August 22, 2022

Episode 39: Create Tangible Results to Get Your Prospect’s Business with Bill Lee

43 minutes

SHOW SUMMARY

This episode of Noob School with John Sterling features Bill Lee, Business Consultant at Lee Resources and author of Gross Margin and 30 Ways Managers Shoot Themselves In The Foot. Bill helped grow Builder's Mart from nothing to $678 million over the course of 19 years. He shares how testing sales teams with the Kolbe Index was a gamechanger and that the core of selling is relationship-building.

To get the business of their clients, not only did they have to match or beat the competition’s price but they had to convince clients that having a relationship with them is more advantageous than with their current suppliers. He also shares anecdotes on how listening is one of the most important skills sellers must have.

HIGHLIGHTS

Growing Builder's Mart from 0 to $678 million
Do something tangible for your client or prospect to get their business
Teach salespeople about business so they can identify problems and solutions
The Kolbe Test is a "cheat code" for hiring great salespeople

QUOTES

Lessons from psychology that apply to sales Bill: "In interviewing people, in talking to people, you learn not to do all the talking. They call it the Rogerian Theory, and after that you just let them go. My theory is you want to listen to what people talk about because they talk about what's interesting to them, not what's interesting to me."

Create tangible results to get your prospect's business Bill: "Do something for your customer, do something for your prospect, do something that helps them solve their most pressing business problems, do something to help them make more money, and try to find out what those things are by asking questions, by getting to know their people, by touring their facility. And, once we did that, once we did tangible that they couldn't do for themselves, it opened the doors beautifully."

Do business with people you have relationships with Bill: "If there's one key to sales that doesn't have anything to do training necessarily, it's relationships. Who trusts you? Who knows you? Who believes in you? Who knows that you have great integrity? That's the kind of person you want to do business with and, no matter which company they work for, you tend to do business with them."

You can find out more about Bill and get his books in the links below: