Hey, what's up, everybody? It is double episode
day. We got Bob Chonka in the house and we're
going to be talking about why sales teams struggle
in today's market. How leadership also has an
opportunity to have an impact on this. He is
an absolute leadership expert. And so it's going
to be fun to talk about something that most visionaries
either. they struggle with because they're so
good at sales they don't know how to empower
their teams to come along and do it or you're
up to something great that you really want to
help the world out with but you're kind of intimidated
by the idea of like i don't want to be salesy
um and you know there's there's ways to overcome
that so we'll be diving right into that as well
bob welcome back to vision pros live man yeah
yeah it's great to be back great to see you jackson
You too, brother. You too. So on this on this
concept of sales and leadership, we're gonna
be diving in and talking about some hidden drivers
behind high performing sales teams. But let me
let you talk a little bit about your company
first to what you guys do and what all departments
you guys help out with. Yeah. Solely Interactive
is a training company to provide training to
corporations literally around the world. And
we have four key areas that we. focus on is going
to be ethics and compliance leadership development
which we'll be talking about today the sense
of belonging and inclusion helping people work
together and then just your own personal performance
those are the four areas that we focus on and
we're very fortunate that we get to work with
some very very large organizations like boeing
airlines costco hca which is a healthcare i think
they have over 300 000 employees they're massive
so it's been wonderful and earlier we had mentioned
and we have some of these trophies in the background
i'm very proud of these are tele awards and what's
unique about sola is we try to dramatize situations
so that the learner the viewer can relate to
it can believe it so that it's realistic and
then the key thing it's relevant And when we
pull that off, when we're chosen out of, you
know, over several hundred people that submit
and we get the gold award, we're really proud
of that. Talk to me more about that. So I kind
of got the general idea, but I'm unfamiliar.
So what does that sound like and what does that
look like and what's the purpose behind it? Well,
it's kind of like, you know, the music and, you
know, in film, you've got the Grammys and Emmy
Awards. So Telly Awards is in our arena. And
training is one of the categories that they provide
awards to. What's so significant about that is
because, you know, anybody can put a video together.
But is it going to work? Is it going to accomplish
what you're setting out to do? And we know that.
If you can engage the viewer emotionally, provide
them information that's inside of that, you truly
communicate with the individual. Now, for example,
when you watch a series or you watch a movie
at home or you go to the theaters, whatever,
you're emotionally connecting to the program
or the character. And, you know, is the character
going to get what they want? Are they going to
get out of the bad situation? So you're emotionally
engaging yourself and that's so you're connected.
That's what we do when we put these programs
together. We want to engage emotionally. Now
they're invested in that. What are they going
to do? This manager just came down on that person,
on that employee in a very negative way. You
know, how's that person going to react or how's
that manager going to recover from doing something
like that? And we do our job well. That's what
we get. That's training at a whole nother level.
And so visionaries, if you've worked in the startup
world like I had for as long as I have, that's
almost something that you forget about. Because
I remember at Lifetime Fitness. We had one training
video that we watched in our four days of training.
And it was just a clip from the boiler room and
Vin Diesel doing his sales thing. And it was
super helpful to have that. that type of interaction
and interactive activity in there. But I think
about, you remind me of Southwest Airlines and
their flight attendants and how they get you
engaged and listening. And most airlines, they
can't and they don't. I recently saw an airline
put a video together that did a pretty good job
of grasping my attention, but I can see how this
matters tremendously. When you've got hundreds,
if not thousands of employees that you want to
get a very important message across to. So, Bob,
we're going to make a cut. We're going to go
to one of these video trainings that you guys
created. And then visionaries, you know, take
some notes in terms of thinking outside of the
box. How does this apply to your businesses,
no matter how small or large you are? What are
the principles you can take away from this for
training your own people and leading your people
to understand what is your vision? What type
of culture are you trying to form? What is the
leadership team that you want to work with and
how do you also to market yourselves to attract
the audience? Let's dive right in. What is this?
Can you believe what I just went through? What
you just said is offensive. If your way is so
much better, why don't you just do it yourself?
My time is my time. Some of your people have
been encouraged to leave you. I guess I don't
understand what's the big deal with me not being
there when you could update the team. Take a
breath. If this keeps up, I'm going to have a
breakdown. There's nothing offensive about this.
When I tried just now, you shut me down. What
I'm talking about is being insensitive. Why can't
she just use plain English? You've been in this
role for a long time, but... The workforce has
definitely changed. All right. Welcome in to
Vision Pros Live with Jackson Callum. I'm your
show host. We'll be doing interviews for visionary
entrepreneurs and guest leaders who are building
fantastic visions out there. What's up, everybody?
Welcome into another excellent episode of Vision
Pros Live. I got Bob Chonka in the house. He
is a legend when it comes to leadership. We're
talking about training companies that have 300
,000 employees, companies that you've heard of,
companies like Costco, and being able to see
behind the scenes of how these companies build
their leaderships, build their sales teams, and
create success. And I'm always ready to take
notes when I've got somebody like that in the
house. So we're going to be talking about...
why sales teams struggle today and what top performers
do differently from both of our angles. We both
had so much opportunity to help with those processes,
different types of brands. So again, be ready
to learn how you can scale your vision to the
next level. Before I bring Bob back on though,
I want to dive in a little bit with some other
resources that you guys can lean into. So we've
got journey to wellness plan .com with Dr. Shannon
and Dr. Justin Pierce. I've known them for eight
years. I've sent three friends or family members
to them. Each one of those friends or family
members had a health problem that they were not
able to get help from a traditional doctor, and
they had been to many. And I followed up with
all three, and in all three cases, Every single
one just raved about what Shannon was able to
help them discover. And it's not by waving a
magic wand. She just uses the right types of
testing and she understands what it's like to
go through a health crisis because she's also
been through her own. So I'm not a doctor and
I don't understand exactly what to do or how
to talk about these realities. I just know that
for my loved ones, I want to be able to have
somebody I can send them to when they have a
need. In addition to Dr. Shannon, Dr. Justin,
we're going to switch gears and talk about practice
makes permanent a little bit. And this is Jennifer
Reed. If you're looking for somebody to help
facilitate better culture and also leadership,
not only does Bob Chonka come to mind for this,
but also Jennifer Reed. And I'm a big fan of
when you pull people together, if you take the
right two people, you get one plus one equals
11. You get a compound effect when you bring
excellent rock stars together. That's how teamwork
works, my friends. And so Jennifer specializes
in EQ and SQ in the workplace. She's worked with
government entities like the IRS for more than
20 years. And I can't think of a more bureaucratic.
place to belong and a place where it could be
hard to facilitate leadership. And that's why
I recommend working with her because she understands
how to do that in training ground that is quite
difficult. In addition, I would always ask these
individuals, what's their personal story? That's
my interview tip for the day is ask what their
personal story is in relation to what they do.
And if their answer just comes across a little
bit whimsical or isn't really deep. they probably
aren't deeply connected to the reality of why
this is so important for your brand. And so I
will recommend if you do decide to ask Jenna
for that question, I have a tissue box on hand.
You're going to need it. She has every reason
for wanting to change the world and help the
world become a better place and leveraging emotional
intelligence to do so. And there's the water
project. We're not affiliated with the water
project, but I do support it every month. And
I've personally, my friends, I've never been
thirsty in my life. It took me some serious meditation
to think through why would I support this entity
because I just couldn't relate to the challenge
that exists there. My hope is to also inspire
you to meditate and think through the same. It's
like I see these kids of, you know, getting water
from a well that I would never allow my kids
to touch. And that's probably what they're going
to be drinking in their homes. We have an opportunity
to help the millions of people who don't have
access to clean drinking water and clean water.
wash their laundry, use to clean their, all sorts
of things. I mean, how much do we take this for
granted? And so back to my hope with this. I
hope that if you don't have the financial means
to contribute, that you just take the opportunity
to share this website with a friend or family
member. It could be over lunch or over dinner.
Talk to them about it. Take a look at one of
the projects and see how they build these sand
dams or these borehole wells. My favorite aspect
of the water project is that when I choose a
project that I want to support, they actually
then subscribe me to be able to see the project
get completed. And I get to see that what I contributed
actually went to helping people. We've got people
we can help for generations by contributing to
this cause. And I see these kids celebrating
water with more vigor and more enthusiasm than
my kids even celebrate Christmas Day. And that's
a humbling opportunity. So while we're at it
to help you guys with your visions, my hope is
that we lean in, my friends. We got 8 billion
people in this world to help. And if you know
of another cause that you'd like to see us support,
do me a favor, just drop it in the comments.
That way I can take a look at that cause and
see. who I can talk to about it. Maybe I will
even contribute to it, but I will take a look
personally if you do us that favor and show us
what causes are out there in the world. So without
further ado, Bob Chanka, welcome back to Vision
Pros Live. Thanks, Jackson. That's great. I really
appreciate you promoting good causes to try and
help other people. I got a real short story.
Previously, I was a musician. I was a professional
musician. Really? Yeah, my big claim of fame
is I actually charted on Billboard magazine in
the year 1999, I think it was. Singer, songwriter,
played the guitar. What did you do? Yeah, mostly
guitar. I played a little bit of keys, but I
always saw myself as a songwriter. That's awesome.
songwriter. And I would co -write with one of
the other members. But anyway, so we got connected
with, I can't remember exactly the organization,
but they brought to our attention the iodine
deficiency disorder that was taking place in
Africa years ago. So, because a lot of people
just don't realize that we need iodine in our
regular diet. It's so vital. And there was a
lack of it in so many children. And we put together
a short film because the organization said, well,
can you help us to raise money? And we didn't
want to just show kids looking very unhealthy
and showing the poor quality of the water. We
were like, they're looking to tap into the hearts
of people that can donate and make an impact.
So we made this little short film, and it's about
this young girl that decides to stop going to
college and go over there and do something and
help well the dad is like no no no no you know
we got enough things you know problems here don't
be going over there you need to finish college
and so the two just go back and forth back and
forth she dies and at the very end he sees what
she was all about and he ends up changing his
life, gives up his dental practice and wants
to go and make a difference. So we have the movie
and we also created the soundtrack. So this is
when CDs were, you know, before streaming and
all of that. So we had in the film, the main
character, she was touched by this young boy
with his hands up in the air like this and he
was dancing. And he had his hands, and he was
dancing with the moon. And so that became the
title song and the title of the film, Dancing
with the Moon. Well, by using your passion, when
one plus one equals 11, we presented that whole
idea, created it for them. They could not believe
what they had. the the gentleman steve i remember
his first name he took it somehow got an appointment
to see bill gates and he was going to ask for
a half a million for a donation he showed bill
gates that film he gets a call a few days later
and from Bill's, whoever, you know, person, his
aide said, Bill is not going to contribute $500
,000. The answer is no. He's contributing $5
million. Right. And with all the other donors,
it wiped out the iodine deficiency disorder that
was hindering that country at the time. Wow.
That's huge. It just goes to show you put your
passion into something that you believe you can
make a difference. Yeah, no, absolutely. And
it's awesome. Go ahead. Well, I was going to
say, I know we're going to talk about sales and
I kind of want to make the transition that that
is a secret to high performing salespeople. Yep.
That's my job is to make the transition. But
I'm just kidding. Yeah, that's exactly right.
That's that's exactly right. It is a huge piece.
And one of the other elements of that, the hidden
drivers. Right. So one is. recognizing how that
correlates and that the more you give, the more
you get, right? Principally driven living. But
I'll also highlight the reality that the marketing
tool, right? The ability to connect marketing
and sales. I see so many entities where those
entities fight or they're disconnected and discombobulated
when in reality, if they empowered each other,
they could crush it in entirely new heights and
make so much more good. I'm going to stop real
quick. Those of you listening in who are like,
I don't know about the whole sales process. Let's
define it real quick. Write this down. For me,
sales is service. It is that simple. We are designed
to help others and to serve others. And if they
were doing anything outside of that relation
to sales, it's not actually sales. It's snake
oil stuff. I'm not into that. But actually helping
people. You are a great salesperson is because
you are great at recognizing a problem or an
opportunity and bridging the gap for the person
who's right in front of you so that their life
improves. That's my feeling on it. So further
hidden drivers, Bob, I'll let you dive back in.
Talk to us about hidden drivers with sales and
leadership. Well, that was a great job there,
Jackson. In terms of sales equals service, that
is a completely different mindset. Because here's
what I've seen and why I see sales people struggle.
I'm just going to slide over a little bit. So
they're over here, and their mind is, I've got
to sell. And so whether it's through email or
on the phone, whatever communication that is
happening, I have to sell you something. Well,
the moment I start pushing on you, I've got to
sell this to you. It causes the person to draw
back. Yep. And because the first thing that's
going through your mind. That's the physics.
Because the first thing they know, you don't
care about me. Yep. Exactly. So if you have that
mindset, you're already set up for failure. Let
me drive into it. Let me go deeper with that
hidden driver, though. Here's another challenge
on that, my friends. And so we're specifically
we're talking about high ticket sales right now.
I'm not talking about giving CDs out at a concert
or standing in the booth in the mall where you're
like forced to work for the bottom dollar. I'm
talking about high ticket. And if you're truly
high ticket, then the sophistication level of
your prospect. picks up on these types of pressures
in a way that hurts but here's the real problem
it's not the sales reps fault in most cases It's
the company who created a compensation structure
where that salesperson can't survive or live
freely unless they close every deal that's in
front of them. And it is crushing and crippling
the company's ability to drive revenue. That's
why IBM hires people and gives them an entire
year's salary without ever introducing them to
a prospect before. Like what? Yeah, that's how
much they invest in their salespeople. So I'm
not saying you have to do that. But if you put
people in your sales team. that are 100 % commission,
you are asking them to accidentally bait and
switch people for their own survival. It's not
great leadership. And that will trickle down
to hurting your sales processes. Bob, feel free
to continue. Yeah, I've seen and have engaged
with many organizations that have that mindset.
And it starts at the top. So when they have the
commission structure, they have the incentives
to sell more in less time. have a higher closure
rate. All of those things promote this type of
mindset. And so they will reach out to us and
they'll say, what do you have on training for
our salespeople? We want to get them better.
You're throwing a bucket of water at a huge building
that's on fire. You're not going to make a difference
because you already have the structure already.
It's malfunctioning. It will never. get the results
you're looking for. I always think of it this
way. You know, when football season is going,
I love watching football, the NFL type of football.
And well, imagine trying to play football on
a baseball field. You have to come up with all
kinds of different rules. How do you kick a field?
What's a touchdown? The player have to jump over
the home run fence. So you'll never get there.
You can never play truly football in a baseball.
You'll kind of make it work, but it's not going
to function properly. So that's what has to happen.
You have to have a completely different structure
that helps the salesperson, that hidden driver
is, I am here to help this person. They have
a problem. They have a situation. Hopefully,
I can provide that solution for them. Yeah, absolutely.
And so let's transition a little bit. We can
continue, of course, to pick up on these because
all this dialogue will overlap. But I wanted
to dive in a little bit on the modern buyer and
what the modern buyer expects from sales conversations
in today's market. I mean, that's rapidly shifting
with AI to some degree. I'll center us on one
thought. I'm going to give you the opportunity,
Bob, to color commentate and go further and even
correct me if I'm wrong on certain things. So
the modern buyer, my friends, they're getting
more and more sophisticated. They don't just
have the ability to turn to Google and see who
your competitors are. They have the ability to
then go to AI and be like, hey, can you evaluate
all these competitors for me and help me see
their weaknesses and strengths and the red flags
I should be paying attention to? Like, holy crap.
People can actually do some serious research.
And again, if you're selling low ticket, those
people aren't going to care as much. They don't
have the comprehensive skills that the sophisticated
buyers do, but the sophisticated buyers have
teams that you have to be prepared for. So raving
fans by Ken Blanchard, that will always be a
classic for your situations. In addition, I will
add that one of the greatest things you can do
as a salesperson is learn how to ask deeper level
questions, learn how to really care enough to
say, tell me more about that. And if you don't
understand the sales psychology, Of the different
buyers questions and smoke screen objections,
everything I just said, whether it made sense
to you or not, just throw it into AI and at least
get some basic training from AI and how you can
bridge that gap. So the modern buyers are far
more educated than past individuals have been.
And we have to be prepared for that. And we still
have to be emotionally intelligent to realize
that it's still an emotional by process, but
people justify with logic. So those are some
of my thoughts on it. Bob, feel free to bridge
gaps and go further with this. what does the
modern buyer expect from sales conversations
yeah it's really interesting we kind of have
to look at a little bit of the the history of
how it's changed you know many times the the
sales cycle and that's so we're not going to
talk about the malfunctioning structure we're
going to talk about what it should really look
like so historically uh the process is You had
to build rapport so that they could get to know
you and trust you. Now, then we would move on
to discovery. You know, what is it that you're
looking for? What are you struggling? What are
your pain points? What do you need? What are
you hoping for? What could be better? And then
you then have that dialogue and get the feedback.
Then you can present solutions. Well, when you
look at the amount of time that was on the building
rapport, it was a major piece at the bottom of
this pyramid. Well, now the pyramid has been
flipped. Rapport has to happen so fast, so quickly.
So how you present yourself as either a salesperson
or a person that solves problems, that's going
to provide you service. That is the key. So your
opening connection is got that will build rapport
is that I'm here for you to help. I recognize
that you're busy. I don't want to waste your
time. I want to quickly discover what your need
is. And I can then present an offering that's
going to help you quickly see. And here's the
key word. that there's value in the solution
that I'm presenting. Correct. That's another
key piece. Yes. So in the old sales process,
it was like this. Well, now it's flipped. So
you have to quickly build a rapport, quickly
find the discovery. Then that will allow you
then to get to the piece where you can begin
to say, here's how this will bring value to your
situation. Yep. Here's a neat reality on this,
guys. This really hasn't changed over the last
100 years for the best of the best companies.
Where it's changed is realizing that crap. We've
been spending 100 years causing businesses to
lose at a 96 % rate over a 10 -year period. And
more and more are finally starting to get more
disgruntled. I'm like, well, what do we do to
fix it? I'll give an example. When I was at Video
Power Marketing, so this goes all the way back
to 20... 12 or 13, I jumped on my very first
sales call for video marketing. And I said, this
is Jackson, video power marketing. How can I
help you? And I was getting my golf bag out of
the car. We had a great lifestyle. And so the
guy jumps on the phone. He goes, I just want
to make sure you guys spoke English. And I'm
like, yes, sir. How can I help you today? What's
your name? Um, and he said, my name is Todd from
laser way. We've got eight locations and I just
shut up and I listened to my friends. It's all
I did was listen. I didn't need to say anything.
You just need to hear them out. And then he said,
we've spent a hundred thousand on YouTube and
haven't gotten much out of it, but I just listened
to a podcast and the podcast host, somebody I
listened to kind of religiously for business
decisions. Again, I was shut. I didn't say a
dang word. I just listened. Uh -huh. You know,
and he goes, the podcast host said, Jake is the
YouTube ad expert of the world. i shouldn't do
this but take my money that was the end of my
sales conversation i was like what planet am
i on bob this doesn't make any sense oh my god
all i had to do was then present like you talked
about say hey we do have a solution let me get
you signed up with jake um and then the report
process came afterwards but most of that rapport
was already preemptively set because we were
on a podcast he got to hear us talk from somebody
who could qualify us. Then he went online and
looked at our website. He didn't just call and
say that he probably did a little bit of research.
He probably had his team do a couple hours of
research. So by the time he wanted to talk to
us. It was more about a transformational process,
not about, oh, so what do you guys do and how
does it work? And here's my problem. No, no,
no. That stuff's all for old school businesses
that haven't adapted to the fast growing nature
of what's possible through digital marketing.
So, Bob, again, please continue on that thought
process. Yeah. You know, when we start talking
about that story there, how the upside down pyramid,
so the rapport, then it's the discovery. and
what's really unique now in today's world everything
is moving so fast you have ai you have the world
changing in lots of different ways that impact
people absolutely their their need is now more
unique because that's that's the false sense
of the old style is hey here's my product this
this will help you right general general general
yeah I don't want general pop results, right?
If I end up with general results, I end up with
a general life and it doesn't look pretty. And
so the high ticket market needs to see the personalization
as well. And what was high importance to that
story was speaking English. We had, I had a client,
I won't share the name, but it was a very recognizable
client. Went through the discovery and what I
found out, this lady, all she wanted was for
somebody to hold her hand through the process.
When you expect and think of somebody at that
position, but you find out why did she want somebody
to be basically holding her hand, helping her
understand every phase of the way. It's because
of the amount of responsibility that she had.
It was just too much. So the organization was
putting way too much on this person. So by me
stepping in and saying, I will take your hand,
I will walk you through every step, whether we
need to meet daily for a while to figure out,
because basically what we were creating was a
curriculum for their leaders to help develop
them over a two -year plan. That was what was
important. The need was we need to develop our
leaders. But what the value that she found was
that I was willing to come alongside of her and
not just say, here you go and have a good time
in developing your leaders. Modern buyers will
invest great money and great listeners. And you
helped me realize something too, Bob, by highlighting
the fact that, as you said, Todd was looking
for somebody who spoke English. My friends, and
Bob knows this, and I know he knows this, it's
not that simple. I didn't just listen and say
like, well, yes, I speak English. That would
have lost the sell instantly had I not captured
what he was actually saying. what he was talking
about todd was talking about how he didn't want
to be another number he didn't want to work with
an agency where the agency didn't he wanted to
work directly with jake larson um and so i i
intuitively keyed in on that and just went right
into expert support mode and there's others who
might bring up that type the same exact dialect
they might say well i'm just sick of customer
service people who don't speak my language and
maybe it's time for me to slow down hold their
hand a little bit like bob's talking about and
say you know what I know that frustration, too.
I don't ever want to go in that direction. But
had I done that with Todd, I guarantee you Todd
would have never worked with us. He would have
been like, wait, who is this guy? You know, why
is he taking me off in the left? I was making
a joke. But that emotional intelligence as a
sales rep to be able to think through what is
this person actually saying under the surface?
Is that something I should directly key in on
or is that something that I should skim past
and go right into what is this person actually
need? those types of emotional intelligence cues
they are trainable realities but you have to
work with great trainers in order to get there
and so bob as we go into that let's let's explore
your greatness a little bit why do so many teams
struggle to consistently close deals in today's
society and if you want to we can even parallel
or jump ship to what separates struggling sales
teams from high performing ones Well, we've got
the initial foundation laid down. It's either
your mindset of I'm selling you something or
I'm here to serve you. And when you serve others,
it comes back. So you have to have that to start
off. Then you actually really demonstrated it
and you just said it intuitively. You said he's
saying more. And the reason you picked up on
that, it wasn't because you. have these enormous
skills, you had the concept, I need to help this
guy serve. That was already there. Well, yeah,
it came from more than a decade of serving, serving,
serving, serving, serving. Exactly. Yes. So that
came out naturally. But that actually can be
developed. You can strengthen that soft skill.
100 % you have to. It's exercise. That is exercise.
Absolutely. Yeah. So if you have that mindset,
you're going to actively listen. You're going
to, you know, if you're on a Zoom call, watch
the body language, the tones, their pace, everything.
You can even get into the details of watching
their eyes. When people look up, they are visualizing.
When people tend to look down, it's more of an
emotional piece. You just crushed a myth. I was
about to have to correct you. It was like. like
oh no bob well you nailed it you nailed it malcolm
gladwell and uh talking with strangers talks
about people get that wrong because they say
they used to say that means somebody's lying
no it doesn't it means somebody's being creative
it means somebody's getting emotional about something
so very very good i love that keep going well
and so if you're really in that position just
i want to serve i'm paying attention to those
body language the eye movement their tones their
pace Why? Because I want to find out what's really
important to them. Because if I can't help them,
I don't want to waste their time. But if I can,
which most times you can, and that's another
piece, is you don't have to be the hero 100 %
of the time. That's the fault in those false
structures that organizations set up. But the
majority of the time, you can provide a solution
that's going to... hit the mark it's going to
be a home run so when it comes to the emotional
intelligence that is a skill that you can develop
more and more and more and it can get to a point
where it's very natural because you're focusing
on that i think you know a little side note is
a lot of people tend to limit their ability and
what they believe in who they are what they can
do And this could get into a little bit of the
psychology aspect, but salespeople, high performance
salespeople, those driving factors, every time
I've interviewed them, they know who they are,
they know what they're worth, and they know what
their purpose is. That is basic human behavior.
We have to know who we are, what we're worth,
and why am I here? what am i doing and when a
sales person they know i'm a person that has
skills a solution i'm a problem solver i'm a
server that's what i do that's who i am and when
they have that mindset they crush it every time
and for me personally when when i'm in that mindset
because that's what i believe And I actually
get to help somebody. I become friends with them.
I get to value that person. I get to learn something
unique about a person I never knew. And it turns
into a wonderful experience for myself. May never
see the person, you know, in person. We may only
do business for a year. But the time that I had
with the person, I thoroughly enjoyed. And what
do you think the reception of that was? They
know it. Yeah, because now they feel valued.
They feel respected. They feel important. They
were listened to. Well, to pick up on that with
another live example, I mean, we got Journey
to Wellness up here with Dr. Justin and Dr. Shannon.
I met them eight years ago. And we talked about
working together then. And we talked one more
time, maybe three or four years later. And then
we picked up the conversation. He called me up
this past October was like, Jackson, how you
been? And I was like, you know what? It finally
feels like the time. Why the heck aren't we working
together? That was it. You know, he's like, you
know, right. You know, why have we not done this?
And it's that it's that ability to understand
that what Taylor Welch calls relationship equity,
the ability to build the relationship and let
it marinate. and follow up at responsible times.
So I'll talk about some of the new rules of leadership
and sales. Some of the things that are coming
because of AI, my friends, is it's very important
that we start to adapt. We start to evolve how
we show up in the world of leadership. And I
see so many closers who don't know how to be
a junior sales rep. and obviously junior sales
reps who don't know how to move into closures
or as i say more professionally senior advisor
um behaviors you shouldn't be closing people
teach people to make their decisions for themselves
my friends that leads to long -term relationships
higher average order values and lifetime values
extend because if people know that they're making
the decision for themselves they don't feel like
that one they don't become a burn victim and
blame you for it so you want to make sure they're
making the right decisions but today with things
like perplexity computer and uh open claw you
have an opportunity to bulletproof yourself as
a sales rep and understand how to do your own
lead generation and your own nurturing processes
to stack the deck in your favor and provide far
more extensive value. And if you don't lean into
that, then you're likely to end up in a position
to where they're like, well, why would I keep
this person on board when they don't know how
to bring new value to the company? We should
probably just bring those who've diversified
a little bit. Bob, some thoughts on the new world.
Yeah, the new world. when i when i think of the
you taught there was a word that you said about
the process and that is another piece that when
we look at the old process and it was the build
rapport do a little discovery offer the product
and it was more transactional Correct. Let's
kill transactional, please. I'm sorry. Informational
and transactional can coexist, but it's so transactional
right now. It's killing. Yes, yes. And consultative
selling is a whole different mindset. And you
have to have the proper mindset to actually be
good at it. But what I see is where a lot of
them make mistakes is. okay it's consultative
selling i get it okay i gotta i gotta build rapport
quickly i gotta watch their eye movement i'm
gonna pick up their tones and then the sales
process starts the stall and it stalls quickly
and what i've discovered for me is imagine you
know you're sitting with a person you say okay
we're gonna build a website well We're going
to, one, we're going to sit down. What is it
going to look like? What do we want to say? Are
we going to have a shopping cart? All of these
things. And we lay out, okay, now we hand it
over to the graphic artists. And now they're
going to create all the images and all of that.
And they put that there. Now we have to pay the
bill because we've been invoiced by the graphic
artists. We pay the invoice. And now we're up
and running. There was a process. But it's the
same thing with sales. If they can really grasp
that there is a process and that process will
lead you to budget discussions. If you have gone
through the proper process of building that report,
doing discovery, showing value, because now you
have the know that I want to continue this conversation.
And that's where a lot of sales people, unfortunately,
can stop. No. that's where you begin to say okay
let's talk about your budget correct ask that
is one of the biggest pieces they're afraid to
ask and the more bold you are in a friendly way
because you care about the person you know you
might ask and say you know what's your budget
for xyz well i really don't want to say okay
so for me to help you is this amount in the ballpark
am i in the block or am i out of state where
are we in terms of your budget and helping them
reassure them to make that decision so you might
have a budget and you or you present the proposal
and now you say now you have the opportunity
to evaluate that and discuss if there's value
in what we present. Dude, that is so legendary,
Bob. I want to show you something, Bob, and I
want your feedback on it. And I want you to be
brutal if you feel the need to be brutal. Our
audience deserves this. That's what this is all
about, is making sure that the visionaries have
the tools they need. We designed a tool that...
I will one day probably be highlighting and selling
for millions and millions of dollars. And I hope
all of you use this tool that I share in front
of you. We designed it for the podcasting role,
but applies to everybody who's in a sales role.
Remember, sales is service. How are you serving
people? And it starts with a list. Well, so we
created this tool. I'm going to pull it up. It's
called the Advisor Training System, and this
is the podcast version. And what it is, is it's
a preemptive tool that helps you move into your
CRM kind of with a they call it a tree branch
logic of questions. But what it teaches you is
one. You've got to do your strengths, weaknesses
and opportunities and threats analysis for somebody
up front. So if I'm talking to Bob Chonka, Bob,
don't take this personal, but. for the sake of
going through this. Here we got Bob's information.
I would need to evaluate his strengths, his weaknesses,
his opportunities and threats by looking up his
online profile prior to talking to him. That's
part of caring about the relationship. And then
right here, I've got the ability to dive in and
say, okay, am I talking to Bob? Does he express
good leadership or is he vague or awkward? When
I ask for his name or his assistant, vague or
awkward, all of this helps me perform a readiness
score to know what type of emotional intelligent
leader I'm working with. And then I can go through
some basic questions. I'm going to skip some
of these, my friends, but I want you to be able
to see how as I go through these different steps.
In fact, this is one of the older versions of
the tool. Darn, I've got the wrong one. We've
got 12 questions we go through. And to Bob's
point, if I go, let's see if it's on here. Yeah,
but it's not. So on the proper tool for this,
the last of the 12 questions, as Bob talked about,
is what is your operations and marketing budget?
And if you're asking that prematurely, you're
not going to get an answer. If you're forgetting
to ask that, you're doing a major disservice
for the person that you're talking to because
they need help thinking through it. They need
to be able to evaluate it. They need to be able
to help you understand. What types of resources
do we have to work with to build a proper scope
of work? It doesn't matter if you're a personal
trainer helping people on their fitness, where
you should be doing assessments and you should
be looking at what equipment should be using,
or whether you're helping out with business consultation
and helping people reposition their brands. This
applies all over the spectrum for high ticket
sales. So I'm going to provide the real resource
so that you guys can have it in the show notes.
But it's so important to know what are the questions
that I'm asking to help me from the beginning
be the gatekeeper that helps them realize, hey,
look, that you need an oil transmission change
for your car. We only do oil changes. But I go
to that place across the street. You're welcome
to try them out or go wherever you'd like. Disqualify
as fast as possible in order to honor their time,
in order to honor your own time. And most likely
they'll be like, dang. Next time you know, change,
I'm coming here. We want to honor and serve people
super well. So be a gatekeeper on the front end.
Make sure you're not trying to close every single
prospect that comes across your radio. Your product
and service just isn't that cool, nor is mine.
We've got to find people who are truly aligned
with it. I'll end on this, Bob, and give you
the final, the final mic piece on this. Why great
products don't always sell in relation to why
they don't always sell. Even if you have a great
team. It often, I'm going to look at Elon Musk
as the greatest living example of this. He got
on stage. He sold a car that wouldn't exist for
two to three years. Nobody cared about the product
or service. They weren't even going to get up
to three. Who would go to a car dealership right
now and buy a car for a thousand dollars, put
a thousand dollars in and they'll say, well,
you might have a car from us in two to three
years. Nobody, nobody would do that right in
mind. We would sue the company that tried to
do that to us. He sold 180 ,000 cars from stage.
How did he do it? He had a clear vision. He had
a culture where people wanted to belong, and
he had an amazing leadership team that people
believed in. That's what they marketed. They
marketed the vision, the culture, and the leadership,
and they crushed it because of it. It's not your
product that you are selling. It is a long -term
relationship. It is the ability for people want
to belong. I went into Tesla to buy a car, and
I was the jerk who had to ask the question. I
said, if you don't mind me asking, how much do
you make? And she said, minimum wage. That's
right, because the cars sell themselves, my friends.
That's what happens when you position your brand
super, super well. She was there, and I'm not
dogging her as a minimum wage earner either.
I'm pointing out the fact that the systems were
so good and everything was so on point that all
she had to focus on was just making sure that
I loved the experience. If she did that, I was
going to buy the car if I was qualified. I was
young, broke, new startup, could not afford the
car, but man, it was a fun experience. Bob, let
me bring you back on and I'll have you wrap it
up. Yeah, that's a great story. It's interesting.
I'm going to tie it in with leaders. What is
a leader? A leader is somebody that will go to
a place that others won't go on their own. They
will take you to a place. Now, a salesperson
can do the same thing is take that potential.
customer that buyer to a place where that world
is better for them that's what elon musk was
doing selling those cars saying your world is
going to be better you're going to be in this
new type of vehicle and he was selling something
didn't even exist but he was painting that vision
this is what your world is going to be like if
you get in that car if you own this car it's
the same thing with a great product you can have
a great product but if they don't catch your
vision as a leader leading them to help them
to show them that you can serve them and bring
value and you show them what that world is going
to look like there it goes you'll you'll do it
in fact one of the things with with sola is we
allow people to license our entire library we
have over 9 000 training components inside of
that library it's it's a unique offering nobody
in the world offers this type of offering so
when somebody contacts us we have interaction
they have no idea about this new world that they
can be living in and when we paint that picture
and they begin to catch the vision of what their
life will be like having 24 7 access to the library
It radically changes. And we get those customers.
I'll share it. Here's an example. I'm going to
play devil's advocate on this one, Bob. Okay,
go ahead. And this is for everybody's sake, my
friends. All of us as visionaries are developing.
Maybe not. Maybe Elon Musk has made it, but I
don't think so. I think he'd say he's too, figuring
things out. But him and Jeff Bezos, man, they've
crushed it. The rest of us, we got a long way
to go. Bob, when I heard you say that, I was
like, I want to honor all the goodness that is
Bob. But I have heard that exact same line from
Tony Robbins, from Dean Graciosi, from 9000 coaches
who all think that their vault is something that
I want in the here and now. And it's not because
the world of content. One of the greatest discoveries
I learned on this was a Tracy Chapman. Tracy
Chapman is a great singer. Tracy Childs, the
founder of Wishlist Members. He's got over 100
,000 courses posted on his wishlist member platform.
And what him and Stu McLaren, who's one of the
best course creators of all time, he's a legend
in the space. What they realized by looking at
the data was that the number one reason why people
quit and stop working with a course is content
overwhelm. It's because we gave too much. We
didn't have it bite -sized. If we could reposition
SOLA as an opportunity that people can explore
on the front end like Elon Musk did. And they
can see and visualize and understand that value
on the front end and feel that. Then, of course,
you have hundreds of millions of people that
could potentially dive in and value the path
that exists there. And so all of us, my friends,
have an opportunity. I'm not dogging Bob's content
at all. This could be the most important vault
in the history of the world. You know, I really
don't know. I haven't been into it. But I know
that what's going to drive me to want to participate
in that is if the vision on the front end is
ultra clear. The culture is one where I obviously
want to belong. I can tell you, my friends, I've
gotten to know Bob like I told Bob right away.
I was like, I want to talk to you afterwards.
I want to see what you guys are up to because
you guys have a vibe about you. That's like amazing.
And if they happen to have a process that honors
leadership, then that allows people like me to
say to like, OK, they might value me in this
environment. And if they value great leaders,
then naturally something good can come of it.
But the more we can lean into that as leaders
of our own brands and create that type of space,
the better. And the people to lean into with
that are the ones who are leading the world in
terms of leadership. And Bob Chanka is one of
those amazing peers in his team. You guys can
see it on their website. So definitely see what
Sola is up to. Find him online. Go and search
him. out but bob i want to give you the final
word if this is your last chance to talk to visionaries
today what advice and counsel would you have
for visionaries who are trying striving to build
whatever it is they're up to well i would speak
to organizations that want to invest in their
people when you invest in them they're going
to invest back into you so What that means is
if you provide soft skills, which is going to
be the emotional intelligence, building rapport,
really understanding human behavior, you provide
those soft skills, they turn into power skills.
And then those power skills can make a major
impact. And we talk so many other things that
being more realistic becomes more of a clear
picture. Because you know that you're not going
to solve every person's problem, but you are
going to show value and you're going to get a
great reception versus over here struggling and
trying to get all this, as many transactional
sales as you can, because that's what I got to
do. I got to sell, sell, sell so I can put food
on the table. So over here, it's investing in
them. And if you have vision for people growing,
that is what will take place. That's why Sola
does what we do. We create all of these soft
skills training because we know that if you can
get that into people, those soft skills will
turn into power skills, whether they become a
great manager, supervisor, employee, salesperson,
and then navigating up to being an HR or CEO,
who knows the potential of anybody. But if they
possess those soft skills, they can grow. That's
what I would just say. Invest in your people.
That's your greatest resource. I mean, that's
huge. We all know that, but we can lose sight
of that. I think that's the challenge is most
entrepreneurs don't actually do that at the level
that they could. And so, Bob, out of two thousand
five hundred plus interviews that we've had,
that may be my very favorite answer that I've
ever heard for visionaries. Visionaries don't
overlook this. Don't think I already know this.
Think, how can I apply this even greater in my
own lives? If you're late paying your people,
if you're not asking them about what do they
want to accomplish in their lives outside of
work, how can you empower their dreams and their
visions? How can you put them on a track record
to make sure their goals are accomplished? Investing
in people, it is so easy to see and feel the
difference between environment. where the leaders
actually care about their people and they don't.
We just heard it from Bob Chonka, who works with
Costco and brands of that stature. That's somebody
who's had his eyes on this for decades, and we
have the opportunity to benefit from it. So visionaries,
if you're at a newer stage of visions, you don't
have to be working with some of the coolest companies
in the world like Bob does. You don't have to
be on the charts of music as well. You don't
have to be creating these amazing. training videos
that allows you to just feel the power of what's
being done. You don't have to have that level
of skillset to be on the show. If you're newer,
click on the button. It's envisionproslive .com.
This is be our guest. Come tell us about how
you want to help the world. In the meantime,
as you build those visions up, look to connect
with leaders like Bob. I said collect. i think
that was subconsciously on purpose um you want
to collect great people around you as well and
say how can i lean into these mentors and learn
from them and build my visions well we hope you
learned a lot about cells today and how you can
also lean into leadership drop some comments
let us know what your questions are i'm sure
bob would be just as happy as i would to make
sure that we reach out to you based on your exact
or specific scenarios and questions and feel
free to also call us and have closed -door conversations
with us we truly care about helping those people
people who are around us build, because at the
end of the day, it's making this world a better
place for all of our loved ones as well. We'll
see you on the other side, guys. Take care, everybody.
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. And thank you for giving us your time
and attention. Have an excellent time building
out your vision and becoming a vision pro yourself.