Selling, promoting, launching, funnels. Who’s palms are sweating? 😬
Well, buckle up because in this episode/post I’m talking about 5 things I’ve learned about selling over the last 5 years of building my business to six figures.
I’m hoping these lessons and observations will help you to feel better about selling and also stop you from making the same mistakes I did. Selling is a big thing, and there are so many limiting beliefs around sales – some of which I’m addressing in this episode/post!
Working On Your Sales Mindset
Mindset is everything. I resisted this massively at the start of my business journey because I’m a very analytical person and didn’t think I had any mindset issues. I was doing all the things I was supposed to do and believed that following that plan would get me to where I needed to be. I later came to realize that I had (and still have) a lot of mindset blocks and limiting beliefs.
The good news is, we all do – it’s something we all have to continuously work on. You might conquer one mindset issue but another could crop up, so it’s important to always work on your mindset and be aware of any blocks that might be arising, and learn how to reframe them. Remember, you’re not alone, someone else will have experienced this and worked through it, and so can you!
Not To Be Afraid Of Funnels
You don’t need to be afraid of funnels! Of course, the first time you do one, it’s going to be scary and you might feel uncomfortable, but that’s normal – the first time I heard about funnels I knew I wasn’t there yet and was definitely a bit intimated by them. But you can make them as simple or as complicated as you want.
For those of you wondering what a funnel is, it’s basically just a sequence. It’s where you’re guiding people through your offers or to your offers. For example, someone could sign up to your email list from a freebie, and then you send them an email sequence with a bunch of your best content, and then you invite them to a paid masterclass, your group coaching program, or your one-on-one coaching or private sessions, etc.
So really, it’s not that advanced and it’s not scary! You set it up because it works, and you just let it work for you behind the scenes. What doesn’t work is simply creating an offer like an online course and putting it on your website homepage, hoping that people will buy it. I’ve tried it, and trust me, it doesn’t work. You can still of course display it on your website, but having a funnel allows you to meet your potential customers where they are on their journey when they signed up for your freebie, and you can guide them through a process until they are at the buying stage for your online offer.
Don’t Overcomplicate Things
I invested in courses that taught me how to set up funnels, down to the exact email sequence to use, the countdown tactic, the Q&As, etc. But, what I’ve learned is that although it’s effective and can work, I don’t think you need it. I don’t think you need to overwhelm yourself with the tech of setting up funnels. There’s a happy middle ground that no one seems to talk about, where you just set things up as you grow – and don’t have 0 funnels, but also don’t have advanced, complicated ones in place.
It’s unlikely that you’re starting your business with 10 different offers and masterclasses and courses ready to sell and market, so set things up one after another. I would block out 1-2 hours per week to work on your funnels and add bits to them. It’s important to look at the numbers and see what’s working and at what stage. For example, does your freebie convert really well, but after your first email, 70% of people unsubscribe? This would suggest something is wrong with the first email in your welcome sequence. Try changing things up and introducing new things, running it again for another 4-6 weeks, and then checking the numbers again.
Your email sequence also doesn’t need to be overcomplicated where you talk all about pain points and nothing else. It can simply be an invitation to work with you, or where you share your excitement about your offers and the results you’ve managed to get your students. You can even share some personal stories and allow people to get to know you or share stories about a student you had and the journey that they’ve been on and where they are now. You could share your journey and why you created your offer, and then send another email breaking it all down step by step.
There are no rules – there’s never just one set way to do these things and you need to find a way that works for you. I give my students a plan to follow and templates because I think it can be helpful for them to see an example and have a roadmap to follow, but they often personalize them. It’s easy to fall into the mindset of not wanting to annoy our followers by sending too many emails, but if you have a set plan and a roadmap to send out, then it keeps you accountable for actually sending them. People follow you for a reason, and want to hear from you!
Create A Strategic Offer Suite
If you don’t sell anything, you don’t have a business. But, you need to be strategic about what it is you’re creating and who you’re selling to. For example, your offers could follow your client’s ascension – you take them from being a total beginner, to intermediate, and then to advanced. For example, if you’re a yoga teacher, it could be from a yoga beginners class to your advanced yoga teacher training. This is a big journey though with a lot of work, so it doesn’t have to be this way if you don’t want it to be – you could purely focus on working with yoga for beginners and the transformation you offer is for them to feel confident and no longer feel like a beginner!
The main thing here is to choose a strong niche and know who exactly you’re serving and what transformation you’re promising them. For example, I don’t work with beginners – my students are in the elevate stage where they want to elevate their brand, and their offers, and dive into building an online business. So, my offers reflect this and I make it clear that these are the kinds of students I work with. I do have a range of offers, but they all lead up to my signature offer and point people in that direction.
So, have lower-priced offers, but make sure they’re leading up to your signature offer so that you can scale, and not rely on hourly classes or memberships. You never know what’s going to happen, and ideally, you want to build a business that you can continue to run no matter what.
Be Smart About Your Pricing
Start with low-price offers and then offer something in the medium price range and something more premium (within reason). Think about how long you’ve been in the space, how much expertise you have, and if you have social proof from past clients (either in person or online). If you’ve been working in person and are new to the online space, consider the size of your audience too – have all of your previous clients moved online with you, or are you starting from scratch?
Offering different price points allows people to work with you when they may be at different stages and allows them to get to know you, get used to your teaching style and then decide if you are the right teacher for them before then potentially moving up to your higher priced offer that they know will give them the ultimate transformation.
The biggest mistake you can make about selling is not selling, right? When I was first getting started, I only sold when I was launching something and this became too much and too overwhelming and then I stopped selling for a while. After some time, I set up evergreen funnels – which is basically a funnel that can run all year round, that promotes something that people can buy anytime – there’s no start or end date specifically. This allowed me to actually be selling all the time, without me having to actively launch.
Another way of selling all the time is talking about your offers consistently on social media and in your newsletter. Make sure your offers are also easy to find on your website – really put them up front and center. This is also why I recommend really focusing on one signature offer when you’re just getting started because you can give it your all, and focus fully on selling that ONE offer and putting all of your energy into it. This is exactly what I did with my offer – Blissful Biz Incubator, and now it’s a 6-figure offer. Now I’m ready to update and improve it, create new offers, update some of my existing offers, and start selling them again.
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