What Costume Are You Wearing?

Written by on November 8, 2016 / Facebook Live / Mindset / Video

This article is taken from my daily live video show on Facebook on November 1, 2016.  Join us each day for more great info on relationship-based sales.

 

Here is the transcript of this show:

Hi, everyone. Welcome to the first ever episode of this new show I’m doing on Facebook. It’s on my Facebook business page. I’m Dave Lorenzo. I’m your host of the show. We’re going to talk about ways that you can run your business more productively, ways that you can make more money and ways that you can make a great living and live a great life. Those of you who have never seen me before, or those of you who are just meeting me for the first time, my mission is to help business leaders and sales professionals make a great living and live a great life. I’ve done this for the past twenty-eight years.

I know I look young and beautiful of course and I try to keep in good shape, but really for the last twenty-eight years, my focus has been improving productivity, growing sales and driving real change in people’s lives and in people’s businesses. I want to welcome you here today. Each day at 8:30, we’re going to be live on Facebook. The reason that we’re doing it live at 8:30 is because I want you to kick off your day, I want you to have a great start to your day and I want to give you one thing you can use to make more money today. I figure 8:30, you’re just settling in at your office. Maybe you’re grabbing a cup of coffee. You’ll spend ten minutes with me focusing on one thing in particular. You jot it down, you implement it, and it improves your business and it improves your life as a result.

Today, we’re out in front of my house here. This is my front door. The reason we’re here is because our first show is November 1st. It’s the day after Halloween. Last night, there was all sorts of mischief going on right out here in front of my front door, and it really is the one night where people get dressed up and they pretend to be something they’re not. People get dressed up. They pretend to be something they’re not on Halloween. Really, you get dressed up and you pretend to be something you’re not almost every day. At least at some point during the day, you pretend to be something you’re not.

What does this mean? I’m not saying it in a bad way. I’m saying it in a good way. Here’s what happens. You go out and you look at something that you should be doing or you want to do or something you could do in order to achieve your goals and you say, “I can’t do that. That’s not who I am.” You’re essentially putting on a costume and becoming someone you’re not or something you’re not. Let’s take sales as a perfect example. You say to yourself, “I’m not a salesman. I can’t sell. I’m not going to go out and sell something to someone because that’s not who I am, that’s not what I do.” You’re putting on a costume of somebody who is unsuccessful because sales drives everything in your business.

Sales drives your revenue growth and with revenue comes business growth for you. What I’d like you to do is I’d like you to put on the costume of the successful business leader. I’d like you to put on the costume of the person who has everything you already want. That costume, when you put it on, looks a lot like somebody who goes out and delivers value every day. You go out, you deliver value to people and you help them. My friends, that’s what sales is all about. That’s what sales is all about. If you’re going out and helping people, you’re selling. Do this today. Here’s your action item for today. I want you to look for two or three or maybe even a half dozen, six opportunities to help people.

I want you to see what they’re doing and I want you to say to them, “You know, if you’d like some help with that, I can help you,” and when they say, “Well gee, what would that look like? What would that help look like?” you tell them, and you ask for compensation in return because you’re providing value and they give value back to you. You’re helping them solve a problem and they give value back to you in return. Now, I’ll give you a couple of examples of this.

Right now, my kids are at the dentist. That’s right. I’m the most proactive dad in the world. The day after Halloween, my kids are going to the dentist. When they get to the dentist, what’s going to happen is this. My kids go every six or eight months to the dentist. When they get to the dentist, the dentist, the hygienist is going to do a cleaning. She’s going to look at their teeth and she’s going to say, “You know what? It’s been, I think it’s been two years since they’ve had a deep cleaning. They really need a deep cleaning.” Now, the regular cleaning at this dentist is a hundred bucks. The deep cleaning is four-fifty. When she says to my wife, when the hygienist says to my wife, “Your kids need a deep cleaning,” do you think my wife is going to say, “No?” My wife of course is going to say, “Yes.”

She doesn’t want my kids’ teeth to rot and fall out of their head. Is she going to perceive the hygienist as selling something? No. She’s going to perceive the hygienist as helping my kids be healthier. Put on the costume of someone who delivers value and people will want what you have to offer. Don’t think of yourself as pushing something on somebody who doesn’t need it. Think of yourself as putting on a costume and delivering what people are looking for in that costume. Last night, one of the kids who came to the front door was a ghost. What he did was he hid right over there in the bushes and when kids came out to the front door, he jumped out and went, “Boo.”

You know what? It did startle some people. It scared some people. Is he a ghost in real life? No, but he was playing the role in that instance and people were entertained. People got value from it. If you cannot envision yourself as a salesperson, put on the costume, play the role of someone who’s helpful and it will become more and more natural for you and it won’t seem like you’re wearing a costume in the future. Selling should never be a negative thing. If you’re providing something of value to someone in exchange for financial compensation, that’s a good thing. Think about how you can deliver value. Think about who you need to be in your mind. That’s where the costume goes on. Think about who you need to be in order to deliver that value for other people.

All right. I want you to get back to work, so a couple of things as we leave today for our first live show. Two things to think about. This is my business page and we’re going to be doing more of these live shows as things come to mind, as I find myself in situations where I can help other people. Every day at 8:30, you and I have an appointment to be here. I want you here with me at 8:30 in the morning, but on my page throughout the day, wherever I am, if I come across an opportunity to share something with you, I’m going to do it. Make sure that you have my page selected to come up first in your Facebook feed.

What I need you to do is I need you to go to your Facebook page where it has the Friends tab, click down, click on See First, because when I do a live video or when I post something here, I want it to come up first. We post things all day long, articles, and now we’re going to be doing more and more videos. It’s great content. I’m delivering value to you for free. The other thing I want you to do is I want you to send me questions. I want to hear from you. Those of you who send me questions during the first few weeks of the show, I’ve got something for you. Look at what I did here. I’ve put it behind my back. This is a great book from a gentleman who’s been a mentor to me and whose work I have followed for years and years and years.

The name of this book is Million Dollar Maverick, and it was written by a really smart man named Alan Weiss. He’s the dean of consulting. He’s a rock-star in consulting. He’s taught me a lot. This is his latest book. He’s written over sixty books on consulting. Now, even if you’re not in consulting, you can use this book. I’m going to give this to you free. I have a handful of copies that I purchased from Alan specifically for this purpose. I want to share this book with you. I want to give it to you for free. All you need to do is send me a question on my Facebook page, put a question right here where you’re seeing this video, and if I use your question in one of these shows or any of my live videos, I will mail you a copy of this book.

Now, don’t put your address on this Facebook page because I’m not going to be responsible for what happens. I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I’m not going to be responsible. What I want you to do is I want you to put your question on the Facebook page. When I use your question, I will private message you and get your address. I’ll send you this great book. The book is phenomenal. It will help you tremendously. Here’s the thing. You don’t have to wait for me to send you the book for free. You can go to Amazon and buy it right now. You can go to barnesandnoble.com and buy it right now. It’s a great book. I highly recommend it. If you want a copy for free, drop me a question right here.

When you see me in the office, I will do these things from my office from time to time, at that point, I will be answering your questions in the moment, live. That’s when I’ll have access to the screen where I can see it. Right now, I’m recording this. I have the front end of the camera pointing to me. I’m not taking questions in this particular episode, but in future episodes, when I open it up for live questions, I want to hear from you, and if I answer your question live, I’ll also give you a copy of Alan’s book, Million Dollar Maverick, as well.

Thanks for joining me today in my first episode. Remember, think about the costume you’re wearing at the time, and if you want to be a superhero, you can put on a superhero costume and go out and deliver value for people in exchange for compensation. That’s what selling’s all about. All right, we’ll see you right back here tomorrow at 8:30 in the morning. I’m Dave Lorenzo. Until tomorrow morning, I hope you make a great living and live a great life.