How the Human Touch Accelerates Your Sales w/ Ali Mirza [Episode 310]

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Among the many topics that Ali and I discuss in this episode are the biggest challenge facing sales reps in today’s business environment, the problems that can result from relying entirely on big data to manage sales, and the importance of really getting to know your prospects, their character types and their buying triggers.

Joining me on this episode of Accelerate! is Ali Mirza, Founder and President of Rose Garden Consulting, and author of the ebook, A Salesperson’s 30 Rules to Success.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Ali learned most of the sales principles he uses by selling supplemental insurance products to rural Winnipeggers.

How Ali warms up his cold calls, usually with an email, LinkedIn, or phone approach. And, how to get past a physical gatekeeper to make an unscheduled visit to a prospect.

Andy and Ali discuss the biggest challenges sales reps face. And how to overcome them.

Ali discusses the dangers of entirely relying on big data tools, without considering the individual personality types of buyers and their emotional triggers.

How to tailor sales messages based on the audience. How to effectively target new prospects by studying how and why your existing customers made their purchase decision.

MORE ABOUT ALI MIRZA

What’s your most powerful sales attribute?

I sell for my clients. I do know how to close.

Who is your sales role model?

Brian Tracy.

What’s one book that every salesperson should read?

How to Win Friends and Influence People, by Dale Carnegie.

What music is on your playlist right now?

“The Sound of Silence,” by Disturbed; Hip hop; Tupac; and “The Sounds of Silence,” by Simon and Garfunkel.

Episode Transcript:

Andy Paul 0:56

It’s time to accelerate! Hi, I’m your host, Andy Paul. Join me as I host conversations with the leading experts in sales, marketing, sales automation, sales process, leadership, management, training, coaching, any resource that I believe to help you accelerate the growth of your sales, your business and most importantly, you. 

 

Hello and welcome to Accelerate. I am excited to talk to my guest today. Joining me is Ali Mirza, founder of Rose Garden Consulting based in Atlanta. Ali, welcome to Accelerate.

 

Ali Mirza 1:31

Thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.

 

Andy Paul 1:33

So take a minute, introduce yourself. Maybe tell us how you got started in sales.

 

Ali Mirza 1:39

Well, as you mentioned, I am the founder and president of Rose Garden Consulting. I got started in sales like a lot of people did. I sold cars. I, different than other people, sold cars for about three weeks. Did not do very well at it and quickly took an exit out of sales.

 

Andy Paul 1:59

Wasn’t a very long trial period.

 

Ali Mirza 2:01

Yeah, no, then that was it. No, no, I’m just kidding. It was actually not until the following year when I truly got my start in sales. And I was actually approached by a friend, a high school friend of mine, who was selling insurance. And then he asked me to join the company where he was selling insurance. And that’s really how I got my start in sales, because I was under the tutelage of a really good mentor and a really good sales manager who taught me quite a bit of what I know today and still use a lot of the same practices. So that’s actually how I got started in sales. 

 

Andy Paul

So what type of insurance and 

 

Ali Mirza 

Property and casualty, just a lot of personal insurance. 

 

Andy Paul

So personal insurance? 

 

Ali Mirza 

Yes, personal insurance. Personal life insurance, accident, sickness, all that jazz. 

 

Andy Paul

So were you following the bleeds? Were you generating your own business? What were you doing?

 

Ali Mirza 2:49

Knocking on doors, cold calling. 

 

Andy Paul

Cold calling? 

 

Ali Mirza

Oh, yeah. If you want to put hair on your chest, you go cold calling.

 

Andy Paul 2:56

Well I’ve done much of it in my time. So give us an example of what you did. I mean, who were you calling on? How’d you get your list of names to call? Or were you just canvassing a neighborhood?

 

Ali Mirza 3:06

Canvassing neighborhoods. So what we would do,the type of insurance that we were selling was supplemental insurance. So it was really catered toward self employed people, people in what you would call, back in the day at least, blue collar jobs. I’m not sure if that’s appropriate anymore to say or not, got so many rules.

But it was a lot of that. So what we would actually do is go out into the rural communities and sell to farmers and people in small towns and neighborhoods where you wouldn’t have a lot of large corporate companies. So a lot of people did not have insurance. So we would be selling them supplemental insurance to add on to–  and mind you, this is in Canada. So we already had Canadian health benefits.

 

Andy Paul

Oh, this is in Canada? 

 

Ali Mirza

This is In Canada. Yeah, that’s where I got my start selling.

 

Andy Paul 3:51

You left that part out, that you’re from Canada.

 

Ali Mirza 3:54

I am. Some people may pick it up in my accent. Apparently I have an accent.

 

Andy Paul 3:58

Say the word about. 

 

Ali Mirza

About. 

 

Andy Paul

No, you’d pass the test, huh? 

 

Ali Mirza

Thank God, yeah. 

 

 

Andy Paul

How about progress? 

 

Ali Mirza

Progress? 

 

Andy Paul

No, no, you said progress. Not progress. Okay. All right. Yeah, pass. Okay, here we go.

 

Ali Mirza 4:12

Awesome. So that’s really what we would do is we’d go into the rural communities and knock on farmer’s doors, people that look to be self employed. So someone would have like a large shed with a lot of tractors and whatnot sticking around. So that’s where we would really start, and that’s who our insurance was suited for.

 

Andy Paul 4:34

So tell us the best story you have coming out of calling on, let’s say, a farmer.

 

Ali Mirza 4:40

Okay, goodness, there’s quite a few. But I would say probably the biggest one I ever got was the largest policy I ever wrote in one house was I would say probably plus or minus $6,000 to $7,000 in annual premium to husband and wife and his children. He was a farmer. But really the cute story is when I wrote it. I got to his house at about 11:30 at night and–  

 

Andy Paul

11:30 at night? 

 

Ali Mirza

11:30 at night, and I did not leave until about 1:30 once we were done. Because once you start selling those kinds of policies in that number, the forms really start to add up.

 

Andy Paul 5:25

So you knocked on his door at 11:30 at night?

 

Ali Mirza 5:28

I knocked on his door. His wife was in the house and he was out in the field. She directed me out into the field. This was earlier in the day. He was working, I walked out there. He said to come back at sundown, because he was working and he didn’t want a break from the field. 

 

So then I just went and canvassed the rest of the neighborhood. And eventually, by the time that I had finished my last call prior to arriving there, it was probably about 9:00 – 9:30, the sun was down. And then I drove around in circles for a really long time trying to find his house. So maybe not 11:30, maybe 11:00 to 1130 was eventually when I got to his yard, got to the farm. 

 

And I said, hey, you know what? I’m already out here. It was an hour out of the town that was an hour out of the city that I lived in, in the small town that I was in. So I said, you know what? I’m already out here. I might as well try. Knocked on his door and he’s like, oh, I was waiting for you. And I’m like, oh. And that should be a story to a lot of people is perseverance. Don’t give up just because you think, oh shoot, I missed the window. Try. Why not? 

 

Andy Paul 6:37

Yeah. I mean, I remember having to call a customer on New Year’s– no, excuse me, Christmas Eve. Like 5:00 on Christmas Eve at his house to nail down an order that he had promised, which I wasn’t happy about. He really wasn’t happy about it. But he did give me the order because he knew he had promised it. But nonetheless, I understand those uncomfortable moments. So how’d that get you to the States?

 

Ali Mirza 7:06

So shortly after–  maybe let’s backtrack a little bit. So I sold insurance for three years. I was a sales manager, led a team, and eventually got to a point where I really enjoyed what I did, but I did not enjoy the travel. Because it was a lot of traveling by vehicle into small towns. And that just really wasn’t the life I wanted to live for the rest of my life. 

 

And which part of Canada were you in? 

 

I was right in the middle in the prairies in Winnipeg, so right above North Dakota. So the running joke now for me is that because the Atlanta Thrashers–  

 

Andy Paul 7:43

Were the Winnipeg Jets, yes.AM

 

Ali Mirza 7:44

Now they’re the Winnipeg Jets. So I always say, we made a trade. Atlanta got me. Winnipeg got the Thrashers. So I always say that Atlanta got the better end of that deal.

 

Andy Paul

There are probably some people that agree with you.

 

Ali Mirza

Yeah, but eventually I just said, you know what? Enough is enough. I can’t keep driving around and traveling so much. So I took a little bit of time off and tried to figure out what is it that I really enjoyed about my job and what is it that I can really do. And from there, I figured out that it was the training aspect, figuring out new and creative ways of selling the same old insurance product. 

 

People really don’t want to talk about their debt. People don’t want to talk about getting sick, getting hospitalized, having an accident. So how do you pitch that in a manner where you’re not coming off all doom and gloom, but you’re also giving them the straight goods. You’re not trying pretend like oh, this is all this fantastic product. Because at the end of the day, they’re only going to cash it in if something bad was to happen.

 

Andy Paul 8:49

Well, a lot of salespeople listen to this show. So put you on the spot a little bit, what was your cold open?

 

Ali Mirza 8:54

So I’d knock on the door, and you open the door. And I’d instantly stick up my hand and say, hi, my name is Ali, and you are? Now if you shook my hand and said, oh, my name is Andy, then I’d instantly know, okay, bang, I’ve got an opening. Now, if you don’t stick out your hand and shake my hand – which is I’ve been told, and I don’t know how true this is – but that’s the international gesture of friendliness, If someone’s not willing to shake your hand, more than likely it’s quite the uphill battle. 

 

So you can gauge it right away. So you shake my hand, and instantly I would say, I’m just speaking to some of your neighbors. And would you agree with me that the Canadian government doesn’t take care of Canadian families the way it once used to? And if you said yes, then I would simply respond with, well, my company has actually found a way to augment some of the costs that would be associated with, God forbid, if you were to become ill or sick or something to that effect. 

 

Then I would say, would I be able to come inside and show you? I would point to their kitchen table or whatever table or basically inside. I’d look down and start to dust off my feet. You would have no clue how many people would just get out of the way and let me into their homes right off of that.

 

Andy Paul 10:13

That’s interesting. So clean your feet off on the welcome mat, a way to get in the door. So So draw an equivalent to that in business to business sales today. If you’re out cold calling and a rep is out cold calling or you’re out cold calling in an office park somewhere, and you’re knocking on a door trying to get past the gatekeeper to see somebody, what would be the equivalent? AM

 

Ali Mirza 10:38

So today’s offices are set up a little bit differently, but okay, let’s dial it back then.

 

Andy Paul 10:46

We’re putting you to the test. We’re putting you on the spot.

 

Ali Mirza 10:48

Put me on the test. So a lot of times when I’m cold calling businesses, I’ll usually start off with either an email, LinkedIn or a phone call. It is tough to just bulldoze your way right past the gatekeeper, whoever it may be, for a variety of reasons. That being said, if you come in– and let’s just say you’re already there. Let’s just say you had an appointment on the 13th floor. And there’s somebody on the seventh floor, and you’re like, well I’m already here, I might as well.

Go there. And just walk in and say, hey, my name is Ali. Is James in? And if you do it with confidence, the person, the receptionist sitting at the desk, very well will just go, oh, let me go quickly take a look. And bang, do not introduce yourself. Do not say anything. Because who introduces themselves? Salespeople. And who does not introduce themselves? People who have an appointment. 

 

And the person may then respond, okay, who can I tell is here? It’s Ali. Don’t say the company. Don’t say anything. Again, it’s that whole George Costanza thing that, you know, you’re not really lying. When you take that lie detector test, you’re not really lying if you believe it to be true. 

 

So if you are trying to instantly justify your presence for being there, instantly this individual, this gatekeeper is going to have their guard up. But if you come in with such confidence and say that, hey, I’m here to see Kevin. I’m here to see this particular individual, my name is Ali. More than likely, that person’s going to say, okay, just take a seat. Let me go quickly talk to Kevin. You take a seat, and then they’ll say, hey Kevin, Ali’s here. 

 

Kevin’s going to look at his day planner, his schedule and say, I don’t have an Ali. What does he want? But right away, you’re not having that engagement now. The gatekeeper’s not gonna go back and forth and this, that and the other. That’s kind of a worst case scenario. More than likely, that person will come out or say, send Ali in. But you’re now engaged in that discussion. 

 

And that way if Kevin’s not available, you just say, okay, can you let him know Ali stopped by? What’s the best number to get a hold of Kevin at? Now you more than likely will hopefully get either a direct line to Kevin or the gatekeeper now knows you by name, by face. So that when you call and say, hey, is Kevin there? Oh, yeah, this is Ali. Okay, yeah. Hang on, let me patch you through. You’re setting up those next steps. Does that make sense?

 

Andy Paul 13:05

Sure! No, I’m just interested in the technique. So what, in your mind, is sort of the biggest challenge that sales reps face today?

 

Ali Mirza 13:18

There’s a whole host of them. But I think– 

 

Andy Paul 13:21

Choose the biggest one.

 

Ali Mirza 13:22

The biggest, in my opinion, is action, activity. 

 

Andy Paul

Not enough? 

 

Ali Mirza

Not enough. Not even close to enough. If you were to have, let’s just say, 10 salespeople sitting in front of you, and you looked at their outbox of how many cold emails or actually revenue generating emails that they’ve pushed out, you would be shocked as to the amount of time they actually spend selling versus doing any number of other things. Whether it be following up on orders–  And when I say following up on orders, I mean close deals. Because people like to do what’s comfortable. 

 

If I send an email to a prospect that I’ve already closed, I’ve already picked up a check from, they pat themselves on the back. I’m doing something good. I’m doing the after sales, which most salespeople don’t do. They justify their own actions in that respect. But you’re not filling your pipeline. You don’t have enough deals coming through that pipeline, because there’s gonna be people that fall off because they’re just no longer interested. They no longer need what it is that you’re selling. 

 

There’s gonna be people that choose a competitor. There’s gonna be people that shut down their business and are no longer actively seeking. There are people that cost is going to be an objection. There’s gonna be some people that, yeah, we’ll take it, but we’ll take it six months from now. You’ve got a whole host of reasons of why people are not going to buy versus the very few limited ones of why people are going to buy. 

 

So you really need to fill your pipeline. Because you need to understand, just because you made five cold outreaches, that’s probably going to translate to zero dollars. You need to make so many more. It’s the Grant Cardone thing, 10X it. I mean, you know, it sounds very simple and a little bit ludicrous based on how simple it is. But it’s so true. Whatever it is that you want, multiply it by 10. Because only then can you even hope to get to your goal. So activity, I would have to say, for sure, activity.

 

Andy Paul 15:16

Your clients and customers you work with are primarily small businesses and entrepreneurs?

 

Ali Mirza 15:21

Yeah, small businesses, entrepreneurs, small to medium sized businesses.

 

Andy Paul 15:25

There are certain segments of the industry and the economy, certainly a tech business, a lot of sales automation tools are being brought to bear to really understand the data of what’s taking place with sales. So there’s a lot of metrics and controls in place and so on. So I suspect you’re not seeing that the same way with your client base.

 

Ali Mirza 15:46

So being here in Atlanta, and Atlanta has gotten quite the recent tech boom, there’s a lot of tech startups. And everyone’s got an idea for an app, right? But I’m talking about some legitimate startups that are actually, whether they’re solving a problem or not, they do have some legitimate funding behind them. 

 

And so I do see a lot of tech companies, they monitor, measure everything. And when I say everything, I mean everything. And I’m not a fan of that. And the reason why I’m not a fan of that is very simple. You have all this information, too much information that you’re now trying to decipher through and decode and trying to figure out what it means. And you have absolutely no clue what it means. 

 

Because 9 times out of 10 you have people with some sort of an engineering or a technical background that really, truly don’t understand what sales is and how to close a prospect, what that really looks like, what that full sales cycle should look like. And they think that because they’re managing metrics and they’ve got all these fancy CRMs that are spitting back 30% this, and 22%, this and 19.9% this. 

 

What does that mean? How does that translate truly to money? And there is that gap that they cannot bridge.

 

Andy Paul 17:12

Okay, what? All right. Now there’s a lot of people obviously that would take an opposing point of view to that who say that the data is the data. The data, to your point, it has to be interpreted. But still nonetheless, being able to operate with data in hand as opposed to having no data in hand sort of gives you more ammunition.

 

Ali Mirza 17:36

So let me dive a little bit deeper in that. So having data in hand is not a bad thing. But when your entire job becomes, whether it be a sales manager or a VP of sales, and your entire job becomes deciphering and decoding that data without actually coming out with true actionable coaching advice to your salespeople, that’s where the problem comes in. 

 

So what ends up happening is you get this VP of sales or the sales manager. They sit down, and they look at all this data. They’ve got 80 different segments where they’ve got all these metrics that are reporting back to them. And then they go and use that, and then they make many assumptions off of it. 

 

What’s one thing that data will never quantify? And what data will never quantify is human emotion. And so they’re taking the emotion right out of selling. And that’s what really gets people to act. So the best way I can describe it is you’ve got a 32% close ratio with one given script and then a 10% close ratio with another given script. And that’s assuming all else, all environmental factors equal. 

 

The VP of sales will say, oh, well use the first script because we’ve got a much higher close percentage on that, assuming it was the same person delivering it. But what they’re not looking at a lot of times, because what market and what segment did we tailor this script to? What message did it actually communicate about our value that we provide? 

 

And a lot of them are using a one size fits all script. Or even if they’ve got a few different scripts, they’re not tailored specifically to the vertical it is that they’re attacking. And also within that vertical, how are you now addressing the individual behind it? Because even if it’s a B2B sale, who’s actually pulling that trigger to make that final buying decision? It’s still a person. So you still need to speak to that person and on an emotional level connect with them and emotionally encourage them to make a decision, and a positive decision, a positive one in your manner. 

 

So getting back to those metrics that I threw out there, the 30 and the 10. You might have just, and I don’t want to use the word lucky, but you might have just had the right script for that right vertical. But that doesn’t mean that that’s the right script for another vertical that you’re navigating that you’re now going to go and attack. 

 

And so what I’m seeing in a lot of these SAS models is they come up with these scripts, they’ve got the business development reps. And then it’s the whole predictable revenue. You break up the sales cycle. And to a certain extent, it works. 

 

But then there’s a lot of things that they’re taking for granted and making a lot of dangerous assumptions on a lot of things where they’re not really fully aware as to the actual reasoning behind it. And the way that they justify it is, well, the data shows it. Well, it’s how you interpret that data, and obviously there’s always observational bias.

 

Andy Paul 20:50

So where do you use data then? Where do you use data?

 

Ali Mirza 20:53

So for me, where I would use the data is you have to break it down into the segments. So when I create a sales process, the first thing that I would do is okay, look at the vertical that we’re going to go after. Then in that vertical, try and determine what type of decision makers we’re going to encounter. Because a one size fits all sales script will never work. Or sorry, I shouldn’t say will never work. But you’re not as well off unless you have multiple different types of scripts that speak to different types of people. 

 

Now at the end of the day, the value is the value that your solution provides. But at the end of the day, it still needs to be communicated appropriately to this person. And, again, the best way I can put that is you’re going to speak to your mother one way, versus the way you speak to your friends, versus the way you speak to your wife, versus the way you speak to somebody else, right? So it’s not about being phony or about being disingenuous or putting on a facade. 

 

It’s really about, okay, am I speaking to my mother? Am I speaking to my wife? Am I speaking to my friend, a colleague? Who am I speaking to? How do I need to address this person in order to evoke some sort of emotion in them? And that’s what the data will not tell them, because they’re not looking for that. 

 

So getting back to my point, understand the vertical that you’re targeting. Create the personality profiles within that vertical. There’s not just a user profile across the board as to what your solution is. See, as salespeople or really as entrepreneurs or really any person of a particular craft, we look at everything as far as our product, our solution, our service, who uses our stuff. 

 

Really the way we should be looking at it is who is making the buying decision based on our sales pitch. And at the end of the day, and this is the best thing that I can put it in, it’s very simple. If your solution saves someone on the shop floor, let’s just say that it saves them some time, or some sort of headache, or some sort of aggravation in doing their job, why does the CEO care, right? So you need to put it in terms of why the CEO would care. 

 

Of course at the end of day, you have to communicate your value, your solution, but in terms of what the CEO needs. And again, those are gonna be two completely different messages when you’re pitching it to the shop floorman versus when you’re pitching it to the CEO. Does that make sense?

 

Andy Paul 23:26

Yeah, no, it does. I mean, I’m not sure I agree 100% with it. But I think that one of the challenges that small businesses have when it comes to sales is that, given the pace at which their buyers are evolving– yes, I understand, and I agree 100% about emotions driving decisions. But when you look at how people gather information, buyers are more nimble these days than sellers are. And so some degree of automation, some degree of data has to creep into the sales process, even for small businesses. 

 

And I think the ones that I work with, that I talk to oftentimes are pretty far behind the curve when it comes to implementing even some of the basics of the sales stack that could help them do a better job of being more responsive to their customers, being more abled, and being in a position to really provide the value to help them move through their buying process more quickly. So when you’re working with clients, what do you recommend they take on as sort of the beginning of their sales stack?

 

Ali Mirza 24:30

So I don’t want this to sound like I’m against data. I’m absolutely for data. Having data does help us.

 

Andy Paul 24:39

No, I understand your point that people have become too reliant on the data. 

 

Ali Mirza

Yes. 

 

Andy Paul

But by the same token, in terms of segmenting messaging, there’s a lot happening in terms of account based selling and account based marketing that really– and granted, those have been around in one form or another for quite some time. But a refocus on that in terms of having your messaging be by segment, by customer, even by customer individual prospect. So then you could do the A/B testing and it could be pretty effective. 

 

So when you’re working with clients, as I said, that are behind the curve oftentimes in terms of implementing the sales technologies that can help them, what are your recommendations in terms of how small businesses, a solopreneur, midsize company, where do they start? We’ll say CRM is sort of the ante. We can sort of skip that. But once you get past the table stakes, what do you recommend?

 

Ali Mirza 25:29

So I think a lot of it, you have to look at who your previous buyers have been and why they’ve bought. So I think  in doing that, you do have kind of– the hindsight is 20/20. So when you look back as to all the people that have bought in particular segments and particular verticals, and you can really drill down into what was it that motivated them to take action and what was it that really was the true value that they received out of it. And then from there, circle back into what type of individual was that in that particular vertical. So from there, that’s how you can create your messaging. 

 

And the reason why that’s so important is we all like to think that we’re incredibly unique. But at the end of the day, we all fit into one form of category or another. And the way that I like to look at it is, and this is not 100% foolproof, but at the end of the day, this will justify enough to create a process from. People in particular verticals will fall into certain buckets. 

 

And so let’s just say if I’m working in the logistics industry, there’s probably going to be about three or four different types of personalities that are going to dominate in the logistics industry in that particular vertical that are the decision makers of the solution that I am selling. 

 

So derive it from there. That’s the starting point. And then from there, you go into it. And then yes, you do the A/B testing. And yes, you keep track of your metrics. I’m absolutely in favor of that. But letting your metrics drive 100% of your decisions is what I am seeing. And that’s what I’m trying to get people out of in trying to say that hey, well look, you may not have closed that sale. Or you may have closed that sale, but you need to understand that that was an outlier and should not be considered because of x, y, z reason. And that could be emotion, that could be–  

 

A perfect example, a client that I’m working with right now, they get a lot of their sales from the government, from the federal government, who at year end need to run out their budgets. So I mean, if we were to take that into consideration, we would have such an absolute skewed–  we would basically have skewed results. And then for us to base our model and our process off of that, it’s ridiculous. 

 

And so that being said, now when I say something like that, people are like, well, yeah, of course, that’s the government and they’re buying for that one particular reason. But you would be surprised how often if we actually drill down into things, there are reasons that people bought not because of the value that it is that you provided, it was for some other reason. Once we remove that, that’s how we’re going to truly get to why did they buy and how can I now multiply this particular situation and create a process from it?

 

Andy Paul 28:40

Okay, good. All right. Good discussion. We’re going to now go to the last segment of the show where I have some standard questions I ask all my guests. First one is, hypothetical scenario, you, Ali, have just been hired as a VP of sales at a company whose sales have sort of stalled out. 

 

They want to get unstuck. CEO’s, to get things going. I know turnaround can’t happen in a day or two, but your first week on the job, what two things could you do that could have the biggest impact?

 

Ali Mirza 29:09

So the first two things I would do instantly would revolve around culture. The cultural shift is one of the biggest determinants as to what sort of results you’re going to produce. So the first actionable item is get everybody together and get a real understanding as to where the faults are and what is going wrong, and instantly plug that hole. And 9 times out of 10 if you hear it enough times, that probably is the right thing. And so often it’s such a small fix where, again, the owner or the CEO is just too close to the trees to see the forest. So quickly plug that hole. 

 

And remember to motivate people. As salespeople, a lot of them believe they’re money driven, commission driven. And you can change a lot in the short term while you work on the long term fixes. In the short term, you can fix a lot by getting people reengaged and having them understand what their commission schedule is and how do they maximize this week’s commissions, this month’s commissions, this quarter, month, week’s bonuses. 

 

And if you can get everybody full of piss and vinegar that first week that you’re there, you’re going to be able to buy yourself some time. So culture is definitely the biggest thing. So those would be the first two actionable items that I would take.

 

Andy Paul 30:34

Okay, great. So now some rapid fire questions. Give me one word answers or elaborate if you wish. And the first one is when you, Ali, are out selling your own services, what’s your most powerful sales attribute?

 

Ali Mirza 30:45

My most powerful sales attribute is I love to say that – everyone’s heard the old saying, those who cannot do teach. Well, I actually put my money where my mouth is. I do sell for my clients, the ones that don’t need a full stack team, I will come in and actually sell for them. So I do know how to close.

 

Andy Paul 31:05

Okay. So who’s your sales role model?

 

Ali Mirza 31:09

Sales role model, I would have to say it’s Brian Tracy. That’s really the individual that I learned a lot from. He just has this Dad way of explaining things to you. It just resonates with me.

 

Andy Paul 31:21

Okay. One book that every salesperson should read?

 

Ali Mirza 31:26

How to Win Friends and Influence People by Dale Carnegie. It’s probably not like a true sales book that’s going to teach you how to close. But it’s a people book. If you can learn how to speak to people and engage with people, that’s really where the trick or the key to sales is. If you can talk to people, you’re good to go.

 

Andy Paul 31:44

Yeah, I agree. Great book. So last question, what music’s on your playlist these days?

 

Ali Mirza 31:50

Music on my playlist. Yeah, I really like that new version of “Sound of Silence” by Disturbed. I’m not at all– 

 

Andy Paul 31:58

That is very good by the way.

 

Ali Mirza 32:01

I’m not at all a rock guy. But when I heard that, I was like, man, that is a good song. So I really enjoyed that one.

 

Andy Paul 32:05

Now did you go back and listen to the original Simon Garfunkel version?

 

Ali Mirza 32:08

I love that one. I always have that one playing. I’ve got a nice playlist of music that plays in the background all the time. When I’m developing a process, that is on there. I’m actually a big hip hop–  I really like Tupac. But you can’t listen to that while you’re building a process. So I’ve got a lot of soothing music, which is actually Simon and Garfunkel . It’s the original one is on there. 

 

Andy Paul 32:31

Okay, well that’s a contrast between Tupac and Simon and Garfunkel.

 

Ali Mirza 32:34

I’m all over the place.

 

Andy Paul 32:35

Yeah, but that Disturbed version of “Sound of Silence” is quite good. All right. 

 

Ali Mirza

I enjoy it. 

 

Andy Paul

Well, good. Ali, thanks for joining me. Tell people how they can find out more about you.

 

Ali Mirza 32:43

You can visit my website rosegardenconsulting.com. Facebook is Rose Garden Consulting. Twitter handle is @RGCSales.

 

Andy Paul 32:54

@RGCSales. Okay, great. Well, again, thanks for joining me. And remember, friends, make it a part of your day every day to deliberately learn something new to help you accelerate your success. An easy way to do that is make this podcast, Accelerate, part of your daily routine. 

 

If you’re listening on your commute, in the gym, or make it part of your morning sales meeting, that way you won’t miss any of my conversations with top business experts like my guest today, Ali Mirza, who shared his expertise about how to accelerate the growth of your sales. So thanks for joining me. Until next time, this is Andy Paul. Good selling, everyone.