Dominate Your Industry with the 3Ms: Message, Market & Method with Ford Saeks

Are you ready to unlock the secret to dominating your industry?

In this episode, Ford Saeks breaks down the 3Ms — Message, Market, and Method — a proven formula that can transform your business, no matter the size or industry. Discover how aligning these three elements can help you increase sales, shorten your sales cycle, and stand out from your competition. Ford shares his journey from building a $50 million business to becoming a Hall of Fame keynote speaker, offering actionable insights on how to overcome failure, deliver value, and accelerate growth.

Key Topics + Chapter Markers:

• Ford’s Early Business Journey [00:00]
• Insights on Adding Value in Business [01:13]
• Overcoming Early Challenges [05:16]
• The 3Ms: Message, Market, and Method [09:57]
• Defining Success and Winning [16:39]
• How to Rebuild a Business from Scratch [23:22]
• Leveraging AI and Video for Sales [31:32]

Connect with Ford:

Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/fordsaeks/?hl=en
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/fordsaeks
Free Webinar - https://profitrichresults.com/ai-training/

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About The Hosts:

• Tim & Cindy Dodd are the Co-founders of PEMA.io, based out of Miami, FL. Connect with Tim and Cindy on LinkedIn and Instagram:
  • Tim’s LinkedIn, Tim’s Instagram
  • Cindy’s LinkedIn, Cindy’s Instagram

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Transcript

00:00
If you can't articulate the problems and the consequences that you help solve, you're not going to increase your sales. I don't care what training you've gone through. The speed at which you recover from a failure and the way you bounce back is the differentiator.

00:15
in entrepreneurship. If you can do that faster than all of your competitors, you can actually turn your, what we call our company, we say problems are opportunities. So it's three M's, message, market, method. If they're not in the right order, you're not gonna make it. So people will say, paper click doesn't work, influencer marketing doesn't work, podcasting doesn't work. Every marketing method works if you get the right message to the ideal client. Welcome to The Takeover, where we show you how to dominate every area of life and business. Let's get with you.

00:44
Welcome back to The Takeover. Today I'm really excited for our guest because he is a serial entrepreneur who started his first business at just 15 years old and has been breaking barriers ever since with a career that has helped companies generate over $1 billion in sales worldwide. He has redefined the blueprint for business growth and as president and CEO of Prime Concepts Group, a creative agency, he's mastered the art of attracting loyal customers, monetizing social media and sparking innovation. Now I'm thrilled to have you on this show today.

01:14
Welcome to The Takeover, Ford Sykes. Thanks, Tim. I'm so glad to be here. Anytime you want to talk about accelerating growth, I'm all in. I love it. And your first business was when you were 15, right? Well, my first legitimate business was 15. I grew up in the projects of North Minneapolis. I was just an orphan and it ran around on the streets and I made money a lot of ways that would not be traditional and used nowadays. But my first real business started at 15 years old when I started a painting company. And then I learned that I could get attention by doing positive things.

01:43
and really adding value. And that was the first lesson I had was, if I wanted to make money, I had to add more value. And when you say add more value and positive attention, like what does that mean? Because I think there's a lot more meaning to it than just what the surface level words are. So at 15 or as you're younger, you're starting to realize getting attention in a positive way, what does that mean to you? Like what was that revelation you had? So I was sitting in a jail cell, six foot by eight foot, thinking to myself, you know, Tim, maybe I haven't made the best life choices.

02:12
I was in jail for grand theft auto. One of the things I didn't actually do, but certainly could have been in jail for other things. And one of the guards came by and gave me a cassette program from Earl Nightingale called the strangest secret. And so I listened to this cassette program and I know you're too young. You'll have to Google. Some of your listeners are probably gonna have to Google what a cassette is, but we used to have a Sony Walkman with a headphones. It was wired, no wireless, no iPods at the time. And I got this cassette program and it changed my life. It really helped me reprogram. So.

02:38
Whenever I was stuck, I would turn to new ideas, mentors, living and dead, and I would read their books and listen to their audios. And I was inspired to start a business and I was trying to figure out what business could I start that I had any experience in. So I was trying to figure out a way to make money other than how everybody in my neighborhood was earning money. And anytime I would drop an F-bomb in the detention center or cuss as punishment, they'd make me paint. So I became a pretty good little painter. And so I thought, well, what business could I start?

03:07
I could start a painting company. So when I got out, I went to my friends in shop class and we made some flyers up to him that said, thanks painting and like construction. I handed them out all over town. Got to remember I'm 15 years old. I have no money. I didn't know what I was doing. And finally I got a call from someone who wanted me to bid the job. And I was like, holy crap. I don't even own a paint brush. So I went to the local paint store and I said, sir, I just started this business. Can you help me? He said, kid, get the heck out of the store. Now I didn't realize it at the time.

03:34
I had long hair, army jacket, I had a nine millimeter in my back pocket. Okay. Well, I didn't have a nine millimeter. It was a 38, but he said, okay, kid, I'll help you. And he goes over to the shelf and he grabs a quart of paint and he sticks a paint brush in it. And he starts spackling me with paint. And I'm like, what are you doing? He said, well, you don't look like a painter. So he gave me a clipboard, a calculator and instructions. And off I go to the prospect's house. Now, Tim, right before I knocked on the door, myself, talk that little voice in your head. We all have it. Your listeners have it, your viewers have it. And I thought.

04:03
I can't do this. Like I had imposter syndrome. I didn't even know what that word meant then, but I had self doubt and fear. I went ahead and knocked on the door. Man started leading me through the house. He wants oil-based paint here, flat-based paint here, the kitchen kilts, the windows glazed. I don't even know what any of that stuff is. I thought paint was paint. I don't know what those things are either. So I wrote it all down and I said, I have to go back to my office to prepare the proposal.

04:26
So I rushed back to the paint store and paint manager helps me calculate all the materials I'm going to need, all the labor and all the supplies and back I go with the new proposal in my hand. This time when the door opens, the man's wife is standing there. She's looking right at me and now I didn't look like a business owner again, alarm hair, army jacket. I mean, you know, I had paint splattered all over me. I said, here's the proposal. It's $1,025. I need 50% upfront and 50% on completion of the job. And I shut my mouth and she took a look at me up and down and back at the proposal and said,

04:56
Do you have any experience? Now Tim, this was an interesting point in my business, which was two hours old. Do I tell them that I repainted the entire North Wing of the Hennepin County Detention Center because I dropped F-bombs? Or do I tell them that if you're not 100% satisfied with the job, you don't have to pay? Well, I said, guarantee. I said, if you're not 100% satisfied, you don't have to pay. She said, honey, write him a check. Now I got that check for $525, went and sat in my 1966 Chevelle, which had no insurance, tags.

05:25
or title, I'll let you figure that out. You're about to go back in, man. She was. And so I got this check. I got this check for a thousand, $25. And I thought I'm going to learn how to do it. Now that first year in business, I sold $35,000, which is about $300,000 in today's equipment. That's a lot of money, man. So I learned at a very young age that if I can solve problems, if I can add more value, then people will invest in they'll pay me and that's exactly what I did.

05:51
And to date, I mean, you've helped your clients generate over a billion in sales worldwide. I know we were talking before the episode, you know, your company was up to 140 people at one point. And so where did it go from there? You know, specifically thinking about sales and marketing and growth to do that kind of revenue is such a young guy and two hours into the business is pretty impressive. Where did it go from there? I mean, as a young guy, where did your mindset go and your belief? And then where did you go for the next business move?

06:20
I learned that I could either learn from my own mistakes or from other people's experience. That first year in business, I had three crews working for me. Their average age was 40 years old. They taught me the business. So I learned how to build the relationships and go out and sell the jobs. They did all the work. So I gave them 60% of what I sold. I took 40% to go out and sell. So I learned how to sell, how to add value, how to communicate, how to create value propositions. I learned grassroots marketing myself.

06:47
After I grew up, did you learn that through like books and stuff or was this self-taught? Well, I was, you gotta remember I was street wise. I mean, I was an orphan. I ran around on the streets. So I was pretty street wise at 15. I was probably 15 going on 40. I mean, I'd been taking care of myself since I was nine. So I learned, and that goes back to the initial premise of the episode today. I learned that I could learn from other people's experience, which was a lot cheaper. I could go to books and cassettes.

07:13
or I could learn by wasting my own money. And I wasted a lot of money on my own trying things that didn't work. But I learned that I was more persistent than talented. And so, you know, I think persistence beats talent any day of the week. A lot of people are talented, but they don't take any action. Yep. It's hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard. I love that. I forgot to mention it, that Earl Nightingale's Stranger's Secret. I can't even count the number of times I've gone through that. I did it on my iPhone though.

07:40
on Spotify, but I've gone through that. I mean, when I listen to it now, I can quote it. Just so, a fantastic book. If anybody listening, if you have not listened to The Strangest Secret by Earl Nightingale, oh boy, you're in for a treat. It's a fantastic one. In fact, I still listen to that on a frequent basis. If I just need a reset and a recharge and a repap, that book is phenomenal. So what a great book to kind of start you on your journey and how incredible that you're fortunate enough to.

08:08
get that cassette and somebody for, you know, you're sitting here as a troubled youth to get that book or the audio book is pretty transformed. Yeah. So I wanted to mention the other online go, where did it go from there for you? After the painting business, I learned how to grow a business and then I started another business. So I had a painting business, I had a carpet cleaning business, I had kiosks where I sold products in the malls and then I invented some sporting goods products, which I patented.

08:37
and I took it from a napkin operation to $50 million in sales, selling products that people told me would never sell. So I invented a whole category in the sporting goods industry for bicycle storage, and I invented an aluminum and an oak bicycle storage rack that went between the floor and the ceiling. And when I first invented the product, people told me it would never sell. People can buy a hook for 99 cents. Why would someone spend $200 on an oak bicycle rack to hold in their house or their garage? And what I found was that

09:06
A lot of people want to give you advice, but they haven't necessarily done it and they're giving you a book report or they're giving their opinion that is invalid. And so for me, as a consultant for the last 40 years, I've learned to speak from experience if it's experience or if it's an idea, I'll say, Hey, I read this idea. You know, here's, here's an idea. So for me, when I started this sporting goods product, it was called Pedestal, went from Florida ceiling. It was Oak.

09:31
And then I built the company up to $50 million in sales before I sold it. And that's gross sales. That's not profit. There's a big difference everybody. But I did learn how to do private label and how to sell through mass merchants. I was in Sky Mall and Sharper Image and Williams Sonoma and all the specialty catalogs I sold through mass merchants. The big box stores like Sam and Costco and Walmart. And then I was in department stores. I was in Williams Sonoma as a home furnishing. So I learned how to take a value proposition and

10:00
package it in such a way that was relevant to the market. So the formula, and you're all about takeaways. We talked about it in the green room before this episode. So the takeaway for everybody is one, create a success library. What do you have in it? It doesn't have to be the things we're talking about, but absolutely subscribe to this podcast. Make sure you share it with your friends, anybody who wants to grow, because Tim and Sydney, that's all they talk about is how to accelerate growth. So if you're interested in business, you definitely want to subscribe and add it to your success library. Number two, your mindset.

10:27
Are you open-minded? Are you coachable? Are you a critical thinker? Are you proactive? If you're not, if you don't identify what's stopping you from your mindset, all the strategy and tactics in the world won't help you. And then lastly, before we go on to the next question, it's a formula that I've learned over the years in business, which is when you attach the right marketing message, which is the reason why the compelling economic or emotional reason why to your ideal client, which is your target market using the best method.

10:56
So that's three M's, message, market, method. It's like combinations in a lock. When you align those in the right combinations, you're gonna accelerate your sales. If they're not in the right order, you're not gonna make it. So people will say, pay-per-click doesn't work, influencer marketing doesn't work, podcasting doesn't work. Every marketing method works if you get the right message to the ideal client. It's normally, one of those things, it's not normally, it is. No matter what business I go into as a strategic advisor or keynote speaker, I've always found that

11:25
You start with your compelling value proposition to the ideal client, use the right method. And when you track that and you start to have a baseline and you track it, that's really where you can accelerate growth. Definitely a lot of value there. I agree 1000% on if you have the right value prop in front of the right audience at enough volume, you're going to get results. So it is.

11:49
Paper click does work. LinkedIn does work. Email, all the platforms, cold calling works. Mailers work, all those things work and I 100% agree. I think people might be thinking the same thing is, like Ford makes it sound like you just wake up and magic happens and it's easy. I have a sneaking suspicion that you have, probably have a high pain tolerance when it comes to business, given a rough for childhood. A lot of assumptions here, but I just wanna make sure.

12:16
Was this journey just effortless and easy as it sounds, or what was this like for you? What kind of challenges and difficulties did you go through and how do you perceive problems and challenges as an entrepreneur, or just as a high performer? Well, I've had to learn how to take personal accountability for my actions and inactions, my performance and my results. And so I learned that if something was gonna happen as an entrepreneur, I don't know if it's

12:45
pain tolerance or risk tolerance, right? I think I have a high risk tolerance, but an educated risk tolerance. I think that, you know, yeah, leap and grow your wings on the way down is a great philosophy, but if you're running east looking for a sunset, you're going in the wrong direction. So you might be busy, but you're not effective. And so how can you be more effective? And so to accelerate growth really comes down to four things. Doesn't matter what size business you have, whether you're a new startup, a tech startup, or whether you're a billion dollar company, number one, you want more high value clients.

13:15
customers and you don't want more customers, you want high value client. Number two, how do I increase the average transaction, which is how can I add more value, right? If you want to make more money, add more value. We talked about that in the beginning of the show. Number three, how do I get repeat or referral sales? What's my methodology? Am I selling something that's consumable that they need to buy again? Or is it something that they can give me a referral or a referral partner, strategic partnership? And then number four, how do I get new and repeat sales?

13:41
And number five, how do I improve operational efficiency? You know, there's no excuses right now with AI and everybody having access to it on their phone and on every device, there's no shortage of how to information. You know, right now, a lot of people are creating podcasts and content using AI, but sooner than later search engine optimization SEO is not going to be even a thing anymore because when everybody can create content, all boats rise with the tide and what's going to matter is how authentic are you?

14:08
What type of face-to-face, eye-to-eye contact can you deliver to your market? What type of customer experience can you deliver? So regardless of what business you have, if you map out your customer journey and you look for ways to add more value, communicate more value, create a better experience, you know, if you look for things, the gaps, that's where the strength comes in. So for me, back to your original question, you have to fail fast and fail forward. And again,

14:33
I've been a lifelong learner and I will tell you Tim, the more I've learned, the more I know I don't know. So while a lot of people say, well, Ford, you're so smart. No, I've made a lot of mistakes. I've probably have made millions of dollars worth of mistakes. And that's how I've learned. The difference is I'm willing to make that mistake, forget the mistake and learn the lesson. So if you're sitting here listening to this right now and you're whining or complaining because of the competition or the job you have, well, life is short.

14:59
What action steps are you going to take? Are you using the highest and best use of your time to make decisions or are you using excuses? You know, are you producing results or complaining? And so you can't do both. Now, as much as I'm saying this to you, yes, I make excuses. I didn't get up for orange theory this morning. I signed up for this class and didn't get up, right? So you could have the best intentions in the world, but you still have to take consistent action. At the end of the day, I have to let it go and say, okay, what did I learn today?

15:27
What am I going to do differently? And on a scale of one to 10, how well did I add value? Did I create meaningful relationships and did I take personal accountability? And I think that's a word that gets thrown around a lot, but there's a lot of people who complain and blame instead of saying, no, it's on me. Success is on me. And if you're sitting here listening to this, my point is to have you take action. Yeah. I mean, if your natural reaction is to, when something doesn't go wrong to look for out external to.

15:56
why somebody else fell by somebody else did wrong. You're in for a lot of repeat failures, but the moments you can take extreme internal look at yourself and say, what did I do wrong? What do I need to do to not repeat that mistake? It allows you to move forward. And I say over and over again is the speed at which you recover from a failure. And the way you bounce back when you have a failure or a problem is the differentiator in entrepreneurship.

16:22
Because if you're a competitor, we all face challenges. Technology changes, say we do a ton of super high scale LinkedIn and email, a platform technology changes that affects us, well it affects everybody else in the industry too. And the speed at which you're able to respond to that problem can actually turn into an opportunity. If you're having these problems and these challenges and you're able to...

16:43
get back up, take extreme ownership, learn the lesson and move on forward. If you can do that faster than all of your competitors, you can actually turn your, what we call our company culture, we say problems are opportunities. And so what I love about what you said there is like the speed at which you get back, the lesson you learn, and then, you know, don't repeat the same mistake, right? Learn the lesson and don't repeat it, but don't be scared to run into problems. Really powerful, man. I like that.

17:08
I'm curious because you've been in the game for a long time. You've built a lot of successful companies. You've worked with a lot of different companies. What I'm curious about is what does winning mean to you? What does it look like for you to win? What do you consider winning? When I've helped someone else reach success. I mean, there's an old zigzag quote. I'll probably butcher it, but it's basically if you help enough other people get what they want, they'll help you get what you want. And so that's.

17:34
what winning looks like to me. It's not, you know, someone said to me once, I had a client, I gave them a proposal and they said the price was too high. I said, well, and they said, well, you're just all about the money. And I said, well, if I was all about the money, I would have managed my money a lot better. I'd be living in an island in Fiji because I've made millions of dollars. To me, it's not about the money. I've retired three times, I've taken the money and invested it back in. So no, it's not about the money. I mean, yeah, I wanna make money, I wanna add value, but it's also about

18:01
creating an impact in people's lives and really solving problems. Where I get jazzed, Tim, is looking at someone's business, seeing the opportunities that they don't see, the missed the gaps, and then being able to give them ideas. Then they call me up and they're like, oh my God, I did this one thing. I added six figures to my business this month based on what you said. So that's what gets me jazzed up, is helping other people win. And then of course, getting paid well to do that. I 100% agree.

18:29
And I found too, I love that quote by the way, it's, you can have anything you want in life so long as you help enough other people get what they want in life. I think we listen to the same and read the same books and the same quotes, fantastic quote. There was Andrew Carnegie, the still guy, not the guy who wrote the book, How to Win Friends and Influence People, Andrew Carnegie, he said when he first sought out to build his business, he was like, I just sought out to make money. And then I learned over time, my mission became to build men. And his...

18:58
proudest accomplishment was that he built 50 of the people on his team to be millionaires. Back in the 1800s, early 1900s, a millionaire is a lot of wealth. Right. It's not near as much as it is today, right? Right. Andrew Carnegie was four times richer than what the modern equivalent of Jeff Bezos is. This is some serious money these guys are building. Whether you agree with their ethical practices on business or whatever.

19:23
But I think what was powerful about that is it's okay if you start out, like a lot of people start out, like I just, I do want money. I do want to have the nice car. I do want to have the nice house, but I think most people get to a point where they say like, Hey, I like that, but I also realize it's super rewarding when I see my clients winning. It's really rewarding when I see my employees hitting their personal professional and financial goals. So.

19:49
What I'm curious about, was that always the motivation for you? Like do you enjoy seeing, helping other people or was that a process that over time you realized that that's where your fulfillment came from more so than just building the wealth? Subscribing is the easiest way to support the podcast. Plus you'll never miss an episode. Hit that subscribe button on iTunes, Spotify, Google, or wherever you're listening so that you don't miss a beat.

20:21
Early on, I learned a term called prosperity consciousness. And when I first got introduced to that, I didn't even know what the word prosperity meant. I didn't understand it. And no, we're not talking about the secret that, if you just do affirmations and you create your dream board, everything can come true. Now I have a dream board and I have affirmations, but I'm not delusional. It's not some magic pill that's gonna quick fix and do it. Prosperity consciousness was number one, and then I think understanding value was number two. When people price anything, whatever business, whatever they have, whatever they're selling,

20:50
You know, they can price based on the competition priced on the cost, or they can do based on the value. So I'm a keynote speaker. I'm a hall of fame keynote speaker. I'm one of under 200 people in the United States or in the world, actually, that's in the hall of fame, along with Zig Ziglar was in the hall of fame. Now, early on in my career, I got to share the stage with Zig Ziglar. So here's somebody who I'd been listening to in the cassette program. And I'm actually speaking at the same conference that he was. So over the years, people that were my mentors,

21:16
became my clients and became my close friends. Now I'm one of only 20 people in what's called the Speaker's Roundtable. 20 elite people in the United States. A lot of them make way more than I do, but I'm in that group because of the impact I make on audiences. Now again, like I said in the beginning, it's not about me. Like I said, the more I've learned, the more I know I don't know, so I'm humble enough to know what I don't know. The scariest people are the ones who think they know everything but don't know what they don't know. So back to pricing. I learned that value-based pricing

21:43
is where it's at. And the challenge a lot of people have with their pricing is they don't know how to communicate the value. They don't know how to identify the emotional and the economic pain. It's the same thing with marketing. If they're sending out emails, they're posting on social media, or they have a campaign in any type of advertising or promotions, most of them, they're not customer centric. It's all feature, feature, feature. It's all about them and their company. Instead of saying, here's how cool our thing is. Yeah. I've learned over time to add more value to win is to look at.

22:11
the emotional and economic pain points to identify the narrative, to help people craft that narrative. Because if you're selling something, you need to know what are the problems and what are the consequences. If you can't articulate the problems and the consequences that you help solve, you're not going to increase your sales. I don't care what training you've gone through. If you're not communicating

22:32
the pain or the pleasure, and you're not communicating in a way that helps them identify. Sales and marketing isn't trickery, it's not hype. It's giving people enough information of the right information that they can make good decisions. So if you wanna increase your sales, you wanna increase your conversions, you wanna increase your subscribers to your newsletter, you want people to join for your free webinars, you want them to download your free lead magnets, then you need to communicate.

22:55
in terms that they can identify with what's the inner dialogue, what's keeping that ideal prospect up at night because the sale is made when they understand that you understand what their problem is. So when I get hired to speak at a keynote or opening keynote for a conference, big conference, whether it's 500 or 50,000 people, it all comes down to the same thing. If they think I understand what their top challenges are, I already have the credibility and they're ready to listen. So, you know, there's two types of speakers. They're celebrity speakers. Now I'm a celebrity in certain industries,

23:25
An expert on accelerating growth is why they bring me in. I'm not an Olympic athlete who, you know, won a gold medal, even though I did go to the Olympic training center as a resident athlete twice in 84 and 87. But the point is I'm brought in as a tactical person. Same reason why I'm glad to be on this episode talking to you about business growth, because when my team set it up, I'm like, okay, do they talk about business growth? I'm all in. That's our focus. So I have an interesting question for you.

23:51
You have a lot of momentum, a lot of connections. You could literally pick up the phone and have a call with a, and get a client. What would you do Ford, if you lost your business, all your contacts and all your money, and you had to get back to where you're at or beyond as quickly as possible? What would you do strategically? What kind of business would you build? How would you get there? So the first thing I would do is I would take an inventory of all the problems I solve that people are willing to pay to make go away.

24:21
I'd sit down with a notepad and I would do a brain dump. What problems do I solve that people will pay? What's my core area of expertise? What can I do? Then I'd pick an industry and I would look at what are the top challenges facing that industry? Who are the influencers? Who are the media contacts? What conventions or associations are in that industry? Do they have local chapters and national chapters? Who are the competitors? And I would mind map out the industry. Then I would look at my core competency list of the things that I do.

24:51
And then I would look at the top challenges facing that industry and I would do research, I would use AI to help me identify the new opportunities because the tools are there. There's no reason to try to create in a vacuum anymore. When you've got chat, GBT and co-pilot and Gemini and Claude and a million other AI tools out there that could help be a strategic advisor to you where in the past you had to buy a book. Now you've got access to these engines.

25:17
that are 500 times smarter than the smartest human, although they make mistakes and they hallucinate and they're biased, just to throw that in there. I do want to put my disclaimer in here. So this episode is for educational and informational purposes only. I'm not giving you legal advice. If you love the episode, thank Tim. You don't like the episode, you can come complain to me. So that's my little disclaimer, but I would sit down, I'd look for something and then I would say, okay, how can I add value? And all I'd have to do, Tim, is call up a local business, look at some ad and say, how would you like to double your conversions on that ad?

25:47
How much did you spend on that campaign? And they would tell me, and I'd say, tell you what, I'll work for free for 30 days, and if I've doubled your conversions, then you have to pay me 25,000 or 50,000. And I'd make money from nothing. So you could literally drop me off with a helicopter into a city with no money. And by the end of the week, I'd have an apartment by the end of the month, I'd have a car and I'd be able to grow because I understand how to look for opportunities and not be a commodity. A lot of businesses.

26:16
Yeah. Complain about the competition because they're a commodity. How do you become the brand of choice? How do you stand out above the competition? And that's what I'm really good at. And so that's what I would do. I think there's three really, really good components that I keep hearing over and over again, and there's more, but three things is number one is getting out of being the commodity and you do that through really focusing on what, what's their, their pain problem outcome. Right. But you would also do that by.

26:45
getting out of the commodity space by not just focusing on the pain and the problem, but getting the focus off of like your product and what your product actually does for them. So when you think about getting somebody out of that ambiguous place of a commodity, well, hey, how many emails do you send out per month? Oh, I sent out this many.

27:04
for X amount of dollars, well, how am I, the competitor is going to send out this many. How do you think about getting out of, Hey, I'm now a commodity and guess what? Walmart's always going to be able to sell it for lower. There's always going to be somebody to do the work for lower. There's always going to be somebody to do it for cheaper. When you're working with a brand, how do you think of the process to get them out of being a commodity like when they're trying to win business? So people fear a few things before they make a buying decision. At the end of the day, people want to know.

27:32
What's wrong with me? Can you fix it? How much are you going to charge me? And how long is it going to take at the end of the day? At the end of the day, they're looking for reasons not to buy than they are to buy. And they have fears when you can preempt the fear. They have the fear of conflict. Well, if I make a buying decision, is my spouse, wife, partner, team going to matter? So they fear conflict. Is this going to be a lot of work? What if I do this and I invest in this program and it's going to be too much work? They fear failure. What if I spend all this money?

27:58
and it doesn't work. So conflict, fear of work, fear of failure, and then fear of change. You know, I don't wanna change. I'm happy with what I'm doing, I don't wanna change. So you have to preempt those fears. Number two, you've gotta look at the intent of the buyer.

28:13
Some people are influencers, some here are decision makers. And how do you communicate effectively? There's different types of buyers, right? You got a buyer who wants to get it done. You got a buyer who wants to get it right. Those are two very different buyers. The get it done person doesn't want the details. Just tell me what it's gonna cost and let's do it. The get it right person wants the statistics, the data, the sheets, the support. So you have to understand your ideal buyer. So back to this, so now just for the record, we did not set this up ahead of time. So Tim.

28:40
Tell me something that you and Cindy sell. What is something that you're selling right now? We do enterprise sales. So we sell by bigger companies hire us to do appointment setting for their sales teams. Okay. So hypothetically now, who's an ideal client? What type of client is your ideal client? How big, like over certain millions or certain number of employees, how do you judge your ideal client?

29:01
Generally they could be on the small side. They're doing a few million on the bigger side. They biggest company we're working with multi-billion. Most of them are gonna be in the 10 million, 40 million range. Are you still doing appointment settings for inside sales, outside sales, or just are you at the top of the funnel where you're going out and connecting with the ideal client to set appointments? Is that what you're doing? Yeah, it's super high scale, LinkedIn, email, setting the meeting for their sales team. Yeah.

29:28
Okay. So the problem you're solving is saving them time, shortening the sales cycle so that they can invest with you and then they can be more productive with their team. So their salespeople can make more sales and hire sales more often. Yep. Okay.

29:41
So what's a challenge that you face in that hypothetically now? Cause those listeners, if they're, if you're trying to. I mean, of course. Yeah. I don't have any challenges. So hypothetically, if there was a challenge, like I want to be, well, I mean, the biggest challenge when you're, you know, when you're doing more complex cells, which what you said, it's not focusing on the gizmos and gadgets of your product, it's understanding all the, you know, working with the CEO. And then he moves us to the president and then we're now we're talking to the

30:11
It's, I think the biggest thing is making sure that you are clearly understanding the motivation of every person so that when you go present a proposal, it's not here's how cool my product is, but it's, Hey, we're you're now you've got five people that are looking at this all slightly different motivations and you've got to create one presentation that makes all of them at least not say no, because the default of an organization with the exception of maybe the CEO is to

30:38
stop things from moving forward. It's to keep safe. So that's probably the biggest challenge we face and it's not a hypothetical. That is the biggest challenge that you face in complex sales. So for me, when I work with an organization that has that challenge, we look at mapping it out and we look at who's the influencer, who's the decision maker, and what's the narrative for that person. So for example, I'll turn it around on me. So as a keynote speaker, my fee's 25 grand to go in and do a keynote, right? Multi-day event could be 50 to $100,000. And so the...

31:08
buyer is typically a meeting planner who's 25 to 35 years old, typically female in most cases. And, you know, they're looking for diversity. They're looking for younger people. They're not looking for an old white guy, right? No offense. We're not being racist or anything else. I'm just saying that's just the reality of the world we live in, right? So I have to make sure that I appeal to the needs of each of those people. So when I have a relationship with the CEO, the CEO says, hey, we need to have you come into our conference. Well, then if they pass me on to the meeting planner or the meeting committee, then my narrative changes to.

31:37
I'm going to make you look good for selecting me. I'm going to save you time. I'm going to make your job easier. I'm not talking about what I'm going to say on stage and all those things. I'm looking at the intrinsic needs of that person and tailoring my message to them. And then that's what helps me stand out over the competition. Now here's something else I do that I recommend people do if you have complex sales processes is if you know that you're dealing with influencers and decision makers.

32:01
then what I use is I use a lot of video. I have a nice camera and lights and sound effects and, and they want to introduce me to somebody who they're going to introduce me to. Then I'll create a video or if I'm on with the meeting planner and now they want to take it back to the committee, then I'll create a video that says, Hey Cindy, this is Ford from profit rich results.com. Hey, it's so great speaking to you about your April conference for 2025. Keep in mind that all my presentations are customized for your theme and outcome.

32:27
blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. And then I'll say below on this page is my demo video, along with a few video testimonials from recent clients raving about my presentation. Let's set up a conference call at your convenience so you can ask me all your tough questions. What I'm gonna do is I'm gonna use video and landing pages so that they don't have to try to sell me to their team. So I don't wanna just talk to that meeting planner and then have that meeting planner say, okay, I'm gonna go back and talk to my team. I wanna control that sales process. So I'm gonna create the video asset.

32:56
that that person then can play for their other team members because I can sell myself better than they can. So the takeaway really is, whatever business you're in, B2B, B2C, doesn't matter, are you leveraging the power of video? Are you using technology? But not getting seduced by technology. I love technology, but only if it's gonna help me increase my influence, build my lists, get leads and increase new and repeat sales, or improve my efficiencies. That's the only five things. Otherwise,

33:23
I could care less about technology. I know right now I speak a lot on AI, Tim, but anybody with a laptop calls themselves an AI expert. I mean, there's millions of them now because, oh, I've used Chachi BT. Look, I'm not saying I'm a know-all expert on everything, but because I have such business experience, I'm looking at the lens of technology through how does it help me save time, make better decisions, or increase productivity? Yeah, and straight up, if you're not using AI, if you're not using automation, if you're not using some kind of global talent,

33:52
you are going to be dead then because it's just the amount of efficiency that AI gives you when it's used properly. I think the biggest thing is people are really confused about it, but there's so much you can literally go on to chat GPT and go, Hey, chat GPT, how do I use you? Give me some ideas on how to use you. Okay. What are some ways that I can make my business efficient?

34:16
Ask me questions about my business that you need to know to help me. It's such an easy tool to use. And I think anytime I introduce people to how easy it is to start using it, I will get text messages like a month later, like my brother, like, oh my gosh, I found out ways that I can use it for this side and the other. And I think once you start getting used to how it can make your processes efficient, how it can help with your setting, it really is a game changer. I know for us AI has been a huge, huge deal. So you covered a ton of topics there, the complex cell, making sure you understand what.

34:45
Each person is like, what's their motivation, not how cool is my product? Cause like, if I'm talking to the CMO, they may or may not care about like the profit or the growth of the company. Their biggest thing might be like, I've missed like what our quotas are for the last two months and now my job security on my head, if I don't fix this, it's going to be a lot different conversation to each person. And if anybody listening to this, if you have more than one decision maker in the process, 100%

35:14
back this up a little bit and listen to what four just said there, because that was really powerful. What I'm curious about is for the videos, because we use looms, like we'll send out a loom or Hey, it was great to meet you. You're doing a full on like landing page. Do you, I mean, is there a certain tool that you're using where you can click record and boom, it pumps out a landing page for you?

35:32
You know, full disclosure, I run a digital agency, so I'm easy to do digital marketing, but there are all kinds of tools you can use right now and templates you can use on your website and website builders and WordPress and so forth. But the tool that I use is called BombBomb and you can get it at prof forward slash resources. So it's my website forward slash resources. Yes, those are affiliate links, but I only promote things that I actually use. So Loom is a great tool for screen recording and things.

35:59
But what Bombom's great about is I can get a list of people. I can use an AI tool like Seamless or Zoom Info. I can get a list of emails and then I can do customized bulk emails and great videos. So it's a video marketing tool. Think about it like Constant Contact or Mailchimp, but video emails. The next tool I use is Behuman. Behuman allows me to customize videos using an AI template. So I have an AI avatar and I can just put the text in that I want to say. And you can't tell the difference.

36:28
between me and the avatar. It's that good now, the sound's that good, it's gotten that good. If you're interested in learning more about AI, I know we're getting close to the end of the episode, you can go to my website. If you're watching on the video, it's prof forward slash AI dash training. So it's very simple, forward slash AI dash training. It's a free 60 minute webinar that I do every month. I post the new one along with handouts and best practices.

36:52
But again, it's about value for value. The reason I'm on this podcast is I want to add value. I want to reach new people. It's not about plugging or pitching. It's about delivering value. And we've certainly done that in today's episode. We talked about mindset. We talked about being coachable and open-minded and your success library. We talked about a formula, message, market, and method. We talked about the fears that prevent people from taking action. We talked about creating better value propositions so that you can shorten the sales cycle.

37:19
We talked about just giving people enough information that they can make good decisions. And then we talked about the importance of subscribing to this podcast, because again, it's not what you know, it's how well you execute. And sometimes what I'm listening to podcasts, I might already understand the topic, but I'm going to get reminded of something that I had already forgotten and thought, you know what, I need to raise that up on the top of my list. And lastly, I would say we do have time. If you're sitting around saying, I don't have time, I don't have time. My answer to you is, do you not have time or is it not a priority?

37:48
Yeah. Awesome brother. Well, we already got the plug in there. Make sure to reach out to Ford. Definitely got a lot of value today. We've played around with some of the different AI on the video. So we're going to revisit some of those tools. Sounds like a lot of stuff's improved. Super cool. Everybody, if you need to, need to know how to like some of these tactics, not just on how to grow, but on how to sell, how to market, listen through this podcast. Again, grab your notepad. Cause there was a lot of one, two, three, fours. I think Ford's given a speech or two in his life.

38:16
Hey, Ford, this was great having you on the show, brother. If you're listening on audio, make sure to follow the show. And if you liked this episode and thought it was awesome, give it a five star, why not? Again, remember domination is not a destination. It is a way of life. Stay winning.