Do you define yourself as a salesperson? If so, you’ll definitely want to hear from our next guest, Mike Gomez. Mike is a business growth strategist and the Founder and President of Allegro Consulting, and he says some of the old strategies void of the ‘customer first’ mentality, aren’t working. In part 2 of this conversation, Mike joins the Atlanta Small Business Show to walk us through what he calls ‘The Death of Sales.’
Transcription:
Speaker 1:
From our studios in Atlanta, this is the Atlanta Small Business Show.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Hi, good morning. Jim Fitzpatrick right back here at the Atlanta Small Business Show. Thanks so much for joining us today. We are joined by Mike Gomez for part two of a very important discussion that we are having. Mike wrote an article called The Death of Sales, I guess it is.
Mike Gomez: Yes.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
The term sales, right?
Mike Gomez:
The Death of Sales, yes.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mike, thanks so much for joining us once again in the studio to talk about this. On the last, on part one, if you haven’t seen it go back to right here on our homepage, I should say at myASBN.com and check out that video because we talked about, in the previous time with Mike, about all of those annoying emails and those contacts you get through LinkedIn, and all of those tactics salespeople will use to engage with you under false pretenses really. You don’t know these people, they’re not your buddies, they’re not your friends, although it looks like that.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And Mike’s got some solutions to doing it a different way. Because a lot of people out there, a lot of especially new salespeople that have been told this is the way to manipulate people and get out there and get in front of them. When in reality, it can get a lot of people mad. Right?
Mike Gomez:
Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And as you said, it hurts the brand.
Mike Gomez:
Yeah. And so in that part one, I’m basically saying if these techniques that are currently being used and deployed by businesses out there, are just destroying.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Further destroying the brand sales or the title salesperson.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Business development, chief revenue officer.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
You can call it whatever it is, but the fact of the matter is where the priority, it’s all about us, our agenda, our quota, our this.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yep.
Mike Gomez:
And I’m trying to change that conversation that says, “How about if we focus on a customer? How about if we do our job better as a business to understand who it is that we ideally, our product is made for.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike Gomez:
And so in part two of this article, what I’m trying to do is suggest an alternative approach. I actually cite an actual business.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay.
Mike Gomez:
A company, a startup that I’ve been working with at Atlanta Tech Village called Steppingblock, who went through, unfortunately, the tough lesson learned.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
They tried this SDR cold call outreach.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
And to no avail for about two or three years and wasted money and time and resources.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And they-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And to your point, maybe even hurt the brand a little.
Mike Gomez:
And by the way, hurt the brand a bit.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
By these cold emails. And what they suffered from was it was a new business that was trying to sell a solution in the way of data analytics to universities and colleges, but the business had no past history in universities and no credibility. Even the owner didn’t have any credibility in the university. So if you understand how universities make decisions, they talk to one another.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
They vet companies that they do business with, and they do, “Does this business understand our world, the university world, the college world?” And he began to recognize, “I have no credibility in that field. I have no credibility in that industry, and I got to earn it.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
And so he began to start working toward that goal of earning credibility within the college and university systems by writing articles that were thoughtful and thought-provoking.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Become an authority in that.
Mike Gomez:
By hosting panels of discussions and simply just by being the host and getting people together.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
And eventually he was able to participate in the panel because he had something positive to contribute.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
And he began to earn his ability to have a meeting in that space.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. He became a thought leader in that.
Mike Gomez:
Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And then he did one of the most remarkable step was he, after firing and getting rid of that whole SDR and cold calling team of people that was a total mistake, he actually hired from the university system, an individual who was a PhD in use of data analytics in the field that they were trying to do.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Nice. Good idea. Good move.
Mike Gomez:
So now this person-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
… is actually a thought leader just in himself, and he’s known within the universities. And now he is engaging with-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Now the brand has got even more credibility.
Mike Gomez:
Credibility.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Right. And he did not call this guy a salesperson.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
In fact, he didn’t ask this person to be a salesperson. He said, “Your job is to help our potential customers with analyzing all the different solutions to this problem, and being a helpful in that capacity, including our solution as one to be looked at.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike Gomez:
And then to help them make a good buying decision.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
It may be our solution, it may not be.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
But you’re going to be viewed as someone who’s contributing to the discussion.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right.
Mike Gomez:
That’s the right way to do it. And by the way, that’s how they made their first big sale, and that gave them even more credibility.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And the fact that they were doing business with one caused someone else to say, “Hey, I heard what you’re doing over here.” And now their sales are going skyrocketing.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay. Okay. So what do you say to the businesses out there that are saying, “Well, Mike, are you telling me to do away with my sales staff?”
Mike Gomez:
Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
So what… ?
Mike Gomez:
So look, what I’m suggesting is there’s a series of steps to get to this.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay.
Mike Gomez:
All right. The first step is one that, anybody watches you and me talk, you’ve heard me say this over and over again, have a strategic plan.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Because having a strategic plan, part of that process is knowing who it is you’re serving.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Okay? And it’s not just, let’s say you have a product that’s made for lawyers. It’s not just lawyers.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Right? It’s actually lawyers within a certain part of law who are working an organization of this size, who are encountering this problem on a regular basis.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
That’s narrow.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike Gomez:
Now you hold your marketing team accountable for attracting and engaging that specific individual, those people to your company. Get them to pay attention to us.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
You encourage your marketing team, “What kind of marketing plan are we doing to improve our credibility within that market segment that the people we want to serve?” So those are marketing initiatives that earn your way into being able to sit down with your customer and have intelligent conversation.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
The next thing I’m suggesting in my article is that you reevaluate your sales team.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike Gomez:
Do they have depth? Can they engage with a customer and be a respected contributor to the discussion, or are they only this deep?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
And they’re only features and benefits people.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And then hand it off.
Mike Gomez:
And if they’re just features and benefits people, then that’s not helping the customer.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
They want to have a conversation.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
They want to have an in-depth conversation about all possible solutions and how do I evaluate them?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
That’s what they’re looking for from [crosstalk 00:07:20].
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Because at the end of the day, your solution might not even be the right solution.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Or maybe you couldn’t even fulfill what their needs are.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
And you walk away, and that’s no longer a prospect.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
But the whole time you were being helpful, you were acting in the service of your customer and not-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
As more of a consultant.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Than a hard sell. Right?
Mike Gomez:
And then I go onto say in this article that says, “So now that you’ve reevaluated and looked at the quality of the individuals who you are having sitting in front of a customer, then let’s not burden them with a title of salesperson.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Or business development guy. All right? Don’t harm them before they go into the meeting.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Call them a consultant, call them a specialist, call them what they are.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike Gomez:
So that when they walk in the door, they’re going to be perceived as someone who’s going to be contributing to the process, and not simply there promoting and pushing their hardware or solutions.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And it’s okay to take away the sales title from them, but still hold them accountable for sales.
Mike Gomez:
Right. Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Nothing wrong with that.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
You’re just not telling the world that this person is here to sell you something.
Mike Gomez:
I don’t want to pre burden that person.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
So this makes it look like the agenda is going to be about me and not you.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right.
Mike Gomez:
Right? And then the last two steps in these solutions is, teach a sales methodology.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike Gomez:
All right. One of the things I talk about in the first article about how bad the brand of sales is, is that it’s not considered a profession.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Okay. That anyone can do sales.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Well actually, there are sales methodologies. There are approaches to sales that you can be taught. There’s two reasons you lose a sale. Right? It’s well-documented and well-known. You lose a sale because one, well, you probably shouldn’t be competing in the first place because you never had a chance.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And you probably should have known that.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
And not even entered.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
The second reason that you lose a sale is because you didn’t know something.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
It’s the classic, “I didn’t know.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Something about how the customer was going to make the buying decision.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
And it’s because your sales methodology, or your process, let you down.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
You didn’t adhere to one that prevented that I didn’t know excuse from occurring.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
So this is where the profession of sales comes in, following a strict discipline approach to selling that is repeatable. And the last stage of this change, this metamorphosis that I’m suggesting that will improve your sales win rate, is once you train your salespeople in this methodology, then exercise them in it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Make sure they stay stick to it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike Gomez:
I can’t tell you how many times I have met with people, salespeople who said, “Oh yeah, I received a sales training in this, or I received a sales training in this.” And I would go, “Do you follow it?”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
“Well, not really.” I mean, think about it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Or maybe they did it, maybe they went through that process their first week on the job, or their first month on the job.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And when was that? It was five years ago.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. And it’s gotten so far away from it.
Mike Gomez:
“Did your boss hold you accountable to following the process?” “No.” “Did you follow the process?” “No.” “So how do you sell?” “Well, I just kind of wing it. I got instinct feel.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
I’m like, “No wonder why people don’t believe it’s a profession.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Can you imagine your bookkeeper, your CPA.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Winging it.
Mike Gomez:
Winging it?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yep.
Mike Gomez:
No, they actually have to follow… Not only do they have to follow a discipline approach, they actually have to get recurring and training [crosstalk 00:10:53].
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. Education. Yeah. Continued education.
Mike Gomez:
To stay up to speed with the processes and the disciplines of their profession.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
We can do that in the profession of sales.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, and we should.
Mike Gomez:
And we should.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. And it’s those great salespeople, those people that ring the bell every month, they’re great, but they’re also not so great for the organization because sometimes those are the ones that got so far away from the process.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And they’re selling on either previous contacts, or great personalities, or the guy that is the life of the party, and they’re out there selling away or closing deals. When in reality, everyone else is also looking at them going, “Oh, so we can get that far away from the sales process?”
Mike Gomez:
Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
“And still be employed here at the company as long as we’re making the deals.” I know you’ve heard that before.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Well, as long as you’re ringing the bell, and as long as you’re bringing those deals in, you’re kind of saying that’s a reward to do whatever you want.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right?
Mike Gomez:
And I’ll tell you, where this enlightenment of mine came from is I actually saw it in person at Boeing. All right?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay.
Mike Gomez:
We hired ex-military fighter pilots who flew our airplanes for 20 years. I flew the F-15 or flew the F-18.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And we took them out of retirement from the Air Force, and we put them in and said, “You’re now a salesperson for the F-15.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right. Instant credibility, right?
Mike Gomez:
And right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
So they flew the airplane. And imagine everybody in the audience is thinking, “Well, Mike, that’s perfect. Who could better sell an F-15 than a F-15 pilot?”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
Well, I will argue this, how long will the compelling interest in telling a war story, “There I was with my F-15 in Afghanistan.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
“And there I was in my F-15 in Kuwait.” When the minister of finance is going, “I’m trying to… I got the stories. That’s exciting. But I’ve got these issues with the purchase of a fleet of F-15s for my country. When are you going to get to that?”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure. Right. Right.
Mike Gomez:
Okay. And we realized that without a sales methodology, these people they had credibility, but they didn’t have the ability to prevent the I didn’t know.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
All right, they didn’t know how to serve the customer. They didn’t know how to ask questions, probing questions to make sure that we understand how the customer’s going to go through buying decision so that we can serve them through that process.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. And so many salespeople at the end of a time spent with a prospect, when they walked away, they didn’t make the deal. And you ask them, “What happened? What… ” “Oh, the guy or the girl’s a flake. They’re not ready right now. They’re going to do… they’re going to put it off. They’re going to wait.” When in reality, a lot of those times those people turned right back around and go with your competitor.
Mike Gomez:
Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Because you didn’t have the necessary questions [crosstalk 00:13:34].
Mike Gomez:
And by the way, and when I find out that they went with a competitor, and then I go, “Well, what is it that we didn’t know about how they were going to make this decision that allowed… Why didn’t we know this?”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
It’s if we had known this, maybe we could have adjusted our offering to reflect that.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, that’s right.
Mike Gomez:
But the I didn’t know excuse appeared because we didn’t have a discipline for how we were engaging with this customer.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
To make sure that the I didn’t know excuse would show up.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
So this is where sales methodology is really important. The sales training and adhering to a discipline approach to selling can make all the difference in the world.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
So how would you recommend, for salespeople and business owners that are listening to us have this discussion, they’re all on LinkedIn, so many people are, they go to LinkedIn, they set up their profiles, they connect with other people, or what have you. How should they use that best in your opinion without offending anyone with some sort of a, “Hey, let’s get together so I can sell you”?
Mike Gomez:
So I have a… Again, the underlying philosophy and the sales methodology that I teach is the motto, are you acting in the service of?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Okay.
Mike Gomez:
The moment you are doing something that is not in the service of the customer, then you need to stop, pause, and rethink it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay.
Mike Gomez:
So let’s talk about a LinkedIn outreach.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Okay.
Mike Gomez:
So maybe there is someone you generally want to meet out there, and you send them a note going, “You know what? I like something about this and you, and whatnot. And I think I have a white paper or a article.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Good idea.
Mike Gomez:
“That I think might be helpful to you.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Mike Gomez:
I just did this for someone I know on LinkedIn.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Who said, “Hey, we’re hiring a sales director.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And I went to look at the job description, and the job was like a paragraph, it was like this long. And I said, “Oh no.” And I sent him a note going, “Hey, Marshall, I see you’ve got this post out there about hiring a sales director. Have you thought about maybe expanding what you’ve defined as experience required in a more definitive way?”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
“Because you’re going to get inundated.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Oh, yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And he goes… And I sent him an article of mine, and he goes, “Wow, Mike, I read your article, “Bob” is NOT a Sales Process.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And like, “I need your help.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
And that was his next response, “Can we set a Zoom meeting?”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And you weren’t looking for that.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
You weren’t looking for that.
Mike Gomez:
So I was helping him.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
I was acting… I’m genuinely in the service of him knowing that his current path was going to be a bad one.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
If he continued down it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That Right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
So there are ways to do that.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yep. And again, it was providing that person that you know, and you’ve got a relationship with, with good solid content and information to say, “I’m not asking for a coffee. I’m asking for a lunch. I don’t want to enlighten you about my products and services. Just, here’s a piece of information. Here’s an article that I wrote. You might get something out of it.”
Mike Gomez:
You might get-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And from that, somebody goes, “You know what? We need this guy.”
Mike Gomez:
Yep. [crosstalk 00:16:34].
Jim Fitzpatrick:
“We got to get this guy in here.”
Mike Gomez:
“Given what you’re doing, I think this article might help you think through this. And you will make a better decision as a result of it.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
So in the service of, if you’re acting in the service of, do it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
If you’re doing something that’s about your quota, your company’s agenda, your whatever it is, stop.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Stop.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Right?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Like you said, you’re killing your brand.
Mike Gomez:
You’re killing your brand. Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. That’s incredible.
Mike Gomez:
So our job as salespeople is help the customer make a good buying decision.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
That’s it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Right?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Give them the information that they need.
Mike Gomez:
Help them.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
But that means you need to understand how do they typically go about decision-making?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). You mean they the customer?
Mike Gomez:
They the customer.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Because you go about decision-making in one way, I go about it in a different way.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
My job is to understand how you go about decision-making, and then I’m going to serve you along that way.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
I’m not going to-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And everyone-
Mike Gomez:
I’m not going to skip to this one.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right.
Mike Gomez:
I’m not going to assume you make decisions like me.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
My job is to ask you.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
How does your company make a decision this? Have you ever made a company decision like that?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And we make the mistake of thinking, “No, no, no, no, we’ve set up a sales process where we think this is the way everybody makes a decision.” Right?
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And in the auto industry we’ve got a news segment for the auto industry, and they’re going through that same thing right now. Everybody watches a Carvana commercial, or a Vroom commercial, where you can pick up your phone, and in the comfort of your own home you can buy a vehicle. Okay?
Mike Gomez:
Yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And it’s delivered right to your front door. Well now, the traditional car dealerships out there, the franchises are going, “Whoa, wait a minute. How did this disruptor that’s never been in the auto industry before come in and take our customers away?” Not because of the car they’re buying, but because of the way they buy it.
Mike Gomez:
Yes.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And I was talking to one individual that said, “Today’s shoppers and today’s consumers are much like when you walk into a Publix today, or you walk into a supermarket, and you can either go through the traditional line where somebody helps you, you can go through the automated line, you can stay at home and order your groceries online.
Mike Gomez:
And just pick up a bag.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Or have it delivered to you. Right?
Mike Gomez:
Have it delivered to you, yeah.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Or do your whole order, and somebody will come out to your car if you park in one of those… They’ve made the necessary accommodations for people to pull in, this is where I’m waiting for my groceries, and somebody brings it out to you. So it’s really to be able to meet those customers wherever they wish to be met along the sales process. And I think so many people are like that. So if we, as salespeople go in and go, “No, no, no, no, no. This is our process. We’ve set it up for X, Y, and Z,” you’re going to miss a tremendous amount of your customers.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
To your point, that’s not our process.
Mike Gomez:
And there’s another element. So there’s two things you brought up that is actually making me smile a bit because I actually in the first part of this article I call it the Death of Sales, and how poor the brand is, and I’m going when you see a company like Carvana, and guess what their motto is, “We’ve eliminated the worst part of buying a car.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
Guess what that is.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
The sales process.
Mike Gomez:
The salesperson.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. Yeah. Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
That salesperson.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, that’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
That hard selling person who doesn’t really care about my interest.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
His job is to sell a car.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Right? So that’s what I’m going to encounter.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
And you see all the examples that they have of that experience [crosstalk 00:20:03].
Jim Fitzpatrick:
They exaggerate them a little bit.
Mike Gomez:
Of course.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Especially with those ones where they hook the person up to like an electric charge.
Mike Gomez:
Exactly.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
They don’t let them go home.
Mike Gomez:
But there’s some hidden stories behind these things, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
There are.
Mike Gomez:
And again, this is what I talk about. I actually say in my first article, “People hate salespeople.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
I’m like, oh my God. That’s really bad.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
So that’s one thing. But going back to the in the service of, if you are in the service of, well, guess what? You can’t be in the service of someone if you don’t know them.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. That’s a good point.
Mike Gomez:
So as a salesperson, that is my job.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
My first job is not to tell you features and benefits about our product and service. My first job is to get to know you.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
You as an individual.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
You as a person within a company doing a certain role, and understanding how you make decisions, what problem you are encountering.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yep.
Mike Gomez:
And then based on that, determine how I can best serve you.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
Now look, what I’m suggesting is hard.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
It’s a longer term.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
But let me tell you audience, the quality of the engagements you’re going to have with your customers, the fewer engagement you’re going to have, are going to result in a much higher win rate percentage.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
Than the old approach, or this other approach, that’s sort of gaining momentum, and that’s keep stuffing the funnel. We don’t care what we stuff it with.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right.
Mike Gomez:
It’s going to be a numbers game.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
Okay.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Very good point. All great points. Again, Mike Gomez, founder and president of Allegro Consulting, and business growth strategist, keynote speaker, all-around good guy.
Mike Gomez:
[crosstalk 00:21:36].
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Thank you so much for coming back in. I know that our viewers and subscribers get so much out of your visits with us, so thanks so much. We really appreciate you.
Mike Gomez:
You’re very welcome. It’s pleasure to be here and to see you again.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Another great topic and more great solutions, so thanks.
Speaker 1:
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