Sales, sales, sales.
We all know we must make sales to have a thriving, growing business that actually makes money. But what the heck? How do you do it? How do you do it without cringing or without eating your words or without accidentally pricing things lower?
We’re going to dive into the mystery of sales, how it plays well with marketing, and how you can get over your fears to really grow an amazing business. In this week’s interview, I welcomed back Renee Hribar to the podcast for the second time.
Mallory Schlabach
Renee, welcome back to the show!
Renee Hribar
Thank you, I’m so excited to be here!
Mallory Schlabach
Renee’s going to be familiar character on the podcast. I’ve mentioned her a lot, because so much comes up about marketing and sales. They’re so interrelated, which is why I wanted to have this conversation with you. Why are marketing and sales such scary things? And as we’re reclaiming the meaning of #girlboss, how do we step into those roles and actually become the boss of our businesses? You have to be able to market and you have to sell things. So, before we get into that, would you please reintroduce yourself and tell us what it is you do?
Renee Hribar
Yes, thank you. That was awesome. And I have so much to say. I have been teaching people to sell since 1996. I got my first sales job five days out of college, and I never looked back. I made great money. I made great friends. I love sales because it helps me connect to other people. So today in the online space, I teach sales specifically to women business owners, through courses, programs and masterminds because my whole goal is to make sales simple and fun.
Mallory Schlabach
And you do a fantastic job. Renee, the way you approach sales is so different than anything I’ve ever seen. You’ve been doing this for a while, and coached thousands of women how to do this. So, what have you noticed? What’s the story that women tell themselves about sales? What keeps coming up over and over in your circle?
Renee Hribar
Yeah, that’s a great question. It’s a twofold answer. It is important to know that our value and our worth can come through without having to push, persuade, trick or manipulate. And no matter what the outcome, we can preserve the relationship. Selling is just like anything else – it’s a conversation. It’s a conversation between two people. When you connect with someone by having a phone call, maybe they landed on your website, filled out a form or put an inquiry – they’re interested to hear more about the services and work that you do. Getting on that phone call can feel like scary. You think, “Oh, geez, I hope I’m good enough. I hope that they see my value. I hope that they say yes.” That anxiousness is unwarranted, because you’re the expert. It’s your website. It’s your house. It’s your business. You’re the owner. you’re the #girlboss.
So, why would we feel that way? Well, that starts with our intention. What are what do we intend to do? Do we intend to pull one over on them? Do we intend to swipe their money and run for the hills? Well, of course not. I’ve never met with any of the women in our circle that would ever do that. They would rather stick a fork in their eye than not come through for someone. They overdeliver. So, knowing that I’m getting on the phone with somebody who inquired about my services, and I know that I always overdeliver. That means I can enter the conversation knowing that no matter what happens, I can still be friends with this person, or they can still be in my business network. I also know that I don’t even have to necessarily make them an offer. It’s a huge permission slip. Just because you’re on the phone with someone does not mean you have to make them an offer.
Mallory Schlabach
I love that. Some of these things seem really simple. I think that’s one of the things that’s had the most impact -it’s a two-way conversation. I think that one thing helped flip the script in my own head. I loved that permission slip you just talked about. When you flip that dynamic, you’re in control of the conversation. You’re controlling the conversation, and it’s your choice whether you even want to work with them. Another thing that I wanted to throw in here is your warm cookie analogy that you use all the time. I think that will help people too. Would you mind like just explaining a little bit about the warm cookie analogy? Why is it so important?
Renee Hribar
Totally. People always ask how to turn and convert sales. They want to know when the sales conversation actually begins. Well, it really begins before you get on the phone. So, when I say “warm cookies” – it’s putting something out there that will attract people to you. People that want those. If you make warm chocolate chip cookies, Nestle Tollhouse has the recipe on the bag. When you offer the cookies – they’re delicious, they’re warm, they’re chewy, they’re chocolaty – someone might say “I don’t like sweet.” Okay, these are not for you. “I’m gluten free.” Okay, these are not for you. “I don’t like chocolate.” Okay. These are not for you. So, if you only make warm Nestle Tollhouse chocolate cookies, you’re only going to attract people that like them. Great, because that’s what you have. So, what does that mean? In reality, it means asking questions about topics that you want to talk about. So, if you’re a web designer, you can ask – what’s your favorite website? Or ask – Squarespace or WordPress? Ask questions around websites and the design of them. Or what would you want it to look like? That’s what warm cookies are. It’s attracting the people that want to talk about the topic that you want to talk about. This way when you invite them to actually have a conversation about it, it’s not coming out of left field.
Mallory Schlabach
That was super helpful, and I need to make cookies today now. I think all of it just helps reframe and refocus, so you have the right mindset when you go into this. A lot of people beat themselves up and are afraid to go big. There are some weird emotions that come up for us, not only just as entrepreneurs, but as women. Why? Why do we just bring all this weird baggage with us everywhere we go? Why don’t we just own who we are.?
Renee Hribar
That’s a great question. When that starts to happen, I ask people to channel their inner mother. So, whether they’re a mother and they have children of their own, or whether they just understand the concept. When I first became a mom, I tried to study parenting and what to do and how to do it. I realized through this education, that a lot of it is like selling. I’m selling Ben on the idea that he needs to get his shoes on now, so that we can leave and get to where we have to go on time. Do you want to bring your shoes, or do you want to put them on? But what’s happening is your shoes are coming us – either on your feet or in your hand. So, every mother knows, whatever the destination is, you know, you’re headed there. The question is, do you want to do this or that?
So, that weirdness you mentioned – where does that weirdness come from? The weirdness comes from feeling out of our depth. Then when you realize, wait a minute, I do this every day all day. I got this. That switch can happen instantly. Our framing changes. We frame our role in the relationship differently.
Mallory Schlabach
Yeah, it’s like giving yourself a little baby pep talk. Another question I wanted to ask you about – is a lot of objections come up with sales, and I think that also puts a lot of pressure on us. So, one thing that I love that you say is, and you say it in the best way possible is – “everybody’s got weed money on a Friday night.” Which is hysterical, and it’s so true. That really goes back to the pricing objection, which I think everybody runs into. Can you talk a little about that mentality? How do we approach it with this #girlboss mentality we’re trying to approach in sales today?
Renee Hribar
The reality is, people have money. They just might not have money for you. So, don’t believe that when they say it’s the price that that’s actually the reason. That’s just what they’re saying, and that’s okay. The buyer or in this case, that non buyer, may actually really believe that because it’s a knee-jerk response. It’s a trained response. But things that they do find to be important and a priority they will find the money for. It’s about priorities and value. So how do I overcome the price objection? Well, knowing that whatever I’m going to offer them is going to cost money, then I need to explain and present the value of whatever I’m going to invite them to purchase. That could be my time, my services, product, or whatever. This allows them to understand how valuable it is. So how can I do that? Well, the first way is asking questions. Then I can get context as to where they’re coming from.
Let’s use the web designer scenario again. Have you ever had a website before? If not, why not? Have you ever tried to hire someone? What happened? Who’d you talk to? When you found me, and you saw my name and my work, what interested you in getting on the phone today? So, let me not make any assumptions. Why is it having a website is so important right now? If I was a web designer, I might want to show them some of my work and help educate them. In this case, they’re still not educated on me. I might even end the call then and send them some information and then say, listen, let’s talk again tomorrow. Questions are the first thing. You will see that those questions help illuminate the conversation, and also helps quantify what’s going on.
Then when we talk again, I would repeat everything back to them, and I would give them an example. Now, if I have never had clients before, or if I don’t have a client that exactly matches the scenario, I could just use an example from the world. That is vital. For example – now that we are in the time of COVID at this moment, if I were to try to buy shoes for soccer season. I know I want to buy Ben some soccer shoes. Soccer is this nice outdoor socially distant sport. I need to buy some soccer shoes. We can’t go in the store because the store is actually closed. So, I need to go onto a website. What if the website was and the pictures were small, and it didn’t make any sense? I couldn’t buy the shoes from that company. I know I want soccer shoes. So that website helps facilitate this issue. I need shoes and they have a website. I’m going to use them over somebody else. That shoe company can now make more money because they have a website. That’s the point I want to prove right now. I’m just nailing it to the wall so that there’s no way out of this conversation except to get a website. So, I know that my websites cost $5,000. This person just told me they’re have the capacity to make $40,000 in their product launch, if they only had a great website. And they’re going to launch this product again. So, if you had a great website, and you’ve sold $40,000 each launch, it would be $80,000 in one year. Sounds like this website is a great investment. I just walked them into to telling me a website is a great investment. They’ve agreed to it. So, no matter what I say, after that, they know that a website is a great investment. I just need to make sure that they know that my website with me would be a great investment.
Mallory Schlabach
I love that. Gosh, you’re always such a master. You’re so effortless. One thing I wanted to ask you about is this whole idea of the hand in hand sales and marketing. I could call them kind stepsisters to each other. Without the messaging, the offer and the personality, it’s really hard to sell things. You can’t have all that stuff and not sell, or you don’t have a business. How do you see these two working together? How do you help women approach this idea that they’re equally weighted? like you got to be able to make those sales you’re going to have nothing but I got to be able to like talk about something in the sales conversations. How do you balance that?
Renee Hribar
100%. So, I just want to preface this, especially to the #girlboss community, I have been in business for a long time. I made my first million dollars before I was 25 years old. I’ve taught thousands of people around the world how to sell I have never met a millionaire or more that doesn’t know how to do what I just talked about. They also know how to market. They’re phenomenal marketers, they’re phenomenal salespeople, and they also have the grit to run their company. This is not some optional. Half the C-suite in any of these executive companies comes from sales and marketing. That is the engine that runs everything else. Without the engine – you can have a beautiful locomotive but it’s going to sit in the grass, because it can’t go anywhere. We know we need to have sales and marketing.
Marketing gets the word out. I always say marketing brings them to the door. It lets people know where to go, how to get there, what why they’re there.
Sales invites them in and sits them down. It allows them to have whatever they’re going to have. It’s really just about continuing the conversation that we started with our great marketing message. Who am I? What do I stand for? What do I make? Why do I make it?
That’s the marketing message. Then when you attract those people with those warm cookies, you get them into the house and you’re sitting them down, that’s when you can have that personal conversation. After that, it really is just about asking great questions. I really feel like we’re great at that anyway, as women.
Mallory Schlabach
They go so well together. I swear I tell people that about 90% of my job is asking questions so we can figure out what we’re doing. I think that’s why they’re so natural together, and why you can’t avoid one without the other. You have to be able to commit to this. It is something that you practice, and you work on. You have to step up to the plate and you have to take ownership of these parts of your business, or you’re honestly not going to have a viable business in the long run.
Renee Hribar
Marketing, sales, finance – we need to get the message out, invite people to buy from our companies, and then know what our numbers are so that we can make sure that we’re moving the needle forward. Otherwise, our company won’t exist, and we won’t be able to help anybody. If you can run a company that can hire people, bring in revenue, pay taxes, and that not only allows for the lifestyle you want, but for others around you – that’s really a legacy. That is something that you are giving people through this podcast and I’m just so delighted that I get to be in it.
Mallory Schlabach
Where can people follow you? Anybody who does not feel like they’re great at sales in any capacity, although that’s the conversation, finding them talking about it asking for money. All the above, Renee is your gal for sure. But where can we find you? Where do you hang out most?
Renee Hribar
Thank you. Great question. I hang out personally in my free Facebook group. It’s like my little water cooler where I get to hang out and I ask silly questions. I share crazy things. We talk about business also, but we talk about all the things. Honestly, my business is syndicated, it is everywhere. The best place, if you really want to find out about my business is my website.
Mallory Schlabach
We have links to everything in the show notes, so you can just click on over to her group into her website. Thank you so much for today and letting me pick your brain about things that are really important. I think people sugarcoat it in the online space, and you’re sticking that flag in the ground. You have to do sales. You have to do marketing, if you want to. Thank you for coming on today.
Renee Hribar
Thanks for having me!
I hope you are inspired about how you can change your relationship with sales, and how we can get out of this fear mode that we suck at what we’re doing with sales and marketing. We want to really take ownership of those conversations that we’re starting with people and potential clients. Utilize these conversations to really help you close the deal, showcase what you do, get your message across in your personality all in the same time. I love going through this series of the #girlboss framework and really diving into what does it take to go be a #girlboss.
Connect with Renee:
Facebook | LinkedIn | Instagram
Links:
https://www.reneehribar.co/register
About Marketing Magic:
The Marketing Magic podcast is where women entrepreneurs trying to do all the things come to get inspiration, business strategy, and on-air coaching on how to get their business noticed and growing. If you have a business that people need to know about in order for it to grow, you’re in the right place. This is the place to uncomplicate your marketing. Be sure to listen, subscribe, and leave a review! Join the conversation of other unapologetically successful women in her Facebook community, The #girlboss Club.
