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Sam Taggart 00:21

Alright everybody, this is Sam Taggart with the D2D podcast and I am here with Steve Heroux and we’re going to be talking on sales. But before I dive into this, you know, it’s been a while since I’ve done sales talk, even though this is a sales podcast, and I talk a lot about recruiting and leadership and mindset and, and all this other stuff that even though most of people listening to this are in sales or sales leadership, So today, we’re going to be very targeted on sales itself. But before I dive into that, I wanted to address a few things because I know a lot of people are kind of going crazy with the whole quarantines and lockdowns and, you know, everything that’s happening right now, I just want to kind of get my two cents of like, Guys, door to door is not going away. It’s not a thing that like, everybody’s like, Oh, well, forever, it’s never gonna be the same. I’m like, I think other things impact the door to door in other ways throughout the history of mankind, you know, they used to go cave became tptb. And now door to door, you know what I mean? And it’s, it’s the thing that will never change in the way of consumers will always be willing to buy face to face. As long as there’s, there’s a high value exchange. And, you know, as an industry, we need to keep our heads high. And we need to really think of how to innovate how to adapt and hold the hold the brand and a strong regards, and not do anything to taint that brand. And so if you are still out knocking, like I recommend being very, very sensitive, and making sure you abide by the laws that your city and government have been putting in place, you know, follow the rules of what your company is wanting you to do, whether that’s there when you get off the doors, there’s liability issues and risks there that some companies just want to make sure that they don’t mess with. But if you are still knocking make a lot of sunshine guys like this is a phenomenal time there’s a ton of people out home, you know, you go to normal like knocking during the day, you’re probably gonna get your face kicked in, or nobody’s you know, you go to 20 homes and four are actually there. Right now, you’re probably go to 20 homes and 18 of them are actually there. So, you know, a lot of people are having their biggest month of this week. So if that’s the direction you go, kudos and, but my two cents are, this is not a time that the government’s sitting here going, Hey, let’s just shut down. Let’s just like Netflix and kick it like, you know, I think that this is an opportunity. And I look at the biggest billionaires and millionaires that were ever made, are made through a recession, they capitalized on downturns, they capitalized on, you know, people scrimmaging around trying to figure out what to do. And they got top talent recruits, they, you know, they were able to buy things at a discount. So I look at business and innovation right now is one of the biggest times so that being said, you know, door to door we’re here innovating as well trying to help you we’re adding new content to the university. That’s all how to sell zoo, how to sell via the phones how to sell and adapt in climates like this. So if you’re a university user, be on the lookout for new content this week. And last week, we’ve been filming and producing some new relevant alarm, solar satellite, pests, phone scripts, roofing, zoom calls and strategies on how to do that. So each industry we’ve been adding new content from different experts that that’s what they’ve been doing for the last three years and all of a sudden their, their value proposition to our society just became pretty interesting. So that being said, let’s dive into this podcast. Like I said, I’m here with Steve heroux and he is an all time long legend sales guru that comes from Cutco and Aflac is you know, it’s it’s not the typical, you know, solar alarm pass, but you know, he was a top performer and Cutco, which we’ve interviewed a couple of Cutco people on the show I don’t know if you’ve seen those Steve like I don’t know if you know Brandon Brown he’s been the top rep for the last few years and you have jasha are now who have… been some cocoa guys we’ve interviewed a few times.

Steve Heroux 04:18
You might have talked to Harold, maybe talk to Eric You know, there’s It’s so cool to see like all these you know, alumni and you know, people still kicking ass him. It’s pretty awesome to see and how many amazing success stories have come from Cutco Alarms. I mean, the list is like endless, so it’s pretty.

Sam Taggart 04:38
It is bred some phenomenal sales individuals and the training the organization I was Mind blown, the more that I dove deeper into their organization throughout the last few years And anyway, so top performer then moved into Aflac and was a top performer in athletics for many years. And then the last couple years has been It is time building a sales consulting training business. He wrote a book called sales is not a dirty word. You know, what interests me about Steve was just like, Hey, he is advocating sales and evangelizing The Good, good of sales to help people realize that, you know, it’s a great profession, it’s honorable, you can make a great living, you can do it the right way. And you know, some of the chapters in his book consists of integrity and discipline and commitment, and it’s things that we’re going to be talking about today. So, Steve, just wanted to welcome welcome me on the show. Where are you coming from? Like, where? Where are you now?

Steve Heroux 05:37
So San Diego now just moved back. I spent the last 13 months in Costa Rica my place down there building all this cool stuff, and originally from Boston. So first 30 years of my life and Austin 10 in San Diego, one and goes to Rica. Now back to San Diego.

Sam Taggart 05:54
That’s awesome. Awesome. So let’s, let’s just dive into this. You know, I honestly like to skip the whole jargon of like, tell me 15 minutes of your life. But yes, 30 seconds, give me the 32nd life B roll, like highlight, like,

Steve Heroux 06:11
yes, pretty easy. Pretty easy. You know, second grade through high school, didn’t say a word. No dances, no dates, no problems, no nothing. Freshman year college is where I found that little ad for Cutco. And was deathly afraid of people and ended up going into sales. And my parents told me I was gonna fail and all this stuff and just realized that I didn’t have to be the Joe sales guy. When I went to people’s houses, I go to the grocery store, first I would bring food, we’ve cut the food up, people would buy and I’m like, Hmm, I think I could do this thing. And so Cutco, again six years and then on to Aflac for another amazing 14 years and figured I can you know really get a lot more pride and helping other people than just, you know, being successful in sales myself. So, so it all came to be man.

Sam Taggart 07:01
That’s awesome. That’s awesome. So let’s let’s talk about that. So your your, you have this principle called the sales DNA, you know, every sales rep is, is really made up of a different DNA, they have a different dynamic, they have a different buying selling style, you know, and your personality versus my personality is very different. You know, my high school days, I was wearing neon pink coat, I was in the cheer squad and frickin the football games. I was in all the athletic programs, I was the social guy, and certain Sales Report. Yeah, that’s what I was gonna say, this is what’s gonna make this podcast very interesting is, you know, when I go to train certain people, they’re like, but I’m just not like you and I and I have to understand that I have to look at the DNA. And I have to say, Okay, what, what is the difference? And how do I resonate with them instead of trying to inflict my DNA on them? So it’s interesting, those listening might resonate so much more with a Steve today, because they may have been the sales style and DNA that’s a lot more introverted and quiet. And, you know, and so let’s, let’s talk about that. What is your thing sales DNA? Like? What is the makeup, an archetype of certain salespeople you’ve seen? And let’s, let’s jam on that for a second. Sure.

Steve Heroux 08:18
I mean, you know, a good intro into that is just kind of what you said, where we try to kind of get our people to adopt our own styles and ideals and methods and systems and so on. But that’s why you see in sports, so many amazing athletes were such shitty coaches. You think back to like Ted Williams, if you guys remember Ted Williams at the Red Sox, last guy to hit 400 was one of the worst managers in the history of baseball, because he couldn’t understand why people couldn’t see the spin on a curveball. Right? It’s because he couldn’t get it. You can’t see it. Tony Gwynn, same thing, you can slap that in the hole, like what’s wrong with you. So we have this tendency as great salespeople to think that everyone else can do it. And that’s why you see so many companies struggle when they promote their top salesperson to become a sales manager. And it just doesn’t work. Because not only because of that reason, but because people are different. That’s a completely different skill set. Again, it’s like telling a zekiel Elliott, to go play center for the Mavericks. Like what Yeah, well, you’re good at sports. Can’t you be all NBA center? No, yeah. But we tend to do that in sales. And so two different skill sets, two different mindsets. And so inside of you know, this sales DNA test we have is pretty incredible. Because we can actually measure why people aren’t fulfilling right? their expectations. Why can’t they get to the level they could get to? It’s not about comparing it, you know, comparing you to other people. It’s like, Okay, why aren’t I closing? It’s not because You’re asking the wrong closing question. It’s because of one of many factors. And we actually measure about 21 different competencies that make up the success of a salesperson. Kind of half are mental and half are the physical selling skills. But the couple that I see to answer your question that are really the drivers. One is the need to be like, there’s this tendency in sales that we, we must be liked by our prospects. And we’ve been taught this forever. You know, people buy from people they like, and people they trust, which there’s so many myths in sales, and that’s one of them. People buy when there’s value in buying, ask somebody if they’ll buy a brand new Lamborghini 300 bucks. I guarantee you, they’ll buy it. Even if the guy selling it’s the biggest asshole on the planet. Why are they buying the Lamborghini? Because it’s 300 bucks. Oh, I’m not going to buy it because I don’t like this guy. That’s bullshit. If you provide value to people they buy, you don’t need to be their best friend. Now, is it good to be like, sure. Is it a bonus to be trusted, of course. But it’s the need to be like that kills salespeople. You can want to be liked and you should be liked. But if this undying need to be liked, it’s like a lot of the social media maniacs, right? Who their whole reason for existence is the number of likes they get in their posts. Oh my god, I only got 13 likes, I get to delete this reap like Dude, if that’s why you’re fucking life revolves around you got major problems. But but that’s the thing with salespeople, we we’ve been taught so long to go in, build rapport. Boy, Tom, that’s a great bore you killed and you’re vegetarian? Like what? You can’t be fake and phony. It’s like, what are you doing? You don’t need to be these people’s best friends. Yeah, value they’ll buy. And if they like you, that’s a bonus. Now you get referrals and introductions and want you to date their daughter, all that kind of stuff, right? But you can’t have the need to be like, and that’s something we see in the sales DNA test all the time, which is a killer. And so unless we fix that, we I can’t teach you how to close because you won’t say what’s necessary to be said. Because physiologically, you’re worried about that guy or gal not liking you. So yeah, that takes. So that’s the stuff I see that’s a little bit backwards in sales training is that everybody wants to teach closing, but you can’t teach closing unless you get this part. Right. So that’s why these evaluations are so critical for people. And that’s just one of many people. You Know.

Sam Taggart 12:56
I love that so many people are unwilling to get uncomfortable. They’re sitting there kind of like, well, if I say this, it’s going to get uncomfortable. It’s going to be you know, kind of maybe frustrating or, or could could push the cell the wrong way. So I better just like appeal to them. Now that’s an intimate negotiation that causes it. And it’s interesting. I was listening to Chris Voss, he’s the negotiator, guys masterclass yesterday. And he talks about a aquas accusation audit. And I really liked how he phrased this and he said, Look, the accusation audit is usually during the sales process, there’s this tension that people get, right, there’s a customer, you can sense the tension, you can sense the uncomfortability. And it’s like, you know, let’s, if there’s an elephant in the room, like, say, hey, there’s an elephant in the room, and he’s like, I don’t care how long, you know, like, I don’t care how long you go, that elephants not going away. Nor is that bad feeling. And that that fester of the negative emotion and the negative feeling is going to continue to fester. And it’s going to create resistance. Once you address the elephant in the room and you address the tension. you address the hard facts you address the the objection, the x y, prior to them having to sit there and bring it up. In most sales people, they get super uncomfortable because like if I say like, hey, obviously you don’t want to be sitting here listening to me right now I can tell based on how you’re sitting. And to say that to a customer would scare the crap out of the sales guy half the time. And and it’s like they’re like, Oh, yeah, yeah, I guess you’re kind of right. You’re like, well, let’s talk about that. Sounds like you’re doing uncomfortable. let’s let’s let’s talk about that. You know, I mean, like, how often is the salesperson willing to say things

Steve Heroux 14:39
very few, as that very few, you know, very few times. And that’s what we see when we look and we see somebody score and there are 17% for example, I need to be like, we got to work on that and teach them the mindset, the phrasing, the you know, all the stuff we need to do to get more comfortable at making that statement. Cuz again, what we do, right? We help companies, right? So if there’s a man or woman sitting with me, right, we’re figuring out why they haven’t hit their company numbers in six quarters, right? And then at the end, they’re like, Well, you know, well, you know, we’ll talk later, you just have to be able to listen, Sam, I don’t care if you work with me not working me, whatever. We haven’t hit numbers in six quarters. So if you keep pushing this decision off, it’s gonna be another six. And so when there’s another 3 million bucks that isn’t made, then are we going to address it like, dude, I don’t care if it’s me or someone else, but you got to address this dude, you, you can’t keep sweeping under the rug. And you have to do that, right. And whether they go with you or don’t go with you, that’s not really your decision, you’re there to provide value. And if this man or woman doesn’t get it, you got to help them get it. Because if they’re going to brush you off anyway, who cares? What does it matter, you know, they’re going to respect you. And that is what the top like 6% of sales people get, they would rather be respected than liked. And the bottom 94 would rather be liked than respected. So that’s one of the things we work another

Sam Taggart 16:20
Another term or phrase I’ve heard, that kind of plays right in line with that is serving versus pleasing, you truly are bought into the outcome. It’s it’s people want to be people pleasers. And we’ve all heard that. But that’s usually one of the biggest pitfalls of leadership and sales people. It’s they’re not looking at the greater outcome. And the greater outcome is if I close you, you end up installing buying whatever that looks like my service. And then I served you at the highest level, I’m not going to listen to this excuse in the story and the law You’re giving me because that’s not serving you. And that’s how you live your life. So let’s just write month.

Steve Heroux 17:02
Yeah, exactly. You probably know a lot of coaches, right? The great coaches will tell you right, what you need to hear, right. And then all the other ones just tell you what you want to hear. It’s it’s the great coaches, the great salespeople that tell you the truth, brutally, whether you like it or not, you’re getting the truth. And that’s what we do with all our clients is like, dude, I’m not here to be your best friend. Like, I’m here to help you overcome why you can’t get to six figures. If you could have you already would have done this dude. Like, I’m not going to be your buddy, I’m here to help you. Right? And so you guys and sales again, you got to do that with your customers to like, you’re there to help them. And if they don’t want your help, so be it. You move on. Not everyone’s gonna buy. It’s got to be

Sam Taggart 17:53
okay. So let’s talk about this dynamic that we were kind of jamming on at the beginning. What’s interesting is my personality, probably has a much higher need to be like, therefore the social butterfly in me is probably much more high profile of pleasing, right? Where your personality and correct me if I’m wrong, I’m just making assumptions. I’ve never taken a test, whatever is probably a lower need to be like, therefore, you can leverage that to your advantage in the sense of serving your customer at the higher level and saying the things that probably me naturally would be afraid to say and I’m just reading this I talked a bit, though it’s weird. It’s,

Steve Heroux 18:40
it’s you’re half right? Because half the people su half the people that I’ve talked to that are extroverts have a super high need to be liked. But the other half like the mark Cuban’s of the world, for example, right don’t give a shit the Bradley’s you think he cares if you like him. So it’s it’s 5050. And then you have introverts that are super quiet and they really need to be made, you know, to feel comfortable. And then there’s other introverts that save don’t give a crap either like, so it’s always half and half and then they do studies on the most successful salespeople in the world, generally, they always come out around 5050. Half are extroverts, half are introverts. So it’s very similar to like what you said about you would think somebody with a really great personality and outgoing and all that stuff would have that more, but it’s um, it just doesn’t end up looking like that. It’s, it’s kind of like, you know, you assume if you see a guy walking down the street who’s six, nine, you’re like, Oh, you play basketball. No, you don’t. You’re tall. Right? Which, which is everything that’s wrong with these disc profiles and all this crap. That people try to use, oh, she’s a high D, she’ll be good in sales. Like, what? What, what? Where did that come from? So a lot of the assessment tools that are out there, I mean, they can be used for other things. But as far as determining somebody’s success in sales, it is the wrong tool for the wrong job. They’re just assumptive tools. There’s no science, right? So we’ve been able to find out scientifically, right? What are these competencies that can determine somebody’s effectiveness in sales. And it’s funny, it’s besides the personality one, when we measure like your ability to not make excuses, your commitment level, your ability to recover from rejection, all of those things affect your ability to close. It is not just what you say in your closing question. And once people get that, they’re like, holy crap. So if I work on this, my clothes will be better. It’s just like golf, right? You can’t swing properly if you don’t have the right grip. But But everybody wants to just go to the range and wail at balls. And it’s like, No, dude, we got to fix this first, then right? We’re fixing position, right? Then we fix the takeaway, then we fix your hip rotation, right? It’s all that. But everybody just wants to hit the ball. 340. That’s what that’s why you see all these people teaching closing. But there’s not one real great golf coach or teacher that would ever not teach all that other stuff. First, you have to do all that other stuff first, then the ball goes 320 You can’t just hit it three times. So that’s where these tests are super helpful to people. And everyone’s different. When I took mine, and that, you know, I thought I’m paying pretty decent, right? Did you know pretty well at Costco pretty, you know, pretty good at Aflac. And I, I took it I’m like, I’m gonna really do well on this thing. And then I took it and I wanted to jump off a bridge. Like, I’m just not that good. And, and that’s the difference, right? Between really successful people is they understand that they can get better. If they’re people that go, Oh, I made 800 grand last year, but how could I have made 1.5? Now I get it, right? Or on a lower scale, right? Somebody made 86 grand their first year, awesome job, dude. But we could have been, it could have been 125. If we just have these little things. So that’s the goal. It’s just we always have to strive to get a little bit better. We’re never going to ever achieve perfection, right? That’s just something to shoot for. You can’t get it. So that’s where these things really help people. It’s like, it’s like a game film. I was talking to a client the other day of game film. So NFL, you know, athletes, right? They’re watching 1020 3040 hours of film, right? every week. And guess what they make 26 million a year. And you’ve never watched your pitch one time, you’ve never recorded it. You’ve never listened to it. You never showed your buddies, and you want to make 300 grand? Well, you got to record yourself. You got to watch yourself game film, right? How are you going to find out if you’re going to get any better?

Sam Taggart 23:35
Yeah, you know, it’s interesting. We have a training platform that allows you on our on our app, you can film yourself right there an app, and you can upload it to a channel, and then you can even invite your peers to watch it. And in me even coaching people on doing that, you would see how few people actually do that. is mind boggling. And you know, it’s funny, like I like I watched so I speak speak a lot. And every time I go after a speech I film, I am the same way the same way. I and the fact that sales people sit there and bitch about how they don’t make enough money. And I go, Well, do you have you seen yourself? Yeah, in your head. You’re like, dude, I’m crushing. And then you actually film yourself and watch it. You’ll be like, Oh, that’s embarrassing. And that’s usually the first time I do that with people and forced them to do it. I’m like, Let’s film it. Like No, no, no. Let’s roleplay it. No, no, I don’t like roleplay it’s like no, I do it different. I do it differently. I’m like,

Steve Heroux 24:48
Yeah, they they have no problem though. Doing this right and Cabo, like, do three shots, motherfucker. Yeah. They’ll do that. They’ll record that, but they won’t record themselves, right, which will allow them to buy the place in Cabo? Yeah. So but like, amen. You know, it’s just like, I don’t like watching myself. Are you kidding? But how else am I gonna get better or See? See my crutch words? You know, we all have crutch words mine is right. So I’ll probably say that 50 times, but I’m working on it right. And I need to know what I mean. That’s, that’s we all have, we all have these fillers. But you have to intentionally work on it. You got to see it. It’s like a quarterback right? You can’t throw the 15 yard out. You know, he’s throwing it 14 yards is low. And I got to work on this in practice. It’s the same thing with us in sales. Is it your approach when you first meet somebody? Is it your middle? Is it the value prop? Is it when you transition to the cloud? You know, what is it? And we have to practice? How the hell are we going to get any better?

Sam Taggart 26:06
Yeah, no, it’s interesting. I just, like, almost just got more inspired. Like, you know, I train a lot of sales people you do, too, you know, like, I’m almost like, kicking myself in the nuts to be like, man, I need to ask for their game film more often, just to say, hey, send me that. And I’ll go through it with you. You know what I mean? Because like, it helps. Yeah, like, I don’t know what you’re doing wrong out in the field. Yeah, like,

Steve Heroux 26:29
that’s what sales managers do, bro. They’re with you know, and the sales managers they need our help, because they’re so spread thin. So how can you manage and lead someone if you don’t know what they’re doing? It’s just like a coach in the NFL. How can you coach a wide receiver on running routes? If you’re not watching them run the routes that the coach doesn’t just sit there and look at the scoreboard all day. They’re like, dude, you’re you’re coming out of your break too soon. you’re you’re you’re not looking left when you make that income you’re looking right. You have to see what your people are doing in order to give them right the instruction they need. But we can do that those if you don’t have a coach yet guys and gals and you know, whatever and you can be your own coach in the beginning with this with this doesn’t take a lot of money to sell yourself on film.

Sam Taggart 27:28
I love this. I love that the coach doesn’t look just at a scoreboard all that says so good. And I think back to like me and my young management, even even as a VP I you know, you yell at your reps and be like, dude, why’d you bagels today? Why did you bake all week? Right? What are the numbers? I wear the numbers like and I think of most sales leaders. That’s probably pretty dang common. And they’re not sitting there going well let me like instead of saying Where’s your numbers it’s Where’s your game film? Let’s look at that. And I can and I can probably really quickly tell you why your numbers or your numbers

Steve Heroux 28:07
It’s trial dude. It’s it’s killing sales people’s production. And it’s it’s it’s it’s not a good way to lead to be polite. It you cannot that’s another myth. Right? This this whole sales is a numbers game shit. It is such a myth. And I know people are gonna disagree with me. And that’s fine. That’s what makes the world fun. But sales is a skills game. It’s not a numbers game. And if you keep telling your people it’s a numbers game. You’re just turning them into telemarketers and you’re telling them that their skill sets don’t matter. And so when you look at this whole sales as a numbers game, another easy golf analogy, this one you’ll probably get if you guys know anything about sports is Charles Barkley. And if you’ve ever seen Charles Barkley swinging a golf club, you know what I mean? If you haven’t, you know, YouTube it, but if you’ve seen like, I don’t know, like a baby giraffe trying to stand up, it kind of looks like that. It’s really bad. And Charles Barkley has been playing golf for 25 years. He still sucks something awful worse than he was when he started. But Charles Barkley has probably hit 3 million golf balls. Roughly. Why is he still suck? Because he’s doing the same thing in correctly for 25 years. So when you tell your sales people do just make more calls? Great. Thanks, Tom. I suck at these calls. So if I just make another 100 magically, I’ll get better is that Yeah, that’s it. No, dude. We in sales, we all want to make less calls and make more sales. That’s the goal. So how do we do that? Well, we get better at that activity. And so that’s where we need to teach and train people as Leaders is, let’s figure out what the hell’s wrong and fix it. And then when you fix it, and you got frickin street pounders and go getters, now it’s fixed, and they still pound the phones and the doors. Holy crap, that’s when you get to be top 5%. When you have skill, numbers, it’s not just numbers. And it’s not just skills if it’s just skills, you’ll be fucking Johnny Manziel Well, okay. Skills only get you so far, you’ve got to have both skills, discipline, you got to have both. So, you know, we, we got to figure out what’s wrong first before we can fix that. And before we can just say, just dial more knock on more doors, right? Because if the kid has that need to be liked, or or he or she’s uncomfortable with money, right, you’re, let’s say you’re selling solar, you’re selling a $25,000 job. If you think 5000 bucks is a lot of money. When somebody tells you Hey, Sam cheese 25 Grand Man, that’s a lot of dough. You agree with them, you empathize with them, then you go into follow up mode you go, you know what that’s called? You know, think about it’s still gonna help you you’re gonna have no electric. You don’t say what you should say? Because you’re uncomfortable having financial discussions. So just telling that guy to go knock on more doors isn’t going to help him or her until we overcome being uncomfortable with money. Right? Because then you can address Well, yeah, do 25 grand not bad. You’re gonna spend that in three years on your electric bill, but that’s cool. You know, I love this the way that you say it’s all inside, right all inside.

Sam Taggart 31:50
This is fire man. like Steve nuggets on nuggets. Dude, I literally I’m taking notes so you don’t have to? Like I’m over here like love the Charles Barkley analogy. Love. Love this man. Thanks. So we’ve got to kind of wind down now but I want to almost like rapid fire sales nuggets like just yeah, I’m a sales guy. This is for the sales guy like takeaway value add just boom, boom, boom, and then some ask questions you just answered. So favorite favorite icebreaker? Yeah, like a favorite. Like, you know,

Steve Heroux 32:30
Can I tell you a story is is like a quick story. Yeah. You know, we get told you see somebody walk in their office or their house you do point we’ve all been taught right? Oh, point at the picture, whatever. I went into this guy’s office once and there was this painting above his desk right behind this desk like a huge painting. Like the bull by the horns and dodgeball like white goodmans painting, you know, like that? Yeah. He saw my eyes go up to it. He’s at the desk. He said. He goes, it’s the painting, right? I’m like, Yeah, dude. Like, did your wife make you put that up there? And he starts laughing, right? He’s like, you fuck, how did you know that? I go. You’d have to have a gun to my head to put that in my office. Clearly you didn’t put that up there. He’s like, do that. You’re so right. And he goes, You know what? He goes, I’m going to give you as much time as you want today. Like, why is that? He goes because you’re the only guy that’s never lied to me about it. Every other salesperson comes in here and goes Wow, that’s beautiful. What a pain you know, it’s like just the only saw my eyes and saw my end is telling the truth. So I don’t know that I don’t have like a specific icebreaker. I just like, Whatever happens kind of happens. You know?

Sam Taggart 33:49
When the weather No, that’s good. That’s good. Like, be willing to stay out the you know, like, instead of like, Oh, you have a beautiful home. You know, and it’s like, they almost look bad if their home is a disaster. Like Oh beautiful home like I watched you guys do that and I go pick a different one dude. Like you know,

Steve Heroux 34:11
If you see what everyone else says right? You’re automatically like them. It’s just like telemarketers, you guys get the robo calls, right? You know, when somebody calls or when it’s a robot, please don’t hang up. Click right. If you do what everyone else does. You are like everyone else, right? You sound like a salesperson, you’re a salesperson. It’s just the way it is. Yeah. So yeah, say something different, you know? door to door stuff. Just be different. say like, Oh, you gotta you guys have a pot bellied pig. Like No, this one in that yard.

Sam Taggart 34:49
You know, just you can do something different. Yeah, I’m just making this kind of No, no, but I love it. I love it. I love it. Okay, next one. real quick and then rewind on this on favorite, favorite one liner kind of clothes, like your favorite go to clothes that just you’ve used over the years that you’re like, man, there’s a firewall.

Steve Heroux 35:12
So the favorite clothes, and there’s a couple different ones that we could go after the favorite one would probably be Do you feel like I understand your business? Right? If it’s in business, right, or do you feel like I under challenges, you know, that’s, that in and of itself will open up other things. You it’s it’s however many words that is five, you know, six, seven, however many words that is? It already opens up other things. So I like questions at the end, not necessarily. So, is there anything preventing you from moving forward today? You know, I don’t like that stuff, because it doesn’t. I don’t know. It’s it’s salesy, what it may say, you know, say stuff that salesy, you go back, even if you did an amazing job, an amazing job, but you do this one thing that salesy because it’s the last thing they heard you say, you’re now a salesperson. So, generally always try to ask, you know, do I understand your business? Do I understand your challenges? Do you think I’m hearing you, you know, that type of stuff, and it just opens up a whole nother world for you?

Sam Taggart 36:27
I love that great value. Well, Steve, you know, is there any other like, you know, obviously, Aflac coastal door knocking, like, so you’re still out there pounding the pavement, saying, hey, I need to prospect I need to go find something. I need to get referrals. I guess. Is there any other advice you’d give the space to say? Hey, you know, I’m itching to say this, like, yeah, like,

Steve Heroux 36:52
A couple things. The first one is, don’t stand too close to the door. You know, I see this a lot, right, with people we work, like, right up in this, you know, right in the aisle. Like, back into the right, okay, back into the right, you know, not right up in their grill. So that’s number one. The second thing, you got smile, be genuine. I see so many people that are indoor outdoor world that are or they’re, you know, they’re they’re ready to do their pitch, just like aching, you know, just be relaxed, smile, pretend feel like you’re the neighbor, right? That’s coming over to borrow flower. You know, that has to be the feeling that you go on to the porch with, because it’s the feeling you go on to the porch with is I need to sell this person, I need to get my pitch, right? It’s going to be a struggle. Because guess what, if you feel like you’re the salesperson, they’re going to sense that feel that from you. And, again, that’s how the universe works. And then I think the third one, I think is super critical. Because in a door to door world, we know sometimes that’s our only shot. And we’ve kind of been taught that right? That’s the one call close and so on. But if you’re not following up properly, and you’re not living inside your CRM, that’s one things we found we did these these DNA tests on almost 2 million people that to me personally, right, what we work with, and what we found was that sales people that lived inside their CRM, and are really great at follow up, get this guy’s make 41% more income 41% and all that is is CRM and follow up. That’s not closing. That’s not techniques. That’s not cold call. I mean, that’s just being organized. Yes. Yes, because just because someone doesn’t buy from you the first 10 seconds they talk to you, doesn’t mean they’re not interested, it doesn’t mean they won’t buy but if you are bad at follow up and most sales people suck at it, you’re gonna lose those deals to the next dude that comes by the next gal that comes by so we got to make sure we’re learning follow up properly.

Sam Taggart 39:12
It’s the most painful thing I see when I go out knock and then you can say neighborhood three months later, and there’s an there’s a competitor sign or you know, you can tell somebody else to solve them and you’re just like, all the time.

Steve Heroux 39:28
It could have been you could have been you and all you had to do was just follow up and so that’s a big thing we teach a lot so yeah, man hope that

Sam Taggart 39:40
So you know, guys, if you’ve been listening to this and got some value from Steve, you know, go get his book sales is not a dirty word. You know, everybody’s always asking how do we find good books and good value, and then also go to sales DNA test comm if you guys want to go take the test and understand and have your sale Teams take this test and really understand the dynamic of like you as a sales individual. You know, my, my two cents would be guys, the more you can consume around sales and the more that you can understand your dynamic as a sales individual, the better you can coach and the better you can be coached. You know, obviously, film yourself go watch it, put it like put your peers to that say, Hey, give me some feedback. You know, get a coach I think that was one of the things I liked about this. It’s like, you know, guys, there’s so much good content but but at the end of the day, like somebody one on one sitting down with you and saying, dude, say this, I say this, you’re an idiot, change this, like, that’s when you actually see grow growth. I think too many people are too prideful to actually get good mentorship and coaching. You know, you’ve had a lot of good guys, we listen to this. Like, it’s, it was a fire podcast. And so I just want to you know, appreciate you Steve for dropping dies, man is frickin going ham on this. This is really good. So how mad man

Steve Heroux 40:59
Is, you know, as you started this with guys, and if you’re listening to this one really great thing Sam said, you have to take this time wisely and invest in yourself that there are going to be so many people that come out of this thing on the other side crushing the game, because they invested in themselves in this pie. And it doesn’t have to be 100,000 I mean it get a course get a book right? Spend time investing in you and your skills. So in a couple months, when this thing’s back to normal, you come out on the other side on fire way better than when you came in. And I did this virtual sales meeting the other day for salespeople around the country just like a funnel kind of idi ad free thing, but I put on there. The average American watches 34 hours a week of TV. Okay. 34 hours a week. This is before Coronavirus. Then I saw an article online, that was a recommendation of here’s 1000 hours of TV to watch when your social distancing. I am not kidding, that was a real article on a real website. And people are gonna wonder why they come out of this with no money, no job, no, nothing. Like, you don’t have to binge. This last tip, I’ll say, because then I’m gonna get all fired up and then we’re gonna do another hour. Everyone knows about binge watching and you see on so Hey, dude, what can I binge watch which can, right? And everyone knows about binge drinking, okay, and both of those are happening right now. But nobody’s ever heard of binge personal growth. And really, when that Imagine if you spend the next three months binge, personal growth in what your business would look like, in three months, what you would look like salesperson you would be, but nobody does that. They’re all busy watching fucking Netflix on wasting time. And I’m not telling you not to. I’m just saying you have an hour a day, you have two hours a day to invest in yourself, get a course read work with a coach, right? Go on, you

Sam Taggart 43:12
Know, I got locked in a book yesterday, I was all I was like, I’m like, shoot, what time is it?

Steve Heroux 43:20
It’s so great. It’s such a great opportunity. But there’s going to be a percentage of sales people that look at this as an opportunity and they’re going to crush it. And then everyone else is going to take this time for granted. It’s going to be wasted. And then three months are going to go back and they’re not going to be any better off. They’re probably worse off. So I haven’t heard of companies guys that are firing the top salespeople.

Sam Taggart 43:42
Haven’t heard of one. Hope that helps y’all. Amen. Amen. Hey, Steve. Thanks. Thank you so much. And guys, like I say go follow him on social media. Steve, what’s your handle or whatever? At the Steve Maru? That’s Instagram. So hurry, g h e r o u r h e r o u x is how you spell her. Okay. Thank you so much for being on st man talk. We’ll be in touch man. All right, man. Appreciate you. Thanks, everybody. Later