Where does it always rain on me? Is it because I lied when I was seventeen? What? Pleasure. No, no, it's okay. It used to rain on me a lot. I like the further we get into the year, you're clutching at more straws. I certainly am. It's the 5th of March. Today, it's your favourite, Seneca. Seneca, great guy. I imagine he had arms like balloons.

So concerning the things we pursue, and for which we vigorously exert ourselves, we owe this consideration either there is nothing useful in them, or most aren't useful. Some of them are superfluous, while others aren't worth that much. But we don't discern this and see them as free, when they cost us dearly. Wow, glad you had that one.

Superfluous. Yeah, was gorgeous. You mean I looked at you then? Yeah. You want to go? Nope. So I think what this one is talking about is we're cutting back on things that are costing us time, but necessarily unnecessary energy into. And if you do a pipeline review with someone, so let's say it's one of the businesses we're consulting for. If you're doing a pipeline review and you sat down, you're saying, show me what you're working on at the minute, where you are with things. What are those first things that you spot in where there's quick cleanup? We can do it.

Hmm. So typically if you look at the CRM and the, can put a date on it when it's going to like close when, you'll have a decision by if the date is in the past. And if the date is in the past by anything more than a week. sometimes I see pipelines and it's three weeks in the past, a year in the past. Well, that shouldn't be in your pipeline. Should it? That should be very, very tidy. There's something about like, you know, the rules of like making your bed, you feel better once you've made your bed.

If you have a tidy pipeline, you're going to feel better because you're like, right, okay. I know that this is in the, opportunity pile. know that I typically close X amount, which means I need to go out and do more. Yeah. Which, keeps you like fresh and alive. Exactly. And I think even, I mean, this is one of the benefits, right. I've run in our own business, but it's something that I wish leaders would allow their salespeople to do more of. I've gotten calls before in.

We have a meeting, right? I've gotten calls before discovery calls where someone's come in just a bit, a bit too, a bit too strong, throwing the weight around a bit. I've told them a bit about the approach. Yeah, that wouldn't work for us. We're not really about that. Been really difficult in the questions. And I've given it about five minutes. I said, I'm so sorry. This call is just probably not going to go the way you thought it would just based on the way this, I just don't think we're to be the right fit for each other. And the look on the face is just a, what, what, what do you mean?

I just, I definitely think someone can help you. I just don't think we're the right person. And some people have tried to get a rise out me on that one. I remember saying that to when they went, Oh, if you don't think you're skilled enough to work with us, you don't think you're skilled enough to work with us, then yeah, fair enough. I went, yeah, okay. Yeah. That's probably what it is. um, yeah, thank you so much because the cost of bringing them into the business, them being quite a painful relationship to manage for us. It would have.

tied at anchor to all the different people that are involved in that relationship. And certainly in a small business, that's painful, but in a large business where you're bringing in lots of people that are like that just to get more money, more revenue, at what cost? There's a cost to everything. Yeah, it's really, and I do believe that you have to learn the hard way, but I think for salespeople, it's hard because, mean, let's be honest, this is a safe space on the sofa.

But a lot of sales directors are probably having conversations of just stick that in the pipeline. I've got a board meeting next week and actually it looks better. Do you know what mean? We've got 10 million in opportunity. If you were honest with yourself, that could probably be cut down to three. I've had a lot of conversations with people that we've worked with that venture capital backed or they've got shareholders and it becomes much less about the objectives of the actual business.

and more about impressing the shareholder, which people might say, well, isn't that the same thing? Well, no. Most people get into business to solve a problem. Yeah. And that's what they think about. How do I solve this problem for someone? And if I can do that, well, then statistically, we should work together. When you get into shareholders, shareholders are where's the next deal coming from? How many meetings have we booked? They're looking at very, very tight metrics. when we're working with them, they're like, have you got the dashboard? And can you let me know a bit more about what's happening with the other activity for follow up? They're looking to

dress up the numbers a little bit. Yeah. I've worked in business where it's been, extended payment terms of 60 days with a 60 day break clause to get a deal over the line. So actually not only no money, but no deal. No. Well, yeah. Okay. Yeah. Let's just work together. And then the paying out salespeople on deals that are just totally fall away, but because their shareholder backs and they're such a big infrastructure part of a PLC or whatever.

ends up happening is, well, I'm just seeing the numbers. Oh, it looks like stuff's closing the back. And by the time people notice it's all lost in the weeds anyway. It's corrupt. But I mean, it's, it's, it goes back to what, what game are you playing? Are you playing like the ethical game and there's not enough ethics and sales. mean, there's ethics. probably think of, do you know what mean? Brentwood, Dagenham, things like that. Well, ethics, ethics. but no, it's it's just, why not just do the right thing?

Can I help this person? Do they need my help? Because actually, just point people in the direction of free stuff, because there will be people that come to you where you might not be the right fit for them. And trust your gut always. You've been in positions where you've turned people away, but you've also been in positions where someone's come on board and we go, this is gonna be ridiculous, this is gonna be a nightmare. But sometimes you think, but we could do with a client.

Yeah. And then you bring them on. These are, these are the hard lessons that we've learned through business. Now. I don't think we'd do those. We wouldn't, we'd never do the warning signs that aren't too much, but if you spot those warning signs, don't be afraid to speak up and don't be afraid to like value your own time. If people are coming on calls and they're rude and they demand something you're, you're not kind of a pauper. You're not your prospects bitch. You, you're not, you don't need to be subservient to them. Just like it's 50 50.

work with them to help solve their problems. Don't be a schmuck. Yeah. I remember getting on a call once with a guy, really small growing market agency. He was telling me he was struggling to find people who needed what they do. And I said, can I just share my screen with you and just sort of doubly make sure that you've done this? So I went onto LinkedIn and at the top box where people normally search for people, I typed in looking for marketing recommendation, pressed enter, put it to the last week.

just all the posts with some men can anyone recommend a good marketing agency and his eyes were about to pop out of his head. And he actually said to me, you probably talked yourself out of work here. Do you mind if I go away and do that first and then come back to you? And after about two months, he came back. Yeah. We came back thinking this guy, not only is he not forced me, he's probably made me a little bit of free money. I've now exhausted the free stuff and I'm ready to do this. Yeah. And if he's made a bit of free money, then it goes, well, that advice paid for itself and then the expectations move and it's just, it's a fine line of free consultancy. actually, like people say, like people come to you for free consultancy. Where it's bad is where you know somebody's with somebody for five years. Why would they come to you? They're shopping around, they're getting a quote, they're going to use you as leverage and you're going to go away and do the proposal. That's why we don't sell, send proposals. So I think it's just about like, give the advice if you can, be ethical, but it's a fine line of don't let them. I've been Jack Frimston, I've been Jack Thomson. Remember you'll die.