professional.
Okay, you've got to do um, andnot just activity, but
productivity.
If you've listened to thepodcast before or you know
anything about the SurvivingOutside Sales universe, it's not
just simply going out andmaking sales calls, it is having
those sales calls beingproductive and you're calling on
the right people, you've gotyour ideal client profile, you
(01:18):
have your right targeting,you've got your right messaging
and you're talking to the rightpeople.
You have to take massive action.
You can't just go out there andsay, yeah, well, it's just,
it's not working, because youknow I've made calls and I'm
just not seeing results.
Okay, how many calls did youmake?
Well, I talked to four people.
(01:39):
Okay, we had kind of discussed,you know, 75 to a hundred.
Because here's the deal Salesis a numbers game.
Now, again, I'm not all forspamming, I am not for just
wildly reaching out to everysingle person under the sun, but
you do have to send out a lotof messages, a lot of bat
(02:03):
signals you got to send outbecause you have no idea what's
happening on the other end ofthat person.
Okay, you're assuming thatthey're going to listen to your
message, they're going to readyour email, they're going to be
so enthralled to check out yourlink.
They're not.
And again, most of sales, 80%of sales, happens to be in the
fifth and the 12th touch point.
So if you're, if you made fourcalls and you didn't get any
(02:26):
meetings, yeah, you're probablynot.
I don't know where this beliefis that every single person you
reach out to is supposed tomagically open up time on their
calendar to meet with you.
I never want to put people onblast.
I never want to share some ofthe messages.
But maybe I need to start doingthat and just kind of showing
(02:49):
people you know, obviouslyblocking out their names, but
kind of show you some of theridiculous messages that I get,
some of the ridiculous requeststhat I get.
I've been in sales and businessfor 25 plus years, owning my own
businesses for three plus years, and I get pitched so
frequently Every day.
(03:09):
I'm getting at least one, maybetwo pitches every day and
that's probably on aconservative side, but one or
two pitches per day and they areso bad.
Zero research, zero connectionand there's no way that I'm
(03:30):
going to trust these people fromthe last episode, the no like
and trust.
If they know you, yeah, theyknow you because you reached out
to them.
Do they like you?
Well, yeah, I don't like mostof these people because they
haven't even done the, even donethe due diligence.
They're trying to close off thefirst reach out, the first
email, the first text message,the first video message, the
(03:52):
first LinkedIn, the first phonecall, voicemail.
They're trying to book or closethe business right off the bat.
I don't know you, I don't likeyou, nor do I trust you.
Okay, and that's what I.
The KLT framework is what Iwent over the podcast last
(04:13):
episode.
But taking action is notspamming, okay.
Taking action is still havingyour process where you're trying
to get to people to make themunaware to aware, aware to trial
to trial to user, user toadvocate the five-step sales
process.
Nothing has changed.
Okay, everything should bewithin your five-step sales
(04:34):
process.
Every single time you reach outto somebody, you have to think
to yourself I just need to getthem to the next level.
So all you're trying to do istake somebody from unaware to
aware.
I would, I would love forsomebody to reach out to me and
say hey, mike, my name isso-and-so, I do XYZ.
I'm not selling you anything.
All I want to do is just letyou know that our product is on
the radar.
This is what we're doing.
(04:55):
If you want to check out ourproduct, here you go.
If you have any questions, letme know.
Period Instead of I'm stillgetting messages.
To this day, I'm still gettingmessages.
I'd love 15 minutes of yourtime.
Well, I'm sure you would,because your benefit is to sell
something so that you can makemoney.
So I'm sure you would love 15minutes of my time, but I'm not
(05:18):
giving you 15 minutes of my life, and that's really how you have
to think about it.
When you're asking a prospect,you're asking somebody for their
time, you're asking for aportion of their life.
How valuable do you thinkthat's going to be?
You've got to take massiveaction, okay.
So you've got to reach out to abunch of people.
(05:40):
You've got to do it by movingthe ball down the field.
So, right now, if you want toreach out to a hundred people,
stop reaching out, demandingsomething from them and give
something to them.
Okay, start giving value.
Start dropping value for yourprospects.
That's how they're going tostart to trust you is if you
(06:03):
keep depositing things for them.
If not, you're just going to beanother person.
You're going to say, oh, mycompany didn't give me good
leads and my company didn't do X, y, z.
I'm here to tell you right nowthere are no great leads unless
they're inbound.
There's no great outbound leads.
Okay, there are no greatoutbound leads, they are created
(06:24):
leads.
Okay, there are no greatoutbound leads, they are created
.
I have walked in in my career tosome places that should be
layups, that should be layups,and it just didn't work out.
And then some places whereyou're like, wow, I didn't
really expect that turned out tobe some of my biggest clients.
So, just because it looks likea perfect prospect, oh, I don't
(06:49):
understand why they're notinterested.
Well, look in the mirror.
Did you do anything thatallowed them to want to do
business with you?
Because there's a lot.
So here's the deal.
There are a lot of products onthe market.
I don't think salesprofessionals really understand.
Their companies are not tellingthem how many products are
(07:10):
actually on the market verysimilar to theirs.
I hear this all the time.
We are the only blah, blah,blah, blah, blah.
No, you're not.
No, you are not.
There are so many products onthe market.
There's never been moreopportunity for choice for
business owners or consumersalike.
So what the person is doing isthey're buying you more so than
(07:35):
ever before.
So, first step, we're gettingback to the three keys.
To be great in sales, you haveto take action, massive action.
You've got to put people into acycle where you can get those
(07:56):
12 calls, those 12 touch points.
People give up way too soon.
You have to have thedetermination and the grit to
stick it out, and mostsalespeople don't.
They give up way too easy.
Well, that didn't work.
What did you do?
Well, and I'm going to behonest, I, uh, I I'm guilty of
(08:20):
this.
I was doing a win back campaignfor one of my businesses and I
sent out an email and I gotabout five or six people that
responded and signed back up formemberships.
And I remember talking to agentleman and he said how many
emails did you send?
And I said, well, I sent outlike 300 emails.
(08:41):
He goes, oh, wow, okay, nowwait, is that total?
I said, well, yeah, that's 300emails.
I sent out 300 personal emails.
He goes well, how many people?
300.
He goes, wait.
So you only sent out emails onetime and you got four people to
say, yes, why did you stop?
I said, you know, I got busy.
It's the old excuse.
And look just, you know, I'mfully aware there's no hypocrisy
here.
I am fully aware that there arestill things that I recommend
(09:06):
that I don't do in my ownbusinesses, and I'm working on
that because I get busy tryingto juggle everything from being
business owners, um, to being adad, to, to, to toddlers and,
you know, being a husband, um,and virtually I work 24, seven,
I work seven days a week andthat's not a euphemism, like I
literally work seven days a week, so I still have to follow and
(09:30):
practice what I preach.
And he goes.
Imagine if you had sent out a 15part email sequence, because
you're going to get the peoplein the beginning.
You're going to get theinterested people that's always
going to happen and then thesecond round.
You'll get maybe one, maybe twothird round, but once you get
to the fifth, fifth and the 12th, all of a sudden people start
(09:52):
to conceptualize and see thewhole picture.
Cause, also as salesprofessionals, you have to
understand.
We, we know our products,backwards and forwards, but our,
but the buyers don't.
The buyers are really confused.
You're dropping all these greatthings, but if they don't live
it every day and as salesprofessionals, sometimes you
can't see the forest through thetrees you believe the product
(10:12):
is the best thing since slicedbread, but the other person
doesn't know all the backgroundthat you know, so they can only
go off what you've shared withthem.
And most websites that you lookat are hot garbage.
They're marketing lingo andmumbo jumbo.
There's no clear, concisefuture state that somebody can
(10:35):
attest to from most websites.
Some of them do great, some ofthem, most of them don't,
especially corporate websites,big corporate websites.
All it does is talks about howgreat the company is when it was
founded and how successful thepeople are that are running it
and what their background is,and then why you should partner
with them, because they'vepartnered with lots of big
companies.
Blah, blah, blah.
That doesn't move the needleand that's not what people want.
(11:00):
People care about theiroutcomes, and their outcomes
alone.
I don't care if you've workedwith 800 different companies.
How is my company going to beimpacted by your product or
service?
That's what I want to know andthat's what I want as close to a
guarantee as possible, or atleast paint a picture of what my
future state's going to looklike.
That's what I care about.
That's what buyers care aboutand, as a sales professional, if
you're not doing that butyou're not doing it enough
you're not casting a wide enoughnet, you're not cutting through
(11:24):
the noise, and that's the thingI mean.
I opened up my email everymorning and I have at least 30
emails that have already hit myinbox by the top.
By I mean by the six o'clockhour, from from after I went to
bed to the time I wake up.
Some are automated, some are incampaigns, but I'm inundated
with emails from the time I wakeup and then during the day,
(11:46):
it's text messages, it's phonecalls, it's emails.
It's nonstop.
My phone sometimes feels likeit's literally attached to my
hand.
Just recording this podcastvideo for the first 12 minutes,
my phone has blanked about 15times.
So if you're going to try to cutthrough that noise and you're
going to try to sell mesomething, it better be better,
(12:07):
more succinct, more clear thanwhat everybody else is sending,
because that's what people aresending is not grabbing my
attention, which is a shamebecause there's probably some
products or services that couldhelp my businesses, but I can't
see the forest through the trees.
Neither can your buyers.
That's why you need to takemassive action.
So if you need to, if you needto make, if you need to make
calls it's very cheesy, grantCardone did the whole 10 X, but
(12:31):
it actually is a good like just10 exit.
Just keep doing more of it.
Just do more of what you thinkyou're doing.
Do more.
Double down.
You're investing in coaching.
Double down and get a secondcoach.
Right now I am actually thinkingabout hiring two different
companies to coach me, because Ihave several things that I want
(12:52):
to get better at and there isnot a one-stop shop.
So I'm debating on how to dothat and want to get better at
and there is not a one-stop shop.
So I'm debating on how to dothat and how to get that done
and what that looks likefinancially, but also my time.
How do I go through that?
And maybe I have to start withone and then do another, but I'm
taking massive action.
I've met with about I'm now upto 12 different companies over
the last month I have met withtrying to find a company that I
(13:14):
can partner with to help me inmy businesses.
And I'll tell you right now the.
The thing that's holding meback is the trust factor with
some of them.
I just don't trust that it'sgoing to work for me, you know.
But number one take action, allright.
Number two you need to learnnew things.
(13:35):
You need to learn new skills.
You cannot stay stagnant.
You cannot stay what's the wordI'm looking for in your comfort
zone.
Everything is changing.
You have got to learn newthings.
You have to give people newinformation.
(13:55):
When you reach out to yourbuyers, let's say your buyers
haven't purchased anything in awhile.
You can't just reach out andsay, hey, mark, I wanted to
reach out because it looks likeyou haven't ordered anything in
a little bit and I want to seeif I can help.
How does that help Mark'sbusiness?
Every time you reach out, youneed to reach out with something
(14:18):
that is investing in the otherperson's business a piece of
information, a statistic, anidea, a thought, what you can do
to help.
Instead, you should saysomething like this hey, Mark, I
don't know if you saw thearticle in the Washington Post
(14:38):
regarding your industry and thechanges that are about to happen
.
I've attached a link to thatarticle if you want to read it.
If you've already seen it great, we're ahead of the game.
I have an idea around this topicof how I want to.
(15:01):
I have an idea around thistopic of how you can move your
business forward despite XYZ.
I'm available later this weekto meet in person.
I could do coffee, we could doa zoom, whatever works best for
you, but my clients have beenfinding this helpful and I want
to make sure you're ahead of XYZ, something like that.
That is a message I wouldrespond to.
Okay, just asking to place anorder.
(15:21):
Everybody's doing that.
Give me something, show meyou're an expert in your field,
and I talk about it in my salescoaching.
You have to be a go-to expert.
You have to be the first personthat your buyers think of.
Hey, I need to reach out toso-and-so and get their opinion,
(15:42):
see if they've heard anything.
That is when you know you'remaking traction.
I used to get those textmessages hey, mike, I heard X Y
Z, is there any validity to this?
To get those text messages hey,mike, I heard X Y Z, is there
any validity to this?
And I said, let me go check andthen I would do the research.
I wouldn't make, because Iwould do the research and I
(16:03):
would take the next step, which,again, is taking massive action
.
I would get the face-to-face, Iwould get the meeting, I'd
share my findings and if Ididn't know, I would reach out
to somebody in my network whodid know hey, I heard this from
one of my doctors Is there anyvalidity to this?
Do you know anything about this?
I Googled it and I can't findanything.
What's the word?
And then somebody else wouldsay, hey, and I would get these.
(16:26):
I would get these messages too,from other colleagues, other
people in my network.
Hey, mike, do you know anythingabout this?
Or hey, what is your opinion onXYZ?
I have a client of mine thatwas asking about it and I'm not
really too familiar and I wouldshare that information.
I have a network of people thatI can reach out to in various
industries and get theirprofessional opinion.
(16:50):
I'm viewed as a go-to expert.
Well now, I'm not a salesperson, but I was viewed as a go-to
expert in my market.
That's what I, I I I preachthat.
I teach that to my, to myclients.
You have to become the go-toexpert.
(17:10):
That means you have to keepyour finger on the pulse of
what's happening in the market.
You can't have your head in thesand.
And yes, well, I will tell youthis, hearing the phrase
work-life balance is likefingernails on the chalkboard to
somebody like me, especially abusiness owner.
Um, work-life balance isbasically um, once you are
(17:31):
successful, you can do anythingthat you want.
That's the work-life balance.
But if you're concerned withwork-life balance and if your
job ends at, let's say, fiveo'clock and you don't do
anything for work until the nextday, whenever you quote,
unquote are supposed to, you arean employee.
That's it.
You're not a professional,you're an employee.
You're basically a glorifiedhourly employee.
(17:52):
If you're a sales pro, ifyou're not a professional,
you're an employee.
You're basically a glorifiedhourly employee.
If you're a sales pro, if you'renot going to do anything, if
you're not going to researchanything, if you're not going to
study, then you're not going toadvance very far in your career
, unless you have one of thoseproducts that just flies off the
shelf.
Because the businesses trustthe product, they don't need to
trust you.
But for most products out there, for most services out there,
(18:16):
there's a lot of sameness.
It works just as good asanother product.
So what happens is they go withthe person that's easiest to
deal with, the person they trustthe most, and that person
usually is the one that learnsmore, that is willing to try
things, that keeps growing, hasa growth mindset.
(18:36):
A growth mindset does not stoponce you get a sales job.
It does not stop once you hityour first quota.
It does not stop ever.
It should not stop ever,because the markets are always
changing.
All right.
So the first one was you got totake massive action.
The second is you have toconstantly be learning new
things, you have to be elevatingyourself.
(18:57):
And the third is you have tobuild an unstoppable, repeatable
process for everything.
Having the right process,processes or multiple processes,
is crucial in order to scaleyour business.
Everything from how you reachout to a first time, first time
(19:18):
client prospect, to how youhandle followup after a call,
putting them in your pipeline,trying to bring them through the
customer journey, you know that.
12 touch points and then, after12 touch points, you know
keeping them around but notfocusing a lot of your attention
, cause if you've reached out tosomebody 12 times and they
still are not giving you thetime of day, guess what?
(19:40):
They're not interested and youcan move on.
That's okay.
Not every product and service isfor everyone.
Don't waste your time.
You know I call it the timesuck.
Don't let them suck your timeaway, because the time is one of
your most valuable assets andone of the most valuable
resources as a salesprofessional.
Do not let them do that.
Building that repeatable processmeans you're breaking down.
(20:02):
You analyze every singleportion of your business.
For instance I've mentionedthis before the P3 sales method.
It is the sales process thatevery professional should have
Period point blank, full stop.
The P3 sales method is howevery single sales interaction,
every single meeting, sets upthe perfect framework for your
(20:24):
buyer to realize that they needyour product or service, as long
as your product or serviceactually delivers.
If it doesn't deliver, if itcan't promise, then no
methodology is going to work.
But the P3 sales method is theprocess that I've used.
I was taught something similar.
I kind of made a little spin onit, I made it my own and really
(20:47):
kind of flushed out some of thethings I felt were missing.
And really what was missing wasthe, the end part of the P3
sales method, where I called theconsultant close.
It is when the buyer views youas a consultant, not a, not a
sales rep, not a vendor, notsomebody that they buy something
(21:10):
from, but they view you as aconsultant, somebody that they
want to reach out to when theyhave any business questions
whatsoever.
That is the difference, becausefor many years I was scrambling
, I was making sales, I wasgrowing my business, but it was
like I was spinning plates.
If I wasn't in the territory,if I wasn't out in the field, my
(21:33):
sales would dip.
If I wasn't in the territory,if I wasn't out in the field, my
sales would dip.
I'd go to a national salesmeeting and for that week my
business would plummet.
I did not set up a businessprepared to scale, so I made
adjustments and I did everything.
Here I took massive action.
You know I've invested close tosix figures in my education, um
(21:56):
post-college I'm talking likeconsultants, coaches, courses um
books.
I have spent a lot of money andtime to elevate my knowledge,
my skillset.
I've learned new things.
I've gotten out of my comfortzone.
In fact I don't really have acomfort zone Now.
If you know anything about mypast, I've kind of listened,
(22:16):
I've kind of listed this on pastepisodes.
My whole life has been changed,so I am not fearful of change.
I'm very adaptable.
I haven't had a lot ofconsistency in my life as far as
a role, a career life as far asa role, a career, um, the most
(22:41):
I mean the longest consistency Ithink I've ever had was I lived
in the same condo for a decade.
But before that I mean before Ipurchased my condo, I mean
living in Charlotte I'd probablylived in six different places
in eight years, nine years.
I moved a bunch, moved todifferent parts of the city,
moved in with a different friend.
I've had a lot of jobs.
A lot of the companies that Iworked for were bought by bigger
(23:02):
companies and the sales teamwas let go or was realigned, or
I left to go to anotherorganization because I got in
and they didn't have the samemorals, ethics, beliefs that I
wanted.
Um, even going back to highschool, I mean I went to two
different elementary schools,two different middle schools.
(23:23):
Um, every year it was a newbaseball team, new baseball
coach.
So I was used to that.
I mean, getting to college itwas new teammates every year,
you know.
And then I was on three minorleague teams in two and a half
years for, actually for minorleague team, I was signed to
four minor league five yeah,five minor league teams and in
(23:43):
three years.
So I'm very adaptable, learningnew things, and I think that
that has helped me in my career.
So I've taken massive action, Ilearn new things and, of course
, building repeatable processes.
I'm a process and a systems guy.
When something usually breaksdown, it always breaks down in
process.
It usually doesn't break downan ability, it's just the
(24:04):
process wasn't followed.
Like I mentioned before, myprocess wasn't good for my
win-back campaign.
I didn't build one out, I justkind of shotgun it out.
So I didn't even follow my ownprocesses and that's the reason
why I'd failed.
It didn't fail because, um,because of the product or
service that I was offering.
It was literally because Ididn't take big enough action.
I didn't have a process.
So those are the three things.
(24:25):
If you are in sales, these are,these are the three things,
three of the bigger things tobeing great, three of the
biggest keys to be great insales.
You've got to be willing totake massive action.
You have to be willing to learnnew things, new skills.
Get out of your comfort zoneOkay, growth never comes in a
comfort zone and you have tobuild repeatable processes.
(24:46):
You do those three things.
Sky's the limit.
Now, if you're struggling withfiguring out those three things,
please reach out to me, becauseI go through all three of these
things in my coaching programs.
And no matter if you are brandnew to sales, if you're
experienced, or even if you're15, 20 years into the sales
(25:07):
world, sometimes you can't seethe forest or the trees.
You don't even realize thatsome of the things are broken
down within your process forestor the trees and you don't even
realize that some of the thingsare broken down within your
process.
I do a free 30 minute consult Ifyou want to learn more about
your uh, where you are in yourcareer and you want to elevate,
reach out to me.
You can do so, mike, atsurviving outside salescom, or
(25:27):
you can connect with me onLinkedIn and shoot me a DM.
That is about how 95% of thepeople reach out to me is
LinkedIn and they shoot me a DM.
Absolutely, I'd love to meetwith you.
I can send you over a linkafterwards or the link's going
to be in the show notes.
Just book a time.
It's a free 30-minute call.
Kind of see where you are,where you're headed, and if it
doesn't make any sense for us towork together or you don't feel
(25:51):
like it'll help, great, atleast you got a chance to um,
ask your situation and I'll giveyou my breakdown.
Kind of do a little bit of aterritory audit as well where
you are, where you've come from,where you are and where you're
headed and at least you havethat you know.
So I want to give you somethingfor investing 30 minutes of
your life with me and help youout, and if it makes sense to
(26:13):
continue it, fantastic.
If not, reach out to somebodywho really could use the podcast
, send them the link, maybeconvince them to get on a 30
minute call as well.
The more the merrier.
This is what I enjoy doing.
This is the the give back.
As I've mentioned it before, Idid not.
I had to fight tooth and nailto try to find people to help me
, and people were not as willingto do things like this.
(26:35):
This is kind of the give backWorst case scenario.
It's 30 minutes of your time,30 minutes of your life.
It'll set you up for success.
So reach out to me.
Thank you so much.
I really do appreciateeverybody who's listening and
sending me those LinkedInmessages.
I absolutely love gettingfeedback and it's one of the
(26:59):
reasons why I love doing what Ido.
And, uh, we're hurtling towards500.
I'm trying to get back on moreconsistent.
Again, my podcast process hasbeen broken down, so I am trying
to get back on that trainbecause I absolutely enjoy this
and, um, I love hearing fromsales professionals helping them
in their journey.
Um, so thank you all and I'llsee you next time surviving
outside sales Cheers.
The Surviving Outside Sales Podcast, hosted by Mike
O'Kelley, presented by SalesBuilder Academy, the goal is to
survive and thrive all phases ofoutside sales, whether you're
getting in, dominating orgetting out.
Surviving Outside Sales now onwith the show.
Welcome to the SurvivingOutside Sales Podcast.
(00:36):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelley.
Today's topic, I think, is veryapropos with a lot of the
conversations I've been havingrecently with sales
professionals and with mystudents.
So today I'm breaking down thethree keys to be great in sales
and there's a lot of keys, butthere's three I want to focus on
today, all right, and I'm goingto run through these real quick
and then I'm going to kind oftake a little deeper dive.
So number one is you have totake action as a sales
(00:57):
professional.
Okay, you've got to do um, andnot just activity, but
productivity.
If you've listened to thepodcast before or you know
anything about the SurvivingOutside Sales universe, it's not
just simply going out andmaking sales calls, it is having
those sales calls beingproductive and you're calling on
the right people, you've gotyour ideal client profile, you
(01:18):
have your right targeting,you've got your right messaging
and you're talking to the rightpeople.
You have to take massive action.
You can't just go out there andsay, yeah, well, it's just,
it's not working, because youknow I've made calls and I'm
just not seeing results.
Okay, how many calls did youmake?
Well, I talked to four people.
(01:39):
Okay, we had kind of discussed,you know, 75 to a hundred.
Because here's the deal Salesis a numbers game.
Now, again, I'm not all forspamming, I am not for just
wildly reaching out to everysingle person under the sun, but
you do have to send out a lotof messages, a lot of bat
(02:03):
signals you got to send outbecause you have no idea what's
happening on the other end ofthat person.
Okay, you're assuming thatthey're going to listen to your
message, they're going to readyour email, they're going to be
so enthralled to check out yourlink.
They're not.
And again, most of sales, 80%of sales, happens to be in the
fifth and the 12th touch point.
So if you're, if you made fourcalls and you didn't get any
(02:26):
meetings, yeah, you're probablynot.
I don't know where this beliefis that every single person you
reach out to is supposed tomagically open up time on their
calendar to meet with you.
I never want to put people onblast.
I never want to share some ofthe messages.
But maybe I need to start doingthat and just kind of showing
(02:49):
people you know, obviouslyblocking out their names, but
kind of show you some of theridiculous messages that I get,
some of the ridiculous requeststhat I get.
I've been in sales and businessfor 25 plus years, owning my own
businesses for three plus years, and I get pitched so
frequently Every day.
(03:09):
I'm getting at least one, maybetwo pitches every day and
that's probably on aconservative side, but one or
two pitches per day and they areso bad.
Zero research, zero connectionand there's no way that I'm
(03:30):
going to trust these people fromthe last episode, the no like
and trust.
If they know you, yeah, theyknow you because you reached out
to them.
Do they like you?
Well, yeah, I don't like mostof these people because they
haven't even done the, even donethe due diligence.
They're trying to close off thefirst reach out, the first
email, the first text message,the first video message, the
(03:52):
first LinkedIn, the first phonecall, voicemail.
They're trying to book or closethe business right off the bat.
I don't know you, I don't likeyou, nor do I trust you.
Okay, and that's what I.
The KLT framework is what Iwent over the podcast last
(04:13):
episode.
But taking action is notspamming, okay.
Taking action is still havingyour process where you're trying
to get to people to make themunaware to aware, aware to trial
to trial to user, user toadvocate the five-step sales
process.
Nothing has changed.
Okay, everything should bewithin your five-step sales
(04:34):
process.
Every single time you reach outto somebody, you have to think
to yourself I just need to getthem to the next level.
So all you're trying to do istake somebody from unaware to
aware.
I would, I would love forsomebody to reach out to me and
say hey, mike, my name isso-and-so, I do XYZ.
I'm not selling you anything.
All I want to do is just letyou know that our product is on
the radar.
This is what we're doing.
(04:55):
If you want to check out ourproduct, here you go.
If you have any questions, letme know.
Period Instead of I'm stillgetting messages.
To this day, I'm still gettingmessages.
I'd love 15 minutes of yourtime.
Well, I'm sure you would,because your benefit is to sell
something so that you can makemoney.
So I'm sure you would love 15minutes of my time, but I'm not
(05:18):
giving you 15 minutes of my life, and that's really how you have
to think about it.
When you're asking a prospect,you're asking somebody for their
time, you're asking for aportion of their life.
How valuable do you thinkthat's going to be?
You've got to take massiveaction, okay.
So you've got to reach out to abunch of people.
(05:40):
You've got to do it by movingthe ball down the field.
So, right now, if you want toreach out to a hundred people,
stop reaching out, demandingsomething from them and give
something to them.
Okay, start giving value.
Start dropping value for yourprospects.
That's how they're going tostart to trust you is if you
(06:03):
keep depositing things for them.
If not, you're just going to beanother person.
You're going to say, oh, mycompany didn't give me good
leads and my company didn't do X, y, z.
I'm here to tell you right nowthere are no great leads unless
they're inbound.
There's no great outbound leads.
Okay, there are no greatoutbound leads, they are created
(06:24):
leads.
Okay, there are no greatoutbound leads, they are created
.
I have walked in in my career tosome places that should be
layups, that should be layups,and it just didn't work out.
And then some places whereyou're like, wow, I didn't
really expect that turned out tobe some of my biggest clients.
So, just because it looks likea perfect prospect, oh, I don't
(06:49):
understand why they're notinterested.
Well, look in the mirror.
Did you do anything thatallowed them to want to do
business with you?
Because there's a lot.
So here's the deal.
There are a lot of products onthe market.
I don't think salesprofessionals really understand.
Their companies are not tellingthem how many products are
(07:10):
actually on the market verysimilar to theirs.
I hear this all the time.
We are the only blah, blah,blah, blah, blah.
No, you're not.
No, you are not.
There are so many products onthe market.
There's never been moreopportunity for choice for
business owners or consumersalike.
So what the person is doing isthey're buying you more so than
(07:35):
ever before.
So, first step, we're gettingback to the three keys.
To be great in sales, you haveto take action, massive action.
You've got to put people into acycle where you can get those
(07:56):
12 calls, those 12 touch points.
People give up way too soon.
You have to have thedetermination and the grit to
stick it out, and mostsalespeople don't.
They give up way too easy.
Well, that didn't work.
What did you do?
Well, and I'm going to behonest, I, uh, I I'm guilty of
(08:20):
this.
I was doing a win back campaignfor one of my businesses and I
sent out an email and I gotabout five or six people that
responded and signed back up formemberships.
And I remember talking to agentleman and he said how many
emails did you send?
And I said, well, I sent outlike 300 emails.
(08:41):
He goes, oh, wow, okay, nowwait, is that total?
I said, well, yeah, that's 300emails.
I sent out 300 personal emails.
He goes well, how many people?
300.
He goes, wait.
So you only sent out emails onetime and you got four people to
say, yes, why did you stop?
I said, you know, I got busy.
It's the old excuse.
And look just, you know, I'mfully aware there's no hypocrisy
here.
I am fully aware that there arestill things that I recommend
(09:06):
that I don't do in my ownbusinesses, and I'm working on
that because I get busy tryingto juggle everything from being
business owners, um, to being adad, to, to, to toddlers and,
you know, being a husband, um,and virtually I work 24, seven,
I work seven days a week andthat's not a euphemism, like I
literally work seven days a week, so I still have to follow and
(09:30):
practice what I preach.
And he goes.
Imagine if you had sent out a 15part email sequence, because
you're going to get the peoplein the beginning.
You're going to get theinterested people that's always
going to happen and then thesecond round.
You'll get maybe one, maybe twothird round, but once you get
to the fifth, fifth and the 12th, all of a sudden people start
(09:52):
to conceptualize and see thewhole picture.
Cause, also as salesprofessionals, you have to
understand.
We, we know our products,backwards and forwards, but our,
but the buyers don't.
The buyers are really confused.
You're dropping all these greatthings, but if they don't live
it every day and as salesprofessionals, sometimes you
can't see the forest through thetrees you believe the product
(10:12):
is the best thing since slicedbread, but the other person
doesn't know all the backgroundthat you know, so they can only
go off what you've shared withthem.
And most websites that you lookat are hot garbage.
They're marketing lingo andmumbo jumbo.
There's no clear, concisefuture state that somebody can
(10:35):
attest to from most websites.
Some of them do great, some ofthem, most of them don't,
especially corporate websites,big corporate websites.
All it does is talks about howgreat the company is when it was
founded and how successful thepeople are that are running it
and what their background is,and then why you should partner
with them, because they'vepartnered with lots of big
companies.
Blah, blah, blah.
That doesn't move the needleand that's not what people want.
(11:00):
People care about theiroutcomes, and their outcomes
alone.
I don't care if you've workedwith 800 different companies.
How is my company going to beimpacted by your product or
service?
That's what I want to know andthat's what I want as close to a
guarantee as possible, or atleast paint a picture of what my
future state's going to looklike.
That's what I care about.
That's what buyers care aboutand, as a sales professional, if
you're not doing that butyou're not doing it enough
you're not casting a wide enoughnet, you're not cutting through
(11:24):
the noise, and that's the thingI mean.
I opened up my email everymorning and I have at least 30
emails that have already hit myinbox by the top.
By I mean by the six o'clockhour, from from after I went to
bed to the time I wake up.
Some are automated, some are incampaigns, but I'm inundated
with emails from the time I wakeup and then during the day,
(11:46):
it's text messages, it's phonecalls, it's emails.
It's nonstop.
My phone sometimes feels likeit's literally attached to my
hand.
Just recording this podcastvideo for the first 12 minutes,
my phone has blanked about 15times.
So if you're going to try to cutthrough that noise and you're
going to try to sell mesomething, it better be better,
(12:07):
more succinct, more clear thanwhat everybody else is sending,
because that's what people aresending is not grabbing my
attention, which is a shamebecause there's probably some
products or services that couldhelp my businesses, but I can't
see the forest through the trees.
Neither can your buyers.
That's why you need to takemassive action.
So if you need to, if you needto make, if you need to make
calls it's very cheesy, grantCardone did the whole 10 X, but
(12:31):
it actually is a good like just10 exit.
Just keep doing more of it.
Just do more of what you thinkyou're doing.
Do more.
Double down.
You're investing in coaching.
Double down and get a secondcoach.
Right now I am actually thinkingabout hiring two different
companies to coach me, because Ihave several things that I want
(12:52):
to get better at and there isnot a one-stop shop.
So I'm debating on how to dothat and want to get better at
and there is not a one-stop shop.
So I'm debating on how to dothat and how to get that done
and what that looks likefinancially, but also my time.
How do I go through that?
And maybe I have to start withone and then do another, but I'm
taking massive action.
I've met with about I'm now upto 12 different companies over
the last month I have met withtrying to find a company that I
(13:14):
can partner with to help me inmy businesses.
And I'll tell you right now the.
The thing that's holding meback is the trust factor with
some of them.
I just don't trust that it'sgoing to work for me, you know.
But number one take action, allright.
Number two you need to learnnew things.
(13:35):
You need to learn new skills.
You cannot stay stagnant.
You cannot stay what's the wordI'm looking for in your comfort
zone.
Everything is changing.
You have got to learn newthings.
You have to give people newinformation.
(13:55):
When you reach out to yourbuyers, let's say your buyers
haven't purchased anything in awhile.
You can't just reach out andsay, hey, mark, I wanted to
reach out because it looks likeyou haven't ordered anything in
a little bit and I want to seeif I can help.
How does that help Mark'sbusiness?
Every time you reach out, youneed to reach out with something
(14:18):
that is investing in the otherperson's business a piece of
information, a statistic, anidea, a thought, what you can do
to help.
Instead, you should saysomething like this hey, Mark, I
don't know if you saw thearticle in the Washington Post
(14:38):
regarding your industry and thechanges that are about to happen
.
I've attached a link to thatarticle if you want to read it.
If you've already seen it great, we're ahead of the game.
I have an idea around this topicof how I want to.
(15:01):
I have an idea around thistopic of how you can move your
business forward despite XYZ.
I'm available later this weekto meet in person.
I could do coffee, we could doa zoom, whatever works best for
you, but my clients have beenfinding this helpful and I want
to make sure you're ahead of XYZ, something like that.
That is a message I wouldrespond to.
Okay, just asking to place anorder.
(15:21):
Everybody's doing that.
Give me something, show meyou're an expert in your field,
and I talk about it in my salescoaching.
You have to be a go-to expert.
You have to be the first personthat your buyers think of.
Hey, I need to reach out toso-and-so and get their opinion,
(15:42):
see if they've heard anything.
That is when you know you'remaking traction.
I used to get those textmessages hey, mike, I heard X Y
Z, is there any validity to this?
To get those text messages hey,mike, I heard X Y Z, is there
any validity to this?
And I said, let me go check andthen I would do the research.
I wouldn't make, because Iwould do the research and I
(16:03):
would take the next step, which,again, is taking massive action
.
I would get the face-to-face, Iwould get the meeting, I'd
share my findings and if Ididn't know, I would reach out
to somebody in my network whodid know hey, I heard this from
one of my doctors Is there anyvalidity to this?
Do you know anything about this?
I Googled it and I can't findanything.
What's the word?
And then somebody else wouldsay, hey, and I would get these.
(16:26):
I would get these messages too,from other colleagues, other
people in my network.
Hey, mike, do you know anythingabout this?
Or hey, what is your opinion onXYZ?
I have a client of mine thatwas asking about it and I'm not
really too familiar and I wouldshare that information.
I have a network of people thatI can reach out to in various
industries and get theirprofessional opinion.
(16:50):
I'm viewed as a go-to expert.
Well now, I'm not a salesperson, but I was viewed as a go-to
expert in my market.
That's what I, I I I preachthat.
I teach that to my, to myclients.
You have to become the go-toexpert.
(17:10):
That means you have to keepyour finger on the pulse of
what's happening in the market.
You can't have your head in thesand.
And yes, well, I will tell youthis, hearing the phrase
work-life balance is likefingernails on the chalkboard to
somebody like me, especially abusiness owner.
Um, work-life balance isbasically um, once you are
(17:31):
successful, you can do anythingthat you want.
That's the work-life balance.
But if you're concerned withwork-life balance and if your
job ends at, let's say, fiveo'clock and you don't do
anything for work until the nextday, whenever you quote,
unquote are supposed to, you arean employee.
That's it.
You're not a professional,you're an employee.
You're basically a glorifiedhourly employee.
(17:52):
If you're a sales pro, ifyou're not a professional,
you're an employee.
You're basically a glorifiedhourly employee.
If you're a sales pro, if you'renot going to do anything, if
you're not going to researchanything, if you're not going to
study, then you're not going toadvance very far in your career
, unless you have one of thoseproducts that just flies off the
shelf.
Because the businesses trustthe product, they don't need to
trust you.
But for most products out there, for most services out there,
(18:16):
there's a lot of sameness.
It works just as good asanother product.
So what happens is they go withthe person that's easiest to
deal with, the person they trustthe most, and that person
usually is the one that learnsmore, that is willing to try
things, that keeps growing, hasa growth mindset.
(18:36):
A growth mindset does not stoponce you get a sales job.
It does not stop once you hityour first quota.
It does not stop ever.
It should not stop ever,because the markets are always
changing.
All right.
So the first one was you got totake massive action.
The second is you have toconstantly be learning new
things, you have to be elevatingyourself.
(18:57):
And the third is you have tobuild an unstoppable, repeatable
process for everything.
Having the right process,processes or multiple processes,
is crucial in order to scaleyour business.
Everything from how you reachout to a first time, first time
(19:18):
client prospect, to how youhandle followup after a call,
putting them in your pipeline,trying to bring them through the
customer journey, you know that.
12 touch points and then, after12 touch points, you know
keeping them around but notfocusing a lot of your attention
, cause if you've reached out tosomebody 12 times and they
still are not giving you thetime of day, guess what?
(19:40):
They're not interested and youcan move on.
That's okay.
Not every product and service isfor everyone.
Don't waste your time.
You know I call it the timesuck.
Don't let them suck your timeaway, because the time is one of
your most valuable assets andone of the most valuable
resources as a salesprofessional.
Do not let them do that.
Building that repeatable processmeans you're breaking down.
(20:02):
You analyze every singleportion of your business.
For instance I've mentionedthis before the P3 sales method.
It is the sales process thatevery professional should have
Period point blank, full stop.
The P3 sales method is howevery single sales interaction,
every single meeting, sets upthe perfect framework for your
(20:24):
buyer to realize that they needyour product or service, as long
as your product or serviceactually delivers.
If it doesn't deliver, if itcan't promise, then no
methodology is going to work.
But the P3 sales method is theprocess that I've used.
I was taught something similar.
I kind of made a little spin onit, I made it my own and really
(20:47):
kind of flushed out some of thethings I felt were missing.
And really what was missing wasthe, the end part of the P3
sales method, where I called theconsultant close.
It is when the buyer views youas a consultant, not a, not a
sales rep, not a vendor, notsomebody that they buy something
(21:10):
from, but they view you as aconsultant, somebody that they
want to reach out to when theyhave any business questions
whatsoever.
That is the difference, becausefor many years I was scrambling
, I was making sales, I wasgrowing my business, but it was
like I was spinning plates.
If I wasn't in the territory,if I wasn't out in the field, my
(21:33):
sales would dip.
If I wasn't in the territory,if I wasn't out in the field, my
sales would dip.
I'd go to a national salesmeeting and for that week my
business would plummet.
I did not set up a businessprepared to scale, so I made
adjustments and I did everything.
Here I took massive action.
You know I've invested close tosix figures in my education, um
(21:56):
post-college I'm talking likeconsultants, coaches, courses um
books.
I have spent a lot of money andtime to elevate my knowledge,
my skillset.
I've learned new things.
I've gotten out of my comfortzone.
In fact I don't really have acomfort zone Now.
If you know anything about mypast, I've kind of listened,
(22:16):
I've kind of listed this on pastepisodes.
My whole life has been changed,so I am not fearful of change.
I'm very adaptable.
I haven't had a lot ofconsistency in my life as far as
a role, a career life as far asa role, a career, um, the most
(22:41):
I mean the longest consistency Ithink I've ever had was I lived
in the same condo for a decade.
But before that I mean before Ipurchased my condo, I mean
living in Charlotte I'd probablylived in six different places
in eight years, nine years.
I moved a bunch, moved todifferent parts of the city,
moved in with a different friend.
I've had a lot of jobs.
A lot of the companies that Iworked for were bought by bigger
(23:02):
companies and the sales teamwas let go or was realigned, or
I left to go to anotherorganization because I got in
and they didn't have the samemorals, ethics, beliefs that I
wanted.
Um, even going back to highschool, I mean I went to two
different elementary schools,two different middle schools.
(23:23):
Um, every year it was a newbaseball team, new baseball
coach.
So I was used to that.
I mean, getting to college itwas new teammates every year,
you know.
And then I was on three minorleague teams in two and a half
years for, actually for minorleague team, I was signed to
four minor league five yeah,five minor league teams and in
(23:43):
three years.
So I'm very adaptable, learningnew things, and I think that
that has helped me in my career.
So I've taken massive action, Ilearn new things and, of course
, building repeatable processes.
I'm a process and a systems guy.
When something usually breaksdown, it always breaks down in
process.
It usually doesn't break downan ability, it's just the
(24:04):
process wasn't followed.
Like I mentioned before, myprocess wasn't good for my
win-back campaign.
I didn't build one out, I justkind of shotgun it out.
So I didn't even follow my ownprocesses and that's the reason
why I'd failed.
It didn't fail because, um,because of the product or
service that I was offering.
It was literally because Ididn't take big enough action.
I didn't have a process.
So those are the three things.
(24:25):
If you are in sales, these are,these are the three things,
three of the bigger things tobeing great, three of the
biggest keys to be great insales.
You've got to be willing totake massive action.
You have to be willing to learnnew things, new skills.
Get out of your comfort zoneOkay, growth never comes in a
comfort zone and you have tobuild repeatable processes.
(24:46):
You do those three things.
Sky's the limit.
Now, if you're struggling withfiguring out those three things,
please reach out to me, becauseI go through all three of these
things in my coaching programs.
And no matter if you are brandnew to sales, if you're
experienced, or even if you're15, 20 years into the sales
(25:07):
world, sometimes you can't seethe forest or the trees.
You don't even realize thatsome of the things are broken
down within your process forestor the trees and you don't even
realize that some of the thingsare broken down within your
process.
I do a free 30 minute consult Ifyou want to learn more about
your uh, where you are in yourcareer and you want to elevate,
reach out to me.
You can do so, mike, atsurviving outside salescom, or
(25:27):
you can connect with me onLinkedIn and shoot me a DM.
That is about how 95% of thepeople reach out to me is
LinkedIn and they shoot me a DM.
Absolutely, I'd love to meetwith you.
I can send you over a linkafterwards or the link's going
to be in the show notes.
Just book a time.
It's a free 30-minute call.
Kind of see where you are,where you're headed, and if it
doesn't make any sense for us towork together or you don't feel
(25:51):
like it'll help, great, atleast you got a chance to um,
ask your situation and I'll giveyou my breakdown.
Kind of do a little bit of aterritory audit as well where
you are, where you've come from,where you are and where you're
headed and at least you havethat you know.
So I want to give you somethingfor investing 30 minutes of
your life with me and help youout, and if it makes sense to
(26:13):
continue it, fantastic.
If not, reach out to somebodywho really could use the podcast
, send them the link, maybeconvince them to get on a 30
minute call as well.
The more the merrier.
This is what I enjoy doing.
This is the the give back.
As I've mentioned it before, Idid not.
I had to fight tooth and nailto try to find people to help me
, and people were not as willingto do things like this.
(26:35):
This is kind of the give backWorst case scenario.
It's 30 minutes of your time,30 minutes of your life.
It'll set you up for success.
So reach out to me.
Thank you so much.
I really do appreciateeverybody who's listening and
sending me those LinkedInmessages.
I absolutely love gettingfeedback and it's one of the
(26:59):
reasons why I love doing what Ido.
And, uh, we're hurtling towards500.
I'm trying to get back on moreconsistent.
Again, my podcast process hasbeen broken down, so I am trying
to get back on that trainbecause I absolutely enjoy this
and, um, I love hearing fromsales professionals helping them
in their journey.
Um, so thank you all and I'llsee you next time surviving
outside sales Cheers.
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.