Building Consistency in Sales: Benjamin Brown's Proven Methods

[00:00:00] Ellington Brown: Welcome to SpeakUP! International with Rita Burke and Elton Brown! 

[00:00:13] Rita Burke: Well, it seems as if we have been touring the states in the last few weeks. We have spoken with several people from Florida and from Georgia, and today is no exception. We are speaking with Mr. Benjamin Brown, who is in Florida. Now, he's a sales expert author and father of two young children. He has worked in sales for over 23 years and currently works with small businesses. There's so much more that I would like to tell you about Benjamin Brown. However, as we say on SpeakUP! International, it's best if the people tell their own stories and so today I introduce you to Mr. Benjamin Brown, who will tell his own story.

[00:01:11] Benjamin Brown: One of the things I want to cover with people when they walk away from this podcast is takes a couple of tools with them that they can utilize to learn how to sell, uh, right away and so we're going to get into that. But my background is I grew up in a small town in South Carolina called St. George right next to 95.

Um, uh, me and my sister were adopted children by great parents. My parents were my mom was part of 15 kids. My dad was part of 10. So we're on 160 acre farm and I was the only boy there. So when I left from his tutelage and joined the Marine Corps. It was a, it was a lot of, uh, difference between, because I already knew how to work because I grew up on the farm and I left that and went to Atlanta, Georgia and started my sales career, uh, in the gym business and migrated to Florida, which I started there.

And ever since then, I've utilized sales in my businesses. I've been an entrepreneur since 2002, and I've been training individuals for the last seven years in businesses in all aspects of sales, whether it is for the actual learning of the communication of it, the skill of it, the technical side of it, um, the business side of it, everything in life mainly revolves around sales, even in your personal life.

And so I use that analogy to relate to people because sales is a skill and it can be taught just like engineering or plumbing or woodworking and it's something that can actually a career that can last your entire life and give you basically whatever you want the best so you could sell the more money you can make.

So sky's the limit when it comes to that and so everybody in life can sell if you learn how to do it properly and have the right mentors. 

[00:02:47] Ellington Brown: So what companies organizations seek you out? In order to become better at sales. 

[00:02:56] Benjamin Brown: Well, most of the people come, uh, problem solver. Every entrepreneur is a problem solver.

So most people reach out to me when they start realizing they have a problem, whether they're making too much money and they have a growth problem or they're making, uh, they're making less money, uh, due to the fact that it got taken over or competition comes in or a trend comes in and they realize that everything has a system.

Which I teach. So you have a marketing system, you have an accounting system, but most companies do not have a sales system or a sales process. And so what is that, that uh, you can run from the time a potential client reaches you? What is your process that you take them through, the journey you take them through, to see if you can help them facilitate your product or service and then ask for referrals?

That's the main key of a sales process. 

[00:03:46] Rita Burke: Now, you refer to yourself in your bio as a sales expert. What exactly does that mean, please? 

[00:03:55] Benjamin Brown: Well, there's no expert when it comes to sales. You're always growing in this market. So, sales is an ongoing thing. You're learning something every day. One of the things I cover with my students is either you're getting better, or you're getting worse.

Or you're getting worse in sales every day, right? So expert means is that I've honed to craft a process that that's repeatable. That is actually efficient and it works. So when I work with students, if they fit the criteria, what I know they can do, possibly we're looking at normally 30 to 70 percent uh, an increase as far as profitability based upon what they're currently doing right now.

[00:04:30] Ellington Brown: You talked about a process that you go through, can you give us a bird's eye view of that process? 

[00:04:39] Benjamin Brown: Well, in my book Master Studio Article, Closing and Sale, I cover all 10. So every sale that you know has 10 steps, but some products of services need less. For example, in the gym business, we had five, we had need use affordability, spouse guest pass.

So that was the process you would take a client through depending on the product, but it still covered all 10. So once I teach you the 10 steps and understanding that you should be on automatic to put people through that process to realize if you can help them. So it's like a dojo. When you learn to protect yourself, you could take karate, Akido, Japanese jiu jitsu, Brazilian.

All these different styles defend yourself and you still can do it. It just depends on if you're willing to listen to it and adhere to it and work. So there's different processes when it comes to sales, but are you disciplined enough to learn at least one?

[00:05:35] Rita Burke: You've talked a little bit about your book and you've shown us your book, but I invite you now to expand on what's in the book, if you want to, and to tell us the inspiration behind writing the book. 

[00:05:50] Benjamin Brown: Well I also use it as a guide, so it's not very big. Keep it simple stupid is my process because it's a lot of things.

So sales is simple but it's not easy. So the simpler way I can do it because it has to be repeatable and it has to be done automatically without a script. So the 10 steps are broken down in a small book, but I, this book right here, I could put this into a probably a one year college course, if I had to, the breakdown on how each part actually does, right?

But to keep it simple is each step has that on it. So one month can cover each one of the steps. So when I teach, normally I can get this down for somebody who has no sales process, for an individual about three months time frame to understand it and master it and actually be able to produce it, right?

And so that's why I say sales is a skill people don't understand. You have to take it more seriously if you want to get into it because It takes time. It takes work to understand how to be a good salesperson, no matter what product or service you're selling. 

[00:06:48] Ellington Brown: How do you determine who is going to be in your class and what are the individual success rates at the end of the schooling?

[00:07:00] Benjamin Brown: Well, the criteria first is, the first thing I do is, uh, first rule in sales is never assume anything. It's ruled out by questions. Number two is that you have to like a love the product. So my concept is if you don't like it, love it, leave it. Because when you actually sell your product, people feel the enthusiasm as you had.

So when you work for a company for somebody else's product or service, you have to believe in it, which means you have to like it. So if you don't like or love it, very difficult for you to actually sell it. And so that's one of the first criteria that I go through. 

[00:07:34] Ellington Brown: So why do people leave? What are some of their reasons?

 I'm making an assumption here, and I know what they, and I know what they say about that, but what are some of the reasons why people say, ah, I can't do this, you know, for whatever reason and I would be interested in knowing what are some of the reasons why they drop out?

[00:07:56] Benjamin Brown: Eighty percent of sales is confidence. So people are not built the way they used to be. Uh, we're very, uh, you know, driven based upon likes and things of that nature. And in sales, it's about failure. So you're going to get turned down a lot. It's like the guy I do a lot of analogies, dating always come to mind is the guy that never gets the girl that he wants.

Because he has to realize in order to get the girl you want, you're going to have to get turned down a lot. So you don't just get that one shot, and then go for it, and she's going to accept you, and you're going to walk off into the sunset. Most cases, the guys are the aggressor. You have to actually pose first.

So, you know, that's what a guy's, you know, he has a game, what they call it. He has a game, he's smooth, you know, all this kind of stuff. He knows how to communicate, right? But he's willing to take, the reason he did that is because he's probably failed a whole lot more times than the other guys. Right. It's a failure rate for success rate and most people don't want to go through the failure there.

Uh, their demeanor is not there for it. 

[00:08:57] Rita Burke: It's not easy. Is it? It's easy.

[00:09:00] Benjamin Brown: It's simple, but it's not easy. Right? Not easy at all. Okay. There we go. 

[00:09:05] Rita Burke: You want to turn back when you feel. But I'd like for our listeners to learn more about your rapid success process. 

[00:09:15] Benjamin Brown: Right. 

[00:09:16] Rita Burke: Could you explain that for us, please? 

[00:09:18] Benjamin Brown: So rapid success mean I'm taking the personality and based upon your demeanor and your willingness and then basically able to put the sales process in where you can utilize it.

Because there's three things in sales you have to do simultaneously is one, you have to know where you're going. Number two is that you have to be confident and number three, you have to listen. Now, a good salesperson has to do all three of those things simultaneously. You do one good, you do alright. You do two good, meh.

But if you do three good You actually become excellent at what you do and it takes a skill to actually teach somebody to do all three things, because main thing you're focusing on the client, not yourself and so rapid success is the faster I can get you to understand that the easier it becomes and most people just don't believe it can happen.

[00:10:11] Rita Burke: Let's hone in a little bit on the number one, know where you're going. And what does that mean? 

[00:10:18] Benjamin Brown: That means the 10 steps. I know which step and what questions I'm going to ask next confidently and be prepared for the answer without any inflections or anything and being able to speak properly and be confident in what I'm saying and be prepared for any response that the client comes because what happens you get something that you're not used to you get thrown off thrown off your pace you get thrown totally out there and it's just like you get lost and most of the time that's why people don't want to do sales.

They get lost. The confidence goes down. This is not working because what happens most salespeople that are not successful will blame everybody else except themselves. 

[00:10:55] Ellington Brown: So you've been in the business for 23 plus years. When you go into a small business, how do you gain their trust? , You walk in, your confidence is pouring out and they're looking at you saying , I don't know about this guy.

So how do you gain their trust where you're not wasting their time , your time and their money? 

[00:11:23] Benjamin Brown: The concept that I live by is that when I train you, You don't pay for me. Your customers that you haven't ascertained pays for me. So in most times in businesses, I could find where they have leftover money, just laying around.

They haven't either deals. They haven't closed. Uh, they went through their database for a former clients that they already sold that it never up sold to all these different criteria is finding the money efficiently. So once they start seeing the money start coming in, the trust factor starts going up, right?

Because it's a trust between mentor mentee. Um, that has to go on because you have to trust what I'm telling you. And that normally takes about 30, 45 days when the light comes on and people start going, Oh, now I understand what you're talking about. I thought sales was like this, but now I know it's like this.

It's easier. And so that's where the work has to come in and you have to be willing to put in the work. I can't do it for you. 

[00:12:17] Rita Burke: Yes, I agree. It's not a get rich quick system. More than likely, you've got to work for it. But you've alluded to the word confidence several times and I think it's a part of your process.

How does, how does one gain confidence? 

[00:12:34] Benjamin Brown: Well, step number one in the book is called Getting Prepared. So if you don't have that, you don't go into the sale so that you don't practice on potential clients. You actually role play. So your mentor, the things I learned when I got into sales is that I was lucky enough to work with somebody who understood that and work with me one on one.

So you can practice and role play that. So when you get on the phone, you're more comfortable because your failure of practicing on a client is going to be a hundred percent. Right. Another reason people eject and get out of there is because most companies do not give the salespeople in their, in their companies enough knowledge or tools to be successful.

That's why they have high rotation rate. People coming in and coming out is because they don't give them enough tools to be successful. They're looking for that diamond in the rough that they don't have to cut. Right. So if we go through enough candidates, we'll find one every now and then to build our team, which costs a lot of money and takes a lot of time rather than giving them the proper training that they have and things that nature sales is basically the one department that people don't put a lot of infant to, but that's where the money comes from.

Um, so, uh, you know, they're willing to let people go on on any type of basis without putting the effort in or giving them the tools to be successful. 

[00:13:55] Ellington Brown: I noticed that in the companies I've worked for in the past, you see maybe one or two sales people, you get to know them and they disappear. It's like, wow, what happened?

Well, they didn't make their quota. So they have to let them go. What do you feel about that type of situation? Would you prefer working under that type of pressure or in your own personal business, 

[00:14:26] Benjamin Brown: the reason you make the big bills is because you acquire the skills. So, when a salesman comes in, mainly he's finding out what commission structure is not worried about pay, not worried about so on and so forth.

So, for many years I worked commission only. So, we don't have the benefit of coming into work, being at the water cooler. Back there with the coffee, figuring out who won the game. How was church? Did your mom do this? How is that? How's your car sales is performance based on a regular basis. So while everybody in it is doing their thing, HR is doing their thing.

Um, you know, uh, the management's doing their thing. Salespeople job is performance from right off the bat. Eight o'clock is nine o'clock. It's time to get on the phone. Right. So most people get away from that by doing marketing online, social media marketing, where the client comes to them and they snap off the low hanging fruit.

So that's called reactive sales. Not not proactive. So a lot of companies are reactive and they do very well with that until the point like, one of the current clients I'm working with didn't know, had a year worth of people who came through the process that they interviewed one time and then let them go.

Now we can go back through that one year people and we start cleaning it up and you find out there's thousands, if not tens of thousands of dollars, that's already been in the database is because you only been picking the high, most interested people that wanted to work with you and the other people probably took a little bit of coaxing and they could do the same thing.

So it just takes time and the right people to do that.

[00:16:05] Rita Burke: Talk to us about your clients. Do you recruit clients or do they come searching for you? 

[00:16:12] Benjamin Brown: Uh, both. A lot comes from referrals because my book, uh, the last step in the, in the sales process is not the sale, it's the referrals. So when you get a referral, you don't have to sell as hard and plus no like and trust is partially already built.

So it saves time in the process. So when I teach people, we generate the referral process in the end, which people normally don't have insurance companies are really big on that. If you notice that, right? Really big on the referral type deal, right? They live on that. Um, and so there's another other business network marketing is really big on referralment base.

They don't have to advertise. You don't see them all billboards and all across. It's all through the network. It's what they build it out. So I try to emphasize that because your best customer is the one you just sold. 

[00:17:06] Ellington Brown: You've been doing this again. I'll say, I said before 23 years, give or take, yes, a little more.

 You're going to these companies. Can you tell us what is the general problem across the board when you go in? What's the number one thing that most companies are doing? I Don't want to say wrong, but challenging. 

[00:17:32] Benjamin Brown: They have no process. So your job is to replace yourself or have something where people come in and say, this is where we do things here.

The most successful operations I was with when I came through my tutelage. In sales in the beginning, the most successful companies had a solid process. It was profound. And if you couldn't learn it and couldn't do it, that was it. So they were, they were sales first, right? And this is the way we do things here.

And we had people that came in from other different sales background who had experience and we will, we would tell them, listen, That's not going to work here, but this is how I did it over here and I made all of this money. The first thing we would tell them while we sit next to them in our desk working with them is like, yeah, if it was so good for you there, why are you here?

Right? So this is the way we do things here and we'll listen to them on the phone and they wouldn't adhere to the rules. And we'd be like, they're not going to last long. And they did not put up with that. And we were pulling down half a million a week. With about 75 reps on the phone, no computers, no cell phones, no email, just all on the phone credit cards.

Right. And so it was just straight to the point 100 percent from nine to six, it was straight sales. There was no looking at email. There was no checking your profiles or going through checking your social media or looking at their LinkedIn profile for background. Finding out what they like and talking to them and figure out what they golf game is.

No, it was a straight, straight process and I got to see firsthand for many years, working in an environment, how it works on a regular basis when you work hard at it and all the different styles of individuals next to me using the same process. In their own type of manner, right? 

[00:19:26] Rita Burke: That's interesting about the process. I fully agree that in any field, process is really important. But I'm hearing you sing the song of the days when there was no internet, and no emails, and no computers, and no cell phones. Have we been able to gel those good old days with these current times? 

[00:19:50] Benjamin Brown: Well, I think it's coming back because people are getting tired of not being personable.

Now we have AI or we talk to somebody and we make a phone call to somebody, you know, you're going to have to press a couple of buttons or say certain things to get to the people that you want. I run a very successful limousine service here in Tampa Bay for the last 14 years. One of the things people love is that when the phone rings, they get a person on the phone right off the bat, like no voicemail.

No direct thing. So people are selling at arm's length with all these processes and tools that we have now and so coming back to normal, even now you got AI. Some people, when they hear my voice, I go "All Pro Town Car" this is Benjamin speaking may I help you? And they go, is this AI? And I'm like, Oh, it's not AI.

I'm like, so it's like, you know, they, they're so used to somebody else is that I think, um, the people that I talk with. Being able to be more personable and be able to talk directly to people about your product or service. You have an advantage over a lot of people because our communication skills are not as much.

We're all on our phones, texting, this and that. People don't have the communication one on one like we used to back in the day. So it's difficult for them to, um, communicate or, you know, try to help somebody with their product or service. So, you know, I used to say, get on the phone and people would look at me and shun, they're like, you want me to call them?

I'm like, don't you want the money? Um, so it's like, we just emailed them. Yeah. Okay. How's that working for you? So, you know, first person, sales, I think, will make a comeback at some point because now people go to voicemail and they get frustrated. I can't get anybody on the phone. That's part of the game. That's part of the game. 

[00:21:30] Ellington Brown: So what do you think of AI? You've brought this up as an example, I think, three times now. Yeah. And so I want to know, what do you think of AI? What do you think of technology as it is today? How does that all play into an individual, to be successful. 

[00:21:50] Benjamin Brown: I think a lot of jobs going to be alleviated due to the fact the soft skills that people had from writing the coding and things of that nature.

Uh, all the, you have somebody that, uh, automated system that gives you suggestions based on. So your decision making process, you won't need all of these different type of things will come into play. It's going to evolve. It's happening right now in real time. Um, I think it's going to change the way I look at it this way, the simplest way I can do it when the first laptop hit like, oh, my goodness, this thing does everything.

I don't have to fax anymore. I don't have to call. I can call through the system. I could send emails. I can do all of this. This is going to alleviate a ton of jobs, which it did the cell phone. You know, I don't need a radio anymore. I don't need a CD player anymore. I don't need this anymore. I, you know, I don't need a compass anymore.

I don't need a maps anymore. You know, I don't need an address book. It alleviated a ton of jobs. So AI is going to be on that same level. So those who adapt quicker, is the one that's going to take advantage of it and don't be afraid. Even I started jumping into it. I think the other day I was looking at, Something and all I was in Orlando and I was like, hmm, where should I eat in Orlando?

And I'm like, I'm looking at chat GPT and I'm like, where should I go? And it just laid it out. I was like, wow, there was like, and I went to the place and it was great. And so, you know, normally you would go to Google and ask that now it comes back and talks to you. So for all those people that don't have those skills, On how to utilize technology and how it encompasses and how to grow, um, they better get up and get up and game because people are going to use it and going to dominate.

So that's the same thing. Can you build a website? Do you have a website? You know, all these type of technology type driven stuff. Make sense? 

[00:23:34] Rita Burke: Yes. Now, on SpeakUP! International, we seek to inform, to educate, and to inspire through the stories of our guests, and this, today is no exception. Our guest, Mr.

Benjamin Brown, is telling his story. But you know what? I like to hear success stories as well, and there's no question that yours is successful. Share with us, please, a success story of one of your clients. 

[00:24:06] Benjamin Brown: Okay. Um, let's see. One of the, well, I got so many. Um, I'll use a simpler one. A client came to me that had been working in the industry for 23 years and never learned sales.

But just had a successful company, half a million a year, normal, that type of deal. Working together, found me on LinkedIn. We started working together, um, started believing in, in changes. And what I do with most, some clients, I have them write down how much extra money they made based upon what they acquire through the knowledge that I teach.

So that's what I love about sales. It's not theory. It's not marketing and how many people bought marketing programs that never panned out and you can't argue with them because you don't have to in marketing. If it doesn't work, it's not their fault. It just didn't work. Right? And they'll come back and say, well, you need to spend more money.

So with that, with sales is revenue driven. So the success of what I do ends in the bottom line that you produce. And so she averaged around about 40 grand a month because just half a million dollars, 50 grand a month, uh, within three months, it was in two months, we generate 169, 000 just that quick because she could turn it on and be able to understand the confidence of what she was doing because she was having conversations.

So sales is a language. It's a language. So she was still just having the regular English conversation with clients doing well, but when she learned the language of sales, she was able to convert a lot. You know, she wasn't asking, it was like, Oh, you ready to move? You know, all this kind of stuff. And you can't do that in sales.

Cause you're wasting your time. You're wasting their time. People have to be automatically pushed people by based upon what they want, not what they need.

[00:25:59] Ellington Brown: How do you go about discerning that when you're talking to a potential client or a client, it doesn't, it really doesn't matter because that one versus neat thing can be on either. When you 

[00:26:16] Benjamin Brown: say the word discern, what do you mean 

[00:26:21] Ellington Brown: when you're talking to an individual? Can you tell whether or not this is something they want versus something they need?

[00:26:29] Benjamin Brown: You talking about a client or a customer? Well, with a client, the way that we actually do that in the real game is are they willing to pay? So the main thing that we disseminate with a lot of our products, are you willing to pay for what it's worth? And so if people are not willing to pay because you can give it away for people, but they won't do anything because it has no value.

So in the beginning I did a pilot program where I tested my program for people that didn't, and it was difficult for them to follow through because they had no skin in the game. So when I tell people the reason that I charge you is because you pay, because I need you to pay attention. So based upon the amount that you spend, if you spend 100 with me, you probably wouldn't pay attention that much.

You wouldn't show up that much. I got other stuff. But if you spend what I require is, you know, anywhere between five to 10, 000, when I tell you to show up for your meeting, you're going to show up because I don't want to waste my time. And I'm pretty sure you don't want to waste yours to get the money to replace what you've actually spent in a quicker manner than you would in marketing.

So the discernment is that, are you willing to pay? And most people are like, Oh, you know, I don't want to pay that much. It's up to you. This is the game. It doesn't change. You have to pay to get into the game, and some people don't want to pay, and they stay exactly where they are, and they complain, next year if I could do this, and they'll read another book, which is theory, because this doesn't work.

A video doesn't work. A YouTube doesn't work in sales. It's a skill. So it's an action item. You have to actually do something to learn it. And so that's why I tell people this, this is just a guide. This is, this is not a god, the holy grail. It's working with somebody role playing is where the skin, you know, where the real hits the road.

Right? And so that's, you don't have the benefit of just learning by osmosis. 

[00:28:21] Ellington Brown: Okay, so you're saying that the same principles that you would use with a client, you would do with a potential customer? 

[00:28:30] Benjamin Brown: No, that's two different things.

[00:28:33] Ellington Brown: Okay, so then what's the difference between the. 

[00:28:38] Benjamin Brown: Of, of selling a client compared to selling a customer?

Yes. I don't sell customers. I help customers. 

[00:28:46] Ellington Brown: Okay. Well, that's a nice way of wording it. Okay. 

[00:28:50] Benjamin Brown: Yeah, you don't, you don't sell customers. You help them. So the, the, the real, the realization of the process is to realize and I'll ask you guys to question one question. Okay, Rita, who's more important in the sales process?

Is it the client or the salesman?

[00:29:09] Rita Burke: If you're saying one word, I want to say the client because you're saying you're helping this person. So obviously that person becomes the most important. 

[00:29:20] Benjamin Brown: Elton, what's your answer? Is it the client or is it the salesman? 

[00:29:25] Ellington Brown: I think the most important person would be the salesperson 

[00:29:29] Benjamin Brown: Right! 

[00:29:29] Ellington Brown: Because, , that's the guy who's basically orchestrating all of this. He's trying to get that money! 

[00:29:37] Benjamin Brown: Well, I have the solution, right? I'm a problem solver. So I can't solve everybody's problem. I don't have the time, right? So your product, you should sell everywhere. No matter what it is, napkins, refrigerators. Lear jets. 

So when I work with you, you come in and interested in my product. I'm qualifying you to figure out if you're wasting my time because I'm here to help you, right? I'm not here to sell you. So that's the mindset change. People like they have the selling, like, Oh, I don't want to be sold. Like you're being sold to all the time.

You have children. They ask you to pick them up. That's a sale. You're so sales is everywhere. So you can't get away from it. That's especially in a Western civilization. That's what we thrive on. capitalist capitalist society is all about sales. So you're in it. Whether you like it or not. So if you don't want to be in the real game, you don't have to be in it, but this is how the world really works.

Churches is a sale. Everything that you go to is, is pretty much a sale. Your house, your taxes, everything is, everything is up for sale. Your car, your gas, you try to get a lower price on this. You're always negotiating. When you open your phone, you're being sold to 24 seven. So I'm a, I'm going to cover this real quick.

That'll help you give it an understanding. So Rita, what is the purpose of a sale? And then I'll ask you, Elton, just give me, what is the purpose of a sale? Real simple. What do you think it is? 

[00:30:59] Rita Burke: Based on what I heard from you is to help the person address the problem. 

[00:31:05] Benjamin Brown: Kind of like that. Elton? 

[00:31:08] Ellington Brown: It's also about establishing a relationship with a person. Because you, you want to make sure that this is not the only revenue that you're going to get from this individual. You want something that's going to be ongoing, passive, almost passive sales. 

[00:31:26] Benjamin Brown: So you see how you guys elaborated into a paragraph what a sale actually is, right?

Something you do on a regular basis, something that happens on a regular basis that you can't, Directly get a quick answer for so the purpose of a sale is to get someone to move. So when you're selling And you don't have a sales process. You're talking to somebody, you're not asking them to do anything.

So when you open your phone and somebody's selling you, what are they asking you to do? Click on this, give me your email address, swipe this way, go here, make this phone call, read this. Then take a look. Then give us the email. Then set up your calendar. Same way you did in your podcast to bring people in is a sale.

You have your process and the way it works, right? You use probably Podmatch or something else to reach out to individuals or something like that. Then you put them through your process. You have to ask. They have them do something. You didn't reach out to me and say, Hey, let's talk. I'm like, okay, what do you want to talk about?

Oh, being on a podcast. Okay, what does that mean? Uh, well, just, would you like to be on the podcast? Click on this, go ahead, fill this out, and then we can schedule podcasts. You're asking people to do something. So that fear base for most people is when they have a product, they like and love it, But they're not asking their clients to do anything.

They're just talking to them about it, which is normally the presentation. They're talking about the product over and over again, and hopefully the client will fall over based on the information that I have and just want it. And so that is an antiquated sales process, which don't get you a lot of success and requires a lot of energy.

So to make somebody move, I'm doing that. So, I'm going to end quickly by asking questions, and I'll close with this. The difference between a good and a great salesperson is the number of questions that you ask. So, the more confident you are, the more detailed questions you're going to ask, and that's going to help you in your sales process.

[00:33:17] Rita Burke: And so that brings me to my next question. How many training packages do you have, and how are they different? 

[00:33:24] Benjamin Brown: Well, you have the smaller individual package, like one hour just to figure out the problem solving the theory aspect of it. Um, and then I have based upon the time that you want, because I'm more of a mentor mindset coach.

So most of the time I have to change your mindset before I can train you because you already have negative connotations of what sales is. So, you know, with people that have vast experience, I have to change that mindset to realize what I'm trying to relate to you. Um, so that normally takes, I have a one month, three months, six months, and a one year programs that I work with people because most of the time I have to extract some of the negativity in your head so I can put in some good things.

That takes a little work. When I first started, I was just training people and I wasn't getting the results that I wanted. I had to realize why they was not selling. Sometimes that's childhood trauma. Somehow it's something in their life, something that, that stopped them from being confident to understanding that you can, you can do this, right?

So you have to believe in yourself and that's where the confidence comes. So when somebody says, no, I don't want it, it doesn't affect you mentally. You move on to the next call and you do the same process over and over again and so you have to have the energy and the confidence to do that.

Did I answer your question, Rita?

[00:34:44] Ellington Brown: The purpose of these interviews or , these conversations is that I enjoy most is the fact that we talked to , many individuals from all points in life, not just, , say a group of, uh, consultants. No, we talk to everyone and so talking to you has just widened our perspective and what our audience can do.

 You're laser focused in sales, I can tell , just by the way that you, , present what's in your mind, let's push all that out and tell me what do you like to do outside of work? I know you have two children. Yes. So, what do you do?

[00:35:36] Benjamin Brown: Well, uh, I used to play a lot of tennis. Learn music, learn a different language. Uh, spinning Spanish is what I'm trying to get into right now. So open my mind based upon that, but definitely, uh, you know, my, my deal is, uh, having a responsibility to raising children to adulthood is a beautiful thing I am divorced.

So trying to instill in my children what it is, because I grew up with two parents that were married 57 years. I didn't understand what it is for, you know, I was blessed to find out how special it was to have two parents in the household without drama and all the craziness and all that stuff and how rare it was for me and I try to bring that into my children.

So when you're on that path where you're You're not together as a husband and wife. Um, you know, you have to instill what you can do on the time that you have. Um, because you only have X amount of time. I just looked at my daughter's turning 12. I got six more years. So I'm like, I gotta get this in, gotta get this in before they leave.

So, you know, you try to instill those types of deals. And so, yeah, I, I, I know how quick it is. I have a godson that I helped raise who now works for me. He's six foot five and he's 26. So I'm looking at this kid when I used to hold him like this and how fast it goes. And it's our responsibility to prepare the children at 18 for them to leave the nest.

And if you haven't done that, something's wrong. If they're not mentally or physically, you know, uh, have problems based on that. That's what's supposed to happen. Push the bird out of the nest. So I feel as though when I left at 18 to try to give children enough tools. For them to be prepared for the tough life that they're going to have and that's what you're supposed to do as a parent and that's by not cuddling them and discipline them and all the different things that you have to do to instill that like my father and mother did for me.

[00:37:31] Rita Burke: That leads me into my next question. Let's suppose you are invited to speak to a graduating class of MBAs. 

[00:37:45] Benjamin Brown: Yes. 

[00:37:47] Rita Burke: What three gems would you want to leave with them? 

[00:37:52] Benjamin Brown: Number one is that your certificate or your MBA that you just got is not as strong as you think it is. Most of the people that I know are MBAs are inadequate in some way, and they try to overcome based upon that piece of paper, which normally doesn't work.

Uh, they're always something lacking. We'll find in sales that dealing with a PhD or MBA is one of the hardest things to do because they think they know it all. They really do. Uh, it really, um, so, you know, getting them off their little high horse is a whole nother deal. I love, love messing with them. So doctors, lawyers, PhDs and MBAs are very difficult to sell because they think they know it all.

Um, and it's nothing against them. Kudos to you to go to school and put all that in there, but I'm just being real. Um, number two, it is your responsibility to take the knowledge that you have and pass it on to someone or someone else or a group. Uh, instill them enough to reach the same heights that you have in the benefits that you actually have.

Um, and number three is make sure that when you do that research, you culturally bring it back to your family and instill the education that you have to help them to reach some type of heights, whether it's associates, bachelors, or some type of program for them to, you know, pass on generational wealth to help them.

Because knowledge is nothing if you can't use it. So, you know, people have a master's degree and then they're working and like as a reception. It's like, it's, it's, it's mind blowing some of the people that, but you have to do what you have to do to get through. But, uh, yeah, that's, that's what three things I would instill.

I have my bachelor's by the way. I don't, don't want the masters.

I'm on BAs. 

[00:39:41] Ellington Brown: That's a, Hey, and, there's nothing wrong with that!! 

[00:39:43] Benjamin Brown: I'm all bad.

[00:39:49] Ellington Brown: Remind me of a song I know! Thank you so much for joining us today. We got to understand your concept of what sales coaching is all about. We talked about this rapid success sales process that you've developed and that you've used. We talked about your success stories, your 10 step process.

This, uh, book that you have put together. Can you give us the name of that book, please, sir? 

[00:40:23] Benjamin Brown: It's master the art of closing the sale by Benjamin Brown is on Amazon. And if people want to reach out for me and want to reach out and figure out if I can help them, I made it very simple. I have a URL is called https://www.meetwithbenjamin.comand you can get yourself in the schedule to find out and assess where you're at with that. It makes it very simple and you can do that. What was one of the things you guys actually learned today? Give me one. 

[00:40:53] Ellington Brown: You have to be a BA in order to be successful in sales. 

[00:40:59] Benjamin Brown: That was before I got the BA, by the way, so, you know.

[00:41:04] Rita Burke: And, uh, for me, it's, uh, the importance of confidence. 

[00:41:10] Benjamin Brown: You don't have the non benefits of not having that. It will crush you if you don't have that in the game. 

[00:41:15] Rita Burke: But no one, and, and all of the people that we speak with, I am amazed and impressed that they present us. Being very confident, and I'm still trying to find the answer as to how and what processes they use or their parents use to get them to the point where they are.

But I think ultimately I will find that answer. 

[00:41:38] Benjamin Brown: You, it's the same thing I teach people. You can't motivate anyone. That's a false narrative. You can't. It has to be inside and so bringing that out of people to be awareness and their confidence because you could fake it, fake it till you make it and some people are introverted.

So when they do sales, they do it very well. But at the end of the day, they exhausted for me. I'm energized. So different personalities for different times, right? But confidence, I think, and, um, um, when you talk about confidence and what was the other one? Uh, confidence. Yeah. Being able and then having that internally, right?

So being able to do that, you can't, you can't, you can't, you have to have them aware of that. That's what I work on because you have to turn it on, right? You have to turn it on and you have to perform. So sales is a performance base. You cannot be in the game or be depressed and do sales. 

[00:42:41] Rita Burke: Not at all. Not at all.

[00:42:43] Ellington Brown: I think it goes right back to when. You know, you go to work. Some people say when they get to work, they have to be on. So it's, it's the same thing, different process, but still you, if there's just persona that, you know, have to put on in order to get through, through the day, 

[00:43:08] Benjamin Brown: I was a manager and so on Monday people would come in, I would, you know, manager of six or 10 or whatever I was working with at company.

And I would look at the people and I'd be like. Go home. Be like, what? I'm like, you're not in it today. You're like, what do you mean? I'm like, you went out last night. I'm like, go home, sleep it off. They're like, what do you mean? I'm like, you're not coming here wasting leads. You're not in the game. You don't have the benefit of coming in here hungover and tired and stuff at nine o'clock drinking coffee.

You gotta get all the way to six o'clock. You're gonna be done by eleven. You're gonna have your head on the desk by twelve. And you're gonna drudge your way through it to six and you, we're not paying you hourly. We pay you commission. So you're not in, in shape to be on the field right now. It's like a football player with a lame leg.

You don't, you're not gonna be in there. You're gonna make somebody else, you're gonna hurt yourself. 

[00:44:00] Ellington Brown: Once the, podcast is prepared. produced it will show your web address Instagram and those other platforms that you're on that information will be at the bottom so that when they read the description, they will have that information.

It'll be totally accessible to them so that they can get to you. 

[00:44:23] Benjamin Brown: Absolutely. 

[00:44:24] Ellington Brown: Thank you for such a energizing conversation, uh, so early in the morning, but that's okay. Looking forward to having another conversation with you in the future, , possibly when you write that second book.

Yeah, I'll be coming down the pipe. So, you know, one thing is how we relate. So I just have to find out how we're related and I can write a book on that, Mr. Brown. There you go. 

[00:44:53] Rita Burke: Thank you so much. Thank you so much, Mr. Benjamin Brown. 

[00:44:57] Benjamin Brown: Thank you. 

[00:44:58] Ellington Brown: Thank you for listening to him, SpeakUP! International! If you wish to contact Mr. Benjamin Brown, please be prepared to submit your name, your email address, and the reason why you wish to contact Mr. Brown, at www.meetwithbenjamin.com. Mr. Brown has other social media accounts you can use to contact him listed in the description section on Spotify and other platforms. 

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