#536 - Stop Making this Simple Mistake

Speaker A: If you're trying to sell more of your stuff, we're going to be talking today about some simple truths around sales and what some people get wrong and what they actually do to hurt their business. All that and more is on today's podcast episode. Hey, my name is Blake Bins. I'm the host of the Good Advice podcast. And you've come to the right place to learn how to do business better. There's no fluff or theory on the show. It's just the stuff that actually works, stuff that you can actually apply today in your business. And as always, before we jump into today's content, we have a business that sponsored today's episode. Check out this quick ad. Support your local businesses and we'll be back soon. There's one single piece of advice that I give to business owners who are ready to scale their business drastically, and that's knowing exactly what you need to hand off so that you can continue focusing on what you're an expert in. It amazes me when I talk to business owners who are doing their own bookkeeping and tax prep and worse, that they're going through all this paperwork at 10 o', clock, 11 o', clock, even midnight, slaving away, trying to make sense of all of the numbers for their business. Business owners who are making it happen have already figured out that you can't do it all yourself. That's why I recommend Steve lay with Equity Business Solutions. Not only is he an expert in bookkeeping and tax prep, but what I love about Steve is that he'll sit down with you and help you make sense of the value of your business beyond just reading a spreadsheet. You'll be able to make better decisions. And more importantly, you're going to save yourself the crucial time you would have spent going through QuickBooks or an Excel spreadsheet or whatever it is that keeps us up late at night. So save yourself some time and some money by giving Steve Lay a call at Equity Business Solutions and he'll show you the value beyond your numbers. Go to Equity Business Solutions llc.com to find out more. So I want to talk about something today that it's not the first time I've talked about this. It's something that I've consistently. It's a consistent mistake that I've seen happen many times over the years. Um, it happened this morning. And so I want to talk about this problem that I see with business owners. Uh, you know, maybe younger business owners, younger in the sense of, um, their business is a little bit newer you know, they're not as seasoned I guess, in sales. Um, and this happens a lot. And I'll give a quick disclaimer. Um, this is just my perspective. This is not meant to be a slight or a dig at anyone in particular, um, but I will, I want to bring up some very tangible ways to process, um, how to sell more. And I'll just throw it out there from the get go. You know how you talk about your business? Um, I have found that many people focus way too much on how they package their business, meaning how they talk about it, how they pitch it, how they explain it. There's a lot of effort. Uh, people think that marketing is figuring out, you know, the right buzzwords and the right descriptions and things like that. And what I have found over the years is that many times even statements or descriptions or slogans or what have you really don't move the needle that much except in uh, very rare circumstances. You know, you think about like a jingle that has been, I think of JG Wentworth. I mean they got so much value off that commercial. So it can work and it is important. But for many of us, I have found that we hyper focus on these kinds of details rather than simply doing a great job. And I'll give a few examples. Um, years ago I worked for a consulting company that had this example around the power of simplicity. Um, they talked about this company that ended up rebranding and the way the company described themselves, this was like the value proposition or maybe this was like the mission statement on the website or I don't know exactly. But they said, you know, we are a, um, industry leading, entertainment focused, uh, experience oriented, uh, service that you know, know wows people. And you read that and you're kind of just like, okay, there's a lot of buzzwords in there, but what the heck are they? Well, they're, they're a, they're like a Chuck E. Cheese, you know, they're like, they're a pizza place, you know. So at some point the um, the, the, these things just create confusion and they rob us of the power of simplicity. I had someone who um, I was following on LinkedIn and they posted and they said, hey, uh, what do you guys think of my new. Because you know, like on LinkedIn, if you've never been on LinkedIn, you have like your profile and like whenever you comment or write something it has your headline and your headline is like, think of it as like your one line summary of who you are. And so, you know, I think originally this was maybe Like Blake Ben's Roofer, you know, like, maybe like a title or something. Over the years, this has been like a personal branding statement. So it's become things like, I help people who are stuck get unstuck. You know, just like the random stuff that people put out there. Well, I had someone who had revised their headline, and they said, you know, what do you guys think about this? And I. To this day, I couldn't tell you what this person offers or sells. Uh, uh, and it's a bit of an irony, because this was before 2020, uh, or whenever the movie Bird Box came out. Um, but this person said, um, I help. I help business leaders get, uh, outside of their bird box or something like that. And at the time, I used this as an example for like, what the heck? What the heck's a bird box? What is this thing? You know, now it's like, you know, a traumatic movie from five years ago. But. But, you know, you look at that, and this person. Again, it's not meant to be a dig. It's not meant to be rude, but this is someone who felt very passionate, felt very excited. Um, felt like it was, you know, they had something pithy, or they had something different or they had something new. It was exciting. Uh, I was talking to a business owner years ago who. His business name was some Latin phrase. I couldn't tell you what it was. It was like some literally random Latin phrase. And I was like, what's. Like, how did you pick that? And he was like, oh, it means like, to grow endlessly, or like to grow with resilience or something like that. And he's like, I spent so long and so much money, like, creating that business name. And I was like, that is the worst business name I've ever. I didn't, like, actually say that, but I was just thinking, like, it's. It's very difficult to even repeat what your business is called. So. But what we do is as business owners, we. We think like, oh, that's. That's different. Oh, that's new. Oh, that stands out. And, you know, uh, it's kind of a trap. You know, I see people, um. I go to, like, a lot of networking groups, and I see people, like, try different pitches and different descriptions and different things. And again, not that there's not, like, merit to. To these kinds of conversations. You know, I think there is merit to, like, think, like, trying new things and seeing what registers and seeing, like, maybe a five or six services. And, you know, the crowd's pretty mild about, like, this One service you talk about, but when you talk about this other service, you know, you have people coming up to you afterwards being like, I got to know more about that. Like, what is that? It's not like, there's not, like, merit to these kinds of conversations. The problem, though, and I'll, I'll pick on one person, um, um, who I heard at one of these events recently. And again, this is not meant to be. It's really not meant to be mean or rude, but, you know, let's say your business, you are an electrician, and you, when you talk about your business, you get up and you say, um, we are a premium experience that specializes in custom service solutions for people who are interested in having a more efficient, effective, and safe household. So here's the deal. Uh, I'm sure there is someone out there who would swear by that statement. By the way, they'd be like, oh, I love it. It's different, it's new. I think this is one of, like, the worst ways you can describe your business. And again, it shows a mismatch between your expectations for why people buy and why people actually buy. So chances are, if you're an electrician and someone's going to hire you, they're not going to do it because you said you develop efficient households. Um, chances are that's not going to happen. The thing that gets in our head, though, is we think like, oh, I want to sound good, different from that other electrical guy. I want to sound different from that other company. Well, what's the easiest way to sound different? Let's put in all this marketing buzz in our pitch. Unfortunately, that is not what gets people to buy. What gets people to buy is very simply, you do what you do better than everyone else. Like, I'm, I'm a little bit, uh, concerned as to the number of people who put so much time and energy into wordsmithing and, you know, putting lipstick on a pig rather than simply delivering great solutions. I can tell you that almost all of our effort at, uh, good advice is put into better results and, and improving results and building portfolios of, like, real value than it is, like, our next big marketing campaign. So understand the next time that you're at an event or you're talking about your business, it's infinitely more compelling for someone to simply know who you are, what you do, and, and what's your proof of it working? What's your proof? You know, who are the businesses now? Unfortunately, in today's day and age, like, people can easily lie. Um, when I was really going heavy on like the podcast side of my business, like the podcast production side of the business. Um, I had a guy reach out who was like, hey, you know, I'd love to collaborate, yada, yada. Uh, you know, I have all these amazing. And the whole thing, this is the other thing too is like when people talk about the work that they've done, as you get older in business, certain things just do not make sense. Like, I was talking to my wife about this, about someone else who was talking about their business and I was like, the way that he talks about his business is not how people talk about business. You know what I'm saying? Like, I was like, the way he describes his business is not how people describe their business. It is not how, um, you know, the moment someone is describing their business and like, they're, uh, I don't know, they're, they're an E Com, you know, maybe they sell shirts online or something like that. The moment you ask someone like, hey, how's the business going? A normal person is going to say, hey, it's going great. Yeah, we got our website on Shopify. Um, you know, we're just trying to grow from X amount of orders to this many orders. You. Yeah, we're, we're mostly feeding leads through meta. You know, we're running ads. You know, we have a budget about this much. We're seeing, you know, our return on ad spend is about this. Now granted, the average person isn't going to reveal like every single detail, but they're, they're just going to talk about their business in a way that it just makes sense to another business owner. Or maybe they're going to talk about costs or margins or profit margin. Or maybe they're going to say, you know, our, uh, cost to close or our time to close or life cycle of a customer, customer churn. Like, there's just very simple conversations that happen with mutual business owners. And by the way, if you don't, if not every single one of those terms like, pings with you, um, it doesn't mean you're incompetent, doesn't mean you don't know. It's just some of these things reflect where you are in your business journey. And that's actually kind of my point. You know, if I'm talking to someone, this is the example I was telling my wife. If I'm talking to someone and they're talking about all the success they're having in their business and I ask some questions about the business and they say something like A really common hot phrase is verticals. Like, oh, we're really being elastic across a number of set variables. And as we engage with a number of verticals, uh, we're really expanding the scalability and capacity of our business to really deliver, um, 10 times, you know, 10x style results. Like, this is such, this is such like an online marketing guru framed language. It's not how a normal person talks about their business. Right. So, which again, it's not meant to be mean. I'm, um, not, um, I'm not attacking anyone in particular. If you so happen to talk that way, it doesn't mean you're a fraud. It's just over time you just, you just learn like what's fluff and like what's real work. So as a business owner, you want to be someone who, you are hyper focused and aware on those results. Not on the fluff, not on, you know, we, we craft premium experiences. Okay, you're a pizza store. Well, so like, what this company actually changed their slogan or whatever too was, you know, we're the best dang pizza store in Massachusetts. Simple, clear, you know, it's like, okay, I at least know what it is you sell and what you do. And I also just, by the way, I get really nervous. Isn't the right word suspicious also isn't really the right word. I get kind of wary of someone who can't describe their business in a very clear way. In very clear terms. Suspicious may be the right word. Um, we had a guy who was local. He basically ran away, basically moved away, uh, because there were some serious fraud allegations against him. And um, essentially what this guy sold was a lot of fluff. And it wasn't cheap. It was, you know, tens of thousands of dollars or at least several thousand dollars. I know one customer spent over 10k, another one spent, I think around 10k. So you have thousands of dollars. And whenever you would ask this guy, like, what do you sell? He would, he would say something to the effect of, you know, we maximize your tax return by improving the equity value of your business. As, um, and as you increase the capital of your brand, we monetize that capital in, uh, you know, points of value for bank lenders and what have. There's just so much loaded in that statement that it's like enough for it to kind of make sense. You know, there's a lot of like, business terminology in it, but when you actually look at it, you're like, so what, what do you do? Like, what, what is this? So like, if you're A roofer, you don't need to talk about the, you know, premium experience and all these different. You can just say, yeah, we're roofers, this is what we do. Because like, understand also like the selling process. Someone doesn't sell, someone doesn't buy. Excuse me. Because of the incredible nature of your statement now I will say to the, to the defense of copywriters out there, this is often how you start the conversation. This is often how you get someone in the door, but it's not what closes someone and it certainly isn't what creates great long term customers. I have very good long term customers, customers who I've had for many years and I, uh, I probably undersell how I talk about our services, but I'm very cut and dry. I'm um, very. This is what it is, this is what it's not. You know, if a customer comes to me with like a mismatched expectation, I. E. When are we going to go viral? It's, you know, okay, well we don't really do that. You know, we don't manage your social media profile. We don't really, you know, when am I going to 10x my business? You know, Well, I, I'm not running your business, so that's really dependent on you, I guess. So we're very like cut and dry, very, you know, clear to the bone in terms of like, this is what it is, this is what it's not. But honestly, what is really going to sell someone is the value of what you deliver on. And in year one, you may not have that figured out yet. And honestly, I think having an objective viewpoint, like, and I'll say this like very candidly, we achieve incredible results for our customers. On the same token, I am deeply dissatisfied with the results that we're currently delivering. And that is because my expectation for results is, is I want to be literally the best option available. Seriously, I want to be the best option available. I want to deliver results that no one else can get. Like that is important to me and it's not about clout or ego or pride. It's that I genuinely want to make sure that. I mean it's part of my human nature. Like I've just always felt a need to achieve and excel and if we're going to do it, we're going to do a great job with it. We're going to not gonna, you know, half, half it. You know, we're not gonna just be lazy about it. We're gonna do a great job. So we're doing great work. Now, but it's not the best ever out there, and that's what I'm working towards. And so what that looks like is we're constantly iterating. Um, Man, I have blasted AI so much on the podcast. We're constantly looking at how we can integrate AI. We're constantly trying new tools. We. We're constantly trying new processes. Man, I have spent hundreds, if not thousands in the last year alone trying different apps and processes and different things. And it's not, uh, you know, sometimes it's. It's not like, um, let's just throw things at the wall and stick. It's. It is a drive and a hunger to be more efficient, to be better and ultimately achieve better results. I got an email from a customer who was filled with gratitude a few weeks ago. And the customer basically said, you know, we have some of these problems. Here's X, Y and Z. What's going on? And I said, hey, man, you're actually already taken care of. We actually already solved that all for you. Hey, uh, you're actually good. Someone had come to this person and been like, hey, here's a problem you guys are dealing with. You're going to have to figure this out. And so the customer came to me to put it in front of me, and it was like, dude, you're covered. We got you, man. We already did. We already took care of all that. And the customer said, wow, okay, I, you know, I love you guys, you know, so, like, that's. That is the experience that I want for all of my customers, and that is where I spend all of my energy, all of my effort, all of my time. And that has not only been like, trying new things, that has been from, like, a sales aspect, being a better salesperson. I mean, I can't tell you how many hours I've spent online on YouTube, in sales conversations, um, chatting with other sales experts, um, you know, just attending, uh, presentations on sales and, you know, figuring out what works for me and what doesn't work for me. Like, I've spent an honest, deep effort into this because I want to be good at what I'm talking about and ultimately what I'm selling. So, um, anyway, put your effort and focus on that rather than how do we have the snazziest, snappiest pitch statement at your next event. Hey, thanks for tuning in to today's podcast episode. If you enjoy the podcast, you want to support the podcast, you can do that two different ways. If you're a business, you want to sponsor an episode, you can always reach out to me@blakeoodadvicecoaching.com and if you are a other person, you want to support the podcast for as little as $5 a month. We used to say as cheap as a cup of coffee. Now it's cheaper than a cup of coffee. $5 a month. You can check out our patreon patreon.com Good advice. And I appreciate those businesses and people who have supported the podcast long term. Hey, that's all we got for you today. Thanks for tuning in. That's today's good advice. We'll catch you later. See ya. Thanks for.