Key Takeaways Covered In The Podcast
One of the hardest things to do as a business or entrepreneur is putting a value on yourself and believing that you are worth the value you have set.
Consider how much time and money you have spent improving your knowledge and investing in your business. You’re doing everything you can to be bigger and better for your clients, so you should be charging for your advice.
Next time you are about to sell something to someone, consider how you’re serving them. Your product or service is going to be serving the recipient, so don’t feel bad for asking for money in return. You need something back in return for your skills and knowledge.
Every customer that comes to you to buy a product or service has a problem. Think about their pain points as it will allow you create marketing materials that directly address your potential clients struggles.
Rather than talking about your product and service, consider talking about the feelings and results that your potential customer will receive if they purchase from them. Think about the features and benefits of each aspect of your product, including ‘feeling’ words in your marketing efforts.
In order to convince people that they should be purchasing from you, you may want to consider using testimonials and case studies that you have previously earned. Think about asking people who have already purchased your product and ask if they would be happy to give you a short testimonial or review. If you can get a video testimonial, even better!
To sell your product or service you need to show people why you are an expert. Whilst this doesn’t mean going into extensive details about the experience and qualifications you have, but instead talking about the results you’ve had and the projects you’ve successfully worked on – whether it’s a podcast, eBook or course.
When you’re selling a product or service you are going to come across rejections. Whilst this may be disheartening, being honest about rejections in your marketing may help people trust you, as well as giving you a chance to answer any objections they may have.
The one thing you need to remember above all else…
It’s important to remember that you can’t always offer your time and ideas for free. Value yourself and your work. Whether it’s sharing tips with other entrepreneurs or helping a business grow, you should be charging for what you’re doing.
Highlights You Simply Can’t Miss
- Having A Sales Mindset – 05:28
- Selling Is Serving – 12:00
- #1 Understand Your Customers Pain Points – 14:28
- #2 Talking About Feelings And Results, Rather Than Your Product And Service – 19:10
- #3 Make Sure You Have Good Examples, Case Studies And Testimonials – 21:25
- #4 Talk About Why You Are An Expert – 23:00
- #5 Think About Rejections 25:44
Transcript below
Hello there and welcome to this week’s episode of the podcast. And as always I am your host, Teresa Heath-Wareing. So when this episode comes out it’s going to be almost the end of March. And you know what, I can’t actually believe it. The first three months of this year has flown by and you know when you think to yourself gosh I’ve got so much time to do things. That’s ages away. And then suddenly before you know it, it’s on top of you. And I hate saying this stuff because I feel so old. I feel like this is stuff I used to hear my parents say or my mum says and I don’t like talking about it.
Also, another reason I don’t like talking about how fast time’s going is because I am a very true believer that’s basically what we think is what happens. So if you constantly think “I’ve got no time I’m running at a time”. Time’s going so fast then the only evidence you’re going to see is that is that time is going so fast. So I try super hard to try and think about “I’ve got loads of time to do this. This is just as I need it. I’ve got just enough time that I need.” I’m not saying it always works. However, I do try and think like that. But yeah it.. Secretly between you and I, it is going crazy crazy fast. And also I’ve been doing a lot of travelling I’ve been away a lot so so far I have been in Dublin and Leeds and Dubai and Newcastle and actually I think when this podcast episodes out, I think I’m flying to San Diego. So yeah it’s going to be a bit of a crazy month and then April, I’m in California again.
First off, if you listen to the podcast and you’re going to be at Social Media Marketing World then please come and DM me and tell me because I would love to meet up with you. It be so great to meet some of the listeners there if you’re going to be in Social Media Marketing World. Also, I’m going to be impact summer in California at the beginning of April so if anybody’s gonna be there then again please let me know. I would love to meet up and I’m actually going to be spending probably about a good week or so in L.A. So again anybody in L.A. that wants to come to say hi I would love to see. So please do reach out and let’s try and meet up because I would love that.
Anyway let’s talk about today’s episode of the podcast. It’s going to be a good one. I’m excited about this episode because I’m going slightly off piece a little bit. Only a tiny bit because I’m gonna be talking about selling now. It might feel like that’s a little bit off piece but actually what is marketing ultimately doing. It’s ultimately trying to sell a good product or service and therefore sometimes we find marketing, okay and we’re happy to do that. But when it comes to the actual selling we hate it. And people really do struggle with selling things especially when it’s a service and especially when that service is them. That is a real challenge to some people.
So what we’re gonna be looking at in today’s episode is I’m going to first off talk about the mindset around selling and a couple of things that have helped me in terms of feeling confident about the price I put out there and then the second part of the podcast is going to be aimed at giving you some tips on how you can sell your product and service better. So it’s going to be things that you can either do in person you can do on a website you can do on a webinar you can do on a sales page but hopefully some of these tips are just going to help you think slightly differently about how you actually go for that sale at the end of the marketing at the end of your process. What kind of things can you say to help you a) feel better about selling and b) to convince the person I guess on the other end of the sale that this is the thing they want to do. Because ultimately I know we love what we do and don’t get me wrong, I do love what I do and obviously the podcast doesn’t necessarily bring me direct income and I still continue to do it because I adore it and I adore hearing from you guys and knowing that you’re enjoying it and therefore I obviously do cause I love it. But ultimately somewhere along the line, I have to charge for something because you know what my mortgage is not going to pay itself and my daughter’s school fees aren’t gonna pay us off so I do need to earn some money and it’s how we get over that. So we don’t feel bad or sleazy like a horrible salesman because I think when we think sales I don’t about you but that’s the image that gets conjured up in my head that I’m going to be and I’m not going to pick an industry because I know there’s some industries that are really associated with bad selling. So I’m not going to say any of those industries but I’m sure we can all think of one where we feel like someone’s really tried to sell the US and it’s not nice it doesn’t feel great. So today we’re going to look at how we can do that and make that feel a little bit nicer and make it easier for us to do so.
So OK let’s start off by talking about minds that they like I said in terms of the thing that you’re actually selling. This is possibly more important when you’re selling yourself or you’re selling a service when it comes to a product. I don’t know about you but I do find it easier to sell it. I also find it easier to price that product because you obviously can have a look at the effort that goes into making it. The time it takes the parts it needs and therefore to work out a price is not so difficult. And also you know your base price you know that I cannot go lower than this because this is my break-even point. So like I said the first thing that we’re gonna think about is mindset. But when it comes down to you as your product or service or do you are selling a service. So you know what was really interesting when I first started my business one of the things I struggled with the most was actually putting a price on my head. Now honestly that’s got to be one of the hardest things ever. And also believing in that value that you’ve put on your own head and how you equate that into then selling that to a customer. It’s really really difficult. And I tell you what the turning point for me was now obviously I had had a degree in marketing. I had spent three years at university. I then worked in marketing for over 10 years at that point. And yet for some reason, I couldn’t put a value on that. I don’t know why but I find that really really difficult. So all those years of practice all those years of training and all those years of doing marketing I couldn’t then come out the other end and go This is what I’m worth. And I tell you what really made the biggest change for me is I had done loads of meetings in the early days where I’d gone and met people who had asked to have a coffee with me. We’ve all been there I’m sure. And I went and had a coffee with them and I thought I was going to pitch and they basically just took all the ideas out my brain and of course, I was the fool who gave them over.
I’m not sitting here saying they somehow extracted them without me realizing because I get excited about what I do. I can’t help but just give ideas and talk and say basically what would happen is I’d go and meet someone. I would then sit there for like two. And it’s been known to sit there for three hours and give them all my ideas and tell them how exciting things could be if they did this and did this and did this and then I go back to the office and I then spend another hour or so doing a proposal only to send it to them for them to go oh we can’t afford you or Oh we’re okay thanks. Well, of course, they’re okay thanks. They’ve just sat there for three hours and took every idea at my head. I stupidly gave it all away for free.
So anyway I went to the states for a conference. I’d always dreamed of doing it. I really wanted to do it and the first conference I went to was converted which was a lead Page’s conference. And I went to Minneapolis as an attendee of this conference and I spent a lot of money. Now if you’ve not done a conference in the UK or in the States or wherever you are then you might not know what these things cost because they’re not cheap. So they will cost anywhere between a couple of hundred pounds all the way up to a thousand pounds. So I mentioned I was going to be an impact summit and I’ve just paid a thousand I think a thousand dollars actually for that ticket. So obviously I’d spent the money on the ticket. I’d spent the money on the flight. I then spent the money on the hotel and then obviously while you’re over there you’re paying for food and drink and everything else that you’re doing. And obviously, the other thing I’d done is taken like four or five days out of my own business to go and do it. And I literally came back from that conference with a bill like an exact amount of what I’d spent to go to that conference and it comes to. I don’t know I think that one was about three three thousand pounds maybe something like that.
Anyway came back from the conference with this bill. Thinking gosh that was a lot of money I’ve just spent there but it was well worth it because I’ve just learned so much amazing stuff. And when I got back no joke I had about three or four people messaged me who knew me very well and said Hey Teresa how was the conference. I’d love to hear about it. Can we go for a coffee. And I thought No no we can’t go for coffee because you know what. I’ve just spent 4000 pounds or 3000 whatever it was going over there to learn these things and you want to take me for a coffee to pick my brain and find out the stuff that I’ve just spent all that money to find. And I actually suddenly got it. I suddenly realized what on earth was I doing selling myself cheap also going out there and giving ideas away. It was madness that actually even though all those years of experience and paying for university which by the way I am still paying, for now, you know as an adult I am still paying for the fees that I paid to go to university for. So I guess I should equate that into everything. But it did him but it wasn’t until I spent a big chunk of money that I could physically see that I then realized actually this is craziness. I should be charging people a decent amount for what I’m doing. The other thing that I want you to think about here. So first thing go back and think about all the things you spent money on. Think about how much time you spend for example how many hours you spent listening to my podcasts to get better to better understand what you’re doing or to market yourself better or if you’re working for clients or whatever then you know market them better. So first off think about the time in the investment you put into learning your skill and your trade. And then if you do spend money on things like conferences or courses or whatever training it might be. Then again think about that and think that you’re doing all this to get bigger and better for your clients and your customers. So actually when you have any doubt in your mind is that too much. Or should I be charging this? Just go back and just add up some of those cause I promise you it’s well worth it to them to not have to do all the work that you’ve done to get you to this point. So don’t ever feel bad.
So like I said that was the first thing from a mindset point of view that really helped me think about how to value my brain or how to not feel bad about the fact that I was putting a price on my own brain and the other thing I want you to think about that really helped my own mindset was thinking about selling a serving. Now, this might sound a little bit. I dunno does it sound a bit cliche but actually so so true. First off to do this you’ve got to know that Hughes got a good product or service and I don’t doubt in my mind that you haven’t got a good product and service because you know what if you’re spending time listening to this and trying to train and learn and get better then there’s no way you are trying to cheat people out of their money by giving them something terrible. So I’m absolutely adamant that you are offering a quality product and service so next time you’re thinking about this and next time you’re about to sell something to someone. Think about your serving them you’re helping them. They’ve got a problem and your product or service is going to fix that problem for them and therefore that is obviously worth an exchange of money. Now what that amount of money is that depends on you and them. However, don’t feel bad that you are asking for money for giving some benefit to them and some help them you are serving them but understandably you want some recompense for that you need something back and that is in the form of money so don’t feel bad about that. And that’s the way I like to think about it. And as long as I know the thing I’m offering as a service is good and is going to help them. I don’t feel bad. Okay so as I said there are just a few little mindset things that I think about that really helped me get over having to put a price on my head or having the confidence to go out there and say I would like money for this thing. And now what I’m gonna do is I’m going to go through five points Five things that I use when I’m in a more sales mode. So this might be when I’m talking to someone it might be in an email. It might be on my Web site. It might be on a sales page. In fact, if you are doing a sales page these points are a must. Again if I’m selling on a webinar these points are really helpful as well. And like I said it might be that you’re not necessarily putting together a sales page where you’re going to have all these things on it. However I definitely think it’s worth answering all these points for your product or service because it will definitely help you get a better clearer minds that as to why and how people should buy your product and service but also you’ll definitely be able to use some of these tools in various places in your marketing. Okay, so tip number one understand your customers pain points. Now, what do I mean by pain points? Now every customer that comes to you to buy your product or service has a problem obviously because your product or service fixes that problem. So you want to start thinking about what other pain points your customers have. Now let me explain this. For instance, let’s say I’m putting on a cause I’m not by the way but let’s say I’m putting on a course an in-person course on how to do Facebook ads. The chances of people comings that course because they want to become a genius in Facebook ads. It’s been their dream. They want to know how to create an ad and it’s just something they want to do for their own benefit is fairly slim Okay that’s not their pain point their pain point is not the desire to be amazing at Facebook ads okay.
Might be for some people but generally not what their pain point is either they want that skill because they want to offer something better to their clients or they want to offer a new thing to their clients so that’s their pain point. They’ve identified that there’s a gap in their skill set and they want to offer something or they know they can charge more if they have that or their pain point might be that they are a business owner and they know that they need more sales and they’ve heard that Facebook ads can help to get them more sales so their pain point is the fact that they want more sales or more inquiries or more prospects their pain point isn’t that they want to be a genius on Facebook ads because ultimately if I turn drains them and said You know what you could get more sales more prospects more people in your funnel if you go and stand on your head in the middle of the street then you know who hope they might be more inclined to do that than necessarily come into the Facebook ads. It’s not necessarily the physical thing that you’re teaching them. It’s that outcome that they’re looking for. It’s the problem that they’re trying to solve. So for instance, if you were a coach it’s not that anybody sits there thinking I desperately want to coach I really want a coach I’ve always dreamt of having a coach they normally have a need and they might not even know that a coach is the answer to fixing that pain point. So by looking at the pain point first by understanding what that problem is. So for instance, if you’re a coach and you do a business coach it might be are you tired of not having clarity about your business. Are you struggling to see the path forward? Are you not prioritizing things or is the business not growing as you need it to be or wants it to be. So those might be the pain points. Now the solution is obviously going to be you as a coach. However like I said they might not even sit there and saw I need a coach. They might just know their pain point. So if all your marketing was aimed at talking about you as a coach and what makes you an amazing coach and what’s brilliant about being a coach then that might go straight over their head.
They might not resonate with it. They might not see it. They might not engage with it. However, if your marketing was all about are you struggling in your business do you struggle to see a way forward. I’m obviously just making these things up as I go along. But you get my point. If the marketing that you put out there on your website or on your social media or wherever you might market talked about the problem that someone might have then obviously they might resonate with that quicker and they might think Yeah that’s me. I have that problem. And then they might be open to the idea of well actually I didn’t even know a coach existed to help with that sort of thing. And you might think to me Well, of course, they would know but actually, I think generally in marketing and selling you need to think about that they don’t know and we have to be really obvious. But like I said look at the pain points first understand the pain points that your customers have and market to those points. So again another one when we talk about social media one word that I hear all the time is that people are overwhelmed they’re overwhelmed by knowing what to do how to keep up to date they’re struggling with what platform they should be on keeping sort of time management. There’s so much to do. Therefore when I market I often talk about fixing that overwhelm. Again I’m not physically sat there going I’m going to teach you how to do this and that and the other I’m talking about their pain point. So that’s point number one thinking about their pain point and how you’re going to fix them.
Point number two is talking a bit around the feelings and the results rather than the actual thing. So it follows on nicely from the pain point but I want you to think about when you’re telling them what they get. So, for instance, I’ve recently sold my course course is still on sale and on the webinar I talked about what they physically get if they buy the course. And I obviously listed eight things like you get downloads of worksheets and planners you get videos you get lifetime access you get a private Facebook group. So those are the actual things that they’re getting when they buy the physical course. However, the other thing I added which I think super important is flip that around and what does that mean to them. Now you know their pain points you know the issues that they’ve got. And this bears what it means to them should be the benefits or the things that solve those pain points. So for instance on my webinar when I talked about it when I did the what it means to them I included things like. It means that you won’t feel overwhelmed anymore. It means that you won’t be stuck for an idea or you won’t be stuck trying to find an image. It means that you will save so much time coming up with concept ideas for social media. So there’s all these various things that I then list today which almost when you go back and look at each pain point it almost answered each pain point. So again although obviously, they’re going to want to know what they physically get for their money the thing that’s really going to sell it to them is telling them the benefits that they’re going to get from that thing from them. Actually purchasing that product or service and when I talk about talking about feelings people actually really better resonate with emotions and feelings than they do with necessarily practical stuff. So again throwing in a few feeling words in there is great. So talking about you know you’re no longer going to feel overwhelmed you’re going to feel like you’re going to feel positive. You’re going to feel whatever those kind of feelings are that they’re going to get at the end of the product and service. So try and see a bit from that point of view as well.
Okay. Point number 3. So one of the things that obviously works really well and this isn’t new to anybody but always worth mentioning is good examples case studies and testimonials. One thing we need to do as online sellers is we need to convince people from a distance that we are credible and worth taking a risk by giving us their money. And one of the ways that we can do this is show them that we’ve done this work with other people or we’ve had these results in the past to make us credible.
So obviously if you’ve got any case studies any testimonials. Then again using these everywhere if you can use video testimonials then fantastic that might be a really nice thing to be putting out there on social media. If you can ask people on LinkedIn to write you recommendations that it’s come directly from their LinkedIn. Again that’s a great way to do this. So for me, that is a really important part of the sales process because you’re giving people confidence. Also when you’re asking people to write the testimonials or film the testimonials again ask them how did they feel before they had your product or service and then ask them how do they feel now that they’ve had your product or service.
Again using those feeling words are really going to help. And even more so when they’re coming out of someone else’s mouth. It’s a much more trusting and believing way that you are who you say you are and you do what you say you do. So. Point number four we need to talk a bit about what makes us an expert. Why should they get their products or service from us? Why are we so good now? I don’t want you to get completely bogged down by this because you know what in all truth they don’t really want to hear about us. They don’t want to hear our backstory. They don’t want to hear you know how many years training and how many degrees or whatever they don’t necessarily need to know all those details. However, you do want to give them some information about you and what makes you an expert. Now, by all means, send them to your about page on your website which can go into lots and lots of details about everything about you. However, if you’re talking about social media or a sales page or a webinar you really want to try and keep it brief and succinct so often bullet points are great. So the headline points what makes you an expert. You know how many years experience if you have have got degrees or whatever who’ve you worked with what results can you get. Have you got a podcast? Do you speak? Have you written a book? Those sorts of things whatever makes them feel more confident that actually, you are the person you say you are and your worth giving that money to. Because obviously, I want to know that someone’s credible. If I am going to give someone my money then I want to know that they’re worth it. And you know what’s really interesting I said if I said this before on the podcast. However when I. I’d obviously got a degree in marketing and when I started working in social media I then decided that I wanted to become a member of the Chartered Institute of Marketers and it was really interesting because the only reason I did this was because I felt that people didn’t take social media seriously and often people who were doing social media hadn’t got a background in marketing and therefore for my credibility I wanted to say to people I’ve got I’m a member of the Chartered Institute marketers in order to like that make myself sound more credible. Now the truth is the only way I get to be a member is based on my experience my qualifications. So I actually haven’t done anything in addition to become a member it’s just the fact that I can say I’m a member so it’s really fascinating that I felt I needed to do that in order to show that credibility a little bit more. But anyway like I said Make sure you go through tell people what makes you an expert. But don’t go too much on about it. And also if you can add a personal Y in there or something a bit personal then great. But again don’t go overboard on the whole you know I do my family this is my dog. This is my husband there’s my children blah blah blah blah okay. And then the last tip number five. This is a really interesting one. I know some of you are going to be like I don’t think I like this one. However, it’s really powerful. I want you to think about their objections. So when you’re selling a product or service everyone has got an objection at some point and you’re going to have varying degrees of the type of objection. So for me because I sell an online product and because I have a course the two main ones I get all the time or the two main ones that but anybody selling that kind of thing online gets all the time is I can’t afford it. I don’t have the time and then obviously you’ll get a load of other objections that are necessary to do with that area or the actual thing. And it’s not that people are completely anti the thing that you’re selling but obviously, they’re sat there weighing up in their head thinking Okay should I spend this money is it worth my time. Is it going to be good? What if I don’t like it and they’re trying to make a decision in their own head. Now what I often see with lots of businesses is that they avoid the objections altogether. They don’t want to almost be open and honest about them because they almost feel like well if I talk about these objections people might then not thought about them and then I’m planting it in their head or if I bring up before they do. Then again like you said I’m planting it in their head and then not going to buy from me. But in fact, it has the complete opposite effect because when you are being upfront about objections and you are being honest about them then it really helps people not only trust you because they know you’re not gonna hide behind something but also it meets them. So instead of them having the objection and they had maybe nothing can and maybe not talking about it or talking about it and you’re on the back foot because you don’t know what to say it means that you’re able to answer that objection really quickly really succinctly and therefore that kind of shuts that objection down. Now again it’s not that you’re trying to be total sales. It’s just that you’re trying to weigh up all the negative reasons why someone might not buy from you. So let’s take the time one for instance.
So for me if someone says to me I’d love to do your course tourism but I just don’t have the time. One of the arguments or one of the things I might say back on a sales page or in person or wherever it might be is I totally understand you know what time is super precious but I can promise you that investing in what’s going to be two or three hours tops is actually going to save you so much time in the long run. So this is actually going to benefit you by spending this time. Now you’re going to save a lot of time in the future. Now I haven’t been totally sales they haven’t said their objection is wrong or not right. I’ve agreed that yes their time is super precious and I’ve told them why I feel that actually, it’s worth investing that time again. The things about money I can’t afford it. Again I might come back and say it is an investment now. Actually the course currently sales are 97 pounds. I think I’ve stuck my head. It’s 97. So it’s actually not loads and loads of money. However, I might turn round and say it is an investment. It is almost 100 pounds. However, your time is worth so much more than that. And if you’re wasting too much time on creating content or coming up with ideas then while you’re doing that you’re not going to be selling your time where you should be selling your timing or you’re not going to be using your time efficiently where you could be making money. Instead, you’re messing around trying to come up with content for social media. When actually I could just help you and do it so much quicker.
So for this last point I’d like you to do a little bit of homework. I want you to think about all the reasons people have said they don’t want to buy your product or service. And I want you to think of the answer that you might give in return for that. Now I had a really good example of this where James Wedmore when I was on one of his conferences he was talking about this and about objections and he said that he was selling a video course and someone said one of their objections was that they didn’t want to put their face on camera and therefore James came back and said jet no problem. Totally understand. And actually, you’ll see that the percentage of videos that get great results from someone not being on camera is actually really good. So again he went out there and found contrary to the belief. So there’s always going to be some example out there where it goes against their objection and prove their objection wrong. So like I said I’d really like you to think about this one because I think this is so powerful. And also if you are a person that sales face to face when someone gets ready to say that to you or in that meeting where they’re saying or about say you know X their word birds then you’re going to be ready to come back and you know what it’s not that like I said we’re trying to be 40 salespeople were just trying to go to you know what. That’s great but actually I found in the course that there I’ve been told they save so much time ongoing that it’s worth the time investment now whatever and if at that point they still don’t want to buy then cool no problem at all. But I just want to get it all out there so you understand. And so that they can appreciate what it can do for them and actually that their objection might not be as strong as they think is. So I really hope I’ve given you some really nice insight into different things that you can think about when selling your product and service and not feeling sleazy and horrible about it but actually thinking to yourself you know what I am doing you a great favor. I have spent years learning how to be a coach or learning how to be a chiropractor or a nutritionist whatever you might be. I have invested so much time and money into this. I know what I’m talking about and I know I can help you and I can improve things for you. So don’t feel that actually selling your service is a sleazy horrible thing to do because I promise you it’s not. You are helping people out there said, therefore, don’t feel like you can’t actually then go and sell your product or service to them. So I really hope I’ve given you a bit of food for thought there and giving you some tips and tools around selling and how it can feel not so yucky and how you might feel more confident about it. You know that without even thinking. This episode is perfect timing because next week I have an interview episode with a lovely lady called Jen, who I met at one of James’s events. She’s part of the same group that I am and she is talking about how to get more clients and you know what. It was a really good episode and one thing that I’m not very good at is being super proactive around getting clients.
So it was really helpful to hear some of her tools that she uses in order to get her clients and she’s got some amazing good clients. So I think that’s going to be a really really good one to follow up from this one. In terms of building your business and getting more clients or selling more products and services so I really hope you’ve enjoyed this one. The ones where I took them I intend to be a little bit shorter which I actually don’t think is a bad thing let me know what you think. Come and hit me up in the DMs or send me an Instastory. I love to see them so hope you have a really great week and I really look forward to speaking to you next week. Take care.
