Recruiting and Training Top Sales Talent

In this week’s The Faces of Business Episode, our guest speaker was Jason Forrest. Jason is the CEO of Forrest Performance Group. At FPG they are recruiting and training sales talent (sales warriors) to help businesses dominate their industries. 

Recruiting and training sales talent may sound like an easy job, but if you are a sales company, you know the struggles better. This week’s guest talks all about this talent and how to hire and develop sales warriors!

In this week’s The Faces of Business Episode, our guest speaker was Jason Forrest. Jason is the CEO of Forrest Performance Group. At FPG they are recruiting and training sales talent (sales warriors) to help businesses dominate their industries.

The conversation started with Damon introducing the guest. After this, Jason introduced himself and talked about his past a bit. Jason said that he grew up in a sales environment. According to him, his father owned a jewelry shop for 42 years, which is why he always saw how it is to compete in the sales market.

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This is when Jason learned the importance of adding emotions to your sales. Apart from this, talking more about recruiting and training sales talent, Jason said that in sales and in a court of law, it doesn’t matter what you believe in, what matters is what you can prove.

Further, into the conversation, Jason talked about marketing and sales. He said that usually people think that cold calling and randomly sending LinkedIn DMs is an old technique. However, Jason disagrees with it. He shared a technique that he and his company works on.

What they do is they post every day and every person who likes or comments on their posts, analyze them if they are a potential client or a supplier or something like that. After this, they send that person a DM or a call.

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This technique helps his company in recruiting and training sales talent greatly. Moreover, this also allows them to help other companies. In addition to this, Jason shared four steps that effectively help him in recruiting and training sales talent.

Among these steps, he said that the first one is to send people direct messages and make them personal. The next step he says is to disrupt the pattern. This according to Jason is a little technical and you just have to make a few changes in the usual way you text a potential client.

The third thing according to Jason is to teach them something new. He says that if you mention something new to your prospects, something that they have never heard of, then they will definitely pay attention to it as well.

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The last step is to create video content and post more videos. By the end of the conversation, Jason shared a few more steps on recruiting and training sales talent.

The conversation ended with Damon thanking the guest for his presence.

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ABOUT EXIT YOUR WAY®

Exit Your Way® provides a structured process and skilled resources to grow business value and allow business owners to leave with 2X+ more money when they are ready.

You can find more information about the Exit Your Way® process and our team on our website.

You can contact us by phone:  822-BIZ-EXIT (249-3948)   Or by Email:  info@exityourway.us

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44:54

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

people, sales, selling, warrior, create, company, teach, jason, salesperson, disrupt, number, listening, talk, technique, pattern, life, studied, video, today, direct messages

SPEAKERS

Damon Pistulka, Jason Forrest

 

Damon Pistulka  00:04

All right, everyone. Welcome once again to the face of the business. I’m your host, Damon Pistulka. And boy, am I excited today. I just I am really jacked about this. I have got with me Jason forest. Jason, welcome.

 

Jason Forrest  00:22

Awesome. I’m glad to be here I’ve been I’ve This is, it’s five o’clock central time, I’ve had a day of prospecting, woke up my normal rituals to wake up at 430 every morning and go through a bunch of stuff. And so I’m fired up. Dude, I

 

Damon Pistulka  00:36

knew I knew I liked you before this. I’m one of those crazy guys, I get up at four 430 in the morning, today, I woke up at 340 something and I was like, man, I need to get up because I had some inspiration need to write need to go through my routine. Because, you know, I’m one of those people that says if I if I start my morning with something that gets me gives me knowledge gets me refreshed, or knowledge, inspiration and energy.

Those are the three things that I try to inject before I get any other influences because then when I hit the day, it’s like you’re you’re just like a Mack truck rolling through stuff. So love to hear that. And I forgot to say the car company too. As far as performance group, you got to you got an awesome company that helps develop sales lawyers man. And that’s that’s what I want to talk about today. And thanks so much for being here. First of all, and let’s start with your background, though, because I really like to understand and let the people that I interview. Talk about their background and and how that really led you to where you are today.

 

Jason Forrest  01:40

Yeah, so so. So quick story, I was very fortunate. My father owns a jewelry store. He’s 82 years old, he’s had this same jewelry store now for 42 years. So I’m 42 whole life, he’s had this jewelry store. It’s the oldest jewelry store in North Dallas. And so my whole life I grew up in this kind of small business selling environment where he you know, where customers would come in and, and they were looking to buy buy a diamond ring.

And they’re competing against, you know, he used to be against Tiffany’s and Bach indoors and jarrods. And Gordon’s and, and you know, when he would have to convince them that, that his diamond was better than the diamond next door, even though they all buy the diamond from the same place.

 

Damon Pistulka  02:19

Yeah.

 

Jason Forrest  02:21

And so I learned I learned from him how important it is to sell the emotion. You know, he taught me a really cool, he taught me a really cool technique when I was eight years old. And he said, Son, all you have to do is ask them to tell you their story of how they met. If they just start telling you the story of how they met, then they anchor an emotional connection to you. And then you now have to find them a diamond that is symbolic to the life that they want to create together. And when you find that diamond that is symbolic of the life they want to create forever, then they’ll Of course choose from you over Tiffany’s Reebok endorser. jarrods.

So I learned that at a very young age, the importance of that, which I think is a good lesson for all of us, because right now think of how many people are listening to this message right now that, that you feel like you’re selling the same thing as the guy next door or the company next door? And you’re like, well, how am I any different, the only the only the only way I can change it up is if I lower the price, or I give a new incentive. But that’s not the technique, the technique is you have to sell the value, you have to sell the emotion you have to sell the why you have to you have to just be a superior sales warrior than anyone else. You have to connect differently.

 

Damon Pistulka  03:38

Yeah. And and you said, a first of all, that’s absolutely incredible that you learned that at eight years old, and that that your father taught you that emotional connection because that is so powerful. And and a friend of mine, Alonzo ibehre, talks about emotional intelligence and creating that emotional connection when you’re when you’re selling. It is so important, but that the way that your father explained that to you in the way that you just told it is absolutely so powerful in that situation. I can I can imagine that you would be very, very successful selling like that.

 

Jason Forrest  04:16

Yeah, so that was very helpful. And then and then the second thing, my kind of upbringing. My mom is a professor. She actually just retired this year. She’s been teaching public speaking and debate at the college level for 50 years. And is one of the things that she really taught me that is so true to this day, is she would say in a debate, it doesn’t matter what you believe it matters what you can prove. Yes. Which think about that as a sales warriors listening right now is you might believe that your product or service is is superior and better than your competition.

But can you prove it? Do you have the evidence to back it up? Yeah. Can you can you show them why it’s better if you’re 20% more Then the competition, well, then, why does it Why? Like, what’s the evidence to back up why you’re 20% more. And so that evidence is very important. So it doesn’t matter what you believe matters, what you can prove in the court of law, just like in sales. And then the third thing was my Sunday school teacher growing up was Zig Ziglar, which was really cool. You know,

 

Damon Pistulka  05:19

that’s just back up a second. The real Zig Ziglar

 

Jason Forrest  05:23

deal, the real Zig Ziglar Yep. So, of course, I’m, you know, I always, I didn’t really know who he was, right? Yeah,

 

Damon Pistulka  05:30

no

 

Jason Forrest  05:31

doubt. You know, I didn’t really understand or appreciate who he was, I just thought he was a very motivational guy that my parents, you know, I went to his Sunday school growing up in Sunday school at like, 100 100. And something people in his class No, but but it was just, you know, what I learned from him was, was just the power of attitude, you know, he was all about attitude, he was all about, you know, your, your attitude will determine your altitude.

And so, so I just, that was really what I took from that. And that’s really, that’s really shaped me, I would say who I am today. And so, sales selling for me was always a plan a career versus a plan B, I think most human beings, unfortunately, it’s a plan B career for him not to plan a career.

And so I, I really felt early on in my life that I wanted to ignite the pride, purpose and respect professional selling. And I went out to go and seek that and try to be a master of that, of that craft, that art form. Just like a martial artist tries to be a master of a martial art craft form, I think, I think selling the same way. But the problem is, is that I found that so many sales trainers out there are more theorist than practitioners. And that was very frustrating to me. And so. So even though I studied all of them, I just had this inkling inside of me that a lot of them, were more consultants, they were more kind of researchers and students of it.

But they weren’t practitioners. They didn’t, they didn’t kind of live what they preached. And so, so I went on to start my own training company, many years ago now. And my whole goal was to be the first sales training company that was created by a sales practitioner. So even to this day, I still prospect every day, even to this day, everything that that every video, I create every lesson that I teach, even though I’ve got many, many trainers now all around the world to teach the concepts that I create, before they’re allowed to teach anything I create. I personally have to vet it, and I have to do it. Yeah.

So so I have to say, not just I believe this will work, not just I think it’ll work, not just the research says it’ll work. But I Jason, for us to have practice this routine. And this is the result that I have received. So therefore, it’s like i’ve you know, it works now like right, so I feel like with integrity, I can tell people it works. Well, the comments I get like I was just on a graduation call today, with one of my trainers took a team of salespeople through a program or 90 day program.

They’re graduating today. And one of the veterans said, I just tell you right now, I can’t stand training. I hate training. But man, you’ve really proved me wrong on this thing. This thing is this thing is a very different approach. But what he was saying is, is that he’s just sick and tired of being a sales veteran being taught by these sales posers. Yeah, he’s philosophies that are not real in the real world. They’re not what real people do. And so he’s they’re tired of the textbook, college way of selling and they want real stuff. And so, so So I told him today I said, that’s the greatest compliment you could possibly give me is when a veteran says this stuff is legit. And this is

 

Damon Pistulka  08:36

Yeah. Yeah, no doubt. I think you read my mind man, you’re reading my mind. It’s it because I agree with you. 100% when it comes to a lot, a lot of a lot of people lead people down a lot, Li lead others down pass as gurus, trainers, whatever, without really living the life fighting the battle. And and that’s that’s what I see a lot of and especially today with the online the way that you can even make yourself look a lot of different ways, just with the right people around you and doing what you can do and not be able to create a result that that really would would support that.

I’ll just say that with with being nice because there are a lot of people who make a lot of money every day on people that are that are desperate for change, or looking for inspiration and they can’t do it, but they will still take their money no matter what.

And, man I just I really appreciate your position on this because listen, salespeople at the end of the day, if you’re helping sales people and you’re not helping them to drive more sales at at the end of the day, you’re a wasting your time but it’s different than somebody that say when I grew up in engineering I You know, in that in that position, there’s virtually no bonus, no commission, whatever based on you know, you’re doing engineering job and you get paid your engineering wage in sales, I might not get paid hardly anything if I’m not successful.

And I will not stay there very long. If I’m not producing, I mean, there’s the the, the risk is so much higher, from a personal financial standpoint for a long term for a long term employment standpoint, that if you’re actually showing people practical ways that they can sell. It’s you just lightyears ahead of others lightyears ahead of others. So

 

Jason Forrest  10:39

yeah, so that’s, that’s, that’s a good critical thinking question. I think for everyone right now. And Bernie Brown says it best, where she talks about, you know, you find a circle of advisers that you can trust. But before you let them in your arena, she says, Ask yourself a critical thinking question, and that is, have they done what you’re trying to do? And if the answer is yes, then allow them to be in their your arena and allow them to critique you and to coach you and to give you feedback. But if they have not done what you are attempting to do and what you desire to do, then they have not earned the right to give you feedback.

 

Damon Pistulka  11:21

Yeah, yeah, that’s I think that’s pretty fair. It is fair, it is fair. And, and and you know, there’s a lot of people that will disagree with that. But I think it’s hard to it’s hard to beat the experience from doing something. And and that is, as you say, prospecting. Someone can talk all day about why you should prospect this way. But if you haven’t done it, and really experienced it, that does truly work in your industry, maybe or whatever the applicable things aren’t, you really don’t know what you want. So let’s talk about that. Damon? Yes.

 

Jason Forrest  11:56

So let’s talk about that. Because I will tell you right now is 1000 times easier to agree with a lot of these teachers right now that talk about, hey, cold calling is dead, stop doing that, or, you know, stop, whatever the direct messaging on LinkedIn, some of the techniques that that you know, that work, and they and they teach, they teach these concepts of not to do them, and they try to come up with this research that backs it up.

But the problem is, is that it’s just not true. Like the, the, it’s more comfortable to listen to them to say, Okay, you know what, I’m just like reaching out, let me give you, for instance. So a lot of people say, Hey, you know, what? Cold Calling is dead, direct messaging is dead, you know, being provocative as dead when it comes to, you know, being assertive and going after people hunting, I call them being a warrior.

\So instead, they’ll say, hey, just be on LinkedIn, and just post something every day. And as long as you post every day, and as long as you’re in groups, as long as you’re posting as long as contributing, then people will come to you. Well, that that is just 100% false. Yeah. Like, there might be, you might have like, one out of 1000 times that you post something, someone comes to you and says, Hey, this is really interesting. Do you have any service that can talk about you? that might happen one out of 1000 times, but but you have to be you have to go after the business, you have to work it?

So so for example, okay, what do I do then? Well, what I do is, if you people, people follow me, I post stuff every day, we post every single day. So I personally post at least once a day, my company FPG posts four to five times a day of content, we’re constantly pushing. And and then what do we do? Here’s our, here’s our technique, what we do is, is we wait for people to like us, so one of the techniques we do is people will like or they’ll comment on our posts. So we call it Damon watch, check this out. We call it trolling for money.

Yeah. It’s like fishing for dollars. Right? Yeah. So So anyone who likes or comments on our stuff, well, then we look at that and we go, okay, is this a potential customer? And then we direct message them? Yep. And then we then we go one step further to not just direct messaging, but then get using a tool called seamless, which we never so we use seamless and we immediately get in there and we find their email, we find their phone number, and then we, we reach out, send them an email, we send them a dump video.

Hey, thanks for Hey, this is Jason forest. You know, I saw that you commented on my post talking about, you know, blank and blank, you know, would love to to have a further conversation with you about how we can help you do blank and blank. So right at the bottom of this of this video, you could respond back with an email, tell me a good time to talk or I have my calendar link. Just go ahead and put yourself on my calendar, find a convenient time and love to talk about how we can help you do blank.

 

Damon Pistulka  14:54

Yeah, yeah. And yeah. The people that To say that you don’t have to be offensive in sales are wrong. It’s simply wrong. I mean, you put yourself in the right position, like you’re saying, by the posting, and doing what you’re doing. And then that outreach that you’re doing is all offensive at that point. And, and, and it’s offensive. And I’m probably not using the right words, but courteous, it’s not, you’re not going out there. Hey, you know, you’re you’re saying, Listen, I’d like to talk because I’ve, I’ve taken the time to, to look at your you are what you’re about.

And I think it might be worth us talking, rather than the spray and pray, which, which is I think what some people are talking about, where I’m just going to go, I’m going to blanket these 10,000 people, and I’m going to send them an email no matter what, and I’m going to, or I’m going to direct message them. And that’s completely different. You’re what you’re talking about is a is it’s offensive. But it’s targeted offensive. It’s about someone that is connected with what you were saying. And what you’re saying is probably relating to what you do. And if you do that in the way that I’ve seen you do it. That that’s very effective.

 

Jason Forrest  16:10

So that’s, yeah, it’s it’s very effective, right? And so, so, to me, I mean, so a simple technique that that I use is four steps. So four steps, this comes from kind of all my background and persuasion and so forth. But four simple steps when it comes to direct messaging people when it comes to creating my my dub videos. So can I use web comm? Yes, is vs bombbomb? I’m sure there’s plenty of tools out there. I’ve tried many of them. I prefer dub. I don’t get paid from them. I should? Yeah, I recommend them to everyone.

So yeah, but but the fourth of the four techniques, or four steps I use is number one, whenever you’re following up or direct messaging someone, make sure that number one, you make it personal. So number two, is you disrupt the pattern. So disrupt the pattern is a very important set of skills when it comes to selling. And that is you just have to change it up. Right? So the sameness so so the death of a prospector is sameness. Yep. So I’m gonna write everyone write this down, the death of a prospector is sameness. So if you are saying the same thing, doing the same thing that everyone else is doing, you’re just it’s the death of it, right? It’s just noise.

So you have to disrupt the pattern in some way. The third is, is you have to teach them something new. Because if you educate them on something they’ve never thought about before, I promise you, they will pay attention. And then number four, is you have to have a call to action. Yep. So like, like, I got direct messages recently from, from someone who creates these, these, these, these some sort of audio portfolio, like a motivational video, they kind of take my content and turn into a motivational video and then push it out to people.

And, and, you know, he gave me some really cool stats and his direct message. And I mean, I get I get I get probably 100 direct messages a day. Yeah, people trying to solicit their stuff to me. And I’m okay with it. I mean, I just kind of scroll through it, right? Yeah, it’s normal. It’s normally all noise. But I I am, look, I’m a buyer. I’m a buyer. In the sense, I’m looking for something that’s going to improve my business, improve my life, make me more money, solve a problem.

And so I just scroll through it very quickly. And if you can disrupt the pattern with me, if you can teach me something new, you know, if you can make it personal in some way, well, then I immediately kind of pay attention to what you’re saying. And then if it’s a strong enough offer, then I’ll respond like in this guy, in this guy’s case, I responded. And I said, Hey, this is pretty cool. Tell me more about this. And, and how much does it cost? And what’s the deal? And, you know, and so we’re, we’re kind of currently in a dialogue. You know, I haven’t done business with him yet. But out of the 100 of that one day, he’s the only one I’ve responded to.

 

Damon Pistulka  18:53

Yeah. Yeah.

 

Jason Forrest  18:54

So it does work. You just have to be really good at it. Except to be different, you know?

 

Damon Pistulka  18:59

Yeah. And that you are, that is one of the things I think that everyone not everyone, but the really effective sales people understand, you come to come at it from a different perspective, you you make them think, you know, by teaching them something new, like you’re saying, and that disrupting the pattern is, is critical, as you say, and you brought up one of the things that you do the dub video, you talk about dumb video, like it’s, it’s a commonplace knowledge, but I’ll tell you, there’s not enough people that are using video messaging.

Even the fact of if you got if you know, somebody’s an existing customer, that you just want to keep selling more to pop them a video on your phone and send it to them rather than right now in an email or something stupid like that. That little, you know, disrupting the the sameness again, as you said, or disrupting that pattern. And, and making yourself stand out or help them in a different way. is so key. You’re correct. Yeah.

 

Jason Forrest  19:59

So Yes, I’m a huge video email person to your point I, I’m all about leveraging strengths, right? So, so I am a way better persuasive speaker than I am a persuasive writer. And I’m much more effective and efficient. Even though I’ve written five or six books, I don’t know how many is now. But, but, but I’ve got writers, I got teams and editors all kinds of stuff to do that.

So. So it’s much easier for me to do a video and you know, partly cuz I didn’t really focus too much when I was a kid, and like, you know, grammar in high school, and so forth. I didn’t really think about school until I was in college. And so a lot of that foundational stuff is not real strong with me. So instead, I like to use the advantages, right? So, so I do a lot of videos like today, for example, I did, I’d send a dub video to a bunch of clients, we’ve got a big Master, a big leadership, sales coaching, advanced group that I meet with a bunch of clients on Thursdays. And so I sent out a video, reminding them to get him inspired about what we’re going to talk about on Thursday.

So they all show up, you know, yeah, but I do all kinds of stuff. So I’ll show you here. Here’s a little sample folder to show you some of the stuff that I do. So, for example, this was a this was a fun one. This was a fun one. So I don’t know if you can see right here, all this stuff. But here are four questions that you must ask yourself every single day number one, what do I want to accomplish by win? Number two? Why is it important to me the why it must be greater than the sacrifice. Number three, what’s my process pattern and strategy? What’s? What’s my house in order? So this is this is just me creating them? memoji of myself?

 

Damon Pistulka  21:30

Yeah, yeah. Right. That’s,

 

Jason Forrest  21:32

that’s disrupting the pattern. Because I sent this either in a dumb video. Or if you have their cell phone number you just sent you just send it right directly to them. Yeah, this disrupts the pattern because they’re like, What in the world? What is Jason send me an emoji of himself in a video? Well, of course, they’re gonna they’re gonna play that I’ve sent this in a LinkedIn video, I sent him emojis of myself in LinkedIn videos. Check this out this another one. This guy. Oh, is a Santa, just taking a look at the naughty

 

Damon Pistulka  21:59

nice list and saw your name was right up at the top. I couldn’t help

 

Jason Forrest  22:03

but wonder what led you to claim the top spot, say so this was me. I paid 50 bucks 50 bucks to get to I sent this guy a script, the Santa script and they paid 50 bucks for him to read the script and seen a video. And then what I did is I took I made a list of my top 50 customers 5050 prospects that I was going after in December. And I used Apple clips. So Apple clips is a free app on your if you have an iPhone is a free app free app. And what I basically did, I took this guy, the Santa, and then I created a personalized video at the end of Santos message.

So Santa goes on for you know what, say a minute or so. Right? Yeah. And then at the end, it’s, it’s Hey, this is Jason Forrest. Just like Santa said, it’s important for you to give yourself the greatest gift of all, which is the gift of improved sales this year for yourself and your sales team. And that so that I would so that was right. So using Santa, and then I’m coming in. Yep. and applying it. So let me just try things you know, this is me. This is me. Check this out. This is me boxing.

 

Damon Pistulka  23:11

Oh, yeah. Yeah, you’re working out. Right. This

 

Jason Forrest  23:15

is me boxing. So I did another I did a video of me boxing. And because it disrupts the pattern, right? So do a video of me boxing. And then I add a clip at the end. That kind of makes my point because it’s different. Like why is Jason sent me a video of me boxing? Of course, you got to make it relevant.

 

Damon Pistulka  23:29

Yeah, yeah. Yeah. You know, a yak. Yeah. But you’re disrupting the pattern. And then you you know, let them know. And it is a reason, a valid reason why you’re reaching out and those kinds of things. But that catches the attention in what you’re doing. And people are listening. I mean, it’s the same reason why you make sure that you’re above the fold on your website is really interesting, because then people will either scroll down or click on what you want to click on it. If it’s, if it’s boring as heck, they’re not going to go any further than that, and they’re off in a second.

And we have so many different things that are bombarding us every minute of every day, right now, you have to disrupt that pattern, as you said, to get the get the attention.

Because it oftentimes, we are trying to sell something to somebody that actually needs it. So it’s not like we’re pushing something on somebody, we’re just trying to get their attention to say, you might want to spend money on this because this could be very beneficial for you. And honestly, a lot of people look at sales negatively. But in in many cases, that is the case, they really should be spending that money. But we’re trying to get as salespeople trying to get their attention to go. You really should be spending this money. They don’t even know it and we got to get their attention.

 

Jason Forrest  24:51

Yeah, well, the so I call them the levels of a warrior right. So the levels of sales were so the bottom level, their sales, these are sales people that very afraid, and they’re, they’re kind of followers, they don’t want to value. And then right above that, I call them helpers. This is actually the majority of salespeople that are out there. They’re just helpers. So it’s a good thing. I mean, their positive intention is I truly want to help people. But they, they’re not going about it the right way. So they’re very passive and their approach. And their, their story they tell themselves is, is people will will, I will be able to I will be able to help people when people ask for my help.

So they’re kind of waiting. They’re like, waiting for the doctor to say, hey, I want to help you patient, you know, yeah, so right above that, as a leader, and a leader says, You know what, no, I’m a leader, I’m going to take a person to a place, they wouldn’t go on their own. And people aren’t going to ask for my help. And I need to, I need to go in and just be the expert, and be the doctor and be the advisor and go help people without people ask without getting permission.

But the final level is a warrior. And a warrior really is that that top, let’s say 10% of sales professionals are out there. And these are people that are true advocates, I mean, they are just they, they bleed their company’s colors, and they just 100% believe that if people don’t go forward with them, they’re making the biggest mistake of their life. And they’re truly a protector of their company’s profit margins, the company the way they do business, but they’re also a protector of their customers best interest.

So for example, if the customer, you know, the customers thinking, hey, they’re going to save a couple bucks, you know, save 20% by going with, you know, the competitor a, well, they also feel like it’s their, it’s their perfect right? To let the customer know, I also need to protect you from yourself. Because by you spending 20% less you really are getting less and you’re not going to accomplish your overall goal. Hmm. So they’re no they’re a protector, their protector of everything. And the problem is, Damon is most companies, in my opinion, are started by warriors.

So most companies are started by some entrepreneurs, some artists, some, some warrior, some advocate that says, hey, we’ve got something here, we’ve got a cure for something that’s better than everyone else is doing it, or they wouldn’t have started or they shouldn’t, they shouldn’t have started, they don’t have that answer. The problem is, the reason they don’t scale is because they’re the only they’re the last and only warrior in their company. And they haven’t kind of knighted or created or hired accordingly to other warrior spirits and taught them how to be a warrior like the founder is.

 

Damon Pistulka  27:28

Yeah. Wow, that’s well said. Well said and yeah, that is honestly why a lot of companies don’t scale. Or if they do, it’s, it’s still the founder is still the the cornerstone of the company, you know, we in our work when we’re, when we’re helping the companies to get get that, that portion of their business when you’re going okay, I want to know what’s next beyond me running this business today.

And I want to create a business that’s got legacy and long term value. And a lot of times, that’s what we’re dealing with are people that are, that are they’re the greatest salesperson in their company, and they’ve got the order takers behind them that will take their orders and, and they can have $100 million company like that. They can they can be the end, but their company to an outsider is worth very, very little because they have no sales lawyers in there that can carry on that tradition of making those relationships and helping those companies by showing them what they do so well.

And and helping those customers decide that that we we have times that that you simply can’t change that and some people I was on a conversation two weeks ago with a larger construction company and I don’t mean huge construction company, but it was 10s of millions of dollars in revenue. And and the owner was that person that that still did that in their company and they were wondering why they’ve they’ve been they came to us after several tries and and I said Listen, you have it you have a choice, we either get you to this position.

Because this is why it’s not happening right now either you have to move into that position where you have other wires in your terms. I didn’t have the term then but I will steal it from you. But they had no wires. He was the he was the wire and a lot of other a lot of other followers behind him that executed very nicely. But it is something that plagues many, many, many many businesses. Especially in the smaller but even in the larger and I honestly I’ve seen it up in companies that are over $50 million, that that that owner is still the reason why they do what they do and can do what they do.

And then they wonder when they look at a private equity company trying to buy them because they’re in the size that they should be able to be bought and they should be bought for 4050 $60 million and a private equity company looks at them. They Pass, first of all, or they, you know, cut the value down to half of what it’s worth at a client two years ago that was in that situation. And it was simply because they had not created those wires in their in their organization. So I don’t know if you’ve ever got caught in that situation, but I think the people that you create would be very valuable in those situations.

 

Jason Forrest  30:22

Yes, so so Okay, so let’s, let’s address that. I think I said about 100 things there. But let’s let’s address that’s a really good, it’s a really good question. So the question is, is, as a founder, how do we kind of start slowly letting go of being the primary warrior? And how do we kind of teach others to be that warrior. So I’m going to teach you a concept that, that I think, is pretty powerful. I remember the first time I said it at a C suite event with a guy named Jeffrey hayzlett, former CMO of Kodak, and he was a celebrity judge on the apprentice and so forth.

He was like, wait a minute, what is this Jason, like, he was like, blown away with this simple concept. So the simple concept is no show do teach. No show do teach. So any manager, any leader on the call, right now, I want everyone to be very clear your value is equal to how many people can you create, that can number one be self sufficient, which means they do not need to be managed and supervised by you. And number two, that you create to be better than you to replace you to create a legacy.

So your value to your organization is determined by number one, how many self sufficient employees can you create, again, which means they can do the job without your supervision? And number two, is that you can create leaders to replace you. Okay, so Well, how do we do that, while we’re trying to run a company and while we’ve got, you know, when, when the founder is, is also the best salesperson, how does all this work, you know, cuz I don’t want to just hand all this stuff off Jason, because my hands it all off, then I’m not going to get the sales I need because I’m the best salesperson, I get it, I totally get it.

So the technique I created is called no show duties. What this means is, is let’s say you want to teach a salesperson how to do what you’re doing? Well, the first thing you would do is you would give them the knowledge. So intellectually, you would say, hey, well, here’s what I’m about to go do. So here’s what I’m about to go do. Okay? Then show they shadow you. Right? So they watch and they take notes while I’m while I’m doing this, make sure you take copious notes about everything I’m doing. What I say how I say it, when I say it, just the whole thing to be a student of copying me. And then number three, so no show do right is, then you have them do it in a roleplay type scenario.

So now, so now sales now sales warrior. Now Now, what did you learn? Let’s discuss what you what you learned. And I want you to kind of do it back what you saw me do ask me lots of questions, and then kind of demonstrate back to me right? Then the next part of the do is they do it with a prospect while you are shadowing, and providing air support and closing the deal if you have to. Yeah, this allows you to make sure that you don’t lose any of the revenue, because you’re handing off one of your precious leads to a untrained sales warrior. So you won’t lose it because you’re going to be on the call.

So you’ll make sure it gets done. If you have to be a wingman and jump in and take over. But at the same time, you’re teaching them how to do it, right. So you’re accomplishing you’re creating that legacy. So no show do teach. So what’s the teach part? Well, the teach part is, is they then have to go teach the no show do to someone else? Yeah. Because so they can teach someone else. They truly are a master now. Yeah. And that’s where it that’s where the Legacy The downline is that is now very strong.

 

Damon Pistulka  34:00

Yeah. Yeah. Well, that’s awesome advice. And I tell you, that is that is very powerful. What you said right there and it is if if there are people, executives and business owners are listening now they did that is a great, great process there. And it is something that they need to do. Because it’s just, it does increase your value significantly in your business and your ability to scale your business because you you will, you will stagnate and you will die at that level. If you don’t Okay, it’s just I just say so much knowledge man.

And it is truly a pleasure to get to talk to you for a moment. Because the your, your personality and your your your desire to teach just exudes from you. And it’s so cool to hear that and listen to you talk. I’ve got to go back and talk to you Ashley. A couple other questions though, because you you were been reading In the sales category and global gurus I saw this that I number five now Now tell me I didn’t look at the entire list that much by saw that but number five and the global gurus I’m familiar with that platform, but explain that a little bit. And then also to something about the programs as well. I saw that so explain that because that’s, that’s quite an accomplishment. I mean,

 

Jason Forrest  35:26

I’m very I’m very grateful. I will tell you that because all the people in the list, so Grant cardones number one, so I’m coming for you Grant Cardone, I will tell you that right now. I’m coming for you. But Greg Kern is number one, but all of the people that all the people that we outrank this year I out ranked, it’s a team effort. It’s people that I studied since I was a kid.

 

Damon Pistulka  35:47

Yeah, yeah. You know, I

 

Jason Forrest  35:49

mean, you’ve got Jordan Belfort, The Wolf of Wall Street, you know, everyone’s movie of Leonardo DiCaprio. He’s on the list. You’ve got, you know, the craters of challenger sale and SPIN Selling solution selling you’ve got, you’ve got all kinds of Jeffrey Gitomer. I mean, I went to his conference, so people that I’d like studied and yeah, and revered and respected. So, you know, so that’s a it’s a cool, it’s a cool, grateful, you know, kind of moment, I remember going to a Jeffrey Gitomer seminar with my dad when I was like, 22 years old.

Yeah, you know, taking notes with my dad and go into that stuff. So and then and then. And then warrior selling is listed as number one in the United States right now. And number two in the world for sales training programs overall, which I’m very, very excited about. So we’re getting we’re number one, the United States number two in the world. And leadership, sales coaching, which is our sales management development program is listed as number one in the world and is taught at several universities as a part of their MBA and sales management.

So I have partnered with a lot of sales managers. So I’m very proud of that one, because that was actually one of the first courses I created was leadership, sales coaching. And my philosophy was, was that a salesperson is an athlete, and they should be coached like an athlete not managed like an employee. Yeah. So then I said, Okay, well, let me go study. Other sales management training firms out there. Well, they were all too, again, philosophical, they just weren’t, they weren’t real. So I thought, Okay, well, I can’t find anyone that I like. So now, let me go create one.

And so I said, Okay, well, let’s go study the world’s best PERFORMANCE SPORTS coaches. And so I had a great time studying all of them. And there’s a few that I highlighted so that I really respected bill Vilcek when it came to his tactical illness, Nick Saban when it comes to his recruiting and his culture, and Pete Carroll when it comes to his mindset, and so my philosophy was, okay, well, what it? What would bill Vilcek, Nick Saban, Pete Carroll do if they were running a sales team today?

How would they do it? And so that was the pre frame, around the leadership sales coaching book and curriculum that it goes with since then it’s evolved. And it’s improved quite a bit since then. But that was the that was the original pre frame. And so far, no one’s been able to beat that. Because, again, all of the competition, they go too much to full philosophical on leadership, and they don’t they don’t go enough nuts and bolts of what again, what would Nick Saban do today? If he was winning sales? You know,

 

Damon Pistulka  38:17

yeah, yeah, exactly. And I love your practical nature and what you talk about and being a practitioner, not a philosopher, because because, you know, it will, it will create results. And that’s what the at the end of the day, that’s what we have to do as salespeople and and, and to be effective in anything we do. So. Awesome. Awesome. It just, I think we could sit here and talk a long time, Jason. And I just want to say, first of all, I appreciate you spending this time, I know you’re very busy.

And sharing what you shared today and getting to know you a little bit better. I mean, I come back to this stuff. And I still am blown away that Zig Ziglar is your Sunday school teacher and I listened to the story that your fathers taught you at eight years old about creating that emotional connection with a buyer and then picking the diamond that will will, you know, show them or represent the life that they will create.

I mean, just that that kind of stuff that you’ve shared here today is is deeply impacted me and I know it is deeply impacted the people out there. And I can only imagine being in the forest performance group. doing one of your 90 day programs or doing your leadership programs has to be a life changing event for these people that do it. So thanks so much for being here. Any any final thoughts? I want to be respectful of your time today, but man, I just appreciate it so much. Well, they

 

Jason Forrest  39:46

Thanks for having me. It The last thing I’ll say is, is we have added a new wing of our company over a year ago now and it has become very successful for us. So we’ve decided to merge A training company, an assessment company and a recruiting company and one. So, we will go out there and find that fearless sales warrior for you. So I call them gumps. Forrest Gump. So goal oriented, unleashed, motivated procedural based, we use third party assessments to make sure they’re better than at least half your team.

So you, so we definitely will present to you the best and top grade for you, we make sure they’re a culture fit, then once you approve of the candidate, we put them through our 90 day or your selling training program, and guarantee their success. If they’re a sales manager or director or a VP, then in addition to the worker selling training program, they also get a 12 month leadership sales coaching mentorship program as well.

So yeah, so we we’ve we’ve completely disrupted the entire recruiting industry, because every other recruiter out there, you know, one they don’t even know most of them don’t know truly what a sales warrior is, yeah, but we’re the only one that’s combined, a recruiting company, an assessment company, and a training company and one, so we will, we will, we will hand you a sales warrior or a sales coach on a silver platter and guarantee their success and make sure they’re onboarding successfully for you. Wow,

 

Damon Pistulka  41:13

that’s, that’s powerful, because, you know, it just is if and I don’t even have to elaborate to people out there that I’ve hired sales executives or sales teams, and having that the full suite of getting the right person in the right seat, and then getting the right training to be successful as that last step is, is often the hardest thing that the, you know, the assessment is critical. Of course, the recruitment is critical, that training that you offer, probably is the one that drives him to the top of the top of the crop like you like you said,

 

Jason Forrest  41:48

yeah. And, and Damon, it gives our clients a, in today’s tough, tough hiring environment, it gives our clients an edge, because they’re partnering now with FPG to do the onboarding. Yeah, right. So they get to go to a salesperson and say, Hey, come work for XYZ company, because they’re going to, they’re going to, they’re going to see you as a sales warrior, they’re going to treat you as a sales warrior and train you, they’re going to show you how to be successful as he is you can be. So it also has some kind of an edge, which is which is nice as well,

 

Damon Pistulka  42:21

a hiring edge, like he said, a hiring edge, because not only we’re just going to hire you and put you out there and let you sell, we’re going to make sure you have the best chance of success because we take you through this, this program, and we make sure you’re the right person. Yeah, that’s, that’s really cool. Because that is an advantage that a lot of people may not first see, like I did. But it is really good for the employee, because it is it is an A an employee II market right now, in a lot of a lot of industries. And that that could be the differentiator that got you the people that you really wanted.

 

Jason Forrest  42:57

Yeah, I will. I’ll end with this by saying when you train your people, you are subconsciously communicating to them, that I believe you matter in this sales transaction. If you do not train them, you are communicating them subconsciously, that it’s not about you. It’s about the price. It’s about the economy. It’s about who’s the president in office, it’s about all of these other circumstances, it’s not about you, then when you communicate to that to them, then you get frustrated when they come back to you.

And they complain that the reason why they’re not selling is because they don’t have the right product, the right price, circumstance economy. So if you if you want to prevent them from giving those excuses, then you must communicate, I believe you’re worth it. And I believe if we upgrade your mindset process and language, then you have what it takes to overpower whatever negative circumstance Yes, is going on out there.

 

Damon Pistulka  43:58

Yes. That’s an incredible way to end it. And that will just stop there. Jason forest forest performance group. Thank you so much for being here today. I can’t tell you how much I appreciate it. And I know that people listening got value out of this. And I look forward to following you and your videos on LinkedIn are great if people aren’t following you now they should be following you just to see your daily stuff.

And thanks once again, and have a great rest of your day. Thank you. Thanks, everyone for listening. Man, you’re gonna want to watch this one again, Jason, forest forest performance group. His links are in in the post that I did for this. His links are going to be on the YouTube YouTube video that we have for this and on our blog. So thanks, everyone, for joining us. We’ll be back again on Thursday.

 

44:51

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