Oct. 13, 2025

Be transformational not transactional

Show Notes
Transcript

This week's Powerful Business Strategies segment with Michael Barbarita of Next Step CFO is Business transactions are just that transactional. You need to get the customer away from the transaction and to the transformation that will occur with your product or service.

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Hi, you have done to censure fore wow for you.

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Your welcome back to the Adventures of pipe Man once again,

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here with our positively Pipeman segment with our expert resident

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guest on business strategies that you're gonna want to find

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out about. He has the formula for success and they

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are powerful. So let's welcome to the show. Michael Barbarita.

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How are you fantastic? Dane? How are you?

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Oh beautiful? You know, Uh, I can't be bad. How

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can't be bad? Because we're learning things that are going

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to help us in our business, which help us in

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our personal life, and then everything's great.

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I agree, Thanks for having me. You know, it's funny

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every one of our pri One of the biggest game changers,

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uh for me in learning about selling U for me

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was being transformational, not transactional. And this takes practice because

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our problem, as as salespeople, business owners, uh, whatever whatever

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you may be, uh is our prospects are conditioned to

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think transactionally. And I'm gonna explain what that means. But

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we we must get them to think transformationally because when

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you think about it, just about any product or service

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can be transformational. Now, there might be some like if

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you sell nuts and bolts, I don't know, maybe that

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maybe that's not transformational, but most all products are transformational.

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And in order for this concept to work, you must

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know and understand your prospect's number one goal, number one dream,

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and number one desire. And there is a special technique

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that one can use to get to that number one

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goal and desire. And let me see if I can

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briefly explain it. So like if I was if I

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was talking to a business owner, I'd say, you know,

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what's your number one goal? And it's say something like, well,

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I want to get my business to a million dollars. Great,

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you get your business to a million dollars? What will

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that do for you? That's a critical statement I just made.

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First of all, I repeated it, okay, which is forward pacing,

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because I said, you've got the business to a million dollars? Now,

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what will that do for you? And so then they'll say,

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well that will let's just say that will allow me

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to hire someone. Great, you get the business to a

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million dollars, you're able to hire someone. What will that

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do for you? Ah? Jeez, that'll love free up my time? Awesome.

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So you get the business to a million dollars, you

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hire a manager or hire someone and uh and and

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and freeze up your time. What will that do for you?

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Oh man, that that'll allow me to spend more time

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with my my my wife and and my kids, go

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to my kids soccer games, go on date nights with

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my wife, which I haven't been doing at all. That's

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when you hit pay direct, okay, because that notice. Notice

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it took three or four steps to get to their

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number one goal. And by the way, I'd make sure

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I ask what the spouse's name is and what the

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kids' names are. You'll always get the names of the

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people of the of the from your of your prospect

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who they love. Yeah, okay, so that you can apply

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it later on. So anyway, that that's how you that's

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the steps it takes, because the chances that somebody really

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gives you their number one goal in the first question

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is almost highly unlikely.

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They don't even usually know that's it.

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They don't think about it, right, And the fact that

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you're taking them on this journey is going to give

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you some points just by virtue of that, because once

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you understand their number one goal and desire, you can

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make your product transformation. So I'm gonna give you an example.

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I'm gonna switch gears a little bit. I'm gonna give

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you an example if and I because I'm picking a

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difficult product to sell, okay, and so I want.

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To I want to say something first, if they by

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listening to last week's episode. This relates to the first

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step of last week's episode, which is yep, okay. And

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if you haven't listened to it last week's episode, go

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back to the podcast anywhere you're listening to podcasts and

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listen to it, because you'll see how this episode is

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transformational from that episode.

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Excellent, excellent. So let's say your product, the service is

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selling murals. Now, that's not an easy product to sell.

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That's why I picked it. Okay. Now, the problem the

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customer has, and that's the first place you really have

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to go. But the first the problem the customer has

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is usually some emotional need that needs to be fulfilled.

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And let me explain it with this example. So let's

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say the salesperson finds out that the number one goal

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of the prospect is to put a mural in their

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child's bedroom in order to create a soothing, safe feeling

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environment for better sleep. And emotional wellbeing. That's the prospect's

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number one goal. After asking all the questions. They didn't

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blurt that out at the beginning. They blurted out something else,

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and you know, maybe an inexpensive mural or something to

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that effect. But as you dig deeper, you got to

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this point where they wanted to create a soothing, safe

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feeling environment for better sleep and emotional wellbeing. And by

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the way, sometimes you have to lead the customer to

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their number one goal.

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Yep, most of the time in mind, yes.

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Right, you might you have to lead lead them even

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if you because otherwise you're gonna keep saying, well will

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that do for you, and they're gonna run out of thought.

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So sometimes you might have to say, like in the

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case of the mural, how about creat how about what

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do you think about creating a soothing self feeling, a

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safe feeling environment for better sleep and emotional well being?

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And and you know they'll probably react to that favorably

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mm hmm, and and say, you know what, that's pretty good.

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That would be an objective of mine. So that would

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be the prospect's number one goal. And let's say their

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child's name is Tom. And by the way, I think

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I might have said this before. It's always a good

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idea to get the names of people your prospects love.

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And when you start talking about price and terms and

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how you're going to go about doing the mural, and

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your features, advantages and benefits of working with you, which

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are all things you have to do. But that's where

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it becomes transactional. The customer is hearing the price, and

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they're hearing how you go about doing it and so forth,

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and they're interested, and that's all important, but that's where

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it becomes transactional, and you need to constantly get the

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prospect back to transformational. For example, if the prospect says

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you know what, I have to think about it, you

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would say, oh, you say you have to think about it?

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What is it?

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And they would likely say, well, the price of the

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mural and the whole program, and you would send say, oh, no, no,

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I think we have a bit of a disconnect. As

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a matter of fact, I think we're having two different conversations.

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This isn't about our the mural, oh my program. Put

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that aside, whether you work with me or someone else,

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This is about creating a soothing, safe feeling environment for

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Tom for better sleep. Emotional wellbeing and giving you both

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lasting memories of how well you cared for him. That's

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what this is about. I'm sure you don't have to

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think about that. So what's happening here and what's going

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through the customer's mind? And by the way, they're going

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a little berserk at this point because they're torn, Oh yeah,

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and because they're connecting what you're offering to the cost

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and the transaction. It's your job to constantly get them

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back to their number one goal and that makes your

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product transformational. And I know that some people are out there.

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I can kind of see their faces and they thinking, ooh,

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that feels weird. But the most humane thing we can

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do is get them out of the torn misery and

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help them say yes to themselves. You see, we're not

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trying to convince them or trying to get them to

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do anything they don't want to do. All we're doing

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is keeping them aware of what they said.

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They wanted, and what they said they wanted is usually emotional,

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and sales is a transfer of emotion, and that's what

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makes it transformational opposed to transactional.

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Absolutely absolutely. And the other thing I want to point

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out is we have if we truly believe in our

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product or service, and this is this is part of

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mindset that we talked about in the previous show. If

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we truly believe in our product of service, isn't it

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our obligation to that customer to help them say yes

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to themselves in any way they can, in any way

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we can, because the option that we're offering is absolutely,

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hands down the best choice for that customer. Well, you know.

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You know what's funny about that is when I first

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became a professional speaker, I came from a very salesy

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environment in the financial business, and I just wanted to

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help people. So I kept forgetting every seminar to try

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to sell them anything. And somebody gave one of my mentors,

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who's you know when the top speaker's out there? He

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said something to me, and it really hit home. He goes, well, listen,

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if you're truly looking to help people, how much could

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you do to help them if you aren't making a living?

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You know? And so yes, there's nothing wrong with selling them.

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If you're truly trying to help them, why wouldn't you?

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And how much help are you going to give them

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if you yourself are not even following that lead and

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can't pay your own bills.

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Right. And here's the other thing I found, Dean, is

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when you're truly disconnected to the outcome, then you're more

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able to be more present in the conversation, allowing you

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to focus on the customer's transformation, which is incredibly more

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compelling versus the unpleasantry of focusing on the transaction.

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Oh, no doubt about it. Like to me, the feeling

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I get from helping people and fulfilling their needs by

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selling them something it's worth way more than whatever they're

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paying me, right.

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And you believe in your product so that you know

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that's the best option that they have. Absolutely, and it's

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your obligation. It's your obligation because you are you have

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the best offer and product and service that they can get.

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And so it's your obligation to help them say yes

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to themselves. And by the way, keep saying that people

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don't say no to you or yes to you, they

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say yes to them or no to themselves. So that's

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the other thing. It's a lot of business owners take

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the no personally. They're not saying no to you, they're

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saying no to themselves. It's our job to get them

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to say yes to themselves.

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And I'll even add to that that a lot of

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times when they're saying no, they just want they want

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to see how much you believe in what you're telling them,

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because if you waver and give in to them, they

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realize you're really not that confident that you could fulfill

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their needs and goals.

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Good, good point. Yeah, absolutely absolutely, That's why if you

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if you're truly if you're truly disconnected, that comes across

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meaning you're not out for yourself, You're out for the

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customers benefit, not yours. And when when you do that

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and you disconnect, it makes it once again you're more

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present in the conversation and you're able to make You're

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able to keep getting back to the transformation and away

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from the transaction, because if you stick with the transaction,

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that's a very has very negative annotations to the to

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the to the prospect.

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So yeah, how do people find out more about this

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subject and other subjects that are some powerful business strategies

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that they can implement in their business.

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Well, Dan, they just have to go to NEXTSTEPCFO dot net.

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They could download by book for free. Uh, they could

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go to next STEPCFO dot Net, Forward slash Contact and

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what I do with business, what I love to do

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with business owners, so that for the next edition of

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my book is Interview Business Owners. And the way it

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works is it's sixty minutes on zoom. I present strategies

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from my book and then I asked the business owner

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if a business owner was to implement this strategy in

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their industry, what impact would this strategy have, and then

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I'd document it for the book. There's nothing to buy,

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but I promise the business owner that they'll learn business

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and financial strategies that their competition isn't doing. So if

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they go to NEXTSTEPCFO, dot net, Forward slash Contact, fill

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out the contact form in the message section, put the

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words book Interview, and I'll send you a calendar link

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to schedule. It is that simple.

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Nice. Well, once again, you're a wealth of information and

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help to our listeners. And thank you for coming on

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the show every week and giving some great advice. And

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once again, we'll see you next week and thanks for

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being on the Adventures of Pipemin.

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Look forward to it date. Thank you, Thank you for

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listening to the Adventures of Patemin on w for CUI Radio.