All right, hello and welcome to another Expert Insight interview. My name is John Golan from SalesPop Online Sales Magazine and Pipeliner CRM, joining you as usual from San Diego. And today I'm delighted to be joined by Dave Lorenzo, who is in Miami, Florida.

How are you doing, Dave? I'm doing great, John. Thanks for having me on today. Yeah, and Dave and his company helps business leaders open doors, build relationships, and the most important thing, make more money.

So today we're going to talk about how to make more money and be home for dinner, whether being home in time for dinner, whether that means being able to leave your home office and get downstairs for dinner, or whether it means actually physically traveling home from your office, whichever one. So Dave, what's the secret to making more money and being home for dinner? You know, the secret to making more money and being home for dinner is all about systems. So everything has to have a system, even if you're a solopreneur, you're a sole practitioner, you should have a system for refilling the toner in your printer, all the way through to onboarding a new client, to asking for referrals.

And if you're the only person in your office, like right now, I have been in this room since March 13th of last year, but I got a system for everything. So I had a system for coming on your show today, I got a little checklist that I keep off to the side of me, and I just checked off to make sure everything was working right. That's the secret.

If you've got systems, you don't leave anything to chance. Think of the airline pilot, right? The guy who's flying the airplane, he's flown hundreds of hours, thousands of hours, hopefully tens of thousands of hours before he gets on for the flight that you're taking, the next flight you take. But he still uses a checklist every time he sits down on the plane, his first officer, the person sitting next to him or her first officer, the person sitting next to her uses a checklist every time.

Why? Because we're human. So if you've got systems, you can get home on time for dinner and make more money. Yeah.

And it's interesting because a lot of sales people kind of push back on processes and systems and things like that. And they don't see systems or processes as their friends in the way that they should do, because they think it's somehow stifling them. And then they wonder why they're not making the sales that they would like to.

Yeah, that's such a good point. I was one of those people. So every new corporate initiative, I worked for big companies before I became an entrepreneur and every new corporate initiative, I was like, oh, here we go again.

This is the flavor of the month, right? The thing about that that I learned over the years is you can have your own style and this part of sales, like you and I having a conversation, your conversation with your customer, that's all you don't listen to anybody else. Use your own language, be yourself, be authentic and sell the way that you feel most comfortable. But if the company has a system for you to keep track and just jot down a quick note about what you talked about or the company has a system for following up, that's only going to aid what you're doing.

So the way I look at it is I'm a huge baseball fan and my favorite baseball player of all time is Mariano Rivera, the greatest, greatest closer of all time in the history of baseball. And they didn't bring in Rivera until the ninth inning, right? So there were other people, there was an entire process in place before they got to him. Well, the salesperson, you're Mariano Rivera, they're bringing you in to close the deal.

The rest of the team got you to the point where you are. So be happy they got you to the point where you are. Now you do your job and let everything else do their job and everything's going to fall into place.

Yeah, it's such a great point. And I think sometimes that's something that's overlooked about the fact that if you do use systems properly, if you do use processes properly, it means that you can actually focus on the value creation part of the, of the sales process. You can actually, it's the part that you want to do, not all these other pieces.

But you let all these other pieces get in the way because you don't adopt systems. Yeah. I mean, who, what, why do you, why do you need to be involved in, let's say you have a lead generation process and you have somebody putting the leads right in front of you and you're not thrilled with some of these leads.

Okay. If you're not thrilled with some of these leads, you can go to your teammate and you can say a couple of things, maybe want to try a couple of things differently because here's the right person. And here's how, if I were generating the leads, I would find that right person, you know, do whatever you need to do, but put me in front of this person and you and I will both make more money.

You can be helpful and give other people tips on how the team can, can improve. But you have to remember that each of us are human. We all have our own individual strengths.

So if you're doing something a way that works for you and somebody who's feeding you the leads or somebody who's following up for you, isn't doing what you want them to do, don't get hung up on the process. Talk to them about the outcome and they'll help you get to the outcome using their strengths. Now, when we talk about this, we can't leave out the sales manager, right? One of the things that drives me absolutely nuts is when you have the best salesperson on planet earth and we promote them to being a sales manager, we take them away from doing what they do best and we put them in a role they're ill-equipped to handle.

So we have to look at this holistically. Each person has a, you know, has a set of strengths. We have to focus on the outcome and we have to let people use their strengths to get to the outcome.

And it's great that you raised that point about the sales manager, because yeah, when you have a top performing salesperson and you promote them into being a sales manager, okay, you're now down one top performing salesperson and you've inherited probably a pretty mediocre sales manager because you've taken them from a job they excel at, you probably haven't trained them and you probably just dumped them in the deep end. And I think to your point about the right people doing the right jobs is that we have to start looking at sales management as a real, as a job within itself and realize that not everybody is going to be good at that. And sometimes the people who are going to be good at that may not be the top sales stars.

The sales manager is essentially a fireman or, you know, a firefighter. They're essentially removing roadblocks, putting out fires, keeping things out of the way of the people who are getting the job done. And the best sales managers blend into the background and nobody even knows that they've had their hands in everything because it all runs so smoothly.

But the person who's the top performer, when they get up on stage to accept that award or when they're going on that trip, who's the first person they thank? Publicly and privately, it's always the manager, but the manager was behind the scenes. You never saw the magic actually happening. When you promote the best salesperson into a management role, what you're doing is you're taking someone whose entire ego was fed by the need to close the big deal and you've moved them into a role where somebody else is going to get that credit and they can try and suppress that.

But in the end, what's going to happen is it's going to lead to two things. It's going to lead to unhealthy outcomes for that person. They're either going to go home or they're going to have to have that ego fulfillment.

They're going to have to get that somewhere else. And the other thing is when it gets to be too much, when they just can't suppress it anymore, they're going to go somewhere else and get back into a job they had that was so rewarding for them from an ego perspective. So don't do it.

I know it's tempting. And a lot of salespeople, really good salespeople will say, I don't have a future in the company. I want to be promoted.

They don't want to be promoted. They just want the recognition of being the top producer. So create two tracks in your company, create an uncapped income track for the salespeople and then carry those people around on your shoulder, recognize them, reward them, put their picture next to the CEO, let them park next to the CEO, really show them how important they are and then create a management track.

And the management people should make everything happen behind the scenes. They should make the production stuff work. They should handle the fulfillment.

They should keep everybody out of the way of the top producers. Yeah, no, I love what you just outlined there because this is a problem and not just for sales but just in general that we look on, we only have one career path in most companies. It's like you come into a job, then you're in a team, maybe you become a team leader, then hopefully maybe you become a manager and eventually become a VP.

And that is the only thing that we celebrate. But to your point is number one, not everybody can be or should be a manager. And second off is we should find a way of elevating the people who do their jobs really, really well and who it would be a crime to take from that job and push into a management position.

Sure. I mean, and when you create that track for them, when they see something they can aspire to, they're never going to want to leave that role. They're just going to want to get better in that role.

So, you know, the only career track we know now in most companies is, you know, moving up and becoming a manager. So that's what they think they have to do. If they can continue to do what they do and do it at the highest level and be recognized and financially rewarded at the highest level for continuing to grow in their role, then you're going to get lights out productivity from the people who want to do that every day.

So going back to the systems discussion, what are some of the systems or processes that a lot of salespeople overlook that you think are critically important? Yeah, it's a great question. I'm glad you asked. My favorite, and this is where we find a lot of money, is onboarding.

So salespeople are so thrilled with getting a new client that they get the new client and they sign them up really quick. They get the signature on the dotted line and then they run away. You know, I have a couple of dogs, a couple of American Bulldogs.

And one of my dogs, Enzo, whenever he does something, somebody gives him a milk bone, he takes it and he puts in the corner and then he runs away as if he doesn't want anybody to know where he just hid the milk bone, right? That's what most salespeople do. They sign up this client and they get the signature on the dotted line and they're gone. And why are they gone? Two reasons.

They're off to pursue the next thing. And just in case something happens and there's a back out, they don't want to be found, right? So onboarding is a huge opportunity that these salespeople miss. I wish we could just take it a little bit slower and focus on client lifetime value.

When you onboard a new client, you have the opportunity to ask any question you want. You want to know their ATM code? When you're bringing them on board, they'll tell you. You want to know what they ate for dinner? You're bringing them on board.

They'll tell you. You should be asking about everything from revenue to the thing that keeps them up at night to the people they're most concerned about in the organization. You should have a whole series of questions and a system for bringing this company or this person on board.

Why? Because they're going to share everything with you. And you can find second, third, and fourth opportunities to be of service. And that means more money.

Second, third, and fourth products to sell. Second, third, and fourth experiences to provide. And you're increasing the lifetime value of that relationship.

Your compensation is going to go up. The company's revenue is going to go up. That client is going to feel like they're the most important person in the world because you want to know everything about them.

And this is probably the only time you can do this really invasive questionnaire when you're first onboarding them. So every company, no matter what you sell, even if you sell cars, and I'll tell you a story about this in a sec, you should have a system for onboarding the new client. So I purchased my first car from a Lexus dealership here in my area six years ago.

I leased my cars because I own a business. I lease them through the business. So the first Lexus I purchased, the guy was amazing.

The salesperson was introduced to me by a friend of mine, and he catered to my every need. He got me what a great, he got me a great deal. At least I thought it was a great deal.

I don't know if it was a great deal, but I felt good about it, which is the key to the whole thing, right? So I leave the showroom and he calls me at one week. He calls me at one month. He calls me at three months, and then he calls me every quarter after that.

The fourth time he calls me, he says, I'm just calling to check in. And I said, look, it's been a year. It's been a year and three months.

Everything's great. I love this car. It's the best car I ever had.

And he says, if I can help with anything, let me know. And I said, you know, it's funny that you mentioned that. I'm looking for a car for my niece, but not a Lexus.

We want something safe, a Toyota or a Honda. Do you know anybody in that industry? He said, just tell me what you're looking for. I'll get it for you.

And I said, are you kidding me? He said, no. So I told him. Within two days, he sent over pictures.

I shared it with my niece. I shared it with my sister-in-law. They picked out a car.

And I said, they like this car. You know, where do we go to negotiate? He said, I'll take care of the whole thing. Tell me how much you want to pay.

Took care of the whole thing, had the car delivered to their house. OK, again, he calls me three months later. My mother-in-law is looking for a car.

Now, my mother-in-law, she needs a beater. She doesn't even need a Toyota or a Honda. We need like a used car.

And I'm like, look, you know, the guy's name was Meyer. I'm like, Meyer, listen, I don't need you to get involved in finding a used car. Just give us the name of somebody.

No, no, no, I'll take care of it. He found a great car. My mother-in-law fell in love with it.

This happened. Unbelievable. This happened, John, four times between the time I purchased my first car and the time I went back to him to get the second one.

And four different times, none of them, Alexis. He may have gotten a commission on it. He may not have.

The bottom line is he had a system. He had a process in place. He knew everyone in my family just kept calling to see how I was doing.

And in the process, four different cars. And now my niece has graduated to a Lexus. My mother-in-law stopped driving.

And we got a second car for my other niece who started driving. She drove my mother-in-law's car. The beater collapsed.

And we had to get a Lexus for her. My sister-in-law bought a Lexus from this guy. I got my second Lexus from this guy.

And then my wife, when it was time for her to get an SUV, we spent a fortune on the big Lexus SUV for her. The guy, and we're thrilled to do it because of the experience he provided. But he found out all of that information about us during the onboarding.

And he knew this wasn't just a hit-and-run sales job. He was able to sell, I think I counted up like nine different vehicles. Five of which are in his stable.

Five of which he probably got spiffed on. He got incentives on. And we're thrilled that he did it.

And I'm telling you about him today because of it. Yeah. And let's compare that with the normal experience of buying or leasing a car.

Normally you buy it or lease it, particularly if you lease it. You normally hear about, say if you do a three-year lease, maybe 2.8 or nine months later, two years and nine months later, you'll get a phone call or an email saying, oh, I see your lease is coming up. I wonder if I can get you into a new one.

But here's the thing is, Dave, is why are so many salespeople so reluctant? As you said on the onboarding part, they're so reluctant. It's almost like they treat a new customer like it's water for crystal or something. And we have to be so careful and hands-off and kind of step away from it and make sure nothing, don't even walk too hard in case it shakes the floor.

So my part of the onboarding process, there used to be a thing, if you're familiar with the Sandler sales system, the Sandler sales system used to have a, I think they called it a post-sale. And in the post-sale, Sandler, he was such a pioneer. It was such a, he was such a genius.

He would basically dare the client to back out. And he would do that to make himself feel good. He would say, listen, there's nothing, nothing's going to happen here.

You're good, we're set, right? Basically he would dare the client to back out because what he was doing is he was giving them an opportunity and he didn't do it like that. He gave them an opportunity if they were unhappy to exit from the deal. And he was doing that because that was a way for him to be transparent and to prevent the client from backing out.

That takes a lot of guts to do that. The onboarding process also takes a lot of guts, but it's a little bit gentler way of doing it. So the salesperson has to stay engaged and involved after the client signs on the dotted line.

And maybe, especially in big ticket sales, there's a rescission period like with cars or with homes or with timeshares. So the salesperson is human and the instinct is to hide and not be found during the rescission period. But Sandler taught all of us, you want to be there because if there's a chance to back out, you want to help the client feel comfortable.

And you want to show the client that, look, we're in this together. We're not going anywhere. And look, if there's a bump in the road, I'll help you get over the bump in the road.

See, we got to create a different mindset. We don't need to rush to the next sale. What we need to do is make sure not only that our new customer is comfortable, we also need to bring them along so that we can solve more problems for them, make more money over the long term.

So hang in there. 99.9% of your sales are going to stick. If there's a bump, you want to be there to help them get over that bump.

And then you want to explore what else you can do for that client. And onboarding is the perfect time. Yeah, and what I would say to people is, you know, let's be honest, when you make a purchase, there is that period of time when you feel a little bit, you feel a little bit alone, like you've made a decision, even particularly in B2B sales, right? You've made a decision, maybe you made it as part of a committee, but it always ends up getting associated largely with one person, even if there was a bunch of people involved in the decision.

And so there's that period of time when you kind of feel all alone, you've made a decision, you need somebody to be there with you to feel comfortable that you're going to be supported throughout the process. And the salesperson, the person you've had the relationship should be that person. Here's a point that you made that's critical.

And this is one of the things that I have my clients ask during their qualifying process. We ask, we first want to find out, obviously, whether they have a problem we can solve. We want to find out whether they have the money to be able to afford our services.

And then we want to make sure that they're the decision maker. And then we want to find out if there's urgency, right? So, you know, why are you making this decision now? And they'll tell you. And then you say, you know, let me ask you something.

Hey, John, let me ask you, why is this important to you personally? We're going to solve this problem, right? Your company is a multi-billion dollar company. John, why is this important to you personally? And you're going to turn to me and you're going to say, if I don't fix this, I'm done. I am out on my butt.

So I say, John, listen, I'm here for you. We're going to work on this together. Now, once you go down that road, you and John are bound.

So you can't run away from John after he signs on the dotted line. Your job is not now to sell this and then get the product or service shipped. Your job is to make sure John not only keeps his job, but that he gets promoted.

Your job is now to become a superhero working on John's behalf. But the thing that happens that nobody else does, nobody says, why is this important to you personally? And then they invest in you because you're going to invest back in me as the sales guy. Yeah, no, I totally agree with that.

And I think it's the people tend to, you know, focus in on, you know, one of the business drivers behind this, which is all important. But to your point, what's personally invested in it? Because I would say, you know, B2C sales, right? If I make a purchase, if I go out and purchase the latest, greatest TV, yeah, the downside of that may be that my wife might hit me over the head with it because she would like to have spent that money elsewhere. But in B2B, it can be career limiting, it can be career enhancing, depending on how it turns out.

So there's a lot riding on it. And I think often says people overlook, as you just said, the personal investment. I tell the story in my book, The 60 Second Sale, I tell the story about how I worked with a women's wear retail company and my CEO told me that this account was really important to him because he had worked, he had been partners with his brother-in-law, his brother-in-law divorced his sister and stole this account from him.

And the CEO came to me and said, I need you to get that account back. And if you do it in the next 60 days, I'm going to give you a huge bonus. So I had just started with the company.

I said, okay, boss, you got it. I'm going to do it. So I was looking for anybody, and this is big ticket consulting, 18 months sales cycle, a minimum, you know, million dollar deal in order to get the deal in the door.

And I didn't know any better. I had just started. What did I know? So I looked for anybody that had come to our seminars in the past and there was a mid-level HR person who had come to one of our seminars.

And I was reaching out to everybody. I reached out to her and she's like, I'm so glad you called. We're having a problem hiring and we need a hiring assessment.

Your company produces the best assessments. Can somebody come over here and talk to me about this? You know, a mid-level person, definitely not a decision maker, no control over a budget. I went and talked to her and I found out that she was tasked with this project that had visibility to the senior levels of the company.

And I invested in her and we created an entire presentation for her with data from our database. And I coached her on delivering the presentation. And she calls me the day of the presentation.

She said, look, I'm not comfortable with all this data. I think I'm going to cancel the presentation. I said, don't, don't cancel.

I'll come over. I'll sit in the other room. And if you have any questions, just excuse yourself, write the question down and I'll answer it.

So she's like, okay. She gets up the courage. She goes in, she's presenting to the CEO and the CEO's assistant comes out.

And they said, we'd like to invite you into the meeting. Just sit in the back of the room. So I sit in the back of the room and she's getting questions about the data and she turns and points to me.

I answer the questions about the data. We not only got the deal, she got promoted and she's now it's 20 years later. She is a big shot in a company that's working on, that's actually providing some monoclonal antibody solutions for COVID-19.

She's been in the press. That all started because she had the courage to do this. And I asked her that exact question.

Why is this important to you? By the way, we got the deal. I got it in under my deadline. My CEO was thrilled.

And I was just a sales guy taking a shot. But because I asked that question, I was able to help her. And I'm not responsible for everything she did in her career.

But I was there at the beginning and I saw the potential that she had. And we were so lucky that we met each other that it worked out for both of us. Yeah.

And listen, Dave, that's a fantastic story, a great way to end. But that's a fantastic story because let's face it, there's probably people who would have gone, mid-level HR person, this isn't worth my while. And probably have passed on it and you just don't know.

So all of Dave's information is going to be below this video. Dave Lorenzo from the Dave Lorenzo Company. But before we go, Dave, please tell people a little bit more about yourself.

Sure. I run a company where we help people make a great living and live a great life. Basically, I help you tailor your business to meet your lifestyle.

So that means if you're a sales executive, you can sell more and get home on time for dinner. If you're an entrepreneur, we help you build the systems to do the same, to make as much money as you want and live the lifestyle that you'd like. And for those of you who are listening, I have a very special offer courtesy of John because he's a great guy.

And I was thrilled to come on. If you go to DaveLorenzo.com forward slash sales pop, you're going to have the opportunity to get a free copy of my book. There's also a whole host of other stuff down there.

So DaveLorenzo.com forward slash sales pop, all one word, go get your copy of the free book. Enjoy yourself. You can subscribe to my daily podcast on there too.

I just really appreciate John having me on. So this is a gift from John to you. Oh, thanks, Dave.

I really appreciate that. My name is John Golden, SalesPop Online, Sales Magazine and Pipeliner CRM. I receive all for another interview really soon.

Thank you.