Hey everybody, welcome back to another episode
of Vision Pros Live. I'm your host and coach,
Fletcher Ellingson. I'm so glad you're here.
I'm so glad that you're in this conversation
because when we have these conversations with
visionaries, it's a reminder of what's possible
and it's easy to lose track of that. So that's
why we're here. We're here to remind you of what's
possible and we're introducing you to people
who are... making their visions come true. Today
on the show, we have Samuel Timothy from OneIMS.
Welcome to the show, Samuel. I'm super excited.
Thank you so much for the opportunity. Yeah.
Before we get started, where are you calling
in from today? I am in Chicago. Well, everybody
says Chicago, but it's like outside of Chicago,
but a nearby suburb, correct? All right. All
right. So Chicago. Okay. Well, thanks for being
here. Before we jump into what you do and your
vision. I want to hear something that's going
well in your life, professionally or personally.
You know, there's a lot of uncertainty and suffering
going on all around the globe. We want to remind
people that there's still good happening, that
there's still feel -good things happening. And
what's wrong with the world is always available.
What's right with the world is always available.
It's a matter of where we are putting our focus.
So lay it on us, Samuel. What's something that's
going well in your world? Yeah, I'm a blessed
man. I'm a married man with five kids that we
were homeschooling our kids for quite some time.
And we just finally put our oldest three kids
to public school system. So and just amazing
to see how they're getting adjusted to the school
world because they were always homeschooled for
most of their lives. So that's what I would say
is very positive for me at the moment. Right
on. Right on. So there's a there's a big adjustment
in your. in your family life and you're seeing
you're seeing the kids adapt you know the ability
to adapt man that's something we really want
to put some focus on what's your ability to adapt
i'm just asking our viewers right now are you
rigid or can you go with the flow do you embrace
change or do you bristle at it because the answer
whatever your answer is You're going to learn
something about yourself. Would you agree with
that, Samuel? 100%. So our oldest son is 13.
It's the first time he's actually going to a
public school system. So he was homeschooled.
Majority of his... uh life right and he's starting
in eighth grade which was a big transition for
the guy and i i can really relate to him because
i was a timid guy all through my school years
in college i was not the extrovert i am today
i was totally an introvert never really liked
group projects i've done everything on my own
and i kind of lived in little bubble until i
became a sales guy right you start you become
an entrepreneur your kind of a sales function
is naturally your responsibility as an entrepreneur
then i realize I can't live in my shell. I got
to get out of my comfort zone. I got to put myself
out there. So I've been taking him on networking
events. I took him on a lot of networking events
on business leaders with CEO people. And I dress
them up, put them in nice blazer, put them in
confidence. And I say, walk with your head up,
just talk to people. And everybody appreciated
him for just showing up to the events. And it
was a big transition for him to just go from
sitting at home doing his computer learning in
a private setting to actually having to go in
classroom setting. So to just see him just make
that transition and not be afraid of crowd and
just adjusting to it was a very big win for me.
Oh, I absolutely appreciate that. I'm going to
just pause here because I want to spotlight this
for our listeners and our viewers. Consider what
he just said. He deliberately took it upon himself
to. Create opportunities for his son to begin
practicing confidence. You know, I'm all about
the practice. I mean, my curriculum is called
the practice of feeling good. Right. And when
I say good, I mean safe, enthusiastic, positive,
optimistic, connected, courageous. Right. There's
a lot of ways of feeling good. Right. Confident
is one of them. And it just doesn't happen. we
practice it for so for a lot of people who are
listening they'll be like oh boy you know i yeah
i i'm really insecure in those situations i want
you to hear this we're we are insecure in our
adulthood because we are practiced at being insecure
we are masterfully practiced at it what i love
that you just said is i put my son in a new situation
and i helped him i taught him how to be stand
up straight put your head up you know we're going
to learn how to get introduced we're going to
learn how to introduce um we're going to learn
how to practice confidence now the more we practice
a way of being the more it happens for us naturally
and so so my hat's off to you for that i love
that and especially as entrepreneurs We've got
to pay attention to our ways of being. And if
they're not serving us, we need to practice some
new ways of being. Yes or no? A hundred percent.
I think what I saw as a weakness going into entrepreneurship
was I wasn't trained in ways of conducting myself
in public and being a confident human being,
right? When you walk into an entrepreneur, like
a CEO's business room or conference room, you're
surrounded by a bunch of senior leaders. how
do i conduct myself how do i position myself
as a subject matter expert so i don't look like
i don't have it figured out and i had to learn
that very very fast because when you're uh much
younger than some of the people that you're probably
sitting across from they've probably been in
business longer than you've been alive and they
have done multiple millions of dollars in businesses
and things like that so you're over there trying
to make a case of why they should trust you and
do business with you if you don't if you don't
exude confidence and you know what you're talking
about and you're going to take their money and
deliver on the promise that you made and you
can't convey that to them right and if they can
can they can't be they cannot see that i can
trust this individual who's in in front of me
they're not going to do business with you we
always say it right people do business with whom
they like and trust and if you can't get them
to like you and trust you they're not going to
do business with you So that is a hard lesson.
I had to learn the hard way in my early days
of trying to feed our family and building a company.
And then I said, I don't want that to be the
case for my children. I want them to learn because
obviously our public school system does not train
you to have some of those things. They just teach
you, sit in the classroom, listen to the teacher,
do the homework. Don't ever ask me a question
and you just do what I tell you, right? Never
teaching our children how to ask questions, how
to actually even. shake somebody uh with firmness
and actually say appreciate me you know thank
you for meeting me appreciate the opportunity
just being able to recognize a person and look
them in the eye when you're talking right like
that shows a level of maturity that sometimes
some people never learn in their in their lifetime
yeah um absolutely and uh you know a lot of us
in business we take some of those things you
just said for granted but we all had to learn
it we all had to learn it we all had to practice
it um samuel go ahead and uh because i know some
of the people listening are like yeah this is
cool this guy is cool man he's got it going on
but what is it that you do uh you work uh with
a company called one ims which stands for integrated
marketing solutions what does one ims do yeah
we're a growth agency we help growth minded leadership
right go from obscurity to market dominance.
So many of our clients will come to us, they're
what they usually say, right? If only more people
knew who we were, who we are, we'll be a much
larger company than we are today, right? What
they're describing is they have a lack of awareness
problem, not a lot of people knowing they're
in their sphere of influence that that company
exists. So we take such organizations from obscurity
to market dominance. And we have created what's
called a growth formula framework, we help implement
that in organization. So we consider ourselves
a more of a tech enabled growth agency. Got it.
All right. Cool. Thanks for that. So a growth
company. I like that. So if you're if you're
listening to this or watching this and you're
a company that's like looking to scale, looking
to grow. And I really appreciate what you just
said. Usually what there's some sort of problematic
element of an inability to let your sphere know
effectively about your company. So really cool.
I like the way you said that. The show that we're
on today is called Vision Pros. I just define
a vision as a clarified story in the head, in
the mind, that we effort to bring into the physical
realm. And so what I want to know from you, Samuel,
is what's your vision? Yeah. I mean, I don't
know if I will call it a vision or mission, but
I'm on a mission to help 10 ,000 small business.
to go from obscurity to market dominance. And
it could be done through education or through
some sort of a service that we can offer. So
I actually do create a ton of content myself
and provide a lot of free webinars on education
with that very mission of how do we help organizations?
Because what most people don't realize is not
the size of your wallet that matters. It's the
creativity, right? It's the size of your brain
cells. Can you be creative enough to get yourself
known in the marketplace so you don't live in...
poverty mindset. You don't live in, you know,
this fear of, oh, tomorrow my company can close
down. Right. We want them to get them out of
that. Right. Like we said, go from obscurity
to market dominance. And that can be done if
you with a proper system and training and knowledge.
Anyone can take a business from just basically
surviving to a thriving environment. Cool. Cool.
Yeah. So so your your mission, you said, is to
help 10 ,000 businesses thrive. Right. So cool.
And it's interesting. I'm saying what I'm about
to say because I believe language matters. And,
you know, he said, well, I'm not sure if I have
a vision as much as a mission, but the mission
stems from our vision. And as soon as you said
my mission is to help 10 ,000 businesses grow,
I knew what your vision was because you've already
envisioned helping. these 10 000 businesses like
you've envisioned your your company growing you
you guys scaling and and reaching out and making
an impact so i love that you have this vision
of making an impact for 10 000 businesses and
now has translated into a mission and you guys
are in action and by the way i checked out your
website i saw all i mean go to their website
oneims .com and you'll see all these video testimonials
of people who are singing your praises and who
you have impacted. So congratulations on being
in action. Yeah, certainly is an overnight success,
right? No, it's a 20 years in the making, right?
That's kind of what I would say, right? It's
a process of building trust, earning trust, and
then delivering on the promise that you make
to people. And once you do that, you will have
customers who love you and refer you and continue
to stay with you for a very long term. Yeah,
yeah. Let's talk about, because there are people
watching and listening and they're like, yeah,
I mean, I would love to, you know, go from obscurity
into being well -known. I'd love to expand my
reach. If they're listening to this, they probably
want to know, well, what are the sectors? What
are the businesses that you... um are you know
proficient at helping yeah our core focus has
been in the b2b business to business sector but
we've built a framework that's universally true
so in terms of our customer base is the mixed
bag of uh industry manufacturing companies technology
and software and professional uh professional
firms those are who we typically work with what
we look at right what's the unique about all
of them they all have a high value product or
services they have a long sales cycle which means
it's not a compulsive purchase that somebody
just make, right? It's like 10 ,000, 20 ,000.
Sometimes some of our clients are selling equipments
that are worth millions of dollars, right? So
it's a considered purchase process. And it's
actually multiple decision makers involved in
the process. So what they all have in common
is they have to create awareness for their product
or services. They have to earn trust in the minds
of their customers and become the go -to product
or service provider, right? That's where we shine
the best. But the framework we built is called
our growth formula framework. It's very simple.
acquisition plus retention equals growth so if
i can just explain just slightly right anytime
if any company that is focused only on acquisition
but they do a very poor job of retaining growing
existing account they tend to stay stagnant or
even uh may not even grow at all right so acquisition
is most companies in the early days very focused
on acquisition if some companies are very poor
like in manufacturing sector they're not very
focused on customer acquisition they're very
good at delivering on the promise do what they
say and do it very good for getting good work
for a good handful of customers they do a great
job of retention but they do a very poor job
of acquisition so when there's one customer one
day decide that they don't want to do business
with them or cancel the contract immediately
they're in trouble because oh shoot we got to
now cut down the number of shifts that we have
to you have to lay off some people so you have
to be as a company do acquisition efforts and
retention effort consistently then only you can
have consistent growth so we have some methodology
and practices that we implement to actually execute
that framework in organizations yeah really cool
I like the way you break that down so and this
is foundational and a principle that you want
to continue to come back to whether you're a
startup or whether you're well established and
thanks for articulating it uh so precisely i
just want to recap because i want to bring a
spotlight to that for our viewers acquisition
and retention if we focus on one and not the
other we're in trouble there has to be this dual
focus yes yes yeah um so uh so that so and and
companies like you said some companies are great
at acquiring Not so good at retention. Others,
when they get a client in and that retention
is good, but they're not so great on the acquisition
part. Yeah. And that's so what you're saying
is your company has a framework for helping kind
of mature. in that in that process of of hitting
both is that accurate yeah so when we go into
a company we are assessing their kind of what
we call our their growth readiness right where
are they as a company and their maturity in marketing
and sales and all of those areas well we come
to find out right companies that are in an established
market there's existing demand for their product
or services they have a tremendous opportunity
to capture existing demand from the market right
so Without getting too technical, if you take
your total adjustable market, let's just say
there's 100 companies that you can sell to at
any given time. Only about 1 % to 3 % of that
total adjustable market in a buying cycle. The
rest of the 97 % people, either they don't know
that they need help, or they kind of know, but
they're not actively in the buying cycle, or
they might be researching and learning more about
it, right? So the 97 % of the people are not
in the market. Many times, most companies are
ignoring those people. That's the biggest audience
a lot of times that you can actually educate
by creating content, distributing that content,
get in front of them, help them articulate the
problem that they're experiencing, but they don't
even know how to say it to their own peers, right?
So that's the 97%. And then the 1 % to 3 % of
the people, they're actively, they know they
have a problem. They're going to Google. They're
going to search engines of any type, .gpt or
anywhere. They're describing their problem and
saying, who can help me solve this problem? You
want to be getting found with those people. So
what we do on the acquisition. side capture existing
demand from the in -market audience and then
create awareness in the out -of -market audience
who are not in an active buying cycle they just
they need to know you exist so if you do that
you're actually taking care of both of those
audiences and ultimately when they the 97 percent
of people once they become warm and ready to
buy Who are they going to think first? Oh, I've
been watching this guy's content. I've been learning
from their webinars. I've went to their website.
I watched their testimonial videos. I used some
of their free resources. Yeah, I do remember
they can take care of our needs. Let me go to
them, right? So your chance of winning those
deals. are much higher because you've done so
much to educate and kind of evangelize to that
audience for a very, very long period of time.
And then you also don't want to ignore that one
to three person who are now right now in the
market to buy. You want to make sure you're capturing
those. So when you look at the majority of a
business and see where's the biggest opportunity
for win, and then we want to focus on those quick
win opportunities. So that's the acquisition
side of the equation. I can give you a little
bit more on the retention if you want me to explain
that. Well, I want to say something because some
of our clients or some of our listeners, they
might be saying like, you know, I get it intellectually.
And I just haven't been good at it. I have not
been good at this. What I want to remind people
is this is not your fault. It's not your fault
that you suck at acquiring and or retention.
You see, I mean, business owners and entrepreneurs,
they you're not expected to be able to wear all
hats. And yet you have to many times. But if
you're if you really are flailing acquisition
and or retention, I just want to hear this. It's
not your fault, but it's 100 percent your responsibility.
And the reason I'm saying it's not your fault,
and this is the good news, it's because many
business owners are passionate about the widget
or the service that they're offering. They're
passionate about it. That's why they got into
it, right? But many, many, and maybe it's even
the majority, I don't know, and I'm raising my
hand because this is me, is that I didn't formally
get an education on... business on how to run
it on how to acquire or how to retain I didn't
I didn't spend you know four years studying that
and or eight years studying it and so I'm I I
don't have all that that those skill sets um
or there was I I'm operating from what I what
I what I don't know I don't know right and and
so It's not my fault, but it's 100 percent response,
my responsibility. And so what I love about companies
like yourself is you do have the knowledge and
you can impart it and mentor and coach and help
and and help guide people who are ready to take
responsibility. Right. And and I love that you
said. you look at a company's growth readiness.
Yeah. Tell me, I like that term, growth readiness,
and I'm encouraging our listeners to hear this.
Yeah. What is my growth readiness? What is my
company's growth readiness? What is my growth
readiness as just an individual person? What's
my growth readiness? Am I ready for growth? And
you can apply this right. to your marriage, to
your parenting, to your friendships, to my business.
What's your growth readiness? What an awesome
term. Yeah. So I can give you some real -world
stories of how this comes to true. So we have
customers that come and self -diagnose a problem.
Oh, we just need more leads so we can sell more,
right? And then the solution is, well, let's
figure out how to drive more leads in this organization.
But they don't necessarily have... understanding
of the root problems that they might have that
is probably holding them back from the growth
trajectory what i mean by that so let's say if
i drive a ton of leads and we had a manufacturing
company that was in chicago that did uh in industrial
flooring solutions they said oh we if only we
had more leads our sales people are just really
good at selling the product We were able to solve
for that lead problem. What we ended up discovering
was that they had a very poor sales process.
They did not have a very well -established sales
methodology. They didn't have the tools that
detract the sales metrics and performance. So
what ended up happening is inefficiency in the
sales process really destroyed that sales organization
because all they did was just squander the opportunities
that were thrown at them, right? Because they
didn't know what to do because they had too many
leads to handle. if you're not ready to handle
the volume just don't say oh we need more leads
you gotta solve for all of those things another
thing is if you don't have baseline metrics what
if I am able to drive leads. But if you can't
tell me what's my typical percentage of from
an initial visit to my website to converting
into a form fill, to initiating a booked meeting,
to having qualified as a prospect that can buy,
to proposal stage, to closed one lost or closed
one, right? Closed lost or closed one. If I don't
have baseline metrics of what those metrics are,
how do I know where my weakness is? How do I
know where is my biggest problem? Is it a sales?
personnel problem is it a process problem is
it my product problem or is it my pricing problem
where is the problem because you don't know like
if the process what does sales people always
say oh they didn't have the money or they weren't
ready to buy but they will never admit i have
a problem with my sales methodology i'm not sure
how to do discovery i don't know how to position
the product our business properly they will never
acknowledge that and they will always point finger
at the marketing leader and say the leads were
bad so if you're not ready You just got to recognize
that like what you said, it's not your fault,
but it's your responsibility. So the leadership
has to recognize we have a problem. Our salespeople
are order takers. They're not well educated in
how to handle a discovery call or how to do a
sales performance or a sales conversation. If
they're not good at it, acknowledge that and
you need to own it and fix it, right? So me throwing
more leads or implementing a marketing program
isn't going to solve their revenue growth problem.
They have to be ready to handle. that future
growth. So that's where, right? So when we do
assessment, we're looking at the areas of the
business where they actually have opportunity
to win. And then we can only fix the things that
we can fix. We cannot fix their personnel problem.
That is an internal HR dynamics that they would
have to handle, right? Those are the kinds of
things that we look at from a readiness standpoint.
Right on. I love how you articulated all of that.
And because it's giving our listeners an opportunity
to self -identify. I mean, I mean, I mean, I'm
totally like, is this me? You know, I can see
a lot of this in myself. You know, I I'm an entrepreneur.
I have a very small team. But yeah, I so I'm
internalizing all of this and self -identifying.
I encourage our listeners to ask yourself this
question, too. Like this is an opportunity to
expand. Like, is this me? And and if the answer
is yes, then. That's not a point of shame or
embarrassment. This could be your greatest opportunity
to have an honest conversation with yourself.
Because what I heard you say is the myth or the
misconception that most companies think, God,
if we just had more leads, if we just had more
leads, right? No, no, no. It's if I had more
leads and I had a process. for handling them
effectively. And that's what many companies are
missing. And that's what I'm hearing you say,
right? A hundred percent. I think if you were
in the medical field and if I self -diagnose
a problem and go to the doctor and say, give
me this prescription, they call that malpractice
in the medical field. But we do it in the business
world every day. We allow the customer to decide
for themselves what the solution should be. But
oftentimes, like you said, the business owner
that's running some sort of a whatever manufacturing
software they're good at that craft but they
need to understand they don't know everything
so they need to go to professionals and ask hey
i have these issues what do you think is the
solution to the problem and oftentimes that is
not happening and they're just describing a need
and telling the buyer like whatever the service
provider oh i need this give me that right that's
where we see a lot of times business leaders
fail because they're just not open -minded to
willing them ready to listen to somebody else
and also just one advice a lot of times As a
buyer, oftentimes we see the salesperson as a
threat. I have to hold all my card. I don't want
to disclose my weaknesses and my problem because
they're going to use that against me. But don't
ever have that attitude. If you're genuinely
caring about someone else to come and help you,
you'll be genuine and open about. what your problems
are, because the more you can disclose about
your challenges, the person on the other end
has a lot more conversations than you about the
same problem with hundreds of other companies.
They can tell you, Hey, in this scenario, we
did this for that company and that helped them
get to the next stage. So be very open -minded
and just be genuinely interested in seeking help.
And nobody's there to criticize you. Like you
said, it's you own the problem. And if you seek
the help, there's hundreds of professionals out
there that can actually help you get to the,
get the help you need. Yeah, right on. And one
last final thought on that about asking for help.
One of the things I always say is, you know,
many times, well, at least in our country, the
concept of asking for help, many of us, especially
men, have been grown up and told like, you got
to just do it yourself, figure it out yourself.
Asking for help is a sign of weakness. I'm here
to tell you that asking for help is a sign of
strength and wisdom. So, yes, get in contact
with Samuel and his team. Go to 1IMS .com, book
a discovery call, have a conversation, and find
out if they can assist you and assess your growth
readiness and see if you're ready to go to that
next stage. Samuel. We're just up coming towards
the end of our time here. But again, please give
us how to get in touch with you. And any last
closing thoughts? Yeah, obviously, when I was
like you gave, that's the main website. And please
find me on LinkedIn. I do put out a lot of educational
resources there. And I also have a show called
Coffee with Closers where I interview entrepreneurs.
So please do look that up on YouTube and hopefully
you'll find some nuggets of wisdom from some
interviews I've done with other entrepreneurs.
Right on. Thank you so much for being on the
show. Our guest today has been Samuel Timothy
from OneIMS. You can connect with him at OneIMS
.com. And now it's time for you all to get out
there. Be a source of kindness. Be a source of
contribution. You do have something to offer
this world. And I believe in you. Thank you for
being here today. I'm really happy that you tuned
in to Vision Pros Live. I'm looking forward to
seeing your reactions as these episodes continue
to move forward. This is going to get more and
more fun. We'll have more and more engagement
as well. We'll invite people to participate in
the show. Thank you for giving us your time and
attention. Have an excellent time building out
your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.