curb signs – Tim Byrne Almost Live

S02E06 – Kicked to the Curb and Still Naked

Posted on 2018-09-052018-09-05 by

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In the second part of Tim’s visit to the good folks at Curb Signs he takes questions from a thoroughly overwhelmed audience. Tim’s truth bombs had left the group somewhat shaken but they were still in good spirits when the first brave member of the audience raised his hand.

“What do you do if you have a client that obviously doesn’t like you,” they ask. Tim loves this question because it’s one of the most common problems a salesperson has to deal with. Tim refers to the book The Speed of Trust which he loves because it speaks directly to this issue. People will not like. There’s no fixing it. Period. The best thing to do? Phone your competitor and give them a heads up that there is some business for them at this company. Your competitor will be flabbergasted but Tim believes strongly that you need to do as well with your competitors as you do with your clients. The most important asset you have as a business is the level of trust you have in the industry.

The next question is about branding. Years ago Tim advocated that Stadia change all their branding to pink. They drive Pink trucks and wear pink camo shirts. Tim did this for a couple of reasons. The first is that the colour stands out. But more importantly it makes Stadia’s workers more vulnerable in front of their clients. Building intimacy with your clients is really hard and Tim believes the pink shirts are a simple way of doing that.

The one lesson Tim really wanted to impart to the crew at Curb Signs is that becoming a great salesperson is a lot like working out. To get results you have to be consistent everyday. You have to setup a process that includes cold calls, appointments and social functions. Set daily goals that will become a daily routine that will end up making shitpile of money for everyone!

S02E05 – The Naked Truth (On Being Too Expensive)

Posted on 2018-08-292018-08-29 by

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There are few things more painful in life than being dragged into a corporate workshop. That is until you go to a Tim Byrne corporate workshop. Instead of the usual droning on about sales projections and team building you get a Tasmanian Devil whirlwind of foul-mouthed truth speak. The good folks at Curb Signs Inc. made the fateful decision to invite our hero to their office in Aurora to deliver a lecture on all things sales.

“Everything you do is too expensive.” Every sales person hears that every day. But that’s bullshit, according to Tim. Well, most of the time anyways. 33% of the time you’re not too expensive compared to your competitor. You’re too expensive for their budget. It’s all about how they build their budgets. Property managers will always move numbers around to make it look like they’re saving their clients money. Often times they will take money out of the budget for your work and stick it somewhere else – leaving you with nothing. So when they tell you you’re too expensive it has nothing to do with your estimate. The other 33% of the time you lost the job because they don’t like you. It’s only that last 33% where you will actually lose a job because you were undercut by a competitor.

Building relationships is by far the hardest job a sales person has to master. Sales people

will do anything to avoid having to go to yet another social function where they awkwardly stand in the corner talking to people they already know. Those events are about building new relationships! The easiest thing about the job is writing the purchase order or bidding the job. Shaking hands and meeting people is fucking awful. Cold calling is the worst of the worst. But it’s the only way you’re going to be successful so you better get good at it and quick.The only thing your organization is going to need in the next few decades is people that know how to talk to people. Most of the jobs in big companies are going to be automated. Building relationships is the only thing matters.