Getting Clear on Your Sales Strategy

by carolineleon | Apr 26, 2019 | Selling, Strategy

“Communication is merely an exchange of information, but connection is an exchange of our humanity.”

~ Sean Stephenson

I share lots of different strategies in my blog posts and weekly letters but in this post I want to focus in on getting clear on and really defining your sales strategy, which is, if you think about it, one of the most important business strategies you’ll ever implement. Because without sales there is no business.

So before we dive in, take a moment and feel into your answer to this question:

What is your sales strategy?

Take a moment. Really think about it. What strategy do you employ in your business to get a steady flow of sales?

If this question sees you umming and ahhing then I encourage you to read on.

First of all, there is no shame in not having a clear answer to this question and if you do, I applaud you and would love you to head to the comments now and share your strategy with us. But for those of you that don’t have a crystal clear answer at hand. I get it. With so much competing advice out there on the internet about how to build and grow a successful business, what I see most often is this.

Overwhelmed business owners trying to do all of the things and wondering why nothing is working.

Trying to blog, do newsletters, sales funnels, welcome sequences, Instagram stories, Facebook advertising, free challenges, webinars, podcasts, free sessions, freebie opt-ins, networking and, and, and!

The problem with this is that when we fail to go deep on any one strategy, we fail to achieve mastery and we therefore don’t see the results we’re hoping for. My recommendation for you here is to spend some time seriously contemplating what your sales strategy could be. What strategy you’ll invest your time, energy and focused attention on, consistently.

Your final sales strategy might be a combination of steps but it must be a departure from your current habit of throwing things at the wall in the hope that something will stick. It’s also advisable that you choose something that you feel you can commit to over the long haul. Strategies only work if a) they are sound (i.e. fit for purpose) and b) we apply them consistently over time.

I can’t tell you how many times someone has said, in response to a suggested strategy, “oh yeah I tried that and it didn’t work” and on further investigation, it becomes clear that “tried” meant did it two or three times. It takes time to see results, it’s important that you give adequate time and effort to whatever strategy you choose before jumping on to the next new shiny thing.

What makes a good sales strategy?

A good sales strategy has the following components:

It should cultivate meaningful connection with your right-fit people.
It should contain systems or processes that effectively filter out those people who aren’t a fit.
It must regularly and consistently expose you to new people who fit your ideal client profile.
It has to have you make a connection with those new people and then take them on a journey to better know, like and trust you.
It has to support those people to make an empowered (rather than manipulated) decision about whether to buy from you or not.
It has to be something that you can do consistently that can therefore produce consistent results.
It should be clear and relatively simple to execute.
It should feel good to your soul.

One of the best ways to get an insight into the most effective sales strategy for you is to analyse how you’ve made sales in the past. When we can get clear on that and then refine what we know has worked for us in the past to make it replicable and consistent, we’re that much closer to finding a strategy we can rely on.

The problem I see with much of the advice about sales strategy on the Internet is that it feels manipulative and contrived and leaves little room for cultivating meaningful connection and deepening relationships with our audience. We’re encouraged to set up complicated and automated sales funnels that automates our audience through a series of steps that ultimately seeks to convince them to buy from us at the end (often called the squeeze!). Whether it’s in their best interest to or not.

I don’t advocate this. I advocate sales strategies that are rooted in integrity and that cultivate true connection and serve our people powerfully whether they choose to buy from us or not. I fully support putting the person before the sale.

An example of a conscious sales strategy

In a nutshell my current sales strategy is: to connect with more of my right-fit people and then serve them so powerfully that they want to go deeper with me.

What this looks like on a more practical level is as follows:

Create meaningful and consistent content that expresses my business point of view and shares a more conscious approach to business growth.
Share that content widely and frequently. (I’m currently doing, and highly recommend, this course to learn how to increase my reach even further).
Connect with the people who engage with that content (my right-fit people) and looks for ways to serve and be of value to those people. AND also practice authentic outreach.
Where appropriate and/or once a deeper relationship has been established, invite people to have a complimentary coaching session with me.
On those sessions, do everything I can to serve the person in front of me powerfully.

Then one of two things will happen.

They will ask me what it looks like to work with me, in which case I will set up a separate call to discuss that (I make sure not to squeeze that conversation into the last 5 minutes of a coaching call) or
They won’t ask me. If the latter happens and I didn’t feel a connection, I’ll wish them all the best and end the call. But if I know that the coaching had an impact and they benefited from the call (they will tell me if it did), then I might ask them to leave a testimonial on my Facebook page or I might ask them if they know someone who might benefit from having a similar call or if I feel exited to, I might offer them a second complimentary session.

I can’t tell you how many people have hired me months or years after a receiving one or more complimentary coaching sessions from me. Whichever way it goes, I always make sure that I keep in touch with the people who I felt a connection with, sometimes they become friends, sometimes they become collaborators, sometimes they refer clients to me and sometimes they become clients. Whatever type of connection is made, I do my best to deepen it over time.

And essentially that’s it. I don’t have anything more complicated than that, I make connections, I try to serve powerfully and I trust that if we’re a fit then we’ll work together, maybe not right away but at some point. I should add that I do also make sure that I remind myself to regularly let my audience know what my offerings are. Scheduling my content helps with this because I can make sure for every 8-9 pieces of free content I put out, I can share something about a paid offering. Nothing pushy or salesy, just a transparent and authentic post about how people can go deeper with me.

If you are keen to create your own sales strategy with a view to achieving a steady and consistent flow of new business in a way that feels good to the soul and you want to go deeper with me on the topic, simply drop me a line at caroline@carolineleon.com and I’ll do what I can to support you.

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Five ways to get more consistent in your business

by carolineleon | Apr 19, 2019 | Strategy

“Consistency is the true foundation of trust. Either keep your promises or do not make them.”

~ Roy T. Bennett

I’m pretty sure that you’ve already heard (several times probably) just how important consistency is in your business. Just how necessary it is to show up in people’s inboxes and news feeds on a regular and consistent basis. You may even be convinced of the arguments for consistency, but try as you might, you still struggle to achieve a consistent level of output in your work. I’m here to tell you that you’re not alone. This is the number one thing I see most business owners struggling with.

The majority of small businesses owners fail to show up consistently in their business whether that’s taking consistent actions aligned with the achievement of business goals or producing content on a regular basis (choosing instead to show up whenever they feel a flash of inspiration). This is all every well for a hobby but if you want to create a successful business that works and provides you with consistent income, you have to become consistent in how you show up for your business. In my experience there is a clear link between the consistency of your output and the consistency of your income.

It’s for this reason that in this post, I want to share five ways I’ve learned to get more consistent in business. But before we get to that, let’s just look at why consistency is so important. People buy from people they know, like and trust. When we operate with consistency, whether that’s in our content creation or our outreach efforts, it allows more people to know us and it allows the people who do know us to like and trust us more.

Put another way, when it comes to your audience, consistency equates to trustworthiness (doing what you said you would do) and reliability (allowing people to rely on you). If we consider the other side of this, when we show up inconsistently, our audience is much more likely to wonder if we are for real. If we can be trusted and if we are reliable enough to invest in.

Understand your resistance to consistency

This is a big one. As a Business Coach, I’ve seen first hand just how much resistance comes up when I bring up the topic of consistency to business owners and I get it, it often requires a greater commitment, more courage and a dedication to our work that we haven’t managed to muster previously.

Understanding why you feel resistance is crucial and might require that you reframe what being consistent means to you.

For example, perhaps currently you see it as something that threatens your creativity. If I force myself to write on a schedule, my words don’t flow and my work suffers. What if instead you saw consistent content creation as a way to master your craft and improve your work and your ability to focus (with the added benefit of deepening the relationship you have with your audience)? Perhaps you see it as a threat to your freedom. If I have to show up consistently I forfeit the freedom to do what I want on any given day. What if instead you saw consistency as a route to even greater freedom? Once a habit in formed, the effort required to do the work is far less. Suddenly writing a weekly newsletter feels simple and fun, rather than laborious and painstaking.

Is there another way to look at consistency that doesn’t leave you feeling constricted and trapped?

Pick one thing to be super consistent with

Where many people fail here is trying to be consistent across the board in their business. They have a list of things that they are trying to be consistent in all at the same time. Newsletter writing, publishing blog posts, writing daily social media posts (across multiple channels!), recording weekly videos and, and, and…you get the idea!

My suggestion here, is that you take one thing, work at getting consistent at that one thing and once you have a pretty well established habit, move onto the next thing. Let me share how this plays out in my business. At the start of this year I set myself several content creation goals, including sending weekly newsletters and publishing weekly blog posts. I knew that, for me, getting into a consistent rhythm with both at the same time was going to be tricky given how busy I am so I decided to focus on one thing. My number one priority up until last month was to never miss sending out my weekly newsletter (so far so good!). Once I felt that this had become completely integrated into my weekly routine, I decided it was time to get consistent with my blog post writing, which led to my decision to do a 30-day challenge, in which I would write 30 posts in 30 days (in case you’re wondering this is post 19 of that 30). After this challenge, I know that writing one post a week will feel like a breeze! And once I achieve a level of consistency in that, I’ll move on to another of my priorities, consistent outreach.

The key is to focus. Pick one thing and work on getting consistent with that until it becomes part of your daily or weekly routine.

Publicly state your commitment

I use this strategy often in my business and that is to publicly share my goals and commitments with colleagues, peers, clients and audience members, so that when I sit down at my desk and the resistance to do what I said I would inevitably arises, I remember just how many people I’ve shared my goal with and it encourages me to get over my niggly self doubts and get the job done.

This is precisely what I did with this content creation challenge and I can promise you, if there weren’t so many people aware of the challenge or involved in it, I’m fairly certain I would have missed a day or two by now. On the days it’s felt the hardest to write (today just so happens to be one of those days), I remember how many people I might inspire, help or reach if I follow through with my goal.

Put it on your calendar

At the beginning of every year, I get out my Business Planner and set my strategic priorities for my business. My two main priorities for 2019 are content creation and outreach. Both of these have recurring slots on my daily calendar. Every morning between 9-10.30am, I have content creation scheduled in my calendar. Most afternoons, between 5-6.30pm, I have a spot reserved for coaching/outreach, that is if I don’t have coaching calls book, that time is to be used to reach out and connect with people.

I recognised at the end of last year that if I wanted to take my business to the next level, I needed to get far more consistent at these two things and that’s why they each have a prominent, recurring slot on my calendar. I’d like you consider what the most important thing for you to get consistent at in your business is? Then ask yourself is that adequately reflected in your calendar?

Don’t break the chain

Jerry Seinfeld, one of the most prolific comedy writers of our time, attributes his global success to the fact that he would write every day using a technique that has become known as the Don’t Break The Chain technique.

At the beginning of each year Seinfeld would hang a large year-at-a-glance calendar above his desk and for every day that he successfully sat down and wrote, he would mark that day on the calendar with a big red X. Before long he would have a chain of Xs and the goal would become to not break break the chain. I’ve found you don’t need to have a calendar for this. I know, for example, that I haven’t missed a weekly letter so far this year or a daily blog post this month, I don’t need to see a string of Xs to know that I don’t want to break that chain.

The truth is that consistency requires practice and patience. You need time for a habit to becomes so ingrained that it no longer requires so much effort from you. But I swear it gets easier. After my first week of blog posts, I couldn’t even begin to imagine how I could write another 23, the effort it had taken to write 7 felt gargantuan. Yet here I am at post 19, with a deep knowing that I’ll achieve my goal. Is it still hard work to write every day? Sure! But having done so for 19 days in a row, it’s also now feels normal, it’s a part of my every day.

So how about you, where in your business would it serve you and your clients/audience is you showed up more consistently?

It doesn’t have to be content creation (although I would argue this should be a priority), it might be consistently reaching out to people, or consistently working on your business. If you feel called to let me know what it is for you, just drop me a line in the comments below.

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Are These Two Things Aligned in Your Business?

by carolineleon | Apr 13, 2019 | Strategy

“The essence of strategy is choosing what not to do.”

~ Michael Porter

In this post, I want to discuss the importance of alignment with you. It’s a topic that comes up often in coaching sessions and one that I feel deserves a closer look. I’d love you to take a moment now to consider if these two things are aligned for you in your business.

1. What you are trying to achieve – the desired result.

and

2. The methods or strategy you are employing to achieve it.

I see it often, I’m in a coaching session with someone and in one breathe they share with me something that they deeply desire for their business and in the next they reveal actions they are taking that, at best won’t have any positive impact on their ability to achieve their desire, and at worst will take them in the opposite direction.

An example:

Desire: I want to build an online business so I can run my business from anywhere.

Action: I spend a lot of time going to local networking events.

Can you see how these two are not completely aligned? Creating local contacts is not necessarily going to support you to build an online business. It may not do any harm but it’s probably a waste of time if what you really desire is to work with people online.

A better action would be doing work online that increases your visibility and expands your reach online. Actions such as creating valuable content and sharing it on social media or reaching out to people online to create deeper connections.

Another example:

Desire: I want to create more clients.

Action: I spend countless hours working on my website copy.

Similar to the first example, the action is not really aligned to the desire. Sure, lots of web designers and brand strategists will tell you that having a beautifully designed and fully optimised website is the way to get more clients but I’m here to tell you that for conscious, service-based businesses like ours, it’s rare that our clients are created because of a website.

A better action would be to reach out to all of your former clients and ask if they know anyone who could benefit from your services and if so, would they be willing to put you in touch (also known as referral marketing which you can read about more in this post). Then show up and give be of service to those people, coach them, offer them a complimentary session, get on a call to find out how you can help them. Trust me, an hour doing this is far more impactful than an hour of tweaking your web copy or design.

The problem here is that we don’t always know if the action we are taking is completely aligned with the goals we have set for ourself but if we don’t, at least, place our conscious attention on trying to figure this out, we’re potentially missing a trick.

So let me ask you this:

Are the actions you’re planning to take today (or this week, month or year) going to move you significantly closer to the thing you desire?

If the answer is anything less than an affirmative yes, then I would encourage you to spend some time today thinking about what actions might be more closely aligned with getting you closer to the achievement of your goals.

I share this because I don’t want to see you wasting your time on actions that don’t 100% support you to achieve your goals and desires. If you’re struggling to know what the most aligned strategy or action to take is, you may want to have a read of another post I wrote titled: The Most Important Action Many New Business Owners Fail to Take.

In my experience, more often than not, fear of taking the appropriate (often more vulnerable and brave) action is behind the misalignment between strategy and goal. Sometimes, we take the actions that we feel comfortable taking and avoid the ones that will really move the needle forward. Ask yourself if the reason you are tinkering on your website rather than getting out and connecting with people is because the latter feels more scary to you? This in itself could be a very eye opening exercise.

Be sure to let me know what comes up for you as you consider this question of alignment. Can you see places where you might be out of alignment when it comes to the activities you are engaging with or do you feel pretty confident that the way you spend your time in your business is what will bring the results you desire? I’d love to know either way, so do share in the comments below.

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My 2019 Strategic Business Plan Laid Out

by carolineleon | Jan 22, 2019 | Planning, Strategy

When it comes to my business plan, I’m super mindful not to fall down the trap of simply setting an unmanageable set of goals, in fact what I’ve spent the last few years refining, is a more strategic approach to my business planning, which allows me to focus specifically on the goals that support my overall business aims and that details how exactly I plan to achieve those goals.

To begin (after reviewing 2018), I identify what my overall business aim for the forthcoming year is and I try to answer the question:

What is it that I really need my business to do in 2019?

For me the answer to that question and my overall business aim for 2019 is:

To create regular, predictable and sustainable income from my business that covers all of my financial needs.

With this in mind, I then set about identifying the three priority areas, I believe I should focus on, in order to achieve this overall aim. I call these my strategic priorities and for 2019, these are:

Content (to create and disseminate more content in order to share my expertise, grow my audience and serve more people)
Outreach (to be more organised in my outreach activities so as to serve and connect with more people)
Revenue (and to increase overall revenue, both active and passive)

Next I think about which goals it makes sense for me to set under each of these priorities and then under each goal I write out the system(s) I will put in place to achieve it (hat tip to George Kao for the idea of creating systems to support goals). Then I schedule time in my calendar to implement the system. See below for an example:

The strategic priority is: Content

The goal is: Follow a regular and consistent schedule of creating and sharing content with my audience

And one of the systems under this goal is: To write one new blog post every week.

For details of my full plan, including my three strategic priorities, the goals that sit under each and the systems I will follow to achieve these goals, keep reading.