Welcome to another episode of Connect and Convert.

Insider tips for small business owners who are looking to accelerate their sales.

Hi, I'm Dennis Collins.

Hey, my connect and Convert partner.

Say hello,

Hello, hello.

Leah Bumphry from sunny Saskatoon at your service.

Saskatoon, always at your service.

Thanks for joining again today.

Absolutely.

Today, Leah, we're gonna talk about something that doesn't even sound

like it might be a sales conversation.

Why is it that BFFs don't close deals?

Now, for those of you who may Leah explain what a BFF is, some

people may not know honestly.

That is best, best friend forever.

That is people that you have friend tight, tight relationship with, and you

don't have to be texting to know BFF.

That's been around long time,

long time, but I wanna make sure everybody understands.

Okay, so let's start today.

Leah, you are a storyteller.

You love to tell stories.

Would you tell me a brief little story right now?

Just something, whatever you want.

You know, surprised I was speaking last night, Dennis, you and I

were talking about our shared love of, uh, uh, the Canadian Mountains and getting

out there in that fresh air and gorgeous.

And when our three boys were much smaller, no size, 13 feet, then we would go skiing.

And one time we were skiing and we made friends with one of the surfers in the

restaurants and she loved the boys.

Great manners.

They were plowing down all kinds of pastas and food, anything she would recommend.

On our last day, we asked her, okay, we've got a couple of days we're done skiing.

What do you recommend?

And she gave us directions to go to an actual, uh, outdoor rustic, not, you

know, not a, not a, um, a park, but, uh.

Uh, hot springs in the mountains.

So we had to travel up this goat trail.

We got just about to the point where I'm looking down the edge

from the passenger seat thinking, okay, we're not gonna do this.

Anyways, we got up there, there were actual hot springs by the

Raging River people from all over Europe, Canada, the state.

The boys have never forgotten that.

And when you and I were talking about the Kenmore Banff area, I remembered that.

Wow.

What?

Gee, that's, that's great.

But that, listen to this.

Let me tell you something, Banff.

Okay?

I love Banff.

You love Banff?

Yep.

Yep.

Banff Springs Hotel.

Okay.

If you wanna talk about a spa treatment.

I mean, you aren't gonna believe they have three different

pools, cold, warm, and hot.

And you jump in the hot and the cold and go back and forth.

And I mean, it's the most amazing thing.

And I mean, it, it, it's, and you don't have to climb up any

paths or anything, you just, you know, you just kind of just go.

And.

That's a little fancier than what we were seeing

with the water rage in there and a little bit of snow on the side.

Oh yeah.

Well, and, and speak of the snow.

I've never seen so much snow in my life, as I saw in Banff.

I mean, it's piled up by the, uh, foot, oh, you call it centimeters, I think, in

Canada, but we call it feet in the us.

Yes, it's, oh yeah.

It's feet high, feet high.

It's crazy.

I've never seen so much snow.

Have you ever seen anything like that in Banff ever?

It's crazy.

I love it.

Yeah.

It's gorgeous.

You'd almost ski down the, the, the parking lot, the, the road files.

Yep.

Yes, it's great.

Okay, so what, what just happened there?

What, what just happened?

Leah told the story.

What did I do?

You had a story too, kind of connected, kind of not.

Kind of connected, kind of not.

Okay.

But let's say this was a sales situation.

Okay.

Let's say this was a sales situation.

Have you ever thought to yourself or had your salesperson say to you, if you're a

sales manager, I've got this deal, this client loves me, my rapport will pull

me through, and then it didn't close.

Have you ever had that happen?

Leah?

I have.

And it hurts.

That one hurts your heart.

That one hurts the soul, the heart, right?

So what I was trying to do when you were telling me the story was relate to your

story, but top you, Hey, can remember the game we used to play as kids?

Can you top that?

Okay.

A person says something, ba ba, ba ba, ba.

Hey, I can top that.

Oh, I can top that.

So I was trying to top what you said.

I was trying to embellish it beyond what you said, and I, and it continued

into a fairly not long conversation, but certainly not a brief conversation.

Did you hear how that went?

Absolutely.

And what did I try and do?

I tried to bring it back.

I tried to bring That's, that's different.

Yep.

Different.

I tried to bring it back to my story's, but that doesn't happen.

But what happens in a sales conversation, we are taught,

we, it's drilled into our brains.

Rapport.

Rapport.

Rapport.

That's first.

That's foremost.

That's essential.

It it is.

And it is.

It is.

But let me ask you this question.

Can rapport go south?

Can it go wrong?

Can you ever have too much rapport?

Hmm.

Well, we'll discuss that, all of that next, but first, it pays

to listen to our entire episode.

Why?

Because you ask, we answer, you ask, and we answer.

Connect, Convert, and a third C, Communicate.

Send your questions.

From our view will accept questions from our viewers and our listeners.

Stay tuned.

We'll let you know how to get in touch to see when we get to your question.

Does this stuff really work?

We will address that now in every single episode, every week, where we'll give a

real-life example of how this material that we've been talking about worked.

In a real sales situation and maybe the most exciting for me,

Leah, and maybe for you, it's our weekly breakthrough challenge.

Yes, we will challenge you to have your own personal breakthrough.

Talk to us about that one.

Leah, what does that mean?

Well, it's all, I mean, we, we, there are so many videos, there's so

many solid training opportunities that we can listen to everywhere and Dennis,

I think the most important thing you and I agree on is that it's in the action.

It's in the doing.

You actually make it your own and create Yes, uh, success out of it.

So all of this vast knowledge that, that you have, that, that, that,

uh, that you're willing to share, that I, that I've experienced,

that I wanna tell people about.

It means nothing if people aren't doing something with it.

And.

Some of the examples we've had of listeners that have, uh, emailed us and

let us know where it made a difference.

I think it's worth sharing because it's specific, it's, um, sometimes the details

are gonna be different than what we see in our life, but in business specifics matter

and if you miss something, then it, it.

If you miss the specifics of how to and how somebody else is using it,

you're not gonna be moving forward.

So what we're wanting to do with the, with the weekly challenges, what, what

did you do and what did it change?

What did you notice?

Yeah.

What was positive about it?

How did you break it is everybody's opportunity to, to um, to share

their success with other people.

And I think that's part of forming a community and a tribe.

And guess what?

When we get your responses to our Breakthrough Challenge, you'll

become eligible for a free seat at an upcoming Wizard of Ads Academy class.

Yes.

A free seat.

Which leads me to the point, what is Wizard Academy?

Leah, I was just there, uh, Boomer and I were there for a fabulous class

taught by Dave Young, uh, portals and the 12 languages of the mind,

uh, transformational as always.

Uh, I know you're going soon.

Uh, I am.

Tell us about your experiences.

I am so excited.

I've been down there a few times.

I've, I've had, even my, one of my boys has gone a couple of times.

Um, wizard academy.org is where you can check out what the classes are, but it's

all about, talk about transformation.

About taking what we know in our, our, our heart, what we

know in our head, and moving it forward towards business success.

And how do we do that?

Well, that's why we're talking today.

That's why there are classes, everything from uh, creative ways of communicating

to creative ways of listening.

That's what you end up learning.

You got it and you won't be disappointed.

Wizardacademy.org, Wizardacademy.org, take a look at the classes coming

up here in twenty-twenty-four.

I think you will find one you like.

We hope to see you there.

So, as you know, if you've listened to this, uh, podcast, you know

that I listen to many, many hours of recorded sales conversations.

Boy, do I learn from those conversations.

Several come to mind.

There's one I'm thinking of right now, Leah.

I actually thought I was listening in to a frat party or a social conversation.

It was almost like being on a first date.

Boy, that's hard for me to remember, but it reminded me of being on at a party.

You know, customers, they have needs, but I gotta tell you something,

they don't need a new best friend.

Okay.

I call it forced bonding.

Forced bonding.

That's what I heard on that recording.

I am going to make you like me no matter what.

Okay?

Mm-Hmm.

I am going to comment and top every story you tell because I think that's relatable.

I'm relating to you.

Okay?

Yeah.

But what is the customer thinking?

This person is creepy.

Uh, why are you being so friendly?

Overly friendly.

You're a stranger.

What do you want?

Why are you manipulating me?

So the client is thinking, why is this person acting like they're my best friend?

As I said, I, I find it, I don't know.

Do you find it creepy when somebody does that?

Well, it's an overstep, right?

That's not why we're connecting with them.

And it becomes those cringe-worthy.

We've all watched a movie where it's like this.

Yeah.

Like, oh, why would they have the character do that?

Well, when it's in real life and we're part of it, that's even worse.

It makes you cringe.

Yeah, it totally wipes any credibility the person has and you

don't want to do business with them.

'cause remember, this is the reason they're trying to be friends is

because they want you to do business.

It has the opposite effect in us.

The best kind of rapport Leah is called strategy, rapport.

What is that?

You might ask.

Well, I invite you to stay tuned to this podcast.

We will talk, I.

In one of our episodes about why strategy report is so effective.

How do you, how do you do it?

Why does it work?

Okay.

Uh, it's the, the key to doing better in sales is strategy report.

Okay.

So what are some of the takeaways that we can get?

Uh, we are not getting paid to bond.

We are getting paid to actively listen, to understand, and to

solve the client's problems.

Anything else?

Off focus.

It's a basic human need and we, we have to

remember, people want to be heard.

So if we are trying to, to help them, we have to hear them first.

If we over disclose, if we, uh, try to force bond, it

becomes all about the salesperson.

It becomes about us.

The, the sales conversation is supposed to be about the customer.

Not us.

Let the client self-disclose.

By the way, it feels good.

Dopamine is involved.

Okay, so as promised, what is today's breakthrough challenge?

Here's the challenge.

Do not take the bait.

It's human nature to want to go back and forth and contribute and continue.

This conversation I referred to earlier in this podcast lasted probably seven

or eight minutes out of a one hour call.

Wow.

Wow.

Total.

Total off-focus.

Stop yourself.

No long elaborate comments on everything the customer says.

Discipline yourself.

Make a brief comment, refocus, and redirect the conversation to the goal.

What is the goal?

Listening, active Listening, listening to understand and responding to the

customer's needs and let us know.

How it's going.

That's our challenge for this week.

Now, Leah, reach into your question file.

It's time for you ask, we answer what's today's question?

This one we've had a few times Dennis, and I think it's

fantastic because it encompasses maybe not some of the more specific

things that we've talked about, but the general idea of us doing this.

Where did we come up with the name Connect and Convert one listener actually tested

in and said, it sounds like you guys are getting a little religious here.

Like converting to what?

Right.

The other one, you know, is this an engineering thing?

What are we connecting to?

So Connecting Convert.

What do we

mean by that?

By that?

Wow, that's a great question.

Connect and Convert.

Well, we looked at what the mission of this podcast was and said, you know.

How do we convert more leads to customers?

How do we convert more leads?

And the answer is connection.

Connect leads to conversion.

Okay?

So that's how we came up with that.

We will strive in this EP and and this episode on others.

To talk about how to make a connection.

Today's lesson was don't overconnect, don't overdo it.

tmi.

Okay?

Yep.

You don't have to be BFF.

You need to make a connection.

You need to solve, listen, solve a problem and move on.

So that's, that's how we came up with it.

Good question.

Yeah.

I think that, that, that, uh, I mean, when, when you and I were, were

first, when you first told me about what you were doing, it was something

that I wondered and, uh, I think.

Based on the number of people that have asked us.

That's exactly right.

'cause this is about helping people make sales because people in

sales love what they're doing, but we're doing it to make a living.

So how do you do it in the best way possible to take care of you.

That's right.

And the connections you make, not necessarily your best friends.

And the connection leads to the conversion.

That's the whole concept, right?

A strong, solid connection leads to conversion.

So.

That's that.

Thanks for the question.

Okay.

To close out one of the other promises we made at the front, does this stuff work?

Okay.

Let me give you an example.

One of my coaching clients a year ago, very poor closing rates under

30%, which is not acceptable.

Not acceptable, okay.

What did I hear on the recordings I heard?

Over responding to every little comment a client made

if they talked about their dog.

He had to talk about his dogs.

If they talked about their, uh, vacation, he had to top that

by talking about his vacation.

It was, again, it was like being at a party, you know?

Oh, we're trying to have a party conversation.

Okay.

Yeah.

Uh, one of the reasons for his poor closing rate is because of

exactly what you said earlier.

You lose trust, you lose focus.

And all of a sudden the said is this person here to entertain

themselves or to help me?

Okay.

And he was there.

It was, he thought it was hilarious.

He was entertaining himself.

So we made a few changes.

We, we showed him connection leads to conversion.

We showed him that forced bonding leads to no sale.

Okay.

A year later, he now leads his sales team.

He's over 60%, I think he's sixty-five percent closing ratio.

He now understands how to build rapport without being creepy.

He leads his team

a little tweak, little tweak.

Fantastic.

Oh, that's, that's fantastic, Dennis.

Focus on the customer.

Don't focus on yourself and your need to, uh, top everything they say.

Listen to their needs, respond, solve their problems.

Until the next time, this is Dennis Collins and Leah.

Bumphrey.

We say farewell.

Have a great sales day.

We'll talk to you next week.

Connect and Convert.