BRX Pro Tips: The Money Conversation 

Stone Payton: [00:00:02] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor, Stone Payton here with you. Lee, let’s talk about the all-important money conversation.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:10] Yeah, it’s important to know what a sales win looks like for your prospect in terms of dollars. That way, they know if they can afford the service, if it makes financial sense to invest in a Business RadioX show. And you should never duck the money conversation and you should never get defensive about it. The fees are what they are. And if the client or prospective client has trouble with that amount of money, then it’s just not the right fit and you shouldn’t force it. But it’s important for the prospective client to understand the value that you’re delivering and not the service you are providing, because those are two different things.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:47] Their show is going to work for them 24/7. They’re not paying for time in a studio. You know, their show is an asset for them to leverage every day, every week, every month. That’s Google search result that they’re going to get every time their guest comes on a show that’s now pop to the number one result, that’s going to benefit them and their guest time and time again. So, you do not want to sell, you know, just time and and materials. What you’re offering has a lot of value, so do not be afraid to talk about the money and the ROI and things like that.

Stone Payton: [00:01:22] Well, we could and perhaps we should at some point do an entire full day, full two or three-day workshop on the money conversation. Well, a couple of quick tidbits that I will bring to light, look, many of the people you’re speaking with have never and, I mean, never, ever had a green dollar ROI conversation about anything related to marketing or media. So, it’s a new conversation for them. And so, you just have to recognize that and have a little bit of patience. And be forthright and upfront in, matter of fact, with your conversation and in articulating your fee structure.

Stone Payton: [00:02:00] And like Lee said earlier, don’t duck the question. When they ask you what it costs, you tell them $2,342.17. You don’t back off of it, you don’t hmm and huh, you don’t talk about ranges. You lay it out for them. Have the conversation. And look, if they are not prepared to make that financial investment at this point, you may be too early or too late to help them. And again, we’ve said this before, Lee, if that’s the case, probably more so than virtually anyone else in the marketplace, we can come back and try to help them again six months from now.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:32] Right. And remember, focus on the value you’re delivering, not the activity that you’re doing. That relationship that that prospect meets with for an hour when they’re in the studio and that person now sees them totally different than they saw them before, that didn’t happen by accident. It happened by design, because we have a system that elegantly puts hard-to-reach people in front of our clients every single day. And it’s working for them. They should happily pay for it. And you should not worry about the money. As long as it has an ROI, they should be happy, you should be happy.

BRX Pro Tip: Leveraging Your Local SBDC

Stone Payton: [00:00:01] Welcome back to Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you this afternoon. Lee, you know, we often will say we’ll take all the help we can get, but we have really been more diligent, I think, in trying to live in to that philosophy. And one of the things that we’ve really come to appreciate is this opportunity to leverage your local small business development center, your local SBDC. Talk about that a little bit.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:28] Sure. During a recent GSU Entrepreneurship show that we do out of Georgia State University, we got a chance to meet somebody at the SBDC out of GSU. And they’re usually affiliated with universities. That’s usually where they work out of. And so, we got to meet a guy named Paul Wilson. He’s the area director. And he was kind of enamored about what we do. And we got a chance—you got a chance to kind of see it, live it. And then, he invited us and said, “Hey, there’s ways that we might be able to work together, one of which is no charge. SBDC works, and it’s all part of the Small Business Association, so there’s no charge to business owners. So, that’s really a no harm, no foul.” So, Stone and I, you know, we like to take these meetings. We’re always happy to articulate the message, talk about the mission, and any opportunity to do that, kind of, we’ll take.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:21] So, he came in, and he kind of asked us a bunch of hard questions, and said, “What are you trying to do?” And we really enjoyed it. And we became kind of a client. We created a formal relationship, and we’re going through the process, and he’s holding us accountable, asking us hard questions, and we feel like we’re really benefiting.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:41] And the beauty of this is that every one of you, studio partners, can use the SBDC in the same manner. It’s no charge. You’re already paying for it with your tax dollars. They’re usually affiliated with a university near you. And, you know, have a conversation with them. Talk to them about your business, what your challenges are, and they have a ton of research resources available. Whether it’s research, whether it might be partners, whether it might be funding, there’s lots of ways to leverage SBDC to grow your business, and it’s a free resource, and I highly recommend having a conversation at the minimum with your SBDC rep near you.

Stone Payton: [00:02:18] I think it’s been incredibly rewarding already. For me, personally, out of our very last meeting, which was just a few days ago before we’re making this Business RadioX Pro Tip recording, for me, it’s got me personally refocused on what I’ll characterize as metrics that matter. But, you know. And then, the next time we get together may have me, you know, kind of recommitted to something completely different, but I’m enjoying every minute of it. And I just—I can’t recommend it highly enough.

BRX Pro Tip: Get Good at Prioritizing

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, lots of areas for all of us to get better at -me and you included – one of which is get good at prioritizing.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Yeah, this is something that every person, every leader should be very good at. You have to know what is the most important thing you should be doing, and then do that relentlessly. You’ve got to pick that one big thing, get that right. And if you want to grow and have more people, that is just the most important thing.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:34] And prioritizing, back in the day, used to not be plural. Like you didn’t have priorities; you had one priority. And that should be the case today as well. You can’t have five priorities. You can only have one priority, and you can only have one priority at a time. So, make sure you’re not wasting your time on things that don’t matter, Or else, you’re not going to be able to achieve your goals. Time is perishable. Don’t waste it on things that don’t matter. Pick one thing, knock it out. Move on to the next thing.

BRX Pro Tip: Are Your Metrics a Crutch

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And, we are back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton. Lee, today’s question may be a little bit counterintuitive, meant to challenge, but I think it’s an important question. Are your metrics a crutch?

Lee Kantor: [00:00:15] Yeah. In today’s world, lots of things can be measured and because lots of things can be measured that means that there’s industries in place right now that can influence those numbers and show whatever numbers you want to show. And, when that happens, the numbers lose their meaning, and a lot of folks feel like they have to use numbers to sell what they sell. And then, they don’t even care if the numbers are true. They are just the numbers. So, then they can take kind of response – they don’t have to worry about taking responsibility because those numbers said this, so, therefore, it is what it is.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] I think that it’s a crutch to use numbers and metrics too much. Your prospect doesn’t really know what those numbers and metrics really are. It’s really not the why of doing what they’re doing. They’re kind of looking for a rationalization. Numbers have the appearance of being a third party and they have the appearance of being objective. They don’t really understand the context of the numbers or how easily these numbers can be gamed.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:18] Numbers can be gamed so easily and it’s so inexpensive to game the numbers. I mean, that’s why there’s so much scams going on when it comes to numbers, and the numbers really, in my opinion, can’t be trusted a lot of the times. I would rather spend more time with anecdotes, with real use cases. I would rather connect my client, my prospect with a client that has had some success, measurable success, measurable in terms of ROI and results rather than just static numbers because I just don’t trust a lot of the numbers that are out there in today’s world.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:59] We’re in a digital world for good and for bad, and the good part of the digital world is we can count a lot of things. The bad part is there’s a lot of shady ways to influence those numbers and to make them go up or down just by spending a few dollars.

Lee Kantor: [00:02:12] So, my advice is to not use and not lean onto numbers, statistics, metrics. Lean more into real-life human beings, telling human being stories of anecdotes. Use cases, testimonials. Those things are more persuasive to me. Have your prospect talked to another human being that use your service. That’s more persuasive to me than relying on numbers.

BRX Pro Tip: Empathy as a Super Power

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor and Stone Payton here with you. Lee, we talk a lot about this thing called empathy, but empathy, I mean, it really is. Let’s talk about empathy as what it is, a superpower.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:18] Yeah. I think empathy is really important when it comes to business because the more that you can understand and appreciate where the other person is coming from, then the better you can be in serving them and selling something to them. And, when you realize that people have a universal need to be heard, to be appreciated, to be respected, you can really go far by helping those people be heard, be appreciated, and be respected.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:50] So, when you give that kind of positive attention, then that quote from Maya Angelou comes to life. And, something she said that’s really affected me and is really, kind of, the model of how we do what we do and why we do what we do is, she said that people may forget what you say but they will remember how you made them feel. And, at Business RadioX we make our guests feel great. When someone’s being interviewed by somebody at Business RadioX, they are being heard, they are being appreciated, they are being respected. They have a piece of content that they can be proud of, that they’re going to share, which is going to attract other people telling them what a great job they did.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:32] So, not only are you making the day of that person by being empathetic and really understand the needs and emotions that drive them, you’re respecting them, you’re holding them up, you’re appreciating them, you’re giving them a chance to tell their story in their own words so their passion and their intelligence can be heard. That is a gift.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:55] So, at Business RadioX, it’s easy to use empathy, and the people who can lean into empathy the most are the most successful in our model. And, something to consider for the people out there, who are you going to appreciate today? Who are you going to respect and hold up and celebrate? When you do that today, if you can go out and do that for someone, you’re going to see the ripples that it has, not only to that person but to the community as a whole.

BRX Pro Tip: How People Make Decisions

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] Welcome back to BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, today’s topic, how people make decisions.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:09] Yeah. This is a little secret that top sales people do, and I thought we should share it with other people. But the way people make decisions is, first, they do it emotionally and then they justify them rationally. And a lot of salespeople get hung up on the facts and figures of things. But that’s not how most things are bought.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:29] People buy kind of the why, and then they rationalize the facts behind it. So, that’s why when you’re selling, you have to get to the emotional points of the story. You have to share the mission. You have to share the why. You have to share the feelings that the prospect will feel when they use your solution. Focus on that. Spend most of your time talking about that.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:51] Once the person viscerally believes that you can make them feel a certain way, then you deliver some facts and figures that your prospect needs to kind of justify the decision that they already made. And maybe they’ll show it to somebody else in the company that gives them cover for the decision. But always sell first around emotion, then add the facts and figures to justify the decision that they already made.

BRX Pro Tip: How to Ask for Money

Stone Payton: [00:00:00] And we are back with BRX Pro Tips. Stone Payton and Lee Kantor here with you. Lee, let’s dive into for a moment how, and maybe when, but how to ask for money.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:13] I think the best way to ask for money is to kind of show someone an opportunity that makes them want to give you money. So, the more attractive your offer and your promise is, and people will want to do it and you’re just saying, “Okay. Let’s get started,” and not talking about money that much, because it’s so attractive that they want to do this.

Lee Kantor: [00:00:37] And I think at Business RadioX, we do this by showing how working with us helps our clients build and nurture relationships with the people that matter most to them. And we tell them, “Hey, if you had a tool that can help you build more relationships with the people who matter most to you, if I can introduce you and help you build relationship with 10, 20, 30, 50, 100 of your best prospects, would that move the needle in your business?”

Lee Kantor: [00:01:05] If they believe that I can do this, that I can deliver on that promise. If I can show them enough social proof, give them enough examples of people who have successfully done this. Show them what it looks like and how it works and how they would feel if that really could happen. And if they believe that I can deliver on that promise and they believe that they can really sell to some of the people that I’ve helped them meet, then this should sell itself.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:35] If they’re not buying, that means that they’re not believing one of those two things, that I can deliver on the promise or that they can really sell to the people that I’m introducing them to. So, if they don’t really believe one of those two things, then you’re going to have trouble selling.

Lee Kantor: [00:01:52] But if they believe they can sell, if they were put in front of those people, and they believe I can deliver those people to them, then this thing should sell itself. And they’ll happily spend money with Business RadioX to help them do what we promised we can do.