Quick Cut: S2E355 We're All In Sales, Here's How to be Great - The Brian Buffini Show

Podcast Episode Summary

Podcast: It’s a Good Life
Host: Brian Buffini
Episode: Quick Cut: S2E355 — We're All In Sales, Here's How to be Great
Date: December 11, 2025

Episode Overview

In this motivational and practical episode, Brian Buffini shares his foundational philosophy that “we’re all in sales,” regardless of profession. He addresses the common discomfort with the salesperson label and reframes sales as a noble profession built on service, consultation, and courage. Buffini distills the craft to three critical characteristics: a desire to serve, the ability to consult, and the courage to ask. The episode is loaded with insights, stories, and actionable advice for entrepreneurs, business owners, and anyone looking to elevate their influence and results.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Importance and Perception of Sales

Timestamp: 00:18
Buffini opens by highlighting how sales underpin the free market and, by extension, free society. He wrestles with why many distance themselves from the salesperson label, attributing it to bad past experiences with transactional sellers.
“Sales is one of the most important professions in the world. Without sales, the free market system collapses... So why is it that so many... distance themselves from the term salesperson?” — Brian Buffini (00:19)

2. First Principle: A Desire to Serve

Timestamp: 01:27
The cornerstone of great selling is genuine service, not just transactions. Buffini distinguishes genuine salespeople—who have “the heart to give”—from those only seeking sales.
He encourages a mentality shift: “If you will have a desire to serve, good energy and actual interest in people, become skilled, have the heart to give, and then not be transactional...it’s easy to become successful today.” (02:11)
Notable Quote:
- “You can love to sell and it will love you back.” — Brian Buffini (02:39)
References Albert Schweitzer: “If you truly desire happiness, seek and learn how to serve.” (02:31)
Sales, for Buffini, is about attitude and longevity—serving leads to both happiness and sustained success.

3. Second Principle: The Ability to Consult

Timestamp: 03:01
The salesperson is a consultant, not a pusher. The consultative approach starts with asking great, open-ended questions and listening to define the actual problem.
Quote from Steve Jobs: “If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.” (03:27)
Buffini’s coaching advice: Ask clients about their fears, ideal outcomes, and let them dream—not just stick to the script.
He introduces the model: Sort between fears, wants, and needs.
- Fears: “I’m going to get a bad deal.”
- Wants: “A desire or to possess or do.”
- Needs: “The essential or important things. I need my kids to be in a good school...” (04:38)
Cites Fred Rogers: “What really matters is not just our own winning, but helping other people to win too.” (05:33)
Cites Patricia Fripp: “To build a long term successful enterprise, when you don’t close a sale, open a relationship.” (05:45)
Buffini underscores that sometimes giving the best advice means not making a sale, which builds trust and advocates for life.

4. Third Principle: The Courage to Ask

Timestamp: 06:31
Great salespeople must have the courage to ask—without becoming stiff or inauthentic. They “ask and smile.”
Story about advice from Mark Victor Hansen (Chicken Soup for the Soul): “Make sure you’re really funny and entertaining when you ask for the order.” (06:55)
The “ask” comes in three forms:
1. Ask for Commitment: “Are you willing to have me serve you?...are we going to make an agreement that you’re going to be my client?” (07:43)
2. Ask for the Order/Sale: Bring people to the proper conclusion—they already want to buy something.
3. Ask for the Referral: “I've made my fortune asking for referrals. I've made my fortune teaching people how to generate referrals.” (08:23)
Wisdom from Therese Buffini: “A dumb priest never gets a parish.” Meaning: If you don’t ask, you don’t get. (08:53)
“If you have a desire to serve and the ability to consult and the courage to ask, you're gonna crush it.” — Brian Buffini (07:57)
Buffini rounds out with the mindset of ongoing service: “We’re going to keep following up. We're going to keep being respectful.”

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

“Sales is one of the most important professions in the world… So why is it that so many... distance themselves from the term salesperson?” — Brian Buffini (00:19)
“You can love to sell and it will love you back.” — Brian Buffini (02:39)
“If you will have a desire to serve, good energy... it’s easy to become successful today.” — Brian Buffini (02:11)
“If you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution.” — Steve Jobs, quoted by Buffini (03:27)
“To build a long term successful enterprise, when you don’t close a sale, open a relationship.” — Patricia Fripp, quoted by Buffini (05:45)
“A dumb priest never gets a parish.” — Therese Buffini, quoted by Brian Buffini (08:53)
“If you have a desire to serve and the ability to consult and the courage to ask, you're gonna crush it.” — Brian Buffini (07:57)

Episode Structure and Timestamps

00:18–01:26: Why sales is a noble profession and the stigma around “salesperson”
01:27–03:00: The first key—serving vs. selling; service as attitude
03:01–06:30: The second key—consulting, asking questions, solving (not selling) problems
06:31–09:06: The third key—courage to ask, stories and techniques, asking for commitment/order/referral
09:06–09:32: Summary and final encouragement

In essence:
This episode encourages listeners to embrace their inner salesperson, focus on serving and consulting, and to boldly ask for what they want—be it a sale or a referral. Buffini’s insights are both time-tested and optimistic, perfect for entrepreneurs and anyone aiming to build meaningful, trust-based relationships in business.

Transcript

A (0:03)

Welcome to It's a Good Life with Brian Buffini, founder of America's largest business coaching company. Here's a short classic cut from one of our all time favorite episodes.

B (0:18)

Top of the morning to you and welcome to It's a Good Life. Today's episode is we're all in sales, and here's how to be great at it. You know, sales is one of the most important professions in the world. Without sales, the free market system collapses. And throughout history, whenever free markets collapse, free societies collapse. So why is it that so many who practice such a noble profession often distance themselves from the term salesperson and will go to great lengths to be called anything other than a salesperson? The reason, I believe, is we've all experienced that bad salesperson and we hate the idea of being associated with that. Well, today we're going to unpack the three characteristics that make for a great salesperson. A desire to serve, the ability to consult, and the courage to ask. Let's dive in. The first major point we want to talk about sales is a desire to serve. Now, that is in contrast with so many people and how they go about sales today. You know, sales is awesome. And when sales is done right, it's great. I am a lifelong salesman. It turns out I was a salesman from birth. And I've worked at my craft and gotten better at my craft over time. I love sales. I love salespeople. I love being sold too. I love to buy from a great salesperson. I hate buying. And I won't buy from a bad salesperson, a transactional salesperson. And that's why the desire to serve is so important. Let me say this. When somebody's just being transactional, you can spot it a mile away. You can just sense it. And here's what I've said to many young people here lately, that I believe it's easier to succeed today than at any time in history. That if you will have a desire to serve, good energy and actual interest in people, become skilled, have the heart to give, and then not be transactional. I mean, forget about it. Throw a little hard work into the mix, it's over. It's easy to become successful today. And never has it been easier to be successful at the profession that has led more people to success than any other. And that's sales. Albert Schweizer, one of the greatest people who ever lived, says, if you truly desire happiness, seek and learn how to serve. You see, service is an attitude of the heart. And that's why sales is a fabulous profession. And you can love it and it'll love you back. That's the beauty of sales. You can love to sell and it will love you back. Here's the second major point about being a great salesperson. It's the ability to consult. So I'm coming from a position of service and now I'm going to consult. And how do I do that? Well, I'm going to ask great questions. And so first thing I want to do is isolate the problem. When you're a salesperson, you're trying to solve somebody's problem, you're trying to solve somebody's problem and you're trying to isolate it. So you want to ask open ended questions and you could say that's a technique. For sure it is. But then you listen. Steve Jobs says if you define the problem correctly, you almost have the solution. I would say to people all the time, what's your fear or concern about the upcoming transaction? Let me ask you this. If I could wave a magic wand and it's three, six months from now and the best case scenario has taken place, what does that look like? Why are salespeople afraid to say that? Why? Sometimes people have unrealistic expectations. Okay, I'm happy to educate those, but how about I ask for their best? How about I let them dream a little bit? Maybe it's okay. In real estate it was like, maybe this is, this is your second house you're talking about, or your third house. Hey, okay. That's where you ultimately want to go. How can I help you get there? And so it's powerful stuff. You don't fix the problem until you define it. And you have to define the problem. That's a very, very powerful thought. The second thing you want to do in your ability to consult is you want to sort between fears, needs and wants. My fear might be, I'm going to get a bad deal, we're going to spend too much on this house. Or I'm going to buy a house that needs way too much repairs. Okay, great. So that's the fear. The next thing is, what's the want? The want is to feel a desire or to possess or do. It's a desire for something and then you need to know what the need is. Okay. And a need is the essential or important things. I need my kids to be in a good school. All right? That's a big need. I need to have a shorter commute to work. I need to be near the ocean. All these kinds of things. What are the needs? Those are the kinds of things. So it's fears, wants and needs and you have to sort between those things and you got to consult along the way. And then what you need to do is bring the customer to that winning solution as you consult, right? So it's like this is where it starts to become. I've heard the problems, I've heard the concerns and I've heard the desires. Now they need to know, okay, here's what's possible. They need to hear that from you as a consultant. Here's what's possible. And so you really want to help people get to that place. Fred Rogers said, what really matters is not just our own winning, but helping other people to win too. Patricia Fripp said, to build a long term successful enterprise, when you don't close a sale, open a relationship. And that's absolutely true. That's absolutely true. I have people who became some of my greatest advocates, who it was a time in the market where everything was upside down and based on where they were at, they were feeling a certain way. And I sat with them, I walked them through the process and I would give them the advice, you might be better off staying here. You know, this is a pretty good gig you got and what you're trying to do might not be as feasible as you think after I explored all the opportunities with them. And so sometimes that person, when I didn't put their house on the market, became my greatest advocate. And they tell their friends, look, we asked him to sell our house and it turned out he offered us better advice to stay and we're really happy we stayed. And so now these people would communicate and what are they communicating? How much they trust me because I didn't take their money. I didn't just make a commission. That's because I was looking at it from a long term perspective with that desire to serve. And then along with the consultation, I'm able to bring them to that winning solution. And that's where we get to our third major point, the courage to ask. I will say this great salespeople ask and smile. I remember Mark Victor Hansen who was a co author of Chicken Soup for the Soul, who's become a good friend, spoken at our events. When I was first going into the seminar business, you know, I had this really funny presentation and it was, you know, I tell my story of the immigrant from Ireland who's coming to America and got into real estate and they're trying to teach me cold calling and door knocking and all these high pressure sales techniques which just weren't me and turned out weren't for most people. And I would tell kind of my own funny experience with that. If you've ever checked it out, go on YouTube and and see Brian's story. You'll have a good laugh and then you'll see I was fully black hair with a thicker Irish accent. It was really funny stuff. Worth a look. But the fact of the matter is, Mark Victor, when I was first talking to him and I was in the speaking business, he goes, you know, Brian, when you're really funny and entertaining all the way through your speech, make sure you're really funny and entertaining when you ask for the order. And it was brilliant because all of a sudden it's like, oh, no, now is the thing. This is the big drop. This is the big moment of truth. This is really what I'm after. So my tone changes and whatever change. And the truth of the matter is you just gotta be consistent. If you've done a good job, you've brought people to natural conclusions, but now you need to have the courage to ask. And what are you asking for? Well, you're asking for three things. The first thing is for the commitment. Sometimes the commitment is, hey, I want to really serve you and I want to help you. Are you willing to have me serve you? And are we going to make an agreement that you're going to be my client and I'm going to be your service provider? The second thing you want to have the courage to ask is ask for the order, ask for the sale. You need to do that. You need to bring people to the proper conclusion. That's why they're talking to a salesperson. Okay? The reason they're talking to a salesperson is they're interested in buying something. So if you have a desire to serve and the ability to consult and the courage to ask, you're gonna crush it. You're gonna be a great salesperson. You're gonna be able to sell and smile. Smile because you enjoy it, smile because you're serving, and smile because you're making a boatload of money. All good reasons to smile. The last thing and most important thing to ask for and the courage to ask is ask for the referral. Now, I've made my fortune asking for referrals. I've made my fortune teaching people how to generate referrals. I'm an old school sales guy. We built this podcast and the vast majority of it has been done because you who like this podcast, share it with a friend. And we've asked you, hey, if you like this podcast, if this was a good episode. Can you share it with a friend? And that's what I'll ask you to do today. If you really like this stuff, share it with a friend. Someone ask you for the referral. The great Therese Buffini, she used to say, a dumb priest never gets a parish. What she mean by that? If you don't ask, you don't get. And so what happens is we've got a desire to serve, we have consulted, we've earned the right to ask. And then if people are ready, they're ready. And if they're not, you keep serving and you keep serving. And then they're either your cup of tea or you're their cup of tea or you're not. But we're going to keep following up. We're going to keep being respectful. And so that's what I'm going to encourage you to do. I love sales.