Getting Out of Your Comfort Zone & Handling Rejection | Ep 036

Kacie: Well, and let me touch on that too. The other part of it, it's not just about you getting a sale and raising money, which yes is a huge part of it, but it's also you're providing a product or service, hopefully your business is, that is changing somebody's life. It's impact. It's improving their life somehow.

It's, um, giving them some sort of luxury. And so you deserve to get compensated for that. Exactly. Nothing should, it shouldn't be free. Exactly.

The Business Project podcast business can be complicated. We break it down to regular people like 

John: us can understand and find success. I'm John Crespo, accountant and consultant. 

Kacie: I'm Kacie Bryant, marketer and event planner. If you run a business or want to run a business, 

John: welcome to the show.

What's up everybody? I'm recording. We have overcome the O unovercomeable today. Yes. From a power outage to no cameras to computer dead, computer dead. You name it. We overcame it. We did high five to us. We are here. That's what I'm talking about. That's how you get it 

Kacie: done. We've had lots of rejection today.

We 

John: have. Yeah. Yep. And we're overcoming those. Yeah. Rejections, objections. We're overcoming

Kacie: them. Yeah. Did I say rejections? You did objections. Objections. One of the two. 

John: Trying to keep, trying to keep it on 

Kacie: topic. Yeah. 

John: Oh my God. That's fun. Um, This is a good conversation though. It is 

Kacie: a really good conversation.

This is hard. This is, man, this is a hard topic. Yeah. I, I think it's easy to talk about, but it's hard to do. It's hard to implement. 

John: It's necessary as a business owner and that's who we're talking to. Right. Or wanna be business owners. You gotta sell. Yeah. You, it noth nobody's gonna come to you just because you opened the business.

Kacie: And that's, I think they're in our country. We talked about this before selling is, it's looked as like a, it's almost like the tax man, right? In the Bible. It's like this sleazy person that's trying to get your money, but that's not how it has to be at all. Right? Yeah. It's 

John: not like those movies on, on TV where it's the used car salesman, you know, selling you a jalopy then telling you to Mercedes.

Yeah. Right. 

Kacie: Um, what's a jalopy? I thought that was ice cream jalopy. Yeah. No, I'm from the east coast. East coast, west coast gelato. That's what I was thinking of. Gelato is ice 

John: cream. Loppy is a piece of junk. A clunker. Oh, gotcha. Okay. What do you call a clunker where you're from? Like a car. That's a, A beater.

A beater. Yeah. There you go. Yeah. A beater. A so squirrel. Yeah. Yeah. You know. Anyway, so. We're talking about business owners, right? Yeah. And how important it is for business owners to really, um, understand that selling your product or service is something you have to do, whether you like to or not, right? Or if you don't like to do it, find somebody that can help you do it right?

But it's a necessary evil. Um, and I think that the mindset is that you're throwing your product in somebody's face. And you're forcing it upon them and hoping that somebody just agrees and takes 

Kacie: it or asking for money. Nobody likes to ask for money. Right. I feel like you'd have that in your mind. I'm asking them cuz some people are, have no problem talking about their product and service or how it's gonna help them, but then when it comes to the asking for money, then they feel guilty, 

John: right?

Yeah. 

Kacie: Which is weird. Mm-hmm. It is a weird, we y'all, we gotta get this. Yeah. We gotta get this turned around cuz it's not. 

John: Right? Yeah, it is because how else are you going to live? Especially if, you know, the goal of you starting your business is to support your family. Right? And, and create that generational wealth that everybody wants to create.

Um, you gotta kind of ask for the sale. You know, you have to want to get people to buy what you're, what you're offering, you know, so how do you do 

Kacie: it? Well, and let me touch on that too. The other part of it, it's not just about you getting a sale and raising money, which yes, is a huge part of it, but it's also you're providing a product or service.

Hopefully your business is, that is changing somebody's life. It's impact. It's improving their life somehow. It's, um, giving them some sort of luxury. And so you deserve to get compensated for that. Exactly. Nothing should, it shouldn't be free. 

John: Exactly. So get outta your comfort zone. Yeah. Well, I guess the first step in sales is being able to get outta your comfort zone.

Right? Get out of the, get out of, um, you sitting behind your computer or wherever you're, wherever you're working out of. Right. And get out of that so that you can really. Bring that out to the masses. Right. The only way to do that is by getting out of that. Getting out of your, your little bubble.

Kacie: Yeah.

Even if you're, you know, if you're in the trades and you're working in houses or if you're building tables or you know, no matter what your business is, I think sometimes we. Tend to do what we're comfortable in and what we enjoy doing and what we're good at. And so, and sales for most business owners, let's be for real, is not something that we enjoy or that we're good at.

Right. And um, but it is something that you have to do in order to grow your business. Even. To maintain your business. 

John: Exactly. And you know, I wanna pick on you for a second, right, uhoh, because I've heard you say in the past that you're not a fan of, you're not a salesperson. No. Right. Sales is not your thing.

No. Yet, I've seen you get out there and talk about what you do to people so naturally, right? That it makes them want to learn more about it. And I think that the, uh, what you're, what you're doing subconsciously is selling your service. 

Kacie: Mm-hmm. Um, but you know how I got that way is lots and lots of practice.

That's 

John: what I was gonna get at. Oh, sorry. Interesting. No, you're good. Yeah. You're good. That because people have to understand that it takes work. Mm-hmm. Right? You, in order to get outta your comfort zone, you have to consciously push yourself, hold yourself accountable to being able to do that. Right. So is that something that you went through internally to be able to get out there and just, you know, you practice what you did?

Um. Over and over and over again. So now when you were out there talking, it kind of like came out naturally. 

Kacie: Yeah, it, I mean it, I started after college, I got a job selling credit card processing. Oh really? Yes. Door to door credit card processing. I lived in a van down by the river in Orange County, 

John: and this is somebody who doesn't like to sell.

Got a job selling credit card process. 

Kacie: It was the only job I could find and I was terrible at it. I didn't make not one sale. Um, but I did learn a lot. I learned a lot. You literally would get dumped in a territory. Mm-hmm. And had to go from business to business to business selling credit card processing.

I was so bad at it that they moved me to office supplies and then found out that I was even worse at that. And so I just quit the only job I ever quit. Um, but, you know, because I was terrible at it. Yeah. But, um, it, it did give me just the, I had to jump in face first and just learn from that. And, and I think I.

It's much easier when you're selling your own product or your own service, something that you really care about. Not that I don't care about credit card processing. Right. I don't. Um, but, um, when you do, yeah. When you're selling your own, when you're own stuff that you know, is actually helping the world, it makes, makes it a lot easier.

Yeah. 

John: You believe in it. Yeah. So, all right. Let's talk about your experience in, uh, credit card sales and office supply sales. Yeah. Um, Someone who doesn't like sales, right? Number one you got in, you, you got like, or you found this is the job that was out there, so you, you took it, which I'm sure happens to a lot of people.

You know, some people start with like network marketing type of type of things, thinking that they, you know, that that's like a way to build up some, some wealth, but it's a sales thing that you have to kinda learn. Mm-hmm. Um, so going in there, right, and knocking on these businesses doors, what were you feeling inside?

Kacie: I, I remember there were a couple times where I walked out of the business and just cried. Really? Yeah. But they were so, they were mean, and I was terrible at it, and I was just uncomfortable and I would be sweating and I would be stuttering and I would just, I would very many times I did it for three months.

Wow. And I did not make, not one sale. Wow. I was that bad. Um, probably two months, like a little over two months, but, I think that it did what it, what it really helped me with. And, and I'm not recommending that you go do that. Mm-hmm. Just to learn how to do sales. Uh, but what I am recommending is just getting up and doing something Right.

And putting yourself in a awkward position because you're gonna learn from it. Mm-hmm. And you're gonna get better and better every time. I mean, you know, we look at the, and the swimmers in the Olympics, they didn't get, I was listening to one of the girls that was, went to the Olympics and. They practiced for six hours a day since she was like eight.

Yeah. And she didn't get in the Olympics because she just was a good swimmer. I mean, yes. But she got in the Olympics because she put the time into learning. Yeah. And, and that's like anything that we do, some of us are naturally better at things than others, but when it comes to selling, just putting yourself out there, getting up and, and being failure.

I think that's another thing is we are afraid of failure. As, as Americans, as business owners. I think a lot of times we look at failure as a bad thing when all reality, it's a, it's a step, it's a step forward. Yeah. When you take a step forward and your fail is most of the time better than just staying where you are.

Right. As long as you learn from it. I love 

John: that. That's a gem. Yeah. You fail forward. 

Kacie: Exactly right.

John: Yep. So that, that's a learning cuz the learning is priceless. Mm-hmm. In failure. Yeah. You know, especially if you implement that. Into your next, um, endeavor. Mm-hmm. Whatever it may be. 

Kacie: And I would say probably the biggest thing that I learned after this whole experience was the importance of building relationships.

Uh, you can't. It's very, very tough to sell to somebody unless you've built a relationship. Mm-hmm. You can't automatically go in and ask them for something. Right. And, and I think figuring out a way to be genuine also, you have to be genuine about your conversation. You can't just go in and, you know, they have a.

Terrible haircut and be like, oh, I love your haircut. Cuz I, I think that people can read that. Yep. They can read fakeness. Yes. Even if it's, even if it's not purposeful or they don't even recognize that they can read that. But I. Being genuine when you're talking to people. And that's, that's unfortunately, that's where we get this sleazy sales man is cuz there are a lot of people that are out there doing sales wrong.

Yep. I think and they're ruining it for the rest of us because they just make us feel yucky about the, our phone ringing for the hundred time Exactly. You know, selling us another credit card or whatever. Yep. 

John: And, uh, you know, it, I love that you came out saying it's a relational thing because it's truly what it is.

Um, the truly successful people that sell or the truly successful salespeople are the relationship builders, right? You're not out there, believe it or not, you don't have to sell your product or service on the spot right there. You're looking for someone that you're going to, that can build a relationship with, that you can relate to, that you can find something and have a conversation with, um, around whatever it is.

Just any something, anything. Build a conversation, knock down a wall, get to know someone so that eventually, They will want to do something with you. 

Kacie: Yeah. Right. Figure out how you can serve them versus how you can get something from them. Yeah. It's a complete different mentality. You're really great at that.

I think you're really great at building relationships. You ask people a hundred questions before you even say anything about yourself. Yeah. And I think you really genuinely care to learn about people's lives and their backgrounds and why they got into what they do. And I th I've seen that have a very big impact on you being able to build business and.

Build relationships. 

John: Yeah. And that, like you, like it took you a, a long time and a lot of practice. That took a lot of practice as well. Yeah. Um, I'll be honest, I was pretty selfish in the beginning. Were you? Yeah, I sure was. You know, and I think that, um, you know, I, I'll have to say, and, and I know this is a podcast that everybody watches, but a lot of it had to do when I got more into my faith that I, that I've started to focus on relationships more.

Yeah. Yeah. Because I know that, that it. And believe it or not, when you do that, that equates to sales, right? So, but the fact that you're able to actually, you know, wanna learn something about somebody. You're looking at a long-term relationship there. Yeah. Someone who's gonna come back to you and repeat business, you know, and seek you out, and then also share you with other 

Kacie: people.

Again, it's, it's what, how can I serve you? It's a to, it's a different mentality. How can I serve you versus what can I get from you? So that's like the 

John: Chick-fil-A mentality. Yeah. Right. Exactly. That. Why is Chick-fil-A so successful? Mm-hmm. You know, they're, they're closed on Sundays. That fast food joint is closed on Sundays and is the most successful fast food company in in the world.

Yeah. You know, because they focus on the relationship. They focus on the experience, making sure it's a good experience for you. 

Kacie: That's good. So what are some tips that you have those, those businesses that are out there that are like, okay, I must turn up the courage to make it happen. What are some um, Walkaways takeaways that we can give.

So you're walking away from this podcast and this is, this is what you do right 

John: now. Um, turn off the used car salesman mentality around sales. Number one. One thing you could do right now is turn that off, right? Um, number two, like we just spoke about, focus on building relationships. Focus on on, so you know, there's a saying, right?

God gave you two ears in one mouth. So you can listen two times more than you speak, right? If you follow that when you're speak, when you're getting to know someone, then you're gonna find and you're gonna listen and you're going to hear key words that will trigger responses as far as how you can support them and serve them.

Right. So listen more than you speak and focus on building 

Kacie: relationships. Yeah, that's great. There's a book out there that they're not paying us or they don't even know that our podcast exists, but it's a really good book that I would recommend that talks about that is the Go-Giver. Have you read The Go-Giver?

Yes. There's an, there's a movie. Is there a movie? Yeah. Oh yeah. So it's a book, it's a go-giver, and then there's even an entrepreneur version, I think, or business version or something. So there's a couple different versions out there. That's, that is an amazing book for those of you that are looking at taking the next step for sure.

John: Yeah. So, yeah, that, that's, that's a great, that's a great, um, point is study, read some books. Um, as far as on relationship building, read some books out there because they will give you, you'll get some great pointers. And ask people, you know, as businesses that you see being successful, Hey, can, I'm trying to grow my business as well.

What is your process around sales? Guaranteed. The prevailing theme would be build relationships. Yep. 

Kacie: I'm sure. Yeah. That cuz it's so important. Yeah. So what are, let's talk about objections cuz we're talking about objections too. I think that's a big, that's probably the most fearful part of the sales. You build your relationships and sometimes you only have a very short time to build that relationship.

Mm-hmm. But, Most of the time they say No. When you're in sales, you're gonna get a lot more nos than you're gonna get yeses, unfortunately. And so at, so at least 

John: 95% of the time you'll get nos 

Kacie: over yeses. Yes. Depending on your business if Yeah. Yeah. If you're selling good food, you're people love food and plants.

True. People love plants and food. So if you're selling plants or food, you're good. You're, you're more in like the 50% rejection. Yeah. Yeah, yeah. True. So, um, what are some ways that they can, how do you handle objections? 

John: Well, um, you know it when you're, even though you're building the relationship, but the fact that you're, all right, let's start here.

The fact that you're building the relationship gives you the right to ask why, right? It gives you the right to ask why, because you've, you've earned that opportunity. So when you focus on building a relationship, you earn the opportunity to find out exactly why someone would not want to, to take, uh, advantage of your product or service.

Um, And then there's a, there's a strategy out there called Feel, felt, found, right? Feel, 

Kacie: felt, 

John: found, feel, felt, found. And John, which, um, his was a couple ago, his, a couple, couple weeks ago, um, he goes into that with, with a lot of, uh, a lot of his coaching clients cuz he coaches sales, right? Um, but feel, felt, found is you are, you're being relational because you want to be empathetic, right?

As far as, hey, I totally understand how you 

Kacie: feel. So let's, let's say sell me something. Yeah. Um, and I'll be, I'll reject you. Okay. 

John: Um, let's see. Ah, I have this on air. Don't you do a podcast? Yeah. Now, how do people know when you're, when you're, um, recording. In the place that you record 

Kacie: at, we have a sign on the door.

Do you, what does it say? It says recording in process progress. Yeah. 

John: Do people pay attention to that? 

Kacie: Yeah, they do. They love it. They do? Mm-hmm. Well, I think you do that. It does everything you need. Like this actually turns on, but I don't like the color red. 

John: Well, you know, I understand how you feel. You know, several people have, there's felt that way.

There's felt. Yeah. But what I found that Red actually calls attention, and people will look at this. Before knocking on the door. Oh. Versus that other sign you had, it's a color that nobody pays attention to when they buy it, and they're always knocking on this door, 

Kacie: see, let's do it. She's 

John: already ready to buy it.

Yeah. We made it easy. Yeah, obviously. But it's, it's following a simple method like that where you're, you're, you're becoming empathetic, you're understanding, you want to understand where they're coming from, and you want to, you know, relate it. To maybe other clients or, or customers that have felt that same way, but also explain that, um, the solution that you're providing has helped so many people.

So you're pro, you're showing the value of the solution that you're providing. So be empathetic 

Kacie: value. That's a good word. Yep. Yep. 

John: Be empathetic, um, relate it right, and then show the value of what you're offering. That's great. 

Kacie: Yeah. You guys ready? You ready to go? Make some sales, do some cold calls. 

John: Go make that money and don't, and go build relationships.

You know, go make some friends. Go build relationships, and if you focus on that, then everything else kinds of fall kind of falls into place. It 

Kacie: does. Yeah. Hope that helps. All right. Especially if you have a good product or service. If you, if you don't have a good product or service, that might be where you wanna start.

Yeah. If 

John: you don't have that, you need to go to the beginning of our podcast and start watching some of those episodes. Exactly. 

Kacie: Yeah. But we're here to help you guys. Business is complicated. That's our, that's our tagline. It's complicated, but we make it simple because I, there's just so many business owners out there that are like, I have this thing that I love to do, or I'm really good at, or people really want or need, but the rest of it, There's a lot more than that exactly.

To running a business so much more under the hood. Yeah. So we are here to help you guys out. We've got lots and lots of podcasts. I think we're in our 20 something podcast, which is probably in our thirties. Possibly 30 something. Yeah, 30 something. And so there's lots of advice. If you guys haven't yet, head on over to the business project podcast.com or wherever you get your podcast from.

Yep. And anything that you, that you're struggling with, we've probably done an episode on it. And if we haven't, Write in the comments or shoot us an email, shoot us a message on social media and let us know that you need some help with the topic. And we might not know how to solve it, but we know how to find the people that can 

John: exactly take advantage.

Kacie: See you next. You don't have to do it alone. No 

John: you don't. Yeah. See you on the next one. See ya. Y'all have a good week.