We did the first and you didn't think we could, you said we wouldn't be here, but we are. It's the second. Two, February. And hey, put your Did you say February? No, April. Put your arms up like that. Like that? No, bit higher. Because I want you to guard your sales mindset. Wow. Because today we're talking about guarding your sales mindset. And who better to talk about than that? Your favourite salesman and mine, Marcus Aurelius. Drama, combat, terror, numbness and subservience.

Every day, these things wipe out your sacred principles. Whenever your mind entertains them uncritically, all let them slip in. So to me, this is all about how you identify those common distractions, roadblocks, those sorts of things. And you said to me before we went live, you said, let's get actionable. Let's give the guys the bit. I want to give them something. All right. So where does your mind go then?

No mindset, let's talk about actionable things. There's a distraction, there's a thing that's taken up too much time. If you're a salesperson, what could it be? My gut reaction is saying tire kickers. Define. People that are coming to calls that don't have a problem, they aren't motivated. I don't know why they're there. They're probably there just to meet you because they think you're something nice and they want to get to know the real you. But actually...

They don't have budget. They don't have a problem. They don't have motivation. They don't have the time. They're not the decision maker and they don't have any authority or audacity. You can see here that's what Jack puts in his Tinder profile. Must have budget time need. Bant qualified dates. Yeah, exactly. So I, when I was in my last employee job, I started to really bring a lot of this stuff in that we do now and obviously like it's testing around, like does it work? And a lot of the disqualified techniques when you knew you were dealing with a tire kicker, you'd get people looking up from the desk, get bosses tutting at you, get them keeping you behind at the end the like, I don't know why we're doing that. The close the file email springs to mind. So we had a definite catch up. There's a definite decision happening, but it keeps getting pushed back, keeps getting pushed back. We all know it's not happening. It's not happening, mate. So the close the file email.

Jack, for instance, subject, close the file. Jack looks like this probably isn't a good fit for you right now. You're happy for me to close the file. Now what's going happen there? Two things. One, you're going to say, yep, you're probably right. Best to close the file. I've give you that room to say, no, we stopped wasting each other's time. Or second thing gives you a bit of a kick in the ass. And you say, yeah, fair enough, Zach. Here's what's happening. I'm going to fill you in. I get it. We're taking a bit longer than we thought. Here's the next step. What's that phrase? Did they say no news is better than no news?

I think it's no news is better than good news. But that doesn't make sense either, it? There is the Google... Thank you, give us fact check. any news is better than bad news might seem intuitive, the phrase actually means that even negative news is preferable to complete uncertainty and not knowing anything at all, as the human brain often finds the unknown more anxiety inducing than confirmed bad news. Essentially, bad news is better than no news. Right, so bad news is better than no news.

Not that is that that makes sense. Isn't it? Bad news is better than you. Just make your point that you're stuck on this. No news is better than no news. What I'm trying to say is it's OK if the answer is no and it's OK if the answer is yes. What's not OK is to just disappear into thin air. So let's get let's get let's get tangible. Let's give some actionable takeaways. We like to give all of the reasons why you shouldn't work with us upfront.

Why that way you can't use them as excuses later on down the line and say oh I didn't know if you want to run into the conversation There are probably some red flags that you need to know about it's not a silver bullet It will take a long time. It will cost you an arm and a leg These are all things that might scare you off But what are your prospects banging their head against the wall at the end going? Oh, I wish I'd known that and when we think about negative framing there and Accusation audits we want to get there first before somebody asks the question, then we deliver it and they go, that's a turn off. Give them everything on a plate. Let them make their mind up. Let them let them. Exactly. Exactly. What else comes to mind? In terms of give me a bit more. What do you mean? Give me just repeat a bit. All right. Well, what are the common distractions when it comes to tire kickers? The things where you like this guy's stuck around a bit too long in the pipeline. No next steps to stand out to you. Yeah, that's a big one, because if you can't commit to a next step,

in the pipeline. It might sound a bit harsh and people might like, oh, I don't know about that. Sometimes there's a catch-up call or decision meeting in there and you get to it, particularly like, you know, January, like a December, an owner will make a decision in January, we'll start then whatever. You get to January, you get to the decision call, you're about an hour before it and you get high as that, can we push this back for another six months? Had a few changes in turning, whatever. I actually don't put that in as a follow-up. I say, I'll tell you what, ball's in your court. There's a link to my diary.

get back in touch if you want. And I disqualify. Lots of people haven't got back in touch. what would you say then? Let's play the counter argument. What would you say to the people that say the magic is in the follow up? I don't know what that means because there's a lot of sort of like, yeah, it's all about giving. I want to give like some value and give away some for free. People say follow up until you die. Follow up until you die, give away some value for free. It makes sense as a concept. The issue is in the mind of

hungry commission breath salespeople value in the follow up and giving away value for free is just like needy nonsense. It's like me coming to you and going like, let me just tell you about dogs all the time. You don't even like dogs. I don't, I don't. just going to follow up. You just keep telling you about dogs all the time. And you're like, I don't even like dogs. somebody's expressed interest in dogs. Well, I don't even know what kind of dogs they want us in the market for a dog. So me popping back up and going like, you still like dogs? Yeah. Yeah. Still like dogs. Sound. You're not a Labrador. No.

I want to poodle man. Yeah, I thought you would. Yeah. So tire kickers, they're like the biggest distraction to like get into the end, no next steps. Is there anything else that stands out about tire kickers that you want to get there first? An audit of your pipeline is a good idea. I mean, you're every sales side, but let's say every six months go over your pipeline and be really honest, like what are the bits that just aren't moving? And the bits that aren't moving, that close the file emails it a great one to go over or quickly just bang for a load of calls like in a nicest possible way, like I'm just going through doing a bit of spring cleaning. Do you need anything else from me? Or are happy for me to just close this one off and then you can get back in touch. ready to go. Just go through. What you really want is a pipeline absent of hope. You just want yeses and nos. And I know if you've got a business with shareholders, they like to see like all this fake, like look at all this money that we might generate one day and look at all these meetings that we might sit one day. But really, if you're a salesperson, you want to live in reality.

more fiction in Excel spreadsheets than in the British library. Exactly. We like that one. I think it's so, so true. And I think that you said they're spring clean. When you do an actual spring clean, you feel good, don't you? How do you know? I've been known to spring clean. But you have that like, it's this weight off my shoulders. All this rubbish is gone. And then all of a sudden it's like, right, now I know that my judgment isn't clouded. I know that I probably don't have much.

It sets up what I need to go and do now. So I would say that if you've got stuff in the pipeline, it doesn't have a next step on it. Give it a few calls. Maybe get someone else to call. Move it. Get rid. Yeah, exactly. Really good. I've been Jack Frimston. I've been Zack Thompson. Remember you would die. True or false, David Dickinson.