Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] So I never thought I would hear these words coming out of my mouth. But yes, indeed, there is one thing that bro marketers absolutely, positively get right that every woman in sales needs to immediately adopt. Do not pass go. Do not collect $200.
[00:00:20] As a matter of fact, you're probably not even collecting $200 because you are not doing this one thing, this that is leaking, leaking sales out of your sales funnel. If you're new here, welcome. My name is Shenv Scor. I'm a former Sea Suite executive of a $350 million brand. I have been in charge of tens of thousands of women in sales over the last few decades who all have their own businesses. And I will tell you this. There are absolutely, positively shortcuts that you can be taking that no one is telling you. And so we break these down on fix this. Grow fast, one episode at a time, so that you can move your business forward authentically without push hype or toxic hustle.
[00:01:06] So let's get into this. So the other day I was saying to myself, self, what is it that my client, let's call her Amy, is struggling with regarding her sales? And when we talked, it was quite, quite incredible doing the things got her process all lined up.
[00:01:28] But what she wasn't doing right was she wasn't leading people through the conversation.
[00:01:35] Now, I will tell you, I have seen this spoken to repeatedly on the channels with the bro guys on Instagram, Facebook, YouTube, all the places where, you know, now, now I now they show up, I think, with an exaggerated amount of this.
[00:01:52] But there is definitely this teaching about positioning and this idea that you aren't begging for sales. You shouldn't be reacting to sales in any part of the sales conversation.
[00:02:07] As a matter of fact, it is all about leading versus reacting.
[00:02:13] And women, we tend to, like, deal with these emotional things. But I don't want to feel pushy. You know, I want people to like me. I haven't found my voice yet. I'm not comfortable being visible. I'm not even really comfortable. Nor have I learned how to make a recommendation. And if I even got to a point where I'm telling you about my product or service, I don't know how to talk about the money or. Or close you.
[00:02:41] And here's the problem with that.
[00:02:44] If you are always reacting instead of leading people through the conversation, you are always going to struggle with getting regular and consistent sales. So let's assume for a second that you have a strong sales funnel. If you don't, there's a link in the. There's a link in the show notes. Make sure you click that button. And let's talk about how I can help you with that. But let's assume that you are at a point where people are coming to you, asking you about your sales, asking you about how to work with you, and you are having strategic conversations about what it looks like. And you are talking to them in a way where you have found out exactly what they need.
[00:03:27] Now you actually have to close the conversation. Now you have to figure out, how do I go from one step to another.
[00:03:34] Now you have to influence them to take a first step.
[00:03:40] Now, John Maxwell says, leadership is influence.
[00:03:46] Nothing more, nothing less. So you have two choices. You can either lead people through your conversation, which, by the way, you know, my favorite definition of sales is sales is just the transference of inspiration.
[00:04:02] So something happened to me that changed my life fundamentally, and I got so inspired about it that I want to share it with you. But, but, but I have to tell you, it goes a little further than sharing, because it's not just the sharing. I actually want you to take a step and go through the transformation with me guiding you along the way.
[00:04:28] Now, here's where I think women entrepreneurs get it wrong. We actually don't lead the conversation. And can I tell you, if you are not leading the conversation, you are losing the conversation. If you are not leading the conversation, you are not building credibility or authority with your prospect.
[00:04:53] And if you can't lead and you can't build authority and credibility in the conversation, then honestly, no one's going to sign up or trust you with a transformation.
[00:05:05] So you always have to be thinking through in every step in the process.
[00:05:12] Am I reacting? Am I showing up ready to lead them through this conversation, or am I going to react to everything that they happen to say? And listen, it's not your fault. It's. It's not your fault. What I have found over decades of sales training is that most women learn how to sell from men, that men sell differently than women. And even if you are in a female sales organization, it's very rare to find someone that actually understands the sales psychology and buying psychology of women. And so what ends up happening is we either get this kind of bro, aggressive, inauthentic, or overly hypey sort of verbiage, which I think women internalize, and go, ugh, yuck.
[00:06:08] So we're not going to do that. But there's a conflict because I really like my product or service and I really do want you to have a transformation. The same transformation I had, but now I got to figure out how to lead you through the conversation. So now I'm kind of. I'm kind of like tiptoeing into the conversation instead of leading you through the conversation.
[00:06:28] This is what it looks like in real time. It looks like someone saying that they're interested, but they need to think about it.
[00:06:37] And you don't know how to lead that conversation. From there, it's. It looks like someone asking for a product discount, and you don't know how to lead the conversation. Toward the close.
[00:06:51] From there, it looks like someone saying, I don't know if this is the right time. I mean, I'm interested, but I don't know if this is the right time.
[00:07:02] And the result is you don't know how to lead them to the next step.
[00:07:09] So you react instead. And based on our nervous system, and if you haven't regulated or learned how to regulate your nervous system and have safe conversations, then you're going to start to get tense. You're going to start to feel weird, and you're going to say things like, oh, that's okay. Take all the time you need, no pressure.
[00:07:30] Or you're going to say, I don't know, let me see what I can do. Maybe I can conjure up some coupons for you, or, hey, I can put a special deal together for you.
[00:07:41] Or it looks like, I totally understand.
[00:07:45] Maybe we can reconnect later.
[00:07:47] And what I want you to know is that your prospect, while having some doubts, has every reason to expect that if you are a sales leader, a sales professional, a CEO of your own business, that you would have enough confidence to continue the conversation instead of avoiding it.
[00:08:19] Women, for the most part, tend to be afraid of hearing no. We tend to be afraid of people not liking us. And we tend to be. We err on the side of being accommodating honestly, instead of serving.
[00:08:42] And what this is costing you is not only sales, but you've got qualified people in front of you that don't know what to do because you haven't invited them to a next step.
[00:08:56] You actually are losing respect because your client or your potential client thinks, h maybe it wasn't all that and a bag of chips because, like, she didn't help me to a next step.
[00:09:13] Your income stays completely unpredictable because your sales will go up and down based on your ability to lean into these conversations.
[00:09:26] Or worse yet, you just start resenting sales altogether. So now you don't sell. Now you don't sell at all. Now you just rely on the Sales that you do have, which by the way, things go up or down, they never stay the same. So if you are not increasing your sales, you 100% are sliding backward even at a small pace. And over time you are going to see your sales continue to decline.
[00:10:00] So here's what those bro marketers do get right. The person leading the conversation is the person adding the most value.
[00:10:11] So you want to go into the conversation with, I'm going to always lead with value. Now I love this conversation and I could have it all day, every day because most people want to focus on what's in the product, you know, where's it made, who made it, what's in the service, why you're different, all that kind of stuff. And honestly and truly, what your customer is looking for is leadership and value.
[00:10:36] And leadership is value. I want you to think about this.
[00:10:41] You have somebody that has seen or heard about your product or service, you have taken them through a little bit, you better have taken them through little bit of discovery. A conversation about. So tell me what in particular makes the most sense to share with you. In other words, if you could fix one thing about X, what would it be? And also tell me a little bit about what you've tried to fix that in the past.
[00:11:10] Simple, simple conversation.
[00:11:13] You're doing mostly the listening so that you can determine how to add value and not just close a sale. Now by adding value, I want you to think about, here's your prospect. They've told you that they need your help. They basically are telling you that they need your help. You are signing up for your business to create impact. So here you are, a person in front of you that you can create impact with.
[00:11:39] Value is about helping them, sitting with them in their moments of uncertainty, sitting with them and empathizing, but leading them through their concerns, their self limiting beliefs, their confusion about what they should do and if now is the right time. That is 100% value.
[00:12:06] You see, someone is telling you, I need your help, they do need your help. And then they're sitting there kind of drowning. And your job is to throw the life preserver and to get them to pick it to, to hold on to it and reel it back in.
[00:12:23] That's the value. The value you're adding is I'm going to transform your life. The value is we're going to transform your family's life. The value is I'm going to show you and believe for you. But before you see it or believe it, that's value.
[00:12:42] And leaders provide perspective.
[00:12:46] And leaders do not back away from uncomfortable situations or conversations because they know in the end, what I'm trying to do is influence your behavior.
[00:12:59] I'm here to create a safe space for us to have conversations that maybe you don't want to have so that we can fix the problem that my product or service fixes.
[00:13:18] So I want you to think about being a little bit of a diagnostic kind of.
[00:13:25] Kind of consultant. I want you to think about if you went to the doctor. Let's say you went to the doctor. And let's say you had chest pain, right? And you go to the cardiologist. And your cardiologist starts the conversation with, well, you can decide what you want to do, and you can decide whether or not now's a good time, but you really need heart surgery.
[00:13:51] Like, I don't know. Based on what I'm seeing, I'm kind of sort of thinking maybe this might be, like, it's about heart surgery.
[00:14:00] You 100% would be like, hey, dude, do you have any confidence in what you're doing? Like, and you would expect your doctor to say, hey, this is the problem.
[00:14:12] This is how we treat that, and this is how we schedule it. So get on the schedule. And if you were silly enough to question and. And I'm not saying that, like, you should never question your doctor, but if you did not take that person's expertise into consideration and you let your fear. You let your fear guide your decision making, it would be of high value to have someone with some expertise come in and say, listen, I understand that you might be afraid. I understand that you might have questions.
[00:14:52] I understand that this feels like a difficult decision to make.
[00:14:56] But here's what we're talking about, and here's why this has to happen, and this is why it has to happen.
[00:15:04] The way we are going to lay this out, it should conjure up in you a feeling of confidence. Like, okay, okay, okay.
[00:15:18] I remember this one time, decades ago, I had a need of emergency surgery.
[00:15:26] And I remember the minute I saw my doctor walk into the room, and I immediately thought to myself, we're going to be okay, because there she is.
[00:15:41] I trust Dr. Rizzo. And as it turned out, I trusted her with my life, but I trusted her.
[00:15:49] I didn't want to make the decision.
[00:15:52] I didn't need to make that decision. All I knew is that I needed help in that moment. There were a lot of things going on, and I wanted one person to lead the entire process for me. Sift through the noise, hold my hand, look me in the eye, and Say, I got this. I got this.
[00:16:12] And that's really, honestly and truly what sales leadership is about.
[00:16:17] Sales leadership is about when you aren't feeling clear.
[00:16:20] I'm going to provide clarity. When you aren't feeling confident, I'm going to help lead you through this conversation.
[00:16:27] I am going to have the courage to influence this discussion in a way that has your best interest in mind.
[00:16:41] And that's the key, right? Where I feel like sometimes a lot of the bro stuff, the bro marketing comes in, it's like, oh, close them and, you know, use all these tactics and get them in the palm of your hand and, like, get them to buy.
[00:16:55] Listen, it's not about your numbers. You achieve your numbers by putting systems together in a way that regularly brings people into your business in a way where you can evaluate how to diagnose, assess the situation, and lead them through the conversation. When you only have one person making a decision about a sale this month, the pressure kicks up. And the only reason you only have one person to talk to is because you don't have a quality sales funnel.
[00:17:30] And again, doing a little commercial here, you don't have a sales funnel. You need to click that link in the, in the, in the show notes below because you. You can't be taught enough tactics. You can't be taught enough mindset. You can't be taught how to close sales if you're not having enough quality conversations to begin with.
[00:17:52] But it fundamentally starts with leadership. What I want you to do is I want you to think about the last five, five sales conversations you've had. And by the way, that should have been last week.
[00:18:06] It should have been last week. If you aren't having multiple sales conversations, you may be afraid to lead.
[00:18:14] You have to have consistent sales conversations to learn from. You know, when I coach people, I'm constantly telling them, I don't want you to attach yourself to. To the answer. I just want you to have three conversations tomorrow. I literally just want you to start and have three conversations.
[00:18:35] I have another client who is looking for particular types of people for her leadership team. And I'm like, great, you're having conversations. This is great news. Now, two months ago, we had to talk about having the conversations because we weren't even having the conversations to begin with. Now we're having conversations about what to do and who we're talking to, but the idea is leading people through the conversation.
[00:19:13] So I want you to audit your last five conversations, and I want to ask you to count how many times you said no pressure or Whatever you want.
[00:19:29] I also want you to look at. Where did you start to give up control? Like, where did you get scared and think roll danger. Different cartoons, different TV shows. Danger Will Robinson. Like, there's a certain part in the conversation where. Where you, like, hand over the reins to the other person. You're like, okay, you decide. We'll make. We'll let you decide if this is. I mean, like, I'm a. And I want you to know I'm a big fan of opening the door, showing people the exit if it's not a good fit for them. I 100% believe in creating safety. But creating safety is not passivity.
[00:20:09] So when you create safety, you might say it once, but you're not saying 100 times, hey, no pressure, no pressure, no pressure, no pressure. Because, honestly, it's okay for someone to say, you know what? I'm really not sure what I need to do next.
[00:20:29] Great.
[00:20:30] That's what I'm here for.
[00:20:31] Let's actually walk through what it would look like, what your next steps might be, and then you'll know better. We can evaluate what the best next step is for you, because we've already talked about how you blank. Right problem.
[00:20:48] We've already talked about how you've tried blank.
[00:20:53] And we know that on a scale of 1 to 10, because you asked that, this is an 8 priority for you.
[00:21:00] So help me break this down so I know what to share with you. And next, you know, like, where can you take that conversation? Besides, no pressure, or I'll circle back around or whenever you're ready, I'll be here, too. And I. I understand that. I do. I do. Because the pendulum is bro, marketing way over here. And then it's like, please, I don't want to make anybody mad at me on the other side.
[00:21:30] So I want you to look at your conversations. I want you to ask yourself, how many times have you let people have control over the situation, control of the conversation? How many times have you backed off when you didn't even try to take a next step? And again, big difference between being pushy, right? And passivity. Like, there's two, but in the middle, there's a happy medium. Like, for example, people very often will say, I want to think about it. I love that. I do. I love that as an answer. And my response is always great. So smart people do think about things. I had to think long and hard about it.
[00:22:08] But if you can think here in front of me, I would be happy to listen to what your thoughts are. Like, in other words, I'm saying think out loud. And literally, that is what I say. I'm like, okay, gotcha. Totally understand. Wise people do need to take time to evaluate. But think out loud for me.
[00:22:29] Think out loud for me. What are you thinking right about now? I want to know. I can't lead you through a conversation if I don't even really know what you're thinking about. And this is, this is what I mean when I say some of you are leaving.
[00:22:42] You're leaving sales on the table. You see, if they say, I want to think about it, and you go, okay, you literally have nowhere to go except to pester bug. Pester bug, pester bug. Why? Because you don't know. You skipped the step where you now know how to add more value.
[00:23:01] So leading conversations is 100% required. And I would put a check mark in the bro marketing box of, yes, this is 100% the correct behavior that more women need to learn. And when you do learn it, you will get more sales and you will have more consistency in your sales and you'll be able to serve and impact more people.
[00:23:25] Now, listen, if you're the kind of person that you're like, this makes sense to me, but I don't really know where to start.
[00:23:31] I got two things for you. One, definitely subscribe. Hit that subscribe button and the alert button so that you are always getting notifications about this podcast.
[00:23:42] Step number two is I'm offering evaluation calls where I can take you through what I am doing with my clients to help them practice, to help them create a sales leadership identity, and to more importantly, and this is almost always where we start creating scalable systems that feel like you. So go ahead and click that link below.
[00:24:08] Otherwise, I'm excited to see your business growing because otherwise, if it wasn't growing, you'd be clicking that link, right?
[00:24:16] And I'll see you next time on Fix this. Grow fast.
