Episode #261 “What’s the question? (Show notes)

 Click to listen to the whole episode The Sales Life w Marsh Buice here. Find it on iTunes, Stitcher, or your favorite podcast platform.

Ever have one of those days where you’re just frustrated and don’t know why? Like you just want to palm the guy’s face talking to you. I was having one of those days…weeks actually and didn’t know why and because I didn’t know why, just made me more more frustrated. Then it came to me… I stopped asking questions & when you no longer ask, the Universe answers with nothing. When you don’t ask questions, you end up working with dis-empowering, limited statements, such as “I’ll never get promoted;” “I’ll never get out of debt;” “I’ll never find the right one;” “I’ll never get ahead.” 

Asking yourself good, open-ended questions-with no preconceived notions of how or when it’ll arrive gives your mind space to go to work and find and answers instead of just accepting what is and filling in the blank (with bullshit).

Take a few minutes to have a conversation with yourself-don’t worry people will think you’re just using your Bluetooth. I talk to myself in 3rd party asking, “So how are you feeling today, Marsh?” and I’ll answer the question. Sometimes the answer back is a river; other times it’s a quick riff. I even give myself advice as if I’m someone else giving Marsh advice. And it works, because  tossing up questions gives me a chance to unravel Life’s knot.

If you find yourself frustrated, start asking questions. On the way to work; in the shower; walking to your car; just randomly ask. You don’t need to know all of the answers, just ask the questions and let Life go to work for you.

Click to listen to the whole episode The Sales Life w Marsh Buice here or find it on iTunes, Sticher, or your favorite podcast platform.

Agreeing is better than admitting

photo: Andrew Seaman

Think back to when you were a kid when you did something wrong, instead of getting you to fess up, your mom just filled in the blanks for you by saying, “Look, accidents happen all of the time…it happens…you spilled the orange juice on my rug didn’t you?… Honey, you tried to clean it up, but I just need to know what happened…” And what did you do? After a little more coaxing of a few different It’s ok scenarios, you cave in…with eyes watering & mouth quivering, you agree with your psychic mom. In the end, you get to keep your street creds because you never admitted to the wrong doing, all you did was agree with what was already said. Getting children to agree is a psychological superpower that parents have known & used forever, it worked for them and it’ll work for you in sales.

Getting your customer to agree is way easier than getting them to admit. For instance, say I have a customer who seems tense; judging from their body language I can tell there’s something that they’re thinking, but they just won’t say what it is.  Instead pressuring my customer to just come out and say what’s on their mind-which usually makes the situation way worse,  I’ll say what they’re thinking instead by saying something like, “You know a lot of my customers feel they need to shop around in order to make sure that they’re getting the best deal…” and I’ll let my voice fade off.  Here’s the superpower part; if my assumptions are wrong, they’ll correct me and if I’m right, all they have to do is agree and once they agree, the rest of their fears normally come out too. In either case, whether my assumptions were right or wrong, once I can get the conversation out of their heads and into the open, I can then address their fears and concerns.

Customers don’t like to admit because they don’t want to fight…they don’t want to throw out an objection and then have to defend it. Many times they’re objecting because they’re terrified of the consequences of making a mistake or they’ll say No with no real defense to support the rejection, so they’ll keep it inside instead to save themselves from caving in to being sold.

Try getting your customer to agree instead of admitting. It’ll keep the mood light & conversational instead of dark & confrontational.

Check out The Sales Life w Marsh Buicepodcast.  A podcast for the busies that makes a point in less than 10 minutes each day. You can find it on iTunes or your favorite podcast platform.

2 Kinds of Confidence

When we think of confidence, we tend to think of it in one big bulk item, but confidence comes in different forms-there’s Perceived Confidence and then there’s Earned Confidence. Perceived confidence is other people’s take on you. People size you up based on how you carry yourself..your swag, your dress, the way that you walk, the confidence that you radiate- from the way that you stand to the assertiveness in your voice, people literally buy the confidence that you are selling. And you must maintain a high perceived confidence no matter what kind of hell you may be going through because what you’re going through is not a definition of who you are, it’s only an indication of where you are and the start toward the way out, is through perceived confidence. People don’t want to hear the Whoa is me stories…you got shit going on in your life, but so do others, and they only want to do business with people who at least look like they have their shit together. It’s crazy how we let Life’s events shape our confidence. One minute there’s nothing that could stop us…and 60 seconds later, we don’t know if we can even make it to the next day. People don’t know the hell you got going on behind those eyes-they have no clue, so why include them in something they don’t have the answer? Only you have the solution and it starts with first believing in yourself.

But if this were a confidence test (and it is), you’d fail because perceived confidence is only 50%.

Earned confidence is the other half needed and it is accumulated through experiences....alllll experiences. I’m not just talking about the cupcakes, rainbows, and unicorned moments of your Life…I’m talking about the shit sandwich moments too. It’s a cocktail of all experiences-the flavors of the setbacks, rejections, ridicules, misses, and embarrassments, stirred in with all of the best month ever, records broken, in the land of milk and honey moments too. It’s taking every single moment-melding the highs and the lows to learn, recycle, improve, and yes…double down on risk, putting the effort back out there again, and again, and again, (x) infinity. That’s earned confidence-those stripes are merited based on the ability to never be satisfied and never be sat.

In sales you have to have both perceived and earned confidence because if you only had perceived confidence, the minute things blow up..the minute the wheels start to come off (and they will), if all you have is perceived confidence, you’ll melt right there like a snowman in Louisiana heat.

You’ve got to have both…you need to perceive that you are the shit..that you can, will, and must make big things happen. You have to swing as if no man or no thing will ever stand in your way…that no salesperson can hold a match to your level of knowledge and service…dude you have to set that thermostat of perceived confidence to 20 degrees above someone’s comfort level..not overbearing, but they gotta feel you.

Both confidences are dependent on one another. It first starts with how you feel about yourself; customers feel that energy and engage with you; based on your action-the way that you carry yourself, what you know and how you interact, becomes experience….some of it results in a sale, always it results in an education. As you make more sales, your confidence rises…and when you don’t make a sale, your experience increases..as you learn, recycle and put yourself back out there, the odds of success perpetuate.

Confidence…perceived or earned is all based on you. You control it…you influence it…you do it with the way you think, talk, carry, and do.

Customers will pay for your confidence…now you get to set the price.

5 X 5

I’m not a Gratitude Journal kind of guy-it’s not that I am not grateful, I am, and I’ve read and listened to so many in the self-help world that advise you to keep a gratitude journal and write things that you  grateful for. Now if journaling your gratitudes every day is what helps you maintain your perspective, then by all means do it-it just never resonated with me. On the heels of that, I’m not a To Do List kind of guy either. I’ve tried all kinds of things: Planners, Post It Notes, and Apps, but many of them distracted more than helped-not to mention I was never consistent at keeping the lists up anyway.

I needed a system that was easy to follow that kept me: 1) Consistent 2) A right perspective 3) Keeps me evolving/growing. So I developed a 5×5 system to keep me on the rails of life.

The first 5 of my 5×5 is simply asking myself, “What are your 5 wins today?” This is a simple question that I’ll ask when I’m laying in bed or sometimes I’ll randomly ask myself this question if I find I’m in a foul mood. For instance, “What are your 5 wins today?” I’ll say, “I sold 3 warranties; I folded and put all the clothes up; I paid my mortgage; I said No to the $5 Big Box at Popeye’s Chicken (but those biscuits though); and my son and I got along today.” That’s it! A simple, easy to answer format that has no right or wrong answers because they’re just for me. I find at times that even after I answer 5, I keep on going-railing out 7-10 at a time. Not only can I complete this in seconds, but it also re-calibrates my thinking with simple positive wins.

The other part of my 5×5 is going to be different for you. See, there are 5 things that I have to do everyday to feel more complete, accomplished, and in control of my life.  I find that when I do my 5 Power Moves, I have a sense of accomplishment and the day didn’t just get away from me. Often times the reason why I am in a pissed off mood is because I have stretched myself too thin-tending to everyone and everything and alienating myself along the way. The 5×5 method is a way of ensuring that I put myself first every day-remember you come first…when you put yourself first, then everyone gets a better, healthier version of you.

My Power 5’s are: Meditate, Workout, Write, Read, and Record

• Meditate: 5-10 minutes of breathing deep and thinking about nothing. Sometimes it’s 3 minutes other times it’s 10.
• Workout: Bust a sweat every day. Whether it’s a quick Hiit (High Intensity Interval Training you can find on Youtube), 20 min jump rope right outside my door; 30 min weight training or jog..whatever time I have, bust a sweat every day.
• Write: Write 2 pages of thoughts-don’t edit-don’t type. Just let your thoughts flow. Sometimes it’s specific, other times it rambles-the point is to spill your thoughts onto paper. It’ll help you clarify your thinking and speaking.
• Read: Read 30 minutes per day. Sometimes I can do more…other times less.
• Record: This podcast helps share my thoughts with the world. I also have a goal of recording at least 2 things on my voice memo app that is learned, observed, or Ah-ha’d that I can be shared later. This practice helps me stay woke throughout the day.

These are my 5×5- easy to do; easy to keep track of (I only need 10 fingers); and easy to stay consistent. Give it a try-maybe you’ll  have a 3×3, 4×4, 5×5.

I’ll see you on the Blacktop.

Don’t forget my daily podcast, The Sales Life w Marsh Buice found on iTunes, GooglePlay, or anchor.fm.

Unauthorized Charges

So I’m at the grocery store and the lady tallies up my-what I went in for two items and came out with a basket full of items and I reach into my wallet only to realize my ATM card is missing. You know that feeling-the heart pounding, cold sweat feeling you get when you begin to imagine that some dude is at Footlocker and soon will be heading to Forever 21 for his boo and he’s doing it all on your dime-at least for the moment anyway. As my nerves settle, I realize that I have fraud protection and once I initiate the claim, they’ll eventually reverse my charges.

But what about you?

Everything you’ve worked so hard for-mentally, spiritually, physically…financially-multiple accounts that have taken you years to build up…

Imagine as if you’ve got a big magnetic strip on you and you’re letting people and events make unauthorized charges on your emotional, physical, spiritual, and financial well-being.

Be careful who you let into your life-who you let snuggle up, lean in, and ride shotgun in your life. They may be making unauthorized charges…swiping…pulling threads from the fabric of your life. Even some clients-the ones who seem that there is no pleasing them are swiping…incessantly draining your emotional accounts when you could be using your resources for others..

…your employer, family, “friends,” co-workers-hell even the Capital One credit card…

Watch for leaks…

Energy draining leaks-those people and events that seem to suck the life right out of you-debiting you of your energy…often these swipes are small, incremental charges that seem like minuscule infractions only to realize-often too late, that you’re drained, overdrawn and operating in the red. Financially, if there’s some things you just cannot pay-I mean no way, no how-pay your essentials-pay your rent, insurance, car note, day care, and buy groceries to sustain your storm..and if you’ve got to let a bill ride, then hell let it ride. I know you don’t like it…I know you’ve busted your ass to have good credit, but you’ll get it back. If it can go down, then it can surely go back up. I’d rather you be 30 days late than cut your life 10 years short with panic attacks and depression.

The reason why you’re so exhausted..the reason why you have no idea how you got home..the reason why you have no clue what your daughter told you what happened at school today or the fact that you’re just too tired to eat macaroni and cheese is because you’ve let too much drain you-too many of the wrong things..too many of the wrong messages have pulled on you making unauthorized charges on a priceless account…

You…

Watch for leaks today. Make sure the right energy comes back to you-if not-even if it’s a close, love one…

Deny the charges.

I’ll see you next time on the Blacktop!

P.S. Take me with you! Did you know I have a daily podcast? Subscribe to The Sales Life w Marsh Buice (found on iTunes) right here and you’ll get a daily 5 minute dose of positivity.