Brian Gubernick breaks down a three-part sales framework: Seeds are long-term content that builds trust over time, Nets capture interest when it happens, and Spears are targeted outreach to high-value prospects. Most entrepreneurs lean too hard on one bucket, creating unpredictable sales cycles. The goal is balance across all three.
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Thank you for joining me today. It's Brian Gubernick, and welcome to the No Days Off podcast, where we believe that every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. Many of you in the No Days Off nation, you are in fact entrepreneurs, and, and here at No Days Off, we love to cover business. We want to make sure that you're getting better every single day at how you lead your business, how you run your business, how you, how you grow that business. And so today, specifically if you're an entrepreneur, I want to be talking to you because chances are that you felt this way that I'm about to describe. You felt this way at some point. Some months in your business, business feels easy. Leads show up, conversations flow, deals, deals deals, transactions, they close. And then other months, it feels like you're hunting, maybe even chasing. You're pushing harder than you probably want to. Now, this usually has nothing to do with your talent, but it has everything to do with how you're creating demand in your business. A couple weeks ago, I had lunch with a good buddy of mine, Frank, who is the head of a large marketing company. And he reminded me of a pretty simple framework that explains almost every sales and marketing problem that I think entrepreneurs face. And Frank called this framework Seeds, Nets, and Spears. Seeds, Nets, and Spears. Once I think you see it or you hear this framework, you'll realize that your business and most businesses aren't broken. They're just probably a little unbalanced. Now recognize SEEDS, NETS, and SPEARS. It is not a tactic. I think it's a way to organize how people enter your world and to enter your sales funnel. Every sale you've ever made came from one of these 3 buckets. Either 1, someone found you over time. 2, someone was captured when their interest showed up, or 3, someone was directly pursued. So they either found you over time, they were captured when their interest showed up, or they were directly pursued. I think the mistake that most entrepreneurs make is relying too heavily on just one and then wondering why their growth feels somewhat unstable. So let's start with seeds. Okay, seeds are everything you do today that create opportunities for you later. This is slower, it's quieter, but it compounds over time. So seeds would include things like newsletters or content that you put out on social media or podcasts or speaking, enhancing your reputation, being consistently helpful without asking for anything in return. I think about Gary Vaynerchuk early in his career when he was making all those wine videos for, for his father's liquor store, and he was giving all of this knowledge to people that were watching his YouTube videos about wine and grapes and all this stuff. He was giving and giving and giving, expecting nothing in return. This was a seeds activity. He was planting demand. And seeds, they really answer one simple question. And that question is, when people are ready, will they already trust us? See, seeds don't feel productive in the short term, but without them, everything, every sale feels like it's a fight. If your business depends entirely on effort and urgency, you probably haven't planted enough seeds. So, question 1 I want you to ask yourself, action step, ask this question: What am I doing weekly that builds trust even when I'm not selling? What am I doing every week that builds trust when I'm not selling? Now, let's move to nets, okay? If seeds create awareness, nets are what capture that interest. The nets are always on. They don't chase anyone. They simply exist in the right place. So examples of this would be your email lists or your funnels or your websites or your events or even your paid ads, your lead magnets. See, nets answer this question: if someone becomes interested, do we have a way to catch them? If someone becomes interested, do we have a way to catch them? I think this is where a lot of entrepreneurs fail. They plant seeds, but they forget to build nets. So they create seeds and they're building this trust, but then there's no way to catch or capture those that are in fact interested. People listen, they nod, they like you, and then nothing happens. There's no follow-up, there's no capture, there's no real system. So here's your action step. If someone wanted to engage with you today, where would they go and what would happen next? If someone wanted to engage with you today, where would they go and what would happen next? Lastly is SPEARS. This is the intentional pursuit that I mentioned earlier. SPEARS are direct, they are targeted, they are personal. Think about that. Think about this as the outbound sales component of your business. The personal outreach, the strategic partnerships, the prospects that you are— that are hand-selected, that are being targeted. Spears answer this question: who is worth intentionally going after? Who is worth intentionally going after? Spears are powerful, but they're usually more expensive as well. I think the mistake that many entrepreneurs make is overusing spears to compensate for weak seeds and weak nets. That's, you know, if you're feeling like sales are exhausting, if rejection is starting to sting a little bit more, if your team feels like it's burning out a little bit, that is a sign, or those are signs of overusing spears. Spears work best when the market is already warm. So the action step: which relationships or opportunities are worth focused personal effort and which are not? Again, ask this question: which relationships or opportunities are worth focused personal effort and which are not? Now, here's the real magic of this model. When seeds are planted well the nets fill faster, and the spears land easier. Now, when nets are strong, opportunities don't slip through, and follow-up feels pretty natural. And then lastly, when spears are used selectively, energy then stays pretty high and conversion rates increase. See, the goal in my mind isn't necessarily to do more of everything, I think the goal is, um, orchestration, making sure that this framework and these 3 elements that I'm describing are working side by side. So for you, if sales feel a little stressful right now, don't panic, just diagnose. Ask yourself, you know, these 3 honest questions: What seeds are we planting consistently? What nets are actually capturing interest? And then lastly, where are we throwing spears and are they warmed up? I think most problems will become pretty obvious rather quickly because I don't think this is again about working harder. I think it's just about maybe being more specific or deliberate, aiming better. The best businesses are not relying on luck. They design, they create this demand, they plant seeds, and they're patient. They build these nets and they're intentional, and then they throw spears, but they do it very selectively. So if you want your sales to feel less frantic and a little bit more predictable, stop asking, how do we close more deals? And just start asking, are we planting and catching and pursuing in the right balance? I think that, that question alone might change the way you approach your sales business this year. That's all I have for you today. The No Days Off Podcast. Thank you so much for listening. And remember, every single day brings a new opportunity to get better. So let's get after it.
