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Sept. 29, 2021

335: You're Selling Change! -with Victor Antonio

Stop overthinking the sales process... remember that you're selling change!

Stop overthinking the sales process... remember that you're selling change!

 

That's the message of today's guest, as sales legend Victor Antonio joins the program to help outline the "why" in "why people buy".

 

But let's take that a bit further... why do people buy in politics? Can we approach politics the same way we approach the decision-making processes for B2B & B2C sales?

 

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Transcript

The Brian Nichols Show  
Trust the experts we're all in this together it saves one life. Raise your hand if you've heard any of those tiresome phrases over the past year and a half. I know my hand is currently raised millions of people across dozens of industries were labeled on essential and forced the lockdown with livelihoods and futures crushed in an instant and as government has continued to expand its power and leverage fear to turn neighbor against neighbor a group of filmmakers have taken a stand and are determined to help set the record straight on the importance of following the actual science of the pandemic follow the science on lockdowns in Liberty from the sound mind create a group is a brand new docu series highlighting the stories of those negatively impacted over the past year and a half by ineffective government policies enacted in the name of following the science with noted experts like Nick Hudson from panda the pandemic data analytics organization healthcare policy advisors like Scott Atlas and telling stories of business owners families and just your average everyday person harmed by these government mandates follow the science on lockdowns and liberty has given us a chance to make sure the true stories of the pandemic are told so please help us at The Brian Nichols Show in supporting the sound mind creative group with noted figures in the Liberty movement like Dr. Tom Woods donating 1000s of their own dollars to this project you know just how important this project is. So head The Brian Nichols show.com forward slash follow the science to donate and catch their brand new trailer to the docu series one more time that's Brian Nichols show.com for slash follow the science we can become great at doing the the things that we do well the things that we focus on like I'm I think our audience is great at selling Liberty I think we have been amazing at doing that. Welcome to The Brian Nichols Show Your source for common sense politics on the we are libertarians network as a sales and marketing executive in the greater telecommunications cybersecurity industry. Brian works with C level executives to help them future proof their company's infrastructure for an uncertain future. And in each episode, Brian takes that experience and applies it to the Liberty movement. You start to ask questions that pique his interest and get him to feel like okay this guy's actually got something that maybe you can help me out and then in you're asking him questions and trying to uncover the real problems build that natural trust, annoy a weapon a monologue there, man. Instead of focusing on simply winning arguments or being right, we're teaching the basic fundamentals of sales and their application in the world of politics, showing you how to ask better questions, tell better stories, and ultimately change people's minds. And now your host, Brian Nichols.

Well, Happy Wednesday there folks, Brian Nichols here on The Brian Nichols Show. Thank you for joining us on of course today's fun filled episode. I am your humble host, and today we are joined by sales legend Victor Antonio. Now Victor started off from a poor upbringing from one of the roughest areas in Chicago but that didn't stop him from building a 20 year career as one of the top sales executives in the world and became president of global sales and marketing for a $420 million company as Vice President of international sales in a fortune 500. He was selected from over 500 sales managers to join the President's Advisory Council for excellence in sales and management. He is the author of 13 books on sales and motivation and recently launched the sales mastery Academy platform with over 350 plus videos. He recently published his brand new book sales x mokena how artificial intelligence is changing the world of selling and I know him so well as does my sales team because we see him over on will Barron's this week in sales as well as his awesome podcast the sales influence podcast finding the why in why people buy and Victor joins the program today to outline what it is that we're trying to sell and that is at the end of the day change how sell gets you out the stick around to find out more so that being said onto the show, Victor Antonio here on The Brian Nichols Show, Brian, super excited to be here, man, super excited. So excited to have you on Victor. I was saying beforehand, as we were talking, before we hit the record button. You're easily one of the top influential people not only my sales career, but I would dare say hundreds if not 1000s of other people out there who listened not only to you over on a variety of podcast I know I was speaking a lot of my sales team will recognize you because I have your appearances over on wheelbarrow barons selling Made Simple and this week in sales every week as part of our rotation for personal development, but also your amazing podcast finding the why in why people buy Victor Antonio, first and foremost, welcome to the program. Let's start off I think my audience would love to learn. Number one, why are you I self described rabid capitalists and iron Rand fan. Oh man, that's a that's a big question the way you phrase that one. So family history families from originally from Puerto Rico. They moved to Chicago where I was born in the late 50s. And so you know, back in the day was basically

Victor Antonio  
You know, you know, bootstrapping it the whole way. And so my mother was always about, you know, go to school, get the education get jlb. So I graduated an engineering degree MBA, moved into corporate America, I've worked for, you know, government companies, I have nothing against that. I've worked for unions kind of have something against that. And I remember that true story, but I'm not making this part out. I, what happened was I graduated from college, right? And I don't know if this happened to you, maybe. But I started working right and three years into my working career. I'm like, a, you know, I call it a quiet discontent. And that is like, you know, just not lined up. You just don't feel like you're in the right place. You know, I mean, and so it was then that I had, I don't want to call it an existential crisis, because that's too extreme. But, you know, it's like, you know, you start going through What's life all about, you know, type of thing. And I remember I started, I began my reading, I started reading the philosophers like, you know, like the existentialist read the social economics, folks over I went to economics, like heilbroner read that. And I remember I was reading almost everything I can consume, to try to understand kind of make sense of the world, right? And again, different philosophers, metaphysics even went to as far as you know, like question to a Zen master by Tyson dish tomorrow, right? Just trying to find the meaning of life. And it wasn't till I came across Iran's book for the new intellectual, I remember buying that book on what is this? And I remember I picked up the book, went home, started reading it, and the more I read Iran, and her philosophy of objectivism, and more specifically, her view of capitalism, and what she calls real capitalist, not crony capitalism, you know, one that's concerned with externalities never heard anybody, just make sure if you're gonna do your thing, do your thing, make sure it doesn't impact other people. And her whole equation about value for value. You know, that's to me, that's the iron Rand philosophy, it's value for value, every relationship should be about value for value exchange. And I loved her book, I just I just got into it. And I just started consuming everything Rand.

And I can tell you that when I found iron Rand It was like, it's like the you know, we all look at life through our own lens or prism, right? depending on which way you want to look at it. But I called it the lens. And I think iron Rand gave me the most focus lens that really fit with my internal philosophy at the time and still does to this very day.

The Brian Nichols Show  
So interesting, cuz I think you're gonna find a lot of people, especially in the greater sales world, and I'm hearing this that this is kind of what sparked this conversation originally in my mind, because I think there is a natural synergy between the sales entrepreneurial world and this greater I would dare say, let's just call it the the Liberty freedom world where to your point more of this objectivist capitalist free market living let live. To quote that one Dr. Adrian version to go through the constructal law, let things move freely through life as they would want to go that is freely so you're starting to see I think more and more people embrace this idea. And now my role I'm finding in this greater world is to try and bridge these two worlds together. So let me ask you this, Victor, because I see a lot of sales professionals overtly stay away from politics. I've actually had quite a few sales professionals say, listen, Brian, I appreciate the invite. But I just don't like to go on political shows, because I don't like to get involved in politics. How can we help get that I guess, get that objection, blocked? Or overcome that objection entirely?

Victor Antonio  
Well, you know, and the thing is, I think people have become, you know, in given today's culture, right, or I should say, you know, the, the desired case out there of kancil culture, I think, what happens is that people pull back from having real dialogue. If we really think about it, Brian, if you really think about this, let's put aside the Red Team Blue team, think for a second, right? And if we were to just sit down have a rational conversation, I bet we as human beings, Americans more specifically, would probably agree on like 95 98%, of things we want, we really would, I think when you look at politics, it's really philosophy and approach, right? One is more oriented towards government control, right? Which, in other words, if the government can provide this type of social engineering for the better of society, and great, that's what they believe, we believe in the free market, you know, Adam Smith, you know, Wealth of Nations type of approach where, you know, like, I'm a Milton Friedman fan, you know, that iron Rand led me to Milton Friedman, you know, free to choose. And, you know, when you look at Friedman's, he did a documentary called free to choose years ago, and it's on YouTube. I mean, it's just one of the best series on, you know, as Iran would say, the virtues of capitalism. You know, when I talk when people talk about politics, I think we're trying to get to the same place. And I think, you know, the the conversations become toxic, because because it's, you know, it's you versus them, and I don't like to look at it that way. I think there's like a like a Venn diagram. There's an overlap of things we all want. It's just how do you get there? What makes more sense? And you know, the thing is, you have I mean, the big premises Do you believe that government has your best interests in mind and can do better for you than you yourself? It kind of goes against the founding of this country. If you think about it.

The Brian Nichols Show  
Well, not only does go against the founding of the country, I would say it goes a lot of against the Counting of the very rules that we learned as we were growing up, number one, treat people the way you want to be treated. Number two don't hurt people and don't take their stuff. I mean, that was pretty much the rules,

Victor Antonio  
right? basic rules, right? Don't take their stuff, don't cheat, don't steal Mind your own business. You know, again, I think I gravitate towards ein Rand, because her other equation was a equals a it is what it is. Its objective reality, right? And I've always loved the fact that she was really about, you know, if capitalism is hurting, if there are some externalities means you're hurting, you know, society, you're hurting the economy, the environment. That's not real capitalism, I think people get confused, confuse crony capitalism with real capitalism. And I think they're in lies. But if we, if we're really honest about it, Brian, there's never been a pure capitalist society, we've always had a mixed economy, right. And it's what that blend is what that mix is what we're always I guess, debating, and, you know, this goes down a deep rabbit hole, when you start getting into the, you know, the federal reserve currency system, the Fiat system and all that stuff. And I think it scares a lot of people to go down that rabbit hole, because you kind of don't want to see it, because once you see it, you can't unsee it. And I think a lot of people avoid the I guess your question, the topic, because it's not a simple discussion to have. And I think when you're having this discussion with somebody else, the person has to be, and I don't know how else to say it, but a certain intellectual level to be able to have a decent discourse about what this really means. I think too often we have, you know, we have that you know, how some people just vote along one issue, we have a lot of one issue voters who don't look at the full spectrum of everything that's out there and how it impacts and most people don't understand unintended consequences, and what happens when the free market isn't allowed to be free. Yeah,

The Brian Nichols Show  
and one of the lines, you just said, once you see it, you can't unsee it I almost is we kind of segue this towards the the sales process. This is sometimes one of the hardest things that we have to do in getting our prospects to acknowledge that the status quo isn't working and now is not working. In many cases, it's causing a problem, it's giving them some type of pain. And I see this a lot, too is that illogical? Are they're aware that something is wrong? They can sense right now in the world, something's off. Right? To your point, they almost don't want to label? Yeah, it is the thing I have been embracing for my entire life that we have been saying has been the only way to conduct society for the past, you know, 250 years. And it's almost like a sunken cost fallacy, if you really think about it, because I think a lot of people don't want to get rid of the notion that they've invested all the time energy effort in going for supporting candidate here, or supporting political party here, all of a sudden, they would have to take a really big step back. And things are really tough reality that the solutions that they thought that they were voting for, that would make things better have not only not made things better, but are in fact, the very pain points that they're trying to solve in the first place.

Victor Antonio  
Yeah, you know, it's funny, you talked about the sunk cost fallacy. I think that's a great point that some people mentally are so bought in and invested into something that they can't just give it up, right? They just have to kind of keep going with that. And because what happens is that from a psychological standpoint, it causes them cognitive dissonance, right? cognitive dissonance is like, you know, I thought I was going for this, but now this is happening. So I have to find a way to resolve it in my brain or rationalize it. And we all know what rational It stands for, right? The ability to rationalize to yourself. I think that's what a lot of people do, you know, they rationalize things. They basically lie themselves to cut up a line things up. I'll give an example. And I'm just going to keep parties out of it. Just keep it general. And that is, I'll just say, you know, during one President, I remember somebody says, you know, look at the debt, it's out of control, look at the debt, it's out of control, right? That was what party a right. And then the next term party B, was it and they're starting to run up the debt. And I remember I said, What about now it's your party in charge of the debt still being run out yet, but they're doing it for different reasons. And so the debt is the debt, it's a bad thing. It's never a good thing keeps going up. But I that to me, taught me that people will rationalize their point of view, because it's just very difficult to admit, again, that whether it's mentally the sunk cost fallacy, as you say, there's so much sunk cost invested in that position in that view, that it's causing them so much cognitive dissonance to actually admit that maybe they're not seeing it for what it is. And I think a lot of people retreat from that.

The Brian Nichols Show  
So how do we fix it? And I think that's the biggest question. And this has been really the reason that my show has taken on this more sales and marketing approach for the greater world of politics. Because I think a lot of people right now Victor, they're, they're starting to say, yeah, back to the point, things are off. And we have people who are looking to try and be communicators or trying to be advocates for a different solution. But I think they're, they're finding a little bit of a difficulty in trying to almost break through those original objections they have so I really want to have you on tonight. reverse engineer because when your podcast sales influence podcast, one of the things you focus on is digging into the why and why people buy. And I think that's really important right now when we're trying to reach our prospective voters, or at the very least get people to pay attention to the solutions we're bringing to the table. So what would you say is the best way to start off in trying to reverse engineer your average American voter,

Victor Antonio  
this is really interesting is I've never thought merging the two together, I find this a fascinating topic, the let's look at what's happening in the world of selling today. And let's see if we can bridge it over to the world of politics, that can happen. And that is we know today that you know, there's so much content out there you know, I'll divide sales into pre internet and post internet you know, kind of intuitive to period two errors. And pre internet, we the sale, people had the partners, we had all the information they didn't, they were willing to meet with us, the buyer client, the prospect, and so they were willing to kind of listen to us. And we can guide them consultative, selling all that good stuff right? by us forward, we have the internet. Now, not only do we have the internet, we have information that's out there, not only do we have information, we have insight, which is information beyond the obvious, right, that's more information. And then now you have buyers who are 60 7080 90%, into the buying cycle, depending who you talk to you. And when they finally do call you because they've done their research online, like we all have, right? They want to know three things, confirmation clarification or competence. Let me go through that real quickly. I'm calling you, Brian, because I researched your company. And I just want to clarify certain things, right? That's one reason I'm calling to, I want to confirm that I can do this or you do offer that. But the third one, I think is the most important one, I want you Brian, to give me the confidence that I'm making the right decision. So I'm talking to you asking these questions about my problem. And what I'm trying to solve. I want to know that you can clarify you can confirm, but you can also give me imbued me with that confidence that this is the right decision. This is interesting, because what's happening is that marketing now, I believe I used to laugh at marketing I it was that john Wanamaker line 50% of my marketing works, I just don't know what you're 50%. Right. And so and so that was a famous line, that kind of shipping the the old marketing people like you don't know what you're doing, you're wasting money. And we also know that the majority of marketing literature or collaterals, produced and never even actually used by salespeople, right? So but I think their time has come their time has come. When you look at what's happening with you know, I wrote the book sales, x marketing, how AI is changing the world of selling. When you look at what's happening now the buyer journey now is about finding stuff online on our own. So now, if I can put it in randian terms, we have a certain agency of certain freedom to find the information we want, and we begin to form our preferences online, then we reach out. So let's tie this back. So if that's happening, marketing now has more prominent position. I believe marketing now officially puts the ball on the tee, when the client calls cold calls in the salesperson has to hit it off the tee. That's what I believe is happening day marketing now, I believe has a more prominent role than sales. That's almost like blasphemy when I say that. What What do you mean, marketing is more important? I'm saying, Yes. I'm saying Yes, I'm a sales guy. And I'm telling you right now, marketing is more important than sales. If it's done right, of course, does this mean sales people are no longer need? It's not what I said. Marketing plays more prominent role and conditioning the buyer to call in once they call in, you still have to close the deal. We as salespeople have now become Okay, here's why I go for the Oh, you know, getting the best graces of salespeople at this point. salespeople are now the ultimate differentiators. Here's what I mean by that every product is almost the same. Every service is almost saying we've reached a level of parity when it comes to service Product Solutions, right? So now it's really up to the salesperson to frame that conversation that last 10% levels that less let's just say 10 yards of Completion is all about the salesperson. How can you position How can you position the product or service? How can you make the customer feel comfortable in making that final buying decision? That's where sales now plays right? That's their that's our Dominion? Now, let's move over politics. Right? It's the same thing. There's a content war out there, you notice that there's a content war out there, right? It's a battle for the mind. And so what's happening is people are going online. And I think what needs to start happening is that we need to start creating, I'll say content generator creators, who are not trying to give us opinion, but trying to lay out the facts without the emotion. And I think, you know, I guess eventually they're going to be some websites. I believe we're in, by the way, I think we're just in the throes of social media disruption, right? I mean, you gotta think about it's only been around for what, 1015 years of that. And all of a sudden, we're trying to understand this thing, right? We thought more communications would bring us together, we're finding out that more communication is actually pulling us apart. And I think this is a period of, you know, this, this turbulent times as none of the economists the Austrian at all, I think is Austrian economist, Joseph Schumpeter, and he talks about creative destruction, and I think social media is is that creative destruction, that new piece of technology that's disrupting how all the communication channels are being handled. And I think we're still in that there's Chaos before the order. And you know, eventually Twitter's going to learn that you just can't censor people, right? Twitter's gonna learn that one way or another, they're gonna learn that Facebook learn, Instagram will learn it. But it's going to take time for all this kind of straightens itself out. And I think in the long run, all of a sudden we start stratifying and get into something that's more like, okay, these are the channels are going to provide reliable information. I like to believe that that is true. I've yet to see a lot of channels that provide objective information without getting emotional, I find myself, I don't know what you buy. But I find myself watching international news more to learn about the US than watching us news.

The Brian Nichols Show  
It's always fun watching you with your when you're on with will, will bear in for folks who don't watch or enjoy this will will show Yeah, he's from the United Kingdom. So his context of American politics is so fun, because it's completely removed from the emotional outrage you see on the left and the right. And it's just completely, you know, it's his objective look at what's happening over in America. And more often than not, he's going what's happening over

Victor Antonio  
on what are you guys doing over there? What do you what's happening over there? And, you know, it's really been interesting, I think, over the last, you know, pre pandemic, especially, you know, during the pandemic, and still, you know, the stuff that's on the news, I would never have imagined, you know, growing up, you know, I'm a product, you know, it's early 60s, right, so I'm in the end of the baby boomer generation. And I remember when we moved to Chicago, it was around that time, I was like nine or 10 years old, there was a lot of civil unrest in Chicago, because Chicago's very, at that time is a it probably still is a polarized, but I'll say back then, it was very racially polarizing, right. And so there was a lot of unrest, a lot of riots, a lot of gang violence, and all that. And I would never have imagined that we can live in an era where we have all the opportunities around us to be who we want to be type of thing. And we're still complaining about it. That blows me away. I can say that, you know, from a Hispanic point of view, I hate that, by the way, because I like to think of myself as an American first of Hispanic origin. You know what I mean? I don't like that Hispanic, for a reason bothers me, you know? And so I think until we transcend that, because I believe we have to transcend that. I think there's only one way the you know, I wish you know, if I if I can be president for a day. And so I think you could pass one law just what, what would it be? I got it, I got it, eliminate the boxes? illuminate the boxes? Okay. It's not about our Native American, are you Asian? Are you white? Are you this are you that eliminate the boxes, American, non American, take your pick, you just get two options. And that's the way I would do it. Because I think you have to be that way. I'm often asked, you know, you know, you know, my success, you know, you know, how did you do it, that type of thing. And early on, I learned to transcend. I didn't look at myself as a minority, you know, is sporadic. I just looked at myself as an American, I transcend it. When I'm in a conversation, I transcend. I don't want to pick sides. I don't want to say blue team, Red team, you know, brown shirt, white shirt, black shirt. I don't want to do that. And so I've always refused to do that. And I've learned over time that that's the best position to have. Because we're all in this together, man. You know what I mean? And I wish people would get there. Because it's I don't know, I you know, dude, I've seen racism going up. Trust me, man. I seen it. And if you're probably going to 60s in the 70s you've seen it I knew especially in Chicago, you know, you've seen it. And for that to be the the accusations made today, I'm gone. What reality Are you living in that? I said, Really? I mean, they're stupid people. Let's call them stupid, because they're just different. There's, you know, there's stupid people. And in Israel racist. And I think a lot of people are just ignorant and stupid, this big difference, there's a big difference. And by the way, you'll find them in all shades. Every I mean, if you think about it, maybe I'm just going off on a small rant here. But if you look at any country, in the world, they've all had slash word slave comes from slavery laws, I believe are white. Right? And so if you look at the history of the world, you know, races have enslaved other races, in fact, same races have enslaved their race. You don't I mean, it's and so sometimes I wish school systems would give us a broader view of and real context of what's going on in the world. And I think when people do that, you have a greater sense of appreciation from what we have here in the United States. Every time I travel International, and I come back, I'm glad to be home. Do you know, and I blows me away that people don't see that. And I think it's because a lot of people don't travel International. I remember reading one time Brian was a stat. I don't know if it still holds, but it was an interesting stat nonetheless, I think it was 20 25% of the population here in the US has a passport, that means 75% don't, which means 75% I'll never see anything outside the US. And all you got to do is step outside this bad boy and look at the world and then you want to go maybe I'll go back, you know, and you realize we're not that bad. We have issues. We all have issues. Every country has issues. The thing is, I mean, this is, in my opinion, one of the freest countries in the world, if not the freest country.

The Brian Nichols Show  
Yeah. While and at the end of the day, I think we really have to put the context back in to play because to your point, and I've seen this myself, I was in an Uber back before the pandemic hit. And I was speaking to my Uber driver, and I would smell a talk and something came up where he had mentioned, like, oh, wow, we're really getting north. And I'm thinking like, we're like, not even five miles north of Philadelphia at this point. And he goes, Yeah, the furthest I've been was was the sounds like Willow Grove. And I was like, Are you serious? Like, that's, that's not even 45 minutes.

Victor Antonio  
I but I believe that, Brian, the thing is, when my parents came to Chicago, they didn't know how to drive, one drive. And so we never had a car grow. We never owned a car growing up. And so we would always take the bus. I remember living in Chicago the first time. So I got one of my first summer jobs, you know, during my college, college is my first internship to move to Minnesota right now is burns Harbor, Indiana for Bethlehem Steel. And I'm driving outside of Chicago. So I get past like 57th Street, or whatever it is. And all of a sudden, I'm like, Whoa, look at this, you know, for the average person, like, hey, yeah, so far, there's no like, Look, but look at all this green. And I remember that being a lot. And so there's a lot of people who live in this hermetically sealed bubble called, you know, urban areas that never see anything outside of that. And that's unfortunate. Because I think once you see something again, once you see it, you can't unsee on

The Brian Nichols Show  
set. Yeah, you know, it's funny, Victor and amin are up. But like, they also the inverse is true, because I originally was from upstate New York, which essentially is a rural bubble. Um, and I mean, I there are people out there, Victor, I've known for my entire life. And I've, my family has known their families for their entire lives. And it goes back, grandparents, great grandparents, great, great grandparents, and they all have been in this one area. And I will say I am incredibly blessed, not necessarily to the chance to travel around the world. But the fact that I've been able to leave the rural area, the rural bubble, get into an urban bubble experience that and to kind of see almost two different worlds and where they're talking not at each other, but past each other. Yeah, and this goes, I think, maybe, as we like, look at how we can bring this together. You mentioned I love the analogy that marketing sets the ball a tee for us and knock it out of the park. And I think the differentiator Victor, I'd love to hear your thoughts on this, we did an entire series on this in the show. And it was about empathy, empathy, in sales, in digging into the actual motive, motivating behavioral drivers of the person that you're selling to, I think being able to have marketing, say, this is the person you want to talk to. Because based on the data we have based on now we've set the table right up for you to knock it out of the park, and for the salesperson to now take that person that that that prospect and use the empathy and really dig in as a real authentic person, be genuinely curious want to learn about that person, how they got to where they are and where they want to be. I think that can almost be the secret sauce, if you will, in trying to bring this world of sales into the world of politics. That's

Victor Antonio  
Oh, I totally agree. I mean, any conversation is all about once once the other person knows you're trying to understand them, you call it a genuine curiosity, once they know that, there's a difference, like when you're trying to understand somebody's world, you know, that that's, that's, that's wonderful compliment makes the other person feel great. But here's a small caveat, I shouldn't say but I should. And the other person should have the same genuine curiosity. Too often, the empathy piece runs one way I'm just talking about in a social sphere, not in sales, because obviously, the the, the person you're selling to doesn't care who you really are kind of, but you know, sometimes, you know, when when you're having what I call a full duplex empathy dialogue, where both people are really sharing their experiences and elephone you start finding differences, but you also find some similarities, right? And I think that can happen in the world of selling too. You're exchanging ideas, you're in that conversation full, you'll have full duplex flow with whatever C level person decision maker inputs are. And then I mean, that's kind of the state you want to be and the other person across the table once they know that you know what they're going through. And once they know that, you understand that they're more likely to want to do business with you. You know, I came up with this trust formula. This is my version of a trust formula. And I said could optionally set up if I asked, you know, how do you define trust people could never really get it. And never made sense to me until I kind of just, you know, kind of faded out my way so I can see the world through again, my my optics, and I think it has three components. And it's almost like a Venn diagram where they overlap is the ideal sweet spot for trust. The first one hits your point, which is empathy, take their point of view, I call it POV, you take their point of view, you get it, you understand them. And I always say it's almost like you're puking with them. You understand their pain, right? And so if I can empathize, understand your point of view, that's step one, the first bubble and Venn diagram. Number two, I have to myself as a subject matter expert, I have to transmit to you the prospect that I know what I'm talking about. And I'm here to help you, I have the answers, I can guide you to the, you know, the product Promised Land. Number three, excuse me, his best interest in mind. So if I understand your point of view, if I demonstrate my expertise, but more importantly, I have your best interests in mind more specifically, I have your best financial interests in mind. Then if I can blend all those three, then I create this trust factor, because that's what customers want. Let me know you understand me point of view to demonstrate that you know what the heck you're talking about? Number three, have my best interests in mind. In other words, don't oversell me, don't undersell me, just sell me. That's what I trust is today.

The Brian Nichols Show  
Well, how about that folks? See, now my my audience, they've been conditioned Victor, for you to be on the show. Because for the past year or so we've really taken a change in the program. It used to be more of a traditional interview format, I would ask questions, and the person would give me answers. And I got to the point where I said, we got to do something different. We got to change things. Get out of our bubbles, right? Get out of our echo chambers, start talking to people who we aren't talking to already. And this is what we do in sales every single day, we go to our customers, wait, just kidding. They're not our customers, right? That's the difference. We're not going to just your customers and going in farming, you're going hunting, you have to find new customers, you have to grow. If you're not growing, you're dying. So I think it's important for us to make sure that we are bridging these two worlds together. So I cannot thank you enough for bringing your sales acumen and expertise to the program and for obviously the folks who are listening to the program. And they're saying okay, Brian, I get it this whole sales thing. It definitely something I need to be paying more attention to Victor Antonio, where can folks go ahead and follow you to continue the conversation?

Victor Antonio  
Well, two things. First, you can find me on Victor Antonio comm or just add Victor, I just add Victor Antonio, all over social media. But But I want to let folks know and really put a button on this and close it down nicely is that selling is all about, really, we're not selling a product, you're not selling a service, you're not selling value, you're not selling whatever you think you're selling a solution, you're selling change. That's what you're selling. Because once you buy a product or solution or service, you now have to change the person has to change in terms of behavior. For example, if I sell you a CRM, you're going to change behavior. If you buy some type of I don't know, a new camera, you're going to change behavior and how you do things. So people are afraid of change. And that's whether it's in politics or sales. That's what we do. But the key point that I want to make is that salespeople Your job is to obviously sell the change. That's the easy part. But at the same time, you have to learn how to reduce anxiety. How do you reduce the receivers anxiety, the prospect or the clients anxiety. And if you can do that, whether in sales or in politics, push your position, sell it, but also reduce their anxiety by saying, Hey, here's how it works. Here's how it's going to roll out. Here's why this may help you, then people are more receptive to your message.

The Brian Nichols Show  
Victor Antonio, it has been a pleasure. We'll include all of your links in the show notes, folks, if you want to go ahead and continue the conversation and learn more, click the artwork in your podcast catcher, and it will bring you not only to The Brian Nichols Show website where you can find all of our 350 plus episodes at this Wow. But also you will have all the transcriptions they're available for you audience because I care and I want make sure it's easy for you to find. So with that being said, Thank you for folks for joining us on today's episode of The Brian Nichols Show. That being said, Victor Antonio, thank you for joining the program. Thank you. Who doesn't like going out and having a glass of wine and celebrating Liberty? Well, if you're in Alameda County, don't worry. I have an amazing event for you coming up on Sunday, October 3 at 1pm the 15th annual wine and liberty celebration at Westover vineyards winery sponsored by the Libertarian Party of Alameda County questions email Elizabeth stump elpac, Vice Chair and Vice chair@lpac.us. Already folks that's gonna wrap up my conversation with the one and only Victor Antonio Victor, thank you for joining the program. And thank you to the amazing audience here for joining us on today's episode if you enjoyed the episode as much as I did and got as much value, but please do us a favor, make sure you go ahead and share the episode and when you do go ahead and tag Victor and give yours truly a tag as well at B Nichols liberty. And folks if you want to go ahead and find out anything we talked about on today's episode, go ahead to your podcast catcher click the artwork, it'll bring you right to The Brian Nichols Show website, go to our episodes page, you can find all the show notes as well as an entire transcription of today's episode including all the links from Victor's profile, as well as all of his social media as well. So with that being said, coming up here on the Thursday Jeremy Todd returns to the program for a one on one sales solo with you be amazing audience here at The Brian Nichols Show so make sure you're not missing that awesome one on one hit that magical subscribe button so you're not missing a single time. A brand new episode goes live. But with that being said, it's Brian Nichols signing off. You're on The Brian Nichols Show for sales legend Victor Antonio. We'll see you tomorrow. Thanks for listening to The Brian Nichols Show. Find more episodes at The Brian Nichols show.com. If you enjoyed today's episode, don't forget to subscribe. Want to help us reach more people? Give the show a five star review and tell your friends to subscribe to find us at Brian Nichols show.com and download the show on Apple podcast, Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Follow me on social media at V. Nichols liberty and consider donating to the show at Brian Nichols show.com forward slash support. The Brian Nichols Show is supported by viewers like you. Thank you to our patrons Darryl Schmitz, Laura Stanley, Mike olema, Michel Mankiewicz, Cody John's, Fred Acosta, and the we're libertarians network. audio production for The Brian Nichols Show is brought to you by DB podcast audio Learn more by emailing inquiries to Wm at dB pod audio.com

Transcribed by https://otter.ai

Victor AntonioProfile Photo

Victor Antonio

International Sales Trainer, Speaker, and Sales Executive

A poor upbringing from one of the roughest areas of Chicago didn't stop Victor from earning a B.S. Electrical Engineering, an MBA and building a 20-year career as a top sales executive and becoming President of Global Sales and Marketing for a $420M company.

As Vice President of International Sales in a Fortune 500, he was selected from over 500 sales managers to join the President's Advisory Council for excellence in sales and management.

He has shared the stage with top business speakers: Daymond John (Shark Tank), Rudy Giuliani, Paul Otellini (CEO of Intel), and John May (CEO of FedEx Kinkos).
He's the author of 13 books on sales and motivation and recently launched the Sales Mastery Academy learning platform with 350+ videos. He recently published his new book, "Sales Ex Machina: How Arti cial Intelligence is Changing the World of Selling".