THE SECRET TO WHAT CLIENTS WANT FROM A GREAT B2B SALES PERSON

Boy, do I got a great one for you today. Here's a great interview with somebody I think you're really going to enjoy. The lessons are plentiful, and I think you'll get a lot out of this. Here's a guy who grew up and suffered a life-threatening disease as a child, gets through that, decides to get into sales in kind of a very hard industry. Oil and gas, and then gets into software sales. So even though the sale may not fit what you're doing today, the mindset fits all of us in sales when we learn about or equate the hard things that we do for fun. In his case, Division 1 tennis. And don't get wrapped around the axle about athletics. A lot of people You know, tell me on LinkedIn, Brian, why do you keep talking about— It's not about sports. It's about a performance. It could be sports. It could be cooking. It could be music. It could be debating. It could be acting, comedy, anything that has either an audience or a grading or a variation with some coaching. And I've got some other interviews coming up as well when you don't have coaching. I think you're going to enjoy this. And have you ever thought what it would be like to have a sales coach in your pocket? Did I tell you about the new app that Thinkific has come out with? When you purchase the courses with it, you get a smartphone app to get access to the content. So now you can go for a walk, take a nap, listen to my one-on-ones in my office hours, really consume exactly how a complex sale works, or how do you prospect without all the rejection. No cold calling, no spamming, connecting with another human being, using science and psychology instead of stupidity. What? No stupidity? I'm so used to it. I love doing dumb things faster, Brian.

Okay.

You don't have to do it, but I get sick of dumb things. I want to do it smart. Go to b2brevenue.com. Check it out. If you're already in the course, download the app from Thinkific. If you don't know how, just go into the course. I put the instructions in the very first chapter, as well as in the community for each course. Here we go with the interview. I'll sum it up at the end.

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

Yeah, I, I appreciate that. I'm, I would say I'm probably a bit unique. I'm a childhood leukemia survivor. I, I survived leukemia from about 3 to 6 years old. So as far as, you know, where this conversation is going to be going, a lot of the foundational elements of myself, I would say, is probably derived through some of, some of those experiences predominantly around, I, I believe I've been blessed with a second, with a second chance on life and, and in just the ability to, the realization of being able to help people and also putting in the absolute maximum amount of work ethic to try to maximize my capabilities as we've only got 24 hours in these days. So I'd say that's, you know, the first part of the background. I never thought that I would be in sales as a professional career. Here I am, and been in it for about shoot seven eight years. I thought I was going to be a physical therapist, and then I started learning early in my career before even starting a professional career that it's not about what you know who you know. I graduated college as a kinesiology, you know, with a kinesiology degree, and started out my first job as an engineer in the oil and gas industry. I worked for Halliburton for 4 years and then I moved into sales and eventually went into medical device and now SaaS. So it's, you know, it's been not the career that I had like thought that everything was gonna happen, but I wouldn't change anything. I wouldn't change anything that I've done so far. I've loved every minute of it.

So the myth of the born salesperson doesn't really apply?

No, I would say, I would say that it doesn't really apply even though my dad, my dad is a dentist and he said, I don't want you to be a dentist. You have too much personality. It's, yeah.

What was it like growing up with a dentist as a dad?

I would say it was awesome. Really? Yeah, it was awesome. Well, it would, it's more so about my dad than My dad as a dentist, I've taken a lot of things from him where he says that I am the smartest dumb guy in the room, and that the way that he has been able to excel—he runs a phenomenal practice here in the Pacific Northwest, and he's won awards for his practice—and he just he really instilled in me the power of positive self-talk as well as just perseverance, hard work, and dedication to whatever you put your mind to. So I'd say that. It's all about the internal motivations that you then go apply into your craft. And it just so happened his craft was dentistry.

And so help us understand why sales for you then, because it doesn't sound like the natural path.

Yeah, I, I would say that, um, I remember I was having, I was having lunch with one of my friends. He was my doubles partner back in the day. I'm not sure if I mentioned it previously. I also played Division 1 tennis in college. Oh, cool. And, uh, he was my doubles partner back in high school. and he was the best man at my wedding. Great, great guy. And he was in sales and he sat down with me and I'm not gonna lie, he sold me into wanting to try out sales and thinking that this could be a lucrative and fun career. And I would say that was the first opening where I was saying, hey, that's somebody just like me and they are 23 years old and they're having success in it right now. I think that's something that If he's having success, I can be successful at it. And then there are some of the hidden benefits with sales. There are also some extreme challenges with sales, but, you know, you can't— your schedule can be a bit more flexible, but, you know, obviously the stresses and the challenges that we have to manage can be a bit more than maybe another role within a business. But I'd say that was where I really started opening my eyes into sales could be a possible career choice instead of this, you know, cookie-cutter physical therapy school route and going in and being a physical therapist.

And what appealed to you about it? Because I can't imagine anything further from physical therapy than sales.

Well, yeah, I would say, again, it probably comes back to my dad. My dad always said that as he ran his dental practice, He said it was not about, you know, the business side of his office where how many new patients am I getting? What's my, what's my monthly production rates and things that maybe a consultant would come in and tell them, look at you about?

Yeah.

It was more so about how many smiles are leaving, are leaving through my door on each day. He says that if you like, if I make somebody happy, they'll tell 10 people. If I make somebody angry, they'll tell everybody. And that really stuck with me in the effort of like helping people. And I believe that everybody is in sales, whether you are in sales or not. My dad is a dentist, is in sales. He just produces a different type of product or a different type of service. And at the end of the day, it's all about how we treat others and do we have their best interests in mind. And where honestly it opened up my eyes is that You know, I go back into the leukemia days. I think that having a team working around you and that has your best interests involved and they are walking you through a journey that is solving your challenges is the definition of love. And when somebody, somebody had described sales in a way like that to me, that, that is the same kind of effect that you can bring. While also, you know, generating revenue for a business, which is very important. I really took that to heart and said, I think that's something that I would, that I would really enjoy. And like I said, I started that about 8 years ago and I have, I have enjoyed it. But like anything, it's the roller coaster. There are definitely the hard moments and there are some just phenomenal moments throughout this journey.

Well, your, your description there is my definition of trust. Putting someone else's interest before your own.

Yes.

To the point where they recognize it.

Yes.

And if you can get that in life, everything else becomes so much easier. Sales is not about manipulation or trickery or being the life of the party. Those are— that's not sales. Sales is about helping other people, not about taking.

I could not agree with you more. It has been, it sometimes can create short-term heartache. What I describe is a motto I live my life with is the short-term sacrifice for the long-term benefit. I'll give an example. When I was training, played Division 1 tennis, I probably showed up my first day overweight. I signed my letter of intent and I sat back and I was saying, I got it. I'm a D1 athlete. I'm going to show up and I'm going to be able to just, you know, use my natural gifts and I'm going to be able to just go out and perform. And lo and behold, I showed up 2 months in advance and my coach said, hey, it looks like you're getting a little hefty. And I'd say that was like You know, I was living back then, taking short-term benefits for the long-term sacrifice, maybe eating more fast food, maybe not working out as much. And it felt good in that short-term moment, but in the long term, for what my vision was in my future, it was really, really, really, it didn't meet my, like what I wanted in my life. And then I transitioned it where I did really hard things, but it aligned to my vision in the future. And what I find in business is that there are going to be times where, because you mentioned trust is everything, trust is the name of the game and your reputation is the only thing that you can truly control within, you know, our industries. And there are going to be times where I've been pressured to, you know, get more and more sales and I'm in front of somebody that may be in the market to buy our product, but I'm listening to them. in the current pains and the challenges that they're looking to experience and what they need. And it may not be what we have to offer. And there are some people, like you said, could manipulate and just get them in the door and collect the revenue. And instead it's, hey, you know, before you really go make a decision and guide them where the best path may need to be. And I'd say that it's led to a short-term sacrifice where I may not have been able to collect revenue from that person. But I tell you, every time I see the people I've done that with, they'll introduce me to everybody.

And which is more important.

I 100% agree.

Because people think, well, if I put someone else's interest before my own, what happens to mine? It increases. And I— it does. Because when you're talking to someone else, you can hear and sense who they care about.

I couldn't agree with you more. I I, it has been, it, my career has been following a path of it's not what you know, it's who you know. Obviously you need to know stuff, but the power of having a network of individuals that will speak highly about you when you are not in the room is a very powerful thing.

And when you first got into sales, how did it feel? I mean, you have, what I've sensed so far is the leukemia thing gave you a lot of gratitude.

Yes.

The D1 tennis gave you that competitiveness, that drive. You don't get there if you're not competitive and driven. It doesn't happen by accident.

No, it does not. And I'd say when I first arrived, I was like looking back, and if I could talk to, you know, 23-year-old Brian McPhee, I'd say that he was He was walking in with confidence, but he also knew he didn't know a whole lot. And he, like, my goal was I want to understand this industry and what are the problems that we're solving. And I leveraged a lot of smart people to help me get to where I wanted to go. And I failed a lot. There were times where I would go into conversations and I would think I would know what I'm talking about because back in the oil and gas days, I'm selling to drilling engineers. And they are managing oil.

Very technical.

Very technical, which it was also a blessing that I had the engineering background to get started. But I'd say I'd probably leveraged a bit too much on relationship, a bit too much on price and thinking that tit for tat would be something that happens in the real world. Like, oh, well, if I give a 20% discount to this guy, he's really gonna like me and he's gonna send me more business. In the end of the day, it's, that's just not the way the world works. The world doesn't work on price, it works on value. And I would say that it took me probably a few years to really understand that and stop coming to our managers and saying, well, I think we need a cheaper price because now it's somebody would come to me, there's so much more to unpack. It just means you haven't justified your value. And I would say where, where I started to have that forward momentum was when I started to understand a sales process and why a sales process is important and why it is actually in the best interest of our prospective clients.

And when you say the word process, because a lot of people use different words— structure, system, habits— first, why did you move to one and what happened when you did?

I moved to one because my life in sales was very unpredictable, and I would say that I wasn't getting a whole lot of consistency. What I mean by consistency is there was a lot of friction in the communications that I was having where people would end up ghosting me, where I couldn't get ahold of them anymore. Or maybe we get to the end where I think that they are going to sign, but at the end of the day, I never asked, when are you planning to implement this? And they communicate internally, I think we're going to bring it in this quarter, but realistically it's not going to come for another 2 quarters. So why am I having all these in-depth discussions up front. So I'd say predictability, the ability to prioritize and the ability to set expectations internally. That's really why I brought in a process.

And what happened once you started developing and implementing it?

It was a brand new Brian McPhee. I would say it was a, it was completely different. It was like I'd say level 1 is the ability to do discovery really well. I think in today's modern, I think in today's modern sales environment, you, the best ones are approaching it with more of a consulting, a consulting type approach, at least in my industry where they're understanding the current situation, like through discovery, understanding the current situation and understanding their pains and not just understanding their pains, but getting above the noise where everybody is coming at you and Everybody's got their, everybody's got their features and their benefits and they want your time. And your goal is how do I get above that noise where not only do I understand your pain, but who is responsible for the metrics that are associated with that pain? Can I quantify that pain and then implicate that pain as far as what happens if you don't make a decision? Like who's the one that is gonna be left with that pain because we all have a professional career and I hope that we all want upward trajectory in our careers. And, you know, the best way to, the best way to get that upward trajectory is to solve problems and have a positive business result. So how can I understand the desired business results that my prospective clients want to achieve? What would that impact be to them? And then if we were to be able to solve this problem together, when are they looking to implement a solution? And then obviously from there, the obvious thing of like at the end, if, you know, we understand that these are what you're trying to accomplish, this is when you wanna accomplish it. Now we're gonna have to go through, you know, the cycle of getting an agreement signed, like understanding who signs the agreement, like the person that signs it isn't necessarily the same person that's gonna implement the solution. So understanding what does the trail look like from start to finish? Because then when you start doing it like that, and I say this with my prospective clients, is that I feel like I'm an extension to your business. Now I feel like I am, I feel like I'm, I understand it. I've met enough people and I feel like I'm a part of this where I feel like I'm gonna be able to help you.

And what was it like going from kind of the oil, gas and oil business to dentist, dental offices?

Yeah, I would say it was a lot different.

First, let's start with the why.

Culture difference was a complete 180. I was in West Texas. I was in West Texas in the Permian Basin. And it's a bit of a culture shock when you walk into a business meeting and, you know, I come from Seattle, Washington, where things are a little bit different. Like, you know, tobacco is prevalent and just, you know, some of those, some of those, some of those, what I would call more informal activities going on. And then, you know, it's a very good old boy environment, which, I thought was great. I met some of the nicest people in the oil and gas business, but it was, it was a rental market. So if you think kind of like a rental car, so that was one of my, my things. I sold drill bits that was used to drill into the ground and you would rent the drill bits and then if they were destroyed, like if they were used under different conditions and maybe the rock underground destroyed the drill bit, then going in and having those discussions where, hey, I know you agreed to pay this flat rate amount, but you destroyed it. I need 6 times the cost for that, you know, for that product in a very competitive environment, being able to do that. And I'd say the benefit there was at a young age, it forced me to have really difficult discussions with people that were much smarter than me in trying to find, like, being thrown into the fire to objection handle. And there were sometimes I couldn't handle the objections and it was really embarrassing. But I got that experience and I got to feel what it felt like to go in there and just live the moment.

That's nothing compared to going into a dental office and dealing with the office manager, right?

It's, it's different. I'd say that I felt more comfortable going in there because I grew up my whole life in a dental practice. Yeah, so I knew, I knew, you know, the role of the office manager. I knew the role of the hygienist, the dental assistants, the dentist, and then in this new corporate world of dentistry, understanding the roles of, you know, leadership teams from a headquarter environment. So, you know, the only time where it was like the same, the same core values exist within the medical side of the businesses of people have challenges. It's just there's a service going into a patient's mouth instead of into a giant hole a mile under the ground. Yeah. Um, and but I'd say that probably still some of the most nerve-wracking things have been inside of a, inside of a, you know, inside of a dental practice, inside of a mouth while you're sitting chairside and having to guide a doctor on, you know, maybe removing some sort of device out of a patient's mouth and you've got your iPad out and you're walking them through the clinical steps on how to, on how to, on how to remove it. And you're like, I really hope this, this tutorial guide is right. But it always ended up being— it always ended up being perfect.

And what's the hardest part of your job?

The hardest part of my job, I would say the hardest part, like anything, is Each quarter we always get new expectations, and growth is a part of normal everyday corporate America. And it's the ability to take on that pressure and that stress and being able to not, to not be paralyzed by it and being able to take one step forward and get one day better towards achieving those goals and doing your best possible effort and being internally motivated. to hit your goals and knowing that, like, one, every single quarter I want to hit my goal. But if there's ever a quarter that I don't hit it, I want to go to bed knowing there was nothing I could have done to hit it. It may have been something within the market, or maybe some internal initiatives have changed within a deal that I had forecasted to bring in within this quarter. So I'd say that that's probably the biggest challenge is, is holding true. to that internal motivation and not giving into some of the external stressors because I believe that I expect more from myself than what any business expects from myself.

And how do you keep that level of intensity over a long period of time though? I mean, do you ride the quarterly roller coaster or are you more of an even keel guy or?

I'd say on the external, I'm more of an even keel guy. I operate on the optimistic side. I think attitude and And leadership qualities are something very important within a sales organization. Um, 'cause I think that it, it will show I'm out there in the streets getting punched in the chest on a regular basis, and I can come back internally and be strong and show that we've got strong-willed individuals internally. I'd say that the way that I keep— I don't— the way that I don't ride the roller coaster internally, there are times I definitely do. I mean, I'm human and there are times where it's really difficult and—

That's natural.

Yeah, I have to. But I'd say on the external side, it's probably a lot of my development within tennis where you have to be mental. I've been trained to be mentally strong my entire life and not show your emotions on your exterior, especially no negative emotions, which I hope that's mentally healthy. It's worked out for me, but just to not show pain to your opponents. to— there are, there are challenging things. But at the end of the day, I'll never forget I had a coach and he said, there's no— why would you get angry? The past is the past, meaning the previous point is the previous point. You may have lost that. The only thing you can do is move forward and take on that next point and think that it's brand new. There's nothing you want to carry from the past and bring it into the future that is negative. And he used to say— I used to go like this and I'd tap my— I'd like flush my forehead. And he said, that's flushing the toilet. Flush the toilet of any of the crap and move forward with something, you know, it sounds gross, but like something clean and just treat it, treat it from a very neutral state.

So I take it you're hyperfocused?

Very.

Yeah. Because what you was telling me is I was a pitcher in Little League and Back then, it was acceptable for the opponents to yell at you while you were winding up. So not only was you're in front of everybody, but now the opponents are calling you names. So you had to be focused. And I would zoom in on that catcher's mitt. And I go, that's where it's going.

Yep. 100%. And I'm sure it's the same with you. When I— back when I played, It was the only thing I focused on. The only thing that was important was the ball. And I would, in practice, I would put as much pressure on myself. I would always, whether I was just hitting, you know, in a warmup, I wanted to be like, this is a match. And if I was to miss a ball, I wanted it to feel like if I missed a ball in a match. And I'm sure it's probably a similar way with yourself being a pitcher. With in practice, I want to put I want to throw as many strikes as possible. I don't want any of I know I'm going to have to deal with external stimuli in the real event. I want to try to replicate any sort of pressure I can and experience it in a practice environment. So by the time that I'm thrown into a challenging environment, I've already been there. I don't need to deal about the noise. I know it's important.

And what motivates you as an individual? Is it the winning? Is it the success? Is it beating the competition?

I would say I'm a, I would consider myself a very humble person, but I would say that it's just knowing that I hold myself to a a high standard of values. And what I want to be able to display to my loved ones, or maybe some younger kids, because I help out kids, high school kids and middle school kids with tennis for free. And what I want, what I want to be able to display is that by holding these core values or these things that, that I've held true can yield to success. And it's more so I want What drives me is I want to have success so that somebody else can see he's just a normal person. It's just these really small things that I need to be able to do to make some of these big differences, which is what I preach. I think you need to get 1% better every day, and the compounding effects that it creates over time is limitless. And I want— I think that's a healthy message for some of the younger kids that are coming up, that success isn't overnight. And I want I want to be able to be a role model to that message for some, some of, you know, the individuals in our future generations.

And when you see a rep struggling or not having the success that they want, is there a typical pattern or observation that you've made that they typically are not getting yet?

I'd say that's kind of, that's where it falls into a process where, so one, Your goal is to understand their strengths and weaknesses. Similar to, you know, being a father changed me drastically where I understand the strengths and weaknesses of my kids. And same things, you want to understand the strengths and weaknesses of your, of your reps. But like, in my head, I'm, I'm very data-driven. I believe that he or she who comes to the table without data just has an opinion. And I think that's where it's really important internally to have a CRM system that is developed with the proper stages and having people move the deals in between the different stages so that you can objectively find out where some of the challenges are, whether it's diagnosing through discovery, whether it's prescribing, educating, whether it's, you know, the negotiating element, where are some of your deals getting stuck? And if they're getting stuck there, that's probably where the The the the issue comes, but it's like being in a corporate world. Just because you have these numbers doesn't tell you the story. You just know where you're starting to ask your questions, and that's my template on where I usually start to ask my questions on how can I help? Being a a sales leader, you have to have a trans transformative mindset. And when I first time I read that, I was like, oh, this is fluff. This is a fluff chapter. And then I read it and what it meant and it, it, it helped transform me where if somebody comes in and they're gonna be under your leadership, by the time they leave, you want them to be transformed and how are you going to help transform them? And within that, I think data is a key element because you need to know where to focus when you're gonna help transform somebody.

A couple things. First, the data, if it's true— there's a difference between data, because what's in the CRM is the sales rep's opinion, it's not fact.

100%.

Right. So if they're telling you what you— they want you to see, not what is really happening.

Yes.

Which also happens when you talk to them. They don't tell you the truth, they're telling you the rationalizations. Of why they're still great despite the results.

I would. Yeah, I, and I've had that happen before as well. I would. Yeah, I— people— but, and again, it's just, it's asking a whole lot of questions in it. And, and I believe that the people that we want on our team, they want to win. And if we're— they don't want to be in an environment where they feel like, oh, there's something wrong. I feel like people want to be able to succeed. So it's It's not just— at the end of the day, a problem is a problem and you need to bring it up objectively. A problem is a problem. And if we're not— if we have a gap, that is a problem. And how are we going to address it? And asking questions on why does this problem exist? Because if we don't do anything at the end of this conversation, the problem still exists. And I guess that maybe I could have done a better job at the beginning explaining that portion, but like That at the end of the day, that's my job is to help them solve this problem. And usually I know that CRM systems can be somewhat inaccurate, but if that's why we try to push on keeping an accurate system is because it helps empower people to help you while also helps the individual salesperson. The reason the data is in there is because if you're having a challenge, I need something to be able to see to help you. And then if you're saying I'm great and I have a problem and I don't need to solve that problem, well, now we've got a whole other problem.

Denial. Well, I mean, you, you see it a lot in tennis, right? Oh, the ball is warped. You ever hear the people blame the ball?

100%. But if you come, it's all bit. Yeah. But it, it comes down to rankings too.

Yeah.

Rankings are an objective figure and nobody wants to fall lower on that, on that ranking list. And once you can have the pain of the problem be greater than, or the, I guess the pain of not being where you wanna be on the ranking set be greater than the problem of the tennis ball or the tension of your strings, now you're gonna start having them focus in instead on like, how can I climb this ranking instead of what ball I'm using? So like, You similar on how I want to bring out pains in my prospective clients. I want to bring out the pains within, you know, the sales staff.

And when you're interviewing reps, how can you tell the person's either an A player or a B player regardless of the numbers? I'm talking about the, some of the individual.

Somebody told me it's very simple and I hate simple things, but like there's 3 core things that I've looked for that I received from a very successful individual that runs, that runs his own recruiting business. I've only met him once and it was at a dinner in Atlanta. And I said, how I like asking, like, what, what, what was one of the catalysts to your success? And he said, it was when I learned what I was looking to hire. And him, it was one, what is their attitude? Is their attitude positive? And if they're faced with adversity, have they kept a positive, have they kept a positive attitude? The second one was, have they won before? Do they have experience with winning? Do they understand what that feels like? And do they have that desire internally to win? The third one is, do they have any baggage? Is there anything that's gonna create distractions within their business? And, you know, if so, I, you know, if so, is it worked out? And he said, if you can find somebody that has a positive attitude, that is a winner, that isn't bringing baggage into the company, you've got yourself a good hire.

Yeah. Has it ever—

But I was gonna say, but, you know, I'd say for the things that I look at after, like when I look at who's succeeding, that is, in our sales team, I'd say attitude, perseverance. But one critical one is time kills all deals. We all know this. We have to be moving relatively quickly throughout the cycle. And I'd say that there's one key element is those who are in the book, they title it urgent curiosity. Those that want to understand the information from the perspective of clients, quickly and they're not just gonna go back to their offices and then try to call them back later. They are here, they are in the moment, they are listening and they want to know what's going on in your business and they're, they're not thinking about themselves. They just think about the person in front of them. And I find that the people that are able to do that as well, they just get such a wealth of knowledge to be able to expedite the path to be an extension of, of you know, our prospective clients' businesses that I've seen that yield some great outcomes as well.

Well, hey, this has been a great conversation, Brian. Where can people go to connect and follow you?

I'd say LinkedIn would probably be the best place to connect and follow me. My name is Brian McPhee. It's pretty easy to, it's pretty easy to, to find. And I just, I really appreciate the opportunity for you to, to have me. If anybody has any questions as well, my Email is brianwmcfee@gmail.com. And I'm— it's an honor to be here today, Brian, and just thank you so much for your time.

What I liked about that interview is that he gets it. He has a clear idea of what clients want. They want to have their interests paramount to ours because they sense immediately commission breath, Pushiness. And what happens in the complex sale is that reduces the likelihood of closure. It doesn't increase it. In the simple sale, the transactional sale, a little pressure can close the deal. As long as the product's good enough, the value's high enough, you can get away with a lot of different things. But in the complex sale, we have to Have them want to speak with us. And to do that, they have to feel they're getting something out of it. The reason why they want to speak with us. And this is what I teach in Start the Conversation, Get the Meeting, is how to build up that type of rapport and not be a vendor, not be a rep, to be a peer, a partner, In crime. But you're not committing a crime. You're trying to get something unnatural done. And changing a company— change your company. Give it a shot. See how unnatural it is. You'll learn quickly. And that's what our champions are trying to do. And we need to help them because we have more experience doing it. We've got to show them how to do it, how to get it done, how to keep the momentum going. Instead of just checking in. Checking in isn't adding any value. Hounding people is not adding value. Guiding somebody through a process, giving them the ammo that they need, and teaching them how to anticipate what pushback they're going to get. That's what I teach in Closing the Complex Sale. Now, you can try and hunt and peck your way through your career. But aren't you in sales to make money instead of just hang out? If you're listening to a sales podcast, you're probably at least a B player, and most likely you're a B player trying to become an A player. And wouldn't you like to accelerate that and learn from somebody who's been through it a couple thousand times, and not just somebody who happened to luck out and work at a unicorn and they can tell you how to take an order faster? Or regurgitate what they learned from some other idiot. Good luck with that strategy. But that's what most people like. Well, you know, when we're young, we fall into that trap. We just want the Lamborghini or the mansion or the yacht. But we assume that that just comes by— what, luck? It does for one out of a couple million, but the rest of us We've got to work for it and sell for it. And why not do it the smartest way instead of grinding? Grinding has some cachet for a while until it takes your health, both mental and physical. And then eventually you learn that it's not the right way. I started with grinding. Until my health gave out in my 20s. And then you realize, well, this isn't working. You know, I feel busy and distracted, but I'm not accomplishing anything. Sales is about accomplishing something. And to do it, it requires understanding the game of sales. Imagine trying to play tennis if you don't understand how to play tennis. You don't understand the rules. You don't understand the process. You don't understand the system to it. It would be recess. And that's what people are doing today. They call it selling, but it's really recess. It's a bunch of kids running around, bumping into each other, sometimes feeling good, sometimes feeling bad, but accomplishing little to nothing. What we need to do is understand the game that we're playing. And how to win it and what the process looks like, the structure, the system. It's not what's in your CRM. That's what your manager's system is. And it can work for inbound warm, hot leads at a unicorn. But what if you're at a startup or a me-too company or a company that people don't understand what you do, or there's a million people that do it and they want to do it with the person they trust the most? How do you become that person? It's not by hounding them. Anybody hound you when at work? Ah, you might do what they say. You might give them a dollar and hope they go away. But is that somebody you really want to do a 6-figure deal with, change the company with? I doubt it. Go to b2brevenue.com right now. Sign up today. You get a little sales coach in your pocket. With more content than you could ever consume in the year, but apply one year of your life to becoming great at this profession. You think nothing of spending this money on your kid's college education. It's nothing. It's not— one book is what it would be equal to in a college education, and the kid gets out and can't get a job. Well, yeah, that's a quarter million dollars. How about less than 0.5% of that goes to your education to pay for that college education? I say it's pretty well worth it.

What?

Oh, Brian, you're using logic on me. Oh, the world has changed. The world today is for self-learners, people who have the ambition. You have that. You're listening to a sales podcast. A tiny bit of money and a little bit more effort to become great at the profession that you chose. And if you chose the profession and you want to become great at it, why not become great at it? Or you could just use osmosis. That's like hanging around. That takes about 10, 20 years. And believe me, I see the comments from the people who have been hanging out. They don't get it now either. And they go from B jobs to C jobs to D jobs to jobs no one wants. Don't let that happen to you because it doesn't get easier as you get older. It gets harder. Take it from somebody who knows. Sign up today. Let's go on this journey together. We'll see you next time. Check out the other podcasts, Sales Questions, Brutally Honest Answers. If you see my stuff fly by on LinkedIn, give it a little like, a little comment, a little share. I'll be your friend for life. We'll see you next time.