Sara Sheehan welcomes her friend and mentor Doug C. Brown to the show to talk about successful sales strategies. Doug C. Brown is the CEO of CEO Sales Strategies and is a Sales Revenue and Profit Growth Expert. Doug’s educational and working background is an impressive mix of varied skills, but he always knew he wanted to focus his energies on helping people achieve their best in sales.
Doug walks us through his storied career journey from serving in the United States Army to studying nuclear medicine to selling equipment to some of the top musical acts of the day, including Aerosmith, The Eagles, Boston, and Billy Joel. He learned to play a variety of instruments but he also recognized that confidence, not just skill, was what set those famous musicians apart. All of this culminated in a stunningly successful career in sales that led to working with Chet Holmes, Tony Robbins, and many other top-tier companies.
In this episode, Sara Sheehan learns how Doug shaped the strategies that he employs to raise sales revenue in the teams he works with. Doug breaks down exactly how he increased the revenue for Chet Holmes and Tony Robbins, by looking at the product sets, the revenue, and the lead base, and then segmenting offerings to directly appeal to each bracket of business the companies worked with. Doug’s incredible methods, innate instinct for sales, and personable follow-up approach have led not only to his own success but the success of so many other individuals and companies. Tune in to hear his invaluable advice.
About Doug C. Brown:
Doug C. Brown is the CEO of CEO Sales Strategies and a Sales Revenue and Profit Growth Expert. He is the founder of Vibitno and creator of the Top 1% Academy, where he trains on how to sell to buyers, whether they be CEOs, business owners, or entrepreneurs, and how to be in the top 1% of sales earners doing so. Doug also served as an independent President of Sales and Training for Tony Robbins, Chet Holmes, and Russ Whitney, where he raised the close rate of the sales presenter teams by 157%, as well as increased sales for one product line by 4150% in his first six months of taking over.
He believes that most people have the personal power and potential to be at the top 1% of earners, but lack the tools and knowledge of how to achieve this.
Resources discussed in this episode:
- “The Ultimate Sales Machine: Turbocharge Your Business with Relentless Focus on 12 Key Strategies” by Chet Holmes
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Contact Sara Sheehan | Sara Sheehan Consulting:
Contact Doug C. Brown | Sales Revenue and Profit Growth Expert:
- Website: CEOSalesStrategies.com
- Vibitno: Vibitno.com
- Download Doug’s free e-book “The Art and Science of Being a Nonstop 1% Earner in Sales”
- “Win-Win Selling: Unlocking Your Power for Profitability by Resolving Objections” By Doug Brown
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Transcript
Sara Sheehan: [00:00:03] Hi there, my name is Sara Sheehan and welcome to my podcast, Transformational Thinkers with Sara Sheehan. Today I’m talking with my friend and admired mentor Doug Brown about his business working with executives and business leaders on increasing their sales skills and improving their ability to close business. Doug helps salespeople and sales teams, and can even provide sales talent to companies looking for commission-only sellers. If you would like to learn more after listening to today’s discussion, check out the show notes or a link to book a meeting with me or Doug. Doug, you have an absolutely fascinating backstory, at least to me you do. Because there are some common threads in your life that are still present in your business today. You grew up with an understanding of the value of hard work, having a fire deep inside to achieve more and do more and truly impact the outcome of your life. You’ve always pushed yourself to do and achieve more. You also served our country in the US military. What branch of the military were you in?
Doug Brown: [00:01:28] I was in the United States Army.
Sara Sheehan: [00:01:30] Excellent. And so where did your service take you and what were your experiences there?
Doug Brown: [00:01:34] Well, it first took me to Oklahoma. That’s where I was, that’s where I went to basic training. Originally I was going to go into the medical field or I wanted to learn languages and I scored extremely high on what they call the ASVAB test, which, you know, I could pick anything I wanted. And so I picked a medical specialty. And then as I was just about to go to, you know, get set up to go to basic training, one of the long serving master sergeants that were there, he said, you know, you should go into this combat arms field. You could go into the artillery. And he said, you qualify as a fire direction controller. And I’m like, what’s that? And he said, well, you plot all this data and do all these mathematical computations to make sure that you coordinate all the, you know, like air fire, land fire, all that cannon and missiles and all that stuff. And I’m like, well, it sounds kind of interesting. He’s like, you’ll make rank way faster, and, Sara, there’s a bonus. And so, you know, at 19 years old, when you hear, you know, there’s a I think it was $5,000 bonus at that time, it was like, well, okay, I’ll do that. Right? And so.
Sara Sheehan: [00:02:45] Right.
Doug Brown: [00:02:46] So I did. So that’s what took me to Oklahoma because that was in Fort Sill. And eventually I came back to the medical field in the military. But the, that’s how it took me there, it took me a lot through the United States. And then, you know, I was part of the Gulf War era as well. And so, yeah, I spent 12 years and 7 days, actually, in the military.
Sara Sheehan: [00:03:10] That’s a good amount of service. That is to be applauded, honestly.
Doug Brown: [00:03:15] Well thank you, I appreciate that. Yeah. It was a lot of, I had a lot of fun and a lot of good times too, you know. So, and I learned quite a bit. Some of the things I even carry through, you know, with me today about the, you know, the discipline side of it. And you learn a lot about people because in the military you meet all kinds of people from all different walks of life, from anybody from, you know, super high education to people who didn’t even finish school. And, you know, because they had to either support their families or they were in a place where, you know, they, it was the military or prison, you know, that type of thing as well. So it was a really great experience for me. I wasn’t prepared for it originally, but it definitely worked out. And, you know, it’s served me all the way through my life at this point.
Sara Sheehan: [00:04:10] Excellent. I love the point that you made on discipline, because we can’t forget that creating and laying down those habits, those habits are things that will serve you the rest of your life, no doubt about it. And so I understand that music was a really important part of your life, growing up years all the way through to adulthood. And I’m aware that you sold music equipment to some of the world’s leading bands. Tell me about that.
Doug Brown: [00:04:44] Yeah, well, music is, music was always something that inspired me ever since I was just a young child, I remember. And my brothers used to listen to, they’re a lot older than I am, I’m the youngest out of four, and, you know, my brother, my oldest brother is nine years older, so, I mean, he was listening to Aerosmith while I was still listening to, I don’t know, Mister Rogers on television or whatever. Right? So, but I always remember hearing the music and in particular, complex musical arrangements were always really interesting to me as a child. And so I grew up in an environment in some capacity where good was never good enough. So it’s like, you know, if you were really good in music, you weren’t good enough to make it in music, that type of thing. And so for a lot of years I doubted myself, even though I played in a lot of bands. And then eventually, while I was going to college, I landed a job selling music equipment. And I then ended up working with, you know, Aerosmith and the Eagles and Billy Joel and Paul McCartney and the Wings and, you know, all the, you know, Extreme, all of the, a lot of the big bands of that, Boston, I was very close with some of those guys from the band. You know, a lot of those bands that people listen to even today on the radio, I got a chance to work with. And what happened was Barry from Boston, Goudreau, from Boston, one day said to me, man, you’re really good as a musician. You should go to music school. And I was like, oh, well, thanks, Barry, you know? But like, so I decided, you know what? He’s probably right. Let me give it a shot. So I said, well, I’ll apply to some of the best schools out there. So the first one I applied to was Berklee College of Music in Boston, did my audition, they took me right away. I ended up going there.
Sara Sheehan: [00:06:38] That’s amazing.
Doug Brown: [00:06:39] Yeah, yeah. Well, it goes back to, you know, what I teach people a lot now is part of the winning process in selling is confidence. You know, confidence is sexy, so to speak. Right? And I worked with so many famous musicians and some of them frankly, weren’t even that great as a musician. But what they had was confidence, when I look back on it, right. They had, they were good, don’t get me wrong. But they weren’t, you know, they weren’t somebody you’re going to see at the Met. You know what I mean? Like. So they, and I grew up, my grandmother was more of a classical pianist, so I grew up kind of in that environment as well. But what I realized was that most of them had the ability to say, you know what, I’m going to see this through and I’m confident I can do it.
Sara Sheehan: [00:07:30] Mhm. Absolutely.
Doug Brown: [00:07:31] They just they just stuck with it for a long time, you know. And there’s certainly like bands like Kansas, you know, and I was, I worked with the drummer for Lou Reed. And he was in this band called Stories a long time ago. They had a song called ‘Louie Louie Louie, Louie’, you know, and, uh, super nice guy, but just all very confident, right? They were confident people. So that’s the thing I learned from that process, and I wanted to be a professional musician. But then what happened was these guys and gals were telling me about their tour schedule and being on a bus for 300 days in a row, and I was like, you know what, I want a family and I want to be around for the kids and all of that stuff. So I decided not to do that. I became a professional DJ. I was one of the very strong, I would say, probably top ten DJs in the Boston area, you know, for a while. And then my kids started growing up and I was like, you know, I don’t want to be out all night, all day, you know, because I was working six jobs a week, holding down a full-time position, you know, on top of because I was selling during that period of time as well.
Sara Sheehan: [00:08:38] So that’s a ton. And so just a couple follow-up questions. What kind of equipment were you selling?
Doug Brown: [00:08:43] So I was mostly I was selling, I was selling everything, but keyboards were my primary. So you know, anything from pianos to synthesizers to, you know, you name it, anything that had a key. I sold guitars, I sold bass guitars, I sold drums, woodwinds, brass instruments… I, you know, I learned them all.
Sara Sheehan: [00:09:05] That’s impressive.
Doug Brown: [00:09:06] Yeah. And what was really cool is I got a chance to start, you know, practicing other instruments as well. So I learned how to play saxophone and flute, which were never going to be something that I was, I’m terrible as a flutist, but, you know, I played guitar. And so it served me in the bands because I was a vocalist who played keyboards, and that was good enough. But then I could play bass, I could play other instruments. So that allowed me, you know, some other opportunities that I didn’t have if I didn’t play those.
Sara Sheehan: [00:09:35] The reason I wanted to ask about this time in your life is I really wanted to highlight the fact that you clearly demonstrated your desire to do and achieve more by the behaviors that you were even practicing then, at selling. And I just wanted to make sure that I brought that up.
Doug Brown: [00:10:00] Yeah. And I think that’s a really key component to being successful in anything is having the confidence level to say, you know, I’m going to do this in spite of if I don’t feel confident at it and staying with it. And some of the best advice one of my mentors told me was, he said, you know, it’s always going to take you longer to get to where you want to most of the time, and it’s usually going to cost you 2 to 3 times more than you figure. But you’ll always get your goal if you just keep your nose pointed in the direction you want to go and keep walking. And you know I think that’s playing the long game. Right? And so that I think is, especially in selling, too many people try to play the short game. But the long game gives you leverage in the process. And I think you get leverage because even in age we get wisdom as we grow older, we go, oh, okay, yeah, I’m not going to do that again. You know, or when some younger person is going to do something, it’s like, hey, did you think about it this way? Because you know what’s likely to happen. But that comes through repetition, practice, seeing it through. And, you know, it’s not always straight up, you know, I learned that working with the bands, I mean, these bands that we know today still, you know, they’re out there touring. I mean, Aerosmith’s out there still touring, right?
Sara Sheehan: [00:11:20] Absolutely. Yes. Paul McCartney is still making music. That’s amazing.
Doug Brown: [00:11:25] And he probably will for forever. And you know, they didn’t always have times that were what other people would consider fun, you know, nor did they. I mean, I remember even like older musicians like Sammy Davis Jr, when he was playing with the Rat Pack of Frank Sinatra and those guys, you know, he was saying publicly that sometimes he went in and played in Vegas and the casinos didn’t want to pay him. And, you know, things like that. So it’s like, it’s a business. And that’s what people forget about the music business, right? And so, yeah, like anything, you got to see it through and, you know, have that desire to keep going in spite of. I mean, Arnold Schwarzenegger didn’t become the greatest bodybuilder in the world by, you know, getting up every day and going, I don’t think I’ll go to the gym today, you know, even when I don’t want to. And he’s admitted he had days like that, but he goes to the gym anyways.
Sara Sheehan: [00:12:21] That’s the kind of habit that definitely changes the world, a habit that you do and you continue to practice and hone. And so I wanted to ask if you would share with me and our listeners a little bit about the multiple degrees that you have achieved.
Doug Brown: [00:12:45] Educationally? You mean formal education?
Sara Sheehan: [00:12:46] Yes. And I mean, you have consistently shown that you go above and beyond in everything that you do. And so I understand that you have at least three degrees.
Doug Brown: [00:13:01] Yes, I actually have five, five degrees. Yeah, I do.
Sara Sheehan: [00:13:07] Tell me about your higher education achievements.
Doug Brown: [00:13:12] Well, part of, you know, so sometimes going above and beyond can be… Our greatest strength sometimes can be our Kryptonite, right? It could be our greatest weakness. And I got all these degrees because I really didn’t, I knew what I wanted to do, but I didn’t have that confidence to go forth and say, this is what I want to do, because it was one of those things that when I grew up in that environment, it was like, no, you have to be, you know, you have to have a job. You got to, you know, selling, my gosh, that’s a soft skill. You know, it’s like, that type of thing. So I mean, even universities looked at it that way. When I was looking for sales, you know, universities for selling, they were like, no, we don’t do that. That’s not a real degree. Right? So, you know, I got degrees in biology, nuclear medicine, business, finance, general studies, music, things like that. And, but I just didn’t really know what I want. I couldn’t put my finger on the this is what I want to do. Even though I knew internally that I would like to do this. Like my driver in life is to see other people’s faces light up and have a good time and grow and give them and instill, you know, the ability to to do more than they think they could ever do.
Doug Brown: [00:14:29] And that came up partially from my childhood of not having that and battling through and overcoming that myself. But it was always something, like when I was a, you know, younger person – I’m 61 now, right – so when I was a younger person, I could always remember me thinking like this. It’s like, you know, I’m almost like an empath in some way where somebody’s, you know, having a hard time. I want to help them out of that. And so that’s what I wanted to do, and I wanted to get paid for that. And I knew that. But I just didn’t know how because I was in an educational system that frankly, wasn’t really allowing or I couldn’t see that ability to do so, you know, because it’s like, okay, well, if you go get a degree in finance, you got to work for a bank or you got to work for an insurance, you know, or whatever. If you get a degree in business, you want to go into business administration because you got to have your MBA. Because if you don’t have your MBA back, then you know, that was nothing. You know all these rules, right? Which are quite frankly, um, not true.
Sara Sheehan: [00:15:29] That’s right. And so, Doug, how do you think, how did you come to understand that the sales world was where you needed to be? How did you figure that out?
Doug Brown: [00:15:42] So I have, you know, sometimes necessity is the mother of all invention, as they say. So what happened was I got out of the military, I had a college education, you know, some then, but I was like, you know what? I’m going to go get a real job. And I wasn’t out of the military yet. And I’m like, you know, I’m going to be a doctor. That’s a real job, right? It’s a respected job. So I applied to medical school, I got accepted, and while I was in medical school, the Gulf War came up. And so they were like, you have a critical skill, we need you for this, so guess what, you can’t go to medical school right now. And in the meantime, I went through a divorce. So, you know, when I got, when the Gulf thing ended, so did my marriage, basically. So it was like I lost all my money that I had saved to go to medical school, but I was determined, so I kept reapplying. I got re-accepted, and then I got accepted into the nuclear medicine program at the university I was in. I could start that before waiting for another year of college. So I was like, okay, I’ll finish this because I can finish it in a year because I had so many credits and I went through that and I got into the hospital setting, but now I’m $20,000 in debt from taking loans for college. And, you know, this was way back, back, back, back, you know, in the late 80s at that point. And so I was like, jeez, I can’t find a job in the hospital because what happened is the hospital industry kind of was dropping at that point. It was kind of, healthcare was in a transition. I applied for 308 positions in nuclear medicine across the United States. I got three responses. I got a job in Kentucky, now I lived in Massachusetts at the time. I was getting ready to pack up to go to Kentucky because I got accepted in the job, and ten days before I was to leave, they cut the budget for the hospital and they cut the nuclear medicine program out at the hospital.
Sara Sheehan: [00:17:44] That’s horrific. That is truly, that is so, it’s more than the wind out of your sails. That is devastating.
Doug Brown: [00:17:53] Yeah, because, I mean, it wasn’t the easiest degree to get, number one, and I had to pass all the tests to get there. And I agree with you. But, you know, it turned out to be a happy story because during that time it was like, well what am I going to do? Right? So I started selling telecommunication services for a multi-level marketing company and it was called Excel Telecommunications. So like, I got to make some money, because I got to at least pay my loans and live. Right? So I started doing that, and then I got offered a position to take emergency call for a hospital locally, which means basically you’re up 24 hours a day when they need you, you come in, they pay you. So I was doing that and I was like, geez, this is kind of weird because then when I was in the hospital setting, what I realized was I got in this to help people, but the hospital runs like a business. And so, you know, if I could do five cases a day, they want me to do seven. If I can get seven, they want me to do nine and eleven, and so on and so on. And I was like, that’s not why I signed up for this. And when I was in the hospital, they started talking to me about a full-time position, but I was making less money in that full-time position than I was selling music equipment, having a really good time.
Sara Sheehan: [00:19:09] That’s a, that’s hard. That’s a hard pill to swallow.
Doug Brown: [00:19:12] Yeah, yeah. So, you know, so what I said at that point is, you know what? I’m going to try to give this thing sales a real shot. And so I had a little bit of a telecommunications background. So I applied to telecommunications companies, and one of them, right out of the gate, hired me. And I was like, okay, cool. But they were selling something that I had never sold before. So I overnighted myself three telecommunications engineering books, and I looked at them and I studied up on all this digital technology that at the time was cutting edge. Well, long story short, my first year I was their number one rep in the company.
Sara Sheehan: [00:19:55] That’s impressive.
Doug Brown: [00:19:56] Yeah, and eventually we had–
Sara Sheehan: [00:19:57] — really impressive.
Doug Brown: [00:19:58] Yeah, it was great. I mean, we had 320 salespeople at the, you know, toured there. I was the number one guy. I was out-selling, you know, sometimes teams of nine, you know, by myself. Um, I developed a lot of different ways to drive leads to incoming. You know, the CEO of the company was regularly calling me going, what are you doing? I love it, you know, you want to come out to Los Angeles and teach our people out here or come, you know, all over the country. And it was a great thing. And the thing is, is BAM, started making six figure income. Right.
Sara Sheehan: [00:20:29] Nice.
Doug Brown: [00:20:30] And I was like, okay, well, why would I go–
Sara Sheehan: [00:20:32] It’s transformative.
Doug Brown: [00:20:33] Yeah. And then it was a multi six. And then, you know, then I got offered a position within and they offered me $450,000 a year for this position. And back then that was still, you know, today it’s reasonable money. But back then it was like a lot more money. And I was like jeez, there’s something here. And so then what happened was they wanted me to train their teams. And so because I was doing something that was working and then what happened was I helped a training company and the training company asked me to train their people and introduce me to a man named Chet Holmes. Chet wrote a book called The Ultimate Sales Machine. And when I looked at Chet’s stuff, I was like, wow, this is really good for business. So I started studying that. As I started studying that, I approached them and said, hey, would you give me a chance to be a coach for your company on growing revenues and companies and things like that? Chet said, yes, I came in there and there and in the first four months, I became their top producing coach, and all I was doing was applying sales skills to the process.
Sara Sheehan: [00:21:37] Excellent. And so if you were to look back at your position that you were just describing where you achieved remarkable results, are they the same skills that you were using in your role as a coach with Chet Holmes organization? Are they the same skills?
Doug Brown: [00:21:59] They were. So the thing is, see, I didn’t know much about coaching. I knew some about coaching. But what I did understand was that you can’t deliver coaching without having a client. And so if you don’t have a client, what’s the cause of the problem of not having a client? Well, we’re not selling, right? So what I did is applied sales methodology to the coaching business. And so I looked at, you know, all of the things that I teach today. How do you get new clients? How do you increase buying trends? You know, transactional value. How do you increase buying frequency? Right? All of the processes. And I just applied it. And what was happening was I was dealing with business owners especially, and they recognized, oh, okay, this guy can help me, at that time the kid, can help me get there. And so they were they were buying because they had I mean, people buy for two reasons really, when it comes down to it, two major reasons. Number one, they have a problem they want to resolve. Or two, they have some future opportunity that they want to get. Mhm. And, you know, so some type of providing a better future for themselves.
Sara Sheehan: [00:23:17] That’s right.
Doug Brown: [00:23:18] So those are the two major arching categories I find that people want to make an investment. Nobody really likes to be sold to, they like to buy. So if we solve those two challenges for them, one way or another, then you know, and if it makes sense, timing’s right, all of the factors, you know, we have a sale. It’s, you know, as long as we’re playing win-win. So that’s what I did and I applied that. It worked out great. From there, you know, a man named Tony Robbins came along, wanted to buy into the company. So eventually I became the president of training and sales for that company. And I took Tony’s close rate from 17.8% to 43.2% across his presenters teams. And then his sales teams went up and the coaching went up and the consulting went up, and then people started taking notice, you know, of me, I was starting to make a name in that industry, so other people hired me. I worked for Russ Whitney on Rich Dad, Poor Dad and a bunch of other brands. We did work for Brian Tracy, Deepak Chopra, the E-myth Company. You know, the list just goes on, right? The Ask Method company, all kinds of things.
Sara Sheehan: [00:24:23] It’s impressive. I mean, it’s amazing.
Doug Brown: [00:24:27] Thank you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:24:28] Amazing transformation. And so, let’s switch gears and talk a little bit about how you’re working with clients today and how how you’re serving them. And then maybe we can highlight a couple of cases that demonstrate results in your clients’ lives.
Doug Brown: [00:24:50] So how I’m working with people today, so I work, I still work with companies and individuals today. I train individuals who want to, who are good who want to get better, really, when it comes down to it in selling. So, you know, I move them from the next level of where they are to the next level. I mean, it’s that simple. You know, it’s been very gratifying to see people take the steps from point A to point B, and a lot of them take the step from point A to point M, right? It’s because we get them, we get them going, and then they’re like, oh, well, I can do better at this or I can do better at that. And really what we’re doing is we’re teaching them how to think, act like a 1% earner, using 1% strategies and infusing that in and mixing it in with the, what I call the inner guidance system. You know, the inner voice of selling, if you will. And because a lot of times, most times, business challenges are not a business challenge, Sara, they’re they’re a personal challenge that manifests themselves as a business problem.
Sara Sheehan: [00:25:58] Or potentially mindset.
Doug Brown: [00:26:00] Yeah, a lot of people call it mindset. I’m not a big fan of that word because mindset kind of means it’s stuck there. You know, it’s like set, right. And, you know, on any given day we wake up with different moods, most of us, or I’ll speak for myself. So it’s about taking where we are, and you brought up the word habits in the beginning, the rituals and the habits that we do, those are great as long as they’re serving. But if we’re selling, for example, and we grew up – because a lot of these things stem from childhood – you know, if we grew up in, say, in a negotiation family, right? And I’ve witnessed people do this, you know, they’re always negotiating. They were rewarded for negotiating. Well, they close the sale, and then they renegotiate the sale, and they lose the sale because they’re renegotiating. Right? So it’s things like that, and they don’t even know why they’re doing it. So we work on those triggers that happen as well as all of the strategies and tactical things. But what we’re also doing is teaching them revenue growth strategies in the process, how to think like an owner, how to think like a business person, how to think like the other person that we’re actually selling to because we’re not selling to titles, we’re selling to people. And so what are the trigger levels for those people? So we’re going pretty deep into that whole process with people and it works great. You know, I’ve had people go, like I had one guy go from $140,000 a year in commissions to 2.1 million in commissions in this first year. You know, I’ve had–
Sara Sheehan: [00:27:31] That’s beyond transformative.
Doug Brown: [00:27:33] Yeah, yeah, yeah. And, you know, it’s not just one person that I’ve had have results like that. So, usually people tell us, you know, we’re worth at least five times what we asked for for the process. So that’s always a good thing, because I always like to provide a minimum 5 to 1 return on the on the process. So, and then with companies we’re helping them with two facets where a) just growing the revenues and the profits in the company, and b) you know, how do they work with their own sales teams or sales people and, you know, have them become what they want them to become anyways, which is, you know, far better producers. And then, you know, as a byproduct of that, we also build and manage sometimes, you know, commission sales teams for people and companies.
Sara Sheehan: [00:28:26] That is so impressive. I believe that the work that you do is needed by so many people that don’t even recognize it.
Doug Brown: [00:28:37] Yeah, I would agree. I was having a conversation earlier with somebody actually who decided to buy something off me, which was great. So he was saying the same thing. He was like, you know, I don’t think people understand. They don’t know what they don’t know, so to speak, and that we all want to be able to sell better, but we don’t want to be that personified, you know, used car salesperson. His words, not mine. I think sometimes used car salespeople are really great people and they sell ethically. But the, you know, he didn’t want to be that slimy salesperson. And a lot of the training he goes to, it’s just kind of teaching them to come top down on people like the the old way of selling, like the old Tin Man selling strategies. Right? Those don’t work. Almost don’t work at all any longer, but they’re still being taught out there. And really, selling is nothing more than one person, because sometimes we sell ourselves, or more than one person trying to resolve a challenge or have a better future. And having that conversation to figure out what is the best pathway to do that. And people have been doing this long before people were selling to one another. You know, it’s just we didn’t have maybe a formal thing or exchange for money, but we used to do bartering systems, or we would do something else. Right? And that’s, so it’s, you know, I mean it’s been around as long as human beings have been around.
Sara Sheehan: [00:30:05] Absolutely. And so let’s switch gears again. And if you can, highlight a couple of your client case studies and what those clients achieved after working with you.
Doug Brown: [00:30:23] Yeah, well, I’ll take Tony Robbins and Chet Holmes. Their company was great. What I did with them is, because I was the number one producer, they were asking me to help other people, so I had to kind of figure out, deconstruct what I was doing. So I started teaching that to their people. But one of the things that I’ve learned early on was always look at the numbers. And a lot of people don’t look at the numbers in their business. Because the numbers tell a story. So one of the ways I was able to get that close rate to change was to look at the numbers, because at the time they were putting out a one size fits all product, which, you know, and it never ceases to amaze me. I’ve worked with Intuit, Proctor and Gamble, I’ve worked with Enterprise Rent-A-Car, you know, nationwide, big companies. And they miss it. They miss the one size all sometimes doesn’t work, right?
Sara Sheehan: [00:31:17] So talk to me. Talk to me a little bit about what the detail and the numbers revealed. Is it actual number of times.
Doug Brown: [00:31:25] Yeah. So for example they were offering a training product. The training product was geared toward, I would say, upper small businesses to enterprise level clients. But when I looked at their lead base, 70% of the leads coming through were under $300,000 in revenue. Which would be a small company. So there was a training mismatch. So from the message was bringing them in but the actual deliverable was actually off. So there was a market to mismatch messaging. And so what I did is I looked at this and I segmented the audience. And so I broke down the audience in three components. People under under 300,000 people 300,000 up to a million, well, actually it was 4, up to $1 million, $1 million to $5 million, and then $5 million and beyond. And I took the same product sets that they had, and I just readjusted the messaging, but I adjusted it to the audience and what they needed at that level that they were coming in. So, for example, anybody under $1 million, they’re full focus should be on just getting new clients and increasing transactional value and regeneration of clients. Right? They should be going to get to $1 million just focused on selling. When we go from a million to say, let’s say, 5 million, we’re still focused on that, but now we’re focused on putting systems and processes and things into the business to make the business be able to scale.
Sara Sheehan: [00:33:07] Mhm.
Doug Brown: [00:33:07] When you get beyond 5 million for most companies, and these are just general benchmarks, right – I mean it depends on the industry and what they’re selling – from there now we’re talking about scaling that business in a different way. So you might have, as $1 million company, you might have one sales person. As a $5 million company, you might have 3 or 4 salespeople. Right? But now to get from 5 million to 50 million, you’re going to scale that sales team.
Sara Sheehan: [00:33:36] For sure.
Doug Brown: [00:33:36] It’s, that’s what I did, is I segmented the offerings. And then I trained the sales teams on how to sell to the right level and how to have the conversation with that person on that level, because a person who’s doing $300,000 a year in a business, if they, let’s say it’s their first business, and a person who’s doing to the extreme $300 million, that conversation with the owner is going to be very different.
Sara Sheehan: [00:34:05] Very different.
Doug Brown: [00:34:07] Right. So I train the teams on how to relate and communicate on that level, the sales teams, and I segmented the product mix. And so to give you an example, they had one on the under $300,000. They were converting it less than 1%. And I took what they had as they call the sales mastery system, I revamped that, just added six weeks worth of group coaching. They were selling this originally for $800, it was $795. I brought the product up to $1450, added some group coaching to it. Now, prior to me getting there, they were selling 8 of these a month on average, in our first month of segmenting that, they went from 8 and we got 108 sales our first month.
Sara Sheehan: [00:34:55] Wow.
Doug Brown: [00:34:57] Our second month we went to 232. The third month we went to 346, I believe the number was. Right?
Sara Sheehan: [00:35:06] That is amazing.
Doug Brown: [00:35:08] Yeah. So it’s, again, this is what I did internally by looking at the numbers. And then I went back to their sales teams and I looked at their numbers on their front end of the sales. And we were able to get the conversion to go, strange but the sales management was reporting skewed numbers, which is not unusual, but they were claiming they were closing at 19%. They were closing at 12.1%. We then were able to revamp it, do the same thing I did with the other teams, and we took that from 12, 12.1% to 21%. And the thing is, is I had that position there for five years and it never came down. The numbers never came down for the five year period I was there.
Sara Sheehan: [00:35:51] That is very impressive. And that is a wonderful illustration of the results of your work.
Doug Brown: [00:35:59] Yeah, yeah. And it can be, it can be, you know, something like that. It could be, you know, with Intuit, they were losing $10 million on a division. We got them to go from a $10 million loss to a $7 million gain in one year. But it was all messaging, you know, they were messaging out the wrong message. I had another company that I showed how to build an agent base. Right? They were doing internal sales, but they wanted to expand and grow. They went from 3.5 million to 10 million, took them two years to get there, and then they went to 11 million and they got an offer to buy out, which the owner told me was ridiculous money. So it was like a, you know, five x multiple on revenue. It was really interesting. So, you know, I’ve done that. And then, you know, there’s a lot of different, uh, small and medium sized businesses that I could tell stories about. But the whole bottom line is when we look at the numbers, we’re applying strategies of the 1%, companies who are doing those type of things, but taking them into small and medium sized business, applying those into the sales teams themselves, training people on how to act and think that way, it does work, and it’s been working for a long time for people.
Sara Sheehan: [00:37:15] Mhm. Right. That is a remarkable thing. A lot of people, if they applied some of these practices, activities and habits in their daily lives, they would see tremendous results. Which is why I wanted to highlight you so, so much. I was wondering if we could switch gears and you could chat a little bit with me about your upcoming launch with Vibitno.
Doug Brown: [00:37:46] Yeah, yeah Vibitno’s been a, it’s been a passion of mine for a long time. So the Vibitno is a personalized, meaningful, follow up system. That’s why it was started. Because you talked about habits and rituals, right? A lot of people do not follow up with people. And they, in a lot of ways, it’s not their fault, especially in the business context, because, you know, I mean, when you start getting 100, 200, 300 people you’re talking with on a regular basis, it’s like, how do you follow up with all these people? How do you stay in touch? But Vitbino was, is coming out in 2024, and the Vibitno is solving that problem for people. And it came about through our own pain. Like when, even when I was in the telecommunications world, a friend of mine who was a top producer at another company, we went to a Panera Bread one day and we were, you know, which is for those people who don’t know that that’s like a sandwich shop, bakery, it’s kind of a chain. And we were sitting there and just, I’ll say, commiserating or, you know, bitching about our days like, oh, we can’t get this done, or I wish we had this and I can’t follow up with these people, I can’t do this. And I have, you know, losing sales here. And it’s, you know, when you’re when you’re hitting high numbers, you don’t want to lose money. It’s that simple. Right? So we had assistance to cover some of this stuff but it still wasn’t getting done. And we were like man, if we just had a technology that would do this. And so we wrote down on a back of a napkin everything we wanted. And I was like, you know, I’m going to build this. Well, technology wasn’t there then to be able to do that, but it is now. And so I explained–
Sara Sheehan: [00:39:32] And so is this, is this a CRM system with automation?
Doug Brown: [00:39:37] I popped, I put a CRM into the system. But what it was really designed for, I mean, I don’t know in your life, Sara, but let’s say, you know, there are relationships that I have made over the years where it’s like, you know, I want to get in touch with them more often just to keep the relationship alive. But it’s like I just get busy, you know, I got a couple businesses I’m running, I’ve got client work I’m doing, you know?
Sara Sheehan: [00:40:04] Absolutely.
Doug Brown: [00:40:04] You know, family for me is primary, so my children are, you know, I’m always involved in their lives, probably more than that they even want me to be. But it’s, you know, I can’t help it, I’m that type of dad. And, you know, then I have my personal friendships and all this stuff, and it’s like, literally sometimes it’s hundreds or thousands of people over time, but I just couldn’t stay in touch with these people. And so I was like, I’ve got to do something, but I don’t want to just send like, some scripted message to them. I want it to be meaningful, right?
Sara Sheehan: [00:40:38] Absolutely.
Doug Brown: [00:40:39] Yeah.
Sara Sheehan: [00:40:40] Personal.
Doug Brown: [00:40:40] So what I wanted to do, you know, if you don’t mind me sharing this, like, you know, you just had a cat that just passed that you had for 16 years, and you have another one that’s seven years old and you just found out it’s a diabetic and you’re taking care of that. And, you know, so something as a simple bonding point on that, what if I could create something that would create automated relevancy that was meaningful to you and let’s say, like, after this call, I don’t know, a month goes by and you get a message. And it was like, hey, so just thinking about you, your husband, but I was also thinking about Joy, your cat. And I just want to know how’s the cat doing with diabetes? Right?
Sara Sheehan: [00:41:25] That is, that’s very sweet. I love that. Heartfelt.
Doug Brown: [00:41:30] And it’s meaningful. Right?
Sara Sheehan: [00:41:32] Absolutely.
Doug Brown: [00:41:34] You know, hey, if you ever want to catch up, just let me know. You would just be in thought, or something as simple as that. Now a lot of people go, well, that’s not very businessy. It’s like, well, let me tell you something, I’ve followed up with people for two years and then got a little company called NASCAR as a client from it. Right? So I would learn things about people. So what we did with Vibitno is we recreated all that, but the system will actually create everything for you. And it’ll, even if you forget, it’ll bring the content up and say, hey, do you want to send this? Or it will actually send the content for you based on relevancy.
Sara Sheehan: [00:42:09] Wow. And so is there some machine learning aspect, or…?
Doug Brown: [00:42:13] Yeah, in the beginning it was templates in there trying to figure out, you know, templates. But now with AI and everything coming in the way it is, it’s a lot easier to implement this process. And it was really designed not as, it was designed as a relationship building tool, not a real sales tool. But people kept saying, my gosh, you know what? What if I could do this on the front end? What if I could do this with my marketing on the front end? I sell high end clients, for example, right? And then I started talking to people who were selling high end and asking them how many deals a year are you dropping? And so, you know, then I started looking at, and they’re like, well, probably six. And I’m like, well, if you think it’s six, it’s more, I already know that. So what’s your average deal? Well, it’s $30,000. So it’s like so you’re dropping 180 K out of the sky every year. How many years are you doing that? Oh ten. There’s 1.8 million, right? I’m like, okay, well would you pay 100 bucks a month for service that would gain back the majority of those sells, right? Because we all know, and this was the epitome, I was actually on a, someone asked me to come to a sales consultant training call where they’re training sales consultants.
Sara Sheehan: [00:43:25] Perfect.
Doug Brown: [00:43:26] And we all know that lack of follow up causes lost sales. I mean, that’s pretty much, right?
Sara Sheehan: [00:43:32] Absolutely.
Doug Brown: [00:43:32] So this lady literally said on this call, guys, I just dropped the sale. We go, we’re talking about this, I just dropped the sale and it went to another representative. She was an independent marketer for another company, and she had talked to this company a year ago, and this company had just closed and she didn’t follow up. And she told us, she said, I didn’t follow up and the other person just happened to follow up. And they were ready then and they bought and it was 500 units and it was $1,000 a unit, and they bought it for five years. So it’s like–
Sara Sheehan: [00:44:12] That was painful.
Doug Brown: [00:44:13] Yeah. So half $1 million a year for five years, $2.5 million. Now the killer is, her commission is 50% on this.
Sara Sheehan: [00:44:22] This is horrible.
Doug Brown: [00:44:23] Right? So she lost $1.25 million over five years. Guaranteed contract. You know, so you get what I’m saying, right?
Sara Sheehan: [00:44:33] I do. I see that companies will pay for this tool. Having this platform in their lives can make selling easier and better.
Doug Brown: [00:44:47] And individuals will as well. And that’s, you know, like I talked to real estate agents, I’m like, how many homes are you drop in a year, right? And they were like, well, I don’t know. You know, same numbers. And I’m like, okay, so your average commission at a $500,000 price point 6%, $30,000, you’re dropping ten homes a year, 300 grand a year, right? You start doing the numbers whether you’re a manufacturer’s representative or you’re selling healthcare, you’re a coach or a consultant or whatever, but the reality is, it’s not just the drop sales, because it’s how many referrals could we spawn out of good relationships that we’re not doing today? So there’s this whole thing about buying frequency, transactional value, and getting new clients that were just dropping, even post selling. And so it was, you know, that’s kind of where it’s going. But yeah, I put a CRM into it, just so if people wanted to use the CRM, but I want to be able to make it work with other programs and products like, you know, Salesforce and Pipedrive or whatever people are using as well. And then what I did is I built in what I call a goal plan into this process where people can actually figure out if they want to make net commissions of X, they need to be able to sell a certain amount. But we figured in all the churn rates and all the drop sales and all of the expenses and everything, so they’ll know exactly what they need to sell every year.
Sara Sheehan: [00:46:11] That is a genius thing to add that really demonstrates your sales leadership and your knowledge in leading a sales organization. I can’t wait to see it. Truly, I can’t wait to see it.
Doug Brown: [00:46:28] Well, if you want, you want to be a beta tester, let me know because we’re coming out with it.
Sara Sheehan: [00:46:32] I would be glad. I would be glad. I spent some time on your page today. And I’m on your list.
Doug Brown: [00:46:39] Oh. Thank you.
Sara Sheehan: [00:46:41] Yeah, excellent. And so, in terms of our listeners, I want them to know the actual website URL is V I B I T N O.com. Is that correct?
Doug Brown: [00:46:53] Yeah it’s Vibitno. Yep. That’s exactly how it’s spelled. And it actually means, I took it from a Slavic language, it means ‘you matter’ in Slavic language or you know, or ‘esteemed one’, you know.
Sara Sheehan: [00:47:05] Excellent. I love the name, and I love what you’re doing with this platform. And I believe it will only extend your impact even further and bring more people to you that can transform their lives and the lives of the people in theirs as well. And so with that, uh, Doug, is there anything else that you would like to share today about what you’re up to?
Doug Brown: [00:47:31] No, no, I think it’s all good. I mean, I don’t know if you’re aware of this or not, but I wrote an e-book just recently called The Nonstop 1% Earner. People want to get that. They can go to CEOSalesStrategies.com/TheNumberOne and then PE, percent earner, and just download the e-book.
Sara Sheehan: [00:47:52] Excellent. That is a wonderful promo for your e-book. I will make sure to go find that myself because I feel very strongly about the advice that you have and how you’re guiding people, and I know that it can even impact me in a positive way.
Doug Brown: [00:48:12] I appreciate that, and if anybody wants to learn, we’ve got a 1% University, a Sales University that’s out now. And you know, if they want to come explore that, please do. They definitely won’t be disappointed, I can tell you that.
Sara Sheehan: [00:48:25] Excellent. Do you have a mastermind that’s forming any time soon?
Doug Brown: [00:48:29] I don’t have a mastermind. People have been asking me about forming a mastermind, so I might put something together on that. We train pretty heavily on the sales side, so, you know, it’s usually multiple times a week. So it kind of acts like a mastermind, but it’s not really that type of mastermind. So I am considering putting one together. So thanks for bringing it up again. And I just wrote it down.
Sara Sheehan: [00:48:48] Outstanding. Well, I really appreciate your time today, Doug. Is there any way that our listeners should reach out to you? What’s the best way?
Doug Brown: [00:48:57] Yeah, they can, I mean, if they want to know more about me personally, LinkedIn is usually good. Uh, Doug Brown, DOUG BROWN 123 is the LinkedIn. They can send an email to you matter, YouMatter@CEOsSalesStrategies.com. My team will pick it up. You know, if they want to get directly to me, they can send it to Doug@CEOSalesStrategies.com. We answer everybody’s inquiries. So if for some reason you don’t hear back, you know, reach out at (603) 595-0303 and let us know. But we do, we are definitely very good at getting back to people.
Sara Sheehan: [00:49:36] Fantastic. Well I really appreciate your time today, Doug, and I’m so glad to be able to share your message.
Doug Brown: [00:49:42] Thank you. I’m very grateful you have me on, Sara.
Sara Sheehan: [00:49:45] Thank you. Thank you so much for listening to Episode Ten, CEO Sales Strategies with Doug C Brown. I’m so thrilled to be able to share this conversation with you. The three big takeaways from today are, First) Rethink pricing and value. Doug’s strategy of increasing product prices while adding value through group coaching led to a remarkable surge in sales. This approach not only improved revenue, but also positioned products more attractively in the market. Second) The power of personalized follow ups. The upcoming launch of Vibitno showcases the importance of maintaining relationships in a bustling business environment. Utilizing CRM and AI technology, Doug stresses the significance of relationship-building over transactional sales. Third) Leverage 1% improvements. Now that’s a winning strategy. Small continuous enhancement in sales skills and team performance can lead to exponential growth over time. Doug’s concept of 1% strategies can help clients not just compete, but dominate in their respective fields. Thanks so much for tuning in today. Don’t forget to subscribe on Apple Podcasts or Spotify so you never miss an episode!
