The Sales Matchmaker

"The key to success in building your business is to get a system that integrates your sales and marketing."

(21:11) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

Although sales and marketing are two vital parts of your business, they are not one and the same, and it's crucial to know the differences.

Do you think you have a sales problem?

If you do, it probably isn't because you're bad at sales.

Most coaches and consultants who are frustrated with their closing rates on sales calls are quite simply talking to the wrong prospects - that is, unqualified prospects.

In the world of online business, the terms "marketing" and "sales" are used almost interchangeably.

"It's like digging for gold in the wrong place. No matter how hard you work, and how good your technique is, you won't dig up any gold."

(2:57) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

Do you actually know the differences between marketing and sales? They're certainly intertwined, and most don't realize that they're different. Marketing and sales are indeed both aimed at increasing revenue, but they're ultimately different functions within your business. That said, defining the difference is vital. You are the CEO of your business, so you're in charge of marketing and sales. In order to make sure you're doing both properly, you need to lay out some clear definitions.

Marketing. The systematic planning and implementation of business activities to bring together the buyer and the seller. This is where you do your prospecting. When done correctly, marketing gives you and your sales team a huge edge and, consequently, a high close ratio.

If your prospects are bad, it doesn't matter how good your salesperson is, you won't have the conversion rate you want. You have to make sure you generate the right leads in order for closing to be a viable outcome.

Sales. Sales is the portion of your business that persuades your prospects to purchase the product that serves their needs. The sales function converts the leads from your marketing efforts into paying clients. It involves more direct interaction than marketing.

Align your processes with the needs of your prospects to see the greatest measure of sales success.

Before a prospect invests in a high ticket program, two questions must be answered in their mind.

Do I like and trust the coach and believe the program works? This question has to be answered for the prospect during the marketing process, which is your opportunity to build up the "know-like-trust" dynamic with your potential clients.

Will it work for me? This is the conversation that takes place on the sales call. Here, the prospect gets to talk through their fears and concerns and any self-doubt they may have regarding your program. It's your job to be there to listen and empathize with the prospect. When you are willing to "stand in the fire" with the prospect, they will be more likely to invest in you and the transformation you offer.

Without marketing, there are no prospects. Even so, a lot of people do marketing incorrectly. They go out and book leads, but do not use qualification processes. When unqualified leads are coming through, the sales team may begin to feel like they're bad at sales.

You'll often hear coaches say it's okay to have a 17% close ratio. Let me tell you now, it is not. If you can only close 10-20 percent of the people you talk to every week, it will drain you and your team, and foster a culture that is not sustainable. No one on your sales team wants to face that much rejection consistently.

"When I talk about the miracle of integrating your sales and marketing, it's important to stick with something long enough for the miracle to happen."

(10:10) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

We have established the need for good marketing and solid sales. What do you need to do as the CEO of your business to make sure that everything aligns to give you the prospect you want?

1. Determine the result you intend to deliver. The people who invest in your program are not looking to buy bells and whistles. They are buying the result that you offer.
2. Determine and define your ideal client. Do this to ensure that you yourself are clear about what problem you solve. Knowing this will help you speak to the right people.
3. Design and price your transformational program based on the product you'll deliver. For more on this piece, check out Episode 3 of this podcast.
4. Determine what marketing channels you'll use. The best way to go about this is to pick one channel and maximize it before you add in any others. Don't go chasing shiny objects.
5. Create your brand identity and your messaging. These assets encapsulate the message that prepares the prospect for a great conversation with the salesperson. Get clear on your messaging.
6. Generate interest and create leads. At the end of the day, this is a nurturing process to warm your prospects up and make them feel both comfortable and confident.

If you can create a process and work strategically with both sales and marketing, you'll experience successful business growth.

Remember that sales is actually the personal part. Your prospect has been driven to the sales call through marketing. They already know who the coach is and they know that the product works. With that established, you can have a true heart flow interaction and soothe your future client's fears.

Research shows that it takes more than one point of contact to take prospects from cold to warm and ready to buy. If you can implement a great marketing process, your sales calls will allow a deeper connection to the prospect and you'll start to close 50-80% instead of 17-20%.

Simply put, this is much more gratifying all around.

So, what are the best ways to implement these concepts?

1. Do It Yourself. The do-it-yourself model may be inexpensive, but make no mistake, it will require a lot of your time and energy, which will be taken from the things you actually want to be doing. Remember that you started a business to work with clients, not prospects. In fact, most entrepreneurs who choose this model eventually hit a ceiling. They run out of time or simply get buried and burn out.
2. Done With You. Find a coach who can guide you to implement these strategies so that they intertwine properly. Guides like these are a rare find, but an experienced perspective is invaluable.
3. Done For You. You literally find someone to build the process for you. This is ideally where you want to go. With this model in place, it becomes easy to clone yourself out of your business and free up your bandwidth for the parts of your business that you love.

Don't let the transformative products or services you have to offer clients be limited by your marketing, sales, or the disconnect between the two. Can you imagine what tremendous turnout you would see if your marketing and sales aligned?

How to Get Involved

If you're ready to leverage your time and offer huge transformation to your clients while scaling your business in a big way, Janet can help. Janet has an extensive background in sales, has closed millions of dollars in high ticket programs, and has the expertise needed to move your business forward. Find more about her work with The High Ticket Freedom Shift program on her website.

"We're talking about how you can offer a high-ticket program and get clients you know you can make an impact for."

(2:25) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

Sell a transformation, not just a program.

Twelve-week high ticket offers are everywhere, as most of us in the online marketing sphere have seen. You know you've got an incredible program to offer. How do you make it stand out?

The best way to increase conversion and client success is to follow the HT² formula - High Ticket, High-Transformation. People are sick of programs that don't meet the actual needs of their clients because they ultimately don't care about facilitating a transformation.

"We are not equipped with enough of the big-picture information to be able to make a transformation in our own life."

(3:25) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

The truth is, the market has changed drastically. What used to be an information economy has become a transformation economy. This is mostly because information is so easily accessible today - if you get a cold, you can go straight to the internet to diagnose and treat yourself without the help of a doctor. Information has simply lost its value. People will no longer pay for simple training modules that statistics say they'll never complete.

What people will pay for is a real, lasting transformation. We as humans are just not equipped to affect big-picture change in our own lives. We need an experienced guide, a Yoda if you will, to help us get there.

Fortunately, there are plenty of coaches and consultants who know they can provide a life-changing transformation and are ready to build the program to do it.

Keep your clients at the center of the program you build.

If you desire to use your gifts to make an impact, it's time to implement the HT² formula.

• Who is your client? If you're giving a transformation, you need clients who are willing to invest the time, and more importantly the effort, to see the change come about. They need to be passionate and committed with a clear goal in mind.

• Pick your model. The two best models for a program like this are "Done With You," and "Done For You." Once you've identified your ideal client, you need to figure out which model is right for you, or if you'll incorporate both in two separate offers.

• Lay out the result. You must be able to clearly articulate the transformation that awaits clients on the other side of your program.

• Be confident. Be confident in your program and its result.

• Have conviction. Have enough conviction in your program to offer a guarantee. It doesn't have to be monetary, but you do need to be sure that your client knows they will at least get back their investment.

• Make the program long enough. A transformation happens in stages. There's an initial immersion with a lot of new information, which leads to new habits being formed. After the big shift, there should be continuity as the new habits become daily life. This is where most 12-week programs fall short. Clients are led through the immersive period and then the program ends, or transitions into a mastermind. There typically is not enough one-on-one support to make the transformation permanent.

• Provide the shift. Your program should have an initial shift, to assure your clients that they invested well. But then give them the support they need. Provide them with the accountability, mindset work, and the resources to help them live with the transformation. When people feel supported and encouraged, they'll be much more likely to evangelize you and perhaps re-invest for themselves.

"Be available. Create your program in such a way that clients feel fully supported."

(13:50) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

If you follow this formula as you design and value your high ticket program, you can price it as you will. People will pay the price for a transformation that rocks their world and has staying power.

How to Get Involved

If you're ready to leverage your time and offer huge transformation to your clients while scaling your business in a big way, Janet can help. Janet has an extensive background in sales, has closed millions of dollars in high ticket programs, and has the expertise needed to move your business forward. Find more about her work with The High Ticket Freedom Shift program on her website.

"When I talk about high ticket, I talk about highly transformational programs that change lives."

(0:34) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

The best of the best in high ticket sales know that they are selling a transformation, not just a product.

When sales aren't closing, there's a reason. An unsatisfactory conversation rate can be so frustrating. Taking a second look at your approach can give insight into what is going awry. It's possible that you are consistently committing one of the seven sins of high ticket selling.

"You have to be able to get the  conversation to another plane."

(5:28) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

Talking to the wrong prospect. Without a solid lead generation process that ensures your leads are qualified, you are likely to spend a lot of time spinning your wheels on the phone with clients who aren't ready, aren't informed, or aren't committed.

Asking the wrong questions. Two things have to happen for your prospect to invest: they have to be confident in you and your ability to help, and they have to be confident in the fact that your service can help them at all. Meet them where they are and get personal. Talk them through the journey, not the blueprint.

Being unemotional. So many salespeople keep emotions out of their calls, but the best know they need to tap into the heart component of the transformation they are selling. To invest in a transformation, prospects must desperately want to fulfill a need or a dream. Figure out what that is and help them understand why they should invest in themselves.

Let sales calls be more than empty tactics. Learn to delve into the problem your client needs to solve.

Focusing more on the features than the transformation. The vehicle by which your prospects reach their goal is almost always irrelevant - talk to them about the results they'll experience and how your service will change their life.

Neglecting the COI. We all ask about the ROI of any investment we make, but make it clear on your calls what the cost of inaction will be. What will it cost your prospect not to invest in your service? It could be the money they would have made, or maybe recovering their time and bandwidth.

"People want transformation, but they want it on their terms."

(5:20) - Janet Clark, The Freedom Shift

Not offering a guarantee. These days, the market is full of phony coaches and consultants. This means that many of your prospects will come to you burned out and guarded from a prior horrific experience. Offering them a guarantee of some sort reaffirms that you'll put in the work if they do.

Desperately clinging to the outcome. If you take every call terrified that you won't close the sale, you will suffer and so will your sales. You should greet each prospect from a place of service and seeking a win-win outcome. Be confident when you sell because you really believe in what you are selling.

Avoiding all of these sins will amount to the picture of an ideal salesperson - someone who puts the needs of the client before their own, is committed to providing a true transformation, and has the grace to present all the options and then let the prospect make the right decision for them.

How to Get Involved

If you're ready to leverage your time and offer huge transformation to your clients while scaling your business in a big way, Janet can help. Janet has an extensive background in sales, has closed millions of dollars in high ticket programs, and has the expertise needed to move your business forward. Find more about her work with The High Ticket Freedom Shift program on her website.

"My mission is to add huge value, help you increase your level of expertise, and help you move towards making your own Freedom Shift."

A high-ticket offer is one of the key components to a successful business model.

The high-ticket offer is one of the best ways to achieve the freedom that drew many of us into entrepreneurship. While it is appealing to be able to make fewer sales while making more money, increasing the sustainability of a business, closing a high-ticket offer can seem elusive, and possibly daunting.

"People need to feel a sense of urgency. You are doing your prospects a favor when you give them incentive to make an immediate decision."  (10:39 -10:59)

These offers need to be transformational, life-changing programs for your clients and are not meant for an entry-level entrepreneur. If you are a seasoned business owner and think that high-ticket offers are the next move for your business, there are five key factors that will help you to make your offer compelling:

1. Clarity. For your offer to be compelling, you need to be very clear with your offer. A prospect needs to know exactly what you are planning to do for them if they enroll in your program or service. Clarity can even be created in the name of your program.
2. Value Proposition. In order for a client to pay you a large sum of money, the offer needs to add immense value.
3. Limited Availability. You can limit availability to your program in several different ways. A great way to do this is to only accept a limited number of individuals into the program, or create an open enrollment period. The other way to limit availability to be selective in the individuals. Vetting your prospects will help you to ensure success, and will give the client assurance that if you have allowed them into your program, you are confident you can give them results.
4. Solve a Big Problem. It's important that it solves a big problem for the client. In order for the offer to be compelling, the client must recognize that it is problem they are facing. Too many coaches are trying to sell the prospect on the problem, instead of selling a solution to a problem the individual already sees. Many times, we are able to see the root of the client's problem, when the client only sees the symptom. Shifting your approach can help the client buy-in and you can help to solve the big problem by first treating the symptom.
5. Offer a Guarantee. If you're reading this article, there is a really good chance that you have invested money into a program that didn't offer the results promised. There are hundreds of programs and services out there that take thousands of dollars from clients and give a minimal return. For this reason, people have become gun-shy when it comes to high-ticket offers. Offering a guarantee helps prospects gain trust in your as a provider, and recognize your commitment level. You don't have to offer a "money-back" guarantee. Get creative.

"People want to know that if they give you their money, you're as committed as they are to make this program work for them"

(16:33 - 16:42)

The high-ticket offer is a big step. However, as you are growing in your business, it's important for you to recognize the value that you offer. Undervaluing your services will lead to burn out. You have immense value to offer! How can you apply these factors to your own offer?

How to Get Involved

If you're ready to leverage your time and offer huge transformation to your clients while scaling your business in a big way, Janet can help. Janet has an extensive background in sales, has closed millions of dollars in high-ticket programs, and has the expertise needed to move your business forward. Find more about her work with The High Ticket Freedom Shift program on her website.

"We have one main purpose, to help you get the life of freedom that you desired when you started your business."

(0:49)Janet Clark

The Freedom Shift

If you're ready to scale your income, make a bigger impact, and do more of the work you love, you've come to the right place.

Welcome to the Freedom Shift. My name is Janet Clark, CEO and Founder of The Freedom Shift, where we guarantee more sales for high-level coaches and consultants. In my years of experience with high-ticket transformational programs, I have become an expert Sales Matchmaker, matching professional high-ticket salespeople with coaches and consultants who are ready to scale their businesses.

My mission is to help you have your own Freedom Shift - to achieve greater levels of freedom in your finances, time, and lifestyle. Each week I will be sharing insights to help you create and scale your transformational programs. I will be introducing you to a network of seven-to-eight-figure business owners and thought leaders, and world-class marketing and sales gurus. It's time for you to position yourself as an authority in the transformational economy, and I'm here to help.

Want to create a life of freedom, serve at the highest level and to be able to feel fulfilled in your business?

That's what the Freedom Shift is all about.

How to Get Involved

If you're ready to leverage your time and offer huge transformation to your clients while scaling your business in a big way, Janet can help. Janet has an extensive background in sales, has closed millions of dollars in high-ticket programs, and has the expertise needed to move your business forward. Find more about her work with The High Ticket Freedom Shift program on her website.