Selling Straight From Your Podcast with Lynn Whitbeck

Lynn Whitbeck is the Queen of Sales. Business Owners hire Lynn to ignite winning sales teams, because most are chasing down clients, stuck in a chaotic sales cycle, and lacking client retention, conversions, and profits. So, she helps transform thinking to the client’s perspective, end sales chaos with a robust strategic plan to harvest the hidden profits. Bottomline, Lynn will ignite your sales and unleash lasting profits. 

Lynn's core value is to be of service. It's what drives her. Every morning she wakes up and says, "there are so many things I get to do today." Lynn is the Founder and CEO of Petite2Queen, and you may have seen Lynn in USA Today, HuffPost, Chicago Tribune, and more! When she is not working with clients, Lynn loves visiting National Parks, cooking, and playing Pokémon Go.

Website https://petite2queen.com
Facebook http://www.facebook.com/petite2queen/
Twitter http://twitter.com/petite2queen/
Instagram http://www.instagram.com/petite2queen/
You Tube http://p2q.link/youtube
LinkedIn - Lynn Whitbeck: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lynnwhitbeck
Free Masterclass: https://petite2queen.com/grow/

Transcript

Intro: Welcome to the Lucky Titan podcast where you will learn how to fill your favorite platform with tons of your dream customers from some of the world's top entrepreneurs. I'm your host, Josh Tapp now let's get started. 

Josh: What is up everybody, Josh Tapp again. Wow, here again. You guys Forgive me my intro is just killing me today, stinking cold has got me but welcome to Lucky Titan everybody. Super excited to have you here today. Today we're here with Lynn Whitbeck this lady, you guys are probably gonna remember her episode from over a year ago, just stellar lady, this lady knows her stuff when it comes to sales. So um, she has been featured pretty much everywhere that you know, she's doing some amazing things in the sales space and she is one of my favorite people because she's doing a hybrid podcast sales strategy, which you all know is like my thanks so I love I want to dive into this. So Lynn let's say what's up to everybody, we'll hop in.

Lynn: Hey, hi. I'm so glad to be back, Josh. It's just an honor and pleasure.

Josh: Yeah, well, I'm glad to have you back when we had such a fun conversation last time, I was like, Hey, this is a lady we got to get back in here so Lynn what's been happening in the last year, what's been your big pivot or your big growth that's been happening over the past year since we last spoke?

Lynn: Oh, my goodness, what hasn't changed? How I hit my mic again. You know, I get like all wavy excited my hands wave and the next thing, wow. I mean, that's what my years been like. So I think the biggest thing that I did is I really transitioned from private client work to group programs now I still do private client programs but it's been really this amazing thing to do to work with entrepreneurs, solopreneurs, and small micro businesses, very micro businesses, and the group program, I get people who are doing all kinds of different things and what's beautiful is the journey through the program to build your sales strategy, it's still theirs, it works for everyone, which is like, oh, mind blown, right 

Josh: And I know you did it, you built it right.

Lynn: and of course, that all starts with that worthy intent, that genuine desire to help and serve others to make sure that there's a good fit, I use my top five questions, even in my Calendly app, when I'm screening people who want to be part of the program to see, you know, like if they say that they're, they're not a nine or a 10 in relationship sales, fit, you know, because that's what I do, that's what I'm all about so it's so great, though, to make that was those really great connections with these individuals, and see them really flourish and prosper, and just come out at the end of the 12 weeks with this incredible sales strategy that they've already implemented and they are already making sales, everything in their world seems to just the abundance becomes just clear to them so it's been incredible.

Josh: Well, and I love to hear that and so Lynn we talked about before, you know the interview here, but I'd be curious to have you kind of pick apart our sales strategy, because as everybody knows, you know, I'm very vocal about what we're doing at the time but we've been working on building out a more predictable sales system for our company over the last year and it's been very effective but I didn't there's a lot of work to do on it still and I'm curious because you mentioned there's an actual people who think they have a strategy don't actually have a strategy for, for converting sales so maybe if I just give you kind of a 32nd synopsis of what we're doing, Lynn: yeah. Go for it. 

Josh: then you guide me on it. So we've basically got an appointment setter and his job is to basically farm our email lists from our groups and then we have some lead generation systems through LinkedIn and whatnot that produce leads. Now, you know, Lynn has actually closed a lot of deals through my show but it's unpredictable, right? Because I bring people on we create partnerships, it's usually a longer sales cycle. Hence why we wanted this more effective, consistent sales cycle that we can say okay, for every dime we're spending we're making $1 right but basically what happens is then our appointment setters name's Kyle shout to Kylie's by listening to this pretty much one of the coolest guys on the planet, he talks with the people get to know them on a triage calls, what we call it, where he's basically just getting to know them and really, for me, he's just kind of vetting to make sure and it's not even a financial qualification, because if they're on the call, they're usually financially qualified but it's more of a do we like this person, somebody we want to actually work with and then he then hands them off to me and I do a closing call but this is where one of the big problems keeps happening, our Packages start at like, $3,500 a month, right? It's our cheapest service and that tends to come with budgetary discussions and whatnot so it usually ends up being two or three more calls for us to be able to close the deal and even when we've closed the deal, a lot of times they're pushing it out a little bit further for either budgetary reasons or time reasons so that's one of our big problems we're having right now, how would we address that?

Lynn: Yeah. So the one thing is I'm sure does Kyle share the pricing upfront? 

Josh: Yes

Lynn: I mean, is that something? Okay, so that's already in the plan, which is great. I mean, one of the things you want to do in that pre interview or the triage, pre triage?

Josh: or whatever you call it, right, yeah, whatever you call something. 

Lynn: Yeah, that call is to really get to the those things that those five big things that they need to say, hell yes to know, how can I say that? Heck yes to, so that you know that they're going to be a good fit, and most likely that you can truly serve them that you can give them that what they need, why it matters to them, so that they can have the outcome that they desire so I think there's a couple of things here. One is your expectations of being able to timing is everything, you know, in life and in sales and while people may be gun ho to get started, there are other things, external and internal influences that could delay that, the key thing It sounds to me is that you are closing the sales, it's just may be that that sales cycle is a little bit longer and so the thing is that that's the most important part is you are getting to that sales close and one of the things is do you secure a deposit when they say yes or are you waiting to get that first payment, it sounds like you're waiting to get the first payment

Josh: correct way to get the first payment, we don't have a deposit. 

Lynn: Okay, well, one thing would be to get some skin in the game, at ASAP, get a deposit so that would also put, put some dollars towards that diem

Josh: Yeah, exactly! 

Lynn: So and then it makes that first payment, it let's say do $1,000 deposit the next the first payments 2500. 

Josh: Right. 

Lynn: And so you can also set that up in an automated way. Like, I don't know, if you're using Stripe or other things where you actually they commit to the 3500 but they're going to pay $1,000 today, and then whatever that timeline is, and that's the deal point that you need to have already pre worked out, what is that deal point that they get charged in two weeks, they get charged in 10 days, they get charged in 30 days, but then they get that $2,500 charge and whether or not they've started the program so then you've collected and then it's giving them the you know, that timing to start the program so now are you having once someone has paid in full are you having any difficulty getting them to start the program?

Josh: At times, yes, because we do have to produce content in order to do so and so we've had two or three who've it's been four months and for them, they don't care that it's fine to just keep paying it but it's like, I don't want to owe you anything, you know, I'm saying so, yeah

Lynn: yeah. So when a solution for that. So that particular situation would be to have someone sort of take a look at the content they currently have, that they have and is there a piece that is stands out in your mind that could be repurposed so we've sort of talked about this so I'm going to just give this as an example, so a couple of years ago, I was asked to be a summit speaker, guest back, I'm usually there every year for the women's publishing summit and I did my summit talk on how to grow your audience by leveraging guest podcasting, you know, for authors and so I did the put that together, the next thing, I was invited to write an article for one of the women's publications, and I took that content, and I repurposed it for how to leverage, you know, guest podcasting to grow your business, I think I've got some of your cold, you know, had

Josh: contagious in some many ways. 

Lynn: Yeah, over the airwaves. So then, you know, so then I repurpose that article, again, for my audience on our website and then of course, giving credit to the first, you know, where this originated from, right, good SEO and gratitude so then next thing I was used it in, I have clients who asked me then to come and speak to their clients or their audience or their team members so I did that I repurpose the content again into a new presentation and then I went, Oh, hey, I had a masterclass here, I created a masterclass, right, as a lead magnet. So you know, that's sort of the journey of the content and anybody who thinks well, just because I had this one piece of content, you know, I can't really, I don't want to have it on my site again, I don't want to be using it a different it had me Come on stop, you can use it over and over again, I still use that that content as one of my revenue workshops, so that if a client wants to use that for a revenue workshop, they can pay me to do a private workshop with them on it, So the whole point here that I'm trying to get to is if you looked at some of the content that they might have on their site, it could be in an article, it could be some other podcasts that they were on, it could be whatever it is, right, could be an infographic that they've created and it's like, okay, this is actually a really solid piece of content, this is the one we could start with, so maybe you give them that heavy lifting start of how it could be done, this could also be an additional value add service, if they have a piece of content that you recognize that like, well, this is a good piece of content, you know, in the verify that this is going to answer their client, why, it's going to answer either one of their top five questions to help the five objections or top five, you know, pain points and then you can use that and you could literally tack on a new service, like, Okay, we'll help you do this.

Josh: Yeah, I love that and that's, we've been finding that we can layer on other services into it as well and I am curious, because this is a question I've had is, I'm running into a time issue when it comes to because I can close the deal on one call, then the follow up and having two or three more calls, it makes my schedule so full, I can't even keep up with my schedule, do you feel like that's a time to bring in a closer and actually have them, that'd be their full time job? Do you think that would be smart or do you think I should still be the one to do it?

Lynn: So first of all, sometimes people will feel you know that you've been shunted right, you've been passed along to someone else. Unless you've brought them in, in a way that they can, that you, the relationship is really important and sometimes you're gonna have to read that but there is a way that you can bring in the other team member, depending on their schedule, as well but if they could match up with your schedule, and basically come in, in the last 10 minutes to meet the other person, and you make the transition for the handoff, does that make sense? 

Josh: Yeah. 

Lynn: So that way, it's not a surprise, and that you basically that they've got all their questions answered, and for you, and of course, your door's always open, if the next meeting that they have with let's just use Kyle, again, Kyle, you can just keep getting pulled out. 

Josh: Yeah, Famous Kyle! 

Lynn: yeah, then that's something where you could come in so that would be a way a tactic that you could use, you just have to match up their schedule, so that they could come in on that last 10 minutes so that you could make the transition, introduce them sort of talk about the next steps, and what those look like so you set expectations, and then the client is going to feel that they have been respected, that they understand the process, and they're being really truly genuinely cared for and Kyle is the next step in the logical step in the process, I think if you just went cold, then you would get people who are like, wait a minute, why am I not talking to Josh? What the heck, am I just chopped liver, I mean, you got to think about you don't want them to start going to war with you in their head 

Josh: you want them on the same side. 

Lynn: Yeah, yeah and people are humans, they have feelings and, you know, that's, that would be my best advice for that situation and that way, you could free up your schedule and it would work out I think, really a natural transition, just like you do with the large really big corporate accounts back in my day, eventually, you know, we transition the account to customer service rep.

Josh: Right? Yeah, which is got my brain going on it for sure that I'm gonna go back and listen to that, again, because I think, I think for us, we've run into a lot of roadblocks with the timing thing, simply because people are ready to go, they get all excited about it but then when they actually sit down and think about oh, boy, like, this person is going to take over my entire branding and marketing like that, it's exciting but it's also terrifying, because I Oh, I have to perform and actually do really good content so I think we run into that a lot but I think you gave some excellent advice and I hope everybody listening to this has been able to put their own story in that place and say, Is that an issue I'm having? Because most of you who are listening us are probably right in that same spot where it's like, do I hire closer or do I get out of the way? Do I, you know, like, what's the actual goods sales strategy, so I would recommend to all of you to go and check out what is the website, petite2queen.com/grow, I cannot memorize that the life mate for some reason but go check that out, because you can actually get specialized help from Lynn about your specific needs for your business so for your sales system, so I do want to kind of wrap this interview up, Lynn, with just a couple questions for you so the first one is, could you give us the what you would explain as the best sales strategy for a b2b business? 

Lynn: Oh, wow. 

Josh: It's a big one. I know. It's a big one but I'm curious. 

Lynn: I think wherever you're at, go through your client journey. You want to build out what's the client journey map and look for gaps, areas of friction, things that are where there could be discontent, and also were there it's just working really well and how could you replicate that? Okay, the number one reason to do that is you want to have a delightful client experience, when you have a delightful client experience and you're nurturing that client, they're established clients. That's where the gold happens for the referrals, right but you also prevent that client churn and you know how much it costs to get new clients versus selling additional products service as to existing clients

Josh: right. 

Lynn: your cost of client acquisition is much higher so you want to prevent client churn, you want to prevent a bitter seed from being planted for where there's gaps or areas of friction, because that will eventually poison the relationship, because they fester and grow, you know, what if unless they're completely routed out and when you're looking at that client journey, I want you to challenge yourself, how are you seeing referrals all the way through the process and that includes the very first time that you meet someone? Like, Josh, it's so great that we've connected today and you know, I don't normally have this kind of just immediate rapport with someone, because so often, it's someone I've just met, this happens a lot, but usually, it's because the person I'm meeting with has been referred to me 

Josh: right

Lynn: you know, so they already know a little bit about me and so of course, then it makes sense that we would just immediately spark and so I really value that how we've connected today. 

Josh: Yeah. 

Lynn: all right So that's just an example but you and I seated referral at the first conversation, you want to make sure that you're seeding in your process, referrals all the way through so when you've made the sale, and you've earned the right, you ask for the referral, it's the most proven method to shorten your sales cycle, increase your profits and prevent client churn, because people who become refers they refer over and over again, and they're more loyal, they're vested in you and so that is a really important thing to look at through your client journey so I sort of pack two different things in there and I want to end with when you do have that referral, recognize and reward the individual who provided the referral for you and this does not need to be you get a new car, no, I just something, value. 

Josh: you get a car. 

Lynn: it's something that's a value to your client and it can be a small thing, but it means something to them so genuinely think them express your gratitude and reward them because you want to recognize and reward behavior you want repeated just like you would your child two year old, okay and it's not that your clients are, please but you get it right?

Josh: Yeah, you have to treat them that way or they won't be, won't do it, I man, I can have so many questions to you about getting people to actually make the referral because we've gotten 

Lynn: I'll come back we'll do a whole show on referrals.

Josh: because we have, we have about 500 quote unquote, referral partners who we've never received anything from, I've pushed people their way a few times, but never reciprocated, right? We've few who can't like you said once you've got in there for somebody every week, right? But I'm curious to pick your brain and I loved your third episode on that but Lynn let's just wrap this interview up here with what's one final parting piece of guidance you have for our audience?

Lynn: it’s for the sale, what I end talking is about sales right, that's for the sale.

Outro: Hope you enjoyed this episode of The lucky Titan podcast. If you've learned anything from this or any other episode, make sure you rate it and share it with another entrepreneur could help. Thanks again and I'll catch you on the flip side.