Time to learn Your ABDs – Business Brain 466

Business Brain, the show for entrepreneurs, episode 466 for Casual Friday, July 14, 2023. Greetings, folks and welcome to Business Brain here on Casual Friday where the show where we take all kinds of things, we run them through and analyze them to train our business brains together to help us all keep living that charmed life. Sponsors for this episode include Pearl Diver IO this is this cool platform that provides in depth visitor identification for the people that come to your website. And zinch@financingthatworks.com they're waiving their $250 application fee for you people because you're a Business Brain listener. We'll talk more in depth about how to do all those things in a little bit. For now, here in Durham, New Hampshire, I'm Dave Hamilton.

And out here in Lafayette, California, I'm Shannon Jean. How are you, sir? This Friday?

Yeah, Fridays are good. I like every day for different reasons. I really do.

One of the best things. At some point in my life, Fridays became not much different than Mondays. And I was like, oh man, this is so great. I love that concept. That might be worth a whole episode.

Yeah, we should. I'm going to think about that because I, I look forward to Mondays more than Fridays.

There you go.

And it's good. Yeah. And it's probably not for the reasons that you folks think. Like, yes, I know I'm, I could be classified as a workaholic, but that's probably not why. It might have something to do with it. I don't know.

Yeah. But hey, today I would like to talk about learning your ABDs.

Oh, yes.

If you're up for it. I think we have some great examples of how to always be different and with related to product and some sales stuff too.

Yeah, yeah. You shared. You found this story in the National. It wasn't the National Enquirer. I swear. A national review. It says it's all about Arizona iced tea. And it, you know, it starts by saying if you ever made a pit stop on a road trip or stopped, you know, on a hot summer day, you can always count on being able to buy a big can of Arizona iced tea for 99 cents. The company's teas are ubiquitous despite hardly ever being advertised. Sharing shelf space with products from like Coke, Pepsi, Dr. Pepper, etc. It says the, the article says there weren't a lot of things you could buy for 99 cents before inflation began to surge. And the increase has only made it more difficult for companies to keep prices low. Yet Arizona announced it remains committed to its trademarked price at 99, which is stamped directly on the big monster 23 ounce cans and block print. You know, if you want urinal inspiration like we were talking about in the last episode, drink one of these 23 ounce cans, man. You'll have lots of opportunities.

But he, he differentiated. They differentiated themselves when they came out because they had the tallest can.

Yep. And for the lowest price.

Yeah, yeah, Lowest price. And it stood out in the refrigerator when you went to grab stuff and you're thinking, wow, you know, for 99 cents I get more. But. And I couldn't believe when I read this, they sell over about a billion cans a year. What, at 99 cents? Yeah, but that's only 25% of their revenue. So they use that, you know, about 30 years ago to really get started, you know, against like Snapple and these other. Other iced tea type things. And then they built other products on top of that to, to differentiate themselves. You know, they sell jugs of iced tea.

Yep.

All kinds of other products. Energy drinks, fruit drinks in this article. Then they, they focus on how they got over this 99 cents just to kind of shifting it to. Well, it's basically a loss leader.

Okay.

And they now come out with a new type, a cold. A premium cold brew iced tea. Yeah. 16 ounce plastic bottles, and it's $2.00 to $2.50. $2.00 to 2.50. And so the price isn't stamped on the bottle. So they can make adjustments. But you know, this, this cold brew concept, you hear it on, on coffee a lot, but maybe not tea. And it's also, they use this to talk about how they use the word premium and all natural versus some of these other. So I just, I thought it was a great example of just constantly being different to stand out. How do you get your product noticed on the shelf? You make it taller, bigger, brighter. I mean, you look at those cans, you ever seen them? They're.

Oh, yeah, of course. I mean, everybody that's listening, I would imagine, is visualizing those cans, like en masse on a shelf in a refrigerator at a convenience store. Like, it's impossible.

I will admit I have never. I have never drank one, but I have seen them.

Yeah, I don't think I've ever had one either. I'm not. I don't drink caffeine daily, you know, so I am. Yeah, it's just like, I will avoid caffeine. So anything that says tea, like, like, yeah, I need to really intentionally choose that I'm going to drink caffeine today. So I probably haven't ever gotten one of those either.

Yeah, it's interesting. And you know they just, yeah, they, they did undercut on price.

But that's their billboard, right? Like, I mean they, they, they, they chose to take their advertising budget and instead bake it into their price. Right. Like put these things on the shelves. They will advertise themselves because they are different. And that, that's a question to ask, you know yourself about your business is how can I be different from my competitors? And give yourself the freedom to choose anything and don't, you know, one easy answer is well, I could sell my stuff for less. Which yes, Arizona Iced Tea did that. But they don't sell everything for less. They only sell the one product for less, you know, and, and, but you know, think about other things. If you're going to choose, I'm going to be different by price. Force yourself and your company to add something else to that. So it's price and it could be.

Another product or service. Like we did that episode on this concept of the whistle, the workhorse and the whale. So maybe your whistle product that gets attention which is this 99 cent big, you know, can of iced tea. But the, but the workhorse product is the $2.00 $2.50 item or the big jug of fruit juice or whatever it is they sell and then you know, some kind of high end thing. So you're looking at this blend of products that ultimately leads to a better bottom line for your business.

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You know, I think Twitter, if you follow the right people, it's really a masterclass on whatever topic you're interested in. And David Morris's tweet came across my feed and you know, he, he starts this thread with the statement that I, I love it's, you know, in sales, being different is better than being better.

And Arizona Ice Tea might agree.

Yeah, yeah. And, and I thought, man, we need to talk about this because he's got, you know, he, he, you know, he goes through, he starts talking about, he's, you know, sales guy 20 years into his career and talk about struggling. And one of the comments, he says, when I started in sales, I was driven by the energizing mix of fear and enthusiasm.

I think that's, I understand that. Yeah, my sweat some days tastes like fear and enthusiasm.

Yeah, yeah, it's good. So, but he had trouble. You know, he kept hitting the wall. He made some progress, but, you know, then he just kind of hit, like I said, came to a screeching halt. So he changed and he started focusing more on being different. And, and one of the. So he's got a few things in here that, that I'd love to point out.

All right.

And the first one's really powerful and I, I didn't think about it in this aspect, so. And I think we've talked about on the show before, but he says separate work from worth, and I think that's a huge healthy thing to do in general. I have a very hard time doing it and a hard time not measuring my worth by what I sold that day. And it's a years long process to, to detach from that for me. But he follows up and says most salespeople seem desperate. Like closing a deal will validate their existence. And he, you know, this poisons the process. And when he was on the other side of this, it gave him permission to win or even just do it. Gave him permission to win at all costs. So if you want to be different, start by separating your work and sales from your worth as a person. And I think that's great.

I love. I. That. That is huge. Yeah. The next one, I, I almost don't want to share this because I feel like it's one of my secrets that it like. But we will share it. He, he phrases it as treat prospects like people. And, and he says it's sad that he has to say this, but treating prospects like people makes you different. I couldn't agree more. Most of my competition does not do this. And it feels like I get to cheat because I get to. I treat them like humans. And they're like, oh, right. Like nobody else does this. They're like. And I've even had people ask me, why don't all the other people in our business do this? I'm like, I don't have the answer, but I'm glad you've noticed. That's all I say is I'm glad you noticed. He says, start with respect. He says, the people you call on are humans. Don't send them all the same email. Don't use tired tactics and packed pitches. Right. Think about, put yourself in their shoes. Use empathy, use sympathy even. Because you've probably gotten these pitches too, and it's not difficult. But when you're coming from that place of fear, that desperation makes it easy to treat people less like people. I agree. Yeah.

Yep. The next one is Seek first to understand. And he says, I believe in what I'm selling. Our product is amazing. I got years of customer feedback on it to confirm that it's great. But that's a problem because he assumed everyone needs what he was selling. Without asking a single question, he would jump into his pitch, and he lost more sales than he won.

Right.

And this one sentence is so powerful. He says, then I discovered that questions are more powerful than answers.

Right.

And so let people talk. People want to be heard, not sold. If you want to stand out, listen more than you talk, you know, and it's this kind of passive selling, I guess, and more about relationship building and selling yourself. Probably the, you know, the most by.

Yeah, by listening. In the music world, we have this phrase that we use often, big ears. Right. And it. And it is used with positivity, and it's not talking about someone with a physical trait. It is the, you know, the ability to be in a musical environment and listening more than you're playing, listening to the other musicians more than you are listening to yourself. And having big ears is super valuable. And you want to play with other people that have big ears. Like when somebody says, oh, yeah, that cat, he's great to play with. He's got big ears. That's a huge compliment because it means. Oh, yeah, he's. He's aware. He's paying attention to what's going on. And it. Yeah, yeah. Big, big, big thing. So big ears, folks. Big ears. And the next one that David Morris brings us is be honest, even if it costs you. And he starts by saying, prospects don't trust you. Of course they don't. Do you trust people that you don't know yet? No, of course not. They assume that you are either lying or at best, manipulating them into jumping to selling, you know, buying whatever it is you're selling. And. And he says, you know, he says, when I started selling, I talked about my integrity and what a great company we are. He says, it turns out, so did everybody else. He said, my dad once closed a 2 billion with a B. $2 billion sale because he was honest with the prospect that there may be a better solution than what he was selling. If you want to demonstrate your integrity, do it with your actions. Don't just tell people. If you have to tell people that you have integrity, maybe you don't have as much as you thought.

Yeah, yeah, that's true.

Yeah.

The next one he has is take no for an answer. You know, the worst sales advice ever is don't take no for an answer. Right.

Yeah.

Resistance is powerful. Being someone who doesn't give up easily, that's very, very important, especially when you're selling. Um, but you know, he, he was arguing that when people would, would tell him no, they'd often just say maybe just to get him off the phone. When he didn't give up, he says, I started respecting an honest no. And something amazing happened. No turned into not yet. Weeks or months later, many of the prospects who told me no called back to say yes. So it's that relationship building time and time again. You don't always, you know, this always be closing content. I don't, I don't think so.

Oh, abd always be different coffees for people who are different, not coffees for closers.

Yeah, go ahead and send, you know, send donuts to them. Stop by and bring something to the, you know, company or whatever. Take them to lunch and just be like, hey, I'm not selling anything. I just love to learn about your business. Is there something that I could help you with? If not, let's keep in touch and I'll, you know, whatever. Invite them to a charity golf thing or do what, you know, anything.

I always, I am fond, I don't always say this but, but I say this often to people. My goal is for you to succeed. Sometimes I'll say that, you know, my goal is for you to make money if that's what the relationship is about. But in general, my goal is for, you know, other companies to succeed. If we can do that together, if we can help you do that, great. But if we can't, that's also great because you're succeeding either way. And, and you know, if you say that you have to like you already have to be walking the walk in order to talk that talk. But if you keep saying that you will be, you'll, that you'll organize your business so that you are providing people value. We talk a lot about non zero sum games. If, if in order for you to win your prospect has to lose, that is not a sustainable business. It has to be something where you win together and, and you know, keep, keep, keep that in mind and yeah, absolutely.

It's true.

Yeah.

The next one is, you know, we, we've talked about this on a lot of the show. Speak about competitors with honor.

Except for all those other terrible business. No, never mind. I'm.

Nevermind. Yeah, that's right. But, but you know that, you know, again you're trying to make connections with people. Don't you know, they're talking to you For a reason. Yep. It makes you look insecure when you talk down another product. There are pros and cons of other products, other companies, and be, be honest with them. And you know, don't, don't trash your competitors. It doesn't make you look good.

No, but one thing. And you have to be really, really, really careful about how you use this next tactic. But sometimes you definitely never want to talk about your competition in anything other than a positive light. Right? I totally agree with this. Your prospect will never talk about their competition in anything other than a positive light. However, if you are perfectly tactful at this, and I'm going to put emphasis on perfectly, if you know of something your prospect does better than their competition, you can be the one to say something negative about their competition, positive about them. And then whenever I find myself in the opportunity where I feel like this is something I can do and earn some trust, I will do it. And I, I wait a beat for them to sort of laugh nervously because I know they agree, but they don't want to say anything negative about their competition. And then I follow it up with my words, not yours. This is, you know, and, and take the pressure off. And that builds a ton of trust because there is trust there. You don't want them going to their competition and saying, Dave said something terrible about you. And again, you have to accept that that might happen. So make sure you speak honestly. If there's something that is true that you can say, your company does this better than Company B, say that. And, and, and that way if it does get back to Company B, well, it was true. You weren't just like, you know, gossiping behind the fence or whatever, but you know, it can work. But you gotta be really careful with that.

Yeah, that's great.

I agree.

The last one that he has on here is do what you say you will do. And you know, that's such a life lesson, you know, but in sales, doing what you say you do when you say you'll do it, if you tell people you're going to follow up on a certain timeframe or, you know, David here says his dad told him if he did this, he would be different than 90% of the people he was competing against. He said no, he was wrong. It's more like 99% totally true. Because the world is full of people that make promises and don't deliver. So, you know, under promise and over deliver, you're going to get some data or some documents back to somebody and you tell them you get it by Friday, great. And you know, get it to them by Thursday. You know, really stand out. That follow through really builds your credibility. And a lot of this is about credibility and it takes time and especially if you have to try to connect with people like via email. I mean, just think of all the emails you just delete immediately or Mark as spam. Yes, you, you really have to think about how you can get your credibility up. So as such that someone's going to look at this and go, oh, I've seen this person. I know this guy.

I trust them.

Yeah, yeah, I trust him. I'm going to open this email because they're not always just trying to make a buck off me. Think about the power of reciprocity. Do something nice for them, you know, something that you think would be helpful. And you know, again, ABD is always be different.

So I have two things. No, I got to stop you there because I have two things to share here. You mentioned under promise and over deliver. And so I want to share the, the, the principles of two different Scots. The first is, is the Scotty principle, as I call it from Star Trek, right, where that whole under promise and over deliver thing was, was his, his stock and trade. He would say, oh my God, Captain, I'm not going to do his accent. You know, it can't do it. Can't do it. And then magically he would know. And then there's the other Scott, Scott Jordan. If you don't know that name, you might know his clothing brand. Scotty Vest. Crazy guy, great guy.

Scott. Yeah.

Scott E. Vest. Yeah, that's Scott Jordan. He's been a friend for years and he has a policy that, that he sums up as always be following up. And it's exactly this. Do what you say you will do. When he is pitched by someone, if they don't follow up, when you know he'll tell them, hey, you know, get back to me in three weeks. He does that as a test to see if you'll get back to him in three weeks. He literally gave you an instruction, right? So now it's up to you to decide whether you're going to be. Show that you have the ability and desire to be responsible and follow his instruction. And if you do that gets you through the first gatekeeper of this thing. Right. You know, and, and yeah, and it, it's. And he's a, he's, he's crazy. I love him. He's awesome. But that's terrific. It's, it's a great litmus test. Great litmus test. Yep. Yeah.

Yeah, it is. So, you know, the. The differentiation and. And being different, all this kind of stuff. Really critically important. We'd love to hear how you do it. Feedback at Business show. Business Brain show.

It could be. Feedbackusinessshow.co. that address does still work. Yeah, but FeedbackusinessBrain show is the right one to use. Yep. Thanks for hanging out with us, folks. Make sure you check out our sponsors, Pearl Diver IO Financing that Works Dot com. And keep living that charmed life and have a great weekend. We'll see you next week.

Take care.