Episode Transcript
[00:00:09] Speaker A: You're listening to Selling the Dream. This isn't an interview, and we're not journalists, but each week we'll ask our guests to open up and share their secrets to business success.
Let's have a conversation and have some fun.
[00:00:20] Speaker B: Hey, everybody. Welcome to another episode of Selling the Dream.
Here we talk about sales, entrepreneurship, leadership. We have a lot of fun. And as always, I'm joined by my co host, Joe Iredell, coming to us from the left coast, the west coast, Carlsbad, California. Joe, what's going on, brother?
[00:00:42] Speaker C: Not much, man. Not much.
It's good to be. Good to be back on catching up with you. Feel like it's been a minute.
[00:00:50] Speaker B: I know we missed each other in Florida. That was.
That would have been cool if we could have caught up with each other, but. Yeah, so it's hard to catch up if I don't, actually.
[00:01:00] Speaker C: Yeah.
That's funny, because I missed you in Hawaii, too.
[00:01:06] Speaker B: Yeah. Missed you at the supermarket yesterday.
No, but how's. How's everything going with your. You did your grand opening down there in Florida?
[00:01:16] Speaker C: Yeah, it went. It went awesome, man. It's. It's really. It's cool because of, you know, what we're doing, we're really. It's really helping people.
A lot of, you know, when people are living with diabetes and all the complications around it and the options out there, basically, you take drugs, you take insulin, and you get worse and worse and worse. So it's this alternative, and, you know, it's really great what we've been doing, but not to get too nerdy. How about you, man? What you been up to?
[00:01:50] Speaker B: Oh, man, it's. It's been crazy here. Yo, you want. Have you met Topper yet?
[00:01:55] Speaker C: Topper? No.
[00:01:57] Speaker B: Come here.
There you go.
Look at that guy.
Look at that.
[00:02:06] Speaker C: How about that?
[00:02:08] Speaker B: He might bark. I don't know if it's bad podcast etiquette to have a dog barking in the background, but listen, if we were. If we were a good podcast, we would care about a lot more important things than the dog's barking in the background.
[00:02:22] Speaker C: That dog kind of looks like you, you know?
Did you start to look like the dog, or did you just pick out a dog that looks like you?
[00:02:30] Speaker B: I'm not sure. I. I know this dude. I am what's known as a spare. You know what a spare is
[00:02:37] Speaker C: that? Dude,
[00:02:41] Speaker B: this dog.
This dog follows my wife everywhere. I don't care. Like, he listens to my wife. He follows my wife. You know, He. He. This is her dog, right? So I'm like the spare parent. Like, if she's not around, he's cool to hang out with me. Like, he'll hang out, you know, he's all of a sudden he's interested in me. But when she's around, boy, I can't get him to even look in my direction.
[00:03:07] Speaker A: It's crazy.
[00:03:08] Speaker C: I got a couple kids like that.
I got it.
[00:03:14] Speaker B: Well, listen, man, let's get into it today. I'm really looking forward to this episode. I want to introduce our guest, our guest, Carlos Sarmiento from the Corcoran Group Stephen pressing group there in Florida. Carlos, welcome to the show.
[00:03:32] Speaker A: Thank you so much for having me, guys. I appreciate it.
[00:03:35] Speaker B: Absolutely. So, Carlos, Carlos was introduced to me by Jay Duran. Jay is a, A big friend of, of selling the dream. Joe knows, knows Jay's been on a couple of times and so far, Carlos, not to put any pressure on you, but Jay has introduced us to some cool people and we've had some people on the show that were recommendations of Jay and so far, all of them have been awesome. So I'm just saying you, you really have something to live up to here. You can't just like, pretend, you know, you know, that this isn't a big deal.
[00:04:10] Speaker A: All right, hopefully I can live up to it.
[00:04:14] Speaker B: I'm sure you will. So let's get crack. Like, do me a favor. Just tell me a little bit about, you know, how you got into the real estate business, but more importantly, kind of where you are today in your journey.
[00:04:29] Speaker A: Absolutely. So I initially started sales when I was 19. I was at a. I went to Bucks County Community College. You guys know Bucks? So I saw a poster saying said, easy work, 17 now or whatever it was. Ended up being vector marketing. Cutco.
And I'm sure you guys heard of Cutco Vector Marketing.
So I started doing sales. It was basically direct sales, selling high quality cutlery knives to people. And when I first started, I, you know, I didn't have a car. I didn't have. I just basically walked or took the bus and I ended up being. Ended up working at the company. Being the number one rep at that company completely changed my view of sales and direct sales.
I had jobs before that, like Wegmans and, you know, things like that. But I never took it serious, just to be honest. I would either quit or get fired.
[00:05:21] Speaker B: You were the number one rep at
[00:05:23] Speaker A: CutCo in my, in the, in my office in Bucks county. In the Bucks county area for that site summer. So I was the number one rep that summer. I was able to buy a Car. I was able to, you know, save enough to buy a car. And then that's where I started my sales career, basically.
[00:05:38] Speaker C: How many. How many knives is that exactly?
[00:05:43] Speaker A: A shitload.
But it's. It's. It's a good product. It's a good product. So it's. It's funny because direct sales can be.
It can be. Is a very tough job, but at the same time, it's when you're young. And at that point I was 19, I just didn't care about notes. I just, like, I would just figure, all right, well, the next person. I'll just see the next person. And I will mostly see, you know, young, you know, wives. It was 90 of the wise Mrs. Jones. And. And I would just, you know, I didn't know anything about sales. I would just be enthusiastic and smile. That's all they talk like, you know, just be enthusiastic and smile and don't forget to ask for the order. So that's what I did. And I crushed it for a little bit to the point that I got promoted to a branch manager, which I. At 19, I. I was in Cutco in this. In the summer at Bucks. And then I got promoted to open my own Cutco gig at 20 years old in Philly. And here I am, a young kid at 20 years old having an office in Philly. At that point, they asked me to choose an office in Philly, and I had no idea about Philly because I wasn't there yet. And I chose Port Richmond. And at that time in 2000, a long time ago, 2000, I think it was, what, 2010.
You know, poor Richmond was. That was pre.
[00:06:57] Speaker B: Pre gentrification Port Richmond.
[00:06:59] Speaker C: Oh, yeah, that's before the hipsters move in.
Yeah, before you got PBR and Nutella on every corner.
[00:07:09] Speaker A: So here I am, 20 years old, I don't know any. You know, I chose this random place in Port Richmond, and I'm selling knives in, like, the ghetto. So, like, it was, like, tough. So it ended up being like the biggest. One of the biggest learnings experience of my life because I learned so much from. By the way, my first office was not successful at all. Like, I think I. It was the summer program that selling Cutco, I was good at selling, but running an office was completely different. I had to hire people, receptionists and things like that. So it was a lot of failures that summer. But as we know, failures could be the best thing at times.
[00:07:43] Speaker B: You know, let's touch on a couple things because I love this part of your journey. Like, I Want to get into the real estate where you are right now, because there's some important stuff there that we had discussed earlier. But, but the idea of being 19 years old, being experience, you know, talent and enthusiasm over experience, right? Like, I mean, it's amazing how many people hold themselves back because they don't have the experience. Now. I'm. I'm not a big fake until you make it guy. I. I guess sometimes I feel like depending on the situation. But Joe, you know, we were the same way, right? Like, coming out of. Coming out of college. Like, what do we know about, you know, yellow page marketing? Nothing, right? Nothing. But you put on a suit, you show up with enthusiasm, and people almost buy because they're attracted to you rather than the product that you're actually selling. And you think about a product that you need. You need disposable income, enough disposable income for one person to tell you this knife that you already have in your drawer that does a great job is not good enough. You need this knife, right? Like, what's that sales call?
[00:08:54] Speaker A: Like, yeah. So, you know, I was lucky enough that I had a great product. The product is really good.
It's the best in the world. And, and, you know, I. I'm not. Listen, I'm about to go cut some
[00:09:10] Speaker C: cans and tomatoes all in the same shot.
[00:09:14] Speaker A: So, I mean, the product definitely had a big involvement because it is such a good product. And, you know, people cook every day. I mean, so it was a combination of me selling that dream of. Or the product or whatever it was. But I think that was most important. And the reason why I was so successful was because I understood it early on in my sales career. I started understanding more about. It wasn't just the sales. It's more connected with the client. It was when I first started realizing that, making the sale, I think half the battle was building the rapport. That's something that I learned early on and obviously carried on through my career. But I think it was most important about learning the basic of. Of, you know, enthusiasm and excitement goes a certain way. Like, you only go so far. And I was learning the ropes on how to run a business, how to connect with clients. And I think it kind of, you know, build a good culture into the company, into the sales. But I think, I think the best, the most basic and most important thing was connecting with clients at that point. So one of the things I did, I. I sold. We had like a scholarship incentive where I would say, Mrs. Jones, you're helping me towards the scholarship. And and that created momentum and, and created, you know, the beginning of, of my career with Cutco and, and sales.
[00:10:23] Speaker B: The. The quickness in which you need to make that connection is the real talent. Right? That's. I think that's what separates it, you know, because you're drawing on innate kind of instincts there. Right.
You know, I'll never be able to dunk a basketball, right, because that's not my innate skill set. But I feel like salespeople do have a certain level of. Of internal talent that's required at eq, that. The ability to, to read people and understand what it is they're looking for, you know. Joe, what's your take on that?
[00:10:58] Speaker A: Is.
[00:10:58] Speaker B: Is.
[00:10:58] Speaker C: Is it.
[00:10:59] Speaker B: Is it more talent? Is it skill? Is it knowledge? If you had to rank the three, I think I know the answer, but tell me what you think.
[00:11:05] Speaker C: It's the X factor. It's the, It's.
It's an intangible kind of level of, of empathy and also like a weird mixture of opportunism. So where you can, you can hear in someone's voice or their mannerisms, like, you can actually feel what they're feeling and then quickly fill the void of what they're looking for. And like, that's. That has the. The quicker you can assess that and the quicker you can do that, the much better a communicator you're going to be, because that's essentially what it all comes down to. But it's. It almost. I mean, it becomes innate. Like, you just start doing it in everything you do. And the more that you do it, the more practice you get at it, the more different types of people you meet and how you understand. And then, like, it's. It's actually, it's a science because then it's like, cultural too. Like, some cultures are different and some people. So once you start to study people and you can not get in their heads, but more get into their, like, emotional spectrum and understand kind of. Am I. Is this person looking for hope to gain? Are they fear of loss? Are they, like, egotistical?
Are they, you know, like, analytical? Like all the different.
[00:12:25] Speaker B: Are they looking for a friend?
[00:12:27] Speaker C: Yeah, exactly. Dude.
[00:12:29] Speaker B: Honestly, sometimes.
Sometimes people just look and have a good time, you know?
[00:12:34] Speaker C: Exactly, man. I'm sure some of those housewives bought knives off of you when they probably
[00:12:40] Speaker A: had like five sets.
They, you know, they did. And, and it was.
It absolutely did. And, and to add on to what you guys are saying, I think that's something that when I was younger, I didn't Understand much. But as far as one of the things that I did right and I didn't even know I was doing right, it was always honest with my clients. And the same person that, you know, got the appointment over the phone was the same person that showed up. And I showed consistency from the beginning, throughout the end. And you know what those cocktail that database of leads because I generated almost close to. I think it's over close to a thousand Mets and emails. I still use a real estate. I, you know, and, and some of the clients that I use for Cutco became my clients in real estate and became friends.
So. So anyone's listening that's younger. I know a lot in your pockets. I heard, you know, there's a lot of more team leaders and people are more established. But as a young person, I think getting just into sales or any type of sales I think is so important because you learn to, like you said, read the room. I think one of the things that was very important is. And when I was younger I would talk a lot. I would speak, I still talk a lot by the way, but I would talk about. But I really started to listen more as, as I went on sales because listening is very important when it comes to sales.
[00:13:52] Speaker B: What was that? No, I'm just kidding.
[00:13:54] Speaker A: Just kidding.
[00:13:57] Speaker B: So shout out to Lindsay Musa Pacheco too because she is a rock star. She, she made an entire career. Forget about entry level sales. She's a, she is a master salesperson and promoter and marketer and brand ambassador for Cutco. And, and, and obviously that's somebody that Carlos and I know in common. So. So you, you touched on this transition or this segue between Cutco. Where did you go from Cutco? Did you go right into real estate? How did that look?
[00:14:27] Speaker A: Yes. So Cutco. So I got promoted to a branch manager, did that and then I kept selling Cutco while I was in a temple. While I was at temple, I got promoted to a district manager. Now I was running the Y or missing district area, which is. Right reading area.
So while I was going to college, I, I did my district management which I basically ran an office full time, not just for the summer, full time.
And basically I knew at that point I knew Cutco wasn't going to be my thing forever. I mean I knew I loved it and I got the skills. But I actually one of my friends that I met from Cutco referred me to Larry Minsky. He's a real estate agent. I think he said KW Newtown now. But he used to work at Weikert I got, I got recruited from Weiker from Larry to become a manager apprentice in Whitegard. So they used to have that program where they basically bring you in and shape you to be a broker. So that's where I got started in my real estate career. I ended up not finishing the. I was only there for a year as a manager apprentice and then I ended up branching off to just being a regular real estate agent.
[00:15:29] Speaker B: Okay. And then that was at Weikert.
[00:15:31] Speaker A: So.
[00:15:31] Speaker B: So when did you transition over to KW?
[00:15:35] Speaker A: So I, that was so 2015.
I started chasing from, from Whitekert 2016 I started a KW and I'm still a KW and PA with Empower, KWM power. And I still actually obviously I have, I've been doing real estate for 10 years in, in Philly. Now I'm branch and down here to Florida. There was a point where I'm the type of person that has to be motivated by something. You know as entrepreneurs. Sometimes it's, you know, entrepreneurship is not for everybody and entrepreneurship can be hard at points. And I got to the point where I got not complacent but I wasn't as excited to do real estate in a PA so I eventually my wife now we decided to move down here to Florida and I decided to completely start a residential high luxury residential business down here in Florida for real estate.
And that's, this is where my direct sales and direct customer customer skills are coming in because I learned how to approach clients and I learned how to prospect business. Even if I'm new in the area, I knew how to prospect by, by those skills. So right now corporate.
Go ahead.
[00:16:47] Speaker B: Well I was going to say let's, let's, let's talk about prospecting for a second. Um, you know, so for the salespeople that are listening, right.
It is, it, it's, it's a word that conjures up negative emotions. Prospecting. Right. Whether it's cold calling or going door to door like we used to do with the phone book.
But, but it's such an overlooked not only skill set, right. You gotta get reps, reps, reps, reps, reps.
But it's the thousand dollar an hour activity, right? Prospecting is truly the thousand dollar in activity that creates discomfort that salespeople push away from. Let talk, talk to me about your prospecting, the importance of prospecting, but also your prospecting philosophy and model.
[00:17:34] Speaker A: Absolutely. So as when I used to touch my repeat my reps in Cutco and even now we used to say, and I used to say prospecting is the name of the game. I mean, anyone who's in sales knows that prospecting is what keeps your business alive. Whether you know whatever you're selling, prospecting that I learned how to master prospecting and following up. I think if you listen to this podcast and you're a newer agent and you're new in sales, if you're older sales or you've been in sales, you already know this. Prospecting is so important to your business. And the culture of having a prospecting schedule in your times, in your schedule is the most important thing you can do.
The reason why is because, number one, it doesn't matter if you're running just a single agency. Like, you know, it's just you're a single agent or you're running a business, you always have to think about the next step, which is prospecting, getting a new business, getting that new house for sale, whatever it is is going to keep you going. So, you know, when I was a younger agent, I used to get caught up maybe a house or two that I got and I couldn't sell. But I started learning that it doesn't matter what happened before because I could always prospect for the next house. So one of the things I do religiously now, especially starting in a new state, I. No matter what happens in my calendar, prospecting is the first thing in the morning. I mean, I have, you know, morning routines and, you know, gym times here and there. But no matter what happens every morning, depending on my schedule, obviously there's appointments, there's a 250 phone calls I make every single day to expires, cancels, or anybody.
[00:19:06] Speaker B: Put your right hand up. Put your right hand up. You swear you make 250 phone calls a day?
[00:19:11] Speaker A: I swear. I swear that I do. And it's hard, man. I listen, there's days where I just don't feel like prospecting. And then, and it's. And obviously everybody knows, you know, you guys are sales, you, you know, you. It's just hard sometimes you not in the mood or sometimes you don't want to do it. You got things going on in your house and your life or whatever it is. But it's just if I don't prospect, I don't feel good about my business. And that's just it. And I. And I don't know.
And that's just how serious prospecting is for me. It's just, especially being in a new state, I have to absolutely make the phone calls, but most importantly, follow up with people. The prospecting and following up is the name of the game when it comes to sales.
[00:19:52] Speaker B: So Joe, your. Your experience at shore sites is different. You know, obviously, you know, you're in a. A business where there's customer attrition. There's customer attrition in every business. Right?
So, so what. What is it? What does prospecting look like in. On the sure sites side compared to, you know, what we did at Yellow Book or what Cutco or even in the real estate business when you're starting a brand new business in another state, it's.
[00:20:18] Speaker C: It's all. It's exactly the same. It's, you know, it's a numbers game.
The benefit of what sure sites is as opposed to, you know, a run of the mill type of setup is like our worst. We're really like the high end of the highest end. So our mar. We're. We're pretty profitable. So we don't need to rely on volume as much as, you know, we get a couple really nice clients that we take care of. And you know, we. We've had some clients now that are going on 15 years. And so that part of it is really nice, but we have other products that we offer that are, you know, couple hundred bucks a month and we can sell anybody anywhere. And that's that part of prospecting. Like, we could. You can literally just go out and turn on the faucet and knock doors and make, you know, a couple thousand bucks a day. So it's the whole. It's specifically about that company that I have. That's. That's a nice hybrid because we have the luxury of do we want to make this a relationship sale situation where we nurture what we have, we get referrals out of that through, you know, relate or can it just be a straight up numbers game? And it can be both because we have the offerings. But any business that you do to Carlos point here is like, if you don't prospect, you can't. The problem today is like, people rely too much on AI and marketing and inner, you know, like, how do I get these leads? And they just think that, like, they're gonna throw 50 bucks at Facebook and their phone's gonna be ringing off the hook and they're gonna get business. And the reality is that, like, you have to come to grips with the fact that you're not the only person that thought of putting ads online.
[00:22:15] Speaker A: Everybody.
[00:22:17] Speaker C: So.
But you will probably be the only person that goes and walks into that business and shakes the guy's hand and says, hey, I'm not like every other email that just got bombarded into your inbox or every pop up ad that you saw or everything like that. So you can be guaranteed that if you prospect that way or you actually reach out and make a personalized phone call, you're going to be different than everything else. And the key is not only quantity and reps, but how different can you be? And that's where in the beginning different was. What's this new email thing? Oh, I got an email from this guy.
[00:22:53] Speaker A: Cool.
[00:22:53] Speaker C: Like, wow, let me get back now. Every, there's a, millions are like, like, oh, this guy's in my Instagram feed. He must know me like now it's, it's not. So always look for something that no one else is doing and communicate that way. And that's how you're going to get the best bang for your buck.
[00:23:09] Speaker B: And texting is getting ridiculous now, especially through the election. Like that was like the big thing, go back two, three, four years ago. It's like, oh, you know, marketing companies, you know, we're selling the ability to text your database and text your customer base and even that now is completely played out. And you know, the idea of connecting. And in our business we call them Ford conversations. We prospect with a model called Ford, which is not revolutionary. Family, occupation, recreation and dreams. Right? Your goal is to engage in a conversation with a prospect or with a referral partner or even a customer you've had for a long time and connect with them on what's going on with the family. I see your daughter graduated college. How's work going? Occupation? What did you have a good weekend? Recreation. I saw you were down the shore. Hey, you know, we should catch up one time. Dreams like they, that's a tough one. But goals is not that tough. Especially we're talking to families like who are thinking about moving or a real estate agent who wants to hit a certain number. Like the goal conversation, a very natural conversation to have and it's a great way to connect with your potential or current customer. And I think that that's the differentiator 20 years ago, a hundred years ago, and it's still the differentiator today is your willingness to connect with people, not just make a lot of phone calls. Right. What good is 250 phone calls if you're not good at connecting on those calls? Right? Then you're just, you're no different than, you know, than an auto, than a robo dial or robo, you know, salesperson.
[00:24:36] Speaker C: So kj, think of it this way. When we were at Yellow Book and every Every salesperson at that point or outside sales, and they were like, no one wanted to be on the phone. He's banging on the doors every day, oh, can I get an appointment? And we didn't do it that. We did it exactly opposite of everybody else. We'd call. We're like, hey, man, I didn't want to just come into your business tomorrow and disrupt you. Like, I was wondering if we could start. Stop by 15 minutes, whatever. And we got so many appointments because it was different. But then that transitioned, and it's like, no one wants to go in person now. Everybody calls, and so it, like, flip flops. So you really have to, you know, read what people are doing and then just go in a different direction to make yourself unique. And one of the things I'll add, too, is, like, this sounds very counterintuitive. However, don't try to sound professional.
Don't be professional at all.
[00:25:28] Speaker A: Yeah, you just.
[00:25:29] Speaker C: Just be a normal person. And it's like, hey, my job sucks. I have to call you.
[00:25:35] Speaker A: I hate it.
[00:25:36] Speaker C: You probably hate listening to me, but I think I have something that might. You might be interested in. If you. If not, cool. If so, even better. But what do you say you give me five minutes, I tell you about it? That's it.
[00:25:50] Speaker A: Absolutely.
[00:25:51] Speaker C: Conversation people want to have. It's like, our generation is different, you know, and so that's. That's helped tremendously get my foot in the door in a lot of places. It's just being authentic me and not trying to be, you know, hi, can I talk to so and so, blah, blah, blah. Like, forget that, dude. People don't like to talk to those people.
[00:26:09] Speaker B: There's another aspect of prospecting, too, and Carlos, I'm sure you'll agree, is that, you know, prospecting. Or let's say prospecting by phone, because that's kind of what we're talking about. There's. There's multiple ways to prospect, but prospecting by phone, you know, is also, you know, that's so a lot of salespeople, right. As they get into the business, they start to confuse, like Joe said, marketing with selling. Marketing is not selling, and selling is not, you know, marketing.
[00:26:35] Speaker A: They're.
[00:26:35] Speaker B: They're two different things. They support each other.
But what marketing are you doing in support of your prospect? And whether it's. Sometimes it's marketing to make them aware of who you are before you call, sometimes it's marketing to make them remember you after you call. What kind of marketing are you doing to support your prospecting efforts?
[00:26:57] Speaker A: That's a great question. I'm gonna just add to what Joe said before, authenticity, and I'll definitely answer that.
Authenticity is really important.
[00:27:04] Speaker B: He's dodging the question, Joe. He's dodging now.
[00:27:06] Speaker C: I'm just kidding.
[00:27:09] Speaker A: So I'll get back to that. But I think authenticity, the difference between me calling when I first started now is just that you can't script every phone call the same way because some people might be. I kind of like match their tone, match their energy at times. You've got to be different, man. I mean, if you're calling, hey, Mrs. Jones, I saw your house left the market. I'm sold. Like, come on, man, you know, you're not going to be able to maybe list as many houses as you have to break the pattern, you know, you have to. And for example, people, when I call people, some people are like, oh, another call. I'm like, you probably got like a million phone calls, didn't you, Mrs. Jones? Look, people are so annoying. I completely understand. They're like, yeah, you know, I did make, you know, so you have to kind of break that pattern. And authenticity is great. Now as far as marketing goes, just to answer your question. So one of the biggest things that I learned from vector marketing and just being an agent is when you follow up, you have to collect their information. That way you can target your clients. I mean, if you're putting an ad on Facebook or Instagram, just. And you're broad, you're kind of just putting it out there to reach anybody, it's not as effective as targeting people exactly where they're at, where they live. So. So my marketing that I do is I. I'm very big on my newsletters that I have every single week.
I'm very big on collecting emails from every single person that I met in birthdays. What is the easiest way to reach someone? Hit them on their birthday, say, happy birthday, you like. I think my marketing is definitely, you know, I have my social media, I have my normal ways of marketing flyers, you know, all the stuff that realtors usually do. But I think what's most important is really genuinely try to create a relationship with a person because that's what's going to really hold long last lasting relationship with that individual. And it doesn't have to be something, you know, it could be something small, genuinely birthdays, it has to. It can be like, I hit up a lot of. In the way. I'm kind of creating more luxury because I didn't listen, I didn't know anybody when I came There I know a couple people as far as just business that I kind of refer here in Florida. I don't know, I didn't know anybody here. I still don't know how many people. But the way I'm building these relationships is by the phone calls that I make. But I keep their email, keep their information, and at the same time target them through Instagram. Promote. You know, you can target people on Instagram just through their email. That's the type of marketing I do. But you know, I'm going to be honest, my approach has always been just directly phone calls and keeping up with them through, through to just genuinely having a relationship with them and stay in touch with them. That's always worked for me. And I know that a lot of people have different ways and avenues and obviously depends on the business that, that you have. But I think that's, that's, that's what worked with for me the most.
[00:29:40] Speaker B: That's cool. It's funny, the whole pattern disconnect piece, you know, this guy was giving an analogy on pattern disconnect and how it works is duck, duck, goose. Did you see that? I don't know if you saw. So if you want to win at duck, duck, goose, he's like, you know, usually after a long duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, duck, goose. If you lose and you're up, you say goose on the first one and everybody's gonna be caught off guard.
Nobody's gonna be expecting it. Right. And I think that that whole idea is the same thing in, in, in prospecting, like Joe with the authenticity thing or like, hey, I'm a dick, I gotta do this. And you know, I appreciate if you gave me a couple minutes, like use your own thing, but yeah, I mean it, it's, it's, it's. You have to break their immediate knee jerk response that they've been primed to do each and every time.
One of those things is the whole yes thing. Right? I don't know if either one of you guys have read Chris Voss.
What's the name?
[00:30:48] Speaker C: We go over this almost every time. I don't read books.
[00:30:51] Speaker B: I know a book in my life, the book, I just read it not that long ago and I'm drawing a blank on it.
[00:31:00] Speaker A: Difference.
[00:31:01] Speaker B: There it is. And what does he say? Carlos? People are so primed by salespeople, by guys like us, to get them to say yes because of the old definition. Get them to say yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Can I have the business? Yes. But the reality is people say yes now just to get you off the phone, you got to give them a no question. You get them to say no right away, because no has a presence, a sense. It gives you a sense of control and power rather than, you know, being manipulated or tricked into saying yes, which was what the sales techniques of previous generations were taught.
And I think that's. That all plays right into it, the whole pattern disconnect. Give them an opportunity to say no early on in the conversation, and they actually relax and they let their guard down. Keep. If you keep pushing for that yes, they'll say yes to get off the phone. And the first one to, you know, not return your next phone call or cancel the order or cancel the contract or whatever. So I thought that's a really, really good book. If anybody. If anybody's listening, they want, you know, he was a FBI hostage negotiator, but he took his skills, his knowledge as an FBI hostage negotiation negotiator and essentially teaches how, you know, how to get people to. To act, how to figure out what it is they're looking for. Joe, you talked about it earlier, right? Like, you got to listen for what they're looking for, right? Because our job is to figure out what they need and then figure out if our product or service is a good fit and then present it, right? And, you know, if you're not. If you're missing that, if it's not jiving, then you're not going to connect
[00:32:46] Speaker C: one of the things with that. And there's another hack, too, that I'll share, but I found it that when you do that, when you listen and then you.
You identify the fact that what you have is not a good fit for who you're talking to, and you're honest about it, and you say, all right, this isn't good. It gives you so much more confidence the next time when you're talking to somebody that you know you can help. So, like, that's a. It's a weird thing that happens, and then it just builds. It builds your conviction that, you know, that, like, you're not just trying to sell everybody in front of you. You're truly like, all right, is this a good fit? Then you're figuring out the puzzle for them, and they can pick that up. And then the other. The other thing that I found kind of like serendipitously, I guess, is that when. When you have a sort of exclusivity to what you offer, people start coming out of the woodworks where, you know, I got to a point where I'm like, nah, you Know what? We can't handle you because you're a little, you know, you're not our right fit. You're a little small for us or something like that. That makes people want to work with you even more. So when you have that exclusivity and that, you know, we're over here and maybe you're not the best fit for us, then all of a sudden, people are like, whoa, like, hold on. Why can't I work? Why can't you work with me? And like, so it's. It's really weird like. Like how. How the psychology of it all works. But it's.
[00:34:14] Speaker A: No, that's. So that's totally true. Because some people, if they can't have it, they kind of are attracted more to it for some reason. And that's one of the. The ways that you, you know, phoning throughout the years, you don't want to work with everybody. That's the beauty of being an entrepreneur. You know, there's clients and there's people that I called, and I definitely would never want to work with them. So. So it's kind of like, it's basically know what you want and also asking the right questions. The quality of your questions are kind of direct. Direct reflection of who you're going to work with. And also the quality of your questions kind of determine their needs that they have. If you ask the right questions, if you. If you target the client and kind of see exactly where they're at is to. To kind of pick that up early in the conversation, it's best for you, because that way you'll know exactly what to say or what not to say. So I think that's really. It's a good point. Yeah.
[00:35:03] Speaker C: Yeah, for sure. And there's definitely. I can. Can't even count the number of times where I've met with someone, and they've even come referred very highly. And I get five minutes into, you know, a conversation, I'm like, there is no chance in the world I want to work with this guy for all
[00:35:20] Speaker A: the money in the world.
Sorry. Like, so.
[00:35:23] Speaker C: And. And it saved. Like, that's a hard lesson to learn because in the beginning, you're just like, I'll take everybody. Yeah, we could do it.
[00:35:30] Speaker A: Yeah, whatever.
[00:35:30] Speaker C: Maybe this guy will be different. Like. Nope. Nope.
[00:35:34] Speaker B: So, Carlos, how would that affect your brand? If you're trying to build a luxury brand down there in Florida, you know what I mean? And you're listing 30, $40,000, you know, little. Little single houses or something? Like. Like, you do have to Figure out what it is I'm, I'm looking for in a client base, right? And then, and then you have to attract that person or that, that customer, right? If you, if you try and be all things to all people. What's the phrase Ed Fordyce used the other day? If you try and chase a thousand buddies, you won't catch any of them. Right? You got to figure out what it is you're going after and build your, your brand and your, your Joe's. Like, I catch one of them.
[00:36:12] Speaker A: No, that's completely right. I mean, you have to be clear what you desire. You have to be clear what you desire. You have to be specific what you want. How can you ever get to a place where you don't even know where you're going?
So this happened to me right when I moved to Florida.
As I'm making these phone calls. When I first, first moved, I made every phone call, anything from 100k up to, you know, up. And I was definitely picking up these listings, you know, some small condos and things like that. But now that, and I still, by the way, I still did take them because I'm newer in the area. But I mean, my goal, essentially it's selling luxury real estate. I mean, my brand, the pressing group, the team, my team lead, Steven, he just listed a 35 million dollar house. Like, this is the type of stuff that I, I get passionate about. So I'm definitely targeting the clients that I want to work with, and obviously I put myself out there the best way. But you have to target who you want to work with and who you want to go for, and then you
[00:37:06] Speaker B: get them to know you like you, trust you, and the magic happens from there, right?
[00:37:13] Speaker A: Exactly.
[00:37:14] Speaker B: All right, we are jumping into my favorite part of the show tonight. Two truths and a lie. Carlos, I didn't tell you this earlier, but Joe used to work for the CIA, and he is a human lie detector. So don't think you're gonna get anything by him, man. He's gonna pick up on it. So let's go with your two truths and a lie. Tell us three facts and we'll try and figure out which one's the lie.
[00:37:37] Speaker A: All right? All right, so I have, I came from a town under that had less than 5,000 people.
And also my first wholesale deal that I did, I made 30 grand.
And I'm a great cook, an amazing cook.
[00:37:58] Speaker B: I, I.
Joe, go ahead. I'm going to tell you what I think, but you go ahead.
[00:38:03] Speaker C: I think that the lies is the, you're from a town with less than 5,000 people.
[00:38:14] Speaker B: I think so too, before you give us the answer. And, and because, you know, we got experience in this. When people give very specific numbers, it's usually not. I'm from a small town.
I think you had to give a very specific number to make the lie work. So either you, you came from a village with five people, or you came from a very big town. The 5,000 people said somehow is an important delineation.
[00:38:40] Speaker C: 5,000 people went to our. Went to my high school.
[00:38:44] Speaker A: It's really small. That's not a lot of people.
[00:38:48] Speaker B: All right, so what's the lie, Carlos?
[00:38:52] Speaker A: So. So I. I was born in Ecuador in a small town off Quito, which is the capital, and it was under a thousand people. Five thousand people. Sorry. Because I looked it up before I.
Before I got the podcast.
So I did make 30k in my first wholesale deal back in the day, probably like 10 years ago, which I was doing wholesale while I was selling real estate and the lies. I can't cook. Like, I can pancakes. Yeah, that's. My wife is Italian. She cooks. Loves to cook, so. And if you would have saw me six months earlier, it would have been weight 15 pounds thinner, actually, not like a year. So, yeah, I definitely gained a little weight.
[00:39:27] Speaker C: Are you saying you can't cook because your wife won't let you or.
[00:39:31] Speaker A: Not good at. Not good at cooking. Like, I'm cooking.
[00:39:34] Speaker B: All right.
[00:39:34] Speaker A: Yeah. Like, just on what level?
[00:39:37] Speaker B: Like, you burn toast or. Or you, like, give me what, something that you're allowed to cook. What your wife says, Carlos. Okay, you're cooking. You're allowed to cook this. Nothing.
[00:39:48] Speaker A: I mean, I, I. Breakfast is the furthest I'll go. Like eggs and pancake. That's. That's good. But I mean, I. It's just not. Not a good cook. And I mean, I can learn. Listen, I'll learn. What do they make in Ecuador?
[00:40:00] Speaker C: Like papusa or.
[00:40:04] Speaker A: Well, it's a lot of seafoods stuff. If. If you guys are here in Florida, let me take you to this place called Ceviche 305. It's my favorite restaurant down here. Have you been there?
I've never been there.
[00:40:16] Speaker C: I think I've heard it. Yeah.
[00:40:18] Speaker A: Yeah, it's my favorite restaurant.
[00:40:20] Speaker B: Are you in, Carlos?
[00:40:21] Speaker A: I. I live in Palm Beach County. Lake Worth. The city Lake Worth.
[00:40:26] Speaker B: Oh, that's cool, man. All right, listen. So if anybody out there is looking to get some tips on how to improve upon their sales, on what they could be doing, real estate agents Specifically. And if you're a real estate agent and you've listened to the podcast for 40 minutes and 22 seconds, we're about to. Carlos doesn't know it yet. We're about to give you something for free here. If somebody wanted to call you and say, carlos, what do I got to do To. To.
[00:40:48] Speaker A: To.
[00:40:49] Speaker B: To. To. To level up my business. How can they get a hold of you?
[00:40:52] Speaker A: Sure, you can follow me on Instagram at Sell with Carlos, or you can call me at 267-240-2884. It's my cell phone. But Instagram, you can DM me there.
I mean, if you Google Carlos Sarbiento, you'll find me, but, yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure talking to you guys. And I, I listen, I. I think it's amazing when Jade introduced me to you guys, which you guys are awesome, and, and hopefully I can introduce you to someone good as well. But, yeah, it was amazing talking to you guys. Anytime you're in Florida, please come over my house. You guys are friends already online. Let's definitely link up. Let's get some dinner sometime here.
[00:41:30] Speaker C: As long as you're not cooking it.
[00:41:35] Speaker B: Carlos is friends with Josh Buchter. Josh is a friend of the show, so, yeah, we know a lot of people coming. Oh, by the way, before I forget, sell with Carlos, a future top podcast is. Is in the works, so be on the lookout for that.
I understand he's gonna have some cool guests and talking all things real estate and, and, uh, and selling. So, Carlos, thanks for hanging out with us today. We really, really enjoyed it. Joe, we'll catch up soon, brother.
[00:42:05] Speaker C: Yes, sir.
[00:42:06] Speaker A: You guys are amazing. Thank you so much for your.
