171. The Real Reason Clients Aren't Buying and the 5 Steps to Change It

Welcome. I am marketing expert and business coach Melissa My Marketing Coach Melissa Kellogg Lewicki, 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. So today we're talking about why people aren't buying from you. And it's probably not what you think. I often see women that I talk to take the fact that not as many people are buying from them as they would like as a personal rejection. And so today we're going to take that personal rejection and really turn it into an opportunity to better understand your buyer. And improve your marketing and selling rather than ditching your offer consistently, which so many of us do. And I've done that before. I'm going to tell stories about that. And it's usually in the pursuit of this one magic offer thinking, right? There's one magic offer. And so once I find that one magic offer, then the windows of heaven will open and all the clients will flow into my business. It's not true. But first, in case we don't know each other, My name is Melissa, and thank you so much for being here. I'm the CEO and founder of the Avanti Business Academy for Women, and my mission is to free women entrepreneurs from marketing overwhelm and really help them have a greater impact in the world and create the business and the financial freedom that they deserve. So that's what we're all about here, and have some fun in the process of this entrepreneurial journey, right? I am also in the process, or we are in the midst, I should say, of our storytelling challenge. So every day I'm going live here on Substack for my subscribers and telling a story. So I'm going to be telling lots of stories today during this masterclass, and I hope you enjoy it and hope you join along with our storytelling challenge. Stories are really such a great way to help, you your future clients, your audience to get to know you. Your stories are unique to you. No AI is going to be able to manufacture those. They're true to you. They're part of who you are and what you're made of. And so I think sharing those is really powerful and it's really powerful way to connect. And marketing is all about connection. That's why I'm challenging myself to tell stories and inviting you along to take part in that if you want to. So that's what we have going on around here. And we're going to dive right in. All right. So the problem I often see is that we assume we don't have enough business coming in and clients coming to us. And we assume that people aren't buying because we don't have what they want, or there's something wrong with our offer, something wrong with us. And something wrong with what we're offering. And so we slink off and we try to change or improve our offerings to fit what we think the market might want and shoehorn it into something that we think the clients are going to want and the people want. What I want to offer today is a new way of thinking about this problem. So I want you to think of it like a bell curve. Right. And like from statistics, right? The bell curve. And so on either end of the bell curve, you have your tails, like your long tails, right? And so if you think about the 20% on the front end and 20% on the back end of all the people that you meet out in the world and, and talk about your business with, 20% of those people are going to know you're their person, that you can help them right away, and they're gonna be ready to buy. They're not going to need a lot of nurturing or marketing or whatever. They're just in that moment, have the problem that you solve, they like the way you talk about it, and they're in right away. And we love those people. They're a super easy sale, they make decisions quickly, and they're great clients, right? And so That's gonna be over the life of your business, probably about 20% of your business, right? And so we love those people and oftentimes we get sucked into just spending all of our time looking for those people. And then you're gonna have the 20% of people in your world that are never gonna buy from you. They'll probably be your biggest fans. They'll refer business to you. They will come to all your things, read all your things, watch all your things, cheer you on, but they're just never going to buy. And that's okay. That's just who they are, what they are, and where they are. And that's fine. We can allow them to be there. And we love them too, because they're often our biggest fans, right? And then there's that 60% in the middle. So the largest, fattest part of the bell curve, that 60% of people that you meet that are in your orbit, are always ready for conversion. They're always available to be moved along in the relationship journey. And so if you feel like there's not enough people buying from you, it's not that there's something wrong with you or something wrong with your offer, or it needs to be improved or perfected or whatever. It's just that you're likely not nurturing and growing and walking those people along in the relationship journey. Because what we do know is that people need to hear your offer somewhere between 9 to 12 times before they're ready to make a decision, whether it's yes or no. 9 to 12 times and maybe more, right? With our distracted society, right? So I would ask you this. Here's one question that will help you determine whether you're in this boat or not. So has anyone ever purchased your offer just the way it is now, just the way you want to sell it? Has anyone ever purchased it? And if the answer is yes, I'm willing to bet that there are 2 people that are ready in your orbit right now to sign up for your offer. And if there's 2, there's 4. If there's 4, there's 8. If there's 8, and so on. So I believe if you have sold your offer the way it is to at least one person, it's a valid, viable offer. Okay? And so the problem is maybe not with your offer, because constantly changing your offer comes with its own set of challenges. Maybe you just need to get better at and perfecting your marketing and sales skills in selling that offer and getting it out into the marketplace, getting it out to more people, right? So just consider that. That's what we're going to talk about today of how to do that. What I often see is people are in this place where they're not selling enough of what they want to be selling. So then they go and they try to perfect it and make it better. And What does the market want? Researching and all of this and get distracted by changing everything constantly and really never perfect any offer or perfect any sales or marketing process or campaign or cycle or strategies, right? And so they spend so much time doing all of that, they're never really getting that proof of concept. That the offer works and then learning and perfecting how to actually sell and market it. But if you have the proof of concept that someone has bought your thing, I'm willing to bet that all you need to do is just get better at marketing and selling it, which for me means meeting more people, nurturing those relationships, and making that offer. All right. So like I said before, it's possible that all the people in that 60% of the bell curve that are ready to, or available to move on in the relationship journey with you, if they haven't been offered or had an offer made to them 9 to 12 times. And in fact, we also know they may say no 4 to 6 times before they say yes. So if they haven't seen the offer 9 to 12 times, in a way that makes sense to them in the same way that's not confusing. And if they haven't said no 4 or 5 or 6 times, they're still available to be converted, right? With the offer that you have, the way you're offering it. And so why this is so important is that keeping the marketing and keeping the offer consistent and then learning how to market it and sell it. Why that's so important is that if you're not consistently offering the same thing the same way, in a way that makes sense to people, a confused mind will always say no. So if you were offering it one way last week and now you're offering it a whole different way, if they can't keep up with how you're selling and marketing things, they're just gonna automatically say, I don't know how this is different or same from what they were talking about last week, so it's confusing, and they're likely to just move on and continue to say no, right? So how do we address this issue? That's what I want to teach you today. So I've got 5 steps for you. Okay, so number 1 is we have to start with the internal first. And so what that means is I want you to think about What is the one outcome or the one result for your clients that you want to be known for? And I want you to sell yourself on that offer that you have that helps your people get what they want in the way that you as the expert know it works. So here's an example. So say, for example, you're a weight loss coach and you help people lose weight, right? And maybe the flashy, sexy thing is lose 30 pounds in 30 days. And yes, everybody wants the weight loss. And that's like the sexy way of saying it. But what if, yes, they want to lose weight, but in 90 days I can lead them through a process, my process that helps them lose the weight, shift their habits, and make it sustainable for the rest of their life. So they can lose 30 pounds for life. Right? So do you see what I'm saying? Like, you want to be known for helping people lose 30 pounds for life. And the way that you do it is not super fast and unsustainable. You know, you can offer to help them lose 30 pounds, but it's probably going to take 90 days because you want to take them through your process. That really helps them shift these habits and lose those 30 pounds for life. So I want you to think about what is that outcome that your client wants, that you know how to help them with, that you want to be known for. Okay, and then you've got to be sold on it, that the way you offer it is the best way. Right? You have to be sold on it more than anyone else, because until you aren't going to be committed to marketing it, talking about it all the time and selling it powerfully. Right? So once you are sold, so number 2, once you are sold on the outcome that you want to help people with and how you want to do it, that's basically your offer, right? So once you're sold, that this is what you want to be known for, then you've got to go all in on communicating this offer with a consistent message in a consistent way and stick with it no matter what. No matter what shiny objects are swirling around, because they always will, right? There'll be some new social media platform that comes out or some new, some new influencer that's marketing their things in a different way. And you're going to say, maybe I should change my offer to this or that or the other thing. No, I want you to be known for the same and then improve how you're marketing and selling it. And so when I think about this concept, I think about my client Monique, and she is a photographer and videographer, and she mainly works with pet and people photography and videography, but she also wanted to branch out and help small businesses and do videography for them. And she struggled in getting that going at first. She was trying a lot of different things and saying a lot of different things. And it was confusing for her market until she decided, I want to be known for testimonial videos. Because I know the power of testimonial videos, of social proof, of helping small businesses. And this is a really great way to use videography. And so she decided that, oh gosh, I would say at least a year ago, and it took her a year at least of talking about testimonial videos, having free workshops, having other paid workshops, talking about over and over and over that one thing. That's not the only thing she can do. She's a full-on professional photographer and videographer. She can do a whole bunch of things, but she talked about, she knew she wanted to be known for testimonial videos. And now she is the person, if you're thinking about, in our community at least, She is the person that the go-to person, if you want a testimonial video. And so that happened because she made a decision. She sold herself on the power of testimonial videos. And we worked on this together and then went out and marketed that crazy and stuck to that and remained consistent with it, remained committed to it. And now she is the go-to person in our orbit and our sphere of influence for testimonial videos in her community, right? And it's been very successful for her. So one thing I love this, I think I heard this from Ed Mylett. He says to say the same thing to new people rather than saying different things to old people. That's how you grow and impact and get your message out to more people is saying the same thing to new people rather than constantly trying to come up with new things to say to the old people, right? So, and then number 3 is you're going to take your message once you've sold yourself on it. And once you've decided on your one message, then you're going to take your message out to as many new people as possible and go out and meet as many new people as possible. Talk to them about your one outcome that you want to help people with. And meet as many people as possible. The next, once you're bringing all those new people in, you're gonna nurture those relationships and nurture all the relationships you already have in your orbit. Because think about how many of those folks have been confused or not sure what your thing is for them. If you've been changing it a lot, trying to find that one magic thing, right? So how many just haven't been invited recently to that next step with you? And this doesn't always mean buy my thing. What it means is thinking about nurturing as a journey, as a relationship journey with you. So there are a lot of different ways people need to experience you, get to know you so they can trust you and wanna and feel safe to buy from you. Right? So you have to know what all those steps in that journey are, and it's different for all of us. And this is something that I help my clients create, this relationship journey, so that you always know that next step that you're inviting people into. And I invite you to open up conversations, have one-on-one conversations with as many people as possible, and do this regularly. I do this for a couple hours every day. And be curious about what's going on with them and about what's challenging them around your area of specialty. Right. And when you do that, you're going to learn so much about how to talk to your best fit clients and learn about what they want and need within the area of specialty that you work. Right. And so when you learn those new things, you can adjust your marketing message and maybe your sales process, how you go about talking about the work that you do, but it doesn't mean you have to burn down your offers and start over, right? So when you have that consistent message, communicated consistently over a period of time, over a long period of time, that's when you're going to start to see the results come in, because then people get to know what they can rely on you on, what they can come to you for, what you're knowledgeable about. And then they will begin to come to you and they'll tell their friends about you too, right? And then the fifth step is you've got to be making offers. Can't see my 5. There's my 5. The 5th step is to be making offers. When you hear someone mention that they have a challenge that you can help them with, you've got to say it out loud. I can help you with that. Let's set up a time and talk about it together one-on-one. So many times I'll be in rooms where I will hear one person saying, talking about the challenge that they have. And I know another person in the room can help them 100% and they don't say anything, or they say, oh, you should follow me on social media. I talk about that all the time or something like that. No, I want you to make a direct offer. Say, Susie, I can help you with that. Let's chat about it. I would love to chat more with you about it because that offer is your greatest gift, your greatest service, and the greatest act of love to that person that needs the help that you have to offer or needs the service that you have to offer, right? So remember also, they may have to hear it 9, 10, 11, 12 times before they understand it and are feeling comfortable and trusting you enough to take that next step. So just go ahead and make those offers as imperfect as they are. It doesn't have to be perfect. You don't have to have this perfect script. I stumble over my words all the time. It's okay. Let's just make the offer from our heart, right? From a spirit of service and connection. And that's what makes it land is having that spirit of service and connection and desire to help and serve your people. Okay. Okay. So let me just recap real quick. People are not saying no to your offer because there's something wrong with it or you. You don't have to change your offer, right? You have to understand that they may just not quite have heard it enough times. Heard it in a way that makes sense to them, heard it in a way that really lands for them. So instead of throwing out your offers or spending time constantly tweaking and changing your offer, pick an offer that you feel really passionate about, that you are sold on, that you want to go all in with, and then spend the time improving and tweaking your marketing and sales. Right? How you talk about the offer, who you talk about it to. Okay. And so with my 5 steps here, so you've gotta number 1, get sold on your offer. Think about what you wanna be known for, sell yourself on that offer. Number 2, once you're sold on it, go all in on communicating that one offer, right? Consistently over a long period of time in a consistent way is gonna bring in results. Stick with it. Number 3 is to take your message to as many new people as possible. Number 4 is nurturing all of those relationships that come in a personal way, having as many conversations as possible so you can learn as much about your best fit clients, your future clients. Have as much curiosity as possible around what's challenging them and the kind of help they want and need. And then make offers. Say, listen, I can help you with that. Let's talk about it. And making offers one-on-one, making offers in all of your marketing and communications. And that's how you can bring in that business consistently and have more fun with it, right? If you're constantly, if you're not constantly changing your offer, changing how you offer the way you offer it, right? But let's think about how we can be improving the skill of marketing and sales. So I have helped hundreds of women entrepreneurs ditch the overwhelm in their marketing and have so much more fun, have a much greater impact, and really create those clients on repeat. And if you'd like me to take a look at what you are doing in your marketing, your business, I am happy to do an evaluation with you. And I absolutely love this. It helps give you so much clarity on what's going on under the hood of your marketing. And we can do that together, complimentary. There's no charge for that. And I just love to have those one-on-one conversations. So if you would like to walk through that evaluation with me, we get a good understanding of what's happening in your business. And then I build a roadmap for you right there on the call. So when we hang up or end the Zoom, you know exactly the steps you need to take to achieve your goals and to be bringing in those clients consistently while really enjoying your business and getting to spend as much time working in your zone of genius. So if you would like to take advantage of that, I would love to chat with you, get to know you, get to know about your business and how I can support you. But that's what I have for you today, my friends. And I wanna just reiterate that marketing doesn't have to be overwhelming. In fact, it really can be fun. It can be your highest and greatest service to the world. And when you simplify it, like I've taught today, and like I've taught on other teachings that you can find on my Substack channel, the results are not a matter of luck. They're just a matter of time. I would love to support you in this. I hope you have a fabulous rest of your Wednesday, and I will be right back here, same time, same place next week. And next week we're going to be shifting and talking about marketing and AI. I have been using AI as part of my marketing for years now and really have spent time honing in the way that I really feel aligned with using it so that it doesn't replace me or my voice or my ideas. But yet really supports me in getting my ideas out to the world in different ways and helps me further my reach. And so I'm going to start teaching that here for the next, I think, 4 weeks. Let's see. Yeah. Next, let's see. That's a 3-part series. So Marketing and AI, I'm going to begin a 3-part series starting next week. I'm going to be teaching about how I'm using AI as my marketing assistant, my thought partner, my organizer, idea generator, and not my replacement. So that'll be super fun, and I can't wait to have you there with me. And I'll see you then, and I will talk to you soon. Thanks. Bye. Hey, if you like this podcast, I want to invite you to become part of my community. Each Friday, I'm going to deliver to your inbox my weekly celebration as well as my thoughts on the latest in business and marketing. I want to keep you in the know about my upcoming events, free trainings, book clubs, all the fun things, even some free gifts. And of course, I'm going to let you know about these new podcast episodes. I'll see you there.