0 (2s):
Who’s ready to rock today, Fire Nation? JLD here and welcome to Entrepreneurs on Fire brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network with great shows like Success Story Podcast. Today, we’ll be breaking down the three things holding you back from doubling sales this year. To drop these value bombs, I brought Amanda Holmes into EOFire Studios. The Ultimate Sales Machine is a cult classic for anyone wanting to double their sales. 250,000 businesses have been served in over 30 years, and Amanda has been a CEO for eight years after her father and founder Chet Holmes passed away. And today Fire Nation, we’ll talk about the three huge threats that are holding us back from doubling our sales.

0 (43s):
We'll talk about making money fast. We'll talk about the death of a salesman and the birth of a strategist, and so much more when we get back from thanking our sponsors. The best podcast listening app in the world is here, and it's called Podopolo visits Podopolo.com. Download the app, mention JLD or EOFire when you sign up for a free account and start listening now. That's P O D O P O L O.com. Success story hosted by Scott D. Clarey is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals success story features, Q and A, keynote presentations and convos on sales marketing and more.

0 (1m 28s):
A recent episode on how to protect your business in times of crisis is a must. Listen, listen to success story wherever you get your podcasts. Amanda, say What's up to Fire Nation and share something that you believe about becoming successful that most people disagree with.

1 (1m 47s):
Ah, I love it. So good to be here. Well, I would say one of the things that's been a differentiator for me to help me be successful is when I shaved my head as a female, I have to say majority of women would not think, or men would think, Oh, that's gonna be a differentiator. But the process of disconnecting from the opinions of what other people think to truly be committed to being the best version of myself was the best thing I could ever do.

0 (2m 14s):
Well, I love how committed you are to being the best version of yourself. I mean, I've seen it over the years, both in person from afar, and it's just amazing to see. And Fire Nation, we're talking about the three things that are holding you back from doubling sales this year. And I wanna just dive into this because Amanda, you believe that there are three, not just average size, but huge threats that are holding us back from doubling our sales this year. Talk about those now.

1 (2m 43s):
Oh, I love it. Okay. So the first 42 million Americans voluntarily left their jobs last year, and it's anticipated to be more. I mean, we've heard about the great resignation. If you're growing your business, if you're starting your business and you're saying, Okay, I need more people in my business. It is really slim pickings and it's hard to find those people that can add to your mission, your fire mission. So this is a critical piece that is stopping people from doubling their sales. And a critical key takeaway that you can take away from that is if you can find that you start sharing your mission and your values within your company, it will help you attract the kind of people that wanna work for you because they're voluntarily leaving because they're not feeling in alignment with the business that they're working with.

1 (3m 32s):
So that's the first things. Should I just run through all three quick?

0 (3m 36s):
Yeah, let's run through 'em and then let's circle back and have some in depth chatter.

1 (3m 41s):
Awesome. The second thing is the biggest marketing challenge that every business experiencing, and that is the clutter factor, right? We say, Oh, it's so hard to get the attention of our prospects today. Well, if we go back 15 years ago, I mean for, well, for half decade, the only real differentiation that happened in marketing was we went from radio to television and the biggest best companies would spend to get on radio or television. In the last four years, we went from having 3 million advertisers on Facebook to 9 million advertisers on Facebook. So we've tripled the amount of businesses that are online promoting themselves, not to mention 3.8 billion social media pages are now online.

1 (4m 26s):
So think of the amount of clutter and content that is out there right now trying to take away the attention of your prospects. So that is the second biggest thing holding us back from doubling our sales is because of the attention. It's so hard to get the attention of your prospects, but I'm going to share a little bit about how you can overcome that in a minute. And then the third would be, so you'd think that with all of this clutter, we have to do all of this marketing. It would make it easier on sales once we start getting that marketing message out there. But it's actually been more difficult for sales reps because we on average, used to take six touches to get the attention of a prospect. Now it's more like 80% of sales are made on the ninth to 12th contact.

1 (5m 10s):
So if you're stopping at just one follow up to get a sale, that is majority of sales reps, which is why you're not getting the results that you're looking for is because you're giving up and you don't have the pig edited discipline and determination. It's something so simple, we just have to do it.

0 (5m 28s):
Fire Nation, these are three huge threats that are holding us back from doubling our sales. So let's kind of rip back through these real quick and maybe give like one quick example in each, because we have a lot to talk about today, but this is important topics.

1 (5m 45s):
Yeah. So I covered a little bit about the hiring, right? If we dove into more on the marketing reach. So the 15 years ago, the average company went on seven different marketing mediums to promote themselves. Today we're doing double that, right? We're on 14 to 15 different mediums with five social media channels and three paid advertising. So what we really have to do is we have to get very crystal clear about who our prospect is. You don't, when you market to everyone, you market to no one, right? So getting very clear on who that audience is, and then we have to get very clear on where they spend their time.

1 (6m 28s):
Because if you spend your time building up your TikTok, but none of your clientele is there, we're just chasing after likes and comments. And that's not gonna keep the lights on and pay our bills, right? So we really have to focus where do they spend their time? And then how are we speaking to them in a way that grabs their attention and speaks to what's keeping them up at night? Rather than, let me just tell you about my product or my service and how great it is, and me, me, me, me, me. We lose sight of the fact that they're having difficulties. And if you can speak to, if you can articulate their pain better than they can, they believe that you have the solution. So those would be a few tips that I would recommend. And that, and that that's over marketing and sales.

1 (7m 9s):
So I kind of covered them both.

0 (7m 10s):
Fire Nation, are you crystal clear, not just on your targets, but where they're spending their time. That is just so critical. And let's talk a little bit about the, the cluttering up of the messages just with the amount of noise that's in this world.

1 (7m 25s):
Oh man. Okay. So at any given time, let's say you're posting on Facebook or you do an ad, or you're speaking at an event, or you're at a trade show at any given time, there's about 3% of that audience that is in the buying Now category, this is something we call the buyer's pyramid. And if you imagine a triangle and you drew just a line at the 3%, just the tip of that triangle, that's the one that's buying now, then another 7% are open to what you have to say. They're doing some research, they wanna learn more. Then the next 30% are just it. You're not on their periphery, they're not thinking about what you sell. The next 30% think that they're not interested, and the last 30% are definitely not interested.

1 (8m 8s):
So if you are reaching out with your marketing and sales only talking about you, you're only going to reach 3% of the marketplace. So what we have to do with our messaging is we have to educate in a way that grabs the entire buyer's pyramid to educate them into the buying Now category.

0 (8m 26s):
Now, one thing that really blew me away, because you're just a numbers person. You're all about the analytics is you said 80% of sales are happening on the ninth to 12th contact. Did I hear that right?

1 (8m 39s):
Isn't that insane?

0 (8m 40s):
That's insanity. So what do we do knowing that?

1 (8m 43s):
Okay, so I'll give you an example. Can I, can I bridge over to the Dream 100? Can I go bridge it over the fastest least? Okay. So this is the fastest, least expensive way to double sales. It's double the sales of more companies than anything else. My father invented it working for a billionaire by the name of Charlie Munger, co-chairman of Berkshire Hathaway. And he doubled the sales of nine different divisions for Charlie, all within 12 to 15 months, and several of them multiple years consecutively. So he realized he had a system for doubling sales. So at that time, this was pre the internet, he would send out, he would identify just a smaller number of better buyers that would buy more from him more often. So it was cheaper to market and sell to a smaller group than to market to everyone.

1 (9m 25s):
So he would cold call them once a week, follow up with a direct mail piece the next week than follow up with a phone call in an email, and maybe a fax. And he did this every single week for months using what we call pigheaded discipline and determination. And that's how he double sales over and over and over again. Now, what that looks like today is because there are billions of people online posting content today, I had a client, or who now is a client, but wasn't a client at the time. I met him on a yacht and I thought, Oh, this is a perfect client for me. But he gave me the cold shoulder the whole time and I thought, Oh, I better win this guy's business. So we friended each other online before we left, and I started following him on Instagram.

1 (10m 6s):
And every single day he posted on Instagram. And every single time he posted, I would comment, and with every comment I was talking to him about his kids, he had made a bet that his kids couldn't go without sugar for 48 hours. And then they broke it within like an hour. So he had to pay, they had to pay $10 or something. And I said, Oh, that's so funny. You should have charged them more for that. That's really funny. Then he posts about his wife and showing Christmas lights and I, and she looked so happy, I commented and said, Wow, you know, she looks so happy. You should give her Christmas lights multiple times a year. She's that happy.

1 (10m 46s):
And what I found was with every single day I was like, my father used to say in his face, in his place, in his space, I, he had a hundred staff, right? They were a nine figure business. And I would not have been able to cold call this guy all the while and try to cold email him or LinkedIn message him and just talk about me. Instead, everything was about him. What was going on with his wife, with his kids, with his business. I was in dialogue, even though he didn't say anything really to me, but I was top of mind for him so much. So that three months in, he finally, when it became the time that he needed a product or service like mine, he came to me and said, You know, we need 650 books of your father's Ultimate sales machine.

1 (11m 31s):
Do you think we could order those and send them to our best clients? Those three months of just committing to commenting and being interested in him allowed me to, I've still bore the fruit of or beared the fruit of that labor many years afterwards because I was creating a relationship of trust and respect and showing that I, I was reliable just with commenting on what he was already looking for, replies back with, that's what we all want on social, right, is to have replies or comments or shares or likes. So if you can do that for your clientele, that is an easy, non-salesy way to follow up in a way that makes you top of mind.

1 (12m 12s):
I never had to push my product or service on him. It was just a way of being engaging, entertaining, helpful, and a bright spot in his world,

0 (12m 20s):
In his face, in his space, in his place. I mean, Fire Nation, are you willing to do what it takes to stay top of mind with somebody that could be not just a one time sale, but a year's worth of a valuable client? I mean, this needs to be one of your focal points when you know it's the right client, the right customer, the right consumer of your content. Now Fire Nation, we'll be talking about a lot of awesome stuff. Death of a Salesman, a little hint, when we get back from thanking our sponsors. Are you hiring? What type of role are you hiring for? Maybe you need to hire someone to wear many hats, which can be challenging.

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0 (13m 45s):
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0 (14m 37s):
Join me on Podopolo where you can interact with me, connect with others, ask questions, and share your thoughts on your favorite podcast. Visit Podopolo.com, download the app for free from either App store, mention JLD or EOFire when you sign up for an an account and start listening now. That's P O D O P O L O.com. Are you looking for a place where you can exchange ideas, shared knowledge, and find invaluable mentors, co-founders, and investors? Sounds too good to be true, right? Thanks to HubSpot, it exists. And right now you can get instant access to a community of 16,000 plus business builders at trends.co/mfm.

0 (15m 16s):
Trends is a HubSpot community for founders and entrepreneurs that tells you what the next big thing is gonna be months before everyone else, and delivers access to analyst, vetted business ideas and market signals straight to your inbox every single week. Inside trends, you also have access to live virtual business training in Q and A sessions that feel like MBA lectures where you can learn everything from advanced marketing techniques to how to get fundraising from venture capitalists. A seven day trial of trends is yours for only $1 in a yearly subscription. Plus access to the community is $299 per year. Get a seven day trial of trends for only $1 at trends.co/mfm. That's trends.co/mfm A minute we're back, and I did a little tease before the break, but I wanna talk about the death of a salesman in the birth of a strategist.

0 (16m 9s):
Take it away.

1 (16m 10s):
Oh man. So this was actually a title. So when I first inherited my father's business, so he ran it for 30, for 25 years and then he unexpectedly passed 10 years ago and I inherited it as 24. I had a couple hundred staff. It was a shocking, I was grieving my father's loss and then trying to figure out a marketing sales training company where I was a singer songwriter. So it was, it was sh I was very scared. And one way that I learned his business was by reading his old emails. I would just go through and see what did he think about this? Cuz he never gave me that formal training. And I was looking through his emails and I found this title where he said, Death of a Salesman, Birth of a Strategist.

1 (16m 54s):
And I said, Oh my gosh, this has to be part of the new edition of the Ultimate Sales Machine because 97% of our prospects feel that salespeople are too pushy today because of Amazon. Now I normally call Amazon the Death Star because they, they've really killed the traditional commissioned breath salesperson. But I will tell you, when we were at HubSpot last week, I presented and hubs and Amazon was in the room and now they wanna do business together. And they're telling me that I shouldn't call them the Death

0 (17m 24s):
Star,

1 (17m 27s):
But it's in the book. So I can't, I can't rewrite that one, but maybe I should stop saying it. But so we really have to think about how do we do what I just said with the last story, right? How do we set ourselves up as an expert? How do we provide value? How do we give such great insight that they go to you regardless? And, and when you've truly created yourself as number one in your marketplace or an expert in your marketplace, then prices of no objection. So we've assisted more of our clients to become number one in their industry just by teaching them how to speak to industry trends, how to speak to the pain points of your prospect.

1 (18m 7s):
I'll, I'll ask all the time, what do you think is the pain point of your prospect? And they'll say every pain point of what their service provides, and I hate to break it to you, but majority of the time that's not the case. If we have time, I could share a story about that. Maybe

0 (18m 20s):
I could share a story. We have time.

1 (18m 22s):
Okay, so we had this client that sold high end real estate in Dubai and they used to talk, so this was like a 5 million to 10000002nd home. So they were mostly selling to Fortune 500 CEOs or billionaires. And there's a very small amount of these people, right? And if we know from the buyer's pyramid that only 3% of them would be interested, they were going out to them talking about ocean views and granite countertops. And this really wasn't getting much traction. They went from 17 million in sales to zero in sales because Dubai had just had this market blackout. So for a whole year they didn't sell one condo. So then they came to us and they said, Can you help us with our story, with our messaging? So we did some research and we found that the biggest thing keeping billionaires up at night is actually their health.

1 (19m 8s):
So we did a whole, we built a whole, what we call a core story to train on why wealthy CEOs are at risk for heart disease, diabetes, and premature death. And what you can do about it. It was, it was, it felt very much out of left field, but it was everything that a billionaire would need to know or want to know about their health. So the sales rep would get in the door talking about diabetes and lack of sleep and all of these things and how it relates and talking about how to have a healthier home and how to relate to your children. Cuz that was another big problem for billionaires. And then from that, the education led them straight to the fact that they need more vacation time so that they don't get so stressed so they don't die prematurely.

1 (19m 56s):
And they probably should pick something near the ocean cuz you're 50% more likely to not have a stroke if you're by the ocean and you're 80% better at job performance when you take vacations and you should really live on a vacation place by the water. And that's how they were able to grow to nine figures in one year. It was a 3456% increase. It was pretty crazy. That's one of our biggest success stories. We've done it with a lot of smaller businesses as well. But I love that story cuz it's just what you would not expect.

0 (20m 27s):
I mean, I'm not a billionaire, but I can tell you you're not going to get my attention talking about a property in some foreign land for me. I mean I live in Puerto Rico, I'm on the ocean, I, I love where I live, but guess what, You're gonna get my attention. If you talk about health, if you talk about nutrition, if you talk about, you know, health scares and, and diabetes and all these different things that, cuz those are the things that do keep me up at night. There's very few things that keep me up at night. Like I just went and spent, actually it was when I got to see you in southern Florida, Amanda, I was down the day before in Naples doing a whole day of like executive health testing and it was so intense and it was so awesome and I loved every bit about it because that is what I was focused on.

0 (21m 10s):
So if someone wanted to get to me, they would come at it from that angle because that is what's interesting to me. So think about that for you. Fire Nation in your clients, your customers, how can you uncover what Amanda uncovered that had that ridiculous 3000 plus percent return. I mean, unbelievable stuff. And you labored on a new addition of the ultimate sales machine. And I know that because you did some work at it at my house down here in Puerto Rico. So that was pretty cool insight. And you actually have a special chapter on how to live a rich and full life. Share some details with us now about that.

1 (21m 47s):
Oh my gosh. So I spent, so as you saw, right, and Fire Nation, I just have to say that John Lee dos will call you out if you were doing something like I, I worked four years in this new edition and I was sitting there next to the beautiful pool and he goes, Well you're kind of just scared and you're just not getting it done like you should. I'm like, oh my God, I can't remember the exact words, but you called me out that I was taking too

0 (22m 14s):
Long. I called you a coward. I said, I said, you're a perfectionist. And another word for being a perfectionist is being a coward. Because you're hiding behind the word of being a perfectionist and you are allowing it to stop you from putting something out in the world that the world needs. And oh my, I'm gonna call a spade a spade, Amanda.

1 (22m 32s):
Oh my gosh. Well, so I eventually did release it, but there was a, there was this one night where I was supposed to give the final manuscript to the book publisher and I was again going through my father's emails like I shared before. That's how I knew things about the business. And I found this letter that he had written and he said, I've generated more wealth in the last six months than in the previous eight years combined. And it's from this one thing. And when I read that, I went, oh my god, I finally found what I wanna put in the final chapter, chapter 13. And so I'm calling it the encore. He never got to give on how to live a rich and full life. And it's really this blend of what I learned watching him go through.

1 (23m 15s):
So he was diagnosed with cancer and you know, we fought for a year and a half before he passed. And during that time he learned so much about himself that if he had survived that cancer, he would've been a completely different man. And I took that with me over the last decade and it really changed the way that I did business and what I studied from my guru who I study under. And this whole idea of like mental wellness and how critical that is for our world today, to be able to, you can grow your business while also having a great mind and a, and a and a settled heart and a fulfilled life. So I put that into the final chapter and it's something that really means a lot to me cuz you know, I lost my father at 55 and I want more, more business owners to have the tools and the frameworks to be able to grow their business without having to do so much hard work.

1 (24m 12s):
Cause we, we really believe in the strategies that take horsepower, not wallet power and really getting smarter instead of working harder.

0 (24m 19s):
Wow. I mean, Fire Nation, this is a powerful book. This is a powerful addition of the book from Amanda. I mean as you can see, she, she reaches into her heart. She speaks from her heart, she says it like it is. And I just want Fire Nation to know where do they need to go to consume this content, to get this book to read this genius.

1 (24m 41s):
Yes. So they can go to ultimate sales machine.com and you can pick, you can get your own book and it also includes some wonderful bonuses. And we have a launch party that everybody can be a part of as well, which is great. ClickFunnels is hosting it. So Russell Brunson will be there and Jay Abraham will be there and Jeffrey Haslet and some, some wonderful, brilliant speakers. So Ultimate Sales machine.com is a great place to pick that up. And because of you John Lee Dumas. So I was doing a podcast once a week and then when we met up last, you said, here's what you need to do.

1 (25m 21s):
You need to do a daily podcast. And I couldn't pull off seven days a week, but I've managed to pull off five. Wow. So every business day I am giving a daily dose of the new edition of the Ultimate Sales Machine. So you just have to go to ultimate sales machine.com and you'll just get wonderful tips on how to double your sales every single day. And I, and I have to thank you John cause we've only been doing it, it's now, I mean, last I saw you was about 30 days ago when we put it into gear. By the next week we had started and, and we're up, I think about like 32% in downloads. And we're getting a organic reach of book sales, just like you said it would, My ads are not even selling as many books as my organic podcast episodes, daily podcast episodes.

1 (26m 12s):
So thank you for that. I look forward to what it will be, you know, further down the line. This is just the start and I'm seeing a

0 (26m 18s):
Ramp. Yeah, just wait till you hit that six month mark, then things really start building exponentially. And Fire Nation, just for the record, my answer for everything is not do a daily podcast, but I know with, with Amanda, with what she has knowledge wise that she just wasn't thinking about an opportunity to, instead of just doing like an occasional interview podcast to say, Hey, you have so much knowledge within this book, Break Up, like just that ton of knowledge into micro bite size bits, batch record, all these awesome 2, 3, 4, 5 minute episodes, and then schedule them go out, you know, 5, 6, 7 days a week and just lets the content build on top of itself.

0 (27m 0s):
And it's really exciting is more people hear about this and go back to episode one and consume all of it. It's, it's gonna be so cool to see what happens at month six, month nine, month 12. So I'm so proud of you and Fire Nation, you're the average of the five people you spend the most time with. You've been hanging out with Amanda Holmes and JLD today, so keep up the heat and head over to EOFire.com type Amanda in the search bar, the show page will pop up with everything that we talk about, talked about today. And one more time. Amanda, what is the URL for Fire Nation

1 (27m 34s):
Ultimate Sales

0 (27m 34s):
Machine? Amanda, thank you for sharing your truth to your knowledge, your value with Fire Nation. For that we salute you and we'll catch you on the flip side.

1 (27m 43s):
I love it. Thank you John Ez.

0 (27m 46s):
Hey, Fire Nation, a huge thank you to our sponsors and Amanda for sponsoring today's episode and Fire Nation. Success entrepreneurs accomplish big goals. That's why I created the Freedom Journal to guide you in accomplishing your number one goal in a hundred days. And we're talking step by step visits, the freedomjournal.com, the freedomjournal.com, and I'll catch you there or I'll catch you on the flip side. The best podcast listening app in the world is here and it's called Podopolo. Visit Podopolo.com, Download the app, mention JLD or EOFire when you sign up for a free account and start listening now.

0 (28m 26s):
That's P O D O P O L O.com. Success story hosted by Scott D. Clarey is brought to you by the HubSpot Podcast Network, the audio destination for business professionals success story features Q and A, keynote presentations and convos on sales marketing In more. A recent episode on how to protect your business in times of crisis is a must. Listen, listen to success story wherever you get your podcasts.