0288 | The 60 Second Sale: The Ultimate System for Building Lifelong Client Relationships in the Blink of an Eye with Sales Expert, Author & CEO Dave Lorenzo

Hi, this is Dave Lorenzo with Davelorenzo.com and you're listening to EA Interviews.

EA Interviews, episode 288, inspiration, transformation, success stories and the imperfect action round.

Seven days a week, join Mario Ficcini.

For today's expert authority effect interview. Sales, the lifeblood of any business. How would you like to be better at it? I know I'm always trying to improve and I remember the phase where I felt like I was doing everything I could but nothing was working. And then I focused on sales and.

Things got better revenue and profit wise.

What would you do if you want to increase sales but hate people? How about the mistakes you're making that are preventing you from being really, really rich?

What would you do with that money?

Who are the people that you would be impact? Who? Who are the people that you want to impact? Do you want to give back or.

Do you just want to make more profit?

The choice is yours. But I'm super excited to have sales expert here, Dave Lorenzo, sharing all of this and more.

Right after we thank our sponsor. Every business needs a book, including yours. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Once again, that's free. Businessbookpublishingcourse.com Here he is, ladies and gentlemen, Dave Lorenzo.

Dave, how are you feeling today?

I'm doing great, Mario. Thanks for having me.

I am excited to learn more about what you know because sales is so important. It's the lifeblood of business. Like I was saying and I know you have your book the 62nd sale. Why is it so important to be able to not just sell, but sell effectively and quickly?

Well, there are very few problems in business that more money won't solve. And that is one of the secrets. I mean, you mentioned it on the way in. You know, in life when you have a problem and you can write a check to solve that problem, that's not a real problem if you know how to sell. And I was one of those people where I was thinking to myself, hey, listen, I'm great at what I do. I'm just going to throw up a shingle and people are going to find me. And you know what? I waited a long time for the phone to ring. And I'm not the kind of person that handles waiting very well. So my lack of patience really propelled me into sales. And the biggest aha moment for me was when I realized that sales selling was actually helping people in exchange for financial Compensation. If you reset, you reframe the whole dialogue you have with yourself and you go out and look for people to help, it doesn't seem like selling. It doesn't seem like you're forcing yourself on people at all. So if you've got a problem and money will solve it and you can sell, you don't have a problem.

Why would you say most people are afraid of selling?

So I don't know if it's a fear of selling, it's a fear of kind of embarrassment, right? There's a movie with Anthony Hopkins and Alec Baldwin called the Edge. And there's a great line, it's about a couple of guys who are in a plane crash and they're lost in the woods. And Anthony Hopkins turns to Alec Baldwin and he says, you know why people die in the woods? People die in the woods because of shame, because they're embarrassed, because they don't know how to ask for help or where to go to look for help. And here's the deal. When it comes to selling, I think it's more shame than it is fear. And the shame is, well, I don't want to look like the guy who pushes himself on people. I don't want to be the guy who's so good at being a lawyer, being a financial advisor, being a chiropractor, being a doctor that I have to go out and ask people to use my services. I'm just too good for that. I don't want the embarrassment of it. You got to reframe that mindset. As I said in the beginning, if you view sales as helping people in exchange for financial compensation, it's your job to go find people who need the services you provide and then offer to help them. And if they say yes, they, they'll be happy to pay you.

Now, what about the rejection? Say you want to help me, you talk to me, you give me an offer and I say no.

All right? So rejection is just like getting hit in the mouth. It only hurts in the moment. Once you get over that initial sting and you keep moving forward, that's how you win the fight. And you will never remember the rejection the first time you close a big deal. I promise you. You, if the biggest deal you've ever closed was $500 and you close a thousand dollar deal, you don't remember the 5, 6, 10 times you were rejected. All you realize is that you can close thousand dollar deals. If you've only closed $1,000 deal and you close a $10,000 deal, you never think of yourself as a thousand dollar player. Again, you think of yourself as a $10,000 player. And you definitely don't think of the times you were ejected. And, and that's the thing to remember. As soon as you hang up the phone from somebody who rejects you, or as soon as you get in your car to drive away from somebody who rejects you, you got to think back to that last big deal you made and remember you're that person. You're not the person who just got rejected. You're the guy or the gal who closed the hundred thousand, the $200,000 deal. Reset your mind to the, to the place where you were successful. And, and the rejection will only sting in the moment when it happens. Put it behind you. The next big deal you close, you're not going to remember the people who rejected you. I promise you that.

Wow, that's powerful. You had me thinking of my first client, the 50th, the 80th, the 120th, 200 plus, 300 plus. And you're right. I was like, who was the first batch of people? And I remember and I'm thankful, but it's definitely not what I'm doing now. So let's say you get past the rejection. You're not it. Does it ever feel good? Does it ever feel better? Or is it always there?

Well, it depends on the individual, right? Most people who are really great at sales are competitive and they like to win every single deal. So it's never going to feel good when, when in the moment you don't get what you were looking for. But the way to think of it is it's just not a no, it's a not now. And if you've ever had an experience where somebody told you no and they came back later on and the deal they did with you was even bigger than the first deal you were looking for, you can really feel comfortable that, listen, everything was good. They just weren't ready for what I was selling. And that's the mindset you have to be in or they weren't ready to invest at this level yet. I do a lot of work with CPA firms, with law firms, with other professional services firms, and I am very expensive. So the first time somebody meets with me, they say to me, dave, listen, I know we can do, you know, great things together, but I'm having a little trouble with the number you gave me. And I say to them, well, you can expect probably a 5 to 10 times return on that investment. And they still are not grasping it. And I say to myself, they're just not ready yet. They're just not ready yet. So I get them involved in a community that I run or I get them involved in one of my courses. I get them to taste a little bit of who I am and what I do. And. And after they've sampled a little bit of what I do, they've met some of my other clients, they've experienced the success that comes even at a smaller level of engagement, then it's time to go back and revisit the serious money that they would have to spend to do some private work together. So the moral of the story is, if people aren't ready to meet you at the level that you deserve, you, you have to have an alternative so they can sample some of your brilliance so that they can get involved with you in some way so they feel comfortable. And then once they're comfortable, then they can ascend to a higher level.

So the rejection is always there, but you get past it. You know how to deal with people. Hey, maybe they're not ready. So like you're saying there's books, courses, other trainings and stuff like that. What do you do with someone that they are ready, they're ready to go. What's the first step that they should be evaluating to have a baseline to go? Here's where we're at. Here's the old method, and now they know you, and here's the new method.

Well, so the people that I work with, we need to make sure that they're set up to succeed from day one. And usually what happens is they either don't have a sales process in place or there's a disconnect in the system somewhere. The most often, most often we find that the disconnect is they're meeting with people who are really not qualified to be their customers. So we need four things from the people who are across from us in order for them to do business with us. They have to have a problem we can solve. They have to be able to pay us. They have to be the decision maker. And the fourth thing is urgency. They can have the first three things and they'll be excellent prospects. But when we hear people just aren't ready, the urgency isn't there yet. So what we do in those cases is we simply ask them, hey, you know, you told me you have this problem and the problem is costing you X amount of dollars, and you're the person who can decide to fix it. Let me ask you a question. Why haven't you fixed it yet? And they're going to say, wow, we're just not sure. We don't, we don't know the right process. Okay, here's a process that can fix this for you now and forever. And it can generate more revenue. Are you interested in it? Well, I'm interested, but, you know, the price is a little bit high. Okay, here's what, here's what we'll do. Let's look at what will happen to you personally if you solve the problem. And what will happen to you personally if you don't solve the problem. If you solve the problem and you make this additional revenue, where would it go? Well, it would fall right to the bottom line. And who will take it home? Well, I'm the owner. I'll take it home. If you don't solve the problem, then you don't get that money and you don't get to take it home. I guess the question we have to ask ourselves is how bad do you want that money? And if you're not ready now, that's fine. Keep my number, stay involved with me. You can get involved in my community for a very small investment. And then when you are ready to pick up that money, let me help you carry it home. And you know, letting people say no, giving people the option to say no is like taking a weight off of your shoulders when you're in sales. So because every salesperson, to your point about rejection, Mario, every salesperson is afraid of the word no. I start off every meeting by saying, hey, listen, I'd like this meeting to go a certain way. I'd like us to work together. But the bottom line is you can say, yes, we're a good fit, or you can say, no, we're not a good fit. And I can say yes or no. If we finish this meeting and we both agree that we're a good fit, will you be happy to say yes? And if we finish this meeting and you don't think we're a good fit, or I don't think we're a good fit, we're going to give each other permission to say no. Right. And the person will look at you and go, well, yeah, sure. So then you have a, you have a meeting that is completely stress free because you gave the prospect permission to say no right at the beginning of the meeting. And when somebody approaches someone else in a sales setting and they say it's okay to tell me we're not a good fit, when that happens, all the tension is relieved. And then you can just have a conversation about the business issue and get to the solution. And that's what selling really is.

Yeah, that's great. You're giving them an out before you even get started. Because now they, I would say they can also focus more on the meeting, be more present, learn what they're supposed to learn there to see if it really is a good fit instead of, you know, just like constantly playing ping pong in their mind going uh huh, yeah, that sounds good. And they're just anticipating the, you know, the thing they may there might be enjoying looking for. I love going into sales meetings when I hire people go, because I know you can help me solve my problems. I want the answer, let's do it. But I know some people, if they're just shopping around, it's like they're just waiting to get pounced on or something. And it's like that's not the intent. You asked for help, I can help. It's a simple do you want it or not? So setting them at ease early on, I think that's a great idea. I want to ask you what should I expect from sales training? You mentioned a five or ten times multiplier on there.

It depends on your industry and it depends on the size of the transactions that you do and the lifetime value of your clients. Our focus at my company is we like to work with people that have the opportunity to do repeat business with other, you know, with other client, with their clients over and over and over again. So we've done great work with car dealerships, we've done great work with all professional service providers. Where our methodology really shines is in a high trust environment. So in the case of, let's say a CPA or in the case of a law firm, and if a client comes in with an initial problem and we get them on board, we like to have folks do a thorough diagnostic. So our clients meet with their clients and they assess the business on an overall basis. They solve the initial problem the client wanted them to solve and then they make recommendations to avoid that problem in the future as well as a lot of other problems. And if the client is interested in the attorney, the cpa, the financial advisor is always there and always willing to help. So for a professional services firm, if you use a relationship based sales approach and your folks are well trained, within six months you can look for probably a 10 times multiple on your investment. Now in product sales, if it's a big ticket product like we've worked with private jet companies or we work with high end auto manufacturers and auto retail dealerships and distributors and in that scenario, the lifetime value is far greater if you're selling to people who run fleets. If you're selling to consumers, lifetime value may be a little bit lower, it may be a little bit longer to get to additional lifetime value, but you can still expect a four or five times multiple of your investment. When it comes to relationship based sales.

Training.

How long should someone be doing the professional sales training for? Is this a three month engagement, six month, or is it ongoing? There's always some tweaking needed.

Yeah, it's a great question. It's just like the, it's just like the personal trainer in the gym. Some people work with the personal trainer just to get to know the equipment and the routine. And then once they get into a great routine, maybe they check in with the trainer every three months or every six months. Other people like to check in with the trainer once a week to make sure their technique is sharp. And maybe if they hit a plateau, they need to jumpstart. The trainer can help them jumpstart. Same exact thing in business development or sales training for professionals. When you're working with somebody like me, generally there's a level of intensity over the first three to six months and then afterward there's a periodic check in to make sure we fine tune what you're doing. Or if you hit a plateau and you want to break through to the next level, we can help you break through to the next level. So the gym analogy with the personal trainer is really apropos. It's the same thing. To get started, you need that intensity. And then if you're a highly motivated person, you can go with a once a month or twice a month check in and we can help you break through any plateaus that you hit along the way.

What was your inspiration for the 62nd sale?

So one of my friends and I, we were sitting around talking and we saw one of these ridiculous videos that are all over YouTube about, hey, can you sell me this pen? And then, and then the Wolf of Wall street came out and there was a famous scene in the Wolf of Wall street where Leonardo DiCaprio is in a diner with his guys and he asked one of the guys to sell him the pen. And I said, that's the most ridiculous thing in the world. I can get the deal for the pen in a heartbeat. It's not even going to take me a minute. My friend said, yeah, do it. And I said, you like the pen? Yeah. You need the pen? Yeah. Here, take the pen. Call me in a week. If the pen works for you pay me for the pen. If the pen doesn't work, I'll bring you another pen. You can try that for a week. If we go through 52 pens during the course of the year and you haven't paid me, that's when I'll give up. And my friend laughed and he said, oh, my gosh, that's brilliant. He's like, it didn't even take you. It didn't even take you a minute. And I said, no, it didn't take me a minute. And here's the deal. In relationship based sales, our concern is, sure, we want to get paid for what we do, but where our concern is more about the long term relationship. So if I let you use this pen for a week and it works over the course of that week, you're going to pay me for it. And then I'm going to go, hey, you staple papers. And you're going to say, yeah. And I'll say, try the stapler for a week. And you're going to trust me that the stapler is going to be good because the pen was pretty good. And you get to try it for a week. And you know what? If you don't like the stapler and I take it back and I substitute a different stapler the next week, and I keep doing that week after week, you're going to go, this guy is great. He wants to make sure I'm happy. And whatever I do with him is going to result in me being pleased with his product or with his service. And that's what this is all about. That first minute, you're not selling the product or the service. I wasn't selling a pen. I was selling a relationship. I was selling our relationship. I was selling you on it. And I wanted to make sure you were comfortable with me. So that's where the 62nd sale came from. In that first minute, you're building a relationship. You're not selling a pen, you're not going to sell a car in 60 seconds. And I really appreciate the way you asked the question because usually when I go on these shows, the first thing somebody says is, I've never heard anybody sell anything in 60 seconds. I can't believe you could do that. Well, you're selling yourself to me right now, and you've got about a minute to make an impression.

I love how easily and effortlessly you just rolled on into it. Because the reality is the sale takes as long as it needs to take for the sale. If you can do it in 30, I mean, I would have to look at the footage and the timing, but I don't even think it took you 30 seconds to just come up with the answer for it. Now, conversely, if you're selling airplanes, you can sell the relationship quickly, but the sales cycle is probably going to be longer than someone selling a burger versus selling. You know, like you were saying, it depends on the industry, but the fact that people just don't believe it to begin with. Look at anything great in life, you know, oh, you can't put a man on the moon. Watch this. You know, you can't build the skyscraper. Watch this. And it's what I love about the entrepreneurial spirit, because anytime some I'm just picking up, you're very much the same way. If someone tells you that it can't be done, what do you do?

Oh, you got to do it. I mean, that's it. You can't get a vaccine for a novel virus in under a year. Oh yeah, watch this.

It's happening right now. I mean, this is the nature of where we are. I'll tell you a quick story. So I worked for a big ticket consulting company, and after years in the hospitality industry, I find myself in an office in New York City where I lived. And the CEO of the company comes in and he says, dave, you're here to build an office in New York. We're based in the Midwest. We're a Midwest company, but we've never been able to have any success in New York. You're a New York guy. I think you can be the guy to do it for us. And I said, thanks, I appreciate the shot. And then he said to me, the first thing I want you to do is this. My former business partner was married to my sister. He and my sister are now divorced. And he took one of our most valuable clients from us. I want you to get that client back. And it would be great if you can do it by July 1st. And here's the reason why. We're going to have a big get together on July 4th at the company headquarters. Going to invite everybody. And I'd love to announce that we got this client back into the fold at that, at that company gathering. And you know, I didn't know anything, so I said, sure boss, I'll do it, no problem. I didn't know that There was an 18 month sales cycle in consulting. I didn't know that the minimum in engagement size at the company was a million dollars. But I figured, hey, listen, a couple of months. I can do anything in a couple of months. What do you Know? What do I know? So I went through our database and I looked for someone that had been to one of our events who worked for that company. I found a couple of people and I sat down with them. I found out what was important to them personally. And I met a woman who is a mid level executive in human resources and she was working on a special project that had visibility to the CEO. I helped her do that project. I helped her become successful in the company. And when she did the presentation to the CEO, she had me in the room in case she stumbled over any of the data. At the end of the presentation, the CEO said, now Ali, who is that guy that's in the back of the room? She brought him over and she introduced him to me. And he said, is that where Ali got all the great data from? And I said, yes, we have a tremendous database specifically in this area and it was my pleasure to help. And he said, what else do you think you could do for us? And that opened the door for me to be able to pitch our services. I ended up closing a $5 million deal on June 30. They signed the paperwork on June 30. My boss was absolutely thrilled we were able to celebrate that win at the big July 4th event. And here's the thing, the only reason I was able to do that was because I didn't know any different. And the boss said, go ahead and do it. Everybody else in the company later on told me, do you realize that we have an 18 month sales cycle? Do you realize that you're not supposed to sell $5 million deals in 60 days? And I was like, well, I guess I realize it now.

So what I'm hearing here and all the great info you're sharing, how important would you say mindset is to the professional sales training?

It's 90% of it. It's night. You don't, you don't need. You, you need very little product knowledge. You need, you need a strong mindset in that you have some success in your life in any area that you can reflect back upon when times get tough and you have to be giving and willing to help other people succeed first. If you're willing to deliver value and you're willing to help others become successful first. First, you're going to be great in sales because people really respond to folks who approach them with an external orientation, with empathy, and who are legitimately out to help create a relationship based on a mutual exchange of value. Give first and you'll be amazed at how it comes back to you threefold, fivefold, tenfold. So mindset is 90% of it.

And.

And mindset is what will get you through the rough patches. But having an external orientation, being empathetic, and delivering value before you ask for anything is a huge part of it as well.

Where would you say attitude plays a role in sales training?

Well, attitude is. Attitude comes from your. What you feel your purpose is, right? So you're doing this show. So your purpose is obviously to help people. You want to help the entrepreneurs of the world. And every day you get up, whether you're delivering value in front of an audience in a live setting or you're delivering value here, you feel good because you're fulfilling your purpose. So my purpose is exactly the same. I'm out there to help professional service providers. I'm out there to help people go from good to great. And every day that I can be on a show like yours and deliver that message, I feel great about things. It doesn't matter if I was outside fixing the fence and I hit my hand with a hammer. I get to do what I love to do. I get to fulfill my purpose by being here on your show. So I feel good about life. And every morning when you get up, if you can do something that takes you closer to filling that mission, to fulfilling that mission, you should have a good attitude. So if your purpose is solid and you get to fulfill that purpose every single day, even in a small way, it really lifts you up. So, yes, you're right. Attitude is a huge part of it. But as long as you have a purpose and you're driving toward that purpose every day, your attitude is going to be good. You can really almost put it on autopilot.

I appreciate everything you're saying, and I'm definitely feeling it. Where did all this start from? Tell me about the background. When did you start selling and realized this was your thing?

You know, I think I was really early on. I started my career as a bellman in a hotel carrying people's bags. And I realized that talking to people and hearing their story made my day go a lot quicker. And it also made them really happy. And it helped with the tips, too. So I started asking people all kinds of questions. And when they would tell me what they were in town for or what they were looking to accomplish during their stay with us, if I could do anything, even in a small way to contribute to the success of their stay, they would write great letters about the experience they had in the hotel. My tips would be bigger, and they would compliment me. To my boss over and over again. So that external orientation was a driving force in everything I did from the time I was a bellman all the way up through running a brand for Marriott and then running a consulting company. And the external orientation, it was just natural that when I saw people who needed help, I would ask them, would you like some help? And it turned out that they would say, what do you mean by that? And I would say, well, we have a product that can solve this problem for you. If you want to give it a try, I can bring it over. And that's really. You know, people ask me all the time, how do you close deals? And I say, well, there's one question that can close any deal for you at any time. Would you like some help with that? You know, if they have a problem and you can solve the problem, all you have to do is offer help. And you know what? There's two types of people who turn down help, right? The first type of person is a complete psychopath, and you probably wouldn't offer your help to them in the first place. The second type of person is someone who probably doesn't know you very well yet. And once you recognize that, you can say, listen, I understand you're skeptical because we don't really know each other. That's when you offer some type of an alternative so that you can get to know each other and then you can help them solve that problem later on. I'll give you an example. My financial advisor is a fantastic guy, and I was at a Christmas party two years ago at my wife's aunt's house. And it's a beautiful penthouse apartment overlooking the ocean on Miami Beach. And a woman comes up to me and she says, hey, I've watched some of your videos on YouTube, and, and I see, you know, a lot of CPAs, you know, a lot of attorneys. Do you happen to know a banker? And I said, yeah, I know several bankers. In fact, you know, there. There are a couple that I'm. That I'm very close with. Tell me what you need. And she said, my sister was hit by a car, and we have a trust fund that is. That's paying for her care. She's a paraplegic, and the trust fund has to last her entire lifetime. And we're happy. We are having a bad experience with our bank currently, where we're noticing some irregularities in the accounts, and we're really concerned about it. We know we need to switch banks. We also need a lawyer to look into the situation. And I said, well, if you'd like some help, I can introduce you to a lawyer who handles just these types of cases. And I can also introduce you to somebody who I would trust, who I do trust with my money. He's a great guy. And I didn't know how much the trust fund was. And really all I was looking to do at the time was help this woman solve her problem. And she said, oh, that would be great. Thank you so much. And I took down her information. So I call in the Monday after the Friday night event, and I said, I'm going to introduce you to the banker. So I call up my friend who's a banker, and I put them on the phone together. And then she calls me back and I said, all right, I'm going to introduce you to the lawyer. So I introduced her to the lawyer. A week goes by, and she calls me and she says, you know, I don't think the bank is the right way for me to go because I'm worried about growth of the funds and the long term preservation of the assets. And I said, okay. I said, I'm going to introduce you to my financial advisor. It turns out that her fund was a $5 million fund. And my financial advisor now manages that fund on her behalf. And I was able to deliver that and the legal case to, you know, two people that I really liked and trusted because I was there and I asked somebody if they needed help. The same thing can happen for you. The same thing can happen for the people who are watching and listening to us with their services. When people ask for help, all you have to do is have your antenna up and be willing to help them. Now, this woman did business with those two people. What do you think happened two years later in the middle of COVID One of those two people, the banker who I initially introduced them to, who didn't get the deal, called me up with a sales training gig for his team of 12 people. And that was out of the blue. And he called me up because he knew that I was always thinking about him. I was always looking after his needs. And I had completely forgotten that I had even introduced this woman to him in the first place. And the deal didn't go through until he reminded me when he gave this decent sized piece of business to me.

Yeah. And especially on those deals, what happens when she says, not only is she happy, the ripple effect of the people she knows saying, well, who do you use? And them doing the reciprocity between all of you?

Yeah, no, it's a, it's a. It's a great way. Listen. It's a great way to do business. Helping people is a great way to do business. Your goal, everyone who's listening and watching just needs to be. Find more people to help. Do what you do best for the people you do it best for. Just find people to help. That's what you got to do. That's the key to sales. Just go out and look for people to help.

If someone's making offers already and they're just not, let's say they're making offers, they're already helping people. They're just not getting the momentum, the frequency, what would you say is one thing that they could change just in the offer alone that they're presenting to people?

Well, one of the things that you mentioned, you said, you know, attitude. How big a part is attitude? One of the things we find when people are. When they're getting in front of enough qualified prospects and they're getting to the point where they're making offers to prospects and prospects just aren't saying yes. One of the things that we find happens a lot is they. They're giving off a vibe. They're making some sort of an impression that is kind of. It seems a little desperate. They might seem a little. They might be pressing too hard. Maybe they're in a slump and they haven't closed the deal in a long time. Or maybe they're overly anxious and they want to get the deal in before the end of the month. You know, it's amazing how our body language betrays us. It's amazing how our attitude might betray us in, you know, in the slightest way. Our facial expressions. That a lot of times is what happens when people are, you know, they come to you and they say, hey, we're just not getting enough traction. When you hear that from someone, it's great to take them through their process. And if there's no flaws in their process, you realize that they're probably pressing and all that it takes is a conversation with them. Hey, when was the last deal you closed? What was the size of that deal? How did you feel about it? Has anything been going on in your personal life that has knocked you off your game? Usually it's just a little thing that has created this sense of desperation, and people just recoil. They back away from it. Or it's a lack of confidence that comes through. So it's a vibe they're giving off with the prospects. Usually if they're in front of enough qualified prospects and they're just not getting deals, usually it's a little thing like that.

Well, I appreciate you for sharing that. I have one more question about sales I'm going to throw in because I know how much of a game changer it was for me when I added it to our sales process. And you've mentioned it a couple times and it was actually you just saying it right now. The qualified leads having the qualification process. And you also said earlier with your sales training like mine, the application process, how important is the application and the qualification?

The qualification gets you. I would say 80 to 85% of the way to the close. We have the greatest meetings in the world with people who are not qualified. Right. I mean, I can't tell you how many meetings I've been on. Back in my days with a big ticket consulting company, I would go out with a partner and we'd have like three meetings a day. And the meetings were great meetings with people who had no authority whatsoever, right? And the reason those meetings are so good is because those people feel no pressure, they got no money to spend, right? So they'll ask you every question under the sun, they'll tell you how great you are, they'll pump you for information, they'll take great notes, they'll educate themselves on everything that you do or that you could do for them. And then it just evaporates, it just goes nowhere. The qualifying process is probably the most important thing that you can do initially when you start working with a new client because it helps, helps you understand that you're really in the game. Right. Picture it this way. I'm a. I'm a huge baseball fan. So if you're working with an unqualified prospect, you're essentially walking into a stadium with the best bat, with the best pressed uniform. You got the best equipment, you got the best coach over in the dugout, but there's no other team on the field. It's just you. And that's not a game. You can't have a game with just one person playing with just one team on the field. What you need in order to get on the field and play a game is two teams that are ready to go. Now it can be a mismatch. You could go in there and completely destroy everything and blow up the deal. You can go in there and the deal can be a complete lay down and it's, you know, a piece of cake. And you're thrilled to be working with this new client and there is another team on the field is the key. So when it comes to qualification, it starts with whatever the initial Inquiry is. So somebody calls and they say, yeah, I watched one of your videos and it seems like you got something that could help us. All right, well, what are your goals? What are you looking to achieve? Oh, we want to grow our revenue by 10, 10x. Okay, that's perfect. Tell me a little bit about the resources you have available to apply toward this effort. What do you mean, the resources? Well, you need two things. You're going to need time. Your time or the time that your people have to invest in the training and the money. Because, you know, this is. We will help you get a 2, 3, 5, 10 times return on your investment, but you're going to have to make an investment. Oh, okay. Well, we have X amount of dollars. That's great. Who else do we need to talk to at your company to help you grow your revenue? Is there somebody else besides you that we need to speak with? Because sometimes I find that when I come to companies like yours, the decision is made by a committee or it's made by a group of people and they have to vote on it. So if there's more than one person, you and I should probably get in front of the decision maker. Now, here's the thing. I didn't cut that person out. I didn't tell him, Listen, mister, you know, unimportant gatekeeper, I'm not going to deal with you. No, you and I together are going to go to the boss and we're going to pitch this. And if he says, well, you know, I have a $2 million budget and I have budgetary authority and I'm convinced, okay, he's a decision maker. And then I want to find out why he wants to solve the problem now. Right. So you told me that you want to grow your revenue five times in the course of the next year. Why is it so important to hit that goal? Well, you know, Dave, we're a company and, you know, we've grown at 2 or 3%. I think 5% would be nice. No, no, no, no. You don't understand. Why is it important to you? I mean, you don't own the company, do you? Well, no, no, of course I don't. As a Fortune 500 company, Dave, I don't own the company. Okay. Why is it important to you that we grow five times? Well, you see, if I don't improve sales by 5x this year, I could face some pretty uncomfortable conversations. How uncomfortable? What do you mean? I mean, are you going to get fired or demoted? What? Yeah, I could probably get fired. Okay, so he's got urgency, he's got the money. He's got a problem we can solve. He is the decision maker. He's qualified. You know, let's look at your calendar. Let's pick out a date when we can get together on Zoom and talk about exactly what issues you're facing with sales. And we'll see if there's an opportunity for us to work together to solve them. So at that point, we know we got a meeting. And at that point, the way I look at it is it's on me. I can help this person. I just need to offer help in a way where he's going to be willing to accept it.

That is powerful. I appreciate the expert authority insight there. And I wanted to bring it back up because I remember I've been doing business book publishing over a decade, and when I changed the process to be more qualified and people had to apply instead of just whatever, it was a game changer. And it's going on. You know, back in 2020, 15, 2013 was the first time I was like, I need to do something different. And then I tweaked it again in 1516, and there's not enough people who have it, because I talk to people when, you know, I'm asking them about their business so we can publish their business book. And I'm like, tell me again, tell me about your process. And you said it, you know, earlier in the interview. They have no sales process. They have no this, they have no that. It's clear as day. And if you don't, you're just spinning your wheels. I mean, who wouldn't want to be at 80, 85% of the way there? Yeah.

I mean, and the beauty of that is whenever you're. You don't ever have very, very deep slumps. But if you're feeling like, hey, I haven't closed the deal in three or four days, you look at your process and you see where people are in the pipeline, and you can say, all right, this person will be ready in a little bit. This person probably is ready now. I can reach out to them. And these three people, well, they're going to be ready in a couple of weeks. So maybe if I make this offer to these three people, I can accelerate that. You can point to different steps in the process and see where people are. And the worst thing when you're in a slump or you're not closing deals is to not have hope. If you have a sales process and you have people moving through that process, you. You always have hope. There's always something on the horizon. And, you know, that's the beauty of being able to sell. Your income is only capped by your imagination. And when I get people to honestly believe in that, it is amazing what can happen. One of my clients said to me the other day, he said, I want to buy a new boat before this summer. And I said, how much does a new boat cost? He said, the one I'm looking at now is $130,000. I said, how many clients do you need to find in order to pay for that boat? And he said, three small clients, two really big clients. And I said, okay, fine, let's go find the three small clients, and maybe we can find three big clients and you can get an even bigger boat. And he's like, you know, I never even thought of that. If I can get three big clients, I can get an even bigger boat. That's the exciting thing about being able to sell. Your only limit is the imagination you have and your ability to reach out to more people and help more people.

Yeah, it's so freeing too, because I remember when I started, it was like, I've always just wanted to help people. I started my first business when I was 12, sold stuff in high school, and it was just like, what are you looking for? It could have been the peeps versus the cookie versus the sandwich in band on when we were marching in Florida, actually. And I just figured out what people wanted. But when I started my business, it was like, I need. You know, a business needs customers. It needs clients. All you have to do is ask them, do you want help? Let them know that you can help them. I can help you. How much?

That was it.

And then you just keep making shots on goal. And when you get. Get it more refined because, yeah, maybe you don't want to running around the neighborhood knocking on doors or doing this or even the people that love sales, it's like, yeah, you got family, you got this, that. The other thing. It's like, you can't be doing it 24 7, even if you're the best of the best. So there's processes in that. But I think at. Sometimes people get so caught up in the voluminous number of ways we can do it. Now, at the end of the day, the phone still works. Hey, make a list of 10 to 100 people you can help. Just ask them. And it's so freeing, like you said, to get that boat, to have more time with your family, to do whatever you want with it. So I'm so glad you were talking about it because I think there's a lot of things that stop people. I think we covered them all or at least a very large portion of them. Thank you for that. I got one question for you before we thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round. And it involves the wheel of whatever. Oh, that's a good one. You want yellow or black?

Black. Oh, good. Well, right there, black. And my question for you is. No, we're good. What do you do when you're not selling? Do you like to boat? What do you do on the nights and weekends?

So I have a 12 year old and I have a soon to be 10 year old and my kids are super active. They. My son is a martial artist. He's. He practices two different martial arts and my daughter is a competitive dancer. So we spend a lot of time in non pandemic time doing stuff, going from tournament to tournament dance competition to dance competition. Otherwise we have two American bulldogs that are, that they're turning one next month too. And we spent the entire pandemic training these American bulldogs. And let me tell you, it has been an absolute joy to just raise these, these dogs from pups and watch how they've, they've just bonded with the kids, bonded with my wife and I. So a lot of our time during the pandemic has been spent taking the dogs and socializing them and going through the training process. And now that the pandemic is kind of easing up and people in our family are vaccinated, we're looking forward in the next couple of weeks to having more over and introducing the. We have a huge extended family and none of them have met our dogs and the dogs are a year old now. So everybody's excited for that and the kids are excited to get back into activities. So I am an Uber driver for a 12 year old and a 10 year old essentially, when there's no pandemic, that's what I do in my free time.

Excellent. Well, it sounds like you have fun with your family as well as in business, so 100%.

Yeah.

We're gonna thank our sponsor and come back for the imperfect action round.

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Back with the imperfect action round. Dave, are you ready to take imperfect action?

I am ready. There's nobody more imperfect than me, Mario.

Maybe me.

What is the fastest path to the cash?

The fastest path to the cash is offering to help people. That's it. Just go out and find somebody with a problem and offer to give them a hand.

Excellent. Number two, what is the biggest problem you see your prospects making and the fastest way for them to fix it?

The biggest problem I see with my prospects is getting in front of the wrong person and trying to fit that square peg into the round hold. You know, trying to get somebody who doesn't have money to invest what they don't have is only going to be frustrating for both sides. So qualify first, as we just talked about.

Excellent. Number three, what is the best way to maximize customer lifetime value?

Customer lifetime value. I think the best way to maximize it is to really get to know what's keeping your clients awake at night. And if you can help them get better sleep, you're going to be able to do a lot of work for them right in your wheelhouse. So have that external orientation after they bring you in to do the first thing that you're doing for them, first product or first service that you sell. Find out what other problems they have, introduce them to other people who can solve those problems. And then they're going to call you with all kinds of issues, some of which you're going to be able to charge for. So that's really what you need to do. Help your clients sleep better at night and you'll be amazed at the opportunities they present to you over time.

Very good. What books would you recommend to Expert Authority World?

What books would I recommend? Oh, my goodness. So I just read a book by a guy named Art Bell who was the head of Comedy Central. It came out in September and it was called, I think it's called Chasing Comedy How a Year at Comedy Central Helped Me Lose my Sense of Humor. And it is a fantastic book. It's really funny. He gives a lot of business tips in there. He talks about the inside politics of running a TV network. It's an excellent, excellent book. Art Bell is his name. Just go to Amazon.com and type in Art Bell's name and his book will come up.

Excellent. And you want to throw yours in there too.

Sure. The 60 second sale by me is available. In fact, if you want a copy of the 62nd sale, here's what we can do. Go to Dave Lorenzo.com expert authority davelorenzo.com expert authority there's three options there. The first one is free. You can subscribe to my podcast. We do a great interview every day. We offer sales tips every single day. The second thing you can get on the website is if you buy one copy of the 60 second sale there, you get a second one for free and I'll sign them for you. So go to davelorenzo.com expertauthority buy a copy of the book there. You can get a second one for free.

I'm supposed to ask you or I should ask you or I always ask as part of the show. Where would you like people to learn more? But you kind of just mentioned it. So do you want to add on extra place or just repeat it again?

No, no. They can go to davelorenzo.com expertauthority Also, the Inside BS show is my podcast. Great sales tips every day.

Excellent. Thank you so much. I've enjoyed this a lot and I know Expert Authority World has as well.

Oh, it's my pleasure, Mario. Thanks for having me. I really appreciate it.

All right, Expert Authority World. We have another great episode here today. I'll see you tomorrow. Have a great day and God bless.

You're already the expert, but have you transformed your expertise into a tangible asset that will generate and qualify leads while increasing profit for you? 247 and if so, how well are you promoting it? With the Expert Authority Effect publishing method, it's easier and faster than ever. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com today to learn the seven steps to publish and promote your nonfiction, lead and profit generating business book in eight weeks. Visit freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.com to get started. Now. Once again, that's freebusinessbookpublishingcourse.Com hey, thanks for listening to today's episode.

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