From Slumps to Success: How to Overcome Sales Blocks and Achieve BIG

If you're going to work on sales techniques alone, you're only going so far unless you are just a complete beast that is so highly driven that you can push through your own program. But even people who do that, I've noticed coming up, they— many of them became multimillionaires and then they end up losing. So what I find myself doing a lot today is helping people to remove that sort of sabotage pattern, and I call it battlefield surgery. A lot of times they get hurt on the field. I gotta I gotta put them back in and boom, get them back out there as quick as I can. Skills are great and they will get you to a certain point, but you know, your mindset or, you know, maybe your body set, your nervous system, uh, will put your skill set on steroids.

Mark is here. He's a new member of Movie Makers, and part of that, we're doing an Instagram Live together. What's on your mind, man? How can I help?

I joined this program, uh, I really like the, uh, biz dev show in order to grow the business. I already got my first show booked with Ben Gay III. He's the author of The Closers series of books, which sold 10 million copies. I'm actually one of his co-authors. I did book 5 with him, Master the Closers Mindset. So for sales-driven entrepreneurs, 6-Figure Salespeople. So essentially I'm going down the road and I'm doing this program. I would say the biggest problem I have in the program is, is just understanding Discord. Okay. But, uh, it— no, it's all good. I'm, I'm in progress and I'm just taking the action steps along the way. So everything's actually on track. I'm going to book a call every single week with somebody else. I know who my market is. I'm working on getting to, uh, 6-figure commission salespeople. I've got some, uh, some great names on my list that we're pursuing, and, uh, we'll be doing a call a week in 2024.

So I love it. And are you doing, are you doing big name only, or are you also doing people that you're going to be coaching?

Oh, oh no, it'll be— well, it's my understanding is, and maybe this is a good time for the question, I'm starting with Ben only 'cause he's the oldest living sales legend. And I co-authored a book with him as well. He's big in front of the market. But no, I'll be dealing with all sorts of people I've identified who have large sales teams. And so essentially whether they're well-known or not, as long as they have, you know, a sales team that essentially could be referred. That's, that's kind of the idea.

Yeah, I mean, and that's the main thing that you're up-leveling people with, their sales skills?

Well, I'm kind of an integrated sales trainer, so when skills— when sales skills no longer work for people, they got all the skills and they can't figure out why they're contracting, that's where I come in. But I do teach sales skills. I have a process, a proprietary process I created called Guard Down Selling. And so there's certain processes I teach. This was born out of necessity running my own companies. But then what I noticed through the years is that people would continue to contract or they would have sales slumps. And so that's where the sort of integrated approach came in and where I sort of addressed the past and what those blocks might be and their nervous system and how it's shutting them down. Skills are great and they will get you to a certain point, but, you know, your mindset or, you know, maybe your body set, your nervous system, uh, will put your skill set on steroids.

Got it. And this content is going to live on your YouTube channel?

Yeah, well, the content I'm doing with, uh, what we're doing here, Movement Makers, yes, that'll live on YouTube. I also have a private, um, a private group called the Million Dollar Sales Pro. I've got a free Facebook group. And so there's content on there. There'll be content as YouTube. I've just reestablished my YouTube. I've currently got, uh, 616 followers coming into this. So that's, yeah, that's pretty cool. And that's before I ever did anything. I'm excited.

The first 616 is the hardest 616, so it's only up from here. The Biz Dev Show is amazing. And imagine if you're talking to one ideal client or referral partner every week and they're getting to know you, I mean, that could 10x your business in the next year. I mean, and it's so much easier to get them to talk to you. Now, you're a great salesman, so, uh, you know how to close and convert, which is great because a lot of people struggle with that when they're right, when they're on their path. Uh, and the challenge is just getting in front of qualified prospects and having a conversation where it's not just a, hey, do you want to go out for coffee? But You're interviewing them, you're having a conversation, you know, you're building rapport, creating a relationship, and then it's easy to do the next follow-up step. And if you're talking to sales departments, again, this is probably the only time they've ever been interviewed for anything. So it's pretty easy to find out who they are and to get them to say yes, because you're flattering them and you're giving them a piece of content for themselves. And if you were trying to get to the CEO of Coca-Cola or something, that might be a lot more challenging, but for the people who are decision makers for you, it's a lot easier. So I like, I mean, that's a great show. That's a great cadence once a week. The demonstrate the process is where coaches can really shine, where you're showing the process of you doing the thing without breaking it down. When you're working with people, you help them get these aha moments and breakthroughs. Yep. That if somebody else were to look at, it looks like magic. Right, from the outside. If they just sat in and watched you do this, it'd be like, how is he doing this?

When I'm coaching people one-on-one, let's say it's on a Zoom, I should be documenting all that and using, you know, clips from that to also post on YouTube as well.

If you already have it, are you going and doing coaching inside your Facebook group?

I do not coach inside the Facebook group, so I have a private members group, which I have currently. So the Facebook, I just go and I do, I do these lives. So there's content there, but not me demonstrating the process. Up to this point, it's been, you know, off the cuff. So I run my own company. So coaching to me has been, you know, sort of a side hustle. I own a solar systems company. And yeah, so, but I love coaching. So I do a lot of it and I'm good at it. This is the year I'm really organizing everything. So on Facebook right now, Now, you know, I've never done a, like, had somebody else on there with me. So that, you know, would probably be something I would do this year. Or I do do a lot of coaching. I do a ton of it every single day. And I could record those and then, you know, break up those and put them out there.

Yeah, I mean, ideally you'd put out the whole session, not just a little clip. It'll perform better if I get to understand the story and see the whole, you know, transition with somebody. What does it cost to be in your group?

Currently, while I'm in beta, $197 a month and $997 down.

And what's that group called again?

Called the Million Dollar Sales Pro. And my show will be called the Million Dollar Sales Pro Show. So, because I like branding.

So what you could do is say, for the people who are in Million Dollar, in the Million Dollar Sales Program right now, that you're launching a new YouTube show where you're going to be coaching people one-on-one and it's free, but it's going to go onto YouTube. And so it's not some bait and switch afterwards and you surprise, this is going to go on YouTube. They know in advance, right? But you say that access to Mark is, is really difficult and very expensive to get one-on-one time with Mark is, is not possible, or it's going to be very, very expensive. But you're going to get it for free because you're part of this program.

Oh, I like that.

The Million Dollar Sales Pro. And who wants it? And you have people who say yes. They put up their hand and say, hey, please pick me. So now when they come on, you say, hey, here's John. He's part of our Million Dollar Sales Pro. Now what's the Million Dollar Sales Pro? Now we're talking about it without it being a sales pitch.

Right.

And then hopefully John says something good like, oh my God, Mark, your Million Dollar Sales Pro is my favorite program.

Right.

I say, great. And then you say, okay, John, how can I help? And then John tells you where he's struggling, and then you just help him. You don't, you don't need tons of prep work or, you know, an entire dossier on John. You just show up and you know he wants to sell and he's stuck somewhere, and then you go solve his problem.

So I was a little concerned with that because I can modulate, you know, how deep I want to coach people. I can either sort of snorkel or scuba dive, depending. Um, but some of my scuba diving stuff, I was a little sort of apprehensive to put that out there because it gets into some, some deeper things, especially like— I'll give you an example. Let's say a salesperson is writing a lot of deals and they keep canceling. So they're coming to me with a pattern, right? So let's just say they wrote 5 deals and 5 deals cancel, and they're really upset about it. So I know that this person has a belief in, let's say, disappointment. So they're recreating disappointment unconsciously. So for me to get to the cause of that, to get to the root of that, I might take them through a process where I'm taking, you know, close your eyes, put your hand on your heart. I'm taking them back to a certain place. I'm looking for the root cause of that. And I kid you not, this is so predictable. First, I've done this so many times, thousands of times, I can read the pattern. I bring them back to a time where unconsciously that is reminding them of something. I clear that with them, and they will call me within 48 hours. You're not gonna— I just had one right before you got on, said he did it. We, we did the clearing last week. Said he just had his biggest deal, biggest commission of the entire year today. It's repeatable for me. It happens over and over again. But I didn't know how deep I should go into that because sometimes we get into some stuff. Sometimes people are crying and, you know, different things happen as we're going back. So my whole strategy is about integrated. It's an integrated strategy. If you're going to work on sales techniques alone, you're only going so far. Unless you are just a complete beast that is so highly driven that you can push through your own programs. But even people who do that, I've noticed coming up, they— many of them became multi-millionaires and then they end up losing it. So what I find myself doing a lot today is helping people to remove that sort of sabotage pattern. And I call it battlefield surgery. A lot of times they get hurt on the field I gotta, I gotta put them back in and boom, get them back out there as quick as I can. So I, I guess my ultimate question on that is, is that okay to just go as deep as I normally go and show it?

Yeah, the two concerns are either one, they may not go there with you, you know, or sometimes two is like, am I showing too much of my IP for anybody on the internet to be able to see, right?

Right.

Which one of those two, or both, is a concern?

Probably more about showing You know, the vulnerability of the process.

So for your, for your, the member that you're coaching.

That's right. Yeah.

Yeah. So a couple of things then. One, they're already in your tribe.

Yes.

So they know what you talk about.

Yes.

So if they're in the Million Dollar Sales Pro, you're covering some of these things already. You're not just staying surface level and teaching them different closes. So they, they know that this is your world already. So it's not some giant bait and switch. In the call to, in the email, or you talk about the live stream or inside your group, you can say, we're going to go deep. You're like, I want, this is a free session for you, but we're going to go deep and we're going to uncover your hidden traumas. And the reason why these, this is a repeated pattern for you. And this is why it's so expensive to work with Mark and you're going to get it absolutely for free, but don't sign up if you want to stay at surface level. This is a, this is, we're going deep. We're going to deep dive. I don't want to snorkel with you. We're going to scuba dive together. And then it's also for anybody else who has that same problem. I want them to be inspired by your story so that it's switching to service mindset for them as well. It's not just a selfish thing that other people can learn from it. And that handles most of the situations. Now, if somebody is just absolutely falling apart, there's like, please, I can't believe I said that about my mom. Please don't put that. You can use your discretion and judgment to cut that part out or not post it. But most of the time, like I've done tons of coaching people and most of the time there's no problem. And the main thing here is that you're not trying to make them look bad, you're trying to help.

That's right.

So if people will go on Dr. Phil and Jerry Springer and punch each other and do all the things they do there where like it's trying to get this gotcha moment to make them all hate each other, they will come on your show where you're actually trying to support them and help them. And, you know, what, what you do is not just leave them in the trauma, you pull them out to the other side.

Oh yeah, 100%. Yep.

So great, like you're leaving them on a high, like, oh my God, Mark just changed my life.

Oh, they have such ridiculous aha experiences when I do it because they can't connect the, the current struggle or challenge to a root cause. And that's what I'm able to do very quickly, is to just very fast see that, help them see it. It's based off Carl Jung. When you make the— he has a quote that says, until the unconscious becomes conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate. And so what I do is I make the unconscious conscious so it doesn't direct your life, so therefore they can create their destiny of their choosing.

So this is a subject that I would keep private. How you do the method is your secret sauce that does not get revealed on YouTube videos and public content.

Okay.

Where it's based off Carl Jung and all the steps that you do, you want to be the magician who is making magic happen, but you don't know where that dove came from.

Right.

So you could say the results of like, hey, the example you shared right now, recently that guy was blocked and now he's just got his biggest sales commission of all time, like amazing. And surface level, like, hey, I help find the repeated patterns. It's probably based in some trauma. And if you don't fix this, it'll continue to happen. So I'm the guy who's going to find those repeated patterns and remove it so you can forge a new life going forward. Like, that's basically as much detail as you share. Unless your goal is to train other people how to do this, then we don't want to go too deep into the breaking down of how you do it.

Right, gotcha.

Based on Carl Jung, and make sure you hold your hand on the heart, and whatever you do, you're just going to make it look like magic, but the magician doesn't reveal the secrets.

Gotcha.

Unless you join, you know, the Millionaire Sales Pro, right? Or you hire me to come speak at your thing.

What are your thoughts about playlists? So obviously you're recommending 3 different shows of biz dev, demonstrate your process in a social media influencer of sorts. And so should I have like 3 playlists or no playlists and it's just everything under Mark Tassone?

You could have 3 playlists, but most people don't consume by playlists, but it just helps organize it so that when I hit your YouTube page, it'll show me 3 different types of content.

Yes.

The thought leadership content is probably the least important for you, especially at the start. That's where you're just speaking direct to camera.

Right.

So the Biz Dev Show gets you clients. Like, you don't even need to grow your social presence for you to 10x your business just from relationships that you create.

Right.

And that's— in the Biz Dev Show, it's not about making you look good. It's about making your guests look good so that you can create a relationship to then work with their sales team.

Right.

Right. And so those videos don't necessarily have to have tons of views. The ROI is the relationship that you just created.

That's right.

The coaching show, the Show Me the Process show, is usually the best show to make if you're good at coaching. Like, the caveat is if you suck at coaching, you get exposed. It's like if they came and brought you this problem, it's like, oh, I don't know what to do with that, then that, that's a problem, right? But if, if you're good and you have a deep well of knowledge, it's actually the best show because it's usually the most fun to create because you're actually helping somebody. You're not just talking in your house to a camera. And it shows off how good you are because there's lots of people who can talk a big game. What you just said, I could say too. I could say, here's what we do. We got to uncover real childhood trauma. We've got to find the repeated patterns that have held. I could say all the things you said, but it doesn't mean that I can go and do what you do. That's right. And so there's lots of, and especially in the sales world, there's a lot of sales coaches and trainers who can talk a great game, but then when they're face-to-face with a client who's struggling with sales, they don't know what to do or how to help.

That's right. That, and that's sort of my unique positioning because I don't, I coach out of necessity. I'm a business guy. I run companies. I have 200 employees. I have 50 salespeople. So I've got to do battlefield surgery and I've been doing it for 3 decades. That's where this all came out of. The battlefield surgery, if I don't do it correctly, you know, my companies would never have made it. And my most recent company, we literally hit the Inc. 5000 at number 14. In 2021. So that's when I started to realize that, wow, I could take this out to a broader audience. And so, um, that's kind of a unique positioning. Uh, and the second unique positioning is the integrated approach. You can beat people with sales skills all day long, it's only going to take them so far because their nervous system eventually is going to show up and it's going to contract because that's what nervous systems do. That's just sort of what makes it a little bit unique.

Yeah. No, I mean, you're my favorite kind of people to work with because you're actually really good at what you do.

Yep.

But the world doesn't know it yet. That's right. And so that's the whole model. So let's show it off.

I feel like Eminem before he came out with Slim Shady.

Well, you could do a rap as well. I don't know if I can help you too much with your rap song, but in terms of thought leadership content, coaching content, we can make that happen for sure.

Yep.

So I'd love to see a show a week of the biz dev. That's a little harder to book. So if you have your team or assistant, whoever helping you kind of reach out to people.

Yep.

The coaching show, the Show Me the Process show, again, could be team, and that you could do all together, right? Like if you, if the goal was one a week, you could take 2 hours on the Monday morning or Thursday afternoon or whatever and put 4 people half an hour back to back to back to back.

—right?

And whether that's you or just someone on the team messaging the people in the Facebook group to say, hey, who wants some one-on-one time with Mark, right? And then you just book them all together. Those are usually pretty easy to do. And then if you wanted to do a thought leadership show where that's more direct to camera, you can as well, but—

Like right now, I'm not even tuned into that at all. I love the— when I saw business development, I knew right away that's the strategy I'm gonna use. And I know I can do it. I feel comfortable with it. I just love the whole thing. And I'm just gonna— I'm a hockey player. You're from Canada. You must be familiar with hockey. I'm from Massachusetts originally. I didn't play hockey my whole life. So my point is you got to skate your lane, you know, unless you're a center and you got to skate your lane.

Yeah, I was about to say, I don't know too many hockey players from Florida and that was their number one sport. Boston makes a lot more sense. Yep. Original 6. I love it. Cool. So, I mean, the next step really is just making sure that you get the shows booked, that you're doing the outreach. And then after that, usually we're jumping into the actual sales process with people, but I don't have to teach you how to sell and follow up and close deals. Yeah. Yeah. That part's easy. So it's really just identifying who the right people are and then inviting them on the show to have a great conversation.

Yep. Should I— like, I'll give you an example. One of the people that I'm going to get a show with, um, I want to make sure I'm not going like too big. Maybe, maybe, you know, you could speak into that. So one of them is, um, the owner of a— probably the largest solar company in the nation. So it would be like the CEO of that company, and I want to develop a relationship with that person. Is that too big? Should I be going after, you know, like more the, I don't know, maybe the vice president of sales who's got 20 people, you know, reporting to them, or what are your thoughts on that?

Well, I mean, the largest solar company in the country, the vice president would have more than 20 salespeople reporting to him.

Oh no, no, no, I know. This guy's got thousands. Well, they're trying to enter into a relationship with my solar company because they want us to do some of their installs. So, like, I'm already in touch with these people. I can get right to the CEO. Yeah. So, go for it.

Like, even if the CEO is not in charge of the decision, if the CEO says, we're going to work with Mark, then it's done.

Yeah. I guess I don't want to, like, overshoot it with, you know, too big of the elephants and just, I don't know, maybe that's what I was wondering if you could speak into.

The biggest thing is just thinking, well, one, if you have a relationship, it's a lot easier than going in cold, right? He might do it just because he knows you and he likes you. And this now, right now you're just flattering him, right? I mean, the idea that you would want to do an interview with him, we're not selling anything, we're just building a relationship, creating content, is usually an easy yes. The next is how many opportunities are coming to them for this kind of stuff? So if it was, hey, let me pitch you on this, he's getting pitched 1,000 times a day from all kinds of vendors and all sorts of different things, right? The last thing he needs is another sales pitch. How many people are pitching him to tell his story? And here and do an interview with him? Nobody. Probably, probably not a lot. But the CEO of Coca-Cola is probably getting lots of media requests that they're saying no to, right? So that's the, that's the, the judgment line. If they're not getting a lot of requests, now you're media, and now it's a lot easier to get a yes and to build a relationship. So you could go higher up. There's nothing wrong with starting at CEO, and if they say no, you don't hear back, go one step down to the VP of sales, right, for the organization.

Gotcha. Okay. Yeah, it makes sense. I'm just, you know, I'm, I'm kind of a hit first, ask questions later. I love it. But I'm trying to, I'm trying to look before I leap a little bit here, so I'm just absorbing the content and doing my level best to, uh, take the actions based on my understanding of what I should do.

Cool, man. Well, welcome aboard, Movie Makers. Great to have you, and can't wait to see this, uh, show get off the ground.

Sounds good. Thanks so much for, uh, for taking the questions.

All right, much love, Mark. Okay, cheers. To watch me coach another mastermind member one-on-one, check the video right there next to me. I think you'll love it. Continue to believe, and I'll see you there. I like trying to figure out how do I make $2,000 a month. $2,000 a month. Only $2,000 per client. If you could make $2,000 a month per client, or you have, you know, basically $8,000 coming in every month, you basically have a six-figure business.