In today’s episode of the podcast I talk about selling, getting some more sales/clients for your business and using social media to do this!
KEY TAKEAWAYS COVERED IN THE PODCAST
- It has been really hard for small businesses recently
- Your worth and your knowledge is not measured by how many customers/clients you have and how much they pay you
- Our brain tells us horrible things when sales are low and it makes you panic!
- When we come from a place of fear we may offer to do something we wouldn’t normally do or offer a lower price
- When you think about doing something – pause and think would I be saying yes if I had the money and clients I needed?
- Quick wins:
- Follow up with past proposals who didn’t buy from you
- Go to your existing customers – simply ask them for a testimonial/case study, ask if they would like more from you or tell them your price is increasing, ask them if they know anyone who would like your product/service
- Go to past customers – ask if they need anything else and if they know anyone who does. “I have a space available”
- Tell people today what you do and how you can help them
- Don’t sell on social media all day every day! But do tell people how they can buy from you
- Tell people what you do, how you do it and how they can work with you/buy from you
- Long term:
- Make it easy for people to buy from you by simplifying the user process on social media – eg. Click here to do this.
- Check your sales pages/landing pages – are they convincing the customer to buy and triggering their needs?
- Could you offer training or an online course? Any other revenue streams?
THE ONE THING YOU NEED TO REMEMBER ABOVE ALL ELSE…
“What if this is exactly where I need to be right now?”
HIGHLIGHTS YOU SIMPLY CAN’T MISS
RESOURCES MENTIONED
Check out my reels on Instagram!
How to create a highly converting sales page FREE download
My webinar blueprint FREE download
Transcript:
Hello and welcome to this week's episode of the podcast. How are things? We are what in the middle of no, nearly at the end of October. Oh my goodness. Is it really old of me to say that doesn't time fly?
I think, I think that definitely stuff that I would have heard my parents say. So, um, I probably won't be saying that again, but it does though. Doesn't it? It just goes so fast. So so fast. But we won't linger on that for any longer. And talking of feeling old I decided now I decided by the time you listened to this, hopefully I'd have done a few by then.
I've decided I've got to do reels, now I really didn't want to do reels. I really don't want to look stupid. And I know the pointy things really help. And I know the lip sync and stuff are very entertaining. And I do think sometimes I can be quite funny, but I just really didn't want to do reels. But I've changed my mind.
I think I've got to, and I'm really interested in future weeks to talk about this and talk about how I've done them, what I think of them, because it's really important to me to make it authentic. I don't know about you but I've seen people do reels and I thought, oh, well, one it's made me feel a bit funny until I thought that's not you that's, that's not what you would do.
So I had some training with a very lovely lady and who does reels and we talked about it and I said, I want it to be authentic. I want it to look like me and what I would do. And what I then did was kind of come up with some, these are things that I would say or behave or my thoughts and we then thought that how could we turn them into reels rather than looking at the reels and going, how can I make that work for my business?
So I'm kind of like semi excited, semi nervous, semi cringing about the fact that I'm doing reels, but it's a thing I'm now doing reels. We'll see how it goes. I mean, by the time this episode comes out, I might given up already. You just don't know. So if you don't follow me on the Insta, do come and follow me and come and see how cringe I could look. There is going to be a pointing one.
I know there is, I've got to, I've got to do it and I will hate myself for every point at point but we're going to do it anyway. Anyway, enough of me pointing reels, we're going to be talking today about selling and about getting some more sales and getting more customers and clients. And how we should use social media in order to do that.
Now, the reason I wanted to do this episode was because running after sort of schools went back and summer was really hard on a lot of small businesses. They've really struggled with getting sales. And I think generally because the world is a little bit mad at times I don't know any better or grown-up way to describe it.
I just think it's, it's mean that for business, it's been really hard. And although I am very much into, let me motivate you and inspire you and like, you know, gee, you are up. I'm also very real in the sense of it's been hard and I'm not going to be like, ‘Yeah, but nevermind pat yourself on the back get going.' like, because it's not always as easy as that.
So I just want to acknowledge it and recognize it. But what I want us to do is look at what we can do to take action. Now, the first thing I want to talk about when it comes to struggling and needing sales or customers or clients. Now we're not, we don't ever not need them. We always want them, but you know, those times where you're like, ‘Holy moly, I think I'm going to be sick because there is literally no money coming through the door or that clients just decided they're finishing, or these customers aren't buying a fitness thing out there and no one's buying.' it's horrible. It is. It's really bad from so many reasons. The stuff our brain tells us is not nice. It starts saying stuff like, ‘Well who the hell did you think you were to do that thing? Because obviously you weren't going to be successful at that.'
And it tells you that you're stupid and you don't know what you're talking about. And people pretend to like you and they don't really like you, and they're not going to buy your stuff from you. And everyone's going to laugh at you and your friends and your family are going to be like, ‘No stupid so and so thinking she could do this.' and then you decide that your worth and your knowledge is directly attached to how much someone pays you or if they pay you.
So then what happens is, and I've had this with students at the 90 day program is when they are struggling to get clients or customers they're like, ‘Well I'm obviously no good.' Well, are you though? Like I, are you good at what you do? Because if you're relying on someone else waiting to validate that, then that's no good, is it? Like we can't, we can't only think we're good when someone buys from us and then think we're dreadful when they don't.
So our brain kicks us while we're down and tells us all these horrible things and all these things, then you panic about the money. Like I'm not even going to pretend that that is not real panic and not valid. Like you need money. We all need money and therefore not having it is a serious, serious worry.
Now, obviously I am not a money expert. And if you do have issues then, you know, maybe I'm not the person to be giving you advice on this, and then you might want to take proper advice from a real money expert. But I'm just saying that, you know, from a business point of view, when you're struggling to get clients and sales, I know what it's like, and I know how it can feel and how horrible it is.
So, what I want to do today is I want to talk some practical ways about how can we try and get some more sales and customers and using social media and that sort of thing. But before I talk about that, I actually want to address the fact that our brain is doing that thing. And this is only because I've been through this and I've worked through this that I feel like I can talk about it.
So when you're in that moment of holy crap I need a client or the inquiries have dried up or people aren't walking through the door, you go into panic. And like I said, I am not saying that is not a reasonable response because it absolutely is. However, what happens when we're in panic. And when we're in fear is that we make really bad decisions and we make decisions that we would never make if we weren't in that position.
So. What I want us to first think about is the fact of when we're panicking, we might do things that we ordinarily wouldn't do. And I have done these things. So I have taken on someone that I didn't want to take on, doing a thing I didn't want to do. Now, if I wasn't in a position of, I needed that money at that point, I would never have done that.
Now did it workout? No, of course it didn't work out it bit me on the backside hard because I should never have taking, taking it. But I was coming from fear. I was coming from panic, going, ‘Oh my word, I am a single parent and I run a house and I pay the mortgage and there is no one else earning money in this house, but me, and if I don't bring home money, I literally don't have a house my daughter and I to live in, let alone thinking about the food situation.'
So at that point, you know, you panic and you do things. So that's what I did. I took on a client that I didn't want. And I said, I could do something that I don't normally do. And I regretted it immensely. Or you do things like you say, you go back and you instantly change your pricing and you lower it, or you decide that that price that you increased a few months ago, obviously isn't working and you drop it.
Basically we just make really bad decisions when we're coming from a place of fear. When we're coming from place of fear, we don't think straight. And we just panic. I've had members that have offered a service to their list that they don't do, and they don't want to do. But they did because they suddenly thought I need the money coming through the door.
I've had people think that they need to go down a different route or pivot or whatever. And I've had people think that they need to get a job and totally understand that fear. I really do. I couldn't imagine. Like, oh couldn't imagine if I had to get a job. I know literally my stomach, I just had a very visceral reaction to the thought of ever having to actually get a job, but I get it.
But if we're coming from fear we don't make good decisions. So the first thing I want you to think about is like, can we not be in panic mode? Now I know that's not easy. It's like, ‘Oh, yeah, sure Teresa, I'll just turn that off. Thanks very much.' I know that. But panicking isn't changing anything. Being scared, isn't changing anything. All it's doing is making you feel really uncomfortable and making this whole situation a lot harder. It doesn't change the fact that you've got no clients or you've not got as many sales coming in. It just literally makes you feel rubbish. So that's the first thing.
The second thing is when you think about doing something, because you're thinking I need to get clients, I want you to try and pause and go.
If I had the clients, I needed all the money I needed, would I be doing this thing right now? Like, would I be saying yes to working with someone I don't want to work with and doing a job that I don't want to do? No, of course I wouldn't be saying yes. And at that point, hopefully you might go ‘I know I'm scared and I know I'm nervous and I know I'm worried, but can I just hold off and ride this storm a little bit longer? Because I know ultimately making that decision is not going to be the right decision to make.' So that's the other thing. Now if you want to go a little bit room but I have to say this is really helped me many, many, many times is you tell yourself, what am I, what if I am exactly where I need to be right now?
What if there is a very good reason for this at this point? I'm not saying there is, okay. I'm not saying, and I'm not trying to belittle it. I'm not trying to go and be like, you know, oh no, this is a good thing that you've got no money and you've got to feed your kids. I'm definitely not saying that. But what I'm saying is if you thought about that and thought, you know, what, if this was a good thing, what if I was where I meant need to be?
What if I needed to lose those clients because another amazing one's going to come along. What if I need to lose those clients to suddenly then free me up and this is actually what happened to me, free me up to work more my online business. And then ultimately I can move to my online business. What if, what if, like, I just want you just to like, play that story in your head.
What if I haven't got these clients, but now I've got some free time, yet granted the money is very important, but you know, is there a reason for it. Now, whether we think there is, or whether we think we don't, it might just make us feel better and ultimately isn't that much nicer. Like, again, it doesn't change anything.
It doesn't change the fact of how things are, but just changing our mindset about it might just make us feel better and make us not make stupid decisions. So that was the first thing I wanted to talk about. And like I said, that's a really hard subject and it's really hard for me to say that with the, I don't know the kind of like understanding that I'm not belittling the situation because I've been there.
If you're on my email list, you know, I sent an email a while back now, actually about the fact of when I was starting the online business, I got to one Christmas and I thought, well, I thought that was it. I thought that. Oh, well, I didn't think I didn't have the money to pay my credit card. My credit card needed paying and I didn't have the money.
I didn't have anything coming in and I was fearful. Oh. And my credit card was like at the point where it was maxed. So it's not like I had any money on the credit card and I couldn't bring, I couldn't find the money to do the minimum payment. Now I have a very lovely husband and we live in a nice house and he has you know, good money for what he does.
However, I was very proud because I started this on my own and I stand on my own two feet and I wasn't willing to speak to my husband and say, holy moly, man, I need some help. So I really panicked and thank goodness I have some amazing business friends and people around me that were able to talk me off the ledge and give me that space and go, what if, and talk to me about this thing.
So, and it worked out great and fine, but I didn't know that at the time. And I was literally having a heart attack, you know? So like I said, I'm not belittling this, but I'm just trying to, if I help you think about it differently and it just makes you feel a bit better, then surely that's got to be a good thing.
Okay. Let's go on with some practical stuff now we've talked about like the mindset and the thoughts and the woo woo stuff. Let's talk about what can you actually do because that's the most important thing. Okay. Let's fix the mindset if we can, but then let's take some real action to actually try and get some customers through the door.
So the first thing I want you to think about is doing some quick wins that you can. So some of the quick things that you can do is you can follow up with past proposals or past people that didn't buy from you, even if they chose to go with someone else, even if they decided that your thing, wasn't there thing. Why not follow up with them and say, ‘Just want to check how you got on, were you happy with that? Is there anything else you needed?'
Because what if they'd gone with someone else to do a service and actually they were rubbish and then they'd completely forgotten about you or thought you know, you just go out of their radar and then you come back at the right time. So follow up on people that haven't bought from you, about inquired about buying from you.
The next thing I want you to do is I want you to go to your existing customers. So people you are working with right now, and there's a number of things that you can do with those people. You can very simply asked them for a testimonial or a case study or a video or something. In fact, I've just recorded one, not that long ago for the amazing Phil who edits the podcast from my podcast assistant it's, uh, I will make sure and I will make sure he puts it in the shownotes cause he doesn't do the show notes. The lovely Becci does the show notes. So she will put a link to his site so you can go check him out. But ask them for, so by the way, hang on. I need to clarify, I didn't do a testimonial because Phil is like panic and he's got no sales. I just realized that the way I said that, like my saying like that, he just asked me.
And in fact, he asked ages ago and typical Teresa I take a while to do these things. But yes, he was right to ask me for a testimonial because he is amazing. So let me just clarify that he's probably going to edit this whole section out. I'm joking anyway. So dig yourself out of the holder either that you've just somehow dug yourself.
So yeah. So testimonials go and ask them for testimonials and next thing you can do, and you might not want to do all these things. You might want to pick one of them or two of them. The next thing you could do is go and say to them, ‘Are you happy with what we're doing and would you like more?' like if you bought that one thing, would you like to buy another thing?
Or if you have this service, can I add on this service? Can we do a review? You might want to consider putting prices up for them? Like I have to say there are lots of people out there who would say yes, you must every so often I was not comfortable doing that, especially in the early days because some of my clients in the early days, they flipped and saved my bacon.
Like if they hadn't come on board and had me as providing a service for them. I literally wouldn't have a roof over my head. One of my clients paid me six months in advance. I'm really sorry, but I'm not the type of person that would go. ‘That's great. Now I'm thankful for you, thanks so much.' So that's not funny.
I'm not saying don't do it. You could absolutely do it. Good thing to do with your existing customers is go to them and say, ‘Is there anybody that you could refer me to? Is there anybody that, you know, that would like my product or service that you could go and refer me to?' And then the other thing that you could do is go to past customers and do similar stuff.
So say to them, do they need anything else? Can they do a testimonial? Do they know anybody that knows your products and services or need your products and services? If you do something like I've got some people in my world who do web design, I've got people who do coaching programs, like one-to-one stuff. And often, like just saying a place has come available because often these people work really far in advance.
I know, like, especially the web design, when they get a project they're busy on it for like a month or two. For me, I only take on well, probably one a month now, not even that in some cases, 90 day people, because it's just too much time. Cause it's one-to-one so I don't take on many 90 day people because it's an intensive one-to-one thing.
So you know when one comes to an end. In fact, I never market the 90 day program ever. Like maybe I should. I don't know. I just don't want too many people applying in case I get too busy. And like I said, I don't want that many people. But when one person comes to an end, which actually one, two we're about to finish soon.
Then maybe I say, I've got a space. So you could do that. You could say, I have a space available. Then on a very simple terms is you could tell people today what you do and how they can buy from you. Because you know that on social media, we don't often sell as much as we should or could. Now, do I want you to sell on social media all day everyday?
No I don't. And in fact, I was looking at mine the other day and I was like, oh God, I hate that whole section of Instagram because it's just me saying, ‘Join the academy or join, build my list.' Or, you know, I wish you, I wished by osmosis, you could all just realize how amazing my stuff is and then just go, ‘oh, I've just got to join.' then I don't ever have to sell.
I'd really love that. Uh, if that could ever be a thing. Please. Thank you. Yeah. So put on social media. This is what I do. Like I said, we get nervous to do that, and I don't want you to do that every day of every week, because that would be boring content and no one would want to follow you or engage with you, but in the same breath, they also do need to know what you do and how to buy from you.
And you need to make sure that it's obvious. You need to make sure that you are telling them this is what I do. This is how I do it, and this is how you can pay me for that thing. So that's another thought. So those are kind of quick things that you could do today. Like you can send those emails today.
You could follow up with those people. Oh, sends an email to your email list saying ‘I've got a space available.' Or “Did you know I do this, do you want it?' And be really explicit with it? Like use the language that is really direct and say, this is what I do, if you want to buy it, you can do this or book a call with me or whatever the process is.
So those are the kinds of things that you can do straight off the bat that you can basically go yet done. I can do that today. It was a couple of things I want you to think about that are a little bit longer term. But still very useful. And if you don't do them, then you definitely should. So, one thing I want you to think about with this, and this comes back to selling on social is that it's all well and good saying on social media, this is the thing I do, but what's the process for them.
Are you making it easy for them? So if I come to your social media and you're like, ‘Hey, I do this.' Okay that sounds cool. I want to, I want to get involved or I want to have that service. The process that I then take is that easy. So what I'd love to do is I'd love to have a link, like just there that says, click this and do this thing.
So telling me what is the next step. So let's say it's a service that I buy straight online, click this and buy this today, click this and get access to it now. If it's a service that is a bit longer, it might be click this and booking a discovery call or click this and find out more.
Where is that link then taking me? Because that's the other thing like selling on social media is one thing, but you've got to send them somewhere else other than, unless you ask them to DM you, um, which again, that's perfectly valid, but where are you taking them? So are you taking them to your website or to a landing page or to a page that is a contact me or a booking form?
Because if I've got to go searching for something I am less likely to do that because we're all very busy and I want you to make it as very simple and as easy for me as possible. So if I click and you just take. So let's say this has happened a million times, I see a product someone's talking about a product.
I click to go and look at the product and it takes me to a homepage. I'm not searching for that product. Like, no, I wanted to be on that product page to look at that particular product. So if I've got to go and look for it, that, and some clothes adverts that come up and I can't think of what the company is, but they do that all the time.
It's really frustrating because you see something like, ‘oh, that's nice. I might buy that.' And then you click and they take you to their homepage and like, I don't want to search for that thing. So you taking them to the actual page that they need to be, or you just take them to homepage. If I get to your website, do you make it really obvious for me where I find out how I can work with you?
So I think she says, hang on I'm checking because you know, this isn't going to be a case of Do as I say, not as I do. Now I'm fairly sure that mine does do this. Yes. I have a tab on my homepage that says, work with Teresa. So really obviously this is how you can work with me. And when you click on the work with Teresa, you've got three options.
I think she says again, I need to update this one is the academy when just as learn more because it's closed, as in the doors are closed, one is the 90 day focus and it does say learn more, but then that will go through to an application. And one is, do you want me to speak for you. You can see really easily there that these are the services I offer. These are the things I do.
Now granted, I should probably have built my list on there but that's my front. So are you making it obvious? Do you have a How do you work with your services page? Do you have a product pages? And if so, when you send a link, is it going to that direct product page? That's the, that's one of the things to think about is where are you actually sending people?
The things to think about is how is that page? Like so I have put a lot of work and time into sales pages. I hate call them sales pages. They are sales pages and about the kind of psychology around it and what needs to go on it. I actually have a download, which you can go and grab. I'll get back to put it in the show notes.
That's how to create a highly converting sales page. And it talks about the key things that you need to put on a sales page. But again, Are you convincing me when I get to that page as to why I need this thing, or if it's for me, because I need to identify quickly, whether it's for me or not. If it's not, that's fine.
I won't waste my time or your time. If it is, then I need to see that quickly. So are you sending them to the right places? Are they seeing the things that you need them to see? And then you can do other things like you can pivot but don't do it immediately and then suddenly send out an email. Like you can go actually, is there another service I can offer?
So let's say you are a freelance social media. Could you offer power hours? I hate the word power hours. I feel like we need a new word for that, but could you do that? Could you offer some training? Could you do a little online course? Like, is there other revenue streams that you could consider. That. And again, a web designer is a really good example actually, or someone who works on product basis.
So you get a product project base. So someone like the graphic designer that does branding, like it's really hard to, unless you are unflippin believable and people are willing to go on a wait list and then you've got your things booked up all year. It's really hard to know when there next sales coming from. So having another thing that brings you in a bit of income could be really good.
So at least, you know, some is coming in on a more retained basis. If you're a product-based company or business, then again, you might want to think about looking back at what's been selling well, what are you promoting, can you cross sell, can you upsell, can you bundle things up of ways to try and push your products in front of people?
So, yeah, so we were talking about sales page. I've got I digress then, but yeah. So you might want to pivot into a different product. You might want to pivot into something else. You might want to look at doing a webinar and promoting something on the back of that. Again, I have a really good a freebie for webinars, my webinar blueprint.
If you want to go and have a look at that, I will get Becci to link up to that in the show notes. I think it's teresaheathwareing.com/blueprint but the link will be there. So yeah, like there's lots of things you can do. But like I said, the key thing here is don't panic. Think about the change you're going to make or the thing you want to do.
And think about actually would I do that if I wasn't in this position right now? And if it's a no, then I would just give it another thought. I'm not saying don't do it because sometimes we need to take slightly crazy measures, but I'm just saying at least think about it because inevitably when I've lowered my prices or taken on something that I didn't want to do or didn't want to work with, it is always bitten me in the backside.
It's never really worked the way I needed it to work. So it might've helped me for that month maybe while, then someone else came on board, but it never really panned out. So I really hope this has given you just a few ideas, given you a different way to think about it. It's horrible. It is horrible.
I've got nothing else to say other than that. It's not nice when you're in that position. It's not nice when you are trying to sell something and it doesn't sell. And it does make you feel like, well, there's obviously something wrong with me, but there isn't, there are many reasons why people don't buy from us. And probably most of them don't have anything to do with us.
You know, they've changed their mind. They don't have the money that now isn't the right time. Loads of reasons. So try really hard not to let it cloud your judgment and affect the way you feel. Although, like I said, I'm not stupid. It's hard. It's really hard. Okay. I'm going to leave you there. Feel like that was really like, Ooh, that went a bit heavy then didn't it?
Um, let's lighten things up. Okay. I'm going to go. I will be back next week with an interview. I've spent a few days batching all brand new interviews. So. Brand new, it's not like I repeat the others, but as in, cause I batch, I haven't done interviews for ages, so I'm excited to bring you some of them starting next week.
Okay. Guys have a lovely week. And if you happen to be in and arrange your app and you stumble on the review thing and you want to hit five stars and say, ‘She's alright. And knows what she's talking about and is vaguely entertaining.' Then please do that. I would appreciate it greatly until then. I will see you next week. Take care.
