Podcast Episode

Transcript: 

00:04
Hello, and welcome to another episode of the sales show. I'm Maree Kirkpatrick, your host your go-to sales girl, and anything that you need for connected and high-converting sales. Now today, I want to ask you a question. Have you ever wondered why someone didn't purchase from you, maybe you've had a great conversation you've connected really well, you know how you can help them. And you can see sales working together really, really well. Everything seems like we're on track. And then they don't move forward with you, or sometimes you don't even hear back from them. It can be really frustrating and even confusing. And I know that this has happened to me in the past as well.

00:44
So today, I want to help you decode what may potentially be happening for you, as well as obviously show you how to stop this happening. And to have better-connected sales with higher conversions.

00:57
I've seen in a lot of Facebook groups and conversations with business owners recently about seeing other business owners or certain offers sell so much better than others. Maybe you've even observed other people in your industry that they seem to be thriving, while you're struggling with even your pricing or getting people to work with you, or understanding what you need to be putting in your packages and your offers.

01:25
Now, if you stick around for the next 20 minutes or so I'm going to help you uncover what needs to happen for you to get into your customer's mind. Because understanding what makes your customers buy is crucial for any business success that you're looking for. We'll also explore the psychology behind how people buy, why people buy, and what factors influence their buying decisions. We'll also look at a framework of what I called the ASS test, I know may sound a little bit cheeky. But in that ASS test, we look at things like how do we develop the trust in connection with the people that we're connecting with? And how do we pass that ASS test with flying colors? So let's dig in.

02:06
So consumer behavior is absolutely the heartbeat of any successful sales strategy. And the reason why we're talking about it today is because, with everything that's changing in the world, at the moment, with the economy with changing people's buying habits, spending habits, it's this constant, ever-evolving business landscape. And I want you to understand that knowing your customers is non-negotiable. And I'm not talking about just on a surface level about like their age and their location and what they're interested in. And all of that, I'm talking about getting deep, getting deep and so connected with knowing what your customers want, that you can sell so easily and connect with him on a whole different level that maybe some of your competitors aren't doing.

02:51
I think it's the real key to staying ahead in any business game and any sales, increasing of any of your sales. Now, you might be wondering, why should I be listening to this? And why do I really need to understand consumer behavior? Isn't it just if people wanted to work with me that they would, because they already know how good I am at what I do? Unfortunately, that's not always the case.

03:12
So today, I want to decode your consumers, how they actually make these choices, how to unlock that roadmap to increase your sales, how to increase your loyalty, how to boost your brand, and how to increase your positioning, so that you have that constant sustainable growth within your business.

03:32
It's not just about what they buy, it's why they buy and how they buy.

03:37
Now, let me paint a picture for you. Imagine a small business, whether you're online, whether you're a local business, whether you work face to face, whether you do everything over websites, and things like that. Imagine being that business and despite having a fantastic product and service. You're struggling to connect and make sales or at least the sales that you're wanting.

04:04
Maybe you've got some dribs and drabs coming in, maybe it's not dire straits. But it's not where you want to be. And once you realize that understanding the consumer behavior and that may be the missing link. We want to really understand what's happening for your consumers, and how we can make some strategic changes that can not only increase your sales but also forge those lasting connections and potentially even increase the lifetime value of those customers.

04:38
I had this happen recently with two beautiful business owners that I was working with, who were so frustrated by constantly hitting the same sales figures. So whether they did a product launch, whether they opened their course program, no matter what they did, they kept here seeing that same level over and over and over again, similar figures, it was that glass ceiling on their sales, no matter what they did, their sales didn't increase, or they'd sit around, you know, 100 new members, and they were like what is going on, they increase their ad spend, they increased their social media, they even increased the amount of emails that we're sending.

05:24
So they're doing more than they've ever done. But their sales haven't moved, or they haven't been able to continue to have continuous growth on growth. Every time they've launched or month or month, once we actually delved deeper into their customer and got on the ground with it, like I'm not, as I said before, I'm not just talking about the stock standard avatar that so many, you know, business coaches talk about, I'm talking about getting on the ground, and really understanding that person that you want to connect with that person that you want to buy your products and services.

06:05
And so once we really got on the floor with that, with their ideal client, we named her, we got really clear on what she's thinking the conversations she's having, we uncovered what it is that they needed to change what they needed to tweak, and then what we needed to optimize. And we adapted this strategy, according to that, which not only boosted their sales, but they had some of the best launches they've ever had. And the knowledge that they've taken from that is something that they can continue to work on, over and over and over again, as each launch goes along.

06:39
We broke through that glass ceiling of their sales, and we completely changed the positioning of their business, which means that down the track, if they choose to increase their pricing, that positioning in the market still stands very firm. You may or may not have noticed many sales techniques around that big corporations use. Even places like Coles and Woolworths that have the two for $7, you know, maybe aren't on chips or lollies or, you know, some other product in the supermarket.

07:13
Now, this is a sales strategy employed by the supermarkets. It's not just about the discount that the clients getting. But what they've done is they've actually tapped into the consumer psychology and creating that perception of value and what drives people to buy. Now, if you actually think about it, every time that they employ that sales strategy into or onto a product, it means that they are increasing the amount that people spend with them. And so I want you to think about what you can do within your business, to understand the consumer psychology and put that into a sales strategy. Have you ever walked into a store and wondered why and even if we go back to the, you know, Coles and Woolworths, why does certain products sit at eye level? Why are there products or certain products that are knee the cash register? This is all strategically done sales strategy? I know we probably don't, you probably don't even think about it as a normal consumer. But what I want you to do is to think differently. It's not random. All this sort of stuff is calculated to move consumers into what we want them to buy, and how we understand the behavior that our consumers excuse. How sorry.

08:44
And how are consumers purchase these subtle tactics around us every single day? And I'm not saying that you need to do these sorts of things in your business. I'm just saying that if you understand the psychology of your customers, then we can change the way that you do things.

09:01
If I was in your shoes, and maybe you're sitting there as a business owner, that you may be starting out you may be a little while into your business journey. It doesn't matter how long you've been in business, and I've worked with small businesses all the way through to Multi-million dollar corporate corporations. It doesn't matter who they are, you need to keep understanding your target market your target audience on a deeper level.

09:28
What are their pain challenges? What are their desires? What are their triggers? What are the conversations they're already having in their mind that you can step into? What are the words that they're using? What are they really feeling deeply understanding your target market will change the way you can sell to your consumers. And this knowledge becomes the foundation of a powerful sales strategy. So it means that anything that you put out there from marketing, from your products and services in regards to your offers from your pricing, or All of this needs to be taken into account, what you need to take into account the consumer behavior when you're looking at all those areas.

10:09
So what can you actually do about it? To get deeper with your client? Or your ideal client? These are the people that you want to work with the people that light you are the people, you think, Man, I'd love another 10 of those type clients. We've all got them. If you haven't had one, you're missing out. But I know for me when I've had those clients, I sit back and I think, holy cow, what do I need to do to have more of those clients? So ask yourself some simple questions. What are the words that they are using? Say, if we look at the health and well-being industry? Are they saying that they're frustrated? Or are they saying that they're tired, exhausted, and feeling frumpy? There's a big difference between that a lot of people say, Are you wanting to lose weight?

10:53
Now that yes, that's one way to look at it. But if we go deeper, it's like, Are you wanting to feel confident in your body? Are you wanting to be able to hold your shoulders back, chest up higher? And thinking, Yes, I'm good at what I do. I feel good, I look good. I'm ready to own this. What is it that they really want? And what are those words that they're using? You also want to ask yourself, what are their hopes, dreams, desires, goals? And how are they explaining that? You don't need to make up these words for your clients, a lot of the time, they'll be saying them for you. You just need to reuse those words into your marketing and into your sales. Another great thing to look at is what does their ideal day look like?

11:37
Now, when I've done this in the past, there's a big difference between even for example, the difference between people with kids, people without kids, moms with a business moms without a business. And I'm not saying like generic stuff of like, Are you a busy mom, every single mom is freaking busy. Every single one of us to the point where we think, oh my god, I used to think I was busy. And then I had kids and I didn't even know what busy was. So what does their ideal day look like? What are they thinking? What are they feeling? What do they do when they wake up in the morning? What are they thinking about at night? When they're sitting on the couch? What are they scrolling? What are they doing to turn off their mind? What are they doing when they feel stressed or uncomfortable about a certain situation? How are they describing their problem? How are they talking about it? What conversations are they having with their best mate? We also want to understand where are they hanging out?

12:33
Now when I've asked people questions like this in the past, when I've run workshops about it, people say yeah, my ideal clients hanging out on Facebook, or my ideal clients hanging out on Instagram. Right, fantastic. You've taken like one tiny step forward, I want you to take a bigger leap and understand specifically, where are they hanging out? What groups are they in? What pages are they looking at? What would come up in there for you page on things like tick tock or Instagram? What reels is the algorithm showing them based on their likes interests? Or what they're engaging in? digging deep to that sort of stuff? You also want to look at where are they at in the in the buying cycle? Now, this is a whole nother podcast that I'll do on its own.

13:21
But it's understanding things like does your client know that they need you? Do they know that they have a problem? Are they ready to buy? Are they just interested in maybe doing something different? And the way that you market to people will be different depending on where they are at in that buying cycle. But you want to understand where they are in that buying cycle. So you can tweak your marketing and your sales strategy around that. What are they feeling? What are they thinking? What's going on for them in their heads, their mind their self talk? Is it positive? Is it negative? Are they hating on themselves? Are they trying to boost themselves out? Are they digging themselves out of that bigger hole? What's really happening for them? And then one of the most important things that you need to look at is how do they actually need the information delivered? Now, a lot of people say well, I put a whole heap of stuff up on Facebook or Instagram, or I send 80 billion emails, great, unless you're a business owner, I don't know many people that are constantly on their emails multiple times a day.

14:27
Business owners, that's how we run our business. Most people that's not how they run their life. Or they may also have a personal email that they only check once a week or once a day versus a work email that they may have to check on a more regular basis. So you want to understand how do I actually need to connect with these people, our ideal clients, and once you understand that, then you want to tailor your marketing based on how your consumers behave. Right. And another great way to do this is by Looking at the data, I know in previous podcasts I have wrapped on about looking at the data and the statistics and the metrics because that sort of stuff doesn't lie.

15:11
You can find out like, if you're looking to do some research, you can look in Facebook groups where your ideal clients are hanging out, what are they talking about? How are they talking about the challenges that potentially your product or service solves? What are they? What are the words that they're using? What is the tone that they're using? How are they engaging in it, all of that will allow you to give you will allow you to have a really great insight into the interaction that they're having, or looking for, for your business or the products and services that you sell. You can also look at things like the open rates of your emails, click-through rates, website clicks, the amount of time someone actually spends on your website, it's really interesting to look at, and what is it that they actually clicking through on your website? what pages are they hitting? What buttons are they pressing? And is there a point on your website where they jump off? Are they feeling disengaged as at a certain place?

16:05
What can you do to optimize or tweak that? Now, if you don't look at this sort of stuff, you're not really going to understand what is going on for your potential consumer and how they buy. People come to me all the time and say people jumping on my website, but it's just not converting. Well, why isn't it converting? Are we using the right language? Are we connecting in the right way? All of that sort of stuff is so important, and analytical tools can really help you track these consumer behaviors online. And it gives you real-time data to then go and make really good informed decision. It's even kind of like having a crystal ball or, you know, like you're peeking into the window of your ideal client and seeing how they by how they make decisions. I know in previous roles, when I was working for some large corporate clients, and I was in the FMCG industry, which is like, we go into supermarkets, and we sell products into supermarkets and things like that.

17:08
Now, as the corporate company, our client was actually the supermarket. However, the supermarket was more more focused on does our product move off the shelf. And so to understand a little bit more about how our consumers were purchasing, what sort of decision making things that were going on for them when they stood in front of our section to buy. I actually did some market research and just stood there and watched.

17:41
I just observed what was going on for them. What were they thinking? Where were their eyes tracking? Did they hesitate with a really clear? Were they looking at prices? Did it look like that they were considering prices backwards and forwards? All these decisions are happening in your clients mind whether you like it or not. Right? Like it's just one of those things. A lot of the time people don't think about it, they just keep thinking, oh, yeah, my clients buy. And that's just tends to be what happens. But then we look at things like the acid test. Now, I know I mentioned this before. And I really want to take you through what that looks like. Because once people tend to understand this, they think holy cow, look, look at all the things that I've missed in the past.

18:25
Now, the ASS test is abbreviated for assessing sales system. So when someone goes to purchase something, or when you're selling something to someone, subconsciously, their brain goes through these steps. They first of all want to make sure that they're feeling safe. Does this person feel safe? Or do they give me that uncomfortable sleazy type feeling in this in your stomach? Now I'm sure you've experienced this. I've experienced it multiple times. I've seen it in Facebook groups where people try and ask questions. And really, it's like this underlying ik sleazy sale, it doesn't make you feel safe, it doesn't build that trust in your product or service.

19:17
So the first thing you want to do is make sure that you're getting your consumers and your customers to feel safe. Now there's plenty of ways you can do that within your business by understanding and connecting is the best way for that to happen. So once they feel safe we then want to look at the connection side of it. So subconsciously they've gone from Yes, I'm feeling safe to do I connect with this person. Now for me, my brain ask questions like Are these my people? And if the answer's no connection is not there. And for me, I can feel it. I can sense it. I can. There's a change in energy when I connect with people. It's actually really good Beautiful thing to be aware of. But understand that not all your consumers are conscious of this sort of stuff.

20:06
As I said, the ASS test is subconsciously happening, whether you like it or not. So they go through the safety, we build that connection with them, then we want to know that we can trust the person that we're potentially going to work with. Are they the sort of person that I can trust with my money, with my business with my ex, with the experiences that we're looking at having? If that trust isn't there, the chances of you converting that sale will be really frickin low. Like, there's just no other way to say it. If the trust isn't there, the chances of people buying are really, really low, we then want to understand or the next step is understanding.

20:46
So do we feel understood when we're talking to someone, I've had plenty of experiences where I've gone into buy something. And I'm really clear on what it is that I want. If I'm not clear, then my goal is for them to help me get clear based on their expertise. I'm coming to buy something, whether it's a product or service from that person, because in my mind, they are the expert. But if I'm not feeling like they understand me, I'm out. Subconsciously, I'm like, I don't understand why I don't really like this person. But I just don't feel like they get me. Or they may ask you a few questions to understand more about you. But when they actually deliver the opportunity, which is the next step. They haven't nailed it. They haven't touched on the reasons or the or the they haven't understood why I've wanted to buy that in the first place.

21:47
So we want to go safety, connection, trust, understanding, and then opportunity. Do you have the opposite? Is there an opportunity for us to work together? Is there an opportunity for me to buy from you? What does that look like? And then the last step of the process is the credibility does this person have that level of credibility that makes me confident that they're going to do what they say that they're going to do? This is the acid test. This is all happening subconsciously. And you want to make sure that you were taking each one of these steps when you are selling when you are connecting.

22:22
You want to make sure that your website ticks these boxes, you want to make sure that your marketing content ticks these boxes, also that you are passing the Ask test subconsciously, for your ideal target market. I hope that makes sense. If you've got any further questions about this sort of stuff, hit us up find me on social media at Maree Kirkpatrick chuck a question into the contact page at Mareekirkpatrick.com. There's many ways you can reach out to me, but I want you to really understand that this ASS test is really, really important.

22:57
Now, as we wrap up today's episode, I want you to remember something, understanding your ideal client and the and the behaviors that they have is not a one time effort. It's a continuous process. Every time you go to re launch something, every time you go to have a sale, every time you go to do something different within your business, keep checking in that you're understanding where your ideal client is at at that point in time. It's a continuous process. And if you're ready to look at ways that you can dig in deeper and really connect with your ideal client more,

23:39
I would love to welcome you into her sales club. It's really about taking your sales and your business growth to that next level. In a really connected and high converting way. There's no sleazy sales stuff. There's no pitching. There's no cookie cutter approach to this. It's about putting a sales process into your business that works for you and for your clients.

24:02
So you can check that out at Mareekirkpatrick.com/club. I also have a really great tool for you that you can use to give you additional insights into your consumer behavior. It is pure value like there's no hidden agenda for this I want you to be able to understand your clients better. And it's a complete game changer when it comes to increasing your sales. It will be there waiting for you at Mareekirkpatrick.com forward slash Sally. Now you may be wondering why Sally and that is the person that is my person. So that is the person that I direct all my content to. It is the person that I put together my office for I look at how I can add more value to Sally. And I use her in all my examples across the board. And she's based around what am I will based around many of my favorite clients about Yeah, I'd love a bit more of that person. I'd love a little bit more of that person and I want more Sally's within my business. They're the people that I enjoy working with.

25:04
If you enjoyed today's episode share on social media reach out to me, I would love to connect with you. We love hearing from our community. And you know, it's a little bit weird sometimes being a podcaster and running a podcast because there's no one here that we're really talking to. And so it's weird to know that, yes, people will be listening to this. But we love that engagement side of it. I also want to let you know, before we wrap up, that the sales show is stepping into a new level in 2024, which I'm super pumped about, we are actually going to be bringing in some amazing guests that will show you how their skills, their expertise and their specialties can add to how to make more sales in your business. So looking at your branding, looking at your marketing, looking at, you know, bringing in photographers about how you can have great photos on your website that can really boost your sales. I know that sales is not a one size fits all, every business is different.

26:09
And so I'm really excited to be bringing some amazing conversations to with women in the business industry that I've connected with and really light me up they are my people, they are the people that I want to hang out with that I know are extremely good at what they do. And I want to share them with my beautiful community. So that is coming up in 2024.

26:33
But before we sign off, here's something that you can do right now, to boost your business. Take a moment you may be driving, you may be sitting at your desk, you may be listening to this while you're cooking or cleaning or whatever that is for you just stop for a second safely. If you're in a car, take a moment to reflect on your recent customer interactions that you've had. Maybe it's a conversation that you've had, maybe it's an email that's come through your website. What patterns are you noticing in your business? Is it that you feel really connected to people on calls? But they're not converting? Or is it that you've got a whole heap of hits and people are engaging on your social media? But maybe that's not turning into sales? How can you align your sales strategy with your ideal clients? Because small changes can you really, really big results. But if you don't take that moment to reflect on it, you'll be constantly chasing.

27:38
If you need more help with your sales, conversion, or lead generation come at checkout, as I said her sales club where I will literally guide you through how to be that build that sales process, how to get to that next level of your income and impact not just in your business but having a bigger impact on the world. Until the next episode of this hearse. Until the next episode of the sales show, keep selling from a connected and relationship-focused space