233: The Hidden Obstacle That’s Blocking Your Sales Success

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. And the first thing is, just to, like, before you think about changing pricing, is always an audit of your sales process. So do you know, without a shadow of a doubt, that these are the wrong audience? Like, how have you done your research demographic wise, finance wise? Like, how do you know they can't afford it versus it being a cost objection and you actually just haven't won the sale? Those are 2 very different things, and I'm not saying it's 1 or the other.

Melissa [: 00:02:45

But I've seen people restructure their offer, and their offer was fine. They just needed to improve their sales strategy and their messaging. So that's number 1, is like a full audit on what is your sales strategy, And was it the right audience or not? We've had launches, where was the wrong audience? And they really couldn't afford it. And we went back and did our research. I'll give you a classic example. And I know this is, like, different scale, but it's the same story. With our January, we got a cease and desist from LinkedIn in November of last year that told us we could no longer use the word LinkedIn in the names of our programs because they owned that name and it was trademarked. And we were like, okay, whatever.

Melissa [: 00:03:30

We'll just change our marketing to lead gen instead of LinkedIn. We'll just market the lead gen academy. And so in January, we went to market with specifically lead gen instead of LinkedIn. And we didn't really think about it. We just thought, well, we're like a known commodity now, Like, people know us. This is me with my head in a hole, forgetting that, well, we're going for an audience that doesn't know us, Melissa. Like, that's the whole goal of growing. And we have one of our most dismal closed carts in the past 6 launches.

Melissa [: 00:04:05

Like, I would say almost half the sales we anticipated in January. I could have burned my offer. There's a number of things I could have done, but we ended up doing a ton of research and looking at the data. And where we landed was that it was a marketing malfunction that the word and this kinda goes back to branding 101, that one of you that I've talked with you branding on, you're gonna be like, you just told me to use, like, a very specific thing. And I'll tell you what we did to fix it. But what we found is that the word lead gen alone attracts a more foundational client who's looking for getting started in the first place to get leads. What we found is a lot of people in our January launch, where we got massive cost objections, were people who didn't have a business, or were starting their business from scratch with, like, absolutely no momentum and not really knowing what their offer was, and was very different than our previous launches with clients who had a little bit more of an established business, a little bit more of an idea of what their offer was, and they were looking to expand their lead generation. Just follow me on this story for a second.

Melissa [: 00:05:15

What we realized was the words after Lead Gen Academy were very important to qualify the lead. We went back in March, and in our marketing, we called it the Lead Gen Academy. But what was an even bigger, bolder words, but was not attached to the name of our company was LinkedIn. Okay? So we put bold like and nothing we could get in trouble with with LinkedIn because we weren't naming our program, you can use it as a descriptor anywhere you want. Right? The bottom line is very a very like, literally one word was a huge differentiator with a different client base that's that wanted to opt into LinkedIn coaching and not just the most generic lead gen approach. So then when we closed cart this past week, we had a higher pay in full rate than anything we've seen ever in our master classes, and obviously a phenomenal group and cohort and a great launch. And all of that to say the only it was the same presentation, but the audience was wrong or off. Some of the audience was off in January versus March because of our words.

Melissa [: 00:06:35

And so we could have said in January, we need to reduce our prices. We could have said in January, nobody's buying the payment plan anymore, like nobody can afford our program. The market has gone south. Like, we could have said that. But instead of just assuming, we turned over every rock and we were like, well, what else has changed about this launch? What do we do differently? Well, it was the verbiage. It was the marketing. We didn't actually specify specifically what channel people were gonna learn on, which was apparently really important. I'm sharing this with all of you because sometimes we're quick to change things about our programs or change the price before we take a step back, and I just wanna make sure that we have the right messaging and the right audience.

Melissa [: 00:07:22

That's number 1. And I know that wasn't necessarily what you asked because you said you got cost objections, but was your marketing into what you're offering a little bit off?

unknown [: 00:07:34

You're talking about specifically so I did, like, a prelaunch email. It's like a really quick 4 to 5 emails prior to the launch. Mhmm. Did mention the pricing ahead of time a little bit. I don't think that's a bad idea to let them know, like, hey. FYI, I will be giving you this offer just to give them a heads up. Uh-huh. The reason why I knew about the cost objection is afterwards, so a couple people say that after the exam was over, and they mentioned it's likely to take payment plans.

unknown [: 00:08:04

And so that was kinda like I can't go a little bit, but she was all they were also in, like, bad situation because they're just kinda starting out in their business. Mhmm. So is that what you mean I'm doing digging as far as, like, the marketing piece, like, specifically the emails?

Melissa [: 00:08:20

Yeah. It can impact tremendously. Like, if you show the price before you've gained trust and value, the like, imagine if you guys came into MasterClass on day 1, and I said, by the way, it's gonna be $5,000 in a couple days, is what the what's gonna cost you. A lot of you would have just not come back because you would have been like, I don't even want to be talked into this. I don't have $5,000 And so you just don't want you don't want people I will say this till the cows come home, broke people go to Disney, but they only go because they value the experience no matter how much money they have. And so your job is to gain their trust that you are the answer to what they need right now before you tell them how much it is. And then you let them decide. The problem is you're gonna skew their decision if you show them the price first because they're gonna prequalify pre unqualify themselves before they even understand the transformation they can get from working with you.

unknown [: 00:09:26

Mostly, he was giving them, high self study to finish eventually.

Melissa [: 00:09:31

No. And then also, you know, there's some energy there of like, oh, well, she's gonna try to sell me this. She's already telling me what the price is and we haven't even got started. Like, has she even earned the right to sell this to me? Right? Yeah. So I wouldn't and that's why I'm saying before you change the price, I would encourage you to do kind of a mini launch where you reveal the price after a couple of days or a day or 2 of sharing value and trust. And then do a survey for the people who didn't purchase. I do that all the time. Like, you guys are all here, so you didn't get it.

Melissa [: 00:10:08

But there's a lot of people in the DMs or on LinkedIn that I'm like, I love feedback. Like, I would love to know what was your rate limiting barrier to joining us. And that's what like, never in the last year and a half have I gotten so many cost objections as I did in January. It was very obvious that it was a different audience. And I could have changed my prices or I could have gone back to like, revisiting how I was marketing it. And was I getting the right people in the room, which again is a different topic than what you and I are talking about with your cost objections. But I just I'm trying to give you the example of thinking outside of the individual scenario of why you might have gotten the cost objection, which for you, I think maybe your sales process.

unknown [: 00:10:53

Right. No. I I agree because I I'm I know just having done the single part 101, it was a completely different process. So when they launched, what would you say an estimate of a time frame I should give myself to get a good start out compared to do the payroll, you know, the advertising or LinkedIn or whatever? Yeah. Is it 2?

Melissa [: 00:11:12

I typically recommend 3 because the 1st week, you're really kinda good. And then, you know, there's the final 2 weeks, you're really ramping up. We always do a 3 week runway. And really, with organic, you can have a 5 week runway. But here's the thing. When I say 5 weeks, the first two out of 5 are more, like, authority, thought leadership, like, really focused on this one category that you're gonna be selling later. So I don't necessarily mean register, register, register. And those first two out of 5 weeks, it's more like real, like for instance, you'll see in my content over the next couple weeks being really heavy around business and not LinkedIn.

Melissa [: 00:11:53

Why? Because in 3 weeks, we're gonna have a business masterclass. But so those first couple of weeks, it just may be really heavy in the value of what you're going to then those last 3 weeks be inviting people into. Does that make sense?

unknown [: 00:12:06

Alex. And then last question regarding lunch, because it's summer and everyone's gonna be off for school, I'm thinking it's probably not a good idea too much in a little summer or deep what are your latest statements?

Melissa [: 00:12:19

Guess which month of the year has been our highest launch month 2 years in a row? July. July. What I have learned is, early summer is not good because it's chaos. Kids are out of school. Everybody's letting their hair down. Late summer does not work well either because you're getting your kids back to school, you're getting your last vacations in. I have found right after the 4th July, like, those last couple of weeks in July are, like, money. And I think it's because it's a little bit slower, especially depending on who you're marketing, like entrepreneurs tend to work a little bit lighter in the summer, at least I do, like the first half of my year is it's been insane, insane.

Melissa [: 00:13:08

And what's keeping me sane is looking at my calendar for the summer. And so there's a sweet spot in July that I have found. We have the highest conversion rates, the highest show rates, the highest sales, 2 years in a row. Yeah. So that's my biased opinion, but, you know, don't straddle the beginning or the end of the summer. That's not not good. 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.

Melissa [: 00:13:38

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 704318228 5. 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.

Melissa [: 00:14:22

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.