Let me share with you three different stories that happened today…
On this episode Russell talks about his experience with three different salesmen and the reason it was so different which each of them.
Here are some interesting things to listen for in today’s episode:
Listen below to find out what made each experience with these salesmen so different.
---Transcript---
Hey, everyone. This is Russell Brunson and I want to welcome you to a late night Marketing in Your Car.
Hey guys and gals. It’s been a while since we’ve done a late night one. But I’m actually heading home from the new house. I’m heading over from my new house to the new office and then heading back to the old house.
Anyway, it’s been a fun-filled day of running errands and getting things set up and all of those things happening during a move, while packing boxes and shipping things and packing. I’m a little beat up.
Anyway, I just left the house and going back to the office to get one more quick thing done. Because I’m in the office this whole week it’s like one of those little things that have to get done and haven’t gotten done yet. They tend to happen late at night or else they just don’t fit in anywhere.
We’ll make it work, right. But today is interesting. I had a chance to work with a lot of different types of people, different businesses. Really interesting how different people responded.
I just want to share some with you because I think there’s things to be learned from all of them.
The first business I interacted with today was a company called Love Sac. You may have heard of them. They make big bean bags and these couches they call sactionals and a bunch of things like that. I’ve always wanted some Love Sacs, so we had a whole bunch we were going to order.
So I went and found them online, found ones I like and then the little support agent popped on the side asked if he could help. I was like, “Okay,” so I asked him a couple questions.
Support side was amazing. He came through and answered my questions. It was actually yesterday that I talked to him the first time. He figured out my questions. He actually went online and basically when I told him found a whole bunch of different variations and options and sent me different prebuilt couches that would fit what I told him.
Truly amazing experience. He gave me his personal cell phone number if I had any questions. Just an awesome experience. So this morning I was ready to go buy. I called and was going to order.
I called him and said, “I’m going to order. Just making sure that’s fine.” So he said, “No problem.”
I asked him how long it would take to get them to me and he said it would be six weeks. I was like, “I don’t want to wait six weeks. Is there any way you can get them to me in two weeks?” Because I’m kind of an impatient entrepreneur.
He says, “Let me find out.” So he gets off the phone and who knows what he does, probably calls a bunch of people.
He calls me 30 minutes later and he’s like, “We can’t get them in two weeks, but what we can do is ship you one couch so you can have it in time for your party you’re trying to do in two weeks. And then when it’s done you can ship it back to us and I’ll ship you the new one. We’ll be making the new one but we’ll just basically give you a loaner you can use during the time.”
I’m like, “Really?” I was like, “I don’t know if I’ll ship it back. I never do those kind of things.”
He says, “I’ll set a notification on my calendar so I remember on July 5 to call you back and make sure you get it shipped back.”
I’m like, “Dude, this is insane.”
I was like, “I don’t think I want to do that.”
He was like, “How about this? We’ll ship you this and we’ll ship you out covers and then you can change the covers to the color you want.” He was totally doing everything possible to make sure I could have a great experience.
And then when I went to go buy he was like, “Oh, by the way, use this coupon code to save $1,000.”
I put in the coupon code, boom, saves me $1,000. Then I ended up buying another Love Sac so it put me back to zero. I didn’t actually save any money, but I got an extra Love Sac out of it.
So amazing experience. All around A+++. This guy did amazing. So that’s something hopefully you can learn for your business and your customers. I was just like, “I wish all my customer support agents were like that.
We try. I think we have the best support team in the industry, but it was above and beyond. It was really impressive. So there was that. Also I screwed it up and put in the wrong shipping address. So he went and fixed all that for me. Just awesome.
The next experience, I wanted to buy a Sub Zero fridge. I hear they’re the best and they’re amazing. I get all excited and I want one today. I don’t want one tomorrow. I don’t want one a week from now. I want it today.
So I find out there’s a place close to use that sells them. So I drive down there and I get there and they’re like, “Hey, how’s it going?”
I’m like, “Good. I’m here to by a Sub Zero fridge.”
She’s like, “Okay, well come back here to the showroom and I’ll send back a consultant.”
I’m like, “All right.” So I’m going back there, walking around the showroom, looking for probably 15 minutes at fridges, which there’s only like 10 fridges in the whole place. I’m like spending three minutes at each fridge.
And I’m kind of anxious because I have money burning a hole in my pocket. So this lady comes up to me. She’s like, “Hey, sorry, I’m the only consultant here. I’m about to leave for an appointment on the other side of town and the other person is gone. I don’t have time for you right now. But if you write down your name and number I can get back in touch with you.”
I was like, “I’m here because I want to buy a fridge today. I want to leave today with a fridge.”
She’s like, “What kind do you want?”
I’m like, “Sub Zero.”
She’s like, “That’s going to be a minimum of 10 grand. I don’t want you to have sticker shock. That’s probably going to be outside of your budget.”
I’m like, “What are you talking about? You’re blowing me off. I’m telling you all these buyer questions. I’m trying to write you a check for 10 grand and you’re telling me I probably can’t afford it.”
And then I’m trying to ask her a question and she’s like, “I’m in a rush. I’ve got to go.”
I have all these notes that I was trying to ask her. So she photocopies the notes and then says, “Either me or someone on my team will call you tomorrow.” The she scurried off and left.
I’m sitting there in the store with nothing like, “Are you kidding me?” If somebody comes to your store with money burning a hole in their pocket, where’s the entrepreneur? Where’s the salesperson that wants my money?
I was so frustrated I drove across to another place and bought a fridge right there. If she calls me tomorrow I’m going to say, “You know what, I told you I was going to buy it right then and I did buy it right then. I bought it five minutes later across the street at your competitors.”
So there’s salesperson number two who just doesn’t care and just lost a huge commission because they weren’t paying attention. So busy getting to the other appointment that she’s not looking at the cash sitting right in front of her. If there’s cash there, pick it up.
Anyway, it just drives me crazy. There was that one. And then a third person. This guy I’ve got a lot of compassion for. He’s the guy who’s cleaning the carpets in our house. So he came in today at 8:00 and he left at 11:30. He put in a 16-hour day today cleaning carpets, busting his butt.
He did an amazing job. I was really impressed. He’s coming back tomorrow morning at 8:00 AM to finish up the project. Just an awesome guy.
What’s funny is that I actually did a podcast about him probably a year ago. Some of you guys may have heard it. It wasn’t a Groupon, it was a City Smart. It’s similar to a Groupon we bought from him.
He came to do our carpets. And since then we’ve had him do it three times. Four then. Then we decided to have him do it this time. And I remember last time we had a conversation with him he was talking about how bad of a deal Groupons and Living Social and things were for him, because he always lost money and all these things.
I feel bad because this guy is working so hard and he’s spinning his wheels. I don’t think he’s noticed the fact that I bought a Groupon and since that Groupon we’ve probably spent $3,000-4,000 in carpet cleaning with him since then.
I don’t think he realizes that it’s landed him customers. He’s totally missed that part of it. And so today he asked me, “What do you do for a living?”
In fact I had three different people today who came to the house for different projects ask me what I did for a living, which made me laugh. They see a punk kid in a T-shirt and shorts and flip-flops and a big house and they’re like, “What in the world?” It was kind of funny.
Anyway, he asked me, “What do you do for a living?”
I’m like, “I’m an entrepreneur.” I kind of talked about what I do.
He’s like, “I’m an entrepreneur, but I’m not good at it. I can never make money or sales or anything.”
It made me laugh. One of my friends and someone I respect is a guy named Joe Polish. Joe was a carpet cleaner for years. I actually bought his carpet cleaning course and went through it because I wanted to learn what he was teaching his carpet cleaners.
So this is probably five or six years ago. That’s how much of a nerd I am in marketing. I study marketing in other industries, just like it applies to what I’m doing.
So anyway I’m studying all of Joe Polish’s stuff about carpet cleaning. Really good things. So I understand how to run a carpet cleaning business and how to get sales.
So every time he’s come to my house to do our carpets, I always ask him the same buyer question. I’m like, “Hey, how much would it cost to have you come back every three months and just spot check and re-clean things up?”
Because one of the big things Joe Polish teaches is like, “Hey, customers are good, but you can put them on continuity and they’ll come back every three months and they’re worth four times as much money to you,” and all these things.
So I’d ask him and he’d be like, “I don’t really do anything like that, but you can just call me in three months if you want me to come back.”
Anyway, I asked him again tonight. I was like, “What would it take for you every three months to just show up here? I don’t think about it, just clean carpets. Every three months you’re here like clockwork.”
He said, “I don’t really do that. Call me in three months.”
So tonight after he was talking about how he’s struggling in his business and stuff, I was trying to have some compassion on him and see if I can help him.
I said, “Have you ever heard of Joe Polish before?”
He’s like, “Yeah, I’ve got his stuff, Piranha Marketing.”
I’m like, “Have you gone through it?”
He’s like, “Yeah, I’ve gone through it all.”
I’m like, “That stuff’s really good, man. Have you studied? Have you looked at it?”
He’s like, “You know, I’ve gone through it. But whatever.” Whatever the reason. “I’m just a one-man band. I’ve got no time to do all those kind of things and everything.”
I feel so much compassion for this man, because he’s trying, he’s working hard, he’s busting his butt. He’s trying to do the best, but he’s missing the basic marketing principles, the basic things that could exponentially grow.
The sad thing is he has them. He bought them and they’re probably sitting there on his desk. I’d be shocked if he’s gone through past the intro CD. Just the questions I’ve asked him of things that are in the course, I’ve gone through it so I know what he needs to be doing to maximize his revenues.
But he isn’t and wasn’t. My heart just goes out to him. So I just wanted to share that with you because there’s such different experiences. One that was just 100 percent spot-on perfect. One that was 100 percent spot-off horrible, and one who’s trying and working but just doesn’t understand it.
He understands his craft. He’s awesome at what he does. I don’t want to say he’s oblivious because that doesn’t sound right. He’s oblivious to the marketing principles that make his type of a business grow and expand.
I wanted to tell him. For all you guys out there who are funnel hackers, I wanted to be like, “Man, you just got to funnel hack, like what Joe’s doing. Funnel hack what all these people are doing.”
That’s the process in any business. If I was a dentist, I’d go find the richest dentist on earth and I’d funnel hack him. I’d figure out what in the world he’s doing, what his people are saying when someone comes to the front door, what he’s doing to generate lead. I would be doing that like crazy.
If I was carpet cleaning, whatever business I was in, the first thing I would do is funnel hack every single person. Figure out exactly what they’re doing.
So anyway, I’m going to see you tomorrow. I might talk to you a little bit about it. I just got to the new office and the alarm is going off. I’ve got to remember my password.
You guys are in for a live show. Boom, got the password right. So anyway, I said tomorrow I’m going to pull him aside and try to share some of these things and help him to understand.
Because he’s close. He’s got the hard work, but hard work with the right knowledge and information, when you have that correct, then that’s when everything exponentially grows. That’s where he could get results that he wants without putting in more effort; actually putting in less effort.
He could achieve a lot more with it, but it’s just about understanding the core marketing principles. For you guys, hopefully you learned something from those three different people I interacted with today.
Hopefully you’ll think a little bit more about what you’re doing and focus more on the marketing and the sales principles. Funnel hack your competitors, online, offline, wherever you’re at. Because those are the principles you need to grow and be successful in this or any business.
Okay, I’ve got some projects to do. I’ve got to bust them out. I appreciate you guys listening in. Have an awesome day and I will talk to you again very soon.