Strong personal and professional relationships are built on a foundation of trust. As business owners we need to be able to trust ourselves to do what we know is required to succeed, we need to be able to put our trust in others to help us achieve our goals and we want to be seen as trustworthy by those we meet and serve. In this episode David Penglase the author of the book Building Customer Trust shares how we can create stronger relationships and deeper levels of trust in a world where many people have serious trust issues especially with some of the major corporate companies they use. 

00:00:00:01 - 00:00:38:29

Dav: For any of us in our own businesses as entrepreneurs and small business medium business owners trust right now needs to be top of our agenda because it is relationships that matter in our professional and personal lives. I think by saying trust is at risk globally that does not place the emphasis on what we're really talking about here. But when we start to say relationships are at risk in our professional and personal lives. Now we need to take notice because we all get that without relationships without customers without suppliers without a network without referral partners. Without those relationships we don't have anything.

00:00:39:00 - 00:01:37:22

Pau: So that is the voice of David Penglase the author of the book The Art and Science of building customer trust. Now as business owners we understand just how important trust is to our success and that a lack of trust will definitely lead to a drop in our ability to turn people into buyers of whatever it is that we sell. So in this episode David shares some critical strategies about how to develop trust both in yourself as a business owner and in others around you and how you can earn the trust of the people that you want to attract. Most of these are gonna be key strategies to helping you build a healthier and more sustainable business. David also shares one of the most powerful sales questions that he knows. And this question has quite literally helped him generate millions of dollars in sales and he shares it with you. In this episode so let's dive into today's conversation with David Penglase. But first here's the intro.

00:01:49:10 - 00:02:04:15

War: Welcome to the podcast. The show all about helping you work smarter earn more and accelerate your success. Now here's your host Paul McCarthy

00:02:07:05 - 00:03:22:21

Hello and welcome to Episode 7 of the markets club podcast. I'm your host Paul McCarthy and I'm thrilled to be with you again today. And of course thank you to everyone who has subscribed to the program and of course if you haven't subscribed. Encourage you to do so. Great to have you on board and of course that's your chance to take ownership of the conversation and make sure that you are the first informed of every new episode as we release them each week. So please make sure to press that subscribe button and give me your feedback and thoughts on the programs. I really appreciate that. So in this episode we're talking about trust and just how important it is to our success as business owners. We understand that nobody buys from somebody that they don't trust. So our ability to demonstrate that we are trustworthy and our ability to trust in ourselves as business owners and earn the trust of others is critical to our success. So I've asked the best in the business David Penglase a leading authority on how to build customer trust to join me and share his thoughts. So I don't want to keep you waiting any longer. Let's dive into our conversation with David. Hey David welcome to the markets club podcast. Thanks so much for joining me mate. Great to have you with me.

00:03:23:03 - 00:03:25:15

Dav: It's my pleasure. I'm really glad to be here.

00:03:26:07 - 00:04:00:05

Pau: Well we've been friends for a long time and I mean when I was getting a podcast organised you were one of the first names I wrote down on my list of people that I was going to catch up with and and have a chat to because I know the value of your information had been incredibly generous to the to the market club community over the years and shared so much wisdom with people. But for the folks that aren't familiar with him I can start with giving us a little snapshot of who is David Penglase and how you got to where you are in terms of doing the work that you do these days.

00:04:00:16 - 00:05:51:21

Dav: The topic I hate talking about most myself although I may go on stage doesn't come across that way. You look at the journey for me it's been a really interesting one. And as you know for most of my adult life I've been fascinated by what causes people to think and feel and to act the way they do. And my journey to where I am now as a professional speaker and corporate educator is one that's just continued to evolve over the years. Lizzie and I'm a wife Louise. We've been married 36 years this year and running a business for 25 years and after the all the important stuff and I just get to do all this lovely stuff with people like yourself and audiences around the world. But the journey was one that evolved you know like many people they fall into a career that they had no idea that they were going to end up being so I actually starred in a bank many many years ago but pretty quickly people started to realise that I really enjoy customer service. I really like helping people and so that sort of stood out and along that journey got I got asked if I would like to take on a training position inside of the bank and so I did. And one thing led to another. Where I started to study in a university degree on the psychology of adult learning did that for four half five years part time got that degree managed the computer based training section as computers were starting to get into the bank. All those years ago personal computers were a thing that didn't exist and all of a sudden I didn't. Did that change the way the world looked and I started to look at instructional design. How do we design training online off line education for corporates.

00:05:51:24 - 00:07:31:26

Dav: And and one thing led to another where I got headhunted by a company called Morgan and Banks who was back in the early 90s was one of Australia's largest recruiting and consulting firms and so I stayed with those guys for about four years and I was really my principal because they taught me how to run a business. They taught me how to be a consultant. They taught me how to sell to corporates. And I've been doing that now for 25 years. As I said a moment ago with my good wife Lizzie and it's been it's been a hell of a journey and we are along that journey again. I've constantly lived up to this idea of what is a lifelong learner and one message that I have for anyone who's listening is the capacity that we all have and the drive that we all ought to have to continually learn to learn more about what we're passionate about and even to learn more about things that just challenges as well. I think that's one of the greatest gifts that we've all got the capacity to learn. And so along the journey as you know all of them are of a master. At this stage. It's seven degrees in total and the share with you now that I've just applied to start a PHD in 2020. So all of it around this idea of intention and trust and truth and integrity and ethics. So that's that's by way of background of the last. What is it now nearly 42 years in the corporate world.

00:07:32:06 - 00:08:39:04

Pau: Well it's and it's been my pleasure to watch you do apply your trade so beautifully and do the work that you do but you've always been really generous with your knowledge as well with your peers and your colleagues. And so the book that you've most recently written about the art and science of building customer trust I want to have a conversation with you about that today and some of the principles and ideas and how we can apply those to our businesses whether we're starting a business or trying to continue to grow our business how these principles are going to help us to do that better and I think we maybe will bookmark a future conversation where we can just have a conversation about the art of selling to corporates and just that journey and what you've done in that space so successfully as a separate conversation. But let's let's talk about customer trust now. I guess we all understand that trust is an important part of the process and that we all want to work with and feel that we can be trusted. But why do you think it's such an important thing today to be focusing on. 

00:08:39:04 - 00:11:45:16

Dav: Yeah you're right that most most people do and we know from the science. Most people do get the trust is important in life. But there's a real problem here and globally right now there's a range of different researches around the world one of which some of your listeners may be familiar with which is the Edelman group but there are others such as trust around trust across America trust around the world there is another group that's doing some amazing research and work in this area. What we know right now as we're halfway through twenty eight is is that the world is at a tipping point of trust. Now what what the research is suggesting to us is that we all know that trust is important but we're not sure who we can trust anymore. There's been so many examples both in the corporate world in education in religious institutions in health. You know we only have to look at some of the royal commissions that are happening here in Australia that that people's trust. It has been and continues to be breached. And what that what that means especially for customers. Is that they're questioning Institutions that they used to believe in and trust are almost without question. And so there's a big question around Can I. Can I trust these major corporates. But that also comes through to small business and we can't take trust for granted just because the big players have put trusted risk in their own world. That taints our brush as well. And so we're going to be very careful. Any anyone in business has to be really careful that although we know that trust is important the danger is. Because we just get that it is important we start to take it for granted. And if we take it for granted like so many things which we do in our lives we as human beings. Can. Adapt adapt and adopt really quickly to the changes that are happening in our lives. What that does though is the things that become a constant in our life. We can just get used to it and stay within it because I'm going to relate it back to trust in a separate. If you think about the number of people who might have a beautiful view out of their office window or their home living room how quick do we just get used to. And take for granted that view. We buy a new car we get a new house we get a new home theatre system we whatever it is that we we win a mass in our lives. We get used to it really quickly and over a period of time the enjoyment the joy the the positive benefits that we get from whatever that is we start taking for granted and we end up devaluing the things that that at one stage we value so much.

00:11:45:18 - 00:12:53:17

Dav: And this is the danger with trust and it's a danger in relationships because relationships are no different that we can get used to the relationships in our life in our professional and in our personal lives. And the danger with that is once we start to get used to them. We start to take them for granted. And so coming all the way back. To this question around why is it important right now for any of us in our own businesses as entrepreneurs and small business medium business owners. The trust right now needs to be top of the agenda because it is relationships that matter in our professional and personal lives. I think by saying trust is at risk globally that doesn't do the service or place the emphasis on what we're really talking about. But when we start to say relationships are at risk in our professional and personal lives now we need to take notice because we all get that without relationships with our customers with our suppliers without a network without referral partners. Without those relationships we don't have anything.

00:12:54:00 - 00:14:08:21

Pau: I think you're absolutely on the money and this is one of the challenges that for us. I mean and as a marketer how do we communicate what we're doing and doing it in a way that builds trust that doesn't diminish the trust. And there's been a lot of kind of slimy sort of tactics that he used in the space of marketing that really do unravel a sense of trust and in other people just as they're just saying that this is not real. That's not true. So I mean we have got to be really mindful of the relationships we're building and how we're establishing that and I think that there's a growing emphasis for us to be protecting the relationships that we've got and not always focusing just on the acquisition of clients. So what are we doing to protect and keep and manage those relationships for as long as possible so what are some of the practical ways for us David to start to embed a deeper sense of trust and build relationships that are going to survive and pay attention to our clients and show them the respect that we need to let them know that we care about them.

00:14:08:22 - 00:15:49:23

Dav: Yeah that's a great question. OK let's let's frame it first that a bit because when we talk about trust there's a lot of stuff going on heads about what does that actually mean. And so what I suggest we need to start with is being clear about what we mean by trust and trust relationships and going all the way back to Aristotle and maybe even longer than that. But certainly in the philosophy that I've I've studied over the years and the teachings of most great philosophers is you've got to start with yourself because you can't you can't know other people than that you really know yourself. And so one component and why I do this I've created a model that's an inverted triangle. So listeners can think Paul as I'm talking here about a triangle turned upside down so that the flat back end of the triangle is up in the air and the pointy end is is on the ground. And what are divided this triangle into three parts and trust all three lenses through which we can look at trust. And the first one is self trust and self trust is many things but in essence what it is is the confidence that we have and the control that we have in being the best version of ourselves that we can be proud of. And this is this is not you know motivational hype here. It is the reality that

00:15:50:22 - 00:17:43:14

Dav: The purpose of life isn't to be happy in one of the degrees I have is a master of science and apply positive psychology and the danger with the whole positive psychology movement is that it starts to focus on just happiness. The purpose of our life is to be the best version of ourselves to try and work out what that actually means. And this is the essence of self trust because if I'm proud about who I am what I am and why I and I have the control to look after myself in that way physically emotionally psychologically spiritually when when we look at all of these things our future self needs to trust our current self. Now this can get as practical Paul as if we know that just thinking about winning business marketing the business building and networks. If we just think about that and we know that it's important but we don't take action on it. If we haven't got in place and control some measures of our success we've made this many calls. We've done this many proposals. If we don't have that practical control mechanism in it the danger is it becomes is wonderful airy self-help positive thinking world and it just doesn't work. You can't think and grow rich. We have got to do and grow rich. Thinking is good but you've got to do something with it. So we start with this idea of self trust. And then we move up the triangle to trusting others. The second link. So the first thing is to to look through and think about self trust. The second lenses do I trust others. Do I have the courage and the collaboration mindset to trust in others. Because whenever we trust in others there is a risk our integrity is at risk as soon as we trust someone else with something we want them to achieve for us.

00:17:44:07 - 00:20:31:01

Dav: So we need to have the courage to look at the business that we're in and decide what is it that I'm doing right now that I need to trust other people to do for me to free my world up so I can do the things that are going to get me to my goals quicker. And I think that's one of the biggest issues. I don't think I know this from the research. One of the biggest issues right now is people not trusting others. And so here's what we know Paul and it's interesting couple of years ago I did a major piece of research where I interviewed over 2000 people and asked them this question If you think of trust. And I introduced near the third level at the top level on this triangle because the top top level is earning other people's trust and I'll talk about that in a sec but all these three lenses I asked these two thousand plus people. When you think about self trust or trusting in others or earning others trust Which one do you need to work more on which one is holding you back the most. And 70 percent of people say it was trusting other people. Now that leads me into this next one that sits on top here which is the lens of earning others trust and this is the combined character competence and consistency in delivering on that character and competence that will create our trustworthiness. And this is the difference between trust and trustworthiness we become trustworthy. When people's perception of their character the way we do our competence our capacity to do things better than our consistency in the way that we deliver on those two that is what creates trustworthiness. So when we look at these three levels and we start to look at well how do we make this practical. Well if we start with ourselves and we work on ourselves our our capacity to be the best version of ourselves what we know from the signs is taking ego aside that we're not being addressed and saying look how good I am but what we've got is this area of humble arrogance if you like where we are so proud of who we are and what we're doing and the value we're creating for other people that it creates this attraction of others wanting to be around us. Paul you and I have spoken about this a lot that that even in our own professional networks that we know we hang around with. We will look for people who are big noting themselves. We look for people who are just doing this stuff and doing it in a way where we want to know hey how you doing that. And we really value that. What would you agree with me on that.

00:20:31:15 - 00:22:08:05

Pau: Absolutely. There's a there's a magnetic power to confidence to an inner confidence whereas I think that there is a it's almost a repelling energy when people are big notice when they're when showing off that sort of repels people away. But you can be really attracts you to somebody who's kind of getting it done they're doing the work. But I'm really struck you know in terms of this idea of of self trust. I think a lot of entrepreneurs really struggle in this space particularly early on when they're starting because they're filled with questions and self-doubt and I guess the old way of thinking is the little voice on the shoulder you know that I call my West Heidelberg voice and that voice of death that that challenges you and sort of is ticking away at you and trying to undermine your sense of self trust as you're describing it. And I think that you know my philosophies of ready fire aim and so forth really this is the first stumbling block to that because people may intellectually understand what they're being asked to do and encouraged to go make something happen but this inner voice and this fear and self-doubt this lack of trust in oneself holds people and stops them moving so I guess if we take this one step at a time what's the what's the pathway for somebody to begin to trust themselves more to become more of an action taken to start doing the doing to be willing to make some mistakes and just move forward. 

00:22:08:05 - 00:26:13:00

Dav: Yeah well I would say you know I'm a big supporter of Paul reamend, ready fire aim is a really great way to keep thinking about. Am I overthinking this. Am I not doing what I need to do but tracking back as to what's the cause of all this is is this is thing that we call and you talk about you West Heidelberg little person sitting on your shoulder I've got the Coonrook which is my small country town in Victoria that little boy's little person sits on my shoulder and and it's it's really interesting because there's this thing that most of us and even the most successful people that I've interviewed and watched on stage and read their biographies and the number of people that have this just said it's okay it's okay to have this imposter syndrome. Some of the best actors that I know they say at some stage someone's gonna find me out because you know this I'm I'm just doing me and they they're doing the script in a way no one else can do. So this imposter syndrome that we had can really challenge us and hold us back. This is why when we start to think clearly about what can shift our mindset away from the worry or the concern that on on too young or too old. I don't I haven't read as much as everybody else on this I haven't studied as much as anybody else and I haven't got the experience that everybody else has on this. People are going to find me out. You know why would they want to listen to me. Why would that. So what we need to do Paul is two things. One is to sorry three things. The first one is to accept that it's okay it's actually okay to have that in you in your head because quite frankly you can work really hard on getting rid of it and do lots of mental exercises. But the research actually says sometimes it's easier just to accept you know what. I can hear it and I know that every now and then you hear the heart West Heidelberg I hear Coonrook and yet it is there but it's what we do with it. We'd have to fight it if we did it. I can hear that. But here's what I'm going to do so we can hear all these things but we can take action anyway. And so that's the first thing just accept that it's there. The second one. Is to get clear about what you want to do for other people. So this brings into one of the core components of the last two books that I've written Paul about the importance of being clear about what we want for other people not what we want from them. And this is where I've been spending really the last decade of my life researching what I referred to as applied positive intentions. So when you couple what we've just been talking about when you when you couple this this belief that we can have in who we are what we are and why we are and I know we're talking about imposter syndrome here as well. So we're working on both these things. But if we believe in who we are what we are and why we are people become attracted to it. We've said that already. So one of the things we need to be doing is working well how do I build that belief. Well one of the ways that we know that people feel better about who they are what they are and why they are is when their focus is on what we what we call in the world of psychology and behavioral science pro social behavior behavior that is directed to improve the life of someone else in some way. And this is why I am absolutely convinced in the research backs me up on this is if everyone that's listening to us in this conversation now Paul if one action that I did was to write out an intention statement for the target clients and the intentional statement starts like this.

00:26:13:05 - 00:28:55:23

Dav: My name is David Penglase and my intention for my clients is. And then you complete that statement by asking or sorry. By answering what is it you want for your customers or your clients not what you want from them. We all know we want business from the next. That's a given. The clients don't care about that. That I care about unique individual family that I care about. You wanted to grow your business. They care about themselves. And so it just makes absolutely practical sense that our focus while we get that we're in business to make profits so that we can feed our family and share their life. All that kind of stuff. But once we're in the business and we're focusing on the relationship we're marketing we're networking. We're blogging we're writing we're calling we're visiting that focus needs to be 100 percent present and mindful about the customer. And so this statement what do I want for them. What do I want from them. And then what we need to do is hold ourselves accountable on a weekly basis. To look back over the week and say What have we done to live up to that intention for our customers. And if we do that for what we know from the science what we know from the research what we know is from practical work in field in real businesses here in Australia is that people feel better about who they are. Salespeople feel better and they make more calls customer service feel better they make more sales. So this simple idea of. Working out what your intention is for your customers is at the very heart. Of the art and science of being able to build customer trust as people listening to this I know they get that that just makes sense. If my focus is if you're the customer you want anyone who's trying to sell to you or anyone who is trying to serve you to have your best interests at the top of their mind and that that if you pick up on that truth of that customer service personal that salesperson or that adviser whoever it is you are more likely To want to engage with them. What we know is you're more likely to fast. Tracked your trust in them because you just pick up on this vibe that the person is acting or wants to act in your best interest to the first point is we need to accept this imposter syndrome that you have to enjoy it but you just have to accept that it's okay to have because most of us to the second one is to get focused on the customer get focused on the client.

00:28:55:23 - 00:30:10:26

Dav: Now taking this just aside for a second. Sorry. Professional life do the same thing for your your partner in life. This is something that I've worked really hard on on all my relationships. I'm really clear on what I want for my kids my two young adult sons I'm really clear on what I want for Lizzie my wife I'm really clear on what I want for my brothers and my father so. So this is this is a life strategy but it works because it's the relationships that matter. So these first two things the third one for it is we need to take action. This is the ready fire aim so the willingness is easy. We get focused on an intention. I mean what do we want for our customers not what we want from them what can we promise them and also what can't we promise them. But then we have to hold ourselves accountable by taking action because if we can't at the end of every week look back and say here's what I've done to live up to my intention to make life better for my customers to make my life better for my referral partners on my centres of influence or whoever it is then we're not going to build the self trust and we're not going to be earning the capacity of others are earning the trustworthiness of others to do business with us.

00:30:12:02 - 00:32:00:10

Pau: Well it makes perfect sense and I think it's a fantastic practical ways for us to tackle this. I mean I think as a marketer again it's just a great extension of the way to think that if you are thinking about the service of others you communicate you write that way you talk that way you are putting the customer front and center of your conversations then you're going to have a lot more success than the way that most people tackle their marketing which is you know they're focusing on what they do and how they do it and how well they do it and really trying to convince the customer of their skills which is almost like that external self trust being exposed saying here please trust me I can do all these things but you get trust built much faster if you put the attention on the person you're talking about and talking to and having this service mindset. So I love the the the the practicality of that that focus inside of clients you know which was something I was taught to me years ago that you are held by your own fears and doubts and so forth but then you look out into the world and you see other suppliers potentially winning the clients that you could have had who you know are doing a substandard job or certainly not doing it as well as you would have done it then is that if you get driven by that sense of obligation and that is actually it's up to you to make sure you got out there that you did everything in your power to help those people and then the focus becomes about the service rather than the acquisition of a client. Because I think it just naturally follows and it's why we've always been in kind of lockstep in terms of our philosophies and thinking and so I think that is a really fantastic way for people to think about practically what they can do to build their own trust.

00:32:00:20 - 00:35:59:11

Dav: And I think Paul and again this is why we we travel the same sort of philosophy and practical application of this too is it links it leads us to the next most practical advice that I can I can give people here. So if we start with intention if we get that right and we genuinely do believe that what we want to do is make life better for our customers and for me as a practitioner in the world of positive psychology that's the goal of positive psychology is how we make life better for people who are already doing okay. The connection the way that I like to relate this is you know I humbly able to say that I am a world class professional speaker and keynote speaker and I say that because it's a truth That no one cares unless what I'm talking of is of importance to them. So there's a lot of people who are even better speaker better speakers than what I am who have done Toastmasters and all these kinds of things you can talk about anything but no one wants to listen to Paul. And so what we've got to be really clear on is what is it that we whether we are a professional speaker whether we're a financial advisor whether we're a lawyer whether we're an accountant whether we're in a small business that provides service where we were in the small business that provides products whatever it is we need to connect our intention practically to what is it that we know that our customers our target customers want or need. And so the process around that which I outline is really a practical and quite a simple one that over time you just get better and better at it. And that is first of all ask yourself the question. What are the things that that. My my customers or my clients want or need in their life right now in the near future that if I can help them get that. Will make a positive difference in their life. Now in marketing terms I know sometimes we talk about the pain points of our customers. We also talk about what other the driving ambitions or goals of our customers. And so for that what we need is a clarity around the importance of the questions that we ask. But everybody gets. Just like trust that we need to ask questions. My experience in working with business owners and a team. Across a range of industries and professions is that people get the questions are important but they're not always asking relevant questions that that caused the client to go wow what a great question. I hadn't thought about my business or my life like that. Can we talk about that a little bit more now what I'm talking about here are questions that are referred to as not just me. These are being labeled value discovery questions questions that have the capacity to identify wants needs problems or opportunities that the customers or the clients can relate to because they get that it's relevant in their life not just about what you do. And so one of the things that I would recommend for everyone who is listening to this podcast. Is to make a list of all the things that you believe that your clients want or me that your clients need to have fixed that your clients suffer from worry about aiming for. Make a list of all of those things. And then when you've got that list now look at which of those can you help them with because you won't be able to help them with everything.

00:35:59:11 - 00:37:34:29

Dav: But here's the danger that a lot of people in business do. They only make a list of the things that customers want or need that they can do something about not enough. We know more and show more and be more for our customers by making a list and getting to know really doing the research you know attending industry association conferences and meetings that your clients go to reading magazines that your clients read and I'm not talking about Women's Weekly. I'm talking about. I'm talking about when we're we really need to get to know what is it that our customers want or need in their life and not just the things that we can do for them. Because the more that we know about our customers the more we are an expert about our customers the more. When we talk about what we can do for them the more relevant we can make it in a way that that will help them in some way connect these other dots that we can't help them. We can talk about this for another half an hour Paul but that one exercise can make a real difference because I know that many people get that stage wrong they list just the stuff that they can help customers with. You need to go better than that. Once you've done that then you look at especially the ones that you can help clients with and then you start to construct questions from them that ask the clients about their life around whatever that situation is.

00:37:35:02 - 00:39:02:19

Pau: This one point in this is incredibly valuable point for people to really drill into this idea of the right questions to be asking and being able to narrow the focus down to the thing also that matters most to that client. I think that there's a real tendency to what will one what you're talking about is a body of work and investing time and energy to really understand your market so that you can serve them to your full capacity but it's then when you're in and with the client I think you know when people are lazy and they haven't done it they can of spray out all the things they can do instead of really finding out from the client what they really need at that moment and focusing the energy on that process. Now I know you have a brilliant question that you use and you use questions you teach this and and obviously you know when we started this we could literally talk for hours and hours and share all this stuff but to condense it down in terms of this question Are you happy to share this this one strategy which you've taught to many of our clients and members of the markets club over the years and it's had tremendous impact. So just to explain to listeners like the value of developing one really critical question. 

00:39:03:06 - 00:40:29:28

Dav: Yeah, and you're right Paul. This is one of the practical elements of Truly client focused engagement that I enjoy sharing because it works for anyone who who really takes note of this. If you're not taking notes I suggest grab a pen and paper now or come back to this and listen to it again and again. And I learned this question and I need to pay homage to a global name of Joel Barker, Joel Barker was a futurist. I'm not too sure what he does now. He may still be around. But way back in the 80s when I was working for the bank as a business analyst my role was to go out into the branches and to ask branch managers about their business and then to bring that back and talk to I.T. professionals and other systems and procedures people about what what the branch managers needed to improve their life. And I had gone to a course which Obama was speaking any. He asked a question he said this is a question I ask every business that I go to. And I took note of this question. It wasn't actually part of the training but I took note of this question and so I'm going to give you the question now. Here it is. What today is impossible to do in your business that if it could be done would fundamentally change what you do for the better?

00:40:31:08 - 00:42:38:05

Dav: Now I took note of that question. And over the next three months I went out into the branches and I sat down and I asked that question of every branch manager that I spoke with. And the responses were just so enlightening where someone would say well what a great question let me think about that. Others would answer straight away. Others would say gee I need time to think about that. And so what it was is I realized it was a question that was comfortably disturbing. And as you know Paul my mind's a bit weird when things work for me. I don't know why. Why why was that question such a powerful question why did it work so well. And so I started to in my MBA I started to look at the structure of great questions through history and what I discovered in that question that I just asked. What today is impossible for you to do in your business that if it could be done would fundamentally change what you do for the better?There were a number of things that really make that question powerful. The first one is that it time activated the question or said another way. It got the client thinking about a place in time what we know from the sciences that we as human beings are very time focused. And so by putting in these questions a point in time where the client can think so. In the example I gave you which is a generic example by the way what it was. What today is impossible. What will it could be in the last 12 months. Just on that as an example I had a client or a number of people within a program that I was running that I taught this to and I got the feedback from just one. I've got lots of the one that stood out for me was a person that applied this change to one question that I used to ask. I used to ask their clients in the past what have been some problems you've experienced in working with our company. The problem with that is that the past is almost like forever.

00:42:38:05 - 00:45:32:17

Dav: And so things that were happening 20 years ago clients would bring up even though they might have been fixed set for this. This one particular person changed the question to in the last 12 months what have been some issues you've faced in dealing with our company. And the answer was nothing you've fixed everything and so time activation becomes so important. So that's the first element. The second one is what today is impossible now the wording impossible isn't the word we're looking at here. What we're looking at is what are you concerned about. What are you worried about. What have been your experiences with what are your goals. This is about opportunity. What's really struggling. It's either a problem to be solved or a goal to be achieved. So we need to be specific about that net link spectacle what we've just been talking about but then is this next week. I'm going to ask the question. Without this next piece and watch how the question changes. What today is impossible to do. That if you could do it would fundamentally change what you do for the better?And of course what I've left out is in your business. Our questions and this is what you mentioned just a moment ago. Please we need to laser in and the way you laser in with your questions is to give your questions context that is important to the client. So it might be in your business or it could be in a particular part of your business it could be managing your staff. It could be what ever it is that you provide a client opportunities or goals or problem solving or products or services whatever it is you need to put that context into the question. As an example financial advisors for many years. Have been taught not by me have been taught to ask a question What keeps you awake at night. Well the question I would say is an unskilled question it's an incomplete question because my aunt if somebody and they have if somebody asked me that question. What keeps you awake at night. I could say my neighbour's dogs barking You see because I read it in the context that I immediately thought of. So without context if you change that question just slightly by saying when you think about managing your finances over the last four months what's kept you awake more than anything else? What are you concerned more than all the sudden it becomes a much more valuable question. So the first point was time activate the second one they need to be a problem or an opportunity. The third one is this idea of context in your questions. So what today is impossible for you to do in your business that if it could be done now this is about possibility and we need to make sure that we are not saying that I'll do it. What we say is if we could do it if you could achieve it if you could get it if you could fix that. Now we're talking about the possibility and then the final part is that would fundamentally make life better for you in some way.

00:45:32:19 - 00:47:05:01

Dav: It needs to be an improvement in the current state which could relate all the way back to whatever the problem or the opportunity was that we talked about. So for gone through that really quickly I apologize. But just with a sense of time here for today what I encourage everybody to do is to write that question down what today is impossible for you to do in your business that if it could be done would fundamentally change what you do for the better? Reword that in language that is more comfortable for you or use that as I have in that question and I don't say this lightly that question is only millions of dollars in professional speaking and training and master class work over the last 25 years because this is an example I'm in for any trainers or educators on the call. An example in the way that I would use that is with for example a general manager of sales I would say in the last 12 months what are these sales people struggled with in terms of finding new business that if we could help them do that more easily or with more comfort or with no competence. What might that be that we need to work on. And so if the sales manager would say look you know what Dave I don't know what it is then I know I don't have the salesperson from winning over the sales manager problem that we need to fix. So these are this is not theory this is practical and as you know Paul I've been sharing this with the markets called for for a number of years now and and I know the results speak for themselves for those who take the action on

00:47:05:26 - 00:49:00:17

Pau: And that's really the key to all of this. I mean following on from what you've been talking about this show exists because it is an extension of my unwavering commitment to serving anybody who's trying to build a business whether you're starting out or you've been doing it for a while. I created the podcast to really provide more value to share education to introduce people to other experts and get ideas. But the value of these ideas in their implementation. Take this one question take this concept in any of the ideas that you've been sharing David or any of the other guests that are on the program. You can make significant changes and improvements to your business you can really create a business that thrives and this is the whole point we're always evolving and doing for years was blog writing that I did and I figured well a podcast is an easier thing for people to consume the market is asking for that. So here we are doing it. And so we are hopefully you know always living the example as well not just preaching it and teaching it but doing it and going through those things at the end of the day you like. We are business owners we are. We have the same challenges and we have the same voices and the same things going on and we are working hard to push ourselves through that and hopefully providing a good framework and example for people of things that they can do. But obviously at the end of the day all of this comes down to a willingness to act and to apply the ideas that you get now we are coming up on time. And I know that many people probably don't want to be able to learn more from you connect with you more and certainly want to grab a copy of your fantastic book The Art and Science of building customer trust. So what is the best way for people to grab the book and to reach out to you.

00:49:00:17 - 00:49:29:08

Dav: Sure. Look the best the best way to do it for anybody is just to jump on my Website. davidpenglase.com That's the DAVIDPENGLASE davidpenglase.com Look if you if you wanted to connect with me and stay on top of a lot of stuff that I'm doing on on a regular poster to LinkedIn. That is my mode because that's where my clients hang out. Not only have a social media outlet. So that's the best way to connect with me.

00:49:29:25 - 00:50:07:04

Pau: Beautiful well. David thank you so much for taking some time to be on the program. There's no doubt we will get you back mate to do some other sessions because as we we could just keep going for four hours on this conversation but I'm reminded those the Danish philosopher Kirkegaard said you know we all come to Earth with sealed orders and our mission is to have the courage to discover what they are and live them. And you really helped us all to move maybe another step closer to figuring out what we're all here to do and hopefully find the courage to go and do it. Thanks so much for being part of the program.

00:50:07:05 - 00:50:17:14

Dav: My pleasure. Simple mantra for everybody and one that I'm trying to live up to not by living active or trying to live up to it. My life is how do I keep being the best version of me.

00:50:17:14 - 00:50:19:15

Pau: Great advice. Thanks David.

00:50:19:15 - 00:50:20:23

Dav: Good on you Paul. Bye.

00:50:20:23 - 00:50:58:19

Pau: So thanks again for joining me for this week's episode and I trust that you got a lot of value from their conversation with David Penglase and made a special note of his million dollar sales question. What today is impossible to do in your business that if it could be done would fundamentally change what you do for the better? Well you know one of the things that will change your business for the better is to continue to improve. To continue to learn to grow. I appreciate you and you investing your time to continue to become a better entrepreneur by joining me for our weekly podcast chats. I look forward to continuing to serve you and bring you the very best ideas I can to help you accelerate the growth of your business. So until we speak again I wish you nothing but the best for your business but much more importantly with your lives, until then take care and bye for now.