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October 5, 2014 by Brett Leave a Comment

Finding Help When You Need It (and Giving It When You Can)

Finding Help When You Need It (and Giving It When You Can)

 

My Bathroom. My Nemesis.
My Bathroom. My Nemesis.

Have you ever had a moment where it seems like every thing that could break in your house starts breaking?

We’re there right now. While I’m pretty good at following Ikea instructions, I struggle with the more complex renovation jobs. HGTV and the other stations like it really make installing bathroom tile look like it’s a 3 hour project.

It’s not.

And while you can watch a zillion YouTube videos to get the basic idea about how to do stuff, actually doing those things in an older, out of plumb home is never exactly the same.

It’s not that what needs to be done is difficult, but when you have no experience doing it, you’re not sure what to look out for. You don’t know anything about using fur strips on studs before installing concrete backerboard. You don’t know how to shore up a floor board by cutting it out reinforcing the joists.

You’ve never seen it done before. It’s like walking into a room full of Japanese business people and trying to explain your quarterly reports when you’ve never spoken a lick of Japanese in your life.

At least, that’s how I am. And I needed Phil from across the street to give me guidance. He had the tools (literally). He’s done renovation work before. He could visualize what needed to be done and coach me to get there.

No podcasts or reading today (outside of a couple chapters of Dad Is Fat by Jim Gaffigan).

But I had a refresher course on an old idea.

What I learned is that it’s important to be “Phil” to the people at work or even clients who do not have one bit of experience doing certain things. How can I guide my client into understanding how my product solves problems if they’ve never seen my product before?

Were it not for Phil, I’d still be just standing in my bathroom staring at the bathtub walls scratching my head. I needed his help to give me a place to start to take action.

Perhaps you and I can do that for someone else.

Until tomorrow…

Filed Under: Mindset Experiments, Sunday Siesta Tagged With: mentoring, modeling, teaching

September 8, 2014 by Brett 2 Comments

If Teaching Sells, then Find Somewhere to Teach

I’ve always considered myself a teacher. I used to dream of people standing on their desks and saying “O Captain, My Captain” to me when I finally retired after 50 years of pouring into young minds.

But alas, I’m not that kind of teacher. I still love to teach. Perhaps it gets in the way of my sales because I almost am more jazzed when a client or prospect finally understands some strange insurance concept than I do when they sign on the dotted line.

According to John Jantsch, though, in his interview with Michael Stelzner on the Social Media Marketing Podcast, teaching is an effective way to engage potential clients.

Financial planners do it all the time. They will put on those seminars in the side room at the local mid-range restaurant, gathering 20-30 prospective clients to share information about handling money, budgeting, and investing. It must work. At least Pappadeaux and the like are making some cash on the practice.

Since I love teaching. And I make a living selling. Why not harness my teaching and find opportunities to give presentations to my target audience?

Today’s Action: Make a List of Potential ‘Audiences’ and Reach Out to at least One of Them

I’ve given a few talks in the past and am sure I can come up with clear content.

The content is useless without an audience.

So, per John Jantsch’s challenge in the podcast, I shall seek opportunities to teach. Not only will I teach, but I’ll give away the farm. I agree that while some individuals will take my information and go do their own thing, many people just want to be able to trust someone. If I can show what I know, then perhaps I’ll be the trusted guy.

Where I might be able to find audiences: 

  1. Community Foundations: There are foundations all over Atlanta. Perhaps they’d want someone to deliver content to the nonprofits they distribute grants to?
  2. Associations: Associations need to provide value to their members. I’d love to be part of their value.
  3. LinkedIn Groups: Local based LinkedIn groups might be a good option.

I was able to come up with a few potential options right off the bat and reached out to one of them. We’ll see how this one goes.

If this works out, I’ll have to bone up on my Powerpoint of Keynote (but don’t worry, I’ve listened to enough Michael Hyatt to know not to use my ‘bullets to kill’… you know, death by Powerpoint and all that.

Other Content for Today

In addition to the Social Media Examiner podcast referenced above (and used for today’s challenge…

Antipreneur Podcast with Ben Settle – #27: How to Double Your Sales by Spewing People off Your Email List – I would have used this one, but I couldn’t think of anything controversial to blog about.

In the Meantime – North Point Community Church with Andy Stanley – Finding Contentment: A correction of how we normally use “I can do all things through Christ Who strengthens me”

There you have it… I started my list and sent a cold email. I’ll get on the phone and call 10 by the end of the week.

Until tomorrow…

Filed Under: Content Creation Experiments, Sales Experiments, The Dan Miller Challenge Tagged With: andy stanley, antipreneur, ben settle, john jantsch, marketing, Selling, speaking, teaching

Hello!

Brett the sales experimenter and the challenge accepter Brett - Sales and Marketing Experimenter. I'm a reluctant sales professional. I didn't start out my career in sales and marketing, but I've grown to enjoy it. Here I discuss marketing, sales, productivity, and mindset experiments that will hopefully yield greater results and a more deeply satisfying sales career.

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