Welcome to SALES with ASLAN, a weekly podcast hosted by ASLAN Co-founders Tom Stanfill and Tab Norris, geared at helping sales professionals and sales leaders eliminate the hard sell. At the end of the day, we believe that selling is serving. ASLAN helps sellers make the shift from a ‘typical’ sales approach, to one that makes us more influential because we embrace the truth that the customer’s receptivity is more important than your value prop or message.
The goal of these interviews is to spotlight various experts in the world of sales and sales leadership – sharing informational stories, techniques, and expert interviews on the sales topics you care about.
The following are notes from Ep. 126 – 22 Pro Tips for 2022
In this episode, Tom Stanfill, Tab Norris & Rob Houghtlin share 22 things to shout about in 2022. Hear what these sales veterans have to say about travel, food, music, relationships, and, of course, selling.
Listen to the conversation here:
Or check out the full transcript below:
Tom Stanfill
Welcome to another episode of SALES with ASLAN. I’m your host, Tom Stanfill with my sidekick and the best co-host in the podcast business. Mr. Tab Norris… how are you doing?
00:26
Tab Norris
Thank you, Tom. It’s always a pleasure. My friend. See your glorious face and hear that voice, the voice. All I can say.
00:34
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. Of a large, a huge, vast podcast audience. I think I got, I think I came in 33rd in the podcast voice and recent contest. That was just in the Southeastern part of Marietta where I’m from. So, I feel good about that going up the charge, but Hey, really excited about a guest that we have one of our new asthma nights. One of our superstars, Mr. Rob Houghtlin is joining us. He’s in the building. Everybody give a shout out to Rob Houghtlin.
01:04
Tab Norris
Yes, Rob. It’s really a disservice to our audience, Tom, that people can’t see his face. No, no. He is looking glorious.
01:12
Tom Stanfill
I think he may be. I know this might upset other people to have, but he may be the best dressed.
01:21
Tab Norris
He? You, he rivals you, but he’s more down the lane, outdressed you.
01:28
Tab Norris
Are you Tom? And that’s fair. Audience’s learning, man.
01:34
Rob Houghtlin
I do not have the Italian loafer selection that Mr. Stanfill does.
01:39
Tab Norris
You don’t go to the tight jeans as much as Mr. Stanfill.
01:43
Tom Stanfill
He has bigger ease, more muscular. Anyway, we probably are digressing, probably digressing. Probably. I probably need to say so. So a quick introduction of Rob. Okay. Let’s start back in college. It’s not going to be, let’s not go too far back, but college Rob was an All-American at Iowa, played a, he was kicker for the Iowa Hawkeyes. I think Rob, you won a big game. I mean, we could even Google you and things show up under. I was. So I think that’s pretty cool. You’ve been in sales since 1989 as a seller, a leader and a sales executive. I think the last organization, your, it was about what, about a hundred sellers in your organization and your last…
02:22
Rob Houghtlin
A hundred and twenty five.
02:24
Tom Stanfill
Okay. So lots of experience there. Excited to have you on the team and joining us in serving our customers, sharing all that wisdom and expertise that you’ve gleaned over the years. Tab, what’s the quick math on that to 2022 minus 89. How long has that been? A long time?
02:41
Tab Norris
37.
02:46
Rob Houghtlin
That was my college number.
02:49
Tab Norris
And the perfect number. Rob. I did not know that about you. You had mentioned Mantel’s number, how beautiful is that?
02:55
Tom Stanfill
Yeah, you and Mickey Mantle. Okay. My favorite Rob’s of his, all the cool things that he’s done in business is launching the ESPN magazine. I mean, think about that. I mean, I know that magazine. I remember what launched taking on sports illustrated. Rob, tell us a little, anything else you want to add to your hit, your experience and anything you can share with us about launching that magazine?
03:20
Rob Houghtlin
Yeah. Look, I was over at another American icon magazine life magazine at the time. Wow. A good friend of mine was one of the early creators of ESPN, the magazine Terry Wagner, who was at ABC sports at the time. Anyhow, long story short, I connected with John skipper who had the idea of launching ESPN, the magazine, and really a rocket ship, a story. I mean, you would have thought back in the late nineties that ESPN would have had a magazine pretty quickly because by then it was the consummate and the leader in sports, right. Which used to be ABC’s monitor that went over to the ESPN, which was owned by the same parent company Disney. To me, the funnest part about that, it was really a rocket ship. We borrowed, officially brought inside the company, 90 million from Disney to launch the magazine and we paid it back within the first year.
04:15
Rob Houghtlin
Wow. We took on Sports Illustrated because ESPN at the time had global reach, obviously the two networks at the time, soon to be three, now has more than you can count with a calculator. We had a really cool magazine because it appealed to a younger generation. Sports Illustrated, typically has been, has focused on an audience, 35 to 54 and older and still very well-respected in the marketplace today. We just had a super whole heck of a lot of fun. We were able to pull in a brand new audience and really focused on not only the humorous sports, but the inside backstory of sports as only ESPN can do. And people jumped on. We had a lot of fun with it.
05:00
Tom Stanfill
Wow. So how, what happened to that mag? It did it, didn’t it launched and did really well. It’s not a, is it still on the shelves?
05:10
Rob Houghtlin
Yeah, actually you can’t find ESPN the magazine anymore because you’d find ESPN anywhere. Your handheld device, your tablet, a magazine. I mean, at this point, if you look at, I mean, magazines are still going to have a place, I think in an immediate period, but because we have access to information in so many different ways, ESPN made the choice to you’ll see Sports Illustrated on the same thing. They just pivoted over to the digital space because of the depth of content you’ve. Now you’ve got sound, sight, and motion moving in, on your phones or on your tablet. So yeah, no longer with us. Unfortunately,
05:50
Tom Stanfill
I’m a big Tik Tok guy, so I’ve gone away from magazine. So, so I don’t know if you guys follow me on Tik Tok.
05:57
Tab Norris
No, don’t really know what that is but no.
Anyway, I’ve heard the term, I thought it was animal.
06:03
Tom Stanfill
No, it’s not. It’s not an animal. I’ll get you up to speed on that Tab. So… the topic for today. As you guys know our 22 tips for 2022. Let’s theme is, let’s make this your best year ever. What 22 tips can we share with you to help make that happen? We’re all going to go around and these aren’t just necessarily business. They may be the life tips, but we’ve been working on it. We, we all have a combined, gosh, what,
06:36
Tab Norris
160.
06:37
Tom Stanfill
Years, years of experience, I know a combined I’m talking combined,
06:42
Tab Norris
I started, when I was two, I was doing stuff, making things happen. So, you know, we got a lot of years.
06:52
Tom Stanfill
We probably do have close to a hundred years of experience in sales. What are some tips that we can share? We thought about this. We’re going to share 22 tips to help you in 2022. Tab, I’m going to, let’s lead off with you. I want to say, what do you want to go with? What’s your number one?
07:08
Tab Norris
Well, I’m not going to say this is number one, because you’ll.
07:10
Tom Stanfill
Always like.
07:12
Tab Norris
Something in the tank. It’s a good lead off. I think, I don’t know about you. My, my big, my tip here is the good reads app. Hey, I don’t know if you’ve used the Good Reads app, Go to your marketplace, download it. Because in sales, whether you’re in sales, you’re in leadership, we need to always bettering ourselves. We need to be constantly reading, learning, filling our brains with lots of knowledge. I don’t know if you’re like me, but I’m always looking when I get done with a book, I’m always looking for my next new book. I’ll have people say, like Robin said, Hey, you ought to read this book. And I’m like, yeah. I forget, so this good reads is awesome. Number one, you can get followers Facebook so I can see what Rob’s reading. Tom’s reading. I get great ideas of books. Plus every time I hear about a book I’ve loaded into want to read…
08:03
Tom Stanfill
I probably got 25 loaded up.
08:06
Tom Stanfill
We’re friends. We’re friends on Good Reads. We’ll try, just got on it because of his tip. If I’m we’re friends on good reads, I could see what you’re reading and then how you feel about what you’re reading it out. And I love that what Tab reads. So therefore I’m going to follow you. I don’t like what Rob reads. So I don’t, I won’t follow it. Not that’s true. Cool.
08:26
Tab Norris
You get people like I have one guy that, he’s my spiritual guy. Like I love his spiritual books. Like I have a history guy. I have a business guy. It’s really cool.
08:35
Tom Stanfill
Beautiful tip number one. Then, I want to add to that tip. Okay. I go away every year for a weekend and read, I stole that idea from Bill Gates. That’s kind of my time to cross everything off my list. I’m going to get away and read, and I get more creative in that weekend. And those are that. So kind of piggyback on your tip. Alright, tip number two, let’s go to Rob Houghtlin, our new guy. See what he has to say?
09:04
Rob Houghtlin
Yeah. I, you know, it’s touching. I was going, I was all over the map at the first point. It’s funny that Tab went to a Good Reads. I would suggest downloading the app called toodledo. I don’t know if there was an app that can help you manage your, got to get it done lists, right? So tasks then caught lists. Think: being able to prioritize your day, working through things. It’s very intuitive. It’s easy to use. It’ll hold on to what your list looks like. Cross stuff off. You can move it. You can adjust due dates. You can create folders, et cetera. You do have to pay for this app. I will say that I think it’s 4 99, but I will tell you this help keep your life organized. If it’s professional, if it’s personal, if you’re serving somewhere, you’re doing something, you can attach docs to certain things.
It’s just, it’s something that, I know we all probably operate in some way, shape or form inside of a CRM system that a company might be managing, but this is your own personal CRM.
10:06
Tom Stanfill
I love it. I love it. Okay. I’m going to check in. I need that. That’s a tip. Check it out. All right. I’m up next? I’m up next? Okay. Number three, tip number three. I learned this because of a recommendation you made Tab, and I forgot to look this guy up, so hopefully you can fill this up. Got it. Okay. I listened to a podcast about the number one storyteller in America, and he revolutionized the way that I tell a story. The best way to tell a story is to start off with your failure. So here’s what I was doing. Here’s how it didn’t work. Then I changed and then it worked. I have been applying that to my introductions when I’m giving, especially talks where I’m uncomfortable, like I’m doing a lot of virtual talks or presentations where I can’t see the audience and I can’t tell you how that’s changed, but I say, Hey, listen guys, I was doing this.
11:01
Tom Stanfill
And it was crap. I was crashing and burning. So I start off with a story. Use the last couple of stories I’ve told. I start off with a story about how I was trying to influence my wife and I was crashing and burning. The audience is drawn in by your failure. And they’re, you makes you more real. And then you share, okay. I learned something, which again is a humble thing, which draws your audience in. Here’s how it worked. And here’s what I did differently. It’s a way of teaching with, but connecting you at a peer level with your audience. I love that tip: So start off, when you start a story, because I think that’s the best way to start with how you fail, then how it, what you learned and then how it succeeded. That’s tip number three. Now Tab, who is that guy?
11:42
Tab Norris
That’s Mark… I’m going to, I don’t know. I’m not going to say this name, right… but Schuarenbroich.
S H A R E N B R O I C H. And I heard about him, Ryan Hawk has a great podcast called Learning Leader Show that I’m a big fan of, but it does lead me to my neck because it plays beautifully off this for tip number four in, from the same guy. I, I kinda it’s the tactical part of what you just said. He, he suggested creating a folder to track your stories, which seems pretty simple. But I like how he does this. Cause he, like you said, he always wants to have the story be unpredictable. He wants to have a hook, right? Have a think about your cast of characters and then think about a universal learning. The big takeaway from this for me was I always track my stories extremely self-centered. He says, I love other people’s stories and what we can draw and pull out of other people’s stories.
12:42
Tab Norris
I have a folder to where you start capturing not only your stories, but other people’s stories.
12:49
Tom Stanfill
I do that tab on my notes, on my phone. I’ve got a category categories, but what I haven’t been doing, like the last night I thought about this, my daughter leaves all the lights on in her house. Oh, this is a example of capturing other people’s stories. She leaves all the, it’s also an example of where I failed. He’s all the lights on in our house at her house. We go babysit I’m like, why does she do that? That’s just not smart. She’s wasting. Right. I didn’t, as we teach, take the trip. I took the trip and I realized, she goes, why I go, why did you, why don’t you turn all the lights on? What do you, cause it’s like, you’re wasting all this money, blah, blah, blah. It’s like kind of also, it’s just bad ambience. It’s just so bright. She goes because it fights depression.
13:31
Tom Stanfill
I had a, when I first got to college, I was depressed. I went through a period of depression. We moved to Houston. The darkness kind of taps me into. Keeping the lights on fire and my dad said the same thing last night. I wrote that under my “Take the Trips.” So. Great, great tip Rob. Number five.
13:53
Rob Houghtlin
Yeah. I I’m, I’m off of where you guys are. I, I I’m going to do, this is more of a self-reflection piece. I was thinking through how can you have an impact? To me, I think one of the tips can make 2022 great one for you as if you’re a seller, challenge yourself by serving with your customer in their giveback campaigns. Think about, so it could be like, let’s just take inspire group down the road from us here in Atlanta. Arby’s contributes food to the Midwest food bank will go down and serve the Midwest food bank with your customer. If you can…
14:30
Tab Norris
That’s a great one.
14:32
Rob Houghtlin
To me, it’s like, I mean, this is really like understand what’s beneath the philanthropic, because marketing pieces and they don’t do it because they want to market it. They do it because they want to give back to the communities and go join in and do that. You’ll be amazed at how you get a different perspective of the companies that you’re working with.
14:49
Tom Stanfill
I’d love to, I love to throw something in on the mark. Rob is don’t sell while you’re there. Don’t say anything about what you do while you’re there just serve. And I love that. That’s a great idea. I’m writing that one down to you guys or you guys are teaching me so much. All right. So I’m up, number six. I’m going to switch gears . How about a travel tip? Everybody knows I love travel. Okay. So I’m a big travel guy. You guys know, I love traveling. It’s probably my favorite thing to do so as, because we’re in sales and we all travel, we all compile points. Points for those of you that are selling a hundred percent virtually or have been an inside sales. Obviously, maybe this won’t help, but probably through credit cards or travel you’ve you’re pilot. You’re building up all these points. When you book a points trip, book the first night in the room that you want and pay for it, then book the last. Let’s say you’re going to go for seven nights. You booked the first night in the room. Book a first night in the suite, I did, I’ve done this. I’ve probably done this 15 times. It’s worked a hundred percent of the time you booked the first night in the best room suite.
15:56
Tom Stanfill
Maybe it costs 500 bucks, maybe 600 bucks. Booklet booked the number room that you really want to be in. Book the cheap room all with the points, the worst room with the points to in which may, they may not only give you the worst room with point, they will not move you. Hotels want to move you. They don’t want to say, oh, you got to, we’re going to have to move you out of the switch. They will keep you in that room that has worked for me 100% of the time for 15 years. That’s a little tip, a little travel,
16:24
Tab Norris
Gosh, man, that’s worth the…
16:27
Tom Stanfill
Artists go early or go early. It will cost you. You pay for one night, but it’s worth it. Like I booked the ocean front suite and the last hotel, which costs me of money. The rest of the time I stayed free in that same room.
16:42
Tab Norris
I love it. Alright, well, I’m gonna, we’ll keep this thing moving. That’s a good one. I’m going to come. I’m going to be a little, I’m going way right here. Crazy. I love to cook. I don’t know if anybody else likes to cook, but to me a good 2022 includes good meals.
Good little tips that have just been transformational, use more lemon or lime zest period. Find ways to use more lemon.
17:12
Tom Stanfill
I’m not sold Tab, tell me why. Tell me why.
17:15
Tab Norris
It’s such great flavor that you can throw in all kinds of things that I’ve never even thought about. So anyway, just a little tip.
17:23
Tom Stanfill
You said it. Cause I always see that in the recipe and I skip it.
17:26
Tab Norris
Oh, wait.
17:28
Tom Stanfill
Tab. Does it give it a little? All right. I’m going to try it. I’m gonna trust you Rob. Number eight. All.
17:38
Rob Houghtlin
Right. I’m going to stand a food thing would tab this is a, this is a life hack that my oldest daughter, she loves her red bull in the morning, but someone needs to get up and forget that it’s in the fridge or it’s maybe it’s in a pantry and it’s warm here. Here’s the life. Heck folks, go to your paper, towel rack, wet it down, wrap it around your can put it in the freezer. It’s going to be ice cold five minutes.
18:05
Tom Stanfill
Wow. Outta here.
18:07
Rob Houghtlin
Works. Try it. Life hack.
18:09
Tom Stanfill
I’m doing it. My.
18:11
Rob Houghtlin
Millennial daughter showed it to me and I didn’t believe it. I wrapped the Coke can and I’m telling you what it is. Money.
18:18
Tom Stanfill
Okay. Well, since we’re on the food train tabs got the zest. We got how to, how to quickly cool aluminum beverages.
18:29
Rob Houghtlin
Leave it at that.
18:32
Tom Stanfill
I’m done. I’m going to jump on the food train and we’ll keep the train going with my food chip tab. You’re going to absolutely love this because you’ve experienced it. Buy a little something for the table. Go to dinner, just buy something else for the table by the meal, by the entree that you weren’t sure you didn’t like the second place entree you weren’t sure life is short at the end of your life. You may have wasted a thousand dollars, but think of all the food and opportunity that you had to share to buy a little something for the table.
19:04
Tab Norris
Oh, that’s really good. That’s good. It wrong to stay in the same theme? Can I keep it running?
19:11
Tom Stanfill
I think if it’s a good tip, I think it.
19:13
Tab Norris
A good tip because I got it from you. I got it from you and I’m stealing it because I always travel for you guys to that travel for work or travel just for fun. I end up in a city all the time and I need a restaurant. I’m like, oh, I gotta, I gotta take a client out. Or I wanna, I’m looking for my place for my wife and I. What I always ended up doing is calling Tom, Hey, I’m in Houston. Where should I go eat? All of a sudden he has answer because he did tip my next tip. He in his phone, he keeps the list of restaurants that he really likes in every city that he visits. He now has a nice database. I’m now building my own database. So I highly recommend it.
19:55
Tom Stanfill
I, you know what? I need to send you my database tab and you could, we could share here. I probably.
20:03
Rob Houghtlin
Tik TOK top.
20:04
Tom Stanfill
Cause it’s funny. We need to publish that list tab because I have now been in 49 states. I’m one shy.
20:12
Tab Norris
Same.
20:12
Tom Stanfill
Here. Every time I go. Exactly. Right. I keep up with restaurants. I hate trying to find a restaurant at last minute, Rob and I went to one dish, made our list and Minneapolis Rob our first restaurant together. I forgot the name of it. Rob, can we give a shout out for that restaurant? It was show, I wish.
20:27
Rob Houghtlin
I could.
20:27
Tom Stanfill
Remember. I remember it, but anyway, it’s on my list,
20:30
Tab Norris
If we had it on the list, we wouldn’t even be saying,
20:34
Tom Stanfill
Yeah, it’s a chip. Okay. We’ll publish that one day. Perfect. Rob number 11, number of summit,
20:41
Rob Houghtlin
I’m going to pull away from the food thing. Cause I know.
20:43
Tom Stanfill
We’re pulling away.
20:45
Rob Houghtlin
I don’t want to do that. I’m sure we’ve got some folks that are listening to what we’re talking about today that have kids, right? This is a tip that my wife actually came up with years and years and years ago, she would pay our kids to remember their classmates names. She’d give them a dime or a quarter, depending upon how old they were first couple of days of school and then she’d quiz them. What’s incredible is looking now post this exercise that I would establish some other centered perspective in my kids of looking at others, being at the lunch room, being in class, be it in a professional environment, being a church, being at a social setting, the other centered mindset because my wife had established a reward system for them to be.
21:35
Tab Norris
Yeah.
21:37
Tom Stanfill
By teaching them to do that, then they saw the benefit of it. They start to experience. That’s beautiful.
21:43
Tab Norris
Yeah. That’s a life skill and that’s a great thing to learn. People’s names forevermore.
21:48
Tom Stanfill
I’m going to almost stay on the serious train now. Okay. I think it was four years ago. I would have been, I think 50, I think I was 56, I guess. Not exactly sure exactly the date. I got a mentor and I was shocked. I know you guys aren’t gonna believe this, but I was shocked to find out how much I didn’t know about myself and about business and about things that are gonna make my life more effective. My tip, if you don’t have a mentor, find a mentor, you don’t know what you don’t know. If you find somebody or invite somebody in to, we all listen to people and we read books and podcasts and I thought, that’s kinda my way of learning and just kinda through life. Until somebody can challenge your thinking related to a situation or you trust them enough to reveal blind spots that you don’t know you have.
22:43
Tom Stanfill
And, and you say, Hey, I’m going to go do this. And they’re like, I wouldn’t do that. You’re like why? They give it, they feed it back to you and they tell you something different. It’s like, it’s just opened up a whole new world for me. So highly recommend get a mentor. I, I know that’s a common term, but, and people talk about it, but I would give it anything. If I would have done this, my entire I’ve had a mentor, my entire business career. By the way, the, one of the things I’ve noticed about people that are super successful is they get a mentor early. Almost every time I meet somebody that is really successful. I go, so you can see, they went to work for somebody that was a mentor. They pursued, they had a mentor. They had, let me show you how this works.
23:22
Tom Stanfill
And then they just take that formula. I was the guy that was like, I’ll figure it out myself. I can figure it out. Stupid idea. So find a mentor.
23:30
Tab Norris
Number.
23:31
Tom Stanfill
13.
23:32
Tab Norris
All right. 13. This is another little thing for my it’s. It’s a little technology deal. Not earth shattering, but has been life-changing for me last year. I’ve tipped for 20, 22 is get the app. Good notes.
23:48
Tom Stanfill
Oh yeah. I.
23:49
Tab Norris
Made this transition and I know Rob, you made this transition to, I I’ve, I’m a writer. I love writing. Tom, once again, I think I saw Tom had this and I saw a couple of other people, had it and made the plunge to where now I’ve got an iPad where I can get the pin, the apple pen. I have a, now I have, I can write on my iPad and it tracks everything. It’s just been, life-changing like I would use, like I have all my clients, I have a folder for each client. If I know exactly where to go to find what my last conversation was, I now have, I have everything. I have, anything like movie ideas. I’m always looking for movie ideas. I’m just, I’ve got all these little folders and it just works because I always have my iPad with me. I can constantly fill it in and it’s just gotten me,
24:39
Tom Stanfill
Oregon.
24:40
Tab Norris
It’s like writing and I don’t like to type, I just, I don’t want to sit and type. I like to write it even lets me doodle. For people who know me, I’m a doodler.
24:49
Tom Stanfill
He was a doodler and tab. You’re good at doodling. You know, you’re good at doodling.
24:53
Tab Norris
I am. I, I hate to brag.
24:55
Tom Stanfill
I love that. Go. Yeah, go paperless. You can share those notes if you want to send, like if I go in a meeting and Rob wasn’t there and I want to send him my notes, I can just email it to him. I don’t have to.
25:08
Tab Norris
That’s what I used to do. I’d write it on my little pad. I go back to my computer on the plane and I’d type it. I’m like, why am I doing this as a way?
25:14
Tom Stanfill
Beautiful. Beautiful. All right. I love that. Number 14, Rob.
25:18
Rob Houghtlin
Yeah. I, I’ve got, this is relation to that might get a little more serious. I, and I was thinking through this as if you were talking about getting ready for this discussion guys, and this just kept coming back out, I’m going to challenge us all to do this. Give your time or your talent or your money anonymously somewhere. You’ll be amazed at how it would give you a joy jolted, joy better than any red bull or mountain Dew or double express all the year. You ever have. You want an example? What that looks like if you live in upstate New York right now, I bet there’s a driver that needs there. There’s a neighbor that needs their snow blow their driveway snowboard. Right? Don’t do it. Just go do it.
26:02
Tom Stanfill
I love that and do it.
26:04
Rob Houghtlin
And do it anonymously.
26:06
Tom Stanfill
We had just a quick question. If I do it anonymously, will I still get credit?
26:10
Rob Houghtlin
Nope. That’s the whole point. You’ll change you in ways and I’m not going to tell you how it’s to change it, but it’ll change it.
26:19
Tom Stanfill
Don’t tell anybody. Don’t tell anybody.
26:21
Rob Houghtlin
Don’t tell anybody.
26:22
Tom Stanfill
I honestly don’t. Can I tell my wife at least,
26:26
Rob Houghtlin
I guess you could.
26:29
Tom Stanfill
Let her.
26:30
Tab Norris
Find out. She’ll have.
26:31
Rob Houghtlin
Feats the purpose. I think though, top,
26:33
Tom Stanfill
I love that. I love that, Rob. Actually, I’ve never thought about, I mean, you kind of hear about that, but I’ve never made that a 20, like a resolution I’m going to do what a quarter or whatever it is. I love that.
26:46
Tab Norris
My neighbor does that. I see him do it all the time and it’s, I’m like, what’s wrong with him? He just start mowing somebody’s grass and he’ll just go pull down it, start getting a tree fixed. Cause he knows it’s an elderly lady and he doesn’t talk about it. Nobody says anything. It’s amazing.
27:02
Tom Stanfill
I love it. All right. I’m up next? A number 15. Okay. So. This is something I started doing probably I guess maybe tablet we started as a, about 27 years ago is writing down your principles. You think about the areas of your life, that you really care about where your parent, the spouse leader, a seller, what are the principles that drive success? These are the laws like one of them had Azlan we talk about is change. Doesn’t happen in a workshop. Change happens. One-to-one that’s a law. You dramatic change and you don’t just go to a workshop for a couple hours or a day. All of a sudden come out, you’re dramatically different. You, you now you may have become aware of things you might kind of, but dramatic change happens by getting a mentor by having a coach. And every athlete knows that. And people that are successful know that.
27:55
Tom Stanfill
What are the principles in your, in the areas that you care about, especially related to your customers? It’s kind of, if then if you do this, then this will happen. Define those, even label them. I’ll tell you what will happen when you do that. People will listen to you. One, you’ll be more clear when you communicate. And also people will listen to you. One of the reasons it’s set the decision makers, don’t listen to sales reps because they have nothing to say. The decision makers typically kind of say, Hey, talk to somebody else, evaluate it because they don’t want to talk to a seller. When a seller understands the principles and they know how to direct and lead the customer, then a people listen and they follow. So define your principles.
28:37
Tab Norris
Good.
28:39
Tom Stanfill
All right. Tab number six.
28:40
Tab Norris
All right. I’m going to lighten it up real quick light. When we got to shake them up . I like golf.
28:48
Tom Stanfill
Oh,
28:48
Tab Norris
I’m not, I’m not good at it, but I like it. I argue with them. I like Bal. Thank you. I appreciate it. But, but for any of you, if you like golf, great, if you don’t get any outdoor activity, this is your tip. Bring music into your outdoor activities, such as golf at bring. This happened to me last year. I’m just sitting here. Someone said, Hey, do you mind if I play some music while we hook it up on the card? I’m like, what? I’m focused. I’m concentrating. I can’t do. I mean, it was life-changing on the golf course. It was so fun. It got everybody relaxed. We got a little classic. We got music playing on the golf course.
29:26
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. I think that’s a great tip just period. I think it, especially the busier we get and the harder we work and the older we get, we forget about music because it’s kind of, we’re in this. We get in this task mode and music is in a completely different part of our, like, we took a trip to, I don’t even know how to say, do South Carolina,
29:46
Tab Norris
French.
29:55
Tom Stanfill
It is like I was in this complete task mode and I’m thinking about getting stuff done. I’m not interested in music. We cranked up music and blasted it for what five hours and how to laugh. But yeah, I love that. Listen to music, listen to it.
30:09
Tab Norris
More music for 2022, just listen to all the makes you do.
30:13
Tom Stanfill
I can start with the Doobie brothers and maybe try gummy bears, but just not the kind with this, you see just at the CBD oil. So, okay. Rob number 17.
30:24
Rob Houghtlin
Yeah. I’m going to, I’m going to stand the light theme. And, and I, this was, yesterday Tom had these brand new kicks on and I said, Hey, you’re actually hip and cool. Your, your kids and.
30:36
Tom Stanfill
Shoes that are over 50.
30:39
Rob Houghtlin
Yes. And, and I said, where’d you get those? He tells me this story, he didn’t want to pay full price. He was going to buy something else and he got a discount. You find that bottom. I said, well, there’s an easy way to do this is how that I said, instead of Google price, track, Thompson said, yeah. If you’re shopping for something, go on to Google, hit the shopping tab when you’re looking and price track it. It’ll send you alerts when the item you want hits X price.
31:13
Tom Stanfill
Let’s say I find something I want to buy. I set a Google alert and tell me if it, if I can find it for X dollars a watch, anything,
31:23
Rob Houghtlin
Anything that you can shop for online through when you’re searching, I Google price, track, boom. You plug the price in and it’ll send you to learn new things. Same thing with airline flights, you can do all that stuff so that you’re not having to sit down at, at the end of the day saying, okay, we’re really looking to try and go on a vacation. What’s it going to cost us? I got to look at, what? Let let,
31:47
Tom Stanfill
I love it. I love it. Okay. I got to say, I’ve got a specific sales tip and actually this actually could work in your personal life as well. I call it the eye test. Okay. You’re trying to narrow people down into what they care about, I call it the eye test. Do you remember how the eye doctor says, when you take the eye test, they say, which one’s clearer, this one or this one. And they keep comparing to two things. You can choose between the two things. They make it real, this one or this one. You’re asking the customer to narrow in on what’s important to them, their decision drivers, do the eye test. Is it price? Or is it, this is it is our global capabilities or is it this? If you continue the eye test, you’re going to be able to narrow in and help them figure out what’s important.
32:29
Tom Stanfill
It’s like you think about you’re going on a vacation. Someone says, wants to help you. You’ve got a friend maybe in the travel business and they want to help you. You say, they say, do you want to do? And it’s like, I don’t know. I want to stay close to the beach. I want to stay in a nice place and I want to be in a town. I don’t know. You don’t really know, you just have all of these things. Well, if they can help you narrow in and figure out what’s important, you just, well, is it this or this? If you continue to use the eye test to filter through the customer’s decision drivers, you can narrow in on what really is most important. Don’t have to guess. So it’s a real simple tip.
33:04
Tab Norris
I love that. Love that.
33:06
Tom Stanfill
Yep. All right. Task number.
33:10
Tab Norris
Nine is my grand finale.
33:11
Tom Stanfill
Wait, you can’t have really done 19. I don’t know if that.
33:14
Tab Norris
This is number seven for me. So I don’t know what’s going on. Somebody else.
33:17
Tom Stanfill
Dropping the ball. That’s true. I guess that’s true.
33:20
Tab Norris
So here it is. I’m finishing with one that’s, I’m all about balance in life to be a great salesperson, to be a great sales leader, to be a great husband, great father. I think we need balance in our life. And, and so my last tip is I’m going to challenge everybody to get out of your comfort zone, physically this.
33:45
Tom Stanfill
Year, get.
33:46
Tab Norris
Out of the comfort zone. You have a comfort zone, physically get out of it, stretch yourself, put a goal out there. It frees the mind. It gives you something to strive for. I think it makes us better human beings. I think it’ll make us better in everything we do. For me, I’ve committed to something that’s way out of my comfort zone. I have signed up to do the grand canyon rim to rim in one day, over 45 miles within one day of walking, hiking, running, and surviving. So we’ll see if I live. If I do, that’s a great tip. If I die, maybe not.
34:22
Tom Stanfill
That’s still a check-in so rim to.
34:25
Tab Norris
Rim, to rim.
34:27
Tom Stanfill
So you go down the cliff, go.
34:30
Tab Norris
Seven miles down, seven miles across seven.
34:33
Tom Stanfill
Miles up, and then come back,
34:36
Tab Norris
Take about 18 hours.
34:37
Tom Stanfill
That doesn’t sound too tough. You are doing it on a, like a motorcycle or a donkey or something, right? Or your.
34:42
Tab Norris
All your feet.
34:44
Rob Houghtlin
You did, Debbie. You didn’t tell him he’s time. You’re curing.
34:49
Tom Stanfill
That’s sounds impossible. Honestly, that sounds impossible. But.
34:52
Tab Norris
Think about stretching ourselves.
34:54
Tom Stanfill
I love it. I love it. That’s a great tip, Rob. Number 20.
34:58
Rob Houghtlin
Yeah. I, I it’s interesting that’s where you went to me, the tip for 2022 along tabs lines that are, is talking about getting out of your physical comfort zone. I would challenge everybody to do this, to set a physical health, a mental health and a spiritual health goal. Okay. Maybe you do it once a month, whatever that looks like. So what does that look like? I mean, maybe you say, Hey, look like my son-in-law is doing his own challenge and my daughter a hundred pushups a day. That’s, so that’s a physical one. They’re going to spend 10 minutes scheduled daily, reflect on your stressors. That’s stressing you out, right? That’s the, that’s the mental, emotional health side of things. Last but not least the spiritual health goal. So what does that look like? All right. The first month they’ve got their physical goal. Now they’ve got their emotional or mental goal.
35:53
Rob Houghtlin
There’s their spiritual goal is I’m going to read a proverb a day. There’s 31, Proverbs 31 days in a month. Boom, read it properly, put this goal in your phone, in toodledoo in good notes, wherever it might be. You’ll be amazed at when you get to the end of 20, 22 and you look back and you’d be like, wow, I accomplished a whole lot physically, emotionally and mentally and spiritually. Yeah.
36:17
Tom Stanfill
That’s a great tip. Rob love that. Love that. That’s a, that’s a good principle for life. Okay. I’m going to share a really simple tip that I think has more impact in your ability to influence than almost anything you can do. It’s like the simplest thing you can do to make you a better communicator. Think about a situation where it’s really, you’re about to say something super important, or you really struggled to get somebody’s attention. Like you need to like, you need them to listen to you, or it’s like the most important aspect or point you want to make in any conversation or presentation begin with these two words because you, if you can begin with those two words because you, what will follow next we’ll guarantee to get the person’s attention and draw them to your point, or it will tell you don’t, you don’t know how to deliver your point.
37:10
Tom Stanfill
If you can begin with, because you care about, or because you said, or because this is what you’re doing, or because you know that what you’re about to say is completely connected to them. Also by starting with them, it draws into point. If you show a picture of someone, they will always look at it. If I hold up a picture of someone I’m talking to 100% of the time, they will look at a picture of themselves. If you could start the sentence with, because you now, whether you use those words or not, it doesn’t really matter. What’s matters is as you say, something related to, because you had taught you describe them. That is my simple little tip for communicating an important.
37:47
Tab Norris
Time. That brings us that’s number 21. That.
37:50
Tom Stanfill
Is number 21.
37:51
Tab Norris
We have one bonus tip.
37:54
Tom Stanfill
We have a bonus.
37:55
Rob Houghtlin
Yeah. I mean, 22 would be 23 for 22, right on this would be 23. Wouldn’t it.
37:59
Tab Norris
Jim saying a bonus from the seven each. We got up a bonus on top of,
38:05
Tom Stanfill
Okay. Rob has an eight. Okay. Rob has one more and I have one more tab and you’re going to be the tiebreaker.
38:11
Tab Norris
Okay.
38:13
Tom Stanfill
I’ll, since I got the mic, we’ll go with Flint. Since I just shared one, let’s let, Rob you share the last tip and then I’ll share the last tip and the tab you choose. Okay.
38:22
Rob Houghtlin
All right. I would say this I, along those lines, you talking about because of you, my last tip of it of 2022, how do you say that on January? What is it? The 18th, 19th. Anyways, ask a colleague for feedback on a prompt on a project and promise not to respond to them. Ask for feedback, saying, look, I need some feedback on whatever it might be and I’m not going to respond. I just want, I just want you to give me the feedback. You’ll be amazed. You’ll at the outcome of that because they know that they’re not gonna hear anything back. You’re going to get candor and honesty that you probably haven’t heard before. Knowing that you won’t be defensive about that feedback. People are free to give it all to you.
39:11
Tom Stanfill
That’s a great tip. I know that’s going to be a hard one.
39:13
Tab Norris
To.
39:17
Rob Houghtlin
I promise not to respond.
39:19
Tom Stanfill
I love this can be a hard one to beat. All right. My bonus tip for the, the job to be the number 22, spend an entire day, just listening to people. It kind of aligns with what Rob said, but it will help you see how much you talk versus how much you listen or your struggle to listen. If all you do all day long for an entire day is every time somebody talks, you listen and then acknowledge and validate what they said. You can ask a question, but you don’t share your point of view or your opinion. It just the whole entire day with your spouse says something. You go, that’s great. Tell me more. Or you validate what they say. If you’re with the customer, don’t share anything about your product or service or solution. You just feed you just acknowledge and ask another question, do that for entire day.
40:11
Tom Stanfill
You will see for the, maybe for the first time, how well you actually can drive a conversation by listening and just staying in the discovery mode.
40:21
Tab Norris
Well, here’s the answer. It’s a combination of the two, because you’re going to spin an entire day. In that day, you’re going to ask for feedback that you’re not going to respond to because you can’t, you’ve already committed to,
40:35
Tom Stanfill
I can’t believe that’s perfect.
40:38
Tab Norris
Unbelievable.
40:40
Tom Stanfill
22 chips for 2022. I hope it helped everybody.
40:43
Tab Norris
Yes.
40:44
Tom Stanfill
Any parting comments, guys, anything else you want to leave us with?
40:47
Tab Norris
I’m leaving a better person. I can tell you that I got good tips from you guys. I hope everybody else.
40:52
Tom Stanfill
I wrote down. I wrote down all these guys. Good to see ya Rob. Welcome to ASLAN, so glad you joined us on the podcast. Look, I’m enjoying working with you and I hope our people on this podcast will meet you soon. Guys, thank you for another great episode. If you enjoy the podcast, leave us comments like us, let us know what we can do better or what you’d like us to talk about. The more feedback you give, the better we can serve you. Thanks again.
