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TRANSCRIPT:

*this transcript was mostly generated by AI, please excuse any mistakes

Amanda: Hello, Amanda Holmes, your CEO of Chet Homes International for your CEO Mastery session today. I am in India. Yeah, with Akshat Bansal of Benzoville. And it is such a dream to be here because I met Akshat, I think it’s about two years now. Yeah, it’s almost two years. Yes. And he had shared with me his adoring love of my father’s book.

Yes. And uh, there’s few. There’s some that read, right? And they go, oh, that makes sense. There’s some that then try to implement a bit, and then there’s some that have so much pigheaded discipline and determination that they make that their Bible. Yeah. And oh, John, I would say is one of those that just lives and breathes.

Yeah. And not only that, then over this last year, he is gone through so many of the boot camps and I wanted to bring him here. We were just eating Yeah. And just celebrating each other that we’re here in person. Yeah. But what he was sharing was so valuable, I think, for every business owner to [00:01:00] hear the, the relief.

Of stress that you’ve been experiencing. Yeah. And it’s as if, because of, you know, the adjustments that you’ve been going through with these different boot camps too Yeah. Has been a part of that process, of course. That it’s less stressful and yet you’re making more money and you now have more opportunity to do.

Projects that just fill your cup and, and, and feed your soul rather than just grinding away, chasing after the dollar. Is that fair 

Akshat: enough to say? Yeah, it’s actually true. I mean, uh, there is less stress. I’m working less hours. I’m doing what I love. I do my gardening, I do my painting, and, uh, life is a place and more than that, I’m not running after the dollars 

Amanda: and yet they’re coming in.

Here is your daily dose of the Ultimate Sales machine coming to you from the new edition. Visit ultimate sales machine.com to get your copy or multiple copies. Hi, I’m your host, Amanda Holmes, CEO of Chat Homes International. What you’re about to learn has [00:02:00] assisted a quarter of a million businesses to generate billions of dollars working faster, better, smarter.

Amanda: Yes. I love it. So, so I wanted to bring him here to share and he said yes. Okay. So we’re at my hotel right now in the, in by the pool. Yeah. So one thing that I thought was really critical, Is this blend of between Dream 100 and then education based marketing. So first you had gone through the Dream 100 bootcamp.

Yeah. Now, can you describe to me, cuz I love this concept of you were saying, you know, we used to, we have 10,000 leads. How do we go after all of these people? Yeah. But then afterwards you realized that you really only need 50 or a hundred. Double your sales. Can you go, can 

Akshat: you explain a that? Yeah. Yeah. So, uh, you know, last year we did the dream hundred bootcamp.

Yeah. And I did that. And before that I was doing Facebook marketing, Instagram marketing. So I made about, uh, you know, I also did your core story. Mm. So I made about 30, 40 landing pages, as I just said, and I made my own [00:03:00] crm. So we had landing pages, which used to, you know, give free bees, like, uh, And people used to download them, and that was made based on the type of the customer, like dealers or architects and so 

Amanda: on.

I’m so sorry. Before we do that, I, I have to say what your business is so people know. I think we reported that in the last shake. Yeah. Yeah. So, So, uh, tell them about Beville so that they know. Cause he’s very progressive in his arena. This is not normal for, 

Akshat: yeah. So, uh, Beville was started by my father in 1979.

Okay. And I’m the second generation who joined in 2002. Okay. And that’s when I started to, I saw a very big void in the market that, you know, high end European brands were there for all the product. You can buy Gucci and Armani shirts and t-shirts and everything, but you can’t buy branded handles, store handles in India.

So I started to fly to Europe, especially Italy, which is the design hub, and I started to tie up with different bands and with leaps and bounds, we are now agents for about 15 plus brands out of Europe. [00:04:00] Wow. And we are distributing them in PanIN, India. Yeah. 

Amanda: Amazing. Yeah. Amazing. Yeah. So, um, and I, and I did mention you in the book, so if you look into the, Yeah, you’ll see his explanation, but we’ll get to that.

Yeah. Okay. So you were doing all of these different marketing techniques Yeah. To try and collect Yeah. Your 

Akshat: clientele. Yeah. So, you know, to give you the soul, I feel that I’m a sort of scientist and my business has been like a laboratory for me because, uh, since childhood I have been, you know, thinking like a scientist.

So I was doing a lot of things, you know, I was doing Facebook marketing, I. And I was doing LinkedIn, so email, WhatsApp. So there was no leg of marketing, which I had left. But then I realized that when I build these landing pages and a lot of leads were coming, so I had a, at a point of time, 10,000 leads, and when I did the dream hundred uh, program and I actually focused on different leads, my team was calling, I realized that, you know, there’s only some buyers, which we have to.

It’s not that we have to work with all the 10,000 [00:05:00] leads. So that’s when, you know, I started to explain my team that you know, you have to work like a filter. Like when you pour tea, you need a filter. So you need to work like a filter and filter really the right customers, which we need. . 

Amanda: So this was a big part of the bootcamp Yeah.

Too, because when we were redefining what it meant to do, dream 100 in today’s world. Yeah. Right. When my father said Dream 115 years ago. Yeah. A hundred. It depends on the size of your organization. Yeah. Can you do a hundred? Because sometimes it’s just 12 that commit the utter difference. We had a client, of course, that one client doubled their sales, right?

Yes. Just it. It’s about simplifying Yes. And making it easier. And what I loved you shared, if you could please share for everyone, because we want to relieve your stress. Yes. We want it to feel more attainable and simpler. Yes. So that every step you’re making, you’re getting. You know, 10 times the results.

Yes. From every leverage point, right? Yes. So, uh, you had said something, which was a key distinction that we [00:06:00] changed about the Dream 100 is mm-hmm. . When I started going after the Dream 100, I thought Fortune 500 companies, that’s what we need, right? Yeah. Because that’s what my dad did, right? He worked with 60, the Fortune 500.

So I have to go after the Fortune 500. But then when I started going after them, I. Ooh. Yeah. Yeah. It’s hard to sell into procurement. Yeah. It’s, you know, there’s a lot of people to actually get results for Fortune 500 is difficult because it’s moving a Titanic. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. There’s so many moving parts.

It’s not easy. Yeah, it’s not easy. So I found the actual checklist of Dream 100, which is in the new edition of the book and was in the bootcamp. Yeah. That there’s key pieces that you want to make sure that they actually get the result. You wanna make sure that you actually are in alignment with them and you have fun.

So can you share? Yeah. When you had shared earlier about that. So basically, 

Akshat: you know, what we found is that every customer is not our customer. So we need to find the dream customer, but the ideology is, Who has the big money to pay us? Yeah. What I found is that a lot of times, uh, you know, my team used to go to a lot of big customers, but they were not aligned with our value system.

[00:07:00] So when they were not aligned with our value system, they may be paying us a lot of money, but they were treating my, you know, team like ache. So we, we realized that this is not the right customer or right definition for us, for the dream customer because it’s draining the energy. Yes, it’s draining the energy and it’s giving stress to my team and stress to myself.

So in a way, if you see, they’re pulling us back. So we realize that, uh, for us, the dream customer means, of course he need to be a big customer, but more than that, he should be aligned with our value. Because if they’re not matched with our value system or the energies, it’s not going to 

Amanda: work. So what are some of those things that you have as a 

Akshat: checklist for them?

So I have a checklist. You know, kind of when we, uh, go to meet a customer, we see, you know, whether their values meet with us or not. For example, we check whether they are, you know, How do they treat their, you know, staff in their office? Because that’s the first point. How they treat humans like humans.

That is very important. And then how they treat my team, whether they are, you know, humble or they are like, you know, treating them, oh, another salesman has come and blah, blah, [00:08:00] blah. So it’s, it’s all about, you know, how the humans are treating humans. So that was the first game changer, which we realized that the dream customer for us has to be one which matches with.

If a customer is not paying us on time, that means he’s not aligned with our value, because at the end, we want to pay our suppliers and our vendors before time or on time because they serve us. So that’s, that’s, these are some of the nitty gritties and similar things we made as a checklist where we match and, you know, uh, see whether this guy or this company matches with our value system.

And then we take him to the next level. And once we find that he matches with our value, We, we serve them like anything. That’s what we do. 

Amanda: Wow. I love it. So then also a thing that I loved about Akha was you. There’s the saying, when you market to everyone, you market to no one. Yes. And the first time that, so he’s, you’ve been through the boot camps a couple times now.

Yeah. Yeah. Which I love about him. Right? He’s got that pigheaded discipline and determination. He’s gonna continue repetition as the mother of all skill. Yes. Right? Yes, yes. [00:09:00] So, um, the first time you went through the core story bootcamp, you had identified that architects Yes. Were going to be great because can you share.

With them so they understand the difference between your average client versus what an architect 

Akshat: brings. Yeah, so basically we are into door handles and luxury, uh, you know, products. So we realize that architects are like influencers for our market. Okay? So if there is a customer who is making a luxury house, he will hire an architect, and architect will work like a doctor, like I’m selling a medicine for example.

So if an architect prescribes my products Mm, the luxury owner will immediately buy my products. Mm. So we realized that instead of focusing on too many types of customers before, because before we were, you know, focusing on dealers, we were focusing on architects. We were actually selling to everyone.

Okay. So if somebody would have come to me and asked me, who is your target audience? I would’ve said In everyone, everyone, everyone, everyone. Everyone. Yes. . So that’s what we realized, that, you know, when I did the core story and the ream hundred, I focused on architects. Yeah. And [00:10:00] then when I did the second time, I focused on dealers.

So we really, you know, understood this very fact that it is very important to have clarity on whom you want to go after, and you should not go after for too many because, you know, it gives, it takes a lot of time to build relationships. And I, what I have realized is that it’s all about relationships.

Once we build strong relationships, and that can happen. Only you when you have space, and space can happen only when you have few. If you try to get too many customers, I don’t think you can really 

Amanda: serve them well. Even with that said, you’ve hired, right? How many more you’ve hired 

Akshat: another five? Yeah. We have just hired five sales, new, new sales people who are traveling all over.

So it’s not 

Amanda: that he’s doing this 

Akshat: either, right. It’s all on autopilot. I’m just training them and they are doing it. In fact, now we have just built a software also on your dream hundred platform, so now all the leads will come and my, my team will go through certain questio. And checks. Once they check that, whether this is a dream hundred customer, yeah.

They will also, uh, you [00:11:00] know, mark them as dream hundred and there is a 365 days activity, which we have plotted inside the software, which I learned from your program. And all these activities will be taken care of, like sending some gifts, sending some direct mailer. With small letters, direct mails and stuff like that.

And it’s, it’s, it’s been great, you know, because now we are using it actually, and we are sending it to a lot of customers. And now Amanda is getting 

Amanda: something, , he just brought me this book, this gift, which is something that you give to your dream clients, right? 

Akshat: Yeah, yeah, yeah. This is the front side. Yes.

So we are now sending about thousand of these to our architects, uh, to influence them. So this is a leather diary and this is a leather, uh, you know, It’s, it’s beautiful and it is 

Amanda: leather calendar. 

Akshat: Yeah. So when we, when we send this to architect, it’s about, you know, making them remember benzoyl as, as their quality, high quality partner.

So the idea is whenever they need handles for their projects, they should remember benzoyl. That’s, that’s what we are focusing [00:12:00] on. And amazing. Trust me, it’s giving us very good results. We have a series of these. So we have like every month we send something out to the customers. Wow. To only to the dream customers, which align with our value.

We don’t send it to all. So this way we have, you know, saved a lot of cost. Also, we couldn’t have done such expensive gifts if we were sending it to too many 

Amanda: customers. Right. So you had to get very specific about Specific Yes. Who it was. Yeah. And you also, I love how you changed your value ladder. I think that’s an important thing.

Can you share that 

Akshat: too, because this was important. Yeah. So initially, you know, when we were giving the dealership to our dealers Yeah. We were asking them to invest, uh, you know, almost like 50,000 US dollars. Okay. Uh, for samples. Okay. Which was quite a lot. So I now have made a value ladder. So now we have, uh, you know, a sample.

Which is like the first step of the ladder. Yep. So that sample cost, usually with the retail price costs about $2,000. Okay. And now we are offering it at $400, which is a nightmare. And now we are trying to, you know, kind of get a lot of people in our [00:13:00] business which are working for us. And uh, in this way we are trying to filter and get the right buyer, and then we are creating an ascension.

Yeah. Where we have next step, which is more or less $10,000 and then we go it to $50,000. So this has working, this is working for us like magic because, you know, just imagine a person comes, he doesn’t knows us. Yeah. And we tell them, invest $50,000. It’s, it’s crazy. Yeah. And we realize that when we give it, uh, something like $400, he tastes our product, he tastes our services, he understands 

Amanda: it, and it’s a great deal unlike anybody else.

But why? Affordable, impossible. Because you’ve identified and gotten so hyper-focused on who that is. Yes. Because you just told me you’ll double sales next year just in 50, under a hundred people, whereas before you worked anybody, everybody please bring me business, in fact, and it’s less stress. Yes. It’s less.

He’s doing less work. I’m not working. 

Akshat: Yes. I’m not doing work, actually. I’m doing gardening and painting. Really. I love doing that. And in fact, [00:14:00] recently 

Amanda: are your spiritual pursuits and you’re giving 

Akshat: backs. Yes. Because last. Uh, there was a big shift. I deleted my Facebook and Instagram account and trust me, it was awesome because there was a lot of stress and foolish things I was doing, you know?

Uh, I felt that Facebook is more about, you know, getting likes. Yeah. And getting into the seeking of appreciation. And we were like, you know, how many likes? How many likes? And where I dig deeper, I realize I never got much business from Facebook. It was really useless for me. I’m not saying that it would be useless for.

So the moment I deleted it, what I’m trying to say is it created a lot of space. And when I get that space, I can think and when I can think I can do just few activities, I don’t really need to do everything. Yes. That’s 

Amanda: really the powerful thing. This is critical. So then let’s tie it into the core story, right?

So he’s identified exactly who he needs to target and it became architects and dealers. Dealers, yes. And then what is the message? . [00:15:00] Yes. So can you share a bit about that? Because I think it’s fascinating, right? Door handles, but then how do you get in 

Akshat: the door? Yeah, so basically what we did is, uh, after I did Core Story, we created some eBooks.

Yeah. Which are creating values for them. So for example, we are not talking about products every time. Mm-hmm. , we are now creating some collates or marketing materials, which are talking about, you know, we found the pain points of the architects through the research and we found that a lot of architectural firms are struggling in.

So we created some marketing, uh, you know, uh, content for them where we are trying to help them in marketing. So the moment we help them in marketing, we create an expert positioning in their mind. And once we, they see us as an expert, it’s a nightmare because whenever we talk to them, they, they look us not as a vendor, they look us as a expert.

And this has been a really big game changer. And same we are doing for dealers. We are creating, uh, you know, we are helping now. Earlier when we used to go to dealers, we were talking only [00:16:00] about buying handles. Now we are talking about how we can help them to increase their sales, how we can help them to increase the football in.

And this has changed the way they look at us act because now we are not giving them the sample kit. Only we are giving them trainings. It’s 

Amanda: not about price. Yes. It’s not about price. It’s about the value. And you’re setting yourself, I mean between the gifts, right? The offer at the front. Yeah, the education.

And then share with them too about your email series 

Akshat: that you’ve Yeah. So, uh, once we get the leads in, we have made hyper-focused emails. So we, in a one year we have 52. So we have 52 emails, hyper-focused, follow up, sequential emails for architects, and then we have 52 separate ones per dealers, which. You know, was I went crazy to create them.

Trust me. And these are made after a lot of research, which we didn’t. Close story. You learned how 

Amanda: to find the research and I know you worked really hard at that. Yeah, we, we did talk. He’s very specific. , [00:17:00] he will ask more questions than anybody else cuz he’s like, Amanda, I don’t really understand this exact thing.

I’m like, oh, it’s cuz I, I would turn it up. Yeah. . But it, but it’s wonderful. It’s like you have truly gone through such a transformation. Yeah. 

Akshat: Yeah. Mm. It was amazing. I’m, I’m so thankful to you and to chat and it has been a transformative journey. Yeah. 

Amanda: So, and I love how you were saying just each email too just has like one piece of market data.

Akshat: Yeah. So what we did is we realized that there are a lot of pain points in from market data. We, we, which architect space, like for example, architects are not able to find the right vendors. Architects are not able to find the right suppliers of building materials, which can supply high quality.

Architects don’t have. So in each email we used one piece of that content and we built the story around it. So all my emails are more about storytelling rather than, you know, about content or selling. So the moment we, you know, tell a story, it hits their [00:18:00] brain and suddenly we then tell that if, you know, want to know more about that.

please book a one-to-one with Akha bun. And suddenly I, I, you know, I can feel the difference in the market because now we are treated as experts. People come to us and they ask us which hardware to be installed. Where initially it was more about price, but now it’s not about price. It’s more about value.

Yes. Really . 

Amanda: Thank you . That’s so good. Any another thing that I wanna touch on before we. This has been so wonderful. Yeah. I also love, so in the Dream 100 bootcamp, so much of the Dream 100 is having the pigheaded discipline and determination to continue Yeah. When you feel like you can’t get through or you haven’t gotten to them yet.

Um, and so the first day we did a whole exercise around goal setting and what would a dream life look like? Yeah. And that’s when you made a shift of what you actually. To do with your time. Can you share that one [00:19:00] too? Because Yeah, 

Akshat: actually, uh, I realized that, you know, when we did this intention setting, you know, I was, uh, I was not made to run after the dollar, and I realized that, uh, my life has to be designed by myself.

Nobody else can design it. So I saw in the market that, you know, everybody wants money for sure in this dimension to live, but I realized that my calling is something else, and I’m trying to fulfill that now because I have space now. I have time. So I am doing gardening every day. One hour in my garden. I do paintings, I do some trainings for fun.

I train people and I’m enjoying every bit of it. I train my sales team, so every time I hire five new sales people now and I, uh, you know, book a room. And I do my own trainings every day, and I make them like a solid salespeople, and then they go in the market for me, and then they give me the feedback. So it’s an ongoing workshop, which we do every week, and it has been a great game changer because once you create, uh, once I created the space, I had the time to do what I want to do.

And that’s [00:20:00] what is magical. It’s not about, you know, Uh, $1 billion or $1 million every day or every month or every year. It’s more about what you love doing. I feel that is more important what I feel for me, and I’m really blessed and I’m, I feel I have a guru and he’s blessing me and I’m doing everything what I want to do.

And here you are in India, , 

Amanda: and here we are filming this. Yes. No, it’s, it’s been such a lovely transformation and it doesn’t come without, um, perseverance, right. Aha. When he first was like, I’m going to train architects on how to market on LinkedIn. Yes. He was like, okay, aha. Go do it. And he went. Wait, Amanda, I am actually terrified of this.

Yes, yes. I don’t think I can do this. How can I talk about LinkedIn and then tie it back to door handles? Yeah, like we had quite a few back and forth. Quite a few Back and forth. Forth. Yeah. I remember, yeah, week after week you were still like, no, this really doesn’t make sense, Amanda. How does this work?

But here you are. Yeah. And it worked [00:21:00] so. You do come up against the roadblocks. Yes. And that’s okay. It’s just, it’s so great to have your knowing what your end goal is or where you want to be or what fills your cup. Everyone’s cup fills differently. Yes, right. Exactly. Exactly. So knowing what that is, and then the Dream 100 is a vehicle to get to that cup much faster.

Yeah. Right? Yeah. If you wanna live in a different country half of the year. Yeah. Then so for me, I would love to spend more time in India. Yeah. One, so I’ve gone through the same transformation as you have, cuz I can’t just teach the the boot camps, I have to live them. Right? Yeah. So I identified the reason why, one of the reasons why I’m here is I had identified one of.

Five clients. I wanted multi-well they’re a big, uh, company here. They have 16 India thousand employees. Yeah. And, uh, because I wanted to spend more time in India. Yeah. So I went after them for six years. Wow. And I just spoke at their headquarters. I was sharing with you. Yeah. Wow. That’s beautiful. Yeah. And it was amazing.

And, um, [00:22:00] But it was clear because what do I want for my life? I wanna be able to come to India on, on a regular basis. I would. So I’m looking, how can I get more clients 

Akshat: here in India? We will make sure that you come to India quite 

Amanda: often. Day . Good, good. Right? So you get to decide what you would like from your life, and you are that architect.

Um, Akha, thank you for being such an inspiration. My 

Akshat: pleasure. My pleasure, Amanda. It’s, it’s, it’s an honor. Really powerful. Thank you so much. Really powerful. Thank you so much. Thank you so much. Thank you. 

Amanda: And read about him in the new edition of the Ultimate Sales Machine. Until next time, . 

Akshat: Thank you.

Make sure to get your copy or copies at the ultimate sales machine.com. There’s a lot of special bonuses that you can’t get going to Amazon, so make sure you check it [email protected].