A Best Seller Part 2

Transcription

1 A Best Seller Part 2 This Autobiography contains The Lively Life Lived and the Life Lessons Learned by Stan Billue THE Sales Training Legend Welcome to Part Two of A Best Seller. This Book contains the Mind Set needed and the Skill Level required to become a Mega-Buck Income Producing Pro. I wish you a Fanta$tic Future Stan Billue

2 List of Chapters and Lessons Learned [25] How I built a Tennis Court where it couldn t be built Almost everyone has a price. The stronger someone acts usually means they are hiding a weakness. Think through every detail and what could possibly go wrong and be prepared. There s no such thing as It Can t Be Done. [26] Opening a Night Club Before agreeing to do the work, make sure you know the terms. Don t Negotiate from a position of weakness. [27] Becoming the Yogurt King Before signing a Contract prepared by a Partner who is an Attorney, have another Attorney review it. It might be better to get paid well instead of hoping for promises to come true. Location, Location, Location. [28] My Turning Point If others believe you are Worth more than you believe you are Worth, you are suffering from low Self-Esteem. Be willing to invest some time to learn to become a Master of your Craft and become an Unconscious Competent. You have to be willing to do something Extra if you want Extra out of Life. [29] Learning to do Twice as Much in Half the Time Create Urgency to get things done quicker than anyone else. Assign everything an A, B or C Priority. Delegate to others, assign a Deadline and make them responsible to report back instead of chasing them. Have a Project Board. A great Assistant can help you accomplish twice as much. How to have a Great Management Meeting. Learn by asking Questions. [30] Starting my first Master Mind Group Form a Master Mind Group even if it s only 2 people. [31] Moving to Florida Sometime you can make more Money going out of Business instead of staying in Business. Always look for Loop Holes because there probably is one. Contact potential Prospects using a Back Door Approach. The best way to get an Owner on the Phone is to be referred by another Owner. Do your research and know your potential Clients. You can get access to almost anyone. Take responsibility for the quality of what you give people but don t try to take responsibility for what people do with it. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/2013 2

3 [32] Meeting Dr. Robert Schuller and Zig Ziglar You can get access to almost anyone. Take responsibility for the quality of what you give people but don t try to take responsibility for what people do with it. [33] My Biggest Real Estate Lease Build in a series of Minor Points that you allow your Opponent to Win at in order for you to Win the Major Point. [34] My Biggest Real Estate Sale Appeal to the other person s Ego when possible. Silence can be Golden. Be prepared for their main Objections. [35] A Year with the Masters The value of establishing Criteria for a Sale. The value of using a totally Assumptive Sale. [36] Being in the Trenches Brain Pick a Pro each day for a free Sales Training Session. When you re Great you can get a Job even if they aren t Hiring. Have a Script Book so you can concentrate on Listening rather than thinking about what to say. Practice Drill and Rehearse and become a Performer. [37] Learning to be A Best Seller Record your Sales Calls to improve at Stealth Speed. When you blow a Sale call them back and do it better. Become a Master at getting Referrals and finding Centers of Influence. Become an Expert at Niche Marketing. You must always Earn the Right to make a Presentation. [38] Making a $265,000 Sale on a Cold Call Curiosity always overpowers Programming. Use Continuation Phrases to keep them talking. You have to earn the right to make a Presentation by listening. They need to Dump their Garbage before they are receptive to anything new. Use Take-a-ways when necessary. [39] Becoming a Sales Trainer I positioned myself so Companies came after me instead of begging for Dates. I asked questions to find out what my Clients wanted and then delivered it. I set myself up for repeat Engagements. I made as much if not more than my Fee by selling Product at my Speaking Dates. I asked for Referrals and often had them call the Referral for me. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/2013 3

4 [40] How I got Booked up to 22 Dates a Month You can make multiple Sales with the same effort it takes to make one Sale. Don t ever Negotiate for something that you aren t prepared to walk away from. Whenever possible duplicate yourself and your efforts. Ask for Leads on every Call to try and make every contact profitable. Why pay for Advertising when you can get Promoted for Free. Be willing to share the Glory and Promote others. Learn to parlay small successes into larger ones. Give something back and it will come back to you at least 10 fold. [41] Using OPM to produce my Video Series Use O.P.M. whenever possible. Take a great Product and make it Better by Plusing It. [42] Re-Inventing Myself as a Motivational Speaker Instead of telling them how much you want, let them make you an offer and you might be pleasantly surprised. Don t always accept their first offer without doing some additional Probing. Always look for ways to get additional Exposure. [43] Spending $100k on Birds that don t Fly Shoot the Bullets but don t try to Catch them. Even with exhaustive research you can still screw up. Giving your Client a Gift can pay huge dividends. [44] Back with my Mentor to run his Travel Agency When you want to know what needs to be fixed, ask your Employees. Find where your Profit really is and concentrate your energy in that area. Decide who runs your Company, You or the Employees. Learn to Cross Sell for additional Profit. Have a Few Team Leaders who are Selling Managers to be your Eyes and Ears. A great Settlement should be a Win-Win Situation. [45] Re-Inventing Myself as a Consultant Continually find out what someone needs and give it to them. Help people set Goals which gives them a Purpose to become their Best. Use the Banker Question for amazing results. When possible always negotiate an override on increased Business. Being Organized allows you to accomplish amazing things in record time. Be prepared to walk away rather than compromise your beliefs and values. Provide great Training for New people as well as Refresher Training for the Old Pros. Almost every Negative can be turned into a Positive. You need to be willing to put some Money back in your Business when needed. Continually negotiate lower Rates with your existing Suppliers and have their Competition bid for your Business. [46] Becoming a Copy Writer School is never out for the Pro People will always pay you for your Knowledge A Best Seller Revised 7/12/2013 4

5 [47] Becoming an Internet Expert The more you know the more you don t know. Have a To-Do List of Internet Grunt Work that needs to be done Weekly Constantly Update and Improve your Web Site A Best Seller Revised 7/12/2013 5

6 [25] How I built a Tennis Court where it couldn t be built For the record, I consider this to be one of my greatest accomplishments. Jerry had a Summer Home on Mackinaw Island in Michigan. If you ve never been there it s like going back in time. No Cars are allowed and it s all Bikes or Horses and Carriages. Because of the Seasons it s only open for Tourists for about 3 months from Memorial Day weekend to Labor Day weekend. You park your Car in Mackinaw and take a Ferry across to the Island. His House was actually a 9 Bedroom Mansion built on a magnificent high part of the Island called Lover s Leap. Part of my job would be to go up a week before the Season opened and get everything ready including finding 1,000 Red Carnation Plants and having them planted around the grounds. (He loved Red.) Imagine the House being high above and overlooking the Lake below. Then the property went down several hundred feet at a 45 degree angle, leveled off a couple of hundred feet and then continued down a couple of hundred feet at another 45 degree angle until you come to a two lane roadway which ran around the Lake. Jerry s Island Mansion One Summer weekend we were up there and he was looking down the hill towards the Lake. He told me to grab a Tape Measure and a note pad and follow him down the hill. When we got to the part that leveled off, we started measuring the area. When we were done we climbed back up the hill and as we were sitting by the Pool he announced to everyone that he was going to build a Tennis Court down there. One guess as to who was going to be in charge of building the Tennis Court. I stayed over on the Island the following Monday and went to City Hall to see what I would need. I quickly discovered that no one on the Island liked Jerry because they thought he was stuck up, rich and threw his money around. Actually, they were just about dead on. They told me that I needed a City Building Permit but they wouldn t grant that until I got permission from the Forestry Department to use their Roadway. For one week before the Tourists Season A Best Seller Revised 7/12/2013 6

7 opens and for one week after, the State does allow Trucks to come onto the Island for some Construction however the Road is technically part of a National Forest. When I went to the Forestry Department they said they wouldn t do anything until I had received an Environmental Impact Study from the State since I was doing Construction within several hundred feet of the Lake. Once I finally got the Study from the State the Forestry Department still wouldn t give me a permit to use their Road. It turns out that someone from the City Council was also part of the forestry Department and was pissed at Jerry. I was told that Jerry had built a Pool on his property a few years early without pulling a Permit and they were still mad about that. I asked Jerry how he had done it with out a Permit and he explained there was a loophole he found that said if you build something without a permit that basically all they can do is Fine you but they can t make you remove it or tear it down. With that ammunition, I got another meeting with the Council and showed them a drawing of the Tennis Court we were going to build with or without their Permit. When they admitted that technically I could build it IF I could get the Equipment there but there was no way I could do that without a Permit from the State to use their Roadway. I had brought a huge 4 by 5 Picture with me of one of those Giant Industrial Helicopters that can carry a Truck (similar to a CH-47D Chinook) and a recording of something that was obnoxiously loud. I showed them the Picture, played the Recording as loud as I could and explained that if we had to Jerry was prepared to fly the Equipment onto his Property to get the Court built. I of course explained that I would rather work with them and if they would call a short recess I would appreciate the opportunity to meet with each of them individually for a few quick minutes. I had already discovered from the local Bar Owner that most of them were Drunks because they lived on the Island year round and hung out at the only Bar that stayed open all year. I met with most of them very quickly and explained that their Bar Tab was going to be paid in full for the upcoming 9 month period and for the two that didn t live on the Island; I made a contribution to their Retirement Fund. Needless to say I walked out of the Meeting with my Building Permits. Now came the fun part which was learning how to build a Tennis Court and how in the world I was going to do it on the side of a Hill. I about died when I found the closest Asphalt Plant was 90 miles way. I would have to pay extra for them to fire up their Plant at 2 AM to make the Asphalt and then truck it to Mackinaw in Dump Trucks with Heated Tarps. Then we would have to Ferry the Trucks full of Asphalt over to the Island. There was only one Ferry Company and although he agreed to do the Job he stated that if the Weather was bad on the day we needed him that he wouldn t do the run, which meant that I would then have several Trucks full of Hot Asphalt with no way to get them to the Island. Of course a little extra money got me the assurance that the Weather would be just fine the days we needed to use his Ferry. The next challenge was that the Trucks full of Asphalt couldn t navigate up the 45 degree incline so I had to have a Bull Dozer at the top of the Hill with a winch. We chained the Dozer to a large Tree and winched each Dump Truck full of Asphalt up the Hill. The next challenge was the Spreader. You attached a Dump Truck to a Spreader which then lays down the Asphalt. The area was too tight to turn the Spreader around so I had to have a Crane that would pick up the Spreader after it made each run and bring it back to the start point. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/2013 7

8 In going through my Checklist I discovered that the Roller that had been recommended was too heavy to be pulled up the 45 degree incline by the Dozer. After a solid day on the Phone I was able to locate a smaller one that would still do the job a few hours away. I also needed to get the locals on our side so I purposely used as many of them that wanted to work to help clear the land and get it as ready as needed and paid them very well with lots of Food and Booze for them throughout each day. It took almost a week to clear the land and get it ready and then the entire Court was built in 2 magical days. Everything came together like clock work because I had planned everything in so much detail. By the way at that time a Tennis Court would have cost about $14,000 to build it anywhere else in the Country. This one cost a little over $70,000 and Jerry was a Happy Camper. I still have the Color Aerial Shot of the Tennis Court framed on my Wall with a Note that says; If you can do This... You can do Anything!. A Tennis Court where it couldn t be built LESSONS LEARNED: Almost everyone has a price. The stronger someone acts usually means they are hiding a weakness. Think through every detail and what could possibly go wrong and be prepared. There s no such thing as It Can t Be Done. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/2013 8

9 [26] Opening a Night Club As I mentioned earlier, I worked for my soon to be Mentor several times over a few years and the only way you could get a raise is to quit and have him hire you back. One of the times I quit I was approached by two Guys who had been impressed with some of the incredible things I had done for Jerry. They also knew Jerry s reputation of being tight with money and even tighter on showing any appreciation. I have to admit they had my number. They offered me a brand new Buick Riviera to drive and almost twice as much as I had been making at Ross. They also knew I had been in the Entertainment Industry, knew a lot about Night Clubs and I could promote with the best. They had seen where Discos were becoming immensely popular on both Coasts and wanted to start one in Flint. Unfortunately the Midwest is usually 1 to 2 years behind anything that catches fire on the East or West Coast, however they were determined to open a Disco. Since I knew about Bands I begged them to allow me to have Live Entertainment however they insisted on going the Disco route. They did find a great Night Club that had just gone out of Business, secured the Liquor License and we started to plan our opening. Although they had been very generous with my Car and Salary, they were just the opposite about spending money on the Club. Every single time I wanted to do spend a dollar, I had to be prepared to justify it and then prepare a cost breakdown and then have a Meeting to discuss everything. Although they usually agreed that they liked my ideas the great majority of the time they always sliced and diced my budget. I tore out the Stage where the Bands used to play and put in a Light Show around the Dance Floor and a Sound System, although they only allowed me to spend about 20% of what we should have spent. Since they wouldn t even budget for a live DJ, I choose the best Music possible and actually had everything on Tape in several different sequences of Fast and Slow Music so I could adjust the tempo according to the Crowd. I added some Lights around the Room that I could adjust the brightness and colors to create a different mood or atmosphere throughout the evenings. I put up giant Projection Screens in 4 different places that showed a never ending series of Action Movie Trailers. In addition I had a Photographer come in several evenings each week and take a bunch of pictures of everyone and then we converted those into Slides and showed them on the Giant Screens. I hired Waitresses with great personalities and trained them all to Up-Sell. When they came around to the Tables for reorders they always asked; Would you like another Round or would you like to try our Special of the Day? I also had a couple of great Bartenders and we always created a different Drink Special each day and many of them came with a Souvenir Glass. I also put in an old fashioned Popcorn Machine (looked like a Push Cart) and we always made sure the Bowls at each Table stayed full of fresh and hot Popcorn. Needless to say the more salty Popcorn they ate the more they drank. Within a few weeks after opening the Club, it became painfully evident that just as I had predicted, the people in Flint Michigan weren t ready for a Disco. We had a lot of people come in once or twice however there wasn t really anything to keep them coming back. I put my Marketing Cap on and came up with a whole series of Promotions. I actually was able to schedule something for every night of the week and I had Posters and Flyers done up that promoted what was coming the next week. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/2013 9

10 Here s an example from one week at the Tender Trap Night Club: Monday night I had a Caricature Artist come in and do free Drawings for everyone. He normally got $10 to $15 each at the Mall, the quality was great and the people loved it. On Tuesday evening I had someone rent a Spiderman Outfit and we took Polaroid Pictures of everyone standing next to and getting an Autograph from Spidy. Thankfully Marvel Comics never found out we were advertising Spiderman, Live and In Person. For Wednesday night I had found a Guy who had a 5 foot tall Black Bear that actually sat at the Bar and drank booze out of a Shaker. Everyone got to get their Picture taken with the Bear which was a lot of fun. Of course after a couple of hours he kept falling off of the Bar Stool so we had to strap him in. We had many Drinking Contests and the damn thing drank everyone under the table. Unfortunately at the end of the evening it took 5 of us to carry the Bear to the Parking Lot and load him into the Van. By the way, his Trainer could drink almost as much as the Bear. On Thursday night I had the Host of the Friday Night Spook Show on TV come in to meet and greet people. He had 8x10 Photos that he autographed and actually put on a little Trivia show which went over great. The same Guy who had the Bear also had a pet Lion and we brought him in on Friday night so everyone could get their Picture taken with Leo. Me with Leo the Lion We started drawing a nice crowd almost every night of the week however I was going nuts continually coming up with crazy promotional ideas for little or no money. About that time the Owners decided I should start opening earlier to serve Lunch. That now meant I had to be there at 10 AM to get everything started and usually wouldn t get out of the Club until 3 or 4 AM the next Morning. I kept this schedule for a couple of months and finally burned out, thanked them for the opportunity and gave back the Riviera. LESSONS LEARNED: Before agreeing to do the work, make sure you know the terms. Don t Negotiate from a position of weakness. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

11 [27] Becoming the Yogurt King Another time I left Jerry I was approached by a couple of Attorneys that we had used on a few legal matters. They knew that I could promote almost anything and they wanted to open a Soft-Serve Yogurt Business. The only thing I knew about Yogurt was that I couldn t stand the stuff. They informed me that the Soft-Serve tasted almost like Ice Cream however it didn t have nearly the calories and it was a lot healthier. They also said it was the latest craze on both Coasts. Oh boy, here we go again. Although they only offered a small Salary they did draw up a contract that gave me a large percentage of the ownership of the new Business. They said that once we could get one location profitable, we could open more locations and even start to Franchise out the concept. It all sounded great so I came on board. I went to work and found a local Dairy that was just starting to produce Soft-Serve Yogurt. They actually allowed me to work with their chemists to come up with a bunch of different flavors. By the way, even when a Flavor doesn t taste that good, you can always add some more Vanilla flavoring and improve the taste dramatically. I researched the Machines and found out one of the largest Manufactures was in Adrian Michigan so I got an appointment with the Taylor Company and drove down to meet with them. At the meeting they admitted that none of their Machines were being used for Soft-Serve Yogurt however they had heard it was becoming very popular. They were very impressed with our drawings and projections and once I saw their enthusiasm I changed directions a little, which turned out to be one of my bigger business mistakes. I had seen a small Mall as I was driving into Adrian so rather then trying to Buy or Lease a couple of their Machines, I proposed that we would open our first location in the Mall right there in Adrian and they would put a couple of their best Machine in for Free. This way they could bring prospects over to see first hand how great they worked. Hey, I was supposed to be getting a percentage of the profits so if I could get the location open without the expense of 2 Machines, why not? I negotiated a sweet deal for a location in the Mall. Of course that wasn t really a problem since the Mall was about 30% vacant. Duh... that should have been my first clue. I had an Artist draw our Logo and had a Sign Company that I had done a lot of business with make a couple of great signs at a greatly reduced rate. As you can see in the Photo, I did the build out as cheaply as possible and then hired and trained 4 young ladies and bought them nice Uniforms. As it turned out, the Mall was so dead that even 2 Girls working at the same time was too much. I immediately started having one Girl walk around the Mall and give out Free Samples at least once an hour. We also visited with each Business in the Mall and gave each of their Employees a Discount Card for 20% off. We also started a Taster Club and had some Cards printed up. We always had Vanilla in one Machine and a different Flavor each week in the second Machine. Once someone had bought a Quart to go of 9 different Flavors we gave them a Quart for Free. I dreamed up many different Promotions and even added a few items to the Menu like Strawberry Shortcake. I busted my butt and actually was showing a nice little profit every week starting from Day One. In addition, since I had got the Machines for free and bought the Signs so cheap and had cut corners on the build out, the first month I had several thousand dollars due me for my share of the profits. I was supposed to get an Accounting on the A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

12 10th of each Month for the previous month and then I would get my share of the Profit by the 15th. You know what s coming right? I kept getting stalled with one excuse after another and never did get my percentage of the profits. They had built in several clauses that allowed them to retain the profits for future growth and/or other contingencies that quite frankly are too nuts to even list here. They eventually found a way to remove me as an Officer and shortly thereafter used another clause to terminate our Agreement. I heard later that they had gone into Partnership with Taylor and the Dairy and opened up many more locations but I was long gone by then and nothing to show for it. LESSONS LEARNED: Before signing a Contract prepared by a Partner who is an Attorney, have another Attorney review it. It might be better to get paid well instead of hoping for promises to come true. Location, Location, Location. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

13 [28] My Turning Point Shortly after I left Jerry the second or third time he called and invited my Wife at the time and I up to Mackinaw Island for the weekend. As much as I love spending time on the Island, I knew the only reason he wanted us to come up is so he could sell me on coming back to work for him. My Wife really wanted to go up for the weekend however I didn t feel comfortable taking advantage of his generosity knowing that there was no possible way I would ever work for him again. He had never given me a Bonus for any of the amazing things I did for him or for all of the Money I either made him or saved him. I decided to come up with a figure that would be so much more than he had ever paid me. Then I would write that number down and have it in my pocket so when he tried to pitch me on coming back to work, I could show him what I wanted and of course he wouldn t pay it. Based on this plan, we accepted his invitation and drove up to the Island. We had a relaxing weekend shopping, sightseeing and even playing Tennis with the Governor. On Sunday afternoon Jerry and I were sitting around the Pool and he mentioned that he had been observing me all weekend and liked where my Head was at. He told me he was going to put me on the fast-track to become his General Manager. He briefly covered my areas of responsibility and then told me what he would pay me. I tried to keep my composure because the amount he quoted was way more than the figure I had written down and had in my pocket which was way more than he had ever paid me in the past. Needless to say I told him I would be back to work the next morning. On Monday morning I arrived for work and immediately told Jerry that we needed to talk. I told him I didn t sleep much because something was bothering me. He said that he knew what was wrong and when I looked puzzled he said that I was troubled because he was paying me more than I was going to ask for. When I inquired how he could possibly know that, he explained that one of my two major challenges was that I was suffering from low Self-Esteem. I agreed and told him that most people I did Business with had graduated from at least High School and many had gone on to College. Jerry said that the only thing those people had that I didn t have was a Degree and that Thermometers had Degrees and you know where some people stick them. He told me that he could improve my Self-Esteem and show me how to become an Unconscious Competent. I wasn t quite sure what that meant but it sounded good. He had mentioned that low Self-Esteem was one of my two challenges so I asked what the other one was. He proceeded to get my attention by saying he had never seen such a waste of Talent. He agreed that I was creative and came up with a lot of good ideas however I had never enjoyed any consistent Success in my Life because I had low Self- Worth and a lack of knowledge. He said that if I never remembered anything else he would ever teach me, to always remember 3 words; Knowledge Is Power. He continued by saying that the University of California had done a study that if any person invests one hour day studying any one Subject, that within 3 years they would have the equivalent of a College Degree in that one Subject and within 5 years, they would be a World Expert. I of course asked what everyone always wants to know, which was; what s in it for me. Jerry said; Stan in 5 years you can write Articles and Books and produce Audio and Video Recordings and Companies will pay you enormous amounts of money for your knowledge in that one area. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

14 At certain times in everyone s Life they are ready, willing and able to accept Change. Other times we either ignore it or fight it or don t even recognize it. I stopped and thought to myself that here I was 34 years of age, a High School drop out, Divorced twice and had been Bankrupt. I had lived on Macaroni and Cheese for 3 straight months and was driving a 15 year old VW that I had to park on a hill in order to get it started. Thank God I woke up and admitted that whatever Game Plan I had been on for 34 years wasn t working real good. At that point I totally accepted the fact that I needed whatever this Man was willing to teach me. I told him I would do whatever it took to become Successful and that I wanted to improve my Self-Esteem and my Self-Worth by becoming a Master of my Craft, even though I had no idea what my Craft really was going to be. I asked him what I should become a Master at and he said I needed to pick one of the highest paid Professions in the World. The first thing I thought of was something like Brain Surgery however he shocked me again by telling me that I was going to become an Expert at Selling. I explained that I really didn t like Rejection and he simply said that if I learned everything I could about Selling over the next 5 years, than I could spend the rest of my Life teaching others about Rejection. I told him that it all sounded good and that I did want to be Successful and I was tired of being Broke. Jerry said that he appreciated what I was saying however almost everyone will say they want more out of Life however most people aren t really willing to do anything extra in order to achieve anything extra. He pulled a Record Album out of his Desk and handed it to me. Remember that this was 1977 and all we had back then was 8-Track Tapes and Records. The Record was by J.D. Edwards who at that time was called the Dean of American Sales Trainers. It was titled 13 ways to Close a Sale. He told me to go Home and learn all 13 Closes and come back the next morning and if I could spit them out as fast as I could talk, I would prove to him that I was ready to make some drastic changes in my Life. I don t believe a slept a wink that night as I listened and re-listened and then practiced, drilled and rehearsed those 13 Closes. By the next morning when I walked in I knew them as well as my own Name. I spit them out and Jerry told me that he had given an Album to every 1 of his 25 Salespeople (plus over 100 additional Salespeople through the years) and no one had ever learned them, until now. He said that I had proved to him that I was ready to be the Student and he was ready to be my Mentor. I told him I was curious as to why he had never offered to be my Mentor in the past and he responded that I hadn t been ready until now. What happened next literally blew my mind. He picked up the phone and called a Clothing Store in California that he bought a lot of his Clothes from and asked me what size Shirt, Suit and Shoes I wore. He ordered me 3 Suits, 3 extra corresponding colored Slacks, 6 Dress Shirts, 6 Ties and 3 pairs of Shoes. He told the Store to overnight them and told me that I would need to look the part since I was now his new Sales Manager. If that wasn t enough, he said to follow him. We went down to the Garage where he kept a couple of his Cars and he showed me a new Stutz Blackhawk he had just bought. Sitting next to it was his 6 month old Lincoln Continental. It was Black with a White Leather Top and White Leather interior. He asked me if I liked it and of course I said it was awesome. He told me to get in and we drove to a local Credit Union where he did a lot of Business. We went in and he told the Loan Manager that he was selling his Car to A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

15 me and that he would co-signing since I had lousy Credit. Ten minutes later I walked out the proud owner of a six month old Lincoln Continental. Then he told me to call my Wife and tell her to meet us back at the Store. When we got there we showed her my new Car and she was blown away. What happened next blew her mind and mine. He told her that I was his new Sales Manager and that I would be working several evenings a week and every weekend. He also mentioned that he had me on the fast track to become his General Manager and that I would be working even harder at that point. He added that to be successful, I would need her support and understanding. He then told her since I had a new Wardrobe and Car that she should also enjoy the fruits of my labors so he instructed her to go out and find a 3 Bedroom Home with a Pool. He said to find one that was available immediately and being sold by the Owner with Owner financing. By that weekend we had found a great 3 Bedroom Home with a screened in Pool, Jerry signed the Mortgage Guarantee and we moved in. I was pinching myself all weekend. Of course there was a method to his madness because all of this meant that he now basically owned me. In other words I couldn t tell him where to shove it and quit like I had done two or three times in the past or I would lose the Car and House. Needless to say there were some hurt and jealous feelings among some of the Salespeople and even other Employees when it was announced that I was now the new Sales Manager. They remembered 2 years ago when I was Jerry s Gopher for $150 a week and now I was making 6 figures a year and their new Boss. LESSONS LEARNED: If others believe you are Worth more than you believe you are Worth, you are suffering from low Self-Esteem. Be willing to invest some time to learn to become a Master of your Craft and become an Unconscious Competent. You have to be willing to do something Extra if you want Extra out of Life. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

16 [29] Learning to do Twice as Much in Half the Time I very quickly learned that I would be working an enormous number of hours and that I had to learn to work Smarter and not Harder. Almost everything that Jerry was involved in always had a high degree or sense of Urgency to it. It certainly wasn t because we were behind on anything. In fact just the opposite was true. We normally got everything done way ahead of schedule and below budget because we always created a sense of urgency with our Suppliers, the Media, the Contractors and anyone else we did Business with.. Another invaluable Lesson he taught me was to have a Day Timer. To this day I always have a Legal Pad and write the Day and Date on each Page which means I can easily keep track of almost 2 months of the future on one Pad. Then he showed me how to assign A, B and C Priorities to everything I had on my plate. A Priorities was stuff that needed to be done immediately. B Priorities was stuff that if I had time I would work on and within a few days they would move to my A List. The C Priorities were stuff that needed to be done but not for a few weeks. Of course some of the B s became A s and some of the C s would eventually become B s, etc. Sometimes I had to do a little work on a B or C to keep it moving in the right direction however the great majority of the time I started with my A Priorities each day and would not do anything else until those were either done or I had done as much as I could accomplish that day. This Lesson was invaluable and prevented me from confusing Activity with Accomplishment, which had always been a challenge for my entire Life. Since I had always been good at delegating to others and then Supervising, I thought I had a good handle on this until he showed me how to improve on it. When I delegated anything he had me assign a Deadline for that person to report back to me on their progress. This way I didn t have to chase after people or worry about when they would eventually get around to doing whatever they were supposed to be doing. The next Lesson was to have a Project Board in my Office with everything we were working on. Project Due Dates, Delivery Dates, Advertising Deadlines, Real Estate Closings, etc. One day Jerry walked by my Project Board, looked at it and said to me it was time for me to hire an Assistant. When I ran a Recruiting Ad and started interviewing I found many Ladies who were highly qualified, however I wanted someone special. I wanted a person with a personality, someone young and hungry, someone that I could teach as fast as I was being taught and someone with fairly tough skin. I found a young lady who was like a sponge. The more I gave her, the more she wanted. She had a thirst for knowledge and became one of the best Right Hands anyone could ever hope for. Interestingly enough I gave her a few Tests just as Jerry had done to me and when she showed me she could indeed Walk The Talk I bought her a few Outfits so she would look like an Executive Assistant. Jerry just about crapped his pants when I turned in the Expense Report however I explained that I had used his Formula for hiring Her, including putting her through a Test and then rewarding her as he had done with me. I closed by telling him I was doing as I was taught and that if he had changed his Formula all he had to do was let me know and I would adapt. He almost smiled as he said; Smart Ass under his breath. At least once a week I would meet with every Department Head to discuss their progress on certain Projects and to assign new ones. I also found out that I needed to keep Jerry out of these Meetings. He had absolutely zero patience and would normally A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

17 want to fire everyone in the room half way through the Meetings. I did a little research into planning a productive Meeting and came up with a great Formula. We opened with a Positive Thought or Phrase and then everyone would offer their input as to why that Thought or Phrase was important and how they could apply it in their Department. Then each Manager had a set period of time to give a Progress Report on their Department along with a Challenge they were having and some Successes they were enjoying. I have to admit that they all knew way more about the Furniture Business than I did so I simply asked a lot of Questions. Jerry had warned me that a few of them were like Puppy Dogs that always needed attention and always wanted to know how to do something. From then on whenever anyone asked me how they should do something I would always ask them how they thought it should be handled. Then I would either agree and compliment them on their solution or tell them their idea was good and then offer a way to make it even more effective. When I really wasn t sure I would tell them I would get back to them by the end of the day and go ask Jerry what to do. Guess what? He would always ask me how I thought it should be handled. Then he would either agree and compliment me on my solution or tell me my idea was good and then offer a way to make it even more effective. Sound familiar? I also had my Assistant keep Notes through each Meeting and everyone got a written Summary within an hour. Of course Jerry got his Copy which kept him up to speed on everything. As a side note my Assistant was extremely attractive and we had a heart to heart talk right after I hired her that no matter what, we would never get interested in each other for anything other than Business, even though I love Female companionship. Don t ever Sleep where you Work. LESSONS LEARNED: Create Urgency to get things done quicker than anyone else. Assign everything an A, B or C Priority. Delegate to others, assign a Deadline and make them responsible to report back instead of chasing them. Have a Project Board. A great Assistant can help you accomplish twice as much. How to have a Great Management Meeting Learn by asking Questions A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

18 [30] Starting my first Master Mind Group Jerry had me listening to Motivation Recordings everyday and one that I was listening to was Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill. In it he mentions the importance of forming a Master Mind Group. About that same I was looking for a Chiropractor and found one in the Yellow Pages with a Name I couldn t even pronounce, Dr. Micheal Hanczaryk. I made an Appointment and as it turned out he was fresh out of Chiropractic School and was the Doctor, the Receptionist, the X-Ray Technician and even the Janitor. He examined me and said he would need to do some X-Rays before he could adjust me. I felt like he was trying to sell me something that I really didn t need just to make the Bill higher. He explained that he wanted to verify what he thought I needed as well as check for anything else that I might need that he didn t find with his Hands. I was upset and left to go look for another Bone Cracker. I had only driven a few Blocks and started thinking that he appeared very sincere and honest, probably really did have my best interest at Heart and although he really needed the money, he stuck to his principles. I turned around and went back and explained why I had reconsidered. As it turned out we became great friends. We started playing Racket Ball together and once a week we would meet for Breakfast to compare the Recordings from Motivational Speakers that we were both listening to as well as share our Goals with each other. That was the start of my first of many Master Mind Groups although there were only two of us. As a side note, about 10 years later I had become a Professional Speaker and was booked to speak at a Chiropractic Convention. When I opened the Promotional Flyer for the Convention there was my Picture and Bio and right next to me, was my friend Mike s Picture and Bio. We called each other on the Phone and laughed about how 10 years ago we were both struggling and listening to the very same Speakers that we were now going to share the Stage with at a National Convention. I m excited to share that I still have or belong to several Master Mind Groups and I urge you to do the same. It s been said that our Income is the average of the 5 people we associate with the most. Consider that and you might want to add to your circle of friends and associates. LESSONS LEARNED: Form a Master Mind Group. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

19 [31] Moving to Florida I worked for Jerry for another year or so and continued to run his 2 Furniture Warehouse and Showrooms in Flint plus I was responsible for maintaining and Leasing about 600,000 square feet of Retail, Commercial and Warehouse space. He had decided to retire and moved to Miami Beach and I would send him a detailed report each day of what was going on along with all of the numbers he needed. We only spoke about once a week on the phone and I was becoming bored. You see, my Teacher had left the University that I had enrolled at in order to learn. Everything was running like a well oiled machine however it was time for me to move on. I helped train my replacement and this time we parted friends. As it turned out, Jerry was also bored in Miami and had opened 2 Furniture Stores down there. After a few months he was calling me everyday and begging me to move to Florida. The situation was critical because he was being eaten alive by the competition, especially since a couple of the other Furniture Stores were also Warehouse Showrooms like his. In addition, in Flint we owned the Radio and TV market and in Miami he was a very small Fish in the very large Ocean. He paid me very well to come to Miami and take over the 2 Stores with the understanding that within 90 days I would make the decision to either open 4 to 6 more Stores so he could justify buying more Advertising, or get a City License and run a GOB (Going Out Of Business) Sale at our 2 Stores. It only took a week to explore all of our options, research the Market and study the demographics of the Buying Public. In addition I shopped and compared prices at our Competition and met with all of the Radio and TV Stations to try and make some volume purchases. The decision was crystal clear, which was to go out of Business. The License you get from the City to have a GOB Sale is supposed to be good for only 30 days. The first loop hole I found was that I could pull a License for only 1 Store but advertise our GOB Prices were available at both Stores. In addition, the City basically freezes your Inventory when you get your License and once it s gone the Sale is over, even if that happens prior to the 30 days. When I asked the City Officials when they would come out to inspect our Inventory they explained they were really short handed and that they would accept a written Inventory from us. Needless to say they received a List of Furniture that was at least twice as much as we had in the Store. I immediately called all of our Suppliers and ordered a ton of additional Furniture. The only stipulation was they had to deliver it between 2 and 4 AM in the mornings. I figured that if the City was too short handed to send someone out to do the original Inventory, how would they have enough manpower to watch us in the middle of the night. I went back to doing the Live Remotes like I had done in the past up in Michigan and we were making a killing. I found another loop hole which gave us a 30 day extension at the first Store and then we pulled the License for the second Store. It ended up I was able to run for 2 months at both Stores plus a third month at the second Store for a total of 90 days. Since Jerry owned both Buildings he asked me to stay on with him long enough to get them both Leased out or Sold. Both of these ended up being 2 of my biggest Sales ever. The first building was 120,000 square feet with a lot of Parking. I made a list of the Top 20 Industries that had at least one Business in a Building this big and then put together a List of the 20 largest Businesses in each of those Industries. Then I got on A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

20 the phone and starting using a Back Door Approach. I would get through to the Owner and explain I was calling him direct because I worked with the Owner of a Building and I was NOT a Real Estate Agent. I went on to add that I realized they probably weren t interested in relocating, expanding or opening another location however if they would be kind enough to share a few names with me of other Business Owners I could call, I would sure make it worth their while for their cooperation. Most of the time this Owner would say that either they might have an interest themselves or at least refer me to another Business Owner. You would be amazed how easy it is to get Business Owners on the phone when you are dropping the Names of other Business Owners to the Screeners. While I was staying busy trying to Lease or Sell the two Buildings, Jerry was starting to get dangerous again. He had a gorgeous Mansion right on the Inter-coastal on Pine Tree right across from the Major Hotels. He found a few other grand old Houses for Sale, was flush with Cash from the Going Out of Business Sales and started buying these Mansions as fast as he could write Checks. He also started collecting exotic Cars and only stopped when he had filled up his 6 Car Garage with a Stutz Blackhawk, a Silver Cloud, a Shelby Cobra, a fancy BMW and 2 R.R. Corniche convertibles. By now I knew his M.O. which was when he was trying to buy something it was a piece of crap and if he was selling something it was as close to the Second Coming as you could imagine. I was also now in charge of fixing up these Mansions and getting them sold. I assembled a great crew of a few Guys that could do almost anything and if they didn t know how to do it, they were willing to learn. Of course that s why I had hired them. Jerry was buying these Houses for $600k to $800k each and we were only spending about $150k to rehab each of them. We painted the Driveway with black paint (sound familiar?) and put in some Landscaping and Colored Lights on the Outside and they looked very impressive, particularly at Night, Jerry s first Mansion in Miami Beach A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

21 On the Inside we Painted everything, added a bunch of Mirrors (including on the Ceiling in the Master Bedroom) and fake Marble on the Floors and or Walls and put in some new Lighting fixtures. About the only real remodeling we needed to do was usually the Master Bath. Because I had done some research and found out my main Market would be probably be rich people from South America, I learned that the Women like a luxurious Bathroom and Dressing area. We normally knocked out a Wall and added a Jacuzzi, double Sinks and a large Closet and Dressing area and that was about it. I was completing each House in about 30 days and having a Brochure getting ready to Print as soon as I was able to take some Pictures. We also tried to show these Houses only in the evening just as it was getting dusk. I would usually have a Limo pick up the prospective Buyers and bring them to the House we were selling. Of course they usually couldn t see any imperfections on the Inside and by the time we walked back outside, the Colored Lights were on. The Limo driver would have Champagne ready for the Man and his Wife (or a very young Girlfriend) and the House was usually Sold. I don t believe we ever pulled the first Remodeling Permit although I did have to grease several palms of a few City Officials. We usually flipped these Mansions for 1.2 to 1.5 Million within 90 days after Jerry had bought them. LESSONS LEARNED: Sometime you can make more Money going out of Business instead of staying in Business. Always look for Loop Holes because there probably is one. Contact potential Prospects using a Back Door Approach. The best way to get an Owner on the Phone is to be referred by another Owner. Do your research and know your potential Clients. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

22 [32] Meeting Dr. Robert Schuller and Zig Ziglar About that same time Jerry saw an Ad in the Paper saying that Dr. Robert Schuller was coming to town to speak at a Seminar. Jerry gave me the Ad and said he wanted to have Dr. Schuller as his Guest when he came to town. This almost took an Act of God (please excuse the pun). I must have been on the Phone 30 different times with his Executive Assistant and the person that arranges his Travel and even an Attorney. Although they had said NO many times I also knew he was looking for Donations to build his Dream Church (the Crystal Cathedral) and when I mentioned it to Jerry he said no problem since a donation would be a write off for him. After a few more Calls and the promise of a fairly large check, his people did a background check on Jerry and the visit was arranged. We picked him up at the Airport in a Limo and brought him to Jerry s Mansion. We had a wonderful visit, enjoyed a Brunch, took some Pictures together and then we took him to where he would be giving his Speech. Of course he left with a large check and was happy and Jerry could now brag that he was friends with Dr. Bob Schuller. About a month later Jerry handed me another Ad and this one stated that Zig Ziglar was coming to Miami to give a Speech. Here we go again. Thankfully Zig was not as protected and it only took a few calls to his Secretary to make the arrangements. We picked him up at the Airport in a Limo and brought him to Jerry s Mansion. We had a truly wonderful time and everyone was sharing Selling Stories. Zig couldn t believe some of the things that Jerry and I had done together. As it turned out he was due to fly to Naples on the West Coast of Florida right after he gave his Speech in Miami. He mentioned that unfortunately there wasn t an early Morning Flight from Naples to get him back to Miami. I jumped at the opportunity and offered to drive over to Naples that evening, see him perform and then drive him back to Miami. I drove to Naples and Zig was supposed to give a wrap up Motivational Talk after the Awards Banquet for this Company. Unfortunately this was the last day of their 4 day Convention and most of the people had been playing Golf all afternoon and had been Drinking Booze like there would be no tomorrow. They also had an open Bar before and during Dinner and then Zig got up to Speak. Zig had been one of my Heroes and I couldn t believe what I saw next. Zig had recently found Religion and actually started to Preach to the Audience about the evils of Alcohol. Within minutes they were booing him and a few minutes later a few of them had to come onto the Stage and literally drag him off. That night I learned one of the most important Lessons I would ever learn for my future Speaking Career. Zig said; Always take responsibility for the quality of the content you share but don t try to take responsibility for what people do with it. We had an incredible visit driving for 2 hours across Alligator Alley in the middle of the Night eating cold Fried Chicken while he tried to Convert and Save me. LESSONS LEARNED: You can get access to almost anyone. Take responsibility for the quality of what you give people but don t try to take responsibility for what people do with it. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

23 [33] My Biggest Real Estate Lease We found a Bank that wanted to consolidate several Office locations into one main location and our 120,000 sq ft Building would be perfect for them. I negotiated with several of their Real Estate experts along with several of their In House Attorneys over a few weeks. The final Negotiation Session was held at their main Bank in a giant Conference Room. There was a long Table with me at one end and the 80 year old Matriarch of the Bank at the other end. On one side of the table were 8 of the Banks Real Estate experts and on the other side were 8 of their In House Attorneys. We had purposely built in a long list of demands and requests that we knew they would object to and want thrown out. I did this so the Real Estate experts and Attorneys could strut their stuff and look good in front of the Boss. When we finally got down to the COL (Cost Of Living) clause which I had purposely left for last, I actually got up as if I was getting to leave and said; You probably won t want to give me any Cost of Living either, so I ll be leaving now. Several of them said; No, no, please sit down I m sure we can work something out. At that time Inflation was 8 to 10% a year and I had asked for 12%. I let them beat me all the way down to 5% a year and we signed the Lease for 10 years with a 10 year Option. About a month later I got a phone call from their Lead Attorney who was babbling like a little baby. He basically said that one of the paragraphs in the contract needed to be reworded since it was possible that it could be construed as meaning 5% COL per year COMPOUNDED. I of course explained it was worded that way because that s exactly what it meant. Why else would I have allowed them to beat me out of everything else we had asked for? Ladies and Gentleman, a Bank with 8 Real Estate experts and 8 In- House Attorneys missed that completely. For simplicity sake, imagine their Rent was $100,000 a month for a total of $1,200,000 for the first year. Watch what happens with 5% compounded annually. 2nd Year = $1,260,000 3rd Year = $1,323,000 4th Year = $1,389,150 5th Year = $1,458,607 6th Year = $1,531,537 7th Year = $1,608,114 8th Year = $1,688,520 9th Year = $1,772,946 10th Year = $1,861,593 Long after I quit working for Jerry, he would still call me each year on the anniversary date of the Lease and actually say thank you. LESSONS LEARNED: Build in a series of Minor Points that you allow your Opponent to Win on in order for you to Win on a Major Point. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

24 [34] My Biggest Real Estate Sale Our second Building was 100,000 sq ft and located right on the Palmetto Expressway, which is a major Highway in Miami. I found a Company that was located in a bad part of town so they were experiencing a lot of vandalism. In addition they had been growing like mad and were bursting at the steams with no possibility of room to expand. I drove by their Location and noticed their Company Signs were everywhere. On the Building, on their Cars and Trucks and even painted onto the Parking Lot. Heck they were even flying a Flag with their Logo on it. I surmised that the Owner must have a large ego which I later verified. I also did a little research and found out his favorite color was purple. I had a few short negotiating sessions with his underlings and was getting absolutely nowhere. They kept coming back and saying the Owner thought we were crazy for asking so much plus they didn t need 100,000 sq ft. I asked for 5 minutes with the Owner one-on-one and I promised I wouldn t say even 1 word. I guess he was just curious enough to find out what the heck I would do in 5 minutes without talking, that he granted me the time. I walked in to his Office with a Tripod, a Clock and a Giant Board (4 by 6 ) covered in Purple Velvet. I set up the Tripod and placed the large Board covered in Purple Velvet on it and then walked over to his desk and sat the Clock down and set the Timer for 5 minutes. I walked back to the Tripod and very slowly removed the Velvet to reveal a Color Aerial Shot of our Building with his Company Logo super imposed on it. I handed him some DMV statistics showing how many hundreds of thousands of Vehicles would be passing His New Building everyday. Then I sat down and started to stare at the giant Photo. Out of the corner of my eye I could see him looking up at the Photo and then down at the figures and then back up and back down. After about 2 minutes he got up and walked over to me and said; You re good, real good, but I don t need that much space. I quickly showed him 3 different Floor Plans where they could occupy 60 or 70 or 80,000 square feet and Lease the remaining area out on short Term Leases. The next Objection was that he didn t have anyone to Lease out the Space and it would be too much hassle. I asked if I guaranteed the Rent on the extra space would we have a Deal and he asked how I could do that. I said before I could tell him I needed to know if that would convince him to buy the Building. When he said Yes I simply said that we would guarantee the Rent because I already had several Prospects that were interested in the location but they only needed 20 to 30,000 square feet. Interestingly enough they bought the Building and then decided they didn t want any other Tenants in the same building. The biggest reason for that was they would have to give up the same percentage of Sign Space on their Building as they rented to other Tenants and his Ego wouldn t allow that. LESSONS LEARNED: Appeal to the other person s Ego when possible. Silence can be Golden. Be prepared for their main Objections. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

25 [35] A Year with the Masters I fell in love with South Florida and decided to stay after parting Friends again with my Mentor. I saw an Ad for a Sales Rep for a Company called American Sales Masters. In years past they had promoted day long Seminars featuring all of the Great Speakers of that era. Over the last few years they had filmed many of their Greatest Speeches and/or Training Talks and those Films were now available for Rent. Although the thought of Cold Call Prospecting didn t get me excited, the thought of being able to learn from these Masters peaked my interest. I had heard many of their Audio Recordings however I had never seen them in person or on Film except meeting Zig Ziglar and Dr, Schuller through Jerry. The Company was also willing to pay me a little extra to be the Area Director which meant that every time any Film was shown in 8 States, each Rep always sent it to me to make sure it was in good shape before it was sent back out again. Since I had to check each Film that meant I got to watch each Film, many of them dozens of times. I learned Control from J. Douglas Edwards, the Power of Questions from Fred Herman, how to be Positive from Dr. Norman Vincent Peale and how to Sell with Stories and Personality from Zig Ziglar, just to name a few. Most nights I had my 6 mm Projector humming away for 4 to 6 hours and taking notes like crazy. The way we sold a Lease/Rental of 12 Films was to offer a Free Meeting for a Company s Sales Team. We agreed to do a 30 minute Meeting IF all of the Decision Makers were present during the Meeting PLUS they had to agree to meet with us a few minutes prior to the Meeting PLUS meet with us directly following the Meeting PLUS Make a Decision at that time. That s what is called Confirming or Establishing Criteria for a Sale and it s one of the most important Skills I ve ever learned in Selling. Before the actual Sales Meeting we would cover the terms of the Lease with the Decision Makers and get them to agree that if a majority of their Salespeople felt that they had benefited from watching the Film and wanted to see more then they would sign a Lease/Rental Agreement. I believe it was around $1,900 to rent 12 Films during the next 12 months. The Sales Meeting consisted of me taking about 5 minutes to explain who they were going to see in the Film, the Speaker s background and what they would be covering. After the Film I would lead a 5 to 10 minute discussion on the main points covered in the Film and how they applied to their Business and why they were important. Then I asked for a show of hands of how many of the attendees felt that they had picked up some value that would help them be more successful and if they would like to see a similar Film on a monthly basis. Immediately following the Sales Meeting we sat down with the Decision Makers to complete the Paperwork and assist them in choosing the Films best suited for their needs. More than once I walked out without doing the Meeting if the Decision Makers didn t agree to the Criteria or one or more of them was missing. Remember, I was lugging around a 16 mm Projector, a Can of Film, a Screen and a Briefcase and I didn t need the practice conducting a Free Meeting with no compensation. LESSONS LEARNED: The value of establishing Criteria for a Sale. The value of using a totally Assumptive Sale. Be willing to walk away instead of doing a Free Demo. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

26 [36] Being in the Trenches During the year I was with American Sales Masters I did a Meeting for an Investment Company that specialized in selling over the Phone. It was actually more of an Awards Banquet and I was blown away. Their Top Pros were getting Bonus Checks in 6 Figures FOR LAST MONTH S PRODUCTION. Granted, at the time the prices of Precious Metals were going through the roof and some of these Guys might have been glorified Order Takers who were at the right place at the right time, however that s some serious money. Since I had already set a Goal to double my Income each year for 5 consecutive Years, I had already determined that I would need to start talking to more Prospects and start selling a Higher Ticket Product or Service in order to achieve my Goal. What better way to do that than call people on the Phone and sell Investments? The Sales Manager and I became friends and I told him I would start preparing myself to come to work for his Company within 6 months. I started calling a different Investment Company each day pretending to be a Prospect. I would tell the Secretary that I had a lot of Money to invest so I didn t want to talk to a Trainee or Rookie and would only talk with the Top Broker in that Office. I don t know if that meant they were making $50k a year or $50k a month, but for the next 10 to 20 minutes I got a Free Sales Seminar from a Top Broker. I studied their style, their inflection, their Qualifying Questions, their Presentations, how they handled Objections and how they Closed or tried to Close the Sale. The additional Benefit I gained was that I learned about virtually every other Investment that might end up competing against me for my Prospect s Money. I was able to learn their features and benefits and their potential returns versus the associated risks so I could help my Prospects compare their alternatives. Almost 6 months to the day I called the Sales Manager and I announced I was ready to come to work. He explained that they wouldn t have another Training Class for at least 4 to 6 weeks, which didn t deter me a bit. I told him that evidently they had a few open seats since they were going to have another Class so I would take any open seat and become one of his Top Brokers within 30 days. Then if he wanted to, he could pull me off the Floor and I would attend the next Class. Needless to say I was working there the next day. Every time any Prospect said anything, I would handle it the best way I could however immediately after each Call I would go around to as many of the other 50 Brokers that would give me the time of day and ask them how they would handle it and take Notes like crazy. Each and every night I would go home and pick the best 5 to 10 Answers to each Brush Off or Question or Objection, etc. I would type them up and add them to my Script Book which was a 3 ring Binder with Plastic Sheet Protectors for each Page. Within 30 days I had Answers for anything any Screener would say, at least a dozen ways to handle any Brush Off a Prospect could give me, all of my Qualifying Questions along with alternate ways of asking if they weren t cooperative, over a dozen Continuation Phrases to get them to open up, all of the pieces I needed to choose from to tailor make specific Presentations based on their needs and personality, 15 to 20 ways to handle any Objection they could throw at me, plus a bunch of Closes and of course ways to ask for Referrals. I also perfected endings to my Qualifying Call along with the Openings to use when calling back to make my Presentation after we sent them our Promotional material. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

27 All of the Brush Offs and Objections had Tabs on the Sheet Protectors so if a Prospect said that they wanted to think about it, etc., I flipped to that page and was prepared. I was taught early on in Selling that to become a Pro we must Master 3 Steps. Number one is to Learn your Words and the Scripts helped me feel in control because I never had to think of what to say next. Of course the more variations of each Skill or Technique I had simply meant that I was better prepared than my Prospect or Client. Number two is to learn to Perform those Words. I would practice with Marbles in my Mouth to improve my diction and enunciation. I would perform in front of a Mirror to add Facial expressions and even Body Language. I practiced becoming a Performer. I would take something boring like a Warranty Card and try to make it sound interesting and exciting. I learned to Punch one or two words in each sentence to make them stand out. I watched great Speakers, Trainers, Comedians, Actors and even Evangelists to learn Timing and Pausing and Voice Control. In fact once I got my material down pat I purposely added some Stumbling just so it didn t sound too perfect. Of course Number Three is to Become a great Listener. When you know your Words and how to Perform those Words you become what is called an Unconscious Competent and you can concentrate of Listening. You ll quickly discover to listen for what they say, how they are saying it and what they really mean. I also continued to call other Investment Companies and Brain Pick their Top Brokers each and every day. Now I knew what Jerry meant when he said I would become an Unconscious Competent. As a side note, one of my first Sales was rather large but it Settlement Failed. If you know anything about selling Commodities, when the Prospect or Client says they will make a Buy the Cost of that Commodity is locked in at that point and then they Wire their Money in later that day or the next Morning if the Buy was made in the evening. To make a long story short, the Market tanked the next morning and my new Client refused to send in his money. That meant I was personally responsible for the difference between what the Company had paid for it and what they could sell it for. My Sales Manager called me in and said; Congratulations, you just got your first of many Settlement Fails. I must have looked stupid because all I could think about was that I was bringing my Lunch with me in a Brown Bag and now I owed my Company over $6,000. He went on to explain that he wasn t worried and I shouldn t be either because with the money I was going to make I would need this loss and many more for write offs. He said he only worried about the Salespeople that never had a Settlement Failure because it meant they weren t Closing hard enough or often enough. He patted me on the back and thankfully I bought into his Pep Talk or it would have ruined my Career. LESSONS LEARNED: Brain Pick a Pro each day for a free Sales Training Session. When you re Great you can get a Job even if they aren t Hiring. Have a Script Book so you can concentrate on Listening rather than what to say. Practice Drill and Rehearse and become a Performer. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

28 [37] Learning to be A Best Seller Other than building my Script Book to become an Unconscious Competent, there were three main ingredients to being able to double my Income for 5 consecutive years in the Sales profession. They were Recording and Critiquing every Sales Call, becoming a master at getting Referrals and developing Niche Markets. I had heard that it was extremely beneficial to Record and Critique one Phone call a day so you could become a little better tomorrow than you were today. Since that made sense I figured it might be possible to get a little better on the next Sales Call then I was on the last Sales Call. Based on that I started to Record every single Sales Call and immediately played it back to determine what I could have done different or better or what I might have missed, etc. Many times I found that I had stepped on my Prospect when they were talking. Or I hadn t been Pacing myself to match their style of Speaking. Or they would ask a question and 5 minutes later I was still talking and it had nothing to do with their original question, Other times I found that I hadn t really tied everything back to their Hot Button or Buying Motive. Once I determined what I should have done more effectively, I would call the great majority of these Prospects or Clients back within the hour and offer them an apology. When they asked what I was apologizing for I would explain that there was something critically important I neglected to cover on our last conversation and I would be right back into a Presentation. My Closing Ratio went through the Roof. The second area I decided to become a master at was Referrals. I had heard that they were one of the five easiest Sales in the World, so why keep Cold Calling? I quickly discovered that trying to get Referrals is an Art Form. It s just like making a Sale since you make a Presentation and ask for the Name (Order) and then they give you Objections. As is always the case with Objections, he or she who is best prepared normally comes out ahead. I also heard the term Center of Influence (COI) mentioned. This is a person who is so well liked or respected that whatever he or she does in Life, the circle of people that they work with or play with ended up doing the same thing. One Salesman even told me that one Client had been responsible for several New Accounts for him. I decided to become a Master at getting Referrals and more importantly, looking for that 1 out of 15 or 20 Prospects and/or Clients that was a Leader, a Mover and Shaker and/or a Center of Influence. Many times these COI s will talk to their friends or associates before you call and the Referrals are almost pre-sold. Even if they don t or won t speak for you ahead of time the value of being able to use their Name when you Call is priceless. I started opening more new Accounts each month than most Salespeople might do in a year. I could share many stories however I believe my record was 42 New Accounts from one 2nd Lieutenant in the Army. Because of that commitment and the skill level I acquired, I ended up setting records for opening New Accounts that probably still stand today. How about averaging 43 per month with a single month record of 103? Depending on your Product or Service your wording may change, however here s an example of a killer Referral Script and an explanation of the words used and the process. You might say; Everyone I chat with is nice enough to share 2 or 3 quick Names with me of Folks who might appreciate knowing more about (your product or service). Before you share those Names with me allow me to mention that I ll simply give A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

29 them a courtesy call, introduce myself, and see if they would like to receive some information and I won t even mention your name unless you want me to. This might be a friend, relative, business associate, or someone you enjoy an activity with. Who s the first person that comes to mind? If you closely study that script you ll notice many interesting choices of words. Everyone I chat with is... implies if they don t give you Names they aren t nice.... share 2 or 3 quick Names... implies it won t take long to get rid of you. Before you share those Name... implies it s a given that they will give you Names.... give them a courtesy call... tells them what will happen after they give you Names.... I won t even mention... reassures them that they won t be embarrassed. This might be a... helps them sort through their name Rolodex. Who s the first person... notice you didn t ask for a Name since you want them to visualize the person.... comes to mind? sure beats who can you think of? Secondly, you ll have to handle their Objection and then ask them again. Your goal will be to have more creative ways to ask them then they have ways to say NO. If they say; I can t think of anyone. you could try; That s why I m happy that my Manager gave me a List. Let s see, how about your best friend? or Who do you look up to more than anyone else? or How about your Doctor? or Who do you go to for advice? If they say; I don t give out Names. You could try; I m glad you mentioned that since I won t even mention your name if you prefer. Since we ve cleared that up, how about a Rich Uncle? Once you get your first Name, please don t ask for any information. Instead, go for more Names. However, don t make the mistake of asking; Who else do you know? which puts them back into their mental Rolodex. Instead keep helping them by suggesting; How about the most aggressive person you know? or Who would be the most conservative person you know? or How about a successful business owner? or Who do you know that recently came into some money? or Who s the richest person you know?, After they run out of names you should ask; If you were me, who would you call first and why? A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

30 At this point they will actually start to Rate the Names and tell you who and why to call in what order I appreciate that getting Referrals is a challenge however you will be amazed at what they will now tell you about their friends, neighbors and relatives. In many cases you can find nicknames, hobbies, type of work, information about their family, their personality, etc., all of which will help you approach them, build rapport, and eventually make a Sale. The third area I made a commitment to Master happened almost by mistake. In fact I had never even heard of the term Niche Marketing. One of the great things I used to try and find out when I was selling Investments was what they enjoyed doing in their spare time or what kind of Hobbies they had. Needless to say if they said stamp collecting they were probably very conservative in nature and if they said white water rafting they were probably somewhat of a risk taker. I already knew that Money runs with Money and Whales as they were called do swim in Pods. They usually aren t down at Barney s Bar drinking $1.50 long necks during Happy Hour. They are at the Country Club or the Marina, etc. Whenever I ran across anyone with an expensive Hobby I would always ask them what Organizations or Associations they belonged to and see how I might be able to get a List of their Members. I would read up on whatever it was like Big Game Hunting, Hot Air Ballooning or Corvette collecting, etc. and then learn their Buzz Words. Once I sold someone on that list it was almost like shooting ducks in a barrel to use their Name to Earn The Right to make Presentations to the other Members. LESSONS LEARNED: Record your Calls to improve at Stealth Speed. When you blow a Sale call them back and do it better. Become a Master at getting Referrals and finding Centers of Influence. Become an expert at Niche Marketing. You must always Earn the Right to make a Presentation. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

31 [38] Making a $265,000 Sale on a Cold Call I was Cold Calling one evening and I had only gotten a few words out of my mouth and the Prospect heard the word Investments. He immediately started yelling and screaming and cursing at me and slammed the phone in my ear. I called back and said; I apologize, we must have got disconnected and started explaining why I was calling. I would do this because I found out that most people don t hang up on you a second time if you have that much persistence (or guts) to call back. This Prospect was the exception and he proceeded to yell and scream some more and hung up on me again. I kept trying to call back and now he had the receiver off of the hook. After about 30 minutes I was able to get through and when he answered I quickly said; Before you hang up on me a third time I ve got one quick question and guess what he said? WHAT? Granted he was programmed to blow my butt off the phone but he couldn t because Curiosity Always Overpowers Programming. After he asked me What I said; It sounds like you ve had a bad investment experience in the past. He said; I sure have and all I had to say was; I m so sorry to hear that, please tell me about it. I then used many Continuation Phrases like; go on, please continue and then what happened, etc. to keep him talking. He told me that some Broker used to call him every day and after a couple of weeks he finally bought. I m thinking that he s probably a good Prospect because you can eventually wear him down. Then he said that the Broker made him a bunch of promises and that he had sent him $100,000. Now I know he s a good Prospect if he can start with 6 figures on a First Sale. Finally he said he lost it all. This is one of the best Prospects ever because although many times they will tell you that since they were burned they will never invest again, they will and they do. Please realize that no one wants to walk away a loser. It s like a Black Jack or Craps player who drops a wad and walks over to the ATM for a Cash advance or signs another Marker and keeps on playing. The most amazing thing happened next when I asked him what in the world this other Broker told him to get him excited enough to send him $100,000. He proceeded to tell me exactly what to say and what not to say to make a Sale. Another interesting fact is that the longer they talk the more they lose some steam and start to cool off a little. Please appreciate that you have to let them Dump Their Garbage before they will ever be receptive to anything new. They have hurt and pain built up and you need to allow them and even encourage them to let it out. After he was finally done venting his frustrations and anger he said something absolutely amazing. He said; I kind of like you. So what do you have? Remember that all I had been doing is listening and now he liked me. I immediately started using Takea-ways by telling him; This is certainly not the time or the place for that with everything you ve just been through. He said; I ll be the one to make that decision. What do you have? When I again stated that we should save that conversation for another Call he became insistent and demanded that I tell him what I was selling. I did a little more Qualifying and built a Presentation based on his needs and Hot Button while being very careful not to use any of the Words of Phrases that the other Broker had used since he associated those with a painful experience. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

32 Thirty minutes later he placed an Order and the next morning Wire Transferred $265,000 to open his Account. I immediately ran around to the other 50 Brokers on the Floor and offered to buy any and all Leads from them where the Prospect had yelled and screamed and slammed the Phone in their ear. I had just found another Gold Mine. LESSONS LEARNED: Curiosity always overpowers Programming. Use Continuation Phrases to keep them talking. You have to earn the right to make a Presentation by listening. They need to Dump their Garbage before they are receptive to anything new. Use Take-a-ways when necessary. The more you allow them to talk, the more they like you. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

33 [39] Becoming a Sales Trainer During the Thanksgiving weekend in 1982 I had rented a Houseboat on the St. Johns River in Debary Florida, which is a tropical paradise. I also hired a Bass Guide for a couple of days and caught some 8 pound Hawgs which is what they call a Big Large Mouth Bass. I fell in love with the area and set a Goal to buy a little Cabin on the River and keep a Bass Boat there for more weekend trips. Within a few months I had bought a 3 Bedroom, 2 Bath House right on the River. Some Cabin, right? I also bought a Bass Boat and my current Wife and I started going up there every Friday after work and it kept getting harder and harder to go back to Ft. Lauderdale on Sunday evenings. When I reached my 5 year Goal, I retired in August of 1983, I sold my Condo on the Golf Course in Ft. Lauderdale and immediately moved to my new Home on the River. We had 3 acres and I bought the adjacent 3 acres which was a completely overgrown vacant lot. I spent the next month Bass Fishing every Morning and every Evening. I also rented a Bob Cat and worked, or should I say played with it everyday clearing the adjacent 3 acres until I got bored. There s an old saying that says; When you re Green you Grow and when you re Ripe you Rot. I soon realized that I wasn t investing that hour a day any longer and felt like I was getting stale. According to my 5 year plan I was now a World Expert however hardly anyone knew it except me. My Bass Boat on the St. John s River. This is called a Hawg A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

34 I joined the National Speakers Association and at the time I believe they had about 2,000 Members. In looking over their Membership list about half of them were Sales Trainers and the other half were Motivational Speakers. I noticed that only 2 Trainers included the words Telephone Sales Skills as it was called back then in their Bios. Since studies were indicating that more and more people would be buying and selling Products and Services over the Phone in the future, I decided to position myself as a Whale in a small Pond rather than be just another small Fish in the Ocean. Consequently I started to promote myself as a Trainer of Salespeople who sold over the Phone. My research also showed that most Speakers/Trainers were printing up a tri-fold Brochure, mailing it out to Meeting Planners and Companies and then hoping that the Phone would start ringing. I also found that most Speakers and Trainers didn t even have a Product to sell for their first 2 or 3 years until they had developed a reputation and a following. I decided to market myself with a completely opposite approach. I would sell my Product first and have the Clients come to me and ask for Dates instead of begging for their Business like virtually every other new Speaker. I took the next couple of weeks and sat at the Dining Room Table and organized all of my Notes, Scripts and Techniques that I had learned and used over the last 5 years. I quickly realized that I had indeed turned the Sales process into a Science. I knew what to say, when to say it and why it worked. I assembled enough material to record a Series of 6 Cassette Tapes, rented some time at a Recording Studio and hired an English major to make sure I wasn t mispronouncing any words or using them in the wrong context. I recorded the 6 Cassettes and had a duplicator put together 100 Sets. As a side note, my duplicator at that time was none other than the now famous Marketing Guru, Mr. Dan Kennedy. My original Cassette Series I started Cold Calling Stock Brokerage Offices using the alias of Pat Murphy because I didn t like rejection. Besides, it wouldn t seem too impressive if they knew I was selling my own Tapes. I would speak with the Office or Sales Manager and explain I was selling this incredible set of Tapes called Double your Income Selling on the Phone. When they asked who it was by and I told them Stan Billue, of course they had never heard of me. I had anticipated that Objection so I would explain that the largest seller of Cassettes in the World which was Nightingale Conant only offered a 30 day guarantee and we offered a 90 day 100% money back guarantee so they had nothing to lose and everything to gain. I wrote the Order and shipped the Product. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

35 Interestingly enough, within a week or two the Phone started ringing and people were asking for Stan Billue. I told them to hold on while I transferred the call to Mr. Billue s Office. They would tell me that they had bought my Tapes from Pat Murphy and wanted to know if I did any live Training Dates. I of course explained that they had been lucky to even get me on the phone I was so busy. Needless to say I hadn t done any Training Dates other than my time with American Sales Masters plus some Training at the Company I had been selling for during the last 3 years. When they asked me what I charged I would always ask them what their budget was. Whatever figure they quoted I would always say; Ooooh which is a form of the Disappointed Technique. Once we agreed on a Fee they would always ask what I would be covering. Instead of answering their question I would ask them; If you could wave a magic wand and improve 3 or 4 things that would immediately impact your bottom line, what would they be? They would normally answer something like open more new Accounts, write larger Orders and get more Referrals. After we spoke a few more minutes I would say; Based on everything we ve covered I ll be showing your Brokers how to open more New Accounts, write larger Orders and get more Referrals. Of course they would say; Wow, that s exactly what we need. Once we agreed on a Date I would always get the Names of a couple of their Top Producers. I called those Top Pros prior to the Date, stroked their ego and then would brain-pick them as to what made them successful and in their opinion what I should include in the Training that I was scheduled to do at their Office. Of course during the actual Training I referred to these Top Dogs several times by Name which really got them on my side. During the Seminar I always referred to most of the Skills and Techniques I was sharing as being Basic and continually mentioned that I covered more Advanced material in my next Seminar. Of course I was setting myself up for a repeat engagement which I almost always finalized before leaving the Manager s Office that same day. I also got the Managers to agree ahead of time to allow me to offer my Cassette Tapes to their Brokers and normally got them to authorize a payroll deduction for those who didn t have the Cash or a Credit Card. I was now making as much if not more from my Product Sales as I had collected for my Training Fee. Before I left I would also ask the Manager for Referrals. I would say; Without giving me your direct competition, I m sure you know some Managers from other Companies that could use a shot in the arm. Who s the first one that comes to mind? Of course we were sitting in their Office and they normally had the phone numbers handy to give me. As they gave me the Name and number I would casually ask them if they minded giving them a quick call just to introduce me. Many times they did and even if they were too busy to accommodate me I at least had some great contacts plus I could use this Manager s Name to get through to the new Referral. I walked out with a Return Engagement Booked, Product Sales which usually amounted to more than the Fee I had just made plus a bunch of Referrals. Those are 3 giant reasons that my Speaking and Training Career took off like a Rocket. The next Monster way is in the next Chapter. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

36 LESSONS LEARNED: I positioned myself so Companies came after me instead of begging for Dates. I asked questions to find out what my Clients wanted and then delivered it. I set myself up for repeat Engagements. I made as much if not more than my Fee by selling Product at my Speaking Dates. I asked for Referrals and often had them call the Referral for me. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

37 [40] How I got Booked up to 22 Dates a Month After one of my first Training Dates one of the Referrals that the Manager gave me was a District Manager in charge of 5 Sales Offices. It didn t take me very long to determine that I could book 5 Dates with the same amount of effort as it took to book 1 Date. From that moment on I started asking each Client who they knew that was in charge of Multiple Offices. I quickly found one Company that had 12 Offices and they Booked me for a Training Date at each Office. After my first visit to all 12 Offices they wanted to book me in each Office 4 times a year. At the time I was collecting my entire Fee on arrival and several Speakers had advised me to start getting a Deposit and then collect the Balance on arrival. Although I had already decided to implement that procedure, in this case my Client was chomping at the bit. Because they wanted me so bad I decided to push the envelope a little. I explained that as much as I would welcome the opportunity to work for them 48 times a year, they would have to prepay the entire year and allow me to work their Offices into my regular schedule. I told them that my visits would always be approximately 3 months apart at each Office but I needed to visit their Offices when I was already in that area of the Country to Speak at a higher paying Date. Trust me when I say that I needed those Dates really bad however I sure wasn t going to let them know it. As it turned out they did start prepaying me each Quarter in advance and did allow me to notify each Office about a week before I planned on showing up. Since I had a formula that was working, I took a 3 Car Garage on my Property and remodeled it into about 600 sq ft of Office Space. Recruiting Salespeople was a small challenge because my Ranch was about 30 miles from Orlando and 30 miles from Daytona, however within a month I had 5 Sales Pros hired and trained and selling my Cassette Tapes over the Phone. Since I was basically selling Air (Cassette Tapes) I could and did pay them very well. I should add they were paid a Graduating and Retroactive Commission based on their Sales Volume each Month. That simply meant that each time they reached another Sales Goal they made a higher Commission and when that higher rate kicked in, it was good on everything they had already sold previously that month. As a side note, at the time 6 Cassette Albums were selling for about $49. I priced mine at $125 because I felt the Value was there, which it was. In fact for many, many years that was the highest priced Cassette Album in the World. At one point Nightingale Conant which was the largest seller of Self Improvement Cassettes in the World expressed an interest in picking up my Series. During the negotiations they insisted of marketing it at the same price of their other 6 Packs at $49. This was one of the toughest career decisions I ever had to make. By promoting my Tapes they probably would have made me Famous within months. Instead it took me several years however I maintained my high price and darn sure made more money per Set than the royalty they had offered. Another huge reason I was doing as many as 22 Speaking Engagement a month within the first year, is that whether my Sales Pros sold a Set of Tapes or not, I encouraged them to try and make every contact profitable. I taught them to always ask; By the way, does your Company ever use any outside Speakers or Trainers for a Regional Meeting or a Convention? A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

38 That Lead would go to me to follow up on and I paid them 10% of the Speaking Fee that I earned from those Dates. Several of them were making a nice chuck of change just by asking that simple question on each and every contact. I also hired a Secretary/Office Manager and within a couple of months added a second full time Girl to ship my Product, book my Travel and keep track of my Frequent Flyer Miles. The final reason my Speaking Career took off at Stealth speed was the additional promotion that I did. I really didn t have a budget for nor did I want to spend money for Advertising. Instead I called several of the major Industry Magazines and asked them what were their 10 most popular Articles they had ever published. Then I read those Articles and wrote a couple of my own in that same style and sent them in for consideration. Of course they loved them and agreed to publish them. I got them to agree to include a short Bio at the end of the Article and occasionally I even got them to publish my Photo. As great as that exposure was, they unfortunately would only publish 2 or maybe 3 Articles a year and I wanted more exposure so I suggested a Monthly Sales Tip and/or a Monthly Motivational Tip. They liked the idea so in a couple of hours I knocked out 12 of each. As soon as they started Publishing these Tips I would contact every other Magazine and Newsletter I could find and offer them the same basic Monthly Tips. In addition I had my Sales Pros start asking; I m curious, what Magazines or Newsletters do you read that are specific to your Industry? We would follow up on those Leads and within 6 months my Monthly Tips were appearing in over 600 Publications. The second promotional idea I had was to get some Interviews published. I knew that when you promote yourself some people don t believe it or think that s it s all a bunch of hype. However when someone else says it, it must be the truth. I started small and called the local DeBary Paper which only came out once a week. I told them about myself and explained why the Interview would be so interesting for their Readers. The next day a Reporter showed up with a Photographer and I ended up with a half of a page Article with a Color Picture on the cover of their second Section. Armed with that Article I contacted the Orlando Sentinel and was amazed that they turned me down because they said it would just be a copy of the other Article. After we spoke for a few minutes they did agree to consider an Article on several Speakers who lived in Central Florida and of course they would include me. I called several other Speakers and Trainers and asked if they would like some free promotion. I found out a few interesting tid-bits on each of them and called the Associate Publisher back. I even volunteered to have them all at my Ranch on a specific Date so the Reporter wouldn t need to put in a lot of travel time, etc. Of course by this time I had my Office (formally my Garage) in operation, I had built a Horse Barn, I had fenced in the entire 6 acres which contained 5 Arabian Horses prancing around, I had a bunch of landscaping done and had a beautiful sign that said Stan Billue s Double Five Ranch as you entered the driveway. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

39 Some of the Articles I got Published The bottom line was that the Paper published a full page Article with 6 Color Pictures of all of the Speakers plus several more Photos of me with one of my Horses, me sitting next to the Sign and me sitting on my Motorcycle which was sitting next to my Porsche. From there I started contacting national Magazines that loved to publish Rags to Riches stories and got several of them to do a Feature Article on me. When a Meeting Planner was looking for a Speaker, most Speakers would send their little tri-fold Flyer and I would send Color Reprints of these Articles. Guess who usually got the Dates? The final promotional idea actually started out because I decided to give something back to my Industry. At the time I believe there were about 42 Chapters of the National Speakers Association around the Country which held Monthly Meetings. The majority of these Meetings were full of aspiring Speakers since the successful ones were already booked someplace and making money. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

40 I put together a talk called 60 Ways to Promote Yourself and your Products in 60 Minutes. It was a fast-paced and content-rich Presentation which was based on the success I was enjoying and how I did it. Most Speakers and Trainers just didn t understand Marketing. You can have great Content and Great Presentation Skills however if no one knows who you are you end up sitting at home doing Seminars for your Dog. Whenever I was Booked into an area of the Country which had a NSA Chapter, I would call the Chapter President and offer to do my Presentation at no cost as long as they could move their normal Meeting Date to the evening before or the evening after the paid Date I had in their area. Of course once I had done even a few of these Talks the References I was getting made it real easy to be accepted at the other Chapters. Over the next 3 years I believe I did a variation of that Speech to each and every NSA Chapter and never accepted a Fee or any Expenses. Needless to say the Speakers ate up the content and loved my entertaining Presentation style. I got referred to many Talent or Speaker Bureaus which ended up giving me many high paid Dates. LESSONS LEARNED: You can make multiple Sales with the same effort it takes to make one Sale. Don t ever Negotiate for something that you aren t prepared to walk away from. Whenever possible duplicate yourself and your efforts. Ask for Leads on every Call to try and make every contact profitable. Why pay for Advertising when they will promote you for Free. Be willing to share the Glory and promote others. Learn to parlay small successes into larger ones. Give something back and it will come back to you at least 10 fold. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

41 [41] Using OPM to produce my Video Series Within a year after starting my Speaking and Training Career I needed additional Product to sell so I took a week off and wrote and produced my second Cassette Tape Series. For the next year my Sales Pros on the Phone would go back to everyone who had bought Volume One and sold them Volume Two or they sold both Volumes as a Package to brand new Prospects. I of course sold the heck out of Volume Two on all of my repeat Training Dates. We were now consistently selling over $100k a month in Tape Sales and I was booked up to 22 Speaking engagements a month. By early 1985 more and more Video Training Series were starting to appear and I was receiving a lot of requests for one. I was scheduled to Speak at a major Telemarketing Convention in Chicago and the title of my talk was 90 Telemarketing Skills in 90 Minutes, although it was a 2 hour Seminar. I hired a Film Crew and shot my Speech and immediately went into a Studio and edited in the 90 Titles. We duplicated it onto four 30 minute Videos and started selling the heck out of it at $495. Over the next 2 years we continued to get rave reviews on our Video Series however a lot of Clients were asking for more. They loved how much content I had crammed into 120 minutes except many of the 90 Skills and Techniques were only a minute or so in length. They wanted to know if I would expand on each of the Points. Since I was living near Orlando I had been going to Disney quite a bit and became fascinated at how well they run everything. One of the things I discovered is that their key Managers meet every year and look at everything they do and figure out how to make it better. They call it Plusing. Using their concept I decided rather then reshoot everything, I would keep the existing 2 hours and just expand each Skill or Technique. I wrote out the Scripts for the additional footage needed and determined I would need to film about 6 additional hours. Also since the original footage was me in front of a live audience I thought it would be effective if the additional footage was shot with me talking one-on-one to the Camera in a more relaxed setting. However I also determined that people might get real tired real quick if I had the same background and setting in all 90 Sessions. I looked around and found a location with a lot of Rooms and by moving a few props around I could create 18 different backdrops which would give me a new setting for every 5 Sessions. I also decided to change my clothes for every 5 Sessions which meant 18 complete wardrobe changes. In order to save an immense amount of money, I decided to go with a one camera shoot. That means every few sentences I would move my head and look in a different direction as if there was another Camera. Then the one Camera would move to that different angle and start filming again. When we edited it together it looks like a two or three Camera shoot. The only challenge was that even if I was in a Zone and only required one take on each Session, we could only shoot 5 Sessions during an evening because I was still booked almost solid. This meant that most days I would fly out of Orlando early in the morning and do a 4 hour Training Seminar and then fly home that same day and rush over to the location where we would shoot 5 Sessions in the evening (or in the middle of the night) for almost 18 straight evenings. I believe that ended up being one of the most exhausting 3 weeks of my Life. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

42 You also have to figure 2 to 3 hours of edit time for each hour that you shoot and when I calculated the budget I almost died. Even with cutting every corner I could it would still require about $40k. My largest Client at the time had 12 Offices when I started with them a year earlier and had quickly grown to 50 Offices. They gave much of the credit for their massive growth to the effectiveness of my Training. They were using me 4 times a year in each Office which was a sweet Contract of 200 Dates a Year. I approached the Owner and explained that even though I was visiting each Office every 90 days, if they hired some new Brokers right after one of my visits and then I didn t get to work with those Rookies for 8 to 10 weeks until my next visit, they could have either developed some bad habits or possibly even fallen by the wayside. Based on that I explained my plan to expand my existing Video Training Series into 90 complete Training Sessions which meant all his Managers had to do was sit the Rookies in a Room, hit play and come back in 30 to 40 minutes and they would have gone through 5 complete Training Sessions. He loved the idea. I told him I would be marketing the new Series for $1,595 to the rest of the World however since he was a valued Client, his investment would only be $1,000 per set IF he prepaid now and would wait 4 to 6 weeks for the finished Product. I walked out with a $50,000 Check and 6 weeks later he got 50 Sets of which contained 18 Videos and each Video contained 5 complete Training Sessions, for a total of 90. We ended up selling thousands of that Video Series at $1,595 for almost 10 years. Then because of more and more competition we dropped to $997 for several years and finally down to $497 when we switched to DVD s. In 2011 I quit duplicating the Series and started selling it as a link for Customers to download on their Computer and burn their own DVD s at an even lower price. I still make a nice profit since all I am selling is Air. No duplicating, no storage, no shipping, etc. Me with Ol Blue 90 Telemarketing Skills As a side note, I was getting a lot of feedback from individual Salespeople who said they loved the Series when they saw it at work and asked if I had a way they could have a set at a price that would fit their Budget. So... we started a Subscription Plan where each week I a link for unlimited viewing of 5 different Training Sessions for that entire week. They are getting 90 complete Training Sessions dirt cheap and I have virtually no cost whatsoever. That s a Win-Win situation. LESSONS LEARNED: Use O.P.M. whenever possible. Take a great Product and make it Better by Plusing It. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

43 [42] Re-Inventing Myself as a Motivational Speaker I had been using more and more Humor during my Training and was quickly getting a reputation as the Trainer that made Training FUN. I was doing a series of Training Dates for Pacific Bell on the West Coast and as I remember they had 8 Offices or Call Centers that I was appearing in. Towards the end of one of my Sessions a distinguished Gentleman walked in and sat in the back. Even though he only showed up for the last few minutes, he was laughing like crazy at some of my funny stories and examples I was using. When I was done he introduced himself as an Executive Vice President and said he was in charge of putting together a giant Telemarketing Convention to be held in a few months in San Francisco. He said that he had been getting great feedback about the Training I had been doing for them and asked if they could hire me to do some Break Out Sessions at the Convention. I immediately started asking him questions and discovered it would be 3 days with over 100 Vendors Exhibiting and thousands of Attendees and each day they would have a Series of Break Out Sessions that people could choose from. When I asked how many Sessions they were planning on he said four 90 minute Sessions a day and they had enough Speakers and Trainers to do 4 to 6 concurrent Sessions. I thought to myself that I needed a way to get exposed to everyone at the Convention and not just the people that picked my Session to attend. I asked him what his Budget was for a Speaker and he offered me more than I would have asked for. Since the person you just Sold is one of the easiest Sales in the World I immediately mentioned that I assumed they would throw in an Exhibit Booth as part of my Compensation and he agreed. Now I had a Free Booth plus more money than I would have asked for so I figured I was on a Roll. I said I appreciated the positive feedback he had been getting about me from his other Offices, however could he be more specific on what they liked best about my Training. He immediately said that the reports he was getting was that I made Training Fun and that I put everyone in a great mood. He also mentioned that he had loved the few stories he had just heard. He paused for a moment and said; That gives me an idea. He then asked if I ever did any Keynote Addresses and I of course asked exactly what he needed. (I had never done a Keynote Speech in my life.) He said they hadn t hired a Keynote Speaker yet but they needed someone that not only knew about the Telemarketing Industry but could do a 20 minute Session to the entire Audience each of the 3 Mornings that would entertain them and put everyone in a great mood for the rest of the day. Wow, did he take the Bait, Hook, Line, Sinker, Boat, Motor and Trailer on that or what? We spoke a little longer and I assured him I would deliver exactly what he wanted and make him look like a Hero. When he asked how much more I would want to do 3 Keynotes in addition to my Break Out Session, I told him that he could go back and tell everyone that he talked me into doing it for no extra charge. He was so thrilled that he also threw in a Suite for 4 days at a 5 star Hotel. At the Convention I did make him look like a Hero and got rave reviews for both my 3 different Keynotes plus the Break Out Sessions and sold a ton of Product at my Booth. What was really fascinating was that I started getting all kinds of Phone Calls from Sales Managers and Owners who had seen my Keynotes and wanted to hire me to come in and Motivate their Salespeople and/or Employees. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

44 Within a year we had Booked 86 additional Dates as a Motivational Speaker because of the exposure I had received at that one Convention. All of these Bookings created another wonderful challenge. I didn t have any Motivational Products to sell when I did those appearances. Since the last Program on both of my Audio Series is on Attitude and Motivation, I had a bunch of those duplicated and put them in a separate 2 Tape Package. Then I took the Keynote material I had just used at the Convention which was three different 20 minute Talks and added some additional material to come up with three 30 minute Motivational Seminars. I called a local Hotel in Orlando and told them I needed a Meeting Room along with 2 Rooms for my Film Crew plus a few Dinners and I would give them a 30 second plug at the end of each Video. Then I called my Film Crew and made arrangements for them to fly in. Greg and John Rice, the famous Dwarf Speakers had generously offered to fly in and introduce me on each of the 3 Videos so I arranged that. Then I called every Client in the Orlando area I had and invited them to attend the free Filming. I didn t want to tie up the Rice Twins for 3 or 4 hours of Shooting so we filmed all three of their Introductions in a row and then edited them in later. Within a week I had three 30 minute Motivational Videos to go with my two Motivational Audio Cassettes. Motivational DVDs As I mentioned earlier, I ended up booking 86 Dates from that my appearance at the Pac Bell Convention and one of them ended up being my highest paid Date of my Career. It was a Multi-Level Marketing Company that sold Pills, Powders and Potions as they say. They wanted me to do a 20 minute Key Note at their Annual Convention which was going to be on a 4 day Cruise. I negotiated a great Fee plus a 2 Bedroom Suite because my Wife at the time and I decided to invite her 80 year old Mother along. The Meeting Planner said he would have one of their Vice Presidents to call me to go over the content. When he called he explained that many of their Distributors were Amish and I had to be very careful what I said and how I said it. He had seen my three 30 minute Motivational Videos and was nice enough to go into great detail on what Stories and Jokes I could use and which ones I shouldn t use. In addition I found an Amish Community close by and spent an entire afternoon learning their beliefs and habits, etc. When I did hit the Stage on the Cruise Ship they were blown away. I had heard that MLM people are Tape Junkies however I had no idea what would happen when I was A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

45 done with my 20 minute speech. I casually mentioned (a very soft sell as I had been instructed to do) that I had 2 Cassette Tapes and 3 Videos on Attitude and Motivation available and that I would be at one Exit and my Wife would be at the other one when they had their first break. If they wanted to place an Order that would be great however I would appreciate it if they would at least stop by and introduced themselves since we would be together for the next 4 days and 3 nights. Believe it or not, two and a half hours later we were still taking Orders. We went back to our Room and threw it all on the Bed and started counting all of the Cash, Checks and Credit Card slips and it amounted to over $12,000, based on a 20 minute Talk. Needless to say I started doing as many MLM Regional Meetings and Conventions as I could find. LESSONS LEARNED: Instead of telling them how much you want, let them make you an offer and you might be pleasantly surprised. Don t always accept their first offer without doing some additional Probing. Always look for ways to get additional Exposure. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

46 [43] Spending $100k on Birds that don t Fly Through the years I ve been retained to write and produce Videos for Training, Products, Corporate Image, short and long form Commercials and even a few Infommercials. Unfortunately I produced a Sales Video about a Company selling Investments in the Ostrich Industry and did such a great job with it that I ended up believing my own hype. In other words, I became so fascinated with the profit potential that I actually took a year off of the road and started my own Investment Company. If you aren t familiar with Ostriches, each pair can produce 40 to 60 offspring, they grow to maturity in less than a year, the meat is actually Red with a texture as great as the finest Filet, it s healthier to eat than Chicken and the list goes on and on. I joined the Ostrich Breeders Association, went to their Convention in Vegas, met with 10 of the Top Breeders in the Country and then personally flew to and visited what I thought were the top 4 Breeding Farms. Out of those 4, I choose to work with a Ranch in San Antonio. There were many reasons for my decision however one of the main ones was that they imbedded a small micro chip in the Neck of each Bird so tracking Inventory would be fool proof. We hammered out an Agreement for me to buy a certain number of Breeding Pairs and I came home, hired a top Securities Attorney and structured an LLC to offer a Reg D Private Placement. I flew back to Texas with a Film Crew and filmed a 20 minute Video Presentation which featured a tour of the Ranch, the Breeding Pens, the Incubators and the different strains of Birds. I also filmed an interview with a top 5 Star Chef and loaded the Video with some of the most impressive Industry Statistics you can imagine. If I say so myself, this Video could have won an Award it was so far off of the Charts. Although many Reg D Investments have a huge Front Load of 30 to 60% going to the Promoter, I kept my total Marketing expenses to a ridiculously low 15% so my Investors would really have the potential to make a killing financially. I printed up the Memorandums, a very impressive Brochure, duplicated the Videos and hired a couple of Top Sales Pros to sell the Investments for me. I had a Slaughter House prepare packages of 4 Filets that we could ship in Dry Ice and I found a Wine Company that did a Private Label Dinner Wine along with a special shipping Box. As soon as we sold a Client we immediately shipped the Wine with instructions to not open The Bottle until a second package arrived. Two days later the Steaks arrived with a Letter with cooking instructions and suggesting that they invite a favorite couple over for the finest Steak Dinner they ve ever enjoyed. We also urged them not to tell their Dinner Guests that it was actually Ostrich until after they had finished their meal. I can share with you that 90% of all of our Clients invested again and/or gave us Referrals after dining on the meat. Even though this total offering was only a little under $500k, I could have easily sold several million dollars worth of Units, except for the fact that I ended up being In Bed with a Crook. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

47 To make a long and expensive story short, I soon discovered that the Ranch was selling the same Birds to many different Investors and/or Groups and I was personally out a little over $100k. OK, back to Speaking and Training for a Living. LESSONS LEARNED: Shoot the Bullets but don t try to Catch them. Even with exhaustive research you can still screw up. Giving your Client a Gift can pay huge dividends. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

48 [44] Back with my Mentor to run his Travel Agency Almost every year I could count on at least one Phone Call from my former Mentor. Normally it was to say thank you for the Lease I negotiated with the Bank which turned out to be the single most profitable Deal he ever had. In addition, he would always tell me what he was doing for fun. One year he had bought a chain of Apartment Buildings and another year he bought a chain of 10 minute Oil Changes, and lately he bought a chain of Hotels etc. The Calls would always end the same way. He would tell me that he needed someone to come in and turn things around and they had made a list of potential people to call and I was always at the top of his List. Each year I would politely decline his Offer. One year he called and things were different. I was gearing down my Travel schedule and getting ready to at least semi-retire again. Instead of offering me a long term Job which I wouldn t have taken, he offered me a 3 month Contract with the understanding that if I could get the job done earlier I would still get paid for the entire 3 months. As it turned out he had gone into Partnership with a Guy who owned a Travel Agency. This was a Corporate Agency which meant they only worked with Businesses and their Client List was a Who s Who. It included the Miami Dolphins, the Miami Heat, DHL and even KC and the Sunshine Band to name a few. He explained they had a Box at the Dolphins Stadium and Seats right behind the Miami Heat Bench, among other perks. He went on to tell me that he and his Partner had been suing the heck out of each other for 3 years and that basically all of their Profits were going for Attorney Fees. He said he told his Partner all about me and my Negotiating Skills and that if anyone could work out an amicable agreement, I was the person for the Job. He also said that his Partner liked the idea that I could also breathe some life into their Agency. After several Conference Calls with Jerry and his Partner we agreed that I would come in as the General Manager and have total and complete control of the Agency while I was also figuring out how one of them would buy the other one out within 3 months. Jerry threw in a Magnificent Condo on the 20th floor of a High-rise overlooking Biscayne Bay and I moved in and reported for work. When I was introduced to the Staff there was a complete lack of respect and even outright hatred towards me as an outsider who was now in charge. I quickly discovered that the Partner who had been running the Agency allowed them to get away with almost anything and had a whole bunch of favorites. There were about 60 Female Agents and I had to explain that I was going to do my best to earn their respect however I only had a limited amount of time to make magic happen. If they wanted to help me they should come into my Office and meet with me during the day and if they didn t come in to meet with me I would know that they weren t interested in cooperating. Although I knew virtually nothing about running a Travel Agency, let alone one that worked with major Corporations and Sports Teams, I used an amazingly effective skill that I later used when I started to do Consulting to get a crash course education. As I met with each one I would basically say; Let s assume that the Owner died tomorrow and left the Company to you. Without turning this into a Bitch Session what are 2 or 3 things that you would want to change immediately to improve morale and impact the bottom line profit? Trust me when I say that after meeting with 40 people for 10 minutes each, I knew exactly what needed to be done. If the truth be known all I had to do was to walk around to see what was wrong. The Ladies were on personal Calls or filing their Nails or having Gossip Sessions. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

49 The next day I promoted the sharpest Gal as my Executive Assistant and had her get every Travel Manager at each Company and Sports Team that we worked with on the phone. I introduced myself and then asked them the 3 things they liked about working with us and what were the 3 things that we should consider changing. While I was on the phone with these people I had her call every Airline Sales Rep and schedule a Meeting the next day in our Office. The Partners had furnished me every possible figure and statistic from the last year and it was very evident that a Corporate Travel Agency does not make their Profit from Commissions from booking the Trips. You actually make your money from kick backs from the Airlines based on how much Business you throw their way on their most profitable Routes. The next day I met with the Reps from the 5 major Airlines we were using. Needless to say I didn t have enough knowledge to negotiate with them so I asked a ton of questions. One of the main things I needed to find out was their Routes, Schedules, Fares and where they would pay the highest Commissions (kick backs). I told them all that I was not the least bit pleased with the numbers I had researched and some major changes would be made within the week. I told them all to go back, get with their Company Brass and then get back to me by Thursday with their best offers. Although they all certainly didn t fly the same Routes, I had already laid out our most booked Routes and gave them each a list to work on. I got all of their Proposals back on Thursday, made some major changes over the weekend and announced them on Monday. When I made the announcements Monday morning there were actually several Employees who openly challenged me in front of everyone else and flat out told me that they were going to continue to work with their favorite Airline Reps. I let them bury themselves and I probably even helped throw a little dirt on their Coffins. Then I said that based on what had just transpired I had no choice except to throw away the changes I had just announced and they could continue to do Business as they had in the past. I said the Meeting was over and I started heading for my Office. As the 6 trouble makers were giving each other high fives, I turned around and said; Of course if I allowed you to dictate how we do Business that would mean you were in charge and I m the new General Manager. So, that means you all have just received a Career Adjustment. An off duty Policeman appeared at the front Door exactly on schedule. Because I had anticipated a problem, I had hired him over the weekend and had him waiting outside the Office down the Hall. I briefly introduced him to the 6 Ladies and explained to them that he would be escorting them off of the premises immediately. As they were leaving the other 54 Employees slowing started clapping and it ended up building to a standing ovation. As soon as they were gone we had an extremely productive Meeting to discuss how we would implement the changes plus I announced several Contests and Bonuses for reaching certain Goals. In addition, although we were a Corporate Agency, quite often the Members of the Teams and Employees of the Companies we worked with would call for their personal Travel needs. The Reps had never done any Cross Selling unless the Client happened to ask for a Car or Hotel or Tour, etc. From that moment on when we were done booking their Flight we would say that we would be calling them back within 30 minutes with some great ideas and tremendous savings on everything else they might need to make their Trip a memorable experience. I had a couple of the Gals A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

50 put together Hotel recommendations, Car Rental suggestions along with ideas for a great Restaurant or Tour, etc. Even though we certainly never made all of these extra Sales our Customers actually thanked us for offering these additional ideas. We also started Morning Pep Sessions that started with about 60 seconds of Upbeat Music. Then when I did Roll Call instead of answering here or present they all answered using a Magic Word or Power Phrase that they had made a commitment to start using. Then a different person each day would write down a Positive Thought or Phrase on a Flip Chart and she would read it and then I would have several others comment about why that was important in our Business. A lot of the Contests I ran had Cash Prizes which we also gave out each Morning. One day a week we had a working lunch where I had Meals catered in and everyone had to bring one success story to the Lunch to earn their Free Meal. Within the first week I promoted several Gals who were demonstrating a consistently great Attitude and solid work ethics to Team Leaders. These Leaders also became my Eyes and Ears on what still needed fixing on the Floor. I should also mention that I did arrange to have many of their legitimate gripes fixed or corrected so they knew that I actually did listen to them and their opinions mattered and that I really did care about them. Now I ll address how I resolved the issue between the Partners. It s actually so very simple most people can t believe the Formula when I tell them. I had them both write out what they felt they should get if the other Partner bought them out. Of course when I showed them each other s list they both laughed and accused the other one of being a Crook, etc. Then I told them to make an Offer to buy out their Partner that they thought was fair. Their Partner would have 10 days to accept the Offer. If they accepted it the Deal was done. If they didn t or couldn t accept it then the other Partner would have 10 days to accept the same Offer. I should add that my former Mentor who could buy and sell his Partner a thousand times over really did want to own the Agency outright. He also believed that his Partner didn t have the money to buy him out, which was true. Unfortunately for Jerry, his Partner did have many great connections and was able to raise the money and bought Jerry out. Although Jerry bitched like crazy, he ended up with a ton of cash, something like 24 First Class Airline flights a year for 5 years, 4 seven day Cruises a year, PLUS since he owned the Building that the Agency was in, we built in a new Lease which was much sweeter. Even though the other Partner admitted later that he always thought that Jerry had me in his back pocket, he admitted I was able to pull something off in 60 days that they weren t able to accomplish during the last 3 years. He also offered to keep me on however it was time to move on. I collected the balance of my 3 month s Salary and a nice Bonus and moved to Ft. Lauderdale. LESSONS LEARNED: When you want to know what needs to be fixed, ask your Employees. Find where your Profit really is and concentrate your energy in that area. Decide who runs your Company, You or the Employees. Learn to Cross Sell for additional Profit. Have a Few Team Leaders who are Selling Managers to be your Eyes and Ears. A great settlement should be a Win-Win Situation. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

51 [45] Re-Inventing Myself as a Consultant After retiring (again) I took a few months to rest up and regain my sanity. A friend for over 20 years called to say he was now the Sales Manager at an Investment Company. He had used me in each of the 5 or 6 Companies he had worked at in the past and we had a great working relationship. He explained that rather than being the Sales Manager as he had been in the past, he was now the General Manager. As such he had not being able to do any Training the last few months and their Sales were way down. Even though I didn t want to go back on the Road I did agree to fly there and do a 4 hour Sales Training Seminar, more as a favor for my friend than anything else. Needless to say I impressed him, his Brokers and the Owner of the Company. Of course the real measure of success for any Training Date was an increase in Sales and they had several Record Breaking days following my appearance. A few days later I got another Call from my friend asking me what we could do next. After asking a lot of questions about their needs, we agreed that I would come back up and spend 4 full days. I would do a brief Motivational Meeting each Morning, then meet with each individual Broker and critique a few Recorded Calls and end each day with a brief Training Session based on what I had discovered that day by critiquing Calls. While I was meeting with each Broker we also discussed their Goals and Dreams. Most didn t have any real Goals so I asked my famous Banker Question ; LET S ASSUME YOUR BANKER CALLS YOU TOMORROW MORNING AND TELLS YOU THAT SOME ANONYMOUS DONOR HAS JUST PUT $50,000 IN YOUR BANK ACCOUNT, AND IT IS ALL YOURS, EXCEPT THERE ARE TWO CATCHES. NUMBER ONE, YOU CAN T SAVE IT OR INVEST IT, YOU HAVE TO SPEND THE ENTIRE 50 GRAND. AND NUMBER TWO, YOU HAVE TO SPEND IT BY 5 O CLOCK OR YOU LOSE THE ENTIRE AMOUNT. NOW ASSUME FOR A MINUTE THAT ALL YOUR BILLS ARE PAID AND YOU HAVE TO SPEND $50,000 BY 5 O CLOCK TOMORROW. WHAT S THE ONE THING YOU VE ALWAYS WANTED TO DO FOR YOURSELF OR YOUR FAMILY?. Once we identified something they really wanted we helped them change it from a Dream into a Goal by putting it writing. When you know and understand why you are supposed to be busting your butt, that will give you a Purpose to become your Best rather than continue to do just enough to get by. The four days finished on a high and I flew back to Florida. A few weeks later my Friend called to report they had just broken all previous Sales Records and begged me to come back. We had several knock down drag out negotiating Sessions on the Phone, because I kept saying no. He would keep calling me back with a higher offer. The amount of Money that they were willing to pay me was incredible however the main reason I started considering doing some extended work for him was that they wanted to expand and were willing to pay me a substantial override on the increased Business. They currently had about 18 Brokers and I knew from spending 4 days there that I could rearrange a few things and make room for as many as 40 Sales Pros. We finally agreed on a 3 month Consulting Contract where I would have total control of the Sales Team, I would hire and train up to 22 additional Brokers, clone myself as the Room Manager and still get an Override on all increased Sales for 12 months after I left. I put my Furniture in Storage and headed out. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

52 Just to give you an idea how organized I had become, I found a Townhouse to Rent on the Internet and signed the Lease before leaving Florida. I also Rented the Furniture I needed on the Internet ahead of time. I then arranged to have the Electric turned on, the Phones, Water and the Cable installed and the Furniture delivered all in a 2 hour period on a Friday afternoon. I arrived in Town at 1 PM on Friday and picked up the Key to my Townhouse, drove over to it to supervise everything being delivered and installed and 3 hours later had an Instant Home. When I arrived at my new job on Monday the first thing I did was meet with every Salesperson and Employee. I asked each one to tell me the 2 or 3 things that they felt needed to be changed or that we needed to keep doing in order to stay on the roll that they were enjoying. After meeting with 18 Brokers and 4 Employees I had a real good handle on what we needed to do as well as in what order. I did notice that one of the Salespeople I had met on my last visit was no longer there. When I asked about him I found out that he had just been terminated for a lack of Sales and was going to move back Home to another State. This Guy had impressed me not because of his Sales effort but because of his extensive background in Business. I quickly got him on the Phone and he agreed to meet on his way out of town. After a few minutes together I knew that he was about to become the first Male Executive Assistant I would ever have. There was going to be a tremendous amount of paperwork and reports and compliance issues, etc. involved with my new Job and I didn t want to be tied down with details. I also knew that his ego would prevent him from being called my Assistant so I proposed that we become Co-Managers of the Sales Room. He would take care of all of the Paperwork he loved and was great at and I would hire, train, motivate and be in charge of the Salespeople. He agreed to unpack and report to work the next day. When my friend the General Manager found out what I had just done the crap hit the fan. He loved to Micro-Manage and was upset that I hadn t run everything by him before I did it. I calmly explained that to accomplish what he and the Owner wanted to get done I wouldn t have the luxury of clearing everything with him ahead of time. I would give them a written Report on a Daily basis and fill them in on any details during our Weekly Management Meeting and other than that, I needed to make decisions without getting them cleared ahead of time or having them second guessed after the fact. He stood his ground so I told him I had enjoyed my one day at the Job and I was heading back to Florida. Needless to say he wouldn t allow me to leave and by standing my ground I had established and confirmed exactly what the ground rules were going to be in order to have a great working relationship. I immediately started Interviewing and Recruiting and then implemented an intense 5 day Sales Training Program for the new Rookies. I also pulled 9 of the existing 12 Salespeople off of the Floor and made them attend. Of course, this was the 80% that were only contributing about 20% of the total Sales Volume. We ran three 5 day Classes over the next 3 months and within 90 days had a Room full of 42 Brokers. My Co-Manager had been doing a great Job and I had him participating in the Morning Meetings as well as attending most of the last 5 day Training Class. Even though I was cloning him to be my replacement he and I both knew that he didn t have the Sales Skills or Management experience to completely handle 42 Animals. Because of that we took 4 of our better Salespeople and made them Team Leaders. They would still be selling for their primary Income however they would make a small override on the 8 to 10 Guys in their Team and would be responsible for keeping them in line, etc. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

53 About a week before my 3 months was up, the Owner and my friend the General Manager asked for a Meeting with me. We sat down over Dinner and of course they wanted me to stay on. Since I had positioned myself from the get go to only be there 3 months and had already cloned myself, I wasn t real sure what they wanted me for and quite frankly, they weren t sure either. All they knew is that by my 3rd month with them we were writing as much Business each month than they used to sell in a whole year. I asked them that if they could wave a Magic Wand, what would they want to accomplish over the next 1 to 2 years. Another way to ask that is to say; If you knew there wasn t a chance you could fail, what big Dreams would you Dream? That comes from my friend Dr. Robert Schuller, formally from the Crystal Cathedral. We all started to Brainstorm and came up with a whole list of potential Projects. We reached an Agreement for me to stay on a Month to Month basis which ended up being 15 more months. Our first project was to start a Newsletter. They wanted to publish a Free Newsletter that would build the credibility of the Owner and the Company. I suggested we sell it instead and of course they both agreed. Needless to say my thought was that if someone was willing to pay for Investment Advice they would be a great Prospect to buy our Investments. I went out and leased some additional Office Space, got some Used Furniture and a Phone System and Recruited and Trained 18 more Salespeople to sell Subscriptions. Since this was a College Town, many of the people I hired were Students which could only work 3 to 4 hours a day. I turned that negative into a positive by deciding to run three 4 hour Shifts a day instead of just one 8 hour Shift. We started selling Subscriptions like crazy and everything was going great until 9/11. For several months it seemed like almost everyone was afraid to do anything. Our Subscription Sales went down and of course the Investment Sales hit the skids. I down sized the Newsletter Room and went back to help out in the main Sales Room. We were able to turn things around fairly quickly however I sure found out something about the Owner that I didn t like. When Business was great he had no problem taking Money out of it like a Mad Man however when things got tight he didn t want to put any back in. Once we got things turned around we started expanding and opened up a few more Offices. By this time I could almost do this in my Sleep. I would call Leasing Agents in a City and tell them exactly what I wanted. They would Fax me the specs and Pictures and I would pick out the top 6 to see. I would go to that City and see the 6 and normally could put an Offer on the table that same day and have a Lease Agreement within a few days. Then I would Order the T-1 which always took 4 to 6 weeks and that gave me plenty of time to do the Build Out, buy the Furniture, hire and train the Salespeople and Staff I needed so the day the T-1 was Hot we were on the Phone Selling. I also always had separate Single Lines installed to use for a few days or few weeks just in case there was a problem getting the T-1, which there usually was. When we finally parted company after 18 months I was bound and determined to stay semi-retired this time, however it sure didn t happen. Several of my former Speaking and Training Clients knew what I had been accomplishing and offered me a nice fat check to start Consulting for them. Many of them were northing more than a one day visit where I could always identify how they could increase their Sales by at least 20% and reduce their Overhead by 20% which meant they just had just improved their Bottom Line by up to 40%. I have to share with you that some of it was so simple I almost felt guilty taking their Money, but I did. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

54 As an example, I would ask the Manager of the Shipping Department who they used and he would tell me. I knew they had grown over the last few years so I would ask when is the last time he had his Sales Rep from the Shipping Company they were using come in and negotiate a lower Rate based on their additional Volume. The answer I would usually get was; Never. Then I would ask the Marketing Department how long they had used their present Printer and when was the last time they had other Printing Companies come in and see if they good beat the price they were paying now, the answer I would usually get was; Never. Although I was trying to stay semi-retired, I ve had several Companies retain me to set up a Sales Room completely from scratch, which usually included locating and the Leasing the Space, supervising any Build Out required, ordering all of the Furniture and Supplies, Hiring and Training the Staff and Sales Team and finding and Hiring a Manager to run it, etc. In many of those cases they simply gave me an American Express Card and said Make it happen. I certainly appreciated that confidence and trust they placed in me. In addition, many Companies have hired me to write and even produce their short and long form TV Commercials, Corporate Image Videos, Sales Training and Motivation Videos and even several 30 and 60 minute Infomercials. So much for semi-retiring, right? LESSONS LEARNED: Continually find out what someone needs and give it to them. Help people set Goals which gives them a Purpose to become their Best. Use the Banker Question for amazing results. When possible always negotiate an override on increased Business. Being Organized allows you to accomplish amazing things in record time. Be prepared to walk away rather than compromise your beliefs and values. Provide great Training for New people as well as Refresher Training for the Old Pros. Almost every Negative can be turned into a Positive. You need to be willing to put some Money back in your Business when needed. Continually negotiate lower Rates with your existing Suppliers and have their Competition bid for your Business. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

55 [46] Becoming a Copy Writer Since I ve written hundreds of Sales Scripts for Inbound and Outbound, written and produced short and long form Radio and TV Commercials, Corporate Image Videos, Sales Training and Motivation Videos, 30 and 60 minute Infomercials, plus copy for Cover Letters, Brochures, Print Ads, Post Card mailers, and promotional Flyers, I guess I was already considered to be a Copy Writer. However over the last decade I ve also become a Student of the Great Ones, as I call them. I now Subscribe to and absorb over 300 Newsletters and Ezines a week from Clayton Makepeace, Dan Kennedy, John Reese, Michel Fortin, Frank Kern, Perry Marshall, Rich Schefren, Jeff Paul, Ed Dale, Harlan Kilstein, David Garfinkel, Lorrie Morgan Ferrero, Scott Haines, Bob Sterling, John Carlton and Jay Abraham to name a few. I also rip apart and analyze the Promo for every Product Launch on the Web. I watch every Video produced on Marketing and learn from their Copy. I still retain Clients that literally will not change one word in their Scripts until they call me and get my blessing. I have other Clients who won t run any Ad or Promo until they run it by me for my comments and critiquing. I am also very privileged to work with a handful of Companies that have me on retainer for Mentoring. We do a Weekly Conference Call with their Sales Team or Management Team and I Critique a certain amount of their Recorded Calls each month. There are also a couple of Individual Mega-Buck Super Stars that it s a joy to work with as I Mentor them to go from 6 figure to 7 figure a year Incomes. Yes the power of the English Language and Human Psychology still fascinates me and challenges me to retain my thirst for knowledge and my quest for excellence. LESSONS LEARNED: School is never out for the Pro People will always pay you for your Knowledge A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

56 [47] Becoming an Internet Expert In 2008 I had a traumatic event in my life and lost almost everything financially. I decided that I really didn t need to replace the things I had lost so I decided to dramatically simplify my life and lifestyle. In addition, I was tired of traveling and didn t want to continue doing even 5 to 10 Speaking engagements per month. Of course, I still had to have a nice income so I decided to learn how to market my Products on the Internet. I had already proven that if I invest 1 hour a day for 5 years, I could become a World Expert in a given field. It therefore made sense that if I invested 5 hours a day that I could become an Expert on the Internet in only 1 year. In reality I stayed glued to my Computer and the Internet 10 to 12 hours a day during that next year. Although I learned a lot about marketing on the Net, this is a classic example of; The more you know, the more you know that you don t know. The Industry is constantly changing and evolving and some things that worked even a few months ago, no longer are as effective. I now have Software which allows me to build my own Websites and make changes immediately rather than wait for a Programmer to fit me into his schedule and then charge me to the point that I need a cosigner. No I m not a Programmer, I use WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) Software. I continue to learn every day the importance of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), which can include Page Titles, Meta Tags, Links, Key Words and Phrases, Ad Words, Social Media, Auto-Responders, Squeeze Pages, Testing, Tracking, Conversion, Search Engine Submitting, Continuity Programs, building an List and the list continues to grow. Is there one single simple answer? NO. It s a whole bunch of ingredients working together which have allowed me to expand the Sales of my Audio and Video Products from 20 Countries to over 60 around the World and dramatically increase the Traffic on my Web Site ( and multiplied my Newsletter List many, many times. I m now able to invest an average of 2 to 3 hours a day, 3 days a week to maintain my presence on the Internet which leaves me plenty of play time. Here s a few of the things I ve done for Exposure: I posted my Articles on over 150 Article Sites. I ve placed 18 of my 90 Training Videos on over 80 Video Sites. I ve placed highlights from my 3 Motivational Videos on over 80 Sites. I produce a Monthly Newsletter. I produce a Weekly Marketing Tip. I put out a new Press Release every 60 days to over 50 Sources on the Web. I have several personal Blogs. I contribute comments and answers to questions on 10 other Sales/Marketing Blogs. I contribute comments and answers to questions on 25 Sales oriented Web Sites. I ve done several joint Webinars with some of the biggest Names in Training. I ve done several Audio Interviews which are available on dozens of Sites. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

57 I usually have at least one Product on Ebay PLUS I use their About Me Page. Some on my Products are on Amazon. Some of my Products are available on Kindle. I submit my Web Site to over 500 Search Engines once a week. Because of the above, if you Google me now I have over 90 pages just for my Name alone and it grows almost on a weekly basis. Of course, Social Media has also exploded in the last couple of years and over 90% of all Businesses now use some form of it. I urge you to have a presence on and use Facebook, Twitter, Pinerest, Google+, Blogs, Branchout, Linkedin, YouTube, Flickr, I- Tunes, Manta, Quora, RSS Feeds and Wikipedia, and that s just for starters I don t know if you are an Individual Entrepreneur or a Company however I certainly urge you to make your presence known on the Web and you can become more accessible to the World. It s not my intention to teach a Class, however the odds are if you check over this simple List, you are probably missing at least 1 of the basic absolutes on your Website for you and/or your Business: Information on Yourself or your Company Information on your Products or Services The Benefits to your Customers or Clients Contact Information Membership and Association affiliations, etc. Testimonials from satisfied Customers Frequently Asked Questions Images (many Pictures AND at least one Video) Information on your Staff or Employees Information about your Industry Free Articles or something of Value Asking for their Address for your Newsletter An Order Page Easy to Navigate Site Map LESSONS LEARNED: The more you know the more you know that you don t know. Have a To-Do List of Internet Grunt Work that needs to be done Weekly. Constantly Update and Improve your Web Site. A Best Seller Revised 7/12/

58 FINAL THOUGHTS: Although I believe I have truly under promised and over delivered based on over 150 invaluable Life Lessons contained in this Book, I also encourage you to Subscribe to our Free Monthly Newsletter at and you ll also receive a Weekly Marketing Tip. Hey, while you re there you might want to check out all of the Free stuff we Offer as well as our powerful Audio and Video and Printed Training materials. I m excited to share with you that I continue to invest an hour a day to become just a little better today than I was yesterday. This year (2013) was my 36 th Anniversary. That s what I call a Commitment to Excellence. Of course, I also now enjoy a lot more Bass Fishing. I feel I ve been very blessed with the ability to impact so many people during my life and am truly humbled by all of the wonderful feedback I ve received. With the knowledge and experience I have and continue to acquire, I m looking forward to touching many more lives. Hopefully something in this Book has touched you and will cause a positive reaction. If you have been able to identify with anything about me and my experiences similar to how I connected with my original Mentor, I would welcome the opportunity to chat about doing some Consulting and/or possibly becoming your personal Mentor. I often say that during my first 34 years, I was a self-made failure. The second 34 years were Fantastic. I also know that the last 34 years will be Off The Charts! I look forward to hearing about your Success. Make it a Fanta$tic Future! Stan Billue, CSP sbillue@usa2net.net (407) A Best Seller Revised 7/12/