Transform Your Sales Game with Expert Insights

Discover the secrets of successful entrepreneurship as we welcome Nick Loise to the Elevate Media Podcast. From his days in corporate America to becoming the President at GKIC, Nick's journey is inspiring. Learn how working with marketing legend Dan Kennedy shaped his approach to business and the strategies he used to build a supportive entrepreneurial network. Nick emphasizes the power of direct response marketing and shares invaluable insights on leveraging experience to drive business success.

Unlock effective messaging and marketing strategies that elevate your brand's presence. We dive into the importance of video content in today's marketing landscape, exploring how platforms like TikTok, YouTube, LinkedIn, and Facebook can be game-changers for engagement. We also discuss hosting events to create repurposable content and the importance of timely follow-ups with tools like Google Alerts and LinkedIn notifications. Stay ahead of industry trends and client needs with strategies that ensure your messaging stands out.

Finally, we delve into the evolution of sales strategies, highlighting the necessity of personalization and research to make meaningful connections. From personalized videos and direct mail to creative tactics for engaging B2B clients, this episode is packed with actionable insights. Learn how to engage multiple decision-makers and maintain post-purchase solid relationships effectively. With unique touchpoints like personalized holiday cards and welcome boxes, discover how to break through the noise and make a lasting impression in your sales efforts. Join us for this episode filled with practical tips and creative ideas to boost your sales game.

How to Start a Podcast Guide: The Complete Guide
Learn how to plan, record, and launch your podcast with this illustrated guide.

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast with your host, chris Anderson. In this show, chris and his guests will share their knowledge and experience on how to go from zero to successful entrepreneur. They have built their businesses from scratch and are now ready to give back to those who are just starting. Let's get ready to learn, grow and elevate our businesses. And now your host, chris Anderson.

Speaker 2: 0:24

Welcome back to another recording of the Elevate Media Podcast. I'm Chris Anderson, your host, and today we're going to be diving into sales how we can do it better, how we can maybe close some more deals. We're going to be talking to an expert in this area, this guest. He's been a salesperson, sales leader, successful entrepreneur, marketing sales executive, president's club winner, speaker, author, amongst many other things. He's worked alongside Dan Kennedy, alongside some marketing educational courses called Sales Mastery and, yes, we're just excited to be able to learn and dive into today's episode. And today we have Nick Luisi on the show today. Nick, welcome to the Elevate Media Podcast.

Speaker 3: 1:08

Chris, thanks so much for having me on. Thanks for that warm introduction. I always blush every time I hear somebody say all those accolades about me and it's too long of an introduction for sure. But thank you so much and thank you for the work that you're doing. Love the podcast, love who you work with your audience and all the work and listen. I've done a lot of events and your media team can make you or break you. Your AV team can make you or break you and you know you mentioned Dan Kennedy. You know every time that his you know he couldn't get his overhead projector to work. We heard about it on stage for at least an hour, so absolutely love all the work that you're doing.

Speaker 2: 1:50

I appreciate that. So, yeah, I mean, you know, got to dive right into it. Sure, let's the sales and everything. What was that like with Dan? Obviously, I'm sure he was particular about things, but what was that? What was that experience like?

Speaker 3: 2:06

Well, first, dan was always a gentleman, just about the nicest guy in the world and one of the smartest entrepreneurs and, let's say, teachers that I ever had an opportunity to work with and was able to see the multidimensional chessboard and see all the different plays to see the multidimensional chessboard and see all the different plays and he had such a vast array of experience that he could bring little bits from everything that he saw and, you know, put it into anybody's business. And it was such a joy. Right, I was a member first, right. So in 2006, I left corporate America, I was a VP of marketing and business development and started an agency. Right, because you know it was like a mountain to climb. It was time to do that and I became a very big student.

Speaker 3: 2:56

I was always a direct response advertising and marketing guy, but I became a very big student of Dan Kennedy and at that time, bill Glazer, right, so Bill's still with us, but he owned Glazer Kennedy Insider Circle, gkic and was very active. They had localized chapters. I don't know if you guys had any in Indiana they may have, but we had three in Chicago, which is kind of where I'm talking to you at, where I launched my company and those local chapters were great for me. You know they let me do speeches. I found business and plus, I just found really good entrepreneurs. And Bill Glazer always had a saying that I believe to this day, and I think you would agree and I think your audience would agree, that being an entrepreneur is the loneliest place in the world, right, a lot of times your corporate friends don't understand it. Your boss or significant other maybe. You share or don't share all the problems that you have and you can't talk to your employees. So they created a phenomenal community and in 2012, I had taken on some investors.

Speaker 3: 4:03

We had gotten some angel investments, some venture capital, as well as some partners. We had bought a bunch of other agencies and some publications and franchises. So I had kind of created a little mini conglomerate. We had been doing it for six years. Everybody kind of wanted to get their money out. I understand that.

Speaker 3: 4:21

So we sold the agency and at that time, the private equity firm that owned GKAC, which was now just Dan, was doing a search for a VP of sales and a recruiter who I actually was reading his newsletter right, so his e-newsletter. So some of your staff are not your staff, but your listeners may have an e-newsletter that they go out. And he said these are some of the searches that I'm working on, and one of them was information, marketing, business right, or coaching and consulting business, and I always have been fascinated by that, and so I, you know, I just gave him a call and I said, hey, here's what I've done, here's what I'm doing. You know, here's what my best years look like. You know, here's all my experience. And I go, the company that you're doing sounds like it's for GKIC. If it is, uh, and Dan Kennedy's company, I would love to um, talk to them.

Speaker 3: 5:11

It turns out that this guy was a personal friend of Dan Kennedy and that's how he got the search right. So he is. They was Stan Ballew and he was an old time sales trainer but also was doing some, some search work and, and so I got the gig and I did that job for from 2012 to 2020, right, so for eight years, and it was a VP of sales and then became the president and you know, really, you know, got to learn so much from him and just got to learn really work with a great marketing team, a great sales team. I still keep in touch with all the people there and a lot of the people that were our members or our prospects or people that we deal with, really are still friends to this day. So it was a great community. For me, it was a great thing. I learned so much.

Speaker 3: 5:59

If you haven't read any of his books, go out and get a Dan Kennedy book please. I have no stake, you know, if you, I have no stake in it, so it doesn't matter to me. Become a member, right? They'll probably give you a couple months free of the newsletter and if you go on eBay, you could probably find some of his info products very inexpensively. I'm sure he hates me saying that, uh, but you know it's a good place to start.

Speaker 3: 6:22

I do believe that every entrepreneur should have magnetic marketing, which is their flagship product. I think every entrepreneur at the very least should read the book, get that on Amazon or get the product and understand that. And I think, especially the folks that we're dealing with that you know, like new coaches, right, new consultants, new content creators or information marketers. I call them information marketers. That may be an old school term, but that's kind of what they are. They create and synthesize information and market and sell it to the marketplace, whether that's done in a coaching basis or an e-newsletter or a physical newsletter or courses or books or whatever. And I think it goes back to sales, right, and kind of how we started this conversation. You're really defining your ideal customer profile. Really understanding your ideal customer profile is the first step in anything in sales success and in magnetic marketing, which is Dan's forte, right. So it's the market, it's the message, and we'll get into that and it's the media.

Speaker 3: 7:31

Well, for some people, uh, knowing the market intimately, right, and sometimes they've come from the market, right. So maybe they were a lawyer and they were really successful at being a lawyer and now they want to coach and work with other lawyers, right. Or in the work that I do, they were a sales leader, right, for many years and a sales manager and an individual sales producer, and now I work with sales teams. That's what we do, right, and so I kind of understand the market and it doesn't matter what industry they're in. Selling is selling is selling because you're selling to people.

Speaker 3: 8:05

Next, you have to understand the messaging, right. And so, for salespeople, it's your scripts, it's your opening scripts, it's your really good discovery scripts, it's your closing scripts, it's your follow-up scripts, or it's your follow-up emails. It's your follow-up scripts, or it's your follow-up emails. It's your LinkedIn outreach messaging. It's your cold messaging and your warm messaging, and all scripts are created equal and differently, excuse me. And so I was just working on this with a client and it's with their appointment center, and she was using the same scripts for cold outbound versus inbound, right, and you can't, right, because it's a different audience, it's different people and they're all at different things. So it's your market and your message, and then your media, right. And so for salespeople, the media is pretty simple right, it's the phone. Nowadays it's VoIP, right, it's texting. It's LinkedIn outreach, it's cold email outreach, it's email outreach.

Speaker 3: 9:09

Right, you could probably do some things on, you know, on different you know, for some of your people it might be Facebook, facebook messaging, instagram. Certainly, we're watching TikTok and trying to understand where that is. For business owners, right, you have to look at everything, right? So it's Google, and I would be very heavy on that. There's probably a lot of stuff on YouTube, especially for content creators, that you could use. I'm in the B2B space, I'm in the traditional business space, so I spend all my time on LinkedIn, right, but I would really understand Facebook. A lot of coaches and consultants and new startups are on there.

Speaker 3: 9:49

And it's really now that we've got that triangle, we've figured it out. It's how much does it cost me to get a lead right? What's the cost per lead? How much does it cost me to get a sale right? So what's my cost of acquisition of a customer and how much can I afford? Right? And then, therefore, what's my value chain and how much can I invest?

Speaker 3: 10:10

New people starting out? They may not have it, so they can't make the financial investment or they don't feel comfortable because they haven't tested out their messaging. So they have to do a lot of groundwork, right, yeah. And maybe it's going to referral sources great way to grow a business, right. Great way to break into a marketplace. Maybe it's getting on podcasts like this, maybe it's giving speeches, being active in local chambers of commerce or like alignable groups I don't know where I sit on them. I have a client that we teach people to create, to get into the marketing agency, okay. And we have one member that her business is all from alignable right, so she's huge on that. So you know, I would if I was starting my business today. Listen, there's so many different sources right and that's good and bad and you laugh when you know that that's bad too, because you could spend all of your time on the wrong source and get the wrong lead, like how can we go about finding, for those who are trying to figure it out, the right source to be on?

Speaker 3: 11:19

You got to test right you got to test, and sometimes I'm a big right you got to test, and sometimes I'm a big. If the whole world is zigging, I want to zag kind of guy, yeah, right. And so right now I'm sure everybody's Facebook feed Listen, my Facebook feed is filled with coaches and consultants and that and a lot of that, is just because I'm prospecting. A lot of that is because I'm looking at my clients and what their competition is and I'm shopping right and so. But if I was starting a new business, I think I would be spending as much time as I could as understanding YouTube right, because I think that's the great, the great unwashed masses, the work you do in video. Probably you know that's. I would get a really good videographer either pay them for their advice of how to set up my video and how to set up different engagement devices and and do really good work in that space, because you get a lot of SEO environments for that.

Speaker 3: 12:19

If you're selling B2B, you got to be on LinkedIn right and you got to just figure out how to break through the clutter. Understand LinkedIn navigator, understand LinkedIn messaging right, and you know what is your three-step campaign. If we go back to magnetic marketing, you know how many different outreaches. What does the outreach look like? How does it, you know, not look vanilla like everybody else's scripts or everybody else's, you know, bumping this up to the top Like listen, I read your email, I just don't have time to answer it, right. So you got to test and you got to find the right audience, figure out your ideal customer profile, right, your right market and figure out where they're at. Yeah, right, and that's how that will tell you, right.

Speaker 3: 13:03

In the old days I'm not that old and you're not old, but you know there was only a handful and it just seems like it's exponentially growing where people are. You know, if I was starting a business and I was a home improvement, home services, I would be on next door, right, and I would just be figuring that out because that's where people are, and I'd be on Facebook and just figuring that out. But you have to have video as part of it. I think in today's day and age we are a Netflix, right, we can do video. You know the reels, the short reels on TikTok, the short reels on YouTube, the short reels on video on LinkedIn is working as well as Facebook, so I think you got to be in that space.

Speaker 3: 13:47

You do an event like you have a professional team like yourself. Come in and I would just be cutting up all that content. So the sunk cost of doing the event is really a marketing expense, right? So you're going to monetize it by doing the event, by selling tickets. Then you have a back-end offer from the stage and or on-stage offer. Then you have all this content. Now that content just becomes what you are dripping out, tagging and just making it so relevant so you're in front of people all the time.

Speaker 2: 14:16

100%, yeah, tagging and just making it so relevant, so you're in front of people all the time, a hundred percent, yeah, and that's kind of where we what we saw when we started, and we started with just video podcasts and we've grown into a full production and and events and so, yeah, it's, it's. And with AI, it's it's needed even more because people want realism, they want real and so, but with that, you know, it's, it's definitely a crazy thing. So, you know, you mentioned finding out that profile of who you're going after in marketing, where they're at, and you mentioned something with the messaging to not be vanilla, to not to stand out in your marketing, and I know you've mentioned magnetic marketing with Dan Kennedy. But what are some ways that individuals could spruce up their messaging right now, because I'm guilty of, hey, you know, just pushing this back up in your inbox, yeah, um, and so, like, how can we spruce up our messaging to to make it stand out a little better, come off right and not pushy, uh, but still get people's attention?

Speaker 3: 15:48

Well, you know. So I think there's a couple ways to do that. One is, there is the old analogy that people in my space always says and it's you're never just following up. Hey Nick, we just created this case study of XYZ123456 for this customer. I thought you'd be very interested in it because when you and I first chatted, you were having some of the same issues, and this is how we solve right? Hey Nick, I saw this, this video, I saw this article, I saw something, and I realized that you and I hadn't hadn't had a chance to kind of just connect in a while, and so I wanted to share this with you.

Speaker 3: 16:43

Um, like you know, I was thinking about you and let me know, if you you want to get back on the calendar, right, that I think you have to give something of value to the folks, or you have to be watching the world so you understand what is going on. So if you reach out, you reach out at a timely manner. And so what I mean by that is, if they are working for a company, right, I would set alerts on Google, right, and so I have Google alerts going for client businesses all the time to see what's going on, or if I'm in one industry, I have various alerts so I could see what's happening, so I could send it to them. I would have LinkedIn alerts to see if they've done a headcount reduction or increase at their organization, if anybody's changed at their organization and maybe it's their boss, right, or things of that nature, and so you have to use different things and there's a lot of different ways to do it. It's so much easier nowadays, right?

Speaker 3: 17:48

Then it was, you know, when I started selling in the 90s, right? So you know, we had to read the paper, we had to read Cran's business. You know now you could just set alerts on Google or all the other. You know mechanisms and you know now you're going to them with, hey, this is something I saw. Or hey, you know, listen, I saw you guys just did a massive headcount reduction. I'm sure it's crazy there. How are you doing? You know, be human with that and so, and then use different things to break through, right?

Speaker 3: 18:18

So I think if you had a discovery call and I call it a discovery call, fact-finding mission, whatever, you know a sales call, whatever you have with somebody Well, now you've had some level of bonding and intimacy, or hopefully you have. If you've done it right, if not somebody, well, now you've had some level of bonding and intimacy, or hopefully you have done it right. Now we should talk. But now you could break through and, hey, shoot him a quick video. Hey, I was thinking of you right before I'm walking into Shake Shack, but I was thinking of you, realizing you and I haven't connected in a while. Hey, let me send this to you. I was thinking of you.

Speaker 3: 18:51

Let's get on each other's calendar Right, or break through the clutter with some shock and awe box Right. It's tougher nowadays because people aren't in the office as much, but in the old days we could send direct mail to them. I could send them a book right, and in my book, if I was a coach or a consultant, I wrote a book right or something of the nature, and just say, hey, listen, I was thinking to you, I'd love to get back on the calendar. We are, you know, if you're still having the issue, you know we've done a lot of work to solve similar issues with X, y, z, one, two, three four, five, six and it makes sense.

Speaker 2: 19:25

Yeah, leading with the value. I think is is important, especially like you said. Today there are so many people out there doing coaching. I think is is important, especially like you said. Today there are so many people out there doing coaching, consulting, you know, providing something. You've got to stand out and I think majority not everyone is just kind of doing the same. Hey, how you doing. This is what I have to offer, but why are you just following up and they're they're not leading with enough value.

Speaker 3: 19:47

So if you Google best and I don't even know if it's the wrong go to YouTube. Best salesman in the world? It's a gentleman that, in essence, sold vegetable peelers in New York and this guy did so much money they lived on like park Avenue, right, and so in essence, he would just shave, you know, vegetables and want to buy, want to buy, want to buy, want to buy, want to buy. That works for a $5 product. Right, that works for a sea humanity walking by, that I'm just going to get a certain percentage from that, right. It doesn't work in this business of one about hey, buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff, buy my stuff. It's got to be. Here's your problem. I realize you got this problem. You need to solve this problem because if you don't solve this problem, it's going to get bigger. Right, here's the solution and hopefully my products and services are the solution for you. You know, let's, let's now solve this problem together.

Speaker 3: 20:52

Pain is a bigger motivator than pleasure, right? But if it's a pleasure play, you got to figure out what it is and how big of the gap is. We I say my sales training right, you know, the value gap is how big the pain is and the solution right. And so if I don't solve this, if it's only like this, I could live with that, right. But if it's huge amount of pain, right.

Speaker 3: 21:15

If I've got a really sore knee from the treadmill this morning and it's not getting better and I'm icing it and I'm taking ibuprofen, and it's now a week and now I can't walk, well, I'm getting myself to the orthopod, but if not, maybe I could just roll it out a little bit, right, maybe I just won't run as much, or something of that nature. And so we just have to figure out where they're at and how we could solve them their problems or provide them with phenomenal value, right? Uh, you know, giving them the best meal of their life for with them and their mom for Mother's Day, that's more pleasurable. So that's not a pain play, that's a pleasure play.

Speaker 2: 21:56

So the best way that people can do this is just again by doing research right, finding the pains, talking to people in the industry that they're serving.

Speaker 3: 22:05

You know, I think that's the best ways to do that. I think also, um, if you look at taylor swift, taylor swift knows her audience better than anybody and taylor swift I remember reading an article would spend so many time, so many hours in forums of her audience. Right, and I think that's the one thing that we don't do and we're a little bit lazy. I would be in forums or Facebook groups or LinkedIn groups or whatever, where school groups nowadays right, I don't know, there's probably 80 more that I just don't know right, but I would be in those forums and seeing what the problems are that people are posting and what alternative solutions to mine, right, are people posting and is it a big enough problem and will status quo take over or will it motivate them to move me? And I would be doing that research, right, and I would be saying, okay, how can I fit myself in? How are my solutions? How can I be creative in the marketplace? Because right now, the marketplace is very me too? Right, it's very, very me too. Solutions how can I be creative in the marketplace? Because right now, the marketplace is very me too? Right, it's very, very me too. So how can I really be creative to break through.

Speaker 3: 23:18

And if I'm just starting out, maybe I'm doing two or three or four projects or taking on these clients for testimonials and for case studies right. And then I'm partnering with you and saying and for case studies, right. And then I'm partnering with you and saying I'm going to videotape these. And now I'm taking the videotape and I'm taking the words of it in transcripts, and now I got a written one and I got a verbal one and I got an audio one, right. And so there you got to break through the clutter. You need the case studies and there's a lot of different ways that you have to, you know, kind of break into the marketplace. If I was looking for my first, you know, clients.

Speaker 2: 23:54

For sure. Yeah, I think that's a crucial thing and and you just have to do it to understand, you know, cause a lot of people would just want to make it, cause they think that's what's going to be good for the market and they, they, they fall for it because they haven't done the research and figure out what's actually needed and wanted you know, if you are steve jobs, the world, you can figure out that the world needs the what's.

Speaker 3: 24:17

what was the ipod, right? Or the iphone, or that type of thing? Yeah, but those are few and far between right and you know, and I think if you could figure out, oh okay, well, the world needs X, okay, then let me bring X. But that's usually with a lot of research and development and can be a brilliant this too. This is a service right that people are providing, or information that people are providing, and so you just, you know, I would just go really deep on it.

Speaker 2: 24:46

Yeah. So with that now, like if they've done the research, they kind of understand the pains or they really understand the pains and positions of their market. Now they're trying to. You know they got their messaging a little bit more creative. You know, do you see an average? You know touch points before a close? Yeah, or you know, because I know the hard sell is I feel like kind of falling to the wayside a little bit just because people are, you know, they're seeing it a lot.

Speaker 3: 25:15

Well, it's not done well, right, and there's a lot of in the coaching consulting space. There's a lot of young guys and gals that you know kind of took a course and they think they're a closer and they have no basis for using any of the tools and tactics and they really are stumbling upon it, right. So they're giving the industry a bad names. There's some people out there that are teaching it and then they're going to put people in jobs, right. So if you want a job, you know, but first you got to buy my course and I got to teach you, right, and they have no context, yeah, and so a lot of that is just sloppy and really bad selling. And so there's that sales. But to answer your question, chris, which I think is the really smart question that you asked, is sales cycles are elongate, right, and you know in in. So right now there's a lot of anxiousness in markets, right, interest rates at where it's going on. We got a lot going on outside of our four walls, right in different countries, but it's taking a lot of headspace. We have a we're filming this in the month of May, but you know we do have an election that's going to be ugly and it's going to be noisy and it's going to be dividing and I'm not taking sides in any way, shape or form but it's going to be messy and so as you get closer to all that stuff it's going to elongate that because money scared, money doesn't get spent, it gets saved, so people will wait. So if I'm selling B2B and I realize that I'm in September and October, people will say, well, we're going to wait till the after the election, right? So now I'm like, oh great, and now I got, now who knows when this is going to be solved, right? So you got to just think of the calendar. So I do think that touches are elongating. It's taking, you know, five touches, seven touches, 14 touches.

Speaker 3: 27:08

Post-discovery sometimes we are also seeing, if you're selling in the B2B environment, there are more people involved, right? And so that's problematic, right? Because now you have to sell to different behavioral types, right, you got the analytical buyer. If you're selling in B2B environment, you got the financial person, you've got the champion, you've got the angel, you've got the person that's politically throwing stones at you, unbeknownst to you when you leave the room In a one-on-one setting that maybe a lot of coaches and consultants are selling, you are selling to the spouse, who may or may not be in the room. You're also selling to what I call the ghost of Christmas past, present and future.

Speaker 3: 27:49

So if we think about Charles Dickens, you don't know all of the decisions that they've made prior to you talking to your prospect, but they know all those decisions and a lot of those decisions haven't gone well for them, and it may be that they just hired the wrong person, that they just followed the wrong person, but it also may be that they knew that they didn't do anything with the course that they bought or the coaching program that they bought, or the fitness offer that they bought or the club that they became a member in. Right. And how many audio products, visual products, video products, information products do we all have on our hard drives nowadays or in the cloud? But if I go back to the days of CDs and cassettes, then nobody never opened right, and so we have to sell against all that, and that elongates the process. So we have to tell why we're different, why we're going to keep them accountable, why we are there to move them along.

Speaker 2: 28:49

Yeah, and so how can we stand out in that process? You know, I know our messaging is one thing, but are there anything that we can do that's more creative, that will help us stand out when we're having these meetings with individuals Cause, you know, especially coaching consultants, you know or even with us? We, we serve as B to B, um like they're getting, they're getting approached all the time with this and they're in in a lot of people's pipelines, and so how can we be different, besides just knowing them, knowing their pains, um any unique things to improve that?

Speaker 3: 29:22

Well, a thousand unique things to do that, first and foremost, I would be looking at potential referral sources to refer me in or, at the very least, if I'm in, could vouch for me, right? So who do we know to get there? And can that person give me an endorsement or do an introduction, right? Or if now I've done the sale, the discovery, and I'm coming in for the close or the conversion or whatever you want to call it, can that person endorse me? Can I show up in the inbox differently? So we talked about the possibility of video right? Can I show up in their mailbox? Do I know where they live that I could get something into their mailbox? Do I know where they live that I could get something into their mailbox? What are the six degrees of separation? So if I don't know anybody, is there somebody that they like that I know that now I could get kind of an angel or halo endorsement and it's just. Hey, nick's a great guy. I know you're talking to him about XYZ, I've known him forever, he won't let you down, right? And so these are tactical things that somebody could do besides just the marketing avalanche of information in front of the person, realizing that I'm going to have to touch them multiple times and I'm going to have to touch them all the way through the yes and post yes, right, because buyer's remorse sets in as soon as they say yes, right. So I now need to keep them going.

Speaker 3: 30:54

You know, for you it's. You know you're in a more traditional B2B right For the corporate side. So it's who's who can endorse me, who uses me? What is their fear, what's their pain and how do I make sure that I'm constantly ensuring that we're the right solution offerings right. On average, we see some of the back offices and I'll do a blended, so I'm not giving client. It's 13% conversion to the 35% conversion right, and a lot of it is really the skilledness of the sales person. But it's also is it the right market to message?

Speaker 3: 31:41

And sometimes you shouldn't make offers to people they're not going to do anything with it. It's not the right thing for you. You're going to be frustrated, I'm going to be frustrated, it's going to blow up the whole world and so you just say listen, I don't think we're the right place for you. I love you, you're a great person, I wish you all the best with the XYZ problem, but I just don't think that you're going to do anything about it and I just don't have the time, energy and bandwidth to deal with it. Stay on my list. I'm going to send you a lot of good information. I wish you all the best.

Speaker 3: 32:10

If things change. We're here for you and, I think, for your audience, having that internal strength of saying here's exactly who I serve. I'm going to be the best I possibly can and I'm going to figure out every way that I could circle this group, whoever that group is, and I'm going to do as much as I possibly can from a content perspective, right From a third party endorsement perspective, from an educational perspective, from an you know one, two, three and marketing perspective. So that way, every way they turn, I'm in front of them. So when they're ready, right, really, we don't force anybody to do anything against their free will. When they're ready, I'm in front of them and I'm their go-to solution.

Speaker 3: 32:56

But what happens is and this is goes back to Dan and kind of how we started One is we're boring. We do boring marketing. We do me too marketing, right. So you can never it's from David Ogilvie, right. You can never bore your prospects into buying your products, your service, so you got to be creative, you got to be fun right. Next thing is you people underestimate how much effort it takes to make a sale right and we're in the I want it now generation, which certainly we all want it now, but it really takes a lot. It takes a lot from a marketing perspective, it takes a lot from a sales perspective and it takes a lot from a sales skill perspective to move the person through, and most people completely underestimate that.

Speaker 2: 33:40

Yeah, for sure it's. It's a different ball game and, um, yeah, I think that's one thing you did. What you said there, too, is don't be boring. Oh no, you know that we're trusted. On the other hand, kind of what your point is, we also want to be, you know, fun and relative and engaging with our content as well, but we don't want to be looked at for posting that as not professional or good. So is there, is there a balance to it? You know? You know sharing memes or the whole big thing with Travis Kelsey and Taylor Swift when it came up, do you? Do you fall into that as a business to share those kind of things and kind of make light of it and humor in a tasteful way nothing, you know, um, derogatory, anything like that, but just having fun with that. Is that what you're meaning by you know, have fun and and stand out, or well, I think so.

Speaker 3: 34:42

So I think you know it's yes, yes and yes. So listen, memes work, right? It's amazing that I say that, but memes work, and memes work especially in the. So let's call in the follow-up process, right? I would definitely have a meme in there that I send to people, right?

Speaker 2: 35:05

So does that work? If you're targeting like bigger works in b2b, it works in professional services, even in like, if you're.

Speaker 3: 35:11

If you're targeting like incorporated 5000 c-suite level people I think if it's done in the right way okay yeah if it's done in the right way, I think it definitely works okay.

Speaker 3: 35:21

Um, if you read the people that really understand the LinkedIn and LinkedIn engagement, right, and I'll use two examples A video, right? Or a heartfelt post right. Or hey, this is what I see in the marketplace post gets more engagements. I have a gentleman that does what I do right. Or hey, this is what I see in the marketplace post gets more engagements. I have a gentleman that does what I do right, we're a fractional chief sales officer for organizations, vp of sales. He's a fractional CFO um, which is, you know, financial um for companies. He says he gets more engagement because he takes out clients, prospects and referral sources. I think it's once a month for pizza and we're in chicago, so we got great pizza and he posts a picture and they talk about the cubs or they talk about that. He gets more engagement from that post than every professional level post that he could possibly get and he's tied them all in. So now he's in all these logarithms right, and you know, people want to be invited to this pizza, right, because we all want to get to the cool kids table. Right, we're social, we all want to get to that. So I think that's some of the stuff that I'm saying okay, it's the, it's the.

Speaker 3: 36:42

I got the mailing addresses for my prospects that that I view are and it's. I'm sending them Halloween cards and I'm sending them Thanksgiving cards. Everybody's sending them Christmas cards, right, or hopefully, everybody's doing that Right, and so now I'm doing that, I'm doing an oversized letter, right. Or I'm creating a and it's very inexpensive to do with print on demand. I'm creating a magazine, right, about me and my clients and all the different things that we do, and we print those and we only have to do one. But I just changed the cover out because nobody's going to really care about that much about the inside. They're going to remember, but I'm sending that to people, right.

Speaker 3: 37:23

So now I'm coming into the inbox differently and I'm coming into the mailbox differently. A client just sent me and I don't have it and I don't want to run and get it, but they send their client welcome box or their prospect welcome box, which is some stuff in it. Now you, you gotta have some margin in your business, right To be able to afford this, but you have to. This goes back to how we started talking about it and we started talking about Dan right, know your numbers. What's your cost of acquisition of a customer? What are you willing to spend for that customer? See, but nobody wants to do that and we all just want to send an email, right One email, and think that the world's going to lock down with their Visa and MasterCard for us.

Speaker 2: 38:10

Yeah.

Speaker 3: 38:11

Yeah, and it's not.

Speaker 2: 38:13

No, I was going to say our best results we've had with going from a cold lead that we had just found online to actually become a client. It was like the shortest timeframe One we had. There's two things with it it was perfect timing because they were looking to create a video, um, but they were all but they're already talking to someone else. And I came in and I bought them lunch, uh, met with them in person, brought them lunch, um, and you know, paid for all that and had a good conversation and, um, you know they were, they were surprised and shocked with it, um, because, no, no one's ever just bought them lunch for a meeting.

Speaker 2: 38:48

Um, it wasn't, and I wasn't even pitching necessarily what I did. I was asking them about themselves, their business, their pains, uh, and then offering a solution at the end. And we had the second call and and close the deal, so, um, so yeah again. But to your point, you have to. It takes time, it takes more effort, it takes more resources, um, and a lot of people, you know don't want to take that extra bit. They just want to do the easiest kind of thing and hope you know.

Speaker 3: 39:21

Well, yeah, I mean, and, and I think sometimes the folks that are the gurus, if you will, and I hate that phrase right.

Speaker 3: 39:30

You know, and I use Peter Drucker, they call me a guru because they can't spell charlatan, right.

Speaker 3: 39:36

But you know the, the, they, they make it sound easy, right, or just do this or this, this. But you know you don't realize the fifth and you know, because you do the filming for them, the 52 takes or this, this, yeah. But you know you don't realize the fifth and you know, because you do the filming for them, the 52 takes they take, right, it's a full day to get three minutes of really good video, right, or 30 minutes of really good video, because all the different takes and the different angles and we're going to try this, we're going to you know, pattern, interrupts and all that. And I think we listen, if it was easy, everybody would do it Right. And in business you have to be crazy creative and be thinking about how do I stand through, how do I break through the marketplace, right. So yours was great.

Speaker 3: 40:17

I'm bringing them lunch. Let's have a conversation and you might say, hey, listen, I'm sending what. We got a 12 o'clock meeting. You and I both got to eat. I'm sending you. You know, nowadays it'd be 30 bucks, right, 30 bucks in Uber Eats, right, or in DoorDash. Order lunch in and you and I will have a Zoom, if you don't mind me chewing and you chewing, right, yeah, you know. Or if you know, you got to mean, hey, here's a bunch of stuff. I don't want to go through a pitch deck of who I am. I'm sending it to you ahead of time now. Now you, how do you be different? I'm going to send you my pitch deck ahead of time. Read, adult, read it. Throw in the trash, I don't care. I just want to figure out who you are, where you're at, what your problem is and see if I could add some value. And if I can add value, then you know, I'm going to give you some ideas.

Speaker 3: 40:58

Yeah, and you know, I think, if we have those real conversations with people and not be lazy and really, really, really push through and break through the clutter, you know, um, you, it's not easy, but it's kind of what it is. And listen, I'm, I'm the first to say you know, uh, the cobbler kids have the worst shoes. Right, I gotta do, I gotta do it for myself and my business, right, and I gotta you know. You know, I got my printer is texting me, uh, over the weekend, you know, I just wrote. You know, I've I've written eBooks.

Speaker 3: 41:31

They're Kindle books, they're on Amazon. I'm doing hard copies, right, so now I can mail them to people and say, let me get this to you, um, and you know, I think people are back in their offices nowadays, um, and so it's easier to get stuff to them and nobody's shipping out any direct mail anymore, so that you're going to break through the clutter and nobody's sending food. Right, send them some cookies, uh, you know the, the cupcakes or something to the office. Yeah, no one's doing that, and at least they're going to have a conversation with you. No one is sending Valentine's day cards or you know, uh, halloween cards or july 4th cards or any of that stuff. At least they'll take your call when you. That's all you can ask, right, just to break through the clutter and talk, and you're being creative yeah, no, and this has been great and we could.

Speaker 2: 42:21

We could go on for hours and hours yeah, it's been fun.

Speaker 3: 42:23

I know we're over our time.

Speaker 2: 42:24

Hopefully it's got's value on this I shared a lot of great value for people to kind of really dig into and start to think about, um, to, to set themselves apart and improve, and myself included.

Speaker 3: 42:36

So, like I always try to look good, hey, do you change the backdrop so, like tomorrow, if I did another podcast, would I have the bat signal behind you, and who would it be? Superman.

Speaker 2: 42:48

No, this is what I have. This is the actual virtual wall. That's legit, it's on the wall. I know some people are like is that a real like, is that virtual? I'm like no, that's legit. On the wall behind me.

Speaker 3: 43:00

Yeah, I love it. Who isn't a comic book fan? Who isn't a comic book fan? Who isn't a DC or Marvel?

Speaker 3: 43:04

I know there's two different worlds, but you know, and it goes back to how we start, right, dan Kennedy does a lot of training, if you get their hands on it, I would about personality and marketing and personality and copy right and how he studies comic book heroes. And if you think about the hero of a story, right, you know, there's the hero arc. Right, there's the hero's journey, and you have to do that and create a mystique around you, right, for your people. You know, you think about gary vanderchuk, who's kind of, you know, today's social guru, social media guru, right, jet, we all know he's a jets fan.

Speaker 3: 43:54

We all know he started out in his parents, uh, the wine business, right, the wine tv. You know, and how he just built that up, um, and you know how he drops the f-bomb every other word, right. And you, you know how he drops the F on every other word, right. And you know, and you know that's, that's his shtick and he uses that to break through. And I think you know you got to figure out a way to kind of break through and who you are and what you do.

Speaker 2: 44:17

Yeah, a hundred percent. And yeah, this has been a great conversation, negan. I truly think it's going to help a lot of people, once they listen to this and once they share this out, to really dig into their sales, into their marketing and make some improvements. So I appreciate you being open to sharing your time and your knowledge with us. Is there a place people can go to connect with you and find out more about you?

Speaker 3: 44:40

Yeah, of course, and we got a little free gift for your folks so they could go to it's called Sales Pack P-A-C-K. Um at you know that, sales performance teamcom, um, and on that they could get, uh, we got a checklist. You know kind of how they could kind of evaluate their sales process If they have a sales team. Uh, we've got our book on there. We've got a lot of good stuff for them. They could.

Speaker 3: 45:03

They could hit me up on LinkedIn. It's Nicholas Luisi, l-o-i-s-e. They can email me at nick at salesperformanceteamcom if they have any questions and show me some love, show me some hate. Either way, I'm good either way and we'll start the conversation. But, most importantly, keep listening to this podcast. And you, you got a dream. You're trying to launch a business. It's not easy. We've all been there and realize that. So, find a good community, like chris has created with the elevate media uh group, and just listen and execute and realize that everybody started out very, very small and it's a marathon, it's not a sprint, and I know everybody online is telling you it's a sprint, but it's not.

Speaker 2: 45:55

Yep 100%. So again, Nick, thanks so much for everything and thanks for being on the Elevate Media Podcast today.

Speaker 1: 46:01

Thank you for listening to the Elevate Media Podcast. Don't forget to subscribe and leave a review. See you in the next episode.