David Asarnow is a three time eight figure CEO. He’s created more million dollar sales funnels between his company and his clients, than any other partner of Clickfunnels. He cut his teeth working for CHI back a decade ago breaking sales records with us as a speaker. So happy to bring him back to discuss how the gap between marketing and sales is closing and what companies need to recognize to generate qualified, hot leads that turn into sales.

 

In this interview, you will learn:

• How to avoid hard closing and replace it with integrity based selling.
• The secret sauce to generating millions of dollars through sales funnels.
• The biggest misconceptions about the role of marketing and how most set themselves up for failure.

TAKING ACTION:

• Want to know what’s keeping you from doubling your sales in the next 12 months? Take our quick QUIZ to get answers: Howtodoublesales.com
• If you’d like to have a profound breakthrough in your business, schedule your breakthrough call with a LIVE expert here: Chetholmes.com/Breakthrough
• Claim your FREE chapter 4 from the top 10 most recommended marketing and sales books of all time! Visit: Ultimatesalesmachine.com to find out how you Create 9X More Impact from every move you’re already making to win clients!

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TRANSCRIPT

[00:00] Amanda Holmes: Hello everyone. Amanda Holmes here, CEO of Chet Holmes International. I am so happy that I’ve brought in David Asarnow, CEO of Business Nitrogen. 

So I know David, because he worked with us for a couple of years. I don’t know how my father – talk about recruiting superstar salespeople running eight-figure companies – came to work for us to sell, to pitch on stages that we had, which was magnificent. And he was a beast totally dominated and it did a wonderful job for our clients. And now he is the superstar online. 

[00:36] David Asarnow: We were at a conference for ClickFunnels here and they give an award for achievements. So, we’re the highest award-winning ClickFunnel certified consultant with 7, 2 Comma Clubs, and an 8 Figure award.

However, at this conference, I have three of my clients who just won an 8 Figure award. That means that we did marketing funnels that did over eight-figures. They have two extra and just from this event alone, Two Comma Club awards. So, it’s not just our words. Our clients are winning them too.

[01:04] Amanda Holmes: Oh, I love it. I love how you said sales enablement, but we built funnels. So it’s the combination of the two and that’s what we’re going to talk about. Cause I know you all want to understand how to generate more leads and close more business. This merging of marketing and sales today – can you talk a little bit about the closing of that gap?

[01:24] David Asarnow: Sure. Yeah, here’s the challenge. Everyone wants more leads and then they get the leads and like, well, these leads aren’t good.

Well, here’s a question. This actually goes all the way back to if you want to bring it back, over a decade to the business breakthrough days, you know, why would all of a sudden say, well, this sales channel is not working. These leads are good. Or when this rep puts people on, I closed them. And when this rep doesn’t –  they’re coming from the same place. 

So is it the lead or is it the marketing or is that the lead or is that the sales?

[01:55] Amanda Holmes: Yep. 

[01:56] David Asarnow: And when you think about it really, sales and marketing have merged. They’re one in the same, in the sense you have to really. Today, one of the challenges that people come to us most often is that they want more leads or they think that they want more leads.

And with Business Nitrogen, I’ll take a step back. With Business Nitrogen, most of our clients come to us and we don’t have the good thing of knock on wood. We don’t have a leak problem. Okay. Yeah, we have plenty of people coming our way. And most of our clients do as well. And the challenge so much is, okay, are we attracting the right lead?

Are we having that message to market match? Do we really understand the avatar, the person that we’re communicating with and making sure that everything is aligned? Because here’s the thing that I noticed so much. I mean, we have one client who does over $2 billion in sales. We train their entire sales force.

So you are saying, okay. Yes. We’re a funnel marketing agency. If you go to our website, it is nothing about sales, nothing about sales empowerment. So people come to us because they want funnels. The people who actually end up working with us are the people who want leads and they want the funnel and then they want that whole pathway.

And how do I convert those people into lifetime customers? And it really starts with value and making sure that your value proposition is upfront. 

I heard Gary Vee say something about a month or so ago. The longer you can go with just adding value without asking for something, the more that you’re going to be able to make an impact and develop revenue on the back end.

So that in the beginning, it’s really creating an overall overarching strategy with the goal and vision of the entrepreneur that we work with in helping them cast that vision and that communication plan. So that way, they’re getting the right people raising hands. It’s not like you need 10,000 leads. You just need the right leads. 

[03:55] Amanda Holmes: Right. I love this. And this has been a common thread that I’ve heard from many people. So where would you start? Where would you tell somebody that could actually take an actionable step towards?

[04:06] David Asarnow: Well, who are they? If you tell me who they are, I’ll give you every, depending upon who they are, so different plans.

[04:14] Amanda Holmes: Okay. So let’s break that down when you’re saying who they are? Are you talking about which industry? B2C, B2B? 

[04:20] David Asarnow: Yeah, B2B, B2C, to see what type of business. And there may be a different plan because I’ve had something different, like you and I are at a conference right now. 

We’re at a conference right now and I’ve had so many people come, so what’s the secret sauce? You know, well, what do you want? Well, I want more leads. Okay. Well, tell me about the systems and processes, the structure of the place. So when you grow it, you know, I want less stress. I don’t want my business running me anymore.

Okay. You realize that when you get more leads, that means you have an opportunity to get more sales, which means your business is going to change. Tell me about your infrastructure to be able to support that. So it doesn’t fall more on your shoulders. So if you look at one of the top things that we used to talk about a lot with entrepreneurs and CEOs at business breakthroughs was processes and procedures.

I mean, if you look at it, one of the reasons I believe that we’ve been able to scale is I started with a business. When I made the conscious decision that it was no longer, my business was no longer going to be, I’ll call it a lifestyle business, do what I want when I want with whoever I want type of thing.

And I said, okay, I’m 50 years old, three years ago. And it’s time to scale this thing. I’m in for, for my third eight-plus figures build. That’s what I said I wanted to do. Okay. I knew that I needed to change how I operated. I knew I needed to change how I thought. So before I even said, do I want sales? I started hiring the right people in the right position.

So when it came in, I had the team ready to be able to support it. So all of a sudden, all chaos didn’t break loose. So that’s what I did first. 

Now, if you’re asking the question on the lead front. There’s a lot of things that you can do today. You have to really say, where are you? Where are your people hanging out? Where are they? What are they watching? What are they listening to? Do they listen to podcasts? And start figuring out the communication plan that you can put in place that will add value and then making sure everyone on your team understands that message. So everyone is cohesively saying the exact same thing because that’s the big breakdown.

[06:24] Amanda Holmes: That is so hard, so hard to get everyone saying the same thing. Yeah. Especially salespeople. 

[06:31] David Asarnow: Yes and. I’ll say yes and one of the things that we do with our clients is that if we bring them on as a concierge, we’re engaging that entire process and we actually have them record all their calls. Sounds familiar. So they record all their calls and we hot seat and we critique them.

[06:50] Amanda Holmes: Wonder where you got that from. 

[06:51] David Asarnow: I know exactly where that came from because Bob is, you know, on our team, we work together. It’s BBI and it’s the number one thing that will transform people. This is the first time someone comes on and listens to themselves and they sound, they suck.

They don’t want to suck again. They don’t want everyone on the call listening to them to sound bad. 

Diamonds are created with a lot of controlled pressure and over, over thousands and thousands and thousands of years, that controlled pressure takes coal and it turns it into a diamond.

Well, so many people in business put pressure on people, but they’re putting pressure. You do this or this. It’s that controlled pressure –  that pressure that creates chaos. So if you don’t have controlled pressure, you have chaos with pressure. And with chaos, you have emotions running high and low. You have results that go up and down.

So what we do is a controlled pressure environment to help mold, shape these people into better human beings that are serving at a higher level. Does that make sense?

[08:06] Amanda Holmes: I love it. I love it. Yeah. Nobody wants to hot seat ever. Let’s role-play, all the time!

[08:15] David Asarnow: When I was 22 years old, I was horrible. In fact, it was the first job I had in sales.

I went for a ride with my manager. He wanted to listen to me cold call and he’s like, can I give you some feedback? And I said yes. And he said, you have such a great presence and you talk great with people one-on-one but all you did was ramble and you didn’t listen to the thing the person said, and he didn’t ask any questions. And all you did was benefit dump. 

I said, okay, great. Thanks for the feedback. What do I need to do? He said you need to ask better questions. You need to, you need to listen. You need to listen not to respond. You need to listen to hear. You need to really hear what they’re saying and what their problem is.

And then based upon that, you can ask more questions to lead them down the path. I mean, that was the best advice that I ever got. And I was 22 years old and I was in the, I guess, as a lifelong learner, I’m coachable even to this day. That changed everything. And, the funny thing is the first six months, I sucked. And then the next 18 months I was at that company, I was in Top 3 of 300 people in the company, just from one little bit of coaching. 

[09:27] Amanda Holmes: Wow. And I love it, so you said this last night and I want to capture it on camera. You talked about integrity-based selling where you get them to say yes. Can you just share that with them? Because I just love this. 

[09:40] David Asarnow: Well, I’ll go back to our BBI days and we still use this today. So one of the things that I’ll ask questions upfront, knowing, first of all, you have to know the value of what you’re offering and what it can produce for someone. And then through the questioning and the conversation, they are going to reveal. You know, if I do this, what will that mean to your business? So, awesome. One upfront. 

Let me ask you a question. If you gave me a dollar and every month you gave me a dollar, I’d give you $2 back and it was guaranteed. How many, how many dollars would you give me? And what do you think everyone says? 

[10:20] Amanda Holmes: I thought they’d say a number, but you said that they said..

[10:24] David Asarnow: As much as I have. If it was guaranteed, it was guaranteed. No, ifs, ands or buts. I’m going to sign a letter to guarantee a bond, no matter what, you’ll get that number. 

How much will you give me? Well, I’ll give you everything that I have. Great. 

Let me ask you a question. If I gave you 50 cents for every dollar, that’s a 50% return every month, which means you’re getting over compounded interest over 25, 30, 40%, whatever it is. I’m not a mathematician. 

Over the course of the year, how much would you give me? Everything.

Okay. 15% a month? I’d probably still give you almost everything. 

Great. And I asked that upfront and then I dropped it like an open loop. Right. And then we’ll, then we’ll go through it, and we still use this process in Business Nitrogen today.

It’s not the exact same way we did it back then, but we ask questions to understand the value proposition. If they do this and we help them do this and they get this, what is it worth to them? 

And then at the end, I’ll say, so let me understand. You said that if we did this, you would get a hundred thousand dollars actually in your company in the next 90 days. Yes? Okay, great. 

And in the beginning, you told me that for every dollar I gave you, if I gave you 50% back every month, you’d give me as much dollars as you want. Well, the investment here is only $5,000 a month, or the investment here is $20,000 a month, or some of our clients over $30,000. If we did that, the investment here, so based upon us working there, you could potentially do this if you did this program.

So, and back to BBI. So do you want me to use the same credit card that we use when you sign up for this webinar?

So here’s the thing. There’s some people who, you know, have to go hard close. I’d much rather do an integrity-based close, where people, the question is: Are they willing to, they said that they would do this and I’ll ask us, are you sure you really are you a hundred percent sure that you would give me that money if I was gonna give you that guarantee?

And people always say yes, then I can even say, well, in the beginning you said, if I gave you this and you worked to get this kind of return, you’d make the investment. Were you serious about that? Or you, you know, and I think that’s why I think I was the first person to never have a hundred percent close on a webinar.

I know I was, I was told that I was anyway by, by both Ted and Doug and everyone. But that’s exactly why I average between 45 and 65% on a webinar because you add value, you show the value proposition and frankly, I don’t know why, and you have to believe that it’s in their best interest to do it. And I did. 

I mean, I’ve invested hundreds of thousands of dollars in coaching and training and my business. I mean, even this year alone, over $200,000 in myself and in my business. 

Okay. And so I believe in investing for return. So as long as you believe beyond a shadow of a doubt that what you’re offering is either the best or it’s going to give the people exactly what they need, that will shift it to moral obligations.

That if your salespeople don’t believe that about you and your company, you have the wrong people because they need to believe beyond a shadow of doubt that you are the best to conserve them higher than anyone else. And I’ll often ask when I’m speaking in front of entrepreneurs, how many of you think that you have the best product, widget, gidget, service out there? Raise your hand now. 

Yeah. If you’re not raising your hand when I say that. And when you’re, when you hear me saying that right now, you’ve got to go work on yourself first, because if you don’t believe that, your team’s not going to believe it. 

So it goes to our conversation last night. The number one thing we need to fix before we have sales and then look at where we want to take the company and the infrastructure is that belief, that belief in that mindset, and it starts from the top down. 

[14:11] Amanda Holmes: Wow, what a great way to summarize everything together. And just, I think that last five minutes is like gold. 

Where do they find you? 

[14:22] David Asarnow: businessnitrogen.com