COSS99 - Christian Banoch

Speaker A: So welcome to Confessions of a Serial Seller. Today my guest comes all the way from Chicago. Totally different time zone to me. He's just woken up. I'm about to go to sleep. But that's cool. That's cool on the show. So, Christian Banner, welcome to the show, my friends.

Speaker B: Thank you very much for having me. Very excited to have this conversation now.

Speaker A: Likewise. So Christian and I were chatting off air about the name of his company, which is Christian Bannock llc. And he's definitely gone down same as my business, Tony Morris International. We've gone down the personal brand route. And I'm definitely going to tap into that a little bit more about how important personal branding is in sales. But to begin, it'll be really good just to get a flavor of your background. I've done a lot of reading on you, Christian, and you've got a very impressive entrepreneur from your, your days of concert promotion. So just tell, tell us a little bit about how you got into the world of sales up to when you set up your own agency.

Speaker B: Yeah, very good. Well, thanks so much again for having me on, Tony. I, uh, would say, you know, my first actual sales started even before I got into the concert promotions. I was the kid, you know, in the neighborhood that was cutting lawns, uh, of all the neighbors, uh, buying and selling baseball cards. So I, I remember at probably the age 11 or 12, I was creating, you know, flyers on my dot matrix, you know, printer, and, uh, going door to door in the neighborhood and handing out flyers for my lawn service. So that's where it, it first started. I, uh, eventually moved on to work at, uh, Best Buy, which here in the United States, I think it's out, out by you as well. Uh, it was a consumer electronics store and computers. So I was selling computers, uh, there actually, um, got fired from, uh, that job I was working brought on for holiday sales. Um, and after about two or three months there, they let me go after the holiday season was over. Uh, so I never considered myself a seller. But I think the turning point for me was I ended up going back to Best Buy that summer because I needed some, another summer job that the lawn service wasn't taking off as well as I thought it could. Um, and they hired me back, um, for some summer help. I think they were desperate, to be honest with you. And, uh, what was different though, is I really had the time, uh, because it was summer, it was a lot slower than in the holiday season. So I really had the time to study, uh, listen to some of the other sellers and learn like what was working, how to overcome objections. These are things that I never even knew existed before. And fast, uh, forward, uh, to the next holiday season that came up. Ah, And I actually led, um, the entire Best Buy organization in the selling of what we were calling performance service plans, which are essentially, um, warranties on the computers that we were selling. So. So, you know, the prior year I was, you know, fired, and then the next year I had gone from the top seller in the organization. So. So that really was kind of the first beginnings of me becoming a seller and, and really kind of segued then into the concert promotions business that, that I had mentioned. So that, uh, was something that I had started in high school. And it started off very small. We were renting out banquet halls and actually booking out DJs at, uh, at various, uh, you know, small venues. And it, uh, was a great way for me to pay my way through college and have fun and meet girls and all of that. And, uh, eventually I graduated college and got a job as a marketing coordinator. Um, but at the same time I was doing these promotional events on the side and having a lot of fun and decided after about a year, you know what, I want to go all in on the concert promotions business. So, um, quit that job, hired a couple of my friends that were working for me part time. And, uh, next thing you know, we had gone from banquet halls in the suburbs of Chicago to massive concert venues and working with artists like Lady Gaga and Pitbull and T Pain. Um, so it was a, it was a great transformation. And along the way got involved with experiential marketing. We were actually approached by an agency that needed some help with some local promotions, and they knew we did concerts and there was a good, you know, there was a tie in between the two. Uh, so we helped them out and that went over really well. Uh, and then they gave us another opportunity. Uh, the next thing you knew, we were thinking, wow, this is, this is great. We're used to throwing our own concerts where we're putting our own money on the line, um, versus working with these big corporate companies who are just writing us checks to go out and do these, uh, events. So eventually the business really morphed into half concert promotions and then half experiential marketing. Uh, and then, you know, that was buzzing along great until the recession hit. And this was in 2008. Uh, and like a lot of firms that I now advise, we had really grown through word of mouth and referrals. Um, you know, I had some sales background. Like, I Mentioned, but it really wasn't a, you know, I sale sales very loosely. Uh, there was not great process behind it. So I went out, I hired a sales consultant. Uh, they came in and they um, you know, kind of gave me the foundations of business development and sales for more like professional services. Uh, really gravitated to it, loved it, uh, so much that I actually decided to close down my company. It was, you know, it was kind of time for me to move on anyways. Um, and I had worked then the next 10 years, uh, in different agencies, um, marketing agencies, advertising agencies, um, and discovered though that in particular the area of sales that I really gravitated to and had, you know, if you will, a superpower was really generating those top of funnel opportunities with these big kind of corporate clients. Uh, and that's where I put a lot of my focus on. And everybody kind of talks about the close right, or, or the pitch, um, which is great. You know, that's a big rush. But I almost get, I don't almost. I do get a bigger rush from the hunt. You know, the excitement of kind of generating something from nothing is really where you know, my juices get flowing. So, you know, the whole way, you know, entrepreneur, uh, my entire life as I, uh, shared here, wanted uh, to do something again. However, I wasn't sure what when or how. And then the pandemic hit a couple of years back now and I felt like it was deja vu all over again with what had happened with the recession. The difference here is rather than me needing the consultant to come out and help me, I felt like I was that consultant that could go out and help others. So that's what I did. I left my high paying, uh, job at an agency. I started this company, Christian Banach. Uh, and fast forward to uh, to today. We've you know, helped, you know, dozens and dozens of agencies with their growth and are looking forward to continuing down this path.

Speaker A: That's amazing. What's. What year did Christian Binoc get set up?

Speaker B: Um, officially we started at the end of 2020.

Speaker A: Okay, so you're only sort of a year and a half, two years in really. What's been your biggest success so far, would you say?

Speaker B: Yeah, our biggest success has really been, you know, we work with different, uh, primarily work with marketing, advertising agencies and you know, we've been able to help them open up doors at some really, you know, big brands, you know, Heineken, Chipotle, uh, you know, you name it. We've been able to, to really, you know, help them break through and, and it's resulted or for many of our clients into, you know, million dollar type opportunities and amazing wins as well.

Speaker A: So amazing. I want to circle back, I've been making copious notes. I want to circle back to a couple of things you said. So when you went back to Best Buy and they took you on desperation or not, you said you went from ultimately a fired employee to a top seller. What, going back, what do you remember about how you made that transition?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I would say when I was first hired, uh, at Best Buy, it was one of these situations where they just needed a warm body to help out. It was holiday sales. Right. There was very little training, um, on product or on, on sales. So I was kind of a lost, Ah, a lost person there. Right. All I could do is really read what was on the card that was in front of that computer and spit it back. So there was not a lot of training. And the second time I came back, what was really key is really getting to understand the product. Um, also understand objections. Uh, that was also very key. Working with some of the other sellers there on. Hey, when you hear this, what do you say? And really having an arsenal of, um, ways to respond to different objections. I think those were probably the two biggest keys there. Um, was really on the training side, uh, of the business. And I really also began to. Once I felt more confident then that was really, uh, a game changer for myself as well.

Speaker A: I think it's such a good point. And so many salespeople I train and coach don't do this. Right. I remember my first software job was 21 years ago and the top telesales guy was a guy called Gregor Gemian. Probably still to this day, probably the best cold call I've ever worked with. And I on purpose sat next to him and I literally used to write notes. Every word he said, every question. I wanted to be better than him. It took me about four months and I started beat his appointment ratio. But it took me good four months of graft and I did it from modeling myself on him. I think it's such a good point that, uh, not enough salespeople modern themselves on the successful people. Right. I just, I don't get it. And we spoke off air where you were saying you've, you've studied some of the greats like Tony Robbins. I said Russell Brunson and really understood what they've done differently to have insane success. I want to ask you, because you, you, you went over about your concert promotion. I think you, you phased over It. I think, I don't think you appreciate the success you had working with Pitbull or Lady Gaga. These are, uh, multi million dollar artists. What. What would you say was your biggest lesson you took from having a lifestyle business with a few mates, so making it the $100 million business you create or the $10 million business you created? What was your biggest lesson?

Speaker B: Yeah, that's a great, uh, a great question. I think it was definitely a transition to think about, and maybe this is why I glanced it over as well, because we started from nothing. It was banquet hall, it was getting a bunch of friends together and booking DJs for a couple hundred dollars, which had then grown into booking artists that have won Grammys and, you know, hundreds of thousands of dollars. We were, you know, paying them m in fees. Um, and it was, it was a mindset shift for me to think about how do you go after the bigger opportunities, that not every opportunity is the same. Right. And, ah, and I think I could have even done a much better job of that. While, yes, we were working with some big artists, we were still doing a lot of little things as well. And I think if I were to go back and change, something that I did is, you know, there was definitely an inflection point where we should have been saying no to certain opportunities because it wasn't good for our long term growth. Um, we could have been focusing more on some of the bigger deals and the bigger opportunities, and I think we would have even exc. Accelerated Even further than what we did. But we were, you know, diverting our attention and kind of watering down our efforts because we were chasing everything. You want to work with us? Okay, great. Let. Let's talk. Um, but we needed to be a little bit more selective and really understand who our ICP was because our ICP changed very much from the beginning to where the end. But m. But I didn't necessarily recognize it at the time.

Speaker A: And I think it's so hard, right, As a business owner turning business away, having the, I guess, courage, but also financially be able to say thank you, but no thank you. Um, and I guess maybe by the time you were representing the likes of Lady Gaga, you probably have built up that wealth where you could turn down the smaller businesses that don't fit your icp. So I totally get that. Um, you said earlier that you get a buzz from really going after the whales, the huge opportunities, and you've almost perfected the top of Funnel. Just talk us through that. For my audience who, uh, who want to work with some of the bigger organizations, what would you say is your two or three top strategies to try and land those opportunities?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah. Well, first off, I think is really taking uh, to heart having a more proactive, outbound based approach. Uh, yeah. And I think whether you're a smaller firm or a larger firm, provided that you have a specialized expertise, uh, that's, that, that's fundamental.

Speaker A: Right.

Speaker B: If you're just doing something very general, it's going to be very hard to break through and work with a big enterprise type organization.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: However, if you have a specialized expertise, I, um, think, you know, having a more proactive based approach where you're specifically targeting those individuals and thinking through about what is the problem that you can help them solve. Right.

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: And if that problem is something that you can uniquely solve for them, then you have a good chance of engaging with those individuals. So it's getting clear on what is that unique ability for yourself. How can you translate it into uh, solving a problem for them? And once you have that, then it's like, all right, who is experiencing those problems and coming up with and building out a list of who those potential clients could be? And they can be very big companies provided again that you can solve that problem. And then I think the next real key is, you know, these, when you're, when you're targeting these bigger organizations, you got to keep in mind, you know, they're getting connected, uh, and hit up every which way. They're getting hundreds of messages, you know, from firms very similar to yours. So we really believe, and this is something that I've learned from, you know, all the years of doing this is really trying to come at them from a point of view of offering them value. Right?

Speaker A: Yeah.

Speaker B: So rather than, hey, I'd love to get on your calendar and tell you all about all the great things that I could do. Right. It's all about me, me, me, what I can do. Right. Instead, it's really trying to think about what can you offer them of value? And, and uh, maybe that, so it's really kind of introspectively looking what is your unique perspective? What is maybe do you have a proprietary process or tools or research that you've done or something unique and different that you can go to them and say, hey, I think you've been experiencing or might be experiencing these types of problems. We've got a really interesting perspective on it that we'd be willing to share with you in a free workshop or ah, an insight session or a free audit or something. Again, you're giving them something you're giving them some knowledge, um, and you're using that as a way to open up a door and start a relationship. And, and I think that's key also when you're talking about bigger deals, you're not talking about there's no one deal closes. When you're talking about six and seven figure type opportunities, you're here to build a relationship. And I think that is a, you know, mindset shift that you need to have is like, is how are you going to approach each one of these as a long term relationship? And I think one of the best ways is your foot in the doors again is to try to give them something of value upfront to just kind of start that off at the right foot.

Speaker A: I think you're so right with the mind shift change because I think so many salespeople are after the short game, the quick wins, but you'll never land a whale with the quick little wins. It's, it's the long game where you nurture and develop that opportunity in your whole career to date you. Which big win stands out shoulders, heads and shoulders above all the others. And just talk us through what your proactive strategy was to land them.

Speaker B: Yeah, oh, there's been a few. But I would say one of the ones that I'm most proud about is this is a few years back I was actually working at a, ah, experiential marketing agency that also did concert promotions. And they were really big with the Latin music um, industry here in the United States. And one of the artists at this group, group represented was Marc Anthony. And I was tasked with selling sponsorships to Marc Anthony's um, tour here in the United States. And we were struggling, uh, as big of an artist Marc Anthony was. It was, you know, again, what. Why would a brand want to sponsor Marc Anthony? And so what I ended up doing then is I took it upon myself. This group had worked with Marc Anthony for a number of years, uh, and we had a database of ticket buyers of Marc Anthony. So I created a survey um, on my own and got authorization from my boss, the owner of the company, to send this survey off to all the Marc Anthony ticket uh, purchasers over the last few years. And the questions were really related to what types of products and services these uh, individuals like to use. So we got the information back after a few weeks. And what we discovered was that Marc Anthony's clientele um, really was women, which we knew probably that already. Um, however, these women consumed and loved wine way more than we thought that they would you know, um, most people were thinking, oh, Latin music. It must be Corona and tequila. Right? That's, you know, kind of the stereotype. But we found out it was wine. So we took that insight, um, and I approached, um, all the different big wine brands and said, hey, we've done some research. Marc Anthony, um, and Constellation Brands had, um, a new wine that was coming out and really gravitated towards that insight and thought this would be a great channel for them to expose their wine to Marc Anthony's audience. So they ended up sponsoring the entire tour as well as doing, uh, some other type of work with, with Marc Anthony. But um, I'm especially proud of that because it was not just getting my foot in the door and sending a phone call to this wine company. It was also coming up with and building out the data, the reason for why this wine company should want to come up with us. So it's kind of a two part thing, two, uh, part approach there that ended up breaking us through.

Speaker A: I love that. What Clever. I would never even thought about doing that. But you're so right. How many sales people would do that level of research and gain that insight to back up and justify why you're reaching out to this brand to be able to say you're going to be. Your brand will be in front of thousands of your ideal customer. What was the deal that was done in the end? Did I take it they did sponsor and promote Mark Anthony concert?

Speaker B: Yeah, they did. Yeah. It was um, a little over, um, half, uh, a million dollars was the, was the total deal size. Um, and then yeah, they, they had uh, their, you know, kind of your typical sponsorship with the logos and things on, on the marketing collateral as well as on site activations where they did sampling of the wine and consumer, uh, contests where you got to meet, you know, some of the consumers in each market got to meet Marc Anthony backstage before the concert. So it was a really, uh, a great promotion, uh, for, for everybody.

Speaker A: That's uh, such a clever idea though. And I like what you said of two big points I've taken for that is being really clear on your icp, but also give value first, uh, what are you doing in terms of sharing insights like you did with this wine brand. So you're not just another salesperson pitching. You've gone above and beyond to do that. I think that's very clever what you said. The first thing you said is about proactive outreach. Can you get if my audience is sitting there thinking I'm a sales guy or girl, I earn $30,000 a year. You know, I don't have big budget, but I don't just want to do a cold call. What advice or ideas have you got for them rather than just pick up the phone and do a cold call?

Speaker B: Yeah, sure. Well, I don't think you need a big budget. Um, for example, even the wine example I gave you, there was no budget. That was me developing my own survey, spending some time online, uh, and it was SurveyMonkey, so maybe it was, you know, $20, you know, subscription to SurveyMonkey to house that. So part of it is, I think, just being creative, um, in your thinking and approach. But there are just so many resources and tools that are available these days. Uh, you know, LinkedIn is, you know, such a tremendous resource to, you know, look into specific prospects and understand their backgrounds and what, you know, what makes them tick. Uh, you know, it sounds basic, but, you know, even just Googling, you know, I just don't, uh, I don't see enough reps taking the time to do it. It's just, you know, I have to make certain number of calls. So they become machines that are just making calls. But, you know, it's not always quantity, it's more quality. Because what happens when you get somebody on the phone or you send them that email if it's well researched, you know, you're better off sending 10 well researched emails in a day than a hundred that are not. And same thing with cold calling. Uh, there's such tremendous, you know, especially if you're talking C Suite. I mean, we're on a podcast today. You know, many C Suite execs, especially these bigger companies, are, are giving, um, podcasts and, and they're on YouTube, uh, talking, spend the time, you know, watch it, listen to it, uh, and understand some insights. So then when you approach them, you can say, hey, I heard you on so and so podcast. You know, it really struck me when you said this, which gave me an idea about that. Uh, so it's taking the time to do it. There's just so much content available that people aren't, you know, utilizing, uh, either because they don't know where to start with it, or they're just so programmed and, and just, you know, they become robotic in, in their outreach. No, I think that's really good advice.

Speaker A: And you're, you're absolutely right. Survey Monkey, it's, it's peanuts in the grand scheme of things. Excuse the pun, but, uh, and therefore, you know, it's, it is about thinking outside the box. Uh, I think that's the key, um, I remember I did a campaign for a client. Part of my work, as well as training the sales team is legion. And we did a campaign. We sold, we sent out 500 direct mail letters in green envelopes because that was their brand was green. And we did a handwritten letter in all of them, but inside the envelope we did a small rubber foot. And the letter said, dear Christian, now we've got our foot in the door, dot, dot, dot. But it's different, right? Not many people would. They just send boring HTML emails that just either go into spam or get deleted. Right. It's being about that, that difference. You, you're clearly been a lifelong entrepreneur. Uh, right. You're a young guy, but you've, you know, in your many years of work, you've been, you've shown entrepreneurism. What would you say has been your best bit of advice that you've personally ever been given? One or two bits of advice?

Speaker B: Yeah. Yeah. I wouldn't say this is anything groundbreaking, but it's something that, you know, has, has always stuck with me. And it was actually in college and one of the professors said that. I forget exactly how he put it, but he more or less said that if you just show up to this class, you know, you will probably be able to get a C. Um, if you show up and you do the homework, you know, you're going to get a B. And if you show up, do your homework and study, you're going to get an A. And at first I was like, that just seems so basic. Um, however, I've really come over the years to realize that most people just don't even show up, um, and very little actually put in some work. And the bar, I feel, is fairly low. So I advise the teams that work for me and individuals, um, just show up first and foremost. You're going to be ahead of so many others that are out there. And if you can show up and put a little bit of effort, you know, it's not, it's not such a wild, crazy idea to be, you know, president's club or, you know, in the 1%. Uh, it's really much more achievable, I think, than a lot of people think about. But you have to be willing to show up and put in, you know, put in the work. Uh, and I think, you know, you just, I just try to take that m. That mentality into everything, you know, that I do and make sure that I, that I show up and I

Speaker A: come prepared and it sounds so basic, doesn't it? But 99 of people don't do the basics properly. And, and you're right. Having interviewed some of the, the greatest out there, like your good self, these key common threads keep coming up that they go above and beyond. They do the basics brilliantly. Um, and they graft, you know, that they graft until the cows come home. You mentioned earlier that you're obviously well read, you know, read a lot of books. What would you say is your top. I'm interested in two types of books. Your top sales book, but your best book that you've read for personal development and growth.

Speaker B: Yeah, uh, I'll start with the Personal Development and Growth. And you know, it's a classic. I'm sure those that are in this space have probably read it. But Think and Grow Rich, uh, was by, uh, Napoleon Hill was really the first self help book that I came across. And, and it was obviously a classic and then it's probably over 100 years old now and probably just as true today as it was 100 years ago. But that was really the book that uh, opened me up to personal development. And while some of the concepts are still maybe a little dated or I don't agree with everything in there, I think that, you know, has really, it has the biggest impact to me because it really brought me into that world of personal development. And this was, you know, I, although I had a business that was successful, I wasn't really reading like I do today. Um, I was not, um, studying and trying to personally develop myself like I am today. So this is maybe about 10, 12 years ago now. Um, but it had such a big impact on me that it's opened me up to so many other opportunities. I really always have to say that was a good gateway book for me and I recommend it to, you know, to everybody. Uh, so that was, I think, the number one, uh, book from a personal development side on the sales side. Um, you know, I do read a lot of sales books. Um, and you know, even today, I mean, I have an organization that does sales and I still read them because I'm, you know, it's either a good refresher, um, on things that you may already know. Somebody might have a little bit of a different take on something which makes you think about something different or you're able to pull out a new nugget or two. Um, so I still read. I know I do come across a lot of sellers that's like, oh, well, I, you know, I know everything, you know, type of mentality. I don't need to read and I don't agree with that. But if I was to pinpoint one book that I think majorly shifted my mindset, um, was really, you know, the, the Challenger Sale.

Speaker A: Um, yes.

Speaker B: Uh, was, was probably the one that really made me think about, I mean and you could probably have heard even a little bit earlier if you're familiar with the book, about the whole idea of sharing insights. Um, yeah, and really kind of challenging what the assumptions are and trying to be different. And I think that's really where I got um, trained if you will, uh, in, in that type of mindset. And, and it's really. That book is also geared more towards bigger enterprise level deals which came um, across a part of my career where I really needed that. So I definitely recommend that book as well. Even if you're not selling enterprise deals. I think if you can bring that rigor and that mentality to even small and mid sized businesses, oh my gosh, you're going to be light years ahead of some of the other sellers out there.

Speaker A: I was very lucky I had the co author, I think Matt Dixon. Mark, I think was Matt Dixon on my podcast. Um, I think the two books, the sales books that changed my life definitely was the Challenger Sale but also spin selling. Neil Rackham. When I sold software, it was like the Bible they gave you. And I studied it, every page. I've even read it recently. I mean it's a phenomenal book and they definitely both of those had a shift for me. Um, you mentioned some amazing people that you know that clearly have a spy inspired you for your journey. If I want to end on this, if there was one quote that, that you still rate that that's helped you or that is your go to quotes, what would it be?

Speaker B: Oh, m. Yeah, there's a lot. I um, actually write, uh, every Monday I have a motivational type story uh, that I tell along with a quote. So I'm really big on to these quotes and you know, certain times of uh, where I'm at in my life, certain quotes really resonate more with me than with, than with others. Um, but I would say if there's one that has sort of stuck with me, uh, you know, no matter where I'm at, uh, it actually goes back to what we said earlier, um, about Neil or I'm sorry, Napoleon Hill and thinking grow rich. But uh, he says in the book that anything the mind can conceive and uh, believe the mind can achieve. And that was really one that you know, again kind of fundamentally shifted my mindset and opened me up to this world of personal development. And you know, whenever I'm maybe feeling some self doubt, uh, you know, I, I go back and remember, you know, that quote and, and it seems to be able to snap me out of whatever funk I happen to be in.

Speaker A: We all have it, don't we? We have that pocket of self doubt or you know, getting into a negative state. I think that's human. Um, but there are absolutely strategies and, and I'm also a big. I love motivational quotes. I. In my office, you know, we have, I've got seven salespeople and they all choose their personal favorite quote and then we get them printed with my logo on, um, as almost a daily reminder for them. And because they choose them, I get their buy into it because it's what means something to them. Um, no, it's been so great chatting to you. I've taken down loads of notes and I appreciate your time. What's the best way for my audience to learn more about you, learn more about your agency and reach out to you?

Speaker B: Yeah, yeah, I would say the best place is, uh, our website. So it's christianbinoc, uh, dot com. Uh, from there, uh, if you want to learn more, we do have a free masterclass that talks more about this whole idea of how to win and get these six and seven figure opportunities. It's totally free. Uh, I mentioned the newsletter that I put out that's a free newsletter that also, like I said, has a motivational story and quote that's included, uh, with it as well, uh, along with some other new business advice and tips that's also totally free. Um, you're also welcome to check me out on LinkedIn. Uh, you can search me Christian Battock, uh, on there as well. I answer all my own messages. Happy to connect with anybody, uh, in your audience and uh, would love to hear from anyone.

Speaker A: No, thank you so much. It's very generous of you. If you're okay, I'll put the link to the free masterclass and free newsletter out to the audience because, uh, I personally would love to come along a region newsletter. Uh, but I want to come to the master class. You know, I'm always open to learn. So yeah, if you're okay with that, I want to. I'll get that out when uh, this episode is aired. So Christian, thanks again so much for your time. I know it's still early morning for you, so make sure you've got coffee and a Red Bull ready for the day. But absolute pleasure speaking to you and keep safe.

Speaker B: Thank you. Tony. This has been a lot of fun.

Speaker A: Likewise. Cheers, my man.