Selling Sincerely: Blake Binns on Real Connections in Sales

You can find Blake Binns at
Podcast: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-good-advice-podcast-do-business-better-with-blake-binns/id1437818361?uo=4
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blakebinns/
Website: https://goodadvicecoaching.com/
Podcast Website: getpodcastable.com

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Blake Binns Podcast Transcription

[00:00:00] Kris Ward: Hey everyone. Welcome to another episode of Win The Hour, Win The Day, and I am your host, Kris Ward. And today in the house, we have Blake Binns and he is going to talk to us about sales.

[00:00:09] Now he’s going to talk to us about selling without pitching and, just genuine sales. Welcome to the show, Blake.

[00:00:17] Blake Binns: Kris, it’s so great to be here and I’m excited to talk about a topic that many people typically hate. So hopefully by the time we’re done today, people have a more positive outlook on sales.

[00:00:28] Kris Ward: Yeah. For so many, sales has this negative connotation that it’s something that’s thrown upon us or we’re victimized and we have to cough up money when someone is selling to us. And then you just run around not wanting to be that person, but everything in the world comes down to sales and you certainly cannot have a business if you’re not making sales. So we have to do it. Suck it up buttercup. Where do we start Blake?

[00:00:52] Blake Binns: Yeah. I think the good news, I think the reason people don’t like sales is because their perception of sales is like that person you mentioned who’s strong arms. Like I had a guy come to my door the other day and he knocked on the door and he said, Hey, can I cut your grass?

[00:01:06] And I said, Hey, I’m good. He said what would it take? What’s the price point? And I was like, I’m good, man. Don’t worry. And I try to be very candid in the sense of, I was like, Hey, I’m actually great. I already got somebody. I’m good. He’s what do you pay in them? And it’s like that old adage of never take no for an answer to the point where you’re like, Hey, dude, you’re going to make this really awkward for me to have to be very deliberate on letting you know, like I’m not buying.

[00:01:30] So I think when we think about sales and especially when we get into sales, we’re like, oh gosh, I don’t want to be that person. I don’t want to be perceived that person. And we can all relate to the family member or friend who like started their own business and they started trying to sell you something.

[00:01:44] And you’re like, ah, I don’t want to be that person. So many of us, that’s our only data point. Is sales is icky. It’s not fun. I have to beat someone over the head, but when you understand sales the right way and you flip it and you start to understand like what it really should look like and feel like you start to really love sales.

[00:02:04] Like I, I personally love sales. I enjoy sales. And like you mentioned, if I didn’t love sales, I don’t know where my business would be because I wouldn’t. Yeah, no one’s going to do it for me, right?

[00:02:15] Kris Ward: No. So how do we get there? Blake, where do we start? How are we going to like sales?

[00:02:20] Blake Binns: I think the first thing you have to do is you have to you have to deprogram some things that I think many of us are going to like.

[00:02:27] We think you have to do sales a certain way. So I mentioned not taking no for an answer.

[00:02:32] A lot of people, and by the way, some of these concepts aren’t bad. If you’re like taking a sales role and you’re being trained in sales, like you’ll join like a company, it’s like a sales rep and they’ll give you, what’s the first thing they give you?

[00:02:43] They give you like the sales script. They say, Hey, say these things, do these things. So some of these things, like I understand where they come from, but when you’re running your own business. A lot of times we miss the nuance of sales. So for example, when I sell, I don’t have a one line that I throw out.

[00:03:02] Now I might mention something like a pain point Hey, people that I help, here’s what the experience, but there’s no like cut and paste. And frankly, this might, I don’t know how your listeners are going to appreciate this, but there’s probably also not like a chat GPT output. That you can copy and paste that’s going to suddenly skyrocket your business.

[00:03:23] So first things first, I think it’s understanding that there, unfortunately is not like a pick it up and place it kind of strategy to sales. And when you see it that way, it opens up the sales world because now you can make it your own. Like when we talk about genuine, authentic selling, we’re talking about selling in a way that works for you rather than having to shoehorn it into a very specific type. I think that’s the first thing to understand.

[00:03:50] Kris Ward: Okay. That’s important because. You get, there’s a few people that still make LinkedIn a, an annoying place when you say, I’ll accept the connection and then, oh my gosh, they’re pitching you. Like I said, hello. And off we go. And and I think because you do feel victimized when you get that aggressive salesperson and then you go too far the other way, like I know for years, In my business, if I fairly believe if you’re not excited to get time back in your calendar, if you’re not excited to get your life back, like I’m not going to strong arm you.

[00:04:20] And to the point that I didn’t even do follow up emails Hey, here’s a few things people are saying about me, how I changed their life. I was just like, you know what, if you, Don’t want this I’m not here to convince you, but there is also, Hey, maybe what’s the name? What’s her name? I forgot it. And I could have a follow up email.

[00:04:36] So a lot of us go too far the other way, but I think what you’re saying is that scripted intense, all that junk there is not the formula.

[00:04:50] Blake Binns: It’s funny enough, this is I don’t know how marketable this is, but it’s really honestly being a normal human being. And I love that you mentioned the other side of it.

[00:04:59] Cause I noticed this often in young entrepreneurs, when I say young, I don’t mean age wise, like newer to the business world is that many people so badly don’t want to be that sleazy salesperson that they go the other way. And so here’s a perfect example. So I have my second business podcastable where we’re launching and growing podcasts.

[00:05:21] I sit down with someone over coffee and he says, man, I’m really starting to think I’m thinking about starting a podcast now. I have a opportunity in that moment to say, Hey, tell me more. I want to know more about that. Or I also have an opportunity to pull back and be like I don’t want to pitch him.

[00:05:35] I don’t want to sell them or what have you. And what more inexperienced entrepreneurs will do is the person will throw up flags, like one after another. In fact, the person who’s your buyer might even say yeah. And if you know anyone I would love, and you’re just like I don’t want to pitch him.

[00:05:51] I’m not going to say anything. So I think. Some of the nuance here is when we talk about authentic selling, we’re not talking about not selling. We’re not talking about being overly humble. We’re just talking about understanding the value of the relationship and the value of intentionality with your buyer.

[00:06:10] And then actually selling them, whereas many people do it backwards, they try to sell. And then now that I got you, I don’t want to lose you. So I’m going to do as whatever I can tell me about your kids. Do you drink? Can I send you something? And we missed the fact that a lot of that should happen before the sale.

[00:06:27] Rather than after…

[00:06:29] Kris Ward: I think too, what you’re driving home is it’s really about questions and conversation. When I’m on somebody else’s podcast, or even when they’re on mine, we chit chat and all of a sudden we’re talking about their business and then they start to quietly admit, because most of my clients look the same.

[00:06:43] Great on paper, but they’re working more hours than they should at this point in their journey. And because we’re having a conversation about that, and they asked me a question and I answer it, they’re doing more of the talking. It can very much turn out that it’s, let’s go hop on a sales call or whatever.

[00:06:58] That’s fine. And they ask for that. That’s great. Whereas I’ve been on podcasts and you can tell, as this is a funnel, they may be using this as a funnel for business. And let’s say I’m using this as a funnel for business, but the hoops I have to jump through and they start asking me like, on the form Hey, how much am I making?

[00:07:15] How ” Hey, I’m just going to be a guest on your show. And now you’re asking me for my weight, height and serial number what’s going on. So I think to your point is anything done.” Wow. Is done human to human in conversation. And if we just remember that we’re leap years ahead of everything.

[00:07:32] Blake Binns: And I think you have to decide where you want to take your business long term.

[00:07:36] Like for many people if your business is now like you’re out for the corporate world, like this is now the thing that I’m going to hitch my wagon to, and I really want to grow and develop this. You have to understand. And it’s, I think sometimes it. It’s a little too shallow to call it reputation because the world is so big.

[00:07:54] Like I can find a customer that I totally blow it with and still find plenty more customers without any of them ever talking to each other. That’s just the nature of our world today. But understanding that longterm, if I’m wanting to build a brand, wanting to build a business, then. So much of this rides on my intentionality of developing real relationships.

[00:08:16] Like I was just talking to a guy today, this guy, I was on LinkedIn. He made a comment on a sales post. I commented to what he said. And I was just like, that’s an awesome insight. I love that. We got connected. We started chatting in DMS and I was just being kind. I was like, Oh my gosh, I love that point.

[00:08:30] You’re so right. It was funny in the back of my head. I almost wanted to be like. And by the way, I have nothing to sell you. So many of us are used to having what feels like an authentic touch point, and it’s for example, someone says ” Hey, will you come on my podcast?”

[00:08:44] And then you realize, wait a second, this wasn’t a come on my podcast. This was a, let’s have an intentional connection for you to sell me something. And when I talk about building something long term that does catch up to you. I think it, it, you build, you do build a reputation of taking advantage of people.

[00:09:03] And it’s not sales done the right way. Sales done the right way is you’re building those intentional relationships. When to ask for the sale and people have such a positive interaction with you that now they’re going around to everyone in their network being like, Hey, I have nothing but great things to say about Blake.

[00:09:19] He was everything he said he was from top to bottom. That only comes from understanding how to do it from the get go, rather than being so sales crazy of, I got to get my next deal done. Okay.

[00:09:31] Kris Ward: So now they’re on the calendar and we say, all I’ve said, in my case, sometimes people ask me for a few tips on how to do this or VA, or how do you get time back?

[00:09:40] Or how do you manage the calendar? And I’ll say, look, I’ll give you, let’s hop on a free strategy call. I guarantee you’re going to be inspired. You’re going to, cause most of my clients, they keep thinking, ah, if I just was more organized, ah, if I was more disciplined, if I was more structured and it’s not your character flaws that you’re just lacking.

[00:09:55] And infrastructure really basic and simple. And truly, I passionately believe that if your business supports your life instead of consuming it, like I want people to understand that. So I will get on a call with somebody and then if they’re not a right fit, that’s great. At least they now know to stop beating themselves up.

[00:10:12] That’s fine and dandy. So now I’m on the call. What are some things that we, what are some do’s and don’ts for that call?

[00:10:20] Blake Binns: I think when you get on a call like that, and this is different from a cold DM, like when someone’s agreed to get on a call with you, we can probably assume they at least know a little bit about what you do, and they’ve been willing to get on a call because they’re at least curious.

[00:10:35] As to if you can help them or not. I think that’s sometimes from the get go. That’s what needs to be clear is when you get on a call with someone, making sure the expectations are set, if someone like messages you on LinkedIn and they say, Hey, I’d love like a digital coffee. Let’s connect for 15 minutes.

[00:10:53] That’s a very different setup than someone who reaches out and says Hey, I’m starting a podcast. Can you help me? Or, Hey, my business, I just hit this revenue number. I’d love to chat and get some ideas. Those are two very different.

[00:11:04] Kris Ward: Okay. So let’s take one or the other.

[00:11:06] Start where you want.

[00:11:07] Blake Binns: Let’s start with the person who they’re, they’ve shared a pain point or they’ve commiserated. For you, for example, it would be someone who says Oh my gosh, I love what you’re doing. I’m in so much pain. Like I’m working 80 hours a week. I would love to hear about what it is you do exactly because this is very intriguing to me.

[00:11:24] Like my spouse has been telling me we’ve got to make some of our time back. So I think one thing that people do wrong on these calls is they rush too fast to the sale.

[00:11:36] They get on the call and they say, you make the small talk, right? Hey, yeah. So how’s your Monday going? How’s what’s going on? Oh yeah.

[00:11:44] You bring up the pain point. Yes. You’re telling me you have this problem. Oh yeah. And they share like a few minutes about it. Great. Let me tell you about this awesome answer. So often we go straight for the kill. Instead of realizing that not everyone’s ready to buy that way. Some people will be, some people will say Hey, that’s great.

[00:12:01] Let’s just jump into it. I want to know what this is. And that’s fine. Most people will not do that. Most people are they’re risk averse. They are apprehensive because they don’t fully know you or trust you. Now they’re not like sweating in their seat. But there’s certainly not like money over fist or hand over fist ready to buy from you.

[00:12:23] Kris Ward: And also, let me just add that I think in my rookie years in the beginning, I would jump to the sale too quick, but it was my enthusiasm. Like they’d say, Oh, 80 hours a week. I’d be like, Oh my gosh, but I wouldn’t slow down enough to hear all the nuances and the more of the story and what’s happening, which only empowers me.

[00:12:41] Cause then I’d say, look, now my wife is now flirting with, she’s thrown the word divorce around a couple of times. Okay. Now You know, let’s, now we’ve got even more pain points and more information, but previously I would jump in too quickly. Cause I’d be like, Oh, I got the answer. I’ve done it with those people before.

[00:12:57] Let me help you. And they didn’t get finished the sentence and I’m trying to solve their problem. So it wasn’t that I was an aggressive salesperson. I was trying to overachieve as a helper.

[00:13:07] Blake Binns: And you knew the answer to, I love that self awareness though of like people who knew you from the get go and trusted you, they probably shared in that enthusiasm, but the person who didn’t know you probably thought that you were like, like I said, hungry for the kill, hungry for the sale.

[00:13:22] Kris Ward: Yeah.

[00:13:22] Blake Binns: So I love that self aware and for our listeners, there’s nothing bad about being enthusiastic about the solution. Like the people like we get energized buying from people who are excited about what they’re selling. To us, but understanding when the trust isn’t there, when the person doesn’t know us and something else too, that I think has helped me a lot, that it’s also helped some of my customers is when you get on a sales call, one reason you’re not going straight for the kill is because you don’t know.

[00:13:52] If this person is a good customer for you.

[00:13:54] Kris Ward: Yeah

[00:13:55] Blake Binns: That’s something that you have to understand is I’m about to try to sell this person something, but I don’t know if they’re my right buyer. I don’t know if they’re going to be a great customer for me and doing business long term, you learn that.

[00:14:09] Even when you’re cash starved, like you really need to make a sale. It never pays off well, they’re going to consume way more time. Or I think about, and I’m..

[00:14:20] Kris Ward: Hold on, let me jump in public service announcement. They will suck the living life out of you and they will cost you more money.

[00:14:27] They, and you, it’s like a bad rash. You’ll never get rid of them. That, that cannot be stressed enough. And to your point, I wouldn’t a quick little ad asking more questions. I know lots of times people come to me and they’re like, Hey, they might think that they just need a virtual assistant.

[00:14:42] Yeah, we’ll find hire on board for you, but that’s just step one. We do that for you. So you can get to the real work, which is our signature super toolkits. Fine. So then they start to understand that if they don’t understand that and they think of VA is going to solve all the problems. That’s a problem for me too.

[00:14:56] But the bigger thing is I was talking to this one guy once and he’s Yeah. I often ask, Hey, have you hired before? And how’d that work? And it’s just cause it’s a whole nother skill set and they don’t know how to do it and it’s not their jam. And he’s I have super numerous times and it failed.

[00:15:09] And usually people will say to me, I know I’m in my own way. And I didn’t know who, like they, all the stuff that they know they’re lacking. And he’s I just find people are idiots and they’re stupid. And so I don’t trust people and I’m not going to trust them. And I was like, Oh I said, I can’t help you with that.

[00:15:22] I can’t change your perception on the world. I’m like, we’re, I got nothing for you, buddy. And thank you for telling me. So you’re right. If you jump in too quickly, I wouldn’t have found that out. He’s just. Not liking humankind. And I can’t fix that.

[00:15:38] Blake Binns: I had a person one time who reached out to me, who she had, she had nine employees, they had all quit in the last year and she had reached out.

[00:15:46] She needs some help with scaling. Her business was having some real pain there. And I said, wow. So your whole team has quit in the last year. What’s going on there? And she was like people are just impossible to manage these days. Millennials are impossible, which I love that Jen’s ears, by the way, are taking some of the fly as a millennial, Jen’s ears are taking the flack now, which is great, but she was like, millennials are just impossible to manage.

[00:16:08] And I said in my experience, when your whole team quits, it’s usually not the employee.

[00:16:15] Kris Ward: Yeah.

[00:16:15] Blake Binns: And she was like if you’re saying it’s my fault. I don’t want to hire you. And so I was yeah I don’t think you should hire me either. We were out of line. But a lot of times people they’re so hungry and understand this too.

[00:16:25] When you’re new to running a business, you’re not necessarily doing anything wrong when you’re hungry for the sale, like everyone starts at zero. Everyone starts at 0. Unless you’re like this uber successful, you had a seed round or what have you, people invested money into you, for most of us, that’s not the case.

[00:16:41] Most of us, we start at zero, we started

[00:16:43] Kris Ward: one, one potato, two potato, three potato more. Let’s keep going. Yeah. Yeah.

[00:16:47] Blake Binns: So I empathize with the pain point there, the tension of, Oh, I don’t want to, I don’t want to pitch too hard, but I do want to pay my rent this week. Yeah. So you’re the listeners, your urgency there is understood, but you have to be intentional in pumping the brakes because again, you want the right kind of customer

[00:17:07] Kris Ward: and you also could, they smell desperation off you.

[00:17:09] That’s a big thing.

[00:17:10] Blake Binns: And this, by the way, depending on what you sell, the higher, the price tag, the more important it is to be aware of that desperation. I’ve sold 5, 000 contracts. I sold a 60, 000 contract.

[00:17:25] Kris Ward: Wow.

[00:17:25] Blake Binns: And. And if I had been like desperate for it, if I had been, and honestly, for that 60, 000 gig, I was, I didn’t even really expect it to become, it started as like an 8, 000 contract.

[00:17:40] And it, it basically was working with this one person. They’re like, Hey, we have some other people we want you to work with. Are you up for that? And I was like yeah, but it would be times eight and they were like, okay, sure. Sure. Yeah. But from the get go, my work with them was, Hey, I’m just offering insight.

[00:17:56] I’m offering direction. Hey, I want to know what’s the pain point here. And then asking good questions. Where’s that going to lead to? Or, if you, if we work together what are you hoping this would solve for you? A lot of times we never ask these questions and we go straight to the sale.

[00:18:10] And then we wonder why didn’t it work out? It didn’t work out because you didn’t make sure from the get go that. It was actually a good customer. I’ve been mentioning the podcast I just started this podcast business a few months ago, but I had a guy call me and he said, Hey, I heard you’re the guy to start podcasts.

[00:18:24] And I said, okay, yeah. Tell me about, what’s your favorite podcast. I want to know what kind of show you’re looking for. And he was like I don’t listen to podcasts.

[00:18:30] I was like, oh, okay are you going to start getting into it? And he’s honestly, I hate podcasts.

[00:18:35] So like, how is that buddy? Good luck with that. I basically was like, Hey, I’m going to give you some, I’m gonna give you some good advice. It sounds like you don’t need to start a podcast, but if I had never had that conversation and I had just gone straight into the sale, I guarantee you three months down the road, he would have been mad at me.

[00:18:55] Because there is no instant ROI with podcasting, as with your show. He would have been mad at me. He might’ve even been asking for his money back. He certainly wouldn’t be telling his friends and family about me. He would, but it would be not in a good way. So again, this is all about building a brand long term and having a healthy sales process that helps prop that up.

[00:19:15] Kris Ward: Really, this can’t be said enough. And I know it seems like common sense, but I think we all need to hear this again and again. First of all, through conversation, you’re getting expectations, right? So what your definition of a good job is understanding where their pain points are, understanding what they like and don’t like, that’s something, again, when I would jump the gun, I wouldn’t understand later that their expectations were crazy.

[00:19:37] And there, there is a lot of, Hello, people. I just threw that out there. They’re crazy. But you’re right. That person naively probably assumed you’re going to put this out there and all of a sudden the people, the phone be ringing off the hook and that’s not what podcasts are about. That’s a big, huge problem.

[00:19:56] Blake Binns: And I feel bad for like social media agencies today, like especially like the newer ones or like the lower dollar ones, because they probably have people endlessly who pay for their services and then are mad. That, Hey, the one post you didn’t bring me back. My ROI.

[00:20:11] Like when people who don’t, and I think if you don’t set those expect expectations, like I had a guy who we met for coffee a few weeks ago and he said, Hey, I, and this is for the consulting side of my business.

[00:20:20] He said, Hey, I really need some help. I’m running this business and I’m really struggling. And I said hey. Like working together, we’re going to, we’re going to make some amazing changes in your business, surely, it’s not going to be me that turns your business around.

[00:20:34] Surely, like it’s going to take you getting out selling, engaging with people. And he was like, yeah I totally get that. But a lot of times when you’re, when you aren’t setting those expectations correctly, someone will buy something from you and they’ll think. Like they will think that is the silver bullet for their business when it’s not like a social media marketing agency isn’t selling a silver bullet.

[00:20:57] They’re selling brand recognition. They’re selling consistency.

[00:21:00] Kris Ward: Yeah. Consistency. Yeah.

[00:21:01] Blake Binns: Yeah. And so when people are misaligned in that from the get go, even when you have a well paying customer, they may not be a great customer because you didn’t take the time to make sure. Do we both understand what this really looks like?

[00:21:14] Kris Ward: What is success? Okay. So let’s talk about DMS. Now we know how they’re done poorly. Like I just got a LinkedIn request the other day from somebody. And before, even in the connection request, usually they just say, Oh, I want to expand my network. And then they hit you hard in the DMS. This silly person says, I see that you’re in the health and fitness industry.

[00:21:36] And I want to know if you want to blah, blah, blah, blah, do all these things. And we can help you leverage your thing and your website and all this thing. And I am not in the health and fitness industry. And if I was, you haven’t even said hello. Like you haven’t even said hello. It’s I don’t even know.

[00:21:52] It’s like a car stopping at a street light, like a corner light. And you hop in the car. Cause the car stopped. No, excuse me. I was just stopping at a stop sign. Get out of my car. We’re you’re not coming with me. So in the DMS, we know a thousand ways to do it wrong. Where, what are you doing? That’s different.

[00:22:08] Blake Binns: I’m just not doing that for starters. So understanding like when you’re cold pitching someone, it’s a 1 percent close rate on average. So there’s

[00:22:18] Kris Ward: even getting that Blake, please.

[00:22:19] Blake Binns: Especially when you’re mass sending them. I had a guy reach out to me. He was looking for And he was like, Hey, I’m hitting LinkedIn’s there’s a max number of connections you can make in a day,

[00:22:29] Kris Ward: right?

[00:22:29] Blake Binns: And he said, Hey, I’m hitting the max number. Do you have any advice for what I can do here? And I was like, yeah stop doing this. So even when we talk about like, how do you do it better? How do you do it the right way? We’re talking about increasing 1 percent to 3 percent or 4%. It’s still going to be microscopic, right?

[00:22:44] And for many of us who are doing like the cold pitching on LinkedIn, it’s because you once had a sales manager who basically beat you over the head and said, pick up the phone, make phone calls, what have you.

[00:22:53] Kris Ward: It’s a numbers game.

[00:22:54] Blake Binns: Exactly. Here’s a better way to do it. And again, when you’re cash starved, it’s hard to do this because you really need your next sale, but a better way to do it is to send the connection.

[00:23:05] Kris Ward: Yeah,

[00:23:05] Blake Binns: to say, Hey, I saw you post this, I really like what you’re doing and to send the connection and then to not do anything after that. And to just have an honest, genuine relationship with someone to follow their content, to engage with their content, to tag them in a post that you make that you think is relevant to them.

[00:23:25] And understand my friend, Brian Sexton says it really well. He says, people buy from people. But what we don’t do is we don’t have the patience to develop relationships with people. Like I have a number of podcasters that I’ve connected with, like probably 200 in the last two months of just connecting with them.

[00:23:43] Hey, I saw you have a show great work at the show. What have you, I’ve never mentioned podcastable. I’ve never mentioned my services. Now there’s been a couple of people who they put out an episode and it’s really bad. And I say, Hey, I just noticed this. If you tweak a couple of things, like for example, I had a guy whose microphone was pointed.

[00:24:00] Like the other side of the room. And I said, Hey man, if you just point the mic at you, you’re going to instantly get better audio there. He’s I really appreciate Hey, yeah. That’s what do you do by the way? What is that? So I offer genuine, it wasn’t like a clever little, if I just mentioned this.

[00:24:16] It was just an honest piece of feedback and it led to a new conversation. But some of us are so impatient. We’re like, what’s the hack on getting someone to buy from us? And you, I think the longer you get in business, the more you realize there is no hack. It’s about being a genuine, honest human being.

[00:24:33] Kris Ward: Sorry, go ahead.

[00:24:34] Blake Binns: I’ll say the last thing I’ll say, the greatest sin you can make in the sales world is DMing someone and getting their basic info wrong. Oh my God. Nothing screams. I want to unfriend you, remove connection, block you, ban you, what have you. Then someone saying, Hey Kris, I see you’re in the healthcare industry.

[00:24:53] All right. I have a number of like pictures that I’ve saved of people. I had someone who messaged me and they said, Hey, I love your business. It’s good gear hockey. Okay. The business is called good advice. I had someone who emailed me just a few months ago that was like, Hey, I’m helping attorneys just like you.

[00:25:09] Yeah. I was on a sales call a few weeks ago. Someone got me on a sales call and he said, Hey how’s the real estate world? And I said I don’t know. What, why do you ask? And he was like you’re in real estate, right? I was like, dude, you got me on a sales call and you don’t even know like how rare is it for someone to actually get on a call with you?

[00:25:27] Like, how can you mess this up? Yeah. I do your homework. Oh my God. I know. And I think I call it the greatest sin because it costs you literally nothing. It costs you eight seconds to look at someone’s profile, to get their name, their business name, what have you. And what’s sad is if you own, if you only spend those eight seconds, you’re already leaps and bounds ahead of the average salesperson.

[00:25:47] And that’s frightening to me. And I do the same thing. Like somebody just the other, I accepted a connection and he’s Hey, are you into short form video? First of all, how long would it take you to look at my page and see all the videos I’ve done? So that’s a stupid question.

[00:26:00] I had the exact same.

[00:26:01] I don’t want to take away from your story. I had the exact same thing. Someone messaged me and said, Hey Blake, if you’re ever looking to do video. I’d love to talk with you. And I thought if you looked at my profile, you’d see video all over it.

[00:26:12] Kris Ward: Four seconds, four seconds it would take you. So I delete them.

[00:26:15] I delete them. They get deleted because we’re never going to have a talk. And I think to what your point earlier is, if we don’t have real conversations, like if somebody does accept my request not if it’s like I do get a kick with if somebody ever lets me in, I will often leave them a voice message right after the, Hey, thank you so much for accepting my request.

[00:26:34] Or I really noticed this, like I, the audio does wonders cause then they hear a human and I’m being friendly into that though. I did compliment somebody once on something and she said back, Oh, what are you going to try to sell me? I’m like, I don’t know. I was just complimenting you. It sounds like you’re having a rough week because I was just saying something nice and you’ll never hear from me again if you don’t want to like, put the brakes on it.

[00:26:57] But I think to your bigger point, when you do things in a strategic way, where you’re just certain waiting, pausing, pretending to listen, to make the kill. It reminds me of, When you’re in a tourist area and there’s like a little shop and there’s a little one person in the shop and you do want to see stuff in that store, but you don’t want to go get it, go in there and get stuck with the shopkeepers.

[00:27:21] Oh, there’s not enough people. If I don’t buy something, I’ll feel bad. And so then if you’re not pacing yourself and doing it in a genuine and conversational way, even when somebody does want or is intrigued by something you do, at the pace you’re interacting with them they’re too afraid to get caught into a sales call that now, Oh, it’s, it’s like a car salesman.

[00:27:41] I just dropped by the lot once and now I’m getting 14 calls.

[00:27:45] Blake Binns: And I, and it’s something you said earlier that I really liked. I think also sometimes it’s really great just to be candid with your potential buyer because sometimes even when you give someone like the open option to tell, I’ve learned that people will still not tell, because they’re just kind or they’re embarrassed or it was, it costs more than they thought it was, you 50 bucks and then they’re like, Oh wow, you’re not 50 bucks.

[00:28:08] So they’re embarrassed to have that realization. So what I’ve. What I really appreciate, you said it earlier Hey maybe we shouldn’t work together. Hey maybe this isn’t a good fit for us. And I think sometimes it gives someone like a more overt out to say that. Because the other thing you don’t want to get into as a salesperson is chasing your prospects.

[00:28:28] It diminishes your credibility as the expert, especially if you’re trying to hot sell what we call high ticket which is typically in the four plus figure market. It diminishes the value of what you’re selling because you come across as desperate. But more importantly it’s just not those interactions then become fairly toxic with your buyer because you’re always, we all know the email.

[00:28:50] Hey, so and so just following up, just getting this back to the top of your inbox. And so I think sometimes getting to the point where you realize, you know what, this person probably isn’t a buyer. And this is also tougher too, when you’re selling local, because you’ll have people locally who really like you and want to support you, but they don’t want to buy from you.

[00:29:10] And the reason they haven’t overtly told you that is because they really value the relationship. So part of sales is being in tune enough to realize, you know what, we’ve had 12 interactions and this person still hasn’t bought from me. I think it’s probably safe to assume they’re not. A buyer or at least not a buyer in the short term.

[00:29:29] Kris Ward: Yeah. I would say nothing means nothing till somebody paid. You can tell me that I am the next miracle on earth.

[00:29:36] It doesn’t matter until you paid the invoice. It’s just nonsense, right? It’s just.

[00:29:42] Blake Binns: And I think I have a rule of thumb. I never celebrate a win until the contract signed.

[00:29:47] Kris Ward: Yeah. A hundred percent

[00:29:48] Blake Binns: ever only because I’ve had so many people over the year, I’ve been in business six years.

[00:29:52] I’ve had so many people who are earnest and kind and Hey, would you find this valuable? Would you want to buy something like this? Oh, a hundred percent. Absolutely. And then it never, facilitates anything. Yeah. So I think that’s a great. Okay.

[00:30:04] Kris Ward: Blake, where can people find more of your brilliance?

[00:30:07] Blake Binns: So I have a podcast that’s probably the best place to engage with me. It’s called the Good Advice Podcast. You can find it on literally any platform. I’m also on LinkedIn. I’m pro I think I’m at Blake Binns but I’m on LinkedIn. That’s my most active platform. I’m sharing content on there regularly.

[00:30:24] You can go to my website, goodadvicecoaching. com, or if you have a podcast, you can go to my other website, getpodcastable. com. And in fact, an easy way to find the podcast is if you just type in podfollow. com slash goodadvice, that’ll get you the podcast as well.

[00:30:41] Kris Ward: Okay. So we’ll put all that in the show notes and then he doesn’t make any promises, but maybe you can get his deep resonating radio slash podcast voice too.

[00:30:49] If you’re working with him. I don’t know. I can’t promise anything. Yeah. All right. Everyone else. We will see you in the next episode. Thanks again, Blake.

[00:30:57] Blake Binns: Thank you.