October 2, 2023 • 36 mins
Ever felt like you've bitten off more than you can chew?
Well, brace yourselves as I take you through my taxing adventure of investing in franchises, opening a new store, and enduring the challenging journey of outside sales. From the complexities of real estate to the arduous legal aspects of the franchise process, it's a wild ride that has taught me invaluable lessons.
Peek through the keyhole as I wrestle with lease negotiations, taps into the role of an architect firm, and grapple with the SBA process. This tumultuous journey culminates in hiring a general manager, kickstarting construction, and of course, coming to terms with the harsh realities of outside sales. Expect a raw, honest, and enlightening exploration as I share my experiences of dealing with the loss of my dear father, the chaos of September, and the dilemma of juggling too many tasks at once.
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Would appreciate a 5-Star Rating if deserved on Spotify & Apple Podcasts!!!
Connect with Mike:
Website: Mike O'Kelly
Mike@survivingoutsidesales.com
LinkedIn: Mike O'Kelly | LinkedIn
IG: Mike O'Kelly - Sales Builder
______________________________________________________________________
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
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:04):
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike
O'Kelly, presented by SalesBuilder Academy.
The goal is to survive andthrive all phases of outside
sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out.
Surviving Outside Sales.
Now on with the show.
Welcome to the SurvivingOutside Sales podcast.
(00:32):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelly.
I hope everybody's having afantastic start to Q4.
This is the playoffs when itcomes to sales.
I hope everybody had a greatSeptember.
My September was interesting.
It was chaotic, it was hectic,stressful.
It was a lot.
Started off at the beach, endedit Having the funeral service
(00:58):
for my father the militaryservice at Quantico in Northern
Virginia last week, which wasgood it was if you follow the
podcast.
My father, who was in sales,passed away in July.
We finally, as a family, hadclosure and it was everything
(01:19):
that my dad wanted.
He had military funeral.
He is now.
His ashes are now laid to restwith his brothers in arms and I
say brothers because back thenthere were not, if any, women in
the military so the people thathe served with people of his
(01:40):
generation.
He was a Vietnam veteran, hewas an officer in the military.
It's funny that the place thathe is surrounded right now he
has got some pretty heavyhitters.
I don't know a lot about therankings, but he has a lot of
people of much higher rankingsthat are around him.
(02:00):
It's everything that my dadwanted, so it's great to have
that closure.
I know that he is smiling uponme, my family.
He's smiling upon us in heavenright now.
So September was always themonth that was going to happen,
and so September was one ofthose months where you just kind
of you look forward to it, butyou also wanted to enjoy it.
(02:24):
I had two conferences, one on afamily vacation in September.
I put way too much on my plateand also came out of September
with a lot of clarity.
So I'm going to unpack it realquick, because it has a lot to
do with you, the audience, andsome of the changes that are
going to happen.
First of all, no matter who youare, no matter what you are
(02:49):
doing, everyone is fallible.
Everyone makes mistakes andeveryone will fall short of
expectations that others putupon them or you put upon
yourself, and that's the firstthing.
I talked to all my studentsabout that and it gives them a
sigh of relief because theybelieve everybody is perfect and
they're following people onsocial media and they're seeing
(03:11):
other people's wins and nobodyis posting their L's, their
losses.
Since the beginning, I'vementioned that I always will be
transparent with my wins andlosses, because I believe that's
the best way I can serve anaudience.
If all you do is just hear thewins and then you think to
yourself, well, I'm not havingthese wins right now, I must be
doing something wrong.
(03:31):
I'm going to quit.
No, if you understand that,people are going to run into
challenges, people are going tofail.
Okay, I went to a conferencetwo weeks ago and it was all
small business owners.
It was called the BadassBusiness Summit.
It was in Fort Worth, texas.
There was about 100 to 120business owners there small
business owners, solopreneursand everybody was talking about
(03:54):
their failures.
And yet these are some of themost successful people.
There were people that havemillion-dollar businesses and
they were talking aboutstruggling with failure and it's
so cathartic.
It's such a relief to hear thatother people are struggling
with the same things that youmight be struggling with, and
(04:14):
it's not posted enough on socialmedia, it's not talked about
enough on podcasts.
From the beginning, I alwayswanted to be real indifferent.
I've wanted this to be realindifferent, to be a resource of
success and failures.
So right off the bat I can tellyou that I have failed, and I
failed big time.
I took on way too much under myplate.
(04:35):
I got very excited and I spreadmyself too thin.
So all this kind of came to ahead at the Badass Business
Summit and that's the reason whythere were no posts, there were
no podcast episodes last weekand a lot of the podcast
episodes had been rebroadcastsin the month of September and
(05:01):
but I'll come back to that.
So, beginning of the month,preparing for closing our loan
for the Restore Hyperwomenessstore that we're building in
Rock Hill Construction startedtwo weeks ago hired a general
manager, hired an assistantgeneral manager and marketing
manager.
It's becoming the real deal.
(05:23):
If you've listened to thepodcast before, you mentioned or
you knew that I've mentioned mywife and I invested in some
franchises.
At the time that we invested inthem, we were kind of under the
impression that it was going tobe more of an investment,
whereas you hire good people andyou kind of oversee it.
The amount of work involved hasbeen harder than anything that
(05:47):
I have ever done before in mylife and if anybody has ever
done a franchise, they justthey're laughing, they're like
of course it is.
One of the reasons why isbecause there is one thing that
always happens and this is whatyou need to think about if you
are in sales or business you'relistening right now and that is
(06:10):
variable change and change ingeneral.
You have to account forvariable change.
Okay, when things change in anytype of system, you have to
account for that.
You can't just say, well, I'mjust going to keep doing what
(06:31):
I'm doing, even though there'sbeen this seismic shift that's
happened in one area or onemarket, et cetera.
You have to account for it andthat means you have to change
your process.
You have to change your systems, your mindset.
Everything has to change andcoming into September, my
(06:51):
mindset had not changed.
That is where I failed.
Now it's not a failure ofcatastrophic levels, but it is a
failure of preparation.
When we signed up, my wife and Ibought two franchises, the
rights to build two franchises,to own two franchises and
restore hyper wellness.
This was back in January of 22.
(07:13):
Okay, we were talking about itmore than a year and a half ago
and it took us a really longtime to find real estate and, in
that time, the corporate office, the support structure that we
thought we were getting.
They changed it as well, andthe reason why they changed it
was because the economy slowed,corporate real estate slowed,
(07:37):
commercial real estate slowed,there were issues in supply
chains.
So, as a business, they werenot running the same type of
business.
They were running 16, 17 monthsago.
That change should havenecessitated a change on my part
, but it did not.
I just kept plugging alongdoing what I was doing podcast
(07:58):
episodes, thinking that I wasgoing to do five a week in
perpetuity, and I was going todo the Thursday business of
sales live webinars and nothingwas going to change.
How wrong was I?
So just to give you a heads upof what we've had to do in the
last several months besides,well, actually, I'll just go
(08:20):
through it right now.
Okay, you're going to learnwhat it's like to have to go
through the franchise process.
Okay, I wasn't planning ontalking about this right now,
but I think it's a great time torun through it for you, and
this is why it's extremelydifficult and this is the reason
why it takes guidance to getthere.
All right, so you go through thewhole process of buying a
(08:41):
franchise.
Okay, you've done yourinvestigation.
Usually the company will havesome sort of process procedure
to bring you in on to thecorporate office to kind of talk
about it.
For restore, that's calleddial-in day.
You know, we went to AustinTexas.
We talked to all the departmentheads.
There's no hard pitch, it'sbasically a here's what we got.
Go home, think about it.
(09:02):
If you really want to do this,give us a call and let's discuss
further.
We did that.
They agreed.
Yes, we like you Mike, we likeSarah, we like the O'Kelly's, we
want to be in business with theO'Kelly's.
So you sign your paperwork.
You've got to get lawyers tocheck over the paperwork to make
sure that everything is legallyyou know, in your state
everything is good legally.
(09:22):
Then you pay the franchise fee.
Franchise fee could be fivefigures, it could be six figures
, it just depends on what you'redoing.
Okay, so that's your firstcapital outlay.
Okay, so, right off the bat wepaid five figures, mid five
figures, 16, 17 months ago andwe still haven't opened our
(09:45):
doors.
It's okay, we're not going toopen doors.
So you do that.
And then you start to look forreal estate.
Okay, so you hire a broker tohelp you and you start to look
for real estate and usuallyevery brand has guidelines size,
space, location, et cetera andyou have to adhere to those.
(10:05):
It's not like just going outand picking whatever you want.
Usually the franchise hasspecific real estate parameters.
Then, once you find a location,you have to put in an LOI letter
of intent.
Now the letter of intentbasically just says that we kind
of it's like a letter ofinterest, it's like an offer
(10:25):
letter.
If you get a job, it's not yourcontract, it's not what you
actually signed, it's just youroffer letter.
Here's our offer sheet.
This is what we're willing todo, this is what we're willing
to present and if we moveforward through the lease
process, this is what we'regoing to do.
You work with your broker.
You work with the person at thecorporate office to make sure
everything looks good.
Usually your companies have LOItemplates, so you're not having
(10:47):
to create that on your own.
You get the LOI signed, yousend it over to the broker who's
representing the landlord, thecommercial space.
They review it with thelandlord and if they agree to
move forward with the LOI,they'll sign it and send it back
.
Then you start engaging in leasenegotiations.
Now lease negotiations can takeanywhere from three to five
months.
Once you do that, again you gotto get a lawyer.
(11:10):
That is almost five figures.
And then you got to get alawyer.
A lawyer comes through it.
They go back and forth, backand forth, back and forth,
making sure that it is reallybeneficial to both sides.
But the landlord wants to havesomething that's profitable for
the landlord, but the lawyer youhave should make sure that
you're protected.
Then, once you sign the lease,you're locked in.
(11:35):
Now leases can be 10 years plusa couple of five-year terms
added onto that.
So you're locked in for 10years minimum Usually.
Sometimes it's five.
Then, once you go through thatpart so you've gone through the
negotiations it's every daycoming back and forth.
Hey, what does this look like?
It's hopping on zooms, etcetera.
(11:57):
Then you start engaging anarchitect firm to draw up your
designs.
Now the architect has to doyour floor plan, it has to do
your electrical, it has to doeverything that's designed
perfectly, so that then you canhand it over to the landlord, to
a construction team.
So that process can take two tothree months, depending on how
(12:19):
quickly it is, how adept you areas an owner on how you go
through that.
So after you get your architectdrawings.
Then after the architectdrawings you submit them,
obviously, to the corporateoffice.
Sometimes corporate officehandle that, but restored didn't
.
They're like nope, you guysengage.
We used a architect firm thathas done restores before, so at
(12:42):
least there was familiarity.
But up to this point it's almostlike child's play.
You're probably spending fiveto 10 hours a week on this.
Not a big deal.
It's a lot of time.
It's 20 to 25% of your week,your work week, but you're still
.
It's nothing compared to whenyou really get going.
(13:06):
And I had kind of heard it's oneof those things.
Just as I became a father, allmy buddies that had kids said
just wait, you think you'reprepared, you think you know
what it's going to be like to bea dad and you think you know
what it's going to be like tohave an infant, a newborn, an
infant, a toddler.
You have no idea.
And how true was that?
You just don't know.
You can't prepare until you'reactually in it.
It's the exact same thing ofopening a brick and mortar store
(13:28):
or buying a franchise.
You think you know, you thinkyou're prepared, but you're
really not and you just have toget through it the best you can
and just keep moving forward anddon't look back and say I wish
I would have done this, whichone had done that Great.
Do that on your second, goaround, your third go around
whatever, but your first justget advice, talk to people who
have been there, done that, andthen keep moving forward.
(13:49):
So then, after the so, you gotyour LOI, you got your space,
which, by the way, for us, wehad to go to an entirely new
city.
So we had to exercise oursecond option city, which is
Rock Hill, south Carolina,because we could not find real
estate.
We searched for real estate for12 months in Southwest
(14:10):
Charlotte and we could not findanything that fit what we were
trying to do.
Real estate was very slim tonone and there was none.
There was nothing the size weneeded, the specs we needed,
location we needed.
So we moved to Rock Hill and wetried to search there and we
found something.
And so this.
So South Carolina was oursecond choice to start, or that
(14:32):
was going to be our second orour second store to open.
But this now it's the first.
Again, you have to pivot and youhave to adjust.
That is probably the best thingthat we did was we just sat
there and said, look, we can'tfind anything in southwest
Charlotte and Steel Creek area,let's go to Rock Hill and let's
try to find something there.
And Then we found somethingwithin a couple months.
(14:52):
Maybe it was like six weeks,less than six weeks, we found
something.
And you just have to do thatsometimes in business.
Okay, you can't just keepTrying to fit a square peg into
a round hole and it's gonna allof a sudden Work one day, okay.
So once you get through your,we'll go back.
Okay, you find real estate, youget it approved, you do an LOI
(15:17):
and during the LOI there areforms upon forms upon forms.
The landlord wants to know allof your personal information,
your net worth, how much moneyyou have, your liquidity, your
bank accounts.
They're gonna run a soft pullon your credit.
They want to know who you are.
Okay, so this is not likerenting an apartment.
Okay, they're in business withyou for a really long time.
(15:41):
Now I know if you're thinking.
Well, you know we've gonethrough that when we did a house
.
I have purchased two properties.
My wife has purchased twoproperties.
One of the properties is joint,but we've done that before.
The mortgage process is a pieceof cake.
The mortgage process is a walkin the park compared to what
we've had to do for the smallbusiness loan.
And that's one thing I forgotabout is the SBA loan.
We're going through that, wewent through and we closed.
(16:02):
That was a financial audit andthe amount of paperwork, the
amount of emails, the amount ofstuff that went into it was
astronomical, was astronomical.
And Everybody said the FBA, theSBA, is great for what it
allows you to do, but it is aprocess.
Oh my gosh, was it a process?
It's like 25 things that youhave to do and in order to do
(16:26):
each one of those 25, it'sprobably about four to ten hours
.
Five to ten hours of work thatgoes into that and which is okay
.
I mean, we had a, we had almosthad almost a year and a half to
do that.
So this is all runningconcurrently.
We're going through the SBAprocess.
We're having zoom meeting afterzoom meeting with the bank,
(16:47):
we're sending over documentsleft and right, we're talking
with lawyers, we're gettinglicenses, we're getting
insurance, we're working witharchitects and simultaneously,
I'm doing my coaching business.
My wife is a full-time job.
I'm doing five podcasts a week,I'm doing the the Thursday and
Behind the scenes.
I'm like a duck, who's just,you know, on top of the water.
(17:08):
It looked all cool, calm andcollected, but underneath my
feet are kicking and All right.
So now you get to the Build out.
Okay, oh forgot.
After you get the lease, thenyou start hiring a general
contractor.
Okay, then you got to put in.
You got a request, bids, andthat process usually takes about
six to eight weeks.
You reach out to two firms.
(17:31):
You tell them what the build isand then they come back with
what they think the costs aregoing to be.
So they reach out tosubcontractors, they reach out
to superintendents, they sendback a quote to you and then you
talk about the quote and youtalk to the first the To you
think you're gonna go with, andyou ask them questions and
follow up.
There's a lot of back and forthand there's a lot of review
(17:51):
that goes into it.
So just going through thegeneral contractor process was
at least 10 hours, maybe 20.
So that's almost a half a weekof work just going through that
little process.
And then, once you hire them,then you start going to permit.
And Well, permit is I'm sorry,permit is running concurrently.
So after the plans are done.
(18:13):
The firm will then submit tothe city for permitting and then
you're trying to get permit.
Before work can happen, beforeConstruction can happen on the
space, you have to have yourpermits.
So that's all runningconcurrently.
So Probably I mean at thispoint now this is August we're
having 10 hours a week ofmeetings, zoom meetings with
(18:35):
different groups.
We're also putting in Foremployees.
So I'm also posting jobs on.
We use this company calledcareer plug.
I'm hiring a general manager.
So then we're doing interviews,phone screens, interviews,
preparing for our familyvacation, you know, going
through the process of my fatherjust passing plus just general
(18:57):
summer, having two toddlers, twokids and Once you get to but
that's not important right now,I'm just talking about this
franchise process.
I have to remind myself.
I'm just talking about this.
So then you're concurrentlygetting your payroll set up.
You're concurrently gettingyour resale taxes Licenses from
the state.
You're still making sure you'regood to go with the state.
(19:20):
Your architecture firm isprobably is still working on the
permitting.
You're hiring a GC.
You're hiring a general managerto run the store.
Once it's open You're puttingout post for jobs and then, once
you get the GC signed, ready togo, you have a start date and
then you're trying to work toget permits done by the start
date because they have promisedpeople work, those
(19:42):
Subcontractors, those people aregonna do the job They've
promised them work and you'vegot a timeline that you're gonna
build.
Then, when that happens, you'regonna start your marketing,
you're gonna start your socialmedia, you're gonna start
getting your insurance ready togo, and All of this is happening
and you so.
Right now we are two and a halfweeks into build.
(20:04):
We have a general manager hiredand our assistant GM starts
next week.
We have a soft opening date ofNovember 20th, which is six
weeks away.
Seven weeks away.
It's pretty quick.
So if you were exhausted justhearing me tell that story,
(20:25):
imagine going through that Now.
I would not have wanted it anyother way.
I can't tell you how fortunateI am that we have an opportunity
to bring restore to Rock Hill,south Carolina, and we are going
(20:46):
to build out something new.
I'm a builder.
I mean shoot.
I just I've named my trainingcompany after it Sales Builder
Academy.
I'm a builder, I love doing it.
The change that happened was theamount of support that Restore
Corporate was offering, and Iget it.
(21:08):
Things change.
When we signed up.
It was more of a done for you,where they kind of they had tons
of people working at thecorporate office, tons of people
working at the corporate officethat were going to do
everything.
They're going to do pre-salesover the phone.
They were going to handle allthe stuff on the back end.
They were going to createeverything, but it wasn't
sustainable.
The economy hit and the amountof people they had to let a lot
(21:31):
of people go.
It happens in business and ithappens everywhere.
This is normal.
Companies expand too quicklybecause times are great, and so
what happens is you have tosupport when times are great,
but then when times flip veryquickly and they flipped very
quickly from 2021 to 2022, theeconomy flipped really fast.
(21:54):
Inflation skyrocketed.
When that happens, you have tomake change and you have to
adjust.
So, as I mentioned, I didn'tadjust fast enough.
What I should have done was Ishould have come in, probably in
July and had this conversationand shared with the audience
(22:16):
that the Surviving Outside Salespodcast is going to look a lot
different.
There's 350 plus episodes inand I thank every single person
who has listened.
The Surviving Outside Salespodcast will not be five days a
week moving forward.
I don't know if it's going tobe one day a week moving forward
(22:37):
.
What I can tell you is there'sa new normal in my life.
There's a new normal.
There's no two quarters of thesame.
At least what I'm telling youhas come true no two quarters
are the same.
So Q1 of 2023 and Q4 of 2023are not the same, and Q4 of 2022
(23:03):
and Q4 of 2023 are not the same.
It's okay.
What you have to do, though, isyou have to focus on what you
can control and the decisionsyou can make whenever there is
variable change.
So I don't know what's going tohappen with the Surviving
Outside Sales podcast.
I'm going to try to do moreepisodes because I have things
(23:25):
to share and I have things totalk about.
I don't make any money off thepodcast.
I'm not trying to monetize it.
This has been a labor of lovefor an industry that has given
me so much.
The outside sales world,outside sales professionals,
sales in general has given me somuch.
(23:46):
It's given my family so much.
So the Surviving Outside Salespodcast was a resource, a tool
for those who are still in thefight.
You know you're going out thereand you're talking to accounts.
You're knocking on doors.
You're trying to gain business.
You're driving around, you'reputting miles on your car, miles
on your body, you're having tostay in hotels, you're away from
(24:07):
your loved ones.
That's who I'm fighting for.
I'm fighting for you and that'swhat I have done.
The fight is not going away.
I'm just always going to behonest and transparent.
I don't want to be like some ofthose.
I'm not going to say whichpodcast it was, but there was a
podcast I absolutely loved.
I listened to it all the time.
(24:28):
I listened to when episodeswere released, but the show
would just go on hiatuses.
And I'd look on social mediaand I listened to every episode
and I heard nothing and it wenton like a six month hiatus.
And you know, you kind of sitthere and you're like what are
(24:48):
you doing?
People are listening to you andyou're just the guy just
decided he didn't want to do itfor a while, he just want to
take a break.
Well, that's great, I love it.
Just tell people, keep peopleinformed.
So that's what I'm doing rightnow.
I had a hectic September.
Two sales conferences Came backfrom the beach.
(25:10):
I was on stage at the biz atthe bad ass business summit.
I gave a talk.
I have not watched the videoyet.
I have not watched the video.
I changed my speech about twohours before I was going to go
live.
I completely just dismissed thespeech that I had prepared and
(25:31):
then I just went with a new oneand I learned a lot and this
episode kind of got off therails a little bit.
But if you're listening to theshow you know that kind of
happens.
I wanted to talk about kind ofthe key takeaways from the
business summit and I startedtalking about franchising and I
(25:53):
hope that you kind of understandwhy I'm kind of dumping right
now, because I don't know whenI'm going to get back to be able
to do another episode.
I am going all in on restorehyper wellness right now.
In fact, I have coachingstudents right now that are
going to continue to continue towork with them until they're
(26:15):
done, until they're good, untilthey're ready to go.
They've been, the plan has beenfulfilled.
I'm not taking any more clientsat this time.
I'm not taking any morecoaching students at this time.
I don't know when I'm going toin the future.
I'm not doing any more meet andgreets either.
So I hate to not do that or Ihate to do that.
(26:39):
I hate to not talk to salespros, but I have to go all in.
You know, my family, my wifeand I have invested way too much
and this is way too importantto try to straddle the fence.
And sometimes in life you haveto go.
You have to go all in and youhave to be okay with the
(27:01):
ramifications of what that means.
It means that people are goingto be hurt.
It means that others are goingto be frustrated upset.
Some people might say you're ahypocrite.
Sometimes you just got to dowhat you got to do.
I don't know Again what isgoing to happen in the surviving
(27:21):
outside sales podcast.
I will try to do it, but I oweit to myself, I owe it to my
wife, I owe it to my family togo all in and to live, eat,
breathe, sleep, restorehyper-wellness so effective,
(27:41):
immediately.
Everything is going to change.
You're gonna notice the changeson LinkedIn.
There is no more Thursday.
There is not gonna be any morebusiness of sales live on
Thursdays.
I still love the business ofsales live.
It is just not something thatI'm gonna have time for.
(28:04):
And one of the things that Ilearned at the business summit
there was this great guy, jerryMcNamara, if you wanna follow
him on LinkedIn.
He said he talked about themafia offer and he said the
mafia offer is you have to betwice as good or half the price,
(28:25):
twice as good or half the price.
Here's the hint.
You don't wanna be half theprice, so, whatever you are
doing, you need to be twice asgood.
Now, what does that mean?
If you are the same as yourcompetitor through the same
price as your competitor, whatdo you offer?
(28:46):
That is, twice as good is whatthe competition can offer.
Okay, what is it?
If you don't know what that is,you need to examine it.
So, for instance, it's you,it's your service, it's your
followup, it's your sense ofcommunity, it's your process,
(29:10):
it's your training.
If somebody is selling a productand they're not offering
post-sale training, offerpost-sale training for free.
Sell it as a perk.
Create a VIP program.
Have an event for your topclients every quarter, use some
(29:32):
of your budget, invite them to ahappy hour or a dinner or
whatever, and thank them fortheir business and ask them who
they need to talk to.
Is there anybody in your world,or is anybody in their world
that they can connect you with?
That is being twice as good,cause there's a lot of people
out there that all they do isthey're nine to five sales pros
(29:56):
and the minute that it hits fiveo'clock they don't care.
They're just there to get theirsales or they get their money.
They could care less aboutthose clients.
That is where you create yourmafia offer.
I want you to think about it.
What's my mafia offer?
Think about it today.
Ask yourself today what is mymafia offer and how can I
translate that?
How can I communicate that withmy buyers?
(30:18):
Right now, in Q4, you have anopportunity to change your world
forever.
What's your mafia offer?
Stop focusing on price.
I will tell you this people donot real business owners do not
(30:38):
make decisions solely based onprice.
They think about how easy isthis company or person to work
with?
Do I wanna have a relationshipwith this person?
Period, full stop.
Create your mafia offer.
Okay, be twice as good.
(31:01):
The rest will fall into place.
Stop focusing on price.
People want to spend money, butthey want tremendous value.
If people find tremendous valuein what you're doing, the price
is not really going to matter.
50 to 60% of the time, you'recalling on business owners that
have money.
(31:21):
They know how to get access tomoney.
What they're looking for is areturn on their investment.
The mafia offer fits perfectlyinto the PPF method.
They want a better future state.
Show them how they're gonna getthere and show them the fun,
the excitement that it's gonnabe to partner with you along the
(31:43):
way.
I want to thank every singleperson who's been listening over
the last two years.
I don't know again.
I don't know the next timethere's going to be a new
surviving outside sales podcastepisode.
(32:05):
I don't want the momentum, Idon't want this to die, I don't
want this to end, but I alsohave to go all in and I do feel
like in my past life, in my pastcareers, I've always had
something going on on the sideand I really thought to myself.
(32:27):
You know, when I was at thatconference and I was on the
plane flying out there leavingmy family for a week, I was
thinking to myself what wouldhappen if I went all in?
I mean, even with my coaching,even with the things I've been
doing for the last couple years,I haven't been all in, because
the moment we signed thatpaperwork in January or, I'm
(32:48):
sorry, february, was it January?
I think it was January,february of 22.
Since beginning of last year theRestore Hyperwoundess has
always been hanging over ourhead.
So I've never really been ableto go all in on my coaching.
I've never been able to go allin on speaking.
So even that, even the podcast,I didn't get a chance to
because we were Using money forRestore.
(33:08):
I didn't have a chance toexpand the podcast like I wanted
, to build out the podcaststudio.
I've kind of done a makeshiftstudio in my, in my bonus room.
I call it the man Cove becauseit's not quite a man cave,
because I have a little nookthat I think is about.
You know, six by six, I have 36square feet, maybe a little bit
more, maybe 60 square feet uphere of room where I have my
(33:33):
stuff.
But it's time for me to go allin.
And that's another thing foryou.
Are you, are you all in on yourbusiness?
Are you all in on your business?
Are you bringing value?
And that's really the key thing.
I don't believe I'm bringing thesame type of value.
So I'm spread too thin, I'vegot too many distractions and I
kind of I need this time to recenter myself and reestablish my
(34:00):
DNA of who I am as a sales pro,as a business owner, as a
business professional.
So I need, this time as well,to focus on one thing and one
thing only to absolutely crushit.
It's what I, it's what I preachto my students, it's what I've
preached I hate to use the wordpreach, but it's what I've
talked about.
It's what I talked about.
My students Be all in, bepresent, focus.
(34:21):
And now it's time for me totake my own advice.
I will tell you this when I havenew episodes of the Surviving
Outside Sales podcast.
Whenever it may be, it is goingto bring tremendous value.
It is not going to be fluff.
It is going to be actionablethings.
(34:42):
It's going to be stories thatare going to be relatable to
what people are struggling within real time and sometimes, I
believe, doing it every day.
I had plenty of topics, butsome of the episodes kind of
fell flat.
So, without further ado, Ireally do appreciate it.
(35:04):
I hope every single personcrushes it.
I hope every single personcrushes it for Q4.
Go after it.
Focus, focus, focus, focus onthe 25 to 50 accounts that you
can make immediate change inthree months.
(35:27):
In other words, you can closethem in three months.
You don't want to be focusingon people that are going to take
a year to close them.
You can start laying thegroundwork, but you need to
focus on the people that youthink are going to close and
move forward in the next 90 days.
There's 25 to 50 accounts outthere.
No matter who you are, closethem.
Be twice as good.
(35:48):
Provide twice as much value asa competitor you have, whether
that is another person, anothercompany, another product or, if
it's the status quo, providetwice the value.
Talk about the future state.
Talk about the future state andshow them that you are going to
(36:11):
be there for the long haul.
If you do those three things,you're going to crush it in Q4.
Thank you so much.
I really do appreciate it andfor now, signing off, this has
been Surviving Outside SalesMike O'Kelly Cheers.
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike
O'Kelly, presented by SalesBuilder Academy.
The goal is to survive andthrive all phases of outside
sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out.
Surviving Outside Sales.
Now on with the show.
Welcome to the SurvivingOutside Sales podcast.
(00:32):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelly.
I hope everybody's having afantastic start to Q4.
This is the playoffs when itcomes to sales.
I hope everybody had a greatSeptember.
My September was interesting.
It was chaotic, it was hectic,stressful.
It was a lot.
Started off at the beach, endedit Having the funeral service
(00:58):
for my father the militaryservice at Quantico in Northern
Virginia last week, which wasgood it was if you follow the
podcast.
My father, who was in sales,passed away in July.
We finally, as a family, hadclosure and it was everything
(01:19):
that my dad wanted.
He had military funeral.
He is now.
His ashes are now laid to restwith his brothers in arms and I
say brothers because back thenthere were not, if any, women in
the military so the people thathe served with people of his
(01:40):
generation.
He was a Vietnam veteran, hewas an officer in the military.
It's funny that the place thathe is surrounded right now he
has got some pretty heavyhitters.
I don't know a lot about therankings, but he has a lot of
people of much higher rankingsthat are around him.
(02:00):
It's everything that my dadwanted, so it's great to have
that closure.
I know that he is smiling uponme, my family.
He's smiling upon us in heavenright now.
So September was always themonth that was going to happen,
and so September was one ofthose months where you just kind
of you look forward to it, butyou also wanted to enjoy it.
(02:24):
I had two conferences, one on afamily vacation in September.
I put way too much on my plateand also came out of September
with a lot of clarity.
So I'm going to unpack it realquick, because it has a lot to
do with you, the audience, andsome of the changes that are
going to happen.
First of all, no matter who youare, no matter what you are
(02:49):
doing, everyone is fallible.
Everyone makes mistakes andeveryone will fall short of
expectations that others putupon them or you put upon
yourself, and that's the firstthing.
I talked to all my studentsabout that and it gives them a
sigh of relief because theybelieve everybody is perfect and
they're following people onsocial media and they're seeing
(03:11):
other people's wins and nobodyis posting their L's, their
losses.
Since the beginning, I'vementioned that I always will be
transparent with my wins andlosses, because I believe that's
the best way I can serve anaudience.
If all you do is just hear thewins and then you think to
yourself, well, I'm not havingthese wins right now, I must be
doing something wrong.
(03:31):
I'm going to quit.
No, if you understand that,people are going to run into
challenges, people are going tofail.
Okay, I went to a conferencetwo weeks ago and it was all
small business owners.
It was called the BadassBusiness Summit.
It was in Fort Worth, texas.
There was about 100 to 120business owners there small
business owners, solopreneursand everybody was talking about
(03:54):
their failures.
And yet these are some of themost successful people.
There were people that havemillion-dollar businesses and
they were talking aboutstruggling with failure and it's
so cathartic.
It's such a relief to hear thatother people are struggling
with the same things that youmight be struggling with, and
(04:14):
it's not posted enough on socialmedia, it's not talked about
enough on podcasts.
From the beginning, I alwayswanted to be real indifferent.
I've wanted this to be realindifferent, to be a resource of
success and failures.
So right off the bat I can tellyou that I have failed, and I
failed big time.
I took on way too much under myplate.
(04:35):
I got very excited and I spreadmyself too thin.
So all this kind of came to ahead at the Badass Business
Summit and that's the reason whythere were no posts, there were
no podcast episodes last weekand a lot of the podcast
episodes had been rebroadcastsin the month of September and
(05:01):
but I'll come back to that.
So, beginning of the month,preparing for closing our loan
for the Restore Hyperwomenessstore that we're building in
Rock Hill Construction startedtwo weeks ago hired a general
manager, hired an assistantgeneral manager and marketing
manager.
It's becoming the real deal.
(05:23):
If you've listened to thepodcast before, you mentioned or
you knew that I've mentioned mywife and I invested in some
franchises.
At the time that we invested inthem, we were kind of under the
impression that it was going tobe more of an investment,
whereas you hire good people andyou kind of oversee it.
The amount of work involved hasbeen harder than anything that
(05:47):
I have ever done before in mylife and if anybody has ever
done a franchise, they justthey're laughing, they're like
of course it is.
One of the reasons why isbecause there is one thing that
always happens and this is whatyou need to think about if you
are in sales or business you'relistening right now and that is
(06:10):
variable change and change ingeneral.
You have to account forvariable change.
Okay, when things change in anytype of system, you have to
account for that.
You can't just say, well, I'mjust going to keep doing what
(06:31):
I'm doing, even though there'sbeen this seismic shift that's
happened in one area or onemarket, et cetera.
You have to account for it andthat means you have to change
your process.
You have to change your systems, your mindset.
Everything has to change andcoming into September, my
(06:51):
mindset had not changed.
That is where I failed.
Now it's not a failure ofcatastrophic levels, but it is a
failure of preparation.
When we signed up, my wife and Ibought two franchises, the
rights to build two franchises,to own two franchises and
restore hyper wellness.
This was back in January of 22.
(07:13):
Okay, we were talking about itmore than a year and a half ago
and it took us a really longtime to find real estate and, in
that time, the corporate office, the support structure that we
thought we were getting.
They changed it as well, andthe reason why they changed it
was because the economy slowed,corporate real estate slowed,
(07:37):
commercial real estate slowed,there were issues in supply
chains.
So, as a business, they werenot running the same type of
business.
They were running 16, 17 monthsago.
That change should havenecessitated a change on my part
, but it did not.
I just kept plugging alongdoing what I was doing podcast
(07:58):
episodes, thinking that I wasgoing to do five a week in
perpetuity, and I was going todo the Thursday business of
sales live webinars and nothingwas going to change.
How wrong was I?
So just to give you a heads upof what we've had to do in the
last several months besides,well, actually, I'll just go
(08:20):
through it right now.
Okay, you're going to learnwhat it's like to have to go
through the franchise process.
Okay, I wasn't planning ontalking about this right now,
but I think it's a great time torun through it for you, and
this is why it's extremelydifficult and this is the reason
why it takes guidance to getthere.
All right, so you go through thewhole process of buying a
(08:41):
franchise.
Okay, you've done yourinvestigation.
Usually the company will havesome sort of process procedure
to bring you in on to thecorporate office to kind of talk
about it.
For restore, that's calleddial-in day.
You know, we went to AustinTexas.
We talked to all the departmentheads.
There's no hard pitch, it'sbasically a here's what we got.
Go home, think about it.
(09:02):
If you really want to do this,give us a call and let's discuss
further.
We did that.
They agreed.
Yes, we like you Mike, we likeSarah, we like the O'Kelly's, we
want to be in business with theO'Kelly's.
So you sign your paperwork.
You've got to get lawyers tocheck over the paperwork to make
sure that everything is legallyyou know, in your state
everything is good legally.
(09:22):
Then you pay the franchise fee.
Franchise fee could be fivefigures, it could be six figures
, it just depends on what you'redoing.
Okay, so that's your firstcapital outlay.
Okay, so, right off the bat wepaid five figures, mid five
figures, 16, 17 months ago andwe still haven't opened our
(09:45):
doors.
It's okay, we're not going toopen doors.
So you do that.
And then you start to look forreal estate.
Okay, so you hire a broker tohelp you and you start to look
for real estate and usuallyevery brand has guidelines size,
space, location, et cetera andyou have to adhere to those.
(10:05):
It's not like just going outand picking whatever you want.
Usually the franchise hasspecific real estate parameters.
Then, once you find a location,you have to put in an LOI letter
of intent.
Now the letter of intentbasically just says that we kind
of it's like a letter ofinterest, it's like an offer
(10:25):
letter.
If you get a job, it's not yourcontract, it's not what you
actually signed, it's just youroffer letter.
Here's our offer sheet.
This is what we're willing todo, this is what we're willing
to present and if we moveforward through the lease
process, this is what we'regoing to do.
You work with your broker.
You work with the person at thecorporate office to make sure
everything looks good.
Usually your companies have LOItemplates, so you're not having
(10:47):
to create that on your own.
You get the LOI signed, yousend it over to the broker who's
representing the landlord, thecommercial space.
They review it with thelandlord and if they agree to
move forward with the LOI,they'll sign it and send it back
.
Then you start engaging in leasenegotiations.
Now lease negotiations can takeanywhere from three to five
months.
Once you do that, again you gotto get a lawyer.
(11:10):
That is almost five figures.
And then you got to get alawyer.
A lawyer comes through it.
They go back and forth, backand forth, back and forth,
making sure that it is reallybeneficial to both sides.
But the landlord wants to havesomething that's profitable for
the landlord, but the lawyer youhave should make sure that
you're protected.
Then, once you sign the lease,you're locked in.
(11:35):
Now leases can be 10 years plusa couple of five-year terms
added onto that.
So you're locked in for 10years minimum Usually.
Sometimes it's five.
Then, once you go through thatpart so you've gone through the
negotiations it's every daycoming back and forth.
Hey, what does this look like?
It's hopping on zooms, etcetera.
(11:57):
Then you start engaging anarchitect firm to draw up your
designs.
Now the architect has to doyour floor plan, it has to do
your electrical, it has to doeverything that's designed
perfectly, so that then you canhand it over to the landlord, to
a construction team.
So that process can take two tothree months, depending on how
(12:19):
quickly it is, how adept you areas an owner on how you go
through that.
So after you get your architectdrawings.
Then after the architectdrawings you submit them,
obviously, to the corporateoffice.
Sometimes corporate officehandle that, but restored didn't
.
They're like nope, you guysengage.
We used a architect firm thathas done restores before, so at
(12:42):
least there was familiarity.
But up to this point it's almostlike child's play.
You're probably spending fiveto 10 hours a week on this.
Not a big deal.
It's a lot of time.
It's 20 to 25% of your week,your work week, but you're still
.
It's nothing compared to whenyou really get going.
(13:06):
And I had kind of heard it's oneof those things.
Just as I became a father, allmy buddies that had kids said
just wait, you think you'reprepared, you think you know
what it's going to be like to bea dad and you think you know
what it's going to be like tohave an infant, a newborn, an
infant, a toddler.
You have no idea.
And how true was that?
You just don't know.
You can't prepare until you'reactually in it.
It's the exact same thing ofopening a brick and mortar store
(13:28):
or buying a franchise.
You think you know, you thinkyou're prepared, but you're
really not and you just have toget through it the best you can
and just keep moving forward anddon't look back and say I wish
I would have done this, whichone had done that Great.
Do that on your second, goaround, your third go around
whatever, but your first justget advice, talk to people who
have been there, done that, andthen keep moving forward.
(13:49):
So then, after the so, you gotyour LOI, you got your space,
which, by the way, for us, wehad to go to an entirely new
city.
So we had to exercise oursecond option city, which is
Rock Hill, south Carolina,because we could not find real
estate.
We searched for real estate for12 months in Southwest
(14:10):
Charlotte and we could not findanything that fit what we were
trying to do.
Real estate was very slim tonone and there was none.
There was nothing the size weneeded, the specs we needed,
location we needed.
So we moved to Rock Hill and wetried to search there and we
found something.
And so this.
So South Carolina was oursecond choice to start, or that
(14:32):
was going to be our second orour second store to open.
But this now it's the first.
Again, you have to pivot and youhave to adjust.
That is probably the best thingthat we did was we just sat
there and said, look, we can'tfind anything in southwest
Charlotte and Steel Creek area,let's go to Rock Hill and let's
try to find something there.
And Then we found somethingwithin a couple months.
(14:52):
Maybe it was like six weeks,less than six weeks, we found
something.
And you just have to do thatsometimes in business.
Okay, you can't just keepTrying to fit a square peg into
a round hole and it's gonna allof a sudden Work one day, okay.
So once you get through your,we'll go back.
Okay, you find real estate, youget it approved, you do an LOI
(15:17):
and during the LOI there areforms upon forms upon forms.
The landlord wants to know allof your personal information,
your net worth, how much moneyyou have, your liquidity, your
bank accounts.
They're gonna run a soft pullon your credit.
They want to know who you are.
Okay, so this is not likerenting an apartment.
Okay, they're in business withyou for a really long time.
(15:41):
Now I know if you're thinking.
Well, you know we've gonethrough that when we did a house
.
I have purchased two properties.
My wife has purchased twoproperties.
One of the properties is joint,but we've done that before.
The mortgage process is a pieceof cake.
The mortgage process is a walkin the park compared to what
we've had to do for the smallbusiness loan.
And that's one thing I forgotabout is the SBA loan.
We're going through that, wewent through and we closed.
(16:02):
That was a financial audit andthe amount of paperwork, the
amount of emails, the amount ofstuff that went into it was
astronomical, was astronomical.
And Everybody said the FBA, theSBA, is great for what it
allows you to do, but it is aprocess.
Oh my gosh, was it a process?
It's like 25 things that youhave to do and in order to do
(16:26):
each one of those 25, it'sprobably about four to ten hours
.
Five to ten hours of work thatgoes into that and which is okay
.
I mean, we had a, we had almosthad almost a year and a half to
do that.
So this is all runningconcurrently.
We're going through the SBAprocess.
We're having zoom meeting afterzoom meeting with the bank,
(16:47):
we're sending over documentsleft and right, we're talking
with lawyers, we're gettinglicenses, we're getting
insurance, we're working witharchitects and simultaneously,
I'm doing my coaching business.
My wife is a full-time job.
I'm doing five podcasts a week,I'm doing the the Thursday and
Behind the scenes.
I'm like a duck, who's just,you know, on top of the water.
(17:08):
It looked all cool, calm andcollected, but underneath my
feet are kicking and All right.
So now you get to the Build out.
Okay, oh forgot.
After you get the lease, thenyou start hiring a general
contractor.
Okay, then you got to put in.
You got a request, bids, andthat process usually takes about
six to eight weeks.
You reach out to two firms.
(17:31):
You tell them what the build isand then they come back with
what they think the costs aregoing to be.
So they reach out tosubcontractors, they reach out
to superintendents, they sendback a quote to you and then you
talk about the quote and youtalk to the first the To you
think you're gonna go with, andyou ask them questions and
follow up.
There's a lot of back and forthand there's a lot of review
(17:51):
that goes into it.
So just going through thegeneral contractor process was
at least 10 hours, maybe 20.
So that's almost a half a weekof work just going through that
little process.
And then, once you hire them,then you start going to permit.
And Well, permit is I'm sorry,permit is running concurrently.
So after the plans are done.
(18:13):
The firm will then submit tothe city for permitting and then
you're trying to get permit.
Before work can happen, beforeConstruction can happen on the
space, you have to have yourpermits.
So that's all runningconcurrently.
So Probably I mean at thispoint now this is August we're
having 10 hours a week ofmeetings, zoom meetings with
(18:35):
different groups.
We're also putting in Foremployees.
So I'm also posting jobs on.
We use this company calledcareer plug.
I'm hiring a general manager.
So then we're doing interviews,phone screens, interviews,
preparing for our familyvacation, you know, going
through the process of my fatherjust passing plus just general
(18:57):
summer, having two toddlers, twokids and Once you get to but
that's not important right now,I'm just talking about this
franchise process.
I have to remind myself.
I'm just talking about this.
So then you're concurrentlygetting your payroll set up.
You're concurrently gettingyour resale taxes Licenses from
the state.
You're still making sure you'regood to go with the state.
(19:20):
Your architecture firm isprobably is still working on the
permitting.
You're hiring a GC.
You're hiring a general managerto run the store.
Once it's open You're puttingout post for jobs and then, once
you get the GC signed, ready togo, you have a start date and
then you're trying to work toget permits done by the start
date because they have promisedpeople work, those
(19:42):
Subcontractors, those people aregonna do the job They've
promised them work and you'vegot a timeline that you're gonna
build.
Then, when that happens, you'regonna start your marketing,
you're gonna start your socialmedia, you're gonna start
getting your insurance ready togo, and All of this is happening
and you so.
Right now we are two and a halfweeks into build.
(20:04):
We have a general manager hiredand our assistant GM starts
next week.
We have a soft opening date ofNovember 20th, which is six
weeks away.
Seven weeks away.
It's pretty quick.
So if you were exhausted justhearing me tell that story,
(20:25):
imagine going through that Now.
I would not have wanted it anyother way.
I can't tell you how fortunateI am that we have an opportunity
to bring restore to Rock Hill,south Carolina, and we are going
(20:46):
to build out something new.
I'm a builder.
I mean shoot.
I just I've named my trainingcompany after it Sales Builder
Academy.
I'm a builder, I love doing it.
The change that happened was theamount of support that Restore
Corporate was offering, and Iget it.
(21:08):
Things change.
When we signed up.
It was more of a done for you,where they kind of they had tons
of people working at thecorporate office, tons of people
working at the corporate officethat were going to do
everything.
They're going to do pre-salesover the phone.
They were going to handle allthe stuff on the back end.
They were going to createeverything, but it wasn't
sustainable.
The economy hit and the amountof people they had to let a lot
(21:31):
of people go.
It happens in business and ithappens everywhere.
This is normal.
Companies expand too quicklybecause times are great, and so
what happens is you have tosupport when times are great,
but then when times flip veryquickly and they flipped very
quickly from 2021 to 2022, theeconomy flipped really fast.
(21:54):
Inflation skyrocketed.
When that happens, you have tomake change and you have to
adjust.
So, as I mentioned, I didn'tadjust fast enough.
What I should have done was Ishould have come in, probably in
July and had this conversationand shared with the audience
(22:16):
that the Surviving Outside Salespodcast is going to look a lot
different.
There's 350 plus episodes inand I thank every single person
who has listened.
The Surviving Outside Salespodcast will not be five days a
week moving forward.
I don't know if it's going tobe one day a week moving forward
(22:37):
.
What I can tell you is there'sa new normal in my life.
There's a new normal.
There's no two quarters of thesame.
At least what I'm telling youhas come true no two quarters
are the same.
So Q1 of 2023 and Q4 of 2023are not the same, and Q4 of 2022
(23:03):
and Q4 of 2023 are not the same.
It's okay.
What you have to do, though, isyou have to focus on what you
can control and the decisionsyou can make whenever there is
variable change.
So I don't know what's going tohappen with the Surviving
Outside Sales podcast.
I'm going to try to do moreepisodes because I have things
(23:25):
to share and I have things totalk about.
I don't make any money off thepodcast.
I'm not trying to monetize it.
This has been a labor of lovefor an industry that has given
me so much.
The outside sales world,outside sales professionals,
sales in general has given me somuch.
(23:46):
It's given my family so much.
So the Surviving Outside Salespodcast was a resource, a tool
for those who are still in thefight.
You know you're going out thereand you're talking to accounts.
You're knocking on doors.
You're trying to gain business.
You're driving around, you'reputting miles on your car, miles
on your body, you're having tostay in hotels, you're away from
(24:07):
your loved ones.
That's who I'm fighting for.
I'm fighting for you and that'swhat I have done.
The fight is not going away.
I'm just always going to behonest and transparent.
I don't want to be like some ofthose.
I'm not going to say whichpodcast it was, but there was a
podcast I absolutely loved.
I listened to it all the time.
(24:28):
I listened to when episodeswere released, but the show
would just go on hiatuses.
And I'd look on social mediaand I listened to every episode
and I heard nothing and it wenton like a six month hiatus.
And you know, you kind of sitthere and you're like what are
(24:48):
you doing?
People are listening to you andyou're just the guy just
decided he didn't want to do itfor a while, he just want to
take a break.
Well, that's great, I love it.
Just tell people, keep peopleinformed.
So that's what I'm doing rightnow.
I had a hectic September.
Two sales conferences Came backfrom the beach.
(25:10):
I was on stage at the biz atthe bad ass business summit.
I gave a talk.
I have not watched the videoyet.
I have not watched the video.
I changed my speech about twohours before I was going to go
live.
I completely just dismissed thespeech that I had prepared and
(25:31):
then I just went with a new oneand I learned a lot and this
episode kind of got off therails a little bit.
But if you're listening to theshow you know that kind of
happens.
I wanted to talk about kind ofthe key takeaways from the
business summit and I startedtalking about franchising and I
(25:53):
hope that you kind of understandwhy I'm kind of dumping right
now, because I don't know whenI'm going to get back to be able
to do another episode.
I am going all in on restorehyper wellness right now.
In fact, I have coachingstudents right now that are
going to continue to continue towork with them until they're
(26:15):
done, until they're good, untilthey're ready to go.
They've been, the plan has beenfulfilled.
I'm not taking any more clientsat this time.
I'm not taking any morecoaching students at this time.
I don't know when I'm going toin the future.
I'm not doing any more meet andgreets either.
So I hate to not do that or Ihate to do that.
(26:39):
I hate to not talk to salespros, but I have to go all in.
You know, my family, my wifeand I have invested way too much
and this is way too importantto try to straddle the fence.
And sometimes in life you haveto go.
You have to go all in and youhave to be okay with the
(27:01):
ramifications of what that means.
It means that people are goingto be hurt.
It means that others are goingto be frustrated upset.
Some people might say you're ahypocrite.
Sometimes you just got to dowhat you got to do.
I don't know Again what isgoing to happen in the surviving
(27:21):
outside sales podcast.
I will try to do it, but I oweit to myself, I owe it to my
wife, I owe it to my family togo all in and to live, eat,
breathe, sleep, restorehyper-wellness so effective,
(27:41):
immediately.
Everything is going to change.
You're gonna notice the changeson LinkedIn.
There is no more Thursday.
There is not gonna be any morebusiness of sales live on
Thursdays.
I still love the business ofsales live.
It is just not something thatI'm gonna have time for.
(28:04):
And one of the things that Ilearned at the business summit
there was this great guy, jerryMcNamara, if you wanna follow
him on LinkedIn.
He said he talked about themafia offer and he said the
mafia offer is you have to betwice as good or half the price,
(28:25):
twice as good or half the price.
Here's the hint.
You don't wanna be half theprice, so, whatever you are
doing, you need to be twice asgood.
Now, what does that mean?
If you are the same as yourcompetitor through the same
price as your competitor, whatdo you offer?
(28:46):
That is, twice as good is whatthe competition can offer.
Okay, what is it?
If you don't know what that is,you need to examine it.
So, for instance, it's you,it's your service, it's your
followup, it's your sense ofcommunity, it's your process,
(29:10):
it's your training.
If somebody is selling a productand they're not offering
post-sale training, offerpost-sale training for free.
Sell it as a perk.
Create a VIP program.
Have an event for your topclients every quarter, use some
(29:32):
of your budget, invite them to ahappy hour or a dinner or
whatever, and thank them fortheir business and ask them who
they need to talk to.
Is there anybody in your world,or is anybody in their world
that they can connect you with?
That is being twice as good,cause there's a lot of people
out there that all they do isthey're nine to five sales pros
(29:56):
and the minute that it hits fiveo'clock they don't care.
They're just there to get theirsales or they get their money.
They could care less aboutthose clients.
That is where you create yourmafia offer.
I want you to think about it.
What's my mafia offer?
Think about it today.
Ask yourself today what is mymafia offer and how can I
translate that?
How can I communicate that withmy buyers?
(30:18):
Right now, in Q4, you have anopportunity to change your world
forever.
What's your mafia offer?
Stop focusing on price.
I will tell you this people donot real business owners do not
(30:38):
make decisions solely based onprice.
They think about how easy isthis company or person to work
with?
Do I wanna have a relationshipwith this person?
Period, full stop.
Create your mafia offer.
Okay, be twice as good.
(31:01):
The rest will fall into place.
Stop focusing on price.
People want to spend money, butthey want tremendous value.
If people find tremendous valuein what you're doing, the price
is not really going to matter.
50 to 60% of the time, you'recalling on business owners that
have money.
(31:21):
They know how to get access tomoney.
What they're looking for is areturn on their investment.
The mafia offer fits perfectlyinto the PPF method.
They want a better future state.
Show them how they're gonna getthere and show them the fun,
the excitement that it's gonnabe to partner with you along the
(31:43):
way.
I want to thank every singleperson who's been listening over
the last two years.
I don't know again.
I don't know the next timethere's going to be a new
surviving outside sales podcastepisode.
(32:05):
I don't want the momentum, Idon't want this to die, I don't
want this to end, but I alsohave to go all in and I do feel
like in my past life, in my pastcareers, I've always had
something going on on the sideand I really thought to myself.
(32:27):
You know, when I was at thatconference and I was on the
plane flying out there leavingmy family for a week, I was
thinking to myself what wouldhappen if I went all in?
I mean, even with my coaching,even with the things I've been
doing for the last couple years,I haven't been all in, because
the moment we signed thatpaperwork in January or, I'm
(32:48):
sorry, february, was it January?
I think it was January,february of 22.
Since beginning of last year theRestore Hyperwoundess has
always been hanging over ourhead.
So I've never really been ableto go all in on my coaching.
I've never been able to go allin on speaking.
So even that, even the podcast,I didn't get a chance to
because we were Using money forRestore.
(33:08):
I didn't have a chance toexpand the podcast like I wanted
, to build out the podcaststudio.
I've kind of done a makeshiftstudio in my, in my bonus room.
I call it the man Cove becauseit's not quite a man cave,
because I have a little nookthat I think is about.
You know, six by six, I have 36square feet, maybe a little bit
more, maybe 60 square feet uphere of room where I have my
(33:33):
stuff.
But it's time for me to go allin.
And that's another thing foryou.
Are you, are you all in on yourbusiness?
Are you all in on your business?
Are you bringing value?
And that's really the key thing.
I don't believe I'm bringing thesame type of value.
So I'm spread too thin, I'vegot too many distractions and I
kind of I need this time to recenter myself and reestablish my
(34:00):
DNA of who I am as a sales pro,as a business owner, as a
business professional.
So I need, this time as well,to focus on one thing and one
thing only to absolutely crushit.
It's what I, it's what I preachto my students, it's what I've
preached I hate to use the wordpreach, but it's what I've
talked about.
It's what I talked about.
My students Be all in, bepresent, focus.
(34:21):
And now it's time for me totake my own advice.
I will tell you this when I havenew episodes of the Surviving
Outside Sales podcast.
Whenever it may be, it is goingto bring tremendous value.
It is not going to be fluff.
It is going to be actionablethings.
(34:42):
It's going to be stories thatare going to be relatable to
what people are struggling within real time and sometimes, I
believe, doing it every day.
I had plenty of topics, butsome of the episodes kind of
fell flat.
So, without further ado, Ireally do appreciate it.
(35:04):
I hope every single personcrushes it.
I hope every single personcrushes it for Q4.
Go after it.
Focus, focus, focus, focus onthe 25 to 50 accounts that you
can make immediate change inthree months.
(35:27):
In other words, you can closethem in three months.
You don't want to be focusingon people that are going to take
a year to close them.
You can start laying thegroundwork, but you need to
focus on the people that youthink are going to close and
move forward in the next 90 days.
There's 25 to 50 accounts outthere.
No matter who you are, closethem.
Be twice as good.
(35:48):
Provide twice as much value asa competitor you have, whether
that is another person, anothercompany, another product or, if
it's the status quo, providetwice the value.
Talk about the future state.
Talk about the future state andshow them that you are going to
(36:11):
be there for the long haul.
If you do those three things,you're going to crush it in Q4.
Thank you so much.
I really do appreciate it andfor now, signing off, this has
been Surviving Outside SalesMike O'Kelly Cheers.
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