Welcome back to Business Unfiltered with Mercer and Jeff Sauer today's topic is Getting the Most Out of Meetings.

• Introduction & Personal Experiences with Meetings: Jeff and Mercer kick off the episode by sharing their mixed experiences with meetings. Jeff emphasizes the context-dependent nature of meetings and how team dynamics play a crucial role in their effectiveness.

• The Purpose of Meetings & Common Pitfalls: Mercer and Jeff discuss the misuse of meetings, such as scheduling sessions without a clear purpose. Mercer introduces the concept of "headline calls," short 15-minute meetings focused on updates and specific support to increase productivity.

• Efficient & Effective Meeting Practices: The hosts break down how pre-planning, clear agendas, and limiting large meetings can improve efficiency. They emphasize the need to ruthlessly "kill sacred cows" by reevaluating the necessity of repetitive or ineffective meetings.

• Balancing Internal & External Meetings: Jeff shares the importance of managing time effectively between internal and external meetings. The hosts advocate for using meetings strategically, whether for management, teaching, or reporting, rather than allowing meetings to consume the workday.

• Empowering Teams by Releasing Control: Mercer highlights the value of removing business owners from certain meetings to foster team autonomy. By giving team members ownership over problem-solving, teams can grow more creative and independent, which benefits the whole company.

• Best Practices & Final Meeting Tips: Key meeting guidelines include limiting meeting lengths to 15 minutes, setting clear agendas, and reevaluating the need for meetings regularly. Jeff and Mercer suggest adding fun incentives like "bonus points" for ending meetings early to inspire efficiency.

Welcome back to Business Unfiltered with Mercer and Jeff Sauer today's topic is: The No Buy Survey

• Understanding No Buy Surveys: Mercer and Jeff introduce the concept of no buy surveys—a tool to gather insights from customers who showed interest but didn’t make a purchase. This method helps businesses understand buyer objections and adjust strategies accordingly.

• Key Benefits of No Buy Surveys: Mercer explains how asking simple questions, like why someone didn’t buy, provides valuable feedback directly from the market. He shares successful examples, noting that businesses often guess customer needs when they should be asking.

• Tactical Implementation: Jeff emphasizes the importance of conducting surveys after a customer sees the full offer, as it provides insight on pricing, format, and timing. Both agree this feedback can inform product improvements and strategy adjustments.

• Structured No Buy Surveys: Mercer introduces structured surveys—a sequence of guided questions designed to rekindle interest in the product or service. He shares examples of how these surveys have helped add 10% to revenue by building value and reopening sales opportunities.

• Personalized Approaches: Personalization is key to making the survey engaging, with Mercer suggesting tailored questions and even offering free trials to non-buyers. These touchpoints help potential customers see value, leading to conversions.

• Sales Skills in Marketing: Mercer highlights how no buy surveys employ fundamental sales skills, comparing it to techniques like the Columbo close, where the last question reveals critical objections. Both agree that blending sales skills with marketing strategies can significantly boost customer engagement.

Welcome back to Business Unfiltered with Mercer and Jeff Sauer today's topic is Use the system to improve the system

• Systems Are Evolving Tools, Not Static: Jeff highlights the breakthrough realization that systems aren't rigid but should always be open to feedback, improvement, and new ideas. Systems should evolve alongside new technologies for maximum efficiency.

• Day Zero Culture for Constant Improvement: Taking inspiration from Amazon's "Day Zero" approach, Jeff and Mercer stress that systems should never reach a state of stasis. Embracing a Day Zero mindset ensures that systems can continuously improve and support business growth.

• The Power of Feedback Loops & Problem-Solving: Mercer emphasizes solving real problems with systems in production instead of hypothetical ones. Continuous feedback allows for iterative improvement, ensuring that systems remain relevant and agile.

• 90% Done is the Sweet Spot: Jeff believes that systems are never truly "finished"—they're always 90% done and evolving. Empowering users to take ownership of systems and utilize their expertise fosters a competitive edge.

• Systems as a Service (SaaS) Mentality: Jeff introduces the concept of "systems as a service," likening systems to software that can always be updated and improved. Businesses should embrace the iterative nature of systems to stay ahead of the curve.

• Constant Iteration Drives Business Growth: Both hosts stress the importance of starting with the systems you have and improving from there. Continuous iteration ensures that systems help businesses scale, organize processes, and boost efficiency. Everyone is a "systems person" once they realize the power of iteration.

Welcome back to Business Unfiltered with Mercer and Jeff Sauer today's topic is Developing Team Culture.

• Defining Team Culture: Jeff and Mercer define team culture as the company's character, emphasizing it's a living, breathing entity that evolves and can be influenced by individuals, especially leadership.

• Strategic Choices in Culture Development: Mercer discusses the importance of making strategic choices in shaping team culture, highlighting the "trust but verify" principle to encourage accountability and process improvement.

• Allowing Failure for Growth: Jeff shares his journey from perfectionism to allowing planned failures, emphasizing the importance of letting team members fail to build resilience and foster personal and organizational growth.

• Coaching vs. Teaching in Leadership: Jeff distinguishes between coaching and teaching, stressing the need for a coaching approach in business to help team members develop their solutions and leadership skills.

• Balancing Ambition and Contentment: Mercer emphasizes the importance of setting realistic goals and finding a balance between ambition and contentment, aiming for "more than enough" rather than unattainable levels of success.

• Nurturing a Prolific Culture: Mercer and Jeff contrast prolific culture with hustle culture, advocating for working smart, developing long-term strategies, and fostering a nurturing environment that allows for natural evolution of team culture over time.

Welcome back to Business Unfiltered with Mercer and Jeff Sauer today's topic is Behind the Scenes: Writing Our First Book:

• Initial Thoughts and Experiences: Jeff introduces the topic of writing their first book and the initial challenges faced, including rapid industry changes. Mercer recalls Jeff's earlier work on service stacking and is curious about the process.

• Strategies for Writing a Timeless Book: Mercer and Jeff agree on focusing on strategies and management principles rather than tool-specific content. Jeff highlights his experience with a book accelerator program and acknowledges the effectiveness of a framework-based book.

• Developing the Book Concept and Structure: Jeff explains the evolution of his broad "Profit Pillars" concept to a specific and focused framework on sales and service stacking. He shares the process of validating the concept through workshops and using the recordings as an outline for the book.

• Writing and Editing the Book: Jeff details the process of hiring a ghostwriter and navigating the initial drafting stage. He shares the time-consuming nature of editing and the decision to personally handle the final edits to maintain consistency.

• Marketing and Promoting the Book: Jeff discusses book marketing challenges and the necessity of having an effective book funnel. He shares his experiences with a book funnel service and the importance of having a pre-existing audience.

• Lessons Learned and Future Plans: Jeff reflects on the overall experience, rating it low for immediate results but high for valuable learning. The episode concludes with a recap of the key points and a look at the next steps for their book project.

Welcome back to Business Unfiltered with Mercer and Jeff Sauer today's topic is Creating RAD Products:

• Introduction to RAD Products: Jeff and Mercer introduce the concept of "RAD products," emphasizing the importance of focusing on results, actions, and delivery in product creation. They highlight Amazon's strategic approach to defining results before building products, using the Kindle as an example.

• Defining Results in Product Creation: The hosts discuss the strategic value of focusing on the result for users, which could include saving time or achieving a specific outcome. They stress the significance of benefits for both users and the company, particularly for service providers.

• Benefits vs. Features in Service Provision: Jeff explains how service providers should emphasize their benefits, such as reducing risk, rather than just features. Mercer and Jeff discuss aligning product benefits from the perspectives of the user, the company, and the team for market success.

• Confirming Benefits Through Actions: Mercer discusses the importance of validating product benefits through actions like surveys before investing resources. He emphasizes ensuring the team has the skills and capacity to deliver the confirmed benefits to various stakeholders.

• Delivery and Management of the Product: They discuss how crucial delivery is for meeting deadlines and budgets, and maintaining customer loyalty. Jeff shares examples from Microsoft's different delivery approaches and highlights the role of management in successful product delivery.

• Real-World Example Measure U: Mercer presents Measure U as a real-world example that consolidates multiple logins into one platform, improving user experience. They discuss the simplicity and continuous improvement of Measure U, underlining its benefits like ease of access and better delivery.

Welcome back to the ProfitSchool podcast with Mercer and Jeff Sauer today's topic is Management Mistakes.

Topics Covered In This Episode

• Introduction to Management Mistakes: Jeff Sauer and Mercer introduce the topic of management mistakes on "Business Unfiltered," emphasizing the value of learning from errors to aid others in avoiding similar pitfalls.

• Early Management Experiences: Jeff highlights his journey from a small team to managing 50 people with no formal training, reflecting on the initial challenges of wanting to be the “cool boss” and the importance of providing structured feedback and coaching.

• Importance of Clear Communication and Expectations: Discussing the "wagon wheel mentality," Jeff and Mercer emphasize the need for managers to empower their teams by providing clear direction, enabling problem-solving skills, and avoiding taking over tasks themselves.

• Hiring and Firing Decisions: Jeff and Mercer discuss the perils of quick hiring without due diligence, the necessity of daily check-ins during onboarding, and the difficulty of firing employees who initially seemed promising but failed to meet expectations.

• Empowering the Team and Setting Clear Goals: They highlight the need to nurture team growth through constant communication about career development, warn against early introduction of incentive plans, and stress the importance of setting clear, attainable goals.

• Investing Smartly and Managing Performance: Jeff advises against hiring for multiple roles unless necessary, sharing insights on making smart investments with clear returns. They also cover avoiding quick bonuses, the pitfalls of profit-sharing incentive plans, and the importance of setting realistic expectations to maintain team motivation.

Welcome back to Business Unfiltered with Mercer and Jeff Sauer today's topic is Sales Discovery Calls and Qualifying Questions.

Topics Covered In This Episode

• Introduction to Sales Discovery Calls and Qualifying Questions: Jeff Sauer and Mercer explore the distinct yet interconnected roles of sales discovery calls and qualifying questions, focusing on their importance in business-to-business and high-ticket sales.

• Understanding Sales Discovery Calls: Jeff elaborates on making sales calls conversational rather than interrogative, sharing strategies such as asking prospects about their business or problems.

• Utilizing Discovery Calls in Measurement Management: Discovery calls help understand a prospect's current situation, technology stack, and problems, ensuring that the provided solution aligns with their specific needs.

• Difference Between Discovery Calls and Pitches: Differentiating discovery calls from pitches, which aim to align solutions with identified needs. Mercer highlights building a bridge to aid prospects, even if it involves referring them elsewhere.

• Qualifying Questions for Identifying Bad Customers: Mercer and Jeff share how qualifying questions, such as past problem-solving attempts and investment mentality, help identify prospects' readiness and suitability for the service.

• Key Qualifying Questions: Budget, Timeline, Sophistication, and Participation: Jeff outlines the importance of determining a prospect’s budget, timeline, sophistication, and participation to ensure they are a good match, thereby protecting the service quality.