Focus on breaking the cycle of 'passing the buck,' especially the prevalent 'Scott said' excuse, by embracing true decision ownership as a leader. Learn about the detrimental effects of shirking responsibility and the power of wholeheartedly adopting and communicating corporate decisions. Discover the 'disagree and commit' philosophy and how it can revolutionize your approach to leadership, promoting a culture of trust and teamwork. This episode is your guide to enhancing leadership skills and solidifying a strong, cohesive team.
Thanks for listening!
Focus on breaking the cycle of 'passing the buck,' especially the prevalent 'Scott said' excuse, by embracing true decision ownership as a leader. Learn about the detrimental effects of shirking responsibility and the power of wholeheartedly adopting and communicating corporate decisions. Discover the 'disagree and commit' philosophy and how it can revolutionize your approach to leadership, promoting a culture of trust and teamwork. This episode is your guide to enhancing leadership skills and solidifying a strong, cohesive team.
Thanks for listening!
All the blood, sweat and tears. I'm still here nothing can stop me. What's
Scott Scully:up grown nation? Welcome back to the growth show the number one resource on the planet for growing your business. Oh, yeah,
Jeff Winters:sir.
Eric Watkins:You got tired of staring at me.
Jeff Winters:The new alignment works for me, does it?
Eric Watkins:I feel a little left out. I will say, for
Jeff Winters:those of you listening, I have shifted over. So I have a direct view of the camera. And it is so much better. Oh,
Scott Scully:I feel much closer to Jeffrey.
Jeff Winters:At an angle was not good.
Scott Scully:As you know, we have put this show together to make your journey just a little bit easier. No textbooks, no theory, actionable advice, stuff we're using to get the job done. We have been off for a couple of weeks. It feels good to be back. Yeah, I actually
Eric Watkins:missed it. Totally. That's part of the way that's
Scott Scully:part of the week for sure. Absolutely. We continue to get good feedback. Heard a couple of stories recently of some clients that have closed deals using some of your sales tips. Nice job, Jeff.
Eric Watkins:Good jobs. Yeah,
Jeff Winters:that was so great. Yeah. Absolutely felt really good. That was, you know, you we do we do this. And when you're sitting in here, it's the five of us. And then you hear somebody's listening, and that's great. And then you hear somebody likes it. That's better. But then it's like they used a tip that we gave and something good happened for them. That was that's felt really good. Yeah.
Scott Scully:What's happened since last time. We went in. Watch Ryan and his band play.
Eric Watkins:Yes, we did. Yeah. Oh, wow. Yeah, I forgot about that. That was a lecture. And
Scott Scully:you know what? You know what? You gave me we did a whole thing on. Should you be out later? Oh, yeah. Yeah, we did. Should you be out later on the holiday party? Remember talking about that? Yeah. I seem to remember looking to my right. And Eric was right next to ya.
Eric Watkins:Didn't see Jeff there.
Jeff Winters:I mean, full disclosure. I had a horrific stomach flu the night before. And my wife mandated that I go home at 11.
Scott Scully:I just, I gotta go to the next topic. Yeah,
Eric Watkins:we got to keep it moving. So.
Scott Scully:And also, we would like to congratulate producer, Katie B. Yeah. For adding to the family. By the time this comes out, I think it's hopefully it's safe to share. Yeah, right now we're in the gray zone. But Danny is running around telling people so word probably is Yeah. But congratulations, gratulations Katie, for adding to the been family. That scares me a little bit.
Eric Watkins:But more beings running around.
Scott Scully:All right, we have an unbelievable episode today. Lots of great conversation to be had. But you know, we have to head over to our local sheriff. What's happening you know,
Eric Watkins:the downside when we don't do shows is people are just running amok. They are on LinkedIn. Like they just know. They know the sheriff's out of town. Like the subsidiary teacher,
Scott Scully:they're fabulous. Yeah. Oh, Minneapolis. There gonna be back. Sorry, that was bad.
Jeff Winters:We love you, Minneapolis. Were there. They will now fall back in line. They will now fall back in line. Yes, they will. They will because we're back. And we I'm telling you I say it. I feel like I say it every week. There's more content than ever. There's more content than ever. And the thing on LinkedIn too, and I'm a truth about this. People are reading it. But you don't think people are reading your stuff they are your friends are reading it. They're not commenting or liking your co workers. And I know I know this because you're reading their stuff. You know, you are you have an old coworker that post something you see that? You look at that and they're looking at your stuff, too. And you know who else is looking at me? Because that's my job as the Sheriff of LinkedIn. You
Scott Scully:like his? In his new position? He's got good eye contact. Yeah, camera. Everything's good for you. Oh, sorry to interrupt a whole
Jeff Winters:different person. All right. Truth Number one from Rachel program. This is a shout out to our account managers and our customer success managers. We don't do enough. Not enough appreciation. She says a renewal is a sale. It's not automatic. This is why customer success and account management struggles to get buy in. Others don't understand that everything we do, everything we are pursuing is a sale. And it's not as easy as you might think. Because This is a great point, we don't get to sell the dream anymore. The customer has seen the product once and all.
Eric Watkins:Love that that's a true action comes down to action. What can you do? I think about you always talked about in your automotive days, you didn't have contracts. So you've literally had to sell the client every single month to go forward. And I really think that's what you're doing. And like we have the type of product where the longer you keep the client on the better the product gets and truth. Love it.
Scott Scully:Yeah. You never know how it came over from sales to right. There's all kinds of great deals sold. And then there's a few that, that sneak by where maybe expectation expectations are high. That's like it's a difficult job. Implement somebody the way the right way. Constantly resell them on why they bought it. Right. Yeah. And just overcoming obstacles all the time, and, and getting people to have the patience to stay on something long enough to really get the benefit out of it. I think that's why the most of our sales department and we have a really good sales department. Most of them came from account management. Yeah, yeah. Like they just weren't in touch with clients to have that kind of interaction. And and now they know what clients are expecting, and so that they can do that initial sale. But I couldn't agree any more with that, that statement,
Jeff Winters:show your account managers show your success managers more love. Because they're selling to, and it's there. Right? That was an interesting point at the end. It's, it's, it's harder because they're right. They're not. They're not canceled. You can't sell the dream. Okay, this next truth, if I got everybody animated on that one that was good. This next truth comes from Charlotte Johnson. And I alluded to this earlier the power of LinkedIn. She says I closed a$55,000 deal, which was sourced from an in mail. Yes, I know. And in mail, you're probably thinking no one replies via an InMail. Right? Well, wrong. Yes, it's a saturated channel. But this quarter alone have close to 65,000 from this channel, which is funny as InMails gets so much hate Charlotte, dispelling myths, speaking the truth
Eric Watkins:over the past week, and I wouldn't say this is every week, but over the past week, I've set up a meeting with somebody through LinkedIn, someone prospecting me, yeah. And I've set up. I've responded to emails with more, with some curiosity about what they're reaching out to. I get a lot of emails, like my thing is flooded. But it's still a channel. Like it's still a channel and both of those LinkedIn and email and I know everybody wants to say they're dead. I don't think they're dead. And the more dead they are, that's less people that are going to use them and it's only going to come back. So truth. One of
Scott Scully:you two said something a few episodes back, like or maybe it was actually one of the posts that you found was channels, not dead, you're just using it the wrong way. You just need to adjust to the times. And look, there's a lot of people that that that's the main way that they bring on businesses is LinkedIn, you just have to add connections in the right way. Send the right messages. Have the right follow up processes. I love it. Like I agree.
Jeff Winters:Gotta be a truth. She actually did it. We're closing we're close. Yeah,
Eric Watkins:it's hard to it's hard to say lie there. Unless she's lying. She could be lying. She could be worth 15% of our but she's lying. We're gonna have to find out throw her in jail. For
Jeff Winters:me, we're closing like I like I've tried to say three times for me.
Eric Watkins:I wonder, is it hard to cheat?
Jeff Winters:God, really you're rusty. As I was saying, We're closing 15% of our monthly deals from LinkedIn. It's true. Oh, but they're not all true. They don't call it three truths and no lies lie. Two Truths and one line and we never forget from will hot take. If you're great at b2c marketer, you're be a great b2b marketer. If you're exceptional at healthcare sales, you'll be exceptional at SAS sales. Many hiring teams act like the difference between industries like the difference between being a painter and being a heart surgeon. If you understand sales and marketing at a foundational level, it doesn't matter what the industry or segmentation is. And then he has the gall to use that 100 emoji
Eric Watkins:100 with a flex, did he do the 100 with the flex
Jeff Winters:you guys go first? I have a very personal opinion of this. Okay,
Eric Watkins:here's what I'll say. Industry when you just take our sales and our experience you need to Know the industry is 100%? Like you absolutely do. However, I do believe there is like a top 5% of people that would go sell anything tomorrow. Like I do think there's this elite sales rep, that could sell anything. And obviously part of that eliteness comes from the aptitude to learn other industries quickly. But for example, our top sales rep was selling life insurance before. That would be what I would say have a slight truth. But overall, no, I don't think you can make that as a blanket statement. You think
Scott Scully:I'm going half truth.
Jeff Winters:You are really nodding your head? No, for a second?
Scott Scully:Well, I do think that you could be better understanding the industry. But if you are a seasoned sales professional, and you understand the sales process, I do think you can go from industry and the industry or product to product up here. Let me put it this way. I think there's a difference between selling a product and a service. How about that?
Jeff Winters:I'm going to tell you guys that story. Yes, it makes sense. Let me let me tell you guys a very personal story about a little boy named Jeff, who came out of college and sold pharmaceuticals. Pharmaceuticals do not have a contract. There's a lot in healthcare where you don't have to get someone to sign on the line that is dotted. And therein lies my issue. That is why people don't unfortunately, because it's a hard transition. That's why forever people who had contract sales wouldn't hire pharmaceutical sales reps, because he didn't have to get contract signed. But
Eric Watkins:hold on. But you saw Hold on one. But hold on. Were you good at it? Huh? Are you good at it? Here's my Were you good at your next job. I score. You're selling some different? I was but
Jeff Winters:but let me explain this, though. I sold, I sold pharmaceutical sales. Was that good at it? Probably not. But I scored the lowest in the as I was going to the contract sale, I scored the lowest in the history of the sales aptitude test that they gave me to go into that job. So like I got there. But it took me a long time.
Eric Watkins:I heard that on electric interview.
Scott Scully:I failed our sales test.
Jeff Winters:All right. Truth. What's the logo for that? What are the what's the sound for that?
Scott Scully:No, but it's it's but there's this is a big deal? I think so to product versus service, I can see it. Or I can't see it. Like that there is a there's a difference there. If someone has a lifetime to find selling cars, if I'm selling medical equipment, and I can position it against another product. And when somebody buys it, they can touch it. Feel it. That's different than selling, for instance, lead generation where people are emotional about the appointments. Are they good? Are they not good? Have I sold anything from that yet? Like selling advertising, selling a service versus selling a product? I would say those are different. And not everybody can make that
Jeff Winters:transition? Do you think one is harder than the other? So in a service, you think selling a service? By and large, there's probably some products that suck that
Scott Scully:are involved in that. Yeah, unless you have unless there's five competitors. And you're the worst by far. Right.
Jeff Winters:Right. Right. I tend to think so too. I've sold products and services. I think products are far easier. I mean, you could hit what's it like here? Take it, touch it, feel it, use it? Yep.
Scott Scully:I feel that way about our outbound and our inbound. We're providing a service in both sides. But in the inbound, where in the first 90 days, you're building a website, and someone can look at it. And and say, Oh, my God, that's great. Does exactly what I want it to do. Looks great. communicates my message. You can see it. Little bit different. Yeah. Then for sure. Like direct mail, we were selling it. And the only thing that you could see really is potentially people walking in. But if they weren't, you know, if you weren't seeing the people walking in and you did 1015 20,000 pieces of of mail and it was always you didn't send the mail or this service sucks. It wasn't about okay, you went through the first round of mailing to 15 or 20,000 people you're branding. You're doing the job. It's tough.
Jeff Winters:Yep. All right, so maybe we'll doesn't go to jail. Maybe he's like on probation.
Scott Scully:He's in. He's in a halfway house.
Jeff Winters:Back to you, Scott.
Scott Scully:That's instead of No, I just kind of is actually. Alright, good stuff. I, you know, I have a big one today. And we were nape trying to name it in the beginning of the segment here. And, you know, we came up with, Jeff came up with don't pass the buck. And this is a big one. And as I go through it, you're probably will connect to it immediately. Certainly, if you've grown and you are of a certain size. And here's what I'm talking about, when you have an initiative in your organization, and you have a layer of management, and you have them go out and present this initiative. And instead of saying, Okay, here's a decision we've made as an organization, here's what we're going to do, here's when we're going to do it, here's what my expectations are view. They say, Well, Jeff, and the company told me that this is what we're doing. So this is what we got to do. As you grow, and as managers are maybe not where they need to be from a leadership perspective, they pass the buck. Because they'll present something that isn't popular, they start to get the objections, and then all of a sudden, they'll say, they blame it on the company, because then they're in a better spot, their relationships better if they blame it on somebody else, what they've done is completely wreck your initiative, they've lost really respect from their team. And trust, in my opinion. And so this is a this is a big deal. Like you, and your leadership team isn't always going to buy into every one of the things that that is a corporate decision. And guess what? Do they get to ask questions? Why? You know, at a certain level, absolutely. But then there's going to, and then sometimes maybe is their influence? Like maybe would we say, Oh, I didn't think about that, let me do a little bit more research. Maybe you know, you're right, small percentage of the time. But then there are some words like I'm sorry, this is the decision, this is what we're doing. And then your leadership team has to get on board. But they have to get on board, and then they need to go present. What you're doing, as an initiative that the team has come up with, this is what we're doing as an organization. If they don't, it breaks everything down, and you will not grow. This is going to stunt your growth. ruin your culture. It's a bad thing. What against?
Eric Watkins:I think, first off, as a young leader, especially this is so easy to do. You have a tough message you have to deliver with your team, you know, they're not gonna like it, maybe you don't even like it. It's so easy to say, You know what, Hey, guys, we have to do this. B. And why do we have to do this? Well, because Scott said so. Right. And what you're doing is you're trading short term comfort for long term dysfunction. It feels good in the moment, your team is gonna like you, but long term, they're gonna grow a distrust towards the leader above you towards the company, and they're inevitably going to turn over, you're going to lose good people, they're not going to progress within the company, it's gonna sound something like, you know, Eric was great. Like, you were really nice manager, I really liked you a lot. I just don't agree with the company values, or something like that. And that's not, that's not how it should go. Like, that's not the best way to do it, the best way to do it, is to own the message yourself. And don't hold back with your manager. If we're rolling out a decision, if Scott's rolling out a decision, and I don't agree with it, it's my job then in there to talk to him about it. But at the end of that conversation, whether I like it or not, that's the decision. And as soon as I leave that room, it's the I'm rolling the message out as if it was my own. It's the whole John Schumacher always use this our VP of Sales here and Saving Private Ryan, there's this scene about well, what do you think when you're talking to Tom Hanks? Like, what do you think about this decision? He goes, I don't gripe to you. I gripe up. He's like, I follow the chain of command. And I think that's right. Like, there's a certain level of empathy to have with your team, but it's not in the decision making process. Like you got to commit to it.
Jeff Winters:This was a good segment for you, Eric. That was really well done. Here's Shannon Morse present you. All right, so
Scott Scully:This you to sit next to each other. I feel like maybe you could build your relationship by YouTube being close. Okay,
Jeff Winters:so this went Scotland, it's got at the outset goes no textbooks, no theory. This is not in school. This is like, there's no way you could know that this thing happens. Unless you've actually worked in a growing business. This isn't a problem. You're like, Oh, I bet in business, I theorize that one of the problems is this happens. Like, you got to see this one to believe it. And
Unknown:it's wondering, their management
Jeff Winters:class or CO No, no, and it creeps up on you, uh, you don't real this is us. This is death by 1000 cuts. Let me I want to talk about what it means to get on board. I think this is the challenge people have getting on board doesn't mean you have to agree with the decision in your heart. That ain't it? You don't have to agree with every decision in your heart be nice if you did, yeah, don't get on board is exactly what Eric described. And jet was what Jeff Bezos calls disagree and commit. Like, I think young leaders get it in their head that they have to either agree or disagree. I agree with the decision, I'm gonna carry it out. I'm going to disagree with the decision. I'm blaming him. No, there is a third option. And that third option is you know what, I don't personally agree with it. But it doesn't matter. We're going with it. That's what we're doing. Own it as your own. And make sure you tell why. Give the rationale. Ask why, tell why encourage your team to ask you why we're doing it and give them the rationale and own the rationale. That is your job. You don't have to agree with the decision in your heart. You got to roll it out like it's your own. And you got to own that rationale. Because if you get flimsy when you're going? Well, the reason we're doing it, I think is well, I guess it's you know, own the rationale. Be tight on the message. Yeah.
Eric Watkins:So this is such a big one. It's just like, hey, this happens all over the place. And honestly, I think a lot of times it happens. No, Ill Will no mal intent, like, you just don't realize what you're saying. You're just but you have to be very careful with how you go about these messages. You
Scott Scully:mentioned this before, like in home life with parents, like a dad or a mom can't say, well, your mom said, or well, your dad said because that breaks everything down. So maybe more of the audience connects with that right away, because maybe you're not of size yet where your people do that. But here's the number one way where I know that it's going on when I start hearing. Well, Scott said, yeah, when people start coming to you saying, well, this person told me that Scott said, you know, and then you know, and you gotta go take care of
Eric Watkins:it says this is a good, what I've seen some areas for development is to actually go watch these conversations happen. So when your leader needs to roll out a message, like sit in the meeting, and watch how they roll it out. And it's a really good opportunity. Because they they're not going to say Well, Eric said right in front of me, or maybe they will and I can go to NAFTA. But it's just a it these are this is where you earn your earn the big bucks as leaders, how well can you communicate these messages?
Scott Scully:Yeah, you hit on something, and then we'll get to your segment here. But don't assume that someone can roll out your initiative. Like if they're new to your organization, or if they're new to leadership, go side by side with them through the first couple and make sure that they actually know how to do that. Good point.
Jeff Winters:You did that to me. The first thing after you acquired the company, I was gonna roll something out and you were on a zoom. And I had not rolled out anybody else's decision in 10 years. I was scared to death. And I could tell it you did it. You're like, Alright, cool. This guy knows what he did I say that? No. All right, you watch though, right.
Scott Scully:Let's mine for growth goals.
Eric Watkins:Let's do it. Got here. All right. Sorry. I gotta let the axe Brianne pick it. Yeah. Did you quiet it down? Thank you. Hi. I'm yeah, just to you know, come on. I only get one section will too. But it's in
Jeff Winters:its own right. Yeah, make sure he gets those peanut butter m&ms chilled to the temperature. He likes.
Eric Watkins:Chocolate covered almonds, actually. We're gonna talk about today resisting the urge to close in the first opening that you get. So we've talked a lot about in the cold call. So we've talked a lot about the power of the longer the call duration. All of our numbers show here. The longer a call a cold call goes. The higher the close rate to set the appointment, the higher the show rate, and the higher that you actually close that business ultimately, why is that? Typically because you're getting really good info Meishan from clients, what, especially people new to the SDR role, what typically happens is you'll be having a conversation say around it. And you'll ask a question like, what's the most consistent issue you're running into with your IT? And they'll say, Well, we have a current provider, and they're doing a really good job. But, you know, sometimes they could be a little bit better communicating. And what typically happens is, well, we actually are the best communicators on the planet. And we have the best, we have a three minute response time and we'll load it up, we'd love to meet with you. Bah, bah, bah, bah, bah, right? Like, we just, we see the opening, and we just pounce. And it's really easy to do. It's like you make so many of these calls, you get hung up on you finally get in a conversation, and they have a problem. Like, are you kidding me, I got all this stuff I've been waiting to unload. But you got to stop. The analogy is if, if we're looking at the door over here, they just cracked the door, like we can't even squeeze through if we want to. We gotta love them, keep opening it. So instead of going immediately to your clothes, hear him out for a second go to three questions deep. So they're not communicating with you. That sounds weird. But tell me a little bit about that. Well, last Friday, you know, we had a problem. And you know, the problem was pretty significant. But instead of getting back to us at lunch, they didn't get back to us till Saturday. Go a little bit further, oh, until Saturday had that impacts your business? Oh, well, we were down for four hours. And you know, our employees need to be up and running. Boom. Now, if I'm going on that sales meeting, I would have liked to have a meeting with a provider that's not communicating well, but I'm gonna love to have a meeting with somebody who made them sit for four hours and weren't able to work. So just go to questions deeper, just every single time you get the opening, go to questions deeper.
Scott Scully:I want to add to that, I don't want to cancel your two questions. But I want to say something that I learned and I actually learned it over a weekend seminar about relationships. And I've talked about this before, but the whole exercise is repeating what you just heard. So okay, so what I understand is they could be better communicators. Am I right? Yeah. Okay. Is there anything else? Well, as a matter of fact, they don't always show up on time. All right. better communicators. They don't always show up on time. Anything else? I would say, is there anything else until there isn't? And then go in? Because it will surprise you? Yes, sometimes it'll be two things. Yeah, we're only that initial thing. But if you do that, maybe the third or the fourth thing that that comes out, is actually more painful than the first thing that they mentioned. And it'll, it'll just give you everything that you need to secure a new meeting. Just that I know, it sounds simple. Repeat. Is there anything else? Repeating bolt? Is there anything else? Repeat the three? Is there anything else until there isn't anything else than going? Yeah,
Jeff Winters:I'm gonna say something, it's gonna sound weird. You're going to physically feel the moment that you want to go in and close, you're going to feel in your body, like you're gonna feel your stomach, you're gonna get kind of excited, you're like body, I've seen this. So manager, your body kind of goes like this, when you're like, oh, here we go. Here we go. Here we go. So that's how you're gonna know the next time you're on the phone. And this could be in the sales process to play on a discovery call, or the first minute go, Hey, what's the problem? They go the problems this and you go, Oh, we do that. It's like, physically, you're gonna feel it, you're gonna be excited. Of course you are. Because you feel like this is the moment for you to pounce. And you have to recognize that in yourself, feel that physical excitement, set it to the side and say, repeat what they say. And is there anything else?
Eric Watkins:I just or
Scott Scully:go ahead? Well, and acknowledged. So let's just say it was they could be better communicators, and they don't show up on time. And then you don't have anything else. It's like, well, gosh, I'm, I'm sorry, I, I know that that can be frustrating. Sure, if you don't feel like you're always getting all the communication. And maybe sometimes something's down and somebody doesn't show up on on time. I could understand how that could be frustrating in your business. Let me tell you, what we try to do here to attack those two issues, because a lot of times, also, you may get those things out. And then they go right into well, we're number one in the market and your industry. They don't even go talk about those two things that were brought up. Yep. Right. Because that's not what was in the script. Yep.
Eric Watkins:And I think you know, traditional cold calling, you try to cram that Are you in your pitch, whether it be upfront or in the middle, but the goal here is you find the problem, you understand the impact of that problem, and then you close with value. So based on what I'm hearing you say, I'd recommend I set you up with Jeff. And he's going to talk to you about our five minute response time that we have for all of our clients. He's got a spot at Tuesday at three o'clock or Wednesday today, which would work best for you. And that's the, that's the key to like, wrap it all in. But I want to say one more thing. I just listened to a paving appointment, paving asphalt concrete, and they had patchwork that they needed needed in the alley. And, you know, clear problem could have just stopped and set the appointment and our rep said, you know, we also do a lot of work with parking lots as well. How's your parking lot looking? Like I said, Ah, you know, it looks pretty good. We might have a project we might need to look at that in the coming year. 11 days later, that close to $700,000 Parking Lot job from that appointment. I'm sure the sales rep did a great job on that call. But if they couldn't, if they didn't have that entryway to the parking lot, they could have gone out and Fitch fixed a couple $1,000 patchwork. It's a big deal.
Scott Scully:It's a big deal. That's this is another one of those things you could keep going on. So important here. Thank you. Jeff, what do you think? From tails from sales? perspective, by the way, didn't that what the podcast that you were Yeah,
Eric Watkins:can you talk about the podcast here just
Scott Scully:didn't wasn't said it was called revenue. From sales,
Jeff Winters:they call me tails from sales. I'm I don't want to be cocky. But the last tail from sale, I did get somebody to close the deal. A lot of pressure, high expectations. You call my podcast electric air, there was a lecture it was something for half of those who have seen. See, for those who haven't seen it, I want you to check out this recent podcast I was on and see if you can find the moment when the cat shows up in the podcast
Scott Scully:is that that's the tail.
Jeff Winters:That's clever. Like the hit the mic. Today's tales from sales is all about your pipeline. I've been doing a lot of pipeline inspection lately. And here's my guess for you for your sales reps for your sales teams. Your pipeline is artificially large, because your salespeople are not flushing out prospects who haven't responded to them fast enough. fast enough. Give you an example. Today is January 12, or whatever the hell it is. What's it what is today? 12. Just like I said, Yeah, we look at me funny. Today is January 12. I was looking at a pipeline, where the last time a prospect responded to our salesperson was in late November, hot hot. Since that time, we've tried circling back following up making the call many, many outreaches. And yet, on January 12, this prospect is still in our pipeline. You know what they're not? They're not in our pipeline. And we waited too long to move them from Yes. Which it wasn't to know. And I think people are very afraid to take yes off the table and move it to No, because they don't realize if you bring Noah into play, you will get more yeses. And so my advice is this. Do not wait six weeks to send something like the following. Hey, Eric, dropped the ball here. Because I was really excited from our last conversation thought we could add a ton of value doing XYZ services. I know we had momentum, things have stalled. Is there anything I could have done better? Or, hey, thanks again for talking haven't been able to get in touch with you the last few weeks. Why don't we backburner this for six to 12 months? You will get a response. And that's the tale from sale is this tales from sales? Is this. Do that faster? Don't wait six weeks. wait two weeks?
Eric Watkins:Yeah, I think that's the I think it's naturally as a salesperson sales is tough. It's hard to it's hard to close deals. So you don't want to when you had somebody who was interested you don't want to let it go. There's an attachment there. But it clogs up the pipeline and it prevents from the reality which is you probably need to do more prospecting to get more leads into your pipe. That's right. And that's typically the the root of why people hang on to things longer than they should agree. Good tale.
Scott Scully:Love it. Good stuff today. We are there at everybody's favorite section it's been a couple of weeks. You've got it. You I bet you've got a doozy.
Eric Watkins:I got a stash. I do have a lot, I will have to say this one's a little personal because it happened today, today. So I'm driving into work. And I'm in the fast lane. And speed limit is 65. And I'm going at probably maybe a little too fast, maybe a little too fast for Jeff,
Jeff Winters:are you admitting to a crime on a podcast? Well,
Eric Watkins:you know, a felony is what 18 Yeah, I'm still under that little misdemeanor. Anyway, this guy starts tailgating me, oh, like, close enough where you're like, if I touch my brakes, I'm probably gonna get hit. So I have a decision to make. I can pull over to the right, this is gonna be fun. And I can get out of his way. Or I can just stay exactly where I'm at. And if he really wants to go faster than 15 over the speed limit, he can go around me. And I chose to stay exactly where I'm at. And he went right around me and went in front of me. But you know, should should I have I almost felt a little bit guilty because I've been that person going at where someone's going the speed limit in the left line, and I'm like, move over to the right. But I feel like you know if I'm 15 over, what is your guys take? What should you do when someone's tailgating you in the fast lane? Should you move over? Or should if they're being obsessed are obsessive? Excessive?
Scott Scully:I have two answers to this. Yeah, one, you're in multiple lanes, and it's easy to pop over. I'm probably pop it off. But I do have a story. And it's not a good one. When when I was younger, probably 17. We were going from Waterloo, Iowa to Des Moines, Iowa to the wrestling tournament. Two lanes, you know, back road, one in both directions, right. So you have to pass somebody and have to have the room to pass. It was the same kind of thing. We're going kind of fast and somebody came up and they were like, almost touching the bumper and they were a jerk. And I was with a car full of cocky 17 year olds. So I slowed down and slowed down more. And I would slit and I was in a kind of a fast car. So I slowed down to like 20 and he's honking and then I'd speed up. And they do it again. Slow down. And we did and we're in a back road in Iowa. The guy can't do anything. He can't go anywhere. So we did this for like an hour. horrible story. So I think depends on the road is gonna end worse depends on the road or depends on how old you are. I don't know. I wasn't very nice thing to do. I'm,
Jeff Winters:I'm so I get so anxious about this. I move. I am always in the mirror looking in advance of somebody getting close to me. I don't want anyone because I have seen the YouTube videos and the Twitter videos of like you get in somebody's way and all of a sudden something really bad and they shoot you or whatever, right? Yeah, they throw a rock at my Volvo. Like I'm good. I don't I don't need that shit. I just Yeah, move over and move on hyper. Yeah, I'm moving. Oh,
Eric Watkins:I'm usually a move. I gotta be honest. I'm usually a move over. I
Scott Scully:just said Volvo, and we would have known your answer.
Jeff Winters:But I mean, do I want to conflict on the road? No, I have conflict. I don't need to.
Eric Watkins:Sometimes it's dangerous to move over that quickly though. Like your biggest risk is changing signs of an accident. I'm
Scott Scully:gonna gotta move over the right way.
Jeff Winters:Is that right? Sounds right. It sounds very right. It's
Eric Watkins:a driver's ed teacher. I believe
Scott Scully:that someone gets nervous when they're tailgating them so they don't like yeah, they don't look
Eric Watkins:they don't look like you know a part of this to say if you really want to be safe maybe you shouldn't move.
Jeff Winters:I don't drive fast. Also, as a note, yeah, I'm not interested in that. I don't want to be anywhere. I don't need to go anywhere. I'm good. I'm on my own.
Eric Watkins:Are you speed limit like the exact speed limit?
Jeff Winters:I would look up I swear to god this is true. I will sometimes Katie Do you drive them 54 miles an hour on a highway? I just not even paid attention I'm just kind of I'm in my own world and I also don't walk fast either. I have no interest in walking fast. I don't drive fast. I don't walk fast. I'm my heart rate low. Oh my God. You're not drive you're not driving a racecar driving a wagon here.
Scott Scully:I'm not going on a road trip with you or kill where you'll both be at 53 My position, you do that too. Ah, it's painful. Now she is the only one where else sit in the passenger seat and I could go to sleep and feel totally comfortable. Because she's not even going fast enough to. I shouldn't say
Eric Watkins:that I am always doing the math. I'm like, Okay, we have 139 miles left. If I go add in, it's 20 over 60, then yeah, the
Jeff Winters:math never works that gets you like,
Scott Scully:it doesn't you're not going fast enough.
Jeff Winters:You're not going fast enough. Yeah, if you're going 400 miles an hour, then it would work if it
Scott Scully:goes to 15 miles an hour faster for 10 hours that he's not going to get there fast. Right,
Jeff Winters:like increases your risk of an accident by 150%. But I
Eric Watkins:think he's agreeing.
Scott Scully:I actually don't think that speeding increases your risk of an accident.
Jeff Winters:That's an interesting take. I'd like to talk to the NTSB about that possible.
Scott Scully:Do you think that I feel like there are just as many accidents for people that are causing alarm on interstates that are going to slow?
Jeff Winters:Can we get? I don't even want to look that up. I know how bad it is. That has to be false.
Eric Watkins:I'm trying to crunch some numbers over here. And I'm really confused. But but but you know why? If you go faster, you'll get there quicker. More than five minutes. You
Jeff Winters:hear that? Ladies and gentlemen. Breaking news on the podcast. If you go faster, you'll get there quicker back to you.
Scott Scully:Wouldn't you technically get
Eric Watkins:33% versus 60s 33%? Faster? Isn't
Scott Scully:it? 20 more miles every hour?
Jeff Winters:Hang on, we got an answer from our producer Ryan, what's the answer to this? Is there a correlation between speed and accidents? All crash fatalities occurred to speed related accidents and 2021.
Eric Watkins:Well, that sounds like 71% or something else? Yeah. That seems low.
Jeff Winters:Let's dig a little deeper on that one. Yeah.
Scott Scully:How about how about? How about driving too slow?
Jeff Winters:Yeah, how many were related to driving too slow? It's gonna be like,
Eric Watkins:I bet there's no I bet that's actually thing. Why would they have those minimum speed limits?
Scott Scully:Or if you take out teenagers and older people that can't see that shouldn't have been driving 10 years ago? Or
Eric Watkins:drunk people? Yeah, yeah. All right, we've we've gotten long enough. Move over, played safe or mess with them. Play chicken
Scott Scully:if you need us, we're here for you. We'd love to chat. Love to help you in your journey to growth. Hopefully you got a nugget or two out of this episode. We love being with you. Let's grow.
Jeff Winters:Let's grow let's grow.
Eric Watkins:Debt. We have some breaking news. Katie, our producer Katie, could you please share what you what you just stated.
Unknown:Individuals who choose to drive 10 miles an hour under the speed limit are six times more likely to be in a car accident.
Eric Watkins:Individuals that drive 10 miles an hour under the speed limit are what six times six times more likely to be in an accident.
Scott Scully:I'm sure moral of the story is Jessica start speeding
Jeff Winters:drive fast take risks. Let's grow We'll be back after a quick break.