What We Learned Being Back in the Buyer’s Seat (and How it Can Help You Get More Clients)

In this week’s episode, Em and Lex dive into what they learned being back in the buyer's seat as they shopped Ad Coaches and programs -  a new skill they’re looking to learn and to leverage for the Ready Set Coach Community. They explain how their observations can be leveraged to help listeners get more clients. 

Here’s what you’ll learn: 

• How Em and Lex first got started in coaching
• What it was like being the buyer's seat when they first started their journey, and what they were looking for and cared about back then
• How (and why) they plan to leverage paid advertising
• What they’ve learned being back in the buyer’s seat at this point in their business
• What things they looked for and cared about when vetting different coaches and programs - and what factored into their final selection.
• How their observations can be leveraged to help listeners rock the sales call and get more paying clients
• And more!

Listener Links: 

Learn More about the Ready Set Coach Launch Pack: 

https://www.readysetcoachprogram.com/launch 

Follow Em & Lex on Instagram at @readysetcoachprogram

Join the Ready Set Coach Community: readysetcoachcommunity.com

Learn more about Six Degrees Society and THEPRBAR inc.

Transcript

Emily Merrell  

Hey, Lex. Hey. Happy New Year.

Lexie Smith  

Happy New Year Happy 2024 2024202 for him. You're very distracted right now what's up?

Emily Merrell  

Right? My we just had the cleaners here and a certain creature that lives in my house is never ruining the pillows on the bed so that's

Lexie Smith  

her bed as easy bed so there's no point in trying to pretend otherwise,

Emily Merrell  

literally, the sheets were just changed and she just went that's her territory. What

Lexie Smith  

do you think I'm crazy girl? Yeah,

Emily Merrell  

sharing. It's crazy. So Lex, I want to tell you I'm doing dry January.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, you did sure told me that. That's fun. Why do you Okay, so why? What's your why behind dry January.

Emily Merrell  

I realized that whenever I'm in a place, and maybe this is like a people pleasing personality out to dinner. It's really hard for me. I like I feel like I'm disappointing the waiter. When they're like, Would you like something to drink? And I can't say no. And so I need to have a reason to say no. So for example, like being pregnant was awesome. Be like, Oh, I'm pregnant mocktail list. Or like, all just stick with water. And so I think dry January has been interesting as like a tactic of learning how to say no, for a reason. Otherwise, if you offered if we were hanging out, you offered me a drink. I'd be like, Yeah, of course. No problem. So more just in practicing saying now.

Lexie Smith  

Although I don't feel like you like drinking.

Emily Merrell  

I do love drinking. Actually. I think I'm an extremist, which I think you know about me and I'm like CJ and hobbies and blah,

Lexie Smith  

blah, blah things well, okay, but that's okay. I'm really even just a thought before I say something. Oh,

Emily Merrell  

I'd say like, when I drink like we you and I have experienced this together where we'll have like, we'll finish a bottle and be like another bottle.

Lexie Smith  

So I could see that happen once you get drunk off a half a glass of wine. So if you were gonna say that you go all in I wanted to give you a compliment that you don't I think you're very I think you're actually really great. And we're, like, good at saying no and good at not overdoing it. So, you know, as the outside looking in. I think you're being hard on yourself. But I love that you're why is you motivated?

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, it's me motivated. It's definitely not. It's been interesting. It basically started like a few college girlfriends were like, do you want to do dry January and create a little accountability chat? Like yeah, sure. And then, truthfully, I've never finished a dry January, like I've always had something that is popped up for a trip or never felt a desire. And I think it's more just kind of, like, can I make it 30 days without saying yes.

Lexie Smith  

This this is a big topic right before we click record is like, hey, Emily, let's, let's talk about something light that's not triggering. And this is where you go. Here's, here's what I'll say on a trigger topic of alcoholism, not alcoholism, but like alcohol. Okay, here's what I meant. Here's where I meant to go with that. Um, if you all are listeners to this, you know, I have another company, it's called the PR bar. Like it's all punched around bar and alcohol. I am not someone who is I'm not sober. But I will say what's been really interesting in defining in my relationship with alcohol is when I studied abroad in Italy, and I lived in Italy, and seeing Italians relationship with wine, and how it's just such a natural part of their culture and it's not taboo, you come back to America, and there's so many extremes. It's like, you're an alcoholic, if every doctor you drink how much you know, you drink every day, you're an alcoholic, or I had to go sober, but there's just so many extremes, that it's always really really bothered me that it's such a hot topic of discussion. So in a way Dr. January is triggering to me honestly, and upsetting because it's implying that drinking is wrong or bad, or I think in life, everything's about moderation. And I hate that it's just such a focal point and I don't I think everyone's allowed to have their own health journey with alcohol I'm not saying by any means that like everyone should drink but the fact that it's such a polarizing topic and that it needs to be such this big all or nothing thing is upsetting to me. Great, cool, cool, cool. I

Emily Merrell  

fix something trigger. Yep,

Lexie Smith  

sure did. So on that note, what's actually really interesting, that's a good good segue because what we're, we've Emily and I have been going through a really interesting flip of a script know last month And what I mean by that is Emily and I are really, really used to selling together. We have been on many, many sales calls. We love it. We think sales are fun. You know, we're crazy people. But for the first time, in a long time, Emily, what are we doing now?

Emily Merrell  

And we're sitting in the buying seat. And honestly, Alexa kind of feels like you're at a car dealership. This time last year, my husband and I, we, we ended up getting a new car. And it's bringing back very similar feelings of being skeptical. And feeling like you were being schmoozed and you're being do or you're being the tactics are being done on you. And I think as someone who sells tactics us, we teach our clients how to sell, it's interesting to identify, and to discuss POST call, like, Ooh, that was awesome. Or like, Oh, that was that did not work on us at all. Or that really, like left me with a bad taste in my mouth. So what do you think Lex? Do you want to start with

Lexie Smith  

what I was just gonna say, I think what's been so interesting is us being in the buyers seat together, for the first time in a long time, has brought up so much and the person's perspective and how we're analyzing it is so different than I don't know, at least the last time I was in a serious buyers seat for coaching. And so it's been really we wanted to do an episode today on what we've noticed through the process, because I think understanding the buyer seat and being in the buyer seat can give us a lot of insight that we can take back with us to the seller seat. So I will say this, and probably no one listening for a long time will be surprised to hear that Emily and I are very different buyers. No shocker.

Emily Merrell  

No, actually, I've been to target with you. I feel like we're similar there.

Lexie Smith  

Well, retail. So we're at a different limit. Let's clarify what we're in the buyers seat for. We have been in the buyers seat, we have decided we want to learn the new skill set of paid advertising, and how we can leverage it with the Ready Set coach community and some some various products, digital products we want to sell. And so we both decided that we want to hire a coach to be on this journey with us because we want to not just invest in ads, we want to learn the ads. So it's something we we can also like doubly provide insight on for future clients.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, this is definitely something we don't want to hire a marketing agency to have it done for us. This is something that to most of the people listening who have hired coaches, like we want to learn this skill, we want to be able to speak the language of the skill and be able to do it on our own terms and on our own time versus waiting for an marketing agency to send updates and whatnot web. We're fast moving, folks. So we're looking for a coach to teach us these skills, which has been really entertaining and fun. It will

Lexie Smith  

and I think maybe let's start with the places the things that we have in common. So well. I want to also,

Emily Merrell  

before we even start there, I want to talk about like how we found coaches and how we started. That's a really great idea. Yeah, I think first and foremost, it's been interesting because the first coach that we talked to was a referral through some people that we trust, and

Lexie Smith  

well in specifically, I saw an Instagram story about mutual contact of ours and I DM her. So I was it she taught was talking about this mastermind group that she was in focus on advertising, I was like ding ding ding. And this is a contact Emily and I we both know and trust her. And so yeah, it was Instagram story. Okay, so

Emily Merrell  

So the first one Instagram story, then Voice Note referral. Second one was an Instagram was a Facebook group, that Facebook group where this person led the Facebook group, and then I started chatting with its individual in a Facebook group. And then the third one lacks, do you want to share how you found that third one,

Lexie Smith  

I was in an online community. And I saw that scalp posting that she was doing a free class for advertising. So I was like, hell yeah, like we're looking for this. I'm gonna go and learn. And I had no idea this this gal was even selling. But at the end of the class, I learned she was she did have a program coming up. And so being on that class and having experienced her expertise, real hand was like a no brainer for me to want to learn more, and then loop Emily into the conversation. And

Emily Merrell  

so I think that and then the the other ways that we were looking for people to was we were using Instagram, and we were searching for a very specific person. We were using Google a Google wasn't as effective. I think Instagram provide provided more what we were what we were searching for.

Lexie Smith  

I posted in a few online communities that I was searching for something and was asking for referrals. Yeah, that actually didn't prove to be too fruitful.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, that was interesting. And then I'm trying to think of any other things that we've done. We looked at our already existing contacts. That was another thing that we did. We're like, who is already in our community that is potentially doing what we're looking for? And we could we could reach out to them first and foremost.

Lexie Smith  

Yes. So interesting, because we've had episodes on this podcast where we reflect on how our clients came to us. And it pretty much was a hodgepodge across different channels, marketing channels. Same here, guys, all these coaches came to us across varying channels.

Emily Merrell  

And I would say that I, the the commonality in our search was we were looking for very specific words. And so again, reflecting on your own offering, like, are the words clearer to be for you to be found? If you were using Instagram, if you're using Google? Is your SEO up to date? Is your Instagram handle searchable? Or are you like I make magic happen? Which is super vague, and I have no idea what that means,

Lexie Smith  

like keyword on Instagram, right? We're looking for like ad expert, ad coach, Facebook ad coach, we're looking for those niche

Emily Merrell  

words. Yes. So that's Lesson number one. So lax, I think, then let's talk about getting on the sales call, and what sales calls were like for you, for me, or for

Lexie Smith  

the comp, the thing, the commonality here, we'll start commonalities, and then we can like break down. So Emily, and I sat down before this episode, guys, and we put this to paper, because we want this to be very, very clear for you. So first thing Emily and I resonated with, and one of the reasons one of the gals lost us was we want to feel wanted and special. So for the girl who lost us, we're not going to share anyone any specifics today, in a follow up sequence, we felt that it was a very templatized response and experience, we didn't feel like she was truly taking the time to customize her communication to to us in our specific needs.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, and I would say in terms of even on the sales call speaking to our particular needs, and we have a whole episode on active listening, and the power of regurgitating our problem, and then filling out how or filling in how she would solve said problem with this group program. If she had gone into that specificity. We, you know, our decision might may have been different.

Lexie Smith  

Yeah. So she, she was too general, honestly, that was something, what else is something a common point?

Emily Merrell  

A common point was we really wanted to know who else was in the room. And I thought that was an interesting thing, because we haven't had that as much with ReadySet. Coach, but we were both especially since we were learning, we were wanting to learn this very specific deliverable, we wanted to make sure that we were not going to be especially in a mastermind setting, we didn't want to be in a room full of people that were just starting their business, we didn't want to be so ahead of the people that we felt like we would be bored or coaching the individuals, a lot of times that can happen if you're the stronger person in the group, then you're not learning as much. So I think who was sitting in the room with us in that particular format was important to us.

Lexie Smith  

Yep. I'll also share some things that it's again, it's so funny, as business coaches who teach, how to sell we're very in tune with tactics that were being tried on us. And time scarcity is a tactic or like a deadline is a tactic we've certainly taught, taught because it can work, but it does not work on us. So time scarcity, tactics or deadlines or need to know by did not make us feel any sort sort of urgency, which is interesting. And I wonder why that is? Why do you think that is?

Emily Merrell  

I think we knew we wanted to buy but we were also wanting to buy on our timeline versus like, oh, we have to know if we want this special bonus, we have to let her know by X, Y and Z date. We needed more time to mull it over and to marinate on the experience. Yeah.

Lexie Smith  

What I would

Emily Merrell  

say the other thing that was interesting is we really wanted past client examples that looked like us. So for example, like, this is what we want to do, I want her I want this coach to be able to be like we had a client just like you. They had a price point that was you know $20 off of your price point that you want to offer things that and this is how much money we spent on ads. And this is how often she ran her ads and this is blah, blah, blah, blah. We wanted, like, specificity, specificity. Things Yeah. sounded weird all of a sudden, we wanted specific numbers and examples. And to be able to, to see like, what our future could look like. And that's something that we talk about in our selling too. Like, if if a client can see themselves, getting that result, because the past client has achieved that assault a result. It's easier to, to see yourself working with that person.

Lexie Smith  

I think the commonality for us to that, that threads a lot of these together is we knew what we wanted. We knew we know how we work, we knew what we wanted to learn. And because I think of being coaches and coaching coaches, we and we'll talk a little bit about differences in a second here. But we we didn't necessarily have an opening to be convinced, meaning we knew what we wanted to spend. So if someone came out and price point outside of that, you know, sorry, like we've already crunched the numbers, this wasn't a price objection, because we don't see your value. It's just we know what we want to invest in this. We're at a point in business where we understand our numbers. And this is we know what we want to spend, we also know what we're looking to get out of this. So when people tried to upsell us with other features, you'll hear in our differences, this worked. Sometimes it worked, and sometimes it didn't. So maybe I guess that segues into our differences. Well,

Emily Merrell  

no, I would say one more thing, too, when we talked about like bowfin feeling special, unwanted. But we both really craved like that high touch, access to the person and one on one involvement. So like, we didn't want to be lumped in a group and not have access to the person that's teaching the group. We also didn't want to like be sold by a, an enrollment person, like we wanted to meet the coach that would be teaching things. We wanted that hands on experience. Essentially, we wanted to be cuddled up. It sounds like

Lexie Smith  

Yeah, yeah. Well, I think, you know, there's, this isn't a gross word. And this is not the word. I mean, there's a little bit of maybe narcissism involved in wanting to receive what we feel we deliver ourselves, we feel we're high touch coaches, and that's where our clients get a lot of values. And I think we Here's a more positive way to say that want our turn to be held? Yeah, I think Emily Merrill saying,

Emily Merrell  

Oh, funny. Um, no, it's true. I mean, I think it's, that's why we both probably struggle the most in therapy. We're like, we could be coaching you how to be a better therapist. But I have to shut my trap and let you tell me why I'm feeling this way. So let's, let's talk about our differences. Where did we deviate from our buying styles.

Lexie Smith  

So here's what I ended up really looking for. I really, really was looking for acumen I wanted to see their brains and I wanted to feel like their knowledge level was really further than mine. And that's not to say you weren't looking for you're looking for brains. But I think on the opposite spectrum, you cared more about another category that I didn't which is

Emily Merrell  

being held by you. Like, like, like likability vibe, like, the person's personality, like, am I going to my going to be scared and do the homework? Or am I going to respect this person? I've definitely, I've worked with coaches before where I did every single homework because I didn't want to disappoint them. But I needed a vibe with the person that was always important to me. Not having that vibe is hard to I don't know, it's just harder for me, I need I'm a vibe person.

Lexie Smith  

You know, it's interesting. I'm reflecting further, I think, because I need vibes too. But I think it depends in what because this is such a specific task. And I'm not looking for you know, a six month business coach or mindset coach who is going to go through all the fields with me, I don't necessarily really need to like them as much as I feel I need to respect them. And so that's something that kept coming up for me and other ways this came up is I really needed to see social proof and credibility. We are on this one call with a business coach who had an incredibly high price tag. And when I asked her to explain to me her like business background, she only explained it to me in the terms of her recent coaching business. For me I wanted to hear like okay, why do you even become a business coach, like what is your business knowledge extensively? And so, almost in a way, it's like, I didn't feel like there was a Didn't know like and trust her enough trust her enough to feel like I'm ready to learn from her. Yeah,

Emily Merrell  

versus other people who were able to name drop some really significant companies that they worked for, and provide real tangible examples of like the, the clients that they had that were big name clients, and I'm on board with us to LAX, I think this aspect of like, oh, I trust you to fly this, this plane, because you've had these hours under your belt. Yeah,

Lexie Smith  

I think the big company names is is sexy, I also appreciated the gal that we're ultimately going to be going with, I appreciated that she had both. So while she had the big sexy names, I then would put her on the spot to explain great, so we don't have a big sexy budget, like such and such company. So what could you do with a small business like ours, and she was able to demonstrate in real time how that strategy shifted. So she was, you know, something Emily, and I teach, it's like on a sales call coach a little bit, this is your opportunity to, to provide value. And I felt I was getting to see true proof of her acumen. And I was learning something as

Emily Merrell  

she was sharing. And I would say, I know we're going back and forth on this one lacks, but I feel like a lot of the other ones that were referencing they didn't really coach us on the call was disappointing. Like, reflecting back on this, you do want a taste of what it would be like to be coached or to be challenged or to be asked certain questions and reflections by an individual. And we didn't really get that from the first two we referenced. Yeah,

Lexie Smith  

you're so right, thinking back. Another one you guys are not going to be shocked to hear. I cared a lot about the nuts and bolts, the details, the format the structure, we're, um, you're definitely more open minded than I am in this in this vein. I

Emily Merrell  

am more open minded. I think like we went in this with a particular need. But we were open, both of us were open minded to the way it was delivered with whether it was a group whether it was mastermind, whether it was one on one. But ideally, we really did desire more like that one on one approach. We're not going with that. There

Lexie Smith  

was this one recap email we got with like, these are all the bullet points of the program. And I went through and I like crossed out the ones I'm like, I don't think we need this. I don't think we need this. And Emily's like, well, you're not wrong, but I think there could be a benefit. And there would be interesting to experience this. And so I saw you. And I think that's what I'm grateful for in our relationship. It's like, we are able to kind of challenge each other, I think help us grow a little bit more. Or maybe I challenge you to ask to think ask the question why more and you challenge me to loosen up a bit more and be more open minded. So I think that's a nice, I think that's so nice

Emily Merrell  

legs, but I want to tell you about Lexi and AP English. She's like, Nope, we don't need to read this book. This isn't the Odyssey F that shit. Like no, no. And then she handed it to her English teacher and walked out of the class and just get your

Lexie Smith  

story. quick scroll. Eyebrow a you've probably heard this you're gonna hear it again. I wrote a 12 page my friend and I both a students in college wrote a 12 page paper on chickens. It was irrelevant. We got an F I went back to the teacher I'm like, There's no freakin way I got an F. She denied me We both thought there was some some underlying biases involved. I took it to the dean of the college. And I without context, ask them to grade the paper. Got an A. So then I was able and I pulled Dean and Professor into the same room. And I had them change my grade. They ended up meeting in the middle long story long, but like to the point of like challenging it's like very my personality. Wait, Lexi, why

Emily Merrell  

did you write about chickens? And why did you

Lexie Smith  

it was an animals and media class. So you had to like take and pick an animal and write about its history and media. I don't know why we picked chickens. Maybe we thought it was funny. I don't I can't remember that detail. But I remember being hell bent on like, there is no freakin way. I am accepting this grade. You are wrong professor and she was wrong.

Emily Merrell  

He was wrong. That's interesting. That straight up giving you an F without any. She

Lexie Smith  

didn't like I'm not gonna get into that. Okay, there were some biases involved.

Emily Merrell  

Okay, we will we will chat

Lexie Smith  

for another day off offline.

Emily Merrell  

Okay, I'm trying to think of any other things too. Yeah, nuts and bolts, dah dah dah dah doo.

Lexie Smith  

Okay, here's where I want to kind of hold this back. Something we've coached on and probably something that we've talked about on this podcast. Who knows? I don't know. There are masculine. Like if you're going to categorize types of buyers. One thing you can start to think about are like masculine buyers and more feminine buyers. Is it someone who's buying based on feeling Is it someone who's buying more based on nuts and bolts? And well, I think you and I both have components of both. I definitely skew more masculine. And you definitely, yeah, meaning I care about the nuts and the bolts.

Emily Merrell  

Oh, you're Mormon as masculine? Yeah. Okay,

Lexie Smith  

I say that wrong. Yeah. I was esculin. Yes. Okay, you skew more feminine. And so that's been such a Levine example on the sales calls of if that person who they're appealing more to Yeah. And our winner ultimately appealed to, I think both of us. I think

Emily Merrell  

so too. Yeah. And I think the winner also, she did a really good job of just talking us through the problems. Talking through the details. We know exactly what we're walking into. The price point was the right price point for us as well. I think the timing was the right timing. So a lot of times people are like, Oh my God, no one's by my program. Remember that timing is a huge factor. Like, I always think back to Sex in the City and dating, like your light needs to be on, you need to be actively looking for this particular solution. If not, then it can be hard to change someone or convince someone to put their their light on when they're not actively wanting their light on.

Lexie Smith  

One other thing I briefly want to share, because I think it's worth being aware of something that turned me off one of the coaches, the highest price point one. So in theory, like the one who probably has seen the most success, and in this coaching space, I was in her audience in a marketing funnel capacity. And I was getting a ton of content delivered to my inbox automated content, in tandem with her one on one outreach. And the content that was being delivered and still is I'm about to unsubscribe is kind of not hitting me correctly. Like it's very much targeted at a different person. And so when she's trying to sell me that she's further along in business, but all of her marketing content is for a more novice entrepreneur, there's a juxtaposition. So the lesson I just want to highlight here is Be mindful of what your prospects are seeing and hearing outside of your one on one What are you posting about on social that? See it? What emails do you have set up so just something to be to be mindful of something I think for me hurt this person.

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I think that's a good point too, especially if you're being I think going through her process was interesting as well because we were being sold something that was like high ticket and yet cheap tip typically delivers on like a group program. And so I feel like all of the onboarding and whatnot was very much geared to the the group program so it was a bit confusing also going through that. Exactly

Lexie Smith  

It basically what I mean I'm like I felt very confused on you're supposed to lead me through this but yet you're seeing is this

Emily Merrell  

Yeah, exactly. So this felt like a very out of the blue kind of opportunity and ticket I completely agree. Yeah, I think are the learnings on this one, and lax. I'm going to I'm going to jump into homework. I'm gonna be wildly Oh, okay. I know. Oh, yeah. Don't you know what guys watching? But I'm gonna say is, take a quick look. No, give yourself like 30 minutes, go and look at your offer and look at how you're communicating your offer. Who are you communicating your offer to? Is what you're communicating clear? Are you communicating in a more masculine way or a more feminine way? Also, like, can you audit the last two sales calls that you sold to? That didn't go according to plan? Like, if you were to speculate, like, what didn't go right for you? It wasn't the way that you made the person feel. Was it because you were too pushy? Was it because you were too unhappy? Like what? What were the things that would be my home? That's

Lexie Smith  

Emily's homework, here's mine, I actually want you to do the opposite and sit in the buyers seat. I want you to analyze the last time you I know you hate me. I want you to analyze the last time you bought. And I want you to do what Emily and I did and I want you to sit down and I want you to highlight what was important for you what worked what didn't and then I think I think going into your process like Emily said, is it aligned? Are you accounting for the things you've identified? Because there is some level of you're going to attract sometimes a similar buyer to yourself just there's a personality vibe thing there. So look at your buyers journey and then reflect it to this point back on how you're currently selling.

Emily Merrell  

Love it lacks love it Wow. We are love

Lexie Smith  

it. Wow. And she rolls her eyes on me

Emily Merrell  

Odd Couple I love it. I thought

Lexie Smith  

she secretly flips me off in her brain I see it and you're just gonna

Emily Merrell  

know in all seriousness, Gil I, I am so with Lex. I think it is such a healthy, it is a healthy, uncomfortable experience to be sold to. And I think a lot of the reasons why we dislike selling is because we remember that feeling of being sold to. So thinking of experiences where you've been sold to where you're really excited, and you leave the call excited about whatever it is that you're buying, I think is is a great place to put it as a point of reference of how you want to make your buyers feel.

Lexie Smith  

With that said, you guys,

we'll see you next time on the Google podcast.