Podcast Episode

Transcript: 

00:04

Hello, welcome to the sales show. I'm Maree Kirkpatrick, your sales and business strategist. I'm a mom, a wife, and a multi-business owner myself. With over 15 years of experience in sales and business, I have worked with startups all the way through to multimillion-dollar companies. I've seen the good, the bad, and the ugly. I love helping service-based businesses make an income as well as an impact. Let's jump into talking about all things sales and business. 

00:34

Hello, and welcome to another episode of the sales show. I'm Maree Kirkpatrick, your host, and your go-to girl if you want more connected and high-converting sales. Now it's getting into that time of year where you're looking at the next 12 months of 2024 is approaching, maybe get a little bit excited like I do when you're like, yes, I want to get into this. And you have that absolute love and passion for planning. You can't buy so many journals, planners, calendars, you have so much of this stuff that you can potentially even start your own stationery store. Or maybe that's just me, I see this happen time and time again, where women constantly are planning and they get stuck in this looking for the next thing that's going to take their business to the next level.

01:20

 I've played this game too, right? So there's no judgment on any of this, you plan everything out, you've got it all clear, mapped pretty colors, highlighters, whiteboard, markers, all the things, and then maybe you don't follow it up, you don't follow through with it. Maybe you get bored, maybe you get distracted, maybe there's no strategy behind it. So you go looking for that shiny object or that magic pill that is going to take your business to the next level. And to really help you grow your sales. 

01:52

Now, it would be great if every time we bought a journal or a planner or a calendar that it doubled or tripled our business turnover. But the truth is that that doesn't tend to happen. And this is the reason why I was so clear that I wanted to have the 90-day strategy sessions in her sales club, because I see so many women that are constantly spending time and money in buying more courses in gonna more master classes in buying more tools to grow their business, and to increase their sales. 

02:26

 So the 90-day sales strategy sessions that we do in her sales club, allow you to stay on track, we plan out everything, everything is streamlined and clear. So all you have to do is keep ticking along for you to hit those goals. You don't get distracted by the shiny objects. So you can see people that are pitching courses, programs, events, whatever it is. But you know, you have that plan. And you're really clear for the next 90 days what that looks like. So I wanted to give you a few steps that I go through in her sales club. And as well as with my VIP clients, about how to set up these 90 Day strategies. You can plan out for the next 12 months. If you're that sort of person, I always want to be that sort of person. But in reality, there's so many things that are moving around me within the business with family with life with my goals and dreams, and what I'm looking for that I've learned to just focus on the next 90 days.

03:22

 So here are a few quick tips. First of all, get clear on what is the goal that you are aiming for. Sounds pretty simple, but get really clear. Is it revenue? And if it is revenue, what is that number? Break it down? If it is that number and you sell courses? How many people do need to go through that course if it's VIP clients, how many do you need? What are your conversion rates? How many people do you need to talk to to end up with that many clients? 

03:48

If you are an online course creator or you sell online programs and things like that, look at what your conversion rate is on your webinars, your masterclass is your website, and then get clear on how many leads you need to pump through your marketing funnels to reach those numbers. If you're looking to grow your database, is it a percentage? Is it a number? Is it month on month? What does that look like for you is one of your goals to increase your social media presence? Maybe it's to end up with more speaking gigs.

04:19

 Maybe it's to grow your podcast, maybe it's to be a guest on the podcast, there are so many things that you can look at from a goals perspective, if you're looking at 90 days don't have 10 goals in that 90 days. Maybe you want to set one to three, maximum five, it can also be health goals. It depends exactly what it is for you and where you're at, but be really, really clear on what is that goal that you are aiming for for the next 90 days, then you want to make sure that you have a strategy behind it that drives you to achieve these goals. 

04:50

So if you're looking to grow your business, you want to have a sales strategy. And that sales strategy will then link into your sales process. So that everything is intertwined, you know that you have a well-oiled machine that all you need to do is keep doing what you do to generate the leads, and to increase your conversion rates to then end up with more sales in the bank. 

05:13

So make sure you have a strategy to drive towards those goals. Number three is what are you actually selling over the next 90 days. Now, as I said, I work with a lot of VIP clients, I work with online businesses, I work with service-based product base, what happens is, and especially from an online business perspective, people will do a launch, or they'll put out a big offer maybe every three or four months. Great, fantastic. But what happens is they put so much pressure, cashflow pressure on this launch, that's really hard. It's really hard. From a mindset perspective, it's really hard from a cash flow perspective, it's just not needed. 

05:56

Look at over the next 90 days, what can you be selling? Plan it out? Maybe it's online courses, maybe you want to sell some VIP stuff? Maybe you want to be running a paid workshop? What does that look like for your cash flow so that you reduce the peaks and troughs you have from a cash flow perspective in your business over the next 90 days? 

06:18

Number four, how are you actually going to sell those offers or products over the next 90 days? This is pretty basic, right? A lot of people say, Oh, I just put it out there and people should buy it, ya know, as I was talking to one of my beautiful marketing clients the other day, and she said, there's this thing that you say, Maree, that you probably don't even realize you say, and it's asking the question of Yeah, but did you actually sell it? Have you actually showed people why they should work with you? Why they should buy your product? Why they should work with your services? Have you actually sold it? 

06:54

So number four, how are you actually selling your products and your services over the next 90 days that will then link in with your strategy? So get really clear on what that looks like? You then want to understand step five, what marketing do you need to do to support that? So are you doing social media campaigns? What social media posts are you doing? What podcasts have you got? What value are you adding to your clients? Are you creating some beautiful documents or worksheets are something that can help your clients show? How your value goes through when you work with them? Give them a taster? What are those tasters that you're going to add into your marketing to help support your sales strategy and actually help you sell what it is you're doing over the next 90 days?

07:45

 Number six, you want to then look at what metrics are you tracking? Yes, I'm going to ask you to look at your numbers. I know not everyone likes it, I also sometimes avoid it, I totally get it. What you don't want to happen is to get to the end of a quarter, which is your 90 days normally, and say Holy cow, I didn't hit it, or my cash flow is not enough, or my expenses are too high. You want to know what are those metrics data stats that you need to constantly be tracking. And I recommend that you do it every week or fortnight to make sure that you can pivot things, optimize things, change things up if you need to make sure you're looking at your metrics. And number seven is what happens if things aren't working.

08:29

What are you going to do to keep you on track? What are you going to do to pivot is there a plan B that you can implement so that over the next 90 days, you are so clear on what you need to be doing? You're clear on where you're going, you're clear on how you're going to get there, you're clear on the activities that you need to do you're clear on what you need to implement. You're clear on what stats metrics data that you're going to be looking at to make sure that you're staying on track. 

08:56

 All of this comes into your 90-day strategy. And I recommend that you sit down and do this every 90 days. But we're going into 2024 Be really clear on what are your goals? What are your big goals for the year and if you're like me, you want to set some big financial goals for your business. You want to set some personal goals. You want to set some health goals. Maybe it's relationship goals. For me, I like to make sure that I'm ticking obviously the revenue side of it because we run businesses and that's what happens. But I have goals for my podcast I have speaking and presenting goals. I have health goals. I know it sounds crazy. I have holiday goals because if I don't book that stuff in, it doesn't happen. I have relationship goals. I have goals that I want to hit and stats I want to hit with my kids to make sure I'm staying connected to make sure that I'm constantly checking in because that for me is really important in my life. I want to make sure that my life is as balanced, whatever that means as best as it can be.

09:57

And so I do these 90 Day strategy sessions time and time and time again, I map them out, I make sure that my marketing is aligned with that I make sure that my lead generation is marked out with that, I make sure that my offers are all leading into beautifully helping connected people. Because the more people I help, the more I know, I'll hit my goals. And it'll give me that really good, warm, fluffy feeling.

10:23

 So let me ask you a question today, have you mapped out your 2024 and in enough detail, and you've dug in deep enough that you're clear on what you're selling, but you also have a sales strategy behind it? I know, I'm the Sales Chief, I'm supposed to tell you this. But I see people spending money, hundreds of dollars 1000s of dollars, they do strategy sessions, they do business growth sessions, they do planning days, they do all of that. But the key element that they are missing is that none of that has a sales strategy to drive the living bejeebers out of it. And it's frustrating for me to see people waste their time and money and energy on it, you're in my community, you're listening to this, I don't want you to be one of those people, I want you to come to me and be like, Oh, my God, Marie, I mapped it out, I've got my sales strategy to back it. And I'm really clear on where I'm going. 

11:16

People can attempt to sell me stuff left, right, and center. But I'm really clear on what I'm aiming for. And I know the path and I know what bricks I'm adding to grow my path with my business with my growth, personal growth, all of that. 

11:29

So that is my sales strategy or planning for 2024 guide for you. Make sure that you feel connected with it, make sure if you feel like and this happens to me, so I want to help you along if this also happens to you. I know. And over the years of doing a lot of personal development and things like that, when I'm feeling out of control of track and clear, a little bit wobbly within my business. 

11:57

That's when I go shopping for their next planner, their next course their next journal, I'm trying to throw money at the problem. But when I actually sit down and sit with my business and allow myself to dream, and I know sometimes as women, we're not great at that we who were ideas and think no, I can't do that, that feels too hard. That will never work. But if you just sit down and let yourself dream, no one even has to know about this stuff. If you don't want to write it down and then write down a few ways of what you could do to achieve that. What steps do you need to take? Who do you need to be? What does that look like? Trust me, it's not in the planners. It's not at office works. It's not in Kiki Kay, I've been there. I've bought them all. I've bought all that stuff.

12:44

 You just need to understand where you're going. Have a sales strategy behind it. So you clear on what you're selling? How you're going to sell it and what marketing you're going to do behind it. And then what are those metrics? How are you going to track it? Take yourself out for the coffee once a week do you see oh dates, to get really clear on where the business is at where your revenues at where your marketing stats are out, see what you need to change, pivot optimize, or let go of if you need to, so that you save the time and energy and you make 2020 for the best year in your business.

13:18

 That may be from a revenue point of view, it may be from the amount of people that you've helped it may be from the opportunities that have come through whatever that looks like for you. There's no one-size-fits-all in this business world. But save yourself the time and money and energy of keep throwing money at the problem where just be really clear on what your sales strategy is for the next 90 days or for 2024 Depending on how you want to plan out.

13:42

 If you've got any questions, please reach out. I would love to hear from you. If you feel like you need some help with planning out your sales strategy, come and check out his sales club. As I said, it's something that we go through every 90 days, I want to make sure you're on track. I want to make sure that we are hitting those goals and those targets. It's not just about you joining a beautiful connected community for the woman Fluffies I actually want you to move your business forward. I'm here to support you to move your business forward with all the tools, the frameworks, everything that I use in my business to double and triple your income over the next 12 months. 

14:16

Go and check out Mareekirkpatrick.com/club if you've got any questions as I said, reach out, and until the next episode of the sales show keep selling from a connected and relationship-focused space. See you soon.

14:29

  Thank you so much for listening to this episode of the sales show. Please share it on social media for your friends to see and make sure you tag me at Maree Kirkpatrick so I can personally say thank you if you would like to show me some love, leave me a review on Apple podcast. I'd love to hear from you email me at podcast at Mareekirkpatrick.com. And if you'd like to work with me further or see any of the free resources mentioned on today's show, they can be found at Mareekirkpatrick.com I truly hope this podcast provides useful information and so much value to you, too. You can build a business with impact and income.