Expand Your Fempire Podcast #28 Transcript

Eliminate Sales Zappers to Catapult Your Revenue

Welcome to Expand your Fempire with Caterina Rando, the podcast for women in business on a mission. Sharing ideas to support you to grow and thrive. Now here’s your host, Caterina Rando.

[00:00:00] Caterina Rando: Hi, my friends. I’m Caterina Rando. I’m here today to share with you some of the things that get in the way between you growing your sales and growing your revenue.

[00:00:15] Now, as a woman on a mission, I know that you started your business to be of service. And I’m hoping that you’re attracting clients with ease and you’re blissing every day in your business. And I want to support you to bliss even more. Does that sound good? I’m asking you now – do you think that growing your sales will support you in blissing more in your business?

[00:00:46] I’m sure that it will. Because for over 28 years I’ve been serving women on a mission, just like you. To support them, to grow, thrive, lead, serve through their businesses.

[00:01:04] And unless you have a sales team, your job is to be the person bringing on the clients. And what I have found is that are, there are many things that interfere with you attracting clients with ease. I want you to have an ongoing flow of new people coming in the door, as many as you want. And that will come from what we’re going to talk about today, which is eliminating sales zappers.

[00:01:37] Now. What is a sales zapper? It’s something that zaps you from getting enough sales. And I’m sure if you listen to our discussion right now, you will find some things that are zapping your sales and how to get rid of them. Let’s start with the big one.

[00:01:57] Here’s the first one – not having sales goals. Now, seems unbelievable to me, but I’m going to tell you that I’ve met many women that don’t set sales goals because they don’t want to get depresso when they don’t get those goals.

[00:02:19] And here’s what a goal is, a goal is a decision that has been made. When you set a sales goal, you are making a decision for what you want to create in your business this month, this quarter, this year.

When you have a goal, you then can cultivate a plan to support you to get that goal. -Caterina

[00:02:37] When you have a goal, you then can cultivate a plan to support you to get that goal. And here’s what I know. If you have to pull out your phone or pull out a piece of paper to tell me what your sales goal is for the month or the quarter or the year, I know that you are not on track for your goal.

[00:03:04] Because goals are dynamic. Sometimes we think of goals like a fixed situation. Like when you set a slim down goal, right? You want to get to your goal weight. That’s usually fixed. You have a good idea in your mind.

[00:03:18] Sales goals are different. What I mean by that is that the more you work, your sales program, the more you may adjust your goals. In my Thrive at Sales nine-week class, when a woman says to me, “Caterina, I’ve already got my sales goal for the month and it’s only the 15th of the month.” I want to tell her to do what? Adjust that goal, because she already got her goal.

[00:03:48] And by the way, I encourage my clients and I encourage you, to set two kinds of sales goals every month. The first one is your regular sales goal, what you want to create, what you want to do.

[00:04:02] But then I want you to also set a “go for” goal. A go for goal is that extra stretch goal that if you know some beautiful things happen and you really put the time in and you really do it, you can get a little bit further than your goal. That’s a go for a goal. I want to encourage you to schedule both.

[00:04:26] And you know what? When you schedule both, you know, what’s going to start to happen? This is where the bliss comes in. Your revenue ceiling is going to become your revenue floor.

[00:04:42] What does that mean? That means that let’s say your goal is to do 10K a month in your business and you do 10K and that’s a great month. Well, let’s make that standard operating procedure, where 10K is then the minimum that you’re doing and now we’re going to boost it to 20K, and then we’re going to boost it to 30K, making your revenue ceiling, your revenue floor.

[00:05:09] And that’s what starts to happen when you really begin to become in relationship with your sales goal. You review them every day – all your goals -review them every day and be excited to look at your goals and say, “Okay, what can I do now, today, to support me to move closer to that goal or that goal or that goal?”

[00:05:35] That’s the first sales zapper that we want to get rid of by not only setting goals but setting a regular goal and a “go-for” goal, being in relationship, reviewing your goals every day, and really having the intention to make your revenue ceiling, your revenue floor.

[00:05:55] Now, the only way you do this is to really know your numbers. And I’m hoping that you are on top of your numbers. That you know how much revenue’s come in the door every week, every month. And you can compare that. Because when I say to you, “What’s your revenue ceiling?” which is your best ever revenue month, you know that, and you know what your floor is. Because you know what we focus on improves, right? Okay. So that’s the first sales zapper to take a look at.

[00:06:25] Now, the next sales zapper to take a look at is are you meshing social media with sales? Meaning, are you thinking that your social media equals your sales? That the more social media equals more sales?

Social media is not sales. Social media is for building influence. -Caterina

[00:06:44] Well, my friends let’s be very clear. Social media is not sales. Social media is for building influence.

[00:06:53] When we build influence, then we get to start to build relationships.

[00:06:58] When we build relationships, then we get to have sales.

[00:07:04] Bing, bing, bing that’s what I want for you! And I also want you to look at how much time are you spending on social media compared to how much time are you spending selling? Because I’m going to suggest, encourage you to take a look at, should some of that social media time be spent on selling?

[00:07:27] Now, if the concept sounds good, but the actuality of you doing that doesn’t sound so good, here’s what I want to say to you. Please recognize selling is service. If we can’t sell, if we don’t sell, we can’t serve. Because all selling is, is having a conversation with someone and seeing if the solutions that you have matches what they’re looking for. And that’s a bing, bing, bing.

[00:08:05] Okay. Does email marketing count as selling? My friend email marketing is exactly that – it’s marketing. Now, sometimes it may result in some insta-sales, which is great. But most of the time you still need to take that email marketing activity and have conversations with people, right? That is the selling part.

[00:08:31] The email marketing is a lead generator, meaning people respond and they say, “Hey, I’m interested.” That’s beautiful, but we still need to have a sales conversation.

[00:08:44] Marketing is letting the planet know or individuals or your potential clients know how amazing you are and what you have to offer. And of course, using value-based marketing, which is providing value through your marketing, to invite them to see your massive value. And then you still have to invite them to have a conversation with you for selling.

[00:09:11] Now, of course, you could be selling things online and mostly those are lower price things to get people started with you. And you may not have to have a conversation about that. Let’s be very clear. Most people are not going to buy from you anything significant, without a sales conversation.

[00:09:34] Now, perhaps when you have many years of experience and built a big platform like Tony Robbins or some of the other big names, people may do some of that. But don’t think that there’s not a lot of sales team over there as well. Please recognize – social media is not selling; it’s influence-building to equal lead generation.

[00:10:01] And yes, we do get the occasional insta-sale from social media. Selling is still required. So look at that for yourself and ask yourself, “Hmmmm, am I spending way too much time on social media? Should I be spending some of that time selling?”

Super tip alert: nobody buys from us until we have influence.  -Caterina

[00:10:20] Now, if you’re saying “yeah, that sounds good.” Here’s the thing. Super tip alert. Super tip alert: nobody buys from us until we have influence. And email marketing and podcasting and Facebook lives and live workshops are all influence-building activities. And I encourage you to increase your influence-building activities. At the same time, recognize that influence and building influence is only part of the sales equation.

[00:10:58] The sales equation, which I’ll give to you right now. You ready for the sales equation for massive sales? Influence, plus lots of sales conversations, plus a clear invitation to buy or sign up or purchase is how you get massive sales. And yes, some of that is online.

[00:11:21] You want to have, though, not just a high-tech business, you want to have a high-touch business. If you serve people, you want to have your attention on what can you do to connect with more people? Have more conversations so that they will want to buy from you. Because in those conversations, you’re sharing with them the massive value you have to support them in whatever solution they’re looking for.

[00:11:54] Okay. We talked about goals. We talked about not meshing social media and sales. Those are two zappers for you to look at.

[00:12:02] Now, let’s keep the party moving and I’m going to share with you another sales zapper that I want to encourage you to have your attention on. And that is not having a selling schedule.

[00:12:17] Now it makes perfect sense that if you want to get more fit that you’re going to start to go to the gym or do a virtual workout three days a week, right? Consistency over time creates results. You know that for health and wellness and vitality.

[00:12:37] Well, my friend, guess what? It’s the absolute same for sales. Consistency over time creates results. And here’s the other exciting thing about a consistent sales schedule is that consistency also results in increased productivity. That means you’re going to have more conversations in less time. You’re going to get better results. And that’s what I also want for you.

[00:13:08] Three times a week, make sure that you are having some time set aside for selling. Now, if you’re saying to me, “Well, Caterina, that sounds good, but what do I do with that time?” Well, I’m going to tell you right now.

[00:13:24] Here’s what you do with that time. That is the time that you would schedule conversations, okay? Now, if you don’t have any conversations to schedule, then what you’re going to do is you’re going to use that time for what we would call, “reach-outs.”

[00:13:45] Now what our reach-outs? Reach-outs are you reaching out to people that you think would be a good match for what you have to offer. But what I’m going to tell you, [00:14:00] is you want to be reaching out to people that you’ve already built influence with or you want to be reaching out to people to invite them to come to your workshop, to come to your Q & A Zoom session, so that you can build influence.

Visibility+ Value + Consistency = Influence   -Caterina

[00:14:20] Because remember the influence equation: visibility+ value + consistency = influence. Visibility plus value plus consistency equals influence.

[00:14:38] And you know, it’s so amazing. Let me tell you what happened last week. The week after my very large event called Expand Your Fempire, which we do once a year. And by the way, I also have an app called the Expand Your Fempire APP that you can download for more massive value.

[00:14:59] In the week after my big event I’m doing sales conversations. Now I did several. I’ll tell you I did 28 sales conversations in a week. That was my best week ever for the number of sales conversations, not my best week ever in sales, although we had a lot of great sales, but today is the Monday after last week.

[00:15:22] And do you know what happened? Three more sales today. Two of them from ladies that I had conversations with last week, and I’m sharing that with you because it’s not always insta-sales either.

[00:15:35] There’s four kinds of potential clients. Ready for them? There’s four kinds of potential clients. There’s the insta client, which is what we love, right? Sometimes when I do my “Set Yourself up to Thrive at Sales” class, which you’re invited to, sometimes I get three, five, seven ladies saying, “Yes, I’m an insta-yes for your nine week Thrive at Sales class.” That’s an insta-client. We love the insta-client, but that’s only one kind of potential client.

[00:16:10] There’s also the slow cooker client. That person takes three to six months or the super slow cooker client that takes up to a year. And then, you know what, there also is the super, super slow cooker that takes more than a year.

[00:16:28] Now, why are we talking about this? Because my friend, the fortune, as you know, is in the follow-up and another sales zapper – sales zapper alert, sales zapper alert –  is that women get discouraged and disappointed that they gave value to someone, they built influence with someone, they had a conversation with them, maybe you have another conversation with them, and they’re not saying yes.

It’s okay to be discouraged. The thing that we want to become masterful at, though, is managing our discouragement or our disappointment and keeping our party moving.                 -Caterina

[00:16:58] Of course, we’re going to get disappointed. You know what? Disappointment is a feeling. All feelings are valid. We know that from psychology. It’s okay to be discouraged. The thing that we want to become masterful at, though, is managing our discouragement or our disappointment and keeping our party moving.

[00:17:19] Because that discouragement is going to interfere with you continuing to reach out. And then, you know what? You give up. And you say, “Well, that mamma is never going to become a client and you get discouraged and you get disappointed. And you don’t reach out a third time. And you don’t reach out a fourth time. Or you think that “Well, they’re on my email list and that’s enough.”

[00:17:44] That’s high tech. That’s not high touch. Because, you know, what? When people feel seen by you, when you say, “Hey, Sheila, I understand now’s not the right time. I would love to have you with us. I know I can serve you. I know I can support you and I’ll check back with you.”

[00:18:05] And you do check back. But then when you check back, you don’t try to sell her something. You invite her to come and be with you again. To talk with you. To come to your virtual zoom. To come to your virtual event. To warm her back up. And it might even take two or three or four more times, and she will get on board.

[00:18:29] Because oftentimes you give up too early on a potential client, which is why they’re not coming on board. Because they weren’t insta, they weren’t slow cooker. They were super slow cooker or super, super slow cooker. And you gave up too early.

[00:18:46] So let’s take a deep breath right now and ask yourself, is that a sales zapper for you? Do you ever give up too soon? Now I’m gonna tell you sometimes these ladies frustrate [00:19:00] you. I get it, my friends, I get it because you know what?

[00:19:04] One of the things that I also see, this is a whole nother topic for another day, but one of the things that interferes with massive success for women entrepreneurs is a hesitancy in making decisions.

[00:19:19] Let me take a moment to remind you that successful women make decisions quickly and some of your potential clients have not learned this, which is why they’re super, super slow cookers. At the same time, do not give up. If you want them as your client, then you continue to warm them up.

[00:19:43] Because here’s what I want you to get. When someone says to you, “Not now. Not yet. Not sure. Check back with me.” I want you to put that in your Star Trek Universal Translator. And even if you’re not a Trekkie, you know what I’m talking about because that “not now” translates into “you have not built enough influence with me yet.”

[00:20:15] Did you hear that? Because the more influence we build with our potential clients, the more they’re going to move towards “yes.” And I just said to you a minute ago about, I had several conversations last week. Today’s three days after the last week. And three people said insta-yes from last week. They weren’t an insta-yes. They took the weekend.

Pressuring is not for women that want to sell with authenticity. Forget it. -Caterina

[00:20:37] Here’s what I want you to know. I don’t believe in pressuring people. Why would I bother to pressure people? I want them to feel good about their decision. I’m happy to schedule another time to talk more. Pressuring is not for women that want to sell with authenticity. Forget it.

[00:20:57] Now you can make an irresistible invitation. You can say “this price is good until the end of the month.” That’s fine. But forget about pressure. Ridiculous.

[00:21:07] Also, this idea of selling to people’s pain points. I wish people would stop talking about that because many women are turned off by that. If your clients are women, it’s not going to make them feel good.

[00:21:22] And if you’re trying to talk to them about that, I am sorry for you because many women buy possibilities, not no pain. Be aware of this. This is significant, and this is counter to what many internet marketers are telling you.

[00:21:40] And here’s what I want you to know. If you make somebody feel bad during a sales conversation, they’re never going to talk to you again. Almost none of them will you make them feel good about a sales conversation, even when they don’t buy. And you say, “Well, let me support you with this and by the way, come to the next thing.” And you make them feel uplifted when they get off a sales call with you. Let’s be very clear, they’re going to be happy to stay engaged with you and continue to connect with you.

[00:22:19] And this is going to support you in having them become a client. Because sometimes, really often, it’s not about you or your product or your service. It’s about them feeling that it’s the right time. It’s about them getting that they can afford it, even if they are not clear that they can afford it, them having enough urgency and enough desire to be a yes, because you have stayed in touch with them. You have built influence. And they’re sure that you can support them in whatever way you do business with whatever your offer is.

[00:23:03] I hope, my friend, that you’re getting some ideas here in our Sales Zappers that I’m sharing with you to support you in increasing your sales. I want to let you know that these are only a few of the zappers. I got a lot more zappers to discuss with you than we have time for today.

[00:23:21] I invite you to come and join me for my nine-week Thrive at Sales class. Give yourself this time to focus on how you can be even more awesome with your selling. Let’s get rid of your sales zappers.

[00:23:35] Because here’s what I know about you. I know that you have massive value to bring, and there is a lifetime supply of people to serve. The thing is that you want to become more masterful at inviting them to work with you.

[00:23:53] I want you to not only bliss in your business, I want you to bliss in your sales conversations. And I’ve been working with women for over 28 years to support them in their selling, in using speaking to get clients, in running their group programs, in hosting retreats. I’ve had the privilege of speaking with women in many, many industries, and I would love to support you to thrive more in your business.

[00:24:25] Again, remember you have massive value to bring. There is a lifetime supply of people to serve. I want to invite you to be louder and prouder about your massive value. I want to invite you to master your selling, so you can serve more, you can sell more, you can uplift more lives, and you can bliss more in your business. Bing, bing, bing, look forward to connecting with you. Thank you so much.

We hope you enjoyed this episode of Expand Your Fempire with Caterina Rando.