46:25
SUMMARY KEYWORDS
laurie, wesleyan, lori, sales, website, talk, people, linkedin, manufacturers, sales process, damon, build, content, buyer, selling, clients, questions, marketing, buy, salesperson
SPEAKERS
Lori Highby, Damon Pistulka, Curt Anderson, Wesleyne Greer
Damon Pistulka 00:00
This is 1032 Just like we said we’re starting Dan starting for you man. Otherwise we would be late most days. So I appreciate you doing that all we’re going to go live on LinkedIn here and we’re going to get started you’re ready to roll Kurt.
Curt Anderson 00:13
Let’s rock and roll brother.
Damon Pistulka 00:15
All right look for doing it here boom Hi. Alright everyone. Wesley this
Wesleyne Greer 00:35
costumes guy
Curt Anderson 00:36
I have it. I’m Dr. Evil
Damon Pistulka 00:43
I just have my costume on because my wife we’re getting ready to go someplace tonight. And I would have left it on. But
Curt Anderson 00:50
yeah. Oh, dude, you should have you know, in like your your Indian chief or Elvis?
Damon Pistulka 00:56
Yeah, yeah, it’s a surprise. Surprise. Oh. I love it. Yeah, good stuff, because, well, I’ll kick us off here. Welcome once again to the manufacturing ecommerce success series. It’s Friday. It’s 1030. For now, we were a little late, Dan sorry, but we did start on time. We’re live on LinkedIn. If you’re listening to us there over on LinkedIn. Go ahead and drop a comment and let us know where you’re listening from let us know questions. I’m watching that. I’m Damon Pistulka I’m one of your hosts and I got my co host brother from another mother the other side of the country. Kurt Anderson, who’s going to take it away and get us through today.
Curt Anderson 01:38
Guy what you know what I don’t know if I’m gonna make through this whole episode Damon you know I’m I’m no longer a young man so I’m not sure I don’t know if my heart’s gonna take this you know it’s one thing if I have Laurie at one time and mostly net the ones but okay, guys, so Happy Friday. What a special day Halloween weekend. Dan Biggers birthday was this week Dan and big Happy birthday to you, buddy. Appreciate you everybody have been Jean my dude my girlfriend Jean. We got down the house. We got hell here from Washington. So guys, happy Friday. Thank you for joining us. What an honor and privilege we have so much uncover we’re going to dig right in. So I want to introduce my dear friend Laurie. Heidi Laurie give a wave. I know she’s a little under the weather.
02:22
I am sorry.
Curt Anderson 02:24
Joining us. We’ve got Wesleyan Greer, Wesleyan. You’re down in Houston today going crazy for the World Series, I assume?
Wesleyne Greer 02:31
Yes. My color see it. Did you not? Yeah. Yeah, yes. Yes.
Curt Anderson 02:36
Go Astros Lori’s up in Milwaukee. So guys, I’m gonna start with my friend Laurie. So Lori is the founder and owner of Keystone click President founded her this amazing company rate during the great recession 2008 13 years later. She is so absolutely crushing it b2b expert Rockstar. Lori Welcome to the program. Just I know you’re little under the weather but give us a little insight. I know you’re a great hockey player. Sure a little bit about yourself.
Lori Highby 03:05
Yeah, thanks for putting up with my my cold nozzle me know, whatever that’s going on in the foggy head. Yeah, as you said had the business for 13 years now. We are strategic digital marketing agencies to help our clients build brand awareness and generate leads online. We do that by first conducting research on behalf of our clients to help them best understand their customer. And then we build a strategy and support the full implement implementation of that strategy that’s really focused on helping our clients achieve their goals, all leveraging the wonderful tools of the internet.
Curt Anderson 03:40
That’s awesome guys, and I dropped Lori’s LinkedIn profile in the chat box. You have to check out her website Keystone click tons of tools resources, she’s just a rockstar guide for manufacturers. Let’s go down to Houston. Wesleyan Greer and I you know what, and Wesleyan has a connection through my man Dan bigger Dan.
God bless you, dude, man, one of those. One of the biggest blessings of my year was Look at that smile. She just she just lightens up the whole virtual room. Why Celine? You are you’re the founder and president of transform sales. You’re a chemist at heart by trade. And you’re such an extrovert. You’ve brought your sales expertise and skills to help manufacturers share a little bit about what you have going on.
Wesleyne Greer 04:24
Awesome. So I on transform sales and we focus on sales, consulting, sales, training and sales coaching, specifically in the STEM industry. So science, technology, engineering and manufacturing. And I’m also the host of the podcast, the science of selling stem.
Curt Anderson 04:44
So we have two podcast hosts. So Laurie, give a shout out to your podcast.
Damon Pistulka 04:48
Like I forgot about that when
Lori Highby 04:52
I’m the host of social capital. I interview professionals globally on the topic of networking.
Curt Anderson 04:58
Yes, and one hundreds of have how many What are you up
Lori Highby 05:01
to now? I think I’m at 342 right now
Curt Anderson 05:04
are you four? And so congratulations. So again so little NyQuil going on there. So these you know, so Damon, I don’t know how we are so blessed to have such incredible talent hang out with us. I just I don’t get it, guys. But man,
Damon Pistulka 05:18
thank you no idea.
Curt Anderson 05:20
thank the good Lord above for Yeah, we guys we have these guys are so amazing. So what we did this past month. So we’ve been doing training workshops with manufacturers we started months ago and thanks to our friends at the MEP network. We have hail from impact Washington, we did a great program with impact Washington months and months ago, it went over so well. We continued it through the summer. And man, we decided we needed to bring in some big guns for training and we brought in Laurie muscling, they absolutely crushed it.
So let’s dig in. Laurie, I’m going to start with you my friend. So you kicked off our program Hey, when he’s in the house when he from Queens is in the house. And I was just I had a long guys, you got to connect with Winnie at a long talk with Winnie about Laurie and Wesleyan. So when he welcome Happy Friday. So Laurie, you did using social media to build brand and generate leads, it was just an awesome session, you know, we were together for two hours with our manufacturers, you crushed it, share a little bit about what we talked about and the strategies that you take your clients through that process. Sure.
Lori Highby 06:25
Real briefly, I’ll just share the analogy about Field of Dreams, you know that if you build it, they will come that is only going to work in the movies, you got to get really clear and tell your audience that you exist. So it all starts with brand awareness. And and then you can really leverage digital marketing as a whole to generate leads. And that’s what you want to do is focus on understanding your customer and figuring out what is the message that’s going to connect and resonate with them.
And we talked about some tools and resources, such as the hub and spoke strategy or looking at all the questions that people ask you related to your offering. And that’s a really good way to start making content is in alignment with the questions that people ask you. So posts on social media and answer those questions, answer them on your, your web pages, answer them in video as images, you know, there’s a lot of different ways to to answer the same question and repurpose that content.
Curt Anderson 07:26
Awesome. And I’m gonna dig a little deeper now Hub and Spoke tool. So what Laurie did, she shows up with a tool for the folks and again, these are a lot of, you know, as manufacturers were newbies, you know, we’re not content creators, we didn’t go to journalism school. So this is a little daunting, overwhelming. Laurie, you showed up with this awesome tool? Just can you dig, share a little bit about that tool that you offered?
Lori Highby 07:46
Yeah. So basically, what you do is you it’s looking at the eight types of questions that exist. Yeah, who, what, when, where? Why, how? Yes, no, I think that was eight. And then you just think, think about your, your core offering or the biggest, most profitable, you know, offering that you have, and you start thinking, what are all the what questions that people ask me? What are all the who questions and you just kind of build this.
It’s called the lotus blossom basically just kind of keeps growing. And then you keep peeling the onion and go deeper with those questions. And, and really, that just gives you a goal of information that you can be publishing online, but it just take the time to sit and think about those questions. And when you’re done, you’ve got roughly 80 different topics that you can actually be writing about in creating content for
Curt Anderson 08:38
absolutely so I’ll tell you that was awesome guys, and again, please connect with Laurie on LinkedIn. I just want to share a couple of comments about my friend Laurie so check check this out. Laurie, you know I did Damon you know I always do low cyber stalking on everybody and go up dear friends with these guys. Let me just share a couple of comments about my friend Laurie. If you go on Lori’s LinkedIn profile, savvy business owner who works tirelessly exceptional results, profound insight, amazing expertise.
Highly recommend Laurie brimming with enthusiasm, immerses herself in every project. So, man I had a front row seat this this month Laurie, it was such an honor and privilege working with you. I had Daymond we were taking pages of notes. It was great and our clients just absolutely loved working with you. Let me change gears to our friend down in Houston and Laurie what a perfect baseball analogy. It’s it’s World Series Time big game tonight right?
We’ve got our friend Wesleyan in Houston. She’s flying to colors. So Wesley, you did an awesome job. Following up Lori the following week. Your program was where marketing ends and sales begins. I guy that was so good. And you give an awesome baseball analogy. We talked about the sales process. And I’d say for a baseball fan for a guy that’s not a sales guru like yourself. It was such an aha moment for me and how you broke that down could share a little bit about that program that you took us threw in that baseball analogy for everybody.
Wesleyne Greer 10:02
Yes. So really, the first thing that we did was break down all of the preconceived notions and all of the negativity that people have towards sales, right? Sales is sleazy sales is hard sales is all of these things, right? So once we removed that veil, then we started talking about how do we actually build a sales process, because that’s the key. That is where things break down when the process is broken. That’s when you don’t go from your marketing, all of those great things, all that content. I was just like, eating it everything up that Laurie was saying 80 pieces of content, that sounds like a dream to me, right? And then it’s like, okay, now I have a content I’ve attracted them.
But what’s next, right? And so the analogy that I use, it’s really the simplest way that I can explain a sales process. And I literally have a baseball diamond. And we literally sit down and we say, Okay, what does it take to get from first base to second base, second base, third base, and third base to run home? And if you think about your sales process as a baseball diamond, and those are the spokes the steps on your, in your process, it’s simple, right?
It’s like, okay, I have to make the call, I have to do the proposal, I have to do this, I have to do that. And so when you break sales down and make it as simple as possible, use things that you understand. Most of us understand baseball, right? So when you think about, okay, what do I have to do to get from first to second? Do I have to call them 20 times? Do I have to engage with them on LinkedIn? And do I have to email them all of those things? That’s a part of your sales process. So that’s really what we were talking about during this past month.
Curt Anderson 11:43
It was so awesome. I know. And we’ve got some dads on here that are John and his boys are baseball players. Dan Biggers boys football baseball player. So this is a perfect analogy. Guys, let me share a couple of comments about my dear friend West lean and again, Wesley and I could go on and on about both you guys but let me share what I’ve read about what’s lean integrity, strong work ethic, great leader rock solid sales process.
It I love this line that Damon, if you want to save yourself, self time and anguish, yeah, there you go. Let that word resonate for a second. Okay, like when you hear the word anguish? Yeah. When you want to, when you want to save yourself time and anguish of challenge or selling you can’t be wise, you can’t make a wiser investment than working with West lean. With no equivocation. I can hardly even pronounce that word.
I think Laura, you had some words that I couldn’t even pronounce on your screen is a driven, proactive, knowledgeable sales leader. So again, guys, these two are absolute rockstars. They’re just a joy and blessing to work with our folks, our manufacturers love that. I want to Laurie, I’m going to come back to you again. So now you followed up Westlands program with another great program. But I want to go back to your hub and hub and spoke one more. I’m gonna dig into that for a second. So for folks on the call today, you know, let’s go into that for a second.
So say I’m a manufacturer, and I manufacture circuit boards, okay. And so now how your Hub and Spoke work is like, Okay, I’m going to talk about circuit boards. And then I’m going to have like different topics around circuit boards. So maybe supply chain disruption, parts and components, soldering, so on so forth, chair, then what Lori’s tool did is I can take each one of those subjects put that you hit that little tool, it goes into a separate subject. And now I could build eight subjects around that one subject. Right? Yep. Yep. Sure. Sure. We’ll go a little bit deeper on that. Yeah. So
Lori Highby 13:41
the idea, and this goes along with not let’s work smarter, not harder, you know. And so instead of trying to reinvent the wheel every single time when it comes to what type of content do I need to be creating? The Hub and Spoke approach is really, let’s identify one core piece of content referred to as pillar content sometimes. And so the example that I think I used was the biggest marketing mistakes of, of 2021.
And then so it would be one big piece of content that talks about, let’s say, 10 different mistakes that are being made. Well, then each of those I can actually springboard off of, and create, you know, one of them, you know, people aren’t building their email lists, or their websites that built the right way. Not leveraging social media, and just go really deep on that. So your pillar content is kind of a broader piece of content. And then all the spokes from that that hub piece are more kind of siloed and let’s go, let’s go deeper on them. Yep. Yep.
Curt Anderson 14:43
Awesome. So I just I had I tell you, that was just such a powerful tool. So let’s dig right in. So we’ll keep the baseball thing cooking. So you follow up with content creating content that converts Okay, so we dug into the hub and spoke Wesleyan did an amazing job talking about how we take westlink or take sales. In a marketing where ends, transfers, transfer into sales, talk about your the next workshop on how you had some phenomenal tips and strategies for everybody that week.
Lori Highby 15:10
Sure. So we talked about creating content that converts. Yeah, so that that’s what we want to do where you know, marketing is heavy first brand awareness and drive to say, Hey, I’m here, look at me. And then we’re putting them through that funnel that whistling talked about. And really, once we get people to take action, which is, click a link or visit our landing page, fill out a form, that’s what we want them to do is take that next action that ultimately equates to dollars in our pockets isn’t the goal.
But let’s make we have to look at all the steps and make sure that we’re taking them from that step one to step two is less Wesleyan was talking about, but we’re looking at content on online on social media channels, the ads that we’re creating, the title of your blog post is extremely important. It’s, you know, the subject line in your email.
But we went really deep on the webpage, because at the end of the day, you own that you own your website, you don’t own the social media channels. So you can you ultimately have total control over what you have on your website. So we broke it down into really easy to understand how to best maximize what’s on your website, to increase the conversions when people get there. And I know you were really excited about what we referred to as the XYZ statement. And really, that’s your value proposition, your unique selling point, you know, there’s a couple of different ways to do that.
But it’s a formula that we use. And we work through this with a number of our clients. But it really makes it clear so that when someone lands on your website, they know they’re in the right spot, and they want to continue to read the information, you don’t want to make it hard for them to buy from you, you want to make it easy for them to go I’m where I need to be what I do next. So that formula is we do X so what is it that you do for y? Who is it that you do this for? So they can z and that is what is the benefit or the outcome that they get by engaging with you.
Curt Anderson 17:14
Let’s run Let’s Let’s recap that again. We do x we do X Yep. And it’s for or who? Who, for who is
Lori Highby 17:24
it for? And then so they can and that’s and that’s the benefits. And what I like to do is use a lot of adjectives in the statement because that’s gonna help describe that person. So when they read it, they can feel connected to that message and know that they are in the right space. So you don’t just say, you know, we build websites for manufacturers. It’s it’s a little bit sexier than that, you know, we build high converting websites for b2b industrial manufacturers that are are looking to sell online so that they can increase their sales. You know, I’m just winging this and I have foggy head. So yeah, it’s not as sexy as I would have hoped.
Curt Anderson 18:10
And you have a big hockey game coming up, by the way. Yeah. Both of these ladies are fiercely competitive. Laurie is a competitive hockey player. And so I know you’ve got a big game coming up. But I absolutely love what you’re where you’re going here, Laurie and we always kid around we call it you when you go through our training. We call it that dreaded Damon you know that horrible disease? It’s I don’t know if you guys have heard there’s this disease covering the planet. Yeah. contagious? What’s it called?
Damon Pistulka 18:36
The we syndrome? We syndrome, right?
Curt Anderson 18:39
Where, you know, I We on our website, maybe all about all about us. Right? So let me do I’m gonna let’s Wesleyan. Let’s jump over to you my friend. So this is a man this is just guys. I can’t tell you how good this was this past month. And I was like getting so good. So whistling you.
You took the ball from Laurie the following week and you dug into like that sales process and dropped a major bombshells for everybody talk and what Laurie did a great job of how do you get people into the funnel? You talked about how do we nurture them in that funnel, right? And talk a little bit, you know, the sales, you know, how do we not be sleazy? Because we don’t want to be sleazy in person. How do we do that online?
Wesleyne Greer 19:22
The first thing that is so important in sales is like nobody cares about you, right? Sales Marketing is like no one actually cares about you. I just got this LinkedIn message and I can still tired of these messages. I was like, so let me tell you all the things you did wrong. Then he came back, and he was like, well, oh, thank you for letting me know how bad that I sucked at this message. Let me give you more paragraphs why I’m grading you should talk to me. And so that is not what you do. Like no one cares about you.
Absolutely. Nobody cares about you. And so once you remove that veil of no one cares about me? It’s like, okay, so I’ve attracted them to my brand to my website to me, how do I convert them? And that conversion is key, right? So things that we have to do when we’re converting is we have to find ways to connect with them. So whatever messaging whatever has resonated with them, we need to find a way to connect with them, and weave in what we do. Right? So and I was just listening to Lori, I’m like, Oh, I’m gonna have to go back and watch this session. Sounds awesome, right?
So it’s thinking about what she said, it’s like, okay, so if somebody is engaging on content about email marketing, right, and they’re like, oh, wow, I really need to get this started. So what would you do? You wouldn’t just say, Hey, I provide done for you email marketing, I am the best person in the world. No, you would say something along the lines of, Wow, thanks so much for liking my post, um, what are some of the struggles that you’re having with your email marketing, let them say, Hey, this is what I need. And then when they say, This is what I need, that opens the door a little bit. We’re not on the way, we’re not even at first basic guys, we’re not even there.
We’re still we’re still striking out. We’re not in first base, okay, you let them come back to you and say, Hey, these are all the things that I’m struggling with. This is what I’ve tried. And you say, Wow, um, what? What’s the what if you could change your email marketing? Or if you could make a small increase? What how would that impact you again, so they were in this bad pace place. And now you want to take them on that journey of what that new world looks like, right.
And again, this can be done off by email, it can be done via LinkedIn, Facebook, whatever that social media that you use, don’t try to get people off of that platform immediately, right. And so what you’re doing, you’re nurturing them, and then at the right time, you say, Hey, um, wow, you’ve given so much insight. And there’s one thing and I just wanted to do have a few minutes, we can chat to something small, something small, but you don’t lead in with that.
And then you’re at first base. And now when you get on the phone with that person, you get on a zoom, it’s still not about you, they still don’t care about you guys, they still don’t care about you. Let them talk, let them vomit all of their feelings, although their emotions, whatever they want to talk about, right? Like, and then you pick up what they say. And you reframe it. And you because all you’re doing here is you’re getting information from them. No slides, no company presentation. I don’t even care what your name is really, like, I just want to talk about myself. Because people love themselves the most, right?
They love what they do. They love themselves. And that’s really how you get from and the way you get from first to second is you let them talk all about themselves. And literally the last five or 10 minutes of conversation, you’re like, wow, so here are all the things that you’re having troubles with. This is how I can help you, right? Can we schedule another meeting where I’ll walk you through our solution? How can do blah, blah, blah, blah? If they say yes, you’re a second. So what does it mean? We get to second guys? We’re almost back home. We’re almost there. But you haven’t won yet. So let’s remember it’s a process. And that’s the key. This is not a fast game. Yeah.
Damon Pistulka 23:38
It’s so funny Wesley when you’re talking about PowerPoints because it is we’re working with a client a couple of weeks ago and and they want to go from we got it. We talked to a client and then we give them the PowerPoint about what we do. We got to get him we got there right there. I was like, you just it’s like, it’s like, I don’t know, trying to attack flies with you know, salt.
Curt Anderson 24:01
Our that is, ah, this is so good. So
Wesleyne Greer 24:06
loving John. I’m loving the PowerPoint, and it has timings and animation. And I bet that as it’s going through, they’re just like, Okay, let me look at my phone. What else is happening today? Yeah, but the thing is, so many salespeople do that. Like I know, John is being facetious. But that’s what salespeople do these days. And it’s like, I don’t care.
Curt Anderson 24:30
Yeah, there’s I don’t know if you guys listen, that radio station wi I fm, right? What’s in it for me? So every one of our clients, you know, in our training, what do we got? What do we call them? Guys are soulmates? Right? They’re the worst thing just said it. What do we think about all day every day? We think about ourselves, right? Well, what are your soul mates? What are your ideal buyers thinking about all day every day?
They’re thinking about themselves. And I think what we talked we talked about this frequently at our program, if you guys are targeting buyers I get beat up all day long. Every day, I just ran into someone that I know works for 100% manufacturer. They are the purchasing person. I mean, it’s like, Hey, how’s it going? She goes, I’m resigning.
I go, you’re getting she’s like, I can’t do anything, right. I just I found a new job. I’m just getting out of this as fast as possible. So again, is you’re targeting buyers, you’re so focused on China, sell, sell, sell, and there’s just kind of get through the day. So make them a hero, their story? Wesleyan, you did a great job talking about, take them on a solution journey, take them on a solution journey. Can you just take that another step further? Just talk about how do you how do we pave that path that map on that solution journey?
Wesleyne Greer 25:43
So before I step into that, I have a company that I’m working with, and there’s a sales team. And there’s a buyer who literally call the CEO and said the salesperson is getting on my nerves, like literally I mean, because that’s what they do. What did they do, hey, once appeal coming once a PO coming once the order coming? And so I told the salesperson I said Okay, so here’s what we need to do, we need to soften her up.
Right? So this is what I want you to do. I want you to send her a hand written notes, and send her some cookies and her spa gift card. Like come on people. It’s not always all about you. If a buyer is irritated with you guess what they’re not going to do, they’re not going to process your order, it’s gonna go to the bottom of the bottom.
So just wanted to say that, as you were talking about your friend is gonna miss leaving the industry. So when you take somebody on a solution journey, it’s we’re uncovering their problem, right? So I always talk about what’s the pain versus what’s the problem. So a pain is oh, I scratched my wrist, it hurts a little bit. Let me put a bandaid on it. Okay, I can get back to work and I can do it. A problem is I broke my wrist. So I can’t type. If I can’t type, I can’t work. If I can’t work, I might get fired. If I get fired, I could lose my house. So what is the problem? The problem is, I might lose my house. That is the overarching issue. But what can I fix, I can put a cast on your wrist, right?
We fix that very first thing, and that’s what we talk about. But when you take your buyer on a solution journey, it’s the impact. It’s the impact of the problem. That’s what we sell to. And that’s what they’re buying. They’re buying the impact of what’s actually going to happen if they don’t fix this thing, this small thing. And if you talk about the thing you fix, they don’t care about that. Because what are they thinking about? They’re thinking about losing their house, they think about going into foreclosure, they’re not thinking about the broken wrist, right? You have to meet them where they are and take them on the journey back to where they started.
Damon Pistulka 27:48
That’s That’s great. Read the impact. That’s that’s that’s right,
Curt Anderson 27:53
guys, let that just yeah, this moment, a moment of silence. Let’s just say that again, for a second. Laurie? Okay. So we’re out there manufacturers. And so you know, we want to be engaged. And so say somebody does a Google search. They didn’t find us on social, they’re not finding Dan bigger crushing it on LinkedIn. like he always does. Say like, I was willing to subscribe, somebody with a broken wrist.
You know, here’s a buyer at Boeing today, this morning. And see she has a soccer game that she has to get to a five o’clock and a boss comes in and says, you need 30 things that you need to purchase by end of day today. Ready, go. And she’s like, Oh, my goodness, I’m going to do a search. So they land on somebody’s website for the first time. Okay, talk a little bit about how do we prevent and avoid like that we syndrome? How do we speak the right language to that buyer to make a great first impression? I know you talked about smiling faces, there’s a lot of things that we can do to invite that customer in, what are some tips and advice that you have there?
Lori Highby 28:52
Yeah, sure, I’d say definitely, very much in alignment with Wesleyan and I think the two of us need to connect and just talk to Jesus. Because I I’m singing the same song you are, um, but 100% It’s speaking to that, that pain that problem and connecting with them not saying that I can build this widget, but you know, I can keep your production line moving, you know, are having troubles with the your production line speaking to them saying you getting rid of that, that we syndrome. It’s one of the things that drives me nuts.
But there’s, we call this our billboard test, there’s three things that I was looking for in every single website that I look at. And I can just that gives me the direction on is this, this this need serious help? Or are they doing a decent job? First and foremost, is it clear and obvious what you do? If I land on a site?
And it’s not clear and obvious what it is that you do? I’m hitting the back button and trying to find someone else that makes it very easy for me to say, Yes, I’m in the right spot. And that goes back to that value proposition that that statement that we talked about. The second thing is What proof do you have that you can actually do what it is that you’re saying you can do and that’s where you need some sort of credit. ability, we talked about that a little bit with either the social proof, testimonials, you know, brands that buy from us logos, media exposure, accreditation within the industry awards that you’ve received.
There’s a lot of different ways to do that. But you absolutely 100% have to prove that you can do this, especially if this is the first sign that someone’s landing on your site. And the third thing, and this seems so simple yet I see so many times that this is a mistake. And it goes back to that statement and make it easy for me to buy from you is what’s the call to action? How do I get in touch with you? What’s the next step that I need to take to move forward?
Is it phone? Is it fill out a form is it hit the buy now button, whatever it is schedule appointments, sign up for a demo. So many websites are missing that I’ve proven that I can do this. Now I don’t know how to move forward. And I’ve experienced that a number of times I’m ready to buy, but I don’t know how to buy. Right? So those are the three vitals I would say that absolutely every single page in your site needs to have? Is it clear and obvious what you do? How you prove to me that you can actually do this and then tell me what to do next? Oh,
Curt Anderson 31:07
man, that is just so sad. And we and time and time again, you know, and again, manufacturers God bless them. They you know, they haven’t needed to be marketers, they’re great widget makers, incredible on production. But when it came to marketing was never top priority. And what in your hit it right on the head? Laurie, we’re like how many manufacturers would be the best choice the best option.
But you know what, I need to purchase 30 items today or submit 30 drawings today. And I’ve got a soccer game to get to at the end of the day. I don’t have time to like find out if you are the better company. But if somebody has a better website and then yeah, maybe a less a less quality manufacturer. I’m probably going with that person has a better website. So you’re hitting it spot on and we see it time and time again with manufacturers Wesleyan.
Okay, so somebody lands on the website. We had a matt Hello, right. Maybe they connected with Laurie and went and Laurie I want to come back I’m gonna give you give you a shout out guys. Please connect with Lori, please connect with West lean, if you want. I’ll tell you Lori’s we always could run as marketers. And Laurie. And you know, I always say this about you. We call it you know, sometimes we’re the cab cobblers, kids with no shoes. We’re so busy working on marketing other people’s companies that we don’t do a great job for our own website. Lori walks the walk, please go to Cleese Keystone click, she has all sorts of information.
You have an awesome video view and a hackery at the you know, in a hockey locker room and on a skating rink, and she does an incredible job of walking a walk all sorts of information to help you guys with your marketing strategies. Wesleyan, let’s come back to you. So somebody lands on a website, you’ve given enough information where this buyer feels attracted those interested, taught you did a great job on the sales process and communication. Have your CRM in place. Talk a little bit about how do we get that nurturing going once that party starts.
Wesleyne Greer 32:57
So really, when you think about, okay, hey, if somebody lands on my website, and you know, we have lots of different categories, because it could be a direct sale, it could be, hey, this is a $10 item, I’m gonna buy this $10 item. And I’m done. Right. And the problem with those small ticket items is you think I need 1000 people to come to my website to buy this $10 item so I can hit my revenue targets. But no, what you really need to do is that $10 item that that person bought, you need to find a way to nurture them to get them to buy more, right?
Because we can grow our business to ways new people or more from existing people, right. So we really have to think about our sales process as this multifaceted thing. So you have that low ticket item where they just go and click and buy. And then we have those higher ticket items where they’re filling out a form, and then the email is coming to you.
So what we don’t do is we don’t follow up with the person who sent the form in and said, Here is a whole lot potations amount of information. Here is a product brochure, here’s a link to my website that you just came from. So go look at it again. Like let’s not do that. Okay, that’s absolutely not what we want to do. What we need to do is some of what Laurie said, Hey, thank you so much for signing up on our website. Here’s a quick video of a previous customer who worked with me. Okay. Yes, give me a little social proof. Right.
So again, what I love what Laurie is saying is because it’s like you have this content, use the content in your sales process. Like don’t just use it on LinkedIn once Yeah, use it in an email. Like today, I did a post and I literally sent it out to everybody who on my list. I wanted to say I did this post on women and salesman, I think you would like it right? And so what’s that going to do? I’m giving them value, but they’re also going on LinkedIn, and they’re gonna poke around and see all the other stuff I’ve done. Yeah, so really having that thought out sales process. How do I nurture somebody?
So when you have a smaller ticket sale, I want you to remember that it’s not one and done You have to think about what is the total lifetime value of my customer? Right? So if the total lifetime value of your customer is $1,000, how are you going to go from $10 to $1,000, that is what we call a sales process is all of those little teeny tiny steps to go from 10 to 1000, it might be two months, it might be two years, but you have to know what you need to do. When you have those higher ticket items. If you have somebody who raised their hand, and they came to you, they already said, I like you a little bit. I don’t know if I’m gonna go on a date with you. But I like your chest a little bit, right?
I like you enough to give you my real email address, right real name and my real phone number, right. So they check the box, right. And the thing is, you have to say the first you want to you do want to get that person on the call. But remember, you get them on the call and let them talk about themselves. And they may fill out that form. Because they were busy doing something they had to go to a soccer game at five o’clock that day. And they’re like, I need this, but they don’t come back to you immediately. It takes 12 to 14 touches to convert them 12 to 14 Guys, right 12 To 14 touches.
So even when they raise their hand, you still have to continue nurturing them, don’t give up after two emails or two calls. Like that’s not enough. So again, you have to be very intentional, find ways to continue nurturing them. And please, please, please have a CRM, if you don’t have a CRM, you’re gonna fail point blank period, you got to have some kind of CRM, spreadsheets are over, like no spreadsheets, and it can be a free one, it can be paid, but it must be something, have something to track these leads in.
Curt Anderson 36:58
That was right. So I and our second class, there was our homework assignment, find a CRM, build your prior process, that baseball diamond, you know, and again, if you don’t have one, take those steps to go through that. And then and I love you guys, man, you guys have so much symmetry, I can’t wait to see where this where this relationship goes. You talked about you know, think about the future worry in your session.
In Session Three, you’re like start with the end in mind. You know, like you’re wrestling some of the future you’re like, you know, start with the end in mind. So Wesleyan, I’m going to continue real quick. So you’ve you know, build a sequence you even read on your LinkedIn profile you talk like you have a great testimonial on your about section. Guys. We Damon, I do a bunch of LinkedIn trainings.
Whose profiles do we use for our trainings, Lori and Les liens we break down their profile step by step. If you’re like, Man, I’d really like to improve my LinkedIn profile. Please look at Lori’s please look at Wesley’s, you’re gonna see these beautiful smiles, they radiate, they glow. This is why they’re successful. But when you talk about the prospecting techniques, as the I have uncovered the obstacles, right, uncover the obstacles. And this is a bombshell that I loved. What percentage should we be listening? What percentage should we be talking? When we’re doing when we’re in a sales cycle?
Wesleyne Greer 38:18
Ah, yes, you should be talking 20% or less in that first meeting, right? And that’s their discovery meeting 20%. So if you have 15 minutes, you got to maximize that time. And so I let I say, let the person talk. What about whatever they want to, but you have to open your meeting with what we like to call a command statement. Right. And that is, so a question that I may ask is, tell me a little bit about your sales organization? I’m not asking How was your week, I don’t care how the week was right. Like they don’t want to even tell me that it doesn’t matter.
Tell me a little bit about your sales organization. Tell me a little bit about the last time you had a failure in your manufacturing process. Like hello, I’ll question you should understand. And I know that based on all the stuff you’re doing in marketing, when you’re building a buyer personas, and you’re understanding their pains or challenges, those are the questions you ask people, again, you’re not making content in a vacuum. You’re not saying the 10 ways that your marketing is failing, and they’re liking something saying, Oh, my email marketing sucks. I don’t know how to social sell. What problems are you having with your social selling, like use what they’ve told you?
And then just shut up and listen? And then after that, you have that small time is for you to give your quick little elevator spiel, your value proposition and schedule the next meeting. Because here is a key that I hope you guys take nothing else away from anything other than the Astros are gonna win the World Series, right? You know that. I want you to remember that. Always, always. Always. always schedule your next action in your current one in the meeting you’re in. Yeah should have the action item the next meeting the next touchpoint the next thing always always that’s how deals stall right if you don’t have something
Damon Pistulka 40:17
Yeah, you got to get that that’s that that’s gold right there that last thing is scheduled your next meeting while you’re setting this meeting and get it done. If you do that one thing you’ll have the next meeting first of all, because nine times out of 10 is going to take you months to get the second meeting if you don’t do it right there and look at calendars and get it done. Man there’s so anybody really that’s in sales it’s even worse. Sorry.
Curt Anderson 40:44
So Alright guys, let’s i MAN i So got get this so we had to our training sessions. I had four front row seats. Yeah. Rather than World Series seats to Lori and Wesley man. We had four week four sessions together, guys, I know we could go all day we’re run. I know. I just I don’t want to say and you know what? And I wasn’t gonna say anything want to let this out what a special day it is.
Damon did you know today I turned 53. I’m 53 today and I intentionally This is my birthday gift to myself to hang out. I did this and you on the program? Just to hang out. I’ve got my girlfriend Winnie and Val and Jean. Dan, Kevin. John. John, how are you guys? Many My dear love winning. So, guys, I wasn’t gonna say anything. But thank you for sharing what a gift you two are what a blessing, honor and privilege. It’s been to work with both of you this month. So guys, let’s take it home. Or I’m going to give you a last shot. Take it home on your end. We know how to contact you on LinkedIn. Guys, please connect with Laurie, any last parting thoughts before we wrap up today?
Lori Highby 41:51
Oh, do you even think about that one? On the spot? Yeah. You know, I’d say there’s there’s no secret recipe anymore. You know, when it comes to? What information do you share online? Don’t hold anything back at the end of the day. You know, we watch cooking. I love watching cooking shows. And I fascinating with it. But I still go pay, you know, a good chunk of money for someone else to make me an amazing steak. It’s the same thing. Yeah, the recipe proved the expertise.
42:26
Don’t hold back.
Damon Pistulka 42:28
Yeah, that’s so great. Because I had someone talk to me about that the other day. So they go, Hey, you’re not afraid to tell everybody what you do. I said, No, I don’t care. I tell him everything because it’s in the execution is where you really gonna do it. And that’s a great example.
Because you can show somebody how to paint a house, they aren’t going to paint their house, every painter is still going to have a job. Because there’s a certain amount of people that are always going to want to try it themselves. And that’s awesome. And let them go do that. And if you give them the information to it, that just makes it better. But just like you said, a lot of people are going to want to pay for it to have it done without having to do it. Mm hmm.
Curt Anderson 43:03
Absolutely. Again, guys, Laurie does a ton of she has tons of content resource guides on her website. She does a lot of webinars. She has her podcast, she is anywhere in everywhere. She does an amazing job. So Lori, thank you my sweetie. I gosh, I just want a great relationship here. What Slean
Wesleyne Greer 43:23
what I would say is stop being afraid of sales. Yes, sometimes you’ll fail, but sometimes you’re gonna win. And really what you’re doing is just like what a doctor does for you. You’re providing a solution, a doctor diagnosis and then they say hey, here’s your here’s what I prescribe for you.
As a salesperson. That’s what you’re doing. When you’re selling you’re diagnosing and you’re providing a solution. Whatever you’re doing, whether you’re selling a dog treat, you’re selling a shirt, you’re selling a manufacturing a piece of equipment or consulting service, you are helping someone you are helping a business achieve goals. Just like Laurie said that they can’t do alone. So don’t think you’re being pushy or overbearing. You are helping you are serving you’re not selling
Damon Pistulka 44:21
Can I drop the phone right? Drop the phone after you guys talk. That’s what you got to do.
Curt Anderson 44:27
Just Just a moment of silence again. Yes. It was like this for two hours, four weeks. It’s like Alright, guys, so we’re gonna wrap up. Let’s go back to the table. Yeah, stick around. I welcome you encourage you invite you to meet Laurie. Meet Wesleyan guys. If you’re on LinkedIn live. Please connect with Laurie and Wesleyan. We wish you an amazing awesome holiday Halloween Halloween weekend. Stay safe.
You know, good luck to the Astros big weekend for Wesleyan down in Houston. Guys, we’re gonna come back on Monday. Monday Daymond we are interviewing of Dr. Elissa Rodriguez, the director of the the Alaska MEP. Next Friday, our dear friend John, who’s right in the house today. Yeah, that’s right here next Friday. John, we can’t wait to have you on next next week. Laurie McLean. Thank you guys for everything. Appreciate you worship you. You guys are the best. Yeah, go out and have an awesome awesome weekend. Daymond Take it away, dude.
Damon Pistulka 45:26
All right, thanks. So I’m just processing a little bit here. But thanks so much everyone. Warm? I know really, really, you know, so thanks so much for being here. Every time I’m in the room with these two. Either one of them together. It’s even worse I realized. I just love being in a room with people that are way smarter than me. Oh, I can write a lot of no not even close. Right? I so great. So great.
Thanks so much for being here. Thanks everyone on LinkedIn live too for commenting we got Trish we got Rasool we got Jeff we got people think just thanks so much there too. We just have a ball doing this and we we love our guests that that know so much and share, share the way they do. We’re going to drop off here and go back to the tables on remote. So thanks for everyone on LinkedIn and we’re going back to the tables on HR email. Here we go. Alright, piece to this.
