SPEAKER_01 0:00

Welcome to Midlife Women Entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Lynette Turner, and today our core question is how do you invite people to buy from you without feeling pushy, cringy, or rejected? My guest, Nikki Rausch, CEO of SalesMaven, and the author of The Selling Staircase, is here with me today. And I can't wait for her to share all of her great insights and secrets. Nikki, welcome to the show. Give yourself a quick intro and tell us who you help and what you help them do.

SPEAKER_00 0:27

Thank you for having me. So my business, my company is Sales Maven. I'm a sales strategist and coach. And I teach people how to have more successful sales conversations. I teach the structure of selling.

SPEAKER_01 0:40

And you certainly do, because I had the pleasure of listening to your book on Audible, or actually it was on Spotify. And you're, it was just so good. It was actually, I just really enjoyed it. So we're going to get into all of that today. But before we go deeper, I want to set really sort of two quick anchors for our listeners so that they kind of know what we're talking about. So our first one is you are known for this dinner party reframe. And we talked about it on our pre-call, and I can't wait for you to share that. And second, you have this simple structure called the selling staircase, which is the audible that I was listening to. And so I want you to walk through both of them.

SPEAKER_00 1:19

Well, the dinner reframe really is this idea of your job as the seller is to invite people. So just like if you're going to have a dinner party, you send out invitations and you're not attached to whether or not people actually come, but you don't want to decide for people. And oftentimes as sellers, we decide who we're going to invite because we don't want to come off pushy or aggressive. But the thing is, is if you send out invitations and you exclude one of your friends because you think, well, they're probably not going to come or I think they're busy that weekend, they're going to feel left out, right? And nobody wants to feel left out. As a matter of fact, they'd rather feel like, well, I can decide for myself if I'm going to come or not come. And that's good. And just like with sales, your job is to issue invitations and let people tell you yes or no and not decide for them. So what I really want people to take away from that is to get out of your own way and get out of other people's way and just think about it as it's a conversation, it's an invitation. We don't have to feel offended if people can't make it and or if they're not interested in our offer, but we do need to invite them.

SPEAKER_01 2:29

Yeah, it's such a nice reframe. You know, when we were talking on the pre-call and you said that to me, I thought, who am I not to even put my offer out there for people to say yes or no? And that's really what you're saying. This invitation to this dinner party is come if you can. And if it doesn't work or if it's not right for you or whatever, then then don't. And it was just such a nice, yeah, that's such a nice way of thinking about it, you know, because we can get a little bit caught up. And it's kind of like we can self-sabotage before we even have that open for business sign out there. So I'm I'm definitely guilty of that one. Great. Okay, so the second one is the selling staircase. You are the author that's reading the audible. So that was nice too. I like when I listen to an audible and it's actually the author reading it. It's great. But I felt like you and I, you were just giving me a coaching session while I was going on my walks to get groceries and stuff like that. So it was really good. So give us a quick version of the five steps, like one line for each, so that we can hear the whole flow and then tell us why people get themselves into trouble when they skip certain steps.

SPEAKER_00 3:36

Yeah. Okay, so the selling staircase is my signature framework for a successful sales conversation. And the reason that I teach it as a staircase is because most of us understand that you ascend a staircase, a staircase one step at a time. You don't stand at the bottom and just hop up to the top step. And the same with sales, you don't just meet somebody and immediately go in for the sale, the clothes, right? So this is why I teach this five-step structure. And the five steps break down as this is step one, introduction. And the idea here is to make a powerful, positive first impression. Step two is to create curiosity. And if you don't know how to create curiosity in your business, you it's so hard to ever get to step three, four, or five. So learning how to create curiosity allows for the other person then to decide is this something they're interested in? And if so, they're often going to give you a buying signal. Step three in the selling staircase is what I call the discovery. This is what often people refer to as the consultation. This is where your job is to understand does this person have a need? Do I have a solution that meets that need? And do I have permission to put the offer in front of them? And you do that by asking really smart questions. And then once you understand those three things are in place, then you move to step four. That's proposal. And this is really where the traditional idea of selling comes in. This is where you're laying out your offer, and then you're working really closely with step five, which is the close. And this is this doesn't always mean we're exchanging dollars for services. What I mean here is that you're issuing close language. Step two, create curiosity, and step five are the most missed steps in the selling staircase. And so it's just really important that if you think, well, I'm not a natural-born salesperson, that's okay. Most of us aren't natural-born salespeople, but anybody can learn to sell successfully. And I believe that when you have a structure of something you can follow that isn't like say this and expect them to say that in return. And then you say this other thing, that feels very scripted. But a structure just gives you like the guardrails of like how to move one step at a time and get to the place where I now know, is this going to be a paying client or are am I going to bless and release and move on? So the idea really is to just give you more credibility and more confidence in that conversation so that we know where we're going and we get there quickly.

SPEAKER_01 6:06

Yeah. So your steps are what's building your confidence as well, because the more you understand that person's problem or need. You in the book, you were giving an example, I think, of you went and met somebody and she was going to give you a proposal and she brings out her laptop and starts typing like frantically, and you thought to yourself, oh my God, I wonder what she's doing. Talk a little bit about that example, because I think that's a great example, because that's a really good example of skipping the steps.

SPEAKER_00 6:33

Yeah. So what that was is somebody had encouraged me to connect with somebody that they thought would be a good connection. That's how the meeting was set up. So it was kind of a like get to know each other chat. And we were meeting at a coffee house and she showed up. She was late because of traffic. And she comes in and she sits down and doesn't like kind of says her name. And then she reaches down into her bag and she pulls out this ginormous laptop, like the one with the really big screen, and she sets it down on the table. Now, most of us know coffee house tables are usually fairly small. So I ended up having to like even pull my tea back a little bit to make room for this ginormous laptop. And she says, Okay, salesmaven, what year did you start? And then she starts, she just proceeds to like go through all these questions and she's asked me these questions. She's typing away. And at some point I just like looked around and like looked at the front of her laptop. And I said, So what are you typing? Because I was like, what is going on? And she goes, Oh, well, I am getting the information to put together a proposal for you. And I said, Really? On what? Because I didn't even know what she sold yet. Like she's putting together a proposal on something that one, I don't know what she's selling. I don't know if I have a need for it. And I certainly haven't expressed a need for it. So that's where I think a lot of times people kind of go off the rails is they make assumptions that I need to collect all this information from you so I can put together a proposal. But if I'm not even in the game, like I don't even know that, like, why do I want this proposal? And she just missed all these steps of like building rapport, creating curiosity. She just didn't do anything to set herself up for success. So when she sent the proposal, like I just kind of glanced at it and then I deleted it. And the it turned out that I actually probably could have used her services, but I was so put off by her approach, by her just like assuming that I was going to even review a proposal, much must buy something from her, without her even doing any of the work. It just felt so inauthentic. And and it just missed that. You know, for me, my my philosophy around sales is rapport always, relationship first. There has to be a relationship in there. There has to be this connection, this conversation. There needs to be permission given. Like I really don't think you should sell to somebody without having their permission. So just showing up in somebody's inbox or just throwing a proposal at somebody without them having even expressed interest. Just you're you're going from step one, really from step zero to step five. You've missed all these steps. And when you skip steps, you leave people feeling either, frankly, annoyed, offended, andor confused. And a confused mind, not why. Yeah, that's really good.

SPEAKER_01 9:29

What I was thinking there too is like, I agree, there was this sort of missed opportunity for her to share more about her offer, learn more about you, and then sort of be able to like connect the dots that way.

SPEAKER_00 9:41

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 9:41

But how do you, how do you get to a place where you're creating that connection, but you're not stalling the next step? Like sometimes we we can stay on a step because we feel really comfortable there.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

Yeah. Well, it's your job as the seller to know what step am I on and what does it take to move to the next step. And the truth of the matter is the way that you know whether or not we're ready to move to the next step is by issuing an invitation. So we talked about this at the beginning with the dinner party idea. The idea of issuing an invitation is the game changer because when you issue the invitation, the person will have a response. They'll say, yes, let's do that, or no, or I have a question, or they'll voice an objection. The idea, though, is that if you don't issue those invitations and you just like charge right through, they're not gonna go with you on that conversation. Like they'll be out of the conversation quickly andor confused by it. So issuing invitation is really kind of how you know, but understanding what step you're on is the key, crucial thing. Because if you think, I haven't created curiosity. So how can I possibly move to discovery? Now I do want to just add, if I may, just one little exception to the rule. Like, as the seller, you don't get to skip steps, but the buyer can show up on a higher step, and that's okay. You start with where they are and you move from there. I had a client one time say, like, I didn't understand that. And so I was, I kept taking people back to step one, like introduction and trying to make a powerful first impression. It's like, oh no, no, no. If they show up on step three and they're ready, they've indicated they have an interest, and we're just trying to find out do I have a solution that meets that need? And then do I have permission? You start on step three and then you move to step four and step five. So you start where the client or the prospect is, but you as the seller, you don't get to skip through the steps.

SPEAKER_01 11:41

Okay, that's that's really interesting because I was gonna talk a little bit more about skipping steps, but maybe we could use that example because what are your chances of closing that deal if and getting to the yes if the customer is already at step three? Is it because sometimes I feel like sometimes the the customer can jump to step three. Are there stats and have in your experience, have you ever kind of lost deals because you were you did start a different step because they were at a different step? Or yeah, did you weave back and forth?

SPEAKER_00 12:14

Yeah. So I love this question so much. I feel like this is a big answer. And so jump in here at any point. The the idea though is if the client shows up, the prospect shows up, and they're kind of on step three. One of the ways that you can kind of cover the ground without saying, like, hey, slow your roll. We need to like jump back and like build in some curiosity here, you actually can do that in step three by the questions that you ask. So I'm a big believer and I teach this a lot. The questions are the difference maker in earning someone's business. And so even if you feel like I need to prep them a little bit about who I am and what I do and what like what's possible for them. And you might think, oh, well, normally I would do some of that in step two of create curiosity. You can bring creating curiosity into step three by the way you ask questions. So instead of saying to somebody like, hey, slow your roll, I need to tell you a little bit about who I am and what I do. I actually teach, and I have a course on this, that the questions that you ask can plant those seeds and create curiosity and allow for the buyer, in this case, the prospect, to be like, oh, I didn't even know that I should be thinking about that, or like, oh, I didn't even know that, like, that's something that I could even utilize Lynette services for, or, you know, you can do that. So I always say there are two types of questions that you ask in your discovery. There's the right fit questions, and these are the like just really even understanding, does this person have a need? Like, do they have a budget? Do they have a time frame in mind? Like some of those basic sales questions. But the second are your expertise questions. These are the ones that instead of you feeling like, I need to perform, I need to impress this person, I need to like blow them away with my knowledge and my expertise, that you can do that. But instead of like being the monkey who dances in the performance, like, I'm the monkey, I'm supposed to dance here. No, your job is to balance out power in the conversation. And one of the ways you can balance out power is instead of being the monkey, which like gives the client all the power in the conversation, and you're trying to perform for them, you can ask really smart questions that balance out power that also lets them start to get a sense of like, oh my gosh, the questions that she's asking me are making me think about this in a deeper way and making me understand that I need this kind of expertise, or when I'm thinking about the person I'm gonna work with, that this is gonna be important. So your expertise questions can plant curiosity and create that like, yes, this is this is the person that's gonna help me solve my problem or meet my need.

SPEAKER_01 15:00

Yeah, no, that that's really good. And I like that because you're right, you're sort of adapting. You have a set of questions, you have some, I it sort of sounds like you're saying you've got you've kind of got two sets of questions. The first set is that discovery, are we a fit? Can this work? And then the second set is like drilling down and making sure your offer does fit what she he or she needs. Yeah. Yeah, so so that's good. So those those questions can be sprinkled throughout the conversation as they come up. You've got kind of got them in your back pocket. Yeah, because I I truly believe that that I feel like sometimes when it was too easy to get the sale, it felt easy for me to get the sale because I, you know, I did well, obviously I wasn't using a structure like yours, but um, you know, I I was using the structure, telling them all these different things. And then I thought, oh, that that felt easy. And then sure enough, we struggled to close the deal, uh, like to get the contract signed because I felt like we were skipping steps.

SPEAKER_00 16:00

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 16:00

And you were talking with that girl with the the large laptop, and you you said after, you know, she sent me the proposal and I probably could have used her services. But why didn't you?

SPEAKER_00 16:09

Like, what do you think that real underlying reason was for not realistically, it's because she didn't build, she didn't take any time to build rapport with me. And I do believe that rapport has to happen. She missed creating safety with me, of like letting me know what her intent was and the purpose of our time together. And I teach that in it's part of step creating rapport happens in the introduction piece, and it actually happens throughout every single step. There is an opportunity to create rapport. But in step three, the discovery, I teach that you start by offering a pre-frame. And the pre-frame sets the tone for the meeting. And the thing about preframing is it creates safety. Now that might seem like, oh, Nikki's getting all like crazy talk woo-woo. But the thing is, is that we have as humans kind of our fight, flight, or freeze is kind of that natural thing that comes up for us in all situations, whether you realize it or not. And in a sales conversation, if you don't create safety with the other person, they're not gonna buy from you because it feels like they they feel exposed, they feel vulnerable, they feel like you're gonna take advantage, you're not gonna respect their boundaries. So creating safety by offering a pre-frame at the beginning is such an important step. Anytime I talk to somebody who is struggling to close sales, especially their consult calls, their discovery calls, you know, I always ask people like, well, what's your what's your close rate? And if they have a less than 50% close rate, the next question is, do you preframe at the start of your calls? The answer to that question is always no, if they have a less than 50% close rate. And so that's that's an indicator right there of like this will make a difference. And and I have, you know, I've been, I've had my business now for 12 years. I have enough and I've coached hundreds of people privately and thousands of people in group settings. And the pre-frame is the game changer for people. Often they'll come back and be like, as soon as I added that pre-frame, Nikki, like the calls went so much better. People felt so much more comfortable, like giving me answers to my questions, being willing to be like open to hearing my offer. So that pre-frame is like, it's one of those things, like you just can't, you cannot skip it and expect for there not to be some fallout. So she missed rapport, creating safety with the pre-frame. And then she just didn't have my permission. That's the other thing, too. And I teach this is that you really shouldn't be selling to somebody if you don't have their permission. So putting an offer in front of somebody, putting a quote, a proposal in front of them without them having indicated that yes, they're ready to receive it. Yes, they want that. It's just like, why would they give you their business? It's like you, you miss all of these like respect and boundary pieces. And I just vote with my wallet. I'm really clear about it. I will not buy from somebody who doesn't like earn it, who doesn't show that they are not treating me like it's a wall, like I'm a wallet. They are treating me like a person and they're showing me the kind of respect that I would show anybody else in any kind of situation or conversation. You would never walk up to a stranger on the street, grab their hand and say, come with me, follow me now. But yet when you show up and you immediately throw a proposal in front of somebody, you're essentially saying, like, come with me, follow me. People would like pull their hand away and be like, What? Who are you? What? No, I'm not going anywhere with you. So expecting people to go along and like get their business when you've essentially like treaded all over, like them as a person, like, no, it's not gonna work.

SPEAKER_01 19:56

Uh, I want to get a little bit more specific with some of the things that you were saying there. You teach this hear kitty kitty concept. So explain what that means just in plain language.

SPEAKER_00 20:08

Okay. All right. So that relates to step two of creating curiosity. And oftentimes, if you think about your business and ask yourself this question do I know how to create curiosity when I'm talking about my business, when I'm talking about my offers, when I'm talking to people, just meeting people for the first time, do I know how to create curiosity? And I'm gonna relate this back to one of my favorite things that I saw in my dentist office one time. He had this big poster and it said, you don't have to brush all your teeth, only the ones you want to keep. And I'm gonna relate that to creating curiosity because you don't have to create curiosity with every single person you come into contact with. Only the people who you think, I would like to earn their business, right? Or maybe they could be a client for me. So now here's where the Here Kitty Kitty comes in is I equate creating curiosity to the difference between how you call a dog and how you call a cat. And I know it sounds really crazy. So stick with me here for just one more minute and see if this makes sense. But if you think about when, you know, if you're a dog person or if you have a dog or if you've been around dogs, you want to get a dog's attention. You a lot of times people will change their energy, they'll change the way they talk, right? They'll be like, come here, boy, come here, right? And dogs are like, I don't even know why you're calling me, but I'm so in with that. Like maybe there's a treat or maybe it's a ride or a bath or a walk. Don't care, but so in. And yet sometimes when we approach people in a conversation or when we think, oh, this would be an ideal client for me, we have what I call this dog calling energy. And the thing about dog calling energy with people is it will cause people to push away. They'll be like, oh, too much coming on too strong. And we've probably all been in one of these situations, you know, like you go to a networking meeting or even just read your email. Like you get an email. I got one this morning of somebody being like, Nikki, your podcast, it's so great. And here's all these key words of all. These things that you're, you know, you're qualifying for, but here's all this missed opportunity. Oh my gosh, you should hire me. Like that is dog calling energy. And I'm like, no, thanks. Okay. So, so let's talk about the here kitty kitty. Think about how you call a cat. You don't call a cat the same way you call a dog that would never come. So you change your voice, you you do something that creates a little bit of like interest. You go like, here kitty kitty, here kitty kitty. And if you have been around a cat, a couple cats, you know that some will just give you a look like, what? Like they're not gonna even necessarily come to that, but they'll give you a little bit like what just to see. Is there something interesting here or should I just go back to my to my nap? Right. And so when I talk about here, kitty kitty, it's you learning how to, there's there's many ways to do this. And I do have a whole training around it. And obviously it's in the book too, right? But the thing about creating curiosity is the easiest way to start to build your create curiosity, Here Kitty Kitty muscle, is to learn how you respond to a question that you get asked. So here's a really basic question: how are you? Right. Like we all get asked that all the time. And some people have kind of a standard answer that they give everybody. And sometimes you give people an, you know, an actual authentic answer that really talks about your day. But the thing is, is in a business opportunity or in an opportunity, again, you don't have to brush all your teeth, but the ones that you'd like to earn their business, you can create a response that might pique their interest. And your response, just to be clear about this, can only be about two sentences, three at the max. If your response to the how are you question is four sentences or more, you're in dog calling mode. And there's nothing wrong with being a dog calling, like personality type in some situations. But it's just like in every situation, not everything is needed. And in some situations, a little bit of like is needed. Somebody asks you, How are you? You want to have an answer that says like could pique their curiosity. So right now, if somebody said, Nikki, how are you? I might say, like, oh, I'm good. I'm I'm working on this brand new project. Like that's enough of an answer for somebody to go, like, well, what's the project? Or what do you do? Or I could give something even more specific. I could say, Oh, I'm good. My my podcast just passed the 300 episode mark, right? Like, and somebody could go, like, wait, you have a podcast? What's your podcast about? Or congratulations, who cares? Move on. Like it might not always work, but at least it opens the door, right? For someone to go, like, oh, podcast. Now that gives me permission, if they ask a question about the podcast to talk about the Sales Maven podcast, which then may lead them to be like, oh, you help people with sales. I have a business, I could use some help with sales, right? It's like, I'm just seeing, is there some opportunity here to just create conversation? Yeah, that's great.

SPEAKER_01 24:53

Okay. So when you were describing all of that, I thought to myself, okay, so if I was gonna do a post on Instagram or LinkedIn or something like that, what would that post? Give us a three, like maybe three or whatever, how many here kitty kitty curiosity lines that could plant a seed via a post on a social platform.

SPEAKER_00 25:15

Okay, I love this so much. Now I'm gonna tweak my, I'm gonna tweak the way that you're gonna start to do this because on a post, it's a little bit different because people are scrolling, right? So one thing is you start with a question. Most people on their posts, we do this thing where we just think like, oh, people are following me, people are gonna see my content. So I'm gonna talk at people, but we get talked at all day long. We get talked at by the people around us, we get talked at by, you know, if you're watching the news or if you're reading something, like people are just talking at us all the time, all the time. And we have a little bit of fatigue around being talked at. So what you want to do is change your approach and you want to talk with people. And the way you talk with people is you engage their brain. And the way you engage a brain is you ask a question. So using my same example about my podcast and the 300 episode mark, right? Instead of just saying, like, oh, I'm so excited to tell all of you about how my podcast just reached, you know, over 300 episodes. That's me talking at people. But instead, if I say to somebody like, what's something you're really proud of that you never thought could happen? That's the question. And that starts the post. Now I could then go on and say something I'm really proud of that I never thought would happen is the podcast just reached 300 episodes. Okay. Now, what happens when you do that? You ask the question of them and they start to think of their answer. And just like in a conversation, when you ask somebody like, How are you? What is the common question they ask you back? They answer and then they go, How are you? So it's the same online, right? Because now you've asked them a question. They have had a chance to think of their answer. Now they might want to hear your answer. So that creates that curiosity. Now, if actually I remember, I think when the podcast passed a hundred episodes, I remember somebody and I had a post kind of like this, right? Of engaging the brain. And then somebody said, Oh, they posted, oh, Nikki, I didn't, I didn't know you had a podcast. What's your podcast about? Because I didn't dog call it. I didn't word vomit all about my podcast and where to listen to it, what the name of it is, what all the episodes are about, who the listeners are, right? And that's what most people do on their posting is they give so much information. But now here's somebody that says, Oh, I didn't know you had a podcast, Nicky. What's your podcast about? That now gives me permission to tell a little bit about my podcast and then maybe follow up with an invitation. Is this something you'd like you'd like to check out? And if so, I'd be happy to share a link with you. Now we're in conversation. There's some real back and forth happening. And so, you know, your your job in a post is to engage the reader, to slow them down enough to want to like have a conversation with you. It's kind of like the same if I don't know if you've ever done this. I used to have to do this in my in my career in sales, you know, did a lot of trade shows. And if you're ever done a trade show and you're standing at an event and people are walking up and down the aisles, like the thing that you want to do first and foremost is kind of slow them down just to get them to even like peek over at your booth and see what you sell. And so it's the same on social media. We got to slow people down enough for them to be like, oh, am I interested in reading about this? Or is this just like another person talking? Yeah, no, that's really good.

SPEAKER_01 28:38

So, okay, so what would be your, I guess your go-to. If I had like a stack of discovery questions, what would be a couple of good discovery questions for me? So I've created the curiosity. They've reached out, they've interacted with me somehow. Okay. How how could I move into that next level? I mean, you did describe it a bit. You said, you know, can I share a link with you? Uh but beyond the podcast, let's say we're talking about one of your coaching programs or something. What would be some good discovery questions that could be adapted to anything really? Is that possible?

SPEAKER_00 29:18

Um, it depends on the situation. I think yes, it is absolutely possible. And given the the circumstance, you know, the one thing you don't want to do is go right in for like, here, let me sell you. Like you, you in like I think I might have piqued your curiosity about my offer. So now let me like word vomit and tell you all about it. So I'm gonna ask permission before I even share about it. If so, let's say I did some post about, you know, like, oh, you know, this new program. Let's say I ask a question in the beginning and then I share a little bit about a win, which is this new offer that I put out. And then somebody goes, Well, what's the offer? And I say, Well, the offer is, you know, focused around actually crafting your consultation roadmap, for instance. This actually is true. This is something I'm working to put out. So this crafts your consultation roadmap, it helps you create your right fit questions and your expertise questions. And then I might say, Do you already have your consultation roadmap? So I'm gonna ask them a question back. And if they say, like, uh, I kind of just wing it. And I would, and then maybe I'd say, you know, is that something, you know, have you have you thought about w what might improve as far as your close rate if you don't wing it and you actually have questions that spur um interest and curiosity and lead you down the place where you can put an offer in front of someone? That was a long version of that. I would probably shorten it. And they go, Yeah, no, I don't. And I would say, I actually have a program that does this for you. Would you be interested in having like getting some additional information about it? Or I might invite them to a call. I might say, is this something like I have some ideas for you of how to how to move from winging it to um to having some structure? Is that something you'd be interested in in having a conversation about? And then I'm gonna invite them to a call. The idea is to move people through the process. Now, if I say, is that something you'd be interested in? And they go, thanks, no, thanks, like bless and release, move on. Don't try to convince them, yeah, but hey, you're winging it, so you're probably gonna need this. Don't be that person. Just be the person that's like, hey, if something changes, you know, you're welcome to reach out to me. I'd be happy to chat with you. Leave it at that. Because sometimes a no is just a not yet for people. I can give you example after example after example of people who have initially had a conversation with me and been like, think I don't really think I need any help with sales, only to become clients that I've now worked with for years because they're like, I need you in my life and I know that sales is something that I'm gonna continue to evolve and you're my go-to person when I have questions.

SPEAKER_01 31:54

Yeah. And you know, that's really interesting you're saying that because there's always a there's probably more voyeurs than there are buyers initially. Yeah, you know, and so that voyeurism is where you were just saying, like, keep the curiosity going and keep breadcrumbing it all the way to the point where they finally say, yeah. And, you know, I loved, I love your approach because it's very, it's not cringe, it's not, you know, you were talking about going to a conference or whatever, and you've got all these booths. Oh, I always cringe walking past those booths because I don't want them to try to start selling to me right away, you know? But if I was just invited, like, hey, come on in, like we're given a free uh, you know, come and have a chat with me or something, like in just in a nice tone, I do go to those booths, you know, and and I also go to the booths that I'm curious about. But the ones that I'm not, I don't want to be, I don't want to have that cringe feeling.

SPEAKER_00 32:45

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 32:45

Okay, so Nikki, we're gonna wrap this up with uh a little bit of a use case. I I am midway through this interview and I've changed my mind on what I wanna, how I want to close this thing. Okay, so we're gonna use me as a prime example, if that's okay. We, I have an offer. I've been hiding my offer, just like so many other women out there, behind some sort of foggy window. I finally put my open for business link on Instagram and and now onto all of my YouTube um podcast descriptions. But I feel like I'm still hiding. Like, come on, let's face it. I haven't like made any announcements or anything. I'm just like, oh, hopefully somebody finds it. So, what would you suggest I do, or that woman that's listening who's doing the exact same thing as me? She's put her offer out there, but kind of not really. What would you suggest we do over just starting tonight over seven days, small little easy steps to I guess expose my open for business sign? Okay.

SPEAKER_00 33:50

So the first thing is I would say, let's, let's, day one, let's decide, let's make a commitment that you are going to be willing to issue an invitation for people to sign up, right? So make that decision day one. Okay, I'm willing to do this. I'm willing to get out of my own way and not be the like person who blocks the dinner party invites and says, okay, I'm gonna issue an invitation. Day two, I want you to think about who you could invite. So go to low-hanging fruit. Who are people who have expressed interest in you and your work? Do you have an email list, for instance? Does your email list know about the offer? Chances are they don't. So maybe it's time for you to decide you're gonna issue an invitation in the form of an email promotional like series. So I'm gonna say this like, hang here with me for just a minute because this might feel really risky. You cannot just invite people one time to buy. You can't just invite them one time. They have to see it a few times. So if you're gonna put out an email sequence, the minimum is three. Maximum is seven. I think more than seven, and you're probably word vomiting on people. I tend to go between three and five every time I launch an offer or every time I put out on something to my email list. Three to five emails that talk about it. And so then, you know, the next day is like, okay, I'm gonna write email one today and I'm gonna send this out. And it could just be something where you're gonna start with a question in that email, then you're gonna, you know, start with like a question that that kind of brings up the challenge or the the problem or the sticking point that people have that this offer solves, right? So that's email one. And then the next day you're gonna put out a, you know, email two of like, hey, did you see this? Is this something you're interested in? Email three might be something else you do. You don't want to necessarily send three in three days, but you, you know, by the end of the seven days, this third email needs to go. And that's a straight up like what you would have on your sales page is gonna be in this offer or in this email with an invitation. And it is gonna be an invitation, like a question. An invitation is in the form of a question. It's not you're invited. It's is this something you'd be interested in? Click here. Ready to get started? Click here. You know, these these are invitation type languages. And and that is gonna be the thing that you do first, like right, is you're gonna invite the low-hanging fruit. And then next is you're gonna think about who are the people in your network who absolutely love you, believe in you, believe in your work, and who would be willing to share it with two or three people who might benefit from what you do. And now we're gonna craft and ask for those people. So it might be something like, Lynette, you've been such a great supporter of my business. And I'm wondering if I can ask you a favor. I've got this offer. Who in your network or who in your, you know, realm or world do you think would be a good fit for this? And would you be willing to share it with them on my behalf? That's it. Like that's gonna be the next thing you do. And then after that, we're gonna we're gonna branch out a little further. Now you're gonna put yourself out there on social media and you're gonna issue an invitate invitation there, but start with low-hanging fruit first and foremost, the people who have indicated interest, then move to the people who are supporters of you and who believe in your work. Then you're gonna put yourself out in the like just anybody kind of realm. Okay. Okay. That was great.

SPEAKER_01 37:24

That was good. Okay. So, Nikki, if somebody wanted to work with you a little bit further, where would they kind of where would they start?

SPEAKER_00 37:32

Well, okay, so if I can, can I wrap it in a gift for your for your audience? Yeah, absolutely. So I've alluded to this a few times about those questions, your right fit questions and your your expertise questions. I actually have a training on it. I do charge for this training, but I want to just gift it to your listener. If somebody's out there going like, I need this, I don't have any kind of formal kind of questions that I'm asking, and I'm spending too much time, you know, being the monkey and dancing in these calls. This is gonna change that for you. So it's called Seal the Deal, questions that close sales. And I'm gonna gift it to your audience. You can get it by going to your salesmaven.com forward slash MWE. So this really is for your audience, right? So MWEDLEF Women Entrepreneurs MWE.

SPEAKER_01 38:18

Okay, perfect. Okay, well, this to you. Thank you. Okay, well, that's for sure. And you'll be able to find more information probably on that page as well. Yeah. Okay, well, that page will definitely be in the show notes. I appreciate you doing that. That's super awesome. I'm actually gonna go and take a quick sneak peek at it at myself. So I really did enjoy listening to you and your book as well. And so I'll give a little plug for that as well. The selling staircase I thought was amazing. It was just so relatable and just easy listening. So it was good. I I there was a couple of times I wished, oh God, I wish I had a pen with me on my walk when I was listening to it, but that's okay. It was it was really good. So, Nikki, thank you for all of the wealth of knowledge that you shared today and for the generous gift that you're offering to my audience. I really appreciate it. And we will talk with you soon. Thanks for having me.