Most professionals are clueless about the one thing that truly matters in business. It's not your skills, your degree, or even how good you are at your job.
In this introductory episode of the Sales Assassins Podcast, hosts Joe Blackburn and Jason Croft dive deep into the often overlooked foundation of business success: word-of-mouth marketing.
Joe, drawing from his 20+ years in financial services, shares why being great at your job isn't enough. He explains how professionals often fall into the trap of direct selling, pushing away potential clients instead of attracting them.
The hosts discuss:
- Why cold calling and door-to-door tactics are outdated for service professionals
- The danger of relying solely on online marketing strategies
- How to build trust and relationships that lead to effortless sales
- The concept of "Sales Assassins" and why it's more effective than being a "sales warrior"
- The importance of being "unapologetically profitable" in your business
They bring up the critical point that many professionals struggle with guilt around charging for their services and emphasize that if you don't value your time, no one else will.
This episode is a wake-up call for professionals who've been focusing on the wrong things. It's time to master the art of getting people to know, like, and trust you - or risk becoming irrelevant in today's market.
Whether you're a financial advisor, real estate agent, coach, or any other service professional, this conversation will change how you approach growing your business.
A powerful key insight to look out for: why leaving things to chance always comes back as a problem or objection in your business.
00;00;00;01 - 00;00;10;19
Joe Blackburn
Okay, the wake up call is I've got to actually go out and get people to pay me to do this. You can be your hygiene can be spectacular. You can be the best at what you do. If you can't get someone to pay for it, it's worthless.
00;00;10;21 - 00;00;16;13
Jason Croft
Welcome to Sales Assassins, the podcast that unveils the lost art of word of mouth marketing.
00;00;16;13 - 00;00;16;18
Joe Blackburn
For.
00;00;16;18 - 00;00;43;06
Jason Croft
Professionals just like you. We cover everything from building relationships and nurturing connections to overcoming the challenges of modern marketing. You'll learn how to stand out in a crowded market. Charge confidently for your services and create an army of people recommending you without hesitation. Now let's dive in and make you deadly effective at sales.
00;00;43;09 - 00;00;49;12
Jason Croft
How's it going, everybody? Welcome to the Sales Assassins podcast, Joe. How are you, sir?
00;00;49;15 - 00;00;52;23
Joe Blackburn
I'm doing well, man. Ready to rock. Ready to kick this baby off?
00;00;52;26 - 00;01;05;26
Jason Croft
Absolutely. So we wanted to do a quick, you know, episode zero kind of intro episode for you all today and really kind of answer the question, okay. Why another podcast out there? You know it's not enough.
00;01;05;29 - 00;01;06;20
Joe Blackburn
Yeah.
00;01;06;22 - 00;01;34;29
Jason Croft
Why this one? Why? You know why all of it. And I think that's always it's helpful for you, the audience, to to know what the heck we're doing at all. But it also, I think, helps us clarify and make sure that we're clear in on that message. And, you know, I reached out to Joe, honestly to to start this when I learned more about what he has going on in Sales Assassins, the program that he has.
00;01;35;02 - 00;01;56;06
Jason Croft
It just lent itself to a full fledged show and, you know, leading people to learn even more about the program. So Joe described it out a little bit for folks, what sales assassins the program is and why you said, you know what, hey, let's do this. Let's talk about this. Let's have this show.
00;01;56;08 - 00;02;35;15
Joe Blackburn
Well, the sales assassin program, it's essentially we created a platform on school. So those of you probably don't know what that is, it's just a way for us to host community, host a mastermind, do some coaching, put modules. I mean, it's it's a learning platform, thus the word school. And what we found was within our client base, there were a lot of people that we would consider be professional or professionals, and they had salespeople on their teams, but they didn't really have time or energy or really even the knowledge base to train their sales force on how to go out and get people to know, like and trust them and not always revert back
00;02;35;15 - 00;02;55;17
Joe Blackburn
to the owner who was the chief marketer of their business. But they didn't really have the skill set or the mindset to go out and do that as a professional. So when we looked at the platform, yeah, that's important, but where you're finding they just you know, they were going at it almost like a direct sales job. So it was, you know, cold call everyone, go outdoor knock.
00;02;55;17 - 00;03;15;01
Joe Blackburn
And those are all things I did as a young professional. And what I found over the last 25 years is there is a better way to connect with people. If you're a service provider, than to blast out a bunch of emails and and everything that you would do. Cold and I developed something over the last 20 years called pillars.
00;03;15;09 - 00;03;42;01
Joe Blackburn
So I wanted a platform to teach that. And it really started with the the salespeople of people already in our what we would call the line. You see that line behind me? You know, it was their people. And then we started to grow that to other professionals. And we're taking it online. We're here doing a podcast. But, to get bigger reach, I mean, my mission has become I would like to teach the word of mouth marketing to every professional that's out there because it's a lost art.
00;03;42;03 - 00;04;00;19
Joe Blackburn
I mean, if you, you know, click on your phone, there's not a lot of people out there talking about how to go out and generate word of mouth. That's all ads and funnels and all these, you know, podcasts and all these things. And those are great necessary. We're doing one for reach. However, you have to have a foundation of being able to get people to know I can trust you.
00;04;00;21 - 00;04;34;18
Joe Blackburn
And quite frankly, if you try to build that online, you'll starve to death. We didn't even start to delve into any of this until we were making Making North of seven figures. So and I mean, currently we're working on meta ads. We're in day 25 of being banned. So if I, if I'm new and into sales or I'm newer and I'm trying to grow my profession, which would be like an insurance agent, a financial advisor, CPA, attorney, real estate, where they have a skill that they're trying to go out and bring business in.
00;04;34;21 - 00;04;55;29
Joe Blackburn
Then you have to have the ability to generate word of mouth or you're not going to make it. And the odds are stacked. You look at the statistics in any service based business, they're they're pretty low on on success. If you're newer and even if you're mid-tier or restarting or whatever it is, they're, you know, they're often making $150,000 a year.
00;04;56;02 - 00;05;19;28
Joe Blackburn
If you can't learn to generate the word of mouth, you're going to be stuck there for a long time because most people that consume products you can direct sell to like that is consumed, right? But in a service like if financial advisor or, you know, insurance for whatever you're doing there in coaching that's experienced so you can't go the direct sales route.
00;05;20;02 - 00;05;38;10
Joe Blackburn
I mean, you could, but that's kind of counterintuitive to being a consultative sales professional with a skill. So you actually become more of a repellent when you do that. I mean, have you ever gone to an event or, you know, something and someone tries to start selling you something like immediately, right. I just moved to Orange Beach, Alabama.
00;05;38;10 - 00;05;57;22
Joe Blackburn
There's 4000 real estate agents here. I talk to a lot of real estate agents and fifth, good for me because I can help them. But but what I notice is they're they're kind of treating that in that direct manner versus. Okay, I want to get to know, like, and trust each other. I want to find out what's really important to you.
00;05;57;25 - 00;06;14;07
Joe Blackburn
And then I can pivot and talk more business. So from a platform aspect, what it's allowing us to do, especially in the podcast form, to kind of bring that all back together. Is it broadens our reach. You know, we we do it in a lot of ways and we build it on word of mouth. And now it's time to expand.
00;06;14;11 - 00;06;35;06
Joe Blackburn
And when you brought the idea to me, quite frankly, I'm like, I don't I have no idea. Like, I don't know what it's going to do. And then I started, you know, looking into like, what do podcasts do? How many people what. I mean, it's it's a whole nother avenue to reach people. And then we can bring them in and help them through what we're doing on our, our platform, so to speak.
00;06;35;08 - 00;06;53;24
Joe Blackburn
But even if they don't show up there, they're going to get a lot out of what we're doing here. And what I like about the podcast form is it's a conversation. And as we bring people in and do that, there's a feedback loop in it that in content or in direct or whatever ads, it's a one way street there.
00;06;53;26 - 00;07;11;18
Joe Blackburn
This is more you can get in on the conversation. You know, I think the the appeal of podcast is people feel like they're in on the conversation. Yeah. And it's it's it sinks in more and they get more from that. So they can take that away and then if they need help with the implementation they can go down the different roads.
00;07;11;18 - 00;07;21;12
Joe Blackburn
But that's really what, you know when you brought it up I'm like, all right, let's do this. And you know more Lauren especially. So shout out to Lauren the glue that keeps everything together.
00;07;21;12 - 00;07;22;04
Jason Croft
That's right.
00;07;22;06 - 00;07;24;15
Joe Blackburn
She's like we have to do this. So here we are.
00;07;24;22 - 00;07;26;25
Jason Croft
Nice. Thank you Lord. Thank you. Appreciate it.
00;07;26;25 - 00;07;28;08
Joe Blackburn
Yeah.
00;07;28;11 - 00;07;49;17
Jason Croft
Yeah. It's it's it's really strong. And we're going to get into those, you know this aspect of word of mouth which is at the, at the foundation of sales assassins of what you teach and how you're helping people in that. We're going to get into that in the episodes and everything. But I that was another aspect of this that I really love, because that is not talked about enough.
00;07;49;17 - 00;08;13;09
Jason Croft
And it comes down to nurturing, building relationships, connecting with people. It's it's all those great things. And it falls into that category of, well, yeah. You just yeah, you get people to recommend you like as though there's no system to it or skill or anything. It's just like, hey, either people know you or they don't. And, you know, and I think that's the bucket it's been in.
00;08;13;09 - 00;08;33;18
Jason Croft
You know, word of mouth is better, right? And so that's what I love, this idea of really getting down because it gets down to human things and relationship things. And there's a system to it and you can help people. So I love that. I'm excited for it. Give people a little bit of background quickly or, you know, you your background got you in there.
00;08;33;18 - 00;08;37;10
Jason Croft
You know starting the lion. And so they have a little bit of a context there.
00;08;37;12 - 00;08;55;10
Joe Blackburn
Well, I mean I spent 20 plus years in financial services and I started out like most people, I, you know, I was actually insurance first I farm to farm. Then I went to a company, for investments ever downs and went door to door and got recruited by, you know, one of the big for Merrill Lynch, you know, was an advisor there.
00;08;55;10 - 00;09;16;20
Joe Blackburn
Build a team. Had every job that you have on your way up as you ascend within that type of organization. Before I left there, I was a director. And that means you have and I had like 140 financial advisors that worked with us, nine offices, two states, Illinois and Iowa. And in 2018, I started, you know, kind of thinking I wanted to do something different.
00;09;16;20 - 00;09;36;17
Joe Blackburn
And unfortunately, my wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. I've got five little kids. So I kind of started exploring different avenues. And there were some, you know, internal and external conflicts within what we were doing as an organization. And I got into 2019 and made the decision to just take a leave and go do what I really wanted to do, which was coaching and training.
00;09;36;22 - 00;09;52;28
Joe Blackburn
I started a coaching training business. I use the same process and it's a people system, by the way, not a you know, I think people want system, like they want to stamp out things in a factory and make a bunch of money and that can happen. But it's really about the, like you said, the relationships with people and things like that.
00;09;52;28 - 00;10;15;20
Joe Blackburn
And I built a great, you know, what I consider a great coaching business. Turn it into a mastermind. We call it the lion. We meet three times a year. And from that we derive sales assassins, because I saw the need for our, you know, our best clients to develop that. And, you know, it's been one of those things that we believe we can do that at a larger scale, with more leverage and reach more people.
00;10;15;22 - 00;10;34;17
Joe Blackburn
And our platform allows us to do that and maintain our integrity around results, because you have to be careful out there today. There's a lot of marketing and, you know, people are divorced economically from your outcome. You know, good luck to you. We pride ourselves on, you know, the only thing that matters to me is the hit your goals.
00;10;34;17 - 00;10;53;23
Joe Blackburn
Are you successful and did this make a difference in your life. So we're we feel like sky's the limit. And that's something that, you know that got me here. And that's five years ago that I left. So yeah, the sky's in my mind. I feel like there's nothing. There's nothing in front of us that we can't handle. And we can grow exponentially.
00;10;54;00 - 00;11;01;11
Joe Blackburn
It just it's a great feeling because as much as I pupu the internet, it's a help.
00;11;01;14 - 00;11;26;15
Jason Croft
I absolutely. Yeah, it's it's great. And you know, for those wondering, you know I've got a, I've got another show that I do had Joe on there a couple of times and there was just, there was, there was this connection. And you know, I talk to a lot of folks. There's a lot of great folks out there. It's it's wonderful when you sit across from somebody, they know their stuff inside out and they there's a there's a great combination with you, Joe.
00;11;26;15 - 00;11;50;23
Jason Croft
That's that's this. There there is. Hey, want to help folks and get better? And I have the skills to do that. And, yeah, this is business. This is a matter of fact. Right? Sitting around, you know, huggin this is for business. And we're gonna, you know, and there's. Yeah, there's a, there's a, a love and a fight and a everything in that, you know, that's just strong.
00;11;50;23 - 00;11;55;10
Jason Croft
And hey, let's get to the point. Let's forget the nonsense and let's get to work and have fun.
00;11;55;12 - 00;12;19;20
Joe Blackburn
We we really and I think people get because there's so much free out there, you know, you free content, free everything. Nothing's free. And things that are free aren't always highly valued. So at the end of the day, if you're in business, you should be unapologetically profitable. And that doesn't mean to be greedy. It just means you're, you know, business is about making profit and you help your client and you're rewarded for that.
00;12;19;22 - 00;12;35;04
Joe Blackburn
But you should never apologize for being successful or profitable. That's part of business. And I, I teach that, you know, you get some people that don't have a lot of experience in there. And they they almost have a guilt around charging for what they do. And it's like, hey, you're if you don't treat your time valuable, no one else will.
00;12;35;06 - 00;12;51;25
Joe Blackburn
So that that's something we spend a lot of time on in in the assassins especially is you. I don't care how old you are. How long you been doing that. You're valuable and you know on what you say and work hard and deliver for your clients. And that's earned compensation. So.
00;12;51;27 - 00;12;58;14
Jason Croft
Yeah, I it's fantastic. So I'm sure a lot of people are wondering why sales assassins, why is the program name that.
00;12;58;14 - 00;13;13;29
Joe Blackburn
You know, this'll date me. So I know I look young and vibrant on camera, but I may be older than you think. You know, back when I was in high school, there was a group called House of pain, the rap group. I don't know if you've heard, and you may or may not have heard jump around, but.
00;13;14;01 - 00;13;35;09
Joe Blackburn
Oh, and they toured. It was called Soul Assassins and it was Cypress Hill, House of Pain and Funk. Dubious. So for those of you that really enjoy old school rap, go out and check out funk vibes for sure. I know you know Cypress Hill, but I just I was a huge soul Assassin's fan, deejay Muggs, all that. And when I was thinking about naming this, I just, I don't know what.
00;13;35;09 - 00;13;56;09
Joe Blackburn
I was in a phase on YouTube, and I was listening to a lot of that old stuff, and sales assassins popped into my head because it was like soul assassin sales assassins. I still probably have the t shirt I might dig it out and wear on one of our episodes, from their tour. But when you think about sales, there are a couple ways to go about it.
00;13;56;09 - 00;14;18;04
Joe Blackburn
So like a soldier in sales, like a sales warrior, you might see that stuff like that. I'm a warrior, soldier, whatever. That is a direct confrontation. So that mindset around sales is I'm going to come at you and close you. I can I've heard people say I can't close anybody. My thought on that is people should close themselves.
00;14;18;06 - 00;14;38;12
Joe Blackburn
Like, if your hygiene is great, you, the product are great and someone introduces you that they know, like and trust. Most of that sales conversation should be complete. However, most people attack it like a soldier, like a warrior. They go at it. I'm going to, you know, there's a bravado to closing. And I get it. I've been there.
00;14;38;12 - 00;14;56;04
Joe Blackburn
I mean, like I said, I've been farm to farm and door to door, the farm to farm. One's interesting. Me and I tell the story anytime I get on camera or whatever. But, you know, there's a feeling when you step out of your vehicle and there's no one around and you see a dog or there's an open, you know, like in the machine shed, you don't know what's coming out of there.
00;14;56;04 - 00;15;10;16
Joe Blackburn
So like, there's a fear of like the unknown. So there's a skill set to not get separated from your truck. That was I learned that when I was 23. But anyway, that was more direct. Like, I'm going to jump out of the bushes, I'm going to come to you, I'm going to try to sell you something. And that's okay.
00;15;10;17 - 00;15;31;11
Joe Blackburn
However, as you climb up and your clients become more fluent, or they become, you know, hiring and earning whatever it is, they're less likely to respond, like direct marketing. I would highly doubt, you know, someone who's making $1 million or more online, buying a bunch of services. They're probably buying products because it's convenient, but the soldiers go after it.
00;15;31;14 - 00;15;53;18
Joe Blackburn
But the assassins are unseen. An assassin is deadly because you don't know what's coming. And if you can, without being manipulative, an assassin would get close to someone and then be able to help them in my mind. And we talk about that and I'm sure we will. It's like they can make that pivot to business seamlessly without being obnoxious and pushy.
00;15;53;21 - 00;16;11;27
Joe Blackburn
That's an assassin, and they can do it anywhere, any time. So in my when I came, kind of came up with it, you know, all came together. But that's what it is. It's like a soldier comes at you, an assassin does. So that's a sales assassin. And those of us that provide services, I've done say this all the time.
00;16;11;27 - 00;16;38;22
Joe Blackburn
Is it like, can't sell it. And if you try to sell it, you know, it becomes like you're going to get this all the time because a service is experienced. And that way if I'm a if I'm great at my profession and I can get really great at getting the assassin part down, I am deadly. That because they get great experience in the, you know, the hygiene product, but they also have a great experience with me.
00;16;38;24 - 00;16;49;16
Joe Blackburn
Yeah, and that's how you become deadly. If you want an army of people out there talking about what you do, that's how you do it. And that's an assassin. So that's where that came from and that's what we strive for and that's what we like to teach.
00;16;49;19 - 00;17;18;28
Jason Croft
I love it. I think this is enough to give people, you know, that feeling like, okay, this is what this show, this is the meat. This is the juice, right? And it's going to be you training around this stories around this interviews down the road with folks living and breathing this as well. Sort of. The more I think real world, you know, examples we can we can show people that it isn't this isn't just theory, folks, right.
00;17;19;00 - 00;17;38;24
Jason Croft
This is this is how you do it. It's going to be fantastic. I think we've lined out who this is for us for that that that person, especially who is there, they've just. They got to sell themselves. And that's longer term. It isn't that like commodity. I'm just going to, you know, I got to sell this widget.
00;17;38;24 - 00;17;43;26
Jason Croft
But they've got either coaching the financial services. It's it's those kind of folks. Right.
00;17;43;26 - 00;18;05;14
Joe Blackburn
One thing, especially when they're getting into it or they've left somewhere and started like, I see this a lot with coaches that leave like I did left corporate America. Yeah, there's a skill and you better be good at your profession. And we call that hygiene. Better be good. However, the majority of what you do is marketing. So if you're I don't mean you name the profession and you could go to school for a long time to get it.
00;18;05;14 - 00;18;21;07
Joe Blackburn
You can get an MBA. I'm going see it. I was a CFP actually. Am not any longer because I don't render financial advice. However, I spent time doing that. But you know, like now it's okay. The wakeup call is I've got to actually go out and get people to pay me to do this. You know, I could you can be great.
00;18;21;11 - 00;18;39;02
Joe Blackburn
You can be. Your hygiene can be spectacular. You can be the best at what you do. If you can't get someone to pay for it, it's worthless. So what we're trying to do is, yeah, that should be good. We'll spend some time there and we can help you improve those skill sets. However, the most important thing is can you get out and get someone to know who you are?
00;18;39;04 - 00;19;01;00
Joe Blackburn
Like what you do trust you enough to give you an opportunity to help them? And that's in its essence. When word of mouth works, it's that you've done that and that person. Whenever that problem or situation arises, they say you need to go talk to Jason, like without thinking about it, like you got to. So there's a whole, you know, you could leave that to chance.
00;19;01;03 - 00;19;15;25
Joe Blackburn
You could. And I like I say and speaking of Lauren, we have this conversation of anything you leave. Chance comes back in the form of a problem and or an objection. So whatever you leave to chance. So I wouldn't leave those things as chance. I would get really good at getting people across that know like and trust bridge.
00;19;15;27 - 00;19;30;11
Joe Blackburn
And then most of the job is done on the sales side. If you get into a sales conversation, we'll talk about that later. You know, how to get navigate that. But most of the jobs done on on that part knowing like interesting. And that's word of mouth beautiful.
00;19;30;13 - 00;19;54;06
Jason Croft
All right I think we I think we given people some good context here. If you're watching you listening I encourage you to to to to binge away here. If you're listening to this one, there's a couple more episodes out there right now. Jump into the next one and we'll see you there. In a sea of endless digital noise, your ability to connect and generate authentic word of mouth is your deadliest weapon.
00;19;54;06 - 00;20;17;13
Jason Croft
Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to break through to the next level, the principles we discuss here are your blueprint for success. It's all about being the most trusted and valued in your network to maximize what you've learned today, visit Join Sales assassins.com to see how you can become a true sales assassin in your industry. Until next time, keep sharpening your skills, expanding your network.
00;20;17;13 - 00;20;42;17
Jason Croft
And remember, in the world of sales, the true assassins strike silently but effectively by doing what nobody sees coming building genuine connections and powerful relationships. Stay deadly, stay authentic, and we'll see you on the next episode of Sales Assassins.
00;20;42;19 - 00;20;49;23
Joe Blackburn
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