RV (00:02): Selling selling, selling, selling is something we have to learn how to do it is such a critical skill and it is becoming a bigger part of what we’re focusing on. Teaching people, teaching our brand builders members. And so this was an apropos timing of the interview with my good friend, Jim Doyle welcome to the influential personal brand podcast. It’s Rory Vaden. I’m breaking down that interview and my top three takeaways from it because it was powerful and I’ll say this, you know, AJ and I, and our team have very specific I would say unusual philosophies about selling. I say unusual because they’re different from the, you know, there’s thousands of sales traders, thousands of sales trainers out there in the world. And I would say there are very few people who align philosophically with what AIJ and I, and our team believe about Holly, how selling should be done. RV (01:02): We’ve we’ve had a few of those people on Phil M Jones. We had him on. And and then Jim Doyle, what we, we haven’t had a ton. We haven’t had a ton though, but this was one of them. And I absolutely loved it. I mean, I’ve known Jim for so long and just some great reminders. And so this obviously comes from his, his new book selling with a servant heart. Here’s my top three, my top three takeaways. Number one, the customer is not buying your business. They are buying what your business can do for them. That is such an important, it’s such a subtle but distinct and important shift that you have to realize when you’re selling people, aren’t buying you. They’re not buying even what you do. They’re not even buying. Do they like you? Like, that’s a small part of it. RV (01:57): What they’re buying is what you can do for them. What benefit can you provide in their life? What result can you manifest for them? What, like what transformation do you have to offer them that makes their life or their business better? That’s what they’re buying. They’re not buying you what you do. I mean, as much as they’re buying what you can do for them. And this is one of the greatest mistakes that, I mean, it’s the most common mistakes that you see in marketing and selling is talking all about you, your product, your expertise, your knowledge, like how much H how, how much time you spent in your industry. And it’s like the only thing that matters is what you can do for people talk about them, their needs, their desires, their, their wants their goals, their dreams, their future, like talk about their, their plans and see if you can help them. RV (02:59): Like what, what you do should only be talked about in the context of that. Can you help them achieve those things? That is how you want to talk in a way, if you want to have great marketing, you want to have great sales. That’s all it is. It’s that simple. But the mistake that happens like 99.9% of the time is we talk about me, my us, our w like we, instead of you, your dreams, your goals, your hopes, your future, your plans, and how might I assist you, or how might we assist you in getting there, or how do we work alongside of you to make that come true? And that’s just such a subtle distinction, but a sharp one and a necessary one, and a critical one. If you want to be able to make some money in, in what you’re doing with your business. RV (03:53): Second thing, great. One, a great takeaway is he said, listening has a partner, and that is good questions. I love that. Being a great Brene greatest sales means being a great listener and being a great listener has this partner, which is being great at asking questions that is in our sales training that we teach at brand builders. So our events called pressure-free persuasion and in the closing section, which is all about helping someone make a decision, we talk about how being great at sales is being a master question. Asker. It is not being a smooth talker. It’s not having the gift of gab. It’s not being overly persuasive. It’s, it’s not being convincing or compelling, or even, even persuading. It’s certainly not pressuring. It’s just being a master question. Asker. It’s asking questions in a way that help people see for themselves that either what you have to offer will help them achieve their goal, or it will not. RV (05:03): And they will realize for themselves if you facilitate. And that is a key word here is that we believe in service centered selling is about facilitating a decision, not making a decision, not convincing people, not pressuring people, not pushing people. It is helping people make their own decisions about whether or not what they’re buying is good for them. So all you have to do is ask a bunch of questions that help them get clear on what they want. Ask them a bunch of questions that help them get clear about the fact that they’re not achieving it yet. And then ask them a bunch of questions about what they think would help get them there, and then show them how, what you’re doing fits that need like, aligns with that purpose. And you will create a sale, but it’s, it’s like your just drawing information out of them. RV (05:58): And then kind of showing up in this one specific area and tying what you do to what they need. You’re not pressuring people, convincing them, lying to them, manipulating like doing all the things that most salespeople do, at least not. If you do it, the brand builder way, right. Service centered selling is what we teach. And so obviously the title of Jim’s book selling with a servant heart was very, very much in line and we know him. So B com when, if, when you think about becoming great at sales, think about becoming great at asking questions. That’s what I want you to think of not being a master negotiator, not being a smooth talker, not having all the confidence in the world, not having the gift of gab, not, not being likable, not being you know, the, the hard, closer, just think of like, when you think of, I want to be better at sales. RV (06:53): What I want you to think is I’m going to become a master at asking questions. That’s what you should, you should think about. And if you want to know exactly what questions to ask, that you should probably talk to us about the concepts and information that we teach in pressure-free persuasion. Maybe you should pick up a copy of Jim’s book. And but you know, it’s, it’s the, all the stuff that I’m talking about right here. Like it, it doesn’t take a genius to figure out. It just takes a little bit of intention. And I think a focus on service rather than on just selling which ties takes me to my third big takeaway from this interview, which I loved. And I just, I love the way that Jim phrased this, as he said, I have to turn off my ego. I have to turn off my desire to be the star. RV (07:42): Ah, that’s so good, right? Like we have to be able to do that in lots of areas of our life. If we, if we really want to be serving people, if we really want to be a mission-driven messenger is we have to move out of that window. Out of that stage of going, I want to be the star. I want the eyes on me. I want the attention. I want the fame, the influence, blah, blah, blah, whatever. And just going, I’m turning off my ego. I’m here to help you achieve your goal. And I’m going to ask some questions and listen acutely to what your goals are and see if I can help to see if what I have is an actual fit for you. And if it is I’ll help you buy it. If it is not, I will help you move on and not waste energy debating about whether or not you should buy what I have. RV (08:36): And I’ll help you move confidently in another direction. That is what this is about you. All it is, it is genuinely legitimately, authentically putting their needs before yours and trusting that your needs will be met. If you do it. It’s like what? My, my mentor, the legendary, his executor is the most famous quote of all. If, if you help enough other people get what they want, you will get what you want. So help them focus on asking questions and seeing how you can help. And if you can have them buy your stuff, if you can’t help them in some other way. But that’s all, this is, that’s all this is about. And that’s all, we’re about the brand builders group. We’re just trying to help you. Hopefully this podcast is helping you. If it is, we do me a favor and share this with somebody who you think needs to listen to this, a recap and needs to listen to this interview, an episode that we did with Jim and and just keep coming back. We want to keep pouring into you. We love you. We appreciate you. We’ll catch you next time on the influential personal brand.