7 Minutes to better Selling Podcast Ep. 8

Welcome to the 7 Minutes to Better Selling podcast. I'm your host, Colin Lake

President and Founder of Developing the Next Leaders. Alan and I actually met at an event called 2929. It was an event that helped, you know

take you to a mountain and has you climb the equivalent of Mount Everest on a smaller mountain

Just keep going up and down the mountain. Sounds senseless, but it was absolutely amazing. And I run into this guy, Alan Stein. I'm like, boy, I've got to know more about this guy

Tell us a bunch of great stories and we've been connected ever since. So, So Alan Stein, welcome to the show

It's so great to be with you, Colin. You're one of my all-time favorite human beings

And anytime we interact, I always leave a better person for it. So it's nice to be with you, brother

Yeah, thank you, my man. All right, so Alan Stein is an author

And the book's right behind him. If he slides a little bit, you'll see Raise the Game. That's his book, which is an amazing book

I also own that. And I have read it and have taken many of the things that he shares and put them into my life

And he's the owner of a powerful brand. And that brand is Allen Stein Jr

So he has a lot to teach us and we have a lot to learn from Allen. So Allen, I'm going to set up this question and get it right over to you

So I'm interested in your perspective on how we can help folks get better at what they're

doing, which is serve their clients in a way that they can't get simply by just looking

at it on the internet. All right. So that in mind, tell if you would, please tell some people or tell us some more about

you and how you get to this wonderful position that you're in today? Well, I think the most

important thing to know is that basketball was my first identifiable passion. And I fell in love

with the game at five years old. And here, 40 years later, basketball is still a major pillar

in my life. And the reason I share that is with immense gratitude for the fact that I've been able

to make a living and make a life around something that I've been really passionate about. And I've

been able to spend my entire life in what I call my strength zone which is the intersection between something I always been pretty good at and something that I always really loved to do And for most of my life that was playing and

coaching basketball, but over these last five years, that strength zone transitioned into

as you said, keynote speaking and writing. So I'm very thankful to get to do work that I consider

meaningful and that just like sales professionals is in service of other people. That's to me

what's most important. It's awesome. How have you built the brand? The brand is you. The business

is you. How have you done such a nice job at getting that brand to so many people? People know

who you are. You're on the speaking circuit, but you had to get yourself to that place. How did you

do that? I learned a very powerful lesson from the late, great Kobe Bryant back in 2007. He taught

me. And this was what he said verbatim. He said the best never get bored with the basics. And as

obvious as that may sound to folks listening and watching right now, that was a life-changing

moment for me. See, in that moment, I realized that just because something is basic, it doesn't

mean that it's easy. Those aren't synonyms. And yet people often use those words interchangeably

So I've put an immense focus since that day on working towards mastery of the basics and embracing

the fundamentals. So whether it's trying to become a more polished speaker or trying to write another

book or even being a parent to my three children, I focus on the basics and the fundamentals and I

don't deviate from those. I don't make things any more complicated than they need to be

I believe complexity undermines performance. Complexity undermines execution. So I love simplicity. And every year that I spend on this earth, I actually try to simplify my life and try

to take things away that are potential distractions. I'm not looking to add anything else to my plate

I'm looking to move towards hopefully more enlightenment, which means removing of things

that are getting in the way. Love that I love that answer Boy there was some power thoughts in there Your strength zone like what you good at and what you love and putting those things together and operating that that is awesome Give us one basic will you What a basic you did really really well

to help build the brand or get you to where you are today

One of the most basic characteristics that served me really well in my life is I'm incredibly

observant. You know, I go through life with open ears and open eyes, and I'm always trying to learn

from people that are a little bit ahead of me in a specific area. And I also am not afraid to step

outside of my general area to learn from others. One of the best examples I can give you, you know

as someone that's aspiring to be a world-class keynote speaker, there are two other art forms

that I study religiously. I study standup comedy and I study hip hop

Both are forms of art forms of spoken word. And I can learn so much

from each of those different genres on timing and delivery and physicality

and rhythm and tonality. And I think if I can adopt some of the principles

from both of those different art forms, it will allow me to be a better keynote speaker

Boy, that's awesome. One of the themes that we've picked up doing this podcast is like that observant piece, like the two ears, one mouth, you know, like that

you use them according, you use them according, like there's, there's lots of thoughts around

there, but it's harder to do. But that observant thing is like, can you just like be in the moment

when, when you're doing something versus like, you know, like trying to get up on stage and say

let me show you how to do it better. Just being and learning from it. Great thought. Let me ask you this So from a sales perspective and you have a great deal of experience selling your book selling your services selling your value what would you say would be the biggest opportunity that a salesperson has today in like today world I talking like October 2021 Like what one of the great opportunities they have and maybe that they have and they missing or that we have and that we missing

The best opportunity they have right now is to create a deep connection with their prospects or their clients or their customers or whatever the terminology is that they use, is to really deepen that connection

And you do that by giving people your full attention in the present moment, which you

just mentioned so insightfully, and by being a world-class listener. And people want to do business with folks they know, like, and trust, they believe in

and it all comes back to that connection. When you can create that, and there's the lean into it by giving folks your full attention

in the present moment and being curious and asking insightful questions. That's awesome

Okay, I'm going to give you a chance to tell people about how to get a hold of you and how to get connected with you in just a second

I just want to dive into, or I mean, not dive into, but like magnify or spotlight the point, like quotas are vital to like sales

You know, you have to have quotes. You have to have goals and things like that. But they can and will erode connection if that's what you're focused on

That is so powerful, gang, that we're talking with here. So, so good, Alan

Back to you. I just wanted to add one quick thing to that because you're 100% right

There is nothing wrong with having a goal, nothing wrong with a quota, nothing wrong with having a guiding North Star

The key is once you've established that quota is not being focused on it

Instead of being outcome focused, get process focused. That if you do those things on a regular basis, the quota will just take care of itself

That's awesome. All right, Alan, tell everyone where to find you and then we'll wrap this thing up. They can find me very easily at alansteinjr.com or strongerteam.com

You can find Raise Your Game anywhere they sell books, but Amazon tends to be most people's

preference these days. Alan Stein, wonderful, great lessons, great pearls of wisdom

Good selling, everyone