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The Advanced Selling Podcast
Guiding Principles: Part 1
00:15:23
In this episode, Bryan dives into two of the Guiding Principles from the Blind Zebra Sales Operating System: Objectivity and Expert Persona. He challenges salespeople to view their funnel without bias - imagine betting your own money on each deal to...
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- [00:00]
Bill Caskey
Foreign.
- [00:07]
Brian Neal
Welcome everybody, to the Advanced Selling Podcast, the longest running sales training podcast in podcast history. My name is Brian Neal. And I'm Brian Neal. Here we are, solo episode. Happy Spring, Happy summer, wherever you are, you're listening. Recording this in the beginning of spring in 2025. Glad that you're here. As always, my episodes, Brian's Episodes. Powered by bzsos this is a fun email to remember. I thought about doing a jingle like bzsos@blind-zebra.com bzsos@ blind-zebra.com Bzsos@blind-zebra.com if you're interested in becoming certified in our Blind Zebra sales operating system, remember, it's corporate gig, not individuals. Individuals can't do this. We're rolling. We are rolling. We are going to crack the 70 mark. 71 mark coming up of 71 certified coaches that are serving nearly a thousand salespeople. And they just keep showing up. So if you're interested, pass it on to your boss too. Just shoot us an email. Bzsos blind-zebra.com bzsos@blind-zebra.com and you just put the subject line, interested in certification or certification or anything like that. And I just wrote my first jingle. How's that? So today I want to talk to you. I thought about something, you know, think about these sayings. You know, I think I'm going to talk about this with Bill too. How did they used to measure hail before they invented coins and golf balls? Do you ever think about that? Like there had to be hail on the earth that was observable by people, that was observable before there were coins or golf balls. So when you hear a weather person say dime size hail or golf ball sized hail, that's the only time we refer to a weather event as related to another inanimate object. And it sounds so normal, doesn't it? I was just curious about that. I'm gonna ask Casket about that too, when we're on our next episode. Okay, today, a topic today we're going to about. This is actually a portion of the Blind Zebra sales operating system and guiding principles. We're going to talk about guiding principles here. And you've heard Bill and I talk for years and years about three very fundamental guiding principles. And so today I'm going to share with you some more. There are 10 guiding principles in the Blind Zebra sales operating system I will give you. And what you do with this today, this episode, I'm just going to talk about them generically first and have you do a little assessment. There's going to be a to do from this one. That's first thing. And then in the next episode, I'm gonna actually talk about guiding principles and practice. Because it's one thing for Bill and I to sit here and talk about abundance and detachment and intention. You're like, yeah, I understand that. But how does it actually show up in behavior? How does it show up in your life and your results? What do you. What are you doing that's, you know, supporting those ideas or that. That philosophy, that Phil. That philosophy with a philosophical concept. Easy for me to say. Okay, so you know our big three in the Blind Zebra sales operating system, we call them the holy trinity. Catholic. That's where I stole that one. Abundance, detachment, and intention. We know abundance means a lot. A lot, a lot. The opposite of abundance is scarcity. Not enough. You all know this. You've listened to me and Bill forever. You here talk about detachment, of letting things go, of the ability to have things come in, come out, let things go. Super important. And then you've heard us talk about intent or tension, which is my energy of selling versus helping and just being very sincere and trying to help other people. I'm going to give you two more today for you to put into your game that you may not have heard Bill and I talk about a time or two. The first one I'm gonna give you is objectivity. Objectivity. This is a guiding principle in the BZSOS. BZSOS@blind-zebra.com I love that I wrote a jingle. I'm kind of proud of myself, actually. I know I can't sing, but you know, you can get it. Objectivity. So let's talk about this for a second. Salespeople. I'm broad stereotyping here. Naturally, salespeople are really, really, really optimistic. They're really, really, really positive. They always think there's a chance. They're like in the Lego movie everything is awesome singing today. Everything is awesome. And I think a better approach to selling is to look at things with extreme objectivity versus everything is awesome and there's a chance for everything. Let's talk about how this shows up for us. You naturally are wired a certain way. You're either glass half full person, you think things are good all the time, and you're. It's always that. Okay. The other side to that is negative Nancy. Debbie Downer, what a brilliant character. By the way, on Saturday Night Live by Rachel Dratch, Debbie Downer, brilliant character. Google that. You youngsters haven't seen it. Google Debbie Downer. Sketch on Saturday Night Live. It's just fantastic. Anyway, so you've got a natural kind of way you see the world. Not a good, bad, not judgment just is like just think about that. Okay? Do you expect to win? Do you expect to lose? Do you always think you get lucky or does luck find its way to you? Just think about those things. That's the first part is just self reflective around objectivity. Then we want to think about how does how I'm wired then affect my ability to see things in an objective manner. There's no doubt in my mind that every salesperson listening to this episode in some time in their career has looked at a deal with a lack of objectivity. You've looked at a deal through the lens of this is an awesome deal. This is a great opportunity. It's all these things. Okay. We especially confuse ourselves. It's how it shows up for us when we are working funnel management for ourselves. So I want you to think about your funnel. Now here's what's great about this. Your funnel is your path to your own personal success. It's not your bosses. It's not for the forecast. It's not for the investors. It's not for the PE group. It's not for the board you think it is. It's not. Your sales funnel is yours. It's for you. And it helps you make money in almost all sales cases. So it's your lifeline to things. To provide for your family, for yourself, for fun, for you utility's sake, for altruism, to give money away. That's. That's it. So that's a really important thing. It's really important to see that your sales funnel is a direct tie, completely tied to things that you do outside of your work that are typically, you'd say, more important than your work. And yet we tend to look at the thing with rose colored glasses with hope and prayer and then we get surprised or disappointed when the stuff that spits out is not what we thought it was. So today's first added guiding principle outside of intent, object or intent, abundance and detachment. Objectivity is getting better at seeing things for what they are. So here's a little trick for you.
- [07:39]
Bill Caskey
The advanced Selling Podcast two minute drill is powered by the Blind Zebra sales operating system, a curated collection of field proven tools that make selling simple to solve your biggest sales problems and drive immediate results, stop chasing prospects, stop being ghosted and get stalled deals moving again. Learn more@blind-zebra.com youm've got a sales funnel.
- [08:00]
Brian Neal
It's your lifeline to life. Lifeline to life, Right? That's how you pay for everything. Your sales funnel. Somewhere in your sales funnel, I can guarantee you, if I said, okay, here's the deal. You have got to look at each one of these things and you've got to bet money. Now, I'm not allowed to bet because of my other job, but you've got to bet money, and you've got to bet a lot of money. You've got to bet all the money in your 401k. You've got to bet a hundred grand or all the cash you have that each deal that you have in your open funnel is going to close by the date that you say it's going to close. And if you lose, it's a binary thing. You're out. Okay. If I put that kind of pressure on you, like, oh, God, I don't know, all of a sudden you look at your sales funnel in a different way. If we put some pressure on you that way now, it's hard to make that up. It hard. It's hard to think, well, I would never bet my whole 401k on it. So we have to kind of create this sort of this false pressure, if you will. But I really want to encourage you to start to look at the funnel with extreme objectivity, different than you have before you listen to this episode. Okay, how do we do that now? So now I want you to go to your funnel. Can I kind of couched up the, like, fake pressure thing? I'm like, when I look at this with that lens, like, if I'm wrong here, I'm giving all my money away. That deal that I've got marked as 90 and set the close in the 30th, that's not going to close in the 30th. I know it's not. It says it in the CRM and that's how I predict my income. But if I'm being honest with myself, 100 objective, that's not going to close by the 30th. We're sitting here on the 18th. There's no way. It's not going to close. So now I'm starting to coach myself into objectivity. Start at the bottom of your funnel, meaning the least quality deals are the ones that you know what I'm talking about. And this is one of those things. You kind of smirk and listen to this episode going, oh, you know, I know what he's. I know what B. Neil's saying here and go do and do something different. With those things, this is where the big three come into play. You got to be detached to move things out of a funnel. But I want to look at them for the reality of things. Okay, here's another little test for objectivity. How many of your close dates. So everyone says that a different way in CRM. So you might say close date or go, no go date or whatever. Go through, take your top 20 deals and look at how many of them are expected to close on the last day of the current month or the last day of the next month. And I bet you it's all of them. It's all of them. That's not objective. They are all not going to close on the last day of the month. I hope not. That's really bad planning. And so objectively, you look at that with extreme objectivity and go, that's not right. That's not right. Now, how do I get that right? We've given you. We're. I'm giving you Next episode. Some tactical tools around this, but just get very real with your funnel. Just know where you're at. If you're in a deal and you're working through a vp, and you know your deal has to get approved by the cfo, and in your mind, you're like, oh, he. All he has to do is just approve it. It's not objective. CFOs don't just approve things. They analyze them, they press on them, they pull them apart. They try to look at what's wrong with them. And so be objective to say, you know what? I'm exposed there. I don't have a. A con. A conversation with the CFO, and yet I've got this deal at 90% set to close in the 30th, and it's got 12 grand of commission in it for me. It's not good. You gotta. Gotta back that up. Says that's the first one. Objectivity. Extreme objectivity. Your life will get better when it gets more real. Your life gets better when it gets more real. And your sales funnel is your lifeline to your life. It is. So you should take it very, very seriously. Okay, that's the first one. Objectivity, first one. The next one I'm gonna bring up. I just love this one. And it's not what people think it is. It's called Expert Persona. Expert Persona. It's One of the ten guiding principles. The Blind Zebra Sales Operating System. Bzsos@blind-zebra.com Boom. I like it. You like it. Earworm. Look out. Just kidding. Just kidding. That's Suzanne Vega. Expert Persona is not what people think it is. Here's what people think it is. People think Expert Persona is I'm going to be an expert in my business. I'm a financial advisor. I'm an expert in stock trading. I sell software to sales leaders. I'm an expert in software sales tool, digital sales tools, whatever. SaaS now what it means. Now what it means. Expert Persona means you being an expert in your customer's business, an expert not just knowing about it, becoming an expert in their world. So if you sell to dentists, you need to know everything about what it's like to run a dental practice. Need to know how many operatories there are. What is in an operatory, you need to understand the staffing, you need to understand how much they have to pay associates and assistants, you have to understand how they do scheduling, you have to understand how much they pay a hygienist. You have to understand insurance, claiming all those things. If you sell stuff to dentists, you need to know all that stuff you do. Here's the great and bad about this. Expert Persona is a lot. It's hard. And if you deal with and I get this if you deal in a very varied like I deal, Bill and I both deal in a very, very we're in all industries, so this is harder for us. If you only sell a dentist, it's much easier and there's a spectrum there. But it doesn't take much for me using two tools, Google and Chat GPT. Google and Chat GPT to just type in there trends in dentistry. Or I tell Chat GPT hey, I'm trying. I sell to dentists, I'm trying to become more of an expert. Can you tell me what the top three trends or issues are in the dental industry in 2025 and what's expected in 2026? And just ask Chat GPT and then all you have to do is read it. That's it. That's it. But people don't see that as valuable. Salespeople don't. They think, well, it's kind of a waste of time. Well, you know, I'm telling you, number one, it's going to help you differentiate because your competitors are lazy. Your competitors aren't. They don't listen to the advanced selling podcast. And so you're better than they are already because you're trying to prove yourself, take some effort. That's an extra mile sort of thing. It's what people, you know, do that get into the big leagues or, you know, podcast for 20 years or get in the NFL. We do, we do extra things that others won't do. Do that. But what it does more than anything for me in my opinion is it shows people that you care. It shows them that you take sincere interest in their world and I think that is a good human thing to do. It shows them that you care. And there's no better benefit to me than that when it comes to expert Persona stuff. All right, so there are two of the ten guiding principles. The Blind Zebra sales operating system bzsos@blind-zebra.com if you want to talk about what it's like to be certified, shoot us a note bzsosblind zebra.com and just put in their certification question or something like that. We'll get back to you right away. And next episode I'm going to go a little more tactical on the guiding principles. So that is it. I'll see you next time on the Advanced Selling podcast. Cheers.