The UK's Most Hated Sales Trainer - Benjamin Dennehy - #128

**Chris Williamson** (0:00)
Hello, friends, welcome back. Before I get into today's episode, I wanted to warn you that this is the final Thursday. You will be getting new content for the next couple of weeks. It is Christmas after all, and that means that I can't get hold of any podcast guests to come and speak to me. Apparently, they've all got lives or families or something to be doing. So yeah, Monday, next two Mondays, Christmas special coming up very soon though. Johnny and Youssef are joining me to go through our favorite life hacks, lessons and fails from 2019 And we will be wearing new Christmas jumpers. So that is a definite YouTuber. And yeah, onto today's episode. Benjamin Dennehy, also known as the UK's most hated sales trainer. Being honest, I thought he was a pretty nice guy. I'll let you judge for yourself. In other news, if you need to buy someone a present at any point, but especially now, last minute, Christmas, yeah. If you're struggling for ideas, the Modern Wisdom Amazon Shopfront is linked in the show notes below. And it's got all of the life hacks that we've ever done that are available on Amazon. It's also got every book that I recommend. Probably not every book. Most books that I recommend are on there. So yeah, might help save you from not having a present for someone, might give you a bit of inspiration. But for now, it's time to speak to the UK's most hated sales trainer. Please welcome the wise and wonderful Benjamin Dennehy.
I'm joined by the UK's most hated sales trainer, Benjamin Dennehy. Benjamin, welcome to the show.

**Benjamin Dennehy** (1:50)
Thank you for having me, Chris. It's an honor to be here.

**Chris Williamson** (1:53)
I know, we've got mutual friend and past guest, Mike Winnett. You've been spending a bit of time with him recently, right?

**Benjamin Dennehy** (1:59)
Yeah, yeah, I did. I was up there last week, actually, filming another episode together, having fun. Yeah, he's cool, he's a good man.

**Chris Williamson** (2:06)
He's great. So why are you hated? Why are you the UK's most hated sales trainer, why?

**Benjamin Dennehy** (2:12)
I get asked that all the time. In fact, I gave a speech on it last Thursday to a room full of businessmen. There's no international standard by which this is measured.

**Chris Williamson** (2:21)
Have you got a mug? You must have a mug.

**Benjamin Dennehy** (2:24)
No, not on me. I actually do have a mug.

**Chris Williamson** (2:26)
Okay. You know that when someone gets like number one dad mug, it's like, oh, you guys, there's the awarding body for the number one dad.

**Benjamin Dennehy** (2:32)
If I can get it for you, seeing as we're at mobile and I'm in a hotel room for anyone that wonders why it looks all weird because I'm up in London on business. But yes, so product placement.

**Chris Williamson** (2:43)
Nice. UK's most hated sales trainer mug, Lincoln Bio.

**Benjamin Dennehy** (2:47)
Yeah. So I created it. I created the character. I was given some advice by a man who created his own brand. Have you ever heard of Brad Burton? No. He's a UK's number one motivational speaker. And I asked him, how did he become number one? And he said, read my book, page 26 So I read his book, page 26 And he said, I made it up.

**Chris Williamson** (3:19)
And he got you by the book.

**Benjamin Dennehy** (3:21)
Yeah. And I thought, well, that's quite genius. And basically the rule to it, I guess, I'm not a marketeer, never trained in it, never studied it, but it's not hard to realise that the easiest way to get known is to create a message and just keep hammering it. Like, let's get Brexit done. That was a classic, you know, or take back control. Simple message, just push it out over and over again. So I created the UK's most hated sales trainer by, first of all, what did nobody want to be? And I looked at LinkedIn and everyone's number one, the best leader, professional guru, Jedi, all self-aggrandizing BS. Well, I thought, what does no one want to be? No one wants to be hated. And so I thought, well, I'll go with UK's way. And then I thought, it makes no sense. And I thought, well, that's what makes it genius. It makes no, why would you be hated? And then it gave me carte blanche to just be myself, which is naturally quite blunt and direct. So that worked well. And the weirdest thing was standing up in a meeting and introducing myself as me. The UK's most hated, so people would look at you and say, what the hell is this guy? What? Why are you hated? No reason. I just, you know, just, yeah.