Escaping the Drift with John Gafford - Broadcasting to Sales Mastery: Dave Anderson on Loyalty and Resilience

Episode Date: April 15, 2025

Dave Anderson, a broadcasting industry veteran who has shared the microphone with legends like Charlemagne, brings his wealth of experience to our latest episode of "Escaping the Drift." Join us as we explore the fervent sports culture of Philadelphia, where loyalty and confrontation go hand in hand. Dave takes us down memory lane with stories that capture the city's gritty spirit, from the notorious jail in the old Veterans Stadium to its relentless quest for respect. Our conversation paints a vivid picture of a city characterized by resilience and passionate devotion, offering insights into what makes Philly fans uniquely formidable.   We then shift the conversation to the steadfast nature of traditional radio in the digital age, highlighting its unmatched local charm and reliability during emergencies. Drawing on personal career journeys, we discuss the courage needed to transition from conventional roles to entrepreneurial paths, emphasizing the importance of adaptability and self-awareness. Sales skills come under the spotlight, as we share anecdotes from our early careers that demonstrate the art of building genuine relationships. We also critique the often detrimental influence of "alpha sales gurus," advocating instead for sincerity and authenticity in client interactions.   Wrapping up, we delve into strategies for effective sales calls, underscoring the importance of preparation and respect for the client's time. Positive energy emerges as a crucial ingredient for success, with belief in one's product and self being key drivers of achievement. As we navigate the themes of perspective and support networks, we reinforce the value of diversity in thought and strategy. Ultimately, we conclude that sales is less about products and more about creating real human connections, urging listeners to celebrate the irreplaceable human element in all sales endeavors.   CHAPTERS    (00:00) - Escaping the Drift With Dave Anderson (09:23) - Radio's Resilience and Transition to Sales (14:10) - Building Relationships in Sales and Publishing (23:51) - Rejecting Alpha Sales Gurus (27:47) - Effective Sales Call Strategies (35:37) - Positive Energy and Sales Success (43:10) - Choosing Your Perspective and Circle (46:25) - Embrace Diversity in Sales Success (53:20) - Sales Is About Real Connections   💬 Did you enjoy this podcast episode? Tell us all about it in the comment section below!    ☑️  If you liked this video, consider subscribing to Escaping The Drift with John Gafford  ************* 💯 About John Gafford: After appearing on NBC's "The Apprentice", John relocated to the Las Vegas Valley and founded several successful companies in the real estate space.   ➡️ The Gafford Group at Simply Vegas, top 1% of all REALTORS nationwide in terms of production. Simply Vegas, a 500 agent brokerage with billions in annual sales Clear Title, a 7-figure full-service title and escrow company.   ➡️ Streamline Home Loans - An independent mortgage bank with more than 100 loan officers. The Simply Group, A national expansion vehicle partnering with large brokers across the country to vertically integrate their real estate brokerages.   *************   ✅ Follow John Gafford on social media:   Instagram ▶️ / thejohngafford   Facebook ▶️ / gafford2   🎧 Stream The Escaping The Drift Podcast with John Gafford Episode here: Listen On Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7cWN80gtZ4m4wl3DqQoJmK?si=2d60fd72329d44a9 Listen On Apple: https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/escaping-the-drift-with-john-gafford/id1582927283    *************   #escapingthedrift #daveanderson #broadcasting #philadelphia #sportsculture #loyalty #confrontation #veteransstadium #resilience #radio #digitalage #traditional #entrepreneurial #salesskills #relationships #salesgurus #coldcalling #positiveenergy #attitude #perspective #supportnetworks #diversity #authenticity #humanconnections

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I'm John Gafford and I have a knack for getting extraordinary achievers to drop their secrets to help you want to pad to greatness So stop drifting along escape the drift and it's time to start right now back again back again brother So to the podcast it like it says in the opening man gets you from where you are to where you want to be and today Beamed from the interwebs, right into the studio, I got a dude that has worked in the broadcasting industry with such greats is Charlemagne. It's just this dude's resume goes on like crazy. And he has developed some systems and some processes to help you

achieve some things that you have got to hear. Ladies and gentlemen, this welcome to the program. This is Dave Anderson. Dave, how are you, man? I don't have any interesting complaints, man. Thanks so much for having me. Oh, it's good place. Where are you today, man? Where are you? I'm at home in Philly. Relaxing man. I finished up home school with my youngest. So I'm just relaxing today. Thank God.

At home in Philly. Are you still is the hangover still going from the Super Bowl win? I'm guessing. First of all, there is no hangover. We are still very high. We are high. We are so high. We climb grease poles without a problem, man. Like this has been just the most wonderful year in football since the last time we won the Super Bowl. So yeah yeah, man, I'm, uh, I'm having a ball. Most of my friends are having a ball and I'm really sticking it to all my friends who are Cowboys fans. Yeah, I can see that. And it's, let me ask you this. Why does Phil, why does Philly before we get into the thing, think of help folks,

why does Philly have such a reputation for having such confrontational fans? One of my favorite things I've seen on the internet and probably the last year is somebody said, hear me out a new reality show. We take MMA fighters, we take UFC fighters and we put them in the opposing team's jerseys and take them to Philly sporting events. What do you think? They won't survive.

I think, dude, what is it about? Is the passion of the city? Is it just, is it a tribal instinct that we have to beat up opposing fans? What is it? We're a gritty city. I don't think people understand. First of all, we're the birthplace of America.

We don't get any credit for it. We are always in the shadow of New York City. The other part of that is all of us, black, white, brown, yellow, we've all had to fight for every inch of what we had. And so we want our respect and we demand our respect. And if you're cool, we're cool.

But if you come with it, we're going to end you. And I just think that that's what makes us so resilient, man. Like you guys, you know, people have different things outside of feeling like hot dogs and things of that nature. We chop up steaks and put it on the bun. Fair. That's fair.

We have a jail in veteran stadium. Did you notice me? No, at the bottom of veteran stadium, the first sports complex to have a jail and a courtroom in the stadium. It's probably pretty busy. I mean, it was I think Lincoln Financial Field just takes them off now. But in the days of the vet when I was a little kid, there was a jail and a court right there.

In the stadium. Was that designed to get them back in the stands to just adjudicate them quickly, give you a ticket and then get you back out. There was such a backlog in the jail every time it was a sporting event because we'd be fighting. You mix Philadelphia grit with a whole lot of beer. Yeah, yeah, it's gonna be fine. All right. Well, let's talk a little bit about you, man. So obviously you're a guy that's achieved a lot of success and helped a lot of people become very successful. So I'm always interested in kind of the nature versus nurture thing, man. Tell me about you growing up. Yeah.

Well, um, my mom was a teacher. Um, my dad was a cop. So very, you know, basic home life, but everybody in my family, my mom's family, they were really big on education, really big on reading. And you were allowed to have an opinion. You just had to back it up with a whole lot of research. So if you had a difference of opinion, you better be ready to back it up at the dinner table with charts and PDFs and the whole nine. And that was a big thing. The other thing that, you

know, when I came up, my brother and I, um, you can start whatever you wanted to, but you either finished it or you quit. And if you quit, you couldn't pick it back up. So I learned seven instruments. I sang, my brother was a three sport And if you quit, you couldn't pick it back up. So I learned seven instruments. I sang, my brother was a three sport athlete. I was doing radio at nine, TV at 15. So there was this mindset of you finish what you start and you become the best at it or you don't bother doing it at all

because your last name meant something in my house. And to this day, that's how I am with my kids. Like Anderson's don't give up. You're Anderson. What do you mean? You can't do this. Figure it out. We don't quit. So you said you were doing TV or at nine. I was on radio at nine TV at 15. You're doing on the radio at nine. Everybody says that but nobody bats an eye about the Olsen twins having the number one show as infants. I was doing a show called Stand There and Get Hell. They didn't have to do anything hosting a radio show.

You got to actually kind of bring it. I mean, as a nine year old, you're hosting a radio show. Yeah, I was, I was co-hosting with an adult, thank God. And I was having the time of my life. We were playing, you know, music that was kid-centered. We were talking about things that kids go through. Kids have problems and everybody ignores kids until they grow up or they get in the trouble before they grow up.

The premise of the show was to give kids a place to feel safe, a safe space before that was a thing. And to also give them guidance and show them that life does not have to start when you're 18, there are things you can do now so we encourage kids to foster their talents to be creative to show up and show out and be who they are in an expressive way and it was a phenomenal breeding ground for me man but yeah from the time I was nine to the time I was 17 I did that show and it was one of the greatest experiences in my life. So when did you transition to it was one of the greatest experiences in my life

So when did you transition to support kind of behind the scenes with all of these things? I would say you know at this particular point and in radio you jump up and down the dial You know You're a nomad and I started to get into programming while still being on the air and then I got approached to produce being on the air. And then I got approached to produce very, very young, about 22. I produced my first, my first show in Philadelphia is a major market morning show. And then I wound up going to the competition and producing Wendy Williams when she came down from New York. Um, so I was about 22 then, but full time going behind the scenes. Um, I think that was that. What year were you with were with Wendy Williams, 1998, 1999. Okay.

Deep. All right. Cool. I was on her. I was on her show. Yeah. I was on her show like 20 years ago, not 30. Yeah.

So, you know, at that point I moved into Austin, I was programming in Austin and, um, I got approached by DJ clues people to help syndicate desert storm radio. And that was like my first huge syndicated show. And then from there, I wound up putting Ricky Smiley in the syndication two years later in Dallas. And after that, I became the first director of social media for broadcast corporation. And then I retired. Yeah. Let me get right to the top and get out. It's funny, man. You would have thought, man, you would have really thought by this point

that radio would be in serious trouble. I mean, my sister actually is, is on I heart. Um, she's in Denver. She's number one rated morning show in Denver. She's all talk and it has been years, but just like you said, and I keep waiting for it to be like, well, that's kind of the end of talk radio and it just keeps on trucking. Yeah. It just keeps on doing it.

Yeah. The thing is, I think that people don't understand how conditioned we are to tradition. So for example, you've gone to the movies in the past year or two, right? And you've seen how people will stand in a line like they did when we were kids. You're standing in the line, wait for the pimple faced kid to give you your tickets, even though we got asked, bro. But we're conditioned to that.

So people are conditioned to listen to what's happening on morning radio. And there's nothing you can do to fake that authenticity, that local flair, and that gritty, wonderful quality that radio brings when it comes to talk. Has it diminished? Yes. Has it had to evolve? Yes. Has it had to embrace things that are not traditionally radio? Absolutely. Is it going anywhere? That's like saying our vinyl records going anywhere. Do we use them all the time? No, but they're back in the midway way, big way, big way they're back. And I think, you know, it's funny not to spend all time talking about radio, but this is why I don't have the perfect questions because I don't know where

these conversations are going to go. Just where I think is interesting. You look at like Spotify and Apple music and all that stuff. Right. And I find myself like I get in my car and even if it's Spotify DJ on whatever, it's like the same 30 songs over and over and over. You just don't get people don't get exposed to new music like they used to regularly because people don't listen to the radio. There was even if you go on XM, right?

Or serious and you put it on your channel. Like it's still the same like 30 songs in rotation. Yeah, same thing. Yeah, there's nothing new. I think just like people kind of gravitated back to vinyl, I think you'll's nothing new. I think just like people kind of gravitated back to vinyl, I think you'll start to see I think that's why terrestrial radio will always kind of be around. Yeah, yeah. And I think the other part of that, really quick is, when you look at the way we operate, people are getting hit, especially in the business world. Like if you buy a commercial spot on a radio station, once the DJ says we're gonna pay some bills people Are tuning out it's a natural thing to do if you buy a spot on a podcast or on a YouTube channel or some streaming

Program that thing is there forever. So you get a whole lot more bang for your buck So they're still trying to make adjustments as to how to make up for that in the digital space But I think it'll always be some station someplace. And God forbid that there's some type of natural disaster. Yeah, dude, it's, it's where you get real time information for sure. Let's talk about what you did after you retired. Cause I think that's where you kind of took off. Right?

So let's talk about that. What was the, what was the thinking when you retired from radio? What was the leap like? Cause a lot of people, man, are in some job that maybe they're doing well. They fit the, if it's the glass ceiling, they fit whatever, they're not getting what they want in life. Talk to me about the decision to walk away from that nine to five into something else. Here's what I understand.

And I'm honest with myself. I'm not here to tell you I'm perfect. I'm not, I'm a horrible employee. Not because I don't do my job well, but I wanna do the job the way I know the job should be done. Not the way that you ding-dongs think it needs to happen. And when it's not your ship, you can't control how they want the job done.

You just gotta go in there and do the job without thinking, that doesn't work for me. And what I realized when I got out of it, when you look at my resume, it's all radio, television, film, stand up, all of these things. And if you're a supervisor, you're like, you're just going to do this until you go back to Hollywood. And I'm like, no, I want to do this. And nobody would hire me except for sales gigs. And so I realized that I've been selling since 1987.

I've been selling since I was nine years old. The job is to show people how what you have is going to make their lives better or solve a problem. And at that point, once I realized that, I started really killing any sales jobs. So I sold everything from cable to gutters. And then I started selling home security systems. And I worked for Honeywell.

Honeywell had one. And then I was going around cutting out ADT systems and so ADT bought my contract and I wound up selling for ADT and then people were asking me how do you sell like this and I just got sick of telling them so I wrote a book called Pitch Close Up Sell Repeat as to what my sales strategy was and then the next thing I know you know a hundred thousand books out of the trunk and here we are. Off you went. It's so interesting. A couple of things you said. Number one,

I find that every great entrepreneur is chronically unemployable is what I like to, how I like to refer to them. Um, I, I myself, miserable was an employee for a lot of my life, miserable employee. Like if I'm not in charge, yeah, I'm a terrible employee. I'm the worst. I did a good job when I worked for major corporations that I worked for. Miserable employee. Because I was always like, well, why do we have to do it that way when this way is better? I get it. So that desire to steer your own ship. And if you have that, if you're out there listening to this, and you got that, that's not going to go away. That's just, that's

something that's in you or it's not. You know, the second thing talking about, you know, I love that you talked about when you get great at selling something and you're really talented at it, your competitors will come and recruit you. I mean, if I got a book coming out in November 5th, if you want to get the book, check it out, get on the mailing list. It's coming out November 3rd, November 5th,, distributed by Smith & Schuster, which is really exciting. Yeah, but I talk very much the most important skill you can learn is sales, because if you can

sell, you can sell everything, anything. So you went, your first gig was door to door, which I respect the hell out of that. When I first got in sales, my first job was cars. That's where I learned how to sell was on car line a million years. I was only there for seven weeks. My buddy told me if you go spend two months on a car lot, you have a PhD. And he was right. I spent seven weeks on a car lot and that's where I learned to sell. But going door to door is a whole nother animal, right?

It's, it's, it's, it's that not knowing what's going to happen on the side of the door. So let's talk about what made you great at that. What made you great, bro? They asked Jeff Bezos one time. How does he pick an employee, especially when it comes to his inner circle? And he says, simply, I find the laziest person I can find because a lazy person is going to figure out the simplest way to do it. And what I realized is I'm in Philly.

You said it yourself. It's Billy. Someone just got shot. So I would turn on the TV at four o'clock in the morning and the 600 block of 19th street there were three shootings. And so the 600 block of 19th street is where I would go. Hey, listen, not to bother you real quick Do you know miss Jenkins just got shot? Oh

You didn't hear what what kind of security system do you have? Well, you know, we're running a $39 special right now Oh, no, you don't need to worry about credit or a long-term contract. It's month to month sign here and here And so by the end of the block, I'd met my month's quota and then I would just rinse and repeat every day That's it. I go to where the need is. I'm not trying to do the random. How are you doing? Uh, I'm Dave with ADT and you know crime is bad Now I'm going where the bleeding is happening and I'm coming with gauze some needles some band-aids and a dag on bus to take you to the hospital

every day that is Yeah, I mean I that is That is probably I've been doing this for a long time, right? That's probably the best example. I've ever heard of Identifying a buying market identifying a target rich environment, no pun intended shooting, but just being able to identify who you're selling to. So how do you take that methodology and translate it into other industries? How do you do it?

The thing of it is everybody likes to buy, nobody wants to be sold to. So the thing that people miss out on is they're worrying about their quotas, they're worrying about their commission, they're worrying about making money, they're not concerned about building relationships. It's not what you know, and the lie is it's who you know. No, it's not. It's who knows you and is willing to admit to it. And so when you start building relationships, the thing that I do with every single person I ever meet, I say, listen, I just got one question for you. What can I do to make your life better?

And people are like, wait, you're asking me how you can help me? And I'm like, yeah, because if I help you, and I mean, help you in a real way, not like how people say, hey, how you doing? Like, if I help you in a real way, there's nothing you won't do for me. And you know better than anybody

Money is one thing but a favor when you need to pull it Worth a whole lot more than money. And so that's what you do. You you find a way to build relationships and people will be so happy Hey, have you met bob bob is awesome. You gotta sit down with bob bob. You gotta meet dave dave is crazy He does all these things man. He's got the sales technique and he's got these books and he speaks all over these. They will start to be your army of how great you are and you never have to toot your own horn. And so that translates in every single industry. If you're looking at somebody and you know, like say if you're doing hair and you say, listen, I see that you got some split ends. I understand that. Do you know that the simplest thing to do is do a deep conditioner and then also do

some apple cider vinegar rinse and then put on a bonnet that has a satin lining. Or if you don't like finest, that's fine. Put on a satin line pillowcase. Your split ends will stop and you won't need to come into me as much. Now that might seem like you're losing money, but what you just did was get a customer for life. Loyalty is powerful. Yeah. For me, is powerful. Yeah.

For me, man, my superpower and I say my super power, I probably, I probably picked it up from Dan Fleishman, who was a friend of mine and he always says the super hours his phone and I've taken on that same idea, that same persona where when I meet somebody and they start talking about what they're doing or how, you know, how, how it can help. I don't really look for, I don't ask, how can I help you? I just think, who do I know that could help this person? What connection can make this idea go faster, further, create a sale,

create revenue, help both parties. And they're like, you know, I'll say like, Oh, you know, you, you've got to meet my friend bill. I think bill could really help you with what they're doing. This is what they're doing. This is why it would work together here. Give me your number. I'm gonna connect you guys Right and then a that is a really simple way to connect with somebody else Yeah And somebody's saving and if you want somebody to save you in your phone in their phone

You get their number in yours and then do a three-way text with somebody that can help them. Yeah, it's over We're gonna save they're gonna save that and I try to always think every time I'm in a situation, some, some business, I'm like, you've got to connect them with, they could help make this go faster. Right. Or help they're doing. That's always my thought process. So I love that you, you come from that place of giving and you do that. So it's not about when you read this book, man, because you've written a bunch of books now, right? Yeah. Like 22, like 22 books.

So that first one, so here's the thing, you've been doing this since before AI would spit a book out. So the user is actually, Oh no, it's me locked in a room. I used to do it with legal pads and I switched to composition books. Then I started to get like cramping in my hands from typing. So now I just, uh, verbally do it and let the editors do their thing. But yeah, no way before AI, you know, so yeah, pitch close up. So that was the first book. What was it like when you were writing that book and you were going through it?

Did you know who you wanted to take it to as far as a publisher? Right. What was the goal for that book? No, I self published. I had, I had one publishing deal when I was young I wrote I wrote a novella and yeah, I'm not a fiction writer So I got a nice advance and then it didn't go anywhere and I kind of soured on it at that point And I said I gotta figure out a way to do this myself like I will bootstrap everything bro

And so with this particular book, I said I'm gonna self publish it I think there's a lot of people who are just scared of selling because everybody has this picture in their mind right now if I say sales you see a used car lot some guy with the trailer coming out with a tweed jacket with leather patches trying to sell you a lemon of a car and the truth of it is like I tell people all the time have you ever gotten your mother to give you a toy when you're out shopping and she says she's not gonna buy anything I said yeah well congratulations you sold are you married yeah have you convinced your wife to procreate with you oh you sold my wife

sells me all the time on stuff honey you know this shampoo makes my hair smell so much better than this one but this one's like 20 bucks baby I like the way that one makes your hair smell you go and get did she just close me you know so I think once you understand and demystify the negative connotation that sales has, it becomes an exchange of solving problems for money. And once you do that, it's great. Yeah. One of my biggest problems with people that are in the sales industry is they try to create these different bullshit terms that are like, no, no, no,

I'm not a salesman. I'm a, I'm a luxury consultant. No, dude, you work at Gucci. Stop. It's okay. And I think that's the thing. So many people have just made it in their own mind to loathe what they do. Like you asked me what I do. Like, dude, we sell. Like, I am an elite level salesperson. That is what I do. That's what we do. And, and I own that. I don't try to sugar coat it as in my industry, because we're real estate, you know, certain people are like, we are a home lifestyle consultant. No, dude, you sell houses.

That's what you do. Own it. Just be good at it. Cause there's nothing wrong with it because the world needs salespeople. And I think that because again, if you come at it from a place where you're problem solving and you're actually getting there, there's so many people that need a good salesperson to get them where they are, where they need to go. You know, I found one of the interesting things I found about, about the car

dealership was the people that let you do your thing always seem to get a better deal and we're happier. And the people that wanted to fight you tooth and nail, almost got their heads popped off and they always left mad. It was crazy. So like, what do you think people can do in the sales industry to make the image of what we do better? First of all, don't have commission breath, lead with sincerity,

like talk to people, build a report, stop't have commission breath. Lead with sincerity. Like talk to people. Build a rapport. Stop focusing on your numbers. Your numbers are a result of the energy you put out. It's not the thing. Hitting a quota is never going to get you where you need to be. Being honest, being relatable, and being transparent

will always get you where you need to be. But if you're coming across salesy, if you're coming across corny, if you're trying to be too slick, if you are too high powered, like, and when I say high powered, I mean, I'm not saying don't dress nice, but you know, if you're wearing the nut huggers and the two type polo or, you know, the $10,000 suit and you're selling a $500 net book, hold on, homie. We see you. $500 suit and you're selling a $500 net book. Hold on, homie. I'm sorry. Okay. So, so that leads me to my next question based on what you just said, which is what is your genuine feeling about some of the alpha sales careers that are out on the internet

right now? I think they suck. Oh yeah. No, I think they suck donkey crotch because they're selling something that most people can't pull off and Now their industry has become going into these dealerships going into these companies going in with these consultancies and saying oh all you got to do is stay in there with your nuts all the way up in your chin and Push-ups and that's gonna get this no no and then stop telling them dumb stuff like well you look at my tick-tock I've got 37 million, 963,000. Yeah. Half of what you bought, the other half are there to laugh at you because you're a mean, but we've got to start getting back to what

actually works. And the thing that will always lead you to success is going to be personable relationships where you're concentrating on how their outcome is first. You give them their outcome, your income will grow and go up. It's as simple as that. And these gurus are ruining everything because they're selling people a bunch of goods and they're taking a bunch of frat boys directly from the frat house off of their dagwon cake stands and in the car dealerships and in the corporations thinking that they're going to turn around and make it happen because they saw some, I don't want

to use the word douche, but they saw somebody who is of ill repute in the back of a, of a my back. And they think that that's going to be their life in six weeks and surprise it ain't. Yeah. I just, I look at some of it and you see it. I like, I don't, I try not to follow a lot of the people, but occasionally I'll be at an event or speaking somewhere and I'll walk around the corner and I'll see what these dudes talking about. Like, oh great. Here's this person. And I just feel like the, like, I hate the alpha culture dude. Like I'm in the gym every single day. I do my thing, But I'm not standing in front of a mirror going, like I just I hate that culture. I think it's so stupid. It's just

it's just dumb. And I think, you know, there's a movie, I hate to say this, but there's a movie out there. Maybe you've seen it, maybe haven't. It's what is it? It's a Luke, Luke Wilson. Oh, the one where he falls asleep. and then Terry Crews becomes the president. Yes. Yeah. Yeah. He's the smartest guy in the world. Yeah. Idiocracy. Exactly. And I just watched that movie and I just, I see it. And I'm going to say it's not frat boys because the people follow these guys

don't have an education at all. And I just see them grunting and bro, fired up and I just see this and I'm like, bro, this is the doubling down of America in real time. Yeah. On it live in color. And some of the stuff that I see that people teach is just so transparently stupid.

Like if anybody ever walked up to me and said half of the stuff that comes out of some of these sales trainers mouths, I'd be like, bro, you gotta be kidding me. For example, let's talk about this because cold calls, you are in sales. Cold calls are a way of life. Yes. I want to talk about, I made a video the other day on my, uh, on my Instagram and it was basically I got victimized by a cold call. That's what I said.

I just got victimized by a cold call. And I said, this dude calls me in first thing out of his mouth. Hey, this John blah, blah, blah. How you doing today? And I'm like, okay, sales call. There you go. And he's like, so my CEO asked me to reach out to you. I'm like, really, who's your CEO?

He's like, what's a, you know, Bob Smith or whatever. I'm like, how does Bob Smith know me? And he's like, uh, well, like dude. And he just fumbled and fumbled. And I said, and I just eventually just let him off the hook. And it's funny, uh, well, like dude, and he just fumbled and fumbled. And I said, and I just eventually just let him off the hook. And it's funny. I made this video like, like the 10 commandments of sale of cold calling is if you're going to do it. And I said, I'll start it out. Number one, never ask anybody how you doing today. Cause as soon as you say that,

and they always do it in that same cadence. How are you doing today? It's like you're, I instantly know you're a salesperson. You don't know me. When is the last time you called one of your friends and said, Hey, Dan, how you doing today? You say, What's up? Hey, what's happening? How you doing today? Nobody I know you're a sales number two, don't tell me your CEO asked me to call you. That's the new one of the invoke things. Oh, they asked me to call you unless you're ready to be called on it.

Because this dude was not, it's like, uh, and it just went on and on. And the funny thing was the first comment I got back on that video and I made it was some dude said, he goes, I mean, if you get victimized by getting a sales call, I mean, you're a little soft. And I'm like, okay, bro, you don't understand what I was trying to say. If Gordon Ramsey goes into a restaurant and they serve him a terrible meal, he's going to say this chef just victimized me because he's a master. Yes. I'm very good at what I do. So if somebody does it sloppily,

I'm saying you victimize me. So what sends you walk me through? What makes a good sales call? To me a good sales call comes down to doing the research before you before you call like you can prepare for a cold Call, you know, you can do your research Especially in this day and age when you've got every answer to every question in your phone You should automatically know who you're talking to, what they're into, what they like, where they're struggling. You should see opportunities on their website for improvement. There should be so many things in your arsenal that all you're doing is just picking

from the buffet of I'm about to close this bugger. And we don't do that. We just go, Hey, it's Dave Anderson. How are you doing? How you doing today? Yeah, no. Listen, man. Um, your website, I was looking at it and I bet you you're having some sales conversion problems. Well, yeah. How'd you know that? Because your website made me want to click off in the first five minutes. Tell me more. Like you've got to start by taking the time to show that you cared enough not to just

call them out the blue and waste their time. You're calling to save them from something they don't even realize. It's like if you and I are walking down the road and I've been down this road before and I go, yo John, hey, no, not right, no, come on this side because there's a hole right there. You're not going to debate me about the hole. Obviously I'm not going to tell you that there's a hole there when there isn't. You're going to take my advice because I saw the hole ahead of time and I'm preventing

you from getting into that hole. We don't do that. It's about, I got to get these numbers. There's some dumb chick named Linda listening and running your calls and she's playing with her hair and she's worrying about your bio breaks. Damn you Linda. So we have to get back to making sure we're researching ourselves. Secondly, we've got to make sure we're building a rapport

and doing that naturally. Not the, Hey, how you doing? Like, you know, what's been going on, man? Like, what are the things that I want to stop you? I want to back up real quick. As you said, no, who calling or know about them, right? Right. I think one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they try to sell the same way to the same same people always. Right. Yeah. Like if you are any business that you're selling tools or services to sales,

people don't sell them like you would everybody else. You just cannot do it. That's why I like, look, I think salespeople are actually the easiest people to sell to if you do it right. Like no bullshit report, none of that. They know you have a, forget all of the script, forget all that stuff. If you're calling a sales person,

come out of the box with what you got, why it's gonna help them, and how long it's gonna take to talk about it. That's it. Hey man, I got product X, none of your competitors are using it. You could absolutely use it to kick their ass. Is it worth 30 seconds to hear about it? That's it.

What do you got, dude? That's it. I'll hear your pitch, but if you call me with the chunky, my CEO asked me to come on, dude, can we just, like time is valuable, right? Most good salespeople when they hear a bad pitch, they're just gonna hang up on you because they're trying to save you time.

That's it. Because you might as well move on to the next contestant because I'm not falling for that BS. Yeah. So let's go back. Pick it back up. So we're building rapport now. Pick it back up. We're building rapport and you build rapport not on, oh, well, you know, the, you know, the Eagles won because I mean, 95% of people who love football hate the Eagles right now. And that's fine. We're not going to win anything here, but we build rapport on the things. 97 I'll go on the Eagle. Hey, I got a girl that works for me on my team that went to the super bowl. She is. She's still posting about it. It's crazy. You're that woman to race.

She's like, here's your daily reminder that the goes on Super Bowl. Yes, absolutely. I do a sports show with some folks and every time I'm on, I have a different piece of Eagles paraphernalia on just to annoy them. But no, you built rapport on what you have in common. And that's the solution to their problem. Like, yo, listen, I know what's up right now. I know, keep going. That's the goods. Yeah, that's like, I know it sucks right now. I know it sucks right now. That's the goods. That's the goods. Like, I know what you're doing sucks right now

and they don't see it. That's fine. This is me and you talking. So what I got right now is going to set you far ahead of everybody in there to the point where you'll be running that place in six months. No BS. What would you like to know first?

Oh, how can I run a place in six months? Okay, cool. This takes care of this, this, that and the third. this crm here is better because it does bop bop bop bop You know, what are you currently using? Oh, well, you know, they got us using, you know crmx. Oh, oh because it's 2003 there, huh? Yeah And they're like, yeah, man, they don't they're in the dark is they all are that's why i'm trying to drag you out kicking and screaming I need you to be my pioneer. All right, well, what's it gonna cost? It's not gonna cost you anything,

but when you start producing, it's gonna be this. And then your managers are gonna wanna know bop, bop, bop. And then at that point, you're an ally. You're not a sales person. And then from there, the deal should close itself with the ability for you to answer their questions knowledgeably. If you don't know the product that you're selling intimately,

why are you on the phone? Why are you talking? You should not be selling anything. You need to go back to the training room and study. You need to be using this stuff. Why do we use, why do we sell products? We don't use or believe that to me is. That's the key dude.

Everybody I've ever met that has said oh I did sales once I hated it what were you selling I was selling this was it a good product or bad I was terrible well that's why you hated your job because you had to stand there and lie to people all day yeah if you don't believe in what you're selling bro you're never gonna want to do it you're never gonna be any good at growing and why do you think anybody's gonna buy? Like if you're not thrilled about it, why is anybody else gonna be thrilled about it? It's this whole notion of, you know, in wrestling,

they always say, if you're not here to try and be the champion one day, then why are you in the building? It's that same thing. If you don't believe in the product or service that you're selling, how do you think you're gonna close anybody? Yeah, any dumb cluck.

I can get a dancing chip to close two sales a day That doesn't make you a good salesperson. That's just the law of averages book If you don't believe in what you have we go you see it. I see it like I believe in me You know if no, I can't I can't expect people to be fans of mine if I'm not a fan of me first You know, I can't expect people to think I of mine if I'm not a fan of me first. You know, I can't expect people to think I prioritize my health. If I'm eating junk food and not moving my body. Like some of this is common sense, but we negate it because we're so focused on getting the sale, closing the deal.

Let's go in here. Let's, let, let, let's, you know, let's get our private jet sales guru tight shirt on and no, no. And then finally you let them, you let them just, uh, tell you, you know, how to close them and then you close them from there. You should be writing up the order at this point. Well, you know, what's funny that you said, and we talked about earlier, I think a little bit was getting in a rut or getting on a roll.

It says is, it is something that attitude has everything you said, like you can't have commission breath. And I think that, you know, we've all had, if you're in sales, you've had times when we had just, you're just, you're just snapping. Everybody's just buying everybody's you can't write fast enough. Everything's just going your way. And it's, I think a lot of that has to do with what you're projecting internally. And then you have times when you get in a slump dude and all of a sudden you're like, Hey man, like my bank account started to start to go down a little bit and starting to a little feel the heat a little bit.

And then people start smelling desperation. Like I always tell people like, if you want the best deal on a car, here's what you do. Number one, go to the dealership on the last day of the month. That's fine. Somewhere in the dealership, there's going to be a big board in there with all the salesman's names on it, with a bunch of Xs and lines on it. Find the dude that has the least number of Xs and lines

and say you want to work with him. Because that dude is so desperate, he's going to follow up and not fight for anything just to get a unit to try to keep his job. So if all of that is said, if you get in a slump in sales, what's the best way out of that and to maintain that calm and still put out that good energy and not put out that negative energy.

In my opinion, and this does, this is not a universal rule, but in my opinion, the best way to do that is to act as if the deal is already closed. Like you've got to put yourself in that position. Like you don't know this about me, but I used to be 561 pounds. I always saw myself at 240. Now I'm at 240. But it took a lot of work to get there. But I always acted as if I'm gonna do it.

What does a 240 pound man do? Well, he goes to the gym. He drinks a gallon of water. He's doing 15,000 steps a day. Like what is he doing? He's lifting heavy. He's prioritizing protein. Like what are the things? You've got to put yourself in that energy. What happens is we start letting the bills and the home life and all of these external

things get with what's happening here. Nobody cares about that when they're there to just get a car. They don't care what the problems you got them and baby needs a new pair of shoes and I gots to go down to the dealersership and and get myself my own car because I'm not gonna buy a car from here All of that is outside waiting on you your problems are waiting on you in there You're a problem solver in there. You're a machine in there Everything is right with the world because this is the place where the money is happening, baby This is Vegas and you're a high roller You've got to take on that mindset even when it sucks even when it's hard listen you have

pretended to like your boss and laugh at his corny jokes for less you're not willing to pretend like everything is alright in your personal life in order to come up professionally in order to switch that energy up also move your body you know go get yourself a new shirt or press the one that you have, switch out your outfits, get something going so that you feel good about yourself. Change your hair, get a haircut. Like external things will change you. I have one of my best friends, the guy named ace, right? And believe it or not, he cuts my hair. I know I have locks but trust me But But the thing of it is bro, he'll tell you people get out of his chair and it's like they're transformed

Their energy is if they feel like they can take on the world and then they they'll facetime their woman I do it myself. I face time. I like yo, he said oh you look good. I'm Zooming home. I'm running red lights to get tomorrow so she can see how good I look If you do things that make you feel good that energy is palpable. The same thing happens when your energy is negative and you're listening to your boss. I'm like well you know it's the end of the month. Thanks Captain Obvious. Cool no problem Chuck. I'm on it. Watch my smoke and I'm there early and I'm the last one out because I gotta make this happen. And that's that.

And then you go back to the, you know, what you were doing that was working, that you can control that you're no longer doing. You gotta take stock. I love, I love that you said, feel good, play good, pretty much what you said, because I tell people, if you're in a slump, step number one, wear a suit every single day. You gotta put a suit on because to me, man, it's like, it's like that's your Superman suit. Like there's a change in that physiology. Like if you're rolling into the office,

and yeah, I'm casual today, cause a little nippy in Vegas today, believe it or not. It's a high- Really? What's nippy in Vegas? High is only 58 today. So a little nippy in Vegas today. Yeah, it's cold, right? That's really weather.

Yeah, it is dude. It's like, it's cold outside for years, for this time of year. You should be like, it's cold, right? That's really weather. Yeah, it is dude. It's like, it's cold outside for here for this time of year. You should be like night. It's going to be 97 like next week. So there you go. But anyway, um, but yeah, look good, feel good. And I always tell people like, if you make that change, you put on a Superman outfit, right? It's going to change your, your, your, your physicality will change your physiology, which will change your outcomes to I'm a real big believer on visibility, visualization of things that you want to manifest. And right now, I think

for me, like for all of the stuff we use, chat, GBT, and we use it all day long for a million different things in our company. But for me, like one of the most valuable that I never really hear anybody talk about is catchy BT is now, especially with the new upgrade makes incredible imagery, like incredible imagery. So dude, you can, like when you run out your goals and you're writing that vision statement about what you're going to have, absolutely tell it what you want, like, like describe what you're after and it will create an image of that. That is so vivid. It's like a picture and it's there.

Like if you go to my gym right now, my gym, my house, I got stuck on the wall. I have a copy of my book in the airport bookstore, says best seller. And part of my deal is they have to distribute, part of the deal I signed, that they have to distribute it in the bookstores, in the mall, you know, it's a news.

So yeah, that's gonna happen. And I put that up over a year ago. Like that happened. I had one that said, I had an old partner that kind of did me dirty north of seven figures. And I had one of a seven settlement statement where it said this deal was settled. It just got settled like three weeks ago.

That happened. Not all of them come to fruition, but dude, if you just look at that imagery and you just absolutely feel it as though that has happened, you know, I don't know, dude, say what you want. The Jim Carrey checking his wallet for $8 million, the stuff on my mirror, it works. And if nothing else, it puts you in a good head space to get where you want to be. And you just, I think I find so many people in that bar ball starts rolling negative, man. They just keep rolling with it. Yeah. Yeah. And they're looking for other people to you know co-sign their BS and it's like no

get up okay you lost you won't stay down you'll be a little punk about it you won't cry or are you gonna make it happen are you gonna rise above your circumstances this is temporary you know life is going to throw you curveballs things are going to get bad are you gonna stay to stay there? Are you going to realize like, this is just the turn in the story. Like I'm a huge comic book fan. I love comic book movies. You know, Thanos snapped half of the Avengers along with half of the people in the universe. That's bad. You know,

but then it got undone. Is that an accomplishment for Thanos? Like you didn't get them all, but you got half. Like, what are we really, it depends on your perspective. But Thanos was a conservationist. People don't understand this. He was like, y'all are having too many kids. The amoebas are amoebing way too much. Then you realize if you get rid of half of that,

you know, it's people out here with blue skies and full bellies now. You know, there are whales in the Hudson River, Captain America said, you know, maybe Thanos had a point. It all comes to your perspective. And even the directors and the writers of that movie, the first one will tell you, Thanos was the hero of that movie.

It was his hero's journey. He had a mission. He saw it very clearly. Everybody told him it was crazy. He sacrificed his daughter, spoiler, if you haven't seen a movie from seven years ago but that's the thing you've got to get yourself in the mindset that this is what it's going to be regardless and everybody who is in your world are the children of John in my case rejoice

you are now the children of Dave you should be happy that I'm closing you today hang on though that brings up an interesting point though, because I think a big part of your success is who you choose to surround yourself with. I think if you surround yourself with a bunch of people that are holding you back in any facet of life. Yeah. So, so obviously you probably feel the same way. How do you let those people go? How do you make that decision to call the herd to Thanos out the universe, your own personal universe? How do you make that call? That's going to your next book. I did that phrase right there is going, but that's a good one. I'm going to do that. Calling the universe. Yeah. Mark it down. Thank you, John. It's as simple as

this. There's a scene in heat where dinner says, I don't get attached to anything that I can't leave in 15 minutes. I don't walk out on two in 15 seconds. There it is, 15 seconds. That's what it is. So for me, I'm of the mind that there's only two places to be, you're either with me or you're in my way. And if you're not with me, 100%, I don't need you. You know what I mean? Like I'm at a point where I have to preserve me.

This is what I told my oldest daughter when she was a teenager. I said, cause she was like, you don't care about my feelings. I said, Doria, of course I care about preserve me. This is what I told my oldest daughter when she was a teenager. I said, cause she was like, you don't care about my feelings. I said, Dory, of course I care about your feelings. I love you. You're my child. I said, let me ask you something.

If you have a bad day and your feelings, which are valid, are just horrible and you're having a bad mental health space, what changes about your lifestyle from a financial standpoint? Nothing. If I have a bad day, what changes about your lifestyle from a financial standpoint? Nothing. If I have a bad day what changes about your lifestyle from a financial standpoint? Oh daddy we're F'd and she didn't say F'd. I said that's it. So I need you to get on board this train. I don't care if you agree but where I'm

going I'm gonna need you to go ahead and get in this caboose and start shoveling some coal. Like this is where we're going. You gotta have that because what happens is you're gonna find yourself in a place where you're sleeping with the enemy or the people around you can't see your vision. I mean, that's biblical. It happened with Joseph, it happened with Moses,

it happened with Jesus. There's always people who don't see the vision that God gave you and they're looking at you like you're crazy. They said Noah was a drunk. He built the ark. Professionals built the Titanic. Everybody around you has to understand that listen, even if I don't agree, I'm gonna let that person rock because they're doing something that I don't think is possible. But if I get out of the way long enough, they might do it. But yeah, if you're

around me with that negativity, if you walk in a room and all of a sudden film starts developing, you gotta go. It's real easy for me to chop you off. Well, I think that that brings up two things. Number one for me is a real quick way to get cut out of my circle is anybody that tries to be the main character in my movie. Like, I'm sorry, this is my movie. And if you're trying to take over, be the main character, my film, I'm gonna replace you. You're going to get, you're going to hit the cutting room floor. And then two, one

of the saddest probably things that I've seen as far as a meme or a quote or whatever you want to call them that they are that I kind of took as a personal challenge which which was said it said when your father dies you've officially lost the only man that ever wants you to ever wants to see you do better than they are or they did. And I was like, and I was like, man that ever wants you to ever wants to see you do better than they are or they did and I was like and I was like man that's terrible because it you know it's probably sort of true but dude I root like crazy for all my friends to do well and I got a lot of friends I have a lot of friends that do exponentially but I mean better than I do and I root like crazy for them and I

I'm so happy for them. I make it a point to cheer when my friends win. And I think that's something that is, I think the hustle mentality a little bit, the hustle culture that's come up in the last five to seven years has created so much competition, which don't even know competition is great. I, I, I love Pete. I love competition. I love all of that stuff. But at the same time,

you got to also be rooting for your people on your team. Yeah, no, it's the most important thing to be a cheerleader when it's time to be a cheerleader, because everybody has their time. You know, you look at Dennis Robyn, Dennis Robyn is not in a conversation as to who's the greatest between Jordan and LeBron, but Dennis Rodgers led the league in rebounds. By the way, Michael Jordan never won a championship that did not involve Scottie Pippen. Everybody has a role to play. So why am I going to get mad? You don't ever hear Superman hating on Aquaman. And I mean, he good talking to the fish is not exactly the sexiest superpower, but everybody has their lane. Everybody has their purpose. And it's lonely at the top because everybody thinks everything is a competition and it's

not the best thing you can do is collaborate with like minded people. And so I want the best for everybody because if that's the case, then we're all winning. My grandfather, who had a sixth grade education said, Dave, a candle never lost anything by lighting another one. That's how I live my life. I'm going to challenge what you said a little bit though. You said collaborate with like minded people. I like to collaborate with people that think differently from me as much as I can. Right. Because I think the echo chambers that everybody likes to crawl in where everybody agrees with everybody. I mean, I would say like, I have a, I have a great business partner in our business here. And we do not always

agree on everything. Right. Cause we've always said, bro, if we always agree, one of us shouldn't be here. Yeah. When I say like-minded, I mean, you and I, yeah, you and I, yeah, you and I might say, okay, I want to climb this mountain. And I'm like, yo, jet pack, you're like ropes and cleavers and sticks and guides. I'm like, jet pack. We're both trying to go to the top of the mountain. We don't agree on how to get there,

but the goal is the same. Our methodologies can be completely different. But if we have that goal that we're going to get there one way or the other, and if one of us is falling off the side of the mountain, we're gonna lift the other one up, then we're going to win. I don't want you to agree with me. And the majority of my team does not agree with half the things I say.

And they shouldn't. I think the yes culture is a completely different animal, but I think if we have a common goal and we know 15 ways to get there, then guess what? One of them is going to work. Yep. Amen. Amen. Well, if you had to leave them with one more thing,

the best piece of advice in sales, what's your best piece of advice? Don't leave yourself out of your selling process. Everybody can sell. Anybody can sell anything. But the way that you get to be elite level is by dialing up Who you actually are because who you actually are is going to do two things The first thing it's going to do naturally is what the Google say you want to attract as many people as far? Sure, absolutely But you also want to repel the people that just don't speak your language send them over to Bob Bob's on the bottom rung

He's not he's not a high energy type of person. He's not gonna shoot you straight. He's not gonna BS about certain things. But repel the people who aren't for you. That way it's a clear path to the people who are. And the other thing I wanna say is when you are doubling down on who you are, you get really clear about your good and your bad.

And instead of trying to fix your bad, you specialize in fixing the things that are phenomenal about you and tweaking those all the way up. Because you're not going to change. Your synopsis have been fried since you were five years old. Who you are is who you are. You can make adjustments, but the best parts of you, those are the things that are going to be the secret sauce that's going to make you an A who you are. You can make adjustments, but the best parts of you, those are the things that are gonna be the secret sauce

that's gonna make you an A-list seller. So don't shy away from that. And stop looking at sales like the world looks at sales. Look at sales for what it actually is. There's not a product or service on this planet that is not sold, even the free stuff. So once you get that, you'll be golden, man. And I tell people all the time,

if you want to look at the best salesman who has ever lived, you can pick up my book, Sell It Like Jesus, Principles of Strategy of the World's Greatest Salesman, because that's the thing. You can't argue. The merch numbers are legendary. The book, it's still selling to this day. And $33 million a week in titheses and offerings ain't nothing to shake a stick

It's funny. That's what I always say to make people feel better. I'm like, well, I mean Jesus didn't get them all My sheep will hear my voice that's what he said Well, they want to find you and plug it with you more. How can they do that? Oh, it's real easy. My website is the business bully.com forward slash without paid ads. I'll show you exactly how to sell without having to spend a whole bunch of money on ads. And you can follow me on all social media at the business bully. I'm always here to help and, and chop it up.

Thanks for joining us, man. All right. Well, leave it away from that today, man. Hopefully if you are in sales, not in sales, everybody's in sales, right? Everybody's in sales. But I would say the major theme of today, and I want you to walk away from this, is this. Sales is not about products. Yes, you have to believe in the product, but at the end of the day, it's about a real connection between people. And that is something, thank God, that AI will never be able to replace. See you next week. What's up, everybody?

Thanks for joining us for another episode of Escaping the Drift. Hope you got a bunch out of it, or at least as much as I did out of it. Anyway, if you want to learn more about the show, you can always go over to escapingthedrift.com. You can join our mailing list. But do me a favor, if you wouldn't mind, throw up that five star review, give us a share, do something, man. We're here for you. Hopefully, you'll be here for us.

But anyway, in the meantime, we will see you at the next episode.