Understanding Multigenerational Human Behavior and Communication for Sales Success

In this episode of Love Your Sales I am joined by Brad Herda where we dive into understanding human behavior in this selling environment. Brand offers insights on self-awareness, the art of conversation, communication preference of different generations, and how all these factors can influence sales success. The enlightening discussion also traverse concepts like the DISC assessment, and multigenerational communication. They wrap up the episode with a highly useful discussion on recruiting young talent and adapting selling styles to the client’s unique needs. A must-listen for anyone in sales, looking to broaden their understanding of effective communication and sales techniques.  

Contact Brad –

LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/brad-herda/

Website - https://www.vfbsolutions.com/

Podcast - https://blue-collar-bs.captivate.fm/

 

Leighann Lovely: Welcome to another episode of Love Your Sales. I am joined today by Brad Hurta, the founder of Vision Forward Solutions, supporting blue collar businesses to thrive in multigenerational workforces. Brad uses advanced skills of communication, accountability, and leadership to enable his clients to create a future that will allow them more time with family, develop their next generation of leaders, and have a high valued business.

By defining how you want to [00:02:00] work in the future, looking at what What is already working and identifying new ways to improve your life and business. Brad uses context to put the pieces of the puzzle together to see how you can take a chance at creating your new future. Brad, I am so excited to have you join me today.

Brad Herda: I am just happy to be here to be part of this, uh, this adventure that you are on now, and, uh, very happy for you taking on this. Uh, the role that you're taking, because it's a spot that you excelled and shine in. So thank you for even allowing me to be here. Well,

Leighann Lovely: thank you so much for those kind words. I, um, honestly, I'm really excited to talk to you because you do a lot of work with, you know.

I guess the DISC assessments that you look at with behavioral characteristics and then really talking a great deal, because you have a podcast as well, but talking a great deal about the multi generational communication. And that is something that, um, [00:03:00] I think plays a huge role in some of the new, um, younger, I should say, generations coming up in the sales roles.

Right. And selling into certain industries, that can become a huge hurdle for some of the, the younger generation. So this is definitely, yeah, this, it, it can be. Um, and so this is a topic that I, I'm really excited to, To kind of tackle with you,

Brad Herda: I'm looking forward to seeing where it goes, because the audience has the opportunity, I think, to learn something different.

Sometimes we do a lot of these things naturally, and we don't know what happens or why those things work the way they work. And if we can get into some of those details here to help them understand the why behind why it works with one person and not another, so they can change or adapt their style.

They may get a better close rate. They might get more effective. They could end up with more dollars in their pocket from their commissions, et cetera. So I'm excited to support them. So, let's,

Leighann Lovely: let's [00:04:00] start off with, I guess, um, first, what is a DISC assessment for some of those individuals that may not know?

Brad Herda: So a DISC assessment is just a behavioral assessment. Sometimes people call it personality tests. Some people call them just, uh, there's DISC, there's Myers Briggs, there's, there's literally hundreds of different ways that go out and do it, but essentially we, as humans have Communicate in very specific manners.

Um, this just happens to be one of the easier ones to understand. Cause there's only four, four quadrants, your, your D, which is your high dominance. You know, the guy that only cares about the facts and data, you know, the cold hearted MRF, or that just. Just give me the details. I don't care about anything else.

Then we have the eye, which is the influencer, which is everybody wants to be their friend. I want to be the life of the party. I'm going to, I'm going to be the use car sales, no matter what I say, that person on the other end is going to think it's all positive and rosy. And it's, and it's great. And I find those many of the high eyes to be somewhat annoying at times when I'm trying to sell or, or be sold to, [00:05:00] um, then you have your asses, which are the steady people, right?

They, they care about the people, but they also care about making sure it's the right decision. Very, very high anxiety. The fear of being wrong motivates them tremendously. They'd rather make sure they're right. Then to make a decision and be wrong and then we have the high seas, which are the compliance people, which are, let's follow the process.

Let's go step by step. If you gave them the alphabet and put it into a circuit, you know, going from a to Z, they go a, b, c, d, if they want a, l, q, p, w. You know, are that would drive them crazy. Hi, I could give two shits about that. Um, because they're going to go everywhere and it won't matter. So all of those things play a key role into understanding people's behaviors.

And if you can understand them and pick them out. Um, it works out tremendously and we've been seeing them for decades, every Disney movie, every sitcom, every drama has all these things baked into it. And that's why it engages us as we watch and participate and watch the movies. [00:06:00] I've never

Leighann Lovely: thought about it that way, you know, and Seinfeld just jumped into my head.

Absolutely.

Brad Herda: 100 percent Seinfeld is 100%. Four disc characters, all right there, all different things, right? Kramer's the high eye, just woo hoo, Cherry, it's crazy,

Leighann Lovely: right? Right, right, absolutely. Like the, oh my gosh, how, I've never really actually thought or, yeah. And that's why it's so entertaining because you see those different things represented and, and they come together and you're like, whoa, my God.

And the different personalities mixed together is really what is the entertainment.

Brad Herda: Correct. And you, you relate to one of those characters more so than the other. And one of them might be very grating. One of them might be just very annoying, right? Um, some of them's like, wow, I like this person a lot.

Leighann Lovely: And which is really funny is that I, you know, I'm, I know that I'm a [00:07:00] high I.

Um. Yes, you

Brad Herda: are. So

Leighann Lovely: now I'm thinking, wow, is that what represents me? I do not slide into rooms with my hair sticking straight up. But, but. Not

Brad Herda: always, some days, maybe. Depends on what's going on with the kids.

Leighann Lovely: Absolutely. I am, I am a person that, you know, when I start speaking, I'm pretty much just spewing out random, random stuff on a regular basis.

You're talking about the craziness that's happening and happening in my life. And, but there are times that I also can slide into other. roles where I kind of lean back on some of those other characteristics that, that can take control. So do you think that understanding where you fit can help a sales person or just in general help somebody in In their job.

Brad Herda: Uh, yeah, it would, when I went through the [00:08:00] training to go through that, uh, I was very blessed to go through some very intense training with Bsar's back in the day. And, um, that allowed me to understand my kids better, allowed me to understand my family better. It allowed me to understand some other things as well as professionally be able to get through the manager that I didn't get along with, but I had to, you know, grit my teeth every time I'd go in the office.

But as I learned to change the behaviors or change my. Communication style to that individual, our relationship became better, but I needed to take that course because he wasn't going to take the first step to figure it out because he was going to behave how they behave. And too often, that's what society does.

We are who we are. And as we've gotten more individualistic, it's, we are this way and we will be this way, and that's what we're going to do come hell or high water. And it's not going to matter. Okay, well, then if you're not going to adapt, you're going to miss out on almost 75 percent of the conversations for opportunity to, to create a better impact or a better, more meaningful

Leighann Lovely: [00:09:00] relationship.

Very interesting. So understanding the different, you know, the four core personalities. And obviously there's, I'm going to guess that, you know, these don't identify the, a person a hundred percent there you're ranked at different

Brad Herda: levels, correct? Yeah. We can take all of them and at different points in time, different things will come forward.

Um, you know, you're going to some life decisions in your high eye, right? But some life decisions you're going to take and, and. Making the career path change that you made, you spent a lot of time, energy and resources making sure it was the right change, bringing out all of your S in you, all your S goodness, um, to say, okay, great.

Cause it's a, it was a high risk. There were a lot of, a lot of risks and you wanted to make sure it was right before you just jumped in. Whereas what am I going to get Starbucks today? You could pick something who cares, right? Whatever it's liquid. You're not going to spend the time and energy [00:10:00] as much in that arena.

So just a lot of, a lot of it just factors on what's going on. And often when we get to larger deals or we get into that, I got to get the sale, I got to do this thing. And we come out of that place of scarcity and fear that we got to make it happen. We come back to our core value of whatever characteristic it might be.

And we missed the opportunity from the person on the other side of the table. We miss listening to the cues. We miss listening to. What they're truly asking you for because you're there to respond instead of there to listen and learn because that stress and anxiety is just so high in your own head and often it's our own head trash.

It's not even it's not even the real thing that's going on. We've told ourselves a story because we've never even asked the question the first time. Right.

Leighann Lovely: So now let's flip this around because understanding yourself obviously is wildly important to your own success. But as a young salesperson or any sales, let's, let's not say any, let's [00:11:00] first start off with any salesperson.

You're walking into a room, you're not going to give them an assessment before you walk here. Have this assessment before we have the sales meeting. That's not, that's not a real thing. You can't do that. Having won an understanding of yourself. And then two, understanding that there are different, like, very different personalities that exist, that exist out there.

How can that aid?

Brad Herda: So walking, yeah, so walking to the room, um, you know, we get that whole first First impression scenario, right? We get that 1015 seconds. Um, you walk in the room as the guest. Who's the person that got up to go greet you? Who's the person that made the first set the first eye contact? Who's the person that was the loudest in the room might be the eye in the room and jocular?

Who's the one that buried their head in their phone could give two craps that you're actually in the room? Might be [00:12:00] the S or the D because they're wasting their time Um, who's going to ask you all the process questions. Hey, we're here today. What's the agenda look like? Who's the one that has, you know, their hair all disheveled versus, you know, to dress to the nines in the room.

Um, some of those are key characteristics or things that could be behaviors to. X word outwardly identify what's going on as well. So, so you can walk into a room and kind of judge and figure it out by asking some very specific things or paying attention to very specific things. Who's the person that's just on the other side of the table?

Hey, how's it going? Probably introverted. Probably going to probably be on the C or S category C or S side of the disc behavior style. The person that gets up in the room, they walk all the way across the room, jumps over everybody. They come and say hello to you. Oh my God, I'm so grateful you're here.

Probably a high I.

Leighann Lovely: Interesting. And how does that play into the [00:13:00] success of, you know, Hey, Brad, I'm Leighann Lovely. I'm coming here to talk to you about X, Y, here. I'm going to. Tell you, I'm going to sell you this pen. Right.

Brad Herda: And so, so if you're going to sell me that pen and I'm a high C, you need to make sure that I'm aware of all the things that pens can, the warranty, how long it cartridge is going to last.

How many signed contracts can I get out of that pen? How many times can I click that thing when I'm nervous? What are all those things that are going to be really important to me is the high C potentially. And then can I get the value out of that from the cost basis? That pen might cost me 50, 000, but if I can get 5 million in return, why couldn't I do that?

So that's some logic based activity. Right. The high S is going to want even more reassurance. That's the right pen. Not, well, what about the other pen? The other guy sells, how's that work compared to there? And they [00:14:00] got to trust you that you're there to ensure that they're making the right decision versus you're just there to sell them a 50, 000 pen.

And that feel and that vibe, we all have had it, we've all gotten, we've all walked into a, you know, whether it's the appliance store, the Best Buy, Hey, can I help you? Who's all those commission type scenarios where people are there, you can feel when somebody is just there to sell you something to get a check versus really care about what, who you are and what you're trying to solve for your own problem.

And that's the connection that we buy from people. At the end of the day, we, we, we buy on the emotion and we use rationalization to justify our decision. If I like you, Leighann, I'm going to buy a 50, 000 pen, I'm, and I think it's going to be the best pen ever. I'm going to rationalize that 50, 000 pen in my head in some way, shape or form through the budgets, through other things.

But if we have that connection, you've sold me the pen. I'm not, I mean, why would anybody buy a 50, 000 pen? But it happens all the time. [00:15:00]

Leighann Lovely: I'd really like to see a $50,000 pen .

Brad Herda: Oh, back in they're, they're out there .

Leighann Lovely: Oh, I, I'm sure they are. I mean, there's, there's something for, for every rich person. The Right. I mean, and that's, that's wildly interesting.

I mean, taking the, the, being able to shift to meet the person at their level. Right. Meet the person where they are. But that takes. A great deal of one self awareness because you need to be able to shift and move and be very fluid in the way that you're approaching people.

Brad Herda: And be comfortable with it and not, and not have that uncomfortable, uncomfortableness become such a.

Um, hurdle for you to overcome that when you're out at the table, you know, you got sweat pouring down your face and palms are [00:16:00] sweaty and you know, you got the nervous need to kick going on or whatever it is, you have to get very comfortable. Being uncomfortable, adapting to others across the table and, and silence is one of the most important things in a sales world, having an eye, high I or high D be silent for 20 to 30 seconds, waiting for a response.

Oh my gosh, you're going to shit your pants.

Leighann Lovely: I know. Oh, trust me. That was the hardest thing for me as a young salesperson coming in. Whenever there was silence in a room, I felt like I was responsible for filling that gap. It, you know, you're like, Oh, nobody's talking. So I'm supposed to, to figure out what I'm supposed to say next.

But sometimes that is the most important aspect of closing, especially in closing. That is the most, whoever talks first loses.

Brad Herda: [00:17:00] Typically. Right. And, and one of the great questions to get out of the way is. Okay. The objection over price, and there's different schools of thought over that is the, do you lead with your price?

Do you lead? And I mean, Mercedes is not apologetic in any way, shape or form when they put up there, Hey, here's your lease for seven 29 a month for 36 months on all their car ads. They're not apologizing for any of that. And most people are going, Oh my God, that's ridiculous. That's what it is. And they don't care

Leighann Lovely: for some people.

That's a rent. Yeah. Do I pay my rent or, or half my mortgage payment?

Brad Herda: Right. So they don't apologize at what their price is versus trying to bury it underneath and bury it underneath the lead and go, okay, great. You know, Honda, I did that very much early on that they, they led with the, the warranty side of it and not the price.

And they were able to get the warranty and the price to coincide. And you knew you were going to go get warranty problems for until they built up their brand and their own quality. And we were the guinea pigs to build up that [00:18:00] organization. Because we took the price and the warranty and said, okay, great.

Then they fixed it and they had great customer service. And now they've, they're dominant. I want to say dominating, but they've changed what their vehicles were from 25 years ago. So

Leighann Lovely: let me ask you this. Now, obviously communication has drastically changed. I mean, well, it always is. It's always evolving. I shouldn't say it's changed.

It's evolving constantly. I never imagined there would be a time where I'm sitting in my office, which by the way, is in my home and my husband is on the upper level and I'm texting him in the same house. But this is a real thing. I mean, this happened. Communication is constantly evolving where sometimes I'm, I mean, I never imagined I would text my clients.

I thought, Oh, that's left for personal use. Right. But as time has gone on, From the first time I had my own cell phone when I was [00:19:00] 18 years old, we've gone from our, you know, cell phones becoming our everything, texting and emailing. So communication is, is. Evolving on a regular, constant basis and the younger generation coming in, communication has become drastically different.

I mean, correct. I mean, I'm, I'm in my forties and I look back and I go, do these kids like know how to communicate? And I'm sure that my parents looked at me and goes, did my daughter know how to communicate? What are these words she's using?

So for those of you who are just listening, Brad right now is laughing at me. But. Um, , I, I, I get text messages from my, you know, from some of these, my nanny or, and I get these acronyms or these, I mean, I, I, obviously, I know what LOL means, but careful, careful what you look up. It's dangerous. I know, I know.

My god, I know. Careful [00:20:00] what, and I get these and I'm like, what does this mean? ? Right. I don't know. So obviously with the younger generation coming in and moving into sales roles, um. It's, it's difficult to always communicate at the same level as Um, some of the owners of smaller businesses, some of the managers who are making the buying decisions.

Brad Herda: So, so let's just get some clarity here first. So when we say younger generation, so Gen Z, which is the current, which will be the youngest generation in the workforce right now, they're 26 years old. Okay. So, so they're 26. So if they've left high school and got went to the workforce, they've been in the workforce now for eight years.

Okay. Okay. Almost a full decade. So some of that we got to get over on our own self is that that self realization of, well, [00:21:00] all those young kids, they just don't know what they're at. So I'm 57 years old, right? So I'm at the tail end of beginning of gen X tail end of boomer. Um, Kind of stuck in the middle.

Then we got the millennials and the Gen Z's and then we got Gen Alpha behind that and understanding that, you know, Gen Z prefers communication digitally prefers because they are digital natives. They're not analog first, they're digital first and they prefer that methodology.

It's important to understand that if I'm going to go talk to some, a younger person that's in my B and I group or a networking event or whatever, I'm better off to connect with them to send them a text than to send them an email or make a phone call .

Mm hmm. Whereas I, on the other hand, when I want to say, Hey, just call me. Cause usually I'll have 10 or 15 other questions behind it. And texting conversations drives me batshit crazy. That's just me. , and that's them and that's okay. And, but understanding those differences are also very important. I do a talk for [00:22:00] multigenerational leadership and one of the questions I ask people about when we get to that point and said, okay, you get a thumbs up emoji from your boss, what does that mean?

Most people are like, Oh, it means okay. Yeah, go ahead. No problem. I'm like, are you sure? Are you sure that he's not tired of you being a pain in the ass? And it's not an F you just to get you out of the way, right? And the mind just go, I never thought about it that way. And the communication styles allow for barriers to understanding context and understanding true meaning because we take those things away.

And when you have Supreme courts and States indicating that a thumbs up emoji is a okay piece of a signed contract of a true deal. We have Supreme Court stay in the States in the United States that have upheld a thumbs up emoji to be an agreement to a contract that was never signed. Seriously?

Leighann Lovely: [00:23:00] Seriously. That puts a whole new perspective on when I give thumbs up, because sometimes I'm just like, yeah, okay, great.

Brad Herda: Like, whatever. Hey, do you agree to this deal? Yep. Okay. Thumbs up. Not a, yeah, send it to me later. No, there's, there's been, there's been lots of legal battle stuff going over those communication preferences and how things get communicated and what is a contract and what is not a contract.

So understanding those preferences might have some great unintended consequences for you, depending on how you're communicating across generations as well.

Leighann's face, just, what are you trying to imagine your dog right now? Just looking at you going, huh?

Leighann Lovely: I, okay. So there was actually, there was actually a battle, a contractual battle and a thumbs up was. Basically considered a [00:24:00] signature for a contract.

Brad Herda: Uh, let's see here. There, I'm trying to see if I can find it here.

Uh, that, there, it happened earlier in this year. It happened, uh, can the text message be a legally binding contract? So, tail end of 20, beginning of 22. Texting a thumbs up emoji in response to a question costs a Saskatchewan judge. Here we go. And I can send you, I'll put the link here in the chat so you can put it into your, um, show notes if you so desire.

Um, but yes, a Saskatchewan man, um, uses a thumb up emoji, cost of 82, 000. Wow. Please confirm, Kim, please confirm Flax Contract, thumbs up, question mark. Didn't confirm it, did not confirm it, but just please confirm it. It was a So, yes, right.

Link to reference article - https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatchewan/thumbs-up-emoji-costs-sask-farmer-82-thousand-1.6898686  

Leighann Lovely: So that they took as a conf like a confirmation of, yes, I'm, I'm okay with it.

And [00:25:00] yeah, I'll get

Brad Herda: back to

Leighann Lovely: you versus a, yeah, I'll get back to you. So obvious what, right, which, and again, you know, I, I'm okay with if the communication needs to be in text message, if that is the preference of the person that I'm communicating with now. You know, in retrospect, I'm like, okay, I got to really be careful with, with what I text in a new next time.

I'm going to text an emoji of a poop sign. No, hold on thumbs up. Like, I'll get back to you or I don't, but that really puts into perspective. The You know, the, it puts into perspective, I don't even know how to follow that. It's

Brad Herda: what it means to somebody else, right? That thumbs up to a younger person might be great.

I can just get to proceed. No big deal to an older person that might be, yeah, I'll get [00:26:00] back to you. Fine. Uh, yeah, sure. I got your text instead of just saying received, you know, an auto response or whatever. Okay. Make them go away. So I don't get another text. Whatever time of day it was. I just want you to go.

I just want you to know that I got it. Right. How we communicate that to each. Each other is different. Uh, I've got people that just get so angry at me when I don't respond to a text. Did you get my text? Well, yeah, I got it. What do you want me to do with it? You didn't ask me a question. You just gave me information.

What do you want me to do with the information? You didn't ask me anything for it. And I'm a high C person. So process rules. Okay, cool. You told me we're, we're meeting at five o'clock today. Okay. And then there's, then I guess I'll meet you at five o'clock. Do I need to send you a thumbs up and okay, uh, Hey, good job.

What do I need to do? You told me we're meeting at five o'clock

Leighann Lovely: recon for, you know, account [00:27:00] well, and then there's me too, where I have sent an email to my boss and then I'll, I'll hit send and literally run into his office and go, did you see the email? And he'll go, I'm not sitting here waiting for you to email me.

So when did you,

the excitability, the, you know, I'm not the only person in the room kind of thing where sometimes I forget that because I'm the high eye. That's very excitable. Yes. And I have to check myself sometime. I have to literally go, I need to go and take a breath. And because yes, I, sometimes that's gets away from me where, and I'm very, When I meet with a client, I let them speak first.

I ask them a bunch of questions and get to know them before I allow my personality to get too overbearing, because I know My personality can be very [00:28:00] overwhelming, especially to people who are introverts, who are that process person. They can literally go, Whoa, I need, I need to take a break from her. Like I'm aware of that.

My husband is a true, I would say he's a, an S, S or C. I mean, very extremely processed, extremely, you know, like. If you give him the alphabet and you don't give him a, b, c, d, I mean, he gets like, I got to stop come back to me in an hour,

Brad Herda: but, but it's important to understand that. And that's how, you know, to create those relationships to create that 1st impression to be able to qualify. So, you know, if I'm trying to sell to you as a high C and your high I, right. If I come into you and just come in hardcore, here's the facts, data, information on the product, whatever.

I cannot make a tangible personal benefit [00:29:00] of the product or the service or the relationship with that. I have blown the opportunity to improve my relationship with you and to potentially impact your business in a positive way, because I have missed the opportunity and missed the full boat of, of creating that relationship with you, the decision maker.

Leighann Lovely: And here's I had a salesperson call me and he called me and he just started talking randomly about this and that and what was happening in his life is talking about his dog. And I'm like, I love you. And he's like, okay, just not even talking about his product. And I was like, I'm going to buy from you,

Brad Herda: right?

Because you've developed the opportunity to know what's going on. And it wasn't about, it's about creating a relationship. And sometimes that that's like we said earlier, if we buy from the people we know, like, and trust, and you've got to be able to prospect those individuals. And just because you don't like me doesn't mean I'm not a prospect.

[00:30:00] Um, if, if I fit that persona. of your, your ideal avatar for your product or service, and now you want to filter out based on whether I like somebody or not, your pool is going to get really small very quickly. So how

Leighann Lovely: does, say this 26 year old coming in, their preference Is, you know, one way, so

Brad Herda: their communication modalities are a certain way, their individual characteristics could be something different.

They could be a high D, high, high, high S, whatever that might look like, because we're at the end of the day, we're still all individuals and generationally, we still have those characteristics, but I want to share some interesting, some interesting data for, um, I belong to a home building trades foundation, and we did some work with the launch program here in town doing some research for us.

How do we can connect with people with students and that don't [00:31:00] have any interest in the trades? And they did some research in 1979. 64 percent of those eligible to work in high school had high school jobs in 2022. That number is 15 percent 15 percent of those eligible to work in high school now work in highs, have a job during high school.

So the other 85 percent that when they get out of high school or they decide to go on to college and if they do decide to go on to college to have a meaningful job outside of college is almost like non existent. So the first job coming out is the first job and we've changed from an employer perspective.

We have put the onus on that first employer to help that individual be successful in and support them to be successful in whatever industry they're chosen, and we don't take the time to do that because we've not realized that because that's not where us as myself from that age group haven't come from that.[00:32:00]

Leighann Lovely: So that number went from, wait, from, from what to what?

Brad Herda: From 64 percent in 1979 to 15 percent in 19 and 2022.

Leighann Lovely: Oh my gosh.

Brad Herda: So when we get those conversations of, we don't understand why these kids can't work well because they haven't worked and they're not doing that. So when you say the 26 year old who might be four years removed from college, who might have only been working.

You know, service industry, fast food, you know, dominoes, Amazon, whatever to, to live the lifestyle and says, oh, okay, and we go to work for the insurance company to go sell things or to be the. Um, you know, cut, go knives or pick whatever, whatever that is, where they take younger people in to go find what's going on, having this, the process, the training, the communication, the support, the structure to define success for them along the way is really, really critical.

And you'll find organizations that do a really great job with younger. [00:33:00] Younger talent because they've defined expectations, put things in place, set things in place and move them through the system versus just a pass fail. If you're going to set up a pass fail for your salespeople coming out of school, you're going to be very disappointed.

Leighann Lovely: What? Okay. So I find that I was not aware of that statistic. So and I should have, I should be aware of that statistic, but we took over the

Brad Herda: show. We're going a different route. No,

Leighann Lovely: no, no, no, no. So this is wildly interesting because obviously I worked, I mean, as soon as I was eligible, to work. What is that?

Back in my day, it was 14. It was 14. You had to apply for your work permit. Then you could work and you had to be minimal, could only work a certain amount of hours a week. I'm going to assume that they still have some type of parameters on

Brad Herda: that. Like seven o'clock. They have to, they can only work till seven o'clock if you're under 16 right now.

Leighann Lovely: Right. And then, um, and you have to have a work permit, all that other stuff. And you can only work a certain amount of hours a week because they still want you to focus [00:34:00] on school. Um, I worked the max hours that I could, could work. I worked in the weekends, but I would go to, you know, work, blah, blah, blah, blah.

That was wildly important. For me when I was in high school because one that was how I party if you had no cash Exactly because my parents didn't just hand out cash and and the money that I made when I worked 50 percent of it had to go to my savings and the other one the other amount I could keep and and I was I Was a saver my friends used to always come to me and be like, do you have any money?

And I'm like, yeah, and they're like, how do you always have money and I'm like because I always save Like the, the money I make and I'm not buying

Brad Herda: cigarettes and beer.

Leighann Lovely: That's well, and I, I was back, you know, as soon as I hit like 16, I was okay. We, we all add our, you know, our person to go to and be like, can you go buy me some cigarettes and beer?

Uh, I mean, I even attempted to, you know, bring the note to the gas [00:35:00] station and be like, my mom told me anyways, I was a, I was a little rebel. Um, that was, that was what you did. And when I was in high school, you got a job. And as soon as I was 18, I, well, I went to the military when I was 17. I graduated early, went and worked, and then I never stopped working full time.

Like that, that, that was just what you did. And then I went, I, I finished college full time while I was working full time. And I've never stopped for, I should be a millionaire. Why am I not? Just as much money went out the door as it came in the door, you know, anyways. So the idea that these kids, but here, but it's also the generation of the parents that, you know, well, I had to work so [00:36:00] hard.

I don't want my kid to have to work. We have our own

Brad Herda: problem. We've created our own problem. And it's always, and we're not recognizing that. So being able to take that 24, 25, 26 year old person into a sales role to teach them those things, because at the end of the day, they went to school. They live through COVID.

They didn't, maybe they were in school during COVID and they didn't have right with no interaction. No, this, no that. And there's a lot of stress and anxiety there. Plus think of all the. Um, cultural and social things that have happened over the last 10 years and how that's impacted them differently than maybe you or I compared to desert storm or nine 11 or other things that have happened or space shuttles, all those other things that impacted our lives, their lives have been impacted differently to create different social cues and different social norms and different social expectations that doesn't change who they are from a human being, from a disc profile perspective, it just changes how they like to receive communication and how they like to be, um, [00:37:00] Educated and, and nurtured and mentored and coached and going through that sales process by coming and say, Hey kid, just tell me what the fricking number is.

They're likely going to be what, what do you mean? Just know my process because they've been, everything's been scheduled for them since they were age five, how do I deal with these curve balls that come out of place? And some, some individuals are much better at that others are not. So finding the right behavioral characteristics, I think is important to put them in the right roles or success.

And too often, we just. I think people are interchangeable. Right. Well,

Leighann Lovely: and, and the reason, so, and here's another, my, I, I wanted to go into sales when I was younger, but my, my dad was a sales manager, managed up to 60 agents at, at, at, at one time, you know, down to, you know, 45, it fluctuated. He was a real estate agent, ran an office, various different offices, you know, promoted throughout the years, blah, blah, blah.

Um, and my dad, I, I talked to him [00:38:00] about, you know, I'd love to go into sales. And he looked at me and he goes, you know, I, I love you. I don't believe. That you have enough life experience to be able to be good at it, to be great at it. Go get some work experience, some life experience to be able to, and, and he was not wrong at this time.

Again, you know, my, my history suffered with bipolar disorder. I was, I think I'm a high I, go back to when I was in my twenties. I was high I with a side of crazy.

I didn't have the life experience nor the self discipline to be able to go into a room and listen to somebody, hear them, and then to be able to determine a solution for them in a proper, strategic way, let alone be able to, anyways. Right.

Brad Herda: I guess, so, so, so, Hank, can I interrupt? Yes. So given that [00:39:00] scenario, right?

Dad saying, Hey, there's not a life life experience. Here's what's also happened. I think culturally that becomes a difference. If I take that same 20, that same 23, 24, 25 year old land, Leighann put her in a room with those same individuals today. And you're capturing all that information and listening and going through it and setting expectations of what I can get you the response versus feeling the need to have to have the answer for everything right now on the spot and those type of things.

That level of expectation has changed. In the business environment over the years as well, because we're not expecting everybody to know it because at the end of the day, I can always grab my phone potentially and look something up and it's not that big of a deal that I have to know everything. But what you do need to do is set your communication expectations for thank you, Mr.

Smith. I do not know the answer to that. I will contact George who's in San Francisco later today when I leave. And is it okay if I get back to you tomorrow? It's 8 a. m. Will that be satisfactory for you taking that [00:40:00] approach? In without the work experience, without the life experience of opportunity.

Changes the sales functionality tremendously if you're willing to adapt to those things and not feel you have to do it all at one, one stop shop. Right.

Leighann Lovely: Absolutely. I mean, the, the, the environment of how we sell of even in those appointments has drastically changed. Um, and, and I agree with that, but just being able to communicate clearly and being able to listen and being able to sit in those meetings, you still have to be able to have.

Um, you know, that it's an art form and again, I'm not trying to, to somebody who's interested in doing this. I'm not trying to make them go, Oh, I can't do that. It, but there is, you do have to have a certain amount of self awareness and awareness of the room because there have been times when I've been in the room sitting next to [00:41:00] a colleague who is doing their thing and watched eyes start rolling back because they're just not aware.

Of their surroundings

Brad Herda: and you're going on page 17, section 13. 2. 5. 4, there happens to be a period out of location here and we can fix that for you in that template. That's okay. Mr. Smith, right?

Leighann Lovely: Well, and I've, I've seen demo. Yeah. I used to sell sad solutions where we would do demos and you know, and it's like, Okay.

Um, set it up to what they want, not train them on the product, you know, so anyways, we could continue to go on forever. Unfortunately, we are running out of time and I want to give you, Brad, your, um, opportunity to do your 32nd selfless or, um, shameless pitch. You take the floor, um, go ahead and do that and we'll wrap up.

No

Brad Herda: worries. Uh, so Brad, her division for business solutions, and we support blue collar businesses to hire [00:42:00] anybody of any age to thrive in their business. So they have value at the end and something to sell. So many blue collar guys have given so much to so many, they forget about themselves at the end.

And people are usually their biggest deterrent to getting what they need for their business. And supporting them to understand that they can hire a 22 year old and they can do it differently and getting them out of their own way to build up that pipeline and build that pipeline for success is one of the biggest barriers they have to overcome to, um, sell and buy multiples at the end of the day.

Leighann Lovely: Awesome. Brad, thank you so much for joining me today. This has been. Um, honestly, an eye opening conversation for me. I love, but I love it. I love learning new things. I love, um, it's why I do what I do. It's why I have these conversations with people to learn myself and hope, um, you know, and hopefully educate, um, you know, those who are listening.

So remember if you like the show, um, you know, share it, like it, follow us, um, and thank you everybody for joining us today. [00:43:00]

Brad Herda: Thanks for having me, man. I appreciate it.

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