Mastering the Art of Predictable Sales Growth with Doug C. Brown

Tim Melanson: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to today’s episode of the Work at Home Rockstar podcast. Excited for today’s episode. We are talking to the founder of CEO Sales Strategies, and what he does is he helps independent business professionals predictably grow their revenue by implementing a predictable, reliable, measurable, math-based model for sales revenue growth.

Which helps businesses overcome the uncertainty of fluctuating sales. Man, I definitely know what that means. Fluctuating sales. So I’m excited to be rocking out today with Doug C. Brown. Hey Doug, you ready to rock?

Doug C. Brown: Hey Tim. Thanks so much. I’m so grateful for being here

today.

Tim Melanson: Awesome. So we always start off in a good, don’t tell me a story of success in your business that we can be inspired by,

Doug C. Brown: Whoa. Uh, so one recent or does it matter. It

Tim Melanson: doesn’t

matter. Something awesome.

Doug C. Brown: You know, actually this one was recent. Uh,

so a, a lot of times

we help people find their, what we call their right fit buyer is they, they think they understand their buying market, but they don’t.

So we just recently helped a consultant.

Um, you know, [00:01:00] hone in on that thing.

And he, he added, uh,

$245,000

in new revenue in the, in six weeks. So he grew from 700,000 to 945,000 in six weeks. Uh, so we, we felt that was a, a good win.

Tim Melanson: It’s a very

good

win.

Absolutely. Well, now I always pair this together because you know, sometimes things don’t go as planned, as well as as

entrepreneurs. And I’m wondering, can you share with us something that didn’t go super well on the bad

note?

Doug C. Brown: Oh yeah, man, there’s like 5,000 of those in my life over the, the last, you know, 50 years of doing this. Uh, I would say one recently, you know, we, we, we originally went out and built a SaaS product. We built a,

uh.

A, a, a meaningful, proactive, uh, and relevant automated follow up system for, for, for people.

’cause, ’cause follow up is one of those things that, you know, you can easily get a easy bump five to 20% in revenue if you just follow up consistently. So we’re like, ah, we’ll build

it.

And we made the classic mistake of not building a prototype and pre-selling it prior to, [00:02:00] and ended up spending like a half million dollars building this thing and probably could have done it for about.

280,000, 300,000. Um, so yeah, so we, we lost some money, uh, you know, and uh, every time we drive by something and go, geez, maybe we stop at this place. And it’s like, well, we just spent the money. Um, so, so, you know, stuff like that happens. One of the things I’ve learned in business, Tim, is it always takes you, uh, you know, longer than you figure it’s going to, and it usually costs you more than you figure.

So we made a mistake and. We don’t cry about it, we just, uh, rock on, as you said in the beginning, and you just keep going.

Tim Melanson: I don’t think that that’s necessarily the way that people think about things generally is they think that a failure is like

the end

of the world and like, Hey, if that business owner has ever had a failure, it means they’re a bad business owner. Right.

Doug C. Brown: Right, right. No, it’s, it’s, you know, here’s the thing, like, you know, we’re, we’re taught

growing up.

Most of us, um, depending on our culture, some [00:03:00] extremely, uh, you know, like I have some friends, uh, I used to, uh, study martial arts and like in the Asian

culture, it is

like if you got, if you didn’t get an A plus, you know, if you’ve got an A minus, that was shame, right?

That type of thing. You’re a B forget it man. You got, You’re a, you’re you’re, you know, shaming the family. Um, you know, I didn’t grow up that tight on it, but most of us grown up, like, if you don’t make something happen and you fail at it, then it’s a

failure versus,

you know, it’s, it’s a learning experience to be learned in from, and then when we learn from it, we don’t make the mistake again.

That’s called wisdom, by the way, down the line. Right? So, um, so entrepreneurs please

expect that

you’re gonna make mistakes and fail. It’s, it’s just part of the journey and. Is it fun? No, but, uh, you

know, it is

part of the journey and quite frankly, if you’re not failing at something, you’re probably, uh, living below your, your capacity of being able to earn more money.[00:04:00]

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Because I mean, we, we really learn more from those failures than we do from the successes. Right. So,

Doug C. Brown: Yeah, yeah.

Tim Melanson: fail

forward.

Doug C. Brown: And we do this in our personal lives all the time, and, you know, it hurts and then we recover from it. But we don’t, you know, we don’t think about it as

much, but in

the business context, you know, we tie, we, we, we tend to, we tend to really make it stick. And, and there’s a difference between failing and being a failure.

And, and so

we gotta be careful of the labels that we self stick to our, to our own self because, you know, if we failed at something, alright, well, you know what? We failed at a lot of things. Uh, I don’t know, Tim, you ever asked someone out and they said no, right? I mean, probably not you but me hundreds of times, right?

So, um, but my line got a little bit better and I understood what they, you know, what, what ladies wanted a little bit more by failing and then asking people, Hey, where did I fail? But I didn’t concern my, consider myself a [00:05:00] failure. Um, and if I did, I wouldn’t have two children, right? Because I never would’ve been able to take that dating relationship to the marital relationship to the children.

So, you know, in business we, we should look at things the same exact way. You know, you are going to make. Things happen. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don’t work. You always want them to work, of course, but they’re not always going to work. And when you have a failure or you failed, then pick yourself up off the ground.

By the way, folks, this is the recovery time. That is the most important.

When

you fail, get back right up. You know, as I said in the old days, get back right up on the horse, you know? ’cause you will be thrown off a horse if you ride it enough. And that’s just, just part of being a rider on a horse. And you will fail in business if you are in business.

Um, and that’s just part of it. Just when you fail, pick yourself up. Ask the question,

what

did I learn here and

what

can I do differently and what do I need to do to move forward? I. [00:06:00]

Tim Melanson: Right on. So when,

um, so I think this is probably pretty normal, that if someone’s good at what they do. And maybe they’re sort of thinking, oh, well, you know, the, you know, I’m working for a company, the boss has taken all that money. I’m great at what I do. I can just start my own business and cut out the middleman.

Right. And I can just, you know, because I’m so good at what I do, that’s all I’ll need to know in order to be able to sell my services to other people.

But that doesn’t necessarily work out

the way,

the way you’d like it to.

And

I’m wondering, like, uh, do you, what’s your thoughts on, on gathering fans, on getting people to be interested in what you do?

Doug C. Brown: So, so I hear two different questions. Um, so is the question, what do I personally do to get people to be fans of my business?

Or if I

was going to come out of that position where I believe I’m an expert and I’m not, I’m being undervalued, underpaid, and I’m coming out of a company. What should I pay attention to so that [00:07:00] they buy from me?

Tim Melanson: I would like.

To know. Okay, so let’s start first with your personal story. So when you first became, you know, a business owner,

did you actually

think that, or, or did you already kind of know that you needed to be good at sales? Like what, where did that come from?

Doug C. Brown: so I, I actually had the fortunate experience of starting working

at the age of three for my dad. I.

So my, my, my dad had a business, uh, electric, uh, machinery con industrial repair company. And all us boys, there were four of us. Um, we all started working very young.

I started sweeping

floors at three, you know, and got paid 25 cents a week.

And I loved it. It was awesome because the grownups would go to this place called the, like the, the,

um.

A Stagecoach cafe or something like that. And they would take me and they’d sit me up on the bar stool. They’d have a beer, and I’d have a, a, you know,

I think

it

was

a [00:08:00] Lime Ricky or something like that back then.

Um, uh, and my mother was not happy with my father when she, he brought me into the bar for, you know, three years old. Um, but the, um, you know, we used to go have lunch and I just loved hanging out and listening to the stories. But by age

five and

a half, we were actually being taught how to sell.

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Doug C. Brown: So I was fortunate it was a family owned business, 14 employees,

and,

you know, the family was around and I was writing orders.

I was

like taking parts and,

and figuring out how much we were gonna sell them for. And, and I was getting

25 cents

an hour at that

time, Tim.

So, you know, $10 a week. Not bad

for a 5-year-old, a

6-year-old, right. Uh, back then, I mean, we’re talking 1967, you know, back then. God, I’m getting old. Um, but the, uh, you know, back then that would buy you a lot.

So the uh, but what happened was I was selling parts and we were buying them for like [00:09:00] $10 and selling them for 20. Right. And so I remember one day I sold eight of these things, eight of these same, they were like motor switches and things like that. And I was like, eight times 10 is $80 that I just made for the company.

I’m making $10 a week, and I did this in one

day,

but I could make eight times what I’m making. If I could do, you know,

and, and

my brain just started processing the leverage of, of it all. And I also was very fortunate because, you know, my, my grandparents, um, actually did the book. So they would sit down and they’d break it down and say, Hey, we sold this for $10, but this part goes to operations, this part goes to here, this part goes to the, and this is what the company keeps.

Right.

And it was, and it was a certain smaller percentage for sure.

And,

and so for me, that’s how I learned. That power of leverage. So when I first went out, uh, my first real, my first real job [00:10:00] on my own, my first real business was a lawn mowing business.

And, uh, I was underage

so I couldn’t get the lawn mowing.

And so I approached my brothers who were, uh, you know, five, six, and, uh, nine years older than I am, and I said, Hey, would you guys go take paper routes?

I’ll run it.

I’ll pay you a percentage. And so then I hired kids from the neighborhood

to actually

deliver the papers. And I played like sales manager in the middle.

Um, um, so you know, that, that’s

kind of how it

started working for me. Now, here’s the thing. Some days, uh, the kids who were gonna deliver the paper route didn’t show up. You know what I mean? So you have, you have challenges no matter what business. So that’s how it worked for me.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: and then just one business after another, after another.

You know, you and I both were in the music business. I, I had, you know, I had, uh, bands and, uh, you know, promotion and I was a DJ for a long time, you know, small [00:11:00] businesses when I was growing up. Um, and then, you know, we had a Christmas re, uh, tree retailing business, a fisheries business. We

just

started getting into them and every single

time I

got into something, I learned something.

I made a mistake. I learned that boats are very expensive, especially commercial boats. Um, you know, and you don’t make a lot of money as a commercial, you know, in commercial fishery because the majority goes back into the boat for maintenance and for, you know, supplies. So, you know, you just keep moving forward.

That’s what I’ve learned. And then eventually I hit my first. Like, Woohoo. You know, I really made a ton of money here as a seven figure business, very high profit, you know, netting down, you know, uh, darn close to, you know, three quarters of a million dollars at a very young age at that point. And then that’s when I started going, okay, I can do this and I can help other people do this.

And so, kind of led into where I’m, where I am today. [00:12:00] Um, so that’s the first part. Uh. And, and the second part of somebody’s going to be launching off, let’s say they’re in. And by the way, I did

that, right?

Maybe you and I were talking earlier and I said, Hey, for a period of time I went back into the corporation world, right?

Um, and I went into selling and I was doing

extremely well. I

was the number one rep out of

315 people

in the, in the company, you know, all the reps. Um, and I

just felt like

it was this, in this invisible prison, paid prison I used to call it. I decided to jump outta that and start a telecommunications consulting and auditing company.

And,

um,

you know, here’s what I want people to know. There’s the business of running a business and then there’s the business of the business that you’re an expert in. And what most people,

when they pop out of a job or come out of a position, they’re jumping out of the, the expertise position that they’re in and

they [00:13:00] think,

ah, that’s gonna translate into the business of running a business. And that, that’s where

they make the mistake.

Tim Melanson: I agree a

hundred percent. Yeah.

It, it, uh, and that’s, you know, one of the reasons why I started the podcast, that’s the first place, uh, I found that there was a lot more of, you know, running the business than just doing the thing that I’m good at, which is why I started the business in the first place. It ended up being, being that I was spending probably less than 20% doing that, and everything else was taken up all the time.

Right. And I, I don’t think everybody gets that when they first get started.

Doug C. Brown: No, because when we’re in, when, when we’re in an environment that human resources is already covered, operations is covered, uh, you know, finance is covered, legal is covered, uh, you know, compliance is covered. All of these things are, are covered, and we’re doing one part, let’s say out of 10 or 12 or 14 parts of the business, and we’re really, really good at it.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: Then when we come out, we now [00:14:00] have the other 12 or 13 parts that we weren’t anticipating. And so we end up getting sucked into that component of it. Um, and we don’t really understand it, so we’re not set up for it. So now we’re learning the business of the business. And the the thing is, is the business only cares about us feeding it.

It’s like a, it’s like a newborn child, right? Love me, feed me, you know, bathe me, clean me, whatever. Uh, and I’ll give you back some joy and love, uh, especially if you’re taking care of me. Now, if you don’t do that, I’m

gonna scream

my head off and all night long, right? I will, I’ll be up and I will, you will get no sleep.

You will be cranky. You’ll have a miserable day, right? Because any of us who have ever had a a child can relate.

To

being up all night, you know, I’ll get sick and I don’t care if you have to go to work for three or

four days,

it doesn’t matter. I’m [00:15:00] gonna throw up on you anyways. Um, and that’s just the way the business runs.

So if people don’t understand the business of the business, the number one thing that they really must understand is that what business they’re in. That is the business of business acquisition. They’ve gotta be in the business of

marketing and

selling. It’s gotta be get a lead, close a lead. That’s the only thing the business cares about.

’cause money in equal, uh, plus money out equals profit break even or loss. It’s that

simple.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Well, okay. And

so, I mean, you have a really rich history with that. I mean, you learned very early on how to, how to, how to sell. Really, when

it comes

down to it, not ne, not everybody necessarily learns that when they’re growing up. I’m wondering though, like do you think that that’s something that anybody can learn or do

you think that

that’s something that you do?

Okay.

Doug C. Brown: Oh yeah. Without question. And, and I know this ’cause I’ve. Taken people many, I mean hundreds if not thousands of people who had, [00:16:00] oh, it’s actually, it is thousands

of people

who had no experience whatsoever in selling. Right? But here’s, you know, um, there was a really great book titled To Sell As Human.

Mr. Daniel Pink wrote the book,

Tim Melanson: Yep.

Doug C. Brown: and

if you wanna know the best salespeople in

the world,

naturally they’re children.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: They’ll sell anything because they know they want

it.

Now, I, they’re, they’re the most natural salespeople. I,

I,

I would also argue that they’re not necessarily the most,

um.

Truthful salespeople.

Right? Right. They’re not the, they don’t always play win-win, let me put it

that way, right? Like,

if you can’t get it from mom, you go to dad. If

you can’t

get it from dad, you might go to, you know, your grandfather or your grand, right? So,

but

they’re persistent, right? And their, and their, and their pursuit.

But they know they [00:17:00] want something and they will go and ask questions about how to get it. And selling is nothing more than usually

two people.

Maybe more could be ourselves, that we’re trying to solve a problem, we’re trying to get an opportunity, or we’re trying to get a goal and the other person is doing that.

And then we as the salesperson are helping them get that through what we can offer. And we do this through dialogue, communication. Come to a

mutual agreement that it works for them and

it works for us. And that’s the best sale in the world.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: Really. That’s the essence of selling. And so many people, they complicate the heck outta this, Tim, because they’re like, well, you know, they’ll, they’ll listen to sales trainers and they’ll say, well use this

choice,

alternate

choice close or

use this, you know, manipulative, you know, whatever.

And you don’t need to do that,[00:18:00]

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: know? Uh, children don’t know those things.

Tim Melanson: Yep. And they

get what they want.

Doug C. Brown: Right.

I mean, you know, I mean, my gosh, how many times have I done things for my, my two girls that, uh, when, you know, even now as they’re in their twenties, um, but you know, they just, they just know how to, right. And, and when they were younger it was like,

I.

You know, you wanna do these things for, for your children.

’cause you want your children to have a better life than you

have.

So, you know, they’re selling on that thing. You know? I mean, my, my daughter was,

my youngest daughter was,

uh, highly into gymnastics. Well, folks, uh, those of you who’ve been in gymnastics, you know what it cost, right? But I mean, she was, she was, uh, doing it competitively and we were flying her

all around

the United States in different things, you know, and,

and.

W they just naturally sell, right? And so w we as [00:19:00] human beings all have this in us. What we’re, we’ve been conditioned to have some of it taken out of

us. Be

it by like, we don’t like rejection, right? Uh, we don’t wanna look foolish. We don’t wanna look like we don’t

know what

we’re talking about. Well, most of that is preparation.

Um, you know, when you’re making offers to someone, there’s gonna be someone, some rejection, no matter what you’re doing. I mean, you could be, uh, you could, I know somebody who literally had the Starbucks model 12 years before Starbucks went into business and they failed.

They

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Doug C. Brown: had the exact same model and uh, they tried to start it on the East coast, uh, and it just failed.

So you’re gonna have those things, but when you’re selling, you will hear no, you will hear maybes, you know, all of that stuff. But that’s just the psychological game, which can be also taught Tim.[00:20:00]

Tim Melanson: I think so too. No, I, I think you’re right. And I mean, that is really deep though that kids, kids naturally have the selling thing, uh, you know, down pat. Eventually it gets kind of worked out of us for whatever reason. I think, I think a

lot of

it might have to do with, uh, you know, just getting, getting scammed really at some point you, you sort of have some situation where it’s not a win-win and maybe it is your kids,

Doug C. Brown: Okay.

Tim Melanson: but, but you sort of think, okay, well I’ll never do that.

And, and then you sort of just quit or, or you don’t wanna do it or you sort of hold back on. But, but really when it comes down to it, I.

People are buying all the time, and like you said earlier, I mean, you’re just basically lining up something that someone wants with something that you have, and that’s just real basic way to look at it.

So as long as you have something that they want, then it’s just a matter of figuring out how to do that, how to make that transaction right.

Doug C. Brown: I [00:21:00] mean, and you can see it like, I mean, take something as basic as a cell phone, right?

Tim Melanson: Mm-hmm.

Doug C. Brown: I

mean,

apple, don’t sue a, you know, sue me. Uh, you know, but I is, is an iPhone really worth that kind of money,

right?

Tim Melanson: I wonder about that?

Doug C. Brown: I is, is a, is a Tesla truck really worth that kind of money or whatever they call those things. Right.

Um, is a Lamborghini worth that kind of money? Well, yeah. To some people because that’s what they want, right? And so anything is going to be purchased

as

long as someone values that, which is being offered.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: And so when,

when we find what somebody wants, if we can

convey the

value they’re looking for, then it makes sense.

You know, Harvard University is not known [00:22:00] as the least expensive educational institution in the world, right? It’s known as one of the more costly ones, MIT, right? They carry a reputation. Some people go to those schools just to say, I went there,

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: right? I, so Tim, you and I in the music business, I ended up in Berkeley College of Music, right?

For one semester. Now I

have degrees in nuclear medicine, biology, business, and others. And when people look at my LinkedIn profile, the number one thing they ask me a question about was, how was Berkeley College of Music?

Tim Melanson: Wow.

Doug C. Brown: I’m like, I went there one semester. Right? What about

the three

degrees I have? Right? But they, they see, they value the Berkeley College of Music. And that’s so the conversational value and the sale that’s going on should be about what they’re looking for. And so many people when they’re trying to sell [00:23:00] are talking about what they want to sell versus what the actual end recipient is actually looking for in values.

So they’re trying to displace. The seller is trying to displace their, their values onto the seller, and two frames collide at that point, when those two frames collide, you’re gonna get objections, you’re gonna get stalls, you’re gonna get these things that just don’t work out on the back end because it isn’t what they’re looking for.

It’s what you,

the

seller’s looking for, not the recipient of the buyer. So we have to align in through our communication, those two points. And the more

they see

the value and the less they see fear or feel fear, the more their buying confidence goes up. The more their buying confidence goes up, the more they will buy.

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Wow.

You know, when I think about sales strategies,

uh.

And, and I [00:24:00] would sort of generalize on what someone would think would be the best sales strategy. I think they would probably say lower the price. What do you think about that?

Doug C. Brown: Uh, that’s it.

You know,

depending on the market that you’re wanting to serve, that could be perceived as high

value.

Most human beings are wired this way. They’re not looking for the lowest price. They’re looking for a price point that’s in alignment with the value they perceive it to be.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: And you can see this because, well, you know, um, my wife actually is from

Poland originally.

So when, uh, we were courting, I would fly to Poland. And, uh, I would fly to London first because it was easier to go to London and then find a flight to where she lived. And I

would [00:25:00] take

day flights and night flights to London and every single, now this is a six hour flight, just like if we were flying to California

every

single time, first class was full.

Tim Melanson: Oh.

Doug C. Brown: Okay, so if I was paying, say, $600 for a ticket and they’re paying 4,000 or $5,000 for a ticket, right? And they are, let’s say, oh, 70 feet in front of me.

You know, they do

get a little better meal, right? But the meal, you know, on transatlantic flights was actually, they’re actually pretty good regardless.

You know,

they get to lie down in the seat and I guess overnight there’s some value in that. You could sleep a little. Um,

but it’s a six hour flight,

and so is it worth $3,400 [00:26:00] or more to some people? Yes. ’cause it’s full right now for some people they can justify. Uh, and we all do this in a, in a sale. We all look at

a business.

Return on investment. Personal return on investment. The business return on investment is, Hey, I have a meeting the next day. I won’t be tired. I can sell more or do the deal because I’m more alert. Right? The personal return

on investment

could be.

I won’t feel like,

you know, crap the next day when I wait, get off this plane because of the time shift.

Or you know, I can

say to

my friends or to my client, yes, I fly first class, so it elevates me in status, right? So there’s different triggers that people look at to determine the value. Um,

and

that’s no matter what the price is. They will [00:27:00] look at that conveyance of value. Now, if they can’t see the value in it, they will always revert back to lowest price.

Tim Melanson: Yes. Ah, there’s a hint,

right?

Doug C. Brown: Right. And, and so they, they will go to convenience and price as the two lowest

values,

um, uh, in the value set. Now, convenience, because of the pandemic, because of online, because of all this stuff, has actually creeped up in the, in the hierarchy of what, how people perceive value, right? Um, you know, we, we shop at, uh, Amazon or, or Walmart or wherever, you know, online stores.

Because we can get it the

next

day, right? And so our local, you know, let’s say I wanted to buy something at Home Depot or Lowe’s, and I can’t get it for five days from there, but I could go up on, let’s say, one of the sites up on, on the web in order and [00:28:00] have it there tomorrow. Well, you know what? I’m gonna pay a little more to have it there tomorrow, because that’s the value, right?

So convenience actually has moved up in the value ladder. Price is never if, if you’re, if you’re constantly talking about price and you’re selling, the first question you should be asking yourself is where is this person not seeing the value?

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: You know?

Tim Melanson: Yeah. That, and that’s, that’s, that’s great that, because that is a clue, right? If someone’s, if someone’s saying it’s too expensive, that doesn’t mean that your price. Is too high. It means that the value that they’re seeing for the price that you’re floating is not in line. And so you need to get better, I think, at showing that value.

Right?

Doug C. Brown: We do and, and the way we figure that out is understand who the ideal right fit buyer is and what they want, need, fear, desire, what they’re looking for in

the business,

return on investment, what they’re looking for, the [00:29:00] personal return on investment, tangible and intangible. And understand that audience,

like,

you know, who does a master masterful job at this in the music business is Taylor Swift.

Tim Melanson: Oh yeah.

Doug C. Brown: Right,

masterful. Um, and I had the, my, when my daughters were maybe five and six, you know, they’re 20, 25 now. Um, when

they were

that age, I took them to a Taylor Swift concert.

I.

And I, when I walked in, by the way, I was probably

one of

18 gentlemen in the whole audience of

40,000

people there. Right. I remember looking over and I’m like, oh, there’s a guy over there.

Hi, how are you?

You know,

and waving across the arena and, but what I watched was how she was collecting. Social media information, real time at the event and how she was providing value to the audience at the event and how these [00:30:00] young ladies and these middle aged ladies were being conveyed value

from Taylor

in her organization at that point.

Genius. I was like, this was worth paying whatever we paid. It’s not the ticket price that they paid

today because she

wasn’t as known back then. But I mean,

some

people are

paying like $10,000 or whatever to go see Taylor Swift. Right? So why do they do that? It’s the same reason they pay for Disney. Some people save for years to go on a one week or two week Disney vacation and they tell everybody

about it.

Tim Melanson: Mm-hmm.

Doug C. Brown: I

stayed at the Dolphin Hotel or whatever’s down there in Disney. Right. So why do people do that? Because other people would look at it and they’d be like, well, the Hilton wasn’t okay. You know? You

know. So it’s a different buyer. It’s what they value differently and you’re absolutely right. If they don’t see it, they’ll [00:31:00] drop down in price ’cause

that’s all they’ve

got left.

To be able to feel like they have buying confidence in the situation because there’s such high fear or discomfort on the other end. If we look at it like, uh, what was that thing when we were kids, we seesaw like we used to get on Seesaw. You put one person on one side, the other, they go up, down, up, down.

Well, if we put buying confidence on one side of the seesaw and fear on the

other side

of the seesaw, and you and you, you know, and fear is super high or super heavy,

Tim Melanson: it is. Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: then what

happens is

it’s kind of like that really, uh, you know, like you’re, you’re six, seven years old with your friend, and then a 14-year-old comes by and

sits on the other

side of the seesaw and just keeps you up in the air and you’re like dangling around up in the air.

You’re in fear, you know, when you’re a little kid like that. So

there’s

a little, little buying confidence that you’re not gonna fall off that seesaw and, and hurt yourself. Right? Buyers feel

the same

way. So what we wanna do is we wanna have the buying confidence be really super [00:32:00] high, and that’s how you get the value matchup that we’re talking about.

And that’s what promotes that buying confidence

Tim Melanson: Wow. Okay. So what kinds of tools or instruments do you use in your business to get success?

Doug C. Brown: tools. Uh, from technology or for,

yeah,

I mean, I. Here’s the

thing about technology. Uh, I came from a tech business, you know, telecommunications, all that stuff. Or originally, the one thing I learned about technology in our businesses is to keep it as simple as possible

Tim Melanson: Mm-hmm.

Doug C. Brown: and use technology that if it breaks,

you can

also accommodate it with something

else. So

always have backups to your technology. Like, you know, we’re

using a,

a web, web software

here.

Right. Um, you know, we, we do the same thing. We use Zoom. Uh, we, we have, uh, another service called Riverside that we use for, for podcasts as well, or meetings. We also have something called meeting, [00:33:00] right? And we have Google, we have four of them because one of them is gonna burp somewhere or just not work.

Like, like Zoom just had a massive problem the other day,

right?

And so. We always keep it simple and we always, you know, keep it redundant if you will, always having a backup in the process. So, you know, we use, uh, you know, Google and Microsoft, right? And, um, we even have an Apple computer that if it all fails that we can go back to that.

And, but we, what we don’t try to do is do so, so much that’s so technically

complex that if it’s something breaks

on it, then we have a

challenge.

Because if, you know, let’s say the, this, this thing was just glitching on our conversation, which it’s not, but let’s say it was, and just glitching, glitching, glitching, and every fourth word was being pulled out of our conversation.

We don’t want that. Right? And so [00:34:00]

we, we wanna have, you know, so that’s what we do. We, we just try to keep it simple and I’m constantly ripping it down to more simplistic. With that being said, we are now using a lot of ai. And, uh, redundant AI processes because what used to take us hours now can be done in moments.

Tim Melanson: Yeah. Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: You know, like I, I’ll create outlines of conversations like we’re having now, and it’ll do it in 30 seconds. And we,

we build out, uh, you know, ai, uh,

processes

that will give us the output of information that we’re looking for. We utilize. AI technologies to create videos. We use AI technologies to do a lot of stuff that,

um,

is just repetitive, redundant.

Frankly, you just don’t wanna do it. It can do it in moments

for you. Right? So,

um, that makes our lives a lot easier. So [00:35:00] those, that’s kind of part of the technology. We built our own, uh, you know, follow up software that, you know, we talked about in the beginning. So we utilize that. We have a CRM in that

we utilize that, but we

also have a backup CRM just in case something happens to one of those.

Um, yeah.

Tim Melanson: yeah. Well, I come from a tech world as well, and yes, backups are.

So funny how people will rely so heavily on technology and sometimes it just doesn’t necessarily work the way you want it to. But on the other hand, you know, it sounds like you’ve kind of jumped on the AI bandwagon, which I have as well.

And I, I think that having fear towards that stuff is, you know, you might get left in the dust, especially with this particular one. ’cause I think I haven’t seen a tool make that much difference in my business ever. Great. Since I started using the, the ai, especially recently, right?

Doug C. Brown: We, in most businesses, you will be left compromised to your competition if you don’t [00:36:00] embrace ai. You know, um, it is just because. It’s, it’s rapidly developed and it’s going to continue to be, and so,

you know, I remember, you know, when the dial up internet came in and then DSL came in, right?

Tim Melanson: I do too.

Doug C. Brown: And, uh, so in DSL for folks, those of you who don’t know what we’re talking about, you used to have to dial up a number.

It would go over these copper wires and it would sound like,

Tim Melanson: Yeah.

Doug C. Brown: right, the modem sound, and then it went to high speed access and you know, it was like, uh, 144 kilobytes or, you know, uh, and, or no, uh, 144 megabytes, right? Or I believe it was, and then that was

256.

You know, um, megabytes, I believe. And when DSL came in,

you know, you

could download a picture, like a full picture in under a minute.

It was [00:37:00] like, wow, you know, that was awesome.

Um, and you,

I laugh sometimes because, you know, even my, my kids, you know, they, they can’t remember times like that

because that

never happened in their lifetime.

But

the point being is I told people way back then when we were

selling.

Corporate environment back then, this

technology’s gonna

change sales forever.

And they all said, you’re crazy.

And I

said, don’t think about this with a couple of clicks and a few keywords, I can go find information that people are asking us as the sales channel, as

the experts. They’re

trying to get the

information from us,

but now they’re gonna know more about this than we will in time.

And so now our selling has to change.

It’s

not like you can go into the car dealer anymore and they can hide all of this stuff that they used to when I was growing up. Right? You never knew what the paid for the car or what the accident report was on the car or any of that stuff. And, [00:38:00] uh, now hell, uh, geez, you know, Tim, I can go to the car.

In fact, I did.

I went and my, we

bought a, a car, um, and I asked the person, Hey, if we went from this SEL package to this next level, you know, uh, the, the heating and cooling seats, uh, they in the, in the front and the back. And the, and the sales rep said, I have no idea. And I’m like, no, no, no. I just read it online.

They will, this is what the package comes and it comes in these three trimming interiors, right? Uh, these colors. And so, see, I have the advantage at

that point

because I have the information,

right?

So that’s what technology and AI is going to do. Again, it’s already happened.

Tim Melanson: Agree. Yeah. Yeah. The buyer’s becoming more and more aware of what’s going on, right.

Doug C. Brown: Yes, yes.

Tim Melanson: Alright, I’d love to talk about this. I could talk forever, but we’re running outta time, so

it’s

time for your guest, so, so tell me what’s exciting in your business right now, Doug?

Doug C. Brown: You know, I, I’ve gone [00:39:00] through a transit, it’s funny as I get a little older now, uh, you know, I just turned, uh, I say 13. ’cause at 50 I started counting again. Um, so

I.

You know, so I’m 63, I guess by chronological years, but I’m only 13. Um, and it’s funny ’cause you know, my daughters are in their twenties, uh, you know, and they’ll come back from like karate class and they’ll be

like, man,

I’m really tired.

I’m like, that’s because you’re old. Like, I’m you at 13, you wouldn’t be old, right? Um, so, and they’re like, shut up dad. Um, but anyways, the, uh,

what’s really exciting for me is, you

know, I used to all be about like. Building big companies and corporate

environments and

going out and, you know, helping big companies

and

just in companies of any size really, but all the way up to like, you know, Intuit, Proctor and

Gamble, and

those two, you know, um, companies where I could help add, you know, tens of

millions

of dollars. And it was, it was exciting. And then one day I woke up

and

I was like, [00:40:00] you know what? I don’t like what’s going on in the world today. The inflation that’s going on, it’s kicking up and people are just getting, you know, I mean, if you’re working for an hourly wage and you get a 3% increase in raise of life pay or 4%, but inflation’s going up by 10 or 12 or 15, you’re losing six, seven, 8% every year, right?

And, and it’s like, I want to help people, you know, and so how can I do that? I can teach them how to make a six figure income or add another six figure income to their current six figure income, at least another six figures through helping them in what we’re talking about today, Tim, and, and business acquisition.

Uh, you know how to sell

and

how to do it ethically and uh, you know how to have moral obligations. So you do the win-win play, right? And so

that’s where we’re swinging our

whole business to right [00:41:00] now. Um, we still help companies. Uh, with, you know, uh, helping their sales teams grow,

uh,

you know, uh, occasionally we’ll even, uh, build in, uh, you know, backend sales teams for companies and train those companies and train the teams, things like that.

But we’re starting, we’re swinging our business over to the independent business professional, and that’s what’s exciting me. I don’t know if you can

hear it in

my voice or not, but it really does excite me because. Here’s the sad part. People are trying to retire today. They run outta money between eight and 12 years if they liquidated everything. It’s crazy. Like, you know, somebody who retires out at 65 years old could be outta money by the time they’re 74 and uh, hello. They’re gonna live longer than that. Most people. So. If I can help somebody add another

six figures

in their retirement to their, their bottom line, you know, just [00:42:00] by selling for other people or building a business like you’re teaching people to do Tim, um, and help them understand what the business is, a business acquisition and how to do

that.

You know, to me that’s the difference between them being able

to take

their grandkids

or great

grandkids on a, a European trip, uh, or, or not running outta money or having, you know, having enough. Funding so that they can do really fun things with the rest

of their life.

Because who the heck wants to get to a place and, and not have that kind of money to, to, you know, I mean, sit around

and

try to figure out, hey, do we cut calories just so we can, you know, survive.

That’s crazy. So that’s, that’s where, where, I’m

going with, uh, that, and then, you know, obviously I’ll help other companies and things like that as well, but that’s my passion at this point.

Tim Melanson: I love that Doug and I, you know what? I love so much about today, about this time, is that I feel like it is accessible for just about anybody to be able

to make that transition.

And, you know, because I, I, I do [00:43:00] think that we’re at a place where we need to take more responsibility for our futures rather than assuming that, whatever, I don’t know, the government’s gonna take care of us, I

guess, right?

Doug C. Brown: No,

no, no.

That, that, that, that part

has been a longstanding,

what I call the great myth, right? Um, governments

only

survive and thrive for their own purposes. And that’s a history

Professor said

that to me when I was 22 in, in, in, in college. And I was like, wow, really? And, and I do agree. He’s right. Uh, so yeah, that’s, that’s, and you know, and, you know, are you too old to learn new tricks?

No. You know, I mean, I have people that are in their late eighties that have, you know, we’ve taught to do this. Um, I have people who are in their, you know, young teenage years learning how to do this. So. It’s, it’s not an age, uh, restriction thing. In fact, you know, the, your age

can actually

be

a

huge benefit depending on [00:44:00] what you decide you’re gonna sell.

Tim Melanson: Agree. Agree. So what’s the process look like

for someone who might wanna work with you?

Doug C. Brown: So

I, I’d love to invite people to our master classes to kind of get to know us a little more. Um, we have one on how to create predictable revenue, uh, that is, uh, people can go to CEO sales strategies. I. Com slash uh, P rm, predictable, reliable, measurable revenue, right?

Um, so

CEO sales strategies.com/p rm.

Um, th these are free master classes. They’re 90 minutes. Um, and then we, we, we offer something on the backend if they want to invest in it, if they can. If they don’t, then that’s their right too. Uh, we also do one, uh, called CEO Sales Strategies. Dot com slash stop the leak. And the reason we put it that way is because this one is on the number one sales leak that causes people to lose five to 20%

a year.[00:45:00]

And so we did specifically on that. Um, those are the best ways if they want to catch me, uh, personally. doug@cclstrategies.com or Doug Brown. 1,

2, 3.

That’s my LinkedIn. Or just, just, uh, Google me at

Doug C. Brown revenue

growth and I’ll be probably on the first eight to 10 pages.

Tim Melanson: That’s awesome. So really people will, can get an opportunity to just learn a little bit more about how you work. Right. And,

and

get something out of one of your master classes before they’re, you know, to actually help them to see if they wanna work with you or too, right.

Doug C. Brown: Yeah, absolutely. I mean, and if they wanna reach out direct, we just schedule a time to talk. You know, I don’t understand. Sometimes Tim people, they put up these barriers. They’re like, you know, a actually I have somebody, uh, this morning, um, you know, we, we uh, we work

with, uh,

some affiliates and the affiliates will, I.

Drive traffic to our masterclasses. Right? And one of the affiliate managers asked me, Hey, would, would you be willing to talk to some people? They were asking some questions. I’m like, why [00:46:00] would I not want to talk with these people? Right? Like, like, yes, of course I’d be willing to talk with these people because that’s communication and this is the business we’re in.

We’re in a business of communication and helping people to win and we win at the same time. So, absolutely. So if people reach out, we’re super responsive, uh, on that.

Tim Melanson: I love it.

Okay, Doug, this might be the hardest question, but it’s the last one. Who’s your favorite rockstar?

Doug C. Brown: Ooh, wow. That one’s really, really hard. Uh, my favorite

rockstar

in music or my favorite rockstar in business or

Tim Melanson: How about music?

Doug C. Brown: Uh, I would say my favorite rockstar. Oh,

it’s so like this, like five names coming to my head. I. You know, I have a lot of respect for Bon Jovi, uh, and what he’s done. Um,

but you

know, I also have like the extreme respect for the [00:47:00] lead singer of the Scorpions, or Billy Joel, or, you know, I mean, Billy Joel has had this huge long standing career and man, I went to see him

and he sounded.

The same as he did on the, and he just loved what he was doing. So that’s a really hard, but I, I, if I had a picket, I would probably, I would probably

go with Bon

Jovi at this point

Tim Melanson: Love that.

Right on.

And since you mentioned it, what about in business?

Doug C. Brown: in business. Uh, there is a man, uh, his name is Russ Whitney and Russ, uh. Rus, uh, I, I actually worked

with Russ.

I still work with Russ from time to time. The guy is super brilliant. Uh, he, um, he

owned, uh,

the majority share of some training companies. That one was Rich Dad, poor Dad.

Uh, but,

but he also had, you know, construction company.

He had billion dollars worth of companies. Uh, you know, I mean, I was the independent president of training and sales for Tony Robbins and Chet [00:48:00] Holmes and a bunch of other people. But I learned so much from Russ in a short period of time. It’s kinda like when he speaks I listen. Um, so yeah, he’s, uh, russ whitney.com.

You can

find out

more about him, but he’s a super smart guy.

Tim Melanson: Wow. Thank you so much for rocking out with me today, Doug. This has

been

a lot fun.

Doug C. Brown: Yeah, same here. Tim. I really appreciate you having me here. Uh, and I’m super, super grateful that you, you, uh, took the time to have this

conversation.

Tim Melanson: Awesome.

And to the listeners, make sure you go to workathomerockstar.com for more information. We’ll see you next time on the Work At Home Rockstar Podcast.