What You Know Matters More Than What You Sell

Summary

The Advanced Selling Podcast: "What You Know Matters More Than What You Sell"

Release Date: June 9, 2025

Hosts:
Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale are seasoned B2B sales trainers and business strategists with nearly two decades of experience. Their podcast is renowned for its humorous, quirky, and real approach to sales training, helping professionals, managers, and leaders worldwide build profitable sales teams and advance their careers.

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Introduction

In this episode titled "What You Know Matters More Than What You Sell," Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale delve into the profound impact of leveraging personal knowledge and experiences to enhance sales effectiveness. Moving beyond traditional sales techniques, the hosts emphasize the value of sharing accumulated wisdom to foster deeper connections with clients and prospects.

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Emphasizing Knowledge Sharing Over Direct Selling

Bill Caskey introduces the central theme by reflecting on their previous discussion about providing advice to graduates. He suggests that listeners can similarly impart the lessons they've learned throughout their careers to benefit others.

Bill Caskey [04:03]: "Can you take the lessons that you've learned over the years, looking back maybe in your current business... and share it with people?"

Bryan Neale concurs, highlighting the often-overlooked value of documenting and sharing one's professional knowledge. He points out that many professionals harbor a wealth of information that remains untapped simply because it hasn't been articulated and shared.

Bryan Neale [06:09]: "You don't think of it as valuable. You don't think of it as a thing. You don't think it's useful to anybody else."

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Overcoming Familiarity Blindness

The hosts introduce the concept of familiarity blindness, a state where professionals become so accustomed to their own knowledge and routines that they fail to recognize its value to others. This phenomenon often leads to undervaluing one's expertise simply because it feels second nature.

Bill Caskey [07:01]: "It's only valuable if you can extract something from the 32 years and give it to somebody. Else that they'll either pay for or that differentiates you."

Bryan Neale adds that even extensive experience doesn't automatically translate to value unless it's effectively communicated. The uniqueness lies not just in the knowledge itself but in how it's presented and contextualized through personal stories.

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The Power of Unique Storytelling

A significant portion of the discussion centers on the importance of unique storytelling. Even if multiple professionals possess similar knowledge, the way each person shares their experiences can create a distinctive and compelling narrative that resonates with different audiences.

Bill Caskey [11:22]: "It's the way you say it. Your voice is going to be unique."

Bryan Neale reinforces this by sharing his admiration for Tom Bilyeu, a successful entrepreneur who leverages his experiences to educate and inspire others. This approach not only validates his own practices but also illustrates how sharing personal insights can build trust and credibility.

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Practical Application: Creating and Sharing Content

To translate these insights into actionable steps, Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale propose a practical assignment for their listeners:

1. Document Your Knowledge: Take out your phone or a notebook and jot down the most fundamental things you know about your industry—ideally 12 key points.
2. Create Content: For the highly ambitious, consider shooting a video or writing an article that encapsulates these lessons.
3. Share and Circulate: Upload your content to platforms like LinkedIn and share it within professional groups to maximize visibility and impact.

Bill Caskey [17:13]: "The assignment is do this. Get your notes folder open, document it. Start to get those 12 down."

This exercise encourages listeners to actively engage in knowledge sharing, positioning themselves as thought leaders in their respective fields.

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Success Stories and Encouragement

The hosts share a success story to illustrate the tangible benefits of this approach. Bryan Neale recounts how a client secured a top-tier sales candidate who discovered their podcast. This candidate attributed their application to the valuable insights gained from the podcast, demonstrating the podcast's influence and the power of shared knowledge.

Bryan Neale [18:01]: "...he said the reason he applied is he's been listening to your podcast for, like, the last three years."

This anecdote serves as a compelling testament to the podcast's impact and the broader principle that what you know—and share—can significantly influence your professional opportunities.

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Conclusion and Call to Action

In wrapping up, Bill Caskey and Bryan Neale reiterate the importance of overcoming familiarity blindness and proactively sharing one's knowledge. They encourage listeners to embrace the assignment, emphasizing that even seemingly mundane insights can hold immense value when communicated effectively.

Bill Caskey [19:10]: "We'll see you next time."

Listeners are left with a clear directive: to harness their accumulated knowledge, document it, and share it with the world to not only enhance their own sales success but also to contribute meaningfully to their professional communities.

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Notable Quotes

• Bill Caskey [06:36]: "It's not my fault. It's just human nature. We just become familiar with things and..."
• Bryan Neale [14:51]: "Your stories are the connective tissue to make that compelling to someone who maybe's heard it a thousand times."
• Bill Caskey [15:18]: "And isn't it funny how we just don't trust our instincts sometimes?"

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Key Takeaways

1. Leverage Your Knowledge: Your professional experiences are valuable assets that can set you apart in the sales arena.
2. Overcome Familiarity Blindness: Regularly assess and recognize the unique insights you've gained over your career.
3. Share Through Storytelling: Personal narratives make your knowledge relatable and memorable to your audience.
4. Create and Document: Actively document your key lessons and share them through various content formats to build credibility and engage prospects.
5. Engage with the Community: By sharing your knowledge, you can attract new opportunities and foster deeper relationships within your industry.

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Embrace the wisdom in this episode by taking the first step towards transforming your professional knowledge into a powerful tool for sales success. Remember, what you know truly matters more than what you sell.

Transcript

[Bill Caskey]

Foreign.

[Brian Neal]

Welcome, everybody, to the Advanced Selling Podcast, the longest running sales training podcast in the history of podcast. I'm Brian Neal.

[Bill Caskey]

I'm Bill Caskey.

[Brian Neal]

Here every week for 19 years, almost now, every week, dispensing sales advice, as we call it. Join our LinkedIn group. That's number one thing. If you're not there, do that. We're going to start firing that thing up this summer and join the insider group. We talk about that every week. And some of you are still thinking, oh, I should try that and check that out. Stop doing that. Just do it. It's the best bang for the buck. You're going to get live sales coaching from Bill once a month. First Friday, hour 15 live. Great group of people, too. You need to be part of the Advanced Link podcast Insiders group, please.

[Bill Caskey]

Yes, that's great. It's coming up on what I was.

[Brian Neal]

Going to say it, but yeah.

[Bill Caskey]

What is the first, what is the first Friday in June? Siri, what's the first Friday? June 6th?

[Brian Neal]

Hey, June 6th. Yeah, my Siri just lit up. I don't even use Siri.

[Bill Caskey]

Oh, I don't either.

[Brian Neal]

So funny. Have you noted this is an old man thing?

[Bill Caskey]

So you're asking me?

[Brian Neal]

No, no, no. I'm just looking for validation. Here is the age. Have you, have you moved into a place where, like, kind of normal daily routine activities have, have become possessive for you? So instead of taking a walk, so I go on a walk now. Now I go on my walk. It's my walk. Nobody else my walk. Oh, with me on that. So. Well, I'm, I'm, I'm, I'm having, I'm having a cup of coffee. Well, well, I'm gonna, you know, I'm gonna have my, my coffee. Everything becomes possessive. Yeah, well, don't forget, I, I'm, I, I'm gonna be taking my nap about 1:30 now. Now, wait, whose nap is it? It's my nap, right? Instead of saying, I'm gonna take a nap. When you get older, you start to possess these activities that used to just be activities. And I don't know why that is, but people do it, don't they? Yeah.

[Bill Caskey]

And.

[Brian Neal]

Well, go ahead.

[Bill Caskey]

Yes, that's it.

[Brian Neal]

I mean, it's like I said it the other day. I'm like, oh, my God, someone come push me in the pool.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah, you can't.

[Brian Neal]

I said my walk. I'm like, have an agreement. But why does that happen? I'm not that old, but I'm like, my whole. I'm like, I'm gonna Take a walk. I'm gonna walk. I'm gonna walk now. I'm like, well, no, I was on my walk. I'm like, where did that come from? You know, it's like God's playing a joke up there. It's like, okay, we're gonna get to your early 50s. Just circle.

[Bill Caskey]

Say that. Because the other day I, I take a walk every night after dinner. Because I've heard since I had the heart thing, it's like they always say, you know, walk a half mile after dinner. So I do that. And so it is a regular thing.

[Brian Neal]

Yeah.

[Bill Caskey]

The other night we got ready to, I don't know, we're going to watch a game or something. She goes, why don't you go take your walk first? I said, what? She go take your walk. And it's like, well, it's a walk, not my walk. It is a thing that I, I do occasionally and frequently, but it's. I don't own that walk.

[Brian Neal]

No, it's not mine. Anybody can take a walk. It's the walk. It's not my walk.

[Bill Caskey]

No, but it is. It's your, it's your cocktail before dinner.

[Brian Neal]

It is, right? I'm gonna have my ice cream.

[Bill Caskey]

If it's your favorite ice cream. I don't think that. Yeah, yeah, you better have your ice cream. That, that's a problem. But not just different ice cream.

[Brian Neal]

I know.

[Bill Caskey]

I think there's a very fine distinction there, but I'm glad you said that.

[Brian Neal]

Because it's a thing.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah.

[Brian Neal]

See, now Jane's doing it. Right. It's your walk.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah. And that's just one of. I mean, the whole year walk. That's just one of many things that become. That become weird as we get older. We say things. And I always try to catch myself because I don't want to be the guy. I mean, when you. Well, you got to be careful about becoming irrelevant. And how we speak.

[Brian Neal]

Yes.

[Bill Caskey]

Is a. Is a clear indicator whether we're.

[Brian Neal]

That's really great. Yeah.

[Bill Caskey]

All right, off the camera. Off camera. I will tell you something else.

[Brian Neal]

Okay, good. We'll stop the recording shortly.

[Bill Caskey]

Okay, so here's the topic that we came up with last, last episode. We talked about advice for grads, whether it's high school, college. And Brian and I each gave you three or four things that you could maybe share with your graduates and maybe even have them listen to, expose them to a non advice giving show. But then I, we thought, well, this same, the same thing could apply to every listener as well. And that is, can you Take the lessons that you've learned over the years, looking back maybe in your current business. So if you've been in, you know, commercial real estate for 12 years, I wouldn't look back, you know, 13 years back. I would look at the last 12 years you've been in the business and could you do something like Brian and I did for your customers? Like the 12 things that I've learned about commercial real estate that can help you save time or that can help you shortcut your, your growth plan. Maybe it's for brand new people in the commercial real estate business. It doesn't have to be for your top advanced people. It could be something that you look back and say, what have I learned about this profession that I can turn around now and share it with people? I think that's a. I think that's a killer idea. And you've seen people do that on YouTube videos. I saw one the other day. Daniel Priestley did one. I'll. And give me 15 minutes and I'll save you years of agony.

[Brian Neal]

Hmm.

[Bill Caskey]

And it was about a 15 minute where he talked about 10 or 12 things that he has found entrepreneurs struggle with. And I don't know why we, we shouldn't be able to do that for our constituents too. What do you think that's. I.

[Brian Neal]

Absolutely. And I wasn't. When you brought the topic up, I was thinking about it slightly differently. But when you couch it up that way about what I. What have I learned in my career, I was thinking more like a little, like a little more detaily kind of mechanical thing. Just even like in the day, like, hey, I ran across this book, this is cool. And give it to a customer. You're talking about a much broader. Which I like more is a. Documenting this thing. That's the first thing that hits me. And then people driving around. This is so interesting. You have all this knowledge, but you don't think of it that way.

[Bill Caskey]

No.

[Brian Neal]

You don't think of it as valuable. You don't think of it as a thing. You don't think it's useful to anybody else. Yeah, it's not unique. Right. It's just me. It's just what I do. I've been. Yeah. And how many people tell us that, well, I've been doing this for 32 years. They'll say that, but they don't document anything that makes that valuable. They think that statement alone is the value and that is not accurate. It's only valuable if you can extract something from the 32 years and give it to somebody. Else that they'll either pay for or. That differentiates you.

[Bill Caskey]

I think it used. It used to be in the olden. The olden days of bells and whistles and goose and ganders, that experience held a. Held a. You know, held a lot of power. Like, he's been in this business 25 years now. When somebody says that, what do you. I know what I think. What do you think? Oh, he's been doing this for 35 years. What do you think?

[Brian Neal]

He's not stopped learning? He doesn't.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah, absolutely. He stop.

[Brian Neal]

He's given up. He's like, yeah. Riding out in the sunset.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah, that's what I think. And. And I would rather have somebody who's been in the business three years but is just passionate about the business give me that person as a vendor, because I know I'm going to be well taken care of rather than the other. Other guy. But the point there is that we all have things. We all have books within us. In fact, you know, it's interesting you mentioned that Daniel Priestley is the guy that this video was by, and he's a British entrepreneur coach, and he talked about the. The condition that happens when we're sitting on all this value, but we don't use it. He called it proximity bias.

[Brian Neal]

Hmm.

[Bill Caskey]

I don't think that's true. I think a proximity bias is you'll believe. You'll believe somebody you know before you'll believe somebody you don't because they're proximate to you. And I looked it up and that is exactly what it means. The. The condition for, I don't know, the value I have is called familiarity blindness. So we become so familiar with what. What's around us and what's under us and what we've done and our problem solving frameworks and how good we are. We become so familiar with how good we are, we're blind to it.

[Brian Neal]

Interesting.

[Bill Caskey]

And I love. I love that concept because now I can. I can say, well, it's not my fault. It's not anybody's fault. It's just. It's just human nature. We just become familiar with things and, and the same with our relationships. We. We become so immersed in our relationships that they're not special anymore.

[Brian Neal]

Yeah.

[Bill Caskey]

And we have to be careful of that, too.

[Brian Neal]

So, good friend from college who just started a podcast actually, and I was his first guest. Great. Jason Barnaby. I'll give him a shout out. You know Jason Barnaby. Yeah. But he. He, quote, he's in this first episode, he where. And we've been friends since we were like 20. So long time. And he gives me credit for this quote that I don't remember saying. But he said we went to breakfast and you told me, you said, you know, I don't know what the stats were, but the stuff that, you know, 80 of the people don't know that and the 20 that do know it need to be reminded. He said, I said that. I don't remember saying that. That sounds, it's a good little clever good thing. But the, the point that I love here, that's it. That's it. That you don't realize that people don't know some of these things. You just assume that everybody knows what you know and they don't. And it's hard to go back sometimes when you've been doing something for 20 or 30 years.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah.

[Brian Neal]

To remember that.

[Bill Caskey]

That's right.

[Brian Neal]

You know, Tom Bilyeu, you know, that guy is Tom Billy. So he's really act, he's. He does some really good work on LinkedIn, talking about how he developed Quest Nutrition Quest bars and sold it for a billion dollars. He's a really smart guy. He's got, he, he really, really hinges his, his content on LinkedIn around things that he either didn't do well or right or would have done differently to share it with other people so that they do, you know, take a different path. He did one yesterday that had talked about. He basically just, you know, trusting himself. He thought, well, I, I could, I can do all this, you know, and it's just so refreshing to hear someone who's done something that well talk that way, which is what you're talking about here. He's got all this experience, he's cataloged it and now he's sharing it with others.

[Bill Caskey]

And there it, there is some work to identifying what you know, because we tend to label it as valuable or not. Like, you know, let's just say I know how to take out the trash in the morning in an effective way. And I would say, well, that's, that's a knowledge. That's something that I have knowledge around. But I would say, well, that's not valuable. I mean, everybody knows how to do that. But if I've got value around, a way to connect with people inside the company in a different way, and no, and nobody knows that that's extremely valuable. But if I say to myself, well, yeah, it's valuable, but yeah, most people know how to do that, I discount it. I discount my value. And that's where the familiarity blindness comes. I'M reminded of the Jay Abraham story. Talked about the ad man, the copy guy, going to Strohs to learn about the process of brewing beer. Strohs was a beer back in the. I don't know. Is it still around? I don't know.

[Brian Neal]

Seventies, eighties? I have no idea.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah, seventies. Anyway, Stroh. So it was a. And it was a popular beer. And if you. If you heard about Strozen, you would heard about Fire Brood. Firebrood Strozz. And the. The copy guy went to the. The brewery and said, well, tell me, how do you do this? And they walked him through and they took him through a plant tour, and they said, what's this over there? Why is it hot? He goes, oh, it's fire brewed. And the copy guy's like, what? He goes, yeah, it's fire. We fire brew our beer. And he's. And a guy, the guy's writing and he goes, but everybody does it. And the copy guy says, doesn't matter. You're the only one that's going to say it.

[Brian Neal]

Yeah.

[Bill Caskey]

And if you're the one that says that, whether anybody else does it or not. So if you take your 12 lessons, whether other people would have the exact same 12 lesson. Doesn't matter. No, is the way you're going to say it. Your voice is going to be unique.

[Brian Neal]

And that is the. The key here, that it doesn't matter. That's none of this, Matt. Meaning. No, it doesn't matter. If they do know it again, they get. They need reminded. Or they may know it a certain way, but they hear a little nuance.

[Bill Caskey]

Exactly. Or they say, hey, I believe.

[Brian Neal]

Yeah, I love you. Right?

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah.

[Brian Neal]

What a great. That's a great point, Bill. Don't we tend to follow people that we agree with?

[Bill Caskey]

Oh, he's good.

[Brian Neal]

Oh, my God. Have you seen. Have you. Have you checked out this Bill Caskey fella? This guy's good. I like what he has to say.

[Bill Caskey]

They never say he's changed everything about selling for me now.

[Brian Neal]

I do. Yeah. The reason I like your podcast so much, because I do everything you guys teach. I just like to hear it so I feel better about myself. It's true, though, isn't it?

[Bill Caskey]

Or like my. Remember a lady from I can't. I can't remember her name. She passed, so I got to be careful. She was. Every time I would teach her. So I do that. I just don't. Didn't know what to call it.

[Brian Neal]

Right. You just keep name.

[Bill Caskey]

Oh, I do. Oh, I do that. I just didn't know what to call it. You didn't.

[Brian Neal]

That's funny. So let's do a kind of a tactical thing for people.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah.

[Brian Neal]

If you're listening now, if you're driving, don't do this. Wait till you pull over. If you're listening, you're walking. If you're on your walk, if you're on your walk, listen to this. Or if you're. You're on your. If you're on your jog, if you're on your run, just take your phone out and start a notes page. And it. Just call it stuff. I know.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah.

[Brian Neal]

And just about just think of the most basic things in your industry. If you sell payroll services, there's just some fundamental things that you know that other people, small businesses may not know. You know, they may not know about. A tax thing. We mentioned last time we're gonna have an accounting professor, and he talks accounting. We're gonna have him on the show. But he has this little side thing he teaches students about these little, like, backdoor Roth IRAs and things like that. We're not a financial advice show. But he just knows that. And a lot of people know that, like, well, you know, but, but, but he may.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah, I know. I know. I'm. I'm not disagreeing with you here. I'm. I'm disagreeing with those who say what. But everybody knows that it doesn't, like you say, matter, because it may be that the way you describe the thing that, you know, let's say 0.9 of the lessons you've learned is everybody else's 0.9 as well. But the way you talk about it and the story you tell to support it and the reason that's important to you will connect with somebody that they won't connect with the other seven and a half billion people who have the same thing.

[Brian Neal]

Exactly.

[Bill Caskey]

Your stories are the connective tissue to make that compelling to someone who maybe's heard it a thousand times.

[Brian Neal]

Yes, yes, 100. And if you do know about it, in this case, the thing he talked about, I knew about it. I've been doing it for four or five years. And I felt validated. I felt like I wasn't an idiot now that I was doing, like, is my financial advisor taking advantage of this deal of me? Or, you know, something like, no, no, this is a very smart thing to do.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah.

[Brian Neal]

Like, okay, I feel good. So you can't lose with this is the point.

[Bill Caskey]

And isn't it funny how we just don't trust our instincts sometimes?

[Brian Neal]

I know.

[Bill Caskey]

Well, it sounds right, but I don't know. You know, he's closed his eyes a couple times when he was telling me, and proceed with caution. Trust. We just don't trust our instincts. And then we come along with somebody else and they say the same thing. It's like, oh, yeah, oh, yeah, I'm going to do that. That's exactly what I'm going to do. It's like, no, you could have done that five years ago, but you didn't because you didn't trust. Or you. You didn't trust your instincts enough to even ask another expert.

[Brian Neal]

Yes.

[Bill Caskey]

So I'm really guilty of not trusting my intuition and then looking back and saying, oh, I thought, oh, well, I can't tell you that.

[Brian Neal]

It's a thing. Tell me. Yeah, we had a great post show. Maybe we should sell that one. That should be the one you. You subscribe to. But take the note to take your phone out, make you notes, stuff. I know. And I love bills. You know, start with a. If you make an empty list. So start with 12 things. What are 12 things that if I sell payroll services, what are 12 things? I know that about small business payroll that most business owners don't know because I can tell you, as a small business owner, Bill, you are too. I don't know jack about payroll. Nothing. I don't know about payroll taxes. I don't know about things that I should or shouldn't do. I don't know about anything. Nothing. I know nothing. So anything you tell me is more than I know.

[Bill Caskey]

Yeah.

[Brian Neal]

And if I did know something, I'm like, oh, I feel validated. You can't.

[Bill Caskey]

Exactly.

[Brian Neal]

You can't lose.

[Bill Caskey]

Exactly. I'm gonna watch his next video to see what else I know that I.

[Brian Neal]

Yes.

[Bill Caskey]

I knew.

[Brian Neal]

Yes. And it's. That's way better than telling me about your payroll service. Teaching me something about as a small business owner about payroll is better than you selling me your payroll service. So here's bells and whistles. Come on.

[Bill Caskey]

Right.

[Brian Neal]

Go ahead. Assignment time.

[Bill Caskey]

Bells and whistles. So the assignment is do this. Get your notes folder open, document it. Start to get those 12 down. For those of you who are super high ambition, shoot a video, send us a link and we'll. We'll circulate it. Because it could be that. It could be that there's somebody in a different part of the world who watches your video, who immediately wants to hire you or wants to engage you or whatever. So let's, let's. But you have. It has to be a video. I Guess it could be an article, but I feel like, oh, come on, let's. Let's shoot a video and then we'll. We'll circulate it. We'll help you get eyes.

[Brian Neal]

Eyeballs on it, because you just don't know. Did I tell you this story about my client who got a really good job candidate because they listened to our podcast?

[Bill Caskey]

Oh, really?

[Brian Neal]

Yes. This is why you do this. And this is what we're doing is just what we're trying to teach here. But got a really nice new client, big launch. The VP of the region emailed and said, hey, we just got a really, really great sales candidate. They're struggling to find people like a lot of people are. And he said the reason he applied is he's been listening to your podcast for, like, the last three years. He came out of Ops and went into sales and needed. And had no sales skill and found our podcast. And he goes, when I found out that you were working with Brian Neal from Advanced Selling Podcast, I knew what you were doing and the kind of place you are. Isn't that wild?

[Bill Caskey]

Good. That's cool.

[Brian Neal]

And we. And we don't do recruit, you know, there's nothing about that. Yeah, that's. You know, it's just we're putting stuff out in the world to give us a chance. And if you do what Bill's saying, you shoot a video, you have no idea.

[Bill Caskey]

No, no.

[Brian Neal]

No idea where that's going to go. No idea where that can help somebody or, you know, make a connection or. Or. Or help somebody. So, anyway.

[Bill Caskey]

All right, so do the video. Link to us on LinkedIn. Excuse me. Yep, it's changing again. Link to us on LinkedIn, DM us. Let us know. Circulate it. If you. If you just want us to see it, that's fine. Tell us not to circulate it, but we'll see what we can do.

[Brian Neal]

All right, pick us up, tag us up.

[Bill Caskey]

We'll see you next time.

[Brian Neal]

Bye.

[Bill Caskey]

All right, bye.