I am here today with Nikki Roush and she is going to be talking about how to hit your enrollment goals with your next launch as a coach. And Nikki, we have a lot of health and life coaches and mindset coaches listening to the show. And a lot of times, they want to get their first one on one clients, or they want to fill their first group program. And so I’m super excited to talk about launching, because I think that’s such a loaded word for so many coaches. And you know, you can be doing open enrollment or closed enrollment or so many different things. And so I’d love to just kind of talk with you today about what should somebody be thinking about when they want to fill those spots. So first, I’m gonna have you introduce yourself and how you got into doing what you do. And then we’ll go into the nitty gritty of launching.
Awesome. Well, thanks for having me here. I’m excited to chat about this topic. A little bit about me, my company is sales Maven, and I’m a Sales Coach and Trainer, my background is 25 years of sales experience. I’m also a master certified practitioner of neuro linguistic programming with over 1200 classroom hours, if that’s a new term to anybody listening, it’s really the study of communication. So I am an expert on the language of sales. And I teach a five step process to a sales conversation called the selling staircase. And the idea is that when you’re in a sales conversation, it should be something that you’re doing with somebody, not to somebody, I think a lot of people get scared off by sales, and it feels uncomfortable, and icky. And a lot of times, it’s because you’re showing up from this place of like, I think I’m supposed to do this to somebody. And that feels really gross. And so I teach how do you have this collaborative experience? And how do you make the conversation more impactful and effective? And yeah, so that’s me, that’s my business. I’ve been doing this for eight years. And I work with clients in a couple different ways, private coaching clients. I have a group coaching program, and then I teach master classes once a quarter.
How cool love it. Yeah. And I think when it comes to that sales conversation, you’re so right, I hear so many people thinking, I gotta ask for money. I hate asking for money. And I’m like, why? It’s like, No, you’re delivering you’re partnering with a client to deliver a service. Yeah, change, but you’re not asked, you’re not like just taking money and then not doing.
Exactly, exactly. I feel like we have that stat in common. Yeah, it isn’t about it’s not about taking. And it’s it’s this idea of how can you learn how to make it a width and a collaborative experience for you, but also, more importantly, for the prospect because people value what they pay for. And as much as you think they’re paying you for whatever it is that you’re going to deliver. Really what they’re doing is they’re investing in themselves. And so there has to be a money exchange for that to happen.
How to get clear on your launch plan
Yeah, for sure. Yeah. So tell us a little bit about launch mode. So if somebody setting a goal, let’s say they want their first three clients or something, what would be the next steps in your book as far as what they should start thinking about?
Well, the first step, I’m gonna back up, and I always think, you know, number number one is understand what’s your outcome? Like, what’s your outcome? And, of course, you’re going to have like, what are the benefits for the person who’s going to participate in your program, or whatever it is that you’re doing, but what’s your outcome, and you have to approach all of your, your launch activities, knowing where your outcome is, because, you know, I think Lewis Carroll quotes if you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. So you want to be really clear about what your outcome is. And then I always suggest to my clients that you set what I call a good better and best goal. Because I think a lot of times we have this like, it’s like all or nothing thinking I either hit my goal, and it was a success, or I missed my goal, and it was a failure. But realistically, when you’re launching especially in your first launch, having a good better best goal allows you to start to go like for me a good goal is what would validate this offer. So do you need one person to sign up for you to go? Yeah, this is a valid offer people will pay money for this? Or do you need five people to sign up for you to go this is a course, you know, a class that I’m going to teach and I can I can I can teach it with five people but and then and then so you strive like heck to get to that good goal. And then once you’ve hit that, now you push towards the the like, better goal. And then what’s your pie in the sky goal? Like what’s the ultimate goal or what’s the what’s the max that you could have in the course or however you set that? And I think having these benchmarks are a good way for you to help your mindset so you don’t get into this all or nothing thinking like I either succeeded or I failed, but that’s not true because a lot of times On a launch, especially if it’s your first time, you, you have to just say, I think you have to go into it of like, I’m validating this as an offer. And I’m also giving myself the experience of delivering the offer. And knowing what do I need to change or tweak for next time around? Because I think one of the things that people get into in Launch Mode is they, they want perfection. And so it keeps them from actually launching, but realistically, you have to put offers out and test them and see, did it go? Well, what were the results that the clients got out of this? Did I enjoy what I was doing? Did I feel like I undersold it? Like, did I sell it for too little or next time? How would I change it? Should I have added a payment plan to it? Like all of that information, you really won’t learn until you have actually delivered on a program or on a, you know, coaching? Service, whatever it is?
Right? Yeah, absolutely. And I love the way you phrase good, better and best. And really, I talked about that a lot too, with like, your choices in your day and your habits and like putting a post out there, it’s not always gonna be the best. And sometimes it just needs to be a little bit better than the last one or whatever. Right? So let’s talk about when it comes to I know a lot of my folks in the health coach nation community, they struggle with talking about their offer, feeling like they’re promoting themselves feeling like they’re overly promoting. They don’t want to come off too salesy, but they want to talk about this launch. And they want to actually get clients from their posts instead of just entertaining content. So what are some tips to talk about their program or talk about what they do in a way that is received well, and maybe leads to some interested, people signing up.
The importance of creating curiosity when it comes to sales
One of the things that I teach in the five steps to the sales conversation, step two, is to create curiosity. And it is the most missed step in the sales process, and specifically on social media. And so you have to learn how to create some curiosity. So I’m going to give like, the simplest way to do this. And just to give a little background to it, when I teach creating curiosity, I often compare it to it’s the difference between how you call a dog and how you call a cat, which I know sounds a little crazy. So stick with me here for a second. But the idea is, when you when you hear people that are calling dogs, a lot of times to get dog’s attention, they do this, like high pitched, really like fun, like, Come here, boy, come here, like, oh my gosh, we’re gonna do and dogs respond to that energy. And a lot of times when people are showing up on social media, and they’re wanting to share about their launch, or whatever they’ve got going on, they show up with dog calling energy. But we don’t as humans respond to dog calling energy, and we actually push away from it. So instead, we want to have what I call cat calling energy, we want to have that little bit of that, Here, kitty, kitty, you know, Here kitty, kitty, we want people to like want to be a part of the conversation. And so back to kind of my comment about sales isn’t something you do to somebody, it’s something you do with, you want to start having with conversations, and one of the ways to have with conversations is to create curiosity. And, and then from there, the way to actually do this is to start asking questions I find on social media, we do a lot of talking at people like here’s this thing I’m doing this is why it’s so great. This is why you want to come this is why you know, you need this, you know, I know what you need blah, blah, blah, that’s a lot of talking at people. But instead, if you would ask people questions, they’re much more likely to engage. And the question could be something like, what has been your biggest struggle in regards to, you know, whatever the topic is that you’re going to teach? And then you and then in your posts, you could actually have like a little curiosity creating statement of like, often, you know, so you ask the question, what’s been your biggest struggle? Let people answer the question, and then further down in the post you would have, one of the most common things that clients often asked for is this. And this is why I created this program, because we do a deep dive into this. Now this gets people thinking like, yeah, I have that struggle to oh, what what is this program? Let me look, let me ask a question. Or another way to do it is you might say, like, what’s the most exciting thing going on in your life right now? Like, ask that question, and then say, you know, what’s exciting going on in my life right now? I’m about to launch this new program. Because now if people aren’t interested in your program, they can still participate. Right? They can still tell you what’s interesting going on in their life are exciting. But a lot of times what they’ll do is they’ll go well, here’s my answer. What’s your answer? And now they’ll want to read or hear about your program.
Yeah, Love that creating curiosity. And I agree on like sales calls, I always talk about how you want the way to soothe your fear and sales when it comes to, you know, feeling like Oh, I’m asking for money or I have to convince or anything like that is knowing we’re actually discovering or being curious about the potential client and seeing what they want and need and seeing if we can truly help them and seeing if it makes sense to go into our offer and all of that stuff. So anytime you’re making a post or you’re connecting with somebody online, I love the curiosity, feeling driving your actions, that’s a really good one. So what would be some other ways they could promote themselves without feeling nervous? Or, you know, any tips about that?
Yeah, well, one of the ways that you can also promote yourself is you can share your testimonials, you know, you can put that in a post. Or if you could get one of your clients who was happy with something that you did, to shoot a little video, you could share that. Because when you share, even if it’s just sharing the words that somebody says about you, you know, that speaks because it’s kind of like, that’s not me saying it. That’s somebody else saying it about me, that builds credibility. And back to this idea of like asking a question, one of the questions sometimes I’ll ask is, like, what’s the nicest thing somebody said to you lately? Here’s what somebody had to say about me this week. And then you share that testimonial. Right? So now we’ve created a little curiosity, and now we’re sharing other people’s experiences. And there’s nothing better than having that as as an option. You know, one of the things that I do on my I have a podcast called sales Maven. And one of the things I do on the podcast is I have to two different things that I do to kind of build that credibility is I do on our coaching calls, so that people who listen to the podcast get an experience of like, what is it like to coach with Nikki? People often show up my podcast listeners will hire me to do a strategy session with them. And they’re like, gosh, this is exactly like how you do it on the podcast. Because yeah, now you know what it’s gonna be like to work with me. So that’s one way you can also do it is, and you don’t have to do it as a podcast, right? You could do just a mini coaching session on a Facebook Live or on an Instagram, whatever you want to do. And then I also do sales success stories on the podcast. So I have a client come on, and share their success story about something we’ve worked on together. So it’s highlighting my client, it’s getting people aware of their business and what they do. But it’s also them talking about what they implemented as a result of working with me, and the results that they got. And that’s a huge win.
Yeah, absolutely. I love that. I’ve done that in the private group I host as a sales like hotseat coaching. And it’s so fun, first of all, but second of all, you’re right gives the experience and I know sometimes coaches are afraid to do that, because they’re like, why don’t want to give it all away? But what’s your stance on that?
My stance is you, you don’t have to give it all away. But you do want to give those like, those things that make you special and unique. You have to put them out there. So one of the things that my clients really love about me is the way that I answer questions. So I’m going to give people the opportunity to ask me questions as often as possible, because when somebody gets the answer to one of their questions, they’re like, dang, that was so good. I wonder what Nicki would say to my question. And then of course, then they want to take action. So I’m never afraid of giving stuff away. I will say you don’t want to just coach for free. But if you’re using it as an example, for a larger group to you do take advantage of, then you’re not really giving it away for free your market. That’s marketing to me. And and then if you are, you know, if somebody reaches out to me privately and says, Hey, Nikki, I have this question like, would you review such and such for me and give me feedback? My answer is yes, I will do that in a strategy session. That’s a paid session, because that’s me giving something that’s tailored specifically to you and your business.
How to overcome the price objection
100%. Absolutely. Now, what would you say? Because this is probably going to be the most other common thing is, man, people just say my, my programs to expensive pricing? Objection, me as you’re the sales expert, we got to ask you about that.
Yeah. Well, the thing about too expensive is you need to check to see what do they mean by too expensive and so anytime somebody raises an objection, you want to have what’s known as the conditional closed question. Now, this question, you’re going to tailor it based on what their objection is, but just the structure of the question. It’s, it’s essentially this, it’s if I could demonstrate to you satisfaction that XYZ, whatever their objection is. So in this case, if I could demonstrate to your satisfaction that you would get more value out of this than what you invested, would you be interested in moving forward? So that’s one way. So we have to check to see is the real objection, that they don’t see the value of it? Is the real objection that they absolutely cannot afford it. Like, what is the true objection? And you want to be really careful when you’re in sales mode of making assumptions about what somebody’s real objection is, you’ve got to check it out and ask, and if you’re not willing to ask, you’re probably not going to get the answer. And if you can’t get the answer, it’s hard for you to ever overcome that objection. So for sometimes the objection is I just can’t I can’t swing the full, you know, let’s say it’s a $5,000. program, I can’t swing the full $5,000. So then, now your your job is to see could you offer an alternative? So for me, it might be if I was able to offer you a payment plan, is that something you then want to move forward with? And if they’re like, tell me about the payment plan, then I would tell them, what I don’t do is, well, I have a payment plan. And here’s what it is. And it’s this, and it’s this, and it’s this. So it’s gonna make it super easy for you to afford it. Because I don’t really have permission yet to do that. So I’m always going to check to say, so if I was able to do this, would you be interested? Because I want them to say, Yeah, lay out the payment plan for me, Nikki? I think that is so so important. So just because you get an objection doesn’t mean it’s a no. But the other thing I will say about this is if the objection is price, and the the true objection behind the prices, I absolutely cannot afford it, then that just means they’re not ready for you. So bless and release. And I call that blessing release in the kindest, most positive way. Because I’m not trying to tell people like, oh, you can’t afford me like, Oh, what a failure. You must be like, Go kick rocks, like I never want anybody to feel shamed, that they can’t afford working with me. I want them to feel like oh, Nikki respects where I am right now. And when I am ready, she’s going to be the person that I go back to.
Totally, yeah, sometimes it’s a not right now. Yeah. No. And I love the way you it kind of goes back to your theme of curiosity as get micro yeses get permission based sales.
So okay, so you can’t do the payment in full. What about a payment plan? Pause, don’t just dictate the whole payment plan. Like you said,
that was really a great tip. So what about what could go wrong in a launch that maybe we should prepare for or any tips that we should know before like going into a launch, we’ve set our outcome goal, and now we’re like, Alright, I’m ready to go and talk about the program. And, uh, you know, because whatever, what would be your next advice?
I feel like there’s so many ways I could go with that question. So you tell me, Hailey, if this is this is helpful, or if you want to go down a different direction. But the one thing that I think really does come to mind when it comes to launch, is that a lot of people are so afraid of putting out too many emails to their list about the launch, that they only want to send one or two emails. And because they’re like, I’m gonna get a bunch of unsubscribes. Because, you know, if I just I’m going to send one email, and, and again, I can go in a lot of directions here. So I’m just gonna go down this one. Oh, this one’s great. It’s okay. All right, good. Thanks. So the thing about this, and I track this in my own business, so we track, like every promotion that I put out, we track how many buyers do we get on each email for a promotion? So I have kind of a rule, like a rule for me is usually there’s going to be at least four emails that go sometimes there’s five, sometimes there’s six emails that would go about something. And we know that the majority of our buyers either come on email one, or email three and four. And so when people say to me, like, Nick, I’m only going to put out two emails. I can show them stats and go look, if I only put out two emails, look how many buyers I would have missed out on, on this promotion on this other promotion on this other promotion. You can’t just put it in front of somebody once or twice and think that’s enough, it just, it’s not enough. And yes, you will get unsubscribers that’s the part of the game of being in business and having an email list. But if you treat your email list, like some precious little thing that should be set on a shelf and you shouldn’t mess with it because it’s going to change, then you you completely are missing the mark on what an email is supposed to be. It’s supposed to be an asset for your business, and you should utilize it and take advantage of it. And you know, I always say don’t put promotions out for your unsubscribers you put promotions out for the people who are ready to buy and we never know When people are in that mode of like, buy, so I’m always trying to hit the trifecta. Right off our right time, right people like the right for the right person. And I don’t know what that’s going to be each time I have people who’ve seen the same offer from me 10 times before they actually buy it. I think I heard you talked about this on your podcast, was it? I think it was you that said, on average, sometimes you have to touch between seven and did you say 770? Yeah. Okay. I thought I heard you say
to be seven and like 17? Yes, that’s world. Yeah. Now it’s like 70 to 77. Online, because we’re so distracted. Yeah. And these days, and people’s attention span is so short, and markets gotten more saturated. So it’s like, all of that combined now is like, they need to hear from you a lot. They might right. And same thing with high ticket sales. It can be anywhere from 90, I was talking to somebody else who was ad strategist. And she was saying one of her clients, it takes at least 90 to 180 days for the leads that they bring in through their ads for them to convert. And I just was like, so many people get defeated before that point. And they just think it’s all been a waste. And just like you said with the emails, they might be one email away from that next, like turning point with somebody, but because they get defeated or impatient or like, oh, no, I’ve said it too many times, I’m going to stop. That’s like, ah, that’s like the point where they miss it. Right? So I’m really glad that you highlighted that for sure.
Yeah, there is this idea that and this comes from my background in neuro linguistic programming that people have what’s known as a commencer. Strategy. You have one, I have one and it’s context specific in certain contexts of our life. Our convinced our strategy might be one or two times before we hear about something before we say like, yes, but other contacts and other parts of our life, we might be like, not only do I need to hear about it, but I need to know somebody who did it. And I need to read an article about it. And I need to see an ad about it. Like there’s all these different things that are convinced or strategies. And like your example you just gave about the ad strategy, it could also be a period of time. So you never know when you’re going to hit somebody’s convinced our strategy. So don’t make an assumption, because most people couldn’t even tell you, I can tell you in certain contexts, what my convince our strategy is, but in other contexts, I don’t even know what it is. But I’m the kind of person like, you can show me an ad and the first time I see it, I think that is the dumbest product I’ve ever seen, you know, five more times, I’m starting to go like, Oh, I could see how people use that, you know, on the 20th time, I’m like, I totally need that product. You know, that’s, that’s my convince our strategy in certain areas. So you don’t know what people’s convince or strategies are. So be willing to stay in it with them as long as they’re willing to stay in it with you, and keep putting an offer in front of them. Because they will either go away because they’re turned off or they’re never gonna buy from you. And that’s okay. Those are the blessing release people. Or that some point they’re gonna go, oh, gosh, you know, I’ve been listening to Hailey’s podcast, I’m in her Facebook group. I’ve done this with her. I’ve done that with her. I’ve heard her talk about this thing. And you know what, I think I’m ready. And now they come and join your program. Yeah, it’s for sure.
Can I share a very quick story about convince her strategy, okay, he’s pleased recently, my sister and I are both expanding our knowledge in real estate. And so I wanted to get my course to do that. And it was recommended to me by somebody who I know who knows which one to pick. And she was great. And she sent me the link and like, I’m totally going to do this. It’s like 300 bucks. I’m like, this is I really value like education, and I invest in coaches and things like that. So I’m always like, sold on that kind of stuff. So I’m like, oh, yeah, and then they have a refund policy. If I don’t like it in the first week. I’m like, I’m totally in I’m done. Bought it like two hours into the course. And then my sister on the other hand is like, oh, I need to get it to because you got it. But then it she’s about to hit Buy but then all these questions come up like Okay, are you sure this is the right one that so and so said and do you think like, like we need to have add ons later to this that we’ll have to buy more of and like like she’s like totally thinking the questions overthinking it. I’m like, worst case scenario, you return it in the first week refund policy. It’s great, like so and so said to get it like so I’m very much like a fast decision maker. I don’t need to talk to 1200 people who did the course. Like I’m just like, I’ll figure I’ll do it and then I’ll find out if I like it. Yeah, she was her convinced her strategy and I don’t know maybe this is a different thing. But no, this is exactly you’re nailing it. Yeah, how fast somebody books when it comes to making a decision buying something?
How to launch and get clients even with a small audience
Yes. He was more like that analytical like okay, are we sure like so? I’m really glad you brought that up and when it comes to what if somebody feels like, you know, Nikki, I am kind of newer to this, my audience is still growing, I don’t have a huge list, you don’t have a huge following. But I do want to launch my program. And I do want to get clients, but I just don’t know if there’s enough people seeing me, what what do you recommend to somebody like that?
Well, the here, I’m gonna give you the easiest way to build your business. And I’m gonna say it’s the easiest way, but it’s Ways to utilize your email list for your launch also the way that people never want to do first. Okay, so it has to do with reaching out to your network, and asking people to make introductions on your behalf, using your network to open doors for you. And it’s that one thing that people often get really uncomfortable, and they’re like, I don’t want to ask anybody for a favor. And what if I sent Hailey a message? And I asked her if she would introduce me to Nikki? And is Hailey going to be offended? It’s like, no, not if you have a relationship with Hailey, you know, or if you want to, like if somebody wants to meet Hailey, now I know, Hailey, and if you want to reach out to me and go, Hey, Nikki, would you introduce me to Hailey, depending on our relationship, I’m probably gonna say yes, as long as there’s some benefit, some benefit to Hailey for me to introduce this person to them. So use your network, you have people in your network that will open doors for you. However, they won’t just open doors randomly, very often, you have to plant that seed. So I actually have a course called authentic sales conversations. And I actually give some scripts in there around this. And this is one of the assignments that I give to my private VIP coaching clients. For business development, this is the number one way that we start to build their business in a big, big way. And it’s not something that’s going to happen overnight. So if you have a program, you want to launch in two weeks, you’re probably going to miss your numbers. If you’re just now starting this, you want to start this from early on. And so that means if you know you’re going to launch a program in six months, let’s start this now. Let’s start making connections and introductions and start asking people to open doors for you. And, you know, it’s not like you want to go back to the same person over and over, we’re not trying to tax people, but it’s okay to reach out to somebody and say, Hey, my friend, you know, whoever your friend is, you know, one of the things I’m working on this year is launching this program and the benefits of the people that are in, they’re gonna get this, this and this, is it okay to ask Who do you know, that would be a good fit, see who they know, and then say, Would you be willing to make an introduction on behalf because if they’ll make that introduction for you, you get to ride the coattails of the credibility that that person has with the person they’re introducing you to. So it’s the easiest way to build business, especially if you’re like, I don’t have a big following.
Ways to utilize your email list for your launch
I don’t have a big email list, you can build your business without having an email list. And without having a big following on social media. Many of us have examples of how we’ve done it in our own businesses. And, you know, none of us just least most people I know, don’t just like, show up, you know, launch a podcast and have 1000s and 1000s and 1000s of followers, that’s not how it works. It’s kind of one at a time, and you just start building. So start building use this opportunity to ask people to open doors for you. And and because I say it’s a planting seed thing. They may go like, gosh, I don’t know anybody right now. But it’s kind of that same theory of like, you know, when you go and you buy a new car, and then you start driving it around, and then now you see that car everywhere. That kind of happens when you ask people to open doors for you. So initially, they might go Yeah, I don’t think I know anybody. And then next week, they’re they’re talking to somebody who mentions that they need some kind of help with whatever it is this, you know, that you’re doing. And they go, Oh, my gosh, I should totally introduce you to my friend Hailey. She’s got this program that she does, and she’s amazing. And here’s all the things I love about her. And, you know, can I make an introduction for you? And this is so great, right? And so my clients that actually do this, they usually come back to me. And again, it’s a long it’s a long game, you’re playing the long game here, but usually they’ll come back two months and they’re like, I hate this. I hate doing this Nikki it’s super uncomfortable. Three months and they’re like, oh, it’s not too bad four months and they’re like, I just booked this huge new client, you know, six months and they’re like my business my like my roster starting to fill. So it’s, it’s a work in progress, and it really is the easiest way to build your business.
totally love it. Awesome. So Nikki, how can everybody connect with you after this episode?
Well, I have I’m gonna wrap it around a gift if that’s okay for your audience. So I have a book, an ebook called Closing the Sale and it’s all about boosting your confidence in that closed conversation. I know we didn’t get too deep into that in the in the call today. So you can get that by going to yoursalesmaven.com/hailey. So this is for your audience. So yoursalesmaven.com/hailey, I’d love to gift that book to you. And also, I think I mentioned I have a podcast. So that’s another way to connect with me. It’s called Sales Maven. And I’d love to hear from a listener. What was your takeaway from today?
Love it. Awesome. Well, thank you so much for coming on. I love the tangible tips that you gave and the examples. And, thanks so much. Thank you for having me. Bye bye.
About Nikki Rausch
Nikki Rausch integrates her 25+ years of experience selling to such prestigious organizations as The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Hewlett-Packard, and NASA, sharing with her clients the same approaches that led to her shattering sales records in her industry and receiving multiple “top producer” awards along the way.
A business degree from the University of Washington and her master certification in Neuro-Linguistic Programming mesh perfectly to create a powerful foundation upon which Nikki built tremendous sales skills and now provides enormous benefits for her clients.
Nikki has received numerous sales awards, shattered sales records across industries, and was featured in Female Entrepreneur Magazine. A sought-after speaker, she regularly shares the results of success through illuminating keynote addresses and business-changing workshops. Her robust Sales Maven Society ignites game-changing outcomes for clients. Many of whom have also reaped the benefits of her immersive VIP consultations.
Nikki’s three popular books are available on Amazon. And her podcast, Sales Maven, can be found on your favorite podcast platform.
Resources
- Closing the Sale
- Complimentary Business Consult
- Health Coach Nation: Marketing, Business, & Mindset for Health Coaches
Visit Nikki’s Website here.
Find Nikki on Social Media: Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn
