069: Stop Starting Over, Sales are in Your Network

Renee: Let me ask you something. Have you ever said this before? I feel like I'm starting over. New audience, new followers, new people in your group.

Maybe you moved your group from one platform to another. People watching, but not engaging. And you're like, do I DM them? Is that weird?

Do they even know me anymore? Maybe a lot of people came on your email list because you were in a summit or a bundle. So what do you do? Maybe you're posting more or you try to become more visible and or you try to draw them in.

I know I'll do a challenge. I know I'll do 17 workshops and nothing happens. Dun,dun. Here's the truth, my friends, you're not starting over.

You're skipping over the easiest money in your business, and today I'm gonna show you exactly what to do instead. All right. I don't know about you, but it's a Monday and I don't wanna have a case of the Mondays, so I just wanna welcome you. Welcome back.

If you've been here before, this is the Selling Your Expertise podcast. I'm Renee Hribar, and I help women sell their expertise in a way that. Actually works without overcomplicating it, overthinking it or overexplaining it. Whether you found me by reading my book Thank you, or coming to one of my talks like the one I did for TEDx, or happened upon this by searching for sales help.

I'm glad you're here. Let's. Dive in. Okay, so lemme give you some context around this.

what's really going on is I've, I work with clients as you know this, right? And this one client says this to me recently. She's like, I feel like I'm starting over. I have new people, but I don't know them and I don't know if I should DM them, send them more emails, SMS text, what should I do?

And I was like, no, no, no, no, no, we're not. We're not going down that path. We are not doing that. So, because most people right here, they try to warm up their audience post more, nurture more, and listen, I love a good nurture sequence, but that's not what gets you paid this month.

Yeah. Record scratch, like here's the core shift. You can redo your website, you can work on your LinkedIn profile. You can, those are all nice things.

You can get new branding, but you gotta check your bank account. How's that doing? Are you independently funded? Do you have funds coming in?

Because I tell you, if you're not. You know, got a daddy warbuck. If you do, let's hang out. But I don't have one.

So I needed to make, I needed to make decisions based on my money. I need my business to be in business. Otherwise, it doesn't matter how nice my website is, there's not gonna be a business around. So I need to make decisions that aren't just me following.

Things that are good for the business, but not important, right? This is the difference between priorities, so you don't start with strangers, right? To make money this month. You're not gonna start with the people that don't know you.

You're gonna start with people who already know your name. And that one decision changes everything because that's the fastest path to revenue. It's not visibility, it's proximity. Plus familiarity.

Plus an invitation. An invitation is what everyone skips. Well, I mean, what most supposed to do, just invite 'em to like work with me. No, you don't have to.

That's one way. I mean, don't take that off the table, but most people. Feel like they have to advertise and wait for people to walk in the door. We don't have to do that anymore.

This is the internet. We have ways we have access. I mean like we don't have a bakery on Main Street, even though I do use that as an analogy. Often you don't have to hope that someone drives by or walks past and smells the delicious bagels you have going on.

You can find people and intentionally connect with them. So let's, let's talk about this scenario. If you have felt like you're starting over, I want you to listen in. Maybe you're like, this woman that I've been working with who is so smart, experienced, has a community, has an email list, is not new in business and.

Honestly, people were buying smaller things from her. Like she has a little shop. Yes, she has a high ticket consultant, but she also has a couple courses that she's created over time. Like I said, she's not new here.

She's been in business. She's had a good business, but things are changing. And so she's looking at her audience right now, I don't know who these people are anymore. You know, I don't know what's happening underneath all the, all their.

Questions and prompts and quotes and everything else because that was part of the work. I'm like, let's go and look at who's already commenting on your content, who's already opening your emails, who's already in your community, and honestly. What's happening underneath this is something that might be happening to you. I know.

I've done it. So when I first started in sales, my sales manager was like, don't prejudge. And I'm like, me Never. Oh yeah.

Oh, I prejudged. You know you've heard this saying, don't judge a book by its cover. Oh, I was judging books by covers. So same thing goes with our audience, and this is what this client was happening, was having happened to her.

She was pre rejecting them. So prejudging, right? She's deciding well, they're not ready, or, well, this one, this one bought that, so she's not gonna buy this other thing. Or she's like, well, I don't know.

I mean, it's been so long that person bought that program or worked with me this long ago. mean, she was making up all these reasons as to why it wasn't the right time, or this person wasn't ready or they're not gonna buy this. And I said to her, that's unfair to them. Because you don't actually know.

And if you do know, come and hang out. I would love to have someone who can tell me the future. That'd be great. I mean, hello.

That'd be wonderful. Tell me the lottery numbers for the Mega Millions. let's put this skill to use Point is this, is that most people in your, in your world, they do want what you have. But we are prejudging, we're pre rejecting them.

Okay, so here's what we did, right? So the first one we did is we created a little poll. I wanted her to start to have an opening to have genuine conversations with the people that were already on her email list already in her community had already most likely purchased something over the years. And so we drafted this email and she had a 40% open rate.

Okay, great. And outta the people who clicked, we actually went through and looked at their names, clicked through, found them in her community, and she's like, I don't know.she's not gonna buy this. And every single person, she had an a, a premeditated rejection for like, oh, not her because of this, not her, because of that, not the, and on and on and on the list we went until I was like, listen, those are your people.

Because clicking is not something people do on accident. Clicking through is curiosity, interest. Hey, tell me more. And what do most people do?

Most people who have worked so hard to get that email list going. They see this and they do nothing. They wait waiting for what the other person to send you an email. Hey, I know you probably had your offers evolve and yeah, your pricing might have gone up, but I'd like to set up an initial call to just research and explore ways we might be able to work together.

Are they gonna do that? maybe, but like, let's not take that into the consideration. Like, let's do something, let's take. The control back.

and believe me, I, when I first came in the online space, I was like, oh, maybe it's different here. Yeah. I just put up a post and they click and they come to you. That's not true, by the way.

I mean, it might happen every now and then, but the reality is we need to take control of our revenue. That means we need to be intentional about who we are connecting with. So if you have an email list and you send out an email like my clients and I drafted, that gets people clicking and responding and hitting reply and doing all sorts of activity, andand you're gonna go through that list of actual names of real people, and you're gonna tell me every single one of those people is not your person.

I think you're, it's in your head, not theirs. Right? Because the reality is this, you do not have to wait for them to. Connect the dots on their own.

And I get this by the way I do this too. Overthinking is a dream killer. And so we, today on this podcast, you and me, we are going to decide right now that we're gonna walk. Toward that signal.

You have somebody hitting reply, you have somebody clicking on your emails. Maybe you wanna write a new email, get something cool going on, see if you can get 'em to click, hit reply, connect. Even if three people do it, that's three leads. If you had three leads right in front of you, what would you do?

Again, this right here, this is where sales starts and marketing ends, right? Marketing gets their retention sales. Is the Sherpa that brings them to the mountaintop and like, Hey, this is what you actually wanted. Let me help you get there.

So we're gonna walk toward this signal. We're gonna put this together. I want you to get excited about what I call the love list, which in old school terms is a prospect list, but I like to put this little filter on it. So how I define love list are people who recognize your name and would respond to an email or a message, like they don't have to be your best friends.

They don't have to necessarily be former clients. They're not necessarily perfect leads. They're not necessarily maybe ideal clients yet, and they're not necessarily even people who are hot and heavy on you. They didn't necessarily comment or connect with your email yesterday.

It's just if I sent them a message, whether it's an email or a text or DM or whatever, would they answer? is do they recognize you enough that they would answer a simple question? That's your love list. And so this one I love, right?

So at the end of the day, I really want you to think about something that's super heartfelt, super confident, super kind. Then there's no question at the end. And so I was talking to another client and if you work with me or have worked with me, you're gonna know this. I'm like, show me a screenshot of what just happened.

Like, they're like, well, I sent that message, or I did this and it didn't work, or they didn't answer. And I'm always like, okay, well just show me. And then when they show me. It's nine times outta 10.

There is nothing for them to answer. There is no question at the end. So a lot of you are either burying the question, putting in too many questions. So the last line needs to be a question.

So this one client was like, I did it and she didn't answer me. Her last line was, lemme know if you wanna talk more. Let me know is as good as feel free to, which is as good as a fart in the wind. Okay, so we've all done it though.

Like I'm, I'm, I'm the first one to say, yes, I have been a criminal of this. but here's the problem. it's not an invitation, it's like a shrug. So what happens?

Silence because now the other person has to decide, think of questions, risk sounding dumb. Now you think that's not that big of a deal. That's a huge deal. People would rather.

Not talk to you, then risk sounding dumb. So you as the service provider consultant, the expert in this case, the person selling for her own business, selling your expertise, you have to be able to help them release any shame so that they feel comfortable coming to you. But then once they come to you, ask a question back, allow that little volley to happen. So let's fix this, right?

So I want you to steal this script. something I come up with all the time with my clients. I love it. So I would say, Hey, I've been thinking about you.

I have something coming up. That would be a perfect next step. I think I'm running it for my, we can say my mastermind or your group or your community, but I'm opening a few seats. Do you want the link to check it out?

That's it. Like it's three sentences, right? Hey, I've been thinking about you. I've got something coming up.

I'm giving away a few seats. Do you want the link to check it out? You can add in free. You can use Guest Pass.

A Guest Pass is one of the pipeline drivers that I teach in my program. I love it. It's just a really simple, easy way to continue or reengage the conversation that you might've had with somebody. Again, we wanna get paid this.

Month, not 10 years from now, not 18 weeks from now, and most of us are just falling over the best leads to get to what we think is my ideal client avatar, but we're making it hard for everybody. So we're gonna make this easy, right? So simple that you're actually gonna find me annoying, which I'm okay with. I'll take the heat because you heard what I said above, and you're like, yeah, I see the difference.

It's specific, it's personal. It gives direction. It's an easy Yes. And it's just opening a door, right?

There's not a, there's not a pitch, like a, a surprise pitch. No. So here's your strategy. Number one, make a list of, I don't know, 10 people.

I'm sure if you, and this is something that I do with some clients when we do these little free calls is, or on a sales opportunity scan, I call it, right? Like an SOS I have 'em share their screen. I have 'em look in LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, their email list, their contacts on their phone. We usually have to only pick one place.

I'm like, pick one place. We'll start there. And then we find. Usually lots more people than they even thought.

And this is always their reaction. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. I forgot about her.

Oh yeah. I should talk to him. Or I've been meaning to talk to him. I'm like, okay, let's do it then.

You mean right now? Yeah, right now. So these are people that know your name, right? So you pick 10 people, step two, warm up the channel.

So maybe they're publishing content somewhere. Go like their post, go comment on it. And then DM them, something referencing what they just published. So if you read my book, chapter one, meet people where they are, right?

if they're publishing something publicly, whether it's on social media or their substack, their email list, a podcast, they have YouTube channel. If you not only comment, but then bring that particular piece of content up in a private email or a private text or a private dm, however you're communicating with them, it's gonna make a lot more sense to them. They're gonna be a lot more interested in having a conversation with you because it's something they already. Brought up.

Again, we're not cold messaging people. We're reconnecting. These are not strangers. I mean, this is a strategy you can do with strangers, but we're not even getting there yet.

We wanna get paid this week. We already want somebody who likes us, knows us, and trusts us. We just need to make the right offer to them. In order to make the right offer to them.

We need to get to know them a little bit better. And when we talk about my zero to sales in 10 minutes a day system, the zero doesn't mean you're at $0. It means you're going to create zero friction to meet. Connect, reconnect, reengage.

And in this case, you're reengaging someone to the point where you can make a meaningful offer. Step three, send them an invite to something and then instead of saying, feel free to let me know, oh, makes my heart hurt. Instead say, do you want the link? The link can be, or do you want the deets?

Do you want the info? you wanna hear more? So like, keep it super simple. I know you're gonna hate me.

It says three steps. Step one, make a list of actual names. Step two, meet 'em where they are. Ask 'em a question about it.

Step three, invite 'em to something and then say, do you want the link? Do you want the details? So if it's like a calendar invite, like a guest pass, you can give 'em a calendar invite. That's a link.

Let's make it easier. I said, so many times we're just, we're just making it so hard on ourselves. I swear half the time when I'm talking to my clients, they're like, oh, that's so easy. I should have done that.

I know. So I just wanna clarify, this is not you dropping the link to your calendar and praying, like actual specific invites. And you're not making up some wild and crazy story. You're genuinely just seeing 10 people connecting with them genuinely and inviting them to something simple.

And the thing is, is like, I've been talking about this. This one client that inspired this podcast, she did do this, and then she's like, oh. remember this now. We did this back in, I dunno, February.

February, yeah, exactly. And it worked. She goes, yeah. I go, what'd you sell 'em?

She goes, I don't even remember. I have to look it up. But people bought it I'm like, exactly, because this works. It's so simple.

It's almost annoying. I can't say that enough. So. Here's the reality.

If you feel all over the place, you're not scatterbrained, you're not,you're just like everybody else, including me, which is avoiding the one thing that works. You know, there's this book, it's like, eat the frog, do the thing. So your brain's like, oh no, you know what? I need to make a new offer.

Oh, I need to create better content. Oh, I need new graphics. I need new images. I need new website.

I need a new content Pillar strategy. No. Nope. Nada.

No. I don't know. I only knows how many languages. Nine.

You need focused conversations. That's literally it. I have clients that never post on social media, do not have an email list, and they sell $30,000 consulting. So.

They don't even have business cards, my friends. It doesn't have to be that complicated. We love to make things complicated, me included. we love to toil and give energy and attention to things that no one's even asking us for.

Why? Wait till someone actually wants it. Start the conversation, then go make it if you have to. Most of the time though, they don't even need that.

They just wanna talk to you. They just wanna see it in your eyes that you know the way and that you can help them get there. So again, whether you're a B2B consultant or whether you're a service provider, they don't need to know everything. They just need to know that you know everything that you can get them there.

All right, I want you to have a great week this week. I want you to make freaking money. Yeah, baby. So like we are month one in Q2 and this is still hot.

You do not have to wait to make money. Here's your weekly challenge, and I want you to actually do this, not save it, not screenshot it, do it this week. Write down 10 names, reach out to five. People today, five people tomorrow.

Then send a real message like not copy and pasting spam, but a real message, like I said, right? Three sentences. Hey, I was thinking about you. I'm cooking something up.

I'd love to have you there as my guest. Do you want the details? That's it. Not a new funnel, not a new content plan, not a rebrand.

Just genuine conversations, right? Because listen, you're not starting over. You are sitting on a gold mine of people who already know you. You just haven't invited them to anything lately.

So go and do that. By the way, get on my email list. It's a lot of fun happening over there. Go to ask me coach.

com. That's ask me coach.com and check out all the freshest ways to hang out. Be on this podcast.