Speaker 1: 0:00

The Surviving Outside Sales Podcast, hosted by Mike O'Kelley, presented by Sales Builder Academy, the goal is to survive and thrive all phases of outside sales, whether you're getting in, dominating or getting out. Surviving Outside Sales. Now on with the show. Welcome to the Surviving Outside Sales Podcast. I'm your host, mike O'Kelley. Hope everybody's having a great start to their day, wherever you are in this outside sales world. So, continuing on the theme of growth foundation, so taking you back a little bit, understanding that there's always time right now we're in Q4. There's always time to reinvent, reset, kind of turn over your bag and also get prepared. So that's one of the things that I love about outside sales is there's so many opportunities during the week to elevate your business, to grow your business and make a massive impact. And so, taking it back to building the foundation again, if you've listened to the podcast before, you know you've talked, or you've heard me talk, about building a foundation. You can build a big territory, big business that can scale. If you don't have the right foundation, your territory, your business, is a house of cards and it can easily come crumbling to the ground. One of the things kind of an example of that is I worked for a company where one of the quote-unquote top sales reps, yes, had great numbers, but about 87% to 90% of his business came from one account. The problem was when that account when the physician that was running that account, when that physician retired, this sales professional lost almost 90% of his business and it's very difficult to come back from that. And this person did not have the habits, processes or systems in place or a strong foundation to allow his business to grow and to replace that. And so, right off the bat, you're going to always lose clients. You're going to lose clients. It happens, and that in the business world is called churn. You're always going to have churn. People are going to stop using your products, people are going to leave your market, people are going to retire or, worst case scenario, somebody passes away. It always happens and you have to prepare for that. And that's one of the reasons why in a sales business in your sales territory, there is no such thing as the status quo. You're either growing or you're losing business or you're shrinking period. There is no maintaining. Now your numbers might look the same, but even within those numbers, you have new clients, new business, and you've lost some clients and you've lost some business. And that's what people believe is oh, I've plateaued and you've lost some clients and you've lost some business. And that's what people believe is, oh, I've plateaued. No, what's happening is, is the amount of new business you have coming in isn't overcoming the business that you're losing or the business that's rolling off? And there's a lot of different types of businesses. There's recurring revenue businesses, subscription models, membership models, refills, consumables, but then there's also like equipment, where it's kind of one and done, where you sell something and then you move on to the next account, move on to the next client. I like the businesses where you can continue to sell the recurring revenue models. That's the kind of businesses that I like the best and the ones that I normally gravitate towards.

Speaker 1: 3:40

I did work in the medical device world. You know, briefly, before COVID kind of completely altered my career trajectory and my career path, for the good, I believe. But that was a one and done Like once you, once I sold a unit to a dermatology clinic. It was over. There was no selling a second unit, at least within probably two years. You know some of the clinics there would have been a potential to sell a second unit, but once you sell one. It's kind of like okay, you need them for referrals, you need them to be advocates, to possibly help with testimonials, but once that's done, it's done. The best types of and what I recommend to people who are getting into sales or they're looking for sales opportunities is look towards opportunities where you can have a recurring revenue model, where you can continue to get business over and over and over again. Those are the best types of sales businesses where you sell one and you just start stacking clients, stacking accounts, stacking sales on top of each other. That is how you can grow and that's how you can grow very quickly. So, building that growth foundation.

Speaker 1: 4:41

Today's topic is to become the go-to expert in whatever field you're going to be in. And when people think that the word expert, they think that they have to know everything about everything, about everything. You don't. You just have to be confident about what you are going to be doing for your buyer to elevate their future state. And let me repeat that you just need to be able to be an expert on your buyer's future state. You don't have to be an expert on everything within your market. Yes, it does help, yes, it does add credibility, but when you start off or when you're refreshing. You have to be an expert on how do you get the desired outcome of your clientele. How are you that agent of change that is being the go-to expert within your industry? They can call up Mike and say, hey, I need help with X Y Z and I get these phone calls where people reach out to me, or text messages or communications emails. Hey, I have this type of issue. Do you know anybody? Or hey, I need help with X Y Z. You know, can you help or can you refer me to somebody who can? Can?

Speaker 1: 6:04

The way to become that go-to expert is again going back to sound like a broken record those habits, processes and systems. The process is getting to know as much as you can about these clients, these prospects, your future buyers or your current buyers, knowing everything about their struggle and their goal to go from A to B. The faster you can get them to B the ending part, b, whatever their goal is, the faster you can get them there or you can facilitate them getting there. You are going to be part of their inner circle and then you just build upon that. But the reason why you want to be known to as the go-to expert is that your buyers, no matter what market they are in, they have friends, they have colleagues, they have coworkers, they have other people that they know within their sphere of influence and they talk. And I knew that they were talking. I knew I'd been in those rooms where they talk about things.

Speaker 1: 7:08

But until I actually opened my own business you know, for those of you don't know, my wife and I own a wellness studio, restore hyper wellness, in Rock Hill, south Carolina. If you're ever in Rock Hill, please stop by. We'd love to help you in your wellness goals. But that is beside the point. But until I actually went through this process, I didn't know to what extent other business owners talked and shared with other people. I really didn't. It really is a tight knit community and I can tell you word travels fast and I thought I really knew. You know, when I used to call on doctors, I used to think that that word, you know, got around, but I did not realize how fast it gets around. Now, not saying in the, in the, in the medical sales world, that it got around that quickly, but it's amazing, you know. That's another thing too.

Speaker 1: 8:07

Is business owners, people who are in the know, the people you're trying to sell to. They're always asking their colleagues, their friends, their business partners. They're always asking for recommendations. They're always asking for referrals Like hey, do you know somebody in this realm? Like, hey, I'm really struggling with this, do you know anybody? Those type of referrals are like gold. If somebody that I trust gives me a name, I automatically trust that person. Now, it doesn't necessarily mean that I'm going to guaranteed do business with them, but I'm going to give them a call and I'm going to give them a shot. They don't have to do any prospecting on my part. I'm reaching out to them. That's a warm lead. The more warm leads you can create for yourself, the easier it is for you to scale your business. If you're just trying to go in cold with all of your business, all of your accounts, and you're just spraying and praying, it's going to be a struggle.

Speaker 1: 9:01

Yeah, and becoming that go-to person is basically whenever people are talking. And, just as a reminder, I've mentioned this before in other episodes, but for those of you who haven't heard every episode of this podcast, most of the biggest decisions of your life happen when you're not in the room, and that is why the part of the foundation that you should be building is becoming an expert in your field Not just an expert in your products, but an expert in your field. And this is the reason why, when you're an expert and you're the go-to person in the field, what will happen is opportunities will come to you when you're the go-to person Job opportunities, companies looking to expand is opportunities will come to you when you're the go-to person job opportunities, companies looking to expand, companies looking for somebody with a bigger role. They ask buyers. I ask buyers hey, I'm looking for this type of role with my company. Do you know anybody? And they either say no, I don't know anybody, or yeah, I've got somebody. Let me, let me see what they're up to and I'll reach out to you. Awesome, they're going to reach out to their quote unquote go-to experts.

Speaker 1: 10:14

So one of the fastest ways that you can scale your sales territory and your business is to be viewed as one of those go-to experts. Now it sounds simple. It's not easy. It takes a lot of work to craft that and sometimes it can. It can be immediately done. Sometimes it can take a while. It just depends.

Speaker 1: 10:38

It's case by case. I've had some. I've had some students that I've coached. I've had some, some people that I've consulted with, where it's just a couple of tweaks here there, what they talk about and how they're viewed. With one of my clients, it was how they dressed. They were dressing super casual um, not enough of a fancy way, but they're dressing super casual. So one of the recommendations was just to elevate what this, what this guy was wearing to work. Elevate what this guy was wearing to work, not necessarily looking like his clientele, but just elevating it just enough so that he had a little bit more respect when he was walking into his accounts. He was a blue collar guy calling on blue collar people, but sometimes wearing a hat and t-shirt is not necessarily the best thing to do when people don't know you yet. So there's a lot of things you can do to become that go-to expert, but that's one of the, that's one of the steps to building a growth foundation is being that go-to expert, and then all of a sudden, the leads start coming in. If you want to know more about becoming a go-to expert in your field, please reach out to me, mike, at survivingoutsidesalescom, or you can DM me on LinkedIn.

Speaker 1: 11:58

As I mentioned before, I am diligently working behind the scenes whenever I have spare moments to transition over to a new platform and have everything housed there. It's going to be amazing. I absolutely love it, but for now we are still you know, I'm still kind of plugging along doing the same thing. I am as a one man band, I think. Thank everybody who listens. I appreciate everybody who reaches out to me. I've absolutely loved the new clients that I have brought on and the clients that have shared their successes Absolutely love it. I love helping people in the outside sales world and I would love to help you as well. If you want to get a free consultation, just reach out to me. Mike is surviving outside sales and we'll go from there and hopefully I can help you with some tips, strategies to become that go-to expert in your field. Thanks again and we'll see you next time Surviving outside sales. Cheers.