210: Bob Paskins on Making People Laugh to Close More Sales

Bob Paskins is a speaker, trainer, and consultant who looks to inspire people and companies to their full potential. He lives in Oregon with his wife Danielle, and three boys under the age of 12. Yes, he drives a Minivan.   For 20 years Bob worked in the financial services space as a commercial insurance broker. His two primary goals were to increase his sales base by attracting new customers and to lead a customer service team in keeping his current clientele happy. Bob built his business from scratch. Along the way, he gained hundreds of clients, forged relationships with key vendors and brokers, and won several sales competitions. He was promoted to sales manager and then became a principal owner in a large commercial insurance brokerage. His customer base included distributors, wholesalers, contractors, non-profits and a Bay Area company called Yahoo!   Now Bob speaks to businesses around the country using storytelling, and humor as well as providing tangible takeaways. He also consults with companies looking to elevate their sales performance and sales processes. He is the creator of the GROWTH MATRIX which is a comprehensive and transformative system for unlocking the full potential salespeople, sales processes and sales performance.   Bob Paskins MVP player Stats:   Bob not only likes growing as a professional, but also advocates for growing as a person as well. He looks out at his audiences and strives towards making an impact.   Starting out as a radio station DJ right out of college, Bob realized that although the creative lifestyle was fun, it didn't offer him what he wanted financially. So, after gaining some insight and advice, he went into the commercial insurance industry to pursue the financial lifestyle he sought after…or so he thought!   In this episode, we talk about Bob's early career days in the commercial insurance industry and how he lost interest in the position but liked the aspect of working and helping people with their business. Bob talks about how he elevates businesses and acts as the "tow truck driver" to put people on the road that is best for their success going forward.   Bob has great tips and real-life experiences such as feeling isolation that he wants to share with those who are looking to elevate sales processes, professionals, and performances! If that sounds like you, make sure to give this episode a listen!   Keep the conversation going by sharing this episode with your friends, colleagues, and on social media!   Thanks so much for listening. 🙂   Quotes   "My manager said, you will love the commercial insurance industry because in a sense you have what he called 'golden handcuffs' and you're able to put these golden handcuffs on, which to him basically meant this is the job that you were going to have for life and it can be financially rewarding and it will provide the lifestyle that you want it...but as I started going into this instead of focusing on the word 'golden' after awhile, I was starting to focus on the word handcuffs."   "What I realized was after meeting with them for 50 to 55 minutes, we had not talked about commercial insurance once. And that got to me and I realized I love what I was doing, I just didn't care for the product that I was looking to sell."   "What I am, is I am the tow truck driver that will come into those companies, I try to get them back out so they're able to have traction and be able to go the distances."   "It eroded a lot of trust that I had with my support staff and it took me a long time to rebuild that trust back with them. If I go in and share my life, because I had chosen what I would say, was life segmentation instead of life inclusion."   "It all circles around to building a relationship with them [your clients]."   "Take a look at football and people probably are even imagining some people who when they score, they make it all about them. And then others out there when they score, they celebrate with their team."   LINKS   bobpaskins.com email: [email protected] LinkedIn   Get more out of PYP with these links: Show notes Find Your Football Newsletter Nominate a Guest for the Show We always appreciate your rating and review on iTunes!