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Lesson Info

Develop a Sales Cycle That Builds Trust Part 1

Is anybody know what a sale cycle is yes what is it matthew stand up please and you have a mic good go for it uh s o cycle is how you would move somebody through from getting to know you to prove saying more expensive products or products period right that's the that's the that's it in a nutshell how do you do it and that if you have in place a sale cycle you will feel so much better because you'll know what to do when somebody becomes aware of you and one of the reasons most sales conversations don't work is because you have them as soon as you meet somebody and there isn't enough trust bill they might not necessarily be in a space where they're ready to buy from you because people buy generally when they want not when you want them to which is why you ever been to one of those big conferences where they just sell from the stage the whole time I never did it I never liked it it was never never worked for me um also I I focused on being a professional speaker where I get paid to come s...

peak and you don't you might say I've been signing books at the back of the room but you don't pitch things when you're doing that right um so I never felt comfortable with it and what you'll find is that a significant majority of the purchases made in those events get returned because there is so much like you feel like if you don't buy this thing right now, the world is gonna end you're never gonna have anything your life is going to be right. So people, a guy I know sent me a video he goes, hey, I just did this thing and you got to see this video people were jumping on the tables like fighting for the thing for the product he's like it's awesome, I sold almost five hundred grand after a forty five minute speech was great, okay, three weeks later, I saw him and I said, how did it go? So you still, you know, happy about the experience because, well, we got about seventy percent returns and I said, is the product bad? He does know, actually it's a great product, and what he discovered was it wasn't the right time for most of those people, so they had the buyer's remorse. So what we want to do is we want to try toe have sales conversations that are proportionate to the amount of trust that we're having. So meaning the offer we're making is an appropriate offer for the amount of trust that we've earned, so if I give a forty five minute speech somewhere, I feel comfortable saying, hey, go by book yourself solid if I'm doing this for three days, I feel pretty comfortable saying if you want the recordings go buy them for ninety nine dollars because I think I've earned that and if someone doesn't want it they don't have to buy of course you make the whole thing every two minutes you know why that is why this then no matter how many days you do it it's it's not relevant you have to stay relevant as much as you possibly can so the sale cycle needs to start somewhere because when you're creating awareness you've got to get somebody to do something you know you go give a speech to create awareness but nobody in the audience does anything with you after the speech you don't make any sales and this is and then again as a point it all not you just you have to sell from the stage and since I wasn't comfortable with that in an aggressive way I said, well, I know there's this expression out there people love to be they hate to buy but they love to be stolen I know I hate to be self sold but you'll have to buy okay, so this expression out there they hate to be so but they love to buy and I thought, well, I get that I do I love to buy things that I like because I'm expressing my values it's kind of fun but I still don't want to try to make people buy stuff the first time I meet them that's not comfortable so I said well maybe people hate to be sold but they love invitations that have no risk so I came up with this idea of the always have something to invite people to offer if you khun come up with a better name for it would be great but it's exactly what it says the always have something to invite people to offer so anywhere you go any time you meet somebody you can invite them to something that is free that is no barrier to entry that's the critical phrase to remember no barrier to entry maybe an email address so they could get the information that would be the only sort of barrier hurdle they'd have to jump through but you don't even have to make them do that there can be absolutely no barrier to entry every time you write an article the end of the article you can invite them hey I do this free thing if you want here's where it is this is what it's about if you do stuff on twitter or facebook et cetera you can have mentions of that as is appropriate if you do any kind of um comprehensive internet marketing you can use this as what you invite them too if you do networking when you're networking you could invite them to when you're connecting direct doing direct outreach you can invite them to tea always have something to invite people to offer now there are three components to the always have something to invite people to offer how many straight matthew three components of the to the uh to this always have something to invite people to offer first it needs to be consistent second it needs to be frequent or else it's not in always have something to invite people to offer you can be consistently doing something once a year but that's not going toe bring many people into your sale cycle and third should bring people together because when people come together around you with other people that they relate to they feel more connected to you they say well if caroline is is there in michael's world and I like caroline I'm going to pay a little more attention use I would guess I would like michael too then we don't intellectually necessarily think about it in those terms but that's what we do right if I said to you hey, if we've been friends for fifteen years and I said I just met this really cool lady she's ice totally reminds me I think you guys would get along so well you would assume that you would yeah and when you meet her you would automatically give her the benefit of the doubt right? Because you trust your friends? Yes yeah, can you speak about social currency? Sure, we'll look social currency is is an asset, I mean, that's what? We're trying to create currency asset when you have people paying attention to you, then you built an asset and they will spend that money, you know, some people look at it is and you can, you know, it's it's an asset that you have to invest in an asset that you have to make sure you're not overspending with because then you become irrelevant, but they'll also go out and spend for you because they'll share all of your information. So what you're doing here with you always have something to invite people to offer is essentially creating an asset again remember I say yesterday there is no one way to do anything you could take it or leave it, but if you want some way to bring people into your world to start to create a community and asset says god would call the tribe, you want to be seen as a leader. If you're seen as a leader, your scene is an expert, and if you're bringing people together, you must be a leader. So what I did for I guess, gosh, I probably did this for eight years I did something that was called the think big revolution, it started out as the think big call but then it actually got big, so I called it a revolution because for me thinking bigger about who you are, what you are for the world is revolution, it's your own personal revolution and the single greatest thing you can do to think bigger is to help others do the same and that's revolutionary and if you create this always have something to invite people to offer around your brand identity, then you get known for it and that weekly call same time every week same number called the think the revolution got me known as the guy to call when you're tired of thinking small, I never sold a thing, he said, well, how do you get the business? Because if you're showing up and you're adding so much value that you think you're going too far and then anymore in that short period of time consistently but frequently and people are coming together around it, they will pay attention to you and check out the things you are selling and remember people buy at their own timetables, their own patterns, and they buy when the conditions in their life compelled them to. So they're paying attention to on a regular basis, you say top of mind, even if they're never coming to your always have something to invite people to offer, they know you're doing it if they know you're doing it they know you're dedicated to that at one point I went around the time when my son was born um he's a and a half now rather time when my son was born I wanted to take a little bit of a break so I said well let's do it once a month in my theory was that it would get even bigger because it would be scarce it's not once a week anymore it's only once a month so the people love it it's going to get bigger yes what happened? Attendance dropped so I gave it a heart who was my director of business development at the time coolest lady in the world she could call everybody up and say hey so how's it going you know we were just regularly call people either people who are clients people who we knew we're coming to the things that I was doing so what do you like what's going on? What can we do for you and what she heard over and over and over again is what happened to think big revolution what was that once a month now and her next question would be well how many times you come guess what the average answer wass once a month so why did we drop off because they want to come when they can come now I stopped doing that about a year ago specifically because I wanted more time off yeah but my organization does something similar called coaching success sessions through the school of coach training through the book yourself sound school of course training every wednesday at the same time we do a call that helps the coaching industry people in it being more successful we'll sell anything there that is not just for both yourself salad coach is not just for marketing coach not for anybody and my head of the book yourself sold school of coach training runs in other coaches go and participate in it and I will come from time to time as well when you're starting it's gotta be you so you can do it on the phone could do it in person if you're running coach once a week, same time same place everybody meets we go run and we're going to do something different every time and you make a fun sometimes you do these sort of like little obstacle courses sometimes you do like treasure hunts you know you could come up here really you're only limited by your imagination. What you do is you say hey when you're coming, bring a friend you don't have to but bring a friend guess how many people were on the very first call I did six one of whom was my mother so don't think that counts because she said, I don't know what that was but it was fabulous that's your mother's supposed to say forget how many people are on next time eight and then ten and then in six months I fifty people coming regularly which means hundreds were subscribed remember because people were only coming about once a month and kept growing bigger and bigger and then I made a whole community called think big revolution dot com where people are going to start their own groups and they can talk to each other and they can communicate and I'm not in there as much as I should be um but it's there for those who want to take it yes you have a question training okay so you're a photographer what way free photo I'll tell you so one of the things you could do is you can hook up with other people who serve the same market and who are they? They're mobile djs their wedding planners they're florists their caterers and you might do so only once a week once a month not to do it every week once a month is still enough for an always have something to invite people to offer once a week is really cool if it doesn't require much organization do it once a week you show up and shine basically you get ten minutes fifteen minutes here's an idea I used to say okay how this idea I think this will help us think bigger here it is ten minutes what do you think and I facilitate a conversation so it wasn't like you had to create something to teach every time, but you could hook up with a number of people you could do this every month and each person can invite all of their past clients current, future, et cetera and if you make it a social thing and the deejay can play, the florist could put out some stuff doesn't have to be a lot you know you keep your expenses down, you could take pictures and have a whole sight with whatever you call it didn't come up with a cool name for it and that size all the pictures from this event and you're linking to the florist website you're linking to the uh photographers website your website, the djs website etcetera and now look what you're doing for the community look out you're developing those referral relationships as well. Next thing you know, people going to ask you, can I be do that with you can be in it what do you do? We're goes why? Where I do it you find a local place says want some people? The bar is open they can make the bar and you know it's after work for, you know an hour or two one of the sort of book yourself solid coach is she's actually an elite level certified book yourself solid coach francine growl you who might be in the chat room now she's one of the coaches that was gonna be in the chat room today she does a business playgroup she's all about place she's like really little and she's feisty so jesus business playgroup and there's no agenda whatsoever for she finds a different space each time and she invites everybody and they come and play and have fun and they do all these different things that have fun there's no like what's your elevator pitch what's your this what's your that and people start naturally making connections simple as that and she doesn't want some off wasn't she has now two hundred people in that after six months she just won an award like a bucks county award for best networking group in six months because all she did was invite people when she met them kind of simple right so now she's looking for bigger and bigger spaces toe hold all these people and the spaces wanna dedicate I want to donate the space because they want all these business owners there so this always have someone to invite people can be the first stage in your sale cycle because when you're doing your marketing remember you need some sort of call to action you need to get them to do something and if you're just trying to sell something they may not pay attention it's not enough you know as anthony was so antonio was saying yesterday you know uh the things to do for a block right it's not enough but maybe I do this thing every week or I'm showing this I'm teaching this and then we brainstorm about it well that kinda interesting now the other thing of course you could do is some sort of lead generating information product very simple special report I wouldn't call it any book anymore because he books or something else now in the old days there were no a book so you could call any book any book and kind of make up a new thing but now you books books all my books or e books those or what people think of his he books right special reports what else? White papers what else? What else do you see that you found interesting online that you want to go and get? Yes tip sheets pfc I'll repeat all the things they say write so pdf of some kind with some kind of relevant information and when I teach information products later on today I'll walk you through really great process and exactly how to create these information products little ones and big ones really big monetized one's programs workshops, books same process for the little ones and those little ones will turn into big ones over time because all this content gets repurposed again and again and again photographers should be doing the same thing because if I'm a new bride new groom well I guess not knew right from a bride or a groom yes you could be a new bride if I just got engaged right? So if I'm a new bride I know I guess I see what you're giggling if I'm a new groom if I'm a new groom and I'm looking for information I don't want to do this wedding thing I never did a wedding thing before so you know think about matthew matthew man you married no he's going to get married maybe I don't know who knows maybe but when he does he's going to be completely baffled as to what to do just like when you first get pregnant what the heck is supposed to do so you go out and buy what to expect when expecting that the most popular book in the history of the world so tip sheets on had a higher photographer tip sheets and had to choose a wedding planner tip sheets on how to choose a florist tip sheets on how to organize um any part of a wedding reference reports that compare and contrast to different wedding experiences you go this way or this way the big formal or the or the island waiting because you're trying to decide what to do right matthew's going to do the island wedding he smiled when he heard island you guys with me say yes if you are great so once you have once you have that first entry point that's stage one of your sales could be and always have some to invite people to offer. It could be some time of lead generating information product where they give you their information and then you're allowed to follow up with them. But you have to course. Tell them you will, right? If you don't tell them you will, you don't have permission and then you got a look at what comes next. Well, maybe something else free, so maybe it's that always have something to invite people to first, and then maybe you you're going to give him a nen formacion product for free, but they just have to put their email address it. And now, you know, this person has engaged in two things, but they're moving through the sale cycle. Well, what's the next thing that you're going to sell that doesn't have a high barrier to entry offer but still is monetized, meaning they have to pay for it that gets them into a client relationship with you without a huge barrier. What would that? What is that? A book if you have a book? Sure, absolutely. Maybe another information another information product dvd shore if that is relevant to your business, if your photographer, you're probably not going to sell another information product at that point. But you may find another way to move them through that process by saying I'll come and do some candids for one hour of your wedding planning for only one hundred seventy nine dollars or something and they get to test you out not a lot of risk you get to meet them they get to see your work because it's kind of cool idea to document the actual whole process to the wedding you know like oh my god, you know that's a great shot right? Because there's that what about going and doing the wedding dress would you love to have the whole trying on process documented how many people here we're married and have that documented by professional? Nobody would if you like to have that without cool they're cool they're shaking their heads saying yes so you can start to think about what else might they buy for from a photographer that's relevant to the wedding besides just the huge wedding package so then you have a second stage in the sale cycle and then you move on to a third stage in a sale cycle which is another bigger offer and you may end up with fifteen stages or twenty as your business grows. But when you're starting let's just look at three no barrier small monetized offer so there's not a lot of risk but they're still buying they need to start buying so you're not just nurturing you nurture and you make sales offers, you just nurtured, they won't see you as a place to buy, and then maybe the corps offering the bigger offering that your primary revenue generator and then maybe over time, you'll build many more products and services into that process. And as a result, you have a really comprehensive model for your business, something pretty significant. Any questions from the audience? Any questions from the folks online? We do have a couple online, but what I like, what you're talking about right now is this long term approach la people want things that happen overnight, but this approach of talking right now takes place over time, and what you mentioned earlier is a credibility that you build over the course of that time. I guess the fear around that is, well, michael seems like you're trying to build trust over time, but I need to sail now. You get the sale now when you've put people into that sale cycle and then when their circumstances changes like they actually get someone to propose to them, then they'll go in higher photographer before that, they're probably not going to we're trying to figure out ways to bring people in at the earliest possible moment, okay, let's, get a quick question here in the audience from eric you actually may have touched a problem because that's what I'm that's what I'm dealing with this fear and so was my project I was trying I was thinking about my overall project a video project or photographic project in the end so then I was thinking okay, well maybe I could teach people some of the tricks they want to do it themselves you know, just on a non professional level things that they could do to create but then I was thinking if I teach him all this stuff then they're not going to hire me to do the master project no, I'll give you a perfect example I'm teaching you all this stuff somebody in this room is probably going to come and mental with me at some point I have a pretty good idea of who it might be, but I don't know but you're coming not just for the information coming for the experience and the expertise so that it's custom you know you could teach me all about photography I'll always be a mediocre for talk I don't have that natural eye for it I'd love to every time you take a picture I'm like okay stuck my girlfriend petra great like if she trained as a photographer she could be a professional photography has the natural I but ninety nine point nine percent of the people that you would be showing this stuff too are not going to be professional photographers and the more engaged they get with the process off photography more they like it and the more they want to do really high level photography and that's when they see that's the thing that's interesting is that people might not have a lot of experience with what you do, but until they had once they have that experience then they want more of that experience. So you've got to give him an opportunity to have that experience you know, like for example, gene is a running coach I love running but having running years because my knees are just a disaster from twenty years of martial arts you spend half the time on your knees it's not a good place for nis, but maybe jean could actually get me running who knows? It may be something in my gate that is creating this problem and maybe some maybe it's only a mile or two I could run, you know, on a regular basis, but she may be now because I'm so now disconnected from running so far away from it I don't think about it, but if I started thinking about it and seeing myself doing it and there's always some entry point there's something that gets you there you know, when I started boating it was because, um ah, some a couple that I had met um I just I barely knew them but I said oh so where you guys going and they said oh we're going down to our boat really wanted a boat love love love the water since I was a little kid I dreamed about it was just to see the yachts and be like I want one of those that I lived in manhattan so you know, my dad was a psychiatrist you know wasn't really his world but I was all of a sudden I saw that they did it and I said wait a minute I could do it too so it was the exposure and then all of a sudden you start seeing it everywhere you start seeing the possibility that he started looking from war and then the next thing you know you're obsessed I just keep counting two more days still back on the boat three more one more day till back but that's how I think it's a little crazy so each one of us has some kind of you think okay former hours before I get my run you know, we all have something that we love and if we're not exposed to something we won't know that we love it we need that exposure any other questions? Yeah um just hearing about the sale cycle just um already brings up a lot of fair because it's easy for me to get that more premium like a session or package or whatever but the little bits and all the time it takes and like when do you bring in somebody to help you with all of that? Track it all that's not my forte. Okay, so generally you bringing people to help uh sooner than you think you should it's an expense but it's an investment in the desk it doesn't need to cost a lot and you don't need to you're not writing books you need to do that you're not creating massive information type products and certainly they always have something to invite people to offer it's something you could do like that you could start it tomorrow so it's fear and this idea of when do you do all the stuff that's life that's business that's what it's all about your kids one it's really funny sometimes if I'm doing ah workshop or speech somewhere and somebody stands up like I'm so overwhelmed I don't have the time to do all of this stuff there's just too much to do first question I was asking you have kids because the answer is no, I say sit down don't you dare complain to me about not having time because anybody that has kids especially young kids, if you have multiple kids right now, it doesn't mean it's going to be easier because you don't have kids it's just sort of a joke because I have a son and you know basically you know getting ready for school and then he's home like that you know just like what well so you have to get better at doing more work and shorter periods of time and actually it's a great constraint tohave because the length of time you have to do something is generally the length of time it takes to do something so I really try not to do more than a few hours a day and I do most productive work in the morning so then how do you track or what analytics do you use to find out what are your most effective offers and things like that well so that's kind of a bigger question we could talk a little bit more about that when we are working on keeping in touch on maybe some of the web stuff but um like I just don't want to waste time I yeah I am very busy yes I wanna make sure that my time is really you get you're not creating a lot of stuff just a few things and you're looking at the results that are actually occurring right now sometimes someone betrayed and always have something to invite people to offer and then four weeks later they'll say it's not working I say seriously four weeks that's all you're going to give it anything significant takes time and he was a relationship coach know that better than anybody's so we want to do as much as we possibly can with as little as we possibly can as fastest we yes and if we approach our work like that if we're very project oriented if we're very organized then we generally produce a lot more then just some working some ideas were good ideas don't get that what is the business of business is made up of a series of successfully completed projects and those projects our work that you do to deliver on the promises that you made to the buyer their projects that execute implement on your marketing strategies their projects that helped develop the content or the experiences that you're delivering so it's a series of projects it's a siri's of work getting done and you know I really believe you could love almost every minute of the work you do even when you're doing stuff you hate doing I know that sounds contradictory because you know why you're doing it I cannot stand getting on a plane and going to a different time zone I just don't have the constitution for some people are great at it it messes with my whole body mind but I know why I'm doing it to get here to you so you know I can put up with that it's not exactly a real suffering to get on a plane and fly to seattle and you know we complain about those things but it's not exactly suffering you know, reading the p and l's every month that my bookkeeper sends me, I forced her to make her have the meeting with me, she's. I'd say you have to be relentless. You have to call me every ten minutes. If I don't want to do this until I get on the phone with you and do it, you don't really want to, but I know if I do that, I can go make more money than next month. I, khun reduce my expenses. I can separate because I see what's going on. So you've got to kind of create these constraints to force yourself into doing things that you might not want to do. But it helps, if you know why you're doing it to some kind of outcome. That's. Better to something that's, meaningful for you.