SFM Ep 34: Butch Bellah On Using 1-on-1 Sales Skills To Sell More Without Being Salesy

Anybody, selling anything, should be studying the craft of selling because if you don't understand how to sell in person, you'll never be able to sell online! That's why I brought Butch Bellah on the podcast to show us his secrets for selling. I even put him on the spot and force him to sell me something during the podcast itself! Regardless of what type of business you run, you need to understand the fundamentals of selling. Butch nails it, so listen in and leave a review!

Check it out, share it, leave us a review and let me know what you think!

Resources Mentioned

http://www.ButchBellah.com - Butch's main website

http://www.ButchBellah.com/salesfunnelmastery/ - 10 Essential Habits Of Sales SuperStars (free download)

Want To Work With Me?

Visit http://www.JeremyReeves.com or email me at [email protected]

Enjoy!

Transcript

Hey guys this is Jeremy Reeves here back with another episode of the sales funnel mastery podcast and today, I have a pretty special guest on the line today. His name is Butch Bellah and Butch you are going to have to tell me if I got that right.

Butch Bellah: No, you got it exactly right, that’s excellent. Yeah.

Jeremy Reeves: Perfect. So, this is Butch Bellah and he is a speaker, he is a sales trainer, he is an author of couple of different books. In fact, he actually just launched one last week that I’m sure he will tell you about which is actually going to be going on my reading list and he is on a lot of different things that he will talk about, pretty impressive resume he has got actually. He has been featured in the Entrepreneur magazine, The Boston Globe, Fox News, NBC, and a whole bunch of CBS, and a whole bunch of other ones. He is, like I said, he is an author of two different books. He actually, at the age of 35, he acquired a controlling interest in his first company which he helps take from, what was it, $35 million to, what was the, I think it was around $250?

Butch Bellah: Almost a quarter of a billion in sales when we ended up buying it.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah. So that’s pretty impressive. So instead of me talking about you, you know, tell our audience a little bit about yourself and some of the cool things you have been doing.

Butch Bellah: Well, as you said, I’m a speaker, sales trainer, and an author. I have spent my entire life in sales. I will be 50 actually next week and my first sales job was, I was 10 years old selling grit newspapers.

Jeremy Reeves: That’s nice.

Butch Bellah: That was all I ever known. I was blessed to find my 152 at a very young age. I was always wanting to get out and, I mean, I was the kid that when he get a comic book, you know, a lot of kids, you know look back there for the decoder ring. I always looked back there for the things you could sell and it would just, it blew my mind that I could buy grit newspaper for 50 cents a copy and sell it for a dollar and I got to keep the other 50 cents. That was my introduction into the world of sales and was blessed to get hired by a gentleman who is still my mentor to this day at 21 years old into the wholesale distribution business, and as you said, just had a rocket ship right up the career path from, literally I had to get promoted twice before I could see the bottom rung of the ladder, and then I was division sales manager and then vice president of sales and then acquired the company with the business partner.

Jeremy Reeves: Cool.

Butch Bellah: I spent 10 years doing standup comedy professionally across the nation which was great public speaking training but it was the best sales training that I had ever had and I did not know it at the time. Jeremy was one of those things that as the years past, I went back and that’s all men this was, you know, what great sales training this was and from scripting to voice inflection to you know just ways to set up and deliver a punch line and it was so much like asking for a sale, so it was a lot of fun. So it has been a great ride and as you said, I just published my second book, Sales Management For Dummies, came out last week, you can get it at my website and so forth, that is really, really exciting, it was very flattering to be asked by Wiley & Sons to be on the for dummies lan and Zig Ziglar wrote Success for Dummies, Tom Hopkins wrote Selling for Dummies, and Butch Bellah wrote Sales Management for Dummies and I tell everybody it’s kind of like the old Sesame Street song, “One of these things belong here.” You know..

Jeremy Reeves: That’s funny. Yeah, it’s kind of interesting. You know, as you were talking about how you were a stand-up comedian and the kind of looking back, you know I have noticed that a lot of the biggest lessons that I have ever learned in life or be on a business, you know personally or on a business, kind of come in retrospect, you know, you don’t really notice them at the time but then you looked back and it’s like, “Oh yeah, that’s what happened, so it’s interesting you said that.

You know, one of my audience basically, you know the average person listening to this has, you know, they have a business, they have either offline or online, a lot of times they are doing both things. It is primarily online business owners that I have write either from business.

Butch Bellah: Sure.

Jeremy Reeves: So, and one of the things that I like to talk about that a lot of people miss you know when they’re building sales funnels and you know building all these marketing campaigns is, you know when it comes down to it, what you’re doing is selling. You know, a lot of people tried to get off fancy and you know kind of only think of all they need a landing page and they need an autoresponder sequence and all that kind of stuff, but what you are really doing is just a selling process. But instead of doing it in person where you have a half hour or 45 minutes or whatever it is to sell the person on whatever you’re selling them, you do it overtime through emails and through a sales page and that kind of thing.

So let’s talk about some of the -- I guess you know, do you have like a specific kind of formula you used or you know, if you were put in front of somebody and they say, “Butch, you know sell me on whatever, sell me this car or sell me this house, whatever it is. Do you have kind of like, either written down or just kind of internal formula that you used to take them from the point where you are starting to talk about it to the point that you are closing them?

Butch Bellah: Sure, and it is all what we have learned our whole life but we get away from and that is asking questions and, I don’t know why this was reminded of the story I have not heard or told this story in probably 30 years, but I heard Zig Ziglar speak one time and he said, he checked into a hotel and his name was on the marquee and this was back when Zig was in his hay day probably the mid 80s and he checked into a hotel late and the front desk clerk says, “You’re the great Zig Ziglar, the greatest salesman that ever lived” and Zig said, “Well, you know, who am I to argue with everybody else” and the guy said, “Sell me something Zig.” Zig said, “Now, you look, I just want to go to my room” you know I just checked in. This is back in the days where you smoke everywhere and there was an ashtray on the check-in counter at the hotel. The guy said, “Sell me that ashtray” and Zig said, “Look, I just want to get” the guy said, “Oh, come on, I want to tell everybody I got sold something by the greatest seller around the world” and Zig said, “Well, why would you want that ashtray ?” and the guy said, “Well, because I smoke and it’s a nice ashtray” and Zig said, “Where would you put it?” and he said, “Well, it would look good in my den, I could put it right on my living room table” and Zig said, “Well, you know, what would you give for something like that?” and the guy said, “$10” and Zig said, “Sold.”

Jeremy Reeves: (Laughing).

Butch Bellah: So that illustrates Jeremy what we all have to do.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah.

Butch Bellah: Is we have to ask questions and here is the thing that I tell everybody. We get so hung up with doing needs analysis. We forget that people don’t buy what they need. They buy what they want.

Jeremy Reeves: Yep.

Butch Bellah: So are you taking that need and converting it to get a want. In May 2009, I had triple bypass heart surgery at 43 years old. Now, I got lucky, I caught it before it caught me. So, I didn’t have a heart attack. If you would have asked me on May 18, 2009, “Butch, how would you like triple bypass open heart surgery, we have got it on sale.” I said, “Yeah, but I want it, I don’t need it and I cannot afford it.” That is the stuff we hear every day, but on May 19th, when they showed me I had a 70-80 and a 90% blockage, I changed my tone, I’m all in.

Now, I want it. I don’t care what it costs and I want an expert doing it. Now, here is my question to you and your listeners. What changed? My heart didn’t change. I need it if we want to focus on needs. I needed that heart surgery probably 6 months or year before that. My heart didn’t get worse, my findings just didn’t get better. The only thing that changed was the information available to me, and they converted a need to a want by showing me the blockage and that’s what people on land, off land, up land, down land, wherever your business is, you’ve got to find the blockage for your customers. You have customers out there or perspective customers. I don’t care what you sell. Their business isn’t as bad as shaped as my heart was, they just don’t know it. So, in asking these questions and then these funnels you developed, you’ve got to take that need to a want and show them the blockage and once they find that you are the expert, they will gladly pay whatever it takes to solve their problem.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, that is really a good point and one of the best things I have ever kind of figured out in my own business and selling either B to B or B to C, more B to B specifically for this one, but it is really not about all you can increase 30% or whatever it is. If you can show people what they are losing right now, that is usually you know, if they are already making, let’s just say, it’s a million dollars and you say, my projection is we can increase 25% this year. They just think of kind of 25% not the fact that they are losing $250,000 or $20,000 a month right now which means that after every week that they make a decision they just lost an extra $5,000 and then another $5,000 and another $5,000. That is kind of one lesson that I completely agree on that.

Butch Bellah: Yeah, and it was proven a long ago. People are more motivated by the fear of loss and the desire of gain for some reason, most people are. You know, good sales people always want that desire of gain but if you really want to find what motivates somebody or what their internal motivation is, see if it is a fear of loss or a desire to gain. And for most people, it is a fear of loss. The health scare, you know, for me that was a fear of loss of life. That kicked me into gear. So, you are exactly right, most people will take more action on what they are losing than what they potentially could gain.

Jeremy Reeves: Absolutely. So, with that and I think how you brought up the fact that it is just about questions and actually one of my neighbors here where I lived we were talking about that and he said the exact same thing. He sells and just to show everybody that this -- it doesn’t matter what you’re selling, it’s still the exact same thing. He sells multi-million dollar deals for like a health, for hospitals and stuff like that. They come in and they you know they have vendors that help the hospital save money, and he is one of their main salesman and he helps sell like multi-million dollar deals and he said it just comes down asking questions, finding their pain points and then showing them that you’re the best solution for the big thing that’s really hurting them and getting them to that one kind of place, you know in their mind.

Butch Bellah: People want an expert Jeremy. They want an expert to help them figure out and find out how to get to where they want to get to. We all know that people, you know, when we do the “needs analysis” we are finding that gap of where they are and where they want to go. Well, guess what, you can point that out a million times but until they find out that you’re the person that can take them by the hand and lead them across that 1224 they are not going to take action.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, exactly. So with that, you know one of the things that I have heard and I have my own opinions, I would like to hear yours on it and I have a feeling what is going to be but you know, I have always heard you know all people are you know “I’m just not a good salesman, I wasn’t born that way and that that kind of thing.” Yeah, so what are your thoughts. Do you think people are, do you think it’s like, is there a salesman gene or is it a learned skill?

Butch Bellah: Every bit of it is a learned skill, but the problem is, is that we are not teaching it to people, and I have published a post on LinkedIn recently that you know the problem with the sales profession today is that people think, “Well I can’t get any other job. I guess I will just go be salesman.” Really?. You know, I cannot just go put on white coat and start pulling teeth , I go to jail. In most States, you have to be licensed to cut hair, yet you can just grab a box of business card and say, “Padda, I’m a salesman.” But you may not be a professional salesman and everything that we do is a learned skill. The problem is most people are not trained and they don’t take the time to learn it.

The great thing about sales is that whether it is the initial process, the asking for the sale or whatever, at any given time you can get better at all of it and even the greatest sales people continue to learn, they continue to grow but to answer to your question, again, parking back to Zig Zigler, he was just an extremely influential person in my life and he said that you know, he would never opened up the newspaper and saw where Mr. and Mrs. Smith gave birth to a 8-pound, 9-ounce salesman. Everything we do is a learned skill but are you going to take time to learn it, that is the question.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, okay, definitely and I 100% agree with that too. It is definitely something I know I definitely did not know how to sell in my early years and it is a very much a learned skill. Hey, actually, while you are talking, I actually got an idea, would you be up for kind of doing, I think it would be a really cool experience for everybody listening. Would you be up for doing a little bit of selling right now, we will just kind of pick something at random and then you can sell me on it?

Butch Bellah: Sure.

Jeremy Reeves: Alright, nice. Do you want to pick it? I have nothing in mind right now.

Butch Bellah: You tell me. You pick.

Jeremy Reeves: Okay. Just for all the listeners, this is not scripted, whatsoever. I just thought it right?

Butch Bellah: Yeah. I just broke out a cold sweat. (Laughing).

Jeremy Reeves: Let us say, having a new computer?

Butch Bellah: Okay. So let me ask you Jeremy, how do you use your computer today?

Jeremy Reeves: I actually have two computers, I have a desktop computer that I am on right now and I use it for my business. I write most of the day and do planning strategy, planning that kind of stuff for my clients and then I also have a standing desk and I use that for part of the day and typically my desktop computer is used for writing and then my stand up desk is used for more of the planning kind of stuff.

Butch Bellah: Now, the computer you are looking at here today would it replace one of these or would it be an addition to what you have already got?

Jeremy Reeves: I would say it would definitely replace one of them.

Butch Bellah: Now which one?

Jeremy Reeves: My standing desk probably because it is starting to get a little bit slow and I am kind of in that stage where I -- it has been getting slow and I know I have kind of needed a new one for a while and it is just laziness basically for you know, I have not gotten to look for another one.

Butch Bellah: So tell me what you are going to use it for, because it sounds like it is a very important integral of your business What are you expecting this computer to do? What do you need it for?

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, for me, you know, because I could just use the one computer but it is more for just kind of, you know health, making sure I stand up and I am not just sitting for 10 hours a day and that kind of stuff, you know, kind of going up and down moving, because even when I stand a lot of times, I sit there and I will do squats or you know like kind of just move my feet around and get some blood flowing.

Butch Bellah: So now I know that you write and you do podcast would you be doing that sort of production on this computer? Do you need it to perform in that manner?

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, yeah, so I kind of split up my tasks so that the one that I sit on is typically mostly for writing and then the standing desk I use that is for more of the things, I just get in the zone when I write so I like to have I have listened to like a certain music thing, kind of like classical music and that kind of thing and the standing one is more for after lunch, I kind of split up my day, the first half is more really, really intense writing and then the second half you know, either way before or after lunch then I kind of switch into more of like the planning mode that kind of thing, you know delegation to employees that kind of stuff where it is not -- I do not need quite as much you know brain power.

Butch Bellah: Now, you said that your current one is getting slow, can you elaborate on that, tell me what is that -- does that slow you down in your business? Does it cause problems in your broadcast of your podcast? Tell me how is that affecting your business.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah. So it is more of -- since it started to get slow, and a lot of times like you know I turned it on and it is not coming on and there is errors, because it is like 4 years old, which for me is really long because I use the use the computer so heavy. I have noticed that I stopped using it as much because it is hurting my productivity because I will stand there for 20 minutes trying to get it to work.

Butch Bellah: I hate to butt in, but when you say you stopped using it, does that mean you go back to the sit-down desk that you just said you did not need to be at?

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah.

Butch Bellah: Oh, wow. Okay, alright. So go ahead.

Jeremy Reeves: The kind of the big thing is it is making me sit way more and it is when I do try to stand up I am losing productivity because I am spending 15, 20, 25 minutes just trying to like get to work right and not freezing, you know that kind of thing. It is a lot slower than my desktop computer because it is a little bit older one. So it’s kind of hurt my productivity there.

Butch Bellah: Sure. Let me ask you a question because I know you do a podcast that a lot of people listen to. Who is again, because I love podcast, I have got tons of them on my phone. Who is the biggest name you have had or ever interviewed? The interview you are most proud of?

Jeremy Reeves: Definitely has to be Butch Bellah.

Butch Bellah: Oh, wow! Yeah, and who would not be proud of that. But now let me, and I just want to ask you this, I am not trying to scare you, because obviously the computer you have got is sounds like your getting by, you want to get better, but let me just ask you this question. Let us say you are in the middle of that interview and this computer crashes. What happens?

Jeremy Reeves: That would be bad. It would be bad in several cases because even if it is not an interview with somebody else, I have actually had it happened to me where I actually was writing on that computer which I do not do all the time but it was at this time and it froze and I lost probably even an hour of work but you know, more typical things you know if I was doing a podcast or something like that. In fact, actually, I usually used to do podcast and I actually just realized now that I switched to the sitting one because I was afraid of that happening because it actually did happen probably about 6 months ago. I was on an interview, I think I was making my own and I got in about half hour and then it just froze and you know, so I lost that half hour and to be even worse if someone else is on the line because that not only do I lose the half hour then we have to redo it plus it makes me look like a moron.

Butch Bellah: Say, you sound like me, I am a lot of times more concerned about putting the other person out than me and it sounds like if you have a guest on the line with a podcast interview you crushed your time and theirs too. Is that safe to say?

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, definitely.

Butch Bellah: Well, now let me show you what I have got because based on what you have told me, we have got this model right here it is 47 gigabytes of memory. It has got all the built in features that you need for your podcasting and so forth, in fact, it is one that a lot of podcasters use. Now, it is normally $1,400, it is on for $999 right now, but here is the great part about it, it comes with a 12-month warranty. Watch this, turn this thing on, that bad boy fires right up. Now how much faster is that than the one you have got?

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, mine would still be loading and not even close to being done.

Butch Bellah: Now, and here is the thing, you figure a few minutes here, a few minutes there. Here is the great thing about time, time is -- there is a paradox for time. We have got more than we think and less than we believe. We waste a lot of time and you going to wonder how much time are you wasting waiting on this piece of equipment that you want to use it. So if you look at this model, $999 you can take this thing home today. The great part about it is it some out of the box model, meaning that you take it out plug it in, it’s going to work for you. I can box this thing up for you and you can actually take it with you today.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, 2201 basically be sold there. In fact, I’m actually -- you actually kind of did sell me because, that was all true too.

Butch Bellah: But here is the thing that we did and one thing I want to point out for the listeners because we really, we honestly did not plan that, but I let you talk and you found your own pain point, because you talked about how slow it was, you talked about your need to stand up and here is the thing, I am not selling a computer. I am selling a solution. My computer just allowed you to save time and to stand up, it’s better for your health. It has absolutely nothing to do with that piece of hardware that is in that box and we get so many times I could have bored you with all the gory details about, you know, this gig, that gig, this monitor, this plugs, you didn’t care about that. Does it turn on fast and cannot stand up. Focus on what is important to the customer and again this is the all features versus benefits. You know, people buy it for what it does for them. You bought that computer because it solved a problem you had and all I wanted to do was I wanted to let you tell me in as much gory detail as possible how bad that problem was and the more you talked, the worse that problem got.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, the more I put myself down in the rabbit hole.

Butch Bellah: And here is the thing about it, that’s not unlike what happens every day. You go to any of the big box retailers that sell computer s and all they want to do is tell you about the latest greatest model and what all it will do, yet they have not asked what do you want it to do for you.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, you know, and we could have even got into soft like, you know, asking like what I charge per hour, and you know, it’s like if you charge $300 an hour just how many hours do you think your losing a week. I do not know, maybe you know, an hour a week.

Butch Bellah: But here is the other thing to point out is when I asked you what would happen if that crashed during an interview, now I knew what would happen but it’s much more powerful for you to say “Oh, it would be horrible” than for me to say, “Boy, it sure would be bad if it crashed during an interview, wouldn’t it? That has one meaning yet when it comes out of your mouth, it has a total other meaning and I trained B to B sales people all the time and here is the great thing about this and now you are going to get me to get off on a tangent a little bit.

If you know something about a competitor, if you know of a weakness they have and we’ll just say that they have -- let’s say that they have, you know, trouble meeting delivery dates as far as production or something like that. If you know that about ABC Company and you are calling on somebody that is doing business with ABC Company, do not walk in and say, “I bet you are having trouble with delivery dates” because the first thing they are going to do is they are going to say, “No we are fine” because they do not want to look like an idiot because they are doing businesses with the ABC Company and you know they are having problems. The way to handle that is to say, “So, you are doing business with ABC Company, they are a very reputable company, tell me how is your delivery process, how is that working for you?” Because then they are going to say, “Oh, I am glad you brought that up, because let me tell know what they did last week.” Now, it is so much more powerful when they hear it from themselves yet you just as you said led them down that rabbit hole with the right question.

Jeremy Reeves: Absolutely and like you said, in most cases you really don’t have to go into the details all that much you know it’s kind of just you let them get them to the place where they know they are going to buy and then, for example, I have a friend who, he is just like an electronic geek, so he would be the one that says, how many rams, and how of this, and how many that, but then you just kind of go in like question and answer mode but they have already sold themselves on getting it, it’s just picking up the specific one.

Butch Bellah: And here is the other thing too is I knew when to hush, I knew when you were sold we didn’t take that conversation any further. Once you get them sold, don’t talk yourself out of the sale.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, exactly.

Butch Bellah: You know, we talked about doing a stand-up comedy and what I learned from it, I heard Jerry Seinfeld say one time that even for him and I think he is the one of the greatest that there is or ever was. He said at 45 minutes I think you are the funniest thing that I have ever heard. At an hour they are thinking is this guy ever going to shut up. So there is our fine line between getting them to that point and taking them too far. So once you get them to that point, go ahead and ask for the sale let us wrap this thing up and let you take it home today.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, and I have done that in the past, you know, I have been in the situation where I over sold like kept asking questions or kept talking when I should not then and I realized that after -- it’s a terrible feeling when you know that you had it and then you basically lost it.

Butch Bellah: And you kicked yourself. Alright, I’m glad that you brought that up 2723 to get off on another tangent. Anytime you lose a sale, it’s your fault. Do not get in the habit of blaming the customers or the prospects because here is what I will tell you in 30 plus, 40 years of experience, if they will listen and they give you their attention and they don’t buy, it’s your fault. Now, you can say well they could not afford it well let me go back and point out to you that you should have qualified them in the beginning and found that if they can afford it you are not even going to take them through the process. Let’s shake hands and part friends. But if you get all the way through to asking for the sale, if you have done your job correctly, you should close everybody and here is the thing about it is nobody is going to close everybody that is why I said earlier that even the greatest are always practicing in getting better, so where did you missed it at and you just talked about you knew when you done it, alright.

The great part about that is a professional sales person will go look themselves in the mirror and go, “Oh, I blew that one, okay here is what I should have done, here is where I messed it up at,” and you will learn from that and there is nothing wrong with that, that’s how we get better. We are lucky. We don’t have to go through what our heart surgeon, they don’t get to practice, you know, I don’t ever want people practicing on prospects but if you missed a sale, go back and analyze your own performance and say, “Where could I have done better.” Don’t get into the habit of it’s the government, it’s the economy, it’s my company’s advertising, it’s this, there are too many people in this space online, it’s this problem, it’s that, no guess what? It’s you and I hate to be that blunt, but it just means you need to analyze where you need to get better.

Jeremy Reeves: Absolutely, 100% agree. So one question it kind of just came up was you know, thinking in terms of taking everything we have been talking about over the last half hour or so, and putting it into a kind of like a systematic process for you know, for doing it online, you know, is there -- and you can actually relate to this with speaking you know, if your end goal is selling you know, whatever it is, consulting package or product or whatever it is your selling at the end, is there kind of like, like a formula or kind of a path that you take to get people from the start, the speaking engagement to the end where you are selling them because in that case, basically, in any case where you cannot -- where it is not one to one selling, it could be a webinar or it can be whatever that is where you can ask the questions. How do you kind of take those selling skills that we have been talking about and kind of transfer that.

Butch Bellah: The great Stephen Covey always said, “begin with the end in mind” and here is the thing that I see too many people is they begin with the beginning in mind and then they get to the end and they think they will figure it out when they get there. No, start where you want to end up and then backed your way up from there. So understand what result do you want to come from this webinar, the sales funnel, the speaking engagement or whatever. Now, I have a speaking engagement today, my goal at the end of it is going to be, to hopefully sell some books in the back of the room and so what I will do is in that speech, I will sprinkle in some things about the book and get peoples appetite whetted so that when I ask at the end, “hey guess what, the books are $26.99 you can get them today for $25 unless you want two then they are $50, you know I always start a joke in there or something like that. I always tell, “hey I have got very limited supply but if I ran out, I got another limited supply out the truck or something like that.

Begin with the end in mind, where do you want to take them and then the thing is, is to take steps backward and make sure that you are leaving a trail for them to follow that you are dropping little nuggets along the way that as they take each one of them from the beginning of that funnel that there is a reason that you are -- every step should have a reason. There should be no wasted process. There should be no wasted steps in the sale and whether it is from the initial prospecting to qualifying or whatever, the whole thing starts at the other end and that is why they are asking for the sale obviously getting a yes.

But I tell you this, the greatest thing a prospect or customer or potential customer can say is yes. The second best thing they can say is no, because now you have got something to work with. You don’t have this, let me think about it, all this cost just tell me no, because guess what, I can work with that, because when somebody tells you no, here is the greatest, if you don’t hear anything else I say here is the greatest no close in the world. So Jeremy why do you say that? And then 3225 list all one of those why did you say no because number one, I’m going to learn something about you but guess what, I’m going to learn something about me. I may learn exactly where in that process I screwed this deal up.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, as a quick aside, just to show everybody that that’s very, very true. I actually just did that this week actually. I had somebody and I send the proposal for one of my sales letter or sales funnel, they came back and said no, and I said, what is the reason, I’m just curious, and they told me and so I was then able to take that and overcome that objection and number one, I’m actually getting not that same project but a different project and then there is a $15,000 project so it was a good chunk of project and then the second part is I learned what was off in my sequence that I have for when I send proposals, and I noticed a couple of weak points in there so I can then go back and actually one of the things on my list this week is fixing that little weak point in there.

So it’s definitely about kind of taking that and getting the feedback and making changes, even going back, if you are selling anything on the phone or even taking this online you can do surveys, you ask your audience why they didn’t buy, they have been on your list for 60 days or something. So hey, I’m just curious, why haven’t you purchased yet and obviously, you put a better language in that, I think it’s spot on.

Butch Bellah: Here is the thing is that, let us just and we will take this a step further. Let us just ask Jeremy, why do you say that, and you say well, it’s just not the right time for me right now. Really, tell me more? I love that just really tell me more. There is nothing wrong with that. Now, because here is the thing, everybody says well I don’t want to make him mad, you don’t have a sale at that point, they have told you no. Don’t be afraid of that. So when you say, really why do you say that, well it’s you know, there is that at the other end and if it’s another spoke strain, really? Tell me more. Ask.

We get to where we accept mediocrity. We accept something less than success too many times in this world and if you want something bad enough, find out what you did to find out how you could do it better and if they say “well, you know, what do you mean tell me more?” “Well, I always wanted to get better in what I do, and I really felt like this made a lot of sense for you to take ownership or it made a lot of sense for you to join this program or be in this master matter whatever the case may be and so I’m curious as to what part didn’t work for you.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, that’s brilliant. It’s something a lot of people just don’t do the leg work.

Butch Bellah: I use an inbound software I know a lot of people are using Infusionsoft or anything, I use Act-On and I love it because I get lead scores for people at my website and actually if they ever signed up for anything, I can track them through my website and everything and there is a task where I will send an email to people, say “Hey, I noticed you have been at the website lately and you were reading a couple of articles on this, I want to send you my top 5 blog posts on referrals or whatever and if you like to have a 30-minute phone call and say if there is something I can help you with, here is a link to my calendar.

You would be surprised I mean people could “is this automated?” “No, this is really me.” I picked out a few people every week and I go through it, I just wanted to stay in touch with people that are at my website because if they are taking their time to come to your place of business or they are taking their clam to come to your website or whatever the case may be. It’s worth it for you to take the time to spend with them and I’m going to give you little tip and while I’m thinking about it because, Jeremy, I will forget, my first book is called, The 10 Essential Habits of Sales Superstars, and if your listeners will go to butchbellah.com, you can get a free copy, you can download a free PDF copy, go to butchbellah.com/salesfunnelmastery and there is a special page there sales funnel mastery, yes you are going to put in your email address as you may all know but you get a free copy of that book but there is one thing that I tell everybody in there and it’s called the top 10 list and David Letterman made millions of dollars for the top 10 list and I always ask people when I’m training them or coaching them, who are your top 10 prospects, you should know that, because guess what, everyday of the week you should get up and go how do I move these relationships forward.

If they are a top 10 prospect if they are truly a top 10 -- and I’m not talking about a wish list or some 3733 would like to hit that deal or I hope you talk to them. Now these are people you have established some sort of relationship with. If they are truly a top 10 prospect, they deserve your attention in how to move the relationship forward, a phone call, a personalized email, maybe a Google hangout chat, maybe a Skype call, however you can touch that person. If they are truly a top 10 prospect that’s for tomorrow’s paycheck is coming from, but here is the great part about it what you will find is when you start focusing on how do I move the relationship with number 5 forward, you are going to start pushing on number 4 and then 4 starts pushing on 3 and number one becomes a customer, it’s the old ferris wheel example, but in the book there is a link there and the thing that you can download it at my site of top 10 list, it’s a PDF and you can use your own or build your own whatever, yeah if you go to butchbellah.com/salesfunnelmastery they can get a copy of my first book.

Jeremy Reeves: Sounds good and I will put that in the show notes for everybody who wants to read. I know you have to run off and you are actually going to your speaking engagement, so let’s not 3843 fantastic episode and for anybody, if you are doing your own sales funnels or even if you are selling I mean anything at any manner whatsoever, I definitely recommend both of Butch’s books, go to that URL and then also pick up his new book. So Butch, we are kind of just talking about that but as kind of a final reminder, tell everybody where to go to find out more about you and that kind of thing.

Butch Bellah: Sure, you can go to butchbellah.com over 400 blog posts there available free, video blogs, you can sign up for my weekly E-zine newsletter, you can order my Sales Management for Dummies which is the new book, you can order it direct from the website there, I would be happy to sign it for you, just click on store. I have also got a new DVD out called the Game of Sales and that is one that I’m really, really proud of and it’s about a 40-minute DVD and it goes through what I called game, goals, attitude, motivation, and education and that is the cornerstone on which every successful salesperson is built and when I always hear “she has got game or he has owned his game” and I found that that is what it stands for its goals, attitude, motivation and education, you could pick that up there.

I would love to hear from you, you can drop me an email at butchbellah.com I’m on a link down you can find me on tweeter at salespowertips. Heck, I’m on even on Instagram at imbutchbellah and it’s because Butchbellah was already taken which is crazy because, but it was taken by me and I forgot the password. True story too man, so I had to come up with “imbutchbellah” so if you own Instagram and you want some daily motivational quote and stuff like that, you can follow me there.

But Jeremy it has been absolute blast man, thanks so much for having me on and I love sales funnels, I love the thought process that goes into it because I love the psychology of selling and as I said earlier, if you would begin with the end in mind and think what I want that customer to do and then back up every step from there then you can create a much more productive funnel.

Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, absolutely and before we sign off, I also want to agree very, very highly with that point, when I write sales letters I always start by writing out the offer first and then going backwards and coming that down to the offer and even when I’m building sales funnels like putting the structures together, I always think of, okay what is the end goal, and when clients come on, it’s different sometimes it’s just revenue, sometimes it’s revenue but they only want to work 8 hours a day, whatever it is and the sales funnel is going to be different based on that goal. So you have to know that first to then bring it from the beginning to the end, so I 100% agree. So with that said, thanks again for coming on, I loved putting you on the spot, that was really fun.

Butch Bellah: Hey, that was fun, keeps me on my toes.

Jeremy Reeves: I hope the listeners enjoyed that one, thanks again for coming on. Everybody, go to butchbellah.com and I will put all the links in the show notes for you and make sure because when you are building out sales funnels I mean if you want more sales, you have to become a better salesman it is just period end of story. There is no other -- there is nothing else to even say about it, you just have to do it. Butch is one of the best trainers in the world on it so I highly recommend that you head over to his site, get his books, go into his blog, go on various social media channels which, by the way, are on the -- they kind of pop up when you come in to the website I’m on there now. So, yeah, so that’s it. So I hope everybody enjoyed that and I will talk to you soon.

Butch Bellah: Thanks Jeremy.

Jeremy Reeves: Thanks again Butch.

Butch Bellah: Alright.