Category: sales

sales

Redefining the Sale: Serve Your Clients, Don’t Sell

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We all have moments when we get weird about money. It’s one of the biggest fears among professionals. There are literally thousands of brilliant people who work for or run a business and they are terrified of sales.

“I’ll do any job, in any department, but please not sales. Anything but sales!”

But why? Why is the act of selling such a terrifying thing?

Without compassion and purpose, selling something to someone feels like a lie, a rip-off, a scam. The sale benefits the seller, not the buyer. Everyone knows that. Right?

Not so fast. The truth is that we don’t need to fear sales or cringe at the word. But we do need to redefine sales as a service you provide for your customer. Serve, don’t sell.

Liston Witherill, host of the Serve Don’t Sell podcast, developed this phrase, philosophy, and book. And his idea goes something like this: if you’re not helping your client, you’re hurting them. Either by wasting their time, their money, or both. That’s why sales can feel gross sometimes.

But how can you serve your clients if you don’t sell them your services?

To Serve Your Clients, Begin With Understanding Them

The energy and process we bring to selling is what will make all the difference. If you want to make a big show, flash your expertise, and demonstrate your industry dominance, have at it, but that expertise won’t help you sell.

Many experts fall into the rut of industry speak. The problem? It’s all about YOU, and we’ve established that clients aren’t really about that. Your clients don’t necessarily speak that language. They need you to understand their language and their problems.

So how can you serve them?

Listen first. Even and ESPECIALLY if you’ve heard it all before. Just because your client has come to you with a problem or pain point you see often in your industry, does not mean they’ve had the chance to be heard. Having your problem heard and validated is a fast track to developing mutual trust.

Demonstrate value. When someone is new to what you offer, they’re usually most interested in the cost of the item so they can mentally check a box: Affordable or Not Affordable. We all do it. If you can demonstrate the benefit of what you do and how your service or solution will change their life for the better, then hit them with the cost. They’ll find ways to afford you because they see the value.

Remember the End Goal Isn’t About Making a Sale.

This is where the “Serve Don’t Sell” philosophy really hits home. Your goal isn’t to make a sale or reel in this client. It’s to serve them in whatever way they need most. You can determine what this is by:

Taking a wide view. Consider that their pain point or problem may only be a symptom. Taking the time to listen and ask questions that don’t EXACTLY come into play in your field may help paint a more clear picture and reveal multiple ways to offer your services and potentially recommend other services that you do not offer. Doing so positions you as a trusted advisor.

Checking yourself. Ask yourself, “Am I helping them?”. Sometimes helping them means you DON’T offer your services. They’re either not ready or not a good fit. YET. And there is a possibility that they may never be. When the dreaded SALES! fear shows up most is here. Don’t force it. Helping them could mean offering your services and moving them toward a goal. It can also look like referring them out.

By doing what’s best for the client, you not only create a foundation for a possible future relationship with this person or agency, but for any referrals they may send your way.

GoBeyond Is Dedicated to Serving Clients

When we named our company GoBeyond, we came to that name because of our experience in hospitality. We were trained to treat visitors to our restaurant, country club, bar, or hotel as a guest, not as a customer. We bring that energy to our company as well. We want our clients to feel that we go above and beyond their expectations. We practice what we preach!

Contact us at GoBeyond today to schedule a consultation to learn more about how we can help you take your business to the next level by redefining the sales mindset!

Tags client relationships, redefine sales, sales process, sales tips, serve don't sell

Landing Pages sales

How to Get More Conversions Through Convenience

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Are you familiar with Entenmann’s cookies?

The chocolate-dipped donuts. The marbled or lemon pound cake. The chocolate chip cookies. Many people have childhood memories filled with Entenmann’s goodies, whether you had them at your house or a friend’s house.

So what does this have to do with marketing? Quite a bit.

It’s a fact: Entenmann’s is not the best brand of store-bought cookies, donuts, or pound cakes.

They’re not the cheapest.

They’re not the healthiest.

So why are they so incredibly popular?

They’re the brand on the end cap in the grocery store, for all the world to see. Temptation is the hobgoblin of opportunity.

Convenience = Conversions

So now you’re thinking, “I don’t sell cookies. I provide professional services. People don’t buy what I sell on impulse, and they can’t find it in a grocery store.”

All true. However, your audience is still human and still values convenience.

So how can you make the purchase process more convenient?

Not all marketing efforts are designed to directly impact sales. Some efforts are more for awareness, PR, or education. These efforts will indirectly impact your sales, and tracking true conversions is not the priority.

However, if the goal of your marketing efforts is to directly impact sales, much like the end cap filled with beloved cookies, all correspondence should include the following three things:

1. Crystal clear and compelling benefits for your client.

This is what’s in it for them. Quick, compelling, convenient.

2. Crystal clear Unique Selling Proposition (USP).

This is why they should buy specifically from you. Decision making made easy.

3. Crystal clear Call-to-Action (CTA).

The next step that should be done RIGHT NOW.

Though you can’t put your services on an end cap in a grocery store, you CAN make the decision-making process simple and convenient for your client. Identify the benefits, make using you an easy decision, and outline the next steps.

BOOM. They have your cookies in their shopping cart.

How to Create a Landing Page That Will Convert

Let’s say you’re not directly corresponding with your clients, but rather drawing in a ton of traffic to your website or landing page, but seeing a poor conversion rate. How can you really draw clients in and make getting them to take that next step as easy and painless as putting a box of Entenmann’s donuts in their cart?

Tip #1: When possible, use human faces on your landing page, your blogs, and your social media posts. People respond to people, so encourage the connection. When people feel connected, they close faster.

Tip #2: If you sell a product, be sure to use photos of the actual product or people with the product to convert better.

Tip #3: When possible, support your claims with happy client testimonials. Social proof is a powerful elixir.

Here’s the best part in all of this: Offering up convenience is easier for you too. Decision making is labor intensive, and for all of you professional service providers out there, your clients are likely both overwhelmed and intimidated by the process. That’s why they’re looking for an expert. Like you.

Making the process smooth and painless is the fastest way to close more sales.

Is your conversion process all about you, or is it as convenient as possible for your clients? Get in touch with us at GoBeyond SEO to discover more about how you can boost your conversions with the right approach!

Tags calls to action, conversion optimization, copywriting, landing pages

sales

How to Respond to a Potential Client With No Budget

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You’re having coffee with a prospective client. You’re chatting with them and getting an understanding of what they need. As you draw close to discussing pricing or proposals, they hit you with, “I have no budget.”

Say what?

How do you respond to this kind of statement? This is important because it can set the tone for your entire relationship with this potential client.

The best way to respond is to put the responsibility back on them. It might feel uncomfortable at first, but you need to help them remember why you both agreed to meet in the first place—this meeting is to determine if you plan to work together. Their budget is their issue and cannot become yours.

Here’s how you can put the responsibility back on them.

Ask a Simple Question to Reframe the Conversation

When they hit you with the “I’ve got no budget” statement, here’s a possible response:

“Determining how much to spend on *WHATEVER SERVICE YOU ARE OFFERING* can be difficult to gauge, but since you have no budget, what were you hoping to gain from meeting today?”

The key here is to not sound aggressive or angry, but to ask the question calmly and fairly. Your time is valuable. Were they really just wasting it or was their expectation different?

Either way, this response puts the responsibility back on them.

Here are a few possible answers to that question:

“Well, I don’t have a BIG budget…”
“I wanted to see how much it would cost, so that when I DO have a budget…”
“I was hoping to barter…”

Here’s what clients without a budget are typically hoping for when scheduling a consultation with you:

Free information
A significant discount so you’ll fight to work with them
A proposal outlining a strategy or service

None of these things are solid footing for a client relationship. Ideally, you’ll be able to start seeing the “I have no budget” types before they land a precious meeting with you, but if you find yourself in a situation like this, it’s important to reframe the conversation.

They need to understand your time is valuable.

Simply by agreeing to the meeting, they’ve acknowledged the possibility of hiring you. By now saying they have no budget, they’re taking away that possibility and that’s a GIANT contradiction.

Determine How to Move Forward With Clarity

By asking them what they’re hoping to achieve, you’ve reframed the conversation in a way that will lead to one of two results, both of which are fine with you.

Result #1: They do have a budget and this statement reveals a (feeble) negotiation tactic. At this point, you can very politely establish that you don’t enjoy negotiation games, and you also demonstrate that you’re a straight-shooter and can be trusted.

Result #2: They really don’t have a budget and you’ll know this isn’t a prospect who will become a client. At this point, you’ll know this is a waste of your valuable time and not to pursue them any longer. Thank them for the nice conversation and give them an awkward “end of Zoom Call” wave.

When you realize your worth, you stop giving people discounts.

If you’re struggling to find clients who can afford your product or service, contact us at GoBeyond SEO to discuss how you can better connect with your target audience!

Tags client communication, prospects, sales tips

Business Blogging Lead Generation sales

How To Narrow Your Target Market (And Why You Need To)

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Narrowing your market is a scary prospect. Why? You probably already know who your customers are, and the more people you reach, the more you sell. Here lies the rub. The broader your audience, the broader your messaging becomes. Your bandwidth needs to be able to handle all sorts of clients from all walks of life and realms of expertise. Because of all this, your leads end up taking a little longer to come in and the experience you want to provide isn’t what you’d like it to be.

When you focus your energy on targeting a narrower audience, your message can be more customized. Customized messages are the ones that get the real engagement, and when that happens, there is a higher chance they will trust you understand their needs. They will know you are a good fit for them.

As you consider who exactly that narrow audience is, consider:

Are they buying for themselves or someone else?
What are their biggest problems or desires as it relates to your business?
Where do they get their information as it relates to your business? Social media? Google search? Asking friends or colleagues?

After you’ve answered those, it’s time to refocus and zone in. Here are the top 3 areas of focus when determining how to narrow your target market.

How to Narrow Your Target Market in 3 Steps

1. Focus on Desired Outcomes

Your clients come to you for the benefits, not the features, you offer…so promote them. Instead of talking about what your business does, discuss the outcome or emotion your clients will get after working with you. Will they acquire more security in the financial realm? Feel more confident when preparing for mediation? Leave with lasting family memories? Whatever business you are in, reminding your audience what you can provide them with is what will get them interested, and get them at your proverbial doorstep.

2. Focus on Customer Experience

When you are pulled in multiple directions, it gets increasingly difficult to juggle all of the needs and desires of your clients. With a more specialized, narrower audience, you are able to customize your client experience. When you understand your client’s needs so well, which is far easier to do when you narrow your market, you make it easier for them to say yes. They are reassured you can do what they need with minimal effort. That in itself is a huge selling point.

3. Focus on Acquiring Trust

When you keep your focus on a very specific market, the reviews your business receives will also be specific. Your narrow market will find comfort in seeing themselves in those reviews, increasing trustworthiness within a market. Prior to even contacting you, they will feel confident in your expertise.

Narrowing your target audience helps you create customized messages for the right audience. This, in turn, will shorten the sales cycle and lower the barriers they may have to get to you. They’ll benefit from your specialized knowledge of their area, and you’ll benefit from the lower cost of focusing on a smaller market.

Do you need help identifying how to narrow your target market in your specific industry? Contact our team for more insights!

Tags lead generation, marketing, narrow target market, target audience

Marketing sales

How to Discover Your Unique Selling Proposition to Beat Your Competitors

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Have you ever tried copycat marketing? You pick a competitor, either aspirational or adversarial, learn what kind of marketing seems to be working for them, and then copy it.

Did it work? I’ll bet it did; kind of.

You choose a similar method (you both have billboards), similar offerings (free consultation), and serve similar markets (people who can pay for what you do).

So now what? Now you have to be better than the competition AND everyone has to know you’re better, right?

Not necessarily. The truth is, unless you’ve truly distinguished yourself from the competition, you won’t be able to shine. Our advice? Focus less on being the best and focus more on being the ONLY.

Separate Yourself by Identifying What Makes You Unique

But why would you want to be the only and not the best? Shouldn’t you be the best at what you do? Of course, you should be the best you can be. That said, unfocused marketing is very, very costly and worse, it’s ineffective.

The most effective and efficient marketing campaigns focus on something that’s important to your clients AND something that’s unique to your firm. This is often referred to as your Unique Selling Proposition, or your USP.

Your USP plays to your strengths and should be based on what makes your brand or product uniquely valuable to your customers.

But there’s a catch: being “unique” is rarely a strong USP in itself. You have to differentiate around some aspect your target audience cares about, otherwise your messaging won’t be nearly as effective as it could be.

How to Define Your USP With a Simple Framework

How can you separate yourself from your competitors when you do exactly the same thing? It’s true, you’re probably not the only one who does what you do—but here’s how to identify what makes you different.

Every USP is going to be, well, unique. Here’s how to discover your unique selling propositions and leverage them in your marketing:

Make a list of all the potential differentiators that are beneficial to your clients. Get specific. Find a service or product that’s unique to your offering and solves at least one problem, even a small problem your client has.

Research the competition. Who are your competitors and what are their USPs? Look for gaps where you can potentially introduce your brand differently.

Compare your most unique angles against your audience’s needs. Are there any customer needs that haven’t been filled? Do you see any pain points that you can appeal to that your competitors haven’t?

Take the information you’ve learned and sift through it to single out your strongest USPs.

Implement that USP (or USPs) into all of your marketing messaging. It makes a world of difference!

Once you’ve got it, use this framework to spell it out succinctly:

[YOUR BRAND] offers [PRODUCT/SERVICE] for [TARGET MARKET] to [VALUE PROPOSITION], Unlike [THE ALTERNATIVE], we [KEY DIFFERENTIATOR].

Creating a Unique Selling Proposition Doesn’t Have to be Complicated

Your USP can be simple. Do you have ample parking and that makes life easier for your clients? Point that out. Do you offer virtual meetings? Do you speak Spanish? Something as simple as easy or free parking can actually make a big difference.

Your products don’t need to be wholly unique in and of themselves for you to have a strong USP. Look for a spot in the market where you can stand out and shine that’s relatively untouched by the competition. Bonus points if you can infuse your brand personality into your USP messaging as well!

Need help defining your USP? Contact us at GoBeyond SEO to book your free strategy session with us today!

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