March 22, 2024 • 41 mins
Selling doesn’t come naturally for most people, especially women. But do we need to be afraid of it? Not if you know someone like Nikki Rausch, our own personal Sales Maven. Nikki has a five step Selling Staircase, and she shares the wisdom with us on the WEE Podcast.
Connect with Nikki:Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
Connect with Nikki:Like the show? Be sure to Like, Subscribe, Review and Share! Interested in being a part of WEE? Reach out to our group liaison, Kelli@WomenExcellingEverywhere.com
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:08):
Well, welcome, welcome everyone tothe Women Excelling Everywhere Podcast. I am
Julie Anderson aka Brain Lady Julie hereas your host, and I am so
excited today for our guest because Iwant to hear what she has to say.
She's got some great tips and wisdomthat she's going to be sharing with
us, so we have on ourshow today, Nicki Rausch. Nicki,
(00:32):
welcome to the Women Excelling Everywhere Show. Thank you for having me, Thank
you. I'm excited to be herewith you. Yeah, very Nate,
very neat is. I was lookingover all your information. I'm so intrigued
and I know you'll bring benefit toour listeners because this is going to be
business focused on this particular call andsales focused that were that so many entrepreneurs
(00:54):
kind of push back and shy awayfrom. So looking forward to the wisdom.
But from a profrietional point of view, let me just give give the
audience a snippet of who Nicki is. Nicki is the CEO of Sales Maiden.
She has a unique ability to transformthe misunderstood process of selling. I
(01:17):
like that transform it. With twentyfive plus years of selling experience, entrepreneurs
and small business owners now hire Nikkito show them how to sell successfully and
authentically so important. Nicki has writtenthree books, all available on Amazon,
and she has a podcast called SalesMaiden, which you can find on your
(01:38):
favorite podcast platform. Niki, onceagain, welcome to the WE podcast.
Thank you all right. So Ialways like asking my guests, we want
to get to know Nikki a littlebit more. So we kind of heard
the you know, you've been doingthis for twenty five plus years, you're
in sales, but what led youto want to build your business around teaching
(02:02):
or demystifying the sales process, Like, what brought you to this point in
your career? Well, it wasten plus years ago. I was helping
to build somebody else's business at thetime, and it was the first time
in my career where I started networkingwith women. I come from a very
male dominated industry. That's been mybackground and my sales for most of my
(02:25):
professional career. And when I startedhanging out with women entrepreneurs, I was
just so really honestly in awe ofthem, because women entrepreneurs are so passionate
and they're experts at whatever it isthat they're doing. They want to make
an impact in the world, theywant to serve, and I was just
really inspired by it, and soI just wanted to spend as much time
(02:49):
as possible. While I was helpingto kind of grow somebody else's business,
I want to spend as much timeas possible with these women. And as
I was getting to know them,I was finding that a lot of them
were really struggling with the sales conversation. And I had such an extensive background
in sales that sales at that pointto me felt fairly simple from a conversational
standpoint. I was known for buildingreally strong relationships that resulted in multimillion dollar
(03:14):
deals, and so I just honestlystarted helping some of them on the side,
just wanting to offer advice when theywere open to it, and give
them suggestions and teach them some littlesimple concepts. And one of them pulled
me aside one day and she waslike, the stuff that you're doing and
teaching me, it's working so well, Like why aren't you offering this to
(03:36):
other people? And my initial responsewas, well, that seems dumb.
I don't think people would pay meto learn this, And she's like,
no, people will pay you,Nikki, because what you teach it works,
It's easy to do, and reallymy business was born out of oh
well, if it will help,I'm willing to test the waters, like
dip my toe in the water.And it turns out that I have honestly
(03:59):
the greatest gig in the whole world. I love my work. I love
the women that I get to workwith, and I love the concept of
taking the kind of ick and theuncomfortableness out of a sales conversation and showing
people how you can do it ina genuine collaborative way that feels not only
good to you, but also tothe prospect that you're working with. That's
(04:21):
awesome, because you're right and Ilike you. I've worked with women entrepreneurs
for many, many years, andone of the things that sales is always
that that thing they don't want todo. And they may know that their
message or their product or their servicehas high value. It's not that they
(04:43):
doubt the value or what they bring. It's they just have that difficulty opening
that door and not feeling ichy,not feeling like you know this this this,
this feels slimy for some reason.Yeah, and I know for myself.
I mentioned on the show to before, so some of the listeners know
is my dad was a used cardealer in the seventies and eighties. So
(05:08):
it's like you picture inchy, right, you know, that's kind of the
impression you get. So breaking outof that that visual that you have and
you we use the term or thisparticular the title of this particular pod is
called Overcome your Fear of Sales withthe Selling Staircase. So I'm curious how
(05:28):
that's going to evolve as we talk. But we all know we need to
be positive, we all need totwist that positive part on our messaging.
How does that play into establishing areally good connection from the first handshake,
from the very get go, fromthe hello, my name is how what's
(05:50):
the importance of that? And I'massuming that's that first step on the staircase?
Yeah, so the first the sellingstaircase is my signature for work for
an effective sales conversation, So ithas those five steps. I teach it
as a staircase because most of usunderstand the concept that you don't stand at
the bottom of a staircase and hopup to the top. You go one
(06:13):
step at a time, and that'show to have an effective sales conversation is
to understand what step are we onright now, and what's the logical next
step to move this client or guidethis client or prospect too. So the
idea behind it first and foremost,I think to maybe reframe that impression,
because we've all been on the receivingend of sales done really poorly and where
(06:38):
it has that eck factor. Sothe way to transform that is to start
to reframe how you think about sellingand sales. The way that I teach
sales is it's not something that youdo to another person, because when you're
doing something to another person, thatfails manipulative and that feels uncomfortable frankly.
But sales actually is something you dowith another person, and that's where the
(07:01):
collaboration piece comes in. So thefirst step in the selling staircase is to
make a positive first impression. Sothe foundation of everything I teach is built
on rapport, and if you don'thave a rapport in place, it's really
hard to move somebody through that conversationand have it feel genuine and have it
feel good to both parties. Sowe need to make a powerful first impression
(07:25):
in the first few seconds minutes ofconnecting with somebody. And that could be
connecting with them online, or thatcould be connecting with them in person or
through your website or through some otherform of marketing that you're doing. But
can you make a positive first impression? And a lot of times entrepreneurs,
business owners sometimes they don't even think, like, how am I coming across?
(07:47):
And when you take a step backand go, am I making a
powerful first impression? Am I makingthe impression that I want to leave people
with? Because whether or not youlike this, what I'm about to say,
it's just a fact is that peopleare making judgments about you, and
we want to do everything we canto set set those up to be positive
(08:07):
judgments. Yeah, yeah, Ilike that. And I like that you
put that we're not just talking abouta face to face impression but also a
website impression or And that's because whenyou said we've all had those ick moments
with the cell. I tell you, every single day I open up my
LinkedIn and there's five messages from thefirst time I ever met somebody. Hi,
(08:31):
Julie, I'd like to connect withyou. Hey do you need this?
Blah, blah blah blah, Wellgo here, I'd like it,
Like, it's just, uh,it's so negative. So that's that's a
what's one of the ways that youcan make a positive impression? Like what
how do you make it? Like, let's just take one of those I'm
throwing throwing a little bit of acurve ball in our covers. Love it.
(08:54):
But because I literally just experienced this, you know, a half hour
ago when I was doinging, openedup LinkedIn and one of the you know,
there's a message in there and it'sjust instant sales. A new person
that reached out to me, andit is just instant sales. So how
could they have made a positive impressionon me to make me go, huh,
(09:18):
maybe maybe I do want to continuea conversation with them. Maybe I
am a little curious about what theydo because that first impression was so negative.
Yeah, yeah, and we allget those, right, Like I
probably block I'm not even joking tenpeople a day in my email because it's
just garbage. It's just word vomitingall over me in my email, and
I'm not interested in that. Soone of the ways to make positive first
(09:41):
impressions, specifically in those first touchpoints is to talk about the person that
you're connecting with. So it can'tbe like, Hey, Julie, I'm
NICKI Roush, I'm the salesmanan Ihelp people, blah blah blah, because
that's all about me. Who cares? You don't care about me yet,
you don't know me. But ifI reached out to you and said,
Julie, I listened to your podcastand this particular episode, and you spoke
(10:03):
about your dad and the fact thathe had this business, I just wanted
to say thank you so much forsharing, that might catch your attention right
away because I'm speaking to something thatmeans something to you. And then the
next thing I'm gonna do, I'mnot gonna start selling to you. I'm
going to ask permission. I'm goingto say, you know, one of
(10:24):
the things that I work with orI work with women who are interested in
up leveling their sales skills, isthat something you would ever be open to
having a conversation about. I haveto ask you a question. I need
your permission before I sell to you. So if I ask you that question
and you go, hey, thanksfor the you know, thanks for listening,
but no thanks, I'm not interested. Okay, But if I do
(10:48):
it and start it in a waythat shows that I am interested in you
as a person. I know somethingabout you, and I'm willing to compliment
you about it that's authentic, atrue compliment. And then I'm willing to
ask you a question you might bemore inclined to say maybe maybe, y'll
let's see. Sure that makes somuch more sense. Yes, if somebody,
(11:11):
if anybody listening, somebody said thatthey actually listened and quoted something or
said something about what was on thepodcast, that that would definitely, you
know, if anything, it wouldmake me go, okay, I'm not
going to block them, right becauseare like, oh, they actually have
invested some time and energy in somethingthat is important to me. Yeah.
(11:35):
Yeah, that's very good, verygood tip of advice, or a very
good piece of advice for everyone.Now, one of the things that you
explain, there's a you say,what is the difference Do you talk about
a difference between using cat calling ordog calling technique to create curiosity? Because
(11:56):
sometimes that like that kind of hasa negative feeling to me, But you
say, you can there's a differencebetween the two and how it generates curiosity
versus the ick factor. Yeah,so okay, So curiosity is the second
step in the sale, the sellingstaircase. So we talked about first impression,
so that's the introduction step step one. Step two is creating curiosity.
(12:20):
And most people, if you askthem, do you know how to create
curiosity when you're talking about your productsor services, they get their their eyes
go big and they're like, Idon't know what you mean. It's the
most misstep. So most people don'tthink about do I know how to create
curiosity? But frankly, if youdon't know how to create curiosity, it's
pretty hard to continue on the conversation. So I do teach it as the
(12:41):
difference between how you call a dogand how you call a cat, which
I know sounds a little kooky,So stick with me here for just a
second, and then you can tellme whether or not it makes sense.
So when you think about somebody thatwants to get their dog's attention, they
change their demeanor. Oftentimes they dothis thing where they go, ah,
kim mere boy, kimmeret right,and dogs respond to that kind of that,
(13:01):
like high pitch that's super excited,like oh my gosh. And you
use a lot of words. Alot of times when you call a dog,
and dogs you know they've come.They don't even know what's going on,
but they'll come to you because they'relike, something's gonna happen. Could
be a treat, could be awalk, could be a ride in the
car, could just be a peton, you know, a pat on
the belly. But something's gonna happen. But people are not like that.
(13:24):
So when you show up in asales conversation or in any conversation and you're
like, oh my gosh, Julie, I'm so excited to talk to you.
I looked at your website and here'swhat I thought about blah blah blah,
and now I'm in this dog callingenergy, you'll probably push away because
you'll be like, oh, comingon too strong, that's too much.
It often results in word vomiting,frankly, and a lot of people do
(13:46):
it in an email, a lotof people do it in live conversation.
So the flip side of this is, think about how you call a dog
or how you call a cat.If you want to get a cat's attention,
you would never call it like youwould call a dog. You would
change up your demeanor, and youwould do a little bit of like here're
kitty kitty, Here kitty kitty.A lot of times cats won't even come
(14:07):
to that. They'll be like what. They'll give you a look like what,
what do you want? Wants theyhear the can opener opening their food?
Yeah, that's different, right,Like we all come for food.
So here's the thing. When youwant to get somebody's attention and you want
to create curiosity, you have tohave what I call here kitty kitty's statements.
(14:28):
There's something that intrigues the person enoughto go hmm, what does that
mean? Or tell me more aboutthat? Or oh, I've never heard
that before. You've got to getthem leaning in and wanting to ask a
question. So the way that youcan start to do this, there's many
ways, and I have a wholetraining just on creating curiosity because it's such
(14:48):
a big part of building business,especially for business development. So just one
way to do it is think abouthow you answer questions. Do you do
you answer questions that make people golike hmm, that's intriguing, tell me
more about that? Or do youanswer questions and the other person looks at
you and goes oh, sorry,I asked, right, So again,
(15:11):
dog calling is the word vomiting,leaving people going like, sorry, I
asked. So here's just one example. If I were to ask you a
very basic question, which is probablya question you've already been asked, maybe
today, but definitely this week,is how are you? Would you have
an answer for me that would potentiallyspark curiosity, that would allow for us
(15:33):
to get into a conversation, andI want you to have here Kitty Kitty
responses to the question how are you? That potentially opened the door to talk
about your podcast, or talk aboutyour business, or talk about whatever it
is for you to start to identify. Am I actually talking to a prospect?
Or am I just talking to somebodyit's nice to have a conversation with.
(15:56):
Or am I talking to somebody thatI want to bless and release and
get out of the conversation quick.So right now, if somebody said how
are you? For instance, ifsomebody asked me how are you, Nikki,
I might say like, oh,I'm great. I'm working on a
new three day challenge. Now doesthat spark curiosity? Maybe some people might
go who cares? I don't careanything about that. I just want to
(16:18):
talk about Super Bowl or I justwant to talk about you know, like
they might change the topic, butother people might go, what do you
mean a three day challenge? Who'sthat for? What's it about? Now?
It gives me permission to talk alittle bit about something that is in
something that's relevant to my business rightnow. And the answer could be anything.
It could be like, Ooh,I just got off a call with
(16:40):
a client and they had some reallyamazing results. Could be that. It
could be like, oh, mygosh, I'm super excited our podcast just
hit a new benchmark. Right.It could be anything, but it's something
that the person goes, oh,you have a podcast, Oh, what
kind of clients do you work with? Oh, you've got this challenge coming.
(17:02):
It's something that we can then actuallystart to have a real conversation.
And then what happens when you docreate curiosity respective clients often then will start
to give you buying signals. Now, I wrote a whole book just about
buying signals. Buying signals, ifyou're not familiar with them, are verbal
and nonverbal cues that people give thatindicate interest. And when you get a
(17:25):
buying signal, you have to knowhow to recognize it and act on it.
So typically, if I were tosay something about the three Day Challenge,
and maybe you were like, what'sthe three day Challenge, Nikki?
And I tell you a little bitabout it, and you go, gosh,
that sounds like something I'd like toparticipate in, or you go,
oh, I wonder if that's somethingthat my business would benefit from. Now
that opens the door. That's apotential buying signal for me to say,
(17:48):
well, is it something you'd liketo learn more about or is it something
you'd like to sign up for.I'm going to issue that next step invitation
for you when I do that.Got it? I like that. I
like it because so often we don'tnecessarily we prepare, especially in like networking
type of a situation. We preparethat introduction, the published introduction of who
(18:11):
we are and what we do,and we try to get it all in
the thirty to sixty seconds. Butjust when somebody just starting with just how
are you putting a hooker curiosity there? That's that's a very cool, cool
technique and it shows you what they'reyou know, whether or not you pursue
it with them. Now, onceyou have this, let's say somebody says,
(18:34):
hmmm, sounds interesting to something thatyou have said. How do you
use then what's like the discovery phasefor you? So how do you use
that to that next step where you'regoing you're really truly finding out if what
you have is gonna is a goodfit and if they're a right fit for
(18:56):
you. Yeah, So the thirdstep is to discovery in the selling process.
So I've created curiosity, maybe they'vegiven me a buying signal. I've
issued an invitation for us to getinto a deeper discussion about it. So
once I'm in discovery phase, there'sa couple things that you want to think
about here. One is you wantto set the stage for what's going to
happen in this call. So thisis not a pick my brain session,
(19:19):
This is not free coaching. Thisis for us to find out do you
have a problem or I need?Do I have a solution that meets that
problem or need? And then doI have permission to put an offer in
front of you? That's the purpose. Now we want to set the stage
for that. And the way youset the stage is by preframing the start
of that conversation of what's going tohappen. Happy to give you an example
(19:42):
of a preframe if you want,I would love it. Okay, So
an example of a preframe which tosay something like I might say, Julie,
thank you so much for taking thistime to chat today. The purpose
of our call is to find outa little bit more about your business and
what it is that you're looking for, see if what I offer is the
right fit, and then we cantalk about ways to potentially work together.
(20:04):
It'll give you an opportunity to askany questions that you have. We're scheduled
to chat for about and then I'mgoing to say the amount of time.
Usually with me, it's we're scheduledto chat for about twenty five minutes.
Does that still work in your schedule? Yes? Okay, So I'm waiting
for you to confirm that you're committedto that amount of time, because if
you're thinking, like, well,I actually need to leave in fifteen minutes
(20:26):
to go, you know, runan errand or have another appointment or whatever,
I don't want you thinking about thatwhile we're on the call, like
should I tell her now or shouldI wait? Or should I just see
how it goes? Like I wantto clear the I want to like clear
the field so that you can bepresent in the conversation and again set the
stage. And then the next thingI'm going to say now in order to
make this time meaningful and productive foryou, is it okay if I start
(20:48):
with a couple quick questions? Soyes, doing that that, Yeah,
thank you you're a great You're agreat person to dembo with. Okay.
So by doing that, it setsthe stage that now I'm going to lead
the conversation versus just letting you showup and go okay, so what do
you want to know? And thenthe person's like, well, I want
to tell you a story when Iwas five, this happens, and now
(21:14):
you know forty five minutes later,this is why I need help with marketing,
or this is what you know.And it's like, well, that
was a huge time suck. Ididn't need all that information. So we
want to lead the conversation, butwe have to get permission to do it
first. So by asking permission toask questions, then it sets the stage
for what's going to happen. Also, really importantly is it creates safety for
(21:34):
the other person, So now theyknow what's going to happen in this call.
Is Nikki just going to try tosell to me the whole time?
Is she going to let me askquestions? Like I've kind of already cleared
the field, like this is what'sgoing to happen. So you know,
and I know we're on the samepage. Now. The next thing that
you do here is you ask reallysmart questions that plant seeds about your expertise
(21:57):
and lead the person and in theirown way, down the path to going
self identifying. Oh, I'm agreat potential client for Julie because she's asking
me questions that I really want toknow the answers to. And of course
she's only asking me these questions becauseshe knows how to find the answers or
show me how to get the answersright. So you have to ask really
(22:22):
smart questions here instead of what Ithink a lot of people teach is now
wow them with your expertise, youknow, like give them some piece of
coaching for free. And I don'tbuy into that at all, and I
don't recommend it, and I'm happyto explain why. But the whole point
here is to ask smart questions thatallows that person to go, dang,
I'm talking to an expert. Gotit? That actually makes uh? That
(22:45):
does It makes a lot of sensebecause you're you're engaging them and they're answering,
they're finding the solution to their problemsand the questions that you're asking them
that makes sense good or they're fine, or they're finding that there is a
solution. They might not know whatit is yet, but there's a possibility
of a solution based on the questionsthat you're asking. And you're also starting
(23:10):
to self identify is this a potentialclient that I want to work with?
Yes? Right, Because sometimes youget on a call with somebody and you
realize like, oh, this person'snot a good fit for what I offer,
or as an entrepreneur, you getthis ability to get on the phone
with somebody or get on a callwith somebody and go, I just don't
want to work with this person,like like we just don't mesh and that's
(23:33):
okay. So what you're doing inthat discovery piece of the conversation is identifying
is this an ideal client? DoI have a solution? Do they have
a problem, and do I havea solution that meets it? And if
for some reason you identify they're nota great fit, then there's no point
in continuing the conversation. So Ialways say this is your time to bless
(23:55):
and release, And I use blessand release because I want the person to
feel good the conversation, feel goodabout us bringing it to a close.
But I don't want to waste theirtime and I certainly don't want to waste
any of mine. Yeah, goodpoints, very good points that the discovery
page phase is just as important foryou as a business owner, and it's
(24:19):
it's we don't want to just grabat everything. I guess that's that mindset
thing, right. We don't wantto have that scarcity mindset where you're just
I have to sign every person thatyou have a discovery call with. It's
if they're not a good fit,if they're not financially in the position,
or their energy isn't matching with yours. You certainly don't want to go through
(24:40):
the effort of having them come oninto your world and work with you,
because then the results aren't going tobe what what can happen and it's not
going to make either of you feelgood. So when we're doing this,
we need to make sure that ourservices take care of what the client needs.
(25:03):
And we hear a lot give themwhat they want, not what they
need. I mean, you're no, I say that wrong. I said
that wrong. I appeal to whatthey want, but give them what they
need, because sometimes they don't reallyeven know what they need and not.
(25:23):
And you talk about not getting caughtup in what they can afford, thinking
that, oh, I have toprice my services to match what they can
afford, And yet you say,think about what it is that they need
and create your services that way.Yeah. So what I mean by that
(25:44):
is, you know, I knowbecause I've had the great pleasure of literally
working with thousands of salespeople, hundredsin my own business, hundreds thousands in
my previous sales career, you know, of getting to support salespeople and any
that's in a sales situation. Wetend to do two things that are really
detrimental to the selling process. Asthe seller, we project any kind of
(26:10):
limiting belief we might have onto theperson we're in conversation with, like oh,
I don't think Julie would pay thismuch for my services, or I
don't think Julie would see the valuein this other offer, So I'm afraid
to put it in front of her. So we project our limiting beliefs,
and then the second thing we dois we hallucinate. We act as if
I can read your mind and Iknow what you're going to say if I
put this other offer in front ofyou. So that's a huge detriment to
(26:34):
the selling process. You have tolearn how to set that aside and remember
that you truly are the expert.There's a reason they're having a conversation with
you. So your job is torecommend the solution that is going to meet
their needs and solve their problem.Now, if they say to you,
that's outside of my budget, wellthen we can take a step back,
(26:56):
or we can take a step down. We can make them an offer that
is more in alignment. But realistically, if you're making decisions about what somebody
is willing to spend and you don'tknow that for a fact, being honestly,
you're kind of making decisions on theirbehalf, that it's called selling from
(27:17):
someone else's wallet, and it's notyour place and it's not your business.
So just to give me an exampleof this, I recently had a conversation
with a woman who we were havinga discovery call. I did ask her
what she was looking to invest.She gave me a price range of what
she wanted to invest in sales coaching, but realistically, based on what she
(27:37):
had said she wants and the solutionthat she's looking for, she's an ideal
candidate for a private coaching engagement withme, which is one of my VIP
packages, which is more expensive thanwhat she said to me. So what
I said to her, once Iunderstand she's got this need, this is
what I would recommend. I willthen move to the proposal piece of the
(27:59):
conversation in the selling staircase. That'sstep four, and I laid out for
her this is my recommendation and thisis how it's going to meet what it
is that you've said. I recognizethat it's a little bit outside what you've
said you wanted to invest, butI just want you to know that that
is my recommendation. And then Iasked her, is that something you would
like to move forward with, towhich she said immediately yes, wonderful.
(28:26):
So she's looking to me to bethe expert and recommend the right solution,
and in order for me to standin integrity, I have to recommend the
solution that's going to get her likeit's going to solve the problem. I
could offer her something less expensive andit might help her get get close to
what she what she wants, butit's not going to really get her there
(28:48):
in the time that she needs.And so these are those places where,
again a lot of times people won'tactually tell you what they're willing to invest.
They want to play that card prettyclose to the chest. So and
that's fine, but I'm going torecommend what I know is the right solution
for you. Now, if shesaid to me, I have a ten
(29:10):
thousand dollars budget, I certainly amnot going to recommend one hundred thousand dollars
solution if it's out of integrity,if it's if it's way more than what
she needs or wants. I'm inno way implying that I charge one hundred
thousand for coaching. I just wantto make that clear. So but the
idea, though, is you've gotto be the expert, and you have
to stand in your place of authorityand expertise and credibility and make that recommendation.
(29:37):
Got it, Got it? That'sthat's that's a brilliant piece of advice
because we get in our own waysometimes and get in our own head.
And I can see how that.I can see as you're explaining that,
I can think, hmmm, Imight have just done that. Was somebody
a couple of weeks ago. Well, you know that's saying Julie, like,
(30:00):
when we know better, we dobetter. That's all. It's just
information you can decide for the nextone. How to hear it? I
got it, I got it.I'm gonna have to listen to this.
I'm gonna have to listen to myown podcast again. So now, how
do you recognize you've had the conversation, you've done the discovery phase, you've
made the offer of what it isthat you know your client needs. How
(30:25):
do you I mean, obviously,in the scenario you just gave us,
it was an obvious you know,yes she accepted. But how do you
recognize and respond to buying signals?If they aren't that blunt, right,
if they aren't just like, ohokay, send me the contract, right,
how do you know that a personis considering it? What kind of
(30:47):
signals are they giving you? Sowith buying signals, you have to be
willing to check them out, evenif you're like, I'm not sure could
be a bike signal, maybe it'snot. You have to be willing to
just issue some type of invitation.So I teach it as it is truly
an invitation. So think about mostpeople like to be invited to things.
(31:07):
I don't know, Julie, ifyou're this way, but I actually don't
want to go to a lot ofthings. But I also don't like to
be left out. I'd rather makethe decision for myself to exclude me from
an event than someone else to excludeme, not give me the invitation,
and then I'm feeling like, oh, nobody likes me. Right. So
the idea here is to issue theinvitation when you think you've you've gotten a
(31:29):
buying signal. So there are seventeenbuying signals, like I mentioned, I
wrote a book about this there.It's important to know how to recognize them
and when you get one, orwhen you think you get one, you
check it out and see. Soif somebody says something that's a little bit
subtle to me, of like,that's so interesting, I never really think
about who what kind of people wouldneed help with sales. That feels a
(31:52):
little vague, right, yea,So in that case I would say well,
is there ever a time where youdon't feel confident in in your conversations
with prospective clients? And maybe ifyou said yes, then I would say,
well, would you be open totalking about ways to kind of boost
your confidence? So that's me issuingthat invitation, and all it is is
(32:15):
an invitation. You could say like, no, thanks, lady, go
kick rocks. That's fine. Butif I don't ask, you walk away
going like, oh, I guessNikki doesn't think I'm the kind of person
who could benefit from her services,right, Like, you'll make sure crazy
judgment about why I didn't invite youor why I didn't like encourage you to
take another step. So it's notabout trying to convince you, it's just
(32:37):
about asking. I treat you asif you're an adult, because you are.
I respect you as a person,as a human. So I'm just
going to issue the invitation and letyou tell me yes or no. And
I can tell you that I've hadpeople issue Actually I love this story because
I one time met a woman forlike coffee. We were getting to know
(32:57):
each other because we were actually workingwith the same business coach. That was
the whole premise behind us getting togetherto have this conversation, and about ten
minutes into the conversation, she gaveme what I thought could be a buying
signal. But I was kind ofsurprised because I'm like, well, I
know she's working with a business coach, and in my mind, I'm thinking,
why would she ever want to workwith a sales coach when she already
has another kind of coach. Butbecause I do walk my talk like I
(33:22):
don't ask people to do things Idon't do, I issued an invitation to
her. I said, you know, is selling skills something you're looking to
get better at? And she didn'treally say yes, She didn't really say
no. She kind of just keptthe conversation going, so I just went
along with her. She didn't reallyanswer my question. About ten minutes later,
she gives me another buying signal,and I'm like, what is going
(33:45):
on? But I issue another invitation. Again, she doesn't really say yes
or no. She gives me avery vague answer. We continue the conversation
over the course of an hour anda half. She gave me seven buyings.
Wow, sometimes do you think Iinvited her to work with me?
Well, if she gave you sevenbuying signals maybe seven times, yeah,
(34:07):
seven times, and even at thelast one, she didn't really say yes
or no. So I had togo our like our time was up.
I had another meeting, and soas I was leaving, I said,
I get a sense that you aresomebody who would benefit from some private coaching
around sales. So here's what I'mgonna do. When I get back to
(34:29):
my office. I'm just going tosend you a quote for the VIP package,
and if that's something you'd like todo, I would be so honored
to work with you. And ifit's not, then please know I'm just
gonna be so happy to see youat the next event where we all go
together. So I get back tomy office, I sent her an invoice
for the VIP package and two dayslater she paid it. Wow, you
(34:52):
have to be willing to check itout, because sometimes the person that you're
in conversation with, they you don'teven know yet that they're ready, and
they'll only know by you issuing theinvitation and allowing their brain going do I
want to work with this person ornot that? Yeah? Yeah, interesting,
(35:14):
very cool. Yeah, because Iwould guess that the average I know
with myself and I would guess withthe average entrepreneur out there, you know,
we might push through. You know, we might make the offer a
second or a third time. Butif we after that. I know,
with me, if I kept seeingwhat I would learn was a buying signal,
(35:37):
I probably would stop. I probablyI probably would stop. So it's
interesting that you just keep if theykeep dropping that that nugget or that breadcrumb,
you you reach out and grab it, yeah, or at least check
check to see like should I pickthis up or not? And again if
(35:58):
now here's here's the truth in thematter. I love to have a story
to tell. So even by thetime I was on the fifth when I
was like, let's see what happens, because there's at some point she's going
to be like stop asking, youknow, like in my mind, that's
what I think she's going to do, But she never does it. She
just kind of continues on with theconversation. Now, you know, needless
to say, she wasn't the easiestclient to coach because she wasn't very decisive,
(36:22):
right, so, you know,given that, but the fact of
the matter is I had to keepissuing that invitation because there was some part
of her that was indicating that shedid actually want some support around selling.
Yeah, very cool, very cool. Well, this is like we could
(36:44):
just keep talking and talking and talkingabout this process and hearing more and more
of your tips and your wisdom.But there is we will keep this a
nice the right length for a podcast. But there are ways lots of ways
that people can stay connected with you. You are on their social media platforms,
so you're on Facebook as your salesMaven. You're on Instagram as sales
(37:07):
Underscore, your underscore sales Underscore Maven. And then Nick Nicole, and pronounce
your last name for me again soI do it right from rauch It is
okay, Nicole Rausch. And allof these links, of course will be
in in the for those of youwho are listening in your mobile office or
(37:28):
your mobile learning center. Uh,they're all listed on the show page,
so you'll be able to go backand grab all of those from her.
But you also have you mentioned acouple of books. You also have a
you have a membership. If I'mnot a Sales Mayven Society membership, tell
us tell the listeners about that.That's my group coaching program. So I
(37:51):
have a training center that the membersget access to you that has a myriad
of trainings. You know, theone about creating curiosity is in there,
There's quite a few others. Andthen I do two live coaching calls a
month for that group, so thegroup members can get on and ask questions
and get specific tailored you know,coaching to their situation or their business.
(38:15):
And then there's a private group aswell where they can tag me with questions.
I get tagged in there daily forquestions about their sales situations, and
also they ask me to give themsuggestions on how to create better sales languages
their email that they send a lotof times, I'll go in there and
(38:35):
tweak their emails for them and offerthem suggestions. So that's the group coaching
program, and it's a pretty robustprogram, and it's filled with unbelievable women.
Honestly, I want to pinch myselfevery day that I get to work
with such incredible women from around theworld that are doing all kinds of things,
but selling is something that they wantto continue to hone and get better
(38:57):
at. I love it. Ilove it, and they have a special
you have a special link set upfor us with the women or Women Excelling
Everywhere group, So if you wantthat, go to your salesmaven dot com,
forward slash we wee and you canfind out more information about the things
that NICKI has been talking about.And I strongly encourage everybody to just connect.
(39:20):
I'll be connecting with you afterwards andmaking sure that we stay connected on
all the social media sites because Ilove to hear your tidbits of wisdom.
So, Niki, thank you sovery much for being a guest on the
Women Excelling Everywhere podcast this afternoon.It has been definitely educational for me for
(39:40):
sure, and I personally will bechecking out your your group coaching program.
That sounds very intriguing. So thankyou for being a guest on the show
today. Thanks for having me,Julia. I appreciate my time with you.
Thank you absolutely. It was abeautiful, wonderful conversation, a conversation
that all women entrepreneurs need to thinkabout. And this might be one of
those podcast that you go back andyou listen to once a year just to
(40:01):
refresh your mind, or you jointhe group which will help you to just
keep fresh in your mind, whichyou when you get in those stuck moments
in the sales process because it isa process that every entrepreneur needs to be
in and in many ways that playsinto relationships as well. So with that,
(40:23):
I'm going to go ahead and wrapup the show. I want to
remind everybody that if this was agreat maybe you have a membership group or
you have a women's group that youare working with. If you felt that
this was a benefit, is therewere some tidbits, some gems in here
that you think other people could benefitfrom, then please give us a thumbs
up, give us a positive comment, because that all helps not s ceo
(40:45):
stuff, and go ahead and giveus a share, give us a like
and a share, and let thewisdom go out to other people that you
are connected with. We would lovethat if you have ideas or thoughts about
the show, that the topics youwould like to see covered, anything to
help you excel. That's why weswitched our brand to Women Excelling Everywhere is
because we want to help you excelno matter where you are at. So
(41:07):
stay connected with us at Women ExcellingEverywhere dot com and the podcast. Be
sure to send us an email atinfo at Women Excelling Everywhere dot com.
If you feel you have a question, or you'd like to be a guest,
or you have a topic you'd liketo see covered on that, we
will make sure that we get itdone for you. And until next time,
(41:30):
and I want everybody to take anice deep breath, put on a
big smile because it changes the brainchemistry, and go out there and simply
enjoy every moment. See you nexttime.
Well, welcome, welcome everyone tothe Women Excelling Everywhere Podcast. I am
Julie Anderson aka Brain Lady Julie hereas your host, and I am so
excited today for our guest because Iwant to hear what she has to say.
She's got some great tips and wisdomthat she's going to be sharing with
us, so we have on ourshow today, Nicki Rausch. Nicki,
(00:32):
welcome to the Women Excelling Everywhere Show. Thank you for having me, Thank
you. I'm excited to be herewith you. Yeah, very Nate,
very neat is. I was lookingover all your information. I'm so intrigued
and I know you'll bring benefit toour listeners because this is going to be
business focused on this particular call andsales focused that were that so many entrepreneurs
(00:54):
kind of push back and shy awayfrom. So looking forward to the wisdom.
But from a profrietional point of view, let me just give give the
audience a snippet of who Nicki is. Nicki is the CEO of Sales Maiden.
She has a unique ability to transformthe misunderstood process of selling. I
(01:17):
like that transform it. With twentyfive plus years of selling experience, entrepreneurs
and small business owners now hire Nikkito show them how to sell successfully and
authentically so important. Nicki has writtenthree books, all available on Amazon,
and she has a podcast called SalesMaiden, which you can find on your
(01:38):
favorite podcast platform. Niki, onceagain, welcome to the WE podcast.
Thank you all right. So Ialways like asking my guests, we want
to get to know Nikki a littlebit more. So we kind of heard
the you know, you've been doingthis for twenty five plus years, you're
in sales, but what led youto want to build your business around teaching
(02:02):
or demystifying the sales process, Like, what brought you to this point in
your career? Well, it wasten plus years ago. I was helping
to build somebody else's business at thetime, and it was the first time
in my career where I started networkingwith women. I come from a very
male dominated industry. That's been mybackground and my sales for most of my
(02:25):
professional career. And when I startedhanging out with women entrepreneurs, I was
just so really honestly in awe ofthem, because women entrepreneurs are so passionate
and they're experts at whatever it isthat they're doing. They want to make
an impact in the world, theywant to serve, and I was just
really inspired by it, and soI just wanted to spend as much time
(02:49):
as possible. While I was helpingto kind of grow somebody else's business,
I want to spend as much timeas possible with these women. And as
I was getting to know them,I was finding that a lot of them
were really struggling with the sales conversation. And I had such an extensive background
in sales that sales at that pointto me felt fairly simple from a conversational
standpoint. I was known for buildingreally strong relationships that resulted in multimillion dollar
(03:14):
deals, and so I just honestlystarted helping some of them on the side,
just wanting to offer advice when theywere open to it, and give
them suggestions and teach them some littlesimple concepts. And one of them pulled
me aside one day and she waslike, the stuff that you're doing and
teaching me, it's working so well, Like why aren't you offering this to
(03:36):
other people? And my initial responsewas, well, that seems dumb.
I don't think people would pay meto learn this, And she's like,
no, people will pay you,Nikki, because what you teach it works,
It's easy to do, and reallymy business was born out of oh
well, if it will help,I'm willing to test the waters, like
dip my toe in the water.And it turns out that I have honestly
(03:59):
the greatest gig in the whole world. I love my work. I love
the women that I get to workwith, and I love the concept of
taking the kind of ick and theuncomfortableness out of a sales conversation and showing
people how you can do it ina genuine collaborative way that feels not only
good to you, but also tothe prospect that you're working with. That's
(04:21):
awesome, because you're right and Ilike you. I've worked with women entrepreneurs
for many, many years, andone of the things that sales is always
that that thing they don't want todo. And they may know that their
message or their product or their servicehas high value. It's not that they
(04:43):
doubt the value or what they bring. It's they just have that difficulty opening
that door and not feeling ichy,not feeling like you know this this this,
this feels slimy for some reason.Yeah, and I know for myself.
I mentioned on the show to before, so some of the listeners know
is my dad was a used cardealer in the seventies and eighties. So
(05:08):
it's like you picture inchy, right, you know, that's kind of the
impression you get. So breaking outof that that visual that you have and
you we use the term or thisparticular the title of this particular pod is
called Overcome your Fear of Sales withthe Selling Staircase. So I'm curious how
(05:28):
that's going to evolve as we talk. But we all know we need to
be positive, we all need totwist that positive part on our messaging.
How does that play into establishing areally good connection from the first handshake,
from the very get go, fromthe hello, my name is how what's
(05:50):
the importance of that? And I'massuming that's that first step on the staircase?
Yeah, so the first the sellingstaircase is my signature for work for
an effective sales conversation, So ithas those five steps. I teach it
as a staircase because most of usunderstand the concept that you don't stand at
the bottom of a staircase and hopup to the top. You go one
(06:13):
step at a time, and that'show to have an effective sales conversation is
to understand what step are we onright now, and what's the logical next
step to move this client or guidethis client or prospect too. So the
idea behind it first and foremost,I think to maybe reframe that impression,
because we've all been on the receivingend of sales done really poorly and where
(06:38):
it has that eck factor. Sothe way to transform that is to start
to reframe how you think about sellingand sales. The way that I teach
sales is it's not something that youdo to another person, because when you're
doing something to another person, thatfails manipulative and that feels uncomfortable frankly.
But sales actually is something you dowith another person, and that's where the
(07:01):
collaboration piece comes in. So thefirst step in the selling staircase is to
make a positive first impression. Sothe foundation of everything I teach is built
on rapport, and if you don'thave a rapport in place, it's really
hard to move somebody through that conversationand have it feel genuine and have it
feel good to both parties. Sowe need to make a powerful first impression
(07:25):
in the first few seconds minutes ofconnecting with somebody. And that could be
connecting with them online, or thatcould be connecting with them in person or
through your website or through some otherform of marketing that you're doing. But
can you make a positive first impression? And a lot of times entrepreneurs,
business owners sometimes they don't even think, like, how am I coming across?
(07:47):
And when you take a step backand go, am I making a
powerful first impression? Am I makingthe impression that I want to leave people
with? Because whether or not youlike this, what I'm about to say,
it's just a fact is that peopleare making judgments about you, and
we want to do everything we canto set set those up to be positive
(08:07):
judgments. Yeah, yeah, Ilike that. And I like that you
put that we're not just talking abouta face to face impression but also a
website impression or And that's because whenyou said we've all had those ick moments
with the cell. I tell you, every single day I open up my
LinkedIn and there's five messages from thefirst time I ever met somebody. Hi,
(08:31):
Julie, I'd like to connect withyou. Hey do you need this?
Blah, blah blah blah, Wellgo here, I'd like it,
Like, it's just, uh,it's so negative. So that's that's a
what's one of the ways that youcan make a positive impression? Like what
how do you make it? Like, let's just take one of those I'm
throwing throwing a little bit of acurve ball in our covers. Love it.
(08:54):
But because I literally just experienced this, you know, a half hour
ago when I was doinging, openedup LinkedIn and one of the you know,
there's a message in there and it'sjust instant sales. A new person
that reached out to me, andit is just instant sales. So how
could they have made a positive impressionon me to make me go, huh,
(09:18):
maybe maybe I do want to continuea conversation with them. Maybe I
am a little curious about what theydo because that first impression was so negative.
Yeah, yeah, and we allget those, right, Like I
probably block I'm not even joking tenpeople a day in my email because it's
just garbage. It's just word vomitingall over me in my email, and
I'm not interested in that. Soone of the ways to make positive first
(09:41):
impressions, specifically in those first touchpoints is to talk about the person that
you're connecting with. So it can'tbe like, Hey, Julie, I'm
NICKI Roush, I'm the salesmanan Ihelp people, blah blah blah, because
that's all about me. Who cares? You don't care about me yet,
you don't know me. But ifI reached out to you and said,
Julie, I listened to your podcastand this particular episode, and you spoke
(10:03):
about your dad and the fact thathe had this business, I just wanted
to say thank you so much forsharing, that might catch your attention right
away because I'm speaking to something thatmeans something to you. And then the
next thing I'm gonna do, I'mnot gonna start selling to you. I'm
going to ask permission. I'm goingto say, you know, one of
(10:24):
the things that I work with orI work with women who are interested in
up leveling their sales skills, isthat something you would ever be open to
having a conversation about. I haveto ask you a question. I need
your permission before I sell to you. So if I ask you that question
and you go, hey, thanksfor the you know, thanks for listening,
but no thanks, I'm not interested. Okay, But if I do
(10:48):
it and start it in a waythat shows that I am interested in you
as a person. I know somethingabout you, and I'm willing to compliment
you about it that's authentic, atrue compliment. And then I'm willing to
ask you a question you might bemore inclined to say maybe maybe, y'll
let's see. Sure that makes somuch more sense. Yes, if somebody,
(11:11):
if anybody listening, somebody said thatthey actually listened and quoted something or
said something about what was on thepodcast, that that would definitely, you
know, if anything, it wouldmake me go, okay, I'm not
going to block them, right becauseare like, oh, they actually have
invested some time and energy in somethingthat is important to me. Yeah.
(11:35):
Yeah, that's very good, verygood tip of advice, or a very
good piece of advice for everyone.Now, one of the things that you
explain, there's a you say,what is the difference Do you talk about
a difference between using cat calling ordog calling technique to create curiosity? Because
(11:56):
sometimes that like that kind of hasa negative feeling to me, But you
say, you can there's a differencebetween the two and how it generates curiosity
versus the ick factor. Yeah,so okay, So curiosity is the second
step in the sale, the sellingstaircase. So we talked about first impression,
so that's the introduction step step one. Step two is creating curiosity.
(12:20):
And most people, if you askthem, do you know how to create
curiosity when you're talking about your productsor services, they get their their eyes
go big and they're like, Idon't know what you mean. It's the
most misstep. So most people don'tthink about do I know how to create
curiosity? But frankly, if youdon't know how to create curiosity, it's
pretty hard to continue on the conversation. So I do teach it as the
(12:41):
difference between how you call a dogand how you call a cat, which
I know sounds a little kooky,So stick with me here for just a
second, and then you can tellme whether or not it makes sense.
So when you think about somebody thatwants to get their dog's attention, they
change their demeanor. Oftentimes they dothis thing where they go, ah,
kim mere boy, kimmeret right,and dogs respond to that kind of that,
(13:01):
like high pitch that's super excited,like oh my gosh. And you
use a lot of words. Alot of times when you call a dog,
and dogs you know they've come.They don't even know what's going on,
but they'll come to you because they'relike, something's gonna happen. Could
be a treat, could be awalk, could be a ride in the
car, could just be a peton, you know, a pat on
the belly. But something's gonna happen. But people are not like that.
(13:24):
So when you show up in asales conversation or in any conversation and you're
like, oh my gosh, Julie, I'm so excited to talk to you.
I looked at your website and here'swhat I thought about blah blah blah,
and now I'm in this dog callingenergy, you'll probably push away because
you'll be like, oh, comingon too strong, that's too much.
It often results in word vomiting,frankly, and a lot of people do
(13:46):
it in an email, a lotof people do it in live conversation.
So the flip side of this is, think about how you call a dog
or how you call a cat.If you want to get a cat's attention,
you would never call it like youwould call a dog. You would
change up your demeanor, and youwould do a little bit of like here're
kitty kitty, Here kitty kitty.A lot of times cats won't even come
(14:07):
to that. They'll be like what. They'll give you a look like what,
what do you want? Wants theyhear the can opener opening their food?
Yeah, that's different, right,Like we all come for food.
So here's the thing. When youwant to get somebody's attention and you want
to create curiosity, you have tohave what I call here kitty kitty's statements.
(14:28):
There's something that intrigues the person enoughto go hmm, what does that
mean? Or tell me more aboutthat? Or oh, I've never heard
that before. You've got to getthem leaning in and wanting to ask a
question. So the way that youcan start to do this, there's many
ways, and I have a wholetraining just on creating curiosity because it's such
(14:48):
a big part of building business,especially for business development. So just one
way to do it is think abouthow you answer questions. Do you do
you answer questions that make people golike hmm, that's intriguing, tell me
more about that? Or do youanswer questions and the other person looks at
you and goes oh, sorry,I asked, right, So again,
(15:11):
dog calling is the word vomiting,leaving people going like, sorry, I
asked. So here's just one example. If I were to ask you a
very basic question, which is probablya question you've already been asked, maybe
today, but definitely this week,is how are you? Would you have
an answer for me that would potentiallyspark curiosity, that would allow for us
(15:33):
to get into a conversation, andI want you to have here Kitty Kitty
responses to the question how are you? That potentially opened the door to talk
about your podcast, or talk aboutyour business, or talk about whatever it
is for you to start to identify. Am I actually talking to a prospect?
Or am I just talking to somebodyit's nice to have a conversation with.
(15:56):
Or am I talking to somebody thatI want to bless and release and
get out of the conversation quick.So right now, if somebody said how
are you? For instance, ifsomebody asked me how are you, Nikki,
I might say like, oh,I'm great. I'm working on a
new three day challenge. Now doesthat spark curiosity? Maybe some people might
go who cares? I don't careanything about that. I just want to
(16:18):
talk about Super Bowl or I justwant to talk about you know, like
they might change the topic, butother people might go, what do you
mean a three day challenge? Who'sthat for? What's it about? Now?
It gives me permission to talk alittle bit about something that is in
something that's relevant to my business rightnow. And the answer could be anything.
It could be like, Ooh,I just got off a call with
(16:40):
a client and they had some reallyamazing results. Could be that. It
could be like, oh, mygosh, I'm super excited our podcast just
hit a new benchmark. Right.It could be anything, but it's something
that the person goes, oh,you have a podcast, Oh, what
kind of clients do you work with? Oh, you've got this challenge coming.
(17:02):
It's something that we can then actuallystart to have a real conversation.
And then what happens when you docreate curiosity respective clients often then will start
to give you buying signals. Now, I wrote a whole book just about
buying signals. Buying signals, ifyou're not familiar with them, are verbal
and nonverbal cues that people give thatindicate interest. And when you get a
(17:25):
buying signal, you have to knowhow to recognize it and act on it.
So typically, if I were tosay something about the three Day Challenge,
and maybe you were like, what'sthe three day Challenge, Nikki?
And I tell you a little bitabout it, and you go, gosh,
that sounds like something I'd like toparticipate in, or you go,
oh, I wonder if that's somethingthat my business would benefit from. Now
that opens the door. That's apotential buying signal for me to say,
(17:48):
well, is it something you'd liketo learn more about or is it something
you'd like to sign up for.I'm going to issue that next step invitation
for you when I do that.Got it? I like that. I
like it because so often we don'tnecessarily we prepare, especially in like networking
type of a situation. We preparethat introduction, the published introduction of who
(18:11):
we are and what we do,and we try to get it all in
the thirty to sixty seconds. Butjust when somebody just starting with just how
are you putting a hooker curiosity there? That's that's a very cool, cool
technique and it shows you what they'reyou know, whether or not you pursue
it with them. Now, onceyou have this, let's say somebody says,
(18:34):
hmmm, sounds interesting to something thatyou have said. How do you
use then what's like the discovery phasefor you? So how do you use
that to that next step where you'regoing you're really truly finding out if what
you have is gonna is a goodfit and if they're a right fit for
(18:56):
you. Yeah, So the thirdstep is to discovery in the selling process.
So I've created curiosity, maybe they'vegiven me a buying signal. I've
issued an invitation for us to getinto a deeper discussion about it. So
once I'm in discovery phase, there'sa couple things that you want to think
about here. One is you wantto set the stage for what's going to
happen in this call. So thisis not a pick my brain session,
(19:19):
This is not free coaching. Thisis for us to find out do you
have a problem or I need?Do I have a solution that meets that
problem or need? And then doI have permission to put an offer in
front of you? That's the purpose. Now we want to set the stage
for that. And the way youset the stage is by preframing the start
of that conversation of what's going tohappen. Happy to give you an example
(19:42):
of a preframe if you want,I would love it. Okay, So
an example of a preframe which tosay something like I might say, Julie,
thank you so much for taking thistime to chat today. The purpose
of our call is to find outa little bit more about your business and
what it is that you're looking for, see if what I offer is the
right fit, and then we cantalk about ways to potentially work together.
(20:04):
It'll give you an opportunity to askany questions that you have. We're scheduled
to chat for about and then I'mgoing to say the amount of time.
Usually with me, it's we're scheduledto chat for about twenty five minutes.
Does that still work in your schedule? Yes? Okay, So I'm waiting
for you to confirm that you're committedto that amount of time, because if
you're thinking, like, well,I actually need to leave in fifteen minutes
(20:26):
to go, you know, runan errand or have another appointment or whatever,
I don't want you thinking about thatwhile we're on the call, like
should I tell her now or shouldI wait? Or should I just see
how it goes? Like I wantto clear the I want to like clear
the field so that you can bepresent in the conversation and again set the
stage. And then the next thingI'm going to say now in order to
make this time meaningful and productive foryou, is it okay if I start
(20:48):
with a couple quick questions? Soyes, doing that that, Yeah,
thank you you're a great You're agreat person to dembo with. Okay.
So by doing that, it setsthe stage that now I'm going to lead
the conversation versus just letting you showup and go okay, so what do
you want to know? And thenthe person's like, well, I want
to tell you a story when Iwas five, this happens, and now
(21:14):
you know forty five minutes later,this is why I need help with marketing,
or this is what you know.And it's like, well, that
was a huge time suck. Ididn't need all that information. So we
want to lead the conversation, butwe have to get permission to do it
first. So by asking permission toask questions, then it sets the stage
for what's going to happen. Also, really importantly is it creates safety for
(21:34):
the other person, So now theyknow what's going to happen in this call.
Is Nikki just going to try tosell to me the whole time?
Is she going to let me askquestions? Like I've kind of already cleared
the field, like this is what'sgoing to happen. So you know,
and I know we're on the samepage. Now. The next thing that
you do here is you ask reallysmart questions that plant seeds about your expertise
(21:57):
and lead the person and in theirown way, down the path to going
self identifying. Oh, I'm agreat potential client for Julie because she's asking
me questions that I really want toknow the answers to. And of course
she's only asking me these questions becauseshe knows how to find the answers or
show me how to get the answersright. So you have to ask really
(22:22):
smart questions here instead of what Ithink a lot of people teach is now
wow them with your expertise, youknow, like give them some piece of
coaching for free. And I don'tbuy into that at all, and I
don't recommend it, and I'm happyto explain why. But the whole point
here is to ask smart questions thatallows that person to go, dang,
I'm talking to an expert. Gotit? That actually makes uh? That
(22:45):
does It makes a lot of sensebecause you're you're engaging them and they're answering,
they're finding the solution to their problemsand the questions that you're asking them
that makes sense good or they're fine, or they're finding that there is a
solution. They might not know whatit is yet, but there's a possibility
of a solution based on the questionsthat you're asking. And you're also starting
(23:10):
to self identify is this a potentialclient that I want to work with?
Yes? Right, Because sometimes youget on a call with somebody and you
realize like, oh, this person'snot a good fit for what I offer,
or as an entrepreneur, you getthis ability to get on the phone
with somebody or get on a callwith somebody and go, I just don't
want to work with this person,like like we just don't mesh and that's
(23:33):
okay. So what you're doing inthat discovery piece of the conversation is identifying
is this an ideal client? DoI have a solution? Do they have
a problem, and do I havea solution that meets it? And if
for some reason you identify they're nota great fit, then there's no point
in continuing the conversation. So Ialways say this is your time to bless
(23:55):
and release, And I use blessand release because I want the person to
feel good the conversation, feel goodabout us bringing it to a close.
But I don't want to waste theirtime and I certainly don't want to waste
any of mine. Yeah, goodpoints, very good points that the discovery
page phase is just as important foryou as a business owner, and it's
(24:19):
it's we don't want to just grabat everything. I guess that's that mindset
thing, right. We don't wantto have that scarcity mindset where you're just
I have to sign every person thatyou have a discovery call with. It's
if they're not a good fit,if they're not financially in the position,
or their energy isn't matching with yours. You certainly don't want to go through
(24:40):
the effort of having them come oninto your world and work with you,
because then the results aren't going tobe what what can happen and it's not
going to make either of you feelgood. So when we're doing this,
we need to make sure that ourservices take care of what the client needs.
(25:03):
And we hear a lot give themwhat they want, not what they
need. I mean, you're no, I say that wrong. I said
that wrong. I appeal to whatthey want, but give them what they
need, because sometimes they don't reallyeven know what they need and not.
(25:23):
And you talk about not getting caughtup in what they can afford, thinking
that, oh, I have toprice my services to match what they can
afford, And yet you say,think about what it is that they need
and create your services that way.Yeah. So what I mean by that
(25:44):
is, you know, I knowbecause I've had the great pleasure of literally
working with thousands of salespeople, hundredsin my own business, hundreds thousands in
my previous sales career, you know, of getting to support salespeople and any
that's in a sales situation. Wetend to do two things that are really
detrimental to the selling process. Asthe seller, we project any kind of
(26:10):
limiting belief we might have onto theperson we're in conversation with, like oh,
I don't think Julie would pay thismuch for my services, or I
don't think Julie would see the valuein this other offer, So I'm afraid
to put it in front of her. So we project our limiting beliefs,
and then the second thing we dois we hallucinate. We act as if
I can read your mind and Iknow what you're going to say if I
put this other offer in front ofyou. So that's a huge detriment to
(26:34):
the selling process. You have tolearn how to set that aside and remember
that you truly are the expert.There's a reason they're having a conversation with
you. So your job is torecommend the solution that is going to meet
their needs and solve their problem.Now, if they say to you,
that's outside of my budget, wellthen we can take a step back,
(26:56):
or we can take a step down. We can make them an offer that
is more in alignment. But realistically, if you're making decisions about what somebody
is willing to spend and you don'tknow that for a fact, being honestly,
you're kind of making decisions on theirbehalf, that it's called selling from
(27:17):
someone else's wallet, and it's notyour place and it's not your business.
So just to give me an exampleof this, I recently had a conversation
with a woman who we were havinga discovery call. I did ask her
what she was looking to invest.She gave me a price range of what
she wanted to invest in sales coaching, but realistically, based on what she
(27:37):
had said she wants and the solutionthat she's looking for, she's an ideal
candidate for a private coaching engagement withme, which is one of my VIP
packages, which is more expensive thanwhat she said to me. So what
I said to her, once Iunderstand she's got this need, this is
what I would recommend. I willthen move to the proposal piece of the
(27:59):
conversation in the selling staircase. That'sstep four, and I laid out for
her this is my recommendation and thisis how it's going to meet what it
is that you've said. I recognizethat it's a little bit outside what you've
said you wanted to invest, butI just want you to know that that
is my recommendation. And then Iasked her, is that something you would
like to move forward with, towhich she said immediately yes, wonderful.
(28:26):
So she's looking to me to bethe expert and recommend the right solution,
and in order for me to standin integrity, I have to recommend the
solution that's going to get her likeit's going to solve the problem. I
could offer her something less expensive andit might help her get get close to
what she what she wants, butit's not going to really get her there
(28:48):
in the time that she needs.And so these are those places where,
again a lot of times people won'tactually tell you what they're willing to invest.
They want to play that card prettyclose to the chest. So and
that's fine, but I'm going torecommend what I know is the right solution
for you. Now, if shesaid to me, I have a ten
(29:10):
thousand dollars budget, I certainly amnot going to recommend one hundred thousand dollars
solution if it's out of integrity,if it's if it's way more than what
she needs or wants. I'm inno way implying that I charge one hundred
thousand for coaching. I just wantto make that clear. So but the
idea, though, is you've gotto be the expert, and you have
to stand in your place of authorityand expertise and credibility and make that recommendation.
(29:37):
Got it, Got it? That'sthat's that's a brilliant piece of advice
because we get in our own waysometimes and get in our own head.
And I can see how that.I can see as you're explaining that,
I can think, hmmm, Imight have just done that. Was somebody
a couple of weeks ago. Well, you know that's saying Julie, like,
(30:00):
when we know better, we dobetter. That's all. It's just
information you can decide for the nextone. How to hear it? I
got it, I got it.I'm gonna have to listen to this.
I'm gonna have to listen to myown podcast again. So now, how
do you recognize you've had the conversation, you've done the discovery phase, you've
made the offer of what it isthat you know your client needs. How
(30:25):
do you I mean, obviously,in the scenario you just gave us,
it was an obvious you know,yes she accepted. But how do you
recognize and respond to buying signals?If they aren't that blunt, right,
if they aren't just like, ohokay, send me the contract, right,
how do you know that a personis considering it? What kind of
(30:47):
signals are they giving you? Sowith buying signals, you have to be
willing to check them out, evenif you're like, I'm not sure could
be a bike signal, maybe it'snot. You have to be willing to
just issue some type of invitation.So I teach it as it is truly
an invitation. So think about mostpeople like to be invited to things.
(31:07):
I don't know, Julie, ifyou're this way, but I actually don't
want to go to a lot ofthings. But I also don't like to
be left out. I'd rather makethe decision for myself to exclude me from
an event than someone else to excludeme, not give me the invitation,
and then I'm feeling like, oh, nobody likes me. Right. So
the idea here is to issue theinvitation when you think you've you've gotten a
(31:29):
buying signal. So there are seventeenbuying signals, like I mentioned, I
wrote a book about this there.It's important to know how to recognize them
and when you get one, orwhen you think you get one, you
check it out and see. Soif somebody says something that's a little bit
subtle to me, of like,that's so interesting, I never really think
about who what kind of people wouldneed help with sales. That feels a
(31:52):
little vague, right, yea,So in that case I would say well,
is there ever a time where youdon't feel confident in in your conversations
with prospective clients? And maybe ifyou said yes, then I would say,
well, would you be open totalking about ways to kind of boost
your confidence? So that's me issuingthat invitation, and all it is is
(32:15):
an invitation. You could say like, no, thanks, lady, go
kick rocks. That's fine. Butif I don't ask, you walk away
going like, oh, I guessNikki doesn't think I'm the kind of person
who could benefit from her services,right, Like, you'll make sure crazy
judgment about why I didn't invite youor why I didn't like encourage you to
take another step. So it's notabout trying to convince you, it's just
(32:37):
about asking. I treat you asif you're an adult, because you are.
I respect you as a person,as a human. So I'm just
going to issue the invitation and letyou tell me yes or no. And
I can tell you that I've hadpeople issue Actually I love this story because
I one time met a woman forlike coffee. We were getting to know
(32:57):
each other because we were actually workingwith the same business coach. That was
the whole premise behind us getting togetherto have this conversation, and about ten
minutes into the conversation, she gaveme what I thought could be a buying
signal. But I was kind ofsurprised because I'm like, well, I
know she's working with a business coach, and in my mind, I'm thinking,
why would she ever want to workwith a sales coach when she already
has another kind of coach. Butbecause I do walk my talk like I
(33:22):
don't ask people to do things Idon't do, I issued an invitation to
her. I said, you know, is selling skills something you're looking to
get better at? And she didn'treally say yes, She didn't really say
no. She kind of just keptthe conversation going, so I just went
along with her. She didn't reallyanswer my question. About ten minutes later,
she gives me another buying signal,and I'm like, what is going
(33:45):
on? But I issue another invitation. Again, she doesn't really say yes
or no. She gives me avery vague answer. We continue the conversation
over the course of an hour anda half. She gave me seven buyings.
Wow, sometimes do you think Iinvited her to work with me?
Well, if she gave you sevenbuying signals maybe seven times, yeah,
(34:07):
seven times, and even at thelast one, she didn't really say yes
or no. So I had togo our like our time was up.
I had another meeting, and soas I was leaving, I said,
I get a sense that you aresomebody who would benefit from some private coaching
around sales. So here's what I'mgonna do. When I get back to
(34:29):
my office. I'm just going tosend you a quote for the VIP package,
and if that's something you'd like todo, I would be so honored
to work with you. And ifit's not, then please know I'm just
gonna be so happy to see youat the next event where we all go
together. So I get back tomy office, I sent her an invoice
for the VIP package and two dayslater she paid it. Wow, you
(34:52):
have to be willing to check itout, because sometimes the person that you're
in conversation with, they you don'teven know yet that they're ready, and
they'll only know by you issuing theinvitation and allowing their brain going do I
want to work with this person ornot that? Yeah? Yeah, interesting,
(35:14):
very cool. Yeah, because Iwould guess that the average I know
with myself and I would guess withthe average entrepreneur out there, you know,
we might push through. You know, we might make the offer a
second or a third time. Butif we after that. I know,
with me, if I kept seeingwhat I would learn was a buying signal,
(35:37):
I probably would stop. I probablyI probably would stop. So it's
interesting that you just keep if theykeep dropping that that nugget or that breadcrumb,
you you reach out and grab it, yeah, or at least check
check to see like should I pickthis up or not? And again if
(35:58):
now here's here's the truth in thematter. I love to have a story
to tell. So even by thetime I was on the fifth when I
was like, let's see what happens, because there's at some point she's going
to be like stop asking, youknow, like in my mind, that's
what I think she's going to do, But she never does it. She
just kind of continues on with theconversation. Now, you know, needless
to say, she wasn't the easiestclient to coach because she wasn't very decisive,
(36:22):
right, so, you know,given that, but the fact of
the matter is I had to keepissuing that invitation because there was some part
of her that was indicating that shedid actually want some support around selling.
Yeah, very cool, very cool. Well, this is like we could
(36:44):
just keep talking and talking and talkingabout this process and hearing more and more
of your tips and your wisdom.But there is we will keep this a
nice the right length for a podcast. But there are ways lots of ways
that people can stay connected with you. You are on their social media platforms,
so you're on Facebook as your salesMaven. You're on Instagram as sales
(37:07):
Underscore, your underscore sales Underscore Maven. And then Nick Nicole, and pronounce
your last name for me again soI do it right from rauch It is
okay, Nicole Rausch. And allof these links, of course will be
in in the for those of youwho are listening in your mobile office or
(37:28):
your mobile learning center. Uh,they're all listed on the show page,
so you'll be able to go backand grab all of those from her.
But you also have you mentioned acouple of books. You also have a
you have a membership. If I'mnot a Sales Mayven Society membership, tell
us tell the listeners about that.That's my group coaching program. So I
(37:51):
have a training center that the membersget access to you that has a myriad
of trainings. You know, theone about creating curiosity is in there,
There's quite a few others. Andthen I do two live coaching calls a
month for that group, so thegroup members can get on and ask questions
and get specific tailored you know,coaching to their situation or their business.
(38:15):
And then there's a private group aswell where they can tag me with questions.
I get tagged in there daily forquestions about their sales situations, and
also they ask me to give themsuggestions on how to create better sales languages
their email that they send a lotof times, I'll go in there and
(38:35):
tweak their emails for them and offerthem suggestions. So that's the group coaching
program, and it's a pretty robustprogram, and it's filled with unbelievable women.
Honestly, I want to pinch myselfevery day that I get to work
with such incredible women from around theworld that are doing all kinds of things,
but selling is something that they wantto continue to hone and get better
(38:57):
at. I love it. Ilove it, and they have a special
you have a special link set upfor us with the women or Women Excelling
Everywhere group, So if you wantthat, go to your salesmaven dot com,
forward slash we wee and you canfind out more information about the things
that NICKI has been talking about.And I strongly encourage everybody to just connect.
(39:20):
I'll be connecting with you afterwards andmaking sure that we stay connected on
all the social media sites because Ilove to hear your tidbits of wisdom.
So, Niki, thank you sovery much for being a guest on the
Women Excelling Everywhere podcast this afternoon.It has been definitely educational for me for
(39:40):
sure, and I personally will bechecking out your your group coaching program.
That sounds very intriguing. So thankyou for being a guest on the show
today. Thanks for having me,Julia. I appreciate my time with you.
Thank you absolutely. It was abeautiful, wonderful conversation, a conversation
that all women entrepreneurs need to thinkabout. And this might be one of
those podcast that you go back andyou listen to once a year just to
(40:01):
refresh your mind, or you jointhe group which will help you to just
keep fresh in your mind, whichyou when you get in those stuck moments
in the sales process because it isa process that every entrepreneur needs to be
in and in many ways that playsinto relationships as well. So with that,
(40:23):
I'm going to go ahead and wrapup the show. I want to
remind everybody that if this was agreat maybe you have a membership group or
you have a women's group that youare working with. If you felt that
this was a benefit, is therewere some tidbits, some gems in here
that you think other people could benefitfrom, then please give us a thumbs
up, give us a positive comment, because that all helps not s ceo
(40:45):
stuff, and go ahead and giveus a share, give us a like
and a share, and let thewisdom go out to other people that you
are connected with. We would lovethat if you have ideas or thoughts about
the show, that the topics youwould like to see covered, anything to
help you excel. That's why weswitched our brand to Women Excelling Everywhere is
because we want to help you excelno matter where you are at. So
(41:07):
stay connected with us at Women ExcellingEverywhere dot com and the podcast. Be
sure to send us an email atinfo at Women Excelling Everywhere dot com.
If you feel you have a question, or you'd like to be a guest,
or you have a topic you'd liketo see covered on that, we
will make sure that we get itdone for you. And until next time,
(41:30):
and I want everybody to take anice deep breath, put on a
big smile because it changes the brainchemistry, and go out there and simply
enjoy every moment. See you nexttime.
Popular Podcasts
CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist
It’s 1996 in rural North Carolina, and an oddball crew makes history when they pull off America’s third largest cash heist. But it’s all downhill from there. Join host Johnny Knoxville as he unspools a wild and woolly tale about a group of regular ‘ol folks who risked it all for a chance at a better life. CrimeLess: Hillbilly Heist answers the question: what would you do with 17.3 million dollars? The answer includes diamond rings, mansions, velvet Elvis paintings, plus a run for the border, murder-for-hire-plots, and FBI busts.
Crime Junkie
Does hearing about a true crime case always leave you scouring the internet for the truth behind the story? Dive into your next mystery with Crime Junkie. Every Monday, join your host Ashley Flowers as she unravels all the details of infamous and underreported true crime cases with her best friend Brit Prawat. From cold cases to missing persons and heroes in our community who seek justice, Crime Junkie is your destination for theories and stories you won’t hear anywhere else. Whether you're a seasoned true crime enthusiast or new to the genre, you'll find yourself on the edge of your seat awaiting a new episode every Monday. If you can never get enough true crime... Congratulations, you’ve found your people. Follow to join a community of Crime Junkies! Crime Junkie is presented by audiochuck Media Company.
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.