How to Sell Podcast: Make How You Sell, Why You Win

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:00:00]:
It always seems impossible until it's done. That's a quote by Nelson Mandela, as this week, we're joined by Chris Muddle, who has been one of the top performers at his company for the past 10 years, who's gonna talk to us today about how you can develop a mindset of what's possible. Pretty pumped about today's episode because we're gonna be talking about the importance of planning. And Chris is an incredible operator who has delivered some insane results for the company he's been working at, and he's done it consistently for 10 years. So Chris is a real practitioner at what he does. And you're gonna hear about sort of, you know, what he talks about, some of the critical success factors and the things that he does that enables him to achieve success. So this is gonna be an awesome episode because we're gonna talk about that. We're gonna talk about the way in which Chris manages his day, the way in which he creates a mindset of just of what's possible.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:00:55]:
It's insane. You can feel it with him. Right? And he he's a he's a practitioner. He's a top performing sales pro that has achieved incredible results for a decade in his particular industry. So, really, buckle up. This is gonna be an awesome episode. You're gonna get a lot of notes from this. You're gonna get a lot of, key points that you can implement straight away to help you be the very best sales professional you can be.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:20]:
Really excited to have you on our show today

Chris Muddle [00:01:23]:
Me too.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:23]:
Mate. And, I know it's been a long time coming. Been watching your, you know, watching you grow as a sales pro, and it's been really awesome. So I really appreciate you taking the time.

Speaker C [00:01:34]:
Pardon the interruption, but I just want to let you know about a special course that Luigi and I have put together that we've given away for free. It's a sales OS 5 part email course. To get access, just visit growforum.i0forward/newsletter and sign up today.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:01:50]:
So, mate, before we get into this episode and talk about sort of some of the habits and the characteristics that high performers need to exhibit. Tell us a little bit about how you got, you know, into the world of sales.

Chris Muddle [00:02:02]:
Yeah. Thanks, mate. I was a, banker, accountant, and financial planner for, for these 2 large banking institutions in Australia. I, I wasn't selling. I was sitting behind the desk because I was actually afraid of, any form of contact whatsoever with other human beings. Yeah. So I I lost complete motivation to roll. It was boring, and so I quit I quit my career, all the little badges that I accrued over time, and, and I got into a start up at the time called Employsure in my first sales role.

Chris Muddle [00:02:36]:
Yep. And, the rest is history.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:02:38]:
Oh, awesome. And then so just tell me how many years ago was that?

Chris Muddle [00:02:42]:
Seven and a half years ago.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:02:44]:
Fantastic. Seven and a half years ago, your first sales role. Tell us about some of the accolades that you've received since joining that business. Because, you know, I think for anyone, that's new to sales, or even that have been sales for a long time, aspire to achieve certain results. So tell us, you know, what are some of the results that you've achieved, since joining that business?

Chris Muddle [00:03:06]:
Yeah. Well, sales was the hardest thing I've ever done in my life, 1st and foremost. So getting over my biggest fear was probably my biggest achievement.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:03:14]:
Yep.

Chris Muddle [00:03:15]:
The second thing is I there there wasn't a brand at at that stage for our company. It was in an industry that no one knew about, and products that weren't even available in marketplace, which was an outsourced HR solution for a small business. So I had to really basically, I had to learn how to cold call. Yeah. I had to learn how to sell. I had to learn how to build up courage, and I also had to learn how to succeed in the role of sales. So, so basically, year by year, I became the top writer of business, the top salesperson, top salesperson for many years. I broke all the records whether it was value, clients, the amount of meetings I sat.

Chris Muddle [00:03:57]:
So for the last 7 years, basically, I've been engaging approximately a 150 new business clients in the SME space. Wow. And I've been bringing in more than $3,000,000 of new business revenue every year. But outside of that, a lot of these, a lot of these relationships and businesses come through referrals. Yeah. So 1 year, there was about 70 or more referral businesses which engaged with the HR service that I offered. So yeah. So it's been good.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:04:24]:
Yeah. Fantastic. There's some incredible results, but can we just go back a step? You mentioned that, you know, the biggest hurdle or the biggest, win that you had was actually starting in sales. What what were the feelings that you had if you could remember going back, you know, about starting in sales? What were some of those fears you had to overcome?

Chris Muddle [00:04:44]:
Well, mate, I, I didn't know who I was, and I was a scared, boy in a man's body. Yeah. And sales is one of the most confronting things I think anybody has to do. You have to face yourself. Yep. You have to face what sort of person that you are. You have to pay you have to face what sort of people other, people are. And, yes, sales in itself is probably the hardest thing that anyone will ever do, in my opinion.

Chris Muddle [00:05:11]:
Yep. But when you become good at selling, the sky's the limit. Anything's possible in in my opinion as well.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:05:18]:
Okay. And, what's what was some of the rejection? What was some of the challenges that you experienced first on when you started? You went from a banker behind the desk to getting out there. You know, talk to us about some of those challenges that you first experienced in the world of selling.

Chris Muddle [00:05:34]:
Yeah. Well, the first challenge was I had to do what I said. I had to commit on my word. So when when you're working in large organizations, you can say a lot of stuff that comes out of your mouth Yep. But you don't get really have that held to account. Now in the world of sales, you know that you're doing the right thing from a character level, from a speech level, from an action level because it's based in the results that you're bringing in. So what I had to confront was, it's just me. The results are on me.

Chris Muddle [00:06:01]:
There's nobody else that I can blame for my results. So my biggest fear the whole time was just me. Can I do it? What do I need to do to get to the next level? How do I make the next phone call to interact with the next person? How can I help this person believe that what I'm selling is the right solution for them? How can I then deliver on what I've promised? How can I keep this client for a lifetime?

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:06:28]:
Okay.

Chris Muddle [00:06:29]:
So those sorts of conversations I never got to experience in my previous roles, so it was it was very confronting, but again, very very good.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:06:38]:
And what motivated you to move from behind the desk, you know, in in in a role that was probably consistent, comfortable, you knew what was happening, to a role where for any sales pro, you know, it can be up and down. It can be unknown. What motivated the change?

Chris Muddle [00:06:59]:
Well, mate, I in banking and in accounting, I wasn't loving it. I was doing what my father did. I was doing what I thought I had to do. I was doing what I thought I needed to reach a certain level of, social status. Yeah. But basically, I hated it. I hated it. I lost all motivation for my job.

Chris Muddle [00:07:19]:
I started to stop believing in myself. My confidence was waning, and basically, I became depressed. I was an alcoholic, and I was depressed. So basically, I quit.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:07:29]:
Yeah.

Chris Muddle [00:07:29]:
Quit on everything. Quit on banking, career, qualifications, the magical nugget in front of me. I quit everything in a hope that I'll be able to get over this depression that I was facing at the time.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:07:42]:
Mate, I appreciate you sharing that. It's pretty deep, and I think I think that message is so important today of all days, right, because I know that I and I'm sick of hearing about, you know, and I'm living it right now. We're all living it right now. Right? And, you know, there's a lot of negative sort of stuff that's happening around us, COVID 19 and all this uncertainty. And and it's difficult for many people to navigate. But I think right now, a lot of people are facing that prospect of changing careers, you know, that there's a lot of job uncertainty. And so I think, in that message, what you've given, you've given courage and motivation for people that are looking to make a change. Right? So what's you know, from from your perspective, how did you like, when you started, you would have had you know, you mentioned that you, there's a lot of fear.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:08:32]:
But what are some of those what were some of those steps that you put in place to help you get started and build that rhythm when you started in sales?

Chris Muddle [00:08:41]:
Yeah. Good question. I like strategy. I like playing games, and I like winning games. Yep. So the the only thing that I did differently to anybody else that I found doing selling is I made it into a game that I wanted to win. Yep. So that that did 2 things for me, made fun, and it made it logically correct.

Chris Muddle [00:09:01]:
So basically, the very start of the game was what are other salespeople doing every day to ensure that they're getting sales success? How are they doing it? What are they saying? So my first thing was because I didn't know who I was at that point, my first thing was I'm just gonna imitate the best in a hope that some of that would rub off on me, and then it would start getting sales. So that was the first thing. And then the second thing was, what sorts of things are they doing to fully immerse themselves into the profession of selling? So what are they listening to? What are they doing in the mornings in terms of workouts or gym routines?

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:09:38]:
So

Chris Muddle [00:09:38]:
at this stage, I had nothing. I wasn't going to the gym. I was drinking. I was smoking. I hated myself. I hated my job. I mean, I had a a fairly long list of circumstances that wasn't making it easy for me. So what I thought in my mind was, well, I don't believe in myself.

Chris Muddle [00:09:54]:
So if I believe in someone else, that might be a good start. So that's how I started to believe in myself through trying to be someone else. Now I'm not saying that's the best journey for success, but it's what I needed to get out of the pit.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:10:10]:
Wow. And so you figured out what, like, you you you know, you created a picture, you found inspiration in others to help drive you to be to get out of the sort of the the negative zone that you were in to to create that sort of rhythm of of performance and success.

Chris Muddle [00:10:29]:
Correct. So I I had no self confidence whatsoever.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:10:33]:
Okay.

Chris Muddle [00:10:33]:
So I couldn't do it myself. I needed a higher power, and at that at that stage, I thought the best highest power was someone that's already done it.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:10:40]:
Yep.

Chris Muddle [00:10:40]:
I've now since changed my high power to something a little bit greater than that, but, yeah, I I needed to look for something a little bit bigger than myself.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:10:47]:
Yeah. That's awesome, man. And, you know, fast forward now, I mean, look at you. You you you always dressed you always dress for success, and one of the things that I I I, you know, I can I'm completely in awe of is your routine. Now, you know, talk to us about, you know, you've got this methodology of a sales athlete. Talk to us about, you know, what does your rhythm look like for success, and how, you know, disciplined are you to drive that rhythm to help you achieve the the type of results that you achieve?

Chris Muddle [00:11:19]:
Yeah. Thanks, mate. Yeah. So sales athlete is just a coin phrase of of what I had to act like over many, many years to ensure a guaranteed sales success. So sales athlete to me is what is a top performing Olympian have to do every day to ensure mentally, physically, spiritually, they're gonna have success on all levels. Because if one of those categories are down, I know from personal experience that it's very, very hard to succeed at high levels. So basically, my routine evolved. The very first thing I think I did was I tried to wake up earlier than 7 o'clock.

Chris Muddle [00:11:58]:
So I now wake up at 4 o'clock as you know. Mhmm. But basically, even my very first having to wake up at 7, before 7 o'clock is very difficult. So basically, over the years, I've built rhythm and disciplines into my world where I'm pretty much doing the same things every single day to ensure I've got sales success every single day. Now sales hasn't changed over the last 100 years. I actually argue that sales hasn't changed over the last 2000 years. But basically, what that means is if you're doing the right things every single day, the right disciplines, the right habits, you're guaranteed to have success on all levels, in my opinion. It's it's whether it's COVID, whether it's using Zoom now, whether it's people don't believe if you're still maintaining truth within your disciplines every single day, you're always gonna have success in your life.

Chris Muddle [00:12:51]:
It's just a different circumstance. So there's there's been challenges in the 1900, there's been challenges in 2000, there's been challenges now. There's always gonna be some form of catastrophe, but so long as you're true to your own disciplines, habits, personality Mhmm. And you're steadily building in confidence every single day, you become untouchable.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:13:12]:
Yeah. And, you know, with that with that sort of attitude and mindset that you've developed, and I know that you've got that set rhythm, you know, you train, you meditate, you spend time with your kids, you've really got that wheel of life, those key elements that are important to you. You really touch on all those elements throughout the day, in your time block, and we'll talk a bit about that in a moment. But I wanna ask you, you know, during, you know, during this now that you've got this rhythm, you've hit optimal performance, you've been number 1 year after year after year. Tell us, with that with those achievements, you know, how do you work through rejection as you're achieving those sort of numbers? And, you know, when customers say, I don't wanna buy from you, and and you have those peaks and troughs while achieving the number.

Chris Muddle [00:14:03]:
Yeah. There's a lot of rejections in a sales role from when you first started it, when you're a non salesperson to now a salesperson, when you start hitting your minimum targets, when you start hitting and overachieving those targets, when you become number 1, when you become number 1 over several years, there's challenges at every level. So even in the company I work for, there's probably no more than 10 or 15 people when I started. There's now 800. So even for me to stay at the top when there's a few more people around me, is not that easy. Yeah. And it's also political. So the dynamic of your sales role and your perceptions have to change in line with that.

Chris Muddle [00:14:45]:
But in terms of failure, yeah, I fail every single day, and I look for failure on purpose. So as you know, I run well, I've added 10 k's of running in my morning routine. It's just another way that I look for well, if I can get through the if I can face my biggest fear and get through failure prior to the day starting, I don't need to worry so much about it later on. So I purposely put myself in a situation. I won't call call it the word suffering, but I'll call it, facing my will, facing my enemy. I don't know. There's probably better terminology for it. The base yeah.

Chris Muddle [00:15:20]:
I do my battles in the morning, so I don't need to do do them during the day. During the day is fun.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:15:25]:
Yeah.

Chris Muddle [00:15:26]:
In the mornings when I work.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:15:28]:
Yeah. It's a really interesting concept, and I think, you know, a lot of people look at sales professionals and especially the ones that are high performing and go, oh, man, they've got it easy. But I think, you know, the the the the myth is that the what you know, the highest performers are also experiencing a high level of rejection. You know, they're experiencing a high, you know, high amount of people that are saying no to get to the volumes of yes. And, you know, I find that really interesting. I love it that you talk about, you know, use the morning as a mechanism to to fail or to push you to that point of of pain so that the day can be fun. So talk to us a little bit about, you know so you mentioned the fact that sales hasn't changed. It is a really interesting concept, right, because I see a bit of dialogue about the world of sales has changed, and and I tend to agree with you.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:16:20]:
And I've got a book behind me from Og Mandino, the greatest salesman in the world, and, you know, Dale Carnegie, and some of those greats. And when you look at the concept that they talk about, the reality is, in my opinion, sales hasn't changed.

Chris Muddle [00:16:33]:
Hasn't changed.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:16:34]:
Before I give my opinion on that topic, tell me why why you've come to that as sort of, you know, to that point where you where you're suggesting that sales hasn't changed.

Chris Muddle [00:16:44]:
Well, I think, the more I read books you read a lot of books by the looks of your,

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:16:49]:
I don't read them. No. I just buy them because I like them.

Chris Muddle [00:16:53]:
I I think the more books you read, the more you find out that, there's the same resonating themes. Yeah. And and depending you'll find your own truth in books. Right? You you'll find things that connect with you, things that don't connect with you. But what I find the more I read, the truths that in my belief are correct are the ones that have been around for a long, long time. So selling to me is just a simple conversation with somebody, and it's trying to give value to that person in a win win scenario. And if you do that over a long time and you do what you say and you over deliver the value of your service, you're always gonna be successful in selling. Yeah.

Chris Muddle [00:17:36]:
But that that's been around for years, like, even, look, there's a there's a book called the book of Solomon. Mhmm. And I mean, give that a bit of airplay, but basically it says, if you forage seeds, they'll grow in the future, and there's a whole bunch of other stuff. These they they call the wisdom books. They've been around for for 1000 of years, and they're they're timeless truths that actually work. They're practical guidelines.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:18:02]:
Yeah.

Chris Muddle [00:18:03]:
And Napoleon Hill Yeah. The Donald Dale Carnegie's, the How to Win Friends influence people sort of methods. It's all true, and that's why they still remain, top selling books to this day because there's something in them that doesn't change. So as the world, I guess, becomes more sensationalized, I actually revert back in. So I still do handwritten notes, handwritten meeting schedules. I still use a diary, a handwritten diary. So, of course, I've got CRM and a sales stack and all the other stuff, but I'm pretty old school. Things that have worked for 1000 of years, I'm I'm gonna use because that truth seems to be pretty good.

Chris Muddle [00:18:51]:
And same with Napoleon Hills and everyone else.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:18:53]:
Yeah. It's interesting you say that, you know, I got a good friend of mine from, California, And I'll just show you, you know, he uses cards. He sends me periodically a card with a special note. People go, mate, that's mail. You know, it doesn't work anymore. But I think the reality is, especially with everything that's going on, people buy from people. And if you look at the Maslow's hierarchy of needs, it's the you know, that whole you know, we need emotional connection. We need human connection.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:19:23]:
And I think the reality is that when we look at all those, Earl Nightingale, Napoleon Hill, you know, Paul J. Meyer, there's a whole range of these guys that have, you know, been around for a long, long time. Their concepts haven't changed. And I think, you know, now you look at Zoom went from 50,000,000 users to 250,000,000 users, I think, in the last, sort of, 4 weeks. And we say, well, why? Because people need to engage with people.

Chris Muddle [00:19:47]:
Correct.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:19:47]:
You know? Yes, you can pick up the phone. You can have phone conferences. But I think the reality is we're working from home, and we need to seeing each other. And they might call it the new norm, but I think, you know what, the reality is, if we could buy in a completely digital environment, businesses will move to that. But people need to be able to engage with one another, build a relationship, get an understanding of what their needs are, and have that level of trust which comes from seeing each other. Right? So, you know, I really love the fact that you talk about, you know, that sales hasn't changed. And I think, yes, the way in which we communicate with people might have changed. The technology that we use to enable us, like you talk about CRM and sales stacks, you know, it's an enabler.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:20:33]:
It helps us, you know, even drive to that next level of performance. But it hasn't changed the way in which buyers and sellers engage. No. And get to that point of decision. So I really appreciate you sharing that with me. And one of the things I also wanna talk to you about, because you went from super peak, you were number 1 for a number of years, in how and how many sales people were there when you were achieving that number?

Chris Muddle [00:20:57]:
Probably 50 or 60.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:20:58]:
Okay. So you were number 1, that is 50 or 60, doing incredible results. Then you decided to make a change. What was that change, and why did you make that change?

Chris Muddle [00:21:10]:
Yeah. So, I had a, one of the owners of the company is a billionaire. His name is Peter. He, he came out on the road with me one day, and he made a comment, to me that resonated, and it was about family and how important family was. And at that stage being number 1, I was all in. And my so in other words, I was 100% selling, and I was probably 20% everything else. Yeah. So that's good for cash flow, for clients, for rewards, for accolades, but it wasn't so good building and forging relationships with people closest to me.

Chris Muddle [00:21:46]:
So, within one day, my daily routine went from 12 hours of selling to 10 hours of selling. And then by the end of the year, I scaled it back to 8 hours of selling per day. So what that meant for me was I had to do the same or similar sales results in approximately 2 to 4 less hours every single day. And if anyone's ever done that, it's not easy to do that at all because I'm not saying you suppress your expression or you you you sort of have to be all in to become number 1 in my in my opinion, but what I was able to do is because my habits were so disciplined and my rhythms every day is 4 meetings booked face to face, c three meetings or c three potential new customers, qualified meetings, and with an intention to engage one new client. The average client size in my world is $22,000 per client. As long as I do that every day and every week, every month, every quarter, on average, I'll be seeing a 150 new clients onboard the services that I'm representing and $3,000,000 of business every year. Yeah. So, basically, that's been my averages every year, whether I've been working 12 hour days, 10 hour days, 8 hour days.

Chris Muddle [00:23:01]:
So the system works and the disciplines work. So even in COVID, as an example, same stuff. I get up at 4 o'clock. I do my morning routine. I've spent time with the kids. I've then came into the office today. We're doing a podcast this morning at 6:45 AM. I've got my first sales meeting at 8:30.

Chris Muddle [00:23:23]:
They're via Zoom at this stage. I've got my calls in between those meetings already scheduled, and in my mind, I'm gonna come away or I'm gonna be able to help and engage with one new client by the end of today. Now this isn't anything new. The only thing that's changed today compared to maybe 2 months ago is my technology, my environment, my process, my pitch had to slightly vary to match the new circumstance, but it's the same disciplines. It's the same numbers. It's the same rhythm, and it works. And when I coach this to other people in sales, it's the same thing. There's a certain amount of activity, which equals a certain amount of results.

Chris Muddle [00:24:05]:
So technically, I argue, I don't have lots of time to go into social media and and put all these posts on all these sort of stuff. Of course, I do. And that's an excuse limiting belief. But I'm just saying if a salesperson is doing the right job, they're very, very successful, and they don't have to further promote because they've got enough existing clients to help. They've got enough existing partners to help. And as I said, most of my business is done through referrals. So, technically, I'm doing inside social selling as opposed to outward. I don't know what the phraseology would be, but my social selling is in my networks, not out there into cold people.

Chris Muddle [00:24:42]:
I've got no idea who they are.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:24:44]:
It's really interesting you bring that up. I got the opportunity to speak to Ali Reda from in Motor City in Detroit, the number one car salesman in the world. He beat Joe Girard's record. He sold an incredible up to nearly 1700 cars. It's an incredible, you know, incredible, you know, peak high performer. And he actually lives off a lot of the values that you live. You know, he actually said, you know, I've only got a certain amount of time in the day, and I need to spend time with my family. So I need to get this much done in this much time.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:25:11]:
And the day that I was there, I got there at 5 o'clock because he couldn't see me during the day, because he said that's selling time. And that day he sold 20 new cars off the hook. Right? And one of the things he said to me, which was really aligned with what you said, he says, I don't do social media. I don't do Instagram. He said, why? Because I don't want to engage with people outside of my area. He said, Detroit is where I sell. That's where my tribe is. Right? So he's found the tribe of people that need what he has to offer, and he serves them in that area.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:25:46]:
So it's really interesting, especially now in the world of, you know, social social social. He's tended to go against that. And every year, he consistently delivers incredible results. Like, I'm talking incredible. Three times more than number 2 or 3 globally that sell. So it's really interesting that you share that, that you build that rhythm, and that's what helps you drive performance. So, mate, you went from, you know, changing the amount of hours. Did that impact your level of sales performance?

Chris Muddle [00:26:16]:
Absolutely. Yeah. So at the moment, our company employs probably 300 salespeople in total. Yeah. And and back when I was, number 1, there was there was another 80 or so, you know, core based sales guys as well. But basically, I'm always in the top 10 or 15% because 8 hours a day equals a certain amount of results. So if I wanted to continue to be number 1, I have to put another 2 to 3 hours every single day in. Now this year, I've got an intention to do that and to because I love working, and as much I love spending 2 hours with my kids every morning and every night, I've got a very, very strong relationship with them now.

Chris Muddle [00:26:57]:
And I'm not saying that I don't love spending time with them, but I love to work and I love to sell. So I'm gonna I'm gonna go all in again with selling. I've had conversations with them. I've had conversations with my wife. Yep. We've all agreed. I and I basically asked, would if you were happy for me to do this, would you would you rather see me in the morning or the nighttime? And they said the nighttime, and I said, is it okay if I have the mornings off from time to time? They said, yes. So that's it for the next 12 months.

Chris Muddle [00:27:25]:
They know I'm going out to bring even more financial freedom for our family.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:27:30]:
Yeah. That's amazing. I love it that you've, you know, you've spoken about the fact that you've you're in partnership with them. And you're talking about how getting their you know, it's not even about getting their permission. It's a collaborative decision. Right?

Chris Muddle [00:27:43]:
Absolutely.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:27:44]:
And so I think that's super important. I think, you know, a lot of us because, you know, I'm like you, mate. I love working. But that comes at an expense. You know, my story is, you know, when I when I when I made that decision like you did to to achieve a certain a certain outcome, it impacted my personal life in a in a real negative way, that my my relationship completely broke down with my wife. And, you know, we got divorced. And I think a lot of people don't you need to appreciate that, there is you know, people go, there's no balance and there's harmony and all that stuff. But I think, you know, every outcome, every decision we make has a consequence, positive and negative.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:28:22]:
And I think, you know, in the world of selling, the reality is, you know, the people that we compete with is ourselves. Absolutely. At at a high performance level, the top 1% aren't competing with the guy next to him. They're competing with themselves. And I've heard you speak about that before. So I wanna ask is you know, I wanna ask you, when when you're when you are number 1, right, and you're literally 1 ahead of the pack, and you're like in the same boat, they're not even next to you. You can just look over. You can smile, because you're that fast.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:28:53]:
You you you know, you're that far in front. How do you maintain that level of motivation to drive you to keep achieving that type of performance?

Chris Muddle [00:29:05]:
I like to win. Yep. I really like to win. I have since I was young. That helps. And the, the second thing is because I associate it with a game, it's just what new game can I win? So over the years, the games I've played for last so my my main yearly goals in the last 7 years, I think the the first one was to write my first $1,000,000 in sales, and that was in 2,012.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:29:32]:
Yep.

Chris Muddle [00:29:33]:
And I basically threw cold calls, so that was fun. My first client was the pub that I had my welcoming lunch down the road from, so that that puts that into perspective. My second year was to double my income. So because I found out that sales could be a vehicle for me to have financial freedom, I wanted to double my income just to see if I could, and I did that. Then my next was to become number 1 in sales. So in 2014, I wanted to become BD of the year, which I did. And then in 2015, it was to double my conversion rate. So again, I thought the quickest way to do an another double or a very, very quick increase in my performance was to get, was to increase conversion rates.

Chris Muddle [00:30:17]:
At one stage, I had to hire my own telesales staff.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:30:20]:
Yep.

Chris Muddle [00:30:21]:
It was, unknown to the company at that time. And then the one after that was to flip my model. So from go going from, I guess, cold call prospecting to referral prospecting where I basically doubled my referral production. It went from on average, I get one out of 4 people signing up as referral clients to 50%, and that and that apparently was a big deal in my company. So the billionaire owner called me up in the nighttime. He didn't realize what the time was, and he said, how did you do that? How did you double your referrals? And I told him and he presented to the whole business group, like, he's got a lot of employees, not just not just the 2,000 that's in the peninsula and employ short group. He's got a lot more than that. But he he put that out to the group, and now my referrals went from 50% to 75%.

Chris Muddle [00:31:06]:
Wow. So he he said 50 was good. I was looking for a 100. So basically, now most of my business is done for referrals. Now you do need time Yeah. To build that up. And then then the year afterwards to do 8 hour days, which was last year, like definitively 8 hour days, strict 8 hour days, which I did. And I'm not gonna be that strict anymore, truthfully, because that was very difficult.

Chris Muddle [00:31:31]:
And now this year again is to double my income, not not because I need it, but because it's fun and can I do it?

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:31:38]:
Yep.

Chris Muddle [00:31:39]:
What do I what do I need to do cleverly to be able to do that? Because what an income double does do is it expedites and speeds up my goals. And I've got big goals that don't include serving myself, and the way I get to that vehicle is by scaling my income. So this year's an income double.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:31:59]:
Well, mate, I'm so excited to, to watch what you're gonna achieve this year, mate. So it's it's it's absolutely awesome, and thanks for sharing that with us. And so, mate, I wanted to sort of talk about sort of, you know, in your career, you know, what's been the biggest influence in your career and why?

Chris Muddle [00:32:15]:
Jesus. Big question.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:32:18]:
Is there a book? Is there a mentor? Is there

Chris Muddle [00:32:20]:
The big look. The big the biggest influence by far is finding Jesus Christ. You didn't wanna hear that on your podcast, but, for 20 years, I didn't wanna believe in anything Yep. For a long long time. I forced out any form of love and acceptance in my world. I, I literally berated and tore down anyone that believed in any form of faith. Yep. Whether it was spirituality, meditation, Hinduism, didn't matter didn't matter.

Chris Muddle [00:32:53]:
So my the biggest change was, finding out again through lots and lots of reading that it's the same messages over and over and over again. So I just dug deeper and deeper and deeper and deeper, and then I found, obviously, that the the holy Bible had some pretty good self help tips. My first Bible was called the life hacks bible. So, again, I don't if if something doesn't work, I don't use it. I throw it real quick. So that helped out a lot. I still did not believe in Jesus Christ. I was like, no way.

Chris Muddle [00:33:24]:
That is absolute rubbish. So 3 or 4 years of using the Bible to help with my sales, my career, my family, But literally, this thing has got stuff on marriage, on prospecting, on selling, on character development, on wisdom. I mean, it's got everything. It's got law of attract it's got everything in there. But anyway, that was working so well that, yeah, at one stage, just what whatever. I got pulled from the pit again, and that was my biggest change. But, but basically, that was it, actually. That was the biggest change.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:33:59]:
To me and look, you know, man, it's it's not about judging anyone, because I think some people are believing in in Jesus, some people don't, and some people have other faiths. Right? But I think the reality is you're having something to believe in, and someone to believe in them is such an important part of of of any journey that we take. So, mate, I appreciate you sharing that. One of the questions I ask every single guest, is sales an art or a science?

Chris Muddle [00:34:23]:
It's both.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:34:24]:
It's both. Tell me why. You know, you sit on the fence, and I love it because I think there is. In my opinion, there is a sales. It's he has both, but, you know, give me your opinion on why.

Chris Muddle [00:34:33]:
Sales for me is a full expression of who I am, where I can deliver most value to my world, which includes people in my world. And it's a science because logically, it's very, very easy to win the game of sales, in my opinion. Yep. So I believe it's an art where you get to express yourself fully, but then it's a science where you get to play a fun game that you can win with, with easy habits.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:34:59]:
Fantastic. Well, Chris, I've thoroughly enjoyed talking to you today about, you know, how to build the rhythm of performance. And for anyone that wants, you know, to recap, I think it's really simple. It's know who you are, you know, set yourself some objectives and goals. Create a create a very disciplined day for yourself. Because just like any athlete, just like any elite athlete, performance comes from the habit that you create yourself, and it starts with how you start your day. And regardless, whether you're an early riser or you're a late riser, it does not matter. What matters is committing to the performance that's required to achieve success.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:35:41]:
So I really appreciate you sharing your story with us. And for anyone that wants to connect with you, where can they go and find you?

Chris Muddle [00:35:49]:
LinkedIn. Yep. Chris Paddell. I'll have a sales athlete website out shortly.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:35:55]:
Fantastic.

Chris Muddle [00:35:56]:
And I'm also a SalesIQ partner.

Luigi Prestinenzi [00:35:59]:
Oh, also. Well, mate, we're really excited for you, and, we're gonna put that in the show notes. But but, Chris, again, thanks for, to coming on our podcast and sharing a little bit about yourself and how you've achieved success. And, yeah. I wanna I wanna say thank you.

Chris Muddle [00:36:14]:
Thanks, brother, mate. Really, really good to be on.