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Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch
Each year, business owners spend one trillion dollars on advertising with very little to show for it. In fact, eight out of ten say they are not confident they are getting their money’s worth.
Without throwing money at advertising, how do you grow your business?
Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch is a workshop-style podcast answering real growth questions from today’s business leaders. Each episode will introduce you to the Maven Method, our straight-forward, proven approach for growing a business without wasting money on ineffective ads.
Trade the marketing lies for solid growth strategies so you can reach your big dream!
Join Brandon Welch and co-host, Caleb Agee, each week for Maven Monday and Frankly Friday!
Maven Marketing with Brandon Welch
Your Secret Weapon for Closing More Sales
FREE MARKETING AUDIT: MavenMarketingAudit.com
Our Website: https://frankandmaven.com/
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Twitter: https://twitter.com/frankandmaven
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/frank-and-maven/
Host: Brandon Welch
Co-Host: Caleb Agee
Executive Producer: Carter Breaux
Audio/Video Producer: Nate the Camera Guy
Do you have a marketing problem you'd like us to help solve? Send it to MavenMonday@FrankandMaven.com!
Get a copy of our Best-Selling Book, The Maven Marketer Here:
https://a.co/d/1clpm8a
Welcome to the Maven Marketing Podcast. Today is Maven Monday. I'm your host, Brandon Welch, and I'm joined by Caleb, the inside champion, AG.
Speaker 2:I like being a champion.
Speaker 1:He is a champion. He's the inside champion everywhere. He's the voice of reason behind all good things at Frank and Maven. What do we do at Frank and Maven? What do we do at Frank and Maven? What do we do on this podcast?
Speaker 2:We eliminate waste and advertise and grow your business and help you achieve the big dream.
Speaker 1:That's what we're doing today.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And this is going to be a quick episode, but it is going to be a very, very useful episode for everybody I can think of yeah, and we want you to send this one out. Yeah, you've got folks out trying to drum up business. You've got folks trying to help you make the big dream. Maybe you're trying to help make the big dream happen, and this is called the Inside Champion.
Speaker 2:Yep, and we're talking to salespeople A lot of times. We're marketing guys. In case somebody sent you this we're marketing guys, but a lot of times marketing and sales are two different, disconnected departments, and what has to be true is that the marketing team is talking to the sales team, and so when we do marketing, we are desperately concerned with how the sales team is handling the leads, the business, the opportunities we send your way Side lesson If your marketing folks are not obsessed with the salespeople, you've got the wrong marketing folks.
Speaker 1:That's right, they're your research department.
Speaker 2:That's us today, and we are going to talk a little bit about sales. We're going to talk to you in the sales world and how to really, at the end, get more sales.
Speaker 1:But first the lie. The lie we've been told. The lie, we kill lies here the lie we've been told the lie we kill lies here. The lie we've been told is that you've got to get in front of a decision maker, you've got to get with a decision maker. A lot of my home improvement guys are like we've got to be there with both decision makers, the husband and the wife, or we've got to be. We don't waste time with the receptionist, we've got to get in for the boss right.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the one-legged appointments, yeah yeah, man, it drives me nuts when you guys are insisting on doing those, both husband and wife there. It's just bad juju. But everyone tells you you've got to get to the person with the checkbook, the person who can sign things Eventually. That is true, that is true, has to be true, it is. But that person rarely takes your first call, that person rarely wants or has time to hear from you, and that person almost always has a gatekeeper or, at the very least, a key influencer.
Speaker 2:Yep.
Speaker 1:And if you're selling anything major, if you're selling legal medical, home improvement, any service of any kind, your side door to that person is through what we call the inside champion, and so if you're annoying or ignoring that inside champion man, you've got a lot less chance of getting it going. So this is not just for B2B sales, it's for B2C sales and there's an inside champion in just about every environment.
Speaker 2:Yes, there is. Yeah, there is. It looks like in our office. Well, it could be me, but more so it looks like Riley.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:She's sitting right by the front door and she will stop you before you get past that front door.
Speaker 1:You don't want to cross her. Yeah, I wouldn't do it.
Speaker 2:But when the the phone rings, she's the one who stops you from getting to the next person, and so let's just start right there.
Speaker 1:If they ask directly for me or you, her guard is already up like that's not happening, right? Yep, she knows that now she's going to be pleasant, but she's already decided that's not going to happen. What now, riley is smarter than this. But what if we started by saying hey, riley, how was your day, how's it been going, how have you been?
Speaker 2:yeah, she. It's interesting because I noticed the messages from the people who have treated her differently than the messages that's like hey, this is definitely a salesperson. You're not available right now, are you? I was like no, I'm not.
Speaker 1:And then?
Speaker 2:she's like I'm sorry, he's unavailable right now. Are you? I was like no, I'm not. And then she's like I'm sorry, he's unavailable right now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, oh yeah, she comes in and she goes. Yeah, you don't want to talk to this. Probably she knows by now. She doesn't even ask, but she knows who gets through. But, man, if you are kind and pleasant and value-adding to Riley, you've got a lot better chance of her delivering that message to me or you or whoever else with urgency. Right, that's right. We talked about this on the 12 sales tactics that will improve your closing game, which Nate the camera guy is going to pop up on the screen right now, aren't you Nate? Yeah, plopped up on the screen. Link.
Speaker 1:Those are two episodes we did last year and they were awesome episodes, chock full of our best advice for closing more deals. But we talked about getting the three yeses. So the person you're trying to influence or build a relationship with, if you can get them to say yes or something positive three times before you ever talk about yourself, you've got a statistically like 900% better chance of getting somewhere. Right, we all want to get somewhere. So, talking to Riley, it's like, hey, how's it been going? Man, great weather, isn't it? Or, wow, this is treacherous weather. Or hope you're staying.
Speaker 2:You see, those tornadoes yesterday?
Speaker 1:Yeah, we had tornadoes go through the town. If I were being super relationally intelligent, I would probably try to learn something about Riley. I'd say if it was some sort of sports season? Do you have a favorite team If?
Speaker 1:it was heading into the weekend, I'd be like, got big plans for the weekend. So now not everybody's going to want to be chatting, kathy, with you, but we're talking about phone game. We're also talking about walking in somewhere. We're also talking about people that you already know, but you need to get closer with They've got an inside champion.
Speaker 2:Yeah, well, and that sounds mostly like an office like B2B type of situation. But in the house there are inside champions as well and, um, sometimes that's husband or wife, right it?
Speaker 1:could be.
Speaker 2:could be one or the other like of a spouse situation, um, but you've got other inside champions inside the house. It sounds like the four plus kids they have in the house.
Speaker 1:The kid Right, Brandon, yeah somebody.
Speaker 2:Somebody's got way too many kids. We both have the same amount of kids.
Speaker 1:You're finding out what sports the kids like to play if they're under 12 or 13 or whatever, where they'll actually talk to you. You're finding out what bands they like to listen to. You're talking to them oh, I love Taylor Swift, or whatever. If you're really smart, you're maybe bringing something back the next time you're coming, or you have a program leave behind. If it's small kids, you've got a coloring book. Maybe you've got a cool t-shirt.
Speaker 2:Maybe you've got a cool hat.
Speaker 1:The law of reciprocation is in play here.
Speaker 2:Yeah, you've already got something cool Another inside champion the dog inside the house you want to talk about riley. Yeah, I was gonna say you want to win riley if, if you were doing, you know, in-home sales at riley's house and you brought a little treat for the dog, yeah, game over, game over. Well, so long as it's an organic, yeah, yeah, she's pretty particular about don't bring the milk bones to Riley's dogs.
Speaker 1:But yeah, man, if you're an in-home salesperson, what if you had a dog toy or a dog treat, or you just take 10 seconds longer and you get down and pet the dog and you validate the dog and you validate the owner of the dog's love for the dog. Right Now, we're not trying to be manipulative. We're not trying to be manipulative, we're not trying to be formulaic, but I'm just saying slow yourself down and say who else in this room matters. Everybody matters in a room right.
Speaker 1:But are you making them feel that way right?
Speaker 2:Yep, and I think that's the danger inside of a sales situation is I'm going in here and my objective is to sell and we can get this tunnel vision on, and that tunnel vision is very, very powerful because it turns off your brain from really what could be a lot of empathy. You're trying to like sell and that's why salespeople get such a terrible you know era or aura about them that people are like yeah.
Speaker 2:I don't want to be a slimy salesperson. They get that because they get that tunnel vision and until we step inside the home or we step inside the office or wherever we're going to be, we take that off and we say these are humans. I'm just building relationship and I'm helping them because the product I have will make their lives better, Game over.
Speaker 1:We got it. So when we make people feel good, we do good right.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:It's just a natural byproduct, and what a cool thing. How much better is it to come home knowing that you did that versus just hero or zero with the sales on the board, right, yeah, hey, there was a very, very famous inside champion, winner over Probably the best example I could think of.
Speaker 2:Best one ever.
Speaker 1:Ronald McDonald has sold billions of dollars of cheeseburgers to parents because they had the toy and the Happy Meal for the kid, the Happy Meal is a lost leader, right.
Speaker 2:Do you remember him coming to school? Oh sure.
Speaker 1:Did he come to your school? Oh yeah, oh man yeah.
Speaker 2:I'm trying to just imagine corporate America's hold on public school systems.
Speaker 1:Oh my gosh, At that time they named the gymnasiums after McDonald's.
Speaker 2:It's so crazy. I don't think that would happen today but I'm not sure it was. It was brilliant, but either way, season that it was in on the commercials you would hear they're talking about the happy meal and they would play those at the times that knew the kids would be in the cars and uh, it's like you know, yeah, no-transcript. And the same is true with McDonald's. They did that with Ronald McDonald, that's right.
Speaker 1:Over and over again. So what are we doing? We are broadening our focus. We are adding value to all parties in the room young, old, two-legged, four-legged, no matter really what their degree of separation is to the person you need to eventually build a relationship with. It is done way faster when somebody likes you. Their friends tend to like you, and there's actually some research on this. Can you believe that? It's been proven in science? Nielsen says 92% of people trust recommendations from people they know.
Speaker 2:Yeah, sounds low to me actually. Yeah, capital One says 62% of consumers are willing to pay more for products from brands they trust, even when the product is otherwise identical. Wow, so trust is built through friends, right, yeah, yeah. So you want to raise your prices, make the people feel good around you, have more profitability, be able to pay your people better.
Speaker 1:At the very least when all other things are the same. You're the one that stood out in the room. So workplace recommendations Think about coworkers, not just necessarily the stereotypical gatekeeper, but are you bringing Sonic for the whole place?
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Did you send um a follow-up note with a box of donuts that everybody could enjoy, right? And then you got like eight people feeling good, right yeah?
Speaker 2:That's. That is a slam dunk is uh, you know the. The classic would be donuts. Right, bring pizza for lunch. I'll throw a pizza party for everybody. Um, it does not cost you that much, especially if you're doing B2B, like selling a whole. You're talking to a whole office. There's one person who makes that decision, but when you make all their people happy, you made an impact that day and, and worst case, you made them happy and they feel good about you.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:Maybe you didn't make the sale that day, but someday they might have a moment where they need to think about whatever you're selling. Yeah, and you'll be the one they think about.
Speaker 1:I developed well over seven figures of new business using this as my number one. Thing Right, and, I might add, that's why Caleb's here today.
Speaker 2:Hey, used to bring some Andes and Starbucks by yeah.
Speaker 1:I wasn't trying to sell Caleb anything, but I did win Caleb's Inside Champion and Caleb was the Inside Champion for the person I did need to have close influence with.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I was working front desk at a little real estate office. Yeah.
Speaker 1:And so I think what is it? It was Andy's, wasn't it? Yeah, it was Andy's Frozen Custard.
Speaker 2:We're from Springfield. If you have those around, you need to go find them. Yeah, go find Andy's, because it's from here.
Speaker 1:It goes O'Reilly's Bass Pro Andy's. Okay, guys, it's really simple Look at your past list, look at the past 20 people you've talked to and say what is something I noticed about somebody else in the room? How can I make them feel important? Send them something, drop them a text, do a saw this thought of you. Hey, I noticed you. You like the St Louis Cardinals and drop them some like St Louis Cardinals meme. Memes are a great free way to make people feel important.
Speaker 2:See if you can read the scribbles on the side of their coffee cup. Yes, that they ordered from the shop down the street that was like a number one thing for me.
Speaker 1:Like the first time you visit an office, make sure you know what kind of coffee he or she drinks and bring that with you next time. Right, yep, could be quotes. You could find out that they are into something you're into, or into teams or church or certain hobbies, and just tip your hat to those things. This is all common sense. This is all what we really appreciate when it's done to us, and you know this anyway. This is like you are this brilliant anyway. It's just sometimes we forget to do it, yep. So if you are selling something, an idea or a product or a service today, make sure you're making everybody around that environment feel like a million bucks, and you might just make a million bucks, hey there it is hey, if you know somebody that needs to hear this your own people yourself, your spouse for goodness sakesakes, pull over forward it to them, like it.
Speaker 1:Comment let us know what you're doing to make the inside champion feel better. And we will be back here every week, including next week, answering your real life marketing questions, because marketers who cannot teach you why are just a fancy lie. Talk to you soon.