69: Twelve Steps to Profit: Sober Selling with Ian Bembenek

0:08 Scott Ingram: You're listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast, where we deconstruct world-class sales performers to provide insights and strategies to help you improve. To learn more, visit us at top1.fm. Here's your host, Scott Ingram. Today on the Sales Success Stories podcast, my guest is Ian Bembenek, who is the top salesman of all time at Rush Tech Support. Out of over 200 agents. His CEO, who introduced us… thank you, Andrew… described him as the sales master in remote IT. Welcome to the show, Ian.

0:41 Ian Bembenek: Thank you, Scott. Glad to be here.

0:43 Scott Ingram: So let's start like we always do and talk about the top 3 things that you believe have contributed most to your success.

0:51 Ian Bembenek: Yeah, I think for me, the top 3 things that have contributed to the most success for me has been focus, motivation, and my ability to read people.

1:01 Scott Ingram: So what, what I love about that, and I knew you were going to head down that just because of the notes you sent me earlier. I don't think anybody else in the history of the show, so over 2 and a half years, has just 3 bullets, boom, here they are, right, without sentences and everything else. And what's interesting is I was preparing for the webinar that, as folks listen to this, we have now done with Dale Carnegie and talking about some of the principles and the themes of the top sales performers. And one of the things that I did getting ready for that is I took all of these phrases and, and words and ideas that came out of the top 3 from every one of, of my guests. So I think we're up to, I think you'll be guest number 69. And I put those words into a word cloud. I put it into a word cloud tool just to see what would pop up and what would be some of the, the primary themes. And if you're listening to this and you'd like me to send you that word cloud, Just send an email to scott@top1.fm and I'm happy to send you… I did the image a couple of different ways, so I'll send you those images also. So just send me that email, put in the subject line, put word cloud or put Dale Carnegie webinar, and I will also find the link to that recording if you want to listen to that conversation as well. So, Ian, let's dig into these. Focus was actually one of those words that was very, very prominent in that word cloud. So what does that mean? Like, what are you focusing on? When and how?

2:34 Ian Bembenek: So for me, focus means when I'm at work and doing my job, everything in the outside world I have completely turned off. So friends, family members, everything. Everyone basically knows that unless it's an absolute emergency, it's going to be very, very hard to contact me while I'm at work, whether it's through a text message, a call, anything. I don't allow myself to really get distracted for that time period that I'm at work to speak with customers, to work, to make money, I shut everything off. Any of the issues or problems from the day prior or earlier in the day or things that I have going on later in the day, later in the week, I have a complete filter that I just shut them off, forget about the things earlier on, not worry about the things going on later that are coming up, and I'm just there in the present to get done what I need to get done every single day.

3:31 Scott Ingram: Now, are you working remotely yourself as well?

3:34 Ian Bembenek: Yes.

3:34 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So, so this is, I mean, very, very distinct and clear boundaries between work and life.

3:41 Ian Bembenek: Yeah, absolutely. I completely just focus on the moment, exactly what I'm doing. So perfectly put, it is just a complete boundary for when I'm at work and when I'm not at work.

3:52 Scott Ingram: Beautiful. Well, we'll come back to that and dig into that a little bit more when we get into your routines and habits and the way that you're structuring your day. But let's Let's talk about the motivation piece. I mean, how do you think about motivation in general and what motivates you?

4:05 Ian Bembenek: So for me, motivation is definitely going to be where I have come from in the past, where I'm at now, and what my plans are in the future. I have goals that I have set daily, weekly, monthly, yearly, and I'm very, very motivated throughout every single day, week, month, quarter, year to hit those goals that I have set for myself. So having those clear set goals gives you that extra motivation. A lot of people that I've spoken to, especially salesmen, you'll ask them, why'd you get into this profession? Or what are you hoping to get out of it? A lot of them will say, well, I want to make a lot of money, but they don't have a clear set goal to get there, whether it's I want to make X amount of dollars per hour, per day, per week, per month, per year. And then when you set those actual goals for yourself, it helps you to actually strive to get where you want to go.

5:03 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Again, lots, lots to come back to there. I'm most curious about… you talked about your, your third piece being the ability to read people, but you're working remotely. So what, what does that mean? Talk about how you're reading people, especially in a, in a remote type of role?

5:21 Ian Bembenek: It definitely… it makes it a lot harder than when you're actually in person speaking to them, because when it comes to building rapport with customers, I've done sales in almost every single type of field. So it's a lot easier when you're in person because you're going to build that rapport subconsciously with them, the way you just move your body, your emotions, and everything like that. But in terms of just doing it remotely, speaking to them over the phone, it's going to be a little more difficult I've just managed to have that ability to read people while talking to them over the phone. And the fact that you can kind of tell very early on in a conversation with a customer or a business owner if their speech patterns, if they talk quickly, usually they like it that the person they're talking to is gonna be speaking quickly as well. Or if they're slowing down their speech, there's pauses in between, they like to speak to someone that speaks the same way. Mirroring them is gonna help build their rapport. You can also pick up on the fact that if they like to listen more than they like to speak, or if they like to speak more than they like to listen, and you just got to pick up on them. You know, if you want to be speaking consistently throughout the conversation, I'm going to end up asking you one question. I'm going to sit back for a few minutes and I am just going to let you go on. But if you are someone who wants to listen more to the things that are being offered, I'm going to come at you with a whole lot of information.

6:48 Scott Ingram: Awesome. That's, that's really, really interesting. So let's talk about now just kind of the contextual piece. So what, what is your role? Who is Rush Tech Support and how did you get to number 1?

7:00 Ian Bembenek: So Rush Tech Support is owned by who you said earlier, Andrew Lasisse. It is a remote technical support company that offers remote technical support services for computers and other devices, whether it comes to, you know, doing repairs, support plans for business owners or individuals, as well as selling software and security programs for those devices.

7:26 Scott Ingram: And then what is, what is your role?

7:28 Ian Bembenek: So my role is on the customer service sales side of things. So making the initial contact with customers or follow up with current customers to get them on a new service plan, or if they've had a repair one time before, getting them upsold to an actual support plan, getting them on software protection for the devices so they don't continue to keep having the issues that they've had in the past. Or if they have, you know, all dependent on what they're looking for on their device, if they save a lot of files and documents, you set them up with cloud backup storage. If they do a lot of financials on the computer, you're going to set them up with some sort of identity theft protection. So my job is basically to get them on service plans, sell them on getting a repair on the computer, get them to see why it would be better and more beneficial for them to go with us rather than with somebody else.

8:21 Scott Ingram: Got it. Now, I'm really curious to hear how you're going to address this. I want to… I want you to quantify your results for us. And Andrew was super transparent and sent me a lot of detail to really demonstrate how successful you have been in comparison to the other folks in the organizations. I mean, it is super impressive. So talk Talk through that however you feel comfortable.

8:46 Ian Bembenek: Okay. So basically, a lot of my results will be about 80% of the customers that I speak to, I end up selling them on something. My average sale for an individual customer with one computer is going to be in the $500 range. My revenue brought into the company is on average about $650,000 in the year. And my income from that, I take in 25%.

9:13 Scott Ingram: Awesome. And then in, in comparison, I mean, the numbers that I'm looking at last year, for example, you were well over 2 times the number 2 performer. And from an all-time perspective, it looks like you got into the number 1 spot about 2 years sooner, or the number 2 individual who held the number 1 spot had been at the company 2 years longer than you. Is that, is that right?

9:40 Ian Bembenek: Yeah, it's about accurate. Accurate, I'd say my numbers are just around maybe slightly over double what the number 2 in the company is at for overall sales, whether it's through lifetime or excuse me, actually it's whether in the entire year or daily or whatever throughout that time period. And then in terms of lifetime sales for the company, the person that I finally bypassed to have the highest number of sales, they were working for Rush Tech Support for a little over 4 years, and it took me a year and a half to beat those numbers.

10:15 Scott Ingram: That's amazing. So, I mean, what is it? How are you able to do twice as much as the person who would be number 1 if you weren't there kicking them around?

10:27 Ian Bembenek: So, kind of the easiest way to explain it would just be the simple fact that I work twice as hard.

10:33 Scott Ingram: All right. Well, that was short and simple. Well, we'll come back to that because I definitely want to understand, you know, how are you doing that? Obviously, the focus that you're applying is certainly having an impact. What about… let's go back to the beginning. What's your origin story? How did you get into sales in the first place?

10:50 Ian Bembenek: So, I originally got into sales when I was 18 years old. And at that time, I did not have a job. I was in college and trying to find a job that would fit that schedule. And a friend of mine was working for an exterior remodeling company. They were canvassing, going door to door to sign people up to get free estimates, whether it was for windows, siding, roofing, doors, anything on the outside of the house that would need to be worked on, and spoke to me a little bit about it. They got me brought in to start doing that. Honestly, at first, it It was awful. It was extremely, extremely nerve-wracking. It was my first time in sales. I was getting dropped off to go canvass in these neighborhoods that I was completely unfamiliar with. I was definitely not an extrovert at all. And actually, I'm still not 100%. And at that time, I'd go up to these houses and I would be shaking like a leaf. I would be sweating. I'd be so uncomfortable. And at first it was absolutely miserable. I did not think I was going to be able to make it.

12:05 Scott Ingram: So how did you make it and why have you stayed in and how did you get to Rush from there?

12:10 Ian Bembenek: So how I made it, a little funnier as well, it's one of my favorite sales stories. I was actually about to be fired and let go because of how awful I was performing. I was not getting anybody signed up while everybody else was signing up 1 to 2 people per day. The manager of the canvassers, the door-to-door guys, brought me into his office and had a sit-down with me explaining that it's not really working out. They're just wasting money on me for my hourly wage to have me come in every day because I'm not producing any results. Long story short, I convinced him to allow me to have one more chance where I could try to get it figured out, go out for one more time, try to get somebody signed up. And I tanked. I did not get a single person. Again, absolutely awful. And again, convinced him to give me just one more opportunity. And that second opportunity that he gave me, I went out and I managed to sign up 10 people that day to have us come out and give them the estimates on their home. And really the way I finally got around it. I just got around that mental barrier of the fact that I realized there's nothing to really be completely nervous about because I am never going to see these people again. Why on earth do I have any reason to be nervous about it? Sure, it's uncomfortable and weird that you're walking up to somebody's house that doesn't know you, doesn't want you there. Let's be honest, someone knocks on your door, You're not very excited about that. And I just finally realized, why does it matter? I'm either going to be told to leave or they're going to be interested and want to hear a little bit about the information that I have for them and realized I'm never going to see them again. So if they tell me to get off their property, go away, it doesn't matter. That's the last interaction that I'm ever going to have with that individual. So there really is no reason to be extremely nervous.

14:15 Scott Ingram: So it was really just mindset and you sort of figured out a way, okay, I need to get over all the fear and anxiety and everything else I'm dealing with. And, you know, here's the new way I'm going to think about this because I'm not going to see these folks again. And then we just go have these conversations.

14:31 Ian Bembenek: Absolutely. 100%.

14:32 Scott Ingram: And what was that period of time like? How long from the time that you started until you had that breakthrough did that take?

14:39 Ian Bembenek: It took about a week and a half to 2 weeks before I finally had that breakthrough. So the first week and a half to 2 weeks, I was going out canvassing, knocking on these doors with absolutely zero results. So it definitely made sense that they had to have a sit-down with me and have a talk with me about the fact that it's probably not going to work out there.

15:01 Scott Ingram: Interesting. So where do you go from there? I mean, what's, what's the journey that takes you from knocking on doors, selling exterior estimates to Rush Tech Support where you've been for the last couple of years?

15:14 Ian Bembenek: So it was definitely a long journey. I stuck with that company for just about a year. After 6 months of doing the door-to-door and canvassing, they actually asked me if I would like to be the individual that would go out to the homes to give the estimates. And of course, money-hungry salesman, I jumped at the opportunity to be able to do that. And that was a whole different ballpark. That was the first real sales position that I ever held. Now, where you're just having a quick conversation with the person to get them signed up to have a salesman actually go out, this one was I was a salesman or a quote-unquote project coordinator for the business that I would go out to the house, walk around with them, talk to the individual, measure up whether it's the windows or the siding, roof, the doors, talk to them about the products and actually present them with the information of my company and our product to try to get them sold on whatever it was they were looking for that day. And the significant difference is you're going from going door to door and having a 2 to 3 minute conversation with someone to anywhere from 2 to 5 hours. That I would be in that individual's home talking to them about what they're looking for. So that was my big first transition. And then over the years, went to many different sales positions from being that guy in Sam's Club who is at a booth with speakers grabbing the attention of individuals walking by to bring them over to get sold on that. And purchased that product to, again, actually made my way back around to doing door-to-door for energy, gas and electricity, getting them signed up for that. I've done car sales and that would be the next biggest one followed by getting into Rush Tech Support.

17:18 Scott Ingram: Nice. Now, if you were starting over today, knowing all that you know now, is there anything that you would've done differently in terms of that progression?

17:26 Ian Bembenek: Maybe not in terms of that progression because it taught me so many different things, but I definitely would have earlier on got into that mindset of not having to worry so much because even though I picked that up early on in the door-to-door that I didn't have to have the nerves that I did, every single time that I changed positions, moved up the ladder, those nerves would come right back. Because, to be honest, I have horrible social anxiety. So sometimes it does surprise me that I perform so well in sales.

18:04 Scott Ingram: And so how are you overcoming that? So clearly you're an introvert. Clearly, you know, you struggle with the anxiety pieces. And so how are you overcoming that each time?

18:17 Ian Bembenek: So again, that's kind of going to circle back to that focus and motivation. I'm a big introvert. Yeah, I have a lot of social anxiety, but somehow at this point, I definitely just managed to completely shut that off and not focus or worry on it. I kind of just put on a whole different mask when it comes to the sales and customer service and not really worry about any of those things anymore. And again, I have those motivations that I have goals set that I want to hit every day. Every week, every month, every quarter, every year.

18:52 Scott Ingram: Awesome. I can't wait to get to that, but we're not there yet. So what's your favorite sales story? I mean, I love, I love that, that first story, but maybe this is one related to a specific deal. Maybe you, maybe you won a giant deal or maybe you lost something and it taught you something. What's, what's your favorite story?

19:13 Ian Bembenek: So it'd be safe to say I actually have 2 favorite stories. One was from when I was back and doing the exterior remodeling sales. So I was doing pretty well in the… they had 2 offices, one in Maryland, one in Delaware. And the Maryland office, I was beating out all the other salesmen. I was doing very well there. And then in the Delaware office, they were shorthanded one day and had a whole lot of leads that they had to get out. And they were not going to be able to hit that number with getting salesmen out to every single one of the houses that they needed to get to. So they brought 3 of us, up from the Maryland office over to the Delaware office so we could go out. And the Delaware office had not been performing very well at all. And it was one thing that was brought up multiple times with the fact that they, they brought this new salesman in who had been doing the actual sales of the exterior remodeling for just about a month and a half, came up from there, and I was sent out on one of their leads that they had that had the least, in their eyes, least chance of selling. They thought these were just complete price shoppers. And I went out, sat down with the individuals, talked about what they were looking to get. And 3 hours later, I sold them on a $13,000 roof. And it was a story that was told over and over from the Delaware office, how none of their guys were performing. And they sent this random kid from their Maryland office to go out and got the only sale that day for their business. And then the other one is not really so much of a huge sales story. It's going to be more of Inrush Tech Support here, how I've learned over the years to not just… no longer am I really looking at things in terms of closing a deal. Now I look more of it as opening a door. With an individual. And one of my favorite ones now, and it happens a lot, but usually not as significantly, was about 4 months ago, I sold this woman on a $600 support and security plan for her computer. And then a few months later, she called in, asked for me specifically, said, I have 3 more computers and a server that I want to have signed up. Maybe about 20 minutes of conversation, she signs up for $4,150 worth of support and security for those devices, of which I got 25% of the commission out of that. So again, that's where I just say now it's not close, close, close, always be closing. It's let's open some doors. Let's have people love the company and you build that solid foundation and rapport that when things like that come along, They're just going to call in and ask for you by name. And it's more or less just going to be a quick conversation of, I want this, this, and this. What's your recommendation for them? Let's get it signed up.

22:17 Scott Ingram: Nice. So what are you most proud of from an accomplishment perspective? And then that could be sales or maybe it's something else beyond that.

22:24 Ian Bembenek: So what I am actually most proud of would be the fact that I am 2 and a half years sober now. And it is something that through all my years in sales, it was definitely the biggest challenge that I've had recently as well. Through all my years in sales, it was always getting a little bit of liquid courage to get over those nerves to be able to go out. And I definitely never thought that I would ever get back into sales because I don't drink anymore. And I thought it would be a pretty tough transition for me. So definitely my biggest accomplishment would be the fact that I managed to get and stay sober.

23:10 Scott Ingram: Well, and so talk about that some more. So how was that happening? I mean, what was the impact while you were selling and drinking? And then what drove you to make that decision to become sober? And then I shouldn't be asking so many damn questions in a row, but I'm sure you'll kind of work through it. And then, you know, how did you then decide to, okay, now that I'm sober, I'm actually going to go back and do this. Whereas this, this was, you know, one of the, one of the tools that you used to probably manage the anxiety and everything else.

23:41 Ian Bembenek: Right. So that would actually be a good reason as to why you would hear in my previous story of the different sales positions. That I've been in throughout the years prior to Rush Tech Support. Many of the sales positions that I held were for 6 months to a year at a time. I would go into that industry and I would absolutely kill it. I would beat out all the other salesmen, have the highest performing top numbers in every single aspect of that industry. I would get burnt out so fast. Because I was always drinking nonstop. So over time, as you get into the industry, you build your funds back up, you start going out partying, having fun in the evening, staying up later. And then very quickly you would get… for me, I would get burnt out very, very fast. So my numbers would fall off or I was showing up to work late. I was leaving early. Or I just wasn't showing up at all. So eventually, a lot of those positions, I was asked not to come back. So that is the big reason that I went through all of those different positions throughout the years as quickly as I did. About 10 different sales positions I held, probably a little bit more than that actually, and a couple other different odd jobs in between. But my biggest track record has always been in sales. The reason, the way that I got back into sales working for Rush Tech Support was actually it fell into my lap. I was never planning on getting back into sales. I had my… I finished off and got my Bachelor of Science in Business Marketing, and I was more going to go that direction working for an organization. But along comes Hurricane Irma. And I started seeing this woman shortly before that. And Hurricane Irma is actually how I met Andrew Lasisse, the owner of Rush Tech Support. We… my now fiancée is best friends with Andrew Lasisse's wife. So when that hurricane comes along, we're invited to stay at their house. During that interaction, Andrew and I became good friends, hanging out. And shortly down the line, I was not working. I was doing some odd jobs. When you're first getting sober, it's not always easy to find jobs right away because you left a little bit of destruction in your path and you're trying to figure things out. Pretty much Andrew hired me out of pity because my now fiancée was talking to his wife about the fact that I needed a job. He really didn't want to hire me at first because I was this random guy that had just been brought into his house, introduced into their world, and didn't really think much of it. He just said, hey, we have a position available. You can come in if you want. And if you were to talk to Andrew again, he'd probably tell you he wanted me to turn down the position. And at first, it took me about 2 months to take him up on his offer. Because again, I didn't want to get into sales. I did not think I was going to succeed because I was not going to have that liquid courage in my body. I thought I was going to go into the position where they would look at it and go, okay, he has a decade of sales experience. He must be somewhat decent. And then I would go in and I would fall flat on my face. Somehow managed to go into the position and That ended up being far from the case because I had all this experience in the past that I still managed to be able to bring it in and use it today.

27:37 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. Now, I know… well, 2 questions. First, what was the impetus? Like, why did you decide to get sober?

27:43 Ian Bembenek: So I decided to get sober because my life became completely unmanageable. I could not hold down a job. I was not able to show up to anything on time whatsoever. I was in my mid-20s. I was living in my folks' house and something just had to change. They actually had an intervention and brought it up to me that you need to go to rehab. You need to see some professionals. And if you do that, we're going to ship you off to Florida. I'm originally from Maryland. And I actually jumped at that opportunity because I had tried to get sober many times before. But the problem was I would get sober for a short period and then I would go right back to hanging out with all of my old friends that were doing the same thing. And I'd stay hanging out with them at bars, not drinking, which…

28:43 Scott Ingram: there's only so much willpower in the world, right?

28:45 Ian Bembenek: There is only so much willpower in the world to be able to do that. And if you're If you're getting sober, but you're hanging out at places where you're the only one sober, it's not going to last a whole long time. So when they made that proposition to me that they were going to ship me off to Florida after I got cleaned up and I'd have a fresh start there, at that point in my life, my mid-20s, living in my folks' house, excited to have maybe $50 in my wallet to be able to go out to the bar and drink, there wasn't much of a downside to be changing things significantly like that.

29:22 Scott Ingram: Gotcha. Now, I know that… I don't know the details of it. I know that a big part of Andrew's story is a sobriety story as well. Was he sober before you guys connected, or did you somehow instigate his path?

29:34 Ian Bembenek: No, he definitely was sober prior. So that's how I got to meet all of them as well. My fiancée's sober, he's sober, his wife's sober. They're all in a network of that, and that's how they became friends. That's how I got introduced to them. Andrew has just over 5 years and I have about 2 and a half years. So that's also been a great blessing. There is the fact that literally everyone in my life that I surround myself with is sober, other than just family members that we're going out to dinner with or see or visit. Those are pretty much the only ones that aren't sober and drink, but they they don't drink with excess. It's just the normal glass of wine for dinner kind of thing. And that doesn't really bother me. So I'm never really in a position like that anymore where I'm out at the bars seeing people drink and get sloppy nonstop.

30:31 Scott Ingram: Nice. Well, it's interesting. We talk a lot on this show about just who you're surrounding yourself with and the mentors and things like that. And obviously, that environment applies massively in this type of a scenario as well.

30:45 Ian Bembenek: Oh, absolutely. Absolutely. So it's not only me surrounding myself with other folks that are sober, but everyone else I surround myself as well are very much high achievers.

30:59 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Awesome. Awesome. So let's dig in now to just the habits and routines and the way that you're operating. And then the way that I like to start this is just walk us through a day, right? The alarm clock goes off. What time did that happen? And literally give us the blow-by-blow until your head hits the pillow.

31:18 Ian Bembenek: Okay. So my mornings start at 7:00 AM. I get up and I am a smoker. So I go grab my coffee and smoke a cigarette in the morning. I will not bring my phone with me for the first 15 minutes of being awake. Just take in the morning, kind of have a little bit of silence and meditation to myself. While I have my morning coffee. Shortly after that, then I'll be hopping onto checking my emails and our social media pages. And about an hour after being awake, that is when I get in the car and I make my way to the gym. I go to the gym 4 days a week, Monday through Thursday, for exercise, getting the blood flowing, try to stay in shape there. And then come back home. I will then check my emails and I will get ready for the day, make my way into work. We work 11 to 7 at Rush Tech Support. So our day starts a little later, also ends a little later. In the evenings, then I get back home and I am also back to work then as well, checking things online, managing the social media pages, checking the emails, and then finally get a chance to put my feet up for about an hour, hour and a half before resetting the clock and doing it all over again.

32:45 Scott Ingram: And then give us the detail inside that 11 to 7 work block. How are you structuring the work part of the day?

32:53 Ian Bembenek: So the way I structure my work part of the day is I have all my appointments set early in the morning. So first thing in the morning when I get into the office, that is when I have all my already set appointments with individuals that I know are going to be a lot easier to sell, get on board, or have a good conversation with that's gonna end up being lucrative. 'Cause I've definitely 100% found that if you get those quick, short, easy sales in the morning, it just starts your day right. The last thing you wanna do is walk into the office And you're going to end up talking to the worst individual that's going to take up all your mental energy, stress you out, and that's going to be your focus for the rest of the day. Whatever tone you set at the beginning of the day for work is what you're going to end up carrying. At least for me, it ends up being what I carry with me through the rest of the day. So if I set up in the morning all those appointments, easy sales, laydowns immediately for the morning, I'm just going to have that mental energy through the rest of the day for when I am cold calling, reaching out to new or prospective clients to try to get appointments set up with them or get them sold on spot.

34:12 Scott Ingram: So that's a really interesting idea, right? So it's really about starting on a high and then just kind of riding that momentum. So when and how long are you spending on the prospecting side of things?

34:24 Ian Bembenek: I'd say on the prospecting side of things, it comes a little later in the day. I'm usually spending about 4 hours doing that in terms of cold calling, prospecting, trying to get new leads and appointments set up. The other first half of the day is going to be focused all on the, the current customers, the upsells, the leads, the appointments that I already have.

34:46 Scott Ingram: Gotcha. Now, you said that, you know, the, the main thing that you're doing is you're just working twice as hard as, as everybody else. You're not working twice as long, right? You're working that same 8-hour day. So Where does the 2x come in?

35:01 Ian Bembenek: So for me with that, I see a lot, especially because this is remote sales, we're working on computers. I do notice when looking over at some of the other guys' computers, because I'm also a sales trainer there and try to help these guys to get their numbers up. You know, we're working from a computer a lot of times making cold calls. It is going to be times where you're gonna see other individuals listening to music or playing videos on their phone and they're gonna be cutting into their productivity by doing that. So even though I have all these folks signed up and I'm pitching more often than I'm actually calling, I'm still making about 200 or so calls a day. My numbers are gonna go down the longer I'm on the phone actually selling and pitching. And my numbers are ending up being a lot higher than those folks because Again, it comes back to that focus where I just shut absolutely everything off for that time period that I am at the office. I'm working. I'm there to work. I have to be there for the 8 hours. That's when I'm scheduled and that's when my time block is going to be there. So why am I not going to absolutely maximize every single opportunity and chance to make a dollar while I am there? I can do all the other things that I want to do, listen to music, watch videos, play on my phone, talk to folks, you know, friends or family. Family before work, after work, and on the weekends. So being able to just shut it off is where that 2x comes in.

36:36 Scott Ingram: Got it. So what is… I mean, walk us through that process. Like, what is the shutdown, shut off, just creating that, that bubble of focus?

36:45 Ian Bembenek: The weird thing for me, it's not really a process, honestly, because my cell phone still sits right on my desk, but I'm not getting all those messages because early on I just set I set that boundary with friends and family that it's going to be next to impossible to reach me while I'm at work unless it is an absolute emergency. That's when they know, you know, if I call him, he's going to answer the phone because he's going to be under the impression that it's an emergency. And everything else, you know, I see these notifications for Facebook and other things, just completely ignore them. You know, I go out every hour or so to have a 5-minute cigarette. I can get on my phone then. There's no need to have it interrupt my day while I'm actually sitting there focused on working.

37:37 Scott Ingram: Got it. Okay. So a lot of it is, it's not that you're blocking it or avoiding the distraction. You're ignoring it, one. And two, you've basically just trained your friends and family that this is the way it is. Like, you don't interrupt me while I'm at work.

37:53 Ian Bembenek: Right. Because eventually, like, take for instance you, Scott. If we're good friends and you're texting me occasionally throughout the day or on the weekends, and then you start seeing through the actual workday that I'm in office, in the office you text me something and it takes me an hour to respond or 2 hours or 3 hours or whatever it is. And then at the end of the day or whenever the time comes, I message you back saying, hey, sorry, I was working at that time. I wasn't able to get back to you. Quickly, you're just going to pick up the fact that it's going to be pretty hard to reach me when I'm at work unless it's an emergency.

38:29 Scott Ingram: Got it. Got it. Now, are there other habits or routines that are really central to your success?

38:35 Ian Bembenek: I'd say one of my biggest habits, I guess not exactly a habit, maybe more of a mindset at work is, so you've seen my numbers and everything that has me placed way higher than everybody else. My biggest thing though is I don't act like it when I am at work. I will always keep a beginner's mindset. I do not like to ever walk into a room and think that I am the smartest person there. I may be the smartest person at that one individual thing that I'm very, very good at, but if I can walk into a room or even at work and I can still pay attention and listen to the other salesmen that are there, perhaps they managed to close something that I was struggling with. I don't care how much better I am than that person. I'm probably going to end up trying exactly what they just did to close that. So basically for me, the biggest thing to my success is the fact that I'm going to end up listening and hearing all these other folks and I'm going to try to put them all together. If I can take 1% from you, 1% from 10, 15, 20 other people, All those people, if I take 1% of what they're very, very, very good at, that maybe they're better than me from 10 different people, I just made myself 10% better.

39:56 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Ian, you literally have me grinning from ear to ear with that sentiment, right? Because I think one of the things that I've seen consistently throughout this show that tends to be very, I think, stereotype smashing is this idea that, you know, people think of the top salespeople as these super arrogant, I'll do anything to anybody to win the deal and to make money and everything else. And I actually find what you just described is so much more common, right? This, this idea that they care the most about the outcome of their customers and they're humble enough to recognize, I don't know, I don't know everything, right? There's so much more that I can know. There's so much better that I could be. So why shut out the opportunity to learn more and be more?

40:47 Ian Bembenek: Oh yeah, you're definitely gonna find salesmen how you just explained that are going to have that arrogant mindset. And don't get me wrong, I've been there.

40:56 Scott Ingram: Yeah, yeah, yeah.

40:57 Ian Bembenek: And I didn't last is the way to… the best way to look at it. I've been there. I've had that arrogant mindset that I was the best. And guess what? I did not last in that industry because at the end of the day, everything is evolving. The entire sales process is evolving because of… it's an information So everything is changing and you have to change with it. So yeah, you can look back and have that old sales mindset of always be closing, or you can look at it like I do in the new sales mindset that you're always opening doors. You can act like you're the absolute best and smartest and never take anybody else's ideas, opinions, and kind of implement them, and then you're never gonna change. Ever. And Andrew will tell you he's an awful salesman, but we were hanging out one day and he said one little line of the fact that a repair, a one-time repair is $250 through them and a support plan's $500 for a year of support. Made a quick little line that he said to someone and I'd never used it before. And again, Andrew will say that he's the worst salesman ever. He just simply said, hey, you can get a one-time repair for $250 or you can get a support plan for $500. So basically if you need 2 repairs throughout the year, support plan's paid for itself and so much more. I had never used it prior. Andrew's sales numbers are obviously… he's the owner of the company, so he's not on there doing sales. They're nowhere even close to mine. 2 days later, I was implementing that in my pitch.

42:27 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. So let's talk more about the goal setting that you're doing. Obviously, that is really, really core to your success as well. So walk, walk us through the process. Just, just talk about goals in general and how you're setting them up and how you're reviewing them and all that stuff.

42:42 Ian Bembenek: Okay, so my quick simple goals would be daily I have a goal of $5,000 in sales for the company. I don't always hit that goal. Actually, I rarely hit that goal, but I make sure to have it as a goal that is feasible, that is gonna be very hard for me to attain. On average, I'm hitting about $3,000 in sales a day, so I'm about $2,000 Shy of that. And then for a week, I set my goal to be about $18,000 in sales. I'm hitting closer to $15,000. For 2 weeks, that's the full pay period, I like to have my sales goal at $35,000 in sales, usually on average hitting anywhere from $27,000 to $32,000 in sales. And then on top of that, I have my income goals from that, that I like to be making a certain amount every 2 weeks from the work that I'm putting in. So I do like to be making about $100 an hour for the work that I'm putting in. Usually, I like my checks every 2 weeks to come out to just about $6,000 to $7,000. And my goals further on are less of exact financial goals, but what I am looking to get out of those financial goals. So I am, you know, at first it was saving up to purchase a car. I did that. And then shortly after that, I bought a new car and then it was saving up to buy a house. So I did that. And within the year, I want to get into real estate, into flipping homes. So I have these goals that I keep setting for myself throughout the the day, the week, the month, the year to just kind of keep me on track.

44:35 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So really simple. I mean, and it sounds like you're primarily using the revenue numbers and then really your paycheck as the ultimate barometer.

44:45 Ian Bembenek: Yeah, definitely. Because it's, again, it's on both because it's not just the dollar amount, but it's also the physical things that you're looking to attain. Because for me, Yes, I'm very, very analytical and I look at things with a number almost on every single thing that I do is going to be, okay, this is what my time is worth to me. I want to be making this much. This is how much I want to get out of my check. If I'm doing side business stuff that I'm working on, I want to be making this amount. If I'm doing it on my free time, which my free time is going to be worth more to me. So at the end, over those 2 weeks, I want this amount of money. I want to make this much each month, each quarter, each year. Then on top of it, I have all those physical goals that I want to hit because you don't want to just have, okay, I want to be rich and I want to have all this money and make all this money, but you also on the other side want to set yourself the physical things that you're looking to purchase or get with that money so you have a reason backing why you're looking to make that money. Got it.

45:49 Scott Ingram: Got it. Now, what about the tools and apps that you're using to drive all of this? What does that look like?

45:56 Ian Bembenek: So at work, the main thing that we're using is now Freshworks. We used to use Five9 as the platform which we were making the calls and keeping track of appointments. And they were using that integrated with Freshdesk and using on top of that Podio. And the company now recently, about 2 months ago, which has been an uncomfortable transition, but one for the better, has been switching the entire system to the Freshworks system because it's all meant to work together. Doing what they had been doing with Five9 and Podio, it was never meant to be on the scale that they're at, which it was fine at the beginning, but now it has caused a lot of problems with communication. So they're making an entire transition, which is a little bit uncomfortable, but it is definitely for the better, and you're seeing it rather quickly. So the entire system makes it easier for calling people, setting up the appointments with them, keeping the notes which are gonna work well in between the offices so that way the notes that an individual salesman is easier for the managers to see, for the technicians to see, and working the other way around. So if one of my customers, because whenever I sign up a new customer, that's my customer for life. They're my exclusive customer. No other salesman is able to touch it, and same if another salesman signs up a new customer, it's theirs. So whenever that individual customer is calling in with a problem something looked at, fixed, the technicians putting down that note on there, getting it taken care of, and whether it gets sent over to me shortly after that fix for me to talk to the customer, maybe pitch them on something, or if I'm ending up pitching them on something a month, 2, 3, 6 months later, I'm gonna have all these notes there from what they had called in to have worked on. So it's much more of a personal touch. Because I can ask and easily have those notes to ask, hey, how's everything going with your Netflix or your email or your online banking or whatever issue you had? The blue screen issue before, have you been having any of those driver problems again? So it allows us to really have a personal touch because all of our different offices and all the different parts of the company are now communicating together far better than they used to. And then for me personally, the apps that help me track my daily life in and out of work, tasks that I need to get done at work or at home. One great one for me that I recently started using in the last couple months has been Trello because, you know, especially salesmen, we have a tendency to want to do 10, 15, 20 different things. And try to multitask and hit all of them. Trello really allows me to put down, okay, I want to do these 20 different things, and then every single day I can move 5 of them over and say, I'm going to knock out these 5. So instead of working your butt off during the day before or after work or on the weekend, feeling like you did so much but you really didn't accomplish a lot, now it's, okay, I go in, I get the first thing done, I push it to done, get the second thing, third, fourth, fifth, So instead of working really, really hard and not accomplishing a lot, I am working smarter and accomplishing more because I'm focused for 15, 20 minutes, an hour on that individual thing till it's done. So I move it over to finished and get that taken care of. And then using for my multiple different emails, I've been using Thunderbird for that. That helps a lot. I'm on Facebook and Instagram a lot with the promotion of the business as well. And I'm going to be looking more into LinkedIn because I haven't really messed with that in the last year and a half. But I've heard, especially with Profinder, so many different things that you can be using that for. And then with the social media pages, I've been using Buffer to be able to get all the multiple posts as well throughout the day. And by far, I would say my favorite app on my phone is Audible, by far. Love it. Because whenever I'm in the car or I'm at the gym, anything that I'm doing that… I know it's bad to say if you're in the car, taking less of your focus, but as you've been driving for years, you kind of just get it. You drive. And it's not like I'm multitasking, reading different things, but I can listen. And try to get in as much information as possible. I try to shoot for 50, 60, 70 books a year.

50:45 Scott Ingram: That's fantastic. So one quick confirmation, Trello, T-R-E-L-L-O, correct?

50:51 Ian Bembenek: Absolutely. Yep.

50:52 Scott Ingram: Yep. And then on the Audible front, so I love… I'm also a huge Audible fan. You're consuming a lot. I mean, if you're reading 50, 70 books a year, give us the Top 2 or 3 in the last year, biggest impact on you?

51:07 Ian Bembenek: So biggest impact for me that I really liked, there's definitely a bunch, but Exactly What to Say by Phil M. Jones. Great book. It just is a list of these, the magic words is part of the title that you can use to help influence. Customers that you're talking to. And it's just, it's not big major changes. It's just a slight change in maybe one word that you would use in a sentence. And then on top of that, I love Sales Revelation by Brian Tracy, Zig Ziglar, a bunch of big names in that. And then another big one that I'm listening to right now that is a big influence is Miracle Morning. Morning by Hal Elrod.

51:58 Scott Ingram: Nice, nice. There, and there is, so Hal's got another book coming out or maybe has just come out. He also has a special flavor of Miracle Morning specifically for sales professionals. So really, really solid stuff there. And I'll get with Ian afterwards. We might put together a longer, a longer list and we'll put those into the show notes. If you go over to top1.fm/69, we'll have all of the juicy stuff. Stuff in there. And you're also welcome to comment on that, on that post or on this episode and just kind of share your thoughts and connect with Ian and all of that good stuff. I just finished reading, listening to on Audible, which is a very apparently different experience because there's a lot of kind of in-between commentary that made it really interesting, a book called Can't Hurt Me by a guy named David Goggins. And I talked about this. There's a, there's a tip on Daily Sales Tips where I mentioned this book. It's around, I don't know, 119, I think is the tip number. The, the, it starts with mindset. I think the title of the tip is Mindset Can't Hurt Me. That book is, is mind-blowing. This, this guy is from a mindset perspective. If you really want to dig into that and understand that, it's, it's a whole new level. And one of the things, one of the things that he talked about, and I think it might be a quote, I might have to go look this up because I was thinking about it and thinking about you earlier in the conversation, Ian, and that is Somebody's talking about out of… and David is a Navy SEAL and special ops kind of guy. He says that, you know, for every 100 people on the battlefield, 10 probably shouldn't be there. 80 of them are just there, right? But 10 of them, 9 of them are incredible, right? And making a huge difference and they're really impacting things. But the one one, right? The 1 out of 100 is making all the difference and really moving things. And I really think about that just in terms of you and a lot of the folks that I try and interview on the show where, you know, out of 200 people, you're putting up 2 times, over 2 times when I look at last year's numbers, what the next best guy is doing, right? Not the… we're not talking about 2 times the average. We're talking about 2 times becomes the second best guy. So I, I think just that, that impact and that level of, of thinking and performance and mindset is, is so crazy. Have you read that book?

54:31 Ian Bembenek: I have not. I just looked it up though, and, uh, I think I'm gonna have to check that on my next one.

54:35 Scott Ingram: Gotta get it. And then hit me up after you, after you read it. I think, uh, it'll be fun to talk about.

54:39 Ian Bembenek: Absolutely.

54:40 Scott Ingram: So what about the rest of your… you, you started to answer this, this question certainly with, with that, with that piece, because I like to ask about people's information diet. So, you know, what are you reading? What are you watching? What are you listening to and where? And I know it's not happening from 11 to 7, and I, and I know you're doing a lot of Audible. What, what else?

54:59 Ian Bembenek: So really, that's, that's the main thing there. And I'm doing it, you know, in the morning when I'm relaxing, having my coffee, on my drive to the gym, while I'm at the gym, on my drive home from the gym. I listen to it on the way to work, and I'm also listening to it on the way home from work. If I ever have our 7-year-old in the car and we're going out shopping, I'm listening to that. I don't listen to it while I have my fiancée in the car because she absolutely hates it. But our 7-year-old will put up with it and listen to it. And I think, hey, if it's gonna seep into her brain now, fantastic, because she'll have all that information coming in and have a head start over me. 'Cause I definitely was not listening to anything like this before. And then on top of that, on Facebook, I'm in a lot of, between business, entrepreneur, as well as sales groups. And I go through that and read all the different things in there, and I put some of my advice on things to help folks out on there, as well as listening and reading some of the advice that other sales professionals are giving each other, other business owners are giving each other, to try to learn as much from that as well.

56:15 Scott Ingram: Nice. Now, a lot of folks who listen to the show know that I am a… what I think of as a conscientious Facebook objector. I disabled my Facebook account a few years ago just because I… well, for a lot of reasons, but one of the main reasons is I just find it to be a bottomless pit of distraction. And so, I don't need that. But for those who are engaged on Facebook, what's your favorite sales group that you're actively involved with that that provides some value for you?

56:43 Ian Bembenek: So my favorite one, we have our own that we have a Facebook group, Andrew and I created for our other business. But the one that I like is Sales Talk with Sales Pros. It has its ups and downs. There are a lot of egotistical salesmen in there kind of bullying other salesmen that have questions. But if you just kind of ignore all that and look at the core useful information in there, there is a lot of good stuff. Stuff, and I like to contribute as much as possible as well.

57:15 Scott Ingram: That's awesome. I wanted to go back to something that you talked about earlier, and that is listening to the audiobooks with your kid in the car. It's funny, I have almost the exact same setup. My girls are fine to listen to that stuff. My wife just won't put up with it, mostly because it's not the content that she objects to, it's the way that I listen because I can't listen at 1x. I'm like minimum 1.5x. 5, often 2x, and she's just like, you got to be kidding me. I can't, I can't deal with this. And I, and, and by the same token, I can't slow it down. I just, I can't deal with 1x. So, so we just, we just turn on, uh, we turn on KUT, which is the, the local NPR station, and then everybody's happy.

58:00 Ian Bembenek: So it's really funny you say that because same very big issue. First, she doesn't really want to listen to like business books and everything that I'm listening to, but second is because I listen to it at 2x, 2.5x dependent, sometimes even 3x, just dependent on the reader and the speed at which they read it. So some of them you can bump up to 3x, which at first I thought was mind-blowing. But if you just, when you first turn it on, you bump it up to like the fastest speed that they have. And well, maybe not the fastest, but really, really fast. Listen to it on that and you can't really pay attention to it because it's moving so quickly. And then you bump it down. Then that's where I found you can start listening to it on the really fast speeds and still pick up everything. But it's so funny that you said that because my fiancée makes a joke out of the fact that she thinks it's absolutely ridiculous and gives her anxiety at times because it just sounds like a bunch of chipmunks talking and screaming at you when you're listening to it. But just like you said, I don't really want to listen to it on 1x, especially a lot of them speak very, very slow. Then it's, you know, it seems like they speak really slow to me now when I listen on 1x. So I have to listen on those faster speeds, and she absolutely hates it.

59:21 Scott Ingram: That's so funny. And it's actually an interesting idea to go from, from really, really fast to just really fast, because I usually tell people just, you know, you get used to it, right? It's… and the podcast app I use, I use an app called Pocket Casts. And what I love most about Pocket Casts is that you can create playlists and just sort of order the episodes. And so I don't have to… when one episode episode's done, I'm right into the next one with no action, which is great when you're driving in the car, right? Whereas if you're using iTunes or whatever, or whatever it is, Apple Podcasts, one episode finishes and then you have to take an action to go pick the next thing. The other thing that Pocket Cast does is you can increase the speed in tenths of a percent, right? So you can listen at 1.1x and 1.2x. And so, you know, I just say, look, creep up there and you ultimately kind of get to these these higher speeds. And, you know, anyway, we could go on about this forever, but I want to hear about… you're obviously consuming a lot of this information, being thoughtful about your approach. Do you subscribe to a particular sales philosophy?

1:00:26 Ian Bembenek: So, say a couple. It's kind of hard for me to think of them right off the spot, but one of the biggest ones that I've always subscribed to 100% is the customer is always right. Even when you know they're not and you want to disagree with what they're saying or they're being rude, at the end of the day, the customer is 100% always right. If they want to rant about things, maybe they had a bad experience and they're with your company and they're talking to you and ranting to you about it. I've turned a lot of those around because I just sit back, I shut I let them rant, throw in a few, mm-hmm, you're right, I'm sorry, things like that. And I've managed to turn them around. And you'd actually be surprised, in some of them instances, sold them in the same conversation to get them on board with more or re-signing up. Just because you just sit back, shut up, even though you feel and know deep down that what they're saying is absolutely ridiculous. Heck, you could have a conversation recorded from the last conversation that they're saying all these things about, and you could definitely hit them with proof and say, that's not true. But at the end of the day, what's that going to do for you? You're just going to lose that customer. You're going to lose that open door and potentially, usually, have them either leave a bad review or tell all their friends and family members to never go with you. But what I have found is, and also in a lot of the audiobooks, you hear this exact The exact same thing. The best thing is a customer with a happy customer with a big mouth, but even better than that is an upset customer with a real big mouth because that customer is upset and then you kill them with the best customer service ever. And statistics have shown that they will then be your biggest advocate telling everybody how amazing their customer service experience was. They had this issue or problem. That really upset them, but the customer service just blew them out of the water, and now they're a customer for life.

1:02:37 Scott Ingram: So then how would you describe your style?

1:02:40 Ian Bembenek: Very laid back is how I would describe it, and definitely other people have described it as very, very laid back. I'm not going in high pressure. I'm more just sitting back asking a whole lot of questions instead of regurgitating and telling people so much information about what we do or the products or services that we offer, I ask a lot of questions and get the customer to speak as much as humanly possible, and I'm very laid back and relaxed about it, so that way they're very comfortable and want to tell me all that information, because the best thing that you can do is get all the information on the face of the earth out of that person, because then they're inevitably going to be telling you the problem of which your company, your organization is going to help them solve. And I'm not completely laid back the entire time, but the entire beginning, say 90% of the conversation, I'm very, very laid back until the very end when numbers are coming in. And then I'm a little more aggressive and go right into it. Hit them with the numbers, assume the sale.

1:03:46 Scott Ingram: Got it. So is there anything else kind of in that? It sounds like your process is fairly transactional, right? This, this is essentially a one-call close type of environment, right? You're having this conversation, you're talking through the issues, you're presenting a solution. Solution, and then trying to wrap up the deal at that point. Is there anything else that you're doing to conclude that transaction?

1:04:07 Ian Bembenek: Yeah. And it's sometimes, a lot of times it is one time, but not all the time, because a lot of these folks, especially in this industry, in the tech support industry, have had a lot of bad experiences. So some of those times they could be more of a process. I'll get them in on But still, it is a one-time close. Get them in on something small, and then a week or a month later, get them on something larger. But at the end of the day, it's really just all about building the rapport. And actually, that will bring me back to one sales philosophy is you really want to sell yourself, then you sell the company, and then you sell the product. Because if they love you, They're gonna love the organization that you work for, and then whatever product or service you offer them, they're just gonna jump at it.

1:04:58 Scott Ingram: So how are you selling yourself then?

1:05:01 Ian Bembenek: So it kind of just circles back to the, the building the rapport with the customer in terms of mirroring them, having them very comfortable with you, just kind of being on the same page with them. I definitely 100% subscribe to that philosophy of mirroring your customers. So, you know, if they're… you're just watching for their speech patterns, how quickly they speak, how slowly they speak, the mannerisms they have, the pauses going between them, listening to their problems, offering a solution that we're gonna fix it together and get them where they need to be, rather than me talking up my company nonstop entirely. Really, it's more of just focusing on their problem and how we're going to solve that for them.

1:05:49 Scott Ingram: Awesome. So this section, I'm always intrigued by what comes out of these questions, and I like to ask if there's something that you believe that the average sales professional would think is crazy.

1:06:01 Ian Bembenek: So I've thought about that in the past, and I feel like one of the biggest things is again gonna come back to sort of what we were talking about that beginner's mindset because to me, you could start, Scott, you could start day 1 in our profession and I could know nothing about you. I don't know your history, what you've done before, but I will still pay attention to what you do day 1 because what if you say something that I think is real smart and can be used? And I've seen a lot of other sales reps completely brush off that, that brand new guy that comes in, and they don't really pay attention to him, more just kind of push him out of the way and ignore him and do their own thing. But to me, again, I feel like I could learn something from absolutely anybody around me.

1:06:57 Scott Ingram: Love it, love it. What about the flip side? Is there something that the average sales professional thinks that you think is crazy?

1:07:04 Ian Bembenek: Yeah, always be closing. I hear that still a lot from so many different salesmen. And, you know, it's an understandable philosophy because it's been around for so, so long. And to me, I still, I still think it's crazy because, look, at the end of the day, I could sell 1,000, 2,000, 3,000 customers in a given year. But if I have to do that all over again, now we're starting to run out of people. That we're going to be selling real easily and the different areas that we're going to be reaching out to. But instead of just closing it and getting that deal and that sale, if I'm opening up a door where that person is going to come back to me, ask for me in particular to give them a new product or a service or renew their services now or get a referral from them for a friend or a family member, having those just call-ins where I'm doing no work, they just call in, say, here's my, here's my credit card, sign me up, give me this new service, I want this. It's just going to make your life so much easier.

1:08:14 Scott Ingram: Yeah, amen. So what have been the most important decisions you've made or lessons you had to learn to get where you are today?

1:08:23 Ian Bembenek: So again, I'd go with the most important decision, decision that I have ever made in my entire life would be getting so To stop drinking, stop going out and partying the way that I used to, stop having that liquid courage at work, and just putting all of that behind me for the last few years has been the most important decision of my entire life because it has made my entire life turn around 360 and become absolutely amazing. And it definitely, from that, has also been some of the biggest lessons that I had to learn throughout the years was specifically because of that.

1:09:09 Scott Ingram: Nice. Well, we're getting into the advice-giving section here anyway. So what if there's somebody listening to this and they are struggling with alcohol or they're struggling with another substance? What would you tell them? What advice would you give them to help them get that turned around if it's something that they want to So it's always…

1:09:27 Ian Bembenek: that's always a touchy subject in terms of actually giving them advice because a lot of times they're going to have to want it for themselves. But at the end of the day, you know, if you're struggling really badly from it, what's it going to hurt you to give it a try to not be putting that into your body every single day and just try something new? Because if you're going to keep doing the same things over and over, you got to expect the same results. But at the end of the day, if you try something new, how's it going to hurt? Because if you hate it, guess what? You can go start drinking again. There you go.

1:10:03 Scott Ingram: So what advice would you give to somebody that's just getting started in their sales career today?

1:10:09 Ian Bembenek: The 2 biggest pieces of advice that I'd give any new salesman today, and I give, you know, the new guys that are coming in the door, kind of circling back to things that we talked about earlier First would be stop worrying so much. If it's a brand new sales guy, is just sit back, relax, take it easy with the nerves. I know it's really nervous and uncomfortable to get into sales, but again, so many of these people that you talk to, especially the ones that you're worried about saying no or for you to go away or they don't want to buy from you, chances are 99% of them you're never going to see again. So it doesn't really matter. And then the ones that you do sell Hopefully you do see them again. And then the second significant piece of advice that I could not say enough, could not say so strongly or any stronger, would be always have that beginner's mindset. Never think that you know everything. Always be open to learning. Self-improvement is the biggest thing these days. Pick up a book. I think, what is it, 70% of the average college student never pick up again a book after college. And then your average CEO reads 60 books a year. So you've kind of got to just look at those numbers and think, maybe I should be working on self-improvement and reading a little bit more and trying to take in new information as much as possible. Because especially in the sales industry, You've seen it throughout the years. It is always changing, especially with this information technology day and age, and you're going to have to change with it.

1:11:53 Scott Ingram: Yeah, that's awesome. And I will selfishly pile on to that, but in a way that's absolutely meant to serve those listening. You got to surround yourself with people that are doing this, that are on that same type of track, just like we were talking about earlier, right? You want to get sober, probably not going to help you to hang out with alcoholics. You want to be great at sales. Hang out with people that are great at sales. And that's really what we're doing at the Sales Success Summit. I'll talk to Ian here after we wrap up about coming out and joining us. That'll be here in Austin, October 14th and 15th, and all the details are at top1summit.com. And again, if you have questions about that, you're always welcome to email me. I love hearing from you guys, scott@top1.fm. Ian, what about somebody that is further into their career, right? So they've, they've got the basics. They've, they've gotten over the, the initial kind of hard parts of sales. Maybe they're doing okay, right? Maybe they're, they're, they're making quota, but they want to like really raise their game and get to that next level. What advice do you have for them?

1:12:52 Ian Bembenek: So really, it's going to be hard for me to give any new type advice for that either, is really because that's, that's kind of the biggest one that I've ever seen in any industry, is that, that old salesman that's been in the position for a long time. He's always been throughout history of his position, that 5, 10, 15, 20 years has been the best, but he was the best at what he did 5, 10, 15, 20 years ago, but has not changed throughout the years. So he's implementing the same sales strategies and the way that he talks to customers still today, and that can be where some of those numbers drop off. So you always want to be developing and honing your craft and doing the new things that that are needed this day and age, and you're always gonna be wanting to learn all of those new things. And again, it's gonna be kinda dropping that ego, 'cause you know you used to be the best, you aren't now, it doesn't matter. No one's gonna judge you just because you used to be the best and you're not now, and now you wanna learn from the newer guys. So it's just kinda always to humble yourself up and try some of the new things. Get some of the advice from the guys that have not been around as long as you, but maybe they're succeeding a little better than you are today because they're trying things that you, you haven't tried before.

1:14:13 Scott Ingram: Awesome, awesome, awesome. What would you want to know about the top sellers in other organizations that are performing at your same level, but they're doing it for somebody else?

1:14:23 Ian Bembenek: It would be really, really impossible for me to even put down a singular thing of what I would like to know from those individuals. More of, I would love to just be in the same room with 10 of these top performers just to pick their brain in terms of hearing from them what they do differently, what they sell, the products or services, what their sales process is. It'd be impossible for me to really just state any given thing. I would just want to have a conversation with these guys.

1:14:57 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Well, we do call that the Sales Success Summit, and it's 2 days long, so we'll get you hooked up with that.

1:15:02 Ian Bembenek: Okay.

1:15:03 Scott Ingram: Ian, this has been fantastic, right? I love so many of the places that we've gone, some places that we certainly haven't gone on this show before. So I think there's a lot of unique value in this, and I always like to wrap it up the best we can and make make it actionable, right? So folks have been listening to this for nearly an hour and a half. That's a great time investment. Thank you for being here. Thank you for listening and investing in yourself and having that beginner's mind. Ian, what would you suggest that they now do? What challenge would you give them to take on over the course of the next week or the next 2 weeks to improve themselves and improve their results?

1:15:42 Ian Bembenek: So I have a few things I would say. Definitely all of the things that you're working for, you're working towards, your goals that you have, I would get a pen, I'd get a paper or get on your computer and I'd put them down. Set up your goals that you're looking to get to financially, your physical goals, whatever they are, have it mapped out for yourself how you're going to get them. Because you don't want to say, hey, in the next 5 years, I want to make $1 million. Instead, why don't you break that down to what it is yearly, monthly, weekly, daily, hourly for you? Make it a more attainable goal because instead of saying, I want to make $1 million in 5 years, go, okay, this is how much money I need to make every day. So this is how much money I need to make every single hour. I want to buy this house, this car, whatever it is in this time period. Have that lined up with your goals as well. Kind of the second biggest thing thing that I would say to challenge yourself is to go ahead and download Audible or whatever it is that you want to kind of get some of this information in so you can learn some of the new things. And my biggest challenge to you would be, why don't you go into your office tomorrow, sometime this week, sit down with 3 of the guys, find a time, and just pick their brains? Or pay attention more to the other people in your organization that are successful, or maybe even not as successful as you, but they're good at one particular thing and just pay attention to what it is. Try implementing it into your sales process because if you can get 1% better every single day, 100 days from now, you're twice as good, period. And say the other big thing is if you want any advice or sales strategies at all, you can go to our selfmade-coaching.com website and sign up for a 30-minute coaching session.

1:17:44 Scott Ingram: Awesome. Talk about that a little bit more. We haven't dug into that. I know that's kind of a new thing that you and Andrew have been working on. What is the Self Made coaching thing you guys are doing?

1:17:53 Ian Bembenek: So Andrew, as a business owner of about 4 different successful businesses, He got a sales coach and he's been doing the Lassis coaching for quite some time now over the years. And he developed it and wanted to turn it into something more instead of just financial coaching. He wanted to make it into actual business coaching, sales coaching, financial advising, and wrap it all into one. And the person that came to his mind right away was me. He wanted to bring me in to work on the company with him and then very quickly decided he wanted to make me a partner. The business really under the Self Made Coaching has been around now for about a month and a half. It's been growing a lot quicker than we actually anticipated. It's been great there. Any individual who, whether it's a business owner, entrepreneur, or a sales professional themselves, can get a lot out of it just from, with the sales professionals talking to me, maybe getting some advice. On the different things that they could try, different strategies, how to get a little more comfortable with the customers, the new things they can try or implement into their system, or the right words to use at the right times, or how to get over certain things that customers throw at you, the proper rebuttals for them. But then the biggest one is for the business owners and entrepreneurs is the mastermind groups that we run that really allow and work with those business owners to set the appropriate goals that they need to hit every day, week, 2 weeks, month, as well as kind of getting them in the right process to do it and keeping them accountable so they are continuing to hit them. So with those, you can find it at selfmade-coaching.com. Like I said, sign up for a 30-minute business coaching or sales coaching, and also on Facebook, our Business Coaching Mastermind group.

1:19:52 Scott Ingram: Fantastic. Awesome. Ian, this has been incredible. Thanks for taking the time and sharing your story with us.

1:19:57 Ian Bembenek: Absolutely, Scott. Thank you so much for having me on the podcast. It's been great.

1:20:02 Scott Ingram: Thanks for listening to the Sales Success Stories podcast. To be sure you never miss an episode and for an invitation to our Sales Success Community powered by Influitive, subscribe to our newsletter at top1.fm.