Join us on The Guy Who Knows A Guy Podcast as Michael Whitehouse sits down with Jeff West, a renowned author and sales expert with decades of experience transforming the sales landscape. Dive into Jeff's journey of authoring award-winning business parables and uncover the insights that have made him a pivotal figure in sales and entrepreneurship.

streetwisetosaleswise.com

fusionpoints.com

jeffcwest.com

Mentioned in this episode:

JV Connect, December 12-13, 2023

Join us for JV Connect, the dedicated networking event December 12th and 13th, 2023 https://www.jv-connect.com

Welcome back to the Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast.

2

These are bonus episodes that

did not fit into Season 6, which

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was a countdown to JV Connect.

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We hit JV Connect and we still had some

great interviews to share with you.

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But don't worry, you

haven't missed JV Connect.

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It's a quarterly event.

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You can learn more about it by sticking

around to the end of this episode.

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We'll tell you all about it.

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But right now, check out this next

awesome interview with one of the awesome

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people that the Guy Who Knows A Guy knows

and is going to introduce to you now.

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Jeff West: Welcome

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Michael Whitehouse: to the

guy who knows a guy podcast.

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I'm your host, Michael Whitehouse,

the guy who knows a guy.

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And our guest today is Jeff West.

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Let me tell you about Jeff.

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After over 30 years in sales, sales,

leadership, and entrepreneurship.

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Jeff West is now a best selling

and award winning author,

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speaker, and leadership coach.

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His books, the unexpected tour

guide and said the lady with the

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blue hair coauthored with direct

sales legend, Lisa M Wilbur, who I.

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Thought I had her on my show, but

maybe I had her on a different show.

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I don't know.

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We were talking about that beforehand,

but I definitely have met her.

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Definitely know her.

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She's awesome.

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Anyway, those books have earned

recognition from the Axiom Business Book

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Awards, the National Indie Excellence

Awards, and the American Book Fest Awards.

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His latest book, Streetwise to Sales

Wise Become Objection Proof and Beat

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the Sales Blues, co authored with Bob

Berg, who you may remember from earlier

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this season, and is earning praise

from business leaders around the U.

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S.

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He has been a guest on numerous sales

leadership shows and is a member of

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the GoGiver Success Alliance created

by Bob Berg and Kathy Tagenow.

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Jeff West: Welcome to the show, Jeff.

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My honor.

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Thank you so much for

having me on board, Michael.

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Awesome.

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Michael Whitehouse: Yes.

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So, so we were talking earlier, cause

you, you you talk about becoming objection

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proof and creating fusion points.

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And when I was going through the notes you

sent me, I said, okay, objection proof.

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If I can.

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I don't know what that is exactly,

but I can guess what that means.

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And you talk about the science

of how people make decisions.

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Important.

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Can kind of figure out what that means.

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And then fusion points.

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What's that mean?

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So tell us, let's start with there.

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What, tell us about a fusion points

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Jeff West: and what that means.

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You know, Fusion Points is actually a

branding that I did, Michael, that grew

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out of my question that I had when I was

leading a team of about 400 salespeople.

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And that was, I could get

two people in the same room.

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Their resumes looked similar,

their leadership skills looked

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right, everything about them told

me they'll both be very successful

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out there in the field of sales.

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And then I would put them out there

and one would decide to stick it

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out and be great, and the other

would make the decision to quit.

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And it puzzled me why that happened.

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So I began to study the science

of how people make decisions.

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And long story short, I ran

across the works of a Dr.

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Antonio Damasio, who was a professor

of neuroscience at USC and an associate

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professor at the Salk Institute.

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Long story short, the entire

process is built around the

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idea that people make decisions.

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only when they can connect

logic and emotion together.

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No one makes a purely logical decision.

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No one makes a purely emotional decision.

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It's that combination that happens.

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And if it's a negative emotion

in our brain, two things happen.

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Number one, it sends a

somatic marker into our chest.

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We start feeling funny.

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We have a physiological

response that we don't like.

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We don't want to go forward.

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So whatever logically we were

trying to do at the time, the

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decision is to get away from it.

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On the other hand, The use of positive

emotional responses between our ears

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when that touches our chest and creates

a physical, physical sensation for us,

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that is a sensation that people love.

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And so when you combine that with a

logic that you're trying to accomplish

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at the time, it creates tenacity.

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It creates so many good things.

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So I basically, I define a fusion

point is that moment in time.

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It's a unique point where logic and

positive emotion merge and ignite,

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and it creates acceleration, it

creates commitment, it creates energy,

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and it moves the process forward.

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And what I do is I teach salespeople

how to do that in a sales process,

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but I teach entrepreneurs and small

business owners how to create that

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in their market and with their team.

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Michael Whitehouse: Yeah,

that's, that's powerful.

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And so it would not only be to make

prospects move forward with the

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process, but to your team and yourself.

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move forward with the business and, and I

imagine this would also probably help with

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some of the, the morning routine stuff,

the getting from sleeping to working and.

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Absolutely.

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You know, bouncing back from a challenging

situation, those, those sorts of things.

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Jeff West: Yeah, absolutely.

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You know, and when it comes to

building a business or growing a sales

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career, your success, your future

isn't determined by the economy.

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It's not determined by

the political landscape.

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It's not even determined

by your competition.

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It's determined by how one simple

question is answered by your

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prospects in the market, by your

sales team by the, your support

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staff, the people that work for you.

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It's how they answer one simple question.

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And it's when it comes to

their relationship with you.

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Will they persist or will they quit?

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If you learn how to work within the

science of how we're naturally built

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anyway, what it does is it equips

you to have some influence over those

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decisions that they want to stay with

you and move forward in the process.

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Yep.

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Michael Whitehouse: Yep.

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Very powerful.

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So we were talking earlier because the

theme of the show is around networking.

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And of course you're part of the,

the go getter success Alliance.

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So tell me a bit about you know, what,

what that's done for you and you know,

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how networking has helped you build

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Jeff West: your business.

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Well, that's a great question.

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You know, when I guess it was,

I can remember exactly, it was

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in January of the year 2000.

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A sales mentor of mine, I was in

the insurance industry at that time.

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I was in North Texas and I was a

district manager for the insurance

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carrier that I was working with.

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Still self employed, but

had, had overrides involved.

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And a sales mentor of mine gave me

two books and it changed my world.

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One was John Maxwell's 21 Irrefutable Laws

of Leadership, a great leadership book.

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But the second one.

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Was a book I had never

heard of by an author.

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I had no clue who he was.

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And it was endless referrals by

Bob Burke and reading those 2 books

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and applying what I learned from

those, even though they didn't

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necessarily apply to my industry.

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I adapted them to my industry

that made all the difference.

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And it's my career went from being an

average district manager that would would.

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Make my numbers one

time, miss them one time.

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And I wasn't in danger of getting

fired, but I wasn't a superstar either.

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But two years after I implemented what I

learned at Endless Referrals, which was

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basically built around the idea of what

proper networking is, I, at that time,

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two years later, I was a regional manager.

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Two years after that,

I was a state manager.

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And I was a state manager the last

10 years of my career in insurance

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till I decided to start writing and

speaking and doing this for a living.

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But to me, networking is

all about focusing on.

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How you can provide value to the other

people in the network and how you can make

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those connections, you know and when I

was reading in those referrals, one of the

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things that I saw in that book that just

jumped out at me and I have implemented

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it in everything I've done since then,

is asking the person that you're working

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with at the time, what do I need to

know when I'm out there in the field?

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What do I need to know to it to make

sure if someone I run into is a good

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referral for me to send your way?

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And you think about the magic

in the networking process.

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If everyone is focused last like that

and you start making those connections.

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Everybody wins.

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And Bob was talking about doing it

in networking events and all that

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in the book and in other places

too, but that was the primary focus.

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Talking about don't give your

cards out and say, or have an

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elevator pitch or whatever ready.

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It was talking about really working

on making the connections for

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people and providing that value.

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So how it directly applied

and helped my career take off.

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I began to develop a network, a

referral network of my existing clients.

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I, at that time I probably had

200 different clients that were

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employers and I was involved in

their employee benefit program.

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I went in and I asked I told one of the

owners, it was a place in downtown Dallas,

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Texas on the 23rd floor of a building.

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And I don't like heights all that much

either, but I had a meeting with a.

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Owner of the, of a mortgage company, it

was one of my clients and I had called

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him ahead of time saying, I want to pick

your brain about a couple of things.

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And he said, sure.

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So we got there.

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And the first thing I did, I sat down with

him and I said, you know, the first thing

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I want to do before I ask you what I'm

going to ask you is tell you, thank you.

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He said, for what?

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And I said, I feed my family by providing,

getting involved in employee benefits

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and providing the services that we offer.

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And I am, that's how I, that's

how everything in my life outside

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of work works effectively.

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And I just want to thank you

because you're a part of that.

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And I appreciate that.

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Of course it was true.

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And of course he

appreciated the compliment.

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And I said, but I want

to ask you a question.

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And he said, what?

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And I said, I am out there in

the marketplace all the time.

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I'm contacting new companies.

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I've got existing clients.

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I need to ask you a question.

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What do I need to be

looking for out there?

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What questions do I need to be asking

people to know if they would be a

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good referral for me to send your way?

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I want to return the

favor and help you too.

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And I'll tell you what he did, Michael.

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I'll never forget this.

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I actually wrote the scene into my first

book, The Unexpected Tour Guide, but

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he said, He took off his glasses and

he laid them on his table and he said,

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I'm going to answer that question, but

I have to tell you something first.

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And I said, what?

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And he said, I've been

in business 30 years.

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I've had a lot of salespeople

ask me for referrals.

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This is the first time ever a

salesperson has ever asked me how

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they could refer business to me.

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Thank you.

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And of course, the discussion

just got even better.

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And he told me what to look for.

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I had already kind of planned

a couple of things in my head.

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And so I said, well,

hang on just a second.

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And I picked up my cell phone and

I called a client that I felt like

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would be a good referral for him.

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And I got him on the phone and I said,

Hey, I just want to ask you a question.

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I've got another client who does,

who owns a mortgage company.

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He's starting to do some things

with employers and their employees.

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I think.

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He would be somebody you should talk to.

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I think somebody that, that it's

a good connection there for you.

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Would you mind if I gave him

your contact information?

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Person said, no, that'd be perfectly fine.

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And I said, I'll tell you, I know

the guy I've known him for a while.

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I like him and I trust him.

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And I think you guys will get along well.

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And I said, he said, great.

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So I hung up the phone and I did

that in front of the person that

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I was given the referral to.

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And so that worked out long

story short, he and I keep saying

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long story short too many times.

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If I were writing, I would edit,

I would edit that out, but he and

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I developed a referral network.

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We would have lunches where he would

have, we'd have it at his place and

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his business and we'd invite some of

his clients, some of my clients, and we

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just began to take it off from there.

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And I also began to teach that in my team.

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And it wasn't just that I did it and

I was great at it, it was also I was

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pretty darn good at equipping the others

around me to know how to do that too.

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So that's why when it really took off.

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So that's how networking for

me made all the difference.

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Wow.

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Yeah.

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That's

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Michael Whitehouse: it.

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What I love about that is there's nothing

new to me in the basic principle that

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asks people how you can help them.

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But the way you did very intentionally

with your clients, because we often

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think about this with our network

or the people are meeting in.

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In networking, but to actually

ask your client explicitly,

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you know, how can I refer?

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And even the, if you can, if you

can make a referral, that's great.

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And even if you can't, maybe they

say something and you're like

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I've never met anyone like that.

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That's yeah.

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Yeah.

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Well, well really I'm looking

for a, you know, a one legged

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midget who's into basketball.

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Oh, that's interesting.

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I'll keep an eye out for the, you

know, you don't have one, but just

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the fact that you asked, right.

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Cause that's, if I, you know, in, in

networking events, I find to the extent

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that I, I catch people flat footed.

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I asked them like, so

who are you here to meet?

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Who's your, if you can beat

anyone in the County, who

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would you like to connect with?

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Oh, I don't know.

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I'm just looking to get out

there and see who's there.

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Like, really, you do

have a business, right?

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Like, do you know your customers really?

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But, but yeah, they're so not used to

that because they're used to everyone

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coming up and being like, hi, I'm Michael.

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I do this.

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And you know, so and so hires

me over this and whatever.

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But that idea of deepening the

relationship with your client for that.

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And.

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That's such a better way than saying, who

else do you know who I should talk to?

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Because like who else do I know

for you to get a sales pitch to?

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I don't know.

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Versus how can I help you?

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Right.

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How can I refer to you?

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You don't even have to

ask him for referrals.

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He's going to most people, once you've

introduced them to one or two people,

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they're going to be like, okay, I

really need to refer you to someone

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now, just so I can feel better.

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Like you're giving me so much.

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I, you haven't even asked for anything.

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I got to give something in return.

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So that, that's a really powerful concept.

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I

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Jeff West: love it.

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Well, you know, the, an interesting thing

too, and you touched on it there is when

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someone's asking for referrals in any

context to, to just ask doesn't work

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very well, but if you get specific and

you ask deeper questions that does the

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same process here, when you ask someone.

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What do I need to be asking people?

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What do I need to be looking for

out there to know if they're a

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good referral that's in your way?

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It gets them thinking deeper.

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And so it works well.

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And it actually creates a fusion point,

like I described earlier, because what I

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did at that point is I created a hugely

positive emotional response in my client.

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And I had a, I had a positive

emotional response with him

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anyway, but, but I created that.

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And then I combined it with a logic of

getting, helping him do more business.

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And when I did that, it

created a fusion points.

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And until I got promoted and moved away,

we, we, we stayed in contact pretty well.

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Yeah, that's,

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Michael Whitehouse: that's

hugely powerful concept.

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And, and I love that idea of that.

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You're creating the, and then the

other, and you mentioned specific.

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And one of the things that's

important about specific is.

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You know, if it'd be an eye, which

is where I, I started networking,

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I find B and I is often the

training wheels of networking.

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Like everyone started there

and then they sort of build up.

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And, and often it'd be, I, the, the,

the, the ass are not very specific.

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They're like, Oh, anyone with a spine?

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I'm a chiropractor.

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Yeah.

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I'm like, okay, yes.

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Everyone has a spine.

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No, I'm not going to refer anyone.

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Cause that's not them.

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But if somebody, every once in

a while, someone gets really

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specific and excessively specific.

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And.

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You know, if somebody says, yeah, so, so

my the clients I'm really looking for are.

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You know, gray haired guys named

Jeff with a Texas accent and a

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background in the insurance industry.

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aNd, and, you know, I want to talk

to them so I can make an offer.

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If I was to reach out to him and be

like, Jeff, you will not believe what

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the ask was of this BNI meeting I was at.

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He said, gray haired guys named

Jeff with a Texas accent who

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worked in the insurance industry.

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You want to meet him?

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And he'd be like, sure.

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Yeah.

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Like that's me.

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Okay.

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I don't even I'm

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Jeff West: your guy, and I know you like

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Michael Whitehouse: you're

interesting, but that's you need me.

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Awesome.

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And so there's such power in

that because you feel special.

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Right.

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Whereas be like, Hey, yeah, anyone

who needs insurance send them.

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Oh yeah, you need insurance.

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Right.

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But if it's right, if it's yeah, this

week, I'm focused on people who have

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a ordinal directions in their name.

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Jeff, you won't believe this.

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I would just ask for

it to be an eye group.

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That makes it easy.

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Cause cause then it's, it's you.

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It's not just, it's not just right.

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Right.

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Absolutely.

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Yep.

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So that has been being very powerful.

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Yeah.

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And so, so you're, you're telling about

the actually, yeah, you're telling me

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the story about, about Lisa Wilbur.

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I think that was an interesting

one too, how you ended up co

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authoring the book with her.

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Cause it's funny, I, I

met her a few years ago.

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I think I may have, may have had

her on my Power Launch Live show.

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I swear I had her on one of these shows.

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I don't know.

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Once you get to 200 something episodes,

it all starts to blur together.

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But I think it was interesting when you

were sharing the story of how you ended

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up co authoring that book with her.

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Said the lady with the blue hair.

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Tell us a little bit about that.

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Jeff West: Lisa and I were both in a

group that Bob Berg has, Bob Berg and

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Kathy Tejanil, the Goal Giver Success

Alliance, and we were on one of the first

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Zoom calls for that group, and it's a

mentoring community great group of people.

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It's, it's literally my favorite hour

every week, but the, the first meeting

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Lisa was on there too, and people

don't know this about Lisa when you

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first see her, first meet her, she's

Avon's Fifth highest earner in history.

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She's huge in direct sales and she

was only, and she had blue hair.

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And she was a little bit self conscious

about it because even though she's

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been super, super successful, she just

a little bit self conscious about it.

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And so she felt the

need to get on the call.

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And so she got the screen and

she was telling the story of why

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she got blue hair and she had.

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She told the reason she had made

the decision to do that, but

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then she added a little thing.

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She said, you know, if you ever want to

stop being less judgmental, I'm gonna

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do this in Lisa's accent best I can.

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If you ever want to, you ever want to stop

being less or start being less judgmental

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in your life, dye your hair blue.

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This is working for me.

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He says, I can be in a grocery store and

see a young lady who her skirt's a little

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too tight, her skirt's a little too short.

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And I can think, wow, skirt is

just too short and tight, said

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the lady with the blue hair.

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And so she said that I'm

listening and I'm cracking up.

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And I type in the chat, Hey, Lisa

said the lady with the blue hair

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would make an awesome book title.

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Cause at this point I had been

writing and speaking for a while

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and I had not done any coauthorships

and so long story, I said it again.

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I'm going to stop.

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I'm going to start saying short story

long, but what happened is about a

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year, year and a half later, I guess

it was when I decided to change

401

my business model a little bit.

402

And instead of just writing my own books,

go ahead and do some co authorships,

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kind of like what Bob Berg and John

David Mann did with The Go Giver.

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And I reached out to her and

we, that's what we did with

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The Lady with the Blue Hair.

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And it's, it's, that book too also

led into my co authorship with Bob.

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Bob and I've actually known each

other for, 20 plus years now.

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We met in 2003, I think it was.

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And so when, and if there's

enough story, I'll tell you

410

that how we met, it's hilarious.

411

But, and just that relationship,

we've become friends over the years.

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He approached me about doing speaking

gigs with Aflac, which was the

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insurance carrier that I was with.

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And so I helped him as much as I could.

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And then, as I became a state manager, I

had him come in and speak with our group.

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I, I literally wrote letters of

referral to every single state office

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with Aflac because Bob's that great.

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And, so as, as the time went on and

everything Bob does, I tend to tend to

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jump in there and get involved with it.

420

And so having that successful

collaboration with Lisa is kind of

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what led into the collaboration with

Bob on street wise to sales wise.

422

We were.

423

It was about fourth quarter last year, I

guess it was, and Bob was sending me an

424

email about something he was going to do,

and he wanted to know my thoughts on it.

425

It was a publication he was

about to do about objections.

426

And I said and just as a comment in

there, that it wasn't even something

427

he was really thinking about, but he

said, by the way, keep this because

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when we do our parable, this will be

something we might want to refer back to.

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So I replied to his email and I put

a little PS and said, by the way, If

430

you're serious, that answer is yes.

431

And so we began talking about

he, he had this objection proof

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manuscript that he'd had for years.

433

And he was thinking about

doing something with it.

434

He never, he never published the, the

actual work and he, it was a how to book.

435

And so when it comes to, he decided he

really would rather do it as a parable.

436

So he approached me last year

and It kind of went from there.

437

It's set in New Orleans, and I'll, we'll

get into more of that if you'd like.

438

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah,

yeah, tell me about it.

439

Actually, my next question is

going to be tell me about the book.

440

Oh, okay, cool.

441

Jeff West: It's called

Streetwise to Saleswise.

442

Become objection proof

and beat the sales blues.

443

And it's a sales parable,

or a business parable.

444

It's what I like to write the most.

445

I will write non fiction.

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And I've been technically a parable

is nonfiction, but it, but across it,

447

it's like, it's it saddles over fiction

on one side and business on the other

448

side, but it's set in new Orleans.

449

It's the story about a young

salesperson who grew up on the

450

streets of new Orleans and he lets his

mouth get ahead of him a little bit.

451

And I won't go into too much

because I loved, I love the story.

452

Don't you guys to read it, but it's yeah.

453

He, he, he finds himself out of that

job and then he gets a job in sales and

454

he had no clue he was going to do that.

455

It wasn't something he intended.

456

And so what we do in the story we,

we take him through his growth.

457

From a brand new person who knows

nothing about sales all the way

458

through a year where he's really doing

well And we weave in the fabric of

459

new orleans when I write a parable.

460

I'm john david man who was bob's co author

on the go giver he is my writing coach.

461

He is someone who's been a mentor to

me a friend As a matter of fact, in the

462

new book, he's somebody I mentioned in

the dedication because he's, he's just

463

been that awesome for helping my craft

and I, I wasn't a slouch before, but

464

I'm several levels better now that I've

worked with John because he's awesome,

465

but it's like 30 something books, nine

New York Times bestsellers anyway.

466

In the process of doing this, one

thing I learned from John is I like

467

to write the geography of a location

almost as if it's part of a character.

468

So in New Orleans, I've, I've got

a music background myself, so I

469

love the music of New Orleans.

470

I love the Food of New Orleans.

471

So it's, it's just what been

one of the places that I'll go.

472

And I was sitting there with my wife

and I believe it was on new Year's

473

Eve, maybe the day before New Year's

474

And I knew the material we

were going to use in the book.

475

We're going to use some of my sales

training, which we did, my leadership

476

training, which we did, and the

same with Bob, some of his sales

477

and leadership training as well.

478

But I didn't really

have the story idea yet.

479

And we were sitting in New Orleans mid to

late afternoon, and we're on a balcony of

480

a restaurant, and we're just enjoying the

day, having a glass of wine, and a street

481

performer started performing out there and

I love street performers in New Orleans.

482

I just do.

483

I can't help myself.

484

I sat there and literally, Michael, the

story came to me and I knew the entire

485

story arc with major and minor characters.

486

From the get go now, it evolved

over the year that when I'd

487

write a book, and that's not, I

don't turn it down in 30 days.

488

I say here, buy this.

489

I don't do that.

490

I'll make it.

491

I try to do a really great job

with it, but it, we work in

492

the flavors of New Orleans.

493

We work in secondary

characters that people.

494

Have told me they can kind of fall in

love with and we do some unusual things

495

that I did in the audible version.

496

I actually I throw a surprise in there.

497

I'll just leave it at that.

498

It's a musical surprise that

I throw in for everybody,

499

Michael Whitehouse: but nice.

500

So, so, so audible is where

I should go listen to that.

501

Jeff West: Yeah.

502

I'm one of these people, I buy a book

that I like in every, in every format.

503

I tell people, if you want the

hardback, go to Barnes and Noble,

504

their delivery times are so fast

and it's the best for the hardback.

505

If you want the ebook or even the audio

book, you can go to Amazon because it's

506

immediate delivery on both of those.

507

But I tend to have it at all because I

like having my entire library on my phone.

508

Every book that I have,

I've got on my phone.

509

I can be on a plane.

510

I can read.

511

I also, I like, I like holding

up a hard book in my hand.

512

I'll just, I like having that

there so I can take notes, but I

513

have so fallen in love with audio

books over the last few years.

514

One of my favorite writers in

fiction is Michael Connolly and I'll

515

listen to the Bosch series or the

Lincoln Lawyer series and I'll, I'll

516

just, I can, I can do it for hours.

517

I really can.

518

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah.

519

Yeah.

520

And they're, they're really well done.

521

Yeah.

522

Or some of them are really well done

in terms of the, the voice actors

523

and the performances and, and just

really has a, it's funny sometimes I

524

listen to an audio book and the, the

reader will read it in a certain way.

525

I'm like, there's no way

that's written in the book.

526

You know, like they'll make a sound like,

there's no way it says, ah, in the book

527

or, you know, that sound or or, or it'll

say, you know, you know, he choked out

528

and they actually say, you know The way

they, they say it, it's just really,

529

it's more of a performance, just like

somebody reading you a book and it's

530

very powerful, but, but the other, I love

the business parable format and there's

531

not a lot of them out there, but yeah,

the go giver of course is a great one.

532

And, and I think the great thing about

a, a business parable is it makes

533

you want to read the whole thing.

534

Most business books.

535

Most people tell you they, they,

and I've heard people say, this is

536

actually how they read them on purpose.

537

They read the first quarter.

538

That's kind of the main part of the book.

539

And then the rest of this

application, they skip that part.

540

Cause they've already got

the, the nugget of it.

541

And then, you know, they move on.

542

But with the business parable,

you know, you listen to the go

543

giver, you want to get to the end.

544

I listened to a one minute millionaire

and I was actually really surprised

545

because oftentimes the business

parable, it's, it's a story structure.

546

In order to give structure to what

they're teaching, but they're still,

547

you know, teaching something unless

they want to be a millionaire and I'm

548

like, wait, there's actually like a

story arc and tension and, and conflict

549

among minor characters and twists.

550

And like, this is actually a

real story that's also a pair

551

of like, wow, this is the next

level, you know, next level stuff.

552

So, and it sounds like that's what you're

doing with, with your book as well as

553

streetwise sales wise that, that it's

even if you're not learning to sell.

554

It's an interesting story about a

guy in New Orleans and, and like

555

visiting a city and all that, which

is, is a really cool way to learn.

556

And that's what's really going

to draw people through books.

557

It did if, if I had a.

558

If I had a nickel for every time I

read part of a book, I'd have a lot

559

Jeff West: of nickels.

560

You know, you make such a

great point there, Michael.

561

If a book can't grab me or grab you or

grab anybody pretty darn quickly you

562

can, you can lose interest in it and

then you want to go do something else.

563

And one of the things that is one of

my favorite compliments I ever get

564

when someone tells me if, especially

my, I have friends that will read

565

my books and they're not in sales.

566

And when they tell me the story was

so good, I couldn't put it down.

567

I read it.

568

Cover to cover on one sitting.

569

That's a big deal to me.

570

Yep But the audio book one of the things

I love about that and you'll appreciate

571

this It's audio is a good format and

it what happens is Whether someone's

572

an entrepreneur or just in a corporate

world and they're leading a team that the

573

leadership lessons that are in the book

And the sales lessons in the book, it is

574

so much like you're literally sitting side

by side with your mentor in a live selling

575

situation or in a live conflict situation.

576

If you're in a business and

someone is showing you, okay,

577

this is how you'd handle this.

578

And it's, it's, it brings

a lot of value that way.

579

Yeah.

580

But, and it

581

Michael Whitehouse: makes it very, very

clear you know, what this actually means

582

to me, because often they go through.

583

thAt's one of the things I found in

one minute people have explained to me

584

the concept of you can buy real estate

with No with no cash a bunch of times

585

and people try to explain how and i'm

like, okay, I think I did you did I

586

think you did that It's only when I

heard it told in a narrative format

587

and they're like and then she talked to

this person and this person explained

588

This is what our money is and then

they did like Oh, that's how it works.

589

Okay, because you're doing it

in theory, then it is very dry.

590

You're like, okay, wait,

hold on and go, go back.

591

What was that thinking?

592

But when you're listening to the

story narratively, then it gives

593

you that framework because that's,

you know, humans are built to

594

exchange knowledge and stories.

595

We're not built to exchange, you know,

just dry, like, here's a list of technical

596

terms and then apply that in this way.

597

And then at step 14, you

will find this result.

598

You need.

599

You need stories to provide a

structural framework for your, your

600

ancient human brain to understand

601

Jeff West: it.

602

You know, it loops right back

around to a fusion point because

603

what happens in a parable?

604

Or in a good narrative, even

teaching a how to book like that.

605

It connects an emotional part of your

brain with the logical part of your brain.

606

And just like in a fusion board where

it moves things forward, people get

607

comfortable taking the next step.

608

People also retain what they're trying

to learn so much better that way.

609

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah,

it makes a lot of sense.

610

And, and I think also, you know, if

you're coming along with the, you know,

611

think about like with the go giver.

612

There's the, the emotional arc of, of I

can't remember the main character's name.

613

But the main character who's, you know.

614

Who's struggling, huh?

615

Joe, his name is Joe.

616

It's Joe.

617

Okay.

618

Yeah, I think I was thinking it was Joe.

619

Like, it can't be Joe.

620

That's too obvious.

621

I remember the chairman's

Pindar, but I can't remember Joe.

622

Right, right.

623

But yeah, so, you know, Joe,

you, like, you feel his struggle.

624

And then every time he learns

something, you feel that, like,

625

hit of dopamine, like, ooh.

626

And you're coming along with him in that.

627

Whereas if you were just reading.

628

The five points, you know, the five

steps of being a go giver, you wouldn't

629

have that same pop what you like.

630

Okay.

631

Oh, this is interesting.

632

Yeah, this might work.

633

Whereas you just watch Joe get

one step closer to solving his

634

problem and feeding his family

and and doing what he needs to do.

635

And.

636

yeAh, so that's I'd never thought

about that way, but but it's.

637

It creates that association and makes

it more, you know, when you encounter

638

that, I think I might do this.

639

Right.

640

You've got that, you've already

got that positive mental like,

641

I feel good about doing this.

642

Jeff West: You know, I don't know

what, I don't know what your age is.

643

I'm, I'm in my early 60s and I used

to read business parables a lot.

644

You know, it was it was like augment

Dino and things of that nature I

645

loved the books and they kind of

seemed to die off The go getter began

646

that journey back with it and then

who moved my cheese out of the maze.

647

There's a lot of them but They're coming

of age again, but what's happening now

648

with this with the audience that we have?

649

So many of them had never

experienced the parable.

650

So I'll get people that are

sending me messages saying,

651

Oh my God, I love that story.

652

I learned things.

653

And then they're going, it's

a new experience for them.

654

And that, that's actually very rewarding.

655

It really is.

656

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah.

657

No, that's pretty great.

658

And, and especially now in, you know,

cause everyone's written a book.

659

So there's, you know, you could read books

every minute for the rest of your life and

660

not begin to keep up with even the good

ones and not all of them are good ones.

661

So the, the parables, they could, and the

thing is too, the things we're teaching

662

I recently ran a, a summit called the

breakthrough summit, and we had all

663

kinds of people signing up for it to

speak at it because every coach can teach

664

us some kind of breakthrough mindset

shift, whatever it's what they all do.

665

So it was, it was a great event.

666

But I, I commented at one point, like

nothing that's been taught here is

667

less than a few thousand years old.

668

We repackage it.

669

We change the way we say it.

670

We have a different concept to it,

but It's all, you know, it's all in

671

the Bible and the Quran and the you

know, Confucius taught it and Taoism

672

teaches it and Asian Greeks taught.

673

It's all the same.

674

Like we're all human.

675

The basic human truths don't change.

676

And how you apply those

human truths don't change.

677

It's simply, how do you teach it

and get that information across?

678

Right.

679

So as everyone's writing their book

about, you know, how to overcome

680

objections, sales, mindset,

focus, motivation, whatever.

681

It's all the same old stuff, repackaged

in different ways and maybe it's a

682

little tweak here, a little tweak

there, but so putting it into a story

683

is actually the oldest way of sharing

information, but also very helpful

684

because it makes it stand out and then

give you something you can talk about.

685

You say, Oh yeah, I remember in

this book where the character did

686

this as opposed to, yeah, I think

this book teaches that in some way.

687

It makes it feel more, feel more

real, feel like something you

688

can attach more to, which is,

which is a really cool concept.

689

So.

690

Jeff West: Well, you know, my

background is actually in music.

691

I have a bachelor's degree in

music education and a master's

692

degree in music composition.

693

And those two degrees and a 10 bill will

buy me a cup of coffee at Starbucks.

694

And when I was doing my student

teaching, I had a great guy that

695

I was mentored by and worked

with him for about six weeks on.

696

learning how to be a better teacher.

697

And he was he, one of the things that he

taught me was when you're working with

698

a beginner, whether you're working with

someone at any level, sometimes it's

699

not so much as you're teaching, teaching

something new, but you're having to find

700

different ways to say the same thing

to deliver the message because sooner

701

or later, one of those ways is going

to resonate and it's going to work.

702

Yeah,

703

Michael Whitehouse: so Yeah, so yeah,

I love this concept with the pair.

704

I'm definitely gonna check out

Streetwise to Saleswise and get

705

that on, get that on Audible.

706

I've got a another road trip coming up,

so that's a great time to listen through.

707

It's a 19 hour trip.

708

It's probably the entire book

fits into a couple states.

709

It's about a four hour, about a four hour.

710

Yeah, so that's like the

length of North Carolina.

711

I love it.

712

oR, you know, Dallas to Houston, I think.

713

So, yeah.

714

Or, or that's a regular,

regular commuting in Texas.

715

Jeff West: It's around the corner here.

716

Michael Whitehouse: Yep.

717

Yeah.

718

So it's been great having you on here.

719

I love this, the fusion point concept

that you have linking the, the emotions.

720

You know, the emotions to the, the

logic and, and that connection.

721

And, oh, you were going to tell

the story about how you met Bob

722

and you said it was a good one.

723

So,

724

Jeff West: well, not, not long after

my career first began to take off in

725

great part to endless referrals, I began

to come into the sales organization

726

training school in the, with the insurance

company I was with every month, the

727

state manager would have me come in.

728

I would tell them my personal story.

729

It was motivational.

730

And then I would finish up by telling

them a little bit about those two

731

books, endless referrals and, and

21 irrefutable laws of leadership.

732

I had been telling everybody about this

book so much and I was always promoting

733

it inside my sales team everywhere.

734

Well, I was a regional manager

for the company in Plano, Texas.

735

And then my administrator buzzes in

one day and she says, you've got a

736

phone call and I said, who is it?

737

And she said, some guy named Bob Berg.

738

And I thought, yeah, one of my

buddies is playing a joke on me

739

right now because I'm such a big fan

of what I've learned in the book.

740

And so I get on the phone.

741

And as you know, Bob has this.

742

Definite distinctive voice that we

call it positive vocal velocity.

743

It just carries, you know.

744

He gets on the phone.

745

He says hi, Jeff, this is Bob Berg.

746

And I said, sure.

747

It is fella exact quote.

748

And he said excuse me.

749

I said.

750

Is this really Bob Berg?

751

And he said, yeah, this

is really Bob Berg.

752

And so then I told him the story and how

much Endless Referrals had meant to me.

753

And he was flattered.

754

He was actually calling me to prospect

to get in to speak with Aflac.

755

And so it was funny.

756

That's how we met.

757

And we just became friends.

758

And it stayed that way.

759

We had no

760

Michael Whitehouse: idea who you were.

761

You were just on his call list to get in.

762

I was,

763

Jeff West: I was a, I

was a cold call for him.

764

Michael Whitehouse: Yeah.

765

Yeah.

766

You know, you got some personal

brain going on when that happens.

767

Right.

768

That's exactly correct.

769

That that's amazing.

770

That's fantastic.

771

Well, I think that's a

great note to end it on.

772

That was a great story.

773

Love it.

774

So people obviously people can look

up streetwise to sales wise wherever

775

they streetwise to sales wise become

objection proof and beat the sales blues

776

coauthored between Jeff West and Bob Berg.

777

How else can people get in touch with

778

Jeff West: Jeff West?

779

Oh, thank you so much for asking that.

780

The 1st thing I'll tell you is on street

wise to sales wise, just go to street wise

781

to sales wise dot com and all the links to

go to all the retailers are there anyway.

782

And you can read about the book and

see what some people are saying.

783

They can also, if they're interested,

anyone in your audience is interested

784

in having me work with you on.

785

developing the kind of relationship

in your team that keeps them there

786

or your sales process for your,

your business, go to fusionpoints.

787

com.

788

That's plural on fusion points.

789

And, or if you lose track of

anything else, just go to jeffcwest.

790

com.

791

You'll find everything there.

792

Michael Whitehouse: I love it.

793

Great hierarchy of websites.

794

Well done.

795

Yeah, very well organized.

796

I like it.

797

So this has been great.

798

It's been a lot of fun talking to you.

799

It's funny, I was telling you at the

beginning of the show yeah, I, I, pretty

800

much at the end of 2023, I, I was like,

hey, I'm done recording season 6 episodes.

801

And then I got the reminder

about today, and I'm like, what?

802

I have another interview on

my calendar in late January?

803

Alright, well, what the heck, let's do it.

804

I guess it's already here.

805

Sure.

806

And I'm so glad we did because

this has been a great conversation.

807

That's why I like having a podcast.

808

Meet cool people.

809

So thank you.

810

It's an honor to be here with you.

811

Yes.

812

Thank you so much for being on.

813

And once again, that's

street wise to sales wise.

814

com fusion points.

815

com and jeffcwest.

816

com is the, the center

point, the nexus of it all.

817

So thank you so much, Jeff,

for being on the show.

818

Jeff West: My pleasure, Michael.

819

Thank you so much for having me on.

820

Michael Whitehouse: Thank you

so much for joining us on the

821

Guy Who Knows A Guy podcast.

822

I'm your host, Michael Whitehouse.

823

Be sure to join us for

the next JV Connect.

824

Learn all about it at jv connect.

825

com.

826

You can also get my Five Steps to

Profitable Networking course for

827

free right there on that site.

828

Our goal is that in two days, you're

going to get over 100, 000 of value

829

from the connections you made.

830

And this applies whether you are brand

new in business or well established.

831

So be sure to join us, jv connect.

832

com in March, June,

September, and December.

833

All the dates and details are

right there on the website.