DO YOU HAVE THIS SECRET WEAPON THAT WILL INCREASE YOUR INCOME???

Boy, do we got a good one for you today. What is that classic mistake that early salespeople make? And I think we all do it.

I did it.

I'm sure you did it at one time or another. It's that talking, talking too much. And how soon can we make that shift to asking questions? And of course, I'm sure you just, you know, the word listen, two ears, one mouth. Oh, shut the hell up. I'm so sick of that saying. But today, we're going to go through a little journey with this great rep. And you get to hear it in his voice, the exact distinctions that he has learned through the first 5, 10 years of selling. Now, here's the real secret of genius in sales. You don't have to go through all that. You don't. You can learn from others. And I know in sales it's hard because we've got Terrible role models. If you watch the media, you know, you think it's Boiler Room and Vince Diesel comes over and holds the phone like he's landing a plane and, uh, you know, closes the deal. Or, you know, The Wolf of Wall Street and, oh, that's the perfect selling. Uh, he's not selling, he's stealing. So yes, if you want to learn how to steal You can model yourself after these people. But in business-to-business, where it's about the connection that you have with the client, staying away from the service-oriented approach— yes sir, be happy to do that for you. How, 2 quotes? How about 17 quotes? Can I get you 17 quotes? Instead of finding the right thing for them And helping them get it done internally. That's what business-to-business sales is about. And if you want to learn the genius of it, it's learning from others' mistakes. Finding somebody who's selling successfully in your market in the way that you want to learn how to do it. Yeah, makes sense, doesn't it? So we're going to be talking about that today. And also this Recurring theme of competitiveness. And maybe if you don't like that word, have the word caring replace it. Because all I'm really getting at with that is that you have some emotional attachment to success or failure. The right amount at the right time. And I know that's really hard to regulate and judge for yourself. But without it, you're not going to see what you need to see, and you're not going to end up doing the hard things that need to get done. Why would you? You wouldn't care. Now, maybe that's competitiveness. Maybe you have another word for it. Doesn't matter. All that matters is you get there. So let's get into the interview. I think you're really going to like this person. I'll sum it up at the end.

Hey, Brett, thanks for joining us today. As a way of getting started, give us a little background on yourself.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, pleasure to meet you virtually here. And we've had a lot of interaction with your content and it seems to be right up the alley of myself and my friends and peers in the industries. But yeah, I've been Been, uh, been selling my entire career. I've never done anything else. I guess it would be back to high school before I was not on some sort of quota and commission. So, um, interestingly enough, continue to learn more and more every day and probably, uh, develop more now than I did when I was 20 years old. So, um, now I'm with, uh, with ADP, Automatic Data Processing. Um, we have a comprehensive services division that is kind of a fully outsourced or an ASO model. So like maybe full-service accounting or full-service IT outsourcing, kind of like that for HR and HR technology. So that's what I do now and absolutely love it. High level of consultation and partnership with clients and prospects. So had a lot of different roles that kind of led into that one, but that's where I'm at and what I do now.

And is it an easy sale? Sounds easy.

Well, it is absolutely a double sale, right? So when we talk about what is the proper, you know, solution for you, do you even need technology? Sometimes it's a triple sale. So do you need technology? Is my company the right fit? And then is this very specific platform of support, partnership, consultation, additional resources, an additional investment, the proper fit for you guys versus not just what's available with, with my own company, but the entire market overall. So double sale, triple sale, pretty much every single time, which is enjoyable and it's totally different. So, um, I don't feel like we get told no, or I don't have to get told straight no very often because it is a different model and that's very freeing. Because we're making recommendations that don't have an exact correlation somewhere else oftentimes, if that makes sense.

And what's the hardest part of it?

Good question. The hardest part of that is making sure that you're making a recommendation where it's the right fit. So we can try to put a square peg in a round hole anywhere that we need to, but there's— and there's probably solutions like this all across the market and definitely all across the technology market. When you're selling something that is Enhanced, or it sounds enhanced. The ability to wordsmith that and silver tongue that to a yes isn't actually what you want to do. And we have such a tendency to do that and to try and make everything sound so, so gospel perfect, when in reality what we should be looking for is what are the reasons that this might not be correct. And because if we're, if we're positioning an enhanced partnership long term, then we need to spot any red flags for why that isn't the fit, because we can only, we can only mess that up so many times before enough people tell their friends and I don't have the right market and the right brand anymore.

Yeah.

So instead of what is every reason that I can get somebody to say yes, it's how well can I walk them through potential pitfalls or red flags in the middle of a process? And there's a balance there. There's a fine line between sounding negative, like literally sounding negative, about your own solution and making sure that they're the right fit. So that's, that's the most challenging part for me is just striking that balance of who is the right fit and when to cut bait if it's not.

And how long did it take you to feel like sales is the place for you? Was it a natural progression or was it—

Well, that, that's a good question. I know that, that early on the assumption was whether, whether it was through you know, clichés like just charisma and, you know, just intuitive conversation and all these things that people, you know, without that experience would say matter. And so initially I'm like, well, this is great. You know, people tend to seem to want to buy from me and I tell a lot of jokes and okay, we'll see how it goes. I basically unlearned all of that and realized that it is almost completely irrelevant. Sure, it's— there's, I guess there's applications, but You know, networking events are very, very different from consulting with an actual, you know, company. And, and that level of, hey, you're a good salesperson because of these things, generally is completely wrong, is what I've had to unlearn and relearn. And our— the business acumen and our understanding of the industry and our understanding for what would be an intelligent buying decision, not just with my product but with any product in the market, That has nothing to do with, you know, what 15 years ago people would say you're a good fit for that job. And they're just not correlated to me anymore. So, um, I think my answer to that question has completely changed. I don't know. Does that make any sense?

It makes a lot of sense because a lot of us get into sales or led into sales by saying, oh, you've got the gift of gab. You're a people person. You know, that, and those skills are better to have than not have.

Yeah, it doesn't hurt, right?

But when you talk to great salespeople, it's like, uh, you know, there's a lot more there than somebody who's enjoyable to talk to. Somebody who really understands the problems, tries to find the right match, kind of can anticipate how a deal will flow, how to keep it on track.

Yeah, if you, if you ask me, you know, Would you rather have an incredible sense of humor or be the best, the best question asker in the world? 1000%. I want to know how to ask the best questions of each company that I can. And if I never said anything remotely funny for the entire 10-meeting sales process, I would so much rather be a great asker of questions and a great listener. Those types of things is what I've learned over the past decade, from whether it's just the assumption of sales capability versus what the reality is to actually deliver for our clients.

Where did you pick that up? Was it by observing the successful people in your company? Was it someone tell you, or was it it just didn't work or didn't translate? into the larger sale?

Certainly a little bit of all of the above, right? So observing people that are very successful, and especially even across different industries, you see these traits of their acumen of whether it's the industry that their client is in, and all that is based on questioning the real, you know, buying concepts that they're after. So the emotions of the buyer and what's truly important to them. All these concepts of, I don't really want to participate in some type of RFP because I can't engage with you and understand what's really driving this. I can't help you in that scenario. So you start to see that and start to be introspective about what you're doing. And then really, as you progress and as you learn and try to ask better questions and understand the buyer better, you see their feedback changing. And you see how what was a recommendation based on 2 factors that you've uncovered turns into 10 factors that you've uncovered, and it completely changes the ROI and the complexion of that deal. And so I think that just through experience, you learn how much more important it is to attach to that buyer's outcomes than, you know, be the most likable person in that room.

And how did you develop this curiosity? Was this something you had through school, or was it something that you just said, I got to develop this because without it, I don't have much of a deal.

Right. I think that a couple of things. So I, you know, we've taken plenty of personality tests from all sorts of engagement tools and things to, you know, make you a better leader or a better employee or whatever. And then there's a lot of trends around, hey, I'm trying to connect macro trends. I'm trying to understand something from start to finish That's just how I'm wired. I don't know if I'm good at it, but I know that, you know, that's how I'm wired is to figure those things out from point A to point B and connect them well and help other people connect them and put it into as layman's terms as I can. So that kind of kicks off the curiosity of how do I do that best for each client? Because that's what I want to do. I'm also, like all of us probably, just very, very competitive. And To be in a process and have it say, this is basically a parity situation. You don't look much different than another vendor from a technology sales perspective. You don't look that much different from another demo. That just— I can't stand it. So I want to identify early on what are the true factors here that matter so that if you're going to tell me no, I'm going to beat you to it. And because I'm so competitive and then I just— maybe it's a character flaw, maybe I'm just a bad person, but I can't handle someone saying, I just like that one better. I can't really give you any reasons, I just liked it better. So anything I can do to avoid that answer in that situation, I want to do. And that means I need to understand the criteria and the emotions and the business outcomes as well as I possibly can. And then I do get to avoid that because we know what's most important. If you tell me that the look and feel of a technology is the most important, well, I know where we're going already. and I basically won out of the thing. Or if you tell me, if I can really get in enough to know that the real decision makers say price is most important, then I know where we're going and I know what this coin flip is going to turn into. So I can avoid that awful, awful competitive nightmare that is, I don't know what the criteria is, so I'm just going to flip a coin and pick. That's why I want to understand the deal as well as I can. And then it also allows us to deliver properly. We know what's important. So now I know what I need to execute on and what constitutes a successful partnership long term.

Because a lot of reps are scared of those answers, that they think that they can change the priorities or change the other person.

Yeah.

Instead of hitting it directly and either exploring it or letting it go. Because you're right, if it's not gonna— if you're gonna lose, lose now, not 10 months from now.

Right. So that's, um, I was there. I'm sure we all were, but I was there too. And my assumption was I can just silver tongue my way into something that nobody else could get, right? I can get a deal that somebody else couldn't, and that's some kind of badge of honor. Well, you learn that that's not really a good thing because you probably missed a lot of stuff just over— out relationshipping somebody else or just making something look a little bit better. And what you learn is that, you know, with, with most products— so from, from my experience, like consulting or technology is what I've spent my career in— um, there are very, very bad reasons to buy something. The look and feel of a technology, I do not think, is a good reason to buy something. Obviously, price is a terrible way to buy something because there's so much more wrapped up in ROI than the price itself. So if you're going to buy that way, I promise you It is much worse to find out at the end of the deal than it is to find out they're going to do that in the middle. So we want to know as soon as we can if they're going to buy it in a way that I would say is wrong or less than ideal. I want to know as soon as I can. And that pain is way, way better than the pain at the end when I thought I was going to maybe get it and it went to somebody that I know in the industry, in town. Nightmare. Can't handle it. So yeah, I agree. We all try to avoid that pain in the process because we want to feel positive. as long as we can, but over time, it's certainly net worse.

And where's this competitiveness come from?

Uh, I, I don't— I don't know, it might be hereditary. Um, you know, we all, we all grew up, we all grew up playing sports and everything, but, um, you know, if we're, if we're gonna do it, we might as well win.

And do you think someone can be successful in sales without being competitive?

Um, maybe they don't call it the same thing and maybe they don't display it in the same way, but there's got to be something there. Like, you, you— otherwise, what are you waking up to do?

Um, why would you care? Why would you do these?

Or if— yeah, if you're in a job and you're making money without being competitive, let me know because that sounds great. If you can just, uh, if you can just phone it— if you can just phone it in and still make money, then You know, I'm in! Let's do it!

And is it the desire to win or the hatred of losing?

It's the hatred of losing!

Yeah!

Yeah! It's—

yeah!

It's— and when you feel like you're compared to something else or even compared to another person, that introspection, while it's incredibly beneficial and you learn so much, you know, that's awful! You expect to win! Which is why losing is worse.

And is it the competition against other companies? Is it the competition against your peers? Is the competition against yourself and how you did last year? What's the, what's the premier thing that gets you up and gets you focused and fired up?

Great question. It's, um, for me, and, and a lot of times I, I think we got to slow down to answer that question, but, but it's versus, it's versus yourself.

Right.

So, and I think a lot of that is the difference between, you know, confidence and arrogance, maybe. So, so I think that I can get, I can get into an arrogant place if I'm only comparing myself to, to other people or other options or competitors or things like that. Um, you know, I think that that's coming from a place of arrogance. The place of confidence is comparing to myself, which is how am I developing? and how fast and how much better can I get? And as you know, within a selling profession, there is no ceiling because the market is changing beneath us all the time. The second that you've mastered the market today, it's moved. It moves literally constantly. So it's competitive versus yourself with where you're able to go and what you're capable of and whether you're stopping for some reason or you've you've missed the mark on something. Yeah. You're, you're competing versus yourself and your own, your own brain, your own tendencies, both positive and negative. So, yeah.

And how do you grade that? How do you evaluate that? You know, you this year versus you last year, is it the income? Is it win rate? Is it deal size? Is it ranking?

Yes. So that I'll let you know when I find out, because that is a, That's a head trip because there's so many criterias that are in front of you all the time. Obviously, if you're working for you know another corporation, so if you're B to B, right? They're going to stack rank you, and they stack rank you because it freaking works, right? It drives you insane, and they're not going to stop doing it. It's supposed to drive you insane. That's why they show you. So that stack rank is awful. I don't look. I never look. I can't look. I'll look at the end of the year. Don't tell anybody I said so, but I despise. SPY is looking, but that means that it already works and I'm already probably semi-aware. So I don't need to look at the chart to have a rough idea. And that's an awful process. So you're obviously stack ranking versus your peers. Financially, that's the end metric because we're doing it for our family and then we're doing it to win and for ourselves. So if the effort doesn't equate financially, then Either you really need to develop or you're not in the right scenario, whether it's the right job, right company, whatever. So the financial metric is very important. But if you can get a little bit more philosophical, you're able to see where am I developing, and you're able to make those those goals around development where I want to get better. And you should be able to feel those in the opportunities that you're working. If I said I want to improve. Questioning. I want to improve my understanding of the market overall so that I can speak towards the market and not just my solution. You're going to know if you're getting better and if you're doing it. And so for me, I've written a lot of those down at the beginning of the year, said, yes, I want to make money. Yes, I want to beat everybody else at everything. But here's the 5 areas I really want to develop, actual development. And you can see if you're progressing along those and then having peers that know about that and can check you on it. and tell you if it's working is also very beneficial for me.

And what do you see as your strongest characteristic as a salesperson?

Um, boy, I don't know. I try to, I try to avoid going there in my mind as much as I can. I know what I'm working on the most. So the thing that I'm working on and I want to be the best at is, is providing, providing simplicity of these very complex decisions, which again necessitates an understanding of the entire market. So if I only explain to you my option, I'm not really helping you. I need to be able to understand every option so that I can compare and contrast properly. So if there's 10 top options, if there's 10 common options, I need to know all 10 of them as well as I possibly can so that I'm able to compare and contrast. And that simplicity for the buyer is so important. And that's that's where I'm trying to be valuable. And that way, if I don't get the deal, I've been so valuable in helping them that they can go tell everybody else that it was valuable. And there's so much transparency, there's such a lack of salesmanship, quote unquote, there. I'm just trying to be as valuable as I can. So I want to be the best at understanding the market overall and then applying that to their business so I can say, I actually know how to buy this better than you and hopefully as well as anybody else. And that's the real— the driver is I'm going to help you buy this and I'm going to tell you where I think that way of thinking is incorrect based on everything that I've learned. That's what I want to be best at, I guess, is how I'd answer.

And what do you feel is your weakest skill or characteristic?

Um, I, I still have the tendency to, um, I still have the tendency to want to make everything sound pretty positive. I still can put a spin on something that sounds fine, and I'm learning every single day to make sure I'm thinking through whether that's going to come back later. Like, is this going to come back in 4 months? And if it does, I need to shut up. Do I know how to answer that now and head off into a great weekend? Yes, I do. I know what I could say to mitigate that scenario or mitigate that question for now, but is it going to come back in 90 days? And that's what I'm, I'm weakest at because I'm just, I just naturally want to have a positive and fun and enjoyable conversation and day. And so that's what I'm learning all the time is to, to find the pain now so you don't find it later.

And when you're sitting through a QBR and you hear other reps talk about deals Do you see yourself being able to tell which deals will close and which won't?

Yeah, absolutely. I think that's just a ton of experience, but yeah, you can see that pretty quick. It's even better if you get a recording of a call and you can listen to the buyer really objectively and say, there's no chance. You got to hear how they're answering that question. Like, no way. What are you doing? But conversely, you could have, you could have the, the rep on the other side just overjoyed at the process, and sometimes it'll hit you and be like, no way.

Well, well, that's it, because the client doesn't like delivering bad news, so they're not going to overtly say we're not going with you.

They'll give you the, we need to think about it, the delays, the obfuscations, the What's interesting is, and probably in every scenario, every industry, everything you're selling, I'm trying to develop a list of questions that will better identify that buyer's mindset. So with what I do, that's heavy consultation and a heavy level of strategic partnership around their business, there are questions that I can ask that will reveal you're not in that place. and you're never, you're not going to be in that place. So I either need to talk to somebody else or we're probably not a good fit. And so obviously I'm in the HR environment. If I ask someone, hey, you're about to acquire 10 locations in 10 different states, what are your concerns? Well, I don't have any. Well, you really should.

Yeah.

So that would let us know, like, you're probably gonna get to the end of this and the ROI that you see is gonna be different than the ROI that they see. And you should have known that from the first call. So I'm trying to develop that list of questions and then share that with, you know, my other peers and reps, is to say you should have an indication as to how they're going to see this entire process, and here's some questions that can help us do that. And I wish I would have known that 10 years ago, but, um, that's been very interesting, just identifying the temperature of a deal as soon as possible based on the mindset of that buyer.

Now you've talked a lot about questions. Do you spend a lot of time designing them? Before a call?

Yes. Yeah, so a standard template of questions that go from as strategic as possible, as macro as possible about that business, all the way down to what they want to talk about, which is a list of requirements or a technology itself. And through that, the idea is obviously for for us to talk as little as possible and understand what they might not have even considered, right? So if they wanna go straight to a criteria, either it's 'cause they don't trust us and they shouldn't at that point, but they don't trust us and they wanna do some type of soft RFP, here's what I need. But there could be factors in that business, they don't understand what we provide yet. So how could they ask the right questions?

Right.

We need them to talk, right? I need to understand the macro scenario and the goals that they have. So we want to go as wide as we can and generate as much free-flowing conversation, open-ended questions, etc., and then narrow it all the way down to some more specifics and eventually next steps.

Because I got to believe they'd want to commoditize you, have you look the same as 4 or 5 other players.

Yeah, and they already have. Yeah, they don't— they already have before you walk in the door.

How do you get them to understand the distinctions?

Beat them to it, beat them to it and say, hey, this thing right here, it's commoditized. Let's put it over there for now. We'll come back. That's going to look and feel the same. I'll tell you off the bat, it pretty much is. Here's what I want to understand, because this is how we've been able to help. So if they see it as a commodity and it is a commodity, then our level of self-awareness around that, it automatically, um, it just rapidly increases trust. Right. So anytime you— it's saying something that you're not supposed to say, quote unquote. If they don't think that you should be in that frame of mind with them, the fact that we are rapidly increases trust and allows us to have a conversation that's actually beneficial on all sides. So yeah, if they're putting it in a commodity box, let's just beat them to it immediately.

And what do you wish you learned the first year in sales that you know today?

Oh, I wish I would have learned that, that the acumen of how you should buy something for whatever that product is that you have is just so much more important than, than how you position what you do.

Yeah.

And I mean, I do have one of my first sales managers used to hold her breath if I monologued and say that I was killing her because I wouldn't shut up. That was interesting. But I would— yeah.

How did you take that?

Well, it worked and my wife started doing it. So I'd just be sitting at the dinner table and she'd act like she's going to keel over and fall out of the chair because my monologue was too long. I just felt like I had so many things to say when I was 20 years old. I just wanted to make sure that they understood. But yeah, learning that that's not the best way to go about it would have been great.

Well, when we're first in sales, we think we're obligated to talk, that if we're not talking, we're not selling. And then we quickly find out that questions are much more powerful than statements.

And, and I mean, even the simple concept of, of what makes someone actually like you, it's, it's being able to talk about themselves, right? I would love to know that. Um, you know what, I just really like that Brian guy. Well, it's because he let me talk for 30 minutes. You're subconsciously going to like anybody that lets you talk about yourself. You're looking at somebody else talking about yourself, right? Yeah, it would have made me shut up a lot faster, a lot sooner.

But how do you get the HR people and the finance people who are not the social butterflies of the world, right? They're the kind of brass tacks, you know, rows and columns type people. How do you get them to open up?

Ah, that's a, that's a great question. And they're all so different, right? And, and they're all so different, but they still have hobbies. Um, I think that at this point, our personality mirroring is probably very, very subconscious. But if someone was new to those industries, I would want to go through that front and center. Um, you know, I think that people that have been doing it for a long time are very— but the personality mirroring is so strong with those folks. Folks, and that opens them up. So immediately into their their speaking cadence, their posture. If they want to be rough around the edges, so are we. If they want to be overly transparent, if they want to just be insulting towards the industry and the process itself, let's do that. I'm game. Fine. Do you want to be cranky? Let's be cranky. Do you want to be awkward? Let's do it. So that that really helps open those folks up. Obviously, if you try and oil and water that. with a very, very cut and dried CFO is not gonna work. So you start with heavy, heavy personality mirroring and then just through profiling and questions. And a lot of that is just our own personal character, or at least sales character where we're so transparent and we're actually doing what we say we're gonna do. We're really being trustworthy. And open about how we want to help in the process, they open up quickly after that. I think they've learned to be guarded from a lot of sales processes, especially in HR and finance, but also the organization itself. They've got to deal with everybody and they've got to deal with highly empathetic situations. So they're just naturally guarded from fluff. So cutting through that is, is probably pretty important.

Cool.

Hey, Fred, I really appreciate your time today. Where can people go to connect and follow you?

Yeah, so I'm on LinkedIn, so it's Brett Wampler on LinkedIn. And, you know, looking at, you know, some opportunities, there's certainly some speaking opportunities and videos out there within the industry. Those are probably on my LinkedIn page. But other than that, I'm fairly off the grid on an island in Florida and try to keep it that way.

What did you get out of that? Here's what I got. That asking questions and being able to judge a deal, being able to look at a deal and ask yourself, how is this deal going to play out? What is going to end up being their criteria for picking? And what you saw or heard in the interview was this rep has got a good way of having little litmus tests through the whole process, asking Great questions, finding out what is really valuable, treating the things that can be viewed as commodities and let them win that part, but showing the distinctions of how it's not a commodity. And this is one of the things that we have to learn in sales is that when the person's buying or looking at things, they look at it as a thing. They don't look at it as like the transformation that it'll Right? You know, like probably the computer or even your smartphone. It's kind of transformational if you end up using it. It's got a camera, it's got a recorder, it's got the internet, all this stuff that can really, you know, make your day pretty productive or waste a lot of time too. But it's how you view it. That's how they view it. And as a sales rep, we've got to get them off of that commodity thing very quickly. And that switch from talking to asking is very critical because what does everybody want to talk about? Themselves. Get there as quick as possible. Design your questions. Design the exact steps before Before you go into the sales call. This is the preparation that we have. A lot of people, it's like, oh, it's research and what the other person's interested in. And yeah, that's good, but you gotta like line up your questions in a certain sequence to build up to where you want them focused on. Because questions are, are only mind control. You want to learn about good questions? Go to b2brevenue.com. And with either course, Start the Conversation, Get the Meeting, or Closing the Complex Sale, I include the Questions That Sell course with a coupon code. You have to get the coupon code. It just doesn't happen automatically. So don't just order it and say, hey, you said it was free. With a coupon. Okay. It can't read your mind. So if you're signing up, Just sign up, send me a little note saying, hey, I signed up. Can I get that coupon for Questions That Sell course? And it shows exactly the steps to go through with sample questions and really how you're trying to build that conversation where you want it to take it. Because we have to lead the deal. Nobody really gets taught how to buy. How to make decisions. Do you know any course on decision-making?

Uh, no.

Who's the decision-maker? Did they take the course? There's no course. People, uh, what do they do? They think, uh, they analyze a little, and they flip a coin, or the salesperson guides them through the process. Not pushing, not cajoling, guiding them. And I always use the concierge or the Sherpa metaphor. The Sherpa doesn't push the people up the mountain. They guide them through the trails of the mountain. Everyone wants to go to the summit, but they don't know how to best get there. They hire A Sherpa. That's what we are. We're deal Sherpas. We don't push. We don't control. We don't trick. We guide. Because the person clearly wants what we're selling or they wouldn't participate. In B2B, the trickery that you see in the movies doesn't really apply. There's too many people. There's too many checks and balances. The default is not to do anything, not to do anything. So if you want to learn this and save years of trial and error and get to the core of what will really work in the large B2B sale, go to b2brevenue.com and check out the courses. There's a video link on the website in the show notes right below, right below the Scratchpad link. There's also an email sample if you want to try and get your manager to pay for it. But if I was you, I'd pay for it myself. Why? You need to commit yourself to take action, to participate. There's a community to watch the office hours and show up for them occasionally. There's 4 years of them now in there. So there's plenty of stuff. And examples, conversations, office hours, one-on-ones on every particular part of the complex sale. And you get to even follow people through that year. And I've got some guests coming on, uh, in the next couple weeks who have been through this process. So if you want to become great at it, sign up. And, and if you don't, ask yourself why. Do you not care? You must care. You're listening to a podcast about sales, probably on your own time. You must care. So if you do care, why waste another year not winning those deals, seeing somebody else on that leaderboard? That's it. I appreciate everybody listening. Also, check out our friends over at Scratchpad. I left the link in the, in the show notes below, or just go to scratchpad.com. We're planning an after show on Wednesdays on LinkedIn Live. If you want to show up for that, look for the announcement on the podcast page on LinkedIn. It'll be 3 o'clock Eastern, noon PST, Pacific Time. I will record it and put up on the YouTube channel, hopefully afterwards. But if you want to show up live, ask questions, uh, introduce yourself, be great to hear from you. We'll see you next time.

I was just going to give a bit of a testimonial, if that's all right, just to kick it off.

Only if it's positive.

No, it is positive. It was a— yeah, um, just because I started the Course, I think, in June of last year, 2021. I got a few more months left of Access, which is good, um, but I feel like it's been a transformative experience in my own personal and professional life. I was able to go from a period of a low sales slump in the middle of last year, in the summer and early fall, and then really was able to then come back and exceed my target by the end of the, by the end of the 4th quarter. And so the only other thing I would say is that it's also really differentiated me amongst people on the sales team in terms of focus and clarity of what's important. And now I feel really good about what I'm doing. In terms of the approach of reaching out to customers and having those conversations and being focused, as opposed to just doing a lot of the other busy work on the side, like organizing resources and doing business analytics and all this other stuff. And so it's really been a noticeable difference with our executive team at my company. And so I just want to thank you for the content and for these opportunities. And so I hope that helps. If there's anybody new, it It's— I'm a work in progress, but it's getting better.

Good.

Yeah.

And you're selling pretty hard stuff.