Here's a quick message for printers and promo product distributors who would like to grow their businesses and dominate their markets starting in as little as 22 minutes a day.


If you own a such a business, even if it's a small one, that may sound impossible to you, but give me just 45 seconds and I'll explain why it's not.

First, it never occurs to most business owners in our industry that they could dominate their market. For that reason, they never even try.

Instead, they set small goals and often struggle to achieve even those.

Second, even if it DOES occur to them, they don't know how to do it. They don't know the exact steps. They don't know what to do. But with the right steps, they can start small, and grow and dominate from there.

Third, 22 minutes a day. What's up with that? Well, that's the difference between doing nothing each day and doing something.

Most business owners spend roughly zero minutes a day focused on market domination. So even a small amount of focus, like the sun through a magnifying glass, can make a huge difference.

If you'd like to learn more, go to TopSecrets.com/22. That's TopSecrets.com/22.
Ready to Start Dominating Your Market Fast?
If so, download this PDF. Then check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just starting out in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.
Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.
Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.
Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.
Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

David: Hi, and welcome back to today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the lead quality matrix. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Good to be here. Excited to chat about this, because I don't know what you're talking about.



Kevin: So what is this lead quality matrix and why is it important?

David: Well, a lot of times in my work with clients, we're talking about leads. "I need more leads" and "I got to get more leads," everybody's always talking about leads, which is very important. But as we're getting these leads in the door, sometimes it's a good idea to say, "okay, well who do I actually want to bring in?"

Now, in our work with clients, we are very big on qualification. We want to make sure that the leads that we bring in are being qualified as quickly as possible. Because if they're not qualified, we don't really want to spend a whole lot of time interacting with them.

So when we're bringing new leads through the door, obviously we're going to try to disqualify the not so great ones in the early stages.

But also when we're putting stuff out into the market, whether it's a social media post or an email or we're meeting somebody for the first time at a networking function, whatever it is, we want to try to get an idea of the quality of the lead as early in the process as possible.

When I talk about the lead quality matrix, if you just sort of imagine a graph. And going across the bottom is Willingness to Communicate. Are they willing to communicate? And so the farther you go to the right, the more willing they are to communicate with you and then going up and down is money to spend. Do they have money to spend?

If they have a lot of money to spend, that goes up. If they don't, it's at the bottom. So if you think of that as being the matrix. You start off in the lower left hand corner, you've got people who have no money to spend who are not communicative. That's kind of easy, right?

Kevin: Yeah. Those aren't ideal.

David: Right. We know what we're doing with those people. We're going to jettison them as soon as humanly possible. In the upper right, we have those who are highly communicative and who have money to spend. So what do we call those people? Like ideal clients, I would say, right, high quality leads. This is the sweet spot. This is where I want to be. This is what I'm looking for, right?

Kevin: Right.

David: So that's kind of obvious. What's less obvious, and in some ways more interesting is the other corners, right? If you look at some of the other corners and you say, okay here are a bunch of people who are extremely communicative. They'll communicate all day, they'll talk to you till they're blue in the face, but they have no money to spend. Huge time wasters.

Many people will go to networking functions and talk to people like this for hours on end, weeks at a time, because they never take the time to just do the simple math on it and say, okay, highly communicative, unable to spend. So that's an interesting group of people.

Then we have the other extreme, which is people who have a lot of money to spend, but they're just not talking to you. So if they have a lot of money to spend, if it's a big client, big company, very self-important, but they won't return your phone calls, and they won't talk to you... You decide how long you want to deal with that sort of thing.

Kevin: Yeah.

David: And those are just the four most extreme points. But it really is obvious when you look at it like that.

Kevin: And we've all chased the white whale or whatever that has all the money and you're wanting it so bad to get them as a client. Because you know it'll be lucrative. But I don't know. Those people tend to be very difficult to deal with too if yo...

When it comes to getting referrals proactively, that's another thing people do as well. They think they have to wait until they have already sold something and the client is happy. And that's not the case. I mean, when you're talking about asking about referrals, you can do that at any stage, and at every stage, I mean, ask always, right? Why not?



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the topic of getting referrals proactively. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Great to be here, David. How you been?

David: Been doing great. and you?

Kevin: I can't complain. I'm doing well. Yeah, this is a good one. This is a good topic because anybody in any business can get a lot from more referrals. So, why do so many businesses sit around, waiting for referrals, instead of actively generating them.

David: I have no idea.

Kevin: Oh, thanks for joining us..

David: No, I do have an idea. Because I think we've probably all done it at one point or other over the years. The reason that I really think it's important to talk about referrals is so often, I mean, I've done presentations at trade shows all over the country and actually around the world.

I mean like Australia and in Europe. I mean, I've done this with a lot of people, a lot of times over a lot of years, and very often when I talk to people and I ask them the biggest way that they grow their business, they tell me referrals.

And when I hear that, I think, "okay, that's great, but how much business are you leaving on the table?"

Right? Because a lot of times they are doing exactly what you just described. They're just sitting around waiting for those referrals to come in. Now, they don't say that.

They won't tell you that. Right? What they'll say is, yeah, referrals. They got a lot of business from referrals. And I'm like, that's great.

And when you get business as a result of referrals, just because you're doing a good job and somebody hears about you, that is wonderful. But that is also extremely reactive. So that's why we're talking about, in this podcast, the idea of doing it proactively.

Because when you add that component to your referral-getting, you can very likely double or triple the results that you're getting as a result of just waiting around to see who shows up at your door.

Kevin: Is it a mindset shift that needs to happen to get better at asking for referrals or feel more comfortable asking for referrals?

David: It could very well be a mindset shift. It could be that it hasn't even occurred to people, right? It's like, okay, referrals are like a bonus. I get referrals. I'm happy when I get them, and I don't think about them.

But when you're looking to grow proactively, you need to think in terms of all the different methods that you're using to make that happen.

So if I'm doing any sort of outreach, whether it's social media, whether it's on the phone, whether it's emails, whatever it is that you're doing. You say, okay, well how can I do more of this?

And when it comes to referrals, a lot of times people say, oh, well, that's when stuff comes in. But it's like the old saying, I think it was Zig Ziglar who said, don't wait for your ship to come in if you haven't sent one out. I always love that quote.

Kevin: Really good.

David: And so, yeah. So if you're looking to get referrals, what are you doing to make that happen? It's just like anything else.

Social media. If you post something on social media and somebody responds to you, you've initiated a conversation. You don't have to wait for someone else to initiate a referral. You can do it more proactively.

So yeah,

Here's why tariffs aren't the problem. Because there's always someone who's buying. Sometimes it's harder to find them. Sometimes it's easier to find them. So if, as a result of tariffs or anything else, it's going to be harder to find people, we understand that. But it doesn't mean that business is over and it doesn't mean that we can just sit and stew, because that just doesn't work.



David: Hi. Welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I'll be discussing the fact that tariffs are not the problem. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Good to to see you, David. How you been?

David: Been doing great. Great to see you as well.

Kevin: Yeah. We're talking about a topic that is in the news a little bit these days. You introduced the topic as tariffs aren't the problem. What do you mean by that?

David: Yeah. I mean, if you're watching the media, you would think they are, but...

Kevin: Yeah, I would say so.

David: What I mean by that, and I'm not saying they're not a problem. What I'm saying is they're not THE problem. Okay, difference in the title. Tariffs aren't the problem. Okay?

The reason this came up is I was having a conversation with someone in the promotional products industry who was talking about some of the issues that she was dealing with, and she mentioned the tariffs, and how the tariffs really had her very concerned.

And I said, well, it's understandable because it creates a level of uncertainty that people are generally not happy with. I said,

Kevin: Sure.

David: How many orders have you actually lost as a result of the tariffs? And she said, well, none. I'm like, okay. Well that's a good start, right?

If you haven't lost any orders so far as a result of it, that's a great way to start. And we just talked about the fact that everyone is dealing with this, everyone in the United States, anyone is dealing with this. And so, we're on an even playing field with any competitors, right? Because any competitors that we have are likely dealing with this as well.

When we focus on things that are not the problem, like the thing that's actually keeping us from getting clients or getting reorders, or getting referrals, when we focus on those things, we're going to be a lot more productive in terms of being able to accomplish more things in less time, without focusing on the things that are not the immediate problem for us.

Kevin: I mean, are business owners using tariffs or other external factors as as an excuse, if maybe they're having poor sales or things like that?

David: Probably not consciously, I don't think they're consciously using it as an excuse. But it's easy to see it happen. And it's not just tariffs. Anytime anyone is concerned about the growth of their business, not being able to get enough new orders through the door, not able to get enough new customers through the door.

Whenever they're not doing that, they're looking for reasons. And when you think of it logically, you'll look at the reasons that are actually happening. Well, what are the reasons this is happening? But when there are any sort of scapegoats in the market, people are likely to look at them, or point to them, or express concerns about them.

Very often the concerns are about the things that could happen, that might happen, that could potentially happen, as opposed to what is actually slowing them down right now?

Kevin: Mm-hmm. Yeah. And I think, it's dangerous to blame outside forces, like tariffs, instead of addressing in ternal issues. Because if you do that, you're going to potentially either ignore or downplay maybe some internal issues that you might have within your company. Is that a fair assessment?

David: Yeah,

It’s no fun when clients shop your ideas. If you ever came up with a brilliant idea for a promotion, only to have a prospect think it over, say they’d get back to you, but then ghost you and buy it from someone cheaper, you know the pain of being the unpaid consultant in the room.

Being the brains behind a competitor’s sale is not ideal.

You’re the one who did the work, thought it through, created the ideas, sourced the products, and made the recommendations only to have someone else place the order and cash the check.

What’s up with that?
Why are some ideas purchased immediately, while others are stolen, ghosted, shopped around, or just ignored completely?
That’s what we’ll explore in today’s episode.



If your best ideas keep ending up on someone else’s commission report, you may think you have a pricing problem. But it’s more likely you have a positioning problem.

And it starts with the way you build out the experience of doing business with you.
You're Not Just Selling Products—You're Selling a Process and an Experience
You already know that prospects and clients can buy promotional products from ANY of a never-ending lineup of distributors, both online and off.

That’s not what sets you apart.

What sets you apart is the experience you create for them, from your First Contact through every other aspect of dealing with you and your organization. This includes:

The clarity you bring to the project
The confidence they feel in your guidance and
The relief of not having to think through all the moving parts themselves

Those are just a few of the differentiators, and none of them happen by accident.

Instead, they’re the result of:

The Messaging you use to position yourself as a valued resource, instead of just another product peddler.
The marketing Vehicles you use to reach, impact and motivate recipients to get the desired response from them, and of course…
The People you are proactively choosing to engage with. Not just anyone, but those who are less likely to shop and more likely to buy.

If you don’t have those three pieces firmly dialed in: Your Messaging, your Vehicles, and your People, then the right experiences are far less likely to happen.
Why the Experience You Create Beats Product Alone Every Time
Let me ask you this. What does it feel like to work with you?

Years ago, salespeople had a much easier time getting away with selling features and benefits. “Here are the features of what the product is, and here are the benefits of what the product does for you.”

But in the information age, that doesn’t begin to cover it.

A spec sheet can do it adequately. They don’t need you for that.

So what are your best clients actually buying from you?

More often than not, it goes way beyond features and benefits. It also goes way beyond branded merchandise. It’s:

The confidence they get from the recommendations you make
The trust they have in your ability to deliver what you promise
The experience they have when interacting with you

Ultimately, it’s the emotion they feel as you bring all that together for them, taking the stress off their plate and knowing you’ll make them look like a star to their target audience.

It’s very difficult to shop that, because so few businesses deliver it consistently.

But that’s what they’re buying from you. Clarity. Confidence, and Certainty.

If your messaging doesn’t communicate that, then your value is invisible.

Without that, you end up with people asking for ideas, shopping them around, and awarding the business to the lowest bidder.

Want to stop undercharging and get paid what you're worth? In our last episode, we talked about the dangerous disconnect between effort and results. How being busy isn’t the same as being profitable, and why aligning your actions with your outcomes is the only sustainable way to grow.

But what happens when you do align your actions…
You do deliver real value…
And you’re still not making what you feel you're worth?

That’s what we’re getting into today. It's a big blind spot related to pricing and undercharging.

So if you already know your work is worth more than what you’re charging for it, this episode could be the game-changer you didn’t even know you needed.


The Hidden Problem: Undercharging Isn’t Just About Numbers
Most business owners don’t consciously undercharge for their services.
No one wakes up in the morning thinking, “How can I leave money on the table today?”

But undercharging is not usually about neglect. It’s also not about generosity.

More often than not, undercharging is related to fear.

Fear of losing to lowball competitors.
Fear of being seen as too expensive or greedy.
Fear of not getting the order.

It's also about perception: Their own perception, and the market’s perception.

Many people base their pricing on what they think their clients can afford… or what competitors are charging… or worse, what a particularly cheap prospect once told them they were worth.

But consider this:
Pricing isn’t just math. It’s strategy.
If your price doesn’t reflect your expertise, your results, and the transformation you create for your clients, it’s not just undervaluing your work.

It’s sending your market a message that says: “The work I do isn’t really worth all that much.”
Your Pricing = Your Market Position
In business, price signals value.

So when you charge like a commodity, you get treated like a commodity. And when you price like a strategic partner, you tend to get treated like one.

It’s not just about numbers, it’s about how your prospects and clients see you.

Are you the kind of person they value and are grateful to work with?

Or are you just someone they’re trying to squeeze for discounts?

That gap often comes down to three things that many business owners tend to overlook:

How they define their work.
Who they present it to.
What they allow themselves to charge for it.

It’s not about buzzwords or branding jargon. It’s about clarity.

Are you describing your work in a way that makes prospects lean in or glaze over?
Are you putting it in front of people who already get the value—or those who need convincing?
And are you pricing it in a way that honors the transformation you deliver… or just typical industry pricing?

In a free market system, everyone gets to set their own pricing. We all get to decide.

By saying this, I’m not suggesting you should overcharge for the products and services you offer. I’m just encouraging you to consider what your time, effort, and life energy are worth to you when calculating your prices.
Clients Are Willing to Pay More When They Understand Why
You already know that in every market, there are price-shoppers who always make their buying decisions based solely on price.

They’ll get ten quotes. That means ten people will do all the work of pricing out the job, only to lose that order to the one person who is willing to work for the least amount of money.

Are those the people you want to be basing your pricing on?

Another important consideration is that in every market,

Busy doesn't equal profitable. We got a lot of great feedback from our last episode, in which we talked about how many business owners still cling to outdated methods that used to work, but don’t work anymore.



We addressed the hard truth that more of the wrong activity won’t fix a broken approach.

We looked at the reasons typical performers feel stuck, waiting things out, hoping for a turnaround that may never come…

And we pointed out how smart, focused professionals adapt and move forward now, in a way that differentiates them from less-profitable, average businesses.

Today, I’d like to pick up that conversation by talking about one of the biggest sources of frustration that I hear from business owners and salespeople across the board:

Why am I working so hard and still not making enough money?

If you're grinding all day, doing "everything you're supposed to do," but still not seeing results, you’re not lazy, and you’re not crazy.

But it’s likely you got caught in a trap that drains your time, energy, and income.

I’m talking about…
The Effort Trap: Busy ≠ Profitable
At one time or another, we’ve probably all bought into the idea that if we just work harder, the results will come.

More hours, calls, emails, and outreach.

In some cases, it works. But not always.

More effort does not automatically equal more income. Sometimes it just means more exhaustion.

You can do all the things you think you need to do: chase leads, follow up, create quotes, juggle accounts and still feel stuck.

Because it’s not always about how much you’re doing.

It can also be about how well you do those things, and how well you communicate your value.

Effort alone doesn’t create income.

So it’s not just actions that create value in the eyes of your clients, and revenue for your business. Only aligned actions can do that.

When that alignment is missing? You can work 24/7 doing everything you think you need to do, and still come up short in the money department.
The Illusion of Progress: Mistaking Motion for Momentum
And that leads into the second trap—the illusion of progress.

This is where the to-do list becomes a badge of honor, and the packed calendar provides a false sense of security.

It feels productive, but at the end of the month, you still might not have enough in the bank.

Because movement alone is not progress.

It’s like the rocking chair, or the hamster wheel. It may keep you moving, but it doesn’t get you anywhere.

Same thing with being busy. It doesn’t guarantee forward momentum.

And that can be extremely demoralizing.

You’re checking all the boxes, showing up, doing the work… and you may still feel stuck in the same place.

That’s where burnout sets in, doubts creep in, and even really good people can start to wonder whether all of it is worthwhile.

Because even when you do great work, you still might not get paid based on your worth.
Value vs. Revenue: When Great Work Goes Unrecognized
Let’s say you’re someone who’s not just spinning your wheels.

You’re producing results, making your clients happy, and solving real problems for them.

If your income still isn’t where you feel it needs to be, it’s one of the most frustrating disconnects in business:

Doing valuable work… but not being paid in proportion to that value.

There’s a reason this happens.

It’s because the market doesn’t reward effort. And it doesn’t always reward value.

In fact, it’s more likely to reward perceived value and perceived results.

Time for a shift in your business? There was a period of time when getting print and promotional product clients was a lot easier.

People loved and appreciated your work. They answered and returned your phone calls. They placed orders proactively. Sometimes they even referred enough new clients that your customer base practically grew all by itself. Sounds like a fantasy! But does that still happen?

It can. But nowadays? Not so much...



Today, too many people in our industry are fighting against reality. They're pounding away on activities that used to work, but don't work anymore. Instead of changing their actions, they blame the prospects, or the marketing method, or the economy, or the tariffs.

You'll see them complaining in industry groups, saying things like "People aren't answering their phones." "Social media's a waste of time." "No one's returning phone calls." "Networking events are worthless." "This economy stinks!"

And while people may be experiencing those things, the people who are making money in our industry right now are not doing any of that. They know that all the whining, blame-shifting and scape-goating is not going to fix problems that are partially caused, at least,  by taking wrong or ineffective actions that no longer work.

So instead, they're adapting their approach, refocusing their efforts, eliminating ineffective tactics, and engaging in the tested, proven, strategic methods that work right now.

You know, the gap between where you are right now and where you want to be is not going to magically fill itself. And you can't count on the actions that used to fill those gaps to continue to do so in the future. Because they won't. They can't. It is literally impossible.

Of course, very few motivated people will sit around willingly and do nothing, as the things that used to work for them continue to lose their effectiveness. But very often, they just double down and try to do more of it with brute force effort. Putting in more time, more energy, making more calls, and overcoming more objections, while continuing to fall behind.

It's exhausting to watch, and it's even more exhausting if you have to do it!

So why doesn't that work?

Because taking ineffective actions more aggressively does not create the results you want.

Yes, in business, particularly when you're facing challenges, speed of implementation is critical. But that only works when you're taking the right actions in the right order.

Doing the wrong things faster won't get you to your goal. It's like speeding off in a racecar that's going in the wrong direction.

So while TYPICAL businesses try to fix the problem by running faster, working longer, pushing harder, and sacrificing more -- to try to make the hamster wheel turn faster, and faster, and faster, while still getting them nowhere -- smart, focused business owners are changing their approach to suit the times.

You probably already know that if your business is struggling, and you don't change your approach, your results cannot possibly change. It's like Einstein's definition of insanity, doing the same things over and over and expecting a different result. And since so much has changed in such a short period of time, you can't even expect the things that DID work well -- even a few months ago -- to work well now.

So what do you do?

Well, it's likely that if you knew what changes to make -- if you knew exactly what to do, and exactly how to fix it -- you would have done it by now, right? Because, who wouldn't?

What I'm talking about today is not for the majority of typical business owners who are just going to sit it out, wait it out, or worse yet, whine it out on social media.

Arguing with reality in business is a huge waste of time. If you've got clients who are in that head space where they're sort of scared, they're not quite sure what to do next. If you call them and you're in that same head space, then you're not helpful to them. But if you call them with some thoughts or ideas on how you can help them to accomplish the things they want to accomplish, now you have value, and they're going to be happy to talk to you.

They're going to want to talk to you because they understand that you may have the solution to some of the problems they're facing.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I ask the question, are you stuck arguing with reality? Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Good to see you, David. Normally, I feel like I'm stuck arguing with virtual reality these days. With Chat GPT or the like. What are we talking about when you say "argue with reality?"


David: We touched on this in a previous podcast, and it's a quote that I heard from Byron Katie. She wrote a book called Loving What Is, and she had this quote in there where she said, "Whenever I argue with reality, I lose, but only 100% of the time."

And I loved that quote because it just seemed so completely true.

Anytime we argue with whatever is actually happening, whatever's going on in the world, whenever we argue with that reality, we lose.

And if you go to social media, any social media platform, you will find millions of people, every day, arguing with reality.

They'll be talking about things they have no control over, that they wish weren't the case. And you can waste so much life doing this, that I thought it would be good for us to have a conversation about it.

Kevin: Well, we talked a little bit about controlling what you can control and accepting what you can't control, so it kind of fits into the same category. And it feels like we tend to resist what's happening, instead of adapting to it. Is that fair to say?

David: Yeah. I think a lot of people do that, and not that we're even doing it intentionally. A lot of times we don't even consider this idea of what is reality versus what am I looking at on a day-to-day basis?

We tend to go into experiences, whether it's conversations with people, whether it's posting something on social media or replying to someone on social media, doing any of these things, and we just feel like we're having a conversation and we don't necessarily take into consideration what are the things that are just real and true, that I might be arguing against, right?

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

David: So when people go online, particularly now, and they're on there and they're talking about tariffs and all the terrible things that are going to be happening to their business, I look at that and I'm like, okay, well, the tariffs, that's true. The uncertainty in the market, that's true.

Everyone is dealing with that. But if I talk about that without looking for solutions, without looking for the ways to get around those problems, then why am I even doing it? Isn't that not just wasting time, but wasting our lives and other people's lives?

Kevin: Mm-hmm. What other ways, you know, we mentioned tariffs, there's plenty of big stuff out there that's happening that affects the business world.

But as far as, you know, just getting into the sales process, the business process, what other ways do you find that people argue with reality?

David: Ghosting. Sales in general? Cold calling. I mean, every aspect of sales requires us to deal with different aspects of reality every single time. Right?

"These people won't call me back." Okay. That may be a reality with those people.

We'll say things like, "oh man, there's just so much going on. I'm so busy. I'm just busy, busy, busy every day." When you're saying that sort of thing, it's a strong indication that you've got a bunch of unfinished business. You've got open loops, and maybe you're not capturing it.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I will be discussing the topic of no more unfinished business. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Good to see you, David. How you been?

David: Been doing great. And you?

Kevin: Good, good. So unfinished business. What do you mean when you say that?

David: Well, I learned this somewhere, a number of years ago, and when I first heard, I was like, "oh man, this is me."

They were talking about the fact that in business there are starters and there are finishers. And very often they're not the same person. Right? There are some people who are very good at starting projects and other people who are very good at finishing them. A lot of entrepreneurs, and some salespeople as well, are very good at starting projects.

We're all excited and we're very happy to dive in, and then we tend to lose interest as we go.

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

David: And what that creates is a lot of unfinished things all around. And when you've got these unfinished things, they weigh on you. Right?

And so when I talk about the idea of no more unfinished business, what I'm saying is that we should look at the things that are out there, that are stuck in the back of our minds. It's like, "I know I need to do that. I know I need to finish it. I haven't done it yet, but I don't feel like it," or whatever it is that's keeping us from getting it done.

Kevin: Is it possible that you need to look at it and say were these things really that important in the first place?

David: That's a great way to approach it. Right? Because there are things you just say, you know what? I started that, but no, that's not worthwhile.

Kevin: There's a reason I didn't finish it. Yeah.

David: Exactly. And it's good to eliminate that sort of thing. Whenever you're able to do that. If there's something that you're working on, you decide, look, this is not generating the results I'm looking for.

Yes. Just make sure that you don't cancel it because you don't feel like doing it, right? You got to cancel it for the right reasons. If you're going to eliminate it, make sure that you evaluated it first.

One of the things that I've talked about a lot in terms of just the things that we do in our projects is looking at things, I refer to it as the RADD method, RADD.

It stands for Remove, Automate, Delegate, or Do. Okay, so we start with the R. Remove.

And there's a reason these are actually in this order, which I'd nearly forgotten. But the reason is that if you do it in this order, you're going to end up a lot better off. If you start by removing the things that don't have to be done, then wow, that's a big relief.

You're able to, essentially,

Kevin: Your list just got smaller. Yeah, yeah.

David: Yeah. You just eliminate it before it even becomes a problem, so that's the first step. You basically remove it.

Second step is if you can automate it, right? If it's something that can be automated, then you don't have to do it. You don't have to have anyone else do it, and it will happen automatically going forward.

So simple things like email autoresponders can allow you to create responses to something once and then have them happen again and again and again. So anything that can be automated, ideally should be automated.

Third step is delegating. Can I delegate this to someone else?

I've been having conversations over the past couple of weeks about this very topic of creating certainty in uncertain times. So much of it boils down to the specific steps I can put in place in my business. Reach out to the right people, say the right things, in the right order, consistently. That will not only improve your confidence in yourself. It will improve their confidence in you and their certainty that you can do the job for them.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I'll be discussing creating certainty in uncertain times. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Great to see you again, David. Wow, uncertain times. There's an understatement of the year, huh?

David: Yeah. There's been so much discussion on the forums and inside the social media groups and everything like that. A lot of people are uncertain about a lot of things, and that does not generally bode well for businesses.

Kevin: No, no, it definitely doesn't. So what does it really mean to create certainty? When everything around you feels unstable.

David: Yeah. We had talked in a previous podcast about our circles of influence. Like the things we can control and the things we can't. It really does circle back in a lot of ways to this.

When we talk about creating certainty, we can only ever do that within the realms that we control. We can create certainty in specific aspects of our business.

So when we're talking about things like tariffs, which obviously is a big topic these days, a lot of our clients are in the promotional products industry, and a lot of that product tends to come from overseas. Much of it is coming from China.

So in those situations, we're not able to create certainty with that, right? That's not within our sphere of influence. So what we can do and what our clients can do is to look at the specific things we can create certainty around.

Can we identify suppliers who are can provide products for us that are not impacted by that?

Can we look at more domestic suppliers? What are the specific things we can do to create a level of certainty for our customers? Something our competitors might not be able to provide?

Kevin: And I think there's a level of authenticity too that has to go with it, right? Because certainty you can sort of project certainty. but you don't wanna pretend to have all the answers when you don't. So how do you balance that?

David: Yeah, you can't really fake certain, well, I guess you can fake certainty.

Kevin: You can try. Yeah,

David: You can pretend you're certain, but I'm not really talking about that.

I think there's certainly an air of confidence that you want to be able to convey to your clients, and sometimes when you're conveying confidence, you may still not be certain about things.

But in this conversation, I'd like to look at, okay, what are the things that we can do? What can we be certain of? You know, are we certain that we can help our clients? And if so, how are we certain that we can help our clients?

What are the things that we know that we can do that will help them? And if it's about sourcing things that are more in line with exactly what they're looking for, trying to get around the obstacles for our clients.

If we're certain we can do those types of things. Just identifying the very specific steps that we can take, what can we be certain about, and then focus on those things.

Kevin: You mentioned that, a lot of our listeners are in the promotional product space. There's still a lot of uncertainty that's coming our way. A lot of flipping and flopping going on with tariffs and whatnot. What do you recommend businesses do to sort of like help prep?

Anytime there is any sort of issue in your business that’s not quite going the way it should, don't sabotage your sales success. Instead, just ask yourself, is this because the process that I have in place is not working? Or is it because the person who is supposed to be following the process just didn’t do it?



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and will be discussing How Businesses Sabotage their Sales. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Good to see you, David. How you been?

David: Been doing great. It's good to see you too.

Kevin: Yeah, for sure. I'm excited to talk about this. So, sabotaging sales, what do you mean by that, when you say businesses are sabotaging their sales?

David: You know, I had some experiences recently and I'm like, did they intend to do this? Is this what they were trying to do? Did they set out to do this when they were doing it. One of the experiences I had recently was I was going to buy a pair of earbuds, right?

And there's a particular brand of earbuds that I like. It's not the ones that would normally leap to mind. It's another one. But a good brand, they work really well. And I got a text from them saying that they were having a sale. And I was like, okay, cool. Maybe I'll buy an extra pair of earbuds even though I don't need them.

And so in the link that they sent me, they said, click through and you get 35% off. I'm like, cool. So I click through the link and it takes me to a picture of what I think are the earbuds that they're selling, and it says 20% off, with a certain promo code.

And I'm like, okay, well I'm looking for the 35% off, but there was a different promo code in the text, so I'm like, okay, I'll just plug the correct promo code and it'll work. Right?

So finally figured out how to do that. No, it said this is not applicable to this particular product. So I'm like, okay. But they had some sort of chat person or chat being or chat AI, I don't know what it was.

Kevin: Chat AI agent. Yeah.

David: Yeah. Something not quite what I thought it might be, but. I thought, okay, well I'll ask the question. And none of the answers that I got were relevant to what I was asking. And I was like, I'm here. I've got my wallet open.

Kevin: I'm ready to buy!

David: I want to buy exactly the thing that you sent me a text to, and you're making it hard. Why are you making it so hard?

Kevin: Yeah.

David: And it replied quickly to a lot of questions and then, it was just like ghosting. It's like, okay, I didn't hear anything back. So I'm like, I'm like, are you AI? And I didn't get an answer. I thought if it was AI, it would at least tell me it was AI.

So, I didn't get to order that day. The next day I tried again. I actually reached out to their customer support, had another non-experience there. But eventually I was able to figure out that apparently there were two sets of this earbud in a similar color, and the link took you to the wrong one and applied the wrong link. And so that's why it was saying it was wrong.

And I didn't care about the color. I was like, I wouldn't have normally bought this color, but it was 35% off, so I was like...

Kevin: Yeah, yeah, whatever.

David: Right.

Kevin: Earbuds.

David: Anyway, long story short is what should have taken three to five minutes and been an exceptional experience took a whole lot longer and diminished my passion for this particular product.

So I thought, you know, there are a lot of businesses that do this sort of thing, and the words that leap to my mind is that they're sabotaging their own sales, which is kind of the purpose of this conversation.

It's not always easy to get information from clients. If you're in a situation where you have good relationships with your clients, but you're struggling to get the information you need from them, there are very specific things that you can do that will help you to accomplish that a lot faster and a lot more organically. It'll just feel better when you're doing it right, and they'll be a lot more likely to help you with it.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I will be discussing getting information out of clients. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Hey, welcome back to you too. I'm really excited to talk about this because let's be honest, like we're all very conscious of the fact that everyone wants our information, so it's a bit of a struggle sometimes.

David: Yeah, it really is. And when we're looking at trying to extract information from clients, sometimes it's like trying to pull teeth. Or trying to get the information that we need to either advance the sale or to be able to get an order completed and that sort of thing. And it can definitely be challenging.

Kevin: Yeah, no doubt. How much of it do you think is how people ask for the information? Instead of saying like, give me this. Is it better to kind of think about it in more of a storytelling narrative kind of way to pull things out?

David: That's a great question. I think a lot of it depends on your personality and the way that you communicate with people.

Many salespeople, many of the best salespeople, I think are natural storytellers. You ask them what time it is and it starts with a story. Right? So...

Kevin: Well, it all started back when I was eight.

David: Let's talk about time, shall we?

Kevin: Yeah.

David: Yeah, so I think it can take that form. I think there are also situations, a lot of times, where we know what we need to get from them, and sometimes if we're just going for it all the time, that can come across as a little too pushy in some ways.

So I think there's a natural give and take that needs to happen, so that people can feel engaged with us.

If they feel engaged in the conversation, if they feel that we're listening to them, paying attention to what they need, and that's woven in with getting the next piece of information that I need without coming across like an interrogator.

Like I'm going to shine a light on you. It's like the third degree in the cop movies. Right? If it feels like that, they're gone.

But when you're able to just engage them and let them know that you care about getting them a result, then they're a lot more likely to be free with the information.

Kevin: Obviously at the front end of a sales cycle, it's more basic information and it keeps going, getting more detailed as things go on. Should people change their approach as they go on from first contacting someone to maybe having a warm or even hot lead?

David: Definitely, and I think you raised exactly the right point there, which is that it does generally start out more general and then it gets more and more specific as you're getting down to it.

Sometimes salespeople will lead with things like, what's your budget? Right? Which is kind of intrusive, right?

Kevin: Yeah. That's the one, right?

David: You don't need to ask me about my budget if I'm not buying anything from you, right?

Kevin: Yeah, yeah. What's your budget? What's your timeline? Right? Isn't that what everybody always says first?

David: Yeah. And that's not the kind of thing that generally needs to come first.

Initially, what needs to happen is they need to feel some sort of connection. They need to have a clear idea of what you do,

When we discuss a step-by-step approach to the sales process, we're taking a scientific approach, which most people don't do. They just keep going out there and getting in front of people, smiling and dialing, whatever it is they're doing. And when you take a more strategic approach, you just get far more consistent results.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I will be discussing a step-by-step process to the sales approach. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Great to see you, David. Excited to talk about this.

David: Yeah, it's great to see you as well. This actually came up because I saw this question going through a Facebook group. I thought it's an interesting topic because everybody's got their own idea of what that is, what that should be, and very few people actually have what they would describe as a step-by-step approach to the sales process, which I believe is critical if you want to be able to create consistent results.

Kevin: Why is it you think that people don't implement a step-by-step process? Is it just because they just like to shoot from the hip a little bit more or what is the reasoning?

David: Well, there are a lot of salespeople who do just like to go with the flow and they go with the conversation and everything like that.

And there are some people who can do that extremely well.

Kevin: Sure.

David: But my feeling is that even those who can do that extremely well are essentially harming themselves, by not having at least a framework that they go back to again and again and again, so that when prospects or clients inevitably get them derailed, they know exactly where to come back to so that they're not missing any steps.

That's why I think having the sales process in place is pretty important.

Kevin: Obviously, there's no universal sales approach for every industry because you know every industry is a little different, so how can a business lay out a good step-by-step sales approach that is suitable for what they do?

David: Great question. So in our business, one of the things that we help our clients with is exactly this. And a lot of our clients are in the print and promotional products industries, but this also applies to any other B2B business. It actually applies to a B2 C business. I haven't really found an industry where it doesn't apply.

And so when we initially laid this out in a program called Top Secrets of Customer Acquisition, we basically laid out six steps to customer acquisition. I'll put up a graph here to sort of demonstrate it as we're going through.

But the first step that we've identified is the targeting. Who exactly is it that I'm going to go after? Because if I don't know who I'm targeting, I've got no one to sell to.

I've got to have a really crystal clear idea of who the people are that I would like to go after. And so for me it always starts with that, who is it that I want to sell to?

Kevin: And in this day and age, we have so much data, we have so much information that there shouldn't be any reason you can't figure out that pretty precise target.

David: Exactly, and a lot of times people want to feel like they sell to everybody. But the problem is that, as the saying goes, if you feel like you're selling to everybody, you're probably not selling to anyone.

Because people don't always get it. They don't resonate with something unless they feel like the messaging is actually directed toward them.

So, it's a really good idea to. target small, Aim small, miss small, as they said in the movie the Patriot, right? Aim small, miss small.

You want to be able to do that with your targeting because when you do that,

What are the things you can control in your business? What are the things that we can look at? Identifying the very specific companies, the very specific industries that we need to be able to interact with, to be able to get our customers as close to what they need as possible.

We might not be able to get them exactly what they want at the price they want it. But most of them are going to understand that. Most clients are not going to blame you for the fact that the economy is doing certain things, or that there are things happening in the world.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, cohost Kevin Rosenquist and I will be discussing focusing on things you can control. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Hey, it's great to be here, David. I always am a big preacher around the house of "control what you can control." You know, I can't do everything. So control what you can control. So I'm excited to talk about this.

David: Yeah, it's a really good topic, both from a personal standpoint and from a business standpoint. It's so easy to get caught up in the day to day of what's going on outside our own environments. Especially with the news. Everybody's talking about different things that are happening regarding the economy, the stock market, all kinds of things that are happening.

When we focus too much on the things that are outside of our control, we basically abdicate the things we can work on that move the needle for us.

Kevin: Do you feel like people are even more focused on stuff they can't control? Like what's happening in the world and in the news now because of how much news is thrown at us in so many different ways with social media and whatnot?

David: I think so. Yeah. I think it's always been like this. But yes, it does seem to be more of an epidemic lately, than maybe it has been in the past.

I remember being exposed to this concept, I think it was in the Seven Habits of Highly Effective People.

Stephen Covey was talking about your sphere of influence.

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

David: Where you basically draw a circle and you say, okay, inside this circle is what I can control. And everything outside. It is what I can't control, which is basically the world and everything else. Right.

Kevin: Which is, which is a lot of stuff.

David: It is a lot of stuff. If this is the circle, then everything outside the circle off into infinity is the stuff you can't control. Exactly.

In a situation like that, the more you focus inside your sphere of influence, the bigger it gets.

So when you're focusing on the things that you have control of, you end up having control of more things.

When you focus your attention outside the sphere of influence, the smaller it gets. That's because you're not working on the things you can actually control.

And so for those of us in business... When we are able to really pay attention to that, you can grow your sphere of influence. You can control more of your own environment to accomplish the things you're looking to accomplish.

Kevin: Absolutely. So let 's get a little specific here. Let's talk about sales for a second. 'cause one of the things I think about with sales is that sales teams can get really tied up with market conditions and what competitors are doing and all that.

How can sales teams kind of focus on what they can directly influence.

David: That is such a brilliant example because it's so true. In sales meetings very often you'll have conversations. "Well, this person's doing this, or this person's doing that. Or these people are cutting their price." It's all valid.

Those are all things that may actually be happening in the marketplace that we have to respond to.

We'd love to help you to get from here to there in terms of eliminating waste in your business. When you're focused on getting those things done and when you've got processes and procedures in place to allow you to accomplish it more quickly, then everything gets a whole lot better.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I will be discussing eliminating waste in your business. Welcome, Kevin.

Kevin: Great to see you. David. Excited to be here.

David: I'm excited to have you here.

Kevin: Yeah, so we're talking waste, obviously waste in business. There's different kinds of waste.

A lot of people will immediately think of money, but that's not really what we're talking about, is it?

David: Well, some of what we're talking about, I guess. Yeah. There's been a lot of talk about finding and eliminating waste in the news. So I thought, how does that really apply when you're operating a business?

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

David: Anyone in business, particularly small to medium sized businesses, must be aware of the fact that there is always likely to waste in the business.

And as you pointed out, I mean, very often it starts with money. We're afraid that we might be wasting money, and in many cases we are.

Kevin: Sure.

David: But for most businesses who are reasonably run well, that's usually not the biggest thing.

Kevin: What would you say is the biggest thing, or can you give me like your top three?

David: Okay, sure. Yeah. I think for most of us it probably starts with time.

Kevin: Yeah.

David: Because the time that we waste is something that we can never get back.

I think I heard Brian Tracy say this years ago. If you lose money, you can always make more, but if you run out of time, that's it. All the money in the world won't help you. That's pretty much how it went.

Kevin: Yeah. I mean, there's no going back. So far they haven't figured out a way.

David: No. We have not figured out a way to do that.

So when we look at our days, weeks or even hours, we look at things like meetings. Are our meetings productive?

Are our processes organized or disorganized? What are the distractions like during the course of a day? Because when we're focusing on one thing and then we're distracted and we have to switch back and forth, it requires flipping the switches in our brains and getting ourselves adjusted to the new thing that we're thinking about.

All of those things consume time, which is, in many cases, even worse than money when we start wasting it.

Kevin: You brought up a good one, meetings. And I think that's something, especially in this day and age of Zoom calls and all that stuff. I have a lot of friends who are in the corporate world or in the business world, and they talk about the needless meetings, the constant need for them, for people to feel like you got to get the crew together.

Why are small businesses and medium sized businesses so focused on that and how can they like pull back?

David: Yeah, it's a great question. I think there are some people who just feel like it's necessary. I think there are some business owners, some managers who feel like their presence in everyone's day-to-day life is critical

Kevin: Right.

David: And that's true more of some people than others. Some employees are happy to be able to just do their own thing and get everything done. Others do need more interaction.

So it is an individual kind of thing. I think most business owners have to take a look at that and say, how much of me do they need? How much of their sales managers do they need?

If we look at the idea of reactivating your client base in as many ways as possible, it means interacting with the people who have spent the money with us and doing that at a personal level, building the relationship, that’s about the best thing we can do.



David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, cohost Jay McFarland, and I will be discussing reactivating your client base. Welcome Jay.


Jay: It’s good to be here. You know, it’s funny. I hear this everywhere I go now. If I watch Shark Tank or anything else, I hear this term CAC. You know, what is your CAC? And it’s your customer acquisition cost.

And I have to believe that your CAC, for a customer you’ve already worked with, has got to be lower than trying to bring in a brand new customer. Am I right?

David: Oh, absolutely. And I think instinctively as business people, we probably already know this. We’ve probably heard it a hundred times, but the purpose of this discussion is not to have you hear it again. The purpose of this discussion is to ask, “are you doing this?” And if so, how well are you doing this? How much better could you be doing this?

Because as you pointed out, once you’ve invested that money to acquire a customer, now you want to be able to leverage that relationship as much as possible to provide them with additional help, additional solutions so that you can generate the revenue. They can get the results they’re looking for, and you’re not spending more money to attract people. You’re able to just expand the relationships that you have with the people who you’ve already acquired that first time.

Jay: Yeah. And I think it’s disappointing if you spent that money for customer acquisition and then you don’t have a system to retain them or keep them online. And so now it’s almost like you’re spending the same money twice. If you’re trying to get them back again.

David: Right. Yes. And so when we think about reactivation, there are a couple of aspects to it. One is just people who haven’t bought from you in a little while, to touch base with them again, to reengage those people and to see what they want, what they need. Essentially, requalifying them to find out where they are in that process.

Are they ready to buy more things? Do they have a date in mind when they want to buy? Are they ready to go now? Or are they just not ready to do anything? Are they sort of disqualified for the moment? Are they unresponsive to you?

Because they’ll generally fall into one of those five categories. They’re either ready to buy. They have dates in mind when they want to buy. They’re open to the idea, but not sure when. Or they’re disqualified, or they’re not responsive.

When you are able to go back and sort of requalify your existing clients, you can reactivate the ones who are ready to go now. You can schedule the ones who know when they want to go next. And the ones who are generally receptive, you can just stay in touch.

Jay: Yeah. Or what about the ones who were disappointed, but they didn’t take the time. Right? So many customers will never tell you that they had a bad experience. They just move on and…

David: Yeah.

Jay: you had no idea. So you’re not improving your customer service and your chance of reviving that customer is very low.

David: Yeah. And that’s an excellent point, too. Because as you indicated, if you don’t know that, but you’re reaching out to them to see how you can help next, and you find out about that problem, then at least you have the possibility of restoring the relationship, if not doing anything about the previous order.

Jay: Yeah. So what are we talking about here? Like good drip campaigns? Is that kind of where you would start? So you’re in constant contact?

There are reasons people buy from you, and reasons they don't buy from you. Today I'd share a presentation I put together for my clients in the print and promotional products industry that reveals many reasons why clients don't buy from you, and the one solution that addresses them all.



Hi and welcome to today's presentation Why Promo Clients Don't Buy from You and the One Solution that Addresses Them All.

I am so happy to have you with me today. This is a topic I find extremely interesting and extremely powerful. It's information that I've shared with my Inner Circle clients and our Total Market Domination clients. But I wanted to give you just sort of an overview of some of the things that you might be addressing. And when you address them correctly, you can actually create amazing solutions inside your business.

So with that said, let's take a look at why promo clients don't buy from you, and then what we can do about it.

Well, first of all, why don't they buy from you? One of the first, primary reasons that people don't buy from you is that they have no idea that you're alive. If they don't know you're alive, they can't buy from you.

Next is that they don't know what you do.

Obviously, if people have no idea of what you do, they're not going to come to you for solutions. This also ties into the next one, which is that they don't know how you can help them. If they have absolutely no idea how you can help them, no one is going to seek you out.

Sometimes they may know you're alive, they may know what you do, they may know how you can help them, but they don't yet trust you.

Another reason is that they don't know if they should trust you. Even if they can, they might not know if they should.

Many of your prospects aren't going to know why you're different, and if they don't know why you're different from what they already have, or what they've already tried, then they have no incentive to try you.

Next, they don't know if they can afford you. Obviously, they're not going to know what you charge or any of the above until you first overcome the problems that we addressed earlier.

They won't take your calls. Obviously, if people aren't going to take your calls, then you're not going to be able to sell to them.

Same thing if they won't return your calls. If you're calling people again and again and again, and they don't return your calls, they're not going to be able to buy from you.

Next we have, "they already have someone." Have you ever heard that one?

The answer, of course, is yes, you've probably heard that quite a lot, unless you have not been in business very long.

They view you as a commodity. In the promotional products industry, this is relatively easy to do, because they look at it and they say, "Okay, if everybody has access to the same products and services, then why should I choose you?" Right?

And one of the problems is that many distributors don't have a good answer to this either. If you don't know why they shouldn't view you as a commodity, you can't convey it to them, and so they're never going to know either.

They're on social media and you're not. I've heard distributors tell me this. The reason they won't buy from me is that they're on social media and I'm not. I can't reach them. Okay, we'll talk about that, but the reverse is also true.

They're not on social media and you are. "Oh yeah, they're not on social media. I'm trying to reach them and I can't." This is true. It's objectively true. If either of those scenarios are the case, if you're on social media and they're not, or they're on social media and you're not, then yes, you're not going to be able to reach them there and get those customers to buy from you.

Disrupting sales relationships is tricky. When you go into a sales presentation, if you recognize that it's likely they're going to have someone, and if you've got an arsenal of responses that you can come back with to demonstrate to them why you are obviously the better choice, then they're going to be a lot more likely to at least give you a shot at that business, than if you don't have those things in place.



David: Hi, and welcome back in today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of disrupting sales relationships. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, David. It's a pleasure as always. I don't want to do it.  Don't want to disrupt sales processes. I refuse. Don't want to do it.

David: Okay. I refuse to participate. Yeah, it's a tough one. The word disrupt is a tough word. But the reality of the situation is that when we're approaching a new prospect, a new client, and that person already has a business relationship, perhaps with a competitor of ours -- the only way that we're even going to get a shot at that business is if we can, in some way, disrupt the existing sales relationship.

Now, I'm not talking about trying to drive a wedge between people. I'm not talking about anything nefarious. I'm just talking about the idea that to disrupt an established sales relationship, particularly one that is going reasonably well, requires you to be significantly better and different than the option that they're already looking at.

Jay: Yeah, I agree. and I think that this starts way ahead of trying to disrupt any particular process that's going on right now. We've talked about, in the past, do you know your competitors at all? Do you know their sales process? I mean, how would you disrupt anything if you didn't know the process of what was going on?

David: Yeah, exactly. And if you think in terms of business relationships versus personal relationships, when you're in high school and you first start dating, and the person that you like is already attracted to somebody else, like, oh, okay, well, how am I going to position myself as a better alternative, a better option, right?

So it requires strategy. It requires persistence. It requires some sort of advantage, right? Some sort of, what we would call in business, a competitive advantage.

And we need to think through those things, because it's the same in a business relationship. If they've got a great business relationship, it's going to be a lot harder.

In those situations, we have to determine whether or not it even makes sense for us to try to provide a better solution.

But here's the thing, if we truly believe that our solution is better than whatever they're currently receiving Then we kind of owe it to them to let them know that, don't we?

Jay: Oh, yeah, I absolutely agree with that and we talked I think in the last podcast that we're a company that loves it when you talk to our competitors. We love it when you're in a sales process with somebody else, cause we know how unique we are in our presentation, in our initial consultations. We know.

And so the key for us to disrupting an existing sales process with somebody else is just, how do we get them to call us?

How do we introduce ourselves to them mid process? Because we know if they can find us or we can find them, our chances are pretty good.

David: Exactly. And so in your situation where you're using online resources like pay per click and things like that, it's a matter of getting some sort of messaging in front of them that has them questioning at that point, whether or not there is a better alternative out there for them.

And so the only people who are going to schedule a call with you are the ones who have determined that they are at least open to exploring that ...

Getting to your ideal prospects involves identifying what our ideal prospect looks like in terms of the type of customer we’re looking for, the type of industry they’re in, the number of people in their organization if we're selling B2B. All these considerations that are going to add up to the ideal prospect, because until we know who it is we're going to go after, we have absolutely no idea where to go to find them.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode cohost Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the idea of getting to your ideal prospects. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, thank you so much. Another great topic. We could call this one the Holy Grail of Sales.

How much time does everybody spend talking to people who would never be their client in the first place? What would you do with all that extra time?

David: It is an amazing amount of time. When we work with clients, that is one of the biggest ways that they get back time that is otherwise spent. Very often, when people are considering the idea of working with us to help them grow their sales and profits, it's like, “well, am I going to have time to do this?”

And nine times out of 10, they don't have time not to do it. Because they're wasting, in many cases, so much time with poor, unqualified prospects. And simply by taking a few specific actions, you can pretty much eliminate a lot of that right up front, save yourself enormous amounts of time, and better still, being able to then interact with the types of clients you actually want to do business with

Jay: But I'm a new company.

I need money to pay my bills. I need to try and close everybody. Isn't that what you would hear?

David: In the early stages, everybody says that, and after they've been in business for a while, they try to figure out, now how do I undo what I've done? How do I untie this knot that I've tied for myself over the past however, many months or years?

But yeah, in the early stages, we just want to take anyone who's willing to do business with us. But eventually, when our true selves kick in -- when we find ourselves in a conversation with the wrong client, somebody that we took on a while before, and we recognize, wow, this was a mistake -- that's when you start thinking, Okay, well, maybe what I need to do going forward is to not just take anyone.

I need to identify who are these ideal prospects. How can I identify and initiate contact with the right people up front so that I'm not wasting a lot of time with the wrong people down the line.

Jay: Yeah, absolutely. I have a business partner and he's this sage old business partner. He's built several businesses on his own over the years and I didn't know he was even doing it, but he has this list of people who he doesn't want to do business with anymore. He calls it the naughty list.

And, somebody came around and they were repurchasing our services. He just, with no emotion said, “nah, I don't want to do that.”

And I'm like, what are you talking…? I didn't even remember the customer. And he's like, “no, they're on the naughty list. They were a pain. They didn't provide what we needed soon enough and they harassed us on our pricing. The answer is no.”

And so he's got this Santa Claus naughty list, and I was like, “but they want to give us money.” And I've just come around to his way of thinking. I am not emotional about it anymore. They're on the list. Forget it.

David: It's a lump of coal for you, baby. That's how it works. Yeah. I mean, it is a strong argument for the fact that you don't need more prospects, you need the right prospects.

You don't need more customers necessarily, you need more of the right customers. Because life is too short to do anything else in my view.