Master Deal Maker Secrets

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

People in sales, and business owners, especially if they're in the startup phase are very unlikely to take holidays.

Many people say they don't need one, but I believe everyone needs to take a break once in a while.

Why am I talking about this? Because I'm about to take a holiday and I haven't had one for a while.

So, since I'm preparing for my trip, I realised there are a couple of things that I thought were worth sharing.

Today, we are going to be talking about the three biggest ironies around taking a holiday.

As I mentioned, I know lots of people that I'm associated with that don't really take breaks. They often have good lifestyles, but they don't really feel like they need a couple of days off.

And that's the first irony. It's not until you are on the holiday that you realise how much you actually needed it.

From my own example, what I realised is that it actually takes me three days to wind down and relax.

What that says to me is that it's a pretty high level of cortisol I'm cruising around with if it takes me three days to actually be able to loosen up.

Resting is very important, and we often ignore how important it is but, the best part about holidays is that taking a break doesn't mean you can't be productive. Au contraire, you and your business can benefit tremendously from simply taking a few days off.

Why? Listen to this episode to know the reason. We're going to ponder on the role holidays take in our personal lives and in our business lives so that you can have another view on the topic.

Don't miss this episode, I'm sure it will help you realise how beneficial holidays really are.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

As I've said previously, there is a battle going on for your attention.

Lately, I have noticed a trend where business educators will use controversial contrary statements simply to get people to pay attention.

We've talked about some of these remarks around relationships in sales, and today, we are going to talk about yet another controversial premise they teach...

That sales scripts don't work.

First of all, let's be very clear about this. Yes, you can very easily sound scripted. If you simply read a script word for word, then people are very unlikely to buy from you.

But if you think about every single movie, your favorite movies that you watch over and over and over again, your favorite TV series that you continue to watch time and time and time again, season after season after season. What are the common denominators? They are all scripted!

What do movies have to do with all this?

Let's think about the difference between a crap movie and a great movie. A big difference is that actors learned the script, actors internalised it and made the script part of them. That's how actors become so convincing in a particular role.

Reading word for word without internalising any of what you are reading will make you sound scripted. If you sound scripted, people will very unlikely buy from you. But if you can internalise a properly made script, you can really use it to your advantage.

Listen to this episode to learn what the elements that make a great script are and to know how you can benefit from using them in your sales conversations.

This is my bread and butter, I create scripts for my clients all the time (not just sales scripts either) and I've seen, time and time again, how powerful they can be when done right so, make sure you listen to this episode to fully grasp how you can exploit them.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

In this episode, we are going to be talking about relationships and whether they are important in sales and business development.

Although it may seem like an arbitrary question, it is very important to ask that question.

You would think that it's like "duh! are relationships important in a sales conversation?" And the immediate thought might be yes, but there's a growing number of educators in the business development space that are talking about that relationships aren't important.

They tell you that you can be off-hand, or even bordering on rude in a sales conversation, and it's quite bizarre. Why do they say that?

Well, the reason that they do it is that they are contending in a battle for eyeballs. People have this habit of trying to slay sacred cows in order to get attention so, people will say that traditionally, popular concepts are incorrect to simply get attention.

They might have a good message, a lot of them have good intentions, and a lot of them have good programs so, are relationships important in sales, or is it a misconception that we've learned over the years?

The first situation that I want to dive in to answer that question is that when salespeople are talking to a client, there is a tendency, especially people who are new in sales, to be really eager to please and to subordinate their own importance in the actual sales conversation.

You certainly need to be assertive, but you also need to be willing to challenge assumptions that are incorrect. For that, you'll need to stand your ground but you'll also need to be respectful when you challenge those assumptions.

What would you say, are relationships important in sales?

Even though you shouldn't ever suck up to a potential client or try and people please, the strength of relationships has never been more important, especially in this world where there are certain industries that aren't going so well, and loyalty can mean the difference between you having a good relationship and not having a good relationship.

So, listen to this episode because this is a very discussed topic and I know that the scenarios that I'll be sharing with you will help you understand what is the real role of relationships in sales.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

This week, I am very excited because we have an amazing guest on the show, Ken Okazaki.

Ken is a video marketing expert, he has produced huge amounts of content for highly renowned people over the years, and he has a deep understanding of the media, the production part of it, and the content part of it.

I have been wanting to get Ken on the show for quite some time because video is such an important part of content, of the internet, of websites, it is essential almost everywhere. The thing is, do we really understand how useful it is? do we really understand how to exploit this resource?

Before he started his video marketing business, Ken was running large-scale personal development seminars in Japan, where he's from.

He was a promoter, and the company he worked for, they'd partner with world-class speakers like Tony Robbins, Robert Kiyosaki, and Les Brown to mention a few, and run big events. They used to fill a stadium every other month so, they were doing good.

However, Ken really hated it. Running those events was a headache, trying to keep everybody happy, and the business running at the same time was not easy so, he decided to quit and start his own business doing what he loved.

He also made great use of his connections because, he was able to get to work with the world-class speakers he used to invite to the seminars, and he made them an offer they couldn't say no to. Ken produced with them a year's worth of content in only two days.

We are very lucky to have him with us today, and in this episode, we're going to dive into all the things you need to know about video so that you can get the most out of it regardless of what kind of business you are in.

Also, I didn't expect this to happen but, Ken is actually sharing with us his step-by-step process for creating video content.

Make sure you don't miss this amazing interview; you'll get a stack out of it! And remember what Ken says, "If you see a path for social media to generate the leads for your business, then video is probably the best way to do it".

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

In episode 161, we are going to be talking about the single biggest mistake that inexperienced salespeople make and effectively how to avoid it.

Simply put, the single biggest mistake that inexperienced salespeople make is that they try to put prospective clients into arbitrary-type situations.

There can be a couple of reasons for that to happen, but mostly, salespeople do that because they are ill-informed not because they have ill intentions.

I worked with a client once, and he wanted me to help his company write more business on the spot. So, I gave them a process that I developed myself because I had my own fashion agency for a long time and I had about 130 different clients that would come in and buy a range of apparel from me two or three times a year.

Long story short, I developed a system that would improve the likelihood of them buying on the spot because if they didn't get the order on the spot, they had to wait for it at least a week and there was a direct correlation to the diminishing of the order that you would get for every week that would go past.

So, we went through it, I taught them this particular system, and about three days later, the phone rang and this guy said, "I tried what you did, and it didn't work". When I asked him what happened he said, "Well, I had this buyer come in, and I went through the process that you taught me. And he didn't buy, he just said, stop doing the hard sell! stop doing the hard sell!".

What happened there was that the client he was talking about was an existing client, and he was known for taking between three to four days to get his order. My client had unnecessarily pushed his client towards closing a deal while ignoring the context of the situation.

He could've just waited a couple of days for the order to be placed instead of making his already regular client feel uncomfortable and under pressure so, you have to understand the context and adjust how you approach every single situation.

This is a clear example of how inexperience and wrong information can have terrible consequences. Maybe not at first. If you push clients into arbitrary-type situations on an ongoing basis, what happens is that there actually aren't that many short-term consequences. In the short term, you actually might even make more sales if you're trying to force people to buy.

The thing is, over time, especially when you live in a country like Australia, or you live in a town like Melbourne, Sydney, or Perth, what happens is that word gets around and people find out because they talk.

So, people talk, and suddenly, nobody wants to do business with you anymore. That is a bad thing, you definitely do not want that to happen.

Listen to this episode to learn how to fix this often-ignored issue, I am sure you will be able to perfect the way you approach your clients so that you can improve the likelihood of closing the deal while assuring you're not making your clients feel like they want to run away.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

Today we are going to be talking about why there is no one-size-fits-all sales process.

Every client you'll ever get to talk to is going to have different necessities, different preoccupations, and is going to come from a different context so, you can't just use a generic process for everyone and hope it will give you results.

Maybe you used a certain process in the past and it was useful, maybe someone recommended you to use the same process for all of your clients, but the truth is you simply can't just use an off-the-shelf, one-size-fits-all sales process, it really does need to be tailored like a suit.

In this episode, we are going to elaborate on why it has to be this way, and also, we're going to talk about the three different types of sales processes that are commonly used so that you have more information to put yours together.

First thing's first, the reason a sales process needs to be adaptive is that we are selling to different people. Sometimes there are multiple decision makers within an organisation, sometimes you will need to actually go back and develop a solution for someone.

Sometimes, longer sales processes will facilitate multiple meetings with a buyer, especially if it's a big enterprise-level purchase. There are a number of different things that need to factor into the type of sales process that you use, it is never the same story.

One of the most common processes used out there is the one-step process. There are certain purchases that will lend themselves to one conversation, and one person who is making a buying decision, right? So, in some scenarios, one interaction is enough.

But then, there will be people that have a legitimate reason for not wanting to commit on that particular call, and you are going to need to adapt and tailor your sales process in such a way that it works for both parties.

So, listen to this episode to learn why it can be extremely counterproductive to try and use a one-size-fits-all process in every situation. You are also going to have a greater understanding of what sales processes are out there so that you can evaluate what fits your business best.

Remember, even if it's a one-step process, one particular type of buyer, one particular type of seller, or one particular type of industry, there will be a certain amount of tweaking and customization that needs to take place.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

In episode 159, we are going to talk about the advantages of presenting your proposal, quote, or fee to a potential client, instead of just emailing it.

If you just send your proposal via email, it can often end up in the spam folder, can easily be ignored, or the potential client will open it and click straight through to the price.

What can you do to avoid this? Well, there are some other ways to get things started with a potential client.

The first thing to understand here is that there is so much to be gained from actually making time to go through your fee outline with somebody in person, these days in person can be on Zoom, it can simply be giving them a call.

Giving them a call and giving them the heads up that you're just about to send them their outline makes an enormous difference. It reduces dramatically the chances of your email ending up in the trash bin.

But, if you can schedule a Zoom call, meet in person, or somehow get to talk to them you are going to have more resources to approach them.

Why? Because you can show them the outline, go through each of the different points that must be taken care of, have a constant dialogue where you can calibrate as you go, and stay focused on providing value and providing solutions.

This is a huge strategic advantage because you are going to be building value by going through all the different points and all the amazing things you can do for them instead of having them look at the price and skipping all the information.

A conversation with them also allows you to sense if there is something that they're not happy about or that they want to know more about. That's why it is important to be there, to listen, and to observe carefully.

This is just the beginning. In this episode, I'm sharing with you the seven strategic advantages of presenting your proposal to a prospective client rather than just emailing it.

Listen to this episode to know all the great things that can be done just by having an actual conversation with your potential clients, I know you will understand why it is so important to not rely only on emails to present your quote and learn to prioritise what's relevant for them.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

In this episode, we're going to talk about something that has almost certainly happened to all salespeople, getting ghosted.

Today, I am going to go through the five biggest reasons why the potential clients that you've made a presentation to aren't returning your calls.

There are a lot of factors involved in someone deciding not to call you again, but we're not going to dive into all the specifics. I really want to make it as concise as possible.

I want to talk about these 5 reasons because I believe they illustrate quite well the areas that are often overlooked or taken for granted. You probably are making big mistakes in your sales process without even knowing it.

So, the first reason why some people ghost you is that they are not interested at all. This might sound obvious but quite frequently, people make an offer to somebody who actually doesn't need what they're selling.

Why would you make an offer to somebody who doesn't need what it is that you're selling? Probably because you don't know they don't need it.

A good sales framework will actually disqualify people, you need to be able to prepare to say no. And one of the most valuable things that we can do with clients is actually giving them a nice way to say no.

You need a nice way to refer them to a more appropriate business that can help them in the way that their particular set of circumstances requires.

So, you should stop making offers to people who don't need what you are selling, and in order to do so, you need to have a way to know who needs what you offer and who doesn't.

Listen to this episode to learn how to do it and to understand what is causing people not to return your calls. We are going to dive into each one of the 5 reasons that cause this problem and elaborate on 3 main ways to solve it.

Besides being bad for business, getting ghosted can be quite annoying and very discouraging, especially if you experience it a lot so, make sure you don't miss this episode to get rid of this issue once and for all.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

In episode 157, I'm going to be sharing with you the five most crucial mistakes that you need to avoid when you hire a salesperson so that you can avoid hiring a dud salesperson.

This happens a lot. You have no idea how frequently business owners tell me about how they finally decided to hire a salesperson to help them and they've already given that person a car, and a phone, and paid him $100,000, but 12 months have passed and not a single sale has been made.

This is soul-destroying for the owner and for the salesperson, and it also leaves a $100,000 hole in the business profitability so, what can you do to keep this from happening?

Some owners may think they've not trained their salespeople properly, or that they haven't given them the right equipment or the right information to perform but that is very unlikely to be the problem. Most of the time business owners don't have a training issue but a recruiting problem.

Often, owners don't have really clear performance expectations, and they don't really have a really good path that they can put somebody on. I've also seen how they can hire salespeople following the same guidelines they've used for other people in their staff.

If you use the same hiring process that you use for a normal employee, it doesn't work, it just doesn't work. You can't use the same philosophy that you've used to hire your admin person, your warehouse person, and your marketing person, you can't!

So, it is essential to be a lot more thoughtful and put a way better foundation in place if you want your team to make some sales.

Listen to this episode to find out how you can do it. We are going to go through the 5 mistakes you need to avoid when hiring a salesperson and discuss some of the ways you can improve your hiring process to get nothing but the best salespeople out there.

Addressing any potential issues from the very beginning will save you a lot of time and trouble so, don't miss this episode since we are going to talk about all the specific things that you need to pay attention to before making any decisions.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.

Visit http://JohnBlakeAudio.com to Learn How to DOUBLE Your Enquiry-to-Sale Conversion with The Lead Flow You Already Have.

Today we have Kevin Thompson on the show with us to talk about building million-dollar relationships.

Building relationships is a crucial part of putting deals together, and Kevin is an absolute master at this, he's been doing it for a long time.

He came to understand the power of relationships working in a trading company he used to own. A business that Kevin grew solely through strategic partnerships.

Over a 12-year period, Kevin did almost 600 strategic partnerships and $16.1 million in sales of the training that he created solely through strategic partnerships.

He grew that company only through creating solid, respectful, and profitable relationships. You'll be the judge, do you think relationships are important in sales?

For us, they have always been our most valuable asset, and in this day and age where we're at right now, this is truer than ever.

Considering how easily we can contact somewhere across the world nowadays and how immediate things have become over the last decades, we must not forget the value of real human connections.

Some people often look past this and embrace blindly the new trends and the new tools technology has given us. Don't get me wrong, those developments have been great and incredibly useful, but we must not forget how important it is to actually make the time to have a meaningful conversation with someone else.

In this episode, we are going to dive into all the different elements that are behind building long-term, meaningful, real relationships. that ultimately end up being profitable as well.

Kevin certainly knows a lot about this so, listen to this episode to learn how you can build million-dollar relationships that will help you grow your business dramatically. We know you are going to get a lot out of this conversation.

To DOUBLE your lead-to-sale CONVERSION with the leads you already have, go to http://JohnBlakeAudio.com for his exclusive, free, no-fluff, audio training and companion PDF guide. Inside you'll get word-for-word email follow-up templates, phone scripts, and more that you can put to use today.