EP 245 Truth #8 Attention Follows Need or Novelty

Tom: Foreign. Good to see you, my friend. As you know, we are in our series 30 Truths We've Learned Over 30 Years. And I hope everybody's enjoying the series, um, because we chose these truths not just based on what you and I like tab or what we think is important truths, but this is from all the feedback of training literally hundreds of thousands of reps all over the world, really. And this is kind of what they say. This is what resonates because we get all the feedback. So hopefully this is helpful. Hopefully everybody's enjoying it and we're on a truth that I think addresses a problem that we all have in our lives. Matter of fact, I'd love to pause right now and pull up the number of text, unanswered text, email, phone calls, meeting invites that people have. And I know there are people that always keep that clear, but, like, I don't.

Co-host: I got. I'll have a hundred of them, I'm sure.

Tom: Yeah. Because, I mean, we are all struggling with attention. Like, we all are struggling. We're overwhelmed with information. We've got so much information. So it's so hard to get people's attention. So we're going to talk about a truth today related to that. But before we dive in, I want to see what yours is t. Because I just thought about this. Yeah. And, uh, this may be embarrassing to admit. Like, let's do text. How many unanswered texts do you have?

Co-host: Oh, uh, uh, unanswered text.

Tom: Well, yeah, whatever. That red, red thing that. I don't even look at these anymore because it doesn't mean anything to me because I can't.

Co-host: I have zero unanswered text.

Tom: Okay, so you're one of those.

Co-host: I either delete them or I respond to them. The text. I keep it clean.

Tom: 361 unanswered.

Co-host: So you don't delete. You don't do anything. It just sits.

Tom: Well, just if you're on a chain, like a group, and somebody puts a smiley face, that's a one, you know, but it's like, you know,

Co-host: so we're so different. I can't handle a little. The little highlighted thing.

Tom: Uh, well, either way it doesn't matter because either you got too many and you just don't. You don't. Either you got too many, so you just. Everything. So you delete everything or you don't look at it anymore because it's just too overwhelming. Either way, attention is a problem. I have 106 unread emails. That's just on my work Email. I have. I bet I have a thousand on Gmail. Now.

Co-host: I will say that I am much more in your camp on email. I do not have the, um. I have 30. I have 30. I actually just did a pretty purge. I still have, uh, 43 on.

Tom: And that'll probably go up by 30 on this podcast.

Co-host: While we're doing the podcast, I'll have 30 more. Yeah, yeah, it's exactly.

Tom: And we try to keep it anyway. We are getting thousands and thousands of messages a day from all these channels. LinkedIn, social. I mean, it depends on how many social things it just. So we have. It's just so hard to break through the noise. So we're going to talk about a truth. The truth today is attention is determined by relevancy and by need or relevancy. I'll say attention is determined by need or novelty.

Co-host: Okay.

Tom: Another way to say that is we pay attention to something we know we need are. Something we don't understand, Something that's out of the ordinary, unexpected, like. Like yesterday. Last night, there was this. There's this block party in downtown Roswell. Anybody that lives in Georgia. Roswell is a cool little city outside of Atlanta, north part of Atlanta. And they have a block party on third Thursday of every month. It's called Live at Five or something on Roswell. So tons of people. So I don't, you know, just a lot of people. You don't even notice them. Uh, Claire and I are sitting outside just kind of enjoying a glass of wine, and all of a sudden, two guys walk through dressed as unicorns.

Co-host: I remember that would be.

Tom: I'm like, I wrote, my brain goes,

Co-host: that's not normal for a unicorn.

Tom: Did you have a need for a unicorn? Yeah. So, uh, we're going to talk about how this truth impacts us because we all, you know, either. Either we've got customers, prospects we're talking to that go. That ghost us, or we can't get in touch with them, even though we had good conversations and we got to get their attention. Or maybe we're making a presentation and we have trouble. We want to get people's attention or where it's, you know, we're. We're cold outreach, and we want to break through the noise. This applies to every situation. If we know the formula for what gets people's attention, which is the truth is it's either something they need or it's some. It's a novelty, it's on, it's on. It's unexpected, then you're going to get their attention, guaranteed. So we're going to, we're going to, we're going to, uh, we're going to unpack that.

Co-host: All right, well, let's hear it like. So give us the, give us, give us the formula. Uh, how do you do it sounds, it sounds necessary.

Tom: It's definitely necessary. I think the, the. This is something you know, I wrote about based on some, you know, research that I discovered is kind of what drives this. And I think this, this, you know, I discovered this years and years ago. But this, this is just an. It's actually neuroscience helps us understand. This is where this comes from. It's just understanding how the brain works. There's a part of your brain, I remember, uh, reading about this and being fascinated by it. There's a part of your brain called the reticular activating system. So we call it raz, maybe other people call that too. And the sole purpose of this, one of the main purposes, I think, of this part of your brain is to filter out all messages, right? So like when you're driving or you're going through the airport, or you get you information's flooding, we ignore most of it. We don't stop every time we see something and go, what is that? Let's read it. You know, we just ignore. But subconsciously the RAZ will tap us on the shoulder and say, you need to pay attention to this. Yeah, right. So if we know it filters all the message, so all the messages go through the rest. So it's subconsciously doing this, which is crazy to think about that. Subconsciously, it. Your RAZ is working and taking in information and then taps us, our conscious brain, and says, you need to pay attention to it. And all of a sudden you'll notice something. You know, like I noticed the unicorns. I mean, I wasn't looking, Hey, I wonder if anybody's dressed. And you just, you know, I just don't notice.

Co-host: Don't notice.

Tom: Then I notice.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Um, or you're walking through like, I'm driving now, Claire is in the market for a car and just. I just pulled in the parking lot and of course I noticed that car. The car, uh, she's interested in.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: And whereas two weeks ago, before she said she was interested in a car, I wouldn't have noticed that car.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: I don't tell myself, hey, as you're driving around today, make sure you look for. I know. You just do. You just have, uh. So that is the purpose of the ras, is that it filters information and it brings us information that meets two criteria. Something we know we need or something that's out of the ordinary that we don't understand. And that's really a safety thing. It's like. It's a survival thing. Like, you need it. Your brain pays attention to it. Right. Like, if I get an ad for retirement 10 years ago, I don't even. I wouldn't even seen that Adidden get that. Now I see every ad that talks about retirement because I'm getting close to that age, and I'm interested in retirement. You know, I'm like, ah, uh, I wonder about retirement. So that's a need that I have. So that tells us what's important to our customers and prospects.

Co-host: And I wanted to point one other thing out, Tom, that I think's really critical because we understand that, you know, we really need to get people's attention, I think. But, I mean, like, you alluded to. I, uh, mean, you. You've done studies on the amount of messages. Like, how many messages did people get on average in a day?

Tom: When I did the studies, it was like five to 6,000 messages a day. And I think it's about eight to 10. Eight messages. Like, just information that we don't even

Co-host: think about, which is why this is so important. Like, I mean, you don't.

Tom: You have.

Co-host: I mean, you think about all the places, you know, whether it's a tick tock or it's. Or it's the radio. Yeah. And you go watch. You watch Paramount. Uh, and. And. And you're getting 23 messages. I mean, it is just overwhelming.

Tom: We are overwhelmed. We are overwhelmed. And so the. Our attention is. Is. Is. Is scarce because it's just. So. There's so much information. I mean, I got a gift certificate to Nike for shoes. Yeah. I thought. Well, uh, you know, it was a certificate. So I go online to look at shoes. There were 400 shoes. That's just Nike. I mean, it's like the thing about all those, you. I mean, you go into dick swarting. Good. You look at. She's just like the whole store. I mean, it's the size of a store is just shoes, you know, athletics. It is.

Co-host: It is amazing. So. So this. This Raz thing is fascinating. I mean, I. I like you. You get, um. I am blown away by it. I. I had an example myself. Just.

Tom: Yeah.

Co-host: Um, that was. It just completely showed me the power of. It was the same. Aha. That you had.

Tom: Okay.

Co-host: I just. I needed a new grill. I wanted, um. I just. I had kind of been doing research about a grill, and I wanted to get green egg. You know, the big green egg. And I'd had one before and I'd broken it. Um, and so I'm driving with my. One of my neighbors, and we're driving and there's this huge, huge sign on 316, like, coming from Atlanta up towards my house, huge billboard.

Tom: But you probably, probably ignore most of

Co-host: them big green eggs.

Tom: You don't read every, every billboard. Every billboard.

Co-host: So I'm driving where he and I are driving up. We're driving up 3:16. And I said, what are the odds? I've just decided I'm going to get a green egg. And there's a, there's an ad for a green egg store right there. He looks at me, he said, that's been there forever.

Tom: I love that.

Co-host: I mean, I've drive this route for years. I've never seen that green egg.

Tom: It's always been there.

Co-host: It's always been there. And it never even is to your point. It never clicked.

Tom: But I had a need. What's crazy is it subconsciously the brain is amazing to think about. And, uh, my best example of this, as you tell this, I'm, um, reminded of this story that I probably told a million times. I was working on writing a proposal, and I was sitting in a hotel, uh, lobby. The TV was blaring.

Co-host: It was.

Tom: Olympics were on. And I totally tuned out the tv. I tuned out everything. And I was bunkered in and writing this proposal, and I tuned out the world. And I was in the middle of writing, and all of a sudden I looked up and started watching an ad I had. Did not, you know, anything I'd heard on that television for the last hour and a half.

Co-host: Probably. Yeah.

Tom: And I. And I. It wasn't like I was pausing from writing. And I started watching tv. I was writing and then I, I was, I was jolted to, uh, pay attention. And it was about flat tires. And I had five flat tires in the last two years because I just bought a new car and it had a certain kind of profile tire. And I just kept having flat tires. And my raz goes, you ought to watch this commercial.

Co-host: Isn't that crazy? Did you end up buying m. It.

Tom: It pulled me out of my trance. Yeah, I mean, I don't know what it was said five minutes before that. I don't know. And I, I know for sure I didn't stop. I mean, it was like. That was like, how did that. I remember thinking, how did that happen?

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: So the cool thing is we can. And by the way, we're also Competing with AI, that's another channel of information. Like people are. Have AI chat boxes or whatever you call these. What do you call them?

Co-host: AI.

Tom: Assistant AI. Assistant AI Agents. Aj. AI Agents prospecting for them. So all of a sudden now there's a, a larger sales force trying to reach out to your prospects. So we have to compete not only with noise, but we have to, we have to. Our message has to even be better because AI, I mean, I can't take the number of messages now. You should never get messages about, I know you wrote a book or I know you have a sales training company or I know because it's just scraping all the stuff. Well then it falls apart.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Right. But. But it does understand what initially gets our attention. So we gotta be. We've gotta, we've gotta up our game if we're gonna compete and break through the noise. So, um, so I think the best way for. We can probably talk about applying this now. Tab is.

Co-host: Yeah, that's kind of what I wanted to do. I thought like, like make it practical. Like just kind of put it in, in a, in a um, in a model or a way to communicate it. We can kind of all see it and apply it into our, you know, trying to find new business. Really probably more the best way I

Tom: would think about applying it in any scenario. We're right regular. You're. You're making a major presentation, a finals presentation. You're trying to move a prospect forward or customer, uh, advance a prospect, move them forward. Who you've talked to before or it's cold, is think about their whiteboard. Right. We've talked about this a lot at aslan. Um, but think about their whiteboard. There's just think about. Just picture. They have an office. Just picture. They have a whiteboard. I have one. And think about what is on that whiteboard. Anything you say that's on that whiteboard, not about you, but it's on that whiteboard. Will get their attention. Will guarantee. Get their attention 100% of the time. Mhm. It's like if you show a picture of someone, if you give it. Show them a picture and they're in it, they will always look at it.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: What do they do? When you get a picture of. You're in it, the first thing you do is you blow the picture up of you. Yeah. How do I look? I hate that picture. That's a good. You don't base that. You don't base your love for that picture based on other people you like. I don't like that. Picture. I like that picture. That's a good picture. But you know, you don't blow up other people, you blow up yourself. You know, that's just the way we are. It's um, survival. So we, we've got to lead with what's on their whiteboard and think and remember this wasn't true, I don't know, three or four years ago. AI is doing that already. Mm mhm. So you have to. Maybe AI is not doing, you know, is not leading with the whiteboard issue, but it's leading with specific information about the people that it's prospecting to, that they've pulled. And so you've got to come up with things or identify things that are more unique to them. Right. So you could say like whiteboard, like trying to grow your sales training company. Right. Okay, well that's a pretty obvious thing. Yeah. We're in business for 30 years and we probably are trying to grow our sales training company. Yeah, that's probably on my whiteboard somewhere. But it's got to be more specific to what I might be dealing with or what I. If they're trying to reach me or you, or if you think about your prospect, what can you say? That's something they're really struggling with. And it detailed enough to where. It's like this wasn't just pulled from a, uh, search on the Internet or looking at my LinkedIn. This is, this, this, this is. Yeah, this is unique to me.

Co-host: Well, and that, that's where I'm such a fan of if. Because there's so much AI and people are, they are scraping everywhere to get things to be unique. That's why I love it. If you can, and I'd like to get your opinion on this, but if I can ever talk to somebody that have a name of somebody that this person knows. I mean, even if it, you know, I, you know, I spoke with Susan and she told me right now the big initiative, because I mean, AI is not going to tell you that. And I think that is another way to differentiate. Um, you know, you know, the more specific you can make it, the more human. I think that's what we're seeing with everything that's going on with AI, we're trying to make things more human. I mean that's like, well, you have to, have to now.

Tom: I mean, this is the truth. They will not pay attention unless it's about them. Now the question is, is kind of what you're bringing up is how do you make it about them and how do you be. How does it. So specific that they. It builds credibility with them. Yeah, right. Versus. It just sounds like another AI agent. Um, and you're right, Tab. There's only two ways to do that. One is you know the role so well that you guess. You guess. And it, uh, you know, like, you guess really specifically about. You say something about the industry, something about their role, how you've worked other organizations that have that same challenge, and it's so unique to that industry or role that they, uh, go, this person knows this person's worth talking to because they know things. They have expertise that I'm interested in. Or like you said, uh, which is easier and harder. It's easier because somebody will tell you, hey, talk to somebody and tell. And find out. Like, I've had people calling me for years. And my whiteboards right here, they'll come to my office, they'll give me free stuff. They'll leave it for me. Kelly, who works with me, is right next door. I have a whiteboard. No one's ever followed back up and said, I know the three things you're working on this year is. And those are very. They're very specific things, and they're very unique to me. Yeah, it. It's. So we gotta. Yeah. So either gotta. You gotta know the people you're talking to in their industry and make a guess. And it's okay if you guess wrong, because at least you're giving it a shot, and they're gonna go, well, that's not what I'm dealing with. But the person certainly knows my world. Um, or you talk to somebody and like, you said, tab, and you gotta. You gotta, like, uh. You gotta figure it out.

Co-host: Yeah, it was really. It was cool because, you know, I just had this. I. I knew the person I needed to get in touch with, and I had a really good relationship with an evaluator, you know, a pretty influential evaluator.

Tom: Yeah. You know, but it.

Co-host: Because we had a good relationship, it was really easy for me just to say, hey, tell me what's going on with him? What's happening? So when I ended up getting. That's how I ended up getting the meeting, you know? So, I mean, it. It. I don't think it's as hard. I mean, we just need to have our radar up, uh, all the time that we just want to figure out. I love that. That I hear that all the time. The whiteboard, that concept is easy to remember. Just. It's gotta be about. About them.

Tom: And you think about it, uh, on the whiteboard, it's not going to say, make more money, roi. Make more profits.

Co-host: Everybody increase revenue.

Tom: We want to do better. We want to do better. No, it's the specific things that they're working on to accomplish the things that every business wants to do. You know, because I get emails all the time. You want to grow your profits, you want to grow your company, you want to grow your.

Co-host: Yeah, you need more leads.

Tom: Everybody says that. But what are you doing uniquely for me that will allow me to do that? That tells me that you know me. It tells me, you know my industry and tells me, you know, my role.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: And if you can do that, um, you know, and then you're. You're gonna get. You're gonna get their attention. Now the question is, can you keep their attention?

Co-host: Yes.

Tom: All right. Because we also got to remember that if you're moving up the. You're moving up the. The sort of, uh, the ladder in roles, the higher you go up, the more. The more belief is that or the more you're going to face people who believe. I don't meet with sales reps.

Co-host: Right, Right.

Tom: So if you're a sales rep, if you rep stuff, I don't want to meet with a rep. I meet with. I meet with people who can help me grow my business or run my business or reach my destination. So the next thing we need to do, which is related to novelty, is we need to communicate a disruptive truth. And I like that better than I know. There's organizations that talk about insights, and I love insights. I think that's true. But if we really want to break through and get people's attention, we've got to communicate a, uh, disruptive truth, meaning something they don't know unexpected about a better way to solve their problem. Most people think this, but actually this is true. Like, you can eat donuts and lose weight. What? Like, it's crap. It's like, yeah, most people think they need to buy more. And I've seen, uh, there's a couple I've read, you know, that we've worked with organizations, they've developed. You know, most people think they're gonna need more insurance. They actually need less insurance. Right. Like, you know, or you can have better insurance and pay less money, you know, like what? You know, um, counterintuitive. So, yeah, yeah, yeah. There. There was something I wrote down. Um, uh, I. Something I had the other day happen to me. And this is a combination of two of what's on my whiteboard and a disruptive truth in the same sentence. And those are The. Those are the beautiful one.

Co-host: Okay.

Tom: I'm in the. I'm building a house. So I was in the process when I got this message. I was trying to figure out what kind of roof to buy for my house. Uh, you know, there's one of the types of roofs I was looking at which is more expensive is a standing seam roof. So the, the, the disruptive truth was why you don't need a standing seam roof.

Co-host: Right.

Tom: And I was like, well, I do need a scene. I thought that's what I needed. But they're talking to me about what I need and they're also saying why I don't need it. And so, uh, that was disruptive versus. And so, by the way, guess what? They sold a standing seam roof, but they had five reasons why you don't need a standing seam roof. And I was like. I was all over that. I was like, this is really. And they were five legit. They were. Because a lot of people are doing the bait and switch. Let me get your attention. And then be cheesy.

Co-host: Yeah. So it really, it truly could make. It makes sense for people not to have that.

Tom: It was five compelling reasons. Reasons why you don't need a standing seam roof. And that did leave a reason why you did. Yeah, but it was five compelling reasons why you don't need one.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: And you know, a lot of times they're like, uh, you know, people that are idiots don't need standing seam roofs anyway.

Co-host: Yeah, yeah. They're just.

Tom: People want their house. It was, it was legitimate. It was legitimate. Yeah. You know, so, um, we've got to say something. Dis. This is the novelty piece. This is the unicorn thing. Like, what can we say after we've captured their attention? Or maybe in the same way is say something disruptive about what we. Either about what we're about to show them in a presentation or about what we want to do. Why. How. Why we want to re. Engage them.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Um, you know, and. Or how. Why we want to meet with them.

Co-host: Yeah. Yeah.

Tom: So what do you think people struggle with the most taboo?

Co-host: I think it's disruptive truth. I mean, if people know people's. I mean, if they may not think about it, but if they can figure the whiteboard thing out, I don't think it's that hard once they kind of have their awareness. But I think disruptive truth is just. It's counterintuitive. I think that takes a little bit more time. I think, um, they'll at least my. I think people kind of just say what's good about their company. And they want that to be a disruptive truth. They just want to show some benefits or some value proposition.

Tom: That's a really good point, Tab. Uh, because I think we need to make. Is a disruptive truth does not point people specifically to your solution. It's for them.

Co-host: Yeah. Regardless is helping them have some insight or some truth around making these kind of decisions.

Tom: Right. So if I, if I, uh, we, when we've done that, we. This is a message that we've sent before about, you know, people that were looking to improve training because their rep turnover was great, their attrition is really high.

Co-host: Mhm.

Tom: Right. And so one of our disruptive trip, one of the disruptive truths I've shared is the best way to stop attrition is not train your reps, it's train your managers.

Co-host: Yes.

Tom: Now that doesn't mean they're going to hire us. Yeah, right. That's not about. And they, that doesn't mean they're not going to hire sales training. I just mean that's just true.

Co-host: Right.

Tom: All right. It's just so that's kind of the most. It's almost like you're a consultant giving them free advice that they don't expect. It doesn't say, well, we're, we're the only way to do that, you know, or, or you know. Now it can point people back to your, you know, if you, if you only sell leadership training and they want sales training. Mhm. But you know, you got to be careful that. Because if it sounds really salesy, then they're going to, they're going to reject it just because they think it's manipulative.

Co-host: Well, that's why I like the roof example you gave. Because yeah, it is good insights. I mean, I think like the whole. Train your managers. That's another good example. That is we want to train all the, we want to train all the reps and we want to train all the managers and we want to train everybody. We love that. Pointing to ourselves.

Tom: Yeah.

Co-host: But if, and we say this, if someone's limited and they only can do X right now as a first phase, we're going to. I mean it's less money for us, it's less profit for us, but that will have a bigger impact. And uh, so. And it's like you people have to figure this out in your world. You have to figure this out.

Tom: Exactly.

Co-host: Can't be manipulative, but it's got to be, um, it's got to create credibility. It's got to be helpful to the other person.

Tom: Yeah. And I think, I think you're right too, by the way. Back to disruptive. I think this is the most difficult. But here's the good thing about disruptive truth. If you're not creative, you don't have to be as the creative one to create a disruptive truth, but you need to find somebody that's creative that can create it. So you either need to be the person that can do it and go, I'm really good at this. I can kind of come up with cool headlines or creatively get people to go, what? Um, and it's that that's a creative skill, right? Talent.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Skill probably you can develop, but some people are more wired to. If you, if you're not copy, I mean, go find somebody that's really good at it. Um, like you said, the whiteboard thing. What's I think difficult about the whiteboard, especially if you're making a presentation, is we're just so centered on ourselves naturally we so naturally default to self that our raz is only interested in what we're, what we need. And so we keep defaulting intuitively to what we do. And so I still struggle with this like the biggest thing I struggle with when I make a presentation, which is mostly what I do now when I'm selling and a role of sales, you know, sales role, it's just be, you know, be able to talk about them every time I'm about to talk about something.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Okay, so let me tell you what I'm talking about. This and what comes naturally is because this is what we do, right? Or this is the key to. This is what's key to whatever. And I'm um, you know, or this is most important or this is our philosophy and this is why it matters.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: And there's why it matters and benefits and all those things, you know, we want. But if I can start the sentence go. You guys said to me, or because you are focused on, or because you're in this industry or because you're, you know, you can use and because you. Is a really good way to keep you honest. Mhm. That's hard to do. And you don't have to do it every time, but you need to do it in the areas where I really need them to focus on this or I don't think they're going to believe this or I think this is really critical. We've got to be able to connect it to their whiteboard and that takes work.

Co-host: So uh, you really think that's why this whole thing's difficult. I mean, like, getting their attention.

Tom: And, um, I think the, I think the whiteboard is difficult because we're focused on our whiteboard.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Um, it's the clash of the whiteboards. Um, and so that just takes into that. And by the way, we, you know, we did this buyer research project, uh, recently as we talked about podcast, um, the number one thing they said is lack of preparation. You don't know my business, you know, because it's so easy to go, oh, I'm about to make a call. I'm about to make a call. I'm about to make call. About to write an email, about to. And it's so easy to default, to sell.

Co-host: Well, and that, and that prep falls both camps. Right. It's on the whiteboard as well as the disruptive truth. I mean.

Tom: Exactly. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Now I think they don't expect the disruptive truth. Mhm. Um, but it really elevates us. Right? It's like, but they require, like, you know, they, they kind of, they expect you to go, well, is this about you or about me? It's about, you know, if the customer. Who's the hero of the story.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Am I the hero of the story? Are you the hero? And the more we can articulate somebody's point of view, the more they're the hero of the story. Now what they don't say is, well, they'll say insights. They'll say they want insights. Mhm. Um, but we, if we capture their attention and we, we share an insight, that's. That's great. That's super. I mean, but if it's disruptive, that even elevates us higher. And so, and I always like to say the level that's required to get somebody's attention is based on, you know, your relationship with them. Right. Yeah. Like if they're really unreceptive. Mhm. Then you got to work really hard to nail this. If they're, if real, super receptive, you may just have to describe their whiteboard and you got their attention. You know, it's like.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: So it's, you need to adjust the level of work.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Um. To create this message.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Based on. Yeah.

Co-host: I'm glad you said that because I think that's important because, because people said to me, well, you know, it's not, you know, if I hit on their whiteboard, it seems like that's all I really have to do. And I'm like a certain level of receptivity. That's true. But if, I mean, we're kind of, we're talking right now about the toughest and we all have every. I always ask. I was with a group of really high, top, high achieving reps last week and um, and I brought, I brought this up and I said, you guys are the best of the best in the whole organization. You're the, you are the top 20 sellers.

Tom: Yeah.

Co-host: Anybody struggle with this and they're like, oh, does anybody have like super. Somebody you just want to get a meeting with? Like, you know, if you get in that agency or you get. You would. And they all, every single one of them. Yes. So we all, we all have it. And we may.

Tom: Yeah, we all have it.

Co-host: We all have somebody.

Tom: And, and there's still a philosophy out there, Tab, that I think if, like if the fish, if the fish are biting, just throw them bait. Yeah. Right. Well, if you have enough people in the market like, hey, I want to, I want to buy standing seam roof.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: And then so the easiest thing you can do is throw a message out and say, hey, you need a new roof, I got one for you. And yeah, you're gonna. Now then you got to deal with. But the more competition there is, the more people throwing that message out there makes the response rates dropping more and more. And I think that's what's happening is dropping more and more. So we just keep trying to amp up more volume to break through the noise. And yes, you can still get a response rate, but more volumes required. But this response rate and the receptivity to sales is continuing to drop.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: So we're running out of room and we're running out of. We're running out of opportunity. So I think we've got to, uh, we've got to change what we're doing. And I think the good news is for those that are willing to do that, it's a huge competitive advantage.

Co-host: Yeah.

Tom: Yeah.

Co-host: Well, well, this is a great truth. I mean like, I like that you set it up in the very beginning. I mean we all have this problem.

Tom: We all have this problem. Yeah, I have this problem. I teach this stuff I have. Because it's just, it's not easy. It's not easy to do something different every time. Yeah, it's not easy to say every time. I mean, you know, we all go back to our uh, like we got your standard deck that you present. Yeah. You know what you say on that slide? Mhm. And you've got that. What's hard is to say, well, I'm gonna. What do I say about them that changes Every single time. And when I nail it and I crush it, I'm sure you feel the same way. And crush it meaning I feel really good about how we connected in the meeting. It's because I could articulate their point of view, and they're all like, yes. I kept showing them pictures. I said, this you? Is this you? Is this you? And like, yeah, that's me. That's me. And you can feel it, like, when you say, you know, this is what I find when I work with organizations like you or this situation. Like, that's right. That's exactly right. And they're all. And you're like, uh, yeah, because you've done the work.

Co-host: Yeah, that's great.

Tom: Beautiful. So attention. The truth is, the attention is driven by relevancy. No, wait, I keep saying it. Needed. Novelty. Need and two ends. Yeah. And another way to say need is relevancy. Right. So it's driven by need and novelty. Yeah, I think that was. I was playing with relevancy. Uh, it's when I tried to package the truth up. But, um, anyway. Anything else, Tabby, you want to.

Co-host: No, no, it's great. Attention follows need and novelty. I think that's a great. And hopefully give you guys some practical things that you can go put into practice. So.

Tom: Yeah. So talk about what's on people's whiteboard and wear unicorn suit. All right, we'll see you on our next episode for truth. Our next truth. And our. Our race to 30. Sat.