How to Sell Podcast: Learn to Master B2B Sales and Lead Generation

Matthew Pollard [00:00:00]:
And you put passion and preparation together, it is like the best cocktail for success in anywhere you put your mind to.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:00:08]:
Welcome to another episode of the How to Sell podcast. I'm your host, Luigi Prestinenzi. And as always, I'm honored that you have decided to join us for what will be a very we won't call it an introvert session, but we'll call it how to put yourself outside of your comfort zone if you are an introvert. Now before we get into today's session, if you're a long time listener, thank you very much for showing up. We value the contribution you made to our community. And if you're first time, welcome. We hope you take away some actionable insights that'll help you sell more. Now what's really exciting about this week's episode, because, you know, one of the challenges that we have here at Growth Forum is I'm out there making magic happen, bringing all the clients on, and Dave is just stuck behind a computer pretending to do stuff because he's in are you an introvert, Dave?

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:03]:
We Matt and I spoke about this, because I was actually on on Matt's podcast not long ago. And yes, while many people think I'm extroverted, I'm actually a closet introvert. You're a closet introvert. Closet introvert. I'm talking about it now, so put it out there. Put it out there. But if if you are a active listener, you do know we have an ongoing bet of who brings in the most deals as to where the opposing football clubs team. So Luigi gonna be wearing the Chelsea club top because he's he's lost the month of, of February.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:35]:
So You got Louis February, David I?

David Fastuca [00:01:37]:
You did. Yeah. You did. You got you know, like a lot more about your going.

Matthew Pollard [00:01:40]:
Just to

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:40]:
make to make you feel better, I just sandbagged a few dealers

David Fastuca [00:01:44]:
and, to March.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:48]:
But, look, guys, this is not a the roasting Dave session. Even though we we do get great feedback that you love the how much we roast Dave and push him outside of his comfort zone. But let's get into this week's episode because, again, we've got an incredible guest who is from Australia, but has done incredible things in the US market. Matthew, welcome to the How to Sell podcast.

Matthew Pollard [00:02:14]:
Man, I'm ecstatic to be here. Thanks for having me on. And I I heard you're gonna give someone a hard time. I'm just you know, I'm glad it wasn't me.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:02:22]:
No. No. We can't give somebody of your status, somebody that's done, you know, great things in the US on the speaking circuit. I mean, your your CV really does, it doesn't do justice for the impact that you make on businesses and sales all over the world. So we're we're really we're we're pumped to have you, mate. And, just wanna say thanks for the contribution you make to the community from both a sales perspective, but also a professional development mindset perspective. So we're really excited about jumping into this episode.

Matthew Pollard [00:02:52]:
Yeah. I'm ecstatic to do it. I have to tell you, like, if I hadn't have discovered that I can sell, I would never have been in sales. Like, if I didn't if it if happenstance didn't lead me to fall into it. Right? So I think mindset, especially when it comes to sales and especially for introverts that believes the the cards are stacked against them, which, I mean, isn't true. Look at David. Like, he just he beat you in the month of February. Right? Or so there you go.

Matthew Pollard [00:03:15]:
Right? Introverts can sell, and and that's the thing I'm really passionate about highlighting that introverts aren't second class citizens. Our path to success is just it's different to that of an extrovert. We have to lean into our strengths. You know, there are extroverts that are great at teaching extroverts, and there are great skills for them. Introverts need strategies to lean into our own strengths

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:03:32]:
as well. So let's go back a step. So introverts, where did the where did this all start for you, where you started to focus on helping introverts really break down that barrier that was holding him back when it comes to selling?

Matthew Pollard [00:03:47]:
Yeah. It was really interesting. So I you know, when I was in late high school, I had a a reading speed of a 6th grader. And because of that, like, I was super introverted. I always felt like the slow kid. And I I was lucky enough. I actually got diagnosed with this thing called Uhlen syndrome, which basically means I put on a a pair of funny colored lenses, which definitely did not help with the confidence, and then miraculously, I I could learn to read. Right? But not like everyone else.

Matthew Pollard [00:04:08]:
I had to hustle to start to learn to read. And I got into the top 20% of my state, but, I mean, I was ex my family could say I was exhausted. Like, at the end of high school, I was just wiped, and I had no idea what I wanted to do. So I had that year to find myself. My father agreed, which was tough, though he growth his back 80 hours a week. And he was like, oh, I don't know, but I I convinced him that it was the right decision. And so I took a job at a at a real estate agency, and I know what you think. I I wasn't.

Matthew Pollard [00:04:33]:
I was the guy in the back office doing data entry. Like, I literally had, like, this look on my face. Like, don't speak to me. I'm here to find myself. But I lost my job 3 weeks in. Like, literally, 3 weeks in, my boss calls me, calls me in and says, I'm sorry, mate. They're shutting down this office. You're out of work.

Matthew Pollard [00:04:47]:
And this finally, I'm talking to an Australian that gets it. Nobody hires just before Christmas in Australia. Right? Because we go on on holidays for, like, 3 weeks to a month. There was just no jobs. Like, everything I could everything that was available in the paper were, like, commission only sales roles, and that was it. And so, I mean, we could talk about kinda how I learned to sell watching YouTube videos in a minute, but, like, really, it was that falling into sales and then later teaching other people how to do it that made the book a necessity. Right? Because when I came to America, I started to teach people what it was that I did that was different. And people loved the concept of differentiation and niche marketing and sales systemization.

Matthew Pollard [00:05:26]:
But when I talked about my own introverted path to success and teaching myself how to sell YouTube videos in the 93 doors, people kept coming up and saying, Matt, look, your presentation was great, but I just had no idea as an introvert that I could sell that that door was even open for me. And don't get me wrong, there's lots of people that are introverted that don't wanna sell, and that's fine. But a lot of people make the decision that they can't sell and therefore don't try a sales career or they don't try to start their own small business. And I'm not okay with that. We need to know that door's open and then decide whether we wanna

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:06:03]:
Can we maybe just start with because you you did mention mindset a critical path. Right? And some strategies that introverts, because you've can use to break down that barrier that holds them back.

Matthew Pollard [00:06:16]:
Yeah. Absolutely. I I think the biggest thing is we've gotta stop believing the collective lie. Like, I mean, the number of times people give up on something because we've collectively decided it's not possible before ever dedicating enough time to truly find out? I mean, if the the question is how can you ever know? Like, one of the things that I always ask people when they say, you know, in sales, oh, the market's changed or this is you know, their customer's likely thinking this. And I'm like, well, when did you decide that? Like, I think as a leader, especially in sales leadership, when did you decide that is, like, the best question you could ever ask someone? Because you get to hear this long and well thought out story that they've been ruminating with for the last 3 weeks or 3 days, and it's all total rubbish a lot of the time. Like, a lot of times, it could be based on something that happened in the past, but it's not a reality for this customer or this specific problem. Like, it just we tell ourselves these things, and, you know, a lot of times actually, funnily enough, like, I just got named by Selling Power Magazine. We were just talking about Gerhard as, sales kickoff speaker of the year for a storytelling presentation that I deliver to large corporations.

Matthew Pollard [00:07:20]:
And what's funny is one of the things that I say is be careful of the stories you tell yourself because they short circuit your logical mind and you speak directly to your emotional brain, and your emotional brain just assumes all the detail from the story is facts. So if you're telling yourself, I can't sell as an introvert. Right? What is that Henry Ford saying? If you think you can or if you think you can't, you're right. You don't try, so, of course, you're right. So I think that if we look at kind of where I started in sales, I fell in to this commission only sales role because I lost my job just before Christmas, and I remember picking up the the, you know, the classifieds back then. And there were 3 jobs in the paper at that time, and they were all commissionally sales roles. And that was terrifying for me, especially because, I mean, I had really bad acne back then. Like, in my presentation, I put up this incredibly embarrassing photo of me and my sister's wedding.

Matthew Pollard [00:08:03]:
I let everyone laugh, and I say, you don't need to see this for 3 seconds. Only let it stay up for 2. Everyone laughs at me and then I move on. Right? But it now people realizing that I'm, you know, I'm nothing special. I, you know, I just figured out a path to success. But what happened was I applied for all 3 jobs and I got 3 interviews, and then I got 3 job offers. And I actually remember going into the 1st day of training, even though I was terrified to we just hire everyone, man. We just have this saying, we throw mud up against the wall, we see what sticks.

Matthew Pollard [00:08:40]:
So I get given, like, 5 days product training, not a single second of sales training, my manager himself quits within 24 hours after telling me, don't do commissionality, man. It's a terrible place to to work. That first day, I remember going out, and the 1st store I walked into, like, I had no idea what to say. That was my first realization. I just knew about the product. And I remember I was politely told to leave, and I say luckily polite politely told to leave because shortly after that, I was sworn at. But my my personal favorite was always getting told to get a real job. Right? That was the only job I could get.

Matthew Pollard [00:09:11]:
Door after door, this happened until I got to my 93rd door where I made my first sale. And I remember I I made about $70, which for me, I mean, I was working at McDonald's before that. It was a lot of mindset. But I had this realization, I gotta do this again tomorrow and the next day and the next. And I think that's really the turning point. And I wonder if I didn't get diagnosed with Erlend syndrome, this would have even occurred to me. Right? Because I couldn't read, found a pair of glasses, there was a solution. And I remember this same situation happening.

Matthew Pollard [00:09:37]:
I I was like, I can't read a like a book by Brian Tracy or Zig Ziglar. I mean, at a reading speed of a 6th grade, it would take me a year to read it, let alone apply it. But I also wasn't willing to give up, and I, you know, and I also wasn't willing to just accept the way it was. So I started thinking, and this is what I think it came down to. Firstly, I was willing to take responsibility. I mean, I don't care if it's somebody else's fault. I didn't get the training, whatever. I took responsibility, and then I asked what if.

Matthew Pollard [00:10:03]:
And when I asked what if, I said, what if there was a way for me to learn? I went, the only way for me to be okay with this is if it was a system, right, just like a normal system and process that anyone could follow. And then I went, what if there was a way to learn that system? The books were out. Okay. Well, what about YouTube? So I typed in sales system, thinking I had this most original idea, and then I realized I wasn't the first first person that had this thought. But if I wasn't willing to sales, there must be a system, if I wasn't willing to say sales an introvert, I can do this, I would never have discovered those videos. I I still remember, and this is the last key ingredient. Right? Responsibility, living in what if, but willingness to do the work. Like, I spent 8 hours in the field applying what I learned.

Matthew Pollard [00:10:45]:
The neck that night, I'd rather home, and I'd spend the next 8 hours perfecting the next step or working on the one I was working on. Weekends, I'd spent 16 hours practicing. And don't get me wrong, I know this doesn't sound fun and there are smarter ways to do it that I've learned mindset. But I did that every day, and soon it was like 71 doors, and then 32 doors, and then 18, and then 9, and then 3. 6 weeks in, my manager pulls me in, and I thought I was getting fired again. Like, I was handing in my paperwork downstairs. I didn't talk to anybody upstairs. Like, the boisterous reps talking about how they locked in that deal or how the market's getting tougher, no one.

Matthew Pollard [00:11:19]:
My manager had that look like he was just puzzled, and I've discovered why. He's like, we just got our national sales figures, and this was for a company that was list they talked about themselves as the largest sales and marketing company in the southern hemisphere. And he said, Matt, we just got our national sales numbers. You're the number one salesperson in the company. I mean, the whole thing took 6 weeks. I went from scared to sell to being the best in the company in 6 weeks, which, of course 6 weeks. Is the biggest transformation I think anyone could talk about in sales, but nowhere near as much as learning how to lead a sales team after that. Like, I don't know why everybody hands a sales team to anyone that can sell because that's what my manager did.

Matthew Pollard [00:11:54]:
Oh, you can sell. We'll give you a team. They all quit in 24 hours, back to YouTube, take responsibility, live in what if, did the work, got promoted 7 times, and started my own business. Right? Fast forward just shy of a decade, responsible for 5 multimillion dollar success stories. I think it's those three things. Those are the key ingredients that had made me who I am today.

David Fastuca [00:12:14]:
Now that's a crazy story. Like, 6 weeks, epic turnaround. Look, I I love to dive deep into you mentioned about story selling earlier. There's a lot of mindset shifts that take place. How do you change the internal narrative that, you know, as an introvert, you tell yourself, your ex. How do you cut that trip wire?

Matthew Pollard [00:12:36]:
The first thing is you gotta realize they're they're there. I think a lot of introverts tell themselves these stories, and they assume them as fact. I mean, there's and, actually, we were just talking about Victor Antonio, a personal friend of of of ours. And what's interesting is, you know, he talks about, like, a lot of the mindset hurdles that people have all the time. And, you know, there's a study that highlights that, you know, we tell ourselves somewhere between, you know, 20,80,000 things a day, and a lot of like, 80% of it is, like, on repeat. It's the same stuff over and over and over again, but we do it unconsciously. Right? You know, we could never talk it ourselves, like, actually out loud that speed. And what's really interesting is that if we sit down and really think about the things that we're telling ourselves and write them down, it doesn't take long for us to be able to say, is that really true? When did I decide that? And then all of a sudden, those narratives come out, and then you can validate them.

Matthew Pollard [00:13:29]:
But a lot of times, we don't actually verbalize them, write them down, and so we don't know what they are. And what I find especially for for introverts is they just take for granted that they can't sell. And so when you ask when did they decide that, what evidence they have, and they're like, well, all the best salespeople are extroverted. I'm like, no. They're not. Like, if you go to Global Guru's list of top 30 sales professionals, which I'm honored to be on, right, sure, Growth Cardone, you know, Jordan Belfort, yes, they're extroverted. But you don't have to go far down until you see Meredith Elliot Powell, Mark Hunter, right, Anthony, you know, all these other amazing speakers. They're all introverted.

Matthew Pollard [00:14:05]:
And the reason for that is because the top 10% of all sales performers have a planned presentation. The bottom 80% just say whatever comes out of their mouth. So what you need to do is write down all of the things you're telling yourself, and then ask yourself, is that even true? And then go and validate it. Now the important thing when you're when you're telling yourself these long stories is you have to catch yourself out saying it. I I call this punishing your brain and you're gonna hate me for saying this. To anyone that listens that has negative self talk, this you are going to have the most unproductive week of your life. But what you wanna do is write down everything you say that's negative, and then write positive affirmations that fight against that. Positive things about the fact that, you know, if you think you're too old, you're more experienced.

Matthew Pollard [00:14:45]:
You you know, these people deserve to hear from what you have to say. Every time you say something negative or tell yourself a negative story, combat it with 3 positive affirmations. There's a study out of UNC that says it's gonna be at least 3 just to come back to a balanced level. First thing you'll say to yourself is what a total waste of time. That's negative self talk. Give yourself 3 positive times even to if if that occurs to you. It'll take about a week for things to transition. We did this guy we did this with a guy called Jim Comer in Austin.

Matthew Pollard [00:15:13]:
And, literally, he was, like, no money in the bank. He hadn't, like, he hadn't made a sale in forever. He started doing this, and he was like, I, you know, I started, like, yelling at myself in the shower. I started to yell at myself walking down the street when I was having negative self talk. Not out loud. He he didn't wanna be a crazy person, but you get the point. And then what happened was within a week, he started to have different thoughts, and he was like, oh, I should call that customer back. But this is a guy that hadn't made a sale in months, and he made $20,000 in 40 minutes.

Matthew Pollard [00:15:41]:
Right? He just picked up the phone and called a couple of people, and one of them was like, oh my gosh. Jim, I'm so glad you called me. Like, he was a a speech coach. He's like, we'd lost your details. We'd all decided as a as as a board that we were going to hire you to do this event, and then we lost your details. We couldn't find them. And we couldn't find you online, so we were going to hire someone else. And yet he was telling himself, they probably didn't mind me because they didn't have the budget.

Matthew Pollard [00:16:04]:
They're probably too old. Like, the things we tell ourselves we have to combat, because if we don't learn to control our mind, nothing happens. And if you're an introvert and you listen to this and, you know, you go, oh my gosh. Maybe I can sales. And tomorrow you let your negative self talk take over. This whole thing was pointless.

David Fastuca [00:16:21]:
Just a quick interruption to let you know about a free resource that Luigi and I wanna hand over to you. This resource has helped lift close one rates to over 73% on average. Plus, you'll get our b to b sales newsletter that drops weekly where you can learn what it takes to build a repeatable sales process and creating a pipeline full of qualified deals. To get this resource, just go to Growth Forum dot I o forward slash newsletter or click the link in this episode and sign up today. Now I I wanna pull, on the string of one of the things that was underlying a lot of that. Right? You come across with a lot of energy. Right? As, you know, myself, you know, as a well, not so closet introvert because I'm

Matthew Pollard [00:17:08]:
You're out there now, mate.

David Fastuca [00:17:09]:
Now. I'm out there now. Right? It's, you know, I find that I need to get myself into a great mindset, but I I need to invest a lot of energy. If I'm going out to an event, if I'm going somewhere, I need to talk to people and do that small talk. I find that it saps my energy, quite quickly. I I love to understand how do you formulate your your day? How do you generate the energy to go do the things that you do? You're on stage, you know, all over the world quite quite often, almost every month, quarter, if not more. How do you develop your own energy side? Yeah.

Matthew Pollard [00:17:44]:
Absolutely. I mean and that that's one of the things that's really important for people to hear, actually. So it's a great question because a lot of people actually project extroversion on me. Right? And that I mean, we're our own worst enemies. I remember there was a a guy, Dan Walschmidt, that I saw speak, and I'm like, I wish I had that talent when I was just getting started, but I can never had that because I'm extroverted. I he's extroverted. I heard that in my head, and I'm like, no. So I went and validate and found out he actually was an introvert.

Matthew Pollard [00:18:08]:
He actually endorsed my first book. So the the thing that I want people to know is you can't a lot of people will say, especially in sales, I remember speaking at the AAISP Leadership Summit, and I did a survey beforehand about who was introverted and who was extroverted. And I left it. I didn't just say introvert, extrovert. I left an open field, and you would be blown away at how many people said, oh, I'm a recovering introvert or I was introverted, but don't worry. I'm not anymore. Like, it's something you can change. You can't change who you are.

Matthew Pollard [00:18:39]:
You're if you're an introvert, then you're an introvert. You're extrovert, you're an extrovert. And there's nothing wrong with being an introvert because being an introvert is just where you draw your energy. And it, you know, it may mean that when you sell like yourself, David, you get tired. When you go to networking, you get tired. Now if you have a system and process, you get less tired. Like I have when I speak from stage now, I love being on stage, and I will answer people's questions afterwards I'm having a great time. It just feels like I've been skydiving when I eventually get back to the hotel room.

Matthew Pollard [00:19:08]:
Right? Because I feel like that adrenaline rush wears off, and now I'm exhausted. It doesn't mean I can't do

David Fastuca [00:19:14]:
it, though.

Matthew Pollard [00:19:14]:
Now if you think about something like networking and sales, I actually love it. And a lot of the introverts that I've worked with, you know, the people that have even read my books and applied my strategies, they love networking now. They love sales. Now, it doesn't mean they're not tired afterwards, but they're a lot less tired, and here's why. Their mental anxiety energy going to that event has dissipated. They've also done their planning and preparation beforehand, so they feel more in control, therefore, they're less anxious, but also they're not stuck in their head trying to figure out what to say, which feels uncomfortable. Right? So they're not feeling like they're doing a 100 kilo or £200 deadlift. They feel like they're lifting light weights because they know exactly what to say.

Matthew Pollard [00:19:55]:
They've got a planned process, so they're less tired as well. The other thing is to be really honest about your energy. Right? So when I do video podcast like this, at the end of it, I've got some downtime where I give myself permission to just watch something stupid on TV and chill. That's my downtime. I barely remember anything that I've watched, but I'm okay with it because that's the trade off Forum being able to do this. When I speak from stage, I'm literally going to be I think I'm speaking in 5 or 6 events over the course of 8 days across California next week or the week after. And when I when I'm every every day, I go up, I speak from stage, I have a wonderful time on stage, I come home, I feel like I'm skydiving, so I have an early night. I don't answer emails as much.

Matthew Pollard [00:20:39]:
I chill out, and and that's okay. Now what I find though is when I speak from stage now, I recover in, like, an hour as opposed to requiring several because I've got stories that I leverage, which allows me to crack create I mean, there's this science. It's an amazing study, but it talks about when you tell story, it activates the reticular activating system of your brain. Basically, what that means, David, if when I'm telling you a story, my brain is synchronizing with yours, and we're I'm creating artificial reports. So I've got a whole new sales method where you don't even do rapport because you leverage the story for the rapport. But when I get up on stage, I literally before I get on stage, I'm practicing the same line over and over and over again. Thank you so much for such a wonderful introduction. How will I live up to such a wonderful introduction? I know.

Matthew Pollard [00:21:21]:
Let me tell you about Wendy. And once I get into the Wendy story, all of a sudden, I feel my total emotional energy diffuse, and now I'm having fun because I feel everybody else synchronize with me. So the answer is I've learned strategies so that it takes less energy from me. I've found ways of giving myself permission to be okay with, you know, if I'm doing a high energy event, then I'm allowed to have some downtime. And the third one I would say, which is I think the most profound. When somebody sales, I'm yeah. There's no way I'm introverted now. I'm so articulate.

Matthew Pollard [00:21:52]:
I'm talking about what I love. Like, I'm passionate about this. I could talk about this all day, and I wouldn't run out of a thing to sales, and I would feel like it's been 10 minutes. Right? So what you have to understand is if you're not doing something you're passionate about like, in my networking book, I talk about channeling your superpower. Your superpower is passion. And I remember working with this I went with a guy that was selling insurance, and he was like he'd read my book, and he was like, Matt, I love your book, but I I try to be interesting before, sorry, interested before I'm interesting. But when I I talk about what it is that I do, I say I'm an insurance, which you shouldn't do, by the way. I you should introduce yourself by what I call a unified message, and we could discuss that if we get time.

Matthew Pollard [00:22:32]:
But as soon as I mention that I'm in insurance, I get this face of, like, oh my gosh. It's like their eyes are gonna be exploding. How do I get away from this person? And I David, well, you know, well, help me understand, like, you know, what niche you're going after and what the passion is behind it because I don't like people talking about their functional skill. I like them talking about the passion and mission that they're on. And he said, well, no. I'm just I I I like to help everyone. And I went, well, that's firstly, it's just not true. Right? Like, no one can care about every group equally.

Matthew Pollard [00:22:59]:
I said, well, let me ask you. Like, somebody that earns 50,000 versus 250. He said, well, no. The person that makes, 250. And I said, okay. Well, why? He said, well, they make more money, so they they can buy more insurance. And I'm like, not really where I'm going after this, Nick, but let's go let's separate it differently. What about somebody that grows up poor, studies super hard in high school, graduates high marks, gets into Harvard on a scholarship, graduates Harvard, now they've got a c level executive job, 10 staff making 250 versus someone that drops out of high school, saves up, starts a business, makes 250, got 10 staff.

Matthew Pollard [00:23:35]:
Who do you care about helping most? He's like, well, obviously, the small business owner. I'm like, what are you talking about? The guy that studied at Harvard, good for him. He's like, I just feel like they deserve it more. I'm like, I tell you what, explain that to me. And he said, well, I had this grandfather that, start you know, he started a business. He actually started a farm, and he prioritized his whole team, but he didn't he had to keep cash flow in the bank, and he didn't prioritize his own retirement. Well, later in life, he you know, something went wrong. He had a health issue and he had to sell the farm.

Matthew Pollard [00:24:04]:
He said, I just watched my grandfather fade away in front of the TV and basically die for the last 10 years of his life, and I just hated seeing that. You sell insurance, like, what could you have done? And he started to educate me about these insurance plans where if you've got a high cash flow business, you can stuff your cash in, get this high yield interest rate, and turn it into, like, invest investment properties without touching the capital you need for your business. I was blown away at how much he knew. So I was like, how would you like to get up every day and just help those hustles in the world to create something out of nothing that, you know, not end up in second class retirements like your grandfather is? I would love that. So what we did is we called him the hustle lifeguard. Right? So the hustlers of the world not drown like the lifeguard sales people from drowning. This is what I call a unified message. We niched him to high cash flow business owners.

Matthew Pollard [00:24:52]:
And when he somebody asked him what he did, instead of saying I sold insure I sell insurance, he says, oh, thanks for asking. You know, I, I'm the hustle lifeguard. People go, what's that? And then he would talk about his passion and mission for that. But here's what's really interesting. When he talked about that, he funnily enough, it didn't take less it didn't take anywhere near as much energy because he knew what to sales, but more importantly, he was talking about something that was significant to him. I don't get tired talking about this stuff. Now, of course, eventually, it will come back to me if I don't look after my adrenaline and my my energy levels. But I can come across extroverted, if you wanna say that.

Matthew Pollard [00:25:29]:
I think I come across as a a really well planned and prepared introvert because I'm passionate and I've prepared. And you put passion and preparation together, it is like the best cocktail for success in anywhere you put your mind to.

David Fastuca [00:25:42]:
I love that. And I'd love to get deep into a question of, do you think it's important to understand if someone's an introvert or an extrovert when you're selling to them?

Matthew Pollard [00:25:51]:
Oh, absolutely. I firstly, it drives me nuts when I talk to sales leaders, and they don't even know which team members it is, they're introverted and extrovert. And don't get me wrong. I understand why because the moment you tell your boss that you're an introvert, you don't get promoted, you don't get put into leadership, people don't do IQ tests to find sorry. They don't do personality tests to find out their personality. They do personality tests to hide that they're an introvert because they don't wanna lose their job, and they do get pigeonholed Forum being an introvert. So, I mean, if you're an employer listening and you don't know I mean, firstly, the thing that I have found is everybody has their burdens to bear. Like, extra extroverts may not be the best listeners.

Matthew Pollard [00:26:39]:
They may not be the most empathetic. But HR find out that they're an extrovert, and they send them to training to learn those things because they know they're learnable skills. You find out you're an introvert. Everyone says, oh, there's a barrier. You just can't cross. Right? Poor you. Right? So you've gotta stop disenfranchising your team members for being an introvert. Like, have an open discussion.

Matthew Pollard [00:26:59]:
So many sales leaders are intro are introverts and believe there's something wrong with that, which is why they filled out that survey. Don't worry. I'm extroverted now. Firstly, not true. But secondly, think about what that does for half of your team that feel like they can't succeed because they're an introvert. They can't trust you and follow you because you're not being honest with them and you're not telling them and inspiring them. But, yes, when you're selling to a customer and you don't know that they're an introvert, I see so many times there where a salesperson doesn't allow like, they get a tiny little break in the dialogue and they start speaking again as opposed to seeing that an introvert's just thinking for a second. Give them a moment to consider some thoughts and then, you know, answer in more detail.

Matthew Pollard [00:27:41]:
Think about the fact that sometimes people don't like to be spoken at at a really fast pace. Like, I have learned, especially coming to America, most people know, and I've gotta be careful with this when I'm talking to Australians, I speak at the speed an Australian speaks when I'm speaking to an Australian. But when I'm speaking to someone in America, I've had to learn to enunciate because no one understands what American what Australians say a lot of times because we pronounce r's as a's. Right? My last name is Pollard. But everyone here pronounces it pronounces it Pollard. Right? Because they pronounce the the r so much stronger. So I have to speak slower. I have to be a lot I have to be a lot more eloquent about what I say.

Matthew Pollard [00:28:19]:
I avoid certain words. It's the same thing when you're talking to an introvert, and if you're an introvert talking to an extrovert, the same thing applies. What's really interesting is when you see an introvert and an extrovert, like when I work with a lot of, like, $1,000,000,000 tech companies in the US, and you'll see you've got this salesperson that's extroverted and the solutions engineer, which is an introvert. And the introvert gets so frustrated because they spent a week and a half planning what we're gonna talk about, and then the extrovert won't be quiet. So it's so important Yeah. To understand each other's pros and cons because we all have pros and cons and lean into them. And, that way I mean, organizations that aren't leveraging their introverts the right way are literally leaving a huge amount of human capital on the table. But when you don't let introverts and extroverts work together in unison, gosh, you're leaving a lot more.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:29:07]:
Yeah. So, Matthew, I mean, you've covered so many things here, right, which is awesome. I mean, from what I've heard, critical to get, you know if if you are struggling to get yourself out of your comfort zone, getting into conversations, going to networking sessions, it's critical to really start to change that internal narrative and start to flip your perspective on things. I don't like it. This is an opportunity, and I like going on networking events. This is potentially a so it's also the planning and preparation piece is critical to ensure that to not zap our energy. We're going to sessions, and we're quite clear about what's our story, what's our message. If we're going to the sales process into a sales conversation, it's about being clear on what I'm gonna cover because it allows us to have more confidence and reduced our attention.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:30:00]:
So you've covered a lot of great things. Where is the best place for our audience to engage with you to find out more access to your books? Where can we point them to?

Matthew Pollard [00:30:12]:
Yeah. Absolutely. Well, you know, I think the best the best answer is I mean, I, of course, return the favor to YouTube for teaching me, and I put a ton of great content out on YouTube and other social medias as well. But, I mean, the biggest thing for introvert is and here's the thing that I always mindset. Introverts, whether you're a business owner or a salesperson, busy procrastination is what you're good at. Right? What you do is you'll read a whole bunch of books, and then you'll try and piece them all together. Sales is not like mid commercial arts. Right? You don't get better by piecing it all together.

Matthew Pollard [00:30:41]:
Take the Henry Ford approach, and literally, you can have any color car you want as long as it's black. Pick one system. It doesn't need to be me. Trust one mentor to teach you, but know that they're an introvert because the biggest issue you're gonna have is belief. That's why I'm gonna say this is the one thing that I would do if I was you, and my publisher's gonna hate me when I say this. You do not need to buy my book. What I would highly recommend though is you download the first chapter of my sales book, because I have a networking and a sales book. The sales one has a white cover, but the introvertzedge.com is where you go for that.

Matthew Pollard [00:31:11]:
When you download the first chapter, just because I am so focused on helping confront that stigma that introverts are second class citizens, because that is just not true. I mean, the the the reason why most introverts sit at the bottom of sales performers is because they're not following a planned presentation. And when you're not, of course, extroverts are better at following no plan. Introverts sit at the top 10% because they're following a planned presentation. So what I would suggest is go to the introvert's edge, and the first thing I want you to do is, well, when you read it, you will realize all the reasons that you've been telling yourself you can't sell or act the opposite is true. So you believe in yourself and your ability to sell. And then what I do is I literally map out the full 7 steps to the sale. Again, all I would do is grab what you currently say and put it in under those sections.

Matthew Pollard [00:31:55]:
You realize firstly, there's a whole bunch of things that don't fit, throw that out. That's the stuff you shouldn't be telling customers. It's usually the fire hose of jargon you think you're doing for them. You're doing it for you. You're not educating the customer so they can make a decision. You're making it impossible for them to make a decision. The second thing I would do is realize there's a whole bunch of things out of order, and then you'll realize there's some gaping holes, usually around asking, I'm gonna say the right questions, not questions, because most people just ask a 1,000 questions I haven't thought out, and then telling one great story. I honestly believe most people are one great story away from the David growth sales career that they deserve.

Matthew Pollard [00:32:28]:
If you do that, you'll double your sales in the next 60 days. And, you don't need to buy my book for that. Just go to introvertedge.com, and you can download it for free.