Pat Helmers started the Sales Babble sales podcast in March 2014. His goal was to cut through the babble of bad sales advice too often repeated by society. He disagrees with the idea that sales is a pushy and unethical profession. He believes that if you have a genuine desire to service your customers, anyone can become successful at sales. Pat started his career as a software engineer for Bell Laboratories. It was there he became an inventor in GSM wireless technologies, earning two patents. He leveraged his expertise and became a trainer for emerging software Object Oriented methodologies, training 1000s of engineers in the USA and Europe. He was promoted and managed various training groups and a technology adoption organization promoting technology transfer. Here’s a quick summary of the TGI techniques that he has used on his podcast.

Traction: In the very early days of his podcast, Pat started out with no listeners or followers. He started it because he thought that there needed to be a podcast like the one he wanted to do. He was very methodical and intentional about what he wanted to do to get initial traction — he already had a blog and was disciplined in posting all over social media and building his e-mail list. Once he started the podcast, he made sure that he pushed episodes, above all. Making sure that he consistently produced with his number one priority, because he wanted his audience to know that they could rely on him.

Growth: Pat is incredibly aware of who he sells to. As a creative, he thinks that you must know who you are going to sell to, and that person is your avatar. Once you know who that person is, he recommends going out and talking with those people — talk with them in person and figure out what their problems are. Listen to what their problems are and answer their questions so that you can provide a value proposition. Because he strongly believes that podcasts grow through word of mouth, when you start answering questions for your ideal audience member, then they will help spread the word about your show. Three years later, and Pat never has issues with booking his show — he has regular guests that clamor to get on his show and talk sales, and he’s in a position now where he wants to start monetizing again. 

Income: Pat is an expert in sales, hence having the Sales Babble Podcast. In order to make sales, he says that you must have a straightforward value proposition. Once you have identified that value, when you communicate that with your audience, ask if that person is them — and with that question, now you have a qualified buyer. Once you have a qualified buyer, treat them like you know them, like they’re your friends or family, and go above and beyond for them. Once you have done that, when you are making pitches on sales, ask about what problems people are facing, and see how you can be a solution to their problem. Once you have presented your product or art as a potential solution, let them visualize how your solution can solve their problems. At that point, ask what would that look like for them? Before you’ve done all that, reach out to people that have bought from you in the past, and ask them what they like about your art — what they buy — and start to identify those trends so that you can provide quotes about your audience to your buyers. Now they can start connecting the dots and see the social proof of how you can help solve their problem. You then use those quotes and help close the sale. With that strategy, Pat is now booking sponsors on his show again, after intentionally removing them for a while. 

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