What if the key to thriving in the fast-paced world of Q4 sales is hidden in the fundamentals we've all been overlooking? Join me, Mike O'Kelly, as we explore how the chaos of personal commitments and professional demands can actually be the perfect catalyst for reassessing your sales strategies. Discover why understanding your client's buying processes can mean the difference between a missed opportunity and a closed deal, and learn the significance of service, teamwork, and concise messaging. We’ll unravel the mystery of being in the right place at the right time and how external factors often shift the gears of purchasing decisions.
Inspired by my own journey from minor league baseball to the sales industry, I stress the importance of seizing every opportunity and staying vigilant, even amidst the distractions of life. Hear why seasoned sales professionals are adamant about the power of role-playing, networking, and continuous learning as methods to sharpen your edge in Q4. Reflect on the enduring impact of content, like last year's Q4 guide, which continues to captivate listeners with its timeless strategies. As we charge through this whirlwind season, I encourage you to pause, reassess, and reinforce the basics to ensure you remain a step ahead. Tune in and prepare to elevate your sales game to unprecedented heights.
To connect with the show: Subscribe, Download & Share!
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,
Check out the blueprint at MikeOKelly.com/salesbuilderblueprint.
________________________________________________________________________
Want to start a side hustle? Make an extra $2-$10K/month
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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
(00:02):
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.
(00:31):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelley,and, as promised, I'm dropping
more episodes.
I do apologize.
I was hoping to get one earlierthis week because I know that
Q4 is dwindling down.
I don't know if I'm beinghyperbolic, but I do believe
that the years are getting somuch faster.
I cannot believe we are alreadyinto November, almost halfway
through with Q4.
(00:52):
And that's what we're going totouch on today is Q4.
And it's unbelievable.
I don't know if it's justbecause I had two kids that are
growing up so fast before myeyes it's making my head spin
and or if it's just the amountof work that I have, the
busyness that I have, but itseems like every time I snap my
fingers, it's the weekend, andthen all of a sudden, I snap my
(01:14):
fingers again and it's the nextweekend and things just move
very quickly.
Enough said with that, let'smove forward.
Q4.
I kind of touched on this when,uh, on the last episode, but
we're almost halfway through Q4.
So this is probably about thetime where, if you are, um,
(01:34):
really pressing hard for Q4, oryou're really going after it,
you're probably starting to runon fumes and you're starting to
I'm not going to say be tired,but you kind of feel like, hey,
is it going to work?
And I'm going to tell you itwill All right.
The four.
It doesn't matter what type ofindustry you are in.
Okay, q4 is a industry you arein.
(01:54):
A lot of the businesses havetheir fiscal year ends within
the calendar year ends, so theyhave money to spend and they
have budgets that they have touse or they're going to lose.
(02:17):
And so that's the one thing tounderstand when you are out
there selling to somebody isknowing your audience.
You have to understand the whyand how they are going to
process the buying of yourservice or product, and it's not
just about the product.
(02:37):
I've got to.
If I've said one thing that hitshome, it is this it's not
necessarily about your product.
If you have the best product inthe world, if you are number
one in your space, buyers don'tcare.
And I understood this.
I had some great mentors of mypast.
(03:00):
I understood this, but I reallyit really hit home this year.
It really hit home this pastyear opening my wellness studio,
because one of the things thatI have realized as a small
business owner I have about 10to 14 employees is it's not
about the product, about theproduct, it is about the service
(03:28):
, it is about the employees andwho you, who is giving messages
and who is speaking withpotential buyers, potential
clients, is crucial.
What is said is crucial.
It's not about the products.
Okay, because if it was justabout the products, all you
would have to do is walk in andpresent your product and you
would get sale after sale aftersale If you have a superior
(03:51):
product.
Now, sometimes you do.
I've mentioned before in thepast about the whole launch of
Viagra and how it really changedthe pharmaceutical world.
That's kind of a unicorn, andsometimes products enter the
market that are just so farabove and beyond and they are
brought into markets that arethirsty and they're dying for
(04:12):
that product or solution.
But for the most part, thatdoesn't happen.
A lot of education has tohappen and you have to
understand the mindset and thelong-term vision and plan of
your buyers, and that doesn'tmatter what industry you're in.
It is all about how you'regoing to connect with all of the
(04:34):
right what's the word I'mlooking for Processes, or with
all of the right ingredients,for instance.
You could have the right product, but it could be the wrong time
and it could be hey, pennyapologies, my dog is whining
Penny, go lay down, go lay down.
(04:56):
This is not great podcastepisode or not not great
recording, but I don't reallyedit my podcasts, I just let it
free flow.
Um, it saves me a lot of time,but also, I think it definitely,
definitely tends to be moreauthentic.
Um, so my dog is basicallystaring at me right now and I'm
petting her on the head as I'mrecording.
(05:16):
All right back to sales.
So you could have the rightproduct.
It could be the wrong time youcould have, it could be the
lesser of two products, but it'sthe right time.
Your buyer could have had aconversation with their office
manager, could have had aconversation with a business
partner, a spouse you know whatI really need to look for X, y,
(05:38):
z and you could reallylegitimately be at the right
place at the right time.
And so, when it comes to Q4,this is a great opportunity for
you to take a pause and go backto the basics.
I like to call it the blockingand tackling of sales.
Are your habits there?
Are your processes there?
Are your systems there in orderfor you to execute?
(05:59):
And it really comes down tothose three things your habits,
your processes and your systems.
That is the blocking andtackling.
Are you just shooting from thehip when you go into some of
these offices or do you have atargeted plan for each one of
your accounts that you aretrying to close?
(06:21):
You cannot treat every accountthe same.
Okay, if you.
Just because they're in thesame industry, you can't treat
them the same.
They don't have the samerevenue, they don't have the
same length that they have beenin business or, in practice,
they don't have the sameexperiences.
So you have to walk into eachone of your accounts as if it
(06:46):
was a clean slate.
Now, obviously, if you've beenin your territory for a very
long time or you've been callingon your accounts, or if you
have long existing accounts, youhopefully you know them like
the back of your hand.
But it is never a bad idea totry to reinvent the conversation
, to go back to the beginning,to make sure that you have not
(07:09):
forgotten some key things.
Okay, how many times have youever been talking to somebody it
doesn't matter if it's a friend, family member, et cetera and
they bring up a story and you'relike, oh my gosh, I completely
forgot about that.
Guess what.
That happens from your buyersto your product or service and
it happens from you to yourbuyers.
You are going to want to touchbase and go back to the
(07:33):
beginning and try to find outhey, did we miss something here?
Is there an opportunity forgrowth?
Because the people that areactually buying from you
probably will buy more,especially if you're carrying
multiple products.
If you've got multiple products, multiple offerings, you have
an opportunity to go back andsee if there's anything else
(07:58):
that you can offer them.
You got four products and maybethey're using two of them.
Hey, you have an opportunityfor the other two.
Start up that conversationagain.
So if you're new to the show Italk about it all the time this
is an opportunity to kind ofdump out your bag and reassess
everything that you're doing.
It doesn't mean changeeverything you're doing.
(08:18):
It just means reassess.
Are you doing the fundamentalscorrectly, the blocking and
tackling, habits, processes,systems.
Are those all in line?
Have you gotten loose?
Have you gotten sloppy?
Have you gotten lazy,lackadaisical, um, complacent?
Just because you're ahead ofgoal, hey, you can always hit
(08:39):
higher and this is one of thethings that I.
It's a conversation that neverends that people in the sales
world, or even now in mybusiness, when we talk about
setting goals and sales numbers,the conversation is always
about well, I mean, does thatmean that our goal is going to
go up the next month?
Yes, that is the reality ofeverything in life.
(09:02):
If you do something, the personthat you, the person that is in
the environment, you know, ifyou're married and you are
always doing something in therelationship, it's going to be
expected.
And when you stop doing that,the other person's going to say
hey, why are you not doing thisanymore?
(09:23):
That's just the reality of life.
But you have no idea when thelast day is going to be with
your company.
You don't know the last salescall you're ever going to make.
It happens to all of us.
I mentioned before when Iplayed minor league baseball.
I never knew when my last atbat was going to be.
(09:43):
I was very idealistic and Ithought, hey, you know, I'm a
good ball player, I'm going tokeep getting opportunities.
Well, at some point I didn't,and you don't know when your
last at bat is going to be, justlike you don't know when your
last at bat is going to be, justlike you don't know when your
last sales call is going to be.
(10:04):
So you have to take everysingle opportunity.
If you are sandbagging or ifyou are kicking your feet up,
well, I I'm.
I'm close to hitting my number.
I'm good.
I don't want to, I don't wantto make it too hard on myself
next quarter.
What if next quarter doesn'tcome?
You don't know what your other,you don't know what your
(10:24):
competition is doing, but youalso don't know what
opportunities that could haveset you up for long-term you
could have developed.
Again, I want you to think ofevery single client journey.
So when you're calling onsomebody, every single one of
those prospects has a clientjourney.
So when you're calling onsomebody, every single one of
those prospects has a clientjourney and you have to start
(10:46):
that journey with them as soonas possible.
Some journeys take longer thanothers.
Some sales cycles could bethree, six, 12 months, but you
have to have to start thatjourney as fast as possible and
get the ball rolling, becauseyou have no idea who else is out
(11:07):
there In the sales world.
It can be a game of musicalchairs, and if you sit around
and wait till the music stops,you could be left without one.
So right now it's Q4.
It is the quarter to just goall out and work ridiculously
(11:27):
hard, harder than you everthought possible, longer hours
than you ever thought possible.
Trust me, it's going to beworth it.
It's an investment in yourfuture, future success, and I
want you to.
I want you to think about this.
Okay, if right now you are notwhere you want to be, this can
(11:48):
be that pivot moment.
Stop complaining, stop makingexcuses, stop talking about how
busy you are.
We're in a hundred percentcontrol of our schedules.
What do you do in your freetime?
What do you do in those breaksbetween calls?
Are you role-playing withyourself?
Are you calling and talking toother sales professionals that
(12:12):
can make you better?
Are you listening to salesbooks?
Are you doing?
Are you reading sales books?
Are you doing sales training?
Are you watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts?
I mean, obviously, right nowyou're listening to me, thank
you.
Have you reinvested in yourself?
Are you trying to get better?
I've talked to a lot of oldersales professionals in their
(12:33):
fifties, because part ofsurviving outside sales is the
getting in, dominating andgetting out, and I've talked to
a lot of 50-something salesprofessionals and because they
reach out to me and I've coachedsome of them and they want to
know how to pivot.
They've been carrying a bagtheir entire career and they
(12:55):
want to know how to pivot, toget into something else.
And they want to know how topivot and to get into something
else.
And the one thing that theyalways say is they wish they
(13:16):
would have started sooner,reinvesting in their development
, reinvesting in education andstaying connected with the
latest trends.
Almost all of them had notembraced technology outside of a
cell phone.
They hadn't thought of doingvideo sales calls, video sales
letters, doing a podcast oftheir own, and they didn't think
(13:40):
of using social media as theirfriend to connect with people
shooting video and content abouttheir product or service.
And so I have to tell you thatsometimes in the sales world, it
could feel like you're in quicksand because, yes, the sand,
the earth and the sand is alwaysmoving from under your feet.
But if you realize that all youhave to do is just keep your
feet moving, keep moving forward, keep moving forward.
(14:01):
So this can be the time rightnow where you take a pause and
you focus on your habits, yourprocesses and your systems, all
right, and you get back to yourblocking and tackling and you
kind of reassess and normally Idon't really talk about the days
of the week, but this is aweekend.
(14:21):
I'm recording this on aSaturday, so you got time and
I'm going to release it today aswell.
So you have time this weekendto reassess.
I know college football is inplay.
I know NFL football, I knowthere's stuff going on Shoot,
I've got two parties to go totoday.
One's a birthday party and one'sa party at a house with kids
(14:44):
and all that stuff.
And then tomorrow is pictureday, celebrating my mom's
birthday.
Well, picture day is the familyphotos in the fall they go out
on the Christmas cards and, ofcourse, there's going to be
football on.
Go Commanders, my WashingtonCommanders, a seven and two.
I have a big smile on my face.
Things are really looking up.
Uh, if you've listened to myearlier episodes, I've talked
(15:06):
about my sports allegiances.
Um, but um, uh, I, um, oh, Ijust lost my train of thought.
Anyway, you have time thisweekend to reassess where you
are Okay and I highly suggestthat you do and you focus on
(15:31):
your processes, your systems,your habits.
Now, if you want help with anyof those habits, processes and
systems, reach out to me onLinkedIn.
I have courses.
I'm going to be adjusting andworking on my courses again.
The courses that I offered inthe past are not very fast
(15:55):
acting.
They're they're longer programs, they are three months, they
are um, I don't know necessarilysay like sales one-on-one, but
they're like sales two-one-one,sales three-one-one.
Well, I'm going to be releasingsome things, some some assets,
some things that you can usejust for Q4, but also setting
you up for Q1.
I realized that's the mostimportant thing.
The most important thing isright now, and what I'll do in
(16:18):
those, what I'll do in thosecourses, is tell you exactly how
I would approach if I wasthrust back in the field, if I
got a job and I started Monday,what exactly what I was going to
do for Q4.
This happened to me.
I took a job selling radiationmachines several years ago and I
(16:38):
started at the end of Octoberand everything that I did during
that period to the end of theyear closing, selling two
devices was my habits, myprocesses, systems, my blocking
and tackling of systems, myblocking and tackling, and some
(17:00):
things have changed since then.
We have a lot more technology.
My outreach and my reach intothe territory would have been
completely different.
But I'll discuss that and I'llbriefly talk about it on another
episode that I'm going to shootthis weekend and release next
week.
So please reach out to me ifyou are interested in that and
I'll let you know when that'sgoing to be released.
I'll probably release it in thenext week.
Thank you to everybody whoreached out on LinkedIn, um.
(17:20):
I really appreciate it, um.
I had a little more than adozen to 15 people reach out to
me, um, from last week's episode, which is great.
Normally with my episodes, itseems as if they build up steam
after the first two or threeweeks, especially since the fact
that I'm not promoting it.
Um.
That means it's just a bunch oflisteners that have uh, um,
(17:47):
saved my uh page, saved myepisodes, and they get
notifications every timesomething is downloaded.
So I really appreciate it.
I'm glad that I can assist somepeople with some questions that
they had.
Please reach out to me onLinkedIn, um.
Or you can reach out to me.
Mike at surviving outsidesalescom Mike at surviving
outside salescom, but, as areminder, next week I'm going to
be releasing a Q4 guide tocrushing your sales and making
(18:09):
sure that you get everything outof Q4, but also set you up for
success in 2025.
2025 is going to be here Well,way before we know it it's.
It's even crazy to say thatwe're going to be halfway
through the decade the 2020s.
Again, I mentioned time ismoving way too quickly.
Thank you so much.
I really do appreciate it.
Share this episode with a friend, talk about what is discussed
(18:30):
on on this podcast and reach outto people, tell them hey, you
need to listen to this podcast.
Um, what I'm seeing in the thethe download numbers of the
episodes is it is definitely alate uh, late growth type of
thing, but the the biggest, thebiggest episodes that I see
(18:52):
revolve around selling in the Q4, the Q4 guide last year was the
number one podcast episode.
It's still getting hundreds ofdownloads a week and the podcast
episode is a year old, morethan a year old.
So that's pretty wild that oneepisode is getting that kind of
(19:15):
traction more than a year later.
So thank you for everybodywho's been listening.
Really do appreciate it andwe'll see you next time on
surviving outside sales Cheers.
The Surviving Outside Sales podcast, hosted by Mike
(00:02):
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.
(00:31):
I'm your host, mike O'Kelley,and, as promised, I'm dropping
more episodes.
I do apologize.
I was hoping to get one earlierthis week because I know that
Q4 is dwindling down.
I don't know if I'm beinghyperbolic, but I do believe
that the years are getting somuch faster.
I cannot believe we are alreadyinto November, almost halfway
through with Q4.
(00:52):
And that's what we're going totouch on today is Q4.
And it's unbelievable.
I don't know if it's justbecause I had two kids that are
growing up so fast before myeyes it's making my head spin
and or if it's just the amountof work that I have, the
busyness that I have, but itseems like every time I snap my
fingers, it's the weekend, andthen all of a sudden, I snap my
(01:14):
fingers again and it's the nextweekend and things just move
very quickly.
Enough said with that, let'smove forward.
Q4.
I kind of touched on this when,uh, on the last episode, but
we're almost halfway through Q4.
So this is probably about thetime where, if you are, um,
(01:34):
really pressing hard for Q4, oryou're really going after it,
you're probably starting to runon fumes and you're starting to
I'm not going to say be tired,but you kind of feel like, hey,
is it going to work?
And I'm going to tell you itwill All right.
The four.
It doesn't matter what type ofindustry you are in.
Okay, q4 is a industry you arein.
(01:54):
A lot of the businesses havetheir fiscal year ends within
the calendar year ends, so theyhave money to spend and they
have budgets that they have touse or they're going to lose.
(02:17):
And so that's the one thing tounderstand when you are out
there selling to somebody isknowing your audience.
You have to understand the whyand how they are going to
process the buying of yourservice or product, and it's not
just about the product.
(02:37):
I've got to.
If I've said one thing that hitshome, it is this it's not
necessarily about your product.
If you have the best product inthe world, if you are number
one in your space, buyers don'tcare.
And I understood this.
I had some great mentors of mypast.
(03:00):
I understood this, but I reallyit really hit home this year.
It really hit home this pastyear opening my wellness studio,
because one of the things thatI have realized as a small
business owner I have about 10to 14 employees is it's not
about the product, about theproduct, it is about the service
(03:28):
, it is about the employees andwho you, who is giving messages
and who is speaking withpotential buyers, potential
clients, is crucial.
What is said is crucial.
It's not about the products.
Okay, because if it was justabout the products, all you
would have to do is walk in andpresent your product and you
would get sale after sale aftersale If you have a superior
(03:51):
product.
Now, sometimes you do.
I've mentioned before in thepast about the whole launch of
Viagra and how it really changedthe pharmaceutical world.
That's kind of a unicorn, andsometimes products enter the
market that are just so farabove and beyond and they are
brought into markets that arethirsty and they're dying for
(04:12):
that product or solution.
But for the most part, thatdoesn't happen.
A lot of education has tohappen and you have to
understand the mindset and thelong-term vision and plan of
your buyers, and that doesn'tmatter what industry you're in.
It is all about how you'regoing to connect with all of the
(04:34):
right what's the word I'mlooking for Processes, or with
all of the right ingredients,for instance.
You could have the right product, but it could be the wrong time
and it could be hey, pennyapologies, my dog is whining
Penny, go lay down, go lay down.
(04:56):
This is not great podcastepisode or not not great
recording, but I don't reallyedit my podcasts, I just let it
free flow.
Um, it saves me a lot of time,but also, I think it definitely,
definitely tends to be moreauthentic.
Um, so my dog is basicallystaring at me right now and I'm
petting her on the head as I'mrecording.
(05:16):
All right back to sales.
So you could have the rightproduct.
It could be the wrong time youcould have, it could be the
lesser of two products, but it'sthe right time.
Your buyer could have had aconversation with their office
manager, could have had aconversation with a business
partner, a spouse you know whatI really need to look for X, y,
(05:38):
z and you could reallylegitimately be at the right
place at the right time.
And so, when it comes to Q4,this is a great opportunity for
you to take a pause and go backto the basics.
I like to call it the blockingand tackling of sales.
Are your habits there?
Are your processes there?
Are your systems there in orderfor you to execute?
(05:59):
And it really comes down tothose three things your habits,
your processes and your systems.
That is the blocking andtackling.
Are you just shooting from thehip when you go into some of
these offices or do you have atargeted plan for each one of
your accounts that you aretrying to close?
(06:21):
You cannot treat every accountthe same.
Okay, if you.
Just because they're in thesame industry, you can't treat
them the same.
They don't have the samerevenue, they don't have the
same length that they have beenin business or, in practice,
they don't have the sameexperiences.
So you have to walk into eachone of your accounts as if it
(06:46):
was a clean slate.
Now, obviously, if you've beenin your territory for a very
long time or you've been callingon your accounts, or if you
have long existing accounts, youhopefully you know them like
the back of your hand.
But it is never a bad idea totry to reinvent the conversation
, to go back to the beginning,to make sure that you have not
(07:09):
forgotten some key things.
Okay, how many times have youever been talking to somebody it
doesn't matter if it's a friend, family member, et cetera and
they bring up a story and you'relike, oh my gosh, I completely
forgot about that.
Guess what.
That happens from your buyersto your product or service and
it happens from you to yourbuyers.
You are going to want to touchbase and go back to the
(07:33):
beginning and try to find outhey, did we miss something here?
Is there an opportunity forgrowth?
Because the people that areactually buying from you
probably will buy more,especially if you're carrying
multiple products.
If you've got multiple products, multiple offerings, you have
an opportunity to go back andsee if there's anything else
(07:58):
that you can offer them.
You got four products and maybethey're using two of them.
Hey, you have an opportunityfor the other two.
Start up that conversationagain.
So if you're new to the show Italk about it all the time this
is an opportunity to kind ofdump out your bag and reassess
everything that you're doing.
It doesn't mean changeeverything you're doing.
(08:18):
It just means reassess.
Are you doing the fundamentalscorrectly, the blocking and
tackling, habits, processes,systems.
Are those all in line?
Have you gotten loose?
Have you gotten sloppy?
Have you gotten lazy,lackadaisical, um, complacent?
Just because you're ahead ofgoal, hey, you can always hit
(08:39):
higher and this is one of thethings that I.
It's a conversation that neverends that people in the sales
world, or even now in mybusiness, when we talk about
setting goals and sales numbers,the conversation is always
about well, I mean, does thatmean that our goal is going to
go up the next month?
Yes, that is the reality ofeverything in life.
(09:02):
If you do something, the personthat you, the person that is in
the environment, you know, ifyou're married and you are
always doing something in therelationship, it's going to be
expected.
And when you stop doing that,the other person's going to say
hey, why are you not doing thisanymore?
(09:23):
That's just the reality of life.
But you have no idea when thelast day is going to be with
your company.
You don't know the last salescall you're ever going to make.
It happens to all of us.
I mentioned before when Iplayed minor league baseball.
I never knew when my last atbat was going to be.
(09:43):
I was very idealistic and Ithought, hey, you know, I'm a
good ball player, I'm going tokeep getting opportunities.
Well, at some point I didn't,and you don't know when your
last at bat is going to be, justlike you don't know when your
last at bat is going to be, justlike you don't know when your
last sales call is going to be.
(10:04):
So you have to take everysingle opportunity.
If you are sandbagging or ifyou are kicking your feet up,
well, I I'm.
I'm close to hitting my number.
I'm good.
I don't want to, I don't wantto make it too hard on myself
next quarter.
What if next quarter doesn'tcome?
You don't know what your other,you don't know what your
(10:24):
competition is doing, but youalso don't know what
opportunities that could haveset you up for long-term you
could have developed.
Again, I want you to think ofevery single client journey.
So when you're calling onsomebody, every single one of
those prospects has a clientjourney.
So when you're calling onsomebody, every single one of
those prospects has a clientjourney and you have to start
(10:46):
that journey with them as soonas possible.
Some journeys take longer thanothers.
Some sales cycles could bethree, six, 12 months, but you
have to have to start thatjourney as fast as possible and
get the ball rolling, becauseyou have no idea who else is out
(11:07):
there In the sales world.
It can be a game of musicalchairs, and if you sit around
and wait till the music stops,you could be left without one.
So right now it's Q4.
It is the quarter to just goall out and work ridiculously
(11:27):
hard, harder than you everthought possible, longer hours
than you ever thought possible.
Trust me, it's going to beworth it.
It's an investment in yourfuture, future success, and I
want you to.
I want you to think about this.
Okay, if right now you are notwhere you want to be, this can
(11:48):
be that pivot moment.
Stop complaining, stop makingexcuses, stop talking about how
busy you are.
We're in a hundred percentcontrol of our schedules.
What do you do in your freetime?
What do you do in those breaksbetween calls?
Are you role-playing withyourself?
Are you calling and talking toother sales professionals that
(12:12):
can make you better?
Are you listening to salesbooks?
Are you doing?
Are you reading sales books?
Are you doing sales training?
Are you watching YouTube videos, listening to podcasts?
I mean, obviously, right nowyou're listening to me, thank
you.
Have you reinvested in yourself?
Are you trying to get better?
I've talked to a lot of oldersales professionals in their
(12:33):
fifties, because part ofsurviving outside sales is the
getting in, dominating andgetting out, and I've talked to
a lot of 50-something salesprofessionals and because they
reach out to me and I've coachedsome of them and they want to
know how to pivot.
They've been carrying a bagtheir entire career and they
(12:55):
want to know how to pivot, toget into something else.
And they want to know how topivot and to get into something
else.
And the one thing that theyalways say is they wish they
(13:16):
would have started sooner,reinvesting in their development
, reinvesting in education andstaying connected with the
latest trends.
Almost all of them had notembraced technology outside of a
cell phone.
They hadn't thought of doingvideo sales calls, video sales
letters, doing a podcast oftheir own, and they didn't think
(13:40):
of using social media as theirfriend to connect with people
shooting video and content abouttheir product or service.
And so I have to tell you thatsometimes in the sales world, it
could feel like you're in quicksand because, yes, the sand,
the earth and the sand is alwaysmoving from under your feet.
But if you realize that all youhave to do is just keep your
feet moving, keep moving forward, keep moving forward.
(14:01):
So this can be the time rightnow where you take a pause and
you focus on your habits, yourprocesses and your systems, all
right, and you get back to yourblocking and tackling and you
kind of reassess and normally Idon't really talk about the days
of the week, but this is aweekend.
(14:21):
I'm recording this on aSaturday, so you got time and
I'm going to release it today aswell.
So you have time this weekendto reassess.
I know college football is inplay.
I know NFL football, I knowthere's stuff going on Shoot,
I've got two parties to go totoday.
One's a birthday party and one'sa party at a house with kids
(14:44):
and all that stuff.
And then tomorrow is pictureday, celebrating my mom's
birthday.
Well, picture day is the familyphotos in the fall they go out
on the Christmas cards and, ofcourse, there's going to be
football on.
Go Commanders, my WashingtonCommanders, a seven and two.
I have a big smile on my face.
Things are really looking up.
Uh, if you've listened to myearlier episodes, I've talked
(15:06):
about my sports allegiances.
Um, but um, uh, I, um, oh, Ijust lost my train of thought.
Anyway, you have time thisweekend to reassess where you
are Okay and I highly suggestthat you do and you focus on
(15:31):
your processes, your systems,your habits.
Now, if you want help with anyof those habits, processes and
systems, reach out to me onLinkedIn.
I have courses.
I'm going to be adjusting andworking on my courses again.
The courses that I offered inthe past are not very fast
(15:55):
acting.
They're they're longer programs, they are three months, they
are um, I don't know necessarilysay like sales one-on-one, but
they're like sales two-one-one,sales three-one-one.
Well, I'm going to be releasingsome things, some some assets,
some things that you can usejust for Q4, but also setting
you up for Q1.
I realized that's the mostimportant thing.
The most important thing isright now, and what I'll do in
(16:18):
those, what I'll do in thosecourses, is tell you exactly how
I would approach if I wasthrust back in the field, if I
got a job and I started Monday,what exactly what I was going to
do for Q4.
This happened to me.
I took a job selling radiationmachines several years ago and I
(16:38):
started at the end of Octoberand everything that I did during
that period to the end of theyear closing, selling two
devices was my habits, myprocesses, systems, my blocking
and tackling of systems, myblocking and tackling, and some
(17:00):
things have changed since then.
We have a lot more technology.
My outreach and my reach intothe territory would have been
completely different.
But I'll discuss that and I'llbriefly talk about it on another
episode that I'm going to shootthis weekend and release next
week.
So please reach out to me ifyou are interested in that and
I'll let you know when that'sgoing to be released.
I'll probably release it in thenext week.
Thank you to everybody whoreached out on LinkedIn, um.
(17:20):
I really appreciate it, um.
I had a little more than adozen to 15 people reach out to
me, um, from last week's episode, which is great.
Normally with my episodes, itseems as if they build up steam
after the first two or threeweeks, especially since the fact
that I'm not promoting it.
Um.
That means it's just a bunch oflisteners that have uh, um,
(17:47):
saved my uh page, saved myepisodes, and they get
notifications every timesomething is downloaded.
So I really appreciate it.
I'm glad that I can assist somepeople with some questions that
they had.
Please reach out to me onLinkedIn, um.
Or you can reach out to me.
Mike at surviving outsidesalescom Mike at surviving
outside salescom, but, as areminder, next week I'm going to
be releasing a Q4 guide tocrushing your sales and making
(18:09):
sure that you get everything outof Q4, but also set you up for
success in 2025.
2025 is going to be here Well,way before we know it it's.
It's even crazy to say thatwe're going to be halfway
through the decade the 2020s.
Again, I mentioned time ismoving way too quickly.
Thank you so much.
I really do appreciate it.
Share this episode with a friend, talk about what is discussed
(18:30):
on on this podcast and reach outto people, tell them hey, you
need to listen to this podcast.
Um, what I'm seeing in the thethe download numbers of the
episodes is it is definitely alate uh, late growth type of
thing, but the the biggest, thebiggest episodes that I see
(18:52):
revolve around selling in the Q4, the Q4 guide last year was the
number one podcast episode.
It's still getting hundreds ofdownloads a week and the podcast
episode is a year old, morethan a year old.
So that's pretty wild that oneepisode is getting that kind of
(19:15):
traction more than a year later.
So thank you for everybodywho's been listening.
Really do appreciate it andwe'll see you next time on
surviving outside sales Cheers.
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