#215 - If your sales have plateaued or gone backwards, do this!

Foreign.

Yes. The markets have changed, not just for you, but for your clients as well. How is it impacting their lives? Basically, you want to spend a bit of time looking at your offers and do they need a tweak.

Hello. Hello, everybody. It is Kate here from hello, Funnels, and welcome to the Doing It Online podcast. In today's episode, we are going to be talking about the elephant in the room, and that is what to do if right now your sales have stalled, plateaued, or even are starting to slide backwards or in some cases, completely stopped. Because that is what is happening out there in the market. Let's not pretend like it's not. Let's not pretend like it was a little blip that is just going to magically disappear. Things have changed. We need to change, and that is what we're going to dive into in this episode. So let's dive right on in.

All righty, guys. So let's start. Start this episode by everybody. Just stop for a second and take a big breath because 2024, it has been a lot. 2020 was a lot. 2021 was a lot there. You know, this kind of just seems to be the way life is at the moment. Things are a lot. And, you know, for online businesses, you do generally have a few extra plates that you were spinning in the air. And, you know, I just want to make sure everyone's being, you know, kind of kind to themselves right now. Like, do not be beating yourself up.

You are finding that things have slowed because it is not just you. It is not that there is anything wrong with you. It is happening to some of the biggest and longest standing businesses out there. Our sales have slowed this year. Like, it's not being huge, but they definitely, you know, every other year we've been growing, and this year we have gone back slightly. And, you know, that is just what it is. And I think it's. I think it's important that we all be out there and be honest about it because I don't want anyone sitting there quietly in a corner thinking, oh, my gosh, I'm a failure. I'm terrible. There's something wrong with me. Because that's not it at all. That is just what the industry is. And now we've had that little moment to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves off. What are we going to do about it? Okay? Because sitting there in denial isn't going to help anybody. Sitting there waiting for it to go away on its own. It's not going to happen. So we need a plan, and that's what I have for you today, I have a six step plan for you to follow that is going to help you to maybe not like smash your goals out of the park because maybe that's not what this season is, but it's going to help you to get back up, get moving, get growing and get maintaining and stable. And I think that is so much more important right now. So let's dive in to what those are. So the very first thing that I want you all to do, and I know some people are just going to be turn off this podcast the second that I say this is I want you to get clear on your numbers. Okay? It's really important. I want you to know how much is coming into your business, how much is going out from your business. And almost more importantly, because we are in a season of a really high number of people taking payment plans. Like when people are purchasing like it used to be that about it'd be about 50, 50, you know, some people scare you skewed one way more than the other. But for most people it's around about 50, 50 payment plans versus paying for. Now I'm hearing up to 100% of people doing payment plans, which is just a bit tougher for cash flow. Right. It also means that when you have lots of payment plans you will have more default payments. So you have a lot of people not completing those payment plans. So you need to know your numbers because you can't do the easy back of napkin maths anymore where it's like all right, well if I want to make 5k this month and my program's a thousand dollars, I need to sell five of them. That's not the case. And it's also not the case that you can just do it by the number it would be of the payment plans. Because actually you're going to have this almost like WATERF effect is like as your sales start to come back in again, as they start to grow again, even if it is a lot of payment plans that's going to start actually adding to your monthly recurring revenue mri. That's what MRI always has stood for, by the way. It just irritates me so much that people now call that Master resell rights. Go get your own acronym. Anyway, it is going to add to your monthly recurring revenue, which is a good thing to have. It's, it's a good, nice little buffer. However, if you have currently relying on that MRI on those recurring payments and actually you haven't had many payments for a while, I mean new sales for a while, those will start to taper off. So you need to know what actually that number looks like. And you know you can do this with a spreadsheet. It's a bit complex. We actually have this as a brand new bonus we're adding into our Ecourse empire right now because I just believe in this so strongly and how important it is. I don't have a sexy name for it yet, but basically what I've done is I've created a template out of the actual dashboards that I use. It's a four part seat, it's something that you can be tracking daily, something weekly, something monthly, and then a sheet for your forecasting and you'll be able to pop in your actual numbers and it will show you based on what your rate is of payment plans, what your sort of rough rate is of default, exactly how much you can look to expect to be getting in your monthly recurring revenue every month from the payment plans and as you make more sales, how that will grow as well. So it would just, it allows you, and I think it is really important to have a good, clear understanding of not just what you're guessing your numbers are, but what, how much is actually going to come in, what sales you need to make to kind of get the numbers you need. So yeah, that's a bonus that we're adding into Ecourse empire for this intake, which I think is just going to be like, yes, it's another spreadsheet, but it's a really, really powerful one and I think it's really important to know that. So number one, get clear on your numbers. Number two, while you're sort of in there digging through those numbers, I want you to sort of notice if the 8020 rule is applying to you and it does to most, like have a look and we have this like I use zero and we have a profit and loss. And in that profit and loss, it will show you us based on each program we offer, like what revenue we have coming in each month and also for the yearly running total kind of thing. And just have a look and go, where is the majority, like with your different offers, where is the majority of your revenue coming from? And for most people it's usually that rule of like 20% of your sales equals 80% of your revenue or 20% of your effort equals 80% of your revenue. And there's normally something in there that is like, okay, there's something that we do and it brings in most of our money and if we just concentrate on that and systemize that, it would probably Be able to do it easier and with less effort and better. And that's going to help you to grow. So you want to sort of look at that thing, like what is the thing that's bringing in most of the revenue and what are the distractions? What are the little bits that we're getting here and there that are actually just diluting your focus, that are just confusing your audience? Like, how can you sort of do a bit of clean of house and go, all right, let's simplify the office suite and just focus on the things that are bringing in the bulk of our revenue and just, you know, make sure that with the following steps I'm going to give you that you're able to systemize that, to bring in more of that, to systemize how you're delivering it, how you're selling it, all that stuff so it sells better and with more ease and you sort of start to really get into that mastery zone for those offers. So that's number two, get clear on what is bringing in most of your revenue and what needs to be just spring cleaned out of the business. Number three, I want you to take this new, more simplified office suite and I want you to make those offers a hell's yes. Make sure they're irresistible. Spend time here, think about like, yes, the markets have changed, not just for you, but for your clients as well. How is it impacting their lives that how they're spending their time, where they're spending their money? Like, are they new problems that they have now or things that have maybe previously weren't as high a priority, that maybe are more of a priority for them? And can you tweak those offers and it doesn't mean recreating programs from scratch. It could be like maybe you just add in a bonus or maybe you need to add a little kickstart to the start of your offer so that they can get this something that was maybe a nice to have later on but now is more crucial, get that out of the way right up front. Or maybe do they need more community right now because they're feeling really stressed and lonely? Can you add that in? So just basically you want to spend a bit of time looking at your offers and do they need a tweak how they delivered? Are they too long? Are they too short? Is there too much support, not enough, too much videos for them to watch tonight? Do they, Are your people on the go? Do they need an audio version? Like it's just time to look at your offers and look at your ideal client and you know, it could also be in this time, it might be a great chance to do a survey of your existing clients and also your list and ask them some of these questions to see if there's any sort of trends that make you go, oh, okay, I need to add this in or I need to take this out or I need to focus on this or tell people more about this because it's in there and maybe just people don't know about it. So that's step number three. So you're going to figure out which offers are you most profitable and then you're going to make them absolutely fucking amazing, excuse my French. Then number four. Now you've got these dialed in ready for the new market. You know, amazing irresistible offers is you are going to go out there and make offers and you're going to make them more often. So if you've been listening to last few episodes, you've heard me talking about this, but I am declaring 2024 the year that quarterly launches died and I'm happy about it. I'm dancing on his grave. You know, unless they're working for you and you love them, then great, go at it. Most people, they are not. So what you need to do, you cannot be in this climate having these deserts where are not making sales. You need to be making sales every week if possible, if not, every day. How do you do that? Well, we have our three part ecosystem which we help people inside ecosysempire to do that. We'll show you how to set up social selling system to make sales every day, an email engine to make sales every week and Evergreen launches to make sales every month. And the three of those combined are going to help you to make more sales than you were doing with your quarterly launching with a lot less effort, a lot less risk and a lot less stress. So that's the next thing you need to do is you need to be making sales more often but doing it in a way that's obviously not taking up all of your time because I don't want you working harder here for less. I want you to be shifting and focusing on the things that are actually going to bring in a more sustainable revenue stream for you. So important, so important. All right, so once you are in that flow and you have these pieces set up, this is where you can choose one or two is but choose your own adventure here. So the next steps are either to go out and now get in front of more people. So now that you have gotten clear, you know your numbers, your offers are dialed in and you've got systems in place, calendars and campaigns in place to be selling those offers. You, you sort of set with that. Now we need to be getting in front of more eyeballs. That's option number one. And there's obviously different ways of doing that. Paid ads, your collaborations, joint ventures, you know, going out and getting onto as many podcasts and things as you can. There's lots of different ways to scale that and your specific scale plan will be very different because everybody's business is different. If you want to talk about creating a personalized scale plan, that's again, that's our step two, inside equals empire. We would love to help you with that. The other option, and again, this is something we also do inside ecosystempire. The other next step is to optimize. So if you're going, well, you know what, I've got a decent size audience and I getting a good flow and I'm happy with that. I'd actually just like to dial in a bit more. Then optimization might be the next best step for you. And what I mean by that is going, what can we put in place to increase your number of conversions and increase your lifetime client value without necessarily going out to a bigger audience or bringing more people in? Like, how can we do this? So ideally you want to do both. And I said that these are the steps to take once everything is dialed in and working again. A lot of people think that actually this is the stuff you do first, that you go, all right, not getting enough sales. I need to just go and grow my audience. But that's kind of like taking a bucket with holes in it and just pouring more water in it, it's still not going to catch, you know, it's not going to catch any water. Doesn't matter how much you pour in, if there's holes in the bucket, it's all going to fall out. So you need to fix the bucket first. And you do that by making sure the offer is dialed in, by making sure that you are selling and marketing in the right way, in a way that's going to convert, is sustainable and is something that you is actually possible and doable for you as a business owner. And it's going to give you a really steady and reliable base. And once you have done that, and it's not hard as it sounds, it's not something that you need to spend months and months like these are things you can be putting into place alongside each other and then quite quickly go, okay, I've got my engine in place. I'VE got my ecosystem in place, my offers are good. I can see. I can already feel it moving and shifting from the audience I already have. Like, make the most of your existing audience now it's time to grow. So we want to plug the holes, make the most of existing audience and then go out there and start growing. And you'll do that with one of those two ways, preferably both, but you know, not both at the same time. So you're either going to be looking to adding upsells, adding down sells, looking to optimize your funnel, or again, looking to get in front of more audiences. So that's the plan, guys. Deep breath, dust yourself off and then you're going to work your way through those steps. As I said, if you want any help with that, that is exactly what we do, is what we take our clients through every single day inside ecosysempire. We're really bloody good at it. We love it. We love working with amazing course creators who are just great at what they do and don't want to have to go and be a marketing expert on top of it. So bring us in. We will help you out. Head over to HelloFunnels, co for slash Empire or Links below to get all the details. We would love to see you inside. Other than that, guys, that is it for this week. I hope you found this useful. I hope this is helping you to see that there is a path forward. Even if your sales have slowed, stalled, stopped, it doesn't matter. You pick yourself up, work the steps and you'll get there. And yeah, really looking forward to helping you out. When you're ready, we'll see you inside. Bye.