The String and Sticks Sales Method

I can taste yo, yo, yo, yo I can tast yo, yo, yo I can taste yo, yo, yo, yo I can taste. Hello and welcome. Welcome. I'm Katie McManus. Business strategy, money, mindset, coach. Don't know why I said welcome that way. We are having a wild and crazy Sunday. I am busting through so much work and. And creating so many things, and I just felt so inspired. I wanted to come and talk to you about the string and sticks sales method. First and foremost, we have some housekeeping. I am going live to the Facebooks, to LinkedIn, to YouTube, to Twitter, and to Instagram. And if you see me kind of bouncing between the two, I have my phone set up here for Instagram, and then I have my computer for everyone else. If you're joining us. Hold on. If you're joining us, then welcome. I am so excited to be talking to you about this tonight. So one of the things that new business owners really struggle with is learning how to talk about what they do and how to sell what they do. And. Hello, LinkedIn user. I don't know what wow is referring to, but thank you, I think. Anyway, Instagram is being weird, so we're just gonna forget that for right now. Anyway, so selling your services can be really scary when you first start out. And I just want you to know that if you struggle to do this, that's normal, that's natural. It happens to everyone. I know it sounds like a Viagra commercial, but it happens. And I want to remind you that you are never taught how to sell, okay? And even my clients who come from a sales background who sold cars and houses and Internet security, they have to be retaught how to sell their service because it is a completely different process, okay? It is also a completely different mentality that's required to go into it, because here's the thing about selling a car. If you're. If you're talking to a prospect and they're looking at this car and they're talking about it and they're considering it and all this stuff, and they say no. They're saying no to the car. They're not saying no to you, okay? Having someone say no to you is a lot scarier. It can also be a lot more vulnerable. And I just want you to be gentle with yourself, okay? If you've been having a hard time doing this, know that you've just never been taught. And there are ways to learn, okay? It's what one of the things that I love doing, but there are so many different methodologies. For learning how to sell. But the way, the way that you should learn is the way that works best for you. Right? But I want to talk about the most common mistake that new business owners make when they got to market and sell their programs and their services. And. I don't know. Good night. Thank you. I don't know who you are, but good night to you as well. I wish you good sleep. Anyway, so the number one mistake that new business owners make when they go out to market and sell their services is they make it about the string and the sticks and not about the sweater. Okay? Now this is a lesson I learned from my time managing a yarn shop, which is one of my favorite jobs. If I can make any money doing that, I probably would do it for the rest of my life. It was so creative and cozy and you made lots of friends and I just, I threw. It thrived there. But I learned this very valuable lesson while I was managing that yarn shop and Danette, welcome. Good afternoon. Welcome. Donnie, welcome. Thank you for joining. The valuable lesson that I learned while I was managing the yarn shop. Because when you're managing a yarn shop, what you're doing is you're ultimately just selling yarn, right? And you'd have people come in at varying levels of, of talent, of ability, and they would not necessarily just be there to buy yarn. Okay? People who go to yarn shops don't go to yarn shops just to buy yarn. They go to buy future clothing. They go to buy DIY knitted gear or crocheted gear. Okay? So when someone walks into a yarn shop, you are not asking them what kind of string they want to buy. You are not asking them what kind of sticks they would like to purchase. You are asking them what were they planning on making. Okay? If someone came in looking to make a baby blanket, you'd be asking questions. You'd be asking, cool, where does the baby live? In a cold climate or in a cool climate, you know, do their parents enjoy hand washing things or does it need to be able to be thrown in the. In the dishwasher, in the washing machine, not the dishwasher. That is not good for knitted gear. Anyway, if someone came in and they wanted to make a hat, cool, is the hat for you or is it for someone else? You know, what colors work for them? You know, so you're, you're not focusing on the string, right? Because ultimately, yarn shop is just that. It's just a shop that sells different kinds of string and sticks to make it into fabric. Right? That's it. When Someone walked in, you had to dive into what was the result that they wanted from whatever it is that they were going to buy. Now, of course, there are yarn collectors and people who just really liked buying stuff and not knowing what they wanted to make with it. Those people, you'd really don't have to sell those people. You can. You can ask them, like, what their favorite fibers are. You can. Oh, thank you, Donnie. Yes. You can ask them what their favorite colors are. Sometimes. I know when I go. When I go traveling, I love going to yarn shops, even though I'm not that much of a knitter anymore, But I love seeing what was locally made. Right. Because I. If I choose to make something from that trip to commemorate that trip, I want to do something that, like, I couldn't have gotten anywhere else. Right? And so for me, I'm not necessarily just buying the string and the sticks from there. I'm buying the story. I'm buying the story of. Oh, my God. I was in Iceland, and there's apparently this. This old man who. He and his wife used to make yarn together, and, you know, she, you know, passed away. But he. Just to keep the tradition alive, he continued to do this. And I'm making the story up. I don't know if this person actually exists. Probably not, because I made it up anyway. But you can't sell the sticks, and you can't sell the string. You have to sell the sweater. You have to sell the hat. You have to sell the baby blanket. You have to sell the story. All right? So when you are going out and talking about what it is that you do, don't talk about what you do. What you do is the string and the sticks, okay? Like, this is what so many new coaches. And I have the sun setting right in my eyes right now. This is what so many new coaches struggle with when they first start their business is they are so enamored with coaching, right? Because they just went to coaching school, they just went and got trained, they got certified. They learned all this vocabulary, they learned all these different methodologies for helping people with transformation, and they are super excited about it. So that's. They think they need to go and talk about, and then they're really surprised when their social media is just filled with other coaches who are talking coaching talk back at them, and they're not getting any clients out of it. Why do you think that is? It's because you're selling the string and the sticks, okay? You're not selling the outcome. All right? One of the key components of Knowing how to sell the outcome is you have to know your niche. You have to know who is the person, the ideal person who could be your ideal client and what are their problems. Not only what are their problems, but what are the outcomes that they would be willing to pony up money to solve and to get. Without that, you cannot sell the sweater. Okay. Without a niche, you literally cannot point to, here's the outcome that you're going to get because you don't know. Okay. I hear so often with new coaches and consultants, even, you know, they're like, well, I, you know, I solve a lot of problems, I can help anyone. And like, that's incredible. Great for you. Yes, I, like, I hear that and I see the generosity of your spirit. And I also sense a little scarcity in your fear around, you know, limiting who you're serving. Right. I want you to take a deep breath and know that if you niche down, doesn't matter, there will still be people who are outside your niche who, if they vibe with you, they'll be like, hey, I know you only serve this group, but would you ever work with me? Because I absolutely love what you're putting out. Let me see. What is LinkedIn user? I also creative videos and special effects to platforms like LinkedIn. Listening to learn about sales. Okay, cool. So the thing is, like, creative videos and special effects, my dogs are going crazy. They're like, no one wants to spend money on that. But what is the outcome your clients want? Like, what would they get if they had creative videos and special effects? Like, I'm not, I'm not going to spend any money on that. But, like, if you can connect it to me getting more clients or me looking more professional or, you know, me attracting investors, depending on my business, that is the selling point. Okay? So right now, the creative videos and the special effects are the string and the sticks. No one cares. Okay? What people care about is the outcome. Why? Why do they need your string and sticks? Okay. What is that going to get them? You know, if they put in the effort, you know, one of the other big fears that I hear new coaches and consultants say, because oftentimes you're not doing things for your client. Right? I mean, I know I can't do everything for my clients. I just, I don't have time and I don't have the, the, the willingness to do it. You can only do so much. You can advise, you can give them training, you can coach them through different mindset shifts, whatever you can show them, here's the path. But ultimately they have to go and do the work. Right. They have to take whatever it is that you give them and go make it work for them. Okay. Like the yarn shop. The yarn shop does not sell sweaters and hats and baby blankets. No, they sell the things that make those things. If you put in the effort. Right. And if you have followed the right instructions. Right. I don't know if you've ever followed a knitting pattern. Okay. It takes a whole different set of skills to read a knitting pattern. Want to say hi to a few people? Leandra, welcome. And Stephen Doyle. It's late for you over there. And Gabriel, welcome. Hello. And. Oh, I'm glad. I'm glad this is making sense. I was having fun with this metaphor earlier today. So, you know, just like, the yarn shop can't say, like, here's a sweater, because they're not selling a sweater. They're so. They're selling the bits that make the sweater. When you are not selling the string, the bits and the. And the. And the sticks. You can focus on the outcome. You're not guaranteeing the outcome. You can't. Okay. You can point to, you know, you're gonna, like, I support my clients in getting a raise. I support my clients in finding the next love of their life. I support my clients in starting their business. Yeah, that's exactly what you do. That's, like, the outcome that they have. They will have that thing if they sign up with you and if they do the work and if they. They do all these other things. All right? So many new coaches feel like if they're. If they don't focus on the coaching bit and they don't focus on, like, what it is that they do that they're making a guarantee of something and you're not. There's no way for you to guarantee. Okay, so, like, if I were to hire a nutritionist, say, say I had, like, a fitness goal, I wanted to build, like, you know, 20 pounds of muscle and, like, lose, like, 13 body fat. Right? Oh, my God. That would be insane. Right? You take a lot of effort. And I could hire any nutritionist in the world. I could spend a ton of money or a little bit of money, and I could go absolutely nowhere with it because I don't follow their instructions, because I don't stick to the diet, because I don't stick to the workout plan. Okay? The nutritionist is not. Unless they charge a crap ton of money. Like, they can't guarantee that I get those results. Right? Because a. For them to guarantee that I'm eating everything and working out, they'd have to spend. Spend every single day with me. Not even. Not just every single day, like, every single hour. Because, you know, like, I'm a troublemaker. I like ice cream. I'm like, you put me on something too strict, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna be bad. You know, for them to be able to guarantee an outcome with someone like me, that's trouble for them. They're not gonna be able to do it right. There are other factor, factors at play here. You know, my body chemistry. Like, they don't know. Maybe my body is resistant to building that much that muscle, which most women's bodies are right. And maybe my body's resistant to going below a certain percentage of fat, which most women's bodies are right. So when you go out and you're talking about the outcome, when you're talking about the sweater and the hat and the baby blanket that your business provides, know that you are not promising an outcome, okay? You can't. You absolutely can't. And you want to be very clear with your language here, okay? You can't use, like, you're going to get X, Y and Z result. You can't guarantee that. You can also get a lot of trouble for that if you do put that kind of language on your website. But you can talk about how you help your clients get to that outcome, all right? That is the most magical thing. That's honestly the biggest difference between, you know, coaches and consultants. You can charge, like, I don't know, $75 an hour, and coaches and consultants, you can charge $2,000 an hour, okay? It's a massive difference because people don't care how much your hour is worth if you're selling the outcome. They do care if you're selling the string and the sticks, okay? If anyone has any questions on this, I'd love to hear it. We have a few people in the audience right now. Now, like I said, for you to be able to sell the outcome and not just sell the string and the sticks, you need to know your niche, okay? You need to have a niche. I know. I'm not. I'm not going to fight anyone on this, okay? It is. It is quantifiable fact. You need to know exactly who you're selling to, exactly their problems, and exactly what they want, okay? There is no way for you to market to absolutely everyone, okay? Target, Target, Massive Store, okay? They have pretty much everything. They don't even expect for everyone to become a client. They would love that. I mean, they have they have me, they have Oprah Winfrey. They have a lot of people who are their clients, but there are some people who will just never shop there. Okay, and what do they sell? They sell cheap, right? Restoration Hardware is a different story. Restoration Hardware, they sell really fine furnishings and decorations that are really well made. They have a certain aesthetic and they're done to a certain level of quality. Right. They charge a lot more. They have a much smaller demographic, they have a much smaller audience. They don't expect to sell it. Everyone. Okay, which do you want to be, by the way? Target is a massive operation. Massive, huge. They have to be everywhere for everyone to understand how special they are. Restoration Hardware doesn't have to have as many locations. They also don't have to have as many employees. They don't have to create as much stuff. You know, which one do you want to be? You could also be a Heath Ceramics. I don't know if anyone's from the Bay Area and you know them, they make the most beautiful flatware. Or is it flatware? You know, like plates and mugs and all that stuff. It's gorgeous. I always, I always used to go in there and just think like, oh my God, this like, I hope you know, if 2,000 years from now, if there's like a terrible catastrophe and like my home becomes like a Pompeii, I want for people to excavate me with like this kind of china because it just looks so beautiful and so all done, this would last, right? Versus all the plastic crap you're buying from Target. Anyway. For you to figure out what your niche is, though, this is something that most people struggle with. It's one of the reasons why in the build your own business group program I focus so heavily on this. Because picking the wrong niche and sticking with it for too long can cause your business to absolutely sink. And no one wants that. Right? As someone who picked the wrong niche like four different times and had to pivot each time, I can tell you, the faster you take that feedback and the faster you understand the markers for what makes a successful niche and what makes a not successful niche, the better off you're going to be in the long run. I do have a couple exciting things coming. I'm relaunching. Build your own business with a beginner program and an advanced year long intensive. So if anyone is curious about that program, I do go into everything from how to design a niche, how to market it not with the string and sticks, but with the actual outcomes, with integrity, how to sell it and how to structure your business, okay? So that you can start attracting those high paying clients for whatever it is that you do. And if anyone's curious about that, you can shoot me a dm. I did not put a link in this because it always kills the, the reach with the post. But if you're curious, I'd love to give you more information. And, you know, one of the things I want you to remember if you take nothing else away from this life, is that you, like, you get to be excited about what it is that you do, and that excitement is just. You get to hold on to that. But I want you to remember that other people aren't going to get as excited because they're not the specialist, right? So if. So if you're a lawyer and you're really excited about like, probably process law and different statutes and all this stuff, because, you know, it's just, you find it fascinating if you go onto the interwebs and you go to parties and you start just talking about this in your legalese, being super excited for it. The only people you're going to attract are other people who speak legalese, AKA other people who do not need your work, okay? You need to figure out exactly how you can distill the legal ease into layman's terms so that you can go out and talk about the problems that you solve and the outcomes that you help your clients get to. So that your ideal clients can hear that and be like, oh my God, I have that problem, or oh my gosh, I want that outcome, okay? They're not going to understand it in legalese. If they could understand in legalese, they would not need you, all right? For whatever it is that you do. You know, for those of you who are listening, your ideal clients do not understand it, okay? Don't expect them to understand it. There's also this expectation of, of yourself where you're like, well, if I'm going to go and post online expecting to get clients, I have to show off how smart I am. And let me tell you, people already assume you're smart. They already assume that you have a certain level of intelligence and capabilities. And they are not looking for you to prove that you are smart. They are looking for you to make them feel smart. Okay? That's a very big difference. All right? It's the difference between me going onto social media and using a lot of expert terms that my ideal clients don't understand. And, and my, and my clients, my potential clients out there being like, oh, scary, like, I don't want to look stupid on her post and not engaging with me versus me going on and posting about a very basic concept that makes it easy for them to understand and to have a conversation with me about like string and sticks. Case in point. Anyway, that's it for me tonight. Donnie Gabriel Stephen Leandro, LinkedIn user Thank you all for joining. I hope you have an amazing evening. If you do want more information about build your own business then shoot me dm. Otherwise, I would love to hear how you are going to be reframing your string and sticks into whatever kind of sweater you're selling. Anyway, have an amazing night everyone. I'm Katie McManus, business strategist, Money mindset coach, and I will talk to you all soon. Bye.