There’s an unedited version too

It may take me 10+ takes to make a 2 min video…

The same is true when I’m recording my podcast…

Some days are tougher than others because I just can’t get what I want to convey to flow right.

But you don’t see all of that…

You only see what I want you to see…

The edited version.

But there’s an unedited version too…

It’s full of takes & retakes; stumbling & slurs; trips & cursing rants.

I get pissed off…

then I get focused.

I try again…

and again…

and again.

Until the final version reveals itself.

All of the jumbled thoughts & efforts become refined and simplified through the try after try after try.

If you thought I was still talking about videos & podcasts you’d be misled.

I’m talking about Life.

Life is full of miscues, redo’s, rants, stumbles, and stalls.

You only see the edited version-the one others want you to see.

But there’s an unedited version too.

ALL of us have an unedited version.

So what you wish, envy, gawk, & wow about are edits.

It’s the version they want you to see.

You see the results…

but what you don’t see is what it took to get there.

The unedited version.

Everyone has an unedited version & I keep telling you this because I want you to realize that what you’re attempting to improve or change in your Life will not be accomplished in one take.

So don’t compare other people’s screens to your lens.

Their screen is the results.

Your lens is your effort & if you keep looking through your lens hoping to see their screen you’ll quit too soon.

Because you’re still editing.

It can be frustrating to see others vacationing while you’re figuring out how to pay the rent.

It can be overwhelming for him to be publishing his 7th book and you’re just trying to write one page.

Damn right it’s hard to show up at the gym in a size XXL and workout next to a slim, fit medium.

The new house, luxury ride, best schools, or padded bank accounts …

That’s the highlight reel.

Don’t compare their reels, highlighting their life, to your life, low-lighting your real fights, bouts, struggles, deficits, & adversity.

Just like you, they have an unedited version too.

You don’t know their full story…

Besides…their story ain’t your path.

What you see from them is possible…

but it’s not all that’s available.

Keep editing. Your screen is coming.

Stay in The Sales Life.

-Marsh

Catch ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ The Sales Life with Marsh Buice podcast. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

You were winning the whole time…

Author Tommy Baker gave a speech titled, “The Journey Is The Win,” and he emphasize this point,

“Even in the midst of chaos and uncertainty the last thing you want to hear is how beautiful the journey can be…yet when you look back on your life, that’s exactly what you’ll remember…”

When you retell your personal hell, you choke up because the words are mixed with joy and pain & are difficult to get out clearly.

Images flash in your mind or thoughts trigger you wondering, “I don’t know how I even got through…”

You thought the win was the destination, only to realize, looking back, that it was in the journey, and you were winning the whole time.

You just didn’t realize it.

The journey is the win.

Often times the wins were disguised as losses and what looked like a setback was really all part of the plan, because not only did you have to learn to win, you also to endure the losses.

Former Seattle Seahawks player Cliff Avril said that one of his biggest regrets while playing in the NFL was that he never took time to enjoy the process.

He fought so hard to make it to the league…to make the roster…to earn the contract…to overcome injuries…to play another year..to get to & win the Super Bowl – all of those are huge accomplishments, yet when he looks back over his career it was over in a instant…

and he never took time to enjoy the process.

The days are long, but the years are short.

You may not enjoy the moment, but you can respect the journey, because of who you’re becoming in the process.

Becoming is not some bubblegum flavored elixir that you take and everything will be just fine..

No, becoming is bitter, distasteful, and often unsettling, but it’s necessary…

…because you have to learn from the losses and grow in the wins.

When you lose, you learn to forge grit, persistence, and resilience…

When you lose, you learn how to figure it out on your own…get outside of your comfort zone, and dig deep to unleash capabilities you didn’t even know was there.

And when you win, you grow in self-confidence, getting a little more surer so when you lose again, you know you’re capable of winning again too.

The journey is the win…

I wouldn’t call it a win if you wouldn’t call it a journey.

Keep moving…

Stay in The Sales 💪ife

-Marsh

If you didn’t “have” to…would you?

Salespeople want to be a Top Producer…

Some want to be an entrepreneur & others want to run a company.

Many people want to have millions…

But few are willing to earn any of it...

When’s the last time you heard someone say, ” I’m going earn $200,000 this year…I’m going to earn the Million Dollar Producer distinction…”

That’s because when you say the word earn.…

That one word puts the whole load on you. 

Earn eliminates the excuses, blame, reasons; justifications and unfairness.

Those kinds of words are reserved for people who say they want to…

but don’t…and here’s  why _________, __________ , _____________

Powerless, defeated words become chapters of excuses, blame, reasons, justifications, and unfairness that fill up the blank pages of our lives.

Earn is that psychological downshift, shifting from 5th gear of coasting on “good enough” down to 2nd gear of grinding and improving for more.

Earn is a fight.

Earn is what separates you from the herd of Wants.

Earn is that slow burn…

Earn is a grind…where you get no where fast.

And even if you wanted to go faster you couldn’t, because the load is too heavy…& the burden is too taxing.

So all you can do is earn the next step..and then the next.

Earn is where you unlearn what you’ve already learned because what got you here won’t take you there.

Earn is shifting mindsets from try to do.

Earn is the grit you develop when you skid across Life’s floor, yet pull yourself back up.

Because you gotta earn it.

You don’t get what you want in Life, you get what you negotiate.

You could just sit there with your wants and accept what Life scrapes into your bowl….

or you can show back up today and say, “I’m back and placing my bet, because I’m not done.”

Earn is not a finish line…it’s an evolution.

Want is the certainty you see in the natural…

Earn is the uncertainty you face, yet step out in faith, not knowing where your foot will land, but wherever and however it lands, you’ll make it work.

It’s earnings time…

Will “Willdabeast” Adams was asked on Tom Bilyeu’s podcast, “Why do you go so hard? You’ve risen to the top and achieved massive success yet you still go hella hard…”

Willdabeast answered,

“I go hard so that I never have to again.”

If you didn’t have to….would you?

You say you want to arrive, achieve, obtain, and accumulate massive success, but if you did accomplish your “all,” then what?

Is that it?

What would you do if you no longer had to?

What would you stop doing?

Where would you slack?

How often would you take the day off and just lay up?

You think about getting to the summit, but have you ever thought about what happens after you reach the summit?

Have you not thought about it because you really don’t believe you can or are you waiting for someone to give you permission?

Earning is that Next mentality.

Win…Next…

Lose…learn…Next.

Today is all you got…

And whatever you get, is because you earned it.

Take notice where you are…

But take stock in where you need to be…

And go f’n earn it.

If you’re getting up today because you have to make ends meet, you’ll forever be making ends meet because no matter what level of success, it’ll always be just barely enough. 

Or you can stop rationalizing and just go hard…

…so you never have to again.

Earn the next step…earn the next reach…earn the next breath…earn the next crack of opportunity.

Earn is next…no matter the result.

Win or lose….setback or comeback…trial or triumph…

Whatever the result today, you earned it…

Next….

Some results hurt…some outcomes are embarrassing…some may even blindside you and slap you backwards.

..whatever… you earned it.

Own it…

Dust off, recycle; improve…

And always look for Next.

Go hard so you never have to again.

Stay in The Sales Life.

-Marsh

 

 

 

It‘s not called First Replier

Million dollar real estate broker Ryan Serhant observed that one reason why you may not be finding success is because you are replying and not responding. In this automated, ever-growing commoditized world, your greatest asset as a sales person is differentiating yourself by responding instead of replying.

In this automated, ever-growing commoditized world, your greatest asset as a sales person is differentiating yourself by responding instead of replying.

We salespeople often reply when the customer we’re currently working with is the cherry to our crap-filled month. Nothing’s been going right & no one is buying, so it’s no surprise this one isn’t either. While everyone around you seems to be swimming in deals, you just so happened to have caught the one picky customer who has NO CLUE what they want; or the customer who seems to be 11 yrs out from buying; or the customer who you just don’t seem to jive with… In defense, we shut down mentally and lay up lame ass replies to their questions & concerns. Replies are words placed in the right order, said at the right time, yet void of any emotion.

We had a customer come in recently who was all busted up. Her life was turned upside down. She left her abusive husband while he left her with bad credit and a repo’d car. Obviously she was an emotional soup-crying, confused, & no idea what to do from here. A tuned out salesperson would’ve pulled her credit & replied with, “Sorry, your credit is too bad I can’t help you,” but a tuned-in salesperson would respond by saying, “Look, your credit has taken some hits, so which family member can we get on the phone right now, to get you back on track? Today is going to be your new birthday!” The responding salesperson aligned with her emotional state & offered a specific course of action.

Think about it…they’re not called First Repliers, they’re called First Responders because they come onto the scene, asses the situation, & work to get you to safety. Customers need that from you. They come in with a range of emotions & need you to asses and respond in a way that aligns with their emotions & the results they need to see. The one they do business with is the one who responds best.

That might as well be you. 😉

I’ll see you in the Sales Life.

⭐️ Catch The Sales Life with Marsh Buice podcast. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

The advantage you have over professional athletes

I hate to tell you this, but chances are real good that you’ll never play for an NBA, NFL, nor any other professional team. Chances are even better that you’ll never sign a multi-year mega-million dollar contract either. When we hear the news, we day dream & talk at length about the massive contracts athletes sign in the off-season. In an effort to win a championship, teams lock up key players by inking them to multi-year, mega- million dollar contracts. Some of those deals you think are no-brainers…others you say, “What in the hell?,” to, but in either case, I guess hard work really does pay off, huh?

Or does it?

Because the following season after the player signed for instant wealth, they just don’t seem to run as hard, play through the pain as much, nor magically pull out a win the same way they did before they got caked up- which makes you ask the question, “What happened?” The response is always the same, “Oh, he got paid,” but that’s supposed to happen right? Aren’t you supposed to be paid for all of the hard work and sweat equity that you put in? Why doesn’t the athlete play like he used to? Why, if he’s making the most money he’s ever made-more then most of us could ever dream of, why is he so disruptive in the locker room & headlines?

What happened?

And there’s your answer…and your advantage. It happened for them & I hope it never “happened” for you. They realized their full potential and you have not. See, once these guys reach that max contract deal, it signifies that they’ve reached the top- all of it and then some- the problem is, when you think that you’ve reached the end, you cease working for new beginnings. Playing now switches from proving to protecting. Instead of playing & proving they’re worth the investment, they instead play not to get hurt & lose what they’ve contractually won.

So while yes, they should benefit from all of their hard, work, max deals should never equal max potential. See, if there’s no longer a bar to look up to, what would you reach for? Think about this, if I sat and wrote you a check for $1 million saying, “I think this is your full potential,” what would you do next? Would you look at it as a start or finish? Would you lay up & buy a bunch of shit or would you look at it instead as a down payment & parlay that monetary gain to make it work for you. Would you move the bar of potential up or would the bar just go away because now you’ve reached a certain status?

Contrary to athletes, no one is going to pay you in advance for what they think that you’re worth, you have to push the barriers of your potential every day, and as you do, you’ll earn not only monetarily, but also you’ll amass experience, wisdom, grit, & resilience along the way. And when you reach or even exceed your wildest expectations, because you’ve put in the sweat equity and kept moving the bar up, you’ll realize that you may have exceeded your expectations, but you have not exceeded your potential.

With each notch up, you get a newer, broader perspective. Your eyes are opened wider & what seems impossible to others, is i’mpossible to you. So you push even harder, higher, & broader in all directions- some days you don’t know if what you’re doing even matters…only to discover years later, it mattered and now here’s the meaning.

What was once the finish line now becomes the new starting line of so much more. Yes, have a destination, but I hope you never “arrive.” Play to your full potential today, but I hope you never reach it so that when you fight your ass off to reach your summit, you discover that you may have reached a summit, but not the summit because when you get to what you thought was the highest peak you could possibly climb, you look around & realize there are millions more higher mountains waiting to be climbed….by you.

Never stop climbing.

I’ll see you in the Sales Life!

⭐️⭐️Subscribe to my weekly podcast The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

Is it worth my time?

One of my salespeople wants to double his income this year. “If you want to double your income then you’re gonna have to at least double the amount of customers you work with too,” I told him. We calculated specifically how many customers he would have to work with each month to realize his goal. When I wrote the number down, I saw his eyes widen & the wheels of doubt began to churn.

51…

Calling out his fears I asked, “I bet you’re asking yourself how in the hell am I going to do that, aren’t you?” But when we broke the seemingly big, overall number down to a per day digit, it worked out to a manageable 2 customers per day. That’s it! To move his goal from a wish to a reality, he only needed to work with a little over two customers each day. Then I talked a little shit to him, “Are you telling me in at nine or 10 hour workday you can’t find two customers to physically work with every single day?!”

Of course he nodded emphatically in agreement- it seemed easy, but it’s not. The math is the easy part; doing it consistently for 23 straight days…well that’s the hard part. Sales by design is simple, but when it comes to putting that simplicity into action, it ain’t easy because as the rejections mount up, the effort wains. One way your brain works to protect your fragile ego is to disguise itself is being a “timesaver;” instead of taking a risk and working with the wrong customer, your mind whispers to you to selectively pick & only work with the perfect customer-the ones who look like they can & will buy today. What we really want to know is, “Is this customer even worth my time?”

Funny isn’t it when you were new in sales you didn’t even know to ask that question. Each day you spent more time working with customers and less time hanging out with salespeople and today it’s opposite; you spend more time with salespeople and less time with customers because you’re always trying to figure out, “Who’s worth my time?”

Maybe instead of self-sabotaging your success, when you’re mind flares up and asks, “Is it worth my time,” you should shut your mind down and push on by saying, “I don’t know, but they’re worth my two.” Two is all you need today! Just 2 everyday to put in your bucketful of 51 customers for the month. So the next opportunity is just a part of your bucket list this month. Regardless of the outcome- can’t buy, not ready to buy, or did buy, make it a part of your 2 (or whatever # yours calcs out to be).

Maximize the opportunity and whatever the end result throw it in the bucket and move on to the next customer. Selling is a little bit of a Jedi mind trick. To shortcut & conserve energy, your mind works in patterns. It compares your current pattern to past patterns (& outcomes) and if it doesn’t like the pattern, it tells you to bail out by asking limited, “Sorry I can’t help you,” questions. Take control of your mind & your success; when it asks, “Is it worth my time?” You respond with, “I don’t know, but it’s worth my 2!”

Put your 2 in the bucket every day & at the end of the month, you’ll pour out a pipeline of working customers, more sales, & a strong ass work ethic.

I’ll see you in the Sales Life.

⭐️⭐️Subscribe to my weekly podcast The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

Everyone’s a “then”

For every now, there was a then...

Once it was just Mick, Keith, Charlie, & Ronnie before they became The Rolling Stones. Don, Joe, & Timothy were just regular dudes before they became the legendary band called the Eagles. Andre & Antwan weren’t always Andre 3000 & Big Boi of OutKast. “Luda!” wasn’t shouted by the doctor as he slapped Chris Bridges on the ass in the delivery room.

When you look at people’s now, remember there was a then–many, many then’s in order to become their now. Be patient & work your ass off in the months & years of then’s. Yes, it’ll be thankless @ times; it’ll seem as if it’s for naught often; periodically you’ll feel like a damn fool for grinding on your dream while everyone else seems to be getting ahead except you.

When your days are in the ditch, remind yourself that you’re investing in your then…your nows will come soon enough & the results will pay off.

For “then” just keep working for “now.”

I’ll see you in the Sales Life.

Subscribe to my weekly podcast The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

“I don’t know”

Kyle Maynard was born with no arms and no legs. He may have been classified as disabled, but his parents didn’t treat him as disabled. Kyle grew up doing many things that his “normal” friends did. It may have taken him longer to do something, but he’d always figure it out. He tried high school football and ended up falling in love with wrestling. Initially, like anything Kyle took on, wrestling kicked his ass, but he stayed with it-pushing back the self-doubt & self-defeat-always determined to figure it out. (Check out his book No Excuses)

In Daymond John’s book “Rise & Grind,” Kyle said that he’d always wanted to climb Mount Kilimanjaro which is the highest peak in Africa. Each year 20,000 people try to reach the summit of Mount Kilimanjaro, but with thin air and fierce storms, only half are able to check it off of their bucket list.

In the beginning, Kyle set out to climb Stone Mountain, a tiny mountain of only 900 feet in comparison to the 19,000 foot behemoth Kilimanjaro. The Stone Mountain climb was brutal for Kyle, tearing large patches of skin off of the ends of his arms in the process. When the climb was over, a beaten & battered Kyle told a friend of his dream to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. She looked at him as if he were crazy, asking, “You just tore up your arms doing (tiny) Stone Mountain. How are you going to climb Kilimanjaro?”

Kyle answered her with three words, “I don’t know.”

But it was those three words that made him go to work to conquer his dream of climbing Mount Kilimanjaro. (And he did it.)

What happens when you say the words “I don’t know?” Do you use the words as a crutch? Explaining that you’re not experienced enough… that you’re too short, too fat, too skinny, or the wrong skin shade? Do you say the words, I don’t know, because you’ve been conditioned all of your life to accept life as it is because you were raised in the projects; had to live with Big Mama, had no dad, had a drug addicted mom, were fired, demoted or bankrupt? Specifically what has, I don’t know, done to you? …but what can it do for you?

I don’t care where you’ve been, hell been only makes for a good story when you soon tell of your massive success. Don’t let “I don’t know” be a handicap & work against you. Make, I don’t know” work for you by going to work to figure it out.

Subscribe to my weekly podcast The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice. You can find it on iTunes, Spotify, or Google Play

Stop Stopping

Most people initially struggle in sales because they’ve been taking orders their whole life.

When you were young, you did what your parents told you to do. Sure, you may have bucked up a time or hundred, but immediately you’d back down from rebelling once they slapped you back with one of those,

“When you have your own damn place and pay your own damn bills, then you can do whatever the hell you want to do…but until then, you better do what the hell I tell you to do!” 

We grow older, but in some ways, we never age emotionally-I mean we pop bottles on monumental birthdays, but we stall out in a fixed wage mindset. Our employer tells us, “Do that and I’ll pay you this,” which traditionally is par for the course, but when you get into the sales, you’ve got to take that decade or more of being an “order taker-” of being told what to do and you’ve got to flip it on its head.

If you were working in fast food as a salesperson,  it’d be as if someone came in and placed an order, and then you turned right back around and challenged that same order.

(Customer): “Yea I’d like a large #6 with a Coke.”

(You, the fast food salesperson): “You know a small cheeseburger with a water would be calorically better.”

You couldn’t do that working at Slap Beef Burger– hell you wouldn’t be there long if you did. You can’t challenge when it comes to taking orders, but you do have to push back when it comes to working in sales.

Selling effectively is about challenging the thoughts of your customers.

Statistically speaking most of your customers are going to buy something different than when they first started looking. Keeping that thought in mind, it’s not that you ignore them or tell them defiantly, “You don’t need that…this is what you need;” it’s more so leaning into their logic with suggestions and notice the patterns that begin to emerge when you ask Past, Present, and Future questions.

What did they like before? What do they wish they had now as opposed to then? Why is your customer in the market in the first place and how will your product fit their needs?

Based on your customers’ answers, you then begin to steer the sale, by adjusting your sails. As the conditions of your customers’ answers improve or deteriorate, you adjust your sails towards the winds of budgetary concerns, options, equity, or the fact that they’ve got a funky attitude thanks to their last 4 sales experiences.

It seems challenging at first-you will get better, but first, you’ve got to stop stopping.

When a customer “places an order-” when they make a statement or voice an objection don’t just pull up short and react, clarify and challenge their thoughts, objections, fears and concerns instead. What do they really mean? Where are they going with this? What’s the intent behind their words? Anticipate and adjust accordingly. Think to yourself, how can I give their ideas fresh legs with a new perspective?

Of course when you’re new, your mind is going to screeeeam at you to stop. This is all new to you-you fearfully get the answers but you’ll never knowledgeably amass the answers nor gain experience if you keep on stopping at the points where you get stuck.

Stop stopping…

Oh…but you thought this post was only about those people in sales?

No, I’m talking to you too.

You may not work in sales, but you sure as hell live in sales. Sales isn’t just a profession, it’s a life skill and you need to stop stopping. You may not have to fill an order, but you do have to fulfill a calling. What’s life calling you to do? What’s that pull…what’s that whisper..what’s that yearn?

Through circumstances and events-some beyond your control, life tries to place an order on your life and I’m telling you that you don’t have to fill that order. Your past is ordering that you aren’t good enough. Your upbringing is ordering that you’ll never get off of assistance. The notice you received; the word you just got, the month that you’re having right now is ordering that you’ll never make it out-that you’ll never move up and that you’ll never get ahead. What you’ve got, where you came from, or what you’re going through, is not a calling, it’s an order. Life’s pulling at you to lift your eyes above your thoughts and present circumstances and stop stopping.

Fu*k that order…take today’s apron off and throw it on the counter and say, “No…you can’t take my order, but you can sure as shit take mine.”  Stop taking orders and begin placing them. Fear left un-pushed, will make you wait for your orders…but fear acted upon, learned from, and put back in motion will make you realize your full potential.

Pull up, place your order, and stop stopping.

Catch the 300+ episodes of The Sales Life w/ Marsh Buice podcast. Find it on iTunes or your favorite podcast app.

 

 

They owe you nothing

Coach Nick Saban tells a story of three baby birds who fell into the ocean. The mama bird was frantic because her babies were about to drown so the daddy bird flies out and scoops the first baby bird up and sits him down on dry land and asks his son, “Now that I saved your life what are you going to do for me?” His son looks up at him and says, “Dad, when you get old I’m going to take care of you,” and with that, the dad picks up his son and drops him back into the ocean. He then scoops up the second son and brings him to dry land and asks the same question, “Now that I saved your life what are you going to do for me?” The second son says, “Dad you don’t have to worry about anything when you get old because I’m going to take care of you,” and with that the dad does the same thing he did with the first son, he drops him back into the ocean and scoops up the third son and asks the same previous question. The third son says, “Dad, I promise to do everything for my sons as you did for me.”

Your children & the people you lead– the ones who came in with bad credit and today they bought their first home; the ones who used to ride a bike or took a bus to & from work, leave today in their own vehicle; the once shy & inhibited one, who can now talk to anyone; the one who turned his life around & is married with children…those people, your people owe you nothing.

Not a damn thing…

And the best thing they can do- the only thing they should do “for you,” is to be a better parent, manager, & leader, for their kids, for their employees, for their community.

Besides what you want from them anyway? I mean when you keep throwing it up in their face when you stood in the gap, bailed them out, and turned them around…how you made sacrifices, worked two jobs, & made a way out of no way.

What really do you want from them anyway? You don’t want to thank you, you want power and the minute they resist you- the minute they push off and stand on their own by making their own mind up- the minute you feel your power slip, you try to get it back by slapping them with a reminder of all that you’ve done for them.

They don’t appreciate that, they resent it. They don’t feel all warm & fuzzy when you re-open wounds and bear their scares of weaknesses & downfalls just so that you can get the upper hand and pull their strings again.

Nothing…they owe you nothing.

The only thing they owe you is to the pay it forward- improving on what was passed down by you when they were passed up by others.

Hopefully all that you’ve done-the long talks, the sacrifices, the discipline, the love…hopefully you did all of that simply because someone did it (or didn’t do it) for you and you just wanted to improve on that.

Catch The Sales Life w Marsh Buice daily podcast. Find it on iTunes or your favorite podcast platform.