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  • The Importance Of Improving Your Sales Skills

    The Importance Of Improving Your Sales Skills

    This is one of the most destructive beliefs I see on a regular basis:

    “My idea is so good it sells itself.”

    ~Every Misguided Entrepreneur

    For three years I was a mentor at the world’s number one tech incubator, 1871, which is located here in Chicago. Once a month I’d have office hours where entrepreneurs could schedule one on one strategy sessions.

    From that project alone I got to chat with hundreds of very sharp business owners.

    The one thing they all had in common?

    Horrible sales skills.

    Terrible.

    They’re brilliant people.

    Researchers, innovators, big thinkers. But they’re not sales people.

    Their work could change the world, and it was so painfully obvious to them how it would happen that they couldn’t understand that nobody else could see it.

    That’s when I’d hit them with this quote:

    “Don’t worry about people stealing an idea. If it’s original, you will have to ram it down their throats.”

    Howard Hathaway Aiken, Computer Pioneer, (March 8, 1900 – March 14, 1973)

    Their Biggest Problem

    Over and over again I would see the same issue.

    They were so impressed with what their product/service did that they wouldn’t tell me what it did for me.

    They would explain features instead of telling me the benefits.

    “It spins faster!” vs “Saves you time.”

    Exactly Backwards

    You should always start with what benefits the customer gets.

    Only then can you explain how it happens.

    What Happens If You Don’t

    Every company needs all the help it can get.

    I don’t care if you found the cure for cancer. You aren’t going to be successful unless you tell the world about it, and ask them to pay you for it.

    Your business makes the world a better place, and if you don’t learn how to explain that then you’re going to have fewer sales. That means a smaller budget. That means a smaller salary (if you’re lucky enough to have one at all).

    That means you suffer. That means your family suffers. That means all the people who could use your help suffer.

    Failing to work on your sales skills means you’re directly responsible for the world being worse off than it could be.

    Where To Start

    I’ve been in sales my whole life. My first professional engagement was at age 13 when I got paid $200 to entertain a company’s employees at a summer picnic.

    Since then I’ve been the top sales person at the highest grossing 3rd party vendor at an international tourist destination, sold 5 and 6 figure deals, and taught Fortune 500 teams how to improve their sales, negotiation, and presentation skills through my company, ZAVANT enterprises.

    I know not everyone has the luxury of having the company footing the training bill, so I’m currently working on an online training process to help individual entrepreneurs and side hustlers make more money with better sales skills.

    If you’re interested in learning more, go check out the project site, and sign up for email notifications as it gets closer to completion.

  • 3 Things to Invest In

    3 Things to Invest In

    If I were interested in making a quick buck, I might be telling you 3 “hot stocks you absolutely must invest in.” I could tell you to buy a product that gives me a commission.
    Instead, I’m going to tell you the three things I’ve invested my time, money, & effort into that’s responsible for all of my success.
    They might not be what you think of first.

    Knowledge

    “First you do the best you can. Then when you know better, do better.” -David Hira

    Knowledge really is power. Everything I’ve done boils down to having the right information on how to do it.
    Or spend years with trial & error to figure it out for myself. Either way, your choices are only as good as the information you use to make them.
    In a time where information is freely available online, it’s difficult to sift the golden nuggets from all the useless crap. When you find something valuable, however, there’s nobody who can take it from you.
    Whatever treasures you hoard in your mind are yours, and yours forever.
    Knowledge is the best return on the investment you can possibly hope for.

    Assets

    There are things / ideas / strategies / tools that will help you get where you want to go.
    Then there’s everything else.
    The secret to lasting success is owning what you build. I don’t care how many followers you have on Twitter. I don’t care how many likes you have on Facebook. Any platform you build on can change their rules tomorrow and everything you’ve worked so hard to build can disappear instantly.
    Unless you own your platform.

    Coaches

    The quote about knowing better so you can do better was told to me by one of my favorite coaches & personal mentors. He’s an incredible person with an even more incredible story. His insights, suggestions, and advice come from a lifetime of experience, and every single nugget he shares is pure gold.
    When I listen to what he tells me, it saves me years of learning it myself. That’s the power of coaches.
    Great advice is worth exactly what you pay for it, too. Coaching ain’t cheap. It’s not easy to put their knowledge into action, either.
    But it’s so worth it.
    Coaching helps catapult you forward. It instantly establishes momentum. Momentum creates wealth.

    Takeaways

    • Put in effort to gain things that can’t be taken away
    • Quality relationships with quality people are priceless & worth everything you can spend to maintain them
    • Knowledge is power (when put into action)
  • Cross My Palm With Silver

    Cross My Palm With Silver

    “Free advice is worth exactly what you paid for it.”

    ~Romany Saying

    Have you ever encountered an “askhole?” It’s someone who constantly asks you for advice, but then does the complete opposite of what you told them to do.

    There are few things that are more frustrating, right?

    Why is that?

    Wisdom of the Romany

    Imagine I’m a tarot card reader, and you come to me for a reading.

    It’s insightful, explains exactly what part of your life needs the most work, and then spell out exactly what you can do to get on the right track. It’s nothing short of the best advice you’ve ever gotten.

    But you pay nothing for it.

    You know what would happen? Probably nothing. You’d say thank you, walk out, and think “That was interesting,” then never worry about it again.
    Imagine you paid me $20,000 for that exact same reading.

    Now, how motivated do you think you’ll be afterwards?

    $20,000 worth!

    Before I started coaching, I used to share my thoughts freely with anyone who would listen. Over time, I’ve not only realized that free advice is essentially worthless, but a client’s motivation to put it into practice is directly linked to how much they had to pay for that information.
    They paid nothing for the info? There’s zero incentive to apply it.

    I’d give people great information & advice, but then they’d ignore it. They’d run into the problem I’d warned them about, and then have to work twice as hard to recover from it instead of avoiding it in the first place.

    At the end, we’d both wasted our time. Mine for sharing with someone who didn’t value my input, and theirs for spending time listening to it, experiencing the problem, & then recovering from it just to be right back at square one (but a little wiser hopefully).

    Nowadays, people pay me for my knowledge & experience. Since clients are willing to pay for their guidance, they tend to consider my thoughts much more carefully before making future decisions. My personal goal is to help my clients get 10x more value out of our time together than they pay me.
    This makes coaching much more rewarding in every sense of the word.

    Feels good to help people avoid costly mistakes. It’s nice to get paid for what you’re good at. And it’s nice to have significantly fewer askholes in my life.
    To some people I charge way more than they can afford. To some people it’s a drop in the bucket. Regardless of how much I stand behind, that’s always going to be the case, so there’s zero reason to race to the bottom of the barrel.

    I’ve found that the people who are highly motivated and invest in results are the best clients to work with.

    “Gypsies” figured this out generations ago.

    The amount you’re willing to pay for the solution to a problem tells the person with the answer how much they should care about your problem. You don’t care enough to pay? Then why should the coach care more than you do?

    Silver, Time, & Attention

    Now, I’m not saying you should have a money-based relationship with everyone in your life.

    Money isn’t the only currency that matters.

    You can pay in time. You can pay in effort. You can pay attention and really listen to what you hear.

    If I consult with someone who may not have the finances to spend on my insights, I have 3 guidelines I look to.

    1. My time (& yours) is valuable. Spend it wisely.
    2. You may never be able to pay me back directly, and that’s OK. If you’re ever in the position to pay it forward, do that.
    3. You don’t have to blindly follow my advice, but sure as hell think twice before ignoring it.

    You can see how there’s still a price to be paid, even though it’s not in terms of money. It’s still win-win!

    The nature of a successful coaching/mentoring dynamic (valued in either money, time, or effort) is achieving specific goals in a sensible time frame with metrics along the way to gauge results. With this dynamic, the client stays accountable, and the coach stays dedicated to the project.

    The coach is getting value in seeing their client succeed, and the client gets value in achieving their goals.

    Value for value is the only way the world works.

    (Otherwise it’s stealing.)