After the Episode: Too many sales challenges to count

Smart Gets Paid Podcast Transcript
Episode 17

Intro (00:02):
You're listening to the Smart Gets Paid podcast with me, Leah Neaderthal. I help women land higher paying clients in their B2B consulting and coaching businesses, but I've never been a salesperson. My background is in corporate marketing and when I started my first consulting business, I learned pretty quickly that it's about a thousand times harder to sell your own stuff than it is to sell someone else's. So I taught myself how to do it, and I created a sales approach that feels comfortable, makes you feel confident, and that works consistently. And now I teach women how to land higher paying clients in their B2B consulting and coaching businesses. So whether your client contracts are $2,000 or $200,000, if you want to work with more of the clients you love, do more of the work you love and get paid more than you ever imagined. Then you're in the right place. Let's do it together. Welcome to Smart Gets Paid.

Leah (00:54):
Hey, there, Leah here and welcome to the Smart Gets Paid, what I'm calling the episode after the episode. This is something new I'm doing here in season two, because as I went through season one episodes, I always felt like there was more than I wanted to say, or really more than I wanted to share in those sort of listening in episodes. Because when I first started creating the episodes in season one, I kind of assumed that we would be able to edit down each episode or each call that you hear. And one major theme would just emerge, right? A call would be about a particular theme, like pricing or messaging or whatever. But then every time I listened to a call, even in the editing process, I heard something new, something just sort of popped out that made me think, well, actually, you know this episode, I thought it was about that theme, but it's really about this other theme.

Leah (01:48):
And it's really just because everything in selling is so connected, even something like messaging is also about confidence and also about leading a sales process. And it's also about, you know, dealing with lingering beliefs from our corporate careers and stuff like that. And it also got me thinking that even as I was going through these and hearing different things, maybe you, as you're listening to the episode might hear something totally different as like the dominant theme that I hear. So I just wanted to create space to talk about what else might be in each of these episodes that's worth exploring because there's really a lot packed in here. And as I envisioned it, you know, these would be solo episodes, just how I'm talking to you right here. And if you listen to the first season, particularly the bonus episode that I released at the very end, it's called Bonus episode, Leah gets coached.

Leah (02:47):
If you haven't listened to it, go back and check it out. It's the last episode in season one and unlike the other episodes where I coach my clients and students. In that episode, I turned the mic on myself and I shared a call where I was being coached through one of my major blocks. And the block that I was being coached through was actually getting this podcast even launched. It's very meta, right. A podcast episode about how long it was taking to get the podcast up with coaching about how to get the podcast up. Shared with you in a podcast bonus episode. All right, very meta here. But in that conversation, I sort of let it slip that one of the things that had been holding me up in getting season one of this Smart Gets Paid podcast up, was these solo episodes. It just felt really uncomfortable to me.

Leah (03:41):
I'm so comfortable writing. I'm really not as comfortable just like sitting in front of a mic and talking. And the thought of doing these solos really gave me a ton of anxiety. I was feeling a lot of resistance to it. And when I realized that these episodes, in particular, the solo episodes were holding me up, I decided to scrap them entirely. And I mentioned that in episode 13, that bonus episode. So that if I scrapped them, I could just move forward without the burden, you know, the mental burden of these solo episodes. And I could just focus on the listening in episodes. And that was the episodes that became season one, but I couldn't just let the resistance win. Part of what I try to show to my clients and students and if you've worked with me, you've seen this, that even I have a lot of resistance and I have to push through and I have to grow.

Leah (04:35):
I mean, what kind of coach would I be if I told you to push through something that was really uncomfortable, and here I am just sort of letting the resistance win, right. And not pushing through to a new edge. And this happens to be an even bigger challenge right now because I don't have all my stuff around with me, I'm recording this at my in-law's house. I'm not in my office. So I think I just have to describe to you the podcast recording setup that I have right now. So I have my laptop. I have a big monitor in front of me. I have a beach towel draped over the monitor and sort of cascading down underneath my laptop, onto my lap almost to create like a little sound studio. And I have my mic sitting next to my laptop and I'm right off the kitchen at my in-law's house.

Leah (05:32):
So you may even be able to hear some like kitchen noise behind me. So, you know, what, if I'm going to really push through some resistance, if I'm going to do what makes me uncomfortable, if I'm going to overcome this fear, I guess let's just pile it on and get out of my comfort zone and just make it happen. All right. So thanks for being with me on this. All right. So let's get into the episode. I wanted to touch on something I didn't get to say in the previous episode and specifically it comes from this clip.

Guest (06:07):
So if you're entering the conversation as the vendor, as the tactical implementation person, then those engagements never turn into strategy.

Leah (06:17):
Exactly. I was just, as I'm taking notes, I wrote you can go from strategy to implementation if you want to. I do want to sort of poke on that assumption that it naturally has to go to implementation because I think it's okay for you to stay in that strategic role, but not getting too far in the weeds on that. You can go from strategy to implementation, but you can not go the other way around, right. It doesn't work the other way.
Leah (06:41):

And it's this idea of being seen as a strategic partner. So we talk about entering the conversation as a strategic partner. And this just reminds me of something I talk about a lot with my students and my clients. And it's a really important part of what I teach, which is that we teach our clients how to think about us. We teach our clients how to treat us, and we want to be seen as strategic partners. We want to be seen as valuable resources, trusted advisors. You know, we don't want to be seen as just vendors really, but it also extends to things like we don't want to have to deal with scope creep or people take advantage of us or people not valuing our work. Teaching your clients how to think about you and teaching your clients, how to treat you starts long before you actually start working with them.

Leah (07:35):
It starts in the sales process. It starts in your pricing. It starts in how you conduct yourself and how you lead the client through the sales process. It even starts with how you message your work, how you position your work, whether you position your work as a painkiller. Whether your describing the value of your work or are you just talking about tactics. And when you can teach your clients how to think about you and how to treat you in the sales process, it makes the actual client relationship so much better. I had a woman who I worked with in my program Signed. Many of her clients keep asking for work. You know, they just sort of slipped it in, you know, how scope creep goes. And she kept saying yes, and she ended up doing a lot of work that she wasn't paid for. And after we talked for a little bit, she said, I think I do my own scope creep because I have set up this dynamic where my clients can ask for things.

Leah (08:33):
And I say, yes, or I answer phone calls late at night, or I turn things around on a dime. And once you get into the client relationship, it's really actually hard to change the dynamic because you've already established the dynamic in the sales process. So this is why selling is not just about selling. Selling is not just about signing clients and making money. Selling and learning how to sell, learning how to lead a sales process is really about attracting and working with the clients that you want and developing a better working relationship based on respect, based on valuing you. And it extends throughout the whole time that you work together. So as you think about how you approach your next potential client who reaches out to you and how you're responding to maybe your request from your client or a last-minute request, or even getting on the phone after hours, whatever after-hours looks like for you, think about how am I teaching my client to think about me and does that match how I want them to think about me and how I think about myself.

Leah (09:44):
All right. So super, super important, you teach your clients how to treat you, and that's a big responsibility, but one that you can actually control. All right. So this was it. This was the first solo episode. You guys, I hope you enjoyed this episode after the episode. If you enjoyed this, don't forget to click subscribe on Apple podcasts or wherever you listen to your podcasts, and be sure to leave me a rating or a review. Just tell me what you think, if you're enjoying it. And I'll see you next week for another episode of this Smart Gets Paid podcast, where I'm talking with a woman who wants to start selling her services and offering her services to companies, but she's feeling her own resistance to feels like going back into corporate. Oh, before I leave you, I just want to mention the next class of my program Signed is starting on August 23rd.

Leah (10:35):
This is my program where you learn how to master the sales process, sign more of the clients you want and get paid dramatically more for every client engagement, even if you've never sold before or if you hate the sales part. And I'm doing something new this time, you're going to spend 10 weeks of me learning the fundamentals of selling, and then get a year of support to help you actually sell to and sign the clients you're talking to. So you're never alone in this process and you always know the right next step. So if you're ready to finally learn how to sell, if you're ready to feel more confident in this part of your business. And if you're ready to get paid a whole lot more for your work, check out Signed, starting on August 23rd, learn more and see some recent results at smartgetspaid.com/signed.

Leah (11:18):
Hey, thanks for hanging out with me. If you liked this episode, take a second and click the subscribe button wherever you're listening to your podcasts and you'll be notified as soon as I release a new episode. And if you're listening on Apple podcasts, I’d so appreciate it if you took two seconds and left a rating or review, this tells Apple podcasts, hey there's good stuff in here, and they'll recommend it to other listeners who might benefit from these lessons for their business. So please take a second and add a rating or review, thanks. So that's it for now, I'll see you next time on the Smart Gets Paid podcast. Learn more about Smart Gets Paid programs and coaching and smartgetspaid.com.