Can I Tell You A Sales Secret?

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Welcome to the She Needs Profit podcast.

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I'm your host, Sam Varner.

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You know, in my 15 years of business

experience, I've noticed there are three

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things required to create a thriving

business.

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Sales, visibility, and profit.

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And yet most business owners find

themselves overworked, overwhelmed, and

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underpaid.

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If you own a private practice or are a

service -based business owner, this

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podcast is for you.

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On this show, I give you the tools,

strategy, and coaching,

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to run a profitable business and share

stories and insight from people who are

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right there with you.

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Let's dive into today's episode.

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What is the one thing that most business

owners talk to me about and ask me to help

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them with in their business?

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Yeah, I know you're at the edge of your

seat.

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If you've guessed it, it's sales.

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Now sales is a pretty broad topic when it

comes to business.

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So I've narrowed it down.

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The number one challenge that business

owners face in their business is

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converting leads or people that you have

met.

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through the sales process and actually to

the point of selling them your product or

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your service.

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And I know this to be true because I have

talked with hundreds of entrepreneurs over

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the last five years as I've been profit

coaching and I know this is the number one

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struggle.

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So if you're sitting there and you're

thinking, well, shit, yes, it's my

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struggle too, then you're in the right

place because today,

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We're going to talk all about why sales

feels so hard as a business owner.

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There is an immense amount of pressure

that we start to put on people or on

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ourselves when we're expecting a certain

outcome.

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I consider this to be a very graspy,

desperate feeling.

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And each one of us listening to this

podcast can for sure resonate with this.

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That feeling of like, I

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just need to close the sale.

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I just need to find somebody who says yes

to me today.

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I need to figure out how to bring the next

dollars into my business and to do it

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quickly.

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And while we don't honestly say that to

clients, right?

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We don't say that to potential people.

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That feeling, that desperation within us

is palatable to the people on the external

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world.

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They maybe don't know why they feel

uncomfortable, but they certainly know

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that they're not loving what you're

putting out there.

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And usually it's the energy behind that

ask.

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So the number one thing you have to do is

figure out how to get rid of that.

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And we can't always get rid of the actual

information in the background that says,

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my business needs more sales.

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I'm not bringing in enough revenue.

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I need to grow my business.

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I need to cover payroll.

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I need more cashflow, all of those things

can still be true, but we need to be able

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to separate those needs of the business

from our conversations with potential

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clients.

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And one of the best ways I know as a

business coach to help you with that is to

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help you with low hanging fruit.

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So if you're not familiar with that term,

it is really looking at all of the

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opportunity that you have around you in

the world.

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and capitalizing on the closest to closed

business that's in front of you.

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And no matter where you are in your

business, no matter how much experience

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you have, no matter how long you've been

doing this, there are people that are in

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your sphere that are ready to buy or

really close to being ready to buy that

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you've left hanging, right?

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You've left alone.

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And in order to make these sales, I'm

gonna teach you a couple of tricks.

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to kind of get back in the flow of it,

figure out how to get in front of these

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people and figure out how to actually

close them, okay?

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So first and foremost, you need to

determine when you look at your client

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list and your sphere of influence.

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So sphere of influence, when I reference

that term, I mean everybody in your world

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that you know, right?

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Everybody in your world that knows you

have a business,

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and you have a service or a product that

you offer, those are all those people.

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Now those people come in all different

places.

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They come with direct networking contacts.

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They come with other parents at your kid's

school that know what you do.

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They come by your neighbors.

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They come by past clients or past people

that you've spoken with about buying that

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for whatever reason they didn't.

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They will come from all of those social

media followers that you have that are

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watching and seeing at least some of your

social media posts.

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So they're aware that you have a business.

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They are watching.

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They are looking for that push for them to

make the sale, right?

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To make the purchase.

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So when I talk about sphere of influence,

usually people when pressed consider their

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sphere of influence to be fairly small.

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The reality is you have circle upon circle

upon circle of people that know who you

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are,

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and know what you do at varying degrees.

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One of the best ways as somebody who is

looking to grow their revenue in their

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business as soon as possible is to look at

those spheres of influence and think about

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who has been circling around in there for

a little while and how can you approach

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them?

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What would you need to do to move them

from a casual observer or an interested

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observer into an actual conversation about

purchasing?

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So first you need to figure out who those

people are.

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You need to go through and take the time,

and this is the part, right?

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We can feel very desperate and very quick

and very like, ah, quick, quick, quick.

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Sometimes what you have to do in business

is you have to slow down for a minute to

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speed up.

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So I'm gonna ask you to just believe that

for a minute, borrow my belief in that,

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and realize that if you slow down,

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take a look at your surroundings, evaluate

your audience, really truly evaluate who

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do you think is most likely to purchase

from you, who do you think is ready to

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purchase from you, who do you keep seeing

for whatever reason that you haven't

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actually had that conversation with, and

write them down.

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Now, you're gonna end up with a list of

names.

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There might be a handful of names on that

list or there might be more.

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So, what do you do next?

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You've got these names.

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The next thing that you have to do is you

have to calm down.

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Because now you're excited, right?

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You're like, oh, I found some people.

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I think this is great.

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Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

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If you go after those people like that,

you're like a dog with a bone, and you're

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going to drive them off.

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You have to center yourself.

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Take a deep breath.

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This is the woo -woo part of business that

took me forever to learn.

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But what you think, what you're capable

of, what you create is all controllable by

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you.

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So before you reach out to these people, I

want you to sit down and take five minutes

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and write for five minutes why your offer

is amazing, why the results that people

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get that work with you are amazing, what

are the results that they get when they

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work with you, how does it transform their

lives, what is the value that you are

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putting out into the world, and how would

it directly benefit these people?

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All the while thinking about these people

that you've come up with on your list.

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from that space and that space alone, we

come up with an outreach plan.

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We come up with a way to get in front of

those people and engage them in a

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conversation.

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Not a, hey, are you ready to buy a house?

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That is not the way we do it, okay?

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But what we do is create a dialogue.

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So if this is someone, for example, on

your social media and you have seen them

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liking your posts and commenting and that

sort of thing and you're starting to think

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they're in there for a reason.

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I want you to come up with three or four

different questions you could potentially

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ask the client, the potential client, on

the DMs in Instagram that would get them

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to start a dialogue with you.

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This is conversational starting only.

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So what are those?

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We're gonna pretend for a second that

you're a realtor, okay?

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And you see somebody that has posted over

and over again or commented over and over

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again on posts that you've done about a

particular neighborhood.

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Your first inclination is going to be to

ask them something like, hey, can I answer

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any questions you have about Hidden

Valley?

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Think about how that feels, right?

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If you're the client receiving that,

that's aggressive, right?

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I haven't even said hi to you this morning

and you're already like right up in my

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business.

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So alternatively, hey Ted, I noticed

you're liking a lot of the posts that I'm

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putting out there about Hidden Valley.

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Okay, actually I'm gonna correct that and

say like, hey Ted, I noticed that you

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loved the post about the garden on that

house in Hidden Valley.

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Are you guys looking to get some gardening

done or to redo the garden beds in the

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front of your yard?

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Ted's gonna say like, yeah, I've been

looking and just trying to find somewhere

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that's front facing.

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Okay, no problem.

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So then your response is, oh yeah, I get

it, right?

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How many times have I planted things and

they've died because I don't really know

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where they're supposed to go?

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I have a great gardener.

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that would be able to help you with that.

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Would you like me to put you in touch with

him?

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Yeah, that would be great.

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Okay, now here's the kicker.

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So Ted, is there any particular reason

that you're getting the gardens done for

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your house?

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Then wait.

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He may say, yes, we're thinking about

putting our house on the market and we

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wanna make sure it looks great before we

do that.

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He may say, yes, we're having a big

graduation party for my daughter and the

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family's all coming and so we wanna just

spruce up the place.

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He may say, yep, Shelly's been on at me to

actually get some non -dead plants in the

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front yard, and so I'm just trying to do

it properly so I don't have to do it again

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in three months.

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All of those things are going to give you

information.

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Not all of those things are gonna lead to

a sale.

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And here's the thing, just because we have

a conversation with people doesn't

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necessarily lead to the sale.

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But do you see how some of those are

information that you may be interested in

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as a...

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potential realtor?

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First one, we're getting ready to list.

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Okay, that's a gold star.

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We're really excited about that, right?

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You can continue the conversation from

there.

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Second one, my daughter is having a

graduation party and we're getting things

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spruced up.

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Okay, as realtors know, life transitions

often then will sometimes be accompanied

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by housing transitions, if not now, in the

future.

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So,

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That is a note to put in the CRM.

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Mary is graduating 2024.

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She's the youngest kid.

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Downsizing?

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Question mark and put them on the maybe

downsizing list for your followup.

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The third one, if the wife is just looking

for him to actually do some gardening out

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front and get their house looking great,

then you can be the resource for that.

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Hey, I got you.

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Let me get you in touch with...

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My gardener, he's fantastic and I know he

works in Hidden Valley all the time.

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Is there any other house projects that I

can help put you in touch with a great

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professional to help you with?

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Anything else she's tasked you with?

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And he may say, you know, it's funny you

mentioned that she did talk about window

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cleaning.

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Okay, you are now a resource.

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Ted, I've got you.

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I've got a great, great company that does

window cleaning.

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They're called Window Genie.

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You just give them a call.

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They'll be able to help you right away.

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These are slow plays, okay?

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This circumstance, answer number three

from him, is not gonna result in a client

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right away.

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But what it is gonna result in is that Ted

remembers that if he needs something

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household related, there's a reasonable

chance he could call you and you'd have an

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answer.

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And that's gonna continue to be your

answer.

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You're gonna have help for him at all

times.

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And when and if he gets to that point, or

hears that somebody else is getting to

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that point of buying or selling a home,

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you become a great resource that he is

very comfortable referring and or using

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himself because you've been so helpful.

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Do you see how it works?

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You have to go through the activity with

each one of these people and not be

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expecting an outcome, not be anticipating

what they're gonna say before they say it,

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but being capable of adding value out into

the world and it will come back to you.

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Okay, so we're gonna go through and we're

gonna figure out who those people are.

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And then following that, of course, we're

going to start conversations and see where

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it goes.

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So even with those two tips, I promise

you, if nothing else changes, you will

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have more conversations that are actively

happening in your business that

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potentially will lead to sales.

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So the reason that this was the topic and

so critical, I think, for business owners

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at any point in their business is...

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If you do not have sales, you have an

expensive hobby.

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And this can feel true whether you're one

year in business or whether you're five or

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six years in business and for whatever

reason, things have slowed down.

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So one of the things that I have taken

upon myself as a profit coach is to make

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sure that this information is out in the

world more actively than it is currently.

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And in that exact vein, I am going to be

hosting a free sales webinar.

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It is the sales sprint, transforming leads

into sales.

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I am hosting this on April 23rd, 2024.

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So if you are listening to this and you

think like, wow, I need to figure out how

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to do this better.

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I need to figure out how to get people

from in my sphere.

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First off, I need to identify my sphere.

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Then I need to figure out how to

communicate with them, come up with a

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strategy and a tactic on how to actually

engage with them.

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And.

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plan on how I'm going to implement this

month in, month out in my business,

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regardless of whether I get busy or

whether I'm slow, I'm going to continue to

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do these things consistently.

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And then you want to figure out from

there, how do you actually engage with

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them?

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This is the webinar for you.

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My goal without a doubt in this webinar is

that I can offer you as much value as

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humanly possible.

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so that you can increase your sales in the

30 days following the webinar.

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This is not gonna be a situation where I'm

just gonna toss a couple of ideas at you

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and then leave you to your own devices.

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Instead, this is going to be a scenario

where you come and you come in the door

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and you sit, well, online, okay, it's

gonna be on Zoom, but you come into that

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Zoom room and by the time you leave that

Zoom room, there are things you can

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immediately implement to grow the sales in

your business.

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This is no joke, you guys.

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I am not gonna let you leave the room and

have nothing to do with this.

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So if you know that the sales in your

business need to be better and you know

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you need help in this area, this is an

absolute no -brainer.

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I cannot wait to see you on the 23rd.

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The link will absolutely without question

be in the show notes.

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You can also find it on Instagram where I

am at Sam the Profit Coach.

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And otherwise, I can't wait to talk to you

more next week.

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And that's this week's episode of the She

Needs Profit podcast.

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If you like what you heard today, connect

with us on Instagram at Sam, the Profit

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Coach, or leave us a review in your

podcast player.

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Don't forget to sign up for our newsletter

packed with more profit tips.

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The link is in the show notes.

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See you next week.