Transcription:
Welcome to The “S” Word LIVE!. My name is Renee Hribar, sales strategist, TEDx speaker, and author. And my goal today is to help you make sales simple and fun, especially if you’re not calling yourself a salesperson, if you’ve never had professional sales training, if being in sales is not something you ever did or thought you would ever do. But now that you own a business and you’re in charge, the buck stops with you. You’ve got to sometimes wear that sales hat. So tune in, because I’m going to talk about the big question that I get so often from my clients who are smart women from around the world who are running their own businesses, whether they’re consulting others on how to write their next book, whether they’re coaching someone through how to create their next marketing plan or whether they’re helping someone build their next funnel. These women that I get the chance to work with every day always ask, what do I sell next? How do I know what to sell next? So if you’ve got questions as I go through this, I’m going to share three places and three actions. I’m doubling down today about exactly what to do, to know what to sell. So if you’ve ever wondered, how do some people just know what to sell? How do they know what to talk about? How do they know what to share about? Well, the first place I look is in popular media.
So although I’m definitely someone who will encourage you not to watch the news, such a downer. You could watch Good Morning America. You know, that’s not really news, but it will give you the idea of what’s trending. Right. So what’s popular right now, if you said it out loud at the grocery store, people would say, oh, yeah, I know what that is. Or if you imagine the checkout line at the grocery store where they have all the magazines, what are on the covers right now? So that’s the first place I look to know what to sell next. What is the popular trend? What is the popular media talking about? First, if you are at a loss, this is where you start to know what to sell. This is ground zero. I don’t know, to sell. What can I do? The second place I look. Are you ready? You’re going to guess first. The second place I look are those online message boards like Reddit. Who here has ever been to Reddit, R-E-D-D-I-T. You’ve been there and you’re watching now type it into the comments so that others can know. So Reddit is awesome. And it’s definitely a place where you can dive into conversations about what’s trending, what’s happening in your industry. So this is what’s the general? So I start big, right? What’s the general consensus? What’s the general vibe? What’s the general conversation? Where if you were to meet someone at a coffee shop or if you were to hang out at the local pub, you would be hearing about and then get more specific with your industry or you can go to industry magazines.
So I have clients that our travel advisors, clients that are inventors, clients that have very, very niche down specific industries, well, they might have an entire section at the bookstore that allows them to go into those industry magazines. Right? OK, so that’s the second place, the third place. And I kind of led into it when I said bookstore, you know, we don’t really go to the bookstore anymore. I love the I love me some good Barnes and Noble P.S. So but the third place is Amazon. Who here has ever searched on Amazon for a book in your industry and read the reviews? So if you read the reviews, let me know in the comments. If you’ve done this, it will give you so much fodder for conversation. What do people say? What do they think? What are their opinions? We start there and then we start to whittle it down so now you have the general consensus, you have industry specific, and then you have books that have been written about your industry. What do the reviews say? So now you have a bunch of different voices in your head and you can say to yourself, does any of this sound like something I could talk about? And I guarantee you’re going to say yes.
And then I also guarantee you’re going to feel if you make a list. I love making lists. I usually start on one piece of paper or I start on the top and I funnel to the bottom. Usually it’s just one big piece of paper, whether it’s a lined piece of paper or a bullet journal or a blank piece of paper, your choice, what people like, what do you use? It doesn’t matter. A whiteboard, your bathroom wall, whatever floats your boat. Where did J.K. Rowling write her book, wasn’t it her bathroom wall? Hey, maybe you got the next Harry Potter in you. Maybe that’s the next thing you’re going to sell. So what I’m saying is, is that you start with all this information and you start to say, what can I talk about here? Where are my opinions? Where are my experiences? If someone has an opinion about this, can I say, well, that’s crazy because and I actually have a story about it or, oh, I agree, this person says this and I agree with that because and oh, I have a story about that. So when we think about what to sell next, now we have this idea, this understanding, we have a story around it, either an agreement or a protagonist, and that’s when you start to go to the three actions. So you with me so far, I’m talking fast and I’m making this happen in less than ten minutes for you because I know you’re busy and you want to get back out to make more money for your business so we don’t have time to hang out all day.
Right. Melody says she outlined on cocktail napkins. That was J.K. Rowling. Oh, I like her more now, suddenly. We need another Harry Potter. I’m super excited to get to go to Harry Potter world soon. So that being said, I’m going to go to the three actions. What do you do with this information now? You have a topic, you have a consensus, you have a way you’re going to talk about it. The first thing I do is I go to somewhere that’s warm and cozy that I can discuss it. So maybe it’s my closest network. Maybe it’s like the women in my mastermind or I might talk to my coach about it or one of my good colleagues and peers that I can reach out to and say, I have this idea that’s kind of floating around my head. What do you think about it? That’s the first place I look. I always am building my network, ladies. So if you consider all the people that are connecting with you on social media, whether you’re connecting on LinkedIn, Facebook or Instagram, adding them to your email list, these are connections. This is your network. This group will feed you and you will feed them for years because everyone we connect with is one of the three C’s, they’re connectors, they’re clients or they’re collaborators. And if you do this right, you will turn in to all three eventually.
So first places I go to my closest contacts, the second action I take is and I bring it to my second warmest place, maybe it’s my Facebook group. So if you’re not on my Facebook group yet, please, please stop. You need to be in there. It’s amazing. We have free trainings, free gifts from some of the world’s best businesswoman that I have personally curated for you. Plus, I’m in there all the time connecting and stirring up conversations so that you can connect with your next client. So if you don’t have a Facebook group yet, come hang out in mine. If you do have one, ask them. And this is how you ask, you would say, I’m considering creating something new. I am considering this or this, maybe you have a third idea or that or something else. What would you like to hear about next? I’m giving you these words, ladies. I’m saying if you do this, you will get feedback. Third thing, then you can go to your email list. If you don’t have an email list, you should definitely grow one. Or again, you can ask someone in your network to share with their list or share with their group and maybe you can get some feedback there. But the real key here, so I’ve given you three places to look to get the ideas of what to sell, three actions to take to get to confirmation of what to sell. And now the best and the next step is to put it out there.
Now, the great thing about this is that we have literally the power of social media in our hand. It doesn’t take much. It’s free, in fact, to use and leverage Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn to put up a post and say, I have this amazing offer, do this, PM me, send me a message, say the word “Buy”, whatever it is in the comments, and I will send you more information. And then the best way I know, one of my first sales managers in the yard is like the best way to find out if what you’ve got is worth selling and if people are going to buy it is to offer it up for sale. Here’s the caveat. Before you create the funnel, before you write the sales page, before you even create the entire program, I’m going to encourage you to put it out there, put those feelers out there and see if people will go, yeah, I want more information, because if they don’t, there’s no amount of crafty writing or crafty creation that will make them want it. If you are a creator like me, then you know that there’s lots of things your audience needs, but that’s not what they believe that they want. So what I always say is sell them what they want, give them what they need. I hope today’s lesson really struck a chord with you and to kick off your year right. I’ll see you guys next week live on The “S” Word LIVE show.
