Episode 454: From Selling to Solving: How Small Businesses Can Win with AI and Smart Strategy

Andrew Frazier 00:00
I think at the end of the day, everything is about relationships, and selling today should be more about offering than selling.

Speaker 1 00:15
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 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.

Stan Robinson Jr. 00:40
Welcome to the Making Sales Social podcast. Today we have the pleasure of welcoming Andrew Frazier. Great to have you here, Andrew.

Andrew Frazier 00:56
Hey, Stan. Great to be here. Thanks for having me on the show.

Stan Robinson Jr. 01:01
It is our pleasure. If it’s okay, I’ll give you a proper introduction and you can add or subtract anything as you see fit.
Andrew is the founder of the Small Business Pro University, dedicated to helping entrepreneurs scale with proven strategies in sales, marketing, finance, and leadership. Known as the “Masterpreneur,” he’s a three-time author, business coach, and fractional CFO/COO who has worked with over 1,000 business owners to grow revenue, maximize profit, and secure financing.
With degrees from MIT and NYU, Navy service, and a corporate executive background, Andrew’s mission is to empower 1,008,008 entrepreneurs by 2028. He’s even been called the “Michael Jordan of Networking” for those who remember the Bulls of the ’90s.
Great to have you with us.

Andrew Frazier 02:18
Excellent. Thanks for having me. Hopefully, I live up to the introduction you provided. Thank you.

Stan Robinson Jr. 02:28
Yes, I hope the last part wasn’t a hallucination from ChatGPT.

Andrew Frazier 02:33
No, no. I actually wrote an article that included that statement.

Stan Robinson Jr. 02:49
Very good. The first question we ask each of our guests is: What does “making sales social” mean to you?

Andrew Frazier 03:01
I think at the end of the day, everything is about relationships, and selling today should be more about offering than selling. It’s more casual now, and there are many more media to do it on.
Taking advantage of different platforms is key—especially since you need seven to twelve touches before someone is likely to buy from you. Incorporating social into the mix allows you to do that faster and easier.

Stan Robinson Jr. 03:48
Good deal. Thank you. One thing I’ve heard you say—because I’ve been to a number of your events—is that when businesses are getting started, the most important thing for them to focus on is sales and marketing. Can you expand on that?

Andrew Frazier 04:16
Sure. It’s not only at the beginning—it’s throughout the life cycle of a business. In my book Running Your Small Business Like a Pro, the second chapter is, “What Is Your Most Important Job as a Business Owner?”
If you don’t know your most important job, you’re probably not doing it—and as a result, you’re not doing as well as you could.
And that job is sales and marketing. It doesn’t matter what business you have—your job as the owner is to sell and market.
A lot of people come into business not realizing this. I often ask people to grade their abilities on a scale of 1 to 10 in marketing and sales. Usually, they say 6 or 7. I tell them, “If you were an 8 or 9, imagine how much better your business would be.”
So it’s important to learn everything you can. This show is great because there’s so much to learn, and I’m sure it will be helpful to a lot of people.

Stan Robinson Jr. 05:39
One thing your answer made me think about is that most people rate themselves around a 5, 6, or 7 because they start a business around their passion—not around sales or marketing. It’s usually their product or expertise.
How do you help them move from a six to an eight or nine so they can build cash flow?

Andrew Frazier 06:14
One of the biggest things is that they don’t understand what sales is and what marketing is. If you don’t understand what you’re trying to do, you won’t do it well.
So I start with definitions.
Selling is about solving a problem—you’re not trying to get someone to buy something; you’re addressing a need, want, or desire.
Marketing is about building a relationship and having a strategy. Most people think marketing is about tools—but how do you know which tools to use if you don’t have a strategy?
So I reset everything and defined what marketing is, what sales is, and the best practices for both.

Stan Robinson Jr. 07:17
Makes perfect sense. Switching gears a bit, you’ve worked with thousands of business owners and were an early adopter of AI. Where do you see AI making the most impact on sales and marketing for small businesses?

Andrew Frazier 07:53
Number one is content creation—AI helps you communicate more effectively, quickly, and better.
A huge part of sales is messaging, and you can use AI to tighten your messaging in great ways. It can improve email communication, social media content, so many things.
AI exists in many platforms we already use. It helps you run your business better, cheaper, and faster.
Small businesses actually have an advantage because AI helps you be more creative, flexible, and proactive than larger businesses. AI magnifies that advantage.

Stan Robinson Jr. 09:35
Got it. And when you mention communication, that applies not only externally but also internally—with team members, vendors, etc. AI can help tighten messages or make them more diplomatic.
We always stress: don’t just copy and paste AI-generated messages. Read them. Make sure they make sense. These tools can hallucinate.

Andrew Frazier 10:50
Right—and they can misspell words or add things that aren’t correct. You definitely need to add your knowledge and expertise to it.

Stan Robinson Jr. 11:10
Exactly. Switching back to tools—when small businesses are getting started, are there specific tools you recommend they start with?

Andrew Frazier 11:44
Definitely, start with an AI-enabled email plugin or tool—something built into your email platform. It can check spelling, recommend improvements, and help you communicate better. It’s like spell check, but much more powerful.
Then get ChatGPT or a similar tool. Learning how to use it is important.
For example, I recently created my Masterpreneur Growth Assessment—an online tool that tells people which of the five steps in the Masterpreneur path they’re on, and what stage of evolution they’re at as a business owner.
There are 10 growth factors, and I had to create about 100 pieces of content for the responses. The final report is around 50 pages.
AI was huge for that project. I wrote some content, then had AI expand it and turn it into paragraph form. It’s always best to start with your own content and have AI enhance it—not the other way around.

Stan Robinson Jr. 14:22
Wow. And with this tool, you were basically going back and forth with ChatGPT to build out the components. If someone answered the assessment and landed on step five, how are you using AI for the output?

Andrew Frazier 14:55
For each of the 10 growth factors, there are five possible responses based on the score. That’s 50 potential responses right there.

Stan Robinson Jr. 15:11
Yep, adds up quickly.

Andrew Frazier 15:15
It’s very comprehensive, and that was incredibly powerful.

Stan Robinson Jr. 15:26
I know you often talk about getting to the point where you can work on your business instead of exclusively in your business. Are there areas where you’ve seen AI help entrepreneurs free up time so they can focus more on working on their business?

Andrew Frazier 15:56
Definitely, AI frees up time in many ways. It can also take more time because you now have more capability—you start doing more than you would have before, and doing it better.
For example, if I had to manually create all 50 assessment responses, I might have only ended up doing 10. AI saved time, but it also enabled me to expand the project and add more value.

Stan Robinson Jr. 16:44
That makes sense. Once you invest the time up front, it helps you long-term.

Andrew Frazier 16:55
Yes—either going forward or even immediately.
Take images, for example. Before AI-driven images, creating one could take a long time. Now you can generate several quickly, which expands your creative options.

Stan Robinson Jr. 17:33
Right, it opens more opportunities. Zooming out, are there other common mistakes you see small business owners make when trying to integrate technology into their business?

Andrew Frazier 18:18
Yes, many small business owners don’t do market research. They don’t prepare before they try to market and sell.
Technology can help with this:
– AI tools help define your target market and messaging.
– Automation helps you communicate more often and gather feedback.
– Tools like LinkedIn help you build relationships.

My uncle was an international management consultant who ran his entire business through his LinkedIn profile—no website at all. Technology can do a lot.

Stan Robinson Jr. 19:36
Good point. Looking ahead—no more five-year predictions with AI evolving so fast—what do you see happening in the next 18 months to two years with AI in sales and marketing?

Andrew Frazier 20:27
AI is going to be huge—either hugely positive or hugely negative.
If you don’t stay on top of it, your competition will outpace you. Everything they do will become cheaper, faster, and better.
How you adopt and utilize AI will be the deciding factor.

Stan Robinson Jr. 21:15
Absolutely. Adoption is key. These tools don’t come with user manuals, so you have to invest time to learn them—and rely on resources like you to help shortcut the process.

Andrew Frazier 22:04
Yes. And I always tell people: simplify.
You don’t need to use all the AI tools. Look at what you’re already doing, or want to be doing, and pick tools that support that.
One example is Video.ai—now Quso.ai. It edits long videos into short clips. I upload my livestream, and ten minutes later, I have 30 clips. That allowed me to finally use TikTok and expand to YouTube Shorts.
Use AI for things you’re already doing—not just AI for the sake of AI.
And people shouldn’t be afraid of it. Even I had some hesitation at first. It’s much easier than you think.

Stan Robinson Jr. 23:43
Sounds like that tool was a game-changer. What’s one other tool that allowed you to do something you always wished you could do?

Andrew Frazier 24:09
ChatGPT, of course.
But another huge one is my scheduler—Acuity. It’s the best thing ever. It saves time, keeps me organized, and improves the customer experience. People appreciate how easy it is.

Stan Robinson Jr. 25:03
So like Calendly, where you send someone a link?

Andrew Frazier 25:09
Yes—like Calendly, but better.

Stan Robinson Jr. 25:18
Which one is it?

Andrew Frazier 25:25
I use Acuity—A-C-U-I-T-Y. It’s part of Squarespace now. It’s flexible, has great features, and you can fully brand it. Calendly doesn’t offer that level of customization.

Stan Robinson Jr. 26:22
Great. Thank you. This has been awesome. Where can listeners go to learn more about you?

Andrew Frazier 26:34
Connect with me on LinkedIn—we put out a lot of great content.
My website is SBProU.com.
The assessment I mentioned is in beta testing, so it’s free. You can access it at:
SBProU.com/take-the-assessment

Stan Robinson Jr. 27:25
Great. We’ll include your website and LinkedIn in the show notes. Thank you again for making the time.

Andrew Frazier 28:00
Thank you. I appreciate the opportunity. I’m excited about your show.
You should take my assessment—I’d love your feedback.
Also, on September 30th is the five-year anniversary of my livestream, and we’re launching a new book based on tips from livestream guests.

Stan Robinson Jr. 28:41
Got it. That sounds familiar. Good deal.

Andrew Frazier 28:46
Yes, everything is really coming together.

Stan Robinson Jr. 28:55
Where can people watch the livestream?

Andrew Frazier 29:01
On my YouTube channel: Small Business Pro University.
It’s also on Facebook and LinkedIn. If you connect with me, you’ll find it there.

Stan Robinson Jr. 29:18
Awesome. Thank you so much. We’ll definitely stay in touch.

Andrew Frazier 29:27
Thanks. Take care.

Outro
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