Sales = Hospitality

We can feel that sales is UNTASTEFUL

It’s ASKING for people’s time, money, and attention

Sales is PUSHING for business.

Sales entails INVADING someone's space.

I used to think so, too, until I followed a guy online who gave great advice about growing a business.

I digested everything he taught about creating a great offer, scaling the business and operations, charging higher fees, etc.

He created so much value that I paid him several thousand dollars to learn from him. I joined his online community and followed all his social channels.

Then one day, he said he was closing down his offer to focus on building software.

I felt abandoned.

He was doing me a disservice by shutting down his offer because we would lack his input and support.

It was the first time I realized that sales was a service and solving people’s problems is indeed making the world a better place.

I wanted to become a business owner that people would MISS if I were not there to solve their problems.

There are several correlations between sales and hospitality, and here are just a few:

HOSPITALITY = Caring for people in need

The words hospital and hospitality come from the same root word.

People will willingly pay a doctor for healing and thank the doctor warmly for the service.

Both sales and hospitality are concerned with caring for those who suffer and solving painful and tangible problems for people and businesses.

Focus on genuinely fixing broken and painful problems; people will seek you out and pay you with gratitude.

HOSPITALITY =  providing nurture and nourishment.

If we see ourselves as serving those in need, our insights and advice can be like food and drink to our ideal client.

Shifting your mindset to providing hospitality and nourishment to our audience is a gamechanger.

We should continue to provide value in education, information, advice, tips, insight, and learning to keep them strong, growing, and confident of their future.

This value should be like refreshments, food, and drink, helping our prospects grow in their confidence and strength.

HOSPITALITY  = inviting people to connect, building community.

Good hospitality doesn’t require other people to ask for help; instead it entails offering help and being welcoming.

We can feel icky about pitching or prompting people to like, follow, subscribe, sign up or book a call.

However, instead of waiting for people to ask for help, we can offer ways for them to find value, support and community and grow their business.

We should continually invite prospects to connect and access more value, guiding them through the complex growth process and making it as easy and comfortable as possible to access support.

As you can see, ultimately, our goal as business owners is to become the person others feel abandoned by if you were NOT selling our service to them.

Make your sales as good as hospitality, and your business will thrive. 

How To Turn Your LinkedIn Profile Into A Sales Funnel

If you check out your competitors, view other people’s content, respond to messages or to update your experience on LinkedIn....

...but allow your LinkedIn company page to do all the marketing and sales, you’re missing a huge opportunity. 

Why? 

Ultimately people do business with people 

And your Linkedin profile is one of the best sales funnels you have if you know how to use it.

Here are several key ways you can turn your LinkedIn profile into a sales funnel: 

The 30 Second Rule

Your LinkedIn banner image and profile picture afford you “30 seconds” to convey your expertise to a visiting prospect. 

An effective banner image can be branded, contain a statement of what your company does and your profile picture should show a clear engaging head shot. 

The bio section under your profile picture should contain a short one sentence summary of the results you create for example:

Lead Consultant | Helping food and beverage companies to take a new product from concept to launch.

Or

Founder | Turning teams into high performance business units through structured mentoring.

Ensure the statement entails who you help and what results you create. An inspiring statement such as “Let’s make dreams come true” creates more confusion than clarity. 

If you confuse people in 30 seconds you risk losing them for life. Make it easy to understand you and your relevance as well as convey trust and authority. 

The 2 Min Rule 

Use the section below your bio to list hashtags which contain key words that companies might search on LinkedIn when looking for a service such as #emailmarketing or #brandstrategy.

This helps prospects find you on LinkedIn via organic search. Choose the five top keywords that best represent what you do. 

Next, link your company website at the top of your profile and fill out as much contact information as you’re willing to share such as email, phone number, social links etc.

This means prospects do not struggle to find out more information or how to get in touch. 

Navigate to your about section and remove any inspiring paragraphs about your background and history. 

Replace this with a list of results you have created for clients in the form of a short track record: 

• X company achieved Y outcome in Z time frame without facing pain / challenge. 

• A mid size educational institute in Boston saw their enrolments triple three semesters in a row without seeing any decline in student satisfaction ratings. 

Then you can list some more details about who you help, what type of company and what type of decision maker and how they are best positioned to work with you. 

Finish off with an outline of the steps you usually take them through to predictably achieve outcome.

This short section effectively turns your profile into a sales funnel. From top to bottom you are telling prospects who you help, how you help them, results you create, evidence of results created, and your process for bringing about change. 

Do not forget to finish with a call to action inviting them to email you or DM you to set up a short call and discuss further. 

The Next Steps Rule

This leads to the final tip on how you can turn your LinkedIn profile into a sales funnel and it is to invite prospects to engage with you further.

Under your “Featured” section link key resources that further engage and explain to your prospect the value you provide. 

Do you have an eBook or a whitepaper? How about a webinar recording or free training resource? Do you have an online community prospects can join or a short course they can follow? 

Link these resources on your profile inviting them to download, optin or further find out about you.

These best helps prospects understand you and your service better and can lead to further conversation and a sale.  

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If you would help to turn your LinkedIn profile into a sales funnel and generate more business using LinkedIn then comment below and we can talk more. 

The Five Stages Of Lead Generation

There are many stages of lead generation - five in particular. 

When we are asked if we will bring company leads in exchange for a commission fee, our reply is to simply ask whether the company has completed the five stages of lead generation first. 

This is a basic requirement for us to know which leads to research and to know if these leads will be converted into paying clients predictably. 

Many consultancies and experts do not know the five stages of lead generation so I’ve outlined them here below: 

1. First stage; this is common when you start as an independent consultant or freelancer. You can use your existing work [ex-clients, friends, colleagues] to generate new business. You do not need more than a LinkedIn profile and an email address and you can generate business via word of mouth. Many companies do not move beyond this stage. 

2. Second stage: generally if you wish to expand beyond your existing network, you will move to cold outbound using LinkedIn and email. At this stage, you find similar people to your existing clients and offer them value. At this stage, you can also list yourself on industry sites such as consultant or freelancer directories. Many companies also focus on events, conferences, and other networking opportunities. To win business, you do not need much marketing infrastructure in place, just a basic landing page and a LinkedIn profile. It helps if you have some case studies or a brochure and a clear website explaining what you do. 

3. Third stage: If you wish to scale your cold outbound beyond your ability to network or beyond your ability to personalize each outreach message, you will need to consider content. At this stage, you need to share your thought leadership and expertise with a growing audience and speak to their specific challenges addressing them with your unique insights. You can build an email newsletter, build a LinkedIn newsletter, [build a YouTube Channel, build a Twitter following]. Choose at least one channel to seriously build a tribe and message them regularly and don’t miss out on cold DMing engaged leads to set up calls. At this point, it’s best to have a more optimized website to share your content on via a regular blog. You can also invest in some SEO to make sure your content is being found via organic search and creating inbound leads. 

4. Fourth Stage: once you have traction with cold outbound and content you can move to targeting your leads with paid ads. It’s natural to start with retargeting anyone who clicks on your website, landing pages, or social channels, but then you can move to cold outreach ads which put your message in front of the right audience to get them into your funnel. Because you have a content funnel, strong web presence, and online branding, a strong follow-up process you can be sure that your leads will not be lost and your ad spent wasted.  

5. Fifth Stage: Finally, you can consider building an affiliate program. Now you have a strong offer, strong content, a strong nurture sequence, and a way of capturing and converting leads, you can offer others a fee for bringing you a lead. They know it will work and will put in the time and energy required to bring you the right prospects.

It’s possible to arrange a partnership with an external provider to generate leads for your company without first having gone through these five stages, however, as you can see a lot of work is first required to see success. 

Many experts will ask for equity or salary instead of this ground work. Those who do not ask for anything and are willing to work on a commission-only basis would already exist in the specific sector of your existing clients and simply refer their own business to you at very little cost to them and for mutual benefit. 

If you would like to help work through the five stages of lead generation and create your own affiliate program or generate leads on a commission basis, then comment below and we can set up a short call.