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. 167 – Plan to Crush 2023 – Part 4
In this episode, Tom and Tab continue this series by discussing the three most important and surprising things you need to know in order to succeed in 2023 – including one of the greatest barriers to success in sales: how to “break through the noise.”
Listen to the conversation here:
Or check out the full transcript:
00:13
Tom Stanfill
Tab, welcome back to the studio. And another episode. Tab, do this is our number 167th episode of SALES with ASLAN.
00:24
Tab Norris
Didn’t know that was like a benchmark. Well, we celebrate, everyone.
00:28
Tom Stanfill
Celebrated what? Happy anniversary.
00:30
Tab Norris
Happy anniversary.
00:34
Tom Stanfill
I guess it’s not really a special number. I’m just looking at it. I’m like that’s. A lot of episodes. I was listening to a podcast, by the way. Plugging a podcast. Dadville, if you listen to Dadville.
00:43
Tab Norris
No, I’ll put it on my list.
00:46
Tom Stanfill
Dave Barnes and another famous singer, whose name escapes me. They have a podcast called Dadville, which I think they basically just banter about being a dad. But they’re very entertaining. They’re very entertaining. I’m listening to it. They were talking about getting past their 100th episode. I’m like that’s nothing.
01:05
Tab Norris
Hundred? We’re at 167.
01:07
Tom Stanfill
- Maybe that was why in the back of my mind. But, Tab, here’s what we’re going to talk about today. Because you are the greatest host in America, I think we decided it’s “greatest co host in America.”
01:20
Tab Norris
Not going to argue. I’m not going to argue.
01:21
Tom Stanfill
Not Canada. There is some competition in Canada, but in America, you’re the greatest co host. We already know what an amazing facilitator and human you are. But let’s not go down that road. We’re talking we’re staying in this series. As were prepping for the show. I think we’re just going to stick with this series of how do we crush our number in 2023? By getting back to the basics. Tab back to the basics. We got to go back to, like this is nothing fancy, right?
01:52
Tab Norris
Is going to say the same thing. Just blocking and tackling basics.
01:56
Tom Stanfill
If you hate sports analogies, this is where going back to the main chords. If you like music, I don’t know what that is.
02:03
Tab Norris
Back to the clay for my potters.
02:08
Tom Stanfill
Back to the clay. We’re going to do a bowl. We’re going back to doing a bowl. If you’re a painter, we’re just going to do a pasture. Okay. Maybe trees, maybe a hand. I don’t know. I’m not a painter.
02:22
Tab Norris
This is my theme this year. And everything is simplify, simplify.
02:25
Tom Stanfill
If you’re a chef, tab, we’re going to talk about making the perfect omelet. Getting back to the basics. We’re going to unpack, I think, the biggest challenge are you ready? The biggest challenge in selling that we face right now. There’s a lot of different ways to talk about it. I think this really is the number one challenge. And you ready?
02:49
Tab Norris
Yeah. Drumroll.
02:50
Tom Stanfill
I want to give it to you in one word. Noise.
02:54
Tab Norris
That’s rich.
02:55
Tom Stanfill
There is so much noise. I looked at my phone today, and I have 150 unanswered text.
03:07
Tab Norris
Oh, gosh, that’s bad.
03:08
Tom Stanfill
I have 300 no, 3758. 3782 unread emails.
03:19
Tab Norris
I believe that I’m a recipient of that.
03:23
Tom Stanfill
I mean, I don’t even look at those numbers anymore because it’s just not possible. Everybody is just over freaking whelmed with LinkedIn text, email, and the pace, because you can get information. If somebody says I need something, they know you could actually send it to them in a minute. The fact that you’re going to write it out, you’re going to print a label, you’re going to mail it, and they’re going to get all this stuff that used to happen. The pace that we operate right now, the amount of information I heard the other day, we are consuming 10,000 or we get 10,000 messages a day, some way, shape, or form. In this economy where we’re overwhelmed with information, there’s a scarcity of attention. Not only does the amount of information, I think, become a huge barrier just from how do we break through the noise, the amount of information that’s available to customers makes the seller less valuable.
04:23
Tom Stanfill
Why do I need to talk to somebody when everything I need is available to me? This information, this noise is, I think, one of the greatest barriers that we all face when we’re trying to get people’s attention. We’re trying to sell, and we’re trying to get more meetings. We’re trying to here’s another thing that happens. If somebody reaches out to you, they’re probably reaching out to eight people, and then they get barraged by those people. What happens is, because the noise is so great, what do we do? We do more. We don’t do it better. We do more. We say, okay, it’s hard to get people’s attention. Let’s what we’re doing, we’re going to send ten emails, we just jack it up. Well, we got to keep doing more. We’re all doing more, which makes the people on the other end get more resistant. They hide more.
05:14
Tom Stanfill
We try to do more, which actually backfires the doing more creates more resistance. Again, not again, but I want to say, I’m not suggesting that we don’t have a cadence where we have to reach out more than three times, for example. I do think the answer, the problem with our solution is we got to change what we’re doing. And it starts with understanding tab. Are you ready? We’re going to nerd out . It starts with understanding the part of your brain. I bet what part of the brain I’m going to refer to.
05:47
Tab Norris
I’m going to go with the vortex.
05:51
Tom Stanfill
Vortex?
05:52
Tab Norris
Don’t we have a vortex?
05:54
Tom Stanfill
No, there’s no vortex.
05:55
Tab Norris
We get lost in the vortex.
05:58
Tom Stanfill
Okay, I know did not go to you. When we’re going to focus on neuroscience.
06:03
Tab Norris
That’s not my specialty. I’m much better with artery. You’re not talking about the raz, are you? A particular activating system.
06:12
Tom Stanfill
So, as I’ve been writing and talking a lot about the raz for years now, but I think now it’s more important than ever to understand the raz. Okay. The Raz stands for the reticular activating system. The Raz is a part of your brain. It’s at the base of your brain and its goal and has other goals. The main goal of the Raz is to act as a filter to sift through all the information we get on a daily basis, an hourly basis, a minutely basis, because we can’t sift through the thousands of messages. So, like, you think about you drive to work or you drive somewhere like you left to go to the airport tomorrow, you wouldn’t notice 98% of the information that’s thrown at you because your Raz just filters it through and then all of a sudden something will catch your attention and you’re not sure how it happens.
07:02
Tom Stanfill
It catches your attention and all of a sudden you’re like you notice it. Like all of a sudden you notice an SUV. Well, that’s because you decided you were in the market for an SUV or you noticed a billboard. All of a sudden you noticed one. Well, you didn’t tell your brain, hey, by the way, when we drive today to the airport, make sure you find no, your Raz works on your behalf to tap you on the shoulder and say, you should pay attention to this because we can’t operate by noticing everything. We would never get anything done. So we ignore most information. Otherwise we couldn’t function. We have these this built in belief. It’s like I was sitting in a lobby. You’re going to find this story, I think, interesting to have because me, I was sitting in a lobby working on an RFP response to an RFP, and the television was blaring.
07:52
Tom Stanfill
I was traveling with my wife, Claire, so she was asleep. I go down early, sit in the lobby, television blaring, but I just tuned it out and I just typed away on my RFP because I was trying to get it done before were visiting our daughter in college and I was trying to get it done before Claire got up. And were going to meet Tendul. And I didn’t notice one commercial. Not one thing was said for an hour and a half. All of a sudden a commercial came on about flat tires.
08:18
Tab Norris
Really?
08:19
Tom Stanfill
Yeah, flat tires. It’s like if you’ve got a problem with flat tires and I’m like, we.
08:27
Tab Norris
Got spray on tire fixed.
08:29
Tom Stanfill
It was something like that. It was something. It was either about the tire or something you could put or plug a tire. I don’t remember because it was many years ago. The point is I went from ignoring every single commercial. Everything that was said on television, I completely blocked it out. My Raz tapped me on the show and said, you need to listen to this commercial. It wasn’t like I all of a sudden stopped working on the RP and looked up and all of a sudden, I caught the personal no. I turned and started watching television. I had six flat tires in the last two years.
09:05
Tab Norris
Wow. Is that for you? Hitting curbs?
09:07
Tom Stanfill
Well, I got that new it’s the first time I really bought a cool car, literally in my life, was the first time I went to the dealership. I wanted to buy an Audi. This is 2000 and gosh, what was this, 2010, or eleven or twelve or something like that? I really am like, I’m going to buy I want to buy a used Audi. I’m going to go to the Audi dealer and I’m going to drive the Audi’s there. I’ll go look for a used one, which is what I always do. I could easily go to the dealer and check it out. Well, I go to the dealership and they let me drive a new Audi.
09:41
Tab Norris
You ended up buying a brand new one.
09:43
Tom Stanfill
I was like, I’m going to buy that car.
09:47
Tab Norris
Point.
09:48
Tom Stanfill
It was the first time I had these low profile tires.
09:50
Tab Norris
Oh, yeah. They’re just like fragile and brittle.
09:53
Tom Stanfill
Fragile. I literally would pop that tire every six times.
09:58
Tab Norris
Literally.
09:59
Tom Stanfill
I mean, I’m on the side of the road, and this is back when you rode it doesn’t matter. Point is, I had six flat tires.
10:04
Tab Norris
So it cuts through all the noise. You got all this noise going on. Because you care about that, you have a perceived need for that without you thinking about it. That’s what’s so powerful. It’s subconscious you instantly it cuts through it.
10:18
Tom Stanfill
You can’t help noticing the things that the Raz tells you to notice. The Raz is in control of what you notice in a sea of information. If you walk down Broadway and there’s thousands of signs and you can’t help no, you can’t. Like, you don’t have the time to go through every single message. You just walk. The ras will tell you to see things. Like if a bear jumped out, you would see it because you’re like, a bear does not belong in Times Square. That’s right. That’s beautiful. I love that. Yeah. Here’s the whole point of bringing this up. If the filter the Raz uses to bring things from our subconscious to our conscious, we can follow those rules to make sure our email, our messages get noticed. If we understand how the Raz works, I can guarantee you that your message will get read.
11:14
Tab Norris
That’s huge. Think about all the sales people we talk to all the time. I was just with a new client yesterday on a prep, talking to a whole bunch of salespeople. Like their biggest challenges. And what do they all say? God, they just got so much information busy, and I can’t get a meeting and I can’t do this and I can’t do that. This is right at the heart of where a lot of salespeople live.
11:37
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. Even if it’s somebody you already have a relationship with, you get ghosted and things happen, and you can’t get people’s attention because they’re overwhelmed. I mean, literally, people are just overwhelmed. It’s like, as soon as we get off this podcast, we’re going to go to back to our email. We’re going to have texts come in. We’re going to have phone calls come in. Maybe not phone calls, but I still get voicemail. We’re going to have email. It’s just all going to come in. Then we’re going to try it. We’re going to sift through really fast, and then we’re just going to behind. It’s just if you travel, I mean, everybody’s got the same problem, right? Here’s the first thing we need to know. We need to know the criteria the Raz uses to determine what moves from our subconscious brain. The billboards you notice and the billboards you don’t notice, what gets through the subconscious brain to the conscious brain.
12:27
Tom Stanfill
If we understand the filter and the criteria the filter uses to let information in, then we know how to craft our messages. And here’s what it doesn’t care about. It doesn’t care about what the seller cares about. Okay? Yeah. Loraz does not care about your products. It might, but here’s the two things it does care about. It cares about something you need or something you don’t understand.
12:53
Tab Norris
That means that the people we’re trying to connect with, that’s the only way we’re going to get through to them is it’s something they care about.
13:04
Tom Stanfill
Something they already care about. If I’m in the market for a.
13:09
Tab Norris
Car you already care about that you.
13:12
Tom Stanfill
Care about that you will see cars that fit that you just can’t help it. Your Raz will know, which is crazy when you think about it. Your Raz will go see that car and you’re like, yeah, like the day before, you didn’t even notice that car. Something you need something that’s important to you and something you don’t understand, something that breaks the flow, something that’s out of normal, because that’s the bear.
13:34
Tab Norris
Like a bear, like, out of the ordinary. I remember what I saw one time in the airport. They had an elephant on a surfboard for a Cincher. It was an ad, and I was just waiting for people. That didn’t make any sense. That’s weird. What’s up with that? So that’s your point.
13:50
Tom Stanfill
They understand. The ad agency knows that works. I saw that same billboard. Yeah, elephant surfing. You’re like. Wait. Elephant. Your brain goes, elephant surf. Pay attention to that, right? Anything out of the ordinary, like you notice it.
14:05
Tab Norris
Here’s the thing, all right?
14:08
Tom Stanfill
There’s three to activate the Raz and to make sure that our messages cut through the noise and it moves them to action, right? It’s one thing to get noticed we’re talking about get noticed and also get people to act. We need to know three things, and then we can leverage these three things to activate the Raz, get more meetings, get attention, and break through the noise. Excellent. Number one thing is we need to know our personas, that we serve their point of view. So you serve certain people. If you’re in sales, I’m in sales, you’re in sales. I’m assuming anybody we’re talking to is in sales. You look at your audience and you’ve got to break them down into personas specific enough to where you can think through what is their point of view. In other words, what do they care about, what do they think?
15:00
Tom Stanfill
Because if you can say the key to getting somebody’s attention is to show them a picture of themselves, not a picture of you. If you can show a picture if I hold up a picture and I say, here’s a picture and you’re in it, they will look at it 100% of the time. What we do in sales is we show a picture of us, look at.
15:21
Tab Norris
Our shiny great stuff, look how great we look. They’re like, I don’t really care about you.
15:26
Tom Stanfill
What do you all I have is pictures of me. I’m going to show you a picture. Are you looking for pictures of me? No. If we want to get their attention, 100% of the time, we’ll get their attention if we show them a picture of them. In other words, we talk about what they care about. We talk about their beliefs, their biases. We talk about what they need, what problems do they have, what we describe their emotional state, for example, like a need I have, a problem I have in running a small business is we have a problem with leads. We all do. We need more leads. We know that. Well, here’s my bias or belief about that. Lead gen firms don’t work.
16:14
Tab Norris
Right? And that’s what you believe. If I’m a lead gen firm, Tom and I go, hey, we’re like the greatest lead gen firm in the universe, and we get blah, blah, blah. That’s not going to hit your res, right?
16:31
Tom Stanfill
No, because it’s a combination of a problem that I have. I need leads. That’s good you’re talking about me, but it also needs to address kind of how do I feel about that? What’s my biases about that? Or what do I think about that? Because the goal is the beginning. When we describe our persona’s point of view, we get really narrow in who we serve. I get narrows I was working with a company recently, and they serve CPAs well. There’s all levels of CPAs. There’s the partner, there’s the staffer. There’s different types of CPA firms. There’s large CPA firms, there’s midsizing. You got to really narrow in and say, okay, there’s that persona. Okay, I’m narrowing in on the staffer. What do they care about? What’s their problem? What’s important to them? What’s their bias? I’ve got to say, what do they care about what is important?
17:20
Tom Stanfill
One of the things this organization sells is how to help the CPA’s clients get the ERC tax credits.
17:30
Tab Norris
Okay?
17:31
Tom Stanfill
Right. This has something to do with COVID and everybody’s if anybody’s in small business, they’ve been bombarded with, are you getting the ERC tax credits? It’s free money the government gives you because it has something to do with COVID Right. Every CPA and every small business is getting bombarded by ERC tax credit. What’s on the whiteboard of what people care about that they’re talking to is they think it’s all fraudulent.
17:56
Tab Norris
So that’s the point of view. Of course.
17:59
Tom Stanfill
We all have this.
18:00
Tab Norris
It’s a scam. Yeah, it’s a scam.
18:03
Tom Stanfill
You don’t know what to do. I don’t have the time to figure out and navigate this world of who can actually serve my customers well, because if I recommend, my customers need it, but if I recommend them to a scammer, then that comes back on me. I know I need it, but I don’t trust it because I’m getting seven messages a day from an ERC, and a lot of them are scammers. So that’s the lead.
18:28
Tab Norris
It’s more noise in your life that you don’t need.
18:31
Tom Stanfill
You’ve got to describe that. You’ve got to be able to say, what’s on their whiteboard, the whiteboard issues. Like, if you think about it, we talk about this all the time. If you picture your persona and you think about they have a whiteboard, what’s on it, and again, you may not know specifically that person because you can’t see another office. Although one way to see in their office is talk to people in the organization and ask them what’s on their whiteboard.
18:57
Tab Norris
Right? Yeah. Well, that’s the best.
19:00
Tom Stanfill
That’s the best if you have to guess, because sometimes it just doesn’t warrant the time necessary to do that research. If you have to guess, you got to think, what is a typical person? I’m serving in this role? What’s on their whiteboard? What are the things they care about? Right. And so I need to say that. I need to be able to understand that. Say that.
19:23
Tab Norris
Let me ask you a question, because I was talking to another client about this the other day, and they posed a really good question. They said, Tab, I believe that were talking about this, and I believe you, and this is awesome. This is great. What I want to hedge my bets, Tab, because there are really three big whiteboard issues on this persona. They have three big whiteboard issues. These are the three big problems. Am I better off picking one or doing all three to increase my odds of cutting through the raz? How would you answer that?
20:00
Tom Stanfill
I would say you got to pick one.
20:02
Tab Norris
That’s what I told them I would.
20:05
Tom Stanfill
Say, because shorter messages are winning now it’s like you got to almost keep it to 65 words. There’s data out there that’s saying the shorter the better. I think we’re going to talk about this at the end, but when we unpack, the three things you need to know, I’m almost believing now, let me just say it this way. A couple of years ago, you could talk about all three of these. You could offer all three of these, and potentially that powerful. The combination of all three, we’re just talking about one so far. Their point of view, combine all of those into one powerful message was really great. That works. I’m not saying that doesn’t work, but I think now it’s almost like we probably have to try one and then the other than the other. It’s like we just have to break it down. Like we’re going to send little bite size messages.
20:54
Tom Stanfill
If we’re going to reach out eight times, they’re all going to be coordinated. Again, we’ll bring all this together at the end, but they’re all going to be connected to each other, but we’re going to break it down where we might attack one problem, and then we come back and attack another problem, and then we come back and say, what’s unique about us? And we just keep dripping this information. The first thing we want to unpack is we got to start with their point of view. One of my favorite stories is the agent for Rick Warren, who’s really one of the best selling authors oh, Purpose Driven Life wrote the book Purpose Driven Life. Here’s the agent who’s trying to get in touch with the president of NBC, and he wants to get Rick Warren on 60 Minutes.
21:43
Tab Norris
Okay?
21:44
Tom Stanfill
I mean, that’s not an easy meeting to get. Here’s how he got Rick Warren on the 60 Minutes. He goes, you are losing your conservative audience. When he said that the NBC president was going and this was done via email and it may have been done through a sponsor, like he told somebody who then told the NBC president he had to narrow down, he goes, the problem I’m centering in is you are losing the conservative audience. People that have a conservative point of view, you’re losing them, and if you don’t get them back, then your ratings are going to continue to climb. That was his position. That was a problem on the NBC’s president’s. Whiteboard he’s got to take a stance. That guy’s getting a million messages. I mean, I’m making that up.
22:33
Tab Norris
Everybody wants to be on 60.
22:34
Tom Stanfill
Yeah, so he everybody has to pick a lane. He could have picked a lot of lanes. He said, this is the best selling book of all time, and everybody cares about purpose. If you’re not relevant, if you don’t talk about bubble, he picked this one problem, and he got Rick Warren on 60 Minutes. So great example, that. And if you see ads. If you see ads that are effective or ads, you notice, you’ll see that they start with frog. I was watching commercial the other day on frog tape.
22:58
Tab Norris
On what?
22:59
Tom Stanfill
Frog tape.
23:00
Tab Norris
Frog.
23:01
Tom Stanfill
Frog tape.
23:02
Tab Norris
Oh, really?
23:03
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. I mean, I’m watching a commercial on frog tape. Frog tape is this special tape that you line the trim and protect the trim when you’re painting. You put the frog tape on the trim, so when you’re painting the walls, it doesn’t get on the trim. They start the commercial off go, they’re pulling the tape off the traditional tape that you would use, the blue tape that you use. Yeah. The worst thing about painting is when you think you’re done and then you realize you’re not, that is, and we.
23:34
Tab Norris
All have been there. Anybody who’s painted, I just met a big old mess here. I got to come back, clean this.
23:39
Tom Stanfill
Up, and I got to and it shows. You pulling the tape off, and all of a sudden the tape is all bleeding on the trim, and now you got to paint the trim. And I’ve done that a thousand times. Maybe that’s of an overstatement, but I think at least 400 the reason I noticed it, one, frog tape, which is related to what we’re going to talk about next. Two, I’ve had that problem, and I’m thinking about painting.
23:59
Tab Norris
Right.
24:02
Tom Stanfill
It activated the wrap. I know that’s something a problem I have. That’s number one, tab, start with the persona’s point of view, which relates to a problem, relates to their emotional state, relates to their bias. We want them to be nodding their head and saying, how did you know that? That’s exactly how I feel. That’s what I think. When we do that, we will capture their attention 100% of the time, but we need to do more to get them to act. The next thing they need to know tab, you want to know what the next thing is?
24:35
Tab Norris
I’m on the edge of my seat.
24:37
Tom Stanfill
Yeah, you already know.
24:39
Tab Norris
You probably I better know the answer, but I want to hear it from you, my friend.
24:44
Tom Stanfill
Next thing we need to communicate is a disruptive truth. Disruptive, okay. Again, we’re trying to get people’s attention. The Raz pays attention to things it doesn’t understand. If we need to say something that breaks the formula, we need to say something that’s disruptive, or it needs to something like they don’t expect it, right? It’s something unexpected. What they expect is a sales pitch, a marketing message. Fraud tape, we don’t expect the tape to be named frog tape. That’s why they named it Frog tape. That’s why they didn’t name industrial. They named it fraud tape. So it needs to be disruptive. It needs to be a truth. If you combine those things, something disruptive they don’t expect, and it needs to be a truth. The Challenger Sale, which obviously a very popular book that was out. I mean, they made this point that the most successful sellers share insights, they teach their customers, they give them insights.
25:54
Tom Stanfill
And that’s true. The reason that decision makers don’t meet with sales reps is because they have nothing to say. I don’t need to bring you in to explain what you do. I need you to help me solve a problem. If you’re going to talk about your product or solution, talk to people below me who are responsible for evaluating. If you want to see it at the executive table, people that are really determining what’s going to happen and are planning and they’re trying to figure things out and solve problems, you need to bring wisdom, you need to bring insights, you need to bring truth to the table and teach me things that I don’t know. And so that’s the truth piece. It could be research, it could best practices, it could be a different way to think about it, but it’s something disruptive and I think this is what people struggle with the most.
26:43
Tab Norris
Have I think you’re right. If all of our listeners, all 7 million of them, would get a couple more meetings a week, just think about it. When you break it down, you go, I improved just . Think of how much more the raise you just gave yourself. Yeah, if I just think for me, I still carry a bag I want to sell till I die. If I could get two more meetings a week with somebody that is a buyer, I would kill it. I mean, that is huge because all the rest of it to me is a whole lot easier than getting someone that is important to take my call or to have a meeting with me.
27:29
Tom Stanfill
Especially meeting with the right people. The good thing about the disruptive truth, it doesn’t only help you get more meetings, which is definitely a key part of it helps you break through the noise, but it also differentiates you as a human. It elevates your stature in your credibility. That your credibility. It’s like when you leave, when you put yourself in a leadership position. Look, I’ve done this hundreds of times and I’m going to tell you what most people don’t know about a better way to solve the problem. So, like, I had this situation with a large became a large customer, very competitive situation. They were having a turnover issue. They were looking at sales training and I said, I agree, sales training is important and you got to train your front line because there is turnover and that’s key. Let me tell you what really drives retention and what has more impact on training is your front line leaders change happens one to one.
28:22
Tom Stanfill
Your culture, engagement and everything is driven by your frontline leader. Well, I was saying they’re. Like, Wait, we hadn’t were focused on the EP. Say now I’m help. Now I’m like, wait. Now I’m just differentiating myself from everybody else who’s saying, okay, I’ll provide sales training.
28:39
Tab Norris
I just had the same exact thing happened to me the last deal I just closed. That’s how I won. Because I’m talking to the evaluator, and I basically said that. I said, you’re thinking about this all wrong. You have to go all in on front line. And guess what he says? He goes, My CEO who empowered me to go do this. That’s exactly what he believes.
29:04
Tom Stanfill
Wow.
29:05
Tab Norris
Done.
29:06
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. And here’s the cool thing about it. The cool thing about it is you say it with confidence because it’s true.
29:12
Tab Norris
I’m not a trick. It’s not like I’m trying to trick him.
29:15
Tom Stanfill
Yeah, it’s just true. It’s like, what is it that most if most people don’t miss it, you don’t need to tell them. That’s why the disruptive people that’s why I always start off a key presentation with disruptive truths. I say, this is your destination. This is where you want to get to. I’m going to tell you what most people miss in trying to reach that destination. I don’t know everybody in this room, but I’m going to make sure you don’t miss this. Because this is what most people miss. If they know it’s not disruptive, and it doesn’t really matter. They already know it. So, yes, it’s good for them. You sometimes have to check boxes and make sure that they know that the key elements of whatever it is that you sell. The focus has got to be on what you share about a better way to solve their problem.
30:02
Tom Stanfill
It can be a really simple statement. Like, I was working with a large insurance organization, and here’s their Disruptive truth. They sell insurance. They sell insurance. Right? They’re going after businesses. I think they were small, medium sized businesses. I don’t really remember the size, but and they’re getting hounded by people who sell business insurance. Right? And this was their disruptive truth. You don’t need more insurance. Yeah, you actually need less insurance.
30:33
Tab Norris
You actually need less insurance. That gets my attention. I’m like, wow, that’s kind of crazy. Surfboard the elephant on the surfboard.
30:41
Tom Stanfill
Why don’t I need work? Actually, I know one other company we worked with. It was like, hey, you actually can increase your benefits and lower your cost.
30:52
Tab Norris
That’s good.
30:53
Tom Stanfill
So you’re saying, wait, what? I can provide better because healthcare cost is going crazy? That was their problem. They would start with healthcare costs are skyrocketing and look like they’re going to continue. Most people are having to cut their benefits. You can see the other person on the nodding their head and goes, well, actually, you can actually increase your benefits and lower your costs. Like, what? That’s disruptive? That’s disruptive. Like, back to the ERC tax credit situation. Their Disruptive Truth, the company that was selling that service, everyone’s telling you that your clients qualify for ERC tax credit. The truth is about 52% qualified. In other words, they’re actually saying the opposite. Actually, most, almost half only half qualified.
31:44
Tab Norris
Right.
31:45
Tom Stanfill
That was their disruptive. One of our Disruptive Truth is actually you want to sell, better stop selling.
31:53
Tab Norris
Yes.
31:57
Tom Stanfill
By the way, if you can’t come up with the truth, just be Disruptive.
32:03
Tab Norris
Just say frog or something.
32:07
Tom Stanfill
Here’s my favorite disruptive. Disruptive statement. It’s the title of a pizza company. One of the famous pizza places in New York is Raised Pizza. I mean, there’s movie elf. They talk about raised pizza. Which one to go to? Okay, one of the hot new pizza place. I don’t know if it’s new, but one of the hot pizza places in Brooklyn is called not Raised pizza.
32:33
Tab Norris
I love that anti ray pizza.
32:37
Tom Stanfill
It’s Disruptive. We’re not raised pizza. That’s Disruptive. It kind of connects with the next one. Tab, you’re ready to move on?
32:47
Tab Norris
Yeah, let’s do it. Yeah, let’s do it. Number three, baby.
32:50
Tom Stanfill
You got to know your persona, the personas that you serve. Break them up, define them, and figure out their point of view. You may not know 100%, but if you look at them as a certain persona, you’re going to see some similarities in what they care about their problems, their emotional state, their bias, their beliefs. Come up with your disruptive truth. Last but certainly not least, Tab is you got to define your proprietary benefit. Oh, yeah, I got that proprietary benefit. What do you own? What’s different? What do you do differently that separates you from everybody else? This is kind of, by the way I think about it, captivate start with their point of view to elevate share Disruptive Truth and then separate your solution from everybody else. A lot of people will say, well, I can’t do that, because what we do is very similar to what everybody else does.
33:49
Tab Norris
We’re a commodity, like you’ll people say that. Yeah, it’s all yeah.
33:56
Tom Stanfill
We’Re a mortgage. I’m a loan officer, and I’m like, well, I got an interest. We all got the same product. Well, there’s three things that you can own, right? It’s what you offer, which is sometimes the most difficult. By the way, in selling, we’re all looking for the people that have the what, like the unique what. They can just hold a bucket out of the window and catch money. Like, we got the only thing everybody wants me.
34:19
Tab Norris
We’re the only one that does. You’ve got that. Enjoy, because it won’t last forever, but enjoy the ride.
34:25
Tom Stanfill
By the way, if you work for an organization that has the best what, they don’t need you, right? Yeah. It’s like you’re less valuable. I mean, they may need you, but I’m not saying they don’t need you, but it’s your less valuable they don’t.
34:41
Tab Norris
Need you to do. I was talking with a client yesterday, a customer yesterday, a potential customer yesterday. And that’s what they said. We’ve always just been able to take orders, right? It’s just like, it’s easy. The reason we’re talking to you now is it’s not easy anymore. They stop calling, and all of a sudden, you become very valuable. We’re going to invest in you. You’re not just somebody that we can easily just stick out there and like you said, just fill your bucket with money.
35:11
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. Enjoy it. If you’re in a demand fulfillment role and markets coming at you like, I was, at one point in time, my first job out of the college, I was a loan officer, and rates dropped from 15% to eight, and we couldn’t answer the phone fast enough. I even came in a one time tab. We had a snowstorm, so nobody made it. The office. I got to the office and I put the receptionist headset on. I answered all the income. Nobody was there. I’m like. Hi. This is Home Bank. How may I help you? I’m looking to refinance my house. What’s your name?
35:47
Tab Norris
I’ve got the perfect loan officer for you. I’m Johnny Smith.
35:51
Tom Stanfill
You know what? I’m going to get me to get you over to our top loan officer. I literally did that. Okay, well, then that market went away, and now it’s about demand gen. The people that made it through the refinance phase and actually had a career were people that knew how to do what we’re talking about. They knew how to sell more than the lowest rate. So that’s what you offer. There could be something very proprietary about or something that differentiates your solution based on just what the solution offers. Right? That’s great. There’s always the how and the who. In other words, how do you deliver it? What’s your process? What’s unique about your process, and then who will they work with? Those are usually the areas that you can almost always come up with something about the who or the how because you’re always proprietary.
36:46
Tom Stanfill
You sell your solution. You’re unique. What’s unique about you and how you will serve the customer or what you offer or your expertise or how you do it? That’s the last little bit of information tab that we need to know. We need to know personas, point of view.
37:04
Tab Norris
That captivates me.
37:06
Tom Stanfill
It captivates you, gets the tension. We need to develop our disruptive truths, right. That elevates me in the mind of the customer, the decision maker, something that I don’t know about a better way to solve the problem, and.
37:22
Tab Norris
It elevates your role. You’re more than just a salesperson, right?
37:25
Tom Stanfill
You’re a consultant, you’re a trustee. Earn a seat at the table. Most people think this, but actually this is true. Most people think that the quality of the product or service determines loyalty. That’s not true. They’re like, what so disruptive? Truth. The last one is we’ve got to come up with something unique. So, for example, like back to the Legion or recruiting service. Like for us right now, let’s use that example. Most people know they need a recruiting firm, right? The bias about recruiting firms is they don’t work. Or the bias. What we need to know is they do something different than everybody else. If they focus specifically on a vertical or they do something that’s unique, then it’s like, okay, that’s going to get my attention. Any one of these three elements we can leverage in an email, a LinkedIn invitation, a voicemail, an article, a post, but we need to know these three elements.
38:31
Tom Stanfill
Now, what’s super powerful is when we can bring all three together in a couple of sentences. If we can combine them all three, you have this problem here’s, the disruptive tooth associated with it, and here’s what I do proprietary, and you can do that in about 100 words, then.
38:48
Tab Norris
That’Ll work well, especially when you hear it. I’m such a huge fan of anything you can do, specifically that they have going on. It just Skyrockets it, what I mean? Hey, Bob, I just talked to Susan, and I know right now the big challenge is you guys are trying to attack this market. You’ve got to get in this market and you’re stuck. People think we have to hire more people to get into that market. It’s the opposite. I get excited about this time because it is. We teach a lot of great things. I will tell you, this just works. It flat out. It will improve engagement rates. You will get more meetings, take the time to craft your position well.
39:37
Tom Stanfill
It also helps you throughout the sales process. Like if you understand their point of view. The most powerful two words you can use and this is worth a podcast right here. The most powerful two words you can use when you’re selling something selling an idea or you’re trying to influence or you’re trying to get people to understand something is the most powerful two words you can use is to. Begin with the statement because you oh, yeah, because you if you can begin a statement with because you which is basically their point of view. If you can start with because you think because you want because you’re struggling with or because your experiences because if you can begin with because you what you say next has power. Right. You draw them in as soon as I show them a picture. Because you’re in this picture. Most people struggle to begin sentences with because you and that’s what’s cool about two of the three things we talked about has nothing to do with your solution.
40:37
Tab Norris
Yeah, it’s all about them.
40:38
Tom Stanfill
It’s about them. It’s like you’re helping them, you’re focused on them, which demonstrates who you are and you’re communicating something for them. Hey, here’s a better way to think about it. Yes, it does lead to why my solution is a fit. You can take this truth and do whatever you want with it.
40:56
Tab Norris
Yeah. At least gave you the first two. That really going to help you, especially that Disruptive Truth.
41:00
Tom Stanfill
It’s awesome. Your Disruptive Truth can relate to a question you ask. Like, you can say, hey, a lot of people think back to example I used earlier where I talked about the company wanted to train the frontline to reduce retention of their sales reps turnover. They wanted to reduce turnover, increase retention. If I were in the discovery process, I could leverage a Disruptive Truth by saying something like, well, a lot of people really focus on training the sales reps when they’re got Attrition problem. Actually what has more impact on reducing Attrition is the frontline leaders. What are you doing to equip the front line leaders? That’s another way to leverage a Disruptive Truth. If I were meeting with the CPA and I were talking about ERC credits, and I already had the meeting because I’m talking to an existing customer, and I’m saying a lot of CPAs don’t believe that or don’t want to outsource this ERC tax credit to a company because they don’t trust them.
42:08
Tom Stanfill
That’s actually true because 50% of the time your customers don’t qualify. If you promise that they do and they don’t, that’s a problem for you. Is that your belief? It helps you launch a better discovery. These three things can help you throughout the process.
42:25
Tab Norris
Love it.
42:27
Tom Stanfill
Good.
42:27
Tab Norris
This is back to the basics. This is about as basic as it gets.
42:32
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. Hopefully meetings and hopefully people that are listening can just start the year by thinking, how can I learn this? Let’s close by talking about that. One of my favorite things to do to learn about the personas point of view. This is going to be shocking to have, is interview the personas.
42:53
Tab Norris
Actually just talk to them and ask.
42:55
Tom Stanfill
Them what they care about.
42:56
Tab Norris
What are the big things you care about?
42:58
Tom Stanfill
Yeah. If you just spend ask a couple of extra questions in every meeting that you have. Let me just back up. I know I sell this thing and you buy this from us or whatever. We talk about this. What’s the top three things on your whiteboard right now? You could interview existing customers, you could interview new customers, but just take some time to add that to your development. As interviewing customers in the area of Disruptive Truth, what I would recommend is talk to people who are doing it. There’s experts in your organization. Somebody knows. Somebody knows. If you just start asking, don’t compete with people in your organization. Learn from them. Who knows that who’s good at these little pithy statements or who’s got the Disruptive truth, like, fight for that, and somebody knows the answer to that. And then another proprietary benefit. What I would recommend is write everything down that you think is cool about what you do, how you do it, and who’s involved, and write everything down on the list.
44:12
Tom Stanfill
And then cross through. Ask yourself the things that are on this list, what can our competitor offer? Cross out everything that can be offered by the competition. What you’re left with is your proprietary benefits.
44:30
Tab Norris
Well, you know what? Can I add to that? Something? You can reject this.
44:36
Tom Stanfill
Okay. No.
44:36
Tab Norris
You are the guru.
44:38
Tom Stanfill
You are the best co host in America.
44:40
Tab Norris
We’ll see if I can bring it.
44:42
Tom Stanfill
Not Canada, just America.
44:43
Tab Norris
It’s just a little tip to add to that, because I was working with another client. We were working on this, and one of the guys, sales reps asked me that said he was struggling with, I said, do this. Jump on, go to your website, your company website, and look at what marketing is put out there, all the things, and write them down, print them out, whatever, and figure out which ones are proprietary. Which ones are proprietary. That is a great place to start.
45:13
Tom Stanfill
I love that. That’s a great idea. Remember, what proprietary means is you own it. You own it something that you own. Nobody else owns it. It’s your real estate, and it can.
45:26
Tab Norris
Be like you said. He goes, well, a lot of things. Everybody does it. Figure out what’s proprietary. By the way, if it doesn’t, say it. If you can come up with this proprietary statement, awesome. Share it with your marketing department. They’d probably love to know that.
45:40
Tom Stanfill
Exactly.
45:41
Tab Norris
I totally agree with that.
45:42
Tom Stanfill
I think it’s a great action 100% of the time what’s proprietary is you. Yes, it’s what I offer. If that’s where you start there, start with what you offer. It could be a level of support, could be knowledge, could be expertise. There’s a lot of different things. But start there. If you’re stumped, like, there’s your assignment.
46:07
Tab Norris
Great part, man.
46:09
Tom Stanfill
Love being with you. Hopefully this was helpful. Audience, as always. If you guys find this helpful, please let us know. Our goal is to support you. If any feedback that you can give us on how we can do a better job of providing the content that you need, we always love to hear from you. Thanks for listening to another episode, and we’ll see you back next week for another episode of Sales with Aslan.
