The Achieve Podcast - Eddie Petrie (C3 Sales System)

Welcome to another episode of the Achieve Podcast, the show where we highlight leaders, creators, and entrepreneurs, those who are shaking up their industries and having an impact. I'm Taylor Baker Baker, your host, and excited today to be joined by Eddie Petrie, the CEO and founder of C3 Cell System, and you can find them at ipoweredacademy.com. Now, Eddie, Give us the backstory for those who don't know you or just getting to know you. How did you get into this space? Like, give us the history, and thanks for joining us.

You're welcome. Thanks for having me. I've been looking forward to this, and I know we've got a hard stop in 3 hours, so let me be concise and give you the, uh, the backstory. So way back when, uh, I was a criminal investigator for a number of years, and also in my investigations, I trained with the FBI. So I became an FBI-level behavioral interrogator, so using behavioral psychology analysis. And in that field, um, it's got its pros, it's got its cons. I found out that, uh, everything I thought it was going to be wasn't. And I, I've always had an entrepreneurial spirit, always. And so I took that training and went right into sales using the psychology, using the human connection, and really looking at it from a perspective of trying to help people.

Okay.

And that's where my background's always been, my passion's always been. And whatever I sell, wherever I work in, has to have a system of helping others. And that's where it developed, and it's always been like that. So I took that, and in a couple of years— I think it was another 5 years— went up growing a company from $100,000 in revenue to a valuation of over $100 million in the tech space. Wow. And took that public for a minute. For a minute. That's a whole nother podcast. So the— but on the way, what I found was that I could take anyone that really had a passion for helping people or sales in general and turn them into someone that really could read the room. They could read emotional behavior, they could read emotional cues. And that system developed because of that. And so I was able to scale the company because I could take on good people who may not have had a sales background, but they really wanted to help people.

Gotcha. Okay.

Yeah. So it, so it made it really easy, you know, to develop that. And so just systemic and use my background.

Awesome. And how big is the team and organization now?

All right, not as big as that. So right now we have a team of 7, and our team is remote. Um, we're all over the planet, but we're able to handle people whether they're in the States, whether in Australia, whether they're in Europe. It really doesn't matter. And so we bring— we really come to the individual, we find out what they need, what they need, and depending on our team member, they're able to handle it. But most of the training I do still do personally or in groups.

Awesome. And what would you say at this stage is driving growth for the organization?

At this stage, what's driving growth, you said? What's driving growth is word of mouth. It's one of our biggest generators right now because really what's coming down to— people will reach out and say, my guy who I've known forever talked to you. He said I need to get in touch because of what you do and what you've been doing with organizations and individuals. You know, for example, we had a, we had a call center that had zero sales experience and they had conversion rates of 7-8% for years. That was common. And they learned to live with it. They just want more advertising. And so they were profitable, but not as well as they could have been. In 6 months, I think it was 5.5, let's call it 6, took them from 8% to 33% close rates. Wow. Nothing about sales. And let me, let me say this, they weren't exactly happy about it.

Okay.

But their roles had changed, so they had to learn this or they had to find other positions in the organization. So all, just about all of them, there was 10 of them and 9 out of 10 made it and they brought on 2 others. And right now, without buying any more ads, without doing any more lead development, they have now seen not only conversion rates rise, but also their gross margins within the organization. And they're healthier than they ever have been and now those conversion rates have continued over the last year and a half.

Wow, that is impressive. And you can do that just the basic training. Now for you, as you try to grow, what have you found to be some of the biggest bottlenecks or obstacles that keep showing up and getting in the way?

Leadership. That's going for a thousand years and it will go on for another thousand years. Is what happens is that, um, myself included, we always have to look at it from perspective of what am I not doing the best? What can I be doing differently? How can I be doing things better? Okay, if we don't look at ourselves from the inside out, how can we take our abilities, our processes, our systems, and deliver them to our people, right? How can I ask you to actually, uh, contribute if I'm not contributing back to you or back to the organization? So we have to get out of our comfort zones. We can never believe that we've cracked the riddle, so to speak. Right. We always have to think that we're behind. And if we think that way, that urgency kicks in to that nervous system and we're constantly looking at different ways to make things better, make them more profitable, make, you know, increase our KPIs, for example, but never lose that people connection, never lose how we're trying to grow our people too. So leaders, leaders, I always look at leaders as always being the bottleneck.

Now, This next question, as you try to grow and expand and you're looking at your marketing systems, what have you found that's been working well to acquire and keep customers?

So that's the, uh, the customer success journey or customer buyer's journey. One of the biggest things is retargeting. That's where a lot of missed opportunities happen. Okay. Is that yes, you're gonna have your initial conversation and yes, your, your customer's either going to move forward if they have the want, the need, the ability to buy, the ability to use. However, we know that doesn't always happen. There's always competition. They always want to think about it. They always want to check things out. And we have what's going on is a trust recession in the industry right now, in all industries. Can they really trust you? Right? And that's why Google reviews, Yelp reviews, and all those other things have exploded over the years. So if we can help them get over that hump, great. But if they don't, we need to be reconnecting with our clients at all touch points. So whether that's by text, whether that's by email, whether that's by other ways of connecting with them, that when they're ready to do something, we are what's called top of consciousness.

Yeah, I like that term. We're in a trust recession because—

yes, absolutely, that's trademarked under the iPower Kit. Now you're good, you can use that.

So when it comes to sales and marketing, where do you feel like there's still opportunity on the table or money on the table?

Oh, definitely there's money on the table on the online space, you know, the digital space. It's going to be there. However, in one of my organ— one of the companies that has a client, they have now moved into the retail space, and they're now working with, um, major league organizations such as Major League Baseball, uh, soccer, things of that nature, to get themselves out more in front of clients and customers in areas where you wouldn't think they would be. So they're having unique opportunities and being quite successful. As a matter of fact. So it's really where are, where are your customers hanging out is where I want to be in front of. That's where the opportunity is, because you can't just say it's digital space. You can't just say it's, uh, it's late night cable TV, right? You can't— it, it's where my customers hang out. Where are they having their biggest challenges? If it's Facebook, for example, then I'm going to migrate a lot of my attention over to Facebook. If it's Reddit, I'm going to try and get something over there. It just all depends on where they— where you find them.

Yeah, and first you have to identify that KPI and that just ideal— the ICP, customer, the ICP.

Exactly, that's part of it. So you'll have your primary hangout, I'll call it the hangout spot, right? And then you'll have your secondary, tertiary, and ongoing from there. And we were talking about roofers, you know, earlier, right? How do they differentiate? How do they find their customer? A lot of them go door-to-door.

Mm-hmm.

Right. That's a big part of their outside marketing efforts. And but it's one, it's one component of it. So definitely multiple, multiple attack fronts, you know, with it, whether it's digital, whether it's door-to-door, whether it's in-person retail. But again, where do they primarily hang out?

That makes sense. Now, with all the talk around AI and automation, where have you found ways internally to utilize it?

Well, So I'm an AI geek. I'll definitely say that. People go, why don't you have a lot of friends? And I go, because I've got AI. I've got Claude, I've got ChatGPT, I've got Brock. You know, the— no, it's part of it. Part of the AI is utilizing it as a tool and then really trying to find out where your weaknesses are and can it complement or can do it and accentuate, you know, where your strengths are and where your weaknesses can be mitigated. So for example, a lot of it is I have so much information and some of us are creators. We just create, we create a document, we create a PDF, we don't even know how much stuff we have. So we keep creating more and at some point you gotta stop, go, all right, stop. So what I did was I've actually have Claude attached to my Google Drive. Claude goes in my Google Drive and literally the other day created another course for people 'cause I had some requests for a unique course. I said, go through every file folder, PDF, slide deck, whatever you can find, and let's create a course for this particular ICP. And it did within 30 minutes. It went through every file folder, everything I had over the last couple of years and said, this would be great, and put it all together, created the 8-step program, put it, and I was blown away. That had taken me weeks to do all that. So that's just one inner ground. I am a Claude geek. Um, my ChatGPT has a name. Okay, so yeah, we're, we're into it. And, um, my biggest thing with that is I wanted to get my wife into it as well. So now she's, uh, in— she goes, "Sitting for chat?" Yeah, 3 years ago. So welcome to the club. But that— so that's one way of utilizing it. You can utilize that to really take a lot of your tasks you would normally do and hand them off. And it may feel something like there's a trust factor there. But for all y'all that drive Teslas and let Tesla drive you autonomously to wherever you want to go, that's a trust factor I still can't get into yet.

I have never seen that comparison, but yeah, that's a good one. So, Eddie, if you had to pick one constraint to focus on and solve over the next 90 days that would have the greatest impact on the trajectory of the business, what would it be?

It's got to be my, my conversion rates. Okay, because every organization has leakage. Sales, they have revenue leakage, every single one. It's— the question is not do you have it, the question is how bad is it. So if I can increase conversion rates among my sales teams, that's going to mitigate a lot of my leakage. And the conversion rate comes through repetitive skill development. Just had this conversation today with someone about that. They've been doing this in sales for 28 years. And I said, well, how do you take what you know and transfer that to your sales team? He said, I just train it. It's okay. Like me asking, how do you walk your dog? And it just does a great job. I just walk it. Okay, well, there's more that goes into it. So I said, okay, a little more detail. He said, well, I just do role plays and, uh, and they get it. I said, well, how do you know they don't get it? He stopped for a second. He said, really don't. I said, so you feel like they're getting it? So it's a feeling. He said, yeah, I guess. I said, do you always work on feelings? He said, absolutely. I live in my CRM. Feelings in your CRM? He said, you're absolutely right, because I still like that being called out on it, so to speak. I said, listen, I said You know, we know repetition's the mother of skill. We've heard that, you know, 100,000 times from Tony Robbins. Yeah, it's about how do I take that skill set and make it repeatable, make it repetitive, and have it live within the individual's nervous system, just like muscle memory, just like anything else you do in life, whether it's teaching, whether it's playing basketball, whether it's golf, whether it's swimming. But they all have repeatable, repetitive movements, movements. Right?

Yeah.

So if you can build that and keep that in the individual without you having to micromanage it all day, every day, because, you know, role plays are hit or miss, they're very subjective. There's nothing really telling you did a right or wrong role play. But that's why we built the simulator. We built the simulator from scratch. We built it based on behavioral psychology, based on FBI investigative techniques, based off, you know, analysis that you're never going to find anywhere else. Challenges you. You can get into it 24/7. It's part of our program. And so as a manager, you can see how your team's developing in it too. You have tracking, tracking methodology in there to show them where they doing well on, where are they performing not so well in, and what really needs more repetition or more development. Then they go back in the simulator and they practice on that level.

Gotcha.

So a lot of my teams, what they do is they'll do 10 simulations before they even get on the phones for the day. Before they go out in the field. Why? Because now they're primed to have that conversation. They're ready to go. Rather than— here's the other way of doing it— they're going to go out and practice on live leads, you know, the ones that you pay for. Yeah, they're the ones that are going to burn. That's why they call it a burn and churn. They're just churning through your live leads because they're not paying for it. You are. And there's one of your biggest leaks right there. Wow.

There's so much potential in what you just described right there. So Eddie, when you look at your own journey, the wins, the mistakes, what lessons stand out or feel like they took longer to learn than they should have?

Give me that last part of that question again.

What lessons stand out or feel like they took longer to learn than they should have? One.

So that's a great question. I've got a laundry list right here. So all right, we all have them, right? Exactly. One of the things that took the, the most to learn was again a direct result upon my own nervous system, which was formed from— if we get into behavioral psychology of it— formed from childhood, reformed through teenage years, reformed again through young adult years. And part of that was pleasing, making sure everyone else was taken care of first, right? You shouldn't ask for that 30% increase because it's going to create conflict. I'll just do 15, okay? Because that makes my nervous system feel comfortable, right? And we've all had those uncomfortable moments. How about the ones where you want to negotiate your car purchase and they go, well, this is the best I can do, and you go Really? Is that it? I mean, I really don't want to buy it for that. They go, well, no, that's it. So you try one time, but you don't keep pressing because that makes you feel what?

Uncomfortable.

Uncomfortable, right? That's just your nervous system. But if you practice that 100 times, you'd have been like, how am I going to do that? They go, well, what do you mean? I can't afford that. They go, okay, well, that's best we can do. You go, all right, well, thanks. You're okay walking out because you've done it a thousand times already. But that's the difference. So if I had known that earlier, I would not have stayed in business situations longer than I should have. I would have been more careful with protecting my own brand, my own, um, income, my own financial station. That's one of the biggest lessons, you know, I would have learned— I did learn over the years. It just took me a while to do that. Where me making sure someone else is comfortable is not the best behavior. Okay, that was one of the biggest things that, you know, I would take away. And one of the— probably what was the first part of the question again? I'm sorry.

No, just lessons that stand out to you.

Yeah, I think one of the biggest lessons on the positive level was that no matter how old you are, you're never too old to take a chance. Yeah, because I'll say this, if not now, when? Don't wait until it's safe. Good is good enough. You're 75%, go for it. 85%, you're almost there, so you're really good to go. But I've done things at 40%.

Yeah, if you, if you're at 90 plus, then you probably waited too long.

You did. You did, because it'll never be the right time. Because I'll go back to when you had kids— was it the right time? Never, right? When you got married, was it the perfect time to do it? Maybe. Probably not though, okay? I mean, all these things we take for granted in life that we did, we forget about. And then when there's an opportunity in front of us, we're like, I'm not really sure, this could go wrong, that could go wrong. Okay, if not now, when will another opportunity come along? It may never. So you have to be ready and open and vulnerable enough that if you fail, you're okay with it because you will learn from that. Just don't have too many of those learning experiences.

So last question for you. When you think about the next stages of the business, what are you most excited about?

I'm most excited about the next stage, about us working with more people and having the C3 certification levels get into the mainstream. You know, I wanted to get into the government, for example. I wanted to get into large corporations. I want to help as many people as possible stop working against themselves, which means that they have all the tools, they have all the skills, they just haven't figured out their own nervous and psychology system yet that allows them to get to their next level. That's the part that I love seeing. I love seeing people go beyond what they ever believed they were capable of, whether that be position, whether it be money, whatever drives their purpose. They were helping more people. They're able— that is what really drives me. It drives my team because we believe service comes way before money.

I love that. That's a good ethos to live on. So Eddie, thank you for coming on and sharing so much wisdom and insight. Like, I love this priming yourself right before you hit waste money or time on the doors or the phones or anything else you're doing. Like, that's a great takeaway right there. So, and for those who want to learn more or want to reach out and get involved, LinkedIn or ipoweracademy.com. Anywhere else you want to send them?

Yeah, no, there are your two best places to go to. And, uh, it's been my pleasure. You know, I love sharing this, and if one person got one golden nugget from that, you know, we're happy. Uh, we're hoping, we're hoping a lot of people get it from that, but it's a great platform that you have, and it's been my pleasure to be on here with you.

Well, thank you. Thank you for sharing again your time and wisdom with us. And thank you to our sponsors of today's episode, Achieve Fractional, which provides fractional executive leadership for growing businesses. And if you enjoyed the episode, share it with a friend, with a colleague. If you're curious and want to step up your game, you want to be the top in your industry, in your space, reach out to Eddie and the team and they'll help you out. And then we'll see you all in the next episode of the Achieve Podcast.