7 Attributes of a Successful Sales Person with Neal Tricarico, Head of Sales at Scalable

You're listening to Business Lunch with Roland Fraser. This is your seat at the table.

Hey, everybody, Roland Frazier here with Business Lunch. Want to welcome you to kind of a special episode. I'm very excited to have our guest today is the director of sales for our companies, all of our companies, which are held under a company called Scalable, and his name is Neil Care Co. Neal came in from the Tony Robbins organization where he ran the inside sales team there. And I wanted him to come on today to share with you some things that can help you in your business. One of the big things that was missing in ours was that we didn't have inside sales. We didn't have anybody really on the phones. We were a marketing company. We came out of a company called Digital Marketer. And so we're like, hey, we can market stuff and sell online, and that's everything you need. The truth is we were missing more than half of the sales that we could have made. In other words, we could double our sales by bringing a sales team in and having somebody do that. Now, we did that and we tried consultants, we hired a few people, and it never did seem to work out until we got Neil in. Because Neil not only has the great experience and the credentials and the quality of humanity to be a good salesperson, but. But he also has several systems that he's developed. And so I kind of want to drill down to some of those systems today with Neil so that you guys can, if you have inside sales, you can improve what you've got, or if you don't have it, how you might bring it into your business. So, Neil, welcome to the show. Great to have you here.

Thank you, Roland. It's great to be here.

So in terms of just. So we start out with an understanding of the difference between what is inside sales versus, say, outside sales.

Yeah, great question. So inside sales, by our definition, are sales that are being made from human to human, one human to another, but over the phone. So you've got a team, and nowadays they're remotely, but they're sales that are done over the phone or since COVID a much larger percentage of these sales are also being done over Zoom.

Okay, and is there a difference in conversions between phone versus Zoom, do you find?

Yeah, you know, we are finding an increased level of conversions with Zoom just for what we have here. That face to face interaction enables us to get a much better sense of the rapport that's being created in these interactions. And as a sales leader, it's wildly effective for breaking down the tape and Coaching and training reps to connect better with their prospects.

So a lot of folks hear the term sales floor, and I know that there are sales floors that are available that you can hire. What's the advantage to having a team that's in house versus an outside or outsourced solution for that? Even though both would be considered, I guess, inside sales?

Yeah, great. Great question. So I think both opportunities, whether building out your own team internally and outsourcing to a sales floor, have their advantages and I think less disadvantages. Well, there are disadvantages to hiring your own inside sales team because you have a much greater cross risk in terms of cost and investment than you would in outsourcing to an outside. Excuse me, to a outside partner who maintains a sales floor. So I think the better question or distinction would be what kind of program is that team running, Whether it's a team that you're building internally for your own business or what to look for if you're outsourcing to an outside sales floor.

Okay. And one of the things that I found that I think is challenging is that an internal sales team versus an external sales team is usually more aligned with the culture of the company. And they are, even though salespeople are their own type of people, just like marketers and programmers and engineers. That an external sales team might be strictly motivated by money and might have a culture of go, kill, go sell anything at any cost, whereas an internal team would be more aligned with the culture of the company. We actually want to do good for the customer, and we are going to draw limits on representations we're going to make and things like that. Have you seen that to be the case at all?

Yeah. That's a huge advantage to having your own team inside, you know, and as we're experiencing in our months together, these teams, not only the culture, but the sales reps have the opportunity to eat their own dog food, if you will. Right. So you're living and experiencing the programs and products or services that your business is selling. If you have an outside team, they may be repping multiple companies. So not just the kill and closing mentality, but a potential disconnect from an understanding of the programs that they're offering.

Okay, so is, let's say that. And because this happened to us and we got lucky because we were ultimately able to find you, but we made a lot of mistakes that cost us a lot of money along the way. If someone is thinking about bringing sales in house, what like. And they don't have a sales team and they don't know how to do this and they haven't done it before, what do they do? What's the best thing to do?

Yeah, the best thing to do in my experience is your first hire is the most important hire. So like in, in our case, you brought me in and I had an opportunity to bring in my own system, a successful system, and recruit and hire sales reps who, you know, understand and work in that system. But if you're a smaller business and getting started, what I would recommend is that you're looking for a hunting for what I would call a player coach. So somebody who could come in and they're going to roll up their sleeves, carry the bag, understand, be sales rep number one, which I actually did with us as well, so that they understand what's really actually happening on the front line with prospects and clients and then they can prove out the model of success and build out that framework and then it's going to make it much more effective for you as the business owner and to then scale and hire on more reps.

So how do you find that person?

It's a great question. So my background, this is something that I've studied for a decade now, is I really truly believe there's a confluence of science and skills. So you want to leverage a mechanism. The mechanism that I've created is the Sales Strengths Identifier which we use internally. And nowadays it's no longer about a sales personality or coffees for closers or they're an extrovert or an introvert, there are specific capabilities that are at play not only in the types of sales you're doing inside or outside phone gong or whatever it may be, but also the attributes that you're looking for in a leader. So there are some tools that we can recommend for your audience, but you want to, whether it's our Sales Strengths Identifier or you want to leverage something like this, you want to have something that you can match that's both data driven and scientific as well as experiential with your interview process. Because inevitably what happens is you're interviewing salespeople and sales leaders so they're going to sell you on themselves. And especially if you're hiring in a place of need, you're going to be attracted to that, but what you're really looking for is for them to demonstrate their capabilities through role play or hopping on the phones with you.

So what are the strengths then that are involved in the Sales Strength Identifier that you've developed?

Yeah, so the most important strengths that we've Found number one is gonna sound kind of obvious and I don't have any groundbreaking things that I'm gonna share with you, but number one is mindset. Right? That's the critical foundational step in this whole process is somebody's ability to shift their focus away from all of their needs and wants and to focus on the client. And then the biggest determiner is somebody's willingness to establish or their capabilities to establish rapport. Right. Studies show that 45% of any sale or enrollment is one through your ability to earn your prospects or clients trust and respect. So I'd say those are the number one and number two factors.

Let me, let me drill into number two for just a second. So your experience generally, because I think this helps everybody. What do you find as the best ways to build rapport with someone very, very quickly? Because you have to do that. You have to get on a call or have a conversation with somebody and instantly develop that rapport. Have you got any tips on how to do that?

Yeah, I do. The number one tip is to focus first on them. Right. I think it was Stephen Covey that said this, but seek to understand before being understood. So you want to avoid things like old school, like, oh, you know, what city are you in? What's the weather like there nowadays? That is actually rapport breaking. It's a turn off. No one wants to be connected with that way. But you always want to start with a question. You know, I'm curious, name. What led us to this point? What led you to reach out and raise your hand about this? What led us to this point today where we're on the call together and an open ended question like that, that shows that you're focused on their wants is what's most important.

That's great. Okay, so we got two things now. How many are there in the strength identifier?

There's seven.

Okay, what are the other five?

Yeah, you got it. So the other five are diagnosing needs. So. So 25% of the sale is won through your ability to execute an important and valuable questioning strategy. You know, and Ryan, your partner and co founder, said this best when he said, a doctor who prescribes without diagnosis is guilty of malpractice. You know, and I borrowed that. The same is true in sales. When we pitch or present our solution before we've actually diagnosed a prospect's needs, we, as this trusted advisor, as a sales rep, are guilty of malpractice. And I would even take it a level further. Many times people will come to us, our Prospects will come to us because they think they have something that they want to solve for. Right. Often it's more leads, better sales. Right. Hiring better. That's surface level stuff. They're correct in their wants, but their needs are the results of what they think those wants are. So when you diagnose needs, when you run an effective questioning strategy, your responsibility, your moral obligation is to conduct a gap analysis that helps this prospect understand, hey, here's what you've come for and you think you want. But through your demonstration and your questioning strategy, you're going to help them see more clearly what they really actually need, what that means, the impact, the result.

Awesome. So we've got mindset, I think, then.

Rapport, and then diagnose needs. Yeah. So now we've got 70% of the sale is won because you've earned their trust and respect. You've uncovered their true needs, you transcended their wants. Now is you've earned the right to build value. So your next step, your fourth step, is build value. In old school terminology, that would be your pitch or presentation. But in build value, this is where you've won the right to engage in the how. Right? So now you're tying the client's wants and needs to your solution, your product or service, and you're tying the benefits of that product or service to solving their what's and their whys, which you've identified together. We haven't pitched at them.

Okay, and then what comes after that?

And so what comes after that, Roland, is my favorite part in the whole process. Okay, so step number five is to create buy in. And when we create buy in, what happens is the client will actually articulate in their own words the value that would make it worth investing in. So this is an important turn in the conversation. And when you've executed this effectively, you'll actually have the confidence and certainty to ask them this question. Roland, I'm curious. Why is this something you must move forward with now? And when they articulate back to you why they must move forward, that's a magnitude greater than you telling them? And guess what? You don't have to close them. You now have enrollment. All right, so enrollment is actually.

Hey, Roland Frazier here, and I want to talk to you about an ad card. This card, created by funneledash, was designed for companies that spend a lot of.

Money on ads and want to scale.

Ad card is not only really simple.

To use for your ad spend, but.

It gets you a whopping 3% cash.

Back on every ad dollar you spend.

Go to funneledash.com adcard and schedule a call. Make sure to mention business lunch so you get that three times on your cash back. Potential.

Ryan Deiss here. Now, if you've ever run paid ads, you know it is not easy. You've got to create the ads, track the ads, optimize campaigns, and scale the winners while killing off the losers. Look, it is a lot of work, which is why time and time again, we turn to an agency called Grow Rev to help us with our paid media campaigns. They run paid traffic for some of the biggest names in the industry, from Tony Robbins to Dean Graziosi, Clickfunnels and many, many others. And Rohan Seth, the owner of GrowRev, well, he's a great friend of ours here at business lunch. And because of that, he's offering business lunch listeners a huge freebie. Rohan's team is giving out 25 free account audits. It's no charge, no fee, and no obligation to buy anything. What they're going to do is they're going to go into your account, they're going to audit everything, and they're going to show you what you can tweak to lower your acquisition costs, increase your conversion rates, and boost your average order values. Now, this is a $500 value, and the first 25 Business Lunch listeners get it totally for free. So here's what you need to do. Go to getmyfreeaudit.com again, that is getmyfreeaudit.com audit and grab your free audit today.

Step number seven.

Great. So enrollment is seven. I might have missed one. I think I missed six.

Yep. It's always. It's a test by design. So again, if a client can articulate the value in your own words, we have nothing to do. We have nothing to close. We get to move forward with enrollment. You say you congratulate them. Congratulations. Here are our next steps. But what happens if you reach Create Buy in and the client can't articulate effectively, they can't tell you why they must move forward with your product or service. You have two situations that'll happen. One is they'll ask some questions, which is an opportunity for you to provide clarity. Or they're going to object. They're going to bring up objections. So step number six is a powerful process to overcome objections. But when you've done steps one through five, well, now your opportunity to overcome objections is much smaller. And we've got a specific process for that. You go through that process, overcome their objections and challenges, and now you move forward with enrollment.

So I see. I think that's really, really fantastic. And I love how it addresses, really, from a psychological component. And it's not tactical. It's strategic. So tactical in that it's a framework for dealing with things as opposed to. Excuse me. Strategic in that it's a framework for dealing with things as opposed to. Well, ask them. Put the question on them and let them mention the number first and say.

What'S it going to take to get.

You in this car today? Or yes or yes. What are the two positive buying questions you can ask? So that negative is not an option. All of that stuff that I think a lot of people see through. So it feels like it's a very authentic way to identify these things. Now, that is a test, I believe, or an assessment that you give to individual salespeople. Is that correct?

Yes. Salespeople and sales managers and leaders.

Right. So this would be something that would either form the basis of the types of questions that someone might ask a sales director that might be coming in to build a sales department or a singular salesperson that might be coming in to sell stuff for them. Is that correct?

Well, you know what's interesting, Roland, is the questions themselves in the assessment have nothing to do with sales. So they're grounded in the disc instrument. So I didn't want this to be one of those kind of fake quizzes or tests that you can come up with that's designed to create some outcome. We had to actually get certified, go have this process, go through a rigorous certification. So the questions themselves have nothing to do with sales, but the output breaks down for us the most important attributes that we need to see across those seven steps.

So it's something, though, that people could use to apply if they were trying to find the person like you to come in and be the sales director or the head of sales. And it could. And build a team. And it could also apply to having somebody who was just going to come in and be a salesperson for their product since they don't have anybody right now. Is that. That's what I was kind of asking.

Yes, that's correct. Yeah.

Okay, so now how could. Let's say that somebody is listening and we switch over now and somebody's listening and saying, I am in sales and I want to be better, or I've always wanted to go in sales, and I'm not sure if I'm cut out for it and have the skills. How would they use what you've created here?

Great question. So let's take the example first and the Answer is virtually the same for both scenarios. But if you've got an existing team and the rep wants to understand how they can do better, or if you have somebody for the first time wanting to find out if they'd be good at sales, I think that second one is so interesting because many of the best of the best salespeople that we found when we find him young, it's going through a process like this assessment that has nothing to do with sales or having a sales career. In fact, having a sales career for a number of years, especially in the 90s and early 2000s, is more likely that you're conditioned to an old school mechanism. So again, when the number one thing that I would recommend is for them to take their sales strengths identifier, so you're going to get a report across these seven steps and, but you're going to understand within each of these seven steps there's five to seven sub attributes and then there's recommendations that we can make. What I want to share with you in the audience is there's no perfect assessment, right? So there's no, there's no perfect individual who scores out perfect across all seven steps. The totality of the 54 attributes, there are some steps that are more trainable than others. So for instance, and you know, if I could share about this when we were revisioning the team, you know, what you find is attributes like establishing rapport and overcoming objections. Those tend to be much more innate. So if you're not scoring at least a 7 out of 10 in those areas, sales would likely not be a profession for you to pursue. If you're scoring high in all of the others, but maybe not scoring high in overcoming objections, Something like customer service or client success, where you don't have to enroll or close clients, could be interesting for you. But what's powerful is by taking an assessment, taking an instrument like this, you can understand where your core strengths and weaknesses are across those attributes needed to be successful in sales. And then things like building value, right where you're presenting that solution, that's highly trainable, that's, you know, teaching someone to study and deliver the solution is trainable. Putting together a questioning strategy is pretty trainable. But things like mindset, establishing rapport, and overcoming objections are far less trainable. You either have those skill sets, gifts if you will, or you don't.

Okay, so just to summarize, we've got for everybody that is watching or listening, if you're thinking about doing this, I'm gonna. Neil has created this awesome program and so we want to talk about how you might get access to it, but in case you can't, so that we deliver lots of value here, I want to go through one more time the things that you would be wanting to interview for as you think about getting somebody in or to assess yourself with whether you are the person who has the product or company or service in your company and you are doing direct sales yourself. Still don't keep doing that because you can't scale, by the way, or you're thinking about bringing in a salesperson to do that. The very first thing is you want to think about what's the mindset, and correct me if I miss any of these, then you want to think about how are you at building rapport. You want to think about how good are you at creating the value and tying that, the things that you found from having conversations with people into the product or service that you have to sell. And then the next is buy in. Is that correct?

Yeah. We missed the important step of diagnosing needs.

Diagnose. And where is that? Which one is that?

That's number three.

Three. Okay, Diagnose. So, and I think you said those first three are 70% of the equation. Is that correct?

They are. 70% of a sale or enrollment is won through the mindset that you have your ability to connect with another human being and earn their trust and respect so that you have the opportunity to diagnose their needs, to move from their wants to their needs. 70% of the sale is won through your ability to execute that effectively.

Then we go to buy in, right?

No, we go to presenting the solution. Build value. So that's where we tie our product or service to their pains or challenges, their needs. We make that connection that our product or service is the solution to their transformation. So basically all sales is. It's like the hero's journey is going from struggle to transformation. People come to us for what they think they want. We need to help them understand what they really actually need. That's where we build connection. And then our product or service must take them through that journey so they can transform from their struggles to that promised land. If we don't believe our product or service can do that, we should not be offering it. That's when you're starting to getting it. Getting into selling or pushing somebody into something.

Okay, so mindset, rapport, diagnose, build value. No.

Yeah. Present.

Build value and then present.

Well, so build value is present, but I've moved it off present because present is too close to pitch. And people who have been in sales for a while have an association to that.

Okay, then value is. Then maybe we get to skip. Objection. Handling. And the other thing, if they are bought in and we go to enrollment, otherwise we handle the objections and disconnections and figure out how to get them kind of back on track. That's awesome. So if somebody was interested in finding out more about this or building a sales team, I know you help with those things or having access to the assessment that you've got. And I know you have to. I think you have to pay some fee with that. So I'm guessing it's not free. But if people were interested in finding out more about this, what would be the best way for them to do that?

Yes. So what I'd like to do. So yes, for the assessment, there's normally a fee. It depends if it's for a company or, or for an individual. But let's go ahead and offer it to your audience. So we could offer it at scalable co ssi. That's Sales Strengths Identifier. So that would be Scalable co ssi.

Awesome. That's great. Anything else that you would say, like if you were going to give your final thing that you would like people to leave today thinking about in addition to remembering the right order of the seven things?

Yes, absolutely. So, and what's interesting is Success love sequence. So you said something very important and I think that's why going through the process again was important. The order matters. In old school sales, it would be the other way around. Right. So we would spend very little time building rapport. Right. And then we would ask a question or two and then we would start pitching, asking for the sale. Then we get in a negotiation, spending a ton of time, overcoming objections and closing. So my long answer to your short question is it's twofold Success Love sequence. The order of things matters. And then the thing that I would write down that I would ask your audience to write this down. If they're involved in any way in sales or enrollment, write this down. Price is only an issue when the value is not clear. So as a sales rep, as a steward of any company that you're involved in, your responsibility is to unlock the value of that would make it worth for that client to invest their time, money and effort. When you do that, when you unlock the value in their eyes, that makes it worth investing. You're going to have an enrolled client. There's no need to close or sell.

I think that's a really, really great thing to end on and if you want to think about this metaphorically, whenever I'm creating something for offer to someone, whether it is I want them to do a task or I want them to buy a product or service or anything like that, it's I think of if I can make an offer to somebody that is if you give me a dollar, I'll give you $5 back, then they're never going to say no. Which is basically what Neil's saying, right? If the value is there, price will never be an objection because the value has to exceed the price, otherwise there's no reason for them to do it. It might be an emotional thing like you're trying to get your kids to do their homework or it might be a product thing that you're trying to get somebody to buy the product or service that you've got. So if you can always think about that, you need to, through this discovery process and the seven steps that Neil laid out, you need to be able to come to the point where they understand that the value that you're offering greatly exceeds the price that you're asking to give them that value. And if you can do that, then they'll always say yes. And mindset wise to me, circling back to the very first part of his thing, that then you'll never feel bad about it, you'll never feel smarmy or that you're being salesy because you will be absolutely committed to the knowledge that the thing that you're going to deliver has a value that greatly exceeds the price that you're asking them to pay for it. So you'll feel good about it the whole way through. You'll come across as authentic because you will know and believe that what you are providing to them actually is greater than the price that you're asking, whatever it may be. In your homework case, you absolutely believe that the value of completing high school or college or whatever thing your kid is doing that you want them to commit to doing the homework in is going to be worth so much more than the tiny little effort of doing the homework that 30 minutes or hour that night or the value of the course that costs $5,000 is going to greatly exceed the cost of the 5,000 because the value of what they'll be able to do with it going forward is going to be millions or whatever it is. So I think if you guys that are watching or listening think about it that way, think about the seven steps that Neil has outlined, then you'll never have a problem selling. You'll decide that you Absolutely want to build an in house sales team and you'll probably have somebody super smart like Neil helping you do it. Neil, thanks for being here. I really, really appreciate you taking the time today. And one more time, the place at Scalable. What's the website where they can get this info?

Scalable Co ssi.

Okay, awesome. Thank you so much. Really appreciate you having the time with us today.

You're welcome. Thank you for having me. Roland.

You've been listening to Big Business Lunch with Roland Fraser. If you're enjoying the show, let us know by subscribing and leaving a review. And for more information go to businesslunchpodcast.com thank you for listening.

Ever wondered how some people build real wealth through acquisitions while others just sit on the sidelines? Well, I'm here to tell you it's not about luck. It's about having the right system, the.

Right deals and the right guidance.

And that's exactly what we give you in the EPIC Deal Fast Track. If you've been thinking about buying a business, but you keep getting stuck, whether it's finding the right deal, structuring the financing or negotiating with sellers, you are not alone. Too many people waste months, even years just thinking about acquiring a business while the real opportunities pass them by. The EPIC Deal Fast Track is not another course. It's actually an implementation program and it's designed to get you from the idea to the acquisition in just 16 weeks or less. We work with you one on one to help you find, fund and close your first or next deal. And once you do, we're going to plug you into our elite EPIC board community so that you can keep scaling through acquisitions. We install three powerful systems in your business.

The first is the Deal Flow engine.

So you always have high quality off.

Market deals coming to you.

Number two, we give you our offer and funding system so that you can structure offers that get accepted and fund them creatively many times with no money out of your own pocket. And number three, our closing and integration system so that you don't just buy a business, you actually successfully run and.

Scale it once you have acquired it.

Plus you'll have direct one on one support from an EPIC Deal Advisor every step of the way. And that's people that have actually come up through the system and done these deals themselves. That's the only way to become an EPIC Deal Advisor. And if you're serious about acquiring a business this year, don't just sit on the sidelines, just text I'm in to 3, 3, 4, 4, 5, 8, 9034 and we'll get you in. So text I'm in to 334-458-9034. We'll get you in. No fluff, no wasted time. Just real deal making from people that are actually out there doing deals right now.

I'll see you there.