Amanda Holmes is the CEO of Chet Holmes International (CHI) which has worked with over 250,000 businesses worldwide. At age 24, she inherited her father’s multi-million-dollar enterprise, which specializes in helping companies double their sales. Amanda merged her father’s proven process with her own forward-thinking ideas to connect the old-school sales process with hybrid online and offline instant gratification short attention span we see of consumers today.
Her success has made it clear that she was born to lead. In the first two years of taking helm of the company, Amanda increased leads by 1176%, and doubled coaching clients two years in a row. Since then, Amanda has continued to scale the company making an impact worldwide with continued double-digit growth. Amanda’s mission is to teach the last and most important lesson that her father never got to reveal to radically change the lives of those passionate about success and sales.
The progression of time is something that in the sales world is something that is always evolving. While ‘The Ultimate Selling Machine’, is a timeless book through the techniques that it addresses, talk to us about some of the changes that you have implemented at Chet Holmes International to bring it into the business world today?
When my father Chet Holmes wrote the Ultimate Sales Machine, “web sites” was still two words.
The internet hadn’t really taken off yet.
The average business 15 years ago had an average of 7 different marketing mediums. Today, the average business has 13 marketing channels, 5 social media platforms, and 3 paid advertising mediums. Businesses are expected to do DOUBLE the amount of work for a fraction of the results.
Today, there are 3,8 billion social media pages, all putting out content competing for the attention of your buyers.
The updated version teaches you how to cut through all that clutter to have the best ROI most efficiently. My father taught strategies on cold calling, faxes, and yellow pages, for example. In the new edition you’ll see case studies of clients who’ve used platforms like Facebook ads, Google, and LinkedIn messaging to win clients. The strategies are still the same, it’s just the tactics that have changed.
Also, salespeople who use social outsell their peers by 78%. Readers can get helpful tips on how to use social to sell more effectively without every feeling pushy or salesy.
Walk us through a day in the life of Amanda Holmes?
It’s always changing so that’s a hard one to answer. I like change, I’m invigorated by challenges and am inspired by creation. I’m huge on mantra meditation so I’ll always have some musical melody playing in the morning so that it’s playing in the back of my mind throughout the day. I think majority of people get sucked into listening to contemporary music that floods our subconscious with depression, anger, aggression. If you want to be a source of positivity and light, you must monitor what you bring into your world. I’m pigheaded about what I allow into my space. What I listen to, what I watch. Always mindful that I want to be uplifted.
What would you say are the top 3 pieces of advice that other business leaders have offered you throughout the progression of Amada Holmes, CEO of Chet Holmes International?
I have had a spiritual mentor, an Indian Saint by the name of Sarva Loka Maa Her Holiness Sri Sri Sri 1008 Guruji Poonamji. Her title is long due to it’s high honor, I refer to Her as Guruji. Guruji is the biggest influence that assisted me in the miracle of keeping CHI alive through the passing of my father, our founder. Here are the top 3 pieces of advice:
- Fulfillment comes from giving. When everything felt like it was going to collapse, Guruji taught me to go beyond my own needs or desires and instead focus on being of service. When you serve clients with their best interest in mind, they come back for more and walk around as billboards for your business. At the end of the day when I put my head on my pillow, there is a feeling of true accomplishment and satisfaction when I know I’ve given to others that made the impact.
- Another critical piece of advice Guruji taught me was that when you care about what others think of you, you’re limiting yourself to their expectations. I was so consumed by all the stress of staff watching me try to figure out this company I didn’t know how I’d make a change. Guruji actually told me I should shave my head to release my expectations of what others thought of me and commit to be the best version of myself. Believe it or not, I took the plunge and shaved my head. The surrender from everyone else’s expectations was so liberating I kept my head shaved for years after that. Reminding myself over and over again that every time I shaved my head, I committed to be a conduit of love and light and be of service to my higher self. Obviously not everyone is going to go shave their head, but the practice of detaching yourself from everyone’s else’s belief systems of who you should be or how you should act is a critical piece to a life well lived. On your own terms.
- The third I’ll give to my father, he’s famous for saying, “Mastery isn’t about doing 4,000 things, it’s about doing 12 things 4,000 times.” Because of this I read his book over and repeatedly. I watched his training videos over and repeatedly. As he said, the single most important thing we need to succeed is pig headed discipline and determination. So, over the last ten years I’ve been able to focus on the few key impact areas in my business that have improved because of diligent practice.
What are some of the keys that you feel are important when running your own sales team?
92% of companies don’t have a sales process. It’s no wonder that most companies have a hard time figuring out how to train and manage their sales team. Most sales teams are managed by talking about the pipeline and pushing to close. When salespeople need training, they need to know the 7 steps to the sale. They need to be drilled on it over and repeatedly until each step is beyond memorization, it’s a part of their being and blood. They have 11 different voicemails scripts that all give great helpful value. They have 7 objection handling responses that have been refined and made more efficient. They have resources like videos, whitepapers, infographics, memes, case studies, to use as collateral to follow up the 8-12 times it takes to win a deal today. Most sales teams are poorly equipped with the tools needed to excel.
The more people that get to know Amanda Holmes, the person, the CEO, the leader, the more they look up to you. What advice do you have for other young leaders that are looking to make it today in the world of business?
Thank you, that’s very kind of you to say. I think many people overcomplicate. The biggest litmus test to know if you’re succeeding is dependent on how you feel when you put your head on your pillow at night. If you feel within you that you’ve done your best, you’ve risen to the challenges, you’ve stayed honest and spoken your truth. That moment will be gratifying. Only you can know how you feel. And far too often we let outside influences tell us what to think, what to do. Be your own guide to follow your path. Make sure you take the time to check inward, you have the answers within you. Sometimes we just need to stop and take the time to listen.
The other day I had a headache, and instead of going out and googling why I had a headache, or reaching for an aspirin. I closed my eyes and tuned in to myself. In that space, I realized I’d been moving a lot that day and hadn’t had much water. So, I found some water and drank a glass, and shortly thereafter my headache subsided.
The answer was in me the whole time, we just need that moment to reflect and ask ourselves what decision I need to make that will assist me to be the best version of myself.
And when it comes to business, we’d be better off asking, “how can I best serve my clients? What do they need the most?” If more people asked those two questions, we’d have more success monetarily and emotionally.
Visit https://chetholmes.com/how-to-double-sales/ for more details
