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How CEOs Can Master Sales and Mindset · Business Roundtable

0:32
Speaker 1: Welcome to the Business Roundtable podcast. I am your host,
0:36
Speaker 1: David Carr of Stuart your Business. Grateful to have you here,
0:39
Speaker 1: and we have another brand new guest this week. We're
0:42
Speaker 1: going to get into it for We've had some episodes
0:44
Speaker 1: recently on sales, but we're going to get a unique
0:46
Speaker 1: perspective with Christopher here.
0:49
Speaker 2: Philip Back.
0:49
Speaker 1: We were super excited to have him here and he
0:52
Speaker 1: is going to just give you blow you away. I've
0:54
Speaker 1: known Christopher for a number of years. We've been connected
0:57
Speaker 1: through LinkedIn, shared a lot of different insights and and
1:00
Speaker 1: so I was super excited when we're talking and was said, hey,
1:02
Speaker 1: you know, I've been doing this Business round Table podcast
1:04
Speaker 1: for a couple of years. We've got to have you
1:06
Speaker 1: on here. So Christopher, welcome to the podcast.
1:11
Speaker 3: Hey David, good to see you again. Thanks for having
1:14
Speaker 3: me so thanks for having me on the show. I'm
1:17
Speaker 3: really looking forward to a conversation and sharing what I
1:21
Speaker 3: can to help your audience.
1:23
Speaker 2: Absolutely well.
1:24
Speaker 1: I I you know, one of the things I wanted
1:27
Speaker 1: to bring you on here, Christopher, because you have a
1:30
Speaker 1: diverse background and we're going to get into that here
1:32
Speaker 1: on the podcast, and I'd love to have you walk
1:33
Speaker 1: this background because you come from kind of an engineering background,
1:37
Speaker 1: you're a strategist, you have worked on inter alignment. There's
1:41
Speaker 1: a lot of different expertise that you bring over the
1:43
Speaker 1: course of your career, Christopher, and so I would love
1:46
Speaker 1: to have you just walk us through your journeys as
1:50
Speaker 1: a business owner, as an entrepreneur now in sales, and
1:53
Speaker 1: so we always like, I love to do this because
1:55
Speaker 1: I love having all of our listeners lean in, whether
1:58
Speaker 1: you're a business owner, you're in a place of leadership,
2:00
Speaker 1: overseeing a team, or whatnot.
2:02
Speaker 2: Why they want to.
2:03
Speaker 1: Listen what they're going to hopefully get some they takeaways
2:05
Speaker 1: here from you.
2:06
Speaker 2: Christopher.
2:10
Speaker 3: Yeah, I'm happy to share my story. And I think
2:14
Speaker 3: why you want to lean into this show in particular,
2:17
Speaker 3: and this conversation that David and I are going to
2:19
Speaker 3: have is that it's going to put more money in
2:24
Speaker 3: your pocket and save you time and help you feel
2:28
Speaker 3: better when it comes to thinking about money and making sales.
2:32
Speaker 3: What's actually required to grow your business and grow yourself
2:38
Speaker 3: in the process. Business is great, It's an amazing vehicle
2:41
Speaker 3: for change and growth and helping people. And I think
2:45
Speaker 3: one of the reasons entrepreneur is certainly why I got
2:49
Speaker 3: into business is because it was an amazing vehicle for
2:51
Speaker 3: myself to change and grow and have impact and step
2:55
Speaker 3: more into my purpose. And sales is a big, big
2:59
Speaker 3: part of that. I think if you do that well
3:03
Speaker 3: and start to love sales and and get more comfortable
3:10
Speaker 3: with what actually moves money in your business, which we'll
3:13
Speaker 3: talk about today, things are really really fun and really
3:16
Speaker 3: really good. So that's that's the reason. Tell me an
3:19
Speaker 3: end today and stay at the very the end of
3:21
Speaker 3: the show.
3:24
Speaker 1: So there you go, Yeah, go ahead, Yeah, no, I
3:28
Speaker 1: would say what what got you? Because I'm so grateful
3:31
Speaker 1: you said that, because it is business is a mechanism
3:34
Speaker 1: to make change in the world. But a lot of
3:36
Speaker 1: people get stuck hung up on this. So tell me, like,
3:38
Speaker 1: why is this your passion now?
3:39
Speaker 2: Christopher?
3:40
Speaker 1: Like you you told us like we're going to get there,
3:41
Speaker 1: But what got you to this point? Tell us a
3:43
Speaker 1: little bit about your journey that brought you today.
3:47
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think it's it's kind of a circuitous route
3:53
Speaker 3: to where I am today, But you know it's what
4:00
Speaker 3: what is Steve Jobs? I think it was Steve Jobs
4:02
Speaker 3: of Apple said it's hard to connect the dots looking forward,
4:05
Speaker 3: but they're easy to connect going backwards. Ye, so I
4:09
Speaker 3: think they make sense. But I grew up outside of Detroit, Michigan,
4:15
Speaker 3: and fell in love with cars in the motor city,
4:18
Speaker 3: and it was good at math. So when I was
4:21
Speaker 3: looking at what I should be when I grow up,
4:23
Speaker 3: you know, you could go to the library and you'd
4:25
Speaker 3: pull out those old statistical job descriptions that had like
4:31
Speaker 3: average salaries, like where you could work, what you could do.
4:34
Speaker 3: And I was like, oh, well, I'm going to be
4:36
Speaker 3: an engineer because I'm good at math and cars. And
4:39
Speaker 3: so I studied industrial and operations engineering, which is the
4:43
Speaker 3: study of human and machine systems, which is like fascinated me,
4:49
Speaker 3: and so I started after school. After undergrad, I started
4:53
Speaker 3: working at Ford Motor Company as an engineer, really designing
4:57
Speaker 3: manufacturing facilities and helping those facilities run better and help
5:03
Speaker 3: the people within those feel better, reduce waste, continuously improved
5:12
Speaker 3: so that we can make better quality trucks and F
5:17
Speaker 3: one fifties and Mustangs. But I always wanted to be
5:20
Speaker 3: with the people and the money, David, and I didn't
5:23
Speaker 3: know what that meant. I didn't know what my engineering
5:25
Speaker 3: managers didn't know what and you know, at that time,
5:30
Speaker 3: like the the recommendations from the people around me were
5:35
Speaker 3: to get an engineering undergrad and then go to school
5:39
Speaker 3: and get your MBA. I was like, so that was
5:41
Speaker 3: like in my head and I but I always wanted
5:43
Speaker 3: to be an entrepreneur and do that. So I ended
5:47
Speaker 3: up going back to get my MBA. And then I
5:49
Speaker 3: started working in consulting for a company out of Charlotte,
5:55
Speaker 3: North Carolina, mid market company selling in the Fortune five
6:01
Speaker 3: hundred companies, and so we were selling software, marketing services,
6:08
Speaker 3: data services, and I was a top business development person
6:15
Speaker 3: at that firm. And what I noticed and kind of
6:19
Speaker 3: led me to starting my own firm was the contrast
6:22
Speaker 3: between the level of systems and maturity at Ford Motor
6:26
Speaker 3: Company and the company that I was working at. And
6:29
Speaker 3: then when I started started my firm going around in
6:34
Speaker 3: twenty seventeen looking at even smaller businesses, there was a
6:38
Speaker 3: huge opportunity to help those businesses organize their systems and
6:43
Speaker 3: bring a level of maturity to them that they simply
6:47
Speaker 3: didn't have or underunderstand. So that led me to help
6:51
Speaker 3: them with their sales directly, help them start to build
6:56
Speaker 3: out their sales systems and their sales teams. Noticed in
7:00
Speaker 3: my own journey at that time, and also in the
7:04
Speaker 3: CEOs and the founders that I was working with, is
7:06
Speaker 3: that there was a huge gap in our understanding around
7:09
Speaker 3: how to operate our minds and how to operate our bodies.
7:12
Speaker 3: We were all strategies and tactics engineered, and we had
7:17
Speaker 3: all the tools, but we weren't creating the results. And
7:22
Speaker 3: I started to realize that that was mindset set, right,
7:26
Speaker 3: And I've come to think of mindset as how you
7:29
Speaker 3: think but also how you feel, so it's both though.
7:32
Speaker 3: So I started my own journey in mindset, and looking backwards,
7:37
Speaker 3: that started to make sense because my mom was taking
7:39
Speaker 3: me to Jack Canfield chicken Soup for the Soul Soar
7:43
Speaker 3: and self helps in the eighties and nine, and that
7:50
Speaker 3: stuff kind of came full circle, right talking to me
7:56
Speaker 3: about Dwayne Dyer and all that, all that really impactful,
8:01
Speaker 3: powerful stuff I don't think we were ready, really ready for.
8:03
Speaker 3: I don't think the general population was ready for at
8:07
Speaker 3: the time. But I was like, man, like, this stuff
8:11
Speaker 3: is what's going to make the difference. And so as
8:13
Speaker 3: I started to study that work, my results started to
8:18
Speaker 3: shift tremendously. I found it easier to connect with people.
8:22
Speaker 3: I felt more comfortable with who I was. I started
8:26
Speaker 3: to do bigger deals, make more money much faster. And
8:31
Speaker 3: as I bought those skills to my clients, they started
8:36
Speaker 3: to do the same thing, and they started to become
8:39
Speaker 3: more comfortable with themselves and more comfortable transforming into a
8:44
Speaker 3: person that can make sales really easily. Because the truth
8:47
Speaker 3: is there's nothing hard or difficult or scary about sales
8:50
Speaker 3: and money. But we were taught that a lot of that.
8:55
Speaker 1: Is.
8:56
Speaker 3: So that went on that rate up like in through
9:00
Speaker 3: COVID times, and that's when I did some work with
9:05
Speaker 3: a larger consulting firm and also started doing my own
9:09
Speaker 3: market research to really dial in my offer, and I
9:15
Speaker 3: within the period of about a year and a half
9:19
Speaker 3: two years, I worked with hundreds of small businesses right
9:25
Speaker 3: some you know, between five hundred thousand, million, ten million
9:30
Speaker 3: up to twenty million in revenue and really did a
9:33
Speaker 3: deep dive assessment of what was happening within their sales
9:38
Speaker 3: organizations and their sales operations. And what that led me
9:43
Speaker 3: to understand was that those businesses wanted to scale, they
9:49
Speaker 3: wanted to grow revenue and profit, and so a lot
9:51
Speaker 3: of them hired sales people to do so, but the
9:55
Speaker 3: salespeople ended up getting fired and not performing well. Right,
10:00
Speaker 3: So on average, those founders, those CEOs hired and fired
10:05
Speaker 3: three point two five salespeople. And it's incredibly expensive. Yes,
10:11
Speaker 3: you know, the statistics are like, you know, upwards and
10:15
Speaker 3: beyond four hundred thousand dollars of cost and lost revenue
10:24
Speaker 3: for a for for that's that that strategy, And I
10:28
Speaker 3: think why that happens is well, we can get into
10:33
Speaker 3: what you know there. It's hard and exactly, but the
10:38
Speaker 3: point I want to make is that I recognized all
10:41
Speaker 3: that experience and all that observation of what was happening
10:45
Speaker 3: inside of business is combined with my own corporate experience
10:51
Speaker 3: and business development experience and watching watching CEOs b CEOs
10:57
Speaker 3: and writing all the performance for those businesses. I was like, man,
11:01
Speaker 3: to hit your goals, Like the CEO is the best
11:04
Speaker 3: position person to drive revenue in the business through their
11:09
Speaker 3: own sales effort. And I know that's a little counter cultural.
11:15
Speaker 3: I guess there's you know, there's you know, some a
11:18
Speaker 3: lot of CEOs I don't think want to hear that,
11:20
Speaker 3: but they are the best person to drive revenue. And
11:23
Speaker 3: the cool thing is they can do it in a
11:24
Speaker 3: short amount of time, right, Like they can start you
11:28
Speaker 3: as a CEO, you can start making sales today. Like
11:31
Speaker 3: you're so perfectly positioned, and you have so much knowledge
11:36
Speaker 3: and so much status and so many good stories. What
11:40
Speaker 3: you're lacking is what you're typically lacking is the systems
11:45
Speaker 3: underneath to help you be consistent and the support around
11:50
Speaker 3: you to help you be consistent. So I started wrapping
11:53
Speaker 3: my business around supporting CEOs to succeed at their own
11:58
Speaker 3: sales work. You know, And I'm not anti sales teams.
12:03
Speaker 3: You can absolutely build a successful sales team, but I
12:07
Speaker 3: think the way you have to go about it has
12:10
Speaker 3: to be a little bit more structured and engineered and
12:12
Speaker 3: thought out than just oh, I'm just going to hire
12:15
Speaker 3: oh yeah person or a couple of sales purpose and
12:18
Speaker 3: then you know, start making.
12:20
Speaker 2: It rain right.
12:21
Speaker 3: That's where I am. That's what I'd love to talk about.
12:25
Speaker 1: Well, I want to get definitely into it, Christopher, because
12:28
Speaker 1: you bring up a good point here on the podcast.
12:30
Speaker 2: Number one. The reason why I invited you on the
12:32
Speaker 2: podcast and we're listening is Christopher Pears.
12:35
Speaker 1: He has he has the experience, Like you said, you
12:37
Speaker 1: just That's why I want everyone to lean in and
12:39
Speaker 1: listen to your your your your own personal journey in
12:41
Speaker 1: Christopher to so you know that this is a man
12:43
Speaker 1: that's been doing this, working hard at making it change.
12:46
Speaker 1: And I think your point, Christopher, I've heard this challenge
12:49
Speaker 1: of you know, people that are brought into help quote
12:53
Speaker 1: unquote the sales team. They get them, whip them into shape,
12:55
Speaker 1: help them get more sales, or they give these sales goals,
13:00
Speaker 1: and they're not you know, it's there's a disconnect. So
13:02
Speaker 1: I think you're right on the money in that if
13:04
Speaker 1: it's CEO or in or the board or the high
13:08
Speaker 1: level you know leaders in the company are not clear
13:12
Speaker 1: on this.
13:14
Speaker 2: They are a bottleneck. I agree with you. I feel
13:16
Speaker 2: like they are.
13:17
Speaker 1: They're they're limiting what the capacity what you could do
13:21
Speaker 1: in the in this space. And I think sometimes they
13:24
Speaker 1: just feel like, well I just need some more tactics,
13:28
Speaker 1: I need just more tools, you know, And that's not
13:31
Speaker 1: necessarily it. I mean, the CEOs really do set like
13:34
Speaker 1: the tone and how we're approaching these organization and and
13:39
Speaker 1: then you know, then you can take the team and
13:41
Speaker 1: scale the impact from there. But I think if you
13:43
Speaker 1: try to go the other way around. And that's something
13:45
Speaker 1: I was pressed upon me too, because I am not
13:47
Speaker 1: getting my sales dial in. Very clear, it's really hard
13:51
Speaker 1: for anybody else to do it better than the CEO.
13:54
Speaker 1: That you should be able to do it the best, hopefully,
13:56
Speaker 1: and then you have other people that are going to
13:57
Speaker 1: do their best to come close to that. But it's
14:01
Speaker 1: really dangerous in my opinion, to outsource somebody else to
14:04
Speaker 1: do sales when you're not dialing it in. So maybe
14:07
Speaker 1: talk a little bit more about your experience and working
14:09
Speaker 1: with CEOs both you know, the bottleneck and then when
14:12
Speaker 1: they started the step out of the being the bottleneck.
14:19
Speaker 3: Yeah, I think they start to realize realize something needs
14:27
Speaker 3: to shift after they like keep having sales people not
14:29
Speaker 3: work out and revenue not grow consistently. I think that
14:33
Speaker 3: that that's the pain. Yeah, you know, eeos, I don't
14:41
Speaker 3: know what I don't know. You know, some most CEOs
14:44
Speaker 3: know that revenue is important to their business, right, like
14:47
Speaker 3: they're they're you're growing a successful company. Most of them
14:50
Speaker 3: have been involved in sales, they've made sales, but they
14:54
Speaker 3: haven't really mastered it to the level that they that
14:59
Speaker 3: is a capable right, and so this isn't about like
15:03
Speaker 3: becoming a sales bro or being on the phone or
15:06
Speaker 3: being a cold caller or any of that. It's about
15:08
Speaker 3: an invitation to lean in to your own mastery and
15:12
Speaker 3: leveling up in your sales maturity. And I think when
15:16
Speaker 3: you do that, you start to develop a culture within
15:19
Speaker 3: your company around sales as an expression of love or
15:22
Speaker 3: sales as an act of love, and you start to
15:25
Speaker 3: really understand how to create the money you need when
15:30
Speaker 3: you want and need it. You develop a real competency
15:34
Speaker 3: around sales. And that means not just that your strategies
15:39
Speaker 3: and tactics are sales ready, as I talk about, but
15:42
Speaker 3: your mindset is dialed in and your activity is consistent
15:46
Speaker 3: so that you are understanding the cause and effect relationship
15:53
Speaker 3: between money and helping and helping your or between between
16:01
Speaker 3: money and what causes that money to move in a
16:04
Speaker 3: business right, And I think that's what I think there's
16:08
Speaker 3: a real oppy with with that. And I know that
16:12
Speaker 3: the one the one thing that I see that most
16:17
Speaker 3: people and CEO struggle with is they're inconsistent with their
16:20
Speaker 3: sales activity, and that there's some there's overwhelmed, there's fear,
16:27
Speaker 3: there's stress, there's worry I wanted to get into there's
16:31
Speaker 3: these emotions going.
16:35
Speaker 1: Yes, So because if Christopher, if I'm you know, if
16:41
Speaker 1: I'm I'm you know, riding a roller coaster of emotions
16:46
Speaker 1: and nervous system, and I.
16:48
Speaker 2: You know, I feel like, you know, what is you know,
16:51
Speaker 2: getting them?
16:52
Speaker 1: Maybe I'm I'm going to start to self sabotage or
16:54
Speaker 1: get out of alignment because I'm I'm not recognizing that clearly,
16:59
Speaker 1: you know. And so do you help CEOs like when
17:03
Speaker 1: they're you know, with their with their mindset and that
17:05
Speaker 1: kind of energy that they're bringing.
17:09
Speaker 3: Yeah, so mindset and managing your body is a real skill,
17:14
Speaker 3: and there's gaps because it's not taught to us. Sales
17:19
Speaker 3: isn't taught to us in school. Okay, did you have
17:21
Speaker 3: like an elementary school where you taught about sales or money?
17:24
Speaker 2: Right?
17:25
Speaker 3: No? In high school to NBA school, right when the
17:29
Speaker 3: top NBA schools graduate at the top of my class,
17:32
Speaker 3: there was not one course in sales. There was not
17:34
Speaker 3: one course on mindset or managing your body. And I
17:38
Speaker 3: think those those things are so fundamental to your human experience.
17:43
Speaker 3: And so I started to think, you know, of this
17:48
Speaker 3: idea of cause and effect and I talk with everyone
17:51
Speaker 3: I can about this. But any result that you want
17:54
Speaker 3: has a cause and effect relationship with your mindset, your
17:57
Speaker 3: strategy and tactics, and your activity. And when it comes
18:00
Speaker 3: to your mindset, it's about it's really about knowing what
18:09
Speaker 3: the truth is, right, so you can step out the
18:11
Speaker 3: out of the illusion in the programming that happened to
18:15
Speaker 3: you as a child, and understanding how to think in
18:21
Speaker 3: a way that allows you to create the life that
18:23
Speaker 3: you actually want and desire and create the results that
18:27
Speaker 3: you want quickly. As you were saying, David, is we
18:32
Speaker 3: also have a body, right, and our body is feeling right.
18:36
Speaker 3: It's vibrational moment mostly the mad, sad, glad, disgusted, angry,
18:42
Speaker 3: plus you know, eighty eight other feelings, an infinite amount
18:46
Speaker 3: of bodies sensations, right, he is, Humans act from how
18:52
Speaker 3: we're feeling. Our feeling drives our action. So we can
18:56
Speaker 3: have the very best strategies and tactics in the world. Okay,
19:00
Speaker 3: but if we're not feeling well in our body right,
19:05
Speaker 3: we're not going to be We're not going to use
19:07
Speaker 3: those strategies and tactics. We're not going to behave or
19:10
Speaker 3: think in a way that aligns with whatever we're trying
19:14
Speaker 3: to do, and we end up staying stuck, feeling overwhelmed, right,
19:20
Speaker 3: being activated, not creating what we want, not being clear,
19:28
Speaker 3: struggling to make decisions, being in lack and scarcity. And
19:34
Speaker 3: when you when you develop some simple mindset skills, right,
19:40
Speaker 3: plus a way to manage, metabolize, process the emotions that, right,
19:50
Speaker 3: you are going to quickly quickly level up as a human.
19:53
Speaker 3: You're going to become more in touch with who you're
19:56
Speaker 3: meant to be here on this planet. Your identity is
19:58
Speaker 3: gonna shift. And when that happens, your money is gonna shift,
20:02
Speaker 3: and you're gonna make sales quicker and at a higher,
20:05
Speaker 3: higher level. So and we all get triggered every day, man, right,
20:09
Speaker 3: like to do that. And in sales, you're getting you're
20:16
Speaker 3: you're you're putting yourself out into environments. And if you
20:21
Speaker 3: don't have the skill and the the self awareness and
20:25
Speaker 3: the conscious awareness to be having that conversation and something
20:33
Speaker 3: happens that trigger you, because sales is sales is actually
20:37
Speaker 3: more energetic than it is straes and tactics, because humans
20:43
Speaker 3: feel each other, right, So we we we talk in
20:48
Speaker 3: you know, words, writing in pictures, but we also speak
20:53
Speaker 3: vibrationally to each other, like you can feel each other.
20:57
Speaker 3: You can hear the tone, the inflection, the body language.
21:01
Speaker 3: All that comes from mindset and managing your body.
21:08
Speaker 1: Yeah, I love the word that you use, metabolizers, Like
21:11
Speaker 1: we're getting it in. How do we break it down
21:14
Speaker 1: and hopefully transform it into a positive?
21:17
Speaker 2: But it can also be a negative too, depending on
21:19
Speaker 2: how we do it.
21:20
Speaker 1: You know, we could take in certain things and how
21:22
Speaker 1: we metabolize it.
21:23
Speaker 2: You know, it can be a positive or it could
21:25
Speaker 2: be negative. And so how how are you?
21:27
Speaker 1: How are you going through these things a healthy way?
21:31
Speaker 1: Is it's not like it's like you said, the triggers
21:34
Speaker 1: aren't going to go away. They're always going to be triggers.
21:37
Speaker 1: But how do you metabolize? How do you process that
21:40
Speaker 1: in a healthy way? Right, Christopher?
21:45
Speaker 3: Yeah, you got it. The information, especially today, is coming
21:49
Speaker 3: in so fast and consistently. It's hard to reject it
21:52
Speaker 3: all and keep it all out. And so you're experiencing
21:58
Speaker 3: we call it little t trauma you're in. If you're
22:02
Speaker 3: in a human body, you've had trauma, okay, which just
22:05
Speaker 3: means that what you've observed in your result circumstances and
22:11
Speaker 3: environment has not your brain couldn't handle, right, and so
22:16
Speaker 3: then it takes that trauma that stores it in your body, right,
22:20
Speaker 3: and then that shows up as distortions in the way
22:23
Speaker 3: that you're thinking. And if you don't have a way
22:27
Speaker 3: to process that trauma, feel your feelings, metabolize that energy
22:33
Speaker 3: that that you're gonna have that distortion going on, and
22:37
Speaker 3: it's gonna loop where you have a feeling in your body,
22:40
Speaker 3: You're gonna have a thought that creates a feeling, right,
22:44
Speaker 3: and there's gonna be this loop that keeps you stuck
22:48
Speaker 3: and unable to see what the truth actually is and
22:52
Speaker 3: you can't think your way out of that. That's the
22:55
Speaker 3: thing is, like, you know, I could tell you what
22:58
Speaker 3: the truth is, or I could be like, hey, David,
23:00
Speaker 3: feel better, right, Like feeling good is the most important thing,
23:04
Speaker 3: but your body right, because it's run subconsciously and it's
23:08
Speaker 3: that trauma is stored in your body. If you don't
23:12
Speaker 3: have ways to actually move that m then you just
23:17
Speaker 3: stay at the same level that you are. But as
23:20
Speaker 3: soon as you learn or have someone help you with
23:23
Speaker 3: moving that out, you reconfigure those distortions and then you
23:32
Speaker 3: can align with more of the truth. And that way
23:36
Speaker 3: you can make decisions and create the results you actually
23:39
Speaker 3: want very very very very quickly.
23:42
Speaker 1: So yeah, well I could. I could see where you're
23:44
Speaker 1: getting at, Christopher too. There's a lot coming in some
23:47
Speaker 1: of the things. We definitely have to be more assertive
23:50
Speaker 1: and blocking out certain things, but we're letting a lot
23:52
Speaker 1: of things in. And then I feel like, I love
23:54
Speaker 1: you to speak to this part of it because I
23:56
Speaker 1: feel like, based on what you're sharing here, I'm saying,
23:58
Speaker 1: people may be diagnosing kind of sales problems issue and like, oh, well,
24:04
Speaker 1: need a new sales funnel or there's something else instead
24:07
Speaker 1: of like you said earlier, maybe it's like a different
24:09
Speaker 1: filter or a way of understanding things.
24:11
Speaker 2: But they're they're kind of like.
24:13
Speaker 1: Maybe this is simplistic, but my mind is like you're
24:16
Speaker 1: looking at the symptoms rather than the root of cause.
24:19
Speaker 1: So you're trying to address all these symptoms that are
24:21
Speaker 1: coming up, like what's about this?
24:23
Speaker 2: What about this?
24:24
Speaker 1: And we're being almost sometimes busier, and I say, but
24:27
Speaker 1: we're not being very strategic, and I feel like something
24:30
Speaker 1: like you, Christopher, what I'm hearing is you come down
24:32
Speaker 1: and you break down is more about the root cause
24:34
Speaker 1: analysis and helping get the business owner or the leader
24:38
Speaker 1: clearer so they can make you know because it's getting complex, right,
24:42
Speaker 1: there's a lot of things that's getting muddy. So how
24:44
Speaker 1: do we break that down so we can have clarity?
24:47
Speaker 3: Right, Christopher, Yeah, yeah, I'll speak to that. I just
24:53
Speaker 3: want to mention, and I want to I don't want
24:55
Speaker 3: to make it seem like so complicated on the feeling
24:58
Speaker 3: your feelings. But what I want to do highlight for
25:02
Speaker 3: everyone tuning in today is like, you know how when
25:07
Speaker 3: you have a really good cry, or you have a
25:09
Speaker 3: really good laugh, or you're laughing your ass off, right,
25:13
Speaker 3: or you get really angry, right, and you you you
25:18
Speaker 3: punch a hole in the wall, right, and you're just
25:20
Speaker 3: like whatever that is, right, and then you feel so
25:25
Speaker 3: much better after, right, But you only do that every
25:29
Speaker 3: couple of years, right, or every few months, right, if
25:33
Speaker 3: you're not doing that on a daily basis, or you're
25:35
Speaker 3: not doing that on a weekly basis. So all that's
25:39
Speaker 3: building up on under the surface, and it's it's creating
25:43
Speaker 3: your current results, right, And that's what that's what's happening
25:48
Speaker 3: in sales and business, right, is you have all this
25:52
Speaker 3: trauma and all these subconscious roles and patterns that need
25:56
Speaker 3: to move out. But every time you laugh your ass
25:59
Speaker 3: off or have a good cry, you're like, oh, I
26:03
Speaker 3: feel so much better. I know exactly what to do,
26:06
Speaker 3: and the thing is being angry or laughing or feeling
26:09
Speaker 3: your fee doesn't they take a long time. It's just
26:12
Speaker 3: that we resist the shit out of it because we
26:15
Speaker 3: don't have the skills, because we're not even allowed it's
26:20
Speaker 3: acceptable to do that. So in terms of like the
26:25
Speaker 3: systems and the sales thing things and the sales problem,
26:29
Speaker 3: you know, one of the things early on and it's
26:33
Speaker 3: still it doesn't happen as often now every once in
26:36
Speaker 3: a while. But when I was starting out, I got
26:38
Speaker 3: a ton of people going, hey, will you sell me
26:41
Speaker 3: for me on a commission only basis? Right, And these
26:43
Speaker 3: were small, immature companies. If the company was mature enough,
26:47
Speaker 3: I'd be like, yeah, for sure, like no no problem,
26:50
Speaker 3: Like you know, it's not it's not a foundational thing.
26:54
Speaker 3: They just need someone to help scale what's already working,
26:56
Speaker 3: which is the job of what a salesperson is. But
27:00
Speaker 3: at these companies and I'd be like, man, there's just
27:02
Speaker 3: no flip and way that I'd sell condition only there's
27:05
Speaker 3: just way too much risk and there's just not enough
27:11
Speaker 3: sales readiness here and your organization. And so as I
27:15
Speaker 3: started to think about, hey, what are the fundamental components
27:20
Speaker 3: that are required to actually set a salesperson up to
27:23
Speaker 3: be successful. And that's where this idea of a sales
27:26
Speaker 3: ready organization comes in. And it's why it's often why
27:30
Speaker 3: sales people don't work out, is because there's something wrong
27:34
Speaker 3: in the system, not something wrong with the person. And
27:39
Speaker 3: so when I think of a sales ready organization, I
27:41
Speaker 3: think of it as your mindset, your leadership, your marketing,
27:45
Speaker 3: your sales, and your project management. Almost everyone has marketing,
27:50
Speaker 3: sales leadership a little bit. Almost no one brings in
27:54
Speaker 3: mindset or project management to their approach to sales and
27:59
Speaker 3: looking at sales improvement as as a Ford Motor company
28:03
Speaker 3: looks at improving you know, Kentucky truck and how to
28:07
Speaker 3: make that better? More efficient? Right? And how like, how
28:11
Speaker 3: do I every day improve my sales readiness or my
28:15
Speaker 3: sales operations so that we can have less ways, be
28:20
Speaker 3: more efficient, be more clear, lower sales cycle times, all
28:26
Speaker 3: of that. And so that I think that that that understanding,
28:32
Speaker 3: combined with the law of cause and effect mm HM
28:39
Speaker 3: is super important. And now I'm an engineer, right, so
28:42
Speaker 3: like I understand like root cause analysis, problem solving, wishbone,
28:48
Speaker 3: thinking the five whys. But a dear friend of mine,
28:51
Speaker 3: Sherry Torres, introduced me to appreciative inquiry, and I actually
28:56
Speaker 3: think that's much more, much more powerful then going, oh,
29:02
Speaker 3: we have a problem here, how can I solve the problem?
29:05
Speaker 3: And what I know from a mindset.
29:06
Speaker 4: Perspective is the problem is attached to the solution and
29:13
Speaker 4: also the reason why you have the problem is that
29:16
Speaker 4: you keep focusing on the problem.
29:18
Speaker 3: Right, so you keep trying to solve the problem, which
29:22
Speaker 3: keeps your focus and your energy stuck in problem first
29:27
Speaker 3: thinking right instead of going, hey, what is it that
29:31
Speaker 3: I actually want? And then understanding the cause and effect
29:35
Speaker 3: relationship with what it is you want and lining up
29:41
Speaker 3: those conditions to go and actually create that. So you know,
29:46
Speaker 3: I was laughed happing earlier today, David, because I still
29:51
Speaker 3: there's nothing wrong with this and I'm not like it's
29:53
Speaker 3: solving problems is awesome. But a lot of people I've seen,
29:56
Speaker 3: like on their business cards are they're LinkedIn profiles, will
30:01
Speaker 3: be like problem solver or you know, like their titles
30:05
Speaker 3: like chief problem solver or they're like yeah, like really
30:07
Speaker 3: good at solving problems or I solve.
30:09
Speaker 5: Problem something like that, like man, like I want my
30:12
Speaker 5: title to be like I don't solve problems like anti
30:16
Speaker 5: anti problem solver, because I think if.
30:19
Speaker 3: You focus on problems, they're trying to fix those things. Again,
30:23
Speaker 3: it's taking energy and focus away from what you actually
30:27
Speaker 3: want instead of inquiring, as my friend Sherry would say,
30:31
Speaker 3: inquiring into what it is you actually do want. So like,
30:37
Speaker 3: let me give you let me give you an example
30:41
Speaker 3: from sales, so like, people go. The problem is people
30:45
Speaker 3: aren't showing up or people are canceling on our sales conversations,
30:50
Speaker 3: So how can we solve that problem? Right, instead of
30:56
Speaker 3: inquiring into, oh, what causes the people that do show
31:00
Speaker 3: up to show up? And how can we find more
31:02
Speaker 3: of those people? Right, So they're trying to fix the
31:06
Speaker 3: people who aren't going up instead of what's actually work,
31:11
Speaker 3: what is actually working right? And the thing what's actually
31:15
Speaker 3: working right, and going how can we actually find more
31:18
Speaker 3: of those people instead of how to solve the things
31:21
Speaker 3: that aren't working or like you know, we were again,
31:29
Speaker 3: we we're not solving our problem of hitting our revenue
31:33
Speaker 3: every month, We're not like, how do we solve that problem?
31:36
Speaker 3: Like it's a problem, like we're we're in a gap whatever,
31:41
Speaker 3: instead of going, oh, well, what we actually want is
31:44
Speaker 3: an additional amount of dollars, how can we go create that? Right? Right,
31:49
Speaker 3: So you're not trying to solve a problem, you're trying
31:53
Speaker 3: to go You're trying to move from the problem to
31:56
Speaker 3: what it is you what it is you want. And
31:58
Speaker 3: the thing is is like, there's a law of polarity.
32:02
Speaker 3: You can think of it as a stick with two sides, right,
32:05
Speaker 3: Like everything in the universe like ying yang positive negative,
32:08
Speaker 3: like the universe, electrons, practice, the universe magnets. The universe
32:15
Speaker 3: was created with the law of polarity. It's a fundamental law.
32:19
Speaker 3: You see it in religion, you see it in spirituality,
32:22
Speaker 3: you see it in physics. And the thing about the
32:27
Speaker 3: stick is that the two things are connected, right, So,
32:31
Speaker 3: and you get to choose which side of the stick
32:34
Speaker 3: you focused on. So no money is connected to money,
32:37
Speaker 3: and if you're over here trying to solve the problem
32:39
Speaker 3: of no money, you're on the no money side of
32:43
Speaker 3: the stick. Right. Where you want to be is over
32:47
Speaker 3: here on the money side, right, and you don't get
32:50
Speaker 3: to the money side by focusing on the no money
32:54
Speaker 3: side or the no revenue. You go like, how do
32:56
Speaker 3: I actually I just need to create more money? What
32:59
Speaker 3: are the cause and effect things that create money in
33:04
Speaker 3: our business? And again, those are going to be the
33:07
Speaker 3: way you think, your mindset, your energy, your body, your
33:11
Speaker 3: strategs and tactics, and your your activity right, absolutely, and
33:16
Speaker 3: that that's when you do that, I think it's much
33:20
Speaker 3: more powerful. And that's one of the main things that
33:22
Speaker 3: I helped my clients with. When I started an engagement.
33:27
Speaker 3: We do a sales ready organization assessment and usually what
33:32
Speaker 3: comes out of that is a whole lot of things
33:34
Speaker 3: that they can stop doing. I just go, hey, you
33:36
Speaker 3: can stop doing that, that, and that, right, And that's
33:40
Speaker 3: like the easiest way. In engineering, we call that eliminating waste.
33:45
Speaker 3: And in manufacturing, the biggest waste was overproduction. It was
33:50
Speaker 3: doing things you didn't need to do right, And that
33:53
Speaker 3: happens all I see that in every one of my engagements,
33:58
Speaker 3: people doing things they don't need to do and doing
34:01
Speaker 3: the things that aren't going to lead to the result
34:04
Speaker 3: that they want. One of the worst defenders. The two
34:09
Speaker 3: that come to mind right away is one overworking, Like
34:13
Speaker 3: overworking is the symptom of doing the wrong thing and
34:17
Speaker 3: being resistance to doing what's required. And the other is
34:21
Speaker 3: just an unwillingness to feel your feelings or get some
34:23
Speaker 3: help feeling your feelings on a daily basis. And so
34:27
Speaker 3: then you're you're taking action and making decisions from that
34:32
Speaker 3: distortion and that traumas that are a place of truth.
34:36
Speaker 1: Wow, man, Christopher, we could definitely go on here. There's
34:41
Speaker 1: so much here, but I'm hoping as everybody's listening in here,
34:44
Speaker 1: you have an advocate. I like to deal with the advocate,
34:47
Speaker 1: somebody that's on your side that wants to help you.
34:48
Speaker 1: That's so powerful. You just say, Christopher, are like meeting
34:51
Speaker 1: with that CEO? Or like, what are the things I
34:53
Speaker 1: can stop doing that aren't really getting the results? Actually
34:56
Speaker 1: getting me in greater clarity process is the emotion that probably.
35:00
Speaker 2: Don't even realize how much that they're going.
35:03
Speaker 1: And so, Christopher, we're going to put your any any
35:06
Speaker 1: show notes, any in our show notes information about how
35:09
Speaker 1: to connect with you. I know we're connected on LinkedIn,
35:11
Speaker 1: but is there anything that you want to share with
35:13
Speaker 1: as far as how they find you? What's the best
35:15
Speaker 1: way to you know, besides you connected to LinkedIn, Christopher,
35:19
Speaker 1: like where where where are you in the world.
35:24
Speaker 3: Yeah. So I recommitted to writing and content this year,
35:30
Speaker 3: and I've been putting out some really powerful and truth
35:35
Speaker 3: filled articles at my website on my blog which is
35:41
Speaker 3: Christopher filippiaf dot com. So I encourage your audience go
35:45
Speaker 3: read those articles. I'll give you a deeper dive and
35:48
Speaker 3: more awareness around what we talk to today. And one
35:53
Speaker 3: of in one of the articles I talk about well,
35:56
Speaker 3: I talk about cause and effect. I talk about the
35:59
Speaker 3: case for CEO is involvement in sales. I talk about
36:03
Speaker 3: what a sales ready organization is. And I'm working this
36:07
Speaker 3: week on finishing up an article on why feeling your
36:10
Speaker 3: feelings is so important and how some ways to do that.
36:15
Speaker 3: And in the sales ready organization article, there's a link
36:18
Speaker 3: to a self assessment that anyone can take on their own,
36:24
Speaker 3: and I invite your audience to go and take that
36:28
Speaker 3: for sure as a first step on creating clarity on
36:31
Speaker 3: what you need need, what you can stop doing, and
36:35
Speaker 3: what you need to kind of dialed in and also
36:38
Speaker 3: give you an insight of like what's working, what's not working,
36:41
Speaker 3: and how you rank compared to other other businesses that
36:44
Speaker 3: are sales ready. So those are some resources. And I
36:49
Speaker 3: am on LinkedIn as well, so awest there's or with
36:53
Speaker 3: slash backslider.
36:55
Speaker 1: You can we're connected. So I'm going to make sure.
36:58
Speaker 1: I'm want to make sure that you guys, this is
37:00
Speaker 1: a great resource. It's time tested. You know, Christopher is
37:03
Speaker 1: just walked through this. So are you a sales ready organism?
37:06
Speaker 2: Are you? Where are you?
37:07
Speaker 1: And your and I'm excited to be able to share
37:10
Speaker 1: this this resource a Christopher of course, and and and
37:13
Speaker 1: the writing you're doing, and of course for the podcast,
37:17
Speaker 1: we'd love to have you guys leave.
37:18
Speaker 2: Comments and engage here. I'm going to make sure that
37:20
Speaker 2: Christopher gets them.
37:21
Speaker 1: But you know, as we're wrapping up the podcast, Christopher,
37:24
Speaker 1: I want to give you a last parting words here
37:26
Speaker 1: of wisdom as you're you're as you're sharing the listeners,
37:29
Speaker 1: I've we've covered a lot here, but you know, if
37:31
Speaker 1: they take nothing else from this this conversation today, what
37:34
Speaker 1: would you really want to impart to our listeners.
37:40
Speaker 3: I would love to share two things, which is commit
37:46
Speaker 3: to mastering your own sales, your own sales work as
37:49
Speaker 3: a CEO because it's the thing that will We'll set
37:55
Speaker 3: you free as a human, but also set your business
37:58
Speaker 3: free as a as an entity and in a vehicle.
38:02
Speaker 3: And as part of that, learn to feel your feelings, right, Like,
38:06
Speaker 3: understand that mindset and feeling your feelings is it is
38:09
Speaker 3: a huge part of the sales.
38:15
Speaker 1: I love that, Christopher, because when you win, when you win,
38:18
Speaker 1: when you your win with those those feelings and getting
38:21
Speaker 1: through that, You've left us so many great insights.
38:25
Speaker 2: Chris, thank you for being on the podcast today.
38:29
Speaker 3: Yeah, thank you so much for having having me. I
38:32
Speaker 3: really enjoyed the conversation and take take what we talked about,
38:39
Speaker 3: Take one thing that resonates with you and go change
38:42
Speaker 3: like change it right now. Like do you hear this?
38:45
Speaker 3: Like commit to reading one of those articles, so lay
38:49
Speaker 3: your ass down, feel your feelings, like commit to masterings,
38:54
Speaker 3: master masterings sales, like do do something with this information.
39:00
Speaker 1: Absolutely, we're all about not just listening, taking information, but
39:03
Speaker 1: taking it and putting it in action. So thank you
39:06
Speaker 1: Christopher for that. We really appreciate it having you on
39:08
Speaker 1: the podcast.
39:11
Speaker 3: Yeah, thanks again, Thanks so much to the audience for listening,
39:14
Speaker 3: and thanks so much for having me on the show.
39:16
Speaker 2: David absolutely, thanks everybody.
39:18
Speaker 1: Of course, we love when you guys leave us comments, subscribe,
39:22
Speaker 1: and follow along whatever podcast platform that is for you,
39:25
Speaker 1: whether it's our YouTube channel Let's do your Business, or
39:29
Speaker 1: your favorite platform. Please share, leave a fire star we
39:33
Speaker 1: would welcome that. Connect with Christopher or myself on LinkedIn
39:36
Speaker 1: if you haven't already you want to be a guest.
39:38
Speaker 1: We continue to have new guests and have roundtables here
39:42
Speaker 1: every week. Thank you all for again listening. Until next time,
39:45
Speaker 1: Be well ever you want, and take care