← The Entrepreneur DNA
The Entrepreneur DNA
Eat What You Kill: How to Build a Sales Army & Dominate in Business | Sam Taggart | EP 63
00:37:47
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- [00:00]
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- [01:29]
Sam Taggart
Very big lack of training. It's like they'll hire training or they'll hire people and then they won't train them and then they expect them to be great. But when you give people real good scripts and real good accountability and work with them and role play with them and give them hope and coach them, you know, and actually lead them, then they will perform better. But I think a lot of people as a business owner, they're so busy doing all the other 50 things when I'm like the most valuable use cases of your time are threefold recruiting top talent. Number two is I'm training that talent and number three would be leading from the front, having that wherewithal to delegate some of your $10 an hour tasks and actually go in the field and sell shit.
- [02:13]
Justin Colby
What is up entrepreneur DNA? Welcome back to an incredible episode. I'm super excited about this episode for one big reason. I have one of the inarguably and actually Google has told us that one of the top sales people in the country, he is also a best selling author and he focuses his time on entrepreneurs on sales leadership and recruiting. I got Sam Taggart here people. What's up dude?
- [02:37]
Sam Taggart
How you doing man?
- [02:38]
Justin Colby
Fun dude let's go. It's funny. We have. I lean into four basic principles. Mind, body, and connections. And then it leads to your business. That connection piece, what we have. It's funny that we were just talking off. Offline, right? Like our mutual friend. We've all. We've circled each other for years without even really even knowing it.
- [02:58]
Sam Taggart
I know. And it's fun to connect. That's why I was like, hey, it's I the best way. Like, somebody texted me. They're like, hey, can you go to lunch? And I was like, no. But if somebody said, can you be on my podcast? I probably say yes. And honestly, it'd probably be a deeper, cooler conversation anyway, you know what I mean?
- [03:12]
Justin Colby
So there's no doubt.
- [03:13]
Sam Taggart
Such a fun way to kind of really talk meaningful conversation without being like, why would I just go to lunch? You know, like, there. There's some power in that. But with busy schedules, this makes more sense.
- [03:24]
Justin Colby
Well, for sure. And I'm in Florida and you're in Utah, right? So, dude, let's get into. First of all, I want to talk about your book. Your book is phenomenal. It's. It's really leans into. You need to go out there and work as a salesperson. And if you're relying on a good economy. I've been preaching this for years in the real estate space. Real estate investors, specifically. The last 10 years has been amazing. If you are not doing well in real estate in the last 10 years, then you weren't breathing right. But now that the going has gotten a little more challenging, this leans into your book, right? Eat what you kill, right? Like, you got to go work for it. So let's talk a little bit about your book, dude.
- [04:06]
Sam Taggart
Yeah. So it's called eat what you kill, become a sales carnivore. And basically the premise is, I felt like the sales world doesn't matter if you're doing software or, you know, every business has sales. But the problem is, is their salespeople, whether they're in person. B2B. B2C. Over the phone, zoom. They're all like. I look at the majority of businesses, and they have herbivore businesses, meaning as they're very codependent on the marketing, the leads, the funnel. And many of them have never really fully experienced a 1099 carnivore. Eat what you kill. No dependent type of sales culture. And the sucky part is a fish doesn't know it's in water, you know, until it's out of water. Right? Like, and. And I come from a Culture where I never got a lead. I knocked doors since I was 11 years old. I, you know, like, if I wanted something, I knew how to go knock. Never got paid a W2, never got paid a salary, never got paid any. Anything to. I just created wealth. And I look at the company, I was a Top rep at 3010, 99 multi billion multi exits, publicly traded vivint. They never, you know, none of us got a lead. You know what I mean? It was just an army of foot soldiers that went out and knocked and it created, you know, made a billionaire out of the owner. And anyway, long story short, the people in today's economy are just getting more and more soft. And they never learned the skill of resilience. They never learned the skill of a cold call. They never learned the skill of, you know, the pound the stone over and over and over and over again. And they're lacking those skill sets yet they're trying to run a business or they're trying to, you know, they're. They're wondering, why are my sales guys not doing anything? It's like, because you gave them two appointments on the calendar and then they twiddle their thumbs and that's it.
- [05:59]
Justin Colby
Like, that's it.
- [06:00]
Sam Taggart
That's all they'll do. And once an herbivore, kind of always an herbivore. So it's like, how do you shift and change your sales culture internally? And so this is like the bible for that. It's got nine sections on from mindset down to body language, down to prospecting to pitching to presenting, closing objection, handling it goes through every concept of the sales cycle for creating more of a carnivore.
- [06:25]
Justin Colby
Yeah, yeah. Listen, you know, funny enough, a lot of people know my story, so I'll keep it short. I graduated ucla, pretty prominent college, right? Good.
- [06:34]
Sam Taggart
Not Asian. That's impressive.
- [06:36]
Justin Colby
University Caucasians lost among Asians, baby. You know it. You know it. So listen, I've never used it. You know what my first real world job was after college?
- [06:49]
Sam Taggart
What?
- [06:50]
Justin Colby
Door knocking. Business to business. Door knocking. You may know the company. Company called Sidcore. Have you ever heard of Sidcore?
- [06:58]
Sam Taggart
Yeah, I've consulted some of their teams and.
- [07:00]
Justin Colby
Right. So if you've met one of their. Senior. I forgot the rankings now, but senior, whatever. Matt Osborne, really real dear friend of mine, my first mentor, right. He took me under his wing and helped me understand it. And you know, the reality is I wouldn't trade that for the world because those two years that I did, that I learned so much and you talked about it the mindset, like, every morning we had to be in there by 7:45. And we're going through skill sets and mindsets every day. The top leader would be able to go up there and give an analogy of what life is like and how we can use that analogy in the real world. I mean, there's just so much that you get from it. And being able to hear No. A hundred times so you can get one. Yes. A day. That was the model I needed to go here. No, 100 times so I could get my one. Yes. And unfortunately, I caught pneumonia when that. When, you know, when the client moves you to a different state. I went to Boston. I'm a California boy, Sam. That winter boy. Door knocking. Come on, man. It was zero degrees some days. Right? I had tights, I had thermals, I had wool coats, I had wool suits. You couldn't get this California boy warm enough. And I caught pneumonia, which launched my real estate career. But I'll tell you, that is incredible, dude.
- [08:22]
Sam Taggart
It's just rite of passage, like it is. You know, I listen, like, if you're a parent right now and you don't put your kids into door to door, whether it's in high school or, you know, that you don't promote that, I think a lot of parents are like, oh, you're talking to strangers. It's dangerous. Or you're the scum of the earth. You're a salesman. And I'm like, that is what created a financial security or freedom in your inside.
- [08:44]
Justin Colby
Yeah.
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Sam Taggart
It gave you confidence that you're like, I could go do anything. If I can knock doors for two straight years, bro, I could go do X. You know what I mean? Like, if I could do this. And I think many people rob the opportunity for that development from a young age and. Or are too prideful to even step into that.
- [09:04]
Justin Colby
Yeah, it's in. It's. It's crazy because I still can use the four. So we were taught. I literally say this to my sales team. There's four levels of salesmanship. Right. Or there's four qualities of a good salesperson. You have to use indifference, you have to use fear of loss, you have to use Jones effect, and you have to use sense of urgency. And if you can use all four of those points, this is what I learned. I swear to God, I still to this day talk about it.
- [09:28]
Sam Taggart
Oh, good.
- [09:29]
Justin Colby
An expert salesperson. A Sam Taggart, Justin Colby. We can use all four of those in one sales cycle. You would be able to consider yourself an expert at it because it Takes a talk track to be able to go, be indifferent, talk about Jones effect, have a fear of loss and have a sense of urgency, which are totally different things. A lot of people think that they're the same. They're totally different. And so, dude, it's, it's incredible to just think about all that kind of stuff.
- [09:55]
Sam Taggart
Love that. Yeah.
- [09:56]
Justin Colby
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- [11:28]
Sam Taggart
Know, write a book and kind of put, put your 20 years of life work into 300 pages and, you know, promote that and see the, see what's on the other side of that. And I've written other books. This is my fourth book, but this one was like, like, to me the anthem of like my life's work. So it's exciting to kind of get it out there. So if you're listening, you go get a copy on Amazon or Barnes and Noble or something and you know, give it to your team. You know, at the end of the day, like if you're an owner and you're a business, like, you know what I mean? I think of Justin, it's like I'm training my sales team. I'm like, if I Could give them one book that's like, read this book, this. I promise you, it's like nobody's going to complain about somebody that's cold Dming, cold calling, going through your old data, willing to go hit the pavement. You know what I mean? Like, that is like the golden goose for any sales team. You know what I mean? Most years and owners are bitching about, dude, you're not performing or why aren't you selling? And it's becoming more and more of a lost art. And so it's like, can we reactivate this whole, you know, purest form of selling, which is where I come from. And you started is like door to door. Like, I mean, it's just people, like people still do that. I'm like, yeah, very much so. It's actually a growing industry and you know, it's just becoming more and more sophisticated.
- [12:38]
Justin Colby
It's incredible. The, you're, you're just talking about it briefly, right? And in the real estate space where I really am, you know, the door to door world is such an undervalued asset. Right. You're looking for people who want a. To sell, not want, need to sell their home. And if you just walk by a home that looks like no one's mowed the lawn in six years and it looks like no one's painted the house in 22 years, do you think there's some motivation there?
- [13:05]
Sam Taggart
Yes. Here's what's crazy, Justin. So I spoke, I don't know if you know, Cody Sperber, him and I, of course, and we, we did an event together. And anyway, he's got all these wholesalers there and he's telling me about this technology, it's called drive for dollars. And he goes out and has, has people take photos and uploads it to the system. And you know, there's all sorts of these data, you know, for pre foreclosures, distressed property data that people are paying so much money for. And I'm like, how about like knock for dollars? Like how if you're going to drive all the way there and you're going to take a photo and you're there, like walk up and I promise you this pitch, which is going to sound so terrible, is better than your photo. And it's hey, you want to sell your house and you could get the door slammed and it took you 15 seconds. But at the end of the day, that was the worst pitch in the world. But it was better than your effing photo you sent. Yeah, dude, I had their data, but I'M like, now, I could teach you the psychology of an amazing pitch to that, but it was better than no pitch. And he's like, well, how do I get people to do. I'm like, like what?
- [14:11]
Justin Colby
You just don't make it an option. We just talked about the company I worked for, Sid Core. There's not an option. There's no sending DMS for Sid Core. You don't. Matt wasn't like, hey, Justin, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to train you on how to send dms. That wasn't the business. The only option was go outside and knock doors all day long.
- [14:29]
Sam Taggart
100%.
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Justin Colby
You train them by making it the only option. Right? And so now let's. Let's grab, by the way, get this book on Amazon. This guy's world class, literally. World class. You do how many events a year? D2D con. You just had one recently, didn't you?
- [14:45]
Sam Taggart
Yeah, we just had 1 3,000 people. I mean, we do about two to three events. Like, tomorrow I have a sales manager boot camp teaching sales managers how to go run their teams for two days. And then next week I'm in Dallas on a sales boot camp. The next week I'm in Florida on another sales boot camp. We host events three, four times a month regularly where I speak or I'll go and actually create an opportunity, whether it's sales, business management, or recruitment. And I think, you know, a lot of people always struggle with this formula of like, I don't know how to find any sales guys. Like, it's just me, right? They're a business owner and they're just like, really? Like, I spoke at a pressure washing and Christmas lighting convention last week in Florida. And most of these guys, I'm like, raise your hand if you're the sales guy and the business owner. And like 90% of the room, there's like 300 people. And I'm like, oh, you guys are just it. You are the effing business. So, like, congratulations. And. And I'm like, well, number one is we got to recruit some people. Yeah, we got to train and manage those people. And everybody's like, well, I can't afford them or I don't have the leads or I don't. I'm like, I'm not talking about leads, bro. I'm talking like, make them go eat what they kill. And everybody's bottlenecked. Because if I had more leads, then I could go recruit more people. And I'm like, well, if you had carnivores, then you don't need leads. See where I'm going at this?
- [15:58]
Justin Colby
I totally do. So for those entrepreneurs right now, they're like, sam, I get it, I get it, I get it. But how do I motivate them to go do it? What's your answer?
- [16:06]
Sam Taggart
That's what I'm teaching tomorrow for two days.
- [16:08]
Justin Colby
Okay.
- [16:09]
Sam Taggart
It's all about proper sales management. And so kind of think of it as like threefold. You have competition, which is this free energy. So it's how you facilitate. So I just launched one for my internal sales team. I got like 15 guys, and we sell coaching, right? And we launched March Madness. So I put them in teams. We got like six teams, you know, an sdr, an AE and an expert, all on a team. We create these pods, and every day I'm posting the scorecard and I'm saying, who's winning, who's losing, what's the prizes? Shit talking, calling out, you know, doing.
- [16:42]
Justin Colby
A game out of this, gamifying it.
- [16:44]
Sam Taggart
Gamifying is like, number one. Number two is accountability is you got to trim the fat. You got to have clear pips, you know, performance reviews. You got to have call outs and daily huddles.
- [16:56]
Justin Colby
What are pips? Just for the performance reviews, basically.
- [16:59]
Sam Taggart
Like you.
- [16:59]
Justin Colby
You.
- [16:59]
Sam Taggart
You put them on a performance plan where if they don't hit X, then they're fired. And. And I think a lot of people, they keep all this fat around and they have crappy salespeople, but it's called addition by subtraction. When you start to cut the bottom 20%, your top 20% actually performs better.
- [17:16]
Justin Colby
Yep.
- [17:16]
Sam Taggart
So today I'm firing a guy. You know, sadly, last week I fired a guy and I. And it hurt. Like, obviously I have an emotional heart, but sometimes I start to now be like, good, my team will do better now because they know I'm willing to hang a man to show them that. Don't be an idiot and suck because you're giving permission to suck to everyone else if you have no accountability.
- [17:36]
Justin Colby
Yeah.
- [17:37]
Sam Taggart
That's where a lot of people in sales cultures, they almost are, like, afraid to call people out. They're afraid to, like, hold people to quotas and numbers and like, dude, this is a sales culture. Does the NBA just let Joe Schmoz on there in the core? No.
- [17:53]
Justin Colby
No.
- [17:53]
Sam Taggart
And then number three is training, and I think the most people. And so we're a sales training company, right? So we have thousands of videos and different categories and different coaches and, you know, we do all sorts of Cool stuff. But like I found there's very big lack of training. It's like they'll hire training or they'll hire people and then they won't train them and then they expect them to be great. But when you give people real good scripts and real good accountability and work with them and role play with them and give them hope and coach them, you know, and actually lead them, then they will perform better. But I think a lot of people as a business owner, they're so busy doing all the other 50 things. When I'm like, the most valuable use cases of your time are threefold. Recruiting top talent. I'm always recruiting. Number two is I'm training that talent, meaning I'm pouring into those people. So they pour into me and that's multiplication. I think most business owners are like, I'm the only guy that can sell. And I'm like, well what if you develop 10 of you now? You just multiplied you. And number three would be if they, you know, actually sold as a business owner where most of these business owners. I got off a call yesterday or guy started a new roofing company, split from his partner and, and I'm like, he wanted me to pay, he wanted to pay me on a, on a profit share. And I looked at this new kid and I'm like, you just started a business 30 days ago, you split up. How many are you going to sell this year? And he's like, what do you mean? I mean, thought of that. I'm like, you just started a company, you just said your overhead is X, you have not sold any and you have no sales guys and you want to hire my sales guys to come and be your interim sales leader and CRO as a transition. So are you asking my guy to be all the sales? So right, I said, right now my question is how many are you selling tomorrow? Because you just keep calling it death by business cards where you, you've spent so much time on the shirts, the hats, the, you know, all these things of just like, but how many are you selling? And I'm like, you need to hire out and, or give your uncle, because his uncle's sitting there and he's like, yeah, I might come over with him and blah, blah, blah. And I was like, how about uncle, you do everything but sales. And you bro, are nine to nine in the field until this thing makes hella money. And what happens is you start to attract and recruit your people and. But I need you out there in the field. And he was like, well. And I was like, Then you're probably I'm not a good fit for you. Probably because this isn't going to work. This is a recipe for disaster.
- [20:17]
Justin Colby
Yeah.
- [20:17]
Sam Taggart
I think that leading from the front, having that wherewithal.
- [20:21]
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- [20:51]
Sam Taggart
Delegate some of your $10 an hour tasks and actually go in the field and sell shit.
- [20:57]
Justin Colby
Yeah. The challenge I think all of us have right. Is what you're talking about. How even if I'm willing to do it right, how do I get others to have the same passion, desire, motivation, be inspired to go do it? And there's usually a breaking point. I actually talk about it more in a leadership form. Right. And you're the expert in recruiting leadership and sales. But the leadership part is tough. And the reason why is people don't work that muscle out enough. Right. They just think they have it just because and that because maybe they're a good manager, but it is not the same thing as being a good leader.
- [21:35]
Sam Taggart
And I have a sales manager playbook. It's like 101 pages. And like I think page six is literally managing versus leading. And what's hard is. And then they're selling. Most great salespeople actually make terrible managers. They're not meticulous.
- [21:53]
Justin Colby
They the owner of the companies take the sales guy and make them a manager. Yeah, it's the craziest shit.
- [21:59]
Sam Taggart
And, and, and leading a great sales guy could be a good leader. I was always a really good leader. But if I didn't have an assistant manager, meaning I was the sales manager for many years and then I was a VP of sales, a big solar company or whatever and I, I found if I did not have a sales manager, like an assistant manager that did area management, lead management rep1 on ones onboarding training, I was like the pacesetter, I was the inspirer, I was the leader. I was the number one, number two guy in the company always. So that if I can do 10 in a day, you could do two. Come on, let's go. And I said throw them in my car and I'll ride out to area with Them and I'll just fire them up all day and like, show them what's up and then I'll give them feedback. But for me to actually sit down and have empathy and like, work with somebody and have, you know, I mean, that patience, I'm like, if you don't get it, like, like, come on, let's go.
- [22:52]
Justin Colby
Next, next.
- [22:53]
Sam Taggart
And I think that's a detriment. So it's one understanding the balance between that, you know, I think of the military drill sergeant, that's a manager, right? And what's weird is I, I could never be managed like that. That's why I didn't go into the military. I'd go into hell. Like, it would be like, are you kidding me? You're going to yell at me all day and tell me exactly what to do and say and, and people willingly sign up for this. And I'm like, wait a minute. They're asking for true accountability, being told what to do. Tell me exactly where to be and where to. Like, most people, believe it or not, need that.
- [23:25]
Justin Colby
Yeah, totally.
- [23:27]
Sam Taggart
You are over here as an entrepreneur, being like, if that was me, I'd kill myself. Yet now there's the disconnect of you're not managing your people, meaning daily accountability, monitoring everything they do. Tell them exactly where to be and when to do it. You know what I mean? Like, exactly. The management side, hence why your team is underperforming.
- [23:44]
Justin Colby
Yeah, yeah, the, the, that management and leadership is tricky and then goes down to. I think what you highlighted is really important for most people. They need to set the pace, right? Like, as the owner, you can't be the guy who has his feet on the desk. Now, there may be a season that you can get there, but probably not in the first five years of business. So, like the story you just told me about the new roofing company, I'm like, oh, I'm surprised. I'm surprised you kept it together so well.
- [24:14]
Sam Taggart
I was yelling at the guy like. And I'm like, you've already paid me for my mastermind, like 60 grand. And then you just blit up and then you just want to pay me to be like a fractional CRO or my team. And we do that. Like, we come in and step in and actually give a players as an interim. But I'm like, not on a profit deal with just. You do. Like, like what? Like, what is this?
- [24:38]
Justin Colby
Right?
- [24:38]
Sam Taggart
And I was like, you're the door knocker. He left his dad's company. So let's just like break this down. He left his dad's company, that his dad's company hadn't grown for 20 years. He's a local roofer out of Houston, and his dad's like, hey, I want to bring you on as a partner. He was there for like a year and he wanted to do door knocking, he wanted to implement door knocking. He wanted to grow this thing. I guess there was friction with him and his dad because it was like, hey, you don't believe in this door knocking thing and I do, so I'm going to go start my own thing. So now he's a month in, and I'm like, you just left your dad's because you believed in this door knocking concept, yet you're now not willing to door knock and you ask for a $300 grant and. Or you're going and raising capital and you've got an overhead that's already plus 80 grand a month and you're in your first month and I'm over here like this for disaster, bro. I said all of your effing overhead and just go sell your first 10 jobs.
- [25:30]
Justin Colby
You're. Yeah, that's it. I mean, just go make money.
- [25:33]
Sam Taggart
Go make money.
- [25:34]
Justin Colby
Too often owners, the business owner thinks they should be in an owner seat. One of the bigger mistakes, dude, I, I'll, you know, be totally open about that, is I was running a business at a high level that I felt like I could take a back seat and put my feet up. And guess what happened to my business grumbles, right? Is they were maintaining for a while, but they damn sure weren't growing. And until you are at a level like, I mean, I guess the thing I would even tell you, look at the people like Steve Jobs, Elon Musk, Warren Buffett, they still are in their business. People. It may look a lot different than when he started Tesla or when he started PayPal or when he started, you know, making investments. If you're Warren Buffett, it may look a lot different. But they're in their business. And anyone who is making less than $10 million a year and feels like they shouldn't be in their business at an integral level, I believe is doing it wrong. They still might be able to make $10 million a year. But look at what you're talking about. You're running a multiple 10 million. You're running a. What is that? An eight figure business. And you're still in your business. Speaking at your events, building your sales team, running your sales meeting. Like, I know your schedule because it took pulling teeth to get you onto the episode, right? Like you're not sitting around on the.
- [26:48]
Sam Taggart
Beach, but that's what it takes. I was there literally training at 9:00 last night, my sales guys, like, I was literally sitting there with my sales team saying like, I know that this guy has a lot of potential. He was there. I had three sales guys that stayed till 9pm and I was like, I'll stay as long as they're willing to stay. Because I don't get that precious time usually during my day to actually like sit with these guys and coach them. And this guy was like, you know, I know his family. He's not making the money he needs to make. He's got all the energy, he's willing to work the hours and he's got the, he's got the potential. I just like. But nobody's sitting there working with the guy. Like, you know how much it meant to him, me trying to freaking lock down this last minute deal that he was Hail Marion. Like, you know, and I'm sitting there like piping him and not trying to take over. You know what I mean? Like, but it's like that will go a long way for that guy. Yeah, he will be a loyal soldier because I took the time just to have a conversation with the guy.
- [27:48]
Justin Colby
It's, it's incredible when you actually pour into your people genuinely and they'll be with you forever. Right? There's, there's something I talk about like my manager's been with me for 10 years. Like I'm able to retain a lot of people because I pour into them with genuine heart. And again, this is the breakdown of, of where leadership really goes is because they just say, okay, go out there and make sales. And that's really not what the owner of the company really should be focusing on.
- [28:15]
Grainger Representative
If you work in quality control at a candy factory, you know, strict safety regulations come with the job. It's why you partner with Grainger. Grainger helps you find the high quality and compliant products your business needs to inspect, detect and help correct issues. And the sweetest part is everyone gets a product that's as safe to eat as it is delicious. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click granger.com or just stop by Granger for the ones who get it done.
- [28:45]
Justin Colby
So that is the next pivot to where our conversation should go, which is, you know, when you're talking about sales, what is the best format in your book that you have in your manuals that people should be leading with in the sales script? Everyone worries about scripts. Do you Give a About scripts.
- [29:06]
Sam Taggart
Yes. Until you don't need to.
- [29:08]
Justin Colby
That's right.
- [29:09]
Sam Taggart
And so I think here's a good example. So I paid like Myron Golden a lot of money to coach me on speaking. And he comes to my event, I do my speech, and he's like, that was so good. Because you're naturally so good. It's like you're too good with your winging it that it actually made you bad.
- [29:28]
Justin Colby
It's a detriment. Yeah, yeah, I get it.
- [29:30]
Sam Taggart
And I was like, wow, what a kick to nuts. Because he's like, you're natural. And you think we get complacent because we have a natural. We see the wins. Right. But he said, if you memorized your entire speech, I promise you, you'd get two times, three times the results. And so two years later, I finally humbled out and said, okay, I'll do it. And I made over a million dollars, that speech. And so it's like the difference between making 400 grand in a speech and over a million dollars is me memorizing it.
- [30:02]
Justin Colby
Yeah.
- [30:03]
Sam Taggart
And I was like, you know, and that's one sales pitch. And I only, you know, I don't get as many shots on target as I did when I door knocked. But it's like if you had a perfect, like so good down to the how do I head nod and when do I head nod? And down to when do I pause and ask the right question or when do I make a joke? Like, I know when I have to plant a question and when I have to plant a joke and when I have to ease it up and when I have to be silent. You know what I mean? Like, if you start to like, really dial in a process that you could duplicate with your people, they're not going to naturally just know how to go wing that. Like, it's the consciously competent. And that's when I started to realize, like, I was always naturally really, really good. I was the number one rep of a multi billion dollar company. But like, I didn't know how to duplicate myself. And so my guys would get all frustrated and I get frustrated with them because, like I say what you said, I'm like, yeah, I said the same thing you did. Like, you know, oh, another fur card. Don't be an idiot. Like, that was my response, but they didn't like that response. And so I started to have to like, okay, let's build out frameworks and strategies. And I came up with different names like Inception Shovel or Intentional Loop or, you know, I built Frameworks of sales training. And then I started seeing my rookies sell more than every other rookie team in the country. And I was like, oh, my guys are pound for pound better than everybody because I started to learn how to teach them. I started to build out scripts and make them. I made a 17 step dance to my sales presentation and I made them do the dance moves as they said it. Like, I'm like, it's all 17 steps and it sounds like a lot, but I'm like, if you memorize it with dancing and a song, then you maybe remember it. And I said, don't f and skip these steps. So then it built into scripts to steps to. Now you can personalize it because you understand the psychology of why I built the script and why I built the steps the way I did.
- [31:45]
Justin Colby
Yeah, it's. You know, there's a skill set that most of us have as leaders in this innate. And that's the challenge. It is our biggest benefit, but could be our biggest detriment because of it. Because we don't have to. I'm. I'm similar to you in a lot of respects. I'll go up on stage and I can wing it for an hour and get a standing ovation and it's great. But I didn't have a script to that hour. It was kind of the fluid way I go about what the room needs. Right. But could I. Even Myron would probably light me up in a very similar way. He'd be like, bro, what the. Like, great, that was awesome. But dude, you could have been so much better. Right. And so that is a challenge. And so I would tell everybody to really harness that if you're a business owner. Well, good.
- [32:27]
Sam Taggart
My CRO has this principle and he was the CEO of $100 million company and smart dude.
- [32:33]
Justin Colby
And he kind of.
- [32:35]
Sam Taggart
Yeah. So good recruit. Right. I'm all about recruit smarter people than me.
- [32:40]
Justin Colby
There you go.
- [32:40]
Sam Taggart
In his philosophy. My philosophy always go recruit A's. He's like, I don't want A's. He's like, it's not scalable. It's very hard to go recruit and sustain and build a scalable business on a players. He's like, I want B's and C's. To me, I was like, I don't want B's and C's. But he's like, if I can make my system so duplicatable, I can go hire way more B's and C's and train them to be. I can train a C and a B to just be Pretty good. And I can make a duplicatable thing versus an A player is going to leave you and go start his own business. He's going to get poached, he's going to always ask for more and he's going to be hard to manage. He's like, if I just say all you B's and C's are replaceable because I just have a funnel of B's and C's coming in and I know how to duplicate. He's like, that's a much better business model. And I was like, touche.
- [33:27]
Justin Colby
Well, and there's a way for them to level up, right. So when you go get the A.
- [33:30]
Sam Taggart
Player loyal, they're leveling up with you, they're going to stick. You know what I mean?
- [33:34]
Justin Colby
Yeah, that, that creates a stickiness and, and, and talk a little bit about stickiness. I think that the, the only reason why I kind of had to bow out of the door to door is I literally caught pneumonia for four months. I mean I was, it was just the winner beat me. Right? I. The door knocking didn't beat me. The winner beat me. But let's talk about stickiness because I, you know, it's funny. The people who make the most money in my organizations are the salespeople, but they're also the same people that try to leverage themselves out of being a salesperson and especially the business owner. Ironically, in the real estate space, business owners are like, oh, I need two acquisition people and I, two, two disposition people. I'm like, so you need two people to negotiate your deal on the front end with the seller and then you need two people to negotiate the deal on the back end with the buyers. So all the sales responsibilities out of your hands. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I need to do that. That's how I'm going to grow and scale and okay, I get leverage. But how much are you going to pay yourself? Because. Because your income right now is directly connected to the fact that you're holding these responsibilities. So where's that money go?
- [34:36]
Sam Taggart
Yeah. You know, and people, people don't realize that. So like this retention though, people one, they don't actually understand their margins enough to build out a leadership growth path. And I tell people like, like Alex I coached for years. Right. And it's cool. He just had an acquisition with his roofing company and they went to 150 million. You know what I mean? Like really crushing it, right?
- [35:00]
Justin Colby
Yeah.
- [35:00]
Sam Taggart
And one of the things that we. I noticed different when I coach Alex and listens versus most roofing Guys is they would pay their reps like a 50, 50% of profit. But there was no margin really for a manager, a regional manager, a vice president. You know what I mean? There is no. So what happens is you have 5,000 roofing contractors in Dallas alone. Because it's roof or owner to rep. Yeah. And there is no middle level management. So the second the rep wants to grow and develop the progress plan is go start your own roofing company. And so they've just create more roofing companies than their competitors. And so you're never going to grow if that is your model. So if you don't build in and understand that it costs money to pay the salespeople to pay the sales manager. You know what I mean? And develop that. Because most people don't understand the economics of their business because they were the commission. So then they're like, oh, my business functions great when I'm 90% of the sales.
- [36:04]
Justin Colby
Right.
- [36:05]
Sam Taggart
Because you're paying the. You're funding the business. But now when you have to fund a manager and the sales commission and the marketing spend and most of your business word of mouth and you didn't have a marketing budget. Now you're really not a business that. Does that make sense? And, and you've got to either up your price, you've got to take. You know what I mean? So it's understanding economics to go scale this thing.
- [36:25]
Justin Colby
Do you know a good friend of mine, Dustin Kakowski out of Dallas, Roofer.
- [36:31]
Sam Taggart
That name sounds familiar. Maybe.
- [36:33]
Justin Colby
Yeah, you might. He. He's incredible. He's actually in that same space Alex was at with the acquisition. So he's like on that, he's like, dude, give me 60 days, bro. Give me some like, go get it. Go get. Go get it, dog. Well, listen guys, I think you guys can see by just what we're talking about the level that Sam plays at. And if you're in sales, by the way, if you're in business, you're in sales. Let's just call out what it is. I know a lot of people think sales people are slimy or whatever you want to call us. The reality, if you're in business, they're selling something, right. A service, a product, yourself. I so get used to that. One of my friends, Dean Graciosi, who's actually going to be on the next episode, funny enough, he always said something. He said, if you're ashamed of what you're selling, you're always going to be bad at it. The best sales people love and are passionate about the thing that they're selling. And if you can align yourself with that and if you're a business owner listening to this and watching this, then align yourself with Sam. Go follow him on social media, go get his book on Amazon. He's in the top 10 salespeople in the entire United States. Know he's been coaching thousands and thousands of business owners to grow, scale, develop leadership, recruit in business. But attach yourself to the thing that you enjoy selling because you know it actually provides a value to whoever wants it. Right. I don't care if it's cupcakes, that person that wants cupcakes, you better make good cupcakes because they want the good cupcake, right? So bro, I appreciate you coming on man.
- [38:04]
Sam Taggart
No, it means a lot and thank you for your time and does listening. You made it this far, so congratulations. Go obviously subscribe if you haven't to his and we hope to see you guys on future episodes and maybe it's some event and we're excited to hang, you know, maybe.
- [38:19]
Justin Colby
Yeah, you got a couple, couple events coming up, don't you? Don't you have talk about a couple events as this will come out within some of these event dates?
- [38:26]
Sam Taggart
Yeah. So we have a sales boot camp. Usually monthly. We have a business boot camp. So if anybody's like trying to grow a direct sales org, you know, we talk recruiting, business strategy, pay, all that stuff. And they're intimate Little Boot Camps. 40, 50 business owners in a room, sales manager boot camp. So we do kind of these boot camps or two day just sprints where we just go into the tactical stuff. Like it's no fluff. There are no David Goggins speech. It's just like we have these playbooks. Here's the systems in order to implement so that you get results. And we've done, you know, eight years of those and over thousand plus businesses and 50 different industries that you know what I mean? So it's just like we'll see this rinse and repeat and we're like we just know how to get people results like quick, you know.
- [39:13]
Justin Colby
Yeah. So I come hang out come and where can they find. Should they just go follow you on Instagram or go to your.
- [39:19]
Sam Taggart
Yeah, the DDD experts.com and then you go to events. But I'd reach out, you know what I mean? Like schedule a call with one of my experts and they can do like a business audit or they can, you know, work with you on like can. Hey, my sales team sucks. What do we need to like give this a facelift and that's usually when we make the phone calls is like, yeah, our marketing spend's not going as far as it should. You know, I don't even know if my sales guys are good or not. You know what I mean? Those are the phone calls we always get. And I'm like, let me get my experts on them. And, and let's, let's figure out how to help you guys.
- [39:48]
Justin Colby
The DDD, the D2D expert, experts.com.
- [39:52]
Sam Taggart
Yep.
- [39:52]
Justin Colby
Go to the website, check out Sam, get his book on Amazon. Eat what you kill. This guy is a beast, but he's a sweetheart. He cares. He has a bleeding heart. He wants to help you guys. So I appreciate you coming on here, brother. And if this helped you guys in sales, make sure you share it with at least two of your friends. So everyone you know knows Sam. Appreciate you guys. We'll see you on the next episode.
- [40:13]
Sam Taggart
Appreciate it.
- [40:14]
Grainger Representative
Justin, if you work in quality control at a candy factory, you know strict safety regulations come with the job. It's why you partner with Grainger. Grainger helps you find the high quality and compliant products your business needs to inspect, detect, and help correct issues. And the sweetest part is everyone gets a product that's as safe to eat as it is delicious. Call 1-800-GRAINGER click granger.com or just stop by Grainger for the ones who get it done.