Hello, everyone, and welcome to Episode 42. So I've been seeing a bunch of really yucky sales tactics lately. And I kind of want to get on here today and talk about it. And sales in general, I think that is the most dreaded thing in business owners minds is this yucky sales thing, they're gonna have to go and sell things and they don't like it. And it feels gross. And I think that there are lots and lots of people out there that do yucky sales tactics, but you don't have to. And it really is all about what kind of business you want to have and how you want to be as a person. So you can tell sometimes when there's a new coach teaching something, there's like a new way that somebody is teaching something because all of a sudden you see it everywhere. You'll see someone posting in Facebook groups, and they all post the same way. If you are interested in this, click here or comment below, or all these kinds of things that are like a provocative thing to like, get people to talk about it. And it doesn't feel organic, it feels like a whole bunch of people are doing it. Somebody must be teaching this as a sales tactic, right? And then LinkedIn right now I'm getting a ton of messages about getting a 30 minute call. All of them no 20 minute calls, just 30 minute calls. They give me two lines of you know, I'm a bookkeeper, I am a sales person, I'm an IT person, and then they want to get on a 30 minute call. And that's a pretty common thing, right? You want to get people on call. So you can talk about what you have and how you can help them. But the fact that like, I've got a bunch of them a bunch, and they're all exactly the same way. It's like a template kind of says that somebody must be teaching this. And there's lots of people out there you can learn from on sale, some of them are very yucky. Some are let's, you know, trick people into giving us their money. And then there are others that are just getting you to understand like how things work and what a funnel is, and all that. And I think there's a difference there.

So I wanted to talk about that today. Because that idea of sales can be so scary, right? Like you imagine going door to door as an encyclopedia salesman or something. You don't want to feel like you are scamming somebody. That's the way sales those kind of presented in a lot of people's heads. Were gonna get their money. It's kind of like, Well, I mean, I come from Wall Street. So that's exactly how it is in my head. And I feel very weird and yucky about it. I wasn't a salesman on Wall Street, I was the operations person on a brokerage team. The boys would go out and sell things, basically. And I would stay home and make sure all the trades were done. And the money was where it was supposed to be in the paperwork. Right. I never wanted to be a salesman, because it seemed so like hitting the pavement, talking to Mitch, people, like it just seemed yucky. And then when I got here, I had to bring in money. But I have found that I'm so resistant to that kind of sales pitch thing. And what has worked for me is setting myself up for the long game. Getting visible, telling people how I can help them. That's it. I do this really awesome thing. I'm going to tell you about it, if you want it fantastic if you don't, okay. That's my whole sales pitch. That's my whole game. So putting out really, really good content is huge. And I don't mean putting out a post on Facebook every day or putting out an email every day. But I don't mean spamming the hell out of people.

There are people I get emails from oh my god at least once a day, if not twice a day. Now if you're in the middle of something, if you're in the middle of a launch, I get it. But that kind of like inbox pressure for every day all year is too much for me, personally, I see myself as a consumer. So I try to realize how I'm responding to other people's sales tactics, and whether I like what they're doing or not and then that kind of fills in what I want to do. Putting out really good content. I don't want to see 55 paid Facebook posts a day. I don't want an email every day. I do not I usually unsubscribe if that's the if that's the deal. But putting out good content. Someone I'm on their list and they basically sent an email and said you know what, I've This ridiculous pressure to put all these emails out, I think they're just becoming white noise to everyone. I'm only gonna put out something when I really want to talk about it. And I was like, Yes, that's fantastic. It's against everything they tell you to do, they tell you to get in front of your client all the time, all the time, all the time. But this person, her emails come through, I know, there's something great in there. So being consistent is great, but don't do it. If it's just fluff, if you're just putting a post up to put a post up, and I know that there's some marketer out there who's gonna yell about this, but this is what I respond to. So maybe it's just me, but I buy a bunch of stuff. So putting that content out there. Why? Because you're showing them who you are.

Pick the content that works best for you. I don't read blogs. Do you know why? Because there's three blog posts, I started like four years ago that have never been finished, I do not have the brain bandwidth at the end of the day, or whatever it is, my brain doesn't want to work around getting blog posts out, I want them to be perfect, I'm going to revise them 1000 times. It's not a process that will ever be enjoyable. I like podcasting. I could talk forever. These are all long. And then they get edited down because I talked to you much. I picked podcasting, which at first would seem crazy, but ended up working really well for me, I can do an outline, I can talk about what I'm thinking I can get in front of people, they also hear my voice. They hear who I am, how I act, how I show up. And that has been a huge thing to get visible. I have clients that come in, or leads that come in and say, Hey, I heard your podcast, you sound like a person I want to work with. Now I bet there's a whole bunch of other people out there who've listened to the podcast and go, Oh, Jesus, she's a lot. I don't want to work with her. That's great. Because if we're not going to be compatible, then we just skipped a whole bunch a whole bunch of time figuring out if you're compatible, right. So getting that content out about who you are, and the way you work and what you do, then people can say, Oh my gosh, she sounds like a person that I want to work with. And then looking for opportunities to get in front of the people that you want to work with. So I have been on other people's podcasts, that's been a huge help. People come to my website, they check out what I'm doing. They hear me talk, they hear what I have to say what I offer things like that. And that's a great way to get in front of someone else's audience that you think might like what you do, or might want to buy what you have, because you can help them above all, my whole mo on this is to show people how you can help them. It is not to try to scam through a thing. I try to show them how I can help them and how I cannot help them. And then over deliver. So if someone comes to me, I had a discovery call the other came to me and said I need help launching a course. And I said ha, I don't do that. I'm gonna tell you right up front, I'm not the person for this. But as you get down the line, I might be able to help you with something else telling her and being honest right away, not trying to sell her into something that she doesn't need. Because I don't want to do that work. Telling her honestly, that I was not the right person and that she needed something else. And I explained exactly what she needed and where to look for it. And then one day she'll need, maybe she'll need what I am offering, maybe she needs a strategic planning session. Maybe she needs her systems built out better. But right now, that's not what she needs. In the next three months. It's not what she needs. But down the line, she will come back and say hi, I remember you I remember you being honest and upfront. And now I need what you have. And that is the long game. being visible, showing people what you can do. And then letting them come to you. And that is very uncomfortable for most people. It's uncomfortable to have that kind of long game where you're never sure where people are gonna come from. Right. It's a very different thing than running Facebook ads, having a funnel being able to track like click through rates and all that. And that is another part of the marketing that will happen at some point for me. Because of the kind of work that I will probably end up changing around. But right now that's not me. I am a lot of word of mouth, and a lot of visibility, just telling people all the good things I can do. And remember, this is a small small world business. It's crazy, especially with social media, your reputation is really important. You leave awake wherever you go.

So treating people badly and selling them something and not showing up for it, or overcharging and not delivering, having things that you sell that they're dated or they're crappy, but you're charging so much money for and you sell this thing. It's shady, you don't deliver. People remember that and people talk. And I'm not talking about like, the Yelp reviews, I'm just saying like in communities, there's, like, I have a lot of peers, we discuss things. Oh, that course was great. That one oh really wasn't worth the money. People hear that it gets around. And that is the opposite of what you want. You want a good reputation, you want a reputation, someone who over delivers, who gets the job done, who was right there. That is how you build out those kind of referral partners without having to sell quote, unquote, all the yucky sales tactics, that mass emails to everyone the cold, cold calling, there's one thing if you say, Oh, my God would love to work with that person, and you do some research on them. And you're like, they are my ideal client. And I think that they could really use me, but they haven't found me yet. And you reach out to them and say, Hi, I'm so and so I offer this. And I really think that it would be great for you. That's different. That's targeting someone that you think would be great and need your services. That's great. And especially in the beginning, when you're building up your business, that's a great way to get clients blanket, emailing everyone on LinkedIn, not the best way to do it. Especially because you can hear that it's a template, you can hear that it's exact same thing. They've emailed everybody else on their list. And then you get the second one that says, hey, I don't know if you saw this email, but blah, blah, blah, blah. And then the next round of well, this is the last time I'm going to make this offer. It all seems just cheap and salesy. And I think we can do better than that. If someone reached out, there have been a couple people that reached out and obviously read through either my LinkedIn profile at the very least, or my website, and have come to me and said, Hey, I think I have someone that really could use their services. They are looking for strategic planning, or they're looking for systems help, or they want a director of operations. And I would like to refer you can you send me like, can you tell me about what you offer? That's at least like an engaging conversation. And there's lots of times where if that is the kind of thing I'm getting through, I will give that person the benefit of the doubt that they're not just trying to sell me something that they really want to have some kind of networking connection instead of just sell, sell, sell. And the funny thing is, I have actually gotten into some of those conversations where someone said, hey, I've got this info on a thing. I think it was like a local networking group. And I was like, Alright, sure. Can you sell? He's like, can I send you information? I said, Sure. That's great. And the next thing back, he did want to send me information he wanted me to get on that 30 minute call, they want to get an A 30 minute call. I get very weird about calls. I don't want to spend my time on a ton of calls. Because usually within five minutes, I know whether or not I want to deal with this person, and they're going to try to sell me for another 25 minutes. That's not the conversation I want to have when I asked for information. And he was like, get me get on the call and said it seemed icky. I felt like I was being trapped into this. And that's what I did. Like, I know sales can be a yucky topic, like I know that it makes people want to throw up. And it doesn't have to, I would love for you to focus on who you are. How do you want to show up?

If you're just the person who just wants to show up and talk about your stuff, and put up great content, people will find you and they will be engaged because they know that everything you put up is really useful. putting together all that content is overwhelming, right? You're like, I don't want to have to create all these graphics. I don't wanna have to create all this stuff. How am I ever going to get it all done? I'm gonna need someone to schedule it like, take it down a notch. Just start thinking about a couple different ideas. In the do, sir, we call them the pillars. They're the pillars of your content that you're going to talk about. I offer services around systems, finances, team management, Director of Operations, like the operation side of business, that's going to be my content, right? I'm not going to talk about car repair, because has nothing to do with me. That's I could talk about it on my personal stuff. But like, I'm talking about my car unless it relates back and once we like What is she talking about? Why is she talking about like transmissions. So sticking to kind of that idea of these are the things I offer. These are the things I'm really good at. These are the things I'm going to talk about. write those down, and then try to figure out some things that you can think about and talk about right off the top of your head. You know this stuff, and then just talk about it. So all I do here, I just talk about it. Maybe you never do a blog because you can't write things. That's me right? So what if you're, you just are big on Instagram, or on Facebook, or whatever that is, or maybe your people are in LinkedIn, finding where your people are, try to go there. And then just nicely talk about things, share information. And don't feel like you have to sell them into something. People will come to you because they realize that you're really good at what you do. And of course, they want to work with you. Show them that you're really good at what you do. And it's gonna feel braggy like, look at me, I got a new thing. But you can just talk about things like I talk about things here, like about sales tactics like today, or about systems or about getting your finances in shape. I talk about it all the time, because it's really important. People who need help with finance come to me now. And they're like, Kelly, my books are a mess. Can you can you? Can you help me with this? Yes. Especially in the beginning of the or when it's around tax time, we get lots of those calls. And it's friends of mine who have seen over the years that I posted about getting your finances together. And now they come in and they're like, Hey, can you help me fix this? Sure, sure we can. I've got one of the best bookkeepers on the luck, she'll fix all of it, it's gonna be great. That's the kind of business that I'm getting now. And it does take a little while, right. And you will have to reach out to other people if you don't have referrals if you're starting out right away. But try to build this so that you don't have to always be selling in that way that you don't like. Because I want you to make a ton of money and be really happy and not have to feel yucky all the time. Because why would we want to do that? Why would we want to create a business that we don't like? Show them you're good at it, show them whatever that is that you're good at, show them. Talk about it. People will start to hear and then you'll be the person that does the thing. And when anyone needs it, they'll find you. Alright guys, get out there. Put out some good content, tell people about your stuff. They'll find you. I'll talk to you next week.

Thanks for joining me this week on the Sink Handle podcast. I can't wait to do all of this again next week. Make sure to visit us and reynoldsobm.com for the show notes on anything we talked about today. If you love or you mostly like the show, please subscribe and rate us on iTunes so we can help more people avoid the Sink Handle.