003. How to Grow Your Sales Doing What You Love - Part 2

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa Kellogg Lueck. And this is the Doing business like a woman podcast where we are exploring and teaching you how women are reinventing the way business is done and money is made to help you create greater impact and financial freedom one business at a time. Well, hello. Hello my friends. Welcome to the podcast. My name is Melissa. It's nice to be with you today. I hope you're having a fabulous day so far. This is going to be part two of a podcast that I started last time called growing your sales, doing what you love. So in the first part, if you haven't listened to that, I recommend you go back and listen to that because we're going to be jumping into the middle of my formula for growing your sales. And this is a formula that I have developed over my 16 years in business myself as an entrepreneur as well as working with many, many clients through the years and studying entrepreneurship. I have an MBA and I am definitely a student of business and I love learning and noticing and then bringing all of that to you. So that's what we are here to do today. And I'm going to share with you the second part of my second and third parts, really, of this formula that I have. And the first part that we talked about in the last podcast was all about knowing your value and what you're actually selling. And today we are going to talk about the next part of the formula, which is growing your visibility, AKA marketing and having or developing a compelling offer. And these are two very important aspects of growing your sales. And then we multiply all of that using a simple plan that we can be consistent with and that feels aligned and fun. And that's how we grow our sales, my friends. So today I want to talk about growing your visibility today. First, I should say so the next part of the formula is growing your visibility. And I just have to make a caveat here that my approach to marketing and sales is quite unconventional compared to what I learned in business school many years ago. And even for now, I am not the person that's going to tell you, the coach that's going to tell you how many social media posts you have to post or. Or how many blogs you have to write or that blogging is dead or not dead, or that you have to go on video and have lives and do reels and tiktoks. I am not that person. And so all of those things you can do, they are all options. But the truth is, none of them matter, really. What matters is understanding the timeless principles of marketing that make you and your business invincible, no matter what the latest marketing fad is. And I've seen many of them, many of them over my 20 years in entrepreneurship. And knowing those timeless principles, knowing what you're best at, where your zone of genius is, and going in that direction will make you so much more money, no matter what is the latest and greatest fad, hack or trendy strategy. So. So that's where we're coming from today, my friends. And so what I want to talk to you about is there are two spheres of influence that you are already in, in which you want to be visible. And how you are visible is up to you. We are each going to be marketing and building our businesses in a million different ways. And so you get to choose where you want to go in this direction. But in order to market and sell yourself and your services, you do need to be visible in some regards. So you have your closed circle and you have your wide circle. Those are our two spheres of influence. Okay? And so in your closed circle, this is the network of family and friends and connections that you have, whether in person or online on social media. These are people that are already around you. And these folks will be your first clients when you're first starting out. And you can build a sustainable, long lasting business with just your close circle. I want you to know that these are the easiest and fastest sales. And this is where most businesses start, by selling to those that are people that already know them. Because these people already know you like you, trust you, they will buy from you, they want to support you. And so there's nothing wrong with allowing them to support you. Now, I know there is something wrong maybe with being very adamant that people buy from you, but because we all have those folks in our circles that are very pushy with their sales. And that's not what I'm talking about. I'm talking about really connecting with your close circle and just letting them know what you're doing and how they can support you if they so choose. And so we'll talk more about that in a little bit. And then just real quick, the wide circle is the network of people that enter your orbit. Orbit, or your sphere through value that you offer through free value. Usually, whether that's a podcast like this or a blog, or your social media posts or freebies that you have out and about or paid advertising. And these folks will come to you, but you may have never personally met or come into personal contact with them. And they will come through means that are outside your closed circle. And so we are going to develop our businesses in both of these circles and both are necessary, but our close circle will be the first, easiest and most revenue as we're starting our business. And so just I want to talk a little bit more about the closed circle. These are folks that, as far as marketing strategy goes, you want to be connecting online and in person with them as much as possible. Now, how you choose to do that is up to you. And I always encourage my clients to go towards the fun right when we are doing and showing up in ways that are enjoyable for us or that we want to get better at, we show up in a completely different energy and spirit than if we are doing things that we absolutely hate and don't want to do. For example, if you don't like being on social media and don't like showing up on social media, forcing yourself to do that is not going to work very well. I mean, imagine, you know, how you come across if you're doing something you absolutely hate, right? So find something that you enjoy doing and just go all in on it and it most likely will work. So you want to be connecting with your closed circle. You want to be building relationships and friendships and collaborations with these folks. You want each one of them to know what you do and how you can help them. And if they're not working with you themselves, then you're going to be the first person they think of. When someone in their close circle needs what you have to offer, that's the goal here. Not in a creepy, pushy way, but just from a place of service and love and offering value to all of those around you. And we talked about value. So you know what that is, right? So in this stage when we're building our business in the closed circle, we want to be focusing on listening and learning. And this is a great time because you have personal contact with these folks to be really have your ears pricked for what are the words they're using, the problems that they're having, and the ways that you develop to help them and to solve their problems. Because as you move to the wide circle, you will have less direct contact with these folks. And you want to have done all that learning and listening and honing of your message and your offer while you are in the closed circle. So make sure and notice what resonates with all these folks in your close circle regarding your offer. And you can stay in the closed circle and develop and grow a sustainable business in this sphere for as long as you like. There is no rush to Go to scaling and expanding and paid advertising and all the things, there's no rush like, you can have a very successful, enjoyable business just working in this close circle. So I want you to just give yourself the freedom to be there and to enjoy this, this stage of your business. And as part of that, I want to talk about some of the beliefs that will help you to grow your sales while you are in the closed circle. And because how you think about this close circle will affect your sales and will affect the sustainability the years of your business. I work with, you know, a lot of women that want to jump right into, you know, want to skip over the closed circle. They don't want to bother their friends and family and Facebook friends. They don't want to be pushy with their close circle. And what if, you know, you could build all the way to 100k serving and giving and loving all those folks all the way to 100k with your close circle? I mean, how fun would that be, right? And so that is a belief that I offer you, is that you can build all the way to 100k with your close circle. Another belief that I'd like to suggest and offer is that there are plenty of clients already around you. Now. A lot of times we feel like we have to hoard contacts, like we need more followers, more people on our email list, more, more, more, more eyes, more engagement. But what if there are already plenty of clients all around you? I mean, if you think about how many clients you need right now in order to become fully booked, how many is that, right? It's probably not a lot. It's probably less than 50. And so your close circle probably is home to those next few clients, maybe to get you all the way fully booked right now. And if that's the case, if you believe that, what would you be doing? How are you showing up for this closed circle? And so I just encourage you to focus on thinking about all the followers you already have, the email subscribers you already have, the connections you already have that are showing up for you right now. They are the ones reading and commenting on the posts. They are the ones that are opening your emails and focus on them and serving them, and not on what you don't have, but how you are serving those people that are already here for you. And when you are faithful to serving the small audience, you will 100% attract a larger one. Okay? And so I know that to be true. I'm getting ahead of myself here. So think about to yourself, what would you need to believe about your Close circle to begin growing your sales right now. All right. And that is a little homework for you. And now what I want to talk about is some more of the marketing strategy. And I alluded to this a moment ago, but think about in your marketing to this close circle, think about what you love and where your attractive energy is. How can you engage with your potential clients? Because marketing is not walking into the middle of a crowded room and screaming your name. And what you do and do you want to buy from me. Marketing is developing relationships. And how can you do that online or in person, whatever is fun for you. And think about what you want to try, another marketing strategy you would like to try that comes to mind. And I just encourage you to try it for 30 days and evaluate and let me know how it goes. Okay? And that's just in your closed circle. Now let's talk about the wide circle. And so in the wide circle, these are folks that are going to work with you and come to you having never met you personally, all right? So they're going to come through referrals or through paid advertising or through a freebie that you have. So they are going to want to work with you based just on the value, the free value that you're putting out into the world. And that value is so compelling that they just can't help but want to work with you. And so this happens when your value extends beyond the closed circle and you will begin to see the compounding effect of marketing take off. And I talk about how marketing compounds, and so it has that hockey stick appearance, like the compounding interest if you think about for a retirement account, right? So you start out saving and saving and saving, you know, $25 a month for 30 years. And then, you know, 30 years later you have $3 million or it is. I'm not a financial planner, so that's just an illustration. But you know, you've seen those, those graphs, right? And the same is true for your marketing. And as you stay consistent and committed to getting out there and being visible, the compounding effect will, will take off and clients will come from your marketing and your free value. More than personal connection and direct contact, the wider circle grows faster and further than the closed circle. People will want to work with you having never met you. As we're thinking about strategies at this stage, we think about having your freebie or a lead magnet. This is the stage when you're paying for Google or Facebook to introduce you to new people. And the strategies are one to many. As far as marketing, right? So you're not like meeting face to face, one to one with every single person that is working with you or is going to work with you. And so people will engage with your free value and your content instead of you personally. And so you grow in this way, you grow your capacity to reach people, so you're reaching more people and your business begins to scale more quickly. This is a great place to be getting visible in that, like I said, that one to many strategy. So where I often see my clients get stuck when we're talking about growing visibility is in lacking awareness of where they are and what stage they're in and the objectives in that stage. Oftentimes we want to rush, we want to skip over the closed circle marketing and development and we want to go straight to paid advertising. And we want to take advantage of the Facebook ATM where, you know, you put a little bit of money in and you make shit, tons of money, right? But that's not really how it works. And rushing through the closed circle and not giving due time and effort to developing your business in the closed circle ends up to a lot more angst and spending of money on advertising that's not effective. So if you have, like I have done in the past, sunk money down into the Facebook rabbit hole and not had much return on it, it's because you were rushing from the closed circle to the wide circle. So I also see clients getting stuck in thinking that their closed circle is not enough, that they don't have enough people, but in their closed circle in order to develop the business that they want. I would just encourage you, if you resonate with this, as I have myself, is to go and actually look at what your numbers are. How many folks do you have in your database, in your personal contacts, how many social media contacts do you have? Then I would some say to multiply that number by 10 and think, what if there were 10x the number of people that I think, because all those people know people, right? And so thinking about how is it possible that your close circle is enough? And if it is enough, I go back to the question, what would you be doing? How would you be showing up for those folks? So that will help you to have some awareness of where you are and not get stuck. And this is why it's great to have a coach that can walk alongside you, help you maximize the stage that you're in and plan and move to the next stage when you're really ready and when it's good for your business and you can afford paid advertising or whatever. So that's what I have to say on growing your visibility. Now, next in our formula is that we add to growing visibility is a compelling offer. And you have to have a compelling offer, which I define as an offer that incites action. What is the action that you want your potential clients to take? Is that booking a call or clicking a buy button, whatever that action is that you want them to take, we need to develop an offer that incites that action. And so first I want to define what a compelling offer is by telling you what it is not. What is not compelling is talking to your clients or communicating about your features and benefits. And what I mean by that is, for example, and you may have heard this example, but I love it. It's the airplane example. And there's an airplane that's flying to Hawaii. And a travel agent is telling a client about this plane going to Hawaii. And so she's like, well, it's got 278 seats and you know, there's beverage service and they dim the lights and start the engines. And the plane, you know, the plane has bathrooms. But really what the client wants to know is what they want to know that the plane is going to Hawaii. So it's the same with us in our communications, in our marketing. We want to be telling the client about the result. Where am I going to end up if I work with you? Am I going to end up in Hawaii or Iowa? Nothing against Iowa, but if you want to go to Hawaii, Iowa is probably not where you'd like to end up anyway. So we want to make sure that we are talking to our clients about the result that they want and not how they're getting to that result. Yes, clients will want to know at some point how they're getting to the result. But in the initial offer, they want to know where they're going to end up, what is the result they're getting to. And so how to craft a compelling offer. What you want to be thinking about is, my formula for creating a compelling offer is you want your result. Hawaii plus simplicity, a flight plus clarity, right? Something very clear and simple. And the result included in there, that equals a compelling offer. So we don't want the features and benefits first. We first want to know the results, and we want to know them put simply and clearly. And so simplicity, I define as something that can be understood by your third grader and your grandmother. And so think of lose 30 pounds in 30 days, right? That is a very clear and simple result. Clarity. I think about using clear language. No industry Speak. And I know being in the coaching world, we use lots of industry speak like take back your power or never allow emotional abuse again. And those are very noble ideals and results, but real people don't understand what that means. Right. So we have to make our result very clear in order for it to be compelling, clear, simple, easy to understand. And so that is what makes up a compelling offer. So I want you to think about what is your compelling offer. And if you would like to share that with me, you can reach out on social media and I would be happy to help you in crafting your compelling offer. You're always welcome to schedule a coaching consultation with me. This is what I work with my clients on. Because once you have that compelling offer that's easy to understand and is result driven, people are going to be banging down your door. Right, so next in our formula, we want to talk about our simple plan. So what I have done for this part is what I take my clients through. And I'm hoping this translates to podcast too. Right. I'm new at this, so bear with me. But what I take my clients through is rating. And so I'm going to take you through this as well, because today you are my client. And so I want you to rate yourself on a scale of 1 to 10 for, on, let's see, four different things. And so number one is, on scale of 1 to 10, how confident are you that you know your value, your value in the marketplace and the value that you offer your clients and what you're actually selling, not what you're, you know, not the tangibles, but the intangibles? So where would you rate yourself one to 10 in that area? Number two, rate yourself on knowing your intangibles. How well do you feel like you know your intangibles? Number three, how would you rate yourself on a scale of one to ten on. On visibility? How visible are you? Are you creating those relationships and inviting people into your world and keeping in touch with them so that they know who you are and how you can help them? And then number four, how compelling is your offer? And so think about that and how do you feel about it? Do you feel like it is compelling? Does it incite action when you put it out there? And so that's the first step in putting together your simple plan, because those are four areas you want to have really dialed in for yourself. Once you know that you know each one of those ratings, now you know what you need to work on, and that's where I can help you. I can help you put together a plan of what will it take for you to get to a 10 in each one of these areas? How can you get to be 10 out of 10? And knowing your value, a 10 out of 10 and knowing your intangibles, a 10 out of 10 invisibility. And a 10 out of 10 in creating a compelling offer. I would be happy to help you come up with that plan. Give you all that focus and clarity on what the next steps in each one of these areas is. If you're not up for that, you can take what you've learned here today and create an action plan for yourself. Okay. And you can always reach out to me on my website and get on my calendar and we can work through this together. Because like I said, my mission on this planet is to help as many women as possible to create more money and more financial freedom and choices for themselves and their families one business at a time. And so if I can help help you and your business, I'm all in. But I know you can take what we have learned here today and drastically grow your sales beginning right now. So that's what I wish for you, my friends and I will be back with you next time. I'll talk to you soon. Bye. If you like this podcast and want to take this work deeper, I invite you to coach with me one on one. It all starts with a conversation. Let's get on a call together and I'd love to learn more about you and your business. And together we can identify what is standing in the way of creating the business and life you envision. And then we'll create a plan to get you there. So visit my website@melissamkellog.com and find a spot on my calendar. I look forward to seeing you.