854: The PITCH-FREE sales framework (and crafting genuine connections) w/ Dan Mott

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Hey, what is up?

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Welcome to this episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

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As always, I'm your host, brian LoFermento, and I'll tell you what today's guest.

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I've been so excited to talk with him here today because when we first came across his work, one of the taglines that we found is I show solopreneurs that selling doesn't have to suck, and that's something that we can all so deeply relate to in our own businesses.

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So let me tell you about today's guest.

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His name is Dan Mott.

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Dan is a revenue mindset coach for solopreneurs.

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He's the creator of the Manifest a Million Challenge.

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He's the co-founder of marketingopscom and heck, on the side, he even runs a Dungeons and Dragons networking group for business nerds.

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Like I said in the very beginning, he shows solopreneurs that selling doesn't have to suck.

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What I love about Dan's methodology is he teaches the three-step pitch-free framework.

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All of us are going to benefit from learning this framework from him here today, so that you don't have to spam anyone ever again and you never have to worry about where to find your next customer.

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I'm personally really excited about this one, so I'm not going to say anything else.

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Let's dive straight into my interview with Dan Mott.

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All right, dan?

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So much goodness that we're going to dive into, but first things first, welcome to the show.

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Thank you, brian.

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I'm so excited to be here.

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Thanks for having me.

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Heck yeah.

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Likewise, obviously, I'm super excited because there's some goodness.

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I can't wait to get into that framework, which I teased a little bit.

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But before we get there, take us beyond the bio.

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Who the heck is Dan?

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How'd you start doing all these cool things that you get to do today?

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You bet, man.

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You know I've I've worked with so many people who, who hate selling and who have struggled to do it for so long, and I was there.

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I was one of them.

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I for so long, and I was there.

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I was one of them.

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I've been in sales my entire life and it's the one thing I can't seem to escape.

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So I said screw it, I am no longer going to be afraid or fearful or have to force myself into doing this thing that I hate.

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I'm going to create a system that's going to work with me, one that I can actually enjoy, connect with real people and have conversations and use relationships as the tool to drive business opportunity in every capacity, with everyone I work with.

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Yeah, I love that overview, especially because those are the words that we'd like to put in relationship with sales, is we want it to be conversational, we want it to be relationship based, but for a lot of us, our connotations of sales are very negative.

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It's, you know, the hard pitches.

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It's the knocking on doors, picking up cold calls and all of those elements of it.

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How did your attitude and your methodology towards sales, how did it shift along the way?

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Because you weren't born understanding it the way that you understand it now.

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So take us through that progression, you bet.

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So I actually did start my career in sales, going door to door and knocking and getting slammed in my face, and I was actually stopped by the cops twice and that was always a fun experience.

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So it was going through this evolution.

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Every sales role I had I never really liked.

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I moved out of sales into marketing.

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I started entry-level marketing, moved my way up to director of marketing.

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I started running the agency that I was working at and then my bosses from there wanted me to start calling people and I was like I don't want to do that.

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And they were like tough, we need you to do it.

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So I was like all right, I'm putting in my two week notice.

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And that was coming up on five years ago now.

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So I even working for myself.

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I knew that, you know, I I don't have a choice.

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I have to sell.

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I like, if I want to stay working for myself, if I want to stay in business, if I want to support my family, I need to.

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I need to figure this out.

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I don't have a choice anymore.

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But I took the.

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I took the hard path right, like I didn't want to listen to the advice that was being given to me.

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I didn't want to go buy lists, scrape lists, spam people send thousands of messages and hope that one would come through.

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So I really put a lot of time and effort into coming up with a system that I truly felt comfortable with, because I knew that once I did that that other people would be so attracted to it.

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Because no one gets in business for themselves to go sell themselves.

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They get into business for themselves because they're passionate about the thing that they do and they want to spend the majority of their time doing that thing the area of expertise that they have, supporting their clients, the people that they work with.

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They don't want to have to go sell people on it Right.

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So I created a system that allows them to do just that Spend the minimal required amount of time doing sales, talk to as few amount of people as you can, because you want those to be the best quality leads, the people who are going to get the most value from you and want to work with you and refer you and be your best clients, and have you just stay focused on the fulfillment as opposed to the selling.

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Yeah, that's a really important point that you just called out.

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I think a lot of people.

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I always talk about the difference between being a practitioner versus an entrepreneur.

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If you are a physical therapist and all you want to do is physical therapy, you're a practitioner go get a job.

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But if you want to be an entrepreneur, you don't just get to be a personal therapist or a physical therapist.

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You now are also a salesman or a saleswoman by definition.

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You have to go get clients.

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You only get to be a physical therapist, you only get to do the thing if you generate sales for you to do the thing.

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So I think it's a really important foundational approach for us in today's session with you, dan, is because we're all salespeople, whether we want to be or not.

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So I want to hear that story of, because I would imagine that, as a cold door-to-door salesman, you were told Dan, when you go to the house, do this, use this opener.

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Here's your clothes, here's your calls to action.

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What was the first time that you were like I'm not going to do that, I'm going to do it differently.

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What was the different approach that you tried at first?

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So I did get sucked into right, like I remember, when I first started working for myself, I didn't know what else to do.

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So I was like, all right, I'm going to have to cold.

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I always gravitated toward LinkedIn, right.

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I was like, okay, well, I'm still going to need to message people, so I need to figure out a way.

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So I did start just by like mass outreaching to people, but at least from a copy perspective, right, like the technique didn't change much, but the copy that I used was I tried to be a lot more playful and fun with it.

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So I remember the very first message I sent out, the very first thing I did was call out the fact that, like hey, no one likes being reached out too cold, but what if I could?

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And then kind of went into my pitch from there.

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So at least I tried to have some fun with it and I did get some positive responses.

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But it really didn't change, right, I sent a lot of messages and very few people responded of messages and very few people responded.

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So I was like, all right, well, what's the next progression?

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How do I continue to get better from here?

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And it literally took just going through hundreds of thousands of conversations and my strategy has evolved over the past five years and it will continue to evolve.

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The more conversations I have, the more feedback that I get and the more that I learned throughout the process, not only in just going through the process myself, as I still have to sell myself and my services and my course but, like then, I'm also teaching other people to do it.

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I'm getting their feedback, I'm seeing their experiences.

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So I have a lot more data to work with now, which allows me to continue to improve the process and the templates and the ideas and the frameworks that just only help it get stronger and stronger every time we use it.

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Yeah, which is obviously a natural and easy segue for me here today to start transitioning into your methodology and into your framework, because pitch-free Dan, that's super sexy.

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It's a very nice hook that obviously all of my listeners are like Brian.

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Stop asking Dan questions and let him get straight into that framework.

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Talk to us about that methodology and the strategy that you use today and that you also teach to others.

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Yeah, you bet.

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So the three step pitch free framework is what I ultimately came up with.

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It is the there's a lot of moving pieces around it, but it is the core kind of fundamental part, part of how you move someone from stranger to client, and essentially the first part is actually having a conversation.

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So there's there's a lot of different places that a lead can come from.

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But say, for example, if you meet someone on LinkedIn, you meet someone at a conference or you are on a podcast or you are doing some sort of collaboration with someone, people are going to see you right.

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So typically through your marketing or your networking engagements, you are able to kind of identify people who could be potential clients of yours.

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The first thing you want to do is you want to engage them as a human being.

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And I think our first reaction especially in the digital world, where we're kind of hidden behind our screens and our keyboards a little bit, where we can kind of say and do things that we wouldn't necessarily say in person so the first thing is always like the mindset right, like how do I have a conversation with someone that is actually going to get them to respond to me?

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Because it's not a conversation unless there's two people involved.

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So the first step of the pitch-free framework is how to actually have a conversation with someone that gets them interested in wanting to have a call with you, wanting to actually speak with you on a Zoom meeting or face-to-face, whatever it might be.

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So the second step of the pitch-free framework is that actual call.

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It's the introduction.

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It's the introduction, it's the meeting, it's the face-to-face either virtually or in person.

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But the goal of that is to not pitch yourself.

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It is to simply get to know them, to share your story, what you're passionate about, where you come from and what your mission is, because in that process it naturally gets people excited about what you're doing.

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So you're organically pulling people into the process, not by saying like here's what I do, do you want to work with me?

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It's, here's what I'm excited about.

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And they then are asking what comes next.

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So once you've got their attention, you've got them excited.

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They want to learn more about what you do.

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The third step of the pitch-free framework is to give them value, to offer them something of value, and this typically comes in the form of a workshop or a free consultation, some sort of free offer, where they are getting a taste for what it is that you do and you're actually giving them action items and advice that they can take home with them.

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So then that way they can be like wow, that was crazy, right, like they got all that value from you for free, without any commitment.

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It is a no brainer at that point for them to want to continue working with you.

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Yeah, dan gosh, I love the overview.

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Clearly it's not your first rodeo when it comes to sharing that and articulating this, but because it resonates so deeply and it's because I think that, whether we are entrepreneurs and we've done sales a lot for me I'm 16 years into my entrepreneurial journey I've had to refine and define and redefine that sales process so many times along the way, but also just as consumers anyone who's been sold to I think they're going to hear these three steps and be like yes, that is a better way to sell and it's a better way to be sold to because you're never really going in for the kill.

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We hear the Grant Cardone's of the world that they're like ABC always be closing.

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None of us want to be sold to.

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I love the fact that you said it right there in step one Treat them like a human.

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It's something that I've long realized when I get cold pitches literally every single day as a podcaster, I get 20 to 40 pitches from people who want to be guests on the show, who want to sell me services supporting a podcast, and I always joke around with people.

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If you mentioned the Boston Celtics or Manchester United, you'll get me to respond to you far quicker than if you mentioned business things.

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So talk to us about that conversational piece, the human to human element, because it's so at the core of what you do, both personal wise, but also career wise.

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How do we start treating people more like humans when it comes to initiating these conversations?

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That's a great question.

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So, yeah, the icebreaker is the most important part, because that's going to be the thing that actually gets someone to respond.

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So you literally just need, right like, you gave away your secret right there.

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Right Like here are two things that if you send me, in whatever form, no matter what you say, I'm going to respond.

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And that's what you're after is identifying.

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What does this person care about?

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Right, and I think we go online and we see, like, all right, what is this person's business?

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What do they do?

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Right Like we need to disconnect from that.

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We need to disconnect from their business lives and see them as human beings, not just like the buyer at this organization.

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So when we say, when we go and we look at what content they're posting or whatever, right Like, whatever public information we can find about them, that gives us hints and clues about what their hobbies are, their interests, their passions, whether it's work related or it's personal, right, you just need something to latch onto that you can both connect about.

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So it's a common thread, a common theme, something that you both have the interest in because you can speak to it passionately.

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So it's not only the idea that you're like dropping a name or a topic that they're like well, I want to talk about that Right.

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Like they can't even hold themselves back.

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They have to respond because they're so passionate about it.

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But then when you talk about it passionately too, then that, just like that, puts them over the edge.

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There's like there's no stopping them from wanting to respond.

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So it's it's really about that common thread getting the conversation started, because once the conversation is started, you can move it anywhere you want, and that's really kind of like the goal of sharing your story is because that's how you pull anyone from any, any conversation, wherever you are.

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Back to your area of expertise.

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Yeah, dan, I'm going to expose.

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I already exposed myself here on the air.

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I'm gonna expose you on the air as well, because it's something in your LinkedIn profile which, listeners, we're gonna drop Dan's personal LinkedIn link at the end of today's episode.

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Obviously, you'll be able to find it in the show notes.

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But what I love about your LinkedIn, dan, is you wrote at the bottom.

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So you've got really good sales copy and marketing copy, by the way, but at the bottom you wrote and or want to immediately become best friends.

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Mention one of these Dungeons and Dragons, star Wars, harry Potter, dune, anything fantasy, video games, board games, any kind of game.

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Really, I love that fact because you want to.

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This is something that's true of all of us.

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Guess what, dan?

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You want to be surrounded by people who share your common interests.

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I also want that exact same thing.

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So why hide those facts?

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And I think it's so powerful for us as entrepreneurs, as business owners, to go find those things about other people, because we all know this is something that, being human, we inherently understand about each other.

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So I love that.

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Let's progress right into step number two, which is you talked about that introductory meeting, whether it's in person, over zoom however that takes shape.

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What does that conversation look like?

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Are they a set of preset questions that you turn to?

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Is it just natural curiosity that guides you there?

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What do those look like?

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Yeah, definitely.

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So the goal is to make it feel like a completely organic, no agenda, kind of conversation, right, like when you're in conversation with someone setting up the call.

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I call it the you're cool, I'm cool factor, let's hang out.

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So like that's kind of the like, that's, that's the preamble to the call.

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Right, like you seem interesting, I would like to get to know you better, let's chat.

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So you're just going to set a open agenda, kind of like no plans.

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Like you seem cool, I just want to get to know you better.

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So that is the feeling, that is the vibe that you're creating on this call.

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But secretly, you very much have an agenda.

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That agenda is kind of 50-50 is to share your story and I keep going back to this term, your founder story because it is a tool that is designed to share your, your experience, your expertise and who and what you are and what you do.

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So that way you're organically like right, you're selling yourself without having to sell yourself here.

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So you're getting them into the conversation.

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You're sharing your story.

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You're equally listening in and hearing their story, getting to learn more about them and what their experiences are.

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Right, you want to pull that out of them because you're also doing a lot of qualification in this process.

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You're learning more about them and their business and their goals and their passions and their challenges, so you can use this as a tool to move you forward.

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But what it feels like from the other side is like oh, like Dan really cares about like what I do and wants to know more about me.

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Oh, I love Dan's story.

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It's really like it's really interesting to hear like all the things that he's gone through, but they're learning so much about you and you're learning so much about them in the process.

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Then that way it ties you up for the end of that call to be able to position the next step in the process.

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Yeah, I love that overview, especially because, dan, hearing you talk about these things, I know that not only have you developed your own system and your own framework in how to do this the right way that I think we're all going to be on board for hearing you talk about it, but also you've had the more traditional sales training, having been in sales for as long as you have Talk about qualification, for example, I think that that's something for a lot of us entrepreneurs when we start our own business, we never had sales training.

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We don't even know what qualification is or what is it that we're qualifying about this person.

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So I'd love to hear your traditional and not so traditional thoughts about qualification.

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So, because this one is more of a logistics thing.

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It really can stick and standardize to more of the traditional things.

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Right, like what you see.

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Behind this, it's really the things that happen behind the scenes don't really matter to the other person, because that doesn't change the way that the conversation or the relationship feels at all.

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However, it is informing you and keeping you prioritized on speaking to the right people.

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So a lot of people that I've spoken with and I've experienced this a number of times that people hate niching down because they don't want to narrow their focus too much.

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But what happens is when you focus on a very specific set of people with very similar strategies like they've been in business for the same amount of time, they practice the same industries or they have the same focus when you find a certain type of people that have the same background, similarities, you are setting yourself up to build better programs that can enable them even further right.

00:17:08.550 --> 00:17:17.185
So you're doing both yourself and them a favor by being hyper-focused, because the quality of work that you can deliver to them is significantly higher.

00:17:17.185 --> 00:17:25.497
Because if you're doing the same thing over and over and over again for the same type of person, nothing changes except for the feedback that you're getting along the way to improve the system.

00:17:25.978 --> 00:17:35.898
But when you start to work with someone who is a little bit in a smaller company or a bigger company or in a completely different geo than the last person or a different industry, it becomes a lot harder to tie all those things together.

00:17:35.898 --> 00:17:42.291
So by sitting down and getting really focused and saying, well, here are all the things that I can look at before I get on a conversation with someone.

00:17:42.291 --> 00:17:54.689
I can look at their LinkedIn profile, I can look at their website, I can look at whatever public information is available to me, and I want to make a checklist and I want to say the ideal type of person that I want to work with has been in business for this long.

00:17:54.689 --> 00:17:57.497
Has this type of title works in this type of industry?

00:17:57.497 --> 00:18:00.433
Right, and you get the more specific you get, the more specific you get.

00:18:05.944 --> 00:18:09.761
The less time you're going to spend with people who are either not qualified because they're just completely in the wrong direction, or maybe they're just.

00:18:09.761 --> 00:18:16.974
They're close enough but they're not there yet, they're not ready for your services because maybe they haven't been in business long enough and they haven't experienced those challenges yet.

00:18:16.974 --> 00:18:22.335
So the goal is to get hyper, hyper focused and clear on.

00:18:22.335 --> 00:18:29.517
This is who I want to work with, because this is the best type of person that I can support, that I can add the most value to, which only helps both you and them.

00:18:29.517 --> 00:18:44.034
And when you do that, you spend so much more time talking to the right people that they convert at a higher rate and you spend significantly less time in the sales process and again have much better, more focused work with them.

00:18:44.034 --> 00:18:46.259
That gets them better results and you better results.

00:18:46.825 --> 00:18:56.900
Yeah, which I think comes back to that point that you made really early on in our conversation today, which is the goal is actually to speak to as few people as possible or as needed in order for our businesses to grow.

00:18:56.900 --> 00:18:59.888
So I really love the fact that you keep highlighting that.

00:18:59.888 --> 00:19:10.113
Before I tee you up for step number three, I do want to give you some public kudos here, because obviously, step number three you've already shared with us is to give value as part of the three-step pitch-free framework.

00:19:10.113 --> 00:19:21.457
And, dan, I remember 16 years ago when I started my first business it was the summer after the freshman year of college for me and I was just consuming all the content.

00:19:21.457 --> 00:19:30.910
I was listening to podcast episodes, watching YouTube videos, reading all these business books, and it just seems like so many of those experts at the time it was all, it was gatekeeping.

00:19:30.910 --> 00:19:37.119
They were gatekeeping all of their methodologies and frameworks, and so when we talk about giving value, there's so many.

00:19:37.421 --> 00:19:40.992
It's become a cliche in the world of entrepreneurship of, oh, give value.

00:19:40.992 --> 00:19:42.115
We don't know what that looks like.

00:19:42.115 --> 00:19:50.609
But, dan, it's the very reason why I've been so committed to having amazing entrepreneurs like you here on this show and why this show started was because you're not holding back.

00:19:50.609 --> 00:19:54.137
You are showing up fully through the lens of.

00:19:54.137 --> 00:19:58.636
I want to tell people very openly what my three-step pitch-free framework looks like.

00:19:58.636 --> 00:20:06.586
So that's all my preface to tee you up for that step three of just showing that you're doing this in real time with us as you're giving value.

00:20:06.586 --> 00:20:08.391
What does that step mean for you?

00:20:09.553 --> 00:20:13.686
Yeah, so this one is really kind of the key here.

00:20:13.686 --> 00:20:19.730
Right, and I and I truthfully I stole this from everyone that I ever worked with, who I was like, wow, they did a really good job.

00:20:19.730 --> 00:20:44.652
Like I didn't even need what they I I wasn't openly in the market for what they had, but when I talked to them and I realized how they could help me and how I was being held back by the process because they spent so much time with me and because they lent me their expertise and their knowledge that helped me, see, oh, this is something that I need to work on, this is something that's holding me back or this is something that can propel me so much further than the path that I'm currently on.

00:20:44.652 --> 00:20:50.640
I was so blown away by those experiences that I stole it.

00:20:50.640 --> 00:21:20.078
I was like this works, I need to implement this into my system, and I quickly started doing that and I started to experiment with different ways to how do you add value and the goal really for this third step I call it the free offer call, and it can take so many different shapes or forms, but it's really to softly onboard them as a client, so you want to give them experience of right, because when you sell yourself right, if you're hard selling yourself or you're going through the system the way I am you're talking passionately about what you do and how you help people.

00:21:20.078 --> 00:21:28.011
You're more talking about the frameworks that you have and what you do and what the transformation at the end of the day can be.

00:21:28.011 --> 00:21:35.892
But that doesn't really paint the picture of what the experience for me as your customer is going to be like when I actually start to work with you.

00:21:35.892 --> 00:21:50.116
So when you can clearly paint that picture, for someone it goes, ah, okay, now I clearly see what this experience is going to be like and that helps me paint the picture from where I am today to where I want to go, and working with you is the path forward.

00:21:52.188 --> 00:22:08.493
So you're making a free offer and you are spending 45 minutes to an hour with them, sitting them down, going deep into their work right, not just teaching them a lesson, but actually getting hands on in their business, really pulling out the information and giving them actionable steps that they can take.

00:22:08.493 --> 00:22:11.951
I will literally give people a template that they can go use on their own.

00:22:11.951 --> 00:22:19.236
So you want to give them something of value that expands beyond just the call itself, something they can take home and continue to work on right.

00:22:19.236 --> 00:22:21.067
They might dwell on it that night and be like crap.

00:22:21.067 --> 00:22:22.009
I'm really thinking about this.

00:22:22.009 --> 00:22:23.311
But that's exactly what you want.

00:22:23.311 --> 00:22:28.200
You want them to think of you well beyond that call, because now you're stuck in their head.

00:22:28.424 --> 00:22:31.881
Like Dan pointed out, all these things that I'd help with, and this is great.

00:22:31.881 --> 00:22:37.134
I now I know exactly what I need to do, but I don't know how to start on each of those steps.

00:22:37.134 --> 00:22:45.239
So the next logical step is well, dan's already got a system that helped me get this far, and he already explained to me exactly how we're going to move through those next steps.

00:22:45.239 --> 00:22:48.213
So it's a logical next step for me to want to work with him.

00:22:48.213 --> 00:22:57.855
So you're really kind of like soft onboarding them into becoming a client and painting the picture and giving them the experience of what it's going to be like working with you.

00:22:58.525 --> 00:22:59.727
Yeah, dan, I'll tell you what.

00:22:59.727 --> 00:23:02.190
I've obviously consumed a lot of content in my life.

00:23:02.190 --> 00:23:04.272
I've had a lot of conversations with entrepreneurs.

00:23:04.272 --> 00:23:07.016
I've never heard someone articulate it in that way.

00:23:07.016 --> 00:23:15.617
If you're already viewing it as soft onboarding them as a client, I love that mindset that you bring in that step, and I think it's so powerful.

00:23:15.617 --> 00:23:23.116
It's something that I really resonate with, because when I started back in 2012, I started a marketing and SEO agency, dan, I had no idea how to sell.

00:23:23.116 --> 00:23:25.846
I had started a soccer blog before that did really well with that.

00:23:25.988 --> 00:23:31.797
I didn't know how to get a client, though, and so what my business partner and I were doing at the time is we were like let's just show.

00:23:31.797 --> 00:23:33.284
A lot of our clients were much older.

00:23:33.284 --> 00:23:37.114
They had no idea what SEO was, so we were like let's show them SEO.

00:23:37.114 --> 00:23:47.897
Let's whip our laptops out and, in real time, actually show them, and we started getting clients that way, so we found some tool that would custom create an SEO action plan for them based on their website.

00:23:47.897 --> 00:23:50.227
It would just straight up say, dan, they didn't need us at that point.

00:23:50.227 --> 00:23:53.477
It would straight up say you need to refine your title tags on these pages.

00:23:53.477 --> 00:23:55.128
You need to focus on your meta descriptions.

00:23:55.430 --> 00:24:08.333
We just gave it away and people started wanting to work with us more, so I absolutely love that, but my job here as podcast host is to always think about the naysayers, the people who are going to say well Dan, but what about this?

00:24:08.333 --> 00:24:15.636
And my gut reaction when I think about the butts of today's episode is but where do I find these people to talk to?

00:24:15.636 --> 00:24:21.886
This sounds like a really great framework and strategy that I want to start using, but how am I going to know who to do this with?

00:24:21.886 --> 00:24:23.690
What's your answer in that perspective?

00:24:23.690 --> 00:24:24.833
You bet.

00:24:24.873 --> 00:24:28.378
So leads really can come from anywhere.

00:24:28.378 --> 00:24:31.386
There are so many different lead sources.

00:24:31.386 --> 00:24:38.336
When I started out, and still today, is my favorite place right Like, choose one platform, go do one thing and really kind of put all of your focus in there.

00:24:38.336 --> 00:24:39.978
For me, that's LinkedIn.

00:24:39.978 --> 00:24:41.861
I love being on LinkedIn.

00:24:41.861 --> 00:24:44.266
I love I have so many friends there.

00:24:44.266 --> 00:24:45.367
I have so many people that I collaborate with.

00:24:45.367 --> 00:24:54.546
I have found basically all of my my my clients, my employees and contractors and investors and friends Right Like.

00:24:54.586 --> 00:24:55.587
It's not just about clients.

00:24:55.587 --> 00:24:57.230
This is a relationship building tool.

00:24:57.230 --> 00:25:09.652
This works across the board for every single relationship, every single opportunity that you want to find, every single opportunity that you want to find, and being on LinkedIn, for me, is the best way to do it.

00:25:09.652 --> 00:25:11.457
So I'll give you the specific strategy on LinkedIn for what I do.

00:25:11.457 --> 00:25:13.887
It does require you to be creating content.

00:25:13.887 --> 00:25:26.153
I suggest minimum three posts per week and when you're posting, to make sure that you're regularly actually engaging your network and in the process, you will actually generate more warm leads than you'll ever have time to actually work.

00:25:26.733 --> 00:25:34.074
So the things that you want to do is you want to go and see who is engaging on your content, who's commenting on your content right.

00:25:34.074 --> 00:25:35.116
Go talk to those people.

00:25:35.116 --> 00:25:42.307
Go to their profile first and make sure that they're qualified, and then start a conversation with them in the DMs and move them through this three-step pitch-free framework.

00:25:42.307 --> 00:25:47.932
Profile views are really great ones as well, so you can start to go.

00:25:47.932 --> 00:25:53.857
This does require the free version gives you like five, but if you have the paid version, you can see every person that's ever viewed your profile.

00:25:53.857 --> 00:26:02.932
It's really great for lurkers, because they don't comment on your posts, they don't engage, they don't DM you, but when you see that they pop up, it's a great way to start a conversation.

00:26:02.932 --> 00:26:12.674
And the third place is so it is profile views, it is comments on your content and it's connection requests People who are already sending you connection requests, whether they are blank or they have written something in it.

00:26:12.674 --> 00:26:17.846
Obviously, you can ignore the people that are going to be cold pitching you, but you can look at anyone's profile.

00:26:17.846 --> 00:26:25.519
You can go ahead and qualify them, make sure that they are a good person that you actually want to talk to, and then start the conversation from there.

00:26:26.220 --> 00:26:36.692
In a lot of these cases, the icebreakers actually built into it, because they're the ones who kind of soft raised their hands and said like hey, like I checked out your profile, I wanted to learn more about you, right?

00:26:36.692 --> 00:26:39.208
Like they're not saying this out loud, but that's what they're telling you.

00:26:39.208 --> 00:26:45.258
By viewing your profile or I commented on your post and I was specifically interested about this thing I'm sending this connection request for a reason.

00:26:45.258 --> 00:26:50.606
They are raising their hands, saying that they want to get to know you in some form, shape or capacity further.

00:26:50.606 --> 00:26:56.053
Take that as the initiative to say okay, cool, let me reach back out to them and keep this conversation going.

00:26:56.053 --> 00:26:57.632
Don't let it just die on the vine from there.

00:26:58.305 --> 00:27:02.073
So I do actually have a full guide on this process.

00:27:02.073 --> 00:27:08.288
It is a free guide on this process.

00:27:08.288 --> 00:27:09.112
It is a free guide that I give away.

00:27:09.112 --> 00:27:14.872
So, brian, we can definitely share that, but it walks you step by step through this entire process as well as gives you templates for each of those three scenarios that you can copy and paste.

00:27:14.872 --> 00:27:25.595
There are ways to improve on them, but they are the best way to get started with zero effort and without the stress of being like, okay, I'm here, I know who I need to talk to, but crap, I still don't know what to say to this person.

00:27:26.135 --> 00:27:29.826
Yeah, Listeners, you already know we're going to drop that link right on down in the show notes section.

00:27:29.826 --> 00:27:32.273
But we're also going to talk about links in just a few minutes from now.

00:27:32.273 --> 00:27:37.718
But before we get there, Dan, I think there's two things that are very readily apparent about you.

00:27:37.718 --> 00:27:50.930
One you love what you do and the passion and the excitement Really it is joy.

00:27:50.930 --> 00:27:51.863
Actually, I'm going to add to that it's joy that I see in you when you talk about these things.

00:27:51.863 --> 00:27:52.838
And then, secondly, I think that you really mean it.

00:27:52.751 --> 00:27:57.837
You've used the word friends a few times here today and I think you genuinely love building those friendships, whether it's within the context of life or business.

00:27:57.837 --> 00:28:01.407
You genuinely view them all as friends, which speaks to it.

00:28:01.407 --> 00:28:02.390
It's right there in your bio.

00:28:02.390 --> 00:28:02.851
I love it.

00:28:02.851 --> 00:28:06.155
You run a Dungeons and Dragons networking group for business nerds.

00:28:06.155 --> 00:28:15.366
Talk to us about that friend component, because you keep talking about relationships as well, and you view it as that longer term investment, because it also just makes your life better.

00:28:15.366 --> 00:28:19.425
Talk to us about where that originates and all these different efforts that you make in that domain.

00:28:20.385 --> 00:28:20.685
Yeah.

00:28:20.685 --> 00:28:27.130
So I think you know I got out of.

00:28:27.130 --> 00:28:47.781
I always hated sales because it just it felt like a business transaction, right, and the more I spent time in roles or capacities where I could actually get to know someone and and when I could teach them something that that like helped them and you could see the transformation you can see kind of like the ah.

00:28:47.781 --> 00:28:54.214
I've been struggling with this forever and I finally overcome that and it's something that's just like I'm so used to doing it.

00:28:54.214 --> 00:28:59.894
That's such an impactful feeling, right, and it's really about the relationships.

00:28:59.894 --> 00:29:01.088
You hear the.

00:29:01.088 --> 00:29:02.173
What's the phrase?

00:29:02.173 --> 00:29:03.892
It's not what you know, it's who you know.

00:29:05.444 --> 00:29:07.532
Opportunity comes out of everywhere.

00:29:07.532 --> 00:29:12.876
So even if this person is not a good potential client, that's fine.

00:29:12.876 --> 00:29:18.478
They might know many more people than who will be good clients for you, right?

00:29:18.478 --> 00:29:23.356
They might know someone who is going to be a good partner for you.

00:29:23.356 --> 00:29:25.653
They might know someone who's going to invest in your business.

00:29:25.653 --> 00:29:29.556
They might know the potential is limitless.

00:29:29.805 --> 00:29:38.093
So when you have these deep relationships with people who know and trust you and, like you, they want to support you, they want to see you succeed, they're going to go out of their way.

00:29:38.325 --> 00:29:42.152
It's more than just like a transaction of like I'm going to give you money, give me results.

00:29:42.252 --> 00:29:50.938
Right, it is, I genuinely care about you and I want to see you succeed, so I'm going to go out of my way to do things that are going to help you.

00:29:50.938 --> 00:29:58.596
And that's where you start to see referrals and you see partnerships and you see collaborations and you see so much that comes out of it.

00:29:58.596 --> 00:30:07.775
And at the end of the day that's why the relationship component is so important is because it is the compounding effect that just really skyrockets your business.

00:30:07.775 --> 00:30:17.709
You can build a relationship one at a time, but all of those relationships, if you build them strong enough, start to have a ripple effect throughout those other networks.

00:30:17.709 --> 00:30:40.682
Right on LinkedIn you see kind of like first connections, second connections, third connections those are kind of like you don't really care about them as much in the context of LinkedIn, but when you actually build that into your personal circles, when you do have that level of confidence and rapport with people, they're much more willing to bring you into other circles, and when you have that warm introduction, everything becomes significantly easier.

00:30:41.315 --> 00:30:53.942
Yeah, dan, I love hearing you talk about these things because it shares so much about your inner perspective, and I'm gonna very publicly toot your horn here because I think that what's so powerful about you, dan, is that you actually practice what you preach.

00:30:53.942 --> 00:31:04.436
And so I will tell you totally transparently that we've on our team side, behind the scenes, at the entrepreneur to entrepreneur podcast, we've appreciated and really admired the way that you show up.

00:31:04.436 --> 00:31:09.921
For example, it's the little things like I always send out personal reminder emails before our production days to guests.

00:31:09.921 --> 00:31:11.247
You replied to it.

00:31:11.247 --> 00:31:17.164
And it's even things like on your guest questionnaire, you dropped a line Like one of the things we always ask listeners.

00:31:17.164 --> 00:31:19.198
This is transparency for you behind the scenes.

00:31:19.198 --> 00:31:22.867
We always ask our guests is there anything else you'd like Brian to know ahead of your interview?

00:31:22.867 --> 00:31:28.522
And Dan wrote verbatim love what you're building, keep it up Looking forward to our conversation with a smiley face.

00:31:28.522 --> 00:31:34.557
It's little touches like that that everyone on our team, from when we first reached out to have you on the show, everyone was just like Dan's the man.

00:31:34.557 --> 00:31:36.881
Dan's so nice, like Dan's so nice, Like we love the way this guy works.

00:31:36.881 --> 00:31:38.844
So, yeah, huge kudos to you.

00:31:38.923 --> 00:31:41.948
It's also why, listeners if you feel like this episode has flown by.

00:31:42.288 --> 00:31:50.707
It feels like that for me as well, which is why we're going to invite Dan back for an Action Saturday episode which we'll be sharing with him afterwards.

00:31:50.727 --> 00:31:54.577
You listeners know more than he does about Action Saturday, so we're excited to have him back on the show if he takes us up on that.

00:31:54.577 --> 00:31:57.663
But, dan, I just think all these things the proof is in the pudding.

00:31:57.663 --> 00:32:08.133
So I really respect and admire and I'm so appreciative of the way that you show up, and time truly did fly by, which is why my last question of the episode is fun for me, because I have no idea which direction you'll take it in.

00:32:08.133 --> 00:32:09.861
That's your takeaway.

00:32:09.861 --> 00:32:13.184
What's that one takeaway that you hope every listener walks away from this?

00:32:13.184 --> 00:32:24.349
We talked about so many important things, all the steps of your pitchfree framework, as well as the important stuff about viewing relationships and building relationships as an entrepreneur, as a business owner.

00:32:24.349 --> 00:32:35.875
With all of that in mind and all your other experiences, what's the one takeaway you hope everyone walks away from today's session with have fun, not just in the sales process, but in everything that you do.

00:32:36.076 --> 00:32:49.146
Because from my personal experience of dragging myself through the mud and trying to figure out systems that work, that just trying to make systems work, that didn't work for me, that didn't align with who I was as a person, continuously held me back.

00:32:49.146 --> 00:32:59.048
But when I found that I put my focus and emphasis on doing the things that I loved and I cared about and I actually enjoyed the process of doing, I became so much better at doing those.

00:32:59.048 --> 00:33:02.202
It became so much easier to learn.

00:33:02.202 --> 00:33:04.771
It became so much easier to collect feedback and improve the process.

00:33:04.771 --> 00:33:10.800
But anytime I wanted to do something that I was kind of felt like I was forcing myself through or it didn't feel right, I was dragging my feet.

00:33:10.800 --> 00:33:13.851
I was always, always, always holding myself back.

00:33:13.851 --> 00:33:20.907
So if you just focus on having fun, enjoying the process, you will go so much further than you can ever hope or imagine.

00:33:21.556 --> 00:33:26.655
Yes, very wise advice from you and really important for all of us to embrace Again.

00:33:26.655 --> 00:33:32.082
So much of today's episode we're all about when we do these things, life gets better, business gets better.

00:33:32.082 --> 00:33:34.022
So I love your attitude towards all of these, dan.

00:33:34.022 --> 00:33:39.880
We've both teased your website and your resources and your LinkedIn quite a bit, so drop those links on us.

00:33:39.880 --> 00:33:48.955
Where should listeners go from here to learn more about your three-step pitch-free framework, as well as your LinkedIn sales process, all these great things that you're putting into the world?

00:33:49.617 --> 00:33:52.423
Yeah, it's no surprise I spend most of my time on LinkedIn.

00:33:52.423 --> 00:33:53.807
I don't actually.

00:33:53.807 --> 00:33:55.557
I'm not actually on any other social platform.

00:33:55.557 --> 00:33:56.878
I'm exclusively on LinkedIn.

00:33:56.878 --> 00:34:02.606
So come say hi to me, drop a note, your icebreaker is already built in.

00:34:02.606 --> 00:34:04.809
I saw you on the Watch Madorna Entrepreneur podcast.

00:34:04.809 --> 00:34:10.619
That is a great way for us to start a conversation.

00:34:10.619 --> 00:34:12.407
I'd love to hear if you have any feedback or thoughts on what I was doing.

00:34:12.407 --> 00:34:19.744
But all of the stuff that you all of the free resources and advice and things that I have in there you can learn more about on my profile it links out to my website and everything like that.

00:34:19.744 --> 00:34:22.527
What I would recommend is definitely check out.

00:34:22.527 --> 00:34:25.016
I do have a free guide in my featured section.

00:34:25.016 --> 00:34:26.380
It's called Socially Awkward.

00:34:26.380 --> 00:34:28.346
That is the guide I was talking about.

00:34:28.346 --> 00:34:35.737
That takes you through how to actually have conversations in the DMs on LinkedIn with people and in a way that doesn't feel socially awkward.

00:34:35.737 --> 00:34:40.527
So templates, step-by-step process that'll walk you through how to start a conversation with anyone on LinkedIn.

00:34:41.130 --> 00:34:42.032
Yes, I love that.

00:34:42.032 --> 00:34:43.394
Listeners, you already know the drill.

00:34:43.394 --> 00:34:47.385
We're making it as easy as possible for you to find the link to Dan's personal LinkedIn.

00:34:47.385 --> 00:34:52.630
If you want a masterclass in optimizing your LinkedIn, go check out Dan's LinkedIn.

00:34:52.630 --> 00:34:54.695
I see so many entrepreneurs LinkedIn's.

00:34:54.695 --> 00:34:56.637
Dan, I have to put you at the top of the pile.

00:34:56.637 --> 00:35:00.201
The way that you've structured it, your copy on there, how personal it is.

00:35:00.201 --> 00:35:01.681
I feel like I know you just from it.

00:35:01.681 --> 00:35:06.527
And, yes, that featured section where all of you listeners can find that free guide it's all right there.

00:35:06.527 --> 00:35:10.269
It's so easy to get your hands on it as well as his Manifest, a Million Challenge.

00:35:10.269 --> 00:35:12.411
All that good stuff is right on Dan's LinkedIn.

00:35:12.411 --> 00:35:14.836
So check the show notes for that link.

00:35:14.836 --> 00:35:21.018
Otherwise, Dan, on behalf of myself, my team and everyone who's tuning in around the world, thanks so much for coming on the show today.

00:35:22.081 --> 00:35:24.447
Thanks for having me Always happy to talk about this stuff.

00:35:24.447 --> 00:35:29.606
Great questions, and can't wait to hear what comes next.

00:35:31.496 --> 00:35:37.077
Hey, it's Brian here, and thanks for tuning in to yet another episode of the Wantrepreneur to Entrepreneur podcast.

00:35:37.077 --> 00:35:41.043
If you haven't checked us out online, there's so much good stuff there.

00:35:41.043 --> 00:35:50.259
Check out the show's website and all the show notes that we talked about in today's episode at thewantrepreneurshowcom, and I just want to give a shout out to our amazing guests.

00:35:50.259 --> 00:35:59.061
There's a reason why we are ad free and have produced so many incredible episodes five days a week for you, and it's because our guests step up to the plate.

00:35:59.103 --> 00:36:01.105
These are not sponsored episodes.

00:36:01.105 --> 00:36:02.708
These are not infomercials.

00:36:02.708 --> 00:36:06.199
Our guests help us cover the costs of our productions.

00:36:06.199 --> 00:36:17.157
They so deeply believe in the power of getting their message out in front of you, awesome entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs, that they contribute to help us make these productions possible.

00:36:17.157 --> 00:36:25.643
So thank you to not only today's guests, but all of our guests in general, and I just want to invite you check out our website because you can send us a voicemail there.

00:36:25.643 --> 00:36:26.960
We also have live chat.

00:36:26.960 --> 00:36:30.820
If you want to interact directly with me, go to thewantrepreneurshowcom.

00:36:30.820 --> 00:36:33.000
Initiate a live chat.

00:36:33.000 --> 00:36:37.878
It's for real me, and I'm excited because I'll see you, as always, every Monday.