How to Sell, Even When You Are Bad at Sales
The following is adapted from Clone the Ace by Forrest Dombrow.
“If you want to be successful, find someone who has achieved the results you want and copy what they do, and you’ll achieve the same results.”
— Tony Robbins
As soon as he said it, I wanted to punch my boss in the face. He was standing in his office talking to the new hotshot salesperson he’d hired and didn’t think I could hear him. My new coworker asked if I was any good at sales. The boss mimicked a person choking and said, “He’s terrible.” I was pissed.
I didn’t punch him in the face — mostly because he was twice my size but also because he was right. I was terrible at sales. I lacked confidence and often said cringeworthy things during sales calls. Although I was a strategic marketing manager and had no desire to be a salesperson, his comment hurt.
Four years later, I faced a more difficult situation. A few coworkers and I left that digital marketing agency to start our own. A year after that, with only a handful of small clients, we parted ways with the founder in charge of sales. The two remaining partners and I were digital marketers, not salespeople. We had no marketing budget, and none of us wanted to do sales.
If we could not get new clients quickly, we would have to get nine-to-five jobs. The idea of having a “regular job” made me nauseous. I said, “Give me $50 a month for marketing, and I’ll try to drum up some business.” Although my partners were willing to help, from a marketing and sales perspective, it was up to me to make the agency fly or die.
After raising my hand to try sales at my fledgling agency, I reached a crossroads: get clients or get a job.
I had a $50-a-month marketing budget, no experience selling digital marketing services, and I HATED networking. I preferred to sit quietly at my computer and crank out work for clients. Small talk drained me. I used to stand in the corner at networking events stuffing my face with hors d’oeuvres to avoid talking to people.
Since the idea of getting a regular job seemed worse than doing sales, I grabbed a stack of business cards and pounded the pavement. In just a few years, we grew the agency to over a million in revenue. In my book, I’ll show you the exact $50-a-month marketing plan I used.
I started by reading sales books and running around town learning by trial and error. My efforts earned me an invitation to a national speaking tour, which generated lucrative referral partnerships and many high-paying clients. Because audience members voted me one of the best speakers, I was named one of the Top 40 Digital Marketing Strategists in the United States by the Online Marketing Institute.
I’ve spoken with nearly three thousand marketing managers and business owners looking to purchase digital marketing and have sold over $15,000,000 worth of services. I have closed deals with companies ranging from small family businesses to some of the most famous brands in the world. I know exactly what digital marketing buyers want and how to get them to pick your agency.
In 2014, I started a consulting business called Solve Sales (www.solvesales.com). I’ve worked with a variety of digital marketing agencies, web development shops, and freelancers to improve their branding, marketing, sales processes, and skills. Through my coaching and consulting work, I have refined my original system and taught others to get the same results I’ve achieved.
The Exciting Conclusion
In 2018, I had my drop-the-mic moment. I was invited to sit on an expert panel discussing sales strategies for digital agency owners. I had not seen the boss I wanted to punch in the face for about ten years. Ironically, they sat him at my table.
Earlier that day, I had been trying to close a deal with Amazon. After the panel session, I checked my phone and saw that Amazon had signed the agreement. As I sat back down at my table, I let out a “YES!” under my breath. The person sitting next to me asked what I was so excited about. I said, “I just closed an SEO deal with Amazon.” The look on my old boss’s face was priceless. The cringeworthy kid who was terrible at sales had turned into a sales ace.
My journey from clueless to closer has resulted in a battle-tested sales system you can use to improve sales and crush your competition. As the Tony Robbins quote at the beginning of this introduction says, you can clone me and achieve results like mine. It’s a shortcut to sales success. That said, this book is not for everyone.
Clone the Ace offers an evolved, authentic approach to selling. You will not learn cheesy closing tricks that leave prospects feeling like they need a shower. I don’t teach scammy sales funnels, get-rich-quick schemes, or webinar marketing hacks. This book covers a professional approach to strategic selling, tailored specifically for digital agencies and freelancers.
Even though any reader can pick up valuable sales tactics, the approach I teach will not work well for agencies that are comfortable selling snake oil to unsophisticated clients. If you’re committed to excellence, want to sell services at the higher end of the fee scale, and are willing to put in the effort, the information in this book will increase your sales. Also, if you copy my system, you will be able to hire average salespeople and still produce great results.
To learn more about how you can attract more leads, build a highly effective sales machine, and improve your sales skills, Clone the Ace is available on Amazon.
Forrest Dombrow is a serial entrepreneur and a sales consultant with seventeen years of experience in the online marketing industry. He has worked with hundreds of small- and medium-sized businesses, and has sold millions of dollars in digital marketing services to some of the largest brands in the world.
Forrest was named one of the Online Marketing Institute’s Top 40 Digital Strategists in Marketing and is a featured speaker at some of the industry’s most prestigious conferences. He lives, works, and golfs in Denver, Colorado. To learn more about Forrest and his solutions, visit www.solvesales.com.
