You have given so much to your client base: education, inspiration, aspiration. You’ve answered all their questions. You’ve introduced them to people who are now going to help them along their journey, etc, etc.
If someone has stuck with you through all of that, they are more than likely interested in something beyond free resources. Therefore, we need to talk about how to ask for a sale (and then how to ask again, and then how to ask again).
You’ve done so much work to this point that you’ve actually outworked their appetite for free stuff. Now they want to come and engage with you. You’ve given, given, given, now here is how to ask.
#1 — Reframe your mindset
Asking for a sale is not really asking for anything. It’s exposing your customer to the value that you have to offer, whatever that might be, whatever it is that you as a brand have to offer.
- Wrong: If you think, “Man, I’m going to spam them by trying to sell this really fancy pen again,” you’re going to fail. It’s gonna come out in your messaging and the way you talk.
- Right: If you instead think, “I’m going to allow my customer base the opportunity to buy this really fancy pen,” and you expose them to your value that way, it’s going to change the way they perceive you as a brand.
This messaging twist of treating your product as an important asset makes a huge difference in sales compared to companies selling something similar who just state the functional capabilities.
#2 — Create systems to help repeat
Once you’ve initially asked for the sale, they have a chance to say yes or no. If they say yes, great. They’re in your CRM and you’ll continue that relationship.
If they say no, that’s okay. They’re still interested and they’ve still consumed your content up to that point, so you have their interest to some degree, they just aren’t ready to buy yet.
Regardless of their answer, you need to give them a reason to remain in your ecosystem. There are three ways you can do that. Offer them…
- New value: something new they haven’t heard or accessed before
- More value: more of the same, like your resources bundled for convenience
- Better value: something that goes deeper so you can continue to build interest and trust from a distance
How to offer better value
Email sequences. Take something general you’ve already given them, make it very specific and outcome-based, and deliver it to them completely for free in their inbox for a certain given time.
Grant access to a private YouTube or podcast feed. Give qualified buyers access to a channel where you can provide deeper insights, more important conversations, or whatever it might be.
Build a community in Facebook or Slack or Discord. Invite qualified buyers to be a part of a core group that needs to be engaging in the conversations that are happening there.
Offer them a chance to buy in a lower price setting. Maybe give folks who have been a part of your email list for 12 months a one-time event or discount on a new product.
Whatever the case, you have to continue talking to them over time, this is why email drip campaigns and building a community are so great. They give you a way to remain at the top of your customers’ minds even though they weren’t ready when you asked for a sale.
It’s all about value exchange. They have identified you as a potential source of value, you need to continue to keep them wanting that value. Eventually, the good customers will convert.
If you force customers to convert, they’ll become the ones with all the problems that you’ll spend 80% of your time trying to fix rather than actually making money, so it’s okay to leave some unconverted.
We’re not trying to push people to buy who don’t fit but, for the 20% of people who do fit, we want to give them every chance to buy and to become part of the program.