Joe Paranteau is a leading authority on selling, a sales coach and mentor, keynote speaker, a small business owner and entrepreneur, and an investor. He has generated more than $1.8 Billion in revenue as a professional salesperson.
Joe wrote Billion Dollar Sales Secrets to help sellers and non-sellers alike. He delivers real-world strategies and insights from thousands of sales engagements he led with Fortune Global 500, SMBs, startups, and government organizations. He leverages these experiences to help others achieve their full sales potential.
In today’s episode, Joe discusses a few different chapters in his book that break down his different philosophies as a sales leader. Starting out as a door-to-door salesman on an Indian Reservation in Montana to now serving as a Sales Director for Microsoft, has given him a unique perspective.
Tune in to hear from an incredibly insightful sales leader whose journey in sales has made him wildly successful and how he remains incredibly humble through it all.
Watch or listen to this episode:
Transcript:
Wed, 11/24 10:31AM • 46:44
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
People, sales, meeting selling, listening, book, sellers, customer, salespeople, thinking, sales, managers, money, learned, started, secret, connections, person, plan, impact, leader
SPEAKERS
Joe Paranteau, Christopher Smith
Intro
Welcome to the Sales Lead Dog Podcast hosted by CRM technology and sales process expert Christopher Smith, talking with sales leaders that have separated themselves from the rest of the pack. Listen to find out how the best of the best achieve success with their team and CRM technology. And remember, unless you are the lead dog, the view never changes.
Christopher Smith
Welcome to Sales Lead Dog. Today, we have joining us a very special guest, Joe Paranteau. Joe, welcome to Sales Lead Dog.
Joe Paranteau
Hey, so glad to be here. I’m really happy to be a guest on your show. I’ve listened to it many times and you’ve got a great show.
Christopher Smith
Alright, so let me tell everyone that’s listening a little bit about Joe. Joe is a leading sales expert. He’s generated more than 1 billion in sales in just five years. That’s right 1 billion in sales. He has led nearly 30,000 sales meetings in his 28-year career. He currently works at Microsoft as a sales leader. Joe is a sales coach and mentor, a keynote speaker, a veteran, an entrepreneur, and investor. Joe, it’s great having you here. Joe, is also the author of Billion Dollar Sales Secrets, which we’re going to talk about today on Sales Lead Dog, Joe, I always like to start the podcast or one of the questions asked early on in the podcast to my guests is what do you wish you’d been taught? When you were first starting out on your sales career? What’s your answer to that question?
Joe Paranteau
Wow, I love this question. Because it gives me an opportunity to think about all the things that I’ve done, and then go back and benefit someone else’s life. For me, that’s, that’s why I wrote this book, this book is the book that I wish I had read when I was young in my career. But, the thing that I think really matters the most is I was an accidental salesperson, when I started selling, my mentor told me, ‘hey, sales is about helping people’. And like, really? She said, ‘yeah, it’s about you, helping people get what they want and need’. Many salespeople spend all their time practicing their pitch and figuring out like, mechanically, how can they be successful. And it’s not about that. So, the one tip that I think would be beneficial to hear is, spend time engaging people and spend time connecting and being curious. You’ll be a much better and more effective salesperson when you do that; Instead of just thinking about what’s the feature behind the product I’m selling today? That really doesn’t work that well.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, because it comes right down to, you’re not selling to a business, you’re selling to a person or another person. You have no idea what’s going on in their life, or what happened to them earlier that day, or what they’re worried about what may happen to tomorrow. Right? So, it’s all about that connection? What is your approach for or philosophy around establishing those connections?
Joe Paranteau
One of the things that I like to do is always think about, you said it best- understanding, what’s that person like? How well do I know them? You know, how has their day been? What challenges did they have prior to meeting with me? And how can I make their life better? How can I really add impact to them? So, I think seeing your job as a seller is not only someone who’s connecting with that person, or you’re connecting with that organization, what’s going to move the chains. Then sometimes complex sales today, you’re connecting with a lot of people. So, you have to do this times 10-12 or more to really connect with people on a deep level and distinguish yourself and add value.
Christopher Smith
The way Joe’s structured the book is he’s broken it out by secret. Secret number one is look inside. What does that mean to look inside?
Joe Paranteau
Yeah, look inside. This also goes back to career. When I was writing this book was something that people had always told me to do, or like, you should write a sales book. I heard it from customers. I heard it from coworkers. I heard it from partners. It wasn’t until I got the confidence, enough to put pen to paper. But, that confidence building exercise was I had sold a billion dollars in a five year span. It’s two and a half million dollars a day. After I did that, I was like okay, I think I know something about selling that I could add to people. It wasn’t just selling b2b sales. It was also selling in my personal business, working for charities doing a lot of different contexts of sales. So, that’s what led me to write it and then look inside, I start the book out there, because you can’t be great until you start to connect with yourself. I’ve seen so many people who are disingenuous to what they’re trying to position, because they don’t believe it. They’re not a product of their product, they don’t want to buy it themselves. And guess what? You wouldn’t either because you spot these people. They’re great actors and actresses. And if you want to be great at sales, you have to look inside and figure out what am I going to do. And my routine that I got in the habit of doing was looking in the mirror every day, when I got up and saying, I’m going to help somebody. Today, I’m going to help somebody get what they want or need. And one of my mentors told me that was a secret behind selling. So that’s where I got the idea of billion dollar sales secrets. They’re the combination of things that I’ve learned from other great sellers, mentors, and people who’ve impacted me throughout my life. Not all of them are things that I’ve done personally. Some of them are things that I’ve watched other people do as well.
Christopher Smith
You mentioned earlier that you fell into sales accidentally. Not having this book at your disposal when you’re starting your career- What were some of those early struggles you had, trying to learn and develop as a salesperson?
Joe Paranteau
The first one, childhood for me was tough. I’m (Indigenous Tribe). I’m brown bear. I’m the first person, in the first generation of my family to grow up off an Indian reservation in northern Montana. It’s interesting because I’ve learned to live in these two different worlds. But we didn’t have much growing up, and we got our power cut off and all kinds of things. One of the first jobs that I did selling was painting rocks with my brother and sister and selling them door-to-door. But even back then I learned, ‘hey, sell the future, don’t sell the rock’. See many people sell the rock today. Even at eight years old, I learned ‘hey, this rock can be great at holding down napkins on your picnic table, so they don’t blow away’. You can use it you know, as a nice desk ornament- it’s beautiful. I think people actually just bought it because they felt bad for me. I literally went door-to-door with a little bow tie on and I never wanted to be in sales. I thought I was going to get into public relations or politics or something like that. It was Lorraine who said, ‘you know, you’ve actually been a stockbrokers assistant, you’ve worked at charities, you’ve been selling buddy, and you can help people with your background in technology and communication’. So, I took a deep breath and I’m like, ‘okay, I’ll give this a shot’. I didn’t have a favorable impression of salespeople. I thought that they were kind of slimy and sleazy and hucksters. But what Lorraine was putting down was something different, that I hadn’t seen modeled for me in my life. I took a chance. And I’m like, if I can look in the mirror and look inside and be that person who is different than all the other models that I’ve seen, then I’ll be in good shape. So, looking inside means getting real with yourself about what are your goals, dreams, and aspirations. Where do you want to go and not thinking that you’re not worthy enough to do this and not thinking and believing in yourself. But it’s about getting real with where are you at and where do you want to go?
Christopher Smith
I love that. Secret number two, the yin and yang of rapport, which really grabbed me when I first saw that. Talk about the yin and yang, the conflict, or the contrast of rapport.
Joe Paranteau
Yeah, it’s one of the things that I have as my background is I’m a student of communication. It was my undergrad, I studied speech communication, which is studying human communication. Rapport is something very real in sales that I learned early on, you have to build rapport with your customers, with your partners, and really just with anyone. I don’t care if you’re not in sales, you’re still going to have to learn some rapport building secrets. The thing that I had also learned is, I started my own business and I did door-to-door and direct sales, and indirect sales, multi-level marketing sales. They have this concept called form where they use somewhat of a contrived way to build rapport with people. I talk about it in the book. I talk about what’s a different way to do that. I like the fact that there’s a plan that helps people connect with people, but it’s too contrived. In real life you can’t do that, you have to build the yin and yang. So, the yin and yang- there always developing. Human communication is contextual. There’s usually sharing that happens that is mutual. If someone shares something, usually you share something back. That’s that yin and yang. I talk about some of that dynamic, and how you can build true rapport with people.
Christopher Smith
Right. What do you think some of the struggles people have with building rapport? And how can they overcome those struggles?
Joe Paranteau
Some people are challenged with that little voice in their head. There’s a lot going on in people’s brains and they listen to it and they believe it. Sometimes it’s based upon what other people have said to them, ‘oh, you’re never going to be good at this, I don’t view you blah, blah, blah’. To me, that’s all a bunch of crap. But people start to internalize it and believe it. For me, one of the things that I had going on in my head is, I went and took undergraduate pilot training test at the Air Force Academy. I had somebody tell me, you’re never going to be a pilot. The test was a written test, it wasn’t even like, practical. Well, guess what? I’ve got my pilot’s license. I got a 98 on my written- I aced my flight review, in fact, the flight instructor fell asleep while I was piloting him around. So, I figured that must be a good sign. But you know when people are challenged with themselves, it makes it harder to move forward. And you believe these definitions of yourself, oh, you know, I’m, I’m this or I’m that, or I’m not good at. You know, networking, connecting with people, build yourself a new tape deck that’s playing those messages for you. That’s a big challenge. But the other thing is having a plan to go out and be successful in an interaction like that. So, I give some tips about what are the things that you can do to establish those connections over and over and over again, so that you’re like an oak tree, you’re consistent, you’re not easily swayed, and you get to benefit that people enjoy.
Christopher Smith
And that takes us right to secret number four, it takes a plan.
Joe Paranteau
Yeah, and it takes a plan. There are many plans- meaning quantity and there’s also mini plans, which you know, is kind of the depth and level. The big challenge with planning, everyone who’s selling or a sales leader, or like, ‘okay, we’re gonna do our business plan or territory plan, maybe you’re a small business owner and entrepreneur’, you’re building out that business marketing plan. Many people stop there and that’s it. In the military, I learned, most battle plans don’t survive the first bullet. So, when you’re planning, the plans that people forget to make are the ones in the moments or the real small ones, like call plans. When people who work for me, or people I work with, have a meeting and it doesn’t include an agenda- I’m out. I don’t attend because something that I look at is for a good meeting, you’re asking people to give up their time, talent and treasure. You’re asking me to give my time, the talent who needs to be involved? You know, am I going to have a multi-legged sales call? And then treasure? What’s the payoff for your meeting? If you’re bringing five people from your company for this meeting, and your customer has five people? Is this $150,000 meeting? You know, what’s the value payoff that you’re doing with your time? And is it worth it to them? So, thinking about those things in a plan, it takes so few minutes to make a plan and to say, ‘hey, this is my best possible outcome’. This is my minimum action. And in the book, I teach people how to own their next meeting and I mean, really own it. To make some plans in those call plans that people overlook.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, I remember, young in my career, I was in a meeting and kind of one of those meetings where I was a fly on the wall, a whole bunch of people in the meeting and the CIO at the time, stopped the meeting. And he went around, and he said, how much money do you think we’re spending right now on this meeting? Look around at all the people in this room? What are we doing here? What’s the purpose of this meeting? What are we working towards? And yet it was kind of like blank stares and he stopped a meeting. It’s like we’re out of here. We’re not wasting our time in this meeting anymore. And that stuck with me. I mean, today, I mean, I’ll never forget that moment. It totally, it’s a great example of what you’re talking about that if you’re going to do anything, especially when you’re dealing with a customer, you better have a purpose, a clear agenda for what you’re trying to get done in that meeting or don’t do it.
Joe Paranteau
Absolutely. Ink Magazine… the shocking reality is that 90% of meetings fail to achieve objectives. So, we’re wasting a lot of time. You would think, oh it’s COVID, we’ve gotten so much better. Now we just have more crappy meetings faster. Youmight put a cool background on and go, ‘I nailed that meeting, they saw my virtual background that really hid all the crap that I had behind me’. But no, meetings matter. And when you think about it, in those ways, that I’m asking for people’s time, their talent and their treasure, it starts to become real. Sales are won and lost on these moments. So, think about what am I bringing to this? What’s it going to mean? If I just take the time to, to craft out a plan and talk to my team, prior to going into that meeting to make sure everyone… You know, in your example, when they went around the room. If they were to say, ‘hey, my name is so and so and the reason I’m in this meeting is because one of the biggest sales that ever made, we had everyone on point doing that question when they were asked, in fact, they weren’t even asked in their introduction, they said, ‘hey, my name is so and so and the value that I bring to this meeting is boom’. And the customer was like, floored. Their jaw dropped and they were like, wow, I get it.
Christopher Smith
Yeah. I love that. That’s great. Secret number five high quality connections. How do I know I’m making? Or how should I be making high quality connections?
Joe Paranteau
Yeah, this is really one of those things that a lot of people… public service announcement, I work for Microsoft. So, I’m going to tell you that I love LinkedIn. But I really do and anything CRM related, that lets you look at all the people that you’re connected with, and do something with that information; Now, there’s people who look at it as almost as a badge. Oh, I’ve got this many connections, but they don’t invest in making them high quality connections. They’re just after a number. And think about how do you evaluate quality? But don’t just think about your connections, use them as a strategic tool in your kind of palette of what you bring to the customer. What are your connections? And how can they be activated in a customer situation? Have you looked at: who is the person that you’re meeting? What’s their educational background? Where have they worked? Who do you know, that might cross paths with them? And then what do they really need to make them better at their job? Have they been struggling to find somebody with a financial background to add to their team? I’ve helped place so many people who I never got credit for, in jobs with customers, because customers had shared ‘hey, this is something that we’re looking for’, because I’m bringing high quality connections to them. And I just really think about every time I make a connection with anyone, I don’t care who they are. It’s easy to, to see people based upon title. But if you have a title, I don’t care if you’re the CIO, the CEO, the SVP. Are you worthy of the title? You’re not your job. And you need to bring more value so that when that title doesn’t exist, when you’re away from that job, do people still treat you in value? Have you earned that? Simon Sinek talks about a friend of his who calls it the gold coffee cup, he went into the green room one year, he got treated like a king like royalty, and he got a gold coffee cup while his role changed. The next year he comes back and he’s like, ‘hey, like some coffee’ and they’re like, ‘yeah, there’s a Mr. Coffee over there and the styrofoam cup’. And he says that that person didn’t change. He was still the same person. But what had changed was, he was no longer in that role and so he wasn’t worthy of the gold coffee cup.
Christopher Smith
Yeah. Wow, the gold coffee cup, I’m going to remember that one.
Joe Paranteau
So, I think in in high quality connections, are you, yourself worthy of your connections? And are you bringing stuff to people that matters? Are you bringing in other connections to people that’s going to help make their life better?
Christopher Smith
Right, it loops back to your first point that it’s like we’re here to help other people. And what are we doing to actually execute against that?
Joe Paranteau
See, it’s so simple, you know, being thoughtful to someone, and they’re like, I’m a big fan of this team, you know, put in a team name. I don’t want to offend anyone here. Like I mentioned you’re my favorite teams.
Christopher Smith
This next secret? I know, it gets a lot of attention when people look at the table of contents. Sales Managers suck. Yeah, that’s the title for secret number seven, sales managers suck. Why do sales managers suck? Or how do they suck?
Joe Paranteau
Yeah. So, when I wrote this, everyone who’s ever sold, is probably looking at this and saying, yes, the chapter that I wanted, is writing about my boss. But what’s interesting is you read sales books, and you don’t read this, you don’t read about how you can have a great customer relationship. But you don’t read about the reality of those sales managers who, who may be a challenge to work with. And this is kind of a head fake, because I don’t like excuses, especially from salespeople, because everyone will be like, oh, the reason I hit my number is my sales manager, they gave me the worst quote in the year, you know, or they didn’t respect me, and you know, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah. In sales, we have to get past objections and roadblocks. That’s what makes us professionals. And in life, that’s just the case. So how do you do that? If you’re customer, but you can’t do it in your own company. So, take accountability for the things that you can do to build great relationships. And so, I talk about, hey, what are some characteristics of people that make them challenging to work with? You know, there are people who, who do think sales managers, but you know, if you’re a sales leader, this is also one that I like, because sales reps will come here and go, Yeah, I’m gonna validate my point that my boss has got it out for me. But if you’re a sales leader, they’ll probably go, oh, I want to go and see and make sure that I don’t fall into any of those things that I don’t, that I don’t suck. And I think that, you know, if you’re a sales leader, you know, you need to be comfortable in your own skin and think about what am I giving to other people? What am I doing to help them develop and grow? What am I doing to help give them a sense of purpose, so that they’re working toward a vision or a goal? And, you know, just being inclusive in supporting your people is never more powerful than it is today. And this is one thing that I love that I think sales leaders need to do more of, is just spotting when people do something, right. You know, they say this about kids, that you have to spot them doing something right 10 times before you tell them something that they’re doing wrong. But yet there’s sales leaders out there who will tell their teams, oh, here’s all the things you’re doing wrong, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing this, you’re not doing this. And your team is just becoming tone deaf to your criticism over time, you need to catch them doing right something right. And then you’ll earn their respect. So that when you tell them, you know, hey, this is some corrective behavior that I’d like you to make. Here’s what I’m observing. And so, I dive deep, and I give sales managers and sales reps tips to have better relationships. So, from a sales leader standpoint, I talk about withholding judgment and just focusing on observable behaviors that you can help control and from a sales rep standpoint. Hey, when I talked about call plans, and I put it before this chapter, whoever builds a call plan for a meeting with their manager? Why shouldn’t you know you should you why not? You know, that’s an important relationship. You can build a call plan for a meeting with your manager. I learned this one. And after I did, it changed me forever. Because guess what, I started having better meetings and it works.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, that’s awesome. That’s great tip. My wife is a couple’s therapist. And one thing you said earlier about focusing more on the positive. One of the things that she told me that she learned when she was being trained, is that for the most successful couples, a big part of that success is because they are acknowledging the good things that they’re partners doing far more than the negative. And that’s really where that strength in relationship comes from, or that’s a huge component of that. I’ve always thought about that, too, from a leadership perspective that, when you’re trying to build a team, and getting them to follow you, a big part of that is, is building that relationship. And you’re going to have much more success as a leader by focusing on people’s, you know, the positive in their strengths. And, and, you know, not ignoring the negatives, but really coming in for more of that approach, and having that vulnerability and that empathy, to create that incredible relationship as a leader.
Joe Paranteau
Yeah, and a couple of key points… that’s nice to hear about your wife. But in the military, I learned this one, I can tell you, I had a top-secret clearance and there are times as a leader, when you just can’t tell or share things with your team. And other times when you don’t know. I’ve learned it’s okay to say, I don’t know, they might look at you and go, I thought you knew everything. But when you follow it up with, I’ll find out what I can do. You know, from a couples therapy, when I first got married, there was this gentleman who’s married for 55 years. And like, how do you build a relationship for that long? Six words, ‘Honey, I’m sorry, please forgive me’. But, those are magic words, in life and in sales as well, from a sales leader or a sales rep standpoint, having ultimate accountability, to take command and control of things when they’re not right really Matters and it makes an indelible mark on your customers.
Christopher Smith
That is being vulnerable enough to be able to say, hey, you know, I don’t know the answer to that.
Joe Paranteau
Yeah, I don’t know. Or, you know, hey, I’m sorry, we let you down. It’s being able to, to feel good about being accountable for that, that hey, I don’t know. But guess what, I will work with you, and we’ll find the answer.
Christopher Smith
Secret number eight. And secret number nine, I want to group together. Secret number eights. Listen up. Secret number nine is what you say when you’re not talking?
Joe Paranteau
Hmm. Yeah, so the great things about these secrets, you know, for listen up. We all think that we’re great listeners, you ask salespeople what their listening skills are from a scale of like one to 10. And they’ll usually pick like eight or nine because they are great at listening, but they’re not perfect. And you’ll find a lot of people who say I’m great, but we’re horrible. We don’t listen that well, what’s happening inside of our minds. You know, if I were to talk really fast, I can talk about 225 words a minute. However, our brains are moving at like 3000 words a minute. And we’re thinking about all these other stuff that when we’re supposed to be listening. Hey, you know, how does my jacket look and my hair? You know, is anything out of place that I brushed my teeth today? Is there a big blueberry stuck in my mouth? Maybe some leftover from lunch? What’s all these things that are playing through your mind? Oh, I like what they’re wearing. That’s great. Wow, they must have money. I suddenly feel insecure about this meeting. I didn’t plan it. Those are the things that are happening and preventing you from listening. So, listening involves consciously focusing on people. And you can tell too, because there’s a common listening faux pas, when you meet somebody for the first time you shake their hand and you walk away five minutes later, you’re like, who was that person? And it’s because you had all these distractions, you know, maybe it was the room, maybe it was the environment. So, I teach people in Listen up, how to be very focused about listening and very intentional, and the different types of listening. Everyone’s heard about active and passive and, you know, empathetic listening. So, I spell it out and teach people how to become better listeners. Now, the challenge is, when I write a book like this, and you mentioned your wife’s a couple’s therapist my wife is always like, well, for someone who’s studied communication so much, you sure can always trust the people closest to you to keep you humble. But the great thing about listening is you can always get better. And you can confirm, you know, if you’re hearing things the right way, and it’s super important, because when you listen to what the customers are saying, it’s one of the best sales skills because I’ve won deals where I was just patient and I listened. And I asked insightful questions a little longer than my competitors. And it netted me you know, a lot of money because rather than stick to, you know, the script of like, I’m here to tell you about this. I was like, well, what really made you pursue this project and they’re like, well, we had to… oh, why? Oh, because, you know, we only have enough cash on hand for six months more of operations. And we’re getting killed by this competitor in our operations. And so, we have to pivot to a new direction. Got it? What happens if you don’t? Now we’re laying people off. Okay, so this is a better business moment for you? Yes. Got it? Well, based upon that, I’m going to make sure that I can connect with you to bring some value that’s going to help you, when you’re talking to somebody like that, they’re betting their business, you know, maybe they’re taking second mortgages out of their house, just to keep the company employed. You have a responsibility to show up and do what you can to help them. And my competitor didn’t dive that deep. They were just there to talk feature function benefit, and they left. And guess what, because I really heard them and understood them and listened. I was like, okay, I understand what’s going on here. And then I knew how to follow up, when to follow up. And I knew immediately I said, okay, I’m going to go back, I’m going to find some information. Let’s set up a time to meet tomorrow. Thank you. You know, my competitor didn’t meet for another two weeks. And I had the deal close by them. So, listening is a strategic asset. The next chapter, you know, you talk about like, nonverbals. Everyone knows about nonverbals and sales, oh, you need to comb your hair, whatever. Communication is symbolic and we ascribe meaning to things that we see. You know, visual, but it’s not just visual, it’s sensory, what type of perfume are you wearing? How do you look at all the different senses that you bring, even when you’re in a virtual COVID environment, you’re bringing some of these senses to bear? So, what do you say when you’re not talking, you know, when you’re not speaking? Really draws on some of the things that I’ve learned in watching salespeople and watching people have bad sales calls and good sales calls. So, what does it say to your customer, when you show up, and you’re not professionally dressed, when you’re in a rush, and you show up five minutes before the meeting starts, you’ve got all your papers, and you’re kind of disheveled? And you’re not calm and clear in presenting your thoughts? You know, there’s an impact there. So, these are two really important segments that talk about the things that a lot of you and senior sellers take for granted, or they don’t clue into.
Christopher Smith
I think you knew about this back when you first started selling those rocks by, you know, showing up wearing the bow tie?
Joe Paranteau
Yes. Yeah, the bow tie that I had, you know, we look pathetic, my brother was the artist, my sister was the heavy, she’d collect the money for us and I was the seller. I don’t know how I got roped into that role, at a young age? But we made some money doing it. And it left a mark because even after that I sold everything I had learned really easily- Columbia House Records was this thing when I was growing up back in the 70’s that you could buy like 12 records for a penny, you tape a penny to a postcard they’d send you 12 records. And so I was like, what a great deal. From a profit standpoint, I’m going to take these records, I’m going to sell them for five to 10 bucks apiece and I’m going to pocket the, Mulley out a penny. And my mom, she had to call Columbia House and say, oh this kid’s 10 years old. You can’t be sending them this stuff.
Christopher Smith
Yeah, I remember that. A lot of people listening probably have no idea what you’re talking about. But what I used to love getting those in the mail like oh yeah, I’m building out my music collection here by line.
Joe Paranteau
And now they’re probably like, oh my gosh, what’s this? This old guy’s talking about records. I don’t even know I’ve seen a record store? You know, it’d be like your Spotify account, if suddenly you got 12 Free Spotify is for one cent for you know, a month. There you go be like, oh, they got me for a penny. I’m only doing Spotify for a penny, the same sort of thing. The thing going back and then trying to resell those. And I was always scheming on something to sell.
Christopher Smith
It’s awesome. So, the last secret you have in your book, we’re skipping ahead here. You can’t get all the secrets for free people. You got to buy the book, but we’re going to skip ahead to the end. And I’ve never seen this covered in any of the sales books that I’ve read. And I’ve read a lot. Secret number 15 handling success. Talk about what the secrets all about.
Joe Paranteau
Yeah, so I appreciate that. Because when I wrote this book, I set out to take all the things that I learned about from a sales standpoint, conscious and unconscious. And I put them on my wall, and I started questioning everything. And then I thought about who’s my audience for this book? You know, it’s not only b2b sellers, it’s b2c sellers, its direct sellers, multilevel marketing, charities, consultants, CEOs, small business owners, lots of different people. And, you know, when you think about, what are the things that I’ve never seen in any sales book? Well, I’ve never seen anyone share the struggles of a sales professional and working internally and selling internally to your own boss never seen that. And I’ve also never seen, what do you do if you’re good at this? And for me, this was a cautionary tale, because I blew this one big time, when I first started getting good at sales. You get commission, and a lot of people who shy away from sales are like, oh, I don’t want the quota. Well guess what’s great about sales is it’s an output for what you put into it. And if you develop a knack for doing little things, well, you’ll get the payoffs if you do them consistently over time. And, for me, once I started seeing some of that return, I blew it big time, I would spend more money that I had coming into my life on a monthly basis. I’d buy a new car every month, I’d buy a vacation home, and then the company went bankrupt. And all of that came to a screeching halt. So, the learning that I had was trying to unwind that was incredibly difficult. I was going out to dinner all the time, it was a bunch of stuff that served me, you know, me, me, me, me, me. And so here I talk about what can you do, that’s actually going to make you a better person, once you start tasting success. So how to have like balanced success. And everyone who’s watched professional players probably knows this to be the case, they come into a bunch of money, they actually have to take classes on how to manage their money and to manage these windfalls. Nobody does it with sellers. But it needs to be done. And so, I tell people, you know, hey, give something back, show gratitude. Think about what you can do to make the world a better place. Save some money, you know, develop your walkaway fund, really think about what you can do, just to be a better person, to really take success and use it to get better to develop to a new level. You know, people also have success in a certain kind of tear and then they don’t know what they can do to move up. And there was one young insurance seller that I really enjoy, because he was young in his career, but he knew that he wanted to be in a different class, then, you know, with all of his college buddies. And so, what he did is he went out and bought a nice new suit, bought a country club membership, and a nice car. And everything else, you know, was spent on those things. But he started hanging around with people who took an interest in him. And he made that leap to a next level to where he was suddenly interacting with other business people who viewed him as a peer. And that, you know, that can happen all the time. But only if you approach, you know, success deliberately the same way you approach sales in life. Be gracious, think about what your plan is, think about who you’re hanging out with. It’s all intertwined. And I’ve packed this book with things that will help you if you’re a sales leader, you know, and you’re trying to help your teams develop and grow if you’re a sales rep salesperson. And even if you’re not a salesperson, I’ve had people who wrote this and said, oh, this book is so great, I don’t care if you’re not selling, you’re going to enjoy this book. So, I hope your readers enjoy it. And I’d love you know, any engagement to hear about your stories of success, because that’s really what it’s about. It’s not about me, it’s about me giving you some secrets that can make you better.
Christopher Smith
And one thing I really liked about this ending on this, which I think it’s a great way to end because we’re all striving to get to this level of success. But one thing I really liked about this is to really handle this you have to go back to secret number one look inside and starting out with that intentionality of you know, what is this impact that I’m trying to have on the world, on myself, on my family, the people I care about, the people I’m trying to help? That’s all part of this. It’s not just about the money right now, which a lot of us define that as you know that it’s my success. I’m driving this expensive car, or I live in this big house or whatever. Is that really success?
Joe Paranteau
And Robert Kiyosaki, he always used to say that money is a concept. And I never used to believe him. But what he means by this is it doesn’t matter how much money you’re making, you can still have the same stressors, no matter what your paycheck is. In fact, they found people with less money, live happier lives. So, if you’re like, if I only I have a million or 5 million or whatever, you know, then I’ll be happy. Guess what? Science doesn’t say. So, science says actually, the less money you have probably the happier you’ll be. It’s more things to worry about. But what brings you joy, is exactly what you said, is thinking about, what am I doing here? And if I’m in sales, you know, I have sellers coming in all the time are like, hey, I sold this million-dollar deal. Great. What’s the impact of what we’re doing there? And they’re like, oh, yeah, you know, well, the impact is I’m helping their business grow and become more profitable, so that they can boost their shareholder value. It’s going to allow them to expand in the Americas. Great. So, thinking about not only what’s your impact, personally, what’s your impact professionally? And then the last book, or the last chapter kind of book ending? What’s my impact in the world, you know, what’s my legacy going to be?
Christopher Smith
Yeah, I love that I personally love working with manufacturing companies, because they’re making something and it’s also the people that are working there. When I way back in the day used to do ERP implementations, I’d love going out into the plant, into the warehouse, and meeting all those people, because those are the people like for the way I grew up, those were the people I grew up around. And so, I personally have a real deep passion for manufacturing. And it’s funny, when I, I’ve recently kind of been thinking about this a lot lately that it changes the way I interact with, you know, when I’m talking with a company that is in manufacturing, I just have a deeper passion about it. It’s not about trying to sell them; it really is I want to help their business grow and succeed and hire more people and continue to have an impact on their community. You really think about all the things that go into a company like that, and the impact they’re having, when we sell, we’re helping that help that we’re doing or that sale. It’s impacting, it’s rippling out in so many ways.
Joe Paranteau
And I don’t know who said this, but, you know, fellers, if you haven’t heard this, it’s nothing happens until a sale knows either Stephen Covey or somebody, you know, Thomas Watson somebody way back when said this, but it’s true. If you’re a small business owner, and you’ve got the next killer idea, well, guess what? Nothing’s happening until you sell something. But the economies that you build in sales and helping others is exactly what we need right now. So, if I’m passionate about something, you know, COVID has ripped us up economically, there’s so many people who’ve been hurting out there, nothing is going to happen until a sale. And we all need to learn if you’re not a sales professional, how to get your boost, you’re selling game, to sell your ideas, you know, to sell your dreams to get money from investors, different types of things. So it’s a skill that we can all build. But, you know, getting in making a profound change and having an impact in the world. That’s the thing I love about sales because every day is a new day and the companies you help you know; you’re helping their company add jobs. It’s a virtuous cycle and it’s a great career. So, if you’re in it, you know, wish you all the best and keep doing what you’re doing. And if you’re a customer out there, and you’re listening to this, you know, keep doing what you’re doing. You sell to, you know, that interaction is not a one-way street. I always say that sales is something we do with people, not to them. Right?
Christopher Smith
Right. I think that’s a great way to wrap up this episode of Sales Lead Dog, Joe, it has been great having you on the show and listening to you. The book is Billion-Dollar Sales Secrets. If people want to get the book how do they get the book?
Joe Paranteau
Yeah, so my name is a little complex to spell. So, I’m not going to torture you with that. But the best way to find me is the jpar.com. You can buy the book and most booksellers, so Barnes and Noble, Amazon, Half Price Books, Walmart books, 1,000,080 books, and it’s available around the world and online. If you want an author signed copy, you just got to billion dollar sales secrets.com I’ve got a payment gateway set up there. Let me know what you want me to write in the book and I’ll send it off to you. Happy to do so. But really appreciate you looking into this and it’s not a one-way street, I want to hear back from you and understand hey, what impact can I have in your life? I love hearing stories from readers.
Christopher Smith
If they want to connect with you like that. What’s the best way for them to do that?
Joe Paranteau
So again, you know, you can reach me at the jpar.com That’s my website. But also, on most social media platforms- I’m the jpar on LinkedIn and on Tik Tok, the jpar on Twitter, the jpar Facebook, the jpar. You kind of get the point. Find me out there. I’ve branded myself as the jpar just because Paranteau doesn’t go down very well. Even for people who I’ve known my whole life, they still don’t know how to spell my name.
Christopher Smith
Yeah. Well, Joe, it’s been great having you on here. And thanks again for coming on Sales Lead Dog.
Joe Paranteau
Likewise, I just want to say thanks to all your listeners and make it a great day.
Outro
As we end this discussion on Sales Lead Dog, be sure to subscribe to catch all our episodes on social media. Follow us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram. Watch the videos on YouTube, and you can also find our episodes on our website at Empellorcrm.com/salesleaddog. Sales Lead Dog is supported by Empellor CRM, delivering objectively better CRM for business guaranteed.
Quotes
- “The one tip that I think would be beneficial to hear is spend time engaging people and spend time connecting and being curious. You’ll be a much better and more effective salesperson.” (3:22-3:38)
- “I had sold a billion dollars in a five-year span. It’s two and a half million dollars a day. After I did that, I was like, okay, I think I know something about selling that I could add to people.” (5:43-5:55)
- “I would go door-to-door with my brother and sister, because I grew up poor, we didn’t have very much money, I’m the first generation of my family to grow up off the Indian Reservation.” (7:39-8:02)
- “When I wrote this book, I set out to take all the things that I learned about from a sales standpoint, conscious and unconscious. And I put all these post-it notes on my wall, and I started questioning everything.” (35:55-36:06)
- “Give something back, show gratitude, think about what you can do to make the world a better place. Save some money, develop your walkaway fund, really think about what you can do.” (38:17-38:30)
Links
Joe Paranteau LinkedIn
Joe Paranteau’s Website
Book’s Link on Amazon
Book’s Website
Twitter
Facebook
Instagram
Tik Tok
