Episode 355: Selling Smarter From Your Sofa
Sales is a crucial aspect that business owners must develop for success. Its effectiveness heavily depends on engaging more potential clients, delivering compelling product demonstrations, and making sales-driven offers to increase revenue.
In this episode, Adam Stott talks about sales strategies particularly selling products or services from home to enhance sales performance. Adam emphasizes the significance of creating consistent content, utilizing messaging ads for lead generation, investing in high-ticket treatments, and building a team to scale the business effectively.
By implementing Adam’s framework for sales, individuals can enhance their sales efforts and achieve growth from a home-based setting.
Show Highlights:
- Establish a clear plan and strategy for client acquisition to boost sales from home.
- Consistently create video content to showcase products or services and engage with potential customers.
- Invest in high-ticket treatments and consider expanding offerings to increase revenue streams.
- Explore opportunities to build a team, delegate tasks, and streamline business operations for scalability.
- Embrace personalized messaging ads and engage in meaningful conversations to drive lead generation and conversion.
Links Mentioned:
Get your Business Growth Secrets SUCCESS PLANNER for FREE and profit like a pro: https://adamstottplanner.com/free-book47315172
Adam’s website: https://adamstott.com/?el=Pod
Watch the Episode on Adam’s YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/adamstottcoach?el=Pod
Connect with Adam on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/adamstottcoach/?el=Pod
Join Adam’s network on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/adam-stott-coach/?el=Pod
Coaches, consultants, and business owners – lower your marketing costs, increase ticket prices, and get more high-ticket clients: https://3daybrandbuilderworkshop.com/start-here?el=Pod
Transcript:
Please note this is a verbatim transcription from the original audio and therefore may include some minor grammatical errors.
[00:00:00] Adam Stott: This podcast is all about how you sell more of your products or services from home. And I’m going to be sharing some of my best tips and strategies based off a question that has come in on how do you, how do we keep motivated? How do we sell more from home? So welcome to the business growth secrets podcast.
[00:00:18] Buckle up. Whilst we show you how to sell more, earn more and close more. So welcome back to business growth secrets. Everybody. This is the podcast where we show business owners from all industries how to take their business from six to seven figures minimum and beyond. Uh, you’re with your host, Adam Starr, and I have got a very special guest with me today.
[00:00:39] That’s got some questions from our, our clients to ask. And, and today’s topic is all as we said, can be about selling from home. Um, I want to welcome to the podcast, the one, the only Chris Cook. who is in charge of marketing. How are we doing Chris? Yeah,
[00:00:53] Chris Cook: all good. Thanks. Yeah. Looking forward to getting started.
[00:00:55] First time on the podcast. Can’t wait to get started. Fabulous. So you’ve got a question for us. Yeah. So I’ve got a few questions. The first one is from the gold circle communities, Rebecca. She’s saying, hi Adam, since the pandemic, I’ve not sold many skincare products. I found a new range I’m keen to take on, which isn’t flooded.
[00:01:12] Doesn’t sell through shops, only salons. How can I maximize sales now that I’ve made my home based salon, my main location out of two working locations? Um, it’s actually two parter. Do you want to go with that part first?
[00:01:27] Adam Stott: Uh, let’s go with the, let’s go with that first part. So how do we maximize it in from home?
[00:01:33] So if Rebecca is sat at home waiting for, uh, for leads to come in, deals to come in, it sometimes can feel quite, okay. Frustrating. It can feel quite lonely. Uh, and often people can get themselves in a place where it’s difficult to find the motivation to pick themselves up. They can say to themselves, I don’t know what to do.
[00:01:55] I don’t know where to start. And really what they start to realize and see is that they’re lacking a plan, uh, they’re lacking a strategy. So every business needs a strategy for client acquisition. And. You know, one of my mentors actually said this to me very recently, Sarah said, Adam, you always have to trust the process.
[00:02:15] So I think that’s really, really important. But if you don’t have a process, you have to have a process to trust and put in play, right? So what I would suggest if you’re sitting at home and obviously answer Rebecca’s question, but everybody’s watching and you want to close more deals, You can’t just do things randomly.
[00:02:34] You have to set out a plan and then you have to keep banging the drum until you’re able to make that happen. So what does that look like? I’ll give you an example. If I take you back to 2008, um, long, long time ago when I was first, um, working from home for the first time ever, and I was looking to build my business and I was a new business owner, a new start.
[00:02:59] And I was in that place where, like I said, felt like it was a lonely place. Didn’t really know what I was doing. And, and I got up every single day and I wanted to go and sell the products or services, but my whole, all my efforts were sporadic. So I do a little bit of this, I do a little bit of this. I was like, I was trying things and testing things and searching things.
[00:03:20] I didn’t have any strategy. I didn’t have any plan. So what I would suggest for any person that’s in this place is that they get a plan, a strategy that they follow. And they move forward and they go all in on that strategy. Discipline really important. Yeah. So have the discipline and realize that, you know, unfortunately we don’t plant a seed.
[00:03:40] It instantly grows a tree and the money tree drops cash on us. It doesn’t work like that, right? That’s not how it works. So what we have to do is we have to have a plan. We have to have a process. We need to follow the process. So let’s look at it now. psychologically. Now, when I was in that place, I remember doing what Rebecca’s saying.
[00:03:58] I didn’t, I didn’t have mentals. I just tried things. And because of that, I found it very frustrating. I found it very, very difficult because I didn’t know what to do. It was only when I eventually got a plan and followed the plan that I was able to go out there and I was able to create sales and make things happen.
[00:04:14] So now let’s fast forward and let’s give, uh, Rebecca, The benefit of the experience. So this is the benefit of the experience. Set out a plan, what you’re going to do. Look at the psychology and work backwards. So the psychology is this. You want to sell more products. You’re at home. You want to sell more products.
[00:04:31] You want to get your products into people. Now in order for somebody to buy that product. So this is where you are. This is where you want to be. Now, in order for somebody to buy that product, they have to have it demonstrated to them psychologically that this product could be a benefit to them. So I need to actually say that if I.
[00:04:48] Use this skincare product. Have I used it on my skin that, you know, just basic psychology is people need things demonstrated. So there’s different ways that you can demonstrate things. So, for example, we’re talking here, we’re using voice and we’re demonstrating how can you build businesses? That’s what we’re talking about.
[00:05:05] We’re actually demonstrating that, and it’s in the same thing what that that’s what content essentially is. So we know that they need a demo. If she wants to sell more, we know that she’s at home and we know that she’s probably, you know, in a place where she’s feeling quite lonely, having those stops, starts and those stops.
[00:05:23] We know that in order for her to grow her business, she needs to speak to more people and give more demonstrations. So if you’re writing notes, that’s it. We’ve got to have more conversations. We’ve got to give more demos and we’ve got to make more offers. Now, if you do those three things, you grow your business really simply.
[00:05:38] Now, the thing that you’re battling with with those three things is the motivation. And what we need to do is we need to write down a plan and we need to work backwards. So first of all, what I would suggest if you were trying to sell skincare products, I would do one demonstration per day. So this is like, I’m going to do a demonstration.
[00:05:55] I’m going to create some content around me putting it on my skin. I’m literally going to do that. I’m going to film me doing it. I’m going to tell everyone, this is a demonstration. This is how you use a skincare product. This is what you do with it. This is the result that it can get you in the longterm.
[00:06:10] These are the benefits of it. And I would create and give some education around those skincare. I would do it one a day for 30 days. That’s my plan. Yeah. One day, 30 days, one a day, 30 days, which means you’ve got to make a video. This is a people go. I have the time. Well, this video is going to take you three minutes, right?
[00:06:29] Three to five minutes. If you really want to be fancy, right? And all the rest of it, it’s going to take you 20 minutes, but you still got that in, in your eight hour day. Okay. Especially if you’re working from home. So we’re going to do a video a day for 30 days, one video a day. And by the way, this is on skincare, but it don’t matter what you do.
[00:06:46] If you’re a mortgage broker, you’re going to do a video a day talking about best mortgage deals, how to improve your credit. You know, how to find a mortgage deal, what interest rates mean, how they work, right? So this is a video day. You’re going to post them every single day and I know what you’re going to say.
[00:07:01] And I know you’re going to be thinking, you’ll be thinking, but I don’t have an audience and no one’s going to see it. And no one’s going to care and blah, blah, blah. The reality is they won’t. No one will care. And no, you don’t have an audience and no one will listen to it. That’s not why we’re doing it.
[00:07:12] So that’s the first thing you got to understand. Right? So we’re going to do our video a day for 30 days out of those videos. And you make 30 and it’s going to be one video that actually gets you some interaction. It’s going to stand out. It’s going to stand out. We’re going to get some comments. We’re going to get some, some people that like it.
[00:07:32] We’re going to get some people saying thank you. And that’s the key word. Um, I know that we had a question with someone about AdCon that was out with John the other week. And one of the things I love that cause, uh, was with Stephen Bartlett speaking on stage last week. And one of the things I love that he said, he said, the only way to grow your business online is to add value to strangers that don’t know you.
[00:07:50] Yeah, that’s great. That’s a great word. And what I’m looking for out of your 30 videos is I’m looking for people to say thank you, whether that’s a direct message. To say thank you for this or thank you that helped me or I’m looking for people to comment. Thank you. Now, when I’ve done that, I know that I’ve added value to a stranger.
[00:08:12] I don’t know. And then I’m going to take that piece of content and I’m going to turn it into an ad that drives out to the market. And I’m going to Back that winner. So it’s like finding a horse that you’re going to back.
[00:08:25] Chris Cook: So the organic is the test.
[00:08:26] Adam Stott: Yes. The organic is the test. We found a winner. We now back that horse.
[00:08:30] Yeah. And this turn that ad. So let’s say we’re using Facebook for this piece of content, turn it into a Facebook ad with the capability of being able to message. We know that other people said thank you, and by the way, if your nan said thank you, it don’t count, right? This is a stranger. That’s not the right test.
[00:08:47] No, no, no, right. You know, we’re looking for, we’re looking for, and if your best friend or someone you know, we’re looking for a stranger to say thank you, and you’re going to keep creating content until you get a stranger that says thank you. And then you’re going to turn that into a winner. You’re going to turn it into an ad.
[00:09:03] You’re going to drive that ad out to the market. And now you drove that ad out to the market with a message in our button, because you’re small, because you’re working from home. You’ve got time to message people back and build a relationship. What we’re then going to do with those messages that we get, we’re bringing new messages in.
[00:09:16] We’re going to move them on to. a consultation call, move them onto a skin audit, um, move them onto a conversation where we can go further. Right. And now we’re going to be bringing in what we call top of funnel leads. So now we’re bringing in some leads. That means now Rebecca, instead of creating cause she’s still create content every day, find some new horses to bag, but now she’s got an asset that’s out in the market, generating leads, generating inquiries.
[00:09:41] And now what she can do is Is she moves them onto a skin audit? Hey, one of the things we do with our clients is we give a skin audit. It’s completely free. We jump on, I look at your skin. So yeah, yeah,
[00:09:51] Chris Cook: yeah.
[00:09:51] Adam Stott: Adds more value. And then where you’re looking to get to in dreamland is three new consults every day.
[00:09:59] From home and three of those people, two of them turning into a client, you know, because you add so much value to them. And now all of a sudden you said in 600 pound a day’s worth of skincare, plus whatever you’re doing with your hands and you know, in your salon and stuff like that. And, and before you know, you’ve built a pretty good business, right?
[00:10:16] Because 600 pound a day. It’s going to allow us to, you know, bring in 3000 pound a week, uh, bring in 12, 000 pounds a month, uh, bring in 144, 000 pounds a year basically. And now you’ve got 144, 000 pounds a year coming in. What can you do? Well, great. Get somebody else to do the consults, get somebody else to create a content, um, business plan where it was basically just showing Rebecca exactly how to grow a business in, in less than 10 minutes.
[00:10:42] So we’re talking, we’re talking
[00:10:43] Chris Cook: demos. We’re talking content every day for 30
[00:10:47] Adam Stott: days, find a winner with your content, message ads, message ads would be nice for someone starting out. Yeah, yeah, we would. Nice and easy to do. Because we’re so busy. We’re a different stage. Yeah. We’ve got a lot of automations in place, but you’re early.
[00:10:59] I’ll probably use the message ads. I think it’s WhatsApp ads, um, driving those inquiries. Uh, if you remember back in the day, I mean, you know, take Chris, Chris and Chris, what? Yeah. Worked with me for many, many, many years back in the day. We used to run how many message ads on Facebook when in, in a previous business?
[00:11:17] Yeah. Hundreds, thousands, thousands, thousands.
[00:11:20] Chris Cook: We were multiple objectives all day, every day, thousands of pounds testing everything. Yeah.
[00:11:25] Adam Stott: So, uh, they, they will work for a small business and that, that’s what I’ll do. Now that there is a plan there. So that’s a plan. Yeah. So my, my actual tips are get a plan, right?
[00:11:35] If you don’t have a plan, you can borrow the one I just give you. If you’ve got loads of excuses as to why you can do it, I don’t mean Rebecca’s, I know Rebecca, but I mean it’s other people watching, right? You go, yeah, but don’t want to make a video, all right? It’s like, okay, well, you know, you got to embrace it.
[00:11:49] Well, one, you can embrace it. Two, if you don’t want to make a video, well then, you know, post content. But you know what? You’re probably gonna have to post three times a day to find a winner that you could turn into an
[00:11:59] Chris Cook: ad. Yeah, I think, I think faceless content can work, but actually for a service like hers, you’d probably agree it’s a bit more personable, isn’t it?
[00:12:07] So she’s much better off getting comfortable in front of the camera. Definitely. Yeah, definitely. So
[00:12:12] Adam Stott: all the excuses come up, well, I can’t do that. You know, we’ve got to, we’ve got to overcome the excuse. So get a plan, overcome your excuses. Right move people to a sales based conversation the way you grow a business whether you’re at home Or wherever you are, you should speak to more people.
[00:12:28] You make more offers. And if you weren’t, like I say, speak to more people, give more demos, make more offers, three things. If, uh, if, if you do that, you will be moving people for a process to become customers. The more you do that, you, the more you grow your business, the more you then reinvest in the team, the more you grow.
[00:12:46] Chris Cook: I just say I wouldn’t actually get too hung up on the actual production of the stuff as well of the content because the amount of, of ads and things I’ve seen that are almost done in like a raw selfie style and absolutely fly. So I think sometimes people get a bit thinking they’ve got to spend an hour or whatever building a piece of content.
[00:13:03] Don’t need to do that. I don’t think.
[00:13:05] Adam Stott: No, absolutely not. And the best for, for this, in this instance, you know, using the skincare. Okay. It’s probably going to be, uh, you know, get the demos out there. Yeah. Fabulous
[00:13:15] Chris Cook: demos out there. There, there was kind of a second part to that. So she’s basically saying I work alone and I tried to minimize my hours and maximize higher ticket treatments.
[00:13:24] What ways do you suggest, um, I make more money without always having to be hand on, uh, hands on treating someone. I’ve increased my prices and taken out less profitable treatments. So basically she’s trying to maximize higher ticket treatments. Any ways, strategies, ideas that she can use to do that in her cell.
[00:13:43] Adam Stott: Yeah, for sure. So in this being very, very specific as a salon, in order to do high ticket in a salon, usually you have to purchase machinery, right? So I’ve worked with salons loads and they help lots of salon businesses grow. You’ve got experience there. About half as a salon, they’ll help to grow significantly as well, right?
[00:14:01] So, um, you know, you’ve got, you, you usually have to invest in, In machinery in order to sell a really high ticket product or service. Now what I would say is from from my experience when you do invest in that machinery. If you’ve got a list and you’ve got a group of customers to go back to, Your group of customers are going to want to try that new product when you deliver it.
[00:14:24] Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. So it’s the new thing. So it’s definitely worthwhile when it helps increase revenues. Um, but what I would say is, you know, um, it sounds like, uh, this, this, uh, Rebecca is doing the right things. She’s, and this is the advice for anybody that’s watching that is you have got to look at how.
[00:14:43] Do you maximize the price point that you offer and the high ticket value that you offer? How do you maximize that and deliver it in the shortest amount of time? So, for example, you’re a salon and you’re doing nails and it’s costing 40 to do the nails and you gotta pay someone to 20 pounds to do the 40 pound nails.
[00:15:01] You are not going to earn a lot of money because then by the time you got paid for the shop and you got to pay the VAT, the PAYE, the national insurance and everything else, that nail treatment. Yeah. You’ve looked after a customer ain’t making you no money. No, it’s making you very little money. So you have to look at how can I build in products or services that.
[00:15:17] Are of a higher value now, um, I could go intimately into what a salon should do because I know treatments that cost little that high return, you know, things that I’ve seen Sasha do, but the more important thing and that we’ve seen our clients do, we’ve had hundreds of clients in this industry, but the thing I’ll say is more important.
[00:15:38] Is, is actually getting rid of the low ticket, um, opportunities, maximizing the time, and then also looking at how you maximize your time as individual. Now, the only way you can build a business, only way you can build a business is by building a team. It’s the only way you can build it. Otherwise, you will be stuck at home forever.
[00:16:00] Whoever, you know, whoever’s watching will be stuck at home forever until you build a team. So what this means is you’ve got to start investing in people. Now, the people that you can invest in is you can invest in other people to do those treatments. That’s one option here. Or you can start to invest in other people to support your business so you don’t have to work every hour that God sends.
[00:16:18] So you can actually Make more money in, in the treat rooms, rooms, et cetera. So the first thing I would be looking at is freelancers, uh, VAs, uh, bringing people in to edit the videos that she’s now creating. She’s like, Oh, I don’t know. Well, create the videos, get them edited, you know, uh, get the person to respond to all the comments on social media, get them.
[00:16:38] Uh, dealing with the DMs and that way the, the info is flowing through. So you can create a revenue to them when you create the revenues, then you can employ more people to close more deals. So I would say your focus should not be, how do I just sell something for two, 3000 pounds right now? Um, when you haven’t built the team out and you haven’t got your solid structure going within the business.
[00:17:00] So I would execute the plan. I’d get more clients. I’d build the team. So I’ll do exactly what I said. 30 days finding ads, get that going, do the three things, have more conversations, make more demos, make more offers, close more deals. Now you’ve got some revenue in the tin. I’d reinvest that revenue in some freelancers to help you do the operational business side of the business.
[00:17:21] And then. Once you continue doing that and you get into a solid process where your clients are consistent, your revenues consistent, your freelancers are being paid. My next step would be, I would look to go and actually move out of home and I would then go and I would look for a salon myself where I could go to a nice location, get some walking traffic, hire some people and build the business.
[00:17:43] Now, if you don’t want to do that and you want to keep the business small, then you can still work from home. But you might have to hire someone in to do the treatment so you can get someone in the treatment room. You can do the content, you can get the thing flowing. But somebody else does the treatments, you don’t actually do them.
[00:17:57] And you can go off and you go to the beach with your kids if you want.
[00:18:00] Chris Cook: Yeah,
[00:18:00] Adam Stott: yeah. Whatever you want to do. But you’ve got to look at, are you building a lifestyle business? Are you building a business? What do you want to do? And I think that’s a conscious question that everybody needs to ask. Are you a lifestyle business?
[00:18:12] Are you building a business? So look, that is how You sell from home. You do three things. Very simple. One, you initiate more conversations. Two, you give more demonstrations and you move your clients to the point where you can give them a demonstration. You can’t spend one second with people on social media.
[00:18:33] And expecting to buy of you, you’ve got to move them off social media. You’ve got to spend time with them, 30 minutes talking to them, building that relationship at the very least. So you can make a sales based offer that increases your sales. And if you keep that at the forefront of your mind, you’ll build your business.
[00:18:47] Hopefully you’ve enjoyed today’s episode. Of business grow secrets. It’s been tons of fun having Chris on. He’s been amazing. If you love Chris, tell us in the comments, go and give a big old, yeah, please do. Please tell me to Chris. And I remember look for next time you are selling from home, save this episode.
[00:19:05] If you can. Mark this episode, send it to someone that you know, so you’ve got it somewhere there accessible for you because if you ever have a moment where you’re lacking some motivation and you want to know how to sell from home and you want a reminder, you can come back to this episode and you get it going and tell us in the comments if you enjoyed it.
[00:19:21] I look forward to seeing you and meeting you in person if I haven’t already, and I’ll see you on the next episode of business growth secrets.