THE SECRETS TO MASTERING THE SALES CONVERSATION IN B2B SALES

I talk a lot about prospecting. Start the conversation, get the meeting. I have a course on it. And when I talk about it, I'm talking about very different prospecting. Not what you see on LinkedIn with the little love letters that people send to prospects or the robocalls that we call cold calling. What I talk about is the human-to-human connection about starting a conversation with a stranger and turning it into a meeting. The challenge has been getting a guest who's good at this. I've got a lot of people in the course, but they don't want to be on the show, or they don't want to keep a low profile because a lot of what they're doing and what I'm teaching, their managers aren't really that psyched about.

Why?

Because it's not activity-focused. It's results-focused. It's effectiveness-focused, not efficiency. We're all about getting that conversation because that's where the magic happens. And that's why we hire salespeople. And this is why AI and automation is never going to replace salespeople. Because in the B2C world, people do ads. You go to the website, you buy or you don't buy. There's not enough margin in it to have that human touch. In B2B, you have to have it because companies pop up, technologies come about, but the market doesn't know about them. So it's up to us to go out there and share the word. But, you know, people are inundated with messages, commercials, pitches, and unless they have active pain, they ignore it. So how do you activate that pain? You got to talk with them. And today I've got a great guest, and I think you're really going to want to save this episode and listen to it over and over again, because I have a lady who has developed this skill on her own, grew up with natural curiosity, natural desire to speak with other people. And I get it, that may not be you. But I can show you how to do it on email, on LinkedIn, on the phone, however you like to prospect. How do you ever want to start that conversation with? Because that's where the magic happens. That's what selling is about. It's not writing a better pitch. A better pitch will get you a little uptick, but it doesn't change the game. What changes the game is when we connect With other people. We engage with them. Now, you may not really get this episode, but try. Hear it out. Really try and understand how different her approach is than either what you're doing today or what everyone is doing today. Calling up, explaining your great insight or what other people are doing. No one wants to hear it. What we have to do is talk about them. Notice what she's— you never hear about the product in this interview. It's not talking about features and benefits or outcomes. It's talking about them. We'll get to that other stuff eventually, but you have to start where they are. And where they are is unaware of you. Maybe even unaware of the problem that you solve. Let's get into it. I'll sum it up at the end. And here's a great reason to listen to it. She's got an amazing cold call opener. And at the end, I'll show you and give you examples of exactly how to use it that has changed my life for a long time.

Here we go.

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

I'm Nikki Calhoun. I'm a huge follower of yours. I've been following you for a few years now. Thank you so much for having me. I live, reside in Arizona. I'm a mom of 3 boys. I started my career after college at Southwest Airlines, worked for there for a few years, got to know how to really talk to customers and empathize with customers. And from that stint, I moved into healthcare as a patient advocate. So I was really helping families and patients get to the care that they needed and learned early on that I was really good at talking to people. And from there, I went into sales. And I've been in sales— I'm a newbie. I've been in sales for only 4 years, but I've been told to get into sales all my life. So here I am.

How do you like it?

I love sales. You know, a lot of folks tell me I make it look easy. I am able to get a lot of meetings, meet new people. But, you know, from the get-go, since I was a young girl, I've never been shy. My mom, if she were alive, she would tell us that— tell you that I talked to everybody, even strangers, when she told me not to. So, you know, I really love the people. I love getting to know them. I love to hear their history, where they come from. And so I really enjoy it. A lot of my peers tell me that I make it look easy, and I wouldn't say it's easy, but it's easy for me to talk to people. And so I'm really comfortable with that, and I'm able to get a lot of meetings, get a lot of sales. My company's happy with me, but overall, you know, I love my job, and I feel like that shows through the conversations I have with my customers. They can hear it in my tone, and, you know, I can— I have the ability really build rapport and trust early on because of that comfort level and the way that I project how I like my job and what I do.

And it sounds like that Southwest experience was helpful as far as learning empathy and trying to put yourself in the client's situation, what they're going through and how to solve the problem.

Absolutely. Southwest Airlines experience really paved the way for the way that I talk to folks and empathize with them. You know, in the airlines, as you know, as probably a traveler and everyone that's listening, it can become very stressful for the folks that are working at the airport. And you really have to put on a creativity hat and really put yourself in the traveler's shoes and empathize with them and make sure, you know, you're meeting their needs, even if the flight's canceled, delayed, what have you. So it really taught me a way to, understand and listen. I feel like a lot of my sales success comes from strong listening skills because I really have to hear them out. And I really had to do that in the airlines as well. And it was a lot tougher in the airlines because I was face-to-face with the folks. So I really had to be on my A-game on a regular, on a regular basis, where on the phone I can kind of mute myself out or hide myself. But at the airlines, it's much different.

Yeah, yeah. You can't read your email while they're complaining about their flight being canceled.

No, no, no multitasking at that point.

And who's the persona you sell to today? Is it financial people, right?

I sell to healthcare. So I'm selling a healthcare solution. I'm in a hunter role and I'm calling into pharmacies. It could be hospitals, clinics, ambulatory settings, surgery centers, infusion clinics, universities. And my product really helps in the clinical drug information space for pharmacists and nurses to get the information they need to make the best decisions for their patients.

And so what's the magic to getting these conversations started in these meetings?

Yeah, I know. Great question. So for me, I do a lot of digging. I do a lot of prep work, a lot of research. And when I say that, I mean, I try to go, you know, to the highest level of research in that I'll see who in my network I'm connected with and see if there can be an introduction, a warm introduction, or even if I can't get a warm introduction, can you just tell me a little bit about this person? You know, You know, where do they come from? What are their likes? That sort of thing. Have just those types of conversations. I use Google a lot, so, you know, I'll go in and say, you know, if I were looking up you, Brian, I'd say, what's new with Brian Burns in the news? And so things would come up that maybe someone else wouldn't look at. And so when I get on the call with my prospect, I would be able to tell them things maybe they're not even aware that's published out there on the web. Like, oh, how did you know that? You know, For example, I was talking to recently a nurse that was really kids-driven in her career. And so I found out that she just got an award for a pediatric certification and that her hospital also got that, and they got it because of her, right? So when I'm talking to her and I'm, you know, just trying to build that rapport and making that, that You know, connection between she and I, I'll bring that up. You know, everyone wants their ego stroked at some point. And if you can bring that up without them telling you about themselves, it really goes a long way.

Yeah, it does, doesn't it? No, why don't you just, uh, send 100 emails every day like everybody else?

Yeah, no, so, um, I definitely send emails, so I can't say that I don't do that, but I definitely try to start with a phone call. And I'm— if I'm not able to get on the phone with them, I'll follow up in the email just stating why I called and that I'd like to get in touch with them. But, you know, I feel like just sending out a bunch of emails is not going to get me anywhere. I use LinkedIn a lot too. I think, you know, I just try to use all different avenues and finding, you know, where this person maybe hides. You know, LinkedIn sometimes can be looked at as maybe that's just an easy thing to do is reach out on, you know, to someone on LinkedIn. And most people put out their best, you know, their best foot forward on LinkedIn. This is who I am and this is what I do, right? So you kind of really have to do a little bit more digging to really understand what's in the, what's in the heart of that person and what's important to them outside of LinkedIn, outside of their job, you know, and. That's where that whole strong listening comes in. If someone tells me that they, they went on vac— you know, they're getting ready to go on vacation, and then I hold a call with them a few weeks later, I made note of that. And I say, you know, how was your vacation? What did you enjoy with it? And try to make that connection and that rapport before I just jump in and start talking. The other thing I feel like that really is helpful and And when with what I do is, I ask, I ask hard questions. So, you know, some of the people in my company call me the mayor because I am able to bring everybody together. And I've always done that both personally and professionally. You know, I have a very large network on LinkedIn because when I'm on the airplane or I'm in the grocery store or I'm in line for my kids' you know, event, I'm talking to people, oh, what's your name? What do you do? And people always say, how, how are you just comfortable in asking them what they do? And I said, well, because I'm not asking them for, you know, what they do on a financial standpoint.

Right.

I wanna know what they do, what makes them tick, what's their history, what are they about, you know? Um, and it's not a matter of selling them anything. I wanna get to know 'em. And, and if we're, if we can be friends, great. If we can be colleagues, even better. If I can help you, you know, get a job down the road, I'm happy to do that as well. So I'm always trying to put myself out there in that way as well.

So you're a connector, kind of from— I don't know if you read the book The Tipping Point. There's connectors, agents, and salespeople. Connectors.

Yes, I'm definitely, definitely the connector. I connect people in every which direction, both personally and professionally. But I feel like that's my personal gains have put me in a really good position in the sales world as well, because I'm able to be super Super comfortable with just asking, you know, do you have a budget? Has this been talked about? If they say no, well, what are your what what's your approach? You know, how are you going to get this budget? And just helping them think about things maybe they didn't even account for, right? Maybe they weren't even thinking, oh, I need to get that approval, or I need to get that approval. They just think on the one thing, you know, the bottom line: I just need the CEO or the CFO to sign off on this. Well, there may be. you know, hundreds or, you know, even 20 steps before that that they're not even thinking about. So it's up to me to help them uncover that so that they— so it's a win-win.

Yeah.

Um, you know, one of the things I was thinking about before coming on today is most of the folks that I talk to want the product that I'm selling. It's a great product. It's gonna help them in their day-to-day, right? But it's a matter of getting through some of those internal challenges And helping them jump those hurdles. Because sometimes I feel like some sales reps that I work with, or I've, you know, been in contact throughout my short career in sales so far, is, you know, they hear no, or they hear an objection, and they just, you know, kind of say, okay, well, I'll follow up with you later. No, unpack that a little bit. Ask some more questions. Like, try to understand why that is. Because they're saying it just because that's all they know. They may not know there's other ways to approach it or different angles to look at or different questions that they can ask their leadership to get to what they want, right? So it's my job to help them do that. And whether that's sending them an email with all of the tools and content and information to help them have easier conversations with their leaders or just get on a call with their leaders, right? So that's always a, A harder thing to get, but if you can get it, that's wonderful.

And what is the typical obstacle that your prospects have in buying your product? Is it cost? Is it change?

Is it internal? Change is a big thing. You know, a lot of our competitive products were pretty much priced the same. So it's not about that. It's really the change. And so, you know, if someone, if an organization has been with a product, the same one, status quo, for 25 years. One, they haven't looked at anything else, and two, they're so comfortable with it. It's, you know, just like you and me when we, we use our cell phones. Why would we want to change? We know how it works, we know how the apps load, all that stuff. So it would be a lot to, to overcome an organizational change. So my role is to help them understand some of the, the support that we offer for this change, what it could change for them in their daily routine and then how it could impact the organization as a whole. And so, you know, obviously price and costs come up, but that's not the big internal challenge. It's really the change and getting the buy-in. So how can I help them have the conversations with the different care teams to get this overall buy-in, to get them on a demo call, to get them to understand what we're trying to bring to them, whether it's It's day-to-day efficiencies in their process or that sort of thing. So I think that's the hardest part. But for me, if a customer says they're just not ready to move forward yet, maybe they have— this is pretty common for everyone listening as well. Everyone has high priorities, right? My product is probably not. Yeah, everyone's busy, and my product is probably not the number one priority. But they came to me, or I called them, and I was able to get in touch with them, and we agree that there's definitely a need for that change. I always try to ask them, do I have your permission to follow up with you? You know, can I follow up with you in three months? Can we reconnect? I think another thing that I do that's. Really helpful in my role as a salesperson is, you know, Brian, if I have them on a call and it, it could just be a cold call, not a warm call, like a blind cold call, and I have them engaged at some level, right? They may be saying, okay, I just need to get off the phone with her. But at any rate, I try to lock them into a meeting in the future, even if that's 3 months from now. Okay, do you have your calendar open? Can you get into your calendar and tell me what's a great day in October? The week of the 12th, and they say, "Okay, yeah, it looks like I'm coming back from the conference." Oh, what conference? And then that leads you into other conversations, and and then okay, let's get back to the calendar, and then let's get it booked. And then while they're on the call, I send it. Oh, you got the calendar calendar invite. Great, it looks like you accepted. I'm excited to talk to you in a few months. Right? So I've already got them locked in now. Locked in in a calendar, right, is one thing versus actually getting them on the call. Right? So everyone can accept a meeting. But I don't stop there. I follow up, you know, how was your conference? What did you get out of it? What were you hoping to get out of it? And I keep that communication going until I have that next meeting with them. You know, it's not a perfect formula, but it's worked for me in the past and I kind of keep just using it.

Yep. And were you this way when you're in customer support or success, or were you more laid back then?

No. Um, and it's funny you asked me that. So I've been very enthusiastic, go mode, high, high octane energy all my life. So both personally and professionally.

And a lot of salespeople are, but they're more on their talk about themselves. You're about asking about them. It's very different.

Yeah. So I don't— I—

yeah.

So my goal when I'm talking to a customer, if I don't bring up the name of my product on the call, it was a success. I, I wanna have a conversation with them. I wanna learn about them. And usually by the end of the call, they're asking me, well, is there something that you sell that could help me with these challenges? I'm like, why, yes, there is. But you know what I mean? You know, my goal is really to build a relationship with these folks, and both personally as well. Um, I, you know, when I was kind of prepping for, you know, talking to you today, I was thinking, well, I'm really humble and I, I don't really talk about myself too much. People ask me what I do and I say I'm in sales and I call people on the phone and I reach out to them via email. Um, and, you know, my family will say, well, Why do you think you're good at it? Or why do you think you found success? And I say, well, because I'm just having conversations. It's just like I'm at the grocery store. It's no different. I'm calling in to see what's working for them, you know, what they like about it, what gaps they're finding with it. And then, you know, it in turn becomes, you know, that conversation of how I can help and, and where we can go from here. But when I'm calling into these accounts, my goal is not To tell them. My goal is to not tell them anything about my product. My goal is to make it 100% about them. Tell me about yourself. And one of the things I wanted to share too is, I believe it was either you, Brian, that talked about this on one of your LinkedIn Live videos or a rep that you've interviewed, but it wholeheartedly works every single time. And that is when I call into prospects, whether it's cold or warm calls, I'll say, hey Brian, it's Nikki. I just have a minute. Does that sound familiar?

It works, doesn't it?

It works. And I tell— it works every time. And people say, well, why does it work? I said, because it literally takes off the pressure. Hi, hi Brian, this is Nikki with sales and I'm going to talk all about why my product is the best. No. Hi Nikki, I just have a minute. I'm telling you, I just have a minute. It's only going to take a minute of your time. And then all of a sudden the call turns into 30 minutes. Because that whole pressure of the sales call is taken off of them. And now they're, they're interested and want to talk to me. And it just is unbelievable. And I tell people, even in my personal life, in my family and friends, use it for when you're calling the cable company. You know, I just have a minute. It takes all the pressure off. I love it. I use it all the time.

And the other person's curious. If you only have a minute and you're pressed for time, it must be important that you call me.

Exactly.

Raise curiosity and urgency.

Exactly. And so they, in their mind at first, they're thinking, okay, yeah, I have a minute for you. No problem. What do you have for me? And then the conversation leads into 20 minutes or 30 minutes and then getting a meeting with their team and it just all kind of aligns. So yeah, I mean, I love that and I talk about that all the time with my director. Another thing I wanted to share that, you know, when you're trying to follow up with customers and maybe they go silent or something, one of my peers recently reminded me to try this approach. And it is just in like the subject line of an email, put, did we break up? And that's exactly the result of that email. You're chuckling, Brian.

Yeah.

This customer's doing the same thing. Like, this is hysterical. Why would they send this to me? So it keeps it light, keeps the conversation going, and it works. They reach back out and say, yeah, you know, sorry, Nikki, I, I got held up with other priorities. Yes, we're still in conversation. Let's connect on this date, right? Because we're— we all get busy. We are inundated by thousands and thousands of emails. And so, you know, it's important to just keep things light and not keep things so serious and formal, because we're all human. We all, we all go through the day-to-day. We all get stressed out. We all have the same goals, right? Um, so it's just, you know, it just keeps it kind of light. So I, I thought that was fun to share because it works. I, I did it this week with some of my customers and they responded and told me about why they haven't, you know, replied back and where they're at in the process and all that good stuff. Yeah.

And how do you keep this mindset going when you're under pressure to make your numbers? You're behind on this month or this quarter. You got to focus on Nikki, not them, right?

So, uh, great question, Brian. I think, um, in sales, people get so hung up on quotas, like they have to meet their quota, and that comes across in a phone call, that, that kind of communication with the customer. For me, you know, when I first got into sales, that's one thing I was kind of nervous about. How am I going to do with quotas? I never had to have like a number over my head. But at the end of the day, when I, when I put my best foot forward for myself, for the company, for the product, for the customer, you know, the customer's benefit is always number one. Things seem to align. Do I make my quota every single year? Maybe not, but there's years that I have great, you know, great years. I'm not perfect, you know, and so making your quota, if you know an all-star salesperson is making their quota every year, good for them. There's sometimes there's uncontrollable things that are out of our control, and you you you forecast to meet your quota, and then you don't. But you know, as long as I know in my heart that I've put my You know, 120% foot forward, and I'm doing everything I can for the benefit of the customer, the company, and myself. Then I'm comfortable with it. I don't stress out about it. I'm very ambitious, very motivated, high energy like this all the time. This doesn't go away. I mean, I wish I could just tell myself to go to sleep at night because I'm like, oh, thinking about all the things I need to do the next day because I'm still in go mode, and I'm in go mode as a mom, professional. Personally and also in go mode professionally. But, you know, I, the biggest thing I would say to anyone coming into sales, just like I did, you know, a few years ago, is don't, don't get hung up on that. Because if you get hung up on that, that's what's gonna drive your day-to-day and you're not gonna have success because you're gonna be so pressured in your head. I gotta meet the quota. I gotta meet the quota. I gotta meet the quota.

Yep.

For me, it's, I just need to call these customers, talk to them, And see where we can get with them, and that you know. And maybe not everybody's like that, but for me, I don't the quota. I wouldn't say it doesn't impact me. It doesn't impact me in a stress stressful setting. It definitely gets me competitive where I want to be like the best of the best, and I go after it, and I'm assertive, and and I have perseverance and all that good stuff. And you know, want to beat my my peer or my peers, and want to be better than them, and all that good stuff. But at the end of the day. That's not what gets me up in the morning is meeting that quota. It's talking to customers, solving problems with them. How can I help? You know, what can I help them uncover that they don't even know or are aware of? That sort of thing. So, and that's personally and professionally. It's all about helping people. I feel like I've always been, you know, a true servant, if you will. When I worked in a hospital here in Arizona, I was a director of service excellence, and that was again the same thing. I was trying to get work with all the directors and help them help their patients. At the end of the day, it's about the patient, and I'm in the business because I believe my product will help the end outcome, and that's the patient, by putting a solution in front of our clinicians that can help them make the best decisions at the point of care with their patients.

And how about the rest of the sales process? How are you with that? It sounds like you're amazing at the conversation, getting the first call, eliciting the problem, but then there's the whole evaluation, technical sale, business sale.

Yeah, no, that's a great question. So I think I'm pretty strong at all of it. You know, yes, I have definitely my strengths are opening those conversations and then of course working through the negotiations, the conversations. You know, I think a lot of times with sales reps, they wear their heart on their sleeve, and that's not a bad thing. But when you're in negotiations, you have to keep very objective to what you're working towards. And so that takes some skill as well. I wouldn't say that from the get-go I was really good at it, but I've had a great mentor that's helped me. Um, do better with those types of conversations. Um, for me, my strength is for sure the start of the sale and the close of the sale. Um, but yeah, you know, I just keep working on the middle of the sale and, and work with my director and my peers and the rest of the company in different tactics, ways on communication, different approaches and all that good stuff. Um, and that I feel like that's a work in progress.

And do you see a lot of equals between like the nurse advocate role and sales? Because when you're dealing with patients who are mad, they want to go home, their family doesn't know whether they should go home or not, doesn't know how serious it is, don't know what they should do. Everybody's a fish outta water.

Yes, absolutely.

And you're the person trying to guide them through that.

Guiding them through the process, absolutely. And, you know, there's times when customers say to me, you know, there could be several people within the organization that are on board to this and they want to move forward. And then someone comes in, you know, that they're— what they say is their closer or their stopper or their gatekeeper If you will, that's wait a minute. Why do we need this change? We everything we're doing right now is working. There's not any problems with the product we're using today. There's no no no problems it's creating. Like why are we going to put all our staff through this change? And so yeah, it's it's up to me. But it's important to note that it's not up to me to sell them on the product. I'm really trying to connect with this person, help them understand. How we got to where we are today through the conversations and the collaboration with their team, and help move it along along that way. You know, it's not oh well let me tell you about this product and why your team thinks it's so important. No, it's not about that. Let me tell you about the collaboration we've had, what the problems we see that this product is going to solve, how it's going to help you in your day to day. I know you've been out of the conversation. Welcome to the conversation. This is what it's going to do for you and your team. in your environment, right? Um, you know, how does that sound? Do you think that's going to be helpful for you? Um, and I think a lot of people, um, a lot of reps make the mistake of, oh, we have a new person, we just need to sell, sell, sell. No, welcome them in, catch them up to where we're at, and keep, keep it going. Keep the train moving.

And you also pointed out what's their personal win in How will this help you out?

Yes, absolutely. Because they're looking at it like this is gonna really impact me because I haven't been in the conversations. I don't even know what you're doing, why you're changing. Everything's working. This is gonna add more time to my day. I don't have this time. I've got other initiatives and priorities. Yes, yes, yes, and yes. But let's, let's understand what you do and, and what's your process look like today and how this may help with that process. Um, and absolutely, the airlines, the patient advocacy role absolutely put me in a great position to have those conversations. Because if you can imagine, in the airlines, the, the flights are canceled and people are not happy. And they will voice it, and it's face-to-face voicing, right? And you need to keep your cool, calm, and, and collect, and be able to engage with that customer and, and make them feel at ease, and bring that high-volume octane level of anger down so that you can work with them and come up with a win for both parties, right? Same thing with the patient advocacy. You know, the— it's not really even the patient you're dealing with, it's a family that there's an unknown. They're, they're stressed out. They don't know, you know, how they should feel even after, you know, numerous doctor conversations and next steps. There's, there's just that anxiety, and that's totally normal. And it's normal in a sales world too, right? You know, yeah, their CFO is going to sign off on something, but then what? Am I going to be supported? Is this just going to be thrown out there and here you go, have at it, and we're going to just rip and replace what you're currently using? No. So, you know, it's, it's my role to help them first understand what their internal process and, and challenges are, and then help them see how this is going to make it better for them. Um, and once I get them to that point, then it— we, we just move along. But, you know, if it were a perfect world, sales would be easy and everyone would be making their quotas and making tons of money all the time. And I feel like, you know, there are people that maybe are, are out there, but for me, it's never real. It's never been about getting the sale. It's about connecting to people and, and learning about what they do day to day, how we can help them. And overall help their patients. Great.

Thank you so much for being on the show today, Nikki. Where can people go to connect and follow you?

I'm on LinkedIn, Brian, and I look forward to you know helping out and answering questions and connecting. I can never have enough connections. So if if you want to connect with me, send me a request, and I'm happy to connect. Thank you so. Thank you so much, Brian, for having me today.

Now, wouldn't you like to learn how to start those type of conversations with your clients? Be on the phone most of the day with new people talking about what they're doing, seeing if there is an opportunity there, create a little curiosity, a little interest. Hey, wouldn't that be fun? You can do that too. It's called Start the Conversation, Get the What I've done is reverse engineered what you heard Nicky say into a systemized way of doing it on any channel. And it's not about a better pitch. It's about a better way to sell, a better way to communicate, a better way to start a conversation that turns into a sales meeting. Oh, heaven, Brian. Now let's get into that cold call opener. Now, how I came up with this was I basically— maybe I don't want to tell you how I came up with it, but I only have a minute. What they call this in psychology is a false time constraint, meaning it's just basically creating urgency where urgency doesn't exist.

Now, people say Well, you don't start with a lie.

It's not a lie. It's a figure of speech. Do you have a second?

Is that a lie?

You want more than a second, but you're asking for it. It's a figure of speech. A lot of people give me pushback on that, and I think it's just a rationalization for why they don't want to change. But what it does on the client end What happens is it piques their curiosity immediately. And they internally think, oh, a minute, a minute's nothing. It's like a second, but a bunch of them together. And it's the only cold call opener I've ever used that I've never got a hung up— a hang up with. And you now have their attention. So you have curiosity and attention. All with one line. It's not about the call being one minute. That's their interpretation of it. And it's not me saying my time's more important than yours. So you have to execute it quickly. You can't just say, hey, I only have a minute, and then pause. You don't want to do that. You want to say, hello, I only have This is Brian with the Brutal Truth About Sales and Selling podcast. I only have a minute, but I was curious about how you are doing X. Something like that. Very quickly move on to your question so that the, I only have a minute, is like, hey, I'm in a hurry, or hey, I just have this urgency. It takes a little bit of practice. It takes a lot of confidence, which you saw with Nicky, because the order is you have to have confidence to be curious. You have to be curious to have empathy. Now, most salespeople are still working on building confidence, meaning that they're comfortable talking to a stranger. But you have to build it because that's the way our brain Works. You just can't go from, uh, I'm a nervous little Nelly to I have empathy because your brain is still working on I'm a little nervous little sales rep. And until that's satisfied, your brain will not progress to think like somebody else. Now imagine if you had this skill, and it can be learned. You can systematize it, and it doesn't take that long. A couple of weeks, a couple of months to perfect, a couple, maybe a year to really automate it. But guess what? That time's going to go by anyway. And wouldn't you like to see your income go up? That's the whole point. And for our income to go up, We have to get into more new accounts. You know how much inbound you get right now. Is it enough to crush your number? Probably not. Maybe if you close every deal in the pipeline. What's the likelihood of that? Really dig into this skill and go to b2brevenue.com. Check out Start the Conversation, Get the Meeting. It's a game changer for the people who really dig into it. If you're in the course already, stick with it. Listen to the office hours, schedule the one-on-ones. There's a lot of them in there. The course is case study based, meaning I give you the framework, and then there's hundreds of examples of how it works with live, real-world cases. Nothing's academic about It's all real-world sales, individual sales reps paying their own money to learn this skill, because it is a skill. Now, I know it's more comfortable to hit your cadence button all day, but how's that working for you? Apparently not well, because reps are always complaining about not getting enough new meetings. meetings. And it's the key to your success because this talent is required. Even if you have inbound, you still need to talk to additional people within the account. The number one reason the deals stall is you're single-threaded in the account and more apt to be in the passenger seat instead of the driver's seat. So go to b2brevenue.com, check it And you can schedule a call to learn more about it. But watch the 2 videos there. It answers 95% of the questions. You can talk to one of our people. They'll share and answer any question you have. But make sure you have a question. Don't call— schedule a call and say, tell me more about the course. That's what the videos are for. The call is to answer specific questions that you did not find in those 2 videos. The 2 videos are both on the website b2brevenue.com, on my YouTube channel, in the show notes below. We'll see you next time. Thanks for listening. Tell a friend about the show. If you see my stuff fly by on LinkedIn, a, a like, comment, or a share would be greatly appreciated.