Troy Kirby is a sports business consultant who builds relationships and revenue for sports organizations. He is the owner of Tao of Sports where he consults for B2B vendors, professional teams, and college athletic departments. He also hosts the Tao of Sports podcast.

We have a really interesting conversation on today’s show. Troy comes from the world of sports, and he is an expert in sports sales. He is going to share some of his great stories in the area of sales, education, where he came from, and what he was trained for. He is also going to share his sales experience from the perspective of focusing on engaging people and getting them to come to his events.  

Episode Highlights:

• When people give you time and opportunity it is a gift, and you need to give back.
• Stand up comedy and open mic night helped Troy become relatable.
• If you have a speaking opportunity. Go and screw up. The whole idea is to get practice relating to people.
• Listen to other people and be interested in what they do. Build a relationship that way.
• People want to do business with people who listen to them not talk at them.
• Change your mindset and have a yes mentality.
• Troy ended up having a great conversation interviewing the Octomom and allowing her to talk more and treating her with equity and respect.
• Qualifying people by how much money they have, yet they might be a great source of referrals.
• If someone tells you not to do something, they probably don’t know what they are talking about.
• Troy is known in the sports industry as the sales ticket guy.
• Take an active investment in other people, but also take a chance on yourself.
• Play the long game and really knock the cover off the ball. Plan for the long term.
• Do the work in advance and build your contact over time. Don’t use other people as an excuse for not achieving.
• How we are overly entertained. Put the time in your business, and it will yield out so much more.
• The importance of the daily commitment to the process. It takes time to build relationships and work and work that system.
• Thinking outside of the box and getting people to come to your events. Troy shares his red turf story where the turf could be seen from space.
• You have to be able to tell a story, sell a narrative, and believe in yourself. Take risks and don’t be threatened by what you are doing.

Resources:

• TAO of Sports
• Troy Kirby on LinkedIn
• @SportsTao on Twitter
• Robert Cialdini
• Matt Harper

Shimon Lazarov the CEO of LiveCoach is here today to talk about you as a person. I focus on sales and spend a lot of time focused on the ins and outs of the sales process, but the person behind the sales matters too. Shimon is here to shed some light on coaching and the importance of having a coach.

Coaching can increase productivity, success, and life satisfaction. Ongoing coaching is usually more useful than a one-time coaching session. Finding and connecting with the right coach for you isn’t that easy. Shimon created LiveCoach to connect coaches and clients through an easy to use online platform.

Episode Highlights:

• Business coaching versus life coaching. People work with coaches to accomplish something that they don’t know how to do or to be held accountable, so that they follow through or to aspire to new horizons.
• People usually prefer a coach over a peer to help them be held accountable.
• Some people only need specific help for one thing. Other people want accountability or they want their life to be better.
• There is a link between something in life bothering people and their work success and productivity.
• Personal and professional success are interrelated.
• How coaches have neutral objectivity and your best interest in mind.
• The more neutral a coach is the better and more effective that coach will be.
• The LiveCoach platform can help you find a coach by describing your situation or you can be matched through their algorithms.
• You can talk to several coaches for free to help find the best coach fit for you.
• When you start talking to people, you will be surprised by the amount of insights that you will get.
• Shimon suggests talking to as many coaches as you can.
• Many coaches do a questionnaire or a review as prep work. Some part of the initial work will be reflection about what you want to achieve and gaining clarity.

Resources:

• LiveCoach
• Shimon Lazarov

Carson V. Heady is an author and sales leader that I am really excited about talking to. He is in the trenches when it comes to sales. He is there digging in the dirt making sure that those sales are happening. I asked him to come on the show is because he is diving into an becoming an expert at social selling.

When it comes to prospecting, we are habit machines that block out times to do single tasks, and we get stuck when it comes to integrating all of the social tasks into our process. Carson is going to talk about best practices around integrating social into the sales process and specifically the prospecting side of things.

Episode Highlights:

• How social selling is bubbling up as something that we should pay attention to.
• Sales is still a relationship game, but social will enable us to build relationships and stay top of mind.
• How platforms have caught on and integrated into people’s day.
• These platform enable us to target specific areas and when people make changes.
• We can keep at the pulse of what is going on.
• It also enables to continue the post sales relationship.
• Display etiquette and be succinct and state your desired value that you are bringing.
• It comes down to adding value.
• How social selling allows us to do a lot of experimentation.
• These social tools can help us take the cold out of cold calling and introducing ourselves in a relatively passive way.
• Consistently reaching out to 5 to 10 people a day and stacking it into your daily routine.
• How it takes a long time to craft and cultivate social relationships, but the returns are unbelievable.
• Gearing messages for your audience and understanding what is working and what is not.
• The stuff that works can be transferred over to your email sequences.
• Assimilate social selling into your evolving sales process.
• Finding the right tools that will work specifically for you and using them to be more effective.
• Begin with the end in mind. What your goal is? Social selling is a wonderful way to share and connect with people.

Resources:

• Birth of a Salesman (The Salesman Against the World) (Volume 1)
• Birth of a Salesman: Ultimate Edition
• Carson V. Heady on LinkedIn
• @cvheady007 on Twitter
• Crowdfire

The telephone is a vital instrument for us to use when having sales conversations. Telephone sales expert Art Sobczak is here today to share some of his amazing telephone sales knowledge. I consider Art Sobczak a mentor. I have been following him since 1985. He is the president of Business by Phone and the author of books like Smart Calling, Sell More in Less Time, and Telephone Tips that Sell. He is an expert in utilizing the phone for sales conversations.

Art shares how selling is the greatest profession in the world, and how he wakes up everyday knowing that there are people out there that he can serve in this profession. A lot has changed over the years, but people still buy from people, and aside from face-to-face, voice-to-voice is the best way to sell to those people. This is a great conversation, and Art shares tips and selling knowledge from his 35 years of selling experience.

Episode Highlights:

• Art wakes up everyday knowing that there are people out there waiting to be served.
• Making a difference through the greatest profession in the world which is sales.
• How a lot has changed over the years, but people still buy from humans and the most effective way to sell is by speaking with people.
• Other than face to face, the best way to sell is voice to voice.
• How sales enablement tools can be distracting if not used correctly or effectively.
• The importance of examining what your sales process looks like and who you are selling to.
• How using the phone is a permission based tool that can cut through a lot of the clutter.
• How fear of the phone stems from a lack of knowledge.
• The importance of having relevant and targeted messaging.
• Different calls require varying degrees of preparation and research.
• The problems of disguising call avoidance as research.
• When you get voicemail, your purpose is to leave a question in that person's mind.
• The importance of call quality and investing in good equipment.   

Resources:

• Business by Phone
• Smart Calling
• Books by Art Sobczak