S5E23 – The Effective Sales Strategies: 9 Tips to Scale Revenue and Drive Growth with Dan Jourdan

• (00:33) – Show intro and background history
• (03:31) – Deeper into his career journey
• (04:17) – Understanding his business strategies
• (07:05) – Deeper into his customer focus philosophy
• (15:32) – How to avoid entering a business comfort zone
• (19:44) – Commercial break (TYKR)
• (20:23) – Deeper into his tactical sales strategies
• (28:24) – The 4 reasons people buy
• (25:02) – A bit about his numbers
• (33:07) – Guest hot tips
• (39:13) – A key takeaway from the guest
• (48:34) – Guest contacts

Transcription

[00:00:00.000] – Show Intro

Introducing Payback Time, the podcast for entrepreneurs looking to build and scale their startups, gain access to actionable tips, proven strategies, and valuable data that can help you avoid mistakes, skyrocket sales, and optimize profits. Your business breakthrough may just be an episode away.

 

[00:00:17.810] – Guest Intro

If you want to get better at sales, this episode is for you. My next guest has built and sold multiple businesses, and in this episode, he breaks down nine sales tips that can help you convert more leads into sales. Please welcome Dan Jordan.

 

[00:00:33.140] – Sean

Dan, welcome to the show.

 

[00:00:34.570] – Dan

Thanks for having me. I’m like, pumped to be here today.

 

[00:00:38.160] – Sean

I sure hope so. We got a lot to cover on the topic of sales. Before we get into it, can you tell us something about yourself that most people don’t know?

 

[00:00:47.060] – Dan

Gosh. Well, you had just asked me how to pronounce my name, and probably what most people don’t know is that’s not my real name. When my dad came to America from France in in 1950 or something like that, he’s a guy, Henry, so Henri. And the last name would have been Zegel, which is like Siegel. And you can’t be a French hairdresser being like, Henri Siegel. And so he was driving down… Not driving, he was walking on 73rd Street in Manhattan years ago, and there was a clothinger there, Louis Jourdan, and he changed his name on the spot. So that’s my name, Dan Jourdan, just from that.

 

[00:01:29.610] – Sean

That’s a fun story. It makes it a little easier, right? If you make it a little easier to pronounce. I know people in Hollywood have done this. Their name can be complex, and they’ll change it to something very simple, and there’s a marketability there.

 

[00:01:43.360] – Dan

Yeah, that’s right. And a lot of people compare me to Hollywood stars, so we’re on the right track. I get it. I can see that.

 

[00:01:51.950] – Sean

Well, let’s go ahead and dive in. If you could take a few minutes here and tell us about your career background.

 

[00:01:57.530] – Dan

Oh, gosh. It’ll be really It’ll be very quick. I’m born in Brooklyn, New York. I grew up in a little town called Fairlawn, New Jersey, and I had a perfect life and a mama’s boy type of thing, just everything’s good. My senior year of high school, my parents decided to get divorced. It was traumatic for me, and so I took it out on my mother and I said, enough with college. That’s what everybody’s expecting me to do. Bunch of garbage. I took my college money and bought myself a butcher shop like in the next town over. Turned it into a deli, DJ’s Country Deli, built that thing up after several years, sold it, started a restaurant supply business in Manhattan, built that up, sold it, moved to Atlanta, became a stockbroker. One day, I realized that everybody was getting divorced, and I said, I don’t want to be a stockbroker anymore. I bought one of my clients’ business. I had a pest control business, a lawn care business, a truck rental business. Sold that, had a staffing company, built that up, sold that, consulting company. See, what happens is my whole life, I’m really good at building up and growing businesses.

 

[00:03:12.380] – Dan

I’m a horrible manager. It’s like doing the actual stuff bore the dickens out of me. And so started a company, helping people get more customers and learning how to sell and closing and having a joyous time of my life life. There’s my career world.

 

[00:03:31.890] – Sean

I love it. I love the career back story. And I’ve met a lot of people like you in that position. They’re really good at that startup phase, but when they get to the process phase of maintaining and doing the simple but boring things over and over does not excite them. You’ll see those people that get to corporate America, they’re very good at taking a company from 10 million to 100 million, but they’re horrible at the zero to 10 million mark. Or you back it up further, zero to a million, because they They’re not nimble, super creative. But when you get a proven system, and now we need to make it more efficient, which can be not as exciting, they thrive in that area. So you’re really focused on that startup, the beginning, getting it to that, you could say million AR. Is there a number you focus on or doesn’t that really matter?

 

[00:04:21.540] – Dan

No, I mean, they got to have enough to afford me. But what it is, it’s not just startup because many people are restarting. Starting up all the time. And environments change, the industries change, things change, people quit, you’re starting again. And one of my things my wife always says to me, Why do we always have to start from zero? And I try to figure it out, but really it’s because that’s who I am. I just learned a long time ago, a lot of the stuff that I have comes from my dad. Being Father’s Day yesterday, it was one of those things that I was thinking about. Weird thing. You know what? My dad’s no longer alive, but unlike Father’s Day, like on days that holidays that I want to remember, I find myself eating the food that he liked. That gets me cold. Yesterday, I had Schmaltz herring. When was the last time you had Schmaltz herring? You’re thinking about papa. A lot of things come from my dad. My dad was an immigrant from France. Obviously, we lost him. I’m only telling you this because it’s conceptual with the I’m about to say. But my dad lost his father in a concentration camp during World War II, like an Auschwitz type of thing.

 

[00:05:39.570] – Dan

He didn’t really have much of an education. He finally got here. It was just a 6th-grade education. He didn’t give me much advice, but the advice he gave me was just awesome when it came. It would start like this. It would start like this, Danny, in this country. Then he’d give me this. When I heard With that, your ears perk up. So he says, Danny, in this country, you get a job, you have one customer, and he’s called the boss. If he gets a wild hair up his tuchish, you got gunish. Gunish means nothing in Yiddish. You got nothing. But he says, But Danny, if you’re a salesman or a business owner, well, then you have 100 bosses, but they’re called customers. If one of them fires you, who cares? You got 99 more. But he was trying to say that financial security and just security in itself doesn’t come with the ability… It doesn’t come with having a job. It comes with the ability of being able to earn an income anytime, anywhere, any place in any language. And so that’s the passion. And that drive keeps you moving forward, always trying to meet the next person that could change your life.

 

[00:07:03.760] – Dan

The other thing he would say is, if you’re not growing, you’re shrinking. If you’re not climbing, you’re sliding. You’re never even, Steven. You’re never all set. And as soon as you think you are, that’s when you need to sell. I mean, that’s the end. And so it’s almost like a fear of not moving forward that keeps me active like that. You might be delving into deep psychological challenges here with my life. But thank you very much, Michel.

 

[00:07:33.750] – Sean

Glad to have you work through these problems on the show.

 

[00:07:37.690] – Dan

I’m here for you. I’m here for you.

 

[00:07:40.090] – Sean

Right. And in the tech world, they’ll say the phrase, If you’re not growing you’re dying, right? So you’re 100 % on the mark. You’ve got a common track record here of building business, like repeated systems you’ve used to build and sell businesses. I know I I’ll watch you on because you caught my attention to the audience here. You may laugh at this, but I fell on Dan’s email list. I have no idea because I don’t join a lot of email lists, and I’m getting emails from this guy. I don’t know if somebody passed it on to you. And usually, I just unsubscribed and I clicked on one of the emails and the sales tips you provided in just the first email itself, I was like, Oh, okay, this is really good stuff. So I just respond to that email and say, You got to come on my podcast, and here we are, I think, eight weeks later, whatever.

 

[00:08:29.820] – Dan

That’s it.

 

[00:08:31.320] – Sean

It’s funny how things work out like that, but I didn’t realize you also, you built and sold multiple businesses. Can you talk about what are the common levers you’re polling with each business that my audience are looking for proof seven tactical formulas and what they can use, essentially where I’m driving here.

 

[00:08:49.350] – Dan

Yeah. Well, I’ll answer the question with it being not being woo-woo, but it really does start with your mindset. It comes with this basic just understanding and beliefs. Maybe I’ll get into beliefs in a moment here. But the first most important thing you must understand about business, that the definition of a business is not having a process, the definition is not having a tools, not having an office, a computer. The definition of a business is having a customer. When you wake up in the morning, you think to yourself, How do I get a new customer today? That drives you forward because with a customer, you can get all the other things. But with all the other things, you’re still not in business. You got no revenue coming in. And so if it’s not you, there’s got to be somebody in your organization that wakes up in the morning and is just like, Oh, do you see what I saw? I saw that guy doing that. I think I got an idea for a customer today. And just go after that. So it comes with that headstrong mindset. I am going to get a new customer or a new revenue today or die trying.

 

[00:10:09.330] – Dan

I mean, it’s just going to happen.

 

[00:10:11.110] – Sean

I absolutely love that. Yeah.

 

[00:10:13.700] – Dan

Yeah. And really, That’s where it starts. And then I remember reading a long time ago in every one of us. I imagine I’m looking at my bookcase there. I imagine you have a bookcase, too, that’s somewhat large reading. I remember reading the old Sam Walton book. And Sam Walton got to a point where he said, Man, I need a consultant. I don’t know what I’m doing right now. I know I’m losing money. I don’t know what’s happening here. And he went to this consultant and he opened up, in essence, a shoe box. And the guy looked at it and goes, This is your receipts? This is how much you’re doing? He didn’t know what was happening. All Sam Walton knew how to do was put a popcorn maker in front of his place and bring people in. He knew how to get customers. And the guy across the street didn’t have a popcorn machine. And when the guy put a popcorn machine there, he put a jumpcast away. He figured out a way to get people to his store. Woke up in the morning, said, What do I have to do to get a new customer.

 

[00:11:16.930] – Dan

When you say about the number one thing, just that, impossible to fail.

 

[00:11:22.300] – Sean

Thank you for saying that. And you probably met a lot of entrepreneurs that don’t have that mindset. I’ve met a lot of people who want to be entrepreneurs, but they are not hyper-focused on the customer. How do I get new customers? Or how about this? How do I better serve my current customers so they tell their friends and family about me? That is a constant question I think more entrepreneurs need to be asking is, how do I do that situation so referrals are on an autopilot?

 

[00:11:56.320] – Dan

Yeah, wonderful. I love I have referrals, and I have processes to get referrals, and everybody should. But to scale, you got to learn how to sell to strangers. You got to learn. And now you get that by… Listen, those who serve the most, earn the most. That’s just how it works. It’s not you’re trying to offer advice. If you have a program, our programs, we can guarantee X amount of people that are going to come face-to-face meetings for you. Great. A lot of people can do But then you got to close these things. You have to commit yourself to doing the uncomfortable things. The reason why people say, Yes, I want to get more customers, but don’t really actually take the actions to do it, is because they don’t want to, and you could write this one down, people who are really successful don’t mind looking like an idiot. You’re not trying to save your reputation. Their brand needs to be there willing to do anything for their client, not they’re always safe. I had an idea for somebody’s company that I just knew would blow it up. I had contacted him several times, and this over the course of the year.

 

[00:13:19.590] – Dan

Also, it’s creative things. I actually gave him the proposal of this is what I would do step by step, all this stuff. Finally, I got there. I sent him a gallon of ranch dressing. And then the headline was like, sell the ranch on this idea. It’s impossible to fail. And I go, the secret is in the dressing. He had to go in there. And I did all kinds of crazy stuff just to get noticed for types of things. And many times it doesn’t work. And you got to feel like an idiot doing all that stuff. But then you get calls. I talk to somebody somehow, I get in touch with somebody in some way, and the first thing they do is look me up. And that’s what happens to you out there. And that’s what happens to anybody who’s listening when you’re in business. You’re going to talk to somebody and they’re thinking, Maybe I’ll do some business, whatever. Let me look the person up. I mean, it’s one thing if they look you up and find out you’re an ax murderer. Not good. I got it. But even worse, what if they find nothing?

 

[00:14:29.620] – Dan

Like, What if you looked up somebody who is making all these claims about what they could do for your business and you looked them up and there was nothing? There was no way you would do business with that person. I can’t tell you how many people… I have a podcast, too. Sales Energizer podcast. I invite people to come on, clients to come on. I can’t tell you how many clients are too chicken to come on. You probably know. Do you ever have people that don’t show up or that you ask them to come and they don’t? Oh, yeah.

 

[00:14:58.760] – Sean

I get nos I’m like, You’d be a great fit. And they’re like, No, I’m good. Yeah.

 

[00:15:03.110] – Dan

I mean, oh, my gosh. I’m going to be able to realize it’s not what you put on your website that builds any SEO. It’s getting the back links. Man, people just realize you go on 10 podcasts and then they market you from there and you’re getting it back. All of a sudden, Google says, Oh, I got somebody substantial. You’re literally 10 podcasts away of moving up to the first page on Google, and people are too chicken to do it. Sometimes- You’re writing that one down as a note, as a key takeaway?

 

[00:15:34.680] – Sean

You’ve got a few already, so we’re going to have a good roll up here at the end. But I see people, sometimes it’s a simple things, and they can still be a little outside their comfort zone And they won’t do it just because it’s just a touch outside the comfort zone. And it’s like, if you just do that one simple thing here, that can make a world of difference in your business, and they won’t- Oh, my gosh.

 

[00:15:55.640] – Dan

The comfort zone is the death. It’s the Death of growth is in the comfort zone. You can’t grow but through pain. I mean, that’s the whole thing. A scab doesn’t heal without pain. You need it. You can’t grow muscles without some pain. You can’t do anything. And you have these four beliefs. The problem is they don’t believe enough. There’s really four beliefs that somebody needs to succeed in business and in life and in sales and the whole shebang, but mainly for your career, the first belief is the belief in your company. You got to know that your The company is there behind you, that they’re substantial, that you could count on them to improve your brand and not ruin it, your personal brand. The second belief is in your product or service or whatever it is. First your company, Then your product of service. But everybody has the same product, and everything’s a commodity in about 15 minutes. But you got to believe in the product. Third is the belief in yourself, which is obvious reasons that you have to know that you’re willing to do that which others wouldn’t be willing to do in order to serve your prospects so they achieve the results that they want to get.

 

[00:17:09.580] – Dan

But fourth, and this is the glue belief that keeps it all together, this is the cement. This is what makes the other three work. And that is the belief. I mean, not just the knowledge and the know-how, not just the thing that you tell people or the stuff that you want to believe. You internally believe that your prospect buying this product from your company, and most importantly, from you, from you yourself, you’re the defining difference. If they get it from you, it’s better than if they get it from anybody else on the planet. You know that you’re there to follow through, and you know that nobody else is willing to do it the way you’re willing to do it. Now, once you have that belief, you’re in roofing, once you have that belief, you can’t let your prospect buy it for somebody else. It wouldn’t be fair to them. Do you know what craziness goes on in the roofing industry? I know what’s going on. I’m making this up right now, but you know how disreputable all these companies are, and they’ll just leave and go out of business in one accident, and they’re gone.

 

[00:18:27.340] – Dan

Terrible. I can’t, in good faith for someone that I like or love, a prospect, a lifelong customer, can’t allow you to risk that. If you have that belief, then you’re willing to overcome objections. When someone says, I need to think about it, you can say, Got it. That makes perfect sense. If I were you, I’d say the same thing. But let me ask you this, do you believe that you see these other roofs in the neighborhood? Do you believe that we could do something similar to that on your house? Yes. Do you believe that if you followed or if we do this and we have the project manager on and we’re there to help and we’re there to answer any questions on the day of, do you believe that we can do it for you? Yes, we do. Well, and I got to ask you, what’s really holding you back? What are you really in your quiet time, what are you really thinking about? Now, that whole little sequence that I just did, if you don’t believe in yourself enough in your product, you can’t say it.

 

[00:19:19.770] – Sean

You just can’t.

 

[00:19:21.330] – Dan

You feel like a goof saying it. But if you believe it and you have the passion for it, ultimately, sales is a transfer of energy. And there’s too little of it out there right now. And if you’re the purveyor of it, they crave it, they need it. And they get to say when they talk to their friends, I got a guy. Yeah.

 

[00:19:44.170] – Sean

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[00:20:48.920] – Sean

You could be in a call, you could be over Zoom, you could be in person, and you’re going to get those objections. You got a bigger ticket price, and you got to have that high energy. You don’t want to force it down their throat, but then handling the objections and getting them to move with urgency so they’re not waiting another year or two if they want to act now. How do you, when you are training your customers on how to get better at sales, what tactics are you teaching them and how to elevate that urgency?

 

[00:21:19.450] – Dan

Yeah. Well, the first thing is to understanding that everybody hates to be sold, but they love to buy. And I know there are some certain industries, car salesmen, I I’m bringing up roofing sales. I just got a new client. That’s why I’m thinking of this. But a car salesman. And there are some types of industries that are known for aggressive salespeople, and they’re looked down upon in the sales community. A SaaS sales, I’m an IT sales guy. I don’t putzer. I’m not going to use the tactics of a car. I’m not a used car salesman. Let me tell you something. Every IT exec, I promise you, 100% of the IT execs that you know or will ever know, bought a car. They bought a car from somebody, and somehow they emotionally got it. They may have known it or they maybe didn’t know it, but they got emotionally attached not to the car. You can get the car anywhere. They got emotionally attached to the salesperson. The most important part of the sale is the salesperson. You want to be a great salesperson? First, be a great person. A great person will dedicate themselves yourselves to being able to really find out what the prospect or your future customer wants and creates a discovery call that creates emotion.

 

[00:22:40.460] – Dan

How do you create urgency? You ask for it at the beginning. During your discovery call, and discovery is, and we can go through various questions, but your discovery call, which is every sales presentation, you’re to find out four things. Where are you right now? Where do you want to go? What’s situation right now? What’s your vision? Where do you want to go? What’s blocking you from getting that right now? And then what are the consequences or the ramifications if it doesn’t come to fruition, if you don’t get that? And once you get those questions, and I would ask you, Sean, what if… I don’t know what’s your goals, but let’s say, assume your goals are a $100 million company. I’m just saying that to you. And then And you say, Oh, yeah, I want to earn $100 million. Well, you don’t just stop there. You say, Oh, my gosh. Interesting. Why is that important to you? And then you have you tell me why it’s important to you. And then I said, Have you ever done it before? Have you ever seen anybody do before? What do you admire about those people? And all of a sudden, I got you in there painting a picture in your head and building up this emotion.

 

[00:23:51.580] – Dan

And then I hit you with, Well, what happens if you don’t make it? What happens if it doesn’t go there and you don’t get that goal? Are you okay with that? And all All of a sudden, I’ve created urgency. And then the next question is simply, move them and transition to the thing. I got it. I understand where you are, Sean. You’re over here on this little island, and you want to get over here to this island, right? Yes, great. And the only thing you’re missing is this thing right in the middle, whatever my service is right in the middle. If I were to ask you, Sean, if I can get you from here to here, because you see we’ve done it before, and walk with you hand in hand the whole way and give you a step step-by-step plan on how to get there, let me ask you, Sean, how soon would you want to get started?

 

[00:24:35.740] – Sean

There’s the question.

 

[00:24:38.500] – Dan

But you can’t just give them the question. You got to set it up by building that emotion first. Because at that point, they’re buyers. Now, you’re going to have to overcome this again when you drop the price and then they’re going to have an objection, fine. But now you have some leverage. Now you have something to go back to, to call back upon as a person. Listen, if you want to get somebody to like you, ask about them. The more somebody else talks about themselves and what they want, the more they’re going to like you. Let me go off on a tangent now, if that’s possible. Why you go there? So listen, there’s four reasons why… If you wanted to… People hate to be sold, but they love to buy. There’s four reasons why people buy. Only four. Imagine that. All you have to learn is these four reasons and you got it and you just get to play with it. I mean, it makes sense to learn them, right? All right. So the first reason they’re going to buy is because they like you. Second reason they’re going to buy is because they trust you.

 

[00:25:42.830] – Dan

By the way, which one do you think is more important, like or trust? I’m asking you, Sean. Trust. Trust, right. Most people say trust. I do these in front of our audiences. It could be an audience in front of 10. It could be an audience in front of 100. I always ask that question. Most people say trust. Then I ask this I said, Now, only the women. I go, How many of you women have ever gone out on a second date? Not a first date. A second date with a person that you trusted. They weren’t going to kill you, but you didn’t like them. No hands go. It very quickly goes to trust, Sean Tapper, but it starts with like. If they don’t like you, your foot’s not in the door. Fortunately, I’ll show you ways to get people to like you, so They like you, they trust you. Third is they need to believe you. Belief is where your credibility comes in. Belief is your resume. Belief is your case studies. Belief is all the things that you lead with. But it’s number three. And so you’re screwed at the beginning. That’s the first thing I teach people.

 

[00:26:48.190] – Dan

Don’t lead with your stuff that you’ve done in the past. Nobody cares. Like, trust, believe. And once you have those three, you’ve almost made the sale. All All you need is the magic at the bottom, which again brings it together. And that is desire. And once your prospect has a desire, I’ll tell you what that looks like. Have you ever stopped your car and turned around and bought lemonade from two girls on the side of the road?

 

[00:27:18.190] – Sean

In my neighborhood, 100 %, yes.

 

[00:27:20.340] – Dan

Everybody’s done. Here’s the question, were you thirsty? I mean, you were dying for that. No, of course not. You were just there because it made you feel good as the buyer to get this product from them. What if your customers felt that way about you? That’s it. And that’s the goal. So when I’m saying, if they like you and they trust you. You know what it looks like? It looks like this. You’re applying for a job and you’re in an interview and they’re like, You know what? We just filled that position. But hold on, stick around a little bit. Maybe we could find something for you. That’s what it looks like. Sometimes in a sale and in a SaaS sale, you missed it by a day. You missed it by… Somebody got fired. You missed it by a month. You missed it by something. Right there, Oh, now I got to wait a whole other time. But if you got all these things in front of you, hold on a second. Maybe we could find something for you. People do business with people.

 

[00:28:24.140] – Sean

You bring up a good situation there at that point, four, under the four reasons people buy from you, that fourth point desire to drill into that, they could buy the same thing or something similar going elsewhere, a few other places. But they choose at that point, you’re saying because of the impact it has on me as a seller or the results? I want to unpack this a little bit further. It was a little unclear on that.

 

[00:28:51.210] – Dan

Buyers want to buy from people they like, they trust, and they believe can do the work. So if you’re a little higher priced or something like that, Hey, I want to work with you. Hook me up. They trust you. They know you’ll make them look good. When I’m working with people, when I’m working on a prospect to try to gain attention with somebody like that. I have a client, they build golf courses. They’re the construction crew for golf courses all over the world, big, beautiful golf courses. Well, golf courses, who you’re marketing to are architects, big architects. Now, There’s Greg Norman, architect. There’s Jack Nicholson. There’s Nicholas Nicholson. Which one is it?

 

[00:29:36.440] – Sean

Nicholas.

 

[00:29:37.530] – Dan

Okay. Yeah, it is Jack Nicholson.

 

[00:29:38.610] – Sean

Yeah, Nicholas is an actor.

 

[00:29:40.390] – Dan

That’s right. Yeah, there we go. I guess if you were selling to Lakers, you would go to him. When you’re going to these people, man, I’m in touch with them 20 times already. I’m giving them value with my sales letter that I do. I’m giving value, value, value, value, value first. It doesn’t take long where the law of reciprocity kicks in. As soon as you have the need, Oh, let me feel good by giving this to that guy. He’s been working so hard to get me. I see. I’ll tell you a quick story on how you could change people’s view of you. When I was, I guess, 26, 27, I had a friend here in Atlanta. I’m living in New Jersey. He invites me over just to out for a weekend or do something. I came back and we were just hanging out. He takes me to a party, meet some girl, blonde hair, Southern accent, bakes pies. I’m like, This place is great.

 

[00:30:46.160] – Sean

When, when, when.

 

[00:30:46.650] – Dan

I know. I went home, moved here two weeks later. Asked the girl to go out with me, and she says, No, I have a boyfriend. I’m like, I moved here. What do you mean, boyfriend? Anyway, she thought it was funny. Anyway, she laughed. So the next week, I called her back again. I said, Hey, you want to go out? I had this big plan, and I showed her what I was going to do. Are you an idiot? I have a boyfriend. I said, Yeah, but she was giggling by it. Next week, called her again. Next week, called her 26th time. Finally, the 27th time, I guess she broke up with the guy. She agreed to go out with me. I had great seats, an old Fulton County Stadium for a Met game, brave game, whatever. I was I was there and had a great time and got a ball from Doc Gooden. It was really good. I went up and called my dad. I go, Dad, I thought she was down there. Anyway, so we had a great time, all that stuff. Finally, I asked her, I said, Why did you agree to go out with me?

 

[00:31:49.280] – Dan

Oh, I should say, we’ve been married for 28 years, two kids. End of story. Yet to have a bad day. But I did say to her, I said, Why did you finally give in? What did you agree to? And she said this, and this has to do with sales. She says, I figured if you were willing to work this hard to get me, you’d be willing to work equally as hard to keep me. In my little sales brain, you know what I heard? It’s flattering when you really want something and you’re willing to go after it and creatively think of ways that will help them. It’s flattering. So your customer are just as susceptible to these emotional triggers as any other… Listen, 98% of the people you’re going to meet in this world are human. There are 2%, they’re called lawyers. Nothing works on them. But a Aside from that, everything works. By the way, I should say about my wife, she hasn’t baked a pie since.

 

[00:32:53.610] – Sean

The bait and switch tactic. Okay. That’s it.

 

[00:32:56.470] – Dan

You know how they get you. They’ll screw you at the drive-through. That’s it.

 

[00:33:01.300] – Sean

Sold you on that, and here you are, no pies. That’s hilarious. What I’d like to do next is a roll-up for our audience here. You just gave away a whole bunch of great tactics here. And And I’m going to ask you, what is one more key takeaway you can give our audience? And then we’re going to get into the rapid-frying around and have a little more fun. So I’m going to roll up here as best as I can to summarize the HotTips. Audience, because I’m breaking the fourth wall here. They know the drill. I’m talking to you. I’m going I go through. We got a few sub bolts as well. So I’ve got nine core sales tactics here with a few subs within. So first one is mindset, understanding and believing. I’m big on that. I won’t talk in detail of this, but I get a little annoyed by the fake guru, quote, unquote, that all they do is sell motivational courses and make people’s feelings feel better. I think that’s a bunch of garbage. But some of it, it does check out. And that understanding and believing Thinking in yourself is super important. So I can get on board with that.

 

[00:34:04.260] – Sean

All right, number two, don’t worry about looking like an idiot. You’re willing to go the extra mile, even if you do look dumb. I think that’s great. As business owners, you need to be trying different things because you have to figure out the formula and what works. And yeah, in some cases, you might look dumb. That’s okay. All right, number three, beliefs. You got four here, four subbullets within this point. Three, you’ve got belief in your company, belief in your product, belief in yourself, and belief the prospect will get the best result when they buy from you. I thought that was great. All right. Number four, sales as a transfer of energy. I totally believe this. If you’re coming to the call, the Zoom call, phone call, in-person with the wrong energy, you’re just setting yourself up for failure. Transfer that energy, better come with the right energy. Number five, people hate to be sold, but they love to buy. Heard that before. I thought that was a good one.

 

[00:34:56.770] – Dan

We got to give credit to Jeffrey Gettemer for Okay.

 

[00:35:00.470] – Sean

Yeah, I have heard that before. That’s a good one. Number six, if you want to be a great salesperson, you have to be a great person. And there’s a comment- Well, first, to be a great person.

 

[00:35:14.930] – Dan

Work on number one and then you have it to give to others. Yeah. And it’s not like, wait to start selling until you become great. No, you’re working on it.

 

[00:35:25.390] – Sean

On this point six, something very similar, you probably heard this line, too, Which is people don’t care how much you know.

 

[00:35:31.620] – Dan

They want to know how much you care. How much you care.

 

[00:35:33.120] – Sean

Yeah, that’s it.

 

[00:35:35.320] – Dan

Becoming a great person, by the way, obviously is subjective. But football coaches or any coaches who have losing seasons for many years still get jobs with other teams. And so it’s because people celebrate your effort, and then everybody will celebrate your result.

 

[00:36:00.640] – Sean

That’s a good call. Yeah, love it. All right, number seven, we got a few points here that are all about we like to get tactical. People like to walk away with, what can I actually do today? So a lot of this is psychological and mindset, but this seven is really tactical. So it’s this discovery. Walk them through these points. Number one within seven is, where are you now? Number two, where do you want to go? Number three, what’s blocking you? Number four, what are the consequences consequences if you don’t get to where you want to go?

 

[00:36:33.680] – Dan

And then follow up with a simple question, are you okay with that? That kills them. That’s the best thing.

 

[00:36:41.300] – Sean

All right. This leads to number eight, which echoes what you just said, I call it reframing. It’s like you walk through the questions, then you reframe it to the customer. It’s like, Okay, so based on what you said, you told me you’re here, this is where you are, here’s where you want to go, what’s blocking you, what are the consequences if you don’t get it? And then I wrote it a little differently. I like that, Are you okay with that? I wrote, If I can walk you through all the processes and help you achieve those results, how soon would you like to get started?

 

[00:37:13.360] – Dan

That’s it? Yeah. And you want an answer. You want an answer right away. And now that’s transferring the discovery call into the sales pitch. Right now, you don’t have any solution anymore. But once you have that, now there’s a couple more things and you’re able to transfer and ask for the order. You’re building leverage.

 

[00:37:34.510] – Sean

Yeah, right there on the call. So that was number eight, number nine. This is a home run. Four reasons why people buy. They like you. We got four points within number nine. So number one, they like you. Number two, they trust you. Number three, they believe you. Number four, desire.

 

[00:37:53.130] – Dan

Yeah, that’s money. My son, one day he decided he was going to start a junk removal business. By the way, he’s 25 now. He bought a house at 19, and he has commercial property and all this stuff from this junk removal business that he started when he was 11 years old. And he went to this first house, and the first day, he made $250 I said, What did you do? Because he would just collect a chair or a lawnmower on the side of the house or a couch or something. I take it to the dump. I said, Matthew, this is crazy. How do you do this? He says, Daddy, you just don’t get it. He says, You think these people are giving me a chair and a couch and a lawnmower because they need to get rid of their chair and their couch and a lawnmower? I’m a stupid dad. I said, Yeah. He said, No, Daddy. He says, They’re doing this. Because it makes them feel good to do business with an 11-year-old. That little bastard. You see, he knew his value. He knew what he was selling innately. And we keep on having to find it.

 

[00:39:03.380] – Dan

He said one other thing which was really great. He goes, Daddy, I got two years left of cuteness, and it’s over.

 

[00:39:08.990] – Sean

That guy’s got a personality at a young age. Man.

 

[00:39:13.060] – Dan

He was a good kid.

 

[00:39:13.940] – Sean

That’s awesome. All right, before we jump in on the rapid fire round, what is one more key takeaway you can give our audience?

 

[00:39:21.320] – Dan

Oh, gosh. All right. This is another segmented thing. Okay, here it is. I know what you’re doing already, and it’s wrong. This is it. There are three words that literally repel your prospects from you. It’s like you’re pushing them away on purpose. That is when somebody asks you what you do, you’re using the three words that repel. Those three words are I, we, and us. If you could do one thing that will dramatically improve your marketing and your sales and your sales calls and your conversations, it’s to use the three words that attract. Those three words are you, yours, and I’m in the south, so we say you all. But if I was back in New Jersey, I’d say use guys. What it sounds like is this. Hey, if you’re like most of the rest of our clients, you have three main worries. You have the worry that you’re not going to get enough consistent customers coming in, and you’re worried that you’re going to pay too much for those that you are getting in, and then you’re not going to be able to close the ones that are coming in. Am I pretty close to the truth?

 

[00:40:38.280] – Dan

If that was you, I got you nodding your head four times without telling you at all what I do. But if that’s you, you’re interested and you say, Yeah, that’s exactly what I do. Can you help me with that? Now you’re in a discovery call.

 

[00:40:54.700] – Sean

You, yours, you all, or you guys. There you go. Nailed it. This is good stuff, Dan. I really love our episode so far, but we’re not done yet. Let’s get into the rapid fire round. This is the part of the episode where we get to find out who Dan really is. If you can, try to answer each question in about 15 seconds or less. You ready?

 

[00:41:18.090] – Dan

Okay, I’m ready.

 

[00:41:19.520] – Sean

All right. What is your favorite podcast?

 

[00:41:22.030] – Dan

I watch Joe Rogan.

 

[00:41:24.750] – Sean

Who doesn’t like Joe Rogan? Captivating show for sure. I can’t always sit through a three-hour episode, but I can chip away at an episode here and there.

 

[00:41:33.380] – Dan

Yes. All right. I’m a listener while I’m outside doing some activities.

 

[00:41:39.310] – Sean

There you go. All right. What is the recent book you read and would recommend?

 

[00:41:43.840] – Dan

Oh, gosh. The Ultimate Sales Machine, Chet Holmes, and I’m reading the 12-week year currently right now. Both absolutely awesome. By the way, you can get my book, too, Sales Proverbs: Wisdom of the Ages, available on Amazon.

 

[00:41:58.650] – Sean

A little seamless plug there. We’ll We’ll have to promote that at the end. Okay. Yeah. All right. Good ones you listed there. We got a fun one here. A movie question. What is your favorite movie?

 

[00:42:08.570] – Dan

I’m not a movie guy. I can’t remember the last movie I’ve actually gone to, but I’ve recently watched Dune, which was awesome. Gosh, what is my favorite movie that I could watch? I guess The Princess Bride. I could probably do the whole thing. You’re using Vanity’s defense against me. I would think it only could fit in, considering the rocky terrain. Obviously, you expect me to attack Matisse Capotille. I’ll find a couple of. I could do that whole movie. You know it.

 

[00:42:38.650] – Sean

You got it. We’re on different sides of the spectrum here. You’ve got this classic comedy versus deeper sci-fi. I’m a big sci-fi guy, so Dune part one and two. Love them.

 

[00:42:52.090] – Dan

Absolutely love them. I just watched the one. My daughter just got married three months ago, and Vincent, the new son-in-law, is a big fan, and so I want to watch the second one with him.

 

[00:43:06.510] – Sean

Okay, so you watched part one that came out a few years ago?

 

[00:43:09.420] – Dan

Yes, that’s right.

 

[00:43:11.190] – Sean

We could talk all day on that. I’ll keep moving. Okay. All right, so what is the worst advice you ever received?

 

[00:43:17.870] – Dan

Well, I got terrible advice as a kid, and it was this. It was like, Don’t run across the street and be careful, and that garbage. It’s idiotic not to run across the street. I mean, if you run, you get there faster and it’s less… It makes no sense not to run, you’re going to trip. And if you trip, you’ll get up and then you’re still ahead of the game. And that affects yourself in the real world because people take too long to make decisions. Don’t make a bad decision. Are you kidding me? Make a bad decision. Go fast. If you pick the wrong building, you’ll be up to the top, you’ll realize you’re at the wrong place, you come back down, go to the other building before the other guy even got started. So the worst advice was look before your leap, be careful, don’t run across the street.

 

[00:44:05.500] – Sean

Don’t take any risks in your life. How about that?

 

[00:44:09.770] – Dan

The problem with risks are they’re subjective. And so what’s risky for some is not risky for others and things like that. But if someone is a risk taker, encourage it. That’s all done. If someone’s not, then encourage that. But don’t take somebody away from their natural thing. And so the best advice I would have got is to just do the opposite of that which you feel was done wrong when you were a kid. So that’s what I did with my kid. You know what I said to my kids when they went off to school? Take some chances today.

 

[00:44:46.800] – Sean

I love that encouragement. Good call. It goes back to something you said earlier, as people get stuck in a comfort zone, and if it’s very low risk, it’s like you don’t have those big moments where you can create those wins and learn something and step outside the box and like, Oh, okay, so if I do it this way, that can move me forward 10 steps as opposed to two steps in the same amount of time.

 

[00:45:10.890] – Dan

Yeah, and you realize it’s not that bad. I remember the first time I got punched in the face, and I was thinking, It’s not that bad. I’ll live through this, whatever, and then you’re not scared the next time. But some people have gone through life and never been punched in the face. That’s probably a bad example. Metaphorically, Yes, metaphorically, it’s true. But you never got kicked out of an office. I mean, you got to get kicked out of an office longer. If someone asked you to leave, don’t you see that no soliciting sign out there? I mean, if you didn’t get that once in your life, you haven’t lived.

 

[00:45:45.180] – Sean

Right. All right, let’s flip the equation here. What’s the best advice you ever received? It’s from your dad.

 

[00:45:53.040] – Dan

Yeah. Well, that one was really good. My dad gave me so many good ones. I’m trying to think of a I’ll start it. Danny. Yes. Okay. So this was his thing. He would say, Danny, in this country, you have to follow the 11th commandment. I said, What’s that? He says, Never Pay retail. And what he was saying by that is, don’t pay money to go to school. Get yourself a job that does that thing and have them teach it to you and pay you to learn.

 

[00:46:28.670] – Sean

Yeah.

 

[00:46:29.990] – Dan

I love that. Get a customer before you start your marketing program that you want to sell.

 

[00:46:38.440] – Sean

I’ve heard amazing stories of people building businesses, and they literally don’t do anything except for when they get a paying customer first. There’s no website, there’s no business card.

 

[00:46:49.880] – Dan

You have them pay for it.

 

[00:46:52.420] – Sean

Yeah. Solve a problem for somebody. Do the work, make money first, and then create those things. So So many entrepreneurs get that backwards and have to invest all this time and money and all this stuff, and then we’ll get paid customers.

 

[00:47:05.840] – Dan

And then they’re scared to launch because what if it doesn’t work and they have all this stuff invested? Invest in yourself, looking like a fool and getting shot down at the beginning before you go and create a whole program. And you don’t know that if people want. People get pretty much what they deserve. And if the market… It’s not you or me to say what a good product or service is. The market always decides. Yes.

 

[00:47:34.740] – Sean

Good call. All right. Last question. Here’s a time machine question. If you could go back in time to give your younger self advice, what age would you visit and what would you say?

 

[00:47:44.600] – Dan

I would be 11 years old. I’d be on my bicycle all by myself in the summertime because all my friends went to camp. And I would say, make sure that you go on that eight-month-long hitchhiking experience because it will make you to the person that you want to become. Don’t let anybody talk you out of it, which they almost did. I did the best thing in the world. It was for eight months, I took no money, and I took a hitchhiking trip around the country.

 

[00:48:19.760] – Sean

Eight months?

 

[00:48:20.960] – Dan

Wow. Yeah, I lived on the side of the road. It was the greatest thing. If I didn’t have another appointment in two minutes, I would tell you about it.

 

[00:48:27.770] – Sean

We’ll keep it moving here.

 

[00:48:29.980] – Dan

Yes.

 

[00:48:30.760] – Sean

I love that story. That’s awesome. All right, last question here. This is obviously you got to tell us, where can people find you, reach you, and where’s the book?

 

[00:48:40.500] – Dan

Yeah. Okay. So there’s a new website out there. It’s called Google. And just put my name in there. Dan Jordan. That’s J-O-U-R-D-A-N. And I’m the most accessible guy on the planet. It’s impossible. You’ll get my number, my home number, my My cell number, my wife’s number, my email, everything is there. If you’re one of those people that needs more customers and needs more profitable sales and is having a challenge in anything that has to do with that process, you got a guy.

 

[00:49:17.990] – Sean

All right. Well, Dan, thank you so much for your time. This is awesome.

 

[00:49:21.290] – Dan

Thank you for having me. This was wonderful.

 

[00:49:24.560] – Sean

All right. We’ll be in touch. See you.

 

[00:49:26.580] – Dan

All right. Rock on.

 

[00:49:28.280] – Sean

Hey, I’d like to say thanks for checking out this podcast. I know there’s a lot of other podcasts you could be listening to, so thanks for spending some time with me. And if you have a moment, could you please head over to Apple Podcasts and leave a five-star review. The more reviews we get, the higher this podcast will rank. Stay tuned for the next episode. We’ll see you.