The new year brings an air of possibility and fresh starts. However, after an indulgent holiday period, getting back into business mode can feel daunting. Sales calls seem even more intimidating when you’re struggling to find your momentum. So how do you reignite your passion and quickly get clients booked?
In this week’s episode, Samantha and Tim tackle that exact question. They share practical strategies to not only reconnect with existing leads, but also actively spark new conversations.
Together, they explore the power of asking good questions and listening to contacts’ needs. This approach builds trust while uncovering real opportunities. Samantha and Tim also discuss optimizing social media content and clearly defining your ideal client.
If starting strong in 2024 feels out of reach, this episode will leave you feeling re-energized and ready to make it happen. Tune in for actionable sales tips to get your mojo back fast and discover what it takes to hit the ground running and quickly book calls that convert.
IN THIS EPISODE YOU’LL DISCOVER:
- The importance of listening versus selling in outreach. (07:00)
- Setting intentions for social media use. (10:58)
- Using questions to spark social media conversations. (12:23)
- Speaking directly to your ideal client’s desires. (14:53)
- Aligning your team on ideal client characteristics. (18:55)
- The power of sequences in sales outreach. (20:24)
QUOTES
- “Sales happen in conversations. So if we don’t ask questions, we can’t get into a conversation.” – Samantha Riley
- “By coming up from that perspective, you’ll find it disarming, you’re not there to sell.” – Tim Hyde
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WHERE TO FIND TIM HYDE
- Website: https://winmoreclients.com.au/
- Facebook: Win More Clients
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- LinkedIn: Tim Hyde
CONNECT WITH SAMANTHA RILEY
- Facebook: Samantha Riley
- Instagram: @thesamriley
- LinkedIn: Samantha Riley
- Twitter: @thesamriley
TRANSCRIPTION
Samantha Riley: Sales happen in conversations, so if we don’t ask a question, we can’t get into a conversation.
Tim Hyde: Yeah, I think that’s a good rule in conversation. Generally, if you’re having a conversation with them, ask a question. You won’t always get an answer from people. But the more you do it, the more likely you are to get that response.
Samantha Riley: Welcome to the Influence by design podcast. I’m Samantha Ryan, authority positioning strategist for coaches and experts. If you’re ready to build a business that gives you more than just a caffeine addiction and you dream of making more money, having more time, and having the freedom to be living your best life, then you’re in the right place. It’s time to level up. Welcome to today’s episode of Influence by Design. I’m your co host for today, Samantha Riley. And I’m joined by my co host for today, Tim Hyde. And today we’re going to give you some ideas to get your mojo back and jump into 2024 with some enthusiasm and get some sales. How are you, Tim?
Tim Hyde: well, I’m more enthusiastic by the second. Sam, this is fantastic. We’re talking about this just before. I think this is Christmas break. Okay. And here in Australia, obviously we have a much longer break than our, friends in the US.
Samantha Riley: Well, because it’s our.
Tim Hyde: Because it’s our summer holidays. It’s our summer holidays as well. And almost everyone I spoke to did less this year than they would normally do. I certainly did. Yes, I did. I know you said you’d shut the office and didn’t go into it, which is most unusual. And I look, between Christmas and New Year’s, I normally work on my website and all those little projects that are kind of put off, uh-huh. As lesser priorities throughout the year, I get onto some of those. And this year I did absolutely none of them.
Samantha Riley: Yeah, I’m with you. And it is the very first year ever I’ve done that.
Tim Hyde: It’s really annoying because all his little projects that still need to be done.
Samantha Riley: I’m with you on that one too.
Tim Hyde: But, it was good. Okay. I managed to read five non business books. I’ve got those books on my desk. I got sent a bunch of business books by people.
Samantha Riley: Is it?
Tim Hyde: And if you didn’t see in this year, I’ve got the perfect week formula and the subscription playbook and all this sort of other stuff that’ll just sit there on my desk and taunt me throughout the year. But it was really good. And I’m feeling maybe this year compared to many others, I’m feeling a lot more refreshed. Even though many of my friends in business still did a little bit of work and didn’t really take a very long break at all. They’re like, just feeling flat. Yeah, I guess coming into this first week of January 2, week of January 1, full week of January. But we’re back at it, right?
Samantha Riley: Absolutely. And so we were having the conversation about people dragging their feet coming to the year. It is a normal thing, as you said, especially for us in the southern hemisphere where it’s warm and we want to be at the beach, which we still can do, but we still need to get some leads booked, some sales calls booked. Otherwise, all of a sudden you can find yourself moving to February, March. All of a sudden it’s April, and you’re like, oh, whoops. Haven’t really got momentum this year. I have always been under the belief that there’s one thing that can happen in your business that brings your mojo back faster than anything else, and that’s to make a sale. So today, let’s talk about how we can get a sale made straight away in the year, get that mojo back so that we can jump into the year with lots of enthusiasm.
Tim Hyde: Yeah, I would agree with that. I think there’s nothing like getting a kickstart other than bringing in some bank.
Samantha Riley: Yeah, totally. It’s that first sale of the year and you’re like, oh, we’re back, baby.
Tim Hyde: We’re also celebrating, I think also celebrating that as well.
Samantha Riley: totally.
Tim Hyde: One of the things I like to do to get a quick sale in is to actually go back and make a list of everyone that I’ve had calls with over the last 90 days, talking October, November, December, even half of September if you really want it. Not in the last couple of weeks of December, typically not having too many sales calls. In fact, I think even on the Friday the 23rd or whatever, 22nd or whatever, before Christmas, I had a full day booked, and then pretty much everyone in the afternoon cancelled.
Samantha Riley: See, my last week before Christmas was filled with sales calls. So that’s just the difference between your.
Tim Hyde: They were there and my business.
Samantha Riley: Yeah. No, Mike did not.
Tim Hyde: And so what I would do is, and I’m literally doing this thing each week, this now, this year, where I go, what are the sort of brain dump of priorities that I need to do this week? And just literally picking three things, one of which must be a sales focused activity, what’s going to move the needle? What’s going to make bank this week? And so I’ve done that this morning as well. I’ve listed out all the things I need to do. I’ve taken just three, one of which will make bank, and I’ve put them into my calendar for next week. One of those activities is to get every single sales conversation I had last year, in the last three months and put that list of people down. And one of my activities is to go back to every one of those people in the next two weeks and touch base with them again.
Samantha Riley: So I’ve got a question for you. Just for people that are thinking, what are those potential conversations look like? Were they people that you all booked on sales calls, or were they people that just maybe reached out and asked you about your business, like help people to understand who were those people that you’re reaching out to?
Tim Hyde: Well, there’s people that have booked sales calls at some point, or at some point during the conversation that I had with them as just kind of like, let’s get to know each other. They’ve kind of said something or done something that has indicated an interest in what it is that we could do for them, but not necessarily been a really hot prospect, not really a qualifying and really sort of a sales call, per se, or even the ones who were sales calls, and they’d come back and say, look, not right now. We’re going to try something else for a bit. I would still go, I’d put them on my list to touch base with and saying, hey, look, you’ve had this kind of reflection time. What are you doing this year? Is there any way that I can help? And it’s not necessarily, can I sell them something? Can I help them in other ways? Can I make a connection? Can I introduce them to someone? To someone else?
Samantha Riley: I think that’s really an important piece, and I want to really highlight what you just said there, because I feel that when we go into those conversations thinking, I’m going to sell them, we’re not putting ourselves in a position where we’re listening to what it is that they need right now. And that’s when people can sort of say, oh, my goodness, that person’s so salesy. And that’s what we don’t like. It’s that sleazy salesman kind of thing where, when we’re reaching out, saying, where are you right now? How can we help? Then we’re really listening to see what can I do? Maybe I can talk about my product, maybe I can introduce you to someone. And when we do it in that way, we’re building trust and trust is just where the foundation set for our brand.
Tim Hyde: Yeah, I think it’s a really important thing. one of my first call that, I always have with people isn’t a sales call. It’s always what I call a get to know you call. And I will deliberately, yes, we talk about what the business does and how we help our clients and sort of stuff. And definitely I’m looking at the prospect and going, is this person a right fit? Potentially. But going to ask about their kids and what they’ve got on the shelf behind them and what their dreams and ambitions are and goals, are. Because if I come at it from that perspective, if I find that it does use Sam, it’s disarming, not there to sell. If there’s a sales opportunity, great. But I’m actually there to see if I can help someone. And I usually find one of the questions I always ask at the end of that 20 minutes, get to know your call is, how can I help you with? And I make a point of worth also saying, is there somebody I can connect you to?
Tim Hyde: Because normally, and again, that’s really disarming, because how can I help you? Meanings can I serve you something? As opposed to is there someone I can connect you to that might be able to sort of help you get where you want to go? And if you’ve talked about someone’s dreams and hopes and ambitions, then when you’re saying, well, how can I help you realise those? It comes across very differently.
Samantha Riley: Yeah, absolutely. I love this so much. And the reason I wanted to dive into that and really a little bit deeper is you mentioned that these are people that you’ve had sales calls with. But I would go as far to say they’re people that you’ve had any type of conversation from any sort of hand raising post or opportunity. These are people that maybe didn’t even get to a sales call because it wasn’t the right time. But the fact that people have reached out in the first place and said, hey, I’m interested to speak to you, we’re just reopening that conversation. So I would go as far to say, it’s anyone that you’ve had any sort of conversation with, it’s time to loop back and say, hey, where are you? Where are you at? It’s the perfect time of the year. People are thinking about their goals, they’re thinking about where they want to go this year. So it is the perfect time to have those conversations.
Tim Hyde: I completely agree. Just by rattling the tree, as you say, just by having conversations with people, what are your goals? What are your plans? What’s changed for you? What are you doing? Are you taking the year off? You’re doubling down? You might find not only are there opportunities for you, there’s also opportunities for people in your world as well.
Samantha Riley: totally. So that’s how we can open up the conversations with people that have already been in our world. But what we have to make sure that we do at the same time is have people raising their hand as well now, so we don’t have that lull between. We’re chatting with these people from the last three months and then we’re doing some marketing. our marketing needs to happen at the same time. So let’s talk about some strategies for social media to reopen or open conversations with potential leads or people that are potentially interested in working with us.
Tim Hyde: Well, I think we firstly need to set the intention about what you’re using social media for. Are you in the right space for it? Here’s something we know. Social media is a massive time sink.
Samantha Riley: It can be, depending on how you use it.
Tim Hyde: You can sit there, you’re going to.
Samantha Riley: Sit there and scroll for half the day.
Tim Hyde: Yes. All right, so doom scrolling every morning. Yeah. I think we’ve got to think about what is social media for us. Okay. Is it something that we consume or is it something we create first and foremost? and yeah, like, going through social media can be fun. I flagged a whole bunch of recipes over, that I want to go and try and even made baked cauliflower with Rome.
Samantha Riley: I love baked cauliflower.
Tim Hyde: Yum. It was delicious. I tried a bunch of recipes and I took that sort of time over Christmas to learn a little bit. And I was a consumer, but in a business context, I don’t want to necessarily be a consumer. I want to be a creator. And I think we’ve got to do this thing, know, set. And I love looking at your stuff, Sam, because this is something that you and your team do exceptionally well, is looking at how do we create content that engages with our audience and asks questions of them. And, almost ticking the education pieces.
Samantha Riley: The most important piece of what you just said there is asking questions. And this goes back to exactly what we were talking about. When we’re reaching out to prospects, we’re always asking questions because here’s the thing, sales happen in conversations. So if we don’t ask a question, we can’t get into a conversation.
Tim Hyde: Yeah, I think that’s a good rule in conversation. Generally, if you’re having a conversation with them, answer a question, ask a question. it’s a super easy process and social media is not like this. It’s a conversation. Right. So if you got to start it, ask a question, you won’t always get an answer.
Tim Hyde: From people, but the more you do it, the more likely you are to get that response. And so I think we’ve got to almost tick three boxes into every piece of content we create. It’s got to be informative, it’s got to be educational, it’s got to be interesting.
Tim Hyde: Right. So if you’re using voice modulate, change your tone. Don’t just speak in the one tone the whole time, we’ve got to change our tone. So it’s got to be informative, it’s got to be interesting. And it can be funny. You can put some sort of humour in there as well. It’s okay to be humorous. It’s got to almost always create a dialogue of some sort. I think this is what I’ve discovered. What do you think? Or raise your hand if you’re interested in learning more about this. And I think at this time of year particularly, we can even use case studies of clients that we’ve maybe worked with in the last twelve months.
Samantha Riley: I think it’s a wonderful way and.
Tim Hyde: Say, hey, I want to share with the we worked with client XYZ and this is the result we achieved last year. If you want to learn how we did this, just say yes. Please, know Geronimo or something in the comments and we’ll reach out and we’ll start a conversation. but you’ve got to share some of the stuff that you do. One of mine might be, hey, look, last year we were able to save John 10 hours a week with just a quick sort of some test automations in his business. If you want to learn how we did this, save automation or time or save or something in the comments to start that dialogue, huh?
Samantha Riley: Absolutely. I think it’s really important before, and I just want to sort of pop this in here as a side thought, really make sure that you understand who your ideal client is, their challenges, their 02:00 a.m., problems, the things that keep them up at night, the things that they really want right now, the things that they desire for the future. So that you can speak directly to those thoughts and feelings, because that’s what’s going to have people enter that conversation. We want to make sure that we’re entering or opening the conversation for the right people and not just for anybody.
Tim Hyde: Yeah, I think this is a really interesting. I bring it on some new staff in January as well. And one of the things that I did, I actually created, about us deck, which I’m going to share with partners as well. But in that I said who we, are, what do we value, who do we work with, what we do for them, that sort of thing. It was a really interesting exercise to just be able to distil down the. What we do for clients in two to three sentences. Right. Not necessarily for a client or a partner, but someone on your team to really understand and grasp that super quickly. One of the other things I also did, I kind of went back and looked at every client that we worked with over the last couple of years and grouped them into, these are our A clients, our b clients and c clients and b clients, and actually characterised each of those people.
Samantha Riley: Hm.
Tim Hyde: And that was an interesting exercise. If I had to teach someone in my team who’s our a client, how do I do that?
Samantha Riley: Oh, I like that.
Tim Hyde: We’d are all on the same page, because I think you’ve got a much bigger team than I do, Sam. But if you were to ask everyone on your team who your a clients are, would they all come up with the same answer?
Samantha Riley: No, definitely not. Now you’ve said that. And it’s interesting because in our office we’ve got, and we have our ideal client. We’ve got three, they’re named, we’ve got a lot of data. There’s sort of five pages on each of these ideal clients, but I’d not even thought of sharing with my team. Silly me. Thanks, Tim. guess what I’m doing this week.
Tim Hyde: But it’s this interesting thing to do when we start to look back and again, we want to sort of tie these things together with who did I talk to over the last couple of months? Are they on my making tricks? Can you prioritise the ones that this is who I really want to talk to. But even when we’re creating, as I said, even when we’re creating that social media content to go well, who is it? Who is it that I want to try and attract? Are they the right fit? the reason this came up for me, I was actually on a conversation just this week in a group chat, in a forum I’m in and one of the guys has gone, I’ve got this perfect fit client that I can help, but they can’t afford it.
Samantha Riley: Hm.
Tim Hyde: And I’m going, well, if they can’t afford it.
Samantha Riley: Well, it’s not a perfect fit client then. Yeah, that’s the first thing I thought. That is not a perfect fit.
Tim Hyde: Right. And it got me thinking. I said, well, are you actually talking to the right people in the first place? Yes, you can help somebody. Doesn’t necessarily mean that you should. And he’s like, well, how do I come up with a means to close this client? Do I offer a payment plan or something? I’ll go, yeah, you could do these things. Absolutely. But your client can’t afford you $1,000 a month right now.
Samantha Riley: Yeah, absolutely.
Tim Hyde: Okay. And all I could have kept thinking is that this person who is struggling to come up with $1,000 a month for this particular sort of service offering, will need results really quickly.
Samantha Riley: Yes.
Tim Hyde: And anyone who gets into that, oh, my God, I’m desperate stage. I need results yesterday, immediately. Then starts ticking the boxes of. As I’m writing my m matrix of bad clients, I’m literally going to my d clients and go, my d clients need results yesterday.
Samantha Riley: Yeah, exactly.
Tim Hyde: And you just go, this person’s now desperately trying to close this client because they’re showing desperation themselves, but they’re also starting to tick the boxes. All the characteristics of clients that we probably really don’t want in our world.
Samantha Riley: Yeah. If someone’s got a migraine, they’re not going to want to hear, you need to be drinking more water, and you need to be taking more vitamins and eating more vegetables and going for a walk three times a week. Right. At that point that they’ve got a migraine, they’re just like, give me the pill to take this pain away. They’re not willing to enter into that next conversation. So we’re not looking for that person that needs the pill or the life raft right now. We’re looking for the people in most of the time. We’re looking for someone that we can help for a longer period.
Tim Hyde: Yeah. Anyway, it’s just an interesting thing that came up that made me think about, that’s super interesting. Do I want to if this is me when I pursue this? And of course, a lot of the advice was like, well, offer this payment plan and do this and ask the question about, well, what could you put down today to get started and worry about this later? Yes, you’re desperately trying to close the sale here. And yes, you can probably see your transformation you can create for this person. But again, are they ticking all the boxes that you want, for an ideal customer, or are you just in the pursuit of the sale.
Samantha Riley: Yeah. So for a 2024 fast start, essentially, we’re connecting with everyone that we’ve had a conversation with in the last three or so months reopening that conversation, asking what are their goals, what are their plans, what’s happening in the new year, trying to reopen, that conversation. And I think that it’s almost, why don’t we set the challenge, Tim, for everyone that’s listening to make a list of 100 people and reopening that conversation and noticing what happens in their business over the course of the next two weeks.
Tim Hyde: Yeah. I love that. We’ll set that challenge for ourselves.
Samantha Riley: Of course we’ll do it 100%.
Tim Hyde: We’ll report back.
Samantha Riley: Yeah. and the second step is to make sure that we’re putting out some marketing that has people raising their hands so that we don’t have a dip off the back of those hundred people. So we’re reopening new conversations with new people at the same time.
Tim Hyde: Yeah. The secrets of this is doing that. They’re rinsing and repeating the thing is.
Samantha Riley: Right, business isn’t easy, but it is simple. And this is such a simple thing to do that will. I promise you 100% that it’ll give you some mojo, will give you momentum to start the year off. So here’s the challenge. If you choose to accept, I guarantee you will get your mojo back and jump into 2024 and start getting those sales calls booked.
Tim Hyde: Absolutely. I’m doing it. I know you are, too, Sam.
Samantha Riley: Absolutely.
Tim Hyde: Starting as soon as I’m off this podcast.
Samantha Riley: I’ll put up a post in the, coaches, thought leaders, and change makers Facebook group. Join us. Drop a gif in the comment. Let us know that you’re in on the hundred lead challenge. And we’re looking forward to coming back and reporting on all of the amazing results that not just ourselves, but you, as our influence by design community has shared with us. Tim, thank you so much for joining me for today’s episode. I’ve got my mojo back. Not that it was gone, but I have more mojo. I have more mojo.
Tim Hyde: Well, we just need the podcast. We just need to hang out with other cool people and we get out.
Samantha Riley: Absolutely. Thanks for joining us today. We’ll catch you next week on another episode of Influence by Design. Thanks for joining me for this episode of the Influence by Design podcast. If you want more, head over to influencebydesignpodcast.com for the show notes and links to today’s gifts and sponsors. And if you’re looking to connect with other experts who, ah, are growing and scaling their business, too. Join us in the coaches, thought leaders and changemakers community on Facebook. The links are waiting for you over @ influencebydesignpodcast.com.
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