Conviction Over Commission (The ONLY Sales Strategy You Need in 2024)

Real sales is service. I mean, you're serving that person because if it's a gym membership, they've been putting off getting themselves in shape forever. And if you quit before you get to the root cause, the peeling back the onion to get to the avoidance to the avoidance leads to the root cause of why they're not going to the gym. If as a salesperson you got to solve that and they were in the gym, then you did good for the world by selling. And in every business that I've been a part of, every business I consult with, if that sales as service mindset doesn't exist, if it's just what is the average ticket, how much are we getting, what is that lead worth? I know that company's not going to make it, but when you, and you know this because you're buying companies faster than anyone I've ever seen, when you go into a place where they're heart centered and service oriented and they have an amazing sales floor to get people to take the action, it changes their lives. That's a company I put money in.

So I'm going to give you guys like the secret, like the real, like the key ingredient to making this work. And it's not, it's not, it's not like some words. It's not. Because the thing is, is that humans are exceptionally good at smelling out when someone's lying. We've year, we have thousands of years of evolution to see if someone's going to trick you and then, you know, steal your food or whatever it is. Like we're actually really good. And intuitively like, you don't know if someone's lying, but you're like, I just feel off about it, right? And so there's one thing that I know well, there's two things that can fix it. One is years and years of training, of trying to fix your tonality, pausing at the right time, speaking fast. If I really want to get someone really excited or slowing down so that you really pay attention to what I'm saying right now, right? Like you can shift how you're feeling. Like pros can do that because they've trained for it. But if you're a beginner, there's one thing that's even more powerful than that, which is just you just believe in it. And so here's my example for you. Have you ever bought something that you were like, this is amazing, right? And when you go to your aunt, you're like, you got to try these shoes on. They're so. Or like, I got this new thing that covers. Yeah. And the thing is, is the way you talk about it. That's what gives you conviction. And I'll ask a question that might, you know, trigger some people, but if you've ever met somebody who found a new religion, right. And they're like on fire about the religion, if they say it enough, sometimes the person who believes more, you're like, maybe I'm wrong about this. Depending on how convicted they are. And so the thing that will fix your tone will fix the things that you will say is actually believing in the product. And so we see this with sales teams, and I can tell you I can fix a sales team, rather than training them on drilling obstacle overcomes and things like that, by simply saying what's happened in the last seven days, 14 days, 30 days, that made you believe in this less and solving for that. And sometimes there's a legitimate problem with a product or a service, and it's like, we're on it, and then we start giving them updates every day of the things that we're doing to solve the problem that they brought up. Right. And so it's like we're just fixing the act. Like we're getting to the heart.

Fall in love with what you're selling.

Right. Because if you don't believe in it, you know what? You shouldn't sell it. That's the real. Like, if you don't believe in it, you shouldn't sell it. And the problem is, so many people sell things they don't believe in to make a paycheck. And that's why sales get a bad name. Exactly.

Yeah. When people. It's funny. I love love. I love listening, I love being a student. And I love hearing this when people say to me, how did you guys do the biggest. How are you so good at sales? What I always say is, because I love what I do so much that I feel bad if they don't get it. Yeah. And. And people are always looking. People say, give me the secret to sell. Like just what you said. Is it the slowdown? Is it the speed up? Yeah, I've never studied any of that. I've just fallen in love, you know. Again, back to Ogmundino's book, the world's greatest salesman is second. The most important one is, I will meet this day with love. And he said, they might not like my clothes, they might not even like my product, they might not like my voice, my complexion, but if I'm in my head saying, I love you. Yeah, I know it sounds a little hokey. But if they're saying I love you, there's no way they could say no to me. Because if you meet this day with love, if you don't just love your product, don't just love the success of your company, you actually love the person you're serving. You wouldn't sell them something that sucks, but you also wouldn't do them the disservice of them not having it right. If you fall in love with a movie, you want everybody you love to go see it. You fall in love with going vegan.

You.

You are praising from the roof. My arthritis went away. I feel better. Go vegan, right? When you love a product or a service or the company you're launching or the coaching program you have, you're not selling. You're feeling bad by not persuading someone to take that action. And when I see that passion in someone or a company, I know where they're going.

The top. The number one salesman for, like, the last five years at my old company, you could listen to his sales calls, and he was unbelievably persistent, but it wasn't in a pushy or coercive way. I would watch these sales calls, and some, you know, someone would be on, like, their sixth. No. And he would just. He would take his glasses off and he's. Rub his face, and he's like, pete, I'm not giving up on you, man. He's like, you said that you're struggling to pay your mortgage right now. And, like, I know because I have all of this proof behind me that, like, there's something that's stopping you emotionally from doing this. Like, help, like, let's work on this together. Let's figure this out decision. Right? Exactly. And so the thing is, is it what like, I love saying this is that it's not. Sales is a dance, not a fight. Right? You're just. You're just working with the person. And the thing is, I. If you're ever selling a physical environment, you always want to be on the same side of the table because it really signals what the relationship should be, which is, we're on the same side of the table here. I'm trying to help you make a good decision. And you know what? And this is the thing that. About having integrity as a salesperson is that if you find out while you're talking to them that it's not a good fit, then you will be able to. You will sell so much better if you let a couple people go that, you know it's not going to be a good fit for. Because then you know why you're doing it. Because then you have more conviction in yourself. That. It's not that I just sell every person with a heartbeat. I sell the people that I think really need this thing. And some people might not need this thing because they have a different demon they got to slay. You know what? Then make them a recommendation because you do care about them rather than the sale.

Yeah.

So conviction over commission. Like, that's the.

And that's. At the end of the day, it. It boils back to that love thing, that service thing, that caring thing. And it is the unfair advantage to sales. Like, I love. I love hearing your perspective. You're so good at sales, Alex. I've watched you train it. I've watched you train it. I watch you talk about it. But it always starts with that caring. And I've never met anybody consistent. Listen, I. I can see someone who's got a business doing a million a year. And when I watch them, and I'm not saying a million years bad, please, I'm not a millionaire is amazing. But they want to go to 10. And I could tell the way they sell. I could tell what they've rehearsed. They don't believe in what they're doing. And in my head, I know you will never pass that. There's no way beyond where you are unless you change how you feel.

If you sell someone and then think, gotcha.

Yeah, it's not.

You're not gonna make it. Yeah, you're not gonna make it. Because what happens is, one, you'll foster a whole army of people who hate you. But secondly, like that, like, if you have any ethics at all, which most people do, I actually think a lot more people have ethics than other people give credit for. It starts to eat at you. And Dean and I have been doing this business game enough to see we've seen people bottle rocket their way up and then fizzle. Bottle rocket up and then fizzle. They create another new product every 12 weeks.

Because if it's crypto, they got a crypto program. If it's. If it's AI, there's a new AI Program. Rather than going deep, falling in love, and actually making transformation. So if. If you're in business, starting a business, thinking about business, even in your career, what if tomorrow, if we challenge you to say, how can I fall in love with this business? How can I fall in love with my product? And if you don't love it, here's what I'll tell you. Just go fix it. Go fix it.

I love this. So I'm going to. I'm going to go real deep on this real quick. So it's usually like, I look at a lot of businesses every day. It's usually the biggest, most obvious thing is that the, like, the sandwich shop isn't doing well. They're like, it's our marketing. It's. It's the location. I was like, your sandwiches just aren't that good. That's all it is. They're just not. They're just not good enough. That's all. Like, they're like, we just need more customers. I was like, if you serve the customers you had well enough, you wouldn't have this conversation with me. You'd already have a line out the.

Door every day at lunch when you have the sand. I mean, we're using a sandwich. When you have a killer sandwich, what do you do? You post it. You. Nobody even wants to see a post about food. Like, please, why? Right. But you do compared to good. And you and I both know some companies. We talked about one earlier. That's a really good marketer. Yeah, but the company's kind of like a Cullender that you put spaghetti in.

Yeah.

They market so good, but they keep falling through the holes because their product's not amazing.

Yeah. And this is that. This is at least my hack for getting conviction. Okay. Is so, like, I. My next book's coming out. I spent 2000 hours writing it.

Wow.

And my editor spent 1500 hours. So it's 3500 hours of time went into this thing. And I'm not saying that for the book, but I'm saying my understanding of the level of effort that is required to make something that is world class or excellent has continued to move up my bar and my expectation of self. And so, like, the guy who has the sandwich shop, I sometimes I sit down at places, I'm like, how did someone think, this is my life's work and they made this sandwich? I'm like, if I were going to open a sandwich up, I'd spend a year trying every sandwich I possibly could and thinking, like, how can I make? I would go to the best. I would drive to the best sandwich shops and think, like, okay, how do they set up their menu? What are the few items that they have? Like, how do they source their ingredients? Like, it's doing the actual work. Because the thing is, is that when you do that work, and I'm about to invest in a company that does nose strips, it's kind of exciting because I've like, you've had no strips on my whole life. Yeah, I know. And I was like. And I was telling this guy, the creator, and I was like, this is what we need to look at in terms of how long the residue stays on your nose. He's like. And I was like, how much coverage it has, how long it sticks. I was like, I think the plastics used to be firmer. And I'm like naming all these things. He's like, no one has ever broken down our. With all this detail. And the thing is, is that once you fix every single one of those things, you make sure it's toasted for exactly 17 seconds and you make sure it get flipped at this way in this time. Why? Because you did it at 30, you did it at 5, and you found out that 17 was perfect. When you go to talk about the sandwich, you'll have the conviction.

That's what I was going to say is. And, and people don't realize they're saying, well, I have a good product, but it doesn't sell. Is that true?

Yeah.

Because when you know that product is the best, the conviction goes through the roof. Sales go through the roof. What a. What a. I'm so glad I asked you that question about sales today because. No, because listen, you see more companies than me. I'm at a place right now, I don't have time to consult, I don't have time. I invest in about a company a month, but smaller. I don't take them over, I just invest them. But we have so much opportunity coming our way. And I see the companies that are stuck, especially for years when they asked me to consult on sales or marketing, it's because they don't have conviction. They. It's such a great analogy. I'm going to think about this for the rest of my life. They're selling a crappy sandwich and trying to overlook. Trying to fix it with better marketing, the magical money machine. Better, better opt in funnels, better upsell process. Like, no, just go fix the sandwich.

Right? And that's the work that has to be confronted. And that's the work that, like. Because if you got into the sandwich business because you wanted to make money, then that's why you're not passionate about, like, I can talk about nose strips all day because I've. I've had two nose surgeries. Like, I just breathe bad. And so I know all the different things. I tried every single brand and I've done them all for 30, 40, 50, whatever days. And I Can tell you all the differences about them because it's. I'm passionate. You can see how I'm talking about it. Like I'm passionate about it, which is ridiculous. But like, but if you have that for the product or service that you're getting into, you'll know the details.

It's why mastermind.com with Tony and I. Yeah, we've been in the self education for so long. It changed our lives. It made us better humans. It allows us to take care of our family. We get to feed, you know, between him and him, way more than me. But hundreds of millions of people, like, we get to do this cool stuff. So when I talk about selling what you know or creating an information product or I'm not. It's my life. I would, I'd be fixing cars if that didn't come into my life. So it's not. If my conviction is an 11 out of 10. Yeah.

I'm going to give you this line for everybody who's listening to this. So conviction is the, like, if you've gotten anything from what Dean and I were just talking about is that conviction is the number one secret ingredient to sales is that you actually have to believe. And the thing is, is the first person you always have to sell is yourself. And most people actually aren't sold, number one. Number two is that conviction itself is not binary. It's not do you believe or do you not believe? It's how much do you believe, how deep do you believe? Right.

Yeah.

And so you can look at a sales team and I can say like, he's a 2 out of 10. He's a 4 out of 10. If I were to just judge them based on how much they believe in the product, that would map significantly more to what their closing percentage was more than anything else.

Wow.

But the cool thing is that because conviction is, is measurable and it is changeable, it's also something that you can work on and you can outwork your self doubt. So if you're not like, if I didn't think the book was good, then I would work on the book until I thought it was good and then my doubt would go away because I have evidence.

Wow.

That I've done this thing to make it exceptional. And so if someone then says, I think your book's shit, I would just say like, well, here's all the evidence of all the things that I did. Like I rewrote circling back all the.

Way to what we talked about in the beginning, 100%. And so I want to Tell your first book it was pure fire. I have recommended that book.

Thank you.

More than any other book, especially when it comes to marketing and sales. What's the name of your new book coming out? Can you share it or not yet.

Oh, no, I can. $100 million leads.

$100 million leads.

Yeah.

Yeah. When does that come out?

July.

July. So make sure you put that in your calendar. How can people follow you? We're not done yet. I got a couple more things, but I just want people to be able to follow you.

I mean, if you're on the podcast. I have a podcast called the Game Alex from Rosa. You can just type my name in, but pretty much on every social media platform, so Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube.

If you don't have his first book, 100 million dollar offers.

Yeah, it's on Amazon.

It's on Amazon. Go get it and. And be on the lookout. Okay.

And so, you know, it's. We made it as cheap as Amazon will let me make it and make it a book still. So if you. If you're strapped for cash, it's 99 cents for the Kindle. Like, it's just. I just wanted as many people to have it as possible.

Well. And a lot of people got it, so nice work. No, it is. It is my go to. When somebody asks me questions, I'm like, go get that book. We've, in the last four or five podcasts, people have asked me a question. A lot of times in life, same as you. People are always like, how did you do this? How did you do that? So I know you said earlier you got one for me.

What pain do you cherish?

Ooh, I knew you'd get a good one. I knew that would be good. What pain do I cherish? I know the answer, though, credibly. I know the answer is. So I'm going to make it light for a second. So. Alex and I are the co founders of the DLB Club. Daddy's little boy. We both had a time in our lives when we wanted to go for our own thing, that our dads weren't so supportive. I won't go deep on it. And we have some similar life stories of that'll never work. You'll. It'll. You know. So there was one day, Alex, I don't even know how it's hard, but I. I said to you, I said, I called you Daddy's little boy or something. And we just. We laughed so hard. I think I dropped my phone.

Yeah.

But if we take the funny part out of joking about the Daddy's little boy Club. That sounded weird even putting words together. But when I was. When I was about 12 years old, my. My father was the youngest of 12. I'm gonna take just two minutes to give you context this question. When I was. My dad was the youngest of 12, was physically abused. He was sexually abused. Come from an old school Italian family. So he did not get help. He just suffered through it. And my dad had so much resentment for his own father who knocked his teeth out like that. He. He was confrontational with everybody and couldn't control. Never physically beat me, but I had a bleeding ulcer at 11 years old. I threw up blood at 11 because my dad would fight with everyone. If we went to a restaurant and the waiter was rude, five minutes later, my dad would be on the floor punching a guy in the face. Like a flag guy doesn't hold the flag fast enough. My dad's on the side of the road fighting a construction guy. Like. Like my dad hit a guy with a bat in front of me when I was like. And I. I hate confrontations. I don't watch fights. I can't. I don't watch, you know, extreme fight. I watch none of it because I still don't like it. Long story short, when I was 12, my mom got remarried to a guy who was amazing. His name was Lenny Rizzo. It was her high school sweetheart. She married this guy. He was the most amazing stepdad. Had stepbrother, stepsisters, got a Mongoose BMX bike that we couldn't afford. Before that, I lived in a cul de sac. It was like I went from the trailer park to right. And my dad couldn't handle it. And there was one day, my dad, my stepdad, my dad was screaming at me, yelling at me. I was shaking, and I could talk about this stuff. Now my dad's 87, still alive, and I talk about this in front of him. He knows and I know he's got the. He's got a pound of regret, a thousand pounds of regret. But anyway, my stepdad says to my dad, he's in Florida. We're in upstate New York. He said, hey, why don't you calm down? You don't know what this is doing to your son. You can't see your son until you calm down. My dad got in the car, drove 14 hours straight to our house with a bat. Knocked windows out of cars. Yeah, we got so scared. I know it's a long story, but I want to share this with you because most People don't understand. We all have our. So we get in a motorhome and we hide from my dad for a month. We're going from campground to campground, and we can't go home. We're afraid, right? So finally, I get my older sister. We walk downtown. Sometimes you got to mature up. I was, man, manning up at 12 or 11, whatever it was, and I said, how will this stop? God, I can't take it anymore. And I was afraid for my mom. I thought he was going to kill her. Like, I didn't know. I don't think he would have. But I was afraid he threatened he was going to kill her. I thought he was gonna. Yeah, I know this is getting deep, but I want to. I want to answer this question. And I said. He said, move in with me. I'll leave her alone for the rest of her life. I walked back, said, mom moving in with Daddy. She's like, are you insane? No, I said, I am. You can't stop me. I called him up. He's picking me up. I walked back down to that pay booth. My father picked me up. I moved in with my dad. I moved in with my dad. And when I got there, he didn't have heat in his house because he couldn't afford it. And he had an electric heater plugged in. And at night, he was sleeping in the bathroom because a little electric heater could eat the bathroom. Slept in the bathroom for six months with my dad. Never told my mom, said it was fine. And my dad, literally. I realized now that I'm older, bipolar, whatever you want to call it, a little bit of schizophrenia would be the greatest man in the world. Let me drive to school at 15 years old. Taught me how to hunt fish, do all kinds of cool things. And also the guy that gave me a bleeding ulcer. Long story short, the pain of when my dad lost it was so bad, I would shake and be fearful. And I thought it was the worst thing in the world. But over time, by the time I was 14 or 15, I could read my dad's mood. I could feel his emotions. And I knew how to treat him in advance so I could keep him out of crazy Paul. His name is Paul. And be more of the dad that I could love. And at the time, I thought, what a burden for a kid my age. I have to deal with. And I can't tell my mom, can't tell my sister, because it'll cause. And I was afraid if I told him, he would kill my mom. Like, that's how Serious. It was for a 12 year old, a 14 year old. Now I look back, that was the greatest gift in the world God gave me. I feel I can go in front of an audience of 30,000 or next week I'll be in front of an audience of a half a million. I can go in front of half a million people and I think I can feel what they need. And it's because I had a feel what my dad need. I had to do it through empathy and compassion. It wasn't just a normal father son relationship. And I think I get to sell the way I sell. I get to care the way I care. I get to build. I built 13 different companies. I get to do all that because of that shit I went through. So it took me a long time to get there. And that was a long answer, but hopefully that helps somebody today.

It was a real answer.

Yeah. So, man, I appreciate you so much. Thanks for being a friend. Thanks for all you do for the world. The last couple podcasts as well. I'm just getting in the. In the groove of this and I thank God for all your listeners. Thank you for sharing. Go less. Listen to the last three. You got great ones. Matthew McConaughey was amazing. Trent Shelton was amazing. There's so many good ones. Go listen the last three. Make sure you share it with a friend. We'd love to get this out there. We do these podcasts for free for you. If you love it, share it with somebody. But lastly, I'd love to ask if there's someone in your life you'd like to thank. Whether it was something they did wrong that inspired. Inspired you or somebody that just is the gas to your engine or the wind behind your sail. Who would you like to think?

I think it's a Layla.

Yeah.

Yeah, I think it's Layla for sure. Yeah. I mean, I mean, it's just. It's honestly of all the things that we. That, you know, we. I already think this way, like, we have accomplished because it's been, you know, she and I, even though I had businesses before her, like, I think. I think our marriage is rarer than our business success in terms of like, percentage of people who, you know, do anything. And so I'm very grateful for that because for the women who are listening or the guys, actually everyone. I had a decent amount of success when she and I met. And pretty much within like three or four months after we met, she went all in on me. And then I lost everything. And I didn't just lose everything once. I actually Lost everything twice. And it's, it's, it's a story. We'll tell it another time. But at the, like the absolute rock bottom of that whole period of time, I actually told her I thought she should leave me. I was like, I. Cause you know, I'm self aware enough. I was like, listen, there are better guys out there who will treat you like, you know, I care. I respect her. I cared about. I was like, we're cool. Like if you leave, like I'm good. Like we're, I respect you. And I. And I was trying to sell her on leaving me and she grabbed my chin and she pulled it towards me and she was like, I would sleep with you under a bridge if it came to that. And like, I think that kind of conviction, like we talk about conviction, right? To go full circle, is that in some ways, like she sold me on me. And so she was like, I guess that was her, you know, burning the boats. Mind you, I'm sleeping at her parents house. We're not married yet. I'm just the guy she met on the Internet who lost everything and now we're crashing at her parents house for a little bit, like real winner. And that's the moment where she's like, I'll sleep with you under bridge if it comes to that. And I think that, that, I think.

Every guy understands the power of that. I have that in my relationship and I feel beyond blessed. I dance in the same way, but I get to see that in you. It's not a, you guys don't have an Instagram relationship. It's. No, it's a, it's an amazing connection. And I knew you'd say that.

You led me on now. Yeah, now she's so. That's to Layla, because she's Layla.

If you're listening, you are awesome. Alex. Thank you so much, man. Appreciate you coming in today to be here in person. And thank you again for watching the Own your future podcast again. If you love it, listen to the last three. Share it and we have a newsletter@deansnewsletter.com See you next time.