Transcript
A (0:00)
What if the reason most businesses fail has nothing to do with their product, their market, or even funding? And everything to do with the fact that the founder never learned how to sell? Hey, it's Jon Jantz here. I've got a quick question for you. Are you a consultant, agency owner, or fractional CMO who feels like you're reinventing the wheel with every new client? Or worse, giving away strategy for free? Well, you're not alone. And that's why we created the fractional CMO plus certification. It's a three day live experience where you'll license the Duct Tape Marketing proven strategy first approach. You'll learn how to turn strategy and strategy engagements into a product. Our next certification is right around the corner. Head on over to DTM World Certify. That's DTM World Certify. And book a call with a live advisor. Or heck, you can just chat with our a high advisor too. Just see if this is a fit for you. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Duct Tape Marketing podcast. This is Jon Jan. My guest today is Brian Will. He's a serial entrepreneur who dropped out of high school, went on to build OR Co build 10 companies across five different industries collectively worth over half a billion dollars at their peak. He's the author of three books, including one we're going to talk about today. No, the Psychology of Sales and Negotiations. So Brian, welcome to the show.
B (1:33)
John, I appreciate you having me today. It's going to be fun.
A (1:35)
Start with the fact you dropped out of high school, built 10 companies. At what point did you realize that maybe this selling thing has a lot to do with my success?
B (1:44)
You know, it's funny, John, the first company I did was landscaping. And I only did it because I basically had no education and no job skills. And I thought anybody could dig a hole in mo grass, right? So that's what I did. And I did that for 10 years. And that company did well until it didn't. That's my. One of my favorite things. And ended up losing everything. Almost went bankrupt. Lost the house, the cars. Made a couple critical errors in business that I carried with me for the rest of my life. But what was interesting when I got out of the landscaping business is a buddy of mine, he said, hey, you should come sell insurance with me. Now, mind you, I'm thinking you remember the movie Groundhog Day?
A (2:24)
Oh yeah.
B (2:25)
One of my old favorites, Needle Nose Ned. And every day he tries to get Bill and one day Bill just knocks him out in the street. That was my internal picture of an Insurance salesman. I did not see myself walking around with a briefcase and a hat, you know, chasing people down on the street. And I told my friend, no, I'm not selling insurance. Never. I'm a landscaper to start with. Yeah. So he bugged me, and six months goes by, and he kept showing me big checks. And finally I said, all right, how do I sell insurance? And he said, give me $500. I'll give you some leads. I'll take you on one appointment, and then I'll turn you loose. That's the worst way to train a salesperson, I got to tell you. So that's it. We went on one appointment. We went into this house. We came out. He goes, I just made $500. And I was like, oh, my. That's incredible. So I took these 20 leads, and a week later, I showed up at the office, and I had sold 12 insurance policies. And the guy that owned the agency, I walked in, I put him on the table, and he goes, what's that? I said, those are the insurance policies I sold this week. And he goes, how many leads did you get? And I said, I had 20. I said, Is that not good enough? He goes, oh, my God. That's like, top 1% in the country. What did you do to sell those? I remember saying, I don't know. I just sold them. I had no idea, John, I could sell. I tell my kids all the time, you probably have talents you don't know yet. One of the talents I did not know at the time was apparently, I could sell. Within six weeks, I was producing 50% of the revenue in this company, this agency. Six months later, I broke off. I started my own agency. A year and a half later, I sold it to a venture capital firm. It was my first sale, and we turned it into a company that went public. I didn't know I could sell. I just could, and I don't know why. But then I turned it into a system of selling and sales management and training and wrote the book, and, you know, that's what I do.