We are developing the holy-grail strategy for selling your book, courses, or whatever it is that you’re selling. While we’ve been working on rolling out our own version of “The Automated Salesman”, we wanted to take a step back and share a couple of important fundamental concepts first.
Kevin Hutto has been running ads online since the mid-’90s (yes, even pre-Google!) and has become an expert in the field. As a close friend of Best Seller Publishing, Kevin has agreed to share some of his incredible insight that will help your business. Eventually, we will roll out the entire concept of The Automated Salesman, but today Kevin will be sharing the basis for where the idea of The Automated Salesman came from.
The first thing to understand is the different types of sales to be made. Today, we will go over the 4 types of sales that you must know before you can become The Automated Salesman.
The Current Sales Problem
There’s always a tug-of-war between the front-end sales and marketing and the back-end delivery and operations. Essentially, you have two different philosophies on how to run your business. The challenge is that many business owners fall into one of the two philosophies while lacking in the other. The person that focuses on delivering the best customer experience will struggle to manage the robust front-end sales and will grow very slowly. On the other hand, a person that comes in and runs the business based on sales and marketing can grow much faster but then they often end up building a business that implodes because they don’t take as good of care of the clients.
Generally, the coaching and consulting industries are preaching delivery automation. They suggest doing this in a way that is one-to-many, rather than one-to-one. In the past, someone got real, direct access to you as a coach, but in the last several years the frameworks shifted to deliver coaching in groups, even up to 500+ clients. The trick is how can you really provide individualized service when you have so many clients that view you as the coach?
Many times, coaches will pay someone to build out their front-end and run ads and set up sales. The truth is, these experts are unapproachable for the average business because they are expensive and must work one-on-one for unique clients. What Kevin has been doing over the last couple of years is envisioning a way for you to bring new people into your world in a uniform way that is not nearly as individualized as the way it is naturally happening right now.
The 4 Types of Sales
There are generally 4 types of sales that happen in a business where you sell a service, consulting, or coaching programs. The types of sales include:
The Uninformed Sale
This is where you get your “bait and switch” or blind copy tactics. Imagine buying something and then afterward realizing it’s not exactly what you thought you were buying based on the copy. The aspects of uninformed sale include:
- Bait and switch
- Blind copy
- Bully sale: Your sales ability on the phone is so good that you can convince people to buy your thing even when they are not informed. They are just doing it off of your charisma, or personality. In this case, you are bullying people into buying your program, but you aren’t building a stable set of happy customers that way.
- Selling hot. This often happens if you have salespeople representing you on the phone. The salesperson says anything it takes to get you to buy the thing.
- Impulse buy. Might not be as common in coaching, but a lot of times a lower-ticket item will create an impulse buy is not necessarily bad. However, impulse buying for a high-ticket item is not a good thing.
- Dishonest intent. People buy a course or coaching just to get information and then refund.
- Nut jobs. There are just some crazy people that will buy stuff without being informed about it.
The result:
- You end up with angry clients, past clients, or non-clients.
- The clients become difficult.
- You experience a strain on the delivery of your service for you or your team.
- Phantom revenue. You see sales and think your business is doing better than it really is because that revenue will get clawed back via charge-backs, refunds, or loss operational efficiency.
Emergency Sale
There is usually an external catalyst involved in this type of sale. One example is that Kevin gets people who reach out that never want him to run the ads until the ad account gets shut down from the other person who was doing it. Then they want to hire Kevin to get the account back and run the ads. Another example would be a plumber getting called when the toilet is overflowing.
The name of the game for the emergency sale is:
- Speed
- Quick follow up
- Availability now
- On-call 24/7
- Not applicable to all business models
- Not a predictable revenue stream (only in some rare situations, like with plumbers)
The results:
- Short term clients that needed a specific thing.
- Questionable loyalty, you may be able to win them over as clients because you did something great and saved them in the short-term. However, generally, the loyalty is uncertain and unpredictable because of how they came in.
- A strain on delivery to drop everything and attend to this emergency.
- Unpredictable revenue if you are not in an emergency business because there will not be enough of these cases to run a business on.
The Education Sale
This is the backbone of what most coaching, consulting, and service businesses are built on. It’s a very predictable business model. It’s exactly why you write a book. Your book is the ultimate education piece. If someone reads your book and finds it valuable, then you will likely get a customer out of that when they need that service.
The pillars of the education sale are:
- Predictability.
- The customer is investigating solutions and approaches.
- The education process allows them to develop a level of comfort with you as the provider of the solution.
- KLT, the customer will know, like, and trust you by the time they choose your service. It’s like when you enter a department store in the mall and the retailer walks up to you and asks if you need help finding anything specific. The natural reaction is to tell them no you are just looking, even if you know what you are buying. The instinct is to want to get comfortable with the store before coming back to the person and asking for help finding what you want.
- The higher the price, the more connection, and credibility that you need. The process depending on what you’re selling has to be in line with the price and engagement level you are asking people to work with you on. The process of education may take longer for the person to build a high enough comfort level.
- Self Education vs Process. Naturally, the client must self-educate to determine it is the right fit. Many times, you’ll need multiple engagements via education for the client to choose your service.
- This is the backbone of high-ticket sales. You can build a predictable business by repeating this process. People are buying to make an educated decision.
The result:
- This strategy is how you build your backbone of reliable, loyal clients.
- Increased loyalty
- Predictable delivery
- Predictable revenue
The key is to lay the foundation for the kind of clients that you ideally want and you don’t. Sometimes, we get these clients but it is a disservice to you and the client. Their loyalty increases as they see you fulfill promises. It makes your delivery, operations, and results predictable because you see the people coming in the same, right way. It also creates predictable revenue.
The one negative is that it is expensive. You must pay to keep reaching the people until they are ready to business with you. The most expensive part is getting a client to begin with. As the price goes up, the education process increases in importance as you need to build a stronger connection and credibility. For incredibly high-ticket services, you will need to ultimately get a one-on-one call that is more about connection, trust, and continued education.
Order-Taking Sales
The order-taking sale is the ultimate best feeling in the world. Who doesn’t just want someone to walk in ready to buy?
Essentially, the sale will end up as order-taking for several different reasons. One example is a really strong referral. A current or former client raved about your service and told their friend or colleague that it was something they just had to purchase. When you get that level of a stamp or approval, all you need to do is not screw it up, you’re just taking the order at that point.
Examples of order- taking sales include:
- People at the end of the education sales process. It happens at the end of every education sale. Some people come back months after the education process ready to buy.
- Strong referrals
- Repeat customers who have already had a great experience with you in the past and are looking at your new offering. Many times, they are already ready to buy something else.
- Self-educators. Some people don’t want you to sell them, they will find out themselves. Some people will quickly figure out on their own if they want to buy from you.
- These are the “lay down” sales.
The results:
- Backbone clients
- Built-in loyalty
- Predictable deliver
- Cheapest customer acquisition cost
The problem is that these are unpredictable. You can’t count on just referrals or self-educators, and you never really know when the education customers that fell off will magically reappear. The key is to leverage The Automated Salesman to create order-taking sales.
Mastering Types of Sales
The challenge with a book is that it is a great educational tool, but the issue is that it is a one-sided conversation. The same is true for a video. While they can be excellent for educational purposes, they are one-sided. The two-sided element of a telephone conversation is essential for high-ticket sales, but they can be cumbersome and a pain. Can you create an education process that includes two-sided elements with qualified prospects?
The goal is to combine education sales and order-sales, where you can have the process spit out order-taking sales without moving the needle on your sales mechanism. In the next blog, we will dive into how to address some of the challenges with the 4 types of sales and cover more of the foundation behind The Automated Salesman. Head over to our blog to learn more.
If you’re ready to create and leverage the ultimate education tool, Best Seller Publishing is here to help. Publish, promote, and profit from your best-selling book by strengthening your education process. You can get your very own book based on the top strategies today. Are you ready to write a book? Find out how to get started today by scheduling your free strategy call with BSP HERE.
