The Operating Partner

So true. I once had a Rolls-Royce customer (he bought many over a long period of time) who let me go on and on about the mirror matched wood trim on the dash and door caps. He nodded many times. Asked if he had any questions he said (politely): "No. I'm just going to let you talk until you say something that convinces me not to buy it" We sat in silence for an extremely uncomfortable three or four minutes. The silence was broken when I asked: "Are you free on Friday to come pick up the car?" ☕️

@pontivflex Remember Earl Nightengale’s “we become what we think about most”?

The $3K/month client trains you to solve $3K/month problems. The $15K/month client trains you to solve $15K/month problems. You become the average of who you serve. Client selection is not a revenue decision. It's a decision about who you want to become.

@PEoperator Was this once a lactation room?

@BrianLaManna_ Was in Costa Rica last month. Highest resilience scores on my Oura ever. For two weeks, even a few days afterward. Gotta dust out the cob webs or the first date you bring home will assume you are going to murder them. ☕️

Working, thinking about the next vacation trip. On vacation, thinking about work. 😅😅😅

@pontivflex Yes. We all deep down want to be liked. But never should be at the expense of credibility.

Rapport is not making the prospect like you. Rapport is the prospect recognizing that you know more about their problem than they do. When that recognition is present, they comply. When it's absent, they negotiate. Build the knowledge gap. Not the friendship.

You know this is right. Also correct; adjusting for the time in the presentation. In other words, if there’s a part where the prospect should start to get excited, pitch your voice up just a little and gesture a little bit more. If you were selling a Lamborghini you should be very excited to share the car’s story. But when it comes to 💰, you should be the prospects CFO: “let me show you how we work together…” lowered voice holding only a nice pen. Go git’em @lawrencekingyo ! ☕️

One of the biggest psyops in sales is that you need to be "Mr Personality" to make it When in reality being Mr Personality just comes off as cringe and desperate At my sales agency most of my HIGHEST paid guys are introverts with a monotone voice and very slow talkers

@TheGeoMethod When I started in sales I found leaning on one of these things at any point was transformative. Wish I’d learned these sooner than I did!

High-Ticket Sales 101: When a prospect decides to buy, they're not buying your product. They're buying 3 things: 1. Your belief: Do you actually believe this will solve their problem? 2. Your credibility: Do you sound and move like someone who knows what they're doing? 3. Your integrity: Can they trust you won't lead them into a bad decision? If your answer is no to any of these, you’ve lost the deal already.

@AndrewWriteCopy That’s right @AndrewWriteCopy! Call ‘em out! Challenge the herd mentality and Do It Differently

Quick Marketing Challenge “Funnel” has been popular jargon for a few years now. But what does it mean? What is a funnel?

Love this post! This is where psychology meets the market. And such a great topic. One thing I really appreciate is you say you don’t know the answer. That’s the right conclusion. The reality is you will need to test. Oh and your observation on friction is spot on. When somebody wants to buy and running through the aisles get the heck out of the way. Also, channel matters. But most of all, find one set of circumstances on the way to purchase and optimize for emotion. Then test various levers within. Great stuff! ☕️

I've been thinking about pricing a lot lately. Most brands aim high by default. Every founder wants to build a premium brand and charge the most for what they sell. But that might be wrong. I wrote up my current thinking below.

@GrantTradesX Depends on the objective. Was he trying to piss through his inheritance? Or, have him watch the movie Brewster's Millions.

A guy I know is 38. He has: - $87k in credit card debt - his own zoo and circus - 47 animals, 12 clowns, and 0 revenue - $0 in savings or investments He’s wondering if he’s behind.. What would you tell him?

@SalesMastery_HQ Eff yeah you did!

My 11-year-old went on his first solo camp last month. TK Scout Camp. South Florida. Cold front came through. Got down to 30 degrees. For a Florida kid that's basically the Arctic. Counselor messaged me the next morning. Said Daniel had tripped over some mangrove roots in the dark coming back to camp. A twig caught him from his cheek to his forehead. Almost got his eye. Here's the part that got me. He pulled out his first aid kit and treated himself before going to the counselor. When they asked why he waited he said: "I could handle it." He's 11. I don't know what I did right but something is working.

@TheAMimms Problem is, I don't have a really great comment at the moment, I'm afraid.

You don’t need perfect post daily. You need to leave great comments. That’s it.

@TheGeoMethod This post is brilliant! Like the guy who said: "I'm just going to let you talk until you convince me not to buy". Even the best of us sometimes miss that we are the source of the hesitation.

@TheGeoMethod I'm going to unfollow you @TheGeoMethod because you are just too damn smart. And, I want to masses enslaved to malfunction to ensure my own worth. Good bye. ☕️ Of course not! What a banger!

“I keep hearing the same objections but can’t see what’s causing them.” …Because you’re the one causing them. All objections are reactions to something you did earlier in the conversation. Maybe you explained too much. Maybe you rushed to the offer. Maybe you mentioned price before the problem felt serious. At that point the prospect already feels something isn’t right. But most people don’t enjoy confrontation. They don’t want to say: “I don’t fully trust this.” Or: “I’m not convinced.” So when the moment comes to decide, they reach for the safest exit: “I need to think about it.” “Let me compare options.” “Send me some more info.” Good salespeople don’t spend their time memorizing clever rebuttals. They force the real objections out of the prospect early on, and handle them while they’re still in control of the conversation. Good salespeople don’t spend their time memorizing clever rebuttals, because at that stage the water is already poisoned… They focus on not poisoning the water in the first place instead.

@brockpierson "Remember that time you told me to tell Steven Tyler to man-up and pay full price like Flea did?"

If you had 3 minutes to talk with Elon Musk What would you say or ask him?

@TechSalesGuy One of my CEO clients likes to tell his people: "Explain it to me like I'm a Labrador puppy" I love that framing.

@Oper8ingPartner the more you understand something the easier it should be to communicate what you do in elementary terms

Re-listened to the “How to Sell Like Steve Jobs” episode on Founders. Here's 3 takeaways you might like: 1. Make your idea repeatable in one sentence Jobs obsessed over boiling the entire pitch down to a single line people could repeat. His examples: - “1,000 songs in your pocket" - “The world’s thinnest notebook" - “An iPod, a phone, an internet communicator" If your pitch can’t be summarized in one sentence, the buyer won’t remember it. And if they don’t remember it, they won’t repeat it. 2. Use strange, sticky language Jobs intentionally used simple but weird words because they stick. Clean corporate language gets ignored, unusual language gets remembered. His examples: - "crummy" - "uuuugly - “it screams (speed)" Unusual language sticks. Jargon adds confusion. 3. Reframe objections, don’t fight it Jobs didn’t argue against objections, he changed what they meant. Critics: “Apple’s market share is tiny. Only 5%.” Jobs’ response: "BMW has 5% market share too and yet no one thinks they’re at a tremendous disadvantage because of it.” Change the context and the objection might change too.

@SalesMastery_HQ Bring it!!

I never thought I'd write one book. Let alone two. After 35 years in sales I wrote Sales Mastery: The Playbook for Phone Sales Closers - a field guide reps could open to any page and learn something useful. Then my stepson started a small neighborhood business and I realized something: Kids are almost never taught how to earn money, negotiate, handle rejection, or build real confidence. So I wrote the next one. Sales Mastery for Kids. An unexpected byproduct? Parents and kids working through it together. Better conversations. Real-world skills no AI can replace. Kids start as Sales Reps. Parents become the CEO. Launching April 10.

@TechSalesGuy Ha! Spit my ☕️ out!

HR lady sending you off on a PIP

Can’t recount how many times I’ve seen this. It reminds me of the Rodney Dangerfield line in Back to School: “He knows a lot that ain’t true”. And, to further my distaste of McKenzie alumni, how many times I’ve seen them perpetrate crimes on good business using the method you’ve described @PEoperator it astonishes when I see a board enthusiastically buying into the need for “more data”. ☕️

Funny enough, some investors will look at a business not using spreadsheets and view it as opportunity. We can sophisticate the back office, incorporate data, upgrade decision making! As if the operator doesn’t know what he’s doing. The implication is almost that he must have just gotten lucky. If he can’t explain A—>B in a spreadsheet, he’s not sophisticated and he doesn’t really know his business… Yes, there is opportunity in sophistication, but it’s interesting how that can often be at direct odds with what made the business great in the first place. The real upside is in figuring out how to do more of what that operator figured out FOR HIS CUSTOMERS. Raise the floor with good process and bring new insights, yes, but don’t strangle the magic that built the business in the first place!

@FinFreedom414 You are missing option A.5, going right down the middle. Which is sometimes what happens when you pick A @FinFreedom414

Imagine you had to choose your life at age 40: Option A: Single. No kids. $10M net worth. Travel anywhere. Total freedom. Quiet house. Quiet holidays. Option B: Married. 3 kids. $1M net worth. Drive a Toyota. Chaos every morning. Loud house. Full dinner table. Be honest, which life are you choosing?