Wes Schaeffer, The Sales Whisperer, breaks down his ABCDE sales framework where the sale is just the midpoint of a circular relationship that drives referrals. He learned from Brazilian jiu-jitsu that smaller, disciplined opponents outmaneuver larger ones, a lesson he applies to finding efficient business solutions.
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Welcome to the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host, Tyler Wagner. This episode is brought to you by Authors Unite. Authors Unite makes the process of becoming a published bestselling author as simple as sipping your morning cup of coffee. You can learn more about Authors Unite at authorsunite.com. Now let's jump into the episode. All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Wes Schaefer with us. He is the Sales Whisperer, an obsessively pragmatic entrepreneur, sales trainer, copywriter, and speaker who has developed a 5-step proven process to make every sale. So welcome to the show, man.
Hey, Tyler, thanks for having me.
Of course, I'm excited to have you on. I'm excited to learn about this process as well. So let's dive in, man. The first one I have for you, Wes, is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?
So many lessons, man. Number one, I'll just give you the most recent one because I'm in the middle of it. At age 46, about 18 months ago, I decided to take Brazilian jiu-jitsu. And if you want to be humbled in your life, go do that. It doesn't matter how big and strong you are. It doesn't matter if you played football or whatever. It doesn't matter. Small people will humble you because they had the tenacity and the dedication to stick with something long enough to develop the technique that enables a smaller, less powerful person to defeat a bigger person. And so it applies in business as well. It applies to everything in life, you know. Do you— there's always a smoother, more efficient, better way if you'll just take the time, you know, the discipline to figure it out.
And, uh, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise and/or industry. And, um, you know, after you share that, if it's not this, if you could also share, because I'm also personally curious, a little bit about the 5-step process.
Well, the 5-step process, um, if you just do a search on my website for ABCDE. Okay. Okay. I'm a simple man. 5 steps in alphabetical order. Okay, you have to attract people to you. All right, that includes your website, includes your place of business, your trade show booth, whatever, your social media profile. Are you attracting them to you, and are you giving something that's attractive enough that they will trade their contact information so you know who they are? Then you can bond with them. Okay, and preferably, ideally, it needs to be multimedia, multi-step. If you have a Twitter follower, how do you get them to your YouTube channel, to your Instagram channel, to your website where they get a free report? So now you get their email address. Okay, multimedia. Then you have a multi-step process to bond with them, to nurture that relationship. That's when the conversion, the cash, the close comes in. Now, if you notice, the C is only the midway point. Most amateur salespeople— and most salespeople are amateurs— they think the sale is the goal. They take the money and run. Professionals know that's literally just the beginning of the real relationship. Okay. People get divorced all the time. So was the wedding the end goal, or was it a lifetime together? So now, do you deliver? Do you delight? Do you deliver a wow experience? Okay, that's how you prevent chargebacks and refunds, okay? By thinking past the sale. If you delight, if you deliver this wow experience then you'll endear yourself to the customer. Now you get referrals, testimonials, repeat business. And so now don't think of this as a funnel top to bottom or pipeline left to right. This is a circle, okay? How you attract impacts how you bond, how you convert, it impacts how you deliver, it impacts how you endear, which now impacts how you attract more business back to yourself.
Yes, thanks for sharing that. I love that. And what would be your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry-specific and maybe, it seems like you've accomplished a lot here, sales trainer, copywriter, like for somebody just getting started, like what would you tell them?
I think everyone overestimates what they can achieve in 1 year, but they underestimate what they can achieve in 3 to 5. Okay, so it doesn't mean you got to suffer and grind forever, but all these get-rich-quick schemes, you know, one in a million might, might be true. Okay, so, so do the right thing, do it often enough, uh, set good goals. Okay, Set realistic goals for the short term, set really big goals for the midterm. You know, 3 to 5 years isn't crazy. Okay. So most people, like I said, they overestimate what they can do in the short term. They underestimate their true potential.
And if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?
Invest more in yourself. You know, I doubted myself. I would, I'd make money, then I'd invest in somebody else's real estate program, or, you know, buying apartments with them, or oil, or whatever, instead of just plowing it back into myself. Invest in yourself.
And, uh, it kind of leads in perfectly. In your opinion, what is the key to happiness?
Um, judge yourself according to where you are compared to your younger self. Don't compare yourself to others. You know, there will always be somebody taller, faster, skinnier, stronger, smarter, richer. So as long as you compare yourself out there, you're gonna always find yourself lacking. And, um, if you compare yourself to yesterday or last year, if you've improved, then you're moving in the right direction.
And, uh, I'm excited for your answer on this one. Uh, what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?
Yeah, that's hard, man. I got a big library. I think right now I'm rereading it, and it's actually the, uh, Roy H. Williams in Austin wrote a trilogy, 3 different books on the Wizard of Oz, and they, they all of them help and they tie into one another. So go, go read his The Wizard of Ads trilogy.
The Wizard—
very easy to read. Yeah, they're very easy to read. They're a compilation of his Monday morning memo, and, um, it, uh, it'll change your view on sales and marketing, persuasion, advertising.
Got it. And I'm just, I'm just curious, like, what kind of started you off? And maybe you want to share another book. It's just out of my curiosity, like, what started you off in sales? Like, was there like an old-time like classic sales book that just like, like really got you into it? Or do you recommend like a book that's just on like sales? Or maybe you have your own book?
I've got my own book. Oh, cool. And yeah, it's— and that's a compilation. I kind of modeled it after Roy Williams, the compilation of the Weekly Whisper, 79 stories I put together. And so that's at 79stories.info.
Perfect.
But I can— early book, Tom Hopkins was really influential to me, and I had him on the sales podcast. He's a great dude. I was reading him 25 years ago when I was still in the Air Force. Another guy, oh, drawing a blank on his name, but the book is called Winning Through Intimidation, and it sounds harsh. And, um, and, and it's not as harsh as it sounds, but he's basically talking about how to negotiate from a position of strength. And you need to realize when you're talking with somebody, you know, you're either the dominant, you're the alpha in that engagement, or you're intimidated by them. Okay. And so he talks about how he positioned himself to win bigger deals. Uh, and it's very informative. It's an older book. The guy's still active though. I see him on social media. I want to say, I think his name was Ringer, Robert Ringer maybe, but you can maybe Google it. I'll put it on the notes, but it's Winning Through Intimidation.
Got it. Thank you for sharing that. The next one I have for you is, what is your favorite quote and why?
Suck it up, buttercup. I don't know who said that. Probably R. Lee Lemaire, whatever his name was, that drill sergeant on Full Metal Jacket. He just died. But, you know, on our inside of my academy ring, we got engraved, whatever it takes. It was a motto. Actually, the offensive line had that motto and I took it from them. You know, just get it done. I don't want to hear your excuses. You know, just get it done, whatever it takes.
Dude, thank you so much for coming on. Uh, the last question I have for you before we let you go is, where's the best place for people to find and connect with you online?
Just Google The Sales Whisperer. I'm everywhere. That's my URL, thesaleswhisperer.com. And, uh, I have Sales Whisperer on YouTube and Instagram and Twitter and LinkedIn. So you can find me.
Perfect, man. Thanks again for jumping on.
Hey, man, my pleasure.
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