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How do I sell my products?

‘Sales’ is not a dirty word. How to make selling easier.

Question. Do you enjoy selling? 

I’m going to bet that the answer will be a resounding no from a lot of readers. But I’m here to tell you that it doesn’t have to be as excruciating as you might think.

We can all agree that selling is important can’t we? I mean let’s face it, without sales, we don’t have a business. So if we want to build our business and be able to invest in it and grow it, we need to have the confidence to sell.

What’s the big fear when it comes to selling then? Something I hear all the time is that people don’t want to be seen as ‘pushy’ or ‘money grabbing’ or that they feel they’re just not confident enough. 

I want to unpick those fears for you and give you some tips to make selling feel more natural.

You can sell, even if you don’t feel that confident.

Yes it’s true. To sell effectively you do need confidence. But I’m not necessarily talking about ‘karaoke queen’ confidence or ‘owning a room’ confidence. Having a quiet and assured inner confidence in your product or service can work just as well. Better in fact.

Knowing your product or service inside out, what it’s features and benefits are, why it is appropriate for your customer and the value it brings will give you all the confidence you need to sell successfully.

Have a pitch

What do you say when people ask you what you do? Do you freeze, stutter, break out in a cold sweat? To make sales, you’re always going to have to talk about yourself and your offer, whether that’s in front of a room of people at a networking event, online, or with individual clients. This is where a well thought out and rehearsed ‘elevator pitch’ will reap rewards for you. An elevator pitch is a 60 second pitch about yourself and your business which tells people in a nutshell, who you are and how you can help them.

If you need help crafting your elevator pitch you can get my £5.99 video here.

Be clear

Clarity is super powerful when it comes to sales. Be clear in your messaging right from the start of your customers journey. Be clear about your offer and its benefits, and be clear in your packaging and pricing.  Remember the ultimate goal is to make it easy for our customers to buy from us, and easy for us to sell to them.

Show your human side

Authenticity is a bit of a buzzword at the moment isn’t it? But it is important and it works. Showing your vulnerabilities makes it easier for your customers to connect with you and gives you credibility. Now, I’m not telling you to go all out with the sob stories here. But it’s absolutely fine, great in fact, to talk about your experiences and how they have shaped you. Why do you do what you do? What drives you to offer your product or service. Tell your customers a story – they will love it. 

Don’t be afraid to talk about times when things haven’t gone to plan either. Admitting you’ve made mistakes and talking about how you overcame them will help people to know, like and trust you – which is absolute gold.

Consistency, consistency, consistency

 

Have you ever heard the saying ‘your brand is what other people say about you when you’re not in the room’?  Well, Jeff Bezos said that and he knows a thing or two about business. He’s the founder of Amazon. And it’s so true. Your brand is more than your logo and some pretty colours and fonts. It’s the very heart of your business right down to your core values. The way you speak and present your product should reflect this across every platform and in every communication with your customers. There’s no point in investing in email, landing pages or really anything else, if your brand and message isn’t consistent across the whole lot.

 

Customers need to be assured that you are as good as you say you are and that you are serious about your business and serious about offering a good service. When messaging isn’t consistent, confusion and doubt can set in. Not good.

How much should you promote yourself?

I get this question alot. Social media makes it much easier to speak to our target customers, and the temptation is there to bombard them with information about our products and requests for them to buy buy buy! But remember that people can unlike, unfollow and even block. Eek. The key is to add value. Nobody likes to be hard sold to. To keep your customers engaged and interested you need to be sharing content which is giving them value. Think about content which is entertaining, educational, interesting and relevant. 

There’s no magic formula, but think about a ratio of around 85% value added content and 15% promotional content.

The close

This is where it gets scary isn’t it. You need to ask the question. ‘Would you like to work with me?’ ‘Would you like to buy?’. But, if you have confidence in your offer and you have worked on building a relationship with your customer and listening to their needs, you’ve nothing to be afraid of. Really. It’s not pushy, it’s not money grabbing. You are making an offer. Not everyone will say yes, and that’s ok. Some people may say no now and then say yes later. Some people may never say yes. But some people will and ultimately, sales is a numbers game. The more people you speak to, the more opportunities you create for people to say yes to you. But you have to ask the question.

So remember, to win in sales, be confident, be clear, be consistent, tell stories, build relationships and have conversations with your customers. 

And then ask them: ‘Would you like to work together?’

Don’t forget to head over to my free Facebook group for loads of help and advice including daily live videos from me – I’d love to hear from you and how you get on with putting this advice into practice.

So, with all of this in mind… would you like to book a 121 Mr Whippy with me? 😉

Love Kate xx

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How much should I charge?

How much should I charge? Price like a pro!

How to price your product or service so that it works for you and your customers. 

Is this you? You finally get a call from a potential client (more about why you’re not getting more of those later). They want to know what you charge. 

It’s a reasonable question, right? Of course it is. 

But you panic. 

You can’t remember how much you charge, or even worse, you don’t really know. (‘My service is bespoke!’ I hear you cry). You get flustered and mumble that you’ll get back to them with a price. Or maybe you pluck a figure out of the air only to kick yourself later that it was way too low.

It’s not a good look is it? Not exactly professional. 

Well if that is you, you’re not alone. One of the questions I am most often asked is ‘How much should I charge and how should I structure my pricing?’.  Imagine having everything aligned, automated and running smoothly. Think about how much business you could do without having to waste time thinking about what you should be charging. 

Don’t worry – Kate’s got your back. I’m going to talk you through some simple steps that you can take to ensure that you never have to have those awkward conversations with your customers.

Ever again.

Firstly, look at your competitors. What are they offering and what are they charging? Try to

understand what your ideal target customers have bought before, and for how much. This will help you to work out where you should be positioning yourself.

Of course, to do this, you need to have a super clear picture of who your ideal target customer is. You can find out more about that here.

You should absolutely know what it costs to create your product or offer your service. Think about things like time, materials and supply chain. If you don’t know your costs, you can’t possibly set a price. 

 

Spend some time working out what makes you different and special – this is a big part of your offer and makes you more valuable to your customers, and more confident in your pricing. Your messaging on your website, across your social media and anywhere else that you are seen by your customers should be consistent and clear and should show the value you bring. 

Should I show my prices on my website?

Tricky question? I’ll give you a clue. The answer is yes.

I hear it all the time. Business owners are scared to display their prices because they’re worried that the customer will be put off  by them. Well here is some truth. If you have done your competitor research, based on your ideal target customer AND you know what your product or service costs to produce AND you know what makes you different and special THEN you will be confident in your pricing. And if a customer is put off by these prices, then frankly, they’re not your customer.

But my service is bespoke.

Yes ok. Perhaps you offer a ‘bespoke’ product or service. That’s fine. But if you have all of the elements of your service or product itemised and priced, you can easily package them together to give the customer a price, or at least, a very good idea of what the price will be. Using the word ‘from’ is useful here.

Always remember the power of storytelling. By telling your customer about somebody else like them that you’ve helped and what they paid, you’re giving them a really good indication of what they can expect to pay, and what they can expect to receive. Posting case studies on your website or your social media is a great way of doing this.

Why am I not getting as many enquiries as I’d like?

Remember earlier I said that we would look at why you might not be getting as many calls as you’d like? Well, if your messaging isn’t clear, and you’re not displaying your prices, people will be put off. They’ll either assume that they can’t afford you, or they might just go to someone else who has made their pricing and offer clear. Because, newsflash, not one of us is offering a product or service which isn’t already being done somewhere (usually!)

The key message here is that we want to make it as easy as possible for our customers to buy and, as easy as possible for us to sell. With that in mind, you might want to think about offering pricing plans for higher ticket items, or subscriptions. And you should always think about how you can package your products for your customers.

There are some basic principles when it comes to pricing, but there’s a lot to think about, and a lot of leg work involved in getting to that point of being truly confident in what you are offering. You can find loads of great advice including daily live videos from me over on my free Facebook group, or if you’re ready to really take your business to the next level, you can find out about my Marketing Masterwhip programme here.

 

See you soon, Kate

 

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How to grow your Facebook Group!

How to grow a healthy and engaged Facebook following.

Hands up if you can remember L.B.F.

Life. Before. Facebook.

Yes, it really did exist, even though for some of us it’s hard to imagine because, lets face it, Facebook and social media in general is as much a part of our daily lives now as morning coffee and fresh knickers. We sleep with our phones by our beds. We check them before we go to sleep, when we wake up and countless times throughout the day. 

Love it (yes!) or loathe it (whaaat?), it’s not going anywhere.

Find your tribe.

Facebook is actually a pretty wonderful thing if you think about it. When in history has it been so easy to connect and engage with people, whether they’re on the other side of the world, or in our own community? And we can BUILD community. We can surround ourselves with like minded people. In other words, we can find our tribe.

Look at any business. They have a presence on Facebook, guaranteed. As a business of any size, any kind and any age, you need, at the very least, a Facebook page and ideally, a Facebook group. 

Your page is like your shop window. It tells people you exist. It tells them where you are and what you do and it gives them a flavour of what it might be like to work with you. It pulls them in.

Your group though, that’s where the magic happens. That’s where you build your tribe of like-minded people and yes, you’ve guessed it, ideal target customers. This is where you will really engage people. Because it’s all very well having a page with thousands of likes, but if your followers aren’t engaging with you, what’s the point?

 

Of course, if you’re reading this you must be a member of my Facebook group right? If not, you’re missing out on a TON of great advice so get yourself over there pronto! 

Join the ‘Marketing S.O.S – Standout & Sell’ Facebook Group.

Top tips for growing a Facebook following:

Here are my top tips for building a strong and engaged following on Facebook:

 

Be consistent. You don’t have to be the best, but you do have to show up. Post something. Every. Single. Day.

 

Don’t get disheartened. Building meaningful relationships takes time. Your likes won’t happen overnight, but if you’re consistently showing up and giving value, they will come.

 

Cross promote your business profiles on your personal page and across other social media platforms. Sometimes we forget to think of friends and family as potential referrers. Don’t leave them out but don’t spam them either, infact don’t spam anyone! 

 

Giveaways. A well thought out giveaway can really boost your numbers. What product, service or package could you give away, or give a taster of, to tempt people into your tribe or reward your existing followers who regularly contribute or share? Also known as a Lead Manet!

 

#hashtag. Hashtags aren’t as commonly used on Facebook as they are on other platforms like Twitter and Instagram. But a few (really, 2 or 3 tops) relevant hashtags can help people find you. Lot’s of events have their own hashtags which help you connect with other people who are attending. Or create your own hashtag! 

 

BE CONSISTENT. I know. I already said it. It’s important. Do it.

 

Go live. I can hear you thinking that sounds terrifying af. But it works. Think of people you follow. Don’t you love to actually see people talking to you? It makes you feel more connected, because you are. You can speak to your followers in the moment and answer their questions. And, without getting too techy here, the Facebook algorithm favours video, especially live video. So get over yourself and give it a go! You can watch my video and follow my tutorial on how to (or how not to) do lives here, or read some hints and tips here.

 

Don’t be boring

Remember whether you’re on your page or in your group, only about 20% of your content should be talking about your product or service. The rest of the time you need to be sharing interesting and entertaining stuff which is going to really engage your followers. So for example, what’s going on in the world which will interest them?  What drives and motivates us (and our tribe)?

Important. If you think what you’re posting might be boring, it probably is. So don’t post it! No one’s interested in following a boring page – so look at it objectively.

Be consistent. Be creative. Be passionate.

Go forth and grow.

Love Kate

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How to find your Ideal Target Customer…

How to know who your ideal target customer is – and why is it important?

Here’s a topic which is close to my heart and if you’re in business, it should be close to yours too. How do you find out who your ideal customer is, where do you find them, and why does it matter anyway?

It’s very simple really. The more we know about our ideal customer:

the easier it is for us to create new products and services for them.

OR

the easier it is for us to align our existing products and services to them. 

As a startup business, it’s vital you know who and where your sales are going to come from and that you’re marketing to the right people.

Business owners worry about narrowing down their target audience.

Something I hear from small business owners all the time is that they feel as if targeting a specific ideal customer will stop them from selling to other people. They worry that narrowing down their potential audience will reduce their opportunity to sell their product or service.

Honestly? No.

There are two important things to remember here:

  1. It is not forever – businesses change and evolve. Your ideal customer may change too.
  2. It is not for your whole business – you may have more than one product or service. 

Each will have its very own ideal customer. 

Remember, this is about who you are targeting, leaning in on, going after. But anyone can buy from you.

Be Specific

It’s important to be really specific when you are profiling your ideal customer. You should have one particular product, package or service in mind. The more products you have, the more customer profiles you should have. You can treat each one as a different campaign.

When I say ‘be specific’, I mean, really specific. ‘Over 50’ is not your ideal customer. ‘Parent’ is not your ideal customer. You need to know where your customer is. What is their name? What’s their age? (Not their age bracket!). What do they like? What do they watch, listen to, read? And, most importantly, what pisses them off? What problems do they have that you could help them with? Only by getting to know your ideal customer in this depth will you be able to really align your message to them, or even create a product especially for them.

I’ve created a FREE Customer Avatar Template for you to use to help you with this exercise. You can download it here.

You can also watch my ITC live recording here

If you don’t know where to start, you could think about some of the people you’ve worked with in the past. Who did you enjoy working with? Who made you feel fulfilled? Who works in the biggest industry? Choose someone who has ticked your boxes – and profile them.

Once we’ve found our ideal customer, how do we reach them?

So, you’ve profiled the hell out of your ideal customer, and you feel like you know them pretty well now. You know who they are, what they like, what they dislike. You probably even know what movie they went to see last week and what they had for breakfast. And you know their pain points. 

But how do you reach them?

Here are some ideas for you to try:

Look at your competitors. Who else is trying to engage your ideal customer and who 

follows them? You need to profile them too. 

What hashtags are your competitors using? And what keywords? 

What platforms are they using? Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram? Pinterest? Twitter? 

Where are they? That’s where you need to be too!

So, now you know how to profile your ideal customer you can download my free worksheet and get started!

Don’t forget you can find loads of useful information over on my FREE Facebook group.

Look forward to seeing you in there!

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The February Challenge – Registration Open

Yes, yes so I know it’s mid-December and we’re halfway through the December Challenge, but the February challenge is now open.

The free 5-day Marketing challenge starts on 3rd February 2020 and helps startups & small businesses with their strategic marketing by exploring:

  • The ideal target customer
  • What makes you different & special?
  • What are your products & packages?
  • What are your key messages?

So if you’re looking for marketing inspiration, ideas and to be part of a thriving Facebook Grop community… join here.