The secret weapon of business titans isn't what you think. It's not AI, fancy ads, or even superior products. It's the lost art of word-of-mouth marketing.
In this episode of Sales Assassins, hosts Joe Blackburn and Jason Croft reveal the PILLR system - a revolutionary approach to building a thriving business through genuine connections.
Joe, drawing from his experience as an insurance agent and financial advisor, shares how he went from farm-to-farm sales to creating a 7-figure business built entirely on referrals. He breaks down the PILLR acronym:
P - Pay (clients who pay your ideal amount)
I - Introductions (they introduce you when asked)
L - Like (mutual enjoyment of working together)
L - Listen (they follow your advice)
R - Referrals (unsolicited recommendations)
Jason digs in to help listeners understand the nuances of this system. He highlights the confidence boost that comes from working with ideal clients and the importance of giving your best advice, not just what the client wants to hear.
The hosts dive deep into:
- Why working with "A-hole" clients can sink your business
- The ethical dilemma of charging different rates for the same service
- How to transition from taking any client to working only with ideal ones
- The dangers of relying solely on digital marketing platforms
- Real-world examples of the PILLR system in action
This episode is a wake-up call for entrepreneurs drowning in marketing tactics. It's a return to the fundamentals of business - building real relationships that lead to sustainable growth.
Whether you're just starting out or looking to break through to the next level, the PILLR system offers a blueprint for becoming the most trusted and valued professional in your network.
Don't miss this masterclass in the art of influence. Your next big client might just be a conversation away.
Find all the show notes and links here: https://www.salesassassinspodcast.com/1
00;00;00;01 - 00;00;16;18
Joe Blackburn
Imagine this for a moment. If you had 5075 people that paid you, ideally introduce you when you ask. You like each other, they listen to all your advice, and then because you've given them such a great experience and results and it's a great relationship, they just start sending you people without you asking. And that was your army that you created.
00;00;16;23 - 00;00;19;05
Joe Blackburn
What would your business look like?
00;00;19;08 - 00;00;24;29
Jason Croft
Welcome to sales Assassins, the podcast that unveils the lost art of word of mouth marketing.
00;00;24;29 - 00;00;25;04
Joe Blackburn
For.
00;00;25;04 - 00;00;51;15
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;51;18 - 00;00;57;10
Jason Croft
Welcome to episode number one of Sales Assassins. Joe, are you ready to get it?
00;00;57;12 - 00;00;59;23
Joe Blackburn
Man, I am ready. Let's get this thing on.
00;00;59;25 - 00;01;33;10
Jason Croft
Fantastic. Yeah. I'm excited to to dig into more of these episodes. If you haven't had a chance, go check out the intro episode for sure. Give you a little bit of context around this, but the Sales Assassins podcast, we're definitely educating folks on this idea of what the Sales Assassins program is all about and these these core elements in these first few episodes, we really want to set some of these foundations for not only the program and what it's all about, but what they're going to learn.
00;01;33;12 - 00;01;57;18
Jason Croft
And and, you know, we're going to dive into more in future episodes. And this first one, I really wanted to dig in to pillars. That is, as it sounds, a core foundation of sales assassins and not only what the pillars are, but the origin of them is just fantastic. So I want to get into that in this episode.
00;01;57;25 - 00;02;05;05
Jason Croft
So walk us through, I guess. First off, just what the heck pillar the pillars system of it is for sure.
00;02;05;05 - 00;02;30;22
Joe Blackburn
Well, a pillar and you can build your your business and I would recommend you build your business on pillars. A pillar in your business is a client, a person that pays you ideally first. So the pillars pay. They pay you your ideal amount. Then if you do your work and you do a great job and you asked for an introduction properly, they will introduce you to the people you want to be introduced to.
00;02;30;22 - 00;02;45;11
Joe Blackburn
So that's the I. Then if you're going to spend a lot of time with people and you're building a word of mouth business and you're doing the things you like to do business, you actually have to like the people you spend time with. So that first of all, would be, we like each other. They like me, they like being around me.
00;02;45;11 - 00;02;57;26
Joe Blackburn
They like coming to my events. I like them, I like seeing them. I don't dread it. And I've had some people I dread being around their you know, a couple blocks away at my house. But not in all seriousness. Yeah. And but you got to like one another.
00;02;57;28 - 00;03;18;08
Jason Croft
Yeah. And not to stop the flow of this, but it's it sounds like a especially if you're new I think it sounds like, you know, this like, like each other. What the heck? I'm, I'm here on business and have client stuff and the second you have a client you really don't like or vice versa, they don't like you.
00;03;18;10 - 00;03;20;24
Jason Croft
You'll understand the truth of that.
00;03;20;27 - 00;03;37;18
Joe Blackburn
And in a hurry. So if I like you and you're introducing me to people and you're paying me, ideally, I also, as the business owner, I want you to listen to me. I don't want to haggle over price. I don't want to go back and forth on my recommendations. I don't give my second best ideas. I give my best idea and I own that.
00;03;37;23 - 00;03;53;22
Joe Blackburn
So listen to me, take my advice and then I there's no A's and Pillar. We're talking about that right now because we don't have any assholes. Like if you want your life to be a lot better and your business to flow and your team to be appreciated, don't let him into your business. We'll teach you how to avoid them.
00;03;53;24 - 00;04;16;04
Joe Blackburn
And I go straight to R, so it's pi l r. And that R is unsolicited referrals, meaning I didn't even have to ask. So if you do this well and you train your clients to think of you and have psychic real estate, meaning, hey, when I have this problem, I know Jason pops into my head and whoever is talking to me about that, I say, hey, you need to go talk to Jason.
00;04;16;07 - 00;04;44;01
Joe Blackburn
That's word of mouth, by the way, in its essence. So they give me unsolicited referrals, and it's a process and a natural progression. Starting with those pillars, pulling through a pipeline, working with my connections, whether it's in person, online, my phone or whatever it is, talking to influencers, people that we both may benefit financially with or that you have some influence over, so that I can get some leverage in my in my outputs and in the activities I'm doing.
00;04;44;04 - 00;04;52;17
Joe Blackburn
And then the biggest hitters in my community or my space or my niche, I did you like I said, niche. I've never said that before. That was awesome. I think it's niche where I come from.
00;04;52;19 - 00;04;57;10
Jason Croft
Soon, as soon as you get a show, you get fancy. I know I like.
00;04;57;10 - 00;05;15;06
Joe Blackburn
It, open it up a notch, but but thank you. So when you think of it overarching it's now I have my business is people that pay me ideally I'm getting introductions when I ask properly. I like what I'm doing and who I'm doing it with. They listen to me and I don't deal with any asshole, so I don't have to deal with that.
00;05;15;08 - 00;05;35;03
Joe Blackburn
Now, that doesn't mean someone can't have an off moment, but an asshole by definition, is someone, I'm sorry, an asshole by definition. That's somebody that they don't really realize how they impact the universe. So they're just like that. They're not having a bad day or a bad moment. You and I, I think in one of our recording sessions, May I ran into someone last week.
00;05;35;05 - 00;05;37;23
Jason Croft
We tell that story someday. We have.
00;05;37;25 - 00;06;01;08
Joe Blackburn
Yeah. And then the the unsolicited referral. That's kind of the endgame. If you do well providing the experience, you will start to get more and more unsolicited referrals. And a lot of people get them. Now. It's just it's random. So what pillars does you know, everyone's infatuated with scaling with systems and all this stuff. Yeah. That's great. Those break and involve technology.
00;06;01;08 - 00;06;20;05
Joe Blackburn
So every time you get one running you have to restart because a new one comes out. This is a people system. This is how do I systematically get in front of the right people and build my business on word of mouth? That doesn't mean you don't do all those other things. It just means like get this foundation down, get this skill set down, and you can go build a business anywhere, any time.
00;06;20;05 - 00;06;29;24
Joe Blackburn
I'm on my fourth one and you know, this is my first podcast, so let's do the math. I mean, I did it all with this. Yeah, it's word of mouth.
00;06;29;26 - 00;06;50;05
Jason Croft
Yeah. And that's, that's a that's another of these core foundations that we're going to hit in the next episode. Because again, word of mouth, it fits into that bucket. Like you said, people get referrals now they have some word of mouth and but they think it's just something that happens and right. No, there's there's a system to that.
00;06;50;06 - 00;06;52;20
Joe Blackburn
There's an article science to getting it consistently.
00;06;52;20 - 00;07;12;15
Jason Croft
Yeah. And I want to dig in deep with that in that next episode. Sure. Walk us through now that we know what pillars stand for this is, this isn't something that you just like. You know what would be good? Let's see. Pillars. This came out of real world. Okay. Well.
00;07;12;18 - 00;07;37;07
Joe Blackburn
Fortunately and or unfortunately. Yes. So. And where it came from was, you know, I, when I started out in business, I was an insurance agent. I went farm to farm. I sold life insurance, long term care and, you know, variable annuities and so forth in Iowa. I'm not from Iowa, but I made my way to Iowa out of Illinois early, and I went farm to farm, and I did direct sales, and I had some success there.
00;07;37;07 - 00;07;57;06
Joe Blackburn
And then I went into investments and went door to door. And that you know, and door to door you're selling on a doorstep. So it's direct sales and you're trying to, you know, make money. And I was young and everything. And then when I left that company, I went to Merrill Lynch and I started learning more about advisory or consultative sales and things like that.
00;07;57;06 - 00;08;15;28
Joe Blackburn
And, you know, we were on our on a run and we were working with at that time, there's lots of coaches and consultants and within the company and out, you know, trying to tell you how to build a business. And there's some of those guys are still around. You know, I got a book from one of them that, you know, a great mentor and, you know, really talking about how to provide an experience.
00;08;16;00 - 00;08;34;01
Joe Blackburn
And we did a pretty good job of that, but we were still young enough to where we were bringing in clients that probably fit the a bucket. And then we went through 0809 and we found out who the A's were and who didn't listen to us, and we didn't really like them. They weren't introducing anyone to us, and they weren't really paying us that much.
00;08;34;08 - 00;08;59;07
Joe Blackburn
Now, I didn't call it that back then. I just in retrospect, I'm like, okay, what what made us make that shift from taking everything, I mean, everything to everyone to really starting to generate word of mouth business or, you know, a skill set where we can go into any community, any association, any charity, whatever it was, and start getting people to know, like and trust us and pay us, which is what that is.
00;08;59;10 - 00;09;23;02
Joe Blackburn
And I did that as an advisor when I, you know, went up through the ranks to recruiting. I recruited that way when I left Merrill and started my first business. From there, I did the same thing. And I've just learned that if you can get someone that will pay that ideal, or at least a minimum, you know you're going to build a faster and more profitable business than taking anyone that can fog a mirror.
00;09;23;02 - 00;09;43;29
Joe Blackburn
Which, by the way, was the first set of advice I got was like a can ball game for their client. And as beginners we do. We just like, all right, we gotta I gotta survive, man. So we build up our own demise and that. 0809 when the markets went crazy and the world was falling apart and the people that didn't listen to us essentially showed their true colors.
00;09;44;05 - 00;10;03;11
Joe Blackburn
That was where I really started firing clients, drawing a line in the sand, you know, making it. I pretty much had to like you at that time for us to do business together. Like there had to be a likability. And over the different iterations, it's come out to where like that is the core pillars of pillars that that makes a great client.
00;10;03;13 - 00;10;17;02
Joe Blackburn
And if you have an army of those people like this, imagine this for a moment. If you had 5075 people that paid you, ideally introduce you when you ask. You liked each other, they listened to all your advice. Or if you and it doesn't matter what the product is, the products to you at the end of the day anyway.
00;10;17;06 - 00;10;41;19
Joe Blackburn
And then because you've given them such a great experience and results and it's a great relationship, they just start sending you people without you asking. And that was your army that you created. What would your business look like? Oh yeah. You know, I yeah, I mean I've done it all, by the way. Dornoch seminars, direct mail, cold calls, someone has talked me into start to do online ads and that I would rather, you know, take an ice pick to the forehead.
00;10;41;21 - 00;11;01;26
Joe Blackburn
I mean, it's just it's one of those things that if you get that foundation, no one can take that away from you, and you can go do it anywhere and in hours and in assassins, we've got people that, you know, we had a guy get an ovation on zoom the other day because his confidence level is night and day, and they all knew it.
00;11;01;26 - 00;11;23;06
Joe Blackburn
And he said something. And it was like that moment of like, oh, holy, you know? And they were like, because he he changed. Because he invoked the pillars, he eliminated assholes. He was doing business with people he liked. He was setting an ideal and minimum in place where before he was taking anything. You get it change, it changes you here, but it also transforms your business.
00;11;23;08 - 00;11;50;20
Jason Croft
Yeah. And that's that's a perfect thing to hit on too. Is that confidence? Because it's. Yes. There's a system to this. But there's a confidence before and after two that I think you have to have, you have to let in at least a little bit that you can stand in this. I know what I'm doing. All right.
00;11;50;22 - 00;11;57;06
Jason Croft
I can, I deserve to put these put pillars into place. Right.
00;11;57;06 - 00;12;15;09
Joe Blackburn
People buy believe. And you know, like when you say when I know what I'm doing, that goes to the listen, I mean, and I tell our, our, our assassins all the time that you don't have a second best idea. Like, if my if my pillar listens to my recommendation, you know, I recommend you do XYZ so that you get XYZ.
00;12;15;11 - 00;12;32;20
Joe Blackburn
That's I'm giving you the best one, I said. And I was young and some one lady in a seminar called me cocky and I looked at her and I said, I know a lot of unsuccessful advisors you can talk to and my partners about shit, because I said that in Bloomington, the country club in front of like 55 people.
00;12;32;23 - 00;12;50;21
Joe Blackburn
But what I was saying was like, I don't have second best ideas. I believe what I'm doing is the best. It's not that I'm like, arrogant, that I'm the best. It's just I believe what I'm saying is the best. And when you get people that listen, you don't, you're confidence comes from, they're taking my best idea, you know, that that's a big thing.
00;12;50;21 - 00;13;14;26
Joe Blackburn
And the early in the game, what I see with a lot is they want to give a bunch of choices because they just want they're they're fishing for the. Yes. So it's like, what do you want this one. Do you want this one. Do you want this one. Well, as a as a consultative sales professional or someone that it renders advice in any forum insurance, investments, real estate law, CPA why would you ever offer your third best idea to someone?
00;13;15;01 - 00;13;32;20
Jason Croft
Because in an ideal, if you if you're aligned right, if you're if you're living your truth and your value, you if you give them those three and they choose the third best and you don't say, we can do that, it's my third best, then, like, what do you do? And how are you going to sleep at night? Right, right.
00;13;32;20 - 00;13;52;03
Joe Blackburn
Well, now you got to win that race and it's your third best idea. You've just set yourself up for disaster and you know there is an integrity component to being a professional. So I encourage people and it goes back to those pillars is like, find people that when you give your advice, they're like, that's what I need. That's what I want.
00;13;52;05 - 00;14;11;28
Joe Blackburn
You know, I, I ran into it a lot early as well. And it just takes reps and courage and but it's more about believing in what you're doing. Like, do you believe what you just gave someone and a recommendation is the best? If so, don't go somewhere else. You know, you get bad advice. You can go on the interwebs and get all kinds of, you know, I got the can you find a mirror?
00;14;11;28 - 00;14;29;27
Joe Blackburn
But there's also, tell them what they need, sell them what they want. You know, give them advice. But if they want something else that's on the client. Right. Well, that's not generally how arbitration works. Yeah. Just FYI, if anybody wants to know how that ends up. Well, that's not you can't if you answer that that's not going to go well.
00;14;29;28 - 00;14;59;03
Joe Blackburn
But my point being is in pillars, if you can align those within the relationship that are comes probably faster. And again there's not perfection perfection not standard. But just can I get someone into my business that pays me an ideal amount and the ideal amount isn't hey I it's pie in the sky. I want this dollar amount. It's more based on what your time's worth and how much capacity you have, and how much of a team you build out.
00;14;59;05 - 00;15;06;01
Joe Blackburn
So if I have a client, pay me $10,000 and I'm taking client, pay me $2,000 ethically, I'm robbing this person.
00;15;06;03 - 00;15;06;28
Jason Croft
Yeah.
00;15;07;00 - 00;15;30;27
Joe Blackburn
There's it takes the same amount of time, energy and effort to provide service. And I'm giving it to this person at this dollar amount. So there's that. I mean, there's some morality and ethics involved in it as well. So when you hit that ideal and we talk about, you know, how to ratchet that up given your, you know, your muscle memory, but quite frankly, that's a that's a great way to get started and then progress through those other, you know, can I get the introductions.
00;15;30;29 - 00;15;56;15
Joe Blackburn
Have they given me introductions. How much likability is there? Are they taking our advice? You know, like it's been a little choppy in the markets, for example, in investments. But in the insurance world, Eddie, I mean, rates have gone up across the board. And in all, you know, businesses, prices have gone up. So are they listening? Are they saying, yeah, I still value what you're consulting or advising me on versus the price.
00;15;56;23 - 00;16;14;15
Joe Blackburn
That's an indicator. Price becomes an issue. Back up and look through all those things. So that's something we spend a lot of time on in the group was how to deal with that and especially younger in the business when you don't have, you know, a lot of people in business today, I'm not been through oh eight. Don't nine yeah.
00;16;14;18 - 00;16;41;04
Joe Blackburn
You don't remember that. They've only seen this and that's a blip of Covid that kind of disrupted the universe. But quite frankly they've never seen catastrophic financial times. So and that that impacts every business. So they don't have a frame of reference of what it's like when the tide goes out. Right. And I promise you, if all you do is ever watch this episode, if you've got pillars, when that tide goes out, you're going to thank them.
00;16;41;06 - 00;16;46;28
Joe Blackburn
Yeah. You got a bunch of random assholes paying you less than you deserve. You're going to be in trouble.
00;16;47;01 - 00;17;09;23
Jason Croft
Yeah. And and that's the thing that's, you know, if you're in the middle of business and you're like, oh my gosh, I'm not there. Just start down this path. You know, it doesn't have to happen overnight. And all of that. I hope this comes as a relief to folks, especially again, starting out, or if they've been, you know, they've jumped from corporate over to doing their own thing and they're just like, oh my gosh.
00;17;09;27 - 00;17;30;07
Jason Croft
And and they've just like you listed the, you know, the, the, the marketing channels you can do and possibly do and all this kind of stuff. It's overwhelming. You don't know what's going to work like this is this is the place to start and then build on top of that. Build in like it is a phenomenal foundation to then go out.
00;17;30;07 - 00;17;38;22
Jason Croft
And you know what? I really resonate with this, this and this or it works better with my, you know, with my business and then.
00;17;38;24 - 00;18;04;22
Joe Blackburn
Add that into play. Jason, until, you know, I'm making seven figures right? I see people out there starting with ads and I'm like, holy and I'm nothing. Yes, I'm doing we're doing two platforms and but if that's where you're going to build your foundation, I learned I did learn this one the hard way on social media platforms. I had some I was doing some franchise sales when I first came out of Merrill Lynch.
00;18;04;24 - 00;18;29;14
Joe Blackburn
And at the time, Link in would allow us to make a post for someone that was a corporate refugee, and they could come in and talk to us about becoming, a had spoke. Point is what's called a franchisee. And they changed the game rules and that didn't that was no longer something you could post. So I went from 8 to 15 calls a day or I'm sorry, a week to zero like that.
00;18;29;17 - 00;18;49;13
Joe Blackburn
Wow. Is that because the platform it changed their mind on what the end. And I mean we are in we're trying to run meta ads. It is. We started on July 25th. What's tonight? I thought we're going to date ourselves in August. I mean we're a month in. We're we're we can't get them on the platform because they keep changing the guidelines.
00;18;49;16 - 00;19;10;08
Joe Blackburn
So I'm not saying that's good or bad. What I'm saying is if that's all you have, you're at the mercy of the platform. So if you do pillars, that's you. You take you with you everywhere you go and you can go in any. And to me, I mean, I moved, you know, 800 and whatever miles away from where I am, raise my kids to the, you know, they call it the golf cart.
00;19;10;11 - 00;19;24;02
Joe Blackburn
By the way, I learned this from a big hitter, talking to pillars. I was talking about going in the ocean. He's like, what are you talking about? He's like, people don't down here. Don't say the ocean. They say the golf. So like, that's why you go out, meet people. Because you look like an outsider talking about going to the ocean here.
00;19;24;10 - 00;19;45;16
Joe Blackburn
He said, the golf, I'm going the golf. So that's a like, real like that happened like Wednesday. So you know you come. That's the same thing. I'm coming here to a place I don't know anyone. I'm getting to know all the influencers, the big hitters. And I mean I'm not running billboard ads on Canal. So do you like so that paradigm is from a pillar standpoint.
00;19;45;18 - 00;20;02;12
Joe Blackburn
It's portable to any business anywhere, and it's systemize well enough to where you just start layering in the activity and the progression. You'll get out and you'll get opportunity. Yeah. And it's not slave to the overlords at Google Facebook you know whatever.
00;20;02;13 - 00;20;03;26
Jason Croft
Right now that's great.
00;20;03;28 - 00;20;18;23
Joe Blackburn
And I know I went on a tangent there, but it's real to me right now. And it polarize to me the importance of being able to to build a, you know, successful, profitable business word of mouth and not have an outside variable. It's 100% out of my control, determine whether or not I make it or not.
00;20;18;25 - 00;20;41;10
Jason Croft
Yeah, well, and I love that. I love those examples. And I know you've got so many of those in I know that's for me, that's what makes these things real. Right? When I can grab on to oh, here it is in real life. Here's where this came from. Here's how I'm using it today. Here's how somebody in assassins used it yesterday.
00;20;41;10 - 00;21;00;29
Jason Croft
Like, that's that's gold. So I love all of those for sure. I think this gives people a a good foundation of the foundation. Right. A good idea of what this is all about. And again, I, I hope it's a, it's a relief. It's like, oh yeah, I can do that.
00;21;01;01 - 00;21;26;22
Joe Blackburn
Yeah, I can do it here, gang. If I can do it, you can do it. I'm on that. Right. You can ask the people that really know me. I'm not even that likable. So. But I think you what I want really, at the end of the day when I, I'm after is it's somewhat of a lost art as well because of the popularity of the internet.
00;21;26;24 - 00;21;48;17
Joe Blackburn
So I, I think it's kind of, you know, gone by the wayside and I am I mean, I'm living proof and I know I can listen. People I mean, if you want us to post a testimonials, we will. It works if you do it just like anything else. You got to go out and do it. Get out of your comfort zone and learn out of it.
00;21;48;19 - 00;21;50;21
Joe Blackburn
Yeah, my preaching for today.
00;21;50;26 - 00;22;16;17
Jason Croft
Fantastic. I think that's a good, good place to wrap and, encourage people to the jump into more of these episodes, find out more about assassins as well, and we'll see on the next episode. In a sea of endless digital noise, your ability to connect and generate authentic word of mouth is your deadliest weapon. Whether you're just starting out or you're looking to break through to the next level.
00;22;16;23 - 00;22;47;22
Jason Croft
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. 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.
00;22;47;27 - 00;23;01;14
Jason Croft
Stay deadly. Stay authentic, and we'll see you on the next episode of Sales Assassins.
00;23;01;16 - 00;23;08;20
Joe Blackburn
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