How death can motivate you | Dallas Sales Sniper Retreat 2022

Sam. All right, guys. What's up? Matt, here we are at the retreat. What do we think about the retreat so far?

So far so good, man.

Tone. Tony Tonithy. Can I call you Tonothy?

Only my mother gets to call me Tonothy. So retreat has been pretty fantastic so far.

Obviously, we're only in day one. Yesterday we had Derek Carver come in motivational speak, talk about dying.

The funny thing with motivation is, you know, it's a lot like a sales call. It's a lot like the journey that we take people on through the emotional roller coaster of get them to see the future they want and then the consequence of not having it and then the realism of what that actually means. And having somebody who's been through something like that, like that close of a near death experience, who's touched death basically, and be able to share that with us, it's really eye opening to see something like that and to hear that story. And I think it's a reminder that we all need every now and again, especially if people don't have a military background or haven't had near death experiences or haven't experienced a lot of death. Like, I had a lot of death in my family growing up, so it's not really like a strange thing to me. Some people haven't. And I think even if you did, like, it's like you need that reminder. And I think what Derek did was really.

Yeah, I think that the take home message was like, you know, you get 75 years.

How many dots is that, man?

Roughly 4,000.

Okay, perfect.

I believe 4,000 weeks, roughly. I thought it was actually quite like when I was listening to his speech. And we'll link Derek Carver's Instagram somewhere along here. But he's a ex army Ranger captain who got blown up with a very large IED and basically died very nearly. At least, you know, had his elbow blown out, lost a leg above the knee, you know, all kinds of bad stuff. But it was a very similar messaging to a lot of the stuff that we teach, which is all about gaining urgency and sort of realizing that you only have a certain amount of time on the planet, so you might as well do your best with it. And there was a lot of parallels in what he said and some of the stuff that we use in sales. And I thought it was really interesting. I thought he'd be a killer sales guy, to be honest.

I bet he is a killer sales guy. Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

You're like, oh, you want to wait, what, until you die? Yeah, yeah. I died once you hear about it.

I don't have the resources. You have two legs, though.

Such a massive advantage.

No, he's a really cool dude. I'm glad he came. There's a good catch by Will to bring him in.

It's really good to meet everybody because we don't get an opportunity to get together very often. Yeah, I'm always. It's always fun to find out who's really tall, who's really short, who's shockingly short, and who's shockingly tall. Gary blew me away.

Gary blew me away too.

I didn't think Gary was going to be that.

No, he was a very tall guy. Sean is a monster. I knew he was a behemoth. Yeah, but seeing a behemoth and hearing the tales are too completely.

Exactly. Sean's a beast, man.

Yeah.

Yeah.

Unreal.

The hulk of sales. And it's good to kind of see everyone kind of getting together and doing it. I think it provides a whole new context when people are in the same room in the same environment.

Yeah. I was gonna ask you, Matt, like, seeing this, has it given you any ideas to how you would want to have an office? Like, has it given you any ideas for an environment for us to work together?

Listen, I think it's necessary that SDRs are an office.

Why is that?

I just don't think they're gonna do it by themselves.

Fair enough. Is that from experience?

Yeah, I don't think, like, it's not through a lack of want or intent. I just think it's like, it's the. There's so much distraction these days that people need to have their distractions minimized, you know, Like, I walked out there and the guys were chatting. I was like, what are you doing? Like, oh, you know, And I was like, get on the fucking phone.

How come that auto dialer, like, going off?

Why aren't you like, what's happening? Yeah, they're like, oh, yeah. And they get back to it. You know what I mean? And so it's like that's happening every day when we're not here and there's no one to go, hey, man, like, you have a job to do. Oh, yeah, yeah, sorry, boss. Get back to it. You know, and so, like, there are very few people in the world who are totally self motivated. Like, it's just not that common.

Yeah, some people say they are a lot of, like, on sales calls, you always hear people say, oh, I'm a self starter. I'm super.

I'm an action taker.

Yeah.

I'M an action taker.

Yeah.

But I'm going to think about it.

Yeah, yeah.

And that's exactly it. People like to say things because we truly believe that we are, but we're blind to our own.

Yeah.

And it's not until you can kind of get people in a room and you build those habits. And I think if you manage people in the correct way, then you can still be rough on people but not be a dick.

So you want SDRs in the office?

Yeah, I think closers too would be great. But like, I don't think it's as mandatory because like the closer is like, it's sort of more skill than activity based. You know, obviously activity is a big part of it and it helps. But like you're killer. You're killer. You know, like if you can just one call close everybody. Like the amount of follow ups you do is pretty minimal.

What do you think about the dynamic of having closers and SDRs in the same place from a learning environment?

I think it's a good idea. Like, I think like, listen, ideally everyone's in an office, but like, you know, are we gonna make people move? Right. Probably not, but we'll just start recruiting efforts in areas that are local and new people will be like, hey, if you want to work here, this is. It works. You know what I mean? But like changing existing structures is difficult.

Well, what do you think about the draw? Because I feel like that's a lot of what the draw to the industry is. Is like the freedom of working from home.

Yeah.

Like the optional come to the office this many days but do whatever you want at home.

Like that's how we run it in Sydney. Like you don't have to come to the office in Sydney. Like as long as you get your work done. I don't, I don't care. Like we don't have a start time, we don't have like a finish time. Um, but like, you know, you can tell when people are getting after and people who are not. And like when the guys come in to sell, they sell better. They do more dials because they're in there. Everyone else is working. Like they can see that I'm on my computer for eight, nine hours at a time for sure. And they're like, oh yeah, I can't.

Be a pussy today.

Yeah, every, everyone else is doing it, so I might as well do it too. And I think it's like it also. One of the great things about an office is allows you to turn off. I think working from home is Great. I think it's. For me, it's much better in theory than what it is in reality. Like, I worked from home when I was full time sales. I was. I was at home. And then, like, when I transitioned out, we sort of got an office and all that kind of stuff. And I found it. Like, I would have rather sold at an office because I could have set my work environment up and then I could have just walked away from it and then come back the next day and I'm recharged. Whereas, like, if you're. If you even, for example, like, you're in the same room using the same computer with the same phone, like, what's the difference between Sales Tony and Normal Tony? The answer is nothing. So then you run the risk of either, like, Sales Tony not being as effective, because Sales Tony needs to be a little bit of a fuck. Right. Just a little bit.

Just a little bit.

Just right. Or you end up being a little bit of a fuck to everybody else.

Yeah.

And so sales together. Yes. They bleed together. And my wife caught me out on that. She's like, dude, you're kind of a dick. I was like, huh? She's like, you can't just say everything to everyone. Like, I was calling everyone out.

Objection. Handling every single person.

Like, my mom would say something, I'd be like, that doesn't make any sense. Like, you know what I mean? Like, can you tell me more about that? Like, kind of probing and clarifying on everyone. And it was, like, just unproductive in terms of, like, polite conversation. So, like. But that sort of backed off when I was able to kind of separate the two things. And I still do work from home a little bit, but it's pretty rare and in small doses.

Yeah.

And like, during COVID like, I just told no one else to go to the office, and I just went to the office by myself.

There you go.

Because, you know, I could do that.

Yeah. That. I learned that separation over the last, like, year or so. Because when I. When I first joined Sales Sniper, I. I never worked from home in my life.

Yeah.

You know, I had, like, an event company. I was bartending, I was doing all these other things. I had a. Like an airbnb management company. None of that stuff I did at home. So, like, when I came here and I started working from a laptop in my room, said, roommates in my house. I couldn't just, like, set up a whole office in the living room.

Yeah. Yeah.

So, I mean, you could, but I.

Could be a dick. Hey, guys, back off.

Yeah.

Are you making breakfast? Not right now. I got sales calls, so I like posted up in my room. Right. And I made my area look kind of nice. Made sure my bed wasn't in the frame. Which is a lesson to everybody. If you're selling at home in your room, just put your bed over there. Make sure your camera don't have a.

Bed in a blank bookcase.

Yeah.

That makes you look.

It's like just a sad place to be.

It's really.

I want to buy from you. I went into Ace's office at the seventh level headquarters and it's just a fucking. Like he has his own office.

Yeah.

And it's just a blank, completely empty bookshelf.

Have you seen him on the.

Except for a protein powder on meetings.

Yeah.

It's with the blurred background, it looks like the saddest place on the planet.

Background. I took a screenshot. I'll send it to you.

Yeah.

It's just an entire black room, all black. There's one light and it's directly to the side of his face. And so it's just half. The only thing illuminated is half of Aces dead inside face. And then it's black. The other side is completely black and.

You can't see it.

And it's all black everywhere else. And he looks like Two Face from Batman.

Wow.

And it is the perfect objection handling for Ace.

Yeah.

Like that's.

He just turns that on.

Yeah.

The lesson of separation is. Is what I learned now. Having an actual office in my house. Like I moved to Austin. I have an office now outside of my bedroom. Which is. Which is an upgrade, I think. Upgrade. Yeah, it's definitely an upgrade. And having a place where you're not like sleeping and working and hanging out and everything in one room all the time forever, like you will lose your mind.

Yeah.

And so even just a little bit of separation is gonna make a key difference, as you notice.

Like, okay, what do we hope to get to the next two days?

Shit. Ton of sales. First of all. Yeah, yeah, Definitely want that. For me, the biggest thing is just the culture and the integration of people's lives. Like, I want everybody to just to be friends, to put it that simply.

Yeah.

I want everybody to meet and know each other. Because the crazy thing about like this industry is we see each other almost every day and we get to know each other.

Yeah.

But like the two inch version of each person in a two dimensional screen.

Yeah.

And so the weirdest thing about meeting people that you know really well but haven't met in person is that when you meet them, you feel like you already know them, but it's also the first time, which. This is the first instance in history that that has ever happened, because it's true. What point have we ever had? Video conferencing?

Yeah. Yeah.

Never. So this emotion that we feel when you meet someone for the time.

First.

First time in person, but you've known.

It's a new human emotion.

It's a new. We've. We've found a new human emotion. And navigating it is fun.

Most of it's being weirded out by how big or small people are.

That's.

Yeah.

That is the biggest key takeaway.

Yeah.

Is people's size.

I usually get like, oh, you're way bigger than I thought you'd be.

Yeah.

Yeah. It turns out I'm not on a computer screen.

Yeah.

Did you think it was really three inches tall?

I promise it's bigger on a good day. All right, cool. And that's good.

Yeah.

I appreciate everything you've done. I appreciate your loyalty and stay intuitiveness considering the immense around that you personally have endured.

Cheers.

I appreciate it, brother.

Appreciate you, brother. Thanks for all the coaching and the mentorship and guidance in so many ways.

Well, stewardship. I don't want to say I'm your mentor, but.

So don't. We'll end it there.