You're Going To Be Great At This!

In a world where automation and AI are becoming the standard, human-centric service is no longer just a "nice-to-have"—it is a competitive advantage. In a recent episode of the "You're Going To Be Great At This" podcast, Dave Gulas,  co-founder of EZDC 3PL and host of the Beyond Fulfillment podcast, tells us about how he makes customer service a priority while making the most of his competitors' complacency. We also discuss 3PL's (third party logistics) and how they help online businesses. He also  shared his philosophy on how to bake customer service into the very DNA of an organization. Dave emphasizes that you cannot provide world-class service to your clients if you aren’t providing it to your employees first. When employees feel supported, valued, and empowered, that positive energy naturally overflows into their interactions with customers. One of the simplest yet most effective ways to stand out is through responsiveness. Dave discusses the impor...

On a recent episode of the "You're Going To Great At This" podcast, I interviewed Stone Payton, the co-founder of Business RadioX, about his journey in entrepreneurship, the mechanics of scaling a business, and the power of professional coaching. Stone shared his background and how he transitioned into the world of business media. One of the key takeaways was that scaling isn't just about getting bigger; it's about creating systems and processes that allow the business to run without the constant intervention of the founder. Even those that may sound easy, but it can be a long and time consuming process.  Unlike traditional "hard sell" tactics, Payton also advocates for building genuine relationships. His "pro-relationship" approach to business development, which focuses on providing value first. This process also can take time, but it can also produce much more success and help grow a much more sustainable business.  Of course, this all goes h...

As entrepreneurs, business owners and other self-employed types, we are always try to learn how to work efficiently, maximize profits and keep our focus on the future. Sometimes, we overlook an obvious resource. By listening to the stories of how others in our shoes have made the journey to successful business person, we can see how our own stories are either similar or completely different. I personally love reading biographies of successful business people throughout history. Recently I finished David McCullough's book, "The Wright Brothers". Most of us know the story of these two bicycle shop owners who figured out how to fly and control the flight. However, there were other parts of this story that I learned. Their tenacity, business acumen and planning were integral to their success.  This is usually the case of most successful people.  By reading or hearing of these kinds of examples, we can look at our experiences to learn as well. Recently I had Adam Griggs of the...

One of the biggest obstacles we face in our careers as business owners, sales reps and other self-employed folk, is getting our mental blocks out of the way so we can succeed.  Carl Willis of Remodeling Marketing Team and I talk about optimizing your mindset for hitting goals and making more money.  By knowing who your customer is and understanding what problem your product or service solves, you can get better clarity around your business.  Carl shares a good story of an entrepreneur who was undervaluing her work, and by virtue, underpricing her product. Take a listen and please follow/subscribe.  Chris Castane s is a humorous speaker who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. His new book, "Nearly Motivated" is available on Amazon. For booking information,  click here . His new podcast,  "You're Going To Be Great At This!"  is available on most platforms.   He's also the president of  Surf Financial Br...

In today's fast-paced world, staying connected and informed is key to successful networking. Imagine having a tool that keeps you updated on your prospects' achievements and interests without lifting a finger. Enter Google Alerts—an easy way to keep your network engaged and your name top of mind. Google Alerts allows you to monitor the web for specific keywords, such as a prospect's name or industry-related topics. When you set up alerts, you receive notifications whenever new content appears online. This enables you to congratulate a contact on a recent achievement or share relevant articles, demonstrating your attentiveness and interest in their success.  Consider a scenario where a client, Mary Johnson*, is mentioned in an article for her outstanding work. With Google Alerts, you receive this information promptly and can reach out with a congratulatory message. This small gesture can strengthen your relationship and keep you in their thoughts for future opportunities. Ne...

A friend of mine recently did some contract work for a company. The project took several weeks and the work was much more detailed than my friend anticipated. Not only was the work itself difficult, but so were the other people who he had to deal with while completing the designs and other specifications.  When he was done he did something very important. He waited a few days and then took an objective look at the entire process, where he discovered what worked well, what didn't work well and the lessons he learned in the process. He even posted all of this information in a "bullet point" style on social media. With that information, his future projects will be somewhat easier if he runs into the same issues. Many people in sales and marketing fail to do this. If something works well, they just move on to the next deal. But if they hit a snag and fail to get the sale, they complain about something, usually the client or the working conditions, without having an honest ass...

Many of us who have been in sales and marketing for a while have been fortunate to have someone mentor us early on in our careers. The best mentors help us negotiate the potential roadblocks that could keep us from sales success. We lean on them because if we can learn from their mistakes, we won't make as many of our own. As I have said in the past, a good mentor should have no financial connection to your business. I'm not saying they can't, but the best possible scenario is one in which their income doesn't depend on your production, like a manager. And although they may be a good mentor, it's not ideal. When I first got into  door-to-door  selling insurance I didn't know what a mentor was. But there was a kindly older man who felt bad for me and the rest of our sales crew. He'd always say something like, "You're doin' good! Hang in there!"  This guy had been with the company for decades and was actually successful, despite a horrible st...

I try to attend networking events when I have the time. These meetings can be productive if you can work the room (or in this case, table) efficiently.  The group I had lunch with consists of about 25 people, some of which I have known for a while, but there are always new faces passing through. A few months back, one of the newbies was Angie Cowger. She and her husband own and operate Custard Stand Chili, selling their chili and chili soup to grocers across the southeast.   I managed to get her to have a conversation with me via Zoom a few weeks after meeting her and it turned out pretty well. Have a peek and please subscribe to my channel. Ch ris Castane s is a humorous speaker and former comedian who helps sales people succeed through workshops and humorous presentations. His newest book, "Nearly Motivated", is yet another humorous look at sales. For booking information,  click here.  As president of  Surf Financial Brokers   he sells life and...

Are you leveraging social media to help your business? Are you posting daily and creating content like the "experts" say to do? Most importantly, are you getting results? I've tried using most of the more popular platforms for my insurance business, as well as my writing and speaking business. To say the results are "mixed" would be generous. This may be because I really haven't invested much into advertising on these platforms.  The way I see it, when Facebook, for example, allows me to set up a free page for my business, that is like a "free trial" to see if I can get any interest in my product or service. After nearly 15 years of this trial period, I have garnered little to no business.  One can come up with two arguments here. The first is why would you throw money at advertising when you haven't seen any returns. The other side is that "you could have done better if you had quit being a tight ass penny pincher." Fair enough. But ...

For a brief few months I worked as a telemarketer for a small firm owned by a young married couple. The husband was a bit of a hot head and kind of a jerk on occasion, but his wife was nice and had to put up with the guy.  One of their clients was a mobile home company that wanted people to come to the lot and see how awesome their singlewides and doublewides were. As telemarketers we offered incentives like a cooler and camera (back when they weren’t part of your phone) and other assorted giveaways. We got a small commission if we could book the client. My coworkers and I would call from a list of leads that our employers had purchased from someone. These leads were supposedly “qualified” ahead of time, meaning that they had been vetted to meet the needs of the client, the mobile home company. Unfortunately, most of the leads were useless. The people we spoke to didn’t live in the right geographical areas or their incomes were too low.  “Why aren’t you guys closing anyone?” t...

As an author of a book on sales I am asked to speak to groups of sales people. There are times, however, when I give a presentation to a civic group or some other kind of organization that isn't necessarily a sales group. For those I adapt my talk to let everyone in the audience know that they are, indeed, in sales. I will usually ask the audience who is in sales. A few hands go up. Then I ask who is not in sales and more hands are raised. That's when I break the bad news to them. They are in sales whether they think so or not. As the old adage goes, the first step is admitting you have a problem. It makes me want to put the audience's chairs in a circle and have a "sales intervention".  As discussed previously, we are all in sales in some form or fashion. Luckily,  basic sales techniques are easily transferable to other parts of our lives. Anyone who has tried to convince a coworker to try a different approach to a problem is in sales. Singles bars (are they stil...

Analogies are everywhere in business these days, but the sales profession has some of the best ones. One I have used for years is that when prospecting and marketing for clients, you should be leaving landmines everywhere, because sooner or later, someone will "step on it" and your sales will blow up. Recently, Davan Johnson, a coworker and friend of mine, appeared on my YouTube channel and we discussed prospecting for clients. He used the analogy of "planting seeds" while "preparing for a harvest". I chuckled as I explained that I preferred my more violent analogy. "I'm attaching life insurance applications to the landmine," I said. Feel free to use either analogy when you consider your prospecting plans. Both have the same principle, which is to always look for opportunities to meet people and tell your story.  You never know when one will blossom or explode. Ch ris Castane s is a professional speaker who helps sales people succeed through...

In my first book I told the story of going on a call with my sales manager, Tom, who was obligated to observe each of the people on our crew every few weeks or so. Fortunately for me, the manager was pretty cool, even though he was a couple of years younger than myself. He had apparently gone to work for the insurance company not long after getting out of high school and had done well enough to get a small promotion. With that being said, these "ride alongs" weren't as horrible as I expected them to be. We'd usually take his car, which saved me gas money, because driving around in the middle of nowhere doing door-to-door sales could rack up a lot of miles and waste fuel. On our first stop Tom taught me an important lessons in sales. When making a sales call with a coworker, make sure that only one of you is doing the talking . The best way for this to succeed is to decide before going into through the door who will make the presentation.  If we decided that I was to g...

Have you had a great sales run, with the wind at your back as you continue to sell and make money, only to have some event or holiday slow down your momentum? It's happened to all of us. I compare it to running at full speed down a field, and out of nowhere comes a patch of mud and tar, designed specifically to slow you down and make you work harder.  An example of this is the holiday season. For some industries, the end of the year is a great time to make those last minute sales and thin out inventories. But for others, it can be horrible. Let's face it, the holidays are about spending money on fun stuff, like electronics and clothes. No one is even thinking about buying insurance, unless they have to.  "I can't spend any money on life insurance because I have to buy Christmas gifts," is what I hear each year. (Nice priorities, by the way!) Having been through this for a few years I now plan ahead. Instead of beating my head against a wall trying to get people to...

I've been off the grid for a while, and for good reason. In a nutshell, I had hit a wall. Creating content for this blog, along with memes (which I hope are funny) and short videos takes a toll. And since I have another role as president of Surf Financial Brokers , which can involve lots of travel, my time and mental energy had nearly gotten wiped out.  However, I have also used that time to decide what I wanted to focus on in my next book. My only other book, " You're Going To Be Great At This! " was written and published in 2017, so you would think I have more to offer. But I didn't want the follow up to be the throwaway information. In a lot of ways it's like a musician who releases several albums and then the record label wants to release the stuff that sucked and didn't make it to the other albums. I don't want to do that to you. Also, my master plan is to use the next book as a link to my future speaking engagements. Hopefully Covid is behind us ...

If you are like me and carve out time from your schedule to work the phones booking appointments, you know how frustrating it can be when people don't show up. I'm not sure what the statistics are but if I book five meetings, there's a good probability that only three or four will actually keep their appointment.  Yes, there are legitimate reasons why people don't always keep their appointments. Emergencies happen. Cars break down, people get sick and a litany of other reasons can keep your prospect from seeing you. However, the reason that most often prevents me from seeing someone is that they forgot about it. Apparently, these folks don't think that the appointment is important enough to put in their calendar. When you are "smiling and dialing" to fill your calendar, you can tell by their tone if someone is actually going to keep their appointment. If they say something like, "I may be busy but you can come by." In my opinion that doesn't ...

Sales people know that one of the hardest parts of the job is prospecting. As a former colleague of mine used to say, "I spent most of my day just trying to find someone to talk to." Prospecting is what keeps the sales pipeline full. An empty pipeline can mean trouble.  Of course, there are different ways to solve the issue of the pipeline. One is to cold call, which can work for some people. I spent the early years of my sales career calling on people at their homes, which was a horrible way to work. Putting yourself in the prospect's shoes, you probably wouldn't want someone to come to your home unexpectedly while you were relaxing after a hard day at work, much less someone trying to sell you something. Personally speaking, I have no problem whatsoever with cold calling businesses. As a matter of fact, after calling on people at their homes for a year of so (and having guns pulled on me), any fear of cold calling an office building was non-existent. The battle was ...

How do you deal with your competitors? For some, a little friendly competition is a good thing. On the other hand, our competitors are taking sales away from us, which means a loss of income. And some will try to work with their competitors by forging alliances or even just taking over their business by buying them out. Years ago, I met a gentleman who was established in the insurance field. I was an upstart just getting back into the business after an absence. He and I chatted from time to time and we really didn't cross paths too much when it came to our clientele. Generally speaking we got along.  One day a lady called me and said she wanted to change her insurance. She was going through a divorce and was on her soon to be ex-husband's group plan. She said she had tried to reach her agent but he wouldn't return her phone calls. I obliged her and got her a policy she could afford.  About a month later the other agent approached me in the hallway at a networking function, ...

Have you ever watched a comedian bomb onstage? If done correctly, it can be both horrific and entertaining at the same time. Sometimes you actually feel sorry for the poor idiot on stage with their crappy material and defensive attitude when the heckling starts.  But sometimes when a comic has been especially bad and even more defensive, watching him or her fall without a parachute can be gratifying. I once saw a comic in Raleigh, NC who was mediocre at best. He had this crappy "I shouldn't have to be working this crappy club in North Carolina, I should be in Vegas," attitude. At one point he made a racist joke that more than irritated a very large African-American gentleman on the front row. "That joke sucked!" the man said with a very loud booming voice.  The air had been sucked out of the room. The comic lost his train of thought and blamed us, the audience. At this point, he should have been trying to win us over, but instead he decided to push us away. It w...

One of the great things about being an independent contractor is that I, as a "business owner", get to make my own decisions when it comes to marketing. Instead of trying to reinvent the wheel, I can look at what has worked for others in my industry and put my own spin on that. But every once in a while, I like to see if I can find a way to reach prospective clients in a way my competitors haven't. At the end of last summer I was having a meal at a chain restaurant. Our server, a young woman in her early 20's, was lamenting that people stole her pens when paying with a credit card. "I have to go to the store each day and buy pens," she said with a tired look in her eye. "People just assume that the pens are for the taking." I nearly forgot the conversation until a few weeks back when my own daughter, who had just gotten a job as a server at another chain restaurant, made the same complaint. She had called to ask if we had any extra pens at our hous...