Ep 11: How to be a Sales Disrupter in your Space with Jennifer Frye

In this episode of the Best Sellers Podcast, host Doug Dvorak interviews Jennifer Frye, founder and owner of Appreciated Asset. Jennifer shares her journey and approach to creating disruptive sales strategies that prioritize consultative, human-centered interactions over traditional hard sales tactics. She discusses the unique methods her company uses to connect clients with high-quality business solutions, emphasizing the importance of genuine relationships and strategic prospecting. Jennifer also provides insights into training sales teams to be dynamic and authentic, and offers her perspective on leveraging technology and AI in a way that complements rather than replaces human touch in sales.

00:00 Introduction to Disruptive Messaging
01:46 Meet Jennifer Fry: Founder of Appreciated Asset
04:07 The Concept of Sales Disruption
06:48 Outdated Sales Tactics vs. Consultative Approach
11:35 Implementing Disruptive Sales Strategies
22:29 Training Sales Teams to be Disruptors
26:10 Future of Sales and Personal Development
29:41 Conclusion and Contact Information

Transcript

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We create really disruptive messaging for our clients. We deliver a service differently than anyone else out there. There's no other provider that we know of that calls consultatively for their clients. Instead, we call from Appreciated Asset and we recommend our clients. We vet them first to make sure that we truly are recommending, but when we reach out, we're not pitching or selling anyone. We're simply introducing and educating them about our products. Really great business solutions that they need to know about because they could have a phenomenal impact in our business. I don't want to convince anyone. I don't want to push or close anyone. I want to find the right fits or find the right connections. When the time is right, it will happen. The biggest thing that you can do for your clients is monetize it. It will become a no brainer for the right clients. I don't think I train them to act like disruptors. I think I train them to act like people. I don't hire them because they can read a script. I hire them because they can handle a conversation. They're dynamic. I train them to be human, which takes a bit of deconditioning. What advice would you give to sales professionals who want to become disruptors in their field? I think You are listening to the best sellers podcast presented by Doug Dvorak, where the focus is elevating your sales boom, the best sellers podcast, your ultimate destination for winning sales strategies. Good day, bestseller podcast nation. Hi, I'm Doug Dvorak founder and managing principal of the sales coaching Institute and your host on the best sellers podcast. The podcast is going to help you to elevate your sales game, With the best sellers podcast, your ultimate destination for winning sales strategies. Our guest today is Jennifer Fry, founder and owner of appreciated asset. Hi, Jennifer. How are you today? Hi, I'm awesome. I'm excited to be here. Well, we're excited to have you. We're bringing together some of the foremost thought leaders as it relates to aspects of winning sales strategies. And Jennifer, you've got a really unique story. Uh, you founded Appreciated Asset in 2018 to follow your passion and expertise in connecting entrepreneurs, businesses with the best resources available for their specific needs. You had a long and storied career, Jennifer. in business development, and you are dealing with both local and national clients of all sizes. What I found really interesting is you really carved out your niche and utilizing your expertise in maximizing top of the funnel sales activities for more effective prospecting. Can you tell us a little bit more about what you're doing with your clients at Appreciated Asset? I would start by saying that, yes, I did spend my whole career leading up to starting my own business, uh, in sales of some form or function, right? So directing, managing, training, and then also doing a lot of the sales myself. When I started my business, what I realized is that we were dealing with a lot of clients who had grown their business through word of mouth and and then they had gone to marketing. Once the word of mouth and referral kind of dries up or doesn't come in as frequently or with the right quality, they start marketing, but they never really laid down an intentional sales strategy. They never really looked at their sales process and procedures, and they never focused on top of the funnel activity, which is really where you generate the most opportunities for your business, right? So prospecting, appointment setting, looking at all the channels, in your business that you are able to bring opportunities towards you. And so that's what we carved out as our niche, because that's really where our zone of genius is, is creating connections for people that they don't typically see for themselves. But doing that with a really intentional and targeted strategy to help them grow their sales. Excellent. And a lot of your content, and in our several conversations in the buildup to today's podcast, you use the term sales disruptor. What does being a sales disruptor mean to you, Jennifer? Um, it means everything to me because for us. It was a lightbulb moment. A few years ago, I realized that we did our best work for clients that were disrupting their own industries. And I realized on the other side of that coin that we were disrupting the lead generation industry, but it was never intentional to be disruptive for the sake of disruptive, right? And you and I talked about this offline. We said that sometimes it's just a buzzword, and I get that. Some people may be a little over it. There might be some fatigue out there about disruptors, but here's the deal. A disruptor is someone who operates outside status quo to deliver service that is so far superior to the competition that we can literally create, make them irrelevant. So it's literally apples to oranges. What we do is we create really disruptive messaging for our clients, through a really unique process that we take them through during our onboarding. But the fact that we deliver a service differently than anyone else out there, there's no other provider that we know of that calls consultatively for their clients. And that's what we do. It is disruptive by nature because no one else is doing it, but it was also the most direct, Most inintegrity way that I could imagine to deliver our service. It never occurred to me to pretend I'm from your business. When I call I'm not, why would I do that? But that's what everyone else out there does when they do equipment setting and regeneration. Instead, we call from appreciated asset. We recommend our clients. We vet them first to make sure that we truly are recommending, of course. But when we reach out. We're not pitching or selling anyone. We're simply introducing and educating them about really great business solutions that they need to know about because they could have a phenomenal impact in our business. Interesting. You know, when I think of disruptors in information technology, I think back to Steve Jobs and, um, Wozniak in a garage in Silicon Valley building the, the Apple one. I think of Dollar Shave Club that, uh, Saw an industry that, you know, was very expensive, not really focused on great customer service and scaled that to a several hundred million dollar valuation. What are some outdated sales tactics that you see sales people and sales organizations still clinging to that are not disruptive? I would say the first is going to be that hard line close. Right. I was trained this way also, um, back in the early 2000s in New York City, you know, where you get the objection and then you do rebuttal to help close. And, and it's that hard line, straight line close. And here's the thing that works. It works. So that's gonna be disruptive for me. Cause you're like, well, why are you saying don't do that? It works to get you a transaction. It works to get you a close. But it does not work to build you a relationship that long term business and sales partnership Exactly. I don't want to convince anyone Anything. I don't want to push or close anyone. I want to find the right fits our final right connections and then Naturally organically when the time is right, it will happen, but I'm not interested in being anything But a hell yes for my clients and then I want the same for them You With the appointments that we set for them. So what's not working in sales is just this like hard line. Let's get the clothes. Let's get the transaction because again, it works. But when someone comes behind you and they cut you by 5%, you sold, say you sold that client on price, and then someone comes behind you, they cut you by 5%, 3%, it doesn't matter. They're gone. And I saw this happen. I saw this happen in companies where I was the number one salesperson in the company, that I got more closes than anyone else. The clients didn't stay with that company because we were selling on the wrong, on the wrong metric. That's really interesting. We are talking about the profession of selling. There's no business problem that new revenue or new sales can't solve, but I try to morph and update sales to subject matter expert, trusted advisor, or. Or a consultant or a relationship manager, and not just for the sake of a new term, but to your point, everything emanates from a consultative sales model that could be interchanged with trusted advisor or subject matter expert. Could you share some of the differences between traditional. Deal fast and hard one time transaction. That's all I'm focused on versus sort of a change in mindset and how you practice with your clients from traditional, stressful, manipulative sales strategies and tactics to a consultative sort of business advisor or trusted advisor. Yeah. So I think it starts with a pretty extensive discovery process. which can be both formal and informal prior to engagement, where you truly understand exactly what's happening in that business right now, exactly what their goals are. Before you ever talk about your products or your offers or pricing, anything like that, you have to understand exactly where they are and where they're looking to go. Because if you do the reverse and you go in hard with, I do this and we can do this, we can do that, you're throwing a bunch of stuff at the wall to see what sticks and you're also going to create a confused buyer. So whenever I have a new call with a new potential client, I learn about their situation. Worst case scenario, I'll say, look, I don't think we're the right fit for you. You know, I hate to say this and it still pains me, but I don't think we're the right fit for you, but here's some resources that I recommend for this stage of investments. For whatever reason, it's not the right industry. It's not the right, you know, offer value. You know, maybe their, their company growth is not where we'd like to see it. Things like that. Best case scenario is they'll say, this is where I'm going. I'm gonna say, okay, well, based on that, this is what I'm going to recommend for strategy, you know, because we could do this, but that's not going to get you there. And this is how, and I think the biggest thing that you can do for your clients is monetize it. If you can show how the investment with you is an investment, not an expense, and how that will be monetized for them once you achieve the outcome, the goal, then it will become a no brainer for the right clients. And it will also help you that if you can't monetize that, then it's a very easy way to say that you're not going to be the right fit for that client. Excellent. Jennifer, can you share with our audience an example of a disruptive sales strategy that you've successfully implemented for a client? You just want all my secrets. We want all your secrets. Great content from Jennifer and appreciated assets. Yeah, if you can share an example of a disruptive sales strategy. So I think, first of all, the consultative approach that we bring is disruptive. Okay. Because it is a strategy, but it was never meant to be a strategy. You know, I had the way this all started is I had people asking me to do sales for them. I knew that they didn't need a salesperson. They just needed new business appointments. And I said, well, I'll just recommend you. I'm already recommending you organically. So let's just pick the 50 businesses that, you know, if you were in front of them, man, you know, you've got the right solution. You just need the face on it. And then I'll reach out and I'll introduce you and I'll connect to you. So I think I will tell you, I'm going to use ourselves. It's very disruptive. Another thing that we've done is bringing a business that doesn't exist, like a solution that didn't exist anywhere else to a market. So a great example for that is I have a client who provides divorce support for businesses. Divorce is like a billion dollar productivity killer for businesses that most don't even realize that they have it. But when people are going through these family transitions, either through divorce situations or custody fights and battles, it really affects employee productivity. So this company comes in and provides employee support. So we had the opportunity. To educate people about these solutions that are so disruptive because they don't exist elsewhere. I also love solutions that exist everywhere, but the delivery is so vastly different. So for example, we have a client who's a PEO broker. So if you're looking in your business for a PEO, rather than calling five PEOs and getting five salespeople pitching you. You go to our client, you tell him what you need and he doesn't shout and then unbiased, he brings you your best options. So again, you don't have to worry about being sold to, he's just going to tell you based on your needs, this is your best solution. It's an absolute brilliant thing and no, he's the only one out there offering service in this way. There's other people who claim it a hundred percent. He's the only one that is a true unbiased and unaffiliated PEO broker. You've talked about the consultative sales model. You talked about mutual exchange of value. How does a sales professional or sales organization identify opportunities for disruption in a saturated market to come up with a new solution? Again, you're going after all these secrets, Doug. I mean, we'll just lay it all out there. I think what you want to start with is what is the status quo? What do people expect with the experience? So I'll give you a good example. Um, you are, so my background before I started, this is SEO. So I can talk about SEO all day long. Search engine optimization for anyone out there who doesn't know. Okay, so the industry standard for search engine optimization is that you are going to throw money at something. It's going to be months and months, maybe years before you see anything. You're not going to hear from them. You don't even really know what they're doing. They throw a bunch of big terms and big words at you that you don't quite understand, but you know, because they've made it clear that they're way smarter than you in this, and you just have to sit back and keep paying them. Taking that and then working with an SEO company who is incredibly niche and the clients that they serve, who is over communicative in what it is that they're doing for their clients, who shows them over and over and over, week after week and month after month, the increase that they've seen in rankings and keyword density or a keyword spread, the increase that they've seen in the organic rankings and The, you know, the LSA section of Google, but then the organic section, so like the way that they include their clients in the process, keep them educated and informed rather than in the dark is disruptive because no one else is doing this in SEO and they're providing phenomenal results. And I think another area of disruption, and we've tried some lead generation services and they promise everything. And you know what? The three times I've tried it over the last 10 years, it has been an absolute waste of money. So I really like your approach to disruption, finding a new solution, mutual exchange of value and a consultative. Sales model, as we dip our toe into technology and AI is all the rage and buzz. Now, what role does technology play in your disruptive sales approach? We may need to circle back in a year for an update on this one, Doug. Right now we have a tech stack that we use for data for, you know, really getting the best contact information for their prospect wishlists that we can. We are using AI in some of those platforms. We're using AI with. Some chat GPT for some content creation. I will tell you this though, and I, at this time, will die on this hill. I write all of our scripting myself. All the strategy, all the scripting that we do, but it, it truly is a zone of genius for me, being able to take a very complex solution and make it simple enough that a high schooler could understand it, because that's, it's not that your prospects aren't smarter than high schoolers, that's not what I'm saying. So it's just. In your solution, like things that are obvious to you are really foreign to other people. So the way we're using AI is to support where we are strong and not eliminate those strengths by cutting corners. Does that make sense? It does. You know, I think being high touch is really important. It's a huge part of our value. There's a lot of ways you can use AI and I'm exploring some for, you know, helping us eliminate redundancies. Uh, in our processes and systems, in our operations, but in terms of the outreach, no sir, it is all high touch, human to human. And highly customized. So Jennifer, what metrics do you use to measure the success of your disruptive sales strategies? Well it starts with appointment sales. We are about full transparency for our clients, so they approve our scripts and the prospect wish list before we reach out to anybody. There's never going to be a question, what's happening, what are they doing? Okay. Thank you. We want our clients to know at all times. We decide on onboarding together what a success look like. That's different for every client. There are some clients that we work with that want to see 10 new business appointments a month and they know they'll close three of them and that works for them to keep working with us. There are some clients that we work with That was the five a month because they really only have the capacity to onboard one of those. And they're closing at about 20 percent and that's success for them. Again, we stay in the no brainer category with those numbers. So that varies for every client, but that's the first KPI. And then the second KPI of course, is going to be the close rate. Now I don't tie my guarantees to my client's ability to close because I'm not part of that process. So I can't guarantee my success. based on their efforts. Again, so I would spend a lot of time vetting our clients to make sure that they are closing business. But what we are able to do is really assess what their current sales process and procedure looks like and help them make adjustments and improvements to their framework, to their follow up, so that when it does come time to look back three months, That they are closing at 20 percent, 30 percent, 40 percent and bringing in a consistent amount of new business that makes sense for them. Do you have any aggregated data points on percentage increase in close, percentage of quality appointments set as the result of working with you and appreciated asset? Yeah, so that does go up. I can, um, certainly that is something that I should get some updated information on. What we see is that by month four and five Jennifer, can you cite some specific metrics for your current clients that have used you an appreciated asset relative to Percentage increase on quality appointments close rate that you could share with our audience, please Sure So most of our clients have offers that are in the range of twenty thousand dollars and above in annual revenue When they sign a new business client And because we're talking at these higher offers, typically the sales cycle is a bit longer, right? You're not talking about a 15 day sales cycle and a 20, 000 offer. You're looking at typically, you know, anywhere from 30 to 90 days. So what we see with our clients is by month four and five, that they are in the black with us, that they're seeing a very positive ROI from our efforts from that kind of building block formation that we start in month one. The calls that came in, the appointments that were set for month two, the sales cycle that happened in month three and four closes, and then they really do see that kind of trickle down effect where they are finally in the positive after, you know, only four or five months. Because of this, we have a six month, uh, commitment that we ask for from our clients. Really, our goal is to work for you, you know, with our clients for years and be an outsourced partner. For years for sales strategy and prospective strategy, but we need the runway to get there. And so when we have clients who are really willing to commit to a sales strategy and not a quick fix, we're able to see massive results for them. Because again, what we do in month one builds in month two and three, and it really creates a snowball effect. That around month four, we're really seeing profit really increase for them. Because of our office. Interesting. Jennifer, how do you train your sales team to think and act like disruptors instead of just aggressive transaction based salespeople? I don't think I train them to act like disruptors. I think I train them to act like people. There's certain things that I do that are very different when I train my callers. First is, you know, I tell them I, I don't hire them because they can read a script. I hire them because they can handle a conversation. They're dynamic. They can think on all toes. They're conversational. They're social and outgoing. So, I encourage them to be human. I encourage them to show up. I encourage them to have a sense of humor, right? If you screw up, like, I don't need perfection from anyone. And I think a lot of times, when you're willing to kind of have some fun with it, when you're willing to be silly, uh, with yourself or, I mean, put your foot in your mouth. You go, Oh, yeah. Okay. I'm going to try that one again. Yeah. It's too much coffee. Let's give that another shot. Sorry about that. I'm getting way ahead of myself. So I train them to be human, which takes a bit of deconditioning to be honest with you. Cause a lot of my callers, they like stick to the script, do not vary from the script and all that. Of course we want to stay, stay with the script again. I don't want robots. The other thing that I do. Is it's a bit of a mindset shift. So I don't want them to be transactional. We want them to set appointments. We want them to be effective. Looking at every conversation as an opportunity to educate someone about something that they didn't know about before. And that's a really exciting thing. So I think the other thing that I do very differently is that I train our callers about the impact. That these calls have about the ripple effect, you know, our mission at appreciated asset is to create a ripple effect for great business solutions, helping them grow their footprint and our callers have a huge amount to do with that. So every time they interact with one of these prospects, it is an opportunity to really educate them and that's exciting. So it's, I think it's more of a mindset shift. Of how I want them to show up rather than a training the way maybe you or I might think of training from back in the day where you're in like that boiler room sales room, volleying with someone. Excellent. What advice would you give to sales professionals who want to become disruptors in their field? I think 95 percent of it is the energy that you show up, how you show up for yourself. I think doing what you say you're going to do when you say you're going to do it, you will outperform most people that way. It's amazing just being accountable. And the other thing I'm going to say that I see really lacking today that I really want to encourage people is to have some grit, have some tenacity. If someone says no to you, it just puts you one closer to the next you It has nothing to do with you or someone's unkind. I tell My team and I tell my 10 year old hurt people, hurt people. If somebody's rude to you, move on. It's not about you. It's about them. I talked to some of the most successful people out there and they are the nicest, kindest, take my call, take my cold call, all these things. Someone who needs to make you feel like this to make themselves feel bigger. Man, that's about them. That's not a bad idea. That's great. Great, great advice. Jennifer, how do you see the future of sales evolving and how can sales professionals prepare for it? So I think that AI is going to be part of the conversation for a very long time. And I think that will continue to evolve. So we're going to have to learn how to get on, you know, on that bandwagon in a way that aligns with our businesses. I also think that as much as AI is part of the conversation, there is the ability to bring that high touch back to sales is a huge opportunity that is getting missed across the board. People are more concerned about their, uh, their email lists, uh, about their, you know, the size of their email lists or how many DMs they're sending. They're not looking at the human to human connections context that they're making. And so I, I would like to see kind of that we are able to make the old new again and bring it back there. And I think people really crave that now more than ever post pandemic world. We see what losing that connection did for a lot of people. And I think we're going to see those rippling hats for a long time. So I think people really embrace this relationship sales and these tactics. Um, but it's, I really shouldn't have said tactic. It's really. That is a way of being to your earlier point be human be human be a good person Hard working earn the right for that conversation do some research and preparation Come prepared come engaged. What are your intentions? That's great. Jennifer. Who do you look to or what? Resources, do you search out to maintain and enhance your sales skills? This may sound Uh, counterintuitive, but I don't do a whole lot of sales training for myself because what I found is the more personal development, the more I learned to really step into my own power, to show up as I am, to chip away. Have you heard the story about the Michelangelo, Michelangelo building the David? And they said, well, how did you do this? And he said, I didn't, I just took away the things that weren't him or something like that. I probably really butchered that one. But I love that story because that's what it is. The more you take away those layers that aren't the things you think you should be, or the way you think you should show up or the delivery you think you should get, but really show up as yourself and step into that and learn to really love yourself and appreciate yourself to know that your worth is not tied to your production. You guys as salespeople, that took me a really long time to separate. Right. In sales, our worthiness is only as good as what we did last month. And I've been in plenty of organizations where I was reminded of that. All too often. Hourly. Right. So being able to separate those things out. And I'll tell you what, the more I step into that, the more personal development I do, the more I learn who I am, embrace that, and show up as that, the better I do in business. Jennifer, this has been awesome. I'd like to ask you, how can our listeners get ahold of you and anything else you'd like to share with them before we sign off? Sure. Thank you. Uh, so our website is appreciated asset. That's singular appreciated asset. com. You can find us there. You can email me at Jennifer at appreciated asset. com. If you'd like to ask any questions or meet up, we can definitely make that happen. You can check out our YouTube. I have been growing that, so that's pretty exciting. And that's at appreciated asset. And just, you know, let us know if you have any questions, if you have any ideas about how to disrupt sales. I'm always looking to meet other disruptors. And so I would love to continue the conversation. Thanks, Jennifer. Our guest has been Jennifer Fry, founder of Appreciated Entertainment. Asset on the best sellers podcast, check us out at salescoach. us forward slash podcast. If you made it all the way here, thank you for listening to the best sellers podcast, your ultimate destination for winning sales strategy. We hope you love this episode. Be sure to subscribe to us on YouTube and follow us on your favorite podcast platform to never miss an episode. See you on the next one.