Don
You need teachers, instructors, and mentors. But what you really need is fathers and mothers. It's almost like you're the grunt on the battlefield. You're the people they send out to the front line that are going to die first. You've got to learn to make friends with pain. It's not manipulating, and it's not taking advantage of people to communicate the way they want you to communicate. You know, and I'm sure he's sizing me up. I don't have a PowerPoint. I don't have nothing special. I got a t-shirt on and my flip flops. This president or VP, the top guy, called and basically cussed my salesperson out. Sales in a form of manipulation is going to always fail. But sales in the form of influence and influencing people because you actually have a product that you believe in and that you know rocks, it always works well, whether they buy or not.
Ashton
I'm Ashton Smith. And I'm Jordan Long. And we're coming in hot. We're seventh generation entrepreneurs with a passion for fusing creative expression and business fundamentals to help entrepreneurs powerfully expand their companies.
Jordan
Legacy Creator is a show for creatives, big thinkers, and visionaries who are doing business differently. Together, we unpack topics to help you embody your creative identity, develop as a leader, and powerfully grow your business.
Ashton
In a nutshell, we're calling you out and calling you higher. Welcome back to Legacy Creator. We are so excited for today's episode. We have our first in-person guest here with us today. And this is someone that we've actually had requests to have him on the podcast because we quote him in like every podcast. It's our dad, Don Long. We're so excited for you guys to meet him. And this is going to be the first I feel of many episodes that we do together, because I'm sure as you'll tell, we can unpack a lot. We have a lot to talk about. Um, we're going to try and keep it condensed and concise for you. We're going to be talking a little bit about sales and stamina and business today. It's going to be really good. So to kind of kick off, why don't you just take a moment to introduce yourself. Give us a little bit of insight into your background, your story. Um, when did you get started in entrepreneurship? Like let's just throw it back to like the beginning, the early days.
Don
That's a lot to unpack. 1982, I had just turned 20 years old in fall of 81, and I was freshly married in the October timeframe of 81 to their mother. And so we kind of started at a place where we were really below the poverty line, to say the least. But anyways, 82 is when I started my journey into the sales process and building businesses and really taking on the entrepreneurial mantle that's really in our family for several generations. And so for me, the journey started with simply reading some personal growth books that I had been introduced to by really close friends of ours. And then I was fortunate enough to have a couple guys that were really like sharp, that knew how to sell to introduce me to that part of the business. Because obviously in business, there's a lot of things you have to do, but sales is going to be the first one that you need to either master or hire somebody that has mastered one of the two. And so that's kind of where my journey began on a small family farm in close to Burlington, North Carolina. And Yeah, so I built a lot of businesses. either helped or co-founded six different businesses that were incorporated. I had a couple others that were not, but these were all incorporated businesses, and it was anything from selling donuts, which is how I began selling, which is kind of an interesting story, to drilling underground for things, fertilizer company, two landscape management businesses, and then there were a couple other things that we did. Probably about two of them became multi-million dollar companies. A couple of them did okay, but they didn't really succeed like I wanted to, so I shut them down. And a couple of them were just failures. So, you know, you kind of learn as you go. And then the foundation of the two that we had built, We ended up spinning one of them off, creating a whole other company. And that kind of was from the early 80s into the late 90s. And then from there, we ended up building one of them into the top 1% of companies that do what we did in the United States by the end of selling it in basically the end of 2018, beginning of 19. So that's kind of my journey.
Ashton
Yeah, that's like a very high level. Like we're just skimming over all the things. I love how, like anytime you hear stories of really successful entrepreneurs that have built anything big, they always have stories of like, I've built multiple companies or I've had multiple companies fail. And I feel like that's something a lot of people in our audience need to hear because like we're always talking about the concept of just developing like this thick skim in business. And sometimes things are going to massively succeed. Sometimes things are going to fail. But I feel like every failure sets you up for your next success. And it's just like you always talk about. It always redirects you on your path of where you're meant to be and what you're meant to be doing. And I'm sure when you look back at those failures, they were probably redirections towards the ultimate businesses that ended up working. Yeah.
Don
Yeah. Yeah. So one of the things that happened is When I was in school, I never really liked school, and I always liked being outside. Of course, what boy doesn't want to be outside playing, right? But I didn't realize that that was actually speaking to my DNA and the way I was created. And so what ended up happening is through that process, I started learning in 82. I really got a master's class and this is what I would recommend anyone listening to this if you have issues with sales or you you need to learn the master class in sales and what I like to call influence. It's more about influencing people than it is about selling someone something they don't want. That's not sales. Sales in a form of manipulation is going to always fail. But sales in the form of influence and influencing people because you actually have a product that you believe in and that you know rocks, it always works well whether they buy or not. Because at least you're doing a job that actually offers a service to someone that can help their life at a better place, whatever that might be. And so over those four years from 82 to 86, I really got like a master's degree in sales. And I read a lot of books, but the really lessons that I learned was being around people that were really more powerful than me. They were sharp. They knew how to sell. They knew how to influence. They knew how to speak to people. And so I learned a lot of skills in that period. Well, the beginning of 86 is actually when I helped co-found the first landscape and management company that we started with my dad. And that, I needed that four year span because in that four year span, I learned how to communicate to all levels of people, whether they were wealthy or poor, whether they were middle class, whatever type is, I learned how to communicate along a plethora of people. And so then that helped me in the business. So when I started the business, I knew we had a product that was wonderful because I believed in my dad's work ethic and what we were providing. And it was almost like family, you know, like generations of this work ethic that I knew we would rock whatever they hired us to do. So that gave me a high level of belief. And so therefore, when I talk to people, when you talk to people, whether you're doing online or whether you're doing face to face, it doesn't really matter. If you don't believe in what you're doing and have a high level of belief, it's going to be hard to sell. Now, in the beginning, you might have to believe by faith. You might not have any substance to lean on. And so that's fine. Find a way to lean into something that you do believe in about what you're doing and sell from that or influence from that point. And that's kind of how my journey got. So 86, really spun off something for me and our family has been blessed by since the year since, but it really spun off something so that that four years. So one thing I want you to get, cause I hear Ashton and Jordan talking about all the time in the podcast about how online space is like, everybody wants everything yesterday. Well, trust me, everybody wants everything yesterday in a traditional business as well. It's the same, it's the same thing. But the problem is, is that it took four years. I want you to think about this. four years for me to become qualified to actually start building a business. Four. And it was small when we started. It was just me, my dad, two other people. That's it. When I sold the business, it was almost 100 people with almost $10 million in revenue. And we were in the top 1%. Now that's a 35-year journey. But at the end of the day, if you're not faithful in the little things, when your business is small, you're not going to be able to handle the big things if they ever come.
Ashton
That's so good. We always talk about like, who would be willing, like that we know, like in our space, in our community, even like we're including ourselves in this too. Like we're not coming at you. We're just saying like, who would be willing if you knew that you had to take like four years to develop a skillset, but like 30 years to reach maybe like the pinnacle that you're going for. Like who would be willing? to do that? Like ask yourself that, like, are you that bought into the vision to what you're building to the freedom? It gives you whatever it is for you. Are you that bought into it to where like you could be committed for that long? And I feel like so many people in our space, I don't know that I could say yes to that.
Jordon
Yeah, because I don't think a lot of people think that long term, no, or a bigger picture. So it's like you have to expand your scope.
Ashton
Yes. And that's definitely something like we love to bring to the podcast space, but we get that a lot from our dad too. It's just like thinking bigger about what you're building and where you're going and not just getting so fixated on the day-over-day and the quarter-over-quarter, that's something we see a lot too with our clients. It's like, oh, this month, we had this little dip. And I'm like, OK, but last quarter, you had this much year-over-year growth. So we've got to have perspective. And we also have to think bigger about where are we going? What is all of this for? And you have to have both, because you do have to monitor your financials. And you have to monitor your sales. And you do have to be ambitious and put yourself out there in the short term. But you can't just live there. Because if you live there, when things ebb and flow, you're going to be in a world of hurt.
Don
That's exactly right.
Ashton
So something we would love for you to highlight is your experience in selling different things. Like let's go back to the beginning. I know that you said you've, you've sold donuts, but what are like all the things that you sold in the early days? And I would even be curious to know, like, what was it like selling door to door?
Don
Yeah, you guys, nobody does door-to-door sales anymore. I'm still a sucker for it. If somebody comes to my house selling something, I always listen to their spiel because I did door-to-door sales. And I feel sorry for them because in the culture today, it's just not done. It's almost like you're the grunt on the battlefield. You're the people they sent out to the front line that are going to die first. And so this is how you learn hand-to-hand combat. This is how you learn in 30 seconds how to build rapport. And so I've sold donuts, door-to-door vacuum cleaners, door-to-door vacuum cleaner services, door-to-door truck driving services where we sold a truck driving school. And I think those are the ones that were more door-to-door. I've sold several other things that are along the same lines in a multi-level marketing business that we did. And the way my life journey ended up starting was we sold donuts in the morning from like 7 a.m. till 12. In the afternoon, we would study, read, become. And then at night, we would show our multi-level marketing plan. And that was my schedule every day. And we weren't making a lot of money. So one of the things that I want to highlight is that I have this quote that I live by, and it's let learning and breathing end simultaneously. And what that means to me is that the art of becoming is the most important thing that you can work on. Because when you become, what ends up happening, you don't realize it's happening. It's almost like unconscious in many ways, that suddenly your sphere of influence grows because your belief has grown. you become and so therefore you actually attract gain. So when I started the first business that was incorporated, which was in 1986, our sales was about a quarter of a million dollars per year, which I thought was rocking because the $5,000 a week in the landscape management business, I thought I had arrived. Now we weren't really paying ourselves a lot of money, but I was growing and becoming. Well, The process of that causes new doors to open. So if you don't learn and grow and become, you're actually not going to expand your individual identity and your culture of who your company and who you are. Because see, in the beginning, you are your company. You are the culture. You are the person that started. When Steve Jobs started in his garage, he was Apple. Him and Steve Wozniak, they were Apple. And so they were just kids playing and having a good time. And they became. And then suddenly they had a product that was awesome and rocked. And then they built on that. And that's the way you have to do it. And you have to start in your garage, so to speak. And you have to work on the little things of the business, which in the beginning is all about you. That's why you've got to let learning and breathing in simultaneously, because if you don't, what's going to happen is you're not going to become. So your metron of influence will not grow. And as you become, you'll be surprised at certain contracts that will manifest. You'll be surprised at certain doors that will be open. You'll be surprised at the way business starts coming to you that you're really looking for. And you'll start attracting your ideal clients and tribe that need to be part of your services, product, or business that you are doing in your area. And it'll expand almost magical as you become. It's still work. It's still a lot of effort that goes in. Trust me, I've read over a thousand self-help books of anything you can think of, esoteric, prophetic, self-help, wealth, all these things. And so I've gotten a little bit from all of it, but it's like you keep learning and growing so that you become, and then as you become, your universe that you live in gets bigger.
Ashton
And where do we become the most? We become the most like in the thick of like the trials and the tribulations and being thrown in the fire. And it's like, we talk about this all the time. Like, you know, it's so easy to want, like, this is my five step plan and I know it's going to create this outcome or like, I need to like master this strategy and use this tactic, whether that's for marketing or that's for, you know, just business growth in general. And yes, like pursue those things. Absolutely. Like we leverage those things, but it's more about like you truly becoming in the process. Like we think back to like when you started working with me and just like your skillset level and how much you have become and like grown into your role, even like myself starting this business. Like that's what I wanted. I wanted someone to like help me like kind of like get a leg up, you know, and like, figure out the hard part of like the selling. And I didn't really want to have to put myself out there. And so I had to go through some pain to like get to the other side and be like, okay, I have to take this responsibility. I have to put myself in the fire. And that's where you like build that stamina and you grow and you do develop that thick skin, which I do think is important in sales. You always say, what's the quote? It's like,
Jordan
You have tough skin, but a soft heart. Yeah.
Don
Yeah. It's hard to do it. And she's talking about pain. So let me insert this. You got to learn to make friends with pain. You have to learn to make friends with pain. And this is why. Everyone comes to me, and look, I have a plethora of tools. These two girls have heard pretty much all of them. I have a whole book on tools. I wrote a book on world-class business systems, which gives you 12 steps of systems to build a multi-million to hundreds of millions of dollars company. But they are a minor part in the beginning. You see, one of my early mentors, which I heard my girls talk about him the other day, Tony Robbins, he said this. He said, 80% of your success is always built around your psychology and your mindset. And only 20 is the tools. Everyone that comes to me, the first thing they ask, if they want me to consult, coach, give them advice on business, they want tools. And I stop them right there. Because see, all of your growth is in the valley floor, not the mouth and top experiences. Your growth is in the grind. It's in the mundane Mondays. It's in those places where you have to dig down so you can become. Remember, it's about becoming because see, when you become, you attract gain. Everyone talks about the law of manifestation. Let me tell you, it's pretty simple. You become, it'll hunt you down. You won't have to hunt it down.
Ashton
that's where we get our mic drop moments from okay so talk to us a little bit about like some practical and since we just talked about how practical doesn't always matter the most but it is a part of it i kind of want to pick your brain on what are some of the practical things that you've learned along the way, because you went from selling donuts to selling multimillion dollar contracts. So then like growing a sales team, which I think is a whole other conversation we could get to maybe next, but like, what are some practical tips for people listening that are like really wanting to grow in their skillset as a salesperson?
Don
Okay. Well, I wrote a few notes down because I like to do that because if I don't, I'll just be talking forever. I want to try to corral myself here. Here's some things to consider if you're looking. Some people are not cut out for sales. So if you find that out about yourself, find somebody that's really good at it and hire them. That's the way you bridge the gap. One of the things that we use in our business, and I would suggest it, this is a great tool. It's called the DISC. I know all the other assessments and they're all multi-layered. They're almost so multi-layered, they're confusing. Disk is simple. It breaks it down in four pieces. There are four primary personality types, and you fall in the majority of one. Just go take a simple online disk test, and it'll tell you. It gives you your strengths. It gives you your weaknesses. So in running the company that I ran at the end, we wouldn't hire anyone for a mid-level job and above unless they took the disk test, because we wanted to see if they fit the role we were trying to put them in. So here's the thing. Here's a great tool for you as you start branching out. Number one, You understand the disc so that you know how to relate to the other parts of it. That's number one. Number two, you take that test so that you can use it as a litmus test to hire individual people because it tells you their strengths and weaknesses immediately when you get the test. So you'll know, hey, are they a good creative director, so to speak? Are they a good VP, so to speak? Are they a good top project manager? Whatever it is that you might need. And so each one of them kind of gives you an overview of that. And so I use that exclusively in our company. We actually did a company, if you have more than, say, eight or 10 people in your team, we did a company test where it showed all of the discs, how our company looked to everyone. it gave an overall picture of our business. So I'm a big believer in the disc. If you find something that works for you that's different, fine, use that. It's being able to understand. The second thing that I would give you as a tool is that really all people prefer others reflecting themselves. It's rapport. You have to learn how to build rapport with every person you're talking to, whether it's a client, whether it's a sub, whether it's someone creating something for you, you're paying money to, whether it's an employee, whatever it might be, you need to understand how to understand them. See, the top part of communication, the most important part of communication is not to communicate the way that I want to communicate. I learned this as a leader. The most important part of communication is to communicate the way they need to receive it. whoever they are. And so the way you figure that out is if you take the disc and you start understanding the four types, then you'll be able to recognize in just a few seconds. I can do it now, just literally within a few seconds. I can put them in one quadrant or the other. I might not be able to get the exact one, because there's quarters on, there's two on one side and two on the other side. But I can figure out which side they're on of that cross, so to speak. They're either on the right side or the left. Pretty quick, I can figure that out. then I kind of drilled down. And here's the thing, one of my mentors said that if you're going to relate to someone in the beginning, like if you're going to sell, for instance, or you're trying to hire somebody, anytime you're going to relate to somebody that you don't know where they fit in that model, always act like an S because everyone loves the S's. Everyone loves that S. My wife's a high S, and everyone loves her. I mean, she attracts people. Anywhere we go, people just start, because she's like, dear Abby, they all come to her. And it's like, she's really introverted as a person, but she can talk as much as anybody once she finds some common ground with people. But it's amazing.
Jordan
I see this all the time.
Don
It's like, we go to places, and she always ends up with these people. And I'm like, what is going on here? She's an S. High empathy. High level of love and caring and service. Loyalty. Those are just a few of the strengths of the S. So when you meet someone new, I always tried to tone mine down, basically depending on who I was talking to. Now if I ran into someone and they were fast and loud, then I knew they weren't an S. They're on the left side over here or they're in the top quadrant of the DNI for sure. And so then I figure, okay, if they're up there, then I just talk fast and loud with them. I pace them and I actually interact with them based on the way not to lead them somewhere they don't want to go, but to actually show them that I'm willing to communicate the way they need to hear. This is so important. Communication is the number one step that I teach people in the system, the world-class business system. It's the number one chapter. It's on communication. It doesn't matter whether you're communicating to your team, to your clients, or to the people that work for you that are subs, that are contractors. Whoever you're communicating to, you want them to kind of like you because people do business with people they like. If they don't like you, it doesn't matter how much you pay them, they're not going to do a good job.
Ashton
Yeah. I do feel like a lot of people think that like effectively selling something requires that, like you go through the list of all the deliverables and how much it costs and you have to kind of fight to prove the value of what you're selling, which sometimes, yeah, like you want to show your value proposition for sure. But I think a lot of times it's more about how you communicate and how you relate to that person and how you build that rapport. And I think some people listening may be like, okay, this is intriguing, but like they might be thinking, Oh, that feels weird. Like I'm kind of like making myself something that I'm not, but actually that's not really the point here. Like I think this is an act of service. When you figure out how to effectively communicate the way someone's going to best receive that, not to manipulate them, but to help them and empower them to make the best decision, whether that's a yes or a no, it's not for manipulation. It's to like build the depth of connection. You can do that a lot more when you feel like you're being met with the type of communication that you can receive versus like feeling like you've been run over. Like we've all experienced that in a sales conversation before. I remember somebody got Josh on a sales call years ago and like would not let him get off the phone was like, let's take your credit card information right now. It was a literally like a horror story. And I was just like listening from the sidelines. Like this is like, horrible. Um, so obviously, you know, you don't want to feel like you're being run over. You don't want to feel like, um, maybe someone's not bringing enough excitement or energy. If like, you're someone that's like bubbly and like, you're ready to go, but you're being met with someone that maybe is like, a little bit more even tone, like that might not be received well. So it's all about adapting to the person you're communicating to. And I think that's an act of service, not necessarily manipulation. Yeah.
Don
So, so when I said act like an S when you don't know, I'm only using that in the beginning of your interaction. So therefore, if I come to meet you and I figure out that you are like a friend of mine, Steven Quinn, he is a C in the disc. He's very analytical, very methodical. He's going to make sure whatever he does is correct. And so he's like more like that. So in a matter of seconds, as I'm communicating to him, if I come to visit him for a sales or I'm talking to him online, it's the same thing. I'm using S to try to in the first 90 to 120, maybe two minutes to try to figure out who this person is. As soon as I find out who they are, then I start trying to communicate the way they want to receive communication. See, here's the thing. It's not manipulating and it's not taking advantage of people to communicate the way they want you to communicate. Think about it. If you have children, you better learn this. Because if you think that you can just communicate to them the way you want to communicate to them, that works when they're 2. It don't work when they're 12. Trust me on this one. And so, I can save you a lot of pain if you've got little kids. And it's like, because it takes, you have to be able to, in other words, give them information so that they get to make the individual choice that's about freedom for their little being instead of you manipulating because you need to do it because I said so. That never works, actually. And, you know, so here's the thing. With a client, it doesn't work either. It's like, so you're not trying to be disingenuous. You're just trying to find common ground in the conversation. So therefore, once you figure out that, like for instance, Steven, if I go in and talk to Steven, he's a C. And I act like an I the whole time. An I is the life of a party. They're fast. They're loud. They're talking quick. They're just so excited. They're like a new puppy. They'll just be all over themselves. Right? That's an I. Well, if I go in there and try to communicate to him, I'm going to blow him out of the water. If I'm an I, I need to learn some restraint because restraint speaks respect for him. So look at it like that when the next time you have a conversation with someone that's opposite of you.
Ashton
Restraint speaks of respect. That was good. That was fire. our clients are hitting big milestones in their businesses. Milestones like hitting their first $400,000 a year, landing six-figure contracts, going from $700 per month clients to $3,000 per month clients, paid for three-month maternity leave, more vacations and time off booked than ever, partners retired from their full-time jobs, becoming debt-free, and establishing savings for the first time. And now we're diving deep into these results and sharing real stories from real people so you can get a glimpse into how the heck we made it happen. This is The Archives, a backstage pass to see our clients' stories, experiences, and transformations up close and personal. Simply visit myawakening.co slash archives to download your copy today. That's myawakening.co slash archives to get your copy today. Now back to the episode.
Jordan
Well, the whole conversation around like learning to speak people's languages, it just made me think of like the love language test kind of thing. And how like when I was younger, when I discovered that my love language is physical touch, I was like, Oh, that makes sense. Cause like, I always like to give hugs to people, but like, love languages is more so like how someone receives love and with you for instance yours is like words of affirmation i think so like there were times where like we would like i could just tell maybe you needed some extra like love or care but i just wanted to hug you but like that's not what you needed you needed like reassurance and there was one time where i actually tested it out on you and i was like Okay, I'm not gonna hug her. I'm going to like try to speak her language and like give her reassurance and I felt like it actually like was what you needed and like it resonated with you and I like that that just made me think of the love language test or whatever. It's like you're just learning how to speak someone's language so that you can like have proper relationship with them, you know, totally strategic Jordan over here is like testing this theory out like as a child. No, no, this was like, this was, I don't know, maybe like a few years ago. Okay. Yeah.
Ashton
Oh, that's so funny. Yeah. In our, um, like onboarding forms for our group program. And I think for our private coaching, I do ask people what their love language is. Cause I think that's really helpful when you're entering into like a long-term relationship and partnership, even in like a client setting, Um, so yeah, it is about understanding people and like meeting them where they're at. That's an act of service. It's not manipulation and it's being willing to like learn that skillset and go there. I feel like that's a big portion of sales that just isn't talked about enough. Um, in our space, like I do not see that, that portion of communication and like specifically the disc test, a lot of people like the Enneagram and whatever. Um, but it's all about understanding people so that you can build rapport with them and like create that connection and depth of connection with them. So all of that is so incredible. One thing I would love for you to share is if you have any sort of stories, I'm sure you have a lot that you could choose from, um, in your journey where maybe you were going up against quite a few competitors when you were going into a potential sale, what did you find that like led to maybe the success of that? What made like your sales process effective? Just kind of paint that picture for us.
Don
You know, I had this, this is kind of interesting, I had this, I have a couple of stories. One of them really relates to the question that you asked, so I'll just do that one. It was 2003, I believe, somewhere around that. And you have to realize that I was running a landscape management company, and it was summertime. So typically, even though I had a nice shirt on, maybe like a golf shirt, I'd just have shorts. And at that time, I wore Birkenstocks when I was chilling, like selling and talking to people. So I was just kind of laid back. And so I remember that I had this contract that I wanted. It wasn't that big of a contract for us at the time. It was about $300,000 or $400,000. And I wanted this contract and I wanted it with these people because I seen what they were building and all the stuff that they had built, it's just like excellent. And so we wanted our product to be on their product, so to speak, right? And the real estate development people is who they were. And so I remember, so I'm just being me, you know, I take my quote, I'd already sent my quote over to these people. So there was somebody in front of us doing a presentation, and they did a PowerPoint presentation with their quote, like in landscaping, okay. So I'm like, okay, that's cool. So I'm thinking, and I knew they were doing it, because I'm sitting there waiting to talk to the two people who were in charge. So I go up to this office building, it's in Raleigh, downtown Raleigh, and kind of outside of Raleigh. And, you know, it's nice, but I'm not thinking anything about it. Well, then I want to walk back to the offices when it's my turn. I go back there and they had this, like, bar, pool table. I mean, it's like, just like, you know, like something you'd see in New York City. It's not like something you see in Raleigh. And so I'm like, oh, and I got my shorts on. They're kind of dressed up. I have my shorts on and my Birkenstocks. And they have all this fancy, fancy stuff going on. And I'm like, oh no, I didn't dress for this event right here. So I was like, you know what? It's like, hey, they're either going to like me or they're not. And so at that point in time, I had lots of skill set and had built a business for a long time. So it's like, you know, the other people were walking out with their nice computer and PowerPoint. And I just had my quote in my hands, all I had. So we had this conversation, and so I did what I'm telling you to do, report. This lady is a VP who I actually had met. I knew her. I didn't know her boss, who's the president, and he's like a little uptight and doesn't talk much. So I could tell when I went in there, you know, he doesn't really want to talk to me, and she's happy to see me. So I got that going on when I sat down, you know, and I'm sure he's sizing me up. I don't have a PowerPoint. I don't have nothing special. I got a T-shirt on and my flip flops. So I wouldn't really suggest this, but I can tell you this.
Jordan
I learned this from Tony.
Don
Tony can get rapport with anybody quickly. And so I was like, okay, no problem. You know, I know the rapport thing. And so I started talking to the lady because she made eye contact with me and started conversing. So I'm like, okay, I'm just not, not acting like her partner's not here, but we have something going on. So tell her a little bit about the quote, talking to her about it, you know, and, and that sort of thing. And then he interchanges some stuff and says, and then I start being able to get a little bit of conversation with him, not a lot, he's still kind of stonewalling me, he doesn't want to be friends. And this lady comes from sales, so we were relating to each other because we had similar personalities, I could tell. And she liked me, and so I just kept going through and answering the questions. So they get to the end of the quote, and this is a lesson that I learned. that day and I taught my sales team this from this day on this is how we did it and I didn't care how much people squirmed I said you always ask for the business when you go in there. Always. They've taken your time up to get a quote. They've taken our company's time up to get you to come and see them and have a conversation with them about their contract. You should at least ask for the business. And I didn't realize how novel at the time this concept was. So as we're going through this process, I tell her, I said, well, you know, we get to the end, I'm like, okay, can we, can we sign a contract? They both just froze. And I'm like, you know, let's just go ahead. Y'all, y'all like me and we like you, you know, it's like, it seems like a good deal. I think the pricing is good, right? And I kept the conversation going and they were like, yeah, the price is good. I said, well, why can't we go and sign a contract today? And they were just taken aback that I had asked twice. Now I asked twice. And then I said, well, I don't understand. I'm like, you know, y'all, the work's coming up in a couple of months and I want to get everything kind of lined up. I just kind of changed the conversation a little bit. And then I did it a third time. And I said, let's just go and sign the contract today. You don't need, I'm the person you need for this job. And I did it in a laid back way. I didn't do it like pushy. I just did it like my normal personality. And they looked at me like they had never had anyone do that to them. Not once. And I'd like to tell you that I signed the contract. I didn't. I said, OK, well, we need to think about it. This is the guy over here, Stonewall. I mean, we need to think about it. I'm like, it's fine. So I go and leave. And I don't know, three or four days later, I always follow up within 24 hours with a nice email or some type of communication. And I did that. And then a couple of days after that, I get a call from the lady. And she said, we're going to give you the job. And I'm like, oh, that's cool. And she said, do you want to know why? And I said, absolutely, I want to know why. And she said, because of all the three people who came in and did all their presentations, nobody but you asked for the business.
Jordan
Dang.
Don
Hello? You don't ask for it, you don't get it. And let me tell you something. The company that did their PowerPoint is one of the most respected companies in our area and one of the biggest, baddest, most name prolific people. And their salespeople didn't ask for the job. Dang. Look, I'll give you just a little add-on to that story. I had a guy work for me who was a sales guy. He was my top sales guy. He would sell, he sold like one contract for $1.7 million. That's how good he was. And so he knew how to sell. And so we had this thing in our company where we followed up until people said yes or no. Because sometimes in these large jobs, it's six, nine, 12 months down the road before they do it. So they're not like happening right away. So you kind of like, it's not like selling a one product service type thing. It's something that's a little bit longer term. So our theology, so to speak, is you always ask for the business and you stay and you follow up until you get a yes or no, or maybe. Then if you get a maybe, you can at least put a timeline in your spreadsheet of when to follow up, right? So I told him, I said, you just keep following up. He said, they won't give me an answer. I said, call them. They won't give me an answer. Email them. And so, you know, this would be like once a week, he'd reach out with a soft touch. Email, phone call, something. These people wouldn't respond to him. And this went on for months. And he said, what do you want me to do? I said, you keep following up. They haven't given you a yes or a no. That's our company policy. Hello. And so about six months into the thing, might've been nine, this president or VP, the top guy called and basically cussed my salesperson out. And so here comes my salesperson who's like the best salesperson I have. I trained him personally. And he comes in and he's like all tore up, you know, and he tells me, you know, well, they just went off on me because I'm like, what'd you do? He said, well, I just followed up.
Jordan
I said, you did your job, right?
Don
He said, yeah. I said, some will, some won't, so what next? You cannot, these people ask for a quote. We deserve an answer. And so therefore, do not never follow up until you get yes, no, or maybe, and then you figure out how to put it in your cycle. Because then that way you have a way to follow, you have a way to track these potential clients down the road. I'd love to tell you all the stories of losing contracts. And I'm talking dozens of losing contracts when we were the best qualified and the people went with someone else for a little cheaper price. But then about a year later, they were sad. I'm talking dozens of times over 35 years and they would call us to come and fix it. Well, guess what? When we get to fix it, we get to charge you to fix it. And so you either pay me now or you're going to pay me later. And so this is kind of our concept of how we did the sales. And it's like, you know, you're putting your life on the line as an entrepreneur. Your whole life is revolving around this business. Most people start with one, two, or three people, one person usually. And so everything, your life lives and dies with whether you sell or do your thing, right? Your product and service. And so therefore, when you have people, you deserve an answer. You deserve a yes or no or a maybe. And if people don't want to do that, just move on. Some will, some won't, so what? Next. My girls know that statement. They use it all the time.
Ashton
Man, this is so good. You have not because you ask not. We talk about that all the time. And I always tell my clients, I'm like, I am just simply not afraid to keep following up with people. Like, I'm just like, I do not take it personally. I do not care. I feel like so many people in our space are like, Oh, well, like, I just don't want to bother them. Like when I was kind of given their space and like, I don't know, I feel like maybe there's a time if like, they need to sync up with their team. And like, you kind of are looped in on that communication, but for the most part, like you need to have a followup process in place. You know, many people don't even have a followup process in place for their sales. so many people and they lose out on business. Like you're going to lose out on business because if you show that initiative and you show like, Hey, I'm still thinking of you, like still would love to have the opportunity to support you checking in. Do you have any questions? Where are things at? I'll just keep going. Like I will honestly keep going. And sometimes, I have seen with some of our private clients that sign on, we'll continue to foster a relationship and go back and forth for six months, even sometimes up to a year. And most people would give up on that. Most people would just be like, oh, that's just not worth my time. But that's a potential sale still. And also, that's someone that you're fostering that relationship with. And I think that when they feel that, they feel that connection, they feel that you're actually interested in them and what they need. what they're seeking, that leaves an impression. And then they start to talk about you and they share about that with other people in their network. And so it all creates a ripple effect. So you got to ask for the sale. You got to follow up. Like it's often like the simple little things that make the biggest difference. And that's what I love about that story.
Don
It's really, you don't need a complicated process. When I started the business, there was some internet. So I want you to think about that concept. There was no internet in 1986. It was actually a couple of years later when it actually came out and nobody used it in our business. We didn't even, people didn't really even use computers till early two thousands in our type of business in the contracting space. And so, There was a lot of ways to develop, but here's the thing. It's not hard. It's a hot, warm, cold. That's all you want. You want three headers. Your hot list is the people that said yes, they're your clients. They're doing business with you right now. It's easy to figure out who they are. The warm list is where you're going to get most of your ongoing business. They're the people who said it's not time for them right now or there's something going on that they can't really take the step but they liked what you had to say, you made some sort of connection, that's your warm list. And then the cold list, believe it or not, the cold list are the people who said no, but a lot of times people say no just then. What about six-month follow-up with this cold list? What about a year follow-up? Just soft email, soft touch, hey just wanted to check, I know it was no at the time, you know, we're still doing our thing and didn't know if we might be a good fit for you. Some simple email like that, short. Write your email short, by the way. But anyways, you could do this on a piece of, you could do this on a pad, or you could just have a simple spreadsheet where, and this is what my guys did, and then we drilled down deeper. We ended up, once we got clients, we would get their names, their wives' names if we could, what they like to play in sports or the things that they like, interests. We would try to learn as much as we can because these were ongoing relationships we wanted to foster. So the more you can learn and grow and know about your client, the better rapport you build, obviously. But starting in the beginning, it's just hot, warm, and cold. You don't need any complicated, multifaceted system. This way, it makes it easier on your brain to keep up with these people.
Ashton
Oh my gosh. And in today's day and age, there's so many ways you can overcomplicate and I'm like, I'm all for like making things easier and automated and all the things once you're to that point. But it's like you don't need all of that before you get going, before you put yourself out there. Like I've sold things that I don't have like a sales page or a landing page for, which is kind of like a big deal in today's day and age. Like you want to have your landing pages and everything so people can scope it out, but you should always be putting yourself out there and don't wait for things to be like perfect and all put together. Like when the awakening started taking off, like that's what I did. I had a notebook. Cause that's what dad told me to do. He's like, you gotta go like go sell, do your hot, warm, cold. And I like had it in a notebook at first. And then that quickly was like not working. So I put it in a spreadsheet and that's how we built the foundation that like allowed me to kind of sustain myself and then bring you on. So it doesn't have to be complicated. It doesn't have to be complicated. So I want to wrap up because we've talked a lot about selling, building that skillset, and then you've touched on like your team that you built. And so for people that are listening and like really inspired and really love the idea of potentially having people like on a sales team to be able to grow their company with them, what would you say, what would you recommend that they have in place or that they work towards in order to like make that transition as seamless as possible? What helped you build a solid team of salespeople and go beyond you selling? Because you're obviously good at selling. How did you build a successful team of salespeople?
Don
So it's really the same concept in building rapport. So number one, before I hired someone, I didn't start this in the beginning when I hired people. I just tried to hire people and I tried to make them good salespeople. That's the wrong way to do it. Just take it from my failure because I failed several years when I first started trying to hire salespeople was in 2001 and then 2002 and then 2003. And the two people I hired in that time frame, they failed. they weren't right fit. But then I learned, I started learning this DISC stuff more so, and I started saying, okay, there are certain types of people who are better in communicating to others themselves. And I used the DISC format to kind of fill that out a little bit. So when I hired someone or when I interviewed someone, I would interview them and I would see how they reacted based on my understanding of the disc. Then I could understand if they kind of fit in one of those two quadrants. And I really didn't want to hire anybody unless they fit in those two quadrants. And so the D and the I, they're your best salespeople. I is the best salesperson. Unless you're selling pharmaceuticals, like my friend Stephen O'Quinn, he's a C, but he deals with doctors. So if you're in that world, then you're going to need to sell differently. And he does. So it depends on your product and service. But for the most part, when you look at a salesperson building rapport, wanting to talk to people, wanting to engage with people, they're going to fit in the top of that quadrant. And when you find that out, then it's easier to make sure you're hiring the right person. If you don't hire them, if you don't test them in the beginning to hire the right person, you're going to fail a lot in the beginning, because that's what I did, because I just, you know, try to throw the mud on the wall and hope some of it would stick. And I've always been a person that believed in people, so I'd try to make something out of them if they didn't have the makings of what that needed to be. And so then I learned that about myself, and of course this is a whole other story, but then I had a senior team around me that I never did major interviews without them being in the room, because I needed their feedback, because I would hire somebody thinking I could make them something they were not. And so that's a good lesson for you founders and entrepreneurs, because a lot of times that's the way you're gonna be built, that's the way your drive's gonna be there toward that. So in building the sales team, when I sold the business, I had. probably 10 to 12 different people who sold in different departments. And all of those people fit in one of those type of quadrants. And what we would do, as you get people, that's when you start the training part, the mentoring part. And this is probably where I want to end, because I wrote this down, because I think this is kind of like the last two things in here that really are important, is you need teachers, instructors, and mentors. But what you really need is fathers and mothers. You have to become a father or a mother. And I know I'm talking to women to become a mother because that is the person that people relate to the most. You actually care about them and the business, not just the business. And so there's many instructors, many teachers, many mentors. I've had lots of them, but I've only had a few fathers and mothers who really cared about me. That's what you need to become as a leader. And the second thing, when you're building salespeople, when you're trying to develop these salespeople, the second thing is make sure you have your mission critical, the critical processes of your mission in place. And mine was transformation. I wanted transformation. We wanted to build optimal products for living things. That was kind of our slogan. And then purpose, identity. When you do purpose, identity, and transformation together, what you'll have is what drives your culture. And if you can instill that into the culture of your company, then what ends up happening, it's easy to bring on different positions, whether they be sales, HR, it doesn't really matter. But the sales process itself You have to learn the DISC model. That is the foundation of all of it. Because if you know that, then you know how to hire the right people, because that's kind of the first step. You kind of will learn as you go once you start hiring people, and you'll see what works and what doesn't work. And you might hire someone just perfect prototype for sales and they don't work out. I have hired some of those people. Because just because they fit the prototype don't necessarily mean they can fit your product, service, or your company structure. So you'll figure that part of it out, but you've got to have the foundation of that working in your life and that knowledge so that when you go to hiring, you're able to bring the right people in. And then you start with one, train, two, train. And you just keep training on down the process.
Ashton
That's so good. I love the point of becoming and embodying that mother figure. And I feel like that's something that we try to do with our clients is like truly just show them like we care about you. Like we're in this with you and we get comments all the time. Like I've never really connected with someone that like seems to care like that much about what I'm doing even before they buy from us. And it's like, it's kind of rare in our space. Every communication just feels really surface level. Um, but especially when people like sign to work with you, like those are your people. You need to be pouring into them. Like you need to give, pretty much you're all to them. And that's something we try to embody. And that does make you stand out so, so much, um, love all of the conversation around the disc. And we're going to have a resource for you guys, a link in the notes, um, to download a resource, from our dad, unleash your power, double your sales. And that has a section in it about the disc. So if this is like foreign to you and you're like, okay, wait, what are these things mean? That's going to be a good like starter guide to get you going. Um, so we'll have that link for you. And then is there any other place that people should connect with you? or reach out to you?
Don
No, not really. Um, yeah, I have a website, donwlong.com that has some other resources on it. And I have four, I think four books now that I've published. So if you'd like any of those, they're all on Amazon as well. You can just punch my name in donwlong on Amazon and it pulls up all my books. But, uh, I have one on sale, so that was actually the first book that I wrote. It became an international bestselling book, and it's got basically about 11 different steps that I used to train my team, because that's kind of how I came up in sales. So it might be a good resource for you if you're really interested in growing you as a salesperson and your sales.
Ashton
Yeah, amazing. We'll have that linked as well. Thank you guys for your time. Thank you, Dad, for your time. We hope you enjoyed, and this will not be the last time we see Don Long. He will be back. All right, we'll catch you guys later.
