Episode 10 | Sales Strategies-LFD Andalusian Bull

Yo yo yo yo yo. And we are back for another episode of Sticks and Stones podcast. Sticks and Stones is the podcast where serious cigar smokers and serious dealmakers come together. This is episode number 10. So this is this is big for us because we started this podcast with just an idea and now we're at episode 10. So that's just crazy. Um, and it wouldn't be sticks and stones if we didn't start off with what I'm smoking. So today, because it is episode 10, I am breaking out the big guns. Here we go with the LFD, the Laflur Dominicanana, and Delusian Bull. This is a limited run cigar. Cigar shops get very limited amount of boxes of this cigar. It is one of the unicorns in the cigar world. If you can get your hands on one or 10, I highly recommend you do it. And I am also enjoying my new favorite [snorts] fall winter drink. This is an oldfashioned, but it's an apple old-fashioned. We've got the Elijah Craig Toasted Barrel Bourbon in here. The sugars in this is just apple cider, not alcohol-based apple cider, actual apple cider. It's just reduced down. Throw in a couple of cinnamon sticks in the pot and reduce it down for like an hour and that is your that's your mix. That's what sweetens that is what sweetens this cocktail. I saw this on YouTube. I got a I got to I'll put the link in the description of where I saw this. I added a few little twists of my own. You put a couple of apple slices in there. These apples are honey crisp apples. Apple slices rather. And I did aromatic bitters, a dash of that. And I did three dashes of apple bitters. That's kind of where I added my little flare on there. And boy oh boy, phenomenal. The only the the dangerous part is like you want to have 12 of these. All right, let's get this party started. Let me let me toast her up. We're just getting this started. And I got to tell you, the Andelusian Bull. What a cigar. I would call this this is definitely a fullbelly good time cigar. You just had, you know, a great event happen, something to celebrate. You've had a big steak, you have a cocktail afterward, this this is your bad mama jama. This is where you want to go. I definitely do not recommend smoking this cigar on an empty stomach. But it is just so fullbodied and beautiful. Definitely a celebratory cigar. So, what do I want to talk about on this episode, guys? I want to talk about obviously cigars and cocktails. And I'm starting off with phenomenal stuff. But on the 10th episode of the Sticks and Stones podcast, what do I want to talk about? I want to talk about sales strategies. And more specifically, I want to talk about the sales strategies that are not a good look sexy when you're looking at it from from the goggles of the consumer's perspective. How do I want to start this off? You know, I'm just thinking about how times change and people change. It's so very apparent when you meet a sales person and they're using sales strategies from the 80s and 90s and I would dare to say even like the early 2000s. And what do I mean by that? I mean it's [clears throat] very salesy, very pushy, very pressuring. And to me, in my my honest and humble opinion, that's not a good look, guys. It's really not. It's not something that you see it it it is a good indication that when you see somebody using and deploying those strategies that maybe they've been doing this a long time in the field that they're in, they're definitely using older sales strategies. Maybe it's worked for them for so long that they can't do anything else. like they can't pivot in position in another way, in another strategy. I don't know. I really don't know. It's something though. And I and I will I will say this, we have we have all been there. I've been in sales almost all of my life. And I have been in sales since I was a young kid. And I don't mean teenager. I mean a young young kid. I started sales when I was 9 years old. And I don't mean nine years old is in like a, you know, a a funny raise money to fix my bicycle tire type business. Not a lemonade stand. Not that there's anything wrong with lemonade stands or paper routes or anything like that. My grandpa, God rest his soul, rest in peace. He had a kitchen equipment repair business and he he was doing it for years and years and years. And his main thing, his main stay was selling new food equipment, like kitchen equipment for restaurants, like on a commercial level. And he knew that the equipment sales was a very small portion of the income stream, but he didn't have anybody selling for him that could get him service work. And that that's where the big money was for that industry was was service work. back in the day and I'm going to date myself here. He gave me a yellow pages, a Bell Atlantic yellow pages. That is such a good oldfashioned. And he said, "Call up every restaurant, every bakery, every pizza parlor, and you tell them this. This is your sales script." And I did that. And I called for probably about a month or two before I got my first sale. And it was a Polish bakery. I will never forget it as long as I live. And as a 9-year-old kid, I want to say that that that service work sale that I got was probably just shy of 500 bucks for 17500 bucks. And this was, you know, back in the late 80s, early 90s. It was like all the all the money in the world to me. Um, but I really didn't do it for the money. I did it because I was, first of all, I wanted to help out my my grandpa because he was like such a special person to me. And the fact that I got to hang out with him all summer was just, you know, blew my mind. And then when I discovered the fact that I could create a sale out of thin air, just picking up a telephone and calling people and talking to them and they say, "Oh yeah, I can use that." And that generates money. Freaked my world out. It just completely blew my mind. And from that moment on, I was addicted to the sales business. I was just addicted to it. I wasn't even, you know, I was I was making really good money for, you know, a teenager, you know, late teens, early 20s, and I was like 10 years old because it was just the thrill of the hunt. I did I did that sale. Let me see if I can find another one, and let me see what else I can get. Can I get a bigger one than that previous? You know, so I've been in sales a long time and I've seen a lot of sales strategies. You know, I've seen the sales strategy of exclusivity. You know, this is super duper exclusive. You can't get it anywhere else. So, we are higher price than than our competitors because we have a special product, a special it comes from a special area of the world, geographic location. It come whatever it is, you make it exclusive. You know, that's one sales strategy. Then you have like the super pushy, you know, we're having a sale this week and this week only to push people into buying something that you're not giving them a lot of time to research it and know see if this is like the best fit for them, but because of you're offering the discount, you are pushing them into into pulling the trigger on something. And you know, I don't know if I agree with that. I really don't know if I agree with that. You've got you've got people that are just straight up pushy, too. Man, this cigar is just good time celebrations. You have people that are just all around just pushy. And the point of this this topic, the point of this episode is, is it getting you results? Is it getting you enough results to build a career off of? Or is it building or is it getting you results just to your next paycheck? Like, what is it what is it doing for you? What is it doing for the people you're selling to? I will I will give you a couple of real world scenarios. In the pandemic, I was doing a sort of part-time gig to, you know, augment the commercial real estate. Although we were really, really busy in the pandemic, but it was like a lot of showings. It was a lot of footwork. It was a lot of answering calls and emails and inquiries and things like that, but it wasn't a huge amount of transactions coming through. And I was in New Jersey at the time, so thankfully real estate was deemed an essential service, so we were not shut down. So I was doing a bunch of different things. I was working for a larger residential team just as taking out their buyers. Um, and you can do that, by the way. So, like if if you if you reach out to a residential team, a buyer's agent, and say, "Hey, look, you know, if you're you're busy and you've got some clients that you can't service all of them, I will take out some of your buyer clients and pay me per door. Pay me for each house that I show them." And I'm not a residential guy. I don't claim to be, don't want to be. It's not my cup of tea. But this team was paying me per door to take these people out. And I'm a people person, so I liked taking these people out and showing them houses and stuff. And you know, like I said, not my cup of tea, but it was it was an experience that was really enjoyable for me. I got to meet a couple of really nice families and you know, that sort of thing. And I also did this thing at a I'm not going to mention any names, but a large warehouse type grocery operator. And I was selling this thing for them. It was a consumer product. and my training manager and I've done all kinds of sales my entire life. I've done everything you could possibly imagine on a B2B level, not so much on a business to consumer. I did a lot of I've done businessto business sales almost all of my life, all of my career. And we had to go through this like sales training. And this sales trainer like topped sales records. She was a killer in the field. Killed all all the sales records. was just a domino. She was she was a dynamo and she came up with this song like a jingle of a jingle of all the positive things about this product. Lovely person, just a wonderful human being, but very pushy. Very, very pushy. I mean, to the point where she would take the product and literally put it in people's shopping carts. not, you know, not giving a [ __ ] if they really needed it, wanted it, could use it, benefit from it, just threw it in their shopping cart, and all that mattered was how many units were sold that day. You know, when I saw that and I saw how pushy the sales were, and it was all about pushing units, pushing units, I was like, "Yeah, that I'm not for this. I'm I'm not made to do that type of sales." There's a time and a place, I guess, for everything. So, not knocking nothing, but it just it just wasn't for me. So, that's that example that I can give. And then even more recently, I was at my wireless provider. I think I was just I don't know upgrading or cutting a line or something. I I don't know what I was doing. I was at the the retail store and the salesperson was he was getting halfway there. He was trying to familiarize himself with me, asking me a bunch of good questions about my life, what I do professionally. And then he started rolling into this insurance plan that the company offered. And it was a a home insurance plan for all of your electronics in your house. And it just seemed very salesy, very pushy to me. And I was like, you know what? I really I'm not interested. You know, I just I just don't want it. And the guy would like just continually just harped on it and he pushed and he pushed and he pushed and it kind of like creeped me out a little bit. And so I left there and I didn't, you know, I didn't pay any attention. And then I want to say maybe like a week later I came there to pay a bill, I think. And oddly enough, this was like one of the only places that I went to the store to pay my wireless bill for some I don't know why. I don't know a thing I did. I think it was a matter because that particular wireless provider I paid a payment online and then they said that they never got the payment and I had to fight with them for like weeks and weeks and weeks and they finally found the payment. So from that point on I just went to the store and paid with my credit card and I got a receipt and I think that's what I was doing. I was paying my wireless bill and there's that guy and he's pushing the damn insurance, you know, program again. And like he he remembered some stuff that I said previously and he asked me about those specific things. And so like he was he was on the right track, but then just got super pushy with this with this insurance program, this insurance plan. I was just like so turned off by it. And I I want to say I went to that store one more time and again he was there. I was just unlucky to to see this guy every time I went to this store. And um I ended up switching providers. So I switched wireless providers and the guy that turned on my services, really great guy, super duper great guy, very, you know, relationship oriented, goes out of the way to help you. Actually came to my house to set the service up. So, I didn't have to go to a store. I didn't have to go to a corporate office. I didn't have to go anywhere. They came to me and happened to mention the exact same insurance program. But the way the guy did it, he wanted to know a little bit about my family. He wanted to know some of the devices that we use. He gave me some real world experiences that he had personally with the insurance. and he was like, "Look, I would not recommend this to you if I didn't have it myself, and I I'll tell you some of the things that went wrong with some of my electronics and how this insurance fixed it, and I was sold." So, we're talking about two completely different sales strategies, same product. One person made me want to blow a whistle and scream stranger danger, and one guy got the sale. And what was the difference? One guy was super pushy, was being almost to the point of badgering. And one guy was super chill, super cool. Just gave me some real world examples of how it worked for him. Wasn't pushy. He was just kind of like, "Hey, you want it? Great. It's there. Just letting you know that we have it. If you don't, cool. Totally get it. It's no skin off my ass. It doesn't matter to me." And that was the deciding factor for me. And I've I've had it. And they the company I had an issue with my MacBook Pro. I have an old MacBook Pro. Um and they you know the battery was freaked out for a long time and they I took it in did a diagnostic on it. But shout out to Mac and Apple computers because that thing is like from 2017 2018 still going strong. The only thing that was wrong with it was the battery and they replaced the battery. No questions asked. I mean just just great. So I'm happy I did it. But the point is is that it was the same product pitched by two different people and one one and and the the pushy, you know, like the pushy almost belligerent guy was months ahead of time. Like he I he pitched that to me first and I ran away from that guy and then the second guy was super chill, super down to earth, you know, very relationship oriented. I I still talk to the guy every once in a in a great while and he got the sale. So, my question is, why are people still teaching those pushy sales strategies? I don't know. For me, I hate being the pushy sales guy. I hate being a pressure tactic saleserson. It's not me. It's not my cup of tea. It's not what I like to do as a salesperson and as a commissiononly salesperson because commercial real estate, it's not in all firms. It's not in all brokerages, but for the most part, I'm just saying for the most part, probably 90% of the real estate professionals out there are commissionon, 100% commissionbased. So that means you eat when you kill something. You eat what you kill. And if you don't kill nothing, you ain't eating [ __ ] So, I get why a lot of people in a 100% commission-based sales position would be very pushy. They want to make sales. However, I feel that if you are trying to build a relationship with somebody and you want to create a rapport with somebody, you want to give them honesty. You want to give them your best. You want to answer any questions that they have on the product you're selling. And you don't want to use pressure tactics um or any sort of pushy sales agenda like that. I've got another buyer, you know, in tow. I've got somebody who's put an LOI in. I've got somebody who's put an offer in. You know, you got to you got to do something now or this is going to be gone. It it is what it is. You can't pressure somebody into doing something because yeah, you might get that sale. You might might have sold that insurance plan. You might have sold a a unit of that consumer product. If they never want to see your product again, if they never want to see hear your name again because of something that may have hurt them, what good did it do you? What good did it do you moving that unit? What good did it do you selling that insurance plan when that that consumer is never going to want to buy from you again? Now, as a sales professional and a commissiononly sales professional, yes, I want to get my products out there to as many people as possible, and I want to give you the best level of service I possibly could give you. I answer any questions, go out of my way, connect you with resources that I have that can help you make decisions on that building, that property, uh that lease, that purchase, whatever. But rest assured, I am transparent to a fault, I will tell you upfront, if someone else is looking at the property, if I say that there's someone else looking or someone's serious, take it to the bank because the last thing that I want is first of all, I don't pressure anyone. It's not my thing cuz I don't like being pressured. But I will kindly let you know. I will kindly inform you that there are others looking at this property. And here's the only reason why I do it. I don't do it as a pressure strategy. I don't do it to be pushy, but I am doing my job. And my job is to sell that property or lease that property for my principal. And if I don't let you know that there's someone else looking at the property, when you do finally make that decision and you come back to me and say, "Okay, we're ready to do something." And I say, "I'm sorry, but it's taken. It's been leased, it's been sold, or it's under contract or whatever." I don't want you pissed at me. I'm building relationships. Remember that. I'm here to build a relationship with you. I want to build a rapport with you. And I, in my opinion, there's nothing that builds a rapport better or nothing that that earns you respect when you have been upfront with somebody and they drug their feet and they did not jump on the situation and someone else comes in and does. And then when they come back to you and you say, "I'm sorry, I can't help you there because it's already sold or it's been leased." They can't say, "Well, you never told me that. like you never gave me the opportunity to throw my hat in the ring when you knew I was looking at it. You knew that I was interested and I had a whole bunch of questions about it. A testament to that is I can't tell you how many clients I earned from being transparent and upfront because they would say, "Well, you know, you did warn me. You warned me ahead of time that there was somebody looking and now that I know that you're you're an active sales professional and you know, you're getting stuff done. What else do you have? What else do you have that you can sell me or lease me? Could you work something out to where you can go looking for something for me specifically? Yes. The answer is yes to to all of the above. That is my thought process. I would rather build that rapport with you. I would rather build that relationship with you. And sometimes you have to take a loss leader. Sometimes you're going to have to put some time in and do some things and answer some questions and go around and and spend hours with somebody and it doesn't work out. But then when that person is looking for a professional in whatever field you're in, whether that's medical equipment sales, whether that's pharmaceutical sales, whether that's real estate sales, they're going to come back to you and they're going to say, "I remember the level of professionalism that you had and I remember that you were upfront with me and you were transparent with me and you gave me every opportunity to jump on that and I didn't." That is the person, that is the client that I want. That's the person that I want to come back to me and say, "Hey, I remember that and I liked the conversation that we had and I liked the level of professionalism that you you gave me and I want more of that. I want you to find X, Y, or Z for me." And I think that that is that is a current generation, current times way of doing things. I think that in this time and space with the ease of information, there's just so much information at your fingertips at any consumer's fingertips. Whether that be a, you know, a consumer consumer or a business consumer, whether that's a business or a consumer, they have access to all that information. So with a level of access to information that people have today, they can look and search for anybody they want in your field, in your field of sales, if you're an aircraft salesman, somebody can Google aircraft sales and find about a million different aircraft brokers or sales or or dealerships anywhere in the world. If you are a coffee equipment sales company, all you got to do is Google it and you can find whatever you want. You know, there's no shortage on Google ads. There's no shortage on the internet. So, in a world today where there's the freedom of information, there's so much information. It's actually like information overload. You want to be that person that someone can rely on. You want to be that person that someone is not worried that you're only in this for your commission. Like you're only saying this so you can make this sale. Yeah, you can. You can be that guy. My cigar is dying because I'm talking too much and not smoking enough. You can you can be that guy or you can be that girl that just wants to sell something, but it's not longevity. You got to remember something. It takes two to tango, right? That's a it's an old saying, but it takes two to dance. It can't be just a lead and the follower. It takes it takes two people to dance effectively. If you are not that person's cup of tea, if you are not that company's cup of tea, they will find somebody else. And you can prospect and you can find other clients. You don't have to sell to everyone. You have to find people that you mesh, you gel well together, you you complement each other. You don't want to be in a situation where you don't meet eye to eye with your client, but you're just there for the money. You're just there for the sale. I don't recommend anybody be there because eventually what'll happen is tempers are going to flare. You're going to be irate. You're going to be annoyed because that person annoys you or you annoy them and both of you are going to lose your [ __ ] Either one one or both of you are going to lose your [ __ ] And then that that doesn't work out well in a business relationship. It doesn't work out well in a professional relationship. So, you know, you don't have to that's the the point is you don't have to sell everything to everyone. You know, let's just say you have one listing. Let's just say you have one product. You don't have to sell that product to everyone. As a as a real estate professional, you've got let's just say you have one listing. You have one building. You don't have to sell that building to everybody who comes along. And as long as you keep that in mind that maybe who you think the ideal buyer is may not be the ideal buyer. Maybe it's a buyer that was completely unassuming, just pops in, sees it one time, and is like, "Yeah, I I know what I want, and this is exactly what I want. This will work for my business. This will this will work for my use." I've had that happen where, you know, I think that there's two or three people looking at a listing that I have and I'm thinking it's this one particular company, like this one particular buyer. I'm like, "Yeah, this is these are the these are the people that are going to buy this. These these are the people who deserve this." and they would just ask a bunch of questions, make me go out of my way to obtain information that's, you know, a standard form of of questioning or standard information that you would need for purchasing a commercial property. But I would do it because I was just so caught up with this, you know, the conversation and and the the company itself or maybe the officers that I'm dealing with, I like them, so, you know, I'm going to go out of my way and do this thing. And then this unassuming buyer comes through, sees it one time. Yeah, this is what I want. This is exactly what I've been looking for. Sends me all their financials, sends me proof of funds. Hey, I want I want to put an all cash in an all cash offer in on this property. I want to buy this. It floores you. I mean, you're just like, whoa, these guys came out of nowhere and I've been catering to this one other buyer because I thought that they were the one. You can't assume who is your ultimate client. So you you you treat everyone with the same level of professionalism and let the cards fall where they fall. But I think there's a lot to say about sales strategies. And I think the winning strategy is treating everyone fairly, treating everyone with the same level of transparency, giving people what the try try to give people what they're looking for. I wouldn't I wouldn't say I would not say bend over backwards and go out of your way and trouble yourself to do something that's kind of out of the norm for the for the sales business that you're in. I would not say to do that, but I would say be professional. Give people what they're asking for if it's within reason and do a good job. Don't pressure people. Don't use the hey, someone's looking at this. You better jump on it. Um, you know, we have a this is a promotion at the end of this week where we're we're done. Prices are going to skyrocket. I don't think people take well to that either. I believe if somebody wants to buy something, if somebody wants to invest in something, they're going to do it. I think if they're given the correct information, if they're given the information that they're looking for, you don't have to push. You don't have to push very hard because if someone's looking for that particular thing, they're going to do it if it meets all of their requirements. There is something to say about vetting your clients, vetting your buyers, vetting your sellers. You know, you should not jump at every single opportunity. I would say investigate every single opportunity, but really dig in to what that potential client is all about. I have learned a lesson with that, jumping at every opportunity to be my best, give my best, and that client is not out to build a relationship. that client is out there to get every dime that they can, squeeze every ounce of milk out of the cow, as it were. I actually had a former client, a former seller client that wanted an exorbitant amount of money over what the property was worth. And I brought, you know, several buyers through to try to, you know, good, decent property. you know, it had challenges, but brought buyers through and offers were made and they just were not to the seller's liking. And I found out later that the seller went to one of my buyers behind my back. I should have not taken that assignment. I should not have taken that seller assignment and taken that listing. Sometimes you have to vet your clients first. First and foremost, you have to vet your clients to see what type of company or what type of people they are because, you know, luckily my buyers are very loyal to me. And I build relationships with everyone and I'm I'm friendly with 99% of my clients and, you know, we go have dinner often and drinks or whatever, smoke cigars and they let me know, hey, this guy came to us and and he's trying to do a deal behind your back. So sometimes you have to be diligent on who you select to offer your services to. But in that, you know what this distills down to, what this boils down to is are you in this just for the commission? Are you in this for the money or are you in this for something a little bit more some something with more longevity? Are you in this to build something? And I believe that is a question that everyone has to ask themselves when you're in a sales position. Are you here for the commission only or are you here to be of real value to your clients? And if you have that entrepreneurial spirit and you have a network and you are constantly out and you're sifting through opportunities and things like that, you never know where an opportunity can pop up and it may not even be in your field. I can't tell you how many times I have been out and about and I'm prospecting and you know whatever will come through and something will pop up and I'll say you know this has nothing to do with real estate. It has nothing to do what I'm out here prospecting for. However, something just popped up that a good client of mine, a friend that's right up their alley and this could be a good opportunity for both of these companies. Let me put them in touch. Let me put them in touch to see what could happen. What could what can be built here? What relationship could spark from this? And two companies maybe build a great product and it's like skyrockets, you know? It's boom town and you were the catalyst to that. I love doing stuff like that. I love doing stuff like that because I love seeing an end product put out to market and to know that I had something to do with that. It just it's a sense of accomplishment. So, I think that I mean the different sales tactics are still out there. The strategies are out there. All sorts of sales strategies. There's some pushy ones. There's ones that I don't see working. I don't see they that they work anymore. I I feel like they actually push more consumers, more clients away than invite them in. But nonetheless, there are multiple sales strategies out there. It's begs to answer the or ask the question, what type of salesperson do you want to be? what products and services do you want to offer? And you know, like in the days of Enron, you know, I heard horror stories that that company was very much cutthroat doggy dog. People were encouraged, the sales team were encouraged to slit the throats of their fellow co-workers, other sales teams or whatever, you know, regions or whatever, whatever it was. I've heard so many stories. There was a I think there was a docue series on it. But I you know I heard that they the higherups you know the seauite in that company encouraged everyone to trample on each other and that was their business model was competition make everyone you know pit everyone against each other. I I don't see that working today. I don't see that as a viable strategy today especially when you know like I may get cancelled for this. I really don't give a [ __ ] Everybody, I grew up in a time when you had to be tough. Like, you had to be tough. There was no other option. No one was coming to save you. You know, Chuck Norris ain't coming in. He ain't swooping in to save your ass. So, you had to be tough as nails. I don't see those old school sales strategies. I don't see the cutthroat dog eat dog. I don't see the trample on your fellow coworker. I don't see that working today, especially because everybody gets triggered so easy. Everybody gets cancelled at the drop of a hat. I just don't see that happening. I don't see that being fruitful. Your business is in the business of quote unquote a seasonal business. You know, you hire people for 3 months and you get as many sales as you can out of that person for those three months and then when they quit on you or go find a better job, now you you have another recruitment of people who are going to work for you for 3 months and get as many sales as they possibly can. I don't know if that works. I don't know if that's a good plausible model. Just because you sold so many units in that 3 months, what happens when that person that bought whatever you're selling has a problem with it? They can't go back to the to the person they bought it from cuz he's not there anymore. She's not there anymore. So, I don't know if that works. I'm not here to judge anybody. I don't have the answers to everything. I'm just, you know, giving my own personal opinion is all I can do on this podcast. I think it it's kind of distilled down and it comes it comes down to the the golden rule. Are you going to treat people the way you want to be treated? Here we go again with the air airplanes airplanes flying overhead while I'm podcast. Don't don't they understand that sticks and stones is running right now? We're recording. You know who who am I to say anything? I'm just it's my my own, you know, could be my crazy brain, but I think people want to be treated the way that they want to be treated. And hopefully they would treat others the way that they want to be treated. And and that's just the way it's supposed to go around. It's a cyclical thing. It's a circular thing. You know, you treat people the way you want to be treated. Everyone else will treat everyone else the way they want to be treated. And you know, no one will no one will be hurt financially, physically, spiritually, whatever. I don't think it's done that way today. I don't think a lot of people think that way today, but what type of salesperson are you and what type of salesperson do you want to be? I know people who and I and we had I believe it was episode 8 where we talked about transactional sales versus relationship business. I know people that do, you know, 75 100 transactions, commercial transactions a year, one individual, not a team. And that is a life where you are chained to your business. You are working so many hours a day, but you're moving units. You have the transactions. You make all the awards every year. You do your thing and you're great at it and it's awesome, but you don't have time for anything. You don't have time to enjoy lunch with a friend, with a friendly client. And I'm very much the relationship building. You know, I want to be friends with all my clients. That's why I pick and choose my clients very carefully because I'm very cautious on who I'm friends with. So, if we're going to be friends, you know, I want to take that time out and I want to enjoy that time with my friends. People that are doing a massive amount of transactions, I call them production shops. You know, they're they're constantly getting listings and and moving them through, selling them and and you know, rinse, repeat. Those people are great. It's phenomenal that that's that's what you do. That's your business model. Great. I'm super happy for you. I want to sometimes slow down, smell the roses, enjoy my friends, enjoy time with the people that I care about, go and enjoy a meal that knocks your socks off, share a great bottle of wine or a cocktail. This is a bad example cuz it's all gone now. But I want to do that. I don't want to be that person where I can't I can't devote more than five minutes per phone call because I'm on the phone all day long and I'm sending emails at certain times and I'm working 7 to 9 at night or I'm working 9 to 2 in the morning every single day. I don't want to be that person. I don't want to be that salesperson. It's not the way I do things. I would rather I would rather go out of my way to help people build a relationship with somebody, build a rapport with somebody, give them what they're looking for, provide a service to them that adds real value to their life and their business, and they will come back to me with bigger and better projects. That's the way I look at things. I look at things as I would love to be your your hub, your conduit. If you're looking for something, I can help you. I can connect you with people to to get that end goal accomplished. I don't have to make money on every single transaction. I don't have to make money on every favor that I do for somebody. As long as that person or that company or those group of people realize that there's value in that. If you're the type of person that just wants to get whatever they can out of somebody and move on to the next, you know, thank you next, that that doesn't work out either. But as long as you realize that I don't have to make money on every single thing that I do, but I also have a board of directors to answer to. That's my family, wife and children. They're worse than any board of directors could be, you know, because they need to eat. If you are also just looking for a really good person that has a lot of resources and a lot of connections and can help you out, but you're not reciprocal. You're not saying, "Okay, well, you know, you help me out on this or you will help me out on these two things. So now I'm going to introduce you to somebody who can give you some some bigger projects or bigger opportunities or something and it's just an introduction for me, you know, that then that's not a good match either because I'm looking for people that can see a value in something. If you are a transactional buyer, you're just looking for somebody to help you buy the thing that you're looking to buy, then that's fine. But you're not looking for a relationship to be built either. And it doesn't really matter what your salesperson how they treat you. You're just looking to buy something and you you're on to the next. And that's cool, but it's not for everybody. There are people out there that are transactional and they're looking just to make as many transactions as they possibly can. And then there are people that are looking to build relationships because there are people out there that I know if I were in trouble, if I were stranded, if I ran out of gas on the side of the road, there are people that I call friends today that started off as clients that I could call and they would come with a gas can at 2 in the morning at the drop of a hat and come and rescue my ass. A lot of people can't say that. A lot of people definitely can't say that in the real estate business. Conversely, the same thing. If they called me at 2:00 in the morning, my grumpy ass would be in my car with a gas can at 2:00 in the morning coming to help one of my friends start their car. Do you want that type of a person in your corner? Do you want that type of a person on your team or do you not care? That's the question that I would ask you guys. If you want that person that is going to be in your corner, win, lose, or draw, rain or shine, then you have to ask yourself who you're aligning yourself with. When you're when you're dealing with someone in a sales capacity, whatever whatever it is you're buying, whether it be ingredients for your restaurant, whether that's real estate, whether that's equipment for your business, who do you want to align yourself with? Do you want that person that you can depend on at 2 in the morning? Or do you just want that person that's out there to sell you what you're looking for for a good number and then you go your separate ways and you don't care what happens to that person and that person doesn't care what happens to you? Or do you want that person that does care what happens to you? That's up to you. And I would love to know that answer too because sales strategies exist because they work. Let's just put it that way. They It all depends on what the company is looking for. It depends on what the manufacturer is looking for. depends. You know, sales strategies work and it's all relative. If you're looking for a million sales a year versus a 100 sales a year, it's all relative to what your strategy is, but they all work in some form or fashion. It's you have to figure out what you want. Do you want the person that's going to pressure you into doing everything, or do you want the person that you can let your hair down and say, "Hey, man. Here's the keys to my car. do whatever you got to do or you know I trust you emphatically and I know that you're not going to steer me wrong so I'm giving you you know full reign you do what you got to do and believe me those type of relationships don't happen overnight it takes a lot of effort and it takes a lot of work and a lot of results you have to perform in order to earn a relationship like that and it is earning you have to earn a relationship like that but when you do earn ear that relationship. There's nothing that beats it because I I have I have a friend. I truly regard them as a friend. They I have done stuff for their family to make sure that their family was okay. They have done stuff for my family. Got a got a decent portfolio of commercial properties. I have a master key to all of his properties. I mean, that's how much they trust me. Nothing beats that. There's nothing that compares to that. So, it's like, is that what you're looking for? Do you want that type of relationship or do you just want a lot of sales? And at the end of the day, will those people come back to you? I don't know. It's a crapshoot. It's 50/50. I guess it depends on how many listings you have. It depends on how many products you sell. Depends on how many places you are that somebody will come back to you. But what do you want out of the sales game? Like, do you want clients that come back all the time? Do you want someone that you can depend on all the time and you don't have to worry about that person and you know that they're going to recommend things that are good for you down to the core. That all depends. It depends on what you want. But I will say this that they have to align. They have to align for both parties, the salesperson and the consumer. And that is all the time that we have for this episode. Episode number 10. You know, I can't wait until we're at episode 100. But guys, we are we're going to be building a podcast studio, a smoke friendly podcast studio. We're going to be doing some podcast episodes from Maduro Cigar Lounge in League City. We've got some big plans for this podcast. You know, we are going to be making a very strong effort to get you guys an episode out every single week, at least one a week. So many things are going to happen with this podcast. We, Lord willing, we are going to take this to to the limit. You know, sky's is the limit. We're going to take it right up to the right up to the to the hemisphere. We're going to take it right up to the sky. I'm Angelo. This is the Sticks and Stones podcast. I enjoyed my fall winter old-fashioned with the Lafl de and delusion bull cigar. I had a wonderful time with you guys. Love to hear any comments, any feedback. Hit us up. We will answer. But that is all I have today for this episode for the 10th episode of Sticks and Stones podcast. We are out. So, please stay blessed and keep it rolling,