Episode 189: David Henzel – How to Approach Cold Calls and Create Resource-Driven Relationships for Sales

David Henzel  00:02

Making sales social means to me, selling out of love and not out of fear. I used to hate sales for the passion. I’m a recovering introvert. I used to be very, very introverted, which was holding me back in life and in business. Then I had a friend who was crushing it with networking and selling and public speaking. I thought, I want this. How do I get this being super introverted?

Intro  00:27

Welcome to the Making Sales Social Podcast featuring the top voices in sales, marketing, and business join Brynne Tillman and me Bob Woods. As we each bring you the best tips and strategies. Our guests are teaching their clients so you can leverage them for your own virtual and social selling. Enjoy the show.

Brynne Tillman  00:52

Welcome back to making sales social. I am here with David Henzel, who is a serial entrepreneur, and business coach with a passion for helping startups grow and succeed. With over 20 years of experience in the SAS and e-Commerce Industry. David has co-founded managed and scaled multiple successful companies, David is on a mission to become a change agent dedicated to helping individuals and organizations achieve their full potential and create positive change in the world. 

He always puts people first and aims to improve the lives of everyone he encounters with his vast experience and expertise in entrepreneurship and business coaching. He is committed to helping people reach their full potential by implementing business practices in their personal life. Welcome to the show,   David.

David Henzel  01:51

Thank you very much for having me. 

Brynne Tillman  00:52

Thrilled to have you here today. So the first question we ask all our guests is, What does making sales social mean to you?

David Henzel  01:51

Making sales social means to me selling out of love and not out of fear. And for those of you if somebody sees this, the video version of it, I have like a lovely few t-shirts on. That’s my passion project. I used to hate sales for the passion. I’m a recovering introvert, I used to be very, very introverted, which was holding you back in life and in business. 

Then I had a friend who was crushing it with networking and selling and public speaking. And I thought, I want this, but how do I get this being super introverted, so that Toastmasters twice a week, which is public speaking classes, is very effective for those very painful to do this as an introvert. And then I did two networking events per week and talked to everybody and their mother, even though it was so uncomfortable and this helped with my shyness. 

But then my yoga teacher said, “Every decision in life you have to make out of love or fear is a two basic emotions.”  Why do everything that you do in life know, like, “Ha, It made so much sense.” And I always knew this deep down inside. But now GM is a framework, often applying this to every decision I’m making, for example, selling before I felt like a used car salesman shoving something down somebody else’s throat, and selling out of fear. 

Because we’re a startup we have to sell or we die after paying my mortgage, etc. But it never felt good. The person on the other side could also feel that, but now that I’m selling it, I love it as if I know that, hey, what I have here can be good for you in your life or your business. I can even be pushy, and say, “Hey, buy this, it’s gonna be awesome and this made it very easy for me to sell.” I can go like and give you 10 Other examples on how acting love versus fear helps me in business and in life. But that’s a question. 

Brynne Tillman  03:37

Selling out of love 

David Henzel  03:38

Selling out of love is always also always playing the long game, you know, that we’ve seen, like, how can I provide value to this other individual that I’m meeting before when I met somebody at a networking event or somebody next to me in the plane? I never want to talk to them? 

Because I feel like they probably don’t want to talk to me or if it’s an attractive woman like no, she probably thinks I’m hitting on her. It was not the case. And now I think okay, there’s another person, let’s see how we can provide value to this person, and then it becomes very easy, because it’s not about me, it’s about the other person.

Brynne Tillman  04:04

I love that one of the phrases we use all the time is detached from what the prospect is worth to you, and attached to what you are worth to the prospect. That’s exactly what you’re talking about is it’s not about you making your mortgage it’s about you providing value, which consequently pays your mortgage.

David Henzel  04:24

So money is a side effect of providing value. So figure out how you can provide as much value as possible to as many people as possible. You’d be the richest person around.

Brynne Tillman  04:32

I love that. So talk to me about the mindset shift from selling out of fear to selling. I love how when our whole lives as salespeople we’ve been taught to work to KPIs how many calls have you made, how many have you done for him? And so you’re constantly working out of fear because you have to meet all these KPIs. 

You have to meet all these goals, where you’re not. The soft skills are not part of fear. The soft skills right are part of love. But we are working on these KPIs. How do you make that shift? Both personally and among your team?

David Henzel  05:12

I think it’s, you need to have KPIs otherwise, it doesn’t really work. What you measure will improve business one on one, it’s what it is, Right? But then like, “How do you approach it?” Like when you have to, like calling him or people Like no, Like, “I’m excited to call him or people to see if I can provide value to these people.” 

Now, it’s just like this subtle shift and to me, I always listen to my emotions, if something feels good, what I’m doing right now, I lean in, if it doesn’t feel good to take a step back and think like, “Why does this not feel good?”, “Is this something I don’t want to do?”, “Is this something that’s wrong?” ,“Is it against my values?”, “Or is it or can I change?” My mindset was like, “Hey, no, actually, we have a really good product here.” 

You know, I’ll hit these people up to see you know, I can help those people. In one of my portfolio companies, it’s a very technical product. And the founder is a brilliant technical founder. And he always struggled with selling. And I told him to see himself like, he’s a doctor, he is the pill to ease somebody’s pain, I’d like and since he had this, this visual in his head, like it became very easy for him to sell. He’s really crushing it now.

And he wants bigger and bigger deals. Because he now sees himself as somebody who’s not like pushing something on somebody like, “No, hey, I’m here to help. I’m here to serve.” I can, doing self love, and that’s off you anymore.

Brynne Tillman  06:26

So help us open up that question then. Right? Or that was the first interaction? Because I mean, we don’t cold call, everything we do is through engagement and referrals. And, you know, so that by the time we get on a call, they already know who we are. 

But how do you create that resource-driven relationship quickly, where they don’t immediately feel like you’re spamming or your cold calling, in some cases you are, but the purpose is so that they know immediately that you’re here to provide value not just to sell.

David Henzel  07:06

One company that does cold outreach and big research. But I have to admit, I’ve never done a cold call in my life. 

Brynne Tillman  07:16

But okay, Well, and that’s good.  

David Henzel  07:20

I think another person, I always like, anybody I meet, like, on a flight, random socially, I was asked a few questions to see how can you provide value to this? This person, you know.

Brynne Tillman  07:33

Okay, So we’re sitting together next to, you know, we’re sitting in business class, we’re all stretched out, we’ve got our drink. What do you do?

David Henzel  07:42

So I asked you about your business conduct, not requiring like, you know, what’s currently a pain point that you have in your business? Or personally, just like calling, digging? 

Brynne Tillman  07:53

And you would ask that as a first opening question. We just met, we just sat down. We’re meeting for the first time. You’re like, “Hi, I’m David”. And I say “Hi, I’m Brynne.” 

David Henzel  08:09

Now, So in a business context, they’ll probably ask, “Hey, What’s your business?” You know, What do you do?

Brynne Tillman  08:15

Okay, So that right off, that’s so American, and I thought with a little bit of accent, you wouldn’t go right into that. 

David Henzel  08:23

So, I have lived in LA for eight years and also I was hired okay.

Brynne Tillman  08:26

Yeah, so I personally don’t like when someone immediately says, unless you’re in a networking place where you’re there, you know, Business Card Exchange, or trade show or conference, it’s different. But when I’m out in the world, and someone starts with, so tell me what you do, I tend to back off of that, because I feel like they’re gonna sell me.

David Henzel  08:53

Yeah, I guess it’s, I mean, I don’t it’s, it’s always contextual, and have like a standard pickup line, you know, like, something like, you know, it’s just, like always contextual, like, kind of what we’re doing, like, Hey, what do you think about the speaker? 

Or you know, so it’s like, it’s kind of hard to off the bat, but it’s usually a little smoother. And when I talk to somebody rather than not in the business context of asking, like, you know, how do you spend the day so what are you passionate about? 

Brynne Tillman  09:21

You know, what’s kind of like, really amazing that you jump in, I’ll tell you a little bit of what I do. And then you critique me. So David, nice to meet you. Are you flying home or flying out?

David Henzel  09:33

Yes. So is this like, are you coming? Oh, you’re going Wednesday on the right.

Brynne Tillman  09:37

That’s the first thing. Oh, I’m flying home. Oh, excellent. Were you here visiting family or was this for business. Right? And that’s how I sort of started that conversation. And if he answers if you answer whatever, two or three questions without asking back I stop. 

And the reason is that if he has zero interest in asking me anything, he’s gonna have even less interest asking me about my business or my company. Now, if you turn it over and say, “Oh, what about you?” Right? Oh, yeah, I was here for the keynote, I was talking about LinkedIn for social selling. It was really a lot of fun. I love this city. Right? And so, but I don’t say anything about me until they ask.  

David Henzel  10:28

Yeah, Same. Also, you know, I never push my business cards in some way, like, “Hey, I do this,” like, no, no, it’s always like people remember you way better if they talk most of the time. And he’s just like that. I think selling is asking really good questions, kind of like figuring out how to get to the pain point of somebody and I always play the long game.

I never, like I never push my business on somebody like you prefer it more if it can be something. I’m a personal development geek. I’m a habits geek. And I’d like to have this tool, these different tools in my tool belt that I can bring out of this portfolio of companies. So if somebody has, like, “You know, depending on what it is that they do,” I can often offer them some solutions that I have in my tool belt.

Brynne Tillman  11:12

So most people have one you have many. So which is great, you can, you know, solve lots of problems. As a coach, Right? You’re a coach is your business, Right?

David Henzel  11:24

Up coaches? Well, my business, it’s a software for coaches, and then under managing happiness.com. This is my coaching business, where I do corporate coaching. I’m helping people to figure out what they really want out of life and how to get it.

Brynne Tillman  11:39

That’s awesome. So let’s talk about that for a moment. And I know I think if I read correctly, you work with startups all the way through, like at any point in their scale.

David Henzel  11:54

I work with people in leadership positions mainly, or entrepreneurs, just like the main target audience that I’m working with.

Brynne Tillman  12:01

Okay, so now you get you have a new client, they’re an entrepreneur. They’re billing seven $800,000 a year, they have three employees. And they’re stuck. I would say this is an enormous amount of the people that are listening today. Right? And they’re stuck. 

What is the first thing that you would pull out of them? Like how do you identify when you’re saying they hire you? This is our first coaching session, what would you say to them to start to identify why they’re stuck?

David Henzel  12:36

Like where they’re stuck, we don’t like something called the wheel of life where people can rate their life in different areas like college doing financially, family, friends, romance, kind of all these different things in your rate from 0 to 10 and then this gives you clear insights, this reflection on like, where people are stuck.

Brynne Tillman  12:57

And then you take that stuck, and how do you help them get unstuck.

David Henzel  13:02

So um, I’m not a traditional coach in this manner, I do not work with people one on one, it’s always a quote based approach where people come in, we build something like an EOS forum where like eight entrepreneurial leaders come together. 

And they go through the course in eight weeks. And they do like certain exercises so it’s a mix of some videos and some homework that they do and then we meet once a week to share our results with each other. So it’s not traditional culture. 

Brynne Tillman  13:35

I’m not a traditional coach. I love peer coaching to be able to have, you know, that it’s more than one perspective on a challenge or something like that. 

David Henzel  13:43

And I love pure learning because like, you’re someone who has an issue and somebody else in the court has experienced something similar and then like sharing No, it’s way better to hear this from appearance versus like, Oh, yeah. I love entrepreneurs.

Brynne Tillman  14:00

So what advice would you give an entrepreneur who’s looking to move from a lifestyle business to like, you know, a real company?

David Henzel  14:10

So the book really opened my eyes. It’s called Traction by Gino Whitman teaches you the E-O-S, the Entrepreneurial Operating System and I’m pretty shaved right now. So you don’t see my gray hair, my beard. But if I would have read this book 15 years earlier, I would have liked the business would have been like five exercises and it would be way less stressful because all these things are grabbing there. 

I learned with a lot of blood, sweat and tears. So organization development is like if you want to take your business to the next level, like figure out what the basics are described in this book, I think is like something that I’ll do and then another thing I do myself often is I track every day, what do I spend my time on? And then I read it like, is this like a $10 Our task 100 on our task 1000 on our test, net, make sure I do not do tasks like with, like, outsource to somebody else. And then I hired somebody for that. 

And also in terms of hiring, when I started the business, I like to start new businesses, I like to scratch my own itch. If I have, for example, an upbringing which was also born that way, and the beginning I’m in and then I think a good manager manages himself out of the business. So basically, kind of like, you know, replacing finding good people that can own certain areas in the business. So it’s, it’s not all on your shoulders.

Brynne Tillman  15:34

That’s awesome. So I’m a huge EOS fan. I have two folks that I recommend all the time for EOS implementation, and Callaghan and Michael Tilden. So if there are people that I would recommend that you connect with as well, because their customers could need you. There are probably really good folks to connect with but when I read traction, orI audio read it. 

Yeah. And there were things I kept looking at. And one of the things that it brought out for me was the right people on the right bus in the right seat. See, Right? And that was a big aha moment for me, because I had a lot of the right people but not all in the right seat. 

And I had a couple of not right people at all on the bus that I liked. But we I was able to make kind of that shift in the business. So I agree that that’s an amazing way to go. Any last tips that you have, before we kind of wrap this up.

David Henzel  16:45

Go back to the initial thing that said, like love, not fear, play the long game, see how you can provide value to people and everything becomes way easier to everybody that you come in touch with. I read this book called Conscious Capitalism by John Mackey, the founder of Whole Foods. 

The original concept of a business is you have to increase shareholder value and basically make your own business rich. And the conscious approach is you do good to all stakeholders, not just by the shareholders. So suppliers, customers, employees, environment, whatever everything the business touches, gets value from it. 

And by doing this, it becomes much more fun and much easier, in my opinion, to scale a business because everybody believes in it. You create a great culture inside of your business.

Brynne Tillman  17:28

So you’re showing up authentically. 

David Henzel  17:31

Yes. It’s true.

Brynne Tillman  17:32

Well, David, this is a lot of fun. I thank you so much for your time. You have a little offer for our listeners to get a one month free coupon for that up coach.com online platform where they can use it for Client Onboarding and team management, Right? And that’s if you go to upcoach.com Then what do they do?

David Henzel  17:57

Well, easiest is if they just send me an email to [email protected] . And then I’ll hook them up with his account app, which is originally built for coaches to run their coaching business better. But we also run all of our businesses inside of our coach like level 10 meetings, and all that stuff you have in there. 

And you can also use it in my service businesses for example, shortlist, I always say backlink building service like a marketing agency type thing. And we use it for all the client communication and the onboarding. And so it’s a very multifaceted tool. So check it out. 

Brynne Tillman  18:33

I think you’re wonderful. Thank you so much for your time. And for your insights. I am sure you will get lots of people reaching out to you to learn a little bit more. And to our listeners. Thanks so much for that, you keep coming back. If this is your first time listening, make sure you subscribe and when you are out and about don’t forget to make your sales social.

Outro 18:59

Thanks for listening and join us again for more special guest instructors bringing you marketing, sales, training and social selling strategies that will set you apart. Don’t forget to subscribe to get the latest episodes from the making sales social podcasts, leave a review down below. Tell us what you think, what you learned and what you want to hear from us next. You can also listen to us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Stitcher, and Google Play. Visit our website socialsaleslink.com for more information.