Elite-level sales and leadership coach and Partner of Southwestern Consulting, Dave Brown, details his new book and guiding principle of “Servant Selling”, as well as the only two ways to earn money in the world (hint: they're both the same thing), why “Green Eggs and Ham” is THE best book on sales ever written, exploiting your uniqueness in service of others, “WYDFLI” motivation, creating credibility deposits, perpetually being valuable, and how asking for someone’s business empowers THEM.
You can also catch Dave’s previous appearance on Episode 195 of The Action Catalyst.
Mentioned in this episode:
Learn more at SouthwesternConsulting.com/Coaching/Students
This episode is presented by Dave Brown's "Servant Selling", available now.
Hello, action Catalyst listeners.
Adam Outland:This is your host, Adam Outland, and today we are interviewing Dave Brown.
Adam Outland:Dave is a speaker, executive coach, founding partner of Southwestern Consulting and now Author.
Adam Outland:So happy to have you on the podcast.
Adam Outland:Uh, it has been years since you've been here, I think 2017 is when you were last on the action Catalyst.
Adam Outland:Life has changed.
Dave Brown:It has quite a bit.
Adam Outland:For all listeners, I have the pleasure of working with Dave at Southwestern Consulting.
Adam Outland:We have a wonderful standing relationship, so we're gonna have a a fun, fun conversation today.
Adam Outland:But while you've been on this podcast before and the focus of that episode was really based on your background life and how you got to where you are.
Adam Outland:This episode's gonna be a lot more about what you've done since and the publishing of your latest book, and that book is servant selling.
Adam Outland:That might be a good place to start, Dave.
Adam Outland:Like, why servant selling?
Adam Outland:Why write a book on it?
Adam Outland:How long have you been
Dave Brown:thinking about this?
Dave Brown:Yeah, man.
Dave Brown:Uh, first the term came about, like we started the company a long time ago, this consulting thing, and it was one of our team meetings that we had.
Dave Brown:We did a team meeting every week on Friday, and I had a killer week.
Dave Brown:It was awesome.
Dave Brown:And I just said it in a team meeting.
Dave Brown:I was like, yeah.
Dave Brown:I was just kind of trying to be like a servant type of salesperson and it just became so much more, it's like.
Dave Brown:Ideology kind of methodology, philosophical.
Dave Brown:That's what I want it to be.
Dave Brown:I want it to be a different way of selling, to sell with, uh, your prospect's needs and their wants and desires first.
Dave Brown:And I think it captures just the servant selling idea.
Dave Brown:Just even those two words captures how Southwestern's been doing it for 160 whatever years it is.
Dave Brown:You've
Adam Outland:been with the family of companies practically your whole working business life since
Dave Brown:18 years old.
Dave Brown:Is that right?
Dave Brown:Uh, 19.
Dave Brown:I was 19.
Dave Brown:Remember when I, right.
Dave Brown:Whenever I started, I, I did work with, you know, Chili's.
Dave Brown:Before that, I was the guy with 48 pieces of flair.
Dave Brown:Just be clear,
Dave Brown:, Adam Outland: that explains so much.
Dave Brown:That's
Dave Brown:great.
Adam Outland:So servant leadership, how did you evolve
Dave Brown:that princip?
Dave Brown:I start the book with this, right?
Dave Brown:It's a story about a family that I met in 2003, and I didn't feel the best after that interaction.
Dave Brown:I remember leaving some things out, not being as.
Dave Brown:Forthright as I would've liked to be in the selling scenario, and I remember it leaving me a little empty.
Dave Brown:I actually, and, and nobody would know.
Dave Brown:Nobody would know.
Dave Brown:I didn't straight up lie to anybody or, but I just felt it.
Dave Brown:I felt that I should have just been a little more real about the product, about whatever, and I, I remember after that, I couldn't stop thinking about it.
Dave Brown:Adam and I just made a decision.
Dave Brown:I and I remember very clearly like going, I'm gonna do it the right way.
Dave Brown:I'm gonna sell the right way, not leaving anything out, not ever wanting to have this feeling again, right?
Dave Brown:This ickiness that I had just picked up and I remember going well, is that going to compromise me being really good at sales?
Dave Brown:because it's, you know, it's been said that in the, I don't like it at all.
Dave Brown:But you know, out there this connotation to salespeople is not the best and they're trying to look out for themselves and what they want versus what their prospects and the people they talk to want.
Dave Brown:And I'm not gonna do it that way.
Dave Brown:And then I was scared I was gonna not be a top producer.
Dave Brown:And it was kind of cool cuz it's like this feeling that no, do both.
Dave Brown:Do both.
Dave Brown:Mm-hmm.
Dave Brown:, Adam Outland: that's.
Dave Brown:And the model inside of the consulting company of presenting one-on-one coaching to offices, going on and bringing that concept of sales development on a one-on-one basis.
Dave Brown:I learned, uh, a lot of that, um, from you.
Dave Brown:Uhhuh tell the world.
Dave Brown:Yeah, I, I've learned everything I know from you, Dave here.
Dave Brown:It's, it's now recorded history, but what I, I remember is people have a negative connotation of sales.
Dave Brown:And when you go in to provide the idea of coaching on sales, uh, one of the things that, that we often have to overcome in people's own mind is this preconceived notion even that salespeople themselves have about themselves.
Dave Brown:Like they try to avoid being a salesperson.
Dave Brown:I love picking up on some of those undercurrents, right?
Dave Brown:With people like speaking all over the place and talking about it and writing about it and, and just like you said, working with the people that I get to work with, leaders and all the coaches that we have.
Dave Brown:You can feel whenever people feel that way.
Dave Brown:And man, I think sales is the most prestigious, honorable profession on the planet.
Dave Brown:I mean, there's only two ways to make money in this world.
Dave Brown:You either sell something you own or you sell.
Dave Brown:That's it.
Dave Brown:You sell part of what you own or you actually are the one doing the selling.
Dave Brown:I, I think it's awesome.
Dave Brown:I mean, every image, man, woman, any organization through history that's done anything that is matters at all, was a massive sales pitch.
Dave Brown:. And if you don't believe it, just start looking around, like start reading about it and how they had to convince and move people to action and uncover doubts, right?
Dave Brown:Like work through.
Dave Brown:With dealing with doubts and fears and all this stuff that comes up in just normal, natural life.
Dave Brown:Like, think about where you naturally do this in your life with your family.
Dave Brown:Where are you selling with your daughter?
Dave Brown:You know, what conversations are you having with your friends where you're making them come to life, or you're actually having to work them through something that's they're struggling in their life.
Dave Brown:That is a sale right there.
Dave Brown:Like, why do we complicate this thing?
Dave Brown:I think we.
Dave Brown:You know, have so much to learn.
Dave Brown:You do this naturally.
Dave Brown:Sales is a natural thing.
Dave Brown:Stop fighting your beliefs on it because of what somebody said about it, or like, oh, it's a, it's a negative deal.
Dave Brown:It's not, it's a beautiful thing.
Dave Brown:And embrace it.
Dave Brown:Yeah, man.
Dave Brown:It's just, we all do it.
Dave Brown:Just, you just gotta love on yourself for doing it and be excited that you are doing it, because that's the only thing that's gonna help anybody change, including.
Dave Brown:I think, you know,
Adam Outland:you can learn all of these strategies and techniques to how to sell more effectively, but if your mind is focused on what's in the transaction for me, the strategies end up falling short and you end up turning into the stereotype of what you have in your mind, right?
Adam Outland:Like that's the blockage.
Adam Outland:But if your mind is focused, What's in service to the client?
Adam Outland:Then you bring to life the strategies become a, a useful tool to help people get out of their own way.
Adam Outland:Selling gets its bad reputation because of the people who take the approach of what's in it for me.
Dave Brown:Absolutely, man.
Dave Brown:You got it.
Dave Brown:It's, and you wanna see where people really come alive.
Dave Brown:Just ask 'em what they're passionate about.
Dave Brown:Ask them more.
Dave Brown:You know, were they, were, they made a stand?
Dave Brown:Something that they believed was right in this world, and then ask 'em to talk about it.
Dave Brown:Then you have them relate it.
Dave Brown:I go, okay, well that, you know, look what you just did right there, how you spoke about it.
Dave Brown:I, that is the true sale.
Dave Brown:Like, that's when you're doing it the right way and you're trying to pick up these one liners or this closing technique that's gonna, you know, come on.
Dave Brown:None of that craps.
Dave Brown:Can people do that?
Dave Brown:And yeah, people done it for a long dang time, and that's not what I want to be the, the disciple.
Dave Brown:Yeah.
Dave Brown:And
Adam Outland:the one thing that I also wanted to talk about, if we zoom out from the book for a second from the, the content of the book, but I also just wanted to ask you about writing it.
Adam Outland:We had an author on, uh, Dean Kunz, who's totally different field of
Dave Brown:writing.
Dave Brown:Right.
Dave Brown:He publishes way better than I am, like way better
Dave Brown:Um, and, but so I, I, I love
Adam Outland:asking this question, which is the process of actually putting this together for you.
Adam Outland:Um, it's been in your mind, obviously, you gave an example of how long you've been thinking about this principle.
Adam Outland:What's been some of the challenges of getting this consolidated on paper?
Adam Outland:Like what's been the process that
Dave Brown:you've had to go through?
Dave Brown:I mean a lot of, am I worthy?
Dave Brown:Am I the person I gonna put this person to tell a story?
Dave Brown:So a lot of that upfront.
Dave Brown:Uh, and then just the team, man, I mean, it takes a village, right?
Dave Brown:We hear that with kids, and when you start having kids, you really realize how true that is.
Dave Brown:And same thing with a book.
Dave Brown:I mean, it's like a kid.
Dave Brown:I, I needed the people to help.
Dave Brown:Get this stuff outta me.
Dave Brown:And I remember going to one of my content editors and I, I was like, dude, I put, put my heart into these stories and I'm like, dude, that this and that.
Dave Brown:It's stuff I've told from the stage for years.
Dave Brown:And then, you know, like a quick email back, that's not good enough.
Dave Brown:You need to do better.
Dave Brown:, that's like my signature story bra like that.
Dave Brown:Is that, what are you talking like?
Dave Brown:Like I'm down, like I don't even know where to go.
Dave Brown:I got nothing else.
Dave Brown:Just them pulling out.
Dave Brown:The, the best that's in you.
Dave Brown:You know, one of my favorite quotes is exploiting your U uniqueness and service to others and like, what is your uniqueness, Dave?
Dave Brown:Like, what is it?
Dave Brown:Put your stuff on this and then, so yeah, just a team making you better and putting it on paper.
Dave Brown:And then it was so, it was a lot, man, but I really enjoyed it.
Adam Outland:I mean, all of these things are things you're good at,
Dave Brown:but you can say that again for the Yeah, I'll repeat that.
Dave Brown:Uh, you're good at , the chapter
Adam Outland:three, the power of Persistence.
Adam Outland:But for listeners, I mean, if, if you just pull a little bit of some of the, the anecdotes from the book on persistence, like what are a couple of things that you would share with people that are in the sales game right now about the mindset around persistence and how to deal with.
Dave Brown:Yeah, it, it's persistence is a unique characteristic character trait in humans because you don't get a chance to truly work on it unless you're being rejected.
Dave Brown:So you need to, there's no way you can just go, Ima go get.
Dave Brown:Better persistence today.
Dave Brown:It's like, no, go fail . And that's whenever you're getting better at it.
Dave Brown:So it's not like you can go get a workout in on persistence.
Dave Brown:It was, uh, an understanding that if I got more nos than anybody else, I was gonna win.
Dave Brown:And I didn't have the best numbers at 'em.
Dave Brown:I mean, I didn't, I wasn't this closer that, that had this, you know, I closed 80% of the people I talked to and there's people that are out there that are way better than I am.
Dave Brown:with that kind of stuff.
Dave Brown:I didn't, I had about the same ratios as.
Dave Brown:Is any average person in any one of our business, like anything I've ever participated in, I just knew that I could go see more people and I just knew that I could make this principle of you see more, you sell more a reality and prove it.
Dave Brown:I mean, come on, you can't go work on this skillset, right?
Dave Brown:Overnight.
Dave Brown:But overnight you can go see two times the people that you saw y.
Dave Brown:We all can do that.
Dave Brown:I love that.
Dave Brown:We all have access to this and, um, there's a book back there.
Dave Brown:Can you see it?
Dave Brown:It's my, it's the number one sales book on the planet.
Dave Brown:It's something that anytime anybody asks for a book re recommendation, I say this is the best sales book ever for audio listeners
Adam Outland:only.
Adam Outland:What's the title of that book?
Adam Outland:Right?
Dave Brown:Green Eggs and Ham by Dr.
Dave Brown:Seuss.
Dave Brown:Why is this the best
Adam Outland:sales book in
Dave Brown:the.
Dave Brown:Man, he had this product that he was telling his prospect about and he knew the, he knew the prospect was actually gonna like it, like he was serving.
Dave Brown:He was helping him.
Dave Brown:So just, you just gotta try it.
Dave Brown:All you gotta do is try it and over and over again, he heard no, but he kept a great attitude.
Dave Brown:Now my favorite part about this book about Green eggs and ham, if you look at the pages, and I dissected this cause this is a book my mom probably read to me a thousand times.
Dave Brown:But when you look through, Even when he's getting told no, there's like this, this shouting like the, the lines, you know of Dr.
Dave Brown:Sue's writing, like shouting and he's got this little smile on his face.
Dave Brown:He's just like, yeah, you could tell we no all day long.
Dave Brown:It doesn't matter.
Dave Brown:Right?
Dave Brown:I'm gonna stick with you cuz I think this will be best and once you try it, And what does it say at the end of the book?
Dave Brown:Thank you.
Dave Brown:Thank you, Sam.
Dave Brown:I am right.
Dave Brown:I do so like green eggs in him.
Dave Brown:. I love it.
Dave Brown:Um, there's a couple of people I know
Adam Outland:that you share a little bit of a, a behavior quality with that behavior quality of uh, a little bit of like fearlessness on doing new things because you know, from a lot of experience that any new thing can be.
Adam Outland:Through enough failure.
Adam Outland:And failure doesn't mean bad.
Adam Outland:And, uh, you know, in college, uh, one of your, your claims to fame was, uh, not playing one, not two, but 12 sports.
Dave Brown:Now, how many, how many did you actually play?
Dave Brown:Four sports.
Dave Brown:Yeah, so four sports,
Adam Outland:that's, I mean, it's abnormal on a lot of levels to do that.
Adam Outland:One from a time commitment level in school.
Adam Outland:Uh, but another, because generally, um, people don't transition their ability from one sport to another.
Adam Outland:What gave
Dave Brown:you the ability.
Dave Brown:It's just not quitting, like never quitting on a play, never quitting on your teammate.
Dave Brown:, right.
Dave Brown:Not quitting.
Dave Brown:Whenever times get tough cuz they do.
Dave Brown:And never stopping believing.
Dave Brown:I, I, uh, volleyball was one of the sports that I played in college and I know you like to bring it up in a, oh, is it a real sport kind of way.
Dave Brown:I'm gonna do the Oh, it's a real sport.
Dave Brown:It's real.
Dave Brown:I know.
Dave Brown:It's, but my senior year right of high school, I, I, I, that was just volleyball just broke out bec It was something that I was probably the best suited for, just athletically and everything else as I was figuring that out and.
Dave Brown:My freshman year of college, it was, we were not.
Dave Brown:Where we needed to be, even 60% through the season like we were actually, we had a massive losing record.
Dave Brown:And it was just something coach just poured into us about just not quitting, not giving up.
Dave Brown:And we were national champions, we're national champions.
Dave Brown:We kept saying that stuff to each other and it was kind of cool that we ended up winning.
Dave Brown:We went on a ridiculous winning streak.
Dave Brown:We couldn't stop winning and we've just came together and peaked at the right time.
Dave Brown:And we've all seen that in sports and that's something that I love.
Dave Brown:I love the underdog.
Dave Brown:Uh, I used.
Dave Brown:In order for me to get better, like whenever there's a pickup basketball game or like just a little three, three on three soccer thing or whatever.
Dave Brown:When I was growing up, I used to wanna take the players that were smaller than everyone else and that nobody thought that could win because that was one.
Dave Brown:You're helping them get a taste of winning.
Dave Brown:And two, it makes you better.
Dave Brown:Like you have to stretch yourself.
Dave Brown:So, man, it shows up right there too.
Dave Brown:Like just don't quit and believe.
Dave Brown:Just don't stop believing.
Dave Brown:Right?
Dave Brown:Right.
Dave Brown:Bec can sing the song.
Dave Brown:Sing the song.
Dave Brown:It's a true statement, and sports gives you a chance to practice it.
Dave Brown:I mean, how many times, what?
Dave Brown:What are the stories we're talking about?
Dave Brown:We're not talking about the team that was ahead by 20, that won by 10.
Dave Brown:We're talking about the team that was.
Dave Brown:Down by 20 that ended up winning by two.
Dave Brown:That's the stuff people are circulating all the dang time.
Dave Brown:And I love that.
Dave Brown:You know, sales is, sales is just that, just don't give up on it.
Dave Brown:Don't, don't stop going to the next dang door.
Dave Brown:Don't you know, don't pick up the second.
Dave Brown:You don't pick up the phone.
Dave Brown:That's when you've lost,
Adam Outland:there's just such a correlation.
Adam Outland:I, I mean, in sports and, and sales because there is the perception of winning and losing things, right?
Adam Outland:There's a competition.
Adam Outland:There's having to learn how to deal with failure and what it means about you and being about something other than just you when you're part of a team.
Adam Outland:And so that all kind of comes back to the servant principle, um, which I really love.
Adam Outland:And one last principle that that reminded me of is an acronym that you've become famous for, which is, Wood fly,
Dave Brown:Woodly wood fly.
Dave Brown:How do you
Adam Outland:spell it and what does it stand for?
Dave Brown:W I D F L I, Woodly is, it is simply put, uh, when you don't feel like it, when you don't feel like it.
Dave Brown:None of us feel like, uh, working out.
Dave Brown:I don't feel like, you know, making things right, that, that I wronged.
Dave Brown:I, I don't feel like knocking on the next door.
Dave Brown:I don't feel like.
Dave Brown:Doing the stuff that I need to do in my marriage.
Dave Brown:So it's like, it's just this wood fly, it's just, it rolls off the tongue so perfectly.
Dave Brown:Wood fly.
Dave Brown:It's a great reminder.
Dave Brown:It, it's about doing the things you don't wanna do when you don't feel like it.
Dave Brown:And so that's something that, um, yeah man, I want it to be all around me every time I see it.
Dave Brown:It's like, remember, that's, that's what life is about.
Dave Brown:By doing things you don't wanna.
Dave Brown:Say it again.
Dave Brown:Say it again.
Dave Brown:It's so good.
Dave Brown:The other question
Adam Outland:that I wanted to ask you is about the transformation that took place when you, um, had your first kiddo.
Adam Outland:How has being a dad transformed your perspective on being a servant?
Dave Brown:Gosh, man.
Dave Brown:Um, that first transformation happens when you get married, right?
Dave Brown:I mean, you know that like, it's like it's, it's a, now it's somebody true.
Dave Brown:You get to actually practice this stuff, Dave, when it really matters, right?
Dave Brown:Like when you get married and then when you have a kid, it's, it's given up all your dignity sometimes and all the.
Dave Brown:All the selfishness that you have and, and it's like, it's, especially with the first one, I don't know if you noticed this, but you want to hold onto your routines and hold on to the way that you do things and your selfishness and you, you set up life so that you can, and then whenever you do it trying to live the way that you were before it, it's not as good.
Dave Brown:Mm-hmm.
Dave Brown:, it's not as good.
Dave Brown:I, uh, you know, we have three kids now, God, three kids, and th that's whenever I'm most fulfilled, whenever I'm actually thinking of their needs.
Dave Brown:In acting out, doing something about what I think they.
Dave Brown:whenever I don't, there's like this same, same incongruency that we were talking about earlier, right?
Dave Brown:In the, in the episode.
Dave Brown:It's like you are fulfilled, you are wanting more for them, and it gets addictive.
Dave Brown:Like same thing about doing sales the right way.
Dave Brown:Like whenever you're truly thinking about that other person and that's where you're targeting your questions and, um, wanting to, you know, un unlock this and figure this out so that you can solve this problem for them.
Dave Brown:It's, uh, it's a great place to practice is right at home.
Dave Brown:And the best place to practice it is when your kids get home from school is whenever you don't want.
Dave Brown:You wanna just play on your phone, you know you do, right?
Dave Brown:It's so much easier.
Dave Brown:and I just, but then it's like, no, lemme put this away.
Dave Brown:Let me focus on them.
Dave Brown:And they know, man, just like I think your prospect knows when you're truly a servant selling, they know when you're focused on them and they know when you.
Dave Brown:Yeah.
Dave Brown:If you're saying yes to one thing, you're saying no to the other.
Dave Brown:If you're saying no to something, you're saying yes to another.
Dave Brown:And it's like, if you're saying yes to that stuff, you're saying no to your kids.
Dave Brown:And it's such a good practice for being a servant salesperson is what you do inside your own, in your, your own house with your kiddos.
Dave Brown:I mean, Dawson, uh, he was having a tough morning on Monday, and my wife says this a lot to me.
Dave Brown:Connection over efficiency.
Dave Brown:Connection first, then efficiency, not the other way around.
Dave Brown:Like I'm trying to get him outta the house for, to get to school, right?
Dave Brown:Efficiency, efficiency, efficiency.
Dave Brown:Put your clothes on, brush your teeth, you know, drink this, take your vitamins where he just needed somebody to sit in how he was feeling with him.
Dave Brown:and I, I completely missed it.
Dave Brown:Mm.
Dave Brown:I didn't get a chance to connect with my son.
Dave Brown:That's what he needed, and it sucked.
Dave Brown:And then I apologized to him the night after an Emmy's, like just, it's con, it's the same thing I tell you, Dave.
Dave Brown:Connection over efficiency, which I am as insanely efficient human being, and that is my, that's probably my biggest motivation and it's interrupting that pattern and putting connection.
Dave Brown:That's
Adam Outland:super good.
Adam Outland:That's great.
Adam Outland:A lot of people can relate to that, so that's really good.
Adam Outland:One of the other things is leadership, but I was curious if you could share, um, what servant selling has to do with servant leadership and how the two might be connected.
Dave Brown:Whenever you're putting the needs of your prospects first as a servant salesperson, leadership, you're putting their goals, your people's dreams ahead of your own.
Dave Brown:And not that to say you can't achieve your dreams.
Dave Brown:Like it's, it's the fun Ziglar quote of helping enough people get what they want.
Dave Brown:You'll get what you want, kind of a thing.
Dave Brown:But with leadership, I think it's, um, it's getting to know.
Dave Brown:what they really want.
Dave Brown:I love that.
Dave Brown:I had a leader a long time ago that drove me by my elementary school.
Dave Brown:He was trying to recruit me and he flew to my hometown and drove me by my elementary school and said, what are the three things that come to your mind whenever you are here sitting in this parking lot, like my elementary school?
Dave Brown:And I thought that was amazing.
Dave Brown:I thought it was, it was brilliant.
Dave Brown:And it wasn't about him getting me to work for him or, or getting me to perform for him.
Dave Brown:It was.
Dave Brown:Like really wanting to know what made me tick and like these, these anchors, these relationship anchors.
Dave Brown:And that's what I think servant leaders are so good at, is they have foundational stories and foundational experiences with every one of their people.
Dave Brown:I love that.
Dave Brown:Yeah.
Dave Brown:Servant leadership is having those relationship anchors and then trying to find more, like creating more experiences.
Dave Brown:Because you always have to call your people out on certain things, and you always have to, you're, you're not, most of the conversations, if they are conversations that are gonna transform people, they aren't the funnest, they're not the things that you wanna be talking about, right?
Dave Brown:It's like wood flag.
Dave Brown:God, I don't wanna talk about this one.
Dave Brown:I'm much rather just hang out.
Dave Brown:But that's, sometimes you need to do that and you gotta have these, I call 'em credibility deposits, especially in leadership with every one of your people.
Dave Brown:And one thing I've noticed that you do very
Adam Outland:well with credibility deposits, even with people who are not actually on your team.
Adam Outland:And to me, this is almost a, a really great example of this where you.
Adam Outland:Spend time with intention with a lot of people that you don't work with yet, where you, you schedule a routine and it's to develop that relationship without thinking of necessarily a return.
Adam Outland:And it's a way to educate people about what we're about.
Adam Outland:And the byproduct may or may not be them coming to, to partner and work with
Dave Brown:you, right?
Dave Brown:Yes, but I'm never gonna quit on 'em, even if it's 20 years down the road.
Dave Brown:Mm-hmm.
Dave Brown:. So eventually they will come.
Dave Brown:and if I gotta talk to 'em for 50 years, I will.
Dave Brown:And the key to all those conversations is just keep being valuable.
Dave Brown:Mm-hmm.
Dave Brown:just keep being valuable.
Dave Brown:And I'm not saying I'm sticking with 'em for 50 years or 20 years cuz I, I wanna work with 'em one day.
Dave Brown:Do I?
Dave Brown:Absolutely.
Dave Brown:I absolutely wanna work with 'em one day.
Dave Brown:But the other part of that is it's a great place to create relationships.
Dave Brown:I think so many adults, they don't know how to create relationships.
Dave Brown:they don't know how to, you know, they, they're hanging out with their, their best friend from third grade because they, their names were both bees and alphabetical order.
Dave Brown:So they end up sitting next to each other and because of this random that they're best friends, like, like you choose, you get to choose the people you wanna do life with.
Dave Brown:And whenever you have a true relationship with 'em, however long it takes, three months, three years, 30 years.
Dave Brown:Now we're building something beautiful.
Dave Brown:And you have true friends later on.
Dave Brown:That you look forward to doing life with.
Dave Brown:So, yeah, man, I mean, all the time.
Dave Brown:I, I love that.
Dave Brown:And I'll, I won't quit on anybody until they tell me blatantly.
Dave Brown:I've had some people say, Dave, I don't wanna talk to you again.
Dave Brown:And I just wanna keep showing it up and being invaluable.
Dave Brown:And if they say that, it's like, sweet.
Dave Brown:All right, this was fun.
Dave Brown:And that's it.
Dave Brown:Well, while
Adam Outland:we've spent a lot of time here talking about mindset and perspective and persistence, the book is actually quite technical as well, where you've give a lot of context to what does servant selling look like in different parts of the sales cycle.
Adam Outland:How do you actually apply this in the field?
Adam Outland:So, you know, in in summary, is there one thing that you.
Adam Outland:If someone were to be relatively maybe new to sales or not necessarily new to sales, but not, uh, performing exactly where they wanna perform, what would be one technical thing that you might share as a, a good
Dave Brown:starting point?
Dave Brown:Yeah.
Dave Brown:And again, there's, you know, 50, 60 techniques and ideas in the book to, to help, help you break out and be great.
Dave Brown:Whether you're great right now and you wanna be greater or just figuring this thing out and wanna, you know, be a top producer.
Dave Brown:But it, it's the one that I figured out whenever I was going door to door.
Dave Brown:That is you have to ask for the business.
Dave Brown:Mm-hmm.
Dave Brown:, even if you are so far off in your present.
Dave Brown:From them becoming a client.
Dave Brown:And you've heard me talk about it and I, I talk about, it's striking out, it's the strikeout principle, right?
Dave Brown:I didn't play baseball.
Dave Brown:It was one of the few sports I didn't play, but I get it.
Dave Brown:And whenever you swing at the ball, whenever somebody pitches it to you, and those, even that don't, don't play sports, you hopefully have enough knowledge of baseball.
Dave Brown:When you swing at it and you get a third strike, you gotta, you're out.
Dave Brown:Right?
Dave Brown:You don't get to you, you don't get to bat anymore.
Dave Brown:That's fine.
Dave Brown:You at least.
Dave Brown:You swung the bat, you gave yourself a chance to hit the ball.
Dave Brown:But whenever you strike out, look in, and the ball flies past and the umpire goes, you're out and you gotta walk back.
Dave Brown:That is what so many sales look like.
Dave Brown:So many sales presentations never have a close.
Dave Brown:They never have.
Dave Brown:Well, do you wanna get together?
Dave Brown:Do you want to, um, do, do you wanna do this?
Dave Brown:Even if like yeah, even as horrible of a close as sounds like this.
Dave Brown:Do you wanna.
Dave Brown:Still doing that in swinging the bat is 10 times better than walking away from that conversation going, man, yeah, she was an indu, or he was an indu, that family, this or that, or, you know what?
Dave Brown:I couldn't sign up that group.
Dave Brown:Or, oh, just ask.
Dave Brown:I mean, I've had some of the worst presentations ever in my life going down and not working, and I was like, well, so when do you want me to come out and work with your team?
Dave Brown:You wanna do it this week or next week?
Dave Brown:And , they're just blown away most of the time.
Dave Brown:It's like, no, you idiot.
Dave Brown:We're not doing this, but there have been times where it's.
Dave Brown:Yeah, can just teach my team just to do what you just did whenever I was not interested.
Dave Brown:You just still clothed.
Dave Brown:Just sure come out and do that.
Dave Brown:I learned that whenever I was knocking on doors, um, I'd run into people who didn't have kids.
Dave Brown:We sold kids products, right?
Dave Brown:Books and study guides and software and all this stuff, but.
Dave Brown:Everybody knows a kid.
Dave Brown:Everybody's got some kind of kids, nieces, nephews, somebody at the church, they know whatever.
Dave Brown:And I'd be like, well, who do you wanna buy 'em for?
Dave Brown:You know, you wanna get 'em for this group or that group?
Dave Brown:I mean, everybody's getting something to help some of the kids out in their life.
Dave Brown:Like, so what do you wanna do this?
Dave Brown:You wanna do that ? And most of the time they'd say no, but sometimes, and actually got to be pretty good at it.
Dave Brown:Selling this product to families without kids got to be really, really good at it by just asking every time.
Dave Brown:Every time.
Dave Brown:The
Adam Outland:positive expectation.
Adam Outland:That you go into it with and, and also realizing it's not your job to say no for them.
Adam Outland:It's your job to, to give them the opportunity.
Adam Outland:Yeah.
Adam Outland:And to do that from a place of service and saying, Hey, I, I believe in what I'm doing and what we have, and
Dave Brown:someone needs this.
Dave Brown:It's congruent with why you called them.
Dave Brown:If it is congruent with the conversation that you're having, if you don't, then what the heck are you doing there?
Dave Brown:Just blows me away.
Dave Brown:You walk away from that psychologically confirmed in what you're doing when you ask.
Dave Brown:And your prospect tells you no, which confirms them.
Dave Brown:It's honoring the person on the other side of the interaction by asking.
Dave Brown:Awesome.
Dave Brown:Lightning round love.
Dave Brown:Lightning round.
Dave Brown:What are some of the tools
Adam Outland:that you would share with the audience that you, you are using
Dave Brown:right now?
Dave Brown:One of my biggest tools is self-talk.
Dave Brown:The phrase I have all the time in the world is one of the best time management strategies on the planet.
Dave Brown:I really do have all the time in the world, every human does, and by saying that over and over again, people F one, their guard goes down, and two, you feel better about your life.
Dave Brown:You actually feel like you can get to everything and you have all the time in the world.
Dave Brown:So that's one of 'em.
Dave Brown:Big time is just the self-talk around that.
Dave Brown:I think it, I think it is truly a tool that is underutilized in this real world.
Dave Brown:People talk about how busy they are and how much time they don't have and what they need to get to.
Dave Brown:It's like, that's cute.
Dave Brown:Personal
Adam Outland:health?
Adam Outland:Like what?
Adam Outland:What are just like one thing that you do like personal health that's somewhat unique to you, that you use to stay on top of your game?
Dave Brown:I drink apple cider vinegar every day.
Dave Brown:It sucks.
Dave Brown:Who likes drinking vinegar?
Dave Brown:I hate it, but I do it because it's really freaking hard and it has been so good for my body over time.
Dave Brown:Like it's crazy.
Dave Brown:Even just the checkups and things that I've learned and more I learn about it so that, and then I do something physical every day, even if it's 10 pushups during a commercial, whenever the, you know, we're watching a game or something.
Dave Brown:So it's doing something every day.
Dave Brown:It's usually stretching or just got a peloton recently.
Dave Brown:It, it's, and that's really helps cuz it's something to do, but doing something physical every single.
Dave Brown:Got it.
Adam Outland:What about the, uh, the not
Dave Brown:eating?
Dave Brown:Oh, the fasting 10 years, starting January, 2020.
Dave Brown:I committed to do a fast for a hundred hours every first week of, every quarter for, uh, for 10 years.
Dave Brown:It's one of my biggest life statements is to do what's hard first week of every quarter.
Dave Brown:You go from, you know, Saturday night to Thursday morning and you don't eat anything.
Adam Outland:It's kind of awesome.
Adam Outland:Yeah.
Adam Outland:I'm gonna take one step in that direction by just not eating pasta every day of the week.
Dave Brown:Oh good.
Dave Brown:Yeah.
Dave Brown:We're staying avoiding Brussels sprouts for, uh, 40 days.
Dave Brown:Yeah, that's cute.
Dave Brown:Most
Adam Outland:embarrassing moment in the last year or in the last
Dave Brown:month.
Dave Brown:embarrassing moment.
Dave Brown:We're calling your wife right now.
Dave Brown:I mean, just recently.
Dave Brown:You know how I send those recap emails to leaders, Adam?
Dave Brown:Yeah.
Dave Brown:I sent the recap email to the person, , and so I put their leaders on it and I put the person who I was writing about and I was like, freaking idiot.
Dave Brown:Yeah.
Dave Brown:Uh, transparency.
Dave Brown:Why should everybody get a coach?
Dave Brown:You can't become the best version of yourself by yourself if you actually want to grow and be better doing it on your own.
Dave Brown:Never will it.
Dave Brown:It's everything you, you do it subconsciously.
Dave Brown:You ask for it with your friends, with your family.
Dave Brown:Everybody does it.
Dave Brown:Everybody searches for accountability cuz they know it works everyday time.
Dave Brown:So just pay attention to yourself and what your body actually needs so that you can be.
Dave Brown:And great and peaceful and fulfilled and less stressed, and fill in the blank with whatever you know solution you.
Dave Brown:Servant
Adam Outland:selling.
Adam Outland:Thank you so much, Dave, for sharing a little bit about your book.
Adam Outland:If someone wants to find your book, they can just type in Dave Brown's servant selling and purchase 500 copies that way for both themselves and
Dave Brown:their friends.
Dave Brown:Right.
Dave Brown:You say 5,000.
Dave Brown:5,000.
Dave Brown:There you go.
Adam Outland:Very well said . Thanks again
Dave Brown:for, for being on here, Dave.
Dave Brown:Absolutely.
Dave Brown:Adam, thanks for having me.
Dave Brown:And you can tell everybody those glasses actually aren't real, but you just have 'em to look smart.
Dave Brown:You can tell everybody that's right.
Dave Brown:Yeah.
Dave Brown:Well,
Adam Outland:we all have to improve our confidence somehow.
Dave Brown:Amen.
Dave Brown:Love you Adam.
Dave Brown:I love you too.