From The Vault - Selling from the Heart With Larry Levine

Attention entrepreneurs, professionals, speakers and coaches: Are you ready to take your business to the next level? Then tune in to the Author to Authority podcast, hosted by the amazing Kim Thompson-Pinder. Each week, Kim invites thought leaders in sales, marketing, and leadership to share their insights and advice on authority and influencer marketing. 

This week, the featured From The Vault episode is none other than Larry Levine, the author of “Selling from the Heart.” In this candid and heart-warming interview, Larry and Kim discuss the importance of being genuine and true to oneself in sales. They share their perspectives on the relevance of emotional intelligence and the need to bring one's heart to clients, prospects and conversations. You don't want to miss this inspiring conversation on how to become the best version of yourself and drive better conversations with meaning that lead to increased sales. 

Discover Larry's tips on effectively selling from the heart by being clear and concise, and truly caring about helping your clients. Learn about the impact of Simon Sinek's message and the importance of believing in your message to make people follow and believe you. Don't worry about overthinking, mind-screwing, or perfectionism when writing your book, just get it done and engage people through social media to build a following. 

Larry's book, “Selling from the Heart,” encourages readers to take an inward look and become brutally honest about what they can do better. Check out the recommendation from Amazon, and see how Larry's book has touched the hearts of many. To access Larry's book or podcast, please visit sellingfromtheheart.net. 

The key takeaway? Clear intent and genuine engagement can set businesses apart and build trust from the beginning of the sales process. So, are you ready to sell from your heart? Tune in to the Author to Authority podcast and take the leap towards success! 

Highlights Include:

[00:04:19] The Importance of Authenticity in Sales

[00:07:35] Sincerity in Sales: Avoiding the 'Empty Suit'

[00:10:59] Sincerity in Sales and Emotional Connection

[00:14:33] The Power of Selling from the Heart

[00:18:02] Importance of Client Appreciation in Sales

[00:21:16] Promoting Books on Social Media

[00:24:51] The Impact of "Selling From the Heart

[00:28:19] Selling with Authenticity

Transcript
[00:00:51] spk_1: Welcome to the author to Authority Podcast. I'm your host Kim Thompson Pinder. And today we're doing our weekly from the vault episodes. Now, there were 88 episodes that I lost from the first season and a half when I transferred my podcast hosting, which is similar to website hosting to a different host because I had no clue what I was doing. So in going back and I looked at these episodes and I thought, you know what these episodes are so wonderful, filled with so many amazing guests that I decided to bring them back. So each week on Tuesday you will get a from the vault episode. Now, just a quick warning, these episodes may contain links that are no longer valid things that were offered by the guests or myself that are no longer available because it's been quite a few years since these episodes were aired. So I hope you enjoy it and you gain much value from it and now a from the vault episode to author to authority. And today I have the wonderful, awesome privilege of being able to interview Larry Levine, author of Selling form the Heart. And just before we get into the episode today, I just want to remind you that I always love to give away things for free. So if you go to W W W dot Power words dot pro forward slash free book, you can get my Power Words book, which just teaches you how to use your words to create situations that build your business. And actually, that's something that Larry and I will talk about on today's episode. Now, Larry, what exactly would your title be called?

 

[00:02:49] spk_0: Let's see, Kim, I'll just say uh sales coach podcast co-host, I'll throw some inspiration in there. I'll throw sales improve, mean guru in there. But I hate using the word guru. It's the first thing that came to my

 

[00:03:03] spk_1: head and you've also done a lot of corporate sales training as well. Yeah,

 

[00:03:08] spk_0: I have, I enjoy it because I always say you can tell when you look over my shoulder. I'm a sports fanatics. I always tell people I'm a sports geek and a sales nerd. So I love working with sales teams, Kim. I just love sharing. I'm a practitioner and I always say I love just eating what I throw out there. I do, I bring it from the heart, but I just bring some street savvy to sales and everything that I do, everything that I ask sales people to do and teams I do myself, that

 

[00:03:36] spk_1: is very obvious in your book. And so I'm gonna hold this up again for everybody selling from the heart. Make sure you go check it out on Amazon when I worked with Larry on this book. One of the things that deeply impacted me was the fact that for years, I had been trying to be somebody that I wasn't see like Larry, I'm very heart centered. And when I was learning to do business and trying to get clients and trying to get sales, all the information that was being taught to me was be brash, be bold. Take advantage of people get in there. Don't take no. And and that's not who I am. So when we were working together, Larry on the book, it was such a relief for me to know that I can be myself and still be heart centered and be really great on selling. So we usually talk about your story a bit first, but I really want to kind of get into your book. So tell us a little bit about the premise of selling from the heart.

 

[00:04:33] spk_0: I will in a second. But I want to go back to what you just said because it's really important and it will tie right in nicely, Kim to why I wrote the book. The way I wrote the book was I spent so many years in sales teams, some highly functional and unfortunately, some that were massively dysfunctional. And the one thing that I saw straight across the board and I didn't care if it was somebody who was new in sales at their mid point in their career or somebody who was really tenured is we did everything but work on ourselves. So in other words, we were hot, product knowledge and solutions knowledge and company knowledge and how to overcome objections and all this stuff that's important and rightfully so, but I never had a manager nor was I in a company that invested in their people, invested in their team and said, I'm gonna help you become the best version of you because if you do, then this is what will happen. So in putting the book together, that's why it was so important to me to write the 1st 34 chapters of selling from the heart for people to take an inward look of themselves and say, what can I do to become better? Because it's to me which means and some people popoy this term when you say, getting brutally honest because they think it's too harsh. But you know what I mean? We're all adults and we ought to be able to take it is we got to take a look in the mirror and say, ok, what am I doing correctly? And what could I be doing better? And that's why selling from the heart and the message that I'm bringing out is it's hard to become the best version of yourself if you don't know who you are internally. And a lot of sales people are struggling with that.

 

[00:06:16] spk_1: Yeah, I could see that because they're being told to be someone who's not genuine with who they are. So how can you be effective at anything when you're pretending to be somebody? You're not? Yeah.

 

[00:06:26] spk_0: And it's interesting because I may have told you this before, but you're gonna have to hear it again. Is I remember I was about a third to 1/4 into writing, selling from the heart. And there was a gentleman who reached out to me on linkedin. He asked me to connect and drove some pleasantries inside the message center and he wanted to know what research and what, you know, case studies I was putting into selling from the heart. And I just said, hey, you know, full disclosure here. I have no phd in psychology, right? I don't have a master's in human behavior. I have a phd from getting the crap kicked out of me selling copiers in Los Angeles. That's what I'm bringing to the book. But what was really interesting as time went on, he goes, I want you to look up a word and the word is called self deception. And he, and so, you know, I'm keeping it short for this, I mean guy, this is a great story, but he really roped me in and he got me going on this And as I started to drive more comments back to him, this is what this person said. He goes, I've read just about every book that's out there on E Q, right? Emotional intelligence, you know, heart centered books. And I always ask the writers, are you self deceiving people? In other words, are you writing a book to capitalize on it or do you truly lead a genuine heartfelt lifestyle? And I go, well, you'll just have to buy the book and find out and the guy tweets my stuff out all the time. And I say this for a reason because, you know, I love sale and I love the whole art behind sales, but it all starts inside of us. And if we're not bringing our heart to our clients and our prospects, if we're not bringing the best version of ourselves, then I would say, then what, right, which goes to chapter 10 of my book, which is all about being an empty suit. So

 

[00:08:12] spk_1: talk about that conference that you went to where you did the empty suit demonstration.

 

[00:08:19] spk_0: So I have to give a shout out to Mark Conner on this one because I've had the privilege of really getting to know Mark Hunter and being involved in his outbound conference and I'll be involved in it again in outbound 2020. So it was actually the whole evolution of the empty suit and bringing that to life. Kim was actually this past April. So it was the night before I was speaking and I was walking back with dinner for, with Mark and Mark goes, hey, Larry goes, I got a really good idea and he goes, hey, did you bring in another suit with you? And I said, I sure did. And he goes, I think it would be a hit if you actually propped up a suit somehow because he already knew what I was speaking about. And you started talking about the empty suit. I can guarantee you this, it would come to life like that. So sure enough, I propped up the suit. I had a suit, a shirt, a tie. The only thing I didn't have was an extra pair of shoes, but so be it. But I had the empty suit propped up on a chair. And all of a sudden, people started taking pictures, they were sticking their heads above the chair and they were snapping pictures and they're tweeting it out and they're hash tagging it and all that. Mark you know, Mark had his head above it. Jeffrey Geter had his head above it and things like that. And I go, there we go. And ever since then it's kind of, I spoke at a bank a couple of months ago here in Los Angeles and they said we would love for you to come here only under one condition. You have to bring the empty suit. And I had brought an empty suit and I had a little plastic cup, Kim. It says, can you spare some change on it? It was totally hilarious.

 

[00:09:55] spk_1: So tell our listeners, what does the empty suit mean? I just have

 

[00:10:00] spk_0: to let people know I'm not here to disrespect sales people. When I say empty suit, it's to really drive home a point that we have to be sincere. We have to bring substance, we have to bring our heart, we have to really care about not only ourselves but our clients and our prospects and unfortunately, there's too many people out there that are insincere, they're facades, it's not sustainable. They get called out all the time. It happened to me 20 plus years ago, I was called out and that's kind of what led me on this journey that I've been involved in. But I always say, you know what, you're an empty suit if you make it all about you and you truly, truly, truly are hiding your full intent. In other words, there's so many sales people that say one thing, but they mean something else. I said, you know what? It's just quite simple, just fill out the empty suit with sincerity and substance and watch what starts to happen. But unfortunately, there's so many in sales and I'm a firm believer that salespeople are a product of their environments that they've been raised in that we're raising sales people to make it all about them and not about their clients and their prospects. And what was really interesting. We had a guest on our podcast. This goes back, I'm gonna say probably three months ago, Kim. So that's

 

[00:11:22] spk_1: the selling from the Heart podcast. So we didn't announce that. So the book and the

 

[00:11:27] spk_0: podcast, let you do that one, Kim. That was good. Thank you. But what was interesting is our guest said, you know, listen, let's just take our glasses off for a second. Let's just take our clouded sales glasses off because we all live in a highly competitive world. If you spend any time in sales that there's really no difference between a competitor's product and your product. There's not too much difference between your service and their service. Somebody can come out with another widget just as fast. But through the clients and prospects eyes everybody's looks and acts and talks the same. What's gonna make the difference between you and somebody else is how fast you get to somebody's heart and I'm a firm believer in that. And if you're an empty suit, you're disconnected from that. But if you can fill that suit out and you can engage in meaningful manners with people, it doesn't take too long to figure out that they get it. It's just something magical happens that that person who's sitting next to you or across the desk goes, you know what, that's a real person who's asking me real questions, who's engaging with meaning.

 

[00:12:34] spk_1: Awesome. So, I was actually just checking out your book before we kind of got started because it's been probably a year or so since I've had a really good look at it since we first launched it. I think it's a year and a half. Now it's like the

 

[00:12:47] spk_0: third week of September, What? 2018.

 

[00:12:51] spk_1: Yeah. Yeah. Now a lot of our listeners are not generally sales people, but they are entrepreneurs, they're professionals, they're coaches. So, one of the things I wanted you to talk about is how as we as entrepreneurs, how can we take care of our clients and really just make that difference because as an entrepreneur, if you can demonstrate that you're different from all the other entrepreneurs, then people are gonna want to work with

 

[00:13:19] spk_0: you. Yeah. You know, and I've had to learn this and f disclosure for all your listeners, Kim and I have had some pretty cool conversations in getting to know each other, but I always say this if you're clear with your intent, right? If you have conviction behind what you say, why you say it, how you say it, people get it and I place my clients up on a silver business platter. I'm there for them all the time. I share with them how much I appreciate who they are and what they do. And I'm here to help and I'm constantly staying top of mind because I always share with people, relationships do matter. It's up to you what you do with it. And it's the same approach that I took as I'm building my business is I share with people all the time. I'm there to help. I'm thinking about you. I send them cards. I keep my message top of mind to them. And I say, you know what you can call me any time you want. I've been on people's podcasts and I've dropped phone numbers and things like that. But your clients are everything even as an entrepreneur and it's up to you to proactively build that relationship. It's not up to the other person. At least that's through my eyes is you have to be clear. You gotta to be concise with your message. You got to truly care about helping them and constantly let them know you're here

 

[00:14:39] spk_1: to help. That is awesome, Larry. So I know you've prepared a few things to tell my listeners today. So I'm gonna let you loose for a minute to talk to my audience about how you help people and what are some tips that they can really use to just sell from the heart?

 

[00:15:01] spk_0: I think the biggest thing is, and I've learned this through trial and error. That what you do as an entrepreneur matters is we all have a message that matters. And if we understand our message, Kim, and if we understand how to deliver it, people will start to grasp on to this. And I'm a big Simon cynic junkie. I eat and breathe and sleep. Everything that guy throws out because his message resonates to me and I watch something that he said a while back. He says, if you believe in your message and you're, you're clear with your message and you're concise with your message, people will follow and they will believe you. And that's what I started to notice. As I was bringing my message to the forefront around selling from the heart is I saw broken sales teams. I saw broken sales people, I saw broken sales leaders and a lot of people think that this message is mushy, gushy, touchy, feely and things like that, especially coming from a male perspective because it's so female ridden and I'm and you know, I I just had to throw that out there. But if I'm just being gender neutral on this is we all can sell from the heart. And I know it because if you look inside your personal relationships and so forth, I know that hopefully most people bring their heart to their personal relationships. So when I start taking a look at how do I help sales teams with the message around selling from the heart is it took me a while to figure this out. But it was just through the perception, it was just through how I was viewing other sales teams. As I saw sales people that couldn't clearly deliver a message. I still see it to this day. I see salespeople who can't share their story. I see sales people who are misaligned with their clients. I see sales people that are detached from the companies that they're working for. And it started to make me think that if I can take the message around selling from the heart and latch on to top of what's missing, I can help them become a better individual. I can help them strengthen their client relationships. I can help them engage and drive better conversations with people with more meaning and they can connect in a more impactful way which in turn will help them drive sales and the same could be applied even at the entrepreneurial level to all your listeners that are out there is we have to understand how to connect at the heart. And this is how I just said in this world today. And I don't care if it's in sales or not in sales is we just lack trust. People think that, you know, they just doubt everything that you say, and they're skeptical about it. So if we understand that going in, it's up to us as individuals to build trust, to build credibility and remove the BS radars that are at all time high. And I think you can do this by bringing the best version of yourself. And that's what I work on with sales teams. That is

 

[00:17:47] spk_1: so cool. So I hopped out for a quick moment because I wanted to grab something. Larry talked about showing how you care by sending cards. And the moment he said that this and Larry sent me this just after the book was launched with a wonderful message of saying thanks. So, you know, makes an impact. I've kept this card now forever and it will stay forever. So, you know, you can never show appreciation enough to your clients. And that's one of the reasons why I wanted to have Larry on my podcast. As you know, one of my first top five guests is because he gives from the heart and he was amazing client to work with. And this is one of my ways of saying thank you to him for our time together and just allowing me to be part of the process of selling from the heart. And Larry, a lot of my listeners are people who want to become authors who want to use their books to be able to build their business. So I want to take a few minutes and just talk about the process of writing this book. So why did you decide to write the book in the first place?

 

[00:19:07] spk_0: I don't know if we have enough time to really unpack this whole story. So full transparency, Kim already knows the story people, but I'll condense the story is I made a promise when I got married to my wife that I wanted to write a book. By the time I was 50 it was just, it was a bucket list thing that I wanted to do. Well, it didn't turn out that way. I was, I'll be 55 in a couple of weeks. So I was 54 when the book came out. So it was a little bit past that date. But my podcast co-host Darryl Amy was the one who really convinced me to write a book. He kind of hijacked me on an eight hour car ride and he said, hey, Larry, he goes because we already had the song from the Heart podcast was already out. And so change of plans, he picks me up from the airport where he lives and he goes, hey, we're not going to where we, we're gonna go to do some soul searching and you know, build out the business lot. He goes, we're taking a detour and for eight hours, Darryl gnawed on my left ear on why I should really write a book. And he goes, Larry, he goes, this is true. You, you already know it, Kim because I know Darryl because you know Darryl. So he convinced me, he goes, Larry, you got so much inside your head that you need to bring out, you need to write a book. And actually he goes, maybe the title should be something else. I said, no, I'm not writing on that subject even though I know a lot about that subject and I know a lot about social. I just did not want to write a book because it would just become shelf where I said, Darryl, you're convinced me to write a book. I've agree to write a book. I wanna write a book that's gonna have the wow factor. It's gonna just pack full of punch and it's gonna be a read and a reread and he goes, what do you want to call it? And I said selling from the heart, it was just easy because, and that's how the brand's been built out was through the podcast and through the book and bringing my book to life. And if there's one bit of advice that I can give your listeners through what I've learned is you can't expect and, and sorry, I'm gonna be harsh on this is you can expect to write a book and all of a sudden get noticed exactly what I did. This was purely through trial and error. Kim, you know, this is after each chapter of as I was writing, selling from the heart was I threw it out on social with the cover of my book. Hey, in chapter one, you're gonna see this, right? Who wants to join the selling from the Heart Movement and built up a massive following around it. And I engaged, educated and excited people around why selling from the heart matters. And conversely now that I'm almost done with the audible, I'm doing the exact same thing is, hey, I just finished recording chapter nine of the audio version of selling from the heart. I promise it's gonna pack a punch who's all in. And I think regardless of what stage you're at in your entrepreneurial career is leverage the power of social. But you got to engage people, you got to get people excited about why they should pick up and read or listen to your book.

 

[00:22:05] spk_1: I so agree. So what was one of the hardest things for you about this process?

 

[00:22:10] spk_0: Mind screwing my book that I mean, I, and now as I'm doing the audio, oh boy Kim, I've even changed some of it in the audio. But I think that the hardest part behind the book was overthinking the book. I knew the message and I knew what I wanted to get out there, but it was now rereading it and changing it and rereading it and changing it and overthinking it because I was too focused on. Ok, well, what would people think about that then? Finally, I just said, forget it right after a couple of swift virtual kicks in the butt. I think that'd be the biggest thing is don't mind, screw it. Just don't because otherwise your book will never get done. I know this for a fact because I'm in the National Speakers Association in Los Angeles. That's cool. And there's a friend of mine that's become a friend of mine. I told him about my book and he goes, heck, he goes, I've been writing a book for three years. I said, where are you at with this? And he goes, I'm still not finished. I go, well, I'm gonna give you a swift kick in the, you know what? Because you just got to get the stinking book done. Yeah. Do

 

[00:23:15] spk_1: you remember the two words? I used to say to you.

 

[00:23:19] spk_0: Sorry. No, no. OK. Well, just give me a clue.

 

[00:23:23] spk_1: Starts with an A, starts with A P OK. You, you'll know it as soon as I say it analysis paralysis. Oh Yeah.

 

[00:23:33] spk_0: Yeah. No, I Yeah.

 

[00:23:35] spk_1: And you know what? It is a common thing because your message is so strong and you really wanted to make sure that you got it out there in such a way that would make an impact. And so that's a good thing. But the bad side of the coin is, is that you analyze it to the point that it never gets done. Yes.

 

[00:23:55] spk_0: Correct. And what's interesting is, and that's why I wanted to write this book in the way that I wrote it was, I wanted it to pack a punch because there's a lot of people out there that will deliver a message and they just deliver it. I wanted to and, you know, it goes back to, I wanted to write, selling from the heart in a way that people would read it and reread it and reread it and the messages that I've been getting in the Amazon reviews that I've been getting and the video messages that have been sent to me had just, I mean, some of them I just cry, Kim because I mean, you know, you know me, well enough that I wear my emotions on my sleeve and I just go, you know what, I just can't believe this book has made such an impact that it's made, but I think it was the right time, right? Message in a sales society that's sorely lacking heart.

 

[00:24:46] spk_1: I agree. All right, Larry, I would like for you to tell people how they can get your book, how they can get your podcast, how they can find you on social media. Well, you

 

[00:24:57] spk_0: could find out anything you want to know about selling from the heart, just go to selling from the heart dot net. If you do want to just take a sneak preview of the book and kind of give it for a little cruise through, you can go to selling from the heart dot net. And it's forward slash book and you can download the first three chapters of selling from the heart. If you want to just take a sneak peek at it, you can listen to my podcast, you can find it on all the podcast apps. So it's selling from the heart as well. I'm all over linkedin. I'm all over Facebook now only just because I was at the send out cards, relationship marketing Grand Summit And I was shamed on stage. I didn't have a Facebook profile so you can find me all over Facebook, can find me on Twitter and Instagram as

 

[00:25:41] spk_1: well. So I pulled up your book on Amazon and I just wanted to read part of one of the reviews. So every now and then I encounter a book that is both challenging and inspiring Larry Levine selling from the heart is just such a book. It calls you out in areas, you know, you can do better in while revving up your enthusiasm and motivation author Larry Levine Hills from the office Technology Space and has a spectacular track record selling in one of the most competitive markets in the world. I had the pleasure of meeting Larry at the outbound sales conference in Atlanta and found him to be one of the most genuine and authentic people I have ever met. Yeah.

 

[00:26:20] spk_0: Not bad. I wrote that review myself. Kim

 

[00:26:25] spk_1: geez. The picture doesn't really look like that count

 

[00:26:29] spk_0: or something. I mean, that's why I just think that the longer anybody spends in sales, they start to see this, that I have no problem raising the water level on things that need to be said in the sales world. Because for so long, it's just interesting that I'll just tell you a quick story is I was in Starbucks about 56 months ago and I hadn't been in Starbucks for a while and they said, hey, where you been? I said, well, I've been actually, I've been out of the country. I was running a workshop around my book. And they go, you wrote a book? I go, yeah. And I go, I didn't, hey, you know, mentally I'm going, I didn't think I really needed to tell you. I wrote a book. But nevertheless, and the barista at Starbucks goes well, hey, Larry, what's the title of your book? And I said, well, the title of my book, Selling from the Heart, how your authentic self sells you? And this lady goes, heart sales. Something just doesn't jive because my perception of sales is far from being heart centered. Now, keep in mind this is a barista from Starbucks. But quite frankly, that's the majority of perception of sales. And it's just the world that we live in where we lack trust. And everyone thinks that sales people are full of BS is if you can get to the heart of what matters and you can really peel it back and get to know somebody at a human level, right? That you're there, you're in the moment you care about them, you're there to help. There's no self deception. You're in the moment and you truly, truly, truly want to help them do better business instantaneously. Those people smell it. And that's what I want sales people, sales leaders and executives to understand. Quit the manipulation, quit all the BS tactics is if you and your sales people cannot open up a conversation, first impressions, all of that in the very beginning of call it your sales process or the buyer's journey, you're behind the eight all from the Get

 

[00:28:29] spk_1: go. Yeah. Well, thank you so much, Larry. It has been so much fun having you on today. And I just want to say thank you for coming on and really sharing from your heart because as we share this message of selling from the heart, it just really allows people to be free to be who they are and to create heart centered businesses. So thank you so much, Larry.

 

[00:28:56] spk_0: Awesome. You're so welcome. It's so good to see

 

[00:28:58] spk_1: you. You too, Larry. Well, this has been another episode of author to Authority and we will see you all on the next episode.

Larry Levine is the international best-selling author of Selling from the Heart and the co-host of the Selling from the Heart Podcast. With 30 years of in-the-field sales experience within the B2B technology space, he knows what it takes to be a successful sales professional.

Larry has successfully sold to customers ranging from up-and-down the street accounts to Fortune 500 companies. In the fall of 2013, Larry became a corporate major account rep for a Japanese OEM in downtown Los Angeles, California, one of the most competitive markets in the United States. He walked into a zero base opportunity with no current customers. By using the strategies explained in Selling from the Heart, he booked over $1.3 million in new sales in 2014, leaving behind over a $1.6-million pipeline for the next rep to develop.

Larry now coaches and inspires sales leaders and their teams to do what he did. Since 2016, Larry has coached sales professionals across the world, from tenured reps to new millennials entering the salesforce. They all appreciate the practical, relevant and “street–savvy” nature of his coaching. Larry is not shy when it comes to delivering his message.

Larry lives in Thousand Oaks, California where he is actively involved in Kiwanis and other local non-profits.

Connect With Larry:

https://www.sellingfromtheheart.net/  

https://www.linkedin.com/in/larrylevine1992/