160 – Hello Corporate Business with Nikki Rausch of Sales Maven

You're listening to gift biz unwrapped episode 160.

You're getting a buying signal from somebody.

You have to invite them to do business Attention.

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Your gift biz here is your host gift biz gal,

Sue moon Heights.

Today I have the pleasure.

Sure. Introducing you to Nikki Rousch.

Nikki is the founder and CEO of sales Maven,

which is an organization dedicated to authentic selling her success comes

through the unique ability to transform the misunderstood process of selling

with over 25 years of experience,

selling to prestigious organizations,

such as the bill and Melinda Gates foundation,

Hewlett Packard and Nassau,

Nikki shattered sales records in many industries receiving multiple top producer

awards along the way today entrepreneurs and small business owners hire

Nikki to show them how to sell successfully and authentically without

being pushy and salesy.

Oh my gosh,

you guys,

I know each and every one of us feels this concern

about being too pushy when we Sal.

So I know Nikki is going to help us with that

right now,

Nikki, thank you so much for joining us today.

Thank you so Much for having me.

It's an honor to be here with You.

So I'm going to start out the way we always do

with each and every show.

And that is by having you describe yourself in a different

way, a creative way,

because we're all creators here and that is through you sharing

with us what your ideal motivational candle would look like.

So if you were to choose a color and then a

quote or a mantra or something that you would put on

the candle that would resonate with you,

what would your candle look like?

Okay. So I did think about this and I'm going to

say that my candle would be a dark purple.

I love purple.

First of all,

because to me it's that deep passion color.

So I feel like sales is something that can be deep.

It doesn't have to be surface level.

It can really be about relationships.

So I'm going to pick purple and then my quote,

which is my all-time favorite quote,

the author is unknown of it.

So I'm just going to say that off the bat,

but the quote is bless.

It are the flexible for,

they shall not be bent out of shape.

And that's my all-time favorite quote.

Oh my gosh.

And do we need to be flexible when we run our

own businesses?

Absolutely. It's this whole idea.

I think with sales too,

with anything,

when you add flexibility to your behavior,

you have more influence.

So I think that's the kind of the basis behind what

I teach too.

Oh, interesting.

The other thing that comes to mind just about this whole

concept is if you're not flexible,

when you're having an interaction with somebody,

you're anticipating what they're thinking,

and then you're going to miss signals or signs or what

is actually happening and how someone that you're talking to is

receiving your information.

So it could totally ruin a whole deal.

Absolutely. I agree.

A hundred percent when you can just be flexible,

then it allows for these authentic conversations to happen.

I would say in sales,

like somebody could have just hit the play button and you

just spew out the same thing over and over.

It's so canned and it's so inauthentic.

So by being flexible,

it allows for you to have real conversations.

Love it.

Yes. Real conversations for sure.

Let's take this back just to ground everybody and share with

us a little bit about how you entered into sales.

I had my first professional sales job out of college.

It was a college project that got me into the technology

space. Although I will say,

I don't really count this as a professional sales job,

but there was a sales component.

When I first moved to Washington state,

I was 20 years old and I got a job in

the mall for the holiday season.

It was one of those middle kiosk kind of deals that

they put out at the holidays.

That was actually the first time I ever had a commission

sales job.

They paid minimum wage.

And once when you were working a shift,

once you hit a certain dollar amount,

you started getting commissions on your sales.

And I think that was the first time I realized like,

Hey, this is sweet being able to double.

And sometimes even triple what my hourly rate was based on

having commission.

And I got this job with this company where they actually

sold really well-made leather goods.

So it was all handmade leather goods.

This might relate to your audience a little bit.

So it was selling really quality stuff.

And that felt really good.

That was the first time I got that commission job.

But then out of college,

I got my first corporate job,

which was a sales position.

And what attracted you to going into sales?

Again, it was this idea of being able to have some

control over what I was making,

like based on my effort,

putting in,

I was being rewarded for that.

So I liked that piece.

And the other side of it was that I really am

curious by nature and I love engaging with people and building

relationships. So in all of my years of sales,

what I have found is it's the relationship piece for me

that keeps me going and keeps me wanting to get up

in the morning and work hard and build those relationships because

that has always sustained my business regardless of who I was

working for or what was selling when I could build strong

relationships. That's where things really started to click for me.

Totally agree.

And I'm guessing as we continue on,

you're going to be talking more and more about relationships.

I wanted to bring back the idea that you're mentioning about

that first job apart from the kiosk,

right. But the ability to control your own income because of

how you would perform,

right? Yes.

I started in sales too,

and I feel like I missed a lot of the gender

inequality because sales numbers don't lie.

You know,

if you're producing and you're performing,

you're going to get the same salary as anybody else.

It's all based on what you bring into whatever the company

is that you're doing.

So I always saw that as really valuable that I controlled

my own destiny and I kind of feel it's the exact

same thing today and why sales is so important for all

of our listeners who have businesses,

is they are steering the ship of their business and you

have to bring in business.

You have to have people that are buying what you offer,

which let's just face.

It is sales,

whether we like them or not.

So the ability to be able to sell and control your

own destiny in terms of your dollar volume still holds true.

But the way to go about it is so much better

these days,

which is what you're talking about,

Nikki, which is relationships.

Absolutely. I do think that there is something about like that

old style of selling.

Some people still talk about this,

but they would say like,

are you an elephant Hunter?

You're going out,

your job is to like kill the big game and like

close these huge deals.

And that was never really my style one,

because I don't think you should be killing sale.

They're your clients.

Right? So that never felt very authentic to me.

I do think that's a little bit of an outdated kind

of approach to sales nowadays,

because one is,

we are so much more savvy and we have information kind

of at our fingertips all the time.

And we have created a society where there's a lot of

skeptics. So I think really the way that you sell is

to show up and be authentic and build relationships because people

feel it it's like we're making decisions based on how do

I feel about this person and are they invested in me

and are they kind of steering me in the right direction?

Or are they coming from this place of selfish?

And that's where you get into that salesy,

like icky feeling.

But when you can show up and really care about the

person that you're engaging with and want to build long-term client

relationships, that's really where I think everything starts to click.

And that's where you build customer loyalty as well.

Absolutely. And I would also suggest that if you're talking to

someone who doesn't need your services right away,

they may know somebody who does,

or they may be in the market and need what you

do later.

If they've left an interaction with you with a feeling that

you were really on their side,

they're going to come back to you when the time is

right. A hundred percent.

I always say,

put the relationship first.

And the sales comes like the sales follows the relationship.

The relationship should always be the priority.

And because like,

what you just said is a lot of times people don't

have a need or a desire for what you want today.

The other thing is people have what's called a convincer strategy.

So we all have them.

They're all context specific,

but a convincer strategy is something where people have a certain

number of times,

they have to say no to something before they'll say yes.

And with the relationship side,

when you show up,

you have to be okay with them saying like,

no, thank you.

And then you wait for whatever kind of could change.

And this is why one of the things I teach all

the time is about buying signals is that people give you

signals that indicate that they're interested.

And then it's your job then to take it to the

next step.

So the no today doesn't mean that they're never going to

give you a buying signal.

So you do want to set yourself up to continue to

be able to engage with that person in some way.

Yeah. And I think so many people fall off right at

that first.

No, they don't make another connection.

Whether it's a phone call or an email or whatever it

is, they just stop right at that first.

No, I've never heard it phrased this way before Nikki.

I love it.

The convincer strategy.

Did you coin that yourself?

No. I actually learned that through my studies.

One of the backgrounds that I have in addition to the

sales is I am master certified practitioner of neuro-linguistic programming.

And I have quite an extensive background in NLP.

And that was something I learned in my NLP.

Studies is about this convincer strategy.

The certain number of times people say no before they say

yes, and I play with it all the time and because

I teach it.

And so I play with it all the time when I'm

meeting people that might give me a buying signal.

But then when I invite them to do business,

they say no.

And I was just say to myself,

when anybody says no to me,

I always just say,

not yet.

Like, that's what my brain says to myself.

Like not yet.

Yeah. It's kind of Like,

okay, step one,

right? Yeah.

That's their first.

No. And I don't always know for some people,

maybe it is a hard,

no. And then of course I'm going to let that lie.

But for some people it might be two times for others.

It might be seven.

I tell a story.

Sometimes about one time I was sitting down to meet with

a woman.

We were at a coffee shop and during the course of

an hour and a half conversation,

she gave me six or seven buying signals throughout that conversation.

And I invited her to do business six or seven times.

Like every single time she gave me a buying signal and

she never actually gave me a hard no,

and she definitely never gave me a yes,

but I'm willing to ask every single time because I don't

take it personal.

And if somebody is indicating some interest,

it's my job to invite them to the next step.

Interesting. Okay.

So I have a question.

So six buying signals through the course of that interaction.

Then you said you asked them at each point,

along the way,

share with us how you did that.

So it wasn't salesy because it's not like a buying signal.

Okay. Why don't you join my course and other buying single.

Okay. Why don't you join me?

Like it's not the same.

That would be salesy,

right? Yeah.

So how did you merge those opportunities in for them,

without it looking like the car salesman?

Again, I'm not the most aggressive,

like that's just not my personality.

You're right In line with probably 99% of the listeners here.

So this is perfect.

So I think the first buying signal she gave me,

it was something where she had said,

I could really use some help with this.

And I think I said,

you know,

that's actually one of the things that I teach in this

course that I'm about to launch.

So you let me know if that's something you're interested in.

And then she just kind of kept talking.

Like, she didn't really acknowledge it.

She just kept going.

So I just kept going in the conversation.

And then she said something else about,

you know,

I really struggle with blah,

blah, blah.

And I said,

you know,

I have some ideas for you about that.

That's actually something I work with clients on.

So you let me know if that's something I can support

you on or be a resource to you.

And then I think we might've talked about it a little

bit, but she didn't really kind of give me the like,

Oh yes,

I want some help with it.

And then we just kind of kept going through the conversation.

And I can't actually,

it was a while ago,

but I can't remember like the next thing that she said.

But a lot of times in those moments,

it comes down to me just saying to her,

yeah. Oh my gosh.

She would be such a great fit for this group.

For this program.

There A couple of things,

as I'm hearing you go through this first off,

I don't think any of us ask enough.

We think we're implying that we're asking,

but we need to take more control over the ask.

I think just,

I'm going to say as women and being so sensitive to

being too salesy,

but the thing that I liked about what you were just

saying and how you said you were responding to her is

especially with the beginning asks you were leaving the ball in

her court,

you were saying,

let me know if you're interested.

And then you were also complimenting her when you were saying

you'd be such a good fit.

So in a way,

those are asks,

you're leaving the door open for her to say,

tell me more or whatever,

but you're not like it's not just direct out.

Do you want to be in my group?

Or do you want to take my call?

Yeah, exactly.

The couple of things.

One is I will say at the very end of our

conversation, she still had really never given me a hard no,

or a yes and I had to go.

So I just stood up.

We hugged.

And I said,

you know,

I have a sense that there are some things that we

could do together and I'll tell you what I'm going to

do. When I get back to my office later today,

I'm just going to send you an invoice for the private

coaching. And if you pay it,

then I know you're ready to work.

I would love to earn your business.

And if you don't,

it's no big deal.

Like I'm just so happy to have this time with you.

And I'm going to look forward to seeing you at the

next event.

And I sent her the invoice later that afternoon.

And two days later she paid it.

Oh, yay.

I was going to ask you what happened with all that.

It's one of those things like sometimes you just have to

make it really easy for people and it should always be

about them.

But back to what you said too,

is I find that most people think they're asking for the

sale, but they're actually not.

And if you're not getting the words out of your mouth,

then you're missing opportunities.

And not only are you missing opportunities to grow your business,

but the people who don't get to work with you or

buy your products,

they're missing out on how amazing your product would be for

them or what problem or need it's going to solve for

them. And so I did have a client before she hired

me. One of the things she said,

as she said,

you know,

Nicki, I sell to adults.

And I was like,

yeah, I think we all do.

And then she said,

well, if people want to buy from me,

they'll let me know.

And I said,

Oh no,

they will.

Not. Most people actually will not make a conscious decision to

buy from you until you invite them to work with you

because they haven't even made the decision yet.

Like, do I want this?

Or do I need this?

Or is this something that I should purchase right now today?

And so they'll walk away with this idea of like,

Oh, well,

okay, I'll think about it.

But they won't think about it because we're bombarded with so

many other things to think about.

So this is why it's so important that you ask every

single time you get what I call buying signals.

So if you're getting a buying signal from somebody,

you have to invite them to do business so that their

mind takes that moment to say,

do I want this or not?

And if it's not,

that's fine.

But if you don't ask,

you'll never get yeses.

Right? Give us a few ideas of what buying signals are.

So some of my favorites are,

and I did write a book about this.

So there are 17.

I think I listed my book and there are more than

that. Tell us about the book and then share with us

a few of the signals.

Okay. So the book is called buying signals,

how to spot the green light and increased sales.

And it's available on Amazon and buy books and all that.

I know you are ready and waiting for Nikki's buying signals

and we're going to do that right after a word from

our sponsor.

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So here's,

I'm going to give you two,

I'm going to give you one that seems really obvious,

but people miss a piece of it.

And then I want to give you one that's less obvious.

So one buying signal is when people ask about your pricing,

like, it seems really obvious,

right? Like,

well, of course that's a buying signal,

unfortunately though,

most people just answer the question like,

Oh, it's $30 and leave it at that.

But you have to say it's $30.

Is that something you'd be interested in or it's $30.

And I would be happy to get that wrapped up for

you. You don't skirt the Issue and explain why the price

is what it is or try to justify the price.

You just go directly with what the cost is and then

ask for the sale in a nice way.

Yes. The other thing I will say about pricing,

and I say this a lot is if somebody asks you

about pricing and your response is it depends.

We need to have a private conversation because it depends.

Even if there's a part of you right now,

I was like,

but Nikki,

it does depend.

That is not a valid answer to that question.

So even if you give a price range,

so the products range anywhere from $10 to 15 or $10

to 180,

I don't care what it is.

And then you have to follow up.

So the prices range between 15 and 180.

Is there something in particular that you're interested in?

That's the invitation piece that you follow up with?

So yeah,

with pricing,

you have to have a real answer.

Yeah. I think you start looking questionable if you're vague,

especially with pricing,

because it's always such a sensitive issue.

And you're virtually saying that you give a real answer,

even if the range is broad and then ask them a

question, see if you can give them an invitation,

that's beautiful.

So you see a buying signal,

you respond to that signal and then you invite them.

So that's the system dunk done,

done. That is a hundred percent the system.

And I will tell you that people who read the books,

go through my trainings,

listen, when I I'm a speaker.

So when they go out and speak,

I have people who come up to me in the room.

When I come off a stage and say,

I just closed a new deal because I just invited somebody

because I just learned about buying signals from you.

So you can close deals so much quicker when you start

learning how to issue the invitation.

Beautiful. This is something that every single person can take away

and start implementing today.

Yes. Fabulous.

Please implement.

Yes. People Absolutely want what you sell.

And they love to be invited.

I always say like my all time,

favorite song,

cheap trick.

I want you to want me,

people love to be wanted.

And it's so nice to get an invitation Personal.

Yeah. Yeah.

So we have also listeners here who are not just doing

the one-on-one selling to an individual customer.

A lot of people are making things.

They want to get into whole foods or they want to

get a corporate contract because then it will lead to consistency

in larger orders,

et cetera.

What types of ideas do you have in terms of how

you would approach?

And I'm just going to say sow into corporate environment.

So I have a couple of thoughts around that.

The first and easiest way to open doors is to use

your network.

And most people don't do this very effectively.

Introductions are the number one way to get doors,

to open for you.

And even if there's a part of you,

that's thinking like,

I don't know anybody at that company.

You don't have to know anybody at that company.

What you need to know is who are the people that

know you,

who like you,

who believe in you,

who would be willing to make introductions because sometimes there's one

person who will introduce you to this other person who will

then introduce you to the person you actually want to get

to. And most of us feel uncomfortable asking people to make

introductions because we think,

Oh, that seems really self-focused.

And they're going to think I'm being inappropriate.

And they forget that for most of us,

it's actually a gift to let somebody support you and do

something kind for you.

We forget to allow ourselves to receive.

So please,

don't be afraid to ask somebody who do you know at

such and such company,

or who would you recommend that I get in touch with

if I'm trying to get the door open at X,

Y, and Z company.

Yes. And you know,

this is perfect.

And I'm going to give an example of our chamber of

commerce here.

We've started doing this and I don't remember who it was,

who first stood up and did this.

But by way of example,

they got up and they said,

I'm looking at getting into talk with marketing people at crate

and barrel.

Okay. If anybody knows anybody or has any linkage,

not even in the marketing department,

but with crate and barrel,

could you please let me know?

And that then led to other people doing the same thing.

And now it's kind of a culture within our group.

I love this.

It's so powerful when you can do that.

And when you can ask your network to make introductions for

you, and I would even say like,

I mean,

this sincerely more so than ask,

who do you know,

ask, would you be willing to make an introduction for me?

Because when that person that they know reaches out to them,

you have such a higher likelihood that they'll respond.

Then if you just call them cold.

Absolutely. So that's face-to-face but then also what about LinkedIn?

I just had this a couple of years ago,

somebody wanted to apply for a job and he reached out

to me.

It was somebody I knew.

I knew him well enough that I would recommend him.

And he said,

Nikki, I see that you have a connection at this company.

And I'm interviewing at this company and I'd like to see

how many doors I can open to increase my chances of

getting this job.

And the truth was,

I didn't really know the person.

He was asking me to connect with that.

Well, I think I had met him one time in person

yet. I really liked this person.

And I felt like,

gosh, I'm willing to do this.

Even if it feels a little bit like,

Oh, I don't know if he's going to even be happy

to get a message through LinkedIn from me,

but I'm willing to do it because I really like this

person who's asking and I did reach out and actually the

person responded right away.

And he was like,

Oh, I know who you should talk to.

He should talk to this other person.

And so it did actually open a door and it was

all because he asked.

Right. That's a perfect example of the way to LinkedIn too.

It's a great demonstration.

Totally. All right.

So warm leads if you're going for some type of a

corporate account.

And if,

as listeners,

a lot of times you're saying,

okay, I want to get into corporate.

Okay, that's too general.

Like which businesses could you really serve with your product?

What are you actually trying to do?

So then you target maybe three businesses and then try and

find a warm connection in an introduction like Nikki sane.

So let's say we get that warm introduction,

then what happens from there?

So the next thing,

what you really want to do is you want to be

able to get this person either a face-to-face conversation.

That's the best case scenario,

right? The second best is on the phone.

And so a lot of times these introductions are going to

come through LinkedIn or they're going to come through email.

So the next step that you want to take is you

want to make it really easy for somebody to get on

the phone with you or get face-to-face with you.

And so this is actually a technique that I teach and

it's one of my favorite techniques.

I use it all the time and I do get face

to face and voice to voice conversations using this technique is

when I reach out to the person.

So it let's say that Sue,

that you introduced me to so-and-so and so-and-so responds,

and then I'm going to respond back to our we're just

going to call her Liz just to have a name.

So I'm going to respond back to Liz and I'm going

to say,

Liz, thank you so much for responding.

It would be so great to set up a time,

just to jump on the phone for a few minutes or

meet face-to-face whichever works best for you.

Now, here are three possible times in case one of these

works in your schedules.

And what you do is you give a range of time

for that person.

And you give three,

because two is not choice three is choice.

So you're going to say Thursday,

anytime between eight and 10.

So you give a window of time,

not just like at eight and you do it three times,

and then you say,

of course,

if you prefer something else,

please let me know what works best for you.

And the reason you give these three windows of time is

because then you're making it really easy for that person to

look at their calendar and say,

not available that time,

not available that time.

I am available Friday at 10,

because we just want to make them actually look and see

if there is a time that they're available.

But a lot of times people will send a message and

say, please let me know a time that works best for

you. And I know that the intent is to be really

helpful, but that's not helpful to the other person.

What's helpful is to give them some windows of time so

that they can say no,

no, yes.

To you versus like,

okay, well,

let me look at my calendar and pick out windows of

time to send back to you.

And then you tell me if that works for you,

it's too many back and forth.

So you want to make it really simple.

And when you give people three times,

this really is the number one way that I get people

out of email and on the phone or face to face.

Perfect. Yeah.

Cause if you to say it,

as general as you're suggesting,

you're giving them then a project who has time for another

project, plus they're not feeling that great.

Like, who is this person?

Why am I going to have to take my time now?

So the easier you can make it the better.

Yeah. And they won't take their time because let's be honest.

Anytime you try to add something to somebody else's to do

list, they will resent you for that.

Oh yes.

Add to their to-do list.

Make it really simple for them to say this time works

for me.

Yeah. It's like people who will call you on the phone

and leave a message and say,

call me back at this and this and this.

Don't give you the topic.

You don't know who they are.

Why am I calling them back?

Are you kidding?

I refuse to return those calls.

Yeah. They get a silence from me too.

For sure.

Yeah. Okay.

And then what is the purpose of that first phone call

or first face to face?

So the purpose is to understand,

first of all,

what are they doing or is anything related to your product

or your service?

How can you benefit them in some way?

And it has to be about them.

So I go in with some questions prepared and have done

your research,

frankly, like you can't just walk in cold,

especially to a corporation.

You need to have done some research and you might have

some ideas,

but again,

be flexible in your approach.

So go in and I would open it and say,

now, in order for this meeting to be productive and meaningful

for you,

what are the things that you would like for this meeting

to focus on?

Or what's one thing that if you could get out of

this would have made it worth your time.

So I'm going to check in with them and then I'm

going to say,

and if it's okay with you,

I'd like to start with asking you a couple of quick

questions. Is that okay?

So I'm always going to ask permission before I dive into

questions, because it's about building rapport.

So ask that and then have a couple of questions prepared

that lead into your product,

right? Or how your product would benefit them in some way.

Now don't start selling,

start asking questions,

be curious,

be interested,

be a good listener and find out what's going on in

that organization and how might your product or service benefit them.

And this is just like an inquiry,

right? Like we're just kinda trying to get to the crux

of the matter here to find out how we can support

them. And then once you kind of have some ideas and

be taking notes,

then you might say,

I do have some ideas for you on ways that my

product or my service might benefit your organization.

Is it okay if I just share a few of those

with you now?

So again,

I'm going to ask permission before I dive in and start

selling, and then you move to that kind of that next

phase. Now,

if it's something where they want a proposal from you and

you had this great conversation and now it's time for you

to put together a proposal or they want a quote on

what it would cost them to get.

Right? Here's what you want to do.

You want to say,

okay, I'd be happy to go back and put this proposal

together for you.

And it'll probably take me a day or two,

however long it takes you.

Maybe you can have it done in an hour and I'll

send it to you later today,

or I'll send it to you in two days and then

let's get our next time scheduled just to chat.

So we can circle back.

I can answer any questions that you have on the proposal.

And then we can talk about next steps.

So don't leave the meeting without asking for that next appointment,

because otherwise,

if you're like,

Hey, I'll send this proposal to you and then I'll follow

up with you next week.

When you call them next week,

they're not going to answer their phone.

You are so right.

Yeah. So get on their calendars.

Absolutely. A couple of points here that I think are so

important. And Nikki,

you did a fabulous job of running through what the process

is and how it's fact it it's learning.

One of the things that I unfortunately have been a recipient

of, I've had people come in and trying to sell me.

They think they know everything about my business and they've just

met me for the first time when you're saying layout,

how the meeting will go and then start asking questions.

You have research,

you know,

a little bit about the company,

but don't assume you know everything about what their needs are

and what their goals are because you come across looking so

unprofessional. You have no idea.

You've never talked with them.

You've never laid groundwork yet.

So those questions and their answers,

even if they conflict with what you thought is what you

need to be listening to and going off of,

Yes. Sometimes we ask questions and our tone of voice indicates

that we already think we know the answer.

It's a terrible thing to do as a salesperson.

When you're asking questions,

your voice quality,

your body language.

If they can see you,

your facial expressions should convey curiosity,

interest, not like so I'm suspecting and how you phrase it

too, right?

Like if you say so I'm suspecting that you guys would

probably need this.

That's a little too.

Ugh. I hate that.

So instead you want to say is,

so I'm wondering if this is something that you might need,

it's different than saying I'm suspecting because now it sounds like

you have an agenda and you already know the answer and

you're just asking them to validate what,

you know,

it's just not a good rapport builder.

And there may be cases When you honestly don't have a

product or service that fits what their needs are.

Yes. And that's completely okay.

It is a hundred percent okay to say to somebody after

this conversation,

I get a sense that maybe what I'm doing is not

the right fit for you.

And I so appreciate your time.

And if something were to change in your organization,

I would love the opportunity to earn your business.

Or if I could just be a resource to you in

some way,

or maybe even connect you with somebody else who I think

might be a better fit,

perfect people for you that way.

Yeah. Being a conduit to their solution puts you in such

a good light maybe.

And it's not even their business.

Maybe the person that you're talking to has a friend in

another company who,

your services or your product,

you just never know where things are going to lead.

Yeah. I cannot tell you how many times somebody has not

wanted what I offer,

but have recommended other people to me and referred other people

to me because for whatever reason it was the product I

was selling,

it wasn't a good fit for them.

Or even now,

sometimes people are like,

I'm not really interested in upping my sales game,

but I do know some people who would benefit from it

and they send them my way as referrals,

even though they've never done business with me because they liked

our interaction and it felt good.

And I really do care about the people that I engage

with. And I'm hoping that that comes across.

Well, if you talk with other people like you're talking here

today, it definitely does because I can sense that vibe the

whole time we've been talking.

Thank you.

You brought up referrals in that conversation just now it's more

just a natural referral happening where then someone contacts you,

would you suggest,

or can you talk a little bit about referrals as being

part of a normal process for a business?

Yes. You would have a process in place for it.

And a lot of times people say to me,

I'm not quite sure when to ask.

So I want to give your audience a really easy opening

of when to ask the absolute best time to ask somebody

for a referral is when they're giving you some type of

positive feedback or a compliment in some way.

So if somebody has,

I just used your product and Oh my gosh,

I love it.

I love the way that my,

you know,

if you're selling soap or lotion,

I love the way my skin feels as a result.

Then take that compliment in and say,

thank you.

And then say,

now, is it okay to ask who else do you know,

that would benefit from this product?

And would you be willing to introduce me or would you

be willing to introduce them to the product?

Whichever makes sense for you.

So when you're getting a compliment positive feedback from somebody,

they take the time to write you an email,

telling you how awesome your product is,

or your service,

please follow back up and ask for it.

Yeah. That's a great way.

They've also already worded it.

So I think some of the hardest things about referrals or

testimonials is okay,

man, I'd love to,

but again,

it's a project you've been given a project,

right. But if you've already said something,

could you repeat that?

Could you say that?

Could you put those same words,

peer or wherever it would be?

So it makes it so much easier.

The other thing,

I just want to bring this up,

Nikki, because it's been working so well.

And I think the audience will appreciate it is I've been

suggesting to people that if they are out and near exhibiting

at trade shows or they're at a craft fair and somebody

comes back and says,

Oh my gosh,

I'm so glad you're here.

I bought from you last time.

Just the whole testimonial.

Like you say,

I tell them to see if they can get them on

video. They're right there at your booth.

Oh my gosh.

Would you be willing if I just pull out my phone,

would you just say that into the phone for me,

that I could then use as a testimonial and I've not

had one person say no and I've had several other people

do it too,

just right then.

And there just super casual.

Now you can't use all of them depending on the auto

quality and all of that,

but it's a great way to capture video testimonials A hundred

percent in really what that is,

is when somebody is doing that.

Right. And you're acting on it in the moment,

in a sense you're acting on back to where we started

with buying signals.

Now it might not ness,

although it may be a buying signal,

right. That they're ready to be a repeat purchase,

but it's the very best time to ask for that next

step. And you do it in the moment.

And like what you just said too,

is that you're making it so easy for that person.

Like, you're just going to pull out your phone and do

it right there versus asking them to go back to their

office and write it all down.

Even if they don't want to be on video,

you could ask them to just talk into the recording and

then you could go and have it translated.

You could translate it yourself,

send it to them for their approval.

And then now use it as a testimony on your website.

Oh, that's a great idea,

Nikki, make it so easy for people.

The easier you make it for people to do business with

you and do whatever it is that you want them to

do. The more likely they are to say yes,

Absolutely. Let's switch this just a little bit.

And I'd be very curious to know what you think about

sales as it relates to social media.

It's so interesting that you asked me that I actually wrote

an article.

I send out a weekly sales tip every week to my

community. And so last week was using social media to sell

was the topic.

So it's funny that you asked me this,

I feel really strongly that social media should be used for

building relationships and building that know like,

and trust factor.

So I'm not a big fan of just posting,

like who wants to buy XYZ from me right now?

It's like,

it feels kind of,

and we're kind of sick of it.

And so many people are doing it on social media.

So instead think about how can you build a community.

Now that doesn't mean that you should never ask for a

sale on social media.

I'm not implying that,

but I just saw somebody posts yesterday in a group after

somebody sent out an email where she actually referenced me and

about asking for the sale.

So now I feel kind of guilty about this,

but she just put out this broad thing and said,

okay, I'm just going to ask everybody who wants to buy

from me.

Oh, dare.

And I Was like,

that's so impersonal.

That's so impersonal.

Well, And it's a great way to get kicked out of

a group Too.

Yeah. Who wants to buy from me?

There's nothing about that.

That feels personal.

That feels about relationship at all.

That's just about me trying to sell my stuff and it

doesn't feel good.

So on social media now I will say that people do

get buying signals on social media.

Right. I actually got a really great corporate gig out of

this one time somebody had shared something about me on social

media. So it wasn't me sharing something about me.

She had shared something about me and the work that I

do and somebody put in the comments,

wow. Maybe we should talk to her like her company.

Maybe we should talk to her.

So I commented back to the person who said,

wow, maybe we should talk to her.

And I said,

Oh, hi.

I'm just going to say her name was Sandy.

That wasn't her name.

But hi,

Sandy, I would love a chance to talk with you.

Is this something I could private message you about?

Which then she said yes.

So now I private messaged her.

And I checked to see if she's willing to set up

a time for us to get to know each other better.

And would she be willing to jump on the phone for

five or 10 minutes?

And then I give her the three times that I mentioned

earlier and we get on the phone.

And then she lets me know through the conversation.

That really,

she's not the decision maker,

that this was a husband and wife team.

So it was her husband that makes the decisions about bringing

people in.

So then I said,

would you be willing to make an introduction to your husband,

which she then did?

And there was a few steps,

but ultimately that's how I got to go in and do

a full training for their sales team.

A perfect example of the right way to you're introduced on

social media.

You do see a buying signal and then how to very

smoothly transition it over into the next action.

A sale,

Tiffany. Yeah.

I notice I didn't just go back and say,

here's my rates.

Right? Right.

Like I go back and say,

are you willing to have a conversation?

And may I private message you?

And she says,

yes. So now I've got permission to go to the next

step. So if you're launching a new product or you're putting

something out there and somebody says,

and this actually happened yesterday,

one of my she's actually one of my private clients,

her company just launched a new product.

And so she posted about this new product.

So I put in there,

like, I should try these.

Like, that was my comment.

So then she knows,

cause I talk about buying signals with her all the time.

She goes,

Nikki, is that a buying signal?

And I said,

yes, it is.

And so then she says,

can I private message you?

And I say,

yes. And then I purchased from her like all through social

media yesterday,

but it wasn't like,

it was just,

here's the new product.

It wasn't like,

here's the new product,

place your orders.

It was like,

here's the new product.

And then people started commenting and actually I've been watching her

and she sold a ton of it because she knows how

to do this follow-up and she,

doesn't a really kind authentic way.

Right. And the,

what she didn't do is say,

okay, for you,

Nikki, and anybody else who's interested.

Here's the link like blasting it out.

So direct like that.

It was always taken off social media or through DMS or

whatever. That's a really nice approach.

Yeah. Now it becomes relational,

right? This is a one-to-one selling opportunity.

And I know there's like people out there,

like I'm too busy to not just send people to a

link. Well then you might be too busy to make the

sale too.

Right. Right.

You may not be busy very long.

So Nikki,

what do you think of,

I go down my feeds all the time.

And there are businesses that I don't know that have sponsored

ads that are going directly to a sale.

They must be working to some extent because I keep seeing

them over and over again.

So Facebook ads on social media to a cold audience going

directly to a sale.

What do you think about it?

I think you have to be willing to invest a lot

of time and money to get any traction with that.

So it depends.

I think if you have a large marketing budget,

then maybe that's the way for you to go.

I think you have to commit a long period of time.

I do actually think it's faster to build relationships with individual

people and work towards closing sales or build a community.

One of the things I did last year,

and it was a great way to introduce people to my

work, people who maybe hadn't been exposed to.

What I do is I did a free five day challenge

where in the five days I went live inside a private

group and I gave training content.

It was less than 15 minutes each day for five days.

And I give good stuff.

Like I don't play my cards close to my vest.

I always say like,

I just give,

and I wasn't selling during that time.

I was here's this challenge,

you implement these techniques,

your sales are going to grow.

And I grew my list.

Huge. So the goal was to add a hundred new people

to my list,

which I did.

And I had 175 people participate in the challenge.

Now I didn't get a ton of sales after it.

What did happen though?

That within three months I got two big deals out of

it that made up for what a little sale would have

meant from like a few people.

And it was all because I gave myself,

like I gave it free.

There wasn't a huge sales component.

I did it for a couple reasons for my business.

One was to grow my list and two was to just

let people kind of get a taste of what I do.

And then now I've been able to repurpose this content that

I recorded.

So give people an opportunity to get to know you before

you try to start selling to them.

So you and I met a couple of weeks ago at

social media marketing world.

And Leslie Simon was one of the speakers.

And I think his business is called,

become a blogger.

And he opened his presentation where he started talking about what

a good guy he was.

And then he came off the stage and he proposed to

a woman in the audience.

Will you marry me like a real proposal?

He had a ring and everything.

It was really funny actually.

Oh, so it was set up.

It wasn't real.

Yeah, it was set up.

Okay. So she says,

no. And then his point is that so many of us

on social media are doing this.

We're like somebody knows they're sitting in the audience and because

they're sitting in the audience,

we just go in for the sale right away,

which in his case was going for the proposal.

And then people are turned off by it.

So instead of always just going in and selling,

be of service,

give something of value,

be useful,

share information,

or give something for free so that people get exposed to

your product,

your service,

let them get a taste of what's possible for them.

So it makes them know like,

and trust you.

And then now they want to take the next step.

Perfect. Yeah.

It's all about the little steps.

Getting comfortable,

knowing who you are presenting something of value first and then

listening for buying signals and walking them down a path.

And really,

I say this in the nicest of terms,

but staying in control of the process,

don't release control over to them because they might not make

that next call.

They might not take you up on something unless you send

an invoice,

love that strategy by the way.

So that kind of sums up everything that you're talking about,

right? Nikki.

Oh, a hundred percent.

Yes, totally.

This idea of you are the expert and you lead the

sell process.

It's your job to earn people's business and it's your job

to move them from step to step to step.

Perfect. Now you have given us so much during our chat

here, myself and my listeners,

we would like to give you something I'd like to present

you with a virtual gift.

It's a magical box containing unlimited possibilities for your future.

So this is your dream or your goal of almost unreachable

height that you would wish to obtain.

Please accept this gift and open it in our presence.

What's inside your box.

Well, thank you.

First of all,

that's beautiful.

That gives me the chills.

I love that,

you know,

what's inside my box.

This feels like the ultimate dream.

And I honestly haven't shared this with very many people.

So we'll just keep this a secret between us and your

listeners. If I could have any big dream,

it would be to have made such an impact in my

community and in my world that somebody wants to name a

school after me.

Oh wow.

I was not expecting that.

I love that.

Tell us more,

make it bigger.

Where is the school?

So I would like for the school to be in Washington

state because that's where I live and in the Seattle area.

And I want it to be something that is like really

for kids.

And I don't do anything for kids,

but like my business isn't for kids,

but something that is going to empower and educate and build

confidence. And I would like for that school to be named

after me,

because I've contributed something so big to the world that it's

an easy,

like, of course we want her name on our school,

Obviously just really quickly.

So we can all envision this for you.

What is it looking like?

What's it made up.

So it's a beautiful light brick,

and it's got a beautiful entrance,

big entrance with some kind of ornate doors.

It looks beautiful and it looks inviting and people want to

be inside it.

All right.

Then it's coming your way.

I can already tell.

So you have shared so much great information and give biz

listeners. I've been watching her blog.

I'm not on your weekly tips though.

So I've got to figure out how to do that.

Maybe you can share that with us as well,

how we can get on your list,

but how would you like to direct our listeners to be

able to contact you and find out more about sales?

Maybe? Well,

I would be honored to hear from you and your listeners

if I can support and be a resource.

So you can find me at your sales,

maven.com. So Y O U R S a L E S

and then M a V E n.com.

And you're welcome to reach out to me at Nicki at

your sales,

maven.com. That's my email address.

And I'm happy to hear questions and feedback and comments about

anything from the show today,

or questions about sales.

And I do have something a little special.

If I can give a gift back to you and to

your listeners,

I have something for them.

Oh, we're all about gifts.

Do tell.

Okay. So I would like to gift your audience a free

training from me.

Wow. It's a seven minute training.

So it's fast,

it's quick.

And it comes with a manual.

So you can watch it as many times as you want

or once.

And the content is navigating difficult conversations.

So if you've ever been in a conversation with somebody where

you'd like to have more influence,

but whatever you say,

the person is,

has this counter kind of response.

So you say black,

they say,

why you say yes,

they say,

no. Some of these people live in your house with you

right now.

And some of them are clients.

So if you want to have more influence in a conversation,

this is for you,

it's called navigating difficult conversations.

And the way that you can get it is you go

to your sales,

maven.com/gbu. So gift biz unwrapped.

So your sales maven.com

GBU, you can download that.

That will also add you to my weekly sales tips.

So you get the training and if you don't want the

weekly sales tips,

you unsubscribe,

if you want the weekly sales tips and you like those,

you'll start getting them right away.

Perfect. Thank you so much on behalf of all our listeners,

I'm thanking you formally right here.

That is huge.

And I don't have it.

And I have definitely been in conversations like that.

So I can't wait to see what you're going to teach

me and give biz listeners,

you know,

there's a show notes page.

So if you're out and about,

and you weren't able to capture any of these links,

no worries.

Just go over to gift biz,

unwrapped.com forward slash sales Maven.

If you're listening to this a little bit later after it

goes live,

if you're listening right away,

it's going to be the first podcast that pops up.

Oh my gosh,

Nikki so much great information.

I appreciate all of it.

And thank you so much for your free gift.

I know that all of us now can really think about

sales a little bit differently and not get freaked out about

it and actually have a plan.

I love your three steps where you're talking about something.

You see an opportunity then exactly what to do about it.

Moving forward.

That is golden.

Really appreciate your being here today.

Nikki, thank you so much and have a great day.

You too.

Thank you.

All right.

Give his listeners.

I want to remind you to take advantage of Nikki's free

gift. That sounds awesome.

Dealing with difficult conversations.

Again, you can grab that over at your sales,

maven.com forward slash GBU.

If you have any comments about the podcast,

you can get to me directly,

just go through my email SU at gift biz,

unwrapped.com and a little teaser about the podcast for next week,

I'm going to be interviewing someone who had one of those

light bulb moments and created a woman's accessory product that we

all need when you hear her story and what her product

is, you're going to be like,

Oh my gosh,

yes, I've had this problem too.

So that's all you get to know until you tune in

next week on gift biz on wrapped bye for now,

This episode is all wrapped up,

but your gift vis journey continues.

It's your time to experience the pride and satisfaction of turning

your passion into a profitable business.

Join the gift biz builder program and access valuable lessons,

worksheets, and a live Q and a sessions.

Addressing your specific challenges.

You also have the opportunity to connect with a community of

gift biz builders,

just like you head over to gift biz,

unwrapped.com/gift biz builder,

and get started today.