Klyn Elsbury is a sales coach, two-time best-selling author, and keynote speaker. She is a Corporate Sales Consultant at MK Foundation, where she creates custom sales processes to help organizations optimize their sales team performance. Klyn is also a motivational speaker for sales teams and Fortune 1000 brands, as well as the host of The Truth About Sales podcast.
In addition to her work at MK Foundation, Klyn is a member of the Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) and a Chairwoman of Board Development for the Cystic Fibrosis Lifestyle Foundation. She has been featured in over 150 publications, including a prime-time debut on NBC Nightly News with Lester Holt.
Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:
- Klyn Elsbury talks about her cystic fibrosis diagnosis and how that led to her passion for sales, speaking, and writing
- How to become more grateful as a young entrepreneur
- Klyn shares her transition into motivational speaking — and how she created a successful speaking brand
- Klyn’s strategies for connecting and strengthening your network
- How transparency and vulnerability play into a leader’s success
- The solution to superficial sales connections: create an intentional tribe
- Klyn reveals her secret to sales
In this episode…
Many lawyers struggle with sales. However, Klyn Elsbury suggests that making a sale isn’t actually that different from negotiating in a courtroom. Today, she’s here to share her tried-and-true method for improving your sales game and successfully closing a deal.
One of the main elements of Klyn’s sales process is connection. As she says, successful sales aren’t about rapidly expanding your network and moving on when you don’t get the sale; they’re about creating genuine relationships and deepening the connections you already have. According to Klyn, the people that can change your business are probably already in your network — you just have to reach out!
In this episode of The Guts and Glory Show, Luis Scott is joined by Klyn Elsbury, a best-selling author, keynote speaker, and corporate sales consultant at MK Foundation. Klyn shares how she transitioned into the world of sales and speaking, the importance of gratitude, and why you should consistently lead with transparency. Plus, Klyn also breaks down her secret to sales success. You don’t want to miss this episode!
Resources Mentioned in this episode
- Klyn Elsbury on LinkedIn
- Klyn Elsbury on YouTube
- MK Foundation
- The Truth About Sales podcast
- I Am__: The Untold Story of Success by Klyn Elsbury
- Unstuck Yourself: A 30-Day Proven Sales Playbook That Uses Neuroscience to Improve Your Sales Career by Klyn Elsbury
- Jeb Blount on LinkedIn
- Little Black Stretchy Pants by Chip Wilson
- Luis Scott on LinkedIn
- 8 Figure Firm
- Bader Scott Injury Lawyers
Sponsor for this episode…
This episode is brought to you by 8 Figure Firm.
Co-founded by Luis Scott and Seth Bader of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers, 8 Figure Firm helps transform your law firm into a 7-figure or even 8-figure firm.
After their own law firm scaled from $3.5 million in revenues to $30 million per year in revenues in just two years, Luis and Seth started the 8 Figure Firm to share their strategies and help other law firms achieve exponential growth.
Visit www.8figurefirm.com to receive a consult call and start scaling your business today.
Episode Transcript
Luis Scott 0:00
I’m Luis Scott, managing partner of Bader Scott Injury Lawyers, one of the fastest growing law firms in the country. And I’m also the co founder of 8 Figure Firm Consulting. I’ve successfully built multiple companies by focusing on leadership, operations and culture. Using these principles, my companies have generated close to $100 million in revenue. But before any of this success, I started my legal career as a receptionist, and I worked my way up to becoming managing partner. And each episode of this podcast, I sit down with leaders and entrepreneurs who have had the guts to step out on their own, and the courage to face adversity. They share with us their tips for achievement, the challenges they have faced and the glory of success. I welcome you to The Guts and Glory Show.
Alright, hey, guys, welcome to The Guts and Glory Show. I’m excited to have our guest speaker today or a guest guest on the show, Klyn Elsbury, she’s got an amazing story. She’s going to inspire you, I believe she’s going to tell you today with her story. And also, we’re gonna be talking about sales, which I love. And if you’re a business owner, you should love also. And she has a very unique perspective on the sales process and how to help people develop a sales funnel that works for them, instead of them constantly chasing after the business. And so if you want to grow your business, you really want to tune in to this episode. But before we get started, as you know, this podcast has been brought to you by 8 Figure Firm Consulting, and we help lawyers turn their law firm into law businesses. So if you need help with your law firm and growing your law firm, go to www.8figurefirm.com. So I’m so excited to introduce you, Klyn, because you have an amazing story. And if people love this podcast, they should also check you out on YouTube, because you have a great speech about your story. But I want to read a couple things because I told you before we got on the show that I had a woman crush Wednesday, with all of your achievements. It’s absolutely incredible. Over 60,000 people follow you online through podcasts, newsletters and videos 150 appearances on publication, you have an international best-selling book called I Am__: The Untold Story, you have been on speaking stages, earning seven figures, doing speaking and sales, coaching and training. And you did all of this, if I got it correctly, by the time you were in your early 30s, I was still trying to figure out what I was going to do with my life in my early 30s. So it’s absolutely inspiring. But there is a backstory to all of this, which makes your story even more inspiring. And it’s your your battle with cystic fibrosis, I believe is what you have had and you had in there. In one year, you spent almost half the year in the hospital, but you didn’t make excuses. And that is what is truly, truly inspiring to me. So I want to say welcome to the show. How are you?
Klyn Elsbury 2:56
Ah, thank you. Thank you so much. Um, you know, I want to want to correct two teeny tiny little things. Okay, well, this will be fun, though, watch two books. And don’t worry, I’m still figuring it out. So if you feel if you’re listening to that, and you’re like, wow, I was not doing that in my 30s a lot of this was dumb luck. And if I’m being real with all of all of you, you know, I’m always secretly looking for the more adults, the adults in the room. So if you’re going through the vibes right now, like man, I’m behind. We all feel it, don’t worry.
Luis Scott 3:32
Yeah, I mean, to be here with you. But ya know, thank you for being here. And the thing is to, you know, to point out something that you said, it doesn’t really matter where you get to in life, you always can find someone who’s ahead of you, and you can always feel behind. So it’s really about, like, just sticking to your journey, you know, because we’re all we all have a different journey. But you know, I was really intrigued because you’ve made no excuses about your life and your past. And I don’t know how much, you know, that has affected your career. But I know people who have had that condition as well, who it affects them greatly. And I don’t know if that’s, you know, the full extent to your story, but i would i would love people to know more about kind of your past and what what led you into sales, what led you to speaking and how you came, you know, to write this international best-seller?
Klyn Elsbury 4:22
Yeah, so um, it’s interesting I detail. The first book is I Am and that’s, you know, the health Chronicles, if you will. And then the second book is a tactical way to leverage neuroscience to get you unstuck. And that’s more the sales side of the book. So it’s behind me. over my shoulder, you see a book with a trophy near the mic. And the first like, really two chapters are how I fell in love with sales inside the hospitals. For those of you who are listening who do not know, I’ll give you a little context, as cystic fibrosis is a genetic condition, meaning I was born with it. I have the most common mutation we You know, it roughly affects I think there’s 70,000 people in the world with cystic fibrosis, that’s an incredibly rare disease. And I have the most common mutation, which I believe is responsible for 80% of that 70,000. I was diagnosed right when I was born. And it’s a condition that fills your lungs with a thick, sticky mucus that you can’t really cough out like it’s been prone to infections. So if you think about the body, and the mucosal membrane, and all of them have have issues when you have this, this condition, and that that mucus, because you can’t cough it up or get it out, it creates, basically internal havoc. When I was born, the life expectancy of a lead was 14 years old. I think if you’re born today, you can expect to live to be about 25 years old. And I’ve spent 67 different hospitalizations and my 33 years on this planet. And they ranged in length from two nights to as long as six months. So Wow, what you were referring to, and I am the first book, there was one year a couple years ago in my late 20s, where I spent 154 days in the hospital, and they’re not all consistent. So it’s not like I can plan. It’s like, you know, we’re hanging out, we’re having a good time. And then the next day, something happened. And I’m in the hospital. And we don’t know when I leave if I leave. And so that was kind of the context of not only my childhood, but my adult life as well. And so I think that’s what creates us and I’m sure we won’t get into it, I think that’s what creates a little bit of that unique perspective is I was not raised traditionally, I was literally raised by my doctors and nurses and then my family on the weekends, during during the hospitalizations. And of course, you know, my mom would visit most every day, but like family time this weekend, my parents essentially became the nurses and the doctors during the week. So well, we’ll get into some interesting perspective shifts.
Luis Scott 6:57
You know, you know, what, what’s, what’s amazing is it’s already shining through here on the recording for those of you who are watching this, this podcast, but it’s your personality, like you have like this, it’s you have a very bubbly personality, like a love for life, which is amazing, because most people who have a condition where the life expectancies 25 probably don’t feel as happy, right, you know, and it’s like, you’re just you just have a, you know, I I get sick a little bit and I’m like, oh, oh, god, what’s gonna? What’s gonna happen to me, you know, and it’s so it’s, it’s actually inspiring to to have that sense of positivity that you have. And that really comes through when when someone gets to meet you. Where do you think that comes from? Where does that kind of positive attitude come from?
Klyn Elsbury 7:44
So funny. You say that, because I don’t think I’m positive. It’s a debate in our household too, because my fiance will say the same thing. You know, like, if you ask them, oh, how did why did you fall in love with Klyn? He’ll be like, she was just always happy. I’m like, have you met me, though? But no, I mean, really, like I remember. First hospital story coming out. I remember. You know, I talked about it in the speech that you watched online. But I remember being really upset about prom, and I didn’t get to go to prom, I get this in the hospital. And all the girls get to pick out their prom dresses. And this is when you know, my space was all the rage. I got to see. Nobody’s top five friends as kind of a loser. And in addition to that, like it’s weird to be so popular now. Right? and so’s nobody’s stopped by friends and everyone was posting their MySpace Prom Dress photos. And I just remembered crying because the nurse came in. And my option that day wasn’t do I want an A line or a silhouette friend? Like my option was? When do I want my anti nausea meds. And like I had the IVs going through my veins and like I was just like a wreck and I had like, legit pity party. And my mom was there. And she was like, okay, you earned this pity party. It’s completely understandable. But you got half hour. And she literally set a timer and then half hour later came into my room asked me how I was doing, I’m still being a teenager. And she put me in my wheelchair, she took me up to the burn unit. And I’ll tell you what, you you learn gratitude when you surround yourself with people who have more courage than you do, especially when you’re in that moment. So a teenager not getting to go to prom missing out on everything. And then seeing the women who lost most of their bodies to fire had a really big impact on me. And that’s just one of hundreds of hospital stories, where it was really my mom who taught me that I remembered that there was a time when I love to dance dancing, one of it’s a big passion of mine and I wanted to become a professional ballet dancer and deserve instructor I actually pulled both off. But it was we would do it in the hospital, we’d have all the nurses on their breaks come into the room and we’d be playing YouTube dance instruction videos. And we turned my hospital room into like an actual party. I don’t think I’ve ever shared this on the show so and we turned my my hospital room into literally like zoom, a belly dance party. And all the nurses on their shifts are bringing in food, and we just learned how to be together. So it was like, little things like that there’s joy in every moment, if we just take a step back and look for it. I think that’s one of the lessons that stuck with me.
Luis Scott 10:34
Yeah, you know, I think you said something, you said a word gratitude. And as I’ve gotten older, and I don’t consider myself old, I’m in my 30s, still my late 30s. But I’m still in my 30s. But I have realised how much gratitude really plays a part in your mental health, and in your ability to really persevere in bad times. And there are a lot of people out there, especially like young entrepreneurs who are getting started, who have a hard time being thankful when they’re not as successful as they want to be like, how do you actually be more thankful? More? How do you how do you become more grateful? Like, what is this? What is the skill set for that?
Klyn Elsbury 11:12
So I have whatever, here we go, an online course, dedicated to helping people grow their social media, right. And it’s it was one of my first loves for sales as I started piecing it together. And really, when you’re in the hospital, content creation becomes your jam, right? You study and you do content creation can’t leave that room, you know what I mean? Like, and it was interesting, because one of the ladies who had joined shark school, she, you know, said, oh, I’ve got all these posts of these ideas, but like only three people like them. And I’m like, I go back. And I was like, and you don’t think them or interact with your audience. And she’s like, it’s only three people. And I was like, regardless if you’re spiritual or not, I’m not taking it completely in this direction. But if you can’t be grateful for the three people who are supporting you, now you don’t deserve 60,000 You don’t deserve the income. You don’t deserve. Like, I’m very big in this do you you hit you hit me hard right there. Because if you’re not grateful for what you have, when you don’t have anything, you will never be grateful for what you have when you have everything because you won’t even notice you have it. And gratitude is such a big part of my life. That if somebody’s like, even on my sales teams, right? If I if I give a rep a really high quality lead, and they’re not grateful, or they turn around, and they complain about one part of that lead, giving, I’m gonna give them another high quality one. No, I’m gonna find that person who’s hungry and understands that you get more in life with honey than you do with salt. And it’s a big component of me. And so if you’re looking there right now, like I want to grow, I don’t know what’s happening in my business. are you grateful for what you currently have? And to the people who work with you know that?
Luis Scott 13:00
Because that’s your missing like, that is? That is huge. I mean that, like, wow, I’m not I’m not gonna say you were speaking to me. I’m not gonna say you were speaking to me. But you may have been speaking to me, right. I mean, that is so true. That is so true. I think that what happens with gratitude is that we sometimes are always thinking about the next thing, the next big thing, and we’re not really enjoying what we have today. And so it’s hard to be thankful for today, when all we’re thinking about is what’s next. And what’s next. We can’t control what’s next. That’s the thing and it’s, it’s we just have to continuously be, you know, thankful for what we have today. So that’s, that’s a very, very awesome perspective. Now, you took this up, because you have you said, you have a lot of hospital stories, eventually these stories or there was something got you on stage. And I’ve told you before, like my you live my dream job, which is speaking that’s like what I what I aspire to be one day, you’re speaking at conferences all over the country in the world. How did you get on stage? Like, what was the what was the transition point for you?
Klyn Elsbury 14:07
I know that your listeners want to hear this metamorphosis butterfly, you know, from the cocoon story, right? In the reality, I was drinking martinis on the beach with the right person at the right time. You know, so so I pick on that in one hand, right? Because those are all great business relationships just come from a casual conversation. And that’s where it started as I was very fortunate, and that a guy who was in charge of a major conference, had a couple of dirty martinis, and I was talking to him and about my story. And he was like, Hey, you will speak at our conference. And it was just tongue in cheek. And I was like, Yeah, I like, like, what’s a conference? Like I was that down? And he’s like, Oh, yeah, it’s kind of a big deal. You might want to practice for this one. I was like, okay, and come to find out it was Alchemy, which is one of the major regional conferences For the Entrepreneurs’ Organization, and thank God I practiced grateful for that little casual conversation on a beach. And I wound up being the highest rated speaker, including, you know, Jocko Willink was there, Chef Gordon was there, there was a lot of major major stars there, and Lance Armstrong and I beat them all out, I was the highest rated. And so I got signed to two bureaus that day. And I always joke, it’s easy to be a one hit wonder. It’s easy to get that sale on a Friday and be like, yeah, look how great I am, or at the end of the month, it’s easy to be a one hit wonder where the difficulty came in is in the consistency. And that, you know, you even take it into salespeople, right? Like, you can’t consistently throw the numbers on the board, you’re not a salesperson, you’re an order taker. And for me, it came from, I did a keynote for free, because I didn’t know what the conference was. Now I’m like, I could have got five figures for that one. And then literally everybody I was voting for everybody who stood in line to get a hug, I was grateful for every single person who bought a book. And you know, even to this day, if you buy a book on my website, I physically autograph that and go to the post office for you. And then like the entire time, I like it, it’s something people told me to outsource it, but I can’t. Cuz there’s something about like seeing a name, let’s say, you know, let’s just let’s pick on SaaS, because I met them this week, right? So let’s just say stuff gets a book, I write stuff on that page. And I literally just in my moments, like pray over or guide or send love to stuff. And it’s a very emotional moment for me to put my book in the mail. And sometimes it’s annoying. There’s like 100 copies I’m sending out. Yeah. And I want to be like, I do not have time for this. And then there’s times where I just like Steph bought the book. And that’s it for the week. Right? But it’s like that personal moment I have with everyone. And I think that’s where the consistency of my speaking brand came is because you know, when you work with me, you get customization and personalization. And that one on one attention that if I’m gonna get super emotional, I think we’re all starving for especially right now. And so that’s that’s how I did it consistently is I never took a single conversation with people for granted. And if they said that they ever book speakers or stories like, never lead like, Hey, I’m a speaker, you should book me for your event, I lead with, like, tell me all about who you are, what your life is like. And let’s share a story and see if these stories can do anything for others. And that’s what helped the consistency of that success. That’s helpful for you.
Luis Scott 17:35
Yeah, no, absolutely. I mean, one of the things that I just took from that story is that the key to getting on stage is drinking martinis. And getting away from my Margarita is like, that’s why I have been failing. You know, how did you not know this? I wrote it down. Don’t worry about it. So I have it. No, but the thing is that I probably should have started this show with a disclaimer that if you like making excuses, don’t listen to this show. But yeah, it’s it’s very powerful to hear someone who’s who’s on the other side of like, reach, finding that person that changed their life, right? Because that person, in a sense, helped change your life by getting you on that stage. And then you became this next thing and the next thing, and I think people don’t appreciate the value of connection. They want to be known, but they don’t want to connect and connection is more important than being known. And how do we how do we connect? Especially, you know, you have all these pandemics you have you have all these shutdowns, people now don’t want to associate closely as much as they used to. I know people are craving it. There’s social media that has kind of separated How do people connect nowadays? Like what’s the, what’s the strategy for that connection point?
Klyn Elsbury 18:47
You know, I feel in some ways, the pandemic made me closer to others, and got rid of the crap that was weighing me down. Because it’s that it was a year of intentional focus, like, you can only hang out with people in your bubble you better like them. And you know, with your dreams of being a speaker, I bet if you look at your network, that person who can change your life is already there. You just haven’t noticed them or connected with them and not you per se it’s not like you haven’t done this. But it’s more like there’s there’s just such a beauty to that. And I think connection. Slow down, like have a conversation. I have a meal ask the hard questions. So there’s this book I read and I forget the title. It’s it’s evading me but two women go to dinner and I’m a pick on women versus men knowing that, you know, it’s not necessarily a woman versus man thing. So sure, big picture here guys. And ladies. So women go to dinner and by the time and you know your wife will probably agree to this story. If you put your wife and i on a podcast, I know every detail about your marriage, her life, her upbringing, what it’s like at home where she struggles where she’s proud of how she’s a great woman. I go to a podcast with a guy and a podcast is a little different, because this is a very intentional moment, but I go to dinner with you, per se. And I leave knowing about your business, your favorite sports seems like I don’t know you at the end of the dinner because it’s uncomfortable to ask those questions, right? And women, we just instinctually know how to get it like, Oh, my fiance, friend was having a really difficult night, or difficult, like month at home or something. And they went out to a game. And I was like, oh, how are they doing with the kid? How are they doing with this? I don’t know. How can you sit with somebody for five hours and not know anything about them? Right? We don’t do that. Well, that’s where connection comes from, like, you just had five hours to do that. And so I think that’s just, you know, it’s okay to slow down and ask the tough questions. from a place of not judging and just being like, I want to connect with you. I think if we all lead with, we’ve got 45 minutes per show, I want to connect with you. Our lives would be a lot different. Yeah, I think it’s beautiful.
Luis Scott 21:03
I do I do believe that. And this may be just as that overgeneralization, but I do think at least from my experience, that connecting with other men is very challenging, because you know, I post something on on Instagram, I’ll get likes, but nobody’s giving me fire emojis for my great post picture. You know, my wife post something on Instagram, she’s, you know, she gets fire, you look amazing. You look great. I’m like, Where’s all my love? I don’t get I don’t get anybody giving me any kind of love like that, you know, she gets all love. So it’s, it’s it’s a little bit more challenging from a relationship standpoint. And I think it’s because we don’t want to be vulnerable. When I say we, probably everybody to some degree. And you know, for you, you mentioned before we got on the show that you’re kind of an open book and you’re transparent. Like where does transparency and vulnerability play a part in your success? Is it like a 50% 80%? Like, Because? Because I believe it’s a high part for me? Where do you Where do you see it on in terms of your success?
Klyn Elsbury 22:04
Yeah, so two things. The reason she’s getting all those fire emojis is she probably gives them more. You get what you give in life, right? So if you’re given the love, you’re going to get a lot more of it. At least that’s my experience. But where does the transparency and how much of it Do I lead with 100%? Like, there’s really nothing off limits if I trust the intention of the other person. Right. And that’s, that’s sort of the big thing. Like, we’re not just going to go around as an open book if I secretly think you’re shady, right. But I think I think as business owners, as anyone in an entrepreneurial sales type role, if you’re not leading with transparency consistently, there’s a bigger problem. And the reason people don’t want to be transparent is because it’s vulnerable. But I think also in today’s climate and landscape, we’re so over walking on eggshells to say anything, we need to say that it’s welcomed. So in a couple of interviews, we do a lot of sales recruiting for some of the companies. And in one of the interviews, I asked, you know, what do you like about your managers? or What don’t you like, and the candidate was like, I like straight shooters. Well, the person interview and I’m was not a straight shooter, and so you can see now, but I get it a lot more than I thought. So I think people welcome. open, honest, transparent dialogue. And, yeah, but if I answered that correctly for you,
Luis Scott 23:29
but no, I mean, there’s no correct answers. You know, it’s your answer. And the thing, one of the things that I’ve struggled with is, in the networking environment is I always feel like it’s so superficial, you know, and I’ve always, you know, and so like, I asked myself the question, do I really want to connect with people who are just being superficial, I’ll give you an example. I went to this networking event. And I met this group of people, and everything was great. Like, everything was great. The relationship was great that I was like, wow, I really connected with that person, and then come to find out, they’re just trying to sell me something. And it was like, they were only connecting for the sale. And then when they we didn’t get the sale when they didn’t get the sale. Like I never heard from them again. And I was like, Oh my gosh, I we could have been, we could have been best friends. Like, you know, and it’s just like, it’s so then it makes me it makes me not want to connect. So what would be what’s the what’s the solution? Like? What do you do in that scenario? Do you just keep connecting and hope you find the right people or?
Klyn Elsbury 24:31
Well, so let’s take it a couple of different angles on that. Um, I agree with you, I 99% of networking events. I leave early, because it just turns into Do you have a card I’d like to connect with you. And I’m like, I’m not connecting with you, right. You know, you asked earlier where my success comes from. So it literally just comes from cool. We’re not working together today, but I genuinely like you. You want to keep coming. Hang out again, like, you know, like, I was very blessed chat with your team and I don’t care. Like it doesn’t you know what I mean? Like, it doesn’t change my life. But what does is getting to have frequent conversations with you and having this podcast scheduled. And it’s like, regardless of whatever happens, like, I jokingly call them my ride or die club. And it’s a secret club of people that don’t know that they’re in it. So cats out of the bag, you’re one of the names on my rider die. And I encourage every single one of you right now listening, get out a sheet of paper and a pen, or use your phone, whatever you’re gonna do and write down 52 names of people you do not want to lose contact with, right? And then hint, there’s 52 weeks that a year, they don’t need to know that they’re going to pop up automatically on your CRM, and you’re just gonna send them a text message or like a GIF or GIF. You know, just something like, Hey, have a great day I was thinking about your work. This, this really reminded me of you or that time we spend together on this podcast or, you know, hey, what’s coming up on your holidays? You know, like, it’s okay to intentionally pick your tribe, and follow up with them until they stop responding to you. That’s the game. The game isn’t what you sell the game is how deep of an emotional connection can you have with the people around you every single day? And yeah, yeah, that’s what I do.
Luis Scott 26:24
Yeah, I love that. Because the thing is that we were busy, everybody’s busy. And what you’re talking about is like automating connection, but with intentionality. Like you’re automating connection, but you do have the intention of wanting to build a relationship. And I think that that’s deeper than just this superficial. Hey, are you ready to buy now? Are you ready to buy now? Are you ready to buy now and it’s it that’s what’s drives me crazy. That’s the reason I like I love I love LinkedIn, but I hate LinkedIn. Like I as soon as I connect with somebody, I’m going to get their email. Hey, by the way, want to sell you something? It’s like, dude, I’ve never even met you before. Like, I don’t even know who you are like, let’s
Klyn Elsbury 26:58
date me first. Yeah, exactly.
Luis Scott 27:01
It’s insane. Now, that’s a perfect segue into sales. Okay. Talk to me about sales lawyers. In particular, that’s the majority of the people that listen to this show, but and entrepreneurs to struggle with this, but lawyers in particular are horrible at sales. Tell us tell us the secret. What is the secret to sale?
Klyn Elsbury 27:20
That’s just to me that just the fact they say that cracks me up. One of my really one of my best friends is a is an attorney. And like he can negotiate, but then he’s like, go suck at sales. I’m like, dude, no, that’s that’s literally your profession, y’all. Like let me let me break this down for you should be you are selling an entire room of why your theory is correct for your client. now substitute your client for a product like a widget, gel pens International, you’re essentially negotiating with an entire room about why your gel pen is better. Like it is the same thing. So when lawyers say they’re bad at sales, I’m like, Well, are you bad at your job? Because you don’t get both? Like it’s the same freakin thing. So it’s interesting. So I’m sorry, but that was my little rant. Um, and I totally forgot your question if we’re being transparent.
Luis Scott 28:14
No, thank you for your transparency and your vulnerability. I look that but you are right. But the thing is that some of the lawyers that are bad at sales are also bad lawyers. So that’s actually goes hand in hand. But let me ask the question, the question I want you to answer for our listeners is, what’s the secret sauce to sales? Give us give us the three to nine point we can’t remember more than that. So like three to nine point secret sauce that’s selling legal services to someone. If you’re a lawyer and you want to, you know, take your business to the next level, you need 10 more clients, what are we doing?
Klyn Elsbury 28:52
I mean, I could flip it back to you and see what my secret sauce was. But I’ll give everybody the one statement. The one statement, I do it, every keynote that comes in every major book order that comes in anytime somebody wants me to work with their leadership team, any sales consulting, this is my one statement, you can tailor it for you and your organisation. And it changes the game. Should everything else go right. But here’s my here’s my kryptonite for you. Okay, so if let’s just say, hypothetically, I’m selling you sales training, right? So I’m selling new sales training. And I would just simply say, here’s the deal. I’ll ask you, roughly three to five questions, and then to figure out what it is that you’re missing in the company and what you’re proud of, there’s probably going to be some other questions in there as well. And then from there, I’m gonna share what I do. If it’s not a fit for you, and I don’t get a good vibe on it. That’s fine. What I’m going to do is I’m going to refer you to someone I know who will be a better fit, because I don’t want to waste your time or mind. And I know that I’m not the solution for every single person out there. But at least let me hear your story. And if I can get you a better connection than me, I’m happy to do that and we part as friends. I’m pretty sure I actually said that to you.
Luis Scott 30:00
You sit down. Now I’m thinking that you had that scripted, because you said that word for word.
Klyn Elsbury 30:06
I teach that to every major company, I create their, their value proposition. And I teach that to every salesperson in every major company. So it comes off as your your consultant. It’s a consultative educational based marketing approach to sales and selling philosophy and think of it even in the context of law, right? If I get injured, and I clearly am not a lawyer, so this is not going to be a correct statement. But if I get injured, and I need to find an injury attorney, for example, I’m going to Google, I don’t know what I’m looking at half the words I don’t understand. And I’m going to get on the phone with a member of your team. And I’m just saying, Listen, I’m really hurt, I need help, I need this money, medical bills are piling up, I need you. And you come at me and you say Klyn, I might be a good fit for you. But I’m not quite sure. Let me find out more about your situation. And if I’m not a personally find somebody who is the amount of buy in that will come from that customer knowing that they felt heard connected with and that you may not be their perfect solution, it lowers their cognitive bias, allowing you to actually pitch and sell them, should it be appropriate. But it also makes it come at it like you’re standing by their side not standing at them, figuring out a solution together.
Luis Scott 31:20
I mean, what you just said, like illustration, essentially, what’s taking place in this transaction is the consumer unknowingly believes that now you are working with them, even though you know, you still have the solution. But in case if I don’t have the solution, I’ll get you the right person. But I know I have the solution. But just in case, I you know, that’s that’s where that’s why, you know what,
Klyn Elsbury 31:48
that’s why I love working with these companies. Because like, you can be a well intentioned entrepreneur with a horrible sales department and not know how you’re gonna fix it. And then you read every single sales book, and you attend the seminars and the podcast. And you try all these strategies, but you’re forgetting the framework behind why these strategies may or may not work. And so we I have a neuroscience background. And so we took that background, and we applied it to these individual departments where everything else in the company is right, but this system is broken. We remind them of what that system is. And it’s beautiful. It is absolutely beautiful to see the transformation.
Luis Scott 32:23
Yeah, I mean, that that just that just kind of blew my mind right now just thinking about it. Because like, that’s, you know, the word that I was going to say when you said what is it that sold me on you or whatever, was the word likability. And I think that it came from that approach. As soon as you have that approach, you become more likeable. And we’re not going to do business with somebody who’s a sleazy salesperson. We’re just not.
Klyn Elsbury 32:48
We’re sophisticated buyers, like those days are over. And if you’re still trying it, day one, anytime I hire somebody new, I’m like, you’re not a salesperson. You’re an educator. And if you can’t make that transition, I can’t have you on my team. It is very clear. And so a lot of what we have to do is unlearn what happens. So there’s a story Lululemon if you read the Chip Wilson Lululemon story, riveting read. And he talks about how women that he was targeting for his $120 little black stretchy pants. When we go out of the dressing room, we don’t want to hear how we look good. Like I’m a very I’m a financially responsible, attractive female. I know when pants look good on me, I don’t need a $10 an hour employee telling you this. But then we go into the sales world and we automatically assume we need to tell our buyers how great they are. They’re sophisticated enough to know their stuffs broken. So that’s when you come across as sleazy or salesy because you’re treating them like they shouldn’t and don’t know better and they do, at least for you know the context of our conversations. I’m sure if you’re you’re going into a cheap mall, store it maybe maybe you do need that confidence. But when you’re dealing with educated people who are not educated by by school, but like educated by life, they don’t need artificial features and benefits conversations. And oh, the reason people love our company is because now they they’re sophisticated, not like leave them alone, they can make a decision, just guide them to the decision that makes what what should
Luis Scott 34:15
what should the salesperson say coming out of Lululemon? What should they what should they be saying?
Klyn Elsbury 34:21
What do you mean? So, sales one on one, loop it back to them? So if I’m if I’m a salesperson, and somebody is coming out with Lululemon, I just say hey, do you like how that looks on you? Do you have any questions about the technology behind this piece? You may not know this but there’s the reflective little arched on the back their logo. That’s actually an A for what they were originally going to name the company and the reason it’s reflective is because I’m assuming Are you a runner? Okay, no, no, you trail hard. Got it. Well, they invented this reflection because as you run on the trail should a biker be coming behind you. They actually can alert it so in case you’re wearing the black pants at night, you actually Have a reflective coating. So these pants actually keep you safer than some of the other ones. Wow. Yeah, I mean, I don’t know that per se, but that’s what I would do if I was selling little black stretchy pants in the mall, taking them back to the educational value. And notice there’s no Oh, you look great. Can I tell you about this feature of these pants? No.
Luis Scott 35:23
Yeah, well, I mean, the thing is that if the person comes out and you ask them, How do you feel? How do you feel that you look in it? How do you look? And they say, I think I like it, then you can just affirm them and say, I agree it looks great on you. And now I think you’ve developed more of a connection with the person, then just we call that.
Klyn Elsbury 35:39
So we call that ledge that there was a glitch. I don’t mean to cut you off. But one of the things that I love is ledge statements. So when the buyer is giving you anything, I hope you’re I can’t see you, but maybe you can see me. So hopefully this is valuable for you. Okay. So one of the things we also teach you something called the ledge statement, and it was popularised by Jeb Blount, on speaking of which many of your listeners know him, I would love an introduction, selfishly, huge fan. And, you know, it’s interesting that they come out and you go, oh, what do you think about yourself in these fans? And like, I like it to be like, yeah, many of our customers love that feature. I’m not complimenting them. Many of our customers love the way these pants look on them as well. And can I tell you about this logo in the back? And so you’re adding that value? You’re taking what they say you’re you’re using herd mentality, and then you’re adding in a technical educational feature? Wow. I hope this is good. I don’t know.
Luis Scott 36:32
That’s very, that’s very good. I mean, there is a there is a a method to the madness of sales, for sure. And I think that some of us are a little bit more skilled at it, I think we’re just kind of maybe have that skill. We don’t even know why we’re doing what we’re doing. And it’s working. But just to know that there’s this method behind it, and that you can actually train people on how to use that method is very powerful and impactful for people. So well. Klyn I appreciate you being on the show. I know you couldn’t see me there was a little glitch, but I could see perfectly and everyone who’s watching is going to be able to see you perfectly. Because I’m recording on my side. This has been very, very, you know, educational for me. And where can people find you? If they’re interested in having you speak at their conference if they’re interested to have you work with their sales team if they’re a lawyer and they’re trying to figure out how to get their onboarding and sales team to convert where can people find you to get more information about you?
Klyn Elsbury 37:33
Yeah, I mean, so my name if you just Google it, stuff comes out because there’s only one Klyn Yeah, I mean, really just go to www.missklyn.com And there’s, you’ll enter an entire rabbit hole of information. But that’s that’s the go to place.
Luis Scott 37:54
Awesome. Awesome. Well, thank you for being on the show. I really loved it. Can’t wait to put this out and have people connect with it. And we’ll be talking soon. Take care. Thank you.
Outro 38:08
You’ve been listening to The Guts and Glory Show with Luis Scott. If you enjoyed the show, be sure to share. For more information on this episode. Please see the show notes at www.GutsandGloryshow.com and join us next time as we talk to another leader in business that had the guts to overcome all odds for the glory of success.
