How to Build, Live, and Give – In Just 7 Minutes with Paul Higgins

Check out episode
  • Find out the secrets to let you stand out in the market
  • How to name your price as an established authority and not charging based on what the market perceives
  • Find out why even if your work could speak for itself, no one would hear it, and why the need for you to be proactive

Resources/Links:

Summary

Are you up for selling your business but couldn’t for lack of a repeatable sales system?

Is your personal life compromised for working too many hours, and you can’t hand off sales to anyone?

Do you get burned by people who try to fix things, over-promise but under-deliver?

Paul Higgins is a High Performing Business Mentor, podcaster, and published author who helps 7 Figure Business Owners with Sales & Teams so they can BUILD LIVE & GIVE. He has 27 years of experience in Sales & Marketing, finishing up an 18-year gig at The Coca-Cola Company as a Director.

In this episode, Paul shares how to build a business with a repeatable sales system so you can sell easily. He also talks about having a business that funds your lifestyle while allowing you to give to others.

Check out these episode highlights:

  • 01:13 – Paul’s ideal client: “My ideal client is a service-based business owner, like you said, high six, early sevens, and a couple of particular ones that I normally work with outsourcing companies, consultants, and also with tech resellers.”
  • 02:09 – The problem Paul helps solve: “he key thing is sales. So most of them have done exceptionally well to get to that high-six, seven figures, but it’s predominantly relied upon them, sales, and they really haven’t systemized it. So they leave the business. They can’t get any more sales. They’re also relying upon referrals, which has been great up to now but they’re very lumpy..”
  • 02:57 – The symptoms people experience before they realize they need Paul’s expertise: “OMost of them have got an aspiration to sell their business. And as you know, it’s very hard to sell your business if you don’t have a repeatable sales system. So they hit the ceiling in their aspirations; they just can’t get to their aspiration. The other is, they’re working too many hours because they can’t hand off sales. So they just continue to do that. And that has an impact upon their personal life. The other thing is that they often get burned by people that say they’re going to fix it. They just get burned a lot of money on agencies who over-promise and under-deliver.”
  • 04:12 – The common mistakes people make when they’re trying to solve that best-kept secret problem: “There are normally two big ones, and one is that they go and just hire a salesperson often a person that’s probably got more experience and is used to a business where a lot of it is systemized. They come in; they find out there’s hardly any systems, the owners are too busy to give them that information; it just turns into not a great situation, and they leave. And the other one is when they say, ‘Hey, why don’t I just bring someone in?’ This person sounds great. And they can just make commission-only sales for me. So there’s no risk to me; they take all the risk. And I don’t know how many times someone’s tried that. I’m yet to find someone where that’s really worked.”
  • 06:17 -Paul’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): The first one is, and it’s a bit overused, but I think it’s got relevance today, is a sales funnel. That’s number one, two, is selling successfully on social, right? So, LinkedIn, massive B2B, but there are so many people that haven’t been taught how to do it, and it is a skill to learn. But if you do learn that skill, you can get enormous success. The last one is referral partners. Even with LinkedIn, now you’re trying to get individuals, why don’t you get partners that can get you ten clients a year, so you’ve got to sell to one person to get 10.
  • 07:43 – Paul’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Get a full report on what you need to focus on to turn your business into a high 7 figure business in 2021. Click here: https://paulhigginsmentoring.com/assessment
  • 08:38 – Q: Paul, why You? A: One is my experience in corporate. Our training was very broad, you might have a broad audience, as well. The second thing is that I’ve been there, done that. And then the last thing is we’ve got results.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“The ultimate thing is to build, live, give. The build is about building a great business that is there to fund your lifestyle. That's what's most important, and then you can give back to others.” -Paul Higgins Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland 00:09
Hello everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. My name is Tom Poland beaming out to you from just on the sand next to the blue ocean, the white waves of Little Castaways Beach in Queensland, Australia, joined today by another Aussie, Paul; good day. I can say that to you. Where are you hanging out?

Paul Higgins 0:26
In Melbourne, Tom.

Tom Poland 0:30
Yeah, but well, it’s my favorite city in Australia without question. Castaways is my favorite beach, but Melbourne is my favorite city and we try to get down there, at least twice a year, just a kind of the cultural capital of Australia. I think most people other than those living in Sydney will agree to that. Anyway, enough of our geography lessons. For those of you who don’t know, Paul, he’s a high-performance businessman. He’s a podcaster. He’s a published author who helps seven-figure business owners. So, fair dinkum businesses, as we call them here down under with sales and team so they can build, live and give. He’s got 27 years experience in sales and marketing and actually had an 18-year gig in the Coca Cola company as a director. And you don’t get more senior than that. Or let’s put it like this, there’s it’s virtually impossible to get more senior than as a director of a massive multinational conglomerate like that. So, years of experience at the highest level, globally. Paul can’t wait, the title is How to Build, Live, and Give. Paul’s gonna show us how to do that in less than seven minutes. Paul, as time starts now, question number one. So who is your ideal client?

Paul Higgins 1:46
My ideal client, Tom, is a service-based business owner, like you said, high six, early sevens, and a couple of particular ones that I normally work with outsourcing companies, consultants, and also with tech resellers.

Tom Poland 2:02
Perfect. Thank you, Sir. Six and a half minutes left, very succinct indeed. What is the problem you solve for those folk?

Paul Higgins 2:09
Look, the key thing is sales. So most of them have done exceptionally well to get to that high six, seven figures, but it’s predominantly relied upon them, sales, and they really haven’t systemized it. So they leave the business. They can’t get any more sales. They’re also relying upon referrals, which has been great up to now but they’re very lumpy. So there’s sort of two key problems that we often see.

Tom Poland 2:34
Right. And so that probably is quite nice. Question number three is the typical symptoms some people are experiencing this problem, and I mentioned that one of them must be that they feel like there’s a real burden on their shoulders to generate the majority of the sales. What else is going on in an organization where this leader has the problem that you can solve? How do they know they need you? What’s going on?

Paul Higgins 2:57
Yeah, well, most of them have got an aspiration to sell their business. And as you know, it’s very hard to sell your business if you don’t have a repeatable sales system. So they hit a ceiling in their aspirations; they just can’t get to their aspiration. So that’s one of the key things. The other is, they’re working too many hours because they can’t hand off sales. So they just continue to do that. And that has an impact on their personal life. They’re not, you know, like for me, when I ran my tech consulting business, you know, I left corporate not to work ridiculous hours, and I was doing that. And from personal experience, I’ve found that. The other thing is that they often get burned by people that say they’re going to fix it. So, an agency or promise them the world. No, not yours, Tom but others; they just get burned a lot of money on agencies who over-promise and under-deliver.

Tom Poland 3:48
Thanks for that, Paul. Question number four, Sir, what are some of the common mistakes you see people making before working with you? They’ve got the problem; the sales is dependent on them. They don’t have enough hours in the day. They can’t sell a business because they don’t have a repeatable sales process. They’re smart people, and they’re ambitious; they’re going to try and fix the problem. What are some of the common mistakes they make that you see?

Paul Higgins 4:12
So there’s normally two big ones, Tom, and one is that they go and just get, hire a salesperson. So, they hire a salesperson, often a person that’s probably got more experience and is used to a business where a lot of it is systemized. So, they come in, they find out there’s hardly any systems, the owners too busy to give them that information; it just turns into not a great situation and they leave. So, they’ve wasted three or four months trying to find the person, they’ve trained them for three, four months, their last six months in some cases are worse than where they were before. And the other one is when they say ‘Hey, why don’t I just bring someone in?’ This person sounds great. And they can just do commission only sales for me. Right? So there’s no risk to me. They take all the risk, and I don’t know how many times someone’s tried that. I’m yet to find someone where that’s really worked. But if you know someone, Tom, let me know.

Tom Poland 5:03
No, I haven’t found anyone either. And this is coming back again to that, your core value proposition which is around this repeatable sales track, like a set of train tracks that can just deliver this predictable, reliable result. And it’s that lack, that means these mistakes are mistakes, because whatever you put in there, there’s no track, right? There’s no repeatable sales process, spot on.

Paul Higgins 5:34
As I said, the ultimate thing you said at the start was build, live, give. Build is about building a great business that it’s there to fund your lifestyle, right? Because of your lifestyle, you’re sitting in Castaway beach is a great example. That’s what’s most important, and then you can give back to others. But you can’t do that if you don’t have a repeatable sales system because you really haven’t built an asset or a business, you’ve just really got a job.

Tom Poland 5:55
Yeah, and you’re probably very charismatic and get the runs on the board. But that can get a bit worrisome after a while. Question five, Paul, and three and a half minutes left. What’s a valuable free action that someone listening to this, they’ve got the problem, they understand the symptoms, they might have even made the mistakes? What’s the step they could go in the right direction? Not going to solve the whole problem, but it’s going to help them.

Paul Higgins 6:17
Yeah, so the first one is, and it’s a bit overused, but I think it’s got relevance today is a sales funnel, right? Most people who have moved from a face to face sales method of now sell online, but they’re doing Zoom like this. They’re doing video. But the problem is still selling the exact same way. They’re not using video and technology to help people like know and trust you before you actually get in calls. Right. So that’s number one, two, is selling successfully on social, right? So, LinkedIn, massive B2B, but there are so many people that haven’t been taught how to do it, and it is a skill to learn. But if you do learn that skill, you can get enormous success. We’ve got for our community over two and a half thousand leads in the last 12 months. And lots of happy clients out of doing that. The last one is referral partners. Right? So even with LinkedIn, now you’re trying to get individuals, why don’t you get partners that can get you 10, maybe clients a year, so you’ve got to sell to one person to get 10. I think that’s a lot better. So those three things, if you did those three things alone, you’d be on a great path to building a repeatable sales system.

Tom Poland 7:31
Correct. Golden, those suggestions. Thanks, Paul. Question six, I just added, two minutes left. One valuable free resource we can direct folks to that’s going to help them more. Got a landing page or URL?

Paul Higgins 7:43
Yeah. So, a lot of people say, well, what’s in a sales system? Paul, that’s a bit esoteric. I don’t know exactly what it is. And I’ve mentioned three of the components, but there are others. So what we do is allow you to go in and assess yourself against what we consider best practice now, best practice because you know, I’ve successfully exited a business, I spend a lot of time at Coca Cola. So, you can go in and get those answers. But it’s not just a BS quiz. It’s actually an assessment, and then I have a call with you, not a sales call, but a call to help, and it’s at paulhigginsmentoring.com/assessment.

Tom Poland 8:19
dub dub dub dub paulhigginsmentoring.com/assessment. Thank you, Sir. So, that could be pretty invaluable. Sixty seconds left. Last question. So, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?

Paul Higgins 8:32
Yes. Why me?

Tom Poland 8:34
So, Paul, why you?

Paul Higgins 8:38
Great question, Tom. So, yeah, one is my experience in corporate. And the great thing with the Coca-Cola company is that we sold to some of the biggest companies globally, but also to the mom and pop shops, right? So, our training was very broad, you might have a broad audience, as well. So, I think that’s it. The second thing is that I’ve been there, done that. So I was at, you know, the situation where a business partner and I was all doing all the salesman sell. And then a little thing came up in my life, which is called a kidney failure. And I had to get a transplant, I had to work from a hospital bed. So I was forced to build a system, a sales system record run from a dialysis machine, basically. And then the last thing is we’ve got results. So in the last 12 months, we’ve got people. I, myself, about two and a half million views, but we’ve got I think it was added up to about 12 and a half million views for people in our community.

Tom Poland 9:33
Thank you very much; time has stopped, you deliver extraordinary value. Thanks for rocking up.

Paul Higgins 9:39
Thanks, Tom. enjoyed it.

Tom Poland 09:40
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.

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