Rachel Brenke: All right Wes, I’m so excited, so why don’t you tell us a little bit about your background, and your path to entrepreneurship. I definitely want to hear a little bit more about being a father of seven, as a mom of five, and it’s crazy, so share that with us. We’d love to hear it.

Wes Schaeffer: Well you know, I took this inaugural sales and marketing class at the Air Force Academy, so it just set me up to be an entrepreneur, except that didn’t exist.

Wes: No, I was in the Air Force. It had nothing to do with sales and marketing. I wanted to be paid according to my worth, though, so after my five year commitment, in 1997, I had a wife, we had a young baby, had another one on the way, and I jumped onto commission sales.

Wes: It was a little bit sink or swim. Sometimes, I thought I would for surely sink, but that back against the wall sales and marketing can sometimes be quite motivational. I ended up in retail sales. I ended up getting recruited into technology, right as the Dotcom bubble was bursting, so I survived a decade.

Rachel: [inaudible 00:01:04]

Wes: Oh my gosh yeah, I survived a decade of ups and downs in that, but I kept learning, kept applying myself, and-

Rachel: But your background is meteorology, so how did you make the jump? You talk about through the different progression of different positions, but how did you go from meteorology, into entrepreneur? That’s a huge jump, because you’re not doing anything meteorology-related anymore. I can’t even say it.

Wes: Say that five times, real fast.

Rachel: I know, right?

Wes: Hey, if I can look you in the eye, and tell you it will not rain this afternoon, and then it rains, and then I come in tomorrow, and look you in the eye, and say it won’t rain again, and get you to believe me, that’s the best sales job ever. I was groomed for sales.

Rachel: Right.

Wes: It really had nothing to do with it, right? It was a little bit of showmanship I guess, but yeah, it had nothing to do with it, insofar as, the skills, and the day to day, but learning how to stick with it, meteorology was actually very hard. It was all math and science, thermodynamics, three years of calculus … Good grief. Differential equations. If I had known it was gonna be that hard, I wouldn’t have gotten into it.

Rachel: And how much of that do you apply now?

Wes: Oh, yeah zero. I forgot even the foil method. We home schooled our kids, and I’m like, “I don’t know, Google it. What is this?”

Wes: “Dad, it’s only sixth grade math!”

Wes: “Well, I’m not smarter than a fifth grader, so I stopped at fifth grade, so cut me some slack.”

Rachel: Right, ask the Google.

Wes: Ask the Google.

Rachel: The Google. No, I hear you. We did some home schooling last year, and I quickly learned that I am great at teaching entrepreneurs that are adults, that are ready to do this. I am not great at teaching a pre-teen boy, who doesn’t care about math, and science, or anything not Fortnite-related.

Wes: Yeah, really.

Rachel: So, I hear you. All right, so that’s an interesting shift, meteorology, into entrepreneurship, what was the biggest, or best, because maybe your biggest may not have been your best, lesson that you learned about running business, during your time in the military? Because, I’m a military brat. My husband was Army for 11 and a half years, and my dad was Air Force for 24 years.

Wes: Nice.

Rachel: Yeah.

Wes: Very cool.

Rachel: So, a lot of lessons, but what was your biggest, or best lesson, that really helped to shape your business now?

Wes: You know, it was a few things. One is, we call it Semper Gumby, always flexible.

Rachel: Yes.

Wes: The old adage that a war plan rarely survives contact with the enemy, but you still plan. Also, when you engage, when the fit hits the shan, you revert down to your level of training, okay? You do not rise up to your potential, okay? So, how much do you drill? How much do you practice?

Wes: I learned that playing sports, when I played football in high school, played football at Air Force, and a rookie will practice until they get it right. A professional will practice until they can’t get it wrong, okay?

Wes: At the moment when the ball is snapped, you can’t be thinking about what to do. You need to know what to do. So, I talk about this like in my sales training course. I’ve got a program called, Make Every Sale, and right now, in my private group, I’ve got a guy asking a question about referrals, and what does he do when … how to contact in a business to consumer setting, how to reach out to people.

Wes: When that opportunity comes up, you can’t be thinking about, when somebody hands you their card, or when you think about asking for their card, you can’t be winging it right then. You’ve got to know how to ask for it, what the objections are going to be, how to set a firm appointment, how to determine if they’re truly motivated, or they’re just being polite, okay? Right then, you gotta know, and the only way to know that, is to practice it like crazy, and then get out and do it.

Wes: Detach, notice what happens. Sometimes things won’t go as they should. Come back to some type of mentor, or peer group, and say, “Here’s what happened. What do you think went wrong? How can I improve this?” That’s the key.

Rachel: I’m glad you said that, because that’s one of the things that I talk about a lot on the podcast is, re-evaluating, and this whole pivoting. I don’t know if you watched the show, FRIENDS. I just re-watched this episode this week, when Ross buys a couch, and he can’t get it up the stairs, and he’s yelling, “Pivot! Pivot!”, and Chandler can’t pivot anymore. There’s nowhere to go, but I always think of that. In business, you need to be able to know when to pivot to get the couch up the stairs.

Rachel: But, I love what you just said about going back to a mentor, or a space where you can ask people, and it’s so … This isn’t really a novel idea, but I’m excited that you brought this up, and we didn’t plan this, guys, but there is really something to be said for putting yourself out there.

Rachel: Wouldn’t you rather put yourself out there, in front of those that you trust, but who are also gonna give honest feedback, versus you just looking at it? Because, how many of us don’t know what we don’t know? If it’s your first time doing sales, or just interfacing with a client, you need someone else to give you an objective eye.

Rachel: We’re too filtered in our insecurities, or what we think we did wrong, which we may have done right. So anyways Wes, I’m sorry to cut you off, but I just love that recommendation.

Wes: Yeah, and yeah, I wrote a report a long time ago. I said that, the number one reason your sales are down, your stress is up, and you’re running on empty. I blame it all on John Wayne. John Wayne was not his name, right? So, it’s a made up character, and only in the movies, does the bad guy get killed with one shot. It’s all make believe. There’s not that one person that just goes out, and does it all. They need a team, to pull these movies off, but everybody, that’s what they think they’ve gotta be, the Marlboro man, or whatever, and get out there, and it’s like, no. No, it’s not gonna happen that way. You can try.

Rachel: That’s one of the criticisms that I had about going through business school. I have my MBA, and I make no bones about the fact that, there’s very little that I learned through that formal education, that made sense at the time, or even makes sense now, but that was one of the huge things that was missing.

Rachel: We did a capstone project at the end, but I was already running a business at this point.

Wes: Yeah.

Rachel: But, we never really had expertise in client or customer buying psychology, or how to talk to them, how to make the sale, how to even approach to ask for a sale. We’re so into these methods of SWOT analysis, which I do think there is some value there, but they’re so grounded into these theories, and I never felt like it was truly applicable, so …

Wes: Oh yeah, it’s crazy. It’s-

Rachel: You know, when you’re listening, and you’re considering business school, I definitely think just doing it, and getting to know people like Wes, he is the founder of “The Sales Whisperer”. You want to know sales, this is the person you need to talk to. You’re not gonna get that through an MBA program.

Wes: No, and I’ve been doing Brazilian jiu-jitsu now, for about two years, and we always make the joke, it’s like, “Well, I saw this on YouTube.” You know? You can watch one video a thousand times on YouTube, but what happens when you engage a real human being, and try to pull that move off? You’ve got to get in, and that’s why we drill against everybody, right? We’re gonna spar four to six times, in a typical day, and you’re gonna spar with older people, younger people, folks that are bigger than you, smaller than you, more agile, less agile, stronger, right? So, more skilled, less skilled, and you gotta try these things out on everybody, to create your overall strategy.

Wes: But, if you don’t just get out there and do it, you watch, and watch, and watch, it’s like, good luck.

Wes: I wrote a blog post about that, not too long ago. I roll with a guy that’s been doing this eight or nine years, very technical, and I had a certain move that was been killing me for almost two years, and I showed him, and it literally took him five seconds to go, “Oh yeah, I see what you’re doing.”

Rachel: Oh my, yeah.

Wes: And we drilled it. We drilled it for about eight minutes. Okay, that problem is now solved. You might think, well, why did you struggle with that for two years? Because, there’s four thousand moves you’ve gotta learn in jiu-jitsu, right? So, I struggle with all of them, but as I start ticking them away, and knocking off, and improving on each one, then okay, I’m ready to tackle this one now.

Wes: Yes, it had been shown to me before, but I wasn’t ready. Just like when you watch a movie a second time, or a third time, you’re like, “Where was that? I didn’t see that the first time.” You weren’t looking for it, you weren’t ready for it. It’s the same thing in business, and in life. You gotta just get out there, and keep doing.

Rachel: You know, and I think it’s interesting, because this is a great conversation, especially since we’re narrowing down, to talk about sales, and the objections that people have, when it comes to sales, you need to be able to anticipate what’s gonna come.

Rachel: You’re talking about this move, well, you learned all the other moves. You’ve seen other people do it, but even just seeing it, like you said, is different than actually doing it. I think the same thing as when you’re going through a sales process.

Rachel: So, I guess my big question to you, that many listening are like, “Oh my gosh, I hate sales, and I’m freaking out. I’ve never tested it with somebody else. I don’t even know how to test it with myself. I don’t even know how to do this. What if my customer says, “No.” What if they have a million questions? What if they don’t want to pay?” How do you keep those objections, and those fears that these entrepreneurs are feeling about a sales process, how do you keep them from becoming barriers, because they’re … At the end of the day, we may have this mission.

Rachel: Like, for me, I just want to help other entrepreneurs to be legally protected, and strategic in their business, so they can enjoy their life, right? But, at the end of the day, you’ve still gotta make a sale, because you gotta make money to live, so how do you keep …

Rachel: I guess, let’s speak to the fear thing, and then we can move into the objections. The entrepreneurs that are listening, and are feeling fear-ridden about quote unquote sales, what would you say, to help them through that?

Wes: Well, I mean, nothing happens until a sale is made, right? So you’ve got to understand that’s your role. That’s your job is to market your business and to prospect. A good friend of mine used to always say, “I’m looking for the guy looking for me.” Okay, great sales people sort, sift, and separate. You’re not closing. You’re finding people that need what you have. And so then you’re filling a need. But in the beginning it might be a little rough. You’re going to enter some situations that may not be totally comfortable with, familiar with, and all I can say is the pain doesn’t last forever. Okay? Whatever frustration you might have … the interesting thing is, when you lose a big sale, something significant like that happens, in your brain the adrenaline dump that you get actually sears that experience in your memory.

It’s the reason you’ll always say repetition’s the key to learning, but you know what? So’s adrenaline. Because the 9-1-1 attack, I mean, only happened one time. Right? But we all know exactly where we were when we learned about it. Or the space shuttle blowing up. I remember in high school right where I was watching it in the school library. When something specific happens and you don’t know how to handle it, if you don’t shy away from it, if you’re like, “Okay, how did this happen? What was the scenario? How can I either beat it or prevent it from even coming up in the future?” You will then isolate that issue and handle it forever. The nice thing in sales, there’s only a handful of objections you can ever get in any business.

The timing. Who’s the decision maker? Do they have the budget? Is it a priority right now? I mean, there’s only a handful of things. Learn those handful of things and then address them. Okay, but if you sit around thinking and worrying about it, you’re never going to memorize it. I saw something just this morning on Twitter. A guy that I follow talking about feelings and just get up and get after it. I learned this from my sales coach. It’s so true, but your actions create your feelings. Not the other way around. People always say, “When I feel better. When I feel more confident. When I have my business cards. When I have my new logo. When I re-design my website. I’ll feel like I’m more prepared. I’ll feel like I’m more of a professional ready to get out there.” No. Go out and do what professional sales people do. Go and do what professional entrepreneurs do.

Does Sir Richard Branson need a website or a business card? Or can he look you in the eye and get a deal done?

Rachel: And I think that some of that speaks of the time that you were talking about when you had to make it. There was no sinking. You could only swim. You had a wife, a kid, another one on the way and I’ve had moments like that too. I’ve shared my story on the podcast before. I didn’t have a choice, but to figure it out and make it happen. And what you’re talking about this whole wait ’til you feel like it, I look back and I don’t know if I ever felt anything more than fear. I had to make it work. But I didn’t let the fear incapacitate me. I used the fear for good to drive me to learn. What is the best way to do this? How do I ask for a sale? How do I counter the objections?

And what you’re talking about, yeah, it’s good to have a website and all this and all that, but those are often excuses.

Wes: Yes.

Rachel: So many brilliant people that I know, I’ve worked with and I’m colleagues with, that could be skyrocketing their business and trajectory, but they are paralyzed in fear and excuses. And I didn’t really intend for this chit chat for us to go down this hole, but I think it’s true. This is the fundamental basics when you’re doing anything in business, but especially when you’re trying to approach the sales thing.

Wes: Yes.

Rachel: You know, one thing that helps me with sales … because I’m not a big sales-y person. I really try to kind of approach it as serving over selling, but fundamentally it’s still selling, is I remind myself, so I’m not so afraid, that this person’s not going to be blind sighted when I ask them to buy something. They’re not stupid. Like, I’ve chosen this individual to be attracted to my business, to my messaging. They’re consuming my content for a reason.

They’re not going to be shocked when in the end I say, “Okay, are you ready to buy a contract and downloader?” “Okay, are you ready to book your session?” Give them a bit more credit than that. I don’t know. For me, that internal conversation with myself of they’re expecting the sale anyways alleviates so much fear for me. I don’t know. That’s what works for me.

Wes: Yeah. I call it close first, then present.

Rachel: Yeah.

Wes: Right? It was … I think it was the first season of Happy Days. I need to go look it up. I just found it a couple months ago, but so he’s a little older, Richie is and this girl comes over to study. They go up to his room and, of course, he likes her. He’s just kind of nervous and whatever. She just leans over and kisses him.

Rachel: Mm-hmm (affirmative).

Wes: And he’s like, “Whoa. What is that?” She says, “Look, when I do this with guys they wonder if I like them. Blah, blah. They can’t focus. We don’t get as much out of the study session. So look, I like you. Okay? Here’s your kiss. Basically, can we focus on work?”

Rachel: Love it.

Wes: He’s like, “Yeah.” So now he’s super happy. Hey, she likes me. I got a kiss. Okay, cool. Now, let’s study. So put yourself on notice. You’ve seen people … a friend of mine many, many years ago he wanted to lose weight and he always struggled. So he put a can of dog food, Alpo dog food on his desk. He told everybody, “If I don’t hit my goal in whatever, 30 days, 60 days, I will eat this can of dog food.” Okay? So you talk about motivation.

So if you struggle with whatever, asking for referrals, testimonials, whatever. When you start the engagement … it’s like, “Rachel, can I ask you something? Just can I get something off my chest real quick.” Just as we start working on things. You’ll go, “Oh, of course.” Say, “Look, I am terrible about asking for referrals and testimonials. It’s just … I don’t know. I just like doing what I do and I always think people, if they’re happy they’ll just say great things about me and it doesn’t always happen. So look, at the end when we’re done, if you’re like totally thrilled, ecstatic, if this was the best experience of your whole entire life, would it be okay if I asked you for names of some others that might benefit and get a quick testimonial from you? Would that be okay?” All right? What are you going to say?

Rachel: Of course.

Wes: You’re going to say, “Of course.” So now I’ve put myself on notice. I better deliver the best experience ever for you and now when I do, you’ll be happy to give me those referrals and testimonials. So then I’ll ask, “Hey Rachel, remember a couple weeks ago when we were getting started, blah, blah, blah. Is everything okay? Were you totally thrilled?” “Yeah, this is fantastic. I’ve been thinking about it all along. Here’s three names and you want a written testimonial? You want to give you a Google review or what?” Like, “Oh yeah, all the above.”

So get it out of the way ahead of time. Zig Ziglar used to always say, “If you’ve got to eat a frog, there ain’t no use staring at it. But if you’ve got to eat more than one, eat the biggest one first.” So just get it done.

Rachel: I love that. How can we spin that into objections? So we’ve talked about you say close first, then present, but approaching objections … what are a couple of things the audience can go and work through now? Because, I think that’s where the more fear ridden part probably is.

Wes: Sure.

Rachel: It’s not even so much asking. For me, it’s asking for the sale. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because I have the lawyer mindset and I’m ready to respond to objections.

Wes: Right.

Rachel: But objections fear the pants off of people.

Wes: Yeah, so first of all, look and see if you’re getting the same objection all the time, you’re telegraphing it. You’re inviting it into your world.

Rachel: Yeah.

Wes: As crazy as that may sound. So what’s happening is, so let’s say you and I are talking. You say, “Well, Wes, how much is your sales training program?” And I say, “Well, Rachel, my sales training program is normally $2,000.” How would you reply?

Rachel: Can I get more information?

Wes: Okay, can I get more information? Or if I say, “It’s normally-”

Rachel: Oh, normally. Oh, what is it now? Yeah.

Wes: It’s normally $2,000. Okay? And you go, “Oh, normally?” Well, it is the end of the month. Can I get a better price than that? Okay? And then people go back to their manager, “This is terrible. Our product is terrible.” Or they go to their spouse, “I’m just no good at this. I can’t get what I’m worth. Everybody wants a discount.”

It’s like, are you inviting it? Or the old high-pitch at the end. “Hey Wes, how much is your sales training?” “Well, Rachel, it’s $2,000.”

Rachel: [inaudible 00:09:21] with a question mark. Yeah.

Wes: What did I just tell you? Right? So in the back of your brain, you’re like “Hmm. He didn’t seem so confident about this.” Are you asking me, Wes? Is it $2,000? Or are you telling me? Okay. So pay attention and see are you getting the same objections all the time? If you are, you’re inviting them into your life. Okay?

Secondly, can you take that away? Can you have some type of … maybe you have a web form on your website and they opt-in. Hey, schedule a time to talk with me. Boom. They schedule a time and they take them to a quick video. Hey, thank you for your request. You got an email from me. Check your inbox. It’s going to have a link to my calendar, but look, here’s the deal. I only work with left-handed albino jockeys that play the cello. I have a one-year minimum program. It’s $2,000 a month.

So if you are right-handed, if you do not play the cello, if you do not have $2,000 a month at least, you probably shouldn’t schedule a time to talk with me. Okay. So put some caveats in there. Some disqualifiers. Okay. So now when somebody shows up for that meeting, guess what? They fit almost all of your criteria. Now you’re just having a meeting to see if there’s a fit, if there’s chemistry, to make sure they’re not a jerk or a psycho.

So that’s why I say I like to take away objections rather than overcome them. Okay? And then, sometimes you’re going to get some push back, but look, you’ve got to determine quickly is this … is it a brush off? Is it a stall? Or is it a true objection? “Hey Rachel, I’ve got this two day sales training class out here in the wine country here in Southern California. It’s going to be December 1 and 2.” And you’re like, “Oh man. We’re going to be skiing with the family. It’s our anniversary.” Okay. I can’t overcome that. You coming to a sales training is not better than your skiing vacation with your husband.

Or if it’s like, “Well, I was, you know … I usually wash the cat on the first of the month.” It’s like, “Okay, what’s going on?”

Rachel: And I don’t even have a cat.

Wes: Exactly. [crosstalk 00:11:51] It’s like, “Well, tomorrow I’m going to go buy a cat and then on the first of the month I’m going to wash that cat.” And so, then you’ve got to realize what’s going on there. Maybe they’re just not polite enough to tell you no. Maybe money’s tight. Okay? So you’ve got to be able to dig in a little-bit. Be inquisitive. If you’ve ever seen the movie … Glenn Gary, Glenn Ross. At ABC, they always be closing. And it’s terrible that, that has persisted and existed in the sales world for decades.

Because the new ABCs are Always Be Curious. Always Be Courteous. Always Be Concise. You need to be digging and saying, “What is really going on here?” And you can kind of detect it. Say, “Well Rachel, thanks for your interest. You know, look, we’ve got a couple things. I’ve got private training. I’ve got an online group training. A couple times a year we do a live workshop. Does that sound like something you’d be interested in?” “Oh yeah, yeah.” So you’re really excited. But then, we talk about price, whatever, and I start getting objections.

Then it’s like, “Okay, what’s going on?” I’m getting the price objection. Yeah, you may not want to spend the money, but there’s a difference between not wanting to spend the money or not convinced yet that it’s worth it. And not being able to.

Rachel: So let me ask you, as the person that’s making the sale and receiving these objections, would you … how many questions should the seller … I hate to use that phrase, but the seller be asking, I mean, of the person that has the objections? Or … I guess I don’t know … I don’t even know how to ask the question about questions here.

We talked about before in the pre-show that, like in law, you never ask a question you don’t know the answer to. And even then, following that advice, still sometimes your clients will answer in a completely different way. But when it comes to in the sales and you’re starting to get objections, is that a good time to be asking questions or should you have been asking it before? Like, what you were talking about like the pre-qualifications of getting people in the door?

Wes: Well, you’re always wanting to ask questions. I mean, and just like in law, right, whoever’s asking the questions, they control the conversation. But they have used artificial intelligence to analyze calls. They’ve shown that in winning scenarios it’s very close to 50/50. It’s 56/44. So far as who’s doing the talking. It’s a little more that the prospect is doing the talking. But it’s not, you as a sales person just peppering them.

So there’s more of a dialogue going on. The big issues are addressed early in the conversation. Because, let’s say you have a complex sale. It’s takes two or three or five meetings to finally get the order. The big obstacle, the big sticking points are knocked out early. I would rather hear no in the first 15 minutes of a conversation than 15 weeks later and I’ve got it on my pipeline. “Oh yeah, boss, this is closing at the end of the month.” “This is a done deal, end of quarter for sure.”

Then you find out, “Well, I’m not really the decision maker.” “Well, it’s not really in the budget.” “Well, we’ve got to get three quotes.” I want to know that early. You really got to be paying attention to what’s going on in that regard. So then when you finally get down to … in an ideal world, my customers ask me, “Well, hey, how do we get started?” That’s when I know I’ve really done it well.

Or we’ve reached the end and I’m like, “Hey Rachel, how would you like to proceed?” Now I detect a hesitation. You were confident. You were energetic. You were inquisitive. Now you’re clamming up.

Rachel: Completely different.

Wes: One of the old adages is, whoever talks next after price is discussed loses. But you kind of clam up. I’m going to address the elephant in the room. It’s like, “Rachel, what’s going on? We’ve met a few times. We’ve talked about everything. I’m detecting some hesitation. I’m detecting some uncertainty. Tell me about it. What’s going on?”

Rachel: And I love the way you phrase that because I think sometimes people are afraid to ask the questions. Maybe because they didn’t know what to ask, but now you guys do from listening to Wes. But also, how Wes just asked the question makes me the person that’s receiving the question, really feel like you care about my emotions and feelings about this next step commitment.

Instead of, “All right, are you ready for Visa or MasterCard?” You recognize my hesitation and went, “What’s going on?”

Wes: Right.

Rachel: Abiding the objections that … and to me, that’s really where the serving starts coming in. Serving sells.

Wes: For sure.

Rachel: Awesome. All right. We’ve gone through fear, paralyzing to even getting going on business, overcoming or eliminating, cutting off the objections at the pass. We covered all of that actually. And then what is like one piece of advice that you could leave with our audience if they’re faced with this sales paralyzation from fear?

Wes: Then join my class. All right?

Rachel: [inaudible 00:17:21]. You’ve beat me to it.

Wes: I mean, seriously, you’ve got to surround yourself with people that are smarter than you. So if somebody has more experience in a certain area, enlist their help. Because you’ve got to overcome it and the reality is we’re all in sales. Okay?

Rachel: Yeah.

Wes: And people, “Oh, I’m in HR. [inaudible 00:17:47].” No. We are all in sales. When you walk into a restaurant and the hostess is there, “Oh, how many people? Okay, inside or outside? Okay. Well, there’s a 20-minute wait.” They’re selling you on why you should wait. How they configure the lobby. How the menu is presented. What kind of mood lighting and music is there? What are the specials? That’s all a choreographed sale. When you go to the grocery store, go pay attention. You’ll notice that the produce is typically on the right hand side.

Because in America we enter on the right, we turn right. We get our produce and then we feel better about ourselves. So we’re more likely to buy the doughnuts and the junk food and the soda. Okay? Why is the meat and the dairy and the eggs, why are those in the back of the store? Right? Because, you’ll walk through the store to get them. Now you’re exposed to everything that’s on sale and you throw the Pop-tarts in and the Raisin Bran and the Doritos and the wine’s on sale. Why is the National Enquirer and the Cosmopolitan and the cold Coke’s and the M&Ms at the checkout counter? Why are they at the three foot level where your kids eyeballs are?

That is all 100% on purpose to increase the likelihood that you’ll spend money. So like it or not, everything is a sale. “Hey honey, where would you like to eat tonight?” “Oh, I don’t know. You decide.” That’s a trick question. I gotta ask my wife. I gotta dig in. It’s all a sale. “Daddy, can we go to Disneyland?” “Oh man.” So you’ve got to accept that. Okay? And if you do not have a sales plan, you will fall victim to your prospects buying plan. And they have them. Okay?

My wife should really be the sales whisperer and the buying whisperer. She will beat down the toughest sales person. She will work the angle. She will stay the course until she gets her price.

Rachel: Because, she’s used to you picking apart her objections.

Wes: Oh man. She’s super frugal. She got it from her dad. Shannon and her dad invented the copper wire because one time they found a penny on the ground at the same time and they fought over it and they stretched that thing and then copper wire was invented. I mean, they can make a dollar stretch.

But she’s frugal. She will do her research. And she will show up with a buying plan. And if you don’t have a sales plan, you’re going to discount.

Rachel: Right.

Wes: You’re going to discount it more than you should. More than you need to. Okay? So just own up to that. Admit it. It is what it is. So plan for it. Prepare for it. I grew up in the South. I live in California now. Earthquakes just hit. You’re like, “Oh my gosh. What was that?” Right? Hurricanes are really bad, but at least we know they’re coming. I’m not the sky is falling kind of guy when I say, “There’s a Category Three hurricane that’s probably going to go to a Category Four in the next 48 hours so if you’re in Mississippi, Alabama, the panhandle of Florida, get out.” I’m not a negative Nancy. I’m just telling you the truth.

Rachel: There’s the meteorologist in you coming out.

Wes: Yeah, I’m just telling you the truth. There’s a hard rain coming. Prepare. Okay? So if you’re in business, you’re going to get people showing up to negotiate. So be ready.

Rachel: Love it. I am a huge proponent of psychology books, self-help books, but sales are definitely within that as well. One of my favorites is Influence by Robert-[crosstalk 00:21:40]

Wes: Sure. Robert Cialdini.

Rachel: Yes, I don’t know how to say his last name. I always screw it up. Sorry guy. But his book’s amazing. I have re-read it multiple times. I find that it works well with sales. It works well for just marketing and just discussion and just customer service in general.

Wes: Right.

Rachel: So definitely. Big fan of that. I’ll link that in the show notes for you guys. Wes, can you let us know where they can find you, so that they can dig into all of your wonderful resources because now I’m extremely interested also in checking out your course?

Wes: Nice. Well, my website is thesaleswhisperer.com. Under products, you can scroll down and see the Make Every Sale course or just go to makeeverysale.com to see that program. But yeah, from there all my social media links are there. Contact us comes to me. You can schedule time to talk. I’m going to ask you a few questions in that. But, I am-[crosstalk 00:22:33]

Rachel: He’s going to remove your objections too, so be ready.

Wes: I am.

Rachel: Be ready.

Wes: I’m pretty easy to find online.

Rachel: Awesome. All right guys, this is going to be Episode 72. So you’re going to be grab all these direct links and contact directly to him at RachelBrenke.com/epi72 and don’t forget to jump into the Business Bytes group. We’re also going to be dropping this information into there as well. I would love to have a good discussion about the next time you enter into a sales or just to be able to get involved with others who can help to objectively critique and help you guys so you can make the best sales and remove the objections that are stopping you from business success.