The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 076: Amanda Holmes – Taking Over As CEO At Age 27: The Ultimate Sales Machine

Starting point is 00:00:00 And then it got to a point where I was just like, you know, forget this. This isn't what it's about. It's about serving my clients. And I'm done with all of this, you know, BS people trying to take advantage. I'm not going to be taking advantage of anymore, which was hard because, you know, I'm a lover. I'm quite the hippie. I mean, I was living in an ashram teaching meditation in Asia. That's what I was doing prior to teaching marketing and sales.

Starting point is 00:00:29 So to then come in and get, you know, blindsided and hit from every direction, it really taught me to take responsibility. Are leaders born or are they made? Our host, Ryan Hawk, believes that leaders can be made through determined, focused work on learning the art and science behind the makeup of other successful leaders. Now it's time to inhale knowledge and exhale success. You're listening to The Learning Leader Show with Ryan Hawk. Hey and welcome to the Learning Leader Show.

Starting point is 00:01:13 I am Ryan Hawk, and I'm extremely thrilled about tonight's featured leader. It's the great Amanda Holmes. Amanda is the CEO of Chet Holmes International. She took over the company after her father tragically passed away, and she was only 24 years old at this time. She was immediately responsible for 100 employees and thousands of customers in a multi-million dollar business. Just a massive task at hand. I think you're going to love Amanda's energy and what she brings this episode. She also periscoped this, meaning she had live fans of hers listening to us as we had this conversation. And there's another interesting part that I think

Starting point is 00:01:56 you guys will like. Some of the things we got into, the process for her to go from a professional musician. She was professionally trained as a musician at USC to her father, tragically passing away and then taking over as CEO. Incredible. And then the initial struggles of leading such a huge and successful business and everything that comes along with it. There's a lot of revenue there. Some of the things were really tough. And she gets into what she calls the nightmare of the beginning stages of that and how she got through it. And then how their sales process has changed because of practices she's implemented. Another fascinating part talking about the profession of sales and everything that she's done. Ladies and gentlemen, I know you guys are going to love this.

Starting point is 00:02:37 one. It's with the great Amanda Holmes. Okay, Amanda, I am so excited to have this conversation with you. I've been looking forward to this one, and I got a quick question to get us rolling, and that's around high achievers. People who have done really big things in their lives, and you are very fortunate to have spent a lot of time around these types of people. You certainly are one of them yourselves. Ah, thank you. Yeah, of course. And I'm curious to hear from you, though, what are some of the common characteristics of high achievers that you've been around? Wow, high achievers. It's so interesting that you bring this up, actually, because I'm about to do an event with

Starting point is 00:03:25 Brendan Burchard in a couple of weeks on November 20th. And we've been talking about high achievers what it takes to be a high achiever. So that's right on my radar at the moment. But I think one of the big things, and I have a couple of high achievers on Periscope right now, I know you said it was all right if I periscope. I have to call out paleo chef and ambition live. But I think that one of the huge things about high achievers is that they don't wait for an excuse. And I see this so often with so many people that they just feel that, you know,

Starting point is 00:04:02 oh, I can't do that because someone told me I couldn't or because of this problem or this. people put so many things in the way of just achieving their dreams. What is your dream? Okay, go after it. High achievers just, it just makes sense to them. And that's what they do. And they keep the focus. The focus is so huge.

Starting point is 00:04:24 Yeah. I love it. I think that's, it's interesting to hear the way you put it because they don't wait for an excuse because unfortunately, I think when you talk about the differences between people who are achievers, people who do big things, they have sustained excellence versus those who don't.

Starting point is 00:04:41 The blaming things on others or outside circumstances versus looking inside or looking at themselves seems to be one of the biggest differences I personally have seen between the people who have achieved certain levels of success versus the ones who have not. You know, it's really interesting. Paleo Chef is bringing up something. Mary's bringing up a really good point. She's asking, what can you define what high achievement? is, which is a fun one, because we talk about this all the time, just of what truly makes you happy, what really drives you. And that's another thing of why I think that high achievers, quote-unquote, high achievers strive to get that high achievement is because they're truly

Starting point is 00:05:25 looking for that insatiable or that feeling that makes them feel whole or complete or, you know, it's driven from a motivation within them. Yeah, and I think, actually I asked that question to Jay Billis, who is a former basketball player now, he's a big personality for ESPN, and he said he likes the term sustained excellence more than high achievement. And I think that I like that term as well. When I initially started asking that question months ago, I would say people who have achieved success. But again, like your followers on Periscope, I think that the word success is really hard to define because, success means so many different things to different people. Some say, well, Elon Musk because he's made all this money and created these companies. While others would say, I don't know if that's successful because it's probably had a negative effect potentially on like his family life. So it's always difficult to define these terms because it means different things to different people. Some would say, well, high achievement is, you know, finding ways to positively impact the world and help others. Others would say it's creating a product or employing a hundred people. like you would do, you know. So it's really interesting. And you could have probably a whole hour

Starting point is 00:06:40 conversation just about defining success, defining achievement. But it's interesting. And it kind of leads me into the profession of sales, which is your background, Amanda, and or certainly what you're doing now. And because I think the profession of sales is such a phenomenal and the greatest profession in the world because of the fact that it is an achievement profession. You know, everything around us, You look at your computer, you look at this microphone I'm speaking into, my mouse, everything, my desk, everything that is around us has been sold. And so it's important to think about it when some people get maybe a negative perception. I'm just reading again, Dan Pink's work on selling. And he's talking about some of the perceptions that come from sales.

Starting point is 00:07:25 And it's not always positive, but you need to think deeper about what that profession is all about. I love to hear your take on that. Oh boy, I feel like I fight that stereotype all day every day. It's like that's part of my passion why I get so excited about sales and marketing is because it should be an authentic, integris experience. And if you're not feeling that and if you're forcing the issue, if you don't believe in your product, leave your job right now. anybody that doesn't believe in what they sell, obviously you're not selling the right thing. But there's so many different ways to go about just providing value. And if you walk into every relationship, every person that you meet as this is a relationship,

Starting point is 00:08:15 I'm building this relationship, I really want this person to get a lot of value out of it. If you come to every relationship like that, sales will just become logical. It will just become a logical conclusion because you are here to serve, you are here to provide. value, you're here to get them from point A to point B. So for me, it's so funny when I first took over my father's company, and for those of you that are on Periscope, then maybe just hopped on and don't know, I'm CEO of Chath Homes International, and my father wrote the New York Times best sell of the ultimate sales machine, and the company has serviced over 200,000 businesses worldwide. And I first walked in and just said, I'm not a salesperson. I love people, but I'm not a

Starting point is 00:08:58 salesperson. I didn't identify with that word because I feel that there's so much dirtiness to that word that I didn't want to be a salesperson. However, I'd excelled in sales my entire life and always did well there and I continued to bring that to CHI. But it's because I feel that it's really about the people. I originally came into this company because I was seeing our clients and I saw how we have raving, rabid fans. I mean, people that read the Ultimate Sales Machine, they call it their Bible. They keep it by their bed.

Starting point is 00:09:34 They always have it within arms distance of themselves. And I realized that I wanted to make sure that they were getting everything that they needed and that we could change their lives, that we could make it easier, that we could make what they're doing run faster, better, smarter. And that's really why I stepped in. And it wasn't about, oh, it wasn't about the,

Starting point is 00:09:54 sales. It was about, you know, how do I serve these people? And when you do that, you start thinking about what does the market need? Where are the holes? Where are the gaps? What can you provide that's different from everyone else? All of these things that are important to sales, it just comes from an authentic place, right? Yeah, I love it. And I love to, Amanda, take a step back, because you briefly just mentioned your bio a little bit of it. So, I mean, but you're a former musician, a really world class, and, you know, your family and you want through some tragedy to get through where you are today. And I'd love to hear the story of the process from, you know, your dad has, you know, he did such fantastic work for so many people and created this business

Starting point is 00:10:42 that it's just, like you said, it has these raving, rabid fans. And here you are at a young age. and, you know, I'll let you tell the story because you know it obviously better than me, but tell a story from the process of everything would happen with your dad as well as you then making this transition into this massive role that you're now in. Oh, yeah, it's been a wild ride for sure. When you ask about high achievement, I definitely feel like everything that I've done in my life, I don't do it halfway. It's all or nothing.

Starting point is 00:11:17 It's kind of that focus, that determination of I'm going to nail this. So from growing up being a competitive gymnast for 12 years, I just pounded pavement and was really big about that. Then I hopped over to singing. And when I was a singer, I released four records in a span of six years and went to one of the number one schools of music in the United States, University of Southern California in L.A. And then my father had gotten ill, and I put my career aside to pay attention to him and make sure that he was okay. I was just looking for a cure anywhere. And we went through every alternative medicine you could think of. And that's when I actually started studying alternative medicine and getting really into that.

Starting point is 00:12:07 So then I lived in Asia for about six months with my mentor, who's an Indian guru. And I studied from her. And then I told my family that, you know, I'm done. I want to stay here in Asia. I want to help people. And it looks like I can really serve here. And a week later, the doctor's called, maybe not even a week. It was probably a couple of days.

Starting point is 00:12:30 The doctor's called and said, your dad's passing away. You need to come home. And I came home and six weeks later he passed. And then I inherited this ginormous empire. I mean, 12 companies, everyone, was 20 years my senior, if not more, and a couple hundred staff. And I was the head of it all, which was a nightmare, to be honest. It started off as a complete nightmare.

Starting point is 00:12:58 I wanted nothing to do with it. And as I started to, I'm getting some love. Thank you, thank you, Luis, on Periscope. I love that you're periscoping, by the way. This is the first guest who's ever done it, and you asked me before, and I'm like, yeah, why not? is awesome. So anyway, I don't want to get in a way. Go ahead. But that's really cool. Well, we have Jay in London. We also have Vijay in London, too. Hey, Ambition Live, I don't know where you are in the world. But what was I saying? So, so I took that over and over time, I just, and James,

Starting point is 00:13:30 I don't know where James is. Nashville. Okay. We have all over the world on Periscope right now. Las Vegas, Seattle. Okay. Sweet. Sarah, Saratoga, New York. All right. So I took over the company, and I, like I just said, I fell in love with our clients. I saw these business owners and these executives really fighting to, you know, majority of professions, let's say you're great as a chiropractor or you're a great carpenter or you're a great chef.

Starting point is 00:14:05 but having the skills to run a business besides just your craft is not something they teach in school. It's not something they teach at your cuisine or your dentist school. So a lot of these businesses, I find, are so phenomenal at what they do, but they don't know how to market and they don't know how to sell. So it's part of my job to assist them and show them, okay, this is where you shine, this is what you do great, this is how we highlight you, this is how we provide great value for your clients

Starting point is 00:14:35 so that everyone can win. And a huge part of that is through education-based marketing and the core story concept. It's fascinating to learn about the process from you, you know, not really being fully involved with the company, right? You moved to Asia. You're studying other things. You're a musician. You're doing everything else.

Starting point is 00:14:56 So what was, was there a, I don't know the right word for it, an on-ramp period for you that you had to really learn or how long did it take for you? until you felt comfortable saying, wow, I'm the leader here. I'm in charge of how many people work there now? I've slimmed it down a lot because I wanted to focus on what we do best. So we had a recruiting division, we had a website division, we had an SEO division. And I've solely focused on our coaching division, consulting division, and our research empire content marketing division.

Starting point is 00:15:36 Okay. So, but still, you're responsible for a lot of people and have a big time business that you're running. Now, what's that like on a day-to-day basis? Like, do you have a core group? Because for me, like I, and I think, you know, most leaders, you need those, that small group around you that helps you, that can, that is willing to say, Amanda, actually, know, you shouldn't do this, maybe do it this way.

Starting point is 00:16:01 So you have, whether it's a group of four or five advisors or people on a board, what's your decision-making process like and how does it work? Because you said you've already made some changes to slim it down. How does that work? Oh, man, that has been one of my biggest lessons coming into a business was who can you trust in business? Who's really going to have your back? Because when I first came into the company, I realized that the people that were the most vocal about trying to give me advice were people that weren't necessarily didn't have the best intentions, which was really difficult because I was so naive and just trying to figure out, okay, how do I write, how do I make sure that everything's okay with the business so I don't have to be here? That was my first initial response. And you were 24 at the time when you took over? Yeah. Wow. Okay.

Starting point is 00:16:56 So I'm looking at all of these people, you know, 40s and 50s telling me, okay, you need to do this, you need to do that, and saying, hey, you know, I got the inside scoop. This is what you need to do. But I found that majority of those people really weren't, didn't have the best intentions in mind. They were really just out for the money. And I got burned a lot. The first couple of years of running this company, I just got sued a lot. What for? When people see money, they run towards it, whatever it takes. What would be an example of something you get sued for? Wrongful termination. Ah, okay. Yeah, it was interesting because I didn't know anything about business, and yet left and right, people that had been family friends for my entire life

Starting point is 00:17:48 that I had known that had come to Christmas and Thanksgiving were after the money. And, you know, when people die, people get crazy. So my father passed and people just started trying to attack me and my mom. And so I stepped in and said, okay, that's not going to happen. I'm going to take charge here. And you asked, you know, when did that shifting point happen where I started to ramp up and start leading the company? It was a process because the first, like I said, a couple of years were completely in lawyer bills. I worked more with the lawyers than I did with my own staff.

Starting point is 00:18:23 And then it got to a point where I was just like, you know, forget this. This isn't what it's about. It's about serving my clients. And I'm done with all of this, you know, BS people trying to take advantage. I'm not going to be taking advantage of anymore, which was hard because, you know, I'm a lover. I'm quite the hippie. I mean, I was living in an ashram teaching meditation in Asia. That's what I was doing prior to teaching marketing and sales.

Starting point is 00:18:53 So to then come in and get blindsided and hit from every direction, it really taught me to take responsibility. I got you. Take responsibility. And just my passion for wanting to help our clients superseded any of my fears of I can't do this, I can't run this, what would happen if I did this wrong or what if I couldn't live up to the legacy of what my father had created. And just all of those conversations eventually went away because I was so passionate about what we were teaching. And I just saw all these other people doing it in a way that I didn't think was as good as it could be. And since I've come in, I mean, I've 10x the amount of people that are showing up to our webinars. I've increased our closing ratio, 1100%.

Starting point is 00:19:45 I've doubled different divisions of ours. I mean, and it's not because I'm humble. hungry or greedy, it's because I want to help people. And I think that that's what the sales profession needs is your sales should be a logical conclusion. There are seven steps to a sale, the first being rapport. Okay, and I'll tell you right now that 8% of salespeople make 80% of sales. And what makes the difference between those 8% of salespeople that make 80% of sales is that instead of spending the least amount of time building rapport and the most amount of time closing a deal, They flip, imagine that that is a triangle, you flip it on its head.

Starting point is 00:20:28 They spend 40% of their time building rapport. 40% building rapport. So you know what that looks like? In a business, let's say, so on my website, I have an opt-in. And so writing your name and email, and you'll get these three videos talking about how to get past a gatekeeper, how to get the most important people on the planet on the phone, because the only thing that's holding you back sometimes is just a secretary. So three great videos that just provide value, value, value, value that truly someone could take that tomorrow, run with it and get their biggest best buyers on the planet. And then I send them more gifts and more gifts and more gifts and more gifts and just provide the kind of value that just say, here's something that will help you.

Starting point is 00:21:11 And then when they read that or when they use the methodology, they go, wow, that really works. I think I need to work with them more because you know what? they really know what they're talking about. And it helps that I happen to have a methodology from my father, from the ultimate sales machine, that gets results and that works. So I got lucky in that sense. But I really think that it took bringing that passion and that heart of I really want to serve and help people as opposed to how many deals can I close, how can I, you know, smush out the last couple of dimes or pennies to get another vacation in,

Starting point is 00:21:47 or, you know, does that make sense? Yeah, of course. I love it. And this is some of my favorite things to talk about. I love the energy and passion. I can sense like you're getting like this really positive emotion towards it. And I love it. That's what this is all about.

Starting point is 00:22:01 Can you talk to me about your sales process and how it's changed maybe over the last few years? Oh, man, definitely. Our sales process has completely changed. So originally what happened was we did radio ads for years. And what would happen is the radio ad would be some value ad. Call us for the four ways to double sales. We'll give you this free report. It would add some piece of market data.

Starting point is 00:22:27 We always believe in adding some market data. Someone's asking who's on the other end. This is Ryan at Learning Leader, if you want to check him out. I'm repping you, Ryan, right now on my periscope. Check it out. Yeah, I mean, I'm on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12, too. If they want to check it out as well as LearningLead.com, it's all there. and Amanda was gracious enough to come on the show here and be my guest.

Starting point is 00:22:51 And this is weird because it's the first time I've ever kind of had like a semi-live recording so they can sense that when I tell people that I don't really edit my show, you'll actually see that we don't really edit the show. I just tack on an intro and an outro. And then the conversation we're having will be the legitimate episode. And it'll probably be released, I don't know, anywhere between one to three weeks from now. Oh, awesome. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:15 So everybody on Periscope heard that. Okay, great. Yeah. So they were asking about you. I'm sure it's that voice quality, right? Doesn't he have a great tone? I mean, as a singer, I recognize these things. You know, I studied multi-channel remixing in college.

Starting point is 00:23:31 Multi-channel, what does that mean? Like recording. Okay, multi-channel. Is that a fancy word for recording? Yes. Okay, cool. I used it specifically to make you feel impressed. I was impressed.

Starting point is 00:23:41 I was like, wow, I didn't know what that means. I need to get clarification. But anyway. Okay. Go ahead. Were we talking about? I was asking about sales process. Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:50 Yes. So radio ad, it would say something like 95% of businesses never make above a million in annual sales. And to truly get that extra edge, you need to master your skills. It's not about your product or service. It's about your skills. And mastery isn't about doing 4,000 things. It's about doing 12 things 4,000 times. So I'm dictating right now a bit of what our radio ad sounded like.

Starting point is 00:24:13 Do you see how I'm not saying, hey we sell business coaching. Hey, you should buy business coaching because majority of companies, 99% of companies talk about price, product, or service, which only reaches the top 3% of the people that are listening, as opposed to every business owner that would hear, so that would get nine times more impact if you said something like, like what I just said with the market data. So then we'd lead them, the call to action would be, if you'd like to learn more, call this number to get the four ways to double sales. It's strategies that we use in our business every day with our clients to make sure that they

Starting point is 00:24:50 get true results. So people will call in, then we would sell them immediately. We'd get their email. We'd send them the report. And then we'd sell them straight into a webinar, a webinar with 10 to 12 people in it. And we give them two and a half hours of just great strategies, content, ways to grow your sales. Because my father's core methodology is there's 12 ways.

Starting point is 00:25:13 that you can double your sales. And if you study each one of those 12 ways, you'll never have to do anything ever again. That's how you truly become a master. And it's about repeatable success. It's about the skills. It really is about the skills. But where you say, where is the sales process different?

Starting point is 00:25:27 I'm no longer selling skills. I sell templates. I sell deliverables. Would you like the email template, the sales script? People want their lives templatized today. So that's a big part where it's shifted instead of talking about strategies that you can learn or skills that you can learn, I now talk about deliverables and getting those tangible things that you can copy and paste

Starting point is 00:25:54 into your business today, right? So then from that webinar, and this was our old sales process, from the webinar, then we at the end give them an offer of, hey, if you would like to learn more, we have this DVD training product. So they would purchase the DVD training product, and then they would get four free coaching sessions with it. And then some of those would convert into ongoing coaching deals. So that was our sales process before, from radio to call center to webinar to DVD set and then coaching. And what I've changed today is instead of spending so much money on radio, radio is amazing

Starting point is 00:26:31 to get those mass markets. But wow, what you can do with Facebook ads and what you can do with AdWords, like the online market is just so primed to be able to target those people so specifically. So my marketing then leads to a webinar, which is a bigger group. It's not as, it's not the 12 people, but I really believe in having live webinars. I haven't tested as much the recording because I distinguish myself with my competition. And then from there, I'll send them video after video after video. I usually have three videos that I send before inviting them to a webinar. And then I invite them to the webinar. So we say that, actually I don't say this. The National Sales Association says that 80% of your sales are made after

Starting point is 00:27:19 the fifth to 12 contact. So you want to think, how can I provide value five times before I ask them to buy? I really try to touch them at least. I'm in the four to five range at this point. So whether it's a white paper, whether it's a video, whether it's a script, so provide value or a webinar, then you bring your offer in and they purchase. Do you do one-on-one coaching with like CEOs or the head of sales of big companies? Who are your customers? Our customers, where we really shine, okay, we work with startups to 60 million. I work with the Fortune 500 as well, but the bulk of our clients that we work with are people

Starting point is 00:28:08 that really have established their businesses. that maybe have a couple of salespeople. What we find is a business that's reached one million in annual sales, it takes a certain skill set to get there, but it takes a completely different skill set to get from one million to five million. And then from five million to ten, and from ten to twenty, twenty to fifty.

Starting point is 00:28:29 So we're there to assist them to take it to that next level. You're like the accelerator. Yeah. Yeah, that's what it feels like. Because I think somebody who starts a, business, the CEO can, if it's a good idea and whatever they're selling can work, there's a certain level that I believe that CEO is able to get to buy him or herself. They can sell on their own.

Starting point is 00:28:56 But then usually they need some sort of accelerator to get them to whatever it is, that next level. Maybe they can get it to five, but then they're kind of, they hit their ceiling and then they need some help to get it to 10 to 20 to 50. Well, 99.8. 99.8. I was going to say 99.9.9.9% of one-man armies never make above a million in annual sales. Really? Wow. Yeah. So if you think that you can get past a million, you would be the 0.02% of the population that does that.

Starting point is 00:29:31 So once we see them get to about a million, that's where you really start seeing more salespeople come in. and sales training is just terrible in majority of companies. They really have no idea. That's why three out of four sales reps are inefficient at their jobs. Let's say you're currently talking to a sales professional. That's my background, my family's background. My dad's been in sales this entire life. He leads now currently 1,000 people, a huge sales force.

Starting point is 00:30:02 So let's say you're talking to a pure salesperson. And what are the, if you had to give them the quick, I don't know, few minute overview of, if you're saying Amanda, okay, I'm doing okay, but I want to do great, what are the few things you would tell them to get them going? Ooh, what are the few things? Because it might take an hour to do that, but I want to, I'm wondering if you distill it down to like a sound bite, even though I hate soundbites because we're here to have a long form conversation. But I'm curious to hear what you say. Because sometimes you might run across these people, you know, whether they're, you know, they see you and they recognize you on the street and they're like,

Starting point is 00:30:40 oh, well, here's what I do. How could you help me, you know? Where do I even begin? I guess, well, the one thing if you want an action item would be read the ultimate sales machine. Okay. So there's 12, there's 12 keys in there. What are a few of them that you would pull out from the 12 and to say this will help you immediately?

Starting point is 00:31:00 Because I'm all about practical, implementable tips. I don't like the word tricks. but tips to put into your game, so to speak, to make you better. So you say, hey, you know, I was, you know, doing one thing. I listened to Ryan's podcast with Amanda, and all of a sudden now I've implemented these few things and I'm better for it. What would those few things be? Oh, boy.

Starting point is 00:31:25 Well, if you truly want to set yourself apart, I had briefly touched on the education, find a way to educate your buyers. So instead of starting every conversation with, hey, would you like to buy some SEO? Would you like to buy these cookies? Would you like to buy this? Instead saying, hey, I know you're having this problem. Let me solve it. Even if it has nothing to do with your product.

Starting point is 00:31:52 That would be my biggest piece of advice is find a way to build a relationship. So do that by whether it's finding them resources, finding them a relationship, giving them an education about what's happening in the market today. And then go through the seven steps to a sale. And what it's really about is just making an improvement, working on your process at least one hour a week. Okay, so one hour a week, you sit down and go, okay, the first step to sales is building rapport.

Starting point is 00:32:25 Now, I'm going to think back to what are all the times where I've built rapport with clients, and when did they go best? Oh, they went best when I found something that was similar between us. And it was particularly about TV. So maybe I'll work into my sales process that somehow I bring up about television and find out what their favorite TV shows are. Because when people talk about that, then you start to feel like your friends.

Starting point is 00:32:49 Okay, so that's part of my process. Number two, establishing the need. Okay, now I'm going to sit down and figure out what are the seven questions that I should ask every single prospect to figure out what is their real problem? Because if you can't bring a sale to a logical conclusion unless you understand their needs. So what is their pain point?

Starting point is 00:33:11 What is keeping them up at night? Why are they reaching out to you? Or even if they're not reaching out to you, what is troubling them that you can really pinpoint that and then find a way to solve it? So I would say be diligent about working on your process, reflecting, looking back, brainstorming, especially if you have a team, you should be doing workshops,

Starting point is 00:33:32 and if you need workshop ideas, go to the ultimate sales machine, and just walk through every one of those steps of, okay, so now that I've built rapport, establish the need, now how do I create desire? How do I really build my brand and make us different from everyone else? Okay, now, do I have the three responses to every objection I've ever heard? Okay, well, Bill, what's your responses to that objection? Okay, Sally, what's your responses to that objection?

Starting point is 00:33:58 So then you have written down your cheat sheet of, okay, if someone says, I can't buy this because of price, you have eight responses that are killer that you've practiced, that you've rehearsed, that you know with everyone else really works. So then you come prepared. The next step is the close. And how are you closing? How are you mentioning your price? Can you do it in a way that makes more sense? Can you relate it back to another thing that they spend money on that makes it seem like it's not as big of an investment? And then the follow-up, the follow-up, I could talk an entire hour about follow-up because one no is not enough to stop.

Starting point is 00:34:34 And 44% of salespeople stop after one no, and yet 80% of sales are made in the fifth to 12 contact. So if they say no, it just means no, not right now. My father used to say, on average, when he was cold calling, he would get 11 noes before he got a yes. And that's typical. So how do you get past those nose and do it in a way. that's not just bulldozing, doing it in a way that's, okay, I hear what you're saying. Let's work through that. Let's talk about that.

Starting point is 00:35:03 And then finding more ways to add value, more ways to overcome it, more ways to use testimonials as an example to, oh, I hear what you're saying. But let me tell you about Cassandra and what Cassandra did and what she said to me. Let me show you this email that she wrote to me. Let me show you this text. Let me show you this video that she wrote that she said about what she had, what her experience was working with us. are some of those actionable ideas that people could grab onto? All of them are. I love it.

Starting point is 00:35:31 It's great. It reminded me of a, I learned this from another former guest, Kevin Lavelle, the CEO of Mizna, Maine, a great company. And Kevin said, and I fully believe this, especially being a sales guy, if you're not hearing the word no a lot, then it means you're not trying hard enough and whatever it is that you're doing. You know, whether it's for me reaching out to guests or trying to sell whatever is I'm trying to sell, if I'm not hearing the word, know far more than I'm hearing yes, then it means I haven't been trying hard enough. I think everybody could implement that one small practice into their life, whatever it is you want to do. Because if you find that in your everyday life, you're not hearing the word no, then you're probably, you're probably coasting a little bit, not to challenge people too much, but you probably

Starting point is 00:36:14 are. If you're just hearing yes every once in a while and no hardly ever, then you're not asking enough questions. You're not reaching out to enough high-level people to try to understand how they've become high-level people, so to speak. And so I think I really try to implement that. I think everybody can, regardless of your profession. And the other part of it, too, and I know you know this, Amanda, is that we all, everybody, regardless of your job, we're all selling at some point, whether we're selling our idea, we're selling ourselves, whatever it is. If you're an engineer and you think, oh, I don't work in sales, or I hate sales, that's just not true. You are selling multiple times every single day, even if it doesn't

Starting point is 00:36:58 fully feel like it, but you are. And that's why I think it's a profession and there's a lot, so much to learn, regardless of what you do when it comes to the word sales and selling. Yeah, a million dollar bill here on Periscope said something pretty funny. He said, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, yes. There you go. See? It's exactly right. You have very smart. followers, and not surprising, that fully understand how it works, because you're right. I mean, if you stopped, if I stopped after the first no, I would not have a podcast. I'm telling you. Gary Vaynerchuk said no, like 30 times.

Starting point is 00:37:36 So it's way past the first five until we eventually said yes, you know? And so, you know, your friend Lewis Howells, I got, you know, it's taken some time because he's really busy to get him to come on, but he's coming on here soon, too, once everything dies down from his book lunch. So I think that's part of anything we do is hearing that word and continually to be persistent in a professional way. I think that's important. You can't just annoy somebody to death, but it be being persistent in a professional way. Yes.

Starting point is 00:38:06 Oh, that's huge. What can you provide that's of value? You know, it shouldn't be, I teach the four steps to an effective follow-up. You know, it's not just about everybody saying hi. Hi, Caleb. Hi, Ryan. Oh, yeah. And everybody's saying hi to you, Ryan.

Starting point is 00:38:25 Thank you. Just say, no. I need a big of presents on Periscope, you know? I namaste, man. We got some people. You got them all over the place, don't you? Yes. That's cool.

Starting point is 00:38:34 That's very cool. Well, this is awesome, Amanda. Like, I really, I could talk to it. I feel like for hours. But I have one more question before we wrap up because I know you've been so grateful. I'm so grateful of the time you've invested with me. but my question is fully around the art and science of leadership. I love it.

Starting point is 00:38:56 I love studying from dynamic, inspiring, and creative leaders like you. And so it's fascinating to have these conversations, but I want to get your thoughts and feelings on one specific phrase. And that phrase is learning leader. When you hear that phrase, what are the first things that come to your mind when somebody says, or maybe when you saw the first email for me saying, you know, would you come on the learning leader show? What are the first thoughts that pop in your mind with that phrase? Oh, that's interesting.

Starting point is 00:39:28 Well, I definitely think that a great leader is somebody that's always learning. So that's, you know, 90% of the population after they graduate from high school will never read another book. That's crazy. Yeah. Studies have shown that. And it's so much of the population. just stops wanting to learn or grow or be better. And that's something that both salespeople and great leaders are great at.

Starting point is 00:39:59 If you have somebody that's a killer salesperson, they constantly are looking, how do I grow, how do I get better, how do I get better, how do I get better? And that's one of those achievement superstar traits. And I see it with leaders. It's, you know, always something to learn from everybody and anything and searching for that next piece that's just going to give you a little bit, just make you sharper, smarter, work faster. Are there books that, are there a few books that you give away or that you recommend most,

Starting point is 00:40:32 obviously the ultimate sales machine, but in addition to that, to others to say, you know, this could be impactful in your life, whether it's in sales or outside of it, I'm curious, what are some of your favorites that you have read or have given away? Well, yes, we definitely give away the ultimate salesman. machine. I would say I don't give any other ones away in my business. When it comes to personal, one of my other favorite books is autobiography of a yogi. So I'm a big fan of that book. I know Steve Jobs, too. I didn't even know that Steve Jobs, that was the only book that he had on his iPhone. Really? Yeah. What's it called again? It was given out at his funeral.

Starting point is 00:41:17 autobiography of a yogi written by Yogananda Paramanza. What is the general basis of the book? I can guess, but I haven't read it, so I'm curious. Yeah. Wow. How do I explain? It's kind of just about the meaning of life and what's truly important. I know George Harrison, too.

Starting point is 00:41:37 He used to keep a library at his house of just that book and he would give it away to people. Wow. I love it. Well, this is, that's cool. And, I mean, again, I have to just say I'm so grateful for you to invest your time here, as well as your fans on Periscope. This is the first time we've done that here on the Learning Leader show, and it's really neat. Yeah. It's cool.

Starting point is 00:41:58 I hope others want to follow your lead. So it's cool. But where can everyone go to find you online? Well, if you want some of those trainings that I had talked about earlier, you can go to how to double sales.com. Pretty simple. How to Double Sales.com. But if you'd like to check up with me, my Twitter handle is at Amanda Holmes, or the company is at Chet Holmes, C-H-E-T, H-E-T, H-E-T, H-E-T, H-E-T, H-E-T, H-E-T, H-E-T, those would be two good places, or just hop on our website, chethomes.com, and you can opt in and get our emails about all of the learning and trainings that we do. We do a lot of free trainings, and always striving to provide more value.

Starting point is 00:42:46 Perfect. Well, great. And like I said, I'm a huge fan of the ultimate sales machine and a big fan of you, even more so now after getting a chance to talk with you. And I certainly want to continue this dialogue with you as we are both progressing on our journeys. I'm fascinated by the work that you've done and what you're currently doing and inspired by it. So thank you for doing that. And certainly thank you for joining me here on the Learning Leader Show. Oh, thank you for having me, Ryan. It was wonderful. Awesome. We'll talk soon. Thanks, Amanda. All right. This episode of The Learning Leader Show is over, but we have plenty more to keep you locked in until next time. Head over to Learning Leadershow.com for more information and to request your favorite entrepreneur, CEO, world-class athlete, or anyone else that inspires you. You can also talk to Ryan directly by reaching out to him on Twitter at Ryan Hawk 12.

Starting point is 00:43:37 Thanks again, and we'll see you next time on The Learning Leader Show.

The Learning Leader Show With Ryan Hawk - 076: Amanda Holmes – Taking Over As CEO At Age 27: The Ultimate Sales Machine

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