1. Believe in yourself and your product

SMcG:

And em this might sound really weird. Something popped into my head like when I was really really young I remember being I think I was at a horse show or a horse thing and my parents brought me and I was really really bored and you know all the adults were sitting around a table and I was trying to find something to amuse myself with and there was stones all over the ground and I thought I had found gold or precious stones in some of these stones and I was convincing people shit look there is gold in here, do you see that? Oh my god, look you like rings, you could make a nice ring out of this. People were just finding this hilariously funny so they were giving me 50ps and quids so I was like holy shit what just happened there, I got money. So I spent like a half an hour going around, I mean it was funny but I just wouldn’t stop. I was like how long can I get away with this. So it got to the point where my mom was like people have bought enough stones off the fucking ground so just relax and sit down. For me I think that was the first real time I could see that I was able to influence. Now some people might think that’s not a sale but actually the production of a successful outcome is what a sale is. It doesn’t always mean money, it can be a time investment, it can be influencing your kids to do their homework on time, go to bed when they should be going. These are all sales; you are selling your ideas, your concepts to people. So that was probably the first idea I had that I could influence and make that come about.

DT:

Great, and do you think that stemmed from maybe watching a family member or do you think it was just something that was innate in you?

SMcG:

I have absolutely no idea where it stemmed from but I can tell you what it was founded in at the time. The absolute belief that I had found something brilliant and I had to tell other people. So if you’re telling me what’s important in sales you must believe in your product 100% and then you’re able to transfer that emotion over to another and then when you’re able to transfer that emotion and they believe what you believe then you will get a transaction.

2. The most important element from the seller’s perspective.

SMcG:

People do not buy products, people buy people!

So as soon as I read that question it was so simple for me to answer that. Let me tell you a story. I was teaching to a big chain gym and basically the brief was that the owner needed to hit a target cause he had just made a new gym, spent a lot of money. It was in the region of 12 million they spent on some of the kit out and they had a target they needed to hit. So they had to make 160,000 in sales in their first month and they had a collection of guys who had all qualified through different training providers and their sales experience was next to nothing. You know so their ability to achieve that you know they were there to write programmes and stuff but my point of view if

they’re going to be the first point of contact to your client they are going to be the first opportunity to do business and imagine they could focus a tour and structure a tour that at the end of it the customer felt comfortable saying yes. Would you not want to make the sale right there and then? He was like you are the man for me, you’re ability to do that, you just need to deliver a system that they believe in and give them the confidence that in doing it in such a way that it is going to produce a successful outcome. And I can do that! So he was like right come do it. So there I am, standing in the auditorium all this massive group of people and I had to get that point across. I had to get the point across that people do not but products they buy people. So I said to them anybody make a purchase lately in your life? Get a hand up in the audience. Ok, what did you buy? And she says I just bought a car. And I was like oh my god this is bloody perfect. As you know my whole background is from car sales and where I learned all of this is from being a Honda, Seat and Kia dealer for you know 14 odd years of my life and growing up in a family business you know around that all of my life. So I was like I could not get a better example here. So I says tell us about the experience. And this girl went into the whole experience of she went in to one dealership. She says well I arrived into the dealership and you know the sales guy he was kind of busy and there was a lot of people waiting so he couldn’t spend a lot of time with me so I wasn’t too sure about exactly what was right for me and he couldn’t really explain it and I didn’t know so I kinda left there and we went to another place down the road. And when we went in the sales man sat me down, he spent a lot of time with me, I didn’t understand a whole lot about the differences in the options so he went through them all. He got out the brochure, he showed the colours, he took me on a test drive, he let me look at it and mull it over, he let me compare a few things and when I came to pick up the car he produced me a lovely bunch of flowers, it was just amazing. Everybody was just like oh god that’s so nice and all. Right, now she spoke for about 5 minutes and I says does anybody realise what just happened there? Everbody’s stunned you know like no, no. Did she mention the word car once? And they were like holy shit, she did not mention the car. Now I swear, you know may god strike me down dead on this seat I said to her what kind of car did you actually buy? That girl was sitting scratching her head for nearly 30-40 seconds and she could not remember the kind of car she bought.

DT:

Mad!

SMcG:

So I was like, I had to say to her look did I pay you to say this because this sounds mad? But she couldn’t remember and it was on the tip of her tongue but she couldn’t remember cause that was not the important thing about her the important thing was that she found someone finally that she could trust and he spent the time needed to get her over all of her insecurities and her doubts and her fears about buying a car and made her feel comfortable in saying yes and that was a person who done that, not a vehicle. Not an inanimate object. So I said do you see my point here guys.

My point is people do not buy products they buy people!

3. KLT

SMcG:

Stop selling the product, people buy you. So that’s what the seller needs to understand and his job is to get KLT. He needs someone to know, like and trust him before a transaction will take place. You will never buy something from someone you don’t like. It just would not happen. Even, no matter how much you love the product you would never buy it. You would go somewhere else and buy it somewhere else. So this is the thing the seller needs to understand that his job is to get what you would call the 3 10’s. So on a scale of 1-10 whether they like the person is 10, so like say you know the product you want to buy, say you want to buy a BMW.

On a scale of 1-10 where do you like a BMW if you had to rate it?

DT:

I’d go 9.

SMcG:

Right a nine so it’s going to be an easy job for me to sell you the product. But on a scale of 1-10 how much do you know me, how much do you know like and trust me.

DT:

Say 8.

SMcG:

Only two scales to there.

Now the company BMW, how much do you love the company on a scale of 1-10 BMW?

DT:

Probably 7.

SMcG:

Ok so I’ve got 3 points to move there, one to move on the product and two to move on the thing and when I get to the point I’ve got all three 10’s then I got the right to ask you for the business.

DT:

Ok, nice.

SMcG:

So they need then to know like and trust you, your product and the company on a scale of 1-10 all 3 must be a 10 then and only then have I got a right to ask you for the sale.

DT:

Nice and how do you gage they are getting towards a 10? Questions?

SMcG:

You watch the buying signals. Exactly, yeah. So you can see you can watch the body language, you can hear what they’re saying, you can trial closes. Like I’m sitting here talking to you now, you’re in agreeance with me so all of the stuff. If you were sitting back in your seat and you were folding your arms and you were doing this so somethings not working right. So it’s obvious. You need to read the situation that’s happening right in front of you. You can tell! And I mean this is learned from experience through going through things and yeah of course you have to ask questions. People’s ideas of what sales men are is completely different to what high skill sales people are. I hear this all the time, oh yeah this guy is a really great talker; you’d want to hear him talking. Oh he’s unbelievable. He sells snow to the eskimos. The best sales people are great listeners. So they know the right questions to ask and they know when to shut the hell up. Right so if you’re a salesperson you should be listening and this is going back to the 80/20 rule you’ve heard obviously you don’t even need to go into that you know what it is. Really our rule of thumb is speak 20% listen 80%. So it’s the inverse. So if I was selling you at the start I would be just asking the questions then shutting the hell up, listening to your answer and listening with intent because if you listen closely people will tell you every single thing you need to know in order to close them.

4. The most important element from the buyer’s perspective.

SMcG:

What people need to understand as a seller is that people do not buy when you want them to buy, people buy when they want to buy.

So this idea of pushy sales you know like you know sort of boiler room tactics and boxing people in, see anybody… Here’s an expression which I have heard Jordan Belfort use which I thought was unbelievable. I was like I’ve got to listen. He says your job as a sales person is not to turn no’s into yes’s. It is not. Never overcome someone’s objections and force them to buy a product. Your job is to make people who are close feel comfortable saying yes. And I think that’s fantastic. So what I am saying here is people don’t buy when you want them to buy. Say I’ve got a target to hit and everybody is just going to get this thing I’m selling so when all you’ve got is a hammer everything becomes a nail. So anytime I’ve ever sold someone something they didn’t really want or they didn’t really need just because I could hit a target I have always ended up with it back. So what will happen is they will go away and they will think about it and they’ll go shit that guy sold me into this thing, ah Jesus! And that’s not good sales practice! You don’t want people to feel you pushed them into something or you structured it or manipulated it in a certain way and you can do this as sales people you can do this. You can get people in the moment to say yes and then after they think about it they go wow and they want to get out of it. Now if you’re selling cars it’s not nice to sell a car, maybe it’s 20 or 30, 40, 50, 120 thousand and then getting back. Do you want it back? Hell no so don’t try and turn no’s into yes’s.

People will buy when they want to buy not when you want them to.

5. Seek first to understand!

SMcG:

This is going to be a long story, I mean like you can tell I like to talk, I do like to talk. I hope if there is any sales people listening you guys need to listen. I make my money now from taking a lot. Ok, so you should listen. You should listen 80% of the time and talk 20% of the time. I’m kind off the converse especially when we are in this sort of a situation.

Ok getting back to the question. So, what was my best sale? So there was this day. There I am I’m in the show room. I’m the dealer principle, I’m 27 years old, I’m like one of the youngest in the UK and it was just incredible for me even to have the opportunity to get my career to that point em and what that meant was I had to remove myself from the floor at times and do other stuff.

I mean you know and that’s not always where you wanna spend your time. So there I am, I’m in the office and I could hear there’s definitely something going on downstairs in the showroom like what the hell? And then the sales manager storms up and he’s closing the door and he’s like Sean Jesus Christ and he was using worse language than that he was like … this guy downstairs I mean holy j.. I was like wow wow wow wow calm calm calm calm what the hell’s going on? And he says this ass hole has just, ah he had just ruined this poor guys day and I was like what is the problem here. So it turns out a guy walks into the showroom and he was an older gentleman ok and he was a real cautious type of person and the people who explore personalities will know what we are talking about here like the DICS method. So you get it yeah?

DT:

Yeah, dominant..

SMcG:

Influential, cautious, steady so he’s like a cautious steady person you know very.. Everything will be measured out and they’ll know everything. He found something not to his liking on this car and he was for giving it back only problem was he didn’t buy it off us and also it was 3 years old. Right so he’s telling, he’s going nuts in the showroom and Raymond is going here big lad you didn’t by the car here and by the way it’s three years old and he’s going but it’s a death trap and I told the problem to this guy and he doesn’t want to hear it and da da da da and from the sales man’s perspective he doesn’t want to hear it either he’s like what the hell you are just an annoyance in my day so he was like Sean just go down and show him out. Will you just get him out of the bloody showroom I’m gonna smack him. I says holy shit so I went down the stairs to just, all I wanted to do was understand, that was the only thing and the mindset is I just want to understand what is going on through this man’s head. There’s eh I only learnt this recently but there’s a thing from em the 7 habits of the highly successful people and one of them is seek first to understand. Ok right so and I didn’t know this at the time but that was just the mentality I went into it. Ok so I went in and I said ok so you’ve got a problem do you mind if we just take a seat so I gear shifted him so I moved him to I sat him down so I was leading him there right there and then. I sat him down and said ‘look, tell me exactly what’s going on if you don’t mind and I’m gonna listen’. And I had a notepad and I was just taking a few names should I hear anything, so right away he was like this guy is going to listen to me. And that’s really what the dude wanted. And he talked about there was this minor shutter in his car about 2,000 3,000 revs didn’t I tell you he was pernickety I mean he knew what a rev was and this

problem came in and he said ‘and it has this hesitation where the car just losses all power, all speed and I was pulling out of a junction and the car hesitated to the point where it nearly stalled and this oncoming truck nearly killed me and it’s a death-trap and I want to send it back”.

So I listened and listened and I says “ok, ok” so when he talked himself out and he’d finished and I’d listened and listened and I’d written a few things on the notes I said, ‘look I’m just going to read back what’s important to you now tell me if you will anything that I’ve missed’. Because I knew the kind of dude he is so if you tell me this and I just feed him back. I mean they were all truisms. Exactly what he said to me so he said yes, yes, yes. And I says, ‘it sounds like thought you love the jazz’ and he says ‘yes, I do, I do love the jazz, it’s a beautiful car and it doesn’t…’ and then he started to sell me on the jazz so I was thinking this guy loves the jazz. Right, ‘ok look I want to understand what is wrong with the car. I want to take it back into the workshop, I’m gonna figure out exactly what’s wrong with it and I want my top technician to look at it’ so I was like I’ making this man feel full of importance, you’re very important to me, you’re very important to Honda and I’m gonna spend the needed to really understand exactly what’s going on and he says ‘that’s just what I want and I want to know exactly what’s going on with this car’. I says, ‘I’m sure Honda would too. I mean you know what the company Honda are like. If Honda found there was a fault in their product wouldn’t they love to know it’ and he’s like ‘yes, yes, yes’. ‘And I would love to know it as someone who represents them and even just personally speaking I want to know what the hell is wrong with this car. ‘If you’re telling me you love the jazz do you see that I’m getting the 3 things do you see that?

DT:

Yeah, yeah.

SMcG:

So if you’re telling me you love the jazz. I mean I just want you to be happy and feel confident in the product again. Do you know?

So he’s like ‘that’s brilliant!”

So went out I took it into the .. I says look it was Jim McAdams was my guy, ‘find out what the fucks wrong with it will you big lad? Just take a wee bit of time will you?”

And then come out and tell me that you need to speak to me.

And he was like ‘Sean I get ya, I know what you’re at’. So I went back into your man and I says look I just want to see hypothetically speaking now Jims looking at that and I say hypothetically speaking like the problem isn’t the jazz it’s just this one and he was like ‘yes,yes,yes.’ Can I ask you when did you buy the jazz? When did you buy the car? And who did you buy it from and who did you pay? And what did you mehe….. de de de de.

So I got all the stuff I needed to know about his financial situation exactly what he was paying and everything ok and I went back in the office and I worked out something ah look I could probably get him into something similar you know I could get him into for the same payment he’s got and I know this is long ok but em so I goes to Jim what’s wrong with it? And James goes ‘look Sean there is the

tiniest hesitation at about 2,500 revs in that car, no one no human being on earth apart from that fucking would ever notice this ok.

So like you know and he says the odd Jazz does have it, he says but like there’s nothing you know we are talking about something so tiny I mean it makes no difference. So I said ‘right ok’.

So I went back out to the guy now I got all the information I need I went back out to him and I says you are absolutely 100% right Jim McAdams has put it on the machine, he’s taken it for a drive, there is a hesitation no doubt about it. Now at this stage I got to tell you we need to check this out further because Honda is going to want all this data. You know what Honda are like, right? They are reliable da da da da da. So when I see something like this we are going to have to contact the guy in Honda and I says now I hope you don’t mind I took the liberty of going and ringing a guy at Honda and telling about your unique situation. Do you know what he said he said he would put some money towards helping you to get out of that car because I think imagine we were able to get you in to a brand new jazz today for the same payment that you are paying right now I mean would that sound happy because what’s going to happen is I’m going to give a bit off money off which there wasn’t and the man from Honda is actually chippin in to make this work for you, get you out of this car cause they want to see what’s wrong and what’s going to happen is you’re going to drive away today in a brand new Jazz for exactly the same, would that be…

And he was like ‘oh my god, that would be, are you serious? And he was, and I sold the car! Ok so that so this guy came in complaining he wants all his money back and he left with a brand new vehicle. So that was the best sale I have ever made in my life and the whole team were like what under the light of god just happened there? At the end of it I didn’t really believe what happened myself. I was just chancing it.

It was just like it was just I still look back at it and just go holy shit I thought that was amazing.

DT:

It tells a lot about the story of selling as well that’s what I love about it.

SMcG:

Well this is the thing every time you talk to a customer it’s an opportunity to do business and that’s the lesson I always bring out when people are telling me about you know the customers and where they’re from and the things they have to deal with and I’m like every single time you take to them even when they’re complaining there’s an opportunity to do business. There’s always a win win there’s always a third angle like you know what I mean and it’s finding that third solution. There’s another thing from the 7 habits of highly successful people it’s like always find that third solution. Find the win win solution.

6. Marketing, sales and fulfilment for retention.

SMcG:

Going back to when I was at Honda. I mean Honda was a Japanese brand. The whole idea of Japanese business is your customer is for life. You have jobs for life. And that was the whole way, that was their vision.

DT:

Yeah

SMcG:

For Japan. And the Honda brand, Soichiro Honda, that was exactly what he wanted. Like if you worked for Soichiro Honda back in the day and you worked for Honda you had a Honda apartment block and all the Honda people lived in the same place, you know. They worked in the same place and you had a job forever.

DT:

Yeah, yeah.

SMcG:

And your thing was to build Hondas and you were so engrained in that you just loved it you live in the vision, you know!

And then they transferred that on to my father and his whole idea was to have customers for life. And this sort of thing. And create opportunities for the people round you and to bring everyone on the journey with him. So when we made sales in the car environment you’re going to come back every year to get it serviced, right?

DT:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SMcG:

Everything is retention. You want to retain your clients. What the hell! I mean if you, there’s something wrong if you’re not retaining clients. If you think about the three pillars of business you’ve got:

Fulfilment over here.

You’ve got sales here.

You’ve got marketing.

This bucket if you imagine it hypothetically being a cascade of water effect. If you’ve got holes in your fulfilment area you know no matter how good your marketing or a sales person that you are you’re never going to retain your customers. Walk away! So a one time sale I don’t know, I don’t see see the value of that.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

I think people should talk about value ladders. They should have low barrier entries and ways you can get in to something that would be ascending so you have places for people to go because people if you have a product and going into fitness and stuff like that, they want proximity to you. They want your time so the more of your time they’re getting the more, the pricier the product is going to be. It’s going to be a bigger ticket! If you think about mentoring or anything like that you know you are gonna have stuff that you can do online, very little time. Then you have stuff that you can do like seminars, weekends, then you’d have something a wee bit more personal and intimate like that and then you give like full on, you know you’ve probably heard of somebody who goes and spends time in some guys house and he sees he spends like 20 grand a day to be like I want to see what you have for breakfast dude. You know, like.

I remember getting an email from a very well known sales guy and he goes,

“Yeah Sean, I’d love to work with you. And look we will do mates rates, you know what I mean? I’ll spend a day with you for 50 G’s. 50 grand he was to spend a day with you know. To go through all the ins and outs of your company like.

So that it’s all about proximity. Now if I got value out of that am I gonna come back, absolutely! So you might say, some people might say oh what if you sell someone a really big ticket – that’s not a once off sale because if you deliver an experience that is unbelievable, people are gonna keep coming back for more. So why the hell wouldn’t you build a business model that has built in retention of clients. And if you don’t then you need to look at you value ladder and say why are my clients…

It’s cause you don’t have something to offer.

Ok, so you need to look at how people get into your business, what experience they get when they come on one of those things and then how they can elevate that for the people who want to spend more time or more money with you.

Remember when you sold a client, what their saying is I know and I like and I trust you and I love your shit. So they’re gonna say have you anymore of your shit? What else have you got?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Looking on one other stuff why are you buying..

They call it the Disney thing where you get something and there’s the anatomical figures, there’s the comic books, there’s the things de do doo and the thing and the thing and cradle to grave.

So that is the idea. You need to have people cradle to grave.

That would be the perfect business model if you had that.

7. Your Vision Drives Performance

DT:

“So I put my house on the line to move to Dublin when I had zero students, I slept on the gym floor and didn’t have petrol money to visit my pregnant partner in Belfast. I even missed out on being there during the birth of my second son. So my question to that is how did you use this pressure as a positive to go out and set up your own project selling into the personal training industry?

SMcG:

Ok, alright so if I’m listening to you correctly it’s like this must have been a driver for you and then you used that in some way to empower me or to drive me forward and give me like yeah, ok.

DT:

Definitely.

SMcG:

Ok, well I see, well I need to tell where that comes from. So basically I had engaged a marketing company way back in the day to build me a website and they sat down and they listened to me and that was something they came across and then was like wow that’s maybe a sacrifice or something. Whereas it was just, that’s just what happened. It just happened to be like that. Now, what was driving me forward? Back then I didn’t see any of those things as negative things. Whatever it took to get my vision to come true I just did it and I never thought twice about it.

And back then I had absolutely no thoughts of failure at all. In my mind it was impossible for me not to succeed. So what I’m saying is like I went through the Personal Training cert thing and I seen how to make or get a good level of clients and get results and people love training with me and I love the whole experience of it and it was brilliant.

But I’d seen other opportunities and something presented itself and that meant you know that I could actually change the way fitness education was done .

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

So I had this ability, I have like these ideas because when I did my personal training cert I mean I walked out of the place and the door closed behind me and I had my name on a cert but I had no clue how to do what that thing said I was able to do. I had no clue how to write a programme, I had danced around reebok steps in low fat luminous lycra and I didn’t want to use any of that shit with the clients I wanted to train. So I was not prepared to go out in the environment. I had to learn it while I was on the job.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

So when I was like Jesus I see an angle when I started personal training. I see an angle of the fitness industry that I think everybody has looked at and nobody had seen before. And it was like at a certain time you’re good enough at that fulfilment box so back to my cascade idea of the the thing so down here this is where personal trainers spent all of their time, fulfilment! Alright? And after a certain time just reading Dan John’s never let go as good as it is, Dan John if you’re listening it’s a bloody brilliant book and you should go get it if you haven’t read it. But reading that or any other fitness book you care to mention is not going to give you one single more client. You need to spend time in pillar 2, being a better sales person. Getting more confident with it, I’m not saying you should sell like me, you should just sell like the best version of yourself.

DT:

Ok.

SMcG:

Or learn enough about sales that it’s not a problem for you anymore. Alright so your conversion rates are good. Now we have taken care of the fulfilment box we can start looking at the sales box, when we have looked at the sales box now we can start looking here and star pouring some water into this because there is not going to be holes in any of these three buckets and then you’re gonna have a good business and you’re retaining clients right? So it’s all that kind of..

DT:

Nice.

SMcG:

So then you need to spend some time on marketing. These guys have no clue, like in my showroom if you didn’t talk to the client within the first three minutes it was a fireable offence. If you spoke to a client, standed at the desk and talked through some figures and you didn’t ask for the business it was a fireable offence cause you’ve got to ask for the business, right?

It costs a huge amount of money to get a lead to walk into the showroom. The cost per acquisition of lead was huge so we valued every single person that walked through the door.

And here’s me standing with my Personal Trainers shirt, I walk in to the gym and I’m like holy shit look how busy my showroom is today. So I wanted to talk to every single person. And this person goes to me see what you’re doing your mad like. That guy trains with him, he’s never trained with anyone in his life, that girl you know he told me the reason why you shouldn’t speak to anyone in that gym because there was not going to be any business there. Coming from what I just told you you deserve to know that is complete bullshit in my world”. Right?

DT:

Ehuh.

SMcG:

So I says,

“Oh, tell me what that guy trains with again?”

He says,

“You’ve been here since it opened and he’s never had a personal trainer in his life”.

That was my first guy. I just walked straight over to him,

“Hey, how you doing? I’m Sean”.

And he told me his name was Paul and I says,

“How you doing Paul? Look, I see you’re doing abs and I just got this inroads and I sold him fucking there, right there in front of that guy who could not believe it.

Now he (Paul) trained with me for the 2 years I was working in that gym.

DT:

That’s brilliant!

SMcG:

And he (other trainer) could not believe it. So in my mind I was going like, these people don’t understand that you need to sell and you need to market and you to be able, you need to be confident enough in your ability and your power to go out and put yourself in front of people. And ask for the bloody business. Alright so I was like if I was ever doing a training provider I would teach people how to really knock off this now that I have got to grips with it and I know what I’m doing, I would need a better training provider, I could produce a better personal training course.

So, when this opportunity came up I was like I know I can do this. I had this vision of running an academy and I knew that I was gonna have the ability to stand in front of a group of students and be able to give them some seriously unbelievable education. Inspire them! If I could help them overcome some of their obstacles and then use this course as a springboard to live the kind of lifestyle they want I was like that for me is exactly what I wanted to do.

And as I told you like through my career that’s what we were doing. It was sales I was teaching constantly constantly constantly. New sales people when they come on board and when you seen that them people…

The only thing better than getting a sales is by the way is like if someone uses my material or my stuff to make a sell, I’m like fuck yeah! That’s unreal! It’s working for you man. When I see that people are getting results from my stuff that blows my mind.

So put this into the Personal Training arena, these guys are spending all their time in one pillar out of three in their business and if they can only just open their mind to what’s actually possible when

they stop thinking about what happens if they fail, I was like fuck. If I could just show these.. Just give me the opportunity.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Yeah so that ended up in me chasing that vision of having this category where I would be delivering the type of personal training education that was gonna change the way fitness was done. And I knew I had some stuff and I just couldn’t wait to deliver it.

DT:

Nice!

SMcG:

And if that meant sleeping on the gym floor and I slept on the gym floor for a year. Yes I missed the birth of my second son but my wife whenever rung her up and I told her you know like I can’t leave, I’m delivering a course here she completely understood because she understood what I was trying to do. She understood that like that was I suppose my purpose and the journey I was on and she was never and she was able to stand behind my decisions.

DT:

Nice!

SMcG:

So I suppose how did I use it as a driver, my driver was the vision that I just had to make that come true because I have to share that information with people so that was the driver!

It wasn’t like looking at that as a way like oh look at.. it wasn’t that!

I wasn’t trying to protect what I had I was trying to create what I had seen for the future.

DT:

OK

Nice!

SMcG:

Alright?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

I think too many businesses are failing because they trying to protect what they have got now instead of building for the future. It’s like this is the direction we are going in, tune up cause there’s where we are going!

DT:

Ok.

SMcG:

So whatever that shit was. I can’t even remember. I don’t even know how the hell I did it looking back and hearing you say that, you’ve picked that up off the LinkedIn or something like that you know. The marketing company they latched on to that as well and yeah like I could even go on more and say Jesus Christ I was delivering 60 hours of course material at the time and then I was doing about 40/50 almost every week as I was living in all 3 boxes. I was fulfilment, I was sales and I was marketing, you know so there is a lot of people who would never be able to sacrifice that and the reason they can’t sacrifice that is because it’s a sacrifice without the vision so start with the end at mind.

DT:

Cool.

SMcG:

And then all the rest of the stuff just fucking process to get there. Isn’t it?

DT:

Yeah.

It’s good and I suppose branch off just a little bit here because we talked a little bit about self-doubt yesterday and you were saying when you have the vision you’re gonna hit speed bumps so what is the attitude to that?

SMcG:

Well and I’m going to go into another story here but when you’re getting close to your goal you’re going to get obstacles so the closer to the goal you get the bigger the obstacles become so if you’re getting obstacles just know that you are fucking close and keep going, persist! Persist! Because that’s good, I say that’s a good thing. If there’s obstacles UM that’s teaching you what you need to know right now for yourself to overcome. Those are lessons I think. Now, I’ll tell you a for instance. There was a guy who came through the academy and he actually started working for me an stuff and he was launching his own gym and he came into me and I could just see in his face he was just aw shit. I was like what the hell is wrong and he was like,

“Fucking this and this…”

He was telling me all these things and I said exactly that to him. I just said,

“Do you know what? See the closer you get to your goal the bigger the obstacles become so if you’re getting that sort of shit there just now that you are close. And it was like wow.

Like you ever see. You know those driven kind of people they just need something to break through that limit of people. Just like give them a positive spin on things and the power they just go again. That was the thing that he needed to here at the perfect time.

That I just told that to him and he was like holy shit. McGarrity, you’re like Yoda. Hahahaha

We were both laughing.

But he went out and he was just recharged.

DT:

That’s brilliant. Framing! It’s about how you gave him a new outlook on the situation. So his framing of the situation changed.

SMcG:

Breaking a belief and reframing it with a new one. Well exactly, yeah, positive!

7 Part 2 – Vision to work through ugly zone

7. Vision Part 2 – it helps you get in the ugly zone.

DT:

Em in your sales video online you come across very assertive.

SMcG:

Ok!

DT:

How important is this in sales?

SMcG:

Coming across assertive…

Well yeah look back to the start.

You’ve got to be perceived as the expert.

You’ve.

And perception is really everything and especially if you probably don’t know this I’m not a great guy on a video, see those video like I’m actually shitting myself on video…

I hate putting myself out there on the internet. I’m not that kind of guy. I’m probably a more private guy than I come across as.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Outside of the zone, you know what I mean?

So like I’m not the kind of person you know who likes to brag or likes to take pictures of my car and my house and all that sort of stuff.

I’m just not that, my family life is my family life, I’m not used to sharing all that stuff so going and to a video and sticking out, at the start I was like wow how, what? Are you serious?

You know so that was learned. So if I come across assertive in that you’ve gotta know that I was acting as if. I was fucking winging it.

Alright?

DT:

Yeah!

SMcG:

So if I can do that and you perceive me as being assertive then Jesus you need to start doing it because you could do much better than me than I can.

I think I’m awful on video. Maybe you’re your own worse critic.

So I mean you’re saying I came across assertive in the video and what else did you say there?

DT:

That was it just that that presence was assertive so just confident you know.

SMcG:

So you’re thinking I come across as confident in that.

DT:

Absolutely, yeah!

SMcG:

Well at the end of the day I’m talking about my topic aren’t I?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

So I’m talking about what I’m passionate again. It all boils down you know why are you doing this? Why are you doing this? So like I used to ask myself this question – how much on a scale of 1-10 do I want to shoot this video? Minus 50. Minus 50.

And I would rather shave my legs than shoot this video.

I hated it!

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

But how much on a scale of 1-10 do I want to help someone overcome their fear of failure. 10.

Like 10!

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

And I focus on that.

And I’m like shooting this video is going to help and I’m like I’m gonna do it!

Fuck yeah!

I’m gonna do it then.

Ok?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

So I was absolutely and this is going back to my vision, what’s my vision?

My vision is to help people realize what they could achieve if they weren’t afraid to fail!

So I wanted to start thinking a wee bit different about things and really start removing that fear of failure.

Like let me ask you this have you ever been afraid of failing at something?

DT:

Absolutely, yeah.

SMcG:

Yeah, ok.

And what does it make you do?

DT:

I’m thinking to a last minute free kick in football.

You just…

SMcG:

You don’t perform, you just don’t do it. Don’t you?

DT:

It could be shaking, the goals could seem like they are getting smaller you know..

SMcG:

Ok so this is a sporting thing. But you’ve got to walk on the pitch don’t you?

I mean if you were so so fearful would you ever walk on the pitch?

Would you just not even try it?

DT:

No.

SMcG:

So have you ever had a fear of failure were you just didn’t even try?

You were just paralysed by the failure and you didn’t do it then.

DT:

Yeah.

Again it goes back to football and I remember a penalty shootout, I chose not to volunteer for a penalty.

SMcG:

Just in case you were gonna to fail..

Imagine I could take away that fear of failure. Just it’s not there, it’s gone!

Like if that fear of failure, how much would you have put into that penalty shot?

If it’s impossible to fail.

DT:

Oh I would have scored it.

SMcG:

There’s the answer.

So that’s why it’s so important for me to get on and shoot those videos.

Because if I can get through to just one guy just one.

I mean I’m not saying every single person who comes onto this course here I mean I would be an idiot to say so.

And so would any university that says that every single person who gets a degree becomes a doctor.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Because there’s just not that many positions.

You know there’s way more..

And some people are gonna do something that they actually said that wasn’t right for me…

There’s all sorts of reasons why people don’t.

But for me it’s important to give the absolute all that I can in case I come across that one person who had they not had someone just giving them that springboard and letting them overcome that fear wouldn’t have gone on to be whatever it was they were going to be.

So that’s why I shot those videos because I believe in the message that I have 100%.

DT:

Lovely!

SMcG:

And even though I wanted to shoot the videos minus 10 the vision made me do it.

8. No Failed Sales

DT:

Rright Sean so we move on then to em how do you deal with rejection i.e. a failed sale?

SMcG:

Well I don’t know. A failed sale, I don’t know what that means. I mean like…

DT:

Em I suppose if you had an intention of selling a course or somebody rang you who was interested in the course and it ended up not finishing in a sale or someone came into your showroom to go back to the…

SMcG:

But there needs to be a reason why… So I mean, what happened? And then there’s something to be learned from that. So there is no such thing as a failed sale. There is lessons in everything like that. Now, a failed sale. I just can’t get my head around this idea of a failed sale, that doesn’t…

DT:

Yeah maybe it’s the wording then… It’s just when somebody doesn’t buy from you…

SMcG:

But that’s ok! Why is that bad? What are you…

DT:

Yeah exactly.

SMcG:

What you have got negative connotations about it. A failed sale.

DT:

Yeah. Yeah.

SMcG:

What the f.. What are you talking about? Somebody doesn’t buy, it wasn’t for them.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

And you just figured that out. You see yourself a lot of hassle in the long run. He could have been an ass hole.

Imagine I’d have got you here right and I hadn’t of spoken to you the way I speak to you on the phone. And I’d of get you here now and said shit piss I don’t even need and you hated that and you were turned off by that, you would have walked and asked for your money back right there and then. Wouldn’t you?

DT:

Yeah, yeah.

SMcG:

So did I waste my whole time, should I not have figured that out before? So if I have found somebody who is not right for the course I don’t see that as a failure. I’ve done myself a favour. I saved myself annoyance in the future so no there is no such thing as a failed sale, there’s getting people who are right for your business at the right time and there’s figuring out the people that are wrong at the right time too and making sure that they don’t come. Cause they are just going to give you shit reviews, they’re going to hate you do and they are going to whine and moan and nah nah nah. See all that it’s all meeeah. See look at like I can just throw that over there it’s gone.

DT:

Cool.

SMcG:

Next. There’s no failed sale. There’s no such thing as a failed sale. I hate that.

9. Stop Cold Calling

SMcG:

Why the hell are you doing cold calling? What the hell? Cold calls like this is what we used to do back in the motor trade. This was Jesus Christ, this is the outbound. Ok so this is the outbound method alright so it’s like don’t hang up until he dies or buys and don’t go home until you have heard 100 nos. Make 500 calls a day. Yeah, look I’ve been there, done that!

You know we sold cars back before there was email, back before there was the internet, back before there was any of this social media that we have today. We had written like we had direct mail pieces. We were using billboard advertising, wasting money on all sorts of magazines all over the bloody place. Tens and twenties and fifties and hundreds of thousands wasted marketing we spend and hundreds and hundreds of hours on the phone but back then that like what we did was bought lists so people would the geodemographics were specific to the sort off market we were looking for and the sector and we just rang so we had a process which we had to follow through, it was direct mail,

phone call, trying to sell appointments. So we were selling appointments over the phone to get somebody in to do a test drive and once you got a bum on a seat you got a sale.

Ok, so that was the you know in a nut shell. So basically today if you’re cold calling you have no clue you need to be doing some inbound marketing first. So there’s a way to get a customer warm before you’re ever getting somebody on the phone. So you need the customer to qualify themselves as being right for your product before you ever pick up the phone and spend some time. So cold calling, if somebody is saying they hate cold calling good, stop doing it! What the hell are you doing cold calling for? It’s fucking 2016. Get with the programme! I haven’t done a cold call since 1996 or some shit. Yeah, 1997 sorry.

DT:

Nice.

SMcG:

You know so like.. Nah that’s idiotic don’t be doing cold calls ok so somebody wanted advice cause they are shit at cold calls. Stop doing them!

DT:

Ok

SMcG:

You don’t need to do cold calls. Warm your traffic and call people that deserve to have your time and have said hey do you know what? I like what you do, I want to hear some more from you.

DT:

Nice.

SMcG:

So learn the methods to get them to that position.

DT:

Ok, can we just chat a little bit about that. The filtering, getting them warm, to getting it so they make they call or email, you mention you need a mobile number and a name…

SMcG:

Yeah well if you want to get a lead. There’s 3 things. Name, email and mobile.

DT:

Actually what I mean more is the online aspect of elite was very good so I want to talk around the psychology of that a little bit. How do you get people in that way or what’s the thinking process behind it?

SMcG:

It’s exactly the same as me standing in front of you and making a sale. It’s just the medium has changed. We’re doing it via the internet, yeah. So the process that you are bringing people through is completely the same, you’re getting to know, like and trust you. And, but there are steps that you would take and this for me coming from someone who was outbound to like all I wanted to do when I started selling you know courses and things am seeing the internet and the social media I said get me on the phone and selling whohahaha..

I was very strong and that’s what I knew. And the more and more and more I learned I was like wow wow wow there’s a way I can make these leads much much better quality. And how you do that is you take them on a slow journey so a customer’s life cycle journey. So at the very start of it where they are completely cold there needs to be something of interest that you can give them which is solving a specific problem. Here’s.. You know like 40,000 here’s what to do. That would be completely specific to whatever industry you’re in. You know like I’m in the fitness industry but if I explain it in this it can be applicable to any industry.

So what problem does your customer wake up with in their head when they wake up in the morning. What is it that and once you solve that what are their real issues with something. What you would talk about here is like a lead magnet. You know em something that solves a very specific problem in your consumer’s head.

Alright?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

And if you can do that and you give something that they really value then they will give you some details in order to receive that thing and now.. Cause once they’ve got that thing, normally it’s in eh like today everyone’s using infographics, maybe they’re doing you know like a levi by PDF, free e-books although ebooks are now everywhere, everybody is doing god damn ebooks. These are going to change over time as they become popular so you need to figure out and the media like what you use isn’t important. What’s important is the specificity so what’s the specific problem that this thing is going to solve in your consumer’s mind? And it needs to be something of valuable content so it needs to be good otherwise they’re just gonna go that’s a load of shit. I mean I’m not going to give my email address. So you give them that, now you’ve made this conversation a lot more intimate, haven’t you? Because especially if you’re sending an email. Email is a very intimate form of communication. There’s no, like you know being on the internet it’s like noise, it’s like me trying to talk to you in a night club and there’s music on and everyone else wants a bit of your time. It’s very very noisy so if I’m actually trying to sell you something I’m going to need to get you to somewhere

that is more intimate and less noise. So that’s the analogy of moving something from the internet on to email where, what can you click on an email when you’re reading it? Nothing! There’s nothing there to get you, you read my shit and you either click yes or you click no. And if you’re clicking yes, what are you saying? You’re saying I want to hear some more from you. Now when you click yes I can take you to somewhere else I can take you to something like a landing page or I can take you to a blog and on that blog if you’re spending time reading it I should be answering all the fears and objections that you have to bring you another step closer to that close because now I am building more of a relationship with you.

DT:

Yeah, yeah.

SMcG:

And you were saying like how do you gain trust? There! Now we use these things to gain some trust. This person had this solution to my problem. Holy shit! Of course I’m gonna give you my email. Give me that thing, I want that thing! They get the thing they see it and they go god I need more of this so then you say ok so now you’ve qualified, you’ve downloaded my thing. That’s step 1, hoop jumped through. Now I’m going to get you to click this thing and go here and that’s two hoops you’ve jumped through now you’re getting more trust and you’re spending more time so this is going to be lengthier, maybe it’s a webinar, it could be a straight come down see me, it could be an application form, anything!

So that there saying like and you can know get the person to qualify themselves and you ask them tonnes of questions. You can do anything you want. But do you notice that I’m in control of the sale here, I’m in control of the conversation and where it’s going.

DT:

Yeah, absolutely!

SMcG:

So it’s very important that you control the sale so whether you whatever medium or process you’re using in an inbound strategy you want to attract people, you want to convert visitors to leads, you want to then close leads into sales and then you want to delight those people at the end with your wow them with whatever products and they turn into customers then.

So the end bound methodology is attract, convert, close and delight. And you do those 4 things through whichever medium is better and my best example I could give you is imagine a relationship.

Imagine like you’re trying to see a girl you like and you go up and say “hey, can I take your number?”

Yeah, you’re not gonna go up and say,

“Hey I think we should go on our first date and on our first date we should get married and have our kids. That’s that’s weird!

That’s what too many people are doing on the internet these days. There skipping all these steps.

And you need to build this trust gradually so what you need to do is say “hey can I get your number?”

And that’s the first proc that’s the first step and that’s solving the problem.

“Hey, do you want this thing? Just give me your email and I’ll send it to you”.

And then the next step is like let’s take a first date and there’s going to be some time spent there so I mean there’s gonna be more time spent so you can use whatever’s congruent with how you deliver that and you deliver more quality content that brings them along the stages.

There’s multiple things you could do, you could have a webinar of how to or whatever their end goal is. Because you are always talking about their end goal. How you deliver their end goal.

Then the next thing we go on our second date and then so on and so forth.

Yeah you see that’s the relationship structure. You need to flow you need to follow that and you need to follow that inbound methodology of attract, convert, close and delight. And it needs to be one step at a time. You can’t skip steps. Right!

DT:

That’s great.

It matched up a little bit with your example of, the showroom example where your man came in with all the problems, you bring him into the intimate environment of the office.

10. Prepare and Practice to Succeed

SMcG:

You need to dress for the occasion. I mean like here’s me sitting in front of you know, I’m wearing my branded tee shirt, I’m wearing a pair of jeans because I’m jumping off my bike and I’m wearing gullies. I look like someone who may run a gym or work in a gym. Yeah?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Now I’m not going to say you should wear a suit. You should wear whatever the hell is the dress for your place.

You know so if you’re a car salesman you’ve got to look sharp. You absolutely do. If you’re working in the new York stock exchange you’ve got to look sharp. If you’re a wealth advisor, an accountant, yeah – you gotta look sharp.

But in here if I walked in in a suit it’s going to look all on top.

DT:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SMcG:

Isn’t it? It’s gonna look. What in the hell? That guy is only interested in my money. So like this is really this is what I wear all the time like. Well I might wear a different tee shirt.

But, do you know what I mean?

This is me!

So I’m lucky that I’ve been able to create an environment where I can really wear the stuff that I feel comfortable in. Ok so I would say yeah you should definitely dress for the occasion so make sure you look like someone I mean hey.

I’m a Personal Trainer, do I look like a Personal Trainer to you?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Why?

DT:

Cause of the sports gear on ya, you’ve got the armour fit branded gear.

SMcG:

Ok. Am I carrying a few extra pounds here?

DT:

No, you’re in good shape.

SMcG:

No so you know this is the thing so, if you look at me and I told you Personal Trainer you’d go fuck yeah that makes complete sense. You know what I mean? So I think yeah it should.. When you look at someone you say yeah you make sense.

Look and that is a bit fickle but unfortunately we do base books on covers.

And I know my mum told me not to base it – “don’t judge a book by its cover!”

But we fucking do so like I mean this is the thing you should definitely look like it and you should act as if. You should definitely act as if.

You know the important thing that you said was your body language and stuff, absolutely, it is so..

That is way more important, your body language and your posture and the tonality, the way you talk that is way more important than the words you say.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Way more important!

And the sooner people begin to learn that sort of thing the sooner they’re gonna act and talk like an influencer and then yes things will happen better because the way you carry yourself body language also puts other people at ease.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Ok so if we were to, we done this yesterday, did we do this yesterday?

DT:

We ran through, yeah.

SMcG:

So we went through some body language. I always like, we’re training a new girl in here at the minute now Ciara, Ciara Hayes and she’s fantastic and she’s like a sponge.

And I went through her all the stuff and I was like…

Look, look at the posture you’ve got!

Right?

Is mine similar to what yours is?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

It is very similar.

Your feet are crossed, you’re legs are extended, you’re arms are sitting like that.

So I just mirrored you without even knowing what I’m doing.

So the way I’m sitting in front of you has actually put you at ease, right?

DT:

Yeah, absolutely.

SMcG:

Right, so if I’m sitting like this. Is that fucking things up for you right now? That’s fucking your noodle right up.

So if I had of sat like this the whole time this interview wouldn’t have been so long right?

DT:

Yes.

SMcG:

If I was sitting with kneed apart like this way over the door, does this look like I’m interested in what you are talking about?

Now I don’t really enhance.

Just to show you, but like I don’t need to say a single word when I’m sitting like that.

You’re like “this guy does not want to be here”.

DT:

Yeah, absolutely.

SMcG:

And look, there’s all these examples of like so much percentage of communication but I I you know. All I will say is body language matters a huge amount. Huge amount!

Words can be learned, body language can be learned and I think people should definitely spend some time looking at the way their body language is.

Here’s just another for instance.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

I’ve given you about 500 of them.

Ok, what we do is on day 1 of the personal trainer course, when somebody comes here on day 1 they have to get up.

First of all I introduce myself because I welcome every student on the course. Then the course mentor he talks a wee bit.

5 minutes put them at ease. Let them know what’s going on and us standing up and speaking we say right everybody just walk up, first person come up here, introduce yourself, tell us why you are here, tell us your name, what you’re here for and something interesting about yourself.

I’ve done this with, I’ve done the sales training with Colm Callanan and we did this with those guys and that is for me to see what they behave like and it’s one of the first lessons I dealt with, everyone here needs to work on their body language, need to work on the story you tell and I started to gave them some of the things and we did do a quick body shop section or body language section em so I mean like I want to see what they’re like I mean as soon as you put somebody up in front of an audience it’s like wow you get to see what level, so when you’re put under pressure you fall to the level of your training. You ever heard of that?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Right so you can see somebody who has had zero training and you can always pick out the school teacher. Always!

We had a school teacher last time and like this guy talks all the time. There’s no problem. And I was like is he a school teacher?

And he was like, he’s a school teacher.

Or someone who’s so comfortable with doing it, there was an actor a couple of courses back. You’d wanna see the way he was doing it, he was brilliant!

And that’s great because people can start to see the differences. I mean like at the way I talk and look at the way this guy talks.

Now if you’re a personal trainer, you’re going to be in an environment where people can see what you are doing all day.

It’s like you’re standing up because people can hear the words you are saying, people can see what you are doing with clients and that can put you under pressure so they want to get to see what their gonna behave like under pressure in that environment.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Now I’m not going that to you know highlight their failings. I’m doing that so I can see where they need help.

DT:

Yeah

SMcG:

And then I can start to give them sales advice, then I start making some examples. Here’s what I always say. “Who do you remember most?”

And they remember the person with the best story.

Ok?

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

The best story wins. How do you learn, how do you pass knowledge on through generations?

DT:

Stories, fables.

SMcG:

Exactly, exactly!

And there’s a reason like. All the ones you go back over even Jesus Christ, that’s a brilliant story. There was him, the reluctant hero who fought all the romans then all the people wanted to persecute him and do you see that, there’s always this attractive character in a story and the sooner people learn that the easier it is to sell.

And selling through stories and effective story tellers become the best sales people.

And the other thing is, with the body language as well, I get to see who can tell the best story and that’s who everyone remembers. And then the people who are very uncomfortable with it start to do funny stuff with their hands and they put them behind their backs, they put them in their pockets do do do.

And they just look uncomfortable.

So it’s you know getting people over those things. And at the start yeah you’re going to try and do stuff and maybe put yourself in uncomfortable positions or scenarios in order to learn from them em.

Now, making sure because you said body language was only the second thing..

DT:

Yeah so we had posture, dress and preparation, was the last one.

SMcG:

Preparation, ok.

How do I prepare?

Em is this for a new sales person, how do they prepare?

DT:

Yeah I was thinking of it from past experience on a meeting basis this is in terms of it might be different as it might depend on the industry. You know what I mean? I was talking about an ingredients, I was coming from an ingredients background in sales where we met with clients so the prep for the meeting.

SMcG:

Aw shit yeah, look if you’re going out to a client you’ve gotta know, you’ve gotta have your background research done for that company. If you go in to that company you need to know their website, their mission statement, their core values, exactly what they are trying to achieve, their place in the market sector, their market share. You’re going to look like and absolute idiot, never ever put yourself in that position. The most prepared in that environment wins. It’s like having product knowledge, you know if you are trying to buy a car of me and you ask me a couple of questions about it or you know I have no clue about the.. What confidence does that give you in my ability to.. Are you going to trust me?DT:

No.

SMcG:

So if you’re going into a meeting, you’re gonna go out and visit customers you spend phew if you’ve got the next day scheduled with 2 or 3 appointments you’re gonna need a couple of days preparation. Learn every single thing you can about those companies especially if there is a few companies because there’s going to be work you got to do. When I started here , yeah I’d all these gyms around, I’d never seen any of the gyms in Dublin, no one knew who I was, not one person. And I had to set up myself appointments to go out and speak to gyms. So I would never have went out anywhere near a gym until I’d done all my research and sucked everything I could off the internet and this is what’s so easy for people these days, all this stuff is freely available on the internet.

So if you don’t go and prepare yourself for a meeting you’re just a lazy, like that’s just absolutely unforgivable to be standing in a meeting like I’ve had people come visit me, I’ve had people come for job get this I’ve had people come for job interviews and I said “what’s my mission statement?”

Em…

“What courses do we do?”

“Em I know you do PT”.

And I mean what am I gonna say to that person like he’s just looking at you so it’s just it’s the exact same if I go when I’m trying to sell you a product, I don’t know what the hell it is you do, all I want to do is sell a product. This guys just wants fucking money. He just wants a salary. It’s just like yeah, does he give a shit about the job, is he going to help me fulfil my vision? My mission statement? No.. He just wants paid and get the hell out of there. So it’s exactly the same with you, you’re just going to look like the only thing that’s important to you is the sale.

11. Continuous Improvement and Role Models

SMcG:

Lots and lots and lots of people.

Ok so eh sales people all of the family members that I used to work with. All of the sales people in all of the teams.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Em and in terms of like really really big people that dudes would know, Zig Ziglar is one of the people I look up to, and read some of his stuff.

Em I like Brian Tracy who’s an excellent dude for sales.

Obviously people like Jordan Belfort I think the straight line persuasion stuff is excellent.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

It’s much more, it’s his charisma and his, he’s just a fantastic speaker and influencer. And yeah I’ve had time to work with him, we’ve consumed some of their products.

Em tons and tons of people.

DT:

Does it change your behaviour being exposed to them?

SMcG:

Absolutely!

Here’s the thing.

Like I think you’ve got to be continuing your own professional development. So sales, sales is something I’ve been doing since the age of well going way back to that there..

DT:

Back to down royal where you were selling the stones.

SMcG:

So back to the that you know what I mean.

But I still study this every god damn day.

I still study sales, I still study marketing, I still study personal training because those, that, those, those are my areas, there’s always times you need to go and I will go to seminars, I will put myself in front of people who I think I’m gonna learn from all the time because when you do that you’re enthusiasm for what you do goes boom.

It’s like recharging..

Jason Kane always goes to this analogy of recharging your batteries, like when you go to all those courses it’s like wow you have the energy, there’s transference of emotion to you so there’s a good speaker will transfer all the stuff their passion about over to you and doing so they will reinstill your passion, you go out there and you’re just like boom.

Like Colm’s sitting here and he says to me all the time like Sean I might you might think I turn up at your place for some days and I don’t have an exact thing I need to learn but just being around the environment and being around you guys and being around Jason I can learn things here I can learn things there and I go back and I always make a couple of sales when I go back. Or I always change something in the business and I always get great results.

And I’m exactly the same, I need to go to these places where I’m inspired where I’m full of enthusiasm, I get a transfer of emotion, I get passion and then I come back and I do my thing better.

So it’s super important to pick somebody who is where you want to be.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

And then you know model what they do well and learn from them.

12. Emotion Based Selling

DT:

When in an negotiation over price how important is the psychological side of that?

Can it ever get in the way of a potential deal?

SMcG:

It shouldn’t ever get in the way of a potential deal if you follow the sale correctly because I mean price if you’re selling your products, right?

And you’re using tangible features to differentiate the products it will always come down to price.

Right?

DT:

Uhuh.

SMcG:

If you’re selling based on emotion and you’re getting in to the nitty gritty of why that person wants to buy that product and the problem that they have then the price is irrelevant.

DT:

Ok.

SMcG:

Always!

So there’s two things here:

1. Always qualify the customer before you get them in front of you, you know that spending your time that they have the money to invest that you are looking for otherwise you’re wasting your time.

Pre-qualification is as important as getting the right client in front of you.

So they should never be sitting in front of you at that point and then say it’s too god damn dear.

You should have figured that out before you started spending some time with them.

So prequalification is massive!

DT:

Ok.

SMcG:

Alright and again that goes back to the internet I mean like today you can have your prices can be there.

So in some places I would say it’s good to do it and in some place I would say it’s not.

So it’s just completely reliant on the scenario.

Alright?

But you can if you think it’s congruent with the selling of your product have your price there.

You know there are many many examples of places that don’t have their price on it because people don’t care how much it is.

They need it at whatever price.

DT

Yeah.

SMcG:

So what I’m saying is..

When that’s done it’s because the emotions has been transmitted where they say wow this speaks to be on a very limbic level. I just need this, I don’t care!

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

And then what will happen is when you sell based on emotion somebody will fall in love with the product they will buy it here and then they will use their head to justify.

You know?

How many times have you went and bought something..

Have you ever went into a shop and you knew you were gonna, you had some certain thing you wanted to buy and you had an idea the money you wanted to spend and then you see this thing and you go fuck look oh shit, oh shit, you’re saying that because you ah Jesus..

I just blew my budget but then you hold it and you feel it and you try it on and you go oh this is the thing.

This thing is going to do so much more things for me than any other thing.

You know and I always use a boot example because girls love spending money on shoes, I spend a lot of money on shoes too.

And I don’t wear trainers all the time.

I like spending money on shoes, no shit!

So girls love spending money on shoes and they, this is how you if you’re a female and I’ve asked them this. I’m not just being a male chauvinist here.

I ask them all the time.

DT:

Yeah.

SMcG:

Girls you went into the shop and you had this idea you’d a maybe a, you’d an outfit and you wanted to complete it with a perfect set of shoes.

Or maybe you needed some power boots. You know what I mean?

And you had an idea of what those shoes, how they were going to make you feel. Because you’re going to walk down the road and you’re gonna have guys breaking their necks looking at you.

And when you’ve got confidence you just feel like you on your best day. That’s the shoe you want.

You go into the shop, you’ve a budget in mind, you see a pair and you go yeah alright.

You look at the rail and you go oh Jesus look at the..

Then you put them on, aw shit, aw phububub

I’ve got to have these. And then you start going there above my budget but do you know what I’ve been working so hard lately I deserve these.

And look at, I mean, I mean you can not put a price on this feeling.

The way these make me feel. No other can do these.

You buy the god damn shoes!

That’s what happens every time.

Every single time. You buy the product that speak to you on a limbic level and you use your head to justify the reasons why you should have it.

DT:

Ok.

SMcG:

So when people start communicating on that level then price will never come into it.

Ok people pay me a lot of money to tell them that.

(Laugh)

DT:

(Laugh)

SMcG:

So you’ve got to sell on emotion.

And you’ve got to prequalify your people.

Stop selling what because people don’t buy whats they buy products.

Remember!

DT:

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

SMcG:

What’s the most important from the selling perspective?

DT:

People buy people.

SMcG:

Yes!

Yes!

And they buy the end result.

The end result is always described to themselves in an emotional based stuff.

DT:

Ok.

SMcG:

Ok so.

DT:

I think that’s a nice place to leave it and thanks a million for your time.

SMcG:

No problem. It’s been amazing!

DT:

Yeah, it’s been great and there’s so much to there’s so much just wealth of information in there so thank you very much.

SMcG:

Cool!

If I could just say if people want to follow me on Facebook, it’s obviously my name Sean S E A N M C G A DOUBLE R I T Y.

I am on twitter as well with the elite brand so it’s under Elite Fitness and Performance Academy.

I am on Instagram as well Sean McGarrity at elite.

And I’m on snapchat on S M G 8 4 8 after the Ducati that I ride.

DT:

Nice one!

SMcG:

So if anyone wants to follow me on there and by the way I am crazy as bat shit so you’re gonna get a whole clutter of me on sales and all that sort of stuff too.