I launched my first information product last year. Before I wrote the sales letter for it, I carried out detailed research on small business owners. They were my target customers and I knew if I wanted to successfully sell to them, I needed to understand how they think.
As part of the research, I got a group of 30 small business owners (in the form of a Focus Group Discussion) to answer these questions:
- What keeps you awake at night, eyes open, staring at the ceiling?
- What are you afraid of?
- What are you angry about? Who are you angry at?
- What are your top 3 daily frustrations?
- What trends are occurring and will occur in your business or lives?
- What do you secretly desire most?
- Is there a built-in bias in the way you make decisions?
- Do you have your own language?
- Who else is selling something similar to your product and how are they selling it?
- Who else has tried selling you something similar and how has that effort failed?
From the responses, I discovered a lot of them were afraid to put themselves out there.
7% said it’s because they don’t think their product can deliver the promised results. 26% said they were just worried about being rejected.
But they all agreed, being afraid was preventing them from actively promoting their products and services.
Just like them, I still remember the days I was afraid to sell because I didn’t want anyone to ‘hate me’. It took years of training and practice to get over the fear. If you’re a business owner and you’re struggling with this, I will not try to talk you out of being afraid. Rather, l will show you a simple method I have used and continue to use to overcome the fear of selling.
The first thing you need to know is fear is a normal human emotion that promotes survival-whenever we sense danger or feel unsafe. What this means is, there is something about selling that makes you feel unsafe and it makes you do all within your power to protect yourself.
Let’s try to figure out where the fear came from.
Growing up, you probably heard statements like;
- “He cheated you”,
- “I was scammed of all my money”,
- “That lady selling food cheats everybody”,
- “I don’t want anyone to cheat me“.
…from parents, friends, and colleagues. You’ve seen them go through the pain of losing money and you don’t want to be grouped in that category.
You probably saw your parents, friends, and colleagues avoid, lie to, and turn down pushy sales people.
You don’t want to be pushy,
You don’t to ‘scam’ anybody,
You don’t want anyone to laugh at you,
You don’t want anyone to avoid you.
You just want to sell your products and services.
I wanted this too, which is why when I discovered how simple it was to build a personality on social media, I jumped at the idea.
With social media, I realized if I wanted people to know me, all I had to do was create content. If I wanted them to like and trust me, I have to be consistent with it.
The best part was if I could do this well, they will be the ones chasing me to buy my products, not the other way round.
The only way to get people chasing you is when you create content they want or need.
The ability to create content is just one piece of the puzzle. You need to be consistent with it.
When you have a content plan, being consistent becomes easier.
So, how do you create a content plan?
You start by outlining what you want the content to achieve. To get anyone to know, like, and trust you, there are 3 things your content must do. It must:
- Entertain and engage.
- Educate them, tell them who you are, why you do what you do, and who needs what you are selling.
- Elevate them. Take them through the customer journey. From not knowing anything about you to becoming die-hard fans.
I had a hard time creating a content plan that did all this. In 2015, I came up with a simple structure. It had 6 categories. They are:
- Quote
- Tip
- Jokes
- Promotions
- Questions
- Articles
Each category played a role. The role of the quote, tips, and articles was education. The role of the jokes and questions was to entertain the audience. The more I used this structure, the more I learned to be consistent.
Even though I taught over 1000 students how to create content using this method, I still get asked this question “but how do I create the content?”
It wasn’t until 2020 that I realized that knowing how to create content and actually doing it, are 2 different things. So, I went back to the drawing board and created the Ultimate Sales Machine. I created it to help businesses create content specific to their business.
What a lot of people don’t realize is, the machine is powered by 3 sales techniques.
The first technique teaches you how to get sales even if you just started a business.
The second one teaches you how to get sales regularly and the third teaches you how to get bulk orders.
The content marketing plan plays a major role in sales, so if you want to get sales daily, you need to build the Ultimate Sales Machine for your business.
How do you create one for your business?
I show you how, in my FREE class; The Ultimate Sales Machine training. To save a seat, REGISTER HERE.