Using Humor to Transform Sales and Create Authentic Connections with Ray Engan
In this episode of the Collaborators Unite podcast, host Chuck Anderson speaks with sales expert Ray Engan about the importance of connection in sales, the misconceptions surrounding the sales process, and how to effectively communicate with potential clients. Ray shares his unique background in stand-up comedy and how it has influenced his approach to sales, emphasizing the need for warmth, humor, and authenticity in conversations. The discussion also covers practical strategies for overcoming sales challenges and building meaningful relationships with clients.
GUEST BIO:
Ray Engan is a former stand-up comedian turned top-performing sales leader who blends humor, human psychology, and communication mastery to help entrepreneurs sell with confidence and authenticity. After writing for The Tonight Show and becoming the #1 salesperson in his company in just his second month, Ray reverse-engineered the hidden people-skills behind his success and now teaches coaches, speakers, and transformational leaders how to create engaging conversations that convert. His signature approach makes selling fun, natural, and deeply connected—proving that charisma, humor, and trust are learnable skills anyone can use to grow their business.
CHAPTERS:
00:00 Introduction to Impactful Sales
01:51 Ray Engan's Unique Journey
03:36 The Importance of Connection in Sales
06:16 Common Sales Challenges and Misconceptions
08:59 Transforming Conversations into Clients
11:51 The Role of Humor and Body Language
15:19 Building Trust and Authenticity
17:56 Removing Roadblocks in Sales
20:25 Final Thoughts and Advice
LINKS:
Ray offers access to his Friday Mastermind, a weekly live coaching experience where you bring your real-world challenges—copy, outreach, sales conversations, follow-ups, roadblocks—and Ray helps you quickly remove the barriers between you and more clients. Members get Ray’s hands-on support, creative outreach strategies, humor-infused communication tools, and real-time feedback.
Normally $2,000 for a year, but listeners of Chuck Anderson’s podcast receive three full months free.
Connect with Ray and claim your 3-month complimentary access here: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rayengan (via Ray’s LinkedIn—look for his newsletter Making Selling Fun and the mastermind link directly below his profile content)
Was this episode helpful?
Please leave us a review and subscribe to the show to be notified of future episodes.
Until next time, keep moving forward!
Chuck Anderson,
Affiliate Management Expert + Investor + Mentor
https://AffiliateManagementExpert.com/
Hello everybody and welcome back.
2
00:00:03,791 --> 00:00:05,863
This is the Collaborators Unite podcast.
3
00:00:05,863 --> 00:00:07,765
Chuck Anderson here, your host.
4
00:00:07,765 --> 00:00:22,738
And this is the show where we help you make a bigger positive impact in the lives of your
clients and in your communities and even the world with the work that you do while also
5
00:00:22,738 --> 00:00:24,859
being profitable.
6
00:00:24,920 --> 00:00:30,236
And so when we talk to people, we know that they wanna make a big impact.
7
00:00:30,236 --> 00:00:34,156
They also need to be profitable so that can be sustainable.
8
00:00:34,156 --> 00:00:39,756
So I like to bring on guests who can help you with that on that mission.
9
00:00:39,756 --> 00:00:43,256
And this topic of sales comes up a lot.
10
00:00:43,256 --> 00:00:52,296
And especially for those of us in the transformational industry or coaches, there's
various attitudes towards sales.
11
00:00:52,296 --> 00:00:54,736
I don't like to sell.
12
00:00:54,996 --> 00:00:58,426
if you've ever felt like that,
13
00:00:58,426 --> 00:01:11,237
This is a really good conversation to uh lean into, because we're gonna give you some
ideas that maybe you haven't heard before, or give you kind of some ideas of what you can
14
00:01:11,237 --> 00:01:12,548
do differently.
15
00:01:12,548 --> 00:01:14,709
So today my guest is Ray Engen.
16
00:01:14,709 --> 00:01:18,102
uh Ray, welcome to the show.
17
00:01:18,542 --> 00:01:19,013
Thanks, Chuck.
18
00:01:19,013 --> 00:01:19,896
It's great to be here.
19
00:01:19,896 --> 00:01:21,371
I'm so excited to talk about this.
20
00:01:21,371 --> 00:01:22,624
This is a lot of fun.
21
00:01:22,692 --> 00:01:23,942
Yeah, exactly.
22
00:01:23,942 --> 00:01:30,274
Well, we're just barely scratching the surface so far and I'm excited to dive into this
with you.
23
00:01:30,674 --> 00:01:42,878
you've got really, I'm excited for you to share this with our audience, because you have
such an interesting background and a mix of skills that really lend itself to this.
24
00:01:42,878 --> 00:01:48,176
And this whole idea of helping people with their sales.
25
00:01:48,176 --> 00:01:52,081
but you actually have a really interesting background as well.
26
00:01:52,081 --> 00:02:01,802
So tell everybody your story uh and a little bit more about you, who you are, and the work
that you do, and we'll go from there.
27
00:02:02,398 --> 00:02:07,883
I did stand-up comedy for 15 years and wrote for The Tonight Show a little bit.
28
00:02:08,284 --> 00:02:10,592
I left that and I went into sales.
29
00:02:10,592 --> 00:02:18,952
I started out and I joined this one company and the second month I was there I was the
number one salesperson in the country.
30
00:02:19,438 --> 00:02:24,017
I became a manager, did that whole thing and everywhere I went sales went up.
31
00:02:24,017 --> 00:02:29,862
I thought, wow, I must be the luckiest guy on the planet to go to the right places where
have these great salespeople.
32
00:02:30,228 --> 00:02:34,602
And I thought, wait a second, this is different companies, different products, different
things.
33
00:02:34,602 --> 00:02:37,444
What do I do that makes this happen?
34
00:02:37,444 --> 00:02:39,426
So I reverse engineered it.
35
00:02:39,486 --> 00:02:46,338
And I realized that what I was doing was the part of stand up that you don't think about
and you don't see.
36
00:02:46,338 --> 00:02:49,094
I was teaching that to my staff.
37
00:02:49,155 --> 00:02:57,944
And what that is, like I could walk into Rock Springs, Wyoming with have five big old
bikers playing pool for a couple hundred bucks a game and.
38
00:02:57,944 --> 00:03:04,856
Five minutes the show starts, I have to get him to stop playing pool and turn around and
watch my show and enjoy that process.
39
00:03:04,856 --> 00:03:08,497
And I could do that like that was Tuesday.
40
00:03:08,557 --> 00:03:11,678
And I thought, what is that process?
41
00:03:11,678 --> 00:03:13,218
And I figured it out.
42
00:03:13,359 --> 00:03:15,659
And then I said, well, who would buy this?
43
00:03:15,739 --> 00:03:16,840
I don't know where to try this.
44
00:03:16,840 --> 00:03:21,761
So I went to a seminar company, sold my soul to a seminar company to try it out.
45
00:03:21,761 --> 00:03:25,692
I taught their leadership classes with my content.
46
00:03:26,146 --> 00:03:32,369
And I learned a lot that way and I should have stopped after about a year because I proved
it worked.
47
00:03:32,369 --> 00:03:33,710
I proved people wanted to hear it.
48
00:03:33,710 --> 00:03:35,861
uh I didn't.
49
00:03:35,861 --> 00:03:40,253
It took COVID to shut me down because I couldn't go across the country anymore.
50
00:03:40,294 --> 00:03:47,728
And I started working with entrepreneurs and I created these things that they were doing
so well.
51
00:03:47,728 --> 00:03:50,639
They were in my eyes, my God, they're so smart.
52
00:03:50,639 --> 00:03:52,700
But the same thing happened all the time.
53
00:03:52,700 --> 00:03:55,886
They'd come up and they said, well, I have
54
00:03:55,886 --> 00:04:02,029
uh I have a great product, a genius idea, and I build great rapport.
55
00:04:02,049 --> 00:04:03,450
What's the problem?
56
00:04:03,809 --> 00:04:08,312
Well, no one calls me, nobody returns my emails.
57
00:04:08,413 --> 00:04:16,517
And what we have here, I think with COVID and the emergence of AI, we've lost as a
society, five years of people skills.
58
00:04:16,677 --> 00:04:25,762
And if you look at it, what every business has been trying to do since the dawn of time, I
call it the action framework, they attract.
59
00:04:26,158 --> 00:04:31,920
then they connect, then they transform, and they do that with individuals, organizations,
and networks, right?
60
00:04:31,920 --> 00:04:37,601
Well, in order to transform, and you can attract, that connection is the missing piece.
61
00:04:38,041 --> 00:04:39,742
And that's where it goes wrong.
62
00:04:39,742 --> 00:04:44,343
And we can get people to look at us, but if they don't feel like it's connected.
63
00:04:44,343 --> 00:04:50,425
And there's so many little things we do to put the wall of stranger in front of you.
64
00:04:50,425 --> 00:04:55,384
ah The first simplest thing that you can do with people you meet,
65
00:04:55,384 --> 00:04:59,586
When we go into a business meeting, you want to stay at a level playing field.
66
00:04:59,586 --> 00:05:02,658
You don't want to be up or down, looking up or down at these people.
67
00:05:02,658 --> 00:05:06,881
But we'll always say things like, oh, thank you so much for having me here.
68
00:05:06,881 --> 00:05:10,382
What an honor it is to present my company to yours.
69
00:05:10,563 --> 00:05:17,506
Well, the two things that build charisma, the two things charisma is built on, is warmth
and competence.
70
00:05:17,807 --> 00:05:22,049
And if you can show you're warm right away and that you're competent, they will...
71
00:05:22,049 --> 00:05:23,530
I'm listening to this guy.
72
00:05:23,704 --> 00:05:27,157
But if I'm sucking up to you right off the bat, who wants to hire that?
73
00:05:27,157 --> 00:05:29,899
You hire people that are good, right?
74
00:05:29,899 --> 00:05:39,147
uh But the key thing with strangers, if you don't know somebody, do not start a
conversation with a question.
75
00:05:39,448 --> 00:05:41,169
Start with a statement.
76
00:05:41,410 --> 00:05:41,880
You know why?
77
00:05:41,880 --> 00:05:44,452
Because that's what your friends do.
78
00:05:44,773 --> 00:05:51,158
Your friends always come up and they'll say, yeah, hey, I love that, yes, you can, or the
background, you know.
79
00:05:51,158 --> 00:05:54,600
Love the color of the walls back there.
80
00:05:55,661 --> 00:05:58,482
Your friends never said, good morning, how are you today?
81
00:05:58,882 --> 00:06:01,824
And I learned that in my first job, because it was in retail.
82
00:06:02,244 --> 00:06:08,047
And in retail, during Christmas season especially, you go in, can I help you?
83
00:06:08,218 --> 00:06:09,748
No, no, I'm just looking.
84
00:06:09,828 --> 00:06:11,479
Two seconds later, they're, where is that person?
85
00:06:11,479 --> 00:06:12,750
have questions now.
86
00:06:12,790 --> 00:06:17,092
And I noticed that, and I walked up to somebody, I just said, I'll let you buy that.
87
00:06:17,553 --> 00:06:20,258
And what they did is they laughed, go, oh, I bet you will.
88
00:06:20,258 --> 00:06:22,179
But while you're here, let me ask you this.
89
00:06:22,839 --> 00:06:25,170
Nothing good happens outside of a conversation.
90
00:06:25,170 --> 00:06:31,463
So what we're trying to do when we sell is show what we can do, not tell what we can do,
but show what we can do.
91
00:06:31,463 --> 00:06:34,704
And you have to have a conversation to do that to connect.
92
00:06:34,865 --> 00:06:36,135
You can't do it through email.
93
00:06:36,135 --> 00:06:37,766
You can't do it through anything else.
94
00:06:37,766 --> 00:06:40,027
But somewhere a conversation has.
95
00:06:40,027 --> 00:06:41,558
And I work with coaches and speakers.
96
00:06:41,558 --> 00:06:44,679
So uh they are people that have to have conversations.
97
00:06:44,679 --> 00:06:46,720
You don't sell your coaching program.
98
00:06:46,904 --> 00:06:50,920
through an email unless somebody trusts you so much and they won't trust you until they've
talked to you.
99
00:06:52,344 --> 00:06:52,944
Amazing.
100
00:06:52,944 --> 00:07:06,021
I want to dive deeper into some of this stuff, but before we do, I just really want to
anchor a little bit for our audience in terms of what you're hearing from the people that
101
00:07:06,021 --> 00:07:06,672
you work with.
102
00:07:06,672 --> 00:07:17,668
So when they come to you and they have questions or they're describing their challenges,
like, Ray, I'm struggling to sell or, you know, you know, I'm not getting enough clients
103
00:07:17,668 --> 00:07:18,518
or whatever it is.
104
00:07:18,518 --> 00:07:20,359
What are you hearing from them?
105
00:07:20,359 --> 00:07:22,288
What are the words?
106
00:07:22,288 --> 00:07:24,878
that they're using to describe their experience.
107
00:07:24,878 --> 00:07:27,198
A couple ones that come up all the time.
108
00:07:27,498 --> 00:07:29,898
I don't want to bother people too much.
109
00:07:29,958 --> 00:07:32,018
I don't want to be salesy.
110
00:07:32,018 --> 00:07:33,618
I don't want to feel icky.
111
00:07:34,158 --> 00:07:36,678
It doesn't feel authentic to me.
112
00:07:36,878 --> 00:07:43,538
And so they have this view of a salesperson as if they're walking onto a used car lot.
113
00:07:43,538 --> 00:07:46,038
What's it going to take to put you in the car today?
114
00:07:46,038 --> 00:07:48,198
If you're really going to the car today, I'll you really good deal.
115
00:07:48,198 --> 00:07:50,038
Every other day of year, I'm going to screw you.
116
00:07:50,038 --> 00:07:51,178
But today, you get to screw me.
117
00:07:51,178 --> 00:07:52,058
Come on.
118
00:07:52,838 --> 00:07:54,530
I've always wanted to be a...
119
00:07:54,530 --> 00:07:58,452
car salesman for one day so I can say all the things that they say.
120
00:07:59,773 --> 00:08:01,514
Yeah.
121
00:08:01,514 --> 00:08:05,656
And what we try and do is like, well, no, I don't know where to find these sales.
122
00:08:05,656 --> 00:08:06,477
don't know.
123
00:08:06,477 --> 00:08:10,199
And they're everywhere and we don't see them.
124
00:08:10,199 --> 00:08:18,823
um One of the things that comedians do is they see the logic of every word instead of the
logic of the big idea.
125
00:08:19,224 --> 00:08:23,056
And so where are the people who are going to buy my product?
126
00:08:23,056 --> 00:08:23,776
Well,
127
00:08:23,884 --> 00:08:25,395
You have them already.
128
00:08:25,395 --> 00:08:37,726
And if you take things like, uh if you go through your uh CRM that has your calendar in
it, it keeps a record of everybody you've ever scheduled a Zoom call with.
129
00:08:37,726 --> 00:08:42,399
Well, you're going to find 20 people in there that, my God, that fell through the cracks.
130
00:08:42,399 --> 00:08:43,630
my God, that fell through the cracks.
131
00:08:43,630 --> 00:08:52,577
uh Your LinkedIn comments, all these people that they know who you are, that's a warm
conversation.
132
00:08:53,132 --> 00:08:54,023
We overthink it.
133
00:08:54,023 --> 00:09:00,447
We'll send this long email letter uh to rekindling your old relationships with people.
134
00:09:00,447 --> 00:09:07,612
ah Who did you used to work with that you loved working with that you smiled when you
thought you talked to them?
135
00:09:07,612 --> 00:09:08,333
Well, guess what?
136
00:09:08,333 --> 00:09:10,594
Send them this one email.
137
00:09:10,694 --> 00:09:11,895
Take off all the logos.
138
00:09:11,895 --> 00:09:14,937
Take off everything official and just put Chuck.
139
00:09:15,398 --> 00:09:16,678
It's been too long.
140
00:09:16,678 --> 00:09:17,799
Let's catch up.
141
00:09:17,799 --> 00:09:18,719
Ray.
142
00:09:18,820 --> 00:09:20,941
PS, your Zoom or mine?
143
00:09:22,220 --> 00:09:23,421
That's what a friend sends.
144
00:09:23,421 --> 00:09:28,534
Because if you act as if you're a friend, they treat you as if you are.
145
00:09:28,534 --> 00:09:32,215
And what I do is I'm always thinking of ideas.
146
00:09:32,215 --> 00:09:38,508
oh I want to have, the people that you love the most as clients, you love to talk to.
147
00:09:38,508 --> 00:09:39,549
And they'd like to help you.
148
00:09:39,549 --> 00:09:42,081
And you say, I'm trying this thing out.
149
00:09:42,081 --> 00:09:44,662
ah What do you think of this?
150
00:09:44,662 --> 00:09:48,664
And just present what you have and let them talk about what it is.
151
00:09:48,664 --> 00:09:49,685
And you say, well, great.
152
00:09:49,685 --> 00:09:51,866
If you know anybody that needs this,
153
00:09:52,013 --> 00:09:53,183
Send them to me.
154
00:09:53,343 --> 00:09:56,264
Well, I want that.
155
00:09:56,724 --> 00:09:57,944
That's what happens.
156
00:09:57,944 --> 00:10:01,966
That's where 90 % of my sales come from is that simple conversation.
157
00:10:01,966 --> 00:10:02,574
Hey, I'm doing this.
158
00:10:02,574 --> 00:10:03,726
What do you think of it?
159
00:10:03,826 --> 00:10:10,648
And I either get information that changes it, makes it better, or I get uh a client out of
it.
160
00:10:10,788 --> 00:10:15,629
And it's that conversation where they go, we celebrate getting clients around here.
161
00:10:15,709 --> 00:10:18,810
And for those of you listening, there were balloons going up around my screen.
162
00:10:18,810 --> 00:10:20,230
uh
163
00:10:20,370 --> 00:10:23,252
And those kind of things, they're so simple, so easy.
164
00:10:23,252 --> 00:10:32,219
uh All these things that we have sitting there, you can create things where you find out
who's interested in you and who you've talked to before.
165
00:10:32,219 --> 00:10:40,164
uh You can use AI to scrub your Zoom chats if you're giving a webinar.
166
00:10:40,185 --> 00:10:42,686
And you say, well, who here is having problems doing this?
167
00:10:42,686 --> 00:10:46,970
Oh, I see Chuck Anderson's having problems doing that.
168
00:10:46,970 --> 00:10:47,670
And then
169
00:10:47,670 --> 00:10:50,432
You could forget that Chuck said he had problems doing that.
170
00:10:50,432 --> 00:10:56,535
And then you find who the people are that really resonated with what you're saying.
171
00:10:56,535 --> 00:10:57,756
And you just send them an email.
172
00:10:57,756 --> 00:11:00,257
Whoops, forgot to tell you something yesterday.
173
00:11:00,777 --> 00:11:04,059
And give them a chance to remove a roadblock.
174
00:11:04,059 --> 00:11:11,983
uh We think about selling as if it's this horrible game we play.
175
00:11:11,983 --> 00:11:14,425
And what you have to look at, you have to reframe it.
176
00:11:14,425 --> 00:11:15,825
You have to reframe it to tame it.
177
00:11:15,825 --> 00:11:17,216
uh
178
00:11:17,216 --> 00:11:22,687
What coaches do, what speakers do is we transform people.
179
00:11:23,288 --> 00:11:34,326
And if you are a true transformer and you know that what you do makes your clients lives
better and easier, you're changing the world for them.
180
00:11:34,326 --> 00:11:38,312
we look at, my, I don't want to force them to buy something from me.
181
00:11:38,312 --> 00:11:45,484
Well, if you change the world and you don't give them the opportunity to do that, you're
being selfish.
182
00:11:46,082 --> 00:11:49,523
That, because I had that same, I had those very same thoughts.
183
00:11:49,724 --> 00:12:00,128
And the second I realized that, my God, everybody I hang around since I've been 12 years
old, their sales have gone up.
184
00:12:00,128 --> 00:12:02,048
Little League candy sales.
185
00:12:02,149 --> 00:12:12,513
I was actually one of the first people that I know of, because I heard it a year later,
but I did it for, I told my friends, uh two daughters that were selling Girl Scout cookies
186
00:12:12,753 --> 00:12:15,438
to go, I'm in California, so.
187
00:12:15,438 --> 00:12:18,278
We have these cannabis stores, right?
188
00:12:18,278 --> 00:12:21,138
I said, sell it right outside the store.
189
00:12:21,358 --> 00:12:26,518
And they led their whole region in sales by doing that.
190
00:12:26,678 --> 00:12:31,398
it's the way in, finding the way in.
191
00:12:31,538 --> 00:12:37,358
And there's always a way you can get somebody interested in a program you're doing.
192
00:12:38,338 --> 00:12:43,518
One of my mentors is a guy named David Newman from Do It Marketing.
193
00:12:44,108 --> 00:12:51,540
The best thing he ever said about me is that Ray could stand in line at the grocery store
and make a $5,000 sale.
194
00:12:51,640 --> 00:12:57,662
And I haven't done that yet, but I have made $3,500 at karaoke night.
195
00:12:57,682 --> 00:13:05,014
And a guy came to fix one of my appliances, and I wound up giving him a friends and family
laser coaching package.
196
00:13:05,014 --> 00:13:10,866
So I made about $2,500 by having him clean my dryer lint.
197
00:13:11,354 --> 00:13:12,329
Yeah
198
00:13:15,067 --> 00:13:22,932
It's starting the conversation and trust plus congruent, irresistible offer equals a sale.
199
00:13:23,833 --> 00:13:29,677
And curiosity creates conversation and connection creates clients.
200
00:13:30,138 --> 00:13:34,340
And these little things you do to make people smile when they talk to you.
201
00:13:34,340 --> 00:13:42,656
uh And that's another thing about if you're not using humor in your conversations with
potential clients,
202
00:13:42,668 --> 00:13:48,039
you're missing out because it is instant rapport, likeability, and trust.
203
00:13:48,039 --> 00:13:52,141
And you can see that uh physiologically.
204
00:13:52,141 --> 00:13:57,242
And here's another thing to back up that questions versus statement.
205
00:13:57,242 --> 00:14:04,924
If I walked up to you on the street, and we didn't know each other, and I said, uh can I
ask you a question?
206
00:14:05,984 --> 00:14:10,205
You would pull back, drop your chin a little bit, go, OK.
207
00:14:13,102 --> 00:14:16,343
Because there's instant resistance.
208
00:14:16,423 --> 00:14:21,664
If I reframe that question as a statement, it's an, have the craziest question.
209
00:14:22,345 --> 00:14:23,485
What is it?
210
00:14:23,765 --> 00:14:28,806
And the things that make people lean in, curiosity, relevance, and specificity.
211
00:14:29,387 --> 00:14:33,075
And uh if you can do that, people will listen to you.
212
00:14:33,075 --> 00:14:37,249
Now, humor, there's a book called Humor Seriously.
213
00:14:37,449 --> 00:14:41,230
And if you want to have the business facts about what humor does for you,
214
00:14:41,230 --> 00:14:47,950
They took the same person giving the same presentation to a bunch of different people.
215
00:14:48,110 --> 00:14:50,170
And they added one line at the end.
216
00:14:50,170 --> 00:14:51,710
So here's how low the bar is.
217
00:14:51,710 --> 00:14:56,910
At the end of his presentation, he just said one thing, and I'll throw in my pet frog.
218
00:14:57,810 --> 00:15:00,970
That sold 30 % more dollars.
219
00:15:01,470 --> 00:15:03,330
I believe it's 30 % more dollars.
220
00:15:03,330 --> 00:15:07,970
That is a simple little statement that created a smile.
221
00:15:07,970 --> 00:15:09,638
What happens when you laugh?
222
00:15:09,804 --> 00:15:13,515
So when a stranger creeps you out, you pull back.
223
00:15:13,515 --> 00:15:18,897
When you laugh, this is the most vulnerable area of your body, your neck is.
224
00:15:18,897 --> 00:15:21,307
And we hide it from strangers.
225
00:15:21,307 --> 00:15:23,838
That's hardwired us from caveman days.
226
00:15:23,838 --> 00:15:25,998
We do this because we trust you.
227
00:15:26,479 --> 00:15:29,359
So it's built in.
228
00:15:29,919 --> 00:15:33,240
everything that's good in life happens after the laughter.
229
00:15:33,661 --> 00:15:37,382
So if you can control the laughter, you can control what's good in life.
230
00:15:37,382 --> 00:15:39,602
And you don't even have to be
231
00:15:39,640 --> 00:15:41,130
funny to do that.
232
00:15:41,130 --> 00:15:42,831
You just have to have a sense of humor.
233
00:15:42,831 --> 00:15:46,452
You can let uh cartoons do it for you and emails.
234
00:15:46,452 --> 00:15:48,492
You can do funny little cat videos.
235
00:15:48,492 --> 00:15:49,673
That's what they were invented for.
236
00:15:49,673 --> 00:15:56,155
uh It's such a comfort building thing.
237
00:15:56,155 --> 00:16:08,938
uh Another simple thing that I learned from Zoom, there's not a lot of people, there's not
great presenters live are not necessarily great presenters on Zoom.
238
00:16:09,398 --> 00:16:18,965
And one of the things that people forget about on podcasts, your hands show trust and
confidence.
239
00:16:19,566 --> 00:16:25,892
And if we keep them down here, which a lot of people do on Zoom, I've learned to talk with
my hands higher.
240
00:16:25,892 --> 00:16:31,236
But if you see nothing in my hands, open palms, that's trust, subconsciously that's trust.
241
00:16:31,236 --> 00:16:34,078
Your thumbs are confidence.
242
00:16:34,459 --> 00:16:38,962
And there's a reason that politicians do this, not because they have that in their DNA.
243
00:16:39,308 --> 00:16:43,581
but because some handlers told them that your thumbs are a show of truth.
244
00:16:43,581 --> 00:16:49,625
If you put your hands in your pocket when you speak, it's totally, uh it shows lack of
confidence.
245
00:16:49,625 --> 00:17:01,213
And the key thing when you speak, your body language is like the inner, uh it's your inner
thoughts, it's the closed captioning for your inner thoughts.
246
00:17:01,594 --> 00:17:04,215
And you can't turn that closed captioning off.
247
00:17:04,336 --> 00:17:08,378
So your inner thoughts have to match your outer words.
248
00:17:08,942 --> 00:17:16,102
And if they don't, there's something off between what you're saying and how you're acting
that you don't know that they're picking up on.
249
00:17:16,102 --> 00:17:18,882
And it's that congruence between that.
250
00:17:18,882 --> 00:17:20,882
That's what authenticity is.
251
00:17:21,002 --> 00:17:25,742
If you can show that your enthusiasm, if you can't tell, I like this stuff.
252
00:17:25,742 --> 00:17:28,082
So I get enthusiastic talking about it.
253
00:17:28,082 --> 00:17:31,342
And a lot of times there's no way for anybody to get another breath in.
254
00:17:31,802 --> 00:17:36,482
But it's these things come across to people and it's fabulous.
255
00:17:36,542 --> 00:17:38,894
It makes people lean into you.
256
00:17:38,894 --> 00:17:42,916
uh They're little things, little simple things to work on.
257
00:17:42,957 --> 00:17:55,906
And that's the real core of making connection, talking to people that you love to talk to,
finding those people you already know that really trust you and going back to them and
258
00:17:55,906 --> 00:17:57,667
find out where they'd send you.
259
00:17:57,667 --> 00:17:59,648
Sometimes it's right to them.
260
00:17:59,648 --> 00:18:00,799
Other times it's to other people.
261
00:18:00,799 --> 00:18:02,791
And that's something we don't do.
262
00:18:02,791 --> 00:18:07,948
We feel like we're bothering people and uh emails,
263
00:18:07,948 --> 00:18:09,139
We send a lot of those.
264
00:18:09,139 --> 00:18:09,859
Guess what?
265
00:18:09,859 --> 00:18:12,020
The numbers on those are amazing.
266
00:18:12,118 --> 00:18:14,998
80 % are never opened.
267
00:18:14,998 --> 00:18:15,182
80%.
268
00:18:15,182 --> 00:18:17,384
And think about all the stuff you get.
269
00:18:17,384 --> 00:18:21,266
There's a lot of stuff in my inbox just sitting there that's been sitting there for too
long.
270
00:18:21,266 --> 00:18:30,151
um And then when we do send an email, and I have a thing I give out called the 26-second
email.
271
00:18:30,291 --> 00:18:33,293
That's how long people that love you read your email.
272
00:18:33,693 --> 00:18:35,274
And even if they don't,
273
00:18:35,698 --> 00:18:37,680
Even if they love you, they still will skim.
274
00:18:37,680 --> 00:18:39,161
That's about a hundred words.
275
00:18:39,161 --> 00:18:43,904
Yet we send these long sales emails to strangers.
276
00:18:44,745 --> 00:18:45,586
Click gone.
277
00:18:45,586 --> 00:18:46,306
Click gone.
278
00:18:46,306 --> 00:18:52,831
ah It's a fast, quick thing that just hits home and it resonates.
279
00:18:52,831 --> 00:18:57,654
Your subject line should be no more than six words because that's what fits on a phone.
280
00:18:57,735 --> 00:19:01,477
And it should have curiosity, relevance, or specificity.
281
00:19:01,477 --> 00:19:02,956
uh
282
00:19:02,956 --> 00:19:07,229
One of the simplest ways to notice what's going to work is what worked on you.
283
00:19:07,589 --> 00:19:10,151
I got an email from Target, I believe.
284
00:19:10,151 --> 00:19:12,793
And it said, whoops, sent you the wrong email.
285
00:19:12,793 --> 00:19:13,684
I said, they did?
286
00:19:13,684 --> 00:19:16,556
Maybe they sent me coupons I wasn't supposed to get, right?
287
00:19:16,556 --> 00:19:17,606
And I opened it up.
288
00:19:17,606 --> 00:19:18,958
It was just their ad.
289
00:19:18,958 --> 00:19:23,221
So the email itself was very, it let me down.
290
00:19:23,221 --> 00:19:29,615
uh But that one moment where I got excited, go, OK, why did I do that?
291
00:19:29,615 --> 00:19:31,186
And how can I use that?
292
00:19:31,468 --> 00:19:44,308
And so when I do a speaking engagement, what I do is I do the speaking engagement and the
next day I send out to the list, whoops, forgot to tell you something last night.
293
00:19:44,769 --> 00:19:50,154
And that gets opened like 85 % of the time, because it creates that curiosity.
294
00:19:50,154 --> 00:19:53,717
ah The more specific you are, the better.
295
00:19:53,717 --> 00:19:54,367
These things.
296
00:19:54,367 --> 00:19:57,580
And talk to people as if they're your friends.
297
00:19:57,580 --> 00:20:00,342
They'll consider you as a friend right away.
298
00:20:00,342 --> 00:20:02,163
It's such a simple concept.
299
00:20:02,163 --> 00:20:07,027
ah Nothing is easy in life, you know, but it's all teachable.
300
00:20:07,027 --> 00:20:08,028
Humor is teachable.
301
00:20:08,028 --> 00:20:09,649
Charisma is teachable.
302
00:20:09,649 --> 00:20:11,310
Sales is teachable.
303
00:20:11,310 --> 00:20:13,011
Just like accounting.
304
00:20:13,011 --> 00:20:14,132
It's a process.
305
00:20:14,132 --> 00:20:15,933
It's a step-by-step process.
306
00:20:15,933 --> 00:20:17,374
And there's ways.
307
00:20:17,374 --> 00:20:22,137
What we really want to do is remove the roadblock that are stopping people from buying us.
308
00:20:22,642 --> 00:20:25,611
And that's what I try and do.
309
00:20:25,611 --> 00:20:28,492
try to, everything that somebody brings me,
310
00:20:28,662 --> 00:20:31,783
And I do this Friday mastermind with a group of people.
311
00:20:31,783 --> 00:20:36,884
They'll bring me the problems and I remove the roadblocks that are getting in the way from
people buying from them.
312
00:20:36,884 --> 00:20:39,185
uh What's an example for that?
313
00:20:39,185 --> 00:20:49,228
uh If you have the place to click for what you're trying to sell on the third page of your
website versus right there where you can see it.
314
00:20:49,228 --> 00:20:54,789
uh Take these things out of the way.
315
00:20:54,789 --> 00:20:57,410
You have to let people know what you do as a
316
00:20:57,410 --> 00:21:04,917
When we present to people, it's not important what you do, it's important what they get,
right?
317
00:21:04,917 --> 00:21:07,369
That's a basic sales premise.
318
00:21:07,369 --> 00:21:10,621
Show them, don't sell them the product, sell them the result.
319
00:21:10,702 --> 00:21:18,107
And when you do that, uh I always ask my customers, what did I do for you?
320
00:21:18,368 --> 00:21:25,554
Because what I think I'm doing versus what they say they're getting are two different
thoughts.
321
00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:28,331
And guess which one isn't important?
322
00:21:28,331 --> 00:21:30,112
My thought of what I'm doing.
323
00:21:30,112 --> 00:21:37,835
uh One of the things that became a mantra for me, I went to a client and said, so what do
I do for you?
324
00:21:37,995 --> 00:21:39,596
She said, that's easy.
325
00:21:39,596 --> 00:21:43,927
Everything I give you, you clarify it, simplify it, and amplify it.
326
00:21:43,927 --> 00:21:49,039
I'm like, that describes everything I do, but I've never used those words.
327
00:21:49,340 --> 00:21:55,702
Well, what you want as a client to look at you, especially as a coach, uh you want to
look.
328
00:21:56,374 --> 00:22:03,399
at a client and say something and have them go, oh my goodness, this person gets me.
329
00:22:03,880 --> 00:22:06,783
And you do that by using their language, their exact language.
330
00:22:06,783 --> 00:22:08,404
So those are great conversation to have.
331
00:22:08,404 --> 00:22:09,464
It sparks.
332
00:22:09,605 --> 00:22:12,707
The more you have a conversation with people, the more things happen.
333
00:22:12,707 --> 00:22:14,989
Nothing good happens outside of a conversation.
334
00:22:14,989 --> 00:22:17,714
ah Those are key things.
335
00:22:17,714 --> 00:22:19,613
And how do you start those?
336
00:22:19,613 --> 00:22:21,134
Ask questions?
337
00:22:21,494 --> 00:22:21,935
No.
338
00:22:21,935 --> 00:22:22,715
Make statements?
339
00:22:22,715 --> 00:22:23,596
Yes.
340
00:22:23,896 --> 00:22:26,258
I almost screwed up and backed it up there.
341
00:22:26,318 --> 00:22:26,854
you
342
00:22:26,854 --> 00:22:31,897
I know you teach this every week in your group and it's kind of the work that you do.
343
00:22:31,897 --> 00:22:39,891
First of all, great, great content and I know we're just scratching the surface and all of
the ideas and ways to connect.
344
00:22:39,891 --> 00:22:46,934
uh Tell everybody um how they can connect with you and learn more from you.
345
00:22:47,295 --> 00:22:50,006
And so what are the ways that we can do that?
346
00:22:50,510 --> 00:22:57,356
One of the fastest, easiest way to connect with me is on LinkedIn, or Ray Engin uh on
LinkedIn.
347
00:22:57,356 --> 00:23:05,123
I've got a newsletter called Making Selling Fun, which is absolutely free, and it's got
all these tips here in different ways I've used it.
348
00:23:05,123 --> 00:23:09,867
uh I always have a section in there on things you can steal and use today.
349
00:23:09,867 --> 00:23:12,990
uh So I've got a lot of these tips in there.
350
00:23:12,990 --> 00:23:18,170
The other thing is I do a mastermind every Friday, and...
351
00:23:18,794 --> 00:23:20,305
What it is is exactly what I say.
352
00:23:20,305 --> 00:23:21,296
You bring me problems.
353
00:23:21,296 --> 00:23:22,577
You bring me something you're working on.
354
00:23:22,577 --> 00:23:24,228
It could be, it could be copy.
355
00:23:24,228 --> 00:23:25,719
It could be a way to get a hold of somebody.
356
00:23:25,719 --> 00:23:27,280
It could be the situation.
357
00:23:27,280 --> 00:23:34,925
uh And, and uh like I have one guy come in and he's trying to reach soap manufacturers.
358
00:23:34,925 --> 00:23:36,686
And I said, well, do you have kids?
359
00:23:36,686 --> 00:23:37,967
He goes, yeah, I'm great.
360
00:23:37,967 --> 00:23:38,648
How old are they?
361
00:23:38,648 --> 00:23:40,809
Four, five and seven, I think.
362
00:23:40,809 --> 00:23:41,590
He goes, great.
363
00:23:41,590 --> 00:23:48,398
What I want you to do is get postcards with crayons and have them draw on the crayon, draw
soap bubbles, and then just put a message on the back.
364
00:23:48,398 --> 00:23:50,599
uh Will you please contact my daddy?
365
00:23:50,599 --> 00:23:52,080
He loves your soap.
366
00:23:52,881 --> 00:23:56,262
And he sent him out and he sent him out to 10 people.
367
00:23:56,343 --> 00:23:58,684
Nine of them contacted him back.
368
00:23:58,684 --> 00:23:59,194
One didn't.
369
00:23:59,194 --> 00:24:00,685
It was the one he wanted.
370
00:24:00,785 --> 00:24:03,807
And I said, he said, well, how do I get that one person to do it?
371
00:24:03,807 --> 00:24:10,851
Well, take your kid again, make a video that said, why won't you write back to my daddy
and send it to him?
372
00:24:10,851 --> 00:24:16,494
And if that person doesn't contact you back, you don't want him as a client because he's
not human, right?
373
00:24:16,494 --> 00:24:16,974
So.
374
00:24:16,974 --> 00:24:21,694
It's finding unusual ways, becoming an acceptable usual notice in this area.
375
00:24:21,694 --> 00:24:25,774
And it's something for a year, the mastermind is $2,000.
376
00:24:26,494 --> 00:24:32,534
But anybody that comes there from Chuck, you get three free months in it.
377
00:24:32,534 --> 00:24:37,534
So that's like, I don't even know how many there are weeks and three months, but let's
call it 12.
378
00:24:37,534 --> 00:24:39,374
So you got 12 weeks of the mastermind.
379
00:24:39,374 --> 00:24:41,194
It's Fridays, 11 o'clock Pacific.
380
00:24:41,194 --> 00:24:45,294
And if you go to the link, which will be down below here,
381
00:24:46,342 --> 00:24:49,283
hop on in and we'll get you started in there.
382
00:24:49,283 --> 00:24:52,704
Bring me a roadblock, bring me a problem, bring me something there.
383
00:24:52,985 --> 00:24:56,246
The other people in there will be chatting about it.
384
00:24:56,246 --> 00:25:00,048
I have had weeks where it winds up being me and you.
385
00:25:00,048 --> 00:25:07,841
And that's great because then we sit there for an hour and we talk and solve as many
problems as we can in an hour and work on these things.
386
00:25:07,841 --> 00:25:10,532
And if can't tell, I can talk without taking a breath.
387
00:25:10,532 --> 00:25:16,414
oh bring your own oxygen because I'll need it.
388
00:25:18,332 --> 00:25:18,913
Love it.
389
00:25:18,913 --> 00:25:27,135
Well, to make it really easy for you to connect with Ray, we've put all of Ray's links
just beneath this video.
390
00:25:27,135 --> 00:25:28,715
So just look beneath the video.
391
00:25:28,715 --> 00:25:30,776
All of the links are there.
392
00:25:30,776 --> 00:25:32,906
First of all, Ray, very, very generous.
393
00:25:32,906 --> 00:25:33,587
I love that.
394
00:25:33,587 --> 00:25:38,938
And I highly recommend that you listening in right now takes Ray up on that offer.
395
00:25:38,938 --> 00:25:40,739
That's super generous.
396
00:25:40,739 --> 00:25:46,200
And by the way, if you're not watching this on video, if you're listening on a podcast,
just open up your phone.
397
00:25:46,368 --> 00:25:51,571
and the software that you're on right now, all the links are there as well.
398
00:25:51,571 --> 00:25:54,003
um Ray, this is great.
399
00:25:54,003 --> 00:25:56,024
And I know that we've just scratched the surface.
400
00:25:56,024 --> 00:25:57,415
Sales is a big topic.
401
00:25:57,415 --> 00:26:00,597
There's lots of things that people are concerned about.
402
00:26:00,597 --> 00:26:02,969
At the end of the day, it is about connection.
403
00:26:02,969 --> 00:26:05,070
It is about building relationships.
404
00:26:05,070 --> 00:26:07,742
And it's really about communicating.
405
00:26:07,742 --> 00:26:12,004
um So as we wrap up here,
406
00:26:12,462 --> 00:26:16,527
Any final words of wisdom or piece of advice?
407
00:26:16,824 --> 00:26:23,660
Well, I think what hurts entrepreneurs, there's three, I call it the entrepreneurial
conundrum.
408
00:26:23,660 --> 00:26:28,764
There's three things you need to have to be able to sell yourself to other people.
409
00:26:28,764 --> 00:26:34,469
uh The first is belief in your native genius.
410
00:26:34,770 --> 00:26:37,672
And you have to believe that what you do is great.
411
00:26:37,672 --> 00:26:42,176
You have to believe that what you do makes other people's lives better and easier by using
it.
412
00:26:42,176 --> 00:26:44,978
And you also have to believe that your skill,
413
00:26:45,258 --> 00:26:49,180
is something that's so unique that you can charge unique pricing for.
414
00:26:49,180 --> 00:26:52,281
So that's something I had problems with when I started.
415
00:26:52,281 --> 00:26:53,662
I just talk.
416
00:26:53,662 --> 00:26:54,542
Who would buy that?
417
00:26:54,542 --> 00:26:55,382
So that's one.
418
00:26:55,382 --> 00:26:59,424
The second is you have to have uh communication skills.
419
00:26:59,744 --> 00:27:03,106
And you have to have multiple types of communication skills.
420
00:27:03,106 --> 00:27:08,448
You have to be good virtually, good one-on-one, good one-to-many.
421
00:27:08,448 --> 00:27:13,260
You have to be good written, uh good email, good on video.
422
00:27:13,260 --> 00:27:15,010
All these things, you have to have them all.
423
00:27:15,010 --> 00:27:16,971
You have to understand how to use them all.
424
00:27:16,971 --> 00:27:20,192
And the third thing you need are people skills.
425
00:27:20,592 --> 00:27:31,275
And if you have uh confidence, humor, you can influence, and you have charisma, that's the
whole package in people skills.
426
00:27:31,275 --> 00:27:34,616
You can survive with two out of those three.
427
00:27:34,616 --> 00:27:41,838
But if you have all three, that's the sweet spot where you're working with people that you
wanna work with, not people that you hope come to you.
428
00:27:41,838 --> 00:27:42,912
uh
429
00:27:42,912 --> 00:27:48,726
And the key, like I didn't have the belief in my native genius at first.
430
00:27:48,807 --> 00:27:58,715
And if you have somebody that has good people skills and good communication skills, what
happens to those people is you're the best salesperson for someone else's company.
431
00:27:58,755 --> 00:27:59,796
And that's what I was.
432
00:27:59,796 --> 00:28:05,481
I failed twice on my own uh until I figured that out.
433
00:28:05,481 --> 00:28:10,084
What I realized is that I was a great sales manager for other people.
434
00:28:10,084 --> 00:28:12,636
I was a horrible sales manager for myself.
435
00:28:13,098 --> 00:28:19,606
I wasn't doing the simple little things I needed to do and I failed twice on the way to
where I am today.
436
00:28:19,847 --> 00:28:23,512
yeah, me make, learn from my mistakes.
437
00:28:23,512 --> 00:28:24,853
That's what I wanna do.
438
00:28:25,276 --> 00:28:35,852
Yeah, so to sum up your advice to people in 30 seconds in a sound bite, what would you say
to
439
00:28:36,398 --> 00:28:39,340
create comfortable conversations, you'll create clients.
440
00:28:39,340 --> 00:28:44,042
uh Curiosity plus connection equals clients.
441
00:28:44,302 --> 00:28:55,208
Number one thing to do if you're going to change anything and walk away with anything,
when you go to a stranger, do not ask a question or take the question and transform it
442
00:28:55,208 --> 00:28:56,609
into a statement.
443
00:28:57,009 --> 00:29:00,651
And you will have a cleaner, softer way in.
444
00:29:00,651 --> 00:29:02,122
They'll start with a smile.
445
00:29:02,122 --> 00:29:04,428
They'll lean in and talk to you.
446
00:29:04,428 --> 00:29:10,514
Those are the simplest things that you can do that probably have a huge impact on your
next conversation.
447
00:29:11,292 --> 00:29:16,274
Great, great advice and awesome words to end this episode by.
448
00:29:16,274 --> 00:29:17,615
uh Ray, thank you.
449
00:29:17,615 --> 00:29:21,657
uh So much knowledge, so much information, so much experience.
450
00:29:21,657 --> 00:29:36,263
I think anyone who is listening in, who could use a boost of bringing new energy and new
life to their sales conversations can learn a lot from you.
451
00:29:36,283 --> 00:29:38,982
And uh so I highly encourage you all.
452
00:29:38,982 --> 00:29:41,353
Go and click the links beneath this video.
453
00:29:41,353 --> 00:29:42,274
Connect with Ray.
454
00:29:42,274 --> 00:29:58,274
Take Ray uh up on his offer to have you uh complimentary access to his program for three
months, and you will have that connection that you can use to learn more and to improve
455
00:29:58,274 --> 00:29:59,285
your skills.
456
00:29:59,285 --> 00:30:04,528
And so I want you to remember that as you go out today, I want you...
457
00:30:04,538 --> 00:30:07,649
to take an action that you heard us here talk about today.
458
00:30:07,649 --> 00:30:09,440
Maybe it's something we reminded you of.
459
00:30:09,440 --> 00:30:19,714
Maybe it's a follow-up that you've forgotten to do, that sales is in the follow-up, and
also go and connect with Ray as well.
460
00:30:20,055 --> 00:30:29,949
And remember that your big mission is possible and worth it, and you might just be one
collaboration away from a big breakthrough that will help you to make the big impact that
461
00:30:29,949 --> 00:30:30,719
you wanna make.
462
00:30:30,719 --> 00:30:33,678
Maybe Ray is that person to collaborate with.
463
00:30:33,678 --> 00:30:37,515
And whatever it is, there's no obstacle too big to be overcome.
464
00:30:37,515 --> 00:30:42,083
uh Keep moving forward everybody, and we will see you on the next one.
465
00:30:42,083 --> 00:30:43,064
Thank you.