Selling without sales calls (Ep#8)

Sales calls suck. Wouldn't it be so much better if your sales page was so on point people could click to buy without having to have a conversation with you?

That is what I want for you! So I made this episode covering the differences between the two, and the things you need to consider if you want to sell through your sales pages alone.

You can download your complimentary guide to "Three Techniques to Validate Your Offer Before You Launch" here: https://www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk/validate

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Transcript

0:01

Sales calls. Suck. There. I said it. Not only do they take a lot of time to actually do. If you're an introvert like me, they take a lot of time building up to them and recovering from them as well. Not to mention they're synonymous with sleazy manipulative practices and. If you're a business owner that hates doing sales calls. I want to find you a better way. And that's what this week's episode is all about and make sure you stick around for the end'cause I'm going to be sharing an exercise you can do today to help you put into practice everything we're going to learn. Using marketing to persuade people to buy your thing is hard, icky and not an effective use of your time. It's an upside down way of doing things. Introducing upside up marketing. Helping you create offers people want to buy and share them in a way that feels good. All over a nice cup of tea. Hello and welcome to the upside up marketing podcast. My name's Katie Spreadbury and I help online business owners create offers people actually want to buy and market them in a way that feels good. Both to them and the people they're serving. So today we're going to be talking about sales calls and this is something that. A lot of the business owners, I speak to find really, really hard. And I, I can understand it too. I find them hard. I don't like doing them. I try and avoid them. Wherever possible. I mean, what comes to mind when you think about sales calls? For me, it's those sort of scripted, um, hour long things usually sold us. An hour to pick my brains and we'll help you get clear on how to move forward in your business or how to do this, that the other. Um, then you go through a script where essentially you're getting the person to tell you what they want. You're telling them that your offer will deliver what they want. And then when they won't buy it saying, well, if you're serious about it, you would buy it because this is clearly going to solve all your problems. I'm making them feel really bad if they don't buy it and potentially making them feel bad if they do buy it because they feel like they've been pressured into a sale. Yuck. No, thank you. Not on my watch. Um, That's not, obviously not what sales calls have to be like, but I know that's how a lot of people think about them. And, um, a lot of us would just prefer not to do them all together. Wouldn't it be fantastic if you could have. A sales page that was so spot on that people would just click to buy without you ever having to speak to any of them. Wouldn't that be amazing. That's what we're trying to get to today. So I'm going to go through a few things you need to consider. If you want to eliminate sales calls from your setting strategy and move to a. Um, system where people either click to buy without ever having to speak to, or if they do have to speak to you. They're basically already sold on the offer. They just want to check a few things about logistics or whether they are the right fit for the offer, et cetera. You know, whether you want to work with them rather than if they want to work with you because they already know you're great. So. To really think about this. We need to appreciate the difference between a sales calls and a sales page. And when I say a sales page, what I'm really talking about is anything where you're selling, but it's not. In a direct face to a one-to-one conversation. I say face-to-face could be over the phone, zoom, whatever, a direct conversation. So that could be a sales page and it probably often will be, it could be a sales video or a VSL video sales letter. Um, it could be in your, um, where you're putting offers out fire, email, content, anything like that. Basically, any way that you're talking about your offer and then directing people to a payment page. I'm going to use short sales page as a shorthand for that. The difference between a sales call and a sales page. Well, On a sales call, you have the luxury of being able to tailor what you tell them about the offer to exactly that problems, their situation. Their reservations, anything that they say you couldn't, you can adapt what you're saying based on what they are telling you. However, when you've got a sales page and you're trying to sell without having those conversations. You can't do that. You simply can't. You have to already have dealt with these things in the copy, because if they are coming to it, unsure if it's for them. Um, with reservations, with doubts, with anything at all. If that is not dealt with in the copy of the sales page. Then they're just not going to buy, unless they're like a risk-taker personality and enjoy gambling. They're not going to buy which the more expensive your offer gets. The more of a problem. That's going to be. So I'm going to take you through for things that you need to have thought about on your sales page. If you want to be making these conversions, making these sales without having to go through the whole sales call rigmarole. And then at the end, I'm going to give you an exercise that you can do today. To help you with one of them straight away. So let's let's get started. So the first thing you need to consider when you are trying to sell through a sales page, rather than a sales call, is that in a sales call, you have that luxury of being able to tailor what you're saying to their specific situation. You don't have that on the sales page. So what you've got there needs to immediately be obvious to them that this is for them. And that means I'm afraid you're going to have to get specific. there needs to be no doubt in their mind that what you've got is for them specifically. So if you are saying what it could be for you, if you're this or you're that, or this situation or that situation, every time you add an"or" that is taking away from the impact of that first statement. Um, for example, if you are a running coach, I often go for the examples of running coaches, because writing is my hobby. But, if you are a running coach and you have a training program to help people get faster. 10 K times. Um, then you might want to think about in this instance, how experienced or runners are, for example, if you said, This is for you. If you've competed the couch to 5k, and now you want to push your distance to 10 K and see how you get on. If you're a beginner runner. Brilliant. Fantastic. This is for me. I'm in. If you are a bit more experienced. No. I know that's not for me. I'm going to go and find something else. Great. But what, if you said you're a beginner runner who wants to stretch their distance to 10 K or you've done a few 10 Ks and you want to get a bit faster. Or. You are a marathon runner and you want to have a training period focused on getting faster, over short distances to improve your overall marathon time. Well with each of those"ors" our beginner runner. Is getting less and less likely to buy. But our mid mid range runner and our long distance runner. They're not really getting more likely to buy either because they're looking at that and go. There's going to be a load of beginners in there. And I don't need to sit through the advice that they're going to get. Cause. I already know that there's going to be a load of long distance runners in there. I'm not that that level I'm going to feel really intimidated if they're in the program too. I don't think this is for me. The long distance runners are looking at it going, oh, there's going to be loads of really basic advice. I already know this is going to waste my time. I'm going to go and find something that's tailored to marathon runners. So can you see with every single or every single caveat, every single time you add a different situation and it dilutes the message. So you will find you are a lot more successful at this strategy. If you can be specific on who it is for and what it is it's going to deliver. So, how do you do this? How do you get more specific? Well, I'd like you to look at the characteristics of your ideal client and figure out which ones of those are going to impact the way they experience the problem, the way they need the solution. But delivered the result they're trying to get. So those three things. The, um, the problem, the logistics of solving it and the solution that they are actually looking for, what characteristics of the person impact that for some, it might be their life stage. You know, if they have small children in the house, obviously their life is looking very different to if they're empty-nesters or they don't have a family yet or, you know, whatever it is. It might be their work situation. It might be, sometimes gender might be really important. Sometimes it will be totally irrelevant. It might be their values. You know, if. We're doing a nutrition program and you're planning to use meat in your menus. You don't want to be attracting vegans, for example. So have a little think about what characteristics are really, really important and make sure it's really clear in that sales page. Copy, who is for. So that's getting specific on who it's for. I also want you to be getting really specific on the problem you are solving for them. And when I say the problem you're solving for them, I mean less what the actual problem is. And more specifically, how does that show up for them? So the problem causes this situation and sharing those situations to show you how. Um, to show them that it's them that you have in mind. I'm going to give you a couple of examples that I see when I'm conducting offer audits for clients all the time. The first one is the use of the word overwhelmed. Now, this is a bit of a bugbear of mine because overwhelmed, I mean, who isn't overwhelmed at least sometimes. It doesn't really mean anything though. I mean, I can be overwhelmed, but then if someone says to me, oh, you're an overwhelmed business owner. I'd be like, well, No, I kind of, I feel like I should have enough time for everything I've got to do. So. Yeah, no, it's probably not for me. Whereas like in the next moment I might be sitting there with 20. Um, 20 things on my to do there's no idea which one to start. Um, I'm halfway through one thing whilst also trying to watch a web class about another thing. What also try remembering, I've got to reply to that message and I'm trying to do three or four things at once and getting to the end of the day and not feeling like I've made any progress. Now, if you describe it like that. I mean, I'm not saying I'm like that, obviously that is not how I run my business. Um, but, um, if you describe it like that, more people are going to say, oh, actually that is what my days feel like. Um, so that is going to have far, far more power than the word overwhelmed. Um, similarly with like, we're going to talking about the results you can get. Don't say you're going to empower people. We don't say, you're going to give them clarity. Giving people clarity is ironically not very clear. We can't picture what it's like to have clarity, but what you can say is, um, we're going to make sure you're always really clear on what the next actions you need to take are, so you spend your days doing things that are actually going to move your business forward rather than having a list so long that you don't start anything can get lost scrolling Facebook. You know, that sort of thing. That is a lot clearer than just, we're going to give you clarity on what tasks you should be doing. So a big part of what I do with my clients is helping them find that specificity, it, helping them get that detail and how it actually applies to their client's lived experiences because people need to see their lived experience reflected back at them off the page. Um, so that they can identify that. Yes, actually this offer is exactly for me. They understand me, they know what I've got going. They know what's going on for me. And therefore it's likely that in their solution, they have taken this into account and found something that was so for me, when you're on a sales call, having that conversation, one to one that is very easy to show how well you understand it. But when you're having to write a sales page. You have to preempt that information. You have to already know that about them, and that's why it's so, so important to be really, really clear on, um, understanding what's going on for your ideal client. Okay. So that was number one that was about getting really specific. The second thing to consider. If you're trying to sell through a sales page, instead of through a sales call, is that. On a sales call. You can deal with any objections, hesitations doubts questions as they come up. And that puts you in a really powerful position because the people can say the person you're talking to, you can say why they're hesitating. And you can tell them either why that's not a problem. They need to worry about. Y, yes, that is a problem, but this is how we can work around it. Or three, actually. Yes, that is quite a big problem. And you're not a fit for the program. If someone's reading a sales page and they have these hesitations questions doubts. And they're not answered anywhere on that sales page. They're going straight to option three. I don't think this is a fit for me. Because if there's that element of doubt, then it's very, very hard for them to justify parting with their money. They don't feel as safe. Partying with their money. If they have questions, if they have doubts. So, if you want to sell without having to do sales calls, you have to already know what the most common. Um, questions, objections, doubts people have are, and then you have to pre-empt that and deal with that in your sales page. Um, I talked about this. In some, at some length in episode, one of this. This podcast, which was called why perfect people were still not buying. But essentially it's looking at things like, they've tried something that sounds similar before, and it's not worked. So why is this going to work? Um, it doesn't sound like anything new. They, um, don't think they're going to have the time to implement it. They, um, Don't think they have the ability or the skill to implement it. They are worried about what other people are going to think if they invest in this, like, this happens a lot for parent coaches, people think, well, I should know how to parent my child. Why do I have to go and learn it? But you know, obviously that is not necessarily the case. So, um, that's something that they need to get over. You know, I should already know how to do this. And what will others think if I'm having to pay two. Um, to learn it. There were so, so many things that can get in the way for ideal clients buying. And if they're not addressed on the sales page and you're not having a conversation where you can deal with that. Then it's very unlikely. They're going to buy, so you need to know exactly what's coming up for them. And, um, if you stick around at the end, I am going to give you a question that you can ask your audience today to learn more about this so that you can start to build that into your sales pages. And make sure that you don't fall down at this step. So stick around for that one. Number three. The third thing to consider when you are trying to sell through a sales page instead of on a sales call. Is that on a sales call, you have the chance to build a bit of rapport with a person, a bit of a relationship. You see what they're like, they see what you're like. And you know, you kind of know if you're going to get along. Someone sitting at the other end of a sales page, doesn't necessarily get that from you. So. It's very hard to buy from someone if you don't know that you are going to vibe with them, that you're going to get their personality, that you're going to really click with them. So there are a couple of things that you can be doing on your sales page to help, um, to help with this. The first one and the best one in my view is to have a video sales letter at the top. So just record, it only has to be short. It doesn't have to be the whole content of your sales page. Just a short video of the top of you talking to camera. Um, just chatting about the program, how excited you are to see them. They're considering it, um, list off, you know, Uh, overview of what it is. Um, if you, like, you can go the whole shebang and have a 20 minute, you know, sales pitch in your, in your video. But, um, whatever you feel comfortable with. If they can see you on camera, they can see you talking. They can get a feel for what you're like and who you are. Uh, that is going to be a really good selling point for the right people. And also equally, it's going to put off the people who are going to really, really hate your course, because it turns out actually they don't click with you at all because you don't want them on the course. They're going to bring you down. Also making sure that you Infuse your personality throughout the page, whether that's through your branding through the way you are writing your copy. So write it in the same way that you would speak so they can hear your voice coming through. Um, it's advisable on most sales pages have a little section that's just about you. Um, so getting your story in there, putting a bit of your personality into that as well, make the sort of jokes you would make in normal life. Use the sort of words you would use normal life. I've just give a flavor of you in the sales page. So people know what they're buying into and feel confident stepping into it. They know what they're going to be getting, and that they're going to click with you. So that's adding personality to your sales page. Of course alongside this. If you are putting out regular content where they're seeing you on video, they're hearing you talk in your emails. They are reading your content and things like that. Nurturing your audience. Then they will already know this about your personality. So it's really, really important to make sure that you are regularly showing up. Um, serving your audience, putting out content, emailing them, et cetera, et cetera. So they get to know you, um, which then takes away this barrier when it comes to the sales page. The fourth thing to think about when you're selling through a sales page instead of a sales call. And this is, um, this one's a little bit different from the other three. It can feel like more of a risk to people to be buying through a sales page rather than on a sales call, especially if they don't know you that well, especially if they are quite new to your audience, maybe they've just found you through an ad. Maybe your realist just popped up in their feed and they've clicked through to see more about you. And they've got, you've got something that they think that sounds brilliant. That sounds perfect for me. Because you've done steps one, two, and three properly. But they, like, I still don't really know this person. Are they a legitimate business? Are they. You know, do they, is their product as good as their marketing, do they follow through on their promises? If. People. Are delaying that buying decision to get to know you better. Not because the offer is not perfect, but just because they're not quite sure they know you well enough yet something that can take them. Over the line and take and give them the confidence to take that last step is some incredible guarantee. Take that risk away. This could be, um, it depends on what the product is. This could be a, um, Money back guarantee like for the first 14 days or something like that. Um, if you've got a prerecorded course or even have liked it, if, of course you could say, okay, if after module one, you are not happy. If you let me know before module two gets released, then I will refund your money. I've seen people use the pay half. Now pay the other half when you've made your investment back. I've seen people use, um, pay a dollar now and only pay the rest after the workshop. If you liked it. Um, that's one I got from, um, Kennedy of email marketing heroes, which, um, it's an interesting idea, actually. So you basically build them a dollar up front, so you've got their card details and then two days after the workshop, that's when you charge their cars. And if in that time they cut back and say, oh yeah, I watched the workshop. But it was loaded, rubbish. It wasn't for me. Um, they, you know, you give them the money back or you don't, you cancel the payment, you don't charge the card. So, um, You know, these are all, these are all different ways of just giving them a little bit of reassurance that. If it turns out you're not who you say you are. If it turns out this is not what they expect it to be. They can get their money back. Now, if you have done the first three things that I talked about today and you've done them well. They should not be an issue at all. Okay. But it just gives people that confidence. You are, it's very, very rare that you're going to get anyone actually asking for the refund, but the fact that they can. Is enough for people just to take them over the line, especially if they don't know you that well, because obviously when you're nine and you come across someone online, you don't know if it's a genuine business or not. How many times have you clicked on a Facebook ad? And you've been like, well, this looks too good to be true. Is this an actual thing? And then you find the products being sold by 10 Etsy sellers and a multiple times on Amazon and the price ranges from like 20 pounds to a hundred pounds for this one. Necklace or whatever, you know, it's. You don't know people online. Or who they say they are. So it just gives people that little, extra bit of confidence that it's going to be safe, them investing in you., Obviously, if you want to sell through a sales page and not do sales calls. The most important thing out of all of that is going to be the offer. It's got to be something they actually want it actually need. And. To help you with that. I've got an amazing free resource that I'd like to share with you. Now it's called three techniques to validate your offer before you launch it. Um, although side note, it does also work if you've already launched the offer and just want to find out where the holes are in the messaging and how you can tighten it up a bit more. This is three exercises that you can do straight away. You can have the first one up and running within five minutes of downloading the, uh, the guide. Um, questions to ask your audience to get feedback on whether they need the offer, whether they want the offer. And what might stop them from buying the offer. So, um, these are really, really powerful questions that give you the information you need to know to make sure that your offer is going to be something that actually people wants to buy, because that makes selling it a whole lot easier. So, if you want to go into your launch, confident your offer is going to sell and not just guessing then hoping then, um, you can download that now. It's at www.orangesheepresearch.co.uk validate that's orange sheep research.co.uk validate. So go and grab your copy now. And I promised you that at the end, I will give you a question that you could ask your audience today. So that's your content sorted for today. If you go and do this right now, Um, Go and ask your audience this question, and it will help you understand. One of the reasons that they might be holding back from investing and. It will help you understand how you need to differentiate yourself from the other things that are out there. Um, to give them the confidence that your thing, your solution is going to work. And it is this. What have you tried to help you achieve the outcome they want to achieve or solve the problem. That can quite frankly go in the bin. So, for example, What have you tried to help you lose weight which can quite frankly go in the bin? What have you tried to help you um, make more sales of your offers that can quite frankly go in the bin? And this will help you understand any solutions. They've tried that. They have not liked. They haven't worked for them. It's involved something they didn't want to do. Um, et cetera, et cetera. And they can tell you, then you can follow up with what was it about that you didn't like? What was rubbish? And things like that. And then you can make sure that when you write your sales page, They know that your offer isn't going to be any of those things. So I'm going to ask that to your audience today. And tag me when you do@orangesheepkatie, on Instagram, you can tag me on Facebook. Um, obviously Katie Spreadbury, but, facebook.com/orangesheepkatie that's where you will find my profile, um, or come and share it in my Facebook group, the upside up marketing movement. I'd love to see you in there. Um, all things about the podcast. Um, and yeah, I'd love to know how you get on, so come and share it in there. Uh, that's been fantastic talking to you this week. Uh, don't forget to keep your marketing upside up and always see you next time.