
Inside The Playbook Of Top 1% Earners: Overcoming The Top 10 Challenges They Face Today With Sam Palazzolo [Episode 128]
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Being an elite 1% earner can be a lot to handle. How do you navigate the challenges that come your way?
In this episode, Doug C. Brown speaks with returning guest Sam Palazzolo, Founder and Managing Director of Tip of the Spear Ventures, about what Top 1% Earners are doing today to stay at the top. They also discuss timeless challenges such as standing out amongst competition and handling rejection, modern considerations such as technology and AI’s emerging role in selling, and much more.
In this episode you will learn:
- How relevant follow up keeps you in high rapport with your clients.
- Secrets to elite cold calling.
- What makes an objection versus a rejection, and how to handle both.
Episode’s guest – Sam Palazzolo

Sam Palazzolo is the Founder/Managing Director at Tip of the Spear Ventures, a Private Equity firm that provides early-stage Entrepreneurs with venture capital, has a holding portfolio from Mergers & Acquisitions, and conducts Business Funding services. During Sam’s time at Tip, he and his team have built the organization into one of Venture Capital’s favorite firms, a sustainable leader, and an innovation early-adopter, dramatically increasing customer satisfaction and growing financial results for the companies they help grow.
Visit his website: www.tipofthespearventures.com
transcript
Inside The Playbook Of Top 1% Earners: Overcoming The Top 10 Challenges They Face Today With Sam Palazzolo
I’m going to be speaking with Mr. Sam Palazzolo from Tip Of The Spear Ventures. He’s been on the show before. I asked him to come back because he’s a brilliant guy with a brilliant mind. He’s focused on 1% earners like we are, employing them in his companies, and working with them in the companies that he’s working with. We’re going to talk about the ten top things that he found by doing deep research and an article with over 300 top 1% earners. We’re going to talk about the ten things that they’re running up against, the blockades and things that are maybe still affecting the 1% which is certainly affecting you if you’re not in the 1%, and how they handle those. We’re going to talk about a few of those. Without further ado, let’s go speak with Mr. Sam Palazzolo.
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Sam, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being here.
Thanks for having me.
Why don’t you tell people what you do so we can set the frame for this 1% type of interview we are going to do?
Short summary. I lead a tech startup from 2011 through 2013. We implemented sales and marketing. I came from that consulting space where we’ve helped leaders both domestically and internationally, architect their strategy, and implement and execute against. I brought to a tech startup that type of model or methodology. We grew one of those hockey stick revenue graphs of myth. We achieved a private equity exit, then I started a firm called Tip Of The Spear Ventures. To this day ten years later, half a venture firm and half consultancy. The consulting work that we love to do is still working with sales and marketing initiatives to help architect the strategy to implement and execute against, and help organizations scale. That’s me.
Sam and I go back a couple of years anyways. I put out an eBook. It was called The Nonstop 1% Earner about the psychology and philosophy behind thinking and acting like a 1% earner. You got a copy of this book. You did something interesting, which I found flattering. Why don’t you tell everybody how it came about, and then we’ll get into the conversation.
I consider you to be a thought leader within the space. When I received your eBook, I thought to myself, “How can we take what Doug has put together here? Let’s tap our network.” Within our network, we have who I would consider to be some of the best chief revenue officers and salespeople in the business. We are cross-industry. We’re also North, South, East, and West. We have no geographic circle tied around us. We’re not only domestic in the US, North America, and Canada but also internationally in Mexico, South America, and Europe.
What we did was we pulled 100 of our chief revenue officers and salespeople or the people we thought were top 1% to find out what are the top ten challenges that they’re facing right here and right now. We put together an article titled Sales Strategies For Tough Economic Times – How The Top 1% Succeed! That’s what we put together. We can review a couple of those things. I think we’ll have enough time to go through about three. There are ten of them. If you visit us, you can get your own ten, and then you can self-assess on a scale from 0 to 10, where 0 is “I don’t do that at all” and 10 is “I’m the best practice out there.” That’s what we did.
Increasing Competition
All of you better be a 10 out of 10 by the time you get done with that article because that is what we’re here for. It’s to help you move that needle from where you are to where you want to go. Sometimes it’s a little harder to move that needle without the push. It’s that one piece of information like, “That’s where I need to start,” and you take it from there. Let’s get into the Sales Strategies For Tough Economic Times – How The Top 1% Succeed! What would be the first one that comes to your mind?
These are in no particular order. One that came in at the second spot for us was this increasing competition. I don’t know if it’s a result of the post-pandemic or if we can’t figure out if we’re in a recession or inflationary time. It’s the whole increased competition moment. There are competitors everywhere. This is what comes in at number 2 on our list of 10.
I’ll comment on what might be part of that. Certainly, the proliferation of people going online has exponentially increased the amount of information that’s out there. Even if they’re not good competitors, it seems like there’s a lot more out there. In the consulting world, a lot of people hung up their hats in Corporate America and they’re all like, “I’ll be a consultant.” They then go out and start talking about being a consultant. No hate mailing here folks, but a lot of the consultants don’t know how to be good consultants.
It depends on the industry. You start to see all these apps coming out like never before because people had time and some extra money or whatever, and they took the opportunity. With the proliferation of information on the internet, social media has done its job in the competitive market. At least in my experience, when I’m looking at some of the offshoots that are not so much online like construction, landscaping companies, and offline companies for the most part, what I’ve found is the opposite. They seem to have less competition and way too many customers, or maybe the expansion of the customer list. Try hiring a tradesperson. It could be tough in previous times but today, it’s one of those things like, “I can get to you in 4 or 5 months.”
There are some benefits to it. There is a lower supply. High demand and low supply are always good economic principles for the provider, not necessarily for the consumer. I think it comes down to something bigger here and you hit on it. It’s that there is increased knowledge from a consumer base. They can look things up online. They can compare it with a shop. If you’re a brick-and-mortar store, they can bounce into Amazon and see what it sells for there.
This is the other differentiator that we see. We own a digital branding marketing agency. We work on branding projects, whether it’s an entrepreneurial, a new entrant into the space, or a brand from scratch. We’re helping them create it and go to market, or if it is an existing organization and they want to rebrand. What we see time and time again is that there’s very little differentiation. What competitors A, B, and C are going to market with are all very similar. No kidding. There’s increased competition. If everybody is the same and you’re not differentiating yourself from those other competitors, you’re in for a tough road ahead.
If you're not differentiating yourself from your competitors, you're in for a tough road ahead. Click To Tweet
I would agree 100%. I equate it to dating. We all find that special person and we go, “That was amazing,” or you might find ten special people that we all think are amazing. The reality and what I see in the business context is I don’t see people understanding what the business return on investment that the buyers are looking for, or the personal return on investment that the buyers are looking for. They don’t do the basics like conversationally convert through natural conversation nor are they bonding with the client like they’re supposed to. Most of these companies that are out there are terrible at follow-up.
These are almost rookie sales mistakes that I see people making but they don’t know. I see the top 1% bond like crazy. They understand that client better sometimes than the client understands themselves because they’re in there having that conversation amongst all the noise you’re talking about. You and I were talking about New York. You go to Times Square. There are many messages coming at you at one time. How do you differentiate between those 50 messages that you see in a second?
It’s a lot of energy.
Do you think that’s on target that we’ve got to get and do more old–school and bonding type of process and understanding the client at a deep level, their personal and the business return that they are looking for?
I’ll give you a great example. We have a new initiative going on at the 501(c)3 nonprofit that we form that provides executive education. In 2022, I wrapped up my fifteenth and final year of teaching at the collegiate level. I hung up my cap and gown at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. My focus now is at executive education nonprofit where we provide leadership development executive coaching. We’re sourcing a couple of new technologies within that framework because we want to ensure that we have the best programs and technology that represents these programs. It’s easy for those that want to learn to come into that atmosphere.
I reached out and connected with four different prospective providers of technology. I screened them all. One of them, I know the CEO. I love this guy and their tech. The person with who I was having my conversation with, I shared that with them, “This should be a layup.” I should have said, “I can cancel the other three. I don’t need to get the other competitive bids.”
The problem is what you were sharing. It was that she was able to provide pricing to me, but I started asking the deeper dive questions that you hit on like, “What’s the return on investment?” It was two things. Number one, she didn’t hear me, so she wasn’t actively listening. She would go in a totally different direction with her response. I’d have to bring her back over and share, “I’m looking to identify this. If it costs this much, what’s my return on investment?” A ballpark is great. I’m not going to hold her in anything specific, but it is one of those things where she wasn’t actively listening.
You mentioned rookie. The other thing was she was playing the “I’m new card. Let me find out.” This was the second mistake of three that she made. I said, “How long have you been there?” She said, “I’ve been here for six months.” I said, “You’re not new after six months. I don’t even know if I’d call you new after six weeks, but you can’t play the new card.” If you don’t know your own product, that’s an issue.
I mentioned that there were three mistakes. The third mistake that she made is the kiss of death. It is that she said, “I don’t know. Let me follow up.” That’s a perfectly acceptable answer in a selling capacity. We’re doing this on Thursday, then the initial conversation was Tuesday, but I haven’t gotten anything. As a matter of fact, I don’t think I’m going to. Sometimes there’s a mistake of if the customer doesn’t come and they don’t have either their credit card out, checkbook open, or check already made out to our organization, they’re already done. There’s way too much effort and energy into it. Let me go to the next one. Maybe there’s a little bit of all three of those types of things going on but that’s a good example of what we’re talking about here. It kills item number two, this increased competition.
That’s perfect because rapport break number one is not actively listening. Men, I’m sorry but you should actively listen more to your wives because they pick up on and if they do, guess what happens? Rapport is broken, and trust, like, respect. Women, please listen to us too because we do have important things to say. Number two is you lied to me. When you said six months, my head went down and I think I said, “No.” There’s a rapport break. That’s a break in trust.
The third one was, “I will follow up with you,” and you never have. Follow-up is a common courtesy. We view this as human beings as a common courtesy. That’s another rapport break. I could go on a whole soap box moment on that one. That sales debt. I have the same thing happened to me, not on a B2B sale but on a B2C sale. Our electric bills keep going up precipitously. It’s nuts going up. We’re like, “Maybe we should look at solar.” I’m like, “I know some people who are in solar.” I gave them a call and some other people, and I had four of them. One didn’t get back to me, so I was down to three. I talked to one that I knew and said, “If the numbers make sense, I’m doing this.”
We talked a little bit and he’s like, “I’ll get back to you.” I’m like, “Cool.” In the meantime, the other one called me and I couldn’t get to him, and then another guy who was totally off-the-charts professional called me and said, “Can we meet?” I said, “Sure.” I’ll get a competitive understanding or learn a little bit more about the industry.” He shows up. I love the guy. He’s awesome. His name is Taylor. He wasn’t one of those guys that was that shady solar guy. He was straightforward like, “Here’s what I can do for you. Based on these three scenarios, I think this one would be better for you based on your circumstances, but you tell me because I want to know what you want. Are you looking for the business return on investment? Are you looking for the personal reasons for the return on investment?”
My other guy didn’t send the proposal. I call him back, “Where’s your proposal?” Taylor says, “I’ll have this thing for you tonight.” He leaves my building at 7:00 at night and it comes in before midnight. My other guy sends it and I’m like, “Can you explain it to me?” He’s like, “It’s pretty straightforward.” In the meantime, Taylor follows up the next morning and says, “Did you get this? Do you have any questions?” Long story short, I asked for a couple of adjustments from both of them. The guy I wanted to buy from never sent it back to me. I called him and I go, “I’m trying to buy something from you for $55,000. Do you want the commission?” He goes, “Sorry, I’ve been busy.” What a dumb thing for people to say in sales. He doesn’t follow up with me again after he sends the proposal. Guess who I bought it from?
Handling Rejection
Taylor. It’s crazy. Let me transition with you because what we’re talking about is going to be helpful. The second point I want to bring up is number three on our list. It’s handling rejection. You may be sitting there saying, “How is it that a top 1% must be selling everything.” Rejection is a thing of the past once you get to that level. What our folks said is that they still deal with, “How is it that I handle the rejection?” From a maturity perspective, they’re probably a little bit better than maybe a freshman entry-level sales development rep or business development rep, but they have a better sense of resilience when it comes to facing those rejection moments.
It’s still a thing for them, and they still have to remind themselves that, “I’m not going to close everybody. I need to go through the motions. I know what it is that I do is 1%,” but they actively do what I would call a sales autopsy of the conversation, where they not only look back at the conversation that they had. They look at our previous conversation, “What did I say that I was going to do, and have I done those things?”
They also had that feedback loop for themselves that provides them almost with a self-assessment or self-coaching moment where they can go, “I didn’t do this. I did that. Next time I should be doing this.” That’s how the top 1% differentiate themselves and how they handle rejection. I’ll go back to the resilience moment because it’s important. They understand that this is business. It’s not personal. When the person says no, it’s not soul-crushing. It doesn’t mean that they dislike them. They go with it. They know that this is just business. This isn’t personal.
In today’s market, sometimes for non-top 1% earners, that can become a clouded message. True story. One of our clients at our sales consultancy is talking with their BDRs. One of them said, “I called somebody.” I don’t know what it’s like in your industry, but I know the industries that we touch. Cold calling has been extremely difficult post-pandemic. In pre-pandemic, cold calling is definitely the way to go. In post-pandemic, people are still working from home. They have their office numbers forwarded to their cell phones. If they don’t recognize the number, they’re not going to answer.”
This BDR who was in tears during our session and training said, “I call a company to an individual. I didn’t get a hold of them. I left a voicemail which is our script and that’s our process. The gentleman called me back. I was so happy to get somebody to call me back, but the guy ripped me a new one and cursed me out up one side of the street and down the other.” She said, “I can’t help but not take that personally. Two minutes ago, he didn’t know me or my organization existed. Two minutes later, he tore me down to shreds.”
It’s that resilient moment that the top 1% percent earners go back to. When you and I were cutting our teeth in the sales arena, we probably heard the conversation or the topic of, “You got to let that roll off your back like a duck has water roll off theirs.” That’s resilience. That’s the second item. It’s number three on our list, handling rejection.
That’s a perfect thing. Believe it or not, I see this among sales consultants a lot. Their number one question to me is, “How do I handle objections?” We still do client work actively. We don’t always run into somebody who goes, “Come on.” Every call we make is not like, “Come on in.” When I get somebody like that, I ask them a very simple question, “Your day must suck because if you are in that much pain that you’ve got to lash out at me like this over a phone call, there must be something going on. Do you need an open ear to listen?”
They might tell me to go pound sand and hang up on me. A lot of times, it’s enough to throw them off balance that they go, “What are you talking about?” You can engage as a human being in that conversation. Here’s the thing. People play the lottery all the time. They go on and play scratch tickets or whatever. You don’t always win.
The vast majority never wins. They win a little bit.
They don’t walk out of the store, scratch the ticket, and have a complete meltdown in the parking lot over not winning that dollar scratch ticket. They’ll go buy another one and play the game because it’s competitive and you’re like, “I’ll beat the odds out of this whole thing.” This is what we want and must do in selling when it comes down to it. You don’t take it personally. You don’t go, “I picked the wrong card. I should have picked the other card,” and beat up on yourself.
You got to have a little bit of that amnesia moment where you forgot but you learned from the moment and you drive into that next one. That sales amnesia is a thing. The better you are at brushing it off, forgetting about it, but learning from it so that way, the next time you can accelerate harder through, that is what the top 1% do.

It’s almost like when my kids had their imaginary friends when they were growing up. I‘d be like, “Who did this?” My youngest daughter would say it was her imaginary friend who wrote on the wall or whatever. I’m going to say two points. One, if we’re not getting those people from time to time, we’re not selling enough. There’s not enough activity going on because even Walmart knows what its theft rate is going to be. They know people are going to try to steal from them. They expect it. In selling, we better expect some of that because we’re dealing with people. The second thing is when we lose a sale, what 1% earners will do is they are debriefing. They’ll say, “Could you debrief me and tell me why? I want to get better at this, one way or another.”
There is a methodology when it comes to cold calling. We have refined it over the years because we believe in it still. The methodology that this BDR who I mentioned in that example that she gave where she left the voicemail, we’re leaving voicemail the type of training company when it comes to that, and we do it ourselves. We ate our own dog food. When we outreach cold calls, we leave voicemails. When you get somebody on the line, we have a script that accelerates and pushes you to the front of whoever it is that may be calling about the same product or service.
We talked about differentiation in the first item when it came to increasing competition. We have a script that basically, the heart of it is a conversation that goes something like, “I know you weren’t expecting my phone call. If you hear me out for 30 seconds because I’ll be brief, we can identify if this is something that’s appropriate for you or not.” There are bumpers on the top, bottom, front, or back, depending on how you want to look at it. The genesis of it is, “Give me 30 seconds. If this isn’t for you, I’m not going to waste any of your time. Thank you very much.”
Graciously hang up the phone, “This is a cold call. You don’t know me. I don’t know you. I expect you to not give me time, but I would appreciate it if you would,” or something like that. That works great. For our audience, use that because what Sam said works great because it’s not like, “Hi, Mr. Palazzolo. My name is Doug and I’m from ABC company. Let me tell you why I’m great, why my company is great, and why you should be talking to me,” which is the majority of what people do in cold calling.
I’m laughing because, in the previous episode that you and I did, I shared the story about how the success I had as a cold caller when I first started out in sales, I would call people up and I would say, “Doug, this is Sam. I suck at cold calling. Bear with me.” What typically would happen is what you did. You would laugh and be like, “Great. This is a cold call. This guy sucks at it. He’s encouraged me to listen.” I would go through it. It was bringing damage. I would try to follow the script. The major segments of it, I wasn’t reading from it. It was clunky, difficult, and hard. Over the years, I’d like to think I’ve got a little bit better at it but some weeks I look at myself and I’m like, “You still suck at this.” There’s one of those things where it’s like, “Maybe I should go back to that old script.”
Going back to your competitiveness this thing and the first point, that makes you different at the moment you make that. You’re basically saying, “I’m reaching out to you. I respect your time. I stink at this, but would you help me out and at least listen to me? You can hang up on me or tell me you love me.” It removes the “This guy is going to try to pitch me on something.” It allows us to actively open up and listen versus defending ourselves because “I’m busy. Shut up,” and click, or that type of thing we’ve all had. That’s awesome.
Technology Adaptation
This brings us to the third point that I want to talk about today. It’s number six on our list, but the third one that we’re talking about in the top ten list that the top 1% implement to become those top one-percenters. It has to do with technology adaptation. Nothing is hotter right now than artificial intelligence, especially the generative when it comes to content. We have seen folks who want to create a script. ChatGPT or any of the other AI generative tools that are out there spit one out for you.
I want to stress the importance of how I love those tools. They do great work. In a millisecond, they put together what could take you a decade to research. This 10,000-hour to become an expert, they’ll produce to you in twenty seconds. They’ll spit it out. Technology adaptation doesn’t just mean utilizing the tool, but adapting it for how it is that you operate. What I see is that especially with AI, we have a number of folks that are taking whatever it is that ChatGPT produces as “This is the gospel. We cannot modify, manipulate, or customize this for our own offering.”
Technology adaptation doesn't just mean utilizing the tool but adapting it for how you operate. Click To Tweet
As a result, it is like what I mentioned in the previous example, the script that I had. It comes across as clunky. It comes across as it’s a technology written instead of there’s a human on the other end of the line here. The number three thing that we’re talking about here, but number six on our list of the top ten items that the top 1% utilize to become the top 1% is technology adaptation.
If you take any tool like a hammer and a screwdriver, you can drive a nail with a screwdriver in your hand. I’ve done it. It’s not pretty. Your hand won’t feel good afterward, but when you got a leaking boat, sometimes that’s all you got. Vice versa, you could put a screw in with a hammer, but it’s not designed to do that. What you are saying is to use the right tool in the right capacity but don’t take it for granted. There are different types of hammers. There’s a flat hammer or a ball-peen hammer, different hammers for different reasons, and different screwdrivers. There are phillips-heads, flat screws, or whatever.
What the technology is great at is providing you with several different versions. You could write the prompt like, “Provide me with three different approaches to cold calling for the following product that has this feature and benefits presentation.” You can have a provider with three different ways that you can approach it. If every problem is a nail, you better have a hammer. The problems that we’re attempting to go out and solve for our customer base are not single. It’s not a nail each and every time.
If we’re coming to the party with a hammer, we’re probably not going to win too many times. Providing you with three different examples of how you can go forward goes back to the top item. From a differentiation perspective, you can say the thing that the others within your space, industry, or competitors are not saying. It’s the key differentiator. It also helps you with the handling rejection item because if you ask ChatGPT, “How can I overcome objections?” It’ll probably provide you with the top ten if you asked appropriately, “What are the top ten objections and how can I successfully overcome that?” You provide yourself with that ammo. Those are much better ways of leveraging technology than the, “Write me a cold email. Write me a sequence of cold emails. That way, I can outreach to a client.” If you are not taking the time to actively customize it, you run the risk of two things. One, we’ve talked about that technology jargon where it sounds clunky, tacky, and scripted.
The second thing though and it’s probably even more important is that we want to believe AI generative isn’t fallible. It’s 100% available. They have these moments called hallucinations within the tech. We see it with some of the AI work that we’re doing whether it’s with accounts payable departments where we’re actively screening their invoices and helping it process throughput from 2 weeks down to 2 days or $22 down to $2. We also see it in the work that we’re doing at the marketing firm to help organizations in that branding moment, how it is that they can aim themselves in a totally different direction and hit the target more often. Those are the best use cases when it comes to technology adaptation.
That’s awesome because I was talking to a friend of mine who does marketing for companies. They are using AI as well. I asked him, “Do you ever think it’s going to work to the level where you replace your marketing company?” Disruptive technologies tend to do certain things in industries. He said, “The reason that all these systems don’t work the way they’re supposed to is because they are trying to replicate a human being. We are so complex. I don’t think it’ll ever happen.”
What I understand loud and clear from what you’re saying is we don’t want to remove the human from the word human connection or our human communication. It’s nice to generate these ideas and have somebody else like a think-tank going on with the AI, but don’t rely on the AI as the sole 100% guarantee because you are right about hallucinations. I read an article that AI turned off somebody’s medical device or self-navigating cars or something, and they ran over people or whatever. It’s not infallible is what they are saying.
It’s a wonderful opportunity to think of yourself as whatever gets produced, you are the editor of the magazine or the daily newspaper beat, whether it’s online or the old-fashioned tangible paper version. You have to edit and customize it for what it is that you’re doing. Little extra effort up front but don’t take whatever the production is word for word because it’s probably not going to work. I would venture it’s not going to work.

I was using it and it’s not grammatically correct all the time either. You still need to add prepositions at times in your sentences.
I want to go on a limb and say that there are a lot of folks that are worried about how it is, “Will this eliminate my role or job? What’s the future of my profession?” Those that jump on the AI generative bandwagon and become subject matter experts within the space will have no problem navigating it, finding jobs, and positions that will utilize their talents moving forward. We believe in it that much. We’re extremely bullish on the technology. That adaptability that the top one-percenters do, use that editorial column and keep that in mind.
I appreciate you being here. How do people reach out to you to get to know more about you or contact you directly?
There are a couple of different things. You could visit us at TipOfTheSpearVentures.com. I retired from teaching at the collegiate level. On our blog, we have about 300 posts and it’s growing every day. There are 300 articles written there. We also have an upcoming book. If you sign up for our newsletter, I’ll make sure you get a peak of it. It’s going to be my eighth book that we’re writing. I’m also very present on LinkedIn. You can’t miss me there. Thank you so much for having me. You can read the article we’ve mentioned in this conversation. Share it with your team back at the office. You can also get the handout of what these top 10 sales challenges are of the top 1%.
Thanks for being here.
You’re welcome. Thanks for having me.
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What did you get out of that? We covered 3 out of the 10 challenges. We’ll have Sam back on and cover the other seven in time. Here’s my question. What are you doing today? You’re probably getting competitors coming into your market and it seems like you’re getting a proliferation of competitors coming into the market. How do you stand out? How can you be different? Don’t differentiate anymore. Differentiate maybe in your conversations but be different because that makes you memorable. You want to be that way in a positive manner. You can do that.
Go back to the basics. Do what other people don’t do. It will also differentiate you and make you different like following up on time, being a person of your word, doing what you say, and listening actively. Sam displayed so eloquently in this interview that the person he referenced he spoke with wasn’t actively listening to him. Don’t break rapport. That’s crazy. If you don’t break rapport, you’ll do way better than any of your competitors. Competitors make champions. If you have more competitors, that means you have more competition but that doesn’t mean that you can’t outcompete them. Sit down and figure out how to do it. If you don’t know, get to talking with people like Sam, myself, and others who will help you do that.
Number two that we addressed is rejection. You’re going to be rejected. You will be rejected probably every day of your life on some level. You might go to a vending machine and put your money in the vending machine, and it doesn’t drop your item out of the vending machine. It’s a form of rejection. You might whack the vending machine a couple of times. Be careful, some people pull those vending machines over on them. The reality is that you’re going to be rejected in some capacity. The lights are going to turn red and you got to stop when you don’t want to stop. That is a form of rejection in some capacity.
You might go, “That’s ridiculous. It’s not selling rejection. It’s not a human being saying that.” You’re going to get it. Expect it like you’re going to get the red light occasionally in the vending machine. Occasionally, you’re going to call a utility company, and they’re going to put you on hold forever. You are going to deal with somebody who doesn’t know what they’re doing, and they’re going to reject you because they don’t want to look stupid.
When it comes to rejection, remember one thing when you’re selling, especially objections. People will do more to avoid looking bad than they’ll do for losing money. In other words, if they feel that they’re going to look bad by losing the money, it’s not just about losing the money. It’s the personal rejection that they’re going to get out of their own community or network. People will lose money at times and be much more comfortable than losing that versus looking bad.
Remember that when you’re hearing an objection come up, ask yourself which one might it be. Rule number one in handling objections. If you haven’t got my book on that called Win-Win Selling: Unlocking Your Power For Profitability By Resolving Objections, you can get it on Amazon. It goes through the psychology and the philosophy of this. Rule 1) Breathe and relax. Rule 2) Get curious and not confrontational. Rule 3) Think. Ask yourself, what must be happening here? What could possibly be their reason or reasons for asking what they asked or stating what they stated?
Objections don’t always equal rejection and it’s not personal. Understand that you’re going to run across people who will be rude, indignant, sometimes even arrogant, and all the others together, but don’t take it personally. As Sam said, “Water off the duck’s back.” You’ve got to expect it. It’s like if you go to play the lottery, you’re not going to win all the time, but if you win enough or you win that big one, that can set you up forever. Remember that while you’re going through that.
Number three that we talked about was tech and handling tech in the capacity in which it is designed to do, especially with AI. Don’t forget to take AI for what it’s worth. It’s a wonderful piece of technology. It’s it will bring back all kinds of wonderful things for you in terms of giving you ideas and thoughts and being a think tank. Don’t take the human out of human communication. Don’t take the human out of the human connection. AI will do that. It’s not always accurate. You always must look at this and say, “Does this make sense for me and the person I’m sending it out to?” Remember to make it as personalized, meaningful, and connected as possible. That will also help you with the multiple competitors that are in your market.
Until next time, make it a great day. If you love this episode, please give it a five-star review. I know it takes a moment or so, but it’s a way for you to give back to us. It’s my ask. Share this with lots of people if you would because we can help more people with the messaging that’s coming out. I’ve had people reach out to me that people shared this with and said, “Thank you,” because they were grateful. That one piece of information moves their day from point A to point B in a positive manner.
If you are an expert or you know somebody who’s an expert on and around the 1% earners category, what do they do? What do they think? How do they act? Reach out to us. Let us know at YouMatter@CEOSalesStrategies.com. We will respond to your inquiry and let you know one way or another. We’ve got a 1% Academy coming out. If you want to have early access to that or are humanized follow-up software, send it to the same email address. If you like a copy of the eBook that we have called The Nonstop 1% Earner, You can get that at CEOSalesStrategies.com/1PE for one percent earners. You could download the book for yourself.
Until next time, go out and sell something. Sell a lot of it. Play win-win-win. If you can win-win-win, you win, they win, and someone else wins. It’s how you build relationships and how you keep the long-term internal and external expansion going through the people that you serve. They are reciprocating to you because they win, you win, and everybody wins.
Always go out and sell for profit. Be careful with that discounting. You discount something once, you might have to sell 7, 8, or 9 times more just to make up for that discount. Between the discount and the cost of sale, each time, it’s not a one-for-one ratio. Thanks for tuning in. We’ll see you next time. To your success.
Important Links
- Tip Of The Spear Ventures
- The Nonstop 1% Earner
- Sales Strategies For Tough Economic Times – How The Top 1% Succeed!
- previous episode with Sam Palazzolo
- LinkedIn – Sam Palazzolo
- Win-Win Selling: Unlocking Your Power For Profitability By Resolving Objections
- YouMatter@CEOSalesStrategies.com
- CEOSalesStrategies.com/1PE
- https://www.Facebook.com/TipoftheSpearVC
- https://www.Twitter.com/tipofthespearvc
- http://HubSpot.TipOfTheSpearVentures.com/speaking
- http://HubSpot.TipOfTheSpearVentures.com/business-transformation
- https://TipOfTheSpearVentures.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/07/Top-10-Sales-Challenges-of-the-Top-1_Handout.pdf
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