Creating Certainty in Uncertain Times

I’ve been having conversations over the past couple of weeks about this very topic of creating certainty in uncertain times. So much of it boils down to the specific steps I can put in place in my business. Reach out to the right people, say the right things, in the right order, consistently. That will not only improve your confidence in yourself. It will improve their confidence in you and their certainty that you can do the job for them.

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David: Hi, and welcome back. In today’s episode, co-host Kevin Rosenquist, and I’ll be discussing creating certainty in uncertain times. Welcome back, Kevin.

Kevin: Great to see you again, David. Wow, uncertain times. There’s an understatement of the year, huh?

David: Yeah. There’s been so much discussion on the forums and inside the social media groups and everything like that. A lot of people are uncertain about a lot of things, and that does not generally bode well for businesses.

Kevin: No, no, it definitely doesn’t. So what does it really mean to create certainty? When everything around you feels unstable.

David: Yeah. We had talked in a previous podcast about our circles of influence. Like the things we can control and the things we can’t. It really does circle back in a lot of ways to this.

When we talk about creating certainty, we can only ever do that within the realms that we control. We can create certainty in specific aspects of our business.

So when we’re talking about things like tariffs, which obviously is a big topic these days, a lot of our clients are in the promotional products industry, and a lot of that product tends to come from overseas. Much of it is coming from China.

So in those situations, we’re not able to create certainty with that, right? That’s not within our sphere of influence. So what we can do and what our clients can do is to look at the specific things we can create certainty around.

Can we identify suppliers who are can provide products for us that are not impacted by that?

Can we look at more domestic suppliers? What are the specific things we can do to create a level of certainty for our customers? Something our competitors might not be able to provide?

Kevin: And I think there’s a level of authenticity too that has to go with it, right? Because certainty you can sort of project certainty. but you don’t wanna pretend to have all the answers when you don’t. So how do you balance that?

David: Yeah, you can’t really fake certain, well, I guess you can fake certainty.

Kevin: You can try. Yeah,

David: You can pretend you’re certain, but I’m not really talking about that.

I think there’s certainly an air of confidence that you want to be able to convey to your clients, and sometimes when you’re conveying confidence, you may still not be certain about things.

But in this conversation, I’d like to look at, okay, what are the things that we can do? What can we be certain of? You know, are we certain that we can help our clients? And if so, how are we certain that we can help our clients?

What are the things that we know that we can do that will help them? And if it’s about sourcing things that are more in line with exactly what they’re looking for, trying to get around the obstacles for our clients.

If we’re certain we can do those types of things. Just identifying the very specific steps that we can take, what can we be certain about, and then focus on those things.

Kevin: You mentioned that, a lot of our listeners are in the promotional product space. There’s still a lot of uncertainty that’s coming our way. A lot of flipping and flopping going on with tariffs and whatnot. What do you recommend businesses do to sort of like help prep?

David: Well, first thing you should do is recognize that your clients are not unaware of this. Like they are aware of the fact that this stuff’s going on.

Kevin: Right.

David: And I’ve talked to a lot of business owners recently who are just really concerned, what am I going to tell my customers? And I’m like, well, your customers, they know that this is not, your issue is not your fault.

So, where we have to focus our attention is on the levers that we can pull, the buttons that we can push, what are the things that we can do that will allow them to get the result they’re looking for?

Because ultimately, regardless of what industry you’re in, it’s usually not about the products you’re selling, it’s about the result that your customers are looking to get.

So when you’re able to have conversations with your customers about what they’re looking to accomplish, what they’re looking to have happen in their business, what end result they’re looking to get from using your products, get them focused back on that, and then see if you can create the ROI that they’re looking for based on the options that are available today.

Because when I talk about creating certainty, I don’t mean pretending things aren’t happening. I’m not saying we argue with what’s actually going on.

I’m saying that we look at what’s happening and we say, alright, what are the steps that I can take as a business owner or as a sales person to help my client to get the result they’re looking for, regardless of the fact that all these things are happening. Because they’re happening, there’s no way around that.

So we look at the things that we can do and we focus on that, and we focus on conveying that. Because if they don’t know, that we’re able to help them in ways that other people aren’t, then they’re not going to be able to choose us.

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

David: And I can virtually guarantee you that most businesses are not taking the time to educate their clients about what they’re doing, to continue to create a positive experience for them.

Kevin: That’s a really good point. Communicating with your clients during these times can put you above other people that aren’t doing that makes you look a little more professional For sure.

How much of an impact does this idea of certainty do you think have on the buyer’s decision of whether to purchase a product or not?

David: Well, I think the certainty and the confidence go together. The more confident you are in communicating to your clients, the more faith they’re going to have in you.

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

David: And again, I’m not talking about faking it, pretending, “oh yeah, hey, I can do it.” And there are people…

Kevin: We can get anything!

David: Yeah. You can spot that a mile away. Most people can. It’s like, oh, okay. I don’t buy into this. Right, right. I’m not talking about fake certainty or any of that. I’m basically saying that if you’re able to communicate with people honestly.

Let them know, okay, look, everybody knows what’s going on in the market in terms of the tariffs and everything like that. There’s no way we can get around that. But here are a few things that I was thinking…

And if you were to have 2, 3, 4 things that convey to them that you’ve actually thought about it, you’ve come up with a few things that can help them and you can get their feedback on it.

So if you talk to ’em about how do you feel about domestically made products, they’ll tell you. Yeah okay. Well, I was thinking that too. You know, of course it’s generally likely to be a little more expensive, but if the quality’s better, and then you have those conversations.

And then you’ll have some clients who say, I’m just not going to pay that much for that particular kind of product. Then you look at what your options are, and you might not be able to help those people right now, but you’ll know.

And I think that’s really the big thing, because one of the major problems that a lot of distributors have when things are uncertain is they get scared and they hide and they don’t communicate and they don’t sell anything and then they blame the economy.

Right? And that is not a good combination of actions.

Kevin: No, definitely not. You’ve mentioned like educating your clients, we’ve all seen those emails that pop through that are so over the top, that are like “tariff proof” or ” we’ve got it covered” or “we can do that.” How do you recommend people handle their messaging?

Because you don’t want to overdo it. You don’t wanna oversell it, ’cause then you start to look, like you said, like you’re lying about it.

How do you balance building that trust, building that certainty with kind of reeling it back a little bit and being realistic.

David: Yeah. I think it goes to what I was saying earlier. You’ve gotta be honest about it. You’ve gotta be just absolutely truthful in what you are able to do and how you’re able to do it.

The how is important as well, because when people make overblown claims in ads or in texts or in emails or whatever it is that they’re doing. If it’s overblown, people are going to question it.

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

David: And so one of the things that you wanna make sure you’re doing is having a why attached to it and a how attached to it.

It’s like, yes, here’s how we’re getting around tariff issues for our clients. We’ve got a three step program for addressing this issue. Right? And then you outline what those three steps are.

You say, if you’d like to know more, give me a call on this number or reply back to this email. So you get the people who are interested enough to reply back, and then you’re entering into conversations, which is the whole goal, right?

The goal of any outbound marketing that you do is to get people engaged with you.

So when you’re able to do that on a consistent basis, you have those conversations, you explain what it is that you’re doing and how you’re doing it. You’ll get feedback from that.

And if the feedback that you get is yeah, your first one, that sounds right. The second one, I’m not sure about, the third one, that sounds pretty good too.

Then when you get off the phone with that person, you say, okay, how can I tweak number two…

Kevin: Uhhuh

David: So that it makes more sense so that when I talk to the next person, I have a better number two.

Kevin: Are there routines or practices that can help create an internal certainty day after day within a business?

David: I think probably the best thing to do is to sit down with a piece of paper or a blank screen and make some notes for yourself in terms of the things that you can control, the things that you can’t control, the things that you can create certainty with, and the things that you can’t.

Kevin: Mm-hmm.

David: And so things that you can create certainty with: I know that I can be in touch with my customer a certain number of times per month or per year or whatever that number is. I know that I can provide them with this type of product and that type of product. I know that right now, I can’t guarantee them that they’re going to be able to get this type of product or that type of product.

Like basically for yourself first, ’cause you can’t share with anyone until you have it yourself. Identify what are the things that you are actually certain of, and then work on communicating those things to your clients on an ongoing basis.

Focus on those things and so when they ask about the things that are in your, “no, I can’t control it column,” you’ll be ready for the question. But you’ll know what to say because you’ve already thought through it.

Too often, business owners, salespeople, we do this all the time. We wing it, right? We fly by the seat of our pants. So I’m having a conversation with someone. They ask me a question, I’m not sure of the answer. So you stumble through the answer and then you try to figure out something good for next time, hopefully.

Some people don’t even do that. They just stumble through it and say, “okay, well, was what it was.” But ideally, when you run into a situation like that, you wanna be able to make sure that you’re documenting the responses, documenting what people are responding to, so that you can then repeat that, ’cause that’s what creates the process.

Kevin: It’s like a stoic response. Control what you can control and accept the things you can’t control.

David: Yeah, exactly. And convey that, right? Be honest about that. Again, I think there’s the stuff that people put out as far as marketing, overblown marketing claims, and then there’s just the truth.

And most people will recognize when you’re just telling them the truth versus when you’re trying to blow smoke.

Kevin: What about sales teams? Is there a different process that sales teams need during uncertain times? Do they need a structure more than a strategy? What do you recommend in these situations?

David: Well, one of the things you’re dealing with in all kinds of business, particularly with teams, is you’ve got different personalities. And there are some people whose personalities just convey certainty, right?

Whether or not they’re even certain, some people are just like, oh yeah, right? That’s just the way they’re wired.

Kevin: Right, yeah.

David: They come across like that and they convey certainty and they convey confidence naturally. Even if they’re not accurate in their responses all the time, that’s not always ideal. There are other people who are more unsure personally, so in those situations they’re going to convey their Inner personalities.

“I’m not sure. Yeah, I know. It’s really tough and, yeah I guess it’s hard to invest at this time.” I mean, over empathizing I think is one of the biggest difficulties that we can run into when a salesperson is just so buying into the idea of bad situations that they convey it to the clients.

That’s not good. So I think that different people require different levels of interaction, and perhaps the people who are more confident in your organization can provide tips to other people in your organization who are not.

Or if you’re more confident and you have people in your organization who aren’t, talk to them about things that they can do to be more confident.

And again, I don’t wanna blur the lines too much between confidence and certainty because they are two different things, but if you don’t come across confident to your prospects, their likelihood of buying is slim to none.

So if you’re able to communicate to your team the things that you are certain about, the things that you can be certain about, the specific bullet points, the talking points that they should be conveying to each of the clients they interact with, then those things will convey a lot more certainty than if you’re not doing it.

Kevin: Yeah, I think that’s a good tip. Get your sales team all on the same page, even if they all have different styles cause everybody does, and everyone’s got their own way of closing deals. But make sure you’ve got a consistent message across the sales team.

David: Yeah, and gather up the issues that they’re having. What are the biggest questions they’re having? Or the biggest pain points they’re running into? What are the biggest objections they’re getting?

Then brainstorm through those. And you can do that as a team, or you can do it as a business owner and a salesperson, it doesn’t have to be a huge team.

You can do those things, but you wanna think through that because if one person gives you that objection, somebody else is very likely to do it as well. And if you get caught the first time, it’s understandable. If you get caught in the same problem a second or third or fourth time, that means you’re not doing your job.

Kevin: Mm-hmm. And for anyone who’s listening might be a little bit overwhelmed by uncertainty now and, could use a little bit of a boost, what are some ways that they can reach out to get some help from you guys?

David: I’d suggest going to our website, TopSecrets.com/call. Schedule a call with myself or my team.

I’ve been having conversations over the past couple of weeks about this very topic. Uncertainty. Dealing with uncertainty in your business. And so much of it is going to boil down to what are the specific steps that I can put in place in my business to be able to reach out to the right people, say the right things, in the right order, consistently, right?

Doing all those things, because that will not only improve your confidence yourself, it will improve their confidence in you and their certainty that you’re going to be able to do the job for them. So TopSecrets.com/call.

Kevin: Awesome. All right, well thanks David. Really appreciate all the insight, looking forward to the next one.

David: Alright, thank you Kevin.