Scale Your Business and Make An Impact ft. Scott Sambucci

Scott Sambucci00:00:00 - 00:00:07
Because usually people have hesitation at the end of the process because they're not clear on the return on investment, and they're not or they're not confident that you're gonna be able to deliver for them.
Wayne Herring00:00:08 - 00:00:58
Welcome to the business builder way podcast, where we help business builders grow leadership skills and wisdom and stay grounded through hero stories. So let's get after it. Hey, business builders. We're back with another business builder camp, profile. So Scott is a business builder and is building a business himself, plus he's married and, has a has a son, and we're gonna talk about that A little bit, I'm sure. So we'll talk about who he is and what he's building. But, also, Scott is an expert, and I work to go find people that I can bring to you that are going to give you actionable frameworks and advice and things that you can use in your business right now So that you can grow. And, Scott and I met, gosh, like 2015, 2016.
Wayne Herring00:00:58 - 00:01:32
It's It's been a while. When we're both studying with a guy named Taki Moore, who I'll often talk to clients about my time with Taki and and what I learned from him. So We met there. Scott was, growing his sale sales advisory business at that time, and I was also working on Sales hiring at the moment. So we we talked because we were 2 the 2 sales guys in the room. I've moved away from that, but Scott certainly has drove into it. And, do you remember we we did a a podcast, together? You joined
Scott Sambucci00:01:32 - 00:01:47
you joined my podcast a couple years back where we talked about sales hiring And some of the mistakes that entrepreneurs make and start up companies make, and you gave some really helpful frameworks. I still share that podcast with people. It's a couple years old, and it's frameworks in there are highly relevant.
Wayne Herring00:01:47 - 00:02:00
Cool. Good. I'm glad. Yeah. I've shared it with people too. That was a that was a good conversation. So so really without without further ado, we're gonna work with, Scott today. And, Scott, welcome.
Scott Sambucci00:02:01 - 00:02:02
You know, what I'd what I'd
Wayne Herring00:02:02 - 00:02:17
like to start out with is tell us a little bit more about you. I, you're you're not just a business builder. There's You're an endurance athlete. Like I say, you you've got a family that you're building. So you're just you're a fascinating guy to me, and tell us who you are.
Scott Sambucci00:02:17 - 00:02:20
Thanks. The guy behind the guy behind the guy. Yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:02:20 - 00:02:22
Yeah. Oh, we also that team.
Wayne Herring00:02:22 - 00:02:23
I I like doing Yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:02:23 - 00:03:05
Well, I mean, I guess there's there's, you know, business business world, family world, personal world, like, self world. So business world, as you mentioned, my company name is SalesQualia. We work with, specifically work with b to b tech startups out. Most of them, you know, you sort of think about the the typical technology startup That is trying to grow and get venture capital and continue to make a big impact in the market. As you mentioned, we work specifically with them on the sales side of their business. We help them build repeatable processes so that they can grow and scale and make an impact in their industry for their market. So that's the work that I've been doing. Started off about 10 years ago as a part time, you know, doing workshops on the side.
Scott Sambucci00:03:05 - 00:03:26
I wrote a book, picked up some couple of clients advising them. And then about 5 years ago, I turned that into a full time effort, which is what I've been doing since then. So So that's business me. Family me, as you mentioned, I've got a wife, married, 14, coming up to 15 years. I like to joke with people. There are a lot of people who lost some bets on that one. Yeah. Good.
Scott Sambucci00:03:26 - 00:03:27
Way to go.
Scott Sambucci00:03:28 - 00:03:59
Yeah. Thanks. Really really excited to have My wife, obviously, in my life, just because the the thing that's, I think, really fun for us is that our lives as our lives have changed, We've really gotten to be, I think, a lot closer to each other. I think that's pretty normal if you have a good relationship with any partner. Right. Friend, Wife, spouse, whatever. You know, she's continually takes on new stuff and challenges, and I support her on that. And I take on new stuff and challenges, and she supports me.
Scott Sambucci00:03:59 - 00:04:12
As you as you mentioned, I have an 8 year old son. So we're about 7, 6 or 7 years of fun. You know, couple do whenever we want on the weekends, and then we had And our son and our son actually was born on our anniversary. So
Scott Sambucci00:04:12 - 00:04:13
Oh, wow. Yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:04:14 - 00:04:18
Yeah. So his birthday is our is our wedding day, or or anniversary or wedding day.
Scott Sambucci00:04:18 - 00:04:19
Perfect. He won't forget.
Scott Sambucci00:04:19 - 00:05:03
Yeah. Well, we sort of joke that that was a you know, the day he was born was the last last day we celebrated our anniversary. So, but he's he's I mean, obviously, I'm gonna say he's great because he is. Right. Has his his own personality, which a lot in a lot of ways is very much like me, very much like my wife. And it's, it's it's been an interesting ride for the last eight and a half years with him. And, personal me, like self me, as you mentioned, I'm an endurance athlete, amateur, you You know, as amateurs they come, my job is to my goal usually is, like, find a race, get to the finish line, and do it as quickly as I Personally, Ken, I'm not out there to win the race. I'm just out there to challenge myself and and push myself.
Scott Sambucci00:05:03 - 00:05:04
So
Scott Sambucci00:05:04 - 00:05:38
Well, and you sure do that. So I'm I'm going I can't help it. I'm I'm can't help it. I'm I'm going to include, in the transcript here when we we put it together links to some of the, A blog post that you've done because I it's just fascinating, Scott. You know, I, I've I've been doing a bunch of podcast guest appearances, and in my bio, it says that I ran In an ultra marathon. And and, honestly, goodness, almost every time when somebody says that and goes, wow. I think, yeah. But I got this you I got this guy I know, and whatever I've done is, like, nothing compared to this.
Scott Sambucci00:05:38 - 00:05:47
So, Scott, you did, I well, I know you You swam across Lake Tahoe. I I remember. Right?
Scott Sambucci00:05:47 - 00:05:48
Yep.
Scott Sambucci00:05:48 - 00:05:52
Yeah. Yeah. The west the west of Lake Tahoe. Across Lake Tahoe, but it's not that far. Right?
Scott Sambucci00:05:53 - 00:06:02
Well, it's not as far as the the length. The the width is, the the route idea was about 10 and a half, 11 miles. The length is It's 20, 21 miles, which is on my still on my to do list.
Scott Sambucci00:06:02 - 00:06:04
Oh, I figured that was gonna be next.
Scott Sambucci00:06:04 - 00:06:05
Yeah. It's on my list.
Scott Sambucci00:06:05 - 00:06:17
But in Uberman, which I'll include the links, to some of your blog posts, you I I wrote this down. So the Catalina channel, 23.76 miles in 14 hours 24 minutes.
Scott Sambucci00:06:18 - 00:06:18
Yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:06:18 - 00:06:34
A 140 mile bike ride the next day from Mohave to the to Death Valley. Yeah. And then 38 miles running in the desert before you decide to say, alright. Yeah. That's that's enough. Yeah. Yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:06:34 - 00:07:08
Yeah. So that was, that that race was sort of this this weird, it was like a nonsanctioned race. It was like a guy named Dan Burke who Decided he wanted to put together an ultra triathlon. And so he came up with this course, which the full course was the Catalina swim. As you mentioned is 21 miles straight as an arrow, but with the currents and things like that. For me, it took almost 24 mile 24 miles. Then you're supposed to actually ride from Los Angeles, to Death Valley. My after my swim, I frankly was I was pretty beat up.
Scott Sambucci00:07:08 - 00:07:37
My my shoulders were to to the point where I couldn't lift them above my chest. And I had some pretty bad lacerations on my neck and my feet. On my neck because I was wearing a wet suit and it just kept digging into my neck and shoulder. And then on my feet, when I finally hit shore, we missed the the landing spot, and I ended up stepping on a bunch of very sharp rocks. So I had these, like, slices in my sorry for being a little graphic, but Yeah. Okay. So I actually had to take it. I couldn't do the 1st day of the bike.
Scott Sambucci00:07:37 - 00:08:14
Instead, I I did skip a day, and then I met up with the rest of the course up in Hobby, and that's where they did the last One forty to, to Death Valley. And then the run was supposed to be a 138 mile run from Death Valley up to the portal at Mount Whitney. It's The same some people might have heard of the bad water trap or, marathon, which is ultra marathon, which is in the desert. It's that course. And and she said, I got to, like, 38 miles, and I was actually feeling pretty good, but I joked with the crew. We we kinda pulled over and I was taking a rest, and I was like, you know, guys, I'm I'm kinda bored right now. I'm I'm kinda done. I'm over this.
Scott Sambucci00:08:14 - 00:08:27
You know, we've been at here for 4 days. You know, I wanna see how far I could push myself. I I could go longer, But let's just let's just pack it up. Let's get to the hotel and get some dinner, and let's let's call it success. And that's what I did.
Scott Sambucci00:08:28 - 00:08:28
Yeah.
Wayne Herring00:08:28 - 00:08:41
Well, it's a great story. And I think that I I contacted you when I decided I was going to do an ultra marathon. And for me, an ultra marathon because it could mean so many things, an ultra marathon.
Scott Sambucci00:08:41 - 00:08:46
Anything more than a marathon. Anything more than 26.2. Right. Yeah. It's a long way. It's a long way.
Wayne Herring00:08:47 - 00:09:36
So it's a 50 k in which, you know, is 31 miles. Right? And it was 31 miles of rolling Pennsylvania hills, not, it wasn't Leadville in Colorado or anything like that. But I'll tell you, it was a it was a really great experience training for it. Got me out A lot more and and got me building up the endurance to be able to do it. And then just doing the event, I think like, the last 7 miles really sucked. The last 7 miles, it started raining, and it was, like, 1 foot in front of the other, 1 foot in front of the other. But I think a lot when I run about how There's a lot of things about running that well, I think it prepares you for life. Right? What when you do something hard like that, then You think about because because life is hard and circumstances come up.
Wayne Herring00:09:36 - 00:10:07
And when you've been through something sucky before, It it prepares you to say, well, that ended, and I got through that and felt really good then post, finish and same thing in life. Right? And And I also think when I'm running how, sometimes, it's it's okay to stop on a hill, But I always count steps. Like, I I I'm like, alright. I'm gonna walk a 100, but then I'm gonna run 200. That's how I got to the last 7 miles of that. Yeah. I don't think I was running either. I was, like, shuffling.
Wayne Herring00:10:08 - 00:10:08
But That's all
Scott Sambucci00:10:08 - 00:10:10
I ever do after that distance.
Wayne Herring00:10:10 - 00:10:14
Yeah. So it like, You agree? Like, there's some there's tie ins.
Scott Sambucci00:10:14 - 00:10:38
Oh, all the time. I I do I often do all the blog posts or short videos. I call them lessons from the trail because, Like you said, I mean, there are so many parallels when you're running a business. It really is your own ultra marathon. There is no and and frankly, there's really no finish line in a lot of ways. I I mean, some people, you may have this, you know, idea of, okay, when I get to this point, then I'll be happy or then I'll be done. But then you get to that point, you realize, like, Oh, wow. Okay.
Scott Sambucci00:10:38 - 00:11:04
There's even more to do or I'm not as happy as I or as gratified as I thought I would be. And so, You know, I think think about that all the time. It's like keep moving forward. I have this I have this thing in my office my wife got for me. I haven't hung it up yet, but It's, the sign that says relentless forward progress. Right. And a buddy of mine, Kelly, who's been a good friend and a runner, we we that's sort of like what we always tell each other. You know? Keep moving forward.
Scott Sambucci00:11:04 - 00:11:23
We're not less forward progress. As long as you're moving forward, you're getting closer. And, so lots of parallels. In fact, the time that we're doing this call, I didn't I didn't tell you this. But tomorrow morning, I'm doing my another of that. I'm starting another event. Yeah. And it is.
Scott Sambucci00:11:23 - 00:11:49
So it's, and it's it's actually and then this is another parallel, I think, to the business world Where like, when you just think about when you start a business, anybody that you you think about that moment that you came like, the business start with an idea. There's nothing. You just Created this out of nothing. You curated this out of an idea. Hey. I see this problem or there's I've got this idea. And then you start building and you and you turn it into something real. And, what I'm doing tomorrow is is actually not even a race.
Scott Sambucci00:11:49 - 00:12:20
It's what's called a an FKT attempt called fastest known time. So in the ultra world, there's this idea of picking a course and then see who can do it the fastest. And, over the summer, I was just I was on my Facebook feed and I saw a local guy who had attempted this course. And he wasn't able to finish it for a couple of reasons, made a ton of progress, and just wasn't able to finish. And I was like, I didn't realize nobody'd ever done that before.
Wayne Herring00:12:20 - 00:12:21
Mhmm. Right.
Scott Sambucci00:12:21 - 00:12:57
And so I started thinking about it as in, like, this idea. And then I looked at my wife and I told her about it, and she's like, Okay. Here we go. And so the the route that I'm gonna do is the Western States 100 route, which is a 100 mile ultra marathon Uh-huh. That was canceled this year. It's the oldest ultra marathon course, race out there, except I'm gonna do an what's called an out and back. So I'm gonna start at Squall Valley, where the race usually starts, go down to Auburn where the race usually ends, there's a 100 miles, and then I'm gonna turn around and head back to Squaw. So it's a 200 mile course That as far as I know, nobody's actually completed this.
Scott Sambucci00:12:57 - 00:12:58
That's cool. Yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:12:58 - 00:13:18
And so if I do it, I'll be the first one. But so when you think about it from the business world, it's like I have this idea and now, like, I have to manifest this idea and all the planning, all the training, all the preparation, all the organization, finding a team, Making it happen, getting to the starting line is all the work that goes into going from idea to actually making it happen.
Scott Sambucci00:13:18 - 00:13:19
Yeah. Wow. That's so good.
Wayne Herring00:13:19 - 00:13:46
I mean and there's a bazillion directions we could go off on that. That would be very deep. But I'll just I'll say maybe another time. Yeah. But, yeah, that that idea of When I get somewhere, I'll be happy or or that fictitious thing we create in our mind about a destination that The the only, yeah, the only destination is the grave. Right? That's that's all there is.
Scott Sambucci00:13:46 - 00:13:48
The only 2 things guaranteed in life are death and taxes. Right?
Wayne Herring00:13:49 - 00:14:25
Yeah. So when you finish something, it's then it'll be fun to see what else we can do, what else we can create. And sometimes we take a lot of, I I think detours, and we think, well, that well, that wasn't the right thing, but it's all part of the story. Right? And it's all part of where we're headed ultimately. Yeah. That's great. So what I what I wanna do is I wanna I wanna talk a little bit about your business build journey, how you went From having that idea. I know you were in corporate, and you, built some of these, companies from to get to their 1st $1,000,000 And then to go beyond and have the sales team.
Wayne Herring00:14:25 - 00:14:41
And what I always loved about you is it's like a engineering type approach. Like, there's a building block, and here's what we're gonna do. It's you're not the, like, fancy, sexy sales closed guy. You're the, hey. It's the process, and we're gonna, like, build it. We're We're gonna do it. I love that because I think
Scott Sambucci00:14:41 - 00:14:43
No. I'm I'm definitely not fancy. I'm definitely not sexy.
Wayne Herring00:14:44 - 00:14:48
Well, I don't know. It'll be multi marathon and everything, but that's for you and your wife to figure out.
Scott Sambucci00:14:48 - 00:15:30
Yeah. Well, yeah, I mean, I think well, you're you're you're right. I mean and then and that's actually the like, when we talked we talked earlier about, like, okay, what problem I wanna solve. When I was I was a head of sales for 2, actually, well, 3 Silicon Valley startups. And in all 3 of those startups, basically taking them from 0 revenue to the first couple million in And as, you know, once I've, you know, once you're around sort of Silicon Valley, you you end up at this kind of world where you can see lots of other startups. You see some are highly successful, some that crash and burn. And in a lot of ways, the worst case scenario is where they end up at a place called ice what I call sales purgatory, where they, like, kinda get out of the garage. They have customers that have revenue, but they're not really scaling to make the impact they wanna make.
Scott Sambucci00:15:30 - 00:16:06
And as I Just through absorption and going to events and talking to founders and seeing what really caused the lack of growth for those companies, What I found is that they didn't realize they didn't understand that sales was a process. It it just and that's the problem that I want to solve is to, like, rip the cover off Black box that everybody thought, oh, sales is a thing that you're born with. Or if I just hire an enterprise salesperson, then everything will be fine. Right. And it's not like that. It's it's a process just like building the product is a process, finance is a process, hiring is a process, engineering. Everything's a process. Sales is no different.
Scott Sambucci00:16:06 - 00:16:14
You just have to know what the what the parts of the machine are and assemble them the right way. And if you do that, you'll have a repeatable engine, a revenue engine. Yeah.
Wayne Herring00:16:15 - 00:16:49
Exactly. So so you you help those companies. And I think for many many of the people that I work with, many of us who Have ordinary businesses like landscaping. I have a commercial fisherman, even a digital marketing firm. Many of us are boot Trappers. Yeah. And so this whole world of Silicon Valley and startup and getting big chunks of money is is pretty fascinating, But you don't get that money, I my understanding is unless you're able to prove it's gonna work and and there's product market fit and all these things.
Scott Sambucci00:16:49 - 00:17:21
Yeah. Exactly right. And and that's where I think, you know, there's this misperception that Silicon Valley is this place where you show up and you have, like, Like, 3 page business plan and have some coffee with the VC of venture capitalist and, like, oh, here's $5,000,000. Go have fun. It's not like that at all. It's highly competitive. And investors and, you know, surprisingly are actually some of the most risk averse people in the sort of Silicon Valley universe because their job like, they only wanna make sure bets. And even when they think they're making sure bets, their success rate is only about 1 out of 10.
Scott Sambucci00:17:21 - 00:18:13
Sure. If they know of every 10 that they're investing in, they're only 9. 9 are probably not gonna get very far, okay, or just completely crash. And so, You know, it whether you're, you know, running a you've got your own fishermen, you know, fishing company or a cannery or, you know, dry cleaning operation, you you still gotta, like, figure out how to get from 0 to 1. There's a guy named Peter Thiel talks about this. Like, you still gotta figure out the fundamentals of your business. How does it run? What is the product we sell? How do we sell it? Who are we selling it to? How do we find those people? Until you until you have those that baseline system, then you're not gonna be able to to actually go and get capital whether it's growth capital from a bank or, capital from an investor. So it's really incumbent on the founders of the company to to build out that version one of the sales process so they can then explain it to somebody else so that person can then run it for
Wayne Herring00:18:14 - 00:19:01
Got it. You know, it is really useful, I believe, to do an exercise even if you're not a Startup company. I had a a somebody asked me, are they a podcast host? What would I do if I had $100,000,000 free and clear? Like, Like, somebody just handed me a $100,000,000. What would I do with that? It wasn't like, hey. Would you go to Vegas and go have a good time? And that one would You you can only have so much of that before that would get old too. But I really thought, and I thought about that question. What would I do if I had $100,000,000? It's a good That is a good, brain stretching exercise to think what systems would I build, who would I hire, what kind of help would I get. So I think I think, yeah, thinking about that world of startups, that's a a really useful place to go.
Scott Sambucci00:19:01 - 00:19:38
Well, I mean, a company is a company and and, like, whether you're a Tech start up or like my company, we're we work with start ups, so we're not a tech company. We're fundamentally a coaching business. Right? So we're a service based business, And I'm not going around and, you know, flinging business plans in front of VCs trying to score capital. Right? I've gotta bootstrap this business. I've gotta figure out a way to finance it. I gotta find people who can take over core operations and sales and customer support and all of those things. And it's been a good lesson for me to just like even though I'm serving that market, it's way different than the day to day for me.
Scott Sambucci00:19:38 - 00:19:40
Right. So so, you know, quickly, because
Wayne Herring00:19:40 - 00:20:00
I wanna get on to, some of your frameworks in the book and the and the Things that I know will apply to people that I work with. But quickly, like so what's been your your journey, Scott? When did you start Sales qualia and Yeah. What what were some of the building blocks? What were some of the challenges along what the way?
Scott Sambucci00:20:01 - 00:20:22
Yeah. So I I mean, And and sort of, like, the highest level, I I was always interested in sales training, and learning. So when I was a first first a sales rep at 22 years old telling college textbooks. I was reading a call I was reading a sales book every week. I was listening to tapes, Cassette tapes in my Yeah. Yeah. In my car going from That's okay. Account to account.
Scott Sambucci00:20:22 - 00:20:56
And then, in fact, at the company I worked with, they had me do some sales training for some other reps. And so It's like, wow. This is really cool. Like, if I read this book, I can learn new stuff and then teach other people, I can get better. So that was always kind of in my brain. And it wasn't until, you know, about 10 years ago once, you know, I established myself in my career and moved out to Silicon Valley That I started running some workshops. So they basically, the the way it all came about is I was the head of sales at a company called Altos Research, eventually became a COO, And I had to hire salespeople. So I had a couple of salespeople.
Scott Sambucci00:20:56 - 00:21:02
I had a customer support person and a customer success person. And I'm like, I gotta teach these people how to, like, do sales.
Wayne Herring00:21:02 - 00:21:02
How How
Scott Sambucci00:21:02 - 00:21:24
am I gonna do that? And so I just started keeping an Evernote file of, like, here are some ideas. Here's your ideas that I need to be able to train Jeff and Andrew are gone. And that Evernote file basically became a book that I self published. And then that book ended up getting me a workshop at a conference. And then after the conference, 2 or 3 people came up after the workshop and said, hey. That was really good. Do you do any coaching? And I was
Scott Sambucci00:21:24 - 00:21:25
like,
Scott Sambucci00:21:25 - 00:22:04
yes. I do. And so that led to, you know, as I mentioned a couple of, you know, like, 1 on 1 consulting coaching arrangements, and I was doing that on the side for a good 4 or 5 years and just doing a workshop every month or 2 at different startup, co working spaces, accelerated programs, And just kind of it was like a side gig. But what that allowed me to do is just get really clear about, like, what is it that I'm teaching? Who am I teaching it to? How do I how do I even, like, generate a marketing list? Okay. I had 25 people came to this workshop. What do I do with these people? Like, oh, I should put them on a marketing list. Well, Well, if I'm gonna be in a marketing list, then I gotta subscribe to Mailchimp. Cool.
Scott Sambucci00:22:04 - 00:22:31
So now I have to learn how to use Mailchimp. And those 4 or 5 years were actually, I think, really critical for me To feel comfortable stepping into this world of sales quality as full time where I can step away from relying on somebody else's paycheck. And because this transition was much smoother for me. It wasn't like I quit my job and thought, okay, I'm gonna start a company. What do I do? I already had The core building blocks of a company, I just needed to accelerate its growth.
Wayne Herring00:22:32 - 00:22:38
Nice. And what does the company look like now in terms of Some employees and team members?
Scott Sambucci00:22:38 - 00:22:38
Or
Scott Sambucci00:22:38 - 00:23:09
Yeah. So we have, we have 5 core team members. So we have a head of operations Who helps with she basically runs all the day to day, so that I can focus really just on coaching and selling. We're looking to move selling off of My Plate in the next few months. That's like the next big step so that I'm not actually selling. Yeah. And And I think we're gonna be we're gonna get there. Then we have 2 people we call implementation specialists, in our world as you think of it as like customer success or project management.
Scott Sambucci00:23:09 - 00:23:56
So if you bring on new clients, we assign them to one of those 2 specialists, and their job is just to make sure that that client is taking advantage of the coaching calls we have and taking advantage of the client library and watching the trainings that they should be watching. So it's just kind of like joined at the hip to make sure those clients are Also, we have 2 of those people. And then we have 2 people that are, one does kind of sales research work for me. So she's helping out lead gen and lead research. And And then Jocelyn, who's my executive assistant, who just like runs my calendar, does all the contracts, does billing, does a lot of the marketing work that we do. So that's kind of our core team. And then we also have 2 specialist coaches that come in and run sessions every month. One that just focuses on prospecting lead gen, and the other one that works on, sort of in pipeline calls.
Scott Sambucci00:23:56 - 00:24:09
So I guess it's actually more 7 in the sort of day to day team plus me. And that's what is it allows me to start getting away from doing a lot of, like, in the business stuff and working on on the on the business stuff.
Wayne Herring00:24:09 - 00:24:15
Got it. What's what's the mix of Biz or, you know, how is how does business and family
Scott Sambucci00:24:15 - 00:24:17
and your training for these events, how do those things
Wayne Herring00:24:17 - 00:24:19
all mix for you right now? How do you keep
Scott Sambucci00:24:19 - 00:24:48
that proper proportion? Yeah. I mean, so for me, I think the the first thing is I have, like, an unbelievably understanding life. Like like, that's the first thing. It's just like it always comes down to communication. Like, even this idea of, like, this this this trail run I'm doing tomorrow. I mean, that started with me reading this thing, and I look at her, and she just knows. Like, she saw that look. She's like, you wanna do it, don't you? And I was like, yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:24:48 - 00:24:52
And so but we talked about it. It wasn't like, I'm gonna do this.
Wayne Herring00:24:52 - 00:24:53
Right.
Scott Sambucci00:24:53 - 00:25:13
And you're gonna have to put up with it. We talked, like, okay. What is that gonna look like for the next couple of months. Is that is this even possible because of COVID and travel and homeschooling? How am I gonna fit the training in? And so we we sort of talked about it and part of a lot of it was on me to kind of build together a little bit of a plan where I said, like, look, here's what I'm thinking.
Wayne Herring00:25:13 - 00:25:13
Like, If
Scott Sambucci00:25:13 - 00:25:39
I can get out on the trail every Saturday for a couple hours and do this and, you know, if I can do training during the week in there, and we just kinda, like, worked on it and kinda came to this agreement Or she's like, okay. If that's the the plan, I'm good with that 100%. And so that's for me always the first thing. Because I whenever I'm doing You whether it's take a single workout or one of these events. And she and I talk about this because it works conversely with her when she's doing her things.
Scott Sambucci00:25:39 - 00:25:40
Mhmm.
Scott Sambucci00:25:41 - 00:26:24
I can't be out there whether it's just in the garage or on the trail with any kind of this. I get this weird feeling in my gut if I feel like we're not right. Like, if I had the feeling like, she's like she might be a little annoyed that I'm working out right now instead of helping out with dinner, or she's kind of annoyed because It's, like, yet the 5th weekend in a row where I'm not around on Saturday morning and she's, like, hanging out with my son, and she loves my son like anyone else, but, like, hey. When does she get her Saturday morning to go do something? And so, like, we're always talking about that. It's like and if there's any misalignment, we have this sort of sense, like, I think a lot of people do when you've been married for a while. And and sometimes I have to ask 2 or 3 times, 4 times, like, is everything okay? Is everything okay? And then she said, like, look. Here's here's what's happening. Here's how I'm feeling.
Wayne Herring00:26:24 - 00:26:24
Right.
Scott Sambucci00:26:24 - 00:26:54
So that's like step 1 always. Step 1 is making sure that we're aligned there. And if that's if that's aligned, then usually everything else can kinda fall into place. And because then on the business side, it's just a matter of structuring my day so that I get whatever work needs to be done done, blocking out time. And in my calendar, it says run or training and it's time blocked out in purple so everyone in my team knows, like, hey. Scott's not available. Yeah. And, making make because you're never gonna find the time.
Scott Sambucci00:26:54 - 00:27:28
You gotta make the time. And, from there, just then the final thing is just like going. And Even if it's 2 o'clock on a Tuesday, and I said I was gonna do running a run or training and I don't feel like it, I don't have a choice. I feel like this is the this is the 90 minutes I have today. Like, I can't just, like, wait until 5 o'clock when I might feel like it. If I don't feel like it, tough. And that actually really helps me to deal with the long stretches on the trail. Because if I don't feel like going to the garage and And I look at the workout I prescribed for myself.
Scott Sambucci00:27:29 - 00:27:46
I'm just like, alright, man. Here we go. Let's do it. And And then oftentimes, I find once you get going, then it's fine. But that's to answer your question, just like communication with my wife, making sure I schedule the time, And then just stick into the schedule that I set out for myself and being disciplined around that.
Scott Sambucci00:27:46 - 00:27:48
That's so good. So there's that may end
Wayne Herring00:27:48 - 00:27:50
up being the most valuable part of what we talk Oh,
Scott Sambucci00:27:50 - 00:27:53
by the way. So thanks for that. And I think Yeah. For sure
Wayne Herring00:27:53 - 00:28:52
you you said that you guys have been married for 14 years, and you've gotten closer, and that's how relationships are. Well, Like, look. We both know that is not necessarily how relationships are. There's there's lots of them where, no, that isn't what happens at all, and, no, they don't Talk about the discomfort feeling that they're getting that tells them they're out of alignment. I I really do understand, thankfully, what you're talking about, but that's That's come through a lot of hard work with Catherine and I working through tough situations, and it's come through proactively sitting down, at certain times throughout the year and writing down what do we what what's going on with each of the children, and what does she need, and what does she wanna do, and what's important to her, Important to me. And then, you know, our calendar time where we meet and and take a look at the calendar for the week is so important. And having a written annual calendar for the family, which quite frankly got thrown up in the air with, like, coronavirus Shocking. This year.
Wayne Herring00:28:52 - 00:29:04
But it's okay. It it's all good. But but, yeah, if we don't have those times to get centered together, then they then the the the train comes off the tracks kinda thing.
Scott Sambucci00:29:04 - 00:29:04
Yeah.
Wayne Herring00:29:04 - 00:29:21
Yeah. And and the other thing that I really love is I have purple funny. I have purple blocks in my calendar too, but purple blocks for me are In between appointments, I put a purple block in for some buffer space so that I'm not running back to back on calls.
Scott Sambucci00:29:21 - 00:29:21
Yep.
Wayne Herring00:29:22 - 00:29:55
And like you, that yeah. Like, that that's how if I wanna create, like, being in a race, I have to I I just have to block that time out and have a grid of the training I plan to do, or otherwise, it doesn't get done. And I think you're, you know, you're so really you're you're pretty extreme, And yet the same thing would apply if somebody, registers for a 5 k and they commit to, like, from the couch to the 5 k type of Training plan. Right? And that's really great too. Like, nobody needs to feel like they need to beat Scott and go do the Uberman or the
Scott Sambucci00:29:55 - 00:30:10
Yeah. I'm I'm glad you say that because a lot of times people, Like you said, you know, like, oh, people read that I've done an ultra marathon, and and you like, oh, you shouldn't you should talk to this guy. Well, I feel the same way. And, like, you think I'm crazy? Like, you should talk to these other guys. Like, I'm watching the world's toughest race.
Scott Sambucci00:30:10 - 00:30:11
Somebody. Right?
Scott Sambucci00:30:11 - 00:30:40
Right? There's always somebody who's a little crazier Yeah. Or does a little bit more. And I think that's where the I've I've heard this quote. I think I first heard from Tim Ferris where comparison is the thief of joy. And, you know, I've had people say, like, man, I could never I I could never do 200 miles, and I'm like, well, so what? No. You don't have to do 200 mile races to, like, be good with yourself. I remember watching a a local five k a couple years ago. I was just happy to be at a playground with my son and this 5 k was wrapping up.
Scott Sambucci00:30:40 - 00:31:15
And I remember seeing these people, like, kind of, like, suffering to finish, And they were just kinda, like, plotting along. And I thought to myself and for some reason, this gets me kind of emotional when I think about it. It's like Yeah. For some of those people, that might have been their first five k. Like, you don't know. Maybe it was, like, a mom who had 3 kids, And finally, after 15 years of raising kids decided, like, I'm gonna go out and run a 5 k. And that's like the equivalent of me doing 200 It could be somebody who is now cancer free after, you know, months of leukemia treatment, right, and radiation. Like, oh my gosh.
Scott Sambucci00:31:15 - 00:31:37
I can be outside. I can walk. Right? It could have been sort of recovering from surgery. Like, you don't know who people are, and I tell my sons that all the time. Like, when When you look at somebody you just don't know what they've been through or what they're going through, so you know, you never wanna just look at like, oh, it's only a 5 k. I'm like, for for some of those people, that 5 k is everything. It's never just a 5 k.
Scott Sambucci00:31:38 - 00:31:41
Yeah. Yeah. Thanks for that. You're good, dude.
Scott Sambucci00:31:41 - 00:31:42
Thanks, Ben.
Wayne Herring00:31:43 - 00:32:11
And there's and there's lots of other things. Like like, there's so many other things in life too that it could be Intentionally creating relationship with our spouse and scheduling that time to sit down and talk about priorities together and listen, or it could be Starting a yoga habit or spirituality, there's there's just so many things where you can start small and, like, do the, Steve Chandler is a coach I worked with who who calls it doing the doable. Just do the doable.
Scott Sambucci00:32:11 - 00:32:12
Yeah. It's
Wayne Herring00:32:12 - 00:32:12
that's And
Scott Sambucci00:32:12 - 00:32:36
it's like baby steps. Right? It's just, like, break it down into smaller and smaller chunks. Like, again, like, going back to the lessons from the trail, it's like, okay. Yeah. It's 200 miles, but I there's no way I can think about it as 200 miles. The The thing I'm thinking most about is, like, I just wanna get over the 1st three and a half miles because it's a big climb up over to the top of Squaw. And I'm like, if I get there, Then I'm like, now I start it. Right? And now I've got this downhill section for 5 miles.
Scott Sambucci00:32:36 - 00:32:48
And then after that, I'm 10 miles in or roughly. And then I'm like, okay. Now I can take a break. And then I know the next section is a little bit uphill. Okay. Five more miles. And then 15 miles after that, I get to see my wife. She's gonna meet me at that point.
Scott Sambucci00:32:48 - 00:33:09
Yeah. I'm gonna hang out with her and have lunch, and we're gonna she's gonna hike a mile and a half with my son part of the course because it's uphill. So you, like, you have to keep breaking it down like you said to do, You know, do the doable. And look for those little things. Like, I did this just yesterday. We usually have somebody who comes by and helps out with my son in the afternoon. She does homeschooling in the morning. In the afternoon, this this woman comes by and helps out.
Scott Sambucci00:33:09 - 00:33:26
But Wednesday, she's not available. So that's like the day my wife and I really have to, like, be a lot more flexible. And we had this gap of time. He was done homeschooling at 11, and my wife was out doing full she's a she's a PhD economist, research finance, but she's also a flight instructor. She teaches people to fly
Wayne Herring00:33:26 - 00:33:26
airplanes.
Scott Sambucci00:33:26 - 00:33:27
Wow. Is that all?
Scott Sambucci00:33:27 - 00:33:40
Yeah. That's, like, that's her ultra running. It's like her fly her flying is, like, the equivalent. And so she's like, listen. I got a lesson from 10 to 12. I'll be back around 12:15. So my son finishes around 11. She's gonna be back around 12, 12:15.
Scott Sambucci00:33:40 - 00:34:18
We have this hour. And I'm like, then my son, I didn't want him to do, like, more screen time. But on the other hand, I'm like, getting I'm think my brain's getting pulled back into the home office. I'm like, well, what do I do? And I kept I've been I've been working on this trying to be more present. And I told myself, you know what? I'm just gonna, like, hang out. It's like It's it sounds like, well, why wouldn't you wanna hang out with your kid? But I think a lot of us, you just get so absorbed in business. You're trying to grow your company and you're like, you know, we got bills to pay and Clients are pissed and clients are happy, like, whatever. And I was like, my win today, I'm like, I'm gonna spend this hour with him and hang out because it's gonna be worth it.
Scott Sambucci00:34:18 - 00:34:45
And we ended up doing Halloween stuff. And we're like, we we created this like scarecrow. We stopped Old clothes of paper, we put it outside, we hung some Halloween lights, we did that. And then later on in the day, we went rock climbing in the afternoon, which I had a A reservation, we did that. After that, we went and got a hotdog. After that, we came home, and it ended up being almost like a Saturday. And I was like, Yeah. I had some work stuff backed up, but when I when I logged on this morning, I'm like, I actually wasn't that backed up.
Scott Sambucci00:34:45 - 00:35:16
Sure. You know? And I felt really good about that day yesterday. It was just like a really good opportunity for me to spend all that time with him that I haven't always spent with with them, and it meant a lot to him because, like, Halloween's rough right now for he's like, we're gonna be able to go trick or treating. He's 8 years old. You know? It's like Sure. Halloween's bigger than Christmas 20 year old, you know, or as big. And he and I was like, if I if we just create this, like, Halloween day, It's probably gonna be big for him, and it was. We had it we just had a really great day.
Scott Sambucci00:35:16 - 00:35:33
And I'm fortunate that I'm in a situation where I have enough team where I could say, hey. I'm, you know, I'm not gonna be around. Mhmm. But even if I wasn't, I kinda feel like I think most people could probably just find that hour and just check out and do that kind of stuff. And And so for me, that was doing the doable, and I felt really good about it.
Wayne Herring00:35:34 - 00:36:03
So I I don't think that sounds crazy at all. I think a whole lot of people can identify with that. It it's like a feeling. There's resistance to spending that time with our kids, and it's I think it's good to verbalize that and say, yeah. Like, I feel that too. I totally get it, Scott. And what normally happens to me is if I sit down with my little Molly, who's 9, To play on the floor and play memory, which is something we did last night, the I feel the resistance to sitting there Yeah. Or doing that rather than Working.
Wayne Herring00:36:03 - 00:36:22
But then whenever I go through the 1st couple like, I can feel the transition happening. Yeah. And as soon as it happens, then I'm present with her, and I'm like, wow. Why why why are they having that resistance? Totally. Then it's good. It's just good. Like, viscerally good.
Scott Sambucci00:36:23 - 00:36:38
Yeah. And it it makes me feel better about the time I am working and I'm not available. Or, like, this weekend, I'm gonna be on, you know, the trail. Mhmm. All weekend, he's gonna he gets to follow me around in the truck with my wife and, You know, be crew, and that's that's probably not his favorite thing
Scott Sambucci00:36:38 - 00:36:38
to do.
Scott Sambucci00:36:38 - 00:36:53
I mean, she makes it fun. And Right. Once we get out there, he usually has a good time. But he's he's kind of excited because once I told him, like, nobody's done this route before. If I do it, I'll be the first one. He said, let's come out. Man? You're well, I don't know about that, but Yes.
Wayne Herring00:36:53 - 00:37:08
Hero for sure. Without a doubt. Not because of what you do. Right? That's the other thing. Not because of what you do, not because you're gonna go run this thing because you're his dad. You're his hero. That's it. Like like, I've come to realize that.
Wayne Herring00:37:08 - 00:37:43
It just it's bestowed upon us, and the only thing we can do is, like, screw it up. So, Scott, thanks for Spending time talking about family. I don't regret any of that time that we spent because it's just so important, and it's good to talk to another A guy who's trying to live their best life about how they balance and how they do these things. But I do wanna I wanna talk a little bit about Scott and expert, and I wanna talk about the work that you do. So you sent me, hey. Thanks for sending me a copy of your Yeah. Latest bluff. Stop hustling and start scaling.
Wayne Herring00:37:43 - 00:37:43
Right?
Scott Sambucci00:37:44 - 00:37:46
Yeah. And and I we'll we'll put
Wayne Herring00:37:46 - 00:37:58
a link in in the notes to that, but I I I just wanna give my endorsement. Like, wow. I read the the introduction, and I was, like, making notes and writing in the margin. There's just books like that. And again
Scott Sambucci00:37:58 - 00:37:58
Thank you.
Wayne Herring00:37:58 - 00:39:03
It goes back to I just really appreciate your, like, from the ground up. Let's talk about what really matters step by step Type of style, and that's what's in the book. So I think, what what where where I wanted to go with this today is, There's a lot of people that I work with where they're not so much, startups, but maybe the owner has been selling For a while, the owner has been the primary one selling, and they've got owner I'll say they've got, like, owner's advantage. They've got A founder's advantage. That's their company. They they can make decisions. But when it's time to start thinking about Either automating the some of the sales process with some videos and and and a progression and funnels or things like that, or when they go to hire people, Then then it gets harder because now they have somebody that is going out there in a role to to sell. And I think your process and framework of Starting with, like, what's really the problem you solve? I I think that framework would be really helpful to people.
Wayne Herring00:39:03 - 00:39:10
So I hope maybe you can share a couple frameworks, and then I'll put them in the notes and link to your book, and that'll really serve people.
Scott Sambucci00:39:11 - 00:39:24
Yeah. I mean, so we we could sort of talk about Frameworks from a, like, general sales process standpoint, or we could also talk about it in terms of how do I get out of doing the day to day selling end to end, which of those would be more useful in the time that we have.
Scott Sambucci00:39:24 - 00:39:25
But why don't you
Wayne Herring00:39:25 - 00:39:28
work on sales process and those Okay. Those frameworks? That'd be great.
Scott Sambucci00:39:28 - 00:39:51
Yeah. For sure. So, I mean, the premise of the book, the subtitle is, actually, I always I always forget. This is one of the things when you write a book. You're like, what are you doing right in there? And sometimes ramp I wanna get it right. Ramp up your b to b startups repeatable revenue with the Q framework. So the Q framework is the Q stands for questions. And so each chapter in the book is a different question, in that framework.
Scott Sambucci00:39:51 - 00:40:06
And there's 7 basic questions that you need to be able to ask an answer in order to build out kind of that version one of a repeatable sales process. And so I'll just go through the 7 questions and then people wanna Grab a copy of the book to kinda dig into it a little bit more.
Wayne Herring00:40:06 - 00:40:07
That's right.
Scott Sambucci00:40:07 - 00:41:00
The first one as you mentioned is, like, what problem are you solving? And so from from a selling standpoint, I always tell people, look, no problem, no sale. Doesn't matter if they're interested. It doesn't matter if they wanna learn more. It doesn't matter if they want a brochure or a pamphlet or have a call or see a demo, whatever it is. Like, you gotta find that there's a problem with the person you're talking to that you can solve because if you don't, there's no sale. And, and then the second two Questions are which and who, meaning which segment of the marketplace are you targeting? So, like, sometimes people think of this as segment or a niche or a vertical. Like, who is the best kind of customer that you're going after? Because that's important from a focus standpoint. And then the second Question there is who? Who are the buyers? Meaning, who are the people that make the decisions at those companies that we know we're gonna have to talk to and sell to in order to get a deal? So the what, which, and who, that's kind of like everything around the top of your selling funnel.
Scott Sambucci00:41:00 - 00:41:12
Like, who has like, what's the problem we solve? Who do we solve before? How do I go find those people and generate conversations to see if they're interested in what we do? Great. Makes a pause there. Does that make sense?
Wayne Herring00:41:12 - 00:41:41
Yeah. For sure. And and when I read the book, what I didn't read the whole book, but the part about the problem that I read, You included that. You often ask founders what problem they solve, and then they end up talking about the features and what their product Yeah. What It looks like so they we we have a hard time as humans sometimes really answering the question that is asked. So I pictured you asking people and them not Really being ready or able to even hear your question thoroughly.
Scott Sambucci00:41:42 - 00:41:53
Yeah. Well, I mean and I think, you know, whatever the small business is, I'm like, if you were to give me an example all of, you know, a small business that's not a tech startup. Like, throw throw anyone at me right now.
Wayne Herring00:41:53 - 00:42:05
A a business that sells labels For cosmetics, the labels that get stuck on an industrial processing facility, they come on a roll and the labels they put on.
Scott Sambucci00:42:05 - 00:42:34
Yeah. So perfect example of where I think from a selling standpoint, it would easy be easy to fall into the trap of saying, hey. We build labels or we make labels that you can put on. And this is how the labels are made, and this is why our labels are better than everyone else's. And that's that's a product led sale in a lot of ways. But if you think about what what what is the real problem that you're solving there, it's probably thinking about the the idea that that Cosmetic company doesn't have to build the labels on their own. It would be a cost center for them. They don't have the facilities.
Scott Sambucci00:42:34 - 00:43:18
They don't have the equipment. If they have to make a quick change because because they change the ingredients. Do they have a partner that can change the labels really quickly? What's the quality of those labels? And to make sure that they don't peel off so that they don't get sued. You know, those kinds of things. So you have to really think about, okay, so if I'm gonna go talk to these cosmetic manufacturers, What is it about the labels that like, what why would that be a problem for them so much so that they're looking to outsource it to somebody like us? And if you can really understand the business case behind it, it's really driving why they would wanna outsource this in the 1st place, then you can just sort of assume that If your label solves that problem, you're gonna be way farther along on executing on the sale than you would have been otherwise.
Scott Sambucci00:43:18 - 00:43:27
Great example. And that's totally how it works. Right. Like, those companies need a partner who can respond quickly to all those changes and then problem solve and take care of things.
Scott Sambucci00:43:27 - 00:43:41
Yeah. And I would dig into that. Like, When we talk about doing a five whys analysis. Okay. So why do you need me to change quickly? Oh, we need to change quickly because maybe we're doing lots of different product lines. Okay. Well, why why you're doing lots of different product lines? Well, we're trying to reach different parts of the market. Oh, that's interesting.
Scott Sambucci00:43:41 - 00:44:08
So what do you mean by different parts of the market? Well, we sell some cosmetics to Women over 65 and a bunch of cosmetics to teenagers. Yep. So what if we had different label designs for the 18 year old versus the 65 year old? Oh, I never thought about it that way. Sure. Now all of a sudden you're getting to the root cause of, like, why do they need help with labels that set you up to really position yourself as the expert yourself and help that business get to accomplish the goals that they wanna accomplish.
Scott Sambucci00:44:09 - 00:44:15
Yeah. Good. So what and then which segment, which might be, like, what type of product, what type of What
Scott Sambucci00:44:15 - 00:44:17
kind of cosmetics companies, for example. Right?
Scott Sambucci00:44:17 - 00:44:23
Narrow it down a little bit. Narrow it down. Who who cares in that company and who else cares? Right?
Scott Sambucci00:44:23 - 00:44:32
Who writes the check? Who's gonna be doing visual inspections of the labels to make Should they work correctly? That the font is big enough, that it matches all the guidelines with the FDA, all that kind of stuff.
Scott Sambucci00:44:32 - 00:44:34
Yep. And then keep going. So that's the 1st 3. And what are the other
Wayne Herring00:44:34 - 00:44:35
Yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:44:35 - 00:45:13
So those are the first 3. And then so then I think about it as, like, okay, let's say we get some conversations going with the right people in those segments talking about the problem. Well, then this is where as a salesperson, we need to find a way to keep control of the sales process. So the next 2 questions are when and where. So when is, like, when is the next step. So, like, as the salesperson going into any meeting or any interaction, you should already know what is the ideal outcome come for that meeting. What is the next 3, 2 or 3 or 4 steps? So using a cosmetics company, let's say you talk to their owner and they say, yeah, I think this would make sense. They might they might have a tendency to say, send me a brochure, and I'll share it with the team.
Scott Sambucci00:45:13 - 00:45:48
Well, if you soon as you send this brochure, you're out of control. So instead, you sit down with the owner Before the meeting starts and say, listen. Definitely wanna spend some time talking about what we do, ask you some questions about your problem. And if we're a fit, typically, What we find is that after an initial conversation like this, it would make sense for me to talk to your technical expert. So I can talk about The how we make our label so we can know whether or not they fit on your bottles. Does that make sense? And they go, yeah. So what you've done is you already know the next step and you're forecasting that your future pacing that allows you to keep control. So the when question is knowing when is the next step.
Scott Sambucci00:45:48 - 00:46:16
And then the where question is just kinda knowing where you are in sales process. Like, as a seller, you should know. Okay? I've only talked to the owner. I'm still just getting things going. But if I've talked to the owner and the technical expert and the manufacturing than the operations person and maybe even the marketing people. Now I know, okay, we've made these we've accomplished a lot of little steps. That means we're much later in the entire sales process. So when and where is just having, like, visibility and, awareness of so where you are in the sale.
Scott Sambucci00:46:17 - 00:46:18
Got it. Great.
Scott Sambucci00:46:18 - 00:46:37
Yep. Keep going. And then the last 2 are just why and how. So Imagine you're you know, let's use this example. You've marched people through your sales process. And this is where a lot of times people say, send me a proposal. This sounds great. And then you send the proposal, and you know when people get back to you after you send the proposal, I always joke and say they get back to you on the 19th.
Scott Sambucci00:46:37 - 00:47:09
The 19th of never. That's when they get back to you. And so you have to be able to answer why and how, meaning why will they buy from you? Have you shown your prospect Why you're a return on investment, not a cost? What's the what are they gonna get back by spending money with you? Because nobody has money for budget. Nobody has budget. Nobody has money for cost. Nobody has more nobody wants to take on more expenses. So it's our job as sellers to show why they would want to buy from us. And then the how is just about delivery, giving people a view of the future.
Scott Sambucci00:47:09 - 00:47:31
Like, hey. If we work together, this is how we're gonna support you. This is how we implement. This is how we train. This is how we get going. These are all the steps after the sale. And when you can answer that question, it actually helps you in the sale because it gives The buyer visibility not as, like, I'm gonna sign this contract and then what happens. It's almost like showing them the work plan, the implementation plan.
Scott Sambucci00:47:31 - 00:47:49
So the contract is just like this easy step that goes from sales process into actual implementation. So those 2 questions I think are The ones where you can break down that final hesitation, because usually people have hesitation at the end of the process because they're not clear on the return on investment and they're not or they're not confident that you're gonna be able to deliver for them.
Scott Sambucci00:47:49 - 00:48:00
So so, 2 questions come to mind. 1 is, what do you think about, like, closing culture? Like the the closer that they're having the right close. They're saying the right words.
Scott Sambucci00:48:00 - 00:48:02
Yeah. I actually hate the word close.
Scott Sambucci00:48:03 - 00:48:04
Don't you think about closing school?
Scott Sambucci00:48:05 - 00:48:26
Now I I I tell people, I don't use the word close. I use the word convert. You convert somebody from a prospect to a customer. The reason I don't like the word close is because it implies that you're finishing something. And if you think about when you talk to a prospective customer and you talk and they say, Look. We wanna move forward. We'd like to get started. They don't say, hey.
Scott Sambucci00:48:26 - 00:48:57
Good job. You closed the sale. The words they use are And that that line is not the finishing line. It's not the close. It's actually the starting line. The sale allows you to get to work. And so I always avoid this idea of closing. And I think from a mindset standpoint, that's where the why and the how become really important as part of your sales process because it shows your prospect But you actually care about getting the results and and actually tabulating these to the return the return on investment you'll get if you use our labels versus someone else are doing them to else.
Scott Sambucci00:48:57 - 00:49:11
And here's how I'm gonna prove to you how we're gonna support you. Because that's actually what they're that's the outcome. They're buying the outcome, not the product. If you can show them the outcome as part of the sale, you're gonna have a much better, opportunity of actually making that conversion.
Scott Sambucci00:49:11 - 00:49:38
So so we're running up on time and I'm Sure. Conscious of that. But, what what is so if a if a company owner goes through these steps, And I'll I'll just leave it like this. Tell me if I'm right. The company that goes to these steps and can write these things down and get clear on the steps in your book. Yeah. It makes it so much easier to then go out and hire some people, hire their 1st people, and get them to implement and execute. But if we don't have that figured out, It's really hard.
Scott Sambucci00:49:38 - 00:49:43
There is no black magic. We're not gonna have somebody come more than be able to, like, just make it happen. Right?
Scott Sambucci00:49:43 - 00:50:07
Yeah. And I suspect, like, if if you're an owner and you're doing the selling, go back to your last 10 customers and run through this framework. And just ask yourself, like, I I again, I guarantee you, you probably checked all 7 boxes. You just didn't realize it. And then if you compare that to sales you didn't get and and do a retro on on 10 that you didn't get, I bet you you're gonna find some gaps. Like, oh, for these customers, we found the problem. We talked to the right people. We had control.
Scott Sambucci00:50:07 - 00:50:34
We showed them ROI. We talked about implementation. Great. Sometimes it was customer led. But either way, you answer those questions and the ones you didn't get, you probably had some gaps. And so once you once you become a more aware of For every sale, we have to check these 7 boxes. What that allows you to do is know what to do in each step, and then You can hand that over to a salesperson, and that that gives you almost like a rubric against which you can manage that salesperson because then the salesperson say, hey. Hey, boss.
Scott Sambucci00:50:34 - 00:50:47
I got this great new sales opportunity. They they want me to send a proposal. I think they're gonna buy Right. And go, okay. Cool. Well, let's just go through this rooter role for the test. Did you answer all 7 questions? What's the problem we're solving? They didn't really say, but they said they were really interested. Yeah.
Scott Sambucci00:50:47 - 00:50:57
Okay. Who are we talking to? I talked to the director. Cool. Have you talked to the CEO over there? No? Okay. We got some work to do. So it just allows you to manage that person
Wayne Herring00:50:57 - 00:50:57
in a
Scott Sambucci00:50:57 - 00:51:07
very objective way So that that person does feel like you're like finger wagging or chasing deals. You're like, hey, here's our system for analyzing a deal. That's why I love this framework so much.
Scott Sambucci00:51:08 - 00:51:22
You very quickly said, well, you get some conversations going. I know everybody wants to, like, well, wanna know about that. Oh, you just get some conversations going. That's prospecting. Right? And it's, could be a combination of inbound, outbound. We don't have anywhere near enough time to get into that today.
Scott Sambucci00:51:22 - 00:51:23
Yeah. But Definitely not.
Scott Sambucci00:51:23 - 00:51:39
What is it Is it just a mindset? You've been through these startup companies. Is it a, like, a, a will? It feels to me like a will or a mindset thing. Like, I'm gonna get some conversations. And then there are techniques and there's ways to do it, but a lot of it, I have to want to get the conversation.
Scott Sambucci00:51:40 - 00:52:20
Yeah. You just have to decide that And see, I think people are just I mean, it's the difficult fear of rejection. And it's like, oh, I know I should do some prospecting, but I just don't have time or people People aren't replying back to me. So, I mean, even for me and my business every day, I go through and I think about what are my 20. Have I contacted 20 people? Have I sent connection requests on LinkedIn? Have I emailed and followed up with people that were interested before? Have I asked partners for introductions? Like, it's gotta be a habit just like that time in my calendar that's purple From 2 to 3:30, I'm going to the garage and do my training. You've gotta have that time. Sales is an everyday activity. It's not like a when I feel like it activity Or when sales are really down, we had 3 slow months and now all of a sudden we're burning cash.
Scott Sambucci00:52:20 - 00:52:33
Oh, I guess I better go do some selling. No. It's like it's an everyday thing. It means it's an everyday thing. You'd get a lot more comfortable with it because then you don't care if you send 20 out and only get 3 replies. So, like, tomorrow, I'm gonna send 20 more and maybe get 2 replies, but that's cool. Right.
Wayne Herring00:52:34 - 00:52:35
Yeah. Well, you said decide.
Scott Sambucci00:52:35 - 00:52:36
I think that's it. So how
Scott Sambucci00:52:36 - 00:52:37
do I decide.
Wayne Herring00:52:38 - 00:52:44
So we can get your book, and we'll link to that. What else should we know about How to get in touch with you and how to start a conversation with you, Scott?
Scott Sambucci00:52:45 - 00:53:13
Best place to go is just go to sales qualia.com/book. Sales qualia, q u a l I a.com/book. You download you can actually download a full copy of the book, a personal copy. It's a full complete copy in PDF format. And when you grab a copy of the book, Then that will also add you to our email list, and then chances are I'll I'll see it. Like, I'll get a little note in my inbox. I'll send you a LinkedIn connection request if you're on LinkedIn. But otherwise, there's a there's a whole set of contact information in the book.
Scott Sambucci00:53:13 - 00:53:19
So I would tell people grab a copy of the book, and that can start our conversation if you're interested.
Scott Sambucci00:53:19 - 00:53:36
Yeah. And and I I always think that what we need to do is read less books, but find a handful of good ones and then really do what the author is telling us to do. And you've made it Pretty clear what we should do and what we should write down. So thanks for doing that. Scott's been our, absolute pleasure. Always love to.
Scott Sambucci00:53:36 - 00:53:36
Thanks for having you.
Scott Sambucci00:53:36 - 00:53:39
Thanks for joining us here for An hour.
Scott Sambucci00:53:39 - 00:53:40
Cool, man. Thanks, Wayne.
Scott Sambucci00:53:40 - 00:53:40
Talk to
Scott Sambucci00:53:40 - 00:53:41
you later. Yeah.
Wayne Herring00:53:41 - 00:53:56
Talk soon. Bye. Alright. Bye. Thank you for tuning in to the Business Builder Wave podcast. If this episode spoke to you, click that subscribe button and share it with a friend. That's how this message gets out into the world. If it is helpful for us to have a short conversation, I'd love to do that.
Wayne Herring00:53:56 - 00:53:58
Send me an email at wayne@businessbuildercamp.com.

00:00 SalesQualia assists b to b tech startups.

04:19 Son is like me, wife, an athlete

08:47 Endurance training for 50k race in Pennsylvania.

12:21 Planning to run 200-mile course, challenging tradition.

14:48 Experienced sales leader discusses startup challenges and growth.

17:21 Understanding business fundamentals is crucial for success.

21:25 Side gig led to clarity and marketing.

25:41 Feeling unsettled about balancing family and hobbies.

27:53 Marriage takes work, communication, and planning.

30:40 People persevering through personal challenges while running.

33:40 Struggling with screen time, choosing to be present.

37:58 "Helpful framework for transitioning to automated sales."

40:07 Identify problem, target market, and buyers.

42:34 Quick label changes crucial to cosmetic manufacturers.

46:37 Selling: It's about why and how.

51:40 Overcoming fear of rejection in daily sales.

52:45 Download the full book at salesqualia.com/book.

1. How does Scott Sambucci emphasize the importance of managing relationships with directors and CEOs in the sales process? What specific strategies or techniques does he mention for cultivating these relationships?

2. Scott Sambucci suggests that sales should be an everyday activity. How does he recommend initiating conversations and connecting with potential clients or partners on a consistent basis?

3. Can you outline some of the key habits and mindset needed for successful sales activities, as discussed by Scott Sambucci? How can individuals in the business world apply these principles in their own professional endeavors?

4. Scott Sambucci speaks about focusing on a few good books and implementing their advice. What are some of the books he specifically mentions, and how does he advise incorporating their wisdom into one's business approach?

5. Scott mentions the importance of training, preparation, organization, and team-building when manifesting an idea into a business. How do these elements contribute to the process of launching and scaling a business, based on his insights?

6. Scott Sambucci discusses the competitive nature of Silicon Valley and the necessity of proving business fundamentals before seeking capital. What are the implications of this approach for entrepreneurs and startups?

7. Scott shares his experiences as an amateur endurance athlete, highlighting the parallels between endurance challenges and the journey of starting a business. How does this perspective offer valuable insights for entrepreneurs and business builders?

8. How does Scott manage his professional commitments while also maintaining a balance with his personal life, including family and training as an athlete? What techniques or strategies does he discuss for achieving this balance?

9. Scott outlined a Q framework with seven key questions for building a repeatable sales process. What are these questions, and how might they be applied by business owners and sales professionals to enhance their sales strategies?

10. Scott discusses his latest book, "Stop Hustling and Start Scaling." What are the key ideas or takeaways from this book, and how might they benefit individuals looking to grow their businesses or improve their sales practices?