What does it mean to install a Market Domination Engine in your business? Is that a real thing? If so, what is it? What does it do? What does it consist of? And what does it allow you to do, that your competitors are likely to struggle with?

Hi and welcome back, in today's quick episode, we'll talk about what it means to install a market domination engine in your business.

But before we do, I want to address the elephant in the room.

If even the idea of a "Market Domination Engine" sounds strange to you, or unrealistic, or if it sounds like a bunch of hype. It's okay...

Let's start by defining what I mean by market domination.

That doesn't mean that everyone buys from you. It means that the people who could buy from you, know who you are, and know what you do, so they can make a thumbs up or thumbs down decision about whether or not they want to work with you.

Think about Amazon. Everyone knows who they are. Some people love them, and some people don't. It doesn't matter. They dominate their market because the people who could buy from them know who they are, and know what they do, so they can make their own decision about whether or not they want to buy from them.

And it's exactly the same with you.

The reason you likely struggle to get the clients you need is that they don't know you're alive. Or if they do know you're alive, they don't know exactly what you do, or why they should buy from you, or why you're better than whoever they might be using now, or why you're better than any or every other option available to them.

Market Domination is about creating an environment in which your very best prospects know who you are and know what you do, so they can make a decision about whether or not they want to buy from you.

But how do you create that environment?

That's where the market domination engine idea comes in.

If that idea, the idea of a "Market Domination Engine" does sound strange, or unrealistic, or like a bunch of hype to you. it's understandable. Becuase very few business owners have never seen a sales and marketing system that actually functions like an engine.

They’re used to a patchwork of random activities.

Doing some networking, waiting for referrals, making some phone calls, posting on social media, prospecting when they have the time, following up when they have the time (or when they remember they should have reached out to someone.)

What is that? It's not an engine.

In an environment like that, the idea of a market domination engine sounds like fantasy or hype, because they've never seen their business run like an engine.

That doesn’t mean it can't. It just means it's never been designed to run that way.

The engine has not been installed. And by the engine, I mean the very specific components that create the consistent result they're looking for.

I'm going to keep this episode very short. Because this topic is likely to either make perfect sense to you, or it's not going to make any sense at all.

If you've ever gone from sales meeting to salesmeeting, from training to workshop, from podcast video to YouTube, from Facebook Group to Skool Community, from Google to AI, asking questions, taking notes, collecting ideas, gathering little bits and pieces here and there, and wondering how it all fits together...

Then you may be ready to understand the value of installing a Market Domination engine in your business.

It's about replacing all the scattered bits and pieces you gather with proven systems and processes designed to get results.

It's about creating that environment where your ideal prospects know who you are and know what you do so well, that they can choose you over every other option.

It's about trading in your anonymity for recognition among the ideal clients you want to attract.

Most business owners never experience what it feels like when everything is deliberately connected. When the hodgepodge makes way for clarity, and structure, and profit.

Think about any system that works well. It's made up of components, steps, and repeatable processes. So your outcomes are consistent.

Your Market Domination Engine is exactly the same.

So you can either convince yourself it doesn't exist. OR you we can work together to install it in your business risk-free.

That means if it doesn't work for you. You get your money back and then some.

If you'd like more details on that, go to TopSecrets.com/engine. That's TopSecrets.com/engine.

Once you see it in action, it stops feeling unrealistic and starts feeling obvious. Talk to you soon.

Are You Ready to Install Your Own Market Domination Engine in Your Business? If so, click here.

Or check out a few of the other ways we can help:

Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional product sales, learn how we can help.

Ready to Grow & Scale Your Business Fast? If you’re an established distributor serious about growing your sales and profits now, check out this case study and schedule a call with our team.

Need EQP/Preferential Pricing? If you’re an established distributor doing a decent volume of sales, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.

If our storytelling allows us to build trust, build credibility, and build a bond in sales, then we're telling the right stories. If it's just designed to be manipulative, then save your breath.

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the power of storytelling in sales. Jay, tell me a story.

Jay: Listen, I am a storyteller. I love to tell stories and I like to build when I tell stories, right? This is something that I use on a regular basis when I'm talking to people. And it's not just telling a story.

I think it's putting people in a story and what character are they in that story? And I think most people want to be the hero in their own story, right?

David: They do. Which gets to the whole idea of the hero's journey, for anyone who follows that sort of story arc. The Hero's Journey by Joseph Campbell. But it's a book and it describes essentially the plot of most of the most popular movies of all time.

Jay: Yeah,

David: Right. Star Wars, Rocky, anything where you've got this person who is initially kind of beaten down and not winning. Then they come into contact with a mentor. They learn new things and have a confrontation and it might not go well. Then they learn some more things and then eventually they come out triumphant.

There's a whole arc. And you're right, a lot of people want to be the hero, and the challenge as a salesperson is, in our storytelling, we can't be the hero.

Mm. Right.

We need to make sure that the person we're talking to is the hero and that we are the mentor or guide. We're not Luke Skywalker. We have to be Yoda. We have to be the one who's helping Luke to destroy the Death Star.

Jay: Yeah. This is a really hard thing, I think for a lot of people. Because we want to go in and think we're the hero, right? I'm coming into your business. I'm going to provide something that is going to save the day, and then I'm going to walk away and you're going to praise me and you're going to pay me.

But that's not what really is supposed to be happening, right? It's that I have the tools and the resources that you need to be the hero.

David: Yes, and it's easy to forget that, particularly when we're trying to read ourselves in as the hero to each story. But one of the things that I've noticed in sales is that many, if not most of the very best salespeople are also the best storytellers.

You can say. "Hi, do you know what time it is?" And instead of getting the time, you will get a fantastic story that might weave the time into it.

Jay: Mm.

David: But you're going off in all kinds of directions, and when they do it right, it's captivating enough that you sit there and pay attention.

Jay: Yeah. But you pointed out "when you do it right."

David: Yes.

Jay: Right. so let's talk about that a little bit. Let's talk about your feedback on doing it right.

David: Well, number one, as we already touched on, it can't just be all about you. You can't make the story about yourself. You need to make it about them, and a lot of that upfront comes from finding out about them, which means you're asking more questions, then you're answering, hopefully in the early stages.

Jay: Yes

David: Because customers always just want to know what it's going to cost upfront, and you don't generally want to lead off with that. So a lot of our storytelling will actually have to come from the conversations that ensue after we've gathered enough information.

Jay: Yeah.

David: To know what those stories need to be about. If we just go in and we meet somebody for the first time and we start telling them stories, that's probably not ideal. We need to still initially do some sort of diagnostic upfront to find out what their interests are.

Now, of course, a lot of salespeople, they do the whole thing about walking into the office, looking around, oh, I see a big buck hanging up there on the,

Jay: mm-hmm.

David: On the wall. The person's a hunter. You start talking to them about hunting, that type of thing. And, it's very obvious. It works in some situations to break the ice, so you can ask the person. Because the other thing about storytelling is it doesn't just have to be you telling stories. If you can get the prospect to be telling stories to you, then they'll be more likely to engage in a longer conversation because most people are more interested in hearing what they have to say versus what somebody else has to say.

Jay: Yeah.

David: So sometimes you can just let somebody talk for a long time and they feel like they had the best conversation, even though the salesman didn't say anything at all.

Jay: Yeah, I've had people like look at the pictures on the wall and stuff, and that can come off as so plastic and so fake.

But I do think the most important thing is to get them talking. And the more talking they do and the less talking you do, the better off those things are. If you can get them to be the storyteller and then you can help them improve that story or tell them how that story's going to get better, that's the zone where you want to be.

David: Yeah, exactly. And I think that a good sales process does that, in the sense that when you're leading off with intelligent, probing questions that don't come across as intrusive -it can't be like you're giving them the third degree. You got a light shining in their face.

Jay: Yeah.

David: And you're trying to get information out of them. It can't be anything like that. But if you're asking intelligent, probing questions and you're finding out about them, they're going to open up more. And the more they talk, the better it is for you. Another thing that a lot of salespeople do is they mistakenly ask yes or no questions. They ask binary questions instead of open-ended questions.

If you ask an open-ended question, they're likely to talk more, which is going to allow the conversation to flow a lot more organically. They can tell stories. You can then potentially tell some sort of story about something that relates to something they said.

Again, keeping it focused on them and what they need and what they're looking to do. For salespeople, case studies, testimonials, things like that can be good stories as long as they're not just being forced down people's throats.

If somebody's talking about a promotion that they did or something that they did in the past that worked well, then you can acknowledge that. "Wow, that's great. That sounds like that was really amazing. We had a similar situation with a client where this happened or that happened," and then you can relate with that story.

But that also brings up another thing. If somebody tells a story, then you don't want to try to tell a story that's designed to sound better than theirs.

Mm-hmm.

Right? So you don't want to change gears. But if you can establish some sort of comradery among them by indicating that you've had similar experiences, then your stories will go a lot farther.

Jay: Yeah. And I think a couple things from my own experience: don't interrupt. Don't cut them off. Right? Let them talk. But I think where people really miss out and you know that I interview people for part of my living, right?

David: Mm-hmm.

Jay: And I've been a professional interviewer for 20 years, and I find that the key is not the initial question. Yes, ask open-ended question. That's very, very important. But the key is always the follow-up question, and that's where people fall down.

They ask the question, they got the person talking, and then they dive into their product spiel, right? If you ask a follow-up question, it shows that you're listening. It shows that you're interested. And it will take you places that you never ever thought you could go.

Like I have interview s where people send a list of questions and I'm like, just so you know going to ask you follow up questions and we'll bounce around, and those kind of things.

And by the time they're done, they're energized and they just feel so appreciated. and it's because of active listening and good follow up questions.

David: Yes. And that is so completely critical in sales.

Jay: Yeah.

David: People who don't get that are at a tremendous disadvantage. You know, one of the big advantages of storytelling is that it allows you to potentially infuse emotion into an emotionless conversation.

Jay: Mm-hmm.

David: A lot of sales conversations are very sort of clinical and product oriented and detail oriented and price oriented, and it's hard to get somebody into the zone. It's hard to get them emotionally positive about the idea of buying something without being able to trigger something inside.

Otherwise, it's just a list of details and facts and specifications where if we can get them engaged with how they feel about what the product or service is going to do for them, the end result that they're getting. What's the thing that they want to have happen as a result of engaging in this promotion or doing whatever it is that they're going to do?

If they can tell you that and get themselves into a state of enthusiasm over your product, they're going to be a hundred times more likely to buy it.

Jay: Oh yeah, absolutely. I think that the natural fallback for salespeople is to focus on specifications. You know, I've been there on the car lot and the guy wants to show me all the specifics and horsepower and all those things.

And then I've had people talk about, what are my goals and focusing more on my life than on this particular one item. It really shows, you know, more caring and that they're more interested in me.

David: It does, and you also have to be aware of the person you're talking to. Because sometimes people will hear something like that and they're like, I don't want to get into that.

Jay: Yeah.

David: Just tell me how much it costs, or whatever.

Jay: Yeah.

...

Choosing worthy clients for your business means making decisions about whether or not a prospect deserves your time and attention, whether they're worthy of follow up, and you are bound to make some mistakes in that process. When you do this, you have to recognize that some of that is going to come with the territory. You may make a wrong decision that will cost you some business down the line. So you have to weigh that against quality of life issues.

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland, and I will be discussing choosing worthy clients. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, thank you, David. It's such a pleasure to be back on again. And once again, I love this topic. I feel like, personally in my experience, there is a tendency to believe that you have to take every client. And you know what? In some businesses that is true, you're going to take every customer who comes through the door. In other cases, you can be more selective and it could make your life a lot easier. It can make your business a lot better.

David: Yeah, that's one of the reasons I thought this would be a really good topic, because I believe that in many businesses they don't even consider the idea of worthy clients.

I think that in many businesses we feel like, okay, we're going to serve whoever we can serve. We want to take whoever comes through the door, and we just want to serve them to the best of our ability. And while that is noble, it's not always great from your own standpoint, from your own business standpoint.

And I wish this was something that I knew from the beginning, but it was not. As most things, we learn it the hard way and this is no exception. At some point along the way, the idea of pursuing worthy clients, choosing worthy clients, tracking down worthy clients just really started to appeal to me. When I started using that term with some of my clients, they were like, "wow, that never even occurred to me. And what do you mean by worthy?" Things like that. So we can dive into all of that in today's podcast.

Jay: Yeah. I think that there are some things that we hear over the years and they start to sink in. We just don't ever challenge 'em in our mode of thinking.

Like I think of the customer's always, right. I've come to believe. No, no, that's just not true. Do I want to do everything to satisfy the customer? Yes. Yes, I do. But there are customers who can never be satisfied or I can't provide what they want. So, no, they're not always right. I love that we have these discussions. Let's start off with this word worthy. What in your mind is a worthy customer?

David: Well, I think we have to decide that for ourselves, what we determine to be a worthy prospect or client for ourselves. And some of that can go back to what you talked about, in the customer's always right or the customer's not always right.

But you can have a customer that is absolutely right about things and you can have a good relationship with them, but they may not still be a worthy client if they are taking up more time than they are costing.

So if they're not really focused on buying from you to the extent that you need them to in order to be worthy of your time and attention, it may be something as simple as that.

And in those situations, I'm not suggesting, okay, well you're just going to bag all these people. If you've got a relationship with someone and you like the relationship you have and you're okay with it, then you can deem that prospect or client worthy. You can say, "all right, well, I like dealing with this person, therefore they are worthy of my time and attention."

But for me, I believe that's where it starts. We each have to decide. Is this prospect or is this client worthy of my time and attention? Because obviously our time is the most important asset we have, and when we fail to recognize that, we can invest a lot of it, we can spend a lot of our time on prospects and clients who are not worthy of our time and attention.

And it could go back to what they're buying from us or not buying from us. It can also get down to personalities. If they're rude, obnoxious, belligerent, then they're unworthy in a lot of cases to do business with us.

And I think sometimes as salespeople or as business owners, We don't really look at it that way. We think, well, we have to be worthy. We have to grovel and try to get their approval and all that sort of thing. And I don't really think it's like that.

I think it certainly has to be a two-way street. Because anyone that we decide to do business with also has to decide to do business with us. They have to decide if they think that we are worthy of working with them.

But that's their job.

Our job is to determine if they are worthy of working with us. And to me that simply means being proactive about your choice of prospect and your choice of customer. Now, you can't always know that right away with a prospect. You can't know if they're going to be a worthy client.

But as you interview them, as you have conversations with them, as you qualify or disqualify them, you can make some judgments. You can make some decisions pretty quickly on whether or not this person seems to be a good fit for you and for your business, and whether or not you want to decide they're worthy of doing business with you.

Jay: Yeah, you brought up so many points there. I hadn't really thought about, just like the time to revenue ratio, right?

Because I grew up in the restaurant business, so we knew what our food costs should be. We knew what a plate of food should cost, we knew what our overhead should be, those types of things. And so that's really easy to quantify. But in businesses where there's a sales cycle, you know, those types of things, it's a lot harder to quantify.

Well, how much time did I really take to close this sale? And then what is my time actually worth? Just that thought process, just that equation can be so powerful. And I also think taking the time, maybe just get out a pad of paper, if people still use pen and paper. I don't know, I haven't for years. But get that out and just write down, what do you think your worthy customer is?

How much time should it take to close a sale? What type of revenue should you expect from them? What should the communication look like? Those types of things.

David: Yeah. And once again, making the decisions that are most important from your standpoint, for your business, for your coworkers. For me, I think people being friendly, people being nice. People being willing to engage?

Willing to engage, willing to have conversation, that could be right at the top of the list. Because if they're not willing to have conversations with you, then nothing's going to happen. There are people who you can have a great conversation with, and then they will just never take or return your phone calls again.

When you determine that that's happened, when you've determined that you're interacting with someone, or you're trying to interact with someone, who is no longer willing to communicate, you really have to determine your tolerance for pain and "how long am I willing to continue to do that?"

I know that over the years for myself, that timeframe has gotten shorter and shorter and shorter. Whereas in the early stages, you know, you pursue people to the ends of the earth.

And now, you know, as I recognize the value of my own time, as I recognize the value of my coworker's time, I don't want them wasting time on people who are not worthy of our time and attention. So a lot of it could really start with that.

Are they even willing to engage? Are they willing to communicate? Do they seem reasonably friendly, personable, able to interact with us? And if those things are positive, then, are they qualified to buy? Do they need what we have to sell? Do they have the money to buy what we have to sell? And are they willing to work with us to buy it?

So those are all qualification questions and that really goes to a whole different topic when we get into the topic of qualification procedures, and all that sort of thing.

But just identifying the fact that there are prospects out there, some of whom are worthy of your time and attention, some of whom are not. And so a lot of our job in the early stages is discernment: deciding worthy or unworthy? And then following through on that.

Jay: Yeah, just having that mindset. I mean, I think there's going to be a lot of people listening, like you said at the beginning. I've never even thought of these terms. I thought I was just supposed to deal with everybody.

You also said tolerance for pain. I know of customers, like when I look down and I see the caller id, and it's that person, if I'm going, "oh man, you know, I don't want to pick up this phone." Sometimes it's easy to ask yourself, am I worthy?

And I don't think you're saying we have to get rid of unworthy customers. I think we have to assess what we're willing to do to continue to maintain that relationship.

I think back, and I've actually had times where I've picked up the phone to a customer who's taking more time and I said, listen, this is what I can offer you. If that works for you, great, let's continue the relationship. But if it doesn't, maybe you should find somebody else because I can't.

You can bring somebody into the worthiness zone. I know. I've done it.

David: Yeah, I think that's very true. I also think that when you have a situation where you're looking at your phone and you're dreading answering it, if you at least have this in the back of your mind now, that there are worthy clients and there are unworthy clients, if somebody's causing you to cringe when you look at your phone, you have to decide, "okay, does this make this person unworthy of my time?"

Jay: Yeah.

David: And if the answer is yes, then you make the appropriate decision....

To leverage the law of attraction, you have to get beyond the book and the movie. If you're feeling stuck in your business, ask yourself this. "Am I really clear on exactly what it is that I'm building here?

And to the extent that it's not coming together, how's your vision? Are you very clear on what that means?

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing the truth about the Law of Attraction. Now, this applies to business, it applies to life.

If you're familiar with the movie and book The Secret, there's been a lot of talk about this concept. The Law of Attraction. It basically says that we attract into our lives the people and circumstances we need, based on essentially the vibes that we're putting out.

Jay: Well, and I was just sitting here thinking, I must not be putting out very good vibes.

David: I'm sure it's not that. But... I think sometimes when people get into this mindset, they can get frustrated. Because if you think that all you have to do is really want it and it's going to come to you, it's not quite the whole story.

And I think the movie and the book called The Secret probably caused some people some problems with this. Part of it is because a lot of that movie was based on a book called The Science of Getting Rich by Wallace Wattles. If you read that book, you recognize that there's a lot more to it than just trying to attract with your mind.

I mean, you actually have to follow up. You have to do some things afterwards if you want to get the results you're actually looking for. So I feel like what they did in the book and the movie was kind of a disservice to the law of attraction, which I think can be valid, if you follow up with it.

Jay: Yeah, I've always kind of felt, talking about this, that it's more about a change in mentality than it is that you'll speak into the universe and the universe will grant you this wonderful thing out of the kindness of its heart. That because you've said these things, it's just like setting a goal.

Right? And so, when you hear things spoken, when your mind hears them, when you speak them with your mouth, it's different than just thinking about them. And so, over time, I think it changes your behavior. That leads you to the thing that you, quote, spoke into the universe.

David: Yeah, I believe that entirely as well.

I think that when you are focused on a goal, when you're focused on trying to using the law of attraction to accomplish something in your life... When your mind is going in that direction, it is a lot more likely to get you enthused about it, get you thinking about it more and get you taking action on it, which ultimately is what is going to lead to the success.

Now one aspect of it that I think is really important, on the front end of that, is that you have enough belief in what it is that you want to accomplish, that you continue to look for the ways to make it happen.

Because if you don't believe you can do it, obviously you're not going to do it. I think that's pretty much a given. If you don't think you can do something, if you don't think you can accomplish something, then you will very likely not take the actions necessary to make it happen. That's not about law of attraction, it's about human nature and inevitability.

So in those circumstances, it's kind of a given that you won't succeed. But if you've got the consummate belief in what it is that you want to do and what you're pursuing, then in a lot of cases, it will allow you to start to see the things that will make it possible.

So when people talk about attracting people and circumstances into your life, I believe there is truth to that. But I also think a lot of that might've been there to begin with.

When you're aware of it, you're going to be more likely to see it. If you're looking for something, you're going to be more likely to find it. Then you'll take action on it. And that's when the law of attraction actually starts to pay off.

Jay: Yeah, I really like that you're building awareness. Because you've spoken these things and you've kind of made these mental goals. Whereas before, if you hadn't taken the time to even assess what you want and talk to yourself about what you want, kind of make these mental goals, then when that person enters your life or that opportunity arises, you're not going to see it for what it is.

Because you haven't planned ahead, you haven't made a mental note that that's specifically something that you wanted or needed.

David: Right, you're not tuned into it. And, you know, the mind has this particular activating system that many people are aware of. It's the part of your brain that notices the things that you're interested in.

A common example is if you just got a certain kind of car, or if you're looking at a certain type of car and thinking about buying it, chances are you see it all over the road now, because it's now in your mind, so you see it and recognize it.

So, there's a little bit of that with law of attraction. But the primary thing that I think is important for anyone to consider as they're trying to accomplish things in their lives and in their businesses is that the idea, the goal is a great beginning.

We'll be talking about this in future podcasts, but then ultimately, it's what comes from that. The ideas that we get. The things that we take action on. That's ultimately going to help us to get there.

Jay: Yeah, and I've always felt like this is the core of the law of attraction. That it's very important to not just think about something.

That you attach benchmarks to it, you attach follow up to it. Maybe you work backwards from that thing, that you don't just put it to chance. If you work towards that thing then first of all the odds of it happening are going to be much greater and you've gone out, and you've taken it for yourself anyway

David: Yeah, and I know we don't normally get too woo woo in these podcasts. And I'm not looking to do that today. But I think there's been so much talk about the law of attraction over the years that it's at least worth having a discussion about. People may think they're doing everything they can to accomplish their goals. But they don't realize that there may be some steps that are missing.

There's a quote from St. Augustine that says, Pray as though everything depended on God, work as though everything depended on you. And I think that's sort of a different take on it, but it covers kind of the same thing.

If you take responsibility for what you're looking for, and I really love what you mentioned, about the idea of those benchmarks, because if you've got something that you want to accomplish and you're keeping track of each benchmark along the way, then you will be more likely to see the people and circumstances that are already there that will allow you to get to the next benchmark. I think that makes the idea of the law of attraction seem more real.

When you just have your eye on the goal and you're not really thinking in terms of all the interim steps in between, you can really miss out on a lot because you're looking for this and right now you're only ready for this.

Jay: Yeah, you know, I've spent a lot of time studying highly successful people, Elon Musk, Bill Gates you know, very, very successful people, and none of them sat around and waited for anything, right?

Mark Cuban, and even after they have found incredible success they didn't say, okay, got what I wanted. They continue to work aggressively every single day. And I think about what would I do if I had that kind of money?

Would I continue to work? Or would you find me on a beach somewhere? You know, this is a mentality, it's part of them. It's their love. It's their passion. I think it has very little to do with money or even the law of attraction.

David: I agree. that's the result of sort of doing the things that you're good at and the things that you love exceptionally well. When you do that and you're able to impact enough other people, and I think that's a key component that's often missing, is that they're great at what they did and they pursued it with passion.

But what they were pursuing was able to impact enough other people, that they were able to generate the result. They were able to generate the revenue, which is essentially the reward for being able to serve or service enough people so that it comes back to you like that.

Jay: Yeah. So I think it's about, you know, kind of thinking about those things that you want to achieve, creating a plan to get there and working as hard as you can, to achieve that success.

David: Yeah. I know personally, the times in my life where I was really focused on a particular goal, especially business, we're talking business here. I have an idea for something. You have an idea for a business or you have an idea for a product. You have an idea for something. And when you believe in it enough, and when you're passionate enough about it, It just seems to almost take on a life of its own.

You sort of know what to do next. You see the opportunities and you take them because you know how it fits in. And pretty much every major success that I've had in business has rolled that way.

A lot of times when you're just sort of trying to slug something out and you're trying to figure it out and things aren't coming together. I think some of it has to do with the vision. Either the vision isn't clear enough of exactly what it is that you want this thing to be, because you have to have that first.

Just like building a house, you have to know what it's going to look like. You want the blueprint before you start nailing boards together. So you need to have a clear idea of it first, because when you've got that clear idea, then it becomes a whole lot easier to build.

Jay: Yeah, it's so true. I mean,...

To get off to a flying start in 2026, we can start by taking responsibility. Whenever we blame outside factors for things that go wrong, we immediately forget that there are things we can evaluate in ourselves to say, okay, well even if this is the case, even if this was just a terrible prospect, are there things that I could have done better and differently in this circumstance to create a better outcome? And almost inevitably, the answer is going to be yes.

But in order for that to happen, we have to consider it. And we have to think, is this actually what I want to do? And if you do that, you're just going to feel better about yourself. You're going to feel better about your situation. Because you're allowing yourself some level of control in the situation rather than simply delegating the failure to outside factors and assume you're a victim and there's nothing you can do about it.

David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing how to hit the ground running in the new year. Happy New Year, and welcome back Jay!

Jay: Thank you, David. It's such a pleasure to be here. I think everybody has a desire, you know, at the beginning of the year, to say this year's going to be different, you know, we're going to make all these changes. It's going to be fantastic.

But do they really have a way to translate that into action? I picture myself hitting the ground, you know, it's like the cartoon when they start to run, you know, their feet are moving, but they're not moving quite yet. I think a lot of us are in that place. How do we get from spinning to actually moving forward?

David: Yeah, it's a great question. I know in the promotional products industry, we have trade shows that start at the beginning of the new year, the ASI Show in Orlando, the PPAI Expo in Las Vegas. And, There's one in Fort Worth as well, an ASI show in Fort Worth.

So we got three trade shows in the industry that are really designed to help people get off to a flying start. But as we look at today, you know, this first week of the new year, even aside from that, whether or not you're attending a trade show, chances are you're probably pretty reasonably fired up.

Okay, here we go. It's another new year. What are we going to do? This is exciting. And if we think about the types of prospects that we want to interact with this year, the types of clients that we would like to attract, the types of customers that we might want to let go this year, and really focus on building our businesses as proactively as possible.

Building our client lists as proactively as possible can really help to improve our quality of life in a dramatic way.

Jay: Yeah. I love that. in the restaurant business, there's something called a theoretical food cost and an actual food cost. Theoretical is, what would things be like if you ran perfectly? If there was no waste, everything was perfect.

And then actual is where you're at. The goal is to constantly be trying to close that gap. So to me, I think about it in any business, what does your ideal look like? Your ideal client base, your ideal staff, your ideal sales?

So if you can know what that is and then track a course to get to it, I think that's a great way to feel progress. Because that's what I tend to miss when I'm running a business is sometimes it's just a daily grind. And I don't feel like I made any progress today. And if you do that over and over again, it's hard to continue to press forward.

David: It really is. And I think a lot of that goes to the fact that very often we're just tied up in the day. Whatever it is that's going on in the day, we're just facing whatever is happening to us moment by moment, day by day. And that can get very frustrating.

I remember, I think it was Tony Robbins was talking in a seminar one time about the idea that in order to create our future, we need to envision it first. It's like if you are going to build a house, you don't just start nailing boards together, I think was the analogy he used. I thought it was a great one.

You have to envision it first. You have to figure out, what do I want this thing to look like? Where is it going to be located? How many rooms are going to be in it? All that sort of thing. And at the beginning of a new year, it's really nice to start thinking about what do I want my life to look like this year?

Who do I want to be surrounded by? To interact with? Who do I no longer want to interact with? What types of customers do I want to work with? What types of customers have I decided I'm no longer really interested in pursuing anymore?

Simple decisions like that can have an amazing impact on your life and your career. If you simply change the quality of the prospects that you're targeting. If you go from interacting with a whole lot of small dollar clients to interacting with a smaller group of high dollar clients, particularly if those high dollar clients are people that are actually enjoyable to work, everything changes.

Because now you're not running around like a crazy person. You're able to focus more on a smaller group of people that you can serve to the best of your ability and all of that impacts everything you do going forward.

Jay: Yeah. Quality of life, frame of mind, stress level, home life, all of those things can be impacted.

You were talking about your Tony Robbins analogy. I'm a big sports fan, and in football, typically when a coach comes out, they have their first 15 plays planned. They know exactly what they're going to do. And the reason for that is so that they can kind of assess the skills and what the rest of the team is doing.

I kind of was thinking, maybe that's a great way to kind of start the year. because you're not going to plan out every step of the whole year. because things change. We've talked about pivoting. But if you've got a plan for your first 90 days, this is what I'm going to do and this is how I'm going to go about it, then maybe that can set you up better for the rest of the year.

David: Yes, and it makes us just feel better about ourselves because we've actually given it some thought. We at least have an idea of what we want to do and where we want to go. There's that great quote from wartime, which basically says, "no battle plan ever survives contact with the enemy," right? So we know that even if we put everything together, we want to do things a certain way.

We know that it's not necessarily going to happen that way. However, if we at least have some things in mind and we say, okay, I would like to do this and I'd like to do that, and I'd like to do this. You may not be able to do it immediately, in the order that you've chosen, but it gives you something to go back to after you're dealing with putting out the fires or whatever else you have to do.

If you've got that basic plan laid out and say, okay, I was able to accomplish this first thing, then I got sidetracked, but let's go back to that second thing and then I got sidetracked again. But let's go back to that third thing and work through it systematically. It just allows you to probably live more the kind of life you want to live.

Because you're deciding, in advance, what it is that you want to do, who you're going to be doing it with, where you're going to be doing it, when you're going to be doing it. And even though you will not be 100% successful in accomplishing that, if you get 70% of the way there, or 80% of the way there, or 86% of the way there, whatever your number is, you're going to be a whole lot better off than if you start out with a blank slate. Not knowing, not deciding where you're going to go or what you're going to do, then just taking it as it comes.

Being reactive like that is okay for some people, but generally for business people, business owners, salespeople, reactivity is not a tremendous asset.

Jay: Yeah, I agree. But I also think we have a tendency to look at losing in a negative way, because it's losing, right? But losing is learning, right? And that's one of the reasons why a coach runs those first sets of plays because they find out, will the run game work?

Will the passing game work? Is their defense strong on this side of the line or that side of the line? So as you try things in business and you do lose, in some areas, it should be losing is learning, right?

David: Mm-hmm.

Jay: And then you can pivot and you can adjust. And the goal is to win more than you lose.

But if you think you're always going to win, you're setting yourself up and that's going to be very hard for you. Or if you only focus on the losses and not learn to grow from them, that's also going to be difficult. So learning from losing I think is such an important part of starting a new year.

David: I agree completely. And even the word lose or the idea of losing, I mean, if you think in a sports analogy, you can be losing in the second quarter, in the third quarter, and then you can end up winning at the end. And you haven't lost until the game is over, right? So

Jay: yeah,

David: in life and in business, we haven't lost until the game is over.

We're still in it every single day. We are still in it. We're still in life, we're still in business. We still have opportunities. So, It's difficult to even say I've lost, because if you're still breathing, the game is still going and you haven't lost. You may feel like you're behind. You may feel like you need to change the plays, but you haven't lost yet, right?

Jay: Yeah. You haven't lost yet. And one of the other things that I find to be valuable, maybe especially at the beginning of the new year, is to challenge some of the assumptions that kind of creep around your business.

Like I've been somewhere and I'll say, what about this? And they'll say, oh, we've tried that. That doesn't work. Right? You've heard that how many times, right?

...

If you’re not generating the level of sales you’re capable of in your business, the real cost of inadequate sales is a lot more than you think.

And it’s not just the cost of the sales you’re missing out on.

When you operate a business that consistently generates inadequate sales, revenue, and income, you’re effectively starving your business of the oxygen it needs to survive. Inadequate sales chokes a business, stifles its growth and can threaten its survival.

So today, let’s take a look at some of the real costs of inadequate sales in your business.

Generating significant sales in your business, or at the very least “adequate” sales is critical for many reasons.

First and foremost is the financial stability necessary for survival.

When you generate significant sales, it gives you the stability necessary to cover all your operational expenses, pay your vendors, pay your people, invest in growth, and make sure the business remains sustainable in the long term.

Your sales growth directly impacts your overall business growth, which allows for reinvestment, product development, expansion into new markets, and hiring additional talent.

It also gives you an edge that many competitors find hard to overcome.

In previous podcasts, we discussed the concept of moving from Stealth Mode to Intimidation Mode, and this depends on your ability to attract, qualify and convert more clients than your competitors.

Inadequate sales makes it nearly impossible to build infrastructure or even attract investors who could help you make it happen.

When you’re generating adequate sales and stable revenue, you can build effective processes, improve productivity, and negotiate better terms with everyone from your suppliers and vendors, to your lenders and potential partners.

It contributes to a stable work environment by giving you the ability to hire, motivate and retain the right people.

And whether you’re a small business or even a solo entrepreneur with no desire to add a lot of people or build infrastructure, having adequate sales, along with the processes necessary to be able to generate them consistently, will ultimate determine how much your business is worth.

...because no one wants to buy a business that’s unable to generate adequate sales and revenue. And most solo entrepreneurs don’t really want to run that kind of business themselves.

So regardless of your growth plans, adequate sales are key.

With all that said, some small business owners figure that even if they’re not generating adequate sales right now, it’s no big deal. They’ll figure it out eventually, or get around to it at some point.

As a result, they can plod along for weeks, months or even years bringing in just enough revenue to make themselves either mildly comfortable or not quite uncomfortable enough to do what it takes to generate the sales they need to run a fun, exciting, sustainable business.

And shouldn’t that be the goal? If it’s not fun, lucrative, or ideally both, then what’s the point? If you just want to earn a steady paycheck, you can do that with a regular job.

So if you’re still with me, let’s take a look at just Three of the Real costs of inadequate sales:

Real cost #1. Lost revenue. This is the obvious one. If you’re not generating adequate sales, then you are losing out on revenue every business day. Some people don’t think of money that they didn’t make as being lost.

But isn’t it, though?

If there are sales you could have made today, but you didn’t make them. Didn’t you lose out on that revenue? Especially if they ended up buying it from someone else?

Sure, you may sell something else tomorrow, but that doesn’t make the sales you lost today any less real.

Now if you think that mindset is too negative. If you believe in an abundance mindset and you feel like there’s plenty of business to go around for everyone. Then we’re on the same page. I totally agree.

There is plenty of business to go around for those who are willing… to do what it takes… to bring it in.  So if that’s you, congratulations. Keep up the great work.

But if you’re not generating adequate sales, then it’s likely some changes are necessary.

Real cost #2. Lost opportunity. Every sale you fail to make today, means there’s one less reorder, one less referral, one less happy customer, positive review, success story or testimonial in the pipeline.

Inadequate sales are a pipeline killer. This results in opportunity and future sales that are either lost completely or delayed indefinitely.

Life is full of opportunity. But it requires being present. You have to get in front of it. So when you’re generating inadequate sales, you are missing out on all the related opportunities you could have had.

Real cost #3. Lost credibility. When you don’t care enough to do everything you can do every day to help as many potential clients as possible, it kills your credibility.

What would you think of a doctor who could have helped someone today but who just didn’t.

How about a lawyer who could have gotten a much better result for a client, but who failed to let them know that, so they went to an inferior lawyer and got a bad result?

If you’re good at what you do, you owe it to your prospective clients to let them know THAT you can help, HOW you can help and WHY it’s in their best interest to choose you.

Then, if they still choose to not work with you, it’s on them, not you.

Listen, if you know that you could and should be selling more of your products and services than you’re currently selling…

If you’re impacted by the Real Costs of inadequate sales, including the lost revenue, the lost opportunity and the lost credibility, then go to TopSecrets.com/call and let’s discuss how we can help.

We’ll work together to help you multiply your revenue. In fact, when you join our Total Market Domination program, our initial goal is to triple your investment within the first 90 days, or we’ll keep working with you until you do.

You’ll get the tools, tips, strategies and answers you need to grow your sales and profits fast. So go to TopSecrets.com/call and let’s discuss how we can help.

Ready to Overcome Inadequate Sales?

If so, check out the five primary ways we help promotional product distributors grow:

Just Getting Started? If you (or someone on your team) is just getting started in promotional products sales, learn how we can help.

Need Clients Now? If you’re already grounded in the essentials of promotional product sales and just need to get clients now, click here.

Want EQP/Preferential Pricing? Are you an established industry veteran doing a significant volume of sales? If so, click here to get End Quantity Pricing from many of the top supplier lines in the promo industry.

Time to Hire Salespeople? If you want to hire others to grow your promo sales, click here.

Ready to Dominate Your Market? If you’re serious about creating top-of-mind-awareness with the very best prospects in your market, schedule a one-on-one Strategy Session here.

What is your first contact with a new prospect? Another good question to ask yourself is how does that first contact happen? And is it proactive on my part?

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing your first contact with a new prospect. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, it's good to be with you again. David. When you say first contact, I always think about Star Trek with their first contact with the aliens, and I feel like you're kind of sitting there going, okay, are these going to be nice?

Are they going to try and destroy the human race. You know, there's a lot of trepidation with first contact and sometimes that first contact, how it goes, determines the whole rest of the relationship.

David: That's exactly where I stole the term from Jay. That is exactly where I stole the term from. And the way that came about is that I was talking to somebody about cold calling. This was years and years and years ago.

Well, actually we were talking about prospecting and one of the things that this person mentioned to me was something related to cold calling. And I said, "okay, well, cold calling is one way that you can reach out to people." I said, "think of it like it's your first contact."

And literally it was because I saw that movie about first contact and I thought it's such a great concept. The idea of whatever, meeting an alien species for the first time is one thing. But for salespeople, you're exactly right. It's the same thing. We're walking into an unknown situation.

We have absolutely no idea how the person is going to react and that. Doesn't matter whether it's on the phone as a cold call, whether it's meeting someone at a networking event, whether it's through social media.

We have no idea what's on the other end until we engage. Therefore, the whole idea, the whole concept of first contact, I think is really highly appropriate. It is the very first contact that we have with a prospect.

If you understand that conceptually, it can really sort of open up your mind to the possibilities and to the opportunities. Because there are a lot of people who view whatever it is they do as first contact, as first contact.

What I mean is if all they do is make cold calls, they view that as first contact. If all they ever have done to generate customers is through social media, that's what they view as first contact.

When you recognize, that's just a method, that's just one particular method of first contact, and you realize that there's a whole other universe. To continue the space analogy here, there's a whole other universe of options. It really allows you to test different things to figure out what's going to work best for you.

Jay: Yeah. And I love the idea that first contact, when I first thought of this, I was thinking that's the first time that I meet them voice-to-voice or face-to-face. And in today's world, that's probably not going to be the first contact.

In my business, the first contact is our website. That's the first time that they're going to see us. Now, in my business, I'm very fortunate that our three main competitors, their websites are awful, David, they are terrible.

They are designed terribly. They're hard to read. And all the time I get people saying, literally saying to me, "I chose you because I liked your website." We're somebody that offers this high level of expertise and you chose us just because we have a really good web designer.

But that was the difference. Their first contact with us is positive, because we spend the time to get that right.

David: Yeah, it's a lot more than the web designer too, because you could have a beautiful design, but if the words on that design are not resonating with them, it's not going to work. Which goes back to what we talked about before, the MVPs of marketing.

The message on a website will definitely determine whether or not they will be interested in what you say. Now, the way we present that, meaning the design, that's all part of the messaging component. But if the words don't resonate, if the imaging doesn't resonate, they're not going anywhere.

But you're right! So many times, people don't recognize that first contact is happening all the time. Even with things that you're not even aware of.

You go onto social media and you post something, whether it's a picture of your dinner or a comment about politics or something business related, that could very well be their first contact with you. And if they hate it, they're not going to be revisiting.

Jay: Yeah, exactly. And that's why companies out there can help clean up your mistakes if you mess up. You know, we say this all the time. Once it's on the internet, it's never going away. Trying to clean that up.

Going back to my competitors. They've decided that education is how they're going to draw people in. And so they have pages and pages and pages of small text, educational information. And it's valuable information. But I'm telling you, nobody is reading that information.

Because we live in a bullet point world. We want to know within a few seconds what services you offer. And it's amazing to me, nowadays, how few people, in fact, I would say in the last year I've had three people ask me for references. In a year's time because of our website and how it's presented. It answers their questions right away. And that's phenomenal to me that we're able to do that.

David: Yeah, interesting that the information that's on the website can be helpful. It can be harmful. Or anywhere in between. Because if you have too much information on there, people can get what they need without ever having to buy from you.

They learn a bunch of things and then they talk to their existing vendor about the things they learn from your website, and then they can either do it or not.

And a lot of the work that we do in the promotional products industry, the websites are very much the same. It's a lot of the same products from the same manufacturers. There are similar vendors who put together these websites.

So a lot of it is very similar, very cookie cutter looking in a lot of ways. And so one of the things that we do with our Total Market Domination clients is we help them with little tweaks they can make, small things they can do, even within a website that doesn't allow a ton of customization to be able to switch things up. And change the results.

Because that website, that first page that they see, I look at it like a windshield, right? Are they going to fly off it like a bug off a windshield, or are they going to look into it and say, wow, this is great.

Are they going to scroll, or are they going to just bounce off it? Because if they bounce off it, you're done.

Jay: Yeah, and it's amazing to me how many people use tactics that I know that we all deplore.

Like I'll see, hey, chat with a representative, and I'm like, yeah, I think I'm going to do that. And within two seconds I realize it's not a representative, it's a chat bot, and it's only programmed to answer predefined questions. It's not answering mine.

And I'm like, come on. And then the other one I ran into just the other day that drives me out of my mind is I was looking for a quote for something. The website says, get a quote in two minutes. An instant quote.

I enter in my information and then it says, okay, one of our representatives will be back with you in two days. And I get so angry when that happens because you lied to me.

David: Right

Jay: You told me you would give me a quote in two minutes. You completely boldface lied to me. I am done with them at that point. That was my first contact with them. I don't want anything to do with them because I feel like that's a dishonest practice.

And when you start that way with me, forget about it. I don't care how many other contacts we have, I'm not going to choose you.

David: Exactly. So a lot of times when people are thinking in terms of first contact, well, first of all, it's a matter of deciding to do that. Thinking, what is my first contact? What am I currently doing? Or what do I think I'm doing in terms of first contact?

Now, if you reach out to somebody and they say, oh yeah, I saw you on Facebook, or I saw you on LinkedIn, or whatever, then that's not your first contact. Whatever they saw was the first contact. So ask yourself, what is it that you want to be your first contact, and then what is the actual first contact that they're having with you?

And if you find out that there are some commonalities that a lot of what you thought was first contact actually isn't, then you want to go back and say, all right, well what are they seeing first? And how do I need to adapt that or change that to reflect what I would like for them to see first?

So what is your first contact? Another good question to ask yourself is how does it happen? How does that first contact happen? And is it proactive on my part? Is it something that I posted that I wasn't thinking of as first contact and it just happened to turn into that?

Was it that somebody saw an ad that maybe wasn't even related to them or maybe has some sort of messaging on it that was designed to appeal to a different group of people, but they happen to see it, so now they have a misconception about who I am or what I do?

There are so many different elements to this. But when you just sort of take a few minutes to try to analyze it, it becomes a lot easier to see where things could potentially be going wrong, even when you're first interacting with someone.

Jay: Yeah. And the other thing I would say is don't squander your first contact. If you've got a first contact and you've got them to dial the phone

David: mm-hmm.

Jay: or something like this. We've all had the experience where we're like, okay, I'm going to pick up the phone....

The trouble with targeting in business is that a lot of people don't do it well. It reminds me of that line from one of the Godfather movies where Michael Corleone says something along the lines of, "if history has taught us nothing else, it's that you can get to anybody." Right?

And that is now true in terms of advertising. You can get to anybody, but what is the cost?

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co-host Jay McFarland and I discuss the trouble with targeting. Welcome back Jay.

Jay: Hey, David, once again, I'm excited to be here and I'm really excited to get your feedback on this, because when you first said we're going to talk about the trouble with targeting, I kind of thought in my head, well, isn't that what I'm supposed to be doing?

Aren't, aren't I supposed to be targeting?

David: Oh yeah. Yeah. We definitely have to target. We definitely need to target. I'm not saying there's anything wrong with targeting. The trouble with targeting that I was thinking about is that a lot of people don't do it, and a lot of the people who do do it maybe don't do it as well as it can be done, and as a result, they don't get the results they're looking for.

Some people think they're targeting and they may be doing that, but if you're not targeting to the point where it's resulting in better quality prospects, better quality clients, and conversations that lead to sales, then you might need to hone in a little bit better in terms of your targeting efforts and your targeting approach.

Jay: Yeah, so as I think about targeting, there's a lot of work to be done upfront, right? If you're going to target somebody, you've got to know who the target is. And that can take a lot of research on your own part. A lot of experimentation, a lot of looking at past contacts, how those contacts came into your funnel, and understand those things before shooting arrow in different directions. The odds that you're going to hit anything that looks like a target are pretty slim.

David: Exactly. And I think a lot of the reason for that is, many people think of the term targeting in terms of what you said, targeting's like aiming at something.

But it's not just aiming at something, it's having an idea in advance of what it is that you want to hit. And if we think in terms of some of the more common ways of targeting. Some people don't even get this specific about it. But if you look at the different ways to target, I mean some people target geographically, I'm going to target everybody within a certain geographic area.

If I'm a realtor and I'm working in a particular neighborhood... Great example of geographic targeting. Some people target by industry. If I'm selling B2B, I might target a particular group of people in a particular industry. I might target companies that deal with technical kind of things, or I might target education, or I might target finance, right?

So that's a different way to target, by industry. I can target by need if I'm selling something like whatever, insurance, and I'm targeting people who need insurance. Okay. They could be wherever they are.

Now, it's harder to do that when you target by need because so many people might need it and you might have to pare things down a little bit to be able to get to the people that you want.

In the promotional products industry, where I do a lot of work, people can sell by program specialty. In other words, people who are looking for a specific result. If you're selling to people who are looking to increase safety in the workplace, then you could potentially be selling them a safety campaign, a safety program.

There are some people who target by product specialty. There are different companies who might be looking for a specific kind of product. There is a company that's been in the promotional products industry for ages. You've probably received pens from them in the mail, and they've been doing that for years.

There's a cover letter. Very often the pen will have your company name on it, and they'll send that to you in advance. And then there was just a sheet of paper and a place where you could say, all right, if I want 200 of these, I send a check, I mail it in. And that was an example of targeting by product.

So you can have a very successful business that does just that, right? Targeting by a particular product. And then some combination thereof. I could target a particular niche, a particular group of people. I could target financial institutions within a certain geographic area, or I could target a certain type of industry with a specific need. So, industrial companies that need safety programs.

So lots of different ways to slice it, but if you don't think through your options, then a lot of your targeting can just leave you confused.

Jay: Yeah, absolutely. But I think it's important to know, I mean, never in the history of the planet, have we had the ability to target like you can today.

If you know what you're looking for, you talked about geographic areas, age groups, people who listen to a particular radio station, people who shop at a particular store. Never in our history has there been the ease and ability to target people.

There are people whose profession, and think about this, their profession is SEO, search engine optimization. That's all they do is they look at your company, and who your targets are, and they figure out how to reach that specific group.

I think about what we did 20 years ago for targeting, and I'm like, how did we even do that?

I think part of the problem is that a lot of people are just going in and they're kind of faking it until they make it.

SEO is complicated and you have to first know your target, your needs, and then you have to know how to turn that into keywords and other things. It's a real process, real powerful, but a real difficult process many times.

David: Right. And when you're talking about something specific like that, like SEO, yeah, it's really a specialty. And even targeted advertising, if you're looking for a certain group of people on Facebook or whatever, you're right, it's easier than ever to target those people with paid advertising.

But for salespeople who are in the field who aren't doing SEO, and they're not doing targeted ads, and they're looking for prospects, looking for people to sell to, and still, to some extent, having to do it rather manually, then at least having a clear idea of who you're after gives you a much better chance at potentially reaching some of those people.

Jay: Oh yeah. And we talked about this in the last podcast. If you know who to target, you're not making a hundred calls today. Maybe you're making 20 calls today and you're increasing your close rate.

It is hard for me to think, you know, that there are still so many people out there picking up a phone and dialing it and cold calling.

David: Mm-hmm.

Jay: But it is still a regular part of businesses everywhere and it's a successful part and can be successful. But if you don't know who to target, you're going to be wasting a lot of time.

David: Right. Which brings us back to the title, the Trouble With Targeting. If you're not doing it well, no matter how you're doing it, whether you're trying to do it with SEO or paid ads. Because there are people who really want to get the paid ads thing dialed in, and many of them are still spending enormous amounts of money to make that work.

And as the algorithms get smarter, theoretically it gets easier, but it also then becomes more expensive because more people are doing it, which drives the costs up.

So even those who now understand that, yeah, you can probably reach pretty much anyone you want to reach with targeted ads you might not be able to afford to do. It reminds me of that line from one of the Godfather movies where Michael Corleone says something along the lines of, if history has taught us nothing else, it's that you can get to anybody.

Right? And that is now true in terms of advertising. You can get to anybody, but what is the cost? What's the cost in time? What's the cost in money? And are you going to be able to do it? So a lot of that has to do with what you're charging for your product, what your profit margins are.

If it costs you a couple hundred dollars to acquire a new customer, you have to make sure that whatever it is that you're selling them provides enough of an adequate profit margin to cover the cost of the product, to cover the cost of the salesperson, the overhead, and whatever the advertising is. So as long as the math works, you're in great shape.

Jay: And not just the math. I was thinking as you were talking about this, let's say you set it up right. You figured out who to target, you've got your keywords in, or whatever your advertising method is going to be, and you have actually reached the face of your target.

Well, what if your ad doesn't appeal to them at all? So you've managed to hit your target, but it just bounced off of them because you didn't have the right message.

David: Yep.

Jay: And that's a problem we see a lot with SEO, with cold calling. Are you saying the right message? And I know when it comes to SEO, that's why you do A/B testing, right?

You send out two different versions of the same ads, see which ones resonate, see which ones don't. And you have to keep track of that regardless of what your effort is.

Because man, it's really sad if you have managed to figure out how to reach that target, but you didn't manage to figure out how to get them interested. That's a real waste of time and money.

David: Right, because you may not even know that you reached that person if the messaging's off. This really all goes back to something we talked about in a podcast quite a while ago, the MVPs of marketing and sales.

What's the message that you're communicating?...

Particularly in the early stages, breaking through your sales plateau may just mean doing more of what you're doing. But generally, at some point, we hit a plateau that is created by the fact that we can't run any faster. We can't do any more by ourselves.

So we either need to implement new procedures and new processes, we need to get some help, or something needs to change fundamentally in the business in order to get us to that next level.

Identifying the Real Causes of a Sales Plateau

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, cohost Jay McFarland, and I will be discussing the idea of breaking through your sales plateau. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: It's so good to be here again with you David, and as always, I'm very excited about this topic. I know businesses that hit these thresholds. Breaking through can be a monumental task to get to the next level and they're not sure how to do it. Is it marketing? Is it adding new products? I think that's what a lot of them try to do. They're like, well, let's add 10 more products to the lineup and then we'll do it. And oftentimes that can just make the situation worse and not better.

David: Yeah, it's true. Most businesses, I think it's safe to say, at some point run into a sales plateau. They hit a level of sales and they can't get past it. I believe in small businesses this is particularly true, where you're just working and pushing and you're trying to get to that next benchmark. And you just can't reach it.

There are thresholds in small business, getting to your first hundred thousand in gross sales and then your first 250, and then you hit 500 and then a million and then 2 million and going from there.

In the early stages, you can generally do pretty well, like to get from a hundred thousand to 250 is often easier than it is to get from a million to 2 million.

But most of us, at some point, will encounter some sort of sales plateau. You get there, you see it, you're targeting it, you're working toward it and you just can't seem to hit it. Breaking through becomes a challenge.

You May Not Know How You Got Here

And so it's really just a matter of getting stuck. It's like, I feel like I'm stuck. I'm here, I need to be there and I'm not sure what to do next.

Jay: Yeah. And I wonder how much of it is that they're not really sure how they got to the first sales plateau. I mean, they may think that they know,

David: That's true.

Jay: But it could be something completely different. And this could go back to something we talked about in a previous podcast: following up with your customers.

Find out why they purchased, how they feel about their purchase. Are they returning customers? Are they not returning customers? So if you didn't understand why they bought in the first place and how they felt about that purchase, it's going to be hard breaking through that next sales plateau.

David: It is, absolutely. And the biggest hangup that I see for most people is not knowing, "what do I do next?"

And as you indicated, people get to a certain point in some cases, they're not sure how they did it. What's that referred to as? Unconscious competence?

Jay: Mm-hmm,

David: Where I'm doing things and it's working, but I'm not even sure of what I've done. So I haven't gotten around to building a system around it, to put that into place so I can replicate it.

But there's also the idea that what gets me to here will not necessarily get me to there. Right? So breaking through to level one won't necessarily get me to level two.

When Hard Work Doesn't Result in Breaking Through

That's not always the case, particularly in the early stages, you can do more of what you're doing to get to a higher level. But generally, at some point, we hit a sales plateau that is created by the fact that we can't run any faster. We can't do any more by ourselves.

So we either need to implement new procedures and new processes. Or we need to get some help. Something needs to change fundamentally in the business, in order to keep breaking through that sales plateau and get us to the next level.

Jay: Yeah, something that can be very hard for people, delegation, right? Letting go of your baby, right?

David: Yeah.

Jay: That you worked so hard on. And now you're going to trust some new employee with some new aspect. It's not easy to hand those things over. But often, if you're not willing to do it, you're not going to grow through that next sales plateau.

Refusing to Delegate Can Lead to a Sales Plateau

David: That's true. And some people don't want to. Some people are like, okay, look, I don't want to have employees. I'm comfortable with the way things are. And if they are, then that's fine. If they want to get to another level of sales though, then it's really going to be a lot more about processes.

If you're determined not to get additional help, at least in terms of human resources, then you're going to have to figure things out in terms of either technological resources or being able to do more of what you need to do so that you can keep breaking through to get to the levels you want to reach.

So in looking at getting stuck, at hitting a sales plateau that you can't reach, one of the first things I would suggest is that we ask ourselves, okay, what's causing this? Am I just not able to get enough customers?

In other words, could I handle more business, but I either don't know how to do it, or I'm not successful in doing what I know?

Is Your Breaking Through Problem Not Enough Customers? Or Too Many?

Or I'm doing what I know and it's not working? Because if that's the issue, if it's just a matter of getting more clients, there are very specific things that we can do to make that happen.

On the other hand, if we've got a lot of clients and we feel like we can't keep up with the clients we have, then that is certainly going to prevent us from breaking through to the next level. Unless we can either leverage things so we can get more from the clients we have without having to add more or we figure out how to get some help, depending on our willingness to want to do that.

Jay: Yeah. And, an important one, can we take our existing clientele and get them to come back? We've talked about this before, right. You know,

David: mm-hmm.

Jay: It's going to be easier to get an existing customer to repurchase if they were satisfied and if that's your type of product. Some products are one and done, and that's just the way it is.

Breaking Through the Sales Plateau with Existing Clients

But if you can have a product where they're like, I like this, I need more of this. I want to come back for this... having systems to remind them to come back, drip, programs and those types of things, to get them to be a return customer. That could be the biggest source of your income. And you're not spending extra money to acquire new customers for breaking through that next sales plateau.

David: Exactly. And when we get to a point where we know we want to be somewhere, and we're not quite there, identifying what that biggest bottleneck is, is one of the most important things.

There's a big distinction between the idea of potential, where I could potentially be, and what's keeping me from getting there. And a lot of people focus on the idea of adding more potential.

Well, maybe if I add this or I add this, or I add this, I add all these different things for the potential of getting to where I want to be. And instead, to get past that, what they really should be looking at is "what is the bottleneck?"

Fixing the Primary Bottleneck that Creates a Sales Plateau

What is the single biggest contributor to the fact that I'm not breaking through? What is the one primary thing that is preventing me from getting past that?

Is it the people? Is it the customers I'm interacting with? There are a lot of businesses who, if they want to reach their sales levels, they're going to have to jettison some customers who are not spending as much money with them.

A lot of times, low-dollar, low-profit clients who take up a lot of time, who are very demanding, can take up valuable time that could be spent with people who understand and appreciate better, the value that you bring to the table.

So if it is a situation where you don't want to add staff, then you're going to have to be extremely selective, going back to another point we raised in a previous podcast, about the people that you bring in the door to begin with. The prospects and clients that you choose to interact with.

Jay: Yeah, and in that case, you're going to have to have a system to identify what type of customer they are, classify them and then figure out is this the type of customer that we want?

Letting Go of Poor Quality Clients

If it is, then you're going to want to target them and focus more on them. If it's not, then you're going to kind of want to let them slowly disappear so that you can focus on the ones that you want.

David: Yeah. And I think for a lot of us, if you've been in business for any length of time, you have a favorite customer or two. And so a really easy exercise you can do is take a look at those customers and say, okay, what do they have in common?

What is it that I like about them? Is it their attitude? Is it the way they communicate? I mean, communication is huge.

One of the very first things that will tell you if you've got a problem client is their unwillingness to communicate. If they're not communicating the way that you need to have them communicate in order to fulfill an order or get the work done, that is a relationship that's really in trouble. Breaking through becomes much harder.

Communication Problems: The Early Warning Sign

In hindsight, every time I've had, in business, a relationship that didn't work out, it almost invariably came down to a problem with communication. Where the person that I was trying to help was not wi

David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today’s episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will continue our discussion about the AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales. This is part four in our series, and today we’ll be talking about learning, segmenting, and the Three Ds. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, thank you so much, David.

I really, really enjoyed this. I know I've said that in previous podcasts, but it's true. After each one, I've gone into my own business and I'm like, okay, I got to apply this and apply that because these conversations are of such value. So I appreciate your time. I love this. And hopefully it's been helpful to everybody else.

David: I'm glad, I feel the same way, and I'm really looking at this almost like a mini-course. If people were to put together these four episodes and say, "How much of this stuff am I doing in my business?" You can probably implement some things very quickly that can probably help you get some great results.

Jay: 100%.

David: All right, so let's do the quick review. And again, what we're talking about here is we asked AI what will help you to multiply your business because that's been a focus of our conversations recently. AI came back with some different responses, and then we're talking about what AI says and how we're able to help implement those things in business with our clients.

And so let's just recap. Number one was refine your target audience. Number two, develop a compelling value proposition. Number three, optimize your marketing channels. That was our first episode on that topic.

In episode two, we covered points four, five, and six. Number four was enhance your customer experience. Number five, implement a referral program. And number six, leverage the power of content marketing.

In episode three of this series, we hit utilize upselling and cross selling strategies, which was number seven.

Analyze and optimize your sales funnel, which was number eight, and invest in customer relation management software, CRM, which was number nine.

Now we're going to be doing 10, 11, and 12. Eleven and 12 are really bonus because originally I asked it for 10 and then I realized that doesn't break out well if you're doing three in a podcast.

So I went back to the AI and I said, give me two more. And it did. So we'll be talking about numbers 11 and 12 in this podcast as well.

So number 10 in the list of things that AI says will help you to multiply your sales is:

10: Continuous learning and adaptation. Stay updated with industry trends, attend relevant workshops or conferences, and be open to adapting your sales strategies to meet changing market demands.

Well spoken AI! Continuous education. It's a good call!

Jay: It is, and some professions actually require it. But again, that continuous education is often on a service or a specialty or things like that. It's not really on customer service or the technology or things like that.

I feel like in that regard, so many of us are a hamster on a wheel. You know, we're just trying to keep up with what today is giving us. We're putting grease on the squeaky wheel and we don't have time to really think about staying up on, you know, all the latest trends and those kind of things.

David: Yeah. And a lot of people just don't like continuing education, because they feel like so much of it is platitudes. It's like, I already know this stuff. I already know it, right? But knowing what to do is very different than knowing how to do it. And that's really what I've been trying to differentiate in this series of podcasts is that, yes, these are great statements.

Continuous learning. That sounds great. But what are you learning? Are you learning things that you can implement immediately?

Are you putting in place processes that will allow you to start getting results right away so you can gauge those results and then adapt, change, or tweak the process as you go to make sure that it's working for you?

So once again, we're focusing on all the little details that make these general recommendations profitable.

Jay: You know, I don't know where I get it. I think I get it from my dad, but I am on a never ending quest to make things more efficient. I am always looking for the next software, the next device, the next system.

I've done it since I was 15. My first job was in a burger barn at an amusement park. And I was watching how they put everything on the grill and what they would do is they'd cover the whole grill with burgers And then they would flip them all at the same time, and then they would pull them all off at the same time, and while they're preparing them, the grill is sitting there empty.

And so the line would move, and then it would stop, and I'm like, this is crazy.

Put down two rows, wait a second, put down two, put down two, and at 15, I changed the whole thing. I've been doing that stuff my whole life, so I I love the tech. I love the next thing.

And I'll spend weeks and months finding the right thing knowing that it's going to improve my business for years to come.

David: Yeah, and that really goes to the point. The words that the AI used , it said continuous learning and adaptation.

Jay: Yes.

David: And what you're talking about there is adaptation and implementation. Adapting the system to be able to get the result that you want

Jay: Yes.

David: So that everything gets better for everybody. Beautiful thing.

Jay: Yeah, KPIs, Key Performance Indicators, that's kind of what we use nowadays. And we've talked about this in previous podcasts, understanding every aspect of your business and knowing how you can influence it and adapt it.

Because you can't adapt, if you don't know the reality of what's going on. And I've worked for so many companies where management has no clue what's happening on the front lines.

And so we're asking them, we're begging them to adapt. Or they have software built by engineers who aren't on the front line and we're pulling our hair out because it doesn't answer any questions.

It makes life harder for us.

David: Right. And unfortunately, a lot of it boils down to not knowing what to do and not knowing how to do it. "Yes, this is a problem, but I don't know how to fix it. I don't have time to think about how to fix it. Therefore, soldier on, keep moving, keep working. Good luck with that."

And so much of this, and even this point, continuous learning and adaptation is about identifying those small hinges that swing the big doors. And so much of what we do with our clients is about doing just that.

Finding what is a small and obvious fix to a problem that could have been plaguing a company for literally months or years. You fix it in 10 minutes with a one sheet piece of paper that says, "Do it this way," and they implement it, and they immediately start to see better results.

So, I think in terms of, okay, this is what AI suggests, this is how we end up getting it done. So that's number 10, continuous learning and adaptation.

11. Targeted Marketing Campaigns. Develop targeted marketing strategies tailored to specific customer segments. This approach ensures that your marketing efforts resonate deeply with your intended audience, leading to higher conversion rates.

Once again, a lot of buzzwords in that sentence. A lot of really good recommendations in that sentence, but a lot of confusion too.

Jay: Yeah, absolutely. Can I brag for a minute?

David: Please do.

Jay: I want to brag for a minute. So a lot of people know that I've just recently started an accounting firm that focuses on day traders and they're taxes.

And we've spent over a year and a half with my current company and my last company working on keywords to make sure we get the right leads from Google advertising.

And David, in the last four months, I have not had one lead that is not right in the strike zone.

Now, think about that. Think, I mean, that is unbelievable to me. That, and they, you know, we're in constant contact with the company that we use.

And every month they're like, okay, how many leads were outside? What do we need to adjust? And I'm like, just keep pitching 'em, man, because they are right there.

And the beauty of that is, all we have to do is adjust the volume.

Right? Certain times of the year we crank that volume up, and certain times of the year we crank it down. And, wow! When we have the secret sauce, I mean, everything else is just gravy at that point.

David: Exactly. And what you're talking about really ties back to point three, earlier in our conversation, which is about optimizing your marketing channels.

Jay: Right, right.

David: When you're able to do that, and you combine that with what we're talking about here in number 11, which is targeted marketing campaigns, it's a double whammy. Because now you are getting to the right people through the stuff that you're doing with your SEO. And your communication is better, which is something we also talked about in the first episode in this four part series.

And now, when you talk about targeted marketing campaigns, to me what that means is you're taking the communications that we've perfected, creating value in the communications like we talked about in a previous episode, and now you're sequencing that communication. That's how we describe it to our clients inside our program.

You're sequencing your communication. You're putting together a series of messages that go out in a specific order, in a specific timeframe, so that you're getting the information in front of them when they need it most.

To me, a targeted marketing campaign is about doing that. You're getting the right message out to the right people at the right time. Using the right targeted marketing vehicle.

Jay: I love that. Sequencing the information. That makes a lot of sense to me. And I think understanding that in first contact,...