TRP 180: Selling with Simplicity with Bob Marsh

[00:00:00] You're listening to the Rain Making Podcast, hosted by High Stinks Headhunter, author and

[00:00:19] professional speaker, Scott Love.

[00:00:24] You're listening to the Rain Making Podcast, and my name is Scott Love.

[00:00:27] Thanks for joining me on the show. His name is Bob Marsh. Bob is a keynote speaker and he's a sales expert in high-level sales. He spent his career in sales and sales leadership. He's been a sales leader and CEO at two category-creating companies. He's raised millions in venture capital. He's sold to companies. So even if you're not in quote sales, but you're in business development, he's someone

[00:01:41] you can still learn from.

[00:01:43] Our topic today is selling with simplicity. Bob, thanks for joining me on the show. Scott, thanks so much. Great to be here. I love the name of your podcast. Who doesn't talk to the idea of Rainmaker, right? Yeah. That's what I realized when I started this a few months or a few months, a few years ago, three years ago, it was kind of like, hey, let me just put on a show. What do people care about?

[00:03:02] They care about getting business. Everybody wants that. right? And then you think, look at what's happened. Like I got three screens, four screens in front of me right now. It just stuffs coming at us and it's eroding our attention spans. But here's the thing, that's always happened in all human history. Attention spans have just continued to decline a little bit because there's more information coming at us.

[00:04:20] And our brains learn how to focus in on what matters.

[00:04:25] So, you know, we all hear this phrase and kind of laugh about it. Everybody says, I'm so busy, right?

[00:05:42] Everybody feels that.

[00:05:44] And whether you're the CEO of the buyer and what they're looking for. Okay, so is that one of the categories? Understand the mind of the buyer? It's not, I would say, but if you zoom out and say, selling with simplicity is about understanding how people make decisions. So that's kind of setting the stage.

[00:07:00] So there's four categories.

[00:07:01] First, I call noise canceling confidence.

[00:07:04] And what this is all here is that there's a lot of noise in our own heads that gets in our own way.

[00:08:20] And if we could just cancel out that noise,

[00:08:22] it would allow us to deliver and communicate

[00:08:24] with more confidence. dumpy. They don't look you in the eye. They kind of act like, you know, I'm not sure, like, what do you want to do? You know, like, suddenly I don't feel confident. And by the way, you might have the greatest product, the most perfect solution for me. But the way that if you're carrying yourself in a way that you don't look like some of the knows what they're talking about,

[00:09:41] you don't carry yourself like some of the knows in our own heads. Yeah. That gets in the way of us carrying ourselves and making the customer feel confident. So, yes. Right. Got it, got it. That's interesting. So how do we improve that confidence?

[00:11:00] What have you seen that works with people

[00:11:02] that you've coached to improve that confidence?

[00:11:04] I would tell you that think makes a big difference. So let me ask you this. And this is something I've advised people before that when you're

[00:12:20] dealing with the high level prospect, somebody that's a chairman of an international organization.

[00:12:24] My own thinking, and I want to hear what if I believe that, then you know, that I can do it. So, so to your point, like such a pet peeve of mine was someone like, Mr. this, Mrs. that, like what you're doing is you're just, it's well intentioned, right? It's well intentioned. I'm trying to be respectful. I'm trying to say like, hey, I'm here at your service. I totally understand the rat and the thing behind it.

[00:13:43] But it's a mistake. But it's a mistake because you're immediately setting the tone I had to grow through that and it was arrogance covering up for insecurity and then really you know What helped me with that Bob, which is interesting was doing homeless ministry where I would Through our parish I would minister to homeless people Which is just going to the service and becoming friends with them and remembering their name and listening to them and treating them as an equal

[00:15:00] And what I learned by treating them as an equal that was the same way that I would treat

[00:16:01] deeper on one of the things. Sure.

[00:16:02] Yeah, you bet.

[00:16:03] So another one is called what I call make the putt.

[00:16:05] I'm a golfer, playing competitively high school college.

[00:16:09] And what I observe and I sold golf equipment retail store when I was in college and like

[00:16:15] I was pretty good at it.

[00:16:17] So anyway, one of the things that I laugh about still to this day and I learned when

[00:16:20] I was selling golf equipment is how people spend money, are you a golfer?

[00:16:25] Yes, absolutely.

[00:16:26] Every week. So, you know, the point of this topic or this area is that you need to get to the heart of what really matters to the customer and really understand what's important, really understand their needs. And that's the thing that you need to address. And so we get lost in like the surface level stuff.

[00:17:40] We don't get to the heart of what customers really need.

[00:17:42] So that's that topic.

[00:17:43] But the one I think we should maybe talk a little bit more about is something I call

[00:17:46] lead the world. Okay. There's not a ton of them, so a lot of people haven't seen it, but in Gaiju's goes back like 15 years or so. I walked into a roadrunner sports. It was in Northern California. I just moved out there. I was living in Michigan and moved out there. I only was there for a year. I'm like, oh, what a great time.

[00:19:00] I should take up running.

[00:19:01] Yeah, right.

[00:19:02] You know, outside, enjoy the weather.

[00:19:04] Like, yeah, yeah.

[00:19:05] So I walk into roadrunner sports out here I want to be outside. It's enjoy the weather etc So I was thinking myself like why did he ask that question like oh it probably has the type of shoe Perfect so the next question was okay, so do you plan on running on the street on a track on a trail?

[00:20:25] I'm the one who gives him

[00:21:42] the answers.

[00:21:43] I'm the one who's guiding it.

[00:21:45] So these are the shoes what's best for you, not me. That is good. I mean, there is so much depth into what you're saying and that's something, it's almost like the things that you're saying are things that I've said to people

[00:23:00] to advisement, how to sell.

[00:23:01] And I've seen from my own experience that everything

[00:23:03] you're saying is absolutely spot on.

[00:23:05] Especially when you're selling to people that get a lot

[00:23:08] of people trying to sell them stuff, right? take to start this. What would you recommend? I would say I love the fact that you always close your show like this. That's great. I'd love to come yourself. The third one is what we just talked about, the lead, the journey, is to reset your thinking about the customers in control and just let them be in control.

[00:25:43] Help them be in control and that the reality? What do you have? What would you like our listeners to know about how you can help them be on this interview today? Sure, I appreciate that. So, you know, we talk about it a little bit at a time. So first of all, I'm an active chief revenue officer. So I'm in the trenches selling work and leading teams, you know, every single day. But the main area where I might be helpful.

[00:27:01] So as I mentioned, I'm a professional speaker.

[00:27:02] I speak on the topic of customer experience,

[00:27:05] sales, leadership, growth,

[00:27:07] all through the lens of simplicity.