The Key To Sales – 

If you believe no one in your target audience is willing or has the ability to pay, that will be absolutely true and you will not make any sales. But if you really believe what you offer has value, your customers will magically find the money. 

Episode #853 October 21, 2022

Hi this is Dan Miller – and yes you’re listening to the 48 Days Radio show – where each week we take 48 minutes to dive into real-life questions about finding your passion, deciding what kind of life you want to live – and then finding or creating work that allows you to show up every day, excited to be able to do something that is meaningful, fulfilling – and profitable.  This is where normal, indecision and ambiguity come to die.  Welcome to the 48 Days Radio Show.

Thank you for being a listener of this podcast. I love hearing from you and being allowed to think through the questions we all have about finding or creating work that matters, for people who care.

Questions:

Day 47 in the 48 Days schedule is to take a millionaire to lunch. Why would a millionaire say Yes to me and what would I talk about?

In the 48 days schedule, I have something to do every day for 48 days, leading you right through making a transition in the next season of your life, no matter what you want that to look like. It just walks you through that. Day 47 is taking a millionaire to lunch. Now, this is where more people get stuck than on any other of the 48 days tasks.  Well, you’d be surprised at how available that person is. I’m sure you know somebody. Being a millionaire these days is not that uncommon. There are lots of them walking around. I’m sure you know some. I encourage you to share that you’re on a new path and you would really appreciate their advice. Now, some people might be telling you that you can’t do what you want to do. We’ve all had that experience — your Uncle Harry says there’s no way in the world you could do that because he doesn’t understand the technology. He doesn’t understand your passion, your talents, etc.  Do you know what a millionaire’s going to do? They’re going to encourage you to reach for your dreams. For instance, you could show up in Nashville, Tennessee, and say you want to be a famous country music singer. You’re going to have a whole lot of people say that you’re nuts, you can’t do that, it’s never going to happen. If you talk to Luke Bryan, Taylor Swift or Carrie Underwood, they’re not going to tell you that. They’ll encourage you and tell you how they did it. That’s what millionaires do.  One of the hallmark characteristics of successful people is that they spend time with those people already performing at high levels. Whether you’re on the 48 Days schedule or not, I encourage you to do that — to ask a millionaire to lunch.  That’s something I started doing when I was very young, I would find very successful people and invite them to lunch just so I can pick their brain, and found them to be extremely available and willing to share with younger people.  I’m involved with the CEO Program (Creating Entrepreneurial Opportunities) with the Midland Institute out of Effingham, Illinois. They’re in about 300-330 high schools at this point. Every student who’s enrolled in that program is matched with a mentor. These are business people who willingly give their time and their resources to pour into these high school students and teach them. That’s what people who are very successful do.  Now, remember, when you ask a millionaire to lunch, you’re not begging. Let them know that you’re just beginning to move into a new season of life and you want to explore how to do that more quickly than just going through the school of hard knocks.  An important note, though: be sure to pick up the tab. Don’t ask somebody to lunch and then stiff them with a bill. That’s going to tarnish your reputation with them immediately. Not that they can’t afford it. That’s not the point. But if you ask, then you certainly pick up the tab. 

What kind of things would you ask a millionaire? Here’s a list to get you started:

1. What do you know now you wish you’d known when you were just starting?
2. Did you use a detailed business plan?
3. To what do you attribute your success?
4. Do you have a problem you’re trying to solve now?
5. “What’s the most important lesson you ever learned?”
6. “What is the legacy you want to leave?”
7. “What’s your most important habit?”
8. What values are most important to you in business and life?
9. What’s exciting to you right now?
10. Is there a dream you once had that you’ve not completed?
11. How would you spend $50,000 to improve your business right now?  
12. What is the most important characteristic in your life that has helped you succeed?
13. Where do you see yourself in ten years?
14. What’s a motto or quotation that you live by?
15. If we were meeting three years from today, what has to have happened during that three-year period for you to feel happy about your progress?”
16. What support or encouragement can I offer to help you continue your success?

I love to have people ask me those things. You’re going to find receptivity to that. People light up as they relive some of the things they’ve experienced and will share with you their wisdom. They’re going to share generously. 

Remember the old adage, “We become the average of the people we spend the most time with.” So you want to make sure that you’re spending time with people who are performing at a level you want to perform at.”

I have several ideas for businesses, but find I keep bouncing between them, not being able to focus on just one at a time.

Dave says, “Dan, I’m a longtime listener, but I have yet to become a long-term doer. I have several ideas for businesses, but I find I keep bouncing between them — not being able to focus on just one at a time. I would love to pick just one to focus my time and energy on, but just as I start with one, I start thinking about one or two of the other ideas I have, losing focus on the first one I started to work on. “I followed your advice with the process to find three or four ideas that I believe match my personality values, dreams, and passions. However, after finding those three or four ideas, I’m having trouble deciding on just one and sticking to it. I keep flip-flopping between them. While working on the one I’ve chosen, I start seeing ways I can really knock it out of the park with one of the other ideas, and I can’t seem to stop thinking about it.  So when I switch to that other idea, I see things I could and should be doing with one of the other ideas and so on. I’m simply having trouble focusing on one at a time. While they are all things I have a talent for, have experience in, and believe would be great fits for me, unfortunately, they’re completely unrelated ideas. I don’t believe they would fit in a Venn diagram.” Having a lot of ideas is awesome. What a great place to start. But that’s exactly what it is — a starting place. That’s not where you want to be six months from now. Keep the ideas flowing. I use an app called Notion where I can write every idea I have down. But I don’t take action on every one of those ideas. I probably take action on one out of 10 of the ideas I have. But when I focus in, then I’m really intent on bringing that idea to life.  Incidentally, I’m working on ideas today that I probably had as ideas 10-15 years ago, but I didn’t have the margin in my life or business to devote time to doing them then. That’s the way it is with ideas. It doesn’t mean you discard it and never come back to it. You may come back to it at a later time, but you can’t be doing three or four different things at the same time. 

Confucius said, “The man who chases two rabbits catches neither,” which is often true. Now you can have multiple ideas if they complement each other. You mentioned the Venn diagram. That’s certainly what I do. 

I use a Venn diagram, where I have three circles that overlap. So in looking at that, you recognize that you have seven different distinct areas. Activity in any one area fuels activity in the areas that it connects to. So they’re not unrelated.  Now, at one point in my life years ago, I had a health and fitness center and an auto accessories business, I was an adjunct professor at the University and I found myself, installing a cruise control on a brand new Honda and realizing that 30 minutes later, I needed to be in a classroom teaching introductory psychology, so they were not related. I thought I could do that. But I didn’t do it well.  I realized that was not a model I wanted to follow.  But today, I do have a lot of things. I would get bored doing just one thing as I suspect, you would as well Dave, with ADHD. It doesn’t mean you need to find one thing only, and you do the same thing, eight hours a day, Monday through Friday, I certainly don’t do that. For instance, I love writing, so I spend a lot of time writing and a lot of time reading. I spend time on Wednesdays working on my podcast in the morning, and then interviews in the afternoon. But when I do a podcast, it initiates speaking engagements, other product sales, attendance at our live events, requests for personal coaching, and people wanting to join our Eagles community, or be part of my mastermind. Those are all different things that I do so my days are really varied. But they all head in the same direction.  So take your three or four ideas, and do enough research that you can rank them in order of your preference — which one really embraces your passion, best fits your personality, and best offers the greatest return. Start with that idea and stick with it for one year without second-guessing yourself or looking over your shoulder. Then and only then, reconsider one of those other ideas that gives you the best chance for maximum success.  But when you start with that one idea, you’ll get other ideas that embrace that one that you’re doing. So if you’re writing, you recognize that you could develop a seminar to go with this, a workbook, a devotional, etc. A lot of other things will pop up where you realize it’s another idea, but it ties in and jumps on the back of what you’re already doing as your primary focus. That way you can you can scratch your itch with ADHD, and have a lot of things going on. But they’re all part of the same big picture.   

I am homebound and disabled but my mind is fine and I want to contribute with a job. How can I get back into sales with these limitations?

John, you can rock and roll with a job in sales. I don’t care if you need to lie in bed for six hours a day or be in a recliner. If your mind is fine, and you want to contribute to a job, and your background is in sales, you have so many opportunities sitting right in front of you.  Choose the two or three industries you personally enjoy most. Even with sales, still want it to embrace your passion, your talent, and an economic model that will reward you. Indeed.com is one of the sites that I would recommend. They show 47,638 virtual sales jobs available. Simply Hired has like 27,000-something. I would recommend those two as the primary places that you go. I love selling. Selling is certainly the oldest and greatest profession. With selling, there’s no ceiling on your income and typically, you’ll have more flexibility and benefits than you could possibly hope for in any other position. I’ve never had a job with a guarantee, and I’ve never had a job where I just got a paycheck on Friday. You have to recognize that anytime there’s a guarantee, there’s a trade-off in terms of selling. If we just take sales as an example. If you’re guaranteed a salary of $80,000, then I’m pretty confident, it’s going to have a somewhat low ceiling of what the opportunity is. But the people that I know who are making, you know, $300,000 and $400,000 a year, they have no guarantee. They have no base salary. They’re just simply compensated for what they produce. So if you want no ceiling at all, don’t be too concerned about the guaranteed base, if in fact, you believe in the product, and you believe in your ability to sell well.  Now you learn how to sell well. You’re not just either born or not born a salesman. Yesterday in one of our classes for Eagles Elite members, we were going through this process of selling and reviewed again the process that we use and recommend:

• 40% of the process is developing rapport and trust with the person. If people don’t trust you, they’re not going to buy what you have. It doesn’t matter if you  have Rolex watches for $10, they’re not going to buy if they don’t trust you. 
• 30% then is identifying the need. Do they even need your product or service?
• 20% is product presentation or product knowledge.
• 10% is what we call gaining commitment.

That’s where a transaction takes place. There’s nobody manipulating or conning anybody here. It’s a very gentle transaction, where you’re helping them get what they want.  Now for this to make sense, you have to be comfortable with the idea of making money. If you think making money is evil, selling is never going to work for you. If you think that in order for you to increase your wealth, someone else has to become poor, selling is always going to be a struggle, and rightfully so. Getting rich is not done at the expense of others. It’s done by helping other people thrive and prosper as well. Money is a consequence of a mutually beneficial interaction with another human being. I have a friend who recently said when sales is done, right, it’s sharing love. It’s helping people become more of who they want to be. So if you really believe in what it is you have to offer, that’s the way you ought to see it, you’re helping the person become more of who they want to be.  You’re selling if you’re doing anything. If you get a job at McDonald’s or you’re a greeter at Walmart, you sold yourself to get that position. It’s the same process. If you learn to sell and do it well, it’ll serve you over and over and over again. 

How can I make money with my marriage counseling when nobody in my community believes in paying for anything?

We had a question come in from Rachel in our Eagles community. She asked, “What are some good ways to monetize marriage coaching? I’m asking for a pastor friend who started a ministry with her husband. They don’t want to add a fee for their counseling services. They’ve tried doing seminars for a small fee, but many people don’t sign up because they don’t believe they should pay for a church event. This is within a community that is slow to appreciate counseling or coaching and doesn’t believe in paying for anything.  Don’t try to work out a way that they can get it for free. Even if it’s marriage counseling. If you try to work out a way that somebody else is going to pay for that — you’re going to get the government to give you a fund for that or you’re going to get the church to pay for it, you short circuit the value to the people receiving it. The benefit is enhanced so much if the people receiving the counseling are paying for it so I’m just never a fan of outside funding.  The key is to be able to communicate the value of what the couples will receive. If you can communicate the value of what they’re going to receive, they will come up with the money. People in our culture will come up with the money for something they really want. So the key is, how can this be something that they want — that they believe will have more value than the money they will exchange for it. So you need to communicate the value of what you have. What kind of a transformation is this going to lead to? How is this going to make their life easier, better, and more fulfilling? But if you think your target audience can’t pay for what you have, you are going to be right every single time. 

Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can or think you’re you can’t, you’re right.” 

Quotation:

[click_to_tweet tweet=”“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford @48daysteam” quote=”“Whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.” – Henry Ford”]

Resources:  

Get the NEW 48 Days Podcast Companion Journal, created by a 48 Days Eagles Member Faye Ruch.

Get my 2023 Goal Setting Workbook here Get the 48 Days Schedule Dan talks about in the 48 Days Application Guide here.