Hi there.
It's Sue.
And thanks for joining me for tips and talk day.
These are bite-sized topics that I pull from community questions and
things that I'm observing in the world of handmade small business.
If you'd like to submit a topic,
DME over on Instagram at gift biz unwrapped,
before we get into the show today,
I want to make sure that you know about the newest
thing happening over here.
It's called the gift biz bash a zoom party that turns
into a podcast episode.
Several weeks later,
the party consists of a short training with Q and a,
from yours truly.
And then an opportunity for you to give a shout out
about your business.
You can tell us about a promotion you currently have going
on or share a collaboration that you're considering so that you
can find a perfect partner for the event.
A little bit of learning and visibility for your business.
What could be better?
There is a catch though spots are limited to keep the
party to about 45 minutes or so.
That means you should grab your spot right away.
It's totally free to make sure you're included.
Why not do that right now?
Pause this episode,
go to gift biz,
unwrapped.com forward slash bash to sign up and then come back
and listen to the show.
I'll see you at the bash.
So let me ask you,
are you putting in way too much energy towards getting people
to buy in exchange for what you're actually seeing for your
efforts? I hear this from many of you,
things like I spend hours every week posting on social.
It feels like such a waste of time because nobody orders
or why bother with emails.
They're so stressful.
I don't ever know what to say and they don't get
opened anyway.
It's just not worth it.
Or I finally finished my website and I'm really proud of
it, but I'm not seeing any sales things are just like
they were before.
Nothing has changed after all this work.
If what I've described sounds familiar.
I want you to consider whether you're trying too hard,
because there is such a thing as going too far when
selling what you may actually be doing is pushing past the
purchase point.
And that's what's causing the no or low sales that you're
experiencing demonstrating this kind of random way.
Think of this when you're making whipped cream,
what do you do?
You get out your bowl,
make sure it's cold.
Pour in the heavy cream and then whisk it to its
desired stiffness.
What happens if you over whip,
your result is no longer a whipped cream it's butter,
right? You've worked too hard and gone past the perfect stage
for you to have whipped cream,
not a baker.
Here's another analogy.
You're on a road trip and it's past time for you
to stop for gas,
but not a problem.
You'll get off at the next exit.
Then you get into a deep conversation and are so focused
on talking.
You miss the exit.
At this point,
the longer you drive,
the further you get away from the exit.
The next one's too far ahead.
Your tank is already showing empty.
The more you keep driving in that same direction,
the more distance you've created from your desired exit that is
now behind you,
that perfect whipped cream stage and the exit to take for
gas represent your customers.
There is a point where working too hard or going to
far results in you missing out.
Let's apply this now to selling.
You may contact with a potential customer.
They become interested.
You see the possibility of a purchase happening.
So you put pedal to the metal and fly past the
point, which could have brought you to the sale.
Is it possible?
You're trying so hard to get sales that what you're actually
doing is pushing them away.
Perhaps it's time for a new approach to hit the brakes
on selling so hard and go a different route.
It certainly can't hurt.
If what you're doing now,
isn't producing results.
Doing more and more of the same is like grinding your
gears. You end up digging a deeper hole versus making any
forward progress.
If you're in this position,
I bet this is how you're selling your message to potential.
Customers goes something like this in its very raw sense.
Listen to me,
I have this awesome product.
It's only X dollars.
Buy it here.
I know you see this way of product selling done all
the time at craft shows and social on website.
Even at networking meetings,
it's a focus on me,
my product,
my price by here's,
how I'd like you to switch up the narrative.
The first contact should be more like,
hi, let's get to know each other.
After a short time,
that turns into I've been listening to you.
I think I have a solution to what you've been looking
for or the problem you're trying to solve based on your
product. Of course,
instead of pushing products on people,
you're switching to sharing information and offering an opportunity for them
to own what you sell.
Honestly, it's pretty egotistical of us to automatically assume that people
want what we sell within the very first few seconds of
meeting us.
There are things to be said and learned first,
like the basics of your product,
what's in your soaps.
That will smooth my skin.
How is your candle?
Eco-friendly what sizes,
colors and flavors are available.
Also. What makes your product my best choice?
How are you different from other soap makers convince me that
your product is special and worth an exchange of my money.
And then there's the question of trust?
Who are you as the maker of this product?
Why did you start your business?
What can I learn about you?
That makes me relate to you and want to buy and
support you?
These things never happen when you're selling with a here's my
product, here's the price,
buy it approach.
And the more you push that messaging,
the further you push a sale away,
if you're feeling guilty because you fall into this category,
it's okay,
you know,
better now.
And it's never too late to make a change.
Plus, I know this approach will be much easier and feel
much more comfortable for you to this type of communication can
happen in the first encounter and result immediately in a sale,
or it can happen over a number of customer touches where
gradually they warm up to the point of purchasing.
Everyone is different and everyone has different needs at any given
time. Some sales happen immediately.
Some will take time to nurture,
but all sales are worthy of an approach.
That's friendly,
creates a relationship with the customer and takes respectfully into account
their choice of when it's right to buy.
So how do you do this?
It's accomplished by making a switch in your messaging from buy,
buy, buy to entertain,
inform buy.
What you want to do is spend time in the relationship
building stage versus pushing the relationship into decision mode.
If your potential buyer is ready to go faster,
they'll be giving you those signals and you can speed up
with them.
Let's talk some specifics.
Here's how this new messaging approach looks in various scenarios at
craft shows.
When someone comes into your booth,
welcome them,
summarize what your product is and let them know you're available.
If they have any,
then let them look around.
And if they're there for a bit,
check in on them,
light and friendly.
If you've done your job with your display,
your product already speaks for itself.
Intuitively you'll know that you can take the conversation beyond specific
product questions,
ask about them,
share something about you,
create a welcoming experience with your interaction versus a customer buyer,
exhibitors seller divide.
Of course,
these are your roles,
but when you force it and overly push you lose moving
on to social media,
there are many more effective ways to build a relationship here
than what I see going on out on social instead of
every post,
being a picture of your product and a link to where
to go by and in some personality and stories about your
business images of you at craft shows behind the scenes of
your workshop explanations of what it's like to be in business
for yourself,
all sorts of posts like this,
make your brand relatable.
And if someone's curious,
they can always click on the links in the social media
account to learn more.
Again, I repeat not every single post should be a direct
product sale.
What I just described is still related to your business,
but it's not in your face sales,
still not sure of ideas or ways to do this.
I cover it all in detail and give you a whole
year of options in a program that I created called content
for makers.
If you already have it,
go back and look at it again.
If you're interested,
you can check that out@giftbizonwrapped.com
forward slash content for makers to learn more.
And now if you have a blog,
the ideas I just suggested,
and a lot of the options in the content for maker's
program can be expanded into a full article.
The goal here is to cover topics that your customers want
to know about one powerful result of this besides ramping up
your SEO of course,
is that you become perceived as the expert in your field
articles, like what to look for in a candle that maintains
a clean home environment,
the mental health benefits of aroma therapy,
what your attraction to different sense means about your personality.
There are so many entertaining,
educational and interesting topics that can spin off of any product
that you make.
And finally,
let's look at your website,
oh gosh,
please delay that popup from appearing until I have a few
seconds to actually see your site.
I time it for somewhere between 15 and 20 seconds out,
let a new visitor learn about you some before you offer
a first-time discount entry into a sweepstakes or addition to your
special group,
which of course would be your email.
Popups are great,
but don't throw it in my face,
right? As soon as I enter your site,
give me a second before you do that.
And now that I have a minute to see your site,
make me feel welcome.
Talk to me like a real person.
Don't just give me a rundown of everything that you do.
This is the place where you can show your potential customer
that you care and understand them.
And it's typically where most people get it wrong because all
they do is talk about their business,
their product,
but not what's in it for me after all.
Isn't your website supposed to be trying to convince me that
I should buy from you.
Be sure you balance out your product displays with personality from
you and a few sentences on the benefits your product provides
that I'm going to benefit from by having your product,
the feel and branding with colors and words and images should
all be aligned.
Navigation should be easy too.
And if I want to know more about you,
do I see exactly where to go to find that?
And when I do get there,
do I feel like you're talking to me or is this
simply a resume of you?
In essence?
Do I feel like your website exists to inform and cater
to my needs?
Or is it really all about you?
One way to know if you're doing this is if you're
using the word I,
or we throughout the copy of your entire site,
you should be talking to your customer,
not talking at them.
There is so much more to talk about with websites,
but you get the idea at this point,
I'm thinking it would be good for me to demonstrate how
not to oversell.
I'm suggesting you consider this different approach,
a more comfortable and inviting way to introduce people to your
brand. Naturally leading them into a purchase and then building a
lasting relationship with those who support you after all,
you don't have a business.
If you don't have customers attract them to you,
instead of pushing them away,
That's a wrap.
I'm a get to the point kind of girl.
And this is what you can expect from these quick midweek
sessions. Now it's your turn go out and fulfill that dream
of yours.
Share your handmade products with us.
We want them and they bring us both so much happiness.