Advantages of Interactive Delivery of a Proposal

0:04 Thank you for joining us on the Winning and Selling Podcast. I'm Professor Scott Plum of the Minnesota Sales Institute, and with me is Bill of Health Camp of Reach Development Systems. Does your sales process advocate emailing your proposal to the prospect and then calling in a few days to see what they think? If so, you are out of your mind. Whoops, got a little strident there Scott. What I mean to say was, do you think there's another way?

0:29 So move your hand away from that sun button. Scott and I discussed the advantages of interactive delivery of a proposal and other discerning details on episode 667 of the Winning and Selling Podcast. This is going to be a great topic and I'm sure there's probably some linkage

0:51 to some previous episodes that we've talked about this time. Yeah, well we've seen this as a major problem with salespeople being lazy and emailing and then they get away with it because once in a while they sell something. Exactly, exactly. And we'll get into that. That's pretty good. We're going to cover the book. We're grateful to have Jimmy on the show last week. Wasn't that a great conversation? He's just a great guy.

1:16 He added so much context to the book that we're going to be covering here over the next I think 10, 11, 12 episodes. But before we get on to chapters 1 and 2 out of the book, I need to clear up a few corrections of some things that I misspoke. And that often is frequently that I misspeak. And what kind of makes stuff up? You know, I think you for your emails and your comment. Corrections. They're always helpful. The new doll was played by Jack Nicholson and as good as it gets.

1:46 So I got those names correct. The dog was Verdel. I left that out last time. And I misspoke on the author of Outliers, which is Malcolm Gladwell, not Daniel Pink. And that was in reference to the 10,000 hours. So thank you for making those corrections. Our listeners. We want to keep the integrity of the show. Scott, I haven't done this for a while, but in some of my workshops, I'll do an exercise. And I say, tell me when you notice something.

2:12 And I'll put one plus one is two. Two plus two is four. Four plus four is eight plus eight is 17. And everybody goes, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa. 17. You got 17 wrong. And I said, why didn't you notice when I got the first four right? Yeah. Yeah. But that's the way we are, right? As people, we notice dissonance. We notice when something's wrong and we like to point it out. And so as you said, we don't mind. We don't mind having to be pointed out.

2:40 But once in a while, send us a note saying, hey, I really like the episode. That'd be good too. That's true. That's true. The book sales perspective by Zimme Z. Z. Yeah, Z. Okay. I always say that. We'll have the link to his book in the show notes. So you don't have to try to spell his last name when you put it in the Amazon or Barnes and Noble, wherever you get your books. But one thing that I really liked in the kind of the opening sections is before chapter one, he made a point of saying this.

3:13 He says, I was introduced to the idea that I was the CEO of my territory when he got into sales. And that was such a refreshing statement to me. I think being a salesperson is probably the closest you could ever get to running your own business with minimum time and financial investment in starting your own business. They give you the laptop. They buy your cards for you. They got all the stuff on. They have the inventory already in stock.

3:43 All you have to do is go out there and tell people about it. This is your territory. I remember this concept when I started in the restaurant business as a server. When I had four, five, six, seven, eight tables, that was my territory. And I wanted to turn that territory over as fast as possible. And if I could get in and out over 45 minutes or so, I got more tips. I got more revenue. That was my territory. Yes, I used to grab by the collar and actually throw it out after they paid.

4:13 They don't sit there anymore. No more free soda. They started some presumptive selling and says, what appetizer would you like before we started with your meal? That was the suggestive selling part. But I really love that line. And I think that that really puts this whole book in perspective, pun intended, on what kind of approach are we a sales person when we look at our territory? And I like to start with the definition of perspective.

4:36 And this is in the book. It's a personal measurement of what you see. Personal I think is a really important word there. Measurement is to different degrees of depth of what you see. It's perspective. It's something that is perceiving to be real. And maybe it is. Maybe it's not. But it's how you perceive it. What's like Jimmy said last week or last episode, two people can look out the window and see absolutely different things.

5:04 Some person could notice the lovely flowers while another person's looking at the mountain range in the background. And we can both say, boy, that's delightful and totally miss what the other person's saying. Very much. Because we don't ask. We don't find out. What do you see that you like? And I think that's what we're going to see as a theme through a lot of this. Quit telling people everything and start asking them.

5:27 Right. Yes. And I'm going to give an example of that later. But it just drives you a little crazy. Yeah. But he opens up chapter one. He talks about two stories. And I love these two stories because they're very real. And he admits later on that this actually happened to him. And the first story was he went in and he kind of showed them all the, you know, here's my catalog. Here's all the products I offer. Boom, boom, boom.

5:50 Okay, we'll place an order. I take one of column A and a couple from over here. And yeah. Hey, that works. Oh, wait, perfect. And you know, you're skipping all the way out to the car and you got a sale. But you don't really know why. And then you go into another appointment and you struggle a little bit and they challenge you a little bit. Well, he did exactly the same thing. I showed you everything I had. And they got exactly the same thing.

6:15 Right. Yeah. The same process. And this time nobody bought. Yeah, amazing. Isn't it? Same process. Different people, different outcome. How do you change that? Well, I think the most fascinating thing was he didn't know in either case why he sold. Right. Or why he didn't sell. So why are they bought? Why they didn't buy. You know, and I think a lot of sales people go through their whole career. Mm hmm. Not having any idea why people buy and doing things in a poor manner, but making enough sales that they think this works.

6:54 And they're getting 20 and 30% close rate when they could be getting 60 to 80% close rate. Right. So true. I mean, we've led workshops and we've asked the sales reps, why do people buy from you? And you know, cue the crickets. I mean, we don't know why they buy from us. Yeah. Well, we got really good stuff. Yeah. If we don't know why we buy, how do we know how to sell? And, and we need to be able to uncover and discover the reasons why somebody would want to need our products and services.

7:28 And, and this is an important point. And he brings this up on page 22 and that's debriefing your sales calls. Debriefing so that you can cover what worked, what didn't work, what was effective, what was not effective, and really work on polishing your presentation. And the presentation also includes the discovery first. And then you're able to really concentrate on what's most valuable to the prospect. But you have to debrief when you do that.

7:53 If you don't, you're going to just continue to do the same thing over and over and again, inspecting the same result. And it's not just not going to happen. Right. Right. Yeah. I think one of the things he's going to add. One of the things he focuses on is this not, this isn't a strategy. This isn't a tactic. This is all about how you treat other people. Right. And I admire what Jimmy's bringing to the table. But I don't think you can take strategy out of the picture.

8:20 I don't think you can just be a nice guy who, who helps people and he uses the word help a lot and get all the sales that you need to. You have to combine a good strategy with the attitude that Jimmy's going to talk about in this book. And so I don't want to throw the baby out with the bathwater. You know, the challenge or sale, a lot of the things we've covered on strategies and tactics are still valid. But Jimmy's going to bring a human factor to this.

8:45 And I think we need that we need to layer in, not dismiss one and only do the other. The other thing I think is really interesting. He talks about a lot of what he's doing is channel sales, which means he's selling through someone else. He's a, he's, he's representing an insurance company and those insurance agents are talking to, to the end user. And when he says, well, what you're working on, what are you working on that I may help you with so you can accomplish your goals in this quarter.

9:14 That's a perfect attitude for someone who's selling through other people. But it's not always the right attitude when we're selling to the end user. Right. Yeah. So remember that part. And he talked about the first part of it is he went to visit an insurance agency and, and most of the people that come and visit that insurance agency would say to the guy, you know, what have you got for me? And Jimmy goes, I'm not going to take that approach.

9:40 And it's like you said, what are you working on that I may help you with so that you can accomplish your goals over the next quarter. It's a completely different perspective and a completely different approach. Yeah. And very refreshing in, in this marketplace right now. Very, very refreshing. Well, I think, I think what we're going to have to see is that if you are selling and you come across as greedy or self-serving, or you're just looking, what are you going to do for me?

10:04 That's, or what have you got for me? You're going to lose a lot of sales because people are not going to warm up to you. They're not going to trust you. You're not going to build a relationship because it's all about you. Yeah. Yeah. And we're all, you know, we've all heard WIIFM, right? The two radio station in the world. What's in it for me? And that's what your prospect is thinking no matter where they're from. How can you help me?

10:29 And if you get focused on yourself, it's all done. Yes, it is. I like one more line in chapter one and then remove on a chapter two. But here's the line. Do you want to become disposable or dependable to your clients? I'm not going, wow, that's powerful. I want to become dependable. And this is why I love the term work with. I want to become dependable because I want somebody to be able to rely on me. And I want to work with them to achieve a mutual goal with a common commitment to it and to not be disposable.

11:01 There are a lot of disposable conversations that we've had with people that are not going to make a difference in our lives. And we don't need another one in most cases. We really don't unless we're really, really bored. Well, and it's disposable idea. I think you've got to realize that if you are in sales and you're not doing anything but being a catalog and a price guide, you are replaceable. Yeah. Yeah. Because the sales process, the internet has changed the sales process.

11:30 Those people have already looked on your website and seen that, okay, you're in the ballpark. If you're not bringing something more than they could look at on the website and see what the options are and the pricing is, if you're not bringing more to the table than that, I don't need you as a salesperson. You're not bringing anything at the internet and the customer's curiosity isn't already taken care of. Wow. Wow. Yeah.

11:56 So true. One more line in chapter one and then we'll move on to chapter two is here's the line. We must learn to care more about the customer than we care about the business or the sale. We need to care more about the person than we do the business. And that is so powerful. And as we think about the relationships that we have in our life, how did those relationships start? Probably with a meaningful conversation with somebody cared more about us as a person than they did about what we can do for them.

12:25 And when we approach a conversation with that mindset, amazing what kind of relationships we're going to start with people that we don't know. Yeah. I had a phone call yesterday with a friend of mine, a friend of the show, Chris Kelly of Asset HR, a great company if you haven't done any business. Oh, yeah, definitely. And it was amazing how fast our conversation went to family. And we spent the whole conversation talking about family.

12:46 And I said, Chris, this is so much fun. We haven't had lunch for a long time. We got to have lunch when he's going out of town. But I just think it's really important to build those relationships. And it's a lot more fun to do business with people that you have a deeper relationship with than if it's just somebody who it's all business all the time, get to the point. So I think you build that trust deeper. Well, I think we make a difference.

13:13 We're not in another person's life period. And whether we're providing a service or a product or a sale or a revenue or income, we make a difference in other person's life. And I'm grateful for the network that I have and that we have. And I don't think anybody is getting extremely rich on any business that we're doing, but we're all working to survive. And it brings great joy to me to be able to make a difference in somebody's life.

13:39 Yeah. And you really talks about redefining this win-win attitude. And here's an example that he starts with. He says, you know, we've all heard this. You know, you scratch my back. I'll scratch yours. You take care of me. I'll take care of you. And it's almost like we're saying, you scratch my back and then I'll scratch yours. So it's contingent upon. And Jimmy makes a really good point of just changing the order of this.

14:05 And he's kind of following this. I'll help you get what you want. And eventually I will win one way or another. I will win. I've heard that from a lot of successful business people. Yeah. I've got to give value first. And then I will get value back. Right. Right. I love the- How about the go-giver? The go-giver. The go-giver was all about those that are around the same age. Earl Nangale, the strangest secret lead the field.

14:33 Both of them. Talk about the story of the lumberjack going into the cabin in northern Minnesota on a cold winter day and walks up to the fireplace and says, give me heat. And the fireplace turns around and says to the lumberjack, give me wood and I'll give you heat. So we got to put some wood in the fireplace first before we get any heat back. And I heard that from those tapes many, many years ago. But when we follow that mantra, it's amazing what we do get in return.

15:01 And it's more than we ever put into it. And he's changing the vernacular of that of I'm going to go first. And then we'll see what happens. And if you feel comfortable or you feel like there's an opportunity for you to return the favor, I'm here. I welcome it. And you know, I love the line here, the freedom that I gained in striving to help my clients and customers win first took all the pressure off of my concerns. Wow.

15:27 That is powerful. So you know, this really is about them. And we're having a conversation. We're focusing our perspective on them. We're asking them questions. We're uncovering what's most important to them. We are going to have an increased chance of winning and making a difference in their life and we're another. Yeah. I like we talked about in this, in this near the end of this chapter, it's a pretty short chapter, chapter two.

15:51 Don't be an empty suit. Yeah. You said when I was with Carnegie, we had a guy we said he was an empty suit. He was beautiful man. He was six foot three. Well built, looked great in a suit, knew absolutely nothing. He could do the, he could do the prearranged talk. But if anybody asked him a question, he was just, he was gone. Cause there was no depth to him. Right. And, and I think what he's saying in this is in don't be an empty suit, do what you say you're going to do.

16:21 Right. Value to the customer. Build trust by being a person of your word. That's how you develop a relationship. And Scott, you've talked about this a lot lately. Trust. It's not about friendship. It's about trust. Are you building trust by doing what you say you're going to do? Do you follow through? And his example was, was that somebody said to him, gee, so many people come into my office and promise me things. And I never hear from him again.

16:49 So, yeah. Yeah. We're off to a great start with this book. Jimmy, thank you again for being on the show with us last week. Yeah. Next week, we're going to do chapters three and four of sales perspective by Jimmy Zugsworth. And so he goes by Jimmy Z, which we'll use that moniker. Our next topic is one of my favorite topics. And it's one of my favorite topics, Scott, because we're running into it everywhere. It's disguised in a hundred different ways.

17:19 We're calling it advantages of interactive delivery of a proposal. But the problem is we're talking to people who are emailing proposals while they're emailing quotes. Quotes, yeah. And they are then throwing those over the fence, call them a couple of days later and saying, what do you think? So, so, and it's got the thing is we're seeing this from every different direction. We're seeing it from half a million to million dollar companies that are put proposals that are putting together for machine tools, sending it over the fence.

17:54 Hope you're buying. Right. Right. We see it from from small companies doing doing work at the home. Somebody's home. They'll come in. They'll do all this work to talk about, you know, fixing your ceiling. And then they email you a quote a couple of days later and then call a couple of days after that. What do you think? I think I bought from somebody else already. I think I didn't understand your quotes. So I'm saying no.

18:18 Right. Because I don't understand why it's so expensive. I just, you know, you're more expensive. I don't know why. So I'll say no. And that's when you love what when they just offer 10% discount if you sign up today, right? You love that line. Yeah. Let's take 10% or 5% off the top as soon as we hand you the quote or send you the quote. If you decide today, we'll give you 5% off. Oh, good. We have the great clothes at the as an opening.

18:45 So anyway, we're seeing this. We're seeing it everywhere. And do you think it's a vestige of of COVID and we got used to working out of our homes and we think that's the way to do business now? I think that's one way. I think that there was a real issue with supply and demand and people were lucky to get it. And they made a real short sale cycle and they didn't really squander too much on price because supply was so limited.

19:09 Yeah. I think over that I can get it for you. Here's what's going to cost you. Yeah. The car dealers were adding $10,000 to the car. So the chips, yeah. And then making everybody hate them forever. Oh, yeah. What a short sighted way of doing business. These car manufacturers are just hurting now. They can't move this crap off the lots because people said, I don't want to pay a cheap wagon here, $90,000. Are you kidding me?

19:34 All right. You know, it's crazy. So, so we're seeing nutsie stuff out there from companies and we're seeing bad moves from salespeople. So here's what we recommend. I talked about this either the last show or the show before when you have our with the client and you're having that first appointment and you're going to build a proposal off it. First of all, build a proposal podcast, 655 quote versus proposal. You build a proposal.

20:03 You don't throw a quote with just numbers in it and a proposal says, here's what the situation is and here's how we're going to solve it. Oh, by the way, here's how much it's going to cost. Here's our plan or process for getting that done. People just want to come up with the cost and the plan of the process. It doesn't explain everything. Doesn't talk about the customer's problems and issues. So we recommend a proposal.

20:27 You're meeting with them so you get enough information to put together a proposal. Here's what you say at the end. Scott, this is really good. I think I've got everything I need, although I might call you back in a couple of days with some clarification. I want to put together a proposal. Talk to some of the people of my team. Make sure we cover everything for you. When can we get together and I can go through that proposal with you?

20:50 At the end of that meeting, you're setting up the next meeting. Now, I do that because otherwise I'll never get the proposal done. It's two weeks will go by, three weeks will go by. I have other things. I force myself to set an appointment so I force to create that proposal in time. I do that because the proposal, and even if it's a quote, it's a valuable tool. And you can get your next appointment based on giving them that value.

21:18 What do you think of that? I love it. And I think a minimum item that needs to be in a proposal, and you introduced this to me for the first time, Bill, is to create an accurate description of a situation. When you can set the context of a proposal with the situation that the prospect is in, and you're describing what they said to you and what you heard, and then when you put a quote together, which is a solution, and then they want to work on adjusting the application of the solution to the quote or the situation, now value is defined.

21:57 And I really love that just so as a minimum, when Bill's talking about a proposal, what's the first thing in the minimum proposal is, what is the current situation? Right.

22:07 So situation, how we'll solve it, and then the money and the details at the end. Exactly. And we want to skip those first two, and because we think the numbers will sell it. That's buying on price.

22:22 That's right. Right. That's right. Because what we've only made, here's an interesting situation. I was working with a client yesterday listening to their outbound phone calls, the person I was working with had to leave a message. And he said, thank you for calling us. I want to get back together with you about this idea, because I want to talk about pricing, and our process and terms. And I said, why did you put pricing first in your message?

22:53 You just made pricing the most important thing, and yet we don't sell on price. You sell on quality. So when you say pricing first, you're putting it into that customer's mind. That's our most important thing. Exactly. And here's what I say to that company is, I say, you tell me that you're selling on value, but every time you lose, it's based on price. Well, and then I ask them, what's your value proposition? And they don't know.

23:21 Yeah. You know, what do you do different from your competitors? You know, we're really big. Well, that costs more than a smaller company. But what do you give them for that bigness? What does that provide them? And they don't have an answer. So we'll talk about that again, I'm sure. But I had some coaching that I did, and we really hammered in on this, delivering your proposal in person. Now, this person's very busy. Does a lot of these proposals.

23:57 Doesn't have time to do them all in person. So we gave a number of anything over 50,000, then he needs to go back in person and meet with them. Here's what he told me. He got out of doing this. So we'll go through, I have seven different values, some of which he told me directly, some of which we know also from the work we've done. Number one, the client doesn't make a decision based on just the last page. So if you do it in person, if you send that to them, they're just going to make a decision based on the last page on the quote.

24:31 Because they don't. Which is where the price is. Well, Scott, you and I have sat down in 100 situations and presented a proposal. What's the first thing they want to do? How much? How much is it? They flip to the last page. They want to see that. So they see that. That's okay. I can't. I'm not going to go, no, no, no, look at that. No, no, look at the last page. They're going to look at it. But then I get a chance to explain what's going on.

24:55 And so if I just send it to them, they're going to go that last page. They're going to see a price. They're going to look at another proposal they got. It's got a lower price. Okay. They must be the same. Therefore, I'm going to go with that lower price. Why should I? I don't know why I'm paying more. Right. Makes a big difference. It's a big difference because you're not controlling anything. When you go in person, you get to control it and settle it up later.

25:19 All right. Number two, you get to answer questions and handle objections when they come up. So I don't want to call somebody and they have five different objections that I've got to deal with. Let's say they haven't made the decision. Now I call them and I go, hey, Larry, I just sent you that proposal. Well, now tell me how you're going to do this or you seem really expensive in this area. How about if I have somebody else do column B and then you just do these other ones where you seem more competitive in your pricing?

25:49 I can't control that unless I'm there going through it. And if I'm going through it directly and he says, well, how come you're so expensive here? Or what do you do here that's different? And you can say, here's what we do that's different. You can handle those objections one at a time, deal with them and see how you're doing and gauge your process through that. So I think that's really important. So true. I mean objections, just kind of like the lottery or the raffles that you must be present to win. And if you're not there, you cannot handle the objection.

26:22 The objection cooks and it manifests into compounds and it just decreases your chance of doing anything with that prospect. So you have to be there to be able to handle that objection and deal with those concerns because the concern and the objection is the challenge that the prospect sees in the application of your solution. And if they do not uncover that objection themselves, you're going to have a tough time selling anything to them.

26:46 Yep. Or they don't mention it to you or that's just kept secret. And when you don't talk to them, they may not say what all their objections are. They've determined all those and I think you're right in saying they've become stronger over the two days since you sent that. It's just, it's cooking in their mind that the negative is cooking in their mind. So, okay, good, good. Number three, you get to highlight the advantages of your product or service. If we're selling value, what we do differently when you walk through the proposal, that's when you get to talk about what you do differently. And it's where you get to raise concerns, fear, uncertainty, and doubt

27:27 about the other proposals that they might be getting. Let's say, for example, your proposal is about putting in a new kitchen. And you might be able to say, well, here's what we do when we're removing the old, you want to keep your cabinets, we're just going to remove the old countertops and put new countertops in. And you can say, now, some of the companies that we've seen, they do these things, which actually damage the counter or damage the cabinets. So, you have to be really careful. I want to, and that's true. Some companies don't do work as well as you do.

28:00 And so, I want to introduce them to thinking about that cheaper quote that they got, what is that person doing or not doing? It's your old Fram Oil filter. You can pay me now, you can pay me later, but you're going to pay. And so, I want them to be thinking about what might I not be getting from that cheaper quote or proposal? And you touched on this earlier about why are you so expensive? I mean, I think a good response is compared to what? What are you comparing us to? The last time you purchased this, I think about every time I buy tires, it seems to be, geez, they went up 50 bucks a tire or 75 bucks a tire. And they go, why is it so expensive? And they'll say, well, when was the last time you bought

28:42 tires? And I'm like, well, it was a long time ago. And they said, well, that's why it's so different. So what are you comparing it to? And once you find what you're comparing it to, you're looking at what the other option is that the prospect is considering. And now you get the chance to explain your advantages of yours product based on the situation. And we can claim to sell value, but if we're not talking about it during the proposal phase, the customer forgot about the values we talked about long ago.

29:07 Exactly. Number four, you can see the body language and other reactions of the prospect or prospects. So you're now sitting down, you're live with them. Now, it can be online. It can be a Zoom call. It doesn't have to be in person, although I prefer it in person. And again, the person I was talking to yesterday got the biggest deal they got because they flew to Omaha with their team to present to the client instead of just, you know, doing it virtually doing it online. And the guy said, one of the reasons we went with you is because you showed enough care that you came here to talk to us again. Crazy, crazy world. We want to do everything not crazy, but lazy. All right. So,

29:50 when we're there in person, we can see are they folding their arms? Are they disinterested? When do they perk up? When do they? And it's much easier for them to ask questions of us because it's interactive. So we think that's a big benefit. Good advice. All right. Number five, you get to listen as the prospects discuss the proposal.

30:12 So if you're right there in the room, you know, and you've got to maybe a committee or a husband and wife that you're talking to, she may turn to him and say, hey, weren't we going to do this? Is that something that's included in the proposal? Well, that question, he may not know the answer to by looking at the proposal or even just a quote. But if you're in the room with him, you can say, absolutely, that's included or no, we didn't talk about that, but we can include that.

30:36 We can do that. And so you have the chance to be interactive as they're being interactive with one another. And I think that is a big benefit. It's very powerful because you're part of the conversation. I'm making the decision. And when you're part of the discussion, you have a greater chance of leading it to a better outcome for everybody. It's like what we've talked about with Covey is it's not your way, it's not my way, it's a better way. And hey, through this conversation and this proposal, we're going to give you a much better solution because we're talking about all the different options to consider. Okay, we're starting to get into number six with options. You can make

31:13 changes to the proposal that the prospect wants. I want my prospect to redline some of the things in the proposal and add some other things. And I can make a decision whether they're going to pay for those other things or it's going to change the pricing. But I want them to take an active role in writing on and doing something with that proposal because what happens when they do that, Scott? They become owners of it. They own it. And I don't even say it's my proposal, I start to say it's your project. Yes. It's there. I want them to see that it's something that's theirs and I'm going to make those changes. And we're going to get an agreement. A lot of

31:50 times if they've made those changes, I get a signed contract right at the end of the end of that conversation. So you can make changes that the prospect wants. And the final number seven, you can close the deal or make a follow up appointment on the spot. So either I get them to make an agreement and we're ready to move, which happens to us probably 50 to 60% of the time. Another 50 or 60% they're going to talk about it among themselves and come back to us. But quite often, if we've done a good job walking through that proposal, don't you find that they're ready to go if they're in agreement? The timing is right. And they trust us because they're discussing the

32:32 proposal with other people involved in decision. Absolutely. I think the goal is to be able to figure out how we can work together. And this is where I really love incorporating price and negotiations and in proposals is I would really like to follow the principle of you do not negotiate price unless they've already decided to work with you. Once they decide to work with you through this conversation bill and this interactive discussion about the proposal, then we can come up with a solution and then put a price on that solution. And now we've created a win, win, win for everybody. I love this topic. And we're there so we can do that all together instead of,

33:09 well, I'll get back to you. Let me check on this. I'll do that. And if they're not ready, let's set the next appointment. Right? Well, we want to we won't talk about. Okay, that's great. I understand you wanted to talk about it amongst yourself. Let's set a time to meet again so I can answer any questions that come up as you're talking amongst yourself and we can bring the revisions that we've discussed here today. Boom, because the purpose of a meeting is to set the next meeting. Either that meeting is to continue the sales process or to start the delivery process.

33:38 And either way, you've won. So let me go through those seven real quick. The client doesn't make a decision based on just the last page, the quote. You get to answer questions and handle objections when they come up. You get to highlight the advantages of your product or service when you're with them. You can see the body language and other reactions of the prospect. You get to listen as the prospects discuss the proposal amongst themselves. You can make changes to the proposal that the prospect wants. You hope you get to make those changes and you can close the deal or make a follow up appointment on the spot. Seven good reasons to not throw this proposal over the

34:15 fence, but to meet with that client, that prospect in person and walk through it with them. Oh, great topic, Bill. And I think I remember some of one of the things that Jimmy Z said sometimes we can become an assistant buyer. So we work with the prospect on uncovering the best way of making a decision to work with us. I think this really helps support that a lot. And as my friend said that I spoke to yesterday, when we make that investment and going to meet with the client, we show them that they're important to us. That it's not just something we're trying to do as fast as we can, but we're doing it with as much care as we can.

34:51 Wow. Well, well, good. All right. Well, let's go on to our Golden Nugget and wrap up today's episode. We'll we'll have a link to Jimmy's book in the show notes. If you want to check that out there, but it's easy to find on wherever you buy your publications. So our Golden Nugget is everything we hear is an opinion, not a fact. Everything we see is perspective, not the truth. By Marcus, a really a crilius. Marcus Aurelius. Okay, Marcus Aurelius said that.

35:20 That is very applicable to this topic that they were talking about with Jimmy's book. Yeah. So that's the Golden Nugget. And the prospect's truth is their truth. We either have to help them adapt it or we have to live within it. Well, and how we perceive things is how we self-perceive it. It may not be the truth, but that's how we see it. Right. That's why they say now everybody has a different truth. It doesn't mean it's the truth, but it's what they see. It's their perspective. If every all the information that we talked about today is at winning at selling.com, you can link to the show. You can link to the past shows. The show notes are there.

35:56 This is episode 667. Next week, we're going to be covering using your CRM part two. So based on your cards, letters and emails, we're going to continue to dig into that topic of using the CRM. Not those emails where you're telling Scott that he quoted the wrong person. No, the other ones. Why do I put it in the Y to put it in the CRM? I don't understand that. We're going to continue to talk about it. And we're going to be covering chapters three and four from part one of Jimmy Z's book sales perspective. So please subscribe and share this podcast with your colleagues and on social media network. Give us some feedback and a five star review if you feel we deserve it. Thank you. Go out and get better one skill at a time.

36:36 Joyful selling.