Al McBride 0:03
Welcome to the dealing with Goliath podcast. The mission of dealing with Goliath is to sharpen the psychological edge in negotiation, ethical influencing and high impact conversations for business leaders who want to be more effective under pressure, uncover hidden value, build greater, while building greater connection, all while increasing profitability. This is the short form espresso shot of inside podcasts interview to boost business performance using our five questions in around about 15 to 20 minutes format. Now my guest today is Simon Severino, Simon Severino has created more than $2 billion in additional sales for his clients over the last 21 years. As an advisor who became CEO, he had to learn the importance of working on the business more than merely in the business. Now, he shares his proven templates with high ticket entrepreneurs. They typically reclaim more than 14 hours per week, using Simon’s strategy sprints methodology, and enjoy sales that soar. Simon is the author of strategy sprints. 12 ways to accelerate growth for an agile business is the host podcast ranking in the top 2.5% TEDx speaker, Forbes contributor, and a triathlete. He’s appeared in over 1300 podcasts. And when he is not supercharging sales, you find him swimming, biking, running, and tricking his three kids into outdoor activities. So they can’t escape. Here’s annoying, shrinking questions. Excellent. Simon. It’s a pleasure. Welcome to the show.

Simon Severino 1:42
Thank you for the nice introduction. Hello, everyone.

Al McBride 1:44
Hello, and great to have you on. So let’s dive straight in. So who’s your ideal client, and what’s the biggest challenge that they tend to face?

Simon Severino 1:54
We help people who sell high ticket offers. So that means more than $10,000 a pop. And they have to sell it in an online fashion. So they have to find start a conversation online on social or somewhere, then they have to get them on the calendar and then on the in a call like a zoom call or a team’s call. They have to quickly build trust and credibility and the willingness to move forward together, and close deals. So those are the challenges that they have first, how to start a conversation with my ideal client out there, that doesn’t know me, and then how to quickly build that trust and expertise that will close the deal. But how to do that, especially online, and how to de risk that process of sending over $10,000 over the ether. That’s a lot of risk. So how can we the risk that that’s our expertise, and the problems that we’re seeing right now is cautious buyer that wants to think more about spending before spending. And then also involves more people into the decision, which creates, again, a longer sales time. So the main problem that we are asked to solve right now is Simon, how can we shorten the sales time? Very

Al McBride 3:18
good. So there’s a few things coming together there. So it’s, as you say, shortening the sales cycle, but involved in that is building that rapport building that trust, as you said, and then de risking that process, so that they are more likely to step forward. Is that correct? And as you said, invest, but that more than $10,000 investment then. Okay, very good. So, when your clients are trying to do this, what are some of the common mistakes people make when they’re trying to solve that? So before they find you, Simon, what are some of the things that they’re trying but aren’t really working? Because this is often where people hear this and think, Ah, maybe I’m doing this. So what are some of those symptoms?

Simon Severino 3:56
First of all, many don’t have in their team, a, a culture of opportunity creation. That means they don’t create every day, a little reason for conversation. What can that be, that can be calling past clients, current clients, potential clients and saying, Hey, hello, how are you? What do you need? That can be sharing a little piece of what you are experiencing today on LinkedIn, and saying, This is what I’m trying to solve today. Who has an idea?

Al McBride 4:33
Interesting.

Simon Severino 4:35
This can be creating a YouTube video, hey, nine minutes. This is how you do this. I’m an expert in this, enjoy it, use it, enjoy it. So if a team has a culture of opportunity creation, you see it because every day they do these three things. They create something that triggers a conversation around their their area of influence their topic where they’re an expert in. And if you have everybody in the team doing this over a period of time, let’s say three months, now you have a full pipeline.

Al McBride 5:16
Very interesting point. So, so a lot of it was so that’s very interesting so that they’re not usually reaching out or not creating these opportunities, as you said, for these maybe softer conversation where we value lead as free generosity with their expertise with their information, putting it out there. So they’re not usually seeing the benefits of that. That’s very interesting. What are some of the other things they’re trying, that aren’t working? Is it kind of what a colleague of mine would call random acts of marketing that they’ve no system? Is that often a thing that that you come across? What are the other problems?

Simon Severino 5:50
Yes. So when we look at marketing, so a 90 day strategy, sprint is 90 days, because in the first month, we have to improve messaging, which is basically marketing, right. And then in the second month, we have to improve the win rates by 25%. And in the third month, we want to improve the sales velocity by 25%. Because together, these three things improved by 25%, they increase revenue by 99%. So they compound it’s not 75%. In additional revenue, it’s 99%. So month one, we look at their marketing, because marketing is how you feel pipeline, you start conversation, you intensify conversations, that’s a full pipeline. Now you have people booked on your calendar. And when we look at it, the first thing that we see is we have to simplify how they talk about themselves. And it’s two pieces, right? One is awareness, creation messaging. And the other one is, hey, let’s talk messaging. So let’s call to action. But the first is really getting their attention. And so in the attention thing, most people are not doing enough contrasting. So for example, if I’m a financial advisor, my awareness piece will have contrast both in the colors, it will be an image on LinkedIn, and it will say, Hey, you, if you save 15%, every month, you if you don’t save 15%, every month one will be very skinny, right? That one will be like super bit. And muscular. And that’s a contrast messaging. And you need that in the awareness stage, somebody doesn’t know about you, you need to get their attention. And so attention content is very different than the next step with them, which is then interest content and engagement content. And let’s get ready to work content. So the first thing that I see people is they have the same messaging independently of the buyers journey. And that’s the first mistake

Al McBride 8:02
sounding I think this I think you’re correct. It is something that that’s often overlooked, is the would you say that the the difficulty in getting people to move at all that inertia of doing okay, things aren’t that bad. So it’s a big effort that people are far more used to just dealing with urgent problems. So as you say, you’re creating this contrast create that, that that momentum, if you will, or that sense of difficulty, sense of potential pain they weren’t fully aware of which I love. And I suppose it goes back also to a point that you made a minute ago about that, checking in with your colleagues what’s going on with you checking in with your, as I said, clients, past clients present clients in and it’s something you said in your book, which I really like you’re very brave with feedback with the customer feedback, and I think this is an area that a lot of businesses, they want happy clients. Of course they do, but they also feel the discomfort of having, how are things going Is everything okay, you know, just in case there’s an experience, but you’re actually very open to the negative feedback, aren’t you?

Simon Severino 9:12
Yeah, there’s a chapter in the book strategy sprints. I think it’s called feedback is the breakfast of champions.

Al McBride 9:19
I have a written right here on my notes. Yeah. So like a friend of mine says it’s the breakfast of champions it is it is.

Simon Severino 9:25
Because that’s actually the most important thing to do. First of all, make sure that your product is great. So if it’s a service or a product, make sure that is great. Because if that is great, that will sell itself. That’s the first growth loop that you have right there. Because people will tell other people will say, Hey, this is amazing. buy that. So the first thing to obsess about is actually the product, your delivery, the way you deliver and I’m working mostly with professional services. They don’t have a product. They have services right they help people achieve something And so we look at those services and how can we improve the delivery of those services to have some wow moments in there? Because in those wow moments, you can then ask. Oh, thank you, Laura, you said, you said amazing things right now about your progress. By the way, do you know somebody else who needs this clever that will be the next growth loop very organically, very logically, from something that works to somebody who wants other people to also have it, they will not refer because of the product, they will refer because they want to help other people. Exactly.

Al McBride 10:35
That’s very interesting. It’s a lovely pointer just to double down. They don’t help just because of your product, they, they help because they want to help other people. They want to help their friends, colleagues, network, whatever, excellent stuff. And this is a very, we’re kind of touching on another interesting point, I love that you brought up in the book, which is, and as part of that marketing part of the self identity of the company in their branding, but also then into their marketing, which is the customer is the hero, not your service, or your product or you. I love that. Because again, it’s something I find that a lot of people overlook, they think, Oh, I’m the heroes like Ninja. You’re the facilitator. You’re the the Obi wan to their Luke Skywalker, whatever. You’re the maybe the master the expertise that gets them that change the transformation they need?

Simon Severino 11:25
Yes, another thing that we do in month one, we go to the website and say, Okay, what is it the first 10 seconds? What is it that people see? Are you talking about them? Or are you talking about you? So if it’s too much, oui oui oui, oui, oui, oui, we’ll rewrite that with our clients into you great that you are here. You I see you, you are that person, that person and that person? You ice, I know that you are struggling with this. I know that it’s hard. And this is how three other people like you have solved this. They used our method. Do you want to know more about our method here? Let’s talk. So making it about them. And showing them their journey from A to B and how other people on the same journey similar to them have solved it. That’s the hero’s story that you want to have in the first 10 seconds on your website. So hey, USC, you you’re going from here to there. This is hard. I know oh my god, it’s hard. But we have surpassed that many times. Here are three examples of people like you. Now let’s talk. Very good, good.

Al McBride 12:35
Again, it sounds so obvious. But so few people are doing this right? Or they have that information, but it’s much further into their marketing information.

Simon Severino 12:46
Exactly how much legwork is there in most websites where people listening right now? Go to your website right now check it on your phone, double check if in the first 10 seconds, that’s the ark. Or if there is a lot of legwork to get to this arc.

Al McBride 13:03
It’s a very good point that I’m suddenly very conscious of my own website and thinking, Oh, God, is it’s live even below the fold? Is that too far down?

Simon Severino 13:13
The times are changing. They we are competing. With one click away three other options for them. With kids coming in, hey, I need your attention helped me with the dog who wants to be worked with friends who want to play tennis. So we are competing with all other people who want their attention? Absolutely. So if we don’t hit it in the first 10 seconds, they will never scroll down and do all of these work.

Al McBride 13:45
Very good point. Very good point. So another idea of so what is one valuable free action that the audience can implement that will help them maybe not solve some of the problems that you’re talking about, but at least point them in the right trajectory in the right direction.

Simon Severino 14:03
I would go I use a tool. We call it the strategic values this blue thing here. If if if you put 10 minutes into answering those six questions, they will bring you into the the center of that circle. Then you have your messaging nailed down. And then with that, I will go to your website and change the first 10 seconds to answer that strategic value that you bring. And people can download it on strategist prints.com. They find the tool and it’s called strategic value. It’s for free, they can download it, but it can quickly walk you through. It asks you outside who you are here to serve. So who is your ideal client? Like you asked me? Then it says okay, what’s coming for them? In the next 12 months, 18 months, 24 months. And what are you good at? What do you stand for? So and the next question is, how will you help them be ready for what’s coming. Because that is your strategic value, this is what you actually sell. It’s not your program, it’s your not your product. This is what you actually sell. And if you get this front and center on your website, and front and center of your talking points in the sales, conversation, Pricing and Features, etc, will all be secondary. Because primary is, hey, do you see where I am? Do you see where I need to go? Do you see where I’m stuck? Do you see what’s coming for me? Can you help me? With that? Well, then let’s go. Why are we still talking?

Al McBride 15:43
Exactly. And this obviously helps reduce that sales cycle because you’ve clarified all of those points. So people think, right, this person understands my situation. And where I want to get to, this

Simon Severino 15:55
improves the messaging part. So they see that, then we are on the right thing, then still, in the second month, we have to improve the flow of the sales conversation itself so that the win rate goes up. And then in the third month, we have to work with your series of emails and social media content, to shorten the time for them to get this message to experience this message 15 times because they will lead up to 15 positive experiences with you before they send you $20,000 $50,000.

Al McBride 16:30
Worth. And as I said, everyone can start to do that now I’ll have the link. But it’s it’s strategy, sprint stock calm and has quite a few very valuable resources. They’re an almost free resource is your book, of course strategy sprints, the 12 ways to accelerate growth for an agile business. Now, there’s 12 in there. And all of them are important. I’m sure they build one on the other as far as I could tell. But there’s usually two or three out of 12, the 8020 principle that are maybe more magnitude of importance, or maybe people overlook them the most, what would you say might be the top one or two that people overlook, or the people undervalue their importance?

Simon Severino 17:14
Two things that I’m seeing right now, one is having a repeatable sales process. So I see people use at random acts of marketing. So they have random hits, random closed deals, but they are not replicable. They cannot use the same flow of things to close the next deal in the next week. And the second problem that I see is people are doing too many things, instead of doing a few very relevant things. So the first problem, I personally attack with this yellow thing here, my my little helper, it’s this triangle with the eight steps of how I close deals repeatedly. Because it reminds me of the eight steps. And so those eight steps, for example, Step six is the investment. And always when I start talking to people, they asked me very quickly, Simon, what’s the price, but maybe I’m at step two. And so if I tell them the price here, I’m losing the deal, for multiple reasons, because there is a reason why you talk price, which is investment of time and investment of money into solving what you have discussed in step two, three and four. So if you say part six before the other steps, you are just losing the deal. That’s it, it’s mathematical, it, it’s always like that I’ve I’ve watched, I don’t know how many 1000 sales recordings and gave feedback and it’s always the same pattern. If you let them pressure you to say the price too early, you lose the deal. Because you have to cover the right things in the right order. So this yellow triangle reminds me where I am in the conversation I have it in front of me I have it behind me and I have an AI who’s literally taking off the boxes if if I covered it and it’s not ticked off if I have to cover it next. So this is how important it is for me in my day to day operations. That makes sales repeatable why because you are using those eight steps now you can bring in other people you can start hiring a freelancer same eight steps coaching them, same eight steps. Now you well they’re doing really well okay, come on, become a full time employee here. They do the same thing. Then you have three people, five people, and they are all using these eight steps. Now you can coach each other you can do sales role plays. You see the importance of having a sales method. I’m not saying the only one is the strategist Prince method. There are many helpful methods out there, just pick one, but that will make it repeatable because you are using one common language, and everybody’s getting better and better at applying that language.

Al McBride 20:09
Excellent stuff that sounds outstanding. And as you said, it is a structure is a system that, you know, if you fit the points when you can, you can move between the levels, whereas as you said, people are jumping too far ahead, or they’re starting in the middle. And that’s why a lot of the sales conversations tend to fizzle out. Right? Okay. Very good. So, so final question, what is the one question I should have asked you that will be of great value to the listeners?

Simon Severino 20:36
Most important question, how can people cut in half the amount of activities that they’re doing?

Al McBride 20:43
And lovers, how can we do less that makes me laugh makes more impact? Yes,

Simon Severino 20:48
less, because everybody’s doing too much. Look around you. Everybody is stressed, everybody is too serious. They’re working too much. They should be spending more time outdoors. Having fun, doing sports with friends, enjoying family read that this is so much more important than half of the activities that they are doing. So how do we find that half? The goal is to find the few things that really move the needle forward for you right now. I personally, I use a one pager, it’s this orange one thing. Also people can download it on strategies. For instance, this orange thing has only five fields each for my three years goals, one year goal 90 days activities. And so the most important is the 90 days activities. And whenever you are not sure about the next 90 days activities, what are the few things five things, five things in the next 90 days that are the most important for me, whenever I’m not sure a check the three years, which is of course fuzzy, it’s like a Northstar. But it gives me an indication a direction. And then from there, I go back to my 90 days, refine them. And then Okay, let’s go and how we measure that we’re doing that. That’s then the fourth part. This is what I use, whenever I am not clear about my priorities, or whenever I feel and I see it in my calendar, or there’s too much sheduled there. There is no wiggle room for walking the dog for playing tennis for reading a book, then I know oops, I need a prioritization session. And that can be 10 minutes with my focus card. So if people want to use the focus card strategies for instance, calm you download the focus card. I literally I pull it up here on my iPad, I it takes me 10 minutes, I cut some things I refined some things now that I have clarity. Okay, now I move on working but I don’t work in a fog I need clarity of what I’m doing and why it matters.

Al McBride 22:58
That sounds absolutely fantastic. I love the simplicity as I said but the point is you always are using almost as a compass to redirect which way am I going and you’re adjusting as you go, you’re adjusting and going where’s the destination where go over there, okay, where’s the destination wherever. Excellent, so everything is moving in alignment. It also makes it easier when you have that destination and you have the companies that clarifies what’s important now versus what’s less important that can so you’re you’re just focusing again on that sort of 8020 use of your time fantastic

Simon Severino 23:32
and I liked that you call it the compass because I’m not a big fan of goals I don’t have a ton of goals but always in the here and now I have a priority of things I know what matters and what doesn’t that’s what I want to know in the here and now and that’s why it’s more a compass than anything else because in the here now what what matters whereas North that’s what I want to know and then I continue moving

Al McBride 24:01
at standing stuff that’s done yourself so Simon where can people get in touch with you mentioned your main website is strategy Sprint’s dot com I see your rather active on a lot of the socials on LinkedIn in particular where I am but across Twitter and Facebook as well we’ll put those links in Is there anywhere else is is their main place people should check you out.

Simon Severino 24:23
If if they want to grab the book it’s on Amazon strategist prints if they want to talk to us strategies prints.com Hop on our calendar let’s talk on socials. Yes I’m very active on x. Simon Severino on LinkedIn Simoni say very nervous because it’s my actual passport name. And and on YouTube, I have a YouTube channel is called What’s it called? Simon Severino? Hi tickets a sales,

Al McBride 24:49
ticket sales excellent. I was looking at some of your videos. They’re very good. Good, short, really interesting high value videos just like you mentioned earlier. So excellent. Check that So all of those links will be below the video and indeed in the show notes of the podcast Simon has been an absolute pleasure thank you for being on the show thank

Simon Severino 25:10
you for showing up for your community with consistency

Al McBride 25:15
excellent stuff thank you

Transcribed by https://otter.ai