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. Today, Mike joins the Atlanta Small Business Show to walk us through what he calls ‘The Death of Sales.’
Transcription:
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Mike Gomez, thanks so much for joining us once again in the studio.
Mike Gomez:
Thanks. Good to be back.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah, it’s good to see you. We’re kind of getting out of this whole COVID thing, right, it sounds like?
Mike Gomez:
This is a genuinely happy new year, I hope.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. I hope so, too.
Mike Gomez:
I hope.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Especially with the CDC recently mentioning that you can be inside without a mask on.
Mike Gomez:
Yes, it’s exciting.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
More people are… Exactly.
Mike Gomez:
I can see more people. And beyond this.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
Very good.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
No longer you just see their eyes, right?
Mike Gomez:
Exactly.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
So talk to us. You mentioned the lack of respect for the customer’s time, intelligence, inbox. You wrote an article about this. So talk to us about this.
Mike Gomez:
It’s interesting. This is has some actually COVID related accelerant, if you will. It was like putting gas on a fire that was already flaming as it was-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
… because COVID forced sales people to not be able to interact directly with their customer, they started moving more and more to this sort of distance outreach work.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
And I’m certain people viewing this have seen it in their email. The larger number of-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
… uninvited sales emails that you are getting. You saw it in your cell phone, these uninvited text messages, these uninvited-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Cold Calls.
Mike Gomez:
… cold calls.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Someone is out there teaching companies that this is the way to sell. And I will argue, the sales profession already had a bad rep as it was.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
We’re just adding to it. Right?
Mike Gomez:
We’re just adding to it. And I kind of proclaimed, rather theatrically in this article, that maybe it’s time we just the word sales-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
… bury it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. You had, in your article, you had a little tombstone.
Mike Gomez:
I have a tombstone. I literally graphically just, it says that the death of sales, I mean the poor guy is burying it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. Nobody ever wants to be sold anything, do they?
Mike Gomez:
No, they don’t. And not only that, but you think about your visceral reaction that you have when someone introduces you and says, “I’m a salesperson.”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right away your guard goes up. Right away.
Mike Gomez:
Immediately.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Now think about that. I talk about in terms of ways of brand. Now, if your company had this sort of bad series of reputations attached to your company name, you have to go, man, we’ve got to fix some things here.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
So think about the typical salesperson, the depth of knowledge they have in either the industry, or the customer, or the expertise that they need to be really thoughtfully engaging with the customer to help them go through the series of solutions that might solve their problems.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
They tend not to be. They tend to be features and benefits people. That’s their job.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. And closers.
Mike Gomez:
And closers. Right. You think about some of the training that goes into that sales profession. How to close, how to overcome objections. How to combat concerns in a credible way. Combat. Really, you’re going to teach your person how to combat with your customer?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Oh my goodness.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
I mean, these are things that are-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
How to get them, how to lead them into the yes, yes, yes answers so that when you say, “Can we do business today?” They say, “Yes.”
Mike Gomez:
Kick it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
There are all kinds of sales tactics.
Mike Gomez:
Yes. There’s a company that now creates a means for you to embed more sincerity in your mass email sends.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
So that they now sound more sincere. They sound more personal. They, they have technology that will make them sound more personal. Rather than actually being more personal, we’re giving them tools to make them sound more personal, even though they aren’t.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
The advent of a whole new technology, or business, or profession in the sales world is called SDRs. Sales development reps.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Basically says, we’re going to make this even more efficient in selling. So the salesperson, you don’t do anything. The sales development reps, they’re going to do all the cold calling, they’re going to do all the initial screening, and then they’re going to hand you, the customer, off to someone else.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That hot lead.
Mike Gomez:
Yeah. I, the customer, I’m going to be handed off?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Handed off to who? Oh, the big closer.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
I mean, my goodness.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
We need to-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
It’s 2022.
Mike Gomez:
… We need to think differently about how we’re approaching this. And I’m trying to highlight, through this article, these examples of what’s happening in the sales profession.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Is your concern that we’re getting, as human beings, so far away from the art of selling. I know that’s getting back to selling, and also the art of communication and building true relationships with prospects?
Mike Gomez:
Well, yes, we’re further away from it. And someone is making people believe that if you approach enough people in enough manners, that you think about volume of contact as opposed to quality of contact?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. I was just going to say, a lot of these things stem from these robo calls, and this mass distribution of information and sales. Getting back to sales again. But these sales efforts out there that can say, well, instead of calling 20 people today and having a meaningful conversation, we can hit 2,000 people that might hook, and might be interested in what you’re selling.
Mike Gomez:
There was actually an SDR coach, a person who does that. And he posted, ironically, a video that to try to motivate his people, and there’s a song called I Marched 500 Miles.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yes.
Mike Gomez:
Okay? And he changed the words to, I made 500 calls today. So you see the motivation is not necessarily the quality of the call-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. It’s the numbers.
Mike Gomez:
… it’s, did you hit your numbers? Did you disturb enough people? Did you get enough emails out today?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sure.
Mike Gomez:
Because the whole theory is, if you just keep hitting numbers of people-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. You’re going to get them.
Mike Gomez:
… you’re going to get more sales.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. You know, we talked a little bit about this before we started recording today. And that is my frustration with LinkedIn, because I’ll get these incredibly, what seems to be generous or meaningful conversations as they start out.
Mike Gomez:
Sincere.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Sincere. That’s the word I’m looking for. Thank you. And I’m like, oh, okay, this is nice. And then it’s, well, we’ve got these things common, and we both live in Atlanta, or we both live in Florida, whatever the case might be, and I’d really like to reach out. And then you’re like, okay, yeah. This sounds like a great, and then bang here comes the sales pitch.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Or here comes the attempt to let’s set up a coffee so I can share with you what we do. Right? And of course, that’s a sales pitch.
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
There’s no question. I’m like, and you sit there and go, wow. Up until that point it sounded like wow, this, this would be good to connect with somebody like this, but now, right away, we’re going in for the coffee, or we’re going in for the lunch, or whatever the case might be. So I can share with you what our company does and the solutions that it provides to companies of your size.
Mike Gomez:
I literally-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
I don’t even think that person wrote that.
Mike Gomez:
… I have an example in the article of an outreach to me that was just like that. Mike, you’re a wonderful person. Look, I’ve been reading your articles. You sound like we have a genuine connection with this person and this person, I’d love to connect with you. And bam, the next thing I got, saying, “Oh, sure. I’d love to connect with you. That’s awesome.” I got a sales pitch.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
And so someone is teaching people this. Someone is suggesting to business owners that this is a way to get business.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
And I will argue, that person right there, I will never do business with.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah.
Mike Gomez:
Because if they’re going to manipulate me to get connected then I’m going to do business with them?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
They’re the kind of person I want to do my future business with? No way.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right. As we were talking earlier, somewhere along the lines the numbers must be in the favor of saying, take this approach, take this mass approach of saying, we’re just going to spray it and pray. Spray and pray approach to getting some leads back or people that we can work or what have you. But it seems to me like you’re really killing the rest of the prospects out there.
Mike Gomez:
Right. First of all, you’re destroying your brand by doing this technique, right?
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. That’s a good point.
Mike Gomez:
It’s destroying your brand’s credibility because you are saying, I don’t care about your time, Mike. I don’t care about the fact that you have to click and delete my emails that are filling up your inbox. I don’t care that I interrupted your day with a phone call that you didn’t ask for. I don’t care. So if your brand is starting off with, I don’t care about you as an individual or you as a business, because it’s my priority that we need to talk about.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right.
Mike Gomez:
So first of all, that’s not good for your brand.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
Second of all, I would argue that if you looked at the numbers of this technique, and a lot of people will try to sell you this technique because they’ll say, “Well, look how many meetings I can get you.” That’s the measure. Well, wait a second. I want to know how many meetings actually turned into a real sale. And I will challenge CEOs that are being approached by companies like that, or [inaudible 00:11:03], they ask and demand from these people pitching this what the actual sales effort resulted in.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Yeah. What the conversions were to success.
Mike Gomez:
And you’re going to be quite stunned.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right.
Mike Gomez:
So not only are you destroying your brand through this technique, but I will argue that your sales win rate is not something that you’re going to be proud of, and that there is, in fact, an alternative way to do this, where now you’re more selective about who you go after, and thus-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
And more sincere.
Mike Gomez:
… and more sincere.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Authentic.
Mike Gomez:
And you’ll have a better win rate as a result.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right. Right.
Mike Gomez:
But the second part takes more work.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Right, right. For sure. For sure. And these, we’ve all been, I don’t want to say victim, maybe that’s too harsh a term, but for the lack of a better term, we’ve all been victim of these types of approaches. Whether it be on LinkedIn, or whether it be in our email box, or connections on Facebook or whatever. I mean, there’s nobody out there that’s listening right now that hasn’t had to purify their email with clever little topics and sayings right in the subject line. You know what I mean? Hey, Jim, this was the report that I said I’d get back to you. Right? I’m like, “Who is this person?”
Mike Gomez:
Right.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Click it on, and I don’t know this person. But it got the click and it got me reading the first line. And then it’s obviously some kind of a false. I never asked anybody to get back a report to me. You know what I mean?
Mike Gomez:
So these manipulative techniques, and this, when I go back into the brand of sales basically should be shot and buried, because that’s what it’s known for now. And the interesting part of it, if I can talk to the audience for a second, you know you don’t respond to these, yet you are actually suggesting your sales team to do it.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
It’s, mind boggling. I’m going, how do you… And when I’m sitting down with my CEOs and talking about their approach to selling and they go, “Well, we have this outreach where we send these mass emails out and we make these cold calls out.” And I said, “How do you respond when this shows up in your inbox?” “Well, I just delete them.” “Then why do you believe that your customer is not going to do the same thing?”
Jim Fitzpatrick:
That’s right. That’s right.
Mike Gomez:
It’s stunning.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
It is.
Mike Gomez:
And we have to stop this.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
I know. And I know you’ve got some solutions that you want to share. So stay tuned for part two of this conversation, because I think it’s great that you’re bringing it to our attention. I would encourage everybody, and we’ll show the connection here, to read the article in its entirety that Mike Gomez posted. It’s a great article. It’s a must read. But I want to bring you back.
Mike Gomez:
Thank you.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
To talk about the solutions that you’d recommend to companies-
Mike Gomez:
Yeah. I think it’s-
Jim Fitzpatrick:
… because right now you’ve probably got the attention of a lot of people going, wait a minute, what’s he suggesting here? Our viewers and subscribers get so much out of your business with us. So thanks so much. We really appreciate you.
Mike Gomez:
You’re very welcome. A pleasure to be here.
Jim Fitzpatrick:
Another great topic.
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