Speaker 1: (00:02)

Bill, Can I help you?

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Speaker 2:
I’m your host. Sam Taggart, creator of the D2D experts in D2Dcon. Is there a place we can sit down?

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We’ll come on him.

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Speaker 2: (00:48)

Hey Everybody. This is Sam Taggart, your host with the D2D podcast. And I’m here with Brandon Brown and he is the number one Cutco rep in the world. Basically. He is the shit. I mean, how many are you over there at Cutco? Thousands, thousands. I mean Cutco is probably one of the largest direct sales companies out there, right? I would say something. Thousands and thousands of reps every year come and go and these different college programs to show programs to when you’re talking about military things you do, everything from military programs is last year, the year for the year for three years in a row. Sold more knives than anyone else in the world.
So that’s why I have him on the show. So that, that’s, that’s impressive. He’s has the national record for most knives sold in a month, um, ever in history, which is a big deal, right? Um, he is broken multiple national records and has really just elevated the bar to a whole new standard in direct sales for Cutco apps, which is awesome.

Speaker 1: (01:51)
So in this podcast, if you’re listening, we’re going to dive into there the sales psychology, the meat to the bones, the, the simple like just tips of like, yeah, I’ll play customer going to bantered back and forth. And you know, if you’re on my, if you can put in some con comments, questions and whatnot, and we’re going to just dive into like the psychology of overcoming people’s concerns because how many times are you going to show or, and a house and they’re like, these knives are really expensive. Right? Let me think about it. And it’s like, how do you walk them down? How did you create the urgency? How did you, you know, just all that kind of stuff for me to dive into. So if you’re listening to this, that is what this podcasts about. So before we start that, I want to hear a little bit more about your story, how you got into this. Uh, yeah. What’s, what’s the journey? Tell me a little bit on that. Yeah, so I’ve been sewing, cutting go

Speaker 4: (02:36)
for almost 11 years now. And I started when I was going into my freshman year in college. And so I was, I’d just turned 18 had no sales experience whatsoever. Um, when we had like one job as a cashier and didn’t know what I was doing. And that’s just a testament to like the culture of Cutco and the training that they have platforms have in place. And so I’m essentially started and work my way through college. Um, I would consider myself like above average when I was in school selling Cutco once. I’m like scholarships the company had. It was really just a student of the business, like wanting to learn from the best figure out how I could like him continually like uplevel my, my skillset while going to school and getting my degree. Um, graduated. And at that point I had one of my best years ever. The year I graduated I ended up leaving Cutco for a little bit just to explore some other options.

Speaker 1: (03:34)
Job Real job says, I mean it’s so funny that you do, I’m going to do this direct sales thing and tend to get a real job. So he went on that journey and what happened? I believe. Yeah, cause they’re like Brandon Green

Speaker 4: (03:45)
now, why would you work for the same company that you could work for without a degree? And you know, and I was like, what they would continually telling me. And so obviously it was coming from like a good place, but you know, I was like, all right, let me go explore. And so worked with like my friend’s startup company and just found out like what I liked and what I didn’t like about other things that were out in the real world, so to speak. And so I, um, came back to Cutco couple of years later and just sensually had that real world experience, was able to see what else was out there and that really gave a lot more appreciation and value to like a community of Cutco, the culture Cutco has. Um, and just like what a great product it represents. And so, um, been with them since that time I came back and just hit the ground running and really wanted to start running, uh, like selling Cutco, running it like my actual business versus like just a part time gig. And so that’s when I really like shifted gears and started really like making leaps and bounds in personal growth and in my business as far as like growth and percentage. So,

Speaker 1: (04:50)
so I’m sure 11 years ago it sounds like you weren’t going to be like, yeah, that’d be a not actually, ultimately when I grow up, I mean it’s so funny because that’s like everybody had like following or listening to this, I want to hear if you’re, you know, if that applies to you can’t like, like this [inaudible] it’s like, it’s like I look back and I’m like, oh, I’ll do this through, call it, you know, it sends out the same thing now you might agree and didn’t finish. I was like, man, why am I going to go to college? Um, because I didn’t want to go and Greg get my degree and then be like, why am I using my degree? And I felt like I’d feel like guilty. So that was like mileage. Yeah. But no, it’s cool though. Like, so I’m sure there’s still a lot of times when people ask you, so what do you do and how do you respond to that?

Speaker 4: (05:31)
It’s interesting that you say that cause I had the hardest time with that for like a really long time. Like, I wanted to try to spin it in a way that made it sound cool or down prestigious. And then I just got to the point where I was like, like reflecting on my life. Like at this point like I had, you know, made a lot of connections and knew a lot of other people that had real jobs and just like got to see like what they liked and disliked. And I just came to the point where I was like, I represent an awesome product that’s been around for a really long time. It’s an awesome company. I love the people that I work with and I do really well like from a financial perspective also. And so it’s just like I don’t really care what anybody else thinks.

Speaker 4: (06:12)
So as soon as I like had that mental shift of like, I don’t care what people think, people ask me, he’s like, what do you do? It’s like I still nice and I could care less like what they think. Cause I know like I love what I do, I have the control and flexibility of the schedule that I want and I’m representing the great product and have great people are behind the scenes and then that are in the field with me. And you know, it’s hard to find that, you know, as I’m sure you discovered,

Speaker 1: (06:37)
it’s so true because you go ask somebody that has a real job, right? Yeah. Can you say, well why don’t you do? And they’re like, why so medical devices. So let me ask you, do you sell a great product you can get behind is a great company and culture and that well that’s what I do. How I do it, how you do it a little different. What your product does. Hers is different. There’s like let’s disrespect each other. So I love it and I think the more and more people can own that and just click and said, I get DDD. Cohen. It was, you know, we did this thing where I was like, guys like put on your shirt. It says I knocked doors. And it was just like we just countered test and we go knock doors. I’m a professional fricken door lock or a professional person that calls shows up to your house and says these are some fancy dyes that are way better than current lines. You got must go. Right. You know what I mean?

Speaker 4: (07:26)
And it doesn’t matter what company you represent us. Like y’all were all kind of doing the same thing and we’re all, and I love what you’re doing. Like this whole like movement that you have cause like it’s, it just gets behind like this concept of like overall growth and like helping others and like here to serve the community versus like how can I always get a competitive edge? And that’s what I like about Cutco too is like everyone’s always sharing the goods regardless of how good they are or how high up they are in the company. And that’s awesome because it makes it way easier for people who are just starting or who’ve only been around for a little bit like short period of time to dramatically increase their learning curve. And that’s what helped me a lot when I was newer. And so like to be able to give back and to be able to do that and see that for other people and change their lives is, is awesome. And then as a collective, you know we are all like trying to figure out ways to improve and to grow and that’s just great for everybody. The more people get a great product, we make, you know, do better financially and it just helps the overall community and we can apply that to our personal lives too. So

Speaker 1: (08:29)
hundred percent. Yeah. So before we dive into the psychology of closing and objection to somebody, that is something that I, I want you to highlight that a lot of people, we kind of like a lot of the following, you know, solar pest control, alarm, satellite and you all come from different cultures. And since I’ve gotten to know you and you know a lot of these Cutco guys, I’m like they have probably one of the best cultures from a sales organization. So what are you, I just want to hear some of the main points from Cutco as a culture and a company that you’ve loved and been respected and just said, wow, I love how they do x, Y, z from a cultural standpoint that you can maybe shed some perspective and some of these other industries.

Speaker 4: (09:12)
I mean there’s a lot of things. The first few things that just come to mind off the top of my head is one, like from an executive standpoint, they’ve always put the representatives first and a lot of different ways and so they’re always there to like make sure that we’re doing well and trying to give us as much support as possible. Um, and so I love that. I mean that’s hard to come by for a larger organization. And I would say too is like the community itself. Like as I mentioned earlier, we’re all very open. We’re not like a closed book where it’s like, oh, this is my nugget. I’m not going to tell anybody and it’s going to give me a competitive advantage. Instead of doing that, it’s like, here, I’m going to share this. I just learned it two weeks ago accidentally. And I’m going to share this with everybody so that you guys can do well

Speaker 1: (09:57)
probably watch this. And when he says that, I’m going to chat a little bit more light into this cause I know what you’re saying behind that. Yeah. CUTCO has evolved tremendously over the last 11 years, I’m assuming how they’ve entered in the market. Right? All of a sudden this guy says, I’m going to go to realtors and I’m going to figure out how to do the gifting program for realtors. And all of a sudden how many people do that now?

Speaker 4: (10:17)
Oh, I don’t even know. But it’s, it’s, it’s a huge like 30 I mean I’m going to guess, but 30 plus million and that like division alone,

Speaker 1: (10:25)
it’s just a division breaks off cause one dude’s like, cool, everybody should be doing this. And realtors. And then you’d got to show program. People were like, wow. And then now you said a military thing who tapped into that? And I mean that’s probably a pretty recent,

Speaker 4: (10:36)
yeah, that’s only been around for a couple of years. So what’s interesting is the trend is that a lot of these like legs of the company had been founded really from representatives and the female who like are like, Hey, I want to try this new thing. I think it could really work and you know, going back and forth and then before you know it it’s like it’s a full on like program. And that’s just been the case for, you know, as long as I’ve been around and even before I have been. So they’d just been taking a lot of steps in that direction, which has been huge just for the overall like growth and also just the opportunity for instead of everyone being funneled into like just fairs and shows, let’s say now they can choose based on the type of lifestyle they want, what they enjoy doing. Um, you know, they can go business gifts, you know, whatever it might be like in home demonstrations, you know, you name it and that’s, that’s great. Like to have all those options.

Speaker 1: (11:28)
That’s so cool. So most of your stuff comes from ferring shows, kind of how to you be number one, like where you found, okay, my niche is x, y, z. What’s your niche?

Speaker 4: (11:38)
Yeah, I like what I enjoy doing and I would say like that is aligned with like my gifts or it’d be like fairs and shows I’m on in the military federal program, which has a similar derivative of fairs and shows. Um, I have like in home appointments, um, and then I have my whole customer base. And so from there like, you know, I’m getting phone orders, marketing a past customer business that way. And so that’s like another channel. And then, um, business gifts is something that I’m starting to get into.

Speaker 1: (12:09)
I think one piece, and I want to talk on this nurse second, so I think are just learning and getting to know you guys and the top performers, how well you’ve done your reorders upsells, customer base. Because like for us it’s like knock it, sell it and never talked to them again and see it like that. Right. And it’s so crazy. That is how we live. Right? And I think probably initially cut coat was like that. I bet you changed me. I mean that’s just stuck in the day. We only knocked doors. Yeah. I was like, I know people, I’ll see him at a show. They’re like, I bottom line cook, go 35 years ago.

Speaker 4: (12:43)
How’d you get introduced? Introduced to it. Someone randomly knock on my door. And so we’ve kind of evolved for our product a little differently. But yeah,

Speaker 1: (12:50)
but and, and there was probably no followup up. Sharpenings I mean, I mean I had a guy call me, he’s like, do you need your knives sharpened? I’m like, what’s in it for you?

Speaker 5: (13:00)
No, there’s another edge to this.

Speaker 1: (13:03)
I love the creativity and the, and the uniqueness that Cutco has adapted to generate more revenue. And it’s given, like you said, more opportunity because guys will get burnt out in one avenue and then they go to the Costco program or this program, they go to the, you know what I mean? And it’s like, that’s cool. Like with it, they’ve, they’ve kept the longevity of salespeople do to innovating their channels. But I want to talk on the followup. You have a customer base that buys knives. How many more people are like, great, I’m going to get

Speaker 5: (13:33)
[inaudible].

Speaker 1: (13:37)
Okay. So tell me your followup process to continue to maintain your customer base. Like how have you automated that? How have you built team around managing a customer base and what’s come of that?

Speaker 4: (13:49)
Yeah, that’s a great question then. And the first thing that comes to my mind and I would say is the most important is my followup. Um, I mean I have an amazing marketing team that does it for actually a lot of the top end reps in the Cutco community. Vast action. And so they’re, they’re amazing and they’ve revolutionized my personal business. But the, I think one of the things that they really embody and thus I’ve embodied, which is really serving the customer. Like what does the customer want? They don’t want a sale email every week, maybe, probably not even every month. So it’s like anytime I have any form of touch, whether that’s like, you know, a phone call, a postcard, um, a text message and email of swords, um, some type of marketing, like it’s always value ad. It’s like, hey, come check out the show. You know, there’s a really cool lemon festival that’s taking place. Or you can like check out all the fun like vendors there and it swing by and say hi. Like that’s it.

Speaker 6: (14:52)
Right. Or it’ll be, hey, let me show you these top three awesome recipes, you know, for the month of March that has to do with like Saint Patrick’s day or whatever. Like, you know, try this with this sphere. Um, and so there’s just constant like value add, how to use these knives. What does this knife for educational like to reengage them with what they currently have because sometimes they’ll have a big block, but there’s like a percentage of the knives that just kind of sit there. So like how to reinvent it invigorates the nights. They do have my favorite knife is that sledgehammer one, what’s it called? The color.

Speaker 5: (15:27)
The cleaver cleaver. I literally took a watermelon [inaudible].

Speaker 6: (15:41)
So no, that’s basically what it is, is like how can I add value to my customer and then, you know, a couple of times throughout the year or during big contest and you know, I’ll throw out some type of sale promotion and so people are a lot more receptive to that and they’re going to look and read more in my email and content from marketing because most of it’s not sales. Like they know I’m in sales, so anything I sell them, they know they could call me and they want to buy. So having as little of that as possible, um, really builds a stronger relationship with the customer, even if I’m not physically on the phone with them. And secondary when I do want to have a sale, you know, they’re more open to hearing what it is. And also the third thing I would say is like top of mind awareness, right?

Speaker 6: (16:26)
Like I can’t tell you how many times I’ve had customers who like, I wouldn’t Sam, I’ll sell one knife to somebody’s like five, six, seven years ago, one night. That’s it. And they’re on my marketing schedule. Haven’t heard from them into an automated, yeah, it’s all plug and play. Right. Haven’t heard from him in like seven plus years. And literally I’ll get a phone call out of the blue a, my daughter’s getting married, I’m looking to get a set and like all they have is like one piece of Congo. It’s like a hundred bucks and then boom, like thousand $2,000 order out of nowhere. And it’s like, you know, who would have thought seven years of marketing would play into that. But it’s just amazing. Like I’ve even had customers who sometimes will like, you know, in sales, you know, kind of like, you know, you get cancelled orders every once in a while.

Speaker 6: (17:15)
So I had a customer who like cancelled an order with me. I still put her information in my marketing and she’s like, you do great marketing. I want to swing by like a sharpening event. Um, and I’m like, okay. And so I pulled up her account. She has no nose, she doesn’t even have knives. I see that. It’s like, it was like never even shipped. I was like, that’s weird. Comes and like places that thousand dollar order, you know with me. And that was just from like doing the due diligence and she’s like, I’m so surprised that you followed up with me and you do such great followup when I like was the one that canceled. And that was just cause I got cold feet, but it was nothing against the product was just like a little scared at the time. But now like with this marketing that you’re doing and like in at top of mind awareness, like came to an event, spend 1000 bucks and that would have never been created otherwise.

Speaker 1: (18:00)
You know, it’s funny these, so how much of that just cut code paid for? None of it. That’s important to know. Yeah. Because you know how many salespeople out there think, well movement or dish or who are, you know, they should do that for me. Well guess what? If they do it, they’re taking the sale. Right? I literally got a phone call from my company say, Hey, you’re a customer calling him and Oh man, I could count. I mean, no, never. I have never gotten a phone call. Hey, you had a referral call in and uh, and they want to get it, you should stop by their house. No, they freaking close to do. Now we’re telling them about it.

Speaker 6: (18:41)
Well, my response would be to, for those that are going to be listening to this now or later is you know, being in sales, like you get a pretty good commission rip, like utilize a small percentage of that and it’ll pay dividends. Like don’t you know, instead of the reverse like mindset of like, oh, I’m just going to, I want the company to pay for it. Like spend a little bit of your own money but you’ll get that back tenfold easily and you’ll get like loyal followings just from having that value ad and you’ll get referrals. You’ll get people who want to buy more or second home. Like,

Speaker 1: (19:13)
yeah, I have a business, I might as well use my alarm guy that keeps sending me stuff, you know, cousin that needs it just got broken into. Or I’ve uh, I just moved and I need solar on this house. Or, you know what I mean? I just think, I think I wanted to touch on this because I think there’s very, very few people that have done it as good as you and some of the other top Cutco people I’ve met. And so now we’ll dive into that. So Seattle or something already. We’re not doing this right? We got some people on here, Alyssa. Um, okay. So, um, let’s do this. Let’s tie it into the closing or objections, right? So first off, I’ll be customer through this whole thing and I want you to think through, okay, I’m to cut co sell and I’m going to give you some common objections, but I want to talk more. So like what your thinking as a sales rep, what’s behind it? So I’m telling you, oh, I’ve got cold feet. Well, I’m saying, hey, this all sounds really good. They’re great product or great knives, but it’s just really expensive and I don’t know if I’m ready to make that decision or commit now. Yeah.

Speaker 6: (20:16)
So like if a representative like came to me and was like, Hey, this is the objection I got right. Like customers seemed really into the knives, but it’s really expensive. Right, and I’m not sure if I’m really ready to commit to that. Like before we go into like even the response because the response not, isn’t even that important. Write that down. It’s not about the response. It’s about being able to understand the customer and be able to put yourself in the customer’s shoes and understand where they’re coming from. If, oh my, like, I’m so passionate about this because if you can’t do that, really what are you doing? You’re just regurgitating a script and if you have no belief in the script or no reason why you’re even saying what you’re saying, then it’s not going to work nearly as effective as let’s say Mary had a little lamb,

Speaker 5: (21:05)
right?

Speaker 6: (21:10)
Teaching this to some of my mentees and I was just telling them, I’m like, I’ve had people come to me and say, oh well I’ve heard that before. I say exactly what you say. It’s like, okay, then why am I selling more? Like it’s not the words, right? It’s because I understand why I’m saying it. I understand the intention behind it. And when you have that you can execute on when to say it, what tone and what tone to use and how you want the customer to feel by that statement or by that question and only until you fully master that. And that’s like from years of like just committing to understanding that and practicing and learning that can you really like start to even find new heights to up level. And I find like that was, I mean I’m sure there’s a lot of super talented people listening to this who might be top dogs in their company, but that’s like the next level.

Speaker 6: (22:00)
It’s like be able to really understand like what does the customer really saying by that? So like circling back to what you were saying, if they’re like, oh, it’s too expensive. I’m not really sure if I wanna like place the purchase. All that really tells me is that there’s not, there hasn’t been enough value built right in the product and the or. There’s not enough pain associated with what they currently have. And if there’s no pain associated with they currently have. Right. That’s like, that’s the fuel that gets them to like make a purchase is like when you remind them about how bad it is when they’re like cutting a tomato and it’s like getting squashed and it’s like making salsa sold. Right, exactly. And so like walking them through that experience of like how painful it is. Right? That’s the emotion. And then as you know, there’s like the logical side and I’m trying to cut a penny and I can’t cut it with

Speaker 5: (22:49)
most distance and it’s not just because that happens all the time. I’m sorry. No, no, you’re good.

Speaker 6: (22:56)
And then, you know, the logical side is explaining to them like, hey, Sam, like I totally understand it’s expensive, but what else can you spend $1,000 on that you’re going to use every single day for the rest of your life? And like that question alone, like I use like clockwork because it’s, there’s literally nothing like that. They’ll have the rest of their life alone, let alone use every single day. Um, and so that’s a good line. Yeah. I mean, even for the best of the best products out there, there’s so few. And so from that perspective it’s like cool. Like all of a sudden $1,000 doesn’t seem like a lot. And I’ll tell him like, hey Sam, you’re going to probably spend $1,000 on something else or on several other things. But those are all consumables things that aren’t going to necessarily last long. So knowing that you’re going to spend that money, either way, we didn’t more spend more sense to invest it into something that’s going to have a better return on your investment, especially when you’re using on daily for your family and it’s making your life more enjoyable, you know? And so you kind of go through that process.

Speaker 1: (23:58)
So what are some good questions you do to create pain in a situation? So like you can tell it’s like obviously they don’t see enough pain. Let’s talk on paying for a second too, because you know, a lot of times you did that whole tomato thing, but like do you have a couple of other good questions that you helped them kind of come back to? Let’s create some more pain.

Speaker 6: (24:17)
Yeah. So I try to incorporate it like obviously this is to Cutco specific. Yeah, that’s fine. I try to, um, I try to incorporate it throughout the whole like conversation throughout the whole town is like bringing up pain points or trying to find, you know, pain points, um, with them. And so a lot of times I’ll like, I think a big part of creating a sale is educating yourself on the situation for the customer. The more questions you ask, the more you can learn about your customers so to speak, the better you can serve them because every customer is different. And so getting to know like how long have they had the knives and what has been their experience with their current items and if, if had been struggling with them to any extent or a knife broke or if it rusted. Like I really leverage that. Like tell me about that time when that knife broke. Oh my gosh. Like I found a piece of metal, like in my food, it’s like, oh yeah, that’s super scary. You have kids, right? Like, you know, you play on the emotion and the pain of it.

Speaker 1: (25:17)
I love the, I love the starter to a question. It’s not even a question. It’s a tell me about or tell me about a time or tell me about the situation. And it’s how you start this psych pain tunnel. A lot of times we’ll tell me more about that. Tell me about that time. And it helps them bring that five years ago to the present, therefore they start to feel the emotion, the hat back five years ago. Yeah. And that’s creating this emotion.

Speaker 4: (25:47)
Yeah. And the other thing I’ll just kinda touch on kids regardless of what,

Speaker 6: (25:51)
what the product is. There’s also other companies, there’s other

Speaker 4: (25:55)
like, you know, kitchen companies, knife companies that have really good products that are

Speaker 6: (26:00)
great quality and I’ll never bash them. Obviously. First and foremost, that’s like basic role. Um, and

Speaker 4: (26:07)
say like, Oh, I have, Ooh, stop. Like German. Like, yeah,

Speaker 6: (26:11)
a lot of, you know, German knife customers are very prideful. Like, I got henkels I got, Ooh, stop. Like, oh, that’s great. You’re actually gonna look

Speaker 4: (26:19)
love Cutco because you appreciate quality.

Speaker 6: (26:22)
And like, that’s my like tie in and they’re not expecting like a sales rep from the other side of another company

Speaker 4: (26:28)
say something like that. But it’s like, it’s, it’s like whatever they say is the reason

Speaker 6: (26:33)
why they should check it out is the reason why they should buy.

Speaker 1: (26:36)
And you could do that with a lot of objections. I’ll give you the objection, like, well, it’s too expensive. Use that same reasoning on just turning it to the reason why. So if I said, hey, it’s too expensive, how would you respond?

Speaker 6: (26:50)
Well, yeah, I mean if they say it’s too expensive, you can say, if you feel like it’s too expensive, that’s probably one of the reasons why you should invest in Cutco because x, y, z.

Speaker 1: (26:59)
And so if I say, Hey, you know, oh, I like this for a long time, I just, you know, I just don’t know if it’s worth having, you know, all of these knives. Like, you know, can I just buy one and then what would you say? So there’s a couple of ways. You mean

Speaker 6: (27:14)
go about that. And that’s each to the representative of what they feel comfortable. And it also depends, you know, you have to kind of put your finger on the pulse of like how much control you have, the situation or if it’s what kind of client you’re working with. But um, one of two things I’ll say if I want to like get them off getting one piece and on. So like some type of set, I’ll use some type of analogy like analogies work like a charm because they can understand it. So like with Cutco and, Oh, I want to get one piece, I’ll first agreed with them and not totally like throws a monkey like Sandy. You can definitely get one piece if you want. I mean, here’s the thing, Cutco super sharp. So even if you’ve got one piece of cargo, it’s going to be way better than anything else that you have.

Speaker 1: (27:57)
Did I use my fricking sorry time? What’s that? Like the spatula spatula to cut things more than the normal. Oh, it’s amazing. It’s just like they’re sharper. They’re, I mean, and so you would agree. And then what do you do? So I’ll tell him that

Speaker 6: (28:12)
what that does is like lower the barrier, right, of anything of instead of being combative, right. I’m agreeing with them getting on the same page as them, but then from there I’ll just explain to them like, but here’s the reality salmon. And I’ll even go further, I’ll say. And because CUTCO has such a great warranty, even if adults, you know, send it back, they’ll give you a new one so you could go that route. But buying CUTCO and getting knives is similar. Like shoes, right? You only really need one pair of shoes. But we all have more. Why? Because if you go to the beach, you want samples. If you go to the gym, you want workout shoes. If you go into a nice dinner, you want dress shoes. And depending on the type of outfit you have, you want to match that with a pair of shoes you have.

Speaker 6: (28:52)
So everyone has five, 10 1520 plus pairs of shoes. So in reality, you, each pair of shoes has a specific purpose, but you only need one. Right? Same with the knives. So having a set of knives, right? What that does, a blocks that Sam does, it helps distribute the usage of each piece. So you’re not using the same knife over and over again. And what you’re going to find Sam, is that it’s gonna make it a lot easier when you’re in the kitchen cause you’re going to have the right tool for the right job. Love it. I love that. Right.

Speaker 1: (29:27)
So what are some other, so you use analogies. Do you have any other really cool analogies that you’ve found effective in your kind of your go to analogies? I’m sure. What’s crazy is I was like, you know, in many different products, I just tied that same shoe analogy. I’m like, Nah, there’s somehow we can twist that. Um, sometimes like I’ll use it

Speaker 6: (29:46)
mechanic, they appreciate quality tools because that’s what they do. Or You, you don’t need to be a chef, but you cook almost every single day. So you wouldn’t it make sense to have some quality tools in the kitchen that makes the cutting and cooking experience more enjoyable? And obviously, yes. You know, and so you go that route. Um, you can use like, you know, if you’re working with just the wife and it was like, Oh I need to talk to the husband or you know, I use sometimes golfing is like you have a set of golf clubs, how often does he use those? Once a month if you’re lucky. Like you know what I mean? So he spent however much $500,000 on a set of golf clubs, maybe more. Might as well invest into something that you can actually get a better, you know, you sat over every day. Yeah, exactly. So just tying something that the customer can relate to. Yeah. Right. And the, and then circling back to the objection of like one piece, the other direction you can go with that is coupons. Okay. The uh, the other direction you can go with it is, um, yeah, let’s go ahead and get you that one piece and like write up the order because they don’t want to have the credit card right there. Now committed.

Speaker 1: (31:00)
Yeah. Cause they didn’t sell him out of the studies. You got, I got the sale. But now that they’re committed, right? So one thing I learned,

Speaker 6: (31:08)
I’m from another high up rep and the company, his name is Josh. He, I learned from him that regardless of how many times someone says no once they say yes, all that means is that when they’re comfortable committing to the order. So you can start at a really high package alarms or whatever it is and you can drop down, drop down, drop down. Right. So one piece that just means that’s where they’re comfortable committing to the order. Right? So from from the commitment, right? Do you have the discipline as many rejections as you got that whole entire time? Do you have the discipline to Upserve upsell and explain to them, hey, you’re getting this one piece based on what you’re getting and based on what you’ve kind of shared with me, you like to do in the kitchen, we actually have a five piece special or you get a little bit more bang for your buck.

Speaker 6: (32:06)
And then you go through that process and then cool. They’re committed to that. And I was like, Hey, because you’re getting five pieces, the one thing you’re missing that I would recommend, Sam has some steak knives, so we have a special that if you were to add statement, you know, and then you just baby step your way up and you know I’m not the only one. It’s not like I’m the only one that can do this, but you’ll hear plenty of stories of reps going from like thousand $2,000 sale all the way down to a couple of hundred bucks

Speaker 1: (32:31)
backup to that. And really that just comes down to the principal oh of like

Speaker 6: (32:36)
hey this is what I was committed. And then once they’re committed like well you know who can afford it, we’re going to get it anyways.

Speaker 1: (32:42)
Smiles are good. It might as well, right? Yeah, exactly. That’s awesome. There’s a lot that’s, that’s like Jedi mind tricks. I know I get you back up here, but yeah, let’s get you enough instead of trying to be like, cause any, you’d have to just know your clients coming from, it’s coming from free energy versus force. It’s kind of like, I’ll, I’ll, I’ll let this thing just flow how it’s supposed to flow, but I’m still committed.

Speaker 6: (33:06)
Yeah. And it’s like, I’ll go your route, but we’ll, we’ll, we’ll bring it around. I trust the process and it’s, that reminds me of like those customers who are just like very like aggressive. They have to control the situation and it’s very easy to be like combative and instead it’s just like, cool, awesome. You’re in charge. At least I’ll let you think that. And I’m like, you know, and so I’ll let him think he’s in charge or she’s in charge, but I’m still posing questions that’s positioning them in a certain way based on what they respond to me. I’ll be able to leverage that later. They’ll be like, oh yeah, maybe you’re right. Then they think it’s their idea.

Speaker 1: (33:44)
I love, I love that. No, it’s literally an inception. Yeah. They’re kind of like, I’ll play, I really controlling the fact that I’m letting you be charged for the time being. I’m actually driving the ship a little bit by asking the questions to make you feel in charge. But then it’s like at the end of the day, that’s how you’re going to make your decision because people, it’s like they want the, everybody has an ego, everybody has an ego and everybody doesn’t want to get sold. So then they’d say, if I like, I’m winning. And you’re like, I want you to win. Because when you went in, you buy and you planned the route of them, they then in turn just sort of like, but you create enough value, they still want your product. Right. You know what I mean? You can drive the ship that way. Okay. So let’s shift gears because we only got a couple more minutes.

Speaker 1: (34:30)
So if you’re still with us, give Brandon a big like or thumbs up or share this with somebody. If you know a Cutco person tagged them, there you go. Tag a Cutco person because I think there’s a lot of good stuff there. There’s some good stuff right there. Go tag a cut code yet. Uh, so how about this? I think the other piece of Cutco, but I’ve seen no other company do as well as referrals. I have never seen a company train, operate, run a process to get referrals as well as Cutco. So tell us kind of your referral process and I’m sure it’s always be referring abs. Um, but it’s, it’s telling me a little bit about, okay, when you’re with the customer, post, customer, pre customer, like how, tell me a little bit about how you do it.

Speaker 6: (35:19)
So it really, I mean this is going to vary from person, person listening to this and industry that they’re in and also just where they’re at in their business. Like I’m currently at a place where we’re like, I’m so slammed that I only like the amount of time I extra have like is so minuscule that I’m not like super actively like getting referrals all the time. But there was a time where that was like, it was the lifeblood. I mean that’s how we train representatives from the Gecko. Like that’s the foundation. Um, which is a super powerful tool to have and know and

Speaker 1: (35:53)
well no, but this is, this is what hit me with the Cutco guy when time he comes to me and he says, look, imagine doing your job but not being allowed to knock doors.

Speaker 1: (36:02)
Meaning if you don’t get referrals, you’re out of a job, right? You are literally the life, my life flood. And I was like, wow, what if I start operating with solar and, and in my business a little bit more like that. Meaning if I couldn’t knock doors, what I just be dried up or would I have an abundance of people will always be mining. Right. And I love that shift that this Cutco rep helped me have because they just, they changed my paradigm. I was like, oh my gosh, I’m doing this all wrong. I can give referrals so and so and keep

Speaker 6: (36:35)
hear that better in like door to door industries. And there’ll be like, well I just rather like knocked doors. Cause that’s what they know and they’re really good at it. But to be able to not necessarily replace what you do for referrals but to like just add that extra revenue and that extra layer to your business can be huge for people that are in the door to door industry, I believe. Um, and so really referrals can come from a lot of different areas. Whether you’re like marketing, like I’ll get people who just like even this week by two people text me or email me, hey I got a daughter or a friend of mine who’s interested in sometimes and it’s like order over the phone. Right. And like that stuff can happen through like the marketing process and like valuing your customers and serving your customers and giving them good content versus just like, here, I’m here to make a sale piece on out.

Speaker 6: (37:25)
Um, so like that’s one component, but like kind of, you know, for reigning it back a little bit, the easiest time to ask is like after like when you built rapport with the customer, you’re sitting down with them, whether it’s through door to door at a show and you basically just create an environment that they feel comfortable, like giving you some of their friends and family. And, and the first step is first acknowledging that you’re asking for their closest friends and families phone numbers and you’re technically a stranger to them. Right? And the reason why even say that is because you’ll have a different like respect and honor to the situation, knowing where they’re coming from, where if you’re just like, I’m here to ask and that’s it. And like you need to give me leads. It’s just different. Like,

Speaker 1: (38:16)
so step one, acknowledge it, put yourself in the customer’s shoes. It’s like, what a fan is, how’d you to go with my sister? And she was like, well, why did you sit that dude on me? You know what I mean? We’ll look at it this way, and obviously not everyone’s

Speaker 6: (38:27)
in this situation, but imagine an 18 year old, no sales experience with knives and you’re asking for referrals to go to a house with knives 18 years old and to ask for a credit card number, like it’s a good point. Right? And so, and their best friend or family member, like their reputation to a certain extent is on the line. So once you can embody, you know where the customer’s coming from, there’s an empathy, right? And so you talk with them in a little different language, you under here, a little more empathetic with them and it just comes across differently. And so after you do that, like it’s obviously important to build some type of rapport and connection with them. And obviously hopefully that has happened through the course of like the sale that you made because the products were all representing pretty high quality products.

Speaker 6: (39:14)
So the product is gonna sell itself, right? That’s not easy. That’s not hard to like convince the customer, but you’ve got to represent yourself. Well, the only reason, the only reason why someone would not give you a referral is if they don’t trust you. Right. And so that’s really what it comes down to. If you, if you get them to like the product, which isn’t hard to do, you build rapport with them and you get them behind like what you’re working towards, especially if like you’re donating money to a certain organization or you’re in a contest and you can share with them

Speaker 1: (39:50)
asap. Show me an example of that. Yeah. So um, some customer you’re about to do step one and two and let’s role play a second cause I like where you’re going with this.

Speaker 6: (40:02)
That’s step one is just like putting yourself in the customer’s shoes. So that’s not really like anything language wise.

Speaker 1: (40:07)
What did you ever say anything like, Hey, I mean I get it. Like you probably get asked for referrals for all the law and it’s probably scary. Kind of like opening that whole like here’s my network and what if they get mad because I sick this like 18 year old punk on them. You know what I mean? I get it, then we get that all the time. But I promise you like I’ll make sure I take care of them. Just like they took care of you. You could definitely do that. Um, I’m just curious. My personal perspective, I don’t do that just cause I don’t want to bring up something cool. I’m just curious. So that’s those for me personally. But um,

Speaker 6: (40:38)
you know, I’ll say something to the extent of like a Sam, you’re absolutely going to love your Cutco by the way. Um, and there’s so many different scenarios. So normally I’m going to leverage something like they’ve heard of Cutco before, they have friends or family that have it right. So I’m leveraging like how long has your mom had it? Like 20 years. Right? So you grew up with it. Like it’s a great product. Like this is awesome. Right? So you put them in a state of appreciation as they have appreciation, wouldn’t you? Or, or let’s say they’ve never heard of CUTCO and they’re just seeing cocoa for the first time. So like wouldn’t you have loved to have seen and been introduced the Cutco like 20 years ago. This would have been so nice. Cause then there’s a need or yet to do that. And so from there it’s like you’re going to absolutely love your Cutco.

Speaker 6: (41:28)
One of the, for me, I’m working really hard towards breaking like personal sales record for the next two weeks and so my goal is to sell blank amount and what you’re getting right now really helps. So you’re a part of this mission to like break this record. So I really appreciate that. One of the other things that’s really important is we work solely essentially off of like recommendations and referrals. So I know you mentioned, and obviously this would have been a pre conversation I wouldn’t have, I know you mentioned that your brother and your mom both have like really bad knives. Right? And so while I’m filling out this order form, why don’t you go ahead and just write down a few people that you think would be like appreciate hearing about Cutco and then I’ll be able to give you like a little extra bonus for doing that. And so again, it’s not necessarily the lingo, it’s not necessarily the words you’re saying, but it’s the confidence like how you’re exuding the confidence.

Speaker 1: (42:24)
Why don’t you write down a few names? Yeah, it’s a, it’s more of a commanding tone versus a, can you write down maybe a couple of names? Like would you mind maybe if, yeah, super weak words. Right. And I liked your, the word choice you use, you could tell it as a command tone. It was a hey write down a few new Angela I thought disorder form and it’s kind of like, okay, like their sheet, right. A follow your command. Right. So cool. I like that. Keep going. I didn’t mean to cut you off. I wanted to, I wanted to touch on that because I think a lot of people wouldn’t have picked up on that tone you used and that psychology is there. So they, so then I write down a couple of android. Do you tell me, do you like, you know what if they’re like, ah, I can’t really think of anybody. We’ll see. We’ll get that. Right.

Speaker 6: (43:05)
But yeah, and so like one thing that I pride myself on is every time I get an objection it’s like, cool, how can I handle this before it comes up? Always. There’s always a way to handle it. So like, oh, I can’t think of anyone. Well, the whole demo leading up to this, I’ve asked like, have you heard of Cutco before? Do Friends and family that have it? Like how did you get introduced to it? Like, do you have a lot, do you entertain a lot to your other friends and family? Like have bad knives?

Speaker 1: (43:31)
So throughout your whole sales process, you’re seeing asking questions, you’re almost getting to know their network. Yeah. With that, you know, and the, and the best is when you’re,

Speaker 6: (43:40)
you’re seeing a referral, you can say, aren’t you so glad that you know, John referred me to you, Sam

Speaker 1: (43:46)
and you kind of been going off the fact and now your referral, I assume that you’re going to give me referrals to just like John gave me a referral of view. John gave me about 15 minutes,

Speaker 6: (43:54)
pearls, but he said I needed to come see you first just because you were an awesome guy and blah, blah, blah. You know, you know, you just, you can leverage certain things like that. So it’s not about the words, it’s right. It’s about the tonality, it’s about the confidence and it’s about just being comfortable in explaining to them why, you know, this is valuable for them and their network. If they liked the product, wouldn’t you want to share it with your friends? Like if you go see a good movie, aren’t you going to say, tell your friends, oh, the Black Panther, that was a great movie, or whatever it is, you know?

Speaker 1: (44:28)
Okay, let, let’s say, let’s say this, hey, honestly, I don’t really feel comfortable referring to me now, but once I’ve used him for a while, then I might be able to send you somebody. Yeah. What do you do in that situation? That’s a good one. I feel like that happens a lot. It’s kind of like why am I even had him yet? Why haven’t referred anybody yet?

Speaker 6: (44:45)
Yeah, I mean most of the time if you’re seeing someone that’s a referral anyways, they have friends or family that have it. So I really like pull that strand and that cord pretty hard of like throughout the whole pitch. Especially like when I’m showing the sets, it’s like, oh well John over here, you know he’s had this set, this is the set he started with 15 years ago. But then when I went to his house last week, we upgraded them to the complete set. So I mean between those two sets, which would do you think you would get the most value in? You set up over the next 2030 years? Right. But each one there’s an attachment. So maybe the safe play for him is the small set or maybe he wants to keep up with the Joneses. Right. Go with the larger set. And so, um, I’ll say something that extent of like, so you’ve been to John’s house, right?

Speaker 6: (45:38)
Yeah. Like you’ve had a chance to use his knives pretty good, right. Compared to like what you have. So again, pain associated with that. So I leverage all those things. So when it comes to the referral portion, they are, they’re already believing in the product. So they can’t tell me. Right. They can’t use the excuse of like, well I haven’t really tried a man. It’s like, yeah, you have or you have through associate or you know, people that have it. Exactly right. Like how many times have you referred a movie to somebody but haven’t seen because everyone tells you they’re good. So true. Right. So it’s the same thing. So same psychology. Yeah. Right. It’s just a different, you know,

Speaker 1: (46:17)
process. Cool. Um, okay, so we’ve got to wrap up. If you’re on this, share this. Julian, you’ve solely Cutco knife before

Speaker 6: (46:26)
we know you can. So,

Speaker 1: (46:30)
um, I honestly, I’ve appreciated this, but the last question I ask every podcast, it’s just kinda my tradition. One more question. So if you’re watching this Hank died, uh, if you could give the direct sales space one piece of advice, what would it be? And if you could target it to a leader, a top rep, first year rep, you can kind of pick the category that you want to pick in there. But if you had to give one piece of advice, what would it be?

Speaker 6: (46:57)
Um, I’m going to say this because I feel like it may be, has not been shared amongst everybody else. Secrets. Hold onto your seats. We’ll see. You tell me. Yeah. But yeah, everybody says that [inaudible] is, is to treat your word like gold. And I’m going to kind of expand upon this, but treat your word like gold. Uh, first and foremost to yourself. Um, you know, being in sales, and you know this from being a leader in sales is how many times do representatives, sales reps or even managers, right? But any level, say they’re going to go do something and then don’t do it. Like I feel like it happens consistently. Like all I’m going to go do 400 counts or I’m going to go sell, you know, $400,000 with the CUTCO for the year. And then what happens? They do $150 challenge, obstacle, excuse whatever it is.

Speaker 6: (48:04)
And so I really challenge everyone who’s listening to this now or will be listening to this to value your word to yourself because if you can’t value your word to yourself, Sam, how do you expect others to value your word 100% if you’re not even going to follow through on that. And with that comes understanding and respecting your goal in fully embodying what is it actually going to take to hit this number? What challenges, what obstacles, what sacrifices are you gonna have to make? And I think too many times do people leave that portion out when they’re like goal planning and this is like really important portion to like sales in general is they kind of cut it out and they don’t really respect the tasks that it’s going to take to achieve xyz accounts or Xyz sales and then they fall short and I, and not that they can’t hit it the next year, but I mean think of your door to door con, right?

Speaker 6: (49:13)
However many people were there. Like imagine if everybody who had a goal for this year was fully committed to it, fully treated it with the highest level of respect, fully understood the sacrifices, the challenges that they were going to have to take the people they needed to have circle themselves around and aligned themselves with to make that happen. What if they did that and everybody actually hit their goal? What if it was a community of people who always hit their goal like the door to door con, whoever’s a part of that community, 6,000 people, they’re known to be people who follow through on their commitments to themselves, to their teams. That’s for amazing. That’s new hashtag lecture can be doing it. Take it. I mean it’s just like, it’s so true because I mean, and I’ve had a lot of people,

Speaker 1: (50:08)
well that if I like triple, quadruple their production as a company since door to door con down some amazing things. But you know, people went in there and it was like there was the best conference ever. And then like two weeks later they’re back on the couch eating potato chips. Like thinking around and I’m just like, man, if it didn’t, I mean that’s cool. It gave me some feel good but like go, just commit to something and do it for you. Dot. Meditation, the execution of it.

Speaker 4: (50:33)
It’s, you know, that’s great for the percentage of people with large or small that did that. But it’s also like those other people, um, you know who, who still have that opportunity there and they just didn’t capitalize on it.

Speaker 1: (50:46)
Yeah. I’m calling everybody out to a higher standard. Like honestly, like let’s, let’s elevate this tribe to where we are. The leaders in the community did say we’re committed to actually living a higher standard. And I just think like, if we can bond together and hold each other accountable, like great things happen, then again. And what’s great, what’s like really like

Speaker 4: (51:09)
inspiring about that mission is that that rolls over to what your personal life, right? And there’s, there’s so many things that can carry over to that. It’s like, how can you be like, highest, like follow through on your word. It’s your family, your friends, significant other and the standards that you want to have in place for that. And like actually executing on that because everyone knows, like, you know, having a really strong personal life, um, and fulfill personal life pays dividends into your business and, you know, vice versa. So they worked together in 100%. Will do. Thanks so much for being on the show.

Speaker 5: (51:48)
It’s been a long, long time in the making a of you guys will see your eyes.

Speaker 7: (52:05)
Yeah.