In this episode of Building Great Sales Teams, Ryan takes us through some of his favorite episodes from November '22. Enjoy!
We always have some great guest who share a great deal of value for our listeners. Our producer, Ryan, went back in time to November of 2022 and pulled out some of his favorite moments. Enjoy!
Lanell Beckles: Your personality is in your gut
Josiah Atkins: The Bacon Baron
Gail Kasper: Sell Like a Cockatoo
00:00:02:01 - 00:00:49:07
Speaker 1
Go morning, noon and night. How you guys doing? It is me, Ryan Wiggins. I am the producer of the Building Great Sales Teams podcast and we are here with the best episodes, in my opinion, of the month of November. So just stick around for a little bit after this intro. We'll get into it. Great experiences, build great leaders, great leaders, build great teams.
00:00:49:20 - 00:01:28:05
Speaker 1
This is building great sales teams. So like I said, we are doing the best of November. In this episode, we had some great episodes. As always, I think every episode that we have is great. There are just a few that stand out to me personally that I listen to and I try to apply to my life. The first one that is coming up on this November episode list is going to be from Mr. Lynelle Beckles of Ockham's Fitness.
00:01:28:05 - 00:01:53:23
Speaker 1
Occam's Fitness like Occam's Razor. Okay. And basically the concept of Occam's Razor is the simplest solution is probably the right solution. How many of you guys have heard the adage you are what you eat? One thing that Linnell preaches is that everything starts in the gut. What you eat is how you're going to perform, and I'm going to let him explain a little bit of that here in this episode.
00:01:53:25 - 00:01:54:15
Speaker 1
Let's take a listen.
00:01:56:00 - 00:02:17:27
Speaker 2
There's a ton of research out there. It's just we don't want to talk. We don't want to talk about it because it would actually take down a full industry. When we look at it, gut health is the is the the number one organ that actually is responsible for your health. It's where 70% of your immune system lives. It's where you synthesize a lot of your brain neurotransmitters.
00:02:17:27 - 00:02:42:27
Speaker 2
You don't send potassium in the brain, you synthesize them in your gut. And the root of all disease is all in inflammation and usually inflammation of the gut. So what I do is I show people exactly what foods are going to optimize their gut health. And usually it's not what I say, it's usually what you say. And get them to understand a plan around that and start helping them optimize their muscle mass.
00:02:42:27 - 00:03:04:28
Speaker 2
Because muscle is the organ of aging. The more muscle mass you have within the structure of your frame, the slower you age. So obviously we want to make sure we optimize muscle and not fat. And once we start doing that, then everything else starts to fall in line and we can start sleeping better, start making more money, we're more productive.
00:03:05:23 - 00:03:29:21
Speaker 2
Are our relationships get better because not as moody. So there's a lot of it really. It sounds funny, but our personality is actually in our gut. It's not in our brain. So a lot of people out there don't really understand this until they start really eating the foods that are good for them and then start feeling better. And all of a sudden it's like, I get it now.
00:03:29:21 - 00:03:53:06
Speaker 3
So yeah, that just opens up all kinds of possibilities, you know, And just for entrepreneurs in general, because, you know, when you get into the growth space or the development space, you know, one of the first things you presented with it in terms of your physical fitness is 75. HA Yeah. So the whole the whole concept is pushing your body to limits, pushing your disciplines to limits and creating this structure.
00:03:53:15 - 00:04:13:24
Speaker 3
You know, I'm saying, but it's all about excess. Excess excess, I'm saying. And so you're coming down on the opposite side and you're preaching a Yes, that stuff is good for you in terms of your discipline and wrap your mind around, Hey, I have to be consistent in order to be successful. But you're saying, hey, let's get into the scientific pieces of it.
00:04:13:24 - 00:04:37:09
Speaker 3
The nutrition piece which I think everybody understands that, hey, the fitness industry exists because we like to eat cheeseburgers and fries. You know, I'm saying, Oh, yeah. So like, if we would just focus on the nutrition side and make better decisions there, we wouldn't have to work out, you know, five, six days a week or like overtrained or any of the stuff that you're talking about.
00:04:37:21 - 00:04:45:09
Speaker 3
So I would assume that that would be your answer in where entrepreneurs are getting it wrong in terms of fitness.
00:04:45:09 - 00:04:47:00
Speaker 2
And they are, yeah, go for it.
00:04:47:24 - 00:05:12:18
Speaker 3
And so, you know, one of the biggest excuses you hear is I don't have enough time. You know, I'm an entrepreneur. I'm in, you know, meetings all day and, you know, I travel for work and I've gotten trapped in that cycle before, too. It's like you make a decision and you know what? Where I'm getting trapped more than anywhere is like, all right, I get home and, you know, maybe that maybe I hit the gym in the morning, but I certainly do run in the evening.
00:05:12:18 - 00:05:39:23
Speaker 3
Some marathon training right now, right. So it's like the gym is not enough. I've got to go out and put miles on the street. Right. And so, like yesterday I got home, you know, my daughter had a really rough day in school. And so I knew I had to have a conversation with her. I knew I had to you know, we had gotten steaks for dinner, so I knew I had to cook steaks and I knew I had to, you know, spend quality time with my boys, you know, and the family in general.
00:05:39:23 - 00:06:02:16
Speaker 3
And my aunt was in town. So it was like, all right, do I have time for an hour and an hour and a half run, which I really needed to do what I'm saying. So I made the decision not to do it. And now my whole weeks off schedule, you know, I'm saying. So I, I can see, you know, hey, I'm making a good decision for my family because I'm focusing on them for the evening rather than going on this run.
00:06:02:16 - 00:06:06:04
Speaker 3
But at the same time, it's like long term. That's not a good decision, you know? Yeah.
00:06:06:15 - 00:06:34:13
Speaker 2
Yeah, absolutely. There's there's there's a lot to be said for this. Like, you have a lot on your plate and you're doing you're doing an amazing job as a business owner, a dad, a husband and everything. There's a difference between keeping your optimal health, which just a few things. And like training for an event. Yeah, for someone who is training for like in a specific event, it does take a little bit more to get to that place, but it's not as much as you think.
00:06:34:13 - 00:07:03:10
Speaker 2
And actually you get better by doing the sport than you do by training outside the sport. There is something to be said for like sports specific training, which a lot of people think, Oh, okay, if I get into gym, I'm a get better at my sport. And that's not correct because I've seen a bill as I've I've seen both sides of the people that are talented at their sport suck in the gym, the people that are great in the gym kind of suck on the field.
00:07:03:10 - 00:07:27:29
Speaker 2
And then there's the 70% that are like both and most people don't that most people just need a little bit of work in the gym to optimize their sport. They don't need to go the other way around. So for you training, getting you're getting your mileage is super important for the success of running a marathon, but it doesn't mean that running a marathon is going to make you healthy.
00:07:28:16 - 00:07:49:05
Speaker 1
Right now you are what you eat. The biggest thing that I took away from that episode in the episode is chock full of wisdom. Biggest thing I took from that episode is that if you're not doing the diet right and I say diet, it's not really diet is, you know, changing how you eat and all that good stuff super deep doesn't matter.
00:07:49:13 - 00:08:13:15
Speaker 1
But when you're doing that right, you can spend less time trying to force something in the gym. So you are what you eat. Be pay attention to what is going inside of your gut and that's going to change who you are as a person. If you want to change who you are, change what you eat. So the next person that I have on this list is Josiah Atkins.
00:08:13:22 - 00:08:37:15
Speaker 1
And now here's the thing. He is the CEO of the Bacon Project. I want to say this. Let me double check. It's definitely on my Facebook because that is why I had to choose him for this. His marketing really works is the prospect Bacon. Prospect Bacon. Yeah, I just pulled up on my Facebook right now when I looked at it.
00:08:38:11 - 00:09:03:22
Speaker 1
Josiah is a marketer and he's one of the similar marketing specialists that we have in the apex. That network is It is awesome to see someone who is introverted go and build something that is every where his personality is in all of his ads and we talk to him about that a little bit here in this episode. Let's take a.
00:09:03:22 - 00:09:19:19
Speaker 4
Look. Ever meet me in person? I'm not an extroverted person by any means, but I do really well. And on the one hand I build trust and people. I think he's something about me. It's something I've always had, like I do really well with people one on one.
00:09:20:10 - 00:09:58:17
Speaker 3
And so it's a it's a common misconception that, you know, the best salespeople are the selling profiles called the Entertainer. And somebody meets an entertainer, they think, Oh, you're salesperson. Yes. But the other four profiles are detective fighter and counselor or other three sorry. And all three of them can be wildly successful in sales. Yep. And, you know, probably my top salesperson of all time, and if he's listening to this, is going to message me immediately and like, brag about the fact that I said he was probably my top salesperson of all time, but his name was Joey Skinner.
00:09:59:05 - 00:10:27:26
Speaker 3
He he is now a professional poker player for Phantom. That really random. It makes sense. But he was the most soft spoken, like slow talking, unexciting person ever. And he would write 70 to 72 deals a month, and that's probably about a 80% attachment rate on Internet. So that's cable and Internet package. And it was cable first. Yeah.
00:10:28:03 - 00:10:49:24
Speaker 3
And he was just a monster. And he had the driest, simplest pitch, but he would run from door to door. Yeah. I mean, he would just his trackable actions were through the roof, double what anybody else's was. And he would tell him, I just no more doors in you and they wouldn't believe him. They thought he had some kind of secret sauce, secret pitch.
00:10:49:29 - 00:11:16:15
Speaker 3
He literally followed our script verbatim. Yeah. And he just executed on and he was able to kind of turn off the emotional beast, you know what I mean? And then that's the deal. It's like, if you can turn off your emotions and just do the tracking of actions. Yeah, and you're going to be successful. So whatever your style is, you know, and I would, I would guess that you're just going to be counselor or detective, you know, which is a soft spoken style, you know?
00:11:16:15 - 00:11:16:29
Speaker 3
Yeah.
00:11:16:29 - 00:11:46:20
Speaker 4
One one of the two. I've never heard those sales profiles before. It's really interesting. I'd like to learn more about that. But the you know, I read a book a while ago, I think called The Introverts Edge actually got quite a bit out of it. It was kind of the same thing of like an introvert. Following the system can be an extrovert writing, you know, just playing it loose and fast and not following anything like any day.
00:11:46:23 - 00:12:02:07
Speaker 4
Like if you're able to turn off the emotions and just do the actions. I mean, that's that's every day. I mean, that's that's prospect Bacon in a sense. You know, like people are like, oh, you guys are so successful, like you've grown up so fast. And I'm like, I don't know, we're coming up on four years like this.
00:12:02:15 - 00:12:04:16
Speaker 3
You know.
00:12:04:16 - 00:12:22:13
Speaker 4
We're not brand new. You know, it's not like we started last year and it's kind of like this. I made this post one time, kind of about like the cockroach effect, and it's this idea of like, if you do something long, like there's people we talk to every month that are like, Hey, we've been watching you guys for like two years.
00:12:22:13 - 00:12:30:13
Speaker 4
I think we're finally ready to do something like you're legit now because everybody expects marketers just to fail. I get.
00:12:30:15 - 00:12:36:24
Speaker 3
You know, and I know everybody says this, but I literally I can go to my messages right now and show you three messages from marketers.
00:12:36:29 - 00:12:37:09
Speaker 4
Yeah.
00:12:37:22 - 00:12:49:03
Speaker 3
From today. Yeah. Yeah. And it's like we're not even doing any kind of volume. Yeah. You know, but they're not qualifying at all like, insane. And so, but anyways.
00:12:49:22 - 00:12:51:13
Speaker 4
So just out there doing stuff.
00:12:51:24 - 00:13:04:02
Speaker 3
Yeah. You know, in actions. Yeah. Yeah. And they're not educated actions unfortunately. You know there is a difference between the action and the educated action, Right. Yeah.
00:13:04:03 - 00:13:37:15
Speaker 1
So do the actions. Educated actions. That's what we want to, you know, emphasize the educated actions. I personally, I'm an introvert in nature. I'm, I'm good at getting out of my shell. But by nature, I am an introvert. So hearing that hearing, hey, make sure that you're doing the actions that that you're required to do, that is what's going to push you over that edge.
00:13:37:15 - 00:14:01:14
Speaker 1
You don't have to change your personality. You don't have to change who you are as an individual, but you need to make sure that you're doing the actions in the trackable that will get you to that next step. Without those actions, those trackable, you're not going to be like Mr.. Mr. Skinner, who was closing 75 deals in a month, but just, you know, hey, I'm doing what I'm supposed to be doing.
00:14:01:14 - 00:14:29:12
Speaker 1
That's it. I'm going to the next door knocking more doors than you. I'm doing what I got to do to get what I need to get. And that really stood out to me because, again, introvert by nature, my job requires me to be a little bit more extroverted. So I'm just kind of going through those motions and making sure that those things are trackable, those things are done correctly, and that's what's going to get me to the success that I want to get to, and that's what's going to get you to the success you want to get to.
00:14:29:19 - 00:14:56:04
Speaker 1
If you fall into those categories as well as if you don't fall into those categories, it's always good to keep your success based off of the actions that you can control. The next person that we have is Ms.. Gal Casper. She has a book called Smell Like a Cockatoo that was mandatory to put on a best of list because what the heck does it mean to sell like a cockatoo?
00:14:56:11 - 00:15:01:00
Speaker 1
We go into that. I'll talk more about it after this clip. Let's take a.
00:15:01:00 - 00:15:10:02
Speaker 3
Look at title because it's super catchy. It's like, All right, what's this about? You know what I mean? So can you dive into that a little more? What What is selling like cockatoo?
00:15:10:20 - 00:15:29:23
Speaker 5
All right, So first of all, people said to me, okay, what? Where did you come up with the cockatoo, girl? What the heck? Where's that coming from? And when you look at the similarities of a cockatoo in a sales rep, cockatoos need consistency. They need to know that you're going to continue to be there. So there's that consistency piece of the puzzle.
00:15:30:08 - 00:15:57:00
Speaker 5
They also don't like to be bored. You don't want to sit around, challenge them. I mean, sales reps are smart. They help them become all that they can be. Sales cockatoos are loud, Sales reps get loud, they're excited, they close that deal and how hard they work to get there. They get loud and cockatoos can dance and those are the pieces of the puzzle that I bring to the book to teach people, meaning it's all about body language, tone of voice and words.
00:15:57:00 - 00:16:18:24
Speaker 5
When you meet somebody or you're dealing with them through Zoom, how do you connect with those people and how do you do it quickly? What is your body language say to someone else? What is their body language saying to you? How do you need to maneuver that sales call so that you can move toward a close or stop it and address something that they're doing or saying so that you can cut something off at the chase and keep it moving forward.
00:16:19:04 - 00:16:50:07
Speaker 5
So cockatoos dance and cockatoos have a six year relationship with their owner, which is always our goal. We want people to keep coming back and send us those referrals and keep hoping business and building our book. So that's that's the essence of what the book is about. And I do address sales teams in their sales managers. How are we creating the culture that sales reps want to come and work for us, Meaning we're raising the bar, we're going to deliver that high level training, we're going to be involved in the process.
00:16:50:15 - 00:16:59:12
Speaker 5
We'll pay them a little bit more to be part of our team, but we're going to expect more. So I talk about creating their Cockatoo culture as well.
00:17:00:22 - 00:17:20:13
Speaker 3
I love the analogy you use when you're dealing with customers too, in the body language and you know, their inflection and tone and everything. And it's a dance, right? And I think if more people in sales look at it, that way and less people look at it as, you know, the Wolf of Wall Street type sales, you know, they're going to be a lot more successful.
00:17:20:13 - 00:17:43:20
Speaker 3
And more importantly, they're going to be happier and they're going to have more peace at the end of the day, because they don't have to, like, create this persona in order to close deals. They just have to know how to navigate with their customers. One of the my favorite trainings that I will often do, especially on the on the first audit of a consulting trip, right.
00:17:43:20 - 00:18:09:11
Speaker 3
So I go out to the client, know, excuse me, I audit their sales program and they always ask me to do a training while I'm there. So one of my favorite ones to do is selling the way customers want to buy. And you know, you're from the training world. Yeah. So Southwestern Consulting originally came up with as well, as far as I know, because they originally came up with this training and the first person that did this training for me was actually Roy evaded, you know.
00:18:09:12 - 00:18:10:02
Speaker 3
Roy Evaded?
00:18:10:13 - 00:18:12:22
Speaker 5
Yeah, I do like him. My God.
00:18:13:03 - 00:18:36:00
Speaker 3
Yeah. And he did it at an it So my product early on was AT&T and then eventually transformed it to DirecTV. Right. And so they they had a DirecTV revolution and so Roy would come and speak at that and do that training. And then the first time he did it, I was just like, this is what we need at the door, you know, because it teaches you.
00:18:36:01 - 00:18:57:00
Speaker 3
It teaches you the four personality types, which is detective, entertainer, counselor and fighter. Right. And as within the first 5 to 10 seconds, you can tell which one they are based on how they open the door. You know, and the same thing works for and voice inflection and in phone sales. And then obviously, you can see the body language over Zoom.
00:18:57:15 - 00:19:05:03
Speaker 3
And so it's just such a cool way to break down the customer and then sell how they want to be sold that is comfortable for them.
00:19:05:11 - 00:19:21:00
Speaker 5
And I love that. And I emphasize that in the book as well. Meaning to be president instead of going in, like you said. Well, for Wall Street, this is what I had to do. This is how I need to close it. If you're just there with the customer, you can hear who they are, you can feel what they're about.
00:19:21:00 - 00:19:37:27
Speaker 5
You can sense what's going on and you can modify your presentation as you need to without getting I'm not saying eliminate the sales process, but you know how to how to move it. And you can be there with a human being because that's ultimately what we're trying to do. We want to connect with them. We want them to trust us and believe in us.
00:19:38:08 - 00:19:43:13
Speaker 5
And they can't do that if we're just following a process and we don't have a sense of who they are. So I love that.
00:19:43:27 - 00:19:50:21
Speaker 3
100%. You know, it's that, you know, like and trust factor and you can't create it unless you're present.
00:19:50:21 - 00:20:12:03
Speaker 5
And just to tell you a quick story, when I started in the trading world, I started with an organization that gave me their training program. This is what you have to do at the beginning. This is what you have to do with this and blah, blah, blah. I never understood it was a public speaking course and I never understood why we had to do certain exercises until I had to write the class myself.
00:20:12:19 - 00:20:30:13
Speaker 5
When I decided to get out there and create my own public speaking course, I said I got it. The light bulb went off. So it's not really until you understand all the steps of the sales process that you can really modify and change them and be present. You got to get it. You can't just follow these steps because you're told to do it.
00:20:32:09 - 00:20:40:04
Speaker 3
On a percent. And you know, where that really gets highlighted is between sales and fulfillment.
00:20:40:04 - 00:21:12:12
Speaker 1
So like a cockatoo, they are expressive creatures. That's what I learned from that interview that we had with Gil. Cockatoos are very expressive. They are very personable creatures. They stick with their owners for 60 years. That's crazy to me, but it's that familiarity that they have with them. So selling like a cockatoo in my head and applying that to what I do as podcast host, as a musician and everything like that is that personable side of it.
00:21:13:02 - 00:21:44:15
Speaker 1
Being present is one thing that they mentioned in there is being present with your customer understanding how they want to by understanding who they are, and then also on the manager side, on the CEO side of the, the, you know, VP of sales side is creating that culture to where you can have salespeople who can be comfortable being the cockatoo in those situations where they want to stay with you, where they want to be expressive, where they want to learn how to do that song and dance with their customers and learning how they buy and sell.
00:21:44:21 - 00:22:05:07
Speaker 1
Those are very important aspects that I think anybody who is in sales, anybody who is in any kind of industry could learn. And that was just a great episode for me. I think that these three episodes in particular in the month of November, really, really showed a lot of what the range of the Building Great Sales Teams podcast has.
00:22:06:11 - 00:22:31:02
Speaker 1
As always, we are going to be here three episodes even through the holidays. Right now it is the Wednesday before Christmas, so happy holidays if I do not see you before then. And if I do see you before then. Hey, happy holidays Before you listen to this episode, We appreciate you. Appreciate it. We appreciate you guys joining us on the Building Great Sales Teams podcast.
00:22:31:12 - 00:22:56:11
Speaker 1
If you are not already signed up, go ahead and go to building great sales teams dot com. Again, that is building great sales teams dot com and join our newsletter so you can be kept up to date with everything that we got going on with the building Great Sales Teams podcast. You'll be the first one to hear whatever is happening with me, Doug and the rest of the team here as well as anything that we might have going on or like events.
00:22:56:19 - 00:23:03:18
Speaker 1
The book that is coming or any training courses that are available. So thank you guys again for listening and we'll see you next time on the biggest podcast.