72 Austin McCulloh, How to Set the Stage for a Successful Sales Conversation

Why is opening more important than closing for success in sales? How to turn an apparent disadvantage to your advantage? 

Selling is a competitive pursuit, and it can be difficult. It can be challenging and rewarding. It doesn't need to be scary. It requires thought, preparation and habits. Most important is the mindset and self-talk. What are you telling yourself to win or sabotage your success.

Highlights from this conversation with Austin McCulloh

Rewiring your response to the word, "No"

Setting daily routines to maintain your energy levels

How to open the connection with a prospect and why this is important

How a guy only 5 foot 7 became a team leader in college football

 

Austin McCulloh, is a specialist in lead generation. He has personally made more than 16,000 prospecting contacts on Linkedin. He's helped his clients generate more than 25,000 prospecting contacts. He manages his energy levels and follows repeatable systems to build relationships and spur business growth.  

You can learn more about Austin and his services here www.mccullohadvising.com

You can also book a free, no-obligation call on his calendar at the website.

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Excerpts from this conversation with Austin McCulloh about the sales conversation:

 

I'm guessing that you gained lessons from that experience that has helped you today. And if there are one, two or three lessons from your experience playing football being a smaller guy than the rest of them, what what are those lessons that have stayed with you?

02:36

Hmm, that's a really good question. I've never had anybody actually asked me that question. The one thing that's coming to mind is, it's not always a bad thing to have disadvantages.

Now, was it a pain because I was smaller. So I didn't have the physics on my side. Yeah. But I believe life is always preparing you for where you need to go. And obviously, my intention was never or my plans were never to be in the NFL.

But because I needed to compete with these guys, much larger than I was on the football field, I had to work out harder, I had to work out more. And that taught me to be more consistent taught me to be more disciplined.

And for example, our coach even wanted to be one of those leaders who, whenever we're doing something and he was up on stage, he would always call me up to demonstrate an exercise when we were lifting.

So that taught me to be a leader in front of others of my actions, not just in my words. So I guess now that I'm an entrepreneur, and I have been for years, playing college football, especially at the size disadvantage ended up being a benefit, because it just taught me how to be consistent taught me how to be a hard worker.

03:41

And, if we talked about nothing else, Austin that that one point would probably make this interview valuable by itself.

So having a disadvantage is actually an advantage. Because you learn to get to get over the disadvantage. You learn to use it to your, your, your benefit.

And that's probably the best lesson especially when it comes to sales. Because selling anything is tough. There's you've always got competition.

Let's talk about the sales conversation. You help people improve and make their sales conversation more effective. Where does the conversation start?

04:27

That's a great question, George. So I always like to say there are four steps, okay. And I go from the first to the fourth, top to bottom for anybody who's watching.

The first point in sales is making the contact. The second stage right below that is the conversation and that's what we're going to come back to that's the answer to your question, George.

The third one is you need to set up meetings and is obviously the fourth is closing the business. So I kind of fumbled around so to recap this contact Conversation, meeting or meetings, and then new business close business.

So to answer your question, the most important one, there is the conversation. Because in today's world, it's not that hard to make a contact, especially on social media, you reach out to your family and friends, there are a lot of people who contact, okay.

When you get a meeting set, it's not as tough to make a sale. Because if you say the wrong word or their objections, we all know that it's easier to handle those actually on the call, and then closing business. Have you ever heard sales is about opening? It's not about closing?

You know what I'm talking about? Huh? Got it. A lot of people think it's about closing. So really, the bread and butter out of those four steps is in the conversation piece. And of course, I'm more than happy to elaborate on that.

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Your Intended Message is the podcast about how you can boost your career and business success by honing your communication skills. We’ll examine the aspects of how we communicate one-to-one, one to few and one to many – plus that important conversation, one to self.

In these interviews we will explore presentation skills, public speaking, conversation, persuasion, negotiation, sales conversations, marketing, team meetings, social media, branding, self talk and more.

 

Your host is George Torok

George is a specialist in communication skills. Especially presentation. He’s fascinated by the links between communication and influencing behaviours. He delivers training and coaching programs to help leaders and promising professionals deliver the intended message for greater success.

 

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