Bob King
Appearances
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Passed from the outcome for whatever crazy reason.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
That's so funny. Well, it may interest you to know there is a chapter in my book called, what is it called? Let me get it right. It's in part three. It's called, oh, Slump Streaks and the Cure for Commission Breath, right there. I love it. And what that is, and what it says, I mean, I'll give you the cure, is when you get in a slump, it's almost always for the same reason.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
When you get on a streak, it's because you sold a bunch of deals and you don't really care. You care, like you want to make money, But but you're like, knock yourself out, buddy, whatever you want to do. You know, you have a little bit more of a carefree attitude and people find that very attractive.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And when you get in a slump, it's suddenly this thing happens where you're making a sales call about you, which is, you know, if you want to watch a souffle fall faster than anything else. just make a sales call about you.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Talk about yourself instead of their... When you find common interests, talk about it from your perspective instead of from their perspective and watch how quickly they become uninterested in you. But I mean, there's many other examples of that. But when you are...
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And reason like it's part of what I hate about closing culture right now, you know, stare at the Ferrari you want to buy on the back flap of your, you know, car seat, you know, you know, whatever the wind, the thing that blocks the sun out and, you know, use that to motivate yourself. Well, like that is horrible advice.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
because if you're making that sales call about you which is what happens when you get in a slump suddenly it's like i got to get this deal instead of how can i serve my customer it just gets worse and worse and worse and so the cure is to not focus on your closing rate but to focus on your decision rate how many of the customers did i meet with make a decision as a result of the information i gave them and a full understanding of what my product or service or my company can do or not do for them
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
If you have a high decision rate, your closing rate will be the highest in the company because every indecision is a no. Every indecision reflects as a no on your closing rate, and not everyone's going to say no. If you're in sales, 10% of the people are going to say yes anyway. There's almost no salesperson that doesn't have a 10% closing rate, which is probably
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
what you had with your father-in-law and your father is like like like you know you thought oh i'm selling 10 i'm making some money and he's like this guy's killing me he's you know he's taking all these qualified leads and he's losing the 15 between 10 and 25 that i'm expecting of anybody else and but that extra you know to get from that 10 to 25 or even 30 or 40
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You know, you've got to be committed. You've got to believe in what you're doing. You've got to have some techniques. You've got to be able to take that customer on an emotional journey instead of an analytical journey, which a lot of insurance agents are really so focused on the analytic brain that they never let the customer aspire to have security and peace of mind.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Also, if you're in sales, like you probably already know this, but one thing I figured out when I went from selling tea to solar power is the more zeros after, you know, before the period of the product you're selling, the better your job is as a salesperson. Like the more zeros, the better. And there's a lot of zeros before insurance, you know, period. A hundred percent. And so that's great.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
probably the biggest reason why it's a great job, but it also is great for customers. And you really are providing a lot of peace of mind, a lot of financial, you know, there's lots of reasons why insurance helps people financially, you know, having to do with taxes and regulation and things like that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I mean, there's a lot that insurance people can do for customers if they know how to communicate that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
But again, if you're communicating it analytically, you're not giving most of your customers a good reason to go forward with you.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Well, so first let's acknowledge that the reason you're successful, if you're that kind of person in the insurance industry, is that your demeanor conveys trust. Because you're not panicked about getting a sale. You know you have a product that's good for your customer.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And even if you're not the best person at communicating why and how and creating urgency and all the other things that get their limbic brain engaged, at least you feel right to them. And you what the trick is to add a little razzle dazzle and a little bit of urgency and.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Other reasons that the customer connect with a little bit of emotional appeal, a lot more making them feel uncomfortable with what they're doing now without losing what you're bringing. That's great. So let me preface it by saying, like, like those people are successful for a reason. And you don't want to take away the reason that they're successful by making them super salesy.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
That's not the point. The point is to you keep all that. But a lot of times they don't really have a sales pitch. A lot of insurance people just don't, they don't know what's going to happen between warmup and price presentation, right? And they kind of make that part up as they go along.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
That's a little like driving your car and not knowing which pedal makes it go forward and which make it, you know, if you have to think about how to make the car go forward and how to make it stop or where your wipers are or all that stuff, you are a terrible driver, right? And everyone is when they start off, right? Because, you know, you can't look at traffic. You can't look at.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
So you won't know when the customer is nodding their head and agreeing with everything you say or shaking their head or looking at their Apple watch and taking emails while you're telling them about how to keep their family secure.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
So so you just need to know what's going to happen between you warming up, finding common ground, figuring out, you know, doing a little discovery and making them like you to you telling them a price and then working with their resistance to close them. And that pitch. which should be an emotional journey that you take every customer on that leads them from chaos to clarity.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And the clarity is this person understands me. They have the exact right product for me. Their company's been around for 100 years and there's no one better to work with. And the price they're charging is, you know, but a shadow of the benefits I'm going to receive. Like that's what you want them, every customer to feel.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And it's not going to work with every customer, but it should work with like the vast majority. And then after all that, there's ways I can, you know, help people turn into closers because, you know, the first no is just, you know, an opportunity. But there's lots of stuff about that. There's a lot of books about that, too. I mean, I also don't love I've never. The truth is, I don't know.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I've never gotten through a book on closing or even sales other than Dale Carnegie's How to Win Friends and Influence People, which is a great book that everybody should read as a human being, in my opinion. But but the rest of them kind of make my skin crawl, which is why I wrote a book.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I've seen some of his videos and they're pretty great. I will say. Yeah.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
It is storytelling. An emotional journey is telling a story. And the story is here's your life without the product. Here's your life with the product. By the way, we're this, that, and the other thing that you have common ground and that you tribal allegiances. And now is the best time to do it. Are we doing it?
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Fortunately, I just still. So here's the thing about one call closing. Like I was trained by scoundrels to, you know, sell a product for more money than people should should have paid. And I didn't know it. And then when I figured it out, I left, went to another company that was a little better. And then a guy from that company started his own company. And I didn't.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
became their VP of sales and trained other people to do it. And when you train other people, you master it. You know, the yogis say, if you want to learn something, practice it. If you want to master it, teach it. And I really mastered the art of one call closing by training others how to do it.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And then went to a very reputable company where I couldn't employ those old tricks and reflected on why I'd been successful at a certain company and realized that it was all belief. When I believed in what I was doing, magic happened. But
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Having the ability to do a presentation that takes the customer on that emotional journey and having the skills to work with their resistance put me at the top of a very competitive sales team. And I knew it and I loved it and it was really fun. And the other thing that happened was even when I was working for Scoundrels,
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Before that, I'd been in the film business and I was hired five times in 19 years. And so when I started learning how I was blowing deals by arguing with customers or making stuff about me or a hundred other things, I realized that learning the skill actually made my whole life better. And so for all those reasons, I really embraced what it was.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And then I realized like, like you can't, if you're working for a modern company and a modern salesperson presentation, you can't like, you know, take an hour and a half to get to price. Right. Which is sort of the old school one call closing, you know, throw dirt on the floor and, you know, don't clean it up. Clean it up with the, you know, things like all that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
So all the techniques I was trained in have been used since the 40s or maybe before. Probably, you know, there's something with cavemen that they did to to, you know, won't call close people. But but but so I needed to distill it even just to work for the company I was working for into a streamlined process.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And as I started coaching other people in other industries, I distilled it down to a thing called one call magic, which is seven steps. and a forecast. So really eight, but a forecast is a sentence. So I didn't call it a step.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And, and really, if you want your sales pitch to be, you know, emotional and persuasive, you really just have to do the things that I'm telling you that are in my book, the joy of closing. And you will, you know, the first part is sort of how I came in. It's sort of a work memoir about how I came into the information I came into, which is kind of a crazy story. And then there's a big, you know,
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
how to on how to make not necessarily earn that customer's business the first day because a lot of times b2b customers like you're not even meeting with someone who can say yes but you're always meeting with someone who can say no and you only ever have the element of surprise with a customer one time and that's at that first meeting so if you can you know make the absolute strongest first impression there's no sales job where that isn't powerful or profitable
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And then the last part, some how to create happy customers and get their referrals and five star reviews, which is also a skill that requires closing because nobody just sits down and writes you a good review. You have to close the customer on that as well. And so so that's what the book's about is really how to do that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And I really so far I have not found an industry that that, you know, hasn't been effective for to some degree. actually to a really crazy degree. So, yeah, I wanted to be the conduit from, you know, old school one call closing technique into modern ways of selling where, you know, you're not trying to get the customers shackles to warm up or wear them down.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You're actually just, you know, using your skills and having a having a pitch. My favorite is like, you know, coaching teams where they think, oh, I don't have a pitch. It's like, No, you have a pitch. It's just terrible. Or a lot of people who say that this is their pitch. A lot of people say they don't have a pitch.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Basically, the new way, what I've found many times, well, a few times, is they just ask a bunch of discovery questions and then tailor everything that comes after that to whatever they think is the customer's point of vulnerability, which is a pitch, but it's not a great pitch.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Because you're not taking the customer on an emotional journey. You're sort of picking at a pain point and that produces some emotion and some customers will go forward because they're just, you know, in so much pain, but you're not building trust.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You know, I did not take a job working for scandals to become a trustworthy person. But it turns out that becoming trustworthy is the best way to earn someone's trust. And that has made my whole life better. And so that's the other thing about going from a salesperson to a closer is my experiences. Inevitably, it will make the rest of your life better.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And I'm absolutely certain that your whole life was better after that conversation with your father-in-law when you had to go from someone who was just presenting to someone who could earn someone's business. There's no way to get to that point without it improving the rest of your life. But please correct me if I'm wrong or, you know, what's your thought on that?
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Well, the other thing that people don't do when they ask those kind of discovery questions, the essential thing that these people who, you know, I guess I'll now call it like the discovery clothes where they just discover some stuff and then beat the customer's head with it.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
The other thing they don't do, which is vital when you ask a discovery question and they can be open ended or not open ended, but especially if they're open ended. But, you know, it's usually like, let's look at your bill or let's look at your skin or let's look at your finance. You know, how much money do you make? And, you know, if your insurance, things like that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
When a customer divulges anything to you or when a human being divulges something, anything to you, it is essential to respond. And you can respond in one of two ways. If you're in a sales situation, the best way to respond is to use your expertise to benefit them. Give them information they did not have when they disclosed that information to you.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
So if they're telling you their revenue, you have to tell them something about that that influences. Basically, your customer is expecting two things from you on a sales presentation, a scope of work and a price. And so usually if they give you some discovery information, it's essential that you immediately respond by telling them how that affects your recommended scope of work.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
In other words, you're helping them with the decision they're about to make and you're lending your expertise to them. And that will build trust. It will also empower them to make an informed decision when the time comes. And you're just a decent human being by you're not just sucking in information for them and then using it against them.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
you are building a rapport by them disclosing information and you making their life better. And that's the first thing. And the other thing you can do if you're in a personal situation is respond by disclosing something of a similar nature about your own life.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You know, so if someone tells you about some traumatic incident from their life, you know, it's important to like give them a little blood as well so that they don't just feel naked and, you know, stared at.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You know, I guess people think that, you know, really great closers like everybody likes. And that is not the truth. The truth is a really great closer, you know, a huge 80% of people, once they get to know you would not do business with anybody else.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
there's also 20 that will just hate you because you're paying too much attention to them or whatever reason because and and you know when i was you know going into homes like two and three times a day if i didn't get kicked out of a house at least like every couple of months I would think, I must be holding back. I'm not letting myself get out there for people to fall in love with.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And so I would jazz it up a little bit and pay whatever I do that I do. And so I think with that type of person where they're just sucking information, there are customers that are just okay doing that, but... The vast majority of people, when you take in a bunch of information and don't reciprocate in one way or another, they will hate you and they will not want to do business with you.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And they also don't know why. Why is that? Well, people just aren't that self-aware. They just have a visceral reaction to you. Oh, this guy just asked me 16 questions and I just told him all these things about my business and he's just like taking notes. He's not giving me any, it's also, you're missing a great opportunity.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You can establish your expertise and give your customer, you're not giving them information about your scope of work or your price necessarily. You're giving them information about how you use their information in order to best serve their needs.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And if you don't have enough expertise to lend them some information about that without telling them the whole story, without ruining the ending, then you need to work on your skills and figure out how to do that. Because storytelling is revealing certain facts that the facts put together take that customer on an emotional journey that reveals the truth.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You can't, it's not like, oh, I'm going to reveal no truth to you until five minutes before the end. I mean, you think about, my background's in filmmaking. You know, when you tell a story about a character, you know, every 99% of feature films are an emotional journey about one character and, you know, the most important time in their life so far.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Well, 99% of sales calls are about the emotional journey of your customer making a decision that's the most important decision that they're going to make so far about whatever it is that you're talking about.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Maybe they have things going on in their life that's more important, but in terms of their business or whatever it is you're influencing them about, you need to take it really seriously and empower them with all the information they need to make a decision, not piece out little stuffs. A lot of salespeople think like, oh, you just have to tell them the parts that make them want to do it.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
If there's some reason that working with you or your company or making this decision is difficult or going to impact them in a negative way, I love talking about that stuff because it builds trust. I don't focus on it, but I want them to have the feeling that if there's any reason they're not going to do it, I'm going to tell them that as well.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And that's, I think, a huge advantage when you have the guts to do that. It really makes people trust you even if they don't like you. And I don't really care if they like me. I care if they trust me.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And the other thing that I think people really miss, I think really separate sales or close people, closers tend to be curious people. Look, sales is a hard job in a lot of ways. And if you're not interested in people and how they make decisions, it's going to be a hard job. But it's so easy to become interested in that stuff.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And once you do it, it's hard not to do it because people are awesome and wonderful. And even if I don't sell to them, if I met an interesting human being and saw how they lived and got to see an up-close relationship, you know, just an idea of who that person is and how they live their life. If that's not interesting to you, maybe sales isn't the best career for you.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And so if you have that mindset, you're naturally going to ask follow-up questions that maybe have nothing to do with the scope of work. And, you know, maybe me asking that question is why 20% of the people are going to kick me out of their house, but it's also why 80% of the people are going to fall in love with the idea of working together.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I heard a guy interviewed on Fresh Air once and he was like in his hundreds and Terry Gross asked him like what his secret is. And he said, I think it's just I'm still really curious about how all this is going to turn out. And I've adopted that attitude. I probably heard that in my 30s or something. And I still have that attitude. Yeah.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You're asking the wrong question. I struggle with that so mightily, but I have figured out a way that I want to launch my online presence. So I'm literally, I hired someone to help me do something in that regard. So I'm, you know, stay tuned. Joyofclosing.com is my website. I'm putting a quiz on there. Are you a closer quiz? So that will be launched in the next week or two.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And I'm going to learn how to do this like every other schmo who wrote a book. But I am so not the expert. You know, if you want to see like me hiking through Scotland, you can look on my Instagram account. I've done nothing like I'm a failure so far at that, but I'm not done. I'm ready to take it on.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Listen, your podcast is great, and I'm really loving our conversation. I've been on dozens of podcasts now, and I've sold dozens of books as a result. The good thing is it's great for my consulting career. That's great. It's paid for itself. It's awesome. I love that. But I want to sell some books. I think I wrote a book that's a force for good in the world.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I think when someone takes a job as a salesperson, they should get this book. So that they are not really trained as a salesperson. They're really trained as a closer. They connect with all the great reasons for, and not just, you know, for your company and your success and, you know, supporting your family, but just how your own personal growth is affected because everybody is a closer.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I think there's a couple of reasons. Number one, being a closer and you say selling, I'm gonna just flip over the cards and say, what you're really asking about is closing. That how to earn a customer's trust and give them the confidence to move forward with a decision that hopefully is gonna change their life for the better requires commitment.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Everybody has that skill. Whether it's if you pick the book, your book club reads or the movie you go see on a Saturday night or gotten your kids to clean their room or go to college, you have successfully made your agenda another person's idea. And the only thing more satisfying than finding what we want and knowing it is helping someone else do that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And so this is a skill that makes your whole life better. And learning how to sell and present also can do that, but not in the way that learning how to work with people's resistance and close them does. And so I wrote this book because it's a force for good.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And I want people to be able to... I think you should get my book and Dale Carnegie and go out and turn into a closer and don't waste time being a salesperson. That's my opinion and So I want to sell some books. So I'm going to create a social media presence. And hopefully I found a clever way to do that by putting a quiz on my website.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And I thought of something I want to do in my videos that you'll see when I do it. When I start doing it, you'll know it because it's going to be cool.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
My book is on Amazon and it's just Joy of Closing, Bob King. There's an audio book that I recorded as well as Kindle and paperback. That's the best way to get the book, even internationally. It's pretty much everywhere. And then my website is joy of closing dot com. I'm going to put a quiz on there. Are you a closer quiz?
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
So if you want to know if you're a closer or a salesperson or even a potential closer, you'll be able to assess that in the days and weeks to come. And then and based on that. where you come out of the quiz, I will send you a chapter of the book so that, you know, you can focus on whatever that lands.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You know, if you have a sales job now, there's, there's no chance that reading my book will not bring tons of success you wouldn't otherwise have just because I'm not you. And I don't think of the world the way you think of the world and having a new perspective on how to get a customer review forward will be beneficial to you. And Closers already know that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Salespeople think they're doing it right already. But trust me, if you're not in the 20% of people that do 80% of your company's sales, there's something in here that will push you closer to that, if not get you over that hurdle. And I'd like to say that it'll get you over that hurdle. In fact, I'll say it. It'll get you over that hurdle. So that's my book. My website's joyofclosing.com.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I'm also on LinkedIn, Instagram. I have a TikTok account, Joyful Closer. that I posted like no videos on. Cause like I said, I'm going to learn how to do this too. When I started coaching people, one of the real things that came as a shock is that it's not enough to have the best idea. Now you'd think that cause I was coaching individuals at first and individuals, you know, they're coming to me.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
So of course they're going to listen to what I have to say. Yeah. But when I started coaching teams, um, I realized that I needed to close the team on what I was coaching them on. I mean, and so I had to do all the things that I tell people do. I had to shake up their status quo. I had to show them, make them feel the pleasure of my solution.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You have to be committed to the idea that moving forward today is the absolute best thing for your customer, for your company and for you, hopefully in that order. And, you know, if you're not committed, it's very hard for them to become committed and commitment. You know, nobody runs toward commitment, you know, so it's kind of an unnatural state.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I had to take them on an emotional journey just to adopt the best idea that I had crafted for them. So that was a fun thing. And now I feel like I have the same opportunity in terms of being influential in the world of sales. So I'm getting ready to close the world on the idea that this book will help them. And that's my that's going to all launch from my website and social media.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I'll go on threads and I'll go on Blue Sky and X and everywhere else to get people to come to a greater understanding of what their pitch is. is and how it can be improved and how to close instead of just being a salesperson or what I call a great presenter.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
There's a lot of great presenters out there now, which may be the most harmful to customers and because they make their customer want what they have, but they don't work with their resistance to get it for them. And now they're at the mercy of anyone with a lower price or better skills. So.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
I think the other reason is because to get to a yes, you sometimes have to endure a lot of no's.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And so a lot of people don't have the stamina or they take something personally that isn't personal and just don't keep their eyes on the prize of actually earning someone's trust and getting them to commit to something that's gonna make their life better and also put money in your pocket and keep your company in business and allow the change that you're advocating for your customer and really the world to be implemented
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
you know, to be a change agent is to stand in the crosshairs of people's resistance. And that's an unnatural state, but it's one that's incredibly rewarding. So I love that question. No one's ever asked me that before.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Well, it's not even a question of it's really what your focus is, because there's, you know, so many facts. There's lots of facts that are in the world, right? Like there's other options. Well, let me just start by saying my book, The Joy of Closing, works great if you can believe in your product, you know, and especially if you want to sell on value instead of price.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
If your product or your services are different and better than the competition and maybe a little more expensive, right? This is a great book for you. This is, that's what I'm good at. If you are, you know, the cheapest option, but not quite as good, it might work because understanding how to value that and how to make your customer value that, you know, is good. If you're just ripping people off,
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
then it's really hard to manufacture the kind of enthusiasm that you have to have. And part of the reason I wrote the book is because the companies that are best at training closers often are the worst companies for customers to be in business with, selling overpriced products and things like that. And I really think that's at a loss because...
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
When you were selling insurance for your father-in-law, it's very likely you had a great product that was good for your customers. And until you had that sort of come to, well, come to your father-in-law moment, but because it's kind of a come to Jesus moment with, you know, is this really something I want to do? And how can I be successful?
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You probably were not in touch with all the great reasons for the customer to move forward. And instead, you're just living in their resistance, which is this is a really big decision. How can I go for it? How do I have the confidence to know there isn't something better out there, you know, or that this product isn't, you know, there's so many ways to second guess yourself.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And for them to, you know, the difference between a closer and a salesperson is a closer gives that that that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
customer an emotional experience of understanding the product understanding the company and understanding you know how that scope of work that fits into the price that they that they that you want to charge them and and at the end of it you know when you say are we doing this you want that customer to feel at least of course who wouldn't or when how soon can we get started and you have a product you believe in and you know all the other things that need to be right
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
But a lot of times with salespeople, they have all that stuff that's right, but they don't have that commitment to moving forward or they don't have the commitment to they don't know how to make their agenda the customer's idea. Because it takes, you know, you have to do certain things.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You have to shake up the status quo and make them very uncomfortable with what they're doing now if you want to produce a change. Well, if you're not committed to what you are looking to accomplish and really that idea, you're not going to make that person uncomfortable. You're not going to have the courage or even maybe just the skills to know how to do that.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
But that's what it takes because the change, you know, you're producing change. salespeople are agents of change. And to be an effective agent of change, you have to shake up the status quo. You have to make them fall in love with the idea of working with your company. You have to give them a sensual experience of their product. If you're selling insurance, you're really selling security.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
You're selling peace of mind. You know, there's a little bit of like tax avoidance and all that stuff. And you need to educate them about all that stuff. Obviously, I know a little bit about this because when I when I after I started consulting the first sort of non, you know, home improvement slash solar slash whatever.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Well, the first one was a skin care place, but the second one was an insurance agent. And and I, you know, we we I ended up working for him. and his mom and his mom's best friend. It was like, I guess insurance sales runs in families. But all of them got revamped and changed their approach from one of like, okay, well, here's all this stuff you need to think about to, you know,
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
here's everything that you need here's all the information you need to make this decision and you know just the first payment's just a check for 114 dollars to get your whatever started and and and i can tell you their their customers were a lot happier being able to make a decision and having the confidence to move forward
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
than they were when they just left them in the misery of their indecision. And so that's probably what happened. You went from someone who was more comfortable leaving that customer in the misery of their indecision to someone who had the confidence to recommend a plan
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Show them all the great reasons for doing it, make them feel uncomfortable with not moving forward, and then sit there and wait after you ask for a price for their resistance to express itself, usually with a lie, which is a nice thing. It's a bad name for an objection, but most objections are lies.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And then work with their resistance, have the intimacy with that customer that allows them to have the confidence to move forward with you and your company. That's really why I wrote the book.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
And I bet that's what came up in your conversation with your father-in-law. What do you remember from that conversation that made your life different?
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Except for the 20% on every sales team that kick ass.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
It's not awareness, it's focus. They are not focused on, they know, they know. And by the way, a lot of times, listen, not every product is the best choice for customers, right? So you have to learn how to sell that stuff, too, because because it's really it's are you focused? Like every everything's a mixed bag a little bit.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Like there's good reasons for going forward and there's reasons to be cautious. And if your job is to create that change, you cannot be focused on the reasons for being cautious. You have to be focused and make important the reasons for going forward. Closers know how to do that. And salespeople don't.
The Ryan Hanley Show
If You’re Struggling in Sales, Listen to This! - Bob King
Well, I played literally the ball came to me one time and I was asleep. I was literally asleep. The coach had to come wake me up. It was my father's proudest moment. I'm sure.