About Mark Anthony: Mark Anthony is the Founder of Training for Success. For over 25 years, Mark has helped professionals, government institutions, corporate sales, and customer service teams worldwide find solutions to real-world challenges, leading to drastic sales, productivity, and management improvements. Mark started his first business at 19 and when he wasn’t paid his commission, he competed with that firm and took over their offices 5 years later. He has since built 7 and 8-figure businesses and loves to help salespeople create selling breakthroughs with an easy-going service-first sales philosophy. Mark is the author of the #1 best seller, Join The 7 Figure Club. He has lectured on six continents as well as over 40 states including Alaska and Hawaii. He is a top-rated speaker at corporate sales meetings, conferences, and Universities. His excellent track record has meeting planners and HR professionals re-book him regularly. In addition to speaking engagements, Mark is published in numerous business publications and has appeared on many radio & TV business programs including CNN-FN & CBS News. Check out the latest episode of our Conversational Selling podcast to learn more about Mark.
In this episode, Nancy and Mark discuss the following:
- The phenomenon of an easygoing service-first sales philosophy.
- Questions that can help callers feel or learn if they are natural-born salespeople.
- Making it easy to reach enough prospects for sales reps.
- The ways of filling the pipeline with no cost.
- The advantage of virtual networking.
- A couple of things you need to do to get referrals.
- 2 questions that uncover the needs of prospects’ family members
Key Takeaways:
- If you’re looking to get a great income, you don’t have to be a natural-born salesperson to be super successful at sales.
- They need your product, but you must speak to the decision maker and even if you’re speaking to the decision maker and they need you, you have got to focus on people who can afford your product or your service.
- Ask for referrals and you put yourself in the community where you can deliver value.
- Safety is important if you’re hitting success in sales, success in life also schedules amazing experiences.
- You’re working to build your life and to build experiences because money is only going to give you experiences, you can’t do anything with the actual pieces of paper.
- Sales is easy if you are focused not on yourself, but on the other person.
“A lot of people are afraid of sales, and I always tell them “Don’t be afraid of sales. If you like helping people if you believe in the value that you deliver”, and everyone says “Yes” to that, then enter the space from that mindset. And when you’re just there to serve people and you do that truly, genuinely it resonates with everybody. And so, when you’re doing that you’re not a salesperson because that has some unfortunately negative connotations. Be service first, be easygoing and people will want to talk to you” – MARK
“ You know, we’re all stopping for breakfast, we’re all stopping for lunch. At some point, you make that time count and reach out to people to get together and learn about them. And I do find working is by far, one of the least expensive to do. I consider it, free is actually going to fundraising and community events. Yes, you may need to pay for them. But I want to be a contributor to my community. Anyway. So, if I’m going to a Sierra Club meeting or event or I’m going to a Chamber of Commerce meeting or something in between, I’m going there to meet people because I just like meeting people and I like learning about them and helping them. And that goes back to your very first question. You don’t need to be focused on sales, you need to be just focused on people, and most-of-us-like people.” – MARK
“There were sometimes when I got out of breath. But you know what? That was very much a metaphor to me, for moving business forward. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I kept doing it one step at a time. Most people would have gone up the first 300ft and stopped because they would have gotten out of breath. It would have gotten hard. They would have lost patience. The other thing, I went with a couple of buddies who are younger than me. I joke I’m born in a different year, but I am the same age as them. But they were younger and so their pace was faster. But what you do in life to really get to that seven-figure breakthrough that you want is you got to know where you’re going to go, and you then need to keep pushing yourself at your pace and a little bit beyond that pace. And so, they got there faster than I did because they trained differently.” – MARK
Connect with Mark Anthony:
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/markanthony1salestraining/
- Training for Success: https://salestraininganddevelopment.com/
- DXP Enterprises, Inc.:https://www.dxpe.com/
Try Our Proven, 3-Step System, Guaranteeing Accountability and Transparency that Drives RESULTS by clicking on this link: https://oneofakindsales.com/call-center-in-a-box/
Connect with Nancy Calabrese:
- Twitter: https://twitter.com/oneofakindsales
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/One-Of-A-Kind-Sales-304978633264832/
- Website: https://oneofakindsales.com
- Phone: 908-879-2911
- LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ncalabrese/
- Email: leads@oneofakindsales.com
Voiceover: You’re listening to The Conversational Selling Podcast with Nancy Calabrese.
Nancy Calabrese: Hi, it’s Nancy Calabrese, and it’s time for Conversational selling – the podcast where sales leaders and business experts share what’s going on in sales and marketing today. And it always starts with the human conversation! Today we’re speaking with Mark Anthony, Founder of Training for Success. For over 25 years, Mark has helped professionals, government institutions, corporate sales, and customer service teams worldwide find solutions to real-world challenges, leading to drastic sales, productivity, and management improvements. Mark started his first business at 19 and when he wasn’t paid his commission; he competed with that firm and took over their offices 5 years later. He has since built 7 and 8-figure businesses and loves to help salespeople create selling breakthroughs with an easy-going service-first sales philosophy. He is the author of the #1 best seller, Join The 7 Figure Club. Welcome to the show, Mark! Let’s get started! [1:27]
Mark Anthony: Thank you, Nancy. It’s really a pleasure. I love your podcast and just love helping salespeople and business owners. So, let’s get right down to it.
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, let’s do it. So, what is an easygoing service-first sales philosophy?
Mark Anthony: You know, a lot of people are afraid of sales, and I always tell them “Don’t be afraid of sales. If you like helping people if you believe in the value that you deliver”, and everyone says “Yes” to that, then enter the space from that mindset. And when you’re just there to serve people and you do that truly, genuinely it resonates with everybody. And so, when you’re doing that you’re not a salesperson because that has some unfortunately negative connotations. Be service first, be easygoing and people will want to talk to you.
Nancy Calabrese: Well, with that in mind, I mean what questions can help people feel or learn if there are natural-born salespeople? I mean, are there any natural-born salespeople out there? [2:41]
Mark Anthony: There, there absolutely are. I mean as a little kid, you know, my mom always joked I was one of those. But if you’re, you know, looking to get a great income, you don’t have to be a natural-born salesperson to be super successful at sales. If you’re a business owner, it’s too hard to find. You know the young Nancy who is probably a natural-born salesperson. So, what I do to help people find the person who is geared towards sales and may not even know it, I tell the managers. I tell people who are even sure about themselves to throw away the resume that says you weren’t into sales your whole career. Instead, when you’re interviewing someone, ask them about how they influenced people at a young age. And they say, well, in college I did this, no, no, no, I mean at a young age, even before high school. Like, tell me where you were convincing people or getting people to follow your idea, and the people who have the ability to sell will tell you how. They started the lemonade stand as a little kid. We’re super successful at it, selling their lemonade for a dollar when the other kids were trying to sell it for $0.50. And why were you able to do that? Well, I smiled, I said “Hello Sir”, as you were. As they were driving by, I waved to the people and then they pulled over and stop their car. You know, all of those are our natural sales skills or just people skills that let people sell. So, when you get people to notice, wait a minute. I can talk to folks, right? I can talk to folks very naturally. Then they’re able to sell naturally. [4:28]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. I never thought of it that way. I’m trying to think as you’re saying it. I’m trying to think, well, Gee, what did I do? But I have to think.
Mark Anthony: I’ll give you one note that I did. My mother still teases me about it to this day. I probably had like a dollar for a little bag of toy soldiers. And so, I bought like the little bag that they had for a dollar, which had maybe say, 10 army men in it, and I opened it up. I sold four of them to the other kids in class for 1/4 a piece, got my dollar back and had six, and then repeated the process. [5:06]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, you’re natural. That’s for sure. So, a lot of reps find it hard to reach enough prospects. What’s the solution or what kind of adjustment should be made?
Mark Anthony: Well, there, there are two parts to that. There’s not being able to find enough prospects and not being able there and being afraid to call enough prospects. I’m going to start with the fact that someone has enough prospects, but they’re just not making the calls. They get that call reluctance, or they or they just get too busy to do it. You know, I got other high-value activities. Let’s just say when you close a sale you get $1000 and to get that $1000 you need to reach out to 10 prospects. What I do is I don’t count the one person who gave me the sale as $1000 and the other people as zero rejection, difficulty, challenge, and all those crazy stories that get into our heads. Instead, I say count every one of them equal to $100. So, I call up Joe and Joe hangs up the phone on me and I call up Bill, and Bill says I never want to hear from you. I could easily stop and go on to another activity and you have gotten 0. I count every one of them as $100. And then terms, it’s the first person I call, terms, it’s the 10th person I call in each case. That makes me want to call on the abundance of prospects in my marketplace. Of course, they need to be qualified prospects. They tell this to business owners all the time. They need your product, but you must speak to the decision maker and even if you’re speaking to the decision maker and they need you, you got to focus on people who can afford your product or your service. [7:02]
Nancy Calabrese: Totally agree. I love that outlook. So, every call is worth money, right?
Mark Anthony: Yes, it is. It is 100%. This is the case, everyone.
Nancy Calabrese: I love it.
Nancy Calabrese: So, what are some ways of filling the pipeline you state that cost almost nothing? How is that possible?
Mark Anthony: There’s again an abundance and people look at that, it’s actually a big piece of what I talk about in the book. And what they need to do is go out to networking events. Every community has, has a rotary event. It’s the largest in the world. So go to Rotary and go there again with that “Hey, I’m a friendly guy. I want to learn about you and, and see how I might be able to help you with the community”, right? They want to speak to you. There’s uh business networking groups, one of the biggest in the country, but you got to pay to participate, but just a small, small fee is Business Network International. I prefer to create my own group, right? Ask, you know, three or four other businesspeople that you know, are good “Hey, let’s all get together for breakfast. Let’s all bring a friend, and every meal could be a business opportunity.” You know, we’re all stopping for breakfast, we’re all stopping for lunch. At some point, you make that time count and reach out to people to get together and learn about them. And I do find working is by far, one of the least expensive to do. I consider it, free is actually going to fundraising and community events. Yes, you may need to pay for them. But I want to be a contributor to my community. Anyway. So, if I’m going to a Sierra Club meeting or event or I’m going to a Chamber of Commerce meeting or something in between, I’m going there to meet people because I just like meeting people and I like learning about them and helping them. And that goes back to your very first question. You don’t need to be focused on sales, you need to be just focused on people, and most of us like people. [9:21]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. Well, I hope to feel that way otherwise, why exist?
Mark Anthony: Exactly!
Nancy Calabrese: OK. So, what about virtual networking?
Mark Anthony: Virtual networking There is again an abundance of things that you can do. So many people want to gather a group of people via a tool such as, Zoom being the most common. Now, it’s basically, you know, become part of our vocabulary and you know, suggest that you get together and meet with people. It doesn’t have to be people that you’re necessarily trying to sell. Instead, it could be people that you want to create a focus group. Let’s all learn what the main trend is and invite people to come to your focus group or your research group. And while they’re talking about what they uh are challenged by needs, come out and needs are something you can solve. Sometimes I solve the needs of people which are not something related to what I’m selling. But when I’m seen as a problem solver that leads to my favorite free way of getting leads, which is referrals, right? So, everything else I said was just talking about you getting known and you establish, establishing yourself as someone who gives value. And when you’re doing that, you deserve to get referrals. That is the number one way to get leads for free and to get referrals. There are a couple of things you need to do. [11:01]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah. What do you have to do?
Mark Anthony: Show up show up give value. You do that. People like you, they’re going to say “Hey, I have a friend, you should call”, but that’s not enough to be, you know, a seven-figure producer. The other one I had to tease people all the time and I would, I would go through the process. We had a little bit more time but it’s actually asking for the referral. It’s like “Nancy, you know so many people in my industry who could you refer me to?” And if you give me a referral, it’s sales 101. It’s, it’s seven-figure building 101. And who else do you know? In other words, ask and ask again, and if you don’t know anyone today or you can’t think of anyone right at this moment you’ve just told me that I should ask you again. So once again, ask again, I might ask you a month for now. It might be 3 months from now. But you do that, you look for referrals. Ask for referrals and you put yourself in the community where you can deliver value. And it does not have to be value pockets where it’s just about selling but you get business. [12:15]
Nancy Calabrese: Yeah, in our group any time we have a prospect on the phone, we always ask for the referral at the end whether they are interested and moving forward, or if they are not. And I think people would be surprised just to see the power of asking. People want to genuinely help other people. So, I think it raises an awesome point. I want to go back to what you said just a moment ago about the needs and uncovering the needs. You say there are 2 questions that uncover the needs of prospects’ family members. What are the questions? [12:55]
Mark Anthony: It’s so simple and everyone listening, really, please write these two things down and it turns you into a powerful closer. The very first question is what’s most important to you in selecting blank? If you’re selling catering services, what’s most important to you in selecting the right caterer? Just insert what it is. But the thing is, people will ask that question, but they don’t ask the second question. And see, when you ask the first one, like using restaurants as an example, what’s most important to you in a restaurant? And everyone says food, great service, and a reasonable price or quality. Like duh, you wouldn’t go if you didn’t get those three things. But you do need to ask how you define whatever it is that you’re selecting. How do you define great service and know it’s been achieved? Or how do you define, a quality moving company? Let’s say you’re selling moving and storage services. How do you define a quality company and know that they’re delivering the value that you said you want? And it’s in that second question where they define, and they never even stop to think about it. Now you get how they process value, their evidence, and the procedure for knowing if it makes sense to move forward. So, what’s most important to you in the blank is question number one. Great, thank you. How do you define whatever it is you just told me? And it’s in the definition that you get. [14:33]
Nancy Calabrese: It’s not the definition because the definition is going to vary from person to person.
Mark Anthony: And you sell to individuals. [14:41]
Nancy Calabrese: All right, so you have a lot of crazy stories. My audience loves stories. What do you want to talk about?
Mark Anthony: Might as well talk about this past weekend. I just got back from Jackson Hall, and I’ll relate it to sales as well. So, most people take the chair and lift it down. I was at the base of Jackson Hole Mountain on their expedition slope that’s one of their steepest double black diamonds. And hiked up it. It’s about a mile and a half up. It’s a 1500-foot vertical ascent that mile and a half. So that’s a steep slope. [15:22]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow.
Mark Anthony: I can’t run up it anymore. There was a day maybe when I could, but that’s pretty but I tricked up it one step at a time. There were sometimes when I got out of breath. But you know what? That was very much a metaphor to me, for moving business forward. I knew exactly where I wanted to go, and I kept doing it one step at a time. Most people would have gone up the first 300ft and stopped because they would have gotten out of breath. It would have gotten hard. They would have lost patience. The other thing, I went with a couple of buddies who are younger than me. I joke I’m born in a different year, but I am the same age as them. But they were younger and so their pace was faster. But what you do in life to really get to that seven-figure breakthrough that you want is you got to know where you’re going to go, and you then need to keep pushing yourself at your pace and a little bit beyond that pace. And so, they got there faster than I did because they trained differently. They were of different ages. I met them at the top and I got there too. And so that was just a great time trekking up. And I have a bunch of friends whom I helped; I was more supportive of them because they did formal training. They went up and down a mountain 19 times in about 30 hours. So, they turned it into an ultra-endurance event. [17:02]
Nancy Calabrese: How long did it take you to get to the top?
Mark Anthony: It took me about an hour and 20 minutes. And so, I could have just kept repeating the process just as long as them and I might have slept a little bit less and I would have done it. And another fun part of the weekend was I did what’s called a Via Ferrata. So, at the very top of the lift, there’s more mountain and there they had cables there and you have a harness, and you clip into the cable and you’re literally scrambling up the face of the mountain doing a bare climb. But if you slip, that would be very bad news. So, you are clipped in and then you get caught after dropping 3ft or so. Safety is important, I believe if you’re hitting success in sales, success in life also schedules amazing experiences. And whatever it is that you define. Mine are a little bit more extreme than some folks, but maybe it is that you want to take that trip to Italy or some other place that you’ve always wanted to go to put it on the calendar, set a financial amount that you’re going to put aside to do that, the time to do that. And then you got to make sure that when you’re working, you’re working to build your life and to build experiences because money is only going to give you experiences. You can’t do anything with the actual pieces of paper. [18:37]
Nancy Calabrese: Wow. Tell me something that is true, that very few people believe is true.
Mark Anthony: That sales process is easy. And very few people believe that’s the case. But if you are focused not on yourself, but you are focused on the other person, sales really do become easy serve people. Like, sales managers don’t always like when I say this, but I’m like if you are not achieving the goal of your prospect, if you are not positive you could help your prospect, you shouldn’t sell to them. We want to sell everybody. It’s like, no, your people will be so excited. They will feel such solid integrity. Pushing someone to buy. If they know it’s a good fit. Right. You would encourage your grandmother to take her medicine and you would nag her to take her medicine if you knew it was good for her. You can push when you know it’s good for somebody. And people don’t believe sales is easy, but it’s always been for me easy. But I’ve always only focused on wanting to deliver value, too. [20:04]
Nancy Calabrese: Right. And you focus on them, not you. I can go on and on I can’t believe we’re up in time. Where can my people find you, Mark?
Mark Anthony: They can learn so many of the tools that I like to share at jointthesvenfigureclub.com. That’s my book. It is packed with so many tools that have taken many businesses to seven figures. My own businesses to eight figures. Join the sevenfigureclub.com. I love answering questions. You could reach me through that site. And Mark Anthony high performance on Instagram is another way to reach me as well. [20:48]
Nancy Calabrese: Love it. So, does anybody mistake you for a singer?
Mark Anthony: Yes. I’ve signed autographs for them. I really have. I’ve been invited to some exciting events, like one with President Clinton, and when I was being invited, this young lady was about 10ft from me, and she heard, yes, this is Mark Anthony. I’d love to go to that event with the President, and I have a similar look to him. I’m better looking, but that’s what I do, have a similar look. And she thought I was the other guy, so I signed an autograph for him. [21:25]
Nancy Calabrese: That is funny. Oh, you are a blast. So, you’re going to have to come back because I know we could go on and on. And you offer such great insight into the amazing world of sales. So, thank you for your time. And everyone takes advantage of reaching out to this guru. He knows his stuff, and I’m guessing you’ll have a chuckle or two along the way. So, again, Mark, thank you and everyone make it a great sales day. [21:25]
