After 25 years in my Sales Career I’ve discovered that most business owners don’t have a sales problem. They have a “talking about themselves too much” problem. I spent decades in sales learning this the hard way. We’re taught to explain the product. Present the features. Handle objections. And convince people why they should buy. But great selling works almost completely backwards. Dan Martell recently shared the attached infographic below and is a great reminder to remember the following key points: 1. Forget your product. Find the pain. Don’t pitch. Diagnose. 2. Press the pain. Then sell the dream. What is the problem actually costing them? Money? Time? Stress? Missed opportunity? Then show them what life looks like on the other side. 3. Give the price. Then shut up. This one is painful for salespeople. Say the number. Then resist the overwhelming biological urge to spend the next 90 seconds negotiating against yourself. 4. If there’s doubt, go back to the pain. Don’t immediately defend your features. Ask better questions. Because objections often mean the gap between where they are and where they want to be isn’t clear enough yet. And there’s a bigger lesson here: The best salespeople aren’t professional persuaders. They’re professional diagnosticians. They understand the problem so well that the solution becomes the logical next step. That’s exactly the kind of skill we’re going to practice inside my Skool Community called… “The Dealmaker League.” It’s a new FREE online community for business owners, consultants, executives and sales professionals who want to get better at: → Selling → Negotiating → Presenting → Networking → Dealmaking → Using AI to become more effective at all of the above Not by watching another 47 hours of content. By getting reps in. Because you don’t become a better dealmaker by knowing more. You become one by practicing more. Repost this if someone in your network needs the reminder.

**Ryan Serhant just did $6B in sales. 🤑 Here's the one line that actually matters.** Real estate mogul Ryan Serhant — the guy who's met 100+ billionaires — got asked for his best networking advice. His answer wasn't a tactic, a script, or a follow-up hack. It was this: **networking isn't about collecting contacts. It's about creating relationships.** Most people treat networking like a numbers game — more DMs, more coffee chats, more LinkedIn adds. Serhant's point cuts the other way: the people who win long-term aren't the ones with the biggest Rolodex. They're the ones who actually invested in the people in it. That's the whole game in this League. So let's put it into reps. **This week's reps:** 1. **The zero-ask check-in.** Message 3 people you haven't talked to in 3+ months. No pitch, no ask — just genuinely check in. Notice how different that feels from your usual outreach. 2. **Relationship before pitch.** In your next sales or discovery call, spend the first 5 minutes on *them* — their business, their week, their actual problem — before you say one word about what you're selling. 3. **Value-first follow-up.** Instead of "just checking in," send a follow-up with something useful attached: an article, an intro, a resource. Make the follow-up worth getting. 4. **Revive one dormant relationship. ** Pick one contact who went cold. Figure out why you let it lapse, and fix it this week. Relationships compound. Contacts don't. **Drop a comment:** which relationship have you been meaning to invest in but keep putting off? https://www.facebook.com/share/v/19L93SzxfC/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Hello, my new Dealmaker League Friends — 🚀 I’ve noticed 2 things are moving fast in B2B sales right now: 1) Cold outreach is getting worse — AI has flooded it with lookalike copy. 2) The average reply rate has dropped to roughly 3.43% as buyers learn to spot a generated line in about three seconds. 🤖 Meanwhile, teams pairing AI with human reps, rather than replacing them, are seeing a 41% jump in pipeline over either approach alone. 🤔 The majority of B2B small business owners and executives I coach eventually ask: “Do I even need to hire more salespeople anymore?" 📊 Here's what 2026 is actually showing us. The answer isn't fewer salespeople. It's salespeople who've stopped doing what AI already does better — < research, list-building, first drafts — and then spending that time on what only a human can do: < read the room, hold the price, earn the trust that closes the deal. The winners aren't automating the relationship. They're automating everything around it, so they have more time for the relationship itself. If you're currently leading a sales team in St. Louis: what's one task on your Sales rep's plate today that AI should already own? 🗨️ I would love your genuine feedback⬇️

Every like your posts and comments get moves you up a level. That's it — no hoops, no gimmicks. The members who show up and add real value level up fastest, and get the most out of this room. Here's exactly what's waiting at each level: 🥊 Level 1 — Rookie (0 pts, you're already here) Full access to the community feed, the Classroom, and every live call. This is the baseline — everything below is on top of it. 🎯 Level 2 — Contender (5 pts) Unlocks: the Opening Line Swipe File — a set of pitch openers that actually get a second sentence out of a stranger. 🤝 Level 3 — Closer (20 pts) Unlocks: the Objection Vault — the responses to the five objections that kill more deals than any others. 💼 Level 4 — Dealmaker (65 pts) Unlocks: access to the monthly live Hot Seat — bring a real pitch, get it picked apart and rebuilt live, on camera, by the room. 👑 Level 5 — Power Broker (155 pts) Unlocks: a Dealmaker Spotlight feature — your win, your story, posted to the whole community, plus direct intro access to two other members working in your space. 🌧️ Level 6 — Rainmaker (515 pts) Unlocks: entry to the Inner Circle channel — a smaller, higher-signal space for the members who've proven they show up. 🏆 Level 7 — League Legend (2,015 pts) Unlocks: a direct line to me for a 1:1 strategy session on whatever deal you're trying to close. 🥇 Level 8 — Hall of Fame (8,015 pts) Permanent recognition on the community leaderboard and Hall of Fame post — this is rare air, and everyone will know it. ♾️ Level 9 — Founding Legend (33,015 pts) The top of the ladder. If you get here, you didn't just join founding — you built this place. Fastest way to move: comment on other people's posts with something useful. Every like you get back is a point. Every point moves you closer.

Don't wait until you have something "ready." Post one of these three things today: A pitch you're currently using — paste it, we'll tell you what's landing and what's not. A deal that stalled — what happened, where it died, what you'd want a second opinion on. A room you're walking into soon — a meeting, a call, a pitch — and what's making you nervous about it. Tag it "First Rep" so the room knows to go easy and go useful. This is the fastest way to start earning points too — the more real your post, the more likely it gets liked, the faster you level up.