4 Steps to Systematic Sales Growth | Jimmy Burgess - 2045

"Broke, rich." That's the two-word test Jimmy Burgess uses to explain whether a sales career is working: phone up to your ear, you're rich; phone down, you're broke. Pulled from our archive, Jimmy, Chief Growth Officer at Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Beach Properties of Florida, is with me as we discuss the four-step pattern he lays out for turning scattered activity into steady, repeatable growth that hasn't aged a day. Growth Follows a Pattern, and It Starts With Confidence Systematic growth runs through four connected stages: competence builds confidence, confidence leads to consistent repetition, repetition builds a reputation that earns more opportunities, and those opportunities turn into conversations that convert. Skipping any one of those stages, or doing them inconsistently, is why so many reps feel like they're working hard without seeing the compounding results they're after. The whole cycle starts with the individual seller, not the market or the lead source, because confidence is what makes every later stage possible. Step One: Always Be Learning, Not Always Be Closing The old "always be closing" mindset gets replaced with "always be learning," meaning the real advantage comes from becoming the most knowledgeable person in your field, not the most aggressive closer. Confidence works like walking into a dark room versus a lit one: uncertainty about your product or market makes you move cautiously, while real expertise lets you walk in boldly and handle whatever comes up. There's no excuse for staying stuck on a weak spot right now, since free training on virtually any topic is one search away, and the only real barrier is the discipline to keep learning instead of getting comfortable. Step Two: Repetition Builds Reputation Consistent, visible value, like a weekly video update or a regular check-in, is what builds a buyer's trust before they've ever had a real conversation with you. One real story drove this home: a stranger at a local event recognized a familiar face from a weekly video list, introduced himself, and said, "I'm on your mailing list, you're my guy," despite never once responding to an email. The accountability piece matters just as much as the consistency itself; running small weekly groups where people report their leading indicators, like a set number of conversations, keeps that repetition from quietly slipping. Step Three: Conversations Lead to Conversions Social posts and videos warm people up, but real trust and real deals still come from an actual conversation, which means picking up the phone remains non-negotiable. A blunt phrase sums it up well: hold an imaginary phone up to your ear and the choice is simple, "phone, rich" or "no phone, broke," because business still happens through direct conversation, not passive content. Confidence built through learning is what makes those calls easier, since a well-prepared rep isn't scrambling for answers mid-call, they're simply having the conversation they already know how to have. Step Four: Raving Fans Become Your Referral Engine Most reps put all their effort into winning the deal and then go quiet right after the transaction closes, which is exactly the moment real referral opportunity gets left on the table. Turning a client into a referral source means doing something genuinely unexpected tied to what matters to them personally, like giving a family's kids a small surprise gift at closing instead of another generic thank-you. A simple follow-up call weeks after the transaction, just checking that everything's still going well, keeps you top of mind and is what actually generates referrals, since referrals come from what happens after the sale, not during it. Growth and Comfort Cannot Coexist A personal story about a 13-year-old finishing third in his first cross-country meet became the closing message: real growth only happens when you choose to run into discomfort instead of away from it. The advice for reps avoiding the phone, avoiding a hard skill, or avoiding an uncomfortable conversation is the same: anyone can push through roughly seven minutes of discomfort, and what's on the other side is usually exactly what they wanted. Staying comfortable isn't neutral, it's actively dangerous for growth, since decline tends to follow closely behind any extended stretch of comfort in a sales career. "Growth and comfort cannot coexist." — Jimmy Burgess Resources Connect with Jimmy Burgess on LinkedIn https://www.linkedin.com/in/jimmy-burgess-real-estate-agent-and-team-builder-6a930312b/. Check out The Real Estate Sales Podcast https://therealestatesalespodcast.com/, where industry experts share strategies that apply well beyond real estate. Sponsorship Offers This episode is brought to you in part by Hubspot. With HubSpot sales hubs, your data tools and teams join a single platform to close deals and turn prospects into pipelines. Try it for yourself at hubspot.com/sales https://www.hubspot.com/products/sales. This episode is brought to you in part by the TSE Sales Foundation. Improve your connection on LinkedIn and land three or five appointments with our LinkedIn prospecting course. Go to the salesevangelist.com/linkedin https://tsesales.typeform.com/to/UCMfjZbX. Credits As one of our podcast listeners, we value your opinion and always want to improve the quality of our show. Complete our two-minute survey here: thesalesevangelist.com/survey http://thesalesevangelist.com/survey. https://tsesales.typeform.com/to/lc5yAa8P We’d love for you to join us for our next episodes by tuning in on Apple Podcast https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-sales-evangelist/id788738885, Google Podcast https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cDovL3RoZXNhbGVzZXZhbmdlbGlzdC5saWJzeW4uY29tL3Jzcw?sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwj5kaXI3Pj2AhVKcjABHW5PDVwQ9sEGegQIARAC, Stitcher https://www.stitcher.com/show/the-sales-evangelist-sales-trainingspeakingbusiness-marketingdonald, or Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/1NjzsFjQwVrgboUfDvbzd5?si=LdQOJDc1T-WBPMxr1h3RsA. Audio provided by Free SFX, https://freesfx.co.uk/ Soundstripe https://soundstripe.com/, and Bensound http://www.bensound.com/. Other songs used in the episodes are as follows: The Organ Grinder written by Bradley Jay Hill, performed by Bright Seed, and produced by Brightseed and Hill.

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• 1:53Speaker 00

  If you're trying to create systematic growth in your organization, there are several things that you can do. And my good friend Jimmy Burgess today, he's bringing four top things that he's seen running his organization and working with other teams that literally tie back to systematic growth all the time. And you're gonna love it. Check it out.

• 2:18Speaker 00

  Hey, hey, hey, everyone. Welcome to another great episode of the Sales Evangelist Podcast. I'm your host, Donald C. Kelly, the Sales Evangelist. And I'm so excited for another great episode. I'm so excited to be here with you today. And on this episode, as I mentioned, I got the one and only Jimmy Burgess coming back on a show. Jimmy's been on a show in the past. Jimmy's been on several episodes. And this episode in particular is a rerun, an archive episode, because as I told you last time, we have 2,045 episodes and I keep getting some of these gems that we go back in. And I'm like, this is good. This is good stuff. And this episode with Jimmy, I think you're gonna really like it. If you haven't done so already, connect with Jimmy Burgess on LinkedIn. You can find him. But as we go into this, you're gonna see the four systematic things that Jimmy said you need to have in place. Four things to have systematic growth, excuse me.

• 2:59Speaker 00

  And some of this you probably have if you're a sales rep or a sales leader, your organization may have. But check it out, adopt it, and see how it can help you out. If you haven't done so already, please tell one other team member about this episode. But listen to it first, and I promise you, you'll see how, why we're so passionate about it.

• 3:20Speaker 00

  Welcome to the show, Jimmy Burgess.

• 3:22Speaker 01

  How are you, my friend? How's everything going, Don?

• 3:25Speaker 00

  You know, I can't complain, man, Jimmy. I'm out here hustling, trying to become like the one and only Jimmy Burgess, learning everything I possibly can. So I figured, you know what? Let's bring this man back on a show. Clearly, he has done some things well. Clearly, he's doing some things well, and he's launching a podcast. So there's gotta be a lot of stuff in there that Jimmy can help us out with right now, man.

• 3:45Speaker 01

  I'll tell you what, man, this being home, you know, over these last few months and everything, man, I'm lonely. Donald, it's good to talk to you. You know what I mean? I'm excited to share some stuff today.

• 3:54Speaker 00

  Like, I need to talk to somebody.

• 3:56Speaker 01

  Somebody, please, talk to me.

• 3:58Speaker 00

  Shoot. All right, well, Jimmy, we're looking forward to that. I bragged about you a little bit at the beginning there. I told people what you do. But maybe you could go a little bit deeper. Tell us a little bit more about your position. And also, if you don't mind, tell us a little bit more about the project, the podcast you're working on right now. We'll, we'll talk about that, push them towards that at the end as well. But give us a little bit of overview of what Jimmy Burgess does.

• 4:16Speaker 01

  Yeah, so, you know, I've been in real estate sales specifically for 27 years, over half my life. And as you can tell, I mean, you know, this bald head doesn't just happen. And so I've been through all the different market cycles, you know? I went through a time, obviously, where when I was in sales, build a team, had over a million dollars in income one year, and then I wake up when the downturn comes, and I'm sitting in bankruptcy court with $500 to my name. So I like to tell people that, you know, in reality, there's nobody in our organization, or really very few in real estate as a whole, that wherever they are in their business, I haven't been there. So it's a unique perspective. And, you know, I think sometimes the way that we heal our wounds is by helping other people with things we didn't get. Maybe that's giving some insight. Maybe it's giving a little bit of an idea.

• 4:57Speaker 01

  So after 25 years in this, the company I'm with, which is Berkshire Hathaway Home Services, Beach Properties of Florida, Northwest Florida, I shifted into the Chief Growth Officer position. And basically, what my role is, man, I got the best job in the world. Literally, all I gotta do is wake up every day and just figure out how I can add value to our agents, help them grow their business. I handle all of our recruiting. So if there are agents that are thinking about making a change, I help with that. And so basically, I do all of our training. Right now, we're in an organization, we have had substantial growth in the last couple, three years. We're, we've doubled in size. We are now, this year, we'll have a billion dollars worth of sales volume, and I manage about 220 agents. So it's been very nice. And so what this did was, is one of the things that we always found was, for me at least personally,

• 5:40Speaker 01

  is I found that the more I shared with the knowledge, or things, or troubles, or things that had happened in my life with other people, the more I got back. And so when I came into this position, we really, we started with doing a weekly video. And basically, this video went out to all the agents in our market. It wasn't just for our agents. We just wanted to give in a way that we could add value, because as a, as an industry, we're all better together. And so as I began to do those things, that really, all of a sudden, it started catching a little traction. And as we were doing that, just had some people that were like, listen, I'd love to be able to listen to this in the podcast format, whether I'm driving or whether I'm at the gym. And so what we did is, is we made a little shift here. And I really want to thank you for all the help with this, of being able to make that shift now,

• 6:23Speaker 01

  where we're gonna have it available in a new format, in a fresh format. And that'll be the Real Estate Sales Podcast. I'll tell you this, I think it's some things, because we're really, we're spending some time industry experts. And listen, sales is sales. I mean, listen, the difference is, I'm a salesperson that happens to sell real estate. You know, I mean, you know, everybody that's, we're salespeople. And so I think there's gonna be some things and some conversations where we're talking to people, where if you're in a different industry, you'll have the ability to hear some things that you can apply in your industry that's gonna be fresh and new, that maybe nobody else is doing, that gives you that ability to kind of be a trend set.

• 6:57Speaker 00

  You know, one of the things that I've learned, Jimmy, over the years, is that in order to be successful, do the opposite of what everyone else is doing. And this is why I want to pick your brain with some of these things, with some of these four points today. Because like you said, there are things that you're doing right now in your approach as a Realtor that may be different than the way that I might approach a B2B scenario. But that scenario, that strategy can truly probably put me in a whole different world, because now I'm not going the same exact path as everybody, all my competitors, who are doing the same exact thing, doing the same phone calls and so forth. So this is why we had to bring the Burgess, the Burgess.

• 7:30Speaker 01

  Let me say this too, Donald. I think this is a perfect example. I mean, if you want to have growth in your business, there's gonna be two ways you can do it. You can either do it through more of what's been working, or you gotta do new. And so what, I mean, literally, right before I came on, I got an email from, from our brand that was talking about the fact that, are you using video in your recruiting? Because there was a new study came out that 60%. Listen, we've been using video for three years. So now it's not, if we're, you know, the whole business pattern is, is you've got birth, growth, maturity, and then decline and dip. Yeah. So what do we do when we get to a maturity level on some of the things we're doing? We either do more of it if it's working to have some new growth, or we gotta find some new things. And I'll tell you right now, obviously, the audio version and the podcast version is something that just makes sense.

• 8:13Speaker 01

  It's just another way that we can add value to the market that we know is gonna come back. So.

• 8:17Speaker 00

  Hundred percent. Jimmy, we talked about getting this growth. There are four, four strategies when we, before we started doing this call that we brought up that we could really do. Do you mind sharing with us those four things? And let's take a few minutes and talk about each of them afterwards. Is that cool?

• 8:30Speaker 01

  Absolutely. Hey, it's getting serious. I had to put the glasses on. You know, I mean, I'm just serious now.

• 8:34Speaker 00

  I come and come.

• 8:35Speaker 01

  That was tough, Donald.

• 8:36Speaker 00

  Going on, being professor on me.

• 8:39Speaker 01

  That's right. I know. Yeah. You know, as I'm looking at kind of what is it that helps these, what are the strategies? There's some specific things we can do as salespeople to really help grow our business. And when we, there's steps to it, you know, everything has a pattern. And so when I was looking at this, really, it all starts with ourselves. It's the competence breeds confidence. I'm gonna give you each of these and then we'll dive into it. That's okay, Don?

• 8:59Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 9:00Speaker 01

  So then, you know, and once you've got the competence and you've got some competence, you've got competence that you can go out and do the job. Now it's becomes, what are you doing repetition wise? What are you doing consistently? That's going to end up leading to building a reputation from you that gets you the opportunity to have more at bats as a salesperson. Also then, once you've got that, now we gotta have some conversations. Ultimately, conversations leads to conversions. And so, once we've gotten the conversations and we got the conversions, really, that's where the beginning starts, where we can start compounding our business. And that's where we turn some of those conversions into raving fans. And those are then our referral sources. And so, it's really, it's almost like a life cycle of the sales process. And we're constantly doing these things. And so, you tell me, I mean, we want to start with competence, you know, confidence. I think that's where it all starts for everybody.

• 9:45Speaker 00

  Yeah, please, please. Let's go with that.

• 9:46Speaker 01

  Yeah. So literally, I mean, I think, you know, I grew up and I think some of us grew up, and even some organizations are still teaching this a lot of times, is that always be closing, you know, I've got to be honest, sometimes always be closing is not the way. We're more of a relationship type building process now. And so, what does that mean? What, I would say it's ABL, always be learning. What are you learning new? Are you going to be the most competent person in your field? Is there an area of your business that you're struggling with that you're like, I hope they don't ask me about that? Well, let me just say that if there's any area that, unless we all got them, we all got those weak areas, go learn about that. Become the expert in that area. When I wake up in the middle of the night, it's dark. I don't, I can't see everything around me. I don't know what's ahead of me. I'm not really sure where to step. I'll

• 10:29Speaker 01

  step a lot slower. You flip that light on and I can see and I understand what's around me. I know what's ahead of me. I know where I'm headed. Then I'm gonna walk boldly. And it's the same thing with our competence. If we can get to a point where we understand our product, our service, our business better than anybody, it, everything else falls in line. There's never been a better time than right now. There is no reason for anyone to say, I don't know how to do that right now. You can go to YouTube, you can find a podcast, and you just punch in on YouTube and just say how to, whatever it is you want to learn, and a million people are gonna tell you how to do it.

• 11:00Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 11:00Speaker 01

  It's just a matter of being disciplined in the fact that you don't ever get to a place where you get complacent and say, well, oh, I got that figured out. We're always learning. We're always growing. Those are the areas that really it all starts.

• 11:11Speaker 00

  No, so many things that you go back to that, man. I'm a big believer, and I love the visual that you gave with the idea of the room, because I was thinking about it yesterday. We just came back in town and we had my son's pack and play and have it upstairs in the hallway. I wasn't expecting it to be in the hallway. I was walking around the dark the other morning and bam, tripped on that pack and play.

• 11:31Speaker 01

  Absolutely. It's, and listen, life's that way, isn't it? I mean, literally, there's always gonna be a pack and play. You know what I mean? It's always something that we're gonna run into, you know? And so, but the more we can prepare ourselves for the opportunities that we're gonna have in front of us, the more we're gonna be able to take advantage of those opportunities.

• 11:49Speaker 00

  And you know, especially with that too, Jimmy, the reps that understand that, I mean, I was talking, I just did an episode and it's going out a week after this one goes, but it was this organization, they hadn't done training in like 10, 15 years in their organization. Like, how have you not done any type of training with, and this person was, it wasn't like somebody that wasn't willing to learn. It's just the industry wise, they don't do a lot of training to their reps. But this one individual was saying that she had a lot, you know, she had experience selling pharmaceuticals, she had experience selling this and blah, blah, blah, but then came to start complaining that things weren't working out in the industry, that they, you know, things weren't right. And it came back to the fact that she became complacent. Like, you know, yes, you did work for a big pharmaceutical company back in the days and you may have done well then, but let's stop being Uncle Rico and talking about that high school football game.

• 12:33Speaker 00

  And let's talk about what's going on right now. How are you making money right now during, during these times? And the reps that are seeking those competence, competency, seeking to learn, seeking to grow, those are the ones that are, you know, they're pivoting and they're, they're thriving.

• 12:46Speaker 01

  What a huge opportunity in reality, we possibly never had in our lifetimes, to be honest. As far as, you know, those that can shift right now, those that can become more competent, especially in new and better ways to service our clients, it's always the first one to the game that's gonna win the game a lot of times. So what is it that you're doing that's new and fresh? What are you exploring? What are you out there doing? Whatever industry you're in, whoever, find some interviews with people that are doing it right and listen to the things they're doing, the shifts they're making. It doesn't really have to be, I've always said it this way, Don, we don't have to recreate the wheel. We just gotta put our own rims on them. And we just gotta spin our rim. You know what I mean? I mean, really, let's be real. It doesn't have to, you don't have to figure it out. You just gotta figure out, how do I take that information and

• 13:31Speaker 01

  do it my way? And all of a sudden, now you've taken the opportunity. And when everybody else is going, like you said, in one direction, you're headed the total opposite direction. And you're getting noticed for that. And you're adding value in a way that just is drawing and magnetically drawing people to you.

• 13:46Speaker 00

  Love it, man. Love it.

• 13:52Speaker 00

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• 14:35Speaker 00

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• 14:55Speaker 00

  Jimmy, the second point, what's that second point you had there for us?

• 14:58Speaker 01

  Yeah. Second point is, is repetition builds reputation. I mean, in reality, you know, if we're talking about the competence is built, builds confidence, that's what we're talking about ourselves.

• 15:07Speaker 00

  Yeah.

• 15:07Speaker 01

  Consistency of providing value to the marketplace is where you build the confidence that the buyer has in you as the person that's selling. So what are you doing on a weekly basis to add value to the market? You know, right now, I would say, there's never been a better time for video, to be sending video updates on whatever industry you're in to your client base. There's never been a better time to use a tool like a bomb bomb, where you can video email specifically to someone where that repetition of every week, they're gonna get an update from me. Every month, they're gonna get an update from me. Every so often, I'm gonna get a text from them. When you do that consistency, all of a sudden, they start, that builds your reputation of, hey, this is a guy that'll fall through. This is a lady that is going to be

• 15:49Speaker 01

  consistent in what they're doing, and I can trust them. You know, it goes back to the whole know, like, and trust process. In reality, you first off, by starting to be consistent, they begin to trust that you're going to be there for them. And once they begin, now all of a sudden, now your reputation's built. And the critical part of this is, is once you build your reputation, it's not just about, it's not just about that person you're communicating with. It's all the other people that you're communicating with. It gives you that ability, really, to connect and have referral bases that you don't even see coming. You know, I had this one time. Don, I have a, I send it out every week. Every Tuesday, you know, the video goes out to the agents, you know? With the podcast, every Tuesday, every Friday, we're gonna be dropping episodes. There's gonna be a consistency, a, almost a cadence that people can fall in with. They can trust that's what we're gonna be doing. And when they, when you do that now,

• 16:34Speaker 01

  all of a sudden, people were coming to me on Tuesday afternoon, hey, I didn't get it yet. I was like, oh, you know, I didn't realize.

• 16:40Speaker 00

  Waiting at the door.

• 16:41Speaker 01

  Exactly. Yeah, that's exactly right. So I would say this, just find the things, there has to be some type of systematic approach to consistency in providing value to your clients. And when you do that, all of a sudden, your reputation goes up. Those calls that you're making become different because now they feel like they know you. Now they feel, I mean, I had an instance where I was at a little festival in our area, you know, I'm down in the beach area. This is back when I was selling a few years ago. And I was sending out a video to clients every week. So literally, I'm doing the same thing I was doing, you know, to my clients with Realtors now. So, you know, then I'm recruiting, or then I'm training, or then I'm coaching. And so, literally, I'm standing this line, this guy's about five feet in front of me, you know, and he keeps looking back at. And I was like, you know, I grew up on a dirt road, Don. I was like, oh, we about to move furniture. That's right. You know, I mean, I

• 17:25Speaker 01

  was like, oh, oh. And so, next thing I know, he finally just turns around and he says, hey, just want to introduce myself. You don't, I don't even know if you know me. He said, but I'm on your mailing list. I get your videos. He listens, I've never responded to you. I just want you to know, you're my guy. You're my guy. I just, you know, and he's almost apologizing for not thanking you earlier. I'm like, what in the world? But it's that repetition, you know? He knew consistency. And then, once we, you know, once you do that, that's when, especially with video, all of a sudden, now you're in places and somebody comes up to you and tells you, hey, could you help me with this? You don't even know where it's coming from. So that repetition builds your reputation that then gets you opportunities you don't even see coming.

• 18:02Speaker 00

  Wow, dude, that's so, so, so powerful there, man. I'm so glad to hear that. And probably the other thing to that, too, is like, you know, people don't always like, sometimes it may seem, and I guess it goes back to this idea of sales, sometimes people, your fruit doesn't come right there. It's like you plant it and then a day later or a week later or a season later, that's when it happens. And especially in this scenario, this dude, who knows how long he's been listening, but he's listening for a minute. Clearly, you're his person. And my wife, she said it the other day. She said that she's grateful for the city, our city sending out these emails. And she's never responded to one of their emails.

• 18:35Speaker 01

  Right.

• 18:36Speaker 00

  She doesn't know, she just opens them up and then she shares them with other people and shares them with me, you know, like a bunch of stuff going on in the community. She's like, here's some things we can do, because they're locked up in the house. But the point is, the city probably doesn't know the outcome of the result that she's doing, but it's working. But if the city say, well, nobody is responding to our email, tell us how thankful they are. And then she's gonna be like, they're gonna, this stuff will never happen, you know, but you just gotta take the action. And just like what you did, you did it. And I think the reps who are out there listening, they're smart, they're the ones that are acting. And you act and you act and just know that in a season, may not be tomorrow, but in a season, the rewards will come. But I just need to keep acting.

• 19:11Speaker 01

  You know, depending on the industry, all sales work in a cycle. So for us, we kind of know, it's a 60, 90 day cycle. So literally, the way that we do a lot of our training is, is we have what we call our accountability groups. It's the 30 minute call. We base it on the book, The Four Disciplines of Execution, which is a tremendous book.

• 19:28Speaker 00

  Four Discipline of Execution.

• 19:30Speaker 01

  Four Disciplines of Execution. And basically, what it focuses on is it says there's, you need to have one wildly important goal. Whatever that goal is for you, it can be transactions, it could be income, it could be whatever. So what we do is, is we have one sheet where we have a group of 10 to 12 people that meet on Zoom. They come on there and they say, my wildly important goal is this. Each person reports, takes them less than a minute. And then it says, my leading indicators that I said last week I would do, because we're focusing on leading indicators. Listen, my weight doesn't have as much to do with what I ate this morning as it does what I did the last 60, 90 days, right? So from that standpoint, it's the same thing in sales. The things that I do today, I can make a thousand calls today. Something may or may not happen. But if I make a thousand calls a day for the next month, I'll promise you, I know what's fixing to happen in about 60,

• 20:12Speaker 01

  90 days. It's about to get real exciting. So what we do is, we focus on the things we can control. We know that basically in our industry, 50 conversations equals a deal. How many conversations, how many deals do you want? We back it down. How many conversations do you have every day? So when we get to that point, they say, this is my wildly important goal. The accountability part, which is so critical, is that they say, last week I said I would have 50 conversations and whatever it is, you know, I would, whatever they're gonna do to market their business. And then to the group, they have to say, I either I did or I didn't. Now, listen, there's no been in our group. It's not like I'm as the moderator, I'll be like, Donald, you suck at doing your things. That's not the way we work. You know what I mean? But listen, it's that little bit of backend accountability. I will say this, our meetings on Friday, Thursday afternoons are the most effective

• 20:55Speaker 01

  days of our week. Because I don't want to get on there, and I don't want to say to you, who I respect, Donald, Donald, by the way, I didn't do what I said I was gonna do. I mean, it's just nature. So that little bit of accountability. And then we say, next week, I'll be doing these things. And then we talk about, what are we gonna do this week to get better in our business? You know, when you have that little bit of accountability, when you have that cadence, when you have some repetition, all of a sudden, now that happens in a way that we can trust, it's gonna build a reputation. You won't even see it. Those things start coming out of the, you don't even see deals coming. When you are consistently doing the activities, all of a sudden, things that you didn't even see coming happen. So that's what's exciting to me, is making sure that you've got that repetition in your business, you've got it in your communication with your clients

• 21:37Speaker 01

  or your potential clients, and that you've just, and you've got it in your life, where you can kind of almost, instead of riding the sales roller coaster, wow, I had a great month, oh no, I gotta do it again. Instead of doing that, having that consistency of knowing that the steps I'm taking today, if I have, in my case, in our case, a lot of cases, if I have 10 conversations every day, five days a week, 50 conversations, I'm gonna do almost 50 deals a year. It's not that hard. It's just the consistency that when the whirlwind comes, you stay consistent.

• 22:06Speaker 00

  Amen. Man, I couldn't agree with that even more, man. Jimmy, this is some good stuff. This leads right into the next point here. Point number three. You might have hit us, tell us what that one is.

• 22:15Speaker 01

  Yeah, it's just conversations lead to conversions. Ultimately, you can send all the videos you want, you can post all you want on social media, but ultimately, people do business with people. And so you've gotta get on the phone. You gotta get on the phone, man. That's where it's at. I mean, it hasn't changed. You know what I mean?

• 22:30Speaker 00

  Get on the one.

• 22:31Speaker 01

  I know. Hey, listen, I had, let me tell you this. I had a funny story. I had a few weeks, this has been about two months ago, I had some people coming to town from Louisiana that I knew. And they brought a friend of theirs that was in the insurance business. These are guys are, you know, big producers, one in, up in Chattanooga, one over in Baton Rouge. And they had a friend that was staying with them locally. And so I went and had dinner with them. We get done with dinner, we're talking about our business. And the old Cajun insurance guy sitting over here a little bit, you know, with that little Cajun draw. And he said, it was told to me this way. And for those that are listening, I've got my hand like a phone. He had it like the phone was closed, like it was on the receiver. And he said, broke, rich. Puts that phone up to his ear. Broke, rich. If you got, the phone is not at your ear, you're probably gonna be broke. If you got the phone

• 23:13Speaker 01

  up to your ear and you're talking to people, good stuff's gonna happen. Ultimately, you've gotta have these conversations. You've got to get in there with people and find out how you can truly help them. What are their needs? What are the pain points for them? If you don't have a conversation, you're never gonna know how you can help them in a way. It speeds up the process of being able to identify. And ultimately, we don't, I don't build a relationship by somebody being on social media and, woo, I really liked them because of that post. I may think, that's kind of cool. But until I talk to them, you know, until I take my wife to dinner, I can text my wife all day. But I'll tell you this, it's, that's great. But for us to go have dinner and sit eye to eye and talk and discuss about things, that's gonna be a different level. And we're in the relationship

• 23:57Speaker 01

  business. We're not in the transaction business. If you take care of relationships, the transactions will come in droves. So you can't build a relationship without having conversations. You can't have a sale, in most cases, without having some conversations.

• 24:14Speaker 00

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• 24:54Speaker 00

  network of over 1.2 billion professionals. The most dynamic buyer network, working just for you. Accelerate your sales with LinkedIn Sales Navigator. Try LinkedIn Sales Navigator now with a free 60 day trial at LinkedIn.com/sell. That's LinkedIn.com/sell. Terms and conditions apply.

• 25:19Speaker 00

  Since 2013, we launched this podcast. The goal of the podcast was to share wealth of information, and I feel that we've successfully done so. As a natural byproduct, listeners like you would reach out and ask, could I coach them? Could I train their team? Could I come and speak in an S K O? Could I consult for them? And that is how we gain the majority of our business, and still to this day. So in 2019, one of our clients saw what we did and asked, could we do that for them? We experimented with it, and we started a podcast production agency. Now we create podcasts for some of the biggest brands in the world. And it's amazing. I would love to show you and your team how we can create podcasts for you and use it as an entertaining source, but also educational and a lead generation.

• 26:02Speaker 00

  If you're interested, go to bluemangostudios.com. Again, bluemangostudios.com, and our team can show you exactly what we did. It's amazing.

• 26:16Speaker 00

  I was talking even to one of my clients this morning, he's in the marketing world. And I was talking to him, and he was like, yeah, if I can get all these, if you can get all inbound leads, you know, that'll be great. And yes, everyone would be happy if all day I could have phones just ringing off the hook and people are coming to me. That would be fantastic. However, in reality of the situation, not every single business is like that. So instead of me sitting back just waiting, if you want hyper growth, I mean, there's a reason why companies like Salesforce, Salesforce have an outbound department. There's a reason why companies like HubSpot, who are big on marketing, have an outbound department. They use the marketing side to give them intelligence so they can know who to go after. But the key, though, you gotta pick up the phone. You can't be scared. And I think that's where many people come from, the, like you say, in the old school ways,

• 27:01Speaker 00

  like, you know, old school, the new school, old school way, where they're like, you know, I just need to inbound only. And I'm like, that's baloney. The biggest companies who are going for great growth, they do outbound and they still do their inbound as well.

• 27:14Speaker 01

  But it circles back to the competence. You know, we were talking about having the competence to know what to say when you talk to people. You know, I mean, in reality, you know, you know how much you and I prep for this today? Zero. Because this is what we do. We know it. You know, I'll have to sit here and think about, oh, I hope Donald doesn't ask me this, or, oh, if Donald says this, I need to say that. It's just, it's who we are. So when you build your competence in a way that you're not afraid to pick up the phone, the only time you're not afraid to pick up the phone is about the fourth one. The first four calls are always gonna be difficult. But if I have confidence that when I call somebody, no matter what they say to me or ask me, I'm probably gonna have the right answer. Or I got the confidence to say, man, that's a great question. I've never, in 27 years in this business, I've never been asked that question. Let me, let me see what I can find out. I'm as curious as you are.

• 27:55Speaker 00

  You see the key there, Jimmy, too? And this is a whole nother episode for another day, but it's going into the idea of you asking the sales rep who can ask those meaningful questions, you know, the agent who can ask those meaningful questions, those are the ones that get the buyers to start thinking. And then it leads to conversations. Conversations lead to making money, not being broke.

• 28:11Speaker 01

  That's right. That's exactly right. It's all about that phone. I'm telling you, ultimately, somebody said one day, said, oh, with all these new tools and all the technology, if you can only use one tool, what would be? I said, a phone. And I'm not talking about so that I can get on Facebook. I'm talking about so that I could pick the phone and talk to people and figure out how I could add value. It's still, I mean, sometimes the more, listen, I love technology. Obviously, what I love about technology is it gives me the opportunity to have a more meaningful conversation, probably does some of the prep work, especially with video and audio, where people kind of know who we are, you know, and it acts as a filter. In reality, if we use it correctly, where there's some people that my access is gonna drive crazy. I know that. I'm never gonna work with those folks. You know what I mean? And there's some people that are gonna be like, oh, maybe I could,

• 28:55Speaker 01

  that seems like my guy. So that's what it does. It acts as a filter, but it ultimately means that instead of 50 conversations, now I can move it to 40 conversations equals a transaction. Because my competence goes up, and my confidence goes up. And then all of a sudden, I have the ability to identify what the person needs more faster, so that I can help them better. And that's ultimately what this is, is being in that help business.

• 29:19Speaker 00

  Love it, Jimmy. The last point here, Jimmy, the last one, ties back to referral. Talk about that.

• 29:25Speaker 01

  Yeah, I mean, the most frustrating thing for me is to see someone that does all of those hard work on the first few steps. And let me just say this, sales is hard to get started, especially. So after you've done all the hard work of building the people's confidence in you, where you could get to a place where they trust you, they know you, they like you, and they do business with you, and then the transaction happens and you never talk to them again. It drives me crazy because that's where the true opportunity is. If we're going to compound the business, it comes from referrals. And so what I like to say is, is if you will develop raving fans, they'll send you plenty of referrals. And what I mean by raving fans, I mean, I know that you know the book, The Raving Fans, it's an older school book now. But basically, here's the concept, is that you take every

• 30:08Speaker 01

  opportunity to make someone, to give them something unexpected. What is it in your industry that is most unexpected? For us, and I can tell you this, if you'll go to Google, whatever industry you're in, and Google, you know, worst part of whatever, or worst experience with, or like with real estate, it is biggest complaint for realtors, of realtors. And if you do that for us, and it's in most industries, it is the communication. So how do you systematically change the communication? That's what we focus on. We want to make sure that they don't have any doubts about what's going on. So we really work on our systematic doing that. Where is it where if they got, I had a client this past week that came in, and he had the cutest three little girls you've ever seen, you know, they just bought this beach house, and they were coming down, the girls were

• 30:52Speaker 01

  so excited, you know, and I mean, with everything going on. And so when we had our closing, I'm gonna be honest, I'll tell you this, you can get me something, and I'll be like, oh, that's nice, Donald sent me something. You send something to my kids, man, I'm gonna be a friend for life. So I had three little t-shirts for the girls, and I just knew that that was probably going to be more important than me getting them something else. When they, when they're buying this $2 million house, me getting them a t-shirt, they're gonna be like, oh, thanks. You know what I mean? But I get it for their kids, their little girls, matching shirts, and they're taking photos with them, that's a different deal. So what is it that's unexpected by your client? You know, is it sending lunch to their office? Is it finding out or seeing something that's important to them, and making a donation to a charity that's dear to them? Is it something with their family? Is it

• 31:36Speaker 01

  noticing them when nobody else notices the fact that they got a promotion, or they did something? Whatever it is, typically, if you'll, like we were talking about, go against the grain. Most people, they go to the transaction, hey, it's been great meeting you, out. And they never talk to those people again. Really, the opportunity really starts the day after the transaction.

• 31:53Speaker 02

  Yep.

• 31:54Speaker 01

  It surprises them if you follow up in a week and say, hey, just want to check and see if everything's going okay with whatever it is they bought from. When you do that, you've taken it to a new level. Now you're going to stay top of mind. Now you're going to talk to them every month or two. Now you're going to stay, and that's where the referrals begin to come. The referrals don't come because of what you did during the transaction. It comes what you do after the transaction, your follow-up, you're continuing to add value. And then all of a sudden, they're going to get to a place where they just can't help but tell people about you. I mean, they're going to be those raving fans we were talking.

• 32:24Speaker 02

  You know that Jimmy Burgess, man? I'm looking for somebody looking to buy a house. You talk to Jimmy. Shoot.

• 32:29Speaker 01

  Yeah, he gave my, he gave my little girls three shirts. Something like that. Yeah.

• 32:33Speaker 02

  Shoot, I ain't gotta buy, I ain't gotta buy his clothes for like, two months now. Jimmy, man. If there's one major takeaway you want folks to listen into this episode to walk away with, what's that one piece of advice?

• 32:46Speaker 01

  I would just say, listen, right now, more than ever, I think it's critically important that we invest in ourselves. And from a standpoint of, you know, I love in being at, being at events where I'm around other people that are my industry. And we've had a year that's been very difficult. We've also never had a time where you could connect easier with people that are in your industry in other places. I would encourage somebody, you want to really grow, decide you're going to start a mastermind with people in your business in other places, and have a call once every two weeks where you guys just talk about one topic, whatever it is, a pain point in the industry, a question that you get asked. Don't wait on somebody else in your organization to train you. You go get it. Now, there's

• 33:29Speaker 01

  some great organizations. Obviously, we pride ourselves in providing the best training we can possibly provide to get our agents in a position where they can build the business of their dreams. But listen, I didn't have that, you know, throughout my career. I had to go figure it out myself. And I will say this, the people that will push through a little bit of pain, and just move forward a little bit, and don't get discouraged all the time, and train themselves, they're going to see this. I'll close with this story, Don. I had my, my son, I got a 13-year-old son, he had, he'd been home with us through COVID this whole time, man. I mean, he's, I mean, I think he was sick of us, you know, to be honest. He just wanted to be around some of his, some kids his age, you know. So he starts back to school, and he says, comes home the first day, he's like, I think I'm

• 34:10Speaker 01

  gonna run cross-country. I was like, cross-country? Running? Wow. I said, what? And he's like, he's like, yeah, they run in the afternoons from three to five. I was like, son, you're telling me that you're willing to run four miles a day just so you can be around other kids? He said, no, I think, I just, yeah, I, well, I guess, but I just want to be around some kids. I was like, oh, okay. So he has his first meet, and there's like, 60 kids out there. You've got to understand, I mean, this build, I'm not built like a runner. You know what I'm saying? I mean, let's be real, you know, so, but, so my son gets up there, and he gets ready, there's like, 60 people. I'm like, oh, this can go either way, confidence or, you know, or not. Well, they run out into the woods, they come back around about a mile, and there's one kid who would probably go win state this year in Florida. He comes, and I mean, he's like, he's like, way out front of people. I mean, this, this dude

• 34:54Speaker 01

  looks like he's just floating on air, you know, I mean, his stride is just gorgeous. And then you see this other kid coming in second, and you know, and we can see like, 50 runners back out, coming out of the woods and everything. And I look, and I'm like, man, did Fisher take a wrong turn? My son, did he take a wrong turn? He's in third place? What's going on here? You know, and so he comes by, and I was like, I was like, son, you know, as he's coming by me, I said, you're halfway done. You don't have but six or seven minutes of pain left, son. Keep pushing. As he's coming by me, and he's like, you know, can't hardly breathe, you know? And I mean, you know the pain's coming. And he ends up finishing third in that deal.

• 35:27Speaker 02

  What?

• 35:28Speaker 01

  Yeah, this is one of those dad moments. And let me just say this, I'm not proud of him because he finished third. And this is what I told him, Don, and I would say this to anybody, because this is, literally, to me, this is the key to life. Every single kid in that race, this is what I told him, I said, son, I'm so proud of you, not because you finished third. I said, but because every single kid in that race felt pain. They felt discomfort. And every fiber of their being told them to pull away from that pain, from that discomfort. And I said, but when that pain came, and that discomfort came, and you decided, you know what, it's only seven more minutes. Anybody, I can do anything for seven minutes. I'm gonna run into this pain instead of away from it. I said, son, if you can apply that to every area of your life, if you can apply that to relationships, spiritually, if you can apply that, when you get uncomfortable, where you know where to lean. If you can apply that in your business, where when everybody else doesn't want to

• 36:13Speaker 01

  pick up the phone because it's uncomfortable, and they're scared of the phone, and you're willing to push through that pain and pick up the phone and have conversations when nobody else will, life will be a wrap. This is what it's all about. And we always forget this. Every area of our life, listen, growth and comfort cannot coexist. If you're comfortable right now, I'm telling you, be careful, because I'm telling you, decline is right around the corner. You've got to continuously be pushing yourself a little bit into an uncomfortable place, because that's where the growth is at. So I would just say this, in leaving everybody with this, go get uncomfortable today, man. Find something that you're not comfortable with, and either learn it better, or push through the pain. And I'll promise you, everything you want in your business and in your life is right on the other side of that pain.

• 36:54Speaker 02

  Jimmy, we love that, man. As you're listening to the show, you're watching Jimmy here, and you want to get more of this, you're like, I need more Jimmy Burgess in my life. Do what I do. Go subscribe to his podcast, and also go ahead and follow him on YouTube. Jimmy, where can they find those? The name of the podcast is The Real Estate Sales Podcast.

• 37:11Speaker 01

  That's right. They can find The Real Estate Sales Podcast. Also, the website is the realestatsalespodcast.com. And if you go on YouTube, you can just, you know, Google my name, Jimmy Burgess, it should pop some things up. And also, you know, Facebook is The Real Estate Sales Podcast Facebook page. I believe it's in a transition right now, so it may or may not be when this airs. If not, it's real estate, it's real estate growth. And so you can find it there also.

• 37:35Speaker 02

  Awesome. Jimmy Burgess, we appreciate you taking the time to come on the show and for giving us this wisdom, man. Thank you, man.

• 37:40Speaker 01

  Appreciate you, my friend.

• 37:49Speaker 02

  I'm telling you, Jimmy came through here and brought some fire. I feel like I could go run through this wall right now, man. But the forced things that you need for systematic growth is not too complicated. And many of our teams, we are doing some of these, but imagine if we're doing all of them consistently, what could happen? And I think that's the key part there, consistently. We can say we're doing a couple of them, but if we're not doing all of them, it's not going to really be of benefit. It's like me doing, you know, I'm doing workout, and I would do it for, you know, it may be a great workout that I'm doing, but I do it once a week, or once every blue moon. It's not going to give me the growth that I need if I'm not consistently doing it. But apply these principles and test them out in your organization with your sales team, or individually as a sales rep. Listen, I want you guys to thrive. I want you to succeed. Connect with Jimmy Burgess. Tell him you heard I'm here on the Sales Evangelist Podcast. But most importantly,

• 38:34Speaker 02

  I want you to be able to do your very best. I want you to raise the level of thinking. I want you to go out and do big things, and I want you to earn some money that you deserve. I'll see you on the next one. Thanks so much, guys.

• 38:50Speaker 02

  The Sales Evangelist Podcast is created by the Sales Evangelist Sales Training Organization. It is produced by TSE Studios. Our podcast production manager is Nancy Paul. Our audio engineer is Jershun Obayal. Our video engineer is Dusan Kunado. Guest management is done by Jill Vito and Kristy Virtus. Our content writer is Carlisa Galberith. Our graphic designer is Yurvish Savalia. And I'm your host and executive producer, Donald C. Kelly.