How To Close A Sale

All right everyone, welcome back to another episode of the Business Blast Podcast. I'm your host Tyler Wagner. Today I have Susan McVay with us. She is a business sales strategist, speaker, and founder of salesmasterysociety.com, helping more business owners sell with more ease without the sleaze. So welcome to the show.

Thank you so much, Tyler. I'm really excited to be here.

Of course. Grateful to have you on. So, we'd like to get to know you quick in this show. So, the first one we ask is what is the best story from your life that has an underlying valuable message?

The best story. So, I am not a born salesperson and I needed to make money straight out of college to pay rent. So, I was kind of thrown into my profession. And I think sometimes we are thrown into situations where we're not prepared. It's like something that we weren't actually anticipating, and that's exactly what happened to me. And yet I think the, the people who rise to the top and the ones who see the most success are the ones that are able to make lemonade out of lemons, right? So whatever kind of unfolds in front of you, if you're able to seize the opportunity and make the most of it— so in my situation, I was thrown into this service role. I thought it was a service role, but it actually ended up being a sales role, and I had to make my rent in 2 weeks. Like exactly to the nose. So I had no other option to find another job. I had to kind of make it work. And so if anybody has ever been there where you're like, I have to pay the bills, I don't like this job, but I need to do it anyways. Well, fast forward, I ended up being in that same company for almost 20 years because I realized that I just loved helping people. And when I looked at sales from a very different standpoint of being able to help and serve people and really take into account my background in customer service, and being able to really help people, everything switched for me. And so I was really nervous and trepidatious about, you know, falling into that job. And I never would have thought that I would be really good at it, that I would love it, that I would love what I was doing so much so that I actually spent almost 20 years there. So sometimes we just don't know how life is going to unfold in front of us. And if we just seize the opportunity, make the most that we can to learn what we can in that moment, I think sometimes it surprises us.

Yeah, no, absolutely. And I think that's like a big mindset shift in sales is that when you start out, I think most people are like, how do I get the sale? But if you— that's like kind of the wrong mindset. Like if you come from it from just service, how do you help the person genuinely, authentically, then the sale almost, not always, but sometimes naturally happens. And I guess, you know, throughout this you're going to tell us more about that, but that's from my experience.

Absolutely.

So my next one, what is the most valuable piece of information we should know that's within your expertise or industry?

I think it really ties on what you just said. Sales is a skill that you can learn. And oftentimes when people come to me, it's because they feel like, you know, the extroverts, the people who just seem to naturally attract people and they're more charismatic or more enigmatic or just so much out there, they feel like they have to become somebody different in order to sell properly. And it really comes down to service and listening. And so the best salespeople, from my experience, are the ones who actually care about the people that they're trying to help, and they do the best thing. So no matter what, even if that person ends up not buying from you, I've seen it where people send clients and send people to buy because you've done the right thing. And that's ultimately what we all want as business owners and sales professionals. We want to be seen as actual professionals, like people who are doing the right thing for our clients and potential clients. And really, in today's world, the thing that is so important is our reputation, right? That's the thing that stands, that keeps us different from other folks. And so if we don't hold true to our values and our message and the way that we want to show up in the world and the thing that we are most passionate about, which is hopefully the thing that you're trying to help people with and sell, then it really doesn't matter how you go about doing that. So for me, it's really, you need to be you first and foremost, but know that sales and the skills required to improve your sales is a skill that you can learn. So if you have a heart of service, if you genuinely want to do good in the world, then, and you're struggling to sell, it's something that you can learn and you can actually master. It is something that you can do.

Okay, awesome. Now, so I'd love to dive a little deeper there. Like, is— do you have, like, when you help somebody, do you have, like, scripts and stuff? Or, like, how does that— how does it work? Like, give us some, uh, give us some details there.

Yeah, absolutely. So I always recommend that when you're starting, you do use a framework. I do provide a a framework as well as scripts and templates. Like, what do I say? How do I engage with people? How do I even start the conversation? And even from there, I know that sometimes people get stuck because you're having these wonderful conversations. You've met somebody maybe in the grocery lineup or at your, your kid's soccer game or at a networking event, or somebody has reached out to you, right? And said, hey, I'm curious, could you help me? And you start having that conversation. And then all of a sudden, you start to feel that wall of anticipation. Oh, I have to sell. And right, you just like, you kind of freeze in that moment. And we go from being a human, like a real normal person, to all of a sudden not. Like just, it creates this weird space. And so I help people who get stuck where you're overthinking it and you're wondering, how do I say this without being sleazy or spammy or wanting to just get the sale. Well, ultimately, you're not just trying to get the sale, you're trying to help that person. And so I give you scripts, I give you actual words, and then from there I help you figure out your own words, your own script, so that way it sounds like you and not me inside of you.

Got it. So it's like a customized script.

And that's—

got it. That's per— that's perfect. That's, uh, That's, that's good to know because I think sometimes where people mess up is like they try to follow an exact script of somebody else, but maybe that somebody else has a completely different personality and maybe they're selling like tires, you know what I mean? So it's like, yes, the framework of the script may work well, but you also have to add your own personal, um, personality to it, I believe. So that's good to know. Um, so the next one is, is what's your best piece of overall business advice? So not necessarily industry specific.

Overall business advice is to stay focused on the thing that you do well as much as you possibly can and hire or find people who can support you in the areas that you're weak. I too often I find that business owners, we all wear lots of hats, right? Like we don't get into this thinking I'm gonna, I'm gonna do sales and marketing and customer service, tech support. Like you don't go into business thinking you're gonna do all of these things and oftentimes there's a space where we have to do that but as fast as you possibly can, I highly recommend that if you can actually pour gas on the thing that you do the best, and you start to supplement and find resources, whether that's you're hiring folks in your business, or you're getting mentors for support, and you're hiring coaches, and people who can give you that guidance, that is going to be so much better use of your time and your money, because you're going to be able to move so much faster than if you continue to do all the things, that you're really not good at and that are going to drag you down and prevent you from moving forward and helping more people.

Yep. Could not agree more. 100%. And then if you could give your younger self one piece of advice, what would that be?

To not be so worried about what was going to happen, like not want to have everything so dialed in and controlled. I was a planner. Like I wanted to plan out every moment of my life, every day. So, while that was, it gave me some great habits, I also feel like it limited a lot of the opportunities that might have presented itself that I was just too fearful to take because it didn't fit in the box, it didn't fit my plan, it didn't fit the schedule of what I had thought my life would look like. And so, like, my business would not be here if I had lived my life according to that plan. So, I am super grateful that I've had that opportunity, but I wish that maybe, because I look back and I see the signs that I probably could have taken the leap sooner. And I wonder how many more people I could have helped had I done that. So I wish that I could have loosened the reins a little bit and been more free to just lead with my heart and take the leap of faith without having that fear or that lack of control around my life.

Yeah, I think that's big. I mean, I always say it's like good to plan and strategize, like, you know, obviously, but what's helped me the most is just taking action. Like, I failed so many times, and then I've had like a couple big wins, and that's what's like led me to where I am today. So, but if I never took action, like, if you stay in your head all the time, then you never do anything, right? So, I think there's a balance, but like you're saying, like, just kind of going out there a little sooner maybe would have been beneficial for you. So, so now we'll take it down a little bit of a different path. In your opinion, tell me what do you think the key to happiness is?

Wow, that's a big question. You know, so, and such a shift, Tyler, but I love this question. I love this question because it's how I live my life now. So, I mean, I went through a complete breakdown. That was my breakthrough. And it led me to this moment that I'm even speaking with you. So for me, happiness is doing what you want to do and giving yourself the space and the freedom to know that you will be okay no matter what happens. And I think that's, for me, my definition of, of being happy is being okay with who I am every single day. As soon as I wake up, no matter what I do, no matter what I say, no matter what I accomplish, that I am good enough just exactly as I am, and that people love me and that I love myself no matter what else that I happen to do today.

I love that. Great answer. Next one is, what is the best book that you've read and what was the number one thing you learned from it?

Oh, I love reading. I love reading. So this question is always super hard for me to answer because, you know, even from like fiction to nonfiction. So I'll pick one that I think has had the most profound impact for a lot of the people that I've recommended it to, and that's The One Thing. It's actually fairly new to me, but everybody that I've talked to who's read it or anybody that I recommend it to has been like, yes, that is such a great book. So The One Thing by, I'm gonna butcher his name, it's Gary Keller and Jay Papasan. I believe.

Yeah, I know the book you're talking about though, right?

It's amazing. So I think it's sometimes we're searching for all of the things that we want to do really well. And so I'm a multi-passionate, if anybody else can relate, where you have lots of different interests and you wonder how they all kind of fit together. For me, that book kind of gave me a really big aha moment in realizing that there's a common theme or a thread that's run through my life, and that although it shows up differently As I've kind of evolved through my life, the underlying current of what I'm here to do has stayed the same. So my one thing is to serve other people and how I serve them, the mechanism that I use has shifted and that's okay, but my driving force is how do I serve people? And so my big one thing mission is to serve 1 million people, is to help 1 million people. And just by being on, on your show here today, Tyler, that is helping me because I'm hoping that somebody listens and goes, wow, there's something that she has said that has helped me, and that's my bigger mission, to help more people.

Absolutely. I love it. And then what is your favorite quote and why?

My favorite quote? Oh, you know, carpe diem. From— it's from Dead Poets Society is really where it kind of struck out to me as a young kid, but carpe diem, or seize the day, is For me, it really relates to what you had said earlier, Tyler, about taking action. It's living every moment as if it was your last, seizing the day, and being able to take action, and not being afraid of what that outcome is gonna be, and not waiting for tomorrow, 'cause I find that sometimes it's tomorrow, it's later, and I was that kid. You know, I'll do it later, I'll do it later, and sometimes later doesn't come, right? We just don't know how many moments we have on this earth, and so I think it's really important that we take every opportunity that we can to do as much as we want in that moment to be able to live our lives as fully as possible.

100%. Thank you. Great. Thank you so much for coming on. Last one I got, where can our listeners connect with you online and anywhere you want them to go to, to check you out?

Yeah, absolutely. So Facebook is where I typically hang out on social media, although I'm going to say I have a growing love with Instagram and Insta Stories, but I have a free gift for your audience if they're wanting to check it out. It's at SusanMcVey.com/free, and it's really my roadmap to how I got 6 figures in 6 months in my business. So if that's helpful for you, I invite you to go on over and check it out.

Awesome. Thank you again.

You're welcome. Thank you so much.