204: The Art Of Making Sales Is A Skill You Can Learn

Melissa:

Hey. Hey. Hey. I hope you guys enjoy these, what I'm calling, podcast shorts for my burnout to all out community. This is just a little peek behind the curtain of the coaching that goes on inside of my programs. We're bringing to you Some of the best nuggets and coaching I'm giving, within hot seats of all of our different programs, whether it's our LinkedIn Method Academy, our mini mastermind business basics all the way up to our higher level mastermind. If you're hearing some of these questions and you're like, man, I wish I could get my burning question answered by Melissa. Hey.

Melissa:

Guess what? You could be featured on my podcast. If you've got a question that you want answered and you submit it to my team and we pick it, we will bring you here to the podcast for our podcast shorts and, do a hot seat with you. Where can you submit your questions? Send them to team burnout to all out .co. We'll make sure we drop that in the show notes for our podcast shorts, and I hope that You guys find as much value in these shorts as our clients do inside the program. Need some effective tactical advice that actually helps you get results and makes a real difference in your life and business? You've come to the right place. If you're finding yourself here today, it means you're getting ready to gain serious traction in your business, rapidly multiply your income and impact, and you're ready to make it happen while living all out. Guys, I'm Melissa Henault, your trustworthy corporate dropout turned 6 figure business burnout turned happy and healthy CEO of a multimillion dollar online business, and you're listening to the burnout to all out podcast. On this show, we're serving up innovative growth strategies, simple implementation methods to put them into practice and action stimulating inspiration tailored specifically for the modern entrepreneur.

Melissa:

Let's dive in. Alright. Let's go to miss Katrina. Hi, Melissa. Hi, everyone. Hi. Hi.

Katrina:

I have a few questions. And if we're sharing wins, I'm just a month in, but I did post my 1st article. It brought I have a lot of impressions from it. And so I'm getting slowly but surely, like, I Probably been posting consistently for a week and a half, like, at least every other day or something. And so and I have not done my part to go find people to connect with yet, but I'm slowly getting connection requests. Maybe it's from you know, I have been

Melissa:

Probably from your content.

Katrina:

Yeah. Maybe for my content, and then I have been interacting with other people's content. But my question is for people that are connecting with me, I do send them a voice memo Oh, and make it personable. I have no idea who these people are. So what is the next step? Like, what am I doing with the new People that are requesting to connect with me. I don't know if they just like my content or am I just leaving it there until I'm having a conversion event? What am I doing with the people?

Melissa:

Okay. So what are you saying to the people, or are you asking me what to say? What are you saying anything initially to people who've requested to connect with you?

Katrina:

The only thing I say is, like, happy Tuesday. Thanks for the connection. Look forward to getting to know you, and that's really it because,

Melissa:

I'm about to change your life Okay. And everybody's. Okay? If you connected with me on LinkedIn, you got this response or any of my social platforms. Thanks for the request to connect. I'm always curious, What was it about my profile that peaked your curiosity to connect with me? I love this question because then, They get to go straight to why they connected with you. Was it your headline? Was it your content? Was it a comment you made? And And then they're gonna give you a point of reference about it. So, like, for me, someone could say, well, my friend shared a post that you did on LinkedIn tips, and I found it really cool. Awesome.

Melissa:

Do you find that you're looking to leverage LinkedIn to learn more to grow and scale your business? Yeah. I'm new to it. I'm trying to figure it out. So cool. I don't know if but I happen to be a LinkedIn expert, and I have a free workshop coming up. If I sent you a link to register for it, Would you be interested in signing up? Oh my gosh. Yes. That would be perfect.

Melissa:

Do you see how quickly we got to that simply because I asked them What piqued your curiosity to connect with me? Then you get to kind of reverse engineer the conversation based off of what they say. Does that make sense?

Katrina:

Yes. That's very helpful. So I should not shy away from, like, this is why we're here. Like, are you interested here? Do you want the link? Pretty much. Like, I don't have to nurture them to them.

Melissa:

If you have found that point of connection and it makes sense. Right?

Katrina:

Okay.

Melissa:

So let's role play. Remind me a little bit about your business.

Katrina:

I am a college prep, college admissions coach, and I also focus on scholarships.

Melissa:

Okay. Awesome. Alright. I just requested to connect with you. What do you say to me?

Katrina:

What did I used to say or what?

Melissa:

What are you gonna say tomorrow? What are you gonna say?

Katrina:

Tomorrow, I actually have a few people sitting in my inbox now, and I was like, let me ask before I respond

Melissa:

to them. Yeah. I'm

Katrina:

gonna say, hi, Melissa. Thanks for connecting. And actually been complimenting their profile too. And I'm curious to know what piqued your interest to connect with me.

Melissa:

I saw a post that a colleague shared around how you were able to help their kid get into their, like, favorite university.

Katrina:

Awesome. Yes. I'm actually an award winning college admissions coach, and I'm a Bill Gates Millennium scholar. That's my specialty, and I've helped several clients get into their top choices. Do you have a team that you could use some assistance with? I I don't know.

Melissa:

Yeah. Oh my gosh. Yes. That's exactly why I engaged in the post. I'm so lost, and I have a junior in high school, and I'm lost in the process.

Katrina:

Okay. Great. Now would be the perfect time to actually get started on getting them prepped and positioned. Do you have 15 minutes Available where you can schedule a quick chat so we can see how I can support your family.

Melissa:

I would love that. How do I do that?

Katrina:

I can send you the link, and that was my question. So I have someone to she wants to speak today at 4:30, And she said she just wants to book a 15 minute call to see what it is that I do. So, of course, I'm coming from Facebook Where I got a lot of people that because I'm so knowledgeable in what I do and high achieving and all of my my kids are, my clients are, And we get so many results. They're interested to see what I do, but I don't they're not some of them are not necessarily ready To book, they just want to see. And so I started making my calls, my consultations paid, and most of the people who pay for the consult end up signing up. So now that I'm on LinkedIn, I'm like, okay. Am I back to the free I don't wanna free myself to death. And because I talk a lot and educate a lot, how Do these 15 minute calls go? And then do I then direct them to say, okay.

Katrina:

You'd be great for a consultation. Here's a link to book, or would you like to Yeah. Schedule like, what does that look like for a 15 minute call?

Melissa:

Yeah. Such a great question. And There's another thing I wanna circle back to, but what I would suggest, and this is just my 2¢. In If any of you guys took a clarity call with me, you actually had to acknowledge in the clarity call that it was not a free coaching call. That it was a call to create clarity if it was the right fit for you, and it was not an opportunity to get free coaching. Because what I found early on in these launches is everybody will book a call with me, and then they'd be like, well, I have this scenario. What would you do if you and I'm like, That is not what this call is about. I just gave you 9 days of free content.

Melissa:

This is about, like, is this the right fit for you? Right? And so one thing that you could do in the booking link is you could acknowledge that this is a call to clarify if your particular situation, child x, x y z is the right fit for my service. During this time, we'll have a conversation to get clarity whether this is a good fit or not or to answer your questions about the program. This is not a free consultation. Right? This is not a free coach because here's the problem. And this is the next thing I wanted to say to you, Katrina, is I would argue even the paid consultation. The challenge with that, and it sounds like it worked for you, but when people pay a little bit of a fee, they get a little bit of a consultation, Sometimes they can walk away feeling like they got satiated and they got enough advice. They don't actually need to invest in your services. And I'm not saying that you're doing that, But what I would encourage you to do is go listen to my module on closing high ticket sales.

Melissa:

And I talk a lot about how it's a lot more about questioning for the client and right fittedness and their choice of whether it's the right investment versus consultating and giving instead of like there a lot of people take these initial calls to kind of show their knowledge, But the problem with showing knowledge and giving kind of initial advice is that you can lose the sale, right, versus kind of this funnel that I teach in the high ticket closing high ticket sales module that you have access to Really takes you through kind of a formula to ask really insightful questions about where they are, where they wanna be with their children. Like, There's a whole psychology around it where they come up with a decision by the end of the call whether it's the right investment or not. Right? And they're not coming away from the call with a bunch of consultative advice about what they're gonna do with their child in college. It's more about the right fitness for your products and services for the solution for their barrier to their goal, their barrier to the endpoint desired state with their kids and their university. Does that make sense?

Katrina:

That makes a lot of sense. So if After today so today is really clarity around if this would be a good fit, the type of service I offer. And then if, I guess I'm a little confused because I stopped taking free calls altogether. If she needs because Even with the paid consult, I have them to give me what their barriers are, at least on the application form, so I can come into the call understanding What they need help with, what grade, what are their goals, their obstacles over the next for the next 6 months. So with the clarity call, I won't have any of that information because I guess it's not necessary. But do most people, at least from your experience, do they When do you have the, I guess, sales call? Is that a whole another call or are you offering them to go deeper on that call?

Melissa:

Yeah. So I actually encourage you to keep those questions for them to fill out before the call. Okay. You're not gonna need another follow-up call because you're gonna have all the information in front of you. So I actually take 15 to 20 minute clarity calls for my $22,000 mastermind. And if you guys go to my website, and I don't know if you can do it right now because the doors aren't open. It would be a wait list. But if you were to apply and the doors were open, They will be soon.

Melissa:

I know some of you already snuck in. Renee already snuck in. But when you go to the form, there's a ton of stuff you have to fill out. And I actually do my research and understanding kind of the foundation of that potential client before I ever get on the phone with them. And then the purpose of the call is to help understand their desired state and why they haven't achieved that desired state. What do they need to get to that desired state? Why can't they get to that desired state? Have they tried to get that to that desired state? So I really wanna understand where they wanna be, that's on them. I'm not gonna make any assumptions. And then also, why haven't they gotten there? So they're barriers.

Melissa:

Right? Because then that helps me when we talk about the mastermind, does it align to their goals. And is it the solution to their desired state? Right? And by the end of the call, I'm either prescribing or not prescribing the program. I'm not coaching them through and solving their problems. I'm saying based on your problem, based on where you wanna be, and the lack of the capacity knowledge x y z of what you need to get there and where you wanna go, I highly recommend You join the mastermind, and here's why. It it's up to them. But I think you should totally listen to the sales, the high ticket sales workshop training, and kinda make it your own and play with it. But for me, personally, I don't take paid consultation calls. I just have people fill out a form in advance, and they get 15 to 20 minutes with me on a call.

Melissa:

And typically, by the end of the call, they're either a good fit or they're not a good fit, and they have a period of time to make that decision and make the transaction and invest.

Katrina:

Okay. That sounds good. And what I will need to do is commit to not coaching Even when they ask me the questions that they want to be

Melissa:

in my services. Right? I get it all the time. Doesn't matter what they're I mean, I get it all the time. What do you think about this? How would I do that? That is a really great question, and that is why I think you would be such a good fit for the program because we go so far in-depth with this, Can I hold your hand through the process?

Katrina:

Okay.

Melissa:

You defer back. And it doesn't feel natural. Right? Because Right. What we wanna do is give people a hug on the front end, and we also want to show our knowledge and flex. But by giving them a hug on the front And you've lost the big bear hug on the back end, which is the transformation and getting their kid into the program. If you give them a little hug in the front and flex your knowledge, They didn't are satiated and walk away and never come back to invest, and they've totally lost out on the result with their kids.

Katrina:

That's so true. Okay. I will go back to totally free and shorten the calls and Make sure that I'm not coaching. That's a really good reminder. Thank you so much. So I know how to respond to my new connections now, and then I think that's it. Okay. Thank you so much.

Melissa:

Absolutely. Check out the module and go role play with Natasha. She'll help you. She's our sales expert. She'll help role play with you in our program.

Katrina:

I've been doing a lot better with the sales. It's The free stuff that I have, the product. Okay. Thank you. But I will I'll go and watch that. Thank you.

Melissa:

-: 2285

Melissa:

Come find me over on Instagram, LinkedIn, Facebook, wherever you like to hang. Cannot wait to hear how you are enjoying and applying what you're learning. You guys reach out to me over on social because I love hearing what's resonating with you. When you reach out to me and you send me those personal DMs, they really do impact the content I continue to bring forward to you. So, again, come find me, melissa_