Marketing The Invisible

By Tom PolandBusiness Education How To Marketing Management

Marketing The Invisible episodes

February 27, 2023How to Embrace a New Mindset for Sales Success – In Just 7 Minutes with Bill Caskey
Discover how to flip the buyer/seller system to generate better and more sales results
Learn why giving discounts is something you should avoid as a first step
Understand why telling your sales team to grind and work harder is a big mistake and a waste of effort
Resources/Links:
Want to know more about how you can control the buyer/seller process? Click here: billcaskey.com
Summary
Have you and your sales team been grinding so hard but it seems like it’s getting nowhere? Do you want to know how you can flip the system to get that sales success?
The old-fashioned marketing tactics don’t work nowadays. Marketing strategies are different for everyone, however, the secret to securing your sales success starts with shifting your mindset.
Bill Caskey has been training sales teams for over 30 years and has logged over 10,000 training events.
Tune in to what Bill has to share on why you need to stop the unnecessary grinding and start shifting your mindset to flip the buyer/seller process and secure yourself better and more sales!
Check out these episode highlights:
02:26 – Bill’s ideal client: Well, my ideal client is a business-to-business organization who sells complex or high-ticket products or solution services to its client base. And they typically have a sales team.
03:01 – The problem he helps solve: Well, most people come to me when they are not generating the sales results or top-line revenue they want. They find it harder to command a premium.
03:49 – The symptoms of the problem: That’s a very good way to think about it, the symptoms because that’s what we really look at and feel are the day-to-day symptoms. Results aren’t where they need to be– that’s an easy one to see.
05:11 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Bill: There’s a lot! I’ve got two that I think that I see people try, and it never ever works. One is telling your sales team to grind harder, to work harder, to make more calls to just get out there, email blasts.
06:43 – Bill’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Yeah, let’s talk about the mindset here for 27 seconds. I want the mindset to be the customer who sells you on why they need this problem they have solved. That’s the essence of the total flip, and nobody’s really teaching that.
08:09 – Bill’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want to know more about how you can control the buyer/seller process? Click here: billcaskey.com
08:45 – Q: What kind of results can I get from using this mentality? A: So you know, one thing is, I want you to close a higher percentage of the business. I think this idea that the national average or the world average is 10 to 15% of deals quoted to deals closed– that’s way too low.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“Sometimes massive action without intelligence and intentionality behind the action is just a total waste of effort.” -Bill Caskey
Click To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland, yet again, beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia here, joined today by Bill Caskey. Bill, very warm good day from Down Under. Sir, where are you hanging out?
Bill Caskey 00:22
Tom, thanks for inviting me. Yeah, I’m in the Midwest in the US. Indiana is the state and probably nobody knows where that is. But it’s right smack dab in the middle of the Midwest.
Tom Poland 00:31
I’m old enough to remember “Indiana Wants Me”.
Bill Caskey 00:33
Oh, yes! That’s right. Oh, there’s a lot. Tom Petty had a song. “I’m standing outside the market square in my underwear” or something like that. There was a line and song so we’ve-
Tom Poland 00:47
I’m hoping that’s a line from Tom Petty’s song and not your recent experience.
Bill Caskey 00:51
That’s right.
Tom Poland 00:52
Moving right along. So from the Midwest, just having finished the midterms, for those of you who don’t know Bill, he’s been training sales teams for over 30 years- get this- over 10,000 training events. So I think he might have something to tell us that could be important. That’s quite extraordinary, Bill! You did all this before you were, what, 40 years old too?
Bill Caskey 01:16
Yeah, right. Uh-huh. Yeah, you know, I counted it up a couple of years ago. And when you do a lot of one-hour, hour-and-a-half, two-hour types of things, these aren’t 10,001-day programs. These are a lot of short training. But you know, for 25 years, they were face-to-face. And in the last five years, they’ve been mostly virtual. But yeah, it’s 10,000 and growing. So there I’ve heard a thing or two about sales and probably have an answer to it.
Tom Poland 01:40
Classic Midwest understatement! Folks, the thing about having to articulate what you do and how to do it so often is you end up with crystal-clear clarity in your communication. You know, there’s so much that you could unpack, but we’ve got seven minutes, and we will get started. The title today is, it’s a critical subject because so many people may have the skills but if they don’t have the attitude, they keep self-sabotaging and shooting themselves in the foot, or they turn off the door. They lack confidence, that clients pick up on their prospective clients. So title today is, “How to Embrace a New Mindset for Sales Success”. Bill, a pleasure to have you on the show. Our seven minutes is going to start now, sir. Question number one is, who is your ideal client?
Bill Caskey 02:26
Well, my ideal client is a business-to-business organization who sells complex or high-ticket products or solution services to its client base. And they typically have a sales team. They have a marketing team. They might have an account management team. And I might work with all of those people, but that’s my ideal client. 100 million dollars and below, probably the generation of people that I’m in there.
Tom Poland 02:51
Oh, good. I just qualify, so great! Question number two is what would you say is the problem you solve for these organizations?
Bill Caskey 03:01
Well, most people come to me when they are not generating the sales results or top-line revenue they want. They find it harder to command a premium. You know, a lot of- I don’t work with low-bid people generally. It’s usually people that will have unique value, and they have a higher ticket or higher price than the competitor’s product. And so they’re unable to scale their business. And they want to do so while still commanding a premium and keeping margins up.
Tom Poland 03:29
So thank you for that. And just over five and a half minutes left. So they’re not hitting the targets they want to hit. What about some of the typical symptoms other than that? What’s going on in their business? What’s going on with the sales teams or the leaders where they’re going- someone listening to this could go, “We have those symptoms”?
Bill Caskey 03:49
Yeah, that’s a very good way to think about it, the symptoms, because that’s what we really look at and feel are the day-to-day symptoms. Results aren’t where they need to be– that’s an easy one to see. A little more difficult one is sales don’t come easy. It seems like every sales process has something wrong with it. Or we’re having to discount. Or we’re not talking to the right person. Or, “Gosh, it’s been on the funnel for six months, why hasn’t that closed yet?” You know, there’s a lot of drama or chaos around the sales process. And the other symptom for you, CEOs and CFOs who are financially minded, is margins are slipping, and we have to discount to get the business and that’s not healthy. And you know, discounting comes right off the bottom line. So that’s another indicator that there’s a problem.
Tom Poland 4:39
Yeah, on a deep position. The brand is something that’s perhaps not as premium as it really is. So what would you say, question four is, four and a half minutes left, some of the common mistakes. We’ve got organizations that are pretty successful by most people’s standards, and you won’t be the first person that’s come along to try and solve this problem. You might be the first one to actually solve it, but you won’t be the first one to try. So what are your new clients saying to you they’ve tried that actually end up being mistakes? What are the most common mistakes people in these situations make before they find their solution?
Bill Caskey 05:11
Yeah, that’s an awesome question. There’s a lot! I’ve got two that I think that I see people try, and it never ever works. One is telling your sales team to grind harder, to work harder, to make more calls to just get out there, email blasts. I mean, there’s this, I know that Tony Robbins, who I really like, talks about massive action. And I think sometimes massive action without intelligence and intentionality behind the action is just a total waste of effort.
Tom Poland 05:44
Just magnifying the-
Bill Caskey 05:49
Grinding harder, convincing harder, you know, selling harder. “Talk about our benefits more.” “Don’t take no for an answer.” All that garbage from the 70s and 80s still raises its head. And it’s amazing how many sales teams still buy into that. They still believe that and VPs of sales too. I gotta tell you, there’s a new day. In fact, we’ll get into the mindset here, I’m sure very quickly in a minute, but there’s a new day, and it’s not convinced harder and grind harder.
Tom Poland 06:13
Yeah. And in fact, I mean, I uncovered an old record player with a slideshow on tape. And this goes back to the 1950s. And that was just a request for more information. Be a man so you can go home to the little lady and show your commission check. So let’s flip it then. Question five is what’s the one thing that people can do that’s going to start to flip their mindset, that’s going to move them away from the old proven-but-doesn’t-work, just-make-more-calls mentality?
Bill Caskey 06:43
Yeah, let’s talk about the mindset here for 27 seconds. I want the mindset to be the customer who sells you on why they need this problem they have solved. That’s the essence of the total flip, and nobody’s really teaching that. Most sales organizations don’t know what I’m talking about. But the fact is that they have a problem. They have pain. They have a vision they want to get to so we’ve got to flip the script. And so the tip that I would give you, your listeners, is to operate early from a position of, “I don’t know”. “I don’t know if I can bring value to you, sir or ma’am. I don’t know if you’re a prospect for me. I don’t know if I can help you. I don’t know if you have any-” So if you do that, if you really operate from that, I don’t know if I can help, the whole process changes. The whole system is flipped. The dynamic between you and the buyer is flipped. And it’s not like you control them. You just control the process. And that’s what we’re really after.
Tom Poland 07:41
Right. And so the whole psychology switches from “I’m trying to sell you something” to “You need to let me know if I’ve got what you want.”
Bill Caskey 07:51
That’s right. Now, yeah, we have to help them on the way there, but that is exactly right!
Tom Poland 07:56
And so, question five, we’re looking at, ah, sorry, question six, a valuable free resource. You’ve got something that dives a little bit deeper on this? Because I’m absolutely sure you pique the interest of a whole lot of people. Where can they go to find out more about what you do?
Bill Caskey 08:09
Yeah, the best place to send them, Tom, is to billcaskey.com. And that’s C-A-S-K-E-Y. And on that page, there is a document called “The Five Reasons You Don’t Have Enough Clients”, and it’s a 10- or 12-page PDF, easy to read. I’ve got, and there are some of these mindsets that build up into that flipping the script is in that document. I think your listeners will really find that valuable. Billcaskey.com.
Tom Poland 08:34
The first thing I would do after this call is gonna grab it. Bill Caskey, C-A-S-K-E-Y, .com. Bill, thank you for that. 40 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?
Bill Caskey 08:45
Probably, what kind of results can I get from using this mentality? And the answer to that?
Tom Poland 08:50
Yep. 20 seconds. I’ll shut up and let you talk.
Bill Caskey 08:54
Yeah. So you know, one thing is, I want you to close a higher percentage of the business. I think this idea that the national average or the world average is 10 to 15% of deals quoted to deals closed– that’s way too low. It’s a whole lot of time wasted on people that aren’t going to buy. So the biggest thing I can do is don’t call it any more people just close 50%, 60%, 70% that’ll triple your business without having to go prospect anymore. You got the prospects, you just need to convert them.
Tom Poland 09:20
That’s pretty dramatic! Bill Caskey, thanks so much for your time and your experience distilled down into such a short, succinct expose. Thanks, man. Cheers!
Bill Caskey 09:30
Thanks, Tom. I appreciate you!
Tom Poland 09:32
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.
11 min
February 22, 2023How to Expand Internationally – In Just 7 Minutes with Cynthia Dearin
Discover why you’re global expansion isn’t working the way it should be
Find out what your next step in expanding should be that will guarantee you spending less but gaining more
Learn more on how you can focus down on the things that you really need to focus on
Resources/Links:
Want to know more on how you can go global? Join Go Global Go Getters
Summary
Have you been feeling overwhelmed and stuck doing guesswork? Do you always end up having little-to-no traction at all?
You can’t rush global expansion just because you got 1-2 international orders– that’s the hard truth. However, if you feel like you’re ready to go global, it’s not supposed to be stressful, time consuming and costly!
Cynthia Dearin is an international business strategist who helps business leaders create game-changing international strategies. She established Dearing & Associates when she realized that, although there has never been a better time for companies of all sizes to go global, most don’t know where to start.
Sit back and grab a drink while Cynthia shares how can YOU expand globally with little stress, high assurance, and better leads at an international level.
Check out these episode highlights:
01:43 – Cynthia’s ideal client: I love to work with companies, often manufacturing companies, turning over between $2 and $20 million who are looking to go global. Sometimes these will be established companies that have kind of run out of runway in their home market.
03:11 – The problem she helps solve: So, look, it’s often not knowing where to start, as you said, at the top. You know, seeing an opportunity and thinking, “How do we tackle this?”, or maybe, some of the other common problems that you see are things like overwhelm.
04:02 – The symptoms of the problem: Well look, some of those things that I mentioned a minute ago, so maybe spinning their wheels, lots of activity, but not much traction or lots of opportunity, and feeling overwhelmed because you don’t know which direction to go to.
05:01 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Cynthia: Yeah, look, I think multiple’s everything– multiple markets, multiple client types, multiple channels to market, multiple marketing approaches. It’s just too much of everything. I think also, taking an ad hoc approach.
05:59 – Cynthia’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Get laser-focused. This is my absolute number one top tip.
07:04 – Cynthia’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want to know more on how you can go global? Join Go Global Go Getters
07:56 – Q: You should have asked me about the painting that’s over my left shoulder here. A: My uncle painted it for me when I was four. His name is Cedric. He’s gone all around the world with me and some people think he was taking drugs. The guy in the future, not my uncle.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“Get laser focused. This is my absolute number one top tip.” -Cynthia Dearin
Click To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland joined today by Cynthia Dearin. Cynthia, a very warm welcome. Where are you hanging out?
Cynthia Dearin 00:19
I’m in Sydney today, Tom.
Tom Poland 00:21
Sydney and is it wet, as you’ve had your wettest year? Was it something like 158 years, I think? Is it wet today or is the sun shining?
Cynthia Dearin 00:29
It’s neither. It’s kind of ominously gray and threatening to rain but not raining right this second.
Tom Poland 00:36
All right. We’ll get off climate, change the subject, and back to you. For those of you who don’t know Cynthia, she has got a fascinating background in foreign affairs and international relationships. It’s really led her to today where she is the international business strategist here in Australia. She helps business leaders create game-changing international opportunities. And it is absolutely fascinating once we get our blinkers off and stop thinking about our own town, city, state, country, or wherever you are in the world and cast your eyes to the enormous opportunity that you could be presented with if you go global. Cynthia established Dearin & Associates when she realized that, although there’s never been a better time for companies of all sizes to go global, most of us don’t even know where to start. So, Cynthia, I’m here by all ears. Let’s kick off our- oops, are seven minutes. Don’t hit the ‘end’ button, Tom! The seven minutes start button, here we go. Our seven minutes start now. Question number one is who is your ideal client?
Cynthia Dearin 01:43
Great question! So I love to work with companies, often manufacturing companies, turning over between $2 and $20 million who are looking to go global. Sometimes these will be established companies that have kind of run out of runway in their home market. And they’re looking around and thinking, “Hmm, not sure if we can grow too much more here. Wonder what we could do overseas.” Some companies who’ve never done anything before, and have just seen an opportunity and thought, “Let’s check that out.” And some companies who’ve had a go at selling internationally or expanding internationally, they’ve done it in a fairly ad hoc way. And it just hasn’t worked out how they’d hoped. And so they’re coming around for another go to try and do it better. All three of those types of companies are the ones that I love to work with, to help them create and accelerate a strategy into a new international market.
Tom Poland 02:30
It sounds like the common denominator is they’ve got something that’s working in their domestic market.
Cynthia Dearin 02:36
Most of the time. I mean, you know, occasionally, there are companies like the company, aussieBum, which was the company that made men’s undies and sent them out on a subscription service, one pair a month. Their business started here in Australia and totally tanked. So the founder went off and raise capital in the US and really started the business over in the US. And then when it was global, brought it back here. But that’s kind of an outlier. So most people, yeah, have got something that’s already working for them at home. And they’re looking to take that and spread it around the world.
Tom Poland 03:05
Perfect! Thank you for that. Five and a half minutes left, how would you define the problem that you solve for these clients?
Cynthia Dearin 03:11
So, look, it’s often not knowing where to start, as you said, at the top. You know, seeing an opportunity and thinking, “How do we tackle this?”, or maybe, some of the other common problems that you see are things like overwhelm. People have gone into international markets, and it’s not working as well as they had hoped. They’re doing a lot of different things. They’re expending time, money, and energy. There’s a sense of overwhelm. They don’t know which thing they should do next. It’s like whack a mole, but they’re really not getting the traction that they need. And really some fog, thinking, “Gosh, I can see this isn’t working, but which of these problems do we solve? You know, which levers we pull to make this thing go faster?” And that is really what I help with.
Tom Poland 03:49
Great description! Just over four and a half minutes left. Just a few, question number three is what are the symptoms that your ideal clients are feeling before they engage with your services? What’s going on that would give them kind of a heads up that they should be reaching out to talk to you?
Cynthia Dearin 04:02
Well look, some of those things that I mentioned a minute ago, so maybe spinning their wheels, lots of activity, but not much traction or lots of opportunity, and feeling overwhelmed because you don’t know which direction to go to. So sometimes, people come and say, “I’ve got five markets in mind. Let’s do five markets!” And at the same time, they’re looking incredibly stressed. And I usually say, “That’s a terrible idea. Let’s do one!” You know, so, then, going on guesswork. You know, people are thinking, “Or I can try this, but I’m not really sure that this is gonna work.” So yeah, guesswork, no traction or low traction, and that feeling of overwhelm.
Tom Poland 04:38
Yeah, one of the secrets of success is you don’t really have to be that smart. You just have to be smart enough to know how dumb you are and reach out for help.
Cynthia Dearin 04:46
Know what you don’t know.
Tom Poland 04:47
Yeah, know what you don’t know, and be prepared to find someone that can help you with that. So talking about that, question four, what would you say are the couple of top mistakes that people make when they launch oversea? You’ve probably already mentioned one, trying to tackle multiple marketing.
Cynthia Dearin 05:01
Yeah, look, I think multiple’s everything– multiple markets, multiple client types, multiple channels to market, multiple marketing approaches. It’s just too much of everything. I think also, taking an ad hoc approach. People often go global because they get inquiries coming in from overseas. And they think, “Oh, that must be where the market is” when in fact, maybe it’s just one or two orders coming in. I had a conversation with a company the other day that is turning over $6 million. And when I asked how many countries they were selling to, they said “A hundred!”. And I said, “You’re selling into 100 countries, and you’re only making $6 million? That’s an average of $60,000 a country.” But what it means is, some countries are probably making them $10 a year, and some are making a bit more than that. But that kind of company is doing way too much and getting a subpar results. And that’s a pretty serious mistake.
Tom Poland 05:50
Thank you. Two and a half minutes left. Question five, a top tip, if you like. A valuable free action that’s not gonna solve the whole problem, but it might take folks a step in the right direction. What do you get?
Cynthia Dearin 05:59
Get laser focused. This is my absolute number one top tip. We can’t really do it here because some people are just listening on audio, but if I can get you to imagine a pyramid in your mind, and the pyramid has got six layers in it. In the bottom layer, it says “Market”, so million dollar market. The next layer says “Ideal international client”. The next layer says “Powerful product”. The next one says “Attraction channel”. The next one says “Powerful promotions”. The next one says “One year”. What I want you to do is think about one answer for each category. So what I try and get my clients to do is to focus down to one market that they want to focus on, one country that’s going to deliver them a million dollars or their next million, one type of client that they’re going to target for a start, one product or a great small weight of products, not every SKU that you have, one go-to-market approach. So you’re doing e-commerce or you’re doing just one distribution or direct, but pick one, and then one marketing approach, and then do it for one year. Dial it in and do it for one year. Stop trying to do, you know, 15 things in each category.
Tom Poland 06:59
Fabulous model! Where can people go to find out more about your work?
Cynthia Dearin 07:04
I released, earlier this year, a book, Business Beyond Borders: Take Your Company Global. If you’d like a free copy of that, and if you don’t mind, read a PDF, you can get it in our private Facebook group, which is called the Go Global Go Getters. So if you go to Facebook and type in Go Global Go Getters, you can find it there. If you would like a hard copy, you can go to our website dearinassociates.com and navigate to the “Book” page. You can get a hard copy there. You can also get it on Amazon if you prefer to do that. Those are a couple of ways that you can find out about what I do. The blueprint is in the book, pretty much.
Tom Poland 07:39
The book is Business Without Borders. You can go to dearinassociates, D-E-A-R-I-N, associates.com. Buy a copy there or go to the Facebook group, Go Global Go Getters. We’ve got 20 seconds left. Cynthia, what’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?
Cynthia Dearin 07:56
You should have asked me about the painting that’s over my left shoulder here and-
Tom Poland 07:59
We’ve got 15 seconds. Tell us about the painting.
Cynthia Dearin 08:02
My uncle painted it for me when I was four. His name is Cedric. He’s gone all around the world with me and some people think he was taking drugs. The guy in the future, not my uncle.
Tom Poland 08:11
That’s amazing. Cynthia, thanks so much for your time and your insights!
Cynthia Dearin 08:14
Great to meet you, Tom!
Tom Poland 08:16
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.
7 min
February 20, 2023 How to Scale Your Repetitive Webinars So You Can Stop Doing Them Live – In Just 7 Minutes with Melissa Kwan
Discover how you can reuse your webinars without the stress of repeating them every single time
Learn the importance of having authentic webinars rather than perfect ones
Find out how to stop micromanaging your business and save yourself from unnecessary exhaustion
Resources/Links:
Want to save yourself from the stress of repeating webinars? Click here: eWebinar.com
Summary
Do you want to turn your videos or content into a webinar that you can always use while saving yourself from stress AND keeping your audience hooked?
Giving the same webinars over and over again can be really tiring and exhausting. You can reuse your webinars and scale them into content your audience will never get tired of.
Melissa Kwan is the co-founder and CEO of eWebinar, the leading automated webinar solution that turns any video into an interactive webinar.
Sit back and listen to what Melissa has to share on how you can scale and reuse your webinars that guarantee better and more audience interaction with less stress and exhaustion.
Check out these episode highlights:
02:08 - Melissa’s ideal client: Our ideal client is anyone who's already using webinars or long-form videos in their marketing, sales, or even post-sales customer success.
02:19 - The problem she helps solve: The problem that we solve is we save people from doing the same webinar over and over again. So you can imagine really repetitive things like sales pitches, sales demos, onboarding, training, and thought leadership.
03:13 - The symptoms of the problem: I think the first one, which is something I experienced myself, is just pure exhaustion. Just like a mind-numbing task of not wanting to do this, but no, it's still important in your business.
06:18 - Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Melissa: I would say the most common mistake, especially going from live to wanting to try automation, is you think just because it's a video, it has to be perfectly produced.
07:49 - Melissa’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): I mean, to write off the answer of question four, just take any recording you have, like literally any replay you have, your last one. It doesn't matter if it's like last week or last month or two months ago.
09:04 - Melissa’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want to save yourself from the stress of repeating webinars? Click here: ewebinar.com
09:51 - Q: Why are we doing this? A: Because we want you to work less, not more.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“The reason why people love webinars is that it's authentic. It's not produced. It's not scripted.” -Melissa KwanClick To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I'm Tom Poland beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, joined today by Melissa Kwan. Melissa, good day from Down Under. Where are you hanging out?
Melissa Kwan 00:21
I'm currently in Amsterdam.
Tom Poland 00:22
Amsterdam, the Netherlands, so we're at opposite ends of the world. And it's last night where you are, and it's tomorrow morning, where I am. So try to get your head around that. Folks, Melissa is the co-founder and CEO of eWebinar, which is- and I reached out to Melissa. She didn't request this interview. I requested it because I stumbled across eWebinar. And it's the first time I've gotten excited about a webinar platform, I think, since 2008. As you know, I do a few webinars. And there are a lot of really great platforms out there, but eWebinar is a game changer. We're going to find out why in a moment. I wanted to introduce you to Melissa's platform. It is the leading automated webinar solution that turns any video into an interactive webinar.
9 min
February 15, 2023 Demand Generation 101: How to Create Lead Generation Plan That Actually Generates Client – In Just 7 Minutes with Pam Didner
Find out what you are doing wrong that’s stopping you from getting qualified leads all the time
Learn the importance of understanding first how you define leads before moving forward
Understand why communication and alignment are essential between the sales and marketing team
Resources/Links:
Want FREE tools on how you can increase your revenue with alignment? Click here: https://pamdidner.com/
Summary
Do you want to learn how you can generate multiple sustainable qualified leads all the time by creating the perfect lead generation plan?
Marketing and sales aren’t so different, so there’s no reason for you to prioritize one over the other. There are two things you need to remember before going into the big game of getting leads– you’ve got to define and align!
Pam Didner is a B2B marketer, writer, and podcaster. She works with clients on B2B marketing and sales and marketing alignment. She loves everything B2B marketing!
Dig a little deeper into the world of lead generation with Pam and learn how you can craft the perfect plan for you and your business that can guarantee you less miscommunication and great sustainable leads all the time.
Check out these episode highlights:
01:31 - Pam’s ideal client: My ideal client tends to be B2B marketers in the MET companies or the enterprises that actually either work with a sales team directly or work very closely in terms of demand generation.
02:05 - The problem she helps solve: There are a couple of things I do in working with my clients. Number one is the sales and marketing alignments. And that also touches a little bit on the demand generation, because you are bringing leads into your funnel, and you have to think through in terms of how to qualify the leads or nurture leads.
03:42 - The symptoms of the problem: One of the common issues is the definition of leads, especially MQL, which is "marketing qualified leads" and otherwise sales qualified leads. And a lot of companies actually use lead scoring to determine marketing qualified leads.
04:54 - Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Pam: In terms of, if you are doing a demand generation, at the same time you're passing the leads to salespeople, but they are not necessarily happy with your leads, it's very important to initiate that conversation with them.
05:55 - Pam’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): The number one thing is, if you feel this gap, it's very important that you have a very frank conversation with multiple different salespeople to understand what those gaps are.
06:50 - Pam’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want FREE tools on how you can increase your revenue with alignment? Click here: https://pamdidner.com/
07:25 - A: The number one question is, in terms of how the sales team gets the sales feedback in terms of working with a marketing team.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“Once you create a demand generation plan, make sure that you review that with the sales team.” -Pam DidnerClick To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I'm Tom Poland beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, joined today by Pam Didner. Pam, good day from Down Under. Where are you hanging out?
Pam Didner 00:21
I'm actually in Raleigh, North Carolina, USA.
Tom Poland 00:26
North Carolina, and you've just been through the midterms. Did you get the candidate you wanted elected?
Pam Didner 00:35
Well, actually, it worked out pretty well. This is why the color purple stay and which is the combination of both parties and at this time, it's actually, it did pretty well.
Tom Poland 00:46
All right.
7 min
February 13, 2023How to Stand Out and Make Customers Love You – In Just 7 Minutes with John Mac
Explore more of the tools and systems that you ACTUALLY need just for the price of less
Find out how to own your platform and make it extraordinarily YOU
Discover why you should become more aware of the tools and platforms you invest in
Resources/Links:
Want more free tips on how to own your platform at the cost of less? Click here: http://wpalchemy.io/ownit/
Summary
Do you want to learn how to run your own system or platform at the cost of less and more flexibility?
Freeing yourself from the typical and curating a unique way of hosting your products is crucial to making your business stand out.
John Mac is a self-made Norwegian online entrepreneur, mindset coach, and Web Designer specializing in Oxygen Builder for WordPress. He is also a Shopify Expert and Partner.
Listen in to what John has to say about owning your own platform, building it extraordinarily, and curating a perfect and uniquely you hosting with it at a cost of less.
Check out these episode highlights:
01:13 – John’s ideal client: I would say small and medium businesses who I’ve been working with, and I would say this is clients and customers with clever minds that actually think for themselves and are looking for something different.
01:50 – The problem he helps solve: First of all, except for helping to shape people’s mindset, a kind of freedom from bondage from stuff they have been using before or thinking about before.
02:37 – The symptoms of the problem: First of all, it’s the lack of awareness, It’s awareness of where they are with the mindset and the tools they use. So I would say the feeling of something not working in their business, overwhelm, and focusing on too many things at one time.
03:05 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting John: They’re trying to, first of all, figure things out themselves.
03:54 – John’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Well, I’m an advocate for owning a platform. People are paying too much for renting expensive monthly platforms. One thing I would recommend to do is review, what are you paying for?
05:10 – John’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want more free tips on how to own your platform at the cost of less? Click here: http://wpalchemy.io/ownit/
05:51 – A: We usually come down back to hosting, actually, because that’s basically it, that’s the fundamental part for everybody’s business. Everybody has a business online now, a website, or maybe other apps and solutions but they run it on terrible hosting.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“I'm an advocate for owning a platform. Review what you are paying for, and what type of platforms you are on that you can free yourself from.” -John Mac
Click To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible, joined today by John Mac. John, good day from Down Under, sir. A very warm welcome! Where are you hanging out?
John Mac 00:20
I am in Thailand. It’s hot here, but it’s pretty wonderful. I’m up north in Chiang Mai. Beautiful place to be in.
Tom Poland 00:28
It’s a pretty laid-back area of Thailand, I’m informed. A nice part of the world to be in. John, for those of you who don’t know John, he’s a self-made Norwegian online entrepreneur. He’s a mindset coach. He has a real specialty as a web designer, specializing in Oxygen Builder for WordPress. And there are some absolutely extraordinary things you can do with WordPress in terms of not just setting up websites, but attracting traffic and converting traffic. He’s also a Shopify Expert and Partner, so really knows his way around the internet. Our title today is, “How to Stand Out and Make Customers Love You”. John, our seven minutes is going to start just as soon as I find the start button. Here it is here. Seven minutes start now. Question number one, sir, who is your ideal client?
John Mac 01:13
I would say small and medium businesses who I’ve been working with, and I would say this is clients and customers with clever minds that actually think for themselves and are looking for something different. And it’s content and service creators, you know, that build authentic offers in sharing really truthful stories and want to uplift and transform people with their offers.
Tom Poland 01:39
So these people have ideas. They want to express themselves authentically and genuinely help other people. So, six and a quarter minutes there. What would you say is the problem you solve for these folks?
John Mac 01:50
First of all, except for helping to shape people’s mindset, kind of freedom from bondage from stuff they have been using before or thinking about before. Everything is shaped by our thoughts, right? So I think it’s that, it’s guidance. And I think raising people’s awareness of where they are in the landscape of their business helps them to navigate. And then we build systems along with that and reform with their setup, basically.
Tom Poland 02:16
The mindset-
John Mac 02:17
Flexibility.
Tom Poland 02:18
Right. Thank you for that. Interesting approach and mindset, so often, absolutely critical for so many people. So a lot of wisdom in starting there. Question number three, five and a half minutes left, what would you say are the typical symptoms of people who need what you do? What’s going on in their life or their business where you’re kind of giving them a heads up that they need to be talking with you?
John Mac 02:37
First of all, it’s the lack of awareness, It’s awareness of where they are with the mindset and the tools they use. So I would say the feeling of something not working in their business, overwhelm, and focusing on too many things at one time. That’s a typical thing.
Tom Poland 02:50
Thank you for that. We’ve got five minutes left. What would you say are the common mistakes that these folks are making before they find your solution? Got people, they want to grow. They want to be authentic. They’ve got ideas. What are they trying that’s just never going to work, sort of thing?
John Mac 03:05
There are a few things I’ve been noticing through the years, they’re trying to, first of all, figure things out themselves. They just jump on the first thing that comes up with no guidance. And they often pick tools and systems that they overpay for and can’t even use and should not use. And some of them even pay, actually, too little for the most important things.
Tom Poland 03:23
Trying to figure it all out probably by Google reviews or sales pages. And they really need someone outside their own head who knows what they’re actually talking about to figure it out for them. Does it sound right?
John Mac 03:32
Like their closest friend to tell them. Yeah,
Tom Poland 03:34
Right. There’s this Mark Twain saying, you know, “It’s not what we don’t know that often hurts us. It’s what we think we know that just ain’t so.” So that’s a big mistake. Four minutes left. Let’s flip it and go to the top tip. What would you say is one valuable free action that someone can take, that is not going to solve the whole problem, but it might take them a step forward in the right direction?
John Mac 03:54
Well, I’m an advocate for owning a platform. People are paying too much for renting expensive monthly platforms. One thing I would recommend, first of all, to do, is review, what are you paying for? And what type of platforms are you on that you can free yourself from? Because you can run so much for your own system fully on it on WordPress.
Tom Poland 04:14
Right! Certain, why would you not want to do that sort of thing? Especially, I mean, I can’t think of one reason which is- Yeah, one reason is that people don’t have the expertise to build a great WordPress site. Extraordinary, flexibility, extraordinary options, but also with that, people like me don’t know how to do it. So that’s one reason, but that’s what you’re there for. So we can end up renting the platforms. And extraordinary, good-priced plugins. You’ve got shopping carts. You’ve got membership sites. You’ve got certification. You’ve got online courses. I mean, the list is absolutely endless! And you touched on this before, you said, “You know, the big thing that often holds people back is they’re just not even aware of what’s possible.” So rent rather than own. Do an inventory of the platforms you’re looking at. Let’s help people even more. Question six, is one valuable free resource. Where can people find out more about your work and maybe even more about getting started with this?
John Mac 05:10
Yeah, well, through my years, one big main thing I’ve seen with customers’ experience is terrible hosting. So I started offering my own custom WordPress premium hosting that’s been working really well and got popular. And we had to expand it. So we launched WP Alchemy, and we got something on that site to help people actually rethink and discover what they can use. It’s a free guide, and we call it, “Own It“– own your platform.
Tom Poland 05:34
Right. So www.wp, for WordPress, alchemy, A-L-C-H-E-M-Y, .io/ownit. Thank you for that, sir! Question seven, just over 90 seconds left, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?
John Mac 05:51
I think we usually come down back to hosting, actually, because that’s basically- it that’s the fundamental part for everybody’s business. Everybody has a business online now, a website, or maybe other apps and solutions but they run it on terrible hosting. And I’ve seen so many people get hacked, they crashed during launch. And even just a simple thing that WordPress cannot send emails, system emails, like usernames and passwords.
Tom Poland 06:15
Dang!
John Mac 06:16
So review the past, and review the hosting.
Tom Poland 06:20
All right. Well, John Mac, I really appreciate your time and your insights. Thank you very much!
John Mac 06:25
Thank you for speaking to your tribe.
Tom Poland 06:27
Cheers!
Tom Poland 07:19
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.
6 min
February 08, 2023How to Grow Your Coaching Business with Public Speaking – In Just 7 Minutes with Majeed Mogharreban
Discover how to become a highly-paid speaker and keep your audience hooked with what you have to say
Understand why you don’t need another certification course to make you good at public speaking
Expand your network through the magic of public speaking through storytelling
Resources/Links:
Want to find out more on how to become a highly-paid speaker? Click here: Expertspeakerbook.com
Summary
Do you want to learn how to use your voice to make hundreds of thousands and keep your clients hooked on what you have to say and offer?
Marketing your business or your specialty isn’t always about the ads, it’s also about how you deliver your message. Talk more about the story and less about the teaching.
Majeed Mogharreban is a world-traveling father and professional speaker. Majeed is the Founder of the Expert Speaker Institute, the premier resource for experts to grow their businesses with public speaking.
Sit back and grab a cup of coffee or any drink and listen in to what Majeed has to say about public speaking – from curating the perfect message to delivering it in a way that will keep your clients wanting more!
Check out these episode highlights:
01:19 – Majeed’s ideal client: My ideal client is a coach or consultant who wants to stand out as a leader in the industry and have a large audience of people who want to hire them for their online course and their coaching programs.
02:15 – The problem he helps solve: You know how some people are like the best-kept secret? they’re so good. And when you go to see them, they’re just so good at what they do.
03:32 – The symptoms of the problem: Well, they’re really good at what they do, but they say to themselves, “I’m not into sales and marketing”. Or “I’m not good at sales and marketing.”
04:16 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Majeed: I think the way people approach giving a speech is not optimized for entertainment, and sales. What my clients do, if ever they do give a speech, whether they’re giving a webinar or a podcast interview or making a video for YouTube, or speaking on a stage, they do a little too much teaching and not enough storytelling.
05:19 – Majeed’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): So one thing you can do right now that can have a massive impact on your business is book a speaking engagement for yourself. And the way you do that, is you make a list of 10 people that you know that lead groups.
06:18 – Majeed’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want to find out more on how to become a highly-paid speaker? Click here: Expertspeakerbook.com
07:08 – Q: You should have asked me what I do first as a speaker. A: You’ll find the answer in the book.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“Storytelling makes speeches engaging and entertaining, and ends up driving way more sales.” -Majeed Mogharreban
Click To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland, joined today by Majeed Mogharreban. Majeed, a very warm welcome, sir. How are you doing and where are you hanging out?
Majeed Mogharreban 00:20
Thank you, Tom. I’m in Ottawa, Canada, the capital of Canada.
Tom Poland 00:23
Ottawa, Canada. And a very warm welcome, as I said. Folks, for those of you who don’t know Majeed, he’s a world-traveling father. He’s been pretty much all around Australia. For example, he’s seen more of Australia than I have, and I live here, and, no doubt, a lot of other countries as well. In addition to being a world-traveling father, which must be quite a juggling act, he’s a professional speaker. But not only is he a professional speaker, he can also show you how to be a professional speaker because he’s the founder of the Expert Speaker Institute. It’s the premier source for experts to grow their business with public speaking, which is one of the very best ways to generate a high-quality flow of clients. So let’s get cracking, Majeed. The title today is, “How to Grow Your Coaching Business with Speaking” and I imagine you can grow your consulting business or your training businesses speaking as well. Our seven minutes is going to start as soon as I find the start button, which is now. Question number one, sir, who’s your ideal client?
Majeed Mogharreban 01:19
My ideal client is a coach or consultant who wants to stand out as a leader in the industry and have a large audience of people who want to hire them for their online course and their coaching programs. And one of the areas of focus I have are health and wellness coaches, functional medicine doctors, and naturopathic doctors who have a lot to say and a lot to- they want to educate people, but I show them how to do it in a way that helps them get clients and get patients to sign up for their high ticket programs.
Tom Poland 01:51
Right. And I imagine that type of client doesn’t want to be coming across as salesy. They want to be feeling like it’s a genuine authentic expression of their personality, their values, etc. So there are some subtleties that you’ve embedded into your intellectual property, your systems, and your methodology. I think that sounds like it would cater well to that. So we have six minutes left. Question number two, what’s the problem you solve for them?
Majeed Mogharreban 02:15
Well, Tom, you know how some people are like the best-kept secret. they’re so good. And when you go to see them, they’re just so good at what they do. And they’re so knowledgeable, and they’re so passionate, and they’re so experienced, but people haven’t heard of them. And they don’t have nearly as many clients as they should have, or could have, even though they have the desire to help people. So what I do is I take those people, and I help them tell their story. And I help them deliver and communicate their knowledge and entertaining and persuasive and engaging ways like emotional stories. That way, they become the teacher to the people who want to learn, and they become the guide to the person who’s looking for someone to hire, whether it’s to learn how to lose weight, hire a life coach or learn any skill that a coach teaches or a consultant. The problem that I solve is they don’t have enough clients. And the way that I solved that is I help them give speeches and land speaking engagements that make them a bunch of money.
Tom Poland 03:11
Fantastic! And I mentioned that’s one of their challenges is how to articulate their magic, how to authentically express the benefit of working together. So let’s get going to question three, just over four and a half minutes left. What would you say are some of the typical symptoms? World’s best-kept secret, certainly. What else is going on in their life or the business that would give them a heads up they should be reaching out to you?
Majeed Mogharreban 03:32
Well, they’re really good at what they do, but they say to themselves, “I’m not into sales and marketing”. Or “I’m not good at sales and marketing.” And what they do, instead of getting good at sales and marketing, they go to take another certification course, and take another program that gives them another title. But still, then there are no clients and no patients. And so I show them how to get the clients and the patients in a way that’s really educational and service, which is to give speeches.
Tom Poland 04:00
And you may have mentioned one of the mistakes they make already, but this is question four. Apart from avoiding marketing and sales, and taking another certification, which is more comfortable, are there any other mistakes that your new clients tell you that they made before they found your solution?
Majeed Mogharreban 04:16
Yeah, I think the way people approach giving a speech is not optimized for entertainment, and sales. What my clients do, if ever they do give a speech, whether they’re giving a webinar or a podcast interview or making a video for YouTube, or speaking on a stage, they do a little too much teaching and not enough storytelling. And so we get into the storytelling which makes it engaging and entertaining and ends up driving way more sales.
Tom Poland 04:46
Right. And, maybe, I guess, that your new clients might have both problems is that they’re not really entertaining and engaging enough. And if they are being entertaining, they may not understand that being entertaining and engaging the way this is going to generate inquiries is different from being entertaining and engaging in a way that’s simply teaching. You can do both, of course.
Majeed Mogharreban 05:07
Exactly.
Tom Poland 05:08
Two and a half minutes left. What would you say is a top tip for someone? It’s a valuable free action they could take. It’s not going to solve the whole problem, they probably need you for that, but it might get them a step in the right direction.
Majeed Mogharreban 05:19
So one thing you can do right now that can have a massive impact on your business is book a speaking engagement for yourself. And the way you do that, is you make a list of 10 people that you know that lead groups. And to each one of those 10 people, you call, email, or text, and you say, “What would it take?” Ask them, “What would it take for me to speak to your group, and for you to feel really happy about it?”
Tom Poland 05:49
That is a great question.
Majeed Mogharreban 05:50
And listen to that conversation. And you will get a certain percentage of them saying, “Yes, probably a lot of them.” And you will have speaking engagements, and that will grow your business very quickly.
Tom Poland 05:58
That is such a wicked smart strategy. Thank you so much for that. Top value! Let’s go to question six because what I want to do is I want to give people an opportunity to find out more about what you do. Where can people go? A landing page or something that they can just get more information about your work and also about getting gigs and presenting and engaging in a lead-generating way?
Majeed Mogharreban 06:18
I would recommend you download a free copy of my book. You can buy it on Amazon, but I’ll give you a free copy in PDF. The book is called, “Expert Speaker: Five Steps to Grow Your Business with Public Speaking”. And the reason why it will be so valuable to you is there are scripts in the book on how to negotiate your fee, how to negotiate the speaking engagement, and what to say at each part of the speech that turns a speech into a sales experience where people will buy your stuff. The book is at expertspeakerbook.com.
Tom Poland 06:53
Yeah, thanks. Sorry, only 30 seconds left. So let me jump in. It’s expertspeakerbook.com and I do apologize for interrupting. Expertspeakerbook.com. Go get it, folks! 20 seconds left, Majeed. What’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t? And the answer in less than 15 seconds.
Majeed Mogharreban 07:08
You should have asked me what I do first as a speaker and you’ll find the answer in the book.
Tom Poland 07:15
Well done! All right. Brilliant. Thanks so much for your time, Majeed.
Tom Poland 07:19
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.
6 min
February 06, 2023Converting LinkedIn Connections to Conversations – In Just 7 Minutes with Brynne Tillman
Redesign your profile into a value-centric and audience-grasping resource rather than a self-centered one
Expand your ideas on how to use LinkedIn to turn connections into conversations and then into sales
Learn why expanding your network isn’t always the answer to your problems
Resources/Links:
Want to find out how you can maximize your LinkedIn to get more sales and traction? Click here: LinkedInlibrary.com
Summary
Do you want to find out the magic of LinkedIn and convert the connections into conversations and then expand into sales using the comfort of your existing networks?
LinkedIn has the power to get you more connections and sales, however, you need to know the secret tips and strategies to unlock its full potential and guarantee you never-ending deals.
Brynne Tillman is the CEO of Social Sales Link which is solely focused on helping salespeople sell on LinkedIn without being salesy. Brynne is also the co-host of the Making Sales Social Podcast.
Dive in as Brynne shares the world of LinkedIn and how to curate your content into extraordinarily audience-centric content that can guarantee you more sales and will keep your clients coming back for more!
Check out these episode highlights:
01:51 – Brynne’s ideal client: Professionals in business development, right? The sales reps, account executives, CEOs, coaches, and entrepreneurs, as well as, the board of directors and other trusted advisors are responsible for new client acquisition.
02:17 – The problem she helps solve: Well, generally, their problem is the top-of-the-pipeline challenges, but more specifically, the lack of warm referrals and inbound leads for the individual salespeople, and the ability to start conversations with those prospects from LinkedIn.
02:57 – The symptoms of the problem: The problem we hear from so many sales professionals, is their challenge with gaining access to prospects. It’s harder than it’s ever been before! Where we’ll hear, “I have 1000s of connections, but no conversations”.
04:00 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Brynne: Oh, there are so many! First, your profile is self-centered or resume, not value-centric or resource. Number two, your sales. So, you connect and pitch and that’s a bait-and-switch. And that will repel your prospects.
05:25 – Brynne’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Connect with every single one of your clients, and every single one of the influencers inside of those client organizations. Then search their connections and identify 20 to 25 people that you want to meet that each of them knows.
06:13 – Brynne’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want to find out how you can maximize your LinkedIn to get more sales and traction? Click here: LinkedInlibrary.com
06:43 – Q: Is automation for lead generation on LinkedIn a good idea? A: No. So many people come to me and say, “You know, they’ve promised me I could get 100 connections this week and 25 appointments-”
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“Connect with every single one of your clients, and every single one of the influencers inside of those client organizations.” -Brynne Tillman
Click To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone and a warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, joined today by Brynne Tillman. Brynne, welcome back because this is not the first time. A very warm welcome from Down Under. Where are you hanging out?
Brynne Tillman 00:24
Yeah, I am thrilled to be here, Tom! I am hanging out in northern New Jersey, right outside of Manhattan. And if you drive to the top of the hill, you can see the skyline. It’s a fabulous place to be!
Tom Poland 00:37
A little birdie told me you got a new home there with a brand-new office for you and one for your hubby. So, you’re joining me between meetings. Fabulous!
Brynne Tillman 00:47
It’s a great place to be.
Tom Poland 00:48
Folks, Brynne is known for the bias-free, hype-free, lead generation strategies that actually work, which is a shock to a lot of people because most of us are used to paying good money to people for their marketing advice, implementing it, and finding that nothing changes. So, it’s refreshing to have you on the show, Brynne! Brynne is the CEO of Social Sales Link solely focused on helping salespeople sell on LinkedIn, but without that sort of cheesy, salesy, spammy approach that, unfortunately, many people who reach out to us on LinkedIn are using. She’s also the co-host of the Marketing Sales Social Podcast. The title today is, “How to Convert LinkedIn Connections to Conversations”. And this is going to be really interesting because we know we need to establish rapport with prospects before we propose perhaps meeting or talking about working together. And Brynne’s going to put the spotlight on exactly how we do that. Brynne, our seven minutes is going to start now. Question number one is who is your ideal client?
Brynne Tillman 01:51
Thanks, Tom! Professionals in business development, right? The sales reps, account executives, CEOs, coaches, and entrepreneurs, as well as, the board of directors and other trusted advisors are responsible for new client acquisition.
Tom Poland 02:06
That’s interesting! So, the board of directors and professionals. Common denominator– they have a problem. Question two, what’s the problem you solve for them?
Brynne Tillman 02:17
Well, generally, their problem is the top-of-the-pipeline challenges, but more specifically, the lack of warm referrals and inbound leads for the individual salespeople, and the ability to start conversations with those prospects from LinkedIn.
Tom Poland 02:36
So that’s the problem you solve. It’s the fresh high rapport, high-level inquiry, or lead generation. Question three is about the symptoms. You get your client on board, what’s been happening in the businesses that have motivated them to reach out to you? So, what are the symptoms of someone pre-working with Brynne?
Brynne Tillman 02:57
That’s a great question. And in the problem we hear from so many sales professionals, is their challenge with gaining access to prospects. It’s harder than it’s ever been before! Where we’ll hear, “I have 1000s of connections, but no conversations”. Another one, “When I ask for a conversation, I totally get ghosted!” I share content yet no one engages and some people even think I’m spamming. And the biggest one that really kind of encompasses all of it is everyone says, “I need to use LinkedIn, but I can’t figure out how to do it successfully.”
Tom Poland 03:32
Yeah, I’ve posted articles I’ve reached out to people, and people might accept my connection. That seems to be the easy part. But after that, it’s just crickets! That’s all I’m hearing. So, we’re talking about people, they’re growth orientated. They’re proactive. They’re doing things to solve this problem. And clearly, they’re not getting traction. So, question four, and just over four and a half minutes left, what would you say are the common mistakes that your clients made prior to working with you?
Brynne Tillman 04:00
Oh, there are so many! First, your profile is self-centered or resume, not value-centric or resource. Number two, your sales. So, you connect and pitch and that’s a bait-and-switch. And that will repel your prospects. The most common one, even I do this too much– to connect and forget. We have 1000s of connections yet we’re not going back. We’re not new all the time. We’re not going back and taking inventory and engaging with the people who were already connected to. Random acts of social– “I have no templates. I don’t have a plan. I just kind of show up and do stuff.” Sharing topics. Your content is around topics you care about, not topics that your prospects want to consume. And the number one that I see and this is the easiest way to use LinkedIn to start conversations is that they’re not leveraging their existing network, their clients, their referral partners, or their networking partners to get introductions or permission to name-drop.
Tom Poland 05:08
Right. So that is a good list there indeed. And so, I think now we’ve got people’s attention, so let’s flip it. Question four is about a valuable free action. It’s kind of like a top tip. It’s not going to solve the whole problem, but it might get them one step in the right direction. Three minutes left.
Brynne Tillman 05:25
Okay, connect with every single one of your clients, and every single one of the influencers inside of those client organizations. Then search their connections and identify 20 to 25 people that you want to meet that each of them knows. Get on a call. Get some insights. Run the names by them, and either get introductions, if it’s appropriate, or just ask that you can reach out to them. Drop the client’s name. Let them know that you’ve been working with them and that they thought it made sense for you to reach out, and you will have a full pipeline consistently.
Tom Poland 06:00
Terrific top tip! Thank you for that. Two and a quarter minutes to go. Question six, do you have a valuable free resource that we can direct people to that they’re going to find out more about how to solve this problem?
Brynne Tillman 06:13
Absolutely! We have a free public library, LinkedInlibrary.com, where you can go, and we’ve got dozens of downloads and podcasts, and videos. And I mean, just so many resources that are completely free! So LinkedInlibrary.com.
Tom Poland 06:31
LinkedInlibrary.com. Thank you for that, Brynne! Great resource. Go get it, folks. We’ve got 90 seconds left. Are thereabouts? No, it’s 75. What’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?
Brynne Tillman 06:43
Is automation for lead generation on LinkedIn a good idea?
Tom Poland 06:47
And the answer?
Brynne Tillman 06:49
No. So many people come to me and say, “You know, they’ve promised me I could get 100 connections this week and 25 appointments-” You started with this, right? Like, how much money have you spent on this bro-marketing, right, where, like, it’s just all fluff! The bottom line is this is a relationship development tool. You would not send a robot to a chamber of commerce networking meeting. Don’t send one here. It also breaks the LinkedIn agreement, so your profile could get shut down.
Tom Poland 07:29
Right. Alright, so it’s just a bad idea. Don’t do that. Brynne Tillman, there’s a treasure trove of insights and ideas there, folk. But make sure you do get to LinkedInlibrary.com because if you thought this was good, that’s going to blow your mind. Brynne Tillman, thank you so much!
Brynne Tillman 07:44
Thank you, Tom.
Tom Poland 07:46
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.
7 min
February 01, 2023How to Find Your Big Idea – In Just 7 Minutes with Jeff Goins
Learn why you shouldn’t just settle for a good idea rather than an interesting one
Understand why marketing happens as soon as you write the book and not after
Discover how you can write a book that can challenge the readers’ assumptions
Resources/Links:
Want more tips on how to not be boring? Click here: www.goinswriter.com
Summary
Do you feel like your book has been pretty generic and needs a little bit of spice? Do you want to learn how to write a book that will challenge your readers and keep them hooked?
You shouldn’t be writing your book just because of a good idea, but it should be because of an interesting idea that will keep your readers wondering.
Jeff Goins is a writer, keynote speaker, and entrepreneur. He is the best-selling author of five books, including, The Art of Work and Real Artists Don’t Starve.
Jeff Goins shares how you can stop being boring and make your book interesting, mind-grappling and challenging that will keep your clients wanting for more.
Check out these episode highlights:
00:39 – Jeff’s ideal client: Our ideal clients are any thought leader or aspiring thought leader who’s ready to pick a fight, who has something that they want to say about their industry or particular topic that is going to challenge the status quo.
02:29 – The problem he helps solve: We help authors not write boring books. And it is really easy to write a boring book. Yeah, and boring isn’t necessarily bad, but it might as well be.
03:16 – The symptoms of the problem: I think they’re tired. It’s actually really, really hard to write even a bad book. Imagine a continuum where 0 is “I haven’t written a book” and 100 is “I’ve written the perfect book”.
04:47 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Jeff: I mentioned they try to do it all themselves. They settle for a good idea instead of an interesting one. And they think that editing is about fixing typos. Editing is not about fixing typos.
05:41 – Jeff’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): Very simple. We take every client through this. It’s a formula. Everybody thinks X, but what’s actually true is Y. When people ask you what your book is about, that’s your answer.
06:23 – Jeff’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want more tips on how to not be boring? Click here: www.goinswriter.com
07:14 – Q: What does fresh complaint mean? A: It means what it sounds like, which is that you know, we’ve named our writing and editing agency after a phrase that means if you don’t have something new to say that’s going to pick a fight, then don’t say it.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“What makes people think and then talk about your book, and then even want to read it is that there's some interesting idea.” -Jeff Goins
Click To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone, and a very warm welcome to yet another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I got a treat for you today, joined by Jeff Goins. Jeff, good day from Down Under. Where are you hanging out, sir?
Jeff Goins 00:21
I’m in Nashville, Tennessee, Tom.
Tom Poland 00:22
And a little birdie told me you’re a big music fan and you got there because you chased a girl.
Jeff Goins 00:28
I chased a girl.
Tom Poland 00:30
That’s often the reason, but you’re settled there now for 15 or 16 years. Is that right?
Jeff Goins 00:34
That’s right. 16 years.
Tom Poland 00:34
And feel like you’ve come home. So, for those of you who don’t know Jeff, Jeff has an impeccable touch to everything he does. He’s a wordsmith. He’s careful. And he constructs quality solutions to big problems. His background is he’s a writer. He’s a keynote speaker. And he’s an entrepreneur with multiple businesses. He’s also a best-selling author, which tells you he’s walking the talk of five books, including The Art of Work, and Real Artists Don’t Starve. And I just love the title for the session that Jeff nominated. It’s, “How to Find Your Big Idea”. And I’ve got a feeling we’re going to learn a little bit more than just that as well. Oh, that is, that’s a magnificent place to start. Jeff, welcome to the show! Our time starts now. Question number one, sir, who’s your ideal client?
Jeff Goins 00:39
Hey, Tom. Good to be here. Again, thank you! Our ideal clients are any thought leader or aspiring thought leader who’s ready to pick a fight, who has something that they want to say about their industry or particular topic that is going to challenge the status quo. Most of what I do is help people create books that are worth reading and talking about. And if you’re not going to pick a fight, if you’re going to settle for good instead of interesting, you’ve already lost, and we would rather refer you to one of our competitors.
Tom Poland 01:52
So, there’s a certain boldness about your mission, isn’t there? There’s a certain, you know, challenge of the status quo. Well, the expression of authenticity in the face of opposition. Is that right?
Jeff Goins 02:01
Yeah, I mean, look, in the past 10 years, the amount of books published each year has increased by 10 times. And as a reader, and as a person who loves words, I don’t think the world needs more boring books. And so, I care about that. I care about not putting more boring books out in the world. If you’re going to write a book, make it worth our while as readers.
Tom Poland 02:23
Thank you, sir. So, we’ve got just under six minutes left. What’s the problem you solve? How would you define that?
Jeff Goins 02:29
We help authors not write boring books. And it is really easy to write a boring book. Yeah, and boring isn’t necessarily bad, but it might as well be. People do not talk about ideas that are good or even great. They talk about ideas that are interesting. Ideas that are worth talking about that challenge an audience’s assumptions. And I mean, that’s the problem that we help people solve. Most people settle for good when what they really want is interesting.
Tom Poland 02:56
Do you find a lot of people homogenize their ideas and their voice so that it’s defensible, and so they don’t offend anyone? Is that part of the issue? Well, let’s talk about that. Question three is about the typical symptoms that people experience when they end up with a boring book. What would you say is going on that creates that? Or how does someone know that they’ve done that?
Jeff Goins 03:16
I think they’re tired. It’s actually really, really hard to write even a bad book. Imagine a continuum where 0 is “I haven’t written a book” and 100 is “I’ve written the perfect book”. If you get to 80%, you’ve written a bad book. But you went 80%, you wrote a book. And the gap between good and great is much smaller than the gap between no book and bad book. Between nothing and bad is a lot! It’s 80% of the way, and most people give up at 80% because it’s really, really hard and really exhausting. And so, the symptom is they’re tired. They’re trying to do it themselves. And they’ve gotten to this point, they think, “Well, you know, I’ve written a book. Now the real work begins. Now I can start marketing it.” That is false! The marketing begins as soon as you start writing the book.
Tom Poland 04:06
Yeah, that’s a really key point, folks. The marketing begins the moment you start writing the book because you got to figure out what the marketplace needs to hear from you, your gift, and so on.
Jeff Goins 04:16
Yeah, and what I mean by that is great marketing makes a bad product fail faster. David Ogilvy said that many years ago. It’s true. And if you write a book that’s based on an “okay” idea, and try to sell it, it’s going to flop.
Tom Poland 04:33
Right. So that’s definitely, I mean, clearly, as you’ve articulated, one of the big mistakes that people make. But are there any other? Question four, over three minutes left, what would you say are a couple of the other big mistakes people make when they’re trying to get that book written?
Jeff Goins 04:47
I mentioned they try to do it all themselves. They settle for a good idea instead of an interesting one. And they think that editing is about fixing typos. Editing is not about fixing typos. Editing is the process of making your book work. It’s helping you realize the vision.
Tom Poland 05:05
You know, what I’m hearing here is that a lot of us have ideas. It’s not uncommon, hopefully. We are good at something that we do, but putting a book out that’s interesting and engaging can, as I say, feed a starving crowd that can generate demand, that’s a whole science in itself. And, let’s recognize that right now. And say, folks, you’re probably going to want a hand with this. But question five is, let’s give folks one valuable free action like a top tip. It’s not going to solve the whole problem; they probably need to reach out for you to have that conversation. But just a step, heads them off in the right direction.
Jeff Goins 05:41
Very simple. We take every client through this. It’s a formula. Everybody thinks X, but what’s actually true is Y. When people ask you what your book is about, that’s your answer. Not, “It’s a book about marketing.” Everybody thinks this about a given subject, but what’s actually true is something you’ve never heard of before. Because what makes people think and then talk about your book, and then even want to read it is that there’s some interesting idea. And it might be something old set in a new way, but you’re challenging their assumptions about a given topic. So, write that down. Email that to me, if you want. Everybody thinks X but what’s actually true is Y. And I’d be happy to tell you if you have an interesting idea.
Tom Poland 06:20
Email address?
Jeff Goins 06:21
[email protected].
Tom Poland 06:23
J-E, double F, at G-O-I-N-S, writer.com. Thank you for that, sir. Question six, for the sake of time, I’m going to answer this one. One valuable free resource. Folks, you want to go to www.goinswriter.com, G-O-I-N-S writer.com. And the other URL I want to give you, and we don’t normally give too, but I think this one’s an excellent example. And again, a point of contact and free resources is freshcomplaint.com. You heard that right it’s fresh as in just out of the oven, complaint as in criticism.com. What are people going to find out that first one, goinswriter, real quick, 10 seconds?
Jeff Goins 07:02
A treasure trove of writing resources and free downloadable eBooks and all kinds of other things.
Tom Poland 07:07
Fantastic! Goinswriter.com. Question seven, last question, Jeff. You have 30 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?
Jeff Goins 07:14
What does fresh complaint mean? It means what it sounds like, which is that you know, we’ve named our writing and editing agency after a phrase that means if you don’t have something new to say that’s going to pick a fight, then don’t say it.
Tom Poland 07:30
Perfect! Jeff Goins, thanks so much for the wisdom and the richness of your insights, which surely is coming out of many years of doing this well. Thanks, Jeff.
Jeff Goins 07:40
It’s my pleasure.
Tom Poland 08:13
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.
7 min
January 30, 2023How to Maximize Your Findability, Accountability & Profitability – In Just 7 Minutes with Ford Saeks
Discover why marketing and communication plays a crucial role in maximizing business engagement and sales
Find out how you can close the gap between where you are now and where you want to be
Understand the importance of lead magnet and why should you be offering them
Resources/Links:
Wanting more tips on how to transform your business and gain more traction? Click here: primeconcepts.com/marketing-critique
Summary
Do you desperately want to share your high-quality product but often fail at it? Are you ready to find out how to gain ultimate traction and attract loyal clients?
You can have the best product in the world, but not until you figure out the best marketing strategy that suits you, you’ll be stuck being the world’s best kept secret.
Ford Saeks is a business growth accelerator, speaker, and author. He specializes in helping businesses attract loyal and repeat customers, monetize social media, ignite innovation and increase sales and profits. His efforts have helped companies generate a total of over a billion dollars in sales worldwide.
Jump into this episode and listen in to how Ford turns prospects into lifetime loyal clients through maximizing your findability, accountability, and profitability by bridging the gap on where you are and where you want to be.
Check out these episode highlights:
02:06 – Ford’s ideal client: So, my ideal clients are businesses or organizations that are looking to improve their revenue-generating results. So, they’re marketing, but they want their marketing to be more effective.
02:19 – The problem he helps solve: So, what I do is I really solve a multitude, but it’s four levels. I help them improve their influence, I help them build a subscriber list, I help them capture leads, and I help them get higher quality, new, and repeat sales.
03:43 – The symptoms of the problem: So, the main area, the main issue, would be they want more business. They know they have a high-quality product, but they’re having trouble getting traction. They’re having trouble getting leads.
06:00 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Ford: They listen to the wrong advice. They hire people that are supposedly competent, and they didn’t vet them first. You know, if they want to vet me, Google me.
06:52 – Ford’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): They can go to primeconcepts.com/marketing-critique, or just go to the homepage of Prime concepts and look for the link. But one of the things I do, is full transparency, you should be offering lead magnets.
08:09 – Q: What’s the biggest action that people can take? A: And the answer to the question is mystery shop. When you’re done listening to this in the next 10 seconds, I want you to go look at your website, your search engine rankings, your LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Rumble, and look at what’s working.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“At the end of the day, marketing and sales is just giving people enough information that they can make good decisions.” -Ford Saeks
Click To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Welcome, everyone, to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland, beaming out to you from the sunny Sunshine Coast in Australia, joined today by Ford Saeks. Ford, g’day from Down Under, sir. A very warm welcome to the show! Where are you hanging out?
Ford Saeks 00:22
I’m actually in Wichita, Kansas.
Tom Poland 00:23
Wichita, Kansas! Well, from life from the downs in Australia, the Wichita, Kansas in the good ol’ US of A. A very warm welcome! Hands across the water and a little bit of land, I guess, that little ditch between us called the Pacific Ocean. Folks, if you don’t know Ford, he’s a consummate professional. And you could probably just tell that by the quality of his audio in the background, and he’s even got sound effects in his studio. Do you want to give us a blast on one of those, Ford? There’s a multiplicity of those. There’s more where that came from. Your kids or grandkids must have a lot of fun in your studio if you have let them in there.
Ford Saeks 00:59
Yeah, they do. And remember, your timer is not going yet, so I’m looking for my seven minutes. And I want to make sure I don’t lose any time. So as long as we’re good still, we’re good.
Tom Poland 01:07
Yeah, we start that when we start the questions, so.
Ford Saeks 01:09
Alright, good.
Tom Poland 01:10
This is all preamble. So, folks, if you ever haven’t heard of Ford, you must be living in a cave. He’s a business growth accelerator, so whatever growth you’re having right now, his special is to accelerate that. A speaker and author who specializes in helping businesses, and this is really interesting because I think there’s a lot to unpack here, which we might do during the interview, to one.) attract, loyal and repeat customers, two.) monetize social media, three.) ignite innovation, and four.) increased sales and profits. And that last word is quite important. His efforts have helped companies generate a total of well over $1 billion in sales worldwide. So, we’re going to sit at the feet of a master here, folks. Our title today is, “How to Maximize Your Findability, Your Accountability, and Your Profitability”. And those two things, it’s a joy when they all get together, and it’s tears when they don’t. So, Ford, our seven minutes start now. Who’s your ideal client?
Ford Saeks 02:06
So, my ideal clients are businesses or organizations that are looking to improve their revenue-generating results. So, they’re marketing, but they want their marketing to be more effective.
Tom Poland 02:15
And who doesn’t want to do that? So, question number two, sir, what’s the problem you solve for them?
Ford Saeks 02:19
So, what I do is I really solve a multitude, but it’s four levels. I help them improve their influence, I help them build a subscriber list, I help them capture leads, and I help them get higher quality, new, and repeat sales. So, anything having to do it again, that’s a breakdown of the revenue generation part, but that’s the problem they have. They have a value proposition. And there’s always this gap. So, no matter where they are in business, there’s always this gap between where they are now and where they want to go. So, all your listeners and viewers and readers, do the same thing. And so, what I do is I help them bridge that gap. And I found that even though everybody thinks that gap is unique to them, the gap always comes down to one of three things. It’s their mindset first. If they don’t have their mindset dialed in, then all the strategies and tactics and worlds and podcasts and books aren’t going to help them. So, if they have their mindset dialed in, then it’s the strategy. So, do they have a clear vision and strategy for where they want to go? They’re not going to run east looking for a sunset like they have to be- they don’t want to be just busy; they need to be effective. And then the third thing is tactically, so whenever anybody is on a podcast or when I’m being interviewed, I always want people to listen, is this a mindset piece? Is it a strategy piece? Or is it tactical?
Tom Poland 03:25
Perfect. That sums it up brilliantly! So, when someone doesn’t have those three ducks in a row, so to speak– mindset, strategy, and tactics, what’s going on? So, question three, in other words, is what are the typical symptoms of someone who’s got an issue on one of those three that’s really holding them back? How do they know they should be reaching out to you?
Ford Saeks 03:43
So, the main area, the main issue, would be they want more business. They know they have a high-quality product, but they’re having trouble getting traction. They’re having trouble getting leads. They’re having trouble improving conversions. And so, there’s usually a challenge between their message, their marketing, and their method. So as a formula, since I’ve got four and a half minutes left, you’ve got your message, which is the benefits. Why should someone listen to your podcast? Why should someone check me out? There’s a message. Number two, you have to send that message to the right market, and we’re talking about the ideal client profile. And then three, how are you going to get that message to that market? And so, what I do, so sorry, back to your question, you know, how do they know they have a problem? They have a problem if they want more business, and it’s not so much. even though I said mindset, strategy, and tactics, that’s more the areas of focus for a business. But what they need to do is to improve their marketing. They need to leverage, sending the right message to the right market using the right method. And that’s what I end up doing when I do a critique on their website or their marketing, or their sales funnels, I see such gaps in their value proposition and when you close those gaps, conversions and sales go up.
Tom Poland 04:47
You’re already the guy that takes, you know, they get- you take the guesswork out of this. You diagnose and figure out what needs to change to bridge that gap. And those systems go into place.
Ford Saeks 04:57
Hundred percent! That’s all I get paid to do. And I do that through speaking, training, coaching, and consulting. So, I’m a high-end keynote speaker, where I go into conferences and associations, and I’m the opening keynote to set their whole conference up for success. I do deep dives and masterminds and work weekends. I also have weekend workshops, then I have a high-end mastermind. So, it depends on how a client or company wants to engage as to what the best solution is.
Tom Poland 05:20
So, there are multiple ways to find that solution.
Ford Saeks 05:23
Correct. It depends on what’s right for them. Where are they with the growth of their organization? How big is their organization? What are their goals and needs? Because, you know, it’s really important, Tom, to diagnose before you prescribe. So as an expert, I’m glad to be a featured expert, but I want to be very transparent here. I love the glowing introduction, but I’m not trying to insult anybody’s intelligence and act like I know their business better than them. But I guarantee that if they have a product or service, I can help them sell more and sell faster.
Tom Poland 05:49
Thank you, sir. Just under three minutes left. What would you say, real quick, a couple of the big mistakes that a lot of people make? They’ve got a great product. They’re trying to grow their business. What would you say are a couple of the mistakes that they make they should be avoiding?
Ford Saeks 06:00
They listen to the wrong advice. They hire people that are supposedly competent, and they didn’t vet them first. You know, if they want to vet me, Google me. If you want to vet me, look at my reputational equity. Look at what I’ve done, and then that speaks for itself. So, the mistake they make is in good faith, they hire a vendor to build their website or whatever profile or marketing that they want, and then it doesn’t produce the results. And in 9 times out of 10, it’s not the product or service, it’s the marketing. It’s communication. At the end of the day, marketing and sales are just giving people enough information that they can make good decisions.
Tom Poland 06:33
And it’s a common mistake, we’ve all done it. We’ve all hired someone who’s, you know, taken a lot of money from our bank account. And they don’t have much else to share.
Ford Saeks 06:40
Yeah, they promised the world and they don’t deliver anything or little.
Tom Poland 06:43
Okay, so, folks, let’s shift the gear now. One valuable free action, like a top tip. It’s not going to solve the whole problem but it might start people off in the right direction.
Ford Saeks 06:52
They can go to primeconcepts.com/marketing-critique, or just go to the homepage of Prime concepts and look for the link. But one of the things I do, is full transparency, you should be offering lead magnets. So here I am on your podcast, I’m offering a free- I’m giving value. And then I’m giving them- we’re not pitching anybody. We’re giving them a way to continue learning, right? If I’ve got one minute and 21 seconds, right? So if they want a marketing critique with me, where I take a look at your value propositions and your marketing to see how I can help you improve it, there’s no cost for this, it’s just an opportunity for you to improve, they can go to primeconcepts.com/marketing-critique, and they can claim it.
Tom Poland 7:30
So, you might end up, folks, wanting to get married to Ford, but think of this as the first date and the marketing critique as the second date. Dip your toe in the water. You got nothing to lose. It could be fun.
Ford Saeks 7:40
And, it’s complimentary. There’s no risk– high reward.
Tom Poland 7:43
Primeconcepts.com/marketing-critique.
Ford Saeks 07:48
Yeah, so, no, it’s Prime Concepts, but then you can either go to the homepage. There’s a link of the homepage or you can jump right to the page by going to /marketing-critique.
Tom Poland 07:58
Lovely, it’s just primeconcepts.com and follows you.
Ford Saeks 08:01
Yeah, they just go to primeconcepts.com. They can claim their critique right there.
Tom Poland 08:05
Thank you, sir. Question seven and 20 seconds left, the one question I should have asked you but didn’t?
Ford Saeks 08:09
What’s the biggest action that people can take? And the answer to the question is mystery shop. When you’re done listening to this in the next 10 seconds, I want you to go look at your website, your search engine rankings, your LinkedIn, Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, Pinterest, Tik Tok, Instagram, Snapchat, and Rumble, and look at what’s working.
Tom Poland 08:28
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.
10 min
January 25, 2023How to Start a Podcast in 30 Days & Get 1-5 Hight-Ticket Clients Without Growing an Audience – In Just 7 Minutes with Sheryl Plouffe
Discover why having and knowing your intent is crucial when creating and posting online content
Build a more structured and organized marketing structure that guarantees high-ticket conversions
Learn the power of podcasts in building connections and turning prospects into clients
Resources/Links:
Want more tips on how to make podcasting your superpower? Click here: www.profitablepodcastmethod.com
Summary
Is your marketing strategy low in lead generation and making connections? Do you want to find out how you can start a podcast and maximize its potential?
Be ahead of the game and use podcasting as a promising platform that guarantees to turn your guests into clients, referrals, and speaking engagements.
Sheryl Plouffe is a video strategist, entrepreneur, and international speaker, and has broadcast over 20,000 hours of live television during her professional career.
Sit back and listen in to what Sheryl has to share about the promising powers of podcasting and intent when it comes to building a powerful and guaranteed marketing strategy.
Check out these episode highlights:
01:33 – Sheryl’s ideal client: Our ideal clients are six-figure coaches, consultants, and online entrepreneurs, who are faced with the task of deciding how they want to organically market themselves.
02:56 – The problem she helps solve: I think it’s to do with lead generation, but more importantly, it’s the connections. It’s who do you have in your network? Who do you have access to who could lead you to more clients?
03:54 – The symptoms of the problem: And then the main thing is this idea of spinning your wheels on the hamster wheel, the incessant hamster wheel of social media, and not necessarily getting any of the results that you want. Because a lot of people are still focused on vanity metrics.
05:12 – Clients’ common mistakes before consulting Sheryl: It’s because people are creating content for just the sake of creating content because they see other people doing the same, but they don’t have the strategy behind why are we creating the content. What is the intent behind it?
06:35 – Sheryl’s Valuable Free Action (VFA): I think one of the things to do is to think really a mindset shift, and just look at what it is that you’re doing on a day-to-day basis. And ask yourself, “Are these lead-generating or income-generating activities?”
07:07 – Sheryl’s Valuable Free Resource (VFR): Want more tips on how to make podcasting your superpower? Click here: www.profitablepodcastmethod.com
07:39 – Q: How long should it take me to produce my podcast? A: And my answer is an hour a week.
Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:
“The truth is, we don't live in a world where build it and they will come. You have to have a much stronger idea of how that's going to lead to what it is that you ultimately want.” -Sheryl Plouffe
Click To Tweet
Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)
Tom Poland 00:10
Greetings, everyone. A very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing the Invisible. I’m Tom Poland beaming out to you from the Sunshine Coast in Australia, joined today by Sheryl Plouffe. Sheryl, good day from Down Under. Where are you hanging out?
Sheryl Plouffe 00:21
I’m in Southern Ontario, Canada today, Tom. Great to be with you!
Tom Poland 00:24
How’s the weather this evening?
Sheryl Plouffe 00:26
It’s fair because, in this hemisphere, we are going from summer to fall. But it’s nice!
Tom Poland 00:33
Yeah. We are down under, so we’re doing the exact opposite– going from fall into summer. Well, spring, actually, into summer. But we’ll get off climate, we won’t go there. For those of you who don’t know Sheryl, she’s got actually a really wicked smart strategy for getting you in front of ideal clients and converting them into clients, from prospects to clients. She’s a video strategist. She’s an entrepreneur in her own right. She speaks internationally. She’s broadcasted over 20,000 hours of live television during her professional career. So, you’re going to learn a thing at any moment now after 20,000 hours! The title today, and this is going to be interesting, folks, is “How to Start a Podcast in Just 30 Days and Get 1-5 High-Ticket Clients Without Even Growing an Audience”. So, everyone, I’m sure, is on the edge of their seats or the sheets depending on if they’re watching this or listening to it. Sheryl, let’s kick-off! Our time is going to start now. Who is your ideal client, that’s question number one.
Sheryl Plouffe 01:33
Our ideal clients are six-figure coaches, consultants, and online entrepreneurs, who are faced with the task of deciding how they want to organically market themselves. And there are a lot of options out there, but we feel that profitable podcasting is a great tool to use to tick off a lot of checkboxes on a list of things that we need to do as entrepreneurs.
Tom Poland 01:53
Why don’t we just unpack it a bit? Because as you know, I have a very set structure of questions. Do you want to give me a heads up on what it looks like to how you go from podcast to client? Or do you think that’ll come out in the questions?
Sheryl Plouffe 02:06
It might come up in the questions, but I’m happy to answer here. And that is that our focus isn’t necessarily on just the audience. And that’s what, traditionally, podcasts do. I think a couple of mistakes- One is to do audio only because I believe that people want to see the video and the dynamism of the interview in the process. And I think it’s a missed opportunity to not do video and then repurpose to audio. But, second to that is rather than focusing on the audience only and waiting for three years for an advertiser or sponsor to come along and throw you 100 bucks to be on your podcast, what we would prefer to say is leverage the podcast so that you can turn your guests into clients, referrals and speaking engagements. And that’s a bonus!
Tom Poland 02:46
Great overview. Thank you! So, let’s go to question two, just over five and a half minutes left. How would you define the problem that you solve? It’s to do with lead generation? How would you put it?
Sheryl Plouffe 02:56
I think it’s to do with lead generation, but more importantly, it’s the connections. It’s who do you have in your network? Who do you have access to who could lead you to more clients? And especially referrals and speaking engagements, anyone who’s been in business for any length of time, knows the value of referrals because there’s so much trust built into that. So, the problem that we solve is authority, but it’s also about building that database of who you have access to.
Tom Poland 03:20
Because I imagine if you just email someone and said, “Hey, you know, do you want to talk about becoming a client? Or do you want to talk about you referring me”, you wouldn’t get a response. But if you invite them onto your podcast, that’s a whole different relationship dynamic.
Sheryl Plouffe 03:31
It’s a different relationship dynamic right from the start because you’re not selling anything. You are giving and it’s giving reciprocity.
Tom Poland 03:40
Right. And that reciprocity is such a powerful force in human psychology and marketing. So, let’s talk about, question three, what are some of the typical symptoms that someone listening to this might be experiencing, and go, “Yeah, I need to find out more about how Sheryl does this”?
Sheryl Plouffe 03:54
And then the main thing is this idea of spinning your wheels on the hamster wheel, the incessant hamster wheel of social media, and not necessarily getting any of the results that you want. Because a lot of people are still focused on vanity metrics. In my opinion, I would rather have 1000 true fans. I would rather have a database, a solid database of people who I can rely on to grow my business rather than having, you know, 100,000 Vanity followers on Instagram, but I’ll never ever get to know personally.
Tom Poland 03:54
Yeah, that’s so true! Vanity metrics, that’s a great way of putting it. So, people are on the social media hamster wheel, another great way of putting it! And they’re just not getting the traction and the cut-through with inquiries. Folks, if that sounds like you, then you want to keep listening.
Sheryl Plouffe 04:37
Yeah, I mean, another. Quickly, Tom, I think that the other thing is that another inspirational quote is not going to lead you to more clients. You have to have a stronger strategy than that.
Tom Poland 04:48
But I was so clever with that quote. Why is the world not leading the path to my door? Disappointing to me, has frequently been. But we’re talking about, you know, coaches, consultants. We’re talking about people that are pretty smart because they’re in a position to offer other people advice. So, they’re going to be trying stuff, just over three minutes left, what would you say are the couple of the big mistakes that people make trying to solve this lead generation problem before they find your solution?
Sheryl Plouffe 05:12
It’s because people are creating content for just the sake of creating content because they see other people doing the same, but they don’t have the strategy behind why are we creating the content. What is the intent behind it? Because there’s never been enough thought put into why are we doing this content in the first place. So, I think it’s this idea of content for content’s sake. Listen, the truth is, we don’t live in a world where build it and they will come. You have to have a much stronger idea of how that’s going to lead to what it is that you ultimately want. So really, the answer is intent. We have to have intent behind any of the marketing work that we’re doing, including, in this case, profitable podcasting.
Tom Poland 05:51
Right, big mistake! No intent. No clear objective. No clear strategy on how you’re going to convert from social media or content to client. Question five-
Sheryl Plouffe 05:59
And it has to do, I think, largely it has to do with systems. What systems do you have working in the background, and in many cases, automated systems in the background to help you gather data, and information, you know, from people who you would, again, have on your podcast as guests so that you can follow up effectively? That’s a key part.
Tom Poland 06:20
Another mistake, without those systems, it’s all a bit random. So, question number five, two minutes left, a valuable free action. It’s like a top tip. It’s not going to solve the whole problem; people might need you for that. But what’s the top tip you can give them to take a step in the right direction?
Sheryl Plouffe 06:35
I think one of the things to do is to think really a mindset shift, and just look at what it is that you’re doing on a day-to-day basis. And ask yourself, “Are these lead-generating or income-generating activities?” So, for instance, for an online entrepreneur, a coach, or a consultant, it’s “calls”. How many calls are you actually on? Or are you just doing work and staying busy, but not actually making any sales? Look at how many calls you’re conducting. But I think it’s income-generating activities and having a really hard conversation with yourself about, are you doing those things?
Tom Poland 07:07
That’s probably the acid metric, isn’t it? How many gigs have I had with people that are pre-client inquiries? So, a terrific number to measure! Thank you for that. Question six is a valuable free resource. Where can people try to go to get more about this? I’m going to answer it for the sake of time. Folks, go to www.profitablepodcastmethod.com. In that, you’re going to learn why- the whole nuts and bolts of the whole system. It’s completely free, profitablepodcastmethod.com. Sheryl, last question. 35 seconds left. What’s the one question I should have asked you, but didn’t?
Sheryl Plouffe 07:39
The question you should ask me is how long should it take me to produce my podcast. And my answer is an hour a week. We pride ourselves on having created a system that allows you to generate, you know, from finding your guests, interviewing your guests, and distributing that content– everything in one hour per week!
Tom Poland 08:00
An hour a week and a client a week is a pretty good formula. Sheryl, thanks so much for your time and your insights! Folks, it’s www.profitablepodcastmethod.com. Cheers, Sheryl.
Tom Poland 08:13
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.
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The Mission of Marketing The Invisible is to bring proven marketing ideas to professionals offering a service, advice or software and who want a weekly flow of inbound new client inquiries. We deliver one idea to boost marketing results using our “7 questions in 7 minutes”.

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