Amazing Sales Lessons Learned Selling Door To Door in New York City Featuring Wendell Jordan
Amazing Sales Lessons. A lot of new salespeople get call reluctance on the phone making cold calls. What if you were in New York City knocking on doors? Now that is face to face and scary! There is no handing up, nowhere to hide, and nowhere to run! You have to have self-confidence and be on your game to make it through the first few weeks. I can’t even imagine
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About Wendell
Wendell Jordan is a 10-year sales and marketing professional. Currently, he is the owner of Jordan Marking consultants, a digital agency focused on high ROI marketing solutions. As an SEO Consultant and web design professional, he helps local businesses get more sales, retain more customers, and build brand awareness online
Contacts
Jordan Marketing Consultants Website
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Amazing Sales Lessons Learned Selling Door To Door in New York City Featuring Wendell Jordan
Sat, 7/17 1:07PM • 1:09:29
Estimated reading time: 62 minutes
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
people, sales, door, selling, talking, time warner, b2b, company, knock, manager, wendell, cold calling, call, day, channels, point, cable, house, crm, toughest part
SPEAKERS
Wendell, Roy Barker
Introduction
Roy Barker 00:00
On. Hello, and welcome to another episode of The Business of Business Podcast. I’m your host Roy. Of course, we are the podcast that brings you a wide variety of guests that can speak to a lot of diverse topics. And today, I’m excited to have Wendell Jordan back. For some of y’all that may have listened. We got a previous episode he is 10 years in sales and marketing profession. He is currently the owner of Jordan Marketing Consultants, a digital agency focused on high ROI solutions, and a SEO consultant and web design professional.
He helps local businesses get more sales, retain more customers build brand awareness and pretty hyper focused on local SEO. So Wendell Welcome back, but yeah, just a little background. So we talked a lot about the local SEO and about what Wendell does in his day job. But you know, as we talked pre show, I found out that Wendell started his sales career knocking on doors in New York City. And it just floored me.
Because I know how some of us, you know, can have call reluctance from time to time, and I just was like, so surprised. Anyway. So Wendell was great, gracious enough with this time to come back with us. And we’re just gonna have a little fun episode talking about some things that he’s seen and gone through. Wendell. Thanks for taking time out of your day. We certainly do appreciate it.
Door To Door
Wendell 01:31
Yes, sir. Yes, sir. Being being a door to door sales rep in New York is definitely not for the faint of heart.
Roy Barker 01:40
I, you know, I see people, you know, in the past, I’ve seen people that work the phones that, you know, I think I related this in our last episode, we had a, this was back a long time ago, we had a call tracker, it would just look at phone numbers. And it would count how many dials everybody made every day. And so we had a guy that he was so sheepish, that, you know, he was not making any sales, he was struggling. So I pulled his call log, and I started looking at the phone numbers, he was called the 711.
He was calling the time and temperature at the local bank, called his mother, grandmother, you know, he’s gone, anybody who’s friendly, but he’s not making any actual cold calls. And he’s so reluctant on the telephone. And so, you know, in my mind, I extrapolate this too. Okay, so how would you feel knock on somebody’s door in New York City, you know, not to, as I told you before, not to be too stereotypical. But they can be fairly abrasive, just in the course of general business much less you standing there knocking on their door, trying to sell them something that I tell us a little bit about that.
Wendell’s Story
Wendell 02:45
So two things that come to mind. The first thing about the cheapest gentlemen, that you just spoke on. So when I So first, let me go back. Um, when I started, as I was telling you, pre taping, when I started to do door to door sales, I didn’t have any background really, right. Like I was in music for some time. And I reached out to different record labels and would make phone calls and stuff. But it was trivial at best, right?
So I didn’t really have a scope on what was or was not sales. So my green is, you know, I was so green. I didn’t know how bad it could be. Right? Right. Speak to the sheep business, sheepish sness of a fellow salesperson, I remember when I started, we had to take a test, because we had to know the product. So it was probably like a six to eight part test, right, like six or eight modules. And the thing in the office was, as long as the manager was there, you could get help, as much help as you needed to make sure you passed so they could Hurry up and get you out to the field didn’t care about the test. It was more the vendor that wanted you to pass the test.
Roy Barker 03:53
Right. So
Amazing Sales Lessons
Wendell 03:55
the this one gentleman, the supervisor helped me probably 80% of the test. So he pulls me aside and he goes, Hey, you’re not taking this seriously. I’ve been here for five weeks, and I haven’t had a sale. Okay, you come in here, you’re playing around. I’m very jovial and playful all the time. Like I’ve been this way since forever. So he’s like, you’re playing around all the time. And this just isn’t gonna work out for you. So I’m like, now I’m competitive, competitive more than I am anything else. I’m competitive about all kinds of trivial things.
I’ll try to finish my cup of water before you if need, right. So I say to him, I’m like, well, so actually I say, Okay, thank you. I appreciate it. And then going about the day. I was shadowing at the time, I shouted the gentleman I came back, I’m still playing in office and pulls me to the side again, he goes Listen, telling you, I’ve been here five weeks, I’ve had a single sale. I later find out speaking the sheep was just he was only knocking maybe 10 doors a day, which is the equivalent of you know, calling One or two people a day, right those a day is you should be doing that.
Every few minutes. It really gets nominal. So he’s I mean he I mean he is browbeating Me too I mean he is, you know, you need to learn the research or the software I mean of the of the technology we sell. I mean, he is just browbeating me so I go Well, how about this? I think there was an eight week window, if you didn’t make a sale, they will they will take you. It will remove you from payroll, as I’ve already called. But because we were commissioned only so it didn’t make any sense for them to keep paying for your system if you weren’t making sales, right. So it was about two, two weeks, I think at this point away from is he I think he was about six weeks in. So I told him I said, I’ll get my first sale before you.
Right And at this point, I’m only maybe four days into this job. So and as I started to say earlier, I still remember this first sale to this day. I shadow a full shadow for three days. They only let me shadow one. They told me I was good enough in the go get go get one right. So I go out knock this area in Jamaica queens, if anyone’s familiar with you make your queen so about an armory. Right old wall Parsons. And to make it happen. I remember vividly because I know the area but I’ve never walked it.
Yeah, so I’m walking. I’m not gonna I’m not gonna mock and nobody’s answering, slamming the doors, yelling through the door, nothing. I finally get this house as a little corner house. And this guy’s sitting outside. I started talking to him three hours later. So I took my I took all my I took every bit of anything I know about this product out. Yeah, yeah, I was later he goes, this all sounds really good. But I’m not the decision maker. Hold on goes in the house goes against the system. So now I start all over again.
Right, and I call my manager because he took a little while. So I call my manager said hey, I think I got a sale. Can you help me? He’s like, well, how long you’ve been talking to the guy I’m like was at the time I was about three hours. It is why he told me so. I don’t know. But I think he wants to buy He’s like, well just close it. So I’m so and he says don’t take that long to talk to this next person. So I figured out how to shorten it a little bit. It only takes me an hour. So now I’m four hours into my first sale. And finally they sign up. The next day I come into the office with my paperwork. I go straight to this guy and I go
Do you have your first. And I don’t say this pridefully. But I think he quit that next day. Because he had been there for almost two months now. And never had a sale. But again, he was only knocking 10 doors a day. So like, you know, again, to circle all the way back around. These tell us a good day was anywhere between 60 and 80 doors a day. Wow. Right? Well, you look at and again, you’re you’re you’re you are you are you are texting right like I’m a transplant here.
Roy Barker 07:49
Yeah. So.
New York Communities
Wendell 07:50
And nonetheless, depending on what part of what community you’re knocking in, in New York, you know, like the, the the response is different. Yeah. So my first my first day only, not maybe 20 doors because I spent four hours at one door. Right. So that clearly that was not a that was not a high return day, right? Like it’s the most a day talking to one client but Oh, one customer. But the toughest part of it was being able to get in and out of the gates because gated front yards thing in New York, I didn’t know that that wasn’t common practice in all of America until I left.
Like, in Texas, most places I’ve been in Texas and may may be different for the North, but nobody has a fence. Right? You may have the fencing to your backyard, but not to get to the front door. It’s usually pretty open. You know, it’s an open landscape. So not getting going in out of doors not being shut in and out of gates not being shown who has dogs and who doesn’t. Right, because this is this is more of an urban dwelling. So, you know, some people, they have signs some people don’t. Um, man, I mean, again, 60 to $80 a day. 60 $80 a day was the was was was the low. And if you were in apartment building, the expectation was somewhere around like 120
Roy Barker 09:08
Wow. Yeah. And, you know, our expectation for cold calls that we had back in that day was 100. I mean, it was an easy number. You know, you were really hitting it, you could do 200 very easily so I mean, I can’t even imagine trying to get to 100 doors 100 doors in the day, but you know that being face to face. You know that it’s it’s funny when you think about you being on the phone and how upset and worried people get about the rejection on the phone.
It’s like we all you got to do is hang up, they can’t see you. But I don’t know when you’re on when you’re in person. I mean, man, you are right there. And then also, I think when you get questioned when you’re on the phone you always have that like hey, I can put you on hold a man and I find this answer but man when you’re standing door to you know face to face You got to have the you got to have an answer.
Wendell 10:03
So, and most of my responses will be stories because I have I have stories for days, my own manager, and I will be sure to send him this this specific podcast, because he will find it hilarious amazing sales lessons. He used to say if you need anything call me that was his phrase when we left obviously go if you need anything call me. He never answered the phone. Whenever the phone calling him was a moot point. We almost never answered the phone.
And then when did he answer? His answer was always Yes. It didn’t matter what it was whether it was truly possible. His answer was always Yes, he would, yes, you to a sale, no matter how many yeses it took. So we would go door to door. And we used to have what they used to call a slick. So that’s what the manager used to call it like, like a like a one sheet. And they would laminate it for us. Yeah, yeah. Right. Right. So they were laminated for us. And that’s the days of my managers, one of the other managers called slick.
So we used to have this slick, and at the time, it was cable. So it had the good, better best package on there. And on the flip side, it explained to you because he was selling a fiber, we saw a fiber optic. So if we show you the difference in the note, right, like anyone cares or knows what to notice. So we would, then that was all that was all we had. And every now and again, that will give us two to five channel guides. And the intention was for was for you to never give a channel got away.
Roy Barker 11:29
Yeah,
Collateral
Wendell 11:30
right. That was the really the intention of having a channel guy was to hopefully put something in the prospects hand fast enough so that they didn’t close the door in your face. Yeah, that was really the intention. Same thing with the slip, it was really the intention was was for them to hold on to something so that you could force them lucidity. So the that I think, in the very beginning, and I was fortunate because I’m a talker, right. So I didn’t really have trouble with the talking part. It was selling part that I had to grow into.
But in the beginning, the toughest part was being able to have the conversation and be versed enough to be able to answer the questions on the fly. And then hopefully, you get the same questions enough to where you can remember your answers. Right? Right. Like To this day, I talk to people from all different nationalities, and I’m still I can talk about indian tv still, because I sold a lot of indian tv packages.
So I set TV and Sony TV and all these other things to this day, I kind of have some understanding of reality as a couple of Polish television networks that are very common for people who are, you know, maybe first generation or, you know, migrated here, they need their Polish TV, but there’s only two channels at that time that most cable providers offered. So, again, things that you kind of get to know on the fly.
But I tell you, in the eight modules, it was never a section on national TV. So like there was so many things that we weren’t even equipped with that, amazing sales lessons in the very beginning of my sales for that specific company. I had no idea what the answers were. Right. So like, oftentimes, I would say, and this is what I didn’t know, I was like, actually, I’m not too sure. I’m here to give it my manager and I’m not sure. But like you said it’s door to door. So I only have a very small window before these people want to go back to their lives.
Right. And can you carry me around the house like a phone? Yeah, I was folding, you know, or a cell phone and me be able to talk to them while they’re doing all these other things. They have to stop everything they’re doing to come talk to this stranger at the door. He claims he’s going to get them a better deal on cable. It was interesting.
Roy Barker 13:41
Yeah. And then I would only assume that if if you make a sale you actually have some paperwork you have to fill out so then it’s like them letting you in the house or either them coming out on the front stoop or in the hallway to fill that out. I mean out how difficult was that?
Wendell 13:58
So and we talked about this off air Last time, we legally weren’t supposed to go into the house. So for liability reasons, right? Because if you trip and fall, then whose insurance pays for your broken light, right? So we technically weren’t supposed to oftentimes people would invite you in and to not be rude you know off you’re very tongue in cheek I managed to say people invite you in you’re okay. Right But don’t invite Try not to invite yourself into people’s homes. Right? Um, I actually think it was somewhere like in Texas or maybe it was Missouri but someone It was a door to door cable person I got in trouble because something happened in the house and there was some allegations but it all stemmed from him being a door to door person that was supposed to be inside be away.
So the tough part about it was when we used to have a little clipboard there, that was the other piece that was it was a clipboard. So in a perfect world and again, you know, like I’m pretty big guy. Like, I can hold my clipboard on my arm really. Right. So I can do everything. I need in front of me. But you know, if you’re smaller stature, your arms are shorter, it poses a totally different set of issues. The toughest part of closing the sale was the paperwork, because it was a sheet of paper probably 14 inches long give or take a little bit longer than a standard sheet of paper.
At some point in there, you had to sign we had to check a box that said month a month or, or contract. And there would be times where people would be excited elated, you’re supposed to fill out the paperwork first, and then put it into the system, oftentimes, you put into the system first, and the system is way more important paperwork. Then they get to the paperwork, and they don’t want to sign it because it’s just a piece of paper, they sign it, and then you can change to a contract as far as they’re concerned, right?
Internally in the system, which afforded me the ability later on to be able to sell to b2b relatively easily. But I used to have to ask for the social security numbers. Wow. Right at the door. Identity Verification at the door,
Roy Barker 16:06
I like this guy just wandered out to my door now like even a Muslim.
Wendell 16:10
That’s what I’m gonna save some money on, on on cable. But first, I need your social security number, your mother’s maiden name, your date of birth, okay, I promise this is completely legit. That was that was a struggle. That was a struggle. But again, when I think back on it, that was the thing that helped me to be able to do this from a from a from a cold calling perspective. And I was actually amazing sales lessons having this conversation last week, as I was telling you, I was I was grilling it in Miami, right?
Talking to a gentleman who was talking about in the finance sector, he was talking about the managers, you know, the asset managers having to come face to face. And what I’ve always told people is most of my clients never see me in person. So, but because I could get a stranger to give me their social security number, I knew I could talk to anyone in the country and get a debit card or credit card because that’s way easier.
Roy Barker 17:03
Right? Right.
Wendell 17:04
I mean, I mean, I told the police Ranger I had a very high first time contact, close rate. So often more often than not probably. And it may sound a bit. Like I’m tooting my own horn, I kind of am but I had like a 70% first time contact rate. So like it wasn’t Yeah, like I this is one of the few things I brag about. But I was an amazing door to door salesman, mainly because I talk a lot and I’m silly, right? I got play a lot. So it’s it disarms people.
Yeah, exactly. It wasn’t like I had to come back two or three times to get these people to give this information, you know, and I granted we did have a national company that we were associated with, right? or international company, if you will amazing sales lessons, but our badges didn’t say their name, right. Like how bad you said, the vendor that they contracted, which again, made it even more sketchy, because even get to the certain point.
And I would have to give them this. Almost what would be considered a Chromebook is out if they sell netbooks anymore. But it was like a little small, little little laptop, I had to hand it over to the to the customer. And you’d be surprised how many times? You know, it was like, Well, I don’t know. And then I’d have to I’d actually type in my social security number, and then show them that it only showed up as those little Asterix. Yeah, yeah. Right.
Then sometimes what would happen is people would say, Okay, we’ll sing a song and dance about how great their credit was, because it was it was credit check. And we let them know that. And then they will come back with a $500 deposit. But oftentimes, it will be because they didn’t put a rule socially. Right. So anytime we had a deposit, like probably 6035 30, or 40% of the time was because they weren’t putting real information in because they weren’t sure what was going to happen.
Roy Barker 18:46
Right.
Wendell 18:46
Right. Oh, and then even to speak even further to that, I left that company and went to a different one a little bit later on, and my daughters your career, and they actually only required their ID, their identification verification process was a lot simpler. So you could actually use the driver’s license ID. So that made life way simpler. And needless to say, if the barrier of entry is a driver’s license, ID, we can do that, you know, relative ease.
Yeah. But it was I mean, I remember the first time not that first sale, but I remember the first time was they were very, very amenable that those very first people that that allow me to get my first sale they didn’t know was my first sale. They were very minimal. They actually gave me a very skewed view on life. Because when I got the first one, my first day out by myself, I thought that my life was going to be graduates, right? Like I thought every day would be a sale because if you got one of the first day, you were never Right. Right.
And it was easy. It was again, I talked more than I needed to, I probably could have gave a total of an hour and gotten a sale, you know, but other than those people I mean, I remember that the next few It was hard because even if I got to the point where We started talking about price, and then I’d have to pull out the net book. And then once I get to the point where I got to go to social now I’m and it’s also in your confidence of being able to say, and I’m going to need your date of birth and social right now. Right? Like I gotta be able to say it now like, I know this sounds sketchy, but you have to say it like this is what everyone does. It’s normal, right amazing sales lessons?
Roy Barker 20:25
Yeah, so you actually have you know, there’s like multiple hurdles getting somebody just to answer the door that was probably the
Wendell 20:33
easier buddy’s bar was was answering the door. Everything was after it was the was distressed. I mean, man, oh, man, I remember. I was in a in a Rockaway Beach, which used to be a, like a resort city in in New York. So Rockaway Beach is a lot of bungalow houses that are still there, people living in now. But Rockaway Beach, I’m not getting this one complex. And and sometimes they will give us territory that they only wanted us to work for a very short period.
Most territory, they expect you to work about three to five weeks, and then sometimes they give you especially a building. It would only be maybe a weekend deal. So it’d be a Friday through Sunday thing, because in New York, which I’d also learned in talking to other people and door to door in New York, depending on what complex you were in, you know, what kind of what kind of apartment complex it was sometimes, in the leasing. It would say that they would not allow soliciting amazing sales lessons .
So they would have to talk to the people in the complex and decide this specific weekend. We’re allowing solicitors to come in. Okay. That said, we were working as building on a Friday night. That next Saturday, apparently we knocked on some board members of whatever his doors the night before. And they weren’t happy. They didn’t answer. They weren’t happy. So that morning. I don’t know how they did it.
So fans, I mean, we finished we never stopped, we always stopped knocking at eight o’clock. So think legally, you can knock out the knives like you can’t call after nine. And then we would start, especially on a Saturday and about 1011 o’clock. And by the time we got to the building, there was already somebody downstairs to let us know that we were not allowed back in the building. Oh, my God. territory was gone.
Roy Barker 22:17
Yeah. Yeah. Wow. It made me think about the the time like during the week, did you mostly knock in the evenings? Because you know, people were at work, I’m sure. You know, unless you were in an older part of town, it’d be hard to find people at home.
Wendell 22:33
Right amazing sales lessons. So it just depends on the community. So and, again, this is one of these things where I, I love selling. I mean, I love it, I love it a lot. I enjoy, I think it’s because of the conversational piece. Yeah, I was fortunate enough. And I’m gonna answer your question. But I was fortunate enough to help someone last weekend with something with with with a sales piece, right. And like the amount of endorphins that get pumped in me as I’m selling, because I had to add to do a little bit of selling that just rapport building with the people, and I’m talking to all and when I was done, I was like, oh, man, I missed that.
Because I don’t I don’t get to do that anymore. Face to face situation. Um, but what we used to do, or let me rephrase, what I used to do was only not between the hours of five and 830, because nine o’clock, legally 859 is the last time you could not want to do it. After that. You’re it’s I don’t know what laws you break, but you’re not allowed to solicit after a certain hour, right. So I would usually do between five and six and about 850. Right. And depending on the community, like it was a point where one summer, I had a community where there was usually one of the two people in this household would be home.
So I had a partner at the time. And my partner and I were going to this community at 11 o’clock, and by one o’clock because it was a really high contact rate. And by about one two o’clock, we would already have the sales that we needed for the day. It was only maybe like a three or four hour, three or four hour thing and every now and again we would go back out and try to catch the houses that we did it. The other thing too that was key for us or key for the way that this company set up success for their door to door reps was we had something called the door tag. So if you think about like the FedEx with ups has it in leave.
Oh yeah. Yeah. Is it here? So amazing sales lessons I was would say, you know the major companies name and we would pan right our our name and phone number and so that in itself created its own level of difficulty. Sometimes we will call it was still a scam. Right? So they would ask a million questions. I one person actually googled my name and Google my phone number, but because I spent a lot of time in knows music you’re spamming the internet because spamming the internet was not a thing at that time, right? Like that was like common practice. Spam was normal.
So when you Google my name at that time, you would get these message board posts about this artists that we were promoting. Because I would usually I would usually use my name as the, you know, as the author. So, and then there was a recording studio that I used to I used to own so like this person, Google my name, and they called me. I mean, it was the most mysterious phone call ever. They were like, Hello, is this window Jordan? And I’m like, yeah, Hey, what’s up? How you don’t? Yeah, you left your name and number.
And I mean, they were it was such a, they were so mysterious about the way that they call they call private. And they call you from horizon amazing sales lessons. What’s was sitting in, but are you from that company? Yes. Okay. Well, we I googled you, and it says here that you have a recording studio and Whitestone. And I’m like, Well, yeah, I mean, if you google the phone, if it’s my phone number, like I’m not, I didn’t pretend like it was horizons, right? Exactly. Like we didn’t get that phone conversation. And so it was, I loved it. Because I enjoyed the I enjoyed that part. I enjoyed never really knowing what was gonna happen tomorrow. Right? Like, every day, we had a new story. I mean,
Roy Barker 26:23
the, the people get not necessarily violent, but maybe, you know, come to the door with a gun behind the door, or a knife or some kind of, you know, weapon thinking that they’re gonna have to fend you off?
Wendell 26:39
Well, Roy, what I would say is, and I always make this joke, and hopefully as I continue to be fortunate enough to have people like you give me a platform, I’m a pretty big guy. Right? So if, if there were violence, it would probably have to be a weapon. But no one has ever opened the door with the intention to beat me up.
Right? Like, I look more like a linebacker than anything else. So the thought of opening your door and just beating me up off your step is really not a thought. But what I had happened. I wasn’t sure if I was gonna tell the story. But since we talked about, like that kind of extremism, yeah. And what these doors and is one community. And I mean, the community as a whole was awesome. It was in Elmhurst, Queens, and the community was awesome. I mean, I made a ton of money in that neighborhood. But there’s one young lady, I never forget it, I knocked the door. And she had the door crack that she was trying to live with through the crack.
And she said, Well, the owner of the of the home is not is not available. So okay, thank you. I’m just gonna leave my name. I’m going to leave my information on the door. Another thing that’s different in New York than other places, is our screen doors tend to be like, almost fortified right. So like, like, this was a metal. You know, it’s iron work. screen door is even a screen honestly, it’s really
Roy Barker 27:54
just security. Yeah,
Wendell 27:57
it is a security door. So I’m gonna leave my information on the door. Whenever they get home. They just give me a call. It was it was late. This is back when most of my meals were eating at the drive thru window, right. So I went to the main street that was over there. And I went to Wendy’s. I went got something to eat. I’m sitting in my car. And, um, this, we talked about this before we went live. But this is the New Yorker.
I mean, right? Like, I’m always watching everything. So I’m sitting there and I’m relaxing, sitting there, and I see a car come into the into into the parking lot. It’s a police car. I see. I see it. I’m not watching you. But I see it in my peripheral. I don’t see it come out the other side of the mirror. So I’m like this weird, but web, right. Next thing you know, I see someone real close walking upon my car. And then I look and I look over and there’s a police officer in my window. So I put the window down. And I’m like midway through.
amazing sales lessons beyond is probably midway through my second burger at this point. I was I was like 300 pounds. So I never had one burger. So midway through my burger, I’m talking to this guy. And he goes, that young lady actually called the cops and said that I was a burglar. Oh my gosh, yeah. And I spent probably an hour which may not seem long, but I spent an hour trying to verify who I was. I had my I still have my little medallion on it used to give us polo shirts, right? They had their company’s name on it.
They were red, right? So it was it was brand new. It was for the purpose of brand recognition, right. I had my door tags, I had my ID which was always in I used to always wear it, you know, around my neck so you can see when I not. Um, and I mean this guy, I had to call my manager. It was a whole big thing, whole big thing when it was all said and done to give the officer all his credit. He apologized. And he said, you know, you don’t ever know what you’re walking into.
Because I mean they were very aggressive when they approach the car and Um, but I mean, it’s it’s so again, just to answer the question, is everything necessarily a violence thing? But this young lady, she actually called the cops and then made up the story that I was that I was a burglar. Yeah, yeah, he showed it and then come to find out because I also spoke to a couple other people in that community, and they their houses were being broken into.
So he didn’t just make it up wrong asleep, but at the same time, I left my egg. So that was the other thing too is the cop had my door tag. And I asked him, I said, well, you been on the job. He said, you’re gonna die like seven years at that point. And I’m like, Well, what was the last time a criminal left their phone number, their name and phone number at the door? When was the last time? I mean, I get it. I know, criminals may not be the brightest bulbs on the tree.
And I love my name and my phone number. Oh, my gosh, that’s hilarious. Yeah, she called me that’s how you I was at Whitney. So she called me and ask me was I still in the neighborhood? I said, Yes. I’m actually having dinner. I’m up here at Wendy’s. And I’ll be right back over to you. And that’s actually
Roy Barker 31:00
how I figured out I was at Wendy’s. Oh, my gosh. Yeah. And, you know, nowadays, with all these cameras and things, because it’s in my neighborhood, this is something I see a lot of is people come up, knock on the door, and then no answer, then they start trying to, you know, to see if it’s open or not, maybe decking a window out. So yeah, I can only imagine, you know, what people might have thought, you know, somebody?
Yeah, it’s, it could be different, too. We are just not used, I’m not used to door to door people anymore. Now. So the 70s and 80s, we had a lot more of that, you know, the fuller brush, man. And then, you know, even in the early 2000s, a guy this special cleaning sauce that he was coming up knocking door to door to, but they, you know, they physically had something in their hand like they were trying to sell whereas you know, us like, Well, you know, I got a slick that’s about all I’ve got my hand, so
Wendell 31:56
to speak to So two things that that reminds me of not my story. But I was a part of it. You talk about a different point in door to door sales. I remember still being maybe a high school age kid. This guy comes and he was a vacuum salesman. And this gentleman proceeded to vacuum and talk about this vacuum. And again, I was high school.
So like when I think about it now. It’s even sillier. And when my mother said no, he proceeded to beat my mother because he needed one more sale in order to hit whatever goal he needed for the week or whatever it was right. Like all the spiel that is his oldest time. Yeah. And needless to say, my mother didn’t purchase the vacuum. She was actually quite offended that he proceeded to beggar for money. I think the vacuum was, let’s say, 1000 or $2,000. Wow. Exactly. Yeah. But but but for you, we’ll break it up into four easy payments. So you can you can eat a hamburger today and pay for it tomorrow. Yeah. So I and and the other.
The other thing too, that Jeremy think about when you say like, you’re not you said door to door. Like I said, in New York City, you don’t require any licenses in order to not in other parts of the country. And even in upstate New York, you actually have to have certain permissions from local ordinances to be allowed to solicit in the community. So and it’s also you know, I’m sure because of the 80s and even early 90s, when, just like, certain things had to change with a cell phone companies.
Because of slamming, right, like, you know, when 15 you’d be paying 20 people for the same phone line, because everyone would call in, you know, we believe MCI at the time, and so and so at the time, why would they cheat us? So now you’re paying for regional, local, and long distance? Right? Wasn’t? Isn’t that where you used
Roy Barker 33:48
to work? Guys? Yeah, yeah.
Wendell 33:50
So but you got to think for that same reason, because of something similar to slamming with with the telephone service. In other parts of the country, you have to have in the door to door ups actually have to carry whatever license or permission that is given. Otherwise, someone does call the police. They don’t even say that you’re breaking the law. They just let them know that you’re soliciting in their community you’re not allowed to so it is quite interesting. When you mentioned that I didn’t really think of that as well.
Roy Barker 34:16
Yeah, yeah. Cuz I think here you know, most cities have that no solicit you can get permits to do it. But, you know, one thing I talked to, you know, like, service companies that have a reason to be in somebody’s home in a neighborhood usually they’re in a truck that’s labeled But no, that’s one thing I do is I don’t necessarily say you need to not. Because you can get yourself in a little bit of trouble.
But at least go to these doors on either side of the house and just leave a card I mean, it’s so it’s kind of easy marketing, you know. While you’re there to leave something on the door for people but it’s just interesting because I you know, when I first started when I was a teenager. We had to clean out some barns and. You know, we were hauling this stuff out to the pasture and throwing it, it was a lot of work.
Finally, somehow me and a friend of mine figured out, we could package this and sell it. And, you know, instead of just sitting on the corner, waiting for people to come by, we did that we drive around the neighborhoods, and back in that day, not a lot of the wood privacy fences, more of the chain link. So we could see in people’s backyards, and we would try to find people that either had really nice flower gardens or vegetable gardens, and we’d go up, knock on the door and say, Hey, you know, we’ve got some outfit, you know, clean fertilizer here. It will sell you. And, you know, we had a really good little, little hustle there for a couple years. You know, because one one thing people just I think they felt sorry for us like these kids out hustling fertilizer, we’re gonna sell it.
But you know, the thing is, we were taking it to their front door, we would all it back there forum, they weren’t having to do anything. But, you know, I guess I just was never, I never gave it a lot of thought it was just knock on the door. They either want this or they don’t you know, I sometimes we had to, the only objection we would have to handle would be you know, now these horses, they’ve been out in the pasture eaten all kinds of weeds, and wild grass, then, you know, they’re gonna transfer that to our garden.
And so we could be like, No, these are barn, you know, barn Kip oak fed, they’re not out grazing the past year. A few objections, but you know, for the main part is like, whatever, they didn’t want it. We were off. You know, we didn’t I didn’t have time to sit there and argue with them or feel bad about it. It’s like, you know, you don’t want it. And there’s a good book about that, too. It’s, it’s called Getting to know, because in Oh, because sometimes, if you just get to somebody like No, I don’t want it, then he can you can feel good about moving on.
In some services. Now, you know, you always want to ask why, you know, try to handle those objections. But a lot of times, you know, it’s like, you can I can stand here sparring with you for 30 minutes or an hour? And you still say no, not because you don’t need it? Maybe not because you don’t want it maybe can’t even afford it. And that, you know, I think that’s the the empathy as salespeople we have to have sometimes is that, you know, we don’t know the situation. So.
Wendell 37:18
So this same manager, that I’m going to send this this podcast to, because I don’t I don’t send too much, but I’m going to kind of miss the short, because because he I mean, he was the Trailblazer to my sales career, right? Like he, he pushed me really hard, because he saw that I was a talker, but I didn’t know much about sales. But he used to always say and I don’t know if it’s a full statement to say now, but he’s always said you can’t you can’t sell poverty or ignorance, right?
Like, if you can’t afford it, you can’t afford it. or unwilling to digest the information that I’m sharing with you, I can’t sell it to you either. I those are two objectives you just can’t overcome sometimes there’s nothing you can do. Something else that the other the other sales story to about about the door door person here in Houston. In fact, um, I had someone knock on the door was like last week, it was like last week and this guy, it was I mean, let’s see, I didn’t see the truck or anything anyway, and knock on the door, open the door, and he’s got his gas Polo on, it’s got the company energy company.
And he’s first thing he says is, Hey, I was just three houses down at so and so Rodriguez his house, and they just signed up. I just wanted to let you know, because we’re doing some really cool stuff in the neighborhood. I stopped them when I say I was just explaining to someone that this is door to door sales one on one, whoever trained you was fantastic.
And I’m I’m enamored of the five to 10 years later, we’re still doing the same spiel, right, because that was one of the things my managers used to preach upon us. We used to have to carry what he suggested, does have to imply that I was not following the rules. But he suggested strongly that we would carry old order forms, filled out order forms, and he would fold over the bottom so that you could actually see how big his sack was. This was his game.
And what he would do is and I knocked with him a few times. And what he would do is he would like while he was talking to you like let’s say he had to get that slick. He would do it rifle through the old order form. So again, so he could really emphasize the fact that you were not the first one he signed up. So the first thing this guy does is tell me about somebody three houses down. Yeah, smiling and I go like Listen, man, whatever you say we’re selling energy. And we’re not in the market for it. So you know, my but thank you. Yeah, man.
It was so it was it was funny, because my response, I guess was different than most. So he didn’t even really know where to go from there. Yeah, that’s literally what I said to I was like, man, I was I literally was just telling someone about The you don’t want to be the inclusionary opening statement in door to door sales. It doesn’t necessarily work in other spaces. But when is door to door because like you said, you’re in person and you’re in a community, if I know Roy’s neighbor, I can talk about where his neighbor was comfortable. Yeah, exactly. Right now, I’m not a stranger at the door. I was just at Pam’s house, right? Pam trusted me. You’re not going to trust me?
Roy Barker 40:27
Right? You know,
Wendell 40:27
but it was never really my thing. I am not. I am a traditional York New Yorker. So I am skeptical of most things, right? Like, I don’t believe it’s raining until I get wet. So, you know, that was never my way of selling. I was always talking about you. Right, like, and even to this day, I think. And I say this very openly to anyone, right. So thinking about it sounds so bad. But most things is that same managers always everything’s a sale. Right.
And I don’t think that’s necessarily true. I think that’s a little bit too transactional. But all the skills that I’ve learned and report building as a human I gathered and selling, right. So you know, just to give the example, I still remember some of the things that were in the background that were in your background, the first time we spoke, because at some point, I may ask you a question six months from now, about something that you mentioned, the very first conversation, I’m not selling you anything. But those are the report building skills that I learned that just allow for me to be able to have long standing relationships with a lot of different types of people.
Because, you know, when I was at that conference last week, a young lady mentioned on Tuesday that her back was hurting. She had arthritis in her back. I saw on Thursday, the first question I asked was, I was a backfill, right? Not because of anything other than the rapport skills that I built, I can go to door because I never was the person I was trying to get you to believe that Pam signed up already, because he didn’t have an order form or anything he was reading off of his lead sheet.
Roy Barker 42:01
Well, you know, that’s one thing we talked about a lot with, with cold calling, especially is you have to be you have to listen number one, you know, seek to understand that’s my new new saying, I just love that, because it’s really good. Yeah, yeah, we have to listen, because it makes for thoughtful follow up.
And instead of me calling you up and saying, hey, Wendell, this is Roy. You know, we talked last week, are you ready to buy it? Gotcha. That’s still drives me insane. Like this is 2021. Surely we can do better. Right? Exactly, exactly. You know, I can call you know, I would follow up say, Hey, I know you were out of town in Miami last week, having some fun, How was your trip, you know, conversation. We just don’t always have to go for the juggler.
I know, people want to cut that time down. But people want to buy from people that they like and people that they feel like represent themselves that they’ve seen in the mirror. So if we can build a rapport, I still may not close you today, but you’re gonna remember, hey, you know, kind of friendly with this guy. And so I think that goes such a long way is just being observant to take notes, oh, my God, take a note, you know, have a notepad if you’re doing it, you know, put it in your CRM.
Another thing, you know, that I get all crazy about is people not using CRM. And this is the exact reason why we should because I can take notes down like, okay, Wendell just told me that he took a trip to Miami last week, and so I can get some mileage out of that. And then, you know, just anything else that you pick up in the conversation to circle back around, we’ll follow up.
Wendell 43:42
I’m gonna I’m cringing only because I am. So my my biggest, biggest, biggest hurdle and all sales is the paperwork, right? So we didn’t have a CRM at the very first company that I worked for, we didn’t have our CRM was a printout of an Excel sheet. That was our CRM, and their measurement for success. And using it was, if you jotted down stuff on it, and what I learned was they didn’t look at it anyway. But if you brought back a blank one, especially with no sales, they assumed you never worked. Exactly. I started working at another company.
Um, they actually had this app that they built specific for their sales team. That was terrible. I never used it, because it took too long in between doors to disposition, the sale, right? I use a couple of CRMs in my own in my own business. And the toughest thing for me was always taking the time to write these things down. I have a terrible habit. That’s why I cringe because you’re right, right. Like being able to access that information readily is probably the most important piece to it, especially if it’s a sales process.
If it’s a sales cycle, right? It’s no different than remembering or writing now someone’s birthday. It’s not necessarily it’s just is essential, right? Like, you know, in our phones do so many different things now and all the technologies that we have linked to our phones, where even if a CRM isn’t isn’t your favorite thing, most cell phones actually have a note section. So even if you’re saving people’s phone numbers that you’ve had a tangible conversation with, you can write it in there. But I only cringe because you’re wrong. Just because I know how much I don’t like doing that part.
I just get in so much every sales job that was not my own. Every manager is always like, Man, you don’t you just you just refuse to do the paperwork. Like Yeah, I don’t, I don’t like it. Yeah, somebody else do it. I’ll tell you everything. But I don’t know. I don’t want to do it.
Roy Barker 45:36
Well, you know, you have to do is there’s a line between, you know, good sales, people are people person and they want you know, like yourself, they want to talk and be interactive. They don’t want to write stuff down, and they don’t want to be analytical, that’s for somebody else. And then, you know, then there’s people like myself that are probably more analytical, but you know, I try to force myself to do that, like, you know.
Just, it’s when you’re cold calling, especially, you know, you just pop open a screen and be taken some notes, but it’s so to me, it’s so helpful. But yeah, you’re not the first I mean, sales people when you bring that up, like, oh, like, you know, the arrow. got ready. Another one. I remember when I worked for this other cable company and forgive me for just jumping on top of their CRM ACU Salesforce. Have you ever used Salesforce? Yes, it was way too complicated. Oh, my goodness,
Wendell 46:29
Salesforce, we have an iPad. And this was many generations ago. So this iPad, you would click the customer because it was it was maybe give you customer for per se, it will give you address info. So if we went to 123 Main Street, I could, I would know how many people’s names this service was in. I could tell you that john smith, five years ago, ended up in crew accruing a balance of $5,000 in cable service, how I don’t know. But he was able to get to $5,000 in cable service and all his other I mean, just so much data.
I remember the first time I actually messed with the CRM in the field, because I was another company, the managers always mad at me because I would never disposition because they would, that’s how he would track if you were in the field. So I wouldn’t disposition is at the end of the day, I would just make a like little little note on a piece of papers that would give us paper. So we just make notes and our disposition at the end of the day. But they didn’t want that because it couldn’t tell how long you’ve been in the field.
Yeah, so I remember I came to him, I said, you know, one struggle for me is I got to scroll. Again, because I’m about efficiency when I’m when I’m selling. So even when he was a cold calling, I average. I’m gonna come back to that. I’ll tell you guys data stores real quick. So, um, I remember going to my manager, and he couldn’t do anything about it. Because you know, he was lower management, middle management.
And I’m, like, you know, maybe you can talk to somebody and let them know, there’s got to be some parameters inside of the master self Salesforce suite that lets you guys dumb it down for the people in the field. Because I don’t, I don’t want to. I don’t want to scroll twice in order to get to where I got to be. I’m trying to hurry to get to the next door. This disposition is fun for y’all. But I need my sales. Right? The reality is, it doesn’t sound like a lot until you knock 100 doors, right?
So if we do 100 doors, and each door takes a minute, that’s 100 minutes of my day that I don’t get back. Right. That’s how many doors that I miss. Yeah. Right. Like those are the things that and again, that’s my way of being lazy on the other side, right is I make it all about the sales, right? So that hopefully understands, but needless to say, they did not they were a huge company using Salesforce at an enterprise level. And they were not in a hurry to switch anything out on that.
Roy Barker 48:55
Yeah, that’s what I tell people you know, there’s so many out there and I don’t mind saying I went through like five or six before I found one that was you know, simplistic enough for me to use but yet and competent, you know, I guess complicated enough it captured all the information I needed to you in that you know and that is a definite issue about you know, we have to make it easy on sales, especially people out in the field that you know, weeks.
We’re expecting people to keep moving but yet then I’m asking you pull over and take 10 minutes to you know, fill something out. We just have to try to make it as easy as possible. One thing else I was gonna ask you about is packages you mentioned on your slick you had three packages. Yeah, so did they design that for your sweet spot was that middle package? You know, you had the low one that probably had like, four stations on it that cost an arm and leg and then that top one is like you know, 12 $100 a month, that middle when there’s like you know 250 channels for $80 a month.
Wendell 49:56
So two things I have been chasing the package the permit package names ever since their packages, right? Because they had good, better best, you can’t get better at this. I’ve never seen better descriptions, right? Because you got the good, the better the best. That’s there’s no other way to describe it. And to answer your question no actually. So because, and I’ve already settings, I was trying not to be brand specific, but because I was selling five sunrise a file.
The price point that they entered into New York with was 6999 at the time, so they were dirt cheap in comparison to at the time Time Warner. Yeah, so Time Warner Cable, I mean, a single box, Time Warner account at that time was going to run you at least $120 a month. So at $70, no boxes, were already ahead of the curve. Now, what we would do is because in this it was actually kind of inverted. So what what, what, what bad managers will tell us was to start with was to tell them it was 69, and not assess the need of the customer.
So the bad ones are telling us to start there and then just build your boxes. But what would happen is, you may get to a certain turning point, because it was 6999 and 129. So you will get to a certain turning point where if they got the ultimate, which included all the channels, all the premium channels, NFL redzone plus the three boxes for the same basic service they had with Time Warner, they would still sometimes either balance out or be cheaper.
Yeah, not more at that time is very expensive. So it really and this is something I always find interesting, was it, you know, like monopolies in this country, a very subjective, like, telecom is a monopoly. But it’s a subject of Monopoly because of the way that things were written many, many moons ago. So like, you know, the way that the way that the country is broken up, according to telecom companies, you know, very rarely Are you seeing two different coaxial companies in the same market. Right. So part of that allows for that one coaxial company to charge you how they feel, you know, you really don’t have an option.
So when file started emerging into New York, it was almost a breath of fresh air because it was only Time Warner or satellite, whereas this was, it was fiber coaxial ish rags, you still had codecs in the home. But it allowed for us to be able to break that mold. So for us, it was a little different. And that middle package was actually the crappiest because it puts you in no man’s land. Like it was, like the basic was for people who really didn’t care too much about TV.
But the internet was leagues faster than Time Warner, whereas the ultimate was the TV junkie. And it had the fastest, right, but the middle was like this odd like it. That was actually the one that was more like interesting. Yeah, like you would get like USA and for family channels, but not ESPN, you know, like it was it was odd, like it was it was it was an odd mishmash of channels, and it had medium speed. And especially at that price point, because of how much people were accustomed to paying for cable most of them were just willing to pay to get everything for the price they
Roy Barker 53:27
were paying for nothing. Right right.
Wendell 53:29
I had a lot of people who upgraded to all the channels just because their three boxes with DVR or whatever it was at the time, you know, was a $300 bill whereas all in most people who got ultimates we had you know a two or three bedroom home you know plus living room there were somewhere topping out somewhere around 230 Yeah.
Roy Barker 53:50
Wow. Yeah, that’s kind of a hot button for me. I spent a lot of time you know, about 20 years with at&t on the on the phone side so that actually pre enter internet was coming out but it was still dial debate so that back in that day, but you know, and we’ve been having an issue with our service, I am not going to get all in slamming anybody but what I’m saying is that you know, with the thing is a telecom bill in 96. We deregulate instead, okay, anybody service can ride over anybody else’s cable, which is awesome. But if it’s my cable and I’m selling Wendell service over my cable, how motivated it my to go out and fix my cable, where are they?
Wendell 54:38
Right, exactly. And again, like you said, not to fall totally off the sales cliff. But something else that was interesting about a lot of industries is they give you that deregulation of the industry, but at the same time, something called rent rent seeking, which is almost lobbying legislation to make it to where even though it’s an Open Market, the barrier for entry is very difficult. Yeah, yeah.
Right. So like, in recent years, we’ve seen more cell phone companies emerge, rightly like now we’ve got several options. Whereas like you said, once upon a time, it was a big three or you were really it was only two? Well, no, it was three. It was three, just spring. Yeah. at&t and Verizon. Those are your big three, there’s only options you had. And it’s been a few, right? Because you remember, singular is a in an at&t took them? Right.
But the point and again, not going too far off is you’re absolutely right, is having a third party on their lines. It does give this still gives the same leverage of, well, I don’t know who’s gonna fix it, because that’s not my service. Yeah.
Roy Barker 55:45
And you know, what we did in Texas, I think is an awesome thing that, you know, I’ve come in lobbying for on the phone side is that when we deregulated power, we created a company that took care of the lines, they take care of all the lines everywhere, right? Now, you can go buy your power from whatever generator, you want to,
Wendell 56:05
you know, pull other episode on energy companies in Texas, and how confusing it is for non Texas.
Roy Barker 56:13
So yeah, and I just, yeah, I hate to get off track, but I just feel like, you know, we’ve we could ever get to that point where we could have this company that that took care of our backbone infrastructure, and then you can buy your servers from whoever, anyways, anyway. Well,
Wendell 56:28
I mean, it’s a great point. So to get us back on topic, with the, the Dallas data center, which is what I was telling you about before we went live, right? The like that was a whole other nuance, right? Because I had b2b sales experience, at that point, do b2b, cold calling sales experience. So just to kind of track it, I do door to door for horizon, I actually end up going over to Time Warner because the people who had the contract at Verizon, for whatever reason, the lead started getting crazy.
Like they were, they were only given us a third of the of the information. It was bad. Time Warner ended up contracting with Time Warner, in between that time I sold on merchant processing, like the terminals where you swipe the cards, right? Yeah, sold that for some time sold all kinds of things. But that was a b2b thing. And within that was working capital. Right. And again, like you said, not to slam but you know, it’s basically like a, like a payday loan for businesses. I don’t know if you’re familiar with, with those kind of loans. So what is what it is, is one at the rate is like, anywhere between 30 to 50%. Right, so we’re already talking legal loan shark,
Roy Barker 57:46
right, right, right. Wow.
Wendell 57:48
Yeah, legal loan shark, right. Because in most states, a personal loan 29.99 is usually to max out. Yeah, most of these, right, very rarely really to go higher than that, when it comes to a loan, but we’re for b2b loan, they usually call it working capital, but this is what this company did. And they may have changed the regulations on how high you can go on the interest.
But the payback would be 30 to 50%, on on most good loans. Wow. And it would be based on your credit card transactions. So I sold that I only sold that portion towards the end of my tenure in that industry. And that’s when I learned that it was rough, because there’s a certain niche industry that needs it more often than not, it’s actually restaurants, beating the food industry, because their the way they operate is so lean.
And it’s actually not only Leanne, but they need a lot of capital, right, they need a lot of cash on hand, to be able to function within vendors. So all those things allow for working capital spaces to be very interesting. also learned about batching out right, like I don’t know, if you do any, any credit card processing, but you know, like batching out. And once upon a time, I don’t know how long you’ve been doing. He was really, it was really my statement. Once upon a time, you’d have to wait 48 hours in order to get your batch out. Whereas now there really isn’t a company that will give it to you tomorrow, or, for that matter for an additional 1%.
But yeah, we’ll start from the top. So I do that. And then I get really deep into into b2b selling only websites for some time, things slow down, and I get a job. Alright, this is a regular wage job plus commission, which is which was what Time Warner was, but the the salary at that time was 40k. So it really wasn’t that bad, right? Like, but this one was in this city minimum wage, whatever it was, let’s just say, let’s say I was making $7 an hour, right? Completely different pay scale. So my money really needs me needs to be made on commission. Speaking to the to the amount of calls you can make in a day.
So my first day I’ve never really I’ve never done business to customer business to consumer, right. And that not not cold calling anyway. So I’m I’m trying to make Do this they’ve got probably about this much of script, right? Like this is almost scripted. And I’m trying to find the answer because they they’re this company’s been around since the 80s. So they know all the rebuttals, right?
So they’re, you’re supposed to flip to this section. And then when they say this, you can go back up to that, right. And this is I mean, I was so stressed the first couple of days. Yeah. So I’m going, I go talk to the manager, and I’m like, Listen, this isn’t gonna work, right? Like I, I’m a conversation. And so let me learn what the objections are. And I can walk, I can walk for him, but I can’t go. Okay, Roy, why don’t you want tickets today?
He said, Oh, it’s up here. Okay. Okay, everyone feels this way. But let me tell you the package is really just not so painful. I mean, that was a it was a great script for someone, because they had all the rebuttals I’ve never seen such a robust rebuttal space. But again, I got some experience. So my very first week there, a manager pulls me to the side. And she goes, how are you making so many calls because they couldn’t track the length of the calls, but they can see how many calls you’ve made. It wasn’t until the week after that, that the range of the time of the calls. So what I told her was what I learned when I used to do b2b for myself, when I was on the websites was, after three rings, people usually aren’t answering anyway.
So just hang up a call the next person, right, there’s no point waiting to the voicemail comes on, you don’t leave. This makes sense. There’s just three rings move on three rings move on. She goes, I’ve never thought to do and this woman, she had a couple of years of experience in this specific space. And she goes, I’ve never thought to do that. And I again, go back to that with the efficiency, right? Like I was dialing almost twice as fast as most of my peers in the office, because everyone waited until the voicemail, right? And again, for me, all the other things are even with that script I mentioned, you got to know let me leave the script alone, because it was painful for me. But all the other things, it’s always about just the efficiency in the sale.
Right? Like if you want sales, especially if you see someone who has personality, I think I have personality. Suppose when you see some big web person, I let them be themselves? Because if the answer is the sale, everything else are coming together. The other part two debt sale, which was hilarious, because I didn’t get to explain to them all the things I did prior, they use no sales experience, the young lady explained to me that the toughest part of the sale will be when you ask for the credit card information.
And I said to her, I said well, it’s during training, I said, Well, I’m just gonna tell you, I used to get data versus socials at the door. So these are people who more often than not bought tickets from this company previously, really up make sure that we had to process it with new credit card information. That’s easy. They already know that this is happening. I was going to strangers doors randomly, Saturday. And I know that today’s the day you’re going to give a stranger, your social security number.
Roy Barker 1:03:07
Oh my God, that’s crazy amazing sales lessons. So I was just gonna I know it’s a little different with the door to door and making cold calls. But what’s your opinion on selling b2c versus b2b? You know, there’s a lot, a lot of variables and I know, quote, the calling versus in person, you know, even makes it a little bit more different. But Which do you like to do better?
Wendell 1:03:31
I’m trying to think so let me just caveat this with I may have like I did, door to door for political company for for the working families party. I’m on their political group there. It’s a small independent group. And I don’t I didn’t have their beliefs, but they were paying. So at this time, I was like 1819 years old, maybe even 17 amazing sales lessons. And I did knock doors for them briefly. And that was before my my, my career started. So technically, that was the first and I didn’t look at it as sales because we just needed to get them to sign a petition.
Yeah. So I guess that may have been BTC ish, right. But to answer your question, my personal thought is I really enjoy b2b. And I am biased because it’s, you know, it’s my bread and butter now, but I include b2b only because I feel like and I’ve never sold anything that had a long term shelf life on the consumer side. But because of what I do now, I enjoy because of the report I built, right, like most of my clients I’ve had for years, like I was explaining to you before, the one young lady that I held her conference down and I worked for her at our conference down in Miami this past week.
I’ve known her for 10 years. I mean, that’s kind of like, you know, most of my clients, of course, I get new ones, but once they’re in I know them for years, right? Like I don’t, I can’t remember the last, like true client that I’ve had. And that wasn’t expected to be a one off job. I didn’t know for at least two or three years. So for me to be in works, I enjoy it more because I end up building long standing relationships, these people, a lot of good again, but I am skewed right, because that is where my bread and butter is now, but I’ve also never sold anything to consumers that had a long shelf life, right?
Like maybe if I was a sales, if I was a car salesman, I may have long standing relationships, you know, but again, like we talked about all sorts of long created equals when I say that, I think, you know, if I sold a convertible or coupe to someone, you know, especially in the younger years, and I’m staying in the industry. I’m always talking to you, because at some point, you may grow into a family, and I’m hoping if I sold you a coupe, I’m hoping to sell you the minivan at some point. Exactly. You know, but again, everybody doesn’t say anything like that. So that would be my only wish is that
Roy Barker 1:05:58
and it, you know, kind of on that line of thinking too, is that all all your friends usually drive cars, too. So it’s, it’s true. For a lot of things, a lot of reasons. Exactly. Well, Wendell, I appreciate I know we’ve gone way over but
Wendell 1:06:13
I didn’t know I don’t have any time in front of me. Again, we’re gonna talk about sales until I’m blue in the face on two things. And forgive me for cutting off your exit. But you don’t two things that I love. Talking about when it comes to just random things in the world is basketball and sales. Those are the two things I could talk until I’m blue in the face. I don’t even live in the town. I look up in the amazing sales lessons.
Roy Barker 1:06:36
Well, it’s been interesting. And that’s why I said that’s why I had to get amazing sales lessons you on because it’s it’s an It’s a unique experience that I think, you know, sometimes we think that when we walk into an employer, and they ask us to pick up the phone, we think, oh, how tough is that. And now that that’s nothing happened to, you know, be door to door in any environment, that door to door in New York City, adds just a little bit of flavor to that.
So I appreciate you coming back on and talking with us about that. And so yeah, and like I said, Be sure there’s another episode where we talk more about local SEO. Catch Wendell on that one, too. But tell everybody before we get out of here tell everybody of course, how can they reach? You know, who do you like to work with? What can you do for them? How can they reach out and get a hold of you?
Wrap Up
Wendell 1:07:22
Yes, sir. The best way to reach me is my email and you know, continue with my my silliness by email is too long, right. That’s why I tell people LinkedIn, because it’s my first name has 11 letters, and then Jordan Marketing Consultants is forever. So it’s wendell@JordanMarketingConsultants.com. But that’s a mouthful. So if you just find me on LinkedIn, there’s always that’s always a great way to reach me. As you mentioned in the beginning, my ideal client is a local was a local business, right?
Someone that has a local service area, who is looking to grow in a local or regional space, right, so someone that you know, understands what local is, or would like to understand better, but local SEO looks like and even what SEO looks like, but a lot of my favorites are those local businesses to go back to the other episodes, and people have to watch and listen to pizza shops. Right?
Roy Barker 1:08:13
Exactly, exactly. Yeah, I was hungry after we got through that episode using the pizza shops. It’s important, I think it’s important for you know, our bricks and mortars, we got to compete against you know, virtual in some instances, but we also need new and efficient ways. I mean, the days of the newspapers pretty much gone I don’t know many people that really take one we see some online but you know, the old traditional channels of marketing of brick and mortar have changed. So we got to learn to do to you put the local SEO to work for so.
Alright, well, thanks again. I certainly do appreciate it. Thank you. You bet. Of course. You can find us at thebusinessofbusinesspodcast.com we’re on all the major podcast platforms, iTunes, Stitcher, Google Spotify, if we’re not a one that you listen to please reach out. Be glad to get you get it added to make it easier for you to listen to us. Also on major social media, probably Instagram is the most used reach out there. We’d love to interact with you and a video of this will go up when the episode goes live. So until next time, take care of yourself and take care of your business.
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