Ep. 7 – From Fronting a Rock Band to Sales Industry Expert and Game Changer – with Anthony Iannarino
I was fortunate to have Anthony Iannarino on the podcast this week. He’s a successful blogger, podcaster, public speaker and writer. He shares with us his wisdom regarding success, nurturing relationships, mindset, using your time wisely, and having an “other-oriented” sales outlook.
Anthony’s entrepreneurial journey is all about helping people by doing meaningful and purposeful work. He first found success in blogging with his ‘The Sales Blog’ website through consistently putting out great content related to sales and nurturing relationships with your clientele. Now Hhe’s also putting his message out through his podcast ‘In the Arena’ where he interviews successful people in the sales and entrepreneurial world.
While success is different for everybody, Anthony thinks there are a few key questions to guide you on your path:
- What do you love to do?
- What will make your life meaningful?
- If you’re not doing this now, what would be meaningful work to you?
Entrepreneurship is about finding an area where you can make a difference and a contribution, one in which you can use your passions to fuel your work
When it comes to helping sales people, Anthony knows firsthand the pain associated with not achieving the outcomes you desire. He suggests that you avoid emotional attachment to outcomes by being flexible and detached from sales process. Maybe you envisioned things going one way, but the client said “no.” It’s time to pivot and find another angle to approach the problem from. You can accept temporary defeat but choose to stick with it; play the long game and win later.
Anthony wrote a great article about this called “Why Fast Is Slow.” It’s about slowing down the sales process and working at a relational level with the client. Human relationships are built on trust, and moving fast doesn’t build trust; it takes time.
There are two levels of selling:
- Commodity – this is a transactional approach (think Amazon or Walmart)
- Relational – this is a people approach, taking the time to build relationships. People are willing to pay premiums for this relationship (think mom and pop or “Cheers” where everybody knows your name)
One huge downfall of the sales process that Anthony discusses is the self-oriented way salespeople often approach their clients.
“The more self-oriented you are, the less other-oriented you are. The more other-oriented you are, the greater the benefits accrue to you and the faster you get the things you want.”
This idea has been around for a long time, and it rings true even more today than ever before. The more you help and support others, the more you’ll receive.
Another thing that Anthony is passionate about is controlling what he spends his time doing. We all have the same amount of time and your choices are your own. You have the time to get stuff done provided you can ignore the distractions. Instead of one hour on Facebook, spending that time more productively can produce tremendous results:
- Prospecting for clients
- Making cold calls to clients and nurturing those relationships
- Taking your team out to lunch to deepen that relationship
“I don’t have the time” means you’re saying yes to small things but no to the big things. Being consistent and doing a little bit everyday will get you there. “500 words per day will get you a book in 90 days.”
Anthony put this idea to work in creating his upcoming book, ‘The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need’ coming out October 11th, 2016. It’s about what you need to do now to sell well. The first half of the book is personal development and “Me Management.” The second half is full of workable sales strategies organized by “pick your weakness” chapters.
I truly enjoyed my talk with Anthony and learned a lot from it, as I’m sure you will as well.
SOME QUESTIONS I ASK:
- What moment launched Anthony on this trajectory?
- How have his mentors helped him?
- How does he avoid emotional attachments to outcomes?
- How does he know his sales presentation isn’t self-oriented?
- How did he overcome the adversities he hit early in life?
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU WILL LEARN:
- How you know you’re on the right path
- How Anthony defines and pursues success
- How being other-orientated in the sales process will lead to more sales
- About the fallacy in believing you’re too busy
- Plus much more…
GO MAKE AN IMPACT:
- Spend one hour taking your team out to lunch to deepen that relationship
DON’T STOP HERE…
ADDITIONAL RESOURCES:
- “Why Fast Is Slow” Article: Read
- “7 Ways You Prove That You Are Self-Oriented” Article: Read
- ‘In The Arena Podcast’: iTunes | Website
- ‘The Only Sales Guide You’ll Ever Need’ available October 11th, 2016: Amazon Pre-order