Testimonials

“Scott’s personal story is even more inspiring than his sales success and
methodology. Finally, a leader that can break it down in the most
challenging yet effective ways in this book. As a sales trainer, coach and
speaker the past 18 years, I am eager to help make the sales word ‘Process’
one that deserves a capital ‘P.’ A MUST read for ANY sales professional!”
—Mike Lindstrom
Professional Speaker and Author of “What’s Your Story? Discover the Man
Behind Your Dad”
www.mikelindstrom.com

“If you are brand spanking new to sales or want to get into sales then this
book will be your bible. Scott lays out his process for how to be successful
in transactional selling in plain English. No theory just guidance.”
—Trish Bertuzzi
Author of “The Sales Development Playbook,” CEO of The Bridge Group,
Inc.

“Leese has managed to accomplish, in less than 100 pages, a complete

playbook for how to excel like the best at transactional sales, from rep to
VP. In this pithy treatise, Scott has boiled down his years of training and the
essentials of how he’s lead sales teams from failures to outsize successes
into a short, digestible guidebook. Scott helped our company turn around
our sales model and culture, and under his guidance, we embarked on a
turnaround and growth path that led to over 200% in performance gains on
a per rep basis in our inside sales team! His sage advice is now available to
anyone wise enough to read this book, and the best part of it is that Scott’s
wisdom runs the gamut, so whether you’re a rep just starting your journey, a
sales manager looking to take his team to the next level, or a director or VP
trying to push your organization even further, this book is for you!”
 —Matt Doka
CRO at FiveStars

“There are over 13,000 books on ‘sales’ on Amazon. What makes this one
different? The fact that Scott is a practitioner, not a theorist. He has had a
long career as a technology sales leader (rather than just as a trainer or
consultant), and an even longer one in the trenches. You can rest assured
that everything Scott talks about in his book has been field-tested and
refined by him personally hundreds of times.”
—Chris Orlob
Senior Director, Product Marketing at Gong.io
Addicted to the Process
Scott Leese
Scott Leese Consulting, LLC
Published by Scott Leese Consulting, LLC
Copyright © 2017 by Scott Leese
All rights reserved.
No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any
means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the
prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical
reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law. For permission requests,
write to the publisher, addressed “Attention: Permissions Coordinator,” at the address below.
Scott Leese Consulting, LLC
PO Box 90954, Austin, TX 78709-0954
E-mail: [email protected]
Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty:
While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no
representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this
book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular
purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials.
Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial
damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.
Publishing and editorial team:Author Bridge Media,
www.AuthorBridgeMedia.com
Project Manager and Editorial Director: Helen Chang
Editor: Katherine MacKenett
Publishing Manager: Laurie Aranda
Library of Congress Control Number: 2017901291
ISBN: 978-0-9984054-0-7 -- paperback
978-0-9984054-1-4 -- ebook
Ordering Information:
Quantity sales. Special discounts are available on quantity purchases by corporations, associations,
and others. For details, contact the publisher at the address above.
Printed in the United States of America
 DEDICATION

To my children, Brayden and Caleb—who are already better salesmen than

I am.
To my wife, Janet—for being the example of toughness I have always
needed.
To my parents, Angela and Wallace—your support, discipline, and love
have made me who I am.
To my grandmother, Nina—the strongest person I’ve ever met and will ever
know.
To my brother, Taylor—the smartest kid I know, always one-upping me and
pushing me on.
To my friends and loved ones—your encouragement, successes, and
guidance made this book possible.
And to those who have struggled, suffered, endured, and overcome, I
dedicate this book to you. You inspire the rest of us every day. My hope is
that these pages motivate you to share your story as well.
 CONTENTS

Acknowledgments
Introduction
Chapter 1 The Process

Chapter 2 Build the Mindset to Succeed

Chapter 3 Know Your Stuff

Chapter 4 Sell It

Chapter 5 Stick to the Plan

Chapter 6 The Next Move
About the Author
 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

As with most accomplishments, this book would not have happened without
the support and encouragement of many people in my life. I would like to
thank the following individuals who played a role in helping me develop
this book by challenging me to hone my own Process. You remind me that
we all have challenges and struggles; it’s how we deal with them
consistently that makes us who we are.
Thank you to Kay Kohen, a teacher who made a true impact on me as a
person. You helped me develop an interest in psychology and showed me
that understanding people is a way to understand yourself. Thank you also
to all my coaches growing up (especially my Dad), who helped me better
understand the true driver of success: overcoming obstacles, setbacks, and
failures.
Thank you to all of my former teammates who encouraged me to train
harder and more often, to step up and lead, and to celebrate my successes
and learn from my setbacks: the members of my former soccer and tennis
teams, my surf crew, my oldest and best friends, and former colleagues and
collaborators. I’m lucky to say some of my best friends today are folks I
have known nearly half my life or longer. You continue to push me to be
better, even today.
I’m grateful to my family, friends, and mentors, including Taylor Leese,
Mike Lindstrom, Richard Harris, Jonathan Dawe, and Lena Shaw. You were
great sounding boards as I worked to make connections between sales,
leadership, growth, and, finally, writing.
Thank you to my most loyal colleagues and business partners, including
Scott Partlow, Claire Morris, Paige Drews, Daniel Molas, Matt Hernandez,
and countless others without whom none of my successes would have
happened.
 To everyone who told me I couldn’t or wouldn’t do it, thank you for your
part in encouraging me to share my story and to try to make a difference in
the lives of some people who needed it.
I am grateful to those who stood by me and refused to let me quit, and
who still refuse to let me give up even now. My mom, Angela Leese, for
her unwavering love and faith in the healing process. My Dad, Wallace
Leese, for having the wisdom and conviction to know when to push and
when to encourage rest. To Garrett and Brian Gray, whose friendship saved
my life during my illness. To Amber Eandi-Marinescu, for a lifetime of
friendship and support. To Casey Gillispie and Taylor Smith, for struggling
with me and helping me find a way to laugh and smile through it all.
Thank you to my wife, Janet, who plays the roles of wife, mother,
therapist, doctor, and teacher in my life. Without your sacrifices, none of
this would have ever been possible. To my sons, Brayden and Caleb: you
inspire me to be better, and you make me proud every day.
Finally, thank you to Katherine MacKenett, Jenny Shipley, and the
Author Bridge Media team for your editorial and publishing services. Your
most valuable contribution was in helping me to bring structure and clarity
to something I previously had been unable to nail down. I am grateful for
your assistance in creating this book.
 INTRODUCTION

Adrift
Sales is the garbage can of jobs.
When you don’t know what to do with something anymore, you might
choose to throw it away. When you don’t know what kind of career you
want or you’ve been “thrown away” by other choices, you might end up in
sales.
Maybe you studied liberal arts in college, but nobody is hiring. Maybe
you work in the retail or service industry, but you are tired of the hours or
cleaning up spilled beer. You are ready for something more professional,
but you are rudderless. You feel like a ship adrift in the ocean.
Maybe you’ve made some mistakes, and you feel there might not be a ton
of options available. Life is just happening to you, rather than you deciding
what you want and then setting a course.
You see the people around you doing more with their lives. Your friends
are getting married, having families, and starting to make six figures.
They’re working more, and they’re not as interested in going out on a
Wednesday night to take tequila shots. Things are changing all around you,
and you feel left behind.
You want to keep up. You think you’re doing the best you can—but you
want to do better. You need a way to get to the next level.
Why isn’t it happening? you think. Where’s the sherpa to show me a
better way up the mountain? What do I need to do?

The Path to Success

There is a way to take your life back that leads to success, at work and at
home. It all starts with making the decision to follow a proven path.
That path can be transactional sales. Transactional sales—as I refer to
them in this book—have a short sales cycle, few decision makers, high
volume, and a relatively low complexity of product.
The sales world may be where people end up when they have nowhere
else to go, but you can decide to change your life through transactional
sales. It can be a launching pad for the rest of your career.
And that launching pad leads to powerful change.
You will have a new sense of direction, and direction leads to self-
confidence. As you have more success, your self-esteem will improve. You
can replace bad habits with healthier ones, and then your productivity will
increase as well. You’ll be making smarter decisions outside of work, so
you’ll be prepared to perform at your optimal level inside of work.
No longer will you be working just to survive and pay bills. Instead,
you’ll be changing the direction of your life. Maybe now you can buy that
new car you’ve dreamed about. Perhaps you want to take a trip to see more
of the world. You might move into a nicer home, now that you can provide
more for your family.
Transactional sales is a platform to success for the rest of your life. You
hold the key to getting started in your hand—and in your mind.

If I Can Do It, So Can You

I’m living proof that the process in this book works. I was once that person
who had lost control of his life.
I had no special talents or pedigree that gave me any kind of advantage.
My dad was a college professor and my mom was a nurse. They had no
sales experience whatsoever. I played sports in high school and college. As
an undergraduate, I studied psychology with a minor in religious studies,
but I chose those only because they were interesting to me. At that time, I
had no brain for business or making money.
I went to graduate school because I still didn’t know what I wanted to do
with myself. Then, right before I finished my master’s degree, I got really,
really sick. I was twenty-three years old.
I spent the next four years in and out of Enloe Medical Center, the Mayo
Clinic, and the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF) Hospital,
fighting for my life. At first, nobody knew why I was so sick. Then they
discovered that I had an autoimmune disease—ulcerative colitis—which led
to multiple abdominal surgeries.
I was fed every horrible drug you can think of to treat the disease and the
pain: antibiotics, steroids, immunosuppressants, Dilaudid, Demerol,
oxycodone, and even liquid morphine. None really worked.
I lost more than fifty pounds because I couldn’t eat or drink. I couldn’t
walk or even stand up on my own. I was in constant pain. I wanted to die.
Every waking moment was a struggle to survive.
During that period, I thought a lot about what I was going to do with
myself once I got out of the hospital. I needed to make up for lost time. One
of the first things I did when I was on the mend was to kick all the
narcotics. Physically, I was a junkie. I got lucky and didn’t have any mental
or emotional addiction, so I went cold turkey. Everybody said it was a bad
idea, but I figured, “I’ve already been through four years of hell—what’s
another week or two?”
When I recovered, it was the summer of 2004. I was twenty-seven years
old, and I’d never really had a job, let alone a career. I had just gotten
married, and I had no idea what I was going to do.
But I now had a family to support. So I made the strategic decision to go
into sales. It was the only thing I could think of that would allow me to
make as much money as possible, based on how well I performed and how
hard I worked. It made sense to me as an athlete and competitor: you play
well; you get paid well. You play poorly; you get cut.
In fact, I used a sports analogy when I went on my first interview. The
cofounder of the company asked why I had no real work experience. I
looked at the San Francisco 49ers pictures on the wall before replying, “I
am going to be the best undrafted free agent that you’ll ever find. All I need
is a chance.”
And it worked—he gave me that chance.
I got hired with twenty other people. We all showed up for the first day
and went through training until it was time for lunch. Then they said, “Time
to get on the phone.”
Are you f***ing serious? I felt like I’d just been thrown to the wolves.
That first day was awful—rejection after rejection. I didn’t even want to
pick up the phone anymore. That night, I told my wife, “I’m not going
back.”
She paused. At the time, my wife was going to graduate school full time.
I was our only source of income. “That’s fine,” she said neutrally. “You can
quit. But then what?”
And it hit me like a ton of bricks: I had no plan B.
She was right. I had no choice but to dig in and figure it out. What the
hell was wrong with me? Who quits so easily? That was not representative
of the guy who had already fought major obstacles so hard for so long.
So I started going at it—hard. I came into work around six in the morning
and left twelve hours later. By that very first Friday, I was the last person
from the group I’d been hired with who hadn’t either quit or made a sale. I
thought I was going to get fired at any moment, so I stayed late in the
darkened office. Around nine thirty that Friday night, I was still cold-calling
Hawaii, trying to take advantage of the time difference.
And that’s when I closed my first deal.
It was like somebody flipped a switch inside me. It was the best feeling in
the world, and I knew I wanted to feel it again and again. I just figured it
out! The only reason I made the sale was that I was in the office, working
on a Friday night, instead of going out with friends or making stupid
decisions. I was alone at my desk, trying to make something happen, while
most other twenty-seven-year-olds I knew were well on their way to
needing a bottle of Advil the following morning.
That would be my path. If it worked once, I thought, it could definitely
work again. I put in the extra effort, which allowed me to learn faster, and I
kept doing it until I saw rewards.
If I can do it, so can you.

Every Day a Win

I’m lucky to be alive. I’m lucky to be where I am. And I’m lucky because
after that first success, the deals just kept coming.
I had found a purpose: I wanted to be the best, and I wanted to help others
do what I was doing.
I quickly became the number one salesperson in that company and was
promoted to sales manager and then senior sales manager. I was named
Employee of the Year and was also a finalist for Sales Manager of the Year.
Since then, I’ve been building, advising, and scaling inside-sales
organizations for startups all across the country and even in Europe. I’ve
carved out a niche for myself in this world. Founders come to me when they
have a great idea and need to figure out how to sell it.
As of 2016, I’ve helped five different organizations grow. I’m particularly
proud of the last two. Main Street Hub was ranked the seventy-third fastest-
growing company in America in the 2014 Inc. 5000. The 2016 Inc. 5000
ranked OutboundEngine number ninety-five overall, number four in the
state of Texas, and number one in Austin. In fact, OutboundEngine was
voted one of the Best Places to Work in Austin for five years in a row. One
of its offices was also on the Best Places to Work list for the greater
Phoenix area.
The sales numbers that have developed in these places sound ludicrous,
because the companies quickly go from no revenue to having a successful
and repeatable sales process in just a few years. Hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of people have gone through my training at these organizations.
Every day is a win when you’re watching people grow and blossom. The
beauty and the joy for me is knowing that I poured myself into providing
people with new opportunities to hit bigger milestones—to do things they
have never done before—and watching firsthand as they succeed. This
experience has allowed me to continue to grow as well.
So I am telling you, if I can do this sh*t, so can you.

Light Your Fire

I want to show you how to hit the same milestones I hit myself—the ones
I’ve successfully taught hundreds of transactional salespeople to hit. But for
me to do that, you have to be open to what I have to say. You have to be
open to change. You have to be willing to do things you’ve never done
before.
Take a moment now. Acknowledge that you don’t know everything.
Recognize that there might be a different way, a better way, to make some
improvements.
It’s important to read this book from start to finish, and to follow the
Process. The Process is in place, in a specific order, for a reason. It’s critical
not to jump around trying to find shortcuts or to think that you have certain
things already mastered. The path has been laid out for you. You simply
have to choose to follow that path.
Once you’re done reading, it will be time to apply what you’ve learned.
This will affect every aspect of your life: the choices you make, how you
work and how hard you work, how much you care, and how seriously you
take it. It will affect you in ways you didn’t think were possible, and
perhaps in ways that terrify you.
A good friend I respect very much once told me that success boils down
to one question: “How bad do you want to make it happen?”
 This book should provide you with a shot of adrenaline that lasts long
after you’ve closed it. Periodically, though, you’re going to lose track of
what has made you great. When that happens, come back to this Process,
reference it, and remind yourself of how you became successful.
Use this book as the first step on your path to sales greatness. Light the
fire within. Then return to rekindle it when you feel your flame burning
low.

Now or Never
It’s time to stop thinking about taking your life back and just do it.
The great thing about a career in sales is that you don’t need a college
degree. You certainly don’t need an MBA from Harvard or Stanford. You
don’t have to be exceptionally gifted or acquire special skills that take
forever to learn. What you do need is an intense desire to succeed and the
willingness to hustle.
To get started, all you have to do is make a mental shift—and then make
a commitment. Do what I discovered was a blessing in disguise: jump in
without a backup plan. Go all in! You don’t need to overanalyze it.
Then once you get started, you can use each opportunity as a stepping-
stone to move forward from one place to the next. There is no perfect time
to do anything, and there will always be an excuse not to start.
So what are you waiting for? This is your “now or never” moment. Let’s
choose “now.”
 Chapter 1

The Process
At the Plate
Imagine you’re a baseball player going through a slump. You’re not hitting
home runs. It’s been a while since you hit anything. You start to get
obsessed with the struggle instead of focusing on success. You think, “I
need to hit a home run!”
To try to turn it around, you tweak things—too many things. You change
your batting stance. You start swinging at the first pitch every time. You
chase every breaking ball. Do these frantic attempts to change ever work?
One of the first things they tell you in baseball is to stop worrying about
the result and start focusing on the process. Stop focusing on hitting home
runs, and get back to the basics. Get your batting stance situated: get on
balance, keep your elbows up, bat back, knees bent. See the ball. See good
pitches. Don’t worry about how far or hard you are hitting it. Just try to
make contact.
All of a sudden, you get a hit. You start to come out of the slump.
Once you are making contact consistently, you need to get to a place
where you’re driving the ball. You start to hit the ball hard, but in your next
at bat, you hit a groundout. Then you hit a high, deep fly ball, and
somebody catches it in the alley. But soon you hit a single. Then a double.
You hear your coach say to your teammate, “He’s coming back.” And
before you know it, you’re hitting home runs again.
You trusted in the process, you went back to the basics, you put in the
time and effort, and it worked. This is how transactional sales will work for
you too.

What Is the Process?

Before you can have faith in the Process of transactional sales, you have to
understand it. So what is this Process, anyway?
The Process is the routine required to give you the best chance for
success in transactional sales. It is a methodology and series of habits,
decisions, and actions. It’s the way of going about every single sales call
you make that gives you the greatest chance of being the best salesperson in
the company.
Too many people in sales focus on selling what their product does. They
constantly talk about features and benefits. But that’s not how I think about
things. I think prospects could not care less about your cool product and
company, because they don’t know they have a problem. Or if they do, they
certainly don’t think it’s important enough to do something about it any
time soon.
The Process I’ve come up with is mirrored after the addiction model.
With the addiction model, you first have to get people to admit they have
a problem. Then you get them to understand why they should care about
having this problem and why it’s important to change. Then, and only then,
can you get them into rehab. I think sales is very similar to this process.
With the Process, my first job is to get prospects to admit that they have a
problem. Then they’re ready for me to educate them on why they should
care about having this problem. I have to communicate the need to solve the
problem immediately. They have to see the value and feel the urgency of
making this particular change. Only then are they going to be open to
hearing about the answer to their problem. That’s when I can talk about
what the product does and present it as the solution, offering them the
opportunity to take advantage of it.
If I just called you up to tell you about my company and what my product
does, your first reaction would be, “What does this have to do with me?”
Similarly, I can’t just walk up to someone with a substance abuse problem
and say, “I know this kick-ass rehab facility. You want to go?” The
immediate reaction would also be, “What are you talking about? I don’t
have a problem.” You can’t solve people’s problems until they acknowledge
them and care about changing them—right now.
The Process is in place for a reason—to bring you the greatest chance for
success.

Why Have a Process?

The Process provides a strategy to follow. It’s a road map and a guide to
help you get to where you want to go.
Generally speaking, when a group of new hires starts in sales, they’re a
bunch of inexperienced people running around trying to figure out what to
do. If I let them just figure it out on their own, they’re going to struggle, and
they may never figure it out at all. I need to provide the right tools and the
right guidance from the get-go. I need to reduce the time from inexperience
to success.
The best tool for success is the Process. If you focus on it, rather than
worrying about the outcome, the results will follow.
Too often salespeople are so fixated on thinking, “I need to close the
deal,” that their process breaks down. They get what I call “happy ears.”
They take shortcuts. If they’re on the phone and the prospect shows any
interest, they become overly excited and desperate. They jump ahead in the
Process and skip over some parts. Their patience wears thin, and they get
anxious to close instead of staying calm and patiently creating value and
urgency.
When this happens, the odds of closing the deal are greatly diminished.
It’s really important to stay dedicated and adhere to the Process all the
time. When you believe in it, it works for you. If you follow the Process
and pitch people the right way, it will work better than any other
methodology.
And once you’ve learned this Process, it’s important to keep using it.
Don’t tinker. When people first get started, they all make the same mistake:
they follow the Process, have some success with it, and then think they have
it figured out. They say, “Now I can put my own spin on it.” And when they
do, it falls to pieces.
The most common response I get from someone who started off strong
but is in the midst of a sophomore slump is “I don’t know what happened!”
I ask, “What did you change?” And the answer is always “Nothing.” Yet
once we dive into the calls and the pitch and process used, it becomes
painfully obvious that the person has strayed from what was working
before.
I’m teaching you to do it this way because it works. And it will work
consistently. If something is working, don’t change it. Just get better at each
of the steps within that Process.

Small Wins, Big Results

Getting better at each step of the Process can be explained using the
Japanese business concept of kaizen.
Kaizen is the idea of making small, daily, continuous improvement. If
you are struggling, you just need to pick one thing to work on and improve
that small piece. Otherwise, it’s easy to get overwhelmed by the big goals
that you set for yourself.
For example, I used to have a goal to “read more.” There was no way for
me to feel any sense of progress toward that goal because it was too vague
and overwhelming in its scope. It scared me off, and I actually read less
because of it. But then I realized that the real goal was to acquire
information about leadership, sales, and business. So I set the specific,
smaller goal of reading one book per quarter. Reading one book in three
months sounded attainable, so it motivated me to keep going.
Once I achieved my goal and was reading a book every quarter, I
graduated to one book per month. It was a manageable goal that provided
me with small wins, which reinforced my good decisions.
You want to be very specific with your goals. You need your goals to be
measurable and achievable so you get wins under your belt that build up
your confidence to keep going. There is a reason that powerhouse college
football programs schedule games against Tiny No-Name University from
the middle of nowhere early in the season—they are looking to get their
rhythm and confidence going. Focusing on the Process will give you the
small wins that eventually lead to the big results you want.

The World of Transactional Sales

People have been selling things since the dawn of humankind. Cavemen
tried to convince other cavemen to search for food in a certain area. That
method—one person attempting to convince somebody else of something—
is sales.
There are more books about the sales industry than you could ever read in
a single lifetime. One of the reasons I wanted to write this book is that I
believe the world of transactional sales does not get the respect it is due.
And I believe the beginning of one’s journey into a sales career doesn’t
need to be so scary. Transactional sales—the specific world we’re talking
about in this book—doesn’t get as much attention as the other areas of
sales, and that’s a shame.
For some reason, transactional sales has been seen as a less glamorous
field than other forms of sales. It’s not in the spotlight all the time. It can
require a lot more grit and hustle, and some people find that grimier. Over
the years, I have received feedback that demeaned the transactional sales
world unfairly.
But there’s no other world for me.
Working for a big corporate enterprise-level organization, where you
work deals for years and wine and dine people multiple times to move
prospects through a hundred different steps, sounds tedious and exhausting.
(And you’ll never convince me that it makes you a better salesperson!) If I
were able to close only one deal a quarter, I’d get to go home only four days
out of the year with that feeling of I got a win today. Where is the rush in
that?
I’m too much of a competitor for that world. I want to go home every day
feeling that I won or lost. If I won, I want to feel as if I’m on top of the
world. If I lost, I want to feel like dirt, and I want to use that to motivate me
to never feel that way again. And I want it all to start again tomorrow. I
want to know each day I come into the office that I have the possibility of a
kick-ass day. I need that hope.
There are a lot of new beginnings in transactional sales versus more
traditional sales positions, where one relationship is nurtured over time. It’s
not that one is necessarily better than the other. It just depends on what you
like to do. I like to describe transactional sales as big-wave surfing:
dropping in, going fast, and going hard. The enterprise and long sales-cycle
world is more like longboarding, taking your time and just slowly riding the
wave.
Dropping in on a wave may be more physically demanding, but the thrill
is also more intense because of it. And in transactional sales, we get to
experience that thrill more frequently.

Follow the Process

I have surfed the waves of transactional sales. And I have wiped out, but
I’m hoping you won’t have to—at least not as hard. If you follow the
Process and have faith in it, you can be successful.
There are four important steps on this path: build the mindset to succeed,
know your stuff, sell it, and stick to the plan.

Build the mindset to succeed. Nothing in sales is more important than

how you feel about yourself and what you’re doing. You need the right
 mindset to be open to new ideas, to learn, and to decide that you want
to be successful. You control you. Your confidence and your self-
esteem are everything. Protect them with great care. Work on them
daily. Eliminate anything in your life that does not lift you up.
Know your stuff. You have to know what you’re selling and how to sell
it. You need to know the product, know why it’s important, and know
something about your customers and the challenges they face. Then
you need to know what you’re supposed to say and exactly how to
respond in any situation. This makes you a sharper salesperson because
you’re not thinking of your next line. You are able to listen and pay
attention to the more subtle aspects of the interaction. If you are not
worried about what you need to say next, you can focus on the needs
and problems of the prospect.
Sell it. Sell it, and sell it the right way. The Process is a way to sell
based on value. Somebody has a problem, it’s important to solve this
problem right away, and you’re selling the solution. Following the
Process leads to small wins, which then lead you to big results. Find
pain. Build value. Talk about what the product does. In that order. Do
not try to sell it in any other order. Your results will suffer.
Stick to the plan. Life happens. Things change. The only difference
between successful people and less successful people is how they
handle those changes. The older I get, the more I realize all of our lives
are f***ed. Nobody is immune. It’s the way we deal with our issues
that sets us apart. When you have a problem, don’t tweak the steps or
focus on the results. Go back to the basics and follow the Process.
That’s your plan for success.

Now you’ve been introduced to the Process. And the same Process that
you will use to guide the sale is the one you are personally going to use
while learning transactional sales. After all, you want to change your life,
don’t you?
You have a problem, whether it’s debt, or an unfulfilling job, or not
knowing how to get where you want to go. You should care about that
problem: this is your life, and you get only one. You deserve to make it a
success. And the solution is in your hands. This book gives you the
opportunity to follow the Process from small wins to big rewards.
This Process encompasses both you as the salesperson and what you do
when you’re selling. I’m going to break both of those down for you
throughout the rest of this book, starting with your mindset.
Chapter 2 will give you the mindset you need to succeed.
 Chapter 2

Build the Mindset to Succeed

A Reason to Succeed
Everybody has a reason for wanting to succeed. To say it’s about the money
is a cop-out. The money is a means to an end. What will you do with the
money? That’s something specific—and that’s your reason.
Recently, a young salesperson who works for me tried to tell me he didn’t
have a reason for wanting success. I just looked at him sideways and said,
“Come on, man. I don’t believe you.” I started asking him questions about
his life, and he revealed that he takes Uber to work because he doesn’t have
a car. I pointed out that might be a reason to work hard and make a larger
commission check next month than the one he’d just made.
He told me, “I never looked at it that way.” From there, I told him to get
more specific.
Rather than just having him tell me he wanted a new car, I gave him an
assignment. I said, “Go home tonight, go online, and figure out which car
you want. What color is it, which dealership has it, and how much does it
cost? And I want you to tell me how much money you have now versus
how much this car is going to cost. When you do that, tell me how much
you need to make in commissions every month to save up for this car.”
He came back the next day and said, “Holy crap! If I hit the next
commission tier instead of this one, I’m only three or four months away
from buying my new car.” Lightbulb moment!
On the surface, he didn’t think he had goals. But everybody has a reason
to succeed if they can just visualize it and get specific about the details.

Win or Lose
That salesperson of mine found his reason to succeed. After that, he needed
to find the right mindset.
When you are in the frame of mind to do whatever it takes to win, you
have the mindset to succeed. No matter what obstacles are in the way of
achieving your goal, you will find a way to get around them. You will
rearrange your life to surmount any challenges and accomplish what you set
out to do. And once you’ve done that, you will make more changes to hit
your next goal.
If we just dive into transactional sales without the right mindset, we are
more likely to quit. We may doubt the product, our company, our boss, and
even ourselves. Then we start to give less effort and perform with less
passion. We disassociate ourselves so it doesn’t hurt if we fail. We are
slowly quitting, sometimes even before we realize what we’re doing.
My father-in-law once told me, “You can’t have one foot on the boat and
one foot on the dock. That’s going to end badly.” And it’s the same in
transactional sales. You’ve got to go all in.
To go all in, you first have to figure out why you want to make it happen.
Then you can work to develop the right mindset.

Why Make It Happen?

To be successful, you have to want to make it happen more than anything
else in the whole world.
Like I said before, transactional sales is often something that people fall
into. But no matter where you came from, how do you get yourself to that
place where you can make this job a driving force in your life?
When I say, “Make it happen,” you first have to know what “it” is. Is it
closing a deal? Is it making six figures? Is it becoming a VP or one day
starting your own business? Why do you want to change your financial
situation? Why do you want to change careers? Why do you want to change
your life?
My reason is freedom—the freedom to do what I want when I want. Your
reason has to be just as powerful.
Your “why” should start to consume your thoughts. If you just throw it
out there without much thought, or without a plan to get there, the sentiment
is hollow. But when your why is meaningful to you, you will fall back on it
when things start to get tough and you start to struggle. It won’t abandon
you, even when you might want to abandon yourself. You should spend
some time thinking about what motivates you—and why you really want to
do well.
The why is going to be different for everyone. And it doesn’t matter what
your reason is. It just matters that you have one at all times. Once you
achieve one of your milestones, it’s time to pick another why that is equally
powerful.
Once you know what your big goals are, keep them in front of you. I’ve
often read that people who write down their goals and look at them every
single day are more likely to achieve them. I know people who tape goals to
the dashboards of their cars, or put them underneath their desktop
keyboards, or even use one of their goals as their cell phone alarm message.
When my alarm goes off, the note says, “No margin for error.”
Do goal-setting exercises at the beginning of the year, and do them
someplace where you can be alone with your thoughts and away from your
normal routine. Then do a reassessment halfway through the year. Ask
yourself, “How am I doing so far? What have I crushed? What have I put
off? Why did I miss a goal?”
Cross off your goals as you achieve them throughout the year. That
satisfaction reminds you why you are doing this. I love crossing things off
my to-do list—even if it’s a list of groceries! It feels like a small win, and it
gives me the positive reinforcement I need to keep striving.

The Mindset to Succeed

You don’t want to wait for the right mindset to come to you. You need to
seek it out. Success doesn’t give you the right mindset; you work on your
mindset, and that brings you the success.
The more you can get to a place where you believe in yourself, the
product, and the mission, the more it will help your mindset and your
confidence. Successful salespeople need to develop and continue to work
on the specific traits that help them believe in themselves.
There are seven critical characteristics of a successful sales mindset:
confidence, motivation, tenacity, self-improvement, work ethic, ambition,
and courage. When you build each of these parts of your mindset, you set
yourself up to do whatever it takes to reach your goals.

Confidence. To build your confidence, put it into practical use in your

everyday life. Push back on things you don’t want, and ask for what you do
want.
When I used to fly less frequently, I started making it a point to walk
through the priority boarding line at the security checkpoint. I thought if I
just acted as though I belonged and was confident enough, I could get
through. As far as I can recall, I only got stopped twice.
Do something outside your comfort zone that makes you feel good about
yourself. Exercise more, if that gives you confidence. Some people get
confidence from knowledge, so learn everything there is to know about a
topic. The more positive results you get, the more likely you are to keep
doing it, because you feel good about how it’s working.

Motivation. How do you keep yourself in the mindset to succeed once you
find it? A lot of it comes from internal motivation, and you need to foster
that. But you want to surround yourself with external factors that are going
to help you as well.
Examine the people you spend time with. Do they increase your
motivation or drag you down? You become who you hang out with, so be
aware of their influence on your motivation. Seek out a network of friends
and family who understand and support your motivation to succeed and
who encourage rather than resent you for it.
I have a group of friends who create a safe place to talk about successes
and failures—and to trash-talk each other if one of us has lost some
motivation. I would be far less motivated without these essential friendships
in my life.

Tenacity. In the transactional sales world, tenacity means not letting

temporary defeat get the best of you. You have to be assertive and
sometimes aggressive. People may question you, or they may tell you no.
By answering their questions or being bold enough to ask for what you
want, you build tenacity. You become tough enough to get past any
gatekeeper and make it to the right decision maker. You’re confident
enough to hold firm to the price and bold enough to ask for a shortened time
frame for a decision.
After being cooped up in a hospital for so long, I realized that if I needed
something, I had to ask for it—and not stop trying until I solved my
problem. Learn how to advocate for yourself and be your own best friend.
That is tenacity in action.

Self-improvement. You improve yourself through ongoing learning. Just

like you want to pay attention to which people you spend your time with;
you also want to look at how you spend your time.
Read more. Read about subjects that challenge your thinking—sales,
startups, business, motivation, winners—anything that you think will help
you be more productive and successful. When choosing between pumping
knowledge into your brain or bleeding it dry watching horrible reality-TV
reruns, the choice should be obvious if you really want to succeed.
Talk to people who have done what you want to do. Surround yourself
with people who are smarter than you are or who teach you something. Ask
for help when you need it. And always look for new ideas so you never end
up settling for the status quo.

Work ethic. In order to get to a place you’ve never been before, you have to
be willing to do things you’ve never done before. Don’t keep doing the
things that don’t work for you.
To hit bigger goals than ever before, you’ll have to build up your stamina
to work harder and longer than ever before. You’ll need to drop the belief
systems and the negative labels you’ve given yourself, like “That’s just how
I am” or “I’m so ADD.” Bullsh*t. That might be something you’ve
struggled with before, or even for most of your life, but it absolutely does
not mean that that is who you are and who you will be forever. Put in the
work others are unwilling to do.
I was always a night owl, but I realized that was no longer going to work
for me because I sold to the East Coast and lived on the West Coast. I
adjusted my hours to maximize my productive work time. I still try to make
it a point to be the first one in the office in the morning so I miss the traffic,
can work quietly, and set a good example.

Ambition. A lot of people get into sales to make money and rise through the
ranks. You have to be ambitious to get into this field. You have to want to
make more money. And you have to want the recognition as well as the
compensation.
Always want a little bit more, because that will push you to do more. I
once heard somebody say that the best salespeople are always in a bit of
debt or have overspent their budgets. While I don’t recommend that, I can
understand the logic behind it. It’s just another little something to spur us on
to earn more.
I remember wanting to earn five thousand dollars in one month for the
first time. After I did that, my next goal was ten thousand. And I just keep
increasing it every time I surpass a goal.
Courage. You’ve got to be brave to sell. You have to have—or develop—
thick skin. You are going to fail way more often than you’ll succeed in this
field. You need the courage to believe in yourself and your abilities, even
when positive reinforcement appears to be absent. The risks are higher
because the upside can be much, much bigger. There is a reason sales is one
of the highest-paying professions out there: we are willing to do things most
people aren’t! And it isn’t easy.
The way I see it, I have already faced the hardest thing I will ever face in
my life, so why be afraid? I try to keep pushing myself forward even if
something is a bit scary.

From Rock Bottom

Sometimes doing whatever it takes to reach your goals means being willing
to do a 180 degree with your life.
In 2008, I gave a job interview to a guy I’ll call John. At the time, he was
in his mid-thirties and had already hit his rock bottom. He’d had a
substance abuse problem, and he’d been locked up in jail for almost a year.
He had just gone through hell and was trying to come back with his first job
after incarceration.
John was ready to change his life. He wanted a new path and a new way
forward. But at first, he was just happy to have a job and the chance to earn
decent money. I could see he wanted something more for himself, but he
didn’t quite know how to get there. He was ready to sell, but he had to start
with his mindset.
When we first hired him, he thought it would be just another job. Then he
found himself in an environment with other people who’d had some
difficult challenges, but who also wanted to do something bigger and better
with their lives. We pushed him not to accept what life had given him
before. And he pushed himself to work on specific changes in the way he
thought and viewed the world and in the decisions he made.
 I’ve worked with John at three different companies now, and he’s become
a good friend of mine. I’ve watched him transform from a raw and
undisciplined mess of an entry-level sales rep to one of the top sales
representatives in a company, becoming sales manager, then senior sales
manager, and then director of sales. He has grown into an extremely
valuable and successful sales leader. He understands people and their
motivations, and he uses his personal story to his advantage. He is a huge
inspiration in the sales office because he believes in himself and has
confidence in his ability to sell.
His story just goes to show that if you get your mindset right, and you’re
willing to make certain sacrifices and changes, you can turn your life
around to become a huge success. Anybody can do it—no matter the
obstacles they have to overcome—if they want it enough.
Once you have the mindset to succeed, you are on the path to success.
But before you can make a sale, you have to know what you’re selling and
what to say. The next chapter teaches you to know your stuff.
 Chapter 3

Know Your Stuff

My Own Little World
All salespeople have had moments where they’ve been caught not knowing
their stuff. Hell, part of why we ended up in sales is because we know how
to wing it and to freestyle our way out of trouble and into a position of
strength. Our charm and charisma get us where we need to be.
In my first-ever sales job, I was selling online lead-generation tools for
real estate agents. We had tall cubicles, so I couldn’t see anybody around
me. I was in my own little world. It was extremely isolating. I either knew
what to do or I didn’t; those were my only options. I was not going to
receive any support.
When I had been working there a couple of weeks, I was on the phone
with a prospect who asked me a question I didn’t know how to answer. I
didn’t know my stuff, and I panicked. It was so important to me to make
that sale, and I could see it slipping away before my eyes.
I put the phone on mute and wedged it against my shoulder. Then I leaned
my chair way back and craned my neck, frantically trying to make eye
contact with someone in any direction who could give me the answer.
The person on the phone was still talking, and I wasn’t listening at all. By
the time my neighbor told me what to say and I unmuted the phone, I was
chiming in with the answer to a question that was two minutes old. I had
completely ignored everything that had been said in the meantime.
In the end, I didn’t make the sale. But I learned my lesson. There’s
nothing wrong with not having an answer one time. The real stupidity
would be doing nothing about it. So I thought of every possible scenario
that might trip me up. I wrote up the best possible response for each. Then I
set out to memorize the list . . . right after I crossed off that day’s question.
 I wasn’t going to make that mistake again.

Know Your Stuff

When I couldn’t answer the question I was asked, it was completely my
fault. I could’ve blamed it on a lack of training or a lack of coaching from
my manager, but at the end of the day, I didn’t know my stuff.
Knowing your stuff means that you know what you’re selling and how it
needs to be sold, and you know what you’re talking about. That may seem
really obvious, but the better you understand the product you’re trying to
sell, the better you’ll be able to handle questions and objections. And if you
combine your charm and wittiness with knowing what to say, rather than
winging it, you’re going to close more deals. So why do so many
salespeople settle for only the most basic grasp of their product?
When you cut corners or try to fake it, trusting your talent over training,
you don’t learn the material very well, and it messes up the rest of the
Process. In essence, you are teaching yourself bad habits that will not
benefit you in the long run. Someone is going to find out. You may be able
to get away with it a few times, but people are going to realize that you are
bullsh*tting them.
On the other hand, when you are well prepared, you can have fun and
move faster toward your goals. You can pay closer attention to what the
prospect is saying and feeling. You can anticipate where the call is headed
next. So why not know everything important?
There are two aspects to knowing your stuff. First, you have to know
your product. Then you have to know your script.

Know Your Product

You don’t have to love your product, but it does help. You will be more
motivated to understand it and all its benefits for your customers. But
whether you love it or not, you have to develop a thorough understanding of
the product before you can sell it. You can’t sell it if you don’t know what it
is.
To know your product, you need to know how it works, what pain points
it solves, and what value it provides. You also want to know why this
particular product or solution is a “must have” instead of a “nice to have.”
Why is this an urgent purchase for the customer? Take the time to learn
everything the product offers that will matter to your customer.
If you have multiple products, educate yourself on all of them as much as
you can. Otherwise, you miss out on opportunities because you don’t know
how to speak to the whole suite of products. If you sell only one product in
the suite because you don’t know the rest, you may only be able to sell to
one type of prospect. That’s like fishing with a small hook instead of a big
net. When you expand your knowledge, you naturally expand your success.
There are several things you can do to really know your product. First,
read the manual, pay attention during the training, and take notes. Ask the
product people how it works on the back end. Use the product if you are
able. Play around with it as if you were the customer. Know how to
navigate it, and spend time finding its best aspects—the things you can feel
passionate and fired up to talk about. Spend time talking with people who
use the product. Completely familiarize yourself with it, and keep up to date
with new packages or details.
A word of caution: knowing everything about the product does not mean
you have to cover everything about it with prospects. It is possible to
overwhelm them with information, which slows down the sales cycle and
can ultimately result in overselling your way out of a deal.
That’s why you need to learn the right way to talk about the product and
know your script.

Know Your Script

You know your product. Now you need to know what to say about it—and
how and when to say it. Trying to just wing it and see what happens is not a
good idea. It’s better to have a game plan you can execute and refer back to
as needed.
Depending on your employer or career stage, you will either write your
own script or take what somebody else has done and master it—only then
trying to improve on it.
To build your script from scratch, you need to start pitching. Pitch to
yourself, the mirror, your significant other, and anyone else willing to let
you practice. Start with a “perfect” pitch, one where a prospect doesn’t push
back at all and things go perfectly all the way to a close. This will become
the basis for your visualization of how calls should go.
As you try to sell the product, play around with what works. When
something feels as if it’s starting to work and you’re making some progress,
write it down. I like to type out a whole simulated conversation. Test it,
listen to your pitch, and improve on it until it works in a practice
environment. Then test it on real prospects.
When you’re given a script that is already written, don’t try to reinvent
the wheel—especially if you are a new salesperson just getting into the
industry. The people at your company have had some success with that
script, and you need to follow that success. Think about it: why would they
give you something if they didn’t think it was the best possible way for you
to succeed?
Either way, your script should be a living, breathing document. It
shouldn’t stay stagnant. The pitch that works today will be different from
the one that worked three years ago. When you first learn about a topic, it
may take you a long time to explain it. But as you develop your pitch over
months and years, you’ll get better at breaking it down to its simplest
elements. Then you can take a look at it every six months or so and ask, “Is
this still relevant? Does it still work? Can I make it shorter or easier?”
The final piece is just studying your script any way you can. You can’t
overdo it. Read it over breakfast, recite it in your car, and practice while you
wait in line at the coffee shop. The routine matters much more than the
words. The repetition is critical to your initial growth and success. Treat it
like you’re studying for a college exam. Memorize it completely. The more
you do it, the more easily it will flow out of you. Without realizing it, you’ll
be able to put your own personality into the script and make it your own.
Know it so well that you would be able to pick up right in the middle if you
heard somebody else pitching it!
In fact, one trick to determine whether you know the script well enough is
to try doing a relay race with a group of people. See if you can pick up the
script right where the person before you leaves off. It’s pretty cool when a
group of salespeople can finish each other’s sentences!

The Flip Side of the Coin

At the beginning of this chapter, I told you the story about a time when I
didn’t know what I was supposed to say. That was really chaotic, stressful,
and ridiculous.
The flip side of that coin is knowing your stuff. When you do, you are so
confident in what you’re selling that you can ask the prospect a ton of
questions. You are able to sit back and listen to the answers, which allows
you to guide the conversation.
Eventually, I got to that place with that first product and script. I wasn’t
rushed, worried, or nervous about what to say. Instead, I was patient, and I
waited for my moment. Then the prospect said the words I was waiting to
hear: “Tell me about what you guys do. I want to know. I’m interested.”
Those words gave me permission to talk about our solution. I got the green
light to proceed toward a close.
Those are the kinds of sales experiences you’re looking for. When you
know your stuff, you’re always prepared to find those experiences.
Now you know your product and what to say. So what comes next? It’s
time to sell it.
 Chapter 4

Sell It
Connection to Addiction
As I told you in the introduction, I have based my sales Process on the
addiction model. But no one taught me that concept.
In 2010, I was the Vice President of Sales at Main Street Hub. I’d had
about six years of sales leadership experience at that time. I went to our
office in New York City to give a talk to twenty-five salespeople about sales
and performance. I had taught and explained things the same way a million
times before.
This time would be different.
“I don’t get why sales have to flow in a certain way,” a young guy in his
early twenties said that day. I looked at him for a second. I had to come up
with an analogy that would make sense of it all. And the connection to the
addiction model just came out. It was raw and personal and, in my opinion,
a perfect description.
Maybe it came from having been sick and in the hospital on pain
medication for four years. From a physical standpoint, I knew some of what
being an addict was like. I also have friends who have struggled with
substance abuse their whole lives. So it might have come from that place of
familiarity; it was something I could understand. And sometimes you have
to describe things in a gritty way to connect with your audience.
Whatever the reason, it worked. I could see from the nodding heads and
fixed eyes that I had hit on something. After the talk, one of the sales
leaders in the office came up to me and said, “That’s a really good way to
explain that.” I started using it more and more. I refined the Process and the
language around it. By the time I got to my next company, it just became
part of the lingo. “Sales is like addiction . . .”
 That day, my sales Process got a name.

Follow the Steps

The Process is really easy to remember because it is so simple. There are
only four main steps at the core of the addiction model and, therefore, at the
heart of my sales Process.
First, you get prospects to admit they have a problem. Then you make
them understand why they should care that they have this problem, and you
make them want to solve it immediately. Then and only then are they going
to be open to hearing about solutions to that particular problem, and you
can talk about what you do.
Pain. Value. Urgency. Solution. This is the way you close transactional
sales with confidence and consistency.
You cannot use the steps of the Process out of order. If you do, you won’t
be very successful. You may be in the right frame of mind and be prepared,
but you will have no idea how to execute the sale. If you screw up the
sequencing, the message just does not have the same impact. If you follow
every step in this particular way, though, it will give you the best chance for
success.
In transactional sales, you are typically considered a solid contributor if
you are able to close a deal every two days. The best of the best can get
around one deal a day. You are an absolute rock star if you close the deal on
one out of every one hundred cold calls.
The model I am showing you will work for every product I’ve ever seen
in the transactional sales world. I have taught folks from companies all
across America and in Europe about this Process, and I have seen them
implement it with great success.
You simply have to trust it, practice it, perfect it, and stick with it.

The Process
The Process should go the same way every time. Pay attention to it because,
if done consistently, it will work and it will yield you the best results.
The Process has four main steps, but those steps are broken down further
to create the ideal call flow. The call flow has nine steps: talk to a decision
maker, find the pain, build value, create urgency, talk about what you do,
discuss opportunities, attempt to close, deal with objections, and close or set
a follow-up.

1. Make sure you’re talking to a decision maker. The first step is

to make sure you’re talking to the right person. This will be the
person who handles everything having to do with the product or
service you’re offering. Ask, “Am I talking to the owner? Are
you the only decision maker?” You don’t want to waste your
time talking to somebody who’s not critical to the decision-
making process. The great thing about transactional sales is that
you rarely have more than one decision maker and usually very
few gatekeepers to get past.
2. Find the pain. This is where the addiction model really starts to
take shape. Once you have the right person on the phone, you
have to get this person to admit he or she has a problem. Dig for
information about his or her business, background, experience,
or comfort level. Ask questions that drive toward the answer
you want, which is “I don’t know how to do that,” or “I’ve
never done that before.” Now you’ve found the pain point. This
is the most important part of the entire Process. It is not good
enough to tell prospects they have a problem. They have to
admit it themselves!
3. Build value. Once they’ve admitted that they have this pain
point, it’s your job to make them understand why they should
care about this problem. Even when people know they have a
 problem, they may not truly see the value in doing something
about it. As you educate them, they should begin to want to
make a change. Think about functioning addicts. They might be
aware they have a problem but are not yet compelled to do
anything about it. They don’t see the value in making a change
yet. That is your job—to make them understand the value. That
rolls into the next step, which is to . . .
4. Create urgency. Make them understand that their problem is
mission critical. It’s not a paper cut; it’s a severed limb
demanding urgent attention. They are losing business every
single day by not doing something to fix the problem. The more
specific and personal you can make the story, the better. If you
can provide concrete data and dollar amounts, do so. Talk about
what their competitors are doing and how their market share is
at risk. Paint a picture that compels them to act sooner rather
than later.
5. Solution. Once prospects admit they have a problem,
understand why they should care about it, and feel they should
do something about it right away, you have permission to talk
about what your company does. Then and only then! This is the
part every prospect wants you to talk about right away. Don’t do
it! First, get them so interested that they are nearly begging you
to talk about what you do. Now they will pay attention as you
explain the product or solution. Keep it simple, and use the
script you prepared.
6. Discuss opportunities. After talking about what you do, it’s
time to give a little summary. Recap the problem so that
prospects understand why it’s important to do something about
it and how you can help. Show how your product will benefit
them. Summarize it in a really clear-cut way that presents a
 compelling story. Again, make your analogies or examples as
real and specific as possible. Get them to see the outcome in
their minds.
7. Attempt to close. If, after following all the other steps, you
present that compelling story in the right way, the table is set to
go into a trial close. You can say, “There are a couple of
different ways we can partner with you.” Then walk through
those. Ease them into an entry-level price point, so they don’t
get spooked. Show them a mid-tier option and then a high-end
option. No one wants to be the big spender, but people don’t
want to be the cheapskate either. Give them your
recommendation, then ask what makes the most sense to them.
Guide them into the close by steering them into the middle
option, which is where most people end up.
8. Deal with objections and rebut them. Inevitably, when you go
to close the deal, there will be objections. All the doubts, fears,
and budget constraints the prospect has are going to rear their
heads. Be prepared to deal with these objections and provide
rebuttals. You’ve got this! You know why? Because you
scripted all this out, rehearsed it, and are therefore completely
prepared to answer any objections. Walk your prospect through
your way of thinking, so the person sees that the objection is not
a big deal; it’s something to work through. You will be in a loop
of dealing with objections and rebuttals until you finally get
some indication that the flow is going to conclude in one of two
desirable ways, described in the next step, or in one
disappointing way—with a no.
9. Close or set a follow-up appointment. Once you’ve dealt with
all the objections, your job is to try to close once again. If the
 deal’s not going to close, then close on the next best thing: a
follow-up. Set a specific day and time to talk again, so the
prospect has some time to think about it. Lock down the
appointment with a calendar invitation. Invite the prospect to do
research and come prepared with any further questions. Then
politely ask, “Next time we talk, all I ask is that we can arrive at
a yes or no decision. Does that sound fair to you?” And that’s
the best you can do. That’s still a win.

The Emergency Room

When I train salespeople, I tell them to think of the Process as though
they’re trying to get someone with a cut to go to the hospital.
First, you notice the cut on the person. Then you get the person to notice
it too. You make this individual understand that he or she needs to address
the injury. It’s the best thing to do, health-wise.
You can create urgency by expanding that awareness, saying, for
example, “Actually, this cut is more serious than you think it is.” At that
point, the person will notice how much the cut is bleeding. You don’t want
to freak him or her out, but you point out that the cut may have hit an artery.
Finally the person says, “I need to do something about it now!”
That is the time to say that you are taking the person to the hospital. You
can discuss the benefits of stitches versus butterfly bandages on the way.
Maybe the person is afraid of needles or objects, saying, “I don’t have
insurance!” No matter what, you have to get him or her to the emergency
room.
So you close the deal. You discuss the concerns, but you take action and
help save the person. If you need to, you also schedule a follow-up
appointment with the doctor.
But if you do these steps out of order—rushing people to the ER before
they know how badly they’re hurt—you’re going to meet with a lot of
resistance. For the greatest success, always follow the Process of the
addiction model, and do it in the correct order.
Now you know every step you need to take to close the deal. You may be
tempted to make some changes, but why would you? The next chapter is all
about sticking to the plan.
 Chapter 5

Stick to the Plan

Off a Cliff
In the world of transactional sales, messing with success can lead to a
horrible downward spiral.
When I was at OutboundEngine, we sold e-mail and social media
marketing services to local small-business owners. A relatively new team
member (I’ll call him Bob) came in, and he had never done anything like
this job before. He was a born hustler from the streets of NYC, so I knew he
could be good. He did what he was taught when he first got there. He
worked really hard right out of the gate, implemented feedback well, asked
for help, and began crushing it.
Then suddenly and without reason, he just fell off a (figurative) cliff.
Because he had been doing so well, he had been rewarded with inbound
leads, which was pretty rare. And while he had been following the Process
for cold calls, he started doing things differently with inbound leads.
Although he had been told to “stick with what works,” Bob started to cut
corners. He didn’t spend as much time educating prospects. His results
started to suffer, and he couldn’t understand why. He was struggling, and he
got stuck in his own head. He doubted the product, doubted his abilities,
and even started making excuses, saying he doubted the leads were any
good. By the next quarter, he had gone from hitting 300 percent of his quota
down to just 20 percent.
Fortunately, Bob had an “aha!” moment after about a month and a half of
struggling. He realized where he’d gone wrong. It had happened when he
had stopped sticking to the plan and started thinking he could do it in a
simpler, easier way, despite having zero prior experience.
So he rededicated himself to following the Process—in the correct order.
He knew that it had worked for him before and would continue to do so.
And he saw it again: his results went back up. In fact, after a year and a half
at that company, he became one of its highest producers.
Bob learned his lesson about going off-Process, and his turnaround has
led to his continued success. Not everybody can make it back to the top of
the mountain after falling down, and it’s certainly easier if you can follow
the same process and roads that got you there the first time.

A Repeatable Process
Bob knew his plan. He just had to learn to stick to it. He had to learn to trust
it.
When you want to create a repeatable process, you make a strategic plan,
and you stick to that plan. Once that process is working, you don’t deviate
from it. You continue with it and play the odds for success. It becomes
math.
What did my Process look like? I arrived at work at six in the morning
and started calling the East Coast. I made twenty calls before I did anything
else each day—no bathroom break, no water break, no snack break, no
checking e-mail or fantasy football until those calls were made. I avoided
discussions at the office with others who were complaining. I knew I
needed a certain number of appointments scheduled each day in order to
avoid peaks and valleys, and I did not leave until I hit that target.
I would leave in the afternoon and head to the beach to surf until it got
dark, letting the cold Pacific Ocean wash away the stress of a hard day of
selling. When I got home, I opened my laptop and sent out prospecting e-
mails—lots of e-mails—before I went to bed. That was my daily grind back
then. That Process positioned me for success. If you trust in it, the math will
play out in your favor.
If you make a certain number of dials, you will get through to a certain
number of decision makers, which will turn into a certain number of deals.
That plan will work. If you don’t stick to the plan, it is very difficult to
know what is working and what is going wrong. You can end up losing
confidence and second-guessing yourself. When you stick to the Process,
however, the numbers show results in terms of your bottom-line success.
But before you can stick to the plan, you first have to know what to
expect.

Manage Your Expectations

The easiest way to stick to the plan is to manage your expectations. And the
best way to manage your expectations is to know the numbers.
Sales is full of rejection. Knowing what to expect is the antidote.
Knowing your metrics and the math behind how your business works can
help you let go of a ton of stress, frustration, and anxiety.
A really successful salesperson might close one out of every one hundred
cold calls or one out of every ten appointments. Compared with other
industries, that’s not a very good success rate. If a basketball player shot 1
percent or even 10 percent, he or she wouldn’t be playing for very long.
Need a different sports analogy? If a baseball player is called out in seven
of ten at bats during the season, he will hit .300 for the year. If you hit .300
a year for long enough, you have a great shot at being a Hall of Famer.
Salespeople would kill for those numbers!
But in transactional sales, it simply isn’t possible. You’d be a superstar if
you failed ninety-nine times out of one hundred. That is a f*** ton of
rejection for us to deal with, is it not? When you understand these
dynamics, you can prepare yourself mentally for the fact that you are going
to fail way more often than you’re going to succeed.
When your expectations are reasonable, you will find it much easier to
stick to the plan.

Stick to the Plan

There are three categories where you really want to stick to the plan: your
office culture, your sales training, and your healthy routine.

Office culture. You need to understand what the culture of your sales office
is and how it works for you. It should be conducive to making sales.
There are cultural movements going on right now in the startup world,
with people trying to weave in lots of work-life balance. For example, some
companies allow you to take your pet to work. But in sales, that may not be
the kind of culture that gives you the best results. You are trying to
eliminate distractions, and people’s dogs need exercise, food, water, and
attention. All of those things take you away from the calls you need to
make. Different jobs need different things.
You need to make sure the office you work for is set up to give you the
greatest success. Is it a sales-oriented culture where salespeople are valued
and respected? Does the leadership empower the sales organization and
provide as many benefits and rewards to people as possible? Is the right
kind of attitude pervasive in the office? You don’t want to work in a place
where there’s a lot of complaining, but rather in an atmosphere of
overcoming challenges and celebrating successes.
As a salesperson, the more you align yourself with a culture that sets you
up for success, the better results you’ll get.

Training. Learn what works best for you and your type of learning process.
Then make a plan for training, and stick to it.
You have to know your product and know your script, so come up with a
rhythm to aid that learning. Try all different types of learning. See, for
example, whether auditory is better than visual for you. I used to listen to
Brian Tracy on my commute home every day when I was first getting
started in sales. I learned some great techniques just by listening to those
CDs over and over. Study the different parts of your product and its features
at night. Spend an hour every day—before work, at lunch, or after work—
role-playing and rehearsing your pitch. When you make this a routine, you
will find the rhythm that allows you to be as successful as possible.
Your organization should also have support pieces in place, including a
culture that promotes growth and development. If the company offers
training, go. Seek help, and be as proactive as you can. Look at each leader
or top performer as a resource for getting as much help as possible. If you
don’t have an environment that gives you much help, it’s even more critical
that you find a way to do it on your own. Create a situation for yourself that
allows you to do your best.

A healthy routine. You want your habits to create your best self, so you can
come to work at 100 percent every day. That means you want to develop a
routine outside of work that is healthy and helpful to your success
professionally.
You need to get the right amount of sleep. It’s very difficult to show up to
work at eight o’clock if you’ve been out partying until three in the morning.
You’ll be off to a slow start, and that can really hold you back. I try to wake
up early, as often as my health allows.
Eat the right foods, and find a way to exercise. Otherwise, your health
may be negatively affected, which means you may not be coming into the
office as much. And that won’t just prevent you from closing deals that day,
but will also prevent you from building a pipeline that could provide deals
in the future. I know getting exercise for me is unlikely to happen if I don’t
do it first thing in the morning, and it’s a key ingredient to my happiness
and health. I like getting it done early when it’s quiet and I have no
distractions. That is my rhythm. Once you find a rhythm that works for you,
you want to do everything you can to stay right in that pocket.
Sales is an extremely stressful and emotionally charged profession.
Finding healthy outlets to manage the stress is an essential part of becoming
a great salesperson. Try not to get too up or too down emotionally. Surround
yourself with people who do not add emotional weight to your life, but who
support your efforts and positively influence you.
If you can do these things, you are demonstrating a commitment to
success and following the Process.

Stick to the Recipe

One of the things that has made me a successful sales rep is that when I find
something that works in any part of my life, I do not change it.
Alternatively, I know someone who loves to tinker and experiment and is
sometimes frustrated by the results (albeit in a totally different capacity).
Sorry, Janet, but it’s just a perfect story.
My wife likes to bake. And she’s always tinkering with the recipes for
pancakes, muffins, and other treats, adding a pinch of something here and a
dash of something else there. They always taste good, but they never taste
the same from one batch to the next.
Every now and then, she will make one batch of pancakes that is
absolutely perfect. Our kids and I tell her, “You nailed it!” And the next
time we have pancakes, I think to myself, “She’s probably going to make
them the same way as last time, because they were perfect.” But nope. She
tinkered again. And sometimes they are not nearly as good. (Sorry, but it’s
true.)
Don’t sell this way!
You have the right mindset. You know your stuff. And you know the
Process. You’ve made a plan, and you’re going to stick to it. You’ve found
success. But how do you know when it’s time to push yourself to move
forward? In the final chapter, we’ll take a look at what’s over the next
horizon.
 Chapter 6

The Next Move

Catapult to Change
Big growth points in my life often come when I listen to that voice that
says, “I need something new. I need something more. I need to go bigger!”
Sometimes it takes an event to catapult you forward.
For me, one of those events was a surf trip to Central America.
I had known for some time that I needed a change. I had started to
become a little frustrated in my role at work. I was interested in what other
people were doing but bored with what I was doing. I was getting restless.
I had some vacation time due, so I went on a surfing trip. I found myself
in the middle of nowhere, in a small Central American country, with a
bunch of my oldest friends. We went all the way to the Pacific Coast, to a
place with some of the best waves we could find. We were the only people
at this little surf village. We had the beach all to ourselves for an entire
week. It was like having our own private surf resort. The exercise and
isolation were exactly what I needed to bring about clarity.
I had a lot of time to relax, think, and reflect. I had conversations with my
friends and got their feedback and advice. And sometimes when you
remove yourself from the hectic everyday stress and chaos of your life, the
right idea comes to you. I was somewhere serene, out in nature, and that
gave me a sense of clarity.
That trip was the impetus to make a decision I had been afraid to make
for a while. It’s where I really recognized and acknowledged, “Oh yeah, I’m
done.” And it was time to move on.
When I got back, I told my employer I was done. We parted ways.
I didn’t know what I was going to do next. So for twenty-four hours, it
was rough. All the fear and frustration of making a big change came up. Oh
sh*t, what just happened? I thought. What am I going to do? I think it is
important to allow yourself to really feel the emotion rather than suppress it.
It becomes unhealthy only when you start to dwell on it and can’t move on.
When I woke up on day two, I thought, Okay, now I get to figure out what
I’m going to do next. Time to get to work!
And suddenly life became really exciting. It was almost addicting in a
way—that rush of having so many opportunities and getting to decide
which one was the right one. It crushed the fear and frustration. And
opportunities started flying at me almost faster than I could keep up. I felt
secure that this was the best thing that could’ve happened to me.
I was on my way to something bigger. And I’ve been repeating that
process ever since.

Time to Move On
To keep growing, you have to keep moving. And sometimes that means
moving away from something easy and familiar.
You have to recognize when you’ve hit the ceiling in a certain role or at a
particular organization. When you decide to push yourself forward to find
the next challenge, you are saying that you won’t settle for mediocrity.
You should always try to find a way to one-up yourself. Sometimes that
means taking a leap of faith. Faith in yourself is a prerequisite to success.
In the previous chapter, I said that once you find something that works,
you should just keep doing it. And that holds true: you keep doing it until
the job is done and there is nothing left for you to do, nowhere left for you
to grow.
When there is nothing left for you there, it’s time to move on.
Once you’ve outgrown a particular role, go find the next thing. The right
thing. Then challenge yourself with that new thing, and figure out how to
excel at it. Do all the right things consistently to remain excellent, until you
hit a different ceiling. You will keep hitting them if you keep crushing it,
because it never stops. And neither should you.
You never stop growing. You never stop learning and improving and
trying to be better. And you should never stop pushing toward a successful,
fulfilling life. I am hoping a successful career in sales is a part of that!

The Next Step of the Journey

At the end of the day, we are all on a journey. It’s a journey of self-
discovery and self-fulfillment. But you don’t have to travel in silence, alone
on that path.
I encourage you to find a mentor, coach, or boss who has figured it out,
and then attach yourself at the hip to that person. Get a direct line into the
advice and insight he or she has to offer. I didn’t have much of that,
especially at the beginning of my journey, and it would have been a lot
easier for me if I had.
Gone are the days when people go to work for one company for the next
forty years of their lives and just work their way up slowly. People don’t do
that anymore. Younger generations don’t think that way. What you want are
big paydays and fancy jobs, and you want them yesterday.
So it’s on me to provide you with the type of training and skills you need
to achieve the success required to move up. I want to help everybody get to
the next level and keep going.
I would love to help you get on the path to where you want to go. You
can connect with me easily on LinkedIn and Twitter, and I am happy to be a
resource or recommend resources from my years in sales all over the
country and different parts of the world. You can also find me at my
website: www.scottleeseconsulting.com.
I urge you to use everything available to you, and do whatever you have
to do, to keep moving forward on the path to success. There is absolutely no
reason you cannot succeed.
Find Success
I hope you feel fired up to kick-start your sales journey using the Process I
have detailed in this book—especially if you’re on a path similar to the one
I’ve traveled.
Remember, I started as an entry-level inside salesperson who had zero
experience and zero background in business. And I tapped into something I
didn’t know was there. Once I found it, I achieved success that went beyond
anything I could have ever imagined. And if I can do it, so can you.
Let this knowledge light a fire inside of you. You’ve always known it was
there. Now it’s time to let it burn bright enough to impel you to make some
changes, push yourself, and take some chances.
I want you to succeed in sales. But more than that, I want you to find
success in life. You control you, and the only thing that determines your
success is how much you want to make it happen.
Stay addicted to the Process, and watch your life take off.
 ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Scott Leese is one of the top startup sales leaders in the country. He has
built and scaled thriving sales teams at numerous multimillion-dollar
companies and advised on many more. Leese’s near-death experience with
illness led him to discover sales and startups, where he achieved success
using the dedication, process, and drive to compete that he had honed as a
multisport athlete and through the fight to take back his health.
Named one of the Top 25 Most Influential Inside Sales Professionals by
AA-ISP, Leese is the Founder of Scott Leese Consulting, LLC and serves as
the Senior Vice President of Sales at Qualia Labs, Inc. He has built and
advised successful sales teams across the globe, including Austin, San
Diego, Portland, and Berlin, Germany, Phoenix, New York City, and Los
Angeles, and all over the San Francisco Bay Area.
An avid traveler and rabid sports fan, Leese tries to live life like every
day is game day. He enjoys coaching, surfing, and savoring the finest
tequila. Leese lives in Austin, Texas, with his wife, Janet; their two boys,
Brayden and Caleb; and the family dog, Loki.
Ready to take your sales game to the next level? Scott Leese Consulting has
the tools to help you burn through your obstacles and nail the success
you’ve been hungry for. Scott offers:

Top-to-bottom value analysis that reveals why people buy

A proven sales process that works for any product or service
Career development to help you hit your real goals
Training that lights a fire under you and your sales team
KPI tracking that drives your success with measurable progress
Sales tools to sharpen your competitive advantage
Compensation plans that attract and keep great talent

For more information, visit www.scottleeseconsulting.com.

You can connect with Scott on

Twitter: twitter.com/sleese555
LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/scottleese