Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be continuing our discussion on the AI approach to multiply your sales. This is part two in our series, and today we'll be discussing service, referrals, and content marketing.



David: Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Thank you so much, David. I'm really enjoying this discussion about AI because I think we've already established there are some great tools and resources with AI, but it's not exactly to the point where it needs to be.

But more specifically, can it really speak to your individual situation? How do you pick through that and know what's right for you?

David: Exactly, and last week we were talking about the first three recommendations it made, which were define your target audience, develop a compelling value proposition, and optimize your marketing channels.

This week, we're going to be talking about its next set of recommendations. And it starts with number four on its list is:
4. Enhance Your Customer Experience. Focus on delivering exceptional customer service and creating a positive experience at every touch point to build loyalty and encourage repeat business.
That sounds nice.

Jay: It sounds fantastic. Again, just do that. You know, but how do you do that? I think I mentioned in the last podcast that so often people go into business not because they're great at customer service, but because they have a great recipe, or they have a great product. And they don't really think about how to offer that in a great way.

I'm in the accounting field now, which kind of blows my mind and is a different conversation. But I find generally, David, that accountants don't know how to give good customer service. And they kind of feel like they have a captured audience and so they don't even try to give good customer service.

David: And a lot of accountants also really struggle with marketing because they feel like it's

Jay: Yes, yes.

David: Kind of, if not beneath them, they feel uncomfortable with it. They don't want to come across as a salesperson. They're very good at what they do and they're less good at finding the people they need to do that sort of thing.

And that's why a lot of them, a lot of small business accountants struggle, because they're great at accounting and not so great at the things that we're talking about here that will actually allow them to service more customers.

Jay: Yeah, you're exactly right. Where I've come from, the retail side, the customer service side, that's been my whole background.

So, we're kind of owning our little space in the marketplace, because we're focusing on that up front, and people recognize a difference immediately.

David: Yeah, exactly. So, one of the things we talked about in the previous podcast related to AI telling us how to multiply sales is that some of these recommendations come across as rather general. Okay, so enhance your customer experience is not really the kind of thing you would think of as "okay, this will allow me to multiply sales."

It's a necessity. You have to have exceptional customer service in your business if you want to survive, let alone thrive, let alone multiply business. But it doesn't seem to me to be a multiplier in and of itself.

However, when we think about this idea, what can we do to make the experience better, what can we do to expedite the experience, make these things happen better and more consistently, that will allow us to get the velocity we need, in my opinion, to be able to then Multiply your sales.

In other words, it's not enough to just do a great job with customer service. We need to be able to do it with a cadence of accountability.

Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the AI Approach to Multiply Your Sales. This is the first in a multiple part series, and we'll start off with targeting, communication, and reach.


David: Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, David, it's great to be with you.

I'm really excited about this series because I think a lot of people shy away from AI. Or they're getting into it and they're hearing a lot of the things that it can do, but they're not sure how to approach it or even if it's the right thing to do for their business.

David: Yes. Agreed. The way this actually came about is that we've been talking for a while over the course of the past several weeks in particular about multiplying your sales.

And some people really struggle with this concept. And I thought, well, what does AI have to say on the topic, and how does what AI says about it relate to what we do, and how we help our clients, and do these things line up? So I thought what I'd do is I'd take the answer to the question when we asked AI, "What are your best recommendations in terms of multiplying sales," to see what AI says and then compare that with what we're doing.

And so the first three recommendations that it had were based on targeting, communication, and reach. Those are my words, not AI words in particular. But that's pretty much what it broke down to, so I figured that's what we'd start with.

Jay: I love it. We're going to do a podcast on AI, and we've asked AI what it thinks first, and now we're going to psychoanalyze AI to see if it's in line.

David: Well, to see how it lines up. Because one of the things that I found interesting was that when I asked it about multiplying sales, it was coming back with responses that talked about increasing sales.

And so I asked it specifically to come up with recommendations based on multiplying sales. And at first it seemed resistant to that.

So it talked about growing sales and multiplying sales. But this is where it landed. So I figured we'd start with this.

Now, I had asked it to prioritize these things. I'm not quite sure if it did. But this is what it came back with. So the very first recommendation that it had in terms of multiplying sales.

I'll tell you specifically what it said first and then we can discuss it.

So the first thing that it recommended is it said:
1. Define Your Target Audience. Clearly identify your ideal customers and understand their needs, preferences, and pain points.
So, that's how it started. What do you think of that take?

Jay: It sounds very, very traditional, very typical, common knowledge. The first thing that I learned in a sales class years ago, identifying your target audience.

But I feel like that's so basic, and when you talk about multiplying sales, I tend to think that's more about taking the existing clientele and getting them to spend more. That's what I think about.

David: I tend to think that way as well, but I thought it's a pretty good jumping off point because whether your target audience means your existing clients and the new clients that you want to go after, I think it makes a whole lot of sense to lead with, determining who it is that you're going to be going after.

I relate a lot of this to what we do in our Total Market Domination course. One of the very first things we do in our course is we have a three level system of targeting.

So what AI is recommending here in sort of a general sense, in terms of defining your target market, is something that we really dive into pretty heavily with our clients.

Because without that targeting up front, if you don't know exactly who it is that you're going after,

If you want to multiply money in your business, it means you have to figure out the very specific steps that you need to take in order to make that happen.



David: Hi and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss the topic, Can You Multiply Money? Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey David, of course you can. I have a tree in my backyard. Money grows on it and I just have to water it every year. What else do I need?

David: Nice. No, that's great. You got a money tree. You're in great shape. When I think about the abilty to multiply money, I know that in the early stages of some of my businesses, and in the early stages of trying to figure out how to make them work, I was able to multiply money. But I was multiplying it by fractions, you know. So...

If you multiply money by 0. 5, you now have half the money you started out with. So I think we're all able to multiply money. But, ideally, we want to multiply by whole numbers.

Jay: Yeah, I agree, but we also subtract money. I'm not sure what the terminology is. Bbut a lot of times in an attempt to multiply money, if you're not careful, you're actually losing money.

David: Yeah. And you will have to invest. You'll have to make investments up front. I think a lot of times people go into business, particularly small business owners, will go in with the idea of, "well, I'll just bootstrap it."

And it's certainly what I've done, I did that a number of times and when it works, it's fantastic. And when it doesn't, it's disastrous.

So as long as you recognize that going in, it's all okay. But having that focus, what will it take to get this going? How much will it cost? How long will I have to work for nothing, if I bootstrap entirely? A lot of those questions come into play.

Jay: Yeah, otherwise it's kind of gambling. You know, starting a business is kind of a form of gambling, but the better the idea is, the more help you have along the way, the more financially stable you can be in the process, the more you increase the odds that your gamble will pay off.

David: Yeah, and it really is a gamble in the truest sense of the word. Because you don't know if it's going to work. It might work and it might not.

You may have a really good feel for it. You may have done it before and say, okay, I feel really good about this. I think this is really going to work, but it's still a bet. You're still guessing and betting that it's going to work based on what you know. You think you can multiply money, but you can't be sure until you try.

I've never really been a gambler in terms of casinos and things like that, but I guess people who do that well and know how to do it, they can go into a situation and say, "okay, I have a pretty good feel for the fact that I'm going to make back a multiple of what I lay down on the table.

And sometimes they're right and sometimes they're wrong. And it's exactly the same in business.

Jay: Yeah, absolutely. Only in business, you may put a lot of things on the line, your family's future. You may quit your job. You really put yourself out there in many ways.

I found success in making sure my family is supported with a day job and then I pursued other things on the side.

Meanwhile, I had other family members who have said, "no, I'm going all in" and they put everything at risk. And that didn't turn out so well, but you know, it depends on the individual and the idea, I think.

David: Yeah, absolutely. And I know in the early stages I tried doing sort of a sideline thing for a while and I could never personally make that work.

Jay: Yeah, yeah.

David: Because it was hard for me when somebody else was paying me money to do a job,

I got a lot of great feedback from last week's episode on how to create explosive growth in your business. So today I'd like to expand on that topic a bit and start laying out the steps to make it happen.



If you're serious about creating explosive growth in your business, let's start by discussing where that sort of growth begins.

It's not in your marketing, not yet. It's not in your sales scripts. That comes later. And it's definitely not in whatever new shiny object comes flying across your screen as you scroll on social media.

Instead, it starts between your ears.

Here's what I mean. If you look at the most successful printers and promotional product distributors, and really the leaders in almost any industry, a big difference in what sets them apart from their competitors isn't luck.

It's their mindset, the way they think about their business, their clients, their messaging, and their results before they do anything to reach out to them. And while you probably already know that's important, you also need to understand why having the right mindset doesn't just make you feel better about your business.

It's not really about your feelings, it's about your vision. Having the right mindset allows you to see better. It allows you to notice the people, the approaches and the opportunities that you might otherwise overlook. It allows you to recognize the profitable activities and patterns that other people don't see.

As a result, you stop looking at the typical average approaches that create average, mediocre results for everyone else, so you can trigger the explosive growth you're looking for.

This means thinking like a market dominator, not just like a participant.

You already know that every business has a ceiling, but you might not know that most of these ceilings are self-imposed. They come from the beliefs and the actions of the participants.

I hear from business owners all the time who swear they want to grow, but then the very next thing they tell me is the reason they believe they can't do it.

"I want to grow, but I don't have enough time."
"I really need your help, but I can't afford it right now."
"I'm serious about growing, but the people in my market are cheapskates."

The problem with that thinking is that you're making excuses instead of making plans.

Explosive growth requires you to blow through that ceiling by asking better questions. Like:

"What if I do have the time, but up until now, I just haven't been using it the right way?"
"What if I stop wasting financial resources on things that don't move the needle and start investing in the things that do?"
"What if I adjust my approach to ignore the cheap skates and start targeting clients with money?"

These are some of the simple mindset shifts that allow you to see how explosive growth is even possible. Of course, mindset alone won't do it, but it does allow you to unlock the rest of the process of market domination.

One of the biggest differences between struggling business owners, average performers and those who dominate their markets is how they evaluate their resources.

Struggling owners think in terms of shortages:

"I don't have enough..."
"I don't have enough time, leads, ideas, help, resources..."

But top performers who create explosive growth in their businesses, focus instead on leveraging everything they have.

"How can I generate exceptional results from the time, leads, ideas, help, and whatever other resources I have?"

It's a simple shift that provides alternatives instead of focusing on excuses for why I can't get the things I want.

Want to create explosive growth in your business? If so, consider this: Why is it that some businesses take off like a rocket while others can languish for months or years without getting the traction they need to grow?

Why do some businesses plateau at a certain level and struggle to break through, while others are able to grow consistently?

In my experience, it boils down to three things we'll discuss in this episode.



Recently, I was reminded of a story about how Chinese bamboo trees grow very slowly underground, for years, completely unseen.

The people who plant these trees water and fertilize the soil every day, even though there are no signs of life.

Sounds tedious, right?

Watering the same patch of dirt for years?

I mean, that HAS to feel pretty unfulfilling at times.

But the amazing part of the story is that roughly five years after planting -- when the bamboo finally breaks the surface of the ground -- it can grow up to 90 feet tall in just five weeks.
That's an example of how to create explosive growth!
And while a typical bystander might see that and think, "wow, that grew really fast!"

The people who actually do the work -- those who plant, water, fertilize and cultivate these plants -- know EXACTLY what it took to trigger that growth.

I love this analogy because it tracks so closely to the work I've done with promotional product businesses over the past 20+ years.

Some of the people I work with might start out feeling a bit like the bamboo gardener -- tending, nurturing, and cultivating a business that seems like it might never break through the soil.

In fact, some are stuck for more years than it takes for a bamboo tree to crack through the dirt and see the light of day.

But the good news is that promo businesses AREN'T bamboo trees.

They're not subject to the same restrictive laws of nature.

Instead, there are very specific steps we can take to prep the environment and TRIGGER explosive growth much faster.

In fact, when I work with clients, we operate in two primary modes:
First is Stealth Mode
This is where we lay the groundwork that no one else sees. It's what's happening beneath the surface. In bamboo terms, it would be the equivalent of supercharging the seeds, soil, water, and fertilizer to create a better, stronger, faster-growing plant that is heartier and more resilient than the other plants.
Second is Intimidation Mode
I know that sounds obnoxious. But the simple fact is that when you initiate explosive growth in a business, people notice.

Their prospects are excited to see something new and different. Their clients are excited to be associated with a winner, OUR clients are excited to have their businesses attracting the right people and growing the way they want...

And their competitors? Well, they just get intimidated.

It's not the intention. But it's often a side effect.

So each month, we offer a small group of promotional product distributors the opportunity to work with us to plant the seeds.

Our goal is to help you quickly:

Lay the groundwork
Plant the seeds and
Trigger explosive growth

And we do this using our proprietary, proven framework.

It is NOT cheap, but it is EXTREMELY effective.
So what does creating explosive growth actually look like in a promotional products business?
Well, let's start with what it doesn't look like…

It doesn't look like 10 to 20% annual growth.

I mean, think about it. If you start at $50,000 in sales your first year and settle for 10% annual growth,

To turn focus into profit, consider this. Your focus determines the level of profit that you generate. Because the people you meet, the conversations you have, all of that flows from your focus.

So when you focus on those activities, the likelihood of increasing your profit increases dramatically.



David: Hi and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss How to Turn Focus into Profit. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: It's great to be here. Thanks for having me, David. Focus. Focus is something we could all use a little bit more of probably in our day-to-day lives, but is that a rare skill in business today? In the people that you work with?

David: That's a great question. I think for some people it is problematic. I think that's the nicest way to say it. If you lack that focus, then it's going to be a lot more difficult to accomplish the things that you want.

So if it is something that you're already good at, then the question becomes, how do I best harness that? Can I turn focus into profit?

And if it's not something you're good at, then the question becomes, how can I get at least good enough at it that I can function at the level at which I need to function?

Kevin: I feel like my focus has changed over the years, and part of it is definitely technology. Because I've got a phone sitting next to me that might beep. Might be personal, might be business, could be anything.

I could be working on a project and a client on Slack gets in touch with me. Then I get an email. And then there's just so many channels of communication.

I mean, do you find that technology has made it more difficult in some ways for people to focus, and to turn focus into profit? As opposed to maybe 10, 20 years ago?

David: Yeah, and I mean, particularly when you look at things like social media, because social media is designed to disrupt your focus.

Kevin: Right.

David: Everything that comes in, whether it's an email or a post on social media, it's all designed to get your attention. So that's why, particularly in the past 10 to 20 years, focus is so much more of an issue for people.

Because as you said, there are lots of different things to focus on. The algorithms are specifically programmed to make you focus on their priorities rather than your own. That makes it challenging to turn focus into profit.

So if you're aware of that and if you recognize that you have to determine what your focus needs to be in order to accomplish your results, then it becomes more likely that you'll take the necessary actions to do that.

Kevin: Yeah, that's a really good point. I mean, we've all been in situations where you go on social media for a business purpose and all of a sudden you're watching videos of some knuckleheads playing slip and slide softball, which are kickball, which I've gotten watching, are those silly videos. You're just like, before you know it, you're like, oh my God, it's been a half an hour.

I just came on here to check out a client's page real quick.

David: Yeah. And again, they designed the system to do that. They built it in. That's not a mistake. That is the purpose of the design. So when we recognize that only we can determine whether or not we will remain focused, then we take the responsibility on ourselves.

We recognize Okay, it 's designed to do that. So if I recognize that and if I leave that open, and if I have notifications turned on to an app that is specifically designed to derail me from my focus, then yeah. I'm sort of getting what I'm putting out.

Kevin: You're in trouble. You're in trouble.

David: Yeah.

Kevin: Yeah. so the topic today is about how to turn focus into profit.

The success of your business is always determined by the what, why, when & how. What are you doing? Why are you doing it? When are you doing it? And How? If you don't have the desire to help your clients, if it's all about you making money, or if it's all about you accomplishing a personal result for yourself, and you don't have enough care or consideration for the person you're selling to, I think it's going to be hard to be successful long term.


David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the what, why, when, and how of your business. Welcome back, Kevin.
Kevin: Good to see you, David. How you doing?
David: Doing great, and you?
Kevin: Good. Good. All right — so, what, why, when, how. Let’s start with the first one. Why is it critical to define your what before anything else in business?
David: Well, the way I look at it is, if you don’t know what you’re doing, then why you’re doing it, when you’re doing it, and how you’re doing it are kind of irrelevant.
Kevin: Doesn’t really matter.
David: Right. You sort of—
Kevin: Yup.
David: Yeah, you kind of have to know what it is that you’re setting out to do. Whether you’re operating solo or with a team of people, identifying what you want to accomplish — in your business or in any specific area of your business — is always the first step.
So, if the what is “getting clients,” then the question becomes: What is my procedure? What is my process going to be for getting clients? That’s the what.
You identify that first. Once you’ve even thought about what you want to accomplish — or what you think you might want to accomplish, if you’re still in the ideation stage — the what is important.
But the reason I go to the why next is because if you don’t have a strong why, you might not be committed enough to what has to be done.
Over the years, I’ve noticed that people who have ideas but don’t have a really strong, compelling reason for doing them tend to struggle to get those things done.
Kevin: So it can become a motivation issue to some degree?
David: It certainly can, because if you’ve got strong reasons for wanting to do something — whether it’s to support your family, to create a growing enterprise, or to eventually sell the business and make a profit — that strong why will definitely impact your motivation.
So I think that’s a big component. Without it, why does anyone really do anything?
Kevin: I suppose you could technically start with the why, right? Because if you have a reason for doing something, you can then build the what around it. Or is that a bad way to go in your mind?
David: Well, if you’re thinking in terms of starting a business, that would actually be the what. But I guess it’s possible to start with the why. For example, if my why is “I want to support my family and I’m not happy with what I’m doing now,” then I might arrive at a what like, “I want to start my own business,” or “I want to do A, B, or C to make that happen.”
That hasn’t worked that way for me personally — but it could for someone else. If you’ve got a strong enough why, you can then start thinking about what needs to happen in order to achieve the things you have in mind.
Kevin: When it comes to the when, why is it so important to define a timeline?
David: Wow. Anyone who’s in sales probably has some strong thoughts about when. If you’ve ever spoken to a prospect who seems really excited and seems like a perfect fit for what you offer — and then they just keep dodging you or stop taking your calls — that’s a perfect example of someone who doesn’t have their when dialed in.
In any conversation — with prospects, clients, or coworkers — we need to identify the when so everyone’s on the same page about the importance of the action and the likelihood of it happening. Because without a when,

It's important, no matter who you're partnering with, from a business standpoint, from an employee standpoint, from a VA standpoint. Whoever you choose as your business partners and colleagues have to have the skills that you lack, if you want to be able to accomplish the things that you need to get done.



David: Hi. Welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the topic of choosing business partners wisely. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: It's good to be here. David. I'm excited to talk about this because this is always an interesting topic.

David: Yeah. When we think of business partners, we tend to think of people that we're actually going into business with. But there's really sort of a wider group of people that could potentially fit the bill here. So I think it's important to cover that as well.

Kevin: The first one you spoke of, the actual business partner, business partner. I mean that can test a friendship. It can test a relationship, it tests all kinds of stuff. So in your experience, just from that side of things. What are the biggest mistakes that business people, entrepreneurs make when choosing a business partner?

David: Well, I've made them over the years. My very first business partner was a guy that I worked with in another business. We decided we were going to start our own things. And so we just started out renting the same office space and splitting the rent on that sort of thing.

Then we got involved in projects that required both of us working together. It didn't work out well. I started from the standpoint of we got along well, we interacted well. But neither of us took the time to consider our strengths and what each of us would bring to the table.

A lot of times when people start working with friends or family, they think, "well, I know this person really well. I trust them." That's a good start.

But unless you have similar visions for what the business is going to be, how you're going to get there, and who's going to do what, you can really end up with a lot of problems if that part of it doesn't work out.

Kevin: Yeah. it can go downhill fast. It can definitely go downhill fast. So, in any business partnership, you know, you talked about the fact that there's varying types of them. What qualities do you feel matter most in a potential partner and which maybe are overrated?

David: Well, I would say, starting out, you need to look at: Are our core values basically aligned? Do we sort of view the world in a similar way? Are we viewing business in a similar way? Do we view the relationship with our potential customers and clients in a similar way? Because if there's a disconnect there, then you're going to have problems starting with the very first decision.

So I think that compatibility is very important. Making sure that everybody wants to go in the same direction, right? If you're in a rowboat, you want to make sure everybody's pulling in the same direction. That's extremely important.

If you have complementary goals, essentially that's going to be a very important aspect of it.

I think also, what is the expertise? What are you good at? What are they good at? If it's exactly the same things, you need to make sure it covers everything that has to be covered in a business.

So, if I'm really good at generating ideas and you're really good at implementing those ideas, then that's going to work out well.

If we're both great at generating ideas, but neither of us are great at implementation, we're going to struggle with that. And so you want to look at complementary skills.

I think that is probably one of the most important aspects of it. You've got the same vision, but you have complementary skills.

We'll basically help you to look at where you are now and where you're looking to be in terms of getting something from ideas to actions and systems. Because without those three levels and without prioritizing it correctly, you can spend a lot of time, invest a lot of effort, and not get to the results you're looking for.



David: Hi, and welcome back. In today's episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist and I discuss the topic of ideas, actions, and systems. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Good to see you, David. Let's dig right in. Why do so many businesses get stuck at the idea stage and fail to even move into action?

David: It's a great question. I think ideas in a lot of ways are kind of the easy part. We have a brainstorm, we're like, this is brilliant, let's do this. And then we have another one has this, brilliant, let's do this. And here's another one. This is brilliant. Let's do this. And then the question becomes, okay, what are we actually going to do?

I know this has happened to me over the years in my own business. It's happened with a number of people that I've worked with over the years. You have a lot of ideas. And then the question becomes, what are we going to take action on? And then, which of the things that we take action on, will we systemize? Get into place so that we can take those actions consistently?

So that's really the purpose of our discussion today.

Kevin: Yeah. how do you personally decide, which ideas are worth pursuing and which to ignore? Because I can find myself to be an idea guy a lot of times too. I'm like this, I got this, I got this. But sometimes it's hard to prioritize what is actually a good plan. Then put it into action versus maybe we just skip that one.

David: Yeah, it's helpful if we start out with essentially a data dump of all the different things that we're considering. Just write them all down. Then have internal conversations initially about which ones of these are going to be our priorities.

What are we definitely going to lock in? Which ones will we save until later? And which ones are just kind of out there? We don't really have to look at those at the moment.

Kevin: It seemed like a good idea last night...

David: I find that by,

Kevin: before I was falling asleep. Not so good the next day. Yeah, .

David: That happens a lot, doesn't it?

Kevin: Yep, it sure does.

David: I have a digital recorder. I take it with me wherever I go and keep it next to the bed. When I get one of those brilliant ideas at night, I record it on there. Then you listen to it the next day and you're like, that was horrible, what was I thinking?

Kevin: What a terrible idea. I can't even understand what I was saying.

David: Yeah, exactly. But, I think it starts with that. It's about gathering all those ideas, because some of them are going to be great. Some of 'em are going to be brilliant, some of 'em are gonna be terrible, but we don't know it.

Now, a lot of times, it's a good idea to sort of evaluate them yourselves before you start sharing them with everyone else, so that you're only talking to your people about the things that you've already kind of thought through and believe are the best ways to go, and ideally to prioritize those.

And then do another round with your people and go through it and ask for their opinion on which things should be prioritized and which things should be deprioritized as it were, so that you can sort of work your way through and have everybody be on the same page as far as what we should be working on sooner rather than later.

Kevin: I feel like a lot of times ideas can get just stuck in sort of a neutral. Do you have to put a sense of urgency into turning ideas into action?

We're going to interact with people who are not ideal clients. But salespeople have trouble when they're afraid to disqualify a prospect. To say, okay, I'm no longer going to follow up with this person.

I've always viewed it a little like the game musical chairs that you played as a kid? You have a certain number of people going around, and a certain number of chairs. When the music stops, everybody scrambles to get a chair. If you don't have a chair, you're out, right?

I view prospecting that way in some respects. Where you have to, at some point, start to prune the list. You have to start to get rid of the people who are not likely to become clients. If you're afraid to do that, you will continue to leave the same number of people and chairs.

Jay: Yes.

David: And if none of them are buying, it's not going to work well.



David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing letting ideal clients know you're alive. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, so good to be here, David. And I think this is, again, such an interesting topic. I find that I'm so caught up in the daily. I'm taking calls and the squeaky wheel gets the grease. And some of those ideal clients kind of go by the wayside sometimes.

David: Yeah. A lot of times we don't even know who they are until we first try to identify them. So, in a sense, the topic itself goes kind of deep. You can't know they're an ideal client until you know they're alive. Then you have to let them know that you're alive. Then you have to determine if they're an ideal client.

Jay: Yeah.

David: So there are actually a few steps in this.

Jay: Yeah, and I think that's such an important thing to know. You need to have a system, like you always have, of identifying those ideal clients. It's hard for me to really figure out if they're ideal up front. But I'll tell you one thing I can tell is when they're not ideal.

I was on the phone call with somebody yesterday. He's going to become a client. But I regret the relationship I know I'm going to have with him, because he's already so demanding. And I'm like, this guy's not ideal, but he's a customer. And so, how can I not sell him the product?

David: Yeah, that's a great question.

And it's harder for some than others, I think. You get to a certain point in your business or a certain point in your career or whatever and you weigh it. Well, I guess we all do that. We have to weigh it. How much of a pain is this person going to be? And what's my tolerance for pain essentially, right?

Jay: Yeah. Yeah.

David: But you're exactly right. You don't really know that necessarily upfront. So a lot of times when we're working with our clients, what we'll do is start with the people they think are likely to be their ideal clients. And whether that means in a certain geographic area or in a particular industry or in a certain sized company, if they're selling B2B, You can make some initial judgments based on who has been a good client for you in the past, and then say, okay, how can I get more people like that?

And then when you're introducing yourself to those people who meet those similar criteria, as you're having those conversations, you can then start to make those determinations about whether or not they are an ideal client, or if they just sort of fall in that general ecosphere of people who could potentially be ideal clients, but maybe aren't.

Jay: Yeah, exactly. And not just finding new ideal clients, turning your existing ideal clients into more business. Because if they were ideal the first time, if you can keep that to be a generating ongoing revenue source and relationship... Man, I'd rather do that every day than deal with the other type ...

When we talk about the idea of effective sales follow-up, what does that mean? It’s effective in terms of making sure that we’re on the same page with the person, making sure that our conversations are moving forward, making sure that their questions are being answered, and ultimately getting to a decision.

Are we going forward with this? Are we not? And if so, when is that going to happen?



David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will be discussing effective sales follow-up. How much is too much? Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Thank you, David. Such an important question. And again, something that I struggle with. You know, I have a customer management system, and it shows me I talked to them three days ago.

And it comes up on my tasks and it says it's time to talk to them. And I find every time I go through this emotional thing. Are they going to think I'm bugging them too soon? And a lot of times I'll say, let's give them three more days or let's give them two more days because I guess I'm not ready to talk to them or I'm afraid I'll be a bother.

David: Yes, and you're not alone. Because it's pretty much impossible to know exactly how often to call any one given prospect, let alone all of them. It's not like there's one rule where you say you must call every other day or you must call every three days or every week or whatever your thing is. I mean, there are rules that have been put in place for salespeople to do that, and maybe it's not a terrible thing, but a system like that pretty much guarantees that you're going to be wrong as often as you're right.

And so, if you understand that going in, one of the things that I think it's important to recognize is that people are going to sort of telegraph how annoying you're being, or how often they want to be in touch, want to have you in touch. And if you ask them more directly, they'll be a lot more inclined to give you an honest answer.

If we make up our minds that we're going to contact this person every so many days, and that person doesn't want to hear from us that often, then obviously we're setting ourselves up for failure.

So a lot of times, if we can find out from the prospect roughly how often they would like for us to be in touch with them, and it's easier to do with established clients, where you know them, they know you. With prospects, it's not as easy.

But in the early stages with a prospect, we need to be in touch more frequently in order to get to decisions about qualification levels. Are they actually qualified to buy from us? Do they have the need, the desire, the money, the budget, the willingness to spend, the interest?

Do they have any of those things? And if we can't determine that in the first conversation, we need to have a second conversation. But of course, their level of interest in that first conversation will also help us to determine, well, how much time should I give this person?

And when I think about how much is too much, one of the things that I've seen a lot, and I saw it myself, in my own behaviors in the earlier stages of my sales career, and then in a lot of other people along the way, is that since we can't know how much is too much, many of us in sales tend to err on the side of too little contact rather than too much.

And we talked about being a pest in a previous podcast. I don't want to be a pest. Therefore, I'm not going to pick up the phone and call. And the problem with that is that if we're not in touch with them, when they're ready to move forward, then someone else is going to get that business.

So we have to find this balance of, yes, I don't want to be a pest, but also I'm not going to abandon this person so that somebody else can get in there and get that business while I've be...

If you want to create desire in sales, it has to be about them. Their wants, their needs. The things that they're looking to accomplish from the relationship, because that's where all their desire comes from.



David: Hi, and welcome to the podcast. In today's episode, co host Jay McFarland and I will discuss creating desire with your communication in sales. Welcome back, Jay.

Jay: Hey, David. It's great to be here, as always. read this title and I've been thinking about it, but I'd love to hear your perspective up front. What do you mean creating desire with your communication?

David: Well, I think if we're In the business of conveying value and providing products and ultimately selling something to someone else, the only way that happens is if there is enough desire created in the other person to make them want to move forward. Without the desire to move forward, it's never going to happen.

It's kind of a funny word, particularly in sales. We tend not to use words like desire a whole lot. We tend to think in terms of qualification and segmentation, and we keep it all very clinical. But without the component of wanting it, if the prospect or client does not want what we're selling, then absolutely nothing is going to happen.

And the only way that desire is either created or channeled is generally with our communication. Now, if we're offering something that they already want, then the desire is already built in. But if not, if they don't see all the benefits, if they don't see what it can do for them, then they might not be feeling it enough yet to pull the trigger.

And at that point, it becomes our job to say, all right what do I need to do in terms of my communication with this person to help either create some of that desire or ideally uncover the desire that's already buried inside there?

Jay: Mmm. That's great. I think about my own sales process. One of the things we do in our company is we offer a free consultation, and that's my job. I give the consultation.

And there's nothing I hate more than when somebody says free consultation, and what they really meant was free sales call, right? And so the minute you get them on the phone, they're pitching you their product, and I don't.

I listen, I ask questions, I tell them about their circumstances, I tell them what steps they can take to make their life better. And I always start the call saying, "just so you know, this is not a sales call. My goal is to give you the information that you need."

It never fails. I've never had a call in my life, and I've done probably a thousand of these. At the end of the call, they say, "well, how much do you charge for these services? And I'd like to move forward with you."

I never, never tried to sell them on anything. And to me, if you can do it, you can't do it with every situation. But to me, that's just ideal. They're asking me how much I charge. I've created that desire in them without one word that sounds like a sales pitch.

David: Right. Because if you go immediately into sales mode, if you start out with that, if you lead with a sales pitch, it's not going to create desire in anyone. Because a lot of the desire that we're going to be able to uncover in our prospects is going to come from the answers we get to the questions that we ask them.

And so, you know, the whole diagnostic approach to sales, just like the diagnostic approach in medicine. First, you have to examine the patient to find out where it hurts. Examine, and then diagnose, and then and only then can you prescribe, right?

So you have to examine the patient, find out where it hurts, find out what their needs are, find out if they need what we have to offer. If they don't have a need for what we have to offer, then yeah,

Last week's discussion about The Zero Accountability Salesperson seemed to resonate with a lot of people. And the biggest questions I got were related to how to fix this. How can I help myself and/or my salespeople to be more conscious of the actions we need to take, and to take those actions on a consistent basis?



Hi and welcome back. In our last episode, we touched on a lot of important points related to what I would call The Zero Accountability Salesperson Culture:

Most businesses don’t deliberately create a zero accountability culture. It just happens when systems and processes are missing.
When salespeople say things like, "It’s going great, I'm having a lot of good conversations. I’ve got a lot of people in the pipeline," that tells you nothing. Without metrics, it’s just wasted words.
Accountability is not punishment. It’s about providing clarity on what’s working, what’s not, and how to fix it.

If you haven't thoroughly reviewed that episode, I encourage you to go back and check it out now.
But today, I'd like to give you a quick, bullet-pointed list on the things you can do right now to start creating a culture of accountability for yourself and your sales team.
To get started:


✅ Start with one key metric. Don’t overwhelm your team. Begin by tracking a single activity, like the number of new targets acquired or prospects qualified in or out each week. In our Total Market Domination program, we have an Activity/Results Audit that our clients use to track the ten most important activities that lead to sales. But even starting out small will begin to create a sense of accountability for yourself and your people.
✅ Define what counts. Be clear about what “initiating contact” means in your organization. Making a phone call and not getting an answer doesn’t count if no contact is initiated. Real contact, conversations, and interactions count. The rest is meaningless.
✅ Add one metric at a time. As you start getting consistent application on the first key metric, introduce the next one that flows from there. What are steps you and your salespeople need to take to move a new prospect from total stranger to paying client? Those are the activities that need to be taken and tracked in your business.
✅ Create a cadence of accountability. Establish a weekly rhythm where salespeople report on the metrics you require. Make it consistent, like a drumbeat. Miss just one or two and the whole thing will be forgotten in no time.
✅ Build accountability into your systems. Use your CRM or even a simple shared Google Doc to capture and share activity. The easier it is to track, the less resistance you’ll face.
✅ Focus on metrics that matter. Don’t waste time with busywork stats that don’t impact sales outcomes. There are a lot of those, so be sure to measure only the activities that truly drive sales results.
✅ Link activity to outcomes. Help salespeople understand how improving even one single metric (like initiating new contacts) drives the next step (like getting those prospects qualified in our out as quickly as possible.) When you do this correctly, accountability feels more like a reward than a punishment.
✅ Frame accountability as support. Make sure your team understands this isn’t about a lack of trust. It's about you helping them to systematically identify and eliminate the bottlenecks that keep them from selling up to their potential.
✅ Stay consistent. Don’t let reporting slide over time. The moment accountability becomes optional, the culture of zero accountability will come roaring back to life.
✅ Adapt for individuals. High performers might require less oversight, but everyone benefits from clarity. Make sure everyone in your organization knows that you're there to help them thrive.