I’m going to unpack our key framework that we use here at Campaign Sauce. This is how we grow our business, and how we help our clients grow their businesses as well.
First, we have to take any conversation about selling out of overt sales language. I’m trying toget away from lingo that you hear in sales teams and sales management because most of usdon’t live in that world.
Sadly, I think a lot of damage has been done by talking about selling as if it were some skill that only super humans possess.
I don’t think this is the case at all.
I find that most people don’t like selling, but everyone enjoys having conversations. When you realize that your path to a bigger future is tied directly to having more conversations, then creating that future becomes a lot easier.
Some of these conversations you have face-to-face, some of these conversations you have over email, sometimes over texting, and sometimes over social media.
There’s never been a better time in the history of the world to have meaningful conversations with people. Most importantly, you can do this in a way that is comfortable for you and feels natural.
So let’s unpack The Three Conversations.
My company works with a wide array of people with self-generated income. This ranges from people who hold commission-based sales roles in a company to self-employed couples who sell their goods through an online store.
So, you’ll hear me mention examples that range across the spectrum in order to appeal to a wider audience. With that in mind, let’s get started.
Conversation 1: Introducing people to your business
This is the very first time that people are coming into contact with you or learning about your business.
This could be as simple as a one-sentence reply while having lunch with someone new, but it often involves a larger audience.
Some examples are:
Setting up a booth at large “fishbowl” events such as a trade show, a festival, a craft fair, a juried art show, or a business expo at a chamber of commerce.
For those of you into online marketing, it could be a big awareness or traffic campaign.
For those of you who run with the influencer crowd, this could mean having a prominent person mention your product.
Some of these conversations are automated. Some aren’t.
Some of these are very high touch and very personalized. Some of them aren’t.
Some of these are scalable and allow you a very large reach with your message. Some are not.
The good news is that there are a ton of ways to introduce people to your business, and there has never been a better time to do this at scale.
Conversation 2: Reminding people about your business
Like conversation one, there are many, many ways to remind people about your business.
The shortlist includes simply picking up your phone and calling someone to follow up with them.
It could be a reminder email sent to an individual. It could be a short text message. A handwritten letter. An email campaign.
With a few minutes of thought, I’m sure you can come up with dozens of ways that you can remind people about your business.
The good news is that in that list you will find one or two ways that feel right for you.
Reminding people about your business is probably the least glamorous thing business owners do.
As a result, it tends to get the least amount of attention.
I found that the extroverts tend to love Conversation 1 – they love trade shows they love
festivals. they love being in front of people and meeting new people. This is a source of energy for them, and they love it.
I’ve also found that the introverts find their excitement in their next social media campaign.
They enjoy getting the word out without all the fuss of dealing with people.
Of the business owners who will have Conversation 1, most of them want to skip straight to Conversation 3. They want people to buy stuff. They’re looking for revenue.
However, you do not want to skip Conversation 2. I can’t tell you the number of times that this has happened here in my business and with my clients.
Once the sale is made, the new customer says something along the lines of “I’ve been
following your work for years and been meaning to do business with you. Seeing your most recent message is what made me come to you now.”
The only reason that the sale happened is because of doing a good job in Conversation 2.
Failing to do a good job in Conversation 2 means you are leaving money on the table.
I’ve known several companies that are operating well into the million dollar range yet they send out barely 3 to 4 emails a year. You just can’t imagine the amount of money that these businesses are leaving on the table.
When I go to art shows or gallery crawls, I often sign up for people’s mailing lists; however, I can count on one hand the number of times I have heard from these people.
I was introduced to their business (Conversation 1), but I was not reminded about their
business. As a result, as I head into the next holiday shopping season, I don’t even remember any of these businesses.
The good news is that of the many, many, ways to remind people about your business, several of them can be automated.
With a little bit of set up work each month, you can run most of your reminders on auto pilot which allows you to continue nurturing people who were introduced to your business and preparing them for Conversation 3.
Conversation 3: Inviting people to buy from your business.
This is the fun part. This is where the cash register rings!
This is where you write the big contract and land the big whale that you’ve been chasing for three years.
This is where you receive a record number of orders in your online store.
While everyone enjoys this, almost across the board I find this one thing to be true with all the clients I work with: People don’t do enough of it.
Their process for having these conversations often lacks a great deal of structure. Again, due to the amount of distractions in a business, it is very easy for these conversations to get neglected or to be left to chance.
For example, if you’re in a more traditional sales role, you probably have a list of prospects that you should be connecting with but haven’t quite found the time to do it.
You may even find yourself with a list of people who have your sales proposals – people who have said they are interested in doing business with you – yet you haven’t found the time to follow up with them.
For those of you who are in more of an online world, you may find that you were too busy dealing with supply chain issues, creating products, and shipping orders that you do not send out this month’s email campaign.
The good news is that by having more sales conversations you get to enjoy the reward for your effort.
You get the “win” and the great feeling that comes with it.
Now that we’ve covered three conversations, I want to discuss the big obstacles that keep people from having more of these beneficial conversations.
The Big Obstacles
These are the situations that keep people from having more conversations about their business.
As a result these owners are not enjoying the lifestyle that they want nor the income that they deserve.
Inertia
The first is inertia. There’s simply a lot going on in everyone’s business. As labor cost increase, people feel the squeeze and often do not have enough people in their business.
This puts more of the day-to-day operations on the plate of the business owner who now no longer has time to build the business.
There’s also just a normal routine. In some ways talking about your business is a lot like
exercise. Everyone knows we should do it, but not everyone makes time for it.
I’ll get to it tomorrow
Crises
The second reason that people do not have as many conversations as they would like is crises.
Crises come up a lot. More often than we would like.
If you travel for sales, you end up with a flat tire or the bad transmission.
Your printer dies and then that requires a trip to the store because you can’t wait for one to be shipped to you.
One of your suppliers falls through so you’re left scrambling to get critical materials that you need.
Something gets lost in shipment and you have an angry customer to manage.
Or, you need to ship your product by freight, but are left struggling to find a carrier at a reasonable rate.
No Voice
The last major reason that people do not have enough conversations about their business is that they feel they have no voice.
Perhaps they learn the sales system during their days in corporate America, but that system just doesn’t feel like it fits.
Or, perhaps you’re trying to learn online sales and can’t quite navigate the landscape.
Finding The Right Path gives you a voice, isolates you from crises, and provides its own inertia.
The Right Path
What I find in most businesses that work with us here at Campaign Sauce is that — at the beginning — most people are not having enough conversations.
They don’t want to be involved in any of the three conversations because it is “too hard” or they don’t have “enough time”.
Again, it fits in the category of things they “should” be doing but aren’t.
If you happen to work as an agent for a company, it is far easier to get wrapped up in client service work.
If you are a traditional self-employed business, it’s far more fun to get involved in making and shipping the product rather than having conversations about your product.
A lot of this can be translated into they have not found an authentic way to do this that feels authentic.
They haven’t found — The Right Path.
The Right Path is choosing to have The Three Conversations in a way that feels genuine to you.
When you find The Right Path, having conversations about your business and inviting people to do business with you is energizing.
When you stray from The Right Path, you find talking about your business is so draining that you avoid doing it.
You’d rather deal with crises and service work than grow your business.
However, when you are on The Right Path, you find that you have more energy at the end of the day than you had at the beginning.
Growing your business just becomes a natural extension of who you are.
As you use your voice, the right people are drawn to do business with you.
This creates a self-reinforcing behavior to continue having more conversations. The inertia now turns in favor of selling rather than sitting on the proverbial couch.
In time, your revenue grows which allows you to hire more staff which buffers you, personally, from crises.
Again, finding The Right Path gives you a voice, isolates you from crises, and provides its own inertia.
So, there you have it. We’ve covered the three conversations that you can begin having to grow your business and your lifestyle to where you want.
We’ve also covered the three obstacles that every business owner faces as they attempt to grow their company.
We’ve covered the answer – The Right Path – to overcoming the three obstacles.
Campaign Sauce can help you find your voice — your Right Path — for having sales conversations.
In fact once you have found your right path, we can help you implement that to take a lot of work off your plate and help make your life a lot easier.
Reach out to us at our website — Campaign Sauce dot com — or through the messaging tools on our social media channels.
We’d love to help you have a bigger future starting today.