[00:00:00] Luigi Prestinenzi: By the Sales IQ Network, this is the Sales IQ Podcast. I'm your host, Luigi Prestinenzi, and each week we'll be going on a journey that will inspire you, motivate you, and help you be the best sales professional you can be.

How do you stand out in the sea of sameness? This is one of the biggest challenges. Most of us working in sales experience every day, especially in a world where consumers and buyers have so many options to choose from. And this is what this week's episode is all about. It's all about how do you prospect, how do you do things a little bit differently that will allow you.

To stand out from the crowd because nobody wants to be stuck in what is the sea of sameness. And I think that's one of the challenges that we as sales professionals. We'll experience and we'll fall into that sea of sameness. When we are simply just sending an email, making a phone call, sending a standard LinkedIn connection request.

There isn't much to differentiate that from what everybody else is doing. And the reality is for most sellers, many of us are now using very similar tactics. Well, there's not much new stuff happening in the world of selling when you really think about it, right? There is not many new tactics that people are using that he's going to go, wow, this is going to separate me from what my competition is doing.

But in saying that I want you to think about these episodes about thinking a little bit differently. It's about thinking outside the square and even our guests this week, the incredible Dale Dupree. He's awesome. He's the sale, the founder of the Sales Rebellion and the whole premise for the Sales Rebellion, not the whole message that Dale brings to the table is about.

It's about upping your game and doing things a little bit different challenge, the status quo, or we've heard this before, you got to challenge the status quo. You've got to do things differently, but Dale does talk about the fact that I have to bring authenticity to the table. And I think, you know, you might be going, oh, Luigi, this.

Like bringing authenticity to the table is not something different. But the challenge when you're using sequencing tools, when you're using automation, you can sometimes come across disingenuous. You can sometimes your real heart and soul doesn't come to the table. And what Dale is going to talk about, he's going to talk about a tactic that he's employed.

That again, it's been used in the past, but what he's done, he's revitalized this particular tactic to make it stand out, to help you become a little bit different. And add something unique to your process.

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[00:03:58] Luigi Prestinenzi: At the end of the day, the buying experience matters more than anything else that buying experience that your buyers are going through really matters. And the win-loss reports that we see it actually comes through buyers say they choose to go with a particular company because of the experience the seller has created.

And that experience. And that's what this episode's all about. It's all about creating a unique buying experience. It's about creating a prospecting process that is different, that will allow you to stand out and be the best you can be in a sea of sameness.

Welcome to the show, Dale.

[00:04:35] Dale Dupree: Thanks for having me. I appreciate being here, man. It's a long time coming.

[00:04:38] Luigi Prestinenzi: I know it's a long time coming. It's amazing. And we were talking about this in the green room, right? It's amazing how. The world of social allows us to build a relationship over extended period of time when you don't. Get to meet someone. And then you finally meet someone as like you're known them for your whole life. So it's just, it's amazing how the world is changing and digital is allowing us to build relationships across the world.

[00:05:02] Dale Dupree: Amen, dude. I really, I really enjoyed that part of our conversation so far because I, I love relationships. I think that it's the number one secret to sales. The only secret to sales is how good are you at building relationships with people? Because I think another side of the concept of that is that think about it. We've all met each other through social and through things like LinkedIn mediums, like LinkedIn and social media, but we don't really know any thing past that yet it is so authentic in the way that your content shows up that when I read it. I know you're the real deal. And so for me, it's easy to trust that because again, it, you can smell that stuff from a mile away and it goes to the same for a sales rep, walking in the front door and making a phone call or sending an email. It's very easy to kind of pick up on what stinks and what doesn't.

So, you know, at the same time, I think it, it really speaks, even though I love the concept of technology and how we're using it. I think what it really speaks to is just the, the, the genuine effectiveness of really being able to truly build a relationship with somebody.

[00:06:03] Luigi Prestinenzi: And, you know what, I think one of the things that I've learned as a result of this pandemic, right? The gift that keeps on giving is that I say that as sarcasm, right, because it's just fucking, never ends. But I think one of the things that I've learned is a lot of people are looking at selling now and they're saying, you know, sales technology, it's changing the way people buy. But I actually think it's amplified the importance of the relationship between the buyer and the seller and why more than ever before, we need to be focusing on building that level of trust with our audience to help them choose us.

And I think again, It's now such an important part of the process that, you know, if, if you're not focusing on building that trust and building that level of rapport and relationship, you're not building sustainable long-term networks, it'll yield results over, over a long period of time.

[00:06:56] Dale Dupree: Totally agree, there's a company called Carvana and I think most people know it. It's out there basically allowing the consumer to go on the internet and buy a car. They here's the, here's the crazy thought though. You know, just like a year or two years ago, right before the pandemic, right. That I was driving by dealerships that were building massive headquarters, you know, in addition to what they already have as a footprint.

Well, how, you know, like the why in God's name of all things. Car sales, is that not being taken down by a company like Carvana and you know, what's even crazier is now Carvana has physical locations for you to come and see the cars. Because once again, I think the things, the elements that, that go along with this or the experience that's provided to be.

And a hands-on experiences bar none better than anything else in existence. So even like thinking about augmented reality, just to go on a small tangent, if I put on some goggles and I feel like I'm there and I'm believing that I'm there and I'm being made to believe that I'm there and influenced that way, then, then to me, there's my safety.

And, and, and once again, like that's, it's sure it's replacing the human connection, but that's what I'm seeking. I'm seeking the human connection. That's the underlying factor. Right? So, so at the same time to the second piece of that puzzle is that people still crave the relationship and they create the recommendation.

They crave the communication, they crave, you know, even an argument with a crappy sales car sales person, shout out to the car sales people. They get a lot of heat. Right. But, but, but that's, that's the point, right? I think, and you make it, you articulate it very well. And I'm in full agreement.

[00:08:24] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. And look, we were going into what he's going to be an awesome episode, right on.

I'm really discussing how can you create, how can you differentiate in what is essentially, there's a lot of same sameness going around our mutual friend, Larry Levon talks about this a lot. Right? How do you, how do you be different in a sea of sameness? But before we dive into this great topic, love to hear, tell our listeners a bit about you, how you started in the world of selling and what inspired you to start. The rebellion, the call is to change the way sellers position themselves in the marketplace.

[00:08:55] Dale Dupree: Yeah. I appreciate the opportunity to do that. So deal to pre as you introduced me as earlier, my story really starts back in 1984. When my father founded his copier from, I was born a year later in 1985 with toddler running through my veins.

And there's two reasons why I say that. Number one is that the copier industry, it is, it's kind of like the redheaded stepchild. Right. And it's looked at as like this, what is that? And why would I sell there? It's the sleeper in 20, 22, especially, right. It's the sleeper. It is, it is an industry where salespeople can not only hone their skills at a level.

That's almost unrecognizable to any other industry. And that's just me being biased to an extent, but also seeing that in my own walk and other people's walks as well too. But secondarily to. Dude, it's extraordinarily easy. You know, I hear people talking about, oh, I got the SAS sales and I'm making six figures, try seven figures and the copier industry, right?

Like it is an industry that allows for a massive amount of financial growth, just as much as personal development. And I, and I remember being 26 years old and, you know, making. Massive checks 30 to 50,000 a month and, and sitting back and thinking to myself why don't more people sell copiers? Well, I think, I think at the end of the day, it's because it's extraordinarily hard, which is the second piece of why I mentioned that because it's it's, it's very important to understand that.

That my father intentionally created what he did, knowing that it was that he was going to have kids. He didn't know he was going to have four. And my little sister even was like a miracle cause my mom was supposed to be able to have any more kids. Right. So, but he didn't know that he was going to have four, but, but here he raised all four of us around the machines.

Around the culture, around the people, around the community to help develop us into an industry that was difficult to get into even at the time back then, because my father had this sense of understanding that it's important to leave a legacy. And the generational legacy that you leave inside of your family.

The footprint of that is it can be massive to the success of, of your kids and everybody, I don't know, one parent that doesn't want their kids to succeed. You know, maybe there's one out there somewhere and God blessed them and it sucks that they feel the way that they do. But I look at that and I think about my story that.

I was intentionally brought into this world intentionally put into a place where my father could write the wrongs of, of the things that he messed up and not necessarily like have me do those things for him, but just give me the opportunity through choice and for the things that he lined up at his own success, to be able to provide.

For me. So you fast forward to about the time of 17. Now one really interesting fact here is that I was homeschooled. So my mom actually homeschooled all four of us. So we got a classic education with a lot of choice, right? Not so much like, Hey, this is the way that everything works, but like everything, every quiz, the question piece of that, I learned this at a young age.

That it was up to me. What was the, what the answer is up to me. It's not so much like what's the right answer. It's like, what do you think the answer is? And so we had a frilly way to classical education. That was very light. It was daunting. I remember being in middle school, taking like freshmen college level courses to get myself prepared, you know, for the world ahead of me.

And, and it was, it was intense. So, so imagine being 17 at the, in the, in this household and having a love for creativity, a love for music, all things that my parents allowed for me to do, and then being handed a record label offer and told, Hey, you can come and play music for a living. Or you can take one of these scholarships that you have through academics or sports, which there was a couple dozen of those.

And go and do the normal thing. Well, I rebelled and started my parents and was like, Hey, thanks for the hard work with homeschool and all the other good stuff, but I'm going to take everything I learned and go directly into the working world. And I'm going to be a rockstar. Well, 60 days after my first tour, I was about 30 pounds lighter.

And. Like broke my elbow, like all kinds of crap. I just got banged up on the store. Right. But I got home and I had never, I was never happier right after that tour. And I recognized, you know, not just like that. I was a creative person. I loved music, but then the industry was going to shape me into something.

And fast forward, about five years, I got out of that industry because of the premise acuity that was available to me on tap. And I had a girl that I wanted to call my wife. Also the drugs, the violence, there's a lot of things inside of industries that make it difficult to walk away just as much as they make it difficult to be in it.

And I think that's a really good point to make inside of my story because sales is full of that as well, too. And so it was just life in general. Right? So I started in copiers, obviously at my dad's farm. I spent four years sucking and, and after those, you know, four years of socket and I say four years, but two years where I was, you know, kind of under quota and then the next two years where I was over it, but I just wasn't at the point where I want it to be.

But by year four I had, at the end of, I broke it every record of the book that was established at my father's firm over the 24 years that he had been in business and boom, my rebellion was born. I spent the next eight years in the industry or a nine years in the industry in total before getting it out entirely and saying, Hey, it's time to change the way that people look at the landscape of sales.

And I feel like I have the experiences, I have the ideas and I have the badness deep inside of me to be able to make the decision to do what I do.

[00:14:03] Luigi Prestinenzi: Mate, what a, what a description of a life and you've, and you've actually shared, which I really love. And maybe we could probably pull out like three episodes in that story.

Right. Because I think there's a lot. And, and, and now it's kind of connecting the dots for me because the fact that you, you shared, you know, growing up in an environment where it encouraged choice. And allowed you to, to find that creativity, I can see why you've been able to achieve certain success in your sales career.

Because when we look at some of those critical skills, that high performers exhibit, it's their ability to be creative, right. And their ability to follow. Choice like choices and amazing opportunity in front of us. And you know, that we we're, we're given choices every single day. We're given options that we make a choice to choose where we spend our time and sometimes it doesn't deliver us a result.

And so really appreciate your sharing, you know, your story, but I'd love to understand. You mentioned that you had two years of not meeting quota and then you had two years of exceeding quota and you weren't where you want it to be. What was different. So the years where you weren't versus the years that you actually did, you know, what, what was different about those two circumstances?

[00:15:19] Dale Dupree: Really good question. I think actually it's the first time someone's ever, like, after hearing my story asked me that question and I feel like I'm always dying to tell the answer to this. So I'm, I'm gonna, I'm going to slow my pace here for just a second. And I'm going to say. That in the first year in particular, I leaned on a lot of other people's experiences and knowledge, which I don't think is a bad thing, but I tried to use and try and I started to supplement, right?

Like, instead of, instead of saying, oh, okay, this is, this is X. This is why this is Z in regards to sales. And so one of that's prospecting, whether that's middle of the funnel, whether that's my closing techniques, instead of looking at it that way, I looked at it. Oh, this is how you're supposed to do it.

Right. Like to the T. And remember you got to remember that I was homeschooled. Right. And I was given all this choice, but then when I got out of that and I'm in sales, like I'm in the midst of failure, right. I'm in the midst of like, oh shoot, what am I supposed to do here? Like, it's been 60 days. And I, I sold one thing for $8,000.

This isn't good. And so in my head it was like do or die. So when I went and started learning from other people, the whole purpose of that was to so that I could replicate their success. And I had to learn the hard way in that first year that that was like the literal toxicity that was holding me back.

And, you know, so I, I'm not going to name names, but I went out and I, I bought books. You know, we talked about that a little bit a second ago. I bought books. I read what these people's ideas were. And here's the thing, dude, is that I like skimmed the pages. You know, I just was like, oh, this looks good. And like move to the next thing and ensure like I digested everything that was being said.

But for the most part, I rolled my eyes at half the things that were in there yet, I still was like, bought into the identity of what these books were were, were telling me I needed to do in order to be successful. Well in year two, I was just kinda like none of that stuff is working to the least of the level that I would want it to because I did sell some stuff in that first year and I saw some of those quote unquote techniques work, but they didn't feel authentic.

They didn't feel natural. So year two, I kind of played around with some different concepts and I actually, I learned Sandler sales training and year two, I actually, one of my mentors who was my original coach Ed Jordan. God bless that, man. He, the thing is, is that I was, I was learning their, their style and he's sitting here you know, listening to some of my challenges and he would say, Hey, bro, you know, when we talked about something like a pattern interruption don't do it by the book.

You're not a by the book guy, so you can take the concept and authentically create something much differently. And so I like, I'm totally throwing it under the bus here. Like he's a Sandler fanatic. Right. But like he taught me in a way that I didn't feel like I was being sucked into this cult of sales instead I was being given freedom and it was an awakening for me.

And toward the end of that second year was when I started it. Year three. I had quota. I was over quota. I did stuff that I didn't even know I could do. I developed the persona of the copier warrior. As a matter of fact, it had like marketing pieces, like the one you're looking at me, slain copy machines with lightsabers and, and that just opened a whole new can of worms.

And by year four, again, I, I had a good year, but I was still kind of dependent and reliant on. Box, you know, that I had put sales in, but bro, I'll tell you when I took a sledgehammer to that thing and just completely annihilated it and stopped saying, oh, well this is what you're supposed to do in this part of the sales cycle and started saying, well, this is what, this is what I've been taught, but is it the raw.

Authentic natural thing for me to do with this person right now, in this moment. And when I started questioning those things and saying, you know, when somebody was saying, oh, well, your price is a little high. Instead of, you know, the traditional, you know, Brian Tracy moves or Sandler moves, right? Like instead of the traditional, you know, concepts about like how to reverse and how I would, I would literally say to somebody, and once I got to do with me, like, I don't understand, like, why is that a problem?

Can you explain that to me? A little bit deeper. Like I hear what you're saying on the surface, but I'm really confused. Can you please give me some more to that where, you know, like if you were sitting in that room, you'd be like, bro. A, like, it sounds arrogant when you're talking about it here live and be like, that's not how you talk to a customer.

No, it's not how you talk to a customer, but it freaking is how you talk to a human it's exactly how you talk to another person. And so when I tapped into that, bro, the whole game changed for me. I wasn't afraid of. To, to be authentic. I wasn't afraid to not challenge the thought, but influence the way people were looking at certain things that I was providing for them.

And that the industry traditionally had sold. And because of that, I became this unnatural occurrence inside of my industry because no one had never experienced anything like it. And so, and so just, you know, genuinely I became so different. Yeah. Did they were all telling their friends and they were telling their friends.

And eventually I had a whole year where I wrote, well, over a million dollars in revenue, I didn't make one freaking cold call, dude. It was literally just a year of picking the phone up and I'm in copier sales, like Amy copier, salesperson listening. It's like, how'd you get how you got inbound? What you didn't pay for?

What are you talking about? Like it, cause it's, it's a real struggle inside of that industry. So, so I mean, that would be my reflection on what happened in those four years. That really like took me to the fifth year and the six year and beyond in regards to like that elevated success.

[00:20:48] Luigi Prestinenzi: Again, there's I think we're going to have to do another episode here, Dale, man, because we're just touching on so many different things, but I love it.

I love it because I think what. Is you followed the Bach or you followed, you know, the, the process, the script, the framework. But you didn't truly see success until you broke the shackles of the framework, took what you needed to, but made it your own and brought your authentic self to the process. And I think the reason why this resonates with me so much, because I'm like you, man, I think that the one book that I always go back to.

It's augment Dino's mean you can't really see it, but it takes fucking 20 minutes, maybe 20 minutes. It shouldn't, it shouldn't take you more than an hour. And I'm like you man, like my cell is I got books. I skimmed them. If I can't see what I want, like I just put them away. Right. I hate the ones that are just to sort of, cause I'm a sales person.

I lack focus, you know, you know, so this sort of stuff is, is fantastic, but I think. Why that story resonates with me is because, and I say this to sales professionals, that our coach all the time, it's the frameworks are there as a framework, but two there for you to build on them and make them your own.

And if you don't make him your own, you're not bringing you to the table. And the thing is, and I've learned this the harsh way, man. And I'll talk about why, how I learned the harsh way, but people buy you. Before they buy your product or service. And I say, I ha I learned this the harsh way because I just lost a six figure deal.

In the last week. It hurts style, like multi-million dollar deals, but this one hurt because a lot of put a lot of energy and effort into it. And it came down. The buying committee, the CEO felt more connected to the other person at the other company. He's team liked me. They liked our value proposition.

They liked our proposal. But he connected with the other person on a personal level. And I think that says a lot about the world, because, and this is what it says a lot about you, man, what you're saying is all these frameworks mean nothing. If I can't bring myself and bring it to life, right? Because ultimately you're creating that experience for people.

You're helping them choose you for the process. So look, I've just had a couple of our high moments. I'm thinking to myself, this is great because how can we say, how can we differentiate in a CFC. Is be us. Be they who we are, but it's going to resonate with a, with a portion of the audience and some people it won't. And that's okay.

[00:23:19] Dale Dupree: Right. Yeah. I think, I think the, the word for us is indistinguishable, right? Like, it's like you look at sales and it's indistinguishable like one person, one tactic, one method from the other, you know, because you might call one thing this, and one thing that I don't want to say any acronyms or names on this show, because I have mad respect for all the people out there that are doing their thing.

Hustling. And, and doing what again, they believe is helping the sales community. But I mean, I'm leading the rebellion for a reason. Right. And I admitted something earlier that I don't often do. I mean, maybe ever like twice ever, which is that I do, I freaking stopped reading books as quickly as I possibly could, because I realized that.

Toxic for me, to an extent it wasn't, it wasn't helping me. It was really causing issue with me. And so like, I started to look at things from my own lens. Right. So people talk about, you know, pain. Well, I feel that pain is how has that, how does anybody desire to go to that? Matter of fact, when people psychologically and actually neuroscience and psychology, both tell us this, as fact as in people would, would rather not be complainer's.

And, and, and yet when you're in this moment with, you know, a big shot CEO or a CFO or someone in particular that like, it can feel intimidating being with those people that says this app and sucks, and I want to fixed and, and what are you going to do to fix it? You know? But the incumbent couldn't already do if I just called them in here.

Get it taken care of. Now those are, those are moments again, like we're, again, like neuroscience tells us specifically what that person, that the study of the brain, like what that person has triggered emotionally and why intelligently they're they're speaking at the way that they are, which is technically, there's no intelligence in it.

It's all emotional. And so that means that, that means it sounds to me like that means that sales has to become an art. And I can't look at like, oh, well, how do I cauterize this wound? Or stitch it up or put a bandage on it, like that doesn't fix it. That leaves a scar that leaves further issue or a remembrance of the problem in the first place.

So that when it comes back up again, it's like, we already did it. Well, you're telling me I got another one. So for me, I looked at those types of things at a young age and said, how do I see, how do I look at pain? It's more of an illness, for example, because I want to create a lifestyle choice for somebody over the next five years of a copier contract that will change, like everything that they do from a workflow perspective that will change the outcome entirely.

And that change sucks. And it's hard for people to get behind. But if I put my back into this and I put a little extra effort and don't just say, here's how you do it. But I give them the guideline. I hold them accountable to the process. This is a customer for life now. And that was, that was the literally what happened to me, Luigi is I like thinking about this, I'm almost three years into running a Sales Rebellion.

I still get emails. I still get phone calls. I still get text messages. I still get DMS from my old clients, people that I've met at some point in that industry saying, yo, I see you're doing sales training and everything, but like, could you, could you, could you sell me a copy machine for real? You know, because, because of what we created and that's not me being braggadocious or arrogant vitamins, It's me saying, trust yourself, everybody listening, like trust what you believe is the right thing for your sales career, because what I did and I exploded and regardless to what it was, my success look like.

[00:26:39] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. But the thing is, people are calling you because they absolutely see you as someone of value. They absolutely have a connected, they trust it. They treat you now the term trusted advisor. They actually go, you know what? I'm going to call this guy because he's delivered on me before I trust him. And I trust him to help me in the future.

And I think that's a testament to the, to the mindset that you take out. And I think we, as a sales community, even though we've gone. We've done a lot of work to improve the practices the way in which we manage ourselves process and all that sort of stuff. But I think the world of automation is actually putting us back a little bit because it's creating a disconnect between the buyer and the seller, the seller, the buyer knows they're in a frigging sequence, man.

Right. They know it and it's easy to actually identify it because it's got a fucking unsubscribing the bottom, right. So you can make it look as plain text as you. But boys aren't stupid. And I think to some extent, because it's poor messaging and there's, they haven't done the research on the persona.

Like you talked about, they haven't done any segmentation with their clients. Like the, from a targeting perspective, they just getting poor messaging in their inbox every day. And we're creating a trust gap. It's becoming worse and worse. So I think what you talk about now, it's going to be the ones that actually take the time to level up their mindset and really think about why they exist and how they can help their target audience achieve a better outcome because they're not buying the pain and I'm completely alone with you all.

Don't ask pain based questions, all want to know where do you want to go? Where are you at now? Let's figure out how we can work together to get there. Let's collaborate and work together, man. Like, and if I can't help you, that's okay. Like at least let's try to work out a strategy. And so action, you know, again, I'm resonating, I'm connecting with you and this is one of the reasons why I've been following your journey for a couple of years now.

But one of the things that are really, really wanted to talk about today, cause this excites me, man, because again, it's completely different. Easel your letter, your prospecting letter. Can you tell our listeners for those that don't know it. Cause some of them will know it because they follow you. But can you tell our listeners what is, what is the letter and how does it, what do you do to get people so excited about this letter.

[00:29:04] Dale Dupree: To us, it's the most humanized humanizing way to create a sequence like you were just talking about, like, how do we, how do we create a sequence that doesn't have an unsubscribed that feels more like an ABM campaign, because it is so. Direct to the personality, their side, but also how do we scale it?

Right. That's a huge piece of the puzzle too. How do we scale it? So we created, this was a long time ago when I first created this 2010 and I actually got the idea from, there was an article on the internet. What's going around about the real estate market and this guy back in 2000 and Forbes and Fort Lauderdale.

So Miami area, for those of you listening that are like, where's that in the state of Florida, and he was doing a ton of direct mail, he's getting like less than a 1% return rate though on all this direct bell he was putting out. And so basically the market changed back in 2002, right? It got to this point where like that was spam.

So imagine like your email inbox right now, it was like your mail was, was, you know, you'd pulled the thing, the open up the mail and it was 16 different things about Sunday deals and car dealerships. And so your staff was typically being thrown away. So this guy with this guy did, is he, he essentially took, he would retarget as we look at it today in our, in our own terms is he would take all the people that he sent all these letters to, and he would say, and it said they did.

See these. And so what he would do is he would actually put on the front of the envelope, don't throw me away again and big red print. And so you wouldn't get this thing in the mail and it's like, don't throw me away again and you'd open it up. And then it was his pitch. There wasn't really much change there.

So he didn't nuance. Essentially the messaging too much. Right. But I read that his return rate went from less than 1% to 13% and think about this, right? When you're, you're mailing half a million letters at that's the freaking change right in here in real estate, like the dude exploded and he, he he's a multi-millionaire at this stage in the game.

I don't know what he's doing now. Right. But I was inspired by that. I thought, what is this. What does that work? And so I started to study psychology a lot more directly. My wife actually has a degree in psychology. She's got a master's she's, she's got a, she's got a lot of time in the neuroscience field as well, too.

So, and she also has a criminal a criminal Investigation like minor it's like serial killers. I'm totally botching the minor itself for the certificate, but she wanted to basically go to the FBI and work. And so she had to learn in psychology. She had to learn like the mind of a killer, essentially.

So I, I learned all these things, like very like 1% of the world, less than 1% of the world of people like John Wayne Gacy, like what's going on in his head. What's making him click what's. Like, why do humans do that? How do you even get to that point in your life? Right. And I realized very quickly, very slowly, that culture influences that pop culture influences that the community you're in influences a lot of what the brain decides is truth is fact is, is real, right?

So I don't wanna get into politics, but we can. Think of COVID for example, you can go to some places where like COVID is a thing and it exists and people will take precautions if we have to go to other places and you're like, wait, hold on a second. Like, what's going on here? This is, it's almost as if nothing is happening at the, and this is, you know, even during the pandemic in some cases.

Right? So, so again, I started to really recognize that, well, that's why this works because here you are in your little community, you're doing your thing and everything. Yeah. Same every day. And one day, this thing comes in the mail and it's so different that it takes you to that next level. So I created a four letter campaign.

It's a sequence that I created because I also knew that like, there's, I always have told myself, Dale never believe in a silver bullet, no matter what you do, even if you think that something that you're doing is a silver bullet, never take, never tell it that way. Never believe in it that way, because you'll become dependent so heavily on that thing.

You'll lose sight of what you're actually doing. So we started with the crumpled letter and the crumpled letter. I mean, it literally is what it is like it's a crumbled up I'm beloved and inside of it is crumbled up piece of paper. And it says on the outside of it, crumpled letter inside whatever the case might be, this is a young man named Jerome Gilbert out in Chico, California that uses our letter.

I don't think anybody can see your podcast, but you can see he's got a QR code on his letter. He's got, you know, a picture of himself to create that relationship with people. And the way that the letter starts is it says first things first. You're probably wondering why this letter is crumbled up. Well that's because 90% of the sales and marketing that you receive is typically trash.

So I made it easier for you to throw this letter away right then. And there, if someone. I can identify with this. This is familiar to me. I, you get it. You're not, you're not a scummy salesperson. Right. And I, and that's the thing, right? Is that everybody hates salespeople. No one wants to admit it. Right.

Everybody hates even salespeople that are sitting at home, six 30 at night, watching Netflix cell phone rings something about a number that you don't under. Hello. And it's like, Hey, you're on a cruise and you, and you cuss him out. You hang up and here you are. The same person doing the same thing in a different industry.

And somehow you are mightier or holier than now, and have the ability to be able to just apparently judge other people in those moments. Like we all do it. It's not. Human behavior. And because of the box that we put sales. And so it's our rebellion. Isn't just about getting away from the concepts of the status quo and the mediocre.

It's about redefining the way that the entire world looks at sales. The people that are, that are non-believers that are like, nah, I'm not a salesperson, but. Because there are a marketer or they're an inside sales rep or they're a customer experience person. Everybody is freaking in sales bro. Right? So, so the identity of this letter goes beyond the concept of let's book, more appointments.

It goes to a place of allowing other people to buy into you as a salesperson. Yeah. Well, and again, there's a sequence to it, right? So we said we set a crumble, we'll send some with a coffee stain on it. One of them will be all burns up. There'll be one with stamps all over it. Like it's traveled around the world and we've probably got another dozen variations.

I want to say probably a little bit more than that. Like paper airplanes, origami, like a ton of different concepts, how to send a letter that connects again with people. And that creates a very unique experience. So for example, imagine opening the coffee and the freaking thing smells like coffee. And, and it's a, it's a living thing.

Now it's part of an ecosystem that you're creating in regards to the relationship and experience with the buyer.

[00:35:36] Luigi Prestinenzi: Yeah. I mean, again, I love that because. You're thinking differently, right? Like you're not just going, I'm going to do the same old thing. Everybody else is doing. Put you in a cadence, sending out emails, giving a phone call doing this.

You're actually trying to create a different experience for the buyer. And I resonate with that because I've firsthand seeing the result of me sending, for example, like a book, not even a book that I authored just on a topic that I know that's important to the person handwritten note. I've seen the impact of that.

And I think for any, any of our listeners are sitting today, when they're thinking, well, how do I create a level of differentiation? It's just be a little bit unique. Try to find something that's a little bit. And bring your authentic self to the process when executing it. If you want to try the, you know, the letter format you know, we'll, we'll put where you can connect with Dale in the show notes because he shares, he shares his content every single day on LinkedIn.

Like that's one of the things that I love about you, man, is you're consistent. You show up every day and you actually put real stories regardless of. How people view it, you put it out there, man. You put it out there for people to connect to. And then that's, that's one of the reasons why I'm kind of daily you're in my feet every single day, man.

Not just because the algorithm saying I should look at your content, but because it actually means something to me, man. So I love the fact that you've shared that with us. And again, I could keep talking to you for hours, but just, just before we wrap up outside of LinkedIn and we'll put your URL, where else can our listeners find and connect.

[00:37:11] Dale Dupree: Yeah, no doubt. I appreciate that, dude. You can just Google Dale Dupree and you can find a ton of content. I basically own that name and I dunno, there's like 12 pages of guest podcasts. I've been on over 250 total guest podcasts in the last couple of years. It was a mission of mine to do without, by the way, without I ever asked to be on one of our lunch was pretty dope.

Right? I think, I think that was probably the coolest thing that I did in that whole process. But the purpose of it was like to go out and create endless amounts of content for people. You know, like your listeners that are looking to level up, even if it's just half of a percent that I've given somebody today.

That's my mission. My mission is to serve not just salespeople, but people, right? Humans that want to better themselves. That believe that there's something greater inside of what it is that they are called to be on their, and their walk on this earth. It's a super important piece of the puzzle for me inside of all of this.

That's why any, anywhere you go to find my content, whether it's sales, rebellion.com or Instagram search @ Sales Rebellion, Twitter @ Sales Rebellion, anywhere you can find at Sales Rebellion, right? The, the purpose of why we're out there, why we're creating content on a daily basis is because we care.

And we are sure we're a business just like anybody else. So we want to build. You know, we want to build our kingdom just the same as well too, but bro, we care like we actually care and we want people to know that not just through the way that we speak, but how we deliver and what our actions, you know, speak for us.

Right. Because they're much louder than words. So, so really honestly, bro, any social platform, you can even come and laugh on TikTok at some of my stupidity. And honestly, man, wait, like our organization. One thing I want to just want to say, like people that are listening to the Sales Rebellion is not Dale Dupree.

The Sales Rebellion is founded on the principles of the copier warrior and the things that I did from the perspective of how I rebelled in my sales career. But the sales, the Sales Rebellion, or all the people listening, the Sales Rebellion or the individual coaches, Adam Snyder, Jack Wilson. There, there are people like Joy Hewitt-Carvajal. There, there are admin team, Shea Madison Holcomb. They're our video production team, Ray Pareto it's much bigger, right? Jeremiah Griffin, shout out to my head of sales. One of the number one salespeople in the world, I might be a little biased, but then that's what the rebellion is.

The rebellion is is a service and it's a community that's bigger than just the Dupree. So don't just seek me out. Listeners seek out the community because I'll tell you right now. Endless amounts of quality relationships with, with every single person that claims rebellion inside of their sales walk.

[00:39:34] Luigi Prestinenzi: Mate I think one thing for all of our listeners, the thing that I've. And I think hopefully you've all heard is the fact that Dale has a very strong intrinsic motivator. And that's that calling is what's driving him to do what he does every single day to be the best he can be. And so I just want to say Dale, thanks very much for the content, for the, for the the message that you've been spreading, for the sales community, because I've personally been at benefited from it. And I just want to say, thanks for coming on the Sales IQ Podcast.

Cheers bro.

[00:40:06] Credits: This show has been recorded remotely produced by Sales IQ Global, audio editing and music production by Stefan Malliate. Graphic design by Julie Marshall.

Don't forget to leave a rating and review on your podcast player. And if you want to find more about the programs that we offer at Sales IQ, head to www.salesiqglobal.com

This episode was digitally transcribed.

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