Adam Street's Blog
The spiritual and practical path to freedom to do your art

Sales Fast Food

Back when I sold insurance I made most of my sales from Internet leads.  After a while I received referrals too but my bread and butter was the online ones.

If I could beat the rate the prospect was paying (and the other quotes) I usually got the sell.  I was an independent agent so I had access to more than one company.

When I swung into working with car lots, I thought I hit the holy grail.  People who didn’t have insurance who needed it to buy their new cars.  It was a match made in heaven.

It wasn’t all rosy though.  There was a price for eating all that insurance sales “fast food”. 

When car salesmen needed quotes they wanted them with swiftness of Flash (from the CW TV show).  If you didn’t call them back in minutes they rolled on to the next insurance guy.

Even when I sold the policy things could get sketchy.  Sometimes financing wouldn’t workout and the policy would cancel in a few weeks.  Or the customer would leave in 6 months and go with another company.

And don’t get me wrong… Sales fast-food It’s not just for the insurance industry.  Business owners and entrepreneurs do it everyday.

They focus on going wide instead of going deep.  

I used to buy lists and I was really good with cold traffic.  Even though I made sales it wasn’t the same.  No matter how enchanting  my words were, I mainly attracted people who  shopped on price.  

In the end it was sales fast food all over again.  I could have built the relationship later after I provided the service but I was so into churn-and-burn that I just kept looking for the next dopamine hit.

That’s why it’s so important to “eat your veggies” and build your business the slow way.  My Blockbuster Marketing process may take you longer but you’ll have a more sustainable business and you’ll connect with your prospects and clients.

Like real fast food limit the amount you consume.  Too much of it can make your business feeble and flabby.

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Adam

My Comic-Con airy-fairy tale

There’s nothing like attending Comic-con.

Where else can you meet artists, see oceans of art, and comic books all in one place?  

Plus, have you ever waited in line for coffee behind Batman, Sailor Moon, and two dudes dressed as Stormtroopers?  It’s awesome.  

Frank Lloyd Wright said something that I apply to my Con shopping.  “If you invest in beauty, it will remain with you all the days of your life. “

And there’s no greater beauty than Dean Yeagle’s books.  He’s my fav.  He usually releases a new book a year and I wait for my annual trip to San Diego to buy it.

I fell off the wagon a few years ago so my collection is lacking.  Last year  I decided to get “caught up” and I purchased his recent books. 

Except for Scribbles #7.  

I wrote Dean and he said it may be eventually reprinted.   I asked him if he had a waiting list he could put me on and he said no.  He said something silly like, he’s not ‘sophisticated enough’ for a waitlist. 

In Dean’s defense he’s an older guy with a rabid following of turkeys like me who devour his products so he doesn’t feel the need to do it. 

Well, for young whipper snappers out there like you and me without a Walking Dead like following…  Make sure you create a list!  Don’t leave a good sale to chance.

This week, I had lunch with my business partner that I have not seen in years.  Before we left he gave me a gift.  It was Dean Yeagle’s Scribbles #7.  I never told anyone that story so he had no idea I was missing only that book.

I believe in synchronicity and it’s fun when things work out like this.  Though I was prepared to follow up with Dean in a year.  

There’s a beauty in sales, and follow up that I was prepared to happily do.  In this case I was a buyer but if I was a seller I’d do the same thing.  It’s fundamental in getting what you want.

The fundamentals are important and usually underrated.

Lebron James is known for dunking and shooting fade-away jump shots.  But he wins more games with fundamentals like shooting free-throws and hitting layups.

Wright’s quote could be looked at this way too:

If you invest in the fundamentals, they will remain with you all the days of your life…but only if you apply them.

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Adam

Everyone Loves a Good Mystery!

Big Foot.  Stonehenge.  The chupacabra.  There’s a lot of weird stuff out there we don’t understand.  

Some things you can ignore but some force you to ask some pretty serious questions.  Like the strange thing that happened to me last week.

It happened the week before and the week before that.

This X-file that I’m referring to keeps happening when I visit my brother’s gym.  For some mysterious reason the gym won’t sell to me.

I’ve had a gym membership more or less since high school.  Gym sales people are like hungry piranha and they’re usually some of the most aggressive ones you’ll ever meet.  My old friend Zeke’s gym was so over-the-top aggressive they would make a used car salesman blush.  

Here’s the story.

My brother’s gym allows guests to workout for free.  I visit, I give them all my info.  They now have a lead.

Most gyms take you on a tour.  And by “tour” I mean a salesman in a tight shirt gives you a sales presentation.  Or at the very least  they e-mail you, send you mail, or call.

You may be thinking this is nice.  It’s great to see an organization not be so psycho about selling.  But here’s the thing, they’re leaving money on the table by not asking me for the sale.

Wanna know a secret?  

I WANT to join the gym.  I go there at least twice a week—sometimes more.  I still have my current gym membership but my brother’s classes are just that cool.  So I’ll join sooner or later.  

Could be tomorrow.  Could be a year from now.  As long as I can drink the milk for free, I’m not real motivated to buy the cow.

What’s the lesson here?

Ask for the sale.  You are doing no one any favors by not asking.

Don’t think you know more than your clients and prospects.  And don’t make decisions for them.  Ask.

Mark Victor Hansen and Jack Canfield wrote a book called the Alladin Factor.  The book is about asking for what we want.

I love Hansen and Canfield’s work and yet I refused to buy that book for years.   I have a sales background, why do I need a book on “asking”?   The answer to that question came abundantly clear when I read the book.

I read somewhere one of the reasons Mother Teresa got so much done was because she was fearless in her asking.  If she needed time, money, resources, etc…she asked for it.  

So um.  Don’t over think it. Ask.

Adam