Podcast Episode

TRANSCRIPT

Hey. Hey. Welcome back to the Sales Show. I'm Maree Kirkpatrick, your messaging expert, sales strategist, and straight talking business chick. So it is the start of 2026, and I'm super pumped to be back recording podcasts for you and with you.
And if your social media feeds are anything like mine, they are full of big goals, Word of the year posts, new planners, new intentions, vision boards, all the new software, all the things, right? And I love that because I really believe that goal setting is great, but goals are literally useless if you don't have the systems to back them up. Because if we just set big goals and hope, we literally are throwing spaghetti at the wall. And I don't know about you, but that's not really the way that I want to live my life. I am life by design.

So I believe that setting goals without a clear system to implement them is like saying you're going to host a really fancy dinner party, but you've got no shopping list, no ingredients, no idea how to cook the actual meal, and I don't even actually cook, so I do know that that would not be a great idea, though. So you're wanting the results, but you've got nothing in the oven, right? So that's what I want to talk to you about today. I want you to be super clear on how do we have the goals and the systems and strategies to back it. I was watching a masterclass with James Clear over the break, and he was.

He is the guy who wrote Atomic Habits, and he said something that hit me so hard. And my friend Bill has been trying to tell me this for ages. You don't rise to the level of your goals, you fall to the level of your systems. And I was like, oh, God, that hits hard because it's true, right? And if you're like me, you probably set big goals every year.

Some you smash, others we don't. But when I actually look back on the ones that I have hit, I had a system for them, right? Like, I had a system, I had a plan, I had a strategy to get me there. And the ones that I didn't have the systems and the strategy and the plan for will literally like hopes with a timeline. Like, I hope to achieve this within the next 12 months, but we'll see what happens.
And the stupidest and funniest thing about all of this is that I teach people how to build their sales systems for a living in a business, right? I present keynotes on it. I literally go into people's businesses and set them up with the repeatable, profitable sales strategies. Yet I haven't always been linking my my own goals directly back to these systems that would help me get there. And so for today, my beautiful people, that is what has sparked this episode.

I like to talk about the real things that from real experiences, right? Like the living breathing of business. So here is what I want both you and I to do differently this year. And I want us to set a revenue goal, but I want you to go deeper than that. So I want you to ask yourself from that revenue goal, how many sales do you need to hit to achieve that?

And based on your current conversion rate, how many leads do you need? Right? So we know how many sales we need to make, we know what our conversion rate is, so we know how many leads we need. But do you actually know what your current conversion rate is like really is not what you think it is, but what your data actually shows the amount of? So what you want to do is look at the amount of leads you've had coming into business over the last year or month or whatever versus the number of people who actually bought from you.

And this isn't just like, oh, I think it's about 80%. I want to know what the data shows and if you don't have the data, why and what system do you need to put in to actually find that data? And then what we want to do is, we want to look at what is the actual system that we need that will support you to hit these revenue goals. So for example, you may need a sales system, you may need conversion strategies, you may need lost leads, you may need a follow up process, nurturing sequences, or all of that. So are you clear on what they are to help you get to that revenue goal?

What I find really interesting is when people say that business is just a numbers game, right? So you've just got to keep asking for the sale or generating more leads and eventually you will get the revenue that you need or the sales that you need, right? But you actually need to document and support that data, right, for the figures. So there's no point in doing lead generation, ads, social media, all the things without knowing a what you need because otherwise you're literally winging it. So this year instead of thinking that you need more leads or inquiries, I want you to actually consider what system you may need to help convert those leads that you may already have in your business.

Now for some of you, you may be thinking, oh my sales process is fine, I just need more people. Great, what if I gave you 100 leads right now, Like I injected them into your business. How many you actually converting? What dollars does that mean for your business? And could you actually confidently convert them?

Like really confidently convert them or are you rocking a corner? Right. To be able to confidently convert them, you need to have your follow up process ready, your nurturing steps planned out. You clear offer value propositions, how you actually get your value across. Do you have a way to overcome any objections that come up or would you literally be scrambling and like be honest here, right?

No bullshit. It's you and me here. We're listening to this. 2026 needs to be different. I want you to be honest with yourself.

Can you actually convert them? The other thing you may be thinking is, yes, I have my sales system set up. It's an email funnel. Hmm. That's just part of your system, right?

Like if you're. What if your ideal clients don't even open emails or the emails aren't delivering or they're going to junk mail, or if your inbox is anything like mine, they are landing in an inbox with thousands of other emails. You can't just have emails as one as your sales system. A sales system is made up of many parts that has multiple touch points. Right.

It's one that works even when people don't follow the exact path that is mapped down in your fancy CRMs or your email software. Right. And the other thing that I hear is that people say, oh, I'll build the system later once I've got more leads coming in. Absolutely not. Absolutely not.

You are pouring into a leaky bucket if that's the way you're going to do it. Why? Why would you even pour more precious leads and time and energy and money into something that can't generate money within your business? I want you to fix the holes in your sales process first. Okay?

Hope I'm clear enough on that. And, and to let you know that a prop, a proper sales system is something that is predictable, right? So you know that if you get this many leads, your conversion rate is sitting at this and it'll equal this many dollars within your business or your launch. Right? It also needs to be documented.

I should be able to walk into your business and be like, cool, show me your sales process. Let me see what's working, what's not. Let me see what we need to do to optimise it. It needs to be documented. It can't be stored in your head.
It can't be stored in your salesperson's head. It needs to be Documented. And from that it then needs to be repeatable. So it doesn't matter who steps into your business, Whether you lose a team member, where you're adding a team member, that sales process is still repeatable throughout the business. And so it'll also work.

Then if you're having time off or you're needing to add a team member, it will be that hit the ground running asset that your business needs. Right? So if we're looking at 2026, I want you to look at your office, your numbers and your current pipeline and I want you to be confidently be able to say, cool, I need 15 inquiries this month to hit the that revenue goal or I need to add 50 people to my email list to end up with a launch of this much revenue. How will I get them? How will I convert them?

And you're so clear on that. When I sat down to plan out my 2026, I didn't just pick a revenue number out of fat air, right? I worked backwards. What do I want the business to earn? How much do I want to pay myself so that it supports my lifestyle, my family, our bigger goals in that aspect.

Then I wanted to know what are the expenses? So whether that's team software, any events I want to att, any travel for the business, tax, gst, the works, right? And super, don't forget your super, super should be in your expenses anyway. So what are the expenses you've got and then how much space and time do you want for expansion? So these are things that you can't always predict yet, but you know will come in, right?

So these may be opportunities. These for me are presenting, sales training, collaborations, all that sort of stuff. So then I looked at my offers, my prices, my calendar and went, okay, cool, that's my revenue target. Now what system do I need to build out to get me there? What is going to get me to that revenue goal?

And if you're sitting there thinking, holy shit, Maree, I don't even know what my sales system is, go and cheque out mariekirkpatrick.com forward/7 steps and it'll all be there for you, right? It'll show you a current sales process and what you need to do to implement it. Because I don't want you to be leaking time and energy money, right? I want you to be like, cool, this is how I'm working people through. I also know how important it is for business owners who are wanting more sales to stay focused on sales generating activity.

There is so much noise in the world these days. I do scroll on social media. Don't tell anyone, but I'm sure you do it to Facebook, Instagram, all the things, right? There is so much noise out there. And it is the reason why I run her sales club, to have women have the tools and the strategy, the frameworks, the support, the accountability to stay focused.

It is also the reason why I'm putting together a group of women who want to increase their sales by a minimum of 25% this year. So they've got the monthly support, they've got the quarterly strategy days, where we're literally focusing on what is the next steps you need to take to generate revenue within your business. And then they'll have all the clear, proven frameworks and all that sort of stuff to back them. Because I want to reduce the noise of, oh, the next shiny thing. And I want it to be, this is where I'm going.

This is the systems I have in place. Let the systems work. I see women and business owners all the time buy all the stupid shiny things from Facebook or Instagram that promise to help them with all their sales, but no one is actually looking at the overall sales strategy, right? What is that process to generate the cash? They end up being hyper focused on one element, such as social media or Facebook ads or freaking email funnels or whatever it is, which is all just lead generation, right?

Not sales strategy, lead generation. So I want you to fix your leaking bucket first, my beautiful people. And I can't emphasise that enough. I want you to walk away from today's episode knowing that it's not just about setting goals. Excuse me, it's not just about setting those goals.

Right? I want you to build this system that gets you there. Your goals are not the strategy. Hope is not a strategy. Your sales system is the strategy.

So focus on the things that will generate that cash consistently without getting pulled off course with every new trend or magic lead generation, new whiz bang thing, right? I want 2026 to be that year that you stop winging it, stop the shiny object stuff, and actually start working on the systems and processes that are going to get you to the levels that you want to hit within your business. Okay? So with all of that, thank you so much for tuning into the sales show. I will catch you in the next episode.
And if you want to cheque out the seven steps, Maree Kirkpatrick.com forward slash, seven steps. I really want 2026 to be an epic year for both you as well as my business. And I feel like we are so clear on on how we need to align those goals with the systems and the strategies. Right. Going back to James, we fall to the level of our systems.
So have an epic year in 2026, and I'll see you in the next episode.