This Is Why Your Sales Pitch Fails | Anthony Solimini

This is the sales episode you didn’t know you needed.

Anthony Solimini joins us on MarketPulse: Pros & Pioneers to dismantle everything you think you know about selling. With a career that spans global banking, high-stakes sales training, and stand-up comedy, Anthony brings unmatched insight into how people actually connect, trust, and buy.

In this episode, you'll learn why humour is a superpower in sales, how slowing down can speed up your close rate, and why product pitches fail more often than they land. From launching the first Sandler franchise in Asia to performing on Comedy Central, Anthony shares the mindset, strategy, and cultural understanding that’s made him one of the most respected names in sales coaching.

If you're tired of pushy sales tactics and one-size-fits-all scripts, this conversation offers a blueprint for selling with confidence, empathy, and authenticity.

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Transcript

Paul: 0:29

Sales isn't about slick pitches, it's about understanding people. Anthony Solimini, ex-banker, turned sales trainer and standup comedian shares why humor and psychology make you a better closer. Anthony's an executive sales coach, keynote speaker, and a former banker with a career spanning over three decades in sales. Leadership and communication. As the founder of AGS training, he's trained thousands of sales professionals worldwide from Hong Kong to the us helping them refine their messaging, negotiation skills, and customer relationships. Anthony also owned the Sandler Sales Institute Master Franchise in Hong Kong, where we revolutionized sales training across the Asia Pacific. Outside the business world, he has a second life as a standup comedian, having performed on Comedy Central and alongside top comedians like Tom Segura. Whether on stage or in the boardroom, Anthony's mission is to make sales training engaging, practical, and most importantly effective. Anthony, welcome to the show.

Anthony: 1:35

Thank you very much, Paul. Pleasure to be here.

Paul: 1:37

You do. You know what, we've had some fascinating backgrounds for people on the show We've had everybody from magicians to Guinness World Record holders. I think you are the first form. Well, I was gonna say former comedian, but it's not even former, is it? Right. You're still work on the standup side of things as well.

Anthony: 1:53

still working, producing shows here and

Paul: 1:56

running

Anthony: 1:57

comedy contests and performing whenever I can. Yeah, it's it's, it became a passion. I.

Paul: 2:02

That is truly interesting and fascinating at the same time. We're gonna delve into that in a little bit. But if I can rewind back on your story, because season two for this show is all about how people got where they are and the fact that whilst we might not have ended up where we intended, we are definitely where we are meant to be. And I think that's true of all of our guests so far.

Anthony: 2:23

Yep.

Paul: 2:24

so the banking world, then. Why and how did you get into banking?

Anthony: 2:28

Good Question. I kind of got into it by accident, if you will, and then it kind of consumed me, kinda like comedy. I got out of university and anyone else, you've gotta decide what you want to do. And was just doing different jobs here and there and got into, did some work in some multinational companies, not financial services. Did some it work way back when long before the technology we have today. And I was very fortunate to get a job at my first job at a bank. I got a job at the First National Bank of Boston in Boston, Massachusetts, where I'm from, it wasn't a sales and business development role, which IF which I ended up. I'm spending most of my career in. I did some work in audit and in IT and various parts of the bank to learn the business, which was very helpful for me and really found my passion. And when I got into banking, I realized that I wanted to get more on the business side and get into the sales and marketing side. I also knew I was a gypsy for some reason in the black sheep of my family and wanted to live overseas. Or at least travel as much as I could. So when I was working for the First National Bank of Boston, I had the great opportunity to go to London way back when for a business trip and spend three months there. And that really got under my skin and I started planting the seeds and sure enough, I went back to Boston and within eight months later I had relocated to London, which really kicked off my 30 year international career. And once I got to London and in the banking world, it just, you know, back then, especially banking still very, lots of great opportunities, lots of growth as long as you wanted it. And that's, yeah. So then from London, that took me to a 30 year international career and worked a few years and got into the sales side, which is really what I wanted to do. And that's when my career really took off.

Paul: 4:27

So you've moved from banking to running a Sandler sales franchise in Hong Kong. I can't imagine that's a frequent career path for many people. What was the moment that made you realize sales training was where you wanted to be? I.

Anthony: 4:41

Yeah. So when I got into sales you know, I always had the gift of gab and the communication, and Deb, very much a, an extrovert on the Myers-Briggs in whatever form you extreme extrovert. And I get my energy and my pulse from people and being in groups. And when I got into sales realized, so I did very well in financial services and, you know, got into the business development side. I think living in Hong Kong for those years back then, I also got the entrepreneurial bug. As you know, Hong Kong is a very entrepreneurial, crazy environment and everybody has businesses and everything else. I realized I was very, not only was I very good at sales, but I realized I was good at helping my colleagues and really coaching people that weren't performing. I got into leadership. I decided I wanted to try to be an entrepreneur. I put aside, my wife and I, we put aside a chunk of money. I said, I'm gonna do this for 12 months. And I came across, I wanted to be a sales trainer and a sales coach, but I knew in Asia back then, it was still very much in its infancy or at least Sandler. Sandler hadn't had nothing in Asia, so I flew to the US and met them realized. If you're gonna start a burger joint, it would be easier to buy a McDonald's than have Anthony's burgers on the street corner on the high street. So I met with Sandler. They loved me, I loved them. And I ended up buying the first franchise in Asia Pacific, which was my path into coaching and consulting and training.

Paul: 6:07

What was the, I mean I mean the first Sandler franchise in Asia Pacific is like, that's phenomenal. I mean, when you consider the size of the market that they have now what was the biggest challenge that you found in introducing that kind of new sales methodology into that Asian market then?

Anthony: 6:24

Yeah, first it, you know, the good thing is we did have some brand awareness.'cause Sandler had never had offices there when I bought the franchise, but they had obviously done training there through flying in and out from the us. But the biggest challenge really using this Sandler to me is one of the best platforms and methodologies out there because

Paul: 6:43

its

Anthony: 6:43

not as much a process as it is about communication and really getting into your client's heads, not pushing the sale, not pushing product, but it does require a lot of role playing and feedback that can be quite direct. And the culture in Asia was very different than it is like, for example, here in the US or uk, when you can tell someone straight to the face. So it was a little slow on the upstart, but. Using my own methodologies and skills, there is a way to balance that out where you can actually be productive and give great feedback without making it seem that you're being aggressive or rude. But that was probably the biggest challenge was, you know, Sandler is very much about practice, and making sure you go into meetings prepared. But to do that, like anything else. You've gotta be, someone has to be giving you feedback. Kind of like when I just started comedy my first couple of years I was terrible. And if you got off stage and couldn't handle feedback, well you're gonna, you're in the wrong industry.'cause comedians love giving you feedback, especially when you're terrible. was really the biggest challenge was getting those cultural differences coming across those cultural differences.

Paul: 7:54

So then comedy, where in this journey did comedy come into things?'cause that for me is probably the most fascinating part of the story. I.

Anthony: 8:02

Yeah, great. Great question. And I've always been, even in high school and in, in college, in university, I, I was doing fun little theaters and plays and things like that, and I always felt comfortable and confident and really kind of enjoyed that, but it was never anything really that I took seriously. It was just. You know, you're in high school, a university, somebody's having a play, you just have a bit of fun. But standup comedy in the li in the eighties and nineties, standup comedy in Boston really took off like a bat outta hell. I mean, it was even bigger than New York back then. New York was saturated. A lot of comedians moved to Boston and I. was going to comedy clubs almost every weekend. And any free time I had, I was going with my friends and my sisters and. I just had a I just loved comedy To this day, I listen to comedy in my car, comedy at home. I don't listen to music. so 2009 New Yorker, he was an American born Chinese and a New Yorker comedian His family was originally from Hong Kong and he still had his mother living there part-time between New York and Hong Kong. So he moved to Hong Kong and opened literally the first standup comedy club. In Asia Pacific, his name's Jamie Gong, and the club is takeout comedy with little chopsticks like takeout. He literally, when he started well actually the club started in 2007. I was a couple of year, I was about a year and a half after he opened when I did my first show. I mean, he would literally have people calling saying, it's standup comedy. Does that mean there's no chairs? You know, like, we have to stand up while we're watching it. And he had a passion to bring comedy to Asia Pacific. And then I had read an article. In the newspaper about him and he was offering a course. And at the time I still had the Sandler, you know, I was still doing Sandler franchise and all that. And I thought, what a great way to differentiate myself from other consultants by saying I do standup comedy because I. You can get on stage, you can handle anything in sales, right? You're getting on stage with just a microphone. So I took Jamie's class, and to this day, we're best friends and I've been doing it ever since, from open mics to performing all over Asia. I performed in London at a comedy club there and now I perform regularly here. it was something, when you find the passion of something you love you can't get enough of it. And What it did is made my consulting better'cause people wanted to be in the room.'cause I made it fun and engaging and between that and sales and everything else. Comedy just changed my life and it really did in a positive way. I.

Paul: 10:37

I often tell people that they can differentiate themselves in any given space without having to put on big floppy clown shoes. But I guess what you did was put on the big floppy clown shoes, right? Like almo, almost exactly that, that it's fascinating. I imagine you had some interesting conversations with your old banking colleagues as a result.

Anthony: 10:58

Well, not only did I have some interesting conversations I got quite a few of them into my world as well. And not all of them, but I did get a few, you know, one of my best friends he's actually British, but from London, just moved back to London from Hong Kong after many years. He's a trader, very big finance guy. One of my dear friends he started doing it around the time I did, and he was hooked as well. And now he's been doing it all over Asia. Now he's back in London only a few months ago. And I'm sure he will continue the faith as well. And, you know, I, what I love is bringing people that always dreamed about doing it to the stage. I just did a I just helped a friend here. I have a dear friend in Phoenix. of his friends who I didn't know was in stage four cancer and sadly is in hospice. And his dream in life was to do a standup comedy routine. about a month ago, I helped coach I. My friend who then helped him coach his friend, and guy ended up getting on stage and I'm getting the goosebumps talking about it because he just fulfilled a dream. So the amount of people that when I hear I'm a comedian say, you know, I've always kind of thought about doing that. And you coach, I had my niece who was 19 at the time, she got on stage and did a 10 minute comedy routine. I helped her with a few jokes. She wrote her own. And when she got off stage, it was as if her whole world lit up. Because if you can do that at the age of 19 in a dark room with people you don't know, man, your confidence goes off the charts. And when people hear, I'm a comedian, that's all they want to talk about. So what better way to do a run a business and be a sales trainer and coach?'cause if I can do that, man, cold calling and prospecting is pretty easy.

Paul: 13:14

So, yes. Everyone watching at home, it turns out that bankers and people involved in the financial industry can be funny. But Nobody knew. Nobody knew. Well, thank you very much for educating us today. It's a,

Anthony: 13:26

Yeah, it can help. It can hurt it. It can happen.

Paul: 13:30

of all the backgrounds that I would pick for to transfer well into comedy. That is absolutely the back of the queue for me. Amazing. And then I guess bringing the comedy and the sales chain together, you've worked across lots of, like lots of different cultures from the US down to Europe, across to Hong Kong.

Anthony: 13:51

Yeah.

Paul: 13:52

what's some of the biggest differences you've seen in how people approach sales and kind of the universal truths? How do they hold out across different cultures?

Anthony: 14:01

Yeah, there. You know, it's a great question and I've learned that there are different cultures. There's no question whether you're, whether I'm doing business in Japan or Taiwan or Singapore, it, they're all very different in and of themselves. I. and that's where a lot of the cultural training comes in where, and I've done a lot of that where I'm training an American or Brit who just moved to Hong Kong and all of a sudden is dealing with mainland China. And I think the cultural differences you need to understand, for example, in America, in the uk, it's a little bit more fast. You can get down to business straight away. the cultural differences in Asia are obviously slowed down. You know, this is more of a personal you, it's not personal, but it's more of a relationship. We'll get to business when the time is right. So those are the cultural differences. But one thing is for sure, I. No matter where you are in the world, people wanna feel comfortable when they're talking to you. They don't want to feel threatened, they don't want to feel under pressure. I'll do a little self brag here, but one of my first books was called Trust, comfort, and Confidence. Three words That'll Change the Way You Sell. And I came up with those three words because I kind of did a training program on the, on a triangle that said, if you only have one or two out of those three. You're not gonna be as successful.'cause we all know there's people you would trust with your life, but you may not want to, you just don't have any comfort around them. They're too pushy or they're too something. Or there's people where you love being around them. They're dear friends. You have confidence in their abilities, but you just don't trust them for some reason. Right? There's that element of doubt. So what humor and not just humor, but what understanding your audience and reading a room, what that does for you is really. Like in comedy, you have to read the room within 10 seconds, right? What type of room am I in? Is it more, are they loud? Are they shouting? Are they quiet? Are they reserved? Is it an elderly crowd? Is it a young crowd? Sales is the same way. If I was selling to you, Paul, I'm gonna look at your body language, the words you use. Do you use your hands? Are you you know, I need to be thinking and processing that all the time. So when I respond to you, it's in a style that makes you feel comfortable. For example, I don't know if you've ever done the DISC profile or disc assessments. I'm a very high d I'm very, I. Assertive. I'm very confident. I'm very quick to rush and make decisions with my gut. I was selling to someone like my wife, for example, who's more rational and detailed and logical, if I sell to her in my style there's gonna be a major disconnect. But if I can intuitively in one or two minutes realize, Hey, this person is more detailed, and change my pitch. She's gonna feel more comfortable with me and not as threatened as someone who is trying to push things down her throat. So the comedy and the understanding of that human dynamic has just helped me, not only in sales, but every aspect of life. You know, people at work, I'm in a new job here, it's only been six months. I'm like the office where everybody wants to hang out in because they just know that they feel comfortable around me. They trust me. They know that I have no hidden agenda. And when you have people genuinely like that, you want to be around them. It's infectious. And in sales, people are gonna give you more business because they want to be around you. And that's where getting, you know, it's not about higher price or whatever, it's, I'm gonna do business with people that are. Like me, I trust, I feel comfortable around.'cause when you sell something, you're gonna be around them for a long time. Right. And you just want to be around that person and know they're gonna be there for you.

Paul: 17:36

So. With that in mind, you bring humor into your training. And I'd love to understand a little bit more about how you bring that humor into the training. But before we get to that, like how can business owners and sales teams use humor themselves strategically to build those relationships?'cause you are talking about doing that yourself, like, how can we take lessons from what you've done there to implement at home?

Anthony: 17:59

It's a great question. And you know, I think for me, what the first sign that banking may have been, lightning up a little bit. You remember the Dilbert character. And you know, the first sign way back when was when banks, you know, people started sharing copies of Dilbert cartoons and lightning up the mood. But I wanna say that by using humor, I don't mean that I'm cracking jokes, right? what I mean is I'm not taking myself or life so seriously, right? Life is too short whether you're in banking it, whether you're selling a service consulting. We're not, you know, we're not curing cancer, my friend, we're just two people trying to do business together, make sense of it and make some money and be successful. So really what I talk about humor is, I mean, just don't take yourself so seriously. Right. We're not, you know, you've seen some people, they're in sales meetings and they're dressed and they've got their tie, and they've got their notepad. in and have a conversation. Like, I'm talking to you. If there's a, you know, I use a lot of self-deprecating, I'll make fun of myself, I'll make fun of my company in a fun way that gets people saying, you know what? This guy has a good outlook on life. I'm gonna at least hear what he has to say. So I'm not talking about jokes. I'm talking about. yourself and life less seriously and lighten up the mood. Put a little levity in the situation and you'd be surprised how people will just want to open up and talk to you. All of us in our heads, we have good examples of good things in sales, good things in business, bad, maybe an article you read, maybe a story you heard from another comedian. So I talk more about the power of stories and lightening up. And not taking yourself so seriously. And what ends up happening, the walls come down with whoever you're speaking to, and that level of trust and comfort, they kind of want to be around you. So it's not as much telling jokes, it's more just being lighthearted, making fun of yourself, making fun of a current situation and just taking yourself a little bit more lightly than you would. Some people get very serious and it just ruins the mood.

Paul: 20:05

I remember reading some research by gong.io a while back, which was that when you swear after a prospect has sworn on a call and you reciprocate in a similar manner with the swearing, the trust level goes through the roof and the sales, I can't remember the exact percentage, but the likelihood for conversion goes through the roof because you've shared that moment together. Obviously they've got to swear first. It's gotta be permission based, right? Like you lead by example, not going in all guns blazing. But I think the same is true for, you know, making people smile. you make someone smile. They remember how you made them feel. And I think that is the key part that, so to your point, so many salespeople forget all about because it's all about being in the VIP club and the President's Club and all of these like, fine. But unless we're having fun while we get there and while we're enjoying ourselves and helping other people enjoy their sometimes very dull lives.

Anthony: 21:00

Yeah, and if you look at, you know, people I meet after a long time or people I used to work with or that worked for me they don't remember as much about the business, but they remember how I made them feel and how I made them laugh, and how I took a serious situation and made it lighthearted. And coach them through something that was a very difficult time. And getting back to what you said about the swearing and building trust, one of the things we talk about it, there's something called neurolinguistic programming, which I've studied a lot. It's NLP and there's a term called mirroring and matching where you don't wanna mimic someone and let you know if they put their hand up, you put your hand up. But. The pace with which someone is speaking, the amount of humor they use, the amount of swearing they use how animated they are and how dynamic they are. If you can mirror and match a little bit, you're gonna have synchronicity and you're gonna communicate so much better and they're gonna walk away saying, I don't know what it was about Anthony, but man, I really felt comfortable talking to him.

Paul: 21:58

I think we're so aligned, Anthony, I've really enjoyed the conversation before. Before we bring everything to a, to an end for today's episode, kind of one outdated sales and market and technique that you wish businesses would just stop using immediately? What's what

Anthony: 22:12

yeah, it's the, a lot of businesses to this day are spending so much time on the product pitch and what the product can do and how great they are. I remember when I first joined HSBC, I, you know, they were, each one of their proposals, the first 10 pages would be how wonderful HSBC was. And we're 150 years old and we were started in Scotland, and we, those days are over. No one cares about your company. They care about what your company can do for them. But here's the challenge, and I'll leave you with one thing that has taught me the most. The only person. That knows what it's gonna take to sell you. Something is you, and that data and information is in your head. Clients go in and especially if you've been in an industry a long time, when I was in banking after 20 years, I'd go in and I'd say, well, I'm meeting the CFO of a company. I know exactly what they need. That assumption has killed more deals than anything I've ever seen in my life. But you know, Sandler was wonderful. Most salespeople spend 20% of their time trying to understand the client, and 80% pitching a solution that has to be switched around 80% of the time should be spent on dialogue and understanding and relationship. And what's really motivating you? What's your challenge? What do you what do you look for in the next year? What's gonna make this relationship a success? Imagine if you went into a doctor. You said you have a sore arm and within 10 seconds they said, you know what? I think we need to amputate your arm. That is what doing sales in a rushed manner is like you, the doctor is gonna spend most of the time understanding the real problem, and once he understands it, then he gives you the solution. Salespeople need to slow down. Ask more questions. Ask more questions. Reconfirm the questions, and only when you've heard from the client exactly what they want. You present a solution. If you do it prematurely, you are becoming a pushy product salesperson. And then you give all of us a bad name. Take your time, slow down, understand, present what they want, and that's the golden ticket.

Paul: 24:28

Some absolute gems of wisdom in today's episode. Thank you very much for coming along and putting a smile on my face

Anthony: 24:34

Absolutely.

Paul: 24:35

I appreciate it

Anthony: 24:36

Yeah. This has been wonderful. I appreciate your time.

Paul: 24:39

and thank you. And thank you at home for coming along and watching the episode or listening to us wherever, however you are consuming the episode, it is really appreciated. if you know somebody you want to be a guest on the show in the future, or or you've got some topics that you'd like us to cover we'll absolutely go out our way, find those for you. And special thanks to our charity partners for the episode for the series. ADHD Liberty, who are fighting the skill to prison pipeline for ADHD and neurodiverse individuals. Anthony, thank you very

Anthony: 25:10

Paul. Thank you so much. Best of luck.