Dog Walkers! Dog Trainers! Struggling with the s-word? Sales...
The sales struggle for dog business owners DOESN'T need to be real. Like, stop that self (and industry) limiting belief.
On this content packed episode, Kristen Lee takes you through her simple Dog Business Sales Strategy step by step that will make your dog walking business or dog training business revenue from limited to unapologetically booming — booming with growth, without burnout.
Get your notebooks and pens ready; this one is coming in hot with the framework and steps.
Another real and raw episode, from the leading Dog Business Coach and Strategist, Kristen Lee.
Dog Walkers! Dog Trainers! Struggling with the s-word? Sales...
The sales struggle for dog business owners DOESN'T need to be real. Like, stop that self (and industry) limiting belief.
On this content packed episode, Kristen Lee takes you through her simple Dog Business Sales Strategy step by step that will make your dog walking business or dog training business revenue from limited to unapologetically booming — booming with growth, without burnout.
Get your notebooks and pens ready; this one is coming in hot with the framework and steps.
Another real and raw episode, from the leading Dog Business Coach and Strategist, Kristen Lee.
You're listening to the my drone dog business podcast. I'm your host leading expert in dog business, strategic Kristin Leese. Guys yet ready for your journey, your journey to cutting edge marketing and sales, creating a standout kick ass dog business and brand along with mastering your mindset that's going to smash all this glass ceilings that have been holding you back and catapult your dog was us to the next level with actionable steps you can take right away. We're going to empower you. We're going to grow you as you step into your authentic self, not only as a dog trainer, dog walker or what ever sliced the pet industry you find yourself in, but as that bad ass entrepreneur, my mission is to disrupt the current norm. Cut through the noise, cut through the bullshit and power the incredible women of the dog was his industry to step into the spotlight, reclaim, control, and transform not only their businesses but their lives. It's real. It's raw, it's uncensored, and it's what this dog business industry needs. Let's do this guys.
Speaker 2:[inaudible]
Speaker 1:hey guys, welcome to today's amazing, incredible, fully actionable episode. Holy Crap. I'm giving you guys some really good stuff right out of the gate. And I cannot tell you how freaking excited I am to share this with you because this is my personal cheat. She a roadmap or blueprint, whatever the hell you want to call it, to five fucking figure months in your dog business. What? What did you say, Kristen Lee? Oh, here we go. Here we go, Chris. And he's talking all these big numbers. Remember that episode before? I'm like, hey, keep an open mind. This is where you are going to want to keep your mind open. You're gonna want to quiet those self limiting beliefs and start listening really closely and take a swipe from my files with this episode and start implementing it right away. Now let me give you a little bit of a backstory on this. And also I should mention too, these are the same exact strategies that my clients that pay me 2030 40 50 grand a year use to create incredible growth in their business without burnout too. Anyway, so let me give you the backstory of this. So traditionally, if we think about the holiday season for dog pros, if you're a dog walker, dog trainer or whatever you do, especially at pet sitters as well, we started thinking it usually begins like mid November right before Thanksgiving and it lasts until usually mid January. And what is the first thing I hear from the majority of pet industry folks that people aren't spending money after the holidays. Now I want you to stop both leaving this 100% because what I'm about to share is going to crush that mindset and start thinking like an amazing Ceo, Badass entrepreneur and your dog business. So a lot of pros, we get this mindset of like, okay, cool, people spent all the money in the holidays, you know, they're, they're done. They, and you might think that way too because it's like, okay cool. Christmas time we got to spend money, commercialization or whatever. And a lot of people also take the time after the holidays to rest and recover. Now I am a massive, massive proponent and self care. I believe you actually should implement self care every fucking day. And I am a big strong believer that business development and strategy should be part of self care. I believe that self care shouldn't be romanticized by spa days and beaches and you know, getting away and all that stuff. That stuff's fun. That's just a bonus. But that's not really self care. So a lot of probes, we start this wall and I'm like, okay, it's cool. I can do this, I can be lazy, I can relax. I'm not calling you lazy at all. But we get this feeling of like, okay, I can relax, I hustle, hustle, hustle. So now I can relax. And what happens is a lot of people miss out on this incredible fucking gold mind season between right after Christmas, right after Christmas. I mean like the day after Christmas until February, where dog training consumers and dog walking consumers are spending epic fucking amounts of money. And I've known this for the last couple of years. So the last, this last year ending 2018 going into 2019 I'm like, you know what? I'm going to do this. I am going to hustle. And I'm not a big PR. I'm not a big believer in hustle your face off bro and hustle, hustle, hustle and grind. But I strategically, strategically, strategically scheduled in some hustle cycles. Um, for my dog training business. I own a dog training business in conjunction with my husband. He's my partner, he's actually the active manager and he does all the dog training and all that stuff. But I do the operations and I also step in, um, a few times a quarter to do his sales and things like that. So I'm like, alright, how can I utilize this little gold mine that nobody's using and really fucking kill it with our dog training sales? And by using the tools, by using the strategies I'm about to show you and tell you about which again, you should be writing this down or seed in this episode, we were able, at first, the first five days, it was like 50 k like legit, 50,000 fucking dollars and dog training now, now, now, now before you get freaked out about that number and you're like, oh my God, I couldn't handle 50 k worth of dog training sales. Our programs are designed a totally different way. If you are in my group or if you are in my masterclass or in one of my coaching programs, you would actually get the tools on how to actually create programs that are between prices of like 1000 to 10 k. So we were able to close about 50 k and I'm like, you know what? Fuck this. Let's go a little bit harder. So I grinded my fucking ass off for about four, five weeks and guys, I'm telling you I was tired and we ended up closing almost a hundred thousand dollars and dog training sales. Fuck. We basically closed our first quarter goal, our first quarter benchmark and a couple of weeks to where we fill the roster. My husband filled his roster of amazing dog training clients. He's one of the best reactivity dog trainers out there, but we filled it within a couple of weeks and it wasn't like we took in a ton of new clients. We didn't have a ton of craziness and ha and like going crazy and burning out. We strategically closed enough business. So we were good for the first quarter. And then, and then I took this again, this is an update from, you know, you might've seen some content regarding this. I took this again at the end of Q one and I did the same exact fucking thing, same exact fucking thing. And then boom,$110,000 for Q two in the first couple of weeks. It's insane. It's absolutely insane. We are legit booked until September. And again, it's not like we are so booked. We need to get a facility in higher like a million people and do all this. We have a nice steady flow of the most incredible clients, um, that my husband truly enjoys working with. I mean, like when we talk about niche and when I tell my, I teach you guys about, and you should too, it's like you show up every day at a different level for these people. Now do some people sneak in that aren't great fits? Yeah, totally. And that's, that's, you know, we can't control that 100% all the time. Some people do sneak in. Same thing with my coaching business. I've had people like that, but guys, this is why I wanted to share this with you. Now before I get started, I actually have, I actually have a special download of these strategies where you can go in, you can print it off and you can take notes from this and it's a little bit more detailed. Um, and then I'm about to give you, I'm just going to give you kind of the hoedown low down on the sales strategies and tips about this. But go ahead, go to my website, www that the Kristen lee.com forward slash resources and I have a ton, ton, ton, ton, ton of specially curated, copyrighted resources that you are welcome to swipe and use and start taking action. And I'm telling you guys like people don't understand, a lot of the resources I put out there are filled with legit platinum and Unicorn nuggets that if you actually start to implement is going to dramatically change your business. Like I've had people tell me like Kristen, just by listening to or following your contact made all these changes. So go to my website, www.thekristenlead.com/resources and you'll have a whole host of stuff to go out in there anyway. So let's get right into this cause I know you guys are probably like, okay, shut the fuck up Kirsten. I don't need to know the whole story. It's kind of like a recipe when somebody tells you you like their whole life story. So before I, I want to give you a word before I start and this is something, and I already talked about the self limiting beliefs, but I'm going to cut to the chase with this. Okay. The sales process and the sales tools I'm about to share with you are not going to work for some of you guys, but it should be utilized like take these little elements and utilize them and it's really, really going to push you outside of your comfort zone. It's meant to write. It's meant to, I've invested almost a half a million dollars into my sales training over the last three years, and this is why it's so powerful. It's really going to take you, it's gonna make you, it's not going to even take it. It's gonna make you face some really scary demons within yourself. You're like, okay, this is really strange. Just give me the sales tips, Kirsten. The thing is, it's going to challenge everything you've ever learned. You've ever heard or whatever you've been told about sales within the dog industry because a lot of the times and other people, and I've seen this and I've heard this and it just drives me insane. It's like, okay, cool. If you want somebody to come into your sales process or you want somebody to come into your business, get into your website, make them fill out a form and then email them back and forth. No, no, no, no. We're cutting this motherfucking bullshit and I'm going to tell you how. The thing too is it's not going to be in this, and I said this in the last one too, it's not going to be how to sell your services without being salesy or sleazy, because if you're reading that type of advice from somebody else or somebody else in the industry, or maybe your family or whatever, you are actually buying into their own fears and self limitation beliefs and the lack of self value. All right? Because we need to start building connection with our prospective clients. And now I'm going to say prospects a lot. I know that's kind of a weird term, but when I say prospects, I want you to think of dog owners, okay? And you can hear my little dog[inaudible], you can hear my little dog snoring in the background, so I do apologize on that. But guys, this is friggin disruption and this is legit and it's going to be frigging awesome guys, but I want you to really, really, really pay attention to the stuff. So let's get it going. The first thing, and I want you to write this down, I say this a, I want you to write this down. My clients always know that is I need you to make a personal connection with anybody that comes into your business. Now, not everybody's going to want to connect with you on the phone and I get it and you're probably thinking, well, holy crap, I'm so fucking busy and I only have time to email. I get that. Ed, you're most likely overworked and your overreliance a text message to emails to receive and send information. But the thing is when you create the time and the space for somebody, if it's somebody they want dog walking, if somebody they want dog training and you invite them in and you start building a relationship, this is where the magic happens. This is where the connection, the conversation and the conversion, which is going to be a different episode soon, but this is where that happens and if you are filtering the majority of your people to a form, if somebody calls you, and I've done, I've heard this when I've called you guys before, if you sign up to one of my ads or something like this, it's like, okay, hi, you've reached ABC dog trained a, uh, we're unable to get to the phone, but for faster response, text me or faster response, go to my website and add this, this and this. The thing is if you're not able to show up and return messages versus sending them to a form to fill out, you're not making that immediate connection. People want to be heard. Your prospects want to be heard. They want to be told what's going on. The there are most likely at the end of their rope, especially if you're a dog trainer, and then to be looped through so many different fricking funnels and forms and things like that. You already start the disengagement process. Now, I'm not saying carry your phone on you 24 fucking seven. That's not my, that's not what I'm saying guys. I don't even fucking do that. Um, our, our dog training business as to even do that, but leaving, you know, having them leave a message and getting to them right away, you know, having a designated time where you can respond to them in a good manner is really going to build the connection right away. Now you also might be thinking, well, I get so many looky loos and so many tire kickers and everybody just wants to cheapest service. Well, the thing is that's a marketing issue. It depends on how you're marketing yourself, but I'm going to talk about that in a different podcast because exactly what you put out there and marketing is exactly what you're attracting in. So if you're used to like people calling, Oh, you're too expensive, or whatever, how are you handling those objections? That's just objection handling and that might also be that marketing she, but we're going to talk about that. The next thing is when you connect with these people via phone, you want to ask the right questions to the average dog owner. Oh my God. Oh my God, this is something, and this is something that my girls that first come into my program really struggle with. It's like dog trainers, dog walkers, you all are so fucking brilliant. Like I get that my husband is like this whole wealth of fucking knowledge and he can just, I said a negative reinforcement ones and he has not, and it was a totally different, I don't even know what that means. It was a totally different meaning to what I was assigning to it and he forgot. He does not let me forget it like at all. Like he's a, remember that goes busters too. That was not negative reinforcement or something like that. But he's, you guys are all the same ways. So you tend to use these huge ginormous dog training terms. What you need to start doing is you need to start connecting people on a personal fucking level. Find what is truly, truly, truly, truly driving them to connect with you. Is it because they have a really active dog that needs to get out during the day. Maybe you're a dog walker, but you're not your average doc walker. Maybe do pack walks, pack hikes, find out what's going on versus just lumping them into a 30 minute category and not being able to use as much resources as possible. Um, if it's a dog, a prospective client that for dog training it's like, okay, instead of lumping them into a group class, see what the hell is going on with the dog. And it's, remember it's not really about what's going on with the dog, it's about what's going on with that person. How has the dog's training affecting their life? Like what can you do? What can you ask of them to see what the transformation will be? And the moment we start to ask these right questions to the average dog owner, to the Tom Dick or Jane who's across the street with the labradoodle, the better connection you are going to end up getting. I can swear to you guys one and you can still one of my lines, because this is one of those things where I'm telling you to take my stuff is you can tell ant dog owner and this is your neat and this is a niche thing, but you can tell your dog owner it's okay to call your dog a fucking ass hole and I can tell you guys from personal perspective that breaks the ice every single time. Now if you're like, oh my God, I would never tell, I would never tell somebody like that's that's cool, that's cool. Like you might not be a right fit for, you know, for me as a business coach, but you know there's other people out there but you can turn it around and make a different way to say and it's like, okay cool. If you're a Ferb ab type person it's like, okay, what's really going on? If your first baby, how can I, you know, what is really going on with them relationship and the emotions behind it. All right, so the next step and strategy tool or what ever you want to call it is, listen, listen. Even at that means taping your mother fucking mouth shut. You got to listen to people. You got to hear people. I know. Again, I know you're bursting was so much information that you want to give and you want to educate on and start helping right away and you want to get your hands in this and you want to start giving them advice. So the dogs are not in danger anymore. They want to make their lives great. Yeah,
Speaker 3:but listen, shh, shh.
Speaker 1:If someone on the other end, if somebody on the other end was not listening to your pain points and your struggles and validating your feelings and concerns and making the space, you are going to not feel, not heard. You're going to feel frustrated and you're gonna feel fucking annoyed. And if you're on a call or your prejudging somebody through an email, are you really listening? Are you already jumping to an answer? That means you're not listening. Guys. Dogs are amazing emotional creatures. Listen, I have two dogs myself. I have a little Jack Russell who is sleeping next to me and then I have a chocolate Labrador that is dying from a brain tumor and it hurts my heart. And when somebody asks me to, you know, ask me how I'm feeling, and they give me the space to be vulnerable. Just like your perspective clients, when you give them the space to be vulnerable and open up, that's where the connection is that where the value lays, these awesome dog owners, they want to be heard. They want to be fucking hurt and chances are when you get them and you connect with them, you have that conversation. You open up the space. Now I'm not saying, I'm not saying, I think that should be like my title of like every products. I'm not saying thanks Kristen Lee is not saying it should be a disclaimer. I'm not saying you have to go into full m m path mode where you take on energy vampires like I am an empath. I have, I'm very attuned to people's vibrations and energetic energies and their shockers and their orders and shit like that. Yeah, I'm a little woo and a little magical there. Little thing about me, I'm not saying you have to like suck in all their pain and try to make it rainbows and Unicorns and all that type of stuff. But when you open up a strategic space for somebody who just wants the best for their dog, they want to change not only their dog's life, but their life and their family life and seeing how it's affecting them long fucking term.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:It changes everything. This is the million dollar step here guys. It changes everything. And a little tidbit too is if you shut up and listen, I can guarantee you those perspective clients are fucking telling you exactly what they need is huge. It's fucking huge. So this one should be quiet. And that's actually the show is from a dear friend of mine, Gina, and I love her. She's like a mother to me. And she was actually one of the first, um, dog daycares opened the United States, by the way. Now the next one is you're gonna want to put your ego aside. Put Your fucking ego as side. Holy Crap. Stop thinking like a dog trainer. Stop thinking like a dog walker. Stop thinking like a pet care pro. When you're connecting with people, you're freaking smart and you're a kick ass and dog pro, right? You wouldn't be smart and a kick ass and bad ass if you were listening to this when you have so much information in near like a super excited to help. However, when you overwhelm people too much information, it's a massive turnoff. It's a massive turnoff. It's funny. I remember the first time I started, started talking to my business coach and we're talking about the dog training business and like everybody else out there and then a lot of people that I know and I talked to is you get super excited and you just totally over fucking deliver over deliver. You just throw everything out onto the average dog owner and basically, and this is gonna sound very vulgar, but whatever, you give them an orgasm and then you expect them to buy without, you know[inaudible] it's like, holy crap. You just totally overwhelmed your perspective client with all this information. You might have made them feel like a dumb ass. You might've made them feel judged, which you did not probably intend to, but you want to help and you just blew their orgasmic brains with, you know, different management tools and techniques and tradish and things like that. But when you give so much information to a point where you know you, they don't buy, but you feel so good about yourself for helping, the only person you're selling to is your fucking ego. This is a huge, huge thing I see everywhere and it just drives me insane. And I'm not saying don't give good content, don't give good information out there, but don't fucking over deliver to where people don't want to buy from you. And I know that's a huge mindset in the dog training industry, but stop it. Stop it. Stop it guys. Stop it. It's holding you back. Now the next tip and the final one is you are going to want to handle objections. You're going to want to handle objections. What are objections? Let me talk to my partner, spouse, partner, or my boyfriend, my wife, my girlfriend, whatever. Um, let me check my calendar. Um, let me, I, this is out of my budget. I can't do this. It's too expensive. Yeah. I just, I just want, you know, one lesson instead of a program or a package, you have to have a stall. It's solid strategy in place when it comes to deciding if people are going to be a right fit for your services. You don't want to pitch every single person by asking the right questions from a few steps back. That's going to allow you to understand if they're going to be a right fit versus just lumping everybody somebody into a category. What you want to do during these connective calls and conversations is you want to take them on a journey. You want to take them on a journey. You want to listen to them. You want to shut up and put your ego aside and have these open conversations like they're your grandma or your best friend, or your auntie or your uncle or your mom or your dad or your, you know, your long lost cousin from 83 moods. You want to have these conversations and when you're kind of approaching the end to see if they're going to be a good fit for one of your programs and services, you decide. And if they are offering them the help they need without the box services, you know, this is going to be a whole other topic. And I have so many podcasts ideas, oh my God, my brain is crazy. I have shiny red ball to here. And you want to offer them something a little bit different because the basic bitch bitch services that is over saturated the market. You know the one on ones only, you know one on one dog training. It's cool. Like we implement that too as well. But the group classes, you know, and it's like, oh we do pack walks now and pancakes and stuff like that. It's not innovative enough. You want to fully supportive services, but when they're there are really good fit and you're just jamming with them and you're having a great conversation and you know, you can help this person at the bottom of the soul and you're like, okay, cool. Um, I love for you to join my eight week program. It's$1,500 or I'd love you to do my board and showing is$2,500 who that's you know Kristen, that's, that's just so expensive. I don't have that in my budget or this is not something I can do right now. Your job is to fight for them and I'm not saying you, you fucking, you're like Ooh, you got to buy this and kind of like all slimy and salesy like the sales, like you think of like the wolf of Wall Street. It's not the type of sales I'm talking about. Type of sales I'm talking about is showing up to them, calling them out nicely on their bullshit, showing them the before and after and having an objection handling system. The same Egypt objection handling system that my mastermind clients use and the same one I use in the same one that's been taught to me over the years and fine tuned and you know, really really systemized for dog industry pros. Same thing. It's like, Hey, you know, I'm not going to let you determine what thing you go into. If your dog needs an hour and a half socialization pack Walk Versus 30 minutes or 20 minutes or 15 minutes around the block, you fight for that dog. You fight for what you stand and you deliver. You deliver, and now I'm not saying pressure pressure. You don't pressure people. Pressure is just bullshit because it's so hard to pressure somebody. When you think about pressure and you're like, oh my God, Krishna, I don't want to be a bitch. I don't want to be rude. I don't want to do this. I don't want to do that. I don't want to pressure people. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no. You don't pressure people, but you fight for them. You show up and you connect with them and if you have all these things in place that I just talked about, your objection handling systems are going to be so much easier. You're going to have amazing results and you are going to have the best clients in the world while strategically growing your business to unprecedented growth. Like your friends when you sit back and be like, hmm, what is she doing? Huh? That's awesome. Driving in your Range Rover, your Louis Vuitton's. I'm a Butan Fan, but these are just some of the steps and I wish you all the best luck with this stuff guys. And truly it is life changing. Is it easy? No. Oh my God. Is it not easy? Especially when you first started implementing and learning these things and you're going to be like, oh my God, and you're going to have these conversations and they're going to be so awkward and weird.
Speaker 4:This is a workers. It's a fucking you soccer said,
Speaker 1:but I do promise you, I do fucking promise you guys. The moment you start implementing these and you got, you show up for yourself and you start standing into your expertise as that amazing entrepreneur with all this knowledge and you start stepping into your future self and operating from a place of love, kindness, honesty and trust and confidence. Boom. You're life is going to fucking change. No pressure, no sleaziness or whatever you think it is. All right guys, so do me a favor. Do me a massive favor. This was a really good episode and I'm like, damn, I should have charged for this episode because these are serious like legit, uh, tips from my online coursework. If you were like mind blown during this, make sure you share this fucking episode on Instagram stories. You share it on social media, tag your friends, tag your other dog business entrepreneurs and you know, spread the word because this shit needs to go viral. People need to hear this. And it's just so incredibly life changing and I just cannot scream it more enough. All right guys, have a great one and I'm going to hop on out of here and get back on the phone to take care guys. Bye.
Speaker 2:Hey there. Thank you for listening to another Badass episode of mind your dog business. If you haven't already subscribed, what are you waiting for? Oh my God. Go and subscribe now so you don't miss out on any of our content packed Doug business jam sessions plus special offers that I'm going to only be sharing with my amazing Doug Business Entrepreneurial podcasts listeners. Now. If you've enjoyed this episode, be sure to leave a five star kick ass review. So more amazing dog business owners just like yourself can find us and start to transform and disrupt their businesses and their lives unapologetically. And if you feel so inclined, feel free to tag me on Instagram with a screenshot of this episode and Holler at your girl, um, at dog walker coach, you can find me dog walker, coach, and I'll pop up and I'll give you a special shout out. All right guys, until next time, bye.