214: The Right Approach To Authentic Conversations That Generate Leads

Melissa [: 00:00:00

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, 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.

Melissa [: 00:01:02

And I hope that you guys find as much value in the 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. Let's dive in. Let's go to Mirdu. Am I saying that right? Mirdu?

Mirdu [: 00:02:17

Yep. Pretty close. How are you? Good. How are you? Good. I have just joined recently, so I've been, like, getting through as much content as I can. And so today or yesterday was the first day I was trying to reach out building you know, networking. But I already had questions. So this is great.

Mirdu [: 00:02:33

Thank you so much. And they seem so silly, and I probably know what to do, but I would

Melissa [: 00:02:36

love to hear the tone. There's a ton of you that are literally brand spanking new, and there's I promise you, somebody else has the same question.

Mirdu [: 00:02:45

Okay. So one person I connected with, she immediately accepted. I can't find anything I connect with her on. Like, there's she doesn't post it

Melissa [: 00:02:54

in a year. Year.

Mirdu [: 00:02:55

She's just she she likes a lot of things anyway. So but one thing I said was when she went to college, and my son's going to college, and that's, like, where he wants to apply. Like, is it fine? Just be like, hey, I see you went to UF. My my son's really interested. How was your experience? Like, I just did something personal.

Melissa [: 00:03:10

Totally. I mean, you can. You absolutely can. The thing I wanna underscore here though for all of you guys is I want you to remember that this isn't Facebook or Instagram. So we don't have to ask people about their kids or their kitty cat or like, it is a business to business platform. Right? So tell me a little bit about your business and tell me why you connected with her in the first place.

Mirdu [: 00:03:35

Okay. I'm a productivity coach for women entrepreneurs. Awesome. And Okay. Also, I train in organizations. I do it a lot. I train on time management, productivity leadership in organizations. So first of all, I guess, what do you think of this headline? Is that okay with experts or should I be really specific to the women business owners? So I had it and then break it up separately for the trainers.

Mirdu [: 00:03:58

But the original question was, I was connecting with someone who's a so lawyers, women lawyers are my best clients. So she's a lawyer. I put in, like, lawyer and entrepreneur, and she came up. And so I connected with her. She said, yes, but I couldn't find anything in her profile to connect with other than something personal, like where she went to school. So I was wondering if that was like I haven't written back

Melissa [: 00:04:20

to her yet. Okay. Okay. Cool. So and your ideal client are female entrepreneurs. And what was the other bucket?

Mirdu [: 00:04:34

And there's like, I do training in organizations.

Melissa [: 00:04:37

Gotcha. Gotcha. Gotcha. Okay. What I encourage you guys to all do is when you're requesting to connect, actually go ahead and use an open ended question. So for you and now, obviously, you're already connected with her, but what you for all of you, what you can do in the future is included in the request to connect. So hey, so and so. I see that you're an entrepreneur, and you went to x college.

Melissa [: 00:05:06

Would love looks like we have a lot of common ground. And then ask your question about the college. Right? It's like, start the conversation with an open ended question. You can have a little bit of pleasantries. But what I want you guys to get comfortable with is it's not in a slimy way. We don't wanna sell people something they didn't ask for, but we can start asking open ended questions that feed into your subject matter expertise. Right? So as you exchange the pleasantries around the university and your daughter going to school, It's wow. I see that you're an attorney and an entrepreneur.

Melissa [: 00:05:42

That's incredible. How do you find the time to manage it all? Right? So see how we're going right into, like, your subject matter expertise?

Mirdu [: 00:05:50

Mhmm.

Melissa [: 00:05:51

And this is gonna be different for all of you. But it's okay to ask those pointed questions. It is a business to business platform. You don't wanna jump out of the gate and say and I'm not saying you would do this, but you don't wanna jump out of the gate and be like, I see that you're an attorney and entrepreneur, and I'm a productivity coach. Here's my latest blah blah blah blah blah. Like, that drives me nuts when people are, like, offering things in the DMs that haven't been asked for. So we always wanna make sure in the DMs, we're not dropping anything without agreement that they want it. So you guys write this down.

Melissa [: 00:06:24

If I, would you? If I, would you. So I always coach that we have to gain and earn permission to offer something. Right? So for instance, how this conversation could go through is, I see that you're an attorney, a female attorney and an entrepreneur. How are you doing it all? How are you juggling it all? And then you get into some conversation and she's talking about how she's managing things. Maybe she has a pain point wow, I can totally understand where you're coming from. I've experienced x y z or whatever. My expertise happens to be with attorneys, and I've got this great blah blah blah blah blah. If I, would you? Right? So even when you've identified a pain point, we aren't assuming they want what you have to offer.

Melissa [: 00:07:15

Right? This is where people go wrong on LinkedIn because they get so excited. They just wanna shove their shit towards somebody because they identified a pain point, But it goes a long way to pause and wait for the affirmative, like, yes, please do send that to me. It also helps you qualify whether they're actually a warm lead or not. Right? If they say yes, then you wanna continue down that road. If they're like, no thanks or ignore your message, they're not really a warm lead for now, but they're still gonna be in your feed. So celebrate that. They just need to get to know you more before they actually want any more content. My rule of thumb is if it feels weird, it probably is.

Melissa [: 00:07:56

Right? Let's just try to be our all authentic selves and just ask open ended questions that kind of move us down the funnel. So for instance, the way it looks like for me, thanks for the request to so when I get a request to connect, and some of you got this message. Right? Let me know if you got it. It's, you know, hey. Thanks for the request to connect. See how Darla says, yeah. I'm always curious. What was it about my profile that piqued your curiosity to connect with me? Right? That's an open door.

Melissa [: 00:08:23

When they say, oh, you're a LinkedIn strategist or you're a business expert, you've got an online blah blah, whatever it is. Right? Oh, awesome. So let's say they say LinkedIn. Right? That's awesome. Are you currently using LinkedIn to generate leads for your business? That opens the door for another conversation. Well, yes, I just got started. I'm trying to figure it out or whatever the dialogue goes on. Awesome.

Melissa [: 00:08:45

I'm not sure if you're aware, but I happen to be a LinkedIn expert. I have an upcoming master class where I'm giving away 9 days of free content on how to generate leads on LinkedIn. If I sent you the link to register, would you be interested and attending? And then you wait. Right? That's the patient piece. Right? Just be patiently waiting for them to say yes. Yeah. I would love to take a look. We're doing it for Nashville right now.

Melissa [: 00:09:12

We have a live event in Nashville and we're growing my connections with founders, entrepreneurs, and small business owners in Nashville. And it says something along the lines of I see you're an entrepreneur in Nashville. I'd love to add you to my network. I happen to be hosting a live event there next in 2 months. Right? We just then we get into conversation. And then it's like, oh, awesome. If I sent you the link to the live event, would you wanna check it out? Right? And we wait. We patiently wait.

Melissa [: 00:09:37

Right? Where people cut their sales off is just trying to jump, trying to move too quickly, and not being authentic, and they actually lose the leads. Thanks guys so much for listening in on today's podcast episode. And I can't wait for you to see my upcoming guest in the next episode. You are going to love this keynote speaker. Hey, here's the deal. If you like this, please subscribe and leave a review. And you want the latest online business growth strategies and exclusive LinkedIn pro tips sent straight to your phone? Text the word update to 704-318-2285. That is text the word update to 704-318-2285.

Melissa [: 00:10:28

Can't wait to see you guys. 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_henault over on Instagram, melissahenault over on LinkedIn and Facebook. Can't wait to see you guys over there.