Joe Pici is this year's recipient of the coveted #1 sales trainer ranking by Global Guru’s internationally and his sales development voted BEST IN THE WORLD.
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Joe Pici has functioned as a catalyst for sales teams and individuals. Starting in 1992, he relentlessly studied and applied cutting edge sales techniques, propelling himself to top 25% producer internationally.
This led business leaders globally to hire him for sales seminars. He then distilled his strategies into a skill-based, sales training program, Rapport MasteryTM, which helps sales professionals sharpen their skills for creating appointments and closing sales through live, outbound phone call workshops. It’s an extremely strong skill builder that is straightforward and easy to apply.
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Ready to become fearless? We can help you become fearless in 60 days so you accomplish more in your career Schedule A 15 min Call with Umar[Podcast Transcript Using Artificial Intelligence]
Umar Hameed 0:06
Are you ready to become awesomer? Hello everyone, this is Umar Hameed, your host and welcome to the No Limits Selling Podcast, where industry leaders share their tips, strategies and advice on how to make you better, stronger, faster. Get ready for another episode.
Umar Hameed 0:33
Hello, everyone. Today I've got the privilege of having Joe Pici. He's an expert at landing appointments and making sales. And I'm so excited to talk with him. Joe, welcome to the program.
Joe Pici 0:45
Umar, it's an honor, it's great to know you.
Umar Hameed 0:47
So the thing I'm most intrigued about, like the subject matter itself. But tell me about how you became a global guru, the top 30 in the entire 8 billion people. Tell me about that?
Joe Pici 0:59
Well, it's well, quite frankly, we don't know. Three years ago, I was speaking for the National Football League on how to help athletes transition out in Las Vegas.
Umar Hameed 1:11
Nice.
Joe Pici 1:12
On my computer, and they said, Congratulations, you've made it to the top 30 of global gurus, as in the top 30 for sales, training and speaking. So I thought it was bogus. All right? I told my wife I said, this is like when our kids were coming through school, and they want you to pay $500 you get them on the National Honor Society.
Umar Hameed 1:32
Yes.
Joe Pici 1:33
When she checked it out. And she said, "Joe, this is for real. These are the elite?"
Umar Hameed 1:39
Then last...
Umar Hameed 1:40
I'm sorry.
Umar Hameed 1:41
Please go ahead. Then last year...
Umar Hameed 1:42
Last year was number three and then this year, I got ranked number one in the world, a sales trainer and our star training program. Our rapport mastery sales training program has been ranked number one in the world.
Umar Hameed 1:57
That is brilliant. So let's dig in. First, congratulations.
Joe Pici 2:00
Thank you.
Umar Hameed 2:01
Two let's dig down deeper into this because I think I was doing a presentation to about 140 sales managers and I asked them, "Okay, this is the sales process plus or minus, get the appointment, do the presentation, handle objections, close the deal, and deepen into the account to get referrals," and they went, "Okay. plus, minus, that's what it is." "Where do your people struggle, the most two things tight the top place number one was landing the appointment." And I said, "Okay, how much revenue is left on the table, if people can't get enough appointments," they said, "50%." The other runner up the tight for was closing the deal and of course, that adds 50%. But if you can't get enough appointments, it's called being unemployed. So I could talk to me about that, how do you get people to pick up the phone and make those calls? What does that process look like?
Umar Hameed 2:55
What you do Umar is so much harder than what I do. Because you have to work between your ears.
Umar Hameed 3:03
Yes.
Joe Pici 3:03
Okay. You're changing a culture, you're changing a mindset. Whereas what I decided to do years ago, was if I could improve skills.
Umar Hameed 3:15
Yes.
Joe Pici 3:16
And get traction right away, then I could prove to that person that company that I was worth, it was worth keeping the round, all right? to fix things long term. So when we put together our training, we knew that you had to generate leads, we have 21 ways we generate leads.
Umar Hameed 3:39
Nice.
Joe Pici 3:39
Okay, then you had to be able to take those leads and convert them to appointments.
Umar Hameed 3:44
Mm hmm.
Joe Pici 3:45
Well, when we studied sales, we realized the single biggest challenge was a person picking up the phone and getting a qualified appointment. I didn't say appointment, but a qualified appointment.
Umar Hameed 3:57
By the way, Joe, this is no joke I've used in the past, but I'm gonna bring it up again. How do you get a salesperson to shut up?
Joe Pici 4:04
I don't know.
Umar Hameed 4:05
Hand them a phone.
Joe Pici 4:06
[Laughing] That's good. Can I steal that?
Umar Hameed 4:09
Absolutely.
Joe Pici 4:10
Yeah. So we decided, Okay, the next one is doing concentrated presentations and in the proposal in the clothes and all that. But what we knew that the big challenge was their messaging was not good.
Umar Hameed 4:27
Right.
Joe Pici 4:27
And or lead generation was not good. So what we decided to do is really focus on how to create value propositions. And then in the world of sales, many people sell from charisma and talent, which I have neither. So I had that. I had sales process out of processes, communications and skills. And see I could teach anybody that I can't teach everybody what you teach.
Umar Hameed 5:00
And I think what's true is that we are all, we all suck at something. And we're all good at something. And but I think your piece of the sales puzzle is vitally important. So let's talk about that. So you get, I think, before we went on air, you were telling me that you did a boot camp recently with 20 people in that camp. So walk me through the opening of the day where people are like, I want to get good at this, but I really don't want to do this. So walk me through that initial [garbled]
Umar Hameed 5:33
The first thing, a few components get two different types of training. You have if you go into a corporation where they have to be there.
Umar Hameed 5:41
Yes.
Joe Pici 5:42
Then when people come into our boot camp, they're paying their own way. So they're volunteer. So automatically, that changes the game. But everybody who walks in that room usually has some challenge with making calls. So we don't walk right up to the phone, we don't hand them scripts. It's a three day intensive, whereby we handle communication styles.
Umar Hameed 6:06
Yes.
Joe Pici 6:07
But then we really get into messaging. What do you say to a gatekeeper, what do you say to get a return phone call? What? But we don't just hand them a script, we we really drill down and get to the core of their business, the benefits they deliver. So then on date, and then we do big thing on lead generation. Because here's the other thing, I will tell you, once a salesperson masters the phone, now they have a real problem.
Umar Hameed 6:36
They got it.
Joe Pici 6:37
They got to get leads.
Umar Hameed 6:38
Yes.
Joe Pici 6:39
All right. Because if you're really making outbound calls, you're going to go through a lot of names.
Umar Hameed 6:44
Yes.
Joe Pici 6:45
Well, on day three, everybody, and I only allow 20 people in his boot camp, everybody is calling people they've never called before. Okay, B2b as well as B2c, and we never have ranked under 72% conversion to appointment. We always are over 90% getting through the gatekeeper. The other thing is, we do that in the morning, and that afternoon, we'll get 60-70 return phone calls. So it's just like anything else? If it's what you focus on? And look, I'm not afraid of the phone, I'm good on the phone. The key is can I translate to the other person and can they get mastery, getting appointments?
Umar Hameed 7:33
So Joe, give me an example, I may or may not have been this boot camp, but another one, tell me about a specific person, you can change their name to protect the innocent. But tell me about somebody that came in that wanted to learn, was not sure they could and how you walk that individual through the process. So by date, we're getting a [garbled]
Umar Hameed 7:54
Many, many years ago, I had a guy come to our boot camp, who was big time. He had a big construction company.
Umar Hameed 8:02
Yes.
Joe Pici 8:03
He had been to Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes, he has spent $200,000 in two years on personal growth. He comes to our boot camp. He had never been trained on making outbound calls. Most of his business was referrals. Well, he hit a home run he, he got some great stuff. Well, years pass, and I get a phone call from one day.
Umar Hameed 8:24
Right.
Joe Pici 8:25
He says I'm sending my administrative assistant to your boot camp. Here's what I want her to be able to do. He had taken his methodology and packaged it into a licensing form for water intrusion for high rises.
Joe Pici 8:41
Yes.
Joe Pici 8:42
So he wanted her to book appointments with CEOs of construction companies, and he wanted also heard to sell seats to his licensing program.
Umar Hameed 8:57
Mm hmm.
Joe Pici 8:57
Now I don't mean to be demeaning. But this was a 72 year old grandmother that five weeks before was working at a bakery.
Umar Hameed 9:05
Right.
Joe Pici 9:05
She had never as much sold a Girl Scout cookie.
Umar Hameed 9:09
But in bakery she was had a lot of dough there. But anyway,
Umar Hameed 9:12
Yeah, that's good. So she walks in, and honestly, I didn't even know who she was. I had never seen her.
Umar Hameed 9:18
Mm hmm.
Joe Pici 9:18
And she looked like a 72 year old grandmother, it me, you know, we and she walks in and I almost said something stupid, which I'm really capable of doing. Okay. Well, I had an NFL player in the room with his wife and they were really big into apartment complexes in Houston. And he looked at me He goes, you're stealing money. How could you sell her a ticket?
Umar Hameed 9:42
How could I Joe.
Joe Pici 9:43
I said I didn't sell her a ticket her boss center. I said but I'll tell you what, if she doesn't book appointments on day three, I'll refund your money. So she went...
Umar Hameed 9:53
Hold that, hold that, hold that there. That is you walking your talk, you're telling this NFL If she doesn't book appointments.
Joe Pici 10:01
Right.
Umar Hameed 10:01
I'm gonna refund you your money.
Joe Pici 10:03
Right.
Umar Hameed 10:04
Which is freakin amazing. So....
Joe Pici 10:06
Well it's not because you know, you said something to me earlier today that really resonated. You said, well, you guys are all alike. You stand in the middle of a room and you make calls. No, that's not what the key is. The key is can I get them on the phone, can...
Umar Hameed 10:20
Absolutely.
Joe Pici 10:21
So...
Umar Hameed 10:21
That's the only thing that counts.
Joe Pici 10:22
We go through the training. The first day, she's scared to death.
Umar Hameed 10:29
Right.
Joe Pici 10:29
He also if you understand the communication styles, and I know you do, you're well read. And I know I know what you do. So you understand communication styles, she is slow paced, people oriented, very shy. Day two, we dig into the market, we get to scripting, we dig, we dig. Day three, I spread all the tables out. So it doesn't sound like a call center.
Umar Hameed 10:52
Right.
Joe Pici 10:53
Hotel allows me use the lobby, I spread people out, by put her in a corner. And I walked up to her and I said, "Mary, you're really going to be a good, very good at this today." She goes, "I've never done this. I'm scared to death," I said, "Mary, focus on the process, just execute the process, you win. by dialing and executing the process. All I want you to do is read the script." And I said, "Let me tell you something. I'm really good at this, and I'm not going to let you fail." Well, she goes over in her little corner and NFL guy and his wife before they get on the phone, they're just watching her. And her wife,
Umar Hameed 11:32
Right.
Joe Pici 11:32
me and her watching her. She booked 10 appointments, and she sold 10 seats. And each time she would do it, she would go like this, "Oh my gosh, I'm so afraid." Right?
Umar Hameed 11:45
Yeah.
Joe Pici 11:46
Because here's the key to that. It's not what's special about Joe, it's what's special about the process?
Umar Hameed 11:54
Yes.
Joe Pici 11:55
Processes, communications in skills can be taught and they can be learned.
Umar Hameed 12:02
So let me pause you there. A, I agree with you, Joe. Pick any 100 corporations, small ones, big ones, little ones. And they all know about process but I'd be shocked if 10% of them actually have a process that's being used?
Joe Pici 12:21
You're exactly right. No, you're right.
Umar Hameed 12:24
And that's one of the reasons they don't succeed at the level they should so. So do you customize the process for each individual person or the messaging is different, but the process is the same?
Joe Pici 12:35
The process is always the same.
Umar Hameed 12:40
Nice.
Joe Pici 12:41
It's teaching. It's the value proposition. It's maybe the way they write a proposal. But sales is very simple. It's where are you getting your prospect leads from?
Umar Hameed 12:55
Yes.
Joe Pici 12:56
How are we? How are you getting them to the table? You know, right now everything is virtual. I've been selling virtually for 30 years.
Umar Hameed 13:07
Right.
Joe Pici 13:07
85% of my clients don't come from Orlando.
Umar Hameed 13:11
By the way, I've been virtually selling for 30 years.
Joe Pici 13:13
Yeah.
Umar Hameed 13:14
That was a joke. Please come on.
Joe Pici 13:17
So the whole idea is that the process of virtual selling and the process of face to face selling is the same. The only difference is you sit with them or you know, before zoom was popular, I closed our biggest contracts over the phone.
Umar Hameed 13:37
So let's pause there just for a moment, so let's go back to Mary. So Mary has been there, but she's scared to death, she's gone, two days, she's ready for the third day. She has no lead generation because basically
Joe Pici 13:49
Rosie had to bring names with her. Ah, he's [garbled] well he provided the list because he knew the construction companies he wanted to go after.
Umar Hameed 14:02
Brilliant. So but they were a cold list.
Joe Pici 14:04
They were [garbled].
Umar Hameed 14:06
So good. So she gets this cold list, she's basically dialing for dollars and so walk me through the process like let's say she got to the gatekeeper.
Umar Hameed 14:17
Let me I call you. Let me just say call you first of all getting through the gatekeeper is the game but if I call you.
Umar Hameed 14:25
And you get through to me.
Joe Pici 14:26
I ring. Ring, ring, ring. Answer the phone.
Umar Hameed 14:29
Hey, this is Umar.
Umar Hameed 14:32
Umar. This is Joe Pici of Pici and Pici . Is this a good time?
Umar Hameed 14:35
I guess.
Umar Hameed 14:37
Okay, Umar, let me tell you why call. I specialize in helping speakers, trainers and consultants. Take your talent and intellectual property and make money with it.
Umar Hameed 14:48
That sounds interesting.
Umar Hameed 14:50
Would it be worth 15 minutes me to show you how you could monetize your talent. Say No, no say no.
Umar Hameed 14:56
No, of course not. No.
Joe Pici 14:57
Next. My closing ratio is 92%.
Umar Hameed 15:03
Right.
Joe Pici 15:04
Why? Because only people that sit down with Jo are people that it's their idea. So when I said to Mary, Mary, you don't have to overcome an objection. You don't have to talk people into the meeting,
Umar Hameed 15:17
Right.
Joe Pici 15:18
You're fishing, you're not hunting. He said, You mean knows, okay? No is okay?
Umar Hameed 15:25
That took a lot of pressure off.
Joe Pici 15:27
The pressure was off, if you had, I said, and you're not a failure. So we create the we spend, on day two, we spend six hours on digging into their target market or value propositions or scripting their, their uniqueness. By the time they get done with that they have a whole new understanding of who they are, who they're going after, and what they deliver.
Umar Hameed 15:55
So. So, Joe, what a lot of people do is, this is my company, and we have the best product, we have the best service and this is what's important to me. And this is what a thing does. And they talk very much about themselves, or the value they see from their point of view. And it sounds like, like when you were talking to me, I'm a speaker, I'm an author, I'm a consultant, the way you pitched it to me, it was as if you were in my mind knowing this is top of mind for me. So how do you get people to really think of their offering from the customer's point of view? So when they actually have that conversation, people go, "Yeah, I want to talk to you."
Umar Hameed 16:36
Because it's got to be from the client's point of view. 100%.
Umar Hameed 16:41
But how do you teach that?
Umar Hameed 16:42
Well, first of all, we teach them to understand their client.
Umar Hameed 16:46
Right.
Joe Pici 16:46
What is it that their client probably wants most? So for example, if you were an insurance agent,
Umar Hameed 16:54
Right.
Joe Pici 16:54
I was in helping insurance agents attract and retain quality clients. Now, if you don't want that you don't want me?
Umar Hameed 17:00
Right.
Joe Pici 17:01
All right. So I mean, this is this is so simple, that people say it won't work, you got to talk a lot. It's the same thing. When I do a sales meeting. 85% of the sales meeting, is the client talking not me.
Umar Hameed 17:16
It should be. When you okay, it is but for other people it should be.
Joe Pici 17:21
And so the thing you're saying is we all agree on this is that what's common sense is not common sense. Most sales people think I'm going to get a 52-deck slide presentation.
Umar Hameed 17:32
Yes.
Joe Pici 17:33
I'm going to go in there and run the deck. And it's going to be all about our company, our products and very little about you. And the people are polite. Thank you very much. And yeah, we'll take a proposal and then nothing happens.
Umar Hameed 17:48
Yeah, I think I'm not sure who said it might have been Mark Twain, well, say it's Mark Twain, "Common sense is the least common sense of all."
Joe Pici 17:55
Yeah, exactly. Yeah.
Umar Hameed 17:57
So Joe, you've got a proven process. How long have you been doing this?
Joe Pici 18:03
Oh, my gosh. I started selling in 1992. But here's the other thing I don't when Dawn and I opened up Pici and Pici as a training company. Because we used to do keynoting all over the world.
Umar Hameed 18:18
Right.
Joe Pici 18:19
We said we would never speak or train or coach on anything, we don't do.
Umar Hameed 18:25
Make sense.
Joe Pici 18:26
So, whatever we do is what we train what we coach on.
Umar Hameed 18:34
Makes sense.
Joe Pici 18:35
So first, I had to learn how to sell. The problem was when I got into selling, everybody was doing more motivational stuff. It was all mindset and motivation, and, and there's nothing wrong with that. But eventually, somebody's got to make money. And I don't care, I don't care how motivated I am. If I can't pick up the phone to get an appointment, I'll get really unmotivated fast. So we looked at that we said, okay, we learned how to sell, I was terrible on the phone, I said, if this is so hard, let's get great at this.
Umar Hameed 19:16
Right.
Joe Pici 19:19
And so once I mastered selling, then we had a big gulf of oh my gosh, we need more leads. So we started really working on multiple ways to generate leads.
Umar Hameed 19:33
He said 21 I think earlier.
Joe Pici 19:35
Yeah. LinkedIn creates our highest our best client leads.
Umar Hameed 19:41
And so walk me through that because a lot of people love LinkedIn, but don't know how to use it.
Joe Pici 19:45
Okay. I'm not being evasive. But I'm telling you right now. I can't I can't walk you through how to use it on a podcast. I can tell you this, 99% of the people using LinkedIn are either using it like a commercial to try inbound, or they're selling through you. They want to sell through LinkedIn by writing new stuff.
Umar Hameed 20:11
Right.
Joe Pici 20:11
Here's the secret. My wife created a system for us on how to make it an outbound lead generator. I get them off, I get them offline as fast as possible and I use my phone skills.
Umar Hameed 20:27
Nice.
Joe Pici 20:28
So that's our biggest clients have come from generating a lead on LinkedIn and me picking up the phone and going to work.
Umar Hameed 20:37
Brilliant. Joe, one of the things we chatted about is that you have a course coming out that people can actually attend for free to figure out how you do what you do. Tell me, tell us about them [garbled]
Joe Pici 20:50
Yeah. It's coming Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, 20, it's a very short window here, the 26, 27, 28, 29, 30. It's 15 minutes a day, on demand. It's webinar training.
Umar Hameed 21:03
Nice.
Joe Pici 21:03
Okay. And so for people to get to that, all they have to do is take out their phone and type the word salesedge, one word salesedge, text it to 55678.
Umar Hameed 21:15
55678. And we're gonna put that in the show notes. So people can just go click on it when unreleased the show.
Umar Hameed 21:22
And then, it'll go to a link, go to a splash page, scroll down, it'll actually have free five day webinars, only 15 minutes a day. It's on how to recapture lost revenue through virtual selling.
Umar Hameed 21:37
I love it, Joe. Joe, it was a pleasure chatting with you. You're a master at your craft.
Joe Pici 21:42
Thank you.
Umar Hameed 21:42
And I'm looking forward to our next conversation.
Joe Pici 21:45
Well, let's stay in touch. And if you need anything from me, just call me.
Umar Hameed 21:50
Thanks, Joe.
Umar Hameed 21:55
If you enjoyed this episode, please go to iTunes and leave a five-star rating. And if you're looking for more tools, go to my website at nolimitsselling.com. I've got a free mind training course there, that's going to teach you some insights from the world of Neuro-Linguistic Programming and that is the fastest way to get better results.