Paul M. Caffrey (00:01.88)
delighted to be joined by Archie Hollinsworth, the co -founder and CRO of fixer .ai. That's FYXER.AI Archie, how's it going? are
Archie Hollingsworth (00:13.224)
Yeah, really well, How you doing?
Paul M. Caffrey (00:15.478)
Yeah, super good. And this is going to be, you know, straight into a podcast all about actionable tips. So what is your number one prospecting tip
Archie Hollingsworth (00:27.392)
I mean, if you can go warm, I think it's the only way to win right now. So find some sort of connection as lucid as it is, and ideally do the work for someone else. So if you're gonna get someone to intro you, write out for them exactly what you want to say. So it's one click for them to make that intro. But stick with the warm. I think it's the only way to win at the moment.
Paul M. Caffrey (00:54.85)
really like that and we have more warm introductions than we may be aware of. We just need to rack our brains to figure out what that might be. What's your number one sales tip Archie?
Archie Hollingsworth (01:08.282)
question. I
Archie Hollingsworth (01:15.584)
People hate when you sort put on this different persona. And so just walk in as if you're talking to anyone in your life. And I was quite young when I started my first business. So used to try to combat that by pretending I was someone that I was and much more mature and much more serious. And actually my fun and sort of slightly cheeky side is I think what people quite enjoy.
and where I build a lot of my relationships from. And so if I can really lean into that, maybe not too much, but enough that really makes sense, that can be really powerful. And so lean into whatever is authentically you and people will really respect that. And that doesn't have to be this, this salesperson in a virtual commons or whatever the stereotype you think is. can be, anyone can sell.
Paul M. Caffrey (02:11.05)
Absolutely. And one way to do that is to be prepared for the meeting that you're going into. If you know who you're meeting, if you know what the agenda is, if you know your product, if you know what possible outcomes that might be relevant for people, it will make it bit easier for you to actually just have a conversation as opposed to, you know, trying to follow a script or lean on some skills, which are maybe masking the fact that you're not ready for it and causing you to, you
think that you need to be perceived in a certain way. If someone's looking for a promotion, what tips would you give them in securing it?
Archie Hollingsworth (02:51.754)
I wouldn't have like amazing advice for this, but...
The one consideration I'll think about just sort of slightly reframing the question, what makes you a good employee? And there is a noticeable difference that good employees are proactive and bad employees aren't. They are proactive with ideas, with what they're working on. There is almost close to no management with good employees.
If you're looking for promotion, I think you need to be defined as a good employee. That's what I would do.
Paul M. Caffrey (03:30.338)
There you go. So figure out what that is and start living like it. What books do you recommend people check out if they want to improve how they sell or maybe even go into entrepreneurship itself?
Archie Hollingsworth (03:45.088)
So at the beginning, I read a lot of the classics, Challenger Cell, et cetera, et cetera. I think it's a good methodology still that. I read all the other kind of entrepreneur books.
Archie Hollingsworth (04:03.104)
I'm less interested in them now. I'm more interested in a thing called First Round Capital, which is a blog. They interviewed the most incredible leaders in different areas. So when you're faced with a problem, you can read an article, it'll take you 10, 15 minutes, and they will give you an amazing framework to follow. So the most valuable thing I would say is if you're building a business, First Round Capital
For sales, they also have a really good blog on it as well.
Paul M. Caffrey (04:38.188)
Cool. Have to check it out. Not familiar with it. So look forward to giving a read. It's definitely you've definitely hyped it up there. So I'm sure a lot of people will be clicking on it now. And finally, when it comes to preparation in your work life, what does doing the work before the work mean for you, Archie?
Archie Hollingsworth (04:45.94)
Mm -hmm.
Archie Hollingsworth (04:56.564)
I mean, there were times where I definitely haven't taken enough breaks. And so being, making sure you're energized outside of the work life as well as within work. and
Archie Hollingsworth (05:12.81)
Just being really on top of things and like open communication, I think it was something I just didn't really understand, but someone in my career I've worked with, who was COO of our agency, lady called Louise, really incredible, like showed me what good open communication looked like. And I don't think I'm by near anyway perfect, but if you're someone that's kind of a bit distracted, a ADHD, a bit kind of good at sales, but the other parts of the company is hard.
actually open communication is a good kind of tool and the first thing just doing is just updating people, reminding yourself to update people on what you're working on. So two things I would say that would be helpful to others that are non -obvious perhaps.
Paul M. Caffrey (05:54.306)
Yeah, really, really like that. Well, you know, obvious, but important, right? So I know how I'm getting the right reminder of the right message, the right time can make a big difference. If people want to find out more about URG and more about fixer .ai, how can they do that?
Archie Hollingsworth (06:00.708)
Thank
Archie Hollingsworth (06:11.338)
Do me a favor and give the trial a go. No credit card needed. It's F Y X E R dot AI. Honestly, it takes two minutes and you can check out all the different people. I'm sure you'll know hundreds of people using it in, already. And then the other thing was just drop me a message on LinkedIn. let me know what was useful. Ask me any questions. that's probably the best place to see, see how we're doing.
Paul M. Caffrey (06:39.224)
Great. And the first link in the show notes is where you can get access to that free trial. I'm looking forward to giving it a go myself because my inbox is always way too busy. Archie, thanks so much for coming on. Look forward to the next time we chat.
Archie Hollingsworth (06:51.806)
May it was a pleasure, thanks so
