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In this episode of Prospecting on Purpose, we explore the art of mastering Sales Success Secrets with Jerry Acuff, founder and CEO of DeltaPoint. With decades of experience working with some of the world's top brands, Jerry reveals how adopting Sales Success Secrets approach can transform the way sales professionals engage with clients—focusing on curiosity, relationship-building, and authenticity.
Jerry breaks down how Sales Success Secrets mindset moves beyond outdated aggressive tactics, guiding sales professionals to create meaningful conversations and lasting connections. Discover how to ask powerful questions, use soft language, and implement pattern interruptions to capture attention and build trust.
This episode is packed with actionable strategies for sales professionals aiming to create value-driven interactions, inspire customer trust, and achieve extraordinary results.
🔑 Key Highlights:
Why mastering Sales Success Secrets leads to stronger client relationships.
The three components of effective sales questions: intent, content, and phrasing.
How curiosity, mystery, and surprise can capture and hold attention.
The importance of authenticity in building genuine client connections.
How teaching and guiding customers can lead to long-term success.
Whether you're a sales leader, entrepreneur, or professional seeking to refine your approach, this episode offers game-changing insights that will help you achieve consistent success.
🎯 Don't miss Jerry's expert strategies on transforming your sales approach with Sales Success Secrets mindset!
#SalesSuccessSecrets #SalesLeadership #RelationshipSelling #CustomerEngagement #JerryAcuff #SalesMindset #AuthenticSelling #DeltaPoint #SalesStrategies
Connect with Jerry
www.linkedin.com/in/jerryacuff
Connect with Sara
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@saramurraysales LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/saramurraysales/ Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/saramurraysales/
Prospecting on Purpose is Forbes meets Saturday Night Live - it’s *the* show for everything prospecting, sales, business, and mindset.
As business grows more complex, the biggest opportunities emerge when we learn beyond our own industries. From hospitality and design to technology and travel, this is where professionals come together to exchange ideas, uncover new perspectives, and prospect for business with creativity, authenticity, and intention.
Hosted by Sara Murray, a heart-centric sales champion, each episode helps you raise both your vibes and your game. Sara's playbook is simple - ABAV: Always Be Adding Value. Embrace your authentic self, lean into your unique strengths, and sell the outcome instead of the product or service.
Join Sara each week as she sits down with world-class thought leaders to unpack today's business strategies, mindset shifts, and relationship-driven approaches to growth, giving you practical ideas you can put into action right away.
Connect with Sara: www.saramurray.com IG: @saramurraysales LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/saramurraysales/
anytime somebody says something to you
that you don't understand
here's what you said
you have made a competitive disadvantage
does that exact that those words
you have me to competitive disadvantage
and they will say well
what do you mean I said well
I have no idea why you said what you said
and his response was
you've your company has never done a drug study
okay my response was have they ever asked
wow said yeah
they did and I said so why are you mad at me
and that was the beginning of our relationship
I probably shouldn't say this too loud
but one of the things I found
when I was running a drug company
women are better sales people than men
period how do you give bad news
hmm another where somebody's not perform
cause I've had a lot of people who weren't performing
and I have turned them into very successful people
with just one simple conversation
you're listening to prospecting on purpose
where we discuss all things prospecting
sales business and mindset
I'm your host Sara Murray
a sales champion who's here to show you that
you can be a shark in business
and still lead with intentionality and authenticity
tune in each week
as we dive into methods to connect with clients
communicate with confidence and close the deal
Jerry Acuff is the founder and CEO of Delta Point
a sales consulting company
that works with sales leaders to implement innovative
ways to market
and be effective in today's crowded marketplace
Delta Points client list includes 20 of the top
100 companies in the world
and here are just a few highlights from Jerry's career
ranked one of the top five sales experts in the world
named one of the best 50 sales people of all time
awarded the International
Strategic Consulting Company of the year
two years running train
sales teams for 15 of the top 100 brands in the world
exceeded clients
forecast by 130 million in the first year
and he is also the author of four business books
including Stop Acting Like a seller
and Start Thinking like a buyer
which is one of the topics we're gonna get into today
Jerry welcome to prospecting on purpose
well thank you for having me sir
really appreciate it
I'm really excited about our conversation
because I know that we have
probably a similar viewpoint with sales
and especially when it comes to authenticity
but with your background and your expertise
I am just going to be a sponge today
and learn from you today
and I know that our audience will feel the same
so I really appreciate coming on the show
I appreciate you well
let's just jump right into
what does it actually mean to stop
acting like a seller and start thinking like a buyer
have you read Jeremy Guetmer
no but you should read get married
read one of his books
I was reading one
of his books on an airplane in New Jersey
in there he said stop acting like a settler
start thinking like a but the reality is I said
that makes all the sense in the world
what kills me is if that's true
if you stop acting like a seller
and you start thinking like a buyer
then
why are we teaching people to be aggressive and sell
it's idiotic yeah
I mean
essentially what you wanna do is you want them to wanna
a listen to what you have to say
which means
you might be fairly clever when you open the call
and then secondly
you wanna try and find out what they think
I had a customer tell me one time
this is one of the most profound things
customer ever said to me
I was working with the sales rep and I made the call
he says to me before we go to the call
you will never sell this stuff I said
I want to I just want to try and find out
you know how does he typically think about our product
so I go and I ask him some questions
and at the end of it I said look
the next time you know
my sales rep comes I'll have him to
tell you why you ought to
think about our product a little more often
and he said what I want you to do now
I'm not gonna tell you
promise you when I came in here wasn't gonna sell you
he said look you're not leaving till you tell
now I'm thinking is this guy gonna fight or something
I mean come on
so I said really
I promise you I wouldn't do it
he said no I really do want you to tell me and I said
what can I argue with and he said yeah
you're going with me and I said well
you said this and I would say that
that's not exactly the way I see it
now if you wanna know how I see it
I'll be happy to tell you said no
no no
I wanna know so I tell him he was a doctor
and we talked about a prescription product
and he picks up the phone
he calls the hospital and he asked me okay
how do I dose this problem
I just told him and he said okay
tell the nurse okay I want you to take them off that
put them on this rock
and then the next thing he hung up
and he called and said understanding orders
anybody who comes in here
with community required pneumonia
I want him to get this problem
and then he hung up and he said this
he said you know you got a great rip here
but he's never made me think interesting
I said oh my goodness
that is our job
we are got to get them to think because they go
in with it's not like they're
they're they're bad people
it's just that they have a mindset about you know
what they historically have believed
and when you can challenge them in a kind way
may I ask permission can argue with you
and he said I said well
this is what you say is important
and I would submit to you that I said well
let me ask you another question
I said when you're sitting at the nursing station
and
you're trying to decide what product to put them on
at what point in time do you absolutely
unequivocally know what the pathogen is
well I never know and I said that's my point
I said what
you're using is not gonna get all of these bacteria
our product will so anyway
my point is I wanna think like the customer
but you can't think like the customer
until you find out what the customer thinks right
and I have I have a couple comments on that Jerry
because I think that we have this misperception
that sellers have to know everything
and be an expert and it's insulting
if you go to your client who went to medical school
and act like you know what they think
like you wait don't know
and I think there's a lot of like
strength and power in asking those questions
and I I like the other comment that you made
that you have to get them to listen to you
first right can we can we talk about that a little bit
like give us a little bit of orientation on
how do we get people to listen to us
well I mean
you have to capture people's interests and you know
my view of the world is is I'm not very compliment
I mean you know
I got a degree in English
you know from the Virginia Military Institute
I was on academic probation every semester
except the first in the last
and I had no science background
I didn't think
anybody would ever hire me to do anything scientific
but but I did
I did learn a lot that people not gonna listen to you
and they think unless they think you got something to
to actually say to them
that makes him wanna understand
so I say basically people fall into two categories
one is people have a relationship with
so if I have a relationship with you
then the opening is gonna be different
than if I don't have a relationship with you
if you don't have a relationship
we have to say something that's thought provoking
grabs their attention
so it does have to mean thing complex
now one of the things that you've talked about
and I and I love this too
because I think it's 100% true
and I teach everybody that I work with
you have to be your authentic self
just because Jerry says it this way
doesn't mean you have to say it this way
you have to say what makes you comfortable
but it's not hard to say
can we do something different today
see when you say that
that then they'll hear that and I say
what do you wanna do cause your curiosities pick right
and I say well
I don't wanna sell you anything today
in the moment you say that
then sales resistance goes down
that's what I'd like to do if it's okay with you
and if you don't have time
that's fine
cause I'm always giving them opportunities to back out
hmm I like that and
and that's and I say
what I'd like to do is to try
and get some insight about
how do you typically now
typically and ordinarily are two words that are far
far far misused are not used enough
and so how do you typically approach this situation
when you say typically
they know exactly what you're talking about
and if you ask a question
and the answer to the question is
it depends I don't know
you ask a lousy question yeah okay
that's oh that's good too
and so what I try to do is to say look
I just try to be me I say look
I got a degree in English
I'm not sure I've listened to a thing I have to say
I said but I
but I do have some interest in
in this topic
and I'd love to have a conversation with you
is that okay so I'm I'm big on asking permission yeah
well I liked what you so I wanna break that down
so you asking I wanna do something different
so that automatically peaks the interest
then you tell them
you're not selling anything on this first one
and that removes resistance
and then you're asking permission throughout
and giving them opt outs
I also really liked what you said Jerry about
you know how do you typically approach this
that's such a helpful framework
if you're getting the answer
it depends or I don't know
you're asking bad questions or not
not efficient question so exactly
I I appreciate kind of these
these tips that we're getting into
cause I like the nitty gritty stuff
can you give us some examples of a
what makes a really great question
well there's three elements to a great question okay
the first one is intent hmm
intent is why you asking the damn question
haha just oh
that's such a good one to ask ourselves do yes
why are you asking it I mean
you know there's certain things that
you don't really need to know
the next thing is what do you wanna know
what do you want to know
so if I want to know how do you typically
you know decide on which vendor to use for sales train
okay I'm gonna ask that question now
I'm gonna then I'm gonna create what
I think is the most important part is
how am I gonna ask it so that you wanna answer it
oh that's a good that's it so it's intent
content and then it's
getting
the customer to actually want to listen to what
you have to say so in
in often times what you have to do is you have to
you have to give them the feeling
and it has to be genuine
that you don't care what the answer is
I could care less and sometimes it's
it can be very very simple I mean
I remember when I first started in
the pharmaceutical business
and I was going to the university of Virginia
and I was a dog in the wrong opinion
that's so
but the guy who wrote the book on infection disease
guy named Gerald Mandale he was big shot at UVA
he's a big fat you go going almost any doctor's office
and they'll have his book on oh wow okay
and so my boss said
you got to go meet this guy now I am 27 28
whatever I am and you know
and I'm talking to this guy who's national hero
so I walk in and here's what he says
I hate your company oh no
that's our conversation yeah
well but
I'm about ready
to take something that I hope a lot of people will
understand anytime
somebody says something to you
that you don't understand
here's what you said
you have me in a competitive disadvantage
those that exact that those were exact words
you have me in a competitive disadvantage
and they will say well
what do you mean I said well
I have no idea why you said what you said
and his response was
you've
your company has never done a drug study with me
okay my response was have they ever asked
wow he said yeah
they did and I said so why are you mad at me
and that was the beginning of our relationship
oh my gosh
but what I like about that is I think most people
probably myself included would go back on our heels
and then you go in a defense mode instead
you got curious and asked questions well
I had one doctor that told me
he was gonna
write a letter to the food and Drug Administration
to have our drug removed from the market
and only been out for two months
so he called my rap and he said
have your boss be over here tomorrow morning
he had 17 internists in his practice
he was the headline
we walk in and he walks in and he says
I want you to know that
I'm gonna write a letter to the food
and Drug Administration
to have your drug removed from the market
now what did I say
I said you have made a competitive disadvantage he said
what do you mean
I said I have no idea why you said what you said
he said
I put five people on your drug and four of them died
now what's the next question
I said well
you're sitting at the nurses station
trying to decide what product to put them on
at that moment in time
how many did you think would that
so I thought they'd all die
I said would you
would you repeat that
he said thought to it all the says
so
you're telling me that you have a patient live today
because you chose our products
I got to be honest with you
I don't think that makes it a bad product
now you have to report that to the FDA
I said but there's also another question here
and that is
when these patients have that degree of sickness
you might want to think about using this product
a little bit earlier
and this guy became one of our biggest prescribers
wow I think a lot of it is first
you have to think when you're selling
yeah you know
and so I'm saying myself what if he had said
I thought one would die
then my response would have been
then let's get this damn thing off the market right
so I don't know what his answer
but what I know is
I need more information to ascertain whether
do I have a problem
or is this something that actually can
be mitigated
but I think the way you get people's interests is
number one
we use you know mystery
surprising curiosity if I come in and say
you know I'm driving over here today
and I can't stop thinking
of two things that you said to me
last time I'm here
and they're just bothering me
shut up
they're gonna say well
what happened hey
now I'm gonna have to have had that situation right
but you know that's mystery surprise is you know
I wanna do something different today
and they're gonna say well
what is it cause they're expecting you
if they if they've been calling them
if you've been you know
talking to him over any length of time
they're gonna expect that you're gonna be at the same
sort of you know
pitch that you had before now
my bias is I don't care if you ever
but because if if you don't have a real use for it
I got no business selling it to
but one of the things that I find Sara
that is most
now maybe
I'm the only idiot in the world that feels this way
if when I ask organizations and I'm talking about big
I'm talking about ones with big time names
you would know when I ask the question
do you have an organizational definition of selling
you know the answer to that is 95% of the time what no
I'm sure it's stupid though yeah
the first place I Learned this 30 years ago
is selling is two things selling is teaching
in every successful sale some education takes place
now we're not preaching to him
but we should be asking questions that uncover
do they have a legitimate issue or not
the second thing is selling
is finding out what people want
helping them get it now here's the big problem
most people don't know what they want
but they think they do
and so our job is to actually resurface that
I used to have a house in Flagstaff
Arizona and we had one in Scottsdale
and we when bought the house up in Flagstaff
I wanted to get a printer
because I wanted to spend some time up there
and I want to be able to print documents and stuff
and so I go to Lowe's I mean not Lowe's
Staples
walk in the door 21 year old kid out of town
I'm sure he went to Northern Arizona University
and he says are you looking for anything in particular
he didn't say can I help you
are you looking and I said yeah
I'm looking for a print
he said let me show you where they are
I said sure so he shows me where they are
there's six of them and he said here they are
he said these three are you know
for like printing in these here or for like
you know photos
and he said so what are you
gonna use a printer and I said what
I'm gonna use one I'm not gonna do photos and he said
well these three are the ones that I would recommend
because they're typically for that
and then he starts to walk away
and I said but get back here I said if you were me
which one of these would you buy
he said what kind of candidly
I'd buy the one in the middle and I said well
why would you choose that
he said because it's clear
you don't know what the hell you're doing
and he said
that one is the easiest one to actually put together
and make it work
and I said okay
well then put it in the cart
so then he asked me this question
now this is brilliant he says
is your house one story or two
oh wow and I said it's two stories he said well
let me ask you this question
do you think we're gonna put this thing
so I'mma put it in you know
in the bottom of the house in a spare bedroom
you think it ever be upstairs with the computer
and want to run downstairs
and I said yes did you have a router
I said I don't even know what a router is and he said
well around her would enable you
if you were sitting in the kitchen
you could you can print on and I said
we'll put that in the thing
and he said what do you have
do you have cables for it
I said look pal if I don't know what a damn router is
I certainly don't have cables for them
but my point is I I walked in there thinking
and I'm a reasonably intelligent
I mean my transcript doesn't show that
but
but I never thought about to that level of of depth
but to me
that is the embodiment of what great sales is
is finding out what people want
and helping them get it now
if if I said
I don't give a damn about whether I can print or not
then he was said all right
you don't need the around but anyway
I got around her
and I use that thing until I sold the house
although wild Hunters amazing
and it's funny because I think
I love that example because it's so simple
but it shows it can be stretched
simple or it can be stretched to really complex
long sales processes yeah
exactly yeah and I like that he was just being himself
he gave you a little sass and yeah
that was that was I want to hire the guy when I like
you just never know on his side too you know
I think you never know who's coming in the door
where did they teach that
I mean everybody you know
when you go into any retail store they say yeah
can I help you you know this guy said
are you looking for anything in particular
and I'm thinking well
that's a really good answer
you know he probably
I'm gonna guess he probably started by saying
can I help you and just nowhere
and he got bored at work
and let's mix it up and try something new
and I think that's really what differentiates
like the great sellers from the good sellers
is the people curious
and they wanna continue to like practice and grow
like he was probably just doing you as practice
he didn't lose if you didn't buy any
but he was really good yeah
you know but but to me
that's to me
I want my company has a definition of selling it
so to selling is teaching
selling is finding what people want
to help them get it
but most people don't know what they want
because they don't know what's available
and the job of the salesperson is to enlighten them
about an offering
or an opportunity that they never thought about
because they just never thought about
it's not that they're they have any malice
it's just that hey I never I didn't understand that
so I think that's probably let's just like the
those examples I gave you
those other people
they just never thought of it that way yeah
job is to actually reorient their thinking
and if it's thinking is not right
they'll come to their own conclusion right
and talk a little bit about selling as teaching too
because I think that that's a nice reframe
instead of like pushing people to buy our stuff
if you look as that I'm educating my industry
I'm educating my prospects
I'm a guide to my customers or my clients
that's such a helpful way to change it
if people have resistance to
you know being salesy
yeah well
I think most people have lots of resistance to sales
people but first place I
I like to hit it I would say this
if you if you look at the sales process and you
and you start with the opening
you go to the closing etc
there's only one thing is standard
in every one of those steps
it's asking questions
period
you ask questions during you know objections
you ask questions trying to understand how they
how they think you
but you have to get them to want to have this
conversation with
but in my mind you just simply have to go in and say
look
I'm not sure that our product makes any sense for you
or not
and I won't know until I get some information from you
is that okay
I like what I call permission based questions
I wanna ask their permission that I can
you know have this
this this exercise and if I
that's why something as simple as
can we do something different today
it works all the time because nobody else says it
huh
typically
it's what Brendan Kane says in his book Hook Point
it's pattern interruption
that makes him want to learn more
now you also have to use phrases like
I know there's a good reason why
you don't think about our product a little more often
can you help me understand what that might be
so one of the things that I'm really big on
with documents on this on how do you use soft words
very often sales people use hard words so for example
and I Learned this from my wife
one word that you in my mind is probably verbotan
that the Germans would say is should hmm
not my wife does not respond to shoot
and neither do customers yeah
so I use phrases like
you might want to think about this
you know there this might be an option for some of you
now
I'm actually doing the thing right now for a client
where they want me to create their opens
now several things about openings
one is you got to try and get their attention
and that's mystery surprising
curiosity and this
how you use the words that actually get
you into the conversation
but you also have to sound like
you're not trying to sell them anything
because you really aren't
what you're really trying to do
especially early on in the sales process
is trying to understand what the heck did they think
I don't know what you think
and I remember being with one of my reps one time
and she was wonderful
and she asked me to make this call on this doctor
and I went with her I asked him three questions
and at the end of the third question
I said look DOC
it was great to meet you and he said
you're not gonna tell me about your product I said no
he said well I said
cause you don't have any useful he said that well
no one's ever done that to me before I said well
I'm gonna do it today
because you don't have the kinds of patience
that would be benefit from my product
so I'm wasting your time and candle
and I'm also wasting mine
so when I got up
when I got up in this woman named Benita
she says well when do I when do I go back
I said you don't go back Benita
so maybe go back once a year in case this practice
you know has had it changes demographically
but we're not for everybody yeah
but it's not for everybody
I give you a simple example years ago
one of the biggest
and I can't tell you what the product is
one of the biggest products in the history of
the pharmaceutical business
over the last 27 years
they asked me to go find out that two other products
that they
that two products they were competing against
they were the third product the
the other two products were once every every week
four times a month this one was once every other
so they asked me to tell them
how do we make our difference in dosing matter
so we'll just put me in front of a doctor
that did registration trials
and I'll come back and tell you what I think
so I go see this guy in Phoenix
nice guy I asked him a couple questions
and I knew the first question I asked
I knew exactly what his response would be
but I thought I'd ask him any
and it was about the efficacy the products
which you couldn't tell
because none of the drugs had been studied
against each other so I said
let me ask you this question
I said
the only real difference between these two products
is once you know
twice a month
and the other ones are once every four weeks
I said just out of curiosity
now I know when I go into his market shares
10% with this okay
that means 90% of the time he's not used it I said
so let me ask her I said if you were me
how would you sell this hmm
and he said I take exactly what I do he said you know
your biggest advantage is
the fact that you only have to give it twice a month
and I said well
what percentage of the patients that
you typically treat would
you say that would be meaningful for
he said I don't know
probably 30 to 40%
now what do I know a share is 10% 10
yeah so I said is that reflected in your prescribing
he said no but it should be shouldn't it
I said I'm not answering that question
I said I got a degree in English
and I don't think you should be taking advice from me
that's it I'm not a doctor
I said but my question is this
what specifically can you do to make sure that that
that percentage of your population
actually gets an offering for this
and he called in his nurse he said alright
here's what we're gonna do
and he told her exactly what he was gonna do
now what's interesting this was in the first 6
6 months of this product's launch
and if you look at the product later on
it was the number one product history
until couple other drugs came by the share was 37
is exactly what he told me 20 years wow
what
it was kind of what is so helpful about these examples
Jerry
is you're showing that you're like the guide for them
but they're almost selling
like it sells itself when you position it that way
and that's one thing I really noticed too
there's been times where you go into a presentation
and say hey
you know tell me a little bit about your business model
tell me a
little bit about what projects you're working on
and when you just start out by asking questions
and getting curious
and I liked some of your language there like
you know how do you typically do this
I'm curious to learn from you this
what I've noticed is
once you kind of get into product stuff
sometimes the customer start selling it on your behalf
like I've seen I've seen
like the owner of a architecture from turn and say
this would be great on this project because blah
blah blah and I'm taking
you know mental notes
like I gotta follow up and
use that in the next presentation
but I think that there's so much
power to this and I also think that this is really
like varsity team stuff you know
the folks that listen to this podcast
I think that they have a knowledge for
learning and growing
so I consider every listener a varsity player
but one of the things that I wanna talk to you about
cause you talked about soft words and just
you know being mindful of the language
and how you use that with your clients
what are some tips you can give us when it comes to
like the mindset of sales and kind of the
that words matter conversation there
yeah I always start by telling everybody that
you have to be your authentic self
I mean
I may be one of the top sales experts in the world
but I mean I'm just a redneck from Memphis
you know
and I do what I do and I do it because it's who I am
and you have to be who you are
so don't get you know
don't get tied around the axle here about
exact language and stuff
ask yourself what are you comfortable saying
and then what are you comfortable asking
and the other thing is you know
I write in my this book the stop acting like a seller
in the first chapter
I say the less you care about the sale
the more you sell
and in far too many people are
they care about the sale I don't care about the sale
what I care about is am I good
at understanding whether this person needs a product
that I can actually do
I'm working with a client now that I think
need something that they haven't asked me for
and I'm not gonna ask them that you need this
now if at the end of this you know
project I probably will say you know
your next question is
what questions do you ask these people right now
I'll show you how to get them interested to talk to you
but I think the other thing is I'll tell you
this is a really interesting story
one of the things
I wrote a book called The Relationship
Edge and business and it's
how do you build relationships with people that you
don't naturally connect with
so I got on an airplane in Chicago one day
and I sat down I was in first class
and I sat down next to a guy named Larry Wing
do you know him
Google he's a really great speaker
and but he's a very unique looking person he's
you know he's bald
he had nine rings on had an earring
he had blue jeans starch blue jeans cowboy shirt
purple boots and so I sit down in the window
he's in the aisle he puts a book in front of
in place in the middle and it says
how to sue
the person sitting next to you on an airplane
that he put that in so I could read it okay
this is the wall icebreaker to you yeah
so anyway so I looked at it and I looked at him
and I had seen him on television in things
and so when we started to take off
and he put his earbuds in
I tapped him on the shoulder and I said say man
can I ask you a personal question
now that's actually a question people need to learn
say can I ask you a personal question
that's good cause say that almost everybody says yeah
what do you wanna know
now if it's where did you come from
what you make wanna be a doctor
you know anyway
so I said say can I ask you a personal question
he said yeah I said haven't I seen you on television
and he ripped those things out of his ear so fast
he talked to me for three hours
wow
from Chicago
and he told me his whole life story
you know and some of the things he should not do
so we landed in Scottsdale and we landed in Phoenix
and so he jumps up now he talked the whole time
now I was having fun because I'm saying to myself okay
I'm the jerk that you didn't want to talk to right
and now you're telling me your whole life story
and so and he was very
so when he got ready to leave
he said and he said
say man
can I have your car and I said sure why
he said because
you are the most interesting person I've ever met
now I'm saying to myself how in the hell would you know
yeah you don't know anything about me
he sent me his books he sent me his information said
but I say to myself
if I can build a relationship with somebody
who absolutely does not want a relationship with me
that I can show you
how to build a relationship with other people
now does it work all the time
no there's only six levels of relationships that
you can have
and so we teach people how do you go up the pyramid
but I do think that
if you're gonna get people's attention
it's a lot easier to get people's attention
that you have a relationship yes
and if or if somebody has referred to so for
let me give an example
I'm assuming and it's probably a bad term
that if you're in our business
anybody who's listening to you
probably has people that they would like to meet
but they don't know now
if you simply do what I'm about to tell you
it'll work 40 50% of the time
you just simply have to say you you take
you
pick 10 people that you got a good relationship with
and you go and then you say
can I ask you a question they say
sure said how how well do you know Sara Murray
if at all
now if you ask 10 people the shot
there's a chance that one of those 10 are gonna say
yeah I know her now what's the next question
the next question is
how comfortable would you be introducing
you only get two answers to that question well
she's a little weird
which means they don't really know you very well
or they gonna say I'll be happy
now I've used that
I
I wanted to meet basketball coach at the Arizona State
got in herb sending fourth
youngest coach to 400 victories
in all of college basketball
and I love college basketball now I play football
but I mean
I love college basketball so I asked 10 people
how well do you know herpes and deck
if at all one guy
the last person I asked said yeah
I know I'm really well I said
how comfortable would you be
introduce me gonna have breakfast with him next week
I said sure
and so
I have been working as his mentor free for 18 years wow
but when he asked me what do you want from me
and this is really important part
he says what do you want from me
I said look coach
I gotta be honest with you
I think your t shirts are ugly
so I don't want any of those
I got enough money I could buy my own tickets
I don't need your tickets
and I said but let me ask you this question
I said you got how many people in that locker room
you got 15 right
I said how many of those kids are gonna be able
to make a living playing basketball
and never have to get a job
he said no
so let me tell you what I want
I want to teach those people
how do you build relationships
while they're in college
that will last them the rest of their life
he said can you do that tomorrow
and I said yeah
now what's interesting is
one of those people called me last week
and he's actually living where you are
in fact you should beat him
oh my gosh block it okay
but it's in touch he's good
looking at he's good looking movie star
good looking his mother
he was the only one who the day after I met him
he called me said can we have breakfast
and he started he
so he wanted me to teach him about goal setting and
but he wind up playing basketball at Arizona State
and then he transferred to Marquette
well at Marquette
I had been mentoring that coach too
he's now Texas a m
but Trent and I have stayed in touch now since
I think 2015
over 10 years
but he lives in LA and got a 14 month old baby boy
he's happy as a claim
but he played basketball in Russia
China all over the place right
you know cool about that too Jerry
I love the you know
looking at who you wanna meet
and asking 10 people
that could potentially know the person
so it's almost like using your
your social capital or like web of connectivity
and I feel like with my personal sale success
and business success
it's literally just talking to people that I know
and meeting new people through others
and like connecting others
I'm a big connector of others too
when people ask me
I'm always try to think how can I add value
who can I put them in touch with
if it helps their business
and that puts you I mean
I find joy from it so I'm living in my authentic
you know self
but yeah
I think that's one of the most underrated things
that people don't realize
it's really not that hard
and once you start to do it
there's a lot of layers of connection
we don't even know right well
and you also developed some incredible
I mean when I met her
you know it's 18 years ago
and
I mean he called me and told me he was getting fired
what do I do and I said well
I'll take exactly what to do
and then he had an opportunity to get another job
he called and asked me about that
then he called me and asked me if I would
talk to one of his daughters
and it actually become something that's
that's real it's a real wonderful friendship
and I feel like thing with the
with the buzzway buzzes at Texas a m
and buzz is one of the most unique people I've ever met
but you know
but
I got introduced to both of those people by somebody
else
well that's
and that's I think the
the part of business and humanity and creativity
where they all kind of intersect
and I think that's really cool and compelling about it
and I think we can look at sales as value adding
being a teacher understanding how people think
and then
using these tools that you've been sharing with us
that's gonna set us up for success
so I just am so grateful that you were able to
to give us your time and come on the show
before we start to wrap up
is there anything else critical
you wanna make sure you leave our audience with
well the one thing that I'm working on now
which is
I think analogous to what we're talking about here
I find that too many people that are sales leaders
don't know how to teach somebody how to sell
and so I have I'm creating
I'm almost done with it a program that I call
Sales Leadership Excellence Development
and it's basically the six kinds of things
if you're a leader the six
critical things that you need to do to be great
the first one is you got to create the right culture
if you don't get culture right
nothing else matters and then you actually figure out
how do you actually get the right people on your team
and I teach people
how do you actually find out who can who can help you
and then the third thing is actually teach people
and this is something I find most people don't do
is teach people the three or four skills
how do you workshop those without me or anybody else
so how do you get people to ask questions
how do you get people to know how to
do pattern interruption how do you
deal with
people that you can't get a relationship with
how do you actually deal with people that are
in that are not nice to you
so in so this is a six week program
and I think that's really important
because I think the speed of the leader is
the speed of the group and so if you're really
really a good manager
if you're a good leader of people
if you create an environment where people want to
you know succeed
you know I was a district manager for eight years
I stopped being a district manager in 1989
that team still wants to have a reunion wow
that's cool 30 years
and but you create the right culture
and the other thing that other thing I found
and I probably shouldn't say this too loud
but one of the things I found
when I was running a drug company
women are better sales people than men
period in story
I mean we put at the top of the interview Jerry
do you but it's 100% true
it is I mean you know
when I looked at our top performers
they were predominant women
I mean we have you know
we have people that were very successful
but my company now
I think we got more women that we have men
my gosh
we're gonna have to do a follow up episode Jerry
so we can dive into that topic as like its own content
because I have so many questions now
I mean what are the what are the 4th and 5th and sixth
parts of the program yeah
the fourth is providing coaching with meaningful
results and
and that also includes how do you give bad news
another where somebody's not performing
those I've had a lot of people who weren't performing
and I have turned them into very successful people
with just one simple conversation
people don't understand their own potential
the manager's job is to understand their potential
teaching the leader how to best Model X
we have far too many people that ride in the car
watch the person make a call
and they don't let somebody see
how do you really do it yeah
I can tell you you know
I hired 20 people in eight years
20 people I hired hired one after three weeks
he was the first one
and then the other 19 were all in the top 50
out of 600 people within two years
seven were the No. 1 rep in the country
13 of these those people got promoted
and so I was really good at figuring out okay
who can come to work for me
but I will tell you
I only heard one person with sales experience
interesting
I heard a 5th grade math teacher oh my gosh
11 years and she's one of the best I ever had so
but I Learned let me tell you what I Learned
if you're a good manager
you'll learn a lot from your people
the very first person that I hired after the other guy
he was he was a C
C means I will never see
and he finally
he reaches my wife at home in Birmingham and says hey
can I talk to your husband
and so she says you got to talk to this guy
I said this guy's a pest I want to talk to this guy
so I said just send him to me and so anyway
he taught me into an interview and
and I hired him ultimately
and I was
I wanted to hire a woman name is Betsy Rucker
I never forget her name it was 30 years ago
but I got 5 letters from from
people that told me I was nuts if I didn't hire
and I had already called him
and told him I wasn't gonna hire
one of was from the governor of Alabama
one was from the president of Auburn University
now they had 19,000 students yeah
over here we have 12 nobody would write letter but me
there was five I got five letters
the day after I told him I wasn't gonna hire
so that then I called him back and I said
I'm gonna hire
now he goes to the training thing he flunks the train
and so anyway
I finally said
just to see if you can get him a 70 and bring him home
so then I go work with him and say this is the truth
so I go work with him and now
he's never so ever he was 23 years old
and so I said well
I'll make the call so I made the calls
and at the end of every call
here's what he said I can't do that
I can't do that
and I said you can't do what
he said I can't do what you did
I said why not
he said it's not my style
and I'm saying to myself you ain't got a style pal
that's why I'm here I'm here to give you
this is about your very first real employee
so I work with him for three days
and I'm so frustrated cause he won't even take a call
he won't even do it so when I got ready to leave
I said we were launching a new product
I was leaving the country in sales with like 5,000
you know per person a week
and I said he says to me
well what do you want to do
and I'm thinking I got to fire you
I mean
I got to figure out how do I get this past my balls
so he said well
what do you mean do I said
we just got this new product
I said why don't you go see some hospitals
and see if you can get stock
so he calls me the next Friday
I'm not ready to fire them
and he says well hey
what do you mean to do with these orders
I said what orders you talking
he said he told me to get these orders
I said how much is it he said $26,000
now average rep was doing five
he did 26,000 in round and you know
I said
I like your style
it's not my style well
and he was being on his authentic self
and it's so exactly that's what I
what's wrong
don't I just because I don't want you to be me
I want you to be your best you and John taught me that
now John is still one of my favorite people
he took my place he's had some health problems
but he's
he's one of the most incredible people I ever met
in my life and within two years
he was the No. 1 rap in the whole country
oh my gosh so I still like his stuff
still like and then what's
what's No. 6 Jerry
it's the power of relationships
to drive sales and leadership excellence
you got you have to show people
you have to show people how do you
how do you get somebody to
you know to
to wanna talk to you you gotta figure out
how do you get in
to see somebody that's difficult to see
I mean to me
if you can't model it then why are you not what
I mean what are you doing
our job to me is to model it
now I can tell you as good as I could model it
I had 5 people that would kill me in sales
because they were so dead
gum good
but also learn from them what to teach other people
right and that's how you grow as a leader too
which is better well
I'm interested
tell us where people can learn more about the
about this training program that you're launching
for leaders probably Jerry hf.com okay
and I'll I'll link everything
let's start running some ads here in a couple weeks
oh awesome
well let let me know when you do cause it might be
coinciding with this episode release date
so we can be great tell
the audience where they can find you Jerry
where can they learn more about you and
and learn from you
well Jerry a cuff
com is one place and then you can email me at J a
cuff a C U f f at delta point
that's all one word com
you know I'm I'm a very I'm easy to get in touch with
I'm easy to respond most people don't respond
I mean most people don't yeah
I tell people all the time
people come up and give me a car
you know they say
can I have your card I'mma call you
nobody calls I might get one out of seven he'll call
I've been making phone calls from business cards lately
and that is the biggest pattern interrupter
and then we usually chat for 15 minutes
and I get exactly it's
it's been a pattern disruptor to stand out
so I appreciate that Jerry
I'm so happy you were able to come on the show and
and I Learned a lot
I'm excited to have a relationship with you
if somebody asks you how well do you know Sara Murray
you're welcome to share my contact info as well
so let's go I'm not through talking to you
so I know I'm so happy that we are friends now
well thank you so much for joining us
on prospecting on purpose
and
I will probably have to have you back next season
alright thank you
alright bye bye
thank you so much
for listening to the prospecting on purpose podcast
if you'd love what you heard today
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for more info on me or if you'd like to work together
feel free to go to my website Sara Murray
com on social media
I'm usually hanging out at Sara Murray Sales
thanks again for joining me and I'll see you next time