Neither compelled nor hindered nor limited, whose choices aren't hampered, whose desires succeed and who don't fall into what repels them, who wishes to live in deception, tripped up, mistaken, undisciplined, complaining, in a rut, no one. These are base people who don't live as they wish. And so no base person is free. Epictetus.

It says base. These are base people. Base people? Base. You like that? I love it, Just two idiots reading the stoic philosophy, trying to make it through one day at a time. You ever seen The Matrix? I certainly have. Would you like the pill or the pill? very good. Yeah, a little bit like that. were probably from the school of thought of sales being gifted the gab.

I've got to make them like me. I've got to sell them every feature and then all of a sudden one day we woke up and It was like we'd swallowed this pill and we'd seen this whole new world of what sales actually is and and now I see it and I associate with people like that It feels like everyone does that but I'm probably in like this echo chamber because there are so many people out there that Haven't swallowed the pill and don't know what real selling actually is about.

So if you're watching this, you're probably one of the aware ones who are trying to continuously get better. But it's probably worth talking about, say you woke up today and you've just discovered what ethical selling is really, really about. What are some of the fundamental core points of that? Well, actually one of them is from the Stoics. I cannot convince anyone. I can only make them think.

So once you realize that I can't convince or persuade anyone that I'm going into these engagements just to make someone think, well, immediately I lose the pressure, the persuasion. was certainly one of these people who I'd hit that bit of friction, the core where someone wanted to think about it. And then I'd be stood up in my chair saying, yeah, completely understand it. What have you got to think about? I'd be able to help you right now. Okay. And if you're happy with all that, do you think we want it? And I'd get straight into that pushy close pressure convince mode.

But really what should realise at that point is if we've arrived at that point in the call, I've messed something up. It's on me. I shouldn't be there to convince anyone. It's sales lessons from the Stoics, isn't it? It is. The other one is obviously like you can only control what you can control. Yeah. And I think that that's a big thing of, okay, what can I control? And it's a case of, yeah, you've got your emotions and your perception and your rejection and all those things. going into the sales process, that's why I love upfront contracts.

trying to have a mini upfront contract. The brain loves mini commands and mini upfront contracts. it's putting them in place so that they help you get from A to B and everybody knows the rules because it's not fair for a salesperson to go into a conversation with a prospect and you're both playing different games. You've both got different rules. You're both trying to get different things from it. Well, here's what I'm trying to do. Is that fair? Yeah, cool. And if we get there, can we discuss this yet? And if we don't, can we do this? Yeah, we're now all on the same page but just laying it out there. The other one is just about making people feel seen and heard. Everybody wants to feel important. When I am, I remember walking through, we grew up near the seaside and I was walking through the seaside with my mom once and this woman walked past with crazy bright blue hair. Yeah, I know her. Yeah, it might have been your mom. And my mom just stopped and she went, I just, love your hair. And she went, thank you.

thank you so much and we walked and it was like why did you say that because like her hair's not that nice mom it's bright blue. She went no but the fact that she's dyed it that color is probably for a reason and she probably wants some kind of attention or so it's just nice to be nice and I wanted to make her feel important that might make her day. She's a wonderful mom, a star. She is lovely, she is lovely but everybody wants to feel seen or heard or be made to feel important.

And if you can do that on sales calls, it's going to help you throughout that process. Yeah. I'll give you another one. Go for no. Okay. So instead of the pressure of yes, you know, if I rang someone up and I said, how would you feel about free energy, cheaper energy, better water, whatever it may be? I know what you do. Yeah. I'd feel, I feel good about it. I would like that. Yeah.

And how would you feel if I could do that for you today? Yeah, I'd feel, yes, I feel good about you. Like, the eyes are rolling back and you start to give these counterfeit yeses. You can feel gradually as a salesperson goes more and more for yes, the walls are closing in and there's that pressure. And often what's going to happen is I'm going to say, yeah, yeah, I'll be there. be there. See that I've seen people on LinkedIn posting around. It's usually Americans or people who've learned from the Americans. The cold call is maybe.

a minute or too long and it's just them going, I'm looking to get some time in your diary to show you how we might be able to do this or show you more about this. So people are going, yeah, all right. Yeah. Thursday tomorrow then they're not showing up. No, the sharp rate is awful on that. Sharp rate is awful on that. So what we found is the whole structure of everything, even the way I talk in my own life now is going for now because it feels much more comfortable.

Do you want to hang up on me or let me have 30 seconds? That's it. Well, no, I'm going to hang up. Go on. What's it about? Yeah. You're probably going to tell me none of those problems exist in your world. Exactly. You're probably going to tell me that sounds ridiculous. I'm guessing you've already thought of a way to fix this. Is there any reason why we couldn't sit down and explore this further? Feels like even if we had something to fix this, you'd probably tell me you weren't interested. Yeah. Because there's a lot more safety in no. The room to say no is one of the core principles of what we do because when I've got that room to say no, I feel safe. Wow, you really did swallow the blue pill. I certainly did. I've been Jack Frimston. I've been Zach Thompson. Remember you will die. Get out of the microwave, Sandra.